#I need to prehistoric planet post soon….

[medi-bee]

medi is your pfp a sinosauropteryx? they're my favorite dinosaur :D

Yes!! I absolutely adore sinosauropteryx, it’s my favorite theropod! But microraptor also holds a special place in my heart :)

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.) 

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl: 

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason. 

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman. 

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick: 

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason: 

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim: 

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.) 

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time. 

Red Robin #1

Damian: 

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back: 

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray! 

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

[dropoutparty]

ngc ramblings part 3- chapter 5

here we are at part 3!!! sorry this one took so long, i originally was gonna make this post include entropy and extus (along with finally talking about face in depth) but it was so fuckin long that im splitting it into 2 different posts! the next part isnt done yet but im like almost halfway done so it shouldnt be too much longer until its out! also before we get into this one:

tw for: death, animal death, and suicide. pls take care of urself and don't read this if those things are triggering for u <3

ok lets get on with the post

at the start of entropy zach doesnt waste any time getting right to the point. this place is bigger than the other planets so far, and zach says the music this time around is a melody that “started out normal but then got distorted” played by a violin sounding instrument. even tho i do sometimes forget that this is supposed to be a creepypasta im not surprised that he said it made him feel depressed and unnerved lmao. anyways, this planet has all new level types in it!! no reused ones!! ok now this is epic. the bosses this time around are megalon, battra, and mechagodzilla, but itll be a good while before we get to those guys because this chapter is long as hell holy shit?? buckle up babez <33 now, before i get into the meat of things as usual im gonna talk abt the planet name! entropy basically means “a lack of order/predictability or a gradual decline into disorder” and that's very accurate to this part of the story. at this point, red is pissed off and is getting desperate, which means from here on out things are going to be getting more intense and more unstable. this world is the turning point in the overall story, basically.

now with that out of the way, zach first goes to the worlds quiz level as usual! this time something was different. usually, in the quiz levels there would be goofy ass music playin in the bg (specifically the GH1D0RA cheat music, if you wanna like listen to it ig?) but from here on out its been replaced by the music from the games password screen, which zach called creepy earlier on in the pasta. im gonna glaze over the quiz again this time, but when we get to the next planet ill talk about all of the quizzes in depth all at once. basically all you need to know for now abt what happens here is face asks “do you like mothra?” and when zach picks no (after going on a tangent abt how mothra sucks lmao,, bro i swear im good at the game my controllers just messed up /s), face enters bastard mode and goes “TOO BAD!” and boom now zach cant play as anyone but mothra. zach is pissed for now but little does he know this is just going to become an even more epic gamer bc of this,, youll never get better at something if you never try and all that.

after that, zach moves on to the first level type- the forest. immediately zach gets an eerie feeling from this level bc he has some kinda fear involving forests at night (i can think of a reason why but ill have to talk abt that later just to be sure). hes also not feelin great about being forced to play as mothra, so the pressure of it all is def starting to get to him by now. the music in the forest is woodwinds followed by slow, rhythmic drums and chiming bells. must have been some ominous woodwinds and bells bc it made him feel like he was intruding somewhere he shouldnt be (oh rlly?? u dont say,, everything up until now has been fine /s). getting into the level itself, eventually zach comes across some weird deer-like monsters just vibing and scares them away when he gets close. later in the level he finds more of these weird deer along with a sloth-like creature on some of the trees and some raptor dudes killing some of the deer. zach shoots one of the raptors but thats about it. nothing really happened in this level but zach noted that he didnt feel like he was playing a video game, but instead it felt more like he was exploring a forest in another dimension. thats interesting for reasons ill ~get to later~ (yall must be so tired of hearing that by now omg,, i know im tired of saying it at least. i was gonna wait until after replay to talk about things but i severely underestimated how long this whole project would be, so i might make a post for the “more on that later” stuff before i get into replay. let me know what u think i should do).

anyways, the next thing zach checks out is the first tv screen level so far. these levels just play an animation with some music in the background, and theres a different animation per level. this time around the animation is of a kid with a beaver(?) head licking a lollipop and the music is the GH1D0RA music that the quiz levels used to use. the only thing of note here is that zach says he had a shirt that looked just like that when he was a kid. after that, were off to some of the weirdest fuckin levels in this whole thing imo- the hourglass levels. these levels have an entirely brown color palette, with grandfather clocks standing in the background (the level appears to be in like a hallway or something) and various time measuring things floating in the air. the music is the same as the board (ig cosby just didnt feel like thinking of what theme this place would have lol). after a little bit zach was rlly happy to see actual enemies from the normal game show up! these are basically like aircraft, tanks, etc. thats not the main attraction here tho, bc this level has its own unique mechanic! this mechanic is the colored hourglass items you can pick up. there are three of them, a blue one that slows time down and makes enemies from the past appear, a red one that speeds up time and makes enemies from the future appear, and a green one that made the time flow normally and spawned enemies from the normal game. zach found the blue one first, which caused a bunch of prehistoric enemies based on real animals to show up. after that he found a green one and fought normal enemies again, and then he found a red hourglass. the future enemies here look like aliens to me, and zach says that one enemy reminds him of something he saw in a book once. eventually, a special future creature showed up and zach was suddenly in a boss battle! or a mini boss battle? that description is probably more accurate. this guy doesnt have a face, and he can only attack by shooting a beam from his face, it sure does look cool! after zach beat it tho, he was off to the next level type, which is basically a toxic waste dump.

zach called it grungy and inhospitable, with the music being a synth ambient loop that made him feel dizzy while he listened to it. this is important because this is the first instance of the game making zach feel something *physically*, not just psychologically. all of the enemies here are mutated to some degree, with him first seeing green mummies with bird skulls coming out from vats of toxic slutch and a brownish cow skeleton monster with spider legs. later zach comes across a deer from the woods, drinking some toxic slutch (delinchous). zach got close to it to try making it stopped but suddenly some enemies came out of nowhere and scared it into running right off a ledge and into the slutch. rip :pensive:. after that zach found more mutated enemies (i.e some things with tentacles and some other deformed thing with human teeth) before he finally gets to the end of the level, where theres another miniboss waiting for him!! this ones a toxic sludge monster with a whale skull who attacks with a mouth projectile and by charging into you. the monster sank into the slutch and thats all for this level babeyy!

the next level is another forest, but this time its winter! its still at night, but this time zach doesnt feel off put, which he mostly attributes to the music. he describes it as a gentle, calm song that almost sounded romantic. the entire first segment of this level had no enemies in it, but dw this level is interesting i swear. the next segment starts out just as empty as the last one, but this time its silent. that is, until the music from “unforgiving cold” starts playing. yaa you remember that place!! i think i said it was less interesting than i remembered but its interesting again now bc it was foreshadowing these levels!! anyways soon after the music started up, zach started to come across tons of frozen bodies of the deer from earlier. some were mutilated, some werent, but they were all frozen and covered in snow. eventually zach does come across something living though, a sloth creature from earlier! its just vibing when suddenly the winter versions of the raptors from earlier rush in and fuckin obliterate the sloth thing. those things just blindly try killing everything in sight, and even start fighting themselves before zach finally gets to the last part of the level.

now this is where shit starts to get crayzay. this part opens up to a big empty field with a full moon and the nice music from earlier back. despite the nice music tho, zach immediately starts feeling dread and eventually he finds a lake. the lake comes down from the sky and starts to crack like an egg, a humanoid figure curled up in the fetus position dropping into the lake below and the moon halves disintegrated. this spawned the moon beast, the hardest challenge zachs had to deal with so far. after he finally defeats it, the screen goes to black and the name “melissa” is on screen, written in red. after that, the screen then says kys. the word kill then fills up the screen, layering over itself until it forms a picture of reds face. its now that we finally get to hear abt the whole melissa thing (which makes it sound like shes been mentioned in the pasta before this but thats not what i mean lmao). to summarize, zach had a middle school gf named melissa (also bro middle school?? wadda hell) who often went into “episodes” where she would stare off, expressionless, before trembling and putting her face in her hands. she and zach hung out in a field at night a lot but one night she just stared at the moon the whole time before running into traffic and dying.

NOW its finally later!!! were not done with entropy yet, but this is the end of part one of entropy so i wanna just take a little break to talk about things so far. this planet is FULL of symbolism and foreshadowing. to start off, i think a lot of the questions face asks at the beginning foreshadow things that happen. some examples are “is time slipping though your fingers?” which could allude to the time levels, “do you have any regrets?” which i think obviously foreshadows the whole melissa thing, “is it safe to go out at night?” and “do you find it hard to sleep at night?” both follow the same kinda theme, which i think relates to how the melissa incident happened at night, specifically out at night. i dont think the forest levels have anything too important in them, other than to introduce the presence of an innocent, harmless creature that doesnt deserve what happens to it later (aka the deer things) which might symbolize melissa. more evidence for this symbolizing melissa comes from the encounter with the deer in the toxic dump and the winter forest, where in the former zach tries to stop it from hurting itself but is too late, being forced to watch it die, and in the latter the same innocent thing from earlier is found dead close to where the real incident took place. the two big themes to keep in mind here are death and time, more specifically the past. most of the enemies here are either made from bones or kill other enemies, there's a dedicated time level referencing things that zach remembers seeing at one point (aka that one alien zach recognized), the beaver head had the same shirt as child zach did, it all connects to zachs past and the death of melissa. as for the moon beast, its the most obvious reference for reasons ive already explained. i dont really know what the moon cracking open and dropping a curled up human into the lake could mean other than some other thing melissa related, but i *do* think that the fact that the moon beast is the most difficult thing zach has faced so far is symbolic of the fact that the trauma from this event has followed him throughout his entire life, and its something he struggles with daily. it could even be the reason why he said no when face asked if he could sleep easily at night. the moon beast also has some black fur around its neck, which i think is meant to represent a tire track, referencing and/or mocking the way melissa died.

its so cool how this entire part of the story builds up to and foreshadows the bomb it drops at the end of the part, giving people something to look back on. a lot of ppl say that as soon as the melissa stuff gets introduced the story goes down in quality, and i do somewhat agree with that sentiment, especially if they want the story to actually be scary, but i think the direction the story goes from this point on is so unique and cool. it does follow the whole “theres a ghost in the game” troupe (even tho it was probably seen as a spin on that originally) but it doesnt do the same cliches as so many other gaming creepypastas do and it really takes the concept and makes it its own. i just think its neat,,,

anyways im done gushing abt this story, lets get on with part 2 of extus!! basically zach has a fuckin panic attack and, after taking a few minutes to calm himself down when its over, he decides that he has to finish the game now because if he doesnt its just going to haunt him for the rest of his life. zach has now realized that the game is “alive” and can somehow see his thoughts and memories, so understandably hes pretty freaked out by it at this point. when he keeps playing, the first thing he does is check out another tv screen level. this time, the animation is of a fish dude just kinda standing there with his mouth flapping open and closed and the music is the neptune board music from the original game. the only reason i can think of for why this is here is maybe the game is mocking zach for the panic attack he just had (bc when u have a panic attack you feel like you can barely breathe, if ur lucky enough to have never had one before and u dont know) but thats abt it. its probably just a random goofy thing cosby threw in there.

anyways, the next actual level is the first labyrinth level. this time around, its a gold labyrinth specifically. the music in these levels is a slow, ominous drum beat with female vocals occasionally coming in and (basically from here on out) the monster zach plays as is now half the size it used to be. i think this shows how zachs feeling at this point, like this whole thing isnt just being a big strong monster and beating up enemies any more, he feels small and scared and helpless in the face of something potentially dangerous that he doesnt understand maybe his confusion about the game is the reason *why* theres so many labyrinth levels here in the first place. anyways im getting ahead of myself. personally, i think the aesthetic of the gold labyrinth is very similar to the green temples back on trance. while trance had a more circular and soft theme to it's architecture and sculpture, entropys is much more square or rectangle oriented. despite this, i think that the golden mazes at least are another religious kind of building, and the architecture is just different because theyre two different cultures who just happen to worship the same spiritual figure (aka melissa. did i say that earlier? i think i did,, if i didnt well the religions worship melissa, not knowing she's a dead human or anything. probably).

moving on, zach notes how the gold labyrinth would probably have been impossible to navigate as any of the other monsters, so turns out face being an asshole was a blessing in disguise after all huh? anyways this place is full of weird gold monsters, lava/fire traps, and stone faces (both in more of an easter island head style and in the regular feminine headshot weve seen so far). zach comes across two feminine heads, one that is more adult looking and pure gold, and another one that looks much younger and whos eyes have red irises and blue scleras. this statue apparently looks a lot like melissa did on the night she died, so zach leaves it pretty quickly. i *think* this is the first time we see the color blue associated with melissa? if it isnt sorry abt that, its been a couple days since i worked on ngcr so ive forgotten some of the smaller or more subtle things by now. GOD i keep getting side tracked ANYWAYS eventually zach finds a non-gold enemy and sees it get picked up by like an arcade crane claw. hes curious so he follows the claw, only to see the monster be put in a big gold cauldron and walk out the side of it as a gold monster.

gonna be honest, no idea what the hell this could mean. like? theres been no themes of corruption or good things becoming evil so far so this just kinda. exists,, yea idk lol. im not part of like any discord servers or anything so all this theorizing and analysis has just been me, maybe getting some small ideas from like random youtube comments or something, so if something ive said so far has been unanimously disagreed with somewhere i dont know about it. thats also why this isnt really a definitive or comprehensive analysis (even tho im trying to be as comprehensive as i can).

anyways zach finds the exit soon after and hes on to the next level type (there's so fucking many of them ik dont worry weve almost gotten to all of them now), the indigo cliffs. the background of these levels is similar to the blue mountains from trance, but now the moon and clouds from the toxic dump background is also here (and colored indigo to match). the music here is just a deep rumbling noise. the first “enemies” he sees here are just a bunch of multicolored little guys coming out of a hole in the ground and jumping off a cliff. were continuing the death theme yall!! anyways zach continues, flying over some more weird creatures (tho some of them just look like dinosaurs lol) before he sees a bunch more of the multicolored guys out and about but this time theyre getting grabbed by birds!! wadda heel!!! zach comments on how the multicolored dudes seem eager to die and thinks maybe the moon has something to do with it (like melissa dude wat!!!! that's crazy /s). at the end of the level there were some more multicolored dudes just walking into a creatures mouth so zach attacked the thing and killed it and the levels over yay!

now its time for the bosses babeyy!!! first zach fights battra (basically an evil moth kaiju), the music is varans theme. battra starts off in his larvae form, where he basically just fought by running into you and shooting stuff at you. while fighting this form, zach noticed that the game buffed mothra because his gamer skillz were too cringe lmaoo. he beats the larvae form and battra goes into his second form, where hes basically a stronger clone of mothra (misogyny). zach fights battra and has fun doing it (for once,, good for him) and he wins yay! next hes fighting megalon (a big beetle/bug kaiju), whos music was gigans theme. im tired when im writing this so ill just give you zachs description of how he fought: “strong, persistent, but dumb”. after this, zach checks out the last tv screen of entropy. this time, it shows a big buff guy with a sack over his head hit a womans head with a sledgehammer while shes tied to a table or something. the music for it was the password theme. i think this is probably here because red is getting angrier? like this guy is still here after i triggered his ptsd?? what the hell!!!

anyways before we get to the last boss we have one last level type to get through- the shadow labyrinth. at this point, zach starts to feel drained because no shit sherlock you just had a panic attack and youve been playing this game for fuckin several hours at this point of course youre fuckin drained. anyways zach enters the shadow labyrinth, which is a black recolor of the gold labyrinth. the music is “evil ambience” similar to unforgiving colds music but distinctly different apparently. there werent any enemies so zach just kinda wandered for a while until the lights turned off, darkening the whole screen and (secretly) spawning tons of spooky enemies thatll chase and hit mothra in the dark. eventually the lights came back on and zach started scrambling to the exit. when the lights turned back off, zach was able to find one of the melissa looking statues and stood next to it. it warded off the monsters while the lights were off, so zach was safe. i think this shows 2 things: 1) its a little more validation for my “religion in this world worships melissa” theory and 2) it foreshadows the way melissa wants to protect zach at the end of the game. zach beat the shadow labyrinth a lot faster than the gold one so were done with all the stages now!! now theres only the last boss and red and were done with entropy!

the last boss is mechagodzilla, but when zach starts the level, normal godzilla is there instead!! its whatever tho bc soon the disguise is gone and its just pretty much the normal mechagodzilla fight (but now hes got a gay beam). at about half health tho, mechagodzillas sprite breaks into pieces like gezoras did way back on earth and reforms into not-mechagodzilla. even tho it looks uncanny (and the usage of the face statue on the front is probably there to further mock zach bc melissa) zach beats it p easily and now its time for the chase. ba dum ba dum thats the sound of a chase.

as usual tho, before i get to the red chase its time to talk about entropy as a planet!! i think the best way to describe the layout is “a big forest with a toxic waste dump in it takes up half the planet while the other half is a large religious temple/labyrinth with a dangerous underbelly”. there doesnt seem to be any intelligent life there now (its all dead by now probably) but there was at some point at least because imean the huge labyrinth is there dude!!! i dont have much to say for this section tbh bc i feel like i've already said everything i wanted to, so its time for the chase ig!!

basically the chase with red here takes place in a labyrinth level bc of course it does. this labyrinth, however, seems to be made of some kind of organic matter. is it flesh? organs? nondescript viscera? idk but it's pulsating and bloody. also this time red has wings too!! anyways, basically zach avoids red throughout the maze, red breaks through one of the walls with his big alien tongue, and zach gets to the end of the maze. nothing crazy happens at the end of this chapter (i think it was crazy enough as is) so thats the end of that and now its time for the penultimate planet- extus.

[mst3kproject]

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My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Prepare to move Gamera Vs Jiger from episode that never were cause Joel confirmed that the third movie for season 13!!

Woohoo!  I finally got a hit!

28 notes • Posted 2021-05-11 01:19:13 GMT

#4

Planet of Dinosaurs

This movie is blessed with some pretty cool stop-motion dinosaurs and absolutely nothing else, and it’s got a Rifftrack.  That’s… that’s it, really.  Press play.

The spaceship Odyssey suffers a reactor meltdown and blows up with only just enough warning for the crew to launch a single lifeboat shuttle.  Luckily, there’s a life-bearing planet nearby where the spandex-suited survivors can land, but unluckily, it turns out to be inhabited by giant reptiles, not unlike the prehistoric fauna of Earth!  There’s also a spider the size of a Yorkshire terrier, for no particular reason.

There’s not really any plot from there, it’s just bad actors shooting toy laser guns at plastic dinosaurs, interspersed with Rock Climbing. At last the characters manage to kill the inevitable T-rex that’s been threatening them, whereupon they declare themselves to have conquered this planet.

There are a few attempts at human conflict but they’re pretty watery.  The first possible b-plot has to do with the vice president of the space-shipping company, Mr. Baylor, who was along on this trip for some reason and is among the survivors. So they’re not just stranded on Dinosaur Planet, they’re stranded on Dinosaur Planet with their boss.  He’s a jackass and his secretary quickly gets fed up with him and quits, which doesn’t do her a whole lot of good since they are, as I mentioned, stranded on Dinosaur Planet.  The writers run out of things to do with Baylor about halfway through the movie and kill him off, to everybody’s relief.

See the full post

30 notes • Posted 2021-03-16 15:20:03 GMT

#3

NEW MST3K KICKSTARTER

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k

spread the word!!

33 notes • Posted 2021-04-14 01:48:46 GMT

#2

Godmonster of Indian Flats

If I had a dollar for every movie I’ve seen about a bloodthirsty mutant sheep, I would have... two dollars.

I was entirely willing to feature Godmonster of Indian Flats based on its strangeness alone, but it does have one connection to MST3K in that actress Peggy Browne was also in Avalanche. Another performer here, Kerrigan Prescott, also had a part in previous Episode that Never Was Fiend Without a Face, so hey, close enough!

Dr. Clemens and his assistant Mariposa discover a mutant lamb on Eddie the Rancher’s sheep farm, and take it up to a secret lab at Indian Flats for study.  This seems somewhat outside of Clemens’ claimed purview as an anthropologist, but whatever, I’m just here to watch the movies.  While the monster grows to maturity in a tank, the mayor of a local tourist town, Mr. Silverdale, is refusing to sell land to a Mr. Barnstable, who is interested in the mining rights.  We soon get the idea that Silverdale is less interested in tourism than he is in having his own private Wild West LARP, and the townsfolk have an almost cult-like reverence for him.  Eventually, their increasingly violent attempts to run Barnstable out of town cross paths with Dr. Clemens’ pet mutant, and all hell breaks loose!

Well, maybe not all hell.  This movie hasn’t got the money for all hell.  Rest assured, though, that they unleash all the hell they could afford.

The hell in question takes the form of a lumpy hunchbacked sheep creature with a rubbery sock puppet head, one long dangling arm, and a huge Kim Kardashian ass.  It interrupts a picnic, and blows up a gas station by knocking over a pump with its bubble butt.  It may or may not understand English, and it breathes poisonous gas when injured.  The puppet is pretty weird and scary-looking in the darkness of Clemens' secret lab, but out in the full light of day it is ridiculous.

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38 notes • Posted 2021-05-15 14:50:13 GMT

#1

Devil Girl from Mars

This movie qualifies itself for MST3K by the robot alone.  I don't think anybody involved with it ever made it to the Satellite of Love– in fact, most of the cast had made real movies in the past and went on to make more of them.  But Devil Girl from Mars has a dumb title and a terrible robot, and anybody who’s seen it will agree that’s all it needs.

It's a dark and stormy night somewhere in Scotland when Robert, an escaped convict, shows up at the isolated pub where his ex-girlfriend Doris works, hoping she'll help him hide from the police.  She agrees, though it's obviously going to make both their lives far more complicated... but not as complicated as the arrival of Naya, a Martian who lands her flying saucer just metres from the front door. It seems Mars had a war between the sexes, which ended in the near-extermination of the men.  That's right, it's another movie about aliens coming to Earth looking for breeding stock.  Can one jailbird and the staff and guests at a Scottish pub possibly stop Naya in time?

Someday when humans have left the Earth behind and set out to see the galaxy, I rather suspect it'll be us visiting random planets and saying things like, “hey, we're all out of males, can we borrow some of yours?”  And it won't be because we've actually had some kind of reproductive crisis, it'll be because we're bored and horny and we want to fuck some aliens.

See the full post

40 notes • Posted 2021-11-11 16:06:32 GMT

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[spookyyenna]

Info and Junk about my Power Rangers Fanfiction

⛔WARNING: SUPER LONG POST⛔

Like I said in my last post, I've been working on the story for two years and between that time, I've worked on the title, the characters, villains, and everything in between. And without further ado... here's the lore of the story:

The official title of the story:

Power Rangers Wing Commanders

The Plot:

Coming from another dimension, Dark Sparrow and his army of space pirates are planning to conquer earth and enslave everyone that lives on it. Now, it's up to a new team of heroes to take to the sky and save the day. They are, Power Rangers Wing Commanders.

The Setting:

The story takes place in the city of Finn Hill. A massive city in Southern California where humans and anthro animals co-exist with one another (and no, there's no beastiality). The city is also known for its landmarks and it's famous Mayor, Pheobe Tsubaki.

Locations (so far):

Finn Hill High School: The main high school where Jeremy, Roy, Adrian, Kayla, and Lucy go to when they're not out saving the world from intergalactic villains and monsters. Like every other high school-they got tons of classes to go to, piles of homework to do, and dealing with annoying school bullies; all five of them almost have the same classes together and during lunch or study hall, they would always discuss strategies on how to take down one of Dark Sparrow's monsters.

W.C.O Headquarters: The Rangers' main HQ and home base of the Wing Commander Organization (or W.C.O for short). The base itself is a massive helicarrier that hovers over the entire city 24/7 and monitors for any monster attacks or unusual activity; the Rangers' zords and wing-cycles are held in the cargo bay. Once they've been activated (either by the rangers or by Professor Foxworth), they get transported to the launch bay and prepare to launch.

The Finn Hill Mall: A huge mall that is located in the downtown area of the city and is the main hangout spot for Jeremy and the others to chill and relax after a long day of being superheroes. Inside the mall, there's a local music shop that goes by the name of "Music Fever" which is owned by Kayla's father and uncle, along with that, there's also a smoothie shop that is called "Green Paw Smoothies" in which, is owned by Adrian's family.

Dark Terrarium: This is Dark Sparrow's massive spaceship and his base of operations. Inside this ship, Sparrow and his minions hatch up ideas and plans on how to destroy the power rangers, how to conquer earth, and what monsters to create. Also, the ship itself is packed to the brim with state-of-the-art weaponry and a deadly laser beam that can decimate planets.

Side Characters (So far):

Nelson Skuller/Billy Blake/Mira Thompson: A trio of school bullies that pick on the Rangers on a daily basis and just for the fun of it. But whenever they get confronted by a monster or by a couple of Nexors...they usually turn tail and run away, or even attempt to fight the odd creatures (and fail miserably). And whenever they try to pull a prank or a stunt, it always backfires on them.

Principle Bernstein: The head principal of Finn Hill High School. Due to being a brown bear, some of the students and other teachers tend to find Mr. Berenstain both "intimidating or scary". But in reality, he's a pretty kind and gentle mammal-but if he catches you causing trouble or skipping class...his mood will automatically change and he'll end up giving you either a good scolding, two weeks detention, or a possible school suspension.

Kelsey Hudson: A 16-year-old border collie who is an old childhood friend of Adrian's and a huge fan of the power rangers. When she found out Adrian was a ranger, she completely lost it and was happy for her friend (she even has a blog dedicated to the heroes); but whenever she sees Adrian or the others get hurt during a battle, she gets super anxious and worries about them a lot. After the monster is defeated and everything, she gets reassuring comfort from the rangers to let her know that they're okay and both her and the city is saved once again.

Episodes (So Far):

1. Wings of Change Pt 1:

An intergalactic space pirate named Dark Sparrow and his alien armada have arrived on earth and are on the verge of taking it over. Until an unlikely team of heroes comes together to stop them.

2. Wings of Change Pt 2:

As the Rangers get the hang of their new powers, they will need to combine them to take down Dark Sparrow’s army and the gecko monster.

3. Jurassic Terror:

When Jeremy and his class go on a field trip to the Finn Hill Natural History Museum, things turn for the worst, when Rag-Zar takes the DNA of a T-Rex fossil and creates a prehistoric monster.

4. Ranger Photoshoot:

When a magazine company interviews the rangers for a special article, Dark Sparrow hatches up a plan to make the ranger’s interview their last.

5. Cool as Blue:

A new girl has arrived at Finn Hill and Roy has a major crush on her. While he's trying to ask her out, the other rangers have their hands full dealing with the thunder-beetle monster.

6. Adventures in Rangersitting:

When Adrian gets stuck babysitting his little cousins, things get a little wild when they get snatched up by the King Owl Monster.

7. Arctic Showdown:

When a monster named Blizzardhound attempts to turn the city into the next ice age, the Rangers fly to the rescue.

8. Collide:

When Roy and Kalya’s constant bickering gets out of hand, they are forced to work together when Jeremy and the others get captured by Rag-Zar.

9. Color Switch:

After being attacked by the Wizard Dragon monster, Lucy and Adrian end up switching bodies and soon started seeing things from a different perspective.

10. Bad Monster Day:

When Dark Sparrow’s newest monster refuses to attack the city, he attempts to aid the rangers on taking down his former master.

11. Cats Vs Dogs:

When the monster feline duo, Calico, and Calica, put Adrian in a mind-control spell, they use him to destroy the other rangers.

12. The Ranger and the Bully:

When a trio of school bullies steal Lucy and Kayla's morphers, they run into trouble when they're hunted down by Rag-Zar, Zerrick, and the Mighty-Mirror monster.

13. Crying Crabs: As the Rangers enjoy their day off at the beach, things get bad when the queen crab monster creates a massive tidal wave to wash away Finn Hill. Meanwhile, Professor Foxworth and the rest of the scientists are working on a new fleet of zords.

14. Return of the Claws: When Calico returns more strong and powerful, she seeks revenge on the rangers for destroying Calica.

15. Cyber Racer: It's the annual Finn Hill Grand Prix and everyone including the rangers is excited about it. Until a mysterious racer joins the race and turns everything upside down.

16. The Golden Fox Pt 1: When Professor Foxworth's nephew, Ashton, comes to Finn Hill, strange occurrences started to happen and a new threat was on the horizon.

17. The Golden Fox Pt 2: After Ashton learns that Jeremy and the others are power rangers, he wants to aid them in protecting the city and stopping Dark Sparrow. However, the professor has mix feelings about this.

18. The Golden Fox Pt 3: When Professor Foxworth and the Rangers get captured by General Bladehog, it'll be up to Ashton to save them.

19. Dog Gone Wedding: When Adrian's eldest brother is planning to get married, the rangers set up preparations for the wedding. Meanwhile, a mysterious monster is attacking the city.

20. Pink with Envy: When Lucy's having a bad day, everything turns for the worst when Sheira and Zerrick terrorize the city.

21. Virus Swarm: When Professor Foxworth updates the W.C.O's computer system, it gets corrupted by Dark Sparrow's nanobots.

22. Air Battle: When Dark Sparrow unleashes his shadow fleet upon the city, the Rangers take to the sky in an arial showdown.

23. Star Blitz: The Rangers race against the clock to stop Sheira and Zerrick from creating a shooting star shower that could destroy the city.

24. Carnival Mayhem Pt 1: When a mysterious carnival comes to Finn Hill, the Rangers decided to check it out. But they don't realize that they're running into a trap.

25. Carnival Mayhem Pt 2: With the remaining rangers under Jackal the Clown's control, it's up to Roy to conquer his fear of clowns and save the day.

26. The Younger Years: While fighting the time clock monster-Jeremy, Lucy, and Adrian got turned into kids. Now it's up to Roy, Kayla, and Ashton to change them back.

That’s all I have for right now. I’ll make a separate post for the main core team of rangers, the main villains, and other main characters. When I get the time, I’ll add more info and whatnot to this post. So until next time, have a good day/night, stay awesome, and may the power protect you!

[starsailorstories]

The Major Goddesses of the Sweet Chariot Universe

Well, at least the Andromedan corner of the universe.

The most common family of religions among Astraea species is known as Cosmonism/the Cosmonist faiths. They’re inspired by ancient observations of the universe, its governing forces, and what happens to actual suns/stars--which the starlike astraeas understandably conflate with themselves--over their life cycles. 

In prehistoric times before interplanetary space travel became common each world had her own religion, often centered around nature as it was perceived in that particular solar system. But as more astraeas returned to the vacuum--genetically, their ancestral home--they began to both blend their traditions and deify broader forces that affected the galaxy on the whole.

At some point a VERY long time ago, some rando–they call her the unknown scholar, but her anonymity just kind of drives home that she didn’t have any specific credentials for doing this (although really, what kind of prophet does)–gathered up sacred poetic texts from the 16 Holy Worlds where planet-based society was supposedly created, translated them into the common proto-space-latin, and in the translation sorted all the local deities mentioned into the service of the three governing forces. So Altamai’s mother goddess of daybreak, for instance, became an incarnation/guise of Orellistia because she controlled heavenly bodies, and the storm goddess honored on the inner rings of the gas planet Shali became a guise of Levinoxia because she represented a chaotic/entropic force.

The collection of poems is the text they all refer to as the Holy Poets (so called bc they come from the Holy Worlds, not necessarily because they themselves constituted religious figures, although they do for some people), which forms a core for a lot of their view of morality and the world, though it also has just…stories, not all of which have an obvious religious lesson, many of which are probably allegories, a lot of which are love stories. Like every sacred text anywhere, there are about ten billion million different interpretations of it. I’ll discuss several of them in later posts, but most have the reverence of three overarching cosmic forces, their metaphorical implications for daily life, and their correspondent deities at their center.

This post will be LONG, but it has art! 

Cunaderia is the goddess of the Origin (the big bang), birth and beginnings, time, and fate, born from the nova of the Dead Goddess (who is implied to be a form of Levinoxia and/or Orellistia, although it may not always have been such) at the moment of the big bang. She is always depicted as a young child, usually seated on a cushion in a shallow basin floating in vast blankness outside time and space and reading a scroll that bears the Story of Time. The echoes of her long recitation can be heard in the cosmic microwave background.

Although she is not the designer of most things within the universe, she is the creator of the universe itself, and holds the singularity from which the next big bang will issue on the tip of her finger. Her recitation of the Story sustains the continued expansion of the universe and therefore the procession of history. Because of all this she is considered the most awe-inspiring and ineffable figure in the whole Cosmonist pantheon, and it’s considered improper to speak her name aloud in an unconsecrated space. Most refer to her with euphemistic nicknames like “The Child” and “The Little One.” People will sometimes say “the Little One stammered” to describe a moment so charged time seemed to stand still.

Unlike Orellistia and Levinoxia, Cunaderia is generally remembered and worshipped on a regular schedule rather than receiving prayers and offerings on an as-needed basis. The perception, for  the most part, is that everything she controls is already decided, and she can’t be swayed by loyalty or hospitality. It is considered right to thank her for unexpected twists of good fortune, though, and there’s an adorable tradition of leaving handmade dolls and toys at her shrines and temples as tokens of gratitude for good luck, since she’s dogmatically considered to be like five years old.

(The five years old thing figures into a lot of irreverent humor, by the way. Every time you have a day where you’re like “this might as well happen,” they say, remember that the whole pageant of history is just a story made up by a kindergartner at the end of the day.)

Her guardianship over fate gives Cunaderia charge over who will rule each of the Holy Systems, and she’s usually depicted holding or surrounded by seven stars, representing the lives of future queens to one day be incarnated at her discretion. The same seven stars have been a symbol of the peace between the systems for many hundreds of turns, but at the time of the story, all seven mark the diadem of the Empress and the seal of the Hyperian dynasty.

For this image of her I tried to get as close to her “official” Destigravitationist representation as I could. The shell she’s sitting on forms the shape of the Sun Lily, which is a traditional motif in depictions of the goddesses because of its associations with sanctity and power, although not coincidentally it’s also the symbol of the Aula. Her clothing is a style of dress--inspired by the armor worn by an ancient, now-extinct order of warrior priestesses from the Altamaian arctic circle--worn for occasions of Altamaian, and therefore Basilean, national pride. She also wears the round hair comb associated with schoolgirls in the Atya-Jenya system (where the Basillan homeworlds and the Rings are) in general, though hers is made of royal white-gold rather than the usual cloth and cardboard.

In addition to the familiar and the patriotic motifs Cunaderia’s icons usually incorporate a number of symbols of time and fate. Behind her is a star-dial, a device held/placed at the horizon to show the time and date based on the positions of specific reference stars which are close and bright enough to be distinct from the light of the dome. Around her hand is a fortune-teller’s coin (I need to make a post about Andromedan divination soon!). The colors she wears are also significant: for Astraeas, blue is the color of youth, the ephemeral, and innocence, while red is the color of wisdom as well as of death and therefore destiny. Her light is also blue--because blue stars tend to burn brighter and not live as long, a blue light is a symbol of a kind of tragic eternal innocence--a spirit too pure for the material world.

Orellistia is the goddess of Gravity, the force which orders the stars. It follows from that that she is also the goddess of all matter, which gravity forms into stars, planets, and galaxies; as well as of light (a consequence of this pull), order, inspiration and creative activities of all kinds from construction to motherhood, prosperity, love (attraction and loyalty, at least among stars, are both functions of gravitation), marriage, family and the home. “Home” can mean everything from “household” to “home planet” of course, so she also has superintendence over all national/state/planetary protector deities. Until fairly recently the ruling classes have stopped short of actually claiming she protects the empire on the whole, but that’s a line the Hyperian dynasty have been more than willing to cross.

Gravity is an incredibly important concept in astraea cultures, to the point where it’s usually capitalized and spoken of as not only a natural law, but a moral and devotional one as well. The most extreme view of it holds that every single physical thing in the universe--people included--is organized into a perfect hierarchy by a series of literal or metaphorical orbits. The galaxy turns around the dome, within which Sol Atya, Sol Jenya, Sol Minerva, and Sol Suraya move around the gravitational center of their system (once believed to be, and still honored symbolically as, the dwelling place of Orellistia herself); the four suns are attended by their planets, who are attended by their moons and satellites, who are attended by their queens and ruling councils, who are attended by the royal family, who are attended by the nobility, and so on down the chain all the way to lux laborers and the dishonored poor.

Of course, while Orellistia is often seen in the mainstream as maintaining the status quo, her depiction in the holy poems is a little less convenient. Most often, she’s portrayed as a stereotypical artist, trying things out and gradually molding the universe towards perfection with a careful balance of gentle nurturing and sometimes ruthless erasure. Love and war are equal products of her instigation, and both are simply mediums through which she executes her grand vision. In her more ancient portrayals she shares many traits with some of the solar demigoddesses (who, most historians agree, were once worshipped as goddesses themselves despite being much more flawed and down-to-earth than the current Big Three)--she’s warm and personal and rather human, prone to frustration and jealousy and even insecurity. The many syncretic devotional paths centered around her--particularly in the antedome and farther afield--definitely have more in common with this version.

Titles used for Orellistia include variants on Mother of Gravity, (Nebula) Genetris, Creatrix Regina, Flower of the Cosmos, Mother of a Thousand Suns, Core of the People, Map-Drawer (particularly when she is taken up as a war deity), and Galaxy-Weaver (especially popular with the massive antedome textile industry). Often people will pray or sing to her and leave gifts at her shrines before undertaking an endeavor--either to ensure inspiration or success, whichever one they’re more concerned about. She’s usually pictured wearing gold, salmon and pink--the colors most associated with stellar nurseries on the galactic scale, sunrise on the planetary scale, and the mini-nebula in the womb of every Mother on the family scale; colors associated with nurturing, creation and new life--if not actually dressed in and made of nebular clouds. It’s also common to portray the central dome of Andromeda (or at least all the important bits) either symbolically or literally in her hair as if they formed there and are now in her orbit (this picture went for symbolically). Other depictions give her distaffs and embroidery hoops, architects’ tools, paint brushes, and other implements of Creation (it honestly usually depends on where you plan to hang the picture).

Her light is usually portrayed as bright white, sometimes with a blue tint. White lights are associated with the full energy of young parenthood and the prime of life.

Levinoxia is the goddess of the Vacuum and Orellistia’s wife, although the Basilean religious establishment has done everything in their power to downplay that. She is the goddess of uncharted, dark space and of antimatter, and as such the goddess of darkness, night, the unknown/exploration/the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, truth itself, entropy, magic, change, and travel in general, as well as being the protectress of the dead (although Orellistia is said to choose who will live and die).

She travels the cosmos, broadening the borders of its beings’ understanding, maintaining a long-distance relationship until the wife’s art block gets bad enough that she needs her to come home and keep an eye on things while she does an epic studio cleanup and then takes a nap, which ultimately results in the heat death of the universe and, once they’ve spent the night together and Levinoxia has showed her wife all the new ideas and perspectives she’s gathered up, a new big bang.

Her roles as a protector of sailors and travelers and as a guide in the pursuit of truth are usually signified in icons by having her holding navigational tools (astrolabes, star maps) and ships’ lanterns. The lantern in particular represents the ability of wisdom, observation, and critical thinking to cut through the obscuring veils of rhetoric and misinformation.

Just as Orellistia’s mythical character is a warts-and-all picture of the creative process, so Levinoxia’s is a picture of the pursuit of the truth in all its confusing, depressing, endlessly fractal murkiness. She’s heavily associated with vagary and nondistinction (the practice of Levinoxian modesty is intended to be a reminder of these very things) and stories involving her generally teach that the truth is so complicated that a mortal mind is lucky to even get close. The gentle dialectical practice she exemplifies, however, results in a very compassionate and peaceful demeanor, and those who study her as a discipline tend to think of her as an unconditional comforter and a loving guardian, albeit mischievous (but only to keep you on your toes and learning, like a sensei in an old martial arts film).

Because of the radical realism she represents, however, she lends herself to morally ambiguous interpretations and is frequently misunderstood. The Destigravitational Ecclesia in particular have been on a campaign to paint her as a destructive trickster figure and more Orellistia’s opposite than her counterbalance. Around the time the old rebellion was really getting off the ground, the Aula outlawed worship of Levinoxia entirely in response to several vestal orders coming forward to call them out on their habitual twisting of the facts. Despite this, many vestals and devotees still practice her rituals, particularly those which petition for the safety of sailors and the peaceful reincarnation of the dead. It’s very bad luck to say prayers or wear symbols associated with Gravity in space (the reasoning for this varies--the fundies say it’s because Levinoxia can’t abide the suggestion of order in her domain, the cynics usually say “lol she’s a sailor, don’t remind her that she’s got a girl back home,” the romantics say being reminded of her wife simply causes her such a pique of longing and loneliness that she forgets to do her job and will leave the ship unprotected) so for superstitious spacefarers Levinoxia is THE goddess; many of them know no other beyond a name.

Levinoxia is often depicted as older than her wife (she is, if the creation story is to be believed) or as having a young face but an age-reddened light. Although she is the most passive of the goddesses, she is also considered the wisest.

[shannrussell-blog1]

Full of beauty, history and wonder, Mungo National Park in New South Wales is a magical place perfect for exploring. Recently, I was lucky enough to get to experience this beautiful slice of Australia and I’d like to share my story with you!

We were in Broken Hill, NSW, returning from a trip to Lake Eyre, when we got a call from my Dad.

“Hi! I’m checking whereabouts you two are on your travels…”

“Hey Dad, we’re heading home to Melbourne soon, just taking it slow. We may stay at Mildura for a couple of nights”.

Then he said, “Have you heard of Lake Mungo National Park? You’re so close! If the roads are open after all this rain you should try and get through because…it’s a special place to see!”

Not like any other National Park

It’s always good to get a recommendation, but when it came from my Dad (who has been to almost every National Park in Australia!) we were instantly intrigued.

Unfortunately, the lady behind the Pooncarie milkbar told us, “The roads to Mungo are closed…They may open if it dries out but they’ve been closed for days…”

Needless to say, we were disappointed. However, still keen to experience Mungo, we decided to chill out in Pooncarie on the off-chance the authorities might open the roads the next day.

After two hours, and feeling like we’d met everyone in Pooncarie (it’s tiny!), a local found us at the café and told us the road to Mungo had been opened. Wonderful! It was 3 pm, so we farewelled Pooncarie and made it to the Mungo campground by nightfall.

Where the Earth meets the Moon

For me, Mungo was an intense and breath-taking experience.

Bewilderingly beautiful, everything about Lake Mungo National Park demanded that I stand still and experience the land, and its fascinating history, with all of my senses.

The westerly wind raced across the ancient salt lake plain carrying the whispers of tribal generations past that I felt, but that I couldn’t understand.

At the heart of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage region, the texturally exquisite lunar landscape of Lake Mungo’s baked eroding banks is a haunting backdrop to the rich archaeological history hidden beneath.

I was, and still am, deeply captivated by Mungo and its secrets.

Messages from the past

Once full of water and teeming with life, Lake Mungo was a significant meeting place for generations of Aboriginal people, as well as the sacred resting place for many Aboriginal ancestors.

Today this unique lake bed overflows with extraordinary evidence of early human existence, prehistoric megafauna, indigenous customs and Aboriginal Australian culture.

Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, whose remains were discovered in 1974 and 1967 respectively, are two of Australia’s most significant and remarkable archaeological discoveries. Mungo Man has given scientists clues on how ancient tribes lived and adapted to climate change over 40,000 years ago.

The Mungo Visitors Centre provides an excellent display of Aboriginal artefacts, archaeological information, lifesize megafauna exhibits and much more.

Start your Mungo adventure with a couple of hours (at least!) at the Mungo Visitors Centre. You will better understand the rich natural history and cultural significance of Mungo before you step foot on this amazing landscape.

Plan your trip

Fantastic tourist information is available online about Lake Mungo National Park. Find out what to do, where to stay, how to get there and more.

Visit these great links for all the essential information you’ll need to plan your trip to Lake Mungo National Park:

Mungo National Park – https://www.visitmungo.com.au/

NSW National Parks – https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/mungo-national-park

Lonely Planet – https://www.lonelyplanet.com/australia/new-south-wales/mungo-national-park

On a final note

When I decided to write about Mungo, I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to convey how fascinating this region of Australia is and what an effect it had on me.

I’ve always loved archaeology and learning about the Aboriginal culture, so Mungo is the perfect combination. After writing this article and trawling through all our photos of Mungo, I’ve decided to visit Mungo again as soon as I can. It’s not a place you can only visit once…

Feel free to share your Lake Mungo stories here. I’d love to know more about your experience and what Mungo means to you. Plus you never know, I may see you there soon!

  Have you ever been to Mungo National Park?

  The post Discover the Magic of Lake Mungo appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[citizenscreen]

This week marks the anniversary of the death of animator, producer William Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001). For me that can only mean one thing – it’s time to reminisce about one of my all-time favorite cartoons – and sitcoms, for that matter – The Flintstones.

William Hanna and partner Joseph Barbera became one of the truly legendary pairings in animation history. Together Hanna and Barbera created The Flintstones and a slew of other iconic characters that have been hugely popular and influential since the 1950s. To show their sustaining power here’s an entry on DC Comics from last year focusing on new comic books to be released based on reimaginings of several Hanna-Barbera characters and stories. I’m not much into comic books so this launch may have already happened. As I perused a collection of classic Hanna-Barbera comic books though I realized I’d absolutely love to own some of them. Practically every single classic character had his own comic book series with the Parade series featuring all of them.

Anyway – the characters that launched Hanna-Barbera Productions in the 1950s include Yogi Bear and his Emmy Award-winning series (1958-1962), Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw. In the 1960s they brought us The Jetsons in a prime-time slot during the 1962-1963 season, The Magilla Gorilla Show, Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long, Punkin’ Puss and Mushmouse, Scooby-Doo and many more.

Of all the shows produced by Hanna-Barbera, however, my absolute favorite is The Flintstones, a sit-com-style animated series influenced by The Honeymooners, another show I adore. I grew up watching Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty along with their prehistoric surroundings and still enjoy watching them whenever time and opportunity allow.

The creators of ‘The Flintstones’ holding a drawing of Fred Flintstone on August 1, 1980

The collaboration between William Hanna and Joseph Barbera began in 1940 when both were working in the animation department at MGM Studios. The two worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons with the first being Puss Gets the Boot (1940). When MGM closed its cartoon department two decades later Hanna and Barbera decided to continue the collaboration with a focus on television.

Having gained a solid reputation in theatrical shorts, Hanna and Barbera approached Columbia’s Screen Gems television studio with a storyboard for a cartoon about the adventures of dog and cat pals Ruff and Reddy. At that point Tom and Jerry cartoons were already enjoying success on television by way of recycled theatrical vehicles so the careers of Hanna and Barbera were on solid ground. The Ruff and Reddy Show followed suit in the popularity department and the two animators were well on their way to making history.

Ruff and Reddy

In 1957 Hanna-Barbera launched The Huckleberry Hound Show, the first cartoon series to receive an Emmy award. Huckleberry Hound marked a huge step in the careers of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera in several ways. Huckleberry served as a platform for the animators to introduce many characters, several of which became stars in their own series later. In addition, Huckleberry Hound proved a huge hit with audiences, but not the demographic one would think. In 1960 a survey revealed that more adults than children were watching Huckleberry Hound on a regular basis, which prompted Hanna-Barbera to focus its efforts on a primetime animated series. Enter The Flintstones. YABBA DABBA DOO!

  The Flintstones ran from 1960 to 1966 and proved such a big success with audiences of all ages that Hanna-Barbera created a space-age family to join them in prime-time. That family, of course, is The Jetsons. I enjoy The Jetsons as well, but The Flintstones are the bomb diggity with their stone-age “modern” appliances that talk and all else that make it a terrific comedy for people of all ages. The premise of the show parodied popular domestic situation comedies, a familiar, winning formula with the added bonus of skits based on the prehistoric theme. One of my favorite gags is when you see the characters step over a crack in the ground that millions of years later was to become the Grand Canyon.

You might enjoy this brief video, a history of The Flintstones:

Through the years la creme de la creme of voice actors worked on The Flintstones, including the legendary Mel Blanc and radio and television great, Bea Benaderet. Take a look at a complete list of the talents who voiced these characters here. I should note that – for me – the series lost some of its steam in its fifth season when The Great Gazoo started appearing. I’m not such a big fan of the alien in Bedrock. Gazoo was exiled to Earth because he created a doomsday machine on his planet. To me that story line is The Flintstones version of jumping the shark, but The Great Gazoo is voiced by favorite Harvey Korman who also voiced several other characters throughout the series’ run.

1960: The Flintstones voices: Fred Flintstone – Alan Reed Wilma Flintstone – Jean Vander Pyl Betty Rubble – Bea Benaderet Barney Rubble – Mel Blanc

As pop culture icons The Flintstones rank among the most recognizable in the world. They are still referenced in television shows and animated series, like The Simpsons and even became the subject of a hit song by The B-52s who recorded a version of the series’ theme song.

The characters in The Flintstones have also been used in the marketing of different products since they first aired. Among these, vitamins, cereal and beer. I can’t resist sharing the following classic commercial, which aired during the series’ first season. Here we see the characters advocating for Winston Cigarettes, the show’s sponsor on ABC. I’m not advocating smoking, by the way.

Testament to the popularity of The Flintstones is the number of Hollywood and television stars that voiced themselves and/or their characters on the show through the years. My favorite episodes are the ones that featured Hollywood stars. I post the examples I could find below, but among the popular personalities that guest-starred on the series were Ed Sullivan, Elizabeth Montgomery, Raymond Burr and Jack Dempsey. Click on each of the following movie star names to watch a clip:

Ann-Margrock

Stoney Curtis

Rock Quarry

Jimmy Darrock

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a clip of my favorite of these, Gary Granite, but here’s his picture from episode 6 of season 1, “The Monster from the Tar Pits”

  Another favorite is when Fred does the “Bedrock Twitch”

My favorite cross-over was when Darren and Samantha Stevens from Bewitched appeared on The Flintstones:

Can you blame me for loving this stuff? When classic greats cross-over into classic greats it’s a mash-up made in heaven.

After The Flintstones’ initial run on ABC concluded the show became even more popular as part of Saturday morning cartoon line-ups and in syndication. That’s when I ran into them. Perhaps nothing illustrates The Flintstones popularity, however, than the number of movie adaptations – both animated and live-action – and the spin-offs it begat starting with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm (1971-1972 and 1975-1976) followed by The Flintstones Comedy Hour (1972-1974) and finally The Flintstones Kids, which appeared in 1986 and ran through 1989.

Without a doubt, The Flintstones is one of the all-time great classic television shows. I put it up there with The Munsters on my list of favorites and I’m sure millions feel just as I do about it. It’s as funny a situation comedy as many consider its live-action counterparts with great scripts and voice acting the likes of which no longer exist. It’s time you revisit this legendary and enjoyable series. I need to spend more time with them myself.

  Hanna-Barbera and The Flintstones This week marks the anniversary of the death of animator, producer William Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001).