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[ograndebatata]

This comic is brought to you by: me rereading the Brothers Grimm and remembering how horrifying “The Juniper Tree” is. (Also “Hansel and Gretel” is pretty messed up too, but still).

Comic script: Amber (to Miranda): So you're definitely not going to be an evil stepmother like the ones in fairytales? Miranda: Yes, I'll be good. James: So, if we ran out of food, you wouldn't convince our dad to abandon us in the woods with no way home? M: No, I would not. And if we were low on food, you could have mine. A: Speaking of food, you would never cook us in a stew and feed it to our loved ones, right? M: No! Absolutely not! What kind of fairytales have you been reading?! J: The Grimm ones. A: Final question worst possible scenario, would you ever dress us in servant clothes and force us to do chores? M: No, and are you sure that's the worst scenario of the three? A: Absolutely. Without a doubt.

(Original pencil sketch version of the comic under the cut)

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Well... taking into account the Sofia the First side of it, the answer would be 'yes'.

One episode has Zinessa, an enchantress who can shapeshift into a cat, and while she casts a curse on a princess, she's a pretty nice lady, and is even rooting for the princess to break the curse. And while there is a subtle morphic resonance between Zinessa's cat form and her human form (her dress is the same color as the cat's fur, and her hairstyle vaguely brings to mind a cat's ears), she seems fully human.

That said, we don’t know if she was born with this skill or if she learned it.

Also from the Sofia the First side, there is another enchantress, Mamanu, who has a magic necklace which not only lets her turn into animals, but also into specific people. And while she, unlike Zinessa, is evil, her shapeshifting seems to be solely because of her necklace, though we never learn who made it.

But given both series are in the same universe, I see no reason why there couldn’t be other shapeshifting wizards in Elena of Avalor and we just never met them.

Hmmm

If Zopilote can transform into a vulture, does it mean that shapeshifting wizards canonically exist in the show

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Well... as someone who didn't grow up with any English dubs, though I got repeated exposure to various takes on English dubs during games and later was able to watch episodes in the FUNimation dub and clips of other dubs, I admit I don't have much to say on most of these... and there isn't much to be said anyway, because all of these are a matter of opinion rather than objective value.

I'll admit I disagree with a few things (for instance, I prefer Daman Mills' Frieza to Chris Ayres', I still think Eric Vale is still a perfectly decent Trunks, and I don't feel I've heard enough of Johnny Yong Bosch's Broly to judge whether he's better than Vic Mignogna or not, though I certainly don't mind him)... but ultimately, all of these are a matter of opinion rather than objective facts, so I simply agree to disagree.

One thing I do feel compelled to make a specific observation on, though, is that, as awkward as it may make things on some level, it's very likely a good thing that Yamcha and Vegeta are voiced by the same actor in English. Given the former's current status both in the fandom and by the official content makers (and not even in English only, considering the flak he can also get from the true source material), when it comes to the English-speaking side of things, at least the fact his actor also is Vegeta's should pretty much guarantee that, when the inevitable does happen and Yamcha's English voice actor goes to join Akira Toriyama, he will almost certainly be spared jokes about being Yamcha'd from anyone other than ignoramuses who don't know he also dubs (or dubbed) Vegeta and Piccolo, two characters who are legitimate fan favorites.

Of course, people should just be respectful and not mock a deceased real person simply because of the character he portrayed, but... given the lows I've seen people stooping to online, let's just say this crossed my mind.

I'll let the jury decide on what that says about me.

Assorted Dragon Ball Dub VA Thoughts

I do not like Ian James Corlett's take on Son Goku. Disrespectful as that may sound seeing as he was the original English VA for the character, I just think he brought the wrong energy, wrong tone, wrong inflections, and just wrong portrayal to the role. He made Goku sound like a mature, macho superhero, and that had a negative effect on how Peter Kelamis and Sean Schemmel had to perform the role when they took over for Ian. Everything uncharacteristic about Goku in the early dubs can be traced back to Ian's portrayal of him.

The big three English voices for Goku to me are Sean Schemmel, Peter Kelamis, and Kirby Morrow. Schemmel is easily the most iconic and recognizable, and he really made the role his own as he improved over the years, Kelamis' portrayal of Goku in the Pioneer dubs of the first three movies is as close to a dead ringer to Masako Nozawa in English (but from a male VA) as you could ask for, and I think the late Kirby Morrow, who took over from Kelamis in the Westwood dub, was the only VA for Goku from the Ocean Group to get the character down right in the show itself, doing less of the cheesy hero shtick. All of them work really well for Adult Goku.

For Kid Goku, however? Sorry, but I can hear literally no one else but Stephanie Nadolny in that role. No one else even comes close. Her rough voice and delivery of her performance was just pitch perfect.

Bulma's best dub VA is still Tiffany Volmer, who never gave a poor, half-assed performance in the role except for her debut outing in Season 3 (which was just cringe). Monica Rial comes in as a close second but the trouble with her is that when she needs to get comically frantic and really emote, she sounds very immediately recognizable as a Monica Rial performance, whereas Volmer always sounded more unique. Three other Bulma VAs that go overlooked are Lalaina Lindjberg, Maggie Blue O'Hara, and Wendee Lee. Lalaina's Bulma is underappreciated, as it was very fitting and well acted. Maggie's Bulma sounds the most "real" out of all the Bulma voices, but in that movie dub she sort of underperformed compared to how she could've (think Lime) and she should not have been brought back in the Westwood dub. And with Wendee Lee, I just find it funny that she technically was the first to do Bulma in English for the lost Harmony Gold dub and then reprised the role many, many years later in the short lived Bang Zoom dub of Dragon Ball Super.

Gohan's a complicated case for me, since unlike Kid Goku, I was never big on how Stephanie Nadolny voiced Kid Gohan - she undersold everything during the Season 3 dub and then was too try-hard in the redub and every reprisal. I greatly preferred Saffron Henderson and Colleen Clinkenbeard's more natural takes. However, Nadolny absolutely killed it as young Teen Gohan in the Cell Saga, to the point where every other VA to perform the role during those events just will not sound right. As for older Gohan, while I love the way Kyle Hebert does him, Chris Hackney in the Bang Zoom Super dub was almost just as good. Brad Swaile in the Westwood dub and even Lex Lang in the US release of Final Bout showed potential too.

I always liked Terry Klassen's Krillin in a semi-ironic way. Like, he had a naturally fitting voice for the character but often overacted like crazy and made him hard to take seriously. Sonny Strait, like most, started off a weak replacement in Season 3, but nowadays? He IS Krillin. He breathes so much life and likability into the character and for years I'd believed Sony would never have a role that could match or surpass it...until a certain yellow octopus teacher came along. While I also like how Mike Thiessen and Brian Beacock approached the role, they fail to stand out when stacked against Sony's take. Also, major props to Laurie Steele as Kid Krillin - her voice for him sounds exactly like a kid who'd grow up into Sonny Strait's Krillin.

Scott McNeil and Chris Sabat are both hailed as the best VAs for Piccolo by many, and I'd say that's right....but Sabat himself has gone on record to say that he believes his Piccolo is utterly dwarfed by Scott's even now, so I'm sort of inclined to believe him. Solid as Sabat's Piccolo has become, there's just this gruff, gravelly, badass quality to Scott's Piccolo that just cannot be matched. Aside from them, Dan Woren and Ray Chase were fitting VA picks for Piccolo (though Woren was sadly misdirected given where he featured in), and you just gotta have a soft spot for Paul Bandey as Big Green!

Chris Sabat was, however, the best voice for Demon King Piccolo in the Dragon Ball dub, which helped make his Piccolo Jr. better.

Vegeta....is a toughie. Chris Sabat was horrid as the character in Season 3, showed improvement in Season 4, came into his own in Season 5 onward but also sounded awful in the redub and phoned it in for a lot of his subsequent outings, and then ever since dubbing Kai, he's been excellent enough to secure his place as the definitive English voice of Vegeta. Like, his Kai and post-Kai performances are objectively the best Vegeta has ever sounded in Western dubs, he just embodies the role so much. ...And yet, whenever I think back to or revisit the first two DBZ sagas, it is exceedingly difficult for me to get Brian Drummond's Vegeta out of my head. The nostalgia is a large part of that, but on its own merits, Brian's Vegeta was just so deliciously sinister sounding and oozing with underlining arrogance and spiteful fury that made Vegeta seem so intimidating. This is the guy who made "OVER NINE THOUSAAAND!" and "MY WRAAATH!" so unforgettable! He did fine, if not a touch weaker, in the Westwood dub as well, though by the Buu Saga I definitely prefer Sabat's take. The only other English VA to come close to these two would be Kaiji Tang in Bang Zoom's Super dub, but even that's mainly due to him strongly channeling Sabat into his Archer-esque vocal portrayal.

Linda Young's Freeza remains iconic for many, and I will say that I can't pass any blame on her for having been in the role and any missteps she might've committed in it, as she was cast to be a soundalike replacement for the late (and sadly miscast) Pauline Newstone. I will also say that in her first five years voicing the part, from 1999 to 2004, her Freeza sounded pretty great and she was skillful at voicing the character as it had been translated. In Season 3 she'd been the highlight and its sole shining instance of competent voice acting, giving Freeza different, fitting voices for all his forms and nailing the character's sadistic evilness in spite of the scripts feeding her some truly horrendous dialogue. However, by 2005 and the redubbing of the Namek/Freeza sagas, Linda had, for whatever reason, decided to start voicing Freeza in this "tranny granny" voice, like a high pitched, chainsmoking old diva with obnoxious line reads and screams like Rita Repulsa, and the voice directors just...let her do that. And this was especially harmful for Freeza in his final form, as the voice acting did not match the character as depicted in any way whatsoever. Her being recast for Kai was a not pre-planned thing, but I was and still am so relieved it happened. It's what had to be done and indeed what should have been done a long time back.

The late, great Christopher Ayres is bar none the best dub VA for Freeza. He redefined how the character would sound like in English, delivering a take on him faithful to Ryusei Nakao's original portrayal while also making enough distinctions to stand on its own. While Ayres is still greatly missed in general and his passing was a huge loss for the industry, it wasn't a huge loss for the role of Freeza since Daman Mills is freakishly beyond brilliant at recapturing that voice and doing similar performances to carry on that legacy, so we are so fortunate to have him. Beyond them, the only other offical dub voice for Freeza to even begin to match up would be Derek Stephen Prince doing his Vexen voice for the character in Bang Zoom's Super dub.

Cell's an interesting case where all dub VAs to do Imperfect Cell sound alike and all suit him well, but for Semi-Perfect Cell, Travis Willingham surpassed Dameon Clarke in how he performed the voice prior to Clarke's reprisals starting with Kai, where he improved the Semi-Perfect Cell voice to stack up to how Travis did it. And Perfect Cell? Dameon Clarke stands alone there, unmatched. He is perfect!

Both Josh Martin and Scott McNeil give portrayals of Mr. Buu that work for his character. The same can't be said of Corby Proctor's strange Jar Jar-Gollum hybrid voice, and Spike Spencer trying way too hard yet failing to come off as convincing.

Justin Cook's initial outing as Super Buu was...off. He just sounded way too scary and ominous for a character who's supposed to be not just demonic, but savage, brutish, and petulant. Brian Dobson in the Westwood dub actually played the part better. But in practically every reprisal, especially by Kai, Justin proved able to easily match that.

Am I the only one who has a hard time stomaching Eric Vale as Future Trunks these days? From his first shot at the role all the way to the Kai dub, he absolutely nailed the character and endeared him to so many fans with his emotional performances, but afterwards he started making the voice way too gruff and snarly and it's made Trunks harder and harder to take seriously. I don't think he's no longer capable of doing Trunks as good as he used to since other roles like Yuki Sohma suggest that he still could, so I don't know what he's going for anymore. Sean Chiplock sadly never got the chance to go into more Trunks material since Bang Zoom's Super dub lasted those first two sagas, but I think he'd sound a lot better in the role.

Master Roshi had a great VA for him for Funimation's initial dub of Dragon Ball in Michael Donovan, and it's weird that he was never brought back for DBZ. Out of the other Ocean Group VAs to voice him, I only really liked Don Brown in The World's Strongest - Ian James Corlett, Peter Kelamis, and Terry Klassen never sounded right and were never convincing. Mike McFarland IS Master Roshi in English: he did a good job crafting the character's voice and playing the part from the start, and by the second, full dub of Dragon Ball and going onward he's just nailed it, sounding more and more natural in the role the more he himself ages. He gives the character so much charm, humor, and stern seriousness when needed that it almost, almost, makes his dated old pervert shtick easy to overlook! The only other good Roshi voice is Kirk Thornton is the Bang Zoom Super dub, but even he can't quite hold a candle to McFarland's iconic take.

Chi Chi has mostly had fine VAs whose portrayls of her have worked for what the character calls for. Of particular note are Carol Anne Day, Lisa Ann Bailey, Lara Sadiq, Nicole Oliver, and Cynthia Cranz.

I only really like Dave "Squatch" Ward and Dave Petit as the Ox King. Kyle Hebert's not awful or anything, but his Ox King never sounded natural. Best you can say is that it's better than Mark Britten's take.

Likewise I only really like Elan Ross Gibson and Linda Young as Fortuneteller Baba (who had some male VAs voicing her a lot for whatever reason?), and only Brian Drummond and Mike McFarland for Yajirobe, though with a bias towards Drummond in the latter role since he got it down earlier and his delivery was more memorable. And I will remain forever insistent that Yajirobe is a Chris Sabat role he never got. Sabat's Kuwabara voice seems meant for the part!

It seems to be an unpopular opinion but I preferred Ward Perry to Dale Wilson as Kami Sama. And Dale was very good as Kami, mind you, but Ward Perry just has a natural gravitas in his voice and carries an aged god-like quality that makes his Kami voice my favorite. Third place goes to Chris Sabat, as it should be a natural choice to have Kami and Piccolo share a VA, but it took until the dub of Kai for Sabat to get it down. Beforehand, his Kami was too wheezy and like a younger man doing a weak impression of an old man.

I prefer Chris Casan to Chris Sabat as Mr. Popo, but prefer Alvin Sanders to them both. Sanders is the only VA to give that odd looking caricature any dignity, and him actually being black helped as well.

I will freely admit that Don Brown remains the definitive King Kai voice in my mind, as he most effectively balanced silly clownishness with an aged wisdom and dignity to him. Dean Galloway in the Blue Water GT dub and Michael McConnohie in the Bang Zoom Super dub are also excellent, with the latter sounding the most like the OG Japanese voice for Kai. Sean Schemmel....I've gotten used to his King Kai and he performs the part more competently nowadays when compared to how he started, but I still think the voice he goes for is just not what the character called for. It sounds too stupid, everyone has made fun of it. I mean, on literally day one of that early Captain Ginyu: Double Cross VHS release back in 1999, the friend who lent it to me had to warn me that this stupid voice was coming! That out of all the poor replacement Funimation voices, it had to be singled out as being particularly awful! So it's bizarre Sean's still kept with it.

Ward Perry and Chris Rager are the only good King Yamma voices.

Young Andrew Francis was the best and most natural voice for Young Dende, but Maxey Whitehead is definitely the next best thing. While Laura Bailey's Dende was well acted, the voice she used couldn't really disguise the fact that Dende's being voiced by a girl, unlike her Kid Trunks. The less said about Ceyli Juliann Delgadillo, the better. As for older Dende, only Justin Cook does it great.

Only Bill Jenkins got Grand Elder Guru down right. Robert O Smith's creepy Alfred Hitchcock voice didn't fit the large elderly Namekian and didn't even sound weary enough. Chris Sabat sounded more weary in Season 3 but was clearly a fake old man voice that didn't require much from him, and he sounded a lot worse in reprisals.

Chris Rager is Hercule Satan. It's the role that literally launched his career as a voice acting and he's never missed a beat in reprisals of the character. Jamieson Price in the Bang Zoom Super dub fits him very well too, even if he's naturally easily eclipsed by Rager. While I could get what Don Brown was going for with his take, I just don't like the performance - we all know the Ocean VA who should voice Mr. Satan is Trevor Devall, but that Kai dub they did was never released so we'll never know if he ended up doing it or not. And Dave Petit as Mr. Satan is such a massive letdown. You'd expect the dub VA for Master Asia to easily nail Mr. Satan, and yet he gave us THAT???

Kara Edwards is definitively Videl. She did great as her voice since she started voicing the role and has only gotten better by Kai. Monica Stori in the Westwood dub isn't bad per say, but I feel Myriam Sirois would've been the more obvious and better casting choice there. Erika Harlacher was spot on casting for the character but was sadly hampered by Super's lackluster Videl-in-name-only material.

I could never quite buy Laura Bailey's Erasa, as she sounded like a sweet Girl Next Door trying too hard to sound like a ditzy diva. Kelly Sheridan pulled off her voice more naturally in the Westwood dub, but Alexis Tipton in the Kai dub is easily the best of the bunch.

Bradford Jackson is the definitive Oolong voice, and it shouldn't even be close, yet Bryan Massey, Richard Newman, and surprisingly even Ray Chase give surprisingly close enough to match his portrayal. The only real opinion I can give is that as much as I enjoy Massey in the role, I think that after Jackson left the second time, they should've given the role to Jeremy Schwartz, who's an even closer soundalike.

Once he finally shook off the absurd Harvey Fierstein impression that Paul Dobson originated, Chris Sabat has played the best Korin. Roger Rhodes, Paul Bandey, and Theodore Lehmann also have very fitting voices for the old cat and they work in their own ways. Ted Cole is by far the most baffling to me, as he opted to play Korin like Garfield even though he was coming off of Dobson's Fierstein voice, creating a huge whiplash in what's meant to be the same character.

Speaking of Ted Cole, though, his Yamcha is still my personal favorite voice for the character. Sabat's Yamcha is fitting too, but can also grate on you after a while and it's more than a bit awkward to have Yamcha and Vegeta voiced by the same person. The other best sounding Yamcha would be Grant George in the Bang Zoom dub.

For whatever reason, Tienshinhan has barely recieved a good dub voice. John Burgmeier stands out as easily the best of the bunch, though Brendan Hunter and (yet again) Ray Chase are good as well.

Chuck Huber is the definitive Emperor Pilaf and I will accept no substitutes. Not even Don Brown, Dean Galloway, or Tom Fahn.

Kent Williams is easily the best Tao Pai Pai, but Doug McKeag in the Blue Water dub did a fittingly menacing yet campy take on him as well. Scott McNeil in the Westwood dub of DBZ is also entertaining to listen to, but giving an oriential dressed character with an oriental sounding name a Russian accent was...questionable.

While the older dub for Mystical Adventure is pretty cringe on the whole, it featured easily the most fitting vocal performance for Master Shen the Crane Hermit from the late, great Robert Axelrod. The only VA who comes even close to comparing would be Clark Robertson in the Blue Water dub. Chuck Huber comes in third place here, I never much liked his Shen, especially compared to his Pilaf.

Jason Gray Standford and Justin Cook have both given us equally perfect vocal portrayals of Raditz. Likewise, Michael Dobson and Phil Parsons are both solid as Nappa, though here I'd say the latter gets a definite edge over the former since he plays the role straight as the cruel, brutish and imposing Saiyan commando Nappa is meant to be, whereas Dobson delivered a lot of his lines in too juvenille a way.

Dodoria's voices in the Funimation dubs all work for him, but John Swasey is especially well cast as he effortlessly bridged the divide between the higher, raspy take by Paul Dobson and the deeper, throatier take by Chris Forbis into one pitch perfect voice.

J. Michael Tatum is the only VA for Zarbon who was just flawless in his approach and performances, so it sucks that he parted with the role once Mira became his main DB role to voice. Paul Dobson also did a kickass job, giving Zarbon a more masculine characterization than I think would be expected of him, though the Australian accent was certainly a choice. Chris Sabat has been all over the place here - he did a spot on Paul Dobson impression in Season 3 but then settled into a more refined, vaguely British sounding voice until suddenly he began doing his flamboyant, campy Ayame Sohma shtick for Zarbon and it sounded awful and ill-fitting. Now that he's got the role again he's notably improved once more, retaining the Ayame voice but changing up the delivery so that we buy Zarbon is actually taking shit seriously and so we're able to take him seriously.

The ideal lineup for the Ginyu Force would be Brice Armstrong as Ginyu, Vic Mignogna as Burter, Chris Sabat as Jeice, David Kaye as Recoome, and Terry Klassen as Guldo, as those were all the best fits for those characters. For Ginyu I also love Richard Newman, Richard Epcar, and R. Bruce Elliot's versions - Dale Kelly is the only one who flat out sucked, as he was horrendously misdirected and sounded like a generic big dumb goon or an evil Popeye the Sailor Man. Don Brown was a good establishing voice for Burter, and while Vic can no longer voice him for obvious reasons, I'm glad Sabat is doing better in channeling him rather than Mark Britten, who was the worst Burter. While I like Scott McNeil and Ernesto Jason Liebrecht's Jeices in their series' better than Sabat's, Sabat as Space Australia Jeice in all the video games has been the most entertaining. Obviously David Kaye's original Recoome can never quite be measured up to, but as of the Kai dub Chris Sabat finally found his footing with the role rather than doing a bad attempt at Kaye, a weird Schwarzenegger voice, or a painfully unfunny blithering retard stereotype voice like before. And while Bill Townsley did alright as Guldo, I think Greg Ayres really refined and perfected the whiney froggy voice he was going for.

Jason Douglas is the only VA to get King Cold down pat. Bradford Jackson's approach was a bit too literal-minded in sounding like a posh, faygala king and then transitioning 100% into a threatening thug when swinging the sword at Trunks. Michael Dobson just sounded like a generic evil brute. Douglas gets down the king quality, the cold quality, and the subtle menace all in a fairly deep voice that's just deep enough and aged enough to perfectly suit the character.

On the Androids...obviously Todd Haberkorn was best suited for 19 seeing as the competition was a high pitched racist stereotype voice speaking in monotone and Cathy Weseluck trying way too hard to sound like a big dumb fatso. Both Kent Williams and Brian Dobson were stellar as 20/Dr. Gero, but the former became especially suitable for the role with each reprisal of it he's done. It's no contest with 16, as even before his improvement for Kai and beyond, Jeremy Inman's voice fit better than Scott McNeil's overly done giant voice. And while Chuck Huber and Meredith McCoy are the most iconic and perfectly suited for 17 and 18, I think all the VAs to for the characters did good enough jobs, including Colleen Clinkenbeard's 18 in Kai.

Duncan Brannan did the best Babidi, it's not even remotely close.

Beerus and Whis are simply owned by Jason Douglas and Ian Sinclair, though I don't think John DeMita and Doug Erholtz in the Bang Zoom dub were awful, they just could've been directed better.

Champa, meanwhile, is a case where the short-lived Bang Zoom dub actually managed to outdo Funimation. Kirk Thornton fits Champa's appearance and personality better than Ernesto Jason Liebrecht, and it's not even close, though Caitlin Glass and Tamara Ryan do come close to each other as Vados: their voices and tone are both perfect.

James Marsters as Zamasu is just...if anything sells Zamasu as one of the all-time greats of villainy in Dragon Ball, that casting does.

I slightly prefer Don Brown as Garlic Jr. (his monologue upon gaining immortality really clinches it for me), but Chuck Huber also put in a tremendous effort to bring life to the role so that he seems a bit more than just a throwaway filler villain. Should he ever resurface, I think Bill Townsley ought to have a crack at voicing him, as his Babidi voice was closer to Huber's Garlic than to Duncan Brannan's Babidi.

Dr. Wheelo has three VAs and rather curiously falls into the exact same situation as the three VAs for Andross of Star Fox - one of them (R. Bruce Elliot) fits a big scary villain but doesn't carry much of an old scientist quality to him, while another (Douglas Rand) sounds like a mad scientist but carries virtually no menace in his acting. And then there's the one, Ward Perry, who gets it down juuuust right.

Turles is another great Ward Perry villain role, though more so in the uncut Pioneer release dub than the TV dub where he put on what sounded like a forced impression of Brian Drummond's Vegeta. Chris Patton didn't really carry the same quality to his take on Turles in the redub, but in the games to feature Turles afterwards, especially by Xenoverse 2, he's become just as definitive a Turles voice as Ward.

Jonny Yong Bosch as Broly > Vic Mignogna as Broly, come at me, but I'm right. Also, Paul Bandey was actually the significantly better (and more entertaining) fit for Paragus in the Big Green dub of Movie 8, but the more aged Dameon Clarke fit Super's Paragus far better.

This doesn't seem the common opinion, but for the GT version of Pan I think Caitlynne Medrek of the Blue Water dub > Elise Baughman of the Funimation dub. She sounds closer to the character's age and doesn't deliver most of her lines like she's half-yawning all the time. Similarly, Carol Anne Day > Amber Cotton as Valese in that show. You just can't go wrong with Carol Anne Day!

Bura, meanwhile, is a case of when the English VAs get better and better. Parisa Fakhri had a decent voice but was a notably wooden voice actress who never really committed to selling her characters. Leda Davies in the Blue Water dub had more energy and I'd argue she fit Bura better than she ever fit Bulma. Brina Palencia took over from Parisa for a cameo in Budokai Tenkaichi 2, delivering a similar voice saying more competently acted lines. Lauren Landa, who's been Bulla ever since the end of Kai, is easily the best Bura voice, as she gets down the right voice, right energy, and right line reads.

Lastly, let's talk about the Dragon himself. Don Brown, Chris Sabat, and Dave Petit are all top tier voices for Shenron, all making him sound believable as a mighty, magical wish-granting dragon diety. Sabat has become easily the most iconic out of them and he does wonderfully....but my personal favorite remains Don Brown. Partly because of that growl he has that's very Tiger Head Cave from Aladdin sounding and befitting a dragon, but also partly because it's Don Brown. Look at his resume, particularly as DB characters like many mentioned on here, and would you ever guess that was him?

[ograndebatata]

While I will split the difference and admit Amaya as a villain could have been done well, I certainly had no problem with the version of her that appeared in the movie, and admit I'm scratching my head a bit at seeing that so many people seem to.

The Amaya in the finished movie is a nice lady who quickly becomes a cinnamon role that only pulls more at the heartstrings as she keeps finding herself in a worse spot yet decides to do the right thing in the end. And maybe I'm being pessimistic, but there’s a kind of potentially sad undercurrent to that.

Maybe it's just me, but a lot of audience members seem to have a problem with just actual good people these days.

Amaya is a really underrated character. Some people say she could've been better as a villain, but I disagree, largely because majority of these people only care about her if she's a version of her that exists in their heads. And very few like myself appreciate her as she is because of her role as queen and Magnifico's wife.

Her character is heavily tied with Magnifico's, most of her scene involves around him. She informs Asha of things to do when she becomes his apprentice, like keeping his tea hot and listen to him when he speaks; she convinces him to not use the book when he gets paranoid over someone else other than him using magic; she sees that he created a staff out of dark magic, calling him out for doing so after he swore that he'll never do so; joining Asha's rebellion after seeing just how the man she loved became the thing he hated.

However, we also get to see brief moments of her that are independent of Magnifico. She was very supportive of Asha becoming his apprentice as she knows how kind and generous Asha is to her people, which are the things Rosas is built on. And in the end, we see just how the kind of ruler she is and the kind of king Magnifico claims he is or should have been, supportive of her people to pursue and achieving their dreams.

She and Magnifico are straight up foils of each other. Magnifico is the talker and she is the listener; Magnifico talks about himself and Amaya listens to others; Magnifico despite having the power to grant wishes doesn't use it while Amaya not having any magic helps people pursue them; Magnifico refuses to grant the harmless of wishes for selfish reasons, she helps two people achieve theirs out of the generosity of her heart.

Her story is also on the tragic side as even though Magnifico is not an abusive husband, he does have the characteristics of one. Threatening her when he suspects her of being against him and even turning on her when she calls him out. People don't seem to notice this, but Magnifico is a powerful sorcerer, he has the literal powers to do anything to someone if they were to get on his bad side.

Amaya's story is about a woman who supported a man she loved into building a community out of their shared desire to make it a place of kindness and generosity. Upon seeing him slowly becoming the things that are against what she and him built this community on, she does what she can to stir him back to his former self. And when that man went off the deep end, she has no choice but to cut him off and take charge of the community he founded and became the leader he was supposed to be alongside her.

[ograndebatata]

Just so everyone is aware:

An international group of qualified mushroom identifiers who do worldwide identification in emergency cases have identified the Shroomers App as a potentially very dangerous system that could kill you if you try to use it to identify edible mushrooms. They use AI to generate almost all of their content, including their identification profiles on their app as well as their books and other materials. Not only is this unethical from a content creation standpoint, it is also extremely dangerous.

DO NOT USE APPS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES BEYOND SIMPLE CURIOSITY. A MISTAKE WHEN IDENTIFYING AN EDIBLE COULD COST YOU YOUR LIFE. DO NOT EAT ANY FORAGED MUSHROOM YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF BY SIGHT OR HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN PERSON BY SOMEONE WHO CAN.

ONLY BUY BOOKS FROM REPUTABLE SOURCES AND AT THIS POINT THAT MEANS ASKING EXPERIENCED PEOPLE WHAT BOOKS THEY USE.

Mushrooms are fun, amazing organisms. Enjoy safely.

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I don’t often reblog or talk about stuff outside of fandoms, but this is something I felt I should share.

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I have until Thursday, March 14 2024 to pay the last bit of late fees or else I get evicted. This puts me in danger of losing Roman, my animals, and as a second eviction it will make it impossible for me to be able to rent anywhere else, which will leave me homeless again. The nice landlord is paying for half which left me $1500 to pay. Once again offering tarot and tea readings as well and @scarsofbeauty & @saturnpandora are offering art commissions on their page. Please keep sharing to keep an afro-indigenous person and their kid housed and together. Roman and my animals are all I have left. (updated 03/12/2024)

$375 left due in 2 days (03/14/2024)

pp: teariche@gmail.com

ca: $starshooterr

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According to this article, California is likely to have its lowest primary turnout in the state’s history — 29%—"in part because more than 4 in 10 voters are not enthusiastic about voting for president or Congress, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey." Further: "So far, Republican voters have turned in 32% of the ballots, according to Political Data, Mitchell’s analytics firm that monitors turnout across the state. . . .While there are roughly equal numbers of voters older than 65 and younger than 35 in California, so far 57% of the ballots turned in have been from seniors and only 2% from younger voters." (emphasis added) It's not just California.

You don't have to be "enthusiastic" about the candidate you vote for, but you must vote against the candidate you oppose.

Not voting is not a statement of dissatisfaction with the system; it says you are wiling to accept whatever other people decide, even if it's bad for you.

VOTE. Do not let the other side win because you couldn't be bothered to fill out a ballot.

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11/30/23: KOSA is an anti-LGBTQIA+ censorship bill. It is essential you call THIS week. Tell them you are specifically against KOSA and especially against hotlining the bill.

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the Senator of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

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How to keep engaged in your writing? IF that sounds silly sometimes I am at lost when writing

My posts on rekindling inspiration and motivation can help with staying interested in your writing, too:

Guide: How to Rekindle Your Motivation to Write Guide: Filling Your Creative Well 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes! Would Rather Be Doing Other Things Feeling Unmotivated with WIP Getting Excited About Your Story Again Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists

I hope that helps! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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Well... while I will plead guilty to having gone in a completely different direction in my EoA fic-verse, that is indeed a very well thought-out scenario, and something that could definitely have happened and even been explored if the show had been slanted towards a slightly older audience.

The only thing I'm not very sure about is the language issue, because it seems that in the Ever Realm everyone somehow (magically, maybe?) knows "Ever Realm standard". Even Amaláy does not have any language barrier with Elena despite being centuries or even millenia removed from her.

But then again, individual languages are still known to exist, so maybe individual kisser-ups could still have gone down that route if they were particularly interested in earning Shuriki's favor.

Even with the language issue aside, though, this is certainly something that could have happened.

I imagine there were at least some younger citizens from the Northern Islands who saw that someone from their country was in power at Avalor and moved in, seeking their fortune. This kind of thing always happens during colonization, and I can see Shuriki encouraging it.

Imagine that. They could have been there for 41 years. How did they affect the culture? I imagine there were some interracial marriages as well. What about the language? I suppose Shuriki always held her native language as the "superior" one. Bet this also fucked with the upper class who desired to keep their status (better learn Northerner to please the new queen, folks!). And in turn, how were they affected when the Castillos came into power once more? I mean, there were children turned into adults who grew up with this mixed culture. Talk about language barriers with the younger kids.

Things to wonder about.

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I know I don't talk a lot about it on this blog (heck, I think I may never have talked about it at all), but as someone who had the Dragon Ball franchise as a part of his life since childhood, and who has tons of good memories because of it, this one hit me hard.

It is a very small thing to say in light of the impact that Dragon Ball (and a lot of other franchises, but Dragon Ball is the only one of those I'm intimately familiar with) had on millions, if not billions of people, but it's the only thing I can think of to convey how I feel.

As I said on Twitter, rest in peace, Akira Toriyama. Thank you for everything.

May he Rest In Peace legend.

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Thank you for this tweet! I did remember seeing something like that, but I wasn't sure of which one specifically it was. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

At the risk of sounding defensive, I confess I still think some of my theory holds up, because the Amulet clearly did something with at least Sofia's body. Even if the Sofia that we see in the final showdown against Vor was just a spirit (as Craig Gerber confirmed), Sofia's actual body was clearly sucked inside the Amulet as well, as we see it vanishing into it, and Amber looks distraught into the Amulet and later says that Sofia was sucked into the Amulet. Sofia's physical body may have stayed at the entrance or been transformed into a spirit or something else I can't think of, but it got past the front door, so to speak.

However, upon thinking it better, I do agree that with Elena it's a bit more ambiguous, as it is possible that Shuriki's vaporizing spell did destroy her physical body and the Amulet simply sucked her soul in before it went to the Spirit World and later gave her a new body based on the template it had, for lack of a better term.

I did more research, and looked to some quotes from Elena, and I was indeed correct when I say that Elena was in a Locked In Syndrome state inside of the amulet for 41 years. Meaning she was aware, but cannot move, nor communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles in her body except maybe for eye movement, blinking and crying. Except I think since her eyes were closed when she came out of the amulet, she had Total Locked-In Syndrome, or Completely Locked-In Syndrome (CLIS) where even the eyes are paralyzed. So she relied on her hearing, and the magic of the amulet to engage with the outside world I.E “With each deed preformed for better or worse, a power is granted, a blessing, or a curse.”

My evidence? In Elena: The Secret of Avalor, in the song My Time, Elena states “It feels so weird having my feet on the ground. It’s been a while since I’ve been walking around. With my own eyes, I can once again see.” And, she forgot how to walk. Which is a bit confusing considering the Sofia The First finale, Sofia had free will, and could walk, talk, and move in the amulet??? Either she spent wayyyyyy to much time in that amulet and sort of became one with it, or she actually died when Shuriki blasted her and the amulet pulled her soul inside instead of her actual body/vessel.

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From what I understand, going by stuff Craig Gerber said, what happened is that the Amulet broke down both Elena's and Sofia's bodies when it pulled her into them, leaving only their souls. My theory is that it did so to remove the need for things like sustenance and sleep, and maybe to, despite everything nevertheless soften the psychological impact.

Then, when they were released, the Amulet basically reconstructed their bodies. But in the meantime, there was a disconnect between body and soul.

With Sofia it wasn’t really a problem, as it only lasted a few hours... but with Elena, it was more so, as it only lasted 41 years. Still, given how relatively well-adjusted she is overall, I think the Amulet softened a lot of impacts considerably.

Just my opinion, though.

I did more research, and looked to some quotes from Elena, and I was indeed correct when I say that Elena was in a Locked In Syndrome state inside of the amulet for 41 years. Meaning she was aware, but cannot move, nor communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles in her body except maybe for eye movement, blinking and crying. Except I think since her eyes were closed when she came out of the amulet, she had Total Locked-In Syndrome, or Completely Locked-In Syndrome (CLIS) where even the eyes are paralyzed. So she relied on her hearing, and the magic of the amulet to engage with the outside world I.E “With each deed preformed for better or worse, a power is granted, a blessing, or a curse.”

My evidence? In Elena: The Secret of Avalor, in the song My Time, Elena states “It feels so weird having my feet on the ground. It’s been a while since I’ve been walking around. With my own eyes, I can once again see.” And, she forgot how to walk. Which is a bit confusing considering the Sofia The First finale, Sofia had free will, and could walk, talk, and move in the amulet??? Either she spent wayyyyyy to much time in that amulet and sort of became one with it, or she actually died when Shuriki blasted her and the amulet pulled her soul inside instead of her actual body/vessel.

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You guys know how to travel in a car with your canes, right? You know where to put them so they don’t kill you in an accident? You’re not just holding them on your lap?

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It’s been three years since I’ve written the first chapter of WBTL ❤️

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Reblog In 5 seconds for good luck