m-le

[m-le]

It’s also slowly expanding to Winx with Sky and Brandon 🤭

You gotta love German dubs cause nowhere else you get the core four ninjas as psych characters 😂

Shawn = Zane

Gus = Jay

Buzz = Kai

Mary = Cole

Me and my friend @m-le are giggling like crazy abt this!

Another party fun fact abt this is that Kai’s voice actor is also the Voice actor for Anakin Skywalker which is absolutely hilarious if you think about it.

Really you can totally spin a very interesting multiverse conspiracy net with German voice actors and it’s just sooo much fun 🤣

[m-le]

the way p&p 2005 said: here's one of the most beloved enemies to lovers romances of all time, we don't need to change anything but here's keira knightley and the most socially awkward mr darcy you have ever seen. we're going to sprinkle in a hand touch and an almost kiss during an argument following a love confession in the pouring rain. what excellent boiled potatoes. yearn. you will think about this movie every day for the rest of your life.

[m-le]

I’m watching pride and prejudice for the first time and as I saw Mr. Darcy I felt as if I had seen him before. After long watching and careful consideration, I had a sudden thought and I knew where I had seen such an unpleased frown mixed with such challenged emotions before : Miles Edgeworth, prosecutor of the Ace Attorney franchise.

It fits so perfect. In Phoenix we find the strong willed and free spirited protagonist that is Elizabeth Bennet. Thus I must insist on a Pride and Prejudice AU of Ace Attorney.

As such it all begins with Pride and Prejudice, doesn’t it?

[m-le]

New Ninjago au idea :)

A „10 things I hate about you“ Au with the Smith siblings, but less angsty cuz wdym u paid a guy to get with ur sister 🤨

Nya would not do that and also there is not a universe where the ninja aren’t friends imo

Plot Basics: nya wants to date jay >jay also wants taht > ray and maya are a bit hesitant about that > the sibling clause is coined so Kai has to date someone in order for nya to date > nya and jay think about it and start playing matchmaker with Kai and cole > cole could already have a crush it noz and jay maybe just convinced him taht it’s a good idea idk or he’s calling in a favour > the movie plot more or less happens > everyone is happy and we have two couples

Ofc it can be jsut like the movie but I like when AUs take the inspiration and also the source material anf make a new brain child out of it cuz the characters are not the same which influences the choices they make etc.

But yeah I’m leaving this here and letting it sun :)

Shoutout to @emiko-talks83 <3

[m-le]

yea .

[m-le]

Bernard Dowd and the Art of Recontextualization

I'm what you might call a "fake Batman fan" - that is, I've only watched most of the Batman animated series', all of the live action movies, most of the animated ones, played some of the video games... so, you know, probably thousands of hours of my life in Batman related media. But not the comics! Fake fan!

Frankly, I find the comics medium the way DC and Marvel do it to be really hard to follow. There's the fact that you can't really follow an individual solo character without them getting caught up in massive crossover events that ruin their arc and pacing, there's the soap-opera-iness that encourages cheap and revolving conflicts inherent to the longform monthly release schedule, the writer roulette, and there's also just that going back to try and thread a particular continuity or character is an exercise in frustration. Oh and the retcons. Everyone hates those. They've (basically) never been good. Don't remember this part it will never come up aga

But, you know, despite this - or maybe because of this - comics is a breeding ground for ideas. Because of the quick turnaround and the demand for novel conflicts, comics just churn out idea after idea. Good ideas, bad ideas, doesn't matter. Get it to print. Retcon it later if we write ourselves into a corner. Comics are often soooooo first draft coded. This is why I personally prefer adaptations - they often reimagine ideas and retcon them into new narratives where they can serve a more coherent plot. But what happens when a character is picked up for a second draft ... without actually contradicting the earlier material? While enriching the earlier material, even?

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin and uh... 20 year old comics under the cut!)

So, uh, quick disclaimer - because I have very little overall knowledge of DC's Comics continuity, there may be more interesting examples of times that what I'm going to point out was done. But I love Bernard and from a writer's POV I'm impressed with the way they did it so we're talking about Bernard lmao

The Beginning (Robin 1993) - Reading comics from the 2000s hurts in a way I can't describe

Okay so I heard Tim Drake is dating a guy now? (Penny Sonic voice) Whoa he's bisexual I didn't know that! I'm sure people on the internet are being very normal about this. Cool let's find out more about his new bf. I like starting from the beginning... so like yeah hold on while I crack open the Robin comic and take down what this guy's deal is.

😬

So basically the TL;DR of Bernard in his original appearances is that he seems to be an attempt to introduce some normal stakes teen drama into Tim's life. He has all the Funny Guy Friend Classics - he's got an inflated sense of his proficiency at pulling girls, he's inexplicably drawn towards the protagonist (who is cooler than him), he wants to date the most popular girl in school, and he wants to get down with older women!

This might just be me but while I was going through this I thought like, he almost reads a little uncanny, like he's been filtered through a Disney Teen Special. In practice he mostly serves to introduce Tim to the Real Plot, Darla Aquista, and be one of his ties to civilian life, which is, like, fine. He's ultimately just a background character and he's so unimportant that he only has one appearance after their school gets shot up(!!!), which is, again, to be more of an accessory to the Darla plot.

After this display of "wow this guy's kind of lowkey insane for offering to his resurrected bestie supervillainess to be her manager actually", he's dropped forever. Comics! We're not gonna unpack that.

The Sequel (Batman: Urban Legends) - We're Gonna Unpack That

Until almost two decades later when he calls Tim up for a date. And while I'm trying to skim over a lot to get to the point here and I don't really know the FULL context, it is notable that Tim is in the middle of an identity crisis / the cusp of adulthood when this happens (I think he just lost a spleen or something. That sucks dude). It's pretty implicit that part of the reason he's going to see Bernard is because he's someone familiar in a time when he's facing a lot of new and scary stuff.

And at first blush, he really does seem like the same dude. The familiar arm over the shoulder, the banter, it's all very casual and similar to the ribbing from high school -

- and I guess nothing has happened to Bernard in the interim haha he's just the funny friend guy right?

I really like the way they did this. I'm just unambiguously going to praise how good this is if you just came off the 2000s stuff. Comics have kind of breakneck pacing by nature but they really manage to condense down and then pull off a neat sleight of hand over the course of like four pages here. They re-establish Bernard as a silly guy and then wham you with the fact that yeah actually we ARE gonna unpack that. Fuck you Tim Drake life is ever changing and nothing stays the same

So the TL;DR on the rest of the Urban Legends storyline is that stuff like, HAPPENED to this guy while our focus was elsewhere. He learned martial arts, presumably so that he wouldn't be so helpless in the next school shooting level event, he got into a pain cult, he's just Not Doing Well. We find out, reading between the lines, that calling Tim on a date was probably one of his last attempts to reach out to someone when the cult stuff was getting really bad.

I've heard people complain that Bernard is uninteresting or not a character or entirely focused on his relationship with Tim, and I think that criticism is really weird considering that his entire re-debut focuses on the point that he's been having his own life and making his own (often wild) decisions - ones that really changed the course of his life - while Tim was gone. And it's also notable that this story is about how the fact that he's his own person and has changed and has made the nerve-wracking decision to take action and call Tim inspires Tim himself to take a leap and fling himself into the uncertain waters of young adulthood.

Me when I have my bi awakening and call to get out of a rut simultaneously because Cute Insane Guy Inspired Me. iconic

So that's how Bernard has changed. But that's not recontextualization, that's just the writers taking a guy and making him do another, cooler thing. Well hold the fuck on because we're not goddamn done.

What did he mean by th-

The Recontextualizerrrrr (Tim Drake: Robin) - Bernard is the funniest person in Gotham City. I'll not be taking constructive criticism on this

Tim Drake: Robin is the followup to the Urban Legends story and Tim is the main character fr. Obviously. but Bernard is also a major character. Later, he even gets to be a POV character. But they don't do that for several issues, instead treating us to his shenanigans from Tim's point of view as he solves a bizarre serial murder case and like, they're cute! And neither of them are normal in the slightest. I love that for them.

Again, TL;DR, there are a lot of interactions where Bernard talks to Tim both in and out of costume, but we don't get to see his POV until they go out to a restaurant and meet Bernard's parents there by accident and Tim has to run off to do Robin stuff. And like... a lot of stuff happens in this one bois. Whammy after whammy

We're suddenly introduced explicitly to a lot that was only implied or just completely unavailable before. Bernard's parents are ragingly homophobic. Probably were never great even before that. He suffers from depression. All that is a lot to. wait. hold on a second

he knows?????

HE KNOWS????

Okay so if you stop at this point and reread the entire run so far you find out that Bernard is in fact the biggest troll in the entire universe. This is the moment that cemented him as my favourite, by the way. Like I had a feeling that he knew and I was just laughing my ass off when my suspicions were confirmed.

But this is really interesting on top of that because Bernard has been revealed to be, at this point, a guy who you should look deeper than the surface to understand. Someone who masks his true self and whose true motivations you can only uncover if you're really looking past the facade. Even with Tim, he sort of offers Tim and Robin half the story each, taking advantage of Robin's "distance" to give out information he wants Tim to think about but that he's reluctant to talk about frankly while at the same time almost daring Tim to open up about his identity.

Absolutely most normal way to tell your bf about your cult trauma. You'll always be famous to me Bernard Dowd

This is a really neat trick by the writers. It makes Bernard a multifaceted character who got to quietly develop while we were mostly focused on Tim, and there's some clever clever foreshadowing they set up in this run to achieve this. If it were just this, I would call it good writing.

But it actually goes one level deeper than that and becomes something really really special. because as we all know, Bernard was not conceived to be this way, he was a one-off guy who was kind of annoying and he was essentially retconned to be, like. Gay? Have depth? Be funny? All of those things?

The Seamless Retcon (Robin 1993 Again) - We took your guy and we gave him gay subtext and it worked astoundingly well

This is not a new observation btw, I've seen a ton of posts to this effect. But oh my god. Some of these panels really hit different with the new Bernard lore. Like holy fuck just read this back to back

There are tons of moments like this. There's SO MUCH that the revelation that Bernard is queer adds to his initially extremely underwhelming tenure in the Robin comics. A reread almost begs the question of what Bernard must have been thinking at any given moment! BRO YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FUCK HIS STEPMOM. That's completely believable as a next-level closeting move and goes from kind of annoying to turbofunny.

Like yeah of course he's acting like a douche. His father is a status-chasing asshole and he's five racks deep in the closet. Of course he gravitates towards Tim - his gaydar is pinging and he thinks Tim is cute. And it's also pinging that Tim is like. You know

None of this would hit as hard if the writers had not set up Bernard as someone who masks so much. They worked it in that character trait to mean that you could always glean information deeper than the surface from his top level interactions.

Because of this, Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread. Like I said, that's a set of observations that are not new to me. But something that really gets to me is how seamless and intentional it is. It really feels like the writer sat down and took their time devising a guy that is believable as that other guy, but only if you read back with certain context.

The conclusion - Comics. Man.

So is this just about how Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread and that he can exist independent of Tim and all the haters are wrong. Yeah of course. 💖

But also like, I have thoroughly proven to myself that I was kinda wrong to just reject the published comics medium out of hand. I see now that there's room for the writer's roulette to hit the jackpot and that something I mistook as an outright flaw, the winding and unfocused and often improvised nature of it, can be ridden like a wave if you're skilled enough to do it. Meghan Fitzmarten is a goddamned genius.

I guess I have to read comics now. Fuck

[m-le]

Very random

But does anyone else have problems with socks that have a elastic band at the top (almost all of them) cuz they feel like they’re cutting off ur blood circulation or something idk

Cuz I favour the ones without the elastics as a result but u don’t really find them anywhere

Anyways would love some opinions

[m-le]

Ok so ppl of the internet

There’s no challenge because I’m right and no one will convince me otherwise

Fr tho I was thinking why no pairing with them really felt right and then it hit me: they’re all aro ace spec (it isn’t advertised on the picture like that but trust me bro)

But yeah they’re all on the spectrum because I said so and I’m aroace so I think I’m like the authority

In the end remember it’s all just funky brain waves (but I am objectively right so..)

Over and out :3

[m-le]

Its time :)

[m-le]

Im soooo happy u actually drew it 🥰🙂‍↕️

Was waiting for this 🤞🏻

Heavily encouraged by @emiko-fan-2podcasterin

Hatte einen Post über die TKKG Episode „Hinterhalt am schwarzen Fels“ gesehen und der Part mit dem Wolf heulen von Tim hat eine wilde Idee bei mir gefestigt:

Tim als Prinzessin Mononoke und dann Gabi als Ashitaka (der Typ von Prinzessin mononoke halt) und dann halt der Plot des Filmes aber halt mit dieser Änderung…

War einfach dieser Sprung von Wolf zu Prinzessin mononoke der extremst Sinn für mich gemacht hat lol

Enjoy this peace of wild thought of mine

[m-le]

Heavily encouraged by @emiko-fan-2podcasterin

Hatte einen Post über die TKKG Episode „Hinterhalt am schwarzen Fels“ gesehen und der Part mit dem Wolf heulen von Tim hat eine wilde Idee bei mir gefestigt:

Tim als Prinzessin Mononoke und dann Gabi als Ashitaka (der Typ von Prinzessin mononoke halt) und dann halt der Plot des Filmes aber halt mit dieser Änderung…

War einfach dieser Sprung von Wolf zu Prinzessin mononoke der extremst Sinn für mich gemacht hat lol

Enjoy this peace of wild thought of mine

[m-le]

Gedanken meinerseits zu die drei ???

Falls die drei sich je fürs College oder so trennen müssten, gibt es zwei Optionen:

1. sehr dramatische Situation, viele Tränen, viel Depression, viel alles, sie gehen zu dritt zur Therapie für mehrere Termine, löst sich freundlich und einigermaßen gut

2. auch Drama, Streit, Schuldgefühle, schlechte Kommunikation und die ganzen schlechten Seiten von deren basically co-dependency, reden vllt für eine längere Zeit nicht

In beiden fällen gibt es deren weirde co-dependence aber in einem Fall klären sie dies bevor es zum brechpunkt wird (weil co-dependency nicht healthy ist auf langzeit)

Am realistischsten ist es aber sowieso dass die ne WG machen und zumindest in der gleichen Stadt College/Arbeit haben (finde ich zumindest). Aber auch da müssen sie natürlich irgendwann ihre Probleme ansprechen 🤷🏻

Noch ein Gedanke

Habe die Rewe Edition Die drei ??? Bücher gelesen, welche jetzt nicht super charakterisieren aber

Man hätte zum Treffen zwischen Peter und Jeffrey auch Verabredung oder halt Treffen sagen können aber es wurde explizit das Wort Date genutzt

Ich spreche nur das aus was auf den Seiten steht (don’t boo me, im right)

Weiß aber auch nicht wie Canon diese Bücher sind . But still they exist with very queer undertones✋🏻

Und auch zu den Editionen: ich liebe Ellen, sie taucht zwar nur kurz auf aber sie ist so relatable . Sehr viel Liebe an Ellen und an Mandy die drei Sätze hatte und im Customer Service arbeitet, es ist nicht einfach🫶

Das war’s für heute

Disclaimer: Ich weiß nicht doll viel und bin müde also falls was nicht stimmt… der Mülleimer steht neben der Tür (/j)

It’s also basically all @emiko-fan-2podcasterin fault so… :)

[m-le]

Sometimes it’s just late in the night and im suddenly convinced that I can start any hobby at the same time with the right level of commitment and have it all go well.

I’m setting myself up for doom and also kinda ignoring my studying

But yeah, I’d be a great dm for a original dnd campaign

Maybe it will make its way out of my notes and dreams lol

[m-le]

finde wir sollten mal super spezifische deutsche AU prompts einführen.

- star crossed lovers meet in der Schlange vorm Pfandautomaten

- du triffst deinen soulmate in der bahn, eure augen treffen sich, der himmel voller geigen. ihr nickt euch kurz höflich zu, keiner von euch sagt was, du steigst die nächste station aus weil du noch zu aldi musst, ihr seht euch nie wieder

- enemies to lovers: wir haben uns auf ner wg-party getroffen und streiten uns bei club mate welches Bundesland besser ist (titelvorschlag: dein lokalpatriotismus ist nur ein stummer schrei nach liebe)

- Kaffkinder AU: sie sind zusammen bei der freiwilligen Feuerwehr, teilen sich ihr erstes radler an einem sommerabend um halb acht aufm Bolzplatz und hören sportfreunde stiller auf nem mp3 player

- Zwei Referendare bonden weil sie realisieren dass Bundesjugendspiele auch als Lehrer scheiße sind und gründen eine unheilige Allianz gegen das Kultusministerium

- found family trope: ihr seid die vier einzigen Leute unter 50 beim CSD planungskomitee eurer kleinstadt

- nochmal enemies to lovers: ich bin tempolimitverfechter und du fährst nen BMW :/

- du bist ein cop und ich hab seit 2014 keine Rundfunkgebühren bezahlt, secret identity, heavy angst, organised crime au, 400k, rated m for violence

feel free to add more

[m-le]

As someone who has watched a few Arthurian adaptations, I was immediately intrigued by „Gwen & Art are not in love“ by Lex Croucher.

I mean ur telling me we get the Arthurian myths in combination with a medieval queer love story ?!

Even though I nowadays tend to have problems starting printed literature this one flew by and I finished reading in the span of a day and a bit.

To start not only is the story great but I’m also a big fan of the cover art <3

We get not only the exploration of the queer love stories between Gwen & Bridget and Art & Gabriel but also growing Friendships and some battle action fitting for the Middle Ages.

Next to the fighting it does also have some minor alcohol abuse and partly deals with death. And since it’s the Middle Ages and people just love hating other people, the mentions of queerness etc are not always positive.

Im personally a big fan of how all the relationships evolve and the people change :)

Spoilers for the plot of the book!

Little rant from me :|

Although it was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, I must admit that the typical plot of:

character a either did something accidentally wrong or is said to have done something wrong (although that’s false) and character b immediately believing that and now judging/having a grudge against/hating character a. Which then only confuses character a who doesn’t get any information from anyone around them to what they’re said to have done wrong and is jsut lost and hurt. Especially after things are jsut starting to look right between the characters.

It’s not that it is that unbelievable that it happens (it’s here and there) but more that sometimes it just annuls like every character growth the two or more characters had together and after there is never really a apology or an acknowledgment of this being hurtful to character a, since it jsut confirms taht character b would be easily able to believe this about character a. And my biggest fight with this trope is that the friend of always tend to just side with character b although they’re often both they’re friends or even character a‘s friends.

Luckily it’s not that big of a part on the book but it tends to really ick me when reading something which is really great.

Personally I just loved how Arthur helped both siblings more or less take some responsibility and self control for their own desires and life wishes. It was interesting to see the differences in how they acted around being queer, since they were raised very similar but oh so different.

Also just some special mention of my boy Sidney: he’s not only the most loyal person in the story but also is just a really amazing best friend to Arthur all while he also has his own little love story :)

It may be extremely simple but I loves the conversation Art and Sidney had about the pendant („it’s cold and black jsut like my heart“ „no, your heart is soft and yellow, like marzipan“😭)

Some other favourites of mine: we have a map of Camelot :), Bridget’s witch friend, the court magician, Excalibur nine 🙂‍↕️, everyone in the castle thinking Gwen and art were getting intimate, Gabriel’s more or less obsession with birds, background gay King Arthur/Lancelot, Agnes <3

Sometimes it was really frustrating how oblivious and sheltered Gwen was but seeing that she had not had any friends (not sure if it was explained) and also did not leave the castle, it seems realistic enough that she turned out like this. Still hard to read at a few instances. But I could definitely see how she and Gabriel are siblings as they both are really afraid of dancing out of line.

Also Arthur definitely had enough self loathing and alcohol issues for the both of them. Like, my guy, when are u sober. And also they both were immature when they were younger since they’re were children (duh) but also like how should gwen have known taht ur dad is a fcking ass (just my opinion )

I definitely do love all of the main cast so that is not meant to bash any one of them. They’re just realistic and all have flaws (although I’m not sure about Bridget she is pretty perfect :3 only female knight, noble ladies tend to fall in love with her, strong and capable, knows her boundaries (especially with not wanting to be treated like a secondary thought by her lovers)and she wields Excalibur nine) and good features. :)

Not always the biggest fan of open endings but I think here it does work well although I would have loved to see the speech and followed reaction 🤷🏻 maybe we would have seen Merlin and Morgana get back from their sabbatical hm

Spoiler ending here!

So I know it sounds negative at a few instances but do read the book it’s great. I think it’s a very easily enjoyable story that really pulls u in and makes u feel as part of the group. :))

Thsi is not eloquent or the best review in any way just me somehow bringing my feelings and thoughts to screen :) 🪼🪻

[m-le]

Okay so extremely random probably but please someone indulge me

(This has spoilers for final destination I guess)

I just watched the first Final Destination Movie w/ @emiko-fan-2podcasterin and before we saw the last death happen, an idea came to mind:

An au were instead of Carter dying at the end, they get just away from the situation in Paris and are now more or less bonded together. This entails moving in together, going to college together, having same classes etc etc , because they are trying to infinitely avoid the others deaths by having a constant cycle of saving going on.

So now they are like „Welp I guess we’re stuck with eachother ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ“

So everyone around them: teachers, students, neighbours […] only knows them as a trio and u can not understand any circumstances find one without the other two.

Now this whole thing is a comedy sitcom with a bit of catastrophe a la Murphy’s law and a hilariously casual way they handle it after the time that passed.

Also in the humble opinion of my friend and I: they are in a poly relationship like at least after a few years it won’t just be Alex&Clear and Carter anymore but Alex&Clear&Carter (no I don’t take criticism on this)

I will sadly not be writing the whole thing cuz I always get stuck when writing very easily and I don’t want anyone (not even myself) to have to wait for my writing :|

Would love to hear some opinions on this since I don’t even know how existing the Final destination fandom in 2024 is especially since my knowledge of it is only from the first movie :)

(P.s. I loved Seeing Ali Larter in this personally since I only knew her from legally blonde which is one of my favourite movies :))) )

[m-le]

Foreshadowing is a literary device