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cartoonus-maximus · 8 months

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It's been 84 years, but we're back now with my notes, thoughts, and theory noodles about "Fazbear Frights #12: Felix the Shark."

I don't have as many theory noodles about this volume as I've had about others, in large part because of this volume's status as "noncanon." But I have a few comments and connections sprinkled throughout my notes.

I actually think the stories in this volume were really well written. Easily better written than several other stories/volumes of this series I could name but won't.

*coughcough* TheFriendlyFace *coughcough* TheBlackbird *coughcough* Fetch *coughcough* ThePuppetCarver *coughcough*

Sorry about that... just had something in my throat.

Anyway, it's nice to finally finish the series. I want to comb through it again sometime in the future, as a "I now know the ending, so let's see if all those clues and moments of foreshadowing really point to the ending properly" retrospective thing. I also want to move on to the "Tales From the Pizzaplex" series, since I see lots of theory fodder come out of those books.

As always, spoilers under the cut.

Reader beware, you're in for a scare!

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(picture of the Blåhaj shark plushie from Ikea)

"Felix the Shark"

- The story opens on a young man named Dirk, who is playing chess against his friend, Jenny. Jenny's twin brother, Gordon, watches on. The three of them plus two others, Leo and Wyatt, have been friends since junior high, and all five of them have known each other and been close for over a decade, even though they have very strong, very different personalities; it's stated that the five are largely friends because no one else will hang out with them.

- Dirk has a crush on Jenny, Jenny loves him like a brother, and Gordon cares too much about chess.

- Gordon is a mechanic, who has auburn hair and wears grey shirts; he's constantly covered in grease stains. He's very aggressive when annoyed. He and Dirk don't get along well at all, and keep getting on each other's nerves.

- Leo is a D&D nerd and active grammarian, and Wyatt is a cheerful computer whizz.

- 'Caverns & Crocodiles' is a game Dirk and Leo created, based off of a book called 'the Dogged Dogmatist.'

- People outside of his friend group tend to ignore Dirk when he talks, which he attributes to his 'chipmunk looks.'

- The five of them share pizza together in a room with a black-and-white checkered floor, which is the basement of Jenny and Gorgon's parents house. Not unusual, but the image of the floor, the pizza, and the group of 1 gal and 4 guys makes me think of FNAF1 (where there are five animations, with Chica being the only lady).

- Leo is a comic artist! (I'm jealous)

- Dirk is a book reviewer. He spent his teen years in a foster home, after the deaths of his parents and aunt. He did not have a good time.

- Jenny teaches gymnastics at a local school. She has green eyes and masculine features that resemble her brother's; Gordon is very handsome, but Jenny is considered 'unattractive' to most. She's unbothered by this.

- Gordon is a conspiracy theorist.

- All five of them have weird interests and behaviors, which have always prevented them from having very active social lives.

- The five adults reminisce about going to Freddy Fazbear's as kids. Wyatt cites Chica as his favorite character, saying that his mom made him a birthday cake that looked like Chica's cupcake one year.

- Leo mentions the coloring books at the restaurants, saying that they inspired him to start drawing himself, and cites Foxy as the inspiration of a "purple-clad superhero" character of his own comic series. The character has a scythe attached to his arm in place of a hand.

- Jenny and Gordon mention that the Freddy's they went to most as a kid had an indoor jungle gym that they always climbed on. Jenny liked dancing the music played at the restaurant, and Gordon liked watching the animatronics; he now has the conspiracy theory that the robot apocalypse will start at a Freddy's, if it hasn't secretly started already.

- Gordon: "Clearly the guy who created the Freddy's animatronics was way ahead of his time. … He had to keep [the animatronics] rudimentary for the public, but what if he had an underground laboratory? What if he created the first wave of the android army?"

- Dirk recently unearthed his old plushie from Freddy's of a shark character called Felix, and admits that he's also been having dreams about the shark. His friends don't recognize the character, and are confused when he mentions it. Dirk talks about his memories of Felix, saying that he went to a Freddy's that had a moat feature, and a massive water tank that customers could dive into to swim alongside an animatronic shark; Felix was 6 ft long, could swim freely through the water tank, and could open and close his mouth.

- The more Dirk describes the shark animatronic, the more the others ask about the safety of allowing children to climb into an enclosed tank with a toothy robot. Dirk says that, as a child, he felt a connection to Felix, saying he felt the robotic shark was the only one that understood him. Jenny suggests that Felix was an imaginary friend of some sort.

- Since Dirk's family traveled a lot when he was a child, Wyatt suggests that there was a unique Freddy's location somewhere that Dirk went to and saw Felix.

- Dirk's parents were performers of a magic act, who traveled everywhere and used Dirk as a child-sized prop in their show. They died in a car wreck. Dirk was then cared for by his aunt, but she didn't know what to do with a child, and mostly got angry at him for getting her house dirty. She later died of cancer, and Dirk no longer has any family.

- Getting angry with his friends for not believing him, Dirk sets out to travel, deciding that he's going to find Felix. He takes a list of places his parents performed in and a list of places where Freddy's used to have a building, and starts checking out all the places that overlap.

- He finds one midwestern town called Forkstop that used to be a big, bustling region before the local manufacturing plant closed down. Now the town is scrounging for money, and tries to capitalize off of the urban legends of a long-dead criminal to attract tourists. (Sounds like what happens in my neck of the woods.)

- In Forkstop, he goes for food at a diner, where he meets three local ladies named Wendy, Agnes, and Dawn. Agnes and Dawn admit to remembering a Freddy Fazbear's location that used to be in the area (Dawn says that Bonnie was her favorite, and Agnes complains about a boy animatronic having a girl's name), and give him directions to the general part of town where the Freddy's used to be, but warn him that the building isn't there anymore.

- To Dirk's surprise and relief, Agnes and Dawn remember Felix, meaning that he's in the right place. But, unlike him, they don't have fond memories of Felix - they were both terrified of Felix as little girls, and Agnes had to go to therapy to deal with the nightmares she had after swimming in the tank. In her nightmares, she got trapped in the tank with the shark and drowned.

- Dirk is confused by this, and insists that Felix was "friendly," and "wished he could leave the tank and play with the kids like the other animatronics." Dawn tells him that, if anything, the robot looked hungry. Everything they tell him about Felix is radically different from his own knowledge of the shark.

- Wendy tells him that her late husband was working as a contractor when the Freddy's closed down. She says it closed because a little boy almost drowned in the tank, and that, when the owner was forced to sell the land the Freddy's was on to a real estate developer, it was under the condition that the developer build around Freddy's, and leave the Freddy's building intact. She apologetically tells him that she's not sure what building is there now, since several new buildings were being built at the time (including a big mall, which I thought was worth noting), but gives him some general ideas.

- Wendy also tells him the rumors about the Freddy's owner. The man has since died, but, while he was alive, people thought he had a weird relationship with the shark animatronic, and it was rumored that he continued to visit Felix even long after the place was closed down.

- Dirk has to ask several people around the town, and even go to the county clerk, to figure out where Freddy's used to be. He eventually learns that a tourist-attraction waterpark was built over/around it (and that the park failed as a tourist attraction, and sits empty and dry most of the time).

- Dirk thinks the unopened waterpark looks creepy, comparing it to "a serial killer hangout, a place where zombies would march en masse, or the start of Gordon's andriod army." Because of its intention as a tourist destination, the place is decorated based on the crimes and weaponry of the infamous outlaw the town tried to capitalize off of, and the front doors to the park look like gravestones and the outlaw's murder weapons. It's been a gloomy day, and it starts to rain and thunder just as Dirk gets in under a gap in the fence.

- Dirk wanders around the park for quite while, "scouring every inch" of the place, but doesn't find the Freddy's building anywhere. Dejected, he returns to the motel room he's staying in. That night he has a dream wherein Felix visits him, begging Dirk to come back and find him, and to keep him company.

- While at the county clerk's office, Dirk got the name of the late owner of the Freddy's building, Aaron Sanders. He decides to try hunting down the man's heirs. From the woman who runs the motel he's staying in, he learns that Aaron grew up in the area, and liked to design mazes as a kid; he married his high school sweetheart, and, by the time he was 20, he was running a local sandwich shop and had a son.

- Aaron was looking into buying the local Freddy's location at around the same time he took his family (his wife, their son, and their daughter) on a vacation to the coast. Sadly, his son drowned on that vacation, and Aaron was never the same again. Aaron said that his son's body should have been washed out to sea, but a shark came along and bumped into the boy's body, sending it back to shore. The motel owner (Maud) tells Dirk that most people don't believe that part of the story but that she personally does, as she thinks it explains a lot about Aaron's later behavior.

- After the loss of their son, Aaron's wife withdraw in on herself and became depressed, dying soon after, while Aaron become obsessed with sharks and butterflies. (His son was chasing a butterfly at the beach, which lead to him falling into the water and drowning.) Aaron pushed hard to include an animatronic shark at his Freddy's establishment, to which the owners of other Freddy's franchises argued that "Freddy's doesn't have a shark character" and "including one would make [Aaron's location] inauthentic."

- Aaron's daughter, Louisa Sanders, is still alive but is a ward of the state. She's mentally not present, and is completely detached from her reality and surroundings. The motel owner explains that Louisa wrote a book once, at the behest of Aaron, and that the book was published shortly after Aaron's passing; since then, Louisa has locked herself inside her own head, and doesn't engage with the world.

- To Dirk's surprise, he realizes that Louisa Sanders wrote 'the Dogged Dogmatist' under a pseudonym, and that he knows her book inside and out. The cover of the book depicts a creature that seems like a combination of a shark and a crocodile, and the story is about a man going on a journey to find this sharkodile creature, led by a "voice of intuition he heard in his head." There are strange, disjointed phrases and words scattered throughout the book, as well as illustrations of butterflies and flowers that don't relate to anything. The book tells a story that actively encourages its readers to pick it apart and theorize about it, and Dirk has had a lot of fun in the past with his friend Leo dissecting the story and arguing for or against different interpretations. (Sounds a little like a franchise I know…)

- Contemplating the book's illustration of flowers and butterflies, Dirk starts to wonder if it's a map of some sort, relating the shapes to the layout of the waterpark.

- Dirk goes to visit Louisa, now knowing that she is both related to the Felix mystery as well as his favorite author. She's a patient in a hospital, where she has full-time caregivers. She's wearing a necklace with a pendant shaped like a zebra longwing butterfly.

- Louisa doesn't talk, but listens to him tell her his story. When he says he wants to find Felix, she smiles, takes off her necklace, and hands it to him, looking pointedly at a copy of her book. She then closes her eyes and turns away from him, signaling that she's done with him, and that he has everything he needs.

- Dirk returns to his motel room, where he has a phone conversation with his friend Leo. He asks Leo to pull out the list they made once of all the points in 'the Dogged Dogmatist' that felt unusual or too pointed. Leo reads them out loud to Dirk while Dirk writes them down for himself, thinking that they could be clues to where the Freddy's building is.

- Dirk returns to the waterpark the next day. The waterpark feels "dinghy and dark," even though it's a clear day out today.

- Now that he knows an illustration in Louisa's book is a map of the park, and that there are clues and directions hidden within the text of her book, Dirk has a pretty good idea of how and where to start looking.

- He gets startled by a rustling in one of the decorative bushes in the park, and sees two "yellow orbs" look at him for a moment, before turning away. He realized he's just spooked an animal of some sort (an opossum, he thinks), and calms down. (I like to think he's being followed by Fetch or the Friendly Face, just because I miss them.) He also hears crickets, frogs, owls, coyotes, and other small animals. (Really painting a picture of nighttime in the Southwest/Midwest region of the U.S., huh, Scott?)

- One of the clues relates to something special happening at 3:33 (whether AM or PM is not specified), so Dirk waits around for the hour to reach. (It's also an important time in numerology thought, but we're outright told that's not what's important right now.) At 3:33 PM, Dirk spots a shadow from one of the waterslides that's now shaped like an arrow, pointing at a spot in the pool. The tiles on the inside of the pool right where the arrow is pointing are shaped like a zebra longwing butterfly. Putting his ear to pool floor, Dirk can hear running water somewhere nearby. Following the sound, he finds a handle at the bottom of the pool, with a strange keyhole next to it.

- Louisa's pendant fits into this keyhole, and a hidden compartment opens. The compartment holds a key, and Dirk uses the key to open the door to the pumphouse, which he hadn't been able to get into before. A door inside the pumphouse leads him to a maze of tunnels beneath the park.

- Eventually, after searching through the tunnel maze, Dirk finds the front door of 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza,' along with the rest of the restaurant. He enters the place, and can see Felix's tank, which is full of murky water. He doesn't see Felix, but he sees that the water in his tank is moving. He can hear the water pumps for the tank humming nearby, noting that the water is being both filtered and heated, and that the machines are still running and fully operational. He approaches the opening to the tank, idly recalling that the type of handle used on the opening is called a 'dog' (explaining Louisa's book title).

- Satisfied with this knowledge, Dirk decides to swim with Felix. He undresses and puts on the diving equipment, complete with a breathing apparatus that still works. He climbs right into the tank, and the tank hatch closes behind him. (… I know exactly what's about to happen, and you probably do, too.)

- Felix appears to join Dirk for a swim, and Dirk freaks out, terrified by his former friend. Time has not been kind to the underwater animatronic, and parts of him are missing, rotted away. Dirk doesn't believe this terrifying monstrosity could have ever been his beloved Felix.

- Felix swims in circles around Dirk, and Dirk panics and screams, feeling distraught.

- "Felix's stare was empty and dead."

- Dirk rushes back to the entrance hatch of the tank, only to belatedly realize that there's no way to open the hatch from inside the tank. Trapped in the water tank, Dirk becomes stuck in the current of the water, with Felix literally nipping at his heels. Dirk realizes that he got what he wanted, he found Felix and proved that he didn't make the shark up, but that his victory is meaningless since he's going to die here and no one will even know what happened to him. . . . … That was kind of an abrupt let down of an ending, tbh. I dunno, I was expecting more fanfare rejoicing over the rediscovery of Felix, or some drama of some kind. Like Felix was possessed by Aaron Sander's dead son, or Dirk climbed into the tank and found Aaron's corpse in there or something.

… I was going to say "if this story had been used for the 'Pizzaplex' books, the title would be 'Submechaniphobia' or something," as a smarmy comment about all the '-phobia' titles in those books, but then I remembered that that literally is the title of a story in that series.

But maybe it could have been 'Galeophobia' (fear of sharks) or 'Thalassophobia' (fear of drowning) or something, idk.

Anyway.. I don't really have much in the ways of theory fodder for this one. Partially since it's """""not canon""""" and I don't know whether to try taking anything out of it or not, and partially just because everything in it seems very straight-forward, or at least compounding things we already know. Sure, I could draw parallels between different points (relating Foxy to a purple superhero = Michael being a purple character who draws himself as a superhero and is related to Foxy) (Dirk and his friends being arranged in the opening scene = the animatronic lineup in FNAF1) but like…. I don't know that those are consequential or meaningful.

During the story, I kept trying to relate Felix to Golden Freddy. Which is ridiculous, but here's my chain of thoughts: -- Dirk and his friends reminded me of the FNAF1 animatronics in the opening scene, with Jenny and Chica being the only female characters in their respective groups of five. And of the males, Dirk feels like an outsider, even among his own friends. In FNAF1, Golden Freddy is a wildcard, and feels very separate from the others: an outsider among his own group. -- A popular conception about Golden Freddy is that he represents the younger Afton boy, being both his favorite character and the cause of his death, and possibly where his spirit ended up. Felix clearly represents Aaron's son, on some level, and is specifically described as old, withered, falling apart, lifeless, and having only one eye. These are words that could also be used to describe Golden Freddy.

But ultimately, I don't think there's anything here. I don't think the characters are really connected at all. I think it's just an example of story points and imagery being reused in the franchise.

And speaking of reused imagery.. This is not the first time we've seen evidence of a father sneaking into underground tunnels to observe an animatronic that represents his dead child (William keeping tabs on Circus Baby in Sister Location), nor the first time we've seen a Freddy's building built over/around by another business (the mall in 'the Silver Eyes,' another restaurant in 'Find Player 2,' and even the Mega Pizzaplex itself in the Security Breach game).

It's possible that the idea of a Freddy's franchisee building a special robot after the death of his child, burying the Freddy's building with another business but keeping Freddy's intact, and leaving the special robot to rot hidden beneath the new place… and the robot calling someone to it with promises of friendship, saying that it's sad and lonely… It could connect to the Mimic. I don't have much to go on, but… there's a skeleton of a connection there.

(Side note: I just want to tell you that every single time I tried to write Gordon's name, I wrote 'Gorgon' instead. XD )

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"The Scoop"

- Mandy Mason is our hero of the story, a young woman with heterochromia (one brown eye and one green eye), who dyes her hair fun colors (this week it's cotton candy pink) and wears it in space buns, skateboards, and writes FNAF fanfic. She has a habit of bouncing and fidgeting, and crosses her ankles when she's nervous. She goes to a fancy prep school for girls, where she gets bullied, both for her appearance and for her hobbies and interests.

- It's specified that FNAF is a game series, seemingly without any books as part of the franchise.

- Mandy runs a blog called "the M&M Scoop."

- Mandy's parents both work, with her mom's job often taking her out of town; despite all the travel she does, Mandy's mom still makes time to video chat with her teen daughter almost every day, and fusses over Mandy's school grades and hair colors.

- Mandy has a stuffed blue elephant called "Mr. Happy," who used to belong to her brother, Bobby, who died as a baby. Picking this little friend up, Mandy settles into her bedroom, pulling up FNAF3 to play and forget her real-life problems. She also has a framed photo of her brother as a baby, which she talks to as if he's present and is her friend.

- (I'm listening to the audiobook, and the narrator insists on spelling out "FNAF" every time she says it. I'm used to hearing people say it as a single word, "fuh-naff," and hearing "Eff-en-eh-eff" throws me for a loop every time.)

- Mandy's been getting involved in the FNAF theorist community, and has been exploring the lore of the game series by herself. Right now, she's scouring the game code of FNAF3, wanting to see if she can find anything interesting in it herself. This version of the game code includes picture files of an old rundown building (which to my knowledge don't exist in the irl game code) with titles like "looks_haunted_now.jpg."

- A real life missing child's report gets posted to a FNAF theorist subreddit Mandy is a part of, detailing a 5-year-old boy who went missing 17 years ago, supposedly being taken by a man in purple. Mandy connects the mental image to fictional purple guy William Afton.

- Mandy posts the image of the house to the FNAF subreddit, asking if anyone has any ideas for what it could mean. She doesn't get any responses until the next day, and the responses she finally gets are mostly rude; no one else can find the image when they scour the game files, so they assume she's making it up for clout.

- When heading to bed, Mandy sees something red dart through her room out of the corner of her eye. When she looks for it, she doesn't see anything.

- Mandy has breakfast with her dad the next morning. Her dad calls her "cupcake" and "Mandy-bear," and teases her about staying in bed late. When she tells him about her findings in the FNAF3 code, her dad warns her that sometimes programmers leave junk files in code, placeholder words and random images, and sometimes they don't really mean anything. He suggests that the picture of a building was something the game developer used as inspiration for the in-game building design or for the story or something, which Mandy admits is a possibility. Her dad then heads to work, telling her to have a good day at school and jokes "Don't get arrested!"

- At school, Mandy gets green slime thrown over her by Melissa, the primary bully she deals with. Melissa is pretty but also on the shorter side, and Mandy thinks the mean girl looks like an evil doll. Melissa also steals Mandy's skateboard, and Mandy has to walk home.

- After scrubbing the green gunk off of her face, Mandy realizes that whatever was in it has stained her hair and her school uniform and backpack. She decides to deal with it by re-dying her hair, deciding to go with purple this time.

- Mandy doesn't want to tell her parents about the bullying, because she knows they'll take time off from their jobs to try to help her, and she would feel guilty about taking them away from their work. (Oh the emotional struggles of an only/oldest daughter…)

- Mandy's friend Lindy (a bespectacled black girl who lives in Utah, and who also hangs out on FNAF forums and writes fic) video chats with her. Lindy listens to Mandy complain about the mean comments about the picture she found. She suggests Mandy try reverse image searching the picture, to see if that tells her anything about the photo itself, or the building in it.

- The two girls talk for awhile, and play 20 Questions with each other. Lindy mentions that she's a middle-child who has one older brother and one younger brother, and she complains about her brothers being annoying, wrestling constantly, and smelling bad, and that her older brother once stole her diary and read it out loud to the whole family; they fought for a week after. Mandy listens and wishes her brother had survived, or that she had other siblings.

- While longing for her deceased brother, Mandy is startled to see a blue child-sized shoe appear at the top of the stairs in her home. The shoe promptly vanishes. She is currently home alone. The teenager picks up a baseball bat and goes to investigate, but doesn't find anything unusual in the house.

- Mandy goes back to scouring the FNAF3 game files. To her surprise and confusion, the strange picture file of the building is no longer there.

- Running the picture through an image search is helpful, pulling up many possible places for where the photo could have originated. While she looks through them, she gets suddenly cold - she turns around to get a sweater, and comes face to face with a small, 5-year-old ghost boy, wearing blue shoes, blue jeans, and a red shirt. He has messy brown hair. He looks at her from her bedroom door, then disappears when she blinks.

- Thoroughly spooked, Mandy closes and locks her bedroom door.

- Mandy has a dream during the night. In the dream, she "wakes up" to find herself lying on the floor of a warehouse of some kind, with "a dim, yellow light," "grimy walls," "a box of animatronic parts," and "a black and white checkered floor." She recognizes it as the FNAF3 location. She's visited by the ghost boy, who stands over her and stares at her "despondently."

- When Mandy tries to talk to the ghost boy, he turns and runs away. She chases after him, and he leads her through the building. She follows him into a storage room, where she finds him against the back wall, curled into the fetal position. He looks up at her, and there are no eyes in his eye sockets. When Mandy tries to talk to him again, the boy lunges at her, his mouth growing and filling with huge, sharp teeth.

- The jumpscare makes Mandy wake up from the nightmare, and she sits up in her bed, clutching her elephant friend. Her bedroom door is still closed and locked, but it doesn't make her feel better.

- Going to school with her purple hair and lack of sleep the next day, Mandy feels like a zombie of some sort, or a "bruised and beat-up punching bag." The bullies airdrop a video of herself getting slimed from the previous day, forcing her to relive the event, and joke about "breaking" her. Trying to ignore them, Mandy tries to research about ghosts and hauntings.

- Returning to her image search, Mandy finds the building on Google Maps. It's a movie theater in Peace Valley, Utah.

- Mandy mother comes home, and mentions that the next place she has to travel to is Cedar City, Utah. Mandy gets excited, because that's where her friend Lindy lives, and works to convince her mother to take her with her. She lies, telling her mother that she has a homework assignment that involves writing about the history of a small town in Utah near Cedar City.

- Mandy, about something that inconveniences her: "But that's not important." Her mother: "Don't say that. Everything about you is important!" (Finally… some good f*cking parenting.)

- After talking for a bit, her mother agrees to take Mandy with her, looking forward to spending a few extra hours with her daughter and happy that Mandy will get to spend time with her friend.

- On the plane ride to Utah, Mandy thinks she sees the ghost boy run toward the aisle of the plane. It turns out to be a normal child, flying with his family, who just happens to look similar. She relaxes again, but continues to see strange flashes of red in the corner of her vision.

- Once in Cedar Point, Mandy's mother sets her up in their hotel room. Mandy pulls out the picture of her brother from her luggage, setting him up at the window so he can see the view. (The moments with the picture of her deceased brother are sad, but also extremely sweet.) She then calls Lindy, and they arrange to meet up the following day.

- Mandy gets on a bus and goes to the Cedar Point city hall, where she learns about the mysterious old theater in Peace Valley (which she's learned is only 20 minutes away from Cedar Point, and seems to act like a suburb of the larger city). She learns that the theater used to be "Sideshow's Snack Shack," which was a family diner that was only open for 3 years; it closed 17 years ago, when a boy was kidnapped at the diner.

- Mandy sees a police composite sketch of the assumed kidnapper, but all she sees are "dark eyes and hair, straight nose, flat mouth. … The man was just so… ordinary." The sketch was printed in purple ink, for some reason, and people involved in the case referred to the kidnapper as "the purple man." Alarmed, Mandy connects this information to that post she saw on the FNAF subreddit. She feels like she's stepped into a FNAF fanfic.

- Later that night, Mandy has another strange dream. This time, she's in the FNAF1 location, and she's dressed "like a security guard from one of the games," which includes a long-sleeved button up shirt, slacks, and boots. (This is just mildly interesting, because saying "like from the games" implies that Mandy can see the security guard character/s when she plays FNAF, something that we definitely can't do in the games irl.)

- She feels like she's being watched, and soon runs into the ghost boy. She gets a better look at him, and can see the picture of a bear character on his red shirt (she doesn't recognize the bear, so probably not Freddy), and she can see how thin and sad the boy looks. She feels bad for him and tries to talk to him, but the boy hisses and growls and bites at her with razor-sharp teeth. He chases her through the restaurant, eventually chasing her into a room marked 'employee's only.'

- "She had a feeling [the ghost boy] was there. He was always there."

- Entering the 'employee's only' room, security guard!Mandy finds herself trapped with the boy, who attacks her. She feels "corroded flesh" when he touches her.

- Mandy screams in her sleep, and her mother is quick to wake her up. Mandy tells her mother a little about the nightmare, and her mother is quick to blame it on the horror games Mandy plays so much. When Mandy's feeling better, her mother leaves the room, and Mandy is horrified to see the ghost boy standing in the open doorway behind her, just watching Mandy. Once again, the boy vanishes when she blinks again.

- Now very scared, Mandy climbs into her mother's bed, sleeping with her mother the rest of the night.

- The next day, Mandy and Lindy meet up, and are happy to see each other in person for the first time. The girls decide to go to Peace Valley themselves, and take a look around the small town, then go to the mysterious old theater.

- The theater is still operational, and the girls buy tickets for today's matinee. They overhear a maintenance worker complain to the woman at the ticket booth about flickering light system in the building, specifically stating that it "hasn't been reliable in 20 years." Mandy realizes that, if the man has worked here for 20 years, he must have worked for the previous business as well, and decides to question him about it. The maintenance man, Jim, tells her that there was a kidnapping incident at the place, and that they were forced to close due to most customers shying away from the area after the incident. He tells her that he was among the search group who looked for the missing boy, but they never found him. Jim agrees to talk more if the girls buy him a soda.

- Jim tells the girls about Stevie, the boy that went missing, citing that the kid always came in with his mother and spent hours playing pinball. Whenever his mother collected him to go home, Stevie would hide from her, wanting to stay and play more; on the day he went missing, it took the adults a bit to realize that the boy wasn't just hiding look usual.

- Mandy asks "What about 'the purple man?'" and Jim answers "You mean the stranger?"

- Jim tells them that the police were called, alerted to the boy going missing, possibly in trouble or taken. When the police questioned the bystanders from the restaurant, several people claimed to have seen Stevie talking with a strange man, and they all described the man in the same way. Jim admits that he never saw the man, even though he was working in the building that day, and doesn't know what any of the witnesses were talking about.

- Mandy wonders if the FNAF game developer (who isn't Scott in this universe) hid the photo of the theater building in the game files as a way of getting someone, anyone, to look into this missing child case.

- Mandy returns to the theater the next day, and asks Jim about the building layout, and how much it changed between business owners. He tells her that a few of the original rooms have been closed off since then, and aren't used anymore. She convinces him to show her these rooms.

- While they're talking, Jim greets a woman that enters the theater. After she passes through to the next room, he tells Mandy that the woman was Mrs. Robbins, the mother of the missing boy.

- Jim takes Mandy to a storage room, where everything from "Sideshow's Snack Shack" was stored; apparently the owner didn't know what to do with the stuff, so he just had it shoved into storage. Jim has to leave, but lets Mandy look through everything.

- The "Sideshow's" business had a brown bear mascot, called "Sideshow." She finds what appears to be an animatronic of the bear, and notes that its mouth has been sewn shut; it gives her an uneasy feeling to be near, and it smells terrible.

- Mandy is intrigued by the idea that FNAF could be based on a real world tragedy, but she also feels terrible for the real world victims. She talks to the picture of her deceased brother that she carries around, talking through her conflicting feelings about this development.

- The ghost boy appears in the storage room next to her, now resembling a "hungry" corpse more than anything else. Mandy panics and tries to run from him, but he follows her, chasing her around the storage space. He disappears near the bear animatronic, and a newspaper clipping is left in his place.

- Her curiosity getting the best of her, Mandy looks at the newspaper clipping. It's an article about Stevie Robbins' disappearance, and includes a photo of him; Mandy realizes that the ghost boy is the missing Stevie Robbins. She wonders why he's haunting her.

- Mandy feels like Stevie is trying to lure her somewhere, like he often does in her dreams.

- Stevie's ghost shows her how to open the bear animatronic, then vanishes inside it. Mandy mimics his actions, turning the bear's head to the side, and the head pops right off. Inside the bear's torso, Mandy sees Stevie's corpse. She panics and runs away.

- Mandy tells Jim, who calls the police. Jim sits with her while the police scour the building, and thanks her for finding the boy's body, so that they can put Stevie to rest and so his mother can have some closure. Jim assumes that Stevie must have climbed into the bear animatronic himself, playing his hiding game with his mother, but couldn't get back out; the coroner later says that he thinks the boy must have broke his neck when he climbed into the bear. Jim also seems to feel bad that he never thought to look inside the animatronic, and that he's been working in the same building as the corpse of his friend's son all these years.

- Mandy's mother comes to get her, very frantic and concerned. As they talk, they're approached by Mrs. Robbins, who thanks Mandy for giving her the peace she needed. Mandy's mother comforts the woman, then takes Mandy back to their hotel room, comforting her daughter as well.

- Mandy, who hasn't cried since she was a toddler, and is a pro at hiding her negative feelings from others, cries on the entire ride back to the hotel. She doesn't stop crying, even when her mother arranges for them to fly home early. She just sits around, clutching her stuffed elephant and crying, unable to stop. At home, she cries so much, her parents become extremely worried about her, and do what they can to comfort her.

- Unable to hide her feelings anymore, Mandy tells her parents how lonely she is, and how sad she feels so much of the time. She tells them all about the bullying at school, and how much she misses her brother, and how much of a freak she feels she is. Her parents listen and hug her. It takes a few hours, but Mandy finally cries all her tears, and falls into a dreamless sleep.

- Days later, Mandy wonders if Stevie's ghost came to her because he was incredibly lonely, like she often is.

- She chooses not to talk about Stevie, or the building, or anything related to it on her blog, or on the FNAF subreddit. She cites "I think if the creator wanted us to know, he would tell us." She drops the subject online, and starts talking more with Lindy.

- The girls wonder how the picture got into the game files, and what the real life missing child case has to do with FNAF anyway, but they decide they don't need to know.

- Mandy's parents keep her out of school for a week, giving her some time to decompress. They talk with her, and, since she's already a junior, Mandy chooses to finish at the prep school.

- On her first day back at school, Mandy puts the mean girl Melissa in her place, towering over the other girl and telling her that she isn't allowed to speak to Mandy anymore. Many of the other students watch on and applaud her. Later that day, her skateboard mysteriously reappears at Mandy's locker. She also makes a new friend in a classmate named Theresa, who shyly admits that she skateboards, too.

- Stevie Robbins visits Mandy's home one last time. He no longer looks like a scary corpse, and instead looks like a happy, healthy little boy. He smiles and thanks her for finding him. As he turns to leave, he adds "Bobby says 'hello.'" He vanishes after this, never to be seen again.

. I don't really have much to say about this story. There doesn't seem to be much to question or theorize about - it all seems pretty straightforward. Mostly I'm just disappointed that a story called "the Scoop" didn't have a S.C.U.P.R. machine in it.

That "if the creator wanted us to know, he'd tell us" line is such a bold-faced lie! Like... Scott. My guy. You can't even be bothered to tell us character names, or who we're playing as! You tell us jack all!

I don't live in or near the state of Utah, so I pulled up Google Maps out of curiosity, and there is no Peace Valley, Utah. However, Cedar City is a real city, and New Harmony and Hurricane (the two primary locations of the "Silver Eyes" trilogy) are within about a 30~ miles radius of it, which I thought was interesting. There are other small towns in the area with names similar to Peace Valley, so I think this was a made up location. Strange when all the other Utah locations in this series are real, but this one isn't.

Back to the story, I found Mandy's nightmares interesting. In the first one, she's in the FNAF3 building, being led from room to room by a little boy with brown hair and red and blue clothing. The image made me think of how, in the game, you use Balloon Boy's voice box to lead Springtrap around the building; Balloon Boy is meant to look like a little boy with brown hair, and, while the outfit doesn't match, he does wear red and blue clothing. In FNAF3, we also see versions of Balloon Boy with no eyes (his head sitting in the box of spare parts) and with a wide, gaping mouth (during his jumpscare). I made this connection while listening to her dream, but I honestly don't know if the similarities mean anything.

Plus, if Stevie is Balloon Boy in this situation, Mandy is Springtrap, which doesn't seem to fit right.

Her other nightmare features her as a security guard in the FNAF1 location, with the little boy running from her. Since I'd already thought Mandy was being put into Springtrap's position, at this point I wondered if she was being literally put into the position of William Afton, and that's part of the reason why the boy is running from her and hiding from her. Ultimately, I don't think so -- I think Stevie is just giving her dreams where she's in situations she's already familiar with. But it was a thought that crossed my mind.

------------------------------------------------

"You're the Band"

- This story opens on Sylvia Collins, a woman who is waiting for her son at a therapist's office. Her son, Timmy, has been behaving strangely lately, and she's been forced to take him to a child psychologist to figure out what's going on with the boy.

- The psychologist, Dr. Munroe, shows Sylvia a drawing that Timmy made. The drawing depicts the animatronic characters from the Freddy Fazbear's line, characters he can name easily; Timmy insists that he saw them perform as a band "when he went to Freddy's." This is troubling to Sylvia, since Freddy Fazbear's closed 30 years ago, and her 8-year-old son has never seen it. But Timmy's been drawing them a lot recently.

- Sylvia says that Timmy's been acting strange lately, referring to memories that he couldn't possibly have, acting like he's living in a past time period. "He seems like a different person … It's like he's two different people. The Timmy I've always known, and then some kid [Sylvia doesn't] know."

- Sylvia feels like a strange child has taken over her son, and that her son is slowly disappearing, being replaced by a stranger. (Honestly, sounds like she and my mother could commiserate together. 🙄 )

- We learn that Sylvia was a kid when the incident happened at Freddy's, and it sent her mother into a panic at the time. Child!Sylvia wasn't allowed to go anywhere but school and church for awhile, where she was accompanied by an adult.

- She worries about this Freddy's phase her son is in. Timmy keeps watching videos online about Freddy's, but most of them are conspiracy theories about the murders and the killer, which Sylvia thinks her son (age 7-8) is too young to hear about.

- Sylvia tells Dr. Munroe about the past week with Timmy. We learn that, the week prior, Timmy's 8th birthday came, and he expressed interest in having a Freddy Fazbear's themed birthday party. Unsure of how to create one, since the place closed 30 years ago, Sylvia went online and bought a few Freddy's themed items off of Ebay.

- One item she bought was a Freddy Halloween mask, sold by someone with the username "Retro Merch." It's a full Freddy head, which fits over a person's entire head. Impulsively, she buys it as a birthday present for Timmy.

- Timmy sits at the breakfast table, wearing a Freddy shirt that Sylvia found at a thrift store. He asks his mother who her favorite character was at Freddy's, and Sylvia, not having thought about the place very much in years, cites "the bird?" as her favorite. Timmy tells her that the bird is named Chica, and then rambles about how much he loves Freddy.

- Sylvia thinks about Timmy's father, James, who died in a construction accident only a month before Timmy was born.

- "Sometimes I feel like, as a single parent, I work twice as hard and do only half as good a job."

- She goes online to see if "Retro Merch" has other Freddy's items for sale, only to find that the seller doesn't exist. The mask she bought from them arrives a few days later anyway. When she opens the box, Sylvia notes that the mask smells like mothballs.

- The day of Timmy's birthday party comes, and Sylvia has their house decorated as much like Freddy's as she could make it. Timmy opens his mother's gift to him and excitedly puts on the Freddy mask, noting how heavy it is. He and his friends (Miles and Isabella) put on a singing show, pretending to be Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica.

- Sylvia, to her son and his friends: "Look at you! You're the band!" (Insert audio of James A. Janise saying "Title card!" here.)

- The rest of the birthday party goes without a hitch.

- That night, Sylvia puts Timmy to bed, only to hear him screaming before long. Timmy says there was something in his room. Sylvia looks under his bed and in his closet, but finds nothing unusual. She talks him down, then gets him settled back into bed. She feels like the Freddy mask is watching her.

- The next morning, Sylvia hears rustling in the backyard while she's making breakfast. When she looks outside, she sees a strange man looking through her window from outside. The man in young, in his early 20s, and apologizes for scaring her. Deciding that the man "didn't look like a serial killer," "dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and [looking] like a college kid," she opens the door to see what he wants.

- The young man claims to be looking for his dog that got off its leash on their walk. Sylvia immediately notes that the man isn't holding a leash, and grows rightfully suspicious. The man comments on the remnants of birthday party decorations around her backyard, noting that they're Freddy Fazbear themed. He seems weirdly excited that some kids still have an interest in Freddy's. Deciding their conversation is over, Sylvia wishes him good luck in finding his alleged dog and closes the door on him.

- Timmy comes in for breakfast. He mentions that the murdered children at Freddy's were there for a birthday party, then says that their bodies were found lined up against the wall. When Sylvia assumes he learned about this on the internet, Timmy tells her he "was there." His voice sounds different from normal when he talks about it.

- (Remember, we're dealing with a different timeline of events in this series. In this timeline, William Afton killed 6 kids at Freddy's one night, but didn't hide their bodies. The kids were found the next day, and, while we don't know if Afton was caught or went to jail or anything, everyone knew he did it and discuss this information openly.)

- Timmy to his mother, in the strange voice: "Don't worry. You're nice, so there's no reason to hurt you." ( 0_o !!)

- Timmy goes to a friend's for a sleepover that night, leaving Sylvia with the house to herself. She doesn't feel like she's alone, though; she expects something to jump out at her from an air vent. She then hears scraping in the ceiling above her; fearful that she has racoons or something, she gets a stepladder and takes a look in the attic, where the sound was coming from.

- While standing on the ladder, she feels something grab her ankle. Thankfully, it's only Timmy, who tells her that his friend fell asleep early, so the other boy's mom brought Timmy home early. The mom also calls Sylvia on the phone to let her know that Timmy was behaving oddly at the sleepover, acting like he'd never seen a game console or a tablet before, and how he kept talking about the murders that happened at Freddy's. Timmy's behavior was so strange, it upset his friend, so the other boy's mother sent her son to bed early and took Timmy home.

- While grocery shopping the next day, Timmy speaks in a different voice, requesting foods that he claims he loves, but foods that Sylvia knows for sure that he hates. When she questions his food choices, not-Timmy yells and throws a temper tantrum. His manner of speech and movements are so odd, Sylvia becomes very scared, and she decides then and there to take him to a psychologist.

- "Why was [Sylvia] so nervous? A person's child should not make them this nervous!"

- (While not directly addressed by this story's narrative, I like that Timmy and not-Timmy have different speaking patterns. Not-Timmy sounds older than Timmy, and seems to have a broader vocabulary.)

- Sylvia does the dishes after dinner, and screams when she sees a strange face looking in through the kitchen window. She dials 9-1-1, telling them that someone is stalking her home. After hanging up the phone, she hears movement in Timmy's room, and she runs to see if her son is okay.

- Timmy is sitting on his bed, talking to an adult-sized shadow. When Sylvia enters the room, the shadow turns to look at her with beady eyes, then slinks up the wall and into an air vent.

- Before Sylvia can process what she just saw, two police officers arrive. She tells that she saw a "young, Caucasian man" peering into her house through a window, and the officers go to check out the area outside.

- "Sylvia had lied. It was not okay. In fact, nothing was okay." (Mood, tbh.)

- This brings us back to Dr. Munroe's office, as Sylvia finishes telling the doctor the whole story. The child psychologist thinks Timmy is upset about something, possibly missing the dad he never knew, and is dissociating. She wants to keep seeing him, so she can help figure out what specifically is bothering Timmy, and then help him work through it.

- Sylvia takes Timmy to stay at her parents house for a few days, not feeling safe in her own house.

- At dinner, Sylvia's father makes steak for the family to eat. When he sees Timmy is unable to cut his piece of meat, the older man picks up his own large, sharp knife and approaches the boy to help him. Timmy sees the knife and flies into a rage, attacking his grandfather and tackling the man to the floor, yelling at him "Don't hurt Timmy!"

- "'I just saw the knife,' Timmy said, 'and I had to protect the others.'" He doesn't tell his mother or grandparents who 'the others' are.

- That night, after Timmy is sent to bed, Sylvia's parents talk to her about her and Timmy's problems, expressing concern for their daughter and grandson.

- Going to bed herself, Sylvia hears a chorus of dogs barking outside. Her parents' dog, Boo, is on alert, barking and growling at something. When Sylvia goes to check if the barking has woken Timmy up, she finds his bed empty, and the window beside it wide open. She looks out the window, and sees Timmy walking across the yard, holding hands with a tall shadow.

- Panicking, Sylvia runs out of her parents' house, chasing after her son. Timmy doesn't hear her call his name after him, or at least seems to ignore her.

- Sylvia is grabbed by a man, who she recognizes as the young man who showed up 'searching for his dog,' and also as the face that peered in through the window at her home. She yells at him, wanting to know why he's followed her and her son to her parent's house.

- The man answers her screamed questions with gentle tones, telling her he just needs her to listen to him for a minute. He introduces himself as Mike, the security guard at the old Freddy Fazbear's Pizza building. (M… Michael?!) He tells her someone broke into the building a few weeks ago and stole the head off of Freddy. He thinks that Timmy's Freddy mask may not be a mask, but rather the real Freddy's stolen head, and expresses concern for what Freddy's head could do to Timmy.

- Sylvia: "How do I know I can trust you?" Mike, nonplussed: "You don't."

- Smiling sheepishly, Mike admits that he broke into Sylvia's house while she and Timmy were out earlier today, and that he stole the Freddy mask from them. Sylvia is angry, but is more concerned about her son being taken by a shadow creature. Mike implies that he know who or what the shadow is, and tells her that he knows where they're going. Mike convinces her to come with him, and to get in his car, where he drives her to an abandoned part of town, parking the car outside of Freddy's.

- Sylvia is constantly aware that Mike may very well be a serial killer leading her to her doom. She becomes especially on edge when he stops outside the old Freddy's building.

- When she asks about it, Mike admits that this building is the very place where children were murdered. Taking the Freddy head, Mike leads Sylvia into the building. Inside, they see Timmy standing on the stage, right between Bonnie and Chica, singing alongside them.

- Sylvie rushes toward her son, intending to grab him right off the stage. She's stopped by "black and white striped tentacles" that shoot out of the walls and wrap around her arms, legs, and waist, stopping her in her tracks. Another tentacle wraps around her neck, almost strangling her. (*opens mouth* … *closes mouth* Nope. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to leave that image where it is.)

- Mike yells at the tentacles in surprise, seemingly not knowing what they even are. Sylvie begs him to save her son, and Mike tells her that he has to wait a minute first, strangely knowledgeable about dealing with a child possessed by another child.

- During a certain point of the song, Mike climbs onto the stage with Timmy and the animatronics, depositing the Freddy head over Timmy. After the bear's eyes start glowing (I assume this means the spirit of Gabriel returns to Freddy, and separates from Timmy), Mike pulls the bear head back off the boy, then removes Timmy from the stage.

- The Puppet lowers from the ceiling, and Mike cries out in panicked fear. Simultaneously, the Freddy animatronic, sans head, walks across the room; he climbs up on the stage, puts his head back on, and joins Bonnie and Chica in song. (I love everything about this scene.) The Puppet looks at Freddy and the others, then releases Sylvia from its tentacles, its entire body retreating back into the walls and ceiling of the building.

- Mike runs out of the building with Sylvia and Timmy. They all climb into Mike's car, and he offers to drive them home.

- On the ride home, Sylvia asks Mike for more information about what happened, and Mike tells her that "something was alive in that Freddy Fazbear head, and when Timmy put it on, that something alive went inside him." Timmy pipes up, saying that he was aware that something was in his head with him. Mike also says that he thinks the shadow was helping, and trying to "get [Gabriel's spirit] out of Timmy." Mike swears both Sylvia and Timmy to secrecy about the whole incident.

- Sylvia and Timmy go home and crash, sleeping soundly all night. They get up the next morning and have chocolate chip pancakes. Both are very happy to have their week of horror behind them, and look forward to never engaging with Freddy's ever again.

. Me, during the second half of this story: "Finally… Canon Mike content."

Mike introduces himself as the security guard for Freddy's, and takes Syvlia to the FNAF1 location, confirming himself as Mike Schmidt. We're told a lot of specific things about him: He's very young, only in his early 20s, and seems to just wear casual clothing all the time. He's bad at acting and lying, and comes off as creepy when he doesn't mean to. He solves a problem by stalking a stranger and breaking into her house. He's very knowledgeable about the ghosts, understanding that they exist and how to contain them to their animatronic bodies when they get out, and doesn't seem to be scared of most of them. He's terrified of the Puppet though, and there's a point where the Puppet approaches him and he's so scared he can't speak.

(And I'm one of those people who thinks Mike Schmidt is Mike Afton under a different name, so I appreciated all of the joking comments about Mike looking/not looking like a serial killer.)

Speaking of… canon content depicting the Puppet in the FNAF1 location? Very interesting…

(But I keep saying "canon content" like this story wasn't scrapped, thereby confirming it as """"""noncanon.""""""")

I actually wonder if it was scrapped because of the Puppet's presence and behavior, because it's described in very similar ways to how Eleanor is described in many of the epilogues, and it would have made it sound like Eleanor and the Puppet were the same entity when they aren't and confused people.

I think the tall shadow thing that Sylvia sees her son with is meant to be Jake, a spirit who goes around helping Fazbear's victims in this series, but it could also be a spiritual projection of the Puppet. I'm basing this off of its appearance (tall and thin, shaped like something akin to a human, with beady eyes) and its behavior (it's very gentle with Timmy, and fiercely protective of both the boy and the spirit within him).

This story also shows us a version of the FNAF1 building where the Puppet is present, haunting the very building itself. The Puppet hasn't shown itself to the security guard yet, since Mike is terrified of the thing and has no idea what it is, but is able to manipulate the walls, ceilings, and other items attached to the building. It reminded me of how the various wall decorations in FNAF1 constantly change by themselves; possibly, this story was meant to retcon that, suggesting that the Puppet is in the FNAF1 building and constantly changing the wall decorations.

Since Eleanor is the main problem throughout the majority of this series, it's possible that she was the one who broke into Freddy's and stole Freddy's head to sell on Ebay… Which is a hilarious concept, ngl. Can you imagine a scaryass robot doll with claws and Agony tentacles, breaking into an old pizzeria and just… walking out with Freddy's head? And then setting up an Ebay account to make money off of it? Ridiculously funny.

And Mike... sir, you literally have one (1) job! You're supposed to keep people from breaking in and stealing anything! You failed at the one thing you're supposed to do! My man, you are going to get fiiiirred!

#five nights at freddy's #fazbear frights #a brief analysis #my thoughts #yes this is how I chose to spend my labor day weekend

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dropintomanga · 1 year

Text

How to Find Great Manga to Read

We’re in an awesome time for manga reading in the West. Physical manga volumes are flying off the shelves in a time when digital reading is becoming more prevalent. TikTok videos featuring manga collections have become a thing. Anime’s now-uber mainstream popularity in geek culture has helped usher in this new golden age. Yet at the same time, a lot of mainstream manga attention is usually on shonen titles with hit anime adaptations - i.e. My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, Jujutsu Kaisen, etc. There are outliners like Junji Ito material, but it can sometimes feel like the manga getting recognized by the Western media and comics critics are being highlighted a bit too much over titles full of wonderful stories that aren’t exactly “popular” in the public geek eye.

The manga world’s more than just action series that gets hearts pumping and horror gone viral. There’s many manga titles that not only provide escapism, but provide various perspectives that will make you feel you all kinds of emotions in ways that can make someone a better person. Plus, over time, your tastes and interests may expand and you might look for other manga titles that aren’t mainstream.

I recently read a guide on Psyche called “How to find great films to watch” and in the spirit of that guide (which was really good), I want to do something similar right here.

I will use the tips that the Psyche guide gives for finding great films and apply them for finding great manga. So here we go!

Tip #1 - Start with an open mind.

This sounds like the biggest deal-breaker because there are people who see manga and have many assumptions about it. Some will argue about reading it in a right-to-left format, some may argue about the sexual content that’s sometimes found in it and some will say that manga is only for teens (the biggest market in the West).

I will argue that manga is influenced from Western culture and comics and that some of the best comics in the entire world, past and present, are manga. Speaking of the past, there’s some older manga (titles like Banana Fish, Lone Wolf and Cub, Rose of Versailles, and Osamu Tezuka’s works come to mind) that hold up well today. The point is - don’t let preconceived notions get in the way of finding a manga that one day, might touch your heart in many ways.

Also, don’t be afraid of trying out other stuff that’s for teenagers (especially on the older teen side) because there are themes and topics that adults can relate to. Beastars is a great example of such a title as it explore societal hierarchies and divisions using anthropomorphic animals to represent human beings.

Tip #2 - Give manga a chance.

When you’re able to get a 1st volume of a manga, read it in a comfortable spot with good lighting. If it’s digital, definitely read on a tablet. Next, be sure to be patient with it. The first chapter of a series can be a bit rough. Hell, the 1st volume might suck and the story might turn out to be amazing a few volumes later. There will be cases where you will not be hooked right away. The best thing you can do is give a manga series maybe 2-3 volumes to see if this is the right thing for you to read. Every manga series of a decent length has some kind of introduction arc, so you can use this as a litmus test.

Tip #3 - Get some advice.

If you have friends who are bona-fide manga lovers, do not hesitate to talk to them. If you’re lucky to have a bookstore near you that sells manga, definitely ask them for advice on what to read. Manga librarians are also a great source of community on figuring out what manga to check out for those who want to check out libraries. The point is just be around manga connoisseurs as much as possible to get the most out of finding what’s great.

Also, manga publishers who show up at anime/comic book conventions are willing to help provide recommendations to fans who stop by their booths on what titles to check out. You will also get to meet other manga enthusiasts at conventions as well.

Tip #4 - Play to your strengths and interests.

If you have a favorite genre like shonen action manga, you can explore the history of shonen action manga titles out there. Viz’s Shonen Jump service has a wide category of older shonen action manga titles for fans who want to go beyond just the hit titles of today. If you’re interested in LGBTQ+ culture, you can explore titles like Boys Run the Riot, Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness that cover that perspective. Have a fascination with works from independent creators? Check out manga from publishers like Denpa Books, Star Fruit Books and Glacier Bay Books. Let’s say you’re into world history - titles like Vinland Saga and Golden Kamuy are right up your alley.

It is safe to say that whatever it is you’re into, there’s definitely a manga for it.

Tip #5 - Follow your likes.

Once you manage to find a particular favorite manga, you can decide to learn more about the title itself and the thought process of the mangaka. You can discover what influences drove the mangaka to create what they created. This may lead you to find out similar titles just like your favorite one. Here’s an example I can give - let’s say you’re a fan of Inio Asano’s works and notice that they’re influenced by societal problems regarding youth in Japanese culture. You can do no wrong by checking out works from the likes of authors such as Shuzo Oshimi and Kengo Hanazawa, who have written stories about Japanese youth trying to find themselves in modern society.

Tip #6 - Reflect on how manga is made.

When you read enough manga, you start to pick up on how things are done. There’s so many elements that come into the manga-making process as the manga Bakuman will tell you. There’s the draft process, the number of assistants helping out, the long hours spent drawing, the isolation, the editors checking in to make sure the mangaka doesn’t go wild, etc. You can also think about the story of the title you’re reading and its narrative structure. If there was a huge plot twist that happens, there’s sometimes foreshadowing hints found in earlier volumes. You can think about what the mangaka did in making sure their narrative went according to their liking and read up on fan discussions that point these details out.

The more you read manga, the more you start to appreciate the process of how it happens.

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I think that’s all I can say about how to find great manga for now. Unfortunately, what I covered here is only just a bit of the whole manga reading picture. If you want to expand your manga horizons further, here’s some books I recommend. These books are available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka: The God of Manga by Helen McCarthy

Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson

Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga by Hirohiko Araki

The Citi Exhibition: Manga by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere and Matsuba Ryoko

The History of Hentai Manga: An Expressionist Examination of EroManga by Kimi Rito

By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga by Erica Friedman

1000 Years of Manga by Bridgitte Koyama-Richard

Reframing Disability in Manga by Yoshiko Okuyama

Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History by Eike Exner

The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga by the Weekly Shonen Jump Editorial Department

You can check out the "Other Sites to Check Out” link on the side for more manga-related websites (I will be updating this with more manga-related links). I hope you enjoyed this guide and happy reading!

#manga #manga reading #arts #guide to reading manga #manga literacy #manga collecting #reading #literacy #visual literacy

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tlcartist · 1 year

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24, 26, and 56 for jojo asks?

24. Stand ability you wish you had?

I'm going to say that it's the same answer I've had for any "if you had superpowers what would you want" kind of question. It's the very queer/autistic answer of shapeshifting. idk man having the ability to change yourself to look exactly how you want or to fit any given situation sounds pretty fucking fantastic. Sorry Hot Pants but mom says it's my turn with the spray.

26. Stand ability you thought didn’t suit the character it belonged to?

Hermit Purple. I think it's more due to that being the beginning of the stand era in JoJo. It's not so much that it doesn't suit Joseph, more that it just doesn't feel fleshed out? Like it's missing something that would have made it feel more like his essence.

56. Any headcanons?

OH BOY. Literally too many. JoJo characters just rotate in my brain like they're in a microwave. We'll do one for JoJos 1-6.

Jonathan- Had the whole debacle with Dio not happened the way it did and if he'd lived a full life I think he would have developed stand abilities. I think his stand would be a bridge between hamon abilities and traditional stand powers.

Joseph- Joseph has ADHD. I don't even think this one is much of a stretch. He was a menace in school. Absolute class clown and his teachers ran out of people to have him sit next to in hopes of shutting him up because he's so charismatic and well liked. Erina gave up on having him go to a traditional school and went through so many tutors until she found one who could work with his learning style instead of against it.

Jotaro- This one's not an original one but I like the idea that what set Jotaro on the path of becoming aggressive as a teen was him being bullied for being different. He was only half Japanese. He was tall. His hair wasn't straight. He had light eyes. His classmates took advantage of his meekness when he was younger and gave him shit when adults weren't looking. This also corresponded with his dad's music career taking off so he wasn't around to offer support and he DEFINITELY didn't want to bother his mom with it. So he bottled up his anger until he reached a breaking point and lashed out. And he learned that using his fists earned him respect. Acting tough meant no one would fuck with him and that he'd be left alone.

Josuke- Josuke's fear of turtles also extends to amphibians and other reptiles. He has no idea what sparked the phobia but he's had it since he was a little kid. He meets Giorno when he's an adult and he helps him to slowly overcome his fear by letting him interact with those animals in a safe way. Somehow knowing that the tiny frog he's holding was a stapler 5 minutes ago makes it easier. Plus now he's finally able to talk to Polnareff without getting queasy.

Giorno- Absolutely fucking loves puzzle games of all sorts. Sudoku, Rubix cubes, Tetris, Wordle, you name it he'll play it. Bonus points if they're solitary games. He just really enjoys a good brain teaser and the feeling of figuring things out.

Jolyne- Her parents tried to put her in all sorts of activities when she was a little kid and it took a few attempts to find things she liked. Ballet frustrated her because her teacher was mean and she found the need to be perfect stifling. She liked tumbling but once she got into actual gymnastics she ran into a similar issue, but she loved learning more modern forms of dance like hip hop which allowed more freedom of expression. And then they put her in a karate class at 5 and she absolutely loved it. Didn't keep up with it past 10 or so but she learned some valuable fighting and life skills there. She's still friends with the (now) old man who taught her class and brings his family gifts at Christmas time.

#ask meme #jjba #god I always write too much for these I'M SORRY #i just have a lot of feelings

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mrszeoxin · 9 months

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Revisiting Mystic Messenger (Zen, Yoosung, and Jaehee)

Full transparency, I played these three routes around April and May this year so they aren’t as fresh in my brain. It was super fun to do, I was totally obsessed with this game in high school. However, out of the three options for the Casual Story I had only played Yoosung’s route before, because he was the only one I wanted to date out of them and he was closest to me in age. So Zen and Jaehee’s stories were totally new to me.

Zen’s Route

Truth be told, I used to low-key hate Zen as a teenager. (Please do not hate me, we all have our preferences, and I married Shane in Stardew Valley so clearly people do not always like my favorites either.)

I just have never been super into the silver/white haired anime guys, plus he does come off a little self centered when you don’t play his route, and he hates cats (which as a extreme cat lover is a actual dealbreaker for me irl). So, I never really gave him the time of day.

So is Zen my type? No, probably not. HOWEVER, I did finally play his route, and I will say after that I do like him a lot more than I used to. Is he my favorite? No. But I actually like him now, and feel bad being mean to him, which never used to be a problem for me before.

I love the development of his and Jumin’s relationship, honestly wish this would happen to them in every route because I love it when we can all be open and get along.

Also his voice actor absolutely amazing. 10/10 great voice. He did an amazing job, I actually looked forward to calling/being called by Zen because he did so great.

Overall, super fun, and I enjoyed it so much more than I ever thought I would. I thought getting through it would suck, and while it was a little cringey to get the good ending, it was overall just such a fun route. So Zen May not be for me, but I see what y’all see in him!

Yoosung’s Route

My baby boy Yoosung. I loved Yoosung in high school and I still love him now. It’s kind of sad that I’m older than him now, but I still love him and his route so freaking much!

Reasons why I’m drawn to/love Yoosung; he’s adorable and I love cute guys, he’s a gamer, he’s more emotional, and he’s overall super relatable. Side note: but those reasons also apply to my husband, so it really is stuff I find attractive in a man.

As a teenager I hadn’t really played World of Warcraft or League of Legends, although I knew of both of them. But since then, I actually have played both which has made Yoosung’s addiction to LOLOL so much more funny and relatable to me, I adore it. I also didn’t notice how much of a masochist and sub Yoosung was when I played as a teen, but as an adult it really smacked me in the face and I found it so amusing whenever it was mentioned so casually in all the routes.

His voice actor also did so good. So many of his calls warmed my heart or made me laugh, even outside his route. I know his voice actor said he was very embarrassed by most of Yoosung’s lines, and I can see why, but I still absolutely adored how he did Yoosung’s voice.

So far with my re-play Yoosung has been my favorite, because I just love him so much and I love his story and development as a character.

Jaehee’s Route

Once again, I did not play her route in high school, simply because I’m not romantically attracted to other women so I didn’t feel like it. Plus, why play that when I could go straight to 707 and Jumin (who I was hardcore crushing on). I knew her route was “platonic”, but again I was a teen and only played a route if I was crushing on the character, so I never played her’s.

This route was honestly the most different from all the ones I’ve played, which makes since as Jaehee is a woman. I honestly didn’t hate this route, I’m glad Jaehee got her freedom and found her own passions. I love that she could embrace her femininity again. Plus it was a little funny watching Jumin self-destruct (I laughed so hard about 707’s car and Jumin).

However, as a Jumin lover, Yoosung lover, 707 lover, cat lover, and “Zen’s okay”-er, I don’t think this route was for me. Mainly because, while I love Jaehee and loved her progress, I don’t feel like we would get along irl. Not because she’s bad, just I don’t think our humor and interests would actually align all that much. I don’t like that she sees Yoosung’s hobby as childish or doesn’t appreciate 707’s jokes, and she also hates cats. So, I just didn’t really vibe with it.

I feel like if you love Zen and/or women, and you maybe don’t like Jumin that much, this route would be perfect for you, but that is not me.

The voice actress was awesome, as they all are. She had a very nice voice that I found strangely calming, and I did actually enjoy the calls a lot. So she did an amazing job.

I love Jaehee, but her route was not meant for me.

Overall Thoughts

I’m sure anyone who reads this has already played of or heard of Mystic Messenger. It came out when I was in high school so it’s not exactly a new game anymore. However, I’ve loved getting to revisit it as an adult. Out of Casual Story Yoosung is still the best for me, but I’m sure he’s not the best of the three for everyone and that’s fine. Just wanted to share some of my thoughts since I replayed it. I’ll be doing the Deep Story route probably in September and October, so I’ll post my revisiting those routes then.

#english otome #mystic messenger #otome #otome game #mysme yoosung #mystic messenger yoosung #mysme zen #mystic messenger zen #mysme jaehee #mystic messenger jaehee #mysme

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hannahhook7744 · 2 years

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In the "Claudine gets sent to Encanto" AU - the one where she's older, like 15 or 16 - which Madrigal kid is she closest to, and why? Which Madrigal adult is she closest to, and why? What are the Madrigals' reactions to her?

In an Encanto Au where Claudine Frollo gets sent to the Encanto as an older kid/teen, she'd be the closet to Marbiel in my opinion.

Why, you may ask?

Well, it's simple really; they're both friendly, stubborn, helpful, socially awkward teen girls who are multi-talented and considered outcasts in many ways. So they'd definitely be friends/close to one another-- especially since they don't have powers, unlike the rest of the family.

The Madrigal adult that she'd be the closest to is Bruno and the reason for that, again, is very simple. They're both socially awkward, fidgety, creative, loyal, and smart and willing to do anything for the ones they love. Plus they both have the thing with the rats/mice in common, sooooooooo...they'd definitely get along the most. Especially since he wouldn't push her too much unlike the other adults.

As for what they'd think of Claudine? Well...

Abuela/Alma would be a bit wary of her at first simply because of the fact that Claudine is from outside of the Encanto. But she'd get over it eventually once she realized just how much Claudine needed a safe space.

Pepa would be extremely overprotective of Claudine because she reminds her of both Marbiel and Bruno. Two people she cares for greatly and feels like she failed. She'd be determined not to fail Claudine like she did them and would mother he greatly.

Félix thinks she's a sweet young lady and wants to help her settle into the family in anyway he can. He wants her to be comfortable -- like he wants/always wanted for Bruno. And he's willing to be patient if that helps her settle in.

Bruno is fatherly towards her and sees alot of himself and Maribel in her, and it causes him alot of heart ache. He wants her to be happy and safe and comfortable. He wants her to know that she can come to him with anything and that he'll help her if she needs it. He also is not looking forward to meeting her bio father because he's not sure how he'd react to him.

Julieta worries about Claudine honestly. It's not that she doesn't trust her-- no she trusts her. She's just worried about how the way Frollo raised her and her life prior to the Encanto is affecting her mentally and physically. She wants her new niece to be healthy and safe happy-- gift or no gift. And doesn't see how anyone can treat Claudine as badly as Frollo did. She also greatly appreciates th help in the kitchen.

Agustín adores her. He thinks she's a lovely young lady and wants to help her settle in, in anyway he can. He loves how happy she makes the family and gets along great with her equally as clumsy boyfriend.

Isabelle isn't quiet sure what to make of her. She's alot like Marbiel but very different at the same time. She's quiet and meeker and talks to rats and is a pirate but isn't mean or aggressive. She really has no idea how to handle her or what to think of her. At least at first. She wouldn't have many problems with her though.

Luisa, like the Gaston twins, would be extremely protective of Claudine. She'd do what she can to make her smile and make her feel safe and they'd hang out alot. She'd be one of the closest Madrigals to Claudine. She'd be very fond of Claudine.

Mabriel is very fond of Claudine and helps her break out of her shell a bit.

Dolores likes Claudine so much that the two of them can sit alone in silence for hours on end without feeling uncomfortable. Claudine rarely ever hurts her ears by talking loudly and they'd get along just fine.

Camilo would think she was odd at first but would get over it eventually like he did with Bruno. And he wouldn't be afraid of her like he was of Bruno as a kid.

Antonio would love her. She likes his animals, she spends alot of time with him, she's a pirate which is cool, her friends are nice to him, and she loves learning about his animal friends.

This is assuming that they're all the same age as they are in the movie. If they're older, than it's similarish enough but with Antonio also be protective of her.

#descendants #disney descendants #encanto #encanto alternate universe #encanto au #melissa de la cruz #descendants aus #disney descendants au #descendants au #disney descendants aus #disney descendants alternate universe #descendants alternate universe #descendants claudine #what if claudine frollo was adopted by the madrigal family #claudine descendants #claudine frollo #the madrigals

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dragonmuse · 2 years

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Could you tell us more about your running? Why you do it, what it means to you, and if you want, your typical mileage/paces?

I can! It's a long explanation, sorry. You may all have noticed I don't do concise really.

Content warning: health and weight talk to follow (no specific numbers mentioned)

I am not a natural athlete to start with and I much prefer curling up on my couch then working out much of the time. Periodically over the last decade or so, I have re-resolved myself and managed to make it a few months before falling off again.

Then the pandemic happened. And my blood pressure, never awesome, started to soar. I was working full time as was my husband and we had a kid at home, so like for so many of us, it was pretty stressful and my relationship with food went totally toxic. On the plus side though, I was working out my gender identity, was back in therapy for the first time since my teens and got over a seventeen year paralyzing fear of the dentist to finally get my teeth fixed.

I arrived in February this year the largest I've ever been and probably the most mentally healthy I'd been in a decade. I don't mind being fat, I've been some level of fat my entire adult life. So none of this was in the goal to become less fat, I want to be amply clear on that. It's a byproduct, but not the goal.

The goal was twofold, to build a better relationship with food and to get my blood pressure down as much as I can naturally. I will go on meds if required, but would love to put it off if I can. My doctor thinks this is possible, so I'm operating under her guidance (plus some common sense, someone save us all from doctors who think fast, extreme weight loss is a good thing).

So I bought the cheapest pair of running shoes that still looked like they'd hold up and set out. I started with a couch to five k program and on completion just kept going.

Why running?

I can just step outside my front door and do it. I live in a quiet neighborhood and that's where I do all my running. Just me and whatever other suburban dweller is out getting in their morning air.

I hate gyms. I don't want to go to a class or be taught how to use a machine. Working out already makes me feel vulnerable, I do not wish to interface with anyone else.

I have, against all odds, come to enjoy doing it. This didn't happen the last two times I tried this and I think it was because of the treadmill. This year I have run through rain, freezing and melting temperatures and I have no regrets. I really prefer being outside and there is something exhilarating about taking your frail human meat sack out into the elements and saying 'ha! I am capable of running down a sprinting prey animal out of sheer endurance, not that I would, but you know the theory is sound'.

I can totally disassociate at a certain point. A lot of exercise requires you to be very present. As long as I'm paying enough attention not to get hit by a car or fall over, I can think about what the hell Izzy or Eddy or someone else is up to and daydream my way through working out. It's awesome and has made many words flow.

So what does it mean to me? It means trying to stay on this fucked up planet as long as I can for my kid. Yes, I like feeling healthy for myself blah blah blah, but I brought my kid into the world and I'll be damned if I'm leaving him a parent short for even a minute longer than I have to. This is survival, baby. I ain't eating this much fucking salad because it's fun.

And...okay yeah, it means that I'm proud of myself every time I do it. Every time I get up and move this shambling mortal shell and make it do things it couldn't do even a few months ago is pretty cool, I guess.

As far as mileage and pace, I am so fucking slow, but I am getting faster! Mileage is also building up. I run two to three times on a weekday at about 15:45 a mile for two and a half miles. On Saturdays when I have more time, I go for three and a half miles and last time I got to 15:09 a mile which was frankly miraculous. In March I was lucky to get under 17 minutes for two miles, so I'm pretty pleased with that progress.

Right now, I'm trying to build endurance and speed very slowly. I don't really have time to go for a long run more than once a week, but my next goal is to hit four miles on a Saturday and maybe get a 14 minute mile going.

Also, no one asked, but I listened to an 80s cardio station on pandora for the first few months and that's where most of the titles for the stories came from. Recently switched to the larger mix of a running channel to change things up.

#running #and writing a little I suppose

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concerthopperblog · 9 months

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The Last Chapter of the Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (Or How the Great Reuniting Matters to Dethklok)

Over the years, [adult swim] has given us so many incredible characters like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Primal, Rick & Morty, The Boondocks, and The Venture Brothers. But one show from [adult swim] has always been my go-to, and that show is none other than Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha’s Metalocalypse (2006-2016 / 2019- present). The band featured in Metalocalypse includes fictional members: Nathaniel Explosion – voiced by Brendon Small (vocals), Skwisgaar Skwigelf – voiced by Brendon Small (guitars), Toki Wartooth – voiced by Tommy Blacha and Mike Keneally (guitars), Pickles – voiced by Brendon Small (drums), and William Murderface voiced by Tommy Blacha (bass).

In 2013, Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha gave us the rock opera smash hit, Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem – A Klok Opera as the story picks up after the end of Metalocalypse season 4. For ten years, Dethklok had been relatively quiet with some live shows scattered around featuring creator Brendon Small (guitars/lead vocals), Gene Hoglan (drums), Pete Griffin (bass/backing vocals), and most recently Nili Brosh (guitars). Now in 2023, Dethklok has announced not only a new album (Dethalbum IV) plus a new movie closing out this epic adventure that features a companion soundtrack, Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (released theatrically on July 21, 2023/Digital and Blu-ray on August 22, 2023).

Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar was written and directed by Brendon Small. The film stars Small, Blancha, Victor Brandt (Metalocalypse), Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner (Grammy® Award-winning musician), King Diamond (King Diamond; Mercyful Fate), Mark Hamill (Batman: The Animated Series; The Machine), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Jon Hamm (Confess, Fletch; Top Gun: Maverick), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Amy Lee (Evanescence), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Juliet Mills (Passions), Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live), Raya Yarbrough (Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem - a Klok Opera), and Livia Zita (2022 winner - Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Award).

Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar follows the gallant rescue of Toki Wartooth from Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem – A Klok Opera where brutal frontman Nathan Explosion is dealing with some extreme trauma after the band battles their former bandmate, Magnus Hammersmith to the death. To make matters worse, the fate of the world now lies in Nathan’s hands as he has been tasked to write the “Song of Salvation”. As you can guess, this task weighs heavily on humanity’s embattled protector. So much so that Nathan’s character will undertake an arduous path to redemption and rebirth as he guides his bandmates through the ultimate battle of good versus evil. As Nathan would say, it just takes him “…a long time to learn stuff”.

After being anointed the new high priest of the Church of the Black Klok in Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem – A Klok Opera, Charles Offdensen will once again use his powers of persuasion to get the band motivated to write the “Song of Salvation”. Offdensen would tell Pickles, Nathan’s “trials are yet to begin” but he must first face the fear that “engulfs” him. Nathan might be the key to the salvation of humanity, but his bandmates are also vital to the prophecy. As foretold in the ancient prophecy, the Metalocalypse is upon us and all that is good will die. No biggie, right?

Dethklok will once again face off against well-known antagonists, The Tribunal which includes Senator Stampingston, General Crozier, Vater Orlaag, and most importantly, Mr. Salacia. As in previous episodes, Mr. Salacia and The Tribunal will once again make life very hard for Dethklok in their attempt to save humanity from the impending Doomstar. Unbeknownst to the band, the “Song of Salvation” is just a part of the prophecy to save humanity. Dethklok must also find the strength to look within to find the final piece needed to defeat the Doomstar. If Dethklok fails, then they cannot stop the impending doom of the Metalocalypse and the Great Reuniting. Will Dethklok complete the “Song of Salvation” in time to save the world? Well, you will have to watch Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar to find out.

Of course, as the saga ends, one would expect to see cameos from previous characters like Dethklok’s chef Jean-Pierre and music producer extraordinaire Dick “Magic Ears” Knubbler. But the most important cameo to grace their presence was none other than the self-proclaimed “rock and roll clown”, Dr. Rockzo. This scene will go down as one of the best Dr. Rockzo montages ever seen on Metalocalypse. Overall, Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar is a brilliant conclusion to the epic Metalocalypse saga that any fan of the series will instantly hail as a cult classic. I have already watched it a few times over the last weekend and even after this review is published, I will continue to watch it because it is that good. Some shows when they bring the story to an end, it feels rushed at times or maybe they do not tie up all the necessary storylines. Not Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar, this movie will leave the viewer satisfied knowing Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha were able to finish Metalocalypse as intended. Thank you, Brendon, and Tommy. Thank you for wanting to give closure to an idea that amassed dedicated fans across the globe.

On August 22, 2023, Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar will be available on Blu-ray and digitally on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, and more. Blu-ray special features will include a featurette entitled Behind the Metal Curtain. This in-depth look at the making of Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar will have interviews with show co-creator Brendon Small and his team of writers, animators, and musicians as they share their stories and experiences as they turn this [adult swim] series into its first feature film. Currently, MAX has the entire Metalocalypse series and Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem – A Klok Opera available to stream, so go get a Metalocalypse marathon going in honor of the release of the final chapter in this legendary saga.

Curious about Concerthopper? You can find more music-related articles, interviews, various photo galleries, indie music reviews, our ‘Bars & Bites’ section, our exclusive “She Said, She Said” column, or become a Concerthopper at www.concerthopper.com. Sign up for our monthly newsletter by following this link: The Setlist! Please ‘Like’ our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to stay up to date in 2022, on all music-related events/festivals such as: Relix Presents Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, and Keller Williams and The Keels: Live at The Eastern, Riverworks, AmericanaFest (2023), Ghost RE-Imperatour U.S.A. with Amon Amarth: Ascend Amphitheater, The Babyklok Tour: BabyMetal & Dethklok @ Coco-Cola Roxy (Atlanta), Celebrating 20 Years of Ocean Avenue: Yellowcard @ St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview (N.Y.), Sweet Oblivion Tour - Baroness: Live at The Masquerade, The Used: Live at Buffalo Riverworks, Elder w/ REZN and Lord Buffalo: Live at The Earl, Twins of Evil Tour: Boris & The Melvins @ Variety Playhouse, Beast in Black: Live @ Exit/In, It Still Moves Anniversary Show: My Morning Jacket @ Fox Theatre, Nth America Tour: Wolfmother @ The Eastern, and the 12th Annual Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que Music Festival, following us on all social media formats: Concerthopper on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, you can follow my concert hopping on Facebook and Instagram for even more photos not available on Concerthopper.com.

#2023 #review #movie review #Metalocalypse #Dethklok #metal #Concerthopper #burtal

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thejustmaiden · 3 years

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So out of nowhere I was tagged and quoted by a SR shipper for a blog of mine posted in August of last year. Talk about throwback but, hey, gotta appreciate that level of snooping. 😉

Back in the day I actually used to encourage discourse amongst Inuyasha fans- both shippers and antis alike- but I've since realized that it's a lost cause. But for you, @feministmetalgreymon , I'll grant this exception. Just 'cause it's been a while so why the hell not. haha

I want to assure you, however, that nothing you say will ever convince me that Sesshomaru and Rin are meant to be together romantically or that the story intended it so. Nor will you find any validation here. You can ship them for all I care, but please for all that is good and holy while I have your attention try- I mean really try- to understand why it is so many of us Inuyasha fans are so against this pairing in the first place (newsflash: it's not about ship wars), and why we believe a romance between the two of them is completely and utterly out of character.

For those of you interested in reading this, the blog of mine in question that the above shipper mentions in their counter-argument is here for reference. It's titled "Jaken = Rin's Dad?" I'm going to try and keep this short, but I'm also making no such promises. After all, I'm not exactly known for my brevity. haha Now let's get crackin'!

Like you, feministmetalgreymon, did for your recent blog here where you took screenshots of mine to address certain parts, I will be doing the same and dissecting yours accordingly.

[Snippet 1]

I worked with kids for many years as a teacher, and many people in my family have too or still do. Two of them happen to be just over 5 feet which is quite short for the average adult woman living here. I've also worked alongside many a women of short stature, and never did I hear any of them complaining of issues with their students having difficulty differentiating them from their own peers just because they were short as well. I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous. Kids are quite smart and pick up on a lot more than you seem to give them credit for. Height is not the only characteristic they look at to determine who's an adult and who's not, and it's foolish to suggest otherwise. So unless you're a babysitter who's still in their teens and/or who has very childlike features or behavior then I'm afraid what you're getting at is total hogwash. This is just another example of how you shippers offer nothing of real substance to your reasoning, it's only ever cherry-picking or strawmanning from you guys. Stop deflecting from the real issues please, because this certainly isn't one and only winds up being a complete waste of time for all parties involved.

[Snippet 2]

Okay, calm down now. I wasn't insinuating that relationships between parents and children can't change over time in terms of how they get along. Of course that's possible, as all families experience their fair share of estrangement and abuse. What I was speaking about was in reference to the overall dynamic between the two. Because a bad mother or father can still be viewed as a parental figure to their child even if say they're not in said child's life anymore. Since Sesshomaru and Rin share a healthy bond- and just a friendly reminder that in my blog I even said that he doesn't have to necessarily be labeled her father but that a romantic relationship later would still be inappropriate- I didn't deem it necessary to address what you brought up. Plus, it kinda, umm, misses the point?? Please, let's stay on topic. And it's not captured in the screenshot, but stop acting like there isn't a small part of them that idolizes their parents at some point during childhood. Just like you mention later on how it's normal for kids to have innocent crushes on adults that they eventually grow out of? Well, guess what, the same concept applies here. Kids eventually learn that their parents are far from perfect and make mistakes too. Rin is so damn young in the OG series though that we never even get to see her reach that maturity level.

[Snippet 3]

LOL! Alright, okay, so the "unbreakable bond" bit you're mentioning was actually me quoting you sessrinners. Did you not catch that? I literally spelled it out. *sigh* The whole point I was making is that shippers like yourself make hypocritical and contradictory statements all.the.goddamn.time. One moment you guys claim that Sesshomaru and Rin were essentially strangers and meant very little to each other, only to say in the same breath a few seconds later that they were destined to be together and their bond is like no other. I agree, their bond is special, but why must that mean they're going to fall in love?

That is the root of the matter here. Too many animes/mangas have romanticized this older adult man & young girl growing up falling in love trope that it's become way too normalized and widely accepted across the world- and yes, in some cultures more than others. Sadly, you lack the awareness to recognize how this all works. You know how we know that? When we see that you shippers are so desensitized to sexualized images of girls in the media that you share posts like this one below which *subtly* imply a future romance although one half of that pairing is still just a child in the pic and then try and pass it off as cute. That's like super fucking problematic and it scares me that you can't see that (or deny you do). 🤢

After all that's said and done, Sesshomaru leaving Rin in the village with Kaede is to me the strongest indicator more than pretty much anything else he's done for Rin that proves he is her adoptive father. It's so funny to me how you somehow see the exact opposite though. 🤔 What I think is happening is that you got yourself on some squeaky clean ass shipper goggles fresh out of your little echo chamber. Because I hate to tell you, but what you're fantasizing is what you want to see and not what's actually there on screen or was written into the story. I'm strictly talking about Inuyasha and the manga of course. [For the TL; DR version skip to the last paragraph.]

Parents looking after their kids is what parents are supposed to do. A good parent will do anything to keep their child safe and ensure they are cared for, so what he did for her by leaving her there was in her best interests clearly. Besides, as a babysitter, you more than most people should understand that parents aren't always able to be there for their kids so sometimes others gotta step in to help. Haven't you heard of the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child?" Which in Rin's case is literally true! 😂 Sometimes kids are even sent off to stay with grandparents and that's who raises them instead. Or maybe they have to temporarily live with an aunt or uncle because their single parent's job requires they work out of town 4-5 days of the week so they're hardly home. But that doesn't mean that the parents care or love their kids any less, and it's foolish to assume that Sesshomaru must have thought very little of Rin simply due to the fact that he made the decision to leave her in the village. Come on, y'all are acting like he abandoned her there!!

It's just given the circumstances Sesshomaru finally came to learn that Rin traveling with him was no longer safe. I also like to think it's because he wished for her to live a more normal life and to learn how to fully trust humans again. Plus, continuing to travel with him as young as she was would have proven dangerous and unwise. Now for you to know all this and still manage to turn his past actions towards her while she was just a child into a romantic gesture is what boggles my mind. Regardless of how you look at it, from my perspective or your own, Sesshomaru is in the wrong. Either he's a father figure who impregnates his daughter at the young age of approximately 14. OR he's this man she used to travel with who maybe isn't a father to her but who nonetheless basically rapes her since kids her age can't consent to sex with an adult. Idk about you but it sounds to me like nobody here wins with either scenario we're given. In other words, you should be just as mad as we are. If only one side didn't choose to forsake their morals they know we both have in common for the sake of a ship. Welp. 🤷‍♀️

I agree, incest is disgusting but that's not the only problem we have with this pairing. A romantic bond forming between Sesshomaru and Rin would also constitute as grooming.

You realize that over the years he visited her in the village that he brought her gifts too and essentially watched her grow up right before his very eyes, right? I mean, I know you do, but I really shouldn't have to explain further why pursuing a romantic/sexual relationship with each other is plain and simple wrong. And before you say it's not because he didn't have any malintent, please understand that considering their history and power dynamic up to then that yes this is still considered grooming even if Rin supposedly "wanted it" or "made the first move." Whether you consider him her father or not, as the adult who took on a role resembling that of a caretaker in her early life- a critical developmental time for a child- Sesshomaru is obligated to turn down any advances by Rin and most definitely should not initiate any himself. As the first close adult figure she's had in her life since her parents died, it's unfathomable to imagine how Sesshomaru could go through with taking advantage of this young girl who was under his care and supervision since they met. To think he could be capable of betraying that trust sickens me to the core.

This. Now THIS is how a parent/guardian or a similar adult caretaker (babysitter, teacher, etc.) talks to a child. And, in turn, this is how some young children talk to adults. You'd be insane and delusional to deny it! We see it in our everyday lives, do we not? From where else do you think our stories draw most of their inspiration? Yes, obviously these fictional universes have aspects of fantasy that don't exist in the real world, but so how then do you suppose we're able to relate to them? The reason for that being is because these stories are written by people for people, so naturally there are going to be real life aspects embedded throughout. Sure, a little escapism doesn't hurt as we don't need to take everything so seriously, but ultimately we all need to recognize that the messages in the stories we tell matter. Most stories possess a combination of both light and dark themes, but when it specifically comes to the latter we gotta be careful with how we tackle this in children's media since kids are far more impressionable.

So if at the center of a story we have two of the main protagonists whose mom is basically their same age and to top it off she knew their dad when she was just a girl and who just so happened to help raise her, wouldn't you say that's beyond fucked up or at the very least so fucking weird? Like why would we think it's even remotely okay for our children to watch this garbage?? Really think about it. Try and be objective for once and think about how it would sound explaining this storyline to an outsider who's never watched IY or HNY. Well, antis have tried this before many times and we always get the same reaction: Ewww!

Like I said earlier, if you wanna ship it then fine, but 1) please stop seeking our approval or trying to change our minds - your ship wish came true didn't it, so why do you need us to validate it? 2) even though it's not canon, respect that we don't support this sequel portraying pedophilia in a positive light. It's harmful af to not only allow but glorify the continuation of sexualized images of young girls everywhere. And I shouldn't have to say this, but just because this trope is popular as you say does not make it right. Lolicon themes in the media have been an issue forever and it needs to stop. Yes, even some people in Japan or "the East" would agree. Shocker!

We're pissed off and rightfully so because Yashahime's TV rating is 14, not to mention it airs at the prime time kids in Japan watch TV after getting home from school. That's Towa and Setsuna's age, true, but if Rin being the mom when she's like only a year older than them (please don't argue w/ me about the math- antis have so far been right every time with it) is straight-up disgusting and not something we should be supporting or endorsing. Rin's a whole ass child!! Please don't start with the "but times were different then so her having kids at 15 is acceptable" argument either, because we've already debunked that and every other single excuse you guys throw at us. Besides, how or why would you expect young viewers to know these historical "facts" anyway, especially if as you suggest fiction doesn't affect reality so what does it matter? Yet here we are, arguing over a fictional show in real life almost a year and a half into the "Sesshomaru fucks?" sequel being announced. My ass, your ass, hell all our asses fiction doesn't affect reality!

Look, I do apologize if the tone of this blog came off as snippy or condescending at times. I do not wish you any ill will, it's just I'm not really sure what you expected to get out of all this besides maybe getting on my nerves perhaps. haha A lot of you shippers have been desperately scrambling to interact with us, lurking in our tags, jumping onto our posts screaming canon and getting so defensive even though you sought us out first. We've been sticking to our tags, so how about you stay in your lane too. By the way since we're on the topic, have you seen Twitter or Reddit?! SR shippers there are the actual worst and many Inuyasha fans (not just antis) have complained of not feeling welcomed to engage in fandom spaces anymore. Shippers swarm them and scare them off simply because fans don't like your ship and refuse to accept it. It's pathetic, really. No one should ever be bullied or harassed just because they don't like something you might. We're all fans of Inuyasha, aren't we? So let's act like it. Yashahime on the other hand, you guys are welcome to that pungent heap of trash. Fans have a right to criticize it too, but if you like it then good for you, so keep on liking it and don't mind us.

I'm almost done, but real quick back to Jaken! Let's not forget about how the official Yashahime website- which came out after my blog, mind you- described Jaken. This translation isn't the best one available but it's the only version a fellow anti friend could track down. They do recall a better one done by a native Japanese speaker who was also an anti, and that member confirmed that Jaken is indeed called Rin's babysitter. So you see, I was right in my interpretation. In the original post I did compare Jaken to a brother, but after talking to others (some comments can be found under said post) I did acknowledge that he's more of a reluctant babysitter who's not related. And if he's not at least a brother to Rin, then he's definitely not her father.

At the end of the day, the creator Rumiko Takahashi has the final word. Which is guess what? Hogosha. 💖 Probably should've just started out with that and saved us all the trouble, huh? Good day/night to you.

Papamaru bids you adieu now. 🤞

#anti yashahime #anti sessrin #sesshomaru is rin's dad #papamaru #hogosha 💖#the sequel may not be canon but sunrise can still burn in hell

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munohlow · 3 years

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Ok real quick gonna propose an idea for that powerpuff girls reboot:

Don’t

But it if they really must (they shouldn’t!), there’s some better ways I think they could go about it, as well as what I’ve seen floating around (like don’t).

Pretty much all of these are assuming they’ll go the gritty reboot route because that’s pretty popular atm. A dark gritty take on anything is getting a bit tired, I think people are more open to weird and sincere stories, whether they’re adaptations or original. But recently a lot of comics (good comics!) 10+ years old are getting faithful adaptations (good adaptations!) and reviving that early/mid 2000’s taste for “what if Superman, but bastard?”

Aright one route they could go would be like that of Samurai Jack season 5 on Adult Swim. Written and animated by the original team and keeping to its truest nature while maturing it a bit along with the original fan base and maybe have an overarching plotline. The difference being that keeping it like the original ppg would create a stronger contrast with more mature and brutal violence, similar to Invincible’s friendly neighborhood Spider-man vibes and use of graphic violence.

This would be the second best way to adapt besides not doing it at all..... but that would also take more money and might not last beyond a season, ending with a solid conclusion like Samurai Jack did. Plus I’m semi doubtful the original team would be on board to drag out the girls’ story, especially like this.

Addressing the leaked script, a common comparison made was to the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy. Both are loose adaptations about child superhero siblings coming together after years of being apart, dealing with childhood trauma and their parent’s wrecklessness as adults.

And talking monkey.

Where Umbrella Academy made changes for the sake of depth and character development amidst the sci-fi madness, the CW Powerpuff Girls script attempted to be edgy and gross for the sake of being edgy and gross. They just want to be mature and topical while ignoring everything enjoyable about the original. It also just straight up sucks. I’m no writer but it seems like a lot of people who are writers are pretty pissed about paid professionals pushing this to the point of post-production. Well not post production, it was being filmed, but I enjoy alliteration. That’s also pretty far into development for something this bad, while it was rejected and is being reworked, it still got approved by enough people to shoot a pilot. If the leaked script itself isn’t a marketing ploy, I imagine that’s the real reason it was shut down. CW probably would’ve went through with it, otherwise. Maybe just keep it cancelled, yeah? Yeah.

This idea isn’t mine either but instead of the child star allegory, it could be more interesting to sort of see it carry on from where it left off, as the continued adventures of the powerpuff girls. Similar to the The Venture Bros. (a show I have not watched but know vaguely about, again this is someone else’s thought, I just think it sounds good) the girls can be grown up but start to realize they want to explore their lives and goals as individuals outside of heroism.

This at least appeals to me because you can keep the show’s status quo, keep the characters together, and have them grow into better more interesting characters as opposed to starting with a dour world where everyone is dead or just worse insufferable people. Instead, begin where audiences are comfortable and open to a new interpretation then let the characters realize there’s more to life and explore what kind of people they can become. (Or just don’t do it.)

Also just hear me out, but maybe, possibly? perhaps the professor was a good dad in the original cartoon? And let’s keep that? Let him remain a wholesome father figure? Is that okay? Don’t make this reboot? But if they do, keep him a nice loving parent?

Since this is the CW/ Warner bros who own DC comics, the best case scenario (cancelled) would be to make it more like the MANY SUPERHERO SHOWS THEY ALREADY MAKE. The good ones, anyway. I’m pretty sure the girls have crossed over with some DC characters in the cartoon already, why not make them canon DC characters? Maybe not. Could be cool! Better not, though. But they could still model the show after some of their better shows. Flash, Arrow, Supergirl are all not bad depending who you ask. I just finished Gotham, that was neat. Superman and Lois sounds like it’s pretty good so far. Powerpuff girls would better suit an earnest, straightforward, lighthearted take. Keep the humor, idk maybe up the violence to keep it dark and cool if that’s what people want (we don’t) and have it contrast with family drama like Invincible. All that to say that a darker, comical, well-written, DC-ish superhero thing they should look to for reference should be Doom Patrol.

This show fuckin litty. It’s like the better parts of Legends of Tommorow and Titans put together, as in it’s super weird and dumb but in a way that’s fun and moving. I recently rewatched season one as refresher before getting into season two and dammit if it didn’t get me in my feels amidst the quarantine. It’s about broken people working through their issues and pulling themselves together to help one another. Admittedly, it doesn’t have the best representation of those with disassociative identity disorder, as one character sometimes referred to as “Crazy” Jane has a different superpower with each of her alters. The character is very much a product of the 80’s but the writers of the show do their best to show that Jane respects the alters and their free will. But it also deals with topics of abuse, self-image, trauma, disabilities, homophobia, discrimination, and more in a way that gave me some catharsis while watching after all that’s been going on the past couple of years. Aside from all the comedy and action, it all flows together naturally, which is what you want in any series, not just your gritty superhero show. Doom Patrol is also batshit weird, every episode feels almost self contained/ freak-of-the-week while still following the main overarching plot, and Powerpuff Girls is very much like that, without the bigger plot or mature themes (as it should remain, let it be). Many will find it vaguely similar to The Umbrella Academy because GERARD WAY WAS INSPIRED BY DOOM PATROL TO WRITE THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY. The og comics, not the show, but still.

Also let’s address this

The hell was this about?

Anyway Idk maybe I sound like “Old Man Yells at Cloud,” but this really isn’t the way to go. Don’t do it, CW. Leave it alone, CW. Just don’t do it. We don’t need more sequels and reboot cash grabs, there’s plenty of up and coming writers with good original ideas waiting for their shot. And even with all those new edgy shows and movies, some of which are actually not bad, not everything needs to be so grim. Like sure Teen Titans Go! is a goofy reboot but it’s still just a fun dumb cartoon, it’s not bad, I bet that other ppg show was also just fine. Maybe YOU are “Old Man Yells at Cloud.” But what do I know?

And all THAT to say you should go watch all those other things I mentioned and some old ppg episodes back to back, instead. Don’t fuckin do it, CW

#powerpuff girls #powerpuff cw #powerpuff bubbles #powerpuff blossom #powerpuff buttercup #the cw #samurai jack #invincible #the umbrella academy #venture bros #doom patrol #dc #gorillaz #more nerd shit #long post #umbrella academy #don’t do it

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stuff-from-the-void-matron · 3 years

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Laurel Wreaths & Animal Teeth (8)

(c!Technoblade x fem!Reader)

(Still no Tech this time, please don’t be mad! But hey we’re in L’manberg now! That’s pog right? Plus we officially meet Wilb and Fundy! But remember y’all, if this chapter doesn’t do well then I can’t write chapter 9! So show chapter 8 some love!! <3)

—————

MOAR ART!

I tried drawing Reader! -> She.

And xoxoyukixoxo-art-dump on here drew her too! She looks so SICK! SHE!

----

He’d been watching her for some time now.

Not all day and night like some weirdo but he’d noticed instantly when she’d ‘logged on’ so to speak. The first thing to make him curious was him wondering how she arrived here in the first place, but when he tried teleporting to this new person it strangely hadn’t worked. He’d simply not gone anywhere, which was beyond puzzling. He should be able to teleport to anyone on this server. That little tidbit, the not being able to teleport to her, was the second thing to make him curious. So curious in fact that he spent a very long time just looking for her. When the ability to teleport to her was no longer an option he’d found searching for someone was much harder, but in the end he’d found her. And good lord was she a big one. Not taller than endermen or anything bigger but she definitely towered over the villagers she lived with.

He didn’t know how she ended up here since you needed an invite to be allowed on the server. And he knows she wasn’t invited, because he knows ALL the people who are invited. Hell, at one point he even tried banning her (an action which kicks players from the server) but… nothing had happened. He’d been hidden and watching her when he’d done it and she’d not even noticed, just kept on planting flowers around one of the villager’s houses without a care in the world.

He’d unbanned her and nothing changed again. Then he’d tried using other commands on her. Teleport, clear, give, and even Kill. Not a single one did anything. That made him nervous. He’d never encountered something like this before. It was unheard of. If this player decided to become hostile, or End forbid, GENOCIDAL… it would have very disastrous consequences for the other players on the server..

He decided then and there to monitor her deeply until further notice.

Which turned into him popping up by her village and sneaking in to watch her and what she did day in and day out for a few months. And honestly.. She seemed pretty benign.

All she really did was change up the village she lived in and decorate. When not doing those things she would do other hobbies like cooking and potion making. She’d also leave the village sometimes to just explore. He took those chances to go inside her home and snoop around. He also noticed aggressive mobs were pretty neutral towards her for whatever reason. That only ever happened if a player had a clear relation to a mob (aka a hybrid) or if the player had creative… Which it looked like she had. But she also didn’t look fully human.

“What a strange being you are..”

-0-

Before you knew it the next day had come, bright and early.

You’d had to go back to the Overworld around sunrise to get ready to greet Tubbo. You’d explained to Azo that you’d try to come back as soon as you could but for now you had to go on a trip for a while. She was sad to see you go but said okay and to hurry back. Your heart broke all over again, feeling terrible that you had to leave her alone but there was nothing you could do. You’d bring her with you if it were possible but you knew her entering the Overworld would turn her into a zombie instantly. And that’s not a fate you’re willing to make anyone go through.

But you left her a chest with some golden carrots, some apples, and even some of the stew you’d made for Tubbo and Tommy. She liked the stew, so you left her a few bowls and even some juice to drink in case she got thirsty. You hugged her goodbye and told her you’d bring her a gift back. She nodded happily and then you sadly had to leave through the portal. Which you made sure to destroy after exiting it. Didn’t want anything wandering through. That would be a disaster.

Once you were back in the overworld you went home and sat on your bed and just thought. More than anything you just wanted to step in and prevent Schlatt and Quackity from winning. But you didn’t know if doing that would have dangerous consequences or not. You’d seen so many movies where a small change in the past ends up having massive effects in the future. Damn butterfly effects. Stopping them from winning the election could end up causing a civil war within L’manburg. Or Tubbo, Tommy, or Wilbur could end up hurt or even lose a life. Or something even more devastating could happen.

...But you hated the thought of Tommy and Wilbur getting exiled. It wasn’t fair or just. Especially while getting shot at and chased down like dogs. Schlatt and Quackity really pissed you off with that part. Seeing Ponk and Punz just instantly turn on the two original founders left you feeling utterly appalled. Schlatt hadn’t even been sworn in as president yet! He’d not taken an oath or anything! None of what he ‘decreed’ should have been taken as law! None of it was legal-

You pause. None of that WAS legal.. right? Did the citizens even know that? Were they aware that simply winning an election wasn’t the instant inauguration that Schlatt and Quackity made it out to be? Surely there was more to L’manburg than simply the bare bones parts that were shown on youtube in your original world. There had to be actual systemic structure for this whole ass small country. You wanted to believe there was, because the alternative made you facepalm. But at this point you honestly just didn’t know. You would need to have a discussion with Wilbur and Tommy (Wilbur more so since he was the adult in this situation).

You needed to talk to Wilbur asap.

-0-

Tubbo and Tommy came to get you bright and early, the blond looking more anxious than he was trying to let on. Seeing the usually so upbeat and grinning boy so nervous made your stomach churn. So you’d pulled him into a hug, not even letting him finish his greeting to you before you did. He went silent and was tense at first. But you took in a breath and said in as reassuring a tone as you could physically muster,

“Don’t worry kiddo. Things WILL be okay. I’ll make sure of it, alright?”

Tommy was silent, but you could hear the choked gasp of breath the boy took in, and you felt how his lanky body seemed to relax in your hold. He awkwardly put his arms around your back, seemingly not used to this, the whole hugging thing. At least not such heartfelt ones. He’s hugged Tubbo, Wilbur, and Philza but this one just felt different. It felt safer. Like if he stayed here nothing could hurt him. It was weird but.. nice. Part of the boy didn’t want to let go. He didn’t want to leave this new safe place. Here hugging you there was no fear of losing the election, no worries of wars with the DSMP, there was nothing bad. Just a pleasant warmth he felt like he could just fall asleep to.

But the bigger part of him knew he’d never hide away from his problems. It wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t some baby coward who hid behind mommy for protection when shit got tough. (missing how his subconscious referred to you as ‘mom’) He was a MAN! Nevermind he was barely 16! He was practically an adult (in his own eyes)! He’d fought in a war for independence! He’d battled for his and his countrymen’s freedom! There’s no way he’d cower away from this damned election!

With a new fire in him, largely in part to the confidence you seemed to have for him and L’manburg, he eventually pulled back from the hug and gave you one of his signature bright grins. He said thanks but there’s no way he was worrying! Like you said, things were gonna be fine! You gave him an encouraging smile in return and agreed, then added that if anything DID go wrong you’d stick by them and make sure it all got resolved. The teens looked grateful for your support. But then you bid the villagers goodbye for now and told the iron golems to make sure to keep them all safe.

Then you three were off to L’manburg.

-0-

Walking into L’manburg was weird. You’d only ever seen parts of it via the videos you’d watched from the various minecraft youtubers. But being there in person was wild, seeing all the buildings and pathways was interesting though. Tommy and Tubbo changed into their ‘presidential attire’, which were just those vaguely old school British military uniforms they wore at the start of the L’manburg thing. You still ruffled their hair and cooed over them, saying they looked like official little men. They got all huffy and Tommy swatted your hand away, making you laugh. Tubbo suggested showing you around before the election began, which you thought was a good idea. So the pair escorted you around L’manburg, showing you the main places plus their houses and favorite spots. You gave Tommy a Look and asked him if he really lived in a dirt hut.

“It’s DIRT Tommy, not even cobblestone. Just a dirty dirt hut,” you said with a sigh.

Tubbo snickered while Tommy tried defending himself. But he honestly was just making excuses though thankfully he got cut off by Wilbur showing up. He was in the same uniform as both teenagers and you saw him giving you a wide eyed look as he walked up. You could tell he was used to not being around someone so much taller than him. Which you guess made sense since he’d been hanging out with teenagers, a girl, and his own son mostly. You think Dream is taller than him but you don’t know how often they’re around each other peacefully to notice height..

“Oh, hello, you must be Reader! Tommy and Tubbo have told me about you!” the brunet man said with a charming smile.

You returned the smile and held your hand out for him to shake. He gave a firm handshake and you said he must be Wilbur and that the boys had mentioned him to you. He gave a sly smile to the two boys and asked if that was so, and said he hoped they’d said good things about him. Not liking his teasing tone Tommy cut in and said he told you about Wilbur being a bitch! You laughed and Wilbur punched Tommy in the shoulder, laughing when the boy loudly claimed he was abusing a child!

Wilbur rolled his eyes at the blond boy and asked what the occasion for you visiting his lovely country was. You gave a relaxed smile and said you just wanted to come out and support ‘big man’ and Tubbo on this exciting day! Wilbur smiled and perked up when Tubbo said they were giving you a tour of L’manburg. Wilbur asked why the shortest boy didn’t say so before and gestured for you to follow him, saying the best person to give a tour is always the president! You liked his charming enthusiasm but you could still see the nervousness just lurking under the surface for all three of them. You hated that their worry was justified.

-0-

Wilbur took over showing you around, Tubbo and Tommy right behind him adding little comments here and there to irk him. You ohh’d and ahh’d at the polite times, even saying how cool the place was. You even got shown Wilbur’s ‘ball house’ and their extensive nether pathways briefly. You got a bit distracted in the Nether, wondering if Azo was okay. Though you supposed she was a tough kid, what with having survived in the Nether her whole life so far. But she was just a little kid, still a toddler. She shouldn’t have to survive. She should be living.

“And I guess that’s the whole tour! I hope we’ve given you a good impression of my country~” Wilbur said with a smile, thoroughly snapping your attention back to the present.

You were thankful they couldn’t see how your eyes widened when you realized you’d totally zoned out during the last leg of the tour. Instead of worrying you just gushed and said you’d been really dazzled! The trio grinned and you ruffled Tommy’s hair and said you could expect no less from the big man himself and sweet Tubbo. The pair were happy to hear you praising the country they’d worked so hard to have, with Tommy even playfully swatting your hand away from your hair and saying anything he helped with would be the best. Wilbur gave a very big brother reply of ‘oh really?’ that was dripping with doubt, which started to set Tommy off.

The two started going back and forth, causing you to roll your eyes. Yeah they definitely had the brother vibe about them. Though Wilbur lost interest in arguing when he spotted someone a bit aways behind you and Tommy. He perked up and waved, calling out ‘FUNDY!’ to get his son’s attention. You all glanced over to see a fox hybrid in a uniform that was the same as the boys around you, only the coloring was off. Fundy’s was more pastel colored while the others were darker/more saturated. Wilbur waved him over and you noticed the way Fundy’s muzzle scrunched up when Wilbur threw an arm around his shoulders, but you said nothing. Not really your place but from what you remember of the smp videos… Wilbur wasn’t the ideal father figure to his furry son..

“Fundy, this is Reader! She’s a friend of Tubbo and Tommy’s! She came to support us today,” Wilbur said with a smile.

The fox quirked an eyebrow at you and asked a mildly incredulous voice if your name was actually ‘Reader’. Tommy told him to shut up and pointed out that his name was ‘Fundy’ so he had no room to be criticizing anybody’s name. Fundy raised his paws in surrender and said fine, whatever, no need to jump down his throat about it. You chuckled and said it was okay, it was a rather odd name. And you liked his name, it was cool. Tommy actually boo’d you while Fundy smiled, glad at least someone stuck up for him. Though that reminded Fundy to ask Wilbur if he’d seen the ballots…

Wilbur’s mood darkened and he gave a clipped, “Yeah, I saw them.” His tone making the other L’manburg citizens feel uncomfortable. You spoke up, asking what was wrong with them? Had someone tampered with them or something? Fundy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck and said yes and no. Yes someone had changed them but it wasn’t really ‘tampering’, just altering to fit with the new campaign runners. She gave his upset father a side glance, his triangular shaped ears going back when he saw the way Wilbur’s eyebrows were furrowed and his jaw clenched. Seems the current president was still pissed off that his son and first lady had decided to run against him together..

“Well we had to change the ballots to include all the people running, and even an ‘other’ option… Yeah,” Fundy said lowly.

You couldn’t help the way you raised an eyebrow at that and said,

“Isn’t that just the standard for ballots? Designing ballots to not show all the people their options would just be criminal.”

Wilbur didn’t seem to like your (in his opinion) unwanted input and said however L’manburg designed their ballots was none of your business anyways, especially since you weren’t even a citizen. You could feel yourself narrowing your eyes at the brunet, though nobody could see it, and replied that you didn’t need to be a citizen to point out that not putting all the names of those running on an ELECTORAL BALLOT was hugely unethical and borderline malicious hindrance to the citizen’s right to free choice. This little snit between you and the current president had dropped the mood low, with the three boys beside you looking more than uncomfortable.

But thankfully Tubbo found his voice and before Wilbur could retort to your statement he turned to you and said the election and debate would be starting soon and that he’d sit in the audience with you. This reminded Wilbur that he needed to practice his speech and debate responses with Tommy so he straightened his posture and adjusted his coat before giving you a faux smile and then telling Tubbo they’d see him afterwards. You kept a polite smile on your face as the four led you to an open part of the village center where a large stage/platform had been built along with seating in front of it. Wilbur jerked his thumb towards the stage and told Tommy to come on and the blond boy said he’d be right there in a moment. The brunet looked put out but nodded and stalked off, leaving the four alone in the audience area.

Once he was out of earshot you turned to Tommy and gave him a disbelieving look and said in a hushed tone,

“Tommy, you and Wilbur weren’t ACTUALLY planning to tamper with the ballots were you?? That’s insanely unconstitutional! The people of L’manburg have a right to know and be able to choose whichever voting option they want. If they don’t have that option then it’s not a real election, it’s just the illusion of choice.”

The blond looked uncomfortable, sweating and avoiding eye lens contact with you. He felt ashamed because… well that HAD been the plan. At least Wilbur told him it had been before Quackity found out. He’d not been sure about the plan but he hadn’t done much to argue with Wilbur either. He’d convinced himself it wasn’t that big of a deal, but seeing how shocked and offended you looked that they’d even thought about doing that made him feel like a bastard. You saw how nervous he looked and sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing softly before reassuring him you weren’t angry.

“I’m not mad at you Tommy, I’m just disappointed that this was something you went along with. You have to know how wrong that was? Imagine you were a regular citizen and you voted in the election but later found out it was all rigged, you’d never had a choice regarding your country like you’d been led to believe. Wouldn’t you feel wronged?”

Tommy seemed to deflate at your words but gave a remorseful nod, neither of you noticing that your words seemed to have also struck a chord with both Fundy and Tubbo as well. You gave the blond boy a reassuring smile, saying that part of being a member of government was respecting the people’s choices. Even if you think it’s stupid and wrong. You have to let the people choose for themselves. The ability to choose is sometimes the only difference between merely existing on this bitch of a world and actually Living~

Tommy seemed to have taken your words to heart, making you smile at him before pulling him into a half hug and saying sincerely,

“I’m proud of you Tommy, Tubbo too. You’ve both done so much for this country. More than any child should ever have to. I wish more than anything that you’d not HAD to sacrifice and lose so much. But I’ll be here to support you both going forward. I just don’t want either of you doing anything unethical. You’re both better than that.”

Tubbo almost teared up and came over and let his face rest against your side in a show of affection. He’d never had anyone say they were proud of him before and honestly.. he didn’t know how badly he needed to hear it until you said it. Tommy leaned into your hug, close to tearing up like his best friend but he blinked rapidly until the tears faded.

None of them noticed the envious way Fundy stared at them, feeling jealousy bubble in his stomach at the way you seemed to care for the two boys. He felt childish for feeling that way but he couldn’t help it. You clearly cared about the two in a maternal way, that much was obvious. But you weren’t treating them like babies either. You were respectful and loving at the same time. Fundy wondered if that’s what it was like to have a mother..

“TOMMY! COME ON! THE RALLY STARTS SOON!”

They all broke away when they heard Wilbur yelling down at them from the podium. Tubbo sighed and Tommy straightened his hat before giving a cheeky smile. You told him to go give his best, and no matter what happened you’d be proud. This pumped the blond boy up and he gave a cheer before ruffling Tubbo’s hair and turning to the stage and running up around the side to get to the top, you and the brunet watching him go. That’s when you remembered the fox hybrid that was still standing close by. You offer him a calm smile and say kindly,

“So, Fundy was it?”

------

tagged folks: @salinesoot @lady-bee-fechin @kacchasu @putridjoy @lunawritesstories @galaxypankitty3030 @paradigmax @zachariethememerie @killmewithafanfic @trinity-1002107 @hufflepuff-demigod @truthdaze @exorcisms-with-elmo @redbloodtea @heythereimhaylz @olyink @jackalopedoodles @nikkineeky @artsimatsu @hufflepuff-demigod @corpiet @beepa99 @anxiousnarwhale @bananaaddictmilkshake

#Laurel Wreaths & Animal Teeth #technoblade x reader #techno x reader #dsmp #dream smp #c!tommy #c!tuboo #c!wilbur #c!fundy

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kaypeace21 · 3 years

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Analyzing the 5 plays in this drama club poster .From the bts pics of stranger things 4.

So... some of ya’ll know I'm going through the st s4 films given to us by the official st twitter + the films reffed in the show itself or mentioned by the Duffers in interviews .

So I decided to look at the plays mentioned here. Because even if we don't see the monologues in the show directly - the Duffers wouldn't name drop anything unless it inspired them in some way. Similar to films name dropped in the show. Tw : for some dark themes .

This is just a quick little analysis I decided to do since we probably won't get any new st content today (3/22). Nothing too deep. Just mentioning things that caught my interest especially cause these plays have a lot of narrative connections to the st s4 movies I've been watching.

Invitation to a march (Authur laurents)

Reminds me of the stancy/jancy love triangle. "A young woman is having second thoughts about doing the right thing and marrying a respectable , rich, kind, young man with good prospects.By way of a prewedding diversion, this woman becomes interested in the passionate but poor and entirely unsuitable son of a local landlord.Basically, the plot concerns the efforts of Norma Brown to choose between a conventional fiance who "puts her to sleep" but is wealthy (like what her own mother did) or go for this new-poor guy. The play is principally interested in how this youthful love triangle affects the three mothers involved (whether the kids like it or not)

12th night (Shakespeare)

- viola (el) wrongly assumes a family member (hopper) is dead. She dresses up as a man named 'cesario'. A girl named Olivia falls for 'cesario' (violet dressed as a man). "Finally, when 'Cesario' and Sebastian (violet's twin brother: assumed to have drowned - Will) appear in the presence of Olivia there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. Taking Sebastian for 'Cesario', Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Cough if Olivia is 'straight' cause she fell for Viola (as a doppleganger dressed like her twin brother).Mike being into el who multiple characters in s1 said looked like a boy and specifically like Will is...suspish and a hint he's not straight lol. just like Olivia they're both into guys . plus, this play just has a butt load of love triangles (ugh i hated that aspect). There was also romantically coded letters (which was in the s4 films) . One character is also thrown into an insane asylum and framed as 'insane'.'Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber. Feste visits him to mock his insanity'. We all know the psych hospital will be narratively important- talked about it more here.

The seagull (Anton Chekhov-russian)

similar to how I believed s4 will show m*#even already broken up since the months between s3-4 : act 3 (s3) ends with Nina begging for one last chance to be with Trigorin before he leaves/moves away. They kiss and make plans to meet again in Moscow.And in act 4 there's a timeskip where it shows they've been broken up for a long time between acts- and its established they never actually loved eachother. Do i even have to spell out why this parallels the m*#even ending in s3? There is also a play within the play (this is common in a lot of the st films- they have plays- or a story within a story- which illustrate certain themes or emotions of the characters within said film : blackswan, children of paradise, highschool musical, Rushmore, book of Henry, welcome to marwen, never ending story, romancing the stone, wet hot American summer, etc).The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a dense symbolist work. There is also alot of love triangles in the seagull. TW!: for se#ual ab*se/su*cidal thoughts/ inc*st (here and in other play segments). The seagull motif reminds me a lot of Jonathan's rabbit story.Konstantin romantically into Nina shows up to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified . Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses to Nina on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull." This immediately reminded me of jon's rabbit story and some of the movies on the s4 list . Like in forrest gump- Jenny (who is poor) was se*ually ab*sed as a very young girl by her father. As a child she runs away into a field-away from her alcoholic father yelling at her -there she prays that she can "be a bird so I can fly far far away" .

Jenny as an adult struggles with this unresolved trauma- being with ab*sive partners, doing dr*gs, and having su*cidal thoughts . She as an adult when contemplating su*icide, jokes 'you think i can fly like a bird ?' while looking down at a bridge.God-i'm worried about jonathan (Jenny was also a musician sort of like jon). In another s4 movie example ' mystic river ' :(in the 80s) a preteen baseball playing boy is r*ped by men in the woods. He later says he wishes he could become an undead monster to not feel the pain of that experience - cause quote " if I'm not human anymore maybe the pain will stop" (Will) . slightly off topic but he also has another personality, imagines a alternate word that dissappears when he turns his head. And as a less direct animal parallel to the play - the boy from the film also imagined his perpetrators as monsters and wolves to cope.In 'getout' the photographer character sees a dead deer in the woods and it represents a parent/his own childhood tra*ma relating to his past. similarly in 'prince of tides' the 2 siblings as kids were ra*ed by men. The older brother remembered it and the younger sibling developed DID (so didn't remember but she would draw wolves- as the perpetrators/villains in her picture stories she created . In the film they also had an ab*sive dad and were very poor. She also tried k*ling herself multiple times-but started to get better after remembering the source of her pain and trauma. There is also the theme of multiple attempted su*cides in the play- and the play ends with yet another attempt- and the audience is left unaware of the artist's fate at the end of the play.

The tempest (Shakespeare)

Prospereo - (the perceived antagonist) is a wizard with monstrous looks, storm powers , and ability to create monster-dogs

He wants revenge on a man who tried ra*ing his family member & revenge on his other family member who wronged him years ago. I mean... pretty much my did theory.But in the end.Prospero decides to show his enemies the mercy that they did not show him twelve years earlier. He tells Ariel to bring the men to him, he will restore their sanity and then renounce magic forever.Prospero breaks the spell that the men are under .

Diary of a scoundrel (Alexander Ostrovsky-Russian)

- I suppose this could loosely relate to Jonathan? Glumov, is a young man from an impoverished family lacking status seeking entrance into society's pampered class. A 19th-century Russian scoundrel must scheme his way out of his meager life in a small apartment -whatever it takes.He has a quick mind and some talent for seeing through the hypocrisies of people around him ( Jonathan does make a lot of social critiques about society). That gives him some advantages. A tale of one man's mission to finagle his way into upper-class society and find a cushy job. Set in 1874, this social comedy follows Glumov, a Russian youth who begins his ambitious ascent to social esteem. He progresses by wit, guile and rhetoric. Pitting one stupid person against another, he soon gains his ends. To reach these goals, Glumov will lie, flatter, and cater to the vanities of the wealthy. Unable to contain his disgust with his victims, Glumov decides to relieve his unvoiced satirical comments by recording his schemes in a diary. But he is tripped up by his uncle's wife, to whom he has made passionate love on his way to success. At the end of the play, his diary is stolen and his duplicity exposed, but he can nevertheless suceeds. The author is much more critical about the high society itself than about the main character, so the play keeps attracting generations of directors by opening possibilities for political criticism while also avoiding naming names of the current rulers.The play's aim was to overthrow bourgeois tradition and establish a class-conscious art called eccentricism giving a deliberately comic portrayal of reality.

I suppose I notice some possible commonalities- besides s3 critiquing the wealthy/capitalism in comedic ways . jonathan since s1 has worried about his family's finances / had some resentment toward the rich . In some of the s4 movies ‘orphan’ & ‘ girl interrupted’ someone reads their diary out loud to get at them (in girl interrupted the winona character’s diary even had critiques of her new friends). Alot of movies also have someone (usually a teen/young adult) making a documentary about their life -which could narratively replace said diary? A few movies have a poor guy adjusting to snobby rich social circles (or being poor and then getting money)- titanic, kingsmen, karate kid, the craft , godfather, wardogs,into the spiderverse,flashdance, and many others . And movies like wardogs has a poor-young-character do shady things to finacially support his family . There’s also that whole uncle’s wife thing- which makes me uncomfortable for obvious reasons (but I’m just thinking of Lonnie’s creepy gf who was into him). A few movies had the guy’s step mom innappropriately hit on him- orange county & you got mail. And him trying to avoid her advances. Or...not to mention ... it may be a problematic coincidence /trope. But in enter the void -the guy who needs to finacially support his sibling/ does dr*gs -hooks up with his dr*g dealing friend’s married mom (who would give him money). Or in gilbert grape- the poor teen-who has to finacially support his siblings/single mom-has his endgame relationship be a girl his own age. But before that he h*oked up with a married woman -who would give him money. Don’s plum -young film guy-propositioned by older female film director (for dream job). Not even mentioning the other films that have the guy hooking up with toxic older women (like ‘the graduate’). Or analyze this-where the therapist accuses him of having an Oedipus complex (not touching that one... but the guy in ‘enter the void’ a 100% had one). It’s possible those movies were just- inspo for s3? A coincidence? Or s3 was foreshadowing for this in s4- but unlike s3 it will accurately be played as wrong and a sign of Jonathan recreating past tra*ma caused by Lonnie (cough like the photos) /being desperate for money. And not played ‘comedically’ like how it mostly was in s3. But shown as self destructive (for Jon) and immoral on the Woman’s end. Like... Billy and Jon are character foils. Both are older siblings into rock music, with ab*sive dads who shoved them into walls. Both lose it (and beat steve to a pulp when Steve accidentally triggers their daddy issues). In s3 it’s established womanizer Billy has mommy issues, than he tries ho*king up with someone his mom’s age, and the characters ref ‘back to the future ‘ and Steve incorrectly says it’s about “alex p keaton trying to bang his mom.” This could illustrate his subconscious issues with parental figures/adults cause of Lonnie’s possible past se*ual ab*se . One film the friend even says to the guy “you don’t have friends!” guy b: i have friends! him: no you have acquaintances! ADMIT IT! YOU’RE AFRAID OF MEN!I mean-Jonathan liked Nancy- but he initially hooked up with her cause he wanted to prove he didn’t have ‘trust issues’ from his dad. Also it’s prob a bit of a reach (and maybe a coincidence)- but the fact Murray in the same breath compares Steve (Nancy’s then bf) and Lonnie ... uh... if you think too long about it ... it’s very sinister . Especially because in s3: muray tells Joyce that despite her wanting to be with a nice guy, she’s curious about “the brute” Hopper despite him reminding her of a past “bad relationship”(aka Lonnie). Like- yeah connect some dots. Quite a few films (other than forrest gump) also have the character who (as a kid) was r*ped by their dad/parent- begin to do dr*gs/be pr*miscuous as adults since they never learned to properly cope with their trauma (’girl with the dragon tattoo’, ‘black swan’, and ‘magnolia’). Unfortunately the whole relative doing such things to kid-relatives is in at least 30+ movies.

Personally, i would be MUCH happier if Jon had a age appropriate romance- and had not a single creepy adult near him. A few movies actually imply Lonnie gets yet another ‘new model’ replacing his gf in her 20s with a new gf- who is ‘barely l*gal” and just turned 18. so there’s that possibility as well- that she’s jonathan’s age.I just want Jonathan-happy &safe. GOD. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

#byler #byeler #will byers #mike wheeler #Jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #joyce byers #jim hopper #murray bauman #stranger things #el hopper #s4 theory #stranger things theory

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crownedcryptid · 3 years

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@ Previous Reblog

A demand for adult cartoons will likely come sometime soon, because of Tik Tok.

Tik Tok is making SO MANY people interested in darker, adult oriented anime. The sales of manga are absolutely skyrocketing among kids, teens, and adults. (…and Netflix views are up too, I’m sure anime piracy is way bigger rn than anime dvd sales tho lol.) Many of these people are finding that art form for the first time because of Tik Tok culture promoting it so much with memes, trivia videos, AMVs, and cosplay. For real it’s almost scary how much VERY OBVIOUS DIRECT Barnes and Nobles bookstore propaganda I’ve been seeing from employees and customers making TT videos about why they love (or even hate) going there.

I should know because my older sister, who always had a passing interest in anime and animation, is now suddenly super interested in watching many anime and just when out to buy a ton of manga yesterday and now wants a bookshelf for them. She does genuinely love them it’s not like a fad to her or many other people, but seeing other collectors on Tik Tok share their favorite shows and manga is totally making people who would otherwise never try out so many things go out and seek them! My local comic store just added two whole shelves of manga and has like 4 different anime merchandise displays now. I think my younger sister isn’t too far from getting interested herself because I think her friends are, if they ever make a MCU anime my youger sister (AND TONS OF OTHER PEOPLE) would jump into the anime art form for sure. There is a Star Wars anime coming, but I’m guessing teens in general. like MCU much more than Star Wars. Anyways…

Plus many creators in the cartoon industry now grew up in the “tumblr environment” we’re all so familiar with and also love anime with darker sides and stronger themes. I think this will be the push to some day create more adult focused cartoons, because once there is ONE REALLY GOOD ADULT CARTOON that does numbers all studios will copy it.

Like Rick & Morty got massively popular, so now instead of looking like Family Guy adult shows try to look like R&M! BoJack was the closest thing but that didn’t make a cultural print like R&M, like I’ve never seen BoJack merch before. Someday a massively popular serious adult show will happen and others from other channels and sources will try to look like it I’m sure.

#cc speaks

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toastedkiwi · 4 years

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Wrong Cards

Summary: on a fateful day, Chris meets you.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Teen!Reader

Warning: angsty, death, gun violence, blood, shitty childhood.

You haven’t had the easiest life. In all your 14 years on this earth, it’s been hell. You’ve been on the streets. You’ve been moved around all over the country and put into homes only to be shooed away. It became very apparent that nobody wanted you or cared. Not even teachers. You’ve dealt with abuse, bullying, pretty much any nasty thing that a kid shouldn’t have to deal with. A kid should be loved and wanted and taken care of but it seemed like you ended up with the short straw way too many times. Until you met Chris.

It was dark all around except for the parking lot light. You and Issac had gotten into a scuffle by these gangsters— wannabe gangsters. Punches were thrown along with threats. Then a gun went off. He was this 12 year old you met— he lost his home and his abusive parents. You were looking out for him. You had gotten in front of him and took the hits and beatings. But Issac took the bullet.

Chris heard your crying and calling out for help. He ran. He pulled out his phone and came around a truck to see the scene. Your hands are covered in blood as you’re doing chest compressions on your dying friend. He can tell that you’re way too young and Issac is way too young to be shot. You’re just kids.

“Help! Please!” You begged.

Chris dials 9-1-1 and presses call. He pulls off his scarf and gets on his knees. He puts his scarf over the wound that oozes blood. He holds it down with one hand while the other holds his phone and he already feels the warm blood soak through the fabric.

“911, what’s your emergency?” The operator asked.

“A- A kid’s been shot,” Chris said as calmly as he could for you. “He’s losing a lot of blood. You gotta hurry.”

“Where are you, sir? And is the shooter still around?”

Chris gives the street and said, “I don’t know. Probably.”

He’s told to stay on the line so he puts the phone on speaker and puts it on the ground. Chris can see that you’re struggling.

“Switch with me, kid,” Chris said.

You looked up at him with a quiver of the lip. You nod and it’s a quick switch. He’s doing chest compressions and you’re applying pressure to the wound.

“What happened?” Chris asked.

“I- I can’t tell y-you,” you said.

You both hear the sirens of the cop cars and the ambulance. He looks at you to see your own face has been beaten. Your bottom lip is slit and bleeding. You have a cut over your right eye brow and it’s also bleeding. Your cheek is starting to bruise already.

“What happened?” Chris asked.

You kept your mouth shut. The ambulance rolls into the parking lot following a cop car. The paramedics rushed over. The cops immediately asked where the shooter is and you pointed the way to them. They head off and the paramedics take over. Chris has to pull you away from Issac. More cops show up.

“No pulse,” one of the paramedics said. “Shocking to 200. —Clear.”

You clenched your jaw tightly as you watched them try to bring your friend back alive. A cop is trying to talk to you. You haven’t slept in days. You haven’t had a proper meal in months. You don’t even know what day it is. And you’re numb.

“He’s gone,” are the words that you hear.

You screamed and cried. Chris stops you. He can’t believe the situation he’s in at the moment. He doesn’t know you at all. He doesn’t know the kid that’s dead on the wet asphalt of the parking lot. He just wraps his arms around you. You fight against him but you’re weak. You’re not that strong and Chris is an adult who religiously works out.

“Stop, stop,” Chris said. “He’s gone.”

You cried harder and managed to put all your strength into clutching onto Chris. He’s keeping you on your feet. If he wasn’t holding you, you’d be running till you have to stop and then you might be dead somewhere else.

~~~~~next day

“Y/n, you’ve got a visitor,” Andrew, a nurse, said coming into the room.

Chris Evans followed behind with a giant gift bag. You recognize him from last night. The one person who came when you called for help.

“Hey,” Chris said coming into the room. “I got you something.”

You’re left alone with the actor. He places the bag in your lap. You’re very confused. You’ve never have been given anything in these 14 plus years on this earth. It’s a first.

“Why?” You asked.

He sits down on the edge of the bed and faces you.

“Just open it,” he said.

You squinted at him. He grabs the pink tissue paper and tosses it behind himself.

“There,” Chris said. “Now, you pull out what I got for you.”

You pull out this LEGO set and Chris pulls away the now empty bag. You look at the front. It’s the Super Hero Airport Battle with Captain America, the Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, War Machine, and Antman.

“Why are they fighting?” You asked. “Superheroes don’t fight each other.”

“You haven’t seen the movie?” He asked.

You shook your head no and said, “I’ve only seen Iron Man 3.”

“Really?” He asked surprised. “Just Iron Man 3?”

“Yeah. That was when I had parents that wanted me,” you said and you looked back at the box of legos.

“What happened?” Chris asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“They’re dead like Issac,” you said. “They died in a fire. The house burnt down.”

“That sucks,” Chris said looking at you.

“I know,” you said. “Now, you didn’t answer my question. Why are they fighting?”

“There’s this document called the Sokovia Accords. All these countries wanted all the superheroes to sign them,” Chris started telling you. “And make the superheroes liable for their mistakes. The governments of the countries wanted to tell the heroes where they can go help and where they can’t even if people need help.”

“That’s stupid,” you said.

“Right. It’s pretty stupid. So, Iron Man, War Machine, and a few other Avengers signed the accords but Captain America was like, ‘fuck that.’ And so the Avengers were split,” Chris said. “They had one team— Team Cap, obviously the best team and they had another one- Team Iron Man.”

“Who wins?” You asked.

“Nobody. They’re divided,” he said simply.

“All because of the government?” You asked.

“Pretty much,” Chris said.

“Thats fucked up,” you said.

“Language,” he said.

“That’s messed up!” You corrected sarcastically.

“Much better,” Chris said with a shit eating grin on his face. “Why don’t we get started on building the set?”

He pulls over the table. You sit yourself up crisscross even though there’s pain in your ribs and abdomen but you haven’t asked for any painkillers. Chris gets onto the bed more invading your space.

“Take off your shoes, you wild animal. Haven’t you learned anything?” You sassed.

He immediately takes off his shoes giving you this exaggerated annoyed look. He gets onto the bed and sits across from you crisscross. You try to pick off the tape. He lets you struggle trying to get open the box.

“What’s your favorite superhero?” Chris asked but he has a feeling that it’s Iron Man.

“Whoever can get the stupid ass box open,” you said putting the box on the table in between the two of you.

Chris chuckles and takes the box. He rips it open and tears the back wide open.

“There we go,” he said putting it on the table.

“That was obnoxious,” you said looking at him.

He just smiled cheekily. You just shook your head.

“Alright, lets get building,” Chris said rubbing his hands together.

“You sure you didn’t bring this so you could build it yourself?” You asked.

“Excuse me?! I’m helping you build it,” he said and mocked offense.

“Sure,” you said sarcastically and taking out the instruction book.

Chris rolled his eyes. He knows for a fact that he’ll come back tomorrow to visit you.

“What’s your favorite movie?” Chris asked.

“Iron Man 3,” you said opening bag one on the table.

“I know Iron Man,” he announced.

“Are you trying to impress me? Like I don’t get it. I don’t even understand why you’re here and why you’re in the bed across from me or why you’re trying to get to know me by asking questions,” you said. “Don’t you have something better to do instead of spending time with a stupid ass foster kid that nobody wants?”

“First of all, you aren’t stupid. You’re smarter than you think you are. Secondly, I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you,” Chris said.

“No, you don’t. You just feel bad for me,” you said.

“Honestly, yeah, I do feel bad—,” he said.

“Get out,” you said without hesitation.

“Let me finish,” Chris said.

“No! Get out!” You yelled pushing the legos off the table. “I don’t need you! I don’t need your fucking pity!”

“Y/n,” Chris said.

“GET OUT!” You screamed.

He sighs and slides off the bed. He grabs his shoes and quickly puts them on.

“GET OUT!” You yelled.

Chris finally leaves. Your jaw clenched tightly and tears streamed down your cheeks.

“Dude, you literally kicked out Captain America,” Andrew said shaking his head.

“Leave me alone!” You yelled.

~~~~~next day

Chris walks into the room with a fuzzy blanket, his iPad Pro, and a bag of snacks. The LEGO set is built and off to the side on the table. You’re so far in the bed on the edge that you might fall off. You’ve also been crying. Chris puts the things he brought on a chair except the giant fuzzy blanket. He covers you with the blanket. You looked at him with your eyes red and puffy.

“I told you to get out,” you said.

“That was yesterday,” Chris said grabbing the snacks and his iPad. “Today is a new day.”

He kicks off his shoes and puts the snacks in your lap. He gets into the bed. You try pushing him off. But he’s a 38 year old man. He plants himself right next to you laying on top of the blankets.

“I do feel bad. No kid should’ve seen another kid die or be shot, Y/n,” Chris said opening up his iPad. “I don’t know what else you’ve gone through but I know that it sucked for you and it’s unfair. You should be dealing with high school drama instead but you got dealt the wrong cards, kid. It’s not fair at all.”

He looks at you to find that you have this frustrated look on your face as tears streamed down your cheeks. He puts his arm around you and pulls you into his side. You bury your face into his side and shut your eyes closed tightly. You choked out a sob. His other arm wraps around you and he holds you tightly as you cry.

“You’re gonna be alright,” he said softly. “You’ll make it through all of this.”

You continued to cry and Chris did his best to soothe and console you. He honestly doesn’t know what he’s doing. He just knows he’s gotta protect you.

“Let’s watch a movie,” Chris said as you calmed down a bit.

“W-What movie?” You asked quietly.

“I was thinking Iron Man 1,” Chris said opening his iPad back up.

“You- you have it?” You asked with your eyes lighting up.

“Yup,” he said nodding.

He opened up the collection of movies he houses on the iPad. He scrolls through until he finds it. He taps on it and plays the movie. He looks to see that you’re already entranced. It brings a smile to his face and he turns his focus back on the screen.

The two of you crashed as the credits of Iron Man 2 rolled on the screen.

“Would it be alright if I adopted you?” Chris asked when you two woke up from your impromptu nap.

“Don’t be saying shit like that if you don’t mean it,” you said immediately sitting up and looking at the actor.

“I mean it, Y/n. You don’t have to be dealing with terrible foster parents or being homeless cause it’s better than the other places you’ve been. I got room in my house,” Chris said sitting up. “I got air conditioning.”

“You’re- you’re lying. You don’t want me,” you cried.

He wrapped his arms around you and held you close. You tried your hardest to fight against his hold but he doesn’t budge.

“When have I lied to you?” Chris asked as you cried into his shoulder. “Have I lied to you since we met?”

You shook your head no and he rubbed your back.

“Then I’m not lying now. I’d like to adopt you if you let me,” Chris said.

“O-Okay,” you sniffled.

Chris smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

~~~~few weeks later

You were first greeted by a very happy Dodger. He jumped on you which freaked you out and you tensed up looking at the dog warily.

“Dodger,” Chris said grabbing Dodger by his collar.

He gently pulls Dodger away and you went back outside. He looks over his shoulder to see you descend down the porch steps. He puts down your backpack that has all you have in it and he takes Dodger outside with him.

“Dodger is very excitable. He loves people,” Chris said sitting down beside you but giving enough space in between. “Sit, Dodger.”

Dodger sits down planting his ass on Chris’ foot. Chris chuckles and pets his furry friend. He makes sure that Dodger doesn’t do anything to you.

“You okay?” Chris asked looking at you.

You shrugged your shoulders and looked away. You sniffled and tried your hardest not to cry. Chris watches as you hold yourself with your arms wrapped around yourself.

“I- I don’t w-want to get attached to him or- or you,” you whimpered with your voice trembling.

Chris slides closer and wrapped his arms around you.

“It’s okay to get attached, Y/n,” Chris said.

“B-But everyone dies!” You exclaimed looking at him with tears streaming down your cheeks. “My parents died. My sister died. My adoptive parents died. Issac is dead! He died right in front of me. Everyone I get attached to dies, Chris. You’re just gonna be one of them.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m not immortal and neither is Dodger and neither are you. Death is inevitable and you’ve dealt with it a lot. The world hasn’t been kind to you,” he said running his fingers through your hair. “You’ve lost so many people and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Y-you don’t know that,” you said.

“You’re right. I don’t but it would be a dick move on the world’s part,” Chris said.

You let out a small laugh as he pulled you into his side more. Your arms wrapped around his torso.

“C’mon, let’s go inside,” he said.

You nodded but you don’t move. He chuckles. He stays put for a little longer and holds you.

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