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#80s and early 90s anime are the best
e-clv · 2 months
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Jaques Derrida book titles ranked by how good of a band name they'd be
Specters of Marx – Are you shitting me? It's a lock. If you form a band and call it this I will design all your merch for free.
Archive Fever – If I could sing/write music/play an instrument this would be my band's name and we'd be a krautrock-inspired open ended performance collective and you'd hate our guts
Limited Inc – Sort of an 80s-90s vibe to this one but also has some star power. Like, shit, I'd buy their t-shirt.
The Animal That Therefore I Am – Perfect for like a female-fronted shoegaze project or something
Spurs – A good hardcore band name
Force de Loi – I get "Portland-based aughties indie sleaze with a cult following" vibes from this
Of Grammatology – Ranked lower because I think this is one where you can't get away with calling your band this unless you actually enjoy Derrida and have read his writing extensively, since Of Grammatology is arguably his best known work
Différance – See above, also unless you're in France get ready for people to mispronounce the shit out of your band name
Acts of Religion – Goth rock/glam metal vibes for this one I think
Margins of Philosophy/Right to Philosophy – A tie between these two as they're very similar. I think they're also kind of 80s-90s flavored and a little clunky, but if the music was really good, I'd be down for it
Of Spirit – Post-hardcore or emo band but in the Rites of Spring vein would be perfect for this
The Truth in Painting – I think this sounds potentially cool as some kind of moody early 2000s prog or noise project, once again if the music was good I'd be into it
The Gift of Death – Sounds cool but I can't imagine this as anything other than an overly macho black metal effort which is not my speed
Theory & Practice – Your band would have to make REALLY good music for this not to be annoying unless you were some kind of hot PhD student making beats alone in her room
The Politics of Friendship – The most annoying people from your college GSA have a "punk" band and it's this
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thewebcomicsreview · 1 year
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The Webcomic Reviews Mini Reviews Masterpost, Part 1
People always ask me what I think of various webcomics, so I decided to start collecting my thoughts in one place! Click the images to go to the comic! Comic titles with a ⭐ after them are recommended, but even if I don't give a comic a star, that doesn't mean you won't like it.
[un]Divine ⭐
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What is it: A highschooler sells his soul for a big titty demon gf, and now has to have anime battles against angels who keep trying to eat him.
The Good: Excellent art and monster designs, some of the better fights in webcomics.
The Bad: Danny is kind of a bland protagonist. The comic keeps threatening to veer into femdom porn, which may be a good thing for some of you. Comic is on permanent semi-hiatus and updates very infrequently
You should read it if: You wanna read a comic with big fights, big angels, and big titties.
Ava’s Demon
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What is it: A bunch of kids possessed by demons have space adventures and are sad
The Good: Extremely good art. Occasional "high production value" moments with music and limited animation. The single-panel page format really highlights the art.
The Bad: Bland writing, weak characters. The single-panel page format really slows the flow of reading it.
You should read it if: Learning that the Wrath demon is named “Wrathia” doesn’t strike you as comically dumb
Awkward Zombie ⭐
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What is it: It’s a comic that makes jokes about video games
The Good: It’s the best comic that makes jokes about video games
The Bad: If you haven’t played the game in question, you might not get the jokes. Awkward lack of zombies.
You should read it if: You like jokes about video games. I don't....it's not a complex premise.
Camp Weedonwantcha ⭐
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What is it: A bunch of kids are left at summer camp forever by parents who’ve abandoned them to die. Wacky comedy and feel-good moments ensue.
The Good: Cute adventures with kids, reminiscent of some of the better Nicktoons from the 90s. Surprisingly emotionally effective when it wants to be.
The Bad: While the ending is satisfying in its own way, many plot threads go unresolved
The Terrible: Nickelodeon bought the rights and is sitting on them.
You should read it if: You like slice of life adventures with blasts of dark humor and feels
Cloudscratcher
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What is it: Ducktales, with Genocide!
The Good: Cute and generally likable characters. Decently paced
The Bad: Doesn’t really excel at anything. Weirdly insistent about totally not being a furry comic even though it obviously is.
The Terrible: The author is a white nationalist, and the lack of link is intentional.
You should read it if: You like 80s cartoons and hate minorities
Cornucopia ⭐
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What is it: A ninja is sent on a mission to literally steal candy from a nation of morons, fails.
The Good: Good art and well-paced storytelling. Clever use of different types of word balloons. High joke-per-page ratio
The Bad: Doofy tone may not be your cup of tea. Seems to have died young, though the first chapter is still a complete story
You should read it if: You like JelloApocalypse’s videos on YouTube, or his series Epithet Erased, since he made this
Dresden Codak
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What is it: A genius inventor has wacky adventurers, then goes to a flying city and spends most of the comic’s run embroiled in a conspiracy run by evil anime villains.
The Good: The drawings are pretty. The early comedy adventures are quirky and charming.
The Bad: Panel layout and composition, especially early in Dark Science, is atrocious. Presents the comic as a feminist power fantasy, but the main character usually has her tits out and has had her clothes burnt off on multiple occasions.
The Terrible: The author is a notorious jerk. As of this writing, The Dark Science storyline has been running for eight years and has yet to reach a triple-digit number of pages, even though it’s a full-time job for which Diaz earns $4,000+/mo on Patreon.
You should read it if: You thought the best part of Ghost in the Shell was the lesbian orgy boat.
Drop Out (NSFW) ⭐
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What is it: Two girlfriends go on a road trip to kill themselves in style
The Good: Short enough to be read in one sitting. Surprisingly good visual storytelling for a first comic. Realistic dialogue and high tension keeps you engaged even when not much is happening. Subtle details that don’t become apparent until a second read reward paying attention.
The Bad: Heavy subject matter. Lettering can be tough to read in early pages.
Content Warnings: Drug Abuse, Suicide, Mental Health Issues, Detransitioning….a list of all the difficult content in this comic would be so long it’d look like I’m making a joke. This is a heavy comic.
You should read it if: You like arty dramatic comics that deal with uncomfortable topics
Dumbing of Age
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What is it: College students obsessed with late 80s-early 90s pop culture have relationship troubles
The Good: Of all the popular comics it’s trendy to shit on, this is by far the best. Solid gag-a-day strip with plots that move at a decent pace.
The Bad: Realistic depictions of abusive parents co-exists in the same comic as a literal superhero, leading to some jarring tonal confusion.
You should read it if: You like newspaper-style drama comics.
Everything Is Fine
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What is it: Maggie and Sam are a normal married couple in a very strange world where proving your loyalty is the key to winning, and the best way to prove your loyalty is to show someone else is disloyal. And also everyone wears mascot suit cat heads all the time.
The Good: Well-written characters, a novel premise, and excellent pacing. I’m not the biggest fan of the webtoon “really tall page” format, but it’s taken advantage of at times for nice transitions
The Bad: The webtoon format can be irritating, and the worldbuilding is toeing the line between “compelling mystery” and “If there were two astronauts on the moon and one shot the other wouldn’t that be fucked up?”-ism.
Content Warning: Gore, Suicide themes. Every page with such content has a warning on it (which works better in Webtoon format, actually)
You should read it if: You liked the dystopian fiction fiction books you had to read in high school.
Gunnerkrigg Court ⭐
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What is it: A girl attends a scientific school in a magical world that’s honestly not even slightly like Harry Potter but people say it is because they think J. K. Rowling invented British schools
The Good: Good art and fantastic panel composition. Slow-burning dark fantasy mystery.
The Bad: Takes a little while to find its groove. Starts feeling rushed and confusing near the end.
The Terrible: Boxbot
You should read it if: You like dark fantasy stories, or stories in general.
Homestuck ⭐?
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What is it: A kid wants to play a video game but it’s downstairs and he doesn’t feel like talking to his dad yadda yadda yadda the universe explodes. Was briefly ungodly popular.
The Good: High production values, many updates are music videos with excellent music. Great character writing, especially in Act 5. Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, did a lot of the music, and arguably isn’t even the best musician featured.
The Bad:The early part of the comic is brutally slow-paced, and is an impossible hurdle for some.
The Terrible: The ending is widely considered a major disappointment, and attempts to turn the comic into a franchise have been met with mixed reviews. The prose epilogues are deeply divisive.
Content Warning: A lot gorier than you might expect, mitigated by the cartoony art style, abusive relationships, the epilogue is just generally gross.
You should read it if: You want to see what the hell all those kids in grey face-paint at anime conventions were about
You should also consider: Just getting the music off the bandcamp, it’s really good.
Homestuck 2
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What is it: A “dubiously canon” sequel to Homestuck, following from The Homestuck Epilogues, made by a different creative team. Follows two intersecting future timelines
The Good: The art is quite nice, and the new characters are fun and likable. Very bold in its ideas, for better or for worse it’s rarely boring. One of the few webcomics to be able to integrate trigger warnings clearly while remaining non-obtrusive with them. Faster-paced than the original Homestuck (low bar!) and has a few clever presentation ideas. Willing to be its own thing. If you’re worried it’s just “Homestuck 1 but more of it”, this is not that.
The Bad: Not at all a stand-alone comic, Homestuck 2 is completely incoherent if you’re not familiar with Homestuck 1 and the Homestuck Epilogues. Does not have the big multimedia productions Homestuck 1 was known for. Beloved characters from Homestuck 1 can come off really badly, which upsets a lot of people. If you’re looking for “Homestuck 1 but more of it”, this is not that.
The Terrible: At times, this comic is actively trying to piss off the readership by dragging out unpopular plot revelations. I actually like this about it, but unsurprisingly a lot of people don’t.
You should read it if: If you have to ask “Should I read Homestuck 2?”, the answer is probably “No”. This is a comic for people who are riding the Homestuck train to the bitter end.
You should also consider: Reading my Liveblog of it 
Kiwi Blitz ⭐
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What is it: A precocious young girl gets a Kiwi-shaped robot and decides to become a superhero ridding the world of nefarious furries. More of a cute character drama than a superhero comic, and more of a superhero comic than a mecha one.
The Good: Cute artstyle. Not without dramatic stakes, but fairly light and fun throughout minus a few people getting shot. The android 42 is stand-out great character.
The Bad: Prone to long hiatuses as the author's main comic is now Sleepless Domain.
You should read it if: You liked Sleepless Domain, and are looking for a somewhat lighter comic by the same author.
Latchkey Kingdom ⭐
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What is it: A girl goes on adventures in a magical land of idiots
The Good: Good but not overbearing comedy. Tight chapters. Strong side characters
The Bad: Thanks in part to Patron-backed stories in between the “main” chapters, can feel like an episodic series with no main character or driving plot
The Neutral: Willa is a semi-silent protagonist, and often gets overshadowed by the wacky people she meets. Cerberus Syndrome, executed well
You should read it if: You like adventure, silly characters, and jokes about Dark Souls.
Leasebound
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What is it: Two lesbians are contrived into sharing an apartment, then the comic becomes a polemic about how trans people are evil. The second-best TERF webcomic on this list
The Good: This comic has no redeeming qualities
The Bad: It’s hella transphobic, and not even particularly interesting about it the way Sinfest can be. Everything that’s not hateful is boring, and the comic is practically going “Go on, be offended, blog about me, give me atteeeennnnttttiiiiiooooonnn!”
You should read it if: You really shouldn’t, and I’m not linking to it
Least I Could Do
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What is it: Rayne Summers is the best at everything and you should listen to him
The Good: This comic updates on time regularly. Sometimes it updates without word balloons by accident, making it surreally funny
The Bad: Poorly thought-out political rants; few jokes, severe overuse of beat panels, copy-pasted art.
The Terrible: Designed to go viral, not to be entertaining; makes panels wordless just so they can be used as preview images
You should read it if: You have committed horrible sins and wish to atone
Legend of the Hare
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What is it: I wrote this! A white trash loser girl is peer pressured into becoming a magical girl by a pair of pushy rabbits. A spinoff of the print comic Blade Bunny, written and drawn by the current creative team of Saffron and Sage.
The Good: Bouncy and cartoony art. Strong and memorable characters. Very weird and freewheeling.
The Bad: The plot is an absolute mess, stalling out and even going backwards at times, though it mostly comes together at the end. The tone is wildly inconsistent.
The Terrible: Kind of South-Parky in its humor sometimes
You should read it if: You like Saffron and Sage and want to see a comic by the same team when they were less experienced.
Nan Quest ⭐
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What is it: In this spiritual sequel to Ruby Quest, a goat girl electrician sets out to fix a broken fuzebox and ends up ensnared in a psychological horror conspiracy.
The Good: Much more effective use of the simple MS Paint art style, with more color and some simple animations (animated panels being marked [A], a convention Homestuck would later adopt for its [S] sound panels). The characters are better fleshed out than in Ruby Quest, and the horror is more effective as well, with less gore and more tension.
The Bad: Though used effectively, the art is still MS Paint doodles. The story mechanics behind the mystery are much more ambiguous, which can be a plus.
Content Warning: Gore, threatened sexual violence.
You should read it if: You like Ruby Quest and/or psychological horror comics that can be read in a few hours.
Moby: Back from the Deep
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What is it: A zombie killer whale attacks a small town.
The Good: The art is nice
The Bad: Egregious overuse of narration.
The Terrible: It’s a beat for beat ripoff of the movie Jaws, down to some characters having their names only marginally changed from their Jaws counterpart (e.g. “Alex Gardener” is the name of the Alex Kintner analogue)
You should read it if: You can’t find a Jaws torrent.
Mokepon ⭐
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What is it: A dickhead teenager is forced on a Pokemon adventure, and learns a valuable lesson about friendship while being dragged into a criminal conspiracy. A Pokemon fanfic that’s somewhat darker than the source material (though not really “grimdark”)
The Good: Good action scenes, nice manga-style art. Notable improvement in art and storytelling over time. Atticus’ slow-burn character growth is satisfying.
The Bad: The early chapters are almost a completely different comic, and it takes a little while to find its groove.
You should read it if: You liked Pokemon Special
Monster Pulse ⭐
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What is it: Kids’ internal organs become sentient external organs, and they have to keep it a secret from an evil orginization.
The Good: Cool twist on the surprisingly rare monster pet genre. Not afraid to upend the status quo
The Bad: No real obvious flaws, but if you don’t find the premise interesting, you probably won’t like it.
You should read it if: You were a fan of monster-pet stories like Digimon Tamers
The Monster Under The Bed
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What is it: A teenager finds a demon girl under his bed, rom-com ensues
The Good: Cute anime-esque premise
The Bad: Gets progressively hornier to to point where I'm not sure if I should even leave it on this list. Egregious use of photos instead of drawing backgrounds, making outdoor scenes look awful
You should read it if: You like trashy Japanese animes
Narbonic ⭐
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What is it: A shlubby loser gets a job working for a mad scientist. Mad sciencey things occur, and the comic experiences an incredible jump in quality in the back half
The Good: Short comic, comfy and easy to read. The best and most satisfying ending arc of any webcomic ever.
The Bad: Some “LOLRANDOM” humor, especially early on.
The Terrible: The first few comics are almost literally unreadable due to messy handwritten lettering and low quality scans.
You should read it if: You love seeing a story build to a proper conclusion, and you don’t mind a rough start.
Octopus Pie ⭐
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What is it: Slice-of-life dramedy where twenty-somethings try to become adults and/or get laid while navigating New York life. Completed comic.
The Good: If you direct your attention above, you will see the incredible coloring. There are other comics that have better plots and even better characters, but Octopus Pie is uniquely good at hitting a mood. Occasionally does some infinite canvas stuff that’s neat.
The Bad: This is a comic about exploring ideas and kind of drifting around through life, and isn’t a big plot-focused comic with a lot of big dramatic reveals. Which I don’t think is bad, but it might not be your thing.
You should read it if: You liked stories about adults trying to figure out how to grow up, and like seeing characters age.
Out-of-Placers ⭐
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What is it: A human man is turned into a female rat creature, and has to navigate a low-fantasy world while learning their incredibly stupid ways and trying to get himself back to normal.
The Good: Really good worldbuilding, with interesting, fleshed out, and unique fantasy races. There are licensed Dungeons and Dragons books with less cool ideas for a campaign in them.
The Bad: Can get kind of edgy in ways that don’t always work, and occasionally gets a bit gross. If the premise made you think it was a furry fetish comic, it’s not, but it keeps threatening to become one if you don’t whap it with a newspaper and say “No” very firmly every now and then.
You should read it if: Your favorite DnD race is kobolds.
Paranatural ⭐
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What is it: Kids bust ghosts in a parody of shounen anime tropes
The Good: Good banter, creative panel layouts, and characters you want to root for.
The Bad: The story rapidly increases in scale, causing the pacing to slow down somewhat. The story later transitions to an illustrated prose format, which some people can't really get into.
You should read it if: You liked Bleach before it became Dragonball
Prequel -or- Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure ⭐
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What is it: An Elder Scrolls fanfiction, in which an alcoholic catgirl heads to a new land to try to make a better life, and generally fails.
The Good: Inventive use of the web as a storytelling medium. Great character writing. Lovable protagonist. Excellent payoff to years or life kicking the protagonist in the face.
The Bad: Years of life kicking the protagonist in the face. Can thus be depressing, especially early on, sometimes to the point of being offensive (see Content Warnings)
The Terrible: Very slow and irratic update schedule
Content Warnings: Alcoholism, Depression, the protagonist gets blackout drunk and wakes up in bed next to strange men several times, which is played for comedy.
You should read it if: You like slow burn character development. You like stories where the protagonist has a hard time
Problem Sleuth
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What is it: A detective tries to leave his office using user-submitted commands, and gets in a few tangents along the way. Mostly known now as “The thing Andrew Hussie did before Homestuck”, but it was a popular comic in its own right.
The Good: Much better art than most reader-driven comics, bizarre and clever, with a dramatic finish.
The Bad: Holy shit, you thought Homestuck meandered? Problem Sleuth will do nearly anything and everything readers asked him to do, and this is a veeeeeery convoluted comic that has thus aged somewhat poorly.
You should read it if: You thought Homestuck was best before the Trolls got involved.
Questionable Content
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What is it: Humanity achieves a technological utopia in the background while hipsters in Massachusetts complain about their dating lives. Later begins focusing much more heavily on all the robots.
The Good: A rotating menagerie of quirky cute girls. Had a major trans character before it was cool.
The Bad: The comic kind of transitions from being about one thing to being about another thing several times, to the point where onetime protagonists show up less and less or even get dropped altogether in favor of the New Thing the comic is.
You should read it if: You want a comfy and diverse slice-of-life comic.
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      Now Showing At The Hawk
🎟MetalSandwich Movie Mania🎟
Welcome to the MetalSandwich/Harringroveson Movie Event! I hope everyone will have a good time and make new friends as we create or appreciate the cool stuff that comes out of this event!
After a movie night with some friends on discord where we watched The Lost Boys, the idea came about to me to have a Week, seven days with a prompt for each day, with the date and prompts announced months in advance so everyone has time to make something for it!
The prompts for it will be focused on movies from the 70s/80s/90s! After an interest check and vote, the date decided was October 10th-16th! I hope everyone will have enough time and fun for this to become an annual event!
Tag for the event is #MetalSandwichMovies23
The Official Prompts!
(I decided to skip voting for this in the name of time and energy, but I was as thorough as I could be to ensure there was something for everyone!)
Oct 10th - Free Musical/Animated Movie Day
Oct 11th - Free SciFi/Fantasy Movie Day
Oct 12th - Free Action/Adventure Movie Day
Oct 13th - Free Romance/Historical Movie Day
Oct 14th - Free Horror/Creature Feature Movie Day
Oct 15th - Free Genre Movie Day
Oct 16th - Iconic Movie Day: (The Lost Boys/Labyrinth/Rocky Horror Picture Show/Etc)
Read more for Rules & FAQs
What is accepted for the event?
Anything! Fan fiction, fan art, photo edits, moodboards, fan videos, playlists, cosplays, you name it! Just let your creativity go!
Is there a minimum word count or something similar for other projects?
Not at all! Go wild, write drabbles, do anything!
I will ask that any videos include captioning and images include alt text to be considerate towards our friends with hearing and auditory processing difficulties!
How strict do we have to stick to the prompts?
Good question! With the variety and freedom of the prompts I hope you'll have plenty of wiggle room. And maybe you don't feel any movie au in particular but still want to participate? Maybe the boys just have a movie night watching a movie of your choice or they're actors! Who knows, you do! ;) I just want everyone to have fun. If you'd like any movie suggestions, let us know and we'll make a post!
I might run a little late in posting? Is that okay?
Life happens and it sucks! The dates are good for organization and giving everyone a clear schedule to try to keep to. But anything made specifically for this event will be accepted as long as it is posted sometime in October or early November. Otherwise, there's always next year!
I'd like to chat, maybe share ideas, or just show love for our favorite guys! Is there a discord?
Yes! It's 18+ and you can join us here!
Cool! Is there a Twitter?
Also yes! Give us a follow and share!
https://twitter.com/atthehawkevents
What kind of ratings and content are allowed?
This is an explicit, kink, and Dead Dove friendly event as we are dealing with many kinds of movies, including horror! Just make sure to tag appropriately. If you're unsure and need help with tagging, reach out via DM and we'll give our best suggestions.
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best-underrated-anime · 7 months
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Best Underrated Anime Tournament Information
What kind of anime are eligible to join this competition?
Although I’m using the term “anime,” I don’t actually mean only Japanese anime. Donghua (Chinese) and Aeni (Korean) are also allowed. Any other “anime-style” series also count.
I’ve decided to use the term “anime” and not “animated show” or “animation” so that nobody will submit cartoons like Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, etc. (Not that these are underrated, but you get the point.)
Anyways, only anime that reach the following criteria is allowed to join the competition:
It is underrated. No MP 100, Ouran High School Host Club, Yuri on Ice, and whatever other anime is popular (especially if it’s popular on Tumblr).
It is a series. No movies, short films, and the like.
It is recent. There are probably a lot of underrated shows from the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s, but I’d like to only include anime from 2010 onward. Why? Because I feel older anime will have an unfair advantage in being more known because they’ve existed longer.
It has at least one complete season. New anime that are currently airing and has no prior season are not allowed to join.
It’s in “anime-style.”
Note: Anime with multiple seasons will be counted as one. The year its first season was released is what will be checked to determine if it’s a recent one.
blogs that inspired this blog: @ultimate-anime-tournament @best-anime-tournament @animemusicbrackets
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Credits
All dividers used in this blog are by @/saradika
Trophy icon is from Freepik
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softpine · 1 month
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I just remembered you haven't seen Twilight but I'm going to ask anyway! Do you know what teams your characters would be? Like team Edward or Team Jacob? Oh! Actually I'm also curious what Fandoms would they be in? I recent realized im a Bielieber
oh i have seen the first twilight movie!! i just wasn't a fan. but it was my best friend's favorite series so i do know a lot about it! was anyone actually team jacob? he's like gale in the hunger games. the only reason anyone would actually prefer them is because they're Not the main love interest (sorry to any galeheads out there...)
anyway now i want to imagine what fandoms each of them would be in, so:
🎭 caroline: well, she's a great artist and a monster fucker.. i don't think i have to spell out what she was doing online fjkjsdsj and she loved comic books as a kid, so i feel like at the start of the MCU madness she was really hype and then she got more and more angry with the state of things
💬 beth: she's written some star trek fanfiction more highly researched than her master's thesis and she loved nsync because what is a baby dyke without her emotional support boy band / comphet crushes
🎸 danny: music is the obvious answer, but i'm not familiar with musical history so i can't go into detail 😭 but his dad introduced him to bob dylan and taught him how to play guitar, then he learned piano, then he taught himself how to produce his own music from scratch. this was in the 90s btw so it wasn't very easy to learn. also he used to seriously follow skateboarding
⛅ mikaela: she loved old school country music from female artists like tanya tucker, reba mcintire, loretta lynn, etc. she's less interested in modern country but she looooves shania twain. and she's worked nights (first as a bartender, then a nurse) for most of her life, so she got really into daytime soaps
🌲 asa: he's literally the only one on this list where i'm like...... stumped. he doesn't pay attention to anything online, celebrities, music (he'll listen to whatever), movies (doesn't care), could never commit to watching a whole tv show, etc. he's very floaty and daydreamy? lmao he just doesn't have the headspace to get attached to fictional media like that
🎥 finn: we know he's always been a harrison ford fan boy and in any universe where he survives past the 80s he's a huge nirvana fan!! (if he and jules had a son, they would've named him kurt... he's deeply serious) he's also read every stephen king book that came out while he was alive. he was a big reader in general, particularly horror
🧸 stevie: canon seth rogen super fan, has seen every adam sandler movie (every last one of them) and i knowww she knows the fnaf lore... as soon as she finishes a show/movie she likes to find the weirdest fan art to terrorize her followers. also loves musicals and wants to see cats on broadway someday (a girl can dream)
🎀 elaine: she loves following celebrity news but she watches them like animals in the zoo; ie. she's observing from afar, she has no personal stake in them. she's a frequent flyer on gossip forums like fauxmoi. she was on the ground floor of lipstickgate and was SEATED for dramageddon. and she had a serious twilight phase
🎨 jada: SOMEONE on this list had to get assigned supernatural... i'm not saying it just to say it, i really think she would connect with (early seasons) sam what with the dead mom... fear of losing their humanity... having powers they don't understand... a hot girl manipulating them to use their abilities in sketchy ways... yeah. i'm sure she has favorite contemporary artists (painters specifically) that she'd be able to talk about on end but sadly i don't know anything about that world 😭 oh and she's kind of obsessed with hate-reading booktok books to feel alive
🏈 casper: sports count as fandoms and i don't want to hear a word about it!! his team is the patriots but he's kind of a fairweather fan (maine doesn't have an nfl team so he doesn't have that state loyalty factor). miley cyrus is his problematic fave forever but he's kind of a pop girlie in general
💋 coco: in high school she was a speedcuber if that gives you an idea of what we're working with here.... she grew up with pokemon, naruto, dragon ball z, she collected trading cards, etc. she still likes anime and video games and stuff, she just doesn't have the time to get invested like she used to, and it makes her sad because it reminds her of her late best friend liam. she makes time to play fortnite and minecraft with his little brother and she plays other games on twitch sometimes. has done a LOT of cosplay. she's a huge nerd basically
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80s-anime-bracket · 9 months
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WELCOME, WELCOME
This is a competition to decide the best 80’s anime character. I’m a very busy person so this will go in a slower rate.
Polls will be tagged: #80sanimecharacter and #poll.
A few rules:
- only anime characters from the 80’s, or at least from shows that peaked in that time - if it started earlier but got famous then, I will consider it. In the same way, if it’s from the early 90’s but still carries the right vibe I’ll allow it
- animations made in the west will be considered in a case by case basis
- I’ll only allow one character per fandom, but feel free to submit more than one - we will have preliminary rounds to decide who will represent the show.
- in case of a tie or close match (that could have been decided by a few more votes) I’ll consider both winners and they move on as a duo and win as a duo.
- propaganda is encouraged. Hate or unwanted criticism to shows is not. You will be blocked.
- should go unsaid don’t be an asshole, keep things civil
- yes I am biased towards a few of these. I will not apologise.
Tagging to spread the word around:
@whitehairedanimeboybracket @moon-swag-tourney @retirement-home-rumble @goodcartoondadshowdown @fictional-food-tournament
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legitimatesatanspawn · 4 months
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Sudden question popped in my head: "How old is Gran Torino?"
Dude looks like he's supposed to be 80 or 90 yet he's spry even for anime fighting heavy setting old people.
Note a lot of this is gonna be riddled with a few assumptions based on character design and general character tropes as related to demeanor. The rest is applying math to known or estimated ages.
Also some minor spoilers due to some flashback sequence images used for reference but nothing major.
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Now since this is anime and across many many MANY different anime and manga the original artist or artist team tend to make character visual ages weird. I joke semi-often that kids look like teenagers, teenagers look like adults, young adults look like grizzled 40/50 year olds, and anyone past that look like they're in their 90s... unless you have a character who looks like a child. There's also even odds of the "child" being just that or actually being secretly immortal or 200+ years old.
So its possible that Torino's actually younger than he seems (shit ages you and we know he went through it). It'd also play in to his little prank/joke that he's a senile old man. I know people who look older than they really are due to one reason or another (usually stress) and I know some people in my mother's side of the family tend to look younger for whatever reason. (Some of us joke about having a portrait in the attic.)
But first: All Might is like what, 50? 60? We know he has an active career that's lasted long enough to make everyone else feel like he'll always be there. We also know he got OFA, attended U.A. (and presumably graduated), and then Toshinori got shipped off to America for his safety and to put a whole ocean between him and All Might. And since Gran Torino looked very tall at that time that means that we have a fully grown adult there (adding in to that "old people shrink in the wash" height joke thing).
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All Might was dressed in a middle school uniform when he first met Nana so that means he would've been between 12 and 15 when Nana was shown talking about him to Sorahiko after Kid Toshi's dream and drive won her over. Now he's TALL but that doesn't mean anything since I remember a couple boys in 4th grade towering over our teachers so he could be a very gangly one. But to make the Izuku parallels more strong we can say that the first meeting he had with Nana was when he was around 14 or 15.
But the only thing we can really know is that Torino would have to be at least 20-ish to have a pro hero license. Dude has the attitude of someone who's been around the block a bit so let's add in another 5 years for experience as that would be long enough to know the field. That said the characters we know best from canon with similar attitudes are in their early 30s or late 30s.
So that'd make him 30-something to Kid Toshi's 14.
But there's another character I can use as a benchmark for his age: Nana's son Kotaro. 32 when he died, when Tenko (at the time) was around 5-6. Tomura is 20 by canon's start, where All Might would presumably be in his 50s. Now I always assumed Kotaro was around 5 when Nana gave him up for his safety as that is generally the age when things go start to shit for characters in the setting. It'd also give Kotaro stronger memories of Nana and better awareness of who she was (a hero) and why his kids wanting to be heroes like her set him off (not that he seemed to need a reason with his apparent temper).
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So if Kotaro is 32 when Tenko was 5/6, the man would have been 47 by the time Tomura appeared in canon. All Might - assuming he's in his 50s - would've met Nana when Kotaro was... well, if All Might is 59 at the series start then Kotaro would've been 3, if All Might is 55 then 7, if he's 51 then 11.
You know what? All Might at 55 sounds fair. Kotaro being 7 at that time also means the loss would've been still fairly fresh, explain a lot about how the letter was phrased, and possibly be part of why Torino was a bit leery of Nana picking a kid. All this without it being too close to her unintentionally replacing her son with another around his age.
Series Start Ages: All Might, 55. Kotaro, 45/46. Tomura, 18/19. Izuku, 14-ish/15-ish.
1-A Start ages: All Might, 56/57. Kotaro, 47. Tomura, 20. Izuku, 16.
So assuming all this... Torino could be around 72 to 77 by the time All Might first meets Izuku.
... you can see how crazy I'm making myself trying to make sense of the timeline.
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cipheramnesia · 1 year
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Hiii beautiful Cipher!
Recently we were able to watch Nope and absolutely loved it!! Her at home we have a couple of roommates who are not really into horror but Nope worked for them as it is a horror that feels like a western/sci-fi.
So we come to you asking for recommendations on horror movies that work that way.
Nope is kind of a tough act to follow, because it's one of those movies that hits on all levels - story, subtext, character, plot, cinematography. You name it, and Nope knocked it out of the park. So, tempered expectations, there's nothing else which will hit quite the same, I think.
Two movies I think are quite good and complimentary are Prey and Tremors. Tremors in particular comes pretty close to the same scifi western monster movie vibe of Nope, including a pretty similar pace and similar plot beats. While it doesn't quite aim as high as Nope, it's a classic of the horror genre for a good reason, and a whole lot of fun. It leans more into humor, although it's firmly a horror movie. If you or your friends somehow never heard of it, and you don't have "hard out" triggers, my advice is go in fully blind because much like Nope it has a lot of enjoyable twists. Some triggers I'd add would be animal death (sheep), fear of heights, child in danger, and obviously fear of earthquakes or similar.
Prey was all over Tumblr so I don't think I need to add a whole lot. It's one of the movies in the Predator series, and easily one of the best. The original Predator could also work to compliment Nope, but I think Prey fits it better. Watch it in the Comanche dub obviously. It's more of a departure from being directly a Western movie but syncs up enough to fit the vibe and it's likely to find a similar positive reception with anyone who enjoyed Nope thanks to the way it balances character, story, and action while using a deft but light touch with the horror element. This is one that's not really much for twists and turns so ahead and go nuts at doesthedogdie.com if you wanna.
A few others that mash-up horror, science fiction, and western movie tropes or themes, but which don't compliment Nope as well, are Pitch Black, Turbo Kid, and Prisoners Of The Ghostland. Pitch Black is from back in Vin Diesel's early days, and feels like something right in between Aliens and Firefly. It's a low stakes, mid-budget monster movie that doesn't reinvent anything but makes for a fun ride. Turbo Kid is a retro 80s movie more than western per se, which imho leans too hard on the style and not enough on the characters, but it's full of weird mechanical devices and showdowns and standoffs. Prisoners of the Ghostland is something fully different than Nope, but it mashes up the western and samurai genres along with post apocalypse themes and an overall dreamy surrealism that puts it more in line with Mad God. But it sure is scifi western horror, kind of. Content warning: Nicholas Cage.
If we get a little further outside the western area, there's definitely some other films that are a good follow up for Nope. Immediately to mind is the spectacular scifi horror movie Attack the Block. It's another great movie to in blind on if you can, not so much for specific plot twists, as purely the story unfolding is so good and so fun that getting to enjoy it unspoiled is deeply satisfying. It's a fantastic bit of humans versus aliens that illustrates how to masterfully take a very conventional story and tell it in a way so unique that it feels new each time you watch it.
Related and tangential to the western movie is the apocalypse road trip movie, aka the Mad Max genre. One of my favorites is the little seen 80s movie but released in the 90s Highway To Hell. It's a curious bit of film with some bits that aged poorly, but for the most part it's surprisingly smart and chock full of iconic moments, including racing the devil for a soul. More recently I would suggest the Wyrmwood movies (Road of the Dead and Apocalypse), as absolutely balls out zombie movies like nothing you've seen, unless you like Z Nation, but even then they're still unique. In particular Wyrmwood Apocalypse has some of the western movie vibes, but it's uniquely bizarre in execution.
Lastly I wanna give a shout-out to Red Hill, which is not science fiction or horror, but is a banger of a modern day western movie, particularly with how it tricks the viewer into the idea that it's heading one way and then, well... something quite a bit else.
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tangibletechnomancy · 4 months
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The problem with AI and the entertainment industry in particular is that...okay, fine, technology marches on. Digital art made physical ink-on-cels animation into mostly a hobbyist novelty (though boy howdy did it ever make it an impressive one). Photography turned portrait painting into a luxury, rather than something everyone who could afford it saved to do at least once for every family member because it was the only way to keep their likenesses alive. Photo editing has gone through so many changes that it's almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like as recently as the 80s and 90s, and the older methods are, again, super impressive hobbyist passion projects now. Digital painting made physical painting less viable in an economy of scale, but way more impressive as an art form. These kinds of changes always really fucking suck for some people, but you can't really prevent them without stifling human development in general.
But.
The entertainment industry wants to make it suck way more than it has to for everyone but their executives and shareholders. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take advantage of the inherent marketing power of celebrity culture without ACTUALLY involving, let alone paying, the people whose names and likenesses they're using. That, I hope we can all agree, is vile.
Now, the logical endpoint of this is that we push back against that, and as an alternative we get more fictional celebrities in the near-ish future, and as a Vocaloid fan, theoretically, I dont see much of a problem with that. Theoretically, at least. In the best case scenario, I think it could be a lot of fun! But the problem is, well...
See, in the early days, Vocaloid producers tended to take a very backstage role. Very few people were fans of specific producers; they were fans of Miku or any other character. Eventually, though, producers just kind of came more into the spotlight on their own because everyone has their own style and taste. We still love the characters, but we all started to notice when half our favorite songs by Miku were produced by the same person, well, perhaps we were fans of that producer as well!
But in American-born entertainment culture...
You may notice that CGI was conspicuously absent from my Technology Marches On breakdown. That's because while, yes, it has made for an interesting highlight of practical effects, with love for the work and nostalgia for their jank the same way other new art media has shone a spotlight on its predecessors, it hasn't actually gotten to be recognized as an art form the way the others listed have. We've barely moved on from the attitude that got Tron disqualified from the Academy Awards for SFX because "the computer did those effects, not you" (in 1982). In fact, I'm strongly of the belief that if Disney were a halfway decent company, they would be bragging about how they're pioneering photorealistic animation, rather than trying to pass off 90+% CGI animated films, usually (but not always; see: The Lion King remake) with live celebrity actors' faces composited in, as "live-action". Instead, they treat the VFX department as mindless dancing monkeys, and perpetuate the idea that VFX is just "select material, press button, get polished scene" - because to brag about it as its own art form might imply that the people doing it are skilled artists who deserve to be paid fairly and treated like human beings, and oh, we can't have THAT, now can we?
VFX labor is all hidden; very few people have a favorite VFX artist or director, instead we treat the artists, who put the time and effort into wrangling code and semiconductors and routines and layers into creating a professional-looking end product, as just part of the machine themselves, to save the companies some money - and culturally, I fear we're well on the way to regarding AI exactly the same way but worse.
As such, I fear that we wouldn't have the same effect with any digital idols produced by Silicon Valley.
Now, I don't fear virtual celebrities being able to fully replace human ones. Half of the draw of celebrity culture is the illusion of human connection. As much as the word "parasociality" has grown to be associated with only the negative effects of this, in reality, it's also the driving mechanism behind why representation matters. It's fun to be able to feel a connection to a fictional celebrity, but it doesn't replace the feeling of knowing that your fave is a human being with a real life - ...whether you use that knowledge for better or worse.
What I do fear is the fight against using AI to replicate real humans without their input, or with their manufactured consent, being long and drawn-out and doing a lot of harm before we can fully put a lock on it, and virtual celebrities being used to hide the work that the human directors and producers put into them for the sake of saving a parent company a buck.
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what-gs-watching · 9 days
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“Cease and desist, bitch!”
News flash friends: job hunting is still terrible. Like, four months in and it’s still the worst. I finished two interview loops recently and I’m waiting to hear back and I have two others I’m trying to get through and it’s all hurry up and wait.
But then Netflix told me that GIRLS5EVA was coming to the platform, complete with a new season, and I got soooo excited. 
I’m sure no one has heard of this show, it was born on Peacock and it’s a Tina Fey joint but there’s definitely a super specific audience for it which is, basically, me. 
Were you born in the 80’s/early 90’s? Did you love all the random girl groups/boybands? Are you now barreling toward 40 and it’s just really depressing and terrible? Then Girls5eva is also for you. 
Wherein, four millennial women decide to reunite their early 2000’s girl group after their one-hit wonder is sampled on a new hip hop track. 
It’s hilarious. And really specific. And starring SARA BAREILLES who in real life is an incredible musician. Y’all remember “Gravity”? No? Even though it was featured in a Community episode where Annie cuts to a montage because she’s  trying to convince everyone that she and Jeff have had a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ thing going on all year? “Gravity” is the theme of that montage!
While you’re checking out Girls5eva, also listen to Sara Bareilles. The girl is a true fucking talent. 
ALSO, Busy Philipps. I LOVE Busy Philipps. And have loved her since Dawson’s freakin’ Creek and then AGAIN in Cougartown. 
(Side rant - Cougartown really is a wonderful show. Terrible name, but honestly incredibly funny and there are a ton of good running jokes and it’s just fun as hell. Courteney Cox got shagged on that one, it really is a gem.)
Anyway. There are 3 seasons and it follows the ladies valiantly trying to make a comeback while dealing with being normal people again after their brief shot at fame in the early 2000’s. Which, I think we all remember fondly but was actually a pretty gross time and the show makes sure you remember that - it was not great for women by any means and it’s still not great now but Girls5eva make it work. And it’s endearing.
And y’all, some of the songs are a fuckin’ bop. BPE? Aka “Big Pussy Energy” (the club remix) is the anthem we all need right now. “Kick down the doors no locks / I don't need a key / Eyes down here, yeah, I'm the centerpiece / Animal queendom feline synergy / Kickin’ down the doors, big pussy energy!” That shit gets you in the right frame of mind. I need more semi-cheesy female anthems in my life and I’m pretty sure you do too. 
Honestly, the show is really just about the fact that life doesn’t have to end after your 20’s, you can keep going after your dreams even if they’re ridiculous. And you can balance your regular shit while you do it. And you don’t need a man to define who you are. And you can leave toxic relationships if you need to. And you can grow as a person. And you can still be a crazy bitch sometimes and your friends will support you.
There’s a lot going on, and it’s all wonderful. Honestly, we need more shows about olderish female friends, with a touch of insanity. I don’t want regular female friends, I want batshit female friends doing ridiculous things. 
Also, lastly, Wickie Roy is a fucking icon. In a weird way because she’s struggling to live in a normal world and she refuses to compromise and she’s an absolute nutbag but in the best way possible. 
Basically, Girls5eva is making me feel better about my life. If they can get back into pop music, I can get myself another boring job and BPE is gonna help me get it done. 
“Momentum yeah / um it’s our moment / we’re contenders…”
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dynared · 6 months
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I noticed I was getting some pushback on my observations about Earthspark (essentially that while it does nothing wrong, Nick seems like they could not care any less than they do) being this "filler" season while the brand, after years of unclear direction, and Hasbro's own very public financial difficulties, so I wanted to go over my, on the outside looking in, guesstimation theories about Earthspark, the Energon Universe, and Robert Kirkman moving the Hasbro properties away from the low selling, unpopular later years of IDW.
Rant under the break for those of you inclined to read it.
The key to all of this is the fact that they did hire Robert Kirkman to spearhead their new Energon Universe, rather than hiring a company to produce the comics more akin to Hasbro's say-so. Kirkman was a recent guest on the Forbidden Planet podcast, and after reminiscing over older titles he worked on, goes into the Energon Universe at the 44 minute mark.
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According to Kirkman, around 2020, Hasbro was done with IDW following years of poorly selling comics and issues with the brand. So Kirkman put together a pitch as roughly every other comic company worth their salt, including Marvel, pitched Hasbro on getting the license. Kirkman specifically pitched them on a long-form universe with major future plot beats based on the cartoon (as opposed to most attempts at modern Transformers comics which take their cues from the Budinansky/Furman comic run from Marvel back in the 80s and early 90s) and from there hired people and creatives to help build out what he had in mind (Daniel Warren Johnson specifically cited that while there are certain big events Kirkman has planned he can't contradict, he has a decent amount of freedom to build out the Transformers series the way he feels is best).
This is a lot of work for just a comic universe, especially since the idea is to make a coherent whole out of a Transformers comic based on the 86 cartoon, a GI Joe that organically fits with them (it's heavily implied that both GI Joe and Cobra form as a direct response to the Transformers), and the original characters which are Hasbro property. All this effort and the bidding war doesn't make sense if it's just for a comic universe. And Robert Kirkman, unlike some of the other contestants for the writing rights, has a development company that wouldn't step on the toes of existing contracts (such as Paramount not wanting to deal with Disney), which given the success of The Walking Dead and Invincible, shows he has Hollywood credibility.
That leaves the animated front. Earthspark is being viewed by Nick and Paramount Plus as an afterthought, though thankfully not to the degree of the written-off Star Trek Prodigy. The toys are there, but they're not the main draw, there's a few kids books, but there's not the concentrated effort and promotion to indicate that this is a major going concern for Hasbro.
That's why I keep coming back to "Earthspark is filling time" as we wait to see what reception the Energon Universe has. It can't be any worse than what IDW had in its final days, but the goal seems to be something bigger than just a comic to pluck ideas from for a separate cartoon or a movie script.
Besides, after the debacle that was the War for Cybertron Trilogy, Robert Kirkman headed a big shiny Energon Universe cartoon sounds like the sort of thing that would get the Transformers attention.
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lovejustforaday · 6 months
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Shoegaze Classics - Loveless
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Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991)
Main Genres - Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop
A decent sampling of: Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Alternative Dance
DUT DUT DUT DUT VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW
Well, if you knew anything about shoegaze going into this series, you knew that this review was going to be inevitable.
Today I take on the most truly revered shoegaze band, and probably one of the most legendary indie bands of all time. God help me, I'm going to do my best, so here goes nothing. Let's talk about My Bloody Valentine and Loveless.
The Band
My Bloody Valentine is an awesome band. Plain and simple. The name is awesome, the sound is awesome, their public persona is awesome. Just, lots of awesomeness.
Okay, I can probably do better than that. Hmmm... Okay wait, stay with me here.
My Bloody Valentine were originally an unlikely, little-known post-punk band from the 80s, that somehow went on to being one of the most important and influential bands of the 90s whilst only having dropped one record for the entire aforementioned decade.
After a series of lineup changes that coincided with a search for the bands' sonic identity, the true My Bloody Valentine lineup solidified as Kevin Shields, the madman musical genius leader of the crew on guitars and vocals, Bilinda Butcher, a feathery soft-spoken punk on guitar and vocals, Colm Ó Cíosóig as the animated, flappy-haired drummer, and Debbie Googe as the badass butch bassist (BBB) who was originally from the anarchist punk scene.
I've been trying to consistently use the term "British Isles" to describe the epicenter of the initial first wave of shoegaze. I wanted to be careful not to just say "Britain" or the U.K., because that would be somewhat revisionist.
Proto-shoegazers A.R. Kane may have formed in London, but other "proto" bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins were from Scotland. As for the band most credited with the true inception of shoegaze by its strictest definition, that would be My Bloody Valentine, hailing from Ireland, folks who often (for very good reason) don't take too kindly to being described as "British". That being said, Debbie and Bilinda are English.
I won't waste too much time going into the history of the band for this review, mostly because this is already gonna be a long one and I've got so many things to say about the record itself. So I'll give you the sparknotes version.
Like most early shoegazers, My Bloody Valentine dropped a few EPs before their first full-length LP, albeit in some completely different genres. C86 style Jangle Pop, Post-Punk, and frigging Psychobilly of all things apparently?
The band really found their sound, and pioneered the definitive collective traits of shoegaze in 1988, signing with Creation Records and dropping the EP You Made Me Realize and, later that year, their debut full-length Isn't Anything which, depending on who you ask, is the first true shoegaze LP (Though a very little known post-punk band named A Primary Industry may have something to say about that).
Shoegaze was invented with the propagation of a new world of sonic timbres discovered through the usage of guitar pedals, and My Bloody Valentine in particular really loved their pedals. On top of those pedals, the band laid a lot of distortion and harsh volumes.
Likeswise, My Bloody Valentine has pretty much always been just as much a noise pop band like their contemporaries The Jesus And Mary Chain. The two scenes overlapped a lot during the first wave (just like dream pop and neo-psychedelia), and some even describe the shoegaze formula as essentially being dream pop + noise pop = shoegaze. Personally I think this is a reductionist definition when there are many shoegaze bands that don't fit nicely into either of those other categories. But I digress.
Isn't Anything was the record that launched a thousand (shoegaze) ships. It's certainly a bit more overtly post-punk in its foundations, and rougher around the edges than what would come next. But I also really do love this record. "You Never Should" and "No More Sorry" in particular are two of my favourite My Bloody Valentine songs.
What came next, however, is a whole different beast entirely.
The Record
I'll start with the disclaimer that everything I could possibly say about Loveless is probably already a cliche by now.
Insanely fuzzy and warm. Layers upon layers of sound that demonstrates a level of musical precision and perfectionism that almost doesn't seem human. Reinvented the guitar like virtually no other record before or since. Oddly arousing and potentially even sapphic if you read into the lyrics (tbf Debbie is a confirmed gay indie icon). Sounds exactly like the neon shades of magenta displayed on the cover art.
2023 is frankly a little bit late to be writing a review about this heavily celebrated 1991 record. Others have already written entire dissertations about this revolutionary LP. I don't promise this is going to be the most definitive and thoughtful review of this record, nor am I anywhere close to being the first or last indie nerd to ever champion and fanboy over this goddamn masterpiece of its genre, but I do wanna talk about how I myself personally experience Loveless.
Funny enough, my favourite memory of listening to this record (which I've been loving since 2015) was actually when I was dog-sitting for a friend's mom at her house in 2018 during the early autumn. The dog herself even seemed to wanna dance with me while I was spinning in little circles to the rhythms of "Soon". I think that's the season when I enjoy this record most - probably a mix of the coolness and crispness of the autumn breeze, and wearing the same kind of cozy sweaters that the My Bloody Valentine members are wearing in like half of their 90s photoshoots.
Okay, enough chitter chatter. Let's get into it.
"Only Shallow" is one of the most iconic album openers of all time, period. Instantly overpowers the listener with those first few overblown snare stabs before exploding into a pounding noise pop delirium of screeching banshee guitars. Letting up only slightly for the verses, where Bilinda Butcher describes something sweet, soft, and warm, in a brazen contrast to the blustering razor guitars that are unleashed after each verse. This track most perfectly encapsulates a pervasive trend across the rest of the album, wherein the sonic mosaic of textures can be described paradoxically as both cushiony and razor-sharp at the same time.
Lyrics and their delivery will continue from this point on to be every bit as textural and vague as the music itself, creating abstract entities that are transient and androgynous. Indeed, I struggled a lot on my first few listens to discern which tracks were being sung by Bilinda and which were Kevin or the both of them. Bilinda recalls that she would often take naps in the studio when they were recording Loveless and would do her vocal tracks soon after being awoken, which lends itself to her very tranquilized delivery in which I feel like I can picture the drowsy bags under her eyes in some of these songs. Likewise, most of this entire album is best appreciated in a half-awake mental state, even more so than other dream pop / shoegaze records.
"Loomer" is the dark underbelly of Loveless, like listening through the old floorboards of a basement ceiling to sounds of the band playing a live house show in the living room upstairs. It's a grainy, gloomy bed of sound that feels as though it could be physically slept on if desired.
I have no idea how many actual layers of track recordings went into the concoction of the heavily experimental "To Here Knows When", but it feels like hundreds. This song is a whirring helicopter blade of thousands of little sounds, scattering everywhere until it creates a thick, opaque, sparkling lilac mist that obscures the upbeat melody that's utterly buried in the fog of noisy drones and distortion. The mastering sounds as though you're listening to all of this happen through a small tubular opening in a giant glass wall, as if all of the tonal anarchy is happening from the other side, perhaps in another dimension. For a bonus observation, this one in particular sounds even more unreal and transcendental when you're tired as fuck on an early morning bus ride after a night of zero sleep (Don't ask me).
"When You Sleep" is probably My Bloody Valentine's most acclaimed and influential song. That de-tuned, icy, fluorescent glowing pop melody motif is seriously addictive, and it sounds almost deranged. The heavily compressed drumming provides the propulsion needed for a track that feels like its intensely vibrating every last quark of matter in its audible vicinity. I really have to remind myself that these crazy sounds are being made by guitars with effect pedals, and not with synthesizers (or, as the meme goes, vacuum cleaners).
The record really crunches in on those guitar textures with "Come In Alone" a track that you'll be hearing echoing in the back of your mind long after its finished (note: this record is NOT recommended to those especially prone to having tinnitus). This track is like all of the blood rushing to your head when you would hang upside down from the monkey bars as a kid. It feels intoxicating in the best way.
The band takes an unsuspecting turn for gut-punching emotions on "Sometimes", likely the only song with a more or less discernible lyrical theming on the record, about sharing intimacy with another person and the insurmountable fear of isolation from someone you love. The timbral effects are applied minimally on this song, but the dozens of recorded guitar tracks drone in a wondrous hum that resonates with the vibrations of a lonely soul. Usually, I'd say this is my favourite My Bloody Valentine song, though "To Here Knows When" and "Only Shallow" occasionally compete for the number 1 spot as well.
"Blown a Wish" is cool, dreamy shoegaze that fizzles and melts in your mouth like an ice cream soda. Pure pleasure is the best way I could describe its sensation, with all of its rippling, neck-tingling guitar effects that dance in and out of the foreground. Alternatively, this is like being high on helium and having so many butterflies in your stomach that you actually start to feel like you're levitating in a luscious trance. Delicious song.
The record closes with its poppiest and most accessible number "Soon", a mix of comparatively light shoegaze psychedelia and alternative dance beats that sounds enormously sexy. Evokes psychoactive substances, gently swaying hips, and grassy fields filled with buzzing fireflies. A very stylish way to end the record and solidify My Bloody Valentine's status as indie music legends.
What Came After That?
Loveless was a certified gold commercial success, about on par with the success of Ride's Going Blank Again, but it was also purportedly so expensive to make that it bankrupted the Creation Records label (serves you bastards right for making Oasis happen) and caused the band to be dropped.
I honestly kind of laugh to myself whenever I think of Alan McGee's pompous ass looking at the numbers and having a panic attack, almost as much as I laugh when I remember how Catherine Wheel gave him a big fat "NOPE!" to being signed after he pestered them. Have I mentioned I really don't like Creation Records ways of doing things?
*seething* ANYWAY, My Bloody Valentine basically disappeared for the rest of the 90s. Members moved on to different projects.
And then, after years of teasing a third record, the band's self-titled mbv was finally dropped in 2013. This one seems to divide fans a lot more than their other records; it wasn't as universally received as the Slowdive comeback record a few years later. This one is arguably more experimental than Loveless, and there's even a couple of tracks with some DnB influence. I think all things considered, it's a pretty great comeback record. I think many folks were probably expecting a Loveless 2, and it probably helps that I didn't even listen to this band before the new record came out, so I had no expectations built over years for this record.
There is allegedly a fourth record (and possibly fifth) LP in the works, but Shields has been teasing at it for years now, and its sort of becoming a running joke in the shoegaze community that we're gonna be waiting another five or ten years.
But hey, good work takes time. After making a record like Loveless, I personally think you've earned the right as an artist to afford yourself all the time in the world. I certainly wouldn't know how the hell to follow upon something that masterfully crafted, and some bands probably wouldn't even try to.
But besides all that, Loveless speaks for itself. It is a singular album experience. Nothing really sounds anything quite like it, to the point that newbies often getting into shoegaze for the first time with this record often lament the fact that the scene is not full of other records sounding just like this. It's for this reason precisely that, if you are totally new to shoegaze, I don't recommend this as a starting point. A lot of other great shoegaze records are unfairly compared to this record a whole fucking lot, and it can have a spoiling effect for some folks. But not every shoegaze band should sound like My Bloody Valentine, or have a Loveless in their discography.
But, at the same time, holy crap this is one of the coolest records of all time and if you haven't already heard it by now then you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not listening to this some time in the next week at the latest. Loveless is something that every fan of music should experience at least once, and there's only a handful of albums that I could confidently make that statement for.
So, yeah. Go listen. (✿ ᵔ ᴗ ᵔ )y
10/10
Highlights: "Sometimes", "To Here Knows When", "Only Shallow", "When You Sleep", "Blown A Wish", "Soon", "Come In Alone", "Loomer", "I Only Said"the
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dduane · 2 years
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Ms. Duane:
I was wondering if you'd take the time to answer a question or two I had about your time writing for the Star Trek novel franchise.
I have often heard the novels referred to as Beta canon, though I think that's a fan term. I was wondering how much continuity they tried to get you all to maintain? Was there a series bible for the novelists? If so, did it mention that they all speak Esperanto in the Beta canon? Or is that something someone came up with and put in a novel?
Thanks, and best wishes!
Hi there!
Re "beta Canon": It's not a term I'd have heard before. My understanding has always been that Star Trek novels are straightforwardly noncanonical... which is fine.
Re continuity: In the 80s and early 90s, when I was doing my first Trek novels, the attitude was quite relaxed. If you'd pitched a story involving a certain episode or situation, your editor might say to you, "You know, we've got a book in the schedule where [A. Nother Writer] is dealing with that. So could you read that book and (if necessary) refer to that situation, or at least not contradict it?" And you would of course say "Sure, no problem", because that was (at the very least) courtesy to a colleague. (Not to mention a similar courtesy to your editor, who was kind enough to give you a heads-up and not let you just go off and write something that would have to be corrected "in notes" at the editing stage. Also, the fact that a book with that content was in the works meant that Paramount had already approved it... so it behooved you to take that into account.)
As for bibles: There were, at that time, no bibles. Whichever series you were working in was your bible. ...Your mission was not to directly contravene already-established canon without good reason, and (in the course of your plotting) to make sure you'd put things back the way you found them. Since I'd been doing this kind of thing for years while writing animation, I knew exactly how to do it, and it was never a problem. ...In later books, specifically the Rihannsu arc, Paramount essentially set aside that whole scenario as an established noncanonical AU of sorts, ringfencing it as a separate continuity of its own, so that restoring any exterior status quo wasn't a problem. It was a charming gesture and a tremendous sign of their trust in me (as well as an unspoken confirmation that the books were selling well. Which is always nice.) :)
Re the Esperanto thing: as far as I can tell, it's a pre-Universal Translator concept that goes back to one of the old Gold Key comics. (Cf. here and here.) It never came up as an issue at the novel end—for me, anyway—as our responsibility re: continuity was primarily to concepts established in the TV series.
...Thanks for the queries: HTH!
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popculturebuffet · 6 months
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House of Claremont: Mutant Month: Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Comission Review for WeirdKev27)
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Hello all you happy muties and welcome back to Mutant Month, my celebration of those mighty mutants of marvel. After a bit of a rough start with the X-Men's first animated appearance, i'm proudly taking a look at one of the X-Men stories ever,God Loves Man Kills.
This review also relaunches a feature on this blog that will likely exist as long as this blog does. It was supposed to be a full retrospective of Chris Claremont's 186 issue, 16 year run on Uncanny X-Men, also throwing in his 12 annual issues, various mini series, and other x-ongoing New Mutants. It was an ambitious idea brought about by me having collected almost EVERY issue of Claremont's run and various associated minis on comixology, with only a few stray issues and a few trades left to complete it. Thanks to that i'd seen what a deft, well crafted masterpiece this run is: while it has it's flaws, down periods, and various things that haven't aged well, it's a glorious nearly two decades long epic with lush character arcs, brilliant ideas, and tons of twists and status quo changes to keep things from getting too stale. While the run begins and ends at Xavier's School in between we have Thunderbird's tragic death, Jean becoming a living god before it consumes her and her apparent death, Scott leaving as a result and only returning on and off before leaving for good, one of their sworn enemies who'd done something truly unforgiable to a friend of theirs joining the team in desperation (More on that next week), Storm's slow change in personality and temproary (though still YEARS LONG ) power loss, the arrival of Rachel Summers from an alternate future, Rachel's departure coinciding with half the team being brutally decimated in the morlock massacre and Storm forced to rebuild the team from almost scratch, said new roster dying to save the world and being reborn in secret, and the ENTIRE TEAM scattered to the winds, leaving the book to focus on the individual members as wolverine slowly pulls them back together and Forge forges a new team to replace them, and finally the team merging with x-factor to create two new teams of x-men. And that was just what I could squeeze in reasonably A lot of great stories both noted forever and forgotten to the sands of time by all but those who read them in the 80s or read them all now are squeezed int his epic.
And that very reasoning.. is why I ultimatley coudln't do it. I tried streamlining the run and summarizing.. but at the end of the day i'm a man who likes to really analyze stuff. And make goofy jokes, but while I could do the latter as good as always it became clear the run was just too massive to quickly summarize it all and do it full justice, and doing it piece by piece in order would possibly take a decade. It's the double edged sword of relying on commissions and patreon reviews: it allows me extra money each month and comes in handy quite a bit, and allows me to meet nice respectful people who love my work enough to do it... but it also means I sometimes have to delay things I personally planned to do on my own time. And given my venture bros retrospective has already been a victim to this quite a bit, I decided an even LONGER project. There's also a simple fact: While I love this era of x-men and it's easily one of the best if not the best, no question... there are tons of OTHER great x-men and mutant stories out there and other retrospectives to do from peter David's masterful noir run of x-factor (and not to shabby government and corporate runs), to Leah Williams own great sadly short lived take recently, to the various epics currently spinning out of the krakoa era and into the fall of x from Hickman, to Gilleon to Ewing to Duggan to williams, and even OTHER x-books from the 80s and early 90's with Claremont's phenomenal new mutants, interesting excalibur, and Louise Simonsons deft work on X-Factor and later also New Mutants. There's just too much X for one lifetime of review work to spend most of it on one run.
So this is my compromise: instead of a long retrospective looking at it in order, i'll be taking ocasional looks at stories I like, and maybe the one or two I don't, here. Both on my own, with one of my faviorite parts of the run planned for next year if I can squeeze it in
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And on comission's like this. If ther'es a stretch of this massive run or another x run you want me to cover i'm down for it.
And I was paticuarlly down for this one for two reasons: the first is God Loves, Man Kills is not only one of my faviorite x-men stories.. but probably the best of Chris Claremont's run. And given he had PLENTY of good work before and after this, the run of issues I just teased above was also happening around this time, that is saying a lot.
The other is the person who comissioned it: Kevin is both the first person to comisson work for this blog and the one who does it the most and has become a good friend. But while he's many things: great with duck triva, obessed with a lesbain owl, the #1 molibby shipper, and a great guy to work with... he's not really an x-men fan. Spider-Man yes, it's how I was able to spend a glorious half a year reviewing spiderman and likely will again in the future, both with a video game review planned later this year and tons of other stuff for the future. But when it comes to the strangest heroes of all he usually just shurgs and this month was something he wasn't really involved in at first. Which is fine, I don't do this blog just for one person and he dosen't have to like everything I do.
So it meant a LOT to me when he asked if I could cover God Loves Man Kills. He was curious after I mentioned this theme month coming up and looked into some famous x-men stories, thought this one was interesting as it's both rightly hugely aclaimed and still has echoes to the state of the world today. And since he watches and reads what he commissions it also got him to read some classic x-men and hopefully more eventually. He also has another one coming at the end of the month and much like this one it's a story I was bound to cover eventually. But you'll find out about that one later. For now join me under the cut to dig into one of the greatest x-men stories of all, a tale of frightingly realistic prejudice, tyranically faith, and perseverance in the face of overwhelming hate and a doubt if your dream will ever come true.
Purity: God Loves Man Kills comes to us from the Marvel Graphic Novel series, another thing i've been wanting to talk about. Marvel Graphic Novel was the brainchild of Marvel's Editor at the Chief at the time Jim Shooter. I'm not a huge fan of Shooter as while he WAS EiC during one of marvel's biggest boom periods, he was also a giant prick who was not great at the actual writing part most of the time but insisted on giving himself books, was a homophobic shithead who refused to let gay characters into his book (it's why Claremont had to imply as hard as he could Mystique and Destiny were a couple), and being behind famous writing debacles like Hank Pym's mental breakdown, the hobglin's true identity and of course the previously reviewed avengers 200. Aka
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I'll be covering the followup to that next week, thank god. But for all the guys faults and serious lastingly damaging fuckups.. he still had his moments. For instance with X-Men itself he had Chris break up Kitty Pryde (14) and Colossus (19) which was both better for both characters in the longrun but the fallout of said breakup ended up being some of Chris' best work.
This is one of those moments: With Buisness picking up at the tale end of the 60's, Jim decided to capitalize on the "Album" format from European comics. So we go the marvel graphic novels, super sized stories following marvel's best characters, though usually not involving the main book's creative team for time purposes. We still got powerhouse names like David Michlinine, Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, JM Demattis, Larry Hama, Mary Jo Duffy, Ann Nocenti, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern, Doug Monech, Mark Gruenwald, Alan Davis, Jim Starlin, Bob McLeod, Walt Simonson, Jackson Guice, Mark Silvestri, John Byrne, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones, John Bucschema, Denny O'Neil, Bruce Jones, Mike Mingola, Paul Gulacey, and Ross Andru. And i'm sure I missed some. The books were a lot of things. They were a way for creators to work on characters they normally hadn't, to serve as an additional piece to big runs, or to launch less superhero oriented stuff and creator own books. Yes marvel actually did creator owned books at one point, something I never would've known without my good twitter friend Belle (Not caling it X, probably the only time something named x wasn't for me in any way shape or form), and was part of the reason for this line. It's also thanks to her getting me curious in this line again that I found out about oddities like an adaptation of willow by Power Man and Iron Fist's real mom Mary Jo Duffy, a full roger rabbit adaptation.. or a full SEQUEL to Roger Rabbit that I'm DEFINTELY looking at one of these days. It was mostly a marvel vehicle though.
Despite their isolated nature, most of these books are fully cannon to the main marvel universe and many of them had a lasting impact: New Mutants introduced the team to the marvel universe and took Donald Pierce out of the hellfire club, Spider-Man: Parallel Lives dealt with the revelation that Mary Jane had known peter was Spidey all along and showed her past with that new perspective in mind, Dardevil Love and War continued the vanessa fisk subplot from dardevil, the inhumans once shot introduced Black Bolt and Medusa's Son Ahurua, Dazzler: The Movie outed Allison Blaire as a mutant to the world, and the classic Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: triumph and torment finally ended the longstanding subplot about Doom saving his mother's soul from mephisto.
So that makes it a surprise that this story wasn't strictly considered canon till 21 years after the fact. Part of this is the standalone nature: while the book DOES have some important steps in Magneto and Kitty Pryde's character arcs, it's pretty much the ONLY comic chris wrote he didn't somehow later factor into his x-men run. That's not hyperbole either: X-Men and New Mutants regularly impacted each other, with Xavier's departure leading to Magneto becoming their teacher, Selene being introduced fighting the New mutants before becoming a thorn in the big kids side, and Betsy Braddock, the future Psylocke, ending up at the mansion and eventually on the roster thanks to a new mutants annual.
Beyond that , Chris loved bringing in characters from other books he worked on: Jean Grey roomed with Coleen Wing and Misty Knight from his book iron fist, Jessica Drew Spider-Woman guest starred in an x-men issue then later in one of her comics found Banshee's daughter Siryn. And not stopping there many characters chris created for other books became mainstays of uncanny x-men: Mystique started out as Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers) arch enemy, Arcade was a one off villian in an issue of Marvel Team Up and Wolverine's arch enemy sabertooth started out as an iron fist villian. Most notably, and something we'll talk about next week, after the disaster that was avengers 200, Chris was so pissed off he took carol and added her to x-men for some time via avengers annual #10.. and in the process also introduced Rogue. Chris used everything he had so the fact this story just.. happened with so much fanfare and two big character moments and never came up is odd.
The other problem is that Chris kept a very tight order of events and had a lot happening... and as a result WHEN this happened is nigh impossible to figure out. It's down to the roster; The roster in this book is Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde. Cyke is the first issue as after Jean's death in the dark phoenix saga he was in and out of the team for a while: he left right after to find out if he even WANTED to go back, but this being the life of an x-man ended up stranded on Magneto's spooky elder god island he found and made into a headquarters, because I mean.. what else are you going to do with a spooky elder god island. After a fight with Mags in which he realized how far he nearly went and fled to parts unknown, the X-Men took the base for their own while the mansion was in the shop before Cyclops peaced out again to spend time with his dad who just got back, from outer space. To make matter's somehow even more complicated, the x-men were then kidnapped to space by the brood. Cyke would leave the issue after this adventure to go spend time with his dad and meet his long lost grandparents before he had to go back to space again and be a sexy mustache space pirate as earth had become too alien to him peter quill style.
And that issue is the other problem: the issue before that, after Xavier got his alien clone body.. he bumped Kitty Pryde, the x-men's cool teen who met the team during Dark Phoenix Saga and joined right after, down to the New Mutants. This is a problem as the only real window for this story to happen... is when she was busy convincing Xavier to repromote her.... and during that Window Logan implicitly left for his homeland of Canada before heading to japan to pick a fight with his girlfriend's abusive fiancé and even more abusive dad, who he of course murdered in a samurai duel.
So it' SEEMS impossible for this story to fit. And that's because it is. trust me I tried my best.. but going to x-men 168, aka
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Logan leaves for the candian rockies.. and has Kurt drive him to the airport... taking Kitty and her bestie and colosuss sister who was aged up when she was kidnapped by a demon man on Magneto's Spooky Elder God Island, with them.. while Kitty was still campaning to join the x-men. Not only that Xavier's space girlfriend Illandra and the new mutants themselves are absent from the story, just to make ti clear
So yeah this story is canon , but fits nowhere really in canon.. and in an interview in the extneded cut (which I turned to to try and find out if it added anything to explain why it dosen't fit, which no it didn't it's just got some added wraparounds in the present day at the time continuity), that was by design. Chris wanted to make this story one that could be read by anyone, one and done. If you wanted to read more x-men great. if not , you still got your money's worth and got everything these characters were about.
The story itself came from the times: It was the time of Ronald Regan and a new wave of conservatives trying to bring back "the good old days" and morals and all the usual smokescreens "for when things were a lot WHITER and STRAIGHTER and we didn't have to reckon with our actions. " This call for moral panic nicely dovetailed into the rise of Evangelical Preachers, using tv as a means of indoctrination and trying to paint anyone against them as not in god's will and anything they didn't like as "not TRULY of god". Naturally given Chris wrote a book about a disenfranchised, if fictoinal group that happened to have a christian (Nightcrawler) and jewish (Kitty Pryde) person in their ranks and an arch enemy who lived thorugh the holocaust, the story was perfect.
To chris this kind of purity of purpose coupled with narrowmindeness was dangerous as hell, and made for a good story speaking out against it.. one that continues to resonate on as narrow minded assholes who GENUINELY think their doing the right thing by hurting and suppressing people and who they are haven't exactly gone away, simply changed shape. Heck while this still is mostly a one off story, the themes of someone trying to legislate opression and make it sound resonable were already in the main book with days of future past (which shows a nightmare world where this DOES happen.. and also gets hyjacked by giant robots), and would continue to be a key theme of the x-men to this very day.
So now the stage is set, we can finally begin a battle.. not one of the usual claws, optic blasts and thunder bolts.. but of survivial. Of ideas. Of one group trying to do the right thing in the midst of a direct call for them to be trotted out and murdered. To be wiped away in the name of some "higher purpose". It's a battle of faith. Let's see how it plays out shall we?
Not the First, Far from the Last:
The opening to God Loves Man Kills.. is one of the most chilling scenes i've read in a comic. And it's chilling simply because it could happen anywhere: Two black children are running for their lives.. but sadly don't make it, as their soon cornered by the purifiers, three people in black tactical gear. And why are they hunting these innocent children? Why have they already killed their parents?
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It's an utterly haunting sequence. The fact the children are black isn't a remote coincidence, but to simply hammer home that this kind of shit happens. To draw parallels to the same sort of shit racist have done: killing innocent people.. then displaying the bodies as some sick trophy to show exactly WHY they just slaughtered innocents: they were not what these butchers considered a person and to them, they deserved to die. Thankfully before the Purifiers can get their intended show of stringing up the bodies, each with a sign saying "Mutie" on them, someone else comes along to take this horror show down so these children's bodies can at least have SOME dignity in death instead of being used as as sick prop
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I love the small touches i'm only noticing now as I review this: the true PAIN on Erik's face after seeing this, him gently going over the body. It also speaks to his history: he's seen countless children die around him in his childhood in a concentration camp.. and saw his own daughter Anya die tragically simply because Mags himself was a mutant. It says a lot about who he is and that behind the vengeance, behind the vow of "Never again" he swears right after.. is a man whose simply seen too many of his peopled die... and will not let this happen again. And god help those who did this.
We then meet our main antagonist, Reverened William Stryker. Like the above.. this intro is brilliant. Stryker, head of his evangelcial "Stryker Crusade" is reading the bible in his office, before preparing to review some files and having some dinner sent up to eat while he looks over them. Said files are also a really neat way to show off the current roster of x-men and what they can do, with some really great art added. Stryker already has plans for them, but first he has to be at the studio: he has a show to put on.
We cut to Stevie Hunter's dance studio. For those less familiar with her Stevie was a major supporting character during Claremont's run. When Kitty joined the school, Charles, wanting to make sure she had a well rounded life outside of academics and surviving the experince, enrolled her in dances classes hosted by Stevie, a former professional dancer whose career was cut short by injury. He'd later do the same for the new mutants, and it's a nice character thing: it shows as gruff and standofish as Charles can be.. he wants what's best for his charges and wants them to have some normalcy in a life where that will be hard to come by.
Starting here , and with Kitty, isn't a coincidence: as Chris said in the aforementioned interview, the younger characters provided a vital viewpoint: the future and what exactly to do with it when it looked so bleak.
It's also a great way to start as once again Claremont makes sure things are well and grounded as Kitty.. is beating the shit out of some asshole named Danny.. to the point she's sent him out the door. He only gets a hit in once Peter, aka Colossus, mother russia's finest and kitty's crush, shows up distracting her. Kitty's held back by her bestie and borderline love intrest Illanya. Seriously why haven't they been a thing. Questions for later. For now Stevie comes out wanting to know what the hell is going on, her exact words. Kitty admits to starting the violence portion of the evening.. but only because Danny was talking about all the GOOD the stryker crusade is doing and how swell it is they want to commit mutant genocide. Peter suggests they end it there.. which is code for "You've said enough little bigot, just try me". It's also notable that peter is so angry: one of his defining traits is how he's a gentle, kind young man and abhors violence. He fights because he has to and because it's the right thing to do, not because he wants. So to get him angry takes a lot. Danny backs off.. but whispers once peter's around it's on because he has the self preservation of a goat. We also coincidentally never see him again. Maybe Logan gave him a talking to and he wisely left town after voiding his bowels. Who knows.
Stevie isn't pleased with Kitty and we get that moment I was hinting at the one part of the comic that dosen't entirely work for me
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Now I GET what chris was going for and Kitty's point: that just because it's word's.. dosen't mean someone saying intolerent bullshit, ESPECAILLY since in this case the dipshit was advocating genocide, is something to just ignore or brush off. And it's MEANT to be a spur of the moment thing a teenager would say, hence it not ruining the scene.. but Chris STILL really shoudlnt' of had a privilaged white teenager say the n word to a grown black woman whose probably been through a LOT of this shit and has gotten used to having to ignore it. Even for the time the n-word should not have been used especialy in refrence to a fictional minority. The rest of the scene works.. but this REALLY dosen't and sticks out like a sore thumb in a work that otherwise holds up.
Kitty and Peter return home just in time for something on TV, greeted by
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and Nightcrawler, everyone's faviorite sexy demonic looking christian. I LOVE Logan and Kitty's talk here too
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I love everything about this. How casual logan is, how fatherly he comes off to her, and Kitty showing that Stevie's fears of her using her training unfairly were unfounded: Kitty was holding back and wouldn't use it on a civlian no matter how much he deserved to be ground into the pavement.
Turns out the show their all watching is the same one Stryker was preparing for: A debate with Xavier over mutant kind. And Xavier looses pretty badly as best summed up by this panel
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It perfectly sums up hate groups like Stryker's best weapon: couching horrifying, nightmarish notions.. and making them sound ALMOST resonable. it's something I saw a few years back when JK Rowling tried to defend her transphobia; her "apology' letter TRIED to sound resonable.. but underneath you could see all the transphobia couched in her arguments and all the hate clearly there. It's just to some, sadly.. the argument is more pursasive and that's where the danger is: not in us who can see it.. but that some of us may not or may be indorcianted otherwise.
Kitty is understandably even more pissed after all of this and decides to break some stuff, so we get a few pages in the danger room. It's a fun sequence. I"m mostly glossing over it as story wise it dosen't really have a lot of function, but it's a nice way to slip in some more typical superhero action without undermining the story: the context of the heroes needing to work out how aggravated and scared they are with a good distraction makes it work, it's only a few pages so it dosen't take up much of the comic, and it has a fun solution: the heroes are all given individual assignments.. but only accomplish them when they help each other out, a clever exercise. IT's one of the reasons I love the danger room: it's a neat way to show our heroes training, something most superhero comics don't have time for and a fun way to interject action sequences into issues that may otherwise not have them.
Back at the Studio Stryker's preparing for his first attack on the x-men... and conviently Xavier brought Cyclops, team leader and certified badass, and Storm, also team leader and certified badass about to get even more badass during this time period with her awsome mohawk and change in character, with them. Xavier's already on edge as he noticed Stryker has Psy Screens.. which means he KNOWS Xavier's a mutant.. but sadly can't warn the rest of th eteam as they get ambusehd and Scott and Ororo are seemingly gunned down. It's part of what makes Stryker such an effective antagonist: while he does indeed have an evil over the top super villian plan... most of his methods are mundane. Simply using guns , subterfuge and careful cordinated strikes. Basic military tactics and espionge. He has fancy sci fi stuff to block xavier's mind reading and what not, but he uses pretty mundane stuff. It underlines that this is at the end of the day just a normal guy who happens to have a POWERFUl cultish following.. and that despite the powers, despite the training the x-men are as vunerable as anyone to a military strike.
We cut back to the mansion where Nightcrawler gets a night caller telling him the professor, jean and scott died in a car crash. The next scene is effective; Kitty mourns, and is baffled that something mundane as a car crash could take out her surrogate big sister, a genius tactician and her mentor.. and also Scott and Xavier. Turns out though Illanya isn't just there to comfort kitty.. and ask kitty about her crush on her brother Peter.. but to point out a weird survelnce divise. Kitty's response is clever as hell and speaks to how despite her age she's every bit an x-man: she disables the thing, then plans to wait to ambush whoever set it up.
At the scene of the accident Logan confirms Kitty's suspcions: the scenes for the bodies found at the wreck are all wrong and the wreck itself has all the halmarks of a staged accident.. a nice way to use Logan's CIA past as he admits to have done a few of these himself. He was also smart enough to have Kurt do survielnce.. and find the purifiers watching them ready to attack. It's a nice little show of Wolverine as leader: it dosen't come up a TON in this run early on, but under Ororo he's second in line to lead the x-men , wether he thinks he can or not.
The x-men turn the tables and ambush the purifiers for a change, in this case some goon Wolverine easily yanks out of a car and Anne, Stryker's right hand who tries ramming Nightcrawler with her car.. which fails horribly since you know, he's a teleporter and she should know this and colosus totals the thing with Nightcrawler saving her life with one heck of a line
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Unfortuantley for our heroes not only does said attempted marytr escaped.. but she had some goons with her in powered armor who easily down colossus. Before they can get the rest of the x-men though.. they get some unexpected help.
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It's one hell of a scene. Before this set of our heroes can react though, we cut back to kitty and yana. The goons arrive and Illyana is understandably scared: at this point, outside of the time in a demon realm, she's mostly a normal teenager and hasn't yet trained in her powers. So when Kitty goes to investigate and the purifiers find her, it's utterly terrifying to see.. and worse to see Anne shoot an unarmed girl. Her point blank shot somehow.. stuns Yana?
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Thankfully not depriving us of one of the best new mutants... just kidding their all the best. It's hard to choose.
Kitty hides in the trunk, but turns out the Purifiers have sensors and spray some knockout gas in there.
Back with the X-men logan is using his usual charm and tact to interogate one of their suspects
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Left one's charm, right one's tact, middle one's grace. Magneto suggets an alternative.. and procedes to somehow use magnetics to make the guy tell them what he knows
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I love Magneto's line afterwrods too
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It's a brutal line and sums up magneto in one line. Truly perfect.
While nightcrawler worries sinking to their foes level makes them no better we cut to
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As you can imagine this scene confused the hell otu of Kev. It works thematically for me: Stryker is trying to brainwash xavier and is thus framing his students, his family, as murderous monsters. It's part of a brilliant and horrifying psychic ploy: their torturing Scott and Ororo, the only reason their still alive, right next to him so he feels their pain, but have doped Charles up so much he dosen't realize their not hurting him, letting his own inner guilt rationalize why they'd hurt him. Scott is especially a good pick for this: as I mentioned since Jean's death he's been questioning his place in the world and, after all the training Xavier's given him, if he can even LIVE a life outside the x-men. He's as much Xavier's son as his real son who he dosen't know about yet and thus his betrayal would sting the hardest while for Oroo he took her out of an innocent existence away from strife as a goddess to the harshness of the real world. His own fears of what he's done to his children, how he's weaponized them and the two he's lost.. .are the greatest weapon of all.
We then find out Stryker's back story.. and it is... utterly horrifying. Stryker was a decorated army guy who was driving home with his pregnant wife. She gave birth to their son and well...
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That shot of the knife.. is haunting. It's something I never really focused on in previous reads.. and i'm not sure i'll be able to forget now. Stryker was so convinced his baby was an abomination, so unwilling to accept his child for what they were instea dof what he thought they were.. he murdered an innocent baby then SNAPPED his wife's neck for no good reason. All because in his eyes they were just a monster and the one who created. It breaks down Stryker and shows what he REALLY is inside: while he tries to frame this a sa crusade, that the birth of his child was God showing Stryker his new purpose in life, hence his founding of the crusade. But at the end of the day: he's a bigot. He saw his child was diffrent and stabbed him to death and instead of dealing with kiling his wife and child, instead of acccepting he acted on his worst instincts and did something truly horrible.. he convinced himself that no, GOD told him to do this. God told him this was the right path. and he should kill more, hurt more, do more. It's the real, pure danger of crusades like this: the absolute conviction that the horrible things your doing are right. People who just side with bigotry for their own self intrest are bad.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie what their saying who are the most dangeorus. To use JK Rowling the reason she's so dangeorus to trans people is that she GENUINELY thinks she's helping women. That she THINKS she's resonable and can convince other people.. and that like stryker she has the money and resources and influence to do real harm. It's easy to stop a hypcorite, just show them as they are to their followers if their not brainwashed enough. it's harder to stop someone who GENUINELY belivies the hate they speak and cannot be talked down or beaten with logic. The only way to beat them is with public opinon and that's a harder task than it should be.
We get a truly chiling ending to the scene as Stryker coldly orders Anne to execuite kitty and Storm, a surrgoate big sister to the girl can only wail in horror.
Lucky for kitty, she managed to phase the escond the gas hit, but some still got her.. so she escapes her execution.. but is still being hunted by Anne. And whiel she TRIES to get help.. she instead finds a gang who fully plan to assault her. Her only salvation is that Anne shows up and the gang is too busy with her and Anne's too busy killing them all for being in the way for either to notice her escaping. Kitty BARELY calls the school for help in time and even then all she can do is hide in a subway.. and watch as a police officer takes a bullet for her, the purifiers glad to let him die and blame it on her. Thankfully like her fellow x-men, Uncle Erik is here to save the day...
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The x-men quickly clean up the rest of the Purifiers and Kitty's shocked to see Magneto on their side. He quickly proves his nobility though, saving the officer and giving the x-men a magic car door ride to go get the guy help
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While he's showing them the world, shining shimmering splendor, he explains whose after them to the officer.
We then cut back to xavier whose finally been convinced to kill Scott and Ororo.. and stryker's plan becomes frightingly clear.. now he's capable of killing his two faviorite children.. what would he do to any other mutant?
Meanwhile Kitty and Kurt confront the guy who indocrinated Xavier, Doctor ramsey. I guess doug has a racist uncle? Anyway Nighcrawler gets some poetic justice, using his frighting facade to scare the crap otu of the racist. What I love about this is while the art makes kurt look terrifying.. we know him well enough, even just in this tsory to know he's bluffing. We saw earlier he was horrified with Magneto and Wolverine fully willing to toruture a guy. But this guy dosen't know that. And he's still wiling to mildly choke the guy, not at all sympathetic after all he's done. Kurtmay be one of the most noble souls ever put to comics.. but this scene is a nice reminder: he kicks ass for the lord.
At Stryker's headquarters, his goons and anne plan to take Scott and Roro to be cremated and Illayana to be examined.. but by now you know the bit: magneot is awesome, yanks the elevator out. His constant saves COULD get tiresome.. but they work as a show of power and the gap that still exists between him and the x-men: sure we get to see them all be awesome.. but these moments remind us WHY he can take on the whole team by himself, WHY he was such a threat.. and why him joining them is such a big deal. He could probably handle all this himself.. but despite being on opposite sides, despite having opposite approaches... he respects them. Okay sure he shoved them into a nanny robot prison a while back, but after they nearly sank him in lava he got respect.
He then proves the point by reviving scott and ororo. Turns out subcocnoiusly Xavier rebelled and thus only put them in a deathlike coma. Scott.. is naturally a bit nettled to see his arch enemy in front of him after he just nearly died, which leads to one hell of a speech from Mags.
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Something that's really easy to forget, especaily after that.. is that Magneto started out.. as a pretty awful character. He was a bully, a dictator who wanted to conquer humanity because he could, cowed his subordinates into submission and kept Scarlet Witch in the brotherhood purely out of obliggation to him for saving her and pietro from an angry mob. And early on while Claremont had him as a BETTER villian, more intimidating and a larger threat, especially since two of the x-men were now weak to his powers, he was still a bit of an ass who decided the best way to get his revenge was to strap the x-men to chairs where they couldn't move and have a nanny robot feed them which gave me nightmares as a kid
It's only in his next apperance did Magneto shift from "Dr. Doom Clone" to "one of my faviorite characters in all of fiction. With I Magneto we not only found out his backstory as a survivor of asuchwitz but his next attempt to conquer the world, boosting his powers and giving the world an ultimatium: surrender or perish. And it's this version that's been the basis for the character ever since: a broken man defined by tragedy whose determined to conquer a world that hates and fears him so the tragedies of his past NEVER happen again. Never again.
It's this conversation that especially highlights that: Magneto asks WHY fight for people who hate and fear you, when he can change the world by force. It's a question superheroes in general struggle with and many mock superhero media for: how much should they do. Should they take the choice away from a humanity that's often misused their choices? And the answer is... no. While you can see WHY Max wants to do this, why he wants so badly to force a better world on everyone, to force a better future because he sees humanity as simply INCAPABLE of anything but hate and self destruction.. it's not the way. Humanity.. is fucked a lot of the time. True. But there's good in us and simply asking someone to fix all of the problems we, especially our goverments, should be working hard to fix isn't fair.
And as Cylclops points out it's just.. not sustanible. Even with Magneto's dream of the x-men joining him and following in his footsteps... what happens if someone decides to overthrow them? or take this world from them? And more importantly.. is it REALLY worth giving up all freedom and self control for a better tomorrow? It's why superheroes fight.. and it's why the X-MEN fight. The world their in is fucked up with tons of racists, multiple genocides and currently a giant hive of bigoted jackasses trying to wipe every last mutant out. But what makes the x-men so special.. is they fight on anyways. Against everything humanity does, against all their bigotry.. they fight for a better tomorrow. Even in the Krakoa era where they basically bribed their way to a homeland.. many of them still dont' abandon humanity, try to work with them and try and help. They may deserve a home after everything humanity's done.. but they don't deserve to be abandoned because of bad actors and hateful dipshits. It's why the x-men fight for a world that hates and fears them: because even if the dream's never been fully achived.. it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world. A dream that's always worth fighting for.
Magneto makes a point though: While this debate is engaging... they have bigger issues to worry about. Anne warns Stryker.. but his ego once again flairs up. "They're a handful of children annie and i'm a servant of the world. What can they do to stop me?" As I said before fraudsters, grifters, conmen.. their dangerous sure.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie their doing the right thing while advocating to destroy an entire people that are the most dangerous.
Stryker begins his sermon advocating for genoicde, with many other evangelicals apparently getting antsy according to a handy newsmans exposition. Granted it's likely less because they disagree with him calling for genocide, they just want him to say the loud part quiet again.
It's during this sermon Stryker's plan activates. And if you've seen x-2, which largely adapts this storyline but changes Stryker from preacher to soldier, you've likely figured it out: use Xavier to commit full on genocide of the mutant race. It's stronger CLOSER to him, so Nightcrawler's able to help a boy close to it.. but it's very clear if they don't do something SOON their going to die and the rest of mutantkind after. Wolverine poitns out the issue: they CAN attack but it'll make them look bad. And just to prove rule of three can suck his dick, Magneto once again saves the day, swooping in to confront stryker.. and thus providing a diversion. And to make his point for once Magneto .. dosen't attack. He breaks the roof to get in and make a minty fresh entrance, but he repairs it as poitned out by a sentator. Stryker,, high on his own hype, has Charlie strike him down. We get a really nice moment as Magneto has a revelation about his foe: all this time charles.. was holding back. And he's now seen just how dangerous his old enemy would be if he wasn't. Some protestors try to mob magneto, but some police break it up before they can win a collective darwin award for beating up a guy who in his previous appearance LEVELED AN ENTIRE CITY and a nuclear sub.
While the X-Men try to figure out how the hell to get to Charles before he kills them all, Annie goes to the reverned.. only for her ears to be bleeding like the other mutatns. She too is one... and instead of saving her like she begs for...
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It's the final sign that there is no good left in Stryker, that even those loyal to him, even someone who tried their best.. must die simply because he says so. Not god. HIM. He killed a woman who did nothing but serve him faithlly and was wholeheartedly on his side.. and who he casts aside instead of even TRYING to save. After all if he would slaughter his own child.. why would Anne be saved? What makes this death all the more chilling.. is that after all Anne's done, her horrifying hate crime at the start, her attempted murder of kitty, and god knows what else we didn't see on panel... there's no catharsis. no joy in her death. There's no peace to be had. Just the senseless waste of her life doing nightmarisht hings in Striker's name, and the horrifying sight of her snapped neck. A life wasted in the name of a man who claims to speak for god.. but as our title tells us God Loves. Man kills.
We then pivot to one of the most awesome things Cyclops has ever done. So with so many people on the cusp of death, Wolverine feels they have no choice: they have to play it his way.. which means he teleports in and puts an end to the man who gave him a better life: to prevent charles from becoming everything he hates, Logan has to become everything he's tried to grow past. Thankfully.. Cyclops had a way around that.
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And just to underline it right after, when Wolverine points out how close it is... Cyke explains his logic: He knew.. and also knew if his timing was even the SLIGHTEST bit off Charles might sense one of them too early. As for why let Wolverine attack it was simple: Charles is usually a non combatant. He doesn't have the countless hours of training nor the field experince and thus Scott correctly figured a two pronged attack would catch him off guard. If one side failed the other would succeed.. and Scott was FULLY aware that if Wolverine had to do it, his mentor would be dead. So to recap Scott pulled off a massive amount of precision ricocheting, with a backup plan that could kill his surrogate dad, all betting that he could both hit it and with the knowledge that if this failed everyone would be dead... and pulled it off without a hitch and with the utmost confidence. Just.. remember this the next time you hear someone call cyclops boring. Unless it's the movie version.. or the 90s animated series.. or wolverine and the x-men.. okay maybe just the comics and evolution.
So the day's saved right? Well normally yes. The villains foiled, Stryker outright killed someone on live tv. But in another awesome moment.. Scott notes.. it's not over. Ther'es one last thing to do.
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It's the hard truth: in most other superhero stories, The X-Men already won.. but here if they back down now Stryker's message continues and he just picks it up, possibly even tries genocide again. Even if he gets arrested for Anne's murder i'ts not going to stop his message or him from preaching it. And I love how every x-man falls behind scott with not the slightest hint of hestation. Their walking right into an angry mob, no intention to use their powers, simply because walking away would let a bad man triumph and hurt other mutants. Because walking away is the easy thing.. but it's not the right thing and it damn well isn't what an x-man does.
So our heroes walk in.. and make their stand.
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It's one last moment in a trilogy of awesome for Scott: tearing the fuck out of Strykers rehtoric and getting down to the core of most prejudice; Stryker thinks their less than human, that they don't deserve to exist.. and like any human .. they do. Their here. Their real. And he can't accept it. He'd rather destroy them. And when Stryker tries to fall back on the fact Nightcrawler simply looks diffrent.. someone steps up.
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Now this moment's great on it's own, Kitty defying his trying to unperson kurt and standing bravely, pointing out what makes Kurt so awesome: he had every reason to turn in on himself after all the shit life's thrown at him: a mother who abandoned him, a step brother he was forced to kill in self defense, an angry mob nearly staking him before Charles saved his life... yet instead.. he's a jovial jokester. He loves, he lives, and he's a gentle soul. He's one who fears turning into his enmies, one who tries to take the righteous path. And like Stryker.. he believes in god. Nightcrawler is every bit as relgious.. the simple diffrence.. is that he dosent use his faith as a thin justification to slaughter everything he hates. To cast out what's diffrent. He uses it as faith should be used: to help others, to enrich his life, and to be kind.
What makes this moment for me beyond that though... is it pays off a long character arc for Kitty. When Kitty first met kurt.. it wasn't exactly a great relationship. She ran in fear the first time she saw him and even after finding out , no this is a good guy, she was still nervous around him for some time, gravitating more to the more human passing Roro and Peter. And yet over time.. the two became friends. They bonded.. and she felt ashamed, realizing Kurt.. is just a bit marshmellow. A kind soul who only wanted to be her friend. And this is the payoff for that: her going from a scared kid jumping to her assumptions about a man hwo just looks kinda spooky.. to being BEST FRIENDS with the guy and willing to take a bullet for him. Thankfully.. that blam we heard.. wasn't stryker's gun
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The ending of this story.. speaks to it's tone. While our heroes still beat stryker morally and with words, they still won the battle.. what ultimatley strikes him down.. is a regular police officer. A cop simply not wanting a child to die. A normal person doing the right thing. And a ray of hope that maybe just maybe our heroes words got through to some people.
Said ray... dosen't last long as Magneto makes a valid point back at the mansion... and for once.. Charles listens.
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It's a moment of weakness.. Charles accepting that maybe his dream isn't enough.. and it' smost fitting that the one to snap him out of it.. is the first person he brought that dream to. His son. And he makes the point I did earlier: this fight can't be won by brute force. This can't be won by FORCING people to accept them.. it has to be won through hard work. It may get worse (And it will), the tims may be tough.. but it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world not paved in blood... but in hope and hard work for a better tommorow. Is it idealistic? Perhaps. Unrealistic? entirely. But it's a noble ream: of a world of accpetince, kindness and love.. and one Scott and the others aren't willing to throw away. And as long as they aren't, charles realizes he can't either.
Naturally Max's response is to call them all fools.. but it's his last few words that really leave an impact
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It's a nice touch that Kitty, who magneto nearly killed last time they fought not realizing she was a child and whose near death drove him to realize how far he'd fallen, is the one to speak up. And it's telling for where Magneto's arc is going under claremont.. that he relents a little. He can't fight for a cause he dosen't belivie in.. but he WISHES he could. He's gone from hating the x-men.. to badly wanting to be one of them.. but knowing his heart just isn't in it. From just seconds ago calling them all fools.. to deep down hoping they win. Showing that even if he still thinks eventually they will fall and it'll be his turn.. that maybe just maybe.. he won't have to. That maybe there's a future where he can fight for a better tommorow instead of forcing it.
So we end with Xavier tearfully thanking his students, and Ororo congradulating Scott for what he ddid. he tells her it's what he woudl've done for any of them and at the end o fthe day... it's love that drives this. Love for each other.. and hope for a world ran by love and not hate. But we're not there yet. But maybe... maybe someday.
So if it wasn't obvious.. God Loves Man Kills is a masterpiece. And having to go over it painstakingly for this review.. I stand by waht I said. This is the best x-men story ever. A story that sums up everything the x-men stand for in a neat package, pits them up agains ta unique an dhorrifingly real threat, and says a LOT. All in 60 bneautifully drawn pages. I ddin't mention him much in this review but Brent Anderson's art in this comic is next level stuff. Gorgeous, evocative, and hitting all the right notes. IT's some of the best art in comics and fits well with one of the best stories in comics. If you haven't read this one, do so immediatly. Even if you don't normally read x-men... this is a heck of a good way to start. Thanks for reading.
Next Time: We see the start for one of the x-men's greatest as she... steals an avengers powers and punches iron man in the face. So a bit of a mixed bag all things considered.
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arminreindl · 7 months
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Pallimnarchus and Paludirex: A History of the Swamp Kings
This is only part one of a two part series, ecology and anatomy will be discussed in part 2 because theres just too much history to cover.
Paludirex is a fascinating genus with a complex history. You see, while it was only named 3 years ago, it actually serves as a direct successor to the first fossil croc to have been described from Australia, all the way back in 1886.
Back then, a certain Charles Walter De Vis discovered a multitude of croc fossils in Queensland, specifically the Darling Downs region. Now with all due respect, while De Vis was definitely an important researcher...some of his work doesn't really hold up. In the case of these specific fossil remains, we now know that the fossils belonged to multiple specimens and at least THREE different species. De Vis also straight up admitted that he was not very familiar with Cenozoic crocodiles, which is why he didn't name it....well, sorta. De Vis did in fact not describe a new genus that much is true, however, he did give the material the name Pallimnarchus pollens. De Vis explains that he did so out of convenience and to some degree its understandable. It's always easier to refer to an animal by name than the specimen number, like the Darling Downs Taxon we'll discuss in part 2. But by making it sound like a proper scientific name, De Vis kinda set things up to get messy later.
Charles Walter De Vis (left), multiple fossils originally attributed to Pallimnarchus including those now attributed to Quinkana in B (right)
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Sure De Vis only meant for Pallimnarchus to be an unofficial name, but subsequent authors didn't exactly bother ammending that fact. Instead, more and more research was published referring material of Australian crocodiles to Pallimnarchus without further question. This largely went unchecked until 1982, when famed Australian paleontologist Ralph Molnar chimed in. Molnar recognized the issues with Pallimnarchus and, in an effort to clear things up, decided to do what should have been done long ago. He picked out the best fossil of De Vis' collection, a lower jaw, designated it as the lectotype and described it in full to establish how it differed from other crocs of the region. Sadly, Molnar was a couple of years too early. In 1982, there were only four crocs to compare it to. The Saltwater Crocodile, the Freshwater Crocodile, the New Guinea Crocodile and Quinkana. What Molnar couldn't have known is that only 8 years later, the fossil record of Australian crocs would change forever with a sudden boom of research describing a plethora of new forms, the Mekosuchinae. So while Molnar's comparisson was adequate for the time, it soon turned out to just not be enough.
Ralph Molnar (left), the lectotype of Pallimnarchus with the only still known material highlighted (right)
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Aside from scientists naming a metric shit ton of other crocodiles from the continent, three other important things happened during the 80s and 90s. Firstly, we finally found more good Pallimnarchus fossils. Remember, the De Vis fossils were largely a collection of random, unrelated fossils, the lectotype a partial lower jaw and the only good cranial fossil was the Lansdowne Snout, which people constantly argued over whether or not it was Pallimnarchus or simply a salty. But now we got two pretty great fossils. There is the Mirani Shire Skull, certainly the lesser of the two because someone encased the entire top half in concrete (thanks for that). And then there's the Dalby Specimen, better known as Geoff Vincent's Skull, an incredibly informative collection of skull fragments of a single individual and probably one of the best fossil of this animal.
The second major thing to happen is that in 1997, Molnar teamed up with Paul Willis, who basically had a hand in nearly every described mekosuchine, and once again reevaluated Pallimnarchus. The main takeaway of their work was that they now recognized a second species which they dubbed Pallimnarchus gracilis.
And then there's the third thing. The lectotype was lost and only a small fragment was ever found again. Things were not looking good.
A photograph of Paul Willis (left) and multiple older images of Geoff Vincent's skull (right)
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More and more mekosuchines were described in the 2000s, yet things went mostly quiet around Pallimnarchus. The redescription insufficient, the lectotype lost, it had essentially landed in taxonomic limbo with no clue whether or not the name itself was actually valid.
Enter Jorgo Ristevski. Somewhat of a rising star in Australian fossil croc research, Ristevski and several other authors (including Molnar) published a paper meant to finally deal with the issue of Pallimnarchus. Their conclusion, well, sadly Pallimnarchus is a nomen dubium. It's not really a shock given that none of the previous papers ever established any actually unique traits and no such traits could be found in what little remains of the lectotype, but it was an important step none the less. So what now, this historically important genus with countless of referred specimens is no more. Well, thank fuck we got Geoff Vincent's skull.
Yes, with how well preserve that fossil is, Ristevski and colleagues managed to use it to establish a new genus that was meant to serve as a successor to Pallimnarchus, effectively meant to house the material previously assigned to the dubious genus. To honour the legacy of Pallimnarchus, they named this new genus Paludirex, both names translating to "swamp king". Of course with so much material, it was hard to evaluate everything. But there's some key finds. In addition to the Geoff Vincent's skull, both an isolated snout fragment and the Mirani Shire skull could be attributed to Paludirex vincenti, the new type species. Ristevski also confirmed the validity of Pallimnarchus gracilis (now Paludirex gracilis), tho restricting it to two fossils found in the Riversleigh WHA. Furthermore, earlier this year Ristevski was also able to confirm that the Lansdowne Snout belonged to Paludirex as well.
Jorgo Ristevski with the skull of Baru (left), skeletal reconstruction of the skull of Paludirex vincenti (right)
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That does still leave a lot of material of course. Since Pallimnarchus was defined based on its lower jaw, and Paludirex has no lower jaw material to speak of, we can't actually confirm if any of the former Pallimnarchus mandibles are referrable to Paludirex. This lack of overlap also creates the fascinating hypothetical that, should we rediscover the lectotype and lower jaw material associated with Paludirex material, then it may be possible that the two become synonyms once more....or that we had two animals on our hands all along. But first we would need to find more material and that may still take a while.
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cyberpunkonline · 6 months
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Cyberpunk Chronicles: Celebrating the Badass Women of the Neon Era
In the heart of the neon-lit cyberpunk landscape, where the future and the digital realm collide, there exists a legion of unforgettable heroines who've been blazing trails and rewriting the rules since the very inception of this thrilling genre. Cyberpunk, as a genre, is not just a collection of stories; it's a reflection of an era marked by the rapid advancement of technology, the rise of mega-corporations, and the ever-present tension between individuality and conformity. And at the heart of this tumultuous world are these extraordinary women who not only navigated the treacherous cybernetic jungles but thrived in them.
Part I: Pioneers of Cyberpunk Awesomeness
Our journey begins in the early '80s when cyberpunk was born as a rebellious response to corporate might and an embrace of all things high-tech and edgy. This was an era when society was witnessing the birth of personal computing, the spread of the internet, and the omnipresence of corporate power. Cyberpunk, at its core, has always been about questioning authority, exposing the dark underbelly of technological advancement, and embracing the counterculture spirit.
Molly Millions - The Razor Girl
In William Gibson's "Neuromancer" (1984), we meet Molly Millions, the epitome of cyberpunk badassery. With her mirrored shades and retractable razor nails, she wasn't just a force of nature; she was a trailblazer, proving that women could kick cyber-butt with the best of them. Molly set the standard for cool in this electrifying world.
Part II: Embracing the Cyborg Identity
Fast forward to the '90s, when the internet was revolutionizing our lives and questions about identity and humanity were in the air. Cyberpunk continued to evolve, delving deeper into the complexities of human-machine interaction.
Major Motoko Kusanagi - The Ghost in the Shell
Major Motoko Kusanagi from the anime "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) was a living testament to the ever-evolving world of cyber-enhancement. She wasn't there to dominate; she was there to thrive alongside her diverse team. Her journey into the depths of cyber-philosophy and identity was nothing short of mind-blowing. Motoko embodied the spirit of empowerment, showing that gender equality could coexist with a mind-bending plot.
Part III: Breaking Stereotypes and the Femme Fatale
The late '90s brought us the internet's full-blown takeover, but it didn't mean we were about to abandon action-packed stories.
Trinity - The Matrix's Rebel Leader
Trinity, from "The Matrix" (1999), was pure dynamite. Leather-clad and loaded with skills, she shattered stereotypes and delivered epic moments. She wasn't there to dominate, but she sure as heck wasn't taking a backseat. In an era of embracing different perspectives, Trinity was all about equality and a whole lot of awesomeness.
Part IV: The Expansive Cyberpunk Universe
What makes cyberpunk truly remarkable is its boundless nature, spanning a multitude of media. It's not just confined to books and films; it extends its reach into anime, TV series, video games, audio dramas, and more. This genre isn't content with merely exploring the near-future dystopian landscapes; it thrives on pushing boundaries and exploring the limitless potential of the human-machine interface.
Conclusion: The Ever-Incredible Cyberpunk Heroes
In a world driven by technology and corporate might, these characters prove that being a total badass knows no gender boundaries. They're the characters who make you pump your fist and cheer because they're just that awesome. Whether it's their empowering presence, their role in smashing gender norms, or just their sheer ability to kick cyber-butt, these women have left an indelible mark on the ever-evolving world of cyberpunk. As we navigate the neon-lit streets of this genre, let's raise a toast to these icons—they're the definition of awesomeness in a genre that refuses to be confined by any medium or narrative convention.
- Raz
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