#r.i.p. my ability to write

[savemeafruitjuice]

TMNT 2012 Headcannons Because I Can't Function Well Enough to Make a Fic

yeah I'm sorry for not being able to write super well rn,,, but I'll make headcannons to make up for it!

TMNT 2012 HCS! (Slight spoilers! Don't read if you haven't finished season 4!)

TW!: Some Swearing! (my bad)

why does he look like that- /j

Leo

Lee:

I feel like he's decently ticklish but hides it most of the time because of his "I want to look super professional and ninja-y" persona, but there are times when he can't help it.

Worst spot is probably his sides (I've seen this around and it just suits him)

Second worst is likely tied between his feet and underarms

After the battle with Shredder and his vocal cords were trashed, his laugh is much more raspy and doesn't get very loud. Shrieky giggles at most.

Hasn't effected his sensitivity though.

Will squirm like his life depends on it, but generally is sapped of his strength after a few seconds.

Splinter would tickle them as tots, but as they got older it became less and less common.

However, when Leo became more edgy and stoic, his dad came around to make sure he kept smiling.

Gets tickled the most by Splinter and Raph

If asked, won't downright admit to being ticklish, but definitely won't deny it if it's with someone he's comfortable with.

Karai had to do some serious coaxing to get him to let her, but after that she continuously pokes at him to catch him off guard, sometimes even full on tickling him until he can't remember his own name.

All ideas for attack and protection go out the window as soon as he's tickled

Just flops around a bunch

Can't take multiple lers at a time unless it's light tickling- he almost instantly crumbles

Gets really flustered hearing "the t-word"

He'll blush and stutter, looking all taken-aback

Will literally always get his ler back

Unless it's Splinter, he only tried that once as a tot- never again.

Ler

Big brother privileges galore

If Leo's in a good mood, he'll take any and every opportunity he can to wreck his siblings

Tickles all of his brothers equally, but it's really just a matter of who needs it the most, as well as who happens to fall into his sight.

Likes using cheer-up tickles- and needs to. (These poor children are so traumatized)

Tickles vary between scribbling and poking, to squeezing and wiggling his fingers.

Isn't suuuper ruthless, but his brothers still fear him.

Especially if they've made him mad.

If so, it's game over.

Is also very teasy.

Will avoid saying the word because it flusters him as well, but still makes sure to embarrass his little siblings to no end.

I feel like he'd laugh along with his lee, making notes on the silly faces and noises they make.

The most common reason of being forced to take his wrath is refusing to move from in front of the tv while he watches Space Heroes.

Likely a ler-leaning switch

Donnie

Lee:

Donatello looks like he's super ticklish.

And absolutely is.

Worst spots are underarms, thighs, and general stomach-area, but he's definitely ticklish everywhere

Screeches and flails when tickled no matter how light

Laugh is pretty loud, but his giggles are very light and airy.

Will beg the entire time, but doesn't actually mind being tickled all that much.

There was a time when April found out he was ticklish (she walked in on Mikey wrecking his shit) and joined in.

Let's just say his face had never been as red as it was then.

Is tickled the most for not sleeping for literal days straight, or for freaking out, but there are times when his brothers (+ April and sometimes Casey) just tickle him to mess with him.

If multiple people are tickling him, he just completely loses himself.

Don isn't able to formulate words, his face goes beet red, and will go limp after a while.

If April is tickling him, he is so terrified of accidentally hurting her that he just stops moving- complete bodily shut down.

He still laughs and pleads with her, but refuses to move an inch, barely even pulling him arms down to protect himself. He gets teased about it so much too.

That completely flips if it's his brothers though, slapping and punching and kicking so much that it's the main priority to pin him down, rather than actually tickle him.

Actually cries very easily when being tickled

Gave his fam a big scare the first time it happened

Cannot take teasing.

He will hide in his shell until he either feels safe again or is forced out.

Such forcing is done by giving him raspberries on his shell. (The method was discovered by Mikey, and was passed down to everyone they know)

Ler

I don't see him as much of a ler, but let's give it a shot anyways.

Isn't very teasy per se, but there are lots of little things he does that fluster his lee regardless.

Things like creeping his hands close to a tickle spot before actually getting it, pausing every once in a while, things like that.

Doesn't really say much, and kinda just stares at whoever he's tickling. Especially April.

After everyone started noticing this, he switched to giving compliments sometimes so it was less awkward.

Tickles Mikey and April the most, but it's still pretty rare.

Has pretty light tickles

Spidering, soft scratching, and tracing are his go to.

Has only tickled April a couple of times, but it didn't go on for very long because 1) He got too shy, 2) He didn't want to hurt her, and 3) She turns the tables every time.

In all the times he's tickled people, there was only a time or two that they didn't get him back.

Almost completely a lee.

Raph

Lee:

I'm not sure where his worst spot would be, but for sure has a really ticklish torso and neck. Also Underarms.

I love that he's canonically ticklish- it's just so wonderful.

Gets tickled the most by Mikey (much to his embarrassment), but Leo is a close second, followed by Mona.

His laugh is surprisingly high-pitched, making a prime topic for lighthearted bullying.

Attempts to hide his reactions, and does so fairly well, although there are certain things that absolutely make him crumble.

Fights and fights and fights until he's too tired to move.

Absolutely will not hesitate to knock a tooth loose or beat anyone who tries to tickle him, but there are two instances where he will restrain himself.

One of these instances is when it comes to Mona Lisa.

If she is tickling him, he'll wiggle around, but composes himself enough to not accidentally hurt her.

Both of them know there's no way he'd actually do any substantial damage, but better safe than sorry.

The other instance is if he really pisses Leo off.

This has only happened a couple of times, but it is extremely scary.

Raph pretty much accepts his fate.

There's still a struggle, but there is a significant decrease in the amount of effort he puts in to stop his older brother from tickling him.

Still stubborn af though.

Mikey was the one who found out he was ticklish and has been using it against him ever since, almost always resulting in Raph absolutely getting him.

Ler:

Despite the ler energy I've seen him with, I feel like he doesn't tickle people a whole lot.

Doesn't mean he isn't the scariest ler in the Hamato household.

When the tickle monster that is Raph is unleashed, all of his brothers cower.

Has a much rougher approach to tickling, leaving his lee a breathless mess on the floor

He's also extremely teasy, though it's more so sarcastic comments the entire time.

Running from this turtle is not an option. He can and will catch you every single time.

Donnie has learned this the hard way, very many times.

There's a pretty even balance as to who Raph tickles the most, but the most common to see tickly-interactions with is Casey.

Those two have tickle fights all the time.

Leo has rushed into the lair multiple times because of Casey's unholy screeching.

Tickles people the most for getting on his nerves or to get them to be quiet. (Mikey)

Has tried and failed to tickle Mona, and is still unsure to this day if she isn't ticklish, or just hides her reactions well.

Switch-leaning ler

stopp what is this gif 😳

Mikey

Lee:

Very ticklish boy.

Worst spots are neck, knees, and ribs

His laugh is loud enough to make his ler retract and cover their ears for a moment before continuing.

I think he absolutely loves using tickling as a way to mess with his bros or just have fun.

Is mainly tickled for being obnoxious, but April and Casey will get him more casually, exchanging pokes and squeezes every now and then.

That said, his main lers are April and Casey, followed by Raph.

Squirms around a bit, and tries to hide in his shell half of the time.

Isn't as stubborn as his brothers, but he has his moments.

Is more sensitive to physical teasing, such as wiggling fingers, etc.

Needs some kind of affection after being tickled, such as a hug, head-pats, even just some water will do.

If caught off-gaurd, he may accidentally punch his ler in the face. (It has happened on multiple occasions)

Is generally open to being tickled, but will get a little flustered if asked about it directly.

Ler:

Pesters his brothers All. The. Time.

Loves to sneak up behind them when they're not paying attention and poke them or wiggle his fingers into their side.

Is the only one of the four to incorporate tickling into every day life.

Seriously, he'll sneak it into training to gain the upper hand, (it never works for long but A for effort) cheer-up tickles after a tough mission, even declares tickle fights sometimes!

A very quick tickler, rapidly changing spots and moving his fingers at terrifying speeds.

Gets extremely full of himself when he takes someone down, teasing and laughing galore, though this is usually his downfall.

Tickles Raph and Donnie the most often, Raph just to annoy him, and Donnie to initiate a tickle fight, or to make him relax.

Casey is slightly rarer to see, but that's because he mostly hangs around Raph and Donnie.

Loves playing chase before getting his lee.

Also will tag-team with April to get his nerd brother, secretly being a wingman to up his ego in April's eyes.

Makes goofy noises when tickling people to make them laugh more, and it works a lot of the time.

A full switch

Geez, I apologize for not responding very much, my mental health is seriously kicking my butt, but I'm still holding things together so far! Next on my to-do list is lee 2012 Raph, so I'll see what story I can put together for you all. I hope you all are doing well and have a wonderful day/night!

[arjay-bee-04]

I got to check out From the World of John Wick: Ballerina yesterday!

As a big fan of this franchise, my expectations were fairly moderate going into this film. The Continental didn’t really do it for me (the first real fumble of the franchise thus far), so going into Ballerina, I was a bit skeptical. Thankfully, Len Wiseman’s spin-off managed to exceed my expectations! Even if its story is quite threadbare and isn’t anything to write home about - boiling down to your average revenge plot with a mustache-twirling villain - but you come to these movies for the action, and on that front, it delivers big-time.

The action in Ballerina kicks unreal amounts of ass. Eve Macarro’s resourcefulness, ability to improvise on the fly, and brawler-style fisticuffs go a long way in differentiating her fighting style from the Baba Yaga. Each sequence is better than the last, culminating in pure action junkie joy involving flamethrowers. Ballerina is gorier than I expected too, as Eve gets up close and personal with her combatants as she uses everything from gun-fu to knives to even grenades in a standout sequence in the middle of the film.

Ana de Armas crushes it in her first real heavy-duty action role since her brief appearance in No Time to Die. She’s front-and-center as Eve, and Armas brings both the dedication to practical in-camera stuntwork, fight choreography, and tangible emotion into said action. She’s already one of my favorite characters in this franchise, and there’s plenty of potential in her story going forward. There are other returning characters - Winston, Charon (R.I.P. Lance Reddick), the Director, and John Wick himself - but they never take away from Eve’s revenge quest.

B+

[canary8205]

You Have Nothing To Worry About

Iceman x plus size! fem! reader

Warnings⚠️: body insecure, comparing readers body to some other women at the party, what the reader to believe that Iceman's "Body type" is, heavy swearing, mention of sex

You should never compare your body too anyone's. You are perfect the way you are. Just remember that before you start this story.

A/N: F/F= favorite Fragrance, I/C/F= Ice cream flavor, all rights to all creators, R.I.P Val Kilmer

(What your outfit consists of)

Y/N P.O.V:

I am in my bed watching my favorite TV show, when I look at the clock on my bedside table when I see that it's 6:45. "Shit!" I yell.

Tom (Iceman) would be home any minute to change and we walk right out the door.

I run into my closet and see the dress that I had already gotten out, put it on my bed and turn on the portable steamer. While I wait for it to heat up a go to the bathroom to take out my sock curls, shake them out a little bit and run over to my vanity by the back window in the bedroom. I did not have time to do a complex makeup look, but I still have time to do something that I and Ice will love.

Just as soon I get done with my makeup, the steamer it ready. I run the steamer over the dress really fast. After I finished streaming it, I run to the closet to get my shoes and bra. Just as I get my bra on, I hear the front door open and then close.

"Y/N, I am home, are you almost dressed? I need to change really quick so we can get there before maverick."

"Almost done sir. Yes sir." I joking tell him. I put my dress and shoes on. I then run over to my small jewelry box and grabbed the neck Ice got me for my birthday. I take a last quick look at myself my the mirror.

I walk down the stairs and see Ice perk his head up, then an ear to ear smile appeared on his beautiful face.

"You look gorgeous, baby girl." Ice says to me as I reach the bottom of the stairs.

Ice grabbed my hand and we walked to the car. He starts the car and we are off to the bar. Thankfully the bar where the party is being held about 30 minutes away from our house.

(A/N: The time of how long the drive from their house to the bar is going to become important later on in the story.)

Timeskip brought to you in part by my bad ability to write :

When we got to the bar, we parked and walked in. There were many other Top Gun pilots that I have heard Ice talk about. I saw Goose, which I have remember Ice tell me that if Goose is there, then Maverick is not far behind.

As if Maverick was reading my mind, he walked in the door and went straight to Goose. I hear them talking a little bit before Maverick starts to walk over to us.

I feel Ice wrap his arm around my waist. I can tell he is starting to get both protective and jealous.

Maverick stops right in-front of us. "Iceman" Maverick say with his famous smile on his face. Ice retuned with a "Maverick." The tension between these two could be cut with a knife at this point and they just started talking. To cut the tension I introduce myself to Maverick.

I reach my hand out to shake Maverick's hand. "Hello Mr.Maverick, I am Y/N L/N, it is very nice to meet you. Tom talks a lot about."

Maverick lets go of my hand and looks at me and says "all good things I hope." I just chuckle at his response. I look at Ice and I can see behind that smile, his is not in the best of moods. To make sure that the two of them don't try to hurt each each other, I ask Ice "Hey Ice, can you get me a Long Island Iced Tea please."

Ice shakes his head yes and walks over to the bar. I told Maverick that I need to go find one of my friends that was supposed to be come. We said our goodbye's and I just start to walk around.

I turned around to go back to where Ice and I where before that way, I don't confuse Ice. When I get closer to where we were before, I see Ice standing next to the bar with a drink in hands flirt talking with another women.

The women was much thinner, taller and nicer looking then me. No wonder that Ice is talking to her.

I watch Ice continue to talk to her for another 5 minutes before I finally have had enough. I start to walk over there when all the sudden I see her kiss him. That is when something in me just snapped. I put though people and then walk up to them and still see them kissing, as soon as Ice sees me, he pulled away and turned to me and looked like he was about to say something.

"Don't you fucking say a god dammed fucking word to me you asshole. I though you loved me, but I guess that is not true. Give me the fucking key and I am going to my house and get your shit and put it out on the front porch and I don't want to see you sad ass anywhere near me or my house. For all I care, go home with this women and fuck her. I hope you have a good rest of your fucking night, because I know I won't."

And with that I got my car keys out his pocket and marched my out to the car. I get in and start it, put it in reverse when I see Ice coming out of the bar and straight for the car. I don't, I put the car in drive and speed off.

I look in the rearview mirror to see what looks like Ice start to run after the car. I press on the gas a little bit harder. Thank god it was late because I am not stopping. I start crying my heart out on the way home.

It takes me around 15 minutes to get home. As soon as I park in the driveway, I turn off the car and run inside. I unlock the front door and close it as fast as I can. I run upstairs to what was our room to get all of Ice's clothes and put them into a trash bag.

Time skip to around an two and a half later:

I finished putting Ice's things into a trash bag about an hour ago. I has changed since then into something comfortable and was eating my favorite I/C/F

 I am crying softly when I hear the front door open then close really fast. As soon as the door closes I hear someone running around downstairs. I jump out to fight off who ever just came into the house.

I hear where ever downstairs is down running upstairs and go to one of the Conors of the bedroom and grab the bat that Ice told me to keep in there just in case someone would ever brake into the house.

Just as I grab the and get close to the door, I see the handle turn as I bring the bat up, I see Ice standing in the doorway. I put the bat down and slightly yell,

"What the fuck are you doing here Tom? I thought you were going home with the women." He just looked at me like I said I was going to kill him.

"Y/N, what do you mean? You are the only women I want." Now it was my turn to look dumbfounded.

"You kissed her Tom, why are you even here, grab your shit and leave. I told you I didn't want to see your fucking face ever again. Go be with that other girl, she is thinner than me, taller with me, and much prettier than me, she is perfect for you, so just go with her and fuck her till you fall over. Now get out of my house!"

He looked at me and said, "First things first, she forced that kiss on me, when you walked over I was finally able to get her off of me, second I don't want to fuck her, the only person I want my cock inside of is you. And third, you are the most beautiful person on the planet, you are the only person I will ever want."

With the last word out of his mouth, all I could do is start to cry my eyes again. We both end up on the edge of our bed.

Ice just hugged me as tight as he can. I look up at him and say, "I am so sorry. I should have never jumped to conclusions, I should have asked you what was happening."

Ice looked down at me and just said, "I should have never left you, but all that matters is I am here with you now."

With that I let go of him and started to lay down, he followed right behind me. That night was the night that I knew that Ice was the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with.

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

Thank you for reading this fanfic, and I will see you in the next one :)

[thehannibalextendeduniverse]

Polar (2019)

Okay, I have to preface this by saying this film might actually be one of my top three ever? It's now an absolute favourite of mine (and not just because of Mads...although it doesn't hurt he plays the protag). I definitely plan to rewatch this again on some late night by myself, I really did enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone (the critics' reviews are objectively wrong, I have come to the conclusion that movie critics don't know shit about what they're writing on).

Tiny bit of spoilers ahead, but nothing super major to the plot.

Started this for Mads and, well, I'm not gonna lie, also stayed for Mads.

But also because this film was just genuinely good — it had me hooked from the start and kept my attention, which is a pretty hard feat for anything to accomplish (blame my ADHD brain).

Even though I'm not normally one for sex/intimacy scenes (aroace spectrum pals, where you at? (although I will take the Mads content because Special Interest) also I generally dislike romance in action, personal opinion that if it doesn't contribute to the plot it's just pandering and should not be there but in Polar the seduction and sex that happens isn't just to appeal to some romance audience but seems to for the most part serve an actual purpose, like distracting the mark) or super cheesy violent action flicks (which, wow, a lot of gore but eh — although it didn't bother me, I think Hannibal kinda fucked up my measure for that and my only comment on the killing is that it just doesn't compare to the artistry of Hannibal, lol — although really the injections bothered me more, god I hate needles).

The pacing and formatting wasn't overly drawn out or saturating your screen with the same scene for far too long. I quite enjoyed the quick, snappy, nature of cuts in Polar. Definitely a style of directing that worked for me personally and which I liked, although I can understand if not everyone likes that.

Speaking of, the cinematography was just, ughhhh. So nice. Just the shots in general, the way it's filmed, but also the contrast between A-team (bright, youthful, energised) and Duncan (subdued, darker, wiser) conveyed the tonal message so well.

The soundtrack too — you could really tell when and what you were seeing and the mood for each scene was perfectly set.

I have to make a comment on the naked-man-murder-sprees because damn, love me some of those. Gotta say Duncan has quickly risen to one of my favourite Mads characters (although I have that opinion about basically every Mads character).

And Mads, wow. He's always incredible but damn, loved him in this. He's just so good at it. He brought Duncan to life — and that, for an actor, is incredible. Being able to portray a character so well they become a separate entity, what they are meant to be to the best of all abilities. Anyway he was perfect, as always, and I'm so glad I picked up this film whilst working my way through his filmography.

I do have to say this film in particular has sucked me into the HEU. I mean, just look at Duncan as a man and a character. I understand the cross-universe ships so much now. Like I could just see Will Graham adopting Rusty (R.I.P) and living cabin-hermit-woodsman life at the lake with Duncan. Literally perfect. So I will be needing more Duncan content, absolutely, probably in the form of 100k+ fics or something.

And finally, the story. It was alright, a bit cheesy but, well, it's an action film. Not stand-out innovative genius or anything but it was absolutely fine. Definitely a bit more interesting than your regular action movie because Duncan is in no way a good person and he's aware of that. A morally grey character definitely allows for more freedom in exploring them/their motivations than your traditional goody-two-shoes hero or Bond. I think the way it is conveyed to the audience definitely helped because the movie just gave it that much more depth with all the creative flashback shots and themes.

All-in-all, I did really enjoy this movie. It may even be one of the rare few gems I come back to watch again. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did but I'm really glad I did. I think it was a great movie and I would definitely recommend it.

Additional note just to mention the characters' superhuman abilities to survive what should definitely have killed them way sooner. But artistic license and all, it makes for an entertaining film.

The eyepatch deserves its own mention. <3 (and that black turtleneck).

Do go watch this it's incredible. Even if it's just for Mads.

[skarletterambles]

Good idea: Re(-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re)-watching Twister before going to see Twisters tomorrow.

Bad idea: Watching when you're PMSing so you get tears in your eyes at Jo's dad getting sucked out of the storm cellar, and then feel bad when you see the late Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Whoopsie.

Twister is in a three-way tie with The Mummy and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie as my favorite film of all time. I'm sure the new version won't measure up to the original but it looks like a hell of a fun ride and I'm pumped to see it. It's also only the second movie I've seen in a theater since Rise of Skywalker, a.k.a. pre-Covid. (The other was Inside Out 2, which wasn't that big a deal to me but a friend really wanted to see it when she was in town.)

Random thoughts and favorite quotes I typed up while watching...

"Not unless you want to sketch the tornadoes."

"You left her with Dusty? What's the matter with you?"

OMG that late '90s cellphone Melissa has...vintage! LOL! (The laptops and other tech are also fun to see, even if they make me feel old. It was cutting edge then!)

THE SUCK ZONE!!!!!

Dusty's obviously the most fun, but all these storm chasers have so much personality, just from their faces, their road soundtracks, and the few quirks we learn about them. I always wanted to read (or write?) a book that went into their backstories.

The first time I saw this I thought Dorothy was Bill and Jo's daughter, the way they talked about her. "She's here?!" / "Let me take a look at her!"

"I find this kinda interesting. I'm gonna tag along!" Famous last words, Melissa...

"He's in it for the money, not the science." insert bothisgood.gif meme here.

Both Jonas and Melissa have southern accents. Not sure if there's any deeper meaning there. He is a straight-up villain, and she is set up as an antagonist but you just can't hate her because she's actually sweet despite being so far out of her element, and ultimately she bows out of the love triangle with dignity and grace.

GREENAGE!!!!!

"She's a therapist." [long pause] "Yours?"

"Can I drive?" "No." "Then would you?"

High five to the writer(s) who came up with this banter.

"I was just wondering if we were gonna chase this tornado or wait for the next one."

The awed heavenly chorus that takes over the soundtrack when the tornado comes into view is so cheesy but I love it so much. The lion growls it makes are absurd but I can't hate them.

"Where's my truck?" *truck comes out of nowhere to crash in the middle of the road* The comedic timing is so good in this.

Dusty and Melissa should get together. He's infatuated by her ability to almost get crushed by a flying truck, and she needs a rebound after Bill. *insert inappropriate jokes about the Suck Zone*

"Why don't you find your own twister, buddy?" LOL

Every time I see a cow in this movie I grin. We all know why.

The storm chasers I've followed online almost never pre-rate tornados. You don't say it's a F2 or F3 while it's on the ground--especially when it's just churning up fields and not causing any damage that could be used to determine a rating.

OMG the music is so damn epic throughout this sequence.

"I GOTTA GO, JULIA! WE GOT COWS!" "ANOTHER COW!" "ACTUALLY I THINK IT WAS THE SAME ONE!"

"When you used to tell me you chased tornados, deep down I always just thought it was a metaphor!"

Ah, the windchimes. You'd never think such a gentle, whimsical sound could be so ominous...

Aunt Meg always reminded me of one of my aunts, physically at least. R.I.P. Aunt P.

WHAT A MINUTE! What kind of personal Mandela effect B.S. is this? I've always remembered it that Jo left her necklace on in the shower, and thought it was SO cool for some inexplicable reason. But she didn't! My entire life is a lie.

"A[n F]4 will relocate your house pretty efficiently."

FINGER OF GOD!!!

Yes, do a nice closeup of the water tower with "WAKITA" on it so the audience remembers the name when it comes up later...

Of course Bill can sense when and where the tornadoes are. He can just follow the dramatic music cues!

"It's like Bob's Road..." I wonder what Rabbit, a.k.a. Map Guy, would think about modern GPS. At least Google Maps doesn't have a crease through Wichita.

See? Melissa is riding in Dusty's car now. OTP! (I've seen crack ships founded on far less.)

That is pretty wimpy hail. Reed Timmer would be unimpressed. It's not a storm chase until you break a windshield or two.

"DEBRIS! WE HAVE DEBRIS!"

Power flashes are a thing. A massive fireball lighting up the funnel, not so much (except for that one time...) Growling like a lion, also not a thing. I love it all anyway, because of and despite the ridiculousness.

"You've never seen it miss this house, and miss that house, and come after you." I think about that line so often when viewing tornado damage. They can be so capricious and seemingly random.

Aww, now Dusty is holding the umbrella over Melissa as she's heartbroken over Bill. I started shipping this as a joke, damn it...

And we get to the drive-in. One iconic scene after the other. I know some screenings were held in drive-ins for the lulz. I wish I could have attended one.

The TV signal dying is one more mundane thing that becomes unspeakably ominous in this movie.

"It's headed right for us!" "It's already here." Cheesier than a Packers game, but still gives me chills.

I always thought it was nice how Jo took the time to warn the girls in the concessions stand.

You know it's a bad situation when the people who cheerfully seek out twisters are cowering in terror.

Cue the creepy windchimes.

"It looks to hit Wakita head-on." That being the first serious line of dialogue Dusty has uttered in the entire movie gives it so much more impact.

The sudden tone change meant I really wasn't sure if Meg was going to survive the first time I saw this. The jokes and goofiness evaporated at the drive-in and by the time they get to Wakita it really does feel like anything can happen.

"How nice you all came over." Meg is a cinnamon roll, too pure for this world.

"I'm going to drive myself." "Honey, your car's in a tree around the corner."

Meg's okay, the dog survived, and the jokes are back!

The weather service doesn't "predict an F5" as blatantly as they do in the movie, but I can forgive them for dramatic license.

Back to the epic traveling music! (And Pepsi product placement.)

I don't think I ever noticed that Meg's dog came with them! Aww.

"Unless you think somebody will hit it." ("It" being Dorothy in the middle of the road in the path of a massive F5.) "Nobody'll be there." Again, it's cheesy, but I don't care. I still get chills.

Somebody was like, "We haven't had enough fiery explosions in the this movie. Fix that."

I love how we've almost forgotten about Jonas by the time the drive-in and Wakita scenes are over, and then suddenly he's back in all his smarmy glory...just in time to die in spectacular fashion.

"DEBRIS! DUSTY, WE HAVE DEBRIS!" *entire tractors start raining from the sky* " 'Debris' ?!?!"

The random teddy bear squeaking as it hits the windshield is way funnier than it probably should be.

Cue that epic music again. Love it. Duh duhduh DUHDUH DUH DUH!

Suddenly the wind chime sound becomes a good thing!

Seeing the tornado rip up corn stalks reminds me of how the recent Greenfield, Iowa, tornado actually planted corn in the town that has since sprouted all over the place.

Wicked-looking scythes and blades clanking all over the barn, and Jo says, "OMG who are these people?" That's funny enough in the moment but later you see the perfectly normal, wholesome looking family who lives there and you wonder if they're secretly serial killers...

We just saw this tornado pulverize a huge barn, but this tiny shed will protect us! (I know, I know, it's the plumbing, but it's still funny before you learn that.)

The lack of impalement and clothes getting ripped off in the wind does stretch willing suspension of disbelief, but...eh, so what? It's cool.

The woman in the checkered pink shirt who comes out of the storm shelter with the kids looks a LOT like one of my friends from grade school. Or how I'd imagine she would look as an adult. I last saw her at 5th grade graduation.

"Mommy, why are there people tied to the pipes where the shed used to be and why are they making out?" "Shut up, Timmy." "And why aren't they impaled by a bunch of corn stalks and wood planks?" "I said shut up, Timmy." "And who are all those other weirdos?" "If you don't shut up I won't let you into the storm shelter the next time a tornado happens. Now go play with a rusty scythe like a good little boy."

This has been another episode of "Katie Rewatches a Favorite Movie and Types Random Stream of Consciousness Crap Onto her Blog."

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 309: Gotta Go My Own Way

Previously on BnHA: Muscular was all “well if it isn’t the protagonist on his solo journey of self-discovery, for some reason I’m unironically glad I get to fight you!” Deku was all “hey Muscular before I finish kicking your ass would you please take a moment to answer these two survey questions? Question one, do you regret being a total piece of shit? And question two, if you could do anything at all in the world other than being a total piece of shit, would you?” Muscular was all, “pfft, no and no.” Deku was all, “thanks buddy, your feedback helps make me a better hero, here’s a coupon for fifteen percent off your next ass-whooping.” Then he whooped his ass.

Today on BnHA: Deku is all “what up All Might can you believe you’ve been here this entire time?” All Might is all “I sure can since that’s literally my catch phrase, anyway how are your magic movie 1 gauntlets holding up?” Deku is all “they’re holding up fine, how are Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist doing?” Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist are all “we, your fellow co-conspirators, are also doing fine, thanks for asking!” Flashback!Deku is all “anyway so I secretly have All Might’s quirk and the most dangerous people in the world are after me, so sorry mom but that’s why I’m dropping out of school.” Inko is all “I CAN’T ACCEPT THAT” while totally accepting it. All Might is all “I GUESS WE’LL JUST HAVE TO GO ALONG WITH IT SINCE I DON’T FEEL LIKE TRYING TO STOP HIM.” Hawks, Jeanist, and Endeavor, as previously mentioned, are all “yeah that sounds like a good plan”, and Gran is all “see ya kid, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” So basically everyone in the entire world has suddenly teamed up with Deku to defeat AFO, except for the one person whose entire foreshadowed endgame is “teaming up with Deku to defeat AFO.” O Kacchan where art thou.

dear tumblr image limit: okay look. you don’t like me, and I don’t like you. but just as an experiment, I’m gonna try writing this recap with as few images as possible and we’ll see how it goes

(ETA: spoilers for how it went: it didn’t, lol.)

oh my god WHY ARE WE OPENING WITH MORE KETSUBUTSU ACADEMY KIDS.ffs we’d better at least finally get some Ms. Joke content out of this

(ETA: seriously who do I have to bribe.)

so these two KB kids who no one cares about are watching Deku leap away from the scene after dispatching Muscular. but more importantly wtf is this chapter title omg. “I can’t stay being a child” so that’s how it is huh. we’re gonna have feels and we’re going to like them. well then

oh my god he’s hauling Muscular away dhfksklfkh okay this is gonna have to be our first image because I can’t fucking help myself. look at this

just. Deku is so tiny and he’s carting away this massive unconscious lump of a man like it’s nothing why is this so funny to me. it’s like when people buy furniture, and they don’t want to pay extra for delivery and so they’re like, “I can definitely fit this king-sized mattress in the back of my compact sedan if I fold the fucking seat down, idk.” and they refuse to be talked out of it, and the next thing you know you’re watching them drive home with their open trunk door haphazardly tied down with bungee cords, and somehow it fucking works. because it turns out the compact sedan has super strength

anyway for SOME REASON now Horikoshi is all “have fun with that Deku, meanwhile we now return you to your regularly scheduled SHINDOU CONTENT” whyyyyyy

look at this. we’re really using up a whole fucking entire page on everyone arguing over who gets the honor of carrying Shindou

love how the civilians are all, “shit lol is this actually our fault?? quick, how do we play this off all casual like we were the reasonable parties here all along”

turns out all it took to finally get them to listen was making them watch while a kid got his insides ground into a pulp because of their stupidity!! what a heartwarming conclusion to this little standoff

anyways THANK GOD we’re cutting back to Deku now!! well actually we’re cutting back to Muscular who is being dropped off at the police precinct, good bye and good riddance lol

so Deku’s leaving him there and bounding away and okjdlSKFJLKJDSL OH MY GOD

no fucking way. no fucking way this little jaunt is All Might-sanctioned and approved. are you serious?? then who else is in on this?? what the hell is going on

so All Might is just WAITING FOR HIM IN AN ALLEY FFF WHO ARE YOU, JIM GORDON. or would Alfred be a better analogy here?? but like, Alfred if he ditched the suit for a moto jacket and shades

this new ensemble of All Might’s may or may not severely impact my ability to take this forthcoming conversation seriously; please stand by

also, quite the spectacular landing there, Deku. seriously lol what was that

“HOW ARE YOUR LIMBS” “THANKS TO YOU THEY’RE COMPLETELY FINE” I’M SORRY WHAT

LOL WHAT. “THANKS TO THE POWER OF THESE MAGIC GLOVES” OH I SEE THAT EXPLAINS IT

are these the same gauntlets from the first movie, then? well that’s all well and good, except that now there’s going to be more Deku Discourse than fucking ever lol. so if it’s all the same to you guys, I’m gonna once again go ahead and declare this week’s post a discourse-free zone, at least when it comes to the specific discourse of Deku’s merits as a MC, and the impact that him kicking ass and having working arms has on said merits. this has been something of a low mental energy week for me, so I’d rather reserve the energy I do have for more fun topics, such as All Might’s bitchin’ leather jacket

anyway so All Might’s saying that the gauntlets will help reinforce Deku’s arms, but they can’t withstand OFA at 100%. so basically it’s a support item designed to maintain the status quo lol. we’re basically in the same situation we were before, arm-capability-wise

homg All Might’s getting a call. time to see who else is in on Operation: Deku Alone?? or not so alone for that matter

omg

HI HAWKS, WHERE ARE YOUR WINGS

(ETA: seriously are they really gone for good?? why would he even be back on active duty then?? does he have his own American ex-boyfriend who can hook him up with exclusive support items?? dammit Horikoshi we want answers.)

looks like Jeanist and Endeavor are teaming up as well, just like they said they would. I would gladly follow this trio around all day long tbh

is this the same giant villain from the very first chapter??

looks like it to me, and it would tie in with that callback from the end of chapter 306. we all thought that was Muscular, but maybe it was this guy, and Deku left these three to deal with him while he ran off to take Muscular down

oh my god now Deku is running off again just like that

kids these days

ffffff I have not had nearly enough sleep to follow along with whatever tf Hawks is talking about here sob

like, is he trying to say that All Might is keeping Deku’s whereabouts unknown to anyone except for him?? in order to keep him safe?? but Hawks is pointing out that that’s a bad strategy and probably won’t do shit against AFO and it’s better if he lets Deku work with the rest of them?

(ETA: so @hanashimas​’ translation makes a lot more sense -- it’s not All Might who’s being overprotective, but Deku. in other words he’s trying not to drag All Might into his battles. and in addition Hawks is saying that their strategy is to take the offensive and go after AFO themselves rather than wait for him to come to them. which I’m not too sure about myself, but that’s another topic for another day.)

btw I can’t help thinking how much better this entire conversation would be if All Might was still wearing his sunglasses. put them back on my dude. it’s not too late. embrace your inner badass

DKLJSLDKFJL FLASHBACK ALERT, FUCKING FINALLY

“turns out, we were just trying to scare you straight. fuck lot of good that did though lol”

also what is this. one true love: the hospital bed. is that a scanlator joke or is Horikoshi actually that funny omg

SKLJDFLJLK

ITSA ME!! omg I love this hospital so much. though it’s sure not helping me in my quest to try and keep this post below ten images. I’m already up to eleven haha r.i.p. to me if tumblr doesn’t get its shit together

whaaaaaat, so he’s saying that Deku’s injuries were external (i.e. Tomura beating the shit out of him) rather than internal this time?? whaaaaat. excuse me but that’s some bullshit lmao. believe me, I was there

okay now he’s going on to explain that Deku’s “internal structure” seems to have been protected from the inside and out, and the corresponding panel seems to be implying that using Blackwhip as a brace paid off. huh

and also that his body is just stronger now?? so I guess he’s better able to withstand the quirk after an additional year of training?? I’M NOT SURE IF I BUY ANY OF THIS LOL but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief

OH MY GOD RED ALERT, INKO IS ASKING ALL MIGHT TO EXPLAIN WTAF DEKU’S QUIRK IS, IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGG

SO HE’S EXPLAINING IT TO HER OFF-SCREEN, AND INKO IS JUST LIKE

I GUESS THAT’S FAIR LOL. IT’S TRUE INKO I’M SO SORRY, YOUR SON IS A PROGATONIST R.I.P.

AHHKKJH DEKU ANGST IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGGGG

what is this soft pop beat that’s suddenly being pumped in over the speakers. I’VE GOT TO MOVE ON~ AND BE WHO~ I~ AM~~~, I JUST DON’T BELONG HERE, I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAAAAAAAND. also, follow-up question, when is Kacchan finally going to come back so he can jump in with the “WHAT ABOUT US~~~” bridge, huh. come the fuck on, Horikoshi

lmao All Might jesus christ

but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision...

anyway, yes!! finally that sweet, sweet “I don’t want to put anyone else in danger” angst!!

mmm that’s good angst Brent. Kacchan with center panel honors as usual, you love to see it. anyways though who do I have to yell at to get Deku a goddamn HUG around here seriously

so Inko is of course reacting with panic, and sensibly saying that she doesn’t approve of Deku’s “RUN AWAY AND FIGHT THE BAD GUYS ALL ON MY OWN, DON’T WORRY MOM I’LL JUST GET STRONGER, EASY AS PIE, IT’S A FOOLPROOF STRATEGY” plan

son of a bitch this manipulative green asshole is really gonna sit here and smile fondly at his mom and try to convince her that he’s Not A Little Kid Anymore. the hell you’re not mister

y'all are really just gonna sit there and let him talk you into this?? surely it can’t be that easy??

OH MY GOD

THE FEELS oh my god oh my god. BUT ALSO YOU’RE SERIOUSLY JUST GOING TO COLLAPSE INTO HIS ARMS SOBBING AND LET HIM DO WHATEVER THE FUCK HE WANTS LKJLJLFK. WHERE ARE ALL THE STRICT PARENTS AT?? AIZAWA, GANG ORCA, MITSUKI, SOMEONE PLEASE COME AND TELL DEKU TO SIT HIS ASS THE FUCK DOWN. NOW LISTEN HERE YOUNG MAN!!

“EVEN IF I TRY TO STOP YOU YOU’LL STILL LEAVE” WELL SURE, IF BY “TRY TO STOP HIM” YOU MEAN POLITELY TRY TO TALK HIM OUT OF IT FOR THREE SECONDS. HE’S SIXTEEN WTF WHEN DID HE BECOME THE BOSS OF YOU ALL. SOMEONE NEEDS TO COME AND TELL HIM HE’S GROUNDED

anyway sob so that’s the story of how Deku talked his parents into letting him drop out of school, and even convinced All Might to be his own personal Guy In The Chair. holy shit. this kid really went and rolled a nat 20 and the rest of them had no choice but to fold without argument

meanwhile here’s a panel of Best Jeanist trying to braid his phone into his hair just cuz

I’m dying to know which part of his language he considers to be crude here. you literally didn’t even use a contraction my guy

so now flashback!Deku is talking to Gran in the dark, and Gran is all “can you believe I’m not fucking dead yet lol that’s too funny. anyway, you sure I can’t interest you in killing Tomura after all?? no?? okay then here’s my cape.” truly a heartwarming scene

I’m kind of torn here tbh. on the one hand, my adhd ass wasn’t all that interested in sitting down and having an extended scene between these two when there’s so much else that I want to get to. but on the other hand, even I can admit that cramming this entire reunion into a single page seems just a BIT rushed. idk. like maybe someone can let Horikoshi know it’s a marathon and not a race. Deku didn’t even get any dialogue here, some of us want to know his thoughts!! but anyway

AND JUST LIKE THAT?!

how did all four of them let him con them into this. I literally just watched it happen and I still can’t figure out how. “I GUESS THIS SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT IS OUR LEADER NOW” ffflfjf. when Aizawa finds out he’s gonna go apeshit. AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON BAKUGOU KATSUKI, WHO I HAVE BEEN ASSURED DOES IN FACT STILL EXIST. WHAT ABOUT USSSSS, WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH. WHAT ABOUT TRUST???! YOU KNOW I NEVER WANTED TO HURT YOUUUUU

btw lol don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying this, and I’m honestly glad Deku’s not alone because that would suck for him! but that said, Hawks and Jeanist have lost any credibility they might have once had as far as being The Responsible Ones, and as for All Might and Endeavor, fucking hell lol. everyone just deposited all of their fucks in a bank somewhere for safekeeping and decided to never look back. godspeed you mad lads

[aarcanechaoss]

I was thinking that since Chuuya and Dazai (hopefully you're still alive) knew they're together and Tanizaki had the unfortunate for seeing them naked, how would the rest of the volleyball team of YPHS react? Also if you could throw in a little bit of the whole YPHS school of how they found out?

I can do that 😂 this was fun to write though I am sorry if it seems a little choppy I did my best amidst figuring out who is teaching what 😂

Part One

It started with Dazai being chased through the entirety of the campus by a very angry pink haired dragon possessed ability user.

Junichiro was still very pale and Chuuya was still singing his R.I.P Dazai song.

…

“Osamu what did you do now?” The white haired pyjama clad student president asked as the maniac rushed behind her.

“Kosuke, dear love of my life, daughter of the principal… please save me.”

“What did you do?” She asked again as Ryoko rounded the corner, almost tripping as her bare feet hit the floor.

“I was just going to see Ryoko and Fyodor. I did nothing!” He exclaimed.

“Bullshit. Junichiro caught Fyodor and I together and he just had to get a photo.

Kosuke blinked. “Osamu what the fuck?”

“Kosuke isn’t going to help you Dazai. What me and my boyfriend do isn’t any of your business.” Ryoko said, eyes glowing dangerously.

“I maintain my innocence!” He yelled before dashing off again since his own girlfriend hadn’t helped. Ryoko began her chase again.

…

The campus was filled with confusion. Well not at Ryoko chasing Dazai- that was surprisingly normal. The campus was however more confused by the silent rage seeping from the volleyball team manager.

“Fyodor why do you seem mad?” Kunikida asked- albeit aware of why the student Vice President thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Dazai walked in on me and Ryoko getting dressed… what we do in private doesn’t need to be photographed.” He grumbled. Russian accent getting thicker by the word. “Idiot.” He said in his mother tongue.

“Why would he think it would be worth photographing?” Mark asked with a snort, Lucy snickering quietly beside him.

“Apparently me and my naked girlfriend are very intriguing…” Fyodor growled.

Higuchi was the first to react.

“Girlfriend?” She asked.

Atsushi gave an owlish blink before turning ti the Akutagawa siblings.

“I thought it was obvious?” Atsushi whispered. Fyodor’s head snapped towards the weretiger.

“What?”

“I just thought it was common knowledge that you two were dating. My room is next to yours Fyodor. I didn’t say anything because I thought everyone knew.” The silver haired boy flushed. Fyodor froze before patting the tiger boy on the head.

“Sorry I forgot you were my neighbour… uh buy some earplugs?”

“BUY SOME EAR PLUGS!” Tachihara yelled out in shock. Ango, who was sat beside Oda and Tachihara, began coughing up his water.

“Dazai is lucky Ryoko wears ability suppressors. Even with his ability I doubt he’d be able to overcome her fiery rage.” Poe spoke up, albeit still quiet but easily heard.

“Dostoevsky why aren’t you chasing him with Ryoko… or stopping Ryoko?” Margret asked. Nathanial humming in agreement.

“She can handle it. I’m waiting for him to arrive here so I can shame him publicly.” Fyodor answered lowly.

“I’m sorry I’m still not over burnabitch dating the rat bastard…” Mark said with a raised hand. “Like when did that happen?”

“We’ve been together for a few months… now stop talking about it.”

“I just got a text from Kosuke about Kunikida- he’s running around telling Ryoko and Dazai to stop running in the halls.” Katai laughed. “Also they are about to head in here.”

Throughout the chaos Mr Uzumaki- the cook- sighed, passing a cup of tea to Mr Fitzgerald who was thoroughly enjoying the chaos.

“I hope they don’t cause any damage.” Mr Uzumaki said.

“They’ll be fine they’re teenagers.” The English teacher said the a hand wave.

In waltzed Mr Lovecraft- as happy as ever- with a look that could have resembled confusion.

“What’s happening? Koyo and Herman are having heart attacks over Fukami, Dazai and Kunikida running through the halls.” The Literature teacher asked.

“So turns out Dostoevsky and Fukami are dating and well- looks like we may need to do a sex ed conversation again and it seems that Dazai wanted to get proof of them dating? I don’t really know I’ve only picked up bits and pieces you Eldritch god.”

Mr Lovecraft hummed before pulling out his phone to text the councillor and music teacher about the predicament.

“I have informed Herman and Koyo respectively.” The Literature teacher said slowly. “Koyo said she had Chuuya explain. I don’t think she is impressed.”

“I don’t blame her. I suppose does this not give them normalcy?” Uzumaki asked.

“What do you mean?” The English teacher questioned.

“They are acting like teens. They are acting their age it’s good to see. You know, instead of being used for their abilities they are just being kids… even if we do have to find out about two students having… private affairs.” The cook said, whilst passing the Eldritch monster his sandwich.

“That’s a good point.” Fitzgerald said. “I’ll bring it up with Fukuzawa and Mori- maybe they’ll take it up to the board… with them being able to act their age. They need time to be kids. They aren’t war machines.”

“I agree. I shall be going now thank you for the sandwich Uzumaki.” Mr Lovecraft bowed before walking out.

“Well I should probably stop Ryoko from killing Dazai since Fyodor isn’t even trying to hold her back. Thank you for the tea Uzumaki.”

“It’s my pleasure Fitzgerald.”

The English teacher smiled before jogging towards the students with the intention of settling everything down.

Ryoko snarled at the teacher before conceding and allowing Fyodor to walk them both outside while Fitzgerald dealt with a heavily panting Kunikida, a relieved Dazai and a laughing cohort of students.

He was going to have a headache later he just knows it.

[davidmann95]

How did you end up feeling about Batman: Last Knight on Earth when all was said and done? What does it imply as the culmination of Snyder and Capullo's solo Batman megastory?

Batman: Last Knight on Earth is weird as hell, and not just in the way a lot of Snyder/Capullo gigs are weird as hell. It’s out of left field on several different levels, and crucial aspects feel frustratingly undercooked, yet on a pure conceptual level it’s hard not to argue it isn’t a perfect conclusion to their vision of Batman and his world. Complaints upfront:

* The cover for #1 is so atmospheric and perfect, and #2 and #3 don’t even try to live up to it.

* Joker’s face turn is absurd even in this heightened context.

* Scarecrow and Bane are a fascinating pair - the ultimate counterparts to Batman in terms of the image he seeks to evoke and him as a man, respectively, and Snyder did no work with either of them in his main run - and this story uses them purely as muscle, when Bane was just the co-lead villain of the entire Tom King Batman epic, and he just made clear on Twitter he’s got a perfect angle on Scarecrow. What a waste.

* Half the finale and its buildup with the Batfamily, Wonder Woman, and a final obstacle of Martian Manhunter of all people feels entirely perfunctory. And then Batman kills the villain without comment? I guess a unique circumstance of sorts with said villain, but still.

* I cannot figure out for the life of me how to read the last few pages as not being about Snyder moving on from Batman to Superman as his new principal character, when he’s made very clear Wonder Woman/JSA are his next big project.

* I suspect part of the reason Morrison and Burnham’s Arkham Asylum 2 didn’t happen was because Snyder and Morrison apparently frequently chat (note: this returns to Snyder/Capullo joints being Morrison covers, as this mixes Final Crisis and a sort of inversion of Return of Bruce Wayne with a couple R.I.P. touches, and as an aside the Speed Force Storm is basically the Chronovore), and maybe Morrison didn’t want to crowd the market on dystopian future Batman stories. Which would be a real friendly move on his part, but also the hell with that, I’d trade this for a years-after-the-fact true ultimate finale to the best longform superhero run of all time in a hummingbird’s heartbeat.

...okay, so how wild is it that Scott Snyder’s take on the final adventure of Batman is as a fanfic alternate take on his own Justice League run? And that his conclusion is that if it were to play out as a Batman story instead, Batman would fail? It exists at such an odd place relative to his other work too, since while it’s the ‘end’ to his take on Batman on the opposite pole from Zero Year that he came up with at the same time, he told an entire other ‘final’ Batman tale in Endgame that’s much closer to how you’d traditionally expect that sort of story to go,* leading to another resurrection in Superheavy. Then Metal with how it clashes his Batman mythology against the DCU in a far different manner than here, and The Batman Who Laughs presenting another take on an evil Dark Knight contemporaneously with this.

The most crucial comparison though is actually I think the first arc of All-Star Batman. I will never, ever forget the experience of reading issue four the literal day after the 2016 election, which ends with Batman expressing faith in the inherent decency of his fellow man, only to gaze at the horizon towards an armed band of frothing maniacs made up of ordinary people driven to murder by simple greed and fear and hate. It’s the same energy that goes into the pivotal scenes here explaining what became of this world, and it’s with this comic that I finally understood Scott Snyder, the friendliest bro in comics, constantly writing horror and tales of heroes truly afraid that they could give into their worst impulses: there is an anger in that guy at what human beings are capable of, and it’s what lends his work a conviction as expressed through his 80s action movie superhero punch-opera sensibilities that marks him as apart and above so many others in his field with similarly populist inclinations.** Matched, of course, by the vibe of Capullo and Glapion and Plascencia’s craggly, rock stadium, neon-splattered hellscapes for their already long-since classic Batman to wander, the Zero Year sensibility as applied to an entire biosphere and giving us an entire world as vicious and out of control as its populace.

Which is why Last Knight turning out to be a tale of the fall of the original Batman makes sense. Throughout Snyder’s work with the character the ultimate threat is always him being forced to admit that he’s wrong, that he’s always been wrong - that he can’t understand Gotham, that he can’t care for anything other than the mission, that he can’t live up to or survive his legend, that he isn’t strong enough to fight the part of himself that would rather give in - and it is always a legitimate one that he struggles with on a personal level. And so it makes sense Snyder finally theorizes a Batman that can give in is one that one day will in the face of the world as it is, just as it makes sense that even in the face of humanity utterly succumbing morally and the greatest of them going down with the ship, Snyder’s Batman persists past the person himself and his failings in the most literal possible sense. Mortality was the other big arc of the teams’ solo Batman work - Court of Owls his realization of his limits in the face of a greater power and history, Death of the Family questioning if he wishes he could turn back the clock, Zero Year showing him when he was young and thought he was invincible, Endgame and Superheavy giving him a mere brush with death and thereby having him reckon with the notions of immortality and a chance at a new life altogether - so of course the end is age and death and what endures beyond. In one final twist on a Morrison notion, Snyder and Capullo’s Batman will never die, and as with Morrison that’s both a tragedy and a triumph; no matter how twisted the world becomes, no matter that a given take on Bruce Wayne can be savaged beyond recognition and finally break, there will always be a new Batman for each new age, adapting as needed but still born of the same pain and carrying the same ideals anew, in his world as in ours, in the hopes that someday, finally, he and his friends might get through to us.

* Plus they open the book with a THIRD ending where Bruce has to live through the dumb meme ‘uuhhhh duhhhh but what if he’s CRAZY and he’s really a patient in ARKHAM, and all the villains are orderlies and Penguins’ just a guy he sees out the window with an umbrella WOAH’ idea of the end of Batman we’ve all seen, and then he DEFEATS it, which rules.

** Not to downplay the role of his abilities as a pure nuts-and-bolts enjoyable storyteller. I listed my complaints above but for as wild as its goes Last Knight feels like Snyder’s most disciplined, controlled work on a panel-by-panel basis in years, and there are moments of poetic narration in issue two especially that I would go so far as to call Moore-esque in the casual, haunting beauty at a shattered world of miracles it evokes.

[fred-frederator-studios]

Dale Pon, R.I.P.

Pretty much the most famous media advertising campaign in history is “I Want My MTV!” –the May 2020 Google search returns 184,000 results, more than 30 years after the last flight ran– and it was the result of the brain of Dale Pon.*

* As I explain in detail in the pieces below, writer extraordinaire Nancy Podbielniak was the word spark for the campaign; it was George Lois who suggested ripping off “I Want My Maypo!” Dale Pon was the person who took these notions and turned them into brilliance.

Dale persuaded me and the powers that be at MTV that he could make it work, Dale who convinced MTV programmers to recording artists to participate for no fees. It was Dale who took the paltry budget allotted and strategized how to maximize the network’s cable distribution. And finally, it was Dale Pon’s dogged persistence and genius that caused cable operators across America to beg us to please stop running the campaign before all the telephone operators quit in frustration from all the people “demanding their MTV!!!” 

My great friend –and better mentor– Dale Pon, passed away from difficulties due to Parkinson’s and Covid19. There’s no way to convey all of the ways people expressed their sadness to me today, but one of them probably encapsulated things best by saying “Complicated but brilliant, creatively inspired, strategic like chess master , we were lucky to have been touched by his talents...” All too true. 

Dale could be –to say the least– a challenging personality. Determined to win, he could be a bulldozer crushing an ant. Warm at his core, he could be beyond generous will all he had at his disposal. Unlike many others with talent and raw intelligence, he was quick to share his remarkable thinking, lavish in his ability to elevate the talents of the shy and uncertain, and as bountiful with praises as he could be lacerating with his critical observations. He loved as deeply as he was able, and a constant explorer for the meanings of life. 

When it came to the work, there was no one better at understanding media, and getting fans interested in its rewards. I don’t know if it was his methodologies and personality, or the fact that media promotion wasn’t all that well respected in the ad biz, but Dale didn’t have too much of a profile in the advertising world. I think, ultimately, he was much more focused on the work than on the publicity. So, things being what they are, what I’ve collected seems to be the most comprehensive look at his career, at least the parts that I’ve directly touch. By no means is it comprehensive, I know nothing about his radio days in the early 70s, and little about his work after I joined the cartoon industry. But all of what I have is yours, below. 

I’ll lead with what a few of his colleagues and friends wrote a few years ago for Dale’s birthday. And then, below that, all the various campaign pieces (written from my perspective, of course) I’ve recalled over the years. 

.....

April 2016, on the occasion of Dale’s birthday.

Dale Pon, my mentor and friend. Fucking smart.

Dale Pon’s been on my mind lately, as he is almost every day, because of the ways he taught me to think about …. um,everything. I’ve written about some other important mentors before, but Dale’s influence was so staggering I could never figure out how to sketch it out in anything shorter than book length.  

“Dominate the space.” (He was referring to graphic design, but it might have served as a life philosophy).

“Of course, there’s an absolute truth.”

“You remember the first thing you see, but the last thing you hear.”

“The power of three.” (Broke that rule with this list.)

“Advertising is a frequency medium.”

“You make album tracks. I make hit songs.”

I’m not sure that he ever thought of himself as particularly quotable, but as you’ll see below, I wasn’t alone in internalizing. There were hundreds more bon mots, most of which he probably forgot as soon as he said them but stuff I’ve never been able to shake off, to this day.

His resume doesn’t do him justice, but quickly… For 40 years, Dale Pon was at the forefront of media programming and promotion for many of the major media companies, CBS, NBC, Viacom, Storer Broadcasting (where we met). He specialized in radio throughout his career, but when Bob Pittman moved into cable television, he prevailed there too (“I Want My MTV!” is still returns hundreds of thousands of Google search results, 30 years after it went off the air). He was wildly successful in an advertising agency partnership with ad legend George Lois, before setting up a solo shop, Dale Pon Advertising, in New York City.

Dale was brash and loud, very, and he certainly wasn’t to everyone’s taste. The friend who first recommended me for one of his jobs called in a rage when he quit and said if I really needed a gig so badly… I knew Dale’s work from its supremacy of the metropolitan subway system for the New York country music powerhouse (a paradox if there ever was one) WHN Radio, but it hadn’t occurred to me that actual human beings created advertising, or that it took any real brain power. Dale quickly disabused me of that notion, as he sent me to his tailor to buy me my first three piece suit (more appropriate for Park Avenue media than the cut off shorts I wore to our interview).

Most of all, he was really fucking smart. And deeply, articulately, astute about media. He could tell the story of radio stations or television networks better than anyone, and persuade their audiences to fall profoundly in love, by sticking to the basic human emotions like truth, desire, love. (My favorite? “Love songs, nothing but love songs” for WPIX-FM, directly appropriated for an Off-Broadway show). He didn’t end it there, with a creative, strategic and statistical brilliance that combined, to quote Bob Pittman (from another context completely) “math and magic.”

What I appreciated most was his intense, almost overwhelming desire to teach me everything he knew at exactly the moment I was desperate for his knowledge. In fact, as I observed him with myself and others over the years, it would be fair to say that if you wasn’t interested in being taught, Dale Pon wasn’t interested in you. And, not for nothing, it went both ways. He’s was as incisive a questioner and listener as one could want. Curious, intrigued, dying to know anything on almost any subject. In my case, it meant that we generally spent six or seven days together all the years we were together in two different media capitals. Whew!

Difficult? Challenging? Exasperating? You bet. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.

Dale’s the one who changed the course of my work life, and as Scott Webb says below, “he changed me.” It’s because of Dale that I stumbled on my understanding that I wasn’t a music guy after all, or even a TV baby, but a pop culture sponge. I wouldn’t had the chance to participate in any of the culture shiftings I got to observe first hand. Who knows, maybe I would’ve stumbled through a life of complete dissatisfaction. That’s how profound his influence was on me.

Dale’s birthday recently passed by, and stuck for cogent things to say about him, I reached out to a few friends who’ve crossed his path and might be better at expressing themselves than I ever could. You’ll notice they’re pretty powerful personalities themselves, but Dale made an impression. Boy, did he make an impression. (I left out some of those controversial moments and unproductive comments.)

Well, our friends didn’t let us down. They got to the heart of the matter in ways I never could. Thanks everyone.

…..

Herb Scannell: Mythical.

Dale Pon is mythical.

He’s the man who “wanted his MTV” and got the world to say the same. My friend Fred always claimed that he learned whatever he knew from Dale and whatever I know I learned from Fred so it all comes back to Dale. Or blame them both. Happy Birthday Dale! Forever young!

…..

Bob Pittman: The Mad Scientist.

Dale Pon is the mad scientist of advertising. Full of passion, always with a breakthrough idea and the urgency to get it done quickly with no compromises. He made a huge contribution to my successes at WNBC Radio, MTV and even Six Flags theme parks. One of a kind….happy birthday to him from a big fan!

……

Scott Webb: “Most people don’t know how to think.”

Dale Pon didn’t just change my life he changed me. He encouraged me to be brave and fearless and never stop solving problems. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met and the teacher I will never forget.

You never know how things are going to happen. After 4 years at Sarah Lawrence, one of the most expensive liberal arts schools, I was clueless about a career. My secret wish was to write comics (mostly because I had no talent to draw). Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were basically working class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me to not move back home after graduation.

One January evening, I was talking with my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just returned home from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC Radio; they weren’t hiring but were looking for interns. “What’s an intern?” I asked. I was so naive.

I immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to work there.

“You’ll be working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can handle that?” asked Buzz Brindle, a WNBC program director. Me? Of course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah Lawrence education. I thought I was ready for anything. But I was not ready for Dale Pan.

Dale was bigger than life, louder than anyone else in the company and frequently slammed the door to his tiny office. I found him brilliant, charismatic and intimidating.

My first big assignment for Dale was to create a chart of all the radio stations in New York and rank them by ratings performance over the past 2 years. I wanted to do a great job for him but the truth was that I was terrible at chart making. I was a liberal arts comic book kid and he had me doing statistical analysis and I knew if I did a bad job I would probably face his famous wrath behind a slammed closed door. But despite my inept chart building, Dale painstakingly taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and methodically went through my work and instructed me how to correct it. I learned more from him over that 5 month internship than I had in my last 2 years of college. But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or radio promotion. Dale had high expectations of me, he believed in me and he was demanding in the pursuit of excellence.

A lot of people at the station didn’t like Dale mostly because he would raise his voice to make a point or because he was passionate about his beliefs, or would not hold back his opinion when something was mediocre, pedestrian or just plain stupid. Dale expected greatness in people, work and business. His mission was to win and often people found that difficult to embrace. I, on the other hand, found it awesome. I guess he reminded me of the comic book heroes I admired so much - characters who were extraordinary and could do things other people thought were impossible. Most people at the radio station were happy to have a job and get a paycheck and could care less about being #1 but for him that was all that mattered.

It didn’t hurt that he was so smart and insightful. He had the uncanny super power of understand exactly what the problem was – and he taught me that creativity was the ability to solve problems in fresh, innovative and smart ways.

“Do you know why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of my internship. “I didn’t want to hire one of those kids who studied advertising or media in college. Those kids have been ruined. They show up thinking they already know everything - and they haven’t even had a job yet. You didn’t know anything but you were willing to learn and think. Most people don’t know how to think.”  

Those were some of the most important words I ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and trust in myself that did not exist before and served me throughout my life, not just in work but in life.

…..

Bill Sobel: He yelled at me on the phone…no idea why.

…..

Noreen Morioka: “Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.”

There is no doubt that we all have a great Dale Pon story. Dale never did anything average. He did everything in extremes. Whether you were laughing so hard that you couldn’t breathe or wanting to shake him like a rag doll, Dale is unforgettable.

One of my favorite Dale Pon stories is when he was pitching a new name for a network. Since the channel was going to be all re-runs of a lower level, Dale named it Trash TV. I loved it, but when I presented my designs, he thought what I did wasn’t trashy enough and proceeded to get another designer to put flies swarming around the proposed logomark. When he presented his concept to the network president, he stopped at the building dumpster and pulled out garbage to bring up to presentation. Needless to say, the meeting didn’t go well, and the president was furious that Dale brought garbage into his beautiful office. Stern words were exchanged on both sides and security was called to take Dale and garbage out of the office. He called later to let me know they were going to search for another name. The network changed their name several times since then, and each time Dale would just smile. We all knew his solution was genius.

Like you, Fred, Dale taught me a lot. He taught me never to settle, always come back stronger and most importantly what the difference between good and evil was.

“Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.” Thanks to this simple Dale Pon-ism, I live my life by.

I will always have a deep respect and love for that guy. Happy Birthday, Dale. You are the true original.

…..

Tina Potter: So thoughtful.  

Dale is a magnanimous gift-giver. I once told him the Chrysler Building was my favorite building in NY, and the next time I saw him, he brought me a beautiful framed B&W print of the building! So thoughtful. I still have it!

……

Judith Bookbinder: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

I learned a lot from Dale in a very short time.

Dale taught me that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

If you want to make something happen, figure it out or find someone who can do it for you.

This simple wisdom is something that has served me throughout my professional life.

…..

Ed Salamon: Directness and Simplicity.  

I always appreciate the opportunity to say something nice about Dale, but the stories that first came to mind involved women, drugs, and fistfights. Or were otherwise too self-incriminating. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

The genius of Dale’s creativity is its directness and simplicity (like “I Want My MTV!”). Unfortunately that sometimes resulted in it being underappreciated.

When we worked together at WHN Radio I once heard our boss say to Dale at the end of the day “We need a new ad campaign slogan for the station by tomorrow. Take twenty minutes tonight, walk around the Village and come up with something.”

When I later started The United Stations Radio Network with Dick Clark and others, we hired Dale to create the logo, which  he agreed to do out of friendship for only a nominal fee. The logo was a distinctive type face, with the letters stuck together (“united”). Some in the company commented that it was too simple; others appreciated its genius.

……

Tom Freston: A great bunch of guys.

Dale is a great bunch of guys. Argumentative, persistent, a perfectionist, fun, difficult, and smart as hell….winning, ultimately, most of his arguments. Happy birthday.

…..

Therese Gamba: “Work smarter, not harder.”

Long before there was “Better Call Saul” it was “Better Call Dale”  when you were faced with a creative challenge.  Dale had a long term relationship with MTV Networks having been part of the launch team for that iconic channel.  So when The Nashville Network had to be relaunched  as the new home of the WWE (then the WWF), oh and it had to be done in three months, there was only one person to call.

My first meeting with Dale was over lunch at the Mercer Kitchen.  Fred had prepped me that Dale liked metrics and to be ready for a lot of questions.  But as anyone who’s met with Dale will tell you, you can never be fully prepared for the hurricane of creative energy that is Dale Pon.

I was prepared with my Venn diagram of the overlap between TNN’s current viewers and the WWE’s viewers (no surprise, not a big cross section). Then the questions started in what felt like a ping pong match at warp speed.  

Two hours into the lunch I had held my own and received the nod from Dale that I was on the right track. I was exhausted, relieved and thrilled to have passed the test. I learned that once you’ve basked in the glow of Dale’s approval, you were hooked.  I also learned that I had become a member of an exclusive club, “Dale’s World.”  My fellow club members all know the stories, share the memories and still live by what he taught us.

Dale always said “work smarter, not harder.”  That mantra has never failed me just as Dale never failed to be supportive, inquisitive and completely one of a kind!

Happy Birthday dear Dale!

(From left): Dale Pon, Anne Grassi, Scott Webb at WNBC Radio, circa 1980.

Alan Goodman: “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”

Two stories about Dale Pon –

1. I was in Paris with Dale (who ran our advertising agency – my mentor was now my supplier) and MTV’s VP of Programming, Les Garland. Dale and Les weren’t pals. How tense was it? We had dinner together one night in Paris and Les bought us all expensive Cuban cigars. Outside, Dale waited until Les split off to go to his hotel. The first second Les was out of sight, Dale pitched his cigar in the gutter.

We had flown on 10 hours notice so we could shoot Mick Jagger saying “I Want My MTV!” Dale had already shot a number of other MTV generation stars shouting the line, and some were even biggish. But Jagger was THE “get.” We knew that once Jagger blessed our campaign by participating, we’d get anyone else we would ever want. (We did).

We waited around the hotel a couple of days until we got the bat signal that Mick was ready, and raced over to his hotel to set up. Very quickly, what was supposed to be Dale’s shoot had become Les’ shoot. Dale was pissed, rigid with anger, sequestered with me in the adjoining room forced to watch the proceedings on a monitor. I went over to him to try to diffuse the situation. I can’t remember what I told him. But I remember his response, word for word:

“Do you think I need to hear any of this right now?”

I realized why I was in Paris. I was there, as the client, to witness who threw the first punch.

I had spent every single day of the past four months in the office trying to figure out how to do a job I had no idea how to do. I was exhausted. I had zero interest in the kind of politics and shenanigans that network executives pull, and I didn’t want to be there. That’s it, I decided. I’ve had enough. I’m a writer. I have a talent. I can make a living. I will get back home and I will immediately quit.

I said nothing. I smiled through the rest of the shoot. We stopped at a bistro after we wrapped, and had a lovely dinner and wine with the crew. It was a celebration. For good reason. We had Jagger. I stayed quiet. Silent, even. No one knew of my plans.

When we reached the hotel, Dale drew me aside and sat me down.

“You’re not going to quit,” he said. What?! Huh?! How did he know? On top of everything, the man can read minds??!

“You’re not going to quit. You are at the very beginning of something that will change the world, and you will have a great career. You have to stay there and be a part of that and do what you do really well. You cannot leave. Do you understand? You cannot quit.”

He went up to bed. I went home the next day, and didn’t quit. Instead, I stayed and helped make the thing that changed the world. And it was the beginning of a great career.

2. I went to get my hair cut at Astor Place one day. I walked up to my guy, and there in the chair was Dale. I didn’t know Dale used my guy. Dale looked up at me, looked at the barber, and told him, “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”

…..

Scott Webb (unedited): “He didn’t just change my life he changed me.”

You never know how things are going to happen.

I was a few short months away from graduating from Sarah Lawrence College with no idea what I would do for a job. I was a kid who had grown up reading and loving comic books. After 4 years at one of the most expensive liberal arts schools I was clueless about a career. My secret wish remained to write comics (mostly because I had no talent to draw). Sarah Lawrence was a great place for me. It was there that I understood how to learn. I was naturally curious and SLC exposed me to a world of ideas and brilliant people (students and teachers). But Sarah Lawrence was not a place where I could start a career path. 5 months from graduating I felt the looming pressure of finding a job and making money. Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were basically working class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me to not move back home after graduation.  

One January evening, I was talking with my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just returned home from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC radio with a guy named Buzz Brindle. She said they weren’t hiring but were looking for interns. “What’s an intern?” I asked. I was so naive. She explained that an internship is where you work for free - for experience and to get your foot in the door. WNBC was part of NBC - one of only 3 existing TV networks at the time and my eyes lit up at the idea of of doing anything with a big media company. So I lined up a meeting with Buzz to see if I was intern material.

Buzz was sweet and avuncular and I immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to work there. “We’re looking for interns in the promotion department” Buzz explained and I just nodded as affirmatively as possible. “You’ll be working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can handle that?” Me? Of course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah Lawrence education. I thought I was ready for anything. But I was not ready for Dale Pon.  

I interned at the station 2 days a week and It appeared I was the only male in Dale’s promotion team. I reported to a woman named Anne Grassi but Dale was the boss. Dale was bigger than life, louder than anyone else in the company and frequently slammed the door to his tiny office. I had never worked in an office before. I found him brilliant, charismatic and intimidating. The other interns and I would huddle in the conference room where we did our work and wait for our next assignment.

I did many things as an intern but my first big assignment for Dale was to create a chart of all the radio stations in New York and rank them by ratings performance over the past 2 years. This was no small task - this was way before computers in offices - and required me to go to the NBC research department to collect dozens of Arbitron ratings books and laboriously extract the data he wanted and lay it out graphically. I wanted to do a great job for him but the truth was that I was terrible at chart making.

I was a liberal arts comic book kid and he had me doing statistical analysis and I knew if I did a bad job I would probably face his famous wrath behind a slammed closed door. But despite my inept chart building, Dale painstakingly taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and methodically went through my work and instructed me how to correct it. I learned more from him over that 5 month internship than I had in my last 2 years of college. But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or radio promotion. Dale had high expectations of me, he believed in me and he was demanding in the pursuit of excellence.

The chart was part of his battle plan to make WNBC #1 in the NYC market and when I understood the big picture of what he was doing I felt even more inspired and willing to do anything in the service of that cause.

A lot of people at the station didn’t like Dale mostly because he would raise his voice to make a point or because he was passionate about his beliefs, or would not hold back his opinion when something was mediocre, pedestrian or just plain stupid. Dale expected greatness in people, work and business. His mission was to win and often people found that difficult to embrace. I, on the other hand, found it awesome. I guess he reminded me of the comic book heroes I admired so much - characters who were extraordinary and could do things other people thought were impossible. Most people at the radio station were happy to have a job and get a paycheck and could care less about being #1 but for him that was all that mattered.  

It didn’t hurt that he was so smart and insightful. He had the uncanny super power of understand exactly wha the problem was - and he taught me that creativity was the ability to solve problems in fresh, innovative and smart ways. “Do you know why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of my internship. “I didn’t want to hire one of those kids who studied advertising or media in college. Those kids have been ruined. They show up thinking they already know everything - and they haven’t even had a job yet. You didn’t know anything but you were willing to learn and think. Most people don’t know how to think.”  Those were some of the most important words I ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and trust in myself that did not exist before and served me throughout my life, not just in work but in life.

Dale Pon didn’t just change my life he changed me. He encouraged me to be brave and fearless and never stop solving problems. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met and the teacher I will never forget.

.....

Susan Kantor and David Hyman were on the opposite side of their relationships with him, Susan as a long time account executive in Dale’s agencies, and David as a client. Drew Takahashi, a trusted friend and wonderful creative partner.  

I’m particularly fond of the pull quote from David’s recollections. Having had hundreds of restaurant meals with DP over the years, waitress confusion was probably my overriding remembrance.

Susan Kantor has traveled to the upper heights of television since her time with Dale Pon in the 1980s. But when you read her memoir below he prepared her well, as he did with all of us.

Drew Takahashi is a director who co-founded (Colossal) Pictures, San Francisco, one of the most creative production companies of the 1980s and 90s, and one of the key creative suppliers to the first decades of MTV.

David Hyman became my head of marketing at the MTVi Group when the company purchased Sonicnet.com, one of David’s early digital music endeavors (he’s gone on as founder of MOG, one of the seminal digital music streamers).

…..

Susan Kantor: “Lead, don’t follow”. Love, Dale”

Hands down, Dale Pon was my most influential career mentor. Ridiculously smart, enormously passionate, admirably courageous and truthfully a little scary.

We would all brace ourselves for the moment the elevator doors opened and the sound of his fiercely determined walk in his trademarked cowboy boots could be heard. With the first, “good morning” would come a rapid fire interrogation of where we were at on all the “to do’s” he had just given us an hour ago. “Why isn’t it done yet?”

Leslie Fenn-Gershon and I used to joke about putting a Valium in his Perrier so we could get through the day.

When I got to the office in the morning there would often be a “note”, on my chair written with red Sharpie marker on yellow pad lined paper (pre-email), from Dale.  His handwriting, had as much conviction as his spoken word.  These encouraging notes were meant to guide, remind, teach, mentor or simply, to show his appreciation - often complimentary, occasionally piercing. I still have them.

“Lead, don’t follow”. Love, Dale

“Let’s make things happen!” Love Dale “

“There are children and there are parents. Be a parent.” Love, Dale “

“Everyone wants to be told what to do. Tell them.” Love, Dale “

“We had a good day today. Thank you for your help.” Love, Dale

As we chased rock stars around the globe helping MTV and VH1 revolutionize the music industry, and traversed across the county to position many TV and radio stations in their market, Dale always imparted the importance of what we were doing and demanded we do our very best, every day.

He recognized my innate work ethic, enthusiasm and willingness to do whatever it took to learn and succeed – he also knew how young and naïve I was.  Ripe for mentorship and direction. I got both, and then some. The Dale Pon “boot camp” was not always pretty, but it was always colorful, impactful, memorable and most importantly, meaningful.  

Not only did he teach me all about advertising and the importance of finding the unique selling proposition and saying it as simply as possible so people would remember it, he showed me the world and how not to be intimidated by it. He made me self-aware of my talents and my shortcomings. He also taught me there was no substitute for doing the work.

To this day, I love you Dale and I thank you for believing in me and giving me the chance of a lifetime.

Belated birthday wishes and hope to see you again soon!

…..

Drew Takahashi: “…he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated.“

After seeing you and the MTV crew took me back to good/bad old days. I realized I missed Dale Pon.

Back in the day I didn’t know he was a mentor. I only knew he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated. In the end I realized you and he knew what was better for me than what I knew. Someday I’ll learn my lesson.

Steve Linden and I went to shoot with Dale for WNBC [AM]. He asked us to meet him at Windows on the World bar for drinks and dinner. He showed up two hours later and Steve and I were suitably toasted. Then he insisted we join him in a very alcoholic dinner. I was so hungover the morning of the shoot I didn’t know how I could direct the talent, Don Imus. Dale apologized for needing to shoot something first so we didn’t roll my spot until the afternoon. Saved my ass.

Many more memories. The weirdest was him in the Colossal bathroom cleaning crabs of their guts for a surprise picnic in the middle of our animation camera shoot.

…..

David Hyman: “[He] always confused the waitresses.”

Here’s mine:

Dale came up with the name of my company, Gracenote.  I think that just came really easy to him.  

For a while he was a really great teacher to me. I stubbornly couldn’t take the occasional abuse that went with it, even though it was probably good for me. I was honored to be asked as the voice over for a $30 million tv ad campaign by Dale and encouraged to do voice over work. Thrilling to be informed I had career chops outside of sales & marketing.

Dale is the only person i know that would always order two margaritas for himself (at the same time). It always confused the waitresses.

.....

With Dale Pon @WHN Radio. 1977, New York City.

It was against all odds, but my late 70s stint in country music radio hooked me up with a mentor who made the difference.

Before I got to New York’s 1050 WHN, I was aware of the station. Well aware. Sometime in 1976, my friend/future partner/father of my beloved nephew and niece, Alan Goodman, asked me whether I’d seen some giant subway posters (the top photo above). Of course, I’d noticed them, with large portraits of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, The Eagles, Charlie Pride, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt and seemingly dozens of other traditional and contemporary stars of the era. There were so many, they seemed to be everywhere. And, they were gorgeous, well designed, in a sea of drop-dead-New York graffiti, hum drum posters, homeless campers and mess, standing out like nothing we’d ever seen down there before. Too bad it was for music we couldn’t stand.

After I got the job with the station’s creative director and ad man, Dale Pon (another story for another time), I found out a bit about the thinking at the station and the advertising campaign. How did a city that was the home of the most sophisticated popular music of all time –to the likes of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra– welcome the shitkickers in and become the second most popular radio station in the United States (or the world, for that matter)?

Dale was the supremely gifted Vice President of Creative Services, and he introduced me to Ed Salamon, the station’s innovative program director (Neil Rockoff was the General Manager who brought them together), who used a Top 40 radio approach* to country radio, upending the entire (typical New Yorker’s) notion that country music hadn’t evolved since Hank Williams.

No ordinary radio promotion guy, Dale had been a media buyer at Ogilvy, a radio upstart (a mild description) when the world switched from AM to “progressive” FM, and run radio ad sales teams. In the 80s, he would go on to successfully run his own advertising agency, and together we started one of the most famous media campaigns of all time, “I Want My MTV!”).  

Dale Pon wasn’t going to promote the station as cowboy boots and hats, like the last team did. He wanted big ratings for WHN, big ratings. They all did.

* If you’re interested, Ed’s written a book that details his contrarian, and wildly successful, methods called WHN: When New York Went Country.  

WHN Radio illustrations from top to bottom, all creative direction by Dale Pon 1977: New York City subway station double truck posters (L-R) Olivia Newton-John (obscured), Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Presley; Olivia Newton-John; Kenny Rogers; Television/Radio Age cover ads; Linda Ronstadt double truck subway poster.

.....

I Want My MTV! Early 1980s, New York City.

MTV had been on the air for six months and we’d fired the storied Ogilvy & Mather and hired Dale Pon’s LPG/Pon (a joint venture with George Lois) at my insistence. Now they were presenting their first trade campaign for advertisers and cable operators and my first big decision was being called into question. America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats! “It’s audacious! Outrageous! Just like you guys.” George Lois was a big talker, a big seller, and a bit of a smart ass, loudmouth. He was also smart. Even though I knew he designed the “cable brats” thing, it was my brilliant mentor Dale, who’d never steered me wrong creatively or strategically, who was behind the whole thing. His ex-girlfriend, and now one of my best friends, Nancy Podbielniak, had written the copy. Besides, I agreed with Dale that generally trade advertising was a waste of time and bigger waste of money. Consumers were where it’s at, and weren’t all the tradesmen we were hopping to reach consumers too? If we had a knockout punch of consumer advertising our job would be done. I knew he was keeping his powder dry for the big show.

America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats! There’s an incorrigible new generation out there. They grew up with music. They grew up with television.  So we put ‘em both together – for the Cable Brats, and they’re taking over America! They’re men and women in the 18 to 34 age range advertisers want most – plus the increasingly important 12 to 17 segement. The Cable Brats buy all the high volume, high ticket, high tech, high profit products of modern America. They’re strong-willed, cunning, crazily impulsive – an advertiser’s peerless audience. They look and listen and they want their MTV. And they buy, buy, buy. Rock'n'Roll wasn’t enough for them – now they want their MTV. (The exploding 24-hour Video Music Cable Network (and it’s Stereo!)

George was certainly right. It was audacious, and it was a touch outrageous. Somehow, the tone wasn’t quite right, but after the crap Ogilvy had done for us, it was way better. Besides, hidden in there was the sand grain that was going to lead us to our pearl.

.....

I Want My MTV! 1982, New York City.

I WANT MY MTV! took the phenomenon that had taken over the imaginations of young America and supercharged it into a famous brand with just about everyone in the country. I just googled [in 2010]  “I Want My MTV” and it popped up almost 4,760,000 results. Pretty amazing for an advertising campaign that ceased to exist 22 years ago.* Pretty potent.   The whole thing was the work of my mentor and friend Dale Pon. He’d been my first boss in the commercial media, at WHN Radio in New York when it was a country music station. He’d recommended me for my job at Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, as the production director of The Movie Channel, and eventually as the first Creative Director of MTV: Music Television. We’d fallen in and out over the years, but in late 1981, when it came time for us to hire an advertising agency again –at first, the top dog had vetoed Dale as not heavy enough for a company like ours– with a lot of help from my immediate boss Bob Pittman, I was able to convince everyone that Dale understood media promotion better than anyone else in America. Anyone. Besides, didn’t he have “insurance” with his partner, legendary adman George Lois?

Dale Pon (via MTV: The Making of a Revolution)

No one had ever encountered an ad executive like Dale, because he had the unique ability to be completely and analytically strategic –”math and magic” Pittman might call it– and be wildly, and intelligently, creative at the same time. An almost unheard of combination, especially in media advertising. Sure, he had a volatile nature, in advertising that was often a given (look at his partner). But it was his strategic, creative abilities that really set him apart.

We’d already done our first trade campaign, the “Cable Brats,“ to the discomfort of most of the suits in the corporate marketing group (Bob and his team, me included, were in programming). But Dale didn’t buy into the efficacy of trade ads anyhow, so now were onto the big show, television advertising. The only problem was that we all recognized that an effective campaign would cost about $10,000,000. Our budget only had $2,000,000, and if we didn’t spend it quickly the corporate gods would probably take it away in the fall.

"I want my Maypo” commercials, created by John Hubley

Looking back, the core creative ended up being the most straightforward part. Dale’s closest friend and creative partner, Nancy Podbielniak had written the cable brats copy and had a tag line “Rock'n'roll wasn’t enough for them – now they want their MTV!” That rung a bell in George Lois, someone who never missed a chance to abscond with someone else’s good idea, and decided to rip off his own knock off of a Maypo campaign from the 1950s and 60s (animator John Hubley originated it as a set famous animated spots, and George had unsuccessfully knocked it off using sports stars) and presented a storyboard that completely duplicated his version. Rock stars like Mick Jagger were saying “I Want My MTV” and crying like babies, implying they were spoiled children being denied. No one was buying it until Dale let me know that there was no way he’d ask Pete Townshend or Mick to cry for us. “Pride! They need to show their pride in rock'n'roll! They’ll be shouting!” After a little corporate fuss we were able to sell it in.

AMERICA! DEMAND YOUR MTV!

Now, it was the next part that was completely and utterly brilliant. Because Dale came from the school that great creative was all well and good, but unless it could move the business needle, what good was it? In this case, the needle wasn’t ratings (cable TV didn’t have ratings in 1981), but active households, distribution for MTV. Cable operators were all relatively old guys who thought The Weather Channel was a better idea; they’d turned a deaf ear to their younger employees who were clamoring for us instead.

To dramatically simplify the strategy Dale organized, he decided to only advertise in markets where:

• There was enough penetration to justify a modest ad spend.

• But where there were critically large cable operators on the fence about taking MTV.

• And that we could afford a 300 gross rating point buy (three times heavier as any consumer products agency would suggest) for at least four weeks in a row (the traditional media spend would call for pulsing 10 days on and 10 days off).

The “G” in LPG/Pon was Dick Gershon. Along with data from our affiliate group, he crunched and crunched and crunched until he came up with a list of markets and dates we could afford. It was 20% of what we needed, but everyone figured if we could really start to knock off a bunch of cable systems, get them actually launch our network, the domino effect would solidify MTV’s hold on the market forever.

Strategy in place, the creative was back on the front burner. The basic campaign was a great way to get famous rock stars endorsing our channel, but where was the close? What would actually make the 'ka-ching’ we needed? Luckily, back in the day there was only one way to for a homeowner get anything from your reluctant jerk of a cable operator (they figure they held all the cards, why should they do anything to make life better for their consumers?). And what was it that young adults loved to do? Dale knew immediately.

No one alive in front of a television set in the summer of 1982 could ever forget

Pete Townshend, with the wackiest haircut of his career, shouting at the video camera:

“America! DEMAND your MTV! Call your cable operator and say, "I WANT MY MTV!!”

We shot the spots wherever the rock stars would have us for 20 minutes (they still weren’t really sure this MTV: Music Television thing was going to be good for them). Our director and producer, Tommy Schlamme and Buzz Potamkin, got together with some puppeteers to choreograph the 'dancing’ stereo television. I asked my partner to go into the studio to edit the music sections when they weren’t rocking enough, and –poof!– famous advertising.

Nothing to it, yes?

* For comparison, “I Want My Maypo” posts 112,000 results on Google. Or “Where’s the beef?”, another famous 1980’s campaign for Wendy’s returns 176,000 (or if you only use that phrase, which has been appropriated for all sorts of uses, you get 2,640,000).

.....

“Mee, mee, me, meeee!” MTV Networks Online, 1999/2000 New York City

MTV got Sonicnet in the middle of another transaction they thought would be more important. But as the internet heated up in the business world’s consciousness, Sonicnet.com became something they thought to pay attention to. Which meant that, as president of MTV Networks Online, I was trying to help make the thing successful.

MTV had also acquired a then-unique personalized radio application. Coupled with Sonicnet, we decided an ad campaign would supercharge the site, something large media folks like us thought was necessary. (It wasn’t.*)

Over a few objections, I hired my brilliant, challenging mentor Dale Pon to create our campaign. Dale had done our the iconic “I Want My MTV” for me in the early 1980s and constantly proved himself to be the most creative and effective media ad man in America. The stunningly talented and perfectly musical film director Tim Newman was already on our online staff (after turning his back on a career that included some of the greatest music videos of all time), so he was really the only person who we thought could direct the spots. Dale hustled our head of marketing, David Hyman, into his one and only –and perfect– voice acting job. (And, I should put in a word for the Sonicnet logo. Designed by AdamsMorioka, from a concept developed by Fred Graver.

You can see for yourself that Dale knew how conceive big ideas to bring out the best from stars. With Tim in the director’s chair, the results were pretty stunning. And, to cap it, Dale really knew how to use MTVi’s clout to reach for the stars (like Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Joshua Bell, Jewel, Pat Metheny, Sheryl Crow, Beenie Man, Gang Starr, Faith Hill, Lindsey Buckingham, Don Henley, Al Jarreau, Alice Cooper, Blink 182, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Bon Jovi, Buck Cherry, Charlotte Church, Christina Acquilera, Dwight Yoakam, The Ruff Ryders, Eve, Johnny Resnick (The Goo Goo Dolls), kd lang, Buck Cherry, Kelis, Lindsey Buckingham, Melissa Etheridge, Moby, Seal, Sisqo, Static X, SheDaisy, Hillary Hahn, Charlotte Church, Yo Yo Ma, and Sting.)

This campaign, like every other one I’d worked on with Dale over the decades, was a hoot. One of the best things to come out of my one year in the early corporate internet. 

…..

* IMHO, one of the great mistakes media companies made during Web 1.0, was thinking that their traditional audience reach would give them huge advantage in building web destinations. They’d made the exact same mistake in the transition from broadcast to cable. It didn’t occur to them in either era that a basic misunderstanding of the newest medium –not knowing what the audience wanted from the upstarts– would not attract anyone to their websites.

And, by the by, the same mistake has been made from popular websites bungling the transition to mobile. And, so it goes.

[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 171

Honorable mentions:

Blyke smiling at the beginning was so endearing I love him

I have to admit to you guys, I did read this episode when it came out and at the time I still had yet to write the episode 170 thing. Didn't affect me though so it doesn’t really matter lol

I want Darren to bring up Blyke’s injuries to Isen because he obviously thinks that Blyke got his injuries while fighting Isen, but whenever I want things like this to happen, they never do :(

Isen’s reaction to confrontation is always to hide

I can’t see Sera’s eyebags in this one that's a good sign

Not a lot of actual things to say about Sera learning about John’s past because we already know it and she’s just repeating things that other people have said

Evie getting attacked by Joker? I’m torn between thinking this is some prank and thinking that we’re getting the Sera/John confrontation right now. The whole call was just presented in such a strange way, I have no clue what that’s about?

finally getting on track with updates, hopefully they won’t always be a week late now r.i.p.

is it analyse or analyze because google docs says 1, but tumblr says 2

Have low expectations for this one, friends. But there is 0.1% substance in this post, so still worth it ;)

Somehow this got kind of long? This isn’t read through or edited, I just typed and posted

The fucking bruise:

    I hope you don’t mind the obvious contrast in professionalism between this episode analysis and the one for 170, but the fuckkksufkhsk? Starting this off with Blyke’s confusion when he is significantly more healed than he was last night that it wouldn’t be possible for him to be so okay? You really gotta do me like that huh? Dropping a bomb like that so early on? But the thing about this is that I cannot think of a logical answer for this? I even considered that what he said just meant that doc got hella good at healing, especially because John has complimented doc on that a couple of times, but it was clear that that was not possible and not what was meant to be understood. 

    I’ve already apologized for lack of professionalism, so to hell with introductions and transitions: this implies one of two things:

Blyke has regenerative powers that are emerging from him now that he’s leveling up

Someone healed Blyke without him knowing

    Starting with #1, the possibility of Blyke having healing powers of some kind at first looks like the more likely answer until you realize that Blyke’s ability is deadass “energy beam” and that makes no contextual sense. But this is the first thing that I, and I’m positive most of you, thought. It’s the most logical reason as to why Blyke went to sleep with noticeably worse injuries than when he woke up. I’m kind of stupid regarding abilities in UnOrdinary, so I’m not sure if this blend of two totally different powers is something special or different, but could you imagine how overpowered Blyke would be? That would be insane. And would give him a total edge over John, or anyone for that matter, because he has both an offense and a defense. The thing about this though is that I’m almost positive that this is wrong purely because I do not think Blyke would have healing powers along with his laser powers. Like I cannot see that happening and that fact makes me sad. But there’s just no way. Right? ???

    But now #2: someone else did it. And, yes this looks a bit iffy at first, but that’s the second thing I thought of and I literally have nothing else so sit down. Anyway, this is also a very interesting option, so I’m hyped about that. Because if this is the case then that means it’s either Elaine, Tanner, John copying one of their abilities (this entire post is a bit of a stretch why can’t I include this huh), or an unknown character. But the thing is. However unlikely it is, I can’t help but wonder if this is Kuyo’s doing. We don’t actually know his ability yet and he was watching Blyke last night. I think this is probably the most possible thing I’ve said so far, and that’s saying something, but yeah. Otherwise, there’s really nothing I can think of because I can’t even imagine why someone would 1. Be able to find out Blyke was hurt and 2. Sneak into Isen’s room to heal him. Anyway, I’m just confused in general. Excited, but confused.

    Call me stupid in the comments if I missed something else that this could mean because sometimes I just forget things or don’t think of things lol. And right now I especially feel like I’m missing something?

Sera:

    Okay, it’s been weeks and I still get excited because Sera’s learning everything about John. For multiple reasons: one, because she’s known him since the beginning and everything she learns just hits that much harder and two, because she’s probably the character who is going the most in depth with her discovery. She’s for sure the character that has cared the most about knowing who John really is and I really think because of her investigation into John, we’re going to learn something new about him too, maybe if she goes online or something. Maybe she’ll remember something personal that John said and that Isen didn’t know about and she’s able to look online about it and finds something, wouldn’t that be heartbreaking because not only did John betray her, but he was very genuine about it if that makes sense (it doesn’t)? Ignore me, I like to imagine things though and I can really see just Sera’s whole process as a whole go somewhere emotional for both her and John.

    The thing about this, though, is that I do think she’s going to confront John really soon. Probably like in a few episodes or something based on how she’s talking in this one to Isen, so not really sure if what I just talked about is going to fit, but maybe that stuff can happen in their conversation. I don’t know. I just want a moment where Seraphina and John really realize that they’ve lost their friendship and both get sad about it, is that a bad thing to want? Probably. But who knows, John’s in a weird state right now, I don’t really think he’ll get all sad and stuff, he’ll likely get angry or something. Wait, now I want a build up when Sera confronts John where you think he’s going to blow up on her or something, but suddenly he breaks down, letting us see the person behind all of his decisions and actions because John knows he’s a monster (I’m using the fact that he pretended to be a cripple for literally a long ass time to prove this) and that he can’t hide from that. I want to see John confront himself with that and I want Sera to be there. And I know I sound like satan right now, but screw it, this is already very unprofessional. I'm not even analyzing I’m just typing anything that I think.

    On a genuine note, though, I was very happy with Sera explaining how she didn’t think that cripple John was ‘faking’ it. She said, “All the stuff he used to preach to me about… I don’t think he was faking it. He meant everything he said. He regretted his previous actions… and he tried to change.” This is probably the first time another character has really thought about John’s developing character over these events rather than just what he did. Sera is the only one who truly reflected on John and I’m grateful for that. I have to admit, when I first read this episode, I got excited because I thought it kind of supported the big and dramatic claims I’ve been making recently about John, but it doesn’t really. It, however, does nothing to harm it so that’s a win :).

    Anyway, something very interesting to me was Seraphina’s question regarding John’s decision to become a cripple. I don’t think I’ve considered this in depth before so this question was pretty surprising to me to see from Sera. She doesn’t understand why John enrolled as a cripple in Wellston as opposed to a mid-tier or someone who would have less chance of being singled out in general. And I’m going to answer this based on what fits with what I’ve been saying about John. If you haven’t read it, go to my page and either scroll or search for episode 167 because I really tried to be detailed there. Anyways, I think John decided to be a cripple just because he felt like the farther away from his bad self he was, the better off he’d be because what Sera doesn’t understand yet is that John wasn’t just trying to hide from other people when he transferred to Wellston, he was also trying to hide from himself. He probably felt distance was the best way to do that and I use the fact that he moved from a town relatively far away to Wellston (according to Isen’s early interrogation of John) as evidence. Anyway, Seraphina doesn’t think about this or maybe just doesn’t believe that and says that it was a bad idea for John to pose as a cripple purely because it forced him to place himself in a position similar to his before he gained his powers, and obviously it didn’t lead to the best place last time. 

    I do think Seraphina is wrong in one thing, however. She thinks that John doesn’t want to be put in the same situation as he was before New Bostin, she labels that as his downfall, but I personally believe that John might have done this on purpose to feel as least powerful as he could. But I don’t really have any reasoning behind that though so, dead end. But something else that I disagree with Seraphina on was how she said, “And just like before… He couldn’t handle the pain of being a cripple.” I read that for the first time and just thought damn. That was such a cold statement. And in response all I have to say is that John was handling the pain of being a cripple just fine, it was only when he was forced to shed that that he lost grip of his facade. Seraphina is completely wrong on this point, and I hope she learns that in the future. Like, I’m sorry, but that statement could literally not be more incorrect. I’m stunned at how much that contradicts reality.

[creedmarlowe]

𝐁 𝐈 𝐍 𝐆 𝐄 - 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘

|| Welcome to the Biography of Creed Marlowe. I’ll start this off with the most basic information and follow up with the hard details. Big thanks for reading. ||

𝐁 𝐀 𝐒 𝐈 𝐂 𝐒

𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞: Creed Kells Marlowe

𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞: Cree

𝐃𝐎𝐁: April 22, 1990

𝐀𝐠𝐞: 30

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬: Vampire

𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞: A+

𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 6’4

𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 200

𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫: Dirty Blonde

𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫: Blue

𝐓𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐬: Double-decker bus inked in red on his right rib cage. There also exists a spiderweb towards its left. ‘SEX DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL’ Tattoo. ‘Fuck fame it killed all my favorite entertainers’ Tattoo. ‘City Boy’ Tattoo. ‘557’ Tattoo. ‘The Temptation of Saint Anthony’ Tattoo. “MGK” Tattoo which is his artist stage name. ‘Cannabis’ Tattoo. “And into the woods, I go, to lose my mind and find my soul” Tattoo. ‘PRISONER’ Tattoo. ACE of hearts Tattoo. ‘East 303’ Tattoo. ‘Fuck Off’ tattoo. Girls on both side of his Chest Tattoo. Banksy Tattoo. Anarchy Tattoo. ‘XXX’ Tattoo. Big Brother Eye Tattoo. Black Heart Tattoo. ALMOST FAMOUS Tattoo. ‘EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST’ Tattoo. ‘Est. 1990’ Tattoo. ‘Guardian Angel’ Tattoo. ‘PUNK Couple’ Tattoo. R.I.P B Arnold Tattoo. ‘Mayhem’ Tattoo. ‘City Boy’ Tattoo. RHCP Tattoo. ‘Heroes get remembered. Legends never die’ Tattoo. LOCALS ONLY. ‘Blooming Rose’ Tattoo. ‘KISS THE SKY’ Tattoo. Jessica Rabbit Tattoo. Friend’s Art Piece’s Tattoo. Small Tattoos on Left Arm. Boy Walking on the road Tattoo. Red Die Tattoo. Danger Sign Tattoo. ‘Rose and Palm Tree’ Tattoo. ‘Love’ Tattoo. ‘The man sitting on the base of the Cut Tree’ Tattoo. ‘Red Flower Design on his left Elbow. ‘Seven-Pointed’ Star Tattoo. ‘Hotel Diablo’ Tattoo. Tattoo on the wrist of Left Hand. Casie Tattoo.

𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬: Chest under his right peck, faint scar in his eyebrow. Covered bite mark scars lace his body.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬: Alive

𝐓 𝐇 𝐄 - 𝐒 𝐓 𝐎 𝐑 𝐘

𝐿𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎, 𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝓏𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝐼'𝓂 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝓏𝓎 𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀. 𝒯𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎, 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝓌𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼'𝓂 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝓃𝒶 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹.

“𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥! 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥! 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦!”

The young child ran inside, tracking mud through his mother’s house. Laughter echoing against the pale eggshell colored walls.

“𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥! 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘴!”

His mother yelled after him as the light plastic boots thundered down the hall and along the carpeting. The boy fell, laughing as he ran from his mother. The woman removing his boots and placing them outside. His mother was upset about the floors but she wouldn’t ever let her son know that. He was a child, he did things that he thought were funny and non destructive.

The family was normal, until Creeds father returned home from work. The morning hours were filled with arguments and the rest of the day until dinner time was peaceful and filled with happiness. The boy had the ability to forget about the morning events that had woken him from his night of slumber but it would come rushing back once the door came open.

As the years went by and Creed grew older. He turned to music within school. The boy finding his first love within a guitar that had eight strings. The music scene in school changed as the older he grew. Being a guitarist in the school band was what seemed to make him popular. However, school was his place to fit in but home was more like a battle ground.

Creed was raised to take care of, to fix the things his father had broken. Physically or mentally. The boy looked after his mother day in and day out. Often times, he would tend school with zero sleep in his system. It began to grow hard for the male and led him to miss multiple days of school. He grew away from his music and focused more on his mother and home life. Dropping out of high school by the time he was a junior.

It wasn’t much long after that when the male began to experiment with drugs. It started with Marijuana, moved to Opioids and Molly, and not long after a hard acid trip, he tried heroin. A trip straight to hell. It was a trip that led him to the gates and didn’t have a ticket back. The male attended a party and that’s when it all started.

“𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨?”

“𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘥.”

“𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘥?”

Creed had drugs running through his system and alcohol traveling to his liver that night. He made a scene, rapping his heart out against another male around his age. Nobody knew the fact that Creed had been writing his own lyrics since a striking age of fifteen. The male that confronted him that night wanted to sign him, Creed refused. He wasn’t into that commitment. The male refused to take no for an answer and finally Creed gave in. There was a promise of large amounts of money and Creed agreed. After signing the contract, Creed began to release his own music. He made a stage name and he stuck with it, Machine Gun Kelly.

Creeds life began to change drastically. The money came rolling in. Cars, houses. Anything the male wanted? He got. Women, drugs, the list could go on. Once Creed hit his lowest point, a guitar fell into his hands and for a moment he finally fell in love with his music again. It didn’t stop the parties and it didn’t stop the drug use. However, it did make life a bit more bearable.

Then came his first live show. The show was a rush of adrenaline. The crowd was wild, the music was loud and the drugs were strong. The screams of women as he walked by, the people reaching out to simply touch him. The spotlight began to blind him. He couldn’t go out to stores or bars without being noticed. His face was well known and people often didn’t care for personal space.

Creed struggled to find himself. He didn’t want to be what they wanted but he wanted to be real and he strived to please himself. Creed had made mistakes all through his life, even as a child. Like the day he had ruined his mother’s carpet because his rain boots were covered in a layer of thick mud. Creed began to clean up his act. Once he was clean, the record label had noticed. He wasn’t as strung out and his music began to grow stronger and stronger.

Creed headed out for his first tour. The nights were long and wild. The male crashing every night on the tour bus with the rest of the band. One night, Creed never returned to the tour bus. The group couldn’t leave without the lead singer and so, they waited. Did he hook up with a fan? Did he relapse? Where was Machine Gun Kelly? The group waited until morning before they grew worried. The industry of being famous was a dangerous game but Creed was smart.

Creed had woken up in a unfamiliar place. Swiped from the back door of the show that night. He didn’t know what had hit him. When he woke, he was tied down and faced with a group of people. They wore dark clothes, their skin was pale. Creeds body had ached, his skin laced with his own blood. The smell of iron and salt tainted his nose strongly. The scent almost made him want to vomit.

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵? 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺?”

“𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺.”

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵?”

“𝘠𝘰𝘶.”

That year, Machine Gun Kelly went missing. That year the world mourned for a celebrity that many hadn’t even met in person. Regardless, the males music had made a rather huge impact on people. The group of people weren’t people. They weren’t human and they didn’t want his money. They wanted him. They changed Creed that night and ended his human life within a few seconds.

Years later, he resurfaced and the world was in pure shock. A lie was formed and the male was back on the road. Traveling city to city and state to state. He missed his fans but shows grew harder. Mosh pits that spewed blood, the constant urge to feed. As the years went on, it grew easier and the world shock seemed to dissolve. The male started to cover his scars that laced his body from the attack with tattoos and nobody ever questioned it.

Creed hides what he is very well. Nobody knew what he was or that he was no longer human. Who would believe it anyway? Creed strived to live a normal life even though he was stuck in time at the age of twenty five, now thirty and he didn’t age a day. He knew eventually he’d have to fake his death and he simply wasn’t ready for it.

He didn’t want to live this life just to lose it all. He lived everyday as his last and focused on releasing his music to the world. The male struggled with drugs still but they didn’t have the same effect anymore. The more he took, the better. Life would grow heavy and he knew what train to hop on.

The last things he heard was the sound of the crowd and the last thing he seen was the blinding lights of the spot light.

[k-p-p-d]

What Dating Rosé Would Be Like: Cute Pink Edition (F)

FOOD IS HER LOVE LANGUAGE.

Point blank period.

There is no such thing as eating too much food to her.

You watched BlackPink House.

You’ve seen her Instagram.

You know that if she doesn’t have at least a snack in each hand every hour, she loses the ability to function.

And because you two are dating, you are in charge of having extra snacks on hand.

You are also tasked with the difficult duty of sharing said delicious snacks.

Because she WILL force-feed you if she has to.

In a cute way though (i.e. - “Baaaabe, here comes the airplaaaaaane~!” “I’m not a baby, Chaeyoung.” “*affronted noise* But you are!!! You’re my baby!!!” “I— That was so greasy, omg.” “Not as greasy as these delicious fries!!!! *shoves handful in your mouth*”

So if you don’t love food and/or aren’t prepared to eat food whenever you see her, you two are just not meant to be.

I’m sorry, but I don’t make the rules. It’s just how it is.

But don’t worry, she loves you more than food.

Just barely tho

You know she really loves you when she takes you to pick out a fish with her.

Like congratulations, you’re married with a fish child now.

But before that, you two had to fall in love

And for Chaeyoung, nothing says ~*true love*~ & romance more than a chance meeting at ass o’clock in the morning in some random ass convenience store because you two weirdos randomly craved the craziest snack combos possible on the face of the earth and OF COURSE there would only be ONE bag left of the MOST OBSCURE chip flavor ever on the shelf and you OOP—

Both reach for it at the EXACT SAME TIME

And omgshehasthesoftesthandsomgomgomgomg

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there!”

Is that an Australian accent?

“No, no, it’s my fault, I’m so sorry.”

YES TF IT IS!!!!!!!!!

SHE’S CUTE AND AUSSIE!!!!!!!

No, you have not died and gone to heaven

You DID just happen to meet the love of your life in aisle 5 of a shop-n-go

THE ROMANCE OF IT ALL.

So anyway

You two are DISGUSTINGLY in love

And it is SOOOOOO precious

Cuz she’s so precious

And if you hurt her, not only will the other girls kill you but her sister will fly direct from Australia to kick your ass into the next millenia

But don’t worry

Your love is the stuff of ✨MAGIC✨

Like you know how beautiful her voice sounds when she’s just singing over an acoustic guitar?

Get used to hearing it ALL. THE. TIME.

Why?

Because she’s gonna constantly be writing you the SWEEEEEEEETEST love songs possible EVERY chance she gets.

And I do mean E V E R Y.

6AM pilates session?? Pfft, her trainer is used to her skittering off during her breaks to send you voice memos of her singing.

3:27 PM 5th lunch break? Manager doesn’t even blink when she excuses herself to use the “bathroom” aka send you 10 more voice memos.

11:58 PM late night discussions over the ethicality of keeping fish as pets??

“Babe, give me like two seconds, okay?”

It takes more than two second but it’s fine because—

Ros-BAÉ🌹 has sent you a Snapchat!

^^^that message but like x10

Yes, she did just put your phone call on hold just to send you a vid of her with her guitar with your child’s fishbowl in her lap singing about just how much she loves parenting y’all’s fish-child with you.

It’s really so absurd but you’re so in love that you DEMAND she go to the studio ASAP to record a studio version of it because you NEED IT.

And speaking of Snapchat...

Y’all’s streak is the stuff of LEGENDS.

Like

Y’all have never gone a day without sending each other the CUTEST snaps possible since you two first met in that convenience store.

You don’t know how she manages to find the time to even send you one considering her schedule.

But she does.

Every. Single. Day.

And each one makes your heart swoon and you fall a little more in love every time.

You also may or may not get unreasonably irritated when someone else sends you a snap and they’re using the dog filter becauSE HOW DARE THEY USE HER FILTER!!!!!!!

(She finds your irritation adorable & she actively encourages y’all’s friends to send you snaps with said filter, but shhhhhhh you’re not supposed to know that...)

Hope you don’t get cold easily.

Why?

Crop tops.

That’s why.

She. Loves. Crop. Tops.

And she LOVES you.

So you in a crop top with a snack in hand?

She has never seen anything more beautiful.

She doesn’t care if you have a perfectly sculpted torso or the fluffiest, squishiest belly.

She loves you no matter how you look, and even more so when you wear a crop top that matches hers.

Don’t worry, she’ll never force you to wear one if you really don’t want to.

But she will force you to wear an oversized sweater with the sleeves that are entirely too long for you to even be considered remotely practical.

She’s addicted to your sleeve paws, what can she say?

So you’ll just have to figure out a way to roll up your sleeves & deal with it.

Either way, she’s adorable when she’s happy and you make her the absolute happiest she could ever be.

Even when she’s eating bread & cheese.

Even when she’s watching your fish-child swim around its bowl.

Even when she’s onstage performing in front of thousands.

Even when she’s back in Australia visiting her family.

You’re never far from her mind, and vice versa.

So really, who’s the one who lucked out here?

She’ll say it’s her.

You’ll say it’s you.

It’s definitely not the snacks/food y’all devour, that’s for sure. (R.I.P all bread within a 300yd radius of you two.)

Everyone else will say you’re perfect for each other.

And that much you both can agree on.

—Admin Lily

[ar-regium-noctua]

———  BASICS!

NAME: Cass, Cassie, Ratsu/Ratsutoru((when gaming))

PRONOUNS:  She/Her/They/Them

ZODIAC SIGN:  Scorpio |{I’m sooooooo mysterious and sexy fear me XD -jazz hands-}|

TAKEN OR SINGLE: Single with no intention of changing that

———  THREE  FACTS!

A literal slut for coffee-flavored desserts

Huge Dork and Nerd for Ghost Investigation, Metaphysics, Cryptids, Need I go on? lol

Mildly allergic to felines, but that doesn’t stop me from showing them love

———  EXPERIENCE!

PLATFORMS USED: Tumblr & Discord

———  MUSE  PREFERENCE! ♡

GENDER:   Either Or

LEAST FAVOURITE FACE(S):    N/A cuz I don’t understand da question

MULTI OR SINGLE:    Multi, look I’m a shipping whore lol who plays muses who are hard to ship r.i.p

FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT    

FLUFF :   Gimme dat shit, I live for that stuff. however, it always turns into angst one was or another lol

ANGST :   Give it to me for breakfast, lunch, dinner, 24/7 365 days a year I am addicted kek

SMUT :   i like but muse and writing ability is sooo fickle when it comes to this

PLOT / MEMES: I love both.

———–

Tagged by: Peoples

Tagging: Jump on da bandwagon my dudes

[naruseii]

Com-Myu-nity survey!

I was tagged by @missemperor to do this hella long survey so here are my answers!! I tag anyone who wants to do this!

.

.

1. What is your hobby? 

I draw and do cosplay! And I guess making Myu reviews counts too?

2. What is your special skill? 

I don’t really think I have any special skills?? Unless you consider my (most of the time) fast reflexes and how my left index finger makes a little click when I bend it :0 .

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I guess my strengths are in my artistic abilities and my way of speaking?? Like the way I handle words and such. And I think giving advice is also one of my strengths. My weaknesses I guess are my wavering faith/belief in myself and how self deprecating I can be at times. Yeah I think that’s all :0 .

4. What is your favorite color?

I actually don’t have one favorite color so I’ll just list colors/color combos I like:

-Red, blue and white -Pink, blue/teal and purple (with either gold or silver accents) (and maybe white)

-Midnight blue

5. What is your favorite animal? 

I really like birds but sometimes dolphins are pretty neat :^ .

6. Which food are you into lately? 

Ice cream and cup noodles (not together) I think...I’m not really sure, I eat too much R.I.P .

7. What is a thing you never lose to anyone?

I think it’s my pride/dignity. I know, it’s a pretty bold answer but I honestly can’t think of anything else? And I can’t really think of a time where I crashed and burned so hard that I lost either one of those things. 

8. What is your most treasured item? 

I have too many treasured items but I’d think letters I received from friends and my parents are my most treasured.

9. What is your cooking specialty? 

I don’t really cook so I’m not really sure :^( .

10. What is the thing you want the most at the moment? 

To de-stress and to be happy/enjoy myself.

11. What is the thing you are most scared of? 

Death...

12. What is the thing you were happy about this year? 

I’m happy that I got to become closer to some people and I was able to make new friends!! I’m also happy that I got to step out of my comfort zone at times and I got to experience a whole lot of stuff this year.

13. What is the thing you were sad about this year? 

Oh there’s a lot but, I don’t wanna mention that on here.

14. What is the thing you regretted this year? 

I guess I had some missed opportunities but there are just too many things to mention.

15. What is the thing you were angry about this year? 

Too many to mention.

16. What is the job that gave you a sense of fulfillment this year? 

I’m still a student so I don’t have a job but, I joined my school’s diplomatic services so I guess that’s it!

17. What has changed about you since you entered the com-myu-nity? 

I think my confidence has gone up, especially with making new friends. I think my writing and observational abilities got a bit better too since I started making Myu reviews.

18. Which character would you play in myu? 

For an Inner Senshi, I’d love to play Jupiter or Venus. For an Outer Senshi, I’d love to play Pluto or Saturn. As for villains, I’d love to play Zoisite or Black Lady. But to be honest if I were given any role I didn’t mention, it would be pretty interesting!!

19. If you were to form a collab now, who would it be with? 

Uhhhhh I’m not sure if this is meant for the com-myu-nity or not but if it is then I’m still not sure because I’d love to collab with anyone!!

20. What do you love about Sera Myu nowadays? 

I love how it’s still ongoing and how it never fails to charm people. Sure some people prefer the older Myus than new or it’s the other way around but, I think most people get a certain charm from both sides which makes the world of Myu so fun to be in.

21. Which cast member catches your attention the most at the moment? 

A cast member that always catches my attention is Hikari of course but at the moment it’s any of the actresses I follow on Instagram. I don’t really have one in particular because every time they post, it definitely catches my attention.

22. Which cast member would you want as your significant other? 

AW GEE I WONDER WHO. My forever love Hikari of course ;v; .

23. If you were to marry a cast member, who would it be? 

Same answer as mentioned above :^) .

24. If you would go to a deserted island, which cast member would you like to go with you? 

Wow these questions are so specific. I honestly don’t know?? I mean, I would say Hikari but I feel like I’m putting her in too many random situations with myself lmao so maybe I’d bring Momoko (Okuyama). She’d be super fun to be with!!

25. If you were born again, which cast member would you like to be? 

Hmm, I’m not really sure. Maybe Anza?? I wanna see how it feels to have a nice voice and to do all sorts of dance moves and of course, how it feels to be Sailor Moon!!

26. Which Sera Myu production would you want to be a part of? 

Maybe Saturn Fukkatsu? Because of all the circus stuff?? But maybe a Stars Myu like StarsK or Le Mouvment Final because Stars is such a fun and emotional arc I just, aaaaaaaaaaaaaa. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m very indecisive on most of the questions.

27. If you were to create your own kingdom, what kind of country would you want it to be? 

A peaceful one where all people get along and see each others as equals. One where people can enjoy their lives to the fullest.

28. What is an interesting book or manga you read recently? 

The Promised Neverland!! Still not done reading it though.

29. What is an interesting movie you watched recently? 

I haven’t watched any movies recently :^( .

30. What is your favorite Sera Myu song at the moment? 

I haven’t listened to much Myu music as of recent but I always love listening to La Soldier. :>

31. What is your favorite Sera Myu song choreography at the moment? 

I never really had a favorite choreography but the one I keep thinking of now is the one for Honoo no Messenger because of that one TLC clip lmao.

32. What is your favorite Sera Myu costume at the moment? 

Eternal Sailor Moon (both Bandai and Nelke).

33. What is your favorite Myu at the moment? 

I’ve only seen the First Stage so far (and I still have to watch EienK aaaaaa) but my favorite is Stars Kaiteiban/StarsK!!

34. What is your favorite Myu cast? 

Stuck between Saturn Fukkatsu and StarsK...

35. Is there something you say a lot recently? 

Frick, yeehaw, o and heck.

36. What would you do if you could plan a Fan Kansha? 

I’m really not sure of this since I’ve never planned events except for birthdays. I think I’d just keep it as it is?? Well in terms of what’s in the event at least. But maybe I would add in some stuff for engagement with foreign fans? So at least they’ll be able to participate/enjoy the event somehow.

37. What do you hope to see Sera Myu doing in the future?

I hope to see them branching out more to their international audience. They’re beginning to do that with the Super Live but hopefully they do the same with other productions. And I hope they have more audience engagement like Bandai Myu’s Fan Kanshas.

38. What kind of person do you want to be in 5 years? 

I want to be a person that I’d be satisfied with. I hope that I’ll be happy where I am and I have some kind of fulfillment. 

39. What has been a memorable concert or event this year? 

I’ve only been to one concert in my entire life but I think the most memorable event I’ve had so far this year was my very first sleepover with my friends!!

40. What do you want to do in your private life this year? 

Relax I guess?? I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it especially since I hardly get to do anything because of school.

41. What kind of job would you like to do in the future? 

I’d wanna be an animator or a psychologist! And if those don’t work out then I just wanna be a freelance artist :^) .

42. Do you have a hairstyle you would like to try in the future? 

I’d really wanna try and get an undercut.

43. What Sera Myu merchandise would you love to have?

Hm, maybe the Bandai Myu box sets? Or maybe just DVDs in general. Oh and posters too!! I also wanna get a light stick :0 . A.K.A I want too much ;v; .

44. Where would you want Sera Myu to come to? 

It would be really nice if Sera Myu was a global thing but, I really hope they come here to the Philippines!! Whether it’s at a con or an actual stage performance, I just really wanna see one/see the cast ;v; .

45. If you could have a holiday with any cast member, what do you want to do? 

Same answer as questions 22 and 23. (A.K.A Hikari) ((this is edited because I realized I didn’t even answer the question properly but hanging out is just fine!!))

46. Please say something to your favorite cast member.

Oh gosh uh this is very sudden but!! Keep doing what you’re doing!! I love reading your posts even though I can’t understand majority of them and some really do concern me :’^) . I’m lov u vv much pls remember that and I only hope for the best for u!! 

[thechillicount]

Bungou Stray Dogs Questionnaire

Rules: Complete all the questions you want, expand and explain your answers as much as you want, and have fun!

If you can, tag some people you want to join in on the fun!

So I tag anyone that sees this and wants to do it to have fun! Everyone is welcomed!

Thank youuuu @usagiomega

What ability would you have in the BSD universe?

(That one's hard~!)

Melodic Speed: The more I listen to music the faster and agile I get. Pretty simple, I like simple. It could get to the point that others are unable to see me because I'm that fast. (I combined two things I do most often, listening to music and being slow. Totally not inspired by Hamatora.)

If you could claim someone's ability in BSD, whose ability would you want?

(Don't say Chuuya's, don't say Chuuya's)

I'm really tempted by Edgar's ability. To trap people in books until they solve the mystery inside? I'd say dope! That would also make me write more as I have a few people I'd like to trap, just for fun~

What group/organization would you join?

Port Mafia for sure as I'm a villain at heart but still want to have a reliable and strong family around me. Also because I can wear a lot of black. But Mori can stay locked in his room.

Which BSD character do you identify with the most?

Honestly Ranpo. I do the exact same things that he does, laze around and eat baked goods. But that's only on the outside.

On the inside I identify with Chuuya a lot. Him hating betrayals is something that hits too close to home. Him wanting to protect Port Mafia that took him in after his previous group pushed him away. Him being loyal as heck not even knowing if he'll be able to stay forever or not. Like I said, hits too close to home.

Who are your top five favourite BSD characters?

(Surprise surprise)

Dazai: The very first time he appeared I took him for an asshole, which he kinda is. But then I quickly grew to like him as I was getting interested in his character on a deeper level. I like his two faced personality, he acts derpy and cute only to turn into a mischievous sadist that he truly is. The Dark Era also made me gain respect and much more love for him.

Chuuya: He introduced me to BSD when I first saw him in this MEP (bless and R.I.P MDS). So in 2016! I even remember watching BSD during Christmas Eve dinner under the table! Not gonna lie, his looks hooked me in. When I finally got him after so many episodes I was interested even more. He has some history with my boy Dazai? Show me, tell me! Until recently I've been thirsty for some more Chuuya and got it in the new season, I'm still gonna read the actual light novel though. But nonetheless, I'm satisfied. I actually hope BONES doesn't make him an another main character because I like him as he is. I like redhead hotheads like Chuuya or Taiga Kagami. Also, I was already a huge fan of GRANRODEO in 2016 so hearing Kishow was a blessing. All thanks to Kuroko no Basket. ♡

Oda: His precious heart made me love him! He just wanted to write, to take care of the kids. Each time I remember my heart cries a river. And each time something new comes to the BSD universe with him in it I love it but also can't take it.

MANGA SPOILERS

Tecchou: First of all, I really like the concept of Hunting Dogs. Second of all, this boy is precious. Justice fighter who respects people that want to protect others. The whole scene with the cafe owner moved my freaking heart, I kid you not. Unlike other members of the Hunting Dogs he doesn't want to bring down ADA just because they're supposed criminals but because it's his job to keep the country and it's people safe. And so he's doing it, no matter what he must do. I'm pretty sure that if he would find out the truth he'll try to stop his teammates and explain who's the real villain here. I hope it happens! His habits are also hilarious.

(Translation by Dazaiscans of course.)

Michizou: I don't know if I can count him as a "favorite" yet but I really liked what Asagiri-sensei and Harukawa-sensei did with him. The reveal is one of my favorite manga scenes ever! I'm looking forward to seeing more of him as I was dying to since I started watching BSD. I won't forgive him for hurting Gin though, that's one huge minus.

(Translation by Dazaiscans of course.)

Are there any authors that you'd want to bring into the BSD universe that hasn't arrived yet? Or do you have OCs?

Oh boy, here we go!

I do have one author that I think would fit very well. He's a polish poet from a romanticism era (my fave) that wrote poems, epics, ballads. His name is Adam Mickiewicz ladies and gents. Why do I think he would fit? Well, he was born in Poland that didn't actually exist and people were fighting for its freedom. So fight was already in his blood which he later on proved by becoming a commander in a battle. He was in a lot of conspiracy groups. And because of that I feel like fitting in BSD is just a matter of what kind of organization is he going to be in. He even had contact and made friends with Russian Decemberists, made enemies with Pushkin (who already is in BSD). If Adam would be in BSD I believe he'd have contact with the Rats before they fled to Japan. And because of his conspiracy origins I say he spied on the Rats from within. As for his ability I believe it would be some fighting type one as real life Adam took part in battles. I wanted to give him an ability that has something to do with his play "Dziady" but I haven't really decided yet.

Favourite Scene(s)?

Anime

Dazai floating in river; Dazai nullifying Atsushi's ability; Chuuya's reveal; Atsushi and Akutagawa fighting Fitzgerald; Atsushi hugging Kyouka; Any scene with Oda; Any scene with 15 year old Chuuya and Osamu except for the hand holding one; Fyodor killing Karma, (I'm so sorry)

Manga

Chuuya shooting bullets using gravity; Tachihara's reveal; Yosano's backstory; Mori and Fukuzawa's fight; Fukuzawa and Fukuchi scene; Any Tecchou scene; Hunting Dogs being chaotic; Chuuya getting tired and punching everyone; Dazai getting shot; Edgar getting scared by his ringtone; Dazai and Fyodor in a chess duel; Any Sigma scene.

(Translation by Dazaiscans of course.)

Favourite Quotes from the Authors/Characters?

(Thank Gods there's bsd-bibliophile~ Great help!)

Mine has been a life of much shame.

- Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human

To love someone is to put your life on the line. I don't take it lightly.

- Dazai Osamu, "Female" from Self Portraits

Bad people are to be found everywhere, but even among the worst there may be something good.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Фёдор Достоевский), The House of the Dead

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Фёдор Достоевский), The Idiot

A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Фёдор Достоевский), The Idiot

(I'm currently reading Dostoyevsky in my literature class sooo)

Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.

- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while.

- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

- L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

(One of my favorite books ever)

That threw me for a loop...is that my ringtone?

- Edgar Allan Poe getting scared by his ringtone, Chapter 55

(I had to)

Certainly, people are sinfully stupid. But what's so wrong about that?

- Dazai Osamu, Chapter 46

(Can I wait till Friday for that? I'll try)

Who would you want to bring to life to be your best friend? Waifu/Husbando?

There are a lot but I'm gonna go classic and say Chuuya. I'd love to make fun of him for being shorter than me and watch him go berserk. Like I said, I'm a villain at heart. I love him tons though! Dazai is also a pick as he's already very similar to my best friend. I have weird friends.

How has Bungou Stray Dogs changed you as a person? Did you learn anything from it?

I learned that I strive to write as good as Asagiri-sensei because his writing is amazing in my opinion. BSD also introduced me to a ton of Japanese authors as it's the case with most of its watchers. And even though I don't have a lot of time to read their books now (school and grade chasing as I only have 3 weeks to improve them), I'm going to read EVERYTHING I CAN during summer vacations. Good luck to me~

[derek-calloway-blog]

What are some of your favorite threads for your babies?

Ooh, this is hard to answer. There are so many good ones, but here are a couple that stick out in my mind. They’re less specific threads, but just general events that occurred as a whole:

Derek: 

Derek and Gale, both through contagion and the July 4th party. I think that was when he was beginning to learn about the supernatural and also becoming comfortable with the originals. @galexdavenport

Derek and Sheamus, the big blow-up fight between them. I still think about it on a daily basis and the tension of learning about the people closest to you holding secrets. @shcmvs

Derek and Clayton, any thread with Derek and his dad makes me so happy in the heart. It’s so great to see how he interacts with the Mayor of New York, but in a different context. How much pressure Derek puts on himself to be a good son, counterbalanced by his father’s love for him. It’s a fun dynamic to play off of. @themayor-calloway

Derek and Gwendolyn, the thread of drunk!Derek and Gwendolyn having to deal with his shit. I think it was fun to play up just how broken and alone Derek was in the moment, and the perspective of a vampire having to deal with dumb mortals. @gwendolyncaris

Derek and Noah (r.i.p.), I’m a big sucker for drama, so any thread after Noah attacked Derek, where the Calloway was no longer here for this man’s bullshit and the banter between them. @noahbordeaux

Derek and Laurel, also another drama, the early stages when they absolutely hated and despised each other. It was fun to let Derek go and have him be so spiteful and angry without having to hold himself back. @thelaurellang

Sushim/Sakar:

Khatri and Ghost, these two are so lovesick for each other, it’s actually gross. But the recent thread between Sakar and Ghost’s big blowout was an absolute joy to write, despite how emotional and quick it was. It was fun to see them interact in these sort of fights, especially after knowing each other for so long. @resiliencic

Khatri and Cyrus, watching the oneiroi calming down the basilisk (whether it’s through sex, tea, or calm words) is nice to play out, especially because it’s with someone the oneiroi genuinely cares for outside of Ghost. The mutual undersanding that Cyrus and Sakar has now is also only something that can work more in their favor. @cyrus-hayes

Khatri and Olivia, the fight between them and the first sighting of Khatri implanting a thought into her mind was exciting. I actually hope the oneiroi’s abilities can be used more; it’d be fun to play with people’s minds a bit.

Elijah:

Elijah and Addison, any thread with them, both before and after New Years has been so much fun. It’s great for Elijah to have banter with someone outside of his family, but also care deeply about her. The shifting dynamic between someone he considers his best friend is nice to explore. @addisonxvale

Elijah and Ozzie, the big flirt meets the shy gay. Need I say any more? @blccksheep

Elijah and Lucian, their thread following the NYE event. It’s still a work in progress, but I love the exchange between them as brothers, and it’s a way for me to showcase just how Elijah interacts with his other siblings, especially in times of crisis. @luciantallis