#the tldr is 'they don't have the power to have that kind of reach'

[fleetsonourgecentral]

so it first Scourge only stays in the dimension because he has no way out, but what about the Omniviewer or the Ring of Eternity? do they for some reason not have the ability to take him to his dimension? or are we just shoving them out of the picture for the sake of the story until we can think of a good reason for their absence?

hi can you tell how much I've got the Fleet!Sonourge bug

So the Omniviewer and Ring of Eternity, although they do have dimension-related powers, don't quite have the powers to send Scourge back to his own dimension (Sonic was distraught upon discovering this, because the Omniviewer was his first solution. Locals say he stormed off yelling "THEN WHAT EXACTLY IS THE POINT OF YOU???" when the Omniviewer said he couldn't help). Their powers, while impressive to someone from the fleetway dimension who didn't even know dimension travel was possible, are actually pretty standard and minor in the grand, cosmic, multi-dimension scheme of things, as both of them can really only use their powers on the fleetway dimension and nearby "connected" dimensions

The Omniviewer's power is mostly limited to Mobius and the Special Zone, the latter of which is still inside the fleetway dimension. There's the bonus of time travel, but that still only really impacts the fleetway universe. I don't remember if we ever see him use his powers for anything outside Mobius and the Special Zone, but if he can, it's limited. The Ring of Eternity has a bit more power, as it can connect to other dimensions, but only... local dimensions, I guess is the way to put it? The Cosmic Highway is big, there are a lot of alternate dimensions to hold, and not all dimensions are within the same distance as each other

Think of it as like a bubble, I guess? The Ring of Eternity can reach dimensions that are within the bubble, and most if not all of those dimensions have a direct connection to the fleetway dimension. The universe that has King Sonic, for example, is directly connected to the fleetway universe, because, well, it's a parallel for it. It's a relatively close dimension, from a multi-dimensional perspective, which means it's within the reach of the Ring of Eternity's powers

Moebius, however, is not part of these connected dimensions. Different bubble, or neighbourhood, or whichever metaphor you wish to use. It's not a dimension that's close to the fleetway universe, so even if the Ring of Eternity or the Omniviewer were aware of that universe to begin with, they couldn't send Scourge there, because they just don't have that kind of power. Probably for the best, otherwise there could have been some... unforeseen complications when the Omniviewer trapped Super

The fleetway universe, and similarly, it's connecting universes, are pretty well-contained. Travel between connected dimensions isn't very common as it is, unless you count Sonic's trips to the Special Zone, so getting outside of that little bubble is incredibly difficult. Portals that open directly onto the Cosmic Highway just don't spawn often, and it's incredibly difficult to find an alternate way out. Perhaps it's a cosmic evolution; a dimension that specifically spawned and adapted to keep things and people (like Super) contained

Either way, it's effective at keeping people in. Between that, and Scourge's dimension being not only completely unconnected to the fleetway universe, but also thousands of miles away on the Cosmic Highway, neither the Omniviewer nor the Ring of Eternity can help, so please stop yelling at us Sonic it's not our fault there's nothing we can do

#sonic the hedgehog #asks #headcanon #can you see me just making shit up as i go because i'm too lazy to learn all of the lore and rules of the multiverse in the archie comics #so if anything contradicts archie canon. no it doesn't. #for that matter if anything contradicts stc canon? no it doesn't #my lore now #i read through the wiki that counts as research right #anyways hope this is at least semi-coherent??? #the tldr is 'they don't have the power to have that kind of reach' #so scourge has to find another way #and unfortunately for him none of his usual methods work because the fleetway universe is pretty airtight #literally his only advantage is he's done this before. but it still isn't easy #of course if you brought in like. a way to create a portal from outside the fleetway universe. that would be different #bc those are probably specifically designed to either open onto the cosmic highway or into a specific dimension #unfortunately for scourge. he crash landed without any of those things #and the fleetway universe was not keen on making it easy to find a way out #much to the dismay of sonic #at least. until he got used to scourge. and caught feelings #fleetway universe: all according to keikaku >:) #my fleet!sonourge brainrot.... tis spreading as planned...... >:3

[morgandoesstuffsig]

Idk if ur requests are open, but hear me out XD. A creator!reader who descends on Teyvat meets all the Archons and such. Then up and leaves by changing their appearance in order to explore their creation and how it has changed. Every once in a while Creator will make themselves obvious by performing acts only the Creator could. Once they are found out they just up and leave again only to resurface after another Divine act. TLDR: Creator playing cat and mouse with Teyvat

oh my GOD creator is just TORTURING then atp

small ramble because i still have massive writers block [cries] also ignore how late this is pls ok mwamwa thnx

c.w // yan. chars

song : Best Friend - Rex Orange County

SAGAU INCOMING : YAN CHARS.

okay so you decided 'hey man, what if i wasn't worshipped the moment i stepped outside'

so you just said fuck it and shifted

(it's been a while since you've done so, it kind of felt weird and hurt a tiny bit)

walking around teyvat in an odd, different form. completely different hair, height, clothes, you get the gist

the only things you couldnt change however were three things:

your blood (still gold, but you didn't plan on bleeding infront of anyone)

your aura (still comforting, caring, and even alluring)

your voice (why? zero clue.)

escaping the throne room you've oh so sadly been bound to!! having fun while doing it!!

(the only real reason you managed to escape is bc you managed to get the archons out and actually tend to their nations, as per your request order)

messing around while escaping fr!! people passing by wondering why this random person they've never seen is (not very) sneakily running away from the creator's palace/temple

but eventually shrugging it off, albeit reluctantly

messing around in mondstat, playing with the npc children more than you could usually, giving them the time of their life!!

this is where you use your first creator powers >:3

some poor kid scraped his knee real hard on the bridge, let's say timmie (hes so sweet he just wants to defend his birds pls b nice to him!!)

you, being the belovent god you are, use your divine powers to heal him

whether you do it with the hc of having to use your own gold blood or just having special healing powers only creator has, you do it

however, your dumbass mind hadn't thought of the fact that Venti may have been watching this

new outlander person with a mysterious aura

and now he quickly learns its you :0!!

the archons had no clue you could shapeshift!! why wasnt this in the ancient scrolls??? did they just lose the ones that mentioned it???

venti immediately finds some weird wind way to tell the other archons

fucking loud mouth

speaking of which, ei is freaking. out.

she came back to just check on you in your throne room and youre just.

not there??

panics, almost goes to zhongli before she gets venti's message and calms down slightly

atp you've realize you've outed yourself

so after making sure timmie is find you quickly run off into the forest before venti can come after you and smother you (both physically and with questions)

forest reached, new mission : new form needed

this basically keeps happening, and it's a needed breath of fresh air for you

running to liyue looking like a normal person until you magically form a special medicine that was unheard of from your hand for an elder, sickly lady

running from liyue to sumeru and shifting into!! an animal!! a fox!! cat!! tiger!! dog!! bird!! any of the sort!!

only getting outed from sumeru after you accidentally spoke while in animal form and having to go over to inazuma as an unknown, traveling sailor!!

getting outed after that for your extremely familiar aura and voice (inazuma people are scarily observant towards strangers) and eventually getting shoved escorted back to your palace/temple

funny stories to tell

however, the archons wont be leaving your room for quite a while..

oh well, who says you don't have other stunts to pull?

#morgan.died : writes #x reader #genshin impact #requests open #genshin cult au #sagau #sagau x reader #genshin #self aware genshin #genshin fanfic #genshin imagines #genshin rambles #rambles #various x reader

[anameistoohard]

Oh boy, lets open that can of worms

There's a LOT of discourse with endo vs anti-endo stuff (endogenic system=plural system not formed by trauma if you don't know 🙂). Like, death threats coming from both sides kinda thing. We try to stay out of it. But it's easy to accidentally stumble into it if you're not familiar with some of the nuance. So we want to share some observations as like, a crash course. (And apparently we had a lot to say lol.)

This post isn't really to debate how plurality forms. Just to give some context as to why so much hate is flying between these two groups.

Basically, you have 2 extremes. (And everyone in between obviously)

On one side you have people making up extra rules on top of the diagnostic criteria to exclude and gatekeep anyone who doesn't meet "their level" of disordered. (I've literally heard people say "you can't be a system, you're not as traumatized as me"). A lot of accusations of faking come from this bunch. Too much internal communication? Faker. Too many non-human alters? Faker. Too many or not enough alters? Faker. You can't win with them even if you have a diagnosis.

We've noticed a lot of parallels between this group and transmeds. You need to have x level of dysphoria to ride this ride. You can't be trans if you don't want xyz treatment. You need to reach my arbitrary bar of "trans enough". Enbys and everyone else are fakers. That kind of bs.

But on this side you also have a lot of people who just want to be taken seriously. They want to be validated by their diagnosis and feel hurt when people say or do things that they think will compromise that validity. They, at least initially, come from a place of sincerity not malice. But they fall into the trap of trying to be "one of the good ones".

On the other extreme you have the wild west. Things people treat as fact aren't codified with the same scrutiny as the DSM-5 or ICD-11. This breeds its own confusion and misinformation. We've seen people conflate plurality with things like maladaptive day dreaming, lucid dreaming, adhd, and (applying it to other people with ferocity to the point of harassment) metaphors of all things.

They have a spaghetti at the wall approach that reminds me of a less extreme MOGII (an attempt to define just about every possible form of gender and sexuality). It's a messy patchwork of ideas. We've seen 8 different labels that all mean the same thing and are being used by exactly no one. Redundancy and hyperspcificity, that's the name of the game. But frankly we like this if for no other reason than we want to see what sticks, what becomes mainstream.

We've seen people from this group attack people as badly as the anti-endo group. Openly mocking people for having trauma or saying vile shit like "traumagenics kys". They feel threatened by the exclusionary nature of diagnoses. But instead of taking their frustration out on the systems of power they take them out on normal people. After all if you're diagnosed, you "represent the system"... I guess. Equally bull shit.

But this is also where the edge cases go, the exclusions, those that don't fit into a neat little box. The DSM excludes people whose plurality is accepted as part of their culture or religion. These people don't suddenly stop being systems just because they're accepted, but they're distinctly not disordered. They don't meet the clinical definition of DID or OSDD. Same goes for someone whose symptoms are mild enough to not cause "clinically significant distress". You also have people who don't want to be pathologized or have been failed by the medical system.

So lastly, a warning: When dealing with plural stuff, it's very easy to go stumbling into a mine field.

Tldr: I would always rather land on the side of letting too many people in than exclude people who needed the support. However, no matter your in-group, some people take things too far. Like, ffs don't attack people. 

-Taylor & Mark

#not giving this any proper tags cause I don't want a fucking maelstrom of hate coming at us lol #long post #this might be a bad idea

[stil-lindigo]

hello lindi! i've been following you since you were starting out pulse, and it's been an honour to see you grow both as an artist and as a person⏤the way you approach sociopolitical issues with strength and optimism is simply incredible, and it teaches me a lot about my relationship with activism as well.

in that vein, i wanted to ask a question. on twitter, i've seen people asking others to completely cut down on posting personal art or about special interests and focus 100% on talking about palestine for the whole week. while i am doing it the best i can, i have some reservations and doubts about this approach of striking, especially since it's not a sentiment i'm seeing on any other social media platform or even on different twitter communities.

i just wanted to get your opinion on this⏤do you think it's effective or necessary? i fear i may be being too pessimistic about it, which is the last thing i want to do.

thank you always, i hope these asks aren't wearing on you.

hello anon :) It inspires a lot of awe in me that you're still here after four (five?) years - i'm extremely honoured and humbled to have earned your patronage for so long.

for the twitter/social media strike, I have the stance where I don't think the message for palestine is dampened by people still posting about their special interests, mainly for a few reasons.

While it would have been incredibly powerful to have a general posting blackout besides pro-palestine messages, it was never going to realistically happen. There are people who aren't online who won't learn about the strike until it's too late, people who maintain a main and an alt and only post fandom stuff on the alt (which is private or has 12 followers so who cares, they'll post their genshin husbands), people who just prioritise their escapism over anything else. I can't hold it against them too, because trying to impose a "you can ONLY post about palestine" decree (even for just a week) will breed resentment in droves, which i think would make the movement lose steam incredibly fast. For most people, social media is escapism. It's a privilege afforded to those who can turn off their phone, or close a tab and leave all the horrors behind. But at the end of the day, we all do it, and to some extent I think that balance is necessary so that you stay sane. Activism is a lifestyle, not a brief stint, where balance has to be maintained to make sure you can do as much as you can for as long as you can.

You kind of have to realise that nobody can reach through a screen and police someone's social media use or thoughts. I've been observing the general rules of the strike, but to be fair I'm in the boat where that's not very different to how I've been posting for the past few months anyway, so it's no big sacrifice on my part. There are people out there on social media right now who deserve shame for their "escapism". The type to proudly boast about muting words like "palestine", "israel", "genocide" - they're callous, and cruel, and lonely souls searching for a brief high in attention and outrage. But I am seeing people on my feed observe the strike, I am seeing more resources about Palestine, I am seeing dipshits get shamed. The strike's goal to push Palestine resources to the forefront of the feed, to get it trending, has (so far) been working.

So...this was longwinded but - tldr; we were always gonna have people who prioritised their fandom over a genocide so you can't really be too disappointed by it (well, you can, but I'm not since it's just a "*shrug* that's how most people are"-type situation) but there are people who are observing the strike halfway and people who are doing it all the way and they're lifting us all up, so the strike's call to action did work and is currently doing what it's supposed to.

#long post #i always write too much for these but. yeah. just wanted to explain it as well as i could #also. again. im not enlightened or more educated than the average joe #im in my 20s and very online and an artist. this is the perspective of someone who is...that. #thats all #you can disagree if you want i dont really care #just do it while supporting palestine #palestine #free palestine #free gaza #free west bank

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

05/01/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Samba; Con; Rachel House; Gizmo Darby; Nathan; Vico; Leslie; Watch Party Reminders: Palm Royale tomorrow; Adopt Our Crew Breakdown of GLAAD Fan Spotlight; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

= Samba Schutte =

It's the last week to order this limited edition Crew For Life T-Shirt! All proceeds go to benefiting "EVERY MOTHER COUNTS". Order your Crew For Life shirt here!

Img Src: Samba Schutte's IG

= Con O'Neill =

Our dear Con O'Neill is encouraging everyone to get out and vote! #VoteTheFuckersOut

Img Src: Con O'Neill's IG

= Nathan Foad =

Quick peak of Nathan on his IG again <3

Img Src: Nathan Foad's IG

= Rachel House =

There's a new article out featuring Rachel House and her first time directing!

Rachel House on first-time directing and the power of mounga

Img Src: @temaungafilm Instagram

= Vico Ortiz =

Vico's posted a few updates, the first link relates to recent events. Check it out below.

Img Src: Vico Ortiz IG

In addition, there's a new episode of Date My Abuelita First Podcast! Date My Abuelita, First! Podcast Links

Img Src: Vico Ortiz IG

= Leslie Jones =

Reminder! Leslie is hosting "Netflix Is a Joke" Fest at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, CA! Want more info? Visit NetflixIsAJokeFest

= Gizmo Darby =

Samba must be out visiting the Darby Family because here's Gizmo taking residence in Samba's lap.

Img Src: Samba Schutte's IG

== Watch Party Reminders ==

= Palm Royale =

Palm Royale WP May 2 via @LCWebsXOXO with the lovely @/dominicburgess approx. 4pm EDT/9pm BST/1pm PST!

= Wrecked Season 1 =

Another week of Wrecked Season 1 is on the docket! Don't have access? Reach out to me on @gentlebeardsbarngrill on tumblr, or @aspirantabby42 on twitter.

Days: Apr 29 - May 3

Times: 3:30 pm PT / 6:30 pm ET / 11:30 pm BST

== Adopt Our Crew ==

You may have heard that GLAAD released their "Where We Are on TV" report. Well our fantastic crewmates over at @adoptourcrew were kind enough to do a thread on twitter breaking down the various aspects. @adoptourcrew's Twitter Thread Here. If you have access to twitter, please head over there and give their post some love. Thank you friends for putting this all together!

Full GLAAD Report

TV Line Article

The Wrap Article

Hollywood Reporter Article

Gay Times Article

= Fan Spotlight =

= Cast Cards =

Tonight we have the priest that officiated Stede and Mary's wedding, Benton Jennings! Thank you @melvisik for making sure he made it in with the rest of the cast!

= OFMD Colouring Pages =

Ooo @patchworkpiratebear has done it again! This one looks so cool! I can't wait to color this one myself! Thanks hon!

@patchworkpiratebear's Tumblr

= Pixel Art =

Our awesome @blueberreads started MerMay off strong with the SaveOFMD MerMay prompt of Spanish Jackie'z!

Source: @blueberreads Tumblr

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies. I know that there's a lot going on right now in the world and it's especially tense for those of you who are in Uni or in cities with Universities. This is a really tough time for you, and I want you to know we're thinking about you.

If you need to vent, or you need help getting access to something, please be sure to reach out to your crew. We care a lot about you, and we know these are scary times. Make sure to stay safe if you can, and if you're in a position to be out in harms way, make sure you've got emergency supplies and support in case things get hairy. There's a link above in the Vico section specifically regarding if things get really hairy where you can go for help (or how you can help those who need it).

You all are so very brave. Seriously, whether you're on the ground, or supporting financially, or bringing supplies, or just spreading the word online and keeping eyes and cameras on things to keep the situations honest, or even just staying put where it's safe and taking some self-care time-- you're doing everything you can.

Sometimes it feels like what we do doesn't make an impact. Sometimes it feels like these tiny ripples won't go anywhere. You're making the ripples, and those inspire others to make ripples as well.

You're making a difference no matter how big or how small, don't forget that lovelies. Please stay safe wherever you are, were thinking of you.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Today's theme is "Zoom zoom zoom!"

Gifs courtesy of the fantastic @kiwistede and darling @meluli <3

#daily ofmd recap #daily ofmd recaps #ofmd daily recap #ofmd daily recaps #vico ortiz #rachel house #leslie jones #samba schutte #nathan foad #mermay #adopt our crew #con o neill #ofmd #our flag means death #save ofmd #adopt our crew team #gizmo darby

[loving-family-poll]

Ultimate Incest Tournament - Round 1

Norma and Norman Bates sculpture by artist "Rainman," titled Murderer

Propaganda under the cut:

Dante/Vergil:

The entire game is about how the power of twincest and a little gratuitous dadson/unclenephew can overcome the cycle of generational trauma

They are half-human half-demon twins who got split up when they were 8. Dante is the more normal one although he is mega depressed and doesn't like being around full human people. Vergil is kind of the evil twin although he is not that evil

They meet again when they are 19 and fight a few times and generally seem like they don't like each other (at one point Dante says "how about a kiss from your little brother" before pulling out a gun) but later on they team up and act like the brothers they once were

Vergil jumps into the demon world (and it's implied that it's a kind of suicide attempt, I think) and stops Dante from reaching for him. Dante is very emo about this and basically considers Vergil dead. He then names his devil hunting business Devil May Cry after how he cried because of Vergil

10 years later Dante comes across a brainwashed Vergil and kills him, not recognizing that it was Vergil until he is dead and gone. Dante is very emo about this

Like 10 years after this Dante comes across Vergil's accidental kid and acts like a distant enigmatic uncle toward him. Like 5 years after that, Vergil is back and splits himself in half, and when one half tells Dante that the evil demon they need to stop is Vergil's other half, Dante gets super pissed at him because he thinks he's lying and doesn't like people using Vergil's name in vain, I guess.

Eventually, both halves of Vergil recombine and he and Dante fight again but Vergil's son tells them to stop doing that and they're just like "okay".

Then a portal is opening to the demon world so someone has to go there and stop it but they'll be trapped there. Both Vergil and Dante go. Vergil tells Dante he doesn't need his help and that he can leave but Dante is like "no 🥰". We see them fighting in hell (in a friendly way) and fighting other demons together, just generally having a good time. Currently, they are still trapped there.

TLDR: Dante is very depressed when it comes to Vergil because he's lost him like 3 times and just wants Vergil to be alive and with him. At the end of the last game, Dante is super genuinely happy with Vergil in the demon world. We see less of Vergil's side of things, but he loves and hates Dante because he feels inferior to him (for mommy issue reasons). Vergil only smiles around Dante and honestly likes fighting him for fun. There's a lot more I could say but this is already so long so... They are complicated but they love each other <3

Norma/Norman:

The weirdest, most charming mother/son duo ever. Bates Motel took an interesting story and turned it into something greater, exploring Norma and Norman's relationship with sincere sympathy. Their love for each other is beautiful, but destructive; their intimacy was born out of necessity and shared pain; the world won't leave them alone. It's awful to witness. It's beautiful and heartbreaking.

i mean COME ON. Norma is constantly upset that Norman expresses interest in other women. She hid her husband from Norman because she knew Norman would throw a hissy fit over them being together (which he did)

He tried to commit murder-suicide so they could die together and when he survived he taxidermied her corpse so they could be together forever

Norman “It’s like there’s a cord between us” x Norma “Honey that’s - that’s from Jane Eyre” are everything to me. I’m barely scratching the surface in doing justice to their insanity. They mean everything to each other and I love their fucked-up codependency so dearly.

After he killed her he couldn't live without her so literally absorbed her personality and started wearing her clothes and speaking for her and carrying her corpse around and when a woman he was attracted to showed up at the hotel he killed her as his mother bc of his mother's jealousy??

#tumblr polls #tournament polls #incest poll #dante/vergil #devil may cry #norma/norman bates #psycho #bates motel #tw incest #round 1

[heyifinallyhaveablog]

A Fan in Distress:

This post is basically being sent in vacuum, since this is probably the millionth of its kind on Tumblr relating to J.K. Rowling. I for one, could relate to Harry Potter for the longest time, until very recently, since once you try reviving an old favourite of yours, chances are, that you might love them, or find yourself in an ethical dilemma worse than ever.

TLDR: As of today, I harbour no ethical dilemmas. Whatever JKR has said and done in enforcement of her transphobia is problematic, and considering her power and position is inexcusable. Her social capital has already been elevated enough to shield her from the monetary effects of any backlash thereof. And we don't need to add to it.

Time to let the Harry Potter franchise rest in its grave.

---

Here, I'll confess my own sins. I'm an owner of all seven of those books. I've loved all of them more than life itself. I've loved Neville and I've loved Dobby. Completing my HP set was my first quest after I'd started earning, and I'd very recently bought the Harry Potter Almanac. It was actually after this purchase that YouTube (courtesy of its algorithm) threw up two podcast videos for me to listen to while working. (Yeah, I live under a rock, and, yes, apparently this issue of JKR being a transphobe hasn't really gained much audience in our country. I sincerely doubt that many people knew of this. They probably still don't.)

But yes, while ignorance may be blissful, it is certainly not desirable. And this is where those podcast videos by Contrapoints and Jesse Gender educated me about this issue. Particularly Aranock's testimony of her experience as a trans female, particularly with respect to the hatred and harassment she was subjected to after JKR's spiteful revelations actually shook me to the core. I felt despair, sadness, anger and yes, Guilt too.

I'D FELT CHEATED.

Because, you don't listen, JKR. For some reason, you've refused to listen, heed, and reason. This probably won't reach you, but I'm sure you would know what being unheard feels like, and here, you are, after having written of inclusion and consideration, love and respect, in your set of fantasy novels, standing on your millions that those novels got you, and yet, becoming the exact polar opposite of what you'd preached, and hurting millions in your obstinacy. You are now leading us to believe that your make believe world holds no good for anything apart from the age old viciously exclusionary social mores that people are fighting so hard against. Even to this day, even in countries as evolving as mine, even in countries as 'developed' as yours.

But yes, none of this makes any difference to you, does it? And as for us, we shall definitely adjust and cast aside something that millions of us grew up to love. For that, is the right thing to do.

So henceforth-

No Harry Potter merchandise for me.

No more Harry Potter books/films for me.

Harry Potter shan't be passed to my children from me. But yeah, Sandman certainly will.

An ashamed ex-Potterhead

#harry potter #jk rowling #anti jkr #transphobia cw #jkr #anti transphobes #we must do better #i must do better

[cheemerthelizard]

after watching half of MP100 season 1 in about two (2) days, I think I can definitively say that Mob is definitely autistic-coded, and that his psychic powers are an allegory for romanticized mental illnesses/disorders.

Mob being autistic coded is pretty obvious to anyone who knows the littlest bit about autism. I'm sure if I watched it in 4th grade, I would say that Mob kind of reminded me of some of my autistic friends, and maybe even a little bit about myself (I would probably also say that watching it in 4th grade would've scarred me for life, but that's not the point). His inability to "get a clue", his uptight keeping with the rules, his utmost trust in whatever anyone says, and many other traits are very reminiscent of traits found in autistic people.

Of course, Mob's personality isn't the main spotlight I wanted to shine on this post, but rather his psychic powers. Now, I personally think that his powers were specifically designed to be an allegory for autistic people who mask certain traits of theirs, but seeing as there are a lot of connections I could make with my undesirable ADHD traits, I believe these powers could be an allegory with just about any romanticized mental illness or disorder.

You may have noticed that I opted to exclude Mob's difficulty to express his emotions in my paragraph listing his autistic traits. Well, this is because that specific trait is linked to him repressing his emotions so that his powers don't leak out and potentially cause harm. Now, in the case of autism, this could be a metaphor for any number of autistic tendencies (stimming, infodumping, etc.) but it could easily serve as a metaphor for tendencies in other disabilities and illnesses, such as the inability to control one's voice with ADHD. They're traits that others consider weird and annoying, which sometimes makes it hard to make friends.

Of course, there's also the "percent till Mob explodes", which can so easily be a metaphor for meltdowns. Now, I'm not sure if it's from the autism or from some unknown mental illness of mine, but I personally tend to bottle things up until they burst, going into a fit of despair and self loathing, accompanied by loud crying that embarrasses me to no end. However, I don't think those are the type of meltdowns that the show meant to portray. I think it was specifically going for the meltdowns that autistic people feel when they reach a level of overstimulation that pushes them past what they can handle.

And, of course, there's a reason I said Mob's psychic powers were an allegory for romanticized mental illnesses. That's because of the usage of psychic powers in the first place. Everyone wants psychic powers. I mean, imagine all of the things we could accomplish if we could use telekinesis or see ghosts! This same mentality is used to tell people of any neurodivergency that they should stop taking their "cool superpowers" for granted. People with ADHD can get into the zone when they really like something and get so much done (and absolutely zero done on things they don't like)! People with OCD can always live in a clean space (and compulsively pick/scratch at their skin, leaving permanent scars)! People with autism can see the world in a different way than everyone else (and can become ostracized from that world because they see it differently)! These things are similar to what Mob has to deal with regarding psychic powers.

tldr yeah Mob is the autistic icon the anime community needs. him and jotaro are besties and hang out together not talking the entire time

#oops didn't mean to write an entire fucking essay on MP100 and its autistic allegories at twelve in the morning #it's the autism or adhd probably lmao #Mob Psycho 100 #shigeo kageyama

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2022 Part Deux: The Top 10

... and continued. If you missed the first part of this list check it out bellow

TLDR: I do a yearly ranking of 20 diffrent episodes from cartoons I saw this year, split into two parts. This is part Deux, with the top 10 and we're in an intresting spot as this year we had TWO reinging champions.

See Invincible won the 2021 list.. but then sat out a year to produce season 2, making sure it was as good as possible then splitting it right in half like a kit kat bar when it was clear it wouldn't be ready in time and Amazon was panicking from the strike. So it wasn't around when Owl HOuse won last year's gold, leaving both shows to defend the crown. And with Owl House not reaching the top 10 in this utterly stacked year of animation, will Invincible live up to it's name again or get splattered in blood? Either way you'll have fun finding out under the cut.

Unmarked Spoilers for all non pluto or non pilot series bellow. you been warned.

10. Winter King ( Fionna and Cake Season 1, Episode 6)

I was once just like you Didn’t know what to do Had all those bad feelings and schemes My poor heart in a chill Till through sheer force of will I was able to fashion my dreams

While Fionna and Cake was good across the board, this episode was far and away my faviorite for a lot of reasons. So for those less familiar with this mini, Fionna and Cake, the genderswaps of Finn and Jake, had their world's magic disappear when the Ice King was finally freed of the crown and returned to the normal guy he was. With an interdimensional audtitor with a grudge against the duo's real creator, Prismo, on the warpath, F and C travel with Simon to find him a new crown, unaware of what the crown actually does to people or the problems Simon's actively avoiding.

This brings our duo to the realm of the Winter King, a seemingly perfect simon: He's charming, handsome, kind and conquered the crown when Simon couldn't, turning his ice kingdom into a delighful rankin bass style "Winter Wonder World". Helping his charm is the sliky voice of Brian David Gilbert, an internet musician who i'd only heard of through his halloween tinged abba cover album, but who made me an instant fan with just how much he kills it, from the deligthful tone, to his response to Cake wanting the two simons to make out being "Don't think it hasn't occured to me!"

The king is seemingly perfect, the charming handsome dream man Fionna wanted and someone to help Simon. But we soon see something's.. off. Marciline is absent, replaced with an ice version of child Marcy, the Winter King's entirely forgotten betty, not moved on but simply considered her an afterthought. He's nice enough to assume he just may of forgot and maybe that's at leat a little healtheir than simon trying to summon her while she's fused with a demon god, but it's nice little seeds that sprout later.

We then get what clinches this episode both on this list and as one of the best adventure time's had franchise wide: Candy Queen. Turns out in this universe PB is the one trying to kidnap Ice King, a hilarious turn that is still treated as fucked up as it should be.

WE get a nice song from both: the jolly and breezy winter wonder world from Winter King which would be great on it's own.. but is then nicely topped with fluff from it's counter piece.. baked with love.. a delightfully written love song beautifully sang by Hyden Walch, whose unrecognizable otherwise, taking to this deranged version of bonnie perfectly and the design for both kingdoms is great: the enchantment yet coldness (literal and figurative )of the winter kingdom and the deranged mess the candy kingdom's become. We also get a nice subpplot with Gary and Marshall in the main world as Fionna, emrbacing her power fantasy, chops through this world's counterparts to gary's little pals he made.

The twist is excellent: through the kidnapping and Candy Queens plan to put them in a giant blender, it's clear something's VERY wrong with how Winter King treats Bonnie. Instead of the understandable frustration our bonnie had.. .Winter King just wants to abandon her and shrugs off Simon's genuine want to help her. To Winter King she's a seeming annoyance.. to Simon in one timeline she's his step daughter and something had to go VERY wrong for her to end up like this. Not only that having BEEN in her position, he can't stand to see her like this.

Thankfully while Winter King wins... Fionna trying to kiss him shorts out his crown and kills him

Turns out this Simon was evil, happy to strike the faustian bargin needed to keep himself sane by pushing it on Bonnie, something our Simon, for all the breakdown he's going through now, would never even CONSIDER. Fionna is left questioning herself, while Simon.. feels validated. Also Bonnie hits on Fionna. Neat. But Simon assures Fionna it's not her fault, his variant was just a wad. I'ts a wonderful episode with a great twist, and two fantastic songs, all baked with love.. but thankfully not an anquatrian and a frosty winter's dick.

9. Zero Day (My Adventures With Superman, S1, Episodes 8 and 9)

" People have told you to fear Superman because he's different from us... but we humans are capable of causing hurt and pain, too. Because of greed. Because we want to punish those who don't look or act like us. Because of fear. But we're also capable of greatness. It's what we choose to do that matters. Superman has made his choice. It's our turn, Metropolis... It's time for us to save Superman."

As comes up on here often, I'm a massive comics nerd and while I lean towards marvel, I still dearly love DC. So after a drought of animated shows from both, it really warms my heart that this year brought us a heaping helping from both: The inventive, engaging and creative Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur which sadly didn't make the list this year by a hair, and the beautifully animated, well done, long overdue My Adventures with Superman.

My Adventures with Superman is a welcome return to big blue and his first solo cartoon since Superman the Animated Series, 23 years ago. Yes... really. I was shocked too. While superman's cropped up plenty for his stint as a deadbeat dad who came around in the end in Young Justice, to his assorted DTV films including the stellar Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, not to mention shows for other parts of the superman mythos in the late 2000's with the stellar Krypto the Superdog and one of my all time faviorite superhero shows I really, REALLY need to give a through look at, Legion of Super Heroes. If you would be at all interested in that please, let me know. Anyways we also had Conner and Kara each be a key part of a teen superhero show with Young Justice and Dc Superhero girls, but for some reason DC Just.. had zero intrest in making a JUST superman show. Maybe it was fears that it'd be hard to equal Superman TAS, maybe they just didn't give a shit about one of their greatest characters in comparison to that bat money, maybe they felt they peaked with his brave and the bold guest apperance wearing the super pope hat. I hope it was three but it was definitely 2.

So while the announcment of the now Amazon Prime-bound Batman; The Caped Crusader wasn't a suprise, this show wasn't: A dc show that wasn't an action comedy, focused around superman, with an intriguging anime art style. And while the show shifted to Toonami, it still proved to be an all ages delight, with Season 2 already on the way and hopefully many more.

My Adventures takes us back to the start of Clark's career.

We have.. a LOTTTT. See i've gotten into the man of steel again lately.. and to my shock clark has had at LEAST five diffrent origin stories in the main dc comics: the original in the golden age, the man of steel reboot in the 80's, the mini series superman birthright by mark waid got retconned into one in the early 2000's and then in the late 2000's Geoff Johns overwrote THAT with Secret Origin, which was then rendered non canon with the new 52 which brought us Grant Morrison's take, which was then swapped for Secret Origin again and...

With many an alternate universe, film, series, and breakfast cereal box recounting it. It's been done so many times that in their excellent All Star Superman, outer god grant morrison simply reduced the origin to one page.

Simple beautiful and compact.

So it's a daunting task to ONCE AGAIN tell superman's early years. My Adventures freshens it up by, much like Legion of Superheroes, focusing on a clark who while knowing he's some form of alien and having some control of his powers, is much less experinced and in this case is still slowly gaining them as the series goes on, the latter ala smallville with clark gaining his heat vision, x ray vision and super hearing over the course of season 1, as well as finding out he's bullet proof. This is a clark who is DEEPLY insecure that he's an alien, terrified the world will reject him, and trying badly to be normal... yet still throughly superman even before he puts on the tights as we first see him as an adult not able to go about his morning without stopping to get a cat out of a tree or help someone simply because that's who he is.

So the show naturally puts him with his oppisites: fun kind of conspiracy theorist Jimmy Oleson who semeingly brushes off his best buddy constantly breaking their apartment, only to cleverly reveal later that no , Jimmy knew, he was just being nice about it, and Lois Lane, here a scrappier, hyperactive go getter who badly wants to go from intern work to actual journalism and will bust down any door she has to. Lois helps clark see he can't hide his whole life , but also puts pressure on him as while Clark and Lois have instant, adorable as hell chemistry, Lois is supscious of superman and thinks he has some motive or something for not knowing where he comes from or why he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. it's this push and pull that makes the series, and it's wonderful. WE even get a better version of what Invincible tried to pull off with the secret identity thing in season 1 with Lois being mad clark hid from her, but with a shortned timespan as lois knew for a few days and TRIED to get clark to open up without outright telling him, then when confronting him had to jump off a building to get clark to come clean. Classic lois move, love it. And the rift isn't piled all on one side: Clark is right to be afraid Lois will out his secret , while Lois is right to want someone she's dating to not lie to her and has deep seated issues with lying thanks to her father. The quickly make up, go out and things are seemingly fine.

But while this romcom played out, another arc played out: a shadowy goverment orignization had it's tech stolen, and said orignization hates Superman for some reason. Said org.. is task force x

It's a weird choice.. but it works: Waller and Sam Lane hae long been super paranoid, said Lois Dad fits this orginzation perfectly, and adding slade in there as an oprative workas as he'll work for any amount of money and give him a mech suit and he can fight superman. Wish it wasn't skull shaped but outside of parasite , silver banshee and mxy this series has an issue with villian designs.

Point is they co-opt the villians into the suicide squad without using that name because

and after a season of build up we get zero day, the climax of the season.. not the finale which serves more as an epilogue. Waller and Lane..actually get superman after an episode of him being strung out from getting super hearing which is hilaroius at first but gets worrying as his drive to SOLVE EVERYTHING instead of take a nap, and to stop task force x before they hurt more people, instead leaves him captured. I'ts here the bomb gets dropped: another kryptonian, who waller and lane weirdly think is clark despite how he looks and how they NOTICE he's weaker when they fight him thanks to good ole xenophobia, invaded. And while i'm sure we'll get some swerve where Jor El wasn't part of this, especially since the end of the season hints at zod, it's still a neat idea to have Kypton as possibly an expansions it empire under braniac. Krypton's never really been portrayed in a purely positive light since the silver age,scientfically advance but societally flawed and willing to ignore their bigger isssues till it blows up in their planet.

So clark is left spiraling as Waller is left wallering, unhappy the general wants to consider objective facts and not let Professor Ivo, one of the various rogues captured who blames superman for his company failing instead of throwing a guy out of a window then trying to murder superman to fix his company's dire finacial straights, especially since said company was about to toss his ass out anyway. So whe does what waller always does and .. sets up the rest of the criminals including ivo to escape so she can take over.

This leads to the best sequence of season 1. For starters Lois encourages clark, pointing out "He is a person not a weapon" and she made his life better, helping her gain persecptive, love and everything she could want just by being the kind, noble jacked man he is. WIth that Superman goes to help, while Jimmy comes up with a brilliant way for them to help him as while Clark does his best against his first giant monster, with ivo having a beautiful evangellaion and godzilla inspired giant monster form now and easily the best design of the season in both this and his original human form. It helps that while the other villians aren't bad, simply needing more color in their costumes and maybe more that aren't just "we got this tech off the back of a truck', Ivo is the most fleshed out, a narcisit who belivies superman is less because he's an alien, he's in the right and everything bad happening to him is superman's fault, when all clark did was stop a guy from trying to kill him. He's a borderline luthor stand in if Luthor weren't the guy getting him coffee, and his selfishness perfectly clashes against clark's pure selflessness: Clark REPEADTELY asks ivo to please stand down or just hurt HIM since he's the one he's mad at. Clark is such a good guy he genuinely can't fathom someone being so souless as to attack people simply because it FEELS good.

Anyways Jimmy's brilliant plan: As a nice chekov's gun Jimmy has a vlog series, flamebird, where he rattled off his conspiracy theories and earlier in the episode it went from only watched by 4 people and hate watched by steve lombard to make his own shitty content, to watched by most of metropolis since Jimmy got sweet footage of Clark during his manic episode. Jimmy uses his platform to ask metropolis for help, with Lois giving the beautiful speech above, really summing up who superman is.. and what he can do as Jimmy NEEDS metropolis to save clark: Since Ivo is getting bigger by draining power from the city, Jimmy wants them to turn it all off, every person, an act that will not work if only a handful do it and that requires a LOT of trust to pull off.

The result.. is one of the best scenes in superman canon. ONe that shows what superman is supposed to be and what he stands for: Clark, after a season of feeling alone even with a girlfriend and a best buddy, after a season of self doubt and pain and after two episodes of hearing everything only bringing him MORE stress.. hears all of metropolis as EVERY ONE OF THEM he can hear gladly helps out and puts their absollute faith in him, as every light goes out.. and Metropolis saves superman. Clark is reminded why he does this: Because people need him.. and when he needed them most.. they were just as selfless. It reminds me of what's easily one of the best superman lines in comics.

It's something people forget about why superheroes are here: They aren't here to rule us, they can't change the world alone, their not gods nor should they be seen as gods. Their just people doing their best to inspire people and fight the crimes that the law can't or very often WON'T, to help people in a way they can't. To catch them when they fall. And in return.. they can catch superman when he needs them, with no expectation they would.. but every thankful they do.

With Ivo on the backfoot Clark uses his x ray vision and when asked what he is he gives one answer before snatching ivo out of his monster cocoon thing

"i'm Superman"

Your damn right he is.

8. Episode 8 (Pluto)

"Professor.. will we ever cure hatred?" Pluto.. was a true masterpiece, taking one of the greatest comics of all time, a detective story retelling of the Astro Boy staple "The Greatest Robot On Earth" that fleshed out the 7 strongest robots in the world.. as they were slowly wittled down to one, questioning the nature of ai, humanity and more while it did, and making it into a beautifully animated nearly 9 hour mini series. Not hyperbole, this is a LONG series and thus while I could sum up the season of superman.. this is a bit of a taller ask as while both stories are good, pluto is fucking intricate: practically everything pays off, but it's a very long story and this is it's climax. I highly recommend checking the series out yourself. It's just hard to really talk about this series without spoiling it and while spoiling other shows featured here won't mostly wreck the experince and you were warned etc, talking about the ENDING of a well crafted murder mystery with a LOT of well executed twists and a teddy bear I didn't quite understand... I just can't.

So best I can say without too many spoilers, Episode 8, they seriously shoudl've given these titles, is a masterful conclusion as Atom, our astro boy here using his original name in both versions, must save the world, while trying to wrestle with the pit of hatred inside the young mechanical wonder boy. It's a moving finale with lots of payoffs, final awesome moments from Micheal Pollock in his finest roll and SunWon Cho who absolutely kills it as robot serial killer brau who gets one hell of a sendoff. If i'm being short.. it's because i'd rather not spoil the entire series. THe image itself is a bit of a spoiler, and it's really hard to talk about ANYTHING in this episode without it being a big spoiler. Except keith davi'ds in it and steals every episode he's in as Atom's creator Dr. Tenma. A truly stunning finale to a truly one of a kind series. Go watch it, it's worth the LONNNNG binge.. but maybe pace yourself. I didn't have time to by the time I got to it and it is a LOT, but damn is it worth it.

7. Godspeed

"Where there's Life, there's hope"

Another one that might be short, and another excellent pilot. I backed Godspeed for a simple reason: Olan Rogers was making it. For those who don't know him, Olan Rogers is the creator of Final Space, one of the best shows of the 2010's (Really need to make a list of those at some point), which was cut short thanks to Warner Bros Discovery changing hands and just.. not giving a shit, along with another show Olan was working on that sounded neat.

Olan was horribly screwed over by the industry and no one would've blamed him for taking a break or focusing on finding a way to finish final space at least. Instead he decided to not only launch a whole new series but worked tirelessly with Warners to FINALLY get SOMETHING out of them, so not only are we getting a conclusion to final space I intend to buy eventually, hopefully before they go to print and I simply.. can't anymore, we're also getting something brand new from him, a lot of the same flavor of final space, paticuarlly it's darker years, but with a bold new art style and entirley financed by viewers like us. I backed this purely because I trusted olan to make something good, and had no diea what this would be as I should've followed the updates closer.. but I was blown away by what I god and gladly backed him AGAIN for the full series campaign and can't wait to see what he does with it. Every cent went into this pilot, and every cent was worth it.

I won't spoil this one as a lot of it is more of an experince but the short version: A mysterious orb is slowly destroying earth rendering it an unihabitble wasteland with most of it's people dead, with the best they can do being sending a bunch of people up into space to hopefully return for them. Bee, a young woman played amazingly well by Bryce Charles, member of team starkid and upcoming voice actress whose been in a lot lately and shows just how much talent and depth she has in this roll. Bee gives up her ticket so a woman's son can go, and two years later finds herself wondering for suplies with Karooke robot and attempt to make this short not 100% bleak, Bowie, played by Rogers. I can't spoil much else but it's a truly heartbreaking short as Bee tries to hope in spite of it and may just find one last sliver of it from her uncle, played by VA legend troy baker. We also have some nice cameos towards the end and a setup that's too good not to see where it goes.

Godspeed is breathtaking, showing the devstation wonderfully and showing just how bleak things are, how hope's dwinlding and just how much this one shot means to Bee. If you haven't watched this, go do so now, i'ts only 24 minutes and i'ts well worth your time and the start of what could be the best sci fi epic in animation. Godspeed to you.

6. Exes and Oohs (Helluva Boss, Season 2 Episode 3)

"No big deal but i've usually boned half the people in any room i'm in"

Helluva boss had a pretty weird year with the most episodes it's ever released, including the long delayed season 1 finale that turned out not to be an entirely throaway special that got delayed because shockity shock, the lawyers who tried to keep Kesha to a contract with her rapist also don't want her fans to be happy or let her produce anything ever and got the episode delayed till her legal nightmares FINALLY ended. Still a great performance from her. But fan reaction this year has been hit and miss, with some finding season 2 the shows best, and many tired of the pacing even if they like certain episoders. Me i'm in the middle: I DO think season 2 is a progression in quality, joke writnig and character stuff in places, but does have VERY weird pacing I can't fully justify and might not make any sense till season 2 is almost done, and even then that's not a guarnteed, with who or what get sspotlighted and which characters get focused being pretty random, with two moxxie and millie episodes and two blitzo episodes in a row and nothing for Loona. So as a whole Season 2's messy.

That said.. indvidually? Most of season 2's output this year was good iwth only one episode (Unhappy Campers) being a disapointment and evne the okay Western Energy still being a lot of fun, and the other four being instant classics. So while the show is in a weird place. it also gave us two of it's best episodes period, both of which made this list. Even a shaky season of a good show.. is still a GOOD SHOW. and will still give you out and out classics.

This one came to us early in the year and was a shoe in for the list the whole time. It's my favoirite episode of the show with only the episode above it on this list topping it in quality and it's still #1 in my heart. It's packed with jokes, great character stuff, and one of the series best characters and manages to add another villian to the already crowded rogues gallery who feels ENTIRELY necessary and fresh.

So the setup is simple at first: a mysterious person wants IMP to go talk to them about a job, with Blitz reluctant since they usually don't do in hell murders but willing to hear this person out. What upends everything.. is that this person is MOXXIE'S. FATHER. Crimson. And by meeting him we instantly get 80 gallons of insight into who moxxie is.

Crimson.. is a monster. Easily the vilest person introduced in this show thus far, and given we've had supremacist cowboys, absive spouses willing to murder their ex, and later in this season get Mammon, who is VERY close in terms of douchebaggery it's saying a lot. Crimson is a controlling, selfish, abusive monster who only brought Moxxie back to try and steal his money and get some more from someone else, and every second Moxxie's with him at first, Moxxie is deeply scared and uncomfortable with only Milie really noticing it as Crim hides what a monster he is behind closed doors> he'l only be an ass to you if he THINKS he can't control you the other way or dosen't care to be nice to you.

Moxxie's hestiancy is well warranted as Crimson has brought back Chazz, Moxxie's ex.. and MILLIE'S ex, a hilarious reveal that naturally pisses Blitzo off. Chazz... is the main reason this is easily the shows funniest episode, an energetic obnoxious himbo who has usually slept with half the room, has a big dick and will tell you about it and gladly tries to sleep with every member of the main cast present in the most hilaroius way possible, setting up moxxie's old room with 80 pictures of himself and a dope as fuck 90's rnb sex jam, trying to sing to millie only for her to play a game of knife to the throat as she utterly hates him and ALREADY TRIED TO KILL him when learning he abandoned moxxie on a job, leading to Moxxie's current job, and Blitzo who rejects it at first till he can find out what he likes, with Chazz making the best eyebrow raise to the fourth wall like a goddman looney tune before he tries and Blitzo.. eventually caving because he offered to ell him what his faviorite couple likes only to regret it because Chaz is really bad.

Naturally.. this is all a scheme. Chazz is faking being rich to get back with Moxxie, and Crimson tries shoving them together. Crimson's biphobia is truly chiling too: he refuses to accept moxxie isn't gay, and gets downright scary when cowing moxxie into it. Thankfully Moxxie eventually decides to stand up to his dad, refusing to go along with this farce, deeply loving his wife, but seeing Moxxie this close to going along with it because he's that scared of Millie ending up like his mom and the montage of just how abused this poor guy's been.. it puts so much in context. Why Moxxie desperately wants Blitz's approval, why Blitz hitting on him freaks him out so much beyond just.. Blitz normally not being very good at this unless your a very horny owl man whose just as awkward.

Millie also gets to shine as Moxxie gets hit from behind so crimson can just.. force the wedding, Chazz hits blitz with a shovel and i'ts up to Millie.. who after episdoes of not getting a ton of spotlight and being out of focus here for plot reasons, gets to shine brighter than a supernova as she gets a badass sequence TEARING through every non crimson and chazz mobster here, a brutal and awesome sequence that ends with a gloroius delceration of "THIS ASS IS MINE' and Millie assuring her husband she can protect him, Blitzo happy their all now weiner cousins and chazz sadly dying offscreen. I hope he comes back as a big dicked ghost as this episode was amazing. Also there's dicks in the walls, hilarious.

5. MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MID-SEASON SPECIAL (ft Fizzzaroli) (Helluva Boss Season 2, Episode 6)

I have wasted time I have seen my use I have packaged and sold every part of me Suffered a lifetime of abuse

I have lost myself I have worshipped at your feet And here I am, standing on top of the world With some bitches to defeat

I've played the game I've won it all They've screamed my name They bought the doll I've seized the day Now I'vе got one thing left to say-ay-ay

Fuck you! Here's my two minutes notice Fuck you! Time to quit and smell the roses Say goodbye, while I look you in the eye and say "Fuck you!"

Yup it's a two fer, with Helluva once again reaching the top 5, and I look forward to the day when it reaches the top. Still it ended the year with a jaunty music video.. afte rending the episodes of the year with one of it's best, most ambitious, and gorgeous eps yet, building a momentum from the previous episode Oops that hopefully carries into 2023 as we get TWO vivinziepop shows at long last with Hazbin Hotel airing just WEEKS from now.

MMMS , because i'm not typing that entire thing again is a lower deck episode, focusing on Fizzaroli. It was a mild gamble as while the character was always popular and expoded in popularity after Oops fleshed him out, so it wasn't like fans WOULDN'T want this.. but it was still another episode with Blitz as one of the only main characters (and in this case the ONLY main character) present, right after another, with fans already vocal (some VERY douchiely so who should rethink their life decisions and not harass viv because they don't like a cartoon show, thank you), that Loona and Millie weren't getting as much screentime as they should. The last part i'll hold judgment on as the season isn't over and this batch did bear out a millie episode. not the series best, but she was easily the best part of it, so it still had something, but needless to say if this episode didn't bring it as hard as it ended up doing, it would've made the hatedom the series is getting even worse.

I applaud viv and brandon for.. genuinely not giving a shit about that, with this episode even tackling fan entitlemnt, and just making what they wanted as the results are delicious.

While Oops shed light on fizz, his healthy relationship, why he and blitzo hated each other and the sweet mending of said friendship, giving Blitzo a complete win for the first time all season, MMMS focuses on his career.. and how deeply unhealthy it is. Fizz is a GOOD entertainer, interacting with his fans happily, and ther'es a reason he was good.. but by winning Mammons clown pagent he ended up exploited, nearly burned out and understandably creeped out by the sex robots. Fame can be good.. but MMS dosen't sugarcaot the explotation, body dismorphia, pressure and creepy fans that come with it, with one stalking ozzie both as a teen and as an adult.

Fizz loves his job.. but it's hard, something I feel comes from experince as Vivinne has had to deal with a LOT of bullshit in the making of this show, with many a fan calling her out for stuff they don't even know, with it getting pretty bad when episode 8 was delayed, especially since we now know she likely LEGALLY coudln't say Kesha was in the episode and that's why, not to mention other shit like people who don't like this show deciding to try and prop up other shows as competttion.. despite viv supporting most of those shows herself and said shows creators wishing they would knock it off. It's that kind of entitlement you see a lot.

There's a LOT to dig into with this one I will more next month as i'm doing a Fizz special for @brotoman-exe, but it's gorgeous, and Fizz's slow breakdown as both his best friend and boyfriend DESPERATELY try to get Fizz to see how Mammon's treating him is well done, with the catharsis of both Ozzie asusring fizz that no, he'll always be loved, and Ozzie telling Mammon to fuck off, topped off with Ozzie gladly revealing their relationship publicly when Mammon makes the mistake of trying to leverage that. We also get some great guest spots as Micheal Cusak is hilaroius and deeply creepy as mammon, switching from comedic asshole to really creepy manipulative abuser easily and effortlessly, while Faye Mata is great as the Twins.

There's also a fuckton of great music as this is a full on musical, with the fun and ominus "Juggling is Cool" from my boy Tom Cardy, the hot as hell Klown Bitch which lives rent free in my head for reasons... sexy fish reasons moving on.

We then get the adorable love song Crooked, letting James Monroe Ingleheart once again serenade us and the glorious Two Minutes Notice. Alex Brightman gets to go his hardest this episode, flexing his dramatic muscles before letting his musical ones free in his third number on the show and a well earned one that's gorgeous to look at as it is to hear. This episode is fantastic, worth a watch and I look forward to talking about it again soon.

4. Ramona Rents a Video (Scott PIlgrim Takes Off Episode 3) "You were afraid? Good for you! All I wanted was for you to see me! "

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. is a slow burn. The first episode is speedrunning the first volume so we can get to the twist, and the second, while fun enough, is mostly there to let you process what just happen and wonder WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SERIES... before that feeling gets even WORSE when Matt wins against Gideon in what you assumed would be an easy victory for the latter. Their needed setup, but both leave you, by design off your axis and wondering if your going to like this show.

Ramona Rents a Video.. is where you end up loving it as it becomes clear both what the structure will be, what the goal was, and what taking Scott out of the picture REALLY does: it puts ramona as the lead.. and makes it so the exes don't HAVE to die and can instead get closure.

The episode picks up from the end of the last one: Ramona gets the sense scott's alive and to my joy instead of having an episode or two of people thinking she's just.. still in mourning... she gets proof off screen right away: Someone dragged scott into a vegan portal, and the question now is who, and also how and why, with Ramona as detective.

It also gives us the best version of Julie. While Julie was around in the first episode, this one fleshes this version out and begins her climb to the top, starting with captalizing on something the other 2 versions didn't: the fact she's apparently the ONLY person Ramona's really talked to since she got into town. In the movie, this is just kinda glossed over and Julie gets her one scene then fades into the mists. It's a great scene, and leads to a lot more bleeped swears that entirely suit her here. In the comics... she was worse than satan and it was easy to buy she talked to ramona for like five minutes for clout and Ramona dodged her once she realized she was evil incarnate.

This julie is just as bitchy as the comics.. but instead of being an alpha bitch, she's just generally an assshole and a funny one at that, being in disbelief anyone cares about dating Scott this much and gladly dishing on his friends, quickly taking Stephen and Young Neil off the suspect list as one's too panicky and the other thinks a sleep paralysis demon wrote his screenplay.

This leads Ramona to Kim, who after an adorable drum session with knives that has a lot of big sister energy, as opposed to the shipping from before which.. no no please not again on, goes to work. We get the short version of her and scott's story, and the most kim pine we get all season, which is sad, i'm an admitted Kim pine simp and that still holds fast, but it gives her at least way more than the film and she still shows up plenty on the side. I do wish Kim had stuck around as Ramona's partner in crime, her best friend/future throuple partner who could serve as the watson to her holmes... a refrence I only use in lieu of columbo because columbo worked alone.

The real meat though is Roxie. Mae Whitman gets a second crack at the character and is once again bifuriously excellent as the little lebsian gremlin, giving her a bit more comedic range than the film allowed, being clearly impulsive, having no self awarness, and a lot of violence, basically the best version of the movie version, while having the deep history with ramona of her comics counterpart. Roxie wants ramona back, then wants to kill her leading to a truly epic fight across the video store and then video tapes, with some great animation as the tapes are given that good ole vhs fuzz. We also get a nice meta gaga as kim rewinds an attack to give Ramona another shot and Roxie stomps out of there and kills the remote. It's comedic and shonen goodness.

What brings it up this high though is WHY roxy is so pissed: we finally find out how Ramona left and get a far more modern take on the characters feelings: Before Ramona , both times, called her a phase, something so horrifcally dickish to call a former romantic partner, wether you turned out not to be bi or pan like you thought you might be or not, that it was wisely left out. Instead Ramona just.. left when she was ready to without saying anything, and we see why Roxie's been so pissed off and why her comics version was so resentful beyond the facepunchingly douchey comment: Ramona just.. moved on like she was nothing, just "a phase", and she just wanted to be acknowledged. Ramona is forced to do what Scott did in the comics, and reckon with her shitty behavior, realizing

And giving a genuine apology. Also props to mae whitman who utterly crushes roxie's painful reveal and Mary Elizabeth Winstead who nails the return.

The two reconcile and while they aren't freinds with beneifts or back together, their friends. ALso Roxie makes out with Kim and I really think they should give it another shot. This was likely Kim's first bi experince and as a bisexual, it can be hard to recognize that side of yourself and she might of had some performance anxiety. Roxie wanting to make out with hollie then departing to the hamster dance though is gold, and I want a spinoff yesterday with her and todd. Give us that mae whitman brandon routh buddy comedy, you cowards. It's an excellent episode that sets the tone for the rest of the series and looks good doing it.

3. Episode 6 (Pluto)

"It's imitation, but it'll become the real thing eventually, like it did for me. Look at me, these are my real tears.... my Atom is dead"

Once again I can't really go into this too deeply as Pluto is a mystery show and it slowly being unravled is the main draw. What I can say is that this episode is excelent as our lead robot Geischt finally finds out where Pluto is, WHO pluto is, and WHY pluto is.. but when the time comes all he's learned about himself, all he's learned about pluto.... he can't pull the trigger. It's a wonderful episode about choice, with Jason Vande Break giving his best performace as Geischt.. is just done with this job and impliclty, how he's been treated, trying to retire despite his bosses trying to strong arm him into continuting, not wanting to continue the cycle of hate and just.. move on with his life... which tragically.. jus twon't be possible. I'ts a beatufiully animated episode and the series high point, with the finale getting very close to it. I once again which I could say more, but it's something that i'd rather not ruin for those who haven't experinced it. A true masterpiece well worth a look.

PS: We also get a REALLY good scene with Keith David, one of the best i've ever seen with him. God I really need to review this series in full some day.

2. It's Been A While (Invincible, Episode 4)

"This is how you should've felt on earth"

Yup here we are again. Once again a major Nolan episode of invincible is the only episode from the show to make this list. Didn't plan it this way, and if I had I would've had it in #1 again.. but Invincible simply didn't win the honors this year and has every chance of snatching them again this year.

It wasn't for lack of trying though as it's Been a While was an excellent mid season finale and one of the shows best, compressing the bulk of a full volume of comic into a sublime hour.

While Nolan is gone for the first half of season 2, he's far from forgotten as the damage he's done has left a massive impact on Mark and Debbie, Mark being desperate to prove he's not his dad even though it's obvious to anyone who isn't projecting on the boy (The Immortal) or deeply, deeply paranoid to begin with (Cecil), that Mark will never be his father. Meanwhile Debbie has deep Trauma over it, can't really talk to many people about it, and goes around wondering how much of her life is a lie.

So naturally when Mark sees Nolan after his dear old dad pulled an elaborate con to get mark here to save his new bug empire, Mark.. hugs him. He's still his dad after all and this is still one of the comics best moments. But I like that right after.. Mark changes gears entirely. He's happy for a second.. but then the rage bubbles forth. While Nolan wasn't great in the comics, here the guy used mark as a battering ram to murder countless people, killed a guy to prove a point, called his mom a pet (granted that was also in the comic but Mark actually calls him out on that here), and then nearly beat him to death while at one poing happily saying "I can always make another".

So Mark tells him fuck you, gives Nolan his two minutes notice then plans to fuck off back to earth despite Nolan pointing out he has no idea how to get back. To his credit and to show he's changed a little.. Nolan offers to give mark a ship back and is patient with him, showing that his kindness to his son, wasn't all there and that despite trying to throw himself in a black hole after... Mark's words really DID get to him on some level.

Still thigns aren't great not helped by Mark finding out that SUPRISE, Nolan has a second wife and SUPRISE, Mark now has a baby brother. I knew this stuff was coming, comics guy, but how they handle the reveals is solid Since they don't have an end of issue cliffhanger for the Oliver reveal, they have mark give a loud "what the" cut it off with the title.. then let him finish with a fuck. Beautiful.

Steven Yuen.. is always great in this show and deserves all the praise, but this is one of his best performances of the season so far, where you can just feel the pain and disapointment and how.. done Mark is. He has a life back on earth, he's tried his HARDEST to move on from Nolan. yet as much as he wants to peace out.. he can't. The viltrumites are coming, they will leave this world a crater and kill Mark's brother for not being up to their eugenics standards. Mark, unsuprisingly makes the noble call: He's going to stay and fight.

What follows is a tense game of cat and mouse as Nolan INTENDED to have a whole ass training arc, readying mark for as long as it took to fight against other viltrumites, and push his powers to new heights. Sadly the writers decided

So three Vilturmites arrive, and while Mark bonds with his step mom and brother getting them to saftey, finding out the the Thraxians age rapidly so Nolan moving on this fast was simply the culture and not him forgetting Mark and Debbie existed, but accepting they probably didn't want him back and evne if they did he coudln't go back without leading more Viltrumites home.

Mark gets his first fight with one.. and it goes POORLY. Mark simply isn't used to both using his full strength AND fighting to kill, leaving Nolan to do most of the heavy lifting. While Season 2's SLIGHTLY eased up on "mark gets pummled constantly", it's never going to go away and especially not when he's far out of his weight class again. It's a brutal fight as Mark.. REALLY can't win this one and only gets minutes of repreive.. and it's only to look at all the bodies the viltrumites piled up.

It's here we get the best scene, a spirtual followup to "You dad, i'd still have you. ". Nolan once again angrily thrashes about, even putting mark in a chokehold. Which is still better than last time.

Nolan.. simply can't process WHY... WHY DOES THIS HURT. He's supposed to see the Thraxians as inferior, supposed to not care.. it's all his viltrumite "surivvial of the fittest" indoctrination coming undone. It adds layers to why he didn't just.. settle on earth too: not only are we seeing the consequences if he had with the viltrumite kill squad, but the viltrumites facist supremacist mindset made it impossible to fathom there was anything ELSE, despite that else clawing at nolan. And even now, having left his post, having moved on with his life.. he still can't shake it.

Mark.. cuts through it all with 8 words "This is how you should've felt on earth". That this change isn't an abberation Nolan shoudl've repressed.. but who he should be. Who he was before he made the choice ot go through with killing the guardians and cemented himself as part of the empire. Mark isn't offering full sympathy here, thousands are dead because Nolan didn't have this ephinay here, but it clearly hits: NOlan's life was a lie and he needs to accept it.

The following fight is brutal, with NOlan supporting mark but pointing out the obvious: he HAS to fight to kill or he dies. And it's nicely clear that Nolan.. dosen't want to loose his son. And seeing the dead around him gets mark to rally and they almost win.. but it simply isn't enoguh. Mark collapses.. and wakes up to find more viltrumites with one offering an ultimatium: take his dad's job.. or they'll do it for him and millions were die. There isn't an option three.. though NOlan hints at one by asking mark to read his books.

The b-plots are also excellent with Debbie finally coming to terms with what happened and telling Cecil to fuck off, and Atom Eve hitting her low point. Please, god get her out of that house. It's Been a While is an excellent episode and a solid mid point for season 2. But while it was close.. it couldn't top the #1, an episode that lived in my head ever since it aired LAST january.

The Rise of the Chroma Conclave (The Legend of Vox Machina S2, EP 1) "Here me insects! you live out of mercy! Fight or flee and you forfeit that mercy! A new age is upon you: The Rule of of the Chroma Conclave!

Legend of Vox Machina season 2 was excellent, managing the daunting task of essentially being part 1 of 2 as the Chroma Conclave arc was essentially too massive to adapt into one season fairly well, giving the cast as a whole more focus, and ending on one hell of a cliffhanger... with Season 3 NATURALLY being the first one not to air in January.

Granted we're getting Hazbin Hotel and Amazon's hyping it to shit as they should, so it's not all bad.

Still the show was good and while the season was excellent... it started with it's best episode, an episode that set the scale of the threat our heroes were facing, set the tone, and has lived in my head since it aired. In 30 some minutes, the Vox Machina team delivered a tense epic that raised the bar for what the show could do visually, already a damn high bar in itself.

Rise of the Chroma Conclave picks up from the end of season 1: Dragons have arrived in emon and for those of us not familiar with DND, with showrunner and writer of this episode Brandon Auman quickly showing off just how POWERFUL four adult dragons are and how horrifying their effects can be. The king of Emon gets bathed in acid breath, many are frozen, burnt or melted, and the kingdom, a bustling city state, is reduced to cinders with it's people trying desperately to flee their new dragon overlords.

As for our heroes.. their forced to run like hell and hope they surivive. They try their best at points, but Grogs usual charge in and hope it works.. gets him bodied bad and left without weapons, while the team's attempt to reuse the illusions that helped them beat Brimscythe... fail horribly as Raishan turns out to be a skilled sorceress. These dragons.. can use MAGIC, so their not only incredibly powerful naturally but have more tricks up their sleeves. Our heroes are outgunned and this episode makes you feel every minute of it. Their goal isn't to win, it isn't to get vengance for Emon, the only home most of them have had... it's SURVIVIE. The first two thirds of the epsiode ar ea game of surivival and while there are one or two jokes, it's still one long nightmare. The pressure dosen't ease off as everything burns or worse, and there is no safe harbor till our heroes FINALLY get to Greyskull Keep to heal Gilmore and house some surviviors.

Then just to sell how fucked they are... the Conclave arrives THERE and it becomes a desperate scramble to get back to whitestone before they all die, with half their refugees dying before they can. OUr heroes are only BARELY able to get to a town that's just barely recovered from it's own nightmares.

This gives us our last act and the problem for our heroes: How do they beat 4 dragons, all powerful, half of them clever, and all of them out of their weight class, with Scanlan peacing out. It takes the others showing him just how much good they did for whitestone to snap him out of his usual "fuck this i'm out" response, and to see they have to do this.

The how: get help at the biggest city left. Gods help them.. as they don't have much else on their side.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully while this year's better than the last... it's animation's just as good.

#invincible #legend of vox machina #critical roll #superman #my adventures with superman #pluto #helluva boss #godspeed #fionna and cake

[tiodolma]

On The War Against Camelot

before I start... i don't really care if the merlin characters are evil or good. I only care about their actions and how it affected their world. I am fascinated with the politics of BBC MERLIN. hence why i made this.

If this sounds like evil apologia to you. then stop reading. I like studying about wars whether in fiction or in reality. As it is any type of war whether domestic or international are interesting. There are always casualties on all sides. There is always justification on all sides. Everyone is doing "good" in their own brains because self-righteousness is a basic ingredient for the drive for war.

So buckle up and let's discover on why people love to attack camelot so much and how it could have been minimized.

TLDR. MERLIN WAS GIVEN BAD ADVICE FROM THE START AND EVERYBODY SUFFERS BECAUSE OF IT

DONT LIKE, DONT READ.

I. Why declare war on camelot?

Challenge the legitimate heir to the throne. -Morgana had weak claim (since she was a bastard) but because she had political backing in Agravaine as well as some nobles/ strong militaristicinvader forces, she was a legitimate threat

Destroy its status as the shining icon and symbol of bigotry against magic - for the oppressed magic side it served as justice to topple down the very institution that started all the genocide.

Strategic, Economic location - I'm guessing it was a hub of trade/learning/politics. You control trade, you control the economy.

Territory Acquisition and Expansion - come on Arthuriana is set in the middle ages. It's what Kings and their pretenders do.

Strong Walls/Foundations - a well fortified city is always always always an economic and militaristic bonus

Prove a Point / Force citizens to accept that magic should exist / There has still been no big changes to Camelot's judiciary system against magic after all / Oppresion still continued despite the years of "peace"-

II. Methods to weaken camelot

MAINLY IT IS INSURGENCY

insurgency, term historically restricted to rebellious acts that did not reach the proportions of an organized revolution. It has subsequently been applied to any such armed uprising, typically guerrilla in character, against the recognized government of a state or country.

Modern insurgency tries to create conditions that will destroy the existing government and make an alternative revolutionary government acceptable to the population. While armed violence always plays a major role in such operations, usually initiated by a small activist minority, acts of terrorism are only the most obvious means used by the rebels.

Rumours to discredit the government and its supporters, exacerbation of existing social conflicts and creation of new ones between racial, ethnic, religious, and other groups, political intrigue and manipulation to induce clashes between class or regional interests, economic disruption and dislocation, and any other means likely to destroy the existing social order and to deprive the government of its power base, all play a role in fomenting insurgency.

-Encyclopedia Brittanica

How was this portrayed in the show?

Destabilization (comes in many forms)

Court Intrigue: infilitrating the nobles rank/ aim to be treated as the sovereign's favorite (agravaine, evil!gwen)

Court Intrigue: Marriage alliances (troll episode, anything involving the Sidhe)

espionage (sefa, daegal)

targetting the royal family's life (assasination, kidnapping, torture, brainwashing)

Targetting the economy, food supply (method used by the Unicorn guy, Nimue)

Targetting the scientific and medical practices important to the kingdom (tactic used by Edwin Muirden, Alice)

2. Military Takeover / Coup d 'etat / Usurpation of throne- swift, effective, Uther has done it before himself. As long as one has enough military and political backing, it's doable (ex. Fires of Idirsholas/Knights of Medhir)

3. Siege - still another kind of takeover. The besieged is at the mercy of the attacker. Besieged party can fight or just sue for peace as soon as possible OR just surrender and hope no war crimes happen.

4. Terrorism - bring devastation to as many victims as possible in order to make the target kingdom sue for peace/submit. Weaken the state and its armed forces so that a revolutionary government can take advantage at some point. (Kilgharrah's attack / Dorocha.)

5. Find weakness of the King -> used by Morgana after she took over a faroff kingdom and enslaved people to find the knowledge that could destroy the king of camelot. Morgana could have used Arthur's Bane as 1) Bargaining chip 2) Propaganda Material 3) Expedite process by making the Bane more accessible.

III. Does Morgana (and the rest of the radicals) have the justification to do what she(they) did?

Yes because that is what war is like. With enough support and political backing, anything can be justified in war and insurgency. (especially if the systems of oppression that the insurgents keep fighting against persists).

If Merlin was justified in declaring a silent deadly vigilante war against anyone who committed treason (under the guise of protecting his friends who were the heads-of-state/ruling class), then so does Morgana for the reasons above in S1.

IV. What should have been done to minimize damage?

Start Negotiations on Diplomatic table ofc.

S1-S5 Merlin should have just trapped those magic beings or something instead of killing them outright. He lost every chance of obtaining powerful allies within the magic world coz he was too hell-bent on murder on the counts of self-defense in his mission to always secretly protect the crown without compensation.

Merlin x Morgana negotiations

s2 while it was true that Morgana hid the knowledge of her involvement with Morgause from Merlin or Arthur, Merlin still denied vital info that could have given both of them more choices, which was the solution to the kingdom's predicament. MerGana could have both worked together because lbr, Morgana did not really understood what the spell was/ what Morgause actually did to her. By keeping vital information to themselves, there was no negotiation, no chance to achieve a peaceful solution. Plus Kilgharrah lied to Merlin about the technicalities of the spell. Eternal Sleep does not automatically equal Death. In his panic, Merlin did not realize that and made awful awful decisions -> Failure of Negotiations, both are at fault

3 x02, I argue that, despite her alliance with Morgause, Morgana had been trying desperately to see "the other way" because of Merlin's declarations to her in the crypts. However because Merlin did not offer any truths, any knowledge of the prophecy, any solution, then those initial peace talks failed. -> Failure of Negotiations, Merlin backed out Morgana tried again in s4, searching high and low for EMRYS, aiming to seek an audience, to talk, but because Merlin still refused to reveal anything, there was no chance of peace talk. (plus merlin used the emrys persona to terrify her) -> Failure of Negotiations, Merlin did not push for the advantage of Morgana's paranoia against him to initiate some sort of compromise/diplomatic talk

people argue "u CaNt TaLk To SoMeOnE wHo UsEs ToRtuRe! hEnCe nO hOpE fOr MoRGaNa!" I bet. Guess who else used torture to negotiate/obtain information? MERLIN did it against The Dochraid. King Alined chains his sorcerer and abuses him everyday and was still diplomatic enough on the negotiating table. Sarrum was also good at the diplomatic table and he tortures people too. ALATOR tortures people for a living and yet he also become buddies with MERLIN. Mordred was a goddamn slaver and he also become buddies with Merlin!

SOMEONE FROM CAMELOT SHOULD HAVE NEGOTIATED WITH MORGANA IN S4. IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. JUST GET INTO POLITICKING AND RIDE THE SYSTEM LIKE MORGANA AND THE REST OF NOBILITY. CAMELOT HAD A BARGAINING CHIP AGAINST MORGANA ALREADY. CAMELOT HAD EMRYS AS A DETERRENT AND POWER BROKER. BUT ALAS, HE DID NOT SEE THAT OPPORTUNITY... alas.

s5 Morgana tried to seek Emrys again thru Mordred. She was still denied and blatantly lied to. -> Failure of Negotiations, Mordred and the rest of the Catha were in it too.

Push for actual changes in the system.

Not possible. Arthur is obstinate. He wouldn't listen to anyone especially at first when he is not yet proven wrong. Circumstances always have to prove Arthur's initial bias wrong before he gives in. Bad news for Merlin, because as someone who still was kept as a lowly (although slighlty favored) servant, his word doesn't really matter in court and in public WHERE IT WAS NEEDED, just in private whispers.

Initiate Propaganda machine that supports Arthur's role as "Once and Future King who Unites Albion including the magic and non magic folk together with Emrys as his guide."

This is what has been missing in the show. Merlin and the prophetic magic sect needed the message of Arthur's claim and destiny to be more widely known. As it was at best only ten people were truly knowledgable of it among the thousands of people who supposedly reside in Albion. Their cause lacked popular support especially among the non-prophetic sectors of the magic-folk. THAT is a problem. Keep in mind that not all druids support their cause (see Kara). Even if Arthur becomes High King, there would always be resistance because there was never a lubricant/oil in magic-folks hearts that would endear Arthur to the people if he was suddenly put on the throne as ruler of everybody. (basically this is what happened with the Disir)

Governmental/system change can never be a one-man-show. All social classes and folks have to be involved. Merlin was given bad advice and made to believe that only he alone could do it. That was a recipe for disaster. It enabled him to learn how to distrust and execute everyone who was against him or look like a threat. It made him incapable of initiating proper dialogue against the powerful magic users or any nobility who could've aided him.

They say "the pen is mightier than the sword” after all. But did that show up in the story? Nope.

WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF MERLIN AND PROPHETIC MAGIC COMPANY'S SECRETIVE AND PASSIVE STANCE?

I'm sure that some magic folk would have heard of Emrys but! Where was Emrys when they needed him? Why is he only helping the king? It's been 20 years and he had not shown his face? Is he a coward? Does he not care for us?

-> this would be the questions of those who were suffering the oppression and also heard about the prophecy. Heck Morgana has been asking about this herself when she learned about him being her doom.

Oppressed folk, magic and non magic, natural enemies of camelot would be so embittered and disillusioned and instead flocked to Morgana's banner.

“Better fight now rather than later because if not now, then when are we going to fight?"

As far as they were concerned only Morgana had - the claim - the machinery - the network - the connections - the experience - the decisiveness - the invincibility and power (impt for a future stable reign, u need leaders to live long) ...that could go against the Mighty Camelot. As far as Morgana was concerned, she was the only champion, she was the only one fighting for the rights of magic. She had no clear nor strong vocal opposition within the magicfolk. That gave her the leeway to do whatever she wanted, no matter how selfish, or self-serving or brutal or cruel. As far as everyone was concerned she was the one WHO GOT THINGS DONE. Things actually moved forward when she was in the lead yknow....whether for better of for worse, it moved forward. There was an attainable goal, a time limit and foreseeable future. To many desperate and oppressed magicfolk, that glimmer of tangible hope was more comforting than Merlin's "SOMEDAY.”

In the desperate fight for survival, oppressed/marginalized/embittered people would normally support that kind of leader especially when everything else had been taken from them: their right to live, livelihood, right to be free.

Did it allow Morgana to abuse them? ofc it did. That is what organized crime/insurgency due to systemic oppression looks like. (think yakuza/mafia... s5 morgana's organization was already close to that)

As it was, Magic folk had a difficult choice 1) either live in fear of discovery and persecution under Uther/Arthur's Camelot or 2) live and serve using their abilities and true magic self in whatever way Morgana wanted as she tries to take power.

We know what happened: most non-druidic/non-prophetic magic folk choose Morgana because at least they had a chance for a better life once Morgana stabilized her reign. I'm sure Morgana has promised them rewards if they helped her (especially in s4). Like come on.. she pays her spies nicely ffs. People need money bruh. They need to eat. Morgana compensated them for services even in s5.

Hence it was really Important that Merlin revealed himself earlier as a champion for the prophetic magic sect. HE WAS "THE OTHER WAY," BUT HE DIDNT, HE NEVER STEPPED UP TO THAT ROLE. His silence and decisions left the rest of the oppressed magic world, who barely had any idea that he existed, with no choice but to seek Morgana's protection (see Mordred and Aithusa)

WHY THEY KEPT THE PROPHECY A SECRET.

I have some theories

They were too idealistic in believing that the king could be influenced just by one guy alone (Merlin.) Which is very bad advice as i have said above.

Uther and Arthur's attitude against magical prophecy basically involving them 1) laughing it off as superstition and 2) denying them as legitimate causes for concern. If Arthur publicly said "WHO ME? ACCEPT MAGIC??? PFFFT ARE YOU DERANGED" imagine how that would affect those (not as priviliged as merlin) who believed in Arthur at first lol. Merlin and Gaius wanted to save their own asses and cling to the grip on power they had as close confidants of the Pendragons. In doing so they secured themselves as the prophesied judge and arbiter of all magic folk even when Merlin never tried to initiate dialogue with most of the different magic sects. Kilgharrah, Merlin, Gaius, Finna, Alator, Druids, were just awful at actual state building/kingmaking. They don't have a strategy, a battle plan, ANY PLAN other than "guess we'll just wait things out I'm sure everything will be better with time. We have hope. So we will do as we always do and suffer in silence as we slowly nudge him to our beliefs (while our rivals are constantly tearing our house apart)... but we can gift Arthur an extra nice sword as a treat."

anyhow that's the war on camelot

thanks for reading

merlin got bad advice and underperformed severely.

#merlin critical #bbc morgana #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #adventures of merlin #merlin essays #essays #thots #this was fun

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay so I was doing some calculations for saikis powers (with and without his limiters) and. He's a little bit op. Just a tad.

The first thing I did was calculate the difference between his telepathy area before and after the limiter removal, just to see what kind of multiplier we're working with. The results of Saiki removing his limiters isn't super cohesive, but one thing that stayed consistent was his telepathy spanning the globe.

So. The globe has a 12,742 km diameter (his telepathy being unhindered by mass). That's a BIG step up from 200m. 63,710x bigger to be exact.

Now, unless there's aliens on the moon or nearby rocks, we have no way of knowing that that is his actual reach. And not a minimum calculable range. It's highly likely that he can reach further.

His power increasing by almost sixty four THOUSAND TIMES is a MINIMUM.

But with that, we can run other maths, and hooo boy.

With limiters on, saiki can leave craters for 7 km with one punch. That's already overpowered! That's already ridiculous!

Multiply that by 63,710x and we get a grand total of 445,970km, disregarding stuff like the curvature of the earth and anything that might happen to be in the way. Because at this point I don't think we'd need to worry about them.

Saiki tells us he fears that when he was in year 5 (9-10yo), he would have been able to destroy the moon easily. Before the time loop, 16/17, he would be able to destroy the earth. And catch the moon in the crossfire. Because the moon is 384,000 km away from earth.

Yeah.

So how much force is that?

Saiki destroying 7km of a urban area (as he shows in chap 31) is going to take a few steps to calculate. First we need the strengths of the average street materials. Limestone, brick, concrete, wood. Limestone takes 42 megapascals to crush, which is 100k kg per square metres. Brick requires 60k kg. Concrete and wood are significantly weaker, so let's ignore them for the sake of ease and say it takes an average of 80,000 kg to destroy (not just knock over) the house wall.

The average modern property in Japan is 130sqm, or 11m long. That would mean 608 houses between saiki and the farthest part of the trench, but that's unrealistic (roads and parks etc) so we can just round down to 600. This is important so we can calculate the amount of walls he'd have to go through. The average amount of walls in a floor plan would be 3 or 4, let's say 4 because garden walls are a thing. 2400 walls, each taking 80k kg to destroy.

(24,330 kg/ms is the damage the average wrecking ball does, which is enough to break walls of concrete. They've actually stopped being used in recent times for efficiency, which I didn't know.)

So 2,400*80,000 (yes there is equations to calculate force left after destroying objects, no I can't find them, we can handwave this as psychic abilities given the damage would be more a circle than the trench he does) would be! *drumroll*

192,000,000kg of force per SECOND. This boy is 52kg. He is capable of dealing almost 200 million kg of force in a single blow.

WITH HIS LIMITERS ON.

So, lets do one last equation.

That. Times the other really big number. Is.

1.223232e13

12,232,320,000,000 kilograms of force per second. Twelve million million.

That is the weight of a white dwarf star. That is the weight the sun will become in a hundred million million years.

If saiki took off his limiters at the age of 16 (this is before the time loop, mind) he could destroy planet earth in a single blow, no question.

*shakily caps pen*

TLDR: Saiki kusuo has a minimum telepathy range of 12,742 km without his limiters.

His punch deals 192,000,000kg of strength with his limiters on.

With his limiters off, his powers increase by 63,710x at minimum.

With his limiters off, saiki is capable of 12 million million kg of damage, or 1.2E13, the weight of a white dwarf star.

#long post #Fandom maths #Fandom calculations #saiki k #disastrous life of saiki k #saiki no psi nan #This boy is actually insane #And he's a bona-fide child genius on top of it?? #wild #saiki kusuo #the disastrous life of saiki k. #the disaster of psi kusuo saiki #This boy punches with the force of a white dwarf star #I don't know how big that is in dbz terms but it has to be pretty high up there #No wonder walls crumble at his touch good grief

[mobiused]

I know you don’t like bp but do you know why they have such a fanbase? You seem to understand why fandoms do or don’t gravitate to certain things so i was wondering if you understood why they got paired with bts or twice/rv a lot and have such attention in general. No pressure to answer if this doesn’t interest you though

I actually don't dislike Blackpink! I just think they fell off after Boombayah.

I think its a mix of a lot of things but to keep it succinct (edit: lol) 1. International members, having english speaking members and a member from SE asia is a massive pull for both the anglosphere and SE asia region

2. They're from YG and after the massive success(? despite the mismanagement) of 2NE1 everyone was excited to see what Blackpink would bring to the table. After all, even if 2NE1 never quite reached SNSD levels of fame(? debatable) they did kind of change the industry forever, and I think people had the same expectations for Blackpink too

With these two combined, I remember reading an article written (after BP's boom) about aespa about how the trajectory of Kpop is often dictated by global politics by virtue of K-pop being part of Korea's soft power [article's main point was about how aespa and 4th gen had moved to the virtual world in response to globalisation and coronavirus, contrasted with how groups were marketed and then not marketed to Chinese and Japanese audiences in a way that coincided with Korea's interasiatic politics] so they were very strategically designed to attract a lot of attention for this generation of Kpop music listeners. And in classic YG fashion, the massively OTT music videos, constant stream of content and pretty faces offers a unique fan experience that domestic entertainment industries are largely failing to offer young music listeners. Blackpink are already very accessible by having 3/4 of their members speak English, and this is aided by a company large enough to translate all their vlogs, reality shows, documentaries into a billion languages. So TLDR they're rich and english speakers.

[carnation-damnation]

Hello I'm asking for context 👀👉👈

HEHEEHEHEHHEHE

Here's a bit of a run-down from what @emdotcom (partner in crime to this au) and I discussed! (Also, if you don't know who Terios is, here's some posts regarding his place in sonic canon and in our au! 1, 2, 3, 4) the tldr is that terios was a possible design and name for shadow during the development of sa2, and emerald and i snatched him for funniesjosajosajoas

So essentially, we've been going over the plot for the Terios au like it's a game! Like a combination of sonic adventure/2 and shadow the hedgehog 2005, you'd play with different characters but can reach multiple endings (how many? uhhhh idk) This leads to some shenanigans and unlikely team-ups! It primarily focuses on Shadow as a main protagonist, followed by Knuckles and Sonic 'n co. Here's some of the team-ups and explanations for their stages/places in the story:

Shadow & Knuckles: Em pointed out that Knuckles has an inherent connection to the emeralds as the Master Emerald's guardian (and who can locate the shards/gems) Shadow and Knuckles were also weirdly absent from Sonic Unleashed, a game in which the emeralds also lost their powers. Input from two characters that have the strongest connection to chaos energy/the emeralds not being there still gives me hives..Yeh. I'd say that besides Terios, Knuckles and Shadow definitely carry the plot.

Sonic & Omega: These two are a very odd one, I know. Sonic is unable to rely on Chaos Emeralds to go Super, and both he and Omega have an anxious attitude of "We gotta get shit done and we gotta do it now". Sonic and Omega are left to ambush an Eggman base, the gang originally thinking that he had something to do with Terios' creation. Sonic and Eggman are longtime enemies, and Omega loves an excuse to bash Eggman robots. Unfortunately however, not only were the gang incorrect in their assumption that Eggman created Terios, he now knows there's an impressionable rogue bio-weapon out there. Oops.

Tails & Rouge: This may seem like a wildcard! But with Rouge being a silent spy, Tails being a genius, and both of them being fliers, I see no better duo capable of infiltrating G.U.N. to figure out just what Terios is, and how he's capable of draining the Chaos Emeralds of their powers. I also think that Tails' innocent curiosity can lead to possible Rouge lore...hehe.

Amy & Terios: Amy and Terios somehow end up becoming buddies! After half of the emeralds have been drained, Amy comes across Terios, probably in some sort of negative and sad state, and she tries to cheer him up by telling his fortune. They hang around for a bit, Amy not knowing that she's harboring a literal beast, and Terios being shown genuine kindness by someone other than Violet, his creator. Their friendship doesn't last long after Terios tries to go after another emerald, but it definitely sticks with Terios. And Amy wants to do her best to show him that he doesn't need to destroy everything to get what he wants.

Aaaaand yeah!! I really appreciate the interest!! If anyone is MORE interested, I'd love to discuss more of these interactions in depth, maybe draw a few!

#sonic au #terios the hedgehog #terios au #sth #sonic the hedgehog #awoo.txt #long post

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

04/16/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Samba Schutte; Outtakes; Weekly Calendar; Fiber Arts Auction; Some Nonsense in Bristol; Glad Ranker; Fan Spotlight: Never Left Podcast; Cast Cards; Our Drag Means Slay, Our Flag Means Fanfiction Minisode; Our Flag Makes a Difference Fundraiser; Schadenfreude; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika.

= Samba Schutte =

The big sighting today was Samba and his Outtakes BTS post!

== New Weekly Event Calendar ==

New event calendar is up! Check out the new Fiber Arts Brigade info below!

= SOFMD's Fiber Arts Brigade =

Some cool stuff is going on in SOFMD's Fiber Arts Brigade! There's an auction to benefit Sage, a US organization that provides amazing support and advocacy for queer elders! The Auction will be held June 14th . You don't need to be a member to donate items to the auction! Message @saveofmdcrewmates if you'd like to join in! sageusa.org

Jeff Art by @snejpowa

== **Big Sigh** in Bristol ==

I don't even know what to label this section. I'm just flabberghasted. The good news is they are not a member of the SOFMD team since there was a rumor going around that SOFMD was somehow involved. Link to the Bristol Post and SaveOFMD's Statement Below:

== Uproar Update! ==

Digital release moved up to April 23!

== Calls to Action ==

== GLAAD ==

Last day to vote for GLAAD!

Vote Here

Img Src: @AdoptOurCrew Twitter

== Ranker ==

Still looking to help OFMD stay up on Ranker? This is their main page and yo can choose from lots of different rankings going on and vote up OFMD and down other shows you think should be lowered.

== Fan Spotlight ==

== Never Left ==

Never Left Podcast has Hugo Pierre Martin on the show this week! Give them a listen on your choice of podcast platforms by visiting their Linktr.ee

Artwork was created by Amy Gleason, you can see more of her art @/AmysBirdHouse on IG.

= Cast Cards =

Our dear crewmate @melvisik has spotlighted one of the fisherman from the pilot episode that Stede pillaged the plant from! Ted Heyck!

== Our Drag Means Slay ==

For those of you not in the Chicago area, you can now sign up to see Our Drag Means Slay on livestream! Tickets are $5 for the Apr 27, 2024 7:00 PM show! All proceeds go to charity!

Ticket Link

Our Drag Means Slay Twitter

= Our Flag Means Fanfiction =

Our friends over at Our Flag Means Fanfiction have put out a minisode this week:

Minisode: Izzy Hands Ring Lore Fics Check it out on Spotify!

== Our Flag Makes A Difference ==

Great news! The eSIMS and Sanitary Products for Gaza fundraiser has finally reached it's goal! Thank you so everyone who shared links or donated, it makes a serious different in folks lives! For more info: Check out the campaign

== Schadenfreude ==

Thanks @seven_sugars on Twitter for spotting this 30% loss YTD!

== Love notes ==

Today was a tough one lovelies. I really want to thank all of you who reached out when I was struggling, it meant a lot to me. I know some of you said we didn't know each other-- but I just wanna throw out there that you're part of this crew, and even if we haven't talked or interacted much, your love means the world to me and everyone else you send it to. Every single one of you who's willing to reach out-- to a friend/crewmate who has asked, or hasn't asked and just looks like they need it, or you're just spreading a bit of joy-- you make this world such a better place. You take sadness and you turn it into solace and comfort. You share a little piece of yourself to make someone else's missing pieces start to be whole again.

I just want you to know how powerful that kindness is. It can mean the absolute world to someone when they are truly down, to know they are seen and cared about, even by the briefest of acquaintance. Seriously, thank you. You are a glimmer of sunshine on hard days and the impact you make is immense. Tonight, I just want to say thank you so so much for your kindness. Love you crew, I hope you're well.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight's theme is Freemanji, I don't know why, just felt like a Freemanji night. Look at Rhys in his little mustache and hat, and Taika in his goofy ass coat <3 Gifs courtesy of @neonpigeons and @ihadaweirdname

#Spotify #rhys darby #taika waititi #samba schutte #ofmd bts #ofmd outtakes #ofmd outtakes s2 #our flag means fanfiction #never left podcast #fundraisers #our drag means slay #glaad #uproar #save ofmd crew #sofmd fiber arts brigade

[pinklocksoflove]

So thinking of a story element with Hatelsia involving her birth parents. A short summary dad is mayor of a small port town who in the past had a drinking problem however this was miraculously fixed overnight and over time people have been mysteriously disappearing. The mayor now spreads a new religion he discovered. Tldr it's some eldritch old god shit.He had made a deal to gain power through sacrifice of innocents and would become immortal if he were to sacrifice his firstborn child: namely Hatelsia or as her parents named her Wilhelma. So her mother gave her up in the far reaches of the northern hinterlands in hopes of never encountering her father. No one expected her to be picked up by the Dwarves however.

Hatelsia is simply curious on who her birth family is and finds a lead on them. She takes her adoptive brother Rhonogan, and her adoptive Father, Toefric, to potentially meet her family. People in town remark on how they don't get many visitors as well as the fact that Hatelsia looks strikingly like the Mayor's wife.

The mother almost instantly gets clued into who Hatelsia is and calls her by her birth name Wilhelma. To which Hatelsia bluntly asks the hell kind of name is that? Anyway turns out that father is nuts and is also an utter asshole. One such example is trying to control the daughter he basically only just met and telling her to live her life like his even though he knows nothing about her life and so on

This is before the potential for attempting capture and sacrifice. The trio end up having to fight their way out. Mobs of Innamouth-esque townspeople and eldritch horrors. Before finally having to kill her birth father.

[apuppetmuseum]

DEV. Differences in Misyr's Route Ending

So for those who don't know the ending to Misyr's route in Cafe Enchante - it kind of sucks. At least in my opinion. So I'm going to list out some changes I've made for my portrayal. I'll try not to do a deep dive into Misyr's route, but there is a lot of info to cover.

tldr:

Kotone is a non human but more like Misyr instead of Noah.

The cafe stays a normal cafe it’s not some weird pocket dimension bs.

Kotone and Misyr both gain freedom and can have a life outside of their relationship, thank god.

The whole ‘turning a nonhuman back into a human’ research has a purpose now outside of Kaoru's route.

Misyr is fucking free to do what he wants even if he is a human now.

Bonus note: I renamed Misyr's world to 'the world at the end of time' instead of 'the world of end times' cause what the fuck kind of name is that??

The world at the end of time, Misyr’s ‘homeworld’ so to speak, has a resident of the name of Noah. Noah that helped make the Ark to save the residents of the previous life inhabited world, but was betrayed by the humans around him. Most of the events throughout the game, portals opening, creatures of ash going through, changing world’s disposition; are his doing as he’s trying to more or less get someone to notice him - as he exists as a mere consciousness. Misyr has lived in the world Noah has merged with for what could be millions of years and never noticed him. Noah was sick of it. To this end, he tricks Kotone to coming to the world, and after nearly dying from the ash alone, he tries to make her more like him - into a part of the world itself.

Kotone, who was turned into a mere consciousness thanks to Noah - regains her body after Misyr finds her at the core of the World at the end of time. With her only being a consciousness for a short period of time, and having someone there who is an anchor, she’s able to separate herself from Noah and the world through the sheer power of emotion TM. 

Even though Misyr had learned of Noah, he had been apart of the world for too long, and could still only make an illusion of himself of ash, so the ending with Misyr seeing Noah off continues as normal, except with Kotone joining in aswell - being in a solid body and able to see him off aswell.

Though she has the body, she still holds some connection with the world and tries to get them out of the core, but anything she could have done was too weak and they’re trapped. However, before the world is completely engulfed, the other regular customers (the non humans, Kaoru had already reached his breaking point with the world’s ash and had escaped), burst in and grab the two of them. It’s then they quickly realize that Kotone isn’t exactly human. But instead of the way the canon goes about it, I have it that she became more of how Misyr was, her body went through an extreme evolution and starts turning things to ash. It moved slowly, though, so IL simply wraps her up in some spare fabric on his person and the group quickly gets out of the world. 

From there Misyr helps Kotone contain her newfound abilities and evolution, as it was almost exactly what had happened to him. Not as extreme, thankfully, maybe due to merging with Noah, the core being less dangerous with Noah there, or perhaps it was one last gift from Noah himself. She kept her human form, and she didn’t suddenly turn her surroundings to ash with such devastation as Misyr did to the demon world, but she can’t touch anything, she has trouble breathing such clean air, and others couldn’t get close to her without feeling the effects of the ash themselves.

It takes nearly a year, but they are able to get Kotone to a livable state and stable with her newfound abilities. During this time all the other worlds have their endings, and the regulars are able to gather at the cafe again. Misyr joins the staff temporarily as Kotone still has to practice with the coffee and kitchen supplies to make sure she didn’t turn them to ash. Though she was able to achieve this in a few months.

It was unsure if Kotone had gained an immortal life like Misyr had, but for now she's able to live normally.

And so is Misyr. He rents a room in the cafe and works there part time. Any of his free time is spent with his friends from the cafe, or exploring the world outside with Kariya - as he truly hasn’t seen the world except for what was around the cafe or the government building Kaoru worked at. He comes back to the cafe everyday to tell Kotone of his new adventures, and they talk about them over a cup of coffee.

Akira Mikado, a scientist, is working on a way to turn nonhumans back into humans based on the proven result of Misyr himself. So they’re hoping that Kotone can go back to normal one day too. 

This ending can honestly be rped whether or not Kotone and Misyr end up in a relationship. I will default to them simply being Platonic Partners rather than in a romantic relationship.

#ic.misyr.development #wanted to repost this one