#now it's Matrix and AndrAIa

[your-pal-nebula]

I leave the fictives unsupervised for ten minutes and they start fucking why does this keep happening to me

[gooeykit]

My concepts for a major plot in my ReBoot continuation story. The sketches are over a year old and ATP a lot has changed, so I want to redo the progression timeline among other things. I call him Corruptrix. If you play 'spot the inconsistency' on this, I'm well aware. Design explanations and older drawings below cut

Plot-wise, Matrix begins getting fed up with Bob's radical pacifism putting himself and others in danger. While in battle, his PID is damaged by a creature they don't yet know to be a shard of Hex and it begins to corrupt him. Mentally, he's fine, but as his body begins degrading, it starts pulling from pieces of code from other things what have interacted with his code directly in order to stabilize his body. Megabyte's interaction with his PID is the only one that didn't happen in the show. The corruption is an illness first and foremost, but Matrix understands that it gives him some powerplay and decides to weaponize it in order to make Bob either leave MainFrame or reevaluate and change his stances as a radical pacifist. Essentially, he becomes a revolutionary leader and terrorist for this.

The characters being pulled from here are Bob, Andraia, Daemon, Hex and Megabyte. I'll start from the head and go down.

His hair and beard is grown out just because of time. The ears are longer because of Andraia and his earing has become more of a cord attaching into his body. His eyes have lost their pupil and the sclera are a dark purple to represent MB's eyes. His chin spikes are just cool. The red on his neck is from Hex and is to pad out his very damaged vocal cords. Around the base of his neck and into his collar bones are little pieces of fabric like material, like Hex's elytra pieces, and like her he can manipulate his own. The orange of his shoulder pad becomes a bandoleer, which I'll elaborate on later. The pauldron becomes a large chitinous structure, the height drawing from Hex's and the shape drawing from Andi's sails. The Right arm's band has wrapped around the upper arm similarly to MB's and the elbows move on a hinge like viruses. The forearm has another chitinous structure, pulling from Bob's forearm braces and again Andi's sails. The structure around the wrist pulls from MB and Hex, but the hand is mostly drawn from MB. In the hand are green cords, those are his tendons. There's knuckle pads on it which were adapted for quadrupedal locomotion as his body gets too heavy to carry and his fingers are segmented like a virus. The fingernails are able to extend like MB's and have venom like Andi's. His other arm has become a canon essentially, since it eventually fuses to Gun. The bandoleer from his shoulder attaches into it through the elbow, each blast comes from his body and is just metabolized energy. On the canon arm, his skin is discolored as it's sick and extremely malformed to contour around it and function. The belts strapped around his forearm have a function, but I don't know enough about guns to be able to explain it with words. His thumb nail now serves as a reticle. Both arms are longer for quadrupedal locomotion. Around his chest is a cresting structure like Hex's and grows erratically. His pelvis is just plain deforming, but coming from the right is a cord that functions the hydraulics in his leg. The upper right thigh is a mix of his own and MB's anatomy, with the ridges coming from the side of Bob's uniform, and his knee has a locking mechanism. Foreleg is pulled from a lot of them, the sails from Andi being most notable. Around the ankle is another locking mechanism, which functions as a hasp with the ridges along the shin. This is what the hydraulic is for. The foot is cloven and the heel is from MB. Matrix's whole right leg can lock into place and be very stable, he's essentially a sentry. His left leg is thinner and lighter than the right, having gone through less changes. The holster has changed into a means of keeping his upper leg together, as it's began to split from strain of supporting his body. Knee and foreleg are drawn from Bob and Hex. It's mostly just gone through deformation though, but is cleated and has vents along the shin. Miscellaneously, the veins from Daemon are merely cosmetic, if he were to be able to use her powers, I don't think he'd know how to, let alone know he had it to begin with. Matrix's corruption is an illness where his body is degrading, so he's losing bodily functions, his voice strains when he speaks and comes out as a low rasp, he's got respiratory issues, struggles to metabolize what he eats while all of his body is greatly consuming what energy he does have in order to rebuild itself. All his previous scars are also reopening, which makes him lose his prosthetic eye, though it moreso melds into him. All that remains of it is a yellow glowing cavity. The one non-physical ability he gains is being able to sap power from others, which is the one ability he gets from Gigabyte since both Hex and MB are present in him. He uses this to supplement but will only do it with consent or out of pure necessity. Lastly, he's immune to Andi's venom and vice versa, not that they'd fight. Once he's healed, he's permanently disabled.

He's not this much larger and never was btw, I drew him this size from lack of care. The only gained size isn't from his own body.

[ironbloodaika]

Happy Halloween 2023!

This is something long overdue. Even though I stopped posting my commissions on here that doesn't mean I've stopped getting them!

I've especially enjoyed getting Halloween commissions because those are really fun to conceive, order, and see made into reality. I've especially enjoyed getting them from Aeolus06 and he's never disappointed. Sadly due to me being between jobs I couldn't get any this year. :( That said I've decided to use this as an opportunity to show what I've got over the last few years and hopefully you'll love them as much as I do! :)

These first four are unique in that these were all from the same year (2020 to be exact). Since Aeo has a cool down period between commissions, I actually got these all done over a period of a few months. XD Took a lot of luck and prayer, but I got all the ideas I wanted done!

First one was probably the most complex, but was worth it because of how well it fit. Star, Marco, and Hekapoo from Star vs The Forces of Evil as AndrAIa, Matrix, and Older!AndrAIa from Reboot! Much like Matrix, Marco had a bit of age jumping that fit naturally (especially body types and eye scars). Plus Star and Hekapoo are shipped pretty hard with him so it was natural they dress as the different versions of Matrix's lady love.

Also, Fun Fact: Marco's scar/prosthetic eye is on the wrong side compared to his costume, but I felt it was better to ignore it than have Aeo flip the entire costume. XD

Next up we had some classic hotties from Canada, Lindsay and Courtney. Everyone with a pulse will know I'm a Courtney fan, so I'm always eager to give her some love. And while I'm not AS big on Lindsay, she's a fun character and I have some friends who love her too so I didn't mind them sharing the spotlight.

Obviously the theme/inspiration behind this pics conception is the fact Lindsay and Courtney pack the biggest T and A on the island respectively, so they needed some costumes to illustrate that. Thus we got Courtney as everyone's fave lady wrestler Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter and Lindsay as the boxing cheerleader Tiffany Lords from Rival Schools. Both ladies who kick ass and look good doing it! Give these ladies some love folks!

Another Fun Fact: This one took faster to do than I expected, mostly cause I didn't realize my refs were thigh high. In the end I feel it still looked good and didn't bother bringing it up. XD

Here's another cute couple and one I think deserves more love. Eclipsa Butterfly and Globgor are also from SVTFOE and honestly very sweet and adorable. While they're regarded as evil by less tolerant folk, they're honestly some of the sweetest characters you'll see on the show. I feel this is a nice contrast to their costumes, Sindel and Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat. I went with the MK9 versions of their outfits since they were both modern and simple. Didn't wanna be THAT guy who commissions SUPER complicated outfits. I'm not a sadist! While later games would retcon Sindel into being just as evil as Shao (something thankfully corrected in MK1) I still feel this outfit and character works for Eclipsa, even if she and her hubby are as far from evil as you can get. XD

Final pic of this year is another couples pic with Danny Fenton and Paulina Sanchez. I ship these two and take no shame in it. This was originally gonna just be Paulina as Phantom Girl from Legion of Superheroes since the name and colors matched Danny perfectly. But then I figured just having Paulina in costume wouldn't be fair, so I had him dress up as Timberwolf, since I recall them having a few moments in the cartoon. A cartoon, much like this pairing, is very underrated. XD

Now to 2021! This was a fun crossover and and me deciding to avoid "themes" and combining two character pin-ups in one! Once again we have Hekapoo and this year she's dressed up as Otedamako. Who's that? Only my fave Monster of the Day from Sailor Moon! :3 To her side with have a humanoid Rarity showing off her darkside as Martha from Helluva Boss! This one came from the animated opening in G5 that had Rarity showing off some spiky teeth and a crazy look in her eyes. IMMEDIATELY brought Martha too mind. All and all, very happy with how these two came out!

And now to the prior year of 2022. By this point Aeo started coloring the stream commissions and honestly, it was worth the price increase. Dude is a machine! If this one has a theme it's basically me taking the waifus of my close friends (Chill, Terrible, and Raccoon) and dressing them as other sexy waifus. From left to right we have Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia dressed as Harlequin, the Harley Quinn of the Gods and Monsters film. A very hot/underrated design for a VERY twisted take on the character. Toga makes it work! Front and center we have Wilhamena Mettle from OK K.O.! as Starfire, specifically the comic book version for obvious reasons. XD Finally we have Juri Han from Street Fighter dressed in the tight leathers of Penelope Spectra from Danny Phantom, specifically her second form. Lot of specifics in this piece. XD

Final Fun Fact: Was tempted to have Wilhamena as Star Canary, the fusion of Starfire and Black Canary from the Batman/Superman comic. Very hot design. XD

And a bit of a bonus! I ended up really helping out a new friend on deviantART back in 2020 and got to get a bit of art as a thank you. Courtesy of XJKenny we have Meteora Butterfly, daughter of Eclipsa and Globgor as Mileena. Also her MK9 design, this not only works for Meteora herself given her story, but also matches up with her parents' costumes as well!

Well that's everything I wanted to share this year! This has been a rough year for me personally and for the world as a whole. But I'm hoping we can turn things around a bit with what bit of the year we have left.

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay scared and stay safe! 👻 🎃

[marylizabetha]

Lost in the Web

A03: marylizabetha

Summary:

This story follows the tale of Bob. From the moment the Web Riders rescue him from his capsule, till the moment he is reunited with Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket.

It is eerily quiet. Silence cutting through me like a knife. Driving me mad. The sound of my breathing suddenly seeming like thunder.

Soft light emanating from the top of my capsule every few nanos my only companion. My only company as I float weightlessly through the web. My only reminder that I’m still alive, for now. The life support system will only last so long. I drift in and out of consciousness.

How long have I been here? Seconds? Minutes?

I surely would die here.

It’s strange realizing how useless I am without Glitch. Without Dot and her plans.

Pain. I grab my chest, willing my heart back inside. I clear my mind of everything; of Dot and her plans, her raven black hair that was so soft to the touch, her smile, the way she looked at me when I saw her last...

Oh Dot...

I never had a chance...

I don't even know if she's still alive…

I drift in and out of sleep

They've been watching me. I know it. I see them out of the corner of my eye. They think I don't know. But I do. I see them.

There it is again! Disappearing behind the dust of a webula. I know it! I strain my eyes to see but my capsule turns and it disappears beyond the sight of the window. I scream and bang my fists against it. Like a wild animal in a cage. A crazed animal.

I’m not going to die here!

I breath fast and deeply for a few moments before burying my face in my hands.

Get it together Bob.

Finally, they show their faces to me. I wish they hadn't. I stare into the eyes of what was once a sprite. I can only tell because of the faded Icon on their chest. I stare into the eyes of what is now only a memory of what it once was. I see myself reflected in them.

The door is pulled off the hinges and I am ripped out of my coffin by the force of the web. One of them catches me. They work quickly as they pull a helmet made of old bones over my head and wrap me in the skin of a dead web creature. I feel myself lose consciousness as they throw me and the capsule in with the rest of their haul.

[paganwitchisis]

Fanfiction Questionnaire

1) How many works do you have on AO3? 25

2) What’s your total AO3 word count? 280,072 (I have double that incoming)

3) What fandoms do you write for?

BG3, ReBoot (90'S TV Series), Witch Hunter Robin, DBZ, Gravitation, Tales of Symphonia, and Dragon Age 2

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Rewriting the Past - DBZ Vegeta/Bulma

Vampiric Antidote - BG3 Fem Tav/Astarion

A Different Type of Adventure - Dragon Age 2 Fenris/Fem Hawke

To Live Again - DBZ Vegeta/Bulma

You Never Know When You Lose - Gravitation Shuichi/Yuki

All are 18 plus!

5) Do you respond to comments?

Every one if I can :)

6) What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

You Never Know When You Lose - Attempted suicide and more so beware. Gravitation fanfic

7) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

They all except 2 I think have great and happy endings. I dont screw over my characters...much

8) Do you get hate on fics?

One...a few times. My DBZ one Rewriting the Past. Some people took offense to small details with the dragon balls.

9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Almost every fanfic I write has it. I see it as an expression of love rather than porn lol. Every kind really. My 500 page one in the making has a lot of..options.(BG3)

10) Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nah, nope.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

Too Many. Matrix/Andraia (ReBoot), Tav/Astarion (BG3), Fenris/Hawke (DA2), and so many more

15) What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a few untitled dark dark fics I am scared to ever release and so arent finished.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I think smut and dialogue

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Remembering the audience doesnt see or know what I know and to describe things more/slow the situations down.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I do it a bunch! I did Elven in the last fic.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

A lot but DBZ (Although I LOVE it) is toxic. Right now it is BG3

20) Favorite fic you’ve written?

I have one that is 500 pages and I am 300 pages in. I dont have a title yet but it is BG3 and Fem Tav/Astarion and super sweet yet tense. It is so good!

Steal away! I did from @kittenintheden who said to go ahead!

[izztreme-art-n-stuff]

Who is RJ :3 i havent watched season 4 tho, so please no spoilers if its a season 4 char T0T

Or is it an OC?

Actually, ReBoot: ReJuvenated is an AU of mine

It's a rather ridiculous one, but one of the main facets about it is its character changes

RJ!Bob is stoic, quiet, blank-faced, and almost robotic

RJ!Dot is short-tempered, always tired, a workaholic, and a perfectionist

RJ!Matrix is friendly, exploritive, a great inventor, and a partial expy of Sam (from Sam and Max)

And RJ!AndrAIa is highly prone to violence, random, weapon-loving, and a partial expy of Max (from the same franchise)

Those are the ones I know of and they're just summarizations. Not all characters have been changed, especially not MegaByte and Hexadecimal, but even then I have them act off in a way

I love talking about my fanfics and you can pepper me with more questions if you like. Just be aware that I've only seen season 1 genuinely.

Don't be afraid to spoil it for me, because quite frankly that's just how I consume media in general, and I don't really care, just don't go to specific with me because I may not know what you're talking about.

[black-velvet-lady]

Reboot/Avatar comparison Pt 3

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Enzo Matrix VS Zuko: The Scar

First a preface: I am tired and I’ll go over everything else later

Ah Matrix and Zuko, the faces that launched a thousand sexual awakenings. That’s not a joke that’s a fact. Either way its just the first thing they have in common.

I suppose I should start with the defining moment of what put them on the brooding scarred eyed protagonist path. For Zuko its the Episode the Storm, and we all know what happens in the Storm:

Gentle doe eyed pre-teen Zuko wants to get into the war chamber and his kind uncle lets him in under the promise that he keeps his big mouth shut or he’ll get in trouble. Zuko can’t help but open his mouth and he gets in trouble, ends up being sent to duel his dad and he begs forgiveness for the transgression.

And Iroh turns away cause he can’t watch.

Matrix requires a bit of wind up.

Unlike Zuko who’s whole defining moment is built up on a flashback that is told from an observer Matrix’s defining moment was over the course of 4 episodes. So this does give Matrix more to work off of. The arch is season 3 episodes 1 through to 4. To Mend and Defend, Between a Raccoon and a Hard Place, Firewall and Game Over.

Season 2 ended with Enzo the pre-teen of twelve to thirteen being given the guardian protocol by Bob and left as sole guardian after Megabyte threw him into the Web. Enzo takes up the position of guardian and to prove that they truly removed some of the kid’s gloves, even though our hero is now a kid, here’s the charred mangled corpse of Hexadecimal.

You’re welcome. This is episode 1 of season 3 by the way, we’re about to tumble down a rabbit hole. I am a glutton for punishment though so...

Dot, Enzo’s adult sister, doesn’t feel right leaving her little brother as the defender of the system, she quickly comes to the realization that the other citizens of Mainframe are not too confident about their defender being a kid either so she attempts to boost his confidence and support him. She still is protective of him though, after losing Bob, Enzo is the last member of her family. She has to be told as the command dot comm of the system she needs to remain in the principal office to monitor the situation with Megabyte.

With Enzo being used as a rally point, and Dot as the general they eventually manage to seal Megabyte behind a firewall. This was the only feasible way of dealing with the issue as Enzo was truly incapable of standing up to him one on one.

And just as Enzo was really starting to get skilled at winning games and containing Viruses a game dropped that he couldn’t win.

Immortal Konflict, a reference to fighting games like Soul Caliber, Street Fighter, and most importantly Mortal Kombat. The User in this game was Zaytan, a demon looking guy with goat legs flaming wings and a sword hand.

They even give him a finisher where he crushes the opponent’s skull in his hand. They even have the sounds played over AndrAIa’s horrified face.

So Enzo has to fight this guy. He’s even wining for a bit then the User gets frustrated and takes a swipe Enzo was not prepared for. Unlike when Zuko gets injured though, you see this. In all the gory detail.

Enzo on his last legs looks up at his immanent death, reaches over to his icon to switch it to game sprite mode to save his life. Then looks up in horror as gruesome demise descends upon him.

And Dot in the command centre unaware of her brother’s fate scrambles to get things prepared to bring him back.

The system voice says the user wins and the music falls away. Dot tenses up tightening as the news hits her. The camera holds on the subtle expressions of sorrow and dread that hit the mainframers as they all one by one look to Dot. And Dot once again is faced with the fact that she couldn’t protect the people closest to her.

Enzo meanwhile survived in game sprite mode and he resolved himself to change. To do away with the pathetic kid that couldn’t defend his dog,

His people

or even himself

And in spite of all that he still manages to do something Zuko never really did.

He self analysized.

His hatred is what drove him on, consuming him and turning him into the very mirror of the Virus that terrorized him. Self-interest leads him putting himself and his interests first draging his girlfriend and dog through the life and death scenarioes of the games facing injury or worse. Shame led him to removing the parts of himself he thought were weak, the very parts his hero Bob and his sister Dot knew him for. He wasn’t the weak defenseless little boy he once was, but what he is now, is not something to be proud of.

The tale of Zuko’s scar is deliberately meant to invoke sympathy and compassion for this brooding, aggressive teenager that reacts in violent manners to achieve his ends. Matrix’s turn though is that of a kid growing into a role before being spiked back into the earth before coming back with hellfire and brimstone.

[mainframe-rebootrequest]

How about a nice Holiday scene between Bob and Dot where they make amends? Cheers!

(Note: The celebration will he called a holiday party as I doubt that Mainframe would have the same idea of Christmas as we would. For this minute = day)

At the diner, everyone was setting up for a Holiday party.

           “Have they been like this all minute?” AndrAIa asked Matrix. He followed her gaze to where Bob and Dot were setting up, occasionally making eye contact, then looking away quickly.

           “Yeah, ever since what happened with Megabyte, they’ve been acting like this.”

I shouldn’t be mad at her. Bob mentally scolded himself. A part of him held on to the feelings of betrayal over the fact that Dot almost married someone just because he looked similar to the way he used to. He leaned against the wall and sighed.      

           “Hey, Enzo?” Bob asked.

           “What’s up?” Enzo asked.

      ��    “If Dot asks, just tell her I’m getting some energy shakes, I think it’s about time for a break.” He said.

           “Sure thing.” Enzo agreed.

 Dot noticed when Bob left and sighed. She thought.

           “Well…” Mouse prompted. Dot looked at Mouse.

           “Well what?” Dot asked, busying herself with the decorations.

           “Don’t you think that maybe you should follow him?” Mouse questioned. Dot let out a sad laugh at that.

           “He’s been avoiding me for minutes; the only reason he’s still here is that he’s friends with all of you guys.” She then corrected.

           “Which clearly explains why he looked at you almost a hundred times, just today.” Mouse teased. Dot looked away. Mouse sighed.

           “Just talk to him.” Mouse said. “Now, I better go make sure Ray’s not trying to eat all the deserts… again.” With that, she left.

           A bit after the talk, Bob walked in with some energy shakes for everyone. Matrix smiled to himself, seeing his cue.

           “I can help take some.” He offered. He took all save for two. One of the two on the table was Bob’s favorite kind and the other was Dot’s favorite kind. Bob sighed, realizing what Matrix was getting at. He picked up the two shakes and walked over to Dot.

           “I thought we could all use an energy shake since we were putting a lot of effort into setting up.” He offered, handing one to her.      

           “Thanks.” Dot said, taking the shake. She looked away shyly.    

           “Did I miss anything?” He asked.

           “Well, Ray’s been trying to sneak the deserts.” Dot said. “Mouse is on it though.”

           “Well, sounds like Ray could use a teammate.” Bob joked. He went to walk away, hoping he could use the joke as a way to escape the awkwardness.

           “Wait.” Dot said. She grabbed his arm to stop him. Bob laughed. Dot let out a slight chuckle as well.

           “Actually, my car has been making a weird noise, would you mind helping me fix it?” Bob asked. Dot hesitated.

           “Go, we will be able to take care of things from here.” Cecil said, ushering her and Bob out.

           “Do you think they’re trying to tell us something?” Bob asked, thinking of his friends’ strange behavior.

           “Yes, and it’s about time we listened to them.” Dot said. She then let out a sigh; “I’m sorry.” She finally said. Bob looked away.

           “I understand why you did it; I was eventually thinking poorly of myself as the copy.” He admitted, “The truth is; I know why you chose him and I knew I could never make you happy, that’s why I tried to separate from Glitch.” He admitted. Dot held his hand, Bob didn’t move.

           “I… I failed you; you could have been deleted because of me.” She said, tears flowing down her face.

           “But I wasn’t.” Bob said, wiping her tears. “It will be hard to get over and I know things will take time, but maybe things can get back to the way it was?” He asked. Dot shook her head.

           “No, I don’t think so, but maybe that’s the point. I was so desperate for things the way to be as they were before, I gave up on who was really important to me. I mean…” She trailed off. “We’re different, but I think we can still be together….” I’m never like this. She scolded herself.

           “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Bob said, smiling at her, “A new beginning for us then.” Dot nodded.

[takerfoxx]

Strap in folks, because I couldn’t narrow it down to a single fav from this series, so buck up guys, because today we have a four-way tie! The fav(s) of the day are...

MEGABYTE! 

Reboot was a very special show. Not only was it the first all CGI show ever and singlehandedly innovated much of the technology, but it also featured great writing, great direction, and a lot of creativity. And it had some amazing characters, not the least of which was its main villain.

In fact, Megabyte might just very well be one of the coolest villains ever. He hasan awesome design that conveyed power, malice, speed, and intelligence, and he checked off just about every box off an awesome bad guy. Strong enough to throw around armored vehicles like toys? Check. Genuinely brilliant? Check. A thin veneer of class and manners? Check. Does everything with style? Check. Ends up being completely immune to the threat decay most animated villains suffer from and actually becomes more threatening, more ruthless, and more terrifying as the show goes on? Big check. Hell, he spends most of season three having actually defeated the good guys and ruling over all of Mainframe, and is only stopped from spreading his infection to the super computer at the very last second. 

But most of all, credit has to be given to the late, great Tony Jay for giving him just the most awesome voice ever. Ever line is just so silky smooth, so dripping with malice and evil. Whether he be trying to manipulate the heroes, giving dastardly commands to his underlings, or just dropping the pretenses and making it clear that he is here to fuck shit up, every word just sends a chill down your spine. 

But the best of it is, he actually wins! No, I’m serious, the final episode ends on a cliff-hanger, with a now more vicious than ever Megabyte having taken over Mainframe again and making it clear that he intends to hunt down the heroes one by one to eliminate them. This was done in hopes that it would drum up enough fan interest to get funding for a full continuation. Sadly, this never materialized and Reboot was cancelled for good, but I guess that does mean that Megabyte ends up the winner. And no, the Guardian Code doesn’t fucking count.

Plus he dueled Bob in an awesome guitar duel in what is probably the greatest moment in animation history ever, so that’s amazing.

AND HEXADECIMAL!

However, his sister Hexadecimal is a different sort of beast entirely, but no less awesome. If Megabyte is the perfect example of lawful evil, than she is chaotic evil incarnate. The woman of a million masks is far more powerful than her already OP brother, and a million times crazier. She cares little for power and control. After all, she has it already, and would rather spend her time wreaking havoc just for the fun of it.

Hex isn’t all that active for a first season and a half, probably because the creators knew that a villain that powerful would be too much of a problem to keep trying to come up with a solutions for. But her rare solo episodes are among the series’ best, with the heroes barely managing to snatch victory by the barest of centimeters, and having to rely on their wits to do so. And she is just a joy to watch on-screen, with Shirley Millner obviously having a blast voicing her. She can go from kind and grandmotherly to downright seductive to shrieking with laughter at the carnage she’s about to unleash to driven by blind fury at the drop of a hat, and every conversation with her has the participants constantly shitting themselves, hoping not to upset her. And she knows it.

Hex also gets a rather fascinating character arc. As twisted as she is, her infatuation with Bob does give her some redeeming qualities, and he is smart enough to take advantage of that to get her to do the right thing on more than one occasion. He also is the only person to show her genuine kindness, and one act of mercy eventually does convince her to throw in with the good guys. Even then she’s great fun to watch, as it’s clear she’s only in it out of affection for Bob, and everyone just has to learn to work with that, because what else can they do? But in time she becomes an actual hero herself, giving her life for save the entire Net from the greatest threat the show has ever seen. And it’s awesome.

I’ll freely admit, when I wrote Yuuka Kazami in Imperfect Metamorphosis, I pretty much ripped off Hexadecimal’s personality for her, to...interesting results. But as much fun as Yuuka was to write, she doesn’t hold a candle to the original Queen of Chaos, long may she reign.

AND MATRIX!

As far as kid characters go, little Enzo Matrix was...all right. He started off annoying as such characters do, but he did grow and mature and actually make himself useful, so his over-enthusiasm eventually became kind of endearing. And his struggles to prove himself once the heroes lose Bob was pretty fascinating. 

But then the show flips the script. He loses a game and is forced to switch into Game Sprite mode to avoid being nullified, causing him and Andraia to leave wit the game. And when we do catch up with them, it is much later, and little Enzo is all grown up.

And he is awesome.

Matrix is every 90′s anti-hero all rolled into one. He’s big, he’s muscular, he’s gruff, he’s short tempered, he likes shooting things, he has all the angst, and he even has a cool mechanical eye to replace the one he lost in the games. Normally this sort of thing would be annoying, but the show does take a great deal of time to show how his insecurities and PTSD have shaped him into what he became, with him often having to face his own flaws in his quest to get home. Added to the fact that we already know the plucky kid he used to be instead of just getting to see him in flashbacks, and you got yourself some great television.

But while show doesn’t cut Matrix any slack when he screws up (which is awesome), it also doesn’t condemn him for changing like he did, acknowledging that what he went through was terrible and he did what he had to do to survive. Plus, it also doesn’t shy away from giving him a lot of genuine badass moments. And that final fight where he goes one-on-one with Megabyte? Pure awesome.

AND ANDRAIA!

No raging angst machine is complete without someone level-headed to keep them in check, and AndrAIa is exactly that. A Game Sprite that befriended Enzo during a game and managed to trick the game itself into letting her stay with him. I admit, when I was a kid, I had wee bit of a crush on her, and was really interested in what this new character could bring to the story.

Like Enzo, she also has to do a lot of growing up to survive the games, maturing from an overly-literal fish-out-of-water into a cool and confident (and hot, I’ll freely admit it) warrior, who was the Ying to Matrix’s Yang. Their relationship was pretty great, from how they support one another to their bickering but always reconciling. AndrAIa is never one to take Matrix’s shit and will call him on it, but also be there to build him back up when he’s down.

Unfortunately, given how late in the series she appeared, AndrAIa doesn’t have much of a character arc of her own, which is a real shame. She’s a constant supporting character, and it did annoy me that she never really got much to do that wasn’t directly related to what another character was doing. Personally I would liked to see her have more agency and more of her own struggles to deal with instead of always being the one to help others with their own. Still, for what it’s worth, she is incredibly cool. I just wish she got to have more to do.

I come from the net. Through systems, peoples and cities to this place: Mainframe.

[your-pal-nebula]

Me: has been in the Hazbin Hotel fandom for almost three years now, made several OCs, have multiple friends in it both IRL online, and does not a single fictive from it

Me: *finishes ReBoot* damn that was fun

Bob, Dot, Matrix, AndrAIa, and Keys (last guy is a ReBoot OC) five seconds later: HELLO THERE

[gooeykit]

Also I want Bob to ask Matrix and Andraia for relationship advice, I want Bob to, despite both their immaturity, to still have SOME sort of admiration for the two. I want Matrix to feel good because his idol looks up to him too now. I want to see Matrix and Andraia living on their own, visiting other's places, I want to see Matrix and Enzo rooming together at the guardian Academy. Matrix would be frustrated by it until he's told that it was Bob's idea, that Matrix obviously gets stressed away from home and away from Andraia, so Enzo was supposed to be with him to calm his nerves, giving him familiarity. I think matrix would get frustrated by ACTUAL training, having to hold back and being forced to hold ideals not his at the academy [he fucking loves violence, whether its being dished out by him or at him] he's unlearned some of his prior compassion, and while he had learned some of it again with the crew of the Saucy Mare, still doesn't have it all and he HATES when he's got to be compassionate towards someone he isn't, like Ray or Hex. Especially because the one time he showed compassion to MegaByte, it backfired. I think due to this, Enzo would be performing better than he would at the academy. I think that Matrix would drop out of the academy and stay a renegade, but that Enzo would still graduate. matrix would return to mainframe while Enzo stayed behind to finish his training, returning for breaks and stuff and slowly seeing him grow up while Matrix gets to heal without having to be affronted by him. By the time Enzo becomes a full fledged guardian, he'd be his own entirely different person, it may still be hard for Matrix to be around him, but I think it would be so much easier for him to tolerate his presence with less pain.

The season 4 MB arc could be resolved with Matrix taking the survivors of his infultration to some of the systems he and Andraia saved, finding help in other systems. As much as I hate Backup, Matrix still ended up letting him grow on him, so I'd have to admit it would be cool to see Backup not only slightly grown up, but competent, leading his own system with the others. Enzo would remain at Mainframe, he'd be infected, and part of their return would be saving him. MegaByte would HAVE to die, it would be scarring for Bob due to his ideals, but a necessary lesson for him.

one of my favorite things about season 4 tho, besides Matrix and Andraia, is Bob being called a radical and them exploring his ideals, even them being opposed by MegaByte, saying reformation is worse than deletion to him, is really good to me. I wanted to also see Bob and Dot having to reexplore their relationship, Bob still 100% loving Dot, but Dot being so scared and guilty, what that would cause.

I also really wish they got the chance to better explore Matrix and Andraia's trauma. Andraia doesn't actually seem traumatized but I feel like that's the point, she's a game sprite, so game hopping wasn't a big deal to her, its what she was going to grow up doing anyways. She's more skilled and stronger than Enzo when they're young and, despite Matrix's strength, I still think she's more skilled and tactful than he is. All this to say though, she REALLY wants to live domestically it seems, she likes learning about mainframe culture when she's introduced and isn't upset when she's fronted with something she doesn't get yet. She also had domesticity wrenched away from her when she only got a taste of it. of course this isn't something explored in the show, because IMO Andraia doesn't actually get much of a character besides being Matrix's hot gf. She at least has personality tho, I really like her, she just deserved more of her own screen time.

They also didn't really explore Matrix enough though, especially with the reintroduction of Enzo, what that would do to him. He had his childhood taken from him, and now he's getting a second chance but he doesn't even get to experience it. He's affronted with someone who's supposed to be him, but who never lived his pain. Someone who also looks up to him, wants to be like him as well as his own Idol, but the fact that Enzo would want to be like Matrix means ruining his own chance at happiness. Matrix is an incredibly scarred person, he's just barely an adult and had nobody to raise him for like 10 years. He's super immature and will still sometimes act like he would as a child with his newfound aggressive and violent nature. Even if he doesn't realize this about himself, he's seeing someone, as him, potentially not wanting to mature. When Enzo tried out being little Matrix, I feel like this actually showed off some of Matrix's actually character BECAUSE Matrix is genuinely super immature in a lot of the same ways, just nobody could put him in his place the same way everyone put Enzo in his place, and then Enzo DOES mature because of this. he realized he ISNT Matrix. I feel like he saves Matrix from Daemon through Matrix's own childish values.

blehhh i could go on for so long, I probably will later

[captainameriwoman-reviews]

A Review of ReBoot: The Guardian Code

As this got away from me a little, I’ve put the majority of this under a read more. Here’s a TL;DR though:

Essentially, ReBoot: The Guardian Code is your run-of-the-mill kids show. It’s fun and doesn’t take itself super seriously. The big-bad is called the Sourcerer, and Vera is, well, Vera and I love her character. If you don’t care about the original show, I would say watch it if you’re running out of other shows in your watchlist. But ReBoot: The Guardian Code should have been it’s own show, separate from the original cartoon ReBoot. It’s a reboot that really shouldn’t have been, and having it be has only hurt it’s chances at getting more seasons.

All the reviews I’ve seen for Netflix’s new show ReBoot: The Guardian Code say essentially the same thing: it’s a bad show regardless of who you are watching it. As a new viewer, it’s got the same old tropes that every other kid’s show does. As a fan of the original, it’s basically sacrilege.

I can’t help but think differently, at least as someone who’s new to the whole thing. Sure, it’s not the greatest show I’ve ever seen. But considering the market it’s aimed for, ie kids and younger teens, I think it’s done fine as a show. The characters are all okay, the plots are the usual for any serial scheme-of-the-week show, and the animation is pretty darn good to me. The biggest problem The Guardian Code faces is the first part of that title, ReBoot, but I’ll get to that in a sec.

So I feel the need to highlight a couple of pretty big things about who I am as a viewer of this particular show. First and foremost, I’m 18. I’m 18, and 50% of my Netflix watchlist is children’s shows (an odd variety of stuff, as shown below). I like watching silly, light-hearted shows considering the other stuff going on in the world.

The second thing is, if you haven’t guessed already based on the first, I haven’t seen much of the OG ReBoot. I’ve got a solid 30-ish minutes of watch time, between the very first episode and very last. The excessive computer puns put me off, what can I say? And that 30-ish minutes came after I was a few episodes into the new one, so I came into The Guardian Code basically blind.

The first episode was a very blunt introduction to the setting of the show and it’s main cast. I’m starting to get to a point with shows that maybe I should just start skipping the first ep and just get into it before coming back once I’m invested in it. But that’s at least not a point off for The Guardian Code, seeing as it’s just keeping up that delightful trend of “adults can’t write teenage dialogue worth a damn.” I honestly had to pause the show at Lame-O Meter because no one talks like that.

Anyway…

The rest of the season is, like I said earlier, okay. It’s got the basic team-building episodes, the learning to be a leader ep, the “if you just talked to each other this wouldn’t have been a problem” ep, etc. So it’s nothing special exactly. I’ll admit, It took me seven episodes to remember Austin’s real name. Out of a ten episode season, that’s a bit rough.

But there’s two sides to every coin and all that. I absolutely loathe Trey’s dad -- as someone who’s only just graduated high school myself and also has a healthy appetite for video games, his behavior really irks me for reasons I won’t get into. However, I would die for Vera. AI learning how to be human is one of my favorite tropes, and Vera is an amazing example of that. The Alyx episode is great. The hurricane episode that follows directly after is not so great (yes, hi, hello @Netflix writers: that’s not how the weather or cloud seeding works). I find Judy’s character a little odd in that she’s opposed to new technology despite the fact that her husband was a tech and coding genius. I enjoy Tamra because of her vlogging and I liked learning why she first got into it. I like how Megabyte acts. I like the slowly unfolding plot of it all. The big thing is to save cyberspace, but there’s the whole thing with Austin’s dad and the Guardian Program and I’m a sucker for that sort of thing. The plot is fairly fun and the characters have a lot of potential.

Basically, I think The Guardian Code is pretty decent show. Yeah, it’s like a weird combination of Power Rangers and Code Lyoko, but I like both of those so I guess I don’t much mind that. It’s the kind of show you can dig through in a day and, yeah, I want a second season because this one felt very set-up heavy. Yet ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a different matter.

ReBoot then and ReBoot now are two very different things. The OG show was about a virtual group of people like a Guardian named Bob, a diner owner and over-all leader Dot, her little brother Enzo, and a bunch more other characters fighting baddies like Megabyte and Hexadecimal, while also dealing with the ever-present threat of “nullification” (basically death but worse from what my 30 minutes have gathered) via a game. Heavy stuff for a kids show, but hey it was the 90s and that’s just how it was. The new show is four real kids that get ported into cyberspace to fight off Dark Code.

That is a very big difference in plot lines, to say the least. It also doesn’t help that ReBoot ended in a massive cliffhanger that’s just not addressed in the new show. It’s basically like someone kicked your puppy, quickly pointed somewhere else and went “look over there!” and then proceeded to switch it out with a kitten while hoping you wouldn’t notice. So while I’m not exactly invested in the original, I can absolutely see why old fans of it are upset with what The Guardian Code turned out to be.

There is virtually no other mention of the original cast, other than episode 10 which feels out of place with the rest of the season. Megabyte mentions Bob once and never again. Bob and Co. seem totally fine in episode 10 despite the absolute disaster in which we last saw them. At least, the three that are there do. There’s no mention of Matrix, AndrAIa, Phong, or anyone else for that matter. Megabyte, and now Hexadecimal, are the only real links to the past and with Megabyte’s redesign even that’s minimal. Knowing what ReBoot was like, and knowing how it ends, it genuinely seems to me that the creators of the new show saw Megabyte and just wanted to have him in their show.

Maybe that’ll change if Netflix gives The Guardian Code a second season, but as it stands now, it’s a bit of a nightmare. The Guardian Code is a fine show. ReBoot: The Guardian Code isn’t. My big thing is just that The Guardian Code shouldn’t have been a reboot. Standing alone, it would have been like any other kids show -- campy, poorly written at times, a few stellar characters here and there, and a fun gimmick. But with the ReBoot label, Netflix was attempting to pull in an older fanbase in an effort to make it succeed. A built in fanbase is perfect for any content producer, and a big name like Netflix is no different. With all the changes, though, all they’ve done is shoot themselves in the foot. Alienating the audience you’re depending on isn’t a fantastic idea, but it’s what Netflix has done.

I would say watch it, if the trailer seems like something you’d enjoy. In the end, it’s just another kids show even if it does have an old brand name tacked onto it. And I, for one, am a fan of lots of “just okay” kids shows.

[incredits]

I have one large Reboot pin, and quite a few of the action figures! God, I love that show so much. What do the other pins look like, if you don't mind me asking? ALSO are you Canadian, because I don't know of anyone who *isn't* Canadian who knows the show.

I'm American! When I was a kid Reboot used to be apart of saturday morning cartoons, and then after school cartoons. It blew mine and my families mind cause it was a cartoon! about computers! Loved it then love it now pretty sure my mom's still got some unopened toys somewhere

Here's a link to the shops where I got the other pins

[ericspeaksout-blog]

No One Knows For Sure, but I Intend to Find Out

Ok, here we go. My thoughts on ReBoot: The Guardian Code. I just binged this and I have very mixed feelings about it. For all the hate it was getting initially, I went into it with a completely open mind and I have to say... I really loved watching it. Not to say there aren't flaws, but as entertainment it works for me. I feel like the story holds my interest, the actors seem like they're trying and having a good time while doing it, and most of all it's fun. Isn’t that the point? Vera is my favorite. She’s delightful, and the actress plays unemotional and does the “AI” voice really well. It seems like it would be hard to make a character like that engaging, so props to her. Also, a lot of the things that people are criticizing as flaws were actually present in the first series, so I’m not going to take points off for the new show for being silly, wacky, or a bit disjointed at times. Tonally it feels very consistent, even in its disjointedness. I know nostalgia is a powerful thing, but it can also cloud judgement. Remember in the original series when Dot sang a seductive song to Enzo on his birthday and then Megabyte got jealous he wasn’t invited to the party so he crashed it and challenged bob to a guitar battle? Yeah… But the bizarre elements of ReBoot are something I find charming, and I actually wish this show would lean into it a bit more.

The biggest drawback for me is what you'd expect: the handling of the ties to the original series. I was anticipating the appearance of those original characters so much, and it was a total letdown. It seems like they completely undermined all of the character development that happened in the last several seasons and just copy/pasted some catch phrases. Where are Matrix? AndrAIa? How did they survive MB’s cliffhanger assault? Didn’t Hex sacrifice herself? I’m at least 10000% sure the cameos were going to be sparse like Frisket in episode 2, but Hefferon saw the backlash from the trailer and crammed in the original characters in the last episode without even researching continuity. But it was nice to hear the original cast (I think it was them) voice acting again. Also, as many have mentioned, the basement nerd was clearly a jab at the OG fans which is infuriating. Why would you double down and take shots at the people who have been the lifeblood of the keeping the memory of the franchise alive? And why did they specifically make it so the user guardians can’t reboot? That’s literally the name of the show...

That being said, I see some people actively campaigning to give this show low ratings, or have it cancelled, and I don't necessarily think that's fair. It's not the fault of the actors or the entire production staff that the showrunner didn't take the original fans' interests into consideration earlier in production, and I hate to see this show that (imo) has potential suffer for it. Parker did imply they can go check back in whenever they want, so I’d love to see them incorporate more of that plot into future episodes if it gets that far. I’d also like to see more of Tamra’s and Parker’s personal lives developed. I think this show would be well served with a longer run time, especially since it’s now navigating the real world as well as the online world. Overall, I really liked this show. I hope it gets renewed for more seasons and has time to find its voice the way the original did over the course of 4 seasons. Alphanumeric!

[ensoua]

reagrdless i didnt really like matrix because he was a pile of dicks (and andraia is a saint for having to put up with him) but ending of season 3 made him nicer. then that went to hell and now hes a pile of dicks again

[marcomardon]

What are your all time favourite ships?

okay so i did the 5 different fandoms ships thing here and made it into a guessing game (and then reblogged each nondctv ship after (abcde))

but! i’m actually currently throwing together a ships page! it is very much under construction and, past the first 3, in no particular order. mouse over to see the name and whatever my chosen quote is. quotes are still being added slowly as i work on them so uh..... eventually it’ll look good. and eventually it’ll be in order. that list is mostly “ships i’ll reblog for” and less “ships i feel for”

but okay short answer: 

dick+babs. my number one. “not on your life, boy wonder”

my first true shipping fandom was sora and matt from digimon -- sor+ato. i ran a deviantART collection for them back in the day. since tri started i’ve shifted a bit to tai+sora+matt but it’s like, it’s there it’s always there.

next is probably wonder+bat? i feel the same about them as i do about dick+babs like it’s always there even if i’m currently crying over wonder+trev

does anyone remember reboot? the show about the computer sprites who had to fight the user in video games or else mass destruction and death? enzo and andraia are my high key ship from there, especially enzo as matrix hot damn. i cried for the 23.5 hours between when andraia was brainwashed and when she was saved and literally couldn’t focus on 5th grade at all that day. andr+atrix? what’s that ship name idk. it’s that now.

riza and roy from fma and fmab holy shit i don’t even know where to start for them just roy+ai also owns me. “the colonel always calls me riza when we’re alone” get more canon please i dare you to try.

....... god i have so many ships just check the page 

really i’m interpreting “all time favourite” as ships i’ve held for a long time -- my recent-er dctv ones should be pretty obvious by now but 1 from each show, in order of show’s start date:

laur+iver (i know, i know. she deserves better but also? angst. i love angst)

baby bat+cat  

west+allen 

constantine+bisexuality

i don’t think i have a ship for izombie i just watch and chill

kar+olsen

cold+wave with a side of rc (see also “i love angst”)

decker+star

unholytrinity

and nothing for powerless either