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samatheia229 · 2 years

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Rise Ponderings:

The Turtles With Japanese Names

I've seen a lot of headcanons lately that support the "Rise boys' given names ARE their colours and they only got the artist names later on" narrative so I'd like to share my own.

Rise Splinter is undoubtedly very Americanised but I think that despite him forsaking his familial duties and old life, he’s still Japanese, is still a Hamato. So, subconsciously, he gave the boys Japanese names (of their corresponding colours, of course).

On that note, for all that Splinter has Celebrity-Who-Gives-Their-Kids-Unique-Names energy, I believe that he would still have enough decency to give them somewhat proper Japanese names not just 'Aka', 'Ao', 'Murasaki' and 'Orenji'.

However, for a period of time, the English-colour-names Splinter uses in the show would have been how addressed each other because they are, for the most part, an English-speaking household. Until an eight-year-old April came along insisting that those weren't 'real names', the turtles English names were 'Red', 'Blue' etc.

After adopting 'proper' English names, those became the common form of address, though Splinter still calls them by the English colours because it's a habit for him. They don't mind.

They don’t use their Japanese names often. It’d mostly be during serious-talk time, in official stuff, calling someone by their full name or teasing.

Ironically, in Splinter's (read: my) effort to not be a basic bitch, most of the boys' Japanese names are female. You can bet they tease the shit out of each other about it. The only one that actually takes offense to the teasing is Donnie whose name is very common and recognisable, so he always gets asked why he has it and/or if he realises that it's a girly name.

The Names

*NOTE: I'm using Kanji here. Fair warning, they could be written wrong, so if there are any Japanese speakers out there, do correct me.

Hamato 'Raphael' Shuiro

Shuiro 朱色 = vermilion

Raph’s name is the only one that isn’t a real given name but I thought it suited him.

Colour Symbolism:

Besides being one of the most dominant colors in Japanese culture, red is associated strongly with authority, strength, sacrifice, passion, joy, and happiness. It's also regarded as an auspicious color in Japan.

Frequently said to have Eldest Daughter Syndrome by the fandom, Raph is the ultimate authority among the brothers. He self-appoints as leader not because he necessarily wants to be, but because as the oldest and the biggest, he feels like it's his responsibility to look after the others. Which often takes great strength and sacrifice. Surface Pressure from Encanto, anyone?

Furthermore, red, specifically vermilion, is very symbolic in Japanese architecture:

Red is the color of torii – Shinto shrine gates – temples, and traditional daruma dolls. Red is said to scare away evil spirits and represent protection, strength, peace, and power.

All in all, very fitting for the big brother and family protector, if you ask me.

Hamato 'Leonardo' Aoi

Aoi 青い = blue

Aoi is a unisex name; meaning hollyhock flower when used for girls and blue for boys. I'm using the male meaning for Leo.

Colour Symbolism:

Blue commonly represents the sea and the sky (for which Japan is surrounded) and symbolizes purity, dignity, calmness, stability, security, and fidelity. Blue is also regarded as a lucky colour.

In this case, blue is rather in juxtaposition with Leo's personality, but looking at it from a franchise perspective, blue is indeed a leader's colour.

Back then, Japanese society was strictly hierarchical and displayed through the colour of their robes. Of the colors that were allowed for common folk, the color blue was work by higher ranking people. It symbolized wealth and prestige, while also remaining a color of the common folk.

That being said, Leo's a little different from his predecessors. Eventually, he will grow into the role of the leader we know and love. But even when he was unburdened from being leader, he was still the strategist. Leo's leadership in fights is a balance between what is uniquely Rise and the mission-mindset of the leaders in blue who came before him, strategies that are fun, wacky and maybe a little unorthodox yet still as effective for the team.

Hamato 'Donatello' Sumire

Sumire 菫 = violet

Sumire is usually a girl's name but I don’t think Splinter would’ve cared all that much about gender.

Donnie doesn't either and even likes his name, though it has caused him a lot of grief over the years. A lot of people think it's strange for a guy with his personality to have such a feminine name, and he's really sick of having to defend his name after introducing himself. Part of why he wanted 'Donnie'.

Colour Symbolism:

Like in the West, purple in Japanese culture is associated with royalty, as purple dye was rare and only available to those of a higher status. It can also reflect on nobility, spirituality, and wisdom.

Out of everyone, Donnie embraces his colour about the most. His clothes are purple, his tech is purple, his lab is bathed in purple lighting. Purple is Donnie's thing. This, in a way, ties in with the colour's exclusivity back then.

Flower Symbolism:

In Hanakotoba (flower language), the meaning of violet is sincerity, a small love, and a small bliss. Violets are a common gift, as they are an ideal way to show appreciation for a family member or friend and to express sincerity or love.

I think this is very Donnie. What he lacks in the emotional department, he makes up for through his tech. He creates things for his family, making them all kinds of personalised gizmo. Sometimes it results in disaster but the intention to help is there. Gift-giving is his love language.

Hamato 'Michelangelo' Mikan

Mikan 蜜柑 = tangerine

Mikan is a common Japanese girl name. Baby girls named "Mikan" are usually joyful, positive-thinkers, smiley and generally happy people.

Mikey loves his name and doesn't care that it's girly and cute, no matter how the others tease him about it. (SIDE NOTE: I swear the near-matching names wasn't intentional. I was just looking for a name that means mandarin orange for a bit I'm writing).

Colour Symbolism:

Orange is symbolic of love, happiness and the sun.

The youngest of the family, Mikey is optimistic and cheerful. He brings joy and colour to the household through his art. He encourages everyone to be express their love openly and always tries to be supportive.

Fruit Symbolism:

Besides good fortune, wealth and longevity, the fruit mikan can be tied to family because of its role in Japanese traditions. In Japan, there is a word “Kotatsu de Mikan”, which means:

A family sits around a kotatsu (a traditional Japanese table with an electric heater attached to the underside), watching TV and eating mikan — the traditional picture of a harmonious family seen in the wintertime.

TLDR; I really love how each turtle has a role to play in the family, how their respective colours are so appropriate for who they are as people, and I wanted their Japanese name to reflect that.

Mikey is all about family. He's the heart, always the peacemaker, always bringing everyone together.

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#the pics aren't mine #So many iterations of TMNT and no Japanese names?#A travesty #rottmnt #rottmnt raph #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #japanese names #rottmnt headcanons

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bluephoenixprincess · 9 months

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So i remember a post about the various ways the tmnt fandom treats the Mikey's, often either Infantilizing them or, especially in the case of rise Mikey, making him an unbeatable badass beyond reason. And that hot me started on a rambly train of thought about my own perspective on Mikey.

As much as i love that Mikey is, in almost every iteration, canonically the turtle with the most potential and natural martial talent, one thing i love, and that i feel is a key part of how his character has evolved, is that Mikey never needs to reach his full potential.

And every time he seemingly has reached his full potential in the franchise, Its pretty much never a good thing.

SAINW

Last Ronin

The bad Rise Movie Future

If Mikey has had to push himself and reach his full potential, its a sign that things have gone very very VERY wrong.

Tmnt after all, is a Story about Family, about the brothers working together and supporting eachother to save the world. Mikey never needs to become the warrior he has the potential to be as long as his brothers are by his side. And thats not a bad thing. Because the boys need eachother, time and again we see they fall apart with even 1 of their number gone.

Idk, i just wanted to ramble, i love mikey and i love that has his big bros to rely on.

#tmnt #tmnt 2012 #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2003 #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #michelangelo hamato

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twig-tea · 7 days

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TWIG! Friend! I couldn't help but notice your tags in my excitement post about getting to La Pluie -- I see that you and I are YYY mutuals. :) Let's call YYY... say... zany or offbeat -- off the beaten path of the usual romance-dominated field of Thai BLs. What are some other "zanier" BLs (not just Thailand, but everywhere in Asia) that you love and would recommend for an off-the-wall experience? And, why?

@waitmyturtles I'm so sorry you sent this a million years ago and then I kept letting it languish. And it's extra rude because I love this question! It's so hard to add something like YYY to a rec list without a billion caveats, so this is a great chance to shout out some of the series & shorts that don't get as much attention. A few of these I know you've seen but I have to include them for completeness.

First, for the sake of other people reading this, as Turtles has written about, Cheewin brings his own kind of zaniness to almost everything he works on; my faves of his other than YYY are Make It Right and Secret Crush on You (the exception is Bed Friend, which is not in any way zany but I still liked it).

Also going to mention that since Turtles asked for off the beaten path zany, I won't be mentioning any of the popular comedies (in case you're wondering why I Became the Lead in A BL Drama or Man Who Defies the World of BL aren't on this list).

Alright now that's out of the way, let's get into the other recs!

Zany lesser-known BLs other than YYY

Ossan's Love Franchise (Japanese, 2016-2024, GagaOOLala)

It is... less true now that this series is lesser-known than it was when I started writing this draft (in uh... August 2023) but I shall persist! The franchise details alone for this series are complete crack:

A 2016 45-minute short [skippable imo];

The 2018 original series which builds the short into a zany 7-episode comedy series about a man in his late 20s who suddenly finds himself the love interest of his older boss (in his ~50s) and his coworker/roommate (in his mid-20s);

The sequel film Ossan's Love: Love or Dead (2019)which turns into an action film halfway through for no clear reason but also remains a romantic comedy in which the mains from the original season decide if they want to stay together

The AU season Ossan's Love: In the Sky (2019) which has the same characters of the lead and his boss from S1 and the short, but this time they work in an airport and all of the surrounding cast is different and leads to a very confusing love rhombus. Incredible 10/10 no notes [people hate this because they like the mains from S1 & the film but I loved the mess]

The sequel season to S1 and the film, Ossan's Love Returns (2024) which you can absolutely watch in isolation and is about the main couple re-establishing their relationship and their found family friend group after being long distance for a few years.

It's truly excellent comedy, and gets better every outing; there are some barriers that might prevent some enjoying the earlier seasons but the most recent one is really delightful. You can hear me talk more about this series with @bengiyo and @shortpplfedup on The Conversation podcast!

Diary of Tootsies (Thai, 2017, grey/Netflix (for the movie))

I love Diary of Tootsies and the follow-ups so much. SO much. One of the best laughs of my life was the opening to the movie, and I cannot be in a long car ride without thinking about the purse incident in s1. This show doesn't get a lot of BL fandom attention because the romance arcs are not typical for BL (but that's one of the things I love about them). And the friendship in this series is truly what sells it. Season 1 is self-contained, a lot of people dislike the romance plot of S2; I really like the arc across s2 to the movie (as established above, I tend to be less invested in a particular ship across a franchise or multiple franchises). The movie plot is all about reconciling who you thought you wanted and who you are with (amongst all kinds of shenanigans).

HeHe and He (Hong Kong, 2018-ongoing, YouTube)

This mockumentary sitcom-style series does tackle some serious topics and is also absolutely hilarious nonsense across its 3 seasons. The very simple premise is that a gay guy ("hehe" is slang for gay) and a straight guy who are old friends become roommates when the gay friend breaks up with his longterm boyfriend and needs a place to stay, and hijinks ensue. They do direct-to-camera confessionals spliced in with scenes from their lives. I love this show so much, and it would actually be high up in my indie BL rankings if it were completed. I lose it at least once an episode. It's very queer (if you want a show that tackles everything from hookups to turning everything into a joke to being so, so mean to each other while also loving each other dearly to even chemsex, look no further), and I am in love with all of the wacky characters that have formed a love-hate found family that is deeply relatable. The creators posted a video a few months ago saying they're struggling to end it in a way that they're happy with so I'm not sure we'll ever get an ending for the show. But if you like comedy and queer content it's worth a watch even incomplete! I've been very patiently following this project since 2018 and it's legitimately one of my favourite shows.

Rainbow Prince the Series (Filippino, 2022, YouTube)

This is a musical; it is a lot of campy nonsense. There is royalty, political intrigue, a dog, kidnappings, and so. much. singing. The songs are surprisingly catchy and it's all extremely good fun. Also a lot of the dialogue is very clearly improvised.

Hey! First Love (Vietnamese, 2019, YouTube)

This series of shorts are mostly just silly fluff. The very tenuous plot is that these shorts are slice-of-life moments from a young established couple, but it's all really just excuses for Vietnamese comedy and BL romance tropes. If you haven't watched anything from Vietnam, this is a very low-stakes commitment (I think it's under 30 minutes of content all told; there are 4 "episodes" which are spliced together shorts, each of which has a tiny plot but there is not much of an overarching narrative, and then a Q&A with the actors at the end) and gives you a sense of the Vietnamese sense of humour. Both of these actors have gone on to continue to be in other Vietnamese BLs, so if you have watched Vietnamese BL you may recognize them! The production quality on this is charmingly low.

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (India, 2019, Amazon Prime)

This film was such a joy to experience in a live theatre. Billed "the first Gay Bollywood RomCom", this movie was a riot of chaos, dance numbers, shenanigans, hilarity, and cuteness. I loved the way this film incorporated the very real legal change to decriminalize homosexuality in its story. Arguably not "BL" as it very much fits in the bollywood tradition not the BL tradition, but OP did ask for all of Asia!

Like Love (China, 2014-15, grey)

And no I don't mean censored--this is from before China started censoring its BLs. This show has kisses as shown in the gif, and even (poorly cropped) sex scenes. It also is super bizarre. I was so confused by this show, the characterization, the fourth wall breaks, and how disjointed it was so I went to read the source material and...it turns out it's one of the most perfect adaptations I've ever seen, the book is in fact exactly like this. The characters are caricatures, there is no bridging between scenes, and the plot is the most absurd take on 'loserfail no-thoughts-head-empty character who doesn't admit he's gay but still ends up in a dedicated and loving relationship with a rich handsome domineering man ' I've ever seen. It's a bewildering experience. Note the sound quality on this one is suuuper miserable. I like s2 way more than s1 (s1 is getting together and includes a lot of the bullying-teasing and I'm-not-gay-I-just-need-him-to-pay-attention-to-me stuff, s2 is the honeymoon phase + getting the homophobic parents on board) but S1 is definitely the zanier of the two. That being said, if you wanted, I think you can dive right in to s2 (there's a direct-to-camera explanation of what happened in s1 at the start of it). Note that they set up a cliffhanger at the end of 2 in anticipation of s3 which was going to be made in 2016 but was cancelled because of the political changes in China in 2016 (this is one of the reasons I went to read the source material; they do get a happy ending in the books).

This is an extremely silly but also touching franchise with a lot of tropes I don't love, but also a lot of things I do (and just neat to see some stuff so early in BL: Underwater kiss? Helicopter ride? Femme fatale becomes friend of the faen? Supportive grandparent? It's all here). There are some fantastic speeches in s2 about supporting your gay children; I liked how in this the kids didn't give up on their parents but try to reconcile their filial piety with their dedication to each other. If you do watch S1, highly recommended you watch the series version rather than the film. For "S2"/the follow-up film, make sure you look for the uncensored film version.

The Lover Room 709 Cut (Korean/Japanese, 2016, grey)

This starts extremely silly, plays with BL tropes, and gets a little bit serious at the end but is mostly just full of puns and innuendos. Includes one of the most hilarious takes on kabedon, and egregious use of the soundtrack from Brokeback Mountain. Also: fart jokes. Folks worried it was going to stay teasing the audience but it does commit and we do get an actual resolution that is satisfying. I admit I've never seen the whole series (which includes stories of 3 other couples in the apartment building) but the BL cut is readily available if you search. Make sure you look for the deleted scene with the lotion application--this scene walked so IFYLITA could run (I'm kidding, but it's very funny seeing this scene now and thinking about that one).

The Boy Next Door (Korean, 2018, YouTube)

This is another older series playing with censorship (similar to The Lover) in which the two characters end up in BL romance tropes but are not actually in love...or are they? The shenanigans are very fun. This one is left more ambiguous than The Lover, which is one of the reasons it's further down the list.

Go! Go! G-Boys (Taiwan, 2006, grey)

I debated between this and another quirky comedy from Taiwan in the early 2000s, Formula 17, but while that's unequivocally a better movie, this one is lesser known and more zany, so it technically better fits the bill for this ask (but if you haven't, go watch Formula 17!). The plot is a bit cringe--straight boy signs up to gay beauty contest to pay off his girlfriend's debts (accompanied by his gay childhood friend who is in love with him) and finds his truth. Meanwhile a homophobic police officer has also infiltrated the contest for investigative purposes. Amongst all that admittedly not great setup, however, are several bizarre sequences including the incredible Lord of the Rings recreation scene (complete with Gatchaman of course), a killer soundtrack, a random delivery of poultry, someone slapping a cake, and, most absurdly unbelievable at all: police taking harassing death threats to the gay contest seriously. It does a great job of setting up what should be a dramatic scene and then immediately undercutting the tension with something absurd. It's not narratively good, but it is a fun ride! And yes, there is a happy ending. Stick around for a fourth wall break (literally) after the credits.

Something Crunchy Crunchy (Korean, 2018, GagaOOLala)

Extremely bizarre little musical short in which snacks are anthropomorphized as hot guys and they sing songs about being eaten and wanting to be eaten. Played entirely sincerely, but the concept is screamingly funny. Fascinating. Also, kind of poly?

Dom (Korean, 2016, GagaOOLala)

Another hilarious and weird Korean short, this time in which we see the protagonist's sex life from the perspective of the condom boxes that are anthropomorphized and given personalities based on their brands.

And since we can't leave out the ladies,

A few zany GLs:

Lily Fever (Korean, 2015, YouTube)

I wrote about this one a little in my GL rec list; it is absolutely bonkers nonsense. There is not really a plot, it's a fever dream of a show. Chaos! Not so much a romance as an excuse to see cute girls flirt and make out.

Legend of Yunqian (China, 2020, grey)

I debated including this one because only the middle is really the zany part, it's sandwiched with more serious xianxia drama. But in the middle of this miniseries is an extremely cute interlude in which xianxia characters time travel to present day for ~reasons. It's censored but there is very little uncertainty about feelings, and manages to be absolutely charming. Worth the short runtime for this kitten quickcut (subbed "Whomst?!" in the show for ultimate comedy). Warning for character death (but it's ok because time travel to reincarnated character!) Subtitled by the indispensable @douqi7s [see their pinned post for links].

BetCin (Filippino, 2022, WeTV)

A lesbian couple with a YouTube following decide to break up but then find out there's a contest for couples, and they decide to pretend to still be together to try and win the contest rather than tell their fans they've broken up. This series does some really interesting things by starting with a breakup and then looking at how two people who are no longer dating manage BGP while also managing their feelings. There's a lot going on in this show, and the hijinks definitely ensue!

Perfect One Night Stand (Korean, 2020, GagaOOLala)

This is a cute Strongberry GL short in which a friend agrees to help her other friend find a girl to have sex with before the day is over; they go through several quirky candidates looking for the titular perfect one night stand.

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goldenspecter · 2 years

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Once again, I am wishing Rise fans can praise the movie without insulting/demeaning other iterations of TMNT. It's absolutely frustrating, as a fan of all the iterations plus Rise, constantly seeing people go "Rise did the Raph/Leo fight better than other where it's not just "Who's a better Leader/Leader" fights!" when not that's not the case. Rise didn't do it 'better' than the others, they just made it much more explicit, without using leadership as the framing of the fight, but the other iterations are not actually fighting about Leadership. (Hell, I would even argue I'll argue the others were very clear about it too, fans just didn't care to pay attention to the text of canon and just walked away from it as "Raph and Leo fighting about Leadership, again”) Let me explain what I mean, Raph and Leo in other iterations do fight quite a bit, yeah sure, but they are not fighting about “who should be leader” but the thing they are arguing about is painted with the framing of 'leadership/I'm the better leader.' Hell, Raph and Leo argue often because they are both the same people, but who have different approaches to the world, and the fact that one of Raph's roles in the franchise itself is to balance the team, especially Leo and call him out on his bullshit/hypocrisy. Ignoring the contexts of these fights and just trying to frame these fights as just being about “who the better leader” heavily negates the fact the importance of Raph's role and make it sounds like Raph is being an asshole and arguing just for the sake of it and ignoring the very valid points they made. Not to mention, it also negates that TMNT, as a franchise, has attempted to tackle bigger ideas for a long time and makes other versions sound juvenile and childish with these fights being incorrectly boiled down to "Who's the better leader." 2003 TMNT has a great, the best example of this, with the City at War. The context for those who don't remember/haven't watched it: because of the Turtles defeating Shredder earlier in the season, there is now a power vacuum with the Shredder being absent and various gangs/mobs are trying to fill that vacuum. Leo and Raph are split on what should be done. Leo believes they are responsible for innocent people being hurt in the crossfire of gangs vying for power since this was a consequence of them defeating the Shredder and that they should do something about it. Raph on the other hand, does not agree with this take, believing that they had done their part and they don't need to be involved any further.

Raphael: Are you out of your green gourd? We did the city a favor.

Leonardo: Did we? Did we really? [The other two turtles arrive.] Raph, don’t you see what’s going on up there? This city’s at war. Don’t you feel just a little bit responsible?

Raphael: No. It’s not our deal.

Leonardo: It is! Even if we didn’t mean to make things worse, we did. [Donatello and Michelangelo look at each other.] Don’t ask me to explain how, but it feels like our fault.

-City At War, Part One This facet of their fight continues for the rest of the 3 episode arc, with Raph constantly protesting that this situation they are now in was something they should never have gotten involved in, and Leo constantly upholding that this was the right thing to do. The idea of Leadership or who would be the better leader had never come up once during that arc. 2003 Raph just never cared for leadership. He had no reason to fight for it, however, the few times he does fight with Leo, it is not about leadership or who would be the better leader. It is their morality that is being put up for conflict and their ideologies/worldviews clashing. Regarding 2007, I am very certain many people forget that at this point in time, EVERYONE thought that Leo abandoned Raph, Donnie, and Mike. Like point blank period. Leo had no intention of returning; his brothers were seen to be lost without him and had no way to move forward without him. Especially Raph, who gets frustrated that Leo refuses to get to know the three boys who have CHANGED and GREW during the time he was gone and expected them to fall back in line as they did as younger teenagers. It became even more unfair and frustrating on Raph and the others’ end that Leo, who abandoned them, comes back and tries to upend something that no one else was doing, without refusing to understand WHY it was going on and refusing to share empathy. During the year that Leo was gone, they were all FORCED to grow up without a big brother by their side, in ways that drove them apart and it wasn't healthy for them, but they were still growing. Leo doesn't put in the WORK to get them back together so they can all work to grow together as a team, in a more healthy manner so I think Raph has every right to be frustrated with Leo at that point, who unironically expected them to regress to a version of themselves that he knew before HE left so he can lead them without being empathetic.

Raph: You are so smug, you know that? You think the world revolves around you, don't you? We couldn't survive without the mighty and powerful Leonardo to guide us through our problems. Well, I got a news flash for you: We got along just fine without you.

Leo: Oh, and this qualifies as "just fine"? Dressing up like it's Halloween every night? Risking the safety of our family? I mean, come on, what were you thinking?

Raph: Don't push it, Leo. You can't leave and come back....expecting us to fall in line like your little soldiers.

Leo: Hey, I was training. Training to be a better leader, for you. Why do you hate me for that?

Raph: And whoever said I wanted to be led? I'm better off calling my own shots now. Get used to it.

Leo: You aren't ready. You're impatient and hot-tempered. And more importantly, I'm better than you.

Yeah, Raph also makes mistakes(him being reckless, and possibly putting himself/the family in danger with the Nightwatcher persona), but Leo's are just as egregious. Yes, leadership is used as a way to frame this fight, but ultimately, that is NOT what the original fight was about. For the IDW Turtles: Raph has gotten onto Leo's case multiple times for things that could possibly endanger their family as well as Leo's hypocritical nature that Leo has. There are too many examples to pinpoint just one. For the Bayverse films, Raph and Leo don't even argue/have major arguments in the first one. Hell, Raphael is the one who encourages his two younger brothers to follow after Leo when Donnie is about to question Leo's orders.

Leo:Yeah. Let's play Buck-Buck.

Donnie: But why would we...

Raph No. We do what Leo says. Lead the way.

I'll focus on the second one. The fight here was not about "who would be the better leader," it was NEVER about that. This fight here, was about Leo's awful actions as both a leader *and* older brother, the MAIN thing being his deception to Raphael and Mikey about the purple ooze and how it could turn them human, how he forced Donnie to take part in said deception and not allowing them to have a say in the matter. Leo revoked both Raphael's and Michelangelo's autonomy to make such an important decision that affected all of them, as well as the fact he considered his own vote to be superior of them all.

Raph: Pop quiz. What are the three most important traits of the ninja?

Leo: Speed. Stealth.

Raph: And honor. Where's the honor in keeping secrets from your brothers? Leo: I don't know what you're talking about.

Raph: So now you're adding lying to the list.

Leo: If you're referring to what Donnie told me about the purple ooze, it's called "compartmentalization of information."

Raph: If there's even a chance that ooze can make us human...

Leo: We're turtles, whether you like it or not.

Raph: It's not about what I like, it's about what people up there are willing to accept.

Leo: True acceptance only comes from within.

Raph: Don't give me that fortune cookie muck! You should consult with us before you decide to do something like that!

Leo: I consulted Donnie. And we decided...

Raph: And what about Mikey? He don't get a vote?

Leo: There's only one vote that counts in this family! Mine!

This superiority and arrogance that Leonardo feels about himself has been called out not only by Raphael but also by Splinter and his other brothers, and had constantly proved itself to be detrimental to Leo at multiple times in the film. But again, this fight was not about ''who could be the better leader." The only time Raph really fought with Leo over leadership was 2012, and the fight itself wasn't even initially about leadership but rather the execution of a plan, but then actually BECAME about leadership/who would be the better Leader.

Leo: We'll take Snakeweed from above. Tie him up in the clotheslines. Come on.

Raph: That'll take forever, and we have to stop Snakeweed now! I mean, he's kidnapping people.

Mikey: Not just people, people who bring pizza.

L.eo: We take him from above. Let's move!

Raph: And the award for worst leader goes to-

Leo: How am I the worst leader?

Raph: If we did this my way, Snakeweed would be toast by now.

Mikey: Ugh. That'd be some nasty toast.

Leo: This way would've worked if you hadn't wasted time second-guessing my orders.

Raph: Don't give bad orders, and I won't second-guess 'em.

Leo: You know what, Raph? If you think you could do better, why don't you lead?

Raph: First good idea you've had all day.

There’s also the the S4 episode “Riddle of The Ancient Aeons,” where the fight is about leadership/has the framing of leadership, but was in truth about something much deeper, see here:

Leo:Bummer? Look what happened to their world. You have about as much sensitivity as a rabid dog.

Raph:Look, just because you're leader doesn't mean you have to get into everyone's face.

Leo:Don't start on that leader thing again, Raph. You've always been jealous of me.

Raph:Jealous?! [April and Casey hold him back.]Maybe that's because you were always Splinter's favorite!

[He lunged toward, sais in his hands. Leo urged him a deep hug which suddenly calm Raph down.]

Leo:Raph, I love you, bro.

Raph:Leo, I-I'm sorry. I don't understand what's going on.

Rise didn't do anything "Better" they just made the argument much more explicit without the "who would be a better Leader" thing as a cover, the frame, or the crutch for it. To constantly paint each an every fight that Leo and Raph have as "Who should be Leader/I'm the better leader" is disingenuous at best and downright deceptive at worst to the other iterations, especially when many have neither: a. seen the previous iterations, b. don't understand the actual context that was presented, or c. both.

Before anyone comes into my notifications and tries to argue with me that I'm saying ''you can't make comparisons to other iterations" when no, I'm not. You absolutely can make comparisons, but making comparisons and framing them to make it as though Rise was the first to do something is not fair to neither Rise nor the other iterations that laid down the stepping stones that built up to Rise.

#rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rottmnt movie #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2012 #tmnt idw #tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2007 #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2k3

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fanficmaniatic · 2 years

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Why does Casey refers to Leo only as "Sensei"?

Also known as: Why Leo doesn't want to be seen as a Father/ Is actually the uncle.

so, this is something that bugged me about the movie (not in a bad way, necessarily), and I couldn't help but overthink it. So I am going to talk about it.

Mild Spoilers for the movie.

It is clear to everyone seeing the movie that Casey looks up to Future!Leo, and it is pretty easy to argue that they have a father & son relationship. That, or at the very least, Casey sees Leo as his father. And this being the ROTTMNT Universe, where Leo very comfortably calls Splinters all the known variations of "Father" (Including said word) I find it curious that Casey only refers to Leo as "Sensei" Or "Master".

Now, I am aware this is a 30 year old franchise, whose characters get twisted and remolded from time to time. So even when the writers hinted at Casey and Leo having a Father/son relationship, they would probably never have Casey calling Leo his dad because there is people who simply wont accept a change in their Idea of TMNT. That being said, lets look at it in a vacuum and ignore real world things and only look at the characters based on what the show and the movie have shown/implied.

Like I said before, Rise Leo, unlike the 2012 counterpart (for comparison) is used to, and more often that not, calls Splinter "Dad" or a variation of that word. Is not surprising, all the turtles do, because in Rise specifically, the focus on the show lays in the sibling & the family relationships. Splinter is their father first, teacher second. The same way that they are brothers first, teammates second.

With this in mind, is really hard for me to believe that Leo (Rise Leo) would see a kid as his own, and would not explicitly call him "his son". Nor that he would not let himself be called "a father". And before I get ahead of myself, let me be clear: I do believe Leo loves Casey as family, as a son even, but I think he is putting up a wall between himself and Casey. This is so that Casey (Or Leo himself) don't see their relationship as a father & a son.

It can of course be argued that Casey is simply being respectful, or that the apocalypse made people hard and cold. But considering that Future! Leo still called Old! Mikey "Little Brother" (So is not like they are super closed up/ distancing themselves from family) I think the reason behind Leo putting up a wall between himself and Casey lies in a different problem.

Leo doesn't want to replace Casey's father.

Look, we might never known how Casey Jones JR came to exist, all we know is that he is Cassandra Jone's son. He might be a baby she found in a dumpster, he might be her biological kid. We don't know. The only thing we know is that he has his mother's last name, so IF there was a biological father, he was simply not in the picture. Whatever the case, I do think Casey jr had a father figure. Not biologically related to him (not necessarily, how you see it depends on you) , but someone who in his early years was the man Casey referred to as his dad.

Besides Casey calling Leo his "Sensei" he also used the word "Master" and "Commander" to refer to Mikey and April respectively. This 3, being the 3 to survive the longest in the apocalypse (We see Aprils body at the beginning of the movie, when the camera zooms out, meaning that Future! Leo and Casey were running away from what just killed Future! April). Similarly to Leo, I believe Mikey and April insisted on their titles being used use as a way to distance themselves from Casey, so that Casey didn't see them as a replacement of his mother and father. Because they all see themselves as uncles & aunt, and so it doesn't feel right to them to fill the hole Casey Jr's parents left.

The only one Casey doesn't refer to using a title is Donnie. "Donnie, you were the most brilliant, innovative mind of all time" This is the only time in the movie Casey refers to Donnie by name, and like I said, there is no title put behind it. I think the reason for this is that Donnie & Casey where actually quite close, considering he also has a bunch of tech he said Donnie gave to him himself. It appears to me to me that Donnie died a long time ago (In Casey jr's timeline), and the way Casey speaks about it is really fond. I would not be surprised if Donnie was who taught him math or how to read, nor would I be surprised if he called him "Professor Donatello."

And honeslty? This could be it, If you like it, you can head-cannon Donnie to be the one that stepped up and raised Casey jr as his son in the kids early years, and that Leo and Mikey put up a wall to not replace Donnie. I wont stop you... But I am not done, and there is a reason why I don't think is Donnie... but Raph.

Like I've said before, Casey calls everyone (but Donnie) by a title, including Cassandra, the moment he sees her he says "THAT'S MY MOM!!" ... Now, the only one he NEVER refers to by name, nor title in the movie is none other than Raphael. When Present! Leo confronts him about knowing that Raph would get captured by the Kraang, Casey's only response is saying "I didn't know, that... that didn't happen in my time" as he looks in pain and lost in though. As if he is remembering that time in his childhood when Raph, his dad, was still there.

I am not necessarily saying Raphael and Cassandra got together in the future (Though you are free to see it that way), but this pair has the potential, based on their scenes in the show, to be a really good friends. Best friends co-parenting is not the weirdest thing to see in a world where aliens have taken over. Besides, and this is really my main point:

Raphael practically raised his siblings. He is overprotective, he is always there for them, looking out for them. And if I am reading well what the show put down.... Splinter is a good man, and he tried, but he was not the best father... Raphael is not just their leader and older brother, they look up to him, and they go to him first when there is a problem.

What I am saying here is, of all the turtles, the one that would 100% look at the fatherless child of his best friend and say "I am a dad now" ...Is Raph. Not Donnie, not Mikey, nor Leo... Not because they don't have father instincts (I believe they all do), but because even if they would've taken on the role, Raph would have beat them to it. He would have just said it first.

Raphael would hold baby Casey jr, look at Cassandra in the eye, and say "Is anyone going to be his dad?" and THEN not wait for an answer.

I do honestly believe that's how it happened.

So, to conclude:

I do think Raph was the one Casey called "Dad" in his early years, due to the fact that he is the most likely to simply decide to parent a baby, and because Casey didn't seem to have any walls put up/ titles with him. However, it appears Raph died when Casey was really young, (I do also think that Cassandra died when Junior was really young) so for most of his life, Leo (Or maybe Donnie before he died) was the one raising Casey.

Leo probably noticed Casey looked up to him as a father (years after Raph's death), and Leo, not wanting to replace his brother, started insisting on being called Sensei. Soon, Master Michelangelo and Commander O'neil would follow Future! Leo's example.

"And so my friends, this is the "How Leo is actually an uncle" "Raphael is actually a dad" & "Casey Jr has lost a shit-ton of people and he just really wants a dad" ... Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. " - Fanficmaniatic.

#rottmnt movie #rottmnt movie spoilers #rottmnt #rottmnt meta #rottmnt theory #rise leo #rise casey jones jr #rise casey #cassandra jones #casey jr #rise raph #rottmnt raph #rottmnt leo #tmnt #rottmnt cassandra jones #rottmnt casey jones #the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

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jajanvm-imbi · 1 year

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I'm in a Shippy mood so I'm gonna make list of my top ships atm. (In no particular oder)

Feel free to follow if you ship these too! I'm literally just doing this for fun tho, lol <3

1) KLANCE - V*ltron

No I will never get over them. They were my EVERYTHING and I miss them every day

2) Lumity - The Owl House

holy FUCK are these two absolutely ADORABLE

3) Raphmona - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

they are the BEST pairing in the entire effing FRANCHISE I love them so much

4) Drakepad - Ducktales (2017)

these two idiots stole my heart I mean look at these stupid duck husbands

5) Rubpphire AKA Garnet - Steven Universe

I mean like...duh. They THE couple ever

6) Lotura - V*ltron

THEY DESERVED EVERYTHING ITS NOT FAIR. They were both done so dirty, but they live happily ever after in my mind so it's okay

7) Leosagi/Leoichi (whatever we're calling it) - Rise of the TMNT and Samurai Rabbit

okay so there's like at LEAST 5 different versions of the same pairing. There's "Katanashipping" which is the 2003 TMNT version of both Leo and Miyamoto Usagi. There's "Leoichi" which is Leo from ROTTMNT and Yuichi Usagi from Samurai Rabbit on Netflix *specifically*. People have made their own versions of both Yuichi and Miyamoto for Rise. People have combined both to make original versions of Usagi. Whatever the case may be, I think Leo should have a cool Samurai rabbit boyfriend to hold hands with and maybe smooch sometimes. That being said, i honestly prefer any version of Leosagi with Rise!Leo in it cause I haven't really watched 2003 TMNT yet but I do plan to in the near future. Anyway, they stole my heart <3

VIDEO CREDIT TO @ star-jams on Tiktok/Instagram (in their bio on Instagram it said reposts are OKAY as long as credit is given. I promise I'm not stealing work! I put links to both the video on their tiktok and their Instagram)

I guess that's it for now!!! Just wanted to talk about my ships for a little bit jaja

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cardinalcompass · 11 days

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TMayNT Day 13: Best Don

I have not been really participating in TMayNT, I'm not active enough on this site to be able to complete it, but Donatello is my favorite turtle (automatically, for better or for worse) and I needed to answer this

My favorite Donnie, and therefore automatically my favorite turtle in the whole franchise, is '03 Don. I entered the franchise following an Animaniacs obsession at 14 and wanting more Rob Paulsen, couldn't find where to watch the 2012 cartoon, and stayed for 2003 after finding it for free on YouTube (kind of poetic, in a way)

Don is special in a case that captured the hearts of many fans that also find him as their favorite. He's a sort of antithesis to the "Jerk Genius" that we see very often in media. He's smarter than his brothers, than most of the characters in the show, but he doesn't push others down for not understanding things on his level. Sure, he makes the occasional "lame-brain" joke, but I do stuff like that with my siblings all the time, and I'm not a genius technician. He makes a real effort to be kind and helpful with people who need it, which is an aspect I try to imitate in my day-to-day life. (I also wish I could imitate his genius, but we can't have everything in life!)

When watching episodes and arcs of 2003 TMNT, he's the character I keep an eye out for, even if he shows up in the background without a major role for the episode. When I was first watching the show, I (admittedly, but I was 14 and didn't care about watching things in order) skipped around to watch the Don-centric episodes and arcs that I had heard about online. His involvement in the infamous Same As It Never Was and the Good Genes arc still haunt the fanbase, and are some of the most infamous episodes in the whole franchise today, 20 years later!

I love his relationships with his family and friends. I'm a firm believer of Raph and Don being the twins of 2003, their onscreen interactions are always golden. Leo and Don have a level of trust with each other that I don't see as often in other TMNT cartoons, I love seeing the cool-tone brothers hanging out and pretending to be saner than their louder brothers. Mike and Don are also a joy to watch. The two youngest in the family helping each other cause mischief never gets old, and they honestly could take over the world if they put their minds to it. Splinter and Don, father and son, are a duo that can be expected to sometimes clash as the epitome of "tradition" and "invention" but they care about each other so much. From Don taking care of Splinter when they need to flee the lair, or Splinter helping Don with the Triceraton Mind Probe, they are always there for each other. Don also connects with his many, MANY friends so easily, from April, Leatherhead, Casey and Sydney, he is, again, always a good friend to them

With all these reasons and many more, Don will always be my favorite turtle. While his time in the ongoing TMNT cartoon is likely long over, if he ever reappears, perhaps in another Turtles Forever, I will always be there to cheer him on.

Cowabunga Dudes, and catch you later!

#donatello #tmnt donatello #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmaynt #tmnt 2003 #tmnt donnie #tmnt 2003 donnie #donatello splinterson #teenage mutant ninja turtles 2003 #tmnt 2003 donatello

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crystal-crax · 4 months

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A RANT:

THE NEON LEON

(I) A rise to leadership

Pun intended bc Leo would love it

Has this been done yet? Of course, but i love ranting about my favorite characters and boy, rise tmnt has so much to rant about (well, the whole tmnt franchise has enough material to speak for HOURS buttt rise lives forever in my heart so yeah i'm biased). Might talk about mutant mayhem in the future idk.

Leonardo Hamato/Splinterson has always been the leader, the one that carries the weight of carrying the team and following splinter's steps as the next "head" of the family (as said by splinter in the 2012 tmnt). And yeah in much of the versions of the turtles, this is a very important aspect of his personality, it's his literal purpose; it's the catalyst for a lot of the narratives and storylines seen across the tmnt universe: His fights with Raph, his anxiety, his inferiority complex, his constant wish to be better, how he sometimes neglects (or simply goes against?)his brother's feelings in order to keep them and the team itself safe.

Being the leader is both the weight and medal that comes with being Leonardo, that sisyphean task that we will always see try to accomplish over and over again.

So if we want to explore why he is a great leader... shouldn't we take that weight off his shoulders?

And that my people, it's what rise does perfectly. The best way to prove that Leo is a great leader? To show us how he can handle the team from the shadows, let us see how well he knows his team's strengths and shortcomings.

But don't just make him want to be the leader, no no, show us why we should all trust him to.

First of all: Leo panicking at the face of danger, might be useful sometimes.

Honest to god: i think the rise writers and animators are amazing. They're so GOOD at showing us important pieces of the characters even without directly saying it.

First of all, he doesn't have a fight or flight response because he straight up waves his ōdachi directly at anything that attacks him and his brothers (bro has kill om sight sense, he literally sliced warren one time, remember?). He will always have the advantage, even when surprised. Also the way he lightens up the situation with his witty banter and one liners when stress is too much? Extra points for keeping team morale up👍

Or in a different case, leo's panic when the mad dogs get in trouble upon a stronger rival. Why is it great? Because even though he's losing his absolute shit, he's able to act and take the next conscious step; even when it's used for laughs: He calls for his father when his family is in danger. It may sometimes be a funny gag ; like in "Flushed but never forgotten" or soul fucking wrenching like when they're attacked by shredder and RAPH IS PROTECTING DONNIE AND LEO SCREAMS AND I- *ehem*. But he knows splinter it's capable of defending them, he trained them after all (this may be arguable when talking about season 1 splint but well, he still recognizes his father as a ninja and his master).

And thus, the next marvel of Leo:

B) He's completely aware of the team's abilities

He's a middle child, he has seen everything, and the most perfect example of it: Many unhappy returns.

BOY IF THAT'S NOT THE MOST AMAZING DEMONSTRATION OF LEO'S LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY IDK WHAT ELSE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR

He trusts his siblings completely, sure he looks out for them and supports them when needed (while being sarcastic about it), but he knows they're amazing at the hero thing.

I wouldn't doubt it if Splinter; being with Leo most of the episode saw just how in control he was of the situation and went: "dude...why are you not the one leading the team? You're...actually so smart wtf????"

C)He knows how to dial down his brother's enthusiasm and calls out his father's faults (and sometimes hypocrisy)

Remember the paper thieves episode?

That's peak leader Leo

The whole team was full on trying to get killed for the lols, and what does he do? Pulls them to the side and explains why they should start with something more simple and gives a speech on why focusing on the "easier task" it's still a good hero job (look out for the small/weaker ones, right?)

Not only that, but he's the one that constantly calls out his dad's mess ups, remaining by his brother's side and defending them (THIS IS NOT A SPLINTER SLANDER, I'M SAD DAD SUPPORTER AND I WILL TALK ABOUT IT LATER) seen as one of the YouTube shorts or when splints nags then about keeping secrets from him: he stands for his team, "you are not supposed to do that/you do the same thing you yell at us for"

He both inspires and defends his team, and hey; a leader is not the one that orders, but the one that motivates and supports you.

D) He's their personal hype man

Cue back to point B, he is amazed by his siblings abilities, even if he dies hide it sometimes. Remember when mikey wanted to go on a solo mission? He's fully on board and never doubts mikey is in control of the situation (sure he does go to "save him" with the others later on but come on, you all heard the call and saw Raph panicking. He trusts him but he's still his little brother y'know?)

He knows Donnie is an absolutely genious and is completely aware of Raph's dedication to the hero gig and responsability.

April and Splints? He knows they're completely capable of holding their own and willingly helps them when the situation calls for it.

And this is it please be free to add anything you might like and tell me if i'm making sense??? Idk i just love him a lot😞

HECK EVEN CASEY, A LITERAL BOY HE JUST MET. He is aware of casey's passion and abilities; i mean, if his own future self trusts him as the only one capable to fix everything, why shouldn't he?

Conclusion: Leo quite literally grew to deserve the role of the leader.

#tmnt #tmnt rant #rise of the tmnt #tmnt 2018 #rottmnt #rotmnt #rise leo #thanks for coming to my rant #rant post

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soyouareandrewdobson · 9 months

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Asians are all the same, right? The racism of a company cock gurgling moron

Like herpes and unlike the Dobbear, I am back baby.

At this point, deepest apology for my long absence. Personal issues over the last two years prevented me from writing anything and also destroyed for the longest time any desire to really continue the blog.

However, I don’t want to let things unfinished and seeing how the hypocricyofandrewdobson still manages to get some rise out of old Dobson related stuff, I wanted to just return, in order to properly contribute a bit more critical thinking in regard to his old comics.

And while I will not immediately return to my retrospective of SYAC, here is at least (for a start) my opinion on one comic of his, that in my opinion just proved hilarious and controversial in hindsight, and rather racist even back then.

I admit, I don’t know anymore what the title of the comic here is. All I know is, that it came out around 2018, shortly after the release of his “Black Panther” comic, another malignant piece of Dobtrash that has made the rounds online ever since. However, unlike the Black Panther comic, which became the center of a lot of discussion regarding Dobson’s racist assumptions about comic book fans while ironically trying to present himself as woke, this one was weirdly drifting off into obscurity. Which is kinda weird, cause in my opinion, it is way more racist and actually kinda insulting to the very craft Dobson supposedly “dedicated” his life to.

Let me explain.

First, over the course of three panels, Dobson comes essentially off like he is considering the medium of comics as inferior to the medium of movies. Making it look as if comics are unsuccessful because they cannot rail in the same amount of money than certain flics and calling them at best nothing more but a pitching ground for corporations to create new shallow mass product.

Now I am a bit of a realist and I know that, especially in the world of mainstream American superhero comics, this is kinda the case. Most comic book characters, stories and franchises are owned by multibillion dollar corporations, who either have a direct hand in the creation of the product (via corporate mandate for example) and/or use the likeness of the product to make profit in additional, more valuable revenues than the printed medium. Such as cartoons, merchandise and movies. One example I can think of, to show that it isn’t just an American issue: Yugioh. The card game wouldn’t have come to be if there hadn’t been a manga starring a little boy putting together an ancient Egyptian puzzle, but while the original manga ended way back in March of 2004, the card game makes millions globally still after 25 years and counting.

But that doesn’t change the fact, that comics as a medium still have value. Without the stories told within their pages, we wouldn’t have characters such as Captain America, Superman, the Mask, the Ninja Turtles and so on to begin with. Don’t get me even started on stories that aren’t falling into the American mainstream comic trend, but still succeeded in the printed comic medium partly because of genuine artistic and profound value such as Maus, Barefoot Gen, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, TinTin and a shitton of (other) stuff from Europe and Asia.

So when Dobson, who always acted like he is proud to be a cartoonist and that comics are a superior medium to others, suddenly reduces them to just being a “pitch ground for better stuff down the line” at best, I as a fan of the medium and just the art of creating stories in itself, get kinda pissed.

Additionally, the way how he compares movies to be better than comics, is severely flawed.

He brings up the fact, that “Captain America: Civil War” made over one billion dollars at the box office as an example, while pointing out the fact, that most single comic issues barely manage to sell 100.000 copies, while holding up a copypasted “Civil War” issue.

Already, Dobson essentially compares apples with bananas, while also giving both false and incomparable data, that also ignores many aspects to be considered.

For starters: He compares the earnings of both movies and comics with two different values. For movies, he goes by the monetary profit a superhero movie could possibly make, while for the comic issue, he goes by the total number of copies sold.

But here is the thing: Assuming the average selling price of a comic is at 4 dollars for a single 30 page issue, selling 100.000 copies would ring in like 400.000 dollars. And considering that producing one issue likely costs a company less than 20.000 dollars (obvious costs for mass production and distribution not withstanding) they can still make a decent profit this way from ONE issue alone. One issue. Not multiple issues of a long running, but sadly underperforming series. All of that by the way doesn’t even account for the fact, that most single issues at best tell only a quarter of a decent short story nowadays and ignores later “long term” factors, such as reprints of the issue, late term buying of the issue, tradepaperback sells of the issue, the longterm effect and cultural impact the issue may have on the actual series or plot continuity (such as Amazing Spiderman 122, aka “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”). Don’t get me even started on the fact, that many of these issues get first sold in the US and only over the course of one year or longer may then additionally be sold in other parts of the world, therefore bringing in even more money for the publisher.

Example: The Duck comics by Don Rosa, which earn more than four times more in Europe, than they ever did in America, despite the guy being from California. Finally, a a little add addendum: that example Dobson gives indirectly via the “Civil War” issue? A quick google search revealed, that Civil War issue 1 sold over 300k copies in May of 2006 alone. Sure, not necessarily the best numbers ever for a single issue (as evident by the following list: https://bookriot.com/bestselling-comics-of-all-time/ )but still nothing to be ashamed of.

And yes, I know that we live currently in a time, where comic book sells have dropped significantly for a variety of reasons, one of them being an overall lack of decent stories. But as long as other stuff still manages to run freaking circles around American superheroes (*cough* One Piece *cough*) I wouldn’t say the medium itself is dead. Just a specific branch of it is suffering from a lack of quality and the customers are jumping ship.

A superhere movie meanwhile is a completely different beast. Ever since “The Avengers” came out in 2012, most superhero movies are 150-250 million dollar behemoths, that get overhyped by advertisement campaigns that are almost equally as expensive and try to trick the audience into believing, that they all are somehow the next big mindblowing thing on the big screen. Plus there hasn’t really been a superhero movie in the last 10+ years, that didn’t release simultaneously worldwide, instead of only coming out in the USA, and then a few months later, in other parts of the world.

So is it any wonder then, if a superhero movie that got advertised like the second coming of a saint, makes 1 billion, when there are already billions of potential customers worldwide all at once when the product launches?

That number btw becomes actually less impressive, once you start to think about how it came to be. Something our blue bear obviously didn’t.

See, on average every movie theater demands like what, 12-14 dollars per movie nowdays?

If we divide the box office of Civil war (1.152 billion btw) with 12 dollars, that makes on average 100 million people worldwide who watched the movie. A bit more than one or two percent of the worlds population. Not to forget, that of the box office success we have to substract such things as production cost of the movie, advertisement, the earnings of the theaters… so suddenly the movie may at best have had only earned one quarter of its box office for Disney as actual profit.

Not to forget, Dobson made that comic in 2018, when superhero movies on average did ring in so much money, because of the hype machine. But now we have 2023 and within the last five years (and especially 2023 itself) we have seen how superhero movies can also utterly fail to make money or even earn just enough to make back the production cost. Birds of Prey, Eternals, Ant Man 3, that Secret Invasion streaming show that still cost over 200 million… Do I need to get on?

Bottom line, Dobson’s indirect jab at comics as the less profitable revenue doesn’t hold that much water really in the real world, where once the hype dies down, comics may actually prove themselves as the more valuable longterm medium. Even if it may just be for the fact, that they end up staying longer relevant in the popcultural subconscious than the current movies, which tend to lose relevance with each new hastily produced and released installment in the franchise.

But where this comic really shines and shows Dobson’s ignorance on a cultural level, is in the last panel. When all off sudden it turns “racial” by claiming that Asian people, unlike “traditional” comic readers (aka white, in Dobbear s eyes therefore instantly racist people), would eat a Marvel character like Amadeus Cho up.

Question Dobson: Why do you assume, they would eat him up? You give no real argument based on anything the character does storywise, that the “target audience” may find admirable. So I can only think, that your reasoning is, because he is ever so slightly east asian coded.

Boy, do we have to unpack not just a can of worms, but a whole package of cans now.

First, the chosen language by saying “eat it up”. When being a writer, you should know that you need at times to choose your words wisely, because of the sheer implications they can carry. And the statement “eat it up” sounds way to close to a negative statement like “suck it up”. Making it come off as if Dobson considers Asian people to be mindless cattle that will consume the grub the House of Mouse will give them without question or any desire for actual quality to it.

Second, it recks of a certain mind set I hate within the American entertainment industry and some of its creators and consumers. That mind set being, that “non-traditional” American cultures supposedly don’t know better than Americans in what is okay for the sake of representation and entertainment or not. It’s a mindset that goes beyond the necessity of e.g. localizing a foreign product to the national market, by e.g. creating a sterilized, corporately mandated and rather unrealistic depiction of another culture within their product, that will fall apart as soon as the people who are supposed to be represented get a proper look at it and realize, how pandering and often times badly researched, if not outright offensive, it is.

Only recently did we see in the world of animation how that can backfire, when Disney released the trailer for “Primos” an upcoming animated show supposedly about a half Latina girl spending her summer vacation with her annoying cousins, people calling it based on the intro (and a leaked pilot) pandering towards a latino audience in a racist manner. And guess what: currently, Disney shelves it and tries to bury its existence like Dobson his old inflation art.

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Dobson himself has actually indulged in that sort of shit kinda, back with his infamous Nintendo comic.

Essentially calling the “true”, Nintendo corporation approved depiction of his childhood Nintendo heroes disgraceful, for not falling in line with the late 80s depictions he saw in localized, made in America products such as the DiC cartoons. That and minor homophobia mixed with misogyny by calling Link “girly” for having longer blond hair since Ocarina of Time and blaming fangirls for it.

Third, and that is kinda related to my prior point, the reality of things is, that “Asians” actually did not eat up that sort of thing in the last couple of years. Sure, there is always that thing about a Chinese market. the big movie companies try to pander to and may succeed with some dumb action flics featuring big robots.

But the reality is, that not even people living in a dictatorship will eat up every trash you give to them, just because it comes from Hollywood or is supported by their glorious leadership. Disney tried to create two pandering messes of movies for Chinese people to watch, called Mulan (the live action adaptation) and that Shang Chi movie. And how did they do there? Oh right! The government did not even allow Shang Chi to be released and Mulan was released but supposedly didn’t do so well, considering (COVID not withstanding) it only made 70 million globally!

Don’t get me even started on every human right controversy in relation to the later, starting with filming in China near a concentration camp and ending with the main actress being essentially a Chinese propaganda puppet.

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So, if those movies flopped, why would Chinese people for example flock for an Asian Hulk? A hulk that is not even Chinese but Korean.

See, this is another issue that fails with the example: The actual choice of character Dobson name dropped is actually kinda terrible.

For those unaware: Amadeus Cho is a supporting character in the Marvel comics, created in 2005 by American writer Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa. The later, despite the name being very east Asian, sounding, actually being from Canada. Now both do have east Asian roots so to speak (Pak e.g. is the son of an Korean-american man with a Caucasian woman), but they also have grown up within a society that taught them both western social values more so than we would see in east Asian countries. So with the creators already not necessarily having the most real life experience with the average mindset of a Korean citizen, can we really say that their actual creation helps “represent” those people of a foreign, non-american culture?

And that is not even covering stuff like the actual story of the character itself.

See, in the comics, Cho is supposed to be an American-Korean genius (wish fullfillment much, Greg?) and one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. His parents named him after Amadeus Mozart (a pretty white motherfucker as far as I remember) and he grew up under Methodist beliefs. So basically the “Korean heritage” of the character has already been thrown out of the window. Now I don’t expect the character to act stereotypical Korean, listen to K-pop, declare bulgogi to be his favorite dish or any of that shit. But when you want to sell me the character as being in some way or another connected to his ancestral culture, shouldn’t he engage at least in some “Korean coded” things?

I mean, the character of Anne Boonchuy in Amphibia is a Thai-American who acts more like a 13 year old girl that learns to be less selfish and impulsive over the course of the show and whose “heritage” isn’t thrown at us, the viewer, most of the time. In fact, Anne herself acknowledges that she e.g. can’t really speak thai, despite her own mother being fluent in it and a season 3 episode reveals, that Anne is “begrudgingly” a part of the L.A. thai community. And yet, in connection to the shows story and as part of Anne’s characterization, her heritage is acknowledged and plays a part of who she is. Even if it simply means she knows how to cook certain thai dishes, loves her parents and their customs, helps out in their restaurant, can speak a few words thai and knows the basics of Muay Thai, a form of martial arts (and fighting sport) from Thailand.

Amadeus doesn’t even have Korean parents anymore, because they were killed as part of his tragic hero backstory. Nor has he ever visited an Asian country. Oppps.

To build further up on it, Amadeus becomes for the longest time simply a major supporting character in the Marvel universe for the likes of Hulk and Hercules, two white coded characters. Sure, he plays a major role in the defeat of some cosmic horror level villains (such as Mikaboshi in the Chaos God storyline most people forgot even existed) but it takes a long time for him to become a “A-lister” so to speak.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, it wasn’t till after “Secret Wars” in 2016 (eleven years after the character was created), that Amadeus thanks to a chain of events eventually got his chance to Hulk out. And then they still had to kill Bruce Banner to make Amadeus “stand out” initially (don’t worry, Bruce came back. I mean, characters actually staying dead in comics, so that heroes can learn there are consequences? Preposterous) In fact, Amadeus hasn’t really proven himself as a decent “solo” act. Instead he became a member of the Champions (among Miles Morales, Mrs. Marvel, Vision’s daughter Viv. Nova and Cyclops), essentially creating yet another superhero team for teenaged vigilantes. Despite the fact, Cho himself should be by now in his mid 20s.

Now look, I do not want to shit talk the character. Partly because I haven’t read everything he was in myself and partly because in the few things I did see him in (both pre- and post Hulk) he was okay. He is a decent hero and person, who tries to do good, even if he screws up here and there. That is something I can admire in a character in general. But he is not a good “representation” of another culture, because his complexion and minor physical features aside, he is NOT embodying even minor values or traditions of that foreign culture. He is simply a Korean-American (or technically Canadian), who falls more on the American side of things.

So essentially, Dobson who virtue signaled on multiple occasions how bad it is when companies he didn’t like tried to speak on behalf of other cultures, would have no problem at all to ask for Asian people to swallow this obviously “Made in American” product. The “Made in America” line actually working both on a metaphorical and a storytelling level, cause trying to google what “east Asian coded” heroes in the Marvel Universe actually come from an Asian country instead of being simply born on American soil, is pretty damn small.

After 20 minutes I only found Shang Chi, as he was born in China, and that character was created as part of kung-fu exploitation in the 70s by white dudes.

Yaiks

However, none of that tops the next two points that really sell Dobson to me as an American centralistic racist. Or at least a twat who doesn’t understand how through bad wording he comes of as ignorant of other people’s cultures.

The way he generalizes Asian people in his statement, while also ignoring the actual accomplishments in the creation of entertainment in multiple Asian countries.

If you’ve read closely what I typed, you may have seen that I used the term Asian at times in tandem with the term “east Asian” to e.g. describe Amadeus Cho.

And that had a very deliberate reason. While I was not a fan of geography in school, even I know that Asia as a continent is not “nationally” as homogenous as let’s say Australia or North America. In fact, Asia is the biggest continent on the planet, hosts more than half of earth’s population and consists of at least 47 internationally acknowledged states.

States such as Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, North- and South Korea, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran and so on.

Now what all these states have in common, is that they have their own unique historical, social and “racial” culture and background. Heck, religiously speaking, Asia is the cradle of the world.

As such, Dobson stating that a “Korean coded” character such as Amadeus Cho (who is only Korean on the most surface level and would technically just be a legacy character of yet another white person) would be an immediate hulk smash hit with all these different people of different backgrounds…. Yeah, it sounds like condescending, colonization inspired shit, a smooth brain would come up with.

To Dobson “Asia”, at least based on that comic, is only defined as the “yellow skinned” people from the far east, who like rice, noodles, spicy food and give us anime, Godzilla, fireworks, buddhism and communism. It does not include anyone from the middle east or of more European ancestry. And if you are even remotely familiar about history, you would also know that Japanese, Koreans and Chinese all around do not e.g. like to be thrown into a pot with the others for a variety of reasons. Many of them political.

Or to sum it up even shorter: Dobson insinuated that a very shallow, “east Asian” coded American comic character would be an immediate hit with more than 47 different countries, ignoring that not all of them share the same background despite being part of the “same” landmass. And in doing so, he simultaneously generalized and denounced entire groups of people based on their racial and cultural background, which in as far as I am aware of, is considered racist.

But the “racism” is supposedly justified, because “representation” matters, it would be giving the middle finger to “traditional” comic fans and those nations and their culture are underrepresented globally.

Which is baloney.

Don’t get me wrong, I myself think that representation does matter. But the world does not necessarily rely on the good old US-Ayy only to give it to us.

Cause a lot of the Asian nations I brought up here? They have their own entertainment industry and stories, which again, get ignored by Dobson to make a dumb and false point.

I mean, manga is currently dominating the international comic market, all while Japan has also a booming animation industry and some of the most iconic heroes in modern popculture with the likes of Son Goku, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai etc.

China has a prominent -if propaganda driven- movie industry.

India has Bollywood and delivers some of the most ridiculous but awesome musical movies on the planet.

youtube

Russia had authors such as Tolstoy and movie directors, that redefined the “art” of filmmaking.

Korea had a few years ago one of the biggest streaming hits with Squid Game, while also earning an Oscar for a movie titled Dobs- I mean “Parasite”.

Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey… even nations that have not entertainment living up to “western standards” still produce stuff in some way or form to entertain the masses and their people. Just google up the character Kara Murat aka the avenger of Anatolia.

And don’t get me even started on the sheer ton of mythology, stories and history each of their cultures have provided the world with. Journey to the West? Baba Yaga, the entirety of the Gilgamesh epos...

And yet, there is this indirect assumption by Dobson, that all of them would be so deprived of “heroes” in their media and folklore, they would letch on second hand shop Hulk? Fuck off, Dobbear. I know you like to suck corporate cock as long as you think they are woke and you have childhood nostalgia for them, but this is pathetic. Take Amadeus before A Rama Raju comes around and roundhouse kicks him back to Canada. Then get the taste of mouse smegma of your Disney cock gobbling lips.

#adobsonartwork #syac #hypocrisyofandrewdobson #amadeus cho #racisim #mcu #tom preston #andrew dobson #i am back #back again #guess who's back #Youtube

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best-tv-theme-song · 8 months

Text

Polls will start to be posted within the next week or so.

Bracket list under the cut!

UPDATE: LIST CANCELLED

*Starred shows have multiple theme songs or I have combined shows in a franchise in an effort to include as much as possible. These will have preliminaries built-into their polls on the first round. This is how it works: 1. all of the songs will go into a poll together against one other show; 2. the COMBINED votes for those songs will determine which show wins that poll; 3. only the top voted song for that show/franchise will move on, if the show has won the poll. (If you are confused it will make more sense when we start, I promise!)

The 100

30 Rock

9-1-1*

The Addams Family

Adventure Time*

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All That

The Amazing World of Gumball

American Dragon: Jake Long

Animaniacs

Arcane: League of Legends

Arrested Development

Arthur

Assassination Classroom*

Austin & Ally

The Backyardigans

Barney & Friends

Barry

Batman*

Bear in the Big Blue House

Ben 10*

Better Call Saul

Beverly Hills, 90210

The Big Bang Theory

Big Time Rush

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Black Sails

Bluey

Bob the Builder

Bob's Burgers

BoJack Horseman

Bones

Boy Meets World

The Brady Bunch

Breaking Bad

Bridgerton

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Charmed

Cheers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Choo Choo Soul

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Cold Case

Community

Cory in the House

Cowboy Bebop

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend*

Criminal Minds

CSI*

Cyberchase

Danny Phantom

Daredevil

Dawson's Creek

Death Note*

Desperate Housewives

Detective Conan

Dexter

Dexter's Laboratory

Diff'rent Strokes

Digimon*

Doctor Who*

Dora the Explorer

Downton Abbey

Dragon Ball*

Dragon Tales

Drake & Josh

Ducktales*

Ever After High

The Fairly OddParents

Firefly

The Flintstones

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Fraggle Rock

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Friends

Fringe

Full House

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Futurama

Game of Thrones

George Lopez

George of the Jungle

Gilmore Girls

Glee

The Golden Girls

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Grey's Anatomy

H2O: Just Add Water

Hannah Montana

Hannibal

Happy Days

Hawaii Five-0*

His Dark Materials

Horrible Histories

House, M.D.

How I Met Your Mother

How It's Made

Hunter × Hunter

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers

I Dream of Jeannie

I Love Lucy

iCarly

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Jeffersons

Jeopardy!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*

Jonas

Justice League

Kim Possible

The Last of Us

Laverne & Shirley

Law & Order*

LazyTown

The Legend of Vox Machina

Leverage

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Little Einsteins

Lizzie McGuire

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

The Love Boat

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Madoka Magica*

The Magic School Bus

Malcolm in the Middle

The Mandalorian

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Merlin

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mob Psycho 100

The Monkees

Monster High

The Muppet Show

Murder, She Wrote

Murdoch Mysteries

My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Hero Academia*

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

The Nanny

Naruto*

NCIS

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Girl

NFL (various network themes)*

Ninjago

The O.C.

The Office

One Day at a Time*

One Piece

Only Murders in the Building

Orange Is the New Black

Ouran High School Host Club

The Owl House

Parks and Recreation

The Partridge Family

Phil of the Future

Phineas and Ferb

Pinky and the Brain

Pippi Longstocking

Pokémon*

Power Rangers

The Powerpuff Girls

Pretty Little Liars

The Price Is Right

The Proud Family

Psych

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Reading Rainbow

Reba

Red Dwarf

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Riverdale

Rugrats

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sailor Moon

Sanford and Son

Saturday Night Live

Schitt's Creek

Scooby-Doo*

Scrubs

Seinfeld

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sesame Street

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Sherlock

The Simpsons

Smallville

Sofia the First

Sonny with a Chance

The Sopranos

Spider-Man

SpongeBob SquarePants

Star Trek (instrumental themes)*

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stargate*

Steven Universe

Stranger Things

Succession

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*

Suits

Taskmaster

Ted Lasso

Teen Titans

Teen Wolf

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teletubbies

That '70s Show

That's So Raven

Theory of Love

Thomas & Friends

Tokyo Ghoul

Total Drama

Totally Spies!

Transformers*

True Blood

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

VeggieTales

Veronica Mars

Victorious

Voltron: Legendary Defender

W.I.T.C.H.

The Walking Dead

WandaVision*

Welcome Back, Kotter

The West Wing

Westworld

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

Wild Kratts

Winx Club

The Wire*

The Witcher

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wonder Pets!

Wonder Woman

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The X-Files

Xena: Warrior Princess

Yellowjackets

Yu-Gi-Oh!*

Yuri on Ice

Zoboomafoo

Zoey 101

#mod post

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purpleandyellowshowdown · 1 year

Text

BRACKET!

and after tallying a grand total of 140 votes, here is your season 2 bracket! first, the rules!

this is a duo poll, not a deathmatch. be civil in the comments, light ribbing is fine but don't send people death threats or whatever over this.

if u make propaganda/fanart for this, please either @ me directly or tag it with #purple yellow showdown so i can see and reblog it!

no botting please! old-fashioned voter fraud and propaganda is fine, but i draw the line at botting. in cases of obvious cheating, i reserve the right to hold a rematch!

the polls will drop this april, but i can't say precisely when because i'll have to search for screenshots and make all the images + set up the polls. now then, say hello to your participants, with a matchup list below the cut!

SIDE A

the daycare attendants from five nights at freddy's vs. twilight sparkle and fluttershy from my little pony!

lord garmadon and sensei wu from lego ninjago vs. macaque and sun wukong from lego monkie kid!

zeus and hera from lore olympus vs. derse and prospit from homestuck!

kamui gakupo and akita neru from the vocaloid derivatives vs. the spearmaster and seven red suns from rain world!

peri and callum from neverhome: hall of apathy vs. a purple pencil and a yellow pencil from real life!

dr. moira o'deorain and dr. angela ziegler from overwatch vs. signal and spoiler from dc comics!

raspberry torte and lemon meringue from strawberry shortcake vs. adventurer cookie and blackberry cookie from cookie run!

anxiety and deceit from sander's sides vs. fear and joy from inside out!

SIDE B

waluigi and wario from the mario franchise vs. laa laa and tinky winky fron teletubbies!

vidia and iridessa from pixie hollow vs. tecna and stella from winx club!

share bear and funshine bear from the carebears vs. eeyore and winnie the pooh from winnie the pooh!

neku sakuraba and daisukenojo "beat" bito from the world ends with you vs. blake belladonna and yang xiao long from rwby!

mishou mai/cure windy and hyuuga saki/cure bright from the pretty cure franchise vs. rui kamishiro and tsukasa tenma from project sekai!

espio the chameleon and charmy bee from sonic the hedgehog vs. donatello and april o'neil from rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles!

espeon and umbreon from pokemon vs. spyro and sparx from spyro!

lewis pepper and arthur kingsmen from mystery skulls animated vs. stocking anarchy and panty anarchy from panty and stocking with garterbelt!

#angela yelling #not a poll #bracket #bracket poll #duo poll #purple and yellow showdown

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lemonbitrambles · 1 day

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Sorry, real life caught up with me for a moment there, anyway If you don’t know what this is it’s a personal cast of forgotten Disney characters I put in wasteland and we’re going through wonderland right now.

This is Ella, who is a special case because she is not from the original wonderland movie drafts nor is she even from the franchise. Ella the elephant is from the scrapped movie called Wild Life (developed in the late 90s, shelved in 2000) The movie followed Ella as diva-pop sensation named kitty, and a club owner named red try to get her to became a singer.

The art from the movie development I used was drawn by Darryl Kidder, Floyd Norman, and Hans Bacher

More art and rambling under cut (I talk about why I added her into wonderland in the first place)

Okay the plots a lot more convoluted than that, Ella gets accidentally electrocuted into thinking she’s a pop star and kitty has a scene where she thinks Red is trying to seduce Ella. The movie was known for its mature edge and odd look. Which leads to the first reason I added her to the wonderland cast. Many believe the movie was shelved for being too weird/“out there” and was consider an unsafe investment for the fear of it trying to appeal to a smaller audience than most Disney movies at the time.

That’s the perfect fuel for a wonderland character in my opinion. I really want to go into why some be if the characters where forgotten and Ella’s actual history has a lot of affect on how I write her. In the original movie, she left stardom, much more comfortable with her life at the zoo. But after being forgotten I imagine she misses the ye old razzle dazzle the night life setting her movie had since all of her previous friends are gone. She finds comfort in wonderland and it’s quirky cast of characters that remind her of home. She’s also seen as a voice of reason in the small village, since she’s one of the few who isn’t that wonderland type of mad.

Another reason I made the caterpillar this random elephant from a scrapped 2000 movie is because I wanted to show how some characters have changed for the better or worse over the time. It was also just a lot more interesting than trying to find a caterpillar and sticking him in there. Perhaps the adventures in wonderland caterpillar would like to read a story to Mickey and Oswald who knows-

Outside of wonderland she also gets along with other characters, such as someoneihaventmentionedyetbutperhapsilltalkabouthimsoonireallywantto-

Ummmm she showed up in Meet the Robinsons along with a few other characters (actually it may only be one I can only identify one)

She wouldn’t say this to anyone because somehow it would start a war,but the wonderland residents she gets along with the best are Mock Turtle and Griffon.

And here’s a picture of her and Chopsuey/621, who was one of the first characters I added but I have no where to put him (he’s one of my favorites though, stitch’s edgy brother with daddy issues, I have so much art of him. Chopsuey enjoying a field of flowers in 4k)

That’s it that’s my gal

#if-if you want my chopsuey art you can just ask #I see you 3 lilo and stitch series fans #even though he’s from the game #anyway this post is about Ella-#epic mickey #disney #mickey and friends #alice in wonderland #mickey mouse #art #oswald the lucky rabbit #Dinah #Ella #Funmeister #whoops I said his name hee hee #chopsuey #lilo and stitch #lilo and stitch the series

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this-world-of-beautiful-monsters · 4 months

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violently smashing my two major fandoms with an F together as a form of procrastination

A question for the ages: WHICH Avatar character matches up with WHICH Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one and WHY the fuck should anyone (besides me) care? We'll answer at least one of those questions for you tonight, dear viewers!!!!

First up

Neteyam - Leo

Eldest son, blue theme (like I could say this for all the Sullys, but shush), can do no wrong except when one of the siblings stubs a toe and then the Guilt, daddy's favorite solider who's also a huge dork (like we don't see a lot of evidence of this in canon for Neteyam but let me have this), Neteyam's Untimely End vs Leo getting treated as such a punching bag by each TMNT iteration that throwing him through a goddamn window is an established franchise staple by now.

Kiri - Donnie

A case can be made for April-Kiri parallels (particularly for psychic powers re 2012 April, my beloved, and dead mom syndrome) and also Karai-Kiri (for dead mom syndrome, how often I've mixed up their fucking names while writing), but Kiri-Donnie fits the siblings theme, so there. They're tech nerd-nature nerd solidarity, autistic Entities of unparalleled death and destruction, happy to destroy government property, younger siblings pretending to be above the Chaos while very much not, and in desperate need of a nap and a stiff drink.

Lo'ak - Raph

Rage issues. Daddy issues. Big brother issues. Relatively smol and Keenly aware of that fact. Adored by the (smart) fans, cursed by Eywa/God. Makes strong bonds with animal fwends and also collects traumatic experiences like magnets collect nails. 100% either in a fistfight or sobbing into his pillow rn. In a family living at the bottom of a fucking sewer and/or on the run from the government, still manages to feel like an odd one out. Someone needs to introduce Lo'ak to emo music, it would fuck him up so much /pos.

Tuk - Mikey

Youngest and most excitable sibling, heart of gold and jaws of steel. Optimism that remains in the face of innocence slowly being shaved away by Events. Hates being left out or left behind, committed to various Schemes and Plans with historically mixed outcomes. Has definitely either killed a man or will do so as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Spider - Karai and April

Spider's kind of an unholy amalgamation of April's Token Human We've Shared Traumatic Experiences With journey and Karai's At Odds With Creepy Undead Father Figure And Complex Relationship With Less Creepy Father Figure (see below) arcs. Basically part of my ongoing psyops plans to Feminize That Boy (don't worry Karai-Kiri and April-Kiri parallels, I still love you). Also, Leorai/Apritello and Speteyam/Spiri (mix and match at will) have exciting interspecies and/or vaguely incestous vibes we should all strive for in our weird fanfics.

Jake - Splinter/Hamato Yoshi

Tired dads trying their best and just so happening to raise The Kids as soldiers-warriors along the way. Exciting and confusing relationships with the concept of this thing you call "death." Shameless species hoppers, even though Jake did it on purpose while TMNT writers in various iterations have to come up with increasingly more convoluted ways for it to happen to Yoshi against his will. Is not afraid of violence, especially when it comes to their homoerotically homicidal relationship with

Quaritch - Shredder

Big Bad of the story, or at least the one everybody pays attention to. The Bitch Who Refuses To Die. Unhealthy, possessive, genuinely quite creepy (/pos) obsession with sort-of-kid who ended up in his care through Unfortunate Means. Will destroy everything he remotely cares about and sit in the ashes with surprised Pichaku face before finding someone to blame. Refuses to let go of a fucking grudge, be it with aforementioned homoerotic-homicide buddy or various children.

Neytiri

Technically the best Neytiri parallel in terms of family relationships would be Tang Shen, Splinter's wife and the pseudo/actual (depending on the iteration) mother of his children. However, Tang Shen has an unfortunate history of being Dead Girled and Ghost-Momed in a way that puts her more in common with Grace or Tom Sully (rip). Still, Neytiri has a lot in common with the vengeful demon ghost version of Tang Shen that exists primarily in my head.

BONUS

Payakan - Casey Jones

Outcast from society, defender of the weak, wanted by the authorities. Combines genuinely passionate belief in justice/revenge with an equally genuine talent for wanton violence and destruction. Has an interspecies bromance with Lo'ak/Raph that puts Achilles and Patrocles to shame. Someone definitely needs to introduce Payakan to emo music, too, not to mention death metal--he'd start a band to put those Little Mermaid fuckers to shame.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Arguments? (you're all wrong btw) Only know me from one of these fandoms and have no idea what the hell I'm taking about? Hit me up in the reblogs!

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