#ANYWAY.. ultimate recreational activity...

[icewindandboringhorror]

golf

[bethsfolklore]

No bc I agree with everything about this. I truly want to believe that everything wrong with the season five finale will be somewhat rectified in season six. Especially because we have almost a year until it airs. It won't be able to rectify the fact that Adrien wasn't there or the fact that he will never get the closure his character so desperately needs. However it can have Marinette actually think about what she's doing and have her change her mind and have her tell him (obviously as Ladybug). I'd rather it not narratively cause problems because it does upset me that this was one thing that genuinely had nothing to do with relationship conflict and it never should have been but all I want at this point is for Adrien to stop being left in the dark. It's been an ongoing theme in the show since season two and there are so many episodes showing why that shouldn't happen (especially in season four) and yet it keeps happening. The truth might hurt for him to hear but he deserves to know and I really do hope Maribug tells him because the absolute worst thing that could happen is someone else tells him.

ok since i’ve really only whined but not actually explained my reasoning lol, here is my take on the s5 finale. (this is long, sorry)

I think we’re all on the same page about the idea that gabriel being seen as a hero, by all of paris but especially adrien, is icky. and on top of that it does not feel good that marinette is supporting that lie, even if it’s out of love for adrien. most people are assuming this issue will be resolved somehow in 6, probably by lila exposing the truth. cool. that’s my hope as well. but even if that’s the case, i still dislike the framing of his wish and what the surrounding context seems to imply about it.

it is not my assumption that gabriel’s wish included green initiatives and a reformation of the parisian school system lol. I assume that his wish was to exchange his own life for nathalie’s. but as we know, wishes literally rewrite reality. the fact is that paris improved after his wish, so it is still related. he remade the world, and the new world ended up better. It all supports the idea that his wish was a good thing—a noble sacrifice that redeemed him in some sense. my impression is that even if (hopefully) he is exposed as hawkmoth, the actual wish he made will still be framed as admirable. obviously marinette found it noble enough to agree to lie to everyone about gabriel’s identity as hawkmoth.

which brings me to another pain point: the fact that gabriel essentially won the long battle against ladybug and chat noir. i’ve heard arguments that he didn’t win because he died and how is that winning? he got what he deserved in the end. but imo, he just put himself out of his own misery, because he was on the brink of death anyway because of his cataclysm wound, and he basically escaped having to face any emotional consequences from his literal terrorism and child abuse. and even if you don’t consider that a win, you also can’t consider marinette’s end of the deal a win either. her goal was to prevent hawkmoth from unifying the miraculous and making a reality-altering wish. which is exactly what happened. so she failed her mission. ladybug lost. and to me it’s sort of bizarre that the narrative seems to be framing that as a good thing? ladybug lost, but the new reality that resulted from it is so much better than the old one, and she is actively choosing to lie in order to protect the seeming goodness of that reality.

marinette is lying, of course, to protect adrien, which does not feel out of character. we’ve seen her do this before. but it is frustrating to me for precisely that reason. the final battle was meant to highlight how much marinette has grown over the past five seasons, but her choice here highlights the ways she has not grown. starting with syren in season 2, she has witnessed how much it hurts chat noir to be left in the dark and how it weakens their partnership. in that case, she convinced master fu to let him be in the know, and trust was restored. but then she continued a habit of keeping things from him, putting more and more distance between them, till it culminated with kuro neko in s4—a total breakdown of the ladynoir partnership, where chat noir renounced his miraculous. i would have thought that marinette would learn from that experience and realize that keeping people in the dark is harmful and that even if the truth hurts, adrien has a right to know it. but she once again made the decision for him, and when he finally finds out, it will be all the more painful to know that the person he loves and trusts most in the world lied to him. i actually really appreciate that marinette as a protagonist has such a good heart but is still such an imperfect character, so i want to respect this choice as a manifestation of her flawed but good intentions. i just can’t help but be really disappointed that after 5 seasons of making the same mistakes again and again, she has apparently not learned from them, which makes me feel she has not grown the way the writers say she has.

her facing hawkmoth alone for the final battle is supposed to be a sign of that growth—and yes, I can see how she has grown a lot in confidence and capability since her shaky debut as ladybug. but i also feel that her flying solo defies one of the central themes of miraculous: that in the fight against evil, good people need to stand together. just think of the difference between the s4 and the s5 finale. in strike back, ladybug is broken and sobbing because she has lost the miraculous and feels like a failure who is all alone. but then she is buoyed up by her faithful partner and all of paris, who express unbreakable faith in her and vow to stand by her side. that was so powerful! showing that she doesn’t have to be alone, and she’s not supposed to be alone, and that part of being a hero means accepting help and working with others to achieve good goals. this message was a major part of marinette’s character arc in s4 and it’s something that was introduced from the very beginning and has been supported over and over in the show. but then in “re-creation,” she has no team, and she doesn’t need one. which … good for her, I guess? But then why did we have 5 seasons of “you and me against the world” if in the end it was always going to culminate with “I'm sure we can figure out a solution if we work together. You … and me”—referring to Marinette and Gabriel, while Adrien is literally locked in a blank white prison hundreds of miles away?

it just really kills me that in kuro neko, adrien gave up his ring under the assumption that chat noir was not needed—that he was entirely useless to ladybug. and then the narrative proved him right. ladybug did not need chat noir to defeat monarch. she just needed his ring. the writers confirmed in their recent commentary that they had planned a bug noire fusion from the beginning, and they intentionally sidelined adrien so that could happen—they even had to figure out an excuse for why he wouldn’t be there. so they traumatized him with nightmares of destruction and fear of akumatization to ensure that he would once again give up his ring and conveniently remained locked away while bug noire faced down monarch alone.

you could argue that it’s better for adrien to have missed the final battle anyway, since facing his own father would just be even more traumatizing for him. i understand that. (that’s the reason i liked that in the owl house, it ended up being just luz vs belos, and hunter did not have to face him again.) but at the same time it feels so narratively unjust that chat noir—who has been fighting against hawkmoth by ladybug’s side since day 1—has zero part in seeing his mission through to the end. even though it’s all about him. because while marinette is the protagonist, adrien is the connecting piece of the whole story. it’s always been ladybug vs hawkmoth, and adrien is in the middle of them, because he’s both ladybug’s partner and gabriel’s son.

you’d think, logically, that as the connecting piece, Adrien’s decisions would be vital to the plot. That he’d have the power to tip it either way. but instead he is completely stripped of his autonomy—literally, because he’s a senti, and also symbolically in the narrative, because he’s simply removed from the equation. Like, he’s still central to the equation but he has no say in it. It’s all about him but he’s not even present. Everyone is fighting for him but he can’t fight for himself. Everyone is speaking for him but he doesn’t even have a voice.

the finale kind of sets up marinette and gabriel as narrative foils of each other, showing how they have the same motivation—to make adrien happy. and they make the same decision to protect that goal. which is interesting, sure, but also kind of effed up to me? i’m not sure what to take from the idea of the protagonist mirroring the antagonist in this way. that’s been done loads of times, but in this context, for a child audience, i don’t know what to make of it. what kind of message that is supposed to send to the children who are the primary audience of this show? ladybug is a good guy, and in the end, she’s just like the villain because they both love adrien and want to protect him. so that’s why she agrees to tell everyone the bad guy was a hero. ????

that gabriel/marinette parallel leaves adrien to parallel emilie, which makes sense and is fitting but also just sort of … depressing and again, lowkey effed up. that adrien ends up with the same narrative role as a corpse in a coffin. almost, like, macguffin-esque—a thing that motivates the agents of the story but has no agency itself. despite him being so central to both sides of the main conflict, his decisions don’t affect the outcome. because he doesn’t have the option to make any. because he’s not even present. both gabriel and marinette made a life-altering decision for adrien, thinking it was best for him, without considering that what’s best for him is to know his own story and make his own choices. him getting the rings was somewhat relieving, but it also felt like kind of a slap in the face. because it’s like, “look, adrien’s free! he has his amok and no one can control him anymore!” but, like, how free is a person who is living a lie? will he ever experience true autonomy, or will his life continue to be dictated by the decisions others make for him? will the narrative give him decision-making power or will his role continue to be symbolic?

one thing that makes this all extra dissatisfying is that Adrien literally does not have the option of getting closure with his father, because he’s dead. maybe a dramatic reveal in the middle of the final battle would not be the best way to go about it, but now he can’t have any sort of closure. in the owl house, it didn’t feel necessary for hunter to be present in the belos takedown because he already had his confrontation with belos in graveyard possession scene. belos tried to physically control him, and hunter broke free, and spoke his mind, and as traumatizing at is all was, it was good for him to be able to do that. it would’ve been so nice if adrien also had that opportunity. if he did break free from his father’s control, either by overcoming akumatization or the control of his amok somehow. or if not that, if he were just able to have one honest conversation with his father about emilie. like he did with his alt self in the paris special. it was so significant for the writers that bug noire detransformed and spoke to gabriel as marinette. why couldn’t adrien have done that? Marinette is the one to tell Gabriel that Adrien wouldn’t want him to make the wish and hurt someone else, that Adrien has made peace with his grief, that he has learned to cherish his mother’s memory without living in the past. wouldn’t that be even more powerful coming from adrien himself? if adrien was part of that final confrontation just as himself, we could even still have bug noire play a primary role.

i get that adrien being part of the battle is a risk, since we saw in chat blanc one option of how it could play out. but we also saw in the collector another potential way adrien might respond to learning that his father is hawkmoth—charging into battle by ladybug’s side. especially if he was given time to process the idea beforehand. it’s not impossible. you’d just have to compose the scene and its buildup a different way. so honestly it feels sort of lazy to just remove him for the sake of ease? and also sort of a waste of narrative potential? the villain being the father of one of the main characters is such an interesting plot element. imagine if luke skywalker did not ever face darth vader. if he never even learned that vader was his father. or if he learned that fact after vader’s death, which was the result of a confrontation he was not present for.

of course, i know adrien is not the protagonist. marinette is. and of course i want her to be empowered by the story. but i’m getting a little tired of what i see as kind of cheap feminism in ML. like, girl power for the sake of visibility so the writers can pat themselves on the back about it, if that makes sense? this show does have so much good feminist power with a strong female lead who has realistic flawless and a big heart, who overcomes self-doubt and other struggles, and who has proven time and again to be a smart, capable leader who has earned the trust of everyone on her team. but all of that sometimes feels undercut by the narrative treatment of adrien—like he has to be put down somehow to elevate marinette. ML has subverted gender roles in a lot of ways by having ladybug lead with her brain while chat noir follows with his heart. and adrien has a lot of other strong feminine associations—the focus on his physical appearance, the expectation of perfection and obedience, his soft and gentle nature, his romanticism, etc. And one of the biggest ones is all the ways he is trapped, all the ways he is pushed down and made to be submissive. they even depict him as a princess locked in a tower, with marinette as the knight in shining armor to save him from the evil dragon (his father). with adrien in that traditionally feminine role, it would have been empowering to see him to take a leading part in his own liberation. instead, he was locked away both literally and symbolically in favor of a solo bug noire confrontation, so marinette could look like a girlboss in her cool new outfit, taking on the bad guy all by herself, even when it would (imo) fit better with the themes of the show and her own character arc for her to fight alongside her partner. but as Thomas Astruc said, “She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?” (X) it just makes me feel that the writers cared more about the cinematic value and feminist brownie points of that battle than its narrative significance—which i feel could only be increased by adrien’s participation. “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing” … and that is all adrien was allowed to do.

i think a lot of fans at this point are just assuming that whatever feels dissatisfying/off will be fixed in s6. they’re trusting that the writers have a brilliant master plan that we just have to be patient and wait to see come together. idk, maybe i’m just tired. or a little jaded. i think there will be a lot to enjoy in s6, but i’m also prepared for disappointment. i honestly did not love many elements of s4 as well as s5, and i had expectations that weren’t fulfilled there either. i’ve felt let down by the writers many times now, so i expect that many of their future choices will  resonate with me. but i still love ML, and I am eager to see how everything will unfold. i’ve also read a lot of other analyses of the s5 finale, and there are great points being made on many sides. this is just my personal interpretation and opinion. i did not like the finale when i first watched it, and after sitting on it for months and trying to evaluate my feelings and look at it logically, i still do not like it lol. if you do, great! this isn’t intended as a personal attack on anyone—just me expressing my two cents, which ended up being more like $20. thanks for bearing with me if you read all this ✌️

[srovtl]

(You Call that Adorable?) Shino SR Card Story Translation

Show my ultimate dance on camera - Chapter 1

Shino: ……..

Shino: (Ugh, why doesn't my school homework include practical skills? I'm always up for anything that requires physical activity.)

Shino: (...Now that I think about it, Mitile and Cain were just talking about a dance that's been really popular on social media these days.)

Shino: Let's look it up, I think it's called…..

Shino: ………

Shino: This dance looks really fun.

Shino: But if I were to do it I'd make my movements more daring…

Figaro: Hi, Shino. Filming will resume soon. How is the progress on your homework?

Shino: Figaro, great timing. My ultimate dance has just been completed. 

Figaro: Ultimate dance? Weren't you doing homework?

Shino: This isn't the time to bother with some homework. More importantly, I need a camera.

Shino: Here, use my phone and record me.

Figaro: Record you….? Only Shino-kun would ask me to do something like that.

Shino: Really? If you don't know how to, I can teach you.

Shino:  Look, open the app, and press here to start recording.

Shino: So, for this particular dance move, move the camera like this…

Figaro: Waitwaitwait, hold on. Even I know how to record at least.

Figaro: Come on, who do you think I am? I'm Professor Figaro, a mere trendy items are no enemy of mine.

Shino: "Professor Figaro"? What?

Shino: Anyway, I'll leave the filming to you. I want to get it done quickly before I forget the dance moves, please.

Figaro: ...Alright, fine then. Come on, let's do this. Ready, go!

Show my ultimate dance on camera - Chapter 2

Shino: I'll do a turn here… Finally, a handstand on one hand--

Shino: Okay! Perfect...!

Shino: Heh, how was it? My ultimate dance move.

Figaro: That was really cool. So, can you check if I captured that ultimate dance move properly?

Shino: Oh, thank…

Shino: …….

Figaro: Oh, was it not shot properly?

Shino: No, it was. It's just that the camera work is not cool, at all.

Figaro: Eeh… But it shows your whole body clearly doesn't it?

Shino: That alone isn't enough. It lacks an impact. 

Shino: Dance videos these days have been getting more into the camerawork.

Figaro: I see, sorry. I'm not as knowledgeable about this kinda stuff as a pro like you.

Figaro: Is this what they call "Mirishira*"?

Tl note: Mirishira is a Japanese internet slang that means absolutely no information on the thing.

Shino: That's a slightly incorrect way of using it.

Shino: Anyway, like I said before, move the camera for each move so that my dancing stands out.

Figaro: Ah, that's what you meant earlier when you said "this particular dance move".

Shino: Since we're here, I'll teach you how to shoot a dance video.

Figaro: Eh, filming is about to start… Besides, you haven't finished your homework yet, have you?

Shino: Don't worry, Figaro. if it's you, I am sure you can remember it in 10 minutes.

Shino: And the homework too, with your help, we'll easily make it in time.

Figaro: Oh, I'm helping with the homework too…

A difficult request - Card episode 

Shino: Sage, are you taking a walk?

Akira: This voice... Shino? Huh, where are you?

Shino: Here.

Akira: Ohh! So you were up in the tree!

Akira: There are only tall trees around here… And you descended so easily, Shino is really light on his feet.

Akira: You know, in the dream I had the other day, Shino was dancing coolly with movements like you're doing now.

Shino: Oh yeah, you did say that in your dream, that I was good at dancing.

Shino: What kind of dance? 

Akira: There were a lot of cool dances where you moved your body boldly like you did just now, I think.

Akira: Like, you did somersaults, put one hand on the ground, kicked your foot up in the air, and did acrobatic things…

Shino: Somersaults and feet in the air… Is it something like this?

Akira: Wow, amazing! That's exactly like it!

Akira: Shino, that was awesome!

Shino: Heh, That's no big deal.

Shino: What other dances did I do? I might as well recreate everything I did in my dream.

Akira: Eh, are you sure? let's see, you also put your head on the ground and turn...

Shino: Turn with your head...?

Shino: I don't really get what that is by just words. Sage, show me an example.

Akira: Oh, an example!? That might be difficult...!

Akira: (If I tried, I'd end up having to ask Shino to carry me to Figaro…)

homescreen voice line

In your dream, I was an actor. Even with long scripts I only took about a day to remember? heh, so the so-called genius type. What else did I do? I was good at fan service? Blowing kisses to the camera…. *kiss* like this.

[roobylavender]

how do you think jason and dick respectively would react and behave if bruce died? say all that you can on the topic if tou don’t mind!

(you haven’t been very active these past few days. i hope you’re happy and doing well <3)

i wish i knew when this was sent! i'm so sorry for not responding sooner but i hope you are doing well too 🩵

a lot of this really depends on both how bruce dies and when bruce dies and thematically what you want to get out of it. post-new 52 canon has done a terrible job of allowing any characters to move past a designated emotional status quo so dick and jason (as well as other members of the franchise) are defined by static character traits more than they are by any kind of individual growth. you can't recreate a knightfall type of event anymore because continuity is no longer linear and consequences are no longer important as they are inevitably rewritten every few years via a multiverse event

all of that said. i think the best prediction of anything that comes to mind is one where dick absolutely crashes out and jason takes it surprisingly well. because dick's narrative progression up through as far as i bothered to read of dc / batman continuity (early early 00s) and with a somewhat apathetic view of nightwing in mind put him and bruce in this odd position of like. deep mutual respect and longing but also significantly insurmountable communication issues. and i do kind of like keeping them there like obv it should improve over time but there will always be one primary obstacle to any semblance of complete closure between them and that is bruce. because his fear of holding dick back and losing him that way outweighs his fear of losing him any other way (emotionally. not physically. obv his fear of losing any robin to death outweighs anything period). so to me the dick crash-out should be the worst because it will stem from the most unresolved situation of any of those existent between bruce and his children and as many complaints as dick will have had of bruce over the years ultimately he loved him more than anything and the thought of maybe not living up to the expectations he made up for himself in his head and then subsequently imposed on bruce will make him pretty deeply depressed and maybe even caustic because no one will understand. and he will finally have to confront the various ways in which he's isolated himself emotionally and how it's untenable moving forward

i say jason will take it surprisingly well not to promote my own bias or anything but moreso because i think writers and fans like to keep jason in this stasis where he cannot exist outside of bruce / the batman when realistically he knew bruce for three years. three very important years and obv the post-resurrection obsession and intense desire to understand and be able to grieve himself properly was extreme but like it has to be resolved at some point. and the more jason tries to resolve things within himself and interrogate his worldview and gain a better understanding of who exactly it is that he needs to serve if not arbitrary citizens of gotham harmed by the freakazoid of the week the more likely it needs to become that bruce's inevitable death is acceptable to him. like obv he will be sad but i think it is imperative that he no longer embodies the whole "if he killed you i would have searched to the ends of the earth for him" or whatever the line was shtick. i'm not saying jason can't be angry but he has to like.. understand that an eye for an eye is not a way to move through life. and i mean personally i want bruce to die in the most completely normal set of circumstances anyway like maybe he gets crushed under a building or arbitrarily shot or something nothing magnanimous but simply so inconsequential as to remind everyone around him of his utter humanity. so i don't even think intense anger would be in the cards for jason in this scenario like at worst he would probably be bewildered and uncomfortable but not postal

[polliwoggers]

Not sure if this has been answered, but what is your interpretation of Zero-2?

you're all good, I don't think I've talked about this before. Mostly, my interpretation boils down to "they're not LITERALLY Zero, but they might as well be. Mostly."

Zero dies at the end of DL3, very solidly defeated by Kirby and Gooey. In the transition to his final phase, though, he loses his hard outer shell, which cracks open and falls away as the battle continues. It shows up again in K64, held together by bandages, on Zero-2.

Zero was the only active Dark Matter queen in Kirby's galaxy and dimension, and was therefore vitally important to the continuation of the Dark Matter species in those areas. Without him, the existing stock of Dark Matter drones would be the last generation of Dark Matters before facing extirpation, and they wouldn't even have a leader to see them through it! This is a major problem for a species that (largely) operates as a hivemind with their leader calling all the shots.

Dark Matter drones have the minimum amount of actual Dark Matter required to function as part of the species. They can't afford to donate any of their Dark Matter to create offspring -- there's just not enough to go around, and it's not their purpose as a drone to reproduce anyway. To attempt it would kill the drone and ultimately achieve nothing.

However, like with puffballs, if enough Dark Matter drones pitch in together, they may be able to achieve… something. The drones just wouldn't survive that process. And, on the precipice of extinction, the existing Dark Matter drones who had served under Zero were desperate enough to try -- and there were a lot of them.

The drones converged within the shell of their leader, hoping to recreate him, but something went very wrong with Zero-2. In desperation, the Dark Matter drones had thrown whatever Dream Matter they could to supplement what little Dark Matter their sacrifice could muster, but it only created misshapen amalgam with a leaking tail, veins spilling from its sides, and a gaping hole where Zero's eye used to be. They wanted a new queen, but I don't think that's what they got.

Whatever Zero-2 was, they did not live long enough to really find out. Attacking any planet is a dangerous game with someone like Kirby around, even if you purposely avoid going after Popstar! If they had survived, I think they would have a really unique relationship between the plurality of their origin and their single-minded goal of emulating a dead queen they never truly met.

They are significantly less powerful than Zero was, which partly ties into how they were defeated by something like Ribbon's Crystal instead of the golden weapons required to kill most other Dark Matter-based bosses (Triple star, Love-love stick, Rainbow sword, etc.). I'll talk more about golden weapons when I cover Galaxia.

Following the deaths of Zero, Zero-2, and Dark Nebula, there are no more Dark Matter queens in Kirby's galaxy. What few Dark Matter globs remain are living on borrowed time, and the species will soon become extinct.

[sepublic]

We don’t know what mysterious power runs through the Central Units, so I’ll HC that it emits gamma radiation; We know the Omega Cannon from Hunters also has it. So if we make both versions of the Omega Cannon the same/connected (which I think works, the Hunters version also fires periodic exploding shots), we could say that Samus depleted/released the energy powering the Omega Cannon after defeating Gorea.

But the upgrade, the capability, was always still there; Just like how you can run out of missiles, but once you unlock them, you can always replenish them from scratch. Samus just needed to find that same energy, that “ultimate power” again to do so. And lo and behold, the Central Units run on it, or something similar.

If we go with the HC/explanation that the Omega Cannon is designed to harm the user, so as to deter Gorea from copying it, then this could explain why Samus drops it after defeating each EMMI, when we know from a gameplay perspective at least that she has infinite uses; As long as the Omega Cannon is active, its radiation will damage Samus, and so she releases it ASAP. No good keeping the Omega Cannon for the next EMMI if it kills her before that encounter; And Samus knows by now that each EMMI has a corresponding Central Unit to restock with anyway.

Likewise, we know beta radiation causes Metroids to undergo mitosis. Mother Brain used this method on two different occasions to breed Metroids on Zebes. She controls the facilities, basically everything, and whenever she dies there’s a big explosion.

So HC that Mother Brain’s power comes from a nuclear reactor emitting beta radiation; Given her and the Central Units are the same type of tech, they also run on radiation, but use different types since they’re different models. Mother Brain exposes Metroids to her reactors 24/7, enabling them to reproduce. When she’s destroyed, Mother Brain is no longer maintaining the reactors, causing them to go into meltdown and explode.

You know how in Zero Mission, you can return to Tourian after destroying Mother Brain, and find the lava replaced with green liquid that harms even the Gravity Suit? It’s because the lava/acid from before got irradiated, that’s why; It might be some sort of battery acid that helps to power Mother Brain, and got over-charged from the reactor meltdown.

This radiation is powerful enough to keep an advanced supercomputer running; It contributes to Mother being far more advanced than the Aurora Units modeled after her. It also means that in the event of nuclear fallout, it takes a while for Space Pirates to detox the environment. This is why it took so long to rebuild Mother Brain; The Space Pirates needed to recreate her from Tourian’s systems, but they needed to clear the facility of radiation to do their work. It took both an extensive cleaning operation and waiting out the half life for Tourian to be repaired for Mother Brain’s revival.

[unrealistic-ideas-for-writers]

Expansion of my very dumb HSR isekai-adjacent dream

pt 2. of this nonsense, but this should make more sense. starting off with a character sheet and name poll, bc I have *no* self control with oc creation :3

Path:

Combat Type: Fire

Character Type: Playable Echo/System User

Rarity: [Error]

Species: Human

World: [Error]

Faction: [Outlander]

Kit Outline(???):

Basic Attack

Thrown for a Loop --> [User] takes a steady stance and throws their hand axe at the enemy. It returns to their hand at the end of their animation. Deals Fire damage equal to 100% of [User's] ATK to a single enemy. ER regen: 15

Skill

The Mad Max --> [User] un-holsters and fires their sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun. The animation ends with two empty shells ejecting from the double barrel break-action. Deals Fire damage equal to 200% of [User's] ATK to one main target, and 75% to two adjacent targets. ER regen: 20

Ultimate

Napalm Heartbeat --> There is a close up of [User's] face where the wipe blood from a cut on their cheek. The cut seals up and the blood sparks, bursting into flames. The flames can vary in color based on buffs. They snap their fingers and attach Blood Tie to a teammate. ER cost: 145 ER regen: 5

Talent

Blood Tie --> A flaming ring of various colors coils around the partnered teammate like a snake lasting for 3 of [User's] turns. Whenever the tied teammate uses a skill or follow up attack, [User] also makes a follow up attack using their Hand axe, dealing Fire damage equal to 400% of [User's] ATK blasted unevenly to enemies, prioritizing highest total HP. ER regen: 30

Technique

Let's Do the Time-warp Again! --> [User] watches curiously as flames dance across their forearms before dispersing. Napalm Heartbeat regenerates 5 extra energy for the first two turns of the battle.

Major Trace 1

Thicker than Water --> Prior to the activation of Blood Tie, every 10 points of energy generated for Napalm Heartbeat enhances Blood Tie up to three stacks: 1st: 15 ATK% boost to [User] and tied Teammate 2nd: 10% All-type RES penetration to [User] and tied Teammate 3rd: 12% Crit DMG boost to [User] and tied Teammate [User] cannot collect extra stacks for Napalm Heartbeat in Blood Tie state.

Major Trace 2

Love, Come in --> When Thicker than Water is capped, attacks done by [User] and the tied Teammate increase damage by 160%.

Major Trace 3

The Water is Fine --> Follow up attack damage increases by an additional 20% when Crit rate is over 70%.

Minor Traces

Total ATK increase (3 minor trace): 15% Total Crit DMG increase (3 minor trace): 15% Total Speed increase (2 minor trace): 7 Total Effect Hit Rate increase: 6%

--

HOLY SHIT- that was long. I'm very bad with numbers and not the best and recreating combat ideas into kits. Feel free to give some critiques on the scaling bc I dunno what I'm doing. If I did my math right (which I probably didn't-)

And I start off this character with 3149 attack, and a crit split of 70:170 (which is what my Acheron looks like), and all buffs are applied from their kit, they should (?) be hitting around 122K per follow up attack????

I hate math. Anyways- I'm unfortunately taken with this nonsense. More of this + the next Beneath the Sands reblog coming soon!

[nirogryphon]

whats ur parallel fanon

i'm assuming you saw this post, right? are you talking about that specific guy? that's adzuki. idk if you're wanting headcanons about what i think about that boss or an oc lore dump. to me they're both, so that's what you're getting. it's gonna get long, get some popcorn.

in my splatoons world post-memverse runthrough, beans (my four) beg marina to let it out because he saw that it was sentient and wanted it to join his bf as a polycule. It's got a very similar level of kindness and whatnot to beans, but is extremely dry, blunt, and overall "emotionless" (not true, we'll get to that).

you see, i don't think parallel canon is 4, but merely a program made to mimic 4. Marina wanted one of the best in the NSS, so she asked Beans (instead of Ty, who was an elite, but then again, who got their ass handed to all those years ago again?) to offer up a brain scan to get a copy of that fighting skill of theirs for what would become the Parallel canons. Unfortunately, like with any technology, this wasn't perfect, especially with someone who was sanitized like how beans is. That scan ended up grabbing some other aspects of him, like a bit of his personality and, mainly, his fear of himself. He's gotten over it for the most part, at least that's what he thought anyways. When testing, fighting a perfect copy of yourself isn't going to pop up really at all, so this doesn't come up as an issue until Marina's released her little game for the sanitized to use, allowing the one freak scenario to arise.

The rogue code, formerly dormant, activates immediately when beans ends up confronting parallel canon. He's hesitant at first, but remembers it's not him, merely code made to look and fight like them. So, without much worry, he begins to charge at it for the fight, that code kicking in to overdrive and making it act the exact way beans would if it were the other way around. It retreats. It cries out, garbled, in supposed simulated fear. Beans stops in his tracks, staring down at the clone, only seeing his socked face staring back in the reflection of the mask.

This sparks a snowball effect of new programming being written without an author, a program learning, becoming sapient, alive. A scenario that forces one to confront something he wasn't fully ready for and another to realize what it is. Subsequent run attempts, the two keep learning about themselves and eachother in combat, regardless on if either of them like it, until eventually coming to a rather peaceful confrontation, a realization that neither want to hurt the other, and yadda yadda yadda something something long messy story short it's a reconnection with the self and learning to love oneself again. I don't want to get into detail here, I'm personally still torn on whether or not this exact part should be sfw or not, so, lol.

Regardless, it's still ultimately what the memverse was made for: helping the sanitized remember and become themselves again, and while it isn't an evil agent 4, what we got works way better with what I had already and it's just perfect.

As for adzuki itself, I'm not sure exactly the details on its anatomy when given the physical form outside of the memverse. I do want to stick to a very similar palette to what PC has in the memverse, as well as being made out of goo still, but does that mean it's a physical jelleton in the walking world? Don't know for sure yet. I'll work that out in time. Adzuki's voice is an AI recreation of Beans', sounding extremely similar, but obviously synthesized.

As for personality, Adzuki is a lot like beans in its ideals and bonds. However, due to being based off code not meant to emote or show tone, it struggles a lot in doing so, save for a few exceptions. It can only really express emotion through body language instead, and a lot of what it says is extremely clinical, blunt, and dry. Think Data from Star Trek. Of course, that doesn't mean it is emotionless, quite the opposite. Adzuki merely expresses emotions very differently than the regular inkfish. There's also a few ways to gauge how intense the emotion it's feeling is via how unstable the goo it's made out of is or by how bitcrushed its voice has gotten. Essentially: the drippier and messier it is, or the more low quality the voice is, the more intense the emotion it's feeling is.

Some exceptions that break that stoic mask of sorts can be via substance use, like drinking or smoking weed. Once that code is overwritten inside it during these exceptions, Adzuki is almost indifferentiable from beans beyond appearance.

Adzuki, unlike canon PC, loves using the order roller the most out of all the order weapons. It's extremely annoying with it, and enjoys sneaking up on someone to vert-swing them.

[tobiasdrake]

Here we are. We've unmasked our companion, and it's time for a proper interrogation.

Ryo doesn't talk you into jumping; She tries to talk you out of it. She's trying to protect people from the PK phenomenon that her suicide created. An unwilling participant in a psychic despair spiral that preys on people in crisis.

Yeah, I like Ryo. My heart breaks for her. This is a rough situation to be in. Whatever her reason for jumping was, she doesn't deserve this. Nor do the victims of the PK event she couldn't possibly have known that her death would create.

The tragedy is that she only had two years left to live anyway. Death was coming for her one way or another. She stopped her elevator before it arrived at Horrible Violent Mangling Death By Clawing And Gnashing Teeth Floor.

But, of course, she doesn't know that. Neither does Vivia.

I wonder if the event will end, if someone finally chooses not to jump? Sometimes PK events work like that, especially the kind that seek to recreate the moment that caused the reality-warping eruption of emotional energy in the first place.

Sometimes, simply thwarting the recreation is all it takes for the event to break down. But sometimes not. There are no consistent rules when ghosts are involved.

Come on, Yakou! You're Vivia's lifeline here! You got this, man! I believe in you!

Vivia, stop that! You're in the throes of a psychic domain that's feeding off your despair! Now is not the time for your shit!

Vivia wants to die some day but he's not actively seeking to die. He's anticipating death but he's not suicidal. However, that's a distinction that gets fuzzy when psychic energy starts fucking with your brain.

Ryo's getting desperate and going for the hard sell here. But I do think it's going to be Yakou that ultimately brings him back down.

Oh look, more manifestations are about to arrive! Psychic manifestations of the PK event, or the spirits of the other victims locked in the same cycle of despair as the building itself?

VIVIA NO.

The moment you got on the elevator was the moment you were exposed to an ocean of residual despair that is now fucking with your mind! Come on, man. You're the spooker detective. You know better than this!

Both of them. Simultaneously. That's what it means to have a foot in both worlds.

It's Yakou. It's gotta be Yakou. Yuma... tries. But we've seen that Vivia cares a great deal for Yakou. Enough that he was willing to knife-fight Yuma in the Mystery Labyrinth for him. Vivia loves Yakou.

YOU SHUT YOUR VAMPIRE MOUTH, that is the PK event talking. Silence the despair and take a moment to try and think clearly.

[lonniemachin]

me when my mutual tells me to do something 🫡

jean-paul valley + some azrael cycles talk under the cut for length. jesus.

anyway my thoughts are a little disjointed but the concept of an endless cycle of creation and destruction (what the ouroboros can symbolize) came to mind when i was talking about the way jean-paul has like, 4 counts of the destruction and recreation of his selfhood. you have sword of azrael 1992 which barely introduces us to him before the system is activated and he’s made aware of his place in this cycle of violence and death, he forgets his own name as a result of his dissociation at one point, but when azrael acts as a rescuer he remembers (my name is jean-paul valley. that was my father’s name too) and is set up for knightfall and associated arcs, where he’s still confused and lost in the matters of the self and fills that void of personality with batman.

that in and of itself goes through phases of getting worse and getting better but ultimately becomes a death spiral in which jean-paul attempts to replace himself entirely with the brutal, armored war machine, righteous avenger batman-that-is-also-azrael — another persona that’s created — only to be destroyed again when he faces off with bruce and bruce reclaims the mantle, the symbol, the spirit of the bat.

then jean-paul spends time building himself up after batman, which is kiiind of destroyed again when he discovers his origin as having been genetically enhanced with “animal fluid”, and spends days in a dissociative state where he can barely speak. its ultimately azrael’s developing role as guardian which brings jean-paul back to building himself up, but the self he’s built is destroyed again when he discovers a terminal illness. he returns to azbats, but is brought out of it again - a chance to build himself back up, but then he’s killed, and he dies. and he’s brought back as a black lantern.

and then the new 52 happens. he’s alive again. he goes through another pseudo-knightfall arc. and sword of azrael 2022, where he finally begins to approach azrael as his own, traumatized person, just as stuck in the cycle of violence as he is. but now it seems he’s back on the decline.

constantly being destroyed and created and destroyed and created again in an endless cycle that has to do with the cycle the order of st. dumas’ abuse has he and azrael trapped in. constantly trying hard to break free but never quite succeeding. and every time he’s close to it he’s destroyed again. sometimes even dying about it.

and some/quite a bit of it has to do with his actions and choices. his own struggle to acknowledge his own anger isn’t all azrael. his struggle to channel his yearning for strength and acceptance into something that doesn’t put himself and others at risk, though a lot of that can also be pinned on his abuse as well.

it’s so. it’s. it is. !!! it’s!!!!! it’s sooooooo 😆!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[calico-kiwi]

The Coffee Trials

Chapter 3: Operation: Begin Skye’s Ridiculous Coffee Trials 2.0 Where We Recreate Our Favorite Beverage From Scratch Without a Recipe (and possibly think of a shorter name) is a go!

Fandom: Maribat (Miraculous Ladybug x DC)

Tags: Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Original Character, fluff & Shenanigans, no plot & no update schedule

Work Summary: Both Tim Drake and Marinette Dupain-Cheng are incredibly successful and busy people. Two people who both view coffee as their lifeblood. When they find themselves needing each other to obtain ultimate coffee rights at their favorite cafe, two total strangers become allies. And friends. And perhaps eventually… something more.

Chapter Summary: Tim and Marinette reconvene at the cafe, where they both agree to participate in the second Coffe Trial. It's there where the trials officially begin. But Skye, always full of surprises, has yet another (unintentional) twist.

Links: ao3 work, ao3 chapter, First Chapter, Previous Chapter, Next Chapter

Read below the Keep Reading!

It had been less than 24 hours since Tim’s, strange but albeit somehow unsurprising, interaction with Skye and Marinette at the coffee shop. He’d been thinking about it all night. And, oh wow it was daytime now. Then yeah, he’d been thinking about it all day too.

He’d gotten a text sometime late last night from Marinette confirming her number and wishing him a good night. Immediately, Tim saved her contact as “Marinette (coffee thief)” and proceeded to raid the house for any available snacks.

It wasn’t until it was once again time for Tim’s nightly visit to the cafe that he’d finally come to a decision. He walked in to find Marinette already sitting in what he assumed was her regular spot talking to Skye.

As soon as the young barista noticed him, their face split into a smug smile. “So what have you decided?” She said it like she already knew his answer.

“I’ll do your silly little second Coffe Trial,” he says, noticing the way Skye’s eyes light up. “ If Marinette agrees to it too. I mean, I beat your first one. I’m sure I can beat this one too.”

“Excellent!” Skye says with a clap of their hands. “Marinette already agreed to it and said she’d go through as long as you did. We can start tonight.”

Marinette snorts from her spot on the couch. “You really have a flair for the dramatic. That last sentence sounded so ominous I’m almost scared for my safety.”

“Almost scared is not fully scared, and so I take your confidence in my ability to not put you in active danger with a bow,” Skye says, ending their retort with an over-exaggerated curtsy.

Rolling her eyes Marinette simply tells the barista, “Ok you theatrical ninny.”

“Ninny?” Tim questions with a barely repressed smile.

Marinette blushes. “My, uh, erm, the first way I learned English was from someone who’d been in Britain for a considerable amount of time, and was a bit of an… outdated old source.”

Tim decided not to comment on the way he saw Mari ever so slightly flinch and discreetly glare at her purse, which sat on her lap. Who was he to judge someone else for being a bit crazy and/or eccentric?

Hell, he throws on a costume and uses a grappling hook to swing across buildings with the adoptive father who dresses up like an emo and depressed bat at night. And that was putting it mildly and barring a whole lot of just as if not more crazy shit.

“Anyway,” Skye says, while wiping down tables “how would the two of you like to proceed?”

“Oh! I have a quick question before we start-“ Marinette replies. “Where exactly will we be making The Motherload? I’m assuming you’re not offering up the cafe’s equipment to us.”

Grinning, the barista pauses her cleaning to place both hands (one still holding a rag) on their hips. “That’s an excellent question, poppet!”

Tim raises an eyebrow and scoffs. “Poppet?”

Raising their hands up in a show of surrender Skye teases, “Hey, I ain’t the one who started using random British words, but I’ll sure as hell jump on the bandwagon.” Her gaze slides over to Marinette, who’s shaking her head.

“Answering your question though, you can make it wherever you please. As long as it’s not in here. Whether it be at one of your guys’ places, or a random cafe you’ve decided to rent out or comondeer, it can be wherever. The drink itself isn’t super complex, so I already know you guys own the required equipment”

Marinette nods before looking over to Tim. “So,” she starts, “how do you wanna do this?”

“Well, seeing as there are no negative consequences when asking for a hint, why don’t we get this week’s hint now? We can brainstorm after and just hang in the cafe the rest of today,” Tim suggests.

Marinette opens her mouth to respond, but before she gets the chance Skye starts waving their arms around frantically. “WOAH WOAH WOAH! No negative consequences?! Did I not mention the consequences?”

Tim narrows his eyes at the barista, and Marinette can clearly be heard in the background saying, “Oh for Gods’ sakes, tu petite merde .”

Skye’s eyes go wide, and she pales slightly. “I-“ Her lips purse. “I didn’t mention the penalty?”

“NO!” Tim and Marinette cry out in sync, looking exasperated.

“Guys I’m so sorry I swear I thought I’d told you there was a price for getting hints. It must’ve slipped my mind when I made the slides and when I was telling you guys.”

Tim sighs, but after running a hand down his face he says, “Well, what’s the penalty for a hint?”

Skye goes back to wiping tables as she tells them, “In exchange for receiving a hint, you have to spin The Wheel of Punishments. Which, as the name implies, is a wheel loaded with various punishments. The punishments range from challenges to scavenger hunts, tasks, and quests.”

“I’m almost scared to ask,” Marinette interrupts hesitantly, “but what do you mean by quests?”

Tim chimes in, adding, “If Skye’s the one making them, they’re gonna be ridiculous.”

Skye grins, mysteriously reassuring, “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough. So, you two still want a hint?”

Marinette and Tim lock eyes, and after Tim gives a shrug, Marinette answers, “Why not?”

Tossing the rag onto the next table they were about to clean, Skye starts skipping towards the front counter. “Perfect!” they exclaim. She hops over the counter and ducks behind the register. The sound of cabinets opening can be heard, before Skye stands up, this time holding a colorful wheel akin to those found on game shows.

“Come one, come all! Step right up and spin the wheel!” Skye makes a grand gesture, sweeping her arm towards Tim and Marinette as they walk over to her. “So, which of you two lovely fellows would like to spin The Wheel of Punishments?” 

Looking over at Marinette, Tim asks, “May I?”

She smiles at him (those definitely aren’t butterflies he’s feeling in his stomach. nope nope nope. probably just his body reacting to the lack of caffeine) before offering, “Go right ahead.”

Taking a breath, Tim steps up to the wheel. He notices that it’s somewhat small. The diameter couldn’t have been more than the length of his phone. Despite that, it was divided into 16 different sections which alternated between the colors of the rainbow. Each section was labeled with one of four letters: C, S, T, or Q. Following each letter was a number.

“Each letter,” Skye starts to explain, “Represents one of the four categories I mentioned earlier. C is for challenges, S is for scavenger hunts, T is for tasks, and Q is for quests. The number represents the specific objective. I have a numbered list of different challenges, a numbered list of different scavenger hunts, etcetera etcetera. Go ahead and spin, then I’ll tell you the objective of whichever you land on.”

“Alright then,” Tim mutters under his breath. He tentatively reaches out towards the wheel before spinning it. They all watch, transfixed, as the wheel starts spining and then begins to slow. Finally, the dial lands on a red section labeled Q#3.

“Which one’s that?” Marinette asks eagerly.

Grabbing her phone from their jeans pocket, Skye replies, “Let me check!”

Not even a moment later, Skye’s lips split into a devilish smirk. She looks up at the two (now very concerned and slightly alarmed) participants of The Second Coffee Trials and pretends to innocently bat their eyes.

“Oh how wonderful!” they cheer, obviously amused.

“I’m actually so scared now,” Marinette whispers; to which Tim nods.

“Every hint comes with a price; you’ve chosen risk, you’ve rolled the dice; a quest which may lead to adventure or woe; to lands beyond, you must go; there is an action which you must do; while bringing me back irrefutable proof.”

“There were absolutely zero actual directions in that,” Tim points out.

“That’s because I’m not done, you impatient swine,” Skye huffs out. “May I get a drumroll please?”

Marinette obliges, lightly drumming her fingers against the counter.

> Next Chapter

AN: Forgive my many spelling mistakes, I have the horrible tendency to only write for this fic in the dead of night. i have this fic on ao3, but I realized I never posted it to tumblr as more than a link. if you wanna keep up with it, but dont wanna subscribe to it on ao3, just ask to be added to the taglist either through this post or an ask to my blog and I'll keep you updated!

[viily]

ok tierlist jumpscare real quick but listening to fafyl rightnow is making me remember my placement on this thang because wow i make it seem like i dont even like fafyl but at this very moment in time its like, being processed by my headache-brain as the most ultimately ideal composition of audio that could possibly be listened to at this moment. so genuinely i think this tierlist just represents what i think about the album when im not listening to it but when im actively listening to them they immediately become regarded as S tier. but this is all recreational anyways and none of these metrics actually matter. Wow let me mend the past is the best song ever.

[lucy-vanpelts]

STELLAS WEST SIDE STORY 1961 VERSUS 2021 BASED ON MUSICAL NUMBER THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR (it’s long):

Prologue: 1961. Jerome Robbins. That guys really talented.

Jet song: 1961. This one is close but I will give it to the original again just because of the Robbins choreography. Russ tamblin is cooking also though shout out Mike Faist who I think is incredibly talented and overall more effective riff.

Something’s coming: 1961. This is where we encounter the Tony problem because beymer is kind of nothing but elogort actively annoys me so I’ll take nothing. This is a great song though shout out Steven Sondheim.

Dance at the gym/mambo: 2021. I love the original number but Spielberg adds the extra juice that this number needed. It’s so fun it made me cry the first time I saw it.

Maria: 1961. See something’s coming for reasoning.

Tonight: 2021. Rachel Zegler is a fucking talent versus Natalie wood who is very miscast and they’re actually singing so.

America: 1961. Spielberg tries to recreate the magic of the original but can’t quite capture it. America original has incredible dancing Rita Moreno is captivating and has that amazing purple dress. Movies man!

One hand one heart: zzzzzzz…I’m sorry that was me falling asleep. 2021 I don’t like this song but at least Zeglers good and it’s in a pretty location.

Tonight quintet: 2021. This to me is the ultimate triumph of the remake it’s so well shot and well staged it’s triumphant and sad and everything comes together well.

The rumble: 1961. You need the Robbins coreo.

I feel pretty: 2021. This is just a showcase for Zegler and her star power. Setting it in the department store was such a neat choice. I just adore this sequence.

Cool: 1961. There’s a reason I put it in the original order I mean it’s not even close.

Somewhere: 1961. They’re not singing but this song is magical.

Gee officer Krupke: this is where it falls in the stage show so I’m putting it here. Anyways this is basically a tie they’re both very different but so much fun so I can’t chose.

A boy like that/I have a love: if I could combine Moreno and zeglers versions life would be perfect. 1961 because of Moreno.

[fronzennews]

Robert Downey Jr. AI warning aimed at Hollywood executives

Robert Downey Jr. has issued a pointed warning to Hollywood executives and decision-makers about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate his likeness, particularly in relation to his beloved character Tony Stark/Iron Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Downey Jr., who has been a pivotal figure in the MCU, expressed his concerns during a recent podcast appearance, highlighting the significance of consent in the age of rapidly advancing technology.

Robert Downey Jr.'s Confidence in Current Marvel Leadership

Enduring Trust in Marvel Studios Having portrayed the iconic Tony Stark/Iron Man in ten Marvel films from 2008 to 2019, Downey Jr. is confident that the existing leadership at Marvel Studios will not misuse AI technology to bring back his character without his authorization. He believes that the close-knit group of decision-makers at Marvel Studios would lie at the core of such decisions. "I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway, and they would never do that to me, with or without me," he stated. This trust underscores Downey's long-standing relationship with Marvel and his belief in their ethical approach to storytelling. Explicit Warning to Future Executives Despite his confidence in the current executives, Downey Jr. expressed serious concern over the intentions of future Hollywood executives regarding the use of AI. During his guest appearance on the On With Kara Swisher podcast, he made it clear that he intends to take preemptive legal action against anyone who attempts to recreate his likeness using AI without proper consent. "I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec," he declared, emphasizing the gravity of the situation as the industry begins to toy with AI capabilities.

The Legal Dimensions of AI Usage in Hollywood

Posthumous Legal Actions: Serious or Humorous? Downey Jr.'s remarks about potential legal actions posthumously have generated a mix of reaction, as he humorously asserted that even after his passing, his law firm would "still be very active." This statement sheds light on the often uncharted legal waters that AI usage presents in Hollywood. The efficacy of such legal action after a person's death brings forth discussions about intellectual property rights and what protections can be enforced in the digital age. Legal Precedents and Industry Trends Downey Jr.'s concerns are set against a backdrop of increasing dialogue around the ethics of AI in the entertainment sector. Recently, the SAG-AFTRA union, which represents actors, held a significant strike that raised concerns about the unauthorized use of AI clones, ultimately leading California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign two bills into law aimed at protecting actors and performers from such practices. As the industry grapples with these developments, Downey Jr.'s warnings highlight substantial legal implications and the need for safeguards in an evolving landscape.

Current Involvement with AI Themes

Downey Jr.'s Role in *McNeal* In his current endeavors, Downey Jr. is exploring themes related to AI in his role in the Broadway play *McNeal*. The production critiques corporate dominance in the realm of AI and scrutinizes the disruptions AI technologies are creating within creative industries. Through this role, Downey Jr. is not only showcasing his acting abilities but also engaging with pressing societal issues tied to technological advancements. The Broader Industry Context The landscape of Hollywood is currently rife with debate regarding the implications of AI technologies. As discussions around consent, representation, and ethical standards become more urgent, Downey Jr.'s warnings serve as part of a broader narrative concerning how technology intersects with artistry. The entertainment industry faces a pivotal moment, needing to establish boundaries that protect artists while balancing innovation.

Upcoming Projects Amid AI Concerns

Return to the MCU: *Avengers: Doomsday* as Doctor Doom Amid concerns about AI, Downey Jr. is set to make a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2026, taking on the role of the formidable villain Doctor Doom in the upcoming film *Avengers: Doomsday*. This return marks a new chapter for the actor, who has shaped the MCU as Iron Man. His upcoming portrayal of Doctor Doom contrasts with his pressing concerns over AI usage, striking a balance between legacy and innovation. Future Trajectories for AI in Film Looking ahead, the future of AI in Hollywood remains uncertain, as discussions continue regarding actors' rights and the ethical implications of digital likenesses. As more creators and decision-makers navigate this complex landscape, the industry's direction will be shaped by both legal frameworks and artistic freedoms. Downey Jr.'s outspoken concerns contribute significantly to an evolving dialogue about the future roles of technology and artistry in film. In summary, Robert Downey Jr. emphasizes the importance of protecting his likeness from unauthorized AI use, reflecting broader industry challenges surrounding ethical practices in entertainment. His proactive stance not only focuses attention on artists' rights but also invites a necessary dialogue about the responsibilities of today's creators and executives. As the conversation around AI continues to unfold, it is crucial for all stakeholders to remain engaged and informed on this critical issue. To discover more similar news, feel free to explore my other articles and posts at FROZENLEAVES NEWS. Read the full article

[bigskydreaming]

I would honestly rather they kill Bobby off (at least for the next couple years) rather than give him to Taylor. It's not like any writer in the last decade or so has treated him seriously as a character and I've given up on Marvel representing him as a Jewish man (outside the occasional Hannukah pose) let alone a gay Jewish one. Man I would even take Duggan over Taylor though I never thought I would say I wanted him touching Bobby ever again.

I mean, they've basically made Bobby the Ultimate Unkillable Gay Man, so unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective, we don't actually have "let them kill off Bobby to give him a few years on the shelf as a breather rather than subject him to another terrible run or take" as a valid option anymore, lmfao. Our guy just shrugged off getting literally nuked in Antarctica where "a 20 mile wide radius burned hotter than the surface of the sun" with "lol so then I just reformed myself a few thousand miles away and went back to fucking up fascists. As one does."

At this point he's the only one of the 05 who's never actually died, even WITH all the dying and resurrecting going on in the Krakoa era, and given that two thirds of his sixty year history had him surviving without the benefit of being Literally Immortal As Part of His Literally God-Tier Powerset, I don't see that changing any time soon, since, y'know. They've actively made it a thing that every bit of ice he's ever created contains a functional replica of his molecular blueprint allowing him to recreate himself anywhere he's ever been, even on other planets, so long as his consciousness survives. And considering he regularly splits his consciousness between dozens of golems, even ones on opposite sides of the world, pinning his consciousness down in one single body and ensuring no traces of his mind linger in any of his other ice constructs elsewhere before obliterating his psyche is literally the only way to functionally end him and he backs up his mind all over the place to make sure that can't actually even happen anymore.

LOL I love how ridiculous he is looooool, with all the changes made to him over the years, him coming out, him being an omega level mutant, literally immortal, a baby/larval form of Ymir or the previous cosmos' Black Winter.....his one consistent characterization throughout all of that is making himself as annoying as possible to his enemies.

He's like "I actually don't even love being immortal, the idea of being the literal last one standing of all my loved ones and found family gives me indigestion and fucks severely with my abandonment issues, BUT it also bugs the CRAP out of every ego-driven supervillain who is Offended that someone like me is literally impervious to all their best attempts to Obliterate This Twink, and I, actual human incarnation of Being A Petty Little Bitch that I am, fucking LOVE that part."

Anyway, good news is the Taylor rumor was thoroughly debunked and not an actual thing, so we don't have to like, determine whether he'd be better or worse than Duggan, or just a lateral move. I fucking hated Duggan's....everything, the last several years, and was so tired of him hoarding Bobby's character only to do fuck all with him, but whatever, that's over now. We have no idea what Bobby's supposed to be doing in the new era yet, but supposedly its big. Editorial and several writers have all said that he's one of the three names to watch in the coming year, with whatever he does next supposedly being a big enough deal that nobody's gonna miss it, but who knows where or when that'll be, just that its supposedly gonna happen before December.

My guess is he's probably going to be getting another solo, completing the trifecta of the Phoenix and Storm solos. They are the Big Three omegas of the X-Men, even predating Magneto as actual omega levels, and both Storm and Jean are doing stuff with the Abstracts in their solos, mostly Eternity, and a little known fact is that Bobby's 1984 miniseries was literally the first appearance of the Abstract Oblivion, with his daughter Mirage trying to get his help to literally kill her father, the universal embodiment of Endings, so like.....he's actually got a lot of history with Abstracts and cosmic level entities himself, going back to the 80s....which DOES seem to be an era Brevoort has a lot of fondness for. I mean, one of Bobby's exes is literally a gender-fluid sentient star who was fairly recently brought back onstage in Ewing's Defenders stuff....

Anyway. Popular theory for awhile has been he's an as-yet unannounced member of Simone's Uncanny X-Men cast, but I don't think that's it. Most people are basing that guess on the fact that he's close with the entire lineup, with Rogue, Remy, Kurt, Jubilee and Logan being some of the teammates he has the best and most established ties with, but Simone's been very clear from the start that she was brought into Uncanny with the intent of it being a Rogue book with the rest of the cast built up around that.

I don't really see Bobby showing up as part of an ensemble still largely focused around someone else as likely to generate the kind of buzz everyone seems to be implying his next appearance will create. Like yeah, he and Rogue have long been BFFs, but with all the recent changes to the Darkholme family providing a lot of fodder for delving further into Rogue and Kurt's relationship as siblings, Simone's emphasis on wanting to really focus on Rogue and Remy's romantic relationship, etc.....it just doesn't feel likely that there's room there for the kind of spotlight on Bobby that they've alluded to.

Its more likely IMO that he's slated for one of the Wave Two books....either a solo (if he is getting one, I'm crossing my fingers HARD for Anthony Oliveira to be writing it - he wrote one my favorite Bobby stories in a previous Voices anthology, the one with Magneto and Bobby talking when he was just a kid, and I'm loving his current Avengers Academy stuff with Escapade and Kid Juggernaut and others)....OR he could be in the rumored Extraordinary X-Men book. That one's not official yet, but it was pretty credibly leaked that Deniz Camp is writing a book called that, and the Storm writer Murewa Ayodele also let slip that Synch is on an as-yet announced team book, so it feels likely that a Camp-written EX book is definitely happening, and Everett will be on it. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that announced at SDCC.

I would also be over the moon with that option, because I loved Camp's COTV and was hoping he'd have a book in the new era, so I'd be really interested in seeing his take on Bobby. But again, just a hunch.....I do kinda feel like from the way they've been talking, if Bobby is on an ensemble book, he might actually be leading it, and I'm gonna be honest, as much as I love him, I would not want him in the central role of Camp's EX instead of Synch, because Ev's increased prominence as an X-Man was one of the best things about last era, but it kinda fizzled out into him nominally being the leader in Year Three but given very little to do. I want Ev sticking around longterm and continuing to grow in prominence, and him leading EX would be the best chance of doing that, whereas Bobby has staying power by now one way or another, he doesn't need the lead role of that ensemble as much as Everett could benefit from it. So...idk.

I'm mostly just.....give me the details so I can decide how I feel about this 'bold new direction' for Bobby lol!

[honouredsnakeprincess]

Personally, I think it's a tad condescending for you to assume I mean fascism as a hyperbolic description of your empire. I do not.

First, you have two large, mainstream parties which have both concluded that American support for genocides abroad ought to be the unquestioned norm, so long as it supports some nebulous strategic interest, even if it goes against the will of the actual electorate.

Second, these two parties cooperate regularly in order to foil even relatively moderate social-democratic political movements, and so the only permissible state ideology is quite far right. Sanders is allowed to hold office as a token gesture, but he will never be permitted to actually wield power, despite the fact he is still ultimately more loyal to the American empire than he is to social-democracy!

Third, both parties seem to have independently recreated something of their own fuhrerprinzip, which isn't even really required for fascism, but they did it anyway. Any vote not for your preferred right wing lead is a vote against America and freedom and all good things on this earth! If you don't support Trump/Harris, you're supporting that monstrous Trump/Harris, who will take away your freedom.

To elaborate, while your electoral system certainly disincentivizes third parties, it does not actually preclude them from being a meaningful part of the political process, and third parties have played kingmaker during several crucial elections in the 20th century. If you wanted to 'force Biden left', a left-wing (or even just center-right, given the state of American politics) faction that he is forced to negotiate with in order to become president would have been more effective than whatever the fuck you lot have been doing these past couple of years!

I think that even if you'd nuked those evil, evil russkies into oblivion in the 1980s, Trump probably still would have won, considering the wave of reactionary populism sweeping the liberal consensus in recent years. The Russians did not create that, Trump did not create that, this is a response to heightening economic contradictions, fears of immigration, reactionary movements preying upon perceptions of economic instability, and the active and deliberate suppression of even moderate left political thought within the American empire.

Certainly, you hold elections, but you can only ever vote for one party (or maybe the other, but then you're unamerican!) Certainly, you allow economic 'freedom', but people who think that a free market is a feature not present under fascism need to go read up on the economic policies of Hitlerite Germany in the years leading up to the war. Certainly, you can criticize the government, and your right to do so is constitutionally protected (until the police decide it isn't, at which point the government will Back the Blue even over its own decrepit constitutional documents). Certainly, all people are equal under the law (if you ignore the racial caste system), but the Republicans are working to change that, and the Democrats are working to make sure they don't stop them!

Certainly, with its abundance of civil and social and economic liberties for the upper class, with its racially segregated cities and functional single-party state, with its broad consensus in the halls of power that trans women are dangerous predators, with its legions of homeless who could be trivially aided but must remain as a warning to the working class, with its rising cost of living and the need for yet more people to blame, with its media pundits encouraging audiences to entirely disconnect from reality in favour of their preferred sort of propaganda, with a government that has concluded that for the sake of killing Palestinians, they will ignore the voice of their own citizenry, and with millions of people willing to defend it (or an idealized and delusional vision of what they think it could be), America will never fall to fascism.

Worry not! Harris will defend your interests!

I'm not saying there are parallels, but...