#Blaze and the monster machines original character

[ril-sillyart1st]

sad hamster meme but it's the Flarelyn fam instead

The three of them in together:

[bgeevee2005]

Happy Birthday, Eiffel!

[dooniichez]

Sketchy doodles

[monster-lili]

About the animated series and character descriptions

Nickelodeon and Mattel today announced the lineup of actors lending their voices to the fashionable monsters featured in the upcoming original animated series Monster High. The all-new series (26 episodes) follows the teenage children of famous monsters including Clawdeen Wolf, Draculaura, Frankie Stein, and Deuce Gorgon as they discover who they are, embrace their differences, and learn to be fierce and fearless at the one place they all belong: Monster High. Monster High is set to debut globally this fall on Nickelodeon. The animated comedy-adventure series accompanies the upcoming live-action movie-musical Monster High: The Movie in re-launching the globally loved and iconic Monster High franchise. The voice cast bringing the Monster High characters to life are:

Gabrielle Nevaeh Green (That Girl Lay Lay) as Clawdeen Wolf – Half-human and half-werewolf, Clawdeen is thrilled to join Monster High, despite the challenge of being a half-monster in a school of full-monster students.

Courtney Lin (Crash: The Animated Series) as Draculaura – The daughter of Dracula, vampire Draculaura seems like the perfect dictionary definition of a monster. But she hides a deep desire to become a witch, which is strictly forbidden in the monster world.

Iris Menas (West Side Story) as Frankie Stein – Brought to life just 15 days ago by their scientist parents, Frankie is figuring out who they are and who they want to be.

Tony Revolori (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Deuce Gorgon – The son of Medusa and Lyra, Deuce is often influenced by the snakes that live on his head and get him into trouble.

Kausar Mohammed (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous) as Cleo De Nile – Cleo is a mummy monster who knows she is destined for greatness--if only everyone else would just admit it and get out of her way.

Valeria Rodriguez (To Your Eternity) as Lagoona Blue – Having grown up in an ancient underwater Mayan Castillo with her ocean nymph mother and sea monster father, sweet yet ferocious Lagoona doesn’t know much about life on land.

Alexa Kahn (Madagascar: A Little Wild) as Toralei Stripe – hailing from an elite monster family, Toralei is a werecat and the “bad girl” at Monster High. Old fashioned and brave, Toralei is committed to her cause of preserving monster society.

Alexander Polinsky (Blaze and the Monster Machines) as Heath Burns – Temperamental and passionate as the son of Hades would be, Heath is quite literally a hot head who can get worked up over anything and is prone to fiery outbursts.

Debra Wilson (Baby Shark’s Big Show!) as Headmistress Bloodgood – The headless overseer of the school, Headmistress Bloodgood has a proclivity for wandering around at night to keep an eye on the students.

In addition to the animated series, a live-action television movie musical based on the iconic franchise is slated to premiere Thursday, Oct. 6 on Nickelodeon and Paramount+. 

Today, Monster High is back with a reimagined set of fangtastic characters, inspired by the original ghouls for a new generation that embraces what makes them unique and rallies people everywhere to express themselves.

Shea Fontana (Polly Pocket) serves as showrunner and co-executive producer of Monster High, with Nick Filippi (Big Hero 6: The Series) as supervising producer. 

[theresattrpgforthat]

I want some games where i play as a soldier or civilian in a war y'know?, with all the trauma and war crimes that come with it

THEME: War, Combat, Trauma.

Hello friend. I haven't found any games about civilian trauma yet, but there's certainly plenty of games about soldiers, expecially in revolution. Here are three recommendations for you.

Our Final Struggle, by Loreshaper Games.

You’ve been chosen to lead the assault on the Imperial Palace. After three years of war, the Eighth Shock Legion has arrived on Minaret, to end the Empire’s rule and bring peace.

You will go on ahead. You’ve been chosen for your unique skills, honed during the revolution. Your mission: capture the Imperial family, or eliminate them if capture is impossible.

This game is a quick read: it gives you enough of the setting to tell you where the players start off, without giving you chapters of lore, which means it’s up to the table to decide what the Empire is like, and why it must be brought down. Players will have to answer questions about who they were before they joined up, and the game uses 5d6 as well as a graded level of success. 

There’s less about trauma implicitly written into this game, so consider this to be a place where you can decide how much you want to explore or not. What if the Imperials hold innocents amongst their numbers? Does your group have the right to act as jury, judge and executioner? If you are going to explore these themes, I recommend you have a Session 0 with your group before playing, set up some lines and veils, and ensure the use of safety tools throughout the course of play.

Guns Blazing, by Havocfett.

Guns Blazingis a roleplaying game about revolutionaries and freedom fighters at the dusk of the colonial age. Players enter the myriad flashpoints of the age, thrown against the machinations of colonial powers and supernatural monsters from without while navigating the contradictory, seemingly irreconcilable politics of change within. 

Guns Blazing runs on an original engine, called Ahadi, styled loosely on Genesys and Storyteller. Characters engage in brutal, tactical gunfights against monstrous foes, where goals are clear, the enemy is obvious, and you can measure success in spent bullets and dead bodies. Then they return to the home front, where their allies hate each other, you don’t know who to trust, and success is a formless dream of a better future.  

This game is still in playtest, but even the playtest puts you inside a war zone, with threats both mundane and supernatural. Don’t expect much for layout in the current document, but the Kickstarter shows a lot of promise. I’m fascinated at the potential of this game to talk about war in a context that’s much bigger than just the fights themselves.

Nasty, Brutish & Long, by NotWriting.

Nasty, Brutish, & Long is a tabletop role-playing game about class war and revolution in your own fantastical setting. Based on the Forged in the Dark system, this rules-light game puts characters divided by class and resources front and center in a world on the brink of permanent change. Will your bastard noble defend their small town from the Church's magic-hunting inquisition? Will your character successfully organize their fellow factory workers against the foremen? Or will your merchant wheel and deal to secure themselves in a world torn apart by new Gods? Play to find out how the revolution fares against the world!

Forged in the Dark games do a really good job of putting your characters into dangerous situations and forcing them to wrestle with both physical trauma and the struggle of keeping yourself emotionally intact. In this game, players must expend resources over a period of time in order to reduce the daily stress of partaking in a revolution. If they don’t have time or resources, that stress will manifest as a Vice, an element of that character’s personality that inhibits their ability to get along with other people.

One thing I really like about this game is that it employs something called a Taste Menu, something similar to Lines & Veils in that it asks players to sit down and discuss what subjects they’d like to explore before diving into play. The author also includes a description of the X Card, which is another excellent tool to use at your table. 

[delightfully-deranged-dagur]

Okay. I talked a bit of the live action Monster High designs, and now we have our first looks at the new animated series looks. Let's go in to them.

And I'm gonna be more positive about these ones. Mostly because they look better then the live action designs. And I'm tired of being negative about everything.

Gabrielle Nevaeh Green (That Girl Lay Lay) as Clawdeen Wolf – Half-human and half-werewolf, Clawdeen is thrilled to join Monster High, despite the challenge of being a half-monster in a school of full-monster students.

Okay. Let's start with Clawdeen. Half human, Half werewolf. So 75% human and 25% wolf. Yet this is the most Wolf like Clawdeen has ever looked. Changes to her character aside, I do love her nose and ears. If only she had a tail and the design would be almost perfect. But the changes to her personality still keep her down.

Overall, I'm giving this a 7/10. There's really nothing wrong with it. I'm just not a fan of the new personality. And the dumb half human thing. That doesn't make sense.

Courtney Lin (Crash: The Animated Series) as Draculaura – The daughter of Dracula, vampire Draculaura seems like the perfect dictionary definition of a monster. But she hides a deep desire to become a witch, which is strictly forbidden in the monster world.

Farewell to Debi Derryberry's iconic performance as Draculaura. You will be missed.

Still not the biggest fan of the two-tone hair. But this does look better then the live action. I also love her hat. It keeps her protected from the sun as a vampire, and the spider web pattern? Love it. Still iffy on the Witch thing. Maybe if it was just a taboo for vampires specifically to become witches, because of some sort of feud maybe, it would work better.

6.5/10. Could use more black in her color scheme.

Iris Menas (West Side Story) as Frankie Stein – Brought to life just 15 days ago by their scientist parents, Frankie is figuring out who they are and who they want to be.

Frankie is still the best part of this entire reboot. They're just, so much better then their original counterpart. Yeah i said it. OG Frankie was bland. Her personality trait was that she kept getting a new boyfriend every 5 minutes.

Design wise they look pretty good. But their color scheme is a bit of a mess. Bright blues, that yellowy green, neon pink. It's a lot but at the same time it does fit Frankie. Of course the person that's still figuring themselves out has an uncoordinated color scheme.

8/10.

Tony Revolori (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Deuce Gorgon – The son of Medusa and Lyra, Deuce is often influenced by the snakes that live on his head and get him into trouble.

I'm gonna say it. Deuce looks the best out of all of them. Take notes live action. Scales! Scales on his clothes. Not camo. And actual sunglasses! And he has snakes! Actual snakes! And they're so expressive! I can see them getting Deuce in trouble. Also I need Deuce to have a bad hair day that's just the snakes fighting each other.

But who is Lyra? I don't know enough about Greek mythology to know who that is. Until I know, I'm just imagining Lyra Heartstrings from MLP.

9/10. It would be 10/10 if he didn't have sleeves.

Kausar Mohammed (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous) as Cleo De Nile – Cleo is a mummy monster who knows she is destined for greatness--if only everyone else would just admit it and get out of her way.

She actually has dark skin. Wow. Didn't know they had it in them. And wrappings. She's an actual mummy. Not just an Egyptian girl.

Though there's something off. That blue. It is her blue. But in the original it was more of an accent. Here it dominates her design. And there's barely any gold in her hair. I'm not so sure about this design.

5/10.

Alexander Polinsky (Blaze and the Monster Machines) as Heath Burns – Temperamental and passionate as the son of Hades would be, Heath is quite literally a hot head who can get worked up over anything and is prone to fiery outbursts.

If you don't have anything nice to say. Don't say anything at all. So let's keep this short.

No.

Let's make it longer.

Why?! What did they do to him?!

Okay, there's a simple fix. Either make his hair more red or, (can't believe I'm saying this) lighten his skin to be more pale yellow. Make a better separation between his head and his hair. That way it looks more like Heath, and less like Bart Simpson on fire.

And Hades?! What? Did they didn't do their research? Did they only watch the Disney version? Fire isn't Hades' element! It's earth! (If I remember correctly) and if he's the son of Hades, where did his last name come from?

And the Hothead personality. Really? That wasn't the pun with Heath's original personality. He was a Wannabe Hotshot! Not Hothead! If they wanna give Deuce a best friend, connect him to Greek mythology and have him be a Hothead, Manny Tuar would be a much better choice!

-5/10.

Valeria Rodriguez (To Your Eternity) as Lagoona Blue – Having grown up in an ancient underwater Mayan Castillo with her ocean nymph mother and sea monster father, sweet yet ferocious Lagoona doesn't know much about life on land.

General consensus about Lagoona is that the design is good, and the personality is fun. But it's not Lagoona Blue. She's not even blue! From here on out, we will not be referring to her as Lagoona. This, is Lulu.

So Lulu looks fun. Her design is pretty good for a sea monster. And it's interesting that of all the things to keep from the original is her status as Hybrid between a Nymph and a Sea Monster.

So Lulu gets a 6/10. Lagoona gets a 1/10.

Alexa Kahn (Madagascar: A Little Wild) as Toralei Stripe – hailing from an elite monster family, Toralei is a werecat and the "bad girl" at Monster High. Old fashioned and brave, Toralei is committed to her cause of preserving monster society.

So Toralei is back. Nice surprise. Especially since she got spared from the Live Action treatment.

I don't hate this design. But there's some ways to improve her. First, change the purple to black. Second, her orange seems to lean towards yellow instead of red. Just slide her orange hue just a bit to red and she'd be great.

8/10.

Debra Wilson (Baby Shark's Big Show!) as Headmistress Bloodgood – The headless overseer of the school, Headmistress Bloodgood has a proclivity for wandering around at night to keep an eye on the students.

Was the picture of Debra Wilson staring into my soul necessary? They couldn't pick a different picture? This doesn't flatter her.

Anyway, Bloodgood. Well she's certainly not Bloodbad. She looks great. Still wish her color scheme was a bit darker though. And was so hard for the live action to have the same belt as this one? Why did go with a boring ribbon? This looks way better!

9/10.

And that's it. That's all we know. Seems Abbey and Ghoulia are sidelined once again. Clawd and Howleen still don't exist. At least, not as Clawdeen's siblings. And there was a leak of what dolls are coming and Twyla was on it. So we can expect to see her.

I'm cautiously optimistic about all this. It looks better then the movie, though thats not a high bar to reach.

We'll just have to see what happens.

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

Blaze and the Monster Machines: The Reimagined Adventures

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Fsydx0W

by Wooglebear

We all know about my many issues with Blaze and the Monster Machines. Nobody save for Blaze and Watts has a driver. No conunity. Nobody gets a permanent comeuppance. Everyone’s personalities aren’t realistic enough.

But what if all that wasn't the case? Would things turn out better? Worse? Somewhere in-between? Well, there's only one way to find out for sure, isn't there?

A Blaze rewrite with spins on everyone's personalities and with slight changes to the canon to make it more interesting. Contains major spoilers for the Fanganronpa Super Danganronpa Another 2 and USUM.

Words: 14014, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Blaze and the Monster Machines, Dangan Ronpa Series

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Blaze (Blaze and the Monster Machines), AJ (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Starla (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Darington (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Zeg (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Stripes (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Crusher (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Pickle (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Watts (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Gabby (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Yomiuri Nikei, Mitsume Kokoro, Taira Akane, Sora (Dangan Ronpa), Otonokoji Kanade, Otonokoji Hibiki, Original Characters

Relationships: AJ & Blaze (Blaze and the Monster Machines), AJ (Blaze and the Monster Machines)/Original Character(s), Sora & Taira Akane, Otonokoji Hibiki & Otonokoji Kanade, Crusher & Pickle (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Darington (Blaze and the Monster Machines) & Original Character(s), I don’t know if fanganronpa characters count as original characters tho, Mitsume Kokoro/Yomiuri Nikei, Starla/Watts (Blaze and the Monster Machines), Zeg (Blaze and the Monster Machines)/Original Character(s), Gabby & Watts (Blaze and the Monster Machines)

Additional Tags: Canon Rewrite, Fixing the writing ~, Fix-It of Sorts, Screenplay/Script Format, Fangan Ronpa: Super Danganronpa Another 2 - The Moon of Hope and Sun of Despair, Long, Original Character(s), The Monster Machines all have drivers because I said so, Spoilers for the fangan involved, Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Spoilers

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Fsydx0W

[idw-sonic-fan-blog]

The Belle Problem

I do not dislike Belle the Tinkerer. In fact, I am quite ambivalent towards her. Of all the characters, Belle is the weakest and I can understand people actively disliking her but realize that I am not in the camp that equates the character to Chris Thorndyke, Princess Elise, and Sally Acorn.

1. Belle’s origin arc is overbearing and overwritten

At the time of writing, Belle has been the main focus of 10 straight issues. 10 straight issues of just figuring out her backstory through exposition.

This wouldn’t be so bad if these moments weren’t so misaligned in how it told them. When we meet Belle, she is in a derelict Eggman base. Now I may be alone in this thinking, but it wasn’t immediately apparent to me that she was a robot. To me, she was a puppet and it’s not even thing to consider or immediately assume she was anything else until both Sonic and Tails spilled the beans that she was a robot of sorts.

The leap from puppet to badnik that Sonic made kind of put me in thinking that Belle was something Eggman made which is not a connection I would have figured out myself immediately because Belle doesn’t resemble anything Eggman has ever created.

In my head, I thought it was a completely different doctor like Starline made her, but that is never considered. Instead, the comic narrative insisted that Eggman must have made her which becomes the easiest mystery ever solved for an origin. It was patently obvious right after the second issue of her debut that Mr. Tinker made her. But instead of nipping it in the bud when it basically spelled it out for the audience, the comic draws it out for a few more issues.

This was 7 issues after her debut. Even if it weren’t for the pandemic, drawing out a mystery whose answer to it is obvious for 7 months at least is annoying. It’s like Blues Clues or Blaze the Monster Machines level of treatment the audience’s intelligence. And yes, this is a comic targeted at children, but I reiterate those audiences I’ve brought up can’t even read. And child demographic is not an excuse for non-compelling writing especially since IDW staff has done that kind of origin reveal that didn’t placate to a perceived lowest common denominator with characters like Whisper and currently with Starline.

Reward viewers for paying attention and figuring it out. Not punish them by drawing the answer out.

And also, how the chose to reveal her backstory is misaligned.

Instead of having Belle talk about it and some arbitrary conversation, why not just go back to that village with Belle in tow and we get to see how the village treats her. And this should have happened much earlier than the eventual reveal that she is Mr. Tinker’s creation. There are several ways to do this like the Restoration gets a request from that village for assistance and Belle goes because that is what she is good at. Then we see how they regard her and characters like Whisper, Jewel, Tangle and Lanolin supervise this and wonder what the deal is. You give people pieces of the puzzle, not essentially finish most of the puzzle for them. Set up some red herrings along the way. But instead, we just get dragged along.

2. Belle is a relic of an annoying plot device

Mr. Tinker is a bit of an issue for Eggman fans. Fans don’t necessarily like that Eggman’s character is treated like he isn’t essentially different from his amnesiac personality or they are the same person. The issue comes from Sonic’s insistence that Eggman could be like Mr. Tinker and fans misreading that as if the narrative is saying that Sonic is blaming Eggman for not being Mr. Tinker. Belle doesn’t help because, not only does she not accept that Eggman and Tinker are and the same, it becomes this father/daughter dynamic for a character that wasn’t his normal self upon his conception of her. It’s like if you lost your memories and identity but you continue to live your life regardless and you have a child under this alterego. You get your memories back and your identity, but you have a kid now. And now the world is blaming you for not being the person who you were when you weren’t mentally stable. Sure, the kid never asked to be made but technically you never were in the right mind to make her.

It gets iffy. And sympathy for Belle gets tied to this and it just makes Eggman feel culpable and a deadbeat father. This is not to say that Belle isn’t unsympathetic because it is definitely sad but you can’t say Starline was in the wrong for treating Dr. Eggman through shock therapy. But again, so did the village. They tried to rehab Eggman too so it’s not like they just exploited him.

It’s complicated and done fans don’t like the complication at all.

3. Belle is overly prevalent

It’s bordering on spot light stealing and she is becoming a IDW’s version of Geoff. 10 straight issues of focus. That is more focus than any character has gotten consecutively. Even in issues where Belle isn’t part of the main narrative, she is part of the overarching plot. In comparison, Tangle and Whisper got the opposite treatment in spite of being massively more popular. They just sporadically appear now and days. If the Restoration is involved, they are there. Neither character has been involved in more than 5 straight issues. Belle is already set to appear and be the focus of 11. And before you say Starline, he has the excuse because he is a main antagonist if not the main antagonist of IDW and even he hasn’t overtaken the comic as much as Belle.

All in all, fans need a break from the character or else she will be reviled as much as Tommy the Turtle.

[prettyswellaus]

Edd in the Monster High AU. Also, I have him always holding a cola for some reason in the same hand pose whenever I draw him...huh. Anyways, I decided to make him a robot based off of Eddbot (the character made to represent the official EW discord bot.) I based his design off of several other designs for Eddbot, such as this design from Amino by Altyra. Also got the coat from some dude from Atelier (idk who it is, I saw the outfit on an MMD mod thing). And the socks + shoes thing came from the Photoshoot AU design of Edd by DDG11YT which was what MH!Blaze's boots are based off of as well.

Bio, Abilties, Bonus Notes, Version without text and Skullette, and Skullette are down below!.

Bio

Parents

A Roboticist (He was "Built" rather than "Born")

Age

17

Killer Style

Can't say I really have a specific "style", If it's comfortable, I'll wear it. Can't go wrong with a green hoodie or coat though.

Freaky Flaw

Let's just say the things I do for my favorite things are...extreme. I often let them take priority over everything else, including my friends.

Pet

My parents built me a robot cat who I named Ringo. It's so cute when she comes to lay on my lap while I pet her. I'm still waiting for the day they put fur on her though, petting metal isn't the most pleasant experience.

Favorite Activity

Just take one look in my sketchbook and you'll see that I'm a drawing machine (literally so). I almost got sent to detention a few times because I kept doodling during class. Oh, and I love to make puns. One could say my jokes are pretty "pun-derful".

Pet Peeve

Being the team leader and peacemaker, especially with friends such as mine, it's not as easy as you might think. I'll leave it at that.

Favorite Subject

Art, naturally.

Least Favorite Subject

Any class that's boring to me, I don't have any specific class in mind so far.

Favorite Color(s)

Green

Favorite Food(s)

Cola is the number one favorite drink, I'm not joking when I say I can't live without it. Bacon is my favorite food. But you wanna know what's better than both? Having them together, with bacon cola!

Friends

Tom Ridgewood(BFF)

Matt Hargrove (BFF)

Tord Karlsen (BFF)

Blaze Thorburn (BFF)

Katrine DeMew

Laurel Darling

Abilities

Edd was built and programmed with various functions, therefore he has stuff like.

Pain Immunity

According to the Ghoulfriends books, robots can't feel pain.

Voice Changing/Mimicry

Due to his voice being programmed into him in the form of a voicebank in his CPU (his brain), Edd is able to change how his voice sounds by accessing said box. There, he can change to whatever voice he wants, as long as he's heard it before.

Head Liberation

If Edd is ever decapitated, he can still blink, speak, and hear, but really can't to anything else beyond that, as the rest of his body is considered "disconnected" from the CPU.

Scanning

Edd can use his eyes to scan anything and anyone to gather information and data on it/them. When he scans things, his eyes turn completely neon green.

Poison and Disease Immunity

Due to not having a bloodstream (at least not a traditional one), Edd is immune to things such as poisons, venoms (such as Eduardo's), infections, viruses, and illnesses that would effect or even kill most organic beings. The only thing he isn't immune to are computer viruses, and even those are rare.

Bonus Notes

(More to possibly be added in the future)

Edd was made waterproof due to him wanting to drink cola. As he was not originally built for water related purposes.

Edd can still eat and drink despite not needing to.

Like Hex from FNF, he can always tell what time it is thanks to his processor.

[hopespeaknursery]

what shows do the regressors like to watch when regressing?

(Good question!~ I think they like to watch a lot of different things, but I narrowed it down to one favorite for each character~)

Makoto Nagi: Bluey Leon Kuwata: Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs Mondo Owada: Blaze and the Monster Machines Kiyotaka Ishimaru: Franklin Chihiro Fujisaki: Max and Ruby Celestia Ludenburg: Ruby Gloom Syo: The Backyardagins (Will 100% sing along to Castaways smh) Byakuya Togami: Doesn't like TV Junko Enoshima: Pinkie Dinky Doo Mukuro Ikusaba: Berenstien Bears

Hajime Hinata: Kipper Nagito Komaeda: Oswald Mikan Tsumiki: Doc McStuffins Gundham Tanaka: 64 Zoo Lane Kazuichi Souda: Paw Patrol Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: Wow Wow Wubbzy (Won't admit to it though~) Peko Pekoyama: Ni Hao Kai Lahn Ibuki Mioda: Jack's Big Music Show Twogami: Miss. Spider's Sunny Patch Friends Chiaki Nanami: Pokemon Teruteru Hanamura: Great British Bake Off Hiyoko Saionji: Olivia

Shuichi Saihara: Blues Clues Kokichi Ouma: The Mr. Men Show (I think this show was for older kids, but I remember it being so chaotic, I don't doubt he would like it haha) Miu Iruma: Roly Poly Ollie Kiibo: Finds TV boring Korekiyo Shinguji: Little Bear Tsumugi Shirogane: Sailor Moon Rantaro Amami: Pocayo Ryoma Hoshi: Mio Mao Angie Yonaga: Steven Universe (The show is so colorful and full of symbolism, and she loves to find the meaning behind everything~) Tenko Chabashira: Teen Titans (The original one) Kaito Momota: Cyberchase

[scope-dogg]

Super Beast Machine God Dancouga: Final Thoughts

“It’s complicated” can be a big of a copout when you’re weighing up whether to recommend something or not. In the case of this show and its trio of follow-up OVAs, it genuinely is kind of complicated. There was a lot I already liked about Dancouga even before I started watching - several of its soundtracks have had pride of place in my music playlists for years now, while the robot itself has been one of my favourite super robot designs for just as long, that being mostly fuelled by the machine’s status as a long-time Super Robot Wars stalwart. The same series made me a fan of the head pilot Shinobu Fujiwara and his trademark warcry of “YATTE YARUZE.” That said, I already went in with my expectations tempered by other opinions I’ve seen the generally weren’t quite so favourable as my expectations might have been.

Well, now I’ve seen it. In many ways, I really did enjoy it - the music is even better in its proper context, it’s cool to see where all the moves that Dancouga busts out in SRW came from, and Shinobu and the rest of the cast are as entertaining as I might have imagined in the primary material. Above all else, it surprised me by throwing in some ideas that were pretty original by the standards of its time, and some that are unique even compared to the rest of the genre as a whole. I really did enjoy a good amount of genuine enjoyment from the experience.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m going to recommend it. In fact, I just straight up don’t.

You see, there’s a lot of bad to go with the good in the show’s original anime run, to the degree that calling it “a mixed bag” would be too disingenuous. A promising start with some pretty great animation and production values quickly gives way to a level of quality that ranges from mediocre to shockingly poor, not only by today’s standards but those of the time. I don’t know the behind-the-scenes story of the show’s production, but it’s blatantly obvious that they found themselves out of money hilariously quickly, and they end up limping along on a shoestring budget. Stock footage abuse, animation errors, and just cheap and shoddy-looking artwork in general pile up until the result is a production that looks genuinely amateurish at times.

It’s a shame, because it’s a disservice to a show that’s actually fairly interesting in a lot of ways. The premise of Earth being invaded by an alien empire isn’t new, but typically shows of this setup from this era of anime follow a predictable pattern - a squad of hot-blooded youngsters is promptly assembled, thrown into the show’s resident giant robot, and sent off to fight off the aliens for as many formulaic monster-of-the-week style episodes as necessary. Here things aren’t so simple - there is the requisite squad of plucky youngsters, but it takes time for the team to properly assemble and to master their machine - in fact, they don’t even combine into Dancouga until the show’s halfway in. That’s actually more interesting than it sounds, because it means that the individual machines that make up Dancouga get a lot more screentime than they otherwise would in a show like Combattler V, for instance, which is cool because each of the four different ones has a vehicle form, a bestial animal form, and a humanoid configuration. 

It also allows for the setting to be more interesting - humanity’s war against the Muge Zorbados invaders is more interesting than conflicts of this nature tend to be in old super robot shows. Instead of sending one gimmicky monster or robot at a time, the invasion comes in force, and the enemy takes over much of the world while the heroes of the Cyber Beast Force are still building themselves up. The war ends up being more of an asymmetrical war of resistance involving all of mankind rather than hinging solely on duels between the protagonists and the monster of the week. The invaders themselves are more interesting than usual as well, as the egos of each of the invading generals clash with one another. By far the most interesting villain is Shapiro Keats, a fellow member of the academy that the leads Shinobu, Sara, Masato and Ryo attended, whose megalomania leads him to betray mankind and defect to the aliens in a bid to elevate his own power and prestige and fulfil his own delusions of godhood. A lot of the challenges that the CBF face in the early parts of the show come more from Shapiro’s treachery and clever planning rather than gimmicky alien technologies.

However, while it has interesting ideas, the show never seems to be able to pull them off to their full potential. Ironically it’s Dancouga’s long-awaited and heavily-hyped arrival that heralds the death of much of the interesting elements to the story. In addition to being the biggest casualty of the show’s animation budget, Dancouga’s not implemented in a very interesting way in the show’s original anime run - whereas before battles were a test of the protagonists’ skill and strategy, Dancouga’s overpowering nature trivialises much of the action. It doesn’t help that its repertoire is limited to punching, shooting lasers, and on special occasions shooting a really big laser. As a result, the show loses momentum as it enters its final stages, as Dancouga just bulldozes over Muge Zorbados’ armies. It’s also around this time that the writers lose touch with what makes Shapiro Keats an interesting villain. He was compelling because of his sheer lack of redeeming features and total megalomania, yet more and more focus gets pushed onto his past romance with Sara, the show’s female co-protagonist. It seems like we’re meant to sympathise with him and her because of this lovers-to-anime arc, but Shapiro never ends up being anything less than a vile piece of shit with no redeeming features that leaves you boggling at what Sara could have ever possibly seen in him, and rolling your eyes whenever she’s shown to be struggling with having to fight him. Ultimately, the plot culminates in what must have been an awfully unsatisfying cliffhanger at the time.

However, that wasn’t the show’s real end, because it went on to spawn several OVAs. The first is Requiem for Victims, which portrays the final confrontation with Muge Zorbados. This is an immediate improvement in many ways, getting many things right that the show got badly wrong. First of all, the animation is far superior, as you might expect from an OVA - the difference is beyond night and day. Furthermore, it gives Dancouga some more interesting weapons and attacks to work with, and explores more of what makes it special as a machine beyond just being big and powerful. In spite of this, it also features the most fraught and exciting fights that it ever takes part in. Overall, it’s a massive improvement.

The peak, however, is probably the next OVA in line, God Bless Dancouga - taking place some time after Requiem, it’s got the best production values of anything with the Dancouga named attached. The story isn’t anything to write home about if I’m being honest, but it’s not bad either - if all you want is to see the characters interact with one another, then it ticks all the boxes. The animation is absolutely superb the whole way through, and while Dancouga doesn’t actually have a great deal of screentime, it makes it count big time when it does - chances are if you saw it use a cool attack in an SRW game, it got used first in this OVA.

I was really hoping that the OVAs could go three for three and pull off a great conclusion that’d make the time spent worth it, but that sadly wasn’t the case. Blazing Epilogue is a 4-parter that starts off promisingly plot-wise, but the production values are for the most part not up to the standards set by God Bless Dancouga or even Requiem for Victims - it’s not as bad as the original series, but it’s not especially good by the standards of 1990 when it was released. Worse is the fact that while the plot’s pretty good in episodes 1 through 3, it lets itself down for the finale, wrapping things up in an abrupt way that ended up making the whole exercise feel fairly pointless. It’s a total anticlimax and a weak way to wrap things up.

Of course, that wasn’t the absolute end, as the show got a modern sequel in the shape of Dancouga Nova in the 2000s, but I’m saving that for another day - it features all-new characters and is by all accounts very different from the original. As for the original Dancouga saga, like I said to open - it’s complicated. Personally, I think I enjoyed myself more than I didn’t - but I also don’t think that’d hold true for most people. I came to this already endeared to the robot, characters, and certain aspects of its presentation to the degree, and that helped me to power through a lot of the rockier moments in this so that I could see them in their original incarnation. For other people who aren’t super robot addicts like me, I just think the lows are too low and the highs aren’t high or numerous enough to warrant it being worth most people’s time.

[ril-sillyart1st]

"aw she's giving you an apple" ★ Sucky and rushy art

Not very too proud of this not because of Fiar duh (love her of course /p) but this feels like a rush.

Close up:

Also would you accept Fiar's apple? /Genq

Also the og idea:

[bgeevee2005]

Here I have my EVE OCs' latest designs:

Hope you all enjoy it.

[mst3kproject]

Curse of Bigfoot

This is a very bad mummy movie from the 60’s which was re-edited and re-released as an unbelievably bad bigfoot movie in the 70’s.  It would belong on the Satellite of Love even if it didn’t have a small part for Jackie Neyman Jones.  Remember her? Debbie from Manos: the Hands of Fate?  Yeah, as far as I know she’s the only member of the cast ever to do any non-Manos-related film work for the entire rest of her life and it was this.

Once upon a time, somewhere in the American Southwest, Primitive Man was terrorized by Even More Primitive Man.  In modern times, a Bigfootology professor is giving a guest lecture to a class of students.  First he shows them a clip of a movie just as bad as the one we’re watching, then we get an inaccurate history of bigfoot, including the tale of two idiots in a pickup truck who get a big, hairy ass-whooping.  Then, half an hour into the movie, we finally get to what’s supposed to be the main plot.  A professor of archaeology takes some of his students into the wilderness to help excavate an ‘ancient Indian campsite’, but along with the expected potsherds and prayer sticks, they find a tomb containing a mummy from a lost prehistoric civilization.  It comes to life and shambles off into the forest to kill people, because it’s a movie and mummies do that.

This movie does not waste time.  It starts sucking right out of the gate.  Almost everything that’s going to be wrong with it is introduced in the first ten minutes, as if the movie wants to prepare us for the ordeal ahead.

The opening sequence is an incredibly drawn-out scene of a woman getting up in the middle of the night to calm her barking dog, only to be killed by a zombie that wanders out of the woods.  This scene is around six times longer than it needed to be. We almost have to watch every moment of the dog drinking a bowl of milk she pours for it.  The woman’s voice was dubbed in post, and neither the voice nor the physical acting is any good.  The sequence is supposed to take place in the middle of the night, but was clearly filmed at high noon, reaching Attack of the The Eye Creatures levels of not giving a shit in having the sun appear in several shots, standing in for the moon!  The actual attack happens off screen, because the film-makers could not afford effects.

Then this part ends, and we realize that what we just saw was supposed to be a clip from a horror film that the professor was showing his students.  This provides a fleeting moment of hope, as we think perhaps its overwhelming badness was intended as parody. No such luck.  We then move into the two loggers getting stalked and killed by bigfoot.  The monster costume is different, but this piece is identical in anti-quality to the zombie scene.  The film-makers were just morons, and these mistakes continue throughout the entire ninety-minute run time.

It’s actually astonishing that the movie is so consistent in its incompetence, because we are in fact watching two different films here. Curse of Bigfoot has a backstory similar to that of They Saved Hitler’s Brain, in that somebody in the fifties made a short movie and somebody else, years later, added useless filler to expand it into something they could show in a late-night TV slot. They Saved Hitler’s Brain feels very bifurcated, the new material being both narratively and stylistically different from Madmen of Mandoras.  But if you didn’t know that Curse of Bigfoot was twenty minutes of extra film sewn onto a 1963 movie called Teenagers Battle the Thing, you might not immediately notice.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll probably remember that I thought Madmen of Mandoras was a significantly better movie than They Saved Hitler’s Brain (even if it still was definitely not a good movie) – the added footage was distracting and pointless.  These two films, however, I would say are about equally awful.  The footage added to Curse of Bigfoot is still pointless, but it looks exactly like what was originally shot for Teenagers Battle the Thing, the only noticeable difference being a slight change in the film stock! Both are depressingly earth-toned movies in which it takes for-fucking-ever for anything to happen, with night scenes shot in the blazing daylight, and lines dubbed in by bad voice actors over bad physical performances. Both feature shitty monster suits and every possible cost-cutting measure.

This leads me to wonder whether Curse of Bigfoot might be terrible on purpose.  The people tasked with turning Teenagers Battle the Thing into a full-length movie got a couple of the actors back to play their older selves in the added footage.  Making stuff match was clearly on their minds.  Could they have actually thought things like, “we’d better use the wrong filter for this, or it won’t be as bad as the day-for-night in the original footage!” or “we need to pad this attack a bit, to match the pace!”?  If so… I don’t know whether to be impressed, or just to crawl under the bed and cry.

On the other hand, Curse of Bigfoot does at least try to do one thing better than Teenagers Battle the Thing – it wants to have something to say.  It spells this thesis out for us in the opening narration and in the professor’s speech about horror movies: our society has forgotten about monsters.

We in the twenty-first century don’t spent much time thinking about monsters unless we happen to be film-makers, political commentators, or maybe paleontologists trying to figure out what the fuck this bugger is.  It wasn’t so long ago, however, that they were very real to many people.  Archaeological evidence suggests that people in New England believed in vampires as recently as the 1820s.  Nowadays, monsters have been taking out of the ‘scary’ category and placed in the ‘fun’ one, and so when people report things like bigfoot or a sea serpent, we don’t take them very seriously.

Bigfoot, sea monsters, and vampires don’t really exist, obviously, but in losing our fear of monsters we may have lost a proper respect for nature.  Every so often the newspapers in my city carry a story of some tourist who tried to get a better selfie with a grizzly bear and got mauled.  We are so used to thinking that we have tamed nature, that there are no monsters left, that we don’t recognize danger when we’re confronted with it.  This certainly seems to be a theme of the stories we’re presented with in Curse of Bigfoot: it never occurs to the woman in the opening that her barking dog may be trying to warn her of danger, or to the two loggers that the mysterious figure in the woods might mean them harm.

The party of archaeology students certainly don’t think they’re heading into any danger, despite the fact that they repeatedly do dangerous things.  A group of them climb to the top of a cliff to see where a fallen stone came from, and never worry about falling.  When they pry open the tomb entrance, the strange smoke that wafts out might be considered a warning sign, but they ignore it.  They head right into this dark hole without any worries about rodents, rattlesnakes, or cave collapses.  When one character warns the others that the mummy has just moved, they laugh it off. A couple go for a walk through the dark woods at night to get to a vending machine, without a second thought.

Lest you think I’m in any way praising this movie, I’m not – I just like my reviews to be at least a certain length, so sometimes I really dig for material.  This was a dig on the level of saying The Incredible Melting Man is about how we treat the elderly.  My high school English teacher might buy it, but I doubt anyone else would.

One thing I do wonder is why they chose to reframe this as a bigfoot movie.  The footage from Teenagers Battle the Thing makes it very clear that this is a mummy movie, although they couldn’t afford any of the genre’s traditional accessories.  Instead of a museum and a treasure, we get one cabin in the woods and… that’s all. When the characters talk about the situation, they always describe the monster as a mummy, and even when they theorize that it’s the product of a lost civilization, the idea that it may not be human never crosses their minds.  It is not particularly tall.  It is not remarkably hairy.  It looks nothing like the bigfoot the two loggers saw, although it does somewhat resemble the zombie from the opening.  Why the man telling the story decided this being must be bigfoot is an absolute mystery.

The only thing I can come up with as an explanation is that bigfoot movies were popular in the 1970s.  Having seen a number of these, I can’t say I find them particularly inspiring.

Curse of Bigfoot is almost incomprehensibly boring, to the point where I’m not sure MST3K could have done much with it if they had featured it.  In the opening sequence it takes forever for the woman to be attacked and then we don’t see it.  In the logger sequence it takes forever for the guy to be attacked and then we don’t see it.  And in the main plot it takes forever for anyone to be attacked and then we don’t see it! The only attack we see is when the mummy attacks the sheriff at the climax and that really, really wasn’t worth the wait.

Congratulations, Jackie Neyman Jones – you managed to be in a movie worse than Manos.

[blazewatergem]

🌸 What are some of their favourite things and why? List as many as you can think of!

:D AHHH YAY! Ok, ok I’ll do three for each character on this one.

Blaze from Curse of Eden(Overlord): Wilderness guidebooks, jewelry, and pictures. With her love of animals, she likes to have on hand info about them - and it makes it easier to take inspiration for her monsters that way. Jewelry is linked to her now “shiny, shiny, shiny” Gorgon instincts. Pictures due to her always wanting to savor memories, looking back on moments in time. The images help.

Verena from Crimes of Family(My Hero Academia): Coffee, thriller novels, and notes. She has a major nocturnal schedule most days, so coffee is a lifeblood for this poor woman. You’d think with the gore she has to put up with thriller novels wouldn’t be on her radar, but for her it’s fun studying the different characters and personalities. Notes, finally, are in a similar vein to pictures for Blaze. She can use the notes from friends and family members to just...remember moments in time, especially if they’re peaceful ones or simple reminders. Little stuff to make the days sweeter.

Althea from Cloaks in the Wind(My Hero Academia): Pressed flowers, herbs, and cookbooks. Flowers and herbs are often used in her spell work next to stones, but the plants go for her much more preferred pacifist nature. Cookbooks are nice, as she’s not only a stress baker but she loves to experiment in the kitchen. Those close to her get to reap the rewards for this in the form of baked goods and packed takeaway meals.

Soli from M64 Tavern(Original Work/Universe): Flowy skirts/dresses, strange glasses, and intricate machine work. The skirts and dresses go hand in hand, and thankfully don’t tangle up their prosthetic badly. She loves looking good, especially since she can afford to now. Glasses are a common thing in a tavern, so having more strange looking ones are a collecting hobby for them. The neon lights bouncing off the glass catches their eyes and makes her smile. Finally, intricate machines. Whether it serves a purpose or just looks nice, the twisting metalwork and what-have-you is a great trading piece if you need info or something more from this owner.

[matt0044]

Robo-Knight: “Nobody can outdo my slick style, dawg.”

Steel: “Hold my broccoli smoothie...” >:)

Steel laments the lack of ingestion when given an ice cream cone since, well, literally nobody should be denied tasting at least one in their lifetime. I believe that’s a federal crime in several states. Thankfully, Nate’s been working on an upgrade to the Neuro-Aligners to turn Steel completely human. Similar to how Captain Chaku was made wholly human except that he was a modified organic.

However, a malfunction caused the machine to activate and swap their minds. That’s right, we got ourselves a good ol’ fashioned BODY SWAP EPISODE. While I do feel like we should’ve kept the actors voices intact, I love hearing Steel’s actor match Nate’s mouth movement just about perfectly. It helps that Abraham Rodriguez is clearly in-character as a now fully organic Steel as well.

Blaze goes on a Morph-X shopping spree with a replication of Antennatron and even brings out his rapier unmorphed when battling the Beetle Brothers. Said brothers are off-balanced with Nate unused to Steel’s heavy-weight body. I would’ve had Steel bouncing around in Nate’s body amongst the Tronics as he has the time of his life feeling... just about everything. Even smiling at any pain.

After the battle, the Rangers hit up RipTide Gym with the real Roxy joining them to see Steel try out his first smoothies with Nate’s tastebuds. They’re so good that he doesn’t just burst into song, he has a musical number straight out of a Disney Channel Original Movie. It’s GLORIOUSLY over-the-top in the best way.

Hell, everybody joins in with a mix of visual effects and cuts that really sell the energy of this number. Say what you will about Noam Kaniel but his music can be pretty good if given the chance to shine. Even the characters are amazed by what just happened. It’s enough to get Nate to realize that he never realized what living like a human meant to Steel and let them have a nice heart to heart.

Robo-Blaze decides to upgrade himself with a major Morph-X boost, stealing some of Evox’s supply for himself before going out with Antennatron 2.0 to make it up. The Rangers arrive in time to take on the Robotron before Blaze drops in to morph into his new and improved form, dispensing of his monster.

We get footage of Enter Unite’s debut in Go Busters as it serves to show how Robo-Blaze took a level in badass, taking on the Rangers all alone before making off with more than even Morph-X. Worse still is that Nate and Steel are decomposing due to a side effect of their swap. With a Gigadrone in bound, Steel takes the Beast X King Zord while Nate takes to the laboratory to prepare.

I feel like the Zord battle could been given more tension with Steel in Nate’s body trying to battle through the decomposing, barely able to launch his finishing attack. Meanwhile, Evox praises Robo-Blaze’s efforts in getting him closer to his ultimate power while a jealous Robo-Roxy suspects some foul play.

Nate and Steel ultimately swap their bodies back to normal with the Neuro-Alinger but the Beetle Brothers promise to make sure that they keep pressing on in finding Steel the perfect organic body. I still enjoy that Steel being a human is less to do with emotions and more to do with experiencing what only a human can with a body. Let’s hope our High-Tech Himbo will get his ice cream...