#even then animation doesn’t tend to use it as well/much as cartoons
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You mentioned absolutely adoring "Ask Her A Question" from My Fair Hatey for a lot of reasons. Was that partially exaggeration, or do you actually have an analysis to dish out?
Much love!
Yeah definitely some exaggeration lol and it’s basically just the sound of it, I adore all the songs on there but judging purely by how they sound, (not the narrative purpose) of all of them that one’ my favorite.
Voice acting is incredibly important to me, across all my favorite shows that’s the first thing I think about, I’m obsessed with line delivery and with identifying voices (I pride myself in being the best out of my siblings at identifying who’s voice it is first lol), so the main thing for me really is that Wander has my favorite voice in the series, his singing is so nice and it’s interesting how (for this song at least) he doesn’t do it with a lot of volume or anything, it’s relatively calm for him. He’s half-singing half-talking too and his line delivery is amazing. You can hear the giddiness in his voice at some parts, he does it so well lol. And his accent and the inflections he puts on certain words I love it. Namely his “ab-out:”
I can’t explain why I’m so interested in voices (probably just autism again) but along with comedy, art, and animation it’s one of my favorite things.
I’ don’t know a ton about music other than “this sounds good to me, this doesn’t” but I’m still very opinionated on it, my enjoyment of music tends to be more based on unique singing voices and variability in the music. Some cartoons have very lazy, uninteresting soundtracks and Wander is definitely not one of them, even if you’re talking about just the normal soundtracks, not the songs. it’s great how each if the main characters have their own background themes and even some sung theme songs lol. I can’t tell you what I like about specifically the music of “Ask Her a Question” I just know that I really like it.
In a narrative sense it’s obviously fun seeing Wander’s philosophy on romance and watching Hater go along with it lol. For the story overall I think it’s meant to be pretty significant that Hater would be interested in someone else enough to ask about their opinions, we saw how terrible he was on “The Date”.
The animation is visually interesting as usually with a lot of great stretching from Wander.
This is also my favorite kind of musical; “everyone knows they’re signing” instead of “nobody’s actually singing, they’re just conveying the emotions and storytelling through song for the audience’s eyes only.”
Woy in general is just exemplifies all the ways I would love to do things if I could create a cartoon;
The music is spectacular, so is the voice acting, the voice actors can sing instead of needing stand-in singers, the character designs are so recognizable, I love everyone’s names (‘Major Threat’ is such stupid and funny wordplay lol), the characterization is so good and interesting for everyone (infinitely kind characters are my favorite tho) the comedy is great and I like a lot of the gags but what’s especially great is the character-driven comedy; jokes that are funny just because the characters have funny personalities and interactions. The animation is spectacular too, I’m usually not at all a fan of flash animation but they utilize it in such a way that I didn’t used to know it was flash, the squash and stretch they do with the characters is so fun and interesting without looking grotesque or unappealing, they just look silly (there’s so many moments where it’s too fast to really get a grasp on what’s happening and if you look at it frame by frame it’s super impressive).
Sorry for rambling, this is what happens when I get questions and no character limit, much love back!! :]
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Hi stiff!! I was writing this as a comment but I think it’s a better ask. It’s very long and I will not be upset if you don’t answer! :3
I think part of peoples aversion to it is that it doesn’t conform to the style people are used to seeing online by popular artists. There’s this sorta phenomenon I’ve noticed where people tend to move their style towards a very cartoon/anime ish style with little variation because it’s pretty and that’s what people/algorithms like. People gravitate moreso if they intend on selling their art though.
So, when someone has a stylistic choice that doesn’t really fit that mould people find it “weird”. Exaggerated features (or in this case and many others like, a feature people just have???) are often seen as ugly or strange. An example of this is the person on TikTok who drew characters with big foreheads and lower eyes and got bullied off the platform for it! Another example could be “the tumblr art style” where commentary channels bullied artists who drew any minority ever or “ugly” features. It really exemplifies to me how online culture (especially on western apps) views western standards of beauty as the only way people can be beautiful. And why, in their mind, would someone create art that isn’t beautiful in that way unless they’re trying to be weird or make a statement? When, in reality, the beauty is in that they’re drawing what they see, what they want to see, and what they think is beautiful. Without diversity in what we consider beauty there is no beauty.
In this case it also feels a bit. Weird. To have the big nose be such a big issue. I don’t see people getting mad at hooked nose scar? How is this any different? There is nothing different about the way you draw scar now and the way you drew him before aside from that. You’ve always drawn him with body hair and fat and with these details that really just. Humanize him. And I think the point I’m trying to make here is that drawing people with big noses or crooked eyes or acne scars isn’t bad or weird and only adds to your art. It only makes you a better artist and I’ve genuinely watched you improve really really fast as you’ve drawn these characters with so much body diversity. Anyway. Big nose scar sweeeeep
honestly yea. sometimes when i see people draw certain characters it almost feels like theyre afraid of making them "unattractive" if you know what i mean? like i dont know how else to describe it but its really weird.
making their nose smaller, giving female characters bigger eyes and fuller lips, drawing only skinny characters, drawing older people with less wrinkles then they actually have or should have etc. and like people can draw whatever they want of course but tbh i see those "unattractive" parts as beautiful.
like i genuinely think wrinkles are pretty. i think big noses, hooked noses, small noses, crooked noses or just any kind of noses are beautiful. i think someones lips dont have to be full to look pretty. i think fat people and skinny people and just all kinds of people are beautiful. acne scars and and skin markings of any kind are beautiful.
idk just all those things and imperfections even make people beautiful to me.
like i find diversity beautiful and its kinda sad that some people dont see it that way? not everyone is skinny and buff, not all women will have the perfect hourglass figure or full lips etc.
those body types are beautiful too of course but sometimes i feel like people should see beauty in other body types and features as well.
anyway thank you for the ask it was very sweet and i do agree with you <3
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Three Accidental Shortish Reviews
They asked us to write a few, like, "staff's picks" at the shop and if you know me I love getting to ramble about video games I think people should play. I figured those little blurbs are worth sharing/preserving here too.
So I guess here's three mini reviews/recommendations from yours truly. No spoilers or anything really.
Titanfall 2 feel like if you approached designing a first person shooter with the inventiveness and sheer tightness you find in Mario games. It’s not hard for me to say that Titanfall 2’s campaign is far and away the best FPS campaign I’ve played, with singular levels more memorable than some entire games I’ve played. If you’ve played Apex Legends at all you’ve already got some baseline familiarity with the mechanics at play, although instead of a battle royal playground you’re instead led through impressively thought out levels with gimmicks each more memorable than the last. It’s not the sort of shooter where you’re just hiding behind cover mowing down waves of enemies in a generic warzone. Instead you’re running across walls or jumping into your mech while fighting through an assembly line or playing with reality bending mechanics straight out of Portal.
If you consider yourself a fan of shooters, especially those with satisfying movement and creative levels- Titanfall 2 is a must play. It is as important to the genre as something like Half-Life or the original Modern Warfare, Titanfall 2 not only helped form the basis of modern movement shooters, but its engine and core mechanics have been adapted into further projects from the company. Even if you never touch the multiplayer, Titanfall 2 is a game well worth your time and one that will make you wish for more shooters that are half as creative with their run time and level layouts.
Viva Piñata is one of those little gems that’s only so underappreciated because it lives on the Xbox. If it were a Nintendo title people would be intensely angry every time a new entry wasn’t announced any given Direct. Instead Viva Piñata lives on the console of Halo and Gears of War, and thus this novel little garden tending simulator lives in the periphery of most peoples’ memories. It doesn’t help that the 4Kids produced cartoon anthropomorphized the cute Piñata animals into over the top 4Kids caricatures and likely gave many people an impression that Viva Piñata was something it wasn’t. In the actual game the piñatas act much closer to their real world counterparts than they do cartoon characters, with the game’s main focus centering on cultivating a garden that welcomes a wide variety of piñata to live in it. You’re essentially a backyard ecologist, helping bolster populations and keep the circle of life in check with not too many predator or prey piñata overtaking your garden.
In what feels like a marriage of Pokémon and Harvest Moon, Viva Piñata's a simple game that offers just enough depth to engage more adept players and overflows with charm that’ll enrapture most anyone who likes the idea of tending a fantastical animal sanctuary. If you pick only one Viva Piñata game, Trouble in Paradise is essentially feels like the original game with an added expansion built in. However if you wish to play on modern consoles both games are included in Rare Replay, a collection of 30 games from Rare’s history including Banjo Kazooie, all of which are playable in 3D on your current gen Xbox. And if that wasn’t good enough, Rare Replay comes in a double pack with Gears of War Ultimate Edition that sells for like thirteen dollars. So if everything said about Viva Piñata wasn’t enough to convince you, it also comes with a few dozen other games just in case you weren’t convinced it was worth a shot.
Most everyone well versed in the gaming sphere knows the tale of Final Fantasy’s origins. A desperate Square on the verge of collapse poured all their passion and effort into a last ditch effort- their Final Fantasy. A few decades later and Final Fantasy stands as a monolith of the industry, standing as perhaps the most dominant MMO of the modern day and with more entries than most franchises could ever dream of. So perhaps it was only fitting that for their sixteenth entry they decided to radically shift the course of the franchise. Final Fantasy XVI is no turn based RPG, in fact one could say its RPG elements at times feel borderline vestigial. But despite this brazen turn away from the genre it once defined, Final Fantasy confidently steps into its new future by asking one simple question. What if these fights felt and looked as cool as we always imagined they’d be?
In what feels like an earnest embrace of the bombastic nature of blockbuster games and cinema, Final Fantasy has turned itself into a feverishly fast character action game in the same sorts of conversations as Bayonetta and Devil May Cry. It helps, of course, that both DMC 5’s director and Platinum Games worked on the combat of Final Fantasy XVI. All star developers all came together to create a game that truly feels bombastic and triumphant. The story has shades of Game of Thrones in all the best ways with political machinations a plenty and villains so vile you’ll want to yell at the screen. Each combat encounter is a frantic dash as you cycle through abilities and dodge massive attacks at the last possible second. When you get in the zone the game feels incredible, with such freedom of expression in your combat even from early stages that by the time you hit midgame you’re swimming in ways to style on all of Final Fantasy’s most iconic foes. If any game justifies the PS5, it is Final Fantasy XVI. It’s an angry game about overthrowing horribly corrupt systems, a game about not just earning a good death, but living a good life- and what doing so requires. And even if you don’t care about that narrative stuff, it’s the most electrifying action game I’ve played since Hades. Final Fantasy may have stepped away from what it is known for, but I am confident it was a step firmly in the right direction.
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THESE ARE ALL THE SAME SETS OF CHARACTERS.
I made a set of fankids based on every tcest combo out there, and made them a family.
They're between the ages of 18 and 21 (yes I do draw them as actual kids/tots sometimes, but I more often draw them as adults).
I figured this falls under the tcest blanket so, fuck it, I'll post their bios here.
Musashi
Age - 21
Mask - Yellow
Weapon - Wakizashi
Father - Mikey
Mother - Leo
Interests - kendo, anime, getting high
The oldest of the kids, Musashi grew up not taking much responsibility. While he tries to be a good big brother, he’s very laid back and not really the leading type, making finding a ‘leader’ for their clan of ninja very difficult as a result.
While skilled in both kendo and ninjutsu, Musashi is very lazy, and would rather spend his time watching TV and eating snacks. He tends to try to relieve his siblings’ stress through his words, with varying results.
Okyo
Age - 20
Mask - Dark Blue
Weapon - Tonfa
Father - Leo
Mother - Raph
Interests - Painting, yakuza, the surface/new york
Second born of the new Hamato clan, Okyo likes to go by the lone wolf philosophy; you don’t need him, and he doesn’t need you. Despite these claims he’s insanely attached to his best friend, Toby, and seems hellbent on the idea of dying for him if need be.
Okyo is obsessed with the yakuza, and wishes he could be the member of one. This may stem from his desire to actively leave the lair and live a life above ground. He uses his body as a canvas for his art, and even lets his siblings paint him as well.
Rosalind
Age - 19
Mask - Dark Purple
Weapon - Naginata
Father - Leo
Mother - Donnie
Interests - Reading, chess, running
Rosalind is considered the most intelligent and most threatening of her siblings. Skilled in combat, and especially tactics. She spends most of her time training her mind, and is obsessed with the idea of being a master tactician. She is a likely candidate to be the future leader of the clan, though there is one problem…
Rosalind is horribly socially inept. She doesn’t know how to communicate very well, often saying the wrong thing, or sometimes nothing at all. Her ability to read the room is poor, and she sometimes doesn’t know how to properly react to things. This has led to her getting into spats with her more sensitive siblings.
Bram
Age - 19
Mask - Soft Pink
Weapon - Tessen
Father - Donnie
Mother - Mikey
Interests - Math, superhero comics, cooking
Bram is a painfully normal guy. Among his siblings, he doesn’t stand out much, and he’s aware of it. His interests in superheroes are mainstream and broad, but he does excel in cooking and math, traits his siblings seem to lack. When it’s time to make a meal, Bram is the one his parents call to help.
Bram has an intense fear of dying alone, likely brought on by the idea that everyone he sees in fiction often has a romantic partner, and the fact that his family seems either content in their own relationships, or longing for ones as well. He feels getting into a relationship is important, but also feels he’s too uninteresting to attract a partner.
Frida
Age - 18
Mask - Purple, Flower pins
Weapon - Kama
Father - Raph
Mother - Donnie
Interests - Herself, social media, selfies, cute things
Frida is obsessed with social media, and were it not for her family’s strict rule about ‘staying in the shadows’, she would be plastering her face all over the internet. She loves herself, and wants the world to love her as well. She is locked into internet culture and often talks about what’s popular as a result, whether or not anyone wants to listen.
Frida is the worst ninja in her clan, but she still has some skills she can use in self-defense. Her friendly and very positive personality aids her more in avoiding fights than becoming part of them, thankfully. She is also the worst cook in her clan as well; keep her out of the kitchen.
Victor "Vic"
Age - 18
Mask - Faded Red
Weapon - Chigiriki
Father - Raph
Mother - Mikey
Interests - Cartoons, old toys, classical music
Gentle and kind, Vic is a big eater and a sweet soul who would never raise his hand in violence or self defense if he could help it. The only reason he trains at all is because his parents require it, and because he wants to protect the ones he loves.
His interest lies in things of the past. Classical music, old cartoons, and even old toys, the paddle ball being his favorite one. He’s caring and mostly keeps to himself, or is often seen with his twin sister, Missy.
Artemisia "Missy"
Age - 18
Mask - Pink
Weapon - Tekken
Father - Mikey
Mother - Raph
Interests - Makeup, action films, metal music
Missy is Vic’s twin sister, in a sense. Same parents, same time. She’s considered the baby of the family, and as a small child was demanding and constantly wanted her way, something her mother tended to cave in on. This seeped into adulthood, becoming a little rotten as a result. While she genuinely cares for her whole family, she has a wicked rebellious streak, and likes to do dangerous things just to get attention. Her attitude has garnered her a negative reputation among her siblings, save for Vic.
Her tastes reflect this, as she listens to loud, heavy metal music, sometimes puts on excessive makeup, and watches a lot of high budget action films and sometimes tries to emulate the stunts in them. She loves a good fight, and will sometimes try to start one for fun.
#tcest#fankids#the lore would be different for rise#but their personalities would be mostly the same
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"I Love You to the Moon and Back" (4).
Chapter four:
--
Nakaya is frustrated.
Talking with Yagi wielded the exact opposite result he had been hoping for. The commission counted on him turning on the boy. Izuku Midoriya is the son of his most hated enemy. By all accounts he should be begging the commission to take the boy.
But he hadn’t.
If Nakaya were anyone else, there would be little he could do to rectify this. But he’s not. So, instead, he pulls all his connections at the hospital to get to Izuku Midoriya.
Though it isn’t easy, some of the hospital staff refuse the commission’s authority-citing their duty as medical workers to protect the patients-but after some delicately placed threats, all of them bow their heads and look the other way.
The pediatric ward has a splash of color that the rest of the building lacks. Cartoon animals decorate the walls and the floor is a mish-mash of colored-tile. He passes a playroom with what looks like, every toy imaginable. A TV inside the room plays a local kid-friendly station.
“Room 383….” He reads the smudged writing off the paper. “It should be around here somewhere-”
“Nakaya-San,” Yagi says.
Against his best efforts, he jumps. Yagi should still be bickering with the scrounge of Japan. If he comes back now, then the commission will have to wait to extract the boy. Or they could just take him now, but that could lead to a custody battle between the commission and All Might, the former symbol of peace. What a headache that would cause.
He turns, taking out his handkerchief to wipe at the sweat beading on his forehead. Thankfully, Yagi seems out of sorts as well. He’s holding-
“Shigaraki Tomura, it’s nice to meet you.” In his haste to extract Izuku Midoriya, he’s forgotten about the number one threat (well, former threat) facing this country.
The boy cringes back, hiding his face in Yagi’s shoulder.
“I’m very sorry, Nakaya-San, but we have an urgent matter to attend to. If you’ll excuse us.” Yagi starts to walk around him, and it doesn’t escape his notice that the man shields Shigaraki so he can’t look at him.
He chews his bottom lip, watching Yagi walk away. There might not be another chance. A few people have already petitioned the courts for guardianship of the boy (and likely Shigaraki Tomura as well). If even just one of those goes through before the commission has him in custody, then there’s little they can do. For some reason, despite the fact they hold a lot of authority, many courts (especially on a lower level) absolutely despise them meddling in the welfare of children.
But they also tend to ignore the children already in the commission’s custody. Too much of a headache for them.
Nakaya reaches out, grabbing the former symbol of peace by the arm. The other man pauses. He blurts out the first lie he can think of. “Midoriya was transferred to a different floor.”
Shigaraki makes a strange sound. He shifts in Yagi’s arms, whispering something in the man’s ear. Yagi nods along, a grim expression on his face.
“Okay,” he says after a moment of consideration, “can you please direct us to where he is? I’m sure after being sick he wants someone familiar around.”
Sick? Is that a roundabout way of talking about the boy’s “condition?”
Either way, Nakaya can roll with this. Anything to get the former symbol of peace out of the ward.
“Yes, he’s in room 89.”
Yagi fixes him with a confused stare. “Why would they place him in the general ward?”
Nakaya wipes at his forehead again. He covers up his nervousness with a shrug. “I have no clue.”
He continues staring at him. “And why, if Young Midoriya is no longer on this floor, are you here?”
“Well, it’s actually interesting you bring that-”
A nurse bursts through the double doors separating the elevators from the ward. She’s hysterical, pointing back towards where she came. “He’s escaped!” She wails, grabbing onto Yagi.
Ever the saint, Yagi uses his free arm to comfort the woman. “Miss? What happened?”
She looks up at him, tears streaming down her face. “All for One escaped.”
Nakaya takes a step back. This….
…this wasn’t part of the plan.
“Are you injured?” Yagi asks.
The woman shakes her head.
“Have you told anyone else?” He finds himself asking. If All for One has truly escaped, then they need adequate time to prepare a-
“No, I panicked.” She sniffles, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Okay….okay, that’s fine. We’ll take care of this. Go take care of any patients that can’t move themselves and then hide. We’ll tell your coworkers.”
Nakaya gives him a sideways glare. How dare Yagi place this on his shoulders? Who does he think he is? The number one hero?
The woman nods again. “Bless you both.”
“Of course.” Yagi turns to him, “If you’ll watch Young Shimura, I can tackle the bigger issue of finding All for One.”
Nakaya has no time to decline when the boy is pushed into his arms.
“Take him to his room. He can tell you where it is. Lock yourselves in there,” Yagi says. “I’ll deal with the rest.”
Okay, he can do that. At least it’s better than finding a supervillain (ignoring the fact that he’s currently holding a supervillain. He refuses to look at the child in his arms who’s trembling like a leaf).
“Fine,” he snaps.
“I’ll be back, Tenko. Don’t give the president too much trouble.”
And then, he’s off.
Nakaya sends one last backwards look to the still sobbing woman, before he too hurries down a different hallway of the pediatrics unit.
Unknown to both men, the woman-upon realizing she’s all alone-smiles widely.
“What idiots,” she murmurs to herself. Her features morph and change into that of a man’s, and she grows taller.
All for One shakes his head. He’s grateful he thought ahead and stole clothes a few sizes too big. They’re still a little snug but it’s better than nothing.
-x-x-x-
Continuing to breathe is the hardest thing Izuku has ever done. It’s agony, separate from any he can remember. He rubs the stuffed bunny All Might gifted him against his too-warm cheek.
If he squeezes his eyes shut, he can almost imagine the bunny’s his mommy coming to comfort him and guide him through the pain. The soft fur reminds him of her hair, which used to tickle him whenever she kissed his face.
He cries out in between gasps of breath. “Mommy!”
The vestiges are at a loss of how to comfort him. Even half-delirious Izuku can tell that much. It’s obvious in the way they keep their distance, muttering to each other about how to proceed.
Izuku sniffles.
“You need to sit up,” First says, hands grasping his shoulders in an effort to pull him up. “Laying down only makes it worse. I would know.” His voice is clearer than the others, surer of what needs to be done.
The others back off, letting the first user direct their ninth.
Izuku allows himself to be pulled into a sitting position. First maneuvers himself to be sitting behind him, so Izuku won’t fall back.
“There,” First murmurs, soothing Izuku’s hair back. “That should make you feel a little better. A nurse or doctor should be along shortly. They can give you a corticosteroid.”
Izuku recognizes the word, corticosteroid, but only in a vague, distant sort of way. He remembers hearing his parents talk about it, a long, long time ago.
He groans. His chest is tight, but the first had been right - it is significantly easier to breathe sitting up. Still hurts and he can’t help but cry for the slightest bit of relief, but it’s something.
He’ll have to tell the first, thank you, when he’s not gasping for air.
The door to his hospital room bursts open.
First goes unnaturally still. An arm reaches around, blocking Izuku’s view of whoever’s come to save him.
“You,” Nana says. Her voice has a dangerous edge.
“Me,” an unfamiliar voice cooly answers back.
A wave of nausea passes over Izuku, forcing him into another coughing fit. He moves forward, body slumping down and forehead brushing the blanket. All sounds muffle together, creating an obnoxious cacophony of angry voices.
Izuku groans. His trembling hands tug on the sides of his hair. It doesn’t relieve any of the pain, but the brief sensations of pain he gets every time he pulls on the curls, is enough to distract him from the overwhelming nausea and oncoming headache.
He’s pulled from the bed and tucked against someone’s chest. Izuku forces himself to look at the stranger. Through wet, blurry eyes he can make out curly white hair and red eyes.
The vestiges haven’t stopped kicking up a fuss. First has kept a firm grasp on the back of his shirt.
“Please, don’t take him,” First begs. His voice uncharacteristically desperate, like he knows whoever he’s talking to won’t actually listen.
Izuku’s arm hurts when the man pulls out his IV. But he can’t summon the energy to do anything besides lay his head on the man’s shoulder.
He knows he should be freaking out. There’s something he’s missing. A puzzle piece he can’t fit.
The vestiges have always been a comforting presence. They’ve gone toe-to-toe with evil incarnate. They’ve lost their safety, security, livelihoods, families, and even their lives in an effort to prevent others from losing the same. They’re what Izuku wants to be when he graduates, courageous and strong.
But right now, even mostly out of it, he can tell they’re….scared.
“First,” he gets out between loud wheezes, “what’s going on?”
“It’s going to be okay, Izuku,” First tells him. He doesn’t sound as sure as he did five minutes ago, but Izuku chooses to believe him regardless.
He’s pulled closer to the man’s chest. A kiss is placed on Izuku’s forehead. “It’s going to be okay, Izuku,” the man says, a perfect echo to the First’s earlier sentiment.
Izuku looks up at the man again. A vague sense of familiarity fills him. He definitely doesn’t recognize him based on his looks. The curly white hair and red eyes are reminiscent of the All for One from First’s memories, but Izuku’s confident he wouldn’t be cuddling him, whispering nonsensical words of comfort, and looking down at him with soft, concerned eyes.
Still, he can’t knock that he knows the man from somewhere.
He sounds young, like he’s around Izuku’s age (or his former age). Maybe he helped him before? Or maybe he’s seen him around the-
Without warning, a large hand clamps down on his forehead.
In the second between the hand clamping down and the pain shooting through his head, Izuku pulls to the surface a long-forgotten memory. Something that he hasn’t thought about in years, and not for lack of trying.
A memory of being held in a similar way. Of struggling to breathe and begging for relief. Of being comforted in exactly the same way before a large hand had clamped over his forehead.
And then….
….nothing….
-x-x-x-
Hisashi stares at his hand, the one he used to heal his son years ago.
His hand that should have healed his son now .
“W-why didn’t it work?” He tries again, but his son remains slumped against his chest. His breaths labored.
He sees his brother out of the corner of his eye, watching the exchange. “When did you pick up the quirk that you’re trying to force on Izuku?”
“I…I don’t remember.” A lie, he does, but if he says it out loud then what his brother’s insinuating becomes real.
“Is it possible that you don’t have access to the quirks you stole after the age your body was rewound to.”
He balks at the thought. If that’s true, then that means….
….that means he can’t heal his son.
He shakes his head. “No. I just need to try again.” Hisashi reapplies his hand over his son’s forehead.
His brother makes a strangled sound. “Brother, no, you’re hurting him.”
“He…I…I can’t lose him. I have to try again.”
Izuku squirms in his sleep, face scrunching up. Hisashi lightly bounces him, in the exact same way he used to when Izuku was being fussy as a baby.
“I know, sorry, baby.”
He removes his hand, but his son’s still gasping for air.
He tries again.
His son has tears streaming down his face.
It doesn’t work.
He tries again.
And again….
….and again…..
He stops. It’s no use. His attempts to bring forth the relevant quirk are fruitless. The most he’s doing is causing unnecessary harm to Izuku.
“I’m so sorry, Izuku.” Hisashi Midoriya-for the third time in his life-feels like a failure. He rests his head on his son’s chest, listening to his son’s rapidly beating heart.
Hisashi straightens. He can cry later, but right now they’re in a time crunch. He hurries for the door, securing his son in his arms. If he’s quick, then he can snatch a corticosteroid before anyone realizes something’s amiss.
-x-x-x-
Tenko watches the president of the commission speak frantically into a cell phone. It’s entertaining, in a way, that even the super powerful are prone to freaking out. Or maybe that’s terrifying, because they’re in charge of society at large.
Eh, it probably doesn’t matter.
He wonders how his cousin’s doing. Not well, would be his educated guess. Tenko had tried everything before he had gone to fetch All Might. The call button, patting his cousin on the back, asking him to breathe, but nothing worked.
Most of all he vividly remembers the bluish tint to Izuku’s face.
Running to get All Might wasn’t ideal. The man was so clearly distrustful of him. Which, while understandable, kind of hurts Tenko’s feelings. It shouldn’t. But it does.
It feels like he’s being rejected by his father again, though this time it’s more out of a place to protect others around Tenko rather than Tenko himself.
He leans forward, head in his hands, and elbows on his knees.
The president finishes his phone call, slumping into a nearby seat. He rubs a hand down his face.
“Bad day?” Tenko asks, doing everything in his power to keep the snark out of his voice.
“Yeah, you could say that. Though, looking at the state of you, I’m not sure your day’s been much better.”
Tenko shrugs. “My day’s been fine. Or it was until my cousin started choking.”
The president quirks a brow. “Cousin?” He asks.
“That’s what I said.”
“You have family in this hospital?”
Something in the way the president asks his question, and the way his eyes seem to light up, immediately puts Tenko on edge. A subconscious part of him recognizes the predatory tone.
He can’t take back what he said, but he can refuse to speak further. Tenko pointedly looks away.
“Oh, don’t be like that. Who is it?”
Tenko remains silent. It’s awkward, just sitting here with the president’s eyes burning holes into the side of his head. But whatever the president wants with Izuku probably isn’t good.
“I don’t suppose it’s Izuku Midoriya, is it?”
He tries not to react, but he can’t help the involuntary squeak that comes from his throat.
“Well, that explains why you were visiting him.” He hears the president get up. The man rounds the bed, blocking Tenko’s only exit. “I don’t suppose you would be up for a family reunion?”
-x-x-x-
Toshinori is running. He runs all the way to All for One’s room. A thousand and one thoughts run through his head, none of them good. If All for One gets out and hurts someone, it’ll be all his fault.
A few staff members tell him to slow down, and he briefly thinks of letting them in on the situation, but he can’t spare any time. Hopefully the president is calling in reinforcements.
He makes it to All for One’s room. The door is still closed.
Taking a deep breath, he opens it.
Inside, asleep on the bed, is….
All for One?
Toshinori steps inside. Was the nurse confused? It would be just like All for One to make a poor, innocent woman think she was in immediate danger, only for nothing to happen.
He pinches the bridge of his nose.
Well, at least they haven’t told anyone on staff yet. If he hurries back to Nakaya-San, then they can call off the obvious false alarm. Hopefully Young Shimura hasn’t-
Is that his imagination or is there smoke coming from All for One’s body? He cocks his head, moving closer.
Psss…. poof!
All for One’s body disappears in a puff of smoke. The only indication it had been there in the first place is an indentation of where a body had been.
Toshinori stumbles back. Did he pick up a new quirk? The handcuffs were supposed to prevent him from using his quirk, so maybe he-
It then hits him:
All for One tricked them.
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Aaaaaaaannnd it looks like my inevitable biennial Darkwing Duck phase just hit. Apologies in advance. I am probably going to be annoying.
So! Darkly Dawns the Duck:
1. Who do I have to kill to get the original opening scene back in with the rest of the episode? Like. That little action sequence is a perfect way to introduce the character and the show. Almost everything you need to know is right there. Darkwing is a mildly bumbling adrenaline junkie who’s just barely good enough at his “job” to get things done. Also, it’s a cartoon; the violence is made up and the injuries don’t matter. Unless they do.
2. Almost everything you need to know. The rest of everything you need to is in the very next scene where Darkwing is hamming it up, handing glossies to a cop, and lamenting the fact that he spent all afternoon ironing is cape now that there’s nary a reporter in sight.
3. Darkwing narrates his life and monologues to himself. He’s such a tool. I love it.
4. Listen, I’m aware that Tad Stones is very much a Silver Age comics guy, and that this cartoon is completely uninterested in explaining how, exactly, Darkwing pays for, you know, all his very expensive equipment (besides moonlighting as a freelance SHUSH agent from time to time), because it’s just not that kind of show, but I’m interested. (Honestly, the more ridiculous the explanation, the better.)
5. How long did it take Darkwing to put together everything for the breakfast routine? I mean, it’s not as though he has a life outside of being Darkwing, so I guess he’d have time. But still.
6. I always forget Tim Curry is in this. Taurus Bulba is slightly less funny and unhinged than you’re typical Darkwing villain, but he’s honestly half of what makes this intro episode work. He’s a little more serious, so the stakes feel a little higher.
7. Aaaaand Darkwing’s still monologuing to himself. As he does.
8. The fourth wall is paper thin.
9. “Clever of me to use my spine to break my fall.” — Tech Badbatch, probably.
10. More (less?) seriously, last time I hit the inevitable biennial Darkwing Duck phase, I kept trying to find a Darkwing Duck podcast to listen to, and I kept getting frustrated, because the hosts kept talking about this show the same way they would about, say, Batman: The Animated Series or Young Justice. Yes, they’re all animated, yes, they’re all about superheroes, and yes, they all stretch physical reality to some extent, but Darkwing Duck exists in an entirely different genre than the other two. Heck, it’s even in a slightly different genre than the original DuckTales series.
It’s a cartoon—a cartoon grounded by an emotional center in the relationship between Gosalyn and Darkwing—but a cartoon along the lines of the old Looney Tunes shorts nonetheless. Like. No, Darkwing doesn’t have secret superpowers. He gets anvils dumped on his head until he gets over himself every episode because it’s funny. The laws of physics as well as any danger of real physical harm coming to the characters is dependent entirely on the emotional needs of the scene at hand, and the emotional needs of the scene at hand tend to be rooted in comedy. Same goes for continuity. I may or may not be a hypocrite about this at times.
11. So I just hit the part where Darkwing and Launchpad meet and good lord, Darkwing really is a jerk and Launchpad really is a golden retriever.
12. I love how Bulba just casually mentions that his henchmen murdered Gosalyn’s grandpa.
13. Speaking of Gosalyn….
14. Man, I love Gosalyn. I love that she’s kind of a “problem”, that she tends to act out, that she’s a handful, and that she’s clearly upset by having been told that she’s a problem by the adults in her life (by the ones at the orphanage, anyway). She’s an outgoing but clearly lonely kid, and one of the very few kids from any shows from this era that actually feels like a kid.
15. Okay, yeah, I know I just went on a rant about cartoons, but adult me panics every time I watch the part where Gos realizes that Hammerhead is there to kidnap her.
16. Just an observation, but Darkwing is way more…I don’t know, personable with Gosalyn once they get back to his hideout than he was with Launchpad in that earlier scene. He’s still self aggrandizing and sarcastic, but he’s not nearly as caustic. (For now.) I’m honestly not sure he knows how to talk to other adults in a “normal” way when he’s doing the Darkwing thing, which is more or less all the time.
17. Aaaaand I’m reading too much into it now. Back to the funny.
18. I paused and now I can’t breathe
Look at this idiot.
19. I love that Taurus Bulba just happens to have an airship shaped like his face. In prison. Just because.
20. Photos taken moments before disaster
21. “You should have seatbelts, too!” Blink twice if the S&P department is making you say that, Gos.
22. That said, it is actually really sweet that Darkwing does end up taking the helmet Gos found when he rides off a few scenes later. (
23. Little girl blue 🥹
24. Okay but WHY did Dr. Waddlemeyer make a Simon Says the control panel for his levitation ray?
25. Man, Darkwing is such an insecure jackass.
26. Listen to the kid, my dude.
27. See? That’s what you get! (Darkwing really deserves the dressing down Bulba gives him in this scene. Also: Does he make funny accordion noises when he gets squished like that?)
28. Why do I get the feeling that if this episode came out today and was a Star War that people would be complaining about how hard it was for Bulba’s hitmen to catch a ten year old?
29. Honestly, I love how they thread the needle of Gosalyn being perfectly capable of handling herself and yet still being a kid who may eventually need help if the problem gets too big.
30. Oh, the jail scene. I’m still annoyed that the most unhinged part of Darkwing’s monologue is missing (the episodes on the DVDs and streaming and elsewhere that I’ve found are the ones that ran in syndication. And, for Darkly Dawns the Duck, that means it was cut in two and chopped up to fit in the syndication time slot, so there are a few scenes missing. The ones I miss most are the opening and part of the jail monologue), but what’s left is still probably the most honest thing Darkwing says about himself the whole show. There’s something about him that’s just. Deeply maladjusted. And it’s great. I love it. 10/10, no notes.
31. Nope, got serious again. Time for Launchpad to bring the funny.
32. Launchpad made a damn stealth plane shaped like Darkwing’s head. Just because.
33. Ah yes, the tried and true Darkwing method of combat: throwing yourself bodily at the enemy and shouting nonsense.
34. I always somehow forget that Bulba just decides he’s gonna murder a kid for kicks. He’s got the code by that point, he doesn’t need her anymore, and he doesn’t need to twist Darkwing’s arm to get anything. He’s just gonna kill Gosalyn. It’s just child murder time. And it feels like Gosalyn’s in danger because, again, the rules of physics apply depending on the emotional needs of the scene.
35. “Mom was right. I should have been a dental hygienist.” That is such a random line and I kind of love it.
36. Sorry to being this back around the The Bad Batch because, again, this show is a completely different genre of animated show, but Gosalyn’s little, “He couldn’t be…,” when she sees the ramrod destroy the top of that skyscraper and take Bulba and Darkwing with it reminded my of the fact that when a child protagonist in a show for children says something like that about a semi or fully parental figure thought to be dead, they’re almost always right. No, I will not let this go. This hiatus is so long.
37. This orphanage director really is just. The worst. “Oh, sorry you won’t through a traumatic life changing experience kid, don’t understand why you’re too upset to talk to anyone today. Your loss I guess.” Like seriously.
38. Yes! The pink shirt and the sweater vest.
39. Darkwing is so aggressively dweeby. 10/10, no notes. Again.
40. I mean, okay, his name’s Drake Mallard, sure, and that’s how he’s introducing himself to the orphanage director here, but. Like. I like both versions, but OG Darkwing is Darwing first, and Drake Mallard second. DT17 Darkwing is Drake Mallard first, and Darkwing second. If that makes sense.
41. Okay, so, I understand that OG Darkwing and Launchpad are sort of the Kirk and Spock of the Disney Afternoon, but I don’t really ship them. I just don’t get the vibe (again, from the OG versions—DT17 versions have a different vibe). That said, I do kind of love the idea that there’s nothing going on between them but that everyone who knows both of them just assumes that they’re a gay couple raising their daughter, and they both know it and are fine with people thinking that.
42. This isn’t how adoption works but it’s okay it’s a cartoon and it’s very sweet.
#darkwing duck#I’m sorry#give it a month and it’ll be out of my system#I’m not going to watch every episode#or do this for every episode I watch#but. uh. there will be more#don’t worry the bad batch isn’t going anywhere#I just briefly have too many thoughts about the silly cape duck show
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Sparrow Hood and the Fox Adaptation
By @the-lavender-creator, @thelivingmemegod and @feline17ff
Summary: Sparrow and his Merry Men watch Disney's animated adaptation of the Robin Hood tale.
AO3 link
Notes:
There aren't really names for the Merry Men kids in EAH canon that we know of, so we made some up!
Tucker: son of Friar Tuck
Johnson: son of Little John
Wilson Scarlett: son of Will Scarlett
Much II: son of Much the Miller's Son
We used this website as reference for who the Merry Men are in the first place, and as a basis for those characters.
Sparrow downs a soda while one of his Merry Men puts a DVD into a TV they snuck into their hideout. Apparently, it was something Maddie Hatter had given one of his men. Sparrow was already preparing for it to be really bad when he saw the cover art, depicting a fox in his dad’s iconic outfit.
He’s not expecting much at all.
His expectations were dropped further when the movie started with a chicken doing the narrating, and then King John was introduced as a maneless lion. “So, I’m guessing none of the characters in this are human? Place your bets for who everyone’ll be! I’m guessing Maid Marian will be a chicken or kangaroo or something.”
As soon as he finished that thought, Maid Marian showed up on screen in the form of a fox as well.
One of the Merry Men shakes his head, “That doesn’t fit her character role at all.”
“Did they make her a fox like Robin Hood because they wanted them to date and didn’t want, like, cross-species romance or something? Just take the romance out, it’s not that important anyways!” Sparrow scoffs.
Once the introduction ends, the group all sings along to the Robin Hood and Little John song. That’s been passed down through the Hood family, but this generation tends to prefer their rock rendition of the song. Oh well- they still know the original version by heart.
Shortly after the song starts, they actually start enjoying the movie! It’s stupid and it has stunts that could only be performed in cartoons- but it’s funny!
Sparrow even sheds a tear when King John starts sucking his thumb in the mud! There’s a lot of this, the Merry Men almost drowning out the movie in their laughter. Though a warm sense of nostalgia still hits Sparrow. This is exactly how his dad would tell it, though with more humans and less cartoon logic, but he’s not admitting that.
After a few minutes of Robin and Little John hanging out and doing their thing, one of his Merry Men looks over at him. “I don’t think any of our other parents are gonna be in this.”
All of the Merry Men- with the exception of Johnson, son of Little John, and Tucker, son of Friar Tuck- nod in unison.
“That sucks. They can’t just cut out most of the Merry Men, they’re a big part of the story! Plus, I wanted to see what animals they’d be,” that’s always been Sparrow's biggest gripe with most retellings, the lack of Merry Men! He doesn’t get why they almost always cut his bros from the story. He doesn’t really care about how accurate it is beyond that.
"Hey, Friar Tuck's in this!” Tucker beams, as soon as he sees the interpretation of his dad. They continue watching and see him help out an injured blacksmith, making him smile even more. “And he’s a great guy, just like my old man!” Then they see him dig both his and the blacksmith’s graves when he made him walk with coins in his cast, making them jangle and alerting the sheriff.
His friends looked at him as the blacksmith jangled forward. Tucker pinched the bridge of his nose, “My dad would never be that careless, you guys.”
“We never said that was your dad.”
Tucker thought for a moment until it clicked, “Hey! I’m not that careless!”
“Oh yeah? What about the time you stole one of Briar’s necklaces to give to Ashlynn because you didn’t know she isn’t poor, and then found out that the necklace was a gift from Ash in the first place?”
“How was I supposed to know that?! You would’ve made the same mistake!”
“Uh, no. The necklace’s pendant had the words ‘to my best friend Briar, love Ashlynn’ engraved on it.”
“‘The necklace’s pendant had the words nah nah nah’,” He grumbled, mockingly. “Just play the hexing movie!” He pouted and sat back down.
“And that’s not even counting that Ashlynn is one of the most famous princesses at Ever After,” but his voice drowned out as Tucker increased the volume.
They continued watching and Tucker almost shouted, "What the hex? Did- did the Sheriff just steal a little kid's birthday gift? What the hex- what the hex," his voice slowly turning into a whisper as he kept on repeating himself.
“No wonder our parents did what they did…”
The archery contest comes on and Sparrow starts complaining about how lovey-dovey Marian and Robin are. Is it because he’s aromantic, or because this is exactly how his parents are? Probably a mix of both. He spends most of the fight scene swinging between cheering on the characters kicking butt, and rolling his eyes at the romance.
The merry men all agree though, that Klucky and Little John are the MVPs of the fight.
Afterward, they all get ‘The phony king of England’ thoroughly stuck in their heads during the party scene, and sing it going into the scene of Prince John raising all the taxes even more, and the despair that follows.
Sparrow’s heard this story probably more times than he could even count, so he ends up telling them what happens. After a bit, Johnson asks, "They're- they're really going all out with the 'rich vs poor' idea, huh?" as they watch baby rabbits being chained up in jail, followed by the injured blacksmith's other leg being in a ball and chain, rendering him entirely unable to walk.
"Yeah, they really went all out," Sparrow gulped.
The belly bump fight between the Sheriff and Friar Tuck before his arrest did garner a ridiculous amount of light laughs from the boys "What in Ever After," they said between giggles.
Sparrow didn't hide his intrigue when fox Robin started ziplining the bags of gold out of the tower, "That's smart," he said. But he retracted his statement when he painfully watched Robin try to get the last two bags of gold, "That's so dumb! He’s practically trying to wake the prince up! My dad would never do that."
“Yeah, but you probably would if you got to keep it for yourself.”
“Hey!” Sparrow rolls his eyes at his traitorous friend, but follows it up by laughing at his own expense.
Everyone watched the climax intensely. Of course Robin Hood would win, and of course Little John and Friar Tuck would make it out alive, but knowing that didn't make it any less exciting!
They rooted for the good guys, they booed the king and his posse, and there was even a string of "Aww"s when the rabbit cutely thought he had hit a baddie but it was actually Robin Hood.
They were so engrossed that Much (the Second)'s "Wait a splinter!" made Tucker fall off the bean bag chair he was lounging on.
"What the hex, Much!?"
"Doesn't the snake have hypnosis powers?" They took a second to recall it then murmured in agreement. "Why isn't he using that anywhere? What was the point of telling us that but not using it in the movie?"
There was silence, then Wilson Scarlett finally said, "No clue," and pressed play.
None of them pay too much mind to the wedding scene at the end, and they end up delving into the plans used in the movie and what they’d change… well- Johnson and the other Merry Men do, Sparrow is just kinda going with it all. The only thing he’d really like changed is the overabundance of romance and the unfunny violence.
Once they’ve gotten sick of talking about the movie, Tucker goes to return the DVD to Maddie while Sparrow and the rest of the Merry Men set up for band practice.
---
Come at me @stone-cold-style
[Puss in Boots voice] If you dare.
MWAHAHAHAHA 😈
#ever after high#sparrow hood#stone cold and feline fight over sparrow#feline17ff#my friends#the lavender creator#thelivingmemegod#stone cold style#eah fanfic#my writing#robin hood disney
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anarchyrpbook:
FIRST MEETINGS MEME
A meme for first meetings and introduction threads, aka a ‘What you will notice about my muse first’ cheat sheet.
Repost, don’t reblog. Bold what applies. Fill in details.
(Please do not remove the credit + blank meme link)
tagged by: stole off the dash
tagging: you reading this, do it
blank meme: x
GENERAL APPEARANCE
Sex: Masculine. Feminine. Non-Binary.
Notes: Cis
Race: Mixed White and Filipino
Complexion:
Height: 5′10″
Body Type: Endomorph. Mesomorph. Ectomorph.
Other / More Details:
Body Build: Small. Medium. Athletic. Muscular. Soft. Curvy. Voluptuous.
Other / More Details: Body is perpetually in peak physical condition. Covered in freckles.
Body Hair: None. Shaves/Waxes. Trims/Grooms. Untamed.
Color: Black
Notes: Bayor doesn’t grow much body hair, and what he does have he tends to keep shaved.
Head Hair: None. Buzzed. Short. Medium. Long. Very Long. Asymmetrical Cut.
Color: Black
Style: Shaggy. Usually reaches about the middle of his neck, but will sometimes let it grow to his shoulders before he bothers to cut it.
Eye color: Dark brown, pretty much black
Details: Carries a sadness in his eyes, but also typically looks at people with a great warmth and care and sincerity.
Scars: His body is a tapestry of scars from all sorts of injuries he’s amassed over the years, but the most notable and easy to spot are his major burn scars that spread cross most of the left side of his torso and up onto his face, as well as two large gashes on his face; one angled from left cheekbone down to chin and one from right temple down to top of right eyebrow.
FASHION
Fashion Style: Vintage. Traditional. Casual. Artsy. Vibrant. Geeky/Nerdy. Tomboy. Sporty. Trendy. Preppy. Girly. Bohemian. Elegant. Formal. Grunge. Punk. Rocker. Gothic.
Other:
Color Palette: Lots of vibrant colors for the tops while more muted yet complimentary pants and shoes.
Typical Clothing: Keeps his wardrobe loose and comfy, almost exclusively wears graphic tees as shirts; lots of hoodies, jeans, and canvas sneakers. He isn’t much bothered by extremes in temperature on either side of the spectrum, so his style doesn’t change much with the seasons. ‘On the job’, however, it’s the same plain, black jacket, pants, and shoes to maintain the silhouette motif.
Piercings: N/A
Tattoos: A manifestation of the binding spell on him that makes his body a container for the twins demon locked inside him. Takes the form of a circle at the middle of his chest with chains sprouting from the left and right of it that spread across his chest and spiraling down his arms, stopping at the wrists.
Other Information:
EXPRESSION
General Facial Expression: Typically walks around with a neutral expression if left alone, but lights up with a warm smile as soon as approached. Incredibly expressive and animated during interactions; practically a cartoon character.
Default Body Language: As with his face, very animated and expressive. Talks and reacts with his whole body.
General Movements: Has a surprising level of fluidity and grace to his movements. Rarely trips over things, has a good spacial awareness even as flailing his arms about, etc. His walk has a steady rhythm, and he tends to keep a pretty brisk pace when alone but never fails to match anyone he’s with when there’s company.
NOTABLE FOR RP
Presence: Warmth tinged with melancholy. Unwavering sincerity. At times intense with his enthusiasm
Appearance: Often somewhat disheveled (clothes are often wrinkled or don’t fit perfectly, hair isn’t super groomed or styled), but never dirty. He’s not concerned with being overly neat, but he’s always clean.
Scent: Sweet and fruity scents from his shampoo and/or body wash. If he’s recently used his powers, hints of sulfur.
Voice Description: Strong, low.
Accent: yes / no
More information: Moderate Boston accent. It gets much thicker when he’s back home and around family, but in his travels he’s learned to keep it easy to understand for people.
Speech Mannerisms: Lots of ‘my dude’ and ‘my guy’ used at the end of sentences. Prone to suddenly being poetic or profound at disarming moments. Some times uses text abbreviations for phrases aloud (like saying t b h instead of to be honest). Pitch can dramatically rise and fall; is as animated as anything else about him.
Anything else to add?
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New Fiction 2022 - July
The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "1 Paralipomenon" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)
More begetting children and all their names before coming back around to more of David's reign. So many chapters are just appendices to previous events.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "2 Paralipomenon" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)
Two Paralipomenon, say that five times fast. So now it's on to Solomon and his riches (again), Roboam talking about how his little finger is bigger than his dad's dick, and Jeroboam getting whipped with scorpions all the way to the fall of Jerusalem. It's basically another look at what we saw in Kings.
Dracula Daily - "July" by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897, 2021)
Dracula’s finally outta that musty old castle, though leaving Jonathan in the lurch is quite the cliffhanger. And that poor, poor captain.
Bad Hare Day by R.L. Stine (1996)
A mish-mash of various ideas from earlier books. It has the vibe of Haunted Mask and stealing secrets from weird adults, the experimenting with illicit stuff from Monster Blood, animal transformations from various books, bratty younger sister who bullies the protagonist, a Slappy-like snarky villainous character. It’s too much of a remix and more slapstick than horror.
Egg Monsters from Mars by R.L. Stine (1996)
A decent creature story, but the latter half kind of sags with the protagonist spending a lot of time just trapped in a freezer and struggling to stay warm. The villain is genuinely frightening but also one-dimensional and doesn't really explain his motivation well. And there's not enough of the egg monsters. It's close to a top tier book but just sputters too much along the way.
"Bathtub Mermaid" by Edith Zimmerman (2022)
Someone has to hear about the doll thief.
"its time for… the dark cabinet" by itstimeforcomics-blog (2015)
When you least suspect it.
Lost Highway dir. David Lynch (1997)
One can see the continuation of a theme in Lynch’s work since Blue Velvet. Does he want us see the darkness or the light?
Mad God dir. Phil Tippett (2022)
If the journey ends for you, it doesn’t mean it’s the end.
Mr. Malcolm's List dir. Emma Holly Jones (2022)
British accents always class up the cruelty.
Thor: Love and Thunder dir. Taika Waititi (2022)
Whoof, what a drop from Ragnarok.
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers dir. Akiva Schaffer (2022)
A reflection of a reflection that is unaware of what it sees.
Where the Crawdads Sing dir. Olivia Newman (2022)
Pump up the volume on the mystery, tone down the romance.
Nope dir. Jordan Peele (2022)
The most fun take on Jaws since the original. A real hoot and also really fucked up at times. An understanding of horror by someone who continues to bring cool ideas to movies.
Vengeance dir. B. J. Novak (2022)
You get awful close but you shouldn’t have been the face of it. Now we ask, what did we learn?
Fear Street Part One: 1994 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)
Really going for it right out of the gate. I’m in. Now I need to know if I should go back and read Fear Street after reading this bunch of Goosebumps books.
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)
Even the devil craves a kind word.
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)
Legacy is mankind’s ruin.
Goosebumps - "Bad Hare Day" (1996)
Erf, the book was rough, and the episode doesn’t do itself any favors by leaning into the snarky villain.
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1988-1990)
A nostalgia bomb like every one of these 90s cartoons tends to be, though the tropes eventually wear thin when watching it all in one go. Monterey Jack may be what crystallized my appreciation of cheese.
Better Call Saul - Season 5 (2020)
This show... it doesn’t build the way Breaking Bad builds. It’s more of a roller coaster with the sense of hitting the same drop a few too many times. This season is a bookmark in place while you wait for the extra season that should have been season five.
The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)
I feel bad for the actors and crew of this ostensibly standalone TV show. Your makers should have had the fortitude to stick the vision.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Better, but only because it is exactly what I remember. It’s comfortable, like an old pair of socks.
#the bible#dracula daily#bad hare day#egg monsters from mars#r.l. stine#edith zimmerman#the dark cabinet#lost highway#david lynch#mad god#phil tippett#mr. malcom's list#emma holly jones#thor love and thunder#chip n dale rescue rangers#where the crawdads sing#olivia newman#nope#jordan peele#vengeance#b.j. novak#goosebumps#better call saul#bcs#the book of boba fett#obi-wan kenobi#fear street#new fiction#2022
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Quite The Discourse Oddity: Feeling Edgy & Mature
As someone who has come to appreciate the art of animation, it’s really common to see discourse that has to stress that the medium isn’t just for children. Over my time online, however, I’ve felt that there tended to be an obsession with creating an image of self-righteousness or entitlement with select projects that were able to appeal just as much for adults as children. Whether it’d be due to insecurities or genuine ego, so often I’ve felt too much animation discourse (especially from the late-2000s to early 2010s) would seemingly rely more on the image of SOUNDING smart rather than the ability to engage the subject with depth, how their artistic lens or media literacy developed overtime, or even if they have any real sense of scale. Sometimes to the point that the idea of whether one’s actually calling a work a job well done can be questionable. Welcome to......QUITE THE DISCOURSE ODDITY!
To start this series off, I want to bring up the incorporation of innately mature content in an animated family work. First off, Le Innuendo! Here is a link to a post I made. For now, we’re ignoring the “back in muh day” comments for a second. I’ve felt that over the years, there has been this oversimplifying habit of bringing up these innuendos (mainly the sexual kind) as a means to elevate the animated kids’ work as cream of the crop material. For example, that aforementioned post that has an image that showcases a hidden joke this iconic Cartoon Network show was able to work in. As neat as that could be to notice looking back at a show, I’ve felt that over the years, there has been this oversimplifying habit of bringing up these innuendos (mainly the sexual kind) as a means to elevate the animated kids’ work as cream of the crop material. Yet, in practice, HOW they illustrate this sort of love tends to amount to “they were able to work in this bit I now get” but little else.
Sure, like I said, it can be neat to realize those gags now that you’ve aged and see how they managed to sneak them. The issue I have here, though, is that with how surprisingly frequent it is to see several innuendos across individual kids’ cartoons, I find that it takes away from how good of a job the work could be doing at what it aims for. Or ESPECIALLY the stylistic touches that are in display. Largely due to how often emphasis is put more on the MERE inclusion of that type of gag than anything else relating to its’ implementation, a frequent oddity with plenty of animation discourse circles. I find that by downplaying such jokes, or even the overall tone of the comedy, in a similar way, it unintentionally downplays why certain works themselves are considered so good. Almost like an implication of all the comedy of that nature being created equal, which is just…….NOT the case!
With the aforementioned sexual innuendos, simply leaving it as “it’s a joke I now get” doesn’t necessarily inform one on why some cartoons were able to catch on more compared others. For example, if I was looking back at this joke and several others from Powerpuff Girls and was all “man, that show was top tier” after realizing said jokes, yet also showed little interest or enthusiasm in Animaniacs (a very notable cartoon for its’ bonus jokes for adults), what is that meant to say about the quality of either? What would that mean for certain animated films? Even in the occasion in which someone actually DOES bring up that said dirty joke is likely to turn out more awkward or gratuitous than effective, when that line is being crossed is often no less hazy. It’s definitely not helped when people overblow how gimped family cartoons became with what a kids’ show can do now. In case of the Justice League related one, you also got the comments in the screencap clearly missing the point of what that specific scene and episode was about (newscaster using his position to ruin the JL’s credibility).
Speaking of which, for all the (frequently deserved) ragging on certain adult animations for being gratuitous with how edgy or intentionally offensive they could get, every now and again, the general attitude with what someone wants in a family cartoon can feel no different. Mainly in the sense that it feels like sheer spectacle is all that’s needed, not so much the structural substance. In this “western animation vs eastern europe animation” video (which we’ll be going back to another time), TONS UPON TONS of commentors were romanticizing the ‘more mature’ nature of the Eastern Europe example (an animated telling of Vladimir the Great) in comparison to the obviously cherry-picked example of inferior content (the Blue’s Clues reboot, mainly the pride parade clip). As shown above, several of those comments would talk up the Vladimir cartoon (and older fairy tales at parts) for being darker and good for the kids due to showing them harsh realities.......yet some of the language also reads as excessively masculine and largely patriotic on attitude. They were also being REALLY arbitrary about what’s okay to show kids. Let’s just say that certain flags were burned just to wave their red one.
Every now and again, there’s so much focus put on sheer edginess that it can lead to people either ignoring much of the story content entirely or just simply missing proper context of certain events. For example, more often than not, when Pokémon fans bring up how much more mature the manga can be compared to the anime, they’re highlighting isolated moments rather than the full narrative content, with this sliced Arbok being the most notable image. However, within the manga proper, that same Arbok was one that could regenerate. For another example, here’s a screencap of a couple of Justice League related Tweets I found at some point. In addition to the same overblown comment of not being able to make that joke today, the two comments in the Tweets clearly missing the point of what that specific scene and episode was about (newscaster using his position to ruin the JL’s credibility).
Even with the simple act of incorporating darker elements, things would frequently get foggy. One YouTube comment I remember from a Watch Mojo video was annoyed about Toy Story 3 being on the respective list, with particular critique being aimed at the toy gang being saved from the incinerator. However, the critique seemed to only amount to “it would’ve been different and risky”. The commentor also brought up how Bambi and Lion King were able to pull off character deaths and how that apparently proves that TS3 has no excuse, even though…..those are different movies with different goals, a nuance that many of these sort of discussions fundamentally forget about. Sure, it may have felt nice, for example, to see Robin and Starfire’s relationship blossom over the course of the 2003 TV show, but that doesn’t mean every show needs to take up that much time for their romantic relationships or build things up for the majority of the series (some shows don’t even try to go for five seasons).
Sometimes, it can even lead to a continuous elevation of a select couple works for tackling the topic of prejudice at the expense of giving another, less nostalgic endeavor a chance. This isn’t helped by how, at times, it feels like their comprehension of being ‘less deep’ would come down to either a borderline snobbish claim of unoriginality or believing that a quick summary is enough. It makes the idea if the speaker was even looking at things with nuance all the less likely. For example, within this one screencap about cartoons handling the topic of death, this clown was lamenting on the last time it happened for western animation was some early 2010s action superhero show (Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes). With the replies in mind that point out the comment’s bullshit (such as how the much more chill Harvey Beaks was able to bring up the topic of death in one episode), there ends up being not only an implied bias for high-octane action (once again suggesting a focus on perceived ‘edgy’ spectacle), but one that’s clearly led to some sort of dismissive attitude. On the one hand, it is understandable that the incorporation of certain topics in a work mostly intended for children to watch would be heavily appreciated, especially when looking back. But at the same time, for many cases of bringing up how an older project was able to hold up, there are similar notions to that of the sexual innuendo implementations from earlier: treating the MERE incorporation as the most that’s needed (similar to what I previously said about TS3). It frequently feels like it’s less about how one manages to handle the topic (such as things like, say, TACT) and more about giving off this self-proposed idea of higher ambition or sheer audacity. Sure, it’s neat that the original Teen Titans cartoon could claim to have tackled the topic of prejudice, but you gotta remember that it also provided this dialogue exchange for that same episode:
Starfire: “You know what it feels like to be judged simply because of how you look?”
Cyborg: “’Course I do…..I’m part robot.”
Whether it’s through insecurity or a pompous self-image, it often feels like animation discourse can rely too much on FEELING mature by having material that seems edgy on paper. Heck, one of the most called-out animation phenomenon, which relates adult cartoons, helps demonstrate this happening as a public mentality. Yet at the same time, it’s not uncommon to see more dedicated animation circles to focus too much on the mere audacity of seeming a little edgier, downplaying the more structural contents in the process. What can result in those cases is an underdeveloped sense of scale and, therefore, possibly painting excessive extremes that get in the way. More detail on that for another time.
#animation#reddit#twitter#youtube#discussion#rant#cartoon network#nickelodeon#disney#justice league#teen titans 2003#pokemon manga
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Season 1 reviewed
I’ve spent last week rewatching the original 1987 ninja turtles series, the show that put the turtles on the map, with the animation mostly done by Toei, do the first five episodes hold up?...well.
We are introduced to a plucky reporter, April O' Neil, whose design was partially inspired by Fujiko Mine from Lupin the third which shows in her adventurous attitude.
the streets are riddled with crime however and she's surprised to find that her heroes are....anthropomorphic adolescent turtles.
it's up to the turtles to stop the evil shredder and his partner Krang from destroying the world.
Turtle Tracks: The art style is dated but it has charm, you can see the slight anime influence in the faces and fighting scenes, which are very well animated for the time, however, there are a few audio and visual errors but this was the first season so it's gonna look a bit rough.
The Turtles themselves are very loveable, each one having a distinguishable personality, and seeing them try to blend into the human world in their disguises is very entertaining, there's good build-up for the shredder reveal but for a first episode/tv movie it drags on quite a bit, which tells us more about April than about the turtles.
Enter the Shredder: We are introduced to Shredder, a sinister but very enjoyable villain and his partner in crime, Krang, their interactions are so funny, they act so much like an old gay couple but in the universe of a cheesy, camp 80s cartoon, the gayness doesn't end when we're also introduced to Bebop and Rocksteady, who are basically a furry Beavis and Butthead, now here's the question, if Shredder is tired of losing to the turtles, why can't he become a surgeon instead, especially with Krang going on about how he wants his body (top surgery).
We find out the reason why April is so determined about her job even when made into the damsel in distress is that her boss Burne is an absolute ass to her, the turtles wear snazzy outfits and Donatello displays his technical skills that help them escape the technodrome.
A Thing About Rats: Baxter Stockman is introduced as he invents the mouser robots, there are also some goofy scenes where the turtles mess around at April's apartment, this episode has a good amount of both comedy and action, and Baxter Stockman is a good character who I feel quite bad for, the dude just wanted to be recognized for his scientific genius.
Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X: the Turtle van/party wagon is introduced as a form of transport for the turtles and the Neutrinos have cool designs and voices, a cool mix between modern and retro teen archetypes, but aside from the party wagon being part of the show's continuity, it feels out of place compared to the rest of season 1.
Shredder and Splintered has Krang receive his new robotic body and April stands up to her boss for a change, there are some cool fights
The first five 87 TMNT episodes show some good animation, enjoyable characters and atmospheric music, but scenes tend to drag on for too long, while it is still good, it's not amazing like the rest of the series, but it made the turtles popular so I can't completely fault it.
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Some thoughts about the Rescue Rangers movie
Spoilers below the fold, you’ve been warned.
In preparation for the movie, I did the utterly-unnecessary thing of (re-)watching the entire TV show first. It was "only" 65 episodes, so I figured why not? Besides, I was looking for something else to idly binge anyway. But I think it did do a good job of helping to ground my expectations and put me in the right mindset for the film.
To briefly sum up my take on the show first: I grew up with this cartoon, and it was one of my favorite parts of the Disney Afternoon as a kid. The characters are all still so great, and they play off of each other really well. It’s still a lot of fun to watch as an adult, but it definitely has “90′s cartoon” problems. Most glaringly, of course, is the weird compulsion to use other cultures as the butt of pretty much every racist trope or stereotype you can come up with (Asian and Pacific Islander cultures got it especially bad, and I’m kiiiiiind of glad that the only Black character in the show is one of the patrol cops because yikes that could have been really oof-worthy). Y’all didn’t need to do that. It also goes a lot harder on calling Dale a lot of ableist terms than I ever noticed as a kid (”Dale is 'challenged’” is easily more than half of the show’s Dale-related humor). If I were to show this to my own theoretical someday-kids, I’d probably curate it to side-step about 15 episodes or so until they were old enough to learn the right things from them.
The show’s other faults are really just down to the use of bizarro-land kid logic, which has fallen more out of favor in contemporary shows (compare DuckTales to its reboot; the reboot is still madcap, but less... “out there” I guess?), and the animators not really putting their best effort into maintaining consistency of scale between scenes (or even throughout single shots). As a final aside, I also never really noticed how often Chip is given the "Dana Sculley” ball throughout the show. Ghosts, aliens (more than once), werewolves, fortune telling, and magic all make appearances despite Chip's declarations that they don't exist.
tl;dr: it’s still a good cartoon, but you’ve gotta engage with it critically sometimes, because... 😬
Anyway, on to the movie.
I liked it! A lot, even!
It wasn’t a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but we’re talking about a movie based on a combination of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a 90′s afternoon cartoon show. It doesn’t need to be Everything Everywhere All At Once-tier incredible. What it was is a lot of fun. It pushed all the right buttons for me, especially having just come off of binging the TV show. The show itself had a lot of self-referential, meta, and self-deprecating humor to it in the first place, so making a “meta” movie about how bad and unwanted reboots of old properties tend to be sort of fits right into its narrative wheelhouse.
It’s also extremely obvious that the writers came at this with a huge amount of love for the show, and for Roger Rabbit before it. I was honestly impressed by the amount of show-related references and humor, most of which I would almost certainly not caught onto if I hadn’t just binged the show. It’s definitely a cameo-fest, and one can certainly take the cynical stance that the depth of the movie’s cameo catalogue is down to Disney owning about 3/4ths of Hollywood with enough money to push around the other 1/4th. However, the cameos never seem forced or out of place. There’s just a lot of them, and while none are perhaps as landmark as Mickey and Bugs on screen together in Roger Rabbit, some of them do punch pretty high. Keep an eye on the background, you’ll almost always find someone lurking there you weren’t expecting.
My biggest complaint is honestly that the decision to make Chip (and a number of other “traditional” toons) a cel-shaded 3D model holds his character back in terms of expressive range, and undercuts the one big gag of Dale having undergone “CGI surgery” (I feel like that’s not a spoiler, it’s literally on the poster). I can understand the reasoning behind the decision — it’s already complicated enough to make a movie where half the cast is invisible to the on-set camera and also 6 inches tall; needing to do two separate animation passes for the two main characters, plus all of the extra CG and edit work that would then need to be done on top of that to re-integrate Chip into the scene given all of the stuff he “physically” interacts with... it’s a lot. And considering that the resulting choices were probably “make Chip pseudo-2D” or “then don’t make the movie”, I can see why they went the way they did. It’s just an odd visual quirk that stands out even more against the background characters who are traditionally animated (but who also interact with the scene way less complexly).
If you’re just looking for a spoiler-free take, here it is: it’s a fun romp, punches you directly in the nostalgia bone for a solid 90 minutes, and preserves the best of what made Rescue Rangers great while divorcing it from its more problematic moments.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
To get into more of the nitty gritty, I think the decision to take a step back and reveal the world behind the camera was an important one, and why I think the film earns its tagline of “it’s not a reboot, it’s a comeback”. These aren’t fresh new versions of the characters we knew as kids. They’re still the same people, whose “real life” personalities are just well-aligned to their roles in the show, and they’re as far removed from the show as we are as adults. Characters like Chip and Dale also don’t really rise to the standard of requiring “strict adherence to canon”, so putting them in LA as kids and just making them a part of the Roger Rabbit universe worked fine for me. Giving the two a childhood connection really helped cement the brotherly relationship they always had in the show (side note: Chip’s mom is a sweetheart. More good animal moms, Disney).
(Oh, and speaking of the Roger Rabbit universe, this movie is definitely set in that world, because Sweet Pete has a bottle of DIP in his bootlegging kit. Yipe!)
The movie does a good job of projecting the characters out into the "real" world with their same personalities intact. Especially for the main duo: Chip, the no-nonsense take-charge leader who ends up as an insurance salesman, and Dale, the wackier goofball who acts without thinking things through and gets a perhaps ill-advised CGI makeover surgery to revitalize his image while slumming it on the fan convention circuit like a less douchebag-y Tim Allen from GalaxyQuest. I also got a particular kick out of the fact that despite basically every guy in the show having a go at her at one time or another, Gadget ended up with Zipper.
I also think using the character of Double-0-Dale as the inciting incident that broke up the team and got the Rescue Rangers canceled was a great choice. It was one of the few times Dale got a chance to really outshine the rest of the gang in the show, so it seems only reasonable that he’d want to pursue that over getting hit in the head every week. It’s also such a deeply nerdy choice that illustrates the writers’ knowledge of the show.
Monterey Jack being the thing that brings them back together, over his unending cheese addiction no less, gives the characters the push they need to pick up their roles from the show in a new context: doing what the LAPD is clearly incapable of accomplishing by finding their friend. Now that the meta-textual "we're doing the thing we're making fun of" stuff is out of the way, Chip and Dale could easily get the band back together and start the Rangers for real this time. I think there's plenty of space to make that work, honestly. The world of the movie is perhaps even more conducive to the Rangers being able to solve crimes and tackle goofball cartoon-tier villains than the show was, since they don't have to deal with the constraint that the Rangers are constantly having to concoct ways of getting humans involved without being seen or understood. Ellie can even come along too (but please, don’t make it a police procedural. Just... don’t). Heck, despite the theme song's proclamations, people rarely ever called the Rescue Rangers, the Rangers just kept stumbling across nefarious schemes by the show's main bad guys, or occasionally bumbling into a one-off scheme by some random incidental baddie. I could probably count on one hand the number of times the Rangers were actually sought out for their help. Maybe doing it “for real” could change that.
At this point I do want to talk about what might be the elephant in the room: Sweet Pete. It’s becoming more common knowledge that the Disney Corporation treated Bobby Driscoll, the kid who voiced Peter Pan, like absolute garbage after the movie came out, which contributed to his early death from drug addiction as a young adult. As a result, making Peter Pan the movie’s Big Bad has struck a bunch of folks as being in extremely poor taste. However, the movie does go out of its way to actually make something of the same point. Pete ultimately turned to a life of crime because Disney dumped him for the exact same reason they dumped Driscoll: he grew up. I’m not sure to what degree a big-budget production from a massive multimedia conglomerate openly pointing out the shitty behavior of said multimedia conglomerate counts for anything when it’s ultimately all still just money in said multimedia conglomerate’s pocket, but it feels like this is maybe the first time Disney has done literally anything to acknowledge that what it did was kind of really shitty? I dunno, It’s Complicated. The movie certainly paints a slightly more sympathetic picture of Pete than the trailer suggests.
I do want to circle back to the whole “cel-shaded 3D” thing again now that we’re down here in the spoiler zone, because Pete and Gadget feel like they definitely could have used another few (dozen) hours in the shader oven. Chip functions well for most of the film despite what I mentioned earlier, but Pete and Gadget definitely cross the line into “weird” and “awkwardly stiff” a bit too often. Pete just gets a bunch of angles where a 3D model just doesn’t flatten as cleanly as an animator could illustrate it in actual 2D. Gadget has “weird wobble-head syndrome”, and for as much as they poke fun at “Polar Express eyes”, Gadget's got more than a little bit of it going on herself.
Ugly Sonic, while hilarious in the current cultural context, is probably going to end up being the gag that ages the worst, just because it'll require a huge amount of pre-explanation for people who didn't live through it on Twitter at the time. I'm also a little sad that they didn't just have Jim Cummings reprise his role as Monterey, since they already had him in the booth doing basically every other role he had in the Disney Afternoon. I was happy that Tress MacNeille got to reprise her role as Gadget, though. She has such a distinctive voice it would have been especially rough hearing anyone else try and fill her shoes.
As far as the general review consensus, it seems like you either loved this movie or hated it with a burning passion. I'm not going to try and yum anyone's yuck, but for me, this fell right in the sweet spot of "goofy cartoon Hollywood", "Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen.gif", and "weapons-grade nostalgia". It fit with the tone of the show itself, which was also self-deprecating at times, and certainly full of (frequently off-the-wall and groan-inducing) inside-Hollywood gags, like the two cats in one episode named "Jack" and "Nichols" who talked in an extremely mid-tier Jack Nicholson impersonation. This movie felt like it took what worked from the TV show (specifically, the character dynamics), dumped the distressingly-frequent and extremely cringe-y "other cultures are punchlines" humor, and built a universe where these characters could live and even reclaim their former glory. It may not be able to bear the weight of a full-on cartoon supervillain mad scientist like Nimnul, but a Fat Cat analogue could easily slip into Sweet Pete's shoes (I say analogue 'cause it'd be nice not to have a character who's just called "Fat Cat" even if it is slang for “rich asshole”, and also they sort of already blew the Fat Cat load with the post-meltdown Sweet Pete amalgam).
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Cuphead drawings
#CUPHEAD DRAWINGS HOW TO#
#CUPHEAD DRAWINGS TV#
The animators also used stop motion animation for certain scenes-for example, the opening shot of Cuphead, Mugman, and Elder Kettle’s house-giving them a vintage flair. Each background is an actual watercolor painting. Plus, if you noticed that the backgrounds look especially rich, that’s because they weren’t done digitally at all. The studio began with a huge number of handmade drawings and then used a digital platform called Harmony Animation to animate them, creating a look that evoked traditional cel animation.
#CUPHEAD DRAWINGS TV#
Speaking with The LA Times, art director Andrea Fernandez explains that “I think people tend to forget the pipeline to produce that look just doesn’t exist anymore….To re-create that level of art was actually really daunting and difficult for a modern TV pipeline.” Simply put, the creative team didn’t have the infrastructure to produce The Cuphead Show! completely by hand.īut they wanted it to look as much like hand-drawn animation as possible, so they set out to replicate it as best they could. After all, a single second of hand-drawn animation usually requires 24 cels, and with each Cuphead episode running for roughly nine minutes … that’s a lot of cels. Unfortunately, as much as the creative team wanted The Cuphead Show! to stay true to Golden Age animation, the modern demands of TV production didn’t allow for the painstaking process of drawing, coloring, and filming animation cels by hand. But How Feasible is Hand-Drawn Animation? This animation style was what blew people away when they first played the game, and the executive producers wanted to stay true to what fans of the game loved the most. Because of that, the acting in those cartoons is often wildly over the top, lending them a surreal quality that later cartoons often lack.
#CUPHEAD DRAWINGS HOW TO#
As Chad Moldenhaur explains in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, rubber hose animation arose very early in the history of motion pictures, when animators were still figuring out how to translate acting techniques to drawings. Wasson points out that the rubber hose aesthetic relies on characters who don’t seem to have joints, instead moving freely as if they were made of, well, rubber hoses.īut there’s more to it than that. According to Variety, the team really wanted to capture the aesthetic of the Golden Age cartoons of the 1930’s. Also joining the team are executive producers Dave Wasson and Cosmo Segurson. The Cuphead Show!‘s creative team includes Chad and Jared Moldenhaur, creators of the original 2017 video game that the show is based on. In the first episode, Cuphead manages to accidentally sell his soul to the Devil in a skeeball game, and the rest of the 12-episode first season sees Cuphead and Mugman running from the Devil and his various henchmen while getting themselves into one scrape after another. The Cuphead Show! follows Cuphead, a brash and headstrong kid with a knack for getting himself into trouble, and Mugman, his more timid and cautious brother. But is The Cuphead Show! actually hand drawn? The Animators’ Vision All in all, the aesthetic is a refreshing change from the computer graphics of most animated shows. But the show also has a modern look to it, too, with each character’s movements and facial expressions holding more detail and nuance than original rubber hose cartoons. The backgrounds in The Cuphead Show! look like a combination of watercolor and stop motion, and you can even see flecks and dust motes flashing across the screen as if it were shot on 35mm film. Rubber hose animation is distinguished by characters who sport wildly flailing limbs, outrageous physical comedy, and those weird poofy gloves that are a hallmark of old-timey cartoons. The characters are drawn in the “rubber hose” style of animation’s Golden Age, which occurred almost a hundred years ago. The Cuphead Show! has dropped on Netflix, and although overall the show has gotten middling reviews, there’s one thing everyone can agree on: the animation is beautiful.
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Choose your Class: Tickle Artist Edition
Fighter:
- purely draws for themselves
- doesn’t care what you think about their Art
- is also very likely that one Person who draws Tickling Art for very small and unknown Fandoms/Fandoms that have barely to no T-worded Art at all (purely out of their own Interest, Enjoyment and Determination)
- wakes up 3 A.M., only to quickly scurry to their Sketchbook/Drawing Tablet bcs they had a sudden T-worded Idea for an Artwork and then passes out on their Bed later on again
- a lot of Times, they will also include their OCs into their Artworks
Paladin:
- creates the most wholesome T-worded Content in Existence
- mainly uses a 🎀cartoony/cutesy🎀 Artstyle for their Artworks
- everytime you see them and their current Artworks on your Dash, you feel absolutely blessed
- they have very likely one favourite Character they adore and include a lot inside of their Tickling Artworks
Specialist:
- has studied Anatomy down to the Bone and is capable of sending any Lee/Ler/Switch into a Mood with merely just one of their Artworks
- there also probably that one ✨legendary Artist✨ everybody knows about in the T-word Community
- also knows every Tickling Scene there is in Existence, whether it be in Cartoons, Video Games, etc
- literally, they could tell you every Funfact there is about Tickling, they’re that invested in their Interest
Mage:
- everytime they post an Artwork, it feels like they have used some sort of Magic to create it by how awesomely crafted it is
- can literally bring their T-worded Ideas to life in every Artstyle they want to, even as an Animation, and everybody asks themselves “H o w ? !”
- don’t tease them, else they are gonna hit you back tenfold with one of their Tickling Artworks specifically designed to your Interests
- seriously, how can they whip out so many T-worded Ideas and Artworks in such a short Amount of Time?
Warrior:
- is purily fuelled by the Requests/Comissions of other People
- it has been Years since their Askbox has even remotely been empty (pls give them a Break, they probably desperately need one, they are literally rocking back and forth in their Froggy Chair as we speak- 👊😔)
- has a strict Timeschedule that they like to follow and apologizes profusely when they couldn’t deliver one of the Tickling Artworks they promised on Time
- probably tends to focus on well-known Fandoms and Characters the most
Assassin:
- you are calmly sipping your Choccy Milk/Tea/etc in Peace and Quiet, when 👏B A M👏
- you suddenly get hit with unexpected T-worded Art out of nowhere, probably making you spit out your Drink in the process
- the Assassin sadistically laughs at your Suffering as you now have to clean up the Mess you created and you simply type a Keyboard Smash into the Comments under their Artwork to show your Frustration but also your Appreciation for them
- they are always that one Artist who unexpectedly hits poor and unsuspecting Lees/Lers/Switches with a Mood out of nowhere
Rogue:
- is known as the Gremlin inside the Tickling Community
- they absolutely love it and thrive when People get really flustered/Keyboard Smash in the Comments under their Artworks
- extremely mischievous pretty much towards everyone
- they’re also very likely that one Person in the Community who proudly posts Tickling Art on their Main Account/public Social Media (you should especially fear them, considering the Amount of Confidence they have)
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Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.
Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.
Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.
Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.
Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.
That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.
Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.
Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.
The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.
So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.
How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.
The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.
Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.
For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.
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Spotlight: Ties That Bind
This one’s a doozy folks! If you missed the last spotlight you can go read it here, but strap in for The Ties That Bind, an absolutely brilliant take on humanformers. It’s hosted here at @tiesthatbind-tf created by @artsy-hobbitses!
Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?
Ties That Bind is a humanformers-based original continuity which is part Science Fiction and part Alternate History where the invasion of Quintessons and introduction of their technology to Earth in 1920 sets the world and humankind on a completely different trajectory. The active narrative spans a period from 1920 to 2070, covering the First and Second Quintesson Wars, the interplanetary Antillan War (leading to the creation of Unicron on Mars) and the Great War which involves the Autobots, Decepticons and Functionist stalwarts, and how it affects the characters.
The cast is pretty sprawling and the narrative is mostly centred around human drama with bits of humor interspaced and a dash of horror (mostly centred around how the previous government often chose to utilize the technology left behind from the Quintesson Wars to create new systems of oppression, which affected many of the characters, in the name of worldwide rebuilding efforts).
Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?
I will admit to this continuity being very much heavy on the relationship between Old Bastards Optimus Prime and Megatron, which is given considerable weight as they were best friends who had known each other since childhood and were deeply intrinsic to each other’s growths as individuals, which makes it all the worse when guilt and betrayal enter the party. Despite being captains in two corners of this battle, there’s a part of them that just cannot let go of their pasts together and they need to reconcile with how this will affect their agenda (Megatron) and how they lead their team (Optimus) who don’t necessarily share their history.
Other characters with significant development include:
Starscream, a Cold Construct in a toxic working relationship with Megatron with whom he is hiding a dark secret, who struggles to balance the underhanded viciousness he believes he needs to gain power and his innate desire from his Senate days to make the world a better place.
Windblade, a Camien native who fights her government’s apathy concerning the situation on Earth which they see as unsalvageable compared to their more Utopian society.
Prowl, a Cold Construct raised from childhood to be a cop in a police state, who finds out that he was brainwashed several times to ensure his obedience and efficacy as a government asset and is now working to reclaim some semblance of the humanity he was never allowed to feel and figure out how much of him is who he really is and how much is programming.
Hound, a sheltered Beastman who joined the fight to ensure that Beastmen the world over would have the same rights he did in his homeland of Shetland Isle, but is forcefully stripped of his humanity and faced with his animal side during the war and has to relearn what personhood means amid his trauma.
Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?
God with the amount of time I spent sleepless trying to figure out how the logistics of this or the semantics of that were supposed to work in universe, I cannot for the life of me say it’s fluffy fun, but I can’t exactly say it hasn’t been pretty engaging either!
There’s elements of war being messy for everyone involved where there doesn’t seem to be a clear line between friend and foe at times, but I think for most part it prescribes to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that people are inherently good, but are corrupted by the evils of society. Despite its dark themes (Including but not limited to child abuse, torture, illegal experimenation and brainwashing), love and friendships do prevail, kindness does beget kindness, found families are made, even the smallest actions matter, and things do get better because there are people on both sides who genuinely want to, and strive to make it better.
With Cold Constructs and Beastmen, it also delves heavily into what it means to be human; to have agency and personhood.
There’s also a strong undercurrent of taking responsibility for one’s actions, even if they were made with the best of intentions (Avoidance of this is what eats up Starscream and Megatron from the inside, and what Starscream eventually embraces).
Q) How long have you been working on it?
There’s two answers to this!
I’ve had a Humanformers-related universe going all the way back to 2007 around the time the first Bayformers came out---basically I had a choice between learning to draw cars or draw people (I was an anthro artist back then) and I immediately chose people.
The 2007 draft however had no worldbuilding or connective storylines and was mostly a fun little venture into character design and practice which were actually instrumental to me experimenting and learning how to draw humans properly.
I left the fandom for about a decade and when I came back to it in late 2020 around September via the War for Cybertron series on Netflix, I immediately got hooked on the 2005 IDW comics I missed out on and wanted to get around to updating my old designs as well find a way to translate several of the concepts I wanted to explore in a human sense, so the 2020 update became its own full-fledged original continuity with detailed worldbuilding and history.
You can see the artistic evolution of several characters from their original incarnation below!
Q) It’s incredible to see your artistic improvement too! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))
Say hello to my workspace! I’ve been working exclusively on the Ipad Pro since late 2016, which is fantastic because I can basically whip up concepts and sketches on the go anywhere. Nowhere is too out of bounds to work on TTB!
Also, do enjoy this sneak peek at true!form Rung, whose synthezoid human body took years to perfect.
Q) YESSSSS alright I must admit this is one of my favorite Rungs, and certainly my fave within TTB. Amazing. Phew, anyway. Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?
TTB was initially conceived as a faithful retelling of the IDW 2005 narrative before it was transformed into its own continuity and as such, it borrows heavily from concepts and mirrored plot lines introduced in that run! I chose to have the series inspired off it specifically for the amount of history and worldbuilding it introduced to the franchise.
Anime like Gunslinger Girl and Beastars inspired the depictions of Cold Constructs, especially the more harrowing aspects of their upbringing as government assets instead of children, and Beastmen (Beastformers) in TTB.
I haven’t depicted the world itself in my art all too much, but the architecture from Tiger and Bunny, which has sort of a futuristic Art Deco feel to it, is what you’d usually see in major cities. There is an in-universe reason for that---with a Point Of Divergence set in 1920 followed by 25 years (an entire generation) of progress basically being kicked to the curb due to the Quintesson wars, mankind was basically in a time-locked bubble until the end of the wars, and by then their heroes were 1920s-style rebellion leaders, which lead to 1920s fashion (especially among the Manual Working Class---Megatron, Jazz and Optimus all rock 1920s fashion at some point of their lives) and architecture being celebrated and retained as sort of a reminder of how things were before The Invasion. This anime’s background design is also where I adopted the tiered system TTB’s major metropolises are often built on (with each tier being designated to a different working class) from.
The main artistic style itself is a love letter to 90s cartoons, in particular Gargoyles’ deep and drama-driven character narratives and designs as well as The Centurions’ take on body armor logistics.
I also take inspiration, especially armor-wise, from the characters’ given heritage and background. As an example, Hotrod who is depicted as Irish has the flames on his armor done up with Celtic knots. Welsh aristocrat Mirage’s armor bears olden knight-style filigree and has his Autobot logo designed as a coat of arms. Indonesian Soundwave’s armor and Decepticon logo takes cues from Batik and Wayang Kulit while their mask is based off the Barong.
Q) They are absolutely gorgeous! Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.
The worldbuilding in general! Most Humanformers I’ve seen tend to treat it like a fun exercise which it is and is definitely valid, but I found myself wanting a full-fledged world to lose myself in and I sought to try and make that world myself by drafting a detailed history and timeline of events which would affect ongoing narratives, having indepth worldbuilding to include almost all societal aspects of the universe and expanding on the concept of Beastmen and Cold Constructs existing in a human setting.
I’m not so secretly proud of the research and diversity included to make the cast look like the multicultural, globally-based team that they were meant to be instead of being locked to a single region! My original draft from 2007 was, to put it simply, quite culturally monolithic and I wanted to improve on that aspect with TTB.
I’m also proud that I’ve kept to it this far! I’m a notoriously flaky person jumping from one idea/fandom to another and to have kept at this continuity for the better part of ten months is honestly a personal feat.
Art-wise, this scene depicting a young Megatron working alongside Terminus and Impactor (cameo by @weapon-up-wallflower‘s OC Missit!) is definitely one of my favorites since it helps build up the world they live in and plays to familial bonds and comfort found in one another despite their less than ideal circumstances.
Q) Everything has come together so beautifully, you absolutely should be proud. What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?
I am dying to hear more from @iscaredspider’s Sparkpulse continuity! Her designs are MIND-BLOWINGLY GORGEOUS and I want to hear more about what inspired her to work on it!
Also YOU. Yes YOU BLURRITO. LET ME HEAR MORE ABOUT SNAP.
Q) [wails and squirms away in the mortifying ordeal of being known but in a very flattered way] I WILL SOMEDAY I PROMISE aflghsdjg thank you QwQ
Well that was fantastic, Oni, thank you muchly! A magnificent continuity with so much to look forward to! Coming up next is another personal fave of mine, the first inspiration for SNAP, so stick around...
#long post#gore#ties that bind#spotlight#transformers#HUMANFORMERS#transformers au#tf original continuity#transformers fan continuity#transformers redesign#maccadam#i said id post this on sunday but i realize thats a holiday for lots of folks on this site :/
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