emeraldlupin

[emeraldlupin]

Cool But Forgotten Movie Monster Lore: Wolf Flower

See this right here? This is a fictional flower from the Universal monster movie The Werewolf of London (1935). Not exactly the best werewolf movie. It predated The Wolfman by six years, and honestly I think The Wolfman is superior. But then, I also consider it one of my favorites.

However, this flower is still very cool. If you like werewolf lore, you may like this too.

In the movie, this thing is Mariphasa lupina lumina, more commonly known as the wolf flower. It's very rare, only growing in a remote valley in Tibet. Nobody seems to have brought specimens back for proper study. The flower itself is phosphorescent, and, incredibly, it is naturally selenotropic.

I know, you're saying "seleno-what?"

In 1833, a man named M.C. Musset did an experiment where he raised plants in total darkness and then exposed them to moonlight to see if the plants would follow it. Normally, plants are heliotropic. They turn and bend to follow the sun. The plants in the experiment did follow the moon. That's what selenotropic means.

It should be noted that in the real world, no plants are naturally selenotropic. They'll do it in experimental conditions, but otherwise? Nope. But this one does.

The wolf flower is a species that not only follows the position of the moon, it only ever blooms in moonlight. It takes its literal life from the moon. And it is also the only known treatment for lycanthropy.

The movie uses the word "cure," but I think treatment is more accurate, as the effect is only temporary. But if you cut off a bloomed flower, you can use the fluid in the flower to prevent the transformation. It's as basic as stabbing the cut stem into your flesh, though that's not the most ideal way to administer medication.

The movie might not have been the best, but I always thought this flower was very cool.

What do you guys think?

[emeraldlupin]

This is a map showing the Land of Redaku in the manga adaptation of Sasuke Retsuden.

[emeraldlupin]

Classic Who Upcoming: Week of 09/02/25

So, last week in Classic Who, we had Castrovalva and The Keeper of Traken. This was continuing a pattern over the last couple weeks with one week being a Four double feature and another week being stories from other Doctors.

This pattern made sense because of the remaining stories, Four's stuff made up a pretty big chunk. However, the pattern is broken this week.

Tomorrow, we'll see Planet of Fire from season 21, and on Saturday, we'll see The Mysterious Planet from season 23.

Now, when I have made posts like this before, I wasn't really "predicting" anything. I didn't have any insider information anymore than anyone else. You want to know the trick? I looked at the playlists.

The Classic Who channel is in the habit of setting up videos before their release day. It's the sort of smart, reasonable move you'd expect from a channel like this. These videos are, naturally, unlisted, but added to the appropriate playlists. By looking at said playlists, you can get a sense for what's coming. I just find it fun to look and keep track of this stuff. Mild stimulation for an ADHD brain.

I will admit a slight disappointment because this week, the videos were not unlisted. They're perfectly visible and set up as premieres. Really ruins the surprise, but oh well.

I am, however, pleased about season 23. I never said this on Tumblr, but I had always predicted that whenever season 23's content was posted on the channel, it would not be listed as a single, super-long story, but broken into its four subsections.

That's not to say they couldn't have posted Trial of a Time Lord all in one go. They posted The War Games intact. But the channel has playlists for Doctors and seasons, and if they did put Trial as one video, that would mean the season 23 playlist would only have one video, and that would look really, really weird.

Stats for Nerds

Total Classic Who Stories: 157 (Counting Shada and the movie)

Classic Who Stories on YouTube: 97 (61.78%)

Stories That Can't Be Posted: 11 (7.01%)

Number of Seasons Completed: 6

First Doctor Stories: 13/29 (44.83%)

Second Doctor Stories: 10/21 (47.62%)

Third Doctor Stories: 19/24 (79.17%)

Fourth Doctor Stories: 25/42 (59.52%)

Fifth Doctor Stories: 14/20 (70.00%)

Sixth Doctor Stories: 8/11 (72.73%)

Seventh Doctor Stories: 7/12 (58.33%)

Eighth Doctor Stories: 0/1 (0%)

[emeraldlupin]

Pet It Be

If it isn't already, I think "Pet It Be" should be added to the list of recurring DC Universe fictional businesses, like Jitters Coffee or Soder Cola.

Also, the name makes me laugh.

[emeraldlupin]

Krypto

Krypto from the 2025 movie is the sort of dog where you say "If you weren't obscenely cute, you'd be in serious trouble."

[emeraldlupin]

Classic Who Novelizations (The Tenth Planet) aka The Same Opener Again?!

Just started listening to this one. If you saw my other post about the novelization of "The Moonbase," you will recall how it and the novelization of "Tomb of the Cybermen" had the same opening prologue. By that, I mean a word for word copy, minus a bit at the end with context specific to the book. It was pretty annoying, honestly.

Both books were written by the same person (Gerry Davis), as was the novelization of The Tenth Planet. Guess what? It had the same prologue. Three! Three times in a row with this! The first time was fine, but three?!

That's not even bringing up how it doesn't make sense, how it says the Cybermen replaced all their flesh, thus making them not cyborgs and rendering the idea of cyber-conversion a spectacular and illogical waste of time.

We should probably consider ourselves lucky that every Cybermen prose story doesn't have this same prologue.

[emeraldlupin]

Classic Who Upcoming: Week of 08/19/25

This week (and possibly next week), we'll have a lot of options. There are two Fourth Doctor stories from season 18 (The Leisure Hive, Meglos, State of Decay, The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis), and one Five story from season 19 (Castrovalva, Kinda, The Visitation, Black Orchid).

Which one will show up this week? Who knows?

Stats for Nerds

Total Classic Who Stories: 157 (Counting Shada and the movie)

Classic Who Stories on YouTube: 91 (57.96%)

Stories That Can't Be Posted: 11 (7.01%)

Number of Seasons Completed: 6

First Doctor Stories: 13/29 (44.83%)

Second Doctor Stories: 10/21 (47.62%)

Third Doctor Stories: 19/24 (79.17%)

Fourth Doctor Stories: 22/42 (52.38%)

Fifth Doctor Stories: 12/20 (60.00%)

Sixth Doctor Stories: 7/11 (63.64%)

Seventh Doctor Stories: 7/12 (58.33%)

Eighth Doctor Stories: 0/1 (0%)

[emeraldlupin]

Gardita

I find myself re-watching Young Justice lately. Such a great show, so entertaining, so clever in its worldbuilding, and something to seriously learn from.

I was so sad when Garfield and Perdita broke up in season 4. I get why it happened, but it's still sad. I know there was a comic released post-season 4 (Targets) that still had them broken up, but it seemed rather...meh.

But since the show was basically cancelled, you know what I say? I say that maybe, somehow, the two of them got back together. Why not? I can dream. And hey, if you're writing fanfic, you can make it work.

Come on. I can't be the only person who's thought of that.

[emeraldlupin]

Steven Universe: Organic Gems (And Pearl) Need Their Hydration...No, Seriously (Gemology Facts)

I started typing this when I did that think about Pearl avoiding vinegar. Should have finished it way before this but I got sidetracked. So many drafted posts...

Anyway, here are some more random thoughts about gemology that potentially apply to Steven Universe. I've shared a little of this stuff in one of my Naruto essays (and only did that because my random brain took me that way on a whim), but I'll share it again here.

If Steven Universe were to incorporate more organic gemstones, then those gems would have unique health needs. Ah, but wait, some of you might be asking "what are organic gems?"

Organic gemstones, as the name suggests, are gems made not from earth processes, but from living organisms, from the bodies of plants and animals. There aren't a lot of them, but here's a partial list:

Pearl

Nacre (Mother of pearl)

Ivory

Jet

Amber

Shell

Coral

Now, here are some facts about organic gems. They are soft by nature, and for this reason they are never faceted. The only possible exception to this is jet, and I say this only because I saw a picture of an old piece of faceted jet in my handbook.

To give you a better idea of what I really mean by soft, let's go over the gem hardness scale. Hardness is their ability to resist scratching. The scale is measured from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond). Amethyst and rose quartz rate a 7, and garnets run the range from 6.5 to 7.5, depending.

Organic gems, though? Pearls rate a 3. Amber rates a 2.5. In fact, all organic gems have a hardness around there. Some pieces of jet might actually be a 4, which would explain how they can be faceted.

The other thing about organic gems is that they tend to be sensitive. As I said, pearls can be dissolved by simple vinegar or any other stronger acid, and can even be damaged by contact with the oils in human skin (which is why you don't handle them bare-handed, especially if they are older). This is why pearls require careful cleaning, especially if you do touch them with bare hands.

Now take amber. Amber is made from fossilized tree sap. If there was an Amber Gem, she might avoid sunbathing or staying out in the sun longer term, or if she did, she'd be hydrating a lot.

Why would she do this? Well, that's part of the health needs thing I mentioned. Amber can get dehydrated. It's a problem for owners of amber jewelry who decide to wear their pieces in the heat of the day or leave them out in the sun. You can tell when amber is dehydrated because it will crack.

Now, to be fair, real amber stones can have cracks on their surface and not be broken. It's something I've gotten wrong in the past. Many pieces of amber are found with a weathered or cracked appearance. Also, sometimes amber appears cloudy thanks to trapped air bubbles, and this is fixed via heating it in oil.

However, just because a piece of amber can have a few cracks doesn't mean that it might not eventually break from the effect of dehydration. Water is critical to keeping amber together. In fact, from the research I did, this is true of all organic gems. Pearls can indeed eventually crack and split if they get dehydrated enough.

Cracks in general are supposed to be bad for a Gem, so I imagine their stones are all of the flawless variety, and thus, they'd dislike heat and strong sunshine, at least without water to help protect themselves. With all the weird Gem abilities, one would think they'd be able to direct consumed water to their gemstone.

I know Pearl doesn't like to consume food, but water? Given where she lives, I think it's a must.

[emeraldlupin]

Theaters

It is a very strange feeling, sitting in a nearly empty theater. The first time I saw Superman, I was way early, and it was just me there. For a while, I thought I'd be the only one there, which both pleased me on some deep level--as if the film were just for me--and also depressed me in the loneliness and neglect.

I felt less bad when other people got there, but it was only a few people. When I saw it a few days later (in the same theater, same seat, if you can believe it), there was actually a decent number of people. Ten or twelve, perhaps, including me.

When I saw Fantastic Four: First Steps only ten days out from it's release, there were only five people in my theater, including me.

I know streaming is a thing, but there is something...interesting about going to see movies in theaters. Nice. Maybe that's because I very rarely do it, but it's a good experience that I enjoyed...even if I had to learn a few things about navigating my way there and back. Probably would have been better with a friend, but I didn't have that.

Of course, my usual theater is in a neglected area in general. The place will be torn down in the future, which is sad. But at least the replacement is supposed to have a theater, too. Hope it's a good one that gets a lot of business.

It would be nice going to see a movie with a good crowd again. Maybe that'll happen one day.

[emeraldlupin]

Captain Planet Comics (2025)

I was never the BIGGEST fan of Captain Planet, though of course I saw it. Still, looking back on it with a writer's eye, I could see the elements of a good story, of characters and ideas and designs that worked. Reading the TV Tropes discussions also helped me to look at it in new ways (as TV Tropes often does).

There is this one fanfic on AO3 for the show called Defenders for Earth. It's a good story, that I'd recommend a read through of, though it needs to separate dialogue into new paragraphs and I felt the portrayal of the villains was lacking. They were all folded into The Corporation and to me, it took away their individuality and symbolism.

Anyway, in the back of my mind, I have always been incredibly curious about what a modern take on the show would look like. And, well...it happened.

A few months back, Dynamite Entertainment put out a Captain Planet series. It is FANTASTIC. It's so incredibly brilliant.

Take a look here

It's odd seeing Captain Planet with a beard, but eh. Also, spoilers ahead.

All the characters have their backstories tweaked. Gaia is no longer the spirit of the Earth, but a high priestess chosen to wield the planet's life energy. Each Planeteer gets to show off their personality, interests, or just be awesome when they get their rings. Unfortunately for New Yorkers, Wheeler is now from Detroit, and Gi is now Korean, but these aren't the most important details.

The Planeteers are also very creative in the application of their powers. I remember when Linkara looked at an old Captain Planet comic, that was one of his complaints, the lack of imagination. Here, not so much. Kwami can make plants grow and Gi can make ice.

And the villains. So far the changes to the villains are simple, but brilliant in their simplicity. Lutin Plunder's name is now...actually, I forget what his first name is. But "Lootin'" is now a derogatory nickname given to him by protesters. Simple genius.

Duke Nukem is now a soldier for hire that, for whatever reason, has radiation gauntlets. These things fire out microwaves as well as (presumably) gamma rays. And he can absorb heat? That was a bit weird, especially since he used a "fuel for the fire" line that made no sense, but whatever.

Dr. Blight also showed up, unscarred but I'm sure it'll get there. But seriously, this approach is genius and I really hope this continues.

[emeraldlupin]

Super Friends (The G.E.E.C) Episode

Super Friends. Cartoon from...what, the early 1970s? The show that had Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? I've found myself rewatching some episodes of it.

You know, the comics imported the kid trio as the children of Calculator, the anti-Oracle. Later, Wendy and Marvin were slaughtered violently on panel by...possessed Wonder Dog? Something like that. It was awful and ugly and mean and what the hell.

Young Justice was nicer to them. They were just simple background characters that appeared sometimes.

...Where was I going with this? Ah, right, the episode. As weird as the series was, it's interesting to see that each episode was 45 minutes. Very different. The third episode was about the G.E.E.C., Goodfellow's Effort Eliminating Computer.

This guy named Professor Goodfellow naively thought he could eliminate all effort as a way to aid humankind, replacing workers, automating factories, vehicles, school, even replacing actors and performers. Insert your jokes here.

It was, as I said, a very naive idea, not to mention an immensely stupid idea, and Goodfellow paid for his well-intentioned hubris when the very thing the heroes warned him about happened: The machine that controlled everything developed a fault.

A mouse got into the machine and started wandering around, doing his mouse thing, sent the computer out of control, and sent the world even more out of control. Also didn't help that it saw a sandwich Professor Goodfellow left around.

Once our heroes (with a cameo by Plastic Man) got the mouse out of the works, Wendy said she wanted to keep it as a pet.

It would be a nice continuity nod if, the next time Wendy shows up in a piece of media, she has a pet mouse. And what should this little guy be named?

What else? Gremlin.

Yeah, I made this entire post for a simple joke. I don't care. I thought it was funny. Take that as your headcanon. I don't mind.

[emeraldlupin]

Classic Who Upcoming: Week of 08/11/25

This week will see "The Twin Dilemma." I know, not exactly a well-loved story, but it deserves to be with the other stories all the same. What else may be posted this week, I don't know.

EDIT: The other one will be either "The Claws of Axos" or "The Daemons."

Stats for Nerds

Total Classic Who Stories: 157 (Counting Shada and the movie)

Classic Who Stories on YouTube: 89 (56.69%)

Stories That Can't Be Posted: 11 (7.01%)

Number of Seasons Completed: 6

First Doctor Stories: 13/29 (44.83%)

Second Doctor Stories: 10/21 (47.62%)

Third Doctor Stories: 18/24 (75.00%)

Fourth Doctor Stories: 22/42 (52.38%)

Fifth Doctor Stories: 12/20 (60.00%)

Sixth Doctor Stories: 6/11 (54.55%)

Seventh Doctor Stories: 7/12 (58.33%)

Eighth Doctor Stories: 0/1 (0%)

[emeraldlupin]

The Legacy of Mr. Terrific

Mr. Terrific appeared in the latest Superman movie, as you all well know. His name is Michael Holt. He believes in the principle of fair play. It's on his jacket. But do you know that he's a legacy hero? Do you know the the man that came before?

Michael took up the mantle of a hero from the Golden Age of Comics, the era of World War II. The original Mr. Terrific was Terry Sloane, a white man as you would expect. He was a regular member of the Justice Society of America, the first superhero team. He was invented in 1942.

Terry Sloane was born a child genius. He graduated college at twelve or thirteen. He then turned to athletics, and as an amateur, he won tons of awards. In fact, his athletic abilities were Olympic level. Then he turned to business and became incredibly rich and successful. All of this while he was still in his early 20s.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? In fact, it sounds almost anime-esque. Well Terry didn't think it was awesome. In fact, he found it rather terrible. Because once it was all said and done, he was left with one burning question: What do I do now?

For all of his success, Terry Sloane felt hollow and empty. He'd accomplished all the things most people strive to accomplish throughout their whole lives with many, many decades to spare. Was was there left to do? What was there left to strive for? What was there left for life to offer?

Nothing, he decided. Life had nothing left for him. Thus, he planned to end his life.

...Didn't think it would get this dark, did you?

He was driving along a bridge on the night he intended to end it all when, ironically, he saw a young woman attempting to end her own life by leaping off the side of the bridge. Instinct took over, and Terry jumped from his car to save her.

Her name was Wanda Wilson, and she was in despair because not only had her kid brother Billy fallen in with a bunch of thugs, he and said thugs (also kids) practically worshipped some gang leader calling himself Big Shot.

Terry decided to do something about this, so he created the identity of Mr. Terrific and drove Big Shot out of town in front of his juvenile cronies, exposing him as a coward.

Afterwards, Terry decided to keep being Mr. Terrific as a way to pay back life for the many blessings it had given him. He also created a "Fair Play Club" to counter juvenile delinquency. He was called "The Man of 1,000 Talents."

Terry Sloane believed in the concept of fair play. He had it written on his suit. He would never take on an opponent with an unfair advantage. As corny or as dated as it may sound, he really did live up to the name "Mr. Terrific."

That is the legacy Michael Holt inherited. Like Terry, Michael is gifted in both an athletic sense as well as intelligence. In fact, there's debate on who is the smartest man in DC, him, Bruce Wayne, or Lex Luthor. The only big difference (in their capacity as superheroes) is that Michael uses gadgets. Or at least I don't think Terry used gadgets.

To further interest you, do you remember the villain Roulette from Justice League: Unlimited? The one hosting the illegal superhuman fight club? She was one of Terry's villains.

The original Roulette was Terry's sister-in-law Debra Sinclair. Talk about awkward, right? The second Roulette was Debra's granddaughter Victoria Sinclair.

[emeraldlupin]

Love love how sincere the superman movie is. There is no winking at the camera or jokes to ruin moments. Clark Kent sincerely wants to help if he can! And he does and so do the other characters and that choice matters! It really reminds of Lord of the Rings in its sincerity and belief that people can choose to be good/kind and choose to make a difference and I love it.

[emeraldlupin]

Classic Who Novelizations (The Moonbase)

Otherwise known as Doctor Who and the Cybermen.

I liked reading (well, listening) to this one, though I have certain complaints. But first, the good. It was really interesting getting into the Second Doctor's era, one I've barely touched until recently. Also accidentally bought the novel's audiobook by itself when I already had it in a collection. Oops.

I blame the title for confusing me and making me goof in my records. Yes, I keep records. There's so much Classic Who I needed to keep stuff straight. Also, that's just me.

It was also good to know where the famous line of about evil that must be fought. I always kind of presumed that it was from "The War Games," but no.

The story itself was good and exciting. It was good to meet Ben, Polly, and Jamie. It was pretty awesome how Polly came up with the solvent to destroy the Cybermen's chest units. That weakness never came up again as far as I know, and it really should, because that's great.

I'm not sure if I had a real favorite part of the story, but I definitely enjoyed it.

And now...the bad.

For one, in the prologue talking about the origins of the Cybermen, it mentions, and I quote:

"Finally, even the human circulation and nervous system were recreated, and brains replaced by computers."

They replaced their brains with computers.

...That makes no sense.

The Cybermen are supposed to be cyborgs. Cyborgs, by definition, are a mixture of robotic and organic parts. Cybermen need to have squishy bits somewhere in there, otherwise, they're just robots.

If they had their brains replaced by computers, what parts did they save? The spleen? The gallbladder? The appendix? They saved the appendix, didn't they? Yeah, calling it now. The Cybermen saved the appendix and only the appendix.

One also has to shake their head at the sci-fi concept of controlling the world's weather. Say what you will about increasingly extreme weather patterns, and you could say a lot, but managing that seems a bit too difficult and way to dangerous in case something goes wrong. This book is a case in point.

It's also ridiculously dangerous to imagine human beings doing so by controlling the tides. The tides wouldn't even control all weather and the damage you could do to ecosystems via messing with the tides...well.

When the Cybermen send their mind-controlled humans into the gravitron, the crew protests saying that being in there unprotected will drive you mad in twelve hours. This confused me because madness was not a threat ever brought up before. What was broguth up was deafness. The gravitron produced sounds so loud that without proper protection your ears go kaput.

The Cybermen manage to punch a hole in the dome and it is very exciting. But then when they go to use their big old bazooka (Cybercannon), the blast is deflected by the gravity field from the gravitron.

Am I missing something? Was the gravitron not activated when the hole was made? Did the Cybermen not use their cannon to make that hole? It all seems very contrived. If you want the gravity to somehow throw off an energy weapon, fine, but be consistent.

And finally...I had to let out a rather irritated sigh in chapter 8 because the text...uses the R-word.

*Le sigh*

I know, I know. The word was a more acceptable insult back in the day. But that doesn't stop me from being disappointed at its usage here. I've not exactly gone through most of the Classic Who novels, but this was the first time I'd ever seen this sort of thing, and thank goodness for that.

That is all.

[emeraldlupin]

Blue Beetle Movie (Ted Kord Had a Daughter?!)

I saw it a while back, and recently re-watched it. Most of the DC movies were...well...not good. But Blue Beetle was different. It was bright, funny, and fun. It was great.

The idea that Ted Kord had a daughter was...different. And as ridiculous or mean as this is going to sound, my first thought when I saw her was "Ted Kord got lucky with a woman?!"

I read the original Justice League International comics. There was a moment in there were Fire dropped in on him, Booster Gold, and Batman, and she said "Haven't you ever seen a gorgeous, unbearably seductive woman in her underwear before?"

Ted: Not for...God--I can't believe it's been that long!

This is also the same guy that, in the movie, programmed his ship to call him "Teddy."

Ted Kord had a daughter in this film...guess miracles can happen.