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threewaysdivided · 1 year

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Deathly Weapons Writing Roundup 2022

Total Wordcount: 83,458 Published Chapters: 19/45

New Chapters Released This Year

Ch19: Chapter 18: Black Gold

MISSION 1 High seas and high stakes! Learning to work with a new Teammate always comes with challenges, but when eco-terrorists commandeer a deep-water oil rig, the pressure has never been greater. With lives on the line and fingers twitching on triggers, will Phantom’s powers let them swim… or sink?

Wordcount: 21,176 Release Date: 25 Feb 2022 Concept Art Piece

Sure feels like a decade has passed between then and now but nope, this was only published in February. In which I kick off Act II proper by adding 25% to the total length of the story!

I’m really proud of how this one came out. Black Gold is the first of a series of planned mission-episode chapters with semi-self-contained A-plots that feed into the larger Arc Plot of Act II. We’ve got some brand new antagonists inspired by characters from the wider DC Comics catalogue, in an entirely original story. With this one I tried hard to mimic the feel of a YJS1 TV-mission, and based on the comments it seems I swung pretty close to the mark. I didn’t talk about it in the chapter notes, but I also sought out some sensitivity-writing advice for this one, as well as having a friend sens’-read a few key scenes, and I think it resulted in overall better handling of the civilian OCs. It might have taken a while to put together it’s almost the size of a Deltora Quest book all on its own but I think the result was worth the wait.

(Fun fact: Act II is deliberately structured to emulate a TV episode experience so if I do it right you should be able to pick up any given mission-block and enjoy the A-plot as a standalone story. Black Gold wouldn’t be a bad jumping on point if you wanted to try Deathly Weapons out without committing to the full 83K read.)

Roundup of other 2022 development for this story under the cut:

Overall Structure

Structure has now been fleshed out enough for me to formalise the breakdown of chapters. I also decided to write episode teasers for each mission-block, which you can find here. Currently looking like it’ll be 45 chapters in total, but that may expand to 46 if Mission 9 turns out to need a 2-parter.

Former Mission 5 (Enemy Lines) and Mission 6 (In the Mists) have had their places swapped. In the Mists was a bit of a floating mission structurally, and it turned out to work better when placed before the China and Emeralds interlude. Meanwhile, the character-chapter following Enemy Lines felt better once placed later.

Our much neglected but no less beloved sorceress Zatanna now has a mini character arc about ghost-magic, starting at Mission 3 and cropping up as a background thread throughout later chapters. As a side bonus, it comes with some fun meta-implications for my headcanons about Nabu and Clockwork being petty work-rivals.

The memento-shelf has now become a recurring motif in Danny’s character journey.

A set of “story bible” documents have been fleshed out with more detailed character profiles, plot summaries and the overall scheme of the villains.

Act II: Mission 2

Drafted the first scenes for Chapter 19: Flashpoints.

The three key OCs for Chapter 19 have been developed. The police officer has been swapped out for an investigative journalist. The other two were somewhat less-anticipated additions but I quite like them in a spiteful sort of way.

Artemis’ chapter 19 scene now gets more in-depth character focus.

Chapter 20 remains already in detailed outline.

Chapter 21 is now in full detailed outline, with 2 scenes in rough draft since 2021.

Act II: Mission 3

Opening outline has seen more development, feat. cameo appearance from Detective Montoya.

Zatanna now gets a character-focus thread to do with expectations and her growth as a sorceress.

The Arc-clue and the souvenirs have been adjusted. Zatanna now also gets to take something home.

Act II: Mission 4

More development to the opening scene. Artemis now reads a thematically-relevant part of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There rather than a generic magazine.

Added a continuation to Zatanna’s arc. She gets to take home another souvenir.

The Kaldur-centric post-mission chapter (Il-Lit Ships) has seen more outline development.

The Sam-centric post-mission chapter (Withered Red Rose) has also seen more detailed outline development.

Act II: Mission 5

This is now In the Mists.

Conner now has a detailed character thread providing emotional beats. Galagos, Gorillas and making fun of the Team’s mentors ensue.

Interlude: China and Emeralds

Added more details to the opening scene, feat. gymnastic calisthenics.

Conner and Superman now have a scene together.

Act II: Mission 6

This is now Enemy Lines.

The M’gann-focussed post-mission chapter (Humans) is now in full detailed outline. Accompanying Meta on Martian Bigotry in the DW!verse was written up to better underpin the discussion of her experiences.

Act II: Mission 7

Added more detail to the post-mission reveal discussion, particularly Phantom and M’gann’s similar experiences.

Act III: Mission 9

Structural outline for the mission-chapter and character interactions have been developed in more detail.

Zatanna’s arc about ghost-magic continues.

The first of two Conner-centric post mission chapters (Alliances) is now in full detailed outline.

Act III: Mission 11

Detail development for the post-mission character-centric chapters, including Dick, Danny, Bruce and the Team.

Development of detailed outlines for the first of three epilogue scenes.

Other stuff

Art things: Deathly Weapons now has a new Banner-Style Fic Cover and Book-Style Fic Cover

Community: There is now a DW Discord.

Lovely gifts: I’ve said it before and I shall say it once more: endless thanks to the inimitable @doodly-doop for their wonderful gift art of Wally’s wall-slam manoeuvre from Chapter 18 and @cryxdraws for their art of Danny’s upgraded costume from Chapter 16.

And of course, thanks to you (whoever, wherever and whenever you may be) for joining me on this ride.

Here’s to a productive 2023.

#running a little bit late but it's my blog and I make the rules so #2022 roundup #writing roundup #Young justice: deathly weapons #danny phantom #young justice #DC Comics #dp x dc #DP x YJ #DP Crossover #YJ crossover #this year has been rather shite on a work-life/mental-health/other-creative-outlets front but in hindsight I did get a lot done here #I also did a LOT of meta/writing analyses but that has been mentioned elsewhere #In hindsight this reads like patch-notes on a videogame #3WD

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singing-planets · 4 months

Video

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ABC Planets Song

Join us on an incredible musical journey through the enchanting ABC Planets Song! In this episode, we explore a whimsical galaxy where each planet is shaped like a letter of the alphabet, brought to life with vibrant colors and captivating landscapes. Set to the tune of the classic song - "Danny Boy" is a traditional song, with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional Irish melody of "Londonderry Air" in 1913.

This animated adventure takes young viewers on a delightful tour through astonishing worlds – from Amber skies and Bubblegum mountains to Lavender forests and Moonlit meadows.

With catchy verses celebrating each letter-shaped planet, this song sparks imagination and invites children to discover the wonders of the alphabet cosmos. Experience the joy of exploration as we uncover 'A' to 'Z' planets, encountering everything from dazzling Diamond deserts to Utopian landscapes filled with magical unicorns.

The ABC Planets Song on Singing Planets is a treat for young minds, blending catchy melodies with colorful visuals to inspire creativity and ignite a love for learning. Join us in this cosmic adventure where imagination knows no bounds and let your little ones embark on a whimsical voyage through the wonders of the alphabet planets!

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Come, come along, let's journey-journey rocket's far,

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Where alphabet planets come to play, to play.

Verse 1:

Planet in the shape of the letter A,

Astonishing colors light up the way.

Amber skies, mountains with ice and azure shores seas,

Adventure wait us among the magic trees.

Verse 2:

Planet in the shape of the letter B,

Bursting with colors, for all to see.

Bubblegum mountains, in shades of orange color,

Beaming rainbow, that say us, say hallo!

Verse 3:

Planet in the shape of the letter C,

Cotton candy clouds, fluffy and free.

Crimson canyons, crimson canyons, stretching wide,

A candy-colored world, where our dreams reside.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 4:

Planet in the shape of the letter D,

Diamond deserts, shining bead tree and glee.

Dazzling landscapes in the night are sparkling bright,

A glittering planet, a breathtaking sight.

Verse 5:

Planet in the shape of the letter E,

Emerald forests stretch a lush canopy.

Enchanted creatures singing their song, singing their song

A world of harmony, where we always belong.

Verse 6:

Planet in the shape of the letter F,

Fiery sunsets, painting the sky's breath.

Fields of flowers, in every hue,

A kaleidoscope world, just for me and you.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 7:

Planet in the shape of the letter G,

Golden beaches, where waves are gently flee.

Gentle giants leisurely swimming in the sea,

A paradise planet, where laughter is key.

Verse 8:

Planet in the shape of the letter H,

Harmonious hills, where harmony sways.

Honey colored valleys, sweet dream and full serene,

A planet of tranquility, a peaceful scene.

Verse 9:

Planet in the shape of the letter I,

Iridescent skies, where dreams multiply.

Infinite wonders in forests, stretching afar,

A realm of magic, where wishes are stars.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 10:

Planet in the shape of the letter J,

Jubilant meadows, where joy finds its way.

Jellybean fragrant rivers, slow flowing so sweet

Planet of happiness, where friendships meet.

Verse 11:

Planet in the shape of the letter K,

Kooky green mountains, in colors arrayed.

Kind-hearted kooky creatures, spreading us their love,

Planet of compassion, like a small dove.

Verse 12:

Planet in the shape of the letter L,

Luminous oceans big, where wonders dwell.

Lavender forests, leisurely whispering tales,

Planet of charm, where imagination sails.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 13:

Planet in the shape of the letter M,

Mystical castles, on mountains they stem.

Moonlit meadows, glowing forests, where dreams come true,

The old planet, where fantasies brew true.

Verse 14:

Planet in the shape of the letter N,

Neon lights, painting the skyline again.

Nebula clouds, like light fluff, swirling with a grace,

A planet of wonder, in outer space.

Verse 15:

Planet in the shape of the letter O,

Opalescent rivers, with magical glow.

Orchid fields, softs as clouds, dancing in the breeze,

Planet of beauty, where harmony appease.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 16:

Planet in the shape of the letter P,

Pastel orange skies, in shades of glee.

Petal pathways with rose petals, leading the way,

Serene planet, where serendipity plays.

Verse 17:

Planet in the shape of the letter Q,

Quilted meadows, where dreams come true.

Quirky creatures, with laughter and glee,

A planet of joy, where happiness it's key.

Verse 18:

Planet in the shape of the letter R,

Rainforests teeming with life's charmer.

Rainbow waterfalls from heaven cascading down,

A planet of wonder, where nature's crown.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 19:

Planet in the shape of the letter S,

Sapphire skies, stars live in acquiesce.

Silver magical waterfall’s sparkling with delight,

A celestial planet, where dreams take flight.

Verse 20:

Planet in the shape of the letter T,

Twinkling treetops, swaying so free.

Tea-colored lakes, like mirrors, reflecting the sun,

Peaceful planet, where tranquility won.

Verse 21:

Planet in the shape of the letter U,

Utopian landscapes, where dreams come true.

Unicorns purple meadows, where magic abounds,

Planet of fantasy, where joy resounds.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 22:

Planet in the shape of the letter V,

Vibrant valleys with beautiful bawbee.

Velvet beaches, where wonderful waves softly roll,

Planet of beauty, captivating soul.

Verse 23:

Planet in the shape of the letter W,

Whimsical wonders, where fantasies grew.

Whispering winds, like fairy dreams, carrying tales,

Planet of wonder magic, where dreams sails.

Verse 24:

Planet in the shape of the letter X,

Xanadu landscapes, beyond what's complex.

Xylophone rivers melodies in the air fly,

Planet of harmony, where music's flair.

Chorus:

Oh, alphabet planets, oh so grand,

A vibrant cosmos, hand in hand.

With colors and shapes, they come alive,

Let's explore, let our imaginations thrive!

Verse 25:

Planet in the shape of the letter Y,

Yellow big sunflowers, stretching up high.

Yonder mountains with snow on top, touching the sky,

Planet of sunshine, where happiness lies.

Verse 26:

Planet in the shape of the letter Z,

Zephyr warm sweet smell, flying gently with ease.

Zen gardens, with rounded stones, - tranquil and serene,

Planet of peace, where harmony convene.

Outro:

From A to Z, our adventure complete,

In a universe of wonder, where dreams can't be beat.

So let's repeat exploring, with hearts open wide,

Colorful planets, where imagination can't hide!

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phantom088 · 1 year

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Day 16 of Having the Magical AI Make me a Danny Phantom Fanfic

Today's Danny Phantom story generated by a AI is a crossover. With whom you may ask, Infinity Train. Y'all know Infinity Train, right? Cause I ain't explaining. (Really good show tho) Anyways let's hop to it.

It was just an ordinary day for Danny as he slouched through the school hallways, wishing for a boring academic day to pass by. Suddenly, an odd rumbling sound caught his attention. He followed the noise until he stumbled upon a mysterious doorway nestled between a couple of lockers.

Curiosity got the best of Danny as he approached the door, grasping the knob and twisting it open. All of a sudden, he found himself sucked into a world unlike any other he had experienced before. The air was stale and musty, a complete contrast to the vibrant colors and lively scene of his hometown Amity Park.

Danny was now standing in the world of Infinity Train, a vast, mysterious, and ever-changing realm of wonders and dangers that he'd never dreamt of. He looked around in awe as he observed a train racing past him. Without thinking, Danny hopped onto the train, feeling the wind blowing through his hair as he watched the ever-changing landscape around him. It was then he realized that he was riding a train that kept shifting and changing within like a labyrinth.

At one point, Danny stumbled into a carriage that felt eerily familiar. It was a ghostly carriage packed with a variety of spectral creatures, including Ember Mclain, the goth queen of the ghost world. Danny quickly put two and two together and soon realized that he had to use his powers to survive as he struggled to navigate through the tricks and traps that the train had set up for him.

Eventually, during his train ride, Danny met Amelia, a girl who had been stuck in the Infinity Train for years, helping countless passengers stuck on the train. She noticed that Danny was different from any other passenger she had ever seen. Upon hearing his story, Amelia made a note of his powers and offered to help him to find a way out of the maze-like train.

For the rest of his journey in the Infinity Train, Danny and Amelia became fast friends, with Danny using his powers to help her find a way out of the twisted train. Together, they braved various challenges, from seductive ghosts, terrifying beasts, and tricky obstacles, working alongside each other to escape.

In the end, Danny managed to escape the clutches of the Infinity Train, feeling grateful for the time he spent there and the lessons he learned along the way. He shared a tearful goodbye with Amelia, promising to come and visit her every time he entered the Infinity Train. As he returned to his world, Danny was left with the knowledge that, just like himself, Infinity Train was a world full of magic and endless possibilities.

The End.

A weird fever dream once again, but the AI preformed better then I thought it would since Infinity Train is lesser known, well anyways... bye.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Infinity Train #Amelia from Infinity Train #Crossover #Nicktoons #Cartoon Network #AI #AI Generated #Fanfic #Danny Phantom Fanfic #Infinity Train Fanfic #AI Stories #AI made Fanfic #Fan Fiction

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mctionsick · 1 year

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MISCHEL BELLO AESTHETIC & STATS

basic information

full name: mischel odette bello

nickname(s): misha

age: 24-30.

date of birth: nov 20th / scorpio.

hometown: harlem, ny.

current location: harlem, ny.

occupation: singer for romantic getaway car. day job working at her mom / grandma’s restaurant sugarcane.

gender: gender fluid

pronouns: she/they

orientation: bisexual

religion: atheist

species: human / dabbles in food and healing magic

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

face claim: ayo edebiri

hair colour: dark brown. either braided or left natural.

eye colour: brown.

height: 5 ft 7 in

piercings: ears, nose.

clothing style: not really tied down by one specific aesthetic. loves to switch things up and play with different textures and tones. when in doubt she has a trusty pair of doc martins and a leather jacket.

usual expression:

HEALTH

addictions: n/a

drug use: rolls the best blunt u have ever smoked. say thank u misha.

alcohol use: mostly social.

illness: crohns

PERSONALITY

positive traits: hardworking, perceptive, reliant

negative traits: sarcastic, brash, indecisive

hobbies: reading, painting, meditating, baking.

habits: gets overly excited and will probably interrupt you while speaking

FAVOURITES

weather: that sweet spot between fall and winter

music: pop punk, ska, hip hop, her favorite band of all time is bad brans.

movies: not huge on movies, music was her main form of escapism. she has a soft spot for rom coms thought.

books: pretty much anything non fiction and fiction alike. she’s always juggling at least 3 different books at once.

food: bajan cuisine is what she grew up on and what they cook in the restaurant and it will always be her greatest form of comfort food. she has to watch what she eats thanks to her crohn’s disease though.

FAMILY

mother: ede bello. immigrated from the west coast of barbados when she was just a baby and worked her way up through her mother’s restaurant and while she supports mischel’s artistic ventures she wishes she would take over the restaurant.

father: wale bello. er nurse who works long hours. is less supportive of mischel’s musical and artistic ventures. it comes from a place of love but he’s not great at showing it.

brother. danny bello. misha’s slacker younger brother who she adores but is always trying to push in the right direction. he’s a natural in the kitchen and will one day take over the restaurant. he just has some growing up to do.

QUICK FACTS

the family restaurant sugarcane incorporates a lot of food magic into their foods

has been practicing food magic since she was young but is starting a journey on learning about healing magic

completely human verses are available

#player 1: mischel bello #mischel (bio)#mischel (aesth)#mischel (about)

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ecto-stone · 3 years

Note

So I don’t really know that much about that my blood au you created could you tell me a bit about it?

Ha hah I Hope this is Edible

So My Blood Au is just Me dumping all the cool stuff i can think of into a DP what if Vlad is Good ^For Starter MB Vlad or Vladimir Jude Masters is a Paranormal investigater/ hunter/exocist in a sense. He seemingly Perfect in People eye, Not Really on the inside as he have many problem stem from living so long and going though alots of thing that he prefer not to talk about that he hide from People , go so far as to adjust his own emotion to what he find fit to the situration making him really hard to read. (Not Jack and Danielle, those are close enough 2 peel him like an onion if they sense something off). -Vlad And Danny are not same kind of Halfa in this AU, Vlad is Two soul (Half Blue Demon Vampire Ghost, Half Human twisted together and blend into one) and Danny is Soul within soul (Going though the accident give him two identical soul that over lapped each other) -Ghost are nerf and ecto beam and ecto Base attack can harm ghost but they can't harm Physical thing in living world Unless they are infuse with Core element same with Human entering Purgatory. -The world have 5 Realm: LivingWorld, Purgatory (GhostZone), Elsewhereness, Fairy Land and Unworld. +Going with the idea that originaly Vlad is supposed to be a vampire and many ghost in the series feel like they are more supernature creature then Ghost. Living world now have many Human and other Creature living among each other , hidden in plain sight +Purgatory: Where Ghost go and heal before they move onto Elsewhereness (Heaven in this verse) or Rebirth back to the living cycle. There are many area in Purgatory that fit human decription of after life look like , this is due to collective faith and ideal of many Ghost focus with each other to created these Resting stop. Incidentally like the living world these area are also watch over by being call King and Queen of the Death (Caretaker and protector of the Death soul, a being with incredible power capable of bending reality). Most well known one are the King Dark, Prince Argon and Princess Dora of the Dark Age Zone. Queen Desire of the thousand and one night. ect.. newest King of the death is Ghost Writer (library of the forgotten) but he prefer not be refer to as king, just Ghost writer. +Elsewhereness: The final resting Places of enternal Bliss. Once the Soul is ready to let go of all earthly desire, they are send here. Not much is known about this realm or it location. When a Soul reach enlightment it will automatically know where to find it. The realm also House many god. +Fairy Land: Home to care taker of the childhood inocent and many god that work to keep the universe running. Most common creature that live here is Fairy with two side one silly colorful side that appear to children to granted what ever their heart desire. The other is the Blue fortune side that Weaved the fabric of Luck and fate. +Unworld: A Dark realm with one way in no way out. It house many dangerous creature, ancient outer god and unspeakable Evil that have been banish to through age by god and human. >the Origin Story: +Vlad and Jack are Friend from Childhood (Their Bond are really tight kinda like Sworn Brother ) unlike their canon counter part meet in college. They Hunt Ghost but in more of a Release soul from their earthly bound kind of way via the info they get from the Masters Family Grilmore. (There is one major inconvience is that You need to wait for the correct day and time to perform ritual sending ghost back to purgatory so they can Move on to Elsewhereness/heaven of this verse ) +They Meet Maddie in college (Maddie and Vlad almost alway in a total clash with each other with Maddie tech almost Hunter like way in dealing with ghost and Vlad more traditional Way of Handling them) Which end with Three of them forming the Original Ghost Trio. With Maddie accept Vlad and Jack Respect the Death ideal. And Vlad and Jack incorperate More Technology into their Asset. +Maddie point out the inconvinient of having to wait for the correct day for each ghost to send them back to Purgatory (Their room are fill with

Container for ghost), Which lead to them comming up with the idea of Making a Ghost Portal. <Note: MB Vlad is not into Romantic relationship, Platonic one Matter to him more> >The Accident: No diet soda the Accident is purely due to one miscalculation that cost Vlad life (his Head got Blash Clean off infront of Jack and Maddie) In that Split Second of His face getting disintigrating, Vlad get a Glim into UnWorld (the Realm where are Demon and evil of the four realm are banish to) and Got Latched on and Pushed Back to the living world by a Demon Vampire Ghost Both Soul are now inhabited Vlad headless lifeless body, in Which about 3 day after Vlad burial that Vlad Body got completely decontructed inside the coffin and recontructed into a body that is more fitting to host both . Vlad have a hard time remembering Who he is after kinda get rebirth and Wander the world until he Get Suck into a Natural Ghost Portal and got Flunk Back in time. >Journey of an Immortal Being: -Vlad Stuck in the Past, He recovered his memories, Going through existenal crisis, Evil phase, Evil make me feel bad, Not Evil anymore, Found out that he is immortal now, Existenal crisis part2, Acceptance, Travel the World and Start doing the what ever he like, learning old way of magic still helping ghost and other supernatural being. -Caused several Major Change to the past that Mythical Creature got un extinct. (Due to the Law of life and death this does not affect who get born or not, it just that the world got alots more races now and those used to be born human in the original timeline might get born as another races entirely) -Get Mistaken for Messiah.( Look You can't kill Vlad, He would just be gone for like 3 day then comeback) -Caused the legend of Dracula. -Vampire cult have a horrible obession with Vlad as a Whole. Look like vampire act like one, can walk in plain day light and more importantly the ability to Open a Portal to Unworld . ( Vlad don't use this ability much and can only open small one as it is very energy consuming) -Meet his own ancestor Which is the Fentonightingale that Later Splited into Fenton and Nightingale (later change to Masters) leading to revealation that Jack and Him might be very distant Related. -Bickering With Time God (Do not trust the Clock Man that work for the Eyes) -Get Caught in War far too many time. -Meet Phantom (an odd entity that is oddly clingy to him) in the Great War. -Meet Other Some of the DP ghost when they still alive -The Horrible Bar incident that reveal Phantom true nature, an evil being that wish to turn the world back to it original nature of nothiness and try to turn vlad to the his side, Kill, Seal in Rock Case covered with Sigil to prevent Phantom from escape, Chuck it into the ocean. - The Contruction of the Coffin Ghost Portal. (Havent actually went into the Purgatory caused the CCP is one Way Portal. -Forming of many Hidden town that home supernatural being. Amity Park is one of them. - And many more unseen story >Daddy Stolen Ribbone saga (MB Vlad is sterile, he want to have kid but can't.) -The Vampire cult that he have grudge with attemp to Clone or at least created a child that have Vlad Power through ritual and cult like method. Imagine Danny Clone but even more mess up . -Vlad end the life of most of them by his own hand (they are suffering, it is best to let them go) -Birth of Danielle: +Danielle Evelyn Masters or just Dani/Dee for short is the only Stable child come out of this whole odeal. She is Created From Vlad Ribone like a Twisted Eve. And like in the book it caused both of them to be very attached to each other in a Fatherly Daughterly Way. +Dee Have Vlad Ghost power and Demonic Power but No ghost form (Her default funtion as both and whether she is in ghost mode or Human mode is all Up to energy control) and no connection to Unworld there for she can't open portal to Unworld. Dual Soul nature Wind/Fire.

+She like Frog and is interested in Marine biology (which Vlad have full support over, she have a room fill with Vlad hand made frog plusie that she all named. +He raise her teach her everything he know about how to deal with supernatural being and how to Snipe Vampire from a long distant with pin point accuracy.

+An kidnapped incident with the Vampire cult latter resulted in Dee Death at the age of 12 (1999), and Vlad becoming fully Merged into one Being with Plasmius. and wipe out the entire vampire cult in a horrible Vlad the impaler way). +After wiping out the remainder of the cult, vlad go into retirement and work as a wall Painter < he work supper fast on celling painting and no one know why> >The Boy Who Fly (2 year before the start of actual MB story) -Danny Gain his power at the age of 10, his parent know. The event of Portal acivation caused the whole town to have a black out. -They move House alots for 2 year. And Jack try his best to make his family as normal as they can be after accidenly k his friend all those year ago and now half eff his own son. -They finding out amity park their new home is on accident when the RV engine die mid way through the middle of no Where (The town shown it self to those in need) -Danny hide his abiltiy. But after a gym incident. and getting Praise by his peer for it instead of scold like with the adult Danny start getting bolder using Floating power around his new friend when no adult is watching. <Vlad who is Working on the Giant Raven paiting for the School Saw this and know imediately What Danny is> -They offically meet each other on the the roof top, when Danny mom ask him to go down the store and by some bread and he decided to try to Air Frog Swim to it. They become friend and Vlad even teach Danny how to fly properly before having to leave (they visit each other alots after the revealation, and vlad is a good adult friend that Danny can talk to) (Danno forgot about the bread and return home breadless) -Jack may stop with the whole Paranormal hunter/ghost scientist job but not Maddie. She keep doing it behind his back due to danny special need in ecto base consumtion (he havent grow abit since the accident and keep getting smaller and it concerning) -Jack found out and they have a Fight. which lead to Maddie go to his Sister house. -Danny Found out about why his dad was so stressed out about ghost thing now. When looking through his parent old stuff with his new friend tucker. (Dude why does your parent have a Picture of the wall painter in thier old junk). He show the image to Vlad. -Danny Get jack to tell the story about the inccident. Dad what if i tell you that Your friend who die 18 year ago survived and is on our front door right now. Reunion, Jack feeling guilty about making them both like this. Go Get Maddie. Happy reunion of the trio. -Fenton Parent become accepting to Danny condition, Danny have a good mentor that can teach him ho to control his power And they live happy ever after for now

#Q/A #good god how do you add read more on a QA #my blood AU #Danny Phantom #danny phantom au #god this is long #hachi text

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blaineandsamevanderson · 3 years

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What's in your WIP folder?

Oh boy, that’s a big ask! I tend to start writing a fic and get distracted. Some of these are super old and I keep meaning to get back to them, but the muses are fickle.

Hawaii Five 0

On the Right Track Babe ~ When a case leads to an undercover assignment, certain things are uncovered (Mcdanno)

Untitled ~ Danny works a detail at Honolulu Pride cuz he figures if there’s gotta be a police presence at Pride that some of the cops should be part of the community (Mcdanno)

9-1-1/9-1-1 LoneStar

The Date ~ Buck gets ready for a date after his shift at the firehouse...and a hot guy show to pick him up. Hot guy is Dylan, the hot EMT played by Nyle DiMarco on a Station 19 episode where they were fighting wildfires in CA. (Buddie)

Chopped ~ Buck competes on a firefighter edition of Chopped (Buddie)

BBQ ~ Carlos takes TK to a family BBQ (Tarlos)

Untitled Buddie Soulmates fic ~ When someone falls in love, they are marked, a signal appearing on their skin to commemorate that their heart was connected to another. Many couples bore marks for one and other, but only in rare occasions, do they wear the same mark. When two people loved each other and were true soulmates, they shared a mark. (Buddie)

Special Report ~ The news runs a story about the Tsunami on the anniversary (Buddie)

Untitled ~ Buck offers to go as Josh’s plus one to a wedding (undecided ship)

Untitled ~ Eddie hurts his hands and is frustrated. Buck is a good friend and lends a hand ;) (Buddie)

Untitled 9-1-1/Prodigal Son Crossover ~ What is says on the tin

Glee (All Blam)

Running Mates ~ When Blaine Anderson becomes the Democratic nominee for the presidency, he has to pick a VP. A Glee/West Wing fusion

Let’s Marvin Gaye ~ So, idea: In Senior year, Artie decides to get some more directorial experience by making music videos of his friends covering songs. One in particular is a hit, Blaine and Brittany’s cover of Charlie Puth/Meghan Trainor’s song Marvin Gaye…but unlike the actual video, they don’t share a kiss. Both Blaine and Britt have their own storylines in the video, Sam and Santana acting as their respective partners, culminating with kisses like in the video…though Artie doesn’t fade to black fast…It quickly goes viral :)

The Smell of Fresh Cut Grass on Sun Soaked Skin ~ Summer before S2, Sam’s family has just moved to Lima and he’s making extra cash by doing yard work. Gets hired by Mrs. Anderson and he and Blaine meet.

The Most Magical Place on Earth ~ Sam is called to a meeting by Blaine's parents. They sit him down and say that of all of Blaine's friends, Sam is the most reliable, the most trustworthy and the nicest. So they have chosen (maybe even hire) him to keep an eye on Blaine because Blaine tends to go crazy when he takes this annual trip. Cooper couldn't handle him. Kurt couldn't take it. But they think Sam can. When Blaine does his annual week-long trip to Disney World, Sam goes with him. Oh what could possibly happen?

Mutual Admiration ~ Famous male model Sam Evans is on Ellen to promote his new GQ magazine spread and when asked about celebrity crushes he reveals he’s crushing on Broadway star Blaine Anderson.

Friends, Love & Homecoming ~ S2 AU ~ Post 2x03 – Sam joined glee in 2x01 and is not dating Quinn. Not dating anyone at McKinley, cuz he’s with Blaine. When Homecoming rolls around, he wants to take him, so he tells the club. I want reactions!

Drunk on A Plane ~ After being left at the altar, Blaine decides to use the Honeymoon tickets himself. AU ~ where Sam never moved to Lima and he and Blaine meet later in life.

Cruise Ship Coincidence ~ Future fic slightly AU (no Klaine engagement or Samcedes stuff or they broke up already). During a cruise, Kurt and Rachel bump into newlywed Blaine and Sam, who are on their honeymoon after haven’t saw them in years

DCTV

Crossovers

Untitled Bake Off AU ~ DCTV characters on Bake Off (Captain Canary, Winnara and others)

Stretch Right Up and Touch the Sky ~ Camp STAR is one of the North East’s most popular science camps. Every year, young minds arrive to learn and explore. Unfortunately, a few weeks before the camp was to open for the season, a large explosion in one of the labs and the ensuing fire made the camp uninhabitable. Not wanting his campers to miss out on their summer, Owner Harrison Wells called up Joe West, Owner of Camp Superflarrow, who he knew was looking to expand the science discovery program at his own camp. (Captain Canary, Winnara and others)

Untitled Beach Town AU ~ Beach Town AU: Sara Lance (16) and her sister Laurel (17) are invited to spend the summer at the summer beach house of Laurel’s friend Oliver (17). There, they meet a variety of people, townies, other vacationers, etc…and one townie in particular, Leonard Snart (17) catches Sara’s interest :) (Captain Canary, Winnara and others)

Untitled Actors AU ~ An AU where the Legends of Superflarrow characters are actors playing heroes (or part of the crew for the tv/movie) and Sara is one of the heroes and Leonard is one of the villains and their chemistry inspires the writers to give his character a redemption arc… (Captain Canary and others)

Captain Cold Comes to National City ~ Based on a thread started by this tumblr post: I’ve got it! Due to the Oculus’s destruction, Len Snart is blown through the time-space continuum. He awakens in a universe not his own, with a girl in a red skirt… not to mention a red cape… standing over him (Captain Canary, Winnara and others)

Legends of Tomorrow

A Tale of Two Snarts ~ A familiar face returns in an unexpected way (Captain Canary)

Land of the Lost ~ The Legends try to figure out how they’re going to fix time and find a lost friend along the way. Spoilers for the Season 2 Finale!!!! (Captain Canary)

Marvel

Rewinding the Clock ~ In the Marvel world, even old age isn't a constant...

We’ve Come A Long Way From Where We Began ~ Picking up where Infinity War ends….

Star Trek

Georgia Time ~ A follow Up the The Journey Home and Beyond set right after Kirk et all graduate but before they ship out. (McKirk maybe?)

Teen Wolf

Finding Home ~ After the Battle of Beacon Hills, life goes on. (Thiam & Mahealahey & Others)

Model Behavior ~ Isaac gets a job as an Abercrombie greeter (before the ban) and Danny's his trainer. (Mahealahey)

The Full Moon Job (Crossover with Leverage) ~ An alternate version of Teen Wolf Season 6. Wet after the pack pretends to leave Beacon Hills, but after that, all timelines are chucked, characters are brought back and fun is had (Thiam & Mahealahey & Others)

Stay All Day in the Sun ~ When Theo isn't around, the pack starts to wonder where he's going off to.... (Thiam & Mahealahey & Others)

Untitled Actors AU ~ Liam and Theo are actors on a hit tv show. Their characters are enemies with crackling chemistry, but no one suspects it cuz they’re together off screen (Thiam)

Untitled Actors AU 2 ~ What if Danny was one of the cast of a popular show about werewolves? Possibly called Teen Wolf, for the fans of the Meta and, in Season 2, they bring in some new characters, including one played by Isaac. Their characters aren’t supposed to have too much interaction initially, but soon everyone sees the chemistry… (Mahealahey)

#McDanno #Buddie #Tarlos #Thiam #Mahealahey #Blam #Captain Canary #Winnara #McKirk #The Avengers #Fic #WIPs

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richincolor · 4 years

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Book Review: A Phoenix First Must Burn

Title: A Phoenix First Must Burn

Author: Edited by Patrice Caldwell

Genres: Anthology

Pages: 368

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers

Review Copy: ARC from publisher

Availability: Available now

Summary: Sixteen tales by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.

Authors include Elizabeth Acevedo, Amerie, Dhonielle Clayton, Jalissa Corrie, Somaiya Daud, Charlotte Davis, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Justina Ireland, Danny Lore, L.L. McKinney, Danielle Paige, Rebecca Roanhorse, Karen Strong, Ashley Woodfolk, and Ibi Zoboi.

Review: The back of my copy of “A Phoenix First Must Burn” says that it is anthology that is “Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ meets Octavia Butler” and I have to say that this is true. All the stories in this anthology are so full of Black Girl Magic and so full of meaning that they just touch the heart. I can’t say whether or not I had a favorite one as all the stories moved me in different ways. If there was a theme, aside from Black Girl Magic, that ran through all of these, was that is majority of the stories all of the girls were coming into their power in some way - being it literal power as in L. L. McKinney’s “The Goddess Provides” to overcoming heart ache and finding power in the self as in Dhonielle Clayton’s “Hearts Turned to Ash”.

The stories ranged from taking a twist on historical events to glimpsing at the future. Elizabeth Acevdeo’s story, “Gilded” told of a girl who was able to wield metal and helped bring a slave rebellion and Justina Ireland’s “Melie” had sorcerers, mermaids, and dragons, and was just a great statement of how Black girls often get overlooked by mediocre white men and that can cause self esteem issues, when in actuality, she should be listened to. Patrice Caldwell and I have a shared love of vampires, so I was sooo happy to see her vampire story “Letting the Right One In” and instead of it being a creepy story, it was a story about friendship, family, and first love (at least I imagine that the two main characters, Corrie and Ayanna have a great love affair). One of the more surprising stories, for me at least, was Danny Lore’s “Tender-headed” which basically tapped into the power of our hair and learning lessons from our elders.

All of the stories in this anthology were steeped in the fantastical but were so authentically Black in the variety of ways of Blackness. For me, it was refreshing to read these stories of Black girls learning lessons and coming into their own, while at the same time having moments of just pure Black joy. I have to say this anthology would have made Octavia Butler proud.

#book review #black girl magic #recommendation: get it soon #WeNeedDiverseBooks

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

Text

Psycho Analysis: Halloween Special Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Halloween, that magical, spooky time of year where ghosts and goblins come out to play and children dress up in the hopes of getting some delicious Halloween candy. But what about all of us who are trapped at home on the night of this pagan costume and candy festival? What do we have to keep us entertained?

Why, Halloween specials of course!

If there’s one thing Halloween delivers on almost as well as Christmas does, it’s spooky Halloween-themed episodes of cartoons, where the show is allowed to get darker and more disturbing than it usually does in some cases. And what is any special without a special one-shot villain? Gotta have someone stirring up some Halloween trouble on this spooky night. And since these characters are usually one and done with little in the way to go super in-depth about, I’d figure we’d look at five of them at once! They are:

Jack O’Lantern from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Pumpkinator from The Fairly OddParents

Bun-Bun from Underfist

Fright Night from Danny Phantom

Ron Tompkins from Toy Story of Terror!

I’m sure some of you feel there are some glaring omissions. Where’s the Flying Dutchman? Where’s Stickybeard? Well, I decided that this time around I’d go with characters whose major appearances and debuts are Halloween episodes; both those guys had major roles in non-Halloween episodes as well, so I’ll be saving them for full reviews at a later date. Also of note: I am aware the story of Toy Story of Terror! does not take place on Halloween, but it is aired as a Halloween special, so I’m counting it.

Actor: So if there’s one thing these guys aren’t lacking in, it’s the actor department, and this isn’t a huge shock since when you’ve got a holiday special you want to splurge a bit, you know?

Jack has one of my favorite actors ever, the always-awesome Wayne Knight. Knight just has that sort of voice that’s perfect for smug jerk characters like Mr. Blik or Dennis Nedry, so really it’s pretty fitting for a pranking trickster like Jack, though I will say that it’s hard to match Knight’s voice to the human version of Jack when you see him in a flashback.

Ron Tompkins isn’t too far behind in the impressive VA department, being voiced by none other than Stephen Tobolowsky, who you may remember as the overbearing Ned Ryerson from GroundHog Day (and how can you forget him? You see him repeating the same scene about thirty times). He does a great job at making Tompkins cartoonishly evil and mostly enjoyable, a tall order for a character who steals toys from children to sell online.

And if you thought the list of awesome actors was done, boy were you wrong! Star Trek’s very own Michael Dorn voices the Fright Knight, and Dorn’s voice is absolutely perfect for a cool, evil, undead knight.

Bun-Bun is voiced by Dave Wittenberg who is an insanely prolific VA, playing characters such as Henry Wong from Digimon Tamers (AKA the beast season of Digimon) to none other than Kakashi from Naruto. I think it goes without saying a VA this versatile manages to make the role work.

And finally, we have the Pumpkinator, who is played by Dee Bradley Baker, and if I sat here listing all the notable roles this man has played we’d be here all night. But here’s a small sample: Appa, Momo, Squilliam Fancyson and Bubble Bass, Klaus the goldfish, Cow and Chicken’s dad, Cinderblock and Plasmus, the Alien and Predator in Mortal Kombat, Lion and Frybo, Numbah 4 and the Toilenator, Remy Buxaplenty, most of the animals in The Legend of Korra… you get the picture. This guy’s a legend. He’ll do any sort of role, big or small, so even if he’s not playing the most complex character here, he’s at least giving it a unique spin with his voice because man, this guy has RANGE.

Motivation/Goals: Jack has a rather simple motivation: revenge. You see, ages ago he managed to steal Grim’s scythe when he was about to be reaped, and bartered for the scythe’s return, asking to be made immortal. Grim reluctantly gave him this, but, as Grim is not someone who likes being tricked, also cut his head off. As anything cut off with Grim’s scythe is permanently cut off, Jack had to replace his head with a pumpkin (of course). This lead to him being shunned as a freak, which just made jis desire for vengeance even stronger; I mean, wouldn’t you want revenge if you could only go to the ding-dong grocery store to get pudding once a year?

If you want to get even simpler, the Pumpkinator is your guy! He exists simply to blow up planets. Tat’s it. He’s very much just an obstacle Timmy needs to overcome so that he can undo his wish for every Halloween costume to be “real and scary” before the consequences end up destroying the world.

Bun-Bun is rather simple as well: he just seems to be a jerk. But they don’t just make him a simple jerk, no, this is a Billly & Mandy spinoff so things have to be taken to their ridiculous extreme. Bun-Bun turns out to be behind numerous extremely petty actions that affected the lives of the main heroes, having haunted Hoss as a child and made him afraid of monsters, made Billy afraid of spiders which estranged him from his son Jeff, and, uh, sawed off Fred Fredburger’s tusks. The fiend! As you might guess, there’s no real rhyme or reason to this, it’s just goofy absurdist over-the-top sort of thing you’d expect from Maxwell Atoms.

Ron has a relatively simple motivation, but frankly it might be the most evil out of all of these: the man steals toys from the children who stay at his motel to sell them for monetary gain. Yes, this is more evil than attempting to blow up the planet, you heard me. I have no idea how sick and twisted you have to be to think that stealing toys from children is acceptable. Funnily enough, this is the same sort of motivation Al (who was played by Wayne Knight, funnily enough) from Toy Story 2 had, though Ron takes it above and beyond.

And finally that brings us to Fright Knight, Much like most of the ghosts on the show, Fright Knight seems to just want to cause a ruckus after he’s released, attempting to take over Amity Park when Danny foolishly releases him. Later in the show he is freed to serve Pariah Dark, and after Dark is beaten he joins up with Vlad. In his final appearance of any consequence he is seen serving the Ultimate Enemy in the bad future. Basically the guy is just a really cool overhyped henchman.

Personality: So let’s get the easy one out of the way first: The Pumpkinator doesn’t exactly have a personality, because it is a big generic doomsday villain meant to act as an obstacle for Timmy to overcome. However, when it returned later in the episode where Timmy goes to Unwish Island, it did have one notable personality trait: an undying hatred for Timmy Turner, It’s a pretty relatable trait the more into the series you watch.

Bun-Bun is also rather evil and simple. He’s just a petty jerk, as can be seen by his crimes listed up under motivation. There’s not much else to him, same with Fright Knight who, again, is mostly just an overhyped henchman who acts as the hardcore badass serving whatever big bad of the week is out to get Danny (or he would have, but more on that later).

Out of all of these, Ron and Jack have the most personality. Jack is an unrepentant prankster who, at least when alive, was heavily implied to just not get he was taking it too far with his pranks (“too far” in this case being tricking people off of cliffs, at the least), and simply morphed into a bitter, jaded, vengeance-seeking supernatural entity after hundreds of years of rejection by society and isolation. Jack’s honestly pretty tragic in that regard, though it obviously doesn’t excuse his actions.

Ron is just a straight-up jerk, putting up a facade of being a charming, friendly motel owner while stealing toys from under his guest’s noses. As the truth comes out about him, he becomes more cartoonish and hammy, which really doesn’t help his case at all, and in his final scene he actually does something so cartoonish he almost feels like he doesn’t belong in the Toy Story universe.

Final Fate: Funnily enough, Pumpkinator actually gets the happiest ending out of anyone here: after being unwished by Timmy, he goes to Unwish Island and, after Timmy eventually journeys there, gets to have fun tormenting Timmy clones for the rest of time.

Ron probably has the second happiest ending, for a given definition of “happy.” Bonnie’s mother calls the cops on him for his theft, and when they show up, he somehow manages to trick them, run away, steal their car, crash it into a telephone pole when backing up, and then run off before they even move a muscle. It’s ridiculously cartoonish, and there’s no way this guy is gonna be getting off easy after that little display.

Onto Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun made one simple mistake: he put any trust at all int Skarr. For those not in the know, Skarr was the “Starscream” to Hector Con Carne, always hoping to overthrow him and take over his world domination schemes for himself before he ended up retiring from that life and becoming a reoccurring character on Billy & Mandy. So, when he joins up with the villain by betraying Underfist, what do you think he does? He betrays the villain, pushing Bun-Bun into hot cocoa and melting him, using his power of treachery and backstabbing to help his team save the world. It’s pretty amusing in that classic Billy & Mandy way.

Good ol’ Jack ends up getting sent to the underworld this time since Grim wasn’t putting up with his crap anymore, and it seems Jack still hasn’t learned his lesson about pranking. When last we see him, he’s now tormenting demons, who all start moving in on him while he laughs at his dumb pranks. The screen cuts to black and we hear a squishing noise. It’s safe to say he won’t have to worry about that pumpkin head causing him problems anymore.

Fright Night is easily the most tricky one to talk about because his entire intended purpose in the show got aborted. After he was brought back to serve Pariah, he ended up under Vlad’s control by episode’s end, but for some reason, nothing ever came of this and it was never mentioned again – well, except in the “Ultimate Enemy” special, in which the Fright Knight cameos at the beginning, acting as something of the hype man for Dan Phantom, softening up Amity Park for Dan’s attack. After that, though, he’s basically out of the series, save for a couple of brief cameos here and there.

Best Scene: Jack has the flashback to his origins, because not only is it perfectly dark for a show’s Halloween episode, you have to give props to anyone who managed to outwit Grim, even if he did end up paying a steep price for it.

Ron has his aforementioned escape from the police. I do think it’s a bit too cartoonish and silly for Toy Story, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t pretty hilarious either way.

The Fright Knight has the aforementioned scene where he mentions he’s serving The evil future Danny. Considering that’s his last real role in the series, at least he got to go out on a high note, though it still sucks nothing ever came of the plotlines set up for him.

Bun-Bun’s best scene is when he revealed that he was the architect of most of the protagonist’s woes. Again, it’s just classic over-the-top Billy & Mandy silliness, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Pumpkinator… just doesn’t have one. Sorry.

Best Quote: While most of these guys aren’t exactly a goldmine of quotes, Jack has one of my favorite quotes from anything, ever, and I even already referenced it above: “Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, I can't even go the the ding-dong grocery store to buy pudding! And do you know why?" The why, obviously, is the fact he has a pumpkin for a head.

Final Thoughts & Score: Frankly, this batch of Halloween hooligans is a very mixed bag. We didn’t fare quite as bad as Charlie Brown did on Halloween, but we only got one King Size candy bar out of this lot.

I guess let’s just start with the black licorice of the bunch: Fright Knight. God, I wish I could love Fright Knight, I really do, but considering the overwhelming quality of most of Danny’s rogues gallery and just the fact this guy was totally shafted and everything set up for him was ignored there’s just no excusing how lame this guy looks, Michael Dorn or no. He has a great design and a cool concept, and the ideas for interesting stories with him were there, but he ends up being a 3/10, saved only by his cool first outing, great voice work, and awesome design.

Worse still is the pile of weirdly flavored candy corn that is the Pumpkinator. He has a cool design, but he’s not much of an antagonist to be honest. He’s just a cool-looking robot who wants to blow up the planet. That’s about it. There’s really not much to say about this guy, and his only other appearance doesn’t really add much. I suppose he serves his purpose, but I have to wonder, why even bring him back if he wasn’t going to do anything remotely interesting? I don’t like generic doomsday villains at the best of times, but if you’re gonna bring one back, at least try and do something interesting with them to justify their existence, otherwise they’re just gonna end up getting a 2/10.

Finally, we get into the good candy! Let’s start off with the tasty marshmallow bunny we got, Bun-Bun (isn’t that more of an Easter candy? Weird). Bun—Bun is a funy, goofy, cartoonish villain, perfect for the first (and sadly, only) outing for Underfist. The fact they went above and beyond to cement him as this ludicrous mastermind who just screwed with everyone’s lives for no apparent reason other than the fact he’s a jerk is pretty funny. I don’t think he’s gonna win any Villain of the Year awards, but I think a 6/10 is good enough for this above average nuisance.

Oho, what’s this? A… candycane? Well, it’s a bit out of season, but it’s still tasty! And that’s kind of where Ron is. I do like just how unabashedly scummy he is, and there is precedent for people like him in the Toy Story universe, but I feel he takes things to a cartoonish extreme. For crying out loud, the guy has a trained iguana that acts like a dog! He feels like he belongs in a different series than this one, but again, I don’t really think that’s a bad thing, because at the very least he is funny. He gets a 7/10, a bit higher than usual just because I love how ridiculously nasty his whole scheme is. Stealing from kids, what the actual hell.

YES! A King Size candy bar! Just what I was looking for! It’s just a generic Hershey bar, but hey, that’s a lot of chocolate, so who’s complaining? And that’s Jack, he is simply put a perfect Halloween special antagonist. Most of this comes from his voice work, since Wayne Knight is a national treasure, but his backstory and concept are worth praising too. His origin story is something of a twist on the old legend of “Stingy Jack,” the origin story of the Jack-O’-Lantern appropriately enough. While obviously there are liberties, such as substituting Grim for the devil, it’s a mostly accurate retelling, something that would go over most people’s heads unless they’re really into classical folklore. Jack’s a lot of fun as a character, earning himself a nice big 8/10, only being held back from a higher score because despite being rightfully beloved by audiences, he never really had a major role again, getting a minor shout out in Big Boogey Adventure and… that’s it. I think Jack could have been a really entertaining reoccurring antagonist in the same vein as fwllow ensemble darkhorse Eris, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe if Underfist had been picked up he could have been brought back for that, but the fact is it just didn’t happen. Oh well, might as well appreciate what we got.

And that’s it for this batch of Halloween goodies. Halloween specials seem a lot less prevalent than Christmas specials, but they’re no less important or fun, and as you can see, they do produce at least mildly interesting villains, sometimes. If only they could produce a villain so devilishly Halloweenie that he could perfectly embody the spirit of the holiday…

Hey, what’s that at the bottom of the bag…

Wait… is that…

OH NO.

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 7 October 2019

Quick Bits:

Batman & The Outsiders #6 concludes “Lesser Gods” from Bryan Hill, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, and Clayton Cowles. We get another “Batman’s doing something naughty” hint as Ishmael and co attempt to turn Cass and Duke to Ra’s al Ghul’s cause. This is less a hard end than a twist to lead into what might be coming next.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice #4 gives us an explanation for what the Stranger did to zap the heroes across their respective realities, even as the more hot-headed Justice League members continue to cause problems on DC’s Earth. I’m still loving the eerie darkness that Michael Walsh is bringing to the art. It keeps it more consistent with the feel established by Dean Ormston and Dave Stewart, making it feel more like a Black Hammer story.

| Published by Dark Horse & DC Comics

Blade Runner 2019 #4 concludes the first arc. Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Andres Guinaldo, Marco Lesko, and Jim Campbell have done a great job capturing the overall feel of the Blade Runner franchise and it pays off here with one hell of a harrowing end, with a nice twist for what’s to come.

| Published by Titan

Buffy + Angel: Hellmouth #1 begins the event in earnest, even though you really do need to read the prelude issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get the real first part of this story, from Jordie Bellaire, Jeremy Lambert, Eleonora Carlini, Cris Peter, and Ed Dukeshire. It’s good. As Spike and Dru’s first step in opening the Hellmouth causes havoc through Sunnydale, Buffy and Angel team up to try to stop what’s coming next.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Catwoman #16 has some truly stunning, beautiful artwork from Joëlle Jones and Laura Allred. It might also have a huge change on Selina’s status. Though, how exactly it fits in with “City of Bane” or anything else is anyone’s guess. Still, very nice artwork.

| Published by DC Comics

Coffin Bound #3 is even darker and more disturbing than what we’ve seen in the first two issues, going deep into some of Izzy and Cassandra’s past, while Cassandra’s sister learns how to be a peeler. Dan Watters, Dani, Brad Simpson, and Aditya Bidikar are doing something very different with this series.

| Published by Image

Collapser #4 feels like both a test and a turning point for Liam, one that almost seems like he failed. Liam’s new manager turns out to be a “Star Person”, and it feels like she’s leading him into temptation, as we seemingly can’t trust what we see. Mikey Way, Shaun Simon, Ilias Kyriazis, Cris Peter, and Simon Bowland are continuing to delivering one of the best, strangest trips out there.

| Published by DC Comics / Young Animal

Contagion #2 keeps this largely street-level, only reaching out to the Avengers as more or less support for the moment, as Iron Fist tries to deal with further eruptions of the contagion. Ed Brisson, Stephen Segovia, Veronica Gandini, and Cory Petit certainly make this feel grim as everything continues to go wrong.

| Published by Marvel

Detective Comics #1013 reveals more of what Mister Freeze has been up to, pushing some rather disturbing experiments as he continues to try to find a cure for his wife. Including a rather troubling cliffhanger that looks like it might upend a lot of what we think we know about Freeze’s situation. Very entertaining story here from Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, David Baron, and Rob Leigh.

| Published by DC Comics

Doctor Doom #1 is an offbeat debut from Christopher Cantwell, Salvador Larroca, Guru e-FX, and Cory Petit. While it shows us some of the day to day runnings Doom does for Latveria, it sets up a mystery as his countries missiles and more launch an attack on a moon project designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Nice bits of humour in this one.

| Published by Marvel

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror - Season Two #1 is a welcome return of this series, with a fun lead story playing through many of Poe’s luminary tales in “The Tell-Tale Black Cask of Usher” from Dean Motter, Alex Ogle, and Julie Barclay. Really great seeing new work from Motter. This issue is rounded out by the usual poetry, prose pieces, and the return of Hunt Emerson’s Black Cat.

| Published by Ahoy

Event Leviathan #5 works further at the identity of Leviathan, throwing a few more suspects on the fire, along with the possible death of an important character. Also, you’re probably never going to guess who this issue points at being Leviathan. Gorgeous artwork from Alex Maleev as always.

| Published by DC Comics

The Flash #80 continues to dismantle the new forces and characters built up recently as Zoom and the Black Flash separately try to eliminate the force users. Great art here from Scott Kolins and Luis Guerrero. Kolins is the perfect choice to usher in this next stage in Zolomon’s story.

| Published by DC Comics

Gotham City Monsters #2 is even better than the first issue, working through Melmoth’s resurrection and gathering the team with invested purpose to bring about his end. There’s also added depth in that Melmoth may very well be right about part of his plan, just not necessarily in his execution. It could add some modicum of moral quandary depending on which way this goes. Steve Orlando, Amancay Nahuelpan, Trish Mulvihill, and Tom Napolitano are doing some very nice work here.

| Published by DC Comics

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #2 continues the confrontation with Woodrue, building on elements from Justice League Dark, even as something is very, very wrong with Poison Ivy. There’s a more refined, controlled humour here than what we see in the Harley Quinn series itself and it seems to fit the more serious tone of the subject matter. I’m really liking the art from Adriano Melo, Mark Morales, and Hi-Fi.

| Published by DC Comics

Hawkman #17 brings Carter’s battle with the Shadow Thief to a close, but he takes a turn for the worse as the title runs deeper into the “Year of the Villain” event and the fallout from The Batman Who Laugh’s infected. It’s interesting how Robert Venditti, Pat Olliffe, Tom Palmer, Jeremiah Skipper, and Richard Starkings & Comicraft deal with these multiple spinning plates. Especially that very nice cliffhanger.

| Published by DC Comics

Ice Cream Man #15 is one of the stranger issues, which is really saying a bit considering that the series itself is regularly very strange. It’s dark, with a protagonist who seems to be suffering a psychotic break. W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon continue to work magic with this horror series.

| Published by Image

Invaders #10 continues “Dead in the Water” from Chip Zdarsky, Carlos Magno, Butch Guice, Alex Guimarães, and Travis Lanham. Some interesting complications here as Roxxon is further added to the mix and Roman starts making more problems for Atlantis. A really nice set up for something new from Steve and Namor too.

| Published by Marvel

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #1, like Harleen #1 before it, surprised me. There’s a current saturation of Joker and Harley Quinn stories at the moment, spurred on by the movies, and it kind of tempers expectations. Thankfully, though, the start to this story from Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan, Mike Mayhew, and Richard Starkings is really rather good. It sets Harley as a criminal profiler, trying to figure out Joker’s murders, really getting inside this new take on her character and developing a more grounded crime thriller. The art from Mico Suayan is gorgeous, presented in greyscale, in contrast to the full-colour, photo reference of Mike Mayhew for flashbacks. I thought it was an interesting choice to present it that way, bucking convention for the flashbacks taking on a faded appearance. It gives the overall story a grittier feel for the present.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Allegiance #1 is kind of a slow start to this intermediary step between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker from Ethan Sacks, Luke Ross, Lee Loughridge, and Clayton Cowles. There’s an interesting bit of showing just how evil the First Order really is, but a lot of what we get here is a regathering of the team. Gorgeous artwork from Ross and Loughridge.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League Odyssey #14 sees Dan Abnett, Chriscross, Cliff Richards, Le Beau Underwood, Danny Miki, Scott Hanna, Rain Beredo, Pete Pantazis, and AndWorld Design keep building this new team to confront Darkseid and his “new gods”. I really quite like the inversion of what we saw at the beginning, as Jessica Cruz is now working with villains attempting to do something heroic. We also get a reveal of Okkult, who is probably who everyone thought he was in the first place.

| Published by DC Comics

Livewire #11 gets at a point that was seemingly dropped in the wake of Harbinger Wars 2 in what the US government and their arms-length black ops group did in the Massacre, of how problematic rounding up and murdering a group of people are via American laws. I love that Vita Ayala, Tana Ford, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Saida Temofonte pick it up here and incorporate it into another angle for this political warfare.

| Published by Valiant

Loki #4 concludes “The God Who Fell to Earth” and Loki’s conflict with Nightmare in fairly inventive fashion. Daniel Kibblesmith has been delivering some fairly interesting ideas here while planting more seeds for different permutations.

| Published by Marvel

Oliver #4 was well worth the wait. Gary Whitta, Darick Robertson, Diego Rodriguez, and Simon Bowland pack this confrontation full of action, with some absolutely beautiful artwork from Robertson and Rodriguez. Some very harrowing character moments as the story takes its next turn.

| Published by Image

Outer Darkness #11 is insanely good as John Layman, Afu Chan, and Pat Brosseau give us the first part of the two-part “season finale” to the series. The crew take shore leave as Rigg goes about interviewing what we think are replacement crew and a meeting with his superior, and then...well, you’re really going to have to read this issue. Great stuff.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Pretty Deadly: The Rat #2 is magnificent, delving into more of the existing mythology from the previous volumes, while still continuing on the new narrative for this era that started last issue. The repeated incorporation of visual motifs inspired by the film industry is a very nice touch. Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles are giving us a very compelling mystery here.

| Published by Image

Ronin Island #7 pushes the bandits and the Shogun into confrontation and...none of it goes exactly to Kenichi’s plan. Greg Pak, Giannis Milonogiannis, Irma Kniivila, and Simon Bowland continue to unfold this story in interesting ways, while Hana and Kenichi’s childhood lessons come back to both haunt and empower them.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Shoplifters Will Be Liquidated #1 is an interesting debut from Patrick Kindlon, Stefano Simeone, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Set within a rather expansive big box store, it presents an extreme look at consumer culture and the lengths that this store’s loss prevention staff goes to in order to get their man. It’s rather cutthroat, literally.

| Published by AfterShock

Sonata #5 unveils a bit more about the planet and the Lumani, revealing an interesting depth to their technology that’s seemingly been abandoned and their method of reproduction. Mixing that in with the action of trying to save members of the two colonizers in conflict keeps the pace moving along. Gorgeous artwork from Brian Haberlin and Geirrod Van Dyke.

| Published by Image / Shadowline

Spawn #301 continues the story and structure of #300, with Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Jason Shawn Alexander, Clayton Crain, Jerome Opeña, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, Peter Steigerwald, Matt Hollingsworth, John Rauch, Greg Menzie, Jay Fotos, and Tom Orzechowski breaking it down into numerous chapters, dealing with the various different elements. Some interesting new characters revealed again, even though we only get a bit about them.

| Published by Image

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - Dark Temple #3 reveals a few more secrets in the past, even as the Inquisitor searches for them in the present. Gorgeous artwork from Paolo Villanelli and Arif Prianto. It definitely feels like something weird is going on here.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #2 is another great entry into this series, with a central story illustrated this time by Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen. It’s a wonderful monster story with one of Tarkin’s experiments, showing us what really makes up a monster.

| Published by IDW

Supergirl #35 sees Marc Andreyko, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, FCO Plascencia, and Tom Napolitano juggling about as many plates as they are over in Hawkman. There’s “Year of the Villain” stuff and a rather deep tie-in to Event Leviathan as Leviathan makes a pitch for Kara to join him.

| Published by DC Comics

Superman #16 reunites Jon and Damian one last time before Jon heads off to join the Legion in the future, from Brian Michael Bendis, David Lafuente, Paul Mounts, and Dave Sharpe. It’s a fun, heartfelt send-off with some very funny moments, including a renaming of Leviathan that will hopefully stick.

| Published by DC Comics

These Savage Shores #5 brings an end to one of the most beautifully told stories in comics in the past few years. Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone, and Aditya Bidikar have done an incredible thing with this story, giving new depth and nuance to tragic romance and the vampire story. This conclusion is heartrending as we see how far Bishan will go for love, in an epic confrontation between vampire and raakshas. Everyone owes it to themselves to read this series. Simply phenomenal.

| Published by Vault

Thumbs #5 is the conclusion to what has been a wonderful series from Sean Lewis and Hayden Sherman. There are some really interesting ideas, subverting the ideologies of both factions, showing realizations that maybe there might just be a better way.

| Published by Image

Triage #2 delves deeper into the three multiversal versions of Evie, contemplating how they came about while trying to figure out a way to stop whoever it is that’s hunting them. There’s some sweet and funny character moments with the main “normal” universe’s Evie and Tab. Phillip Sevy is doing a great job of juggling both the ordinary and extraordinary in this story.

| Published by Dark Horse

Vampirella/Red Sonja #2 is more fun from Jordie Bellaire, Drew Moss, Rebecca Nalty, and Becca Carey. The issues between Vampirella and Sonja become greater, even as they get a spell to understand one another. There’s a really nice mix of humour and action here.

| Published by Dynamite

Web of Black Widow #2 is another great issue. What Jody Houser, Stephen Mooney, Tríona Farrell, and Cory Petit are doing here feels perfect for Black Widow, giving us an action-packed story full of intrigue, even as it keeps us off-balance as to what exactly is going on.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Twins #8 throws in a prison break and a high school reunion into the reasons why you should be reading this series. Mark Russell, Mike Norton, Cris Peter, and Dave Sharpe deliver another humorous chapter to this series, with some rather interesting heartbreak.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #3, Age of Conan: Valeria #3, Amazing Spider-Man #31, Animosity #24, Batman Universe #4, The Batman’s Grave #1, Battlepug #2, East of West #43, Future Fight Firsts: White Fox #1, Ghosted in LA #4, GI Joe: A Real American Hero #267, Go Go Power Rangers #24, Gwenpool Strikes Back #3, House of Whispers #14, Immortal Hulk: Director’s Cut #5, Joker: Year of the Villain #1, Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica #5, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #9, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #11, Oblivion Song #20, Postal: Deliverance #4, Power Rangers: The Psycho Path, Powers of X #6, Reaver #4, Redneck #24, RWBY (print) #1, RWBY (digital) #4, Secrets of Sinister House #1, Star Wars: Target Vader #4, Thought Bubble Anthology 2019, TMNT: Urban Legends #17, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #49, Unearth #4, Usagi Yojimbo #5, Wonder Woman #80

Recommended Collections: A Walk Through Hell - Volume 2, Baltimore Omnibus - Volume 1, Battlestar Galactica Classic: Counterstrike, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command, Black Hammer ‘45 - Volume 1, Blossoms 666, Hack/Slash vs. Chaos, The Silencer - Volume 3: Up in Smoke, War of the Realms: Punisher, Wizard Beach

d. emerson eddy is ready for some shashlik.

#This Week in Comics

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powerof3in1 · 5 years

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Apocalypse Now; Journey Home [iii.]

A month or so had passed, although it was becoming harder to keep track of the days and even the time now. She relied heavily on the sun and moon’s positioning and the calendar from the previous year was getting confusing to look at. At least the temperatures outside were warming up a bit; it was difficult to hunt down supplies while shivering.

The rain was still unforgiving, however, as it always was in London -- at least that hasn’t changed. Everything else has. The witch became quiet the past month, quieter. She helped McGonagall as best she could to secure the castle and eradicate the dead ones which turned out to be grueling and took a lot of time, energy, and combined efforts. Hagrid, Fang, and Merlin moved into the castle before a large, impenetrable force field of several spells and highly complicated magic was set around the perimeter of both the castle itself and the forest. Prue and Hagrid made sure the forest was secure and devoid of all possible dead ones before they locked that down too. Nothing was getting in or out of that area for the moment. McGonagall all but begged Prue to stay at the castle, telling her that they’d figure out how to get her home from within it safety several times but Prue knew all too well that sitting idle would result in absolutely nothing. She couldn’t stay inside anymore and just hope to get back. Waiting around wasn’t an option and planning without actually knowing what was going on outside wasn’t feasible any longer. Prue wanted to do so many things, check on the Weasleys and the Potters, get into the Ministry somehow, but above all, she needed to get home to her husband, her newborn, and her mother--her family. A pain twinged her chest every time she thought about them; about Poppy and how much she was missing with her. the girl was growing up without her mother and Prue didn’t even know where she was. She didn’t know how long her hair had gotten or how big she was getting. If her eyes were still that bright green or her hair still strawberry blonde. If her hands were still so tiny they could barely wrap around Danny’s finger. She was missing all of it. Every sound, every cry, everything. It haunted her knowing that Poppy was forgetting the sound of her voice by the day. She probably wouldn’t remember her at all soon. Would she be angry with her later on? Would she feel abandoned? Would she blame Prue for not being there? Prue certainly did...she should have been at home with her daughter at the very beginning of all of this. She should be there protecting her, keeping her safe. Poppy was barely three months old and here she was, already failing as a mother. Just like she feared when she found out that she was pregnant in the first place. Prue knew she was never cut out for motherhood and clearly she was right. She didn’t even know where her daughter was let alone what she even looked like now.

When she was alone at night, she’d tried to get premonitions, hoping to see her family--to see her daughter. She tried to invoke them and did spells...she was almost successful once, but she only caught flashes and her other, full premonitions came in her already patchy sleep. They never showed her what she wanted to see. She only saw images of death and chaos. Sadness and killing. Every day grew more dismal and it was getting clearer each second that Prue was utterly alone. She traveled the streets by herself, fighting off the dead alone, and orbing away when there was too many to handle solo. She’d always felt like an outcast and her anxieties always led her to believe that she was better off alone but this...this wandering about without a soul was painstakingly lonely. Despite the fact that she missed her family and friends so deeply that it hurt, the loneliness was enough to drive anyone mad. She tried not to let it get to her though, as she had to stay in her right mind to get back to her family.

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Nightmares mixing with premonitions mixing with memories kept the witch from sleeping more often these days. Maybe for the better, since she was alone out here. She’d made the mistake of trusting a local recently, only to be burned by that decision when that muggle and her partner tried to kill her and steal her weapons. Prue had to freeze and tie them up. She wondered after leaving if it was worse to leave them bound and tethered as opposed to a more merciful fate? They were dangerous but had they deserved to be fed to the dead ones? To be honest, Prue didn’t have the time nor the energy to spare thinking on it. She’d gotten away from them and for now, they wouldn’t be able to harm anyone else. Prue had more pressing things on her mind than two nutters trying to pirate their way about. She heard them talking about using her as live bait anyway so her conscious felt less heavy in the long run.

Sitting upright after another exhausting nightmare, she pushed herself up against the wall behind her and breathed deeply. She swore she’d never cried so much in her life as she had the past months. Even growing up, Prue only cried in private but never for very long. Perhaps being raised by Minerva had planted that trait. Making a fuss wouldn’t change things, she’d tell the young witch. Cry if you must, but remember that actions prove more productive than tears. She was right, too. Prue had never seen much use in crying. Of course there were exceptions-- deaths of her loved ones, obviously. Sometimes, Prue held on a little too tightly to her pride during the day around other people. At night, when she was alone ,she’d cry involuntarily when the stress got too heavy for her. It seemed that habit didn’t quite stop either because here she was, alone at night, crying without any sign on stopping any time soon. Her head feel back against the wooden panel of the shed she holed up in for the night and she wanted to keep hitting her head against it..but that would create too much noise and attract attention. So she just sat there, in the dark, silently weeping until the sun reappeared.

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Living day to day with a dagger in her hand, checking over her shoulder with every other breath became routine for the witch. She was exhausted and her will to keep going was becoming shredded by the day. It was becoming more hopeless with each failed attempt at getting home. But she knew that she had to keep going. She tried everything from scrying to vision quests to orbing regardless of the obvious futility of doing so. She’d land flat on her ass as many times as she had to if it meant getting home, or closer to it.

“Take this, child. Yeh’ll need it.” Prue shook her head, refusing the weapon. “No, I..I don’t want that. I can’t--” “Yeh must. It’s not a question, dearie, take it.” The older man pushed it at her persistently. She took a step back, lowering her voice. “Are you mad? I.. Those aren’t even legal here. Where did you even get it?” The man pulled Prue’s hand from her mouth (where she’d been chewing her nails furiously) and shoved the gun into her palm. The metal stung her skin and she threatened to drop it until he firmly wrapped her fingers around it. “I told you, I don’t want this. I--I’m a pacifist.” Half pacifist but still.. Even the knife her father gave her as a teen was for emergencies and demons -- not for harm. Halliwells also had a habit of finding themselves tied up in the past. She never had teh desire to even hold a gun, let alone use one. “I can see t’at child, but t’a world ain’t what she was before. T’ese t’ings, not human. An’ t’at little kinfe a’ yours won’t always be enough.” “I don’t understand. Why are you helping me? Why do you care?” He chuckled and gestured around them with his index finger. “Dearie, we can’t do t’ings wit’out people these days especially. T’ere’s strength in numbers, would yeh not agree? T’ey got a hitch on us righ’ now, oh, sure. But we’ll get ‘em, we will.” “Don’t you think that’s a bit..naive? They’re strong..and fearless.” “My dear, a little fear is good fer surviv’n. Keeps up on our toes. Keeps us human.” “I don’t even know how to use this,” “Yeh’ll learn. Yeh have t’a.” A defeated sigh left the witch’s lips. “Thank you, I suppose.” He nodded. “Don’t t’ank me just yet, child. T’ank me when yer home wit’ t’at husband and daughter’a yers.” He smiled and pointed at the gun in her hand. “Let’s get ya two acquainted, shall we?” Prue hesitantly agreed and target practice began.

to be continued...

#v; long way home #pridexlands #;headcanons

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Sees An Old Enemy Return in Episodes 141-147!

With another week comes another batch of episodes in THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH. I'm David Lynn and I'm here to guide you through the rougher waters as we truly begin our deep dive into the seas of filler in the back half of original Naruto.

This time around we're finishing off our journey through the Land of Rice Paddies to see how Naruto and Sakura help out the desparate Fuuma clan. Right after that we transition into a full arc, including a return of the show's very first villain, Mizuki! Orochimaru is always up to no good, but did his antics entertain this time around? Let's find out!

The end of the Land of the Rice Paddies arc comes with a number of twists and turns. Did that story do anything for you as it wrapped up here? Joseph: This ended up being an decent little side story. I enjoyed seeing more moments where Sakura finds the need to shine, and this combined with later episodes in this set start to flesh out her abilities and potential a bit more. With that said, I find myself already forgetting about the conclusion of this saga and its beefed-up villain thanks to the one that immediately followed and also ended with a beefed-up villain! Kevin: The final fight was much more captivating that I thought it was going to be. Instead of just a monster of the week fight it showed off some of the great choreography that the franchise is known for, and the final scene with the Fuma siblings made basically no logical sense, but was beautifully shot. Paul: Overall, I thought the Land of Rice Paddies arc was more competent than the Land of Tea arc as far as filler story-lines go, but it didn't leave much of an impression on me aside from a few body horror moments. My biggest issue is that the writers didn't leave Naruto and company any decent clues to follow, so even though tracking down and rescuing Sasuke is still a driving goal, it feels like they're just spinning their wheels. Danni: Not really. Nothing in this arc was at all very compelling. We never learned much of anything about the Fuma clan, it was still all up to Naruto to save the day, and the final villain was incredibly underwhelming. There was potential in having the final battle be against the fused corpses of Arashi and his captives, but it was all undercut by giving him a cartoonishly evil personality for no reason. Hopefully Sakura’s training under Tsunade will pay off in future arcs. Noelle: It wasn’t bad, but it still doesn’t stand up to the canonical content. In terms of filler though, it’s pretty okay. I liked that they tried to pad some of the routes that Kishimoto ignores, such as Sakura’s further development. If a filler tries to add stuff, I can’t complain too much. Jared: It was acceptable. Not great, but not bad. We get Sakura something to do finally which will hopefully be good and it at least adds to Orochimaru being a jerk, but at the same time, is the Fuma clan going to be remembered at all? Probably not, but that’s to be expected. Carolyn: I’m also of the camp that this arc was pretty boring and not very compelling. I am also hoping for Sakura to get a truly meaningful arc but everything she gets to do is just centered around Sasuke. Sakura deserves better!

The interim between the two arcs this week came with some relatively peaceful times, showing us what the characters do when there isn’t a crisis to solve or tournament to compete in. That part of episode 142 is also adapting the final chapter of the manga before it transitioned into the “Shippuden” storyline. Did you like that small break, and would you like the show to expand upon that part of their lives more often? Joseph: More valleys of calm would certainly be welcome in Naruto. At one point Tsunade said she feels like everything was just starting to cool down right when another situation popped up, essentially describing the pacing of a long-running series to the audience. I’d like to see more if only to connect to some of the side characters and see what Choji’s eating at any given moment. Kevin: Honestly, I would’ve been completely fine taking several episodes just to expand on what the characters do on a regular basis. If we’re going to have entire seasons of filler, then why not have a Lee episode, an Ino episode and so on, just showcasing what their normal day is like? Paul: While I enjoy getting a broader view of what daily life is like both inside and outside the Ninja Villages, the manner in which this material is presented can be a bit confusing. For example, although I knew that ninja society has police forces (such as the Anbu Black Ops), I'd never really thought about there being a ninja maximum security prison, and now I'm wondering about how different Villages deal with crime, punishment, and rehabilitation. Danni: My favorite part of shonen anime is whenever we get to see how these crazy powerful fighters function in their daily lives. Dragon Ball Super and Diamond is Unbreakable are two of my favorite examples of this. So, yeah, I appreciated it, and if I had it my way we’d get a full arc dedicated to Guy and Kakashi furniture shopping at IKEA. Noelle: I’m all for characters in their daily lives. While I certainly live for the plot, knowing that these characters have things to do in the day to day that doesn’t solely revolve around magical combat fleshes them out. It’s a lot more relatable connecting to characters that have mundane stuff to do too. Jared: I love when we get breaks like this and the show turns into a slice of life for a tiny bit. Especially since there will be all of this filler to go through, why not do more episodes like that. Although, I’m bummed we didn’t get to see Gaara attempting to teach the youngins at the school as that would have probably been good. Carolyn: I guess it didn’t feel like much of a valley to me. I felt like they were stretching out the few fights and confrontations they did have over multiple episodes when we probably could have wrapped them up much faster.

Other filler arcs have had loose connections to the main story, but this one brings back the original villain from episode 1, Mizuki. On top of that, he gets a ton of development and backstory alongside Iruka. Do you find Mizuki or Iruka more interesting after watching this? Joseph: It was cool to see a character come back from the beginning, even if he was yet another who has been manipulated completely by Orochimaru and the promise of power. I appreciate the connections to the main story, but if we’re going to be venturing into non-stop filler I also kind of hope we run into some villains with their own unique motivations. With that said, I dug learning more about Iruka, one of the series’ great characters who isn’t on screen enough. Kevin: I liked most of Iruka’s development, since we get to see him work alongside Naruto and thus see just how far Naruto has come. Mizuki is much more developed now, but I didn’t particularly care for his development. I’m okay with bringing back the first villain of the show, but why not just make it a revenge quest or something of the like? They wasn’t any particular need to bring Orochimaru into the mix, outside of forcing a connection to Naruto trying to find Sasuke. Paul: All I can say is that Mizuki is a complete jabroni. In pro-wrestling terms, he doesn't even merit “jobber” status. It's also hard to take Mizuki seriously when his back story-paints his as a complete psychopath who murders his comrades when they become a minor inconvenience, but he receives a stiffer penalty for stealing a forbidden scroll. Also, his ultimate technique is wearing a karate gi with the sleeves torn off and using an experimental drug to express his tiger fursona. Danni: Can I say neither? Iruka didn’t do much, and we didn’t learn anything new about him. Mizuki, though...Someone at Pierrot really loves Mizuki. All of a sudden he’s super ripped and powerful and has a cool dude jean jacket with the sleeves torn off. I appreciate them trying to flesh out a backstory for a throwaway character, but I don’t think it could’ve gone much more poorly. Noelle: I think I appreciated more the attempt than the final product. Considering how large the cast is and how many throwaway characters there are, utilizing existing characters instead of creating some from scratch gives the writers more to work with. I don’t think it necessarily worked here, but it wasn’t a bad choice. Jared: I don’t think it really benefited either of them to be honest. Mizuki’s backstory just made him seem like a joke and yet we’re supposed to take him seriously as this big threat to everyone. I totally get why you’d bring in a minor character like this to utilize in the filler, but it didn’t really do much for me. Carolyn: I’m kind of over the whole villain was manipulated and isn’t that bad thing. We can have real villains. It’s OK.

Connected to the previous question, would you rather there be more attempts at filler using characters we know, or do you prefer the ones that introduce us to whole new lands and people? Joseph: Balance is important. I like having characters we know branching out to other areas and taking the time to introduce more ways of ninja life in the land. On the spectrum of filler we’ve been presented with so far, though, I much prefer what’s been handed to us in these eps than the dull Land of Tea race arc. For a specific example: There was one moment in which Tsunade’s people casually enter her office to tell her they’ve captured all the inmates but three. I would have liked to have seen some of that go down! Kevin: Both options serve different purposes, so ideally I would want both. Maybe a filler arc where a different squad of people we already know about goes to a new land, but with Naruto or Sakura included so that we still have a connection to the main cast? That way we would get more worldbuilding while also learning more about minor characters through more in-depth interactions. Paul: It all depends on how the characters are written. Fujin and Raijin are completely new characters here, but for me they stole the show, because they're basically One Piece characters transplanted into the Naruto universe. As long as the filler arcs focus on characters who are interesting or unique in some way, and as long as the stories are decently well-written, I don't think it matters whether the characters are new or not. Danni: Like others have said, you need a good mix. It’s cool when they take inconsequential characters and try to give them some real material, but if you stick too close to the main story you run the risk of contradicting something the original creator had planned for later. Extended filler can really only take place as side stories, which is why people are so often disinterested in them. Noelle: Mildly addressed this in my previous answer, but I think both is the best mix. The only issue is, that if the writers make a character completely from scratch, they have to put the work into them too. Having a completely new face means that the audience needs to find some way to get attached to them, to want to see what happens to them. As far as that’s gone, it’s been a mixed bag, but anything can be pulled off with the right team and effort behind it. Jared: It’s best to have a mix since if you just keep going with established characters, you’re probably going to either run out of characters or just give them convoluted backstories. As long as you can make good and meaningful stories for either characters we know or ones we don’t, that’s the route they should take. Carolyn: I think a mix of both works. But don’t introduce us to new lands if they are going to disappear forever and not actually mean anything. Also, the closer we get to the end of the series the less I’m going to want to see new people. Don’t show me someone I won’t have time to get to know. When the series wraps up, go back to basics.

Mizuki makes a surprising “evolution” of sorts here, thanks once again to Orochimaru’s blatant disregard for safety and ethics when it comes to scientific progress. If you were in charge, what would be the next wacky thing Orochimaru’s antics force Naruto and friends to contend against? Joseph: Mizuki’s evolution made me want them to dive even deeper into the mad scientists of the ninja landscape. Give me The Island of Dr. Ninpo or something. I’d be even happier if it didn’t feel the need to be directly connected to Orochimaru, though. It could even focus on a villainous rival of sorts. Kevin: Let’s see: a mad scientist who wants to generally find ways to gain more power while also mastering every Jutsu in existance and doesn’t care about the mortality rate of anything, so nothing boring like “make the Curse Mark not kill people.” I’d probably look into how to implant Kekkei Genkai like the Sharingan and Haru’s Ice Mirrors without needing to reincarnate into a new body every three years. So in terms of something for Naruto and friends to face: a shinobi with significantly weaker variations of basically every Kekkei Genkai we’ve seen in the show thus far. Paul: I'd try to invoke some sort of moral dilemma where Orochimaru's twisted machinations accidentally result in something positive happening. i.e. Maybe Naruto and the gang come across a small village where Orochimaru experimented on the inhabitants in an attempt to develop deadly new combat Jutsu, but his efforts failed in a way that inadvertently made the villagers happier and healthier. Orochimaru would have departed in disgust, but – unaware of his true character – the villagers presently idolize him as a hero and a savior. Naruto would have to decide whether or not to tell them the truth. I think that would be an interesting conflict. Danni: I already proposed an arc wherein Guy and Kakashi shop at IKEA together, so let’s say all their furniture had been destroyed before in Orochimaru’s attack and now they’re in the market for snake-proof end-tables. Guy does a cool roundhouse kick to Kakashi’s new table and breaks it, revealing a secret compartment full of food pills that rival the curse mark’s power. Turns out Orochimaru has been using furniture to smuggle these pills through villages. They don’t find Orochimaru in the end, but they do get a sweet new couch for their bachelor pad. Noelle: This is a mix, but I want to see just what makes Orochimaru such a draw to so many people. There has to be more than he’s offering to people than just power, and maybe the science experiments have to do something with that. So many people have joined his side, but what exactly is the pull here? What makes him so appealing? What is he promising people (beyond power, which gets dull after a while) that makes people so loyal? I want to see that. Jared: I’d probably go with something with lower stakes, but also goofy. Have some of Orochimaru’s goons sabotage some local event, maybe a festival or a sport of some sort. Naruto and the gang have to make things better, but at the same time, it’s not something that’s super dangerous or incredibly life threatening since we know that won’t affect any of the main characters. Carolyn: I do also like the idea of Orochimaru’s manipulations accidentally causing something good to happen. But then also maybe just someone who is a straight baddie? Like Orochimaru tries to offer them a deal and they’re like, “Nah, I’m just in it for the evil.”

And as usual, what were your highs and lows? Joseph: My main high was Formation Ino-Shika-Cho! They seem like way more of a cohesive unit than Team 7. I love how their abilities complement one another and work together strategically. Also, it’s worth noting that episode 146 is artistically moody as hell. Low: Naruto stepping in to get his back stabbed in place of another happens twice in just these 7 episodes. I wish they would have skipped the first one to give the ultimate callback of the second one more weight. Kevin: High - Iruka and Naruto fighting alongside one another, showing that despite all of the powerful forces trying to kill Naruto and the people around him, he’s still quickly becoming strong enough to stand on his own. Low - Orochimaru being a part of Mizuki’s backstory. Bringing back an old enemy is perfectly fine, potentially even interesting since it’s a great way to measure how much Naruto has changed in the past 150 episodes. Making him a part of Orochimaru’s overarching narrative just doesn’t work for me at all. His entire original motivation was stealing a scroll and leaving the village. Sure, the new information doesn’t change that, but it overcomplicates it in a way that’s never going to be followed up on due to this being a filler arc. Paul: My high point was Kakashi summoning Pakkun into Iruka's hand. “May I offer you a tiny talking dog in this trying time?” Fujin and Raijin were a close runner up; I love those kinds of characters. My low point is how aimless overall the series has become in terms of pursuing the goal of finding Sasuke. I want to believe that Naruto really wants to rescue his friend, but it's hard to suspend my disbelief when he spends so much time goofing around on these low-level missions. Danni: The high point for me this week was easily the direction in episode 146. Seriously, I need the name of whoever storyboarded that episode. It was some of the best Naruto has ever looked. The low point for me is the fact we had two terribly written cartoonishly evil villains in a row. A good villain doesn’t have to maniacally laugh and yell about how evil they are! Just look at Orochimaru! Sure, he isn’t amazingly written, but he doesn’t have to prove to you how evil he totally is! He just walks up like “sup?” and you think “Oh geez this guy’s bad news, huh.” Noelle: High point, all that 146 has to offer artistically. It’s lovely to watch. Low point, looks like the fillers are shaping up to be ‘everything is Orochimaru’s fault’ and that’s not such a good sign.

COUNTERS: Ramen: 2 bowls Hokage: 0 Clones: 46 + 1 uncountable scene

Total so far: Ramen: 47 bowls, 3 cups Hokage: 52 Clones: 503

And that wraps up this week. It's more fun to be invovled, so you're always invited to join in on our rewatch journey by checking out Naruto today!

CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH!

Episodes 134-140: The Climactic Clash

Episodes 127-133: Naruto vs Sasuke

Episodes 120-126: The Sand Siblings Return

Episodes 113-119: Operation Rescue Sasuke

Episodes 106-112: Sasuke Goes Rogue

Episodes 99-105: Trouble in the Land of Tea

Episodes 92-98: Clash of the Sannin

Episodes 85-91: A Life-Changing Decision

Episodes 78-84: The Fall of a Legend

Episodes 71-77: Sands of Sorrow

Episodes 64-70: Crashing the Chunin Exam

Episodes 57-63: Family Feud

Episodes 50-56: Rock Lee Rally

Episodes 43-49: The Gate

Episodes 36-42: Through the Woods

Episodes 29-35: Sakura Unleashed

Episodes 22-28: Chunin Exams Kickoff

Episodes 15-21: Leaving the Land of Waves

Episodes 8-14: Beginners' Battle

Episodes 1-7: I'm Gonna Be the Hokage!

Here's our upcoming schedule: - On June 14th, PAUL CHAPMAN will continue on with our filler journey. - On June 21st, KEVIN MATYI will push onward into what the fillers have to offer. - On June 28th, JOSEPH LUSTER brings us to the Land of Birds!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! See you next time!

Have any inquiries or thoughts on Episodes 141-147? Let us know in the comments!

---

David is always on Twitter @navycherub where he watches too much anime and plays too many mobile games.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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daresplaining · 6 years

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Iron Fist Season 2 Teaser Analysis

The Marvel gods have answered our prayers-- we are getting Iron Fist Season 2 next! This makes sense for every possible reason: it directly follows up on Danny and Colleen’s appearances in Luke Cage Season 2 and Misty’s leap between the two shows, and it allows for all of the original Netflix shows to get second seasons before moving on to phase three. (The Punisher came late, so we’ll accept its second season coming after Daredevil’s third.) Danny’s story this season will be partly informed by Matt’s sacrifice, so it makes sense to tell it before Matt reappears. Plus, these characters are on the cusp of so many exciting things that waiting any longer for the second season would have been pure torture. Matt can stay “dead” for a little bit longer. He’ll be fine.

With that in mind, the Iron Fist panel at SDCC did its job perfectly, by giving us a lot of information... but also not much. It revealed that the show will air on September 7th, in keeping with the new schedule of three months between releases. It confirmed last year’s announcement that Misty will be taking her rightful place in the Iron Fist world (she debuted in Danny’s introductory series in the comics, and has been an Iron Fist character for most of her existence, so it’s about time!). It revealed that we will be getting a Steel Serpent plotline-- which we’d assumed, but is still really, really exciting. It revealed that Alice Eve will be playing-- of all people-- Typhoid Mary, who is a Daredevil character! And it revealed that Danny will be taking to the streets of New York for the first time as a real superhero.

This last revelation is the focus of the first teaser, which-- like most teasers-- gives us barely any information. But we’re still going to geek out about it.

It wouldn’t be a Marvel/Netflix trailer without an aerial shot of Manhattan...

The badassery of this teaser is offset by how adorable and non-threatening Danny’s shoes are-- which completely, 100% fits the Iron Fist tradition.

One detail we’ve always loved about Danny is that unlike many of Marvel’s street-level characters, he’s not really a NYC superhero (and we’ve discussed this before, but I’m going to discuss it again, because that’s how much it fascinates me). His primary city will always be K’un-Lun, and though he spends most of his time on Earth, K’un-Lun is where his heart lies. Even in modern comics, after all this time, he views his trips to K’un-Lun as journeys home. Thus, he has a very complicated relationship with New York City. He ends up stuck there under painful circumstances and has no choice but to try to build a life for himself there. In early Iron Fist comics an extreme distinction was made between the Iron Fist and Danny Rand identities; eight issues pass before we even see him take off his mask for the first time.

Danny: “For the past decade, I have been little more than a living weapon-- the pride of K’un Lun. Your world holds nothing but bitter memories for me and yet I cannot return to K’un Lun for nine years. The one man who knew how to enter the city at other than the appointed times... is dead.”

Lee: “What of the man named Daniel Rand, Iron Fist? Surely the world offers him something.”

Danny: “And who is this Daniel Rand, professor? I’ve never taken the time to find out, I fear.”

Colleen: “[...] Maybe it’s time you took off your mask and started finding out about that Rand fella. You might like him.”

Marvel Premiere #22 by Tony Isabella, Arvell Jones, and George Rouses

This huge separation between Danny’s identities is a quirk of his very early appearances, and as later comics have dug deeper into his childhood in K’un-Lun, it has become diminished within the standard Iron Fist continuity. But the fact remains that Danny’s connection to NYC (as represented here by his Daniel Rand identity) is basically nonexistent when he first arrives on Earth, and is something that he builds up slowly over time. He finds a certain amount of appeal in New York City, mostly through the close friendships he forms there, but as the years pass he still feels like an outsider, caught between two worlds, longing to return to K’un-Lun. (Eventually, his relationship with K’un-Lun becomes complicated too... but that’s a topic for another post.) He becomes a New York hero out of necessity.

In the Netflix shows, we have witnessed the same process. Danny comes to New York in pursuit of what turns out to be revenge. He struggles through tremendous identity issues-- he tries to rediscover who he is as Danny Rand, and then as Iron Fist, and then tries to find a way to reconcile these separate identities. Then, when he tries to return home (with Colleen! We need to mention how cool that is), he discovers that something has happened to K’un-Lun. That mystery has informed all of his subsequent plotlines. He is convinced that K’un-Lun has been destroyed, and the burden of that perceived failure haunts him. However, in The Defenders the Hand seem to imply that the city is still there, and by Luke Cage Season 2 Danny seems to have reached that same conclusion, for reasons that remain unclear. We are desperate to find out the truth, because it’s such a mystery, and such an important part of Danny’s story. More to the point-- we need K’un-Lun to still be around. It has been destroyed several times in the comics, and it always comes back, but we need it in this story. It’s a great setting that needs to be explored further, and Danny’s role as the Iron Fist in K’un-Lun and his relationships there are hugely important. It sounds like we will be getting a lot of flashbacks to his childhood and training, particularly focused around his relationship with Davos, but we're hoping for some present-day K’un-Lun too. Returning to the city would allow him to redeem himself for his perceived failures, it would give him the opportunity for further training (as he has not yet reached his full potential as an Immortal Weapon), and it is-- or should be-- a necessary part of his finally coming full circle and cementing his role and identity as the Iron Fist (which would ideally result in his getting the costume too!).

But either way, what matters here is that Danny has, at least for the moment, adopted NYC as a new city to protect. In The Defenders, after his perceived failure, he latches on to New York as a second chance; he failed K’un-Lun, but he won’t fail this other city. This mission is cemented by Matt’s final words to him. As the Iron Fist on Earth, Danny needs a purpose and sense of direction, and Matt’s plea for him to protect New York gives him that. This ties into another facet of Danny that we love, which we’ve talked about before: his status as a “professional hero”. He’s not a superhero in the traditional sense, and this season we’re going to see him figuring out that career path.

The teaser centers around Danny interrupting what is either a standard back-alley mugging or some kind of gang violence. In the comics, Danny’s first big act as a superhero on the streets of New York is combatting the Golden Tigers, a Chinatown-based gang run by a mob boss named Robert Hao, a.k.a. Chaka.

Danny: “--And if Chaka wants to know what’s happened to this month’s drug shipment, you tell him Iron Fist happened! And you tell him that this is only the beginning! I’m going to take his empire apart, bit by slimy bit-- until there’s nothing left! And then I’m going to take Chaka apart the same way!”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #10 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Bonnie Wilford

Danny works with A.D.A. Bill Hao (Chaka’s brother) and Colleen and Misty to take the gang down. He gets framed for murder (...again) partway through, but all-in-all, it’s not a bad superhero debut. If this season will be bringing in this type of street-level crimefighting, it’s possible the Golden Tigers could make an appearance. An orange tiger symbol has even appeared in some of the promotional material:

(More on this image later...)

During their SDCC appearances, the cast and crew spent a lot of time discussing this season’s stunt choreography. The new stunt coordinator, Clayton Barber, who also worked on Black Panther, explained that he was going for a “punk rock”, old-school kung fu vibe, and cited Jackie Chan’s work as a primary influence. The cast described being pushed to their physical limits (Alice Eve was apparently instructed to “change [her] relationship with pain” for her fights as Typhoid Mary), resulting in most of this season’s stunt-work being performed by the actors themselves.

So first of all... that sounds freaking hardcore, and kudos to everyone involved. We can’t wait to see all of this hard work in action. We loved the fights in Season 1, and if they’re going to be even better in Season 2, then whooo boy, we’re ready! And that’s as it should be. Iron Fist is a martial arts franchise moreso than any of the other shows, and so its fights should be the most technically impressive. Just this small taste of Danny kicking butt in the teaser has us really excited.

In the comics, early-on, Danny tried to have a secret identity for the sake of convenience. It’s never been as much of a thing for him as it has been for, say, Matt Murdock, and he hasn’t had an actual secret identity for a while now. But in this universe, he’s clearly not even bothering. While Iron Fist isn’t a big name in the NYC hero/villain world yet, in Luke Cage Season 2 we learned that Danny is starting to develop a reputation. Turk recognizes him on sight and mentions hearing about his run-in with the Triads. Clearly, that reputation will be growing significantly in this season of Iron Fist, and we’re eager to see how it will mesh with his already well-known civilian identity (which also isn’t nearly as much of a thing in the comics). “Rand Enterprises Co-Chair Has Magical Kung Fu Powers” sounds like a great headline, and Karen can have it for free.

Though of course, we’re expecting Danny to have his costume by the end of the season.

This is a new logo! We liked last season’s a bit better-- it was more dynamic, and this one seems a little sparse. But it reflects differences in this season’s themes/tone, and it’s neat to see that kind of thing integrated into the show’s branding (we'd love for the other shows to do this too). While last’s season’s logo invoked K’un-Lun in its coloring, the background snow/sparks/smoke motif, the typeface, and the integration of the Shou-Lao symbol into the words themselves, this one is much starker, colder, utilitarian. It invokes New York City. One detail we particularly like is the fact that the “O” is still a stylized, extremely minimalist translation of the Shou-Lao symbol.

One last note: the Iron Fist Twitter account has been posting daily images of storefronts. These, along with the new logo and the neon motif used in the promos at SDCC, tie into the theme of Danny operating on the streets of New York. But more importantly, they’re accompanied by phrases that are most likely episode titles. Last season, the episodes were named after kung fu techniques (both real and comics-based). This season, they’re going right back to the source material and using the titles of various Iron Fist-relevant issues! "The Fury of Iron Fist”, for instance, is the title of Marvel Premiere #15-- Danny’s introductory issue, and “The City’s Not For Burning” from earlier in the post is Iron Fist vol. 1 #3. We’ll make a comprehensive post either here or on our Iron Fist blog (probably both) once all of the titles have been revealed.

The fact that they started flinging out episode titles within hours of releasing the very first teaser suggests an accelerated promotional schedule-- which makes sense, because September 7th is only six-and-a-half weeks away! It can’t come soon enough for us; we’ve been counting the days since Season 1′s cliffhanger ending, and everything we’ve heard so far about Season 2 sounds amazing.

#Iron Fist spoilers #Netflix Iron Fist #Iron Fist #Commentary

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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ORSON WELLES RADIO ALMANAC

March 9, 1944

“Orson Welles Almanac” (1944) is a CBS Radio series directed and hosted by Orson Welles. Broadcast live in California and Arizona via CBS West Coast studios, the 30-minute program was heard Wednesdays at 9:30pm beginning January 26, 1944. Its last broadcast was July 19, 1944. Orson Welles Almanac presented readings from classic works, drama, music, sketch comedy, magic, mindreading, and personal commentary by Welles. Many of the shows originated from US Army camps where Welles entertained the troops. Welles had an ongoing battle with the program's sponsor, Mobil Oil, which shortened the life of the series. Twenty six broadcasts were produced; all but four shows have survived.

This is the seventh episode of the series, aired on March 9, 1944. Previous guests were Groucho Marx, Lionel Barrymore, Ann Sothern, Robert Benchley, Hedda Hopper, and Victor Moore. Lucille Ball would return to the series to guest star on May 3, 1944. Unfortunately, this is one of the four lost episodes.

CAST

Lucille Ball (Guest Star) was then filming Ziegfeld Follies for release in 1945. Her films Best Foot Forward and Thousands Cheer (both released in 1943) were then in local cinemas. Ball was in her fourth year of a rocky marriage to Desi Arnaz, who she would divorce in September 1944, although the papers were never officially filed. The week prior to this broadcast, Ball guest starred on Bing Crosby’s radio show “Music Hall”.

Orson Welles arrived in Hollywood in 1939 when Ball was a contract player at RKO Studios. To squelch rumors that he was a homosexual, the studio sent Lucy to escort him to a premiere to be photographed. He later recalled,

“We went to see the opening of some movie or other—I simply picked her up at her house and we went to the movie and got photographed and came home and I said ‘Good night,’ and that was the end of that. That was the end of that romance, but it was the beginning of a long friendship.”

A veteran of the theatre, in 1941 the actor / director completed his magnum opus film Citizen Kane. In the 1950s he was under contract to Desilu to film a pilot for an anthology series called “The Fountain of Youth,” which wasn’t aired until 1958 and did not result in a series. Despite that, it won a Peabody Award, the only pilot to ever do so.

On February 5, 1956 Lucy and Desi appeared with Welles on Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town.” They were there to promote their film Forever Darling. Welles was there to promote his revival of his King Lear at New York’s City Center, which he initially performed in a wheelchair due to injuries to both ankles. By the time he performed it on “Toast of the Town” (aka “The Ed Sullivan Show”) Welles was using a crutch.

When the Oscar-winning actor and director was down on his luck he was invited to stay in the Arnaz guest cottage. Notorious for his drinking and rude behavior, Lucy had to find a way to politely get rid of her guest so she decided to have an episode of “I Love Lucy” written for him so she could pay him a salary. With that in mind, Desilu paid him the exorbitant sum of $15,000! Ball’s memories of Welles were mixed. “I had a real love-hate relationship with Orson,” she said towards the end of her life. “His mind was awesome…but he was also a pain in the ass.”

At the time of this broadcast (March 8, 1944) Welles’ film Jane Eyre was playing in cinemas.

Ella Mae Morse (Musical Guest) was signed by Jimmy Dorsey at the age of 14 (she lied about her age and said she was 19) and was subsequently fired after discovering the truth about her age. Her recording of "Cow Cow Boogie" was the first million-selling single for Capitol Records in 1942. Her biggest hit was "The Blacksmith Blues" released in February 1952. The song she sings here, “Shoo-Shoo Baby” (written by Phil Moore), would be heard in the about-to-be-released film South of Dixie in which she played Barbara Ann Morgan.

Agnes Moorehead (Prudence Pratt / Miss Grimace / Swoon Club Girl) was a member of Welles’ Mercury Theatre on stage and radio as well as starring in Welles’ films Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. She is best remembered as Endora, Samantha’s mother-in-law on TV’s “Bewitched”.

Hans Conried (Colonel Peabristle / Hotel Operator / Frenchman / Dr. Snake Oil / Flat Top) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). After being a recurring guest on her radio show “My Favorite Husband” (1948-51), he appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973.

The All-Star Jazz Group: Mutt Carey (trumpet), Kid Ory (trombone), Jimmy Noone (clarinet), Buster Wilson (piano), Bud Scott (guitar), Ed Garland (bass), and Zutty Singleton (drums).

John McIntire (Announcer)

EPISODE

Orson Welles introduces the episode, opening with a Household Hint by Prudence Pratt and a Wonders of Science fact by Colonel Peabristle. After the opening music and Mobil Oil sponsorship message, Welles summons his secretary Miss Grimace to tell him who is on the show tonight. She reports that it is Miss Lucille Ball, although she hasn’t arrived yet. Welles says she is filing her tax forms.

WELLES: “Can you imagine. The Government wants Lucille Ball to fill in HER form!”

Miss Grimace admits the three members of The Orson Welles Swoon Club. Welles interrogates them as to their whereabouts during his public appearances. He wants new members, promising them nylons.

Oops! Welles mis-reads the script, saying “nylon baby socks” instead of “nylon bobby sox”. He corrects himself with a laugh and says “For me, it’s booby socks!” Bobby soxer is a term for the wildly enthusiastic, teenage female fans of 1940s music, particularly Frank Sinatra.

Orson wants to know if they have gotten the new photographs he sent them. One of the Swoon Club compliments him on how he looks in his sarong - mistaking him for Dororthy Lamour in a Bob Hope / Bing Crosby picture.

Dorothy Lamour was nicknamed ‘The Sarong Girl’. In 1936 she donned her soon-to-be-famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), and continued to play similar parts through the war years and beyond. The most famous of these was in the popular Bob Hope / Bing Crosby "Road" pictures - a combination of adventure, music, and slapstick.

The Swoon Club feel sorry for Orson that he hasn’t won an Oscar, so they knit him a tie - which started out as a pair of socks.He dismisses the club.

When the 16th Academy Awards were distributed at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Thursday, March 2, 1944, neither of Welles’ 1943 motion pictures were among the nominees: Jane Eyre and Journey Into Fear, which he also co-directed and co-wrote. Welles shared a 1942 Oscar with Herman Mankiewicz for writing Citizen Kane, a bone of contention between them, since Mankiewicz later claimed he wrote the entire script. The backstory is explored in the modern film Mank (2020).

Miss Grimace reports that the Hotel Carlton is suing him. After he did a magic show there, the two rabbits ran rampant and did damage! Orson calls the hotel operator (Hans Conried) and learns that the hotel is now called the Carlton Rabbit Farm and the manager’s eyes have turned pink! Welles asks Miss Grimace to send Lucille Ball roses. Miss Grimace says they are too expensive and he should send her something simpler, like phoenicia vulgaris. Welles says no because it sounds too dirty.

Here Welles ad libs, causing Agnes Moorehead to break character and laugh. He mentions Lewis Titterton, the NBC censor and says “If you had a name like Louis Titterton anything would sound dirty. Let’s get back to the script.” They try, but it takes a moment for their laughter to subside.

A Frenchman from a reducing salon (Hans Conried) approaches him for an estimate on a new body. He measures Welles’ body with a tape measure. He was once the girdle coordinator at Bullocks basement for 15 years.

FRENCHMAN: “If a size 44 tries to get into a 38, I help push!”

Announcer John McIntire does a live commercial for Mobilgas with some driving tips.

PART 2

Before a musical introduction, Dr. Snake Oil (Hans Conried) gives a tip about dislodging a fishbone caught in the throat.

The All-Star Jazz Group plays "Bésame Mucho" ("Kiss me a lot"), a song written in 1940 by Consuelo Velázquez. It is now considered one of the most popular songs of the 20th century and of all times. It is also the most recorded and covered song in Spanish of all time.

Welles welcomes Lucille Ball to the show to studio audience applause. Welles says he’s written a sketch full of romantic love scenes. Orson improvs a commercial for a sponsor Krunchies, a noisy breakfast cereal that gets soggy in milk. He introduces...

“THE CASE OF THE BLUE BLOOD STAIN”

Orson plays Mickey, a detective on his night off, reading the evening paper. Lucy plays his adoring wife, Dora.

DORA: “Mickey, where were you last night?” MICKEY: “Don’t be silly, you know how I feel about you. You’re the eighth wonder of the world.” DORA: “Yeah, well, just don’t let me catch you with the other seven, bub!”

Lounging in bed, Dora feels a cold hand which doesn’t belong to Mickey. She screams! There’s a dead man in their bed.

MICKEY: “You know how difficult it is to find a room these days.”

Detective Mickey notes that the dead man has 18 knife wounds in him and no holes in his shirt.

DORA: “Must have been an inside job.”

They push the body off the bed and decide to turn out the lights and go to sleep. In the darkness, they hear a squeaky door.

WELLES (aside): “Fine thing, a squeaky door in an oil program!”

The audience loudly applauds this ad-lib by Welles, and even Lucy chuckles.

Dora insists there’s someone in the closet. A body falls out of the closet and onto the floor with a loud thud. Someone throws a rock through their bedroom window with a note on it.

Except the sound effect of broken glass does not happen. Welles laughs a bit but forges ahead.

MICKEY (reading the note): “Keep your mouth shut and throw a thousand dollars out of the window or you’ll never get another sounds effect...no, excuse me... or they’ll be four bodies in your room.”

Another rock comes through the window - with a sound effect this time!

MICKEY (reading the note): "PS: I’ll settle for $950.”

A knock at the front door.

MICKEY: “That must be the murderer. Come in! I’ll take that line again: That must be the murderer. Come in!”

The man, Flat Top (Hans Conried), pulls a gun on them and threatens to shoot.

DORA: “Where’s your patriotism? You can’t shoot him. Don’t you know the government is trying to save waste fats?”

During World War II, the US government urged Americans to save excess fat rendered from cooking and donate it to the army to produce explosives. Fats are used to make glycerin, and glycerin is used to make things blow up.

As gunfire rings out, Welles does a Krunchies commercial, extolling their virtues with strawberries and cream.

WELLES: “You can have strawberries and cream. What do you need Krunchies for?”

Mickey is bleeding. During the commercial, Mickey has hit Flat Top on the head and called the police!

John McIntire does a commercial for Mobil Oil. He urges motorists to keep their car oil clean to avoid repairs.

PART THREE

Welles introduces Ella Mae Morse, who sings “Shoo-Shoo Baby” backed by the All-Star Jazz Group.

The song was also heard in the 1944 film Follow The Boys aka Three Cheers for the Boys sung by the Andrews Sisters.

Welles then takes a serious tone, dedicating the show to the premise that ‘every man belongs to all men.’ He reads from “Meditation 17″ by John Donne (1572-1631).

Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris. Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. And therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? But who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Welles bids the audience goodnight.

#Orson Welles #Lucille Ball #1944 #Hans Conried #John Donne #Ella Mae Morse #Agnes Moorehead #Besame Mucho #Shoo-Shoo Baby #John McIntire #CBS Radio #Dorothy Lamour #Mobil Oil

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