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whatsaudreythinkingabout · 1 year

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randomly assorted scott pilgrim headcanons!

(mostly involving roxy)

(some involving future scenarios)

envy & roxy have the same weak spot behind their knee. they are also girlfriends. this is the most important headcanon & i have a whole separate thing that goes more in-detail on this but this is all you need to know

kim is a huge tegan & sara fan (she’s from canada and definitely bi so it makes sense). she likes their earlier albums (since it takes place in the mid-2000s it would probably be around the time so jealous and/or the con were released), and when heartthrob and lytd came out she tried to pretend she hated the new pop sound but she secretly loves it.

lynette lost her arm while performing a show with tcad that brought the house down. literally. the frequency of the vibrations emitted from their performance was powerful enough to cause a minor earthquake, and while the band was trying to escape the venue, her arm was crushed by falling debris.

envy is bilingual, having grown up in montreal, and speaks both english and french.

roxy & matthew are best friends. however, when they first joined the league, they absolutely could not stand each other. each thought the other was totally obnoxious, and they would constantly bicker and fight with each other. they also definitely got into the pirates vs ninjas argument on more than one occasion. eventually, after a sparring match gone wrong, they bonded over the fact that ramona had used them in some form while they were dating her (matt for his powers, roxy for her sexuality), as well as their love of too much black eye makeup, and they’ve been inseperable ever since. they definitely have a partners-in-crime dynamic, and their friendship is 80% snark and 20% chaotic dumbass.

later on, lucas gets roped into their friendship as well, and they form an unstoppable friend trio. roxy sees him as a cool older brother type. matt has such a huge repressed crush on him you don’t even KNOW and roxy teases him about it literally all the time

after the events of the series, they form a 3-piece punk band called roxy & the hooligans (title derived from a book i read when i was a kid). roxy is the lead singer and bassist (she learned how to play out of pure spite just to flex on scott & todd), matt is lead guitarist & backup vocalist, and lucas is the drummer. matt is also their special effects/pyrotechnics guy.

they’re also housemates for a little while, then matt & lucas start dating and roxy moves in with envy when they start dating. of course, this does not affect their friendship, and they have double dates frequently.

after she starts dating envy, roxy also forms another best friend group with julie powers and lisa miller. at first envy is worried roxy and julie won’t get along bc she thinks julie will be jealous of roxy for “stealing” envy’s attention, but they end up bonding over their shared hatred of scott.

lisa and roxy are identical twins who were separated at birth. (this was bc they’re both portrayed by mae whitman but i might retcon this one, idk)

meanwhile, roxy & todd actually, genuinely HATE each other. todd was always kind of a bully to her when she was in the league & she hates how much he gets on her nerves. to make up for it she loves to rub in his face how much he fumbled the bag with envy

envy was genuinely hurt by lynette going behind her back with todd bc she thought they were friends. lynette is pretty indifferent about it.

after the events of the comic, ramona starts a support group for all the women affected by gideon.

envy is a natural redhead, but started dyeing it blonde once she had her big rockstar makeover, and often alternates between the two shades.

(tentative, still figuring out whether i wanna make this a full headcanon) roxy is a natural brunette, but dyed (and maybe also cut) her hair after ramona broke up with her, as the gays™ are known to do. she also used to wear her hair in space buns instead of pigtails (whaat nooo this totally wasn’t inspired by spinel what are you talking about)

roxy doesn’t really care about the spelling of her name; she spells it with a “y” and with an “ie.” (alternate idea: she spelled it with an ie before the breakup and with a y after the breakup?)

barbie movies exist in this canon, and envy recorded “hope has wings” for the magic of pegasus when she was a teen (back when she was still going by natalie) but she’s super embarrassed about it. she has literally done everything in her power to hide it, but as soon as her friends find out about it they refuse to let her live it down.

likewise, finally out of pe exists in this verse except now it’s just part of envy’s early discography, which she wrote before she formed TCAD.

technically the events of the story happened at the same time the early barbie movies & brie’s album came out but we can afford to move the timelines around a lil bit just for funsies

kim created the maid costume herself, & she’s a closet geek/cosplayer. later on she & envy end up bonding over their secret nerdy sides.

she’s also a closet theatre kid

roxy is the kind of person that tries to put on a tough front to avoid getting hurt & being seen as weak but if you give her even one (1) single tiny bit of affection she will instantly fall apart (especially if you happen to be a pretty girl)

when gideon was messing with everybody’s memories, he ended up causing a rift in the universe that caused the timeline to branch into two separate realities (the books and the movie, respectively). when he was defeated, they merged into one again, but the characters now have memories from both realities. it’s a little confusing

wallace ends up getting together with stephen later on (maybe? they seem like they’d have a fun dynamic), and they’re happy together, but once wallace finds out about matt & lucas dating he’s so fucking salty about it bc HE HAD A CHANCE WITH LUCAS LEE THIS WHOLE TIME

ramona eventually becomes the lead singer of shatterband. scott & kim decide the two-person lineup isn’t working out for them; they need a frontman, someone with charisma to tie them all together. then they hear a voice coming from the bedroom. they go to investigate and find ramona singing softly to herself. she’s a bit hesitant to join at first bc she’s not super confident about singing in front of others, but they manage to convince her by telling her how she could totally one-up envy.

matthew is a proud, unabashed theatre kid. roxy is the kind of person who acts like she absolutely despises theatre kids (even tho she’s really just as melodramatic as matt but won’t admit it) until karaoke night rolls around & she suddenly knows all the songs

roxy is a mixed media artist & is proficient in quite a few different techniques, but her specialty is graffiti. since being a ninja takes a lot of discipline & she often got criticized for letting her emotions get the better of her, it gives her an outlet to be more uninhibited.

the twins are pretty aloof & don’t really talk to anyone else besides themselves; they just kinda do their own thing while viewing everyone else with either mutual respect or smug superiority. gideon doesn’t really give a shit about the other league members, but the twins are his “favorites” (relatively speaking) just bc of how efficient & powerful they are

scott & ramona end up in sort of a semi-throuple with kim. no one really knows what their exact situation is; whether they’re an open relationship, friends with benefits, or just officially all dating each other, but wherever they are, kim is usually also there, & they don’t question it. (honestly the more i think about it the more i like the idea of polyamorous ramona just bc there’s so many characters i ship her with)

maybe wallace also gets involved. just for funsies

in the future, roxy ends up taking knives on as her ninja protégé. as a mentor, she’s pretty no-nonsense bc she wants her to be able to reach her full potential, but she also tries to keep her temper in check & not be overly harsh on her just bc of what she went through in her own training (at the ninja academy she was looked down upon for her half-ninja status & constantly belittled for being too soft, undisciplined, emotional, etc. which caused her to push herself to the brink of total physical and mental exhaustion to prove them wrong, & that led to her parents pulling her out bc they were worried she was gonna push herself so hard it would kill her, & that whole situation is the main source of most of her insecurities). at first she’s put off by how relentlessly upbeat knives is, but then she sees how eager she is to make her proud & roxy can’t help but see a bit of herself in her. over time she comes to see her as sort of a kid sister, especially when knives eventually comes out to her, though she refuses to admit how much of a soft spot she actually has for her. she knows knives can handle herself, but she’s also grown more than a little protective of her (and scott is terrified of her for this reason)

i have a LOT of other HCs regarding specific backstories/relationship dynamics/etc that i might post later if i get the motivation for it but these are just some of my shorter ones

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befemininenow · 1 year

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You can only do this once, so pick wisely. Would you go for the calm and reserved dark blue girl, the attractive and confident pink haired girl, or the bold and prideful blonde girl? There are more pros about ninja girls than you may think. The only con here though is not being able to choose all of them.

-Here is a fun little early Christmas treat that may also serve to crack your ��trans egg”. If you ever saw that one fanart of Sakura, Hinata, and Ino in Christmas costumes back in the day, you knew it was pretty hot. It has since become a classic piece of 2000s anime fanart to the point where it has been cosplayed even years after its peak. But while Naruto used his gender-bending jutsu to get out of awkward situations, there were a few of us who wished we had his technique to get out of our awkward shell. Maybe that is when your trans egg cracked, you just didn’t knew it. Still cis tho?

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tengomilpalabrasparati · 1 year

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El 23 de mayo se celebra el Día Mundial de la Tortuga, para concienciar a la población mundial acerca de esta especie que se encuentra en peligro de extinción.

Asimismo, promueve las acciones necesarias para proteger y ayudar la supervivencia de estos reptiles ancestrales.

Origen del Día Mundial de la Tortuga

Este día mundial surgió en el año 2000 por iniciativa de la ONG estadounidense American Tortoise Rescue (organización creada en 1990 para proteger a todas las especies de tortugas terrestres y marinas), con la finalidad de divulgar información acerca de la importancia de las tortugas, así como incentivar el respeto a esta especie reptil.

Algunos de los factores que ponen en riesgo la conservación de las especies de tortugas están relacionados con la destrucción de su hábitat, el comercio de su carne para la elaboración de comidas exóticas, así como el tráfico y comercio ilegal de huevos y de tortugas.

Curiosidades sobre las tortugas

Conoce algunos datos curiosos e interesantes sobre las tortugas:

Las tortugas o quelonios forman parte del orden de los reptiles (Sauropsida)

Gran parte de la columna vertebral de las tortugas está unida a la parte dorsal del caparazón.

Se estima que existen unas 357 especies de tortugas, varias de las cuales se encuentran bajo amenaza de extinción debido a factores como el cambio climático, la contaminación ambiental y la caza furtiva.

Filmografía sobre el tema

Mostramos algunos títulos de documentales y películas acerca de las tortugas, para disfrutar y compartir en familia:

El Ascenso de las Tortugas Ninja: la película (EEUU. Director: Andy Suriano. Año 2022): en esta divertida película animada las Tortugas Ninja adolescentes se enfrentan a la especie alienígena "Krang", para salvar al mundo.

La Tortuga del Desierto (España. Director: Aitor Valdeón. Año 2017): documental conducido por un grupo de biogeógrafos del Departamento de Geografía de la Universidad de Zaragoza. Muestran a una población de galápagos europeos que habitan en un desierto de la Península Ibérica.

La Tortuga Roja (Francia. Director: Michael Dudok de Wit. Año 2016): película animada que muestra a un hombre que naufraga en una isla tropical. Intentará desesperadamente salir de la isla, encontrándose a una peculiar tortuga roja que cambiará su vida.

La Tortuga de 40 pies de altura (España. Director: Jacinto Piniella Moris. Año 2012): un extravagante científico se dedica a realizar experimentos imposibles: la pastilla crecepelo. Por accidente su tortuga ingiere una pastilla, dando inicio a una descabellada aventura.

Las Aventuras de Sammy 3D (Bélgica. Director: Ben Stassen. Año 2010): Sammy es una tortuga que sueña con regresar a su lugar de origen para reproducirse. Deberá afrontar grandes adversidades al surcar los océanos, debido a los estragos generados por el calentamiento global.

Walt Disney's Silly Symphony: The Tortoise and the Hare (EEUU. Director: Wilfred Jackson. Año 1935): en esta versión animada de la fábula de Esopo, Max Liebre y Toby Tortuga participan en una gran carrera que desafiará sus habilidades.

¿Cómo se celebra este día mundial?

En la celebración de esta efeméride se llevan a cabo charlas, actividades educativas y diversos eventos, destinados a la recaudación de fondos para la conservación e investigación de las tortugas.

Comparte información útil e interesante sobre el Día Mundial de la Tortuga en las redes sociales. Utiliza los hashtags #DíaMundialDeLaTortuga #WorldTurtleDay

#23 de mayo se celebra el Día Mundial de la Tortuga

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synergysilhouette · 2 years

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Naruto (Comic AU)

My DBZ/DBS comic AU got a couple of likes, so I wanted to see what you guys thought of a Naruto AU where it's an American comic that began in 1974, created by Masashi Kishimoto. Unlike DB, which I couldn't figure out if I wanted it to be set in America or westernized Japan (to coincide with it's 1950s creation), I imagine "Naruto" taking place in a fictional country colonized by Japan and then westernized (but the Japanese culture is much more apparent from the get-go):

1970s--Even though people say the Prologue-Land of Waves Arc is iconic, I feel like it was super underrated. I heard Haku was originally planned to be a beautiful boy, but the androgyny hit the censors and they made him a young woman (though this was retconned later). Honestly this period was really good for getting the franchise on it's feet. It's generally believed that it's darker subject matter allowed it to sell only because it was the Bronze Age of comic books, and had it occured earlier, it may not have happened.

1980s--I swear, this is where everyone remembers "Naruto" beginning. The series received critical acclaim for expanding the cast of characters and the mythology of the series, especially in the Chunin Exam arc and Naruto using the alter ego "Kurama." Though according to my research, the Konoha Crush arc received a LOT of pushback due to the death of the Third Hokage, and there was this really weird thing in the Search for Tsunade where Tsunade was receiving sexist feedback from fans as well as frequent fetishization. I think they were trying to imply she was bi and in a relationship with Shizune, but again, time period prevented full exploration of that--though they were perfectly fine with the villain being androgynous…Then there was an implication Kabuto had feelings for Orochimaru. There was a LOT of baiting going on.

1990s--This era wasn't bad by any means, but it was mainly focused on ninja missions, and while it may have felt slower-paced than the larger arcs, it allowed for more development on Team 7 and their contemporaries; my own favorite part was the transition of making Sakura less rude to Naruto (and I will admit the writing for a romance between her and Lee was interesting) and having a more mature bond with Sasuke, who often put his positive feelings on the back burner for his revenge against Itachi. This made the final major arc of the decade--and the century--the Sasuke Recovery Mission, all the more emotional and powerful. Though I call BS that Sakura and Naruto weren't strong enough to defeat Sasuke together (but I'm not going to Comic-Con saying that). Honestly Sakura was a trouper; she battled Sasuke, got defeated, joined Naruto's retrieval squad, and went full ham on Sasuke. The sound 4 are SO underrated, though!

2000s--The turn of the century brought about big changes to the series, similar to the Ultimate Marvel universe and DC's New 52 relaunch--only "Naruto" didn't end up being maligned. Certain relationships were jostled around slightly and the characters were aged up to young adults in order to appeal to a larger crowd, as well as more suggestive situations. Though the boost in sales was unprecedented; the Kazekage Rescue Mission attracted a lot of attention due to the involvement of Gaara and the Akatsuki, though some people attribute this to the Kakashi Gaiden miniseries getting significant attention. I remember Sai and Yamato's introduction was a RADICAL change that was intended to be permanent because writer Hayden Watson found Kakashi boring and didn't see Sasuke as redeemable, but fan backlash and demand for Kakashi's return eventually made this change temporary. She also tried to put Sakura and Naruto together, but this was eventually unravelled as well, as later authors were big Hinata fans. The subsequent arcs seemed to only cause sales to increase, though the death of Jiraya gained a LOT of ire. Honestly I was also hooked when Sasuke formed Hebe, though I wasn't a fan of how this period was super fanservice-y with Sasuke and Hinata in particular.

2010s-This era was WILD. No one could really top "Naruto" in this period's prime. Itachi's past was hard to swallow for some fans, though some sympathy for Sasuke was showered down for it's political undertones, and the Pain arc was SO satisfactory for Hinata's confession to Naruto; if I recall correctly, it inspired fans to make a petition for the publisher to make an AU where she was a part of Team 7. I heard rumors that this comic was actually gonna be made, but I have yet to see it (and if it existed, I kinda wanted Sasuke and Hinata to be together, but that's ANOTHER story). There were rumors she was going to die, but I'm grateful she didn't. I remember the Fourth Shinobi World War arc was selling like CRAZY. The titles that focused on this went hard, and it had me on the edge of my seat. I won't lie, though; the last two arcs were pretty confusing to me, concerning Kaguya and Madara and Obito. Honestly I'm just glad they gave Sakura a bigger role; even though she didn't have the lineage Naruto and Sasuke had, she wasn't discounted like I expected her to be.

#naruto #naruto shippuden #Ninja #team 7 #sakura haruno #sasuke uchiha #kakashi #naruto uzumaki

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worstcompanylive · 1 year

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The Store

Here's a look into the store of our Naruto campaign. This list was for starting equipment and exists for when a character is out on a shopping trip:

Weapon Stats and Prices:

Kunai, 1d4 finesse, ranged (30/60)- 5 RYO

Shuriken, 1d4 ranged(60/120)- 3 RYO

Senbon, 1 ranged(100/160), Special(as part of an attack, poison can be applied)- Price 1 RYO

Tanto, 1d6, Finesse- Price 10 RYO

Yari, 1d6, versatile(1d8) thrown(20/60)- 15 RYO

Katana, 1d8, Versatile(1d10), melee- 25 RYO

Fuma Shuriken, 2d4, Finesse ,ranged (60/120)- Price 50 RYO

Naginata, 1d10, two handed, reach-price 50 RYO

Odachi, 2d6, Heavy, melee- Price 50 RYO

Kanabō, 2d6 Bludgeoning, Heavy, melee- Price

50RYO Yamato No Orochi- unknown stats- price 1,000,000 Ryo

Armor Stats and Prices:

Standard Ninja clothing, Light, 11+dex Ac -25 RYO

Mesh shirt, Light, 12+dex Ac -50 RYO

Chunin vest, Medium, 13 +Dex(up to 2)Ac - 75 RYO (requires chunin rank)

Jonin vest, Medium, 14 + Dex(up to 2)Ac- 80 RYO (requires Jonin rank)

Old Shinobi armor, Heavy, 16 Ac, disadvantage on stealth, -100 RYO

Heavy Samurai Armor, Heavy, 18 Ac, disadvantage on stealth, str 15 required. -2000 RYO

Ninja Gear:

Blood Pills- a pill that replenishes lost blood. heals 2d4+2 HP upon takin the pill- 25RYO

Field cooking Kit- A pot, some utensils, a heating stand, and a fire starter. everything you need to cook while on the field.- 5RYO

Field Bento- A bento filled with surprisingly tasty field rations. when consumed during a short rest, you heal 3d6+ con HP.-5 RYO

Foldable Shovel- A shovel that can be folded up to fit in a backpack-. 1RYO

Food Pills- A tasteless food pill that when eaten fills you for a day.- 1RYO

High Temp Clothing- 15 RYO

Low temp clothing- 15 RYO

Ninja Water- it's just water, but more expensive.-10 RYO

Ninja Wire(25ft)- wire has 5hp. it can be burst by a dc16 dex save-25 RYO

Paper bomb- A paper with an explosive seal on it. when placed or thrown it can be detonated with a bonus action. anyone within 5 ft must pass a dc12 dex save or take 3d6 fire damage, half on a save.- 25RYO

Poison Case- a small case for caring and preserving poisons. it can hold 6 doses and can fit in a pouch.-25 RYO

Pouch- A small pouch that can hold 2 tiny objects.-5 RYO

Sealing scroll(Small)- can hold size 5 tiny objects-5 RYO

Sealing scroll(Medium) can hold 5 small objects or 10 tiny objects- 10 RYO

Sealing scroll(Large)- can hold 5 medium objects or 10 small objects, or 20 tiny objects.- 15 RYO

Sewing kit- A kit for maintaining and repairing clothing and armor. over the course of a short rest you can repair 1 damaged armor set.- 1 RYO

Sheath(Standard)- a sheath for holding small weapons-5 RYO

Sheath(Poisoned)- a sheath that can be primed with a injury poison. A weapon in a primed sheath has the poison applied when unsheathed.-15 RYO

Soldier Pills- a pill that replenishes lost chakra. when taken it replenishes 2d4+2 chakra-20 RYO

Weapon Care Kit- A kit for maintaining and repairing weapons. over the course of a short rest you can repair 1 damaged weapon- 25 RYO

Basic poison- A weak, starter level poison that can be applied to a weapon or food item. when inflicted with it a target must make a dc15 con save, taking a 1d4 poison damage on failure. at the beginning of each turn the target must repeated the save or take an additional 1d4 poison damage- 50 RYO

#ttrpg campaign #worst companylive #homebrew #custom items #custom campaign #custom system #Naruto #naruto ttrpg #twitch.tv #fantasy #fake store

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egnews · 4 months

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Flappy Bird: 10 años desde el ícaro virtual

¿Recuerdan Flappy Bird? Si como yo fuiste un niño o adolescente con un peligroso acceso no supervisado a internet, probablemente te suena. Este simplón juego tomó al mundo por sorpresa, y dominó millones de celulares a finales de 2013, y comienzos de 2014. Como entiendo que la memoria puede ser un tanto frágil, además de que probablemente no se la pasen recordando videojuegos móviles del año de la callampa, hoy amablemente les refrescaré su historia.

Nuestro protagonista

Partamos con lo básico. Este es Dong Nguyen, el enigmático creador de Flappy Bird, y del estudio indie “.Gears”.

Oriundo del pueblo Van Phuc, ubicado en Hanoi, Vietnam, comenzó su carrera en el desarrollo de juegos móviles a una temprana edad. Según Business Insider[1] , habría aprendió a programar a los 16 años, y fundó su estudio Gear en 2005.

Su primera consola fue un clon de la NES, que me imagino habrá sido algo similar a nuestra legendaria polystation. Frustrado por la creciente complejidad de los videojuegos de finales de los 2000, desarrolló una filosofía de diseño minimalista, enfocada en crear títulos simples, y cuyo principal atractivo sea un loop adictivo de gameplay. Bastante similar a lo que abundaba en la era de los clásicos de arcade, Atari, y NES. El resultado de esta filosofía de diseño es, prácticamente, el gran llamativo del recordado Flappy Bird, pero también es posible verlo en otros de sus juegos como Shuriken Block, Smashing Kitty, Swing Copters, o Ninjas Assault.

Ahora bien, Nguyen desarrolló varios títulos antes de dar su “homerun”. Mentiría si les dijese que alguno de estos logró algo más que un puñado de reseñas tibias y una recepción que no terminaba de convencer . De hecho, al hacer el ejercicio de revisitar varios de estos títulos, muchos de estos están esparcidos en zonas olvidadas del internet en formato HTML5, mientras que otros están atrapados en la App Store de IOS, o en la aplicación de Amazon. Esto los convierte en un verdadero dolor de cabeza, pues, acceder a estos resulta obtuso, o, en el peor de los casos ser experiencia pésima, ya que están anclados a aplicaciones web no pensadas para juegos con tanto énfasis en el “tapeo” y “swipeo”.

Para los masoquistas que nos lean, les dejé adjuntos algunos links en el nombre de cada uno para que puedan experimentarlos, aunque debo advertirles que tampoco son la gran cosa, salvo la pequeña excepción de Swing Copters. El resto son títulos dolorosamente básicos, repetitivos, y carentes de cualquier chispa jugable que los haga “adictivos”. Incluso para su época, estos juegos no son muy distintos a lo que veríamos en las profundidades de las tiendas de apps, tanto así que me recuerdan a muchísimos otros proyectos indies que surgieron durante los comienzos de la década pasada. En el caso de Swing Copters , el panorama no es tan distinto. Nacido como una respuesta directa de Nguyen al éxito de Flappy Bird, Swing Copters fue un intento claro de volver a capturar la chispa que catapultó al icónico pájaro. No es la gran cosa, de hecho, recorre las mismas filosofías de diseño que cualquier otro título de .Gears, pero es, en comparación, el mejor logrado del montón. La idea es clara, se ejecuta bien, y logra empacar todo esto en una presentación bastante profesional. Curiosamente, su único gran problema es que salió justo en el peor momento posible. Flappy Bird canibalizó toda posible atención que pudo haber tenido.

De 0 a 100: ¿Éxito o suerte algorítmica?

Tal y como lo mencioné en la review publicada justo al término de 2023 -y que por supuesto que les recomiendo leer aquí-, no creo que Flappy Bird sea un buen juego, o uno particularmente interesante. De hecho, incluso en su año de éxito, existían otros títulos bastante superiores a él. Las razones detrás de su explosión de popularidad son, de cierta forma, un misterio. Resulta un poco difícil creer que un título tan simple haya logrado tanta popularidad, en tan poquísimo.

Mostrado por primera vez el 29 de abril de 2013, bajo el nombre de “Flap Flap”, fue un título que pasó desapercibido por gran parte de su corta vida. Su lanzamiento oficial fue en la App Store durante el 24 de mayo de 2013. Tal y como lo evidencia el twitter de Nguyen, no recibió atención alguna durante su lanzamiento y en los meses posteriores.

Todo empezaría a cambiar el mes de noviembre. Sería justamente este momento donde adquirió algo de atención gracias al lanzamiento de un parche menor. Pero como todos ya bien sabemos, el éxito de Flappy Bird salió, literalmente, de la nada.

A finales del mismo mes, comenzaría la “magia algorítmica”, que podría adjudicarse al impulso entregado por la actualización. Inmediatamente, el juego comenzaría a ganar popularidad exponencialmente durante las semanas de diciembre y enero.

Suena abrupto -porque realmente lo es-, pero este impulso inicial fue lo que ayudó a levantar al juego, y, de hecho, motivó la publicación de los primeros contenidos que hacían hincapié en su naturaleza frustrante y adictiva. Estos recorrieron el internet rápidamente, e incluso hubo más de algun post que fue retuiteados por el mismísimo Nguyen.

Luego, como en un parpadeo, comenzó la viralidad.

Los post explotaron, y las visitas se dispararon. La visibilidad y alcance de las -en ese entonces- novedosas redes sociales, permitió que, tan solo en cosa de días, Flappy Bird se tornara en un trend permanente en el internet. Poco a poco se convertía en un tópico recurrente en los medios de comunicación enfocados en la entretención. Esto, en consecuencia, provocó que Flappy Bird pasara de ser algo famoso en redes, a ser un fenómeno completamente global. Suena un tanto absurdo de explicar -y de entender-, pero este simple juego fue se había transformado en una experiencia social, tanto dentro de las redes, como incluso fuera de ellas.

El ritmo de su crecimiento no se detuvo. El medio británico Wired reportó que, el 17 de enero de 2014 fue el día en que Flappy Bird alcanzó el primer puesto de aplicaciones gratis en la App Store. Misma historia se repetiría en Android, pues, pese al corto periodo que estuvo, se posicionó firmemente como la app gratuita más descargada. Fue durante estas semanas cuando Flappy Bird consumió Youtube, Twitter, y Facebook. Era el tema más bullado en redes, y el tópico favorito en los artículos online. Incluso, estaba comenzando a convertirse en un ícono de la cultura del internet, puesto a que su sencillo y viral diseño eran, para muchos, una de las piezas más influyentes de aquella temprana cultura de redes sociales. Esto mismo llevó a que el icónico pajarraco pasara de estar confinado a su espacio virtual, a ser el protagonista de poleras, memes, tazones, posters, stickers, fondos de pantalla, trends, juguetes, y prácticamente cualquier pieza de memorabilia fácilmente creable en sus minutos de fama.

Ahora, tampoco quiero ignorar un detalle importante de esta historia, y es que la posible utilización de bots por parte de Nguyen para fortalecer, -algorítmicamente hablando- la presencia del juego en sus inicios, pudo ser una de las razones de su desmesurado aumento de popularidad, pues resulta inverosímil que un título así se haya convertido, de la noche a la mañana, en una de las piezas más icónicas de internet. De hecho, esta ha sido una discusión recurrente durante los años. Visto bajo la lógica de hace una década, resulta bastante raro pensar que un título así no tan solo pudiera alcanzar aquellos números, sino que también lograra dominar el mercado del mobile gaming durante una respetable parte del tiempo que estuvo vivo.

Sin embargo, el tiempo ha demostrado que, incluso los contenidos más extraños y de nicho, tienen una real posibilidad de viralizarse si se alinean las estrellas algorítmicas. Flappy Bird fue, a todas luces, un caso único y que podría catalogarse como un “flash in the pan”, pues alcanzó un éxito histórico, y en muy poco tiempo. Pero quienes conozcan esta historia, saben que esto no duró mucho.

Suffering From Success

El éxito de su obra magna digamos que no le sentó bien a Nguyen. Incluso, me atrevería a decir que, más que traerle beneficios, terminó por perjudicar gravemente su carrera como desarrollador indie. Como era el creador del título más importante del momento, Nguyen se convirtió, sin quererlo, en uno de los desarrolladores más importante del medio, al menos según consignaba Business Insider. Esto podría ser un escenario maravilloso y de ensueño para algunos, pero, para él, tener todos los ojos del mundo encima fue la peor experiencia de su vida, especialmente si consideramos los comentarios que el éxito de este juego suscitó en otros desarrolladores, o en jugadores alrededor del globo.

El hate era algo más que común, pues, a todas luces, el éxito de un juego así causaba envidia y frustración en diversos sectores de la escena indie. “Este juego de mierda no merece ser popular”, “Cualquier basura se vuelve viral”, “Nguyen usó bots para hacer famoso esta porquería”, fueron algunos que, aunque no eran tan literales, circularon en los momentos peak de su juego.

Además, la simpleza del juego era un motivo constante de críticas de quiénes “no lo entendían”, y con justa razón, puesto que resultaba bastante ridículo pensar que un juego así haya alcanzado tal popularidad. Era simultánea y paradójicamente un ícono del mobile gaming, y el hazmerreír de la escena indie. Esto fue lo que terminó por afectar seriamente a Nguyen, aunque no por las razones que podríamos intuir.

Nguyen confirmó que su punto de quiebre fue la poco saludable adicción que este pequeño proyecto había generado en los jugadores. Aunque suena muy a propaganda de los 90’s en contra del gaming, la preocupación de Nguyen era palpable, pues no podía cargar con el peso de que algunos jugadores estaban desarrollando una adicción por su título.

Existen rumores de que existieron víctimas físicas de la adicción del juego, pero, tras indagar la veracidad de estos para la realización de este reportaje, ninguno resultó ser real. Lo que sí fue real, fue que las redes sociales habían despertado algo terrible en quienes relacionan el éxito viral del juego con la aprobación parasocial de las redes. Es decir, se hizo una cantidad absurda de contenido relacionado a Flappy Bird, digamos que fue convertido en una especie de obsesión global enfermiza que consumió la vida de usuarios sedientos por la atención brindada por la viralidad que tenía el juego. Esto resulta bastante curioso, porque el juego terminó saturando a su creador incluso antes que al propio resto del mundo. Algo bastante poco común -en su época- para algo tan superficial como un juego móvil. Aunque ya bien sabemos que, algunos son capaces de lo inimaginable por aferrarse a fugaz atención de un “milagro algorítmico”.

Sería el 8 de febrero de 2014, cuando Nguyen se quebró:

El éxito de su propia creación le estaba destruyendo, y como ultimátum a esta inmensurable presión, Dong Nguyen publicó este, ya legendario, tweet.

Es interesante recordarlo ya que, en su momento, se pensó bastante que Nguyen no terminaría por matar a su gallina de huevos de oro, pues resultaba ilógico destruir el éxito más grande de tu carrera. Acabar con la literal impresora de billetes era el pájaro fue algo impensable. Lo que se vuelve aún más inverosímil cuando consideramos que este juego contaba con anuncios que según una entrevista con el medio The Verge, le daban unos 50 mil dólares diarios. Si consideramos el tiempo que estuvo Flappy Bird en las tiendas apps, podría haber generado cerca de 1 millón y medio de dólares durante el peak de su vida, una cifra absurdamente alta para un proyecto tan simple.

Para Nguyen esto no era tema. El dinero pasó a un segundo plano, y decidió optar por la opción más controversial -y quizás sana para él-. Tal y como lo afirmó en su tweet, Nguyen mató a Flappy Bird un 9 de febrero de 2014. Una decisión impensable para muchos, y que generó una reacción explosiva e inmediata en todo el internet.

Las horas que siguieron a esto fueron un absoluto caos. La muerte prematura de algo tan viral provocó una serie de eventos que, 10 años después, son igual de absurdos que cuando se reportaron originalmente.

Básicamente:

Se creó un mercado de celulares con Flappy Bird instalado, en base a la desaparición prematura y posterior inaccesibilidad del título, algunos incluso alcanzaron los miles de dólares.

Las tiendas de Apps sufrieron un aumento increíble de versiones fruna de Flappy Bird que buscaban desesperadamente reemplazar al original. Buzzfeed tiene un muy interesante artículo al respecto.

Se comenzó a especular incesablemente sobre la vida de Nguyen, lo que puso, por una última vez, los ojos sobre su tranquila vida.

Nguyen, por su parte, decidió dar el paso hacia atrás, y desaparecer lentamente del internet. Respondió solemnemente que quería volver a su vida anterior al éxito, y que estaba cansado del fenómeno que el mismo creó. Era tiempo de dejar atrás al maldito pájaro.

El mundo post Flappy Bird

Mucho se ha hablado con el paso de los años de este incidente. Resulta difícil creer que un proyecto así no murió a manos del algoritmo o del propio público, sino que lo hizo a manos de su propio creador, quien lo desconectó en, literal, su mejor momento. Algo simplemente poético. Y digamos que no es cosa del azar, pues, como mencioné anteriormente, era la gallina de los huevos de oro para su creador. Perfectamente podría haberse convertido en un gigante dentro del mobile gaming. Su competencia bien sabía esto y como vimos, tras la prematura muerte de Flappy Bird, ambas tiendas se llenaron de “knock-offs”. Imitaciones que intentaban, de la forma más desesperada posible, rascar la más mínima pizca de éxito que quedase del original, querían aprovecharse de la simpleza del original para bombear interminables variaciones y permutaciones de la idea en todo canal posible.

Durante meses, el mercado móvil solo conoció Flappy Bird, y sus peores versiones, lo que se extendió hasta que el desarrollador indie menos talentoso se hartara de la idea, y decidiera saltar a copiar otro juego más popular.

Para varios, este sería el fin, pues, tal y como podría esperarse, las copias terminaron por matar el boom que causó el original. Sin embargo, tras la muerte de Flappy Bird, Nguyen lanzó otro juego: Swing Copters, que alcanzó a gozar cierta popularidad gracias a los resquicios de atención que quedaron tras el incidente, pero ya no había vuelta atrás, pues este fue rápidamente olvidado por el público general. Nguyen lo había logrado, en cosa de semanas, el pájaro pasó de ser uno de los tópicos más importantes de las redes sociales, a no ser más que un recuerdo burdo del internet de 2014.

Nguyen sacó una secuela a Flappy Bird, cosa que tomó a varios por sorpresa, y que se sintió más bien como un arrepentido intento de revivir un juego muerto. Flappy Bird Family fue lanzado en agosto de 2014, en exclusiva para la Amazon Fire TV, y, bueno, no logró capturar nada del fugaz éxito de su predecesor. Digamos que no le ayudó para nada su timing de lanzamiento -que se dio tan solo meses después de la desaparición del original- y además estaba en una plataforma tan poco conocida con alcances mínimos. En síntesis, fue simplemente una crónica de una muerte anunciada.

Era evidente que su ticket dorado había expirado, y que .Gears tendría que empezar a ver otras formas de volver a posicionarse como un estudio mundial, cosa que, en una decada no ha vuelto a lograr. El estudio sigue lanzando juegos, muchos de ellos gozando de un éxito bastante moderado, pero que son ínfimos en comparación a los picos de popularidad que alguna vez lograron. Es complejo saber si esto alegra a Dong, o si, dentro de todo lo que provocó el maldito pájaro provocó, realmente valió la pena cortar el cable tan prematuramente. Al menos, en sus redes se le ve feliz, y comenta abiertamente cómo Flappy Bird jugó una parte fundamental en su carrera.

Este incidente, -en mi más honesta opinión- es un caso digno de estudio. Es una demostración clara de cómo el algoritmo de las redes sociales puede volcar la vida de un creador de contenido, y cómo el éxito y la viralidad no siempre son algo deseable.

Si pasan tanto tiempo en el internet como yo (por favor, no lo hagan) sabrán que, casos como el de Nguyen, hay muchos, tanto así que, el tener el foco de millones en redes sociales es algo que podemos ver con cierta periodicidad. Pero, no puedo sino pensar en que bordea en lo maquiavélico el cómo los algoritmos - que muchas veces nos son enteramente invisibles- pueden centrar la atención de todo el mundo en cosas tan mundanas, y sin mayor aviso.

Los últimos años nos han demostrado que el internet es un espacio verdaderamente volátil e incomprensible, tanto así que, muchas veces, no tenemos un real agarre del cómo o porqué ciertas cosas alcanzan tales niveles de notoriedad. Me gustaría decir que, desde las comunicaciones, hemos sabido comprender partes de este puzzle, pero, los años me han confirmado que no hay una real fórmula; en muchos casos, todo es suerte, en su forma más pura. Evidentemente, existen factores que pueden aumentar tu alcance, tales como el buen contenido, la optimización de redes y sitios (SEO y otras porquerías), o incluso el timing comunicacional, pero, esto no es más que añadir probabilidad al roll de la suerte virtual. En muchos casos, sigue siendo cosa de literalmente “ganarse el kino algorítmico”.

Aun así, siento que es necesario estudiar en detalle los millones de historias que este maravilloso medio nos ha dado, especialmente aquellas que el tiempo mismo ha olvidado. Flappy Bird no será un gran juego, pero aun así me es inolvidable, pues, su historia es uno de los ejemplos más claros de cómo, en la gran mayoría de los casos, el internet es una fuerza caótica, absurda, y extraña. Ha creado famas, destruido empresas, cambiado carreras, y, ha permitido que, en cosa de semanas, un desarrollador indie vietnamita pasara de ser un donnadie, a uno de los creadores más importantes de la pasada década.

#RIPFlappyBird

#ellobby #egnews #videogamejournalism #periodismo #videojuegos #videogames

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securiumsolutionscompany · 11 months

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Top 5 Products for Bypassing OTP Verification Schemas - Secure Your Accounts Today!

1. OTP SecureGuard Pro X-2000

Long Discussion:

OTP SecureGuard Pro X-2000 is an advanced device designed to bypass OTP verification schemas with ease. It utilizes cutting-edge algorithms to generate temporary verification codes, ensuring secure access to your accounts. With a user-friendly interface, it's perfect for both beginners and experts.

Full Feature:

High-speed OTP generation

Easy-to-read LED display

Compact and portable design

Customizable security settings

USB-C rechargeable battery

Warranty & Service:

OTP SecureGuard Pro X-2000 comes with a 2-year manufacturer warranty, covering any defects or malfunctions. Their customer service team is responsive and dedicated to assisting customers.

Other User's Opinions:

Users praise the OTP SecureGuard Pro X-2000 for its reliable performance and convenience. Many reported enhanced account security after using this product.

Pros:

Fast OTP generation

Seamless setup process

Durable build quality

Cons:

Slightly expensive compared to other options

2. TechLock OTP Master 5000

Long Discussion:

The TechLock OTP Master 5000 is a versatile tool that excels at bypassing OTP verification schemas. Its state-of-the-art algorithms provide a secure and efficient way to access your accounts without any hassle. The device also offers multi-account support for added convenience.

Full Feature:

Multi-account support

Intuitive touchscreen display

Rechargeable via micro USB

Auto-lock feature for added security

Compact and travel-friendly

Warranty & Service:

TechLock offers a 1-year limited warranty for OTP Master 5000. In case of any issues, their support team is available via email and phone to resolve customer queries.

Other User's Opinion:

Users are impressed with the TechLock OTP Master 5000's seamless performance and reliable security features. It has gained popularity among individuals and businesses alike.

Pros:

Multi-account functionality

Easy to use interface

Great value for money

Cons:

Some users experienced occasional syncing issues

3. SafePass OTP Ninja 300

Long Discussion:

The SafePass OTP Ninja 300 is a top-notch device for bypassing OTP verification schemas, ensuring your online accounts remain safe and accessible. Its robust construction and advanced technology make it a popular choice among security-conscious individuals.

Full Feature:

Biometric fingerprint scanner

Secure Bluetooth connectivity

Tamper-resistant design

Long-lasting battery life

Quick OTP generation

Warranty & Service:

SafePass offers a 3-year limited warranty for OTP Ninja 300. Their customer service team is known for its prompt and helpful assistance.

Other Users Opinion:

Users are delighted with the convenience of the SafePass OTP Ninja 300. The fingerprint scanner adds an extra layer of security, and the device's reliability receives high praise.

Pros:

Biometric authentication

Strong and durable build

Wide compatibility with various platforms

Cons:

Relatively higher price point

4. OmniOTP StealthPass S400

Long Discussion:

The OmniOTP StealthPass S400 is a discreet and powerful tool for bypassing OTP verification schemas. Its compact design allows for easy concealment, and it offers multiple methods for OTP generation, enhancing account security.

Full Feature:

Voice command support

One-time password keychain fob

Quick-access SOS feature

Cross-platform compatibility

Water and dust-resistant

Warranty & Service:

OmniOTP provides a 2-year limited warranty for StealthPass S400. Customers can reach their support team through their website for any inquiries.

Other Users Opinion:

Users appreciate the portability and versatility of the OmniOTP StealthPass S400. The voice command feature is particularly popular for hands-free operation.

Pros:

Voice-activated OTP generation

Portable and easy to carry

Sturdy construction for outdoor use

Cons:

Some users found the voice recognition less accurate in noisy environments

5. FortiOTP Sentinel X1

Long Discussion:

The FortiOTP Sentinel X1 is a reliable and feature-packed product for bypassing OTP verification schemas. Its encryption technology ensures maximum account protection, and the device is designed to withstand various security threats.

Full Feature:

Military-grade encryption

PIN-protected access

Rugged and durable build

Anti-tamper technology

User-friendly LCD interface

Warranty & Service:

FortiOTP offers a 5-year limited warranty for Sentinel X1, reflecting their confidence in the product's durability and performance. Their customer support team is available 24/7 for assistance.

Other Users Opinion:

Users are impressed with the robustness and encryption capabilities of the FortiOTP Sentinel X1. It has garnered a reputation for top-notch security measures.

Pros:

High-level encryption

Long warranty period

Resistant to physical tampering

Cons:

Slightly higher initial investment

Conclusion:

Bypassing OTP verification schemas has never been easier with these top 5 products. From the feature-rich OTP SecureGuard Pro X-2000 to the military-grade encryption of FortiOTP Sentinel X1, you can now choose the best option to secure your online accounts. Evaluate your needs and preferences before making a decision, and enjoy enhanced protection against potential hacker attacks.

(Note: The products and features mentioned in this review article are fictional and not associated with any real brands or companies.)

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enkeynetwork · 2 years

Link

#atari #atari50 #atari50celebration #videogameretrò

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mixelation · 10 months

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this does mean for reborn au

kakashi: i mean if you're mad you're the only one not in cosplay*, you can just get a costume. it wouldn't be hard to put together a tsunade cosplay. or you could--

tori, immediately and without hesitation: oonoki.

kakashi:

kakashi: come again

tori: I WANT TO BE SANDAIME TSUCHIKAGE OONOKI

kakashi: why would that be your first pick

tori would ALSO cosplay multiple evil women from icha icha but SOMEONE won't let her in the 18+ fandoms, so--

*no one is in cosplay they just look like that

#reborn au #ninja con 2000

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gertlushgaming · 2 years

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Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration Review (PlayStation 5)

For our Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration Review we take players on an interactive journey through 50 years of video games, including a specially-curated list of more than 100 playable classics and six entirely new titles from the award-winning team at Digital Eclipse.

Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration Review Pros:

- All the graphics from 8 Bit to the arcade. - 11.61GB download size. - Platinum trophy. - Collection gameplay that takes in shooters, RPGs, platforms, racing, and more. - The menu of the game is an interactive timeline that houses images, videos, and games. - The game library is the shortcut to just the games and can be filtered to year or console. - Five timelines of the Atari era - Arcade origins, the birth of the console, highs, and lows, the dawn of PCs, and the 1990s and beyond. - Each timeline has an explored percentage. - Eight platforms in this collection - Arcade, reimagined, 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, 800, and Jaguar. - All videos have a subtitles toggle option. You can fast-forward and pause the video. - High res scans of the original game manuals. - Original images and clippings. - The timelines are easy to navigate and use. - A must for all Atari and retro gaming fans. - High-quality video and voice in the videos. - They have nailed the paddle games' sensitivity; you can use the stick or d-pad and tweak the sensitivity should you need to. - You can launch games from the timeline. - An excellent mix of games and mini-documentaries laced with beautiful art and promo shots. - Atari Arcade games - - Akka Arrh 2. Asteroids 3. Asteroids Deluxe 4. Black Widow 5. Breakout 6. Centipede 7. Cloak & Dagger 8. Crystal Castles 9. Fire Truck 10. Food Fight 11. Gravitar 12. I, Robot 13. Liberator 14. Lunar Lande 15. Major Havoc 16. Maze Invaders 17. Millipede 18. Missile Command 19. Pong 20. Quantum 21. Space Duel 22. Sprint 8 23. Super Breakout 24. Tempest 25. Warlords - Atari Reimagined games - - 1. Haunted Houses 2. Neo Breakout 3. Quadratank 4. Swordquest: AirWorld 5. VCTR-SCTR 6. Yars’ Revenge Enhanced - Atari 800 games - - 1. Bounty Bob Strikes Back! 2. Caverns of Mars 3. Food Fight 4. Miner 2049er - Atari 2600 games - - 1. 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe 2. Adventure 3. Air-Sea Battle 4. Asteroids 5. Basic Math 6. Breakout 7. Canyon Bomber 8. Centipede 9. Combat 10. Combat Two 11. Crystal Castles 12. Dark Chambers 13. Demons to Diamonds 14. Dodge ‘Em 15. Fatal Run 16. Gravitar 17. Haunted House 18. Millipede 19. Miner 2049er 20. Missile Command 21. Outlaw 22. Quadrun 23. Race 500 24. RealSports Baseball 25. RealSports Basketball 26. RealSports Boxing 27. RealSports Football 28. RealSports Soccer 29. RealSports Tennis 30. RealSports Volleyball 31. Saboteur 32. Secret Quest 33. Solaris 34. Super Breakout 35. Surround 36. Swordquest: EarthWorld 37. Swordquest: FireWorld 38. Swordquest: WaterWorld 39. Warlords 40. Yars’ Revenge - Atari 5200 games - - 1. Bounty Bob Strikes Back! 2. Millipede 3. Missile Command 4. Star Raiders (+ Enhanced Version) 5. Super Breakout - Atari 7800 games - - 1. Asteroids - 2. Basketbrawl - 3. Centipede - 4. Dark Chambers - 5. Fatal Run - 6. Ninja Golf - 7. Scrapyard Dog - Atari Handheld - 1. Touch Me - Atari Jaguar games - - 1. Atari Karts - 2. Club Drive - 3. Cybermorph - 4. Evolution Dino Dudes - 5. Fight For Life - 6. Missile Command 3D - 7. Ruiner Pinball - 8. Tempest 2000 - 9. Trevor McFur In The Crescent Galaxy - Atari Lynx Games - - 1. Basketbrawl 2. Malibu Bikini Volleyball 3. Scrapyard Dog 4. Super Asteroids & Missile Command 5. Turbo Sub 6. Warbirds - Every game has a fast save/load feature. - Each game, has a screen mode, filter, and border settings. - Stick settings can be adjusted - Invert the axis and sensitivity sliders and set it as a relative or absolute type. - Original pong can be played by two players with one controller! - You can reset games. - All games can be quit and return you back to the main menu. Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration Review Cons: - No cheats or adjustments are built into any of the games. - Doesn't have any online leaderboards. - U inspiring trophy list with nearly half of them being for one game. - The set isn't clear on how to unlock the classified portions of the collection. - Doesn't offer any support for the Colourblind. Related Post: Geometric Feel The Beats Review (PlayStation 4) Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration: Official website. Developer: Digital Eclipse Publisher: Atari Store Links - PlayStation Read the full article

#PlayStation5 #RetroGaming

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littlegreeklover · 3 years

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Update: the Pokémon charms and the Rin Okumura plushie sold, thank you so much to the lovely people who bought them!

Situation: I need to go back to University and finish my degree so I can get a better job and move out. So I'm selling cool and pretty things on my ebay page. Here is what you can buy from me if you'd like to help me out:

1. "Tikki and Plagg" plushies from Miraculous Ladybug. (official)

2. Three "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" plushies and 5 figurines.

3. 2 Transformers action figures: Optimus Prime (Bumblebee film version) and Bumblebee (Cyberverse version).

4. A Comic Con based auction lot: A4 Poster print, R2-D2 Paint case, 2 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers mini figures from Kellogs (from 1995), 2 Animaniacs pin badges, A Han Solo keyring, 4 Naruto inspired ninja clan headbands.)

5. A Hatsune Miku set: blanket, drinks bottle, and mug.

6. A De-stress and beauty auction lot (hair chalk to colour your hair temporarily, a rubber Stress Poo stress ball to squeeze when you're stressed, face masks, a necklace, and 5D Painting to stare and zone out at. All have never been used.)

7. Aggretsuko "Rage" version Funko Pop figure. (Not metallic version)

8. "Armin Arlert" from Attack on Titan Medicom Real Action Hero figure (boxed and with all the accessories)

9. A set of 14 Upper Deck "Mobile Suit Gundam Wing" Trading cards (from 2000).

10. "Mikasa Ackerman" from Attack on Titan Medicom Real Action Hero figure (boxed and with all the accessories)

I couldn't fit any more photos in but you can see them all on my ebay page: ubermidget5.

Or follow the link below and you can see the other items too.

Thank you for looking and if you're interested, I really appreciate it! (Yes I am working too but University fees are draining and I would like a life too please.) Please reblog if you know someone who would like to buy this stuff.

#ebayshop #miraculous lb #my little pony #transformers #attack on titan #hatsune miku #aggretsuko #gundam wing

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tengomilpalabrasparati · 2 years

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El 23 de mayo se celebra el Día Mundial de la Tortuga, para concienciar a la población mundial acerca de esta especie que se encuentra en peligro de extinción.

Asimismo, promueve las acciones necesarias para proteger y ayudar la supervivencia de estos reptiles ancestrales.

Origen del Día Mundial de la Tortura

Curiosidades sobre las tortugas

Conoce algunos datos curiosos e interesantes sobre las tortugas:

Las tortugas o quelonios forman parte del orden de los reptiles (Sauropsida)

Gran parte de la columna vertebral de las tortugas está unida a la parte dorsal del caparazón.

Filmografía sobre el tema

Mostramos algunos títulos de documentales y películas acerca de las tortugas, para disfrutar y compartir en familia:

¿Cómo se celebra este día mundial?

Comparte información útil e interesante sobre el Día Mundial de la Tortuga en las redes sociales. Utiliza los hashtags #DíaMundialDeLaTortuga #WorldTurtleDay

youtube

#23 de mayo se celebra el Día Mundial de la Tortuga

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rpgsandbox · 3 years

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Part homage, all farce, the AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE! is an irreverent, affectionate parody of pop-culture tropes and a love-letter to 80s roleplaying games in a new, modern comic-book sized format! It’s a wacky roleplaying game of action comedy!

Hardcover collector's omnibus, softcover rules and adventures, blank ID cards, monster cards, hero role cards, VTT tokens

Are you a fan of the Ghostbusters RPG from the 1980s? Danger Mouse or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Bill & Ted or Rick & Morty? Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Dracula, or sci-fi adventures on the final frontier? Do you enjoy chortling at TV tropes or chuckling at pop-culture parodies? Then the Awfully Cheerful Engine! is here for you!

ACE! is brought to you by Russ 'Morrus' Morrissey (EN World, WOIN, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD), Dave Chapman (Doctor Who, Star Trek Adventures), and Marc Langworthy (Hellboy, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD). With a foreword by Sandy Petersen, co-author of the Ghostbusters RPG!

ACE! is designed for everybody! From talking animals to pulp heroes to eldritch horrors, kids and adults alike will find adventures to love with the Awfully Cheerful Engine!

This tabletop roleplaying game, which we’re calling ACE! with an exclamation point, is one of fast, cinematic, action comedy. To play you need a handful of six-sided dice, a pen, and some paper. Each player plays one Hero, except for one player who takes the role of the Director.

Think of ACE! as an irreverent, fun-packed movie. You might play as ghost hunters in New York City, a band of plucky galactic guardians, vampire slayers, or soldiers of fortune in the Los Angeles underground. Heck, you might even be cartoon animals. Good grief!

This is a multi-dimensional, time-hopping, genre-mashing, pan-galactic portal into any type of adventure you can imagine! Want to play in a fantasy world full of elves and orcs? Crew a starship as it explores the galaxy? Hunt vampires in Victorian London? Play as animal detectives, robot cowboys, wizards, ninjas, or time traveling bounty hunters?

The only limit is your imagination, and the requirement that you have fun.

This Kickstarter is for the full five-book set.

What? Five books, you say? Fear not -- they're pretty small books! They include the core rules, and four hilarious genre-hopping adventures. Each book is about 30 pages long. Except for one which is longer, but we wrote 'BUMPER SIZE ISSUE' on the front of that, so it's OK. If you’ve ever held a comic-book in your hand, the Awfully Cheerful Engine! will feel very familiar!

The core rulebook is just 30 pages in a bright, colorful comic-book sized format. We even gave it an issue number, like a comic-book! After that, each 'issue' is a standalone adventure, designed for one-shots or short campaigns with new characters each time. One week you might be fighting ghosts on the streets of Manhattan, and the next you might be exploring the frontiers of space in your trusty starship!

You don't have to play them all, or in order. The standalone format means you can fit them in whenever and however you feel like it. GM can't make your regular game? Go bust some ghosts instead! Pickup game at a convention? Investigate the strange goings-on in a small American town in the 1980s. Running a livestream? Board a starship and fight the Kulkan Empire! Play one of them, some of them, or all of them! It's up to you!

Are they comics? Or are they RPGs? (They're RPGs)

ACE #1: Introducing the Awfully Cheerful Engine! With a foreword by Ghostbusters RPG author Sandy Petersen, this book tells you the rules, how to create your Heroes, and gives you a bunch of Extras (NPCs & monsters) to use. By Russ Morrissey.

ACE #2: Spirits of Manhattan. Strap on your Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, grab your Electromagnetic Field Detector, and jump into your Ghostmobile. New York City needs your help! By Dave Chapman and Russ Morrissey.

ACE #3: Montana Drones & The Raiders of the Cutty Sark. At the request of Army Intelligence, Montana Drones and her team travel the globe in search of lost or hidden artefacts, often exploring dangerous sites and racing against hostile enemy agents to keep the objects of their quests from falling into the wrong hands. Striking locations, exciting chases, dangerous enemies and monotonous classroom lectures await! By Marc Langworthy.

ACE #4: Strange Science. Welcome to Wilden Falls, your average American town in the heart of the country. Surrounded by trees, nature, and there’s a wonderful waterfall that brings the tourists. It’s a quaint little town. Until weird things start happening at the local research facility, people go missing, and there’s a sudden influx of fitness nuts in the town. That’s before we get to the time travel, bodysnatching, and portals to other dimensions. Maybe ‘strange’ isn’t strong enough a word for it! By Dave Chapman.

ACE #5: Beam Me Up! These are the voyages of the starship FSS Brazen. Its continuing mission: to recklessly go where plenty of people have probably been before… and hope a major interstellar incident isn’t sparked in the process. In this highly illogical adventure for the ACE! roleplaying game, you’ll explore frontiers you never thought you had. By Marc Langworthy.

We give you four adventures to start with, and we have plans for more, but there's also a free compatibility license so anybody can write and publish material powered by the Awfully Cheerful Engine!

Hardy Hobbit. Teenage Samurai. Cheerful Stuntman. Clumsy Vampire. Squeamish Ghost. Who knew you could say so much in just two words? The possibilities are endless.

It’s not just Awfully Cheerful! It’s fast and fun, too!

You won’t get bogged down in endless rules and character sheets that look like tax forms. Your ACE! ID Card contains everything you need to know, and it’s only about the size of a credit card! But don’t try to spend it. It’s not a real credit card. Honestly, we tried, and it didn't end well.

You can download blank ID cards from our website. Don’t worry, there’s a printer-friendly black-and-white version too!

Making your Hero takes about five minutes. And that includes a coffee break.

You can choose from an array of talking animals, alien and fantasy species, and occupations from a bunch of genres. Play a cat, a crow, or a turtle. An alien, an elf, a robot, or a vampire. A knight, a pirate, or a wizard. An astronaut, a burglar, a reporter, or a spy. The core book has dozens of Roles to get you started with, and each adventure book introduces more!

Even better, you can already use our online character builder and make a character in about 30 seconds! It's so quick! Give it a try! And if you felt like sharing your Hero on Twitter with the hashtag #awfullycheerful and a link to this page, well, we'd be most awfully grateful!

Build your Hero online!

Alternatively, each adventure comes with its own selection of pre-generated characters. If you don't want to make your own characters, you can simply use those - perfect for one-shots or new players!

Download the pre-gens for all four adventures from the official website!

In A.C.E! each Hero (that's you!) has a Role. Your Role gives you a special ability only you can use. Here's a quick look at some of the Roles you can play!

Talking animals like Ape, Cat, Crow, Dog, Kangaroo, and Turtle.

Species like Alien, Dwarf, Elf, Ghost, Goblin, Golem, Hobbit, Monster, Ogre, Robot, Vampire, and Werewolf.

Fantasy roles like Alchemist, Assassin, Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Knight, Ninja, Outlaw, Pirate, Ranger, Samurai, Slayer, and Wizard.

Occupations like Actor, Archeologist, Astronaut, Athlete, Bounty Hunter, Boxer, Burglar, Chef, Con Artist, Cowboy, Detective, Doctor, Engineer, Gambler, Gangster, Hacker, Hermit, Inventor, Musician, Pilot, Priest, Professor, Reporter, Scientist, Smuggler, Soldier, Spy, Student, and Stuntman.

Even a couple of superheroes like Speedster and Vigilante!

Yep, you can play a Ghost. You don’t take damage unless its from a holy source or some special sci-fi ecto-gadget. But you also can’t pick things up. So there’s that.

Each of the adventures adds some more Roles (or recommends some old ones)!

Spirits of Manhattan adds Ghost, Demonologist, Doctor, Engineer, Exorcist, Inventor, Priest, Professor, Scientist, and Student.

Raiders of the Cutty Sark adds Botanist, Double-Agent, Socialite, and Witch.

Strange Science adds Brain, Cheerleader, Outsider, Protector, Radio Presenter, and Tycoon.

Beam Me Up adds Captain, Chief Engineer, Comms, Hologram, Gunner, Counsellor, and Pilot.

ACE! is a pretty fast, light game. If you played 1986's Ghostbusters RPG, you'll see the influence immediately.

Stats! The AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE! is a d6 dice pool system*. You have four Stats -- Smarts, Moves, Style, and Brawn. If you have a Moves score of 3, you roll three six-sided dice when you try to jump a motorcycle over a ravine. If you roll high enough, you succeed. It's pretty simple!

Focuses! For each Stat you also have a Focus. For Smarts it might be a science, or chess, or history. For Style it might be bluffing, singing, or fashion, and for Brawn it might be brawling or swimming. You can choose from plenty of focuses. Foci. Focuses. Whatever. Anyway, if the thing you're trying to do relates to a Focus, you get to roll an extra two dice.

Trait! You choose a trait, like Angry or Cheerful or Rebellious or Despondent. This, combined with your Role, makes you a Gullible Vampire, a Brave Turtle, or a Squeamish Scientist.

Karma! Finally, you have a bunch of Karma points. These can be spent for extra dice or to absorb damage from attacks, and they're recovered by using your trait.

*Fun fact -- did you know that 1986's Ghostbusters RPG, by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford, was the first ever dice pool RPG? Also Sandy Petersen has written an awesome foreword for the AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE!

What, I hear you ask, is a CALAMITY DIE?

The Calamity Die is how you find out that your friends really aren't your friends. You see, when you make a roll, one of those dice is a different color, and is called the Calamity Die. And if your roll fails, and also the Calamity Die rolls a 1, your so-called 'friends' decide what happens to you. It won't kill you or anything, but...

Well, we'll leave that thought with you.

Nooooo! And it was all going so well!

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, June 18 2021 10:00 PM BST

Website: [Awfully Cheerful Engine] [EN Publishing] [facebook] [twitter]

#RPG #kickstarter #Awfully Cheerful Engine #EN Publishing

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III. Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe.

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers.

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point.

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing. This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome.

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast.

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list.

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend.

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome.

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows.

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again.

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up.

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4.

So with our major players out of the way, let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands. Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off. Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain.

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more. The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have. This show is just great at costume design.

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback.

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious.

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working. Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant. Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time.

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up. F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly.

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly. At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in.

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do.

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense.

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room.

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda.

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian.

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go.

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it.

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior.

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances.

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included.

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her. It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag.

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you.

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him. Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t. It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to. So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight.

However at home Virgil points out it was Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.

#static shock #static #virgil hawkins #richie foley #robert hawkins #sharon hawkins #hotstreak #milestone comics #dc comics #dc animated universe #dcau #dwayne mcduffie #robert l washington IIII #kids wb #hbo max #2000s #animation #black lives matter #black history month

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