#I think too hard about kids anime from the 90s

[nukitan]

Okay so as much as I dislike conflating Pokémon and Digimon, (they’re two shows that just so happen to be in the same genre and I think the comparisons should stop there. The bad faith ones anyway), how great the new Pokémon anime is has made me think about something.

Basically, I feel like Horizons has a lot of elements that I would love to see in a modern season of Digimon and I think the Digimon anime could take a page from their playbook. Which is funny since up until now I’ve always said the reverse.

Full rant bellow the cut to spare your time lines if you don’t want to read my rambles.

I split them into section going into Digimon first and then Pokémon if you want to skip around and don’t care about the other franchise. BUT, I will say that the point of this essay is that Pokémon Horizons is good, the first three seasons of Digimon are good and if you like one you should watch the other.

Anyway.

First I’m going to go into my history with Digimon and what I liked about the classic seasons and what I don’t like so much about the newer ones.

Basically, I love Digimon. Been hyper fixating on it off and on for twenty+ years. I’ve seen every season, subbed and dubbed multiple times, I’ve played a good chunk of the games, I play the TCG, ect.

Something that drew me to the Digimon anime over AniPoke, was the characters and the plot. In the early seasons Digimon tackled lots of difficult issues like divorce, adoption, death, loss, depression, among other things. But still kept a light hearted, feel good air. The characters felt deep and multi-faceted (At least in the sub), and I dare say are better written than some characters from some adult oriented anime out there. And they had cute monsters that evolved into bigger monsters and fought baddie monsters, what wasn’t there to love? The first three or so seasons did a fantastic job juggling characters, plot, cool creature fights, and cute and funny moments between the members of the cast. It never really felt like a commercial compared to contemporaries. It felt like the writers were creating something with soul, it was a story first and ad second. It felt like it had love.

Adventure, 02, and Tamers are my favorites. Bellow are some characters and their arcs I really enjoyed from those seasons, skip if don’t want spoilers.

I love Taichi’s arc of being reckless, and being one track minded to the point where he put all his friends in harms way and Yamato tries to act like this calm and cool lancer type but he’s actually the group heart and sensitive the way they bounce off each other and have conflicts throughout the series is just fantastic.

Ken in 02 and his whole arc of getting over the death of his brother and accepting the consequences of his actions as the Digimon Kaiser. And the way he slowly warms up to the group is so cute. I legit cried when I watched some of his episodes post kaiser as an adult.

Tamers as a whole is an extensional horror trip. Juri’s whole thing with her depression after the death of Leomon, how it related back to her trauma after losing her mom when she was younger, and the way the D-Reaper took advantage of that- I honestly don’t know how this was slipped into a kids show from the early 2000s.

A lot of these shows that started in the 90s and early 2000s were pledged with the “Glorified 20-25 minute toy ad” problem, and Digimon didn’t really seem to have that issue to me. It felt like the creators were putting the story and characters first, and an ad second or third.

The early seasons of Digimon felt like a celebration of childhood and was something that could be enjoyable to kids of all ages and adults alike. I don’t at all get that feeling that I’m watching a baby show when I watch early Digimon. It presents things in simple terms that kids could understand without talking down to its audience. It’s great.

And then the later seasons happened and Digimon forgot what made it great and lost its soul…

Xros wars was where the ball really seemed to drop in my opinion. Sure it still had the epic Kaiju fights but… that’s about it. Gone were the intense character moments and interesting plots. All we had was the special little marry sue of a boy Taiki who could do nothing wrong besides not “TURNING HIS BACK ON SOMEONE uwu”. And there was no overcoming adversity like in the earlier seasons, Taiki would just epically throw his Xros loader into the air and scream away his problems with a “DIGi-XROS!” (Sorry Taiki fans I can’t conceal my venom for this man)

And the monsters were just disappointing too. Like they were clunky and just looked like… toys.

It felt like Digimon had lost what made it tick and started to more closely resemble what I didn’t like about AniPoke, a toy commercial with a sanitized feel.

This continued for the next couple of seasons, only really picking up again in Appmon, but while Appmon is good and had it’s moments (I love the story with Yujin. He and Haru are totally roommates, cousins even), it still doesn’t compare to the heart the first three to five seasons had, imo.

Tri felt like a soulless nostalgia cash grab. Last Kizuna was good, it gave me hope for the anime again just to crush it all away with The Beginning.

I won’t get started on Adventure 2020 or we’ll be here all day. Needless to say it spat in the face of the show it was paying homage to.

Ghost Game got my hopes up, but then the last episode just took a dump on the rest of the show. It was fun, Kiyoshiro and Jellymon specifically were the stars of the show and GulusGammamon was interesting… until he wasn’t. It was fun, had a lot of potential with its horror feel, and was the closest to classic Digimon the modern seasons had been in awhile… at first anyway. It really shat the bed. And my problem with it don’t really relate to it being episodic in nature or anything, that can be done well. The characters just didn’t feel consistent (Especially Ruli) and it didn’t deliver on any of the plot intrigue it tried to stir up.

BUT! Ghost Game at least had… a little bit of heart. It felt like the creators knew their Digimon lore and did a fantastic job incorporating it into the monster of the week. I could really feel the love there.

Also on a side note, I am not just the Digimon equivalent to Gen-Oner, hating on things that are new and fetishizing the old. In fact, before I rewatched all of the seasons around 2020, I didn’t really care for the Adventure or Tamers. But my opinions did a total flip watching everything as an adult.

So, for a quick collection of thoughts before we move on to Pokémon:

What I like in a Digimon season:

1. Good characters with arcs that tackle bigger issues in a way kids can still understand and relate to without feel like they’re being talked down to.

2. Cute moments between members of the cast and their creatures.

3. Fights that feel like they mean something and aren’t just there for cool flashy effects.

4. A feeling of love and care for the franchise that goes beyond just trying to sell me toys and games.

Things I don’t like:

-OP mcs that solve every problem with the gimmick of the given seasons

-Flat, inconsistent characters that don’t feel like they have any agency or reason for doing what they’re doing besides that fact that they do indeed have Digimon.

-Pointless fights that are just there for no other reason than just to show a cool fight

-“BUY ALL OUR GAMES AND TOYS AT YOUR LOCAL HOBBY SHOP”

Okay now Pokémon.

Just like with Digimon here’s a little background with my history with the Pokémon anime

I’ve watched the original Pokémon anime up to Diamond and Pearl as a kid and I watched some of SM and most of Journey’s as an adult, but I’ve never really been big on anipoke.

Like at best it just felt like a cute show I could turn my brain off for and just vibe.

At worst it felt like a hyper sanitized toy/game commercial (Not blaming it, that was the anime’s main purpose after all).

Out of curiosity, I watched the new series. As much as I liked Ash, I really felt like he overstayed his welcome and they should have gotten rid of him and moved on ages ago since it felt like by DP there was nothing interesting to do with the character. The Pokémon world is huge and intresting, there was so much they could have done but Ash kind of felt like he bogged it down and stunted the anime’s growth past a point.

So yeah,I got excited when they finally pulled the plug and focused on a new set of characters so I gave Horizons a watch.

And I love it! It’s got heart, characters with development, a little bit of plot, and it’s cute? Like I was dumbfounded by the fact that a Pokemon anime, that I previously wrote off as just being a glorified ad, could be so good???

And then after thinking about what I liked so much about it, that’s when the topic of this essay hit me: Horizons feels like it has everything I long for in a modern Digimon anime, almost as if they took a page out of classic Digimon’s book. Like I always heard throughout the years that “Digimon had the better anime Pokemon has the better games” But Horizons really turned that on its head.

Let’s revisit my criteria for what I liked about the classic Digimon seasons from the section above to show what I mean. (Light Spoilers for Horizons ahead, though I wont go into specifics)

1. Good characters with arcs that tackle bigger issues in a way kids can still understand and relate to without feel like they’re being talked down to.

Yep. Horizons has that. Like the early seasons of Digimon, Horizons doesn’t just use it’s human characters as a vehicle to show you all the monsters you could catch if you bought the next game from your local shop for the low low price of 60 USD, nope. There feels like theres care there.

While they aren’t fully developed yet, Liko and Dot especially show huge character growth in the first 50 episodes. They focus on their flaws and how the characters overcome them.

Liko is very indecisive at first. She’s socially awkward, she feels like shes just going with the flow, afraid to take that first step to find out what she really wants out of life. Then, she finally does, she makes the decision to follow Friede and the Rising Volttacklers to find her new horizons. It’s great. And she still has lots of growing she can do later both as a trainer and as a character. She’s fantastic for a lead.

I also like how they use Sprigatito’s evolution as stand in for Liko’s growth so far in the series. Early Digimon did that too with the Crests in Adventure and the Bio Merging in Tamers and I always really like monster partners evolving to reflect their human so much, it’s such a good narrative device!

Dot slowly being brought out of her shell by Liko and the others is just- chefs kiss. She goes from being a reclusive shut in to slowly taking interest in the things Liko and co are doing and develops meaningful relationships with them. Her care for her friends and want to be there for them makes her take the first step and is now traveling around Paldea with them! And they went about this in a very well paced way where she still isn’t just magically over all her awkwardness and shut in tendencies yet. She too still has so much room for interesting development later down the road.

The adult characters are interesting too, even though they haven’t really done much yet. They really perfected that found family group of misfits trope that I’m usually pretty sick of. I love them.

And Amethio and the other villains also feel like they’re more than just your cackling evil for evil sake type characters and I’m super excited to see what they do with them!

And as far as the tackling bigger issues point: Though its just conjecture and I might be over thinking things (Though others in the fandom have pointed this out too) there’s definitely the groundwork for it here.

Liko’s family is very hands off and distant. Liko goes away to boarding school at the start of the series, her parents work, and her grandma is a vagabond traveling the world and doesn’t often stay in one place for long.

Liko lacks solid connections and foundation in her life due to her family being so closed off emotionally, which would explains her going with the flow and being unsure of what she really wants to do. She’s lost with no guidance. And it’s not like her family doesn’t love each other, no. They just don’t want to express their feelings for fear of it bogging each other down. They want Liko to be free to do what her heart tells her, but they’re so worried about talking things out that they don’t realize how that freedom has hurt Liko and made her into an anxious mess. (They even kind of hint at this in the second opening)

But yeah, like others have said, I’m not sure if this is on purpose or if they were trying to write Liko’s family to be full of strong women and just kind of accidentally fell into making them all feel too independent and distant from one another. And it would be really cool for the show to go into Liko’s home life more… but I’m not sure it would be on brand for Pokemon to talk about something so heavy. But fingers crossed!

2. Cute moments between members of the cast and their creatures.

Yep! Horizons has got plenty of it. Right now all of the main cast has two Pokemon each and they’re really taking the time to show off each Pokemon and give them a lot of wholesome moments together and with their trainers.

The human character interactions are great too! I really like the blossoming friendship between Liko and Dot (They could be roommates guys!) and the growing rivalry between Friede and Amethio! It’s great!

3. Fights that feel like they mean something and aren’t just there for cool flashy effects.

The fights in Horizons are so cool and well choreographed, but they aren’t just there to look pretty, not at all!

A lot of the fights that take place in the first two arcs are learning experiences for Liko, Roy, and Dot. They learn new strategies, their Pokemon learn new moves, and in the arc that’s airing at the time of writing, they’re learning how to terrestialize too. The fights don’t seem to happen without purpose and always seem like they either teach the characters a lesson about proper ways to be a trainer and even sometimes help them grow as characters too.

And theres even a healthy amount of losses and wins under the character’s belts and they drive home the lesson of “You learn more from a defeat”. I like how heavily they relied on the more experienced Friede at the beginning and they got frustrated from their losses and used it as fuel to want to learn to stand on their own two feet.

The fights are great and don’t just feel like a kid mashing two toys together like some series with battle elements can.

4. A feeling of love and care for the franchise that goes beyond just trying to sell me toys and games.

This is a little harder to explain and is more like a feel than anything. But I can definitely feel an air of care in Horizons that I don’t really see from shows that feel like twenty-three minute ads. The characters and story don’t just feel like they’re trying to sell me something.

While they’re definitely leaning heavy on the Paldea setting right now, it doesn’t feel like a straight adaption of the games. They don’t really do the “creature of the day” or “character of the day” type episodes like I remember seeing in past iterations of Anipoke. Horizons doesn’t have those moments that I feel like the character is looking right at me and saying “Buy Buy Buy”

And, at least so far, there seems to be a love for Pokemon with the way the reference Pokédex entries like with Hatenna being sensitive to strong emotions or what not.

Like I said, this is really more of a personal criteria and some people can be more sensitive to this kind of thing than others. The closest thing I can compare it to is like when you’re eating a meal a loved one made for you versus something you got at a diner or fast food restaurant. You don’t know how to put your finger on it but you can just taste the love… it’s like that with Horizons to me.

So yeah!

If you’ve read this far, thanks for listening to me rant! I’ll try to wrap it up here.

Basically I just really like Horizons. It gives me that same feel as when I was rewatching the classic Digimon seasons a view years ago… And like the way Horizons fixed all of the problems I had with Anipoke as a kid and as an adult is awesome, it really feels like Pokemon Company is making an effort to listen to criticism and better the series… I just really hope the Digimon anime can do the same.

Oh and all of this is just my opinion, if I said something that you don’t agree with about Digimon or Pokémon, I meant no offense and I’m happy to hear your opinions too!

I just want to close this by saying…

Fans of early Digimon, go watch Pokemon Horizons! You wont regret it!

Fans of Horizons go watch (the sub) of the first three or so seasons of Digimon! If you like Horizons and didn’t really click with Ash era Anipoke I think you’ll really have a good time, it’s so good!

I think both series could use more love, so go out there and give them both a watch!

Okay I’ll shut up now, thanks for reading!

[totallyhextra]

People? In MY computer?? It's more likely than you think!

The following is a fanvertisment and is not connected to the show. ****Yet.*** *Also yes, this is the fourth time I'm posting this because TUMBLR WONT LET ME EDIT SPELLING MISTAKES!

ANYWAY,

Once upon a time, back in 1987, Dire Straits put out this music video for “Money for Nothing”, which, as you know, was a song about wanting my MTV. 

The video was made by two guys (Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson) on a very moody computer. After the video went out, these two guys went to a pub:

Ian: “Hey, we should make a whole show like this!”

Gavin: “Dude, making three minutes almost killed us.”

And so it was decided!🎉

The two guys were joined by two other guys (Phil Mitchell and John Grace) and created the Hub, which then became Mainframe Entertainment. They got even more people, and then they all holed up in this hotel.

They were mad lads with a dream: a whole cgi animated show, and they made it happen a whole year before Toy Story!

Behold! ReBoot!

(Yes that fever dream was real)

Now before I get any of this:

Let me lay this down. If you can’t with the animation of the first season because it was CUTTING EDGE IN 1994, you can close your eyes and listen to it. ReBoot wasn’t just a CGI gimmick. The characters are fully developed, the voice actors are peerless, the plot is sharp, and there’s so many easter eggs that you’ll never find them all.

Never

(And yes the episode "Bad Bob" was the actual catalyst for Fury Road. Look it up)

ReBoot is about what life is like in a computer (in the 90s, because it was the 90s) called Mainframe (because of course it is). People are sprites, the guys that look like 1s and 0s are binomes (which represent 1s and 0s). Bad guys are viruses, and the good guy is a Guardian named Bob, who is a certified cinnamon roll.

In the first season the eps are light and self-contained, mainly because there was constant friction between the Mainframe studios and the Board of Standards and Practices.

They still got away with some pretty dark stuff, like Megabyte (virus) making Enzo (the kid) watch his dog get sliced open (dog got away, obviously) , Dot (sprite) have a hallucinatory breakdown, and the fridge horror of realizing the thousands of worm things (nulls) that plunged off a bridge to their death were actually people.

And Hex's (virus

best girl) scary face single-handedly traumatized an entire generation. 🙂

But busting through a window was a no go, because WhAt If tHe cHiLdReN dID iT tOo?

Anyway, halfway through the second season, ABC cut them loose, so they were like, fuck it, we’re going to start going hard. The story shifted from episodic to arcs and things start to get serious.

Third season the show moved to YTV in Canada, which gave no fucks about shielding the innocent children.

So it got DARK

How dark?

The UK refused to show the entire season, so the audience there had to wait until pirated copies made it across the pond to see how it ended.

Also by 1997, the animation was gorgeous. (Best example of third season animation I could think of that didn't have spoilers)

The show was green-lit for a fourth season on Cartoon Network, but halfway through production Warner Bros took over and the same fucking thing happened.

Because Mainframe was halfway done, they decided not to scrap all of it, but knowing they wouldn't be able to finish it correctly, Mainframe stripped anything that would hint at Season Four's true ending, then left what remained on a cliff-hanger of angst.

FOR 22 YEARS

(It's also why the last four eps of season four seem to make no sense)

And so it was.

Other crap happened, the soul left Mainframe, and its animated corpse spat out “The Guardian Code” in 2018. 

But never say die! The year is (almost) 2024, 30 years later. ReBoot shall rise from the dead, because here come the documentary!!

Do you dare see what you’ve been missing?

What the (UK) government doesn’t want you to know?? 

Then come on down to ReBoot!

We got:

Magnificent bastards with sexy voices!

(Tony Jay at his best)

Kickass women who could probably crush your head with their thighs and you’d enjoy it!

Innuendos in a kid's show!

💗 This adorable cinnamon roll!! 💗

Insane third season glow-ups!

YOUR NEW GOD

These guys!

(Gay roller-skating binome is my boi. I named him Jerry)

Nonstop cultural refs (You'll never find them all. Never.)

(There are literally videos dedicated to trying)

So many computer puns!

Body Horror!

Existential Crisis!

HAVE I MENTIONED YOUR NEW GOD?

This is it, folks! The real thing, the gem hidden in the moose-filled forests of Canadia!🌲🌲🌲

Take a trip inside a mid-90’s computer!

See the World Wide Web! (omg):

Witness the original purple Gamecubes that randomly fall from the sky when the owner of the computer (OUR GOOD LORD THE USER) wants to play a game. If it lands on people and they lose, they dissolve into mindless energy leeches, fated to tormented by their former bretheren for all of eternity.

Just like in real life! 🙃

So watch the eps! They on YouTube!

I think they're on Pluto, Hulu, Sling, and Tubi too! Also DVDs for people who have the patience to wait for them!

WATCH! BELIEVE! SUFFER THE SOUL-CRUSHING RAGE OF THE SEASON 4 CLIFF-HANGER!* (come on, its fun!)*

HYPE THE DOC!

The more people hype, the better the chances of actually getting it finished.

NOW SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE!

And now I will leave you with this screenshot from the ep "Painted Windows", where dicks can clearly be seen drawn upon the wall behind the fleeing anthropomorphized television.

(PS: If you heard the clown pic at the top of the page in your head, you're welcome)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

This message is now approved by Gavin Blair! He's an awesome guy. Show him some love on TWITTER (fuck you musk) at @TheRealMrSweary Also, if you want to share this with non-tumblr friends, here is my attempt at a webpage version:

theseventhstarprojects.com/REBOOT.html

[vanessagillings]

Please talk about your favorite animated movies and what makes them special to you! I'm really curious about what you enjoyed about them both in the past and now?

haha, okay you asked!

I LOVE animated movies. My theory on this is that it took me a long time to emotionally relate to most media growing up, where I felt next to nothing watching most movies and shows as a young kid, and didn't relate to books until I was quite a lot older (I read picture books until I was around 10, and then suddenly in middle school, I hopped right to adult novels like 1984 and the entire Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley, ha). But even before I emotionally related to fiction, I really enjoyed watching animation. It was nice to look at, and I enjoyed watching everything move and change. I grew up in the 90's where animated movies were largely 2D, and I spent hours watching and re-watching my favorite movies just studying how the characters moved -- it's definitely a lot of where I got my understanding of human expressions from. But I also think as I got older and started to relate more to fiction, animation was easier to parse emotionally than live action. The body language is clear. The stories are direct and not as forgiving of bad human behavior (I get frustrated sometimes with the defeatism in adult media, that assumes that People Just Act Badly, and that just needs to be accepted). Facial expressions are also exaggerated and more stylized -- think of a single arched eyebrow, for example, an expression that's commonly drawn to express one particular emotion in animation/illustration but which you next to never see on a real human face. My first introduction into serious reading was also manga -- a highly visual medium -- which uses a lot of the same tactics stylistically as western animation: big, expressive faces, bold gestures and big stories. Compare manga with western comics being printed at the time and it's even more obvious to me why I didn't particularly like comics until I was given manga as an option -- and thankfully I lived close to a kinokuniya, so I could spend all my allowance on untranslated books and magazines, which is also where I learned Japanese (もうたくさん忘れてしまいましたけど).

As far as my favorite movies? THAT IS SO HARD. The first animated movie that BLEW MY MIND was The Lion King. I saw it in theaters when I was eight and I was obsessed; it was definitely one of my first special interests. I know that entire movie line by line, frame by frame, and I had the stuffed animals and the trading cards and the clothes (man, was I teased for those clothes!). My other favorite movies as a kid were The Land Before Time, American Tale, and The Secret of NIMH (I was a big Don Bluth fan!) which have left deep impressions on how to approach storytelling for children; I warn you, I go hard on emotions for kids, because I needed that as a kid, and I know I'm not alone. Some of my other favorites are anything Miyazaki but especially Howl's Moving Castle (I relate to Sophie a lot), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (what I watch when I'm In A Mood), Ratatouille (a huge source of echolalia for my husband and me, we often detect nuttiness, let me tell you), Wallace and Gromit and Fantastic Mr Fox, which I watch every fall as an autumnal tradition. Even as an adult who likes live action, too, I still tend to like slightly over the top directors like Wes Anderson and Guy Ritchie, or movies that are highly cinematic like Road to Perdition, which is still one of my favorite films of all time.

In my opinion, animation is a super important medium outside of it being a very beautiful one. I truly believe it helped me access and understand emotion better as a child, and as an adult, it's a massive source of inspiration in my own work 💛

(Sorry for length, but you did ask!)

[stardew-shitposterino]

Stardew Valley Bachelors watching a movie/show with you

Sam:

-Is very excited

-will talk through the entire thing …

-…unless he falls asleep before you can finish it

-prefers action movies or animation , if you are watching that, then he’s all eyes and ears

-thinks movies with complex social commentary and little action are boring

-“I don’t get it, it’s 2 hours of them just talking ?! How is that enjoyable?”

-won’t complain if he can cuddle up to you and play with your hair though

Sebastian:

-likes Sci-Fi movies, but isn’t too into watching movies in general

-won’t be too thrilled to watch a movie as he’d rather play video games than sit there and do nothing for 90 minutes

-will probably scroll on his phone and occasionally comment on something happening

-will end up very invested in the movie regardless, but don’t you think he’ll admit it

-hogs all the snacks, you’re not getting one of those salted pretzels

Elliott:

-LOVES romance movies

-especially historical ones like Jane Austen stories (he loves pride & prejudice)

-but watches almost anything with you

-If you’re watching a movie with bad writing in it, he will complain about it

- will SOB through every heartfelt moment

-will react a bit too intense when the scene gets heated

-yes, he will point out anything he sees as symbolism for something else, no, he doesn’t care that it’s annoying

Harvey:

- someone call a doctor, because he’s in love…with cinema that is

-he doesn’t have a preferred genre, he likes the classics and that can range from 1950s old Hollywood to “newer” adaptations of novels and dramas

-though he has a soft spot for romances , so he will become all mushy and fluttery when you watch one of those 2000s rom coms together

-will definitely sob when the couple has their happy ending, wishing it was him (forgetting you’re married lmfao)

-if you’re watching a movie he already knows, he will info dump on you the entire time

-“did you know that in order for them to film that scene, they had to…”

-if you want to see him scoff all over the place, watch a medical movie/to show with him. He won’t shut up about how bad it is

Shane:

-by himself, he watches gridball on TV

-with others, he likes comedy movies and TV shows, even if they are very trashy…(especially if they are very trashy)

-if you watch some TV show like Love Island, he is all on board running his mouth at the stupidity of the contestants

-buuuut, no matter how much he likes what you’re watching…

-he’s a dad without having kids of his own, ok

-Shane will “rest his eyes” and is gone, take it or leave it

- will probably end up leaning against your shoulder, snoring (…is he…drooling ?!)

-mumbles some funny stuff in his sleep which makes you forget the movie/ show for a minute

Alex:

-like Shane, he loves sports and comedy movies, but also action movies and baking shows

-he watches The Great British Bake-Off with Evelyn, don’t you ever tell that to anyone else

-when you watch a movie or show together, he will cuddle up against you and try his best to stay focused on the TV and not you

-you probably end up doing some Netflix and Chill as this man is extremely horny for you and will make sure it’s reciprocated by rubbing your thigh and kissing you all over

-if you don’t want to, it’s fine, but it will be hard to resist

-if you make it through the entire thing, he will probably have fallen asleep in the middle 🤷🏼‍♀️ he doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to ever finish a movie

[metfell]

What you've said about Michael has opened my eyes to new levels of anguish hitherto untapped! any further thoughts on how this...less than ideal childhood would manifest?? Its always such an interesting thing to incorporate into the baseline of the character I their habits and behaviour and such!!

GLAD YOU ASKED. i mean. obviously this is because he is in fact just a zombie piglin child in canon so its not like beeduo really HAD to be there taking care of him. but what that ends up manifesting as in canon is cbeeduo hardly ever really being there for him. tubbo is there for him more than ranboo is, because ranboo is THOUSANDS of blocks away at the commune. and so i really think it would manifest in michael not really knowing ranboo very well, and i imagine later on once uhm. the.... canon...... ending happened, that ranboo would have a HARD time raising michael on his own, because lets face it tubbo did 90% of the work there. i think it would probably lead to a lot of arguments, and michael missing tubbo a LOT.

i imagine that michael is probably a very independent kid, and i dont know if ranboo would know what to do with that. hed probably take after tubbo a LOT with his personality, which means hes stubborn as all hell and does not like to talk about how hes feeling in any kind of productive way. and its one thing to navigate that with your spouse whos on equal ground to you, and another thing entirely to navigate that with your child, especially one you realize more and more that you barely know. and ranboo is only in their 20's, so i cant even imagine how stressful that would be for both of them.

later on, i think that they would have to come to some sort of compromise and start from scratch entirely. ranboo writes down everything that michael likes, his favorite color. his favorite foods. what he likes to do for fun. and they dont talk that much about tubbo because thats a really sore spot for both of them. michaels bitter, and ranboo because of their memory problems never really stops grieving tubbo in an intense way. honestly i can see later on MICHAEL moving on and ranboo not, and that being a sore spot for them too.

michael is so fascinating because while we dont actually know his direct personality because in canon he... doesnt really have one, we can probably get an understanding of him based on what happened to him. hes most likely got some sort of social anxiety from the isolation growing up, probably tubbos brand of shoving everything down, he has his chicken so he probably would grow very attached to- if not a bunch of animals- his pets as a form of comfort rather than the people around him. there are some different possibilities for the things he enjoys as he grows up, either he tries to connect to ranboo by getting into mining and armor and tools, or he leans into tubbos likes because he mimicked him as a child and builds things, or he resents either or both of those, and becomes the type of player who mainly just explores and stays away from any kind of permanent settlement. i can honestly see him leaving his family and traveling just to get out of snowchester or the greater server. he needs to find himself, and i think neither tubbo nor ranboo grasped that because they were all HE had, but THEY had other people.

[simcardiac-arrested]

BOO!!!!! sillyguy jumpscare

“looks like a raver ancient built him” - my friend

“i am SUCH a fan of how you make all of your fanocs annoying himbos with unnecessary swag” - my other friend

“he’s fresh sans” - like, two people

so — he’s finally here!!! the Basketball!!!! be warned INSANE and MINDBLOWING loredrop below‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ as well as some general trivia about NWB + some more silly doodles

The Ancients, dissatisfied with the very prominent lack of results the Iterator project was bringing, began having doubts. Perhaps they had gone about this the wrong way? After all, the jellyfish that doesn’t try is the one that doesn’t get caught in the net. It seemed they had made their design of the Iterators inherently flawed — they tried too hard to solve the Problem, over and over and over again.

It was time for something new. An alternative.

And so, the idea for the Anti-Iterator project was brought into the world — a whole generation of Iterators that didn’t try. Some called it redundant, some pointless. But it convinced plenty, certainly enough to make that idea a reality, and the plan came into fruition.

No Way Back was the first created; his name was given to him to signify a turning point, a new era of Iterators. One that would bring with it change and, hopefully, finally, a solution.

so anyway NWB did absolutely nothing except talk excessively about the ancients’ fashion and sometimes ask them for their drip clothes for his collection and also make cringefail music. the project was discontinued immediately

NOW!!! TOP 10 GAMER TRIVIA:

- makes the shittiest sounding music possible, sincerely believes it’s peak art. if you don’t think the same way he’ll say You dont get it. You just dont

- fan of fashion, art & history, but in a normal way (unlike pebbles). really wishes he could have a whole wardrobe of clothes like his creators, but they’re all gone now </3 and even back then when they were all still alive they. did not like giving him stuff (they did not like him)

- one of them did give him the nikeys though

- most of his creators deemed him useless and didn’t particularly care for him. however, some of them (usually the kids) liked talking with NWB, and he enjoyed interacting with them too. he kind of misses the ancients even if they were asses

- is an enigma to his local group: he barely sends messages, and when he does it’s wildly off topic, and literally NEVER about work related stuff. occasionally he’ll drop his “bangers” in the groupchat and ask for opinions. unfortunately most of the iterators ignore him because they find him annoying (and useless as well. very ancientcore of them)

- kind of incomprehensible. he just says things

- doesn’t really have a god complex so he’s generally friendly, open-minded and easy going, but if you’re mean to him he’ll go Wow. Not cool, man. and he’ll probably give you a lecture like a 90s PSA

- calls himself a DJ. doesn’t even have a proper DJ name. probably doesn’t even know what a club is

- fan of nature, enjoyer of life. has no friends and no purpose but doesn’t let it get to him. at least he can make the equivalent of cbat 2 and force every iterator in the world to listen to it

- he’s stupid but he’s also really smart because. supercomputer. however he chooses to not use his brain and instead be silly. he thinks it’s funnier that way

- sometimes sends his music to other iterators besides his local group’s. they also ignore him

- you really can’t tell when he’s being ironic or not, and whether he’s really THAT dumb or if he’s just trolling. one thing for sure — he loves to mess with the stuck-up iterators from his local group if they decide to bother him

- if the ancients had any equivalent of the 80s, he would’ve been a very very big fan of it

- loves animals too. would call slugcat “little dude”

leave your thoughts in the COMMENTS below!!! remember to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE and listen to DJNWB on SPOTIFY (suddenly becomes normal) if you have any questions feel free to ask and i will answer. i love this guy he’s my everything

[olivegardenhunter]

The sannin as normal childhood friends who have sleepovers and play games in the forest and bond over liking "gross" animals

anon thank you SO much for this mental image. you have made my very miserable assignment-filled day. I have many thoughts about the sannin and baby sannin being inseparable best friends who were just normal kids make up about 90% of them. here's some hc I have about that (sorry for the massively long post, I'm a yapper at heart)

yes absolutely. I like to think of the sannin as misfits who never fit in anywhere else except with each other. there's so many different reasons for this. we know they became genin at age 6. if this makes them the exception, rather than it being the normal practice for a village in tumultuous times, then this must have meant each of them were prodigies in their own rights in the academy (yes, even Jiraiya I'd say, though I'd suspect his was more a case of recognised potential rather than showing any obvious prodigal talent from the get-go). this is further reinforced by the fact the third hokage became their sensei. I doubt the hokage would've taken up any random group of genin as his students. if this is the case, can you imagine how difficult it must've been for them to make friends with others, their age or otherwise? not only would it be hard to relate to their other peers cause of the age and probably ability gap, but I'd imagine people would've found them downright intimidating! all this, along with all their individual personality which, if their 6 year old selves were anything like their 50 year old selves, would've meant the little baby sannin would not have been anyone's first choice of friends.

so I'd imagine each of them being a bit of loners in the academy. then they get put in a team together. recognise they each stick out like a sore thumb from everyone else, but have all of the above common ground. their personalities are difficult for each to get used to initially, but once they do, these three super super super quickly become absolutely inseperable. to call them family would've been a serious underestimate of their relationship imo.

anyway this is all a long winded way of saying YES they're absolutely those regular childhood best friends who have sleepovers and hang out and play games. I imagine that tsunade grew up with a massive family in a massive loving home. direct contrast to orochimaru who's an orphan and, I imagine jiraiya is an orphan too (hence no canon last name). therefore, the senju compound is typically the designated sleepover venue.

the senju compound has mito, and nawaki, and depending on what your hcs are, would have tsunades parents, and I'd think they'd still effectively live like royalties even if the first and second are dead. (hashirama and tobirama wouldn't be around anymore by the time the three became genin I think, because (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) hiruzen would've already been hokage when he took on the three of them as his students, meaning tobirama would have already passed)

jiraiya and orochimaru just being at awe at the way tsunade lives and just how lively her house is and tsunade is just happy to have kids her age at home with her that just gets her cause her parents always nag her about training and chores, mito still treats her like a baby even though she's already a Shinobi that can take care of herself damn it!, and nawaki is so young he's so boring and sometimes gets annoying. so she always convinces her fellow teammates to come over to her house to practice and train, to babysit nawaki with her, to be the test dummy for try out this new jutsu or technique she's learning, and anything else that she insists she cannot do alone and needs them to be there with her

until suddenly it's already dark and oh her teammates can't possibly walk home all alone at this hour and besides my mum's making dinner and it's your favourite jiraiya and she'd scold me if I didn't offer some to you guys and orochimaru, mito found some sort of old scroll that uncle tobirama wrote about a new jutsu that she wants your thoughts on and besides, we have to meet sensei soooo early tomorrow for our mission and the training ground is closer from my house anyway, and you guys are just trying to get out of the bet we made and that's cheating y'know! and and and suddenly the senju compound just so happen to always have a few sets extra clothes and pyjamas that just so happened to be orochimaru and jiraiya's size and hey oro, raiya, look! it's got toads and snakes! and it matches mine! and the adults always just so happen to have two extra plates set at the table during meals, and the house just so happens to always be stocked up with both her teammate's favourite snacks, and orochimaru and jiraiya can suddenly enter the senju compound at any time of the day, with or without tsunade, and are greeted joyfully by the household's residents who had started nagging at them about training and chores and picking up after themselves, and mito is treating them like babies even though they're fully trained shinobis! and nawaki is being sooo annoying today and damn it, why isn't tsunade home yet? we agreed to train at 3!

(the three of them never quite notice that jiraiya or orochimaru's unannounced visits to the senju compound never trigger any of the seals that are activated by the presence of non-senju, non-family chakra in the compound. they never quite notice that the anbu guards at the front never give jiraiya and orochimaru any of the trouble or scrutiny that any visitors or guests to the senju compound are always subjected to, and the guards merely let them in with a slight bow of their heads, the same way they would to tsunade, or mito, or her parents.)

the only other times the sleepover isn't at tsunade's place is when there's a thunderstorm and orochimaru insists he needs to spend the night at his apartment because he tells them that last time the storm was this bad, lightning had struck a branch that smashed through his apartment that, if he wasn't already there and was even a little slower, would have destroyed the very few things his parents had left him that he so carefully keeps in a chest and he cannot ever take the risk that that would ever happen again he lost his power and his food went bad in his fridge, and c'mon tsu, you know oro not-so-secretly has a fear of thunder! don't you remember what happened last time at that mission where we were camping? we can't possibly let him spend the night alone at his house!

(later on when they're older, they'll come to find that jiraiya's new jonin apartment will become the new designated sleepover venue as jiraiya begins bringing back questionable sake from his missions that they were definitely too young to be having that he could not have possibly obtained that legally, and mito started banning them from playing card games at the senju compound when she noticed her granddaughter's tendency to lose her entire pay packet in a single game was becoming a bit too familiar to her... like a certain husband of hers' gambling habits that she had tried so hard to make sure wouldn't get passed on to the grandchild who the man had unwittingly taught said card games to at the age of 4. jiraiya started to call his apartment the degenerates' club then, much to the other two's dismay. though they couldn't quite protest when he correctly pointed out they were absolutely behaving like degenerates, even if princess tsunade and the leaf's once-in-a-generation prodigy felt like they were above those sort of disreputable behaviour.)

jiraiya and orochimaru fight tooth and nail that the massive forest that makes up the backyard of the compound, created by the shodaime himself of course, is the only reason they choose to hang out with tsunade at the senju compound, because princess tsunade (dammit oro stop calling me that!), the shodaime hokage seemed to have left so many fascinating things in this forest, there's so many secrets to discover. I don't think I've seen any of these species anywhere else in Konoha. I believe the secrets to some of his jutsu or techniques lie in this forest... oro you're such a nerd. and besides, Princess, the snakes here really seem to like oro for some reason and I think the toads are about to make me their king, I'm sure of it! and also, me and oro are the only people who don't find the fact you use the slime from those slugs in your potions or whatever absolutely disgusting, so we're the only friends you have to play in this gigantic forest with in the first place (it's not potions, it's a new medicinal gel I'm creating! and can you two just shut up? hide and seek is supposed to be a SILENT game and right now, you both really suck at it! I can literally locate you without even moving!) ...hey tsu, is mito-sama going to make those cookies she made last time again? she told me yesterday she would cause hiruzen-sensei told her we did a good job on our last mission.

the three of them knew everyone in Konoha had started calling them the 'Hokage's brats' behind their backs. but none of them realised that, particularly among the elders, this didn't seem to just be in reference to their sensei... there were other, more hushed whispers going around that if they had tried to listen to, would've sounded something like the adopted senjus... or lord first and second's legacies...

(these rumours may or may not have started when people started noticing tsunade's parents went from talking about their two children they adored, to their three rascals plus sweet little nawaki. or when mito kept comparing jiraiya's antics and personality to hashirama or orochimaru's brooding nature and hunger for knowledge was like tobirama's, or how tsunade's own hot temper and tenacity but also mischief was like her own's and the many Uzumakis that came before her, and that all three of them together balanced each other the way she, hashirama, and tobirama had. or when hiruzen constantly raves about his students and how much he sees his senseis in each of them and how the will of fire burns so brightly in them that he knew lord first and second would be extremely proud to see. in the end, though tsunade may have been the only one who shared a name with the senju founders, everybody couldn't help but see hashirama and tobirama and everything they had been and everything they had stood for in all three of the legendary sannin.)

[dg-outlaw]

X-Men '97 and the Gambit Ford F-150 Trailer Hitch Clutching

So I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but I wanted to address the stuff I've seen/heard about certain dudes in the "fandom" getting all upset about Gambit's crop top and how it made him seem gay or bi coded, even though in the entire episode he's classic Remy LeBeau from the original 90s series--not too interesting in helping out or doing anything other than what he wants to do, shamelessly flirting with Rogue, and busting everyone else's balls/possibly flirting with them too, but will still jump into the fight when it's time.

Oh, and Gambit was my favorite X-Men character growing up and I'm a cishet male, if that matters. Spoiler alert: It shouldn't.

"Holy Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Batman! It's his belly button."

If that's you, you clearly were too young in the 90s to remember the fashion of the day. The top photo and the ending basketball scene (a references to the comics as well), was soooo 80s/90s. Bishop's got a lime green tank top on and Cyclops' tank top is tucked into his shorts. The animators understood the assignment.

If anything, Remy (above) is rock-n-roll coded more than anything else. Just Google most 80s era rock bands that had songs about partying, sex, hot babes, etc. and you'll see big hair, eyeliner, bright colors, leather pants, jewelry, fishnets, fingerless gloves, and yes... crop tops. Maybe the 80s and 90s were "gay", IDK, but I remember most of my childhood clothes in the 80s and early 90s were some variation of a neon color as was every other kid's regardless of gender.

As mentioned above, he soooo badly wants in Rogue's pants, which possibly eliminates any gay coding, which only leave bi coding if a 90s crop top = being bisexual.

Who. Freakin'. Cares. Say this out loud with me. You can like, love, and enjoy a character without identifying with that character in any way, shape, or form (and that's probably a good thing for some characters). This can mean their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion, morality, or anything else about them. Yes, we can bring in the Punisher debate and how military and law enforcement appropriated the Punisher logo as their badge of honor and intimidation, and how they cherry-picked traits from that character to signal their toxic masculinity when Frank Castle is not meant to be a patron saint of law enforcement or the military. But it is also possible to just enjoy a character without making that character your identity. You can enjoy their characterization, storylines, or even something as simple as their costume, superpowers, or where they're from because you were born or grew up there too.

As mentioned above, Gambit was my favorite character growing up when I first got into X-Men, mostly thanks to this series, and he and I are very different. To me, Gambit was the cool, confident guy that I wasn't. He also wasn't Cyclops or Wolverine.

As a kid, most kids wanted to be Wolverine when playing X-Men on the playground because he had the claws and the healing factor. To us, he was OP which fit in with the whole childish argument of big, bigger, biggest, and finally infinity whatever... until someone busted out with the infinity times infinity argument. Also, there was no real internet and comics weren't readily accessible, so most of the knowledge at that time was from the show and limited comics one might've had. Plus, I think the whole Magneto pulls the adamantium from Wolverine's body storyline hadn't happened yet so yeah, that would've been a good game changer on the playground.

Anyway, outside of Batman, I was never a fan of the "popular" thing growing up and often preferred more underdog characters, teams, and things. Also, due to self-esteem issues I always felt less than, so while I liked Wolverine it was hard for him to be my favorite since he was everyone else's and I felt like I wasn't cool enough to like him. Cyclops on the other hand was the clean cut boy scout, which also didn't appeal to me because that was also something I didn't relate to. Outside of Beast and Morph, who got sidelined earlier in the series, that then left Gambit. (Note: Bishop wasn't a part of the main group and came later on.) But Gambit also seemed cool to me. He had a cool looking outfit, was agile and knew how to fight (I was into martial arts at the time as well), and could throw explosive cards. He definitely fit the "Rule of cool" in my child brain.

Lastly, and this goes back to point #4 above, it shouldn't matter what a character is like or how they identify. They're fictional and enjoying them as a medium should be fun. They are not you and you are not them, even if you have things in common. That said, I do think it's great when there's representation as well. I don't recall if this was in the OG series, though I seriously doubt it was, and I don't know about main Marvel canon, but I also think it's cool that Morph now has they/them pronouns as seen in the profile credits and Marvel wiki. I'm sure some people have missed this and I'm sure that'll be the next hot-button issue, but whether Gambit is gay, bi, straight, or whatever, he's still one of my favorites and it's why I grabbed this guy when it first came out.

I have more things to say about this first episode and my experience with the X-Men growing up, but I'll save that for other posts as this has gotten long enough already.

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 51 (final episode!)

Yay! I enjoyed this finale. It was basically like the inverse of Adventure where instead of the kids having to go back to the real world it was the digimon having to return to the digital world. It was probably not as emotional as Adventure because the goodbyes were kind of abrupt, but it was close enough. I feel satisfied :^)

Notes:

Exciting title card is exciting. Gotta love it when the final episode switches up the intro for dramatic effect.

Sakuyamon's armor bursts off and her hair streams out when she gives Cyberdramon her power. I was kind of giggling at how fanservicey that was (I wonder if it awakened anything in anyone), but it was nice to see Ruki and Ryo finally cooperating and Ruki respecting Ryo as a teammate.

Lots of flowing hair in this episode: Sakuyamon, Ruki and Juri all get this treatment. Honestly it kinda made Ruki and Juri look really similar in my screenshots (see below), whoops. Other than that, they looked nice.

They probably just look more similar than normal here because of Juri's serious expression.

Nice of the holy beasts to show up and help, but they barely showed them (you could only see them fading into the distance). I wish they had the budget to animate them more up close because then their heroic moment would have had more oomph.

Why did Juri suddenly have 90s anime eyes in that one scene? She looked so cute lol (Culumon too)

Nice to see the less powerful, more defensive digimon save the day in this with Culumon using a barrier on Juri and then MarineAngemon doing the same for everyone to get them out of the D-Reaper bubble.

I laughed out loud when the goddess monster moaned it's way into the pit. Why was that so goofy sounding? Totally took away any cool-factor for that thing

Now that I think about it, when MarineAngemon saves the day, Hirokazu, Guardromon, and Lopmon did not need to be there. Guess they just wanted to participate haha

Poor Jian and Terriermon have to spin super hard to revert the D-Reapers power. The little "momantai" with swirling eyes was super cute.

It's revealed that part of sealing the digital world and real world connection means that all the partner digimon have to go back to the digital world, but first they revert to babies! Omg the baby digimon were so cuuuute ;w; Guilmon was a lil bean and hearing the super-serious Renamon's baby voice was great too.

We got a cheesy "Primary colors' insert song that I'm guessing was sung by the VAs, looking forward to giving that a closer listen.

It's interesting to think about what having digimon in the real world would even mean if there are no threats. They just hang out slice of life style? Are there any mon shows like that where there's no fighting? Sounds cute but it probably wouldn't sell as many toys lol.

This poor background child with huge ears:

I was like "gah! Why is there an elf in their class??"

Glad they didn't end with a silly "and then 20 years later they had all the babies" epilogue. Open-ended is best. Good for the imagination and good for the franchise if they ever want to do more with these characters.

All in all, this was a good kids show. It didn't blow me away or anything, but it was probably stronger than 02 at least. Since no one talks about the other series I can only assume it's all downhill from here -cries- Nah, JK. I'm looking forward to checking out everything else. But first, video game and manga time baby! :D

[multifandomenjoyerr]

haii :3 i didn't see naruto in your fandoms list, but i was wondering if you could do some cg! head canons of kakashi hatake? only if you want to, no pressure ofc ;p

🦗 kakashi hatake agere Headcanons 🦋

Most definitely! I love Naruto so much (it's nostalgic so I 100% have to write this one)

(◡ ◡ ✦) : the most chill caregiver ever. You can never get to this dude if you tried to scare him. (Though he will put on an act to make you happy)

(◡ ◡ ✦) : he has troubles when it comes to physical affection. Just in general he has troubles understanding social cues and your needs. He's really trying though trust me

(◡ ◡ ✦) : when it does come to physical affection he's good at keeping you in a cuddle position. He loves having you between his legs and his arms wrapped around you while you do your thing. Who knows, maybe he'll even end up falling asleep like that

(◡ ◡ ✦) : (literally it's the only thing he's good at when it comes to touch)

(◡ ◡ ✦) : 90% of the time he'll keep you on his shoulders or on his back. Getting yourself an endless cycle of piggyback rides! Ain't that fun?

(◡ ◡ ✦) : not good with petnames either, but he once called you "Kid" and it kinda just stuck with him

(◡ ◡ ✦) : spite being a chill caregiver he can be Mr Grumpy pants at times. Just give him a stuffed animal to cuddle with, he'll settle back down immediately

(◡ ◡ ✦) : if you were to dress him up, he'd feel embarrassed. Mostly because he doesn't like to take off his mask.

(◡ ◡ ✦): otherwise if you were to let him to keep his mask on he'd be more than grateful. You might even get a smile from him.. even if you can't see it

(◡ ◡ ✦): autistic caregiver 100%. He stims his hands and usually does a lil spinny™. when upset his stimmies can be turned into table slams or knocking against the walls (he tries hard not to do it in front of you-) even if he can't control them

(◡ ◡ ✦) : may not show it but he cares deeply about you. This shows when he ends up getting upset he puts your needs before his and sometimes takes you special places when you do something you're proud of! (Getting chores done, getting through school/work, etc)

(◡ ◡ ✦) : He hisses at anyone he doesn't like very well who tries to get close to you (headcanon because I hiss at people too. (Stim I think idk lmao). He's also protective over you, and get extremely tempered if you're in danger or you aren't near him. He gets anxious and angry when he isn't near you. He gets worried... Alot

(◡ ◡ ✦) : he doesn't trust Might Guy with you. He fears he might be too rough with you or make you cry

(◡ ◡ ✦) : oh by the way, anyone who even dares to make you cry he will make them cry next

(◡ ◡ ✦) : matching pup and shark onsies.... 🐕🦈

EEEEK I LOVED WRITING THIS SO MUCH! I hope it turned out good!

[homo-rashi]

Lost Connection (omorashi Soulbound A.U)

Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Chapter 1: Binding Light

Word Count: 7,891 (Ongoing)

Summery:

Bakugo and Midoriya get hit by a quirk that binds them to one another physical and mentally. Not being about to be more than a meter away from his Childhood best friends, turned Rival. Bakugou learns alot about himself, and the world he thought he had figured out.

An Omorashi filled story of two idiots learning how to navigate the world sharing their every thought, feeling and emotion!

Read it on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55597111

Quirk related accidents in a world where 90% of the population has a quirk is nothing new. Whether it's a kid with a new quirk who has yet to grasp how to control it, or a quirk that oftentimes overpowers its users due to intense emotions, it happens. 

So when Bakugo Katsuki is on a mock-patrol with Izuku Midoriya, or Deku, as he prefers to refer to the nerd, and gets blinded by a flash of light coming from the woman they just saved from two aggressive men, he isn’t surprised. 

Katsuki kept up his professional appearance and dealt with the police while the nerd calmed the woman down and helped her over to the paramedic who arrived on scene to make sure no harm came to her, standard hero stuff. The woman was too distraught to explain what her quirk was when Katsuki was initially hit with the blast, but he felt normal so he left her with Deku, not thinking much of it. 

“Oh my–I’m so sorry!” Another flash of light from the back of the ambulance caught Katsuki’s attention, He waved off the officer who was just asking him question in circles at this point to go over and investigate what the hell is going on, 

“It’s okay! I’m Fine, see!” Katsuki walks in to Deku standing beside the woman, trying and seemingly failing to comforter her, 

“Oi, What is your quirk and why do you have such little control over it?” Katsuki cuts in, needing answers, 

“Kacchan—” Deku takes a step forward towards Katsuki but the woman cuts him off, 

“I-I have control over my quirk, but once I a-activate it once, it's hard to not complete the connection.” 

“Connection?” Deku’s attention falls from Katsuki back to the woman. He can see the familiar sparkle in the nerd eye at the idea of getting to learn about a quirk. Katsuki can already imagine the mumble filled walk back to school he is going to succumb to. 

“My quick is called Link-click, I can connect two people's emotions, feelings and senses and well, physical bodies pretty much.” The woman explains, seeming more calmed now than before, Katsuki thinks for a moment, the realization hitting him suddenly that his arm mildly aches and there is slight stabbing pain coming from above his left eyebrows. Sure enough, he looks over at Deku and the bastard has a small, bleeding but above his left brow. 

“You connected me to this fuckin’ nerd?” Katsuki asks the woman, 

“Not on purpose! I s-sware.”  

“Well no shit—” Deku cuts Katsuki off, 

“Do you know if the effects of your quirk are reversible?” Deku cuts Katsuki off, He huffs in annoyance and crosses his arms over his chest, trying to ignore the mild ache in them. 

“Uhm, no…It's not reversible—But it wears off eventually.” 

“Eventually—” 

“Kacchan, Calm down—” 

“Define Eventually, Bit-” 

“Kacchan!” 

“M-my quirk isn't very useful, so I’ve only ever used it a handful of times. One time it lasted a week, the other times, a month…or two…” The woman avoids making eye contact with Katsuki, who is visibly fuming at this point. 

“You–Come.” Katsuki grabs Deku by the arm, losing his grip slightly when he feels the pressure of his own grasp on his arm as well, 

“Kacchan, Wait! We have to stay until the scene is cleared–” Deku protests, but Katsuki keeps pulling him down the street. 

“We talked to the cops and the bitch is fine.” 

“Kacchan! You can’t call civilians the b-word, that's not very hero-like.” Deku activated his quirk, grounding his heels into the cement. Katsuki gets pulled to an abrupt stop. 

“You’re a third year hero student and you can’t even say Bitch? Tsk.” Katsuki sucks his teeth and continues on, with or without stupid Deku. He has to get to U.A before Aizawa-sensei leaves for the day and only pray his erasure can break this stupid connection. 

Katsuki only manages to get a few feet away from abruptly stopping, but not of his own free will. The ground suddenly felt like a treadmill under his feet, his steps taking him no farther.  

“What the fuck?” Katsuki takes a step backward, finding he actually is able to move. He turns to look at Deku who has that same sparkle in his eyes. 

“I think you’re like, physically tethered to me…” He says under his breath, Katsuki can already see the cogs turning in his head.

“Try running the other way, dipshit.” Katsuki offers up and sure enough, Deku manages to get a few feet away before he stops, legs moving but no longer creating distance between the two of them. 

“I’d say that like what, one and a half meters…maybe two?” Deku says, thinking out loud. 

“No fuckin way i’m stuck being this close to you for god knows how long.” Katsuki walks back over to Deku, closing the short distance between them and grabs his arm again, Deku goes oddly quiet and follows Katsuki without a fight this time. The get about halfway back to the school before either one of them speaks, 

“W-what are you afraid of?” Deku asks, stirring Katsuki from his concentration from just getting home. 

“Hah?” Katsuki asks, not looking toward the green-haired nerd. 

“When you realized we were going to be stuck together, I felt it. You were scared, or more like—” Deku hesitates, “terrified.” 

“I’m not fuckin’ afraid of anything.” Katsuki says, clenching his jaw, picking up his pace slightly. 

“I know what I felt, Kacchan.” Deku says, with that all-knowing tone that Katsuki has always hated. But he doesn’t respond, or argue because everytime he has heard that familiar tone in Deku’s voice in the past, the nerd has always been right, as much as Katsuki would never admit. 

__________________________________________

“Well?” Aizawa says, letting his hair fall from its hovering state, eyes falling back to their relaxed position, the glowing red fading back to dark brown. 

“N-nope we are still connected.” Deku says, with a shakiness to his voice that wasn't there an hour ago.

“How the fuck can you tell? Here-” Katsuki reaches out and flicks Deku in the forehead, and sure enough, the similar stinging feeling is mirrored on his own. 

“Fuck, Ouch!” He grabs his forehead and rubs it for a moment, but it does nothing to ease the stinging. He grabs Deku’s hand and forces the nerd to rub his own forehead, and sure enough Katsuki can feel the pain subsiding. Both there attention it drawn back to their teacher who lets out a long sigh, 

“Look, If I can't erase it then you two are gonna have to wait out the effect of the quirk, and from what you told me it seems like we might have to arrange some things.” Aizawa say, Katsuki looks between him and Deku, hating that this is his reality. 

“You said you can’t be more than a few meters away from each other, so we will have to move a spare bed into one of your dorms–” 

“Like hell I'm sleeping in Deku’s room, creepy ass All-might posters staring down at me.” Katsuki scoffs, 

“You are also excused from patrol as well as any physical hero-training until this quirk wears off.” Aizawa says, Katsuki goes to speak up, complain about missing, for a far as they know, a month of Hero training, but he is interrupted by Deku gasping– 

Both Aizawa and Katsuki turn their attention to the boy, who is now standing, legs crossed awkwardly in the middle of Aizawa’s office. 

“Problem Child, do you need to use the restroom?” Aizawa asks, slowly, clearly shocked by the display in front of him

“Y-yes…sensei.” Deku says, but his word see so, unsure, Katsuki scoffs, 

“Tsk–Can’t even tell if you need to piss? I swear I remember Auntie Inko potty training you, but I guess I’m remembering wrong–” 

“Bakugo, Please take Midoriya to the restroom, I’ll meet you at your dorms once I'm finished here and help make those arrangements.” Aizawa cuts Katsuki off. 

“Fine.” Katsuki rolls his eyes and grabs Deku by the arm again, not waiting to risk having him fall behind enough that Katsuki is stopped in his tracks again. It feels fucking weird and he would like to avoid it. 

“Kaachan, wait! Not so fast!” Deku protests, “I have to g-go!” Katsuki stops and looks at Deku, the nerd actually has a hand shoved between his legs like a child. An unfamiliar sight actually, considering as kids, Deku was rarely the one caught in a ‘potty emergency’ out of the two of them. 

“Jesus Christ! Why the fuck didn’t you go before now? We are supposed to be on patrol. What would you do if you had to fight some asshole villain like this?” 

“I did go! right before we heard the girl who connected us scream, remember? that's why we stopped at Family Mart in the first place!” Deku says, although his words are rushed and more frantic. Katsuki can almost feel a jitter in his stomach, almost like nerves…

“Oh shit, you’re freaking out…” Katsuki realizes he is feeling Deku’s emotions, like the nerd felt his earlier, The anxious feeling simmering just below the surface makes Katsuki angry and uncomfortable.

“Of fu–freaking course I am! I’m gonna pee my pants!” Deku shouts. He actually shouts and– 

“Did you almost just…say Fuck? You, Deku, the perfect, polite ray of fucking sunshine?” Katsuki doesn’t even try to hold back the smirk that crawl across his face. 

“No! I mean—I-I think that was your anger–ah–” Deku wiggles in place for a moment before Katsuki feels his arm being grabbed, “We can figure that out later, after we get to the b-bathroom.” 

Katsuki lets himself be dragged, trying to stifle his laughs at the way Deku is waddling and walking down the hall. The bathroom comes into view and Katsuki feels Deku pick up the pace. 

“I’ll wait here. I’m not fucking listening to you take a piss.” Katsuki plants his feet outside the door, Deku has one hand on the door, and the other between his legs. He hesitates for a moment looking between Katsuki and the door and disappears out of sight. 

A few seconds later and the door rapidly swings open, “Kaachan, I can’t reach!” Deku is stepping from foot to foot in the doorway, “You have to come in here.” Deku grabs his arm, the familiar lighting from his quirk flashing around him, Katsuki gets pulled into the bathroom before he can protest.

“Wait! Abso-fucking-ltly not. I’m not your babysitter taking you to go potty, Deku and I don’t want to see your dick!” Katsuki grinds his heels into the ground to avoid going any further into the bathroom. 

“Kacchan--come on, just move closer to the urinals…I’m not asking you to go into the stall with me! A-And you don’t have to…look! ” Deku begs, a blush spreading across his cheeks at the last part. Katsuki averts his eyes immediately, looking over at the row of urinals, reasoning the nerd has a point. The urinals are the one acceptable place to stand next to someone with their dick out.

“tsk- Fine, just because I don’t wanna have to deal with you smelling like piss while you’re connected to me.” Katsuki takes two large steps over towards the urinals and averts his eyes. 

He hears the frantic steps of Deku once he is in front of the urinal followed by the sound of a zipper being yanked down with enough force Katsuki would bet money the nerd broke it. 

Katsuki expects the next sound to be nerd finally getting what he clearly needed so fucking badly, but the room goes silent. 

“hgggnn-“ 

“Whats fucking wrong now?!” Katsuki asks, still averting his eyes, 

“I can’t go!” Deku squeaks back, 

“Hah? Why not?” Katsuki tries to keep his anger at bay, knowing the idiot will be able to feel it. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he can evoke such…strong emotions from him. 

“I don’t know! I still feel like the pee is right at the tip about to come out, like- I have to go, but nothing is coming out.” Deku explains. Katsuki could live without so much detail about the Nerds bladder. “Maybe it's—“ Deku pauses, 

“What? Spit it out. I don’t wanna spend all afternoon in the fucking shitter, Deku.” Katsuki taps his foot impatiently. 

“Maybe it's because y-your here…” Deku says and Katsuki’s foot abruptly stops tapping. 

He thinks about the logistics of…that. Deku can’t be…shy? around him? They have known each other since they were brats. Hell, Katsuki can vaguely remember Auntie Inko changing the nerd's diaper right in front of him, as the old hag did to him. 

Not to mention, the two were no strangers to using nature as their restroom as kids. The thought process being it was better than running home just to pee and risk either of their moms making them stay in since they were already home. 

Sure…Katsuki knows things between them have changed since they were kids. For better or for worse, Mostly worse from Katsuki participation in their ‘friendship’ if you can even call it that but, being so…afraid? Is Deku so afraid of him that he can’t relax enough to take a damn piss. 

“H-hey calm down-“ Katsuki jumps out of his train of thought with a hand on his shoulder, “I can feel you worrying, I-I’m fine…” Katsuki takes a moment to look Deku over, his hand that isn’t on his shoulder is between his legs, pants back up and zipper springily in-tact. 

“Sure you are.” Katsuki scoffs, but wastes no time getting the hell out of there,  He heads over to the sink and pauses, gesturing for Deku to hurry the fuck up. 

“uh- I don’t think I can—“ Deku wiggles a little on the spot, “the water might—” 

“Nasty ass, Fine, But you’re washing your hands after we figure out a way for you to piss…” Water? An idea pops into Katsuki’s head. 

He doesn’t bother grabbing Deku’s arm on the way out, instead choosing to match whatever pace the nerd can manage to walk, or more so waddle out of the bathroom, the school and to the dorms. 

                         __________________________________________ 

Katsuki manages to get the Nerd up to their floor before any of the annoying extras have a chance to corner them and ask them anything. He really only has the patience (and barely that) to handle Deku right now. 

Katsuki on instinct heads to his room. He opens the door and hesitantly lets Deku inside. Usually, nobody is allowed inside of his room, but he is making an exception due to the circumstance and the fact that stepping foot in Deku’s room sounds far worse than letting the Nerd inside his at the moment. 

“um, K-kacchan, I still have to…go-” Deku says, worry evident in his voice, as well as in Katsuki’s stomach. He could feel Deku’s worry getting stronger and stronger the closer they got to his room. 

“Calm down, Idiot. I’m just getting some clothes.” 

“C-clothes?” Deku asks, Katsuki looks up at the teen, standing as far away as the quirk permits him, still in the doorway. 

“Yes? We just finished patrol, I gotta shower.” Katsuki rolls his eyes, hoping he doesn’t have to spell out exactly why he is choosing to shower right now of all times. 

“B-but—“ Deku whimpers and Katsuki has to physically stop himself from turning around and blasting Deku out the door, quirk be damned.

“Yes. you have to fuckin’ piss! And the shower stalls are side by side—“ Katsuki says, slowly, as if talking to a baby or a fucking dog. The room is silent for a moment,

“heh-“ Katsuki looks up from his underwear drawers to see a small smirk on Deku’s face, one that doesn’t at all match the potty dance he is currently doing. 

“What’s so fuckin’ funny?” Katsuki snatches up a pair of boxers and some black sweatpants. 

“Kaachan just admitted he pees in the shower.” Deku teases. Katsuki's eyes widen only slightly before he composes himself. 

He didn’t even think twice about that little fact. It’s so…normal for him to just piss in the showers. Especially because the showers are in a whole other room than the toilets in the communal space, it’s just easier.

In fact, Katsuki can’t remember the last time he has actually used the restrooms in the dorms. His days are usually consistent enough that he has never found the need to break his current routine. 

He always showers first thing in the morning because his sweat is fucking explosive and not using his quirk all night makes him extra sweaty. He never stops to take a piss first, always just opting to go in the shower. 

Then he eats breakfast and whatever, avoids people in the common room and goes to class. He never asks to go during class, today being the one time he actually has stepped foot inside the bathroom located in the actual school building. 

He finds it easy enough to wait until he has to get changed for Hero training after regular classes are over. He changes into his gym or sometimes hero costume and pisses in the gym bathroom. 

Then, because he is sweaty after he goes back to the dorms, showers and usually pisses one last time, because he stays hydrated while using his quirk and then goes to sleep.

Of course there have been times when he was not at school and had to pee, like during mock-patrol or on the off chance he went somewhere with Kirishima, But, generally, he likes to avoid public restrooms, or more so, having people know he needs to pee. 

“So fucking what, your about to piss in the god damn shower weather you like it or not.” Katsuki grabs his clothes, turning to look at Deku- “You wanna go get clothes?” 

“Uhhh-” Deku looks at Katsuki then at the door, then back again and few times, Katsuki can feel his uncertainty, like an afterthought in the back of his mind, ‘weird’ 

“If you can’t fuckin wait long enough to go to your room like, three doors down you can borrow these.” Katsuki grabs his oldest pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and tosses it at Deku, 

“What ab-” 

“I’m not lending you boxers, so shut the fuck up and lets go.” Katsuki turns and walks out his door, Deku follows close behind him. 

Katsuki thanks god himself (all-might) for the way the shower stalls are set up in the communal area. There is only a thin tile wall separating the stalls. Meaning, in the case two people are connected by a quirk that doesn’t let them get more than a meter apart, they can still at least shower alone. 

“I’m getting undressed inside the stall, do whatever you want just make sure to fuckin piss.” Katsuki slides the curtain shut, waiting no time, throwing his hero costume off and tossing it outside onto one of the benches to deal with after. 

He turns on the hot water and settles under the spray, feeling finally a little less high strung from patrol. The water runs over his body and down his legs. He rubs his hands on his shoulders and down to his abdomen just enjoying the warmth and the steam. 

His, or rather Deku’s sore arms start to feel less tense and Katsuki figures the Nerd must have finally stepped under the warm water in his shower stall as well. 

“Kaachannnnn! I still can’t go!” He heard Deku’s whiney voice echo through the, thankfully, vacant bathroom. 

“Tough shit, try harder.” Katsuki yells back, relaxing into his shower routine. He watches his hair first and rinses it out, then conditioner because he doesn’t fuck with threat 5-in-1 shit Kirishim and Sero sware by. 

Before he washes his body, Katsuki spreads his legs ever so slightly and relaxes completely, draining his bladder from the last half of the day. It's always an amazing feeling to finally be empty– 

“Oh–” Katsuki hears Deku squeak but ignore it, closing his eyes and continuing to empty his bladder, “Kaachan…Are you peeing right now?” 

And his eyes fly open, his stream stopping before it ended, “What the actual fuck Deku! What’s it to you?!” He shouts, or rather screams because, why? Why does he have to be stuck with a boundaryless ass weirdo like Deku. 

“Oh my god….” Deku seemingly ignored his question, “Do it again.” if Katsuki wasn't naked he would break through the wall and strangle Deku right now, 

“As if. I don’t need to go anymore.” Katsuki reaches for his body wash, deciding if Deku is going to be a creep he can’t let his guard down. 

“Yes you do, I can feel it.” Katsuki arm freezes mid-are, 

“What?” 

“I knew I didn’t need to pee! It was you! I was feeling your bladder capacity…But–Kaachan! Why didn’t you tell me you had to go as well?” Katsuki takes a second to gather himself, submitting this once to humor the nerd, considering this is about the quirk he is also being affected by. 

“So…You knew I was peeing because…” 

“Because I don’t really have to go anymore, but I didn’t pee…You did.” Katsuki processes that information for a second. It makes sense if he can feel the chronic ache from Deku breaking his arms so many times in their first year, it isn’t too crazy to fathom Deku can feel pain elsewhere…But Katsuki barley would say he was desperate to take a damn piss, if anything, it’s early. He wouldn't be taking his night shower, and in turn pissing for like, four more hours…

“Deku…Do your arms hurt?” Katsuki asks, testing his theory, 

“Um- no, Not particularly.” Deku says, Katsuki sense no dishonesty in his answer,  

“Fuck. It’s because you're used to it.” Katsuki groans, leaning forward and letting the water run over his face, 

“Do your arms hurt?” Deku asks back, he can tell without looking at him that his eyes are sparkling. 

“Yes, because i’m not fucking used to feeling like ive broken my arms a hundred times, just like you, apparently, aren’t used to not pissing a hundred times a day.” Katsuki sucks his teeth, realizing how much more annoying this quirk is. 

“I-I pee a reasonable amount of times a day.” Deku argues but Katsuki is done thinking about this. 

“Just shut up and wash your balls.” Katsuki grabs his body wash, 

“W-wait…Can you please finish going?” Katsuki doesn’t say anything, “It might not feel l-like alot if left for you b-but….i have smallbladderokay.” 

Katsuki almost misses that last part, clearly, the Nerd is actually ashamed about something, or atleast embarrassed a little. 

“Fine.” Katsuki offers, he prepares himself to go once again, but is hesitant because he now knows the nerd will be able to tell whenever he goes. He will feel relief. 

Katsuki shakes his head and buckles down. He lets loose, only a stream of clear pee trails down his legs and into the drain, not lasting more than fifteen seconds. 

“T-thanks Kaachan.” Katsuki cheese flush with embarrassment. 

 __________________________________________

“I already told you, it's not happening.” Katsuki said, looking back at Deku, walking down the hallway towards his (their) dorm room, towels still draped over each of their shoulders. 

“B-but, It would only take five minutes, Kaachan!” Deku protested, “you really want me sleeping next to you going commando.” Katsuki stopped in his tracks, 

“You will be sleeping across the room in a separate bed, facing away from me and keeping your dumbass mouth shut. I want to forget you’re even there.” Katsuki explained. His nighttime routine is his one and only time to relax and unwind. Deku being there is throwing him off. The least the nerd can do is make this as comfortable as possible for him, all things considered. 

“What about my toothbrush? And my school stuff?” Deku pushed, “I need to go back to my dorm, just once.” To katsuki it almost seemed like Deku was one step away from getting down on his knees and begging…Katsuki isn’t sure how that makes him feel. 

“Fine but afte—” 

“Problem children.” Katsuki’s dorm comes into view, Aizawa is standing outside of it, a large box accompanying him. 

“Sensei!” Deku picked up his pace to greet the tired looking man, in turn, making Katsuki have to walk a little faster. The two quickly help Aizawa get the box into the room and unpack it. 

“The fuck is this?” Katsuki looks down at the lump of cloth on his floor. 

“Language—it's a futon, or Midoriya bed for the duration of his stay in your dorm.”  Aizawa explains, 

“Oh…so traditional. Todoroki would be enthused….” Deku starts mumbling about Half and Half while Katsuki grabs the floor bed and drags it on the opposite side of the room as his bed. 

“Oi, come over here.” Katsuki calls for Deku, He obliges. Katsku walks over to his bed and lays down, not feeling pulled back or tethered and comfortable with the distance between them, he relaxes slightly. 

“Now, for some rules.” Aizawa moves to lean against the door frame, “With this quirk you share not only emotions and a physical connection, but pain receptors as well. I will not have you, Bakugo, inflicting any pain on yourself in order to harm Midoriya. Same goes the opposite way as well.” 

Katsuki scoffs, “as if I’d hurt myself just to hurt him, he isn’t worth it.” 

“Furthermore,” Aizawa gives Bakugo that look. That look that for some reason always makes his chest tight, the same look All-might has given him before, but less painful. “I got you each a pair of these from my personal stash–” Aizawa pulls out two pairs of corded ear plugs. 

“If anything, they are to be used for personal conversations that need to take place, since you two can’t very well have privacy at the moment. I hope you will respect each other's wishes when requesting privacy.” Katsuki takes the ear plugs, discarding them on his bedside table. 

“Sensei—” The nerds hand shoots up, “I-um, My thing with hounddog sensei…” Katsuki look over at Deku, eyes bouncing awkwardly around his room, the nervous feeling twiddling in his gut again, 

“Hm,” Aziawa pauses, clearly thinking, “It’s up to you if you want to continue under these circumstances, I would highly suggest it, considering…I’ll leave you two too figure that out on your own—” Aizawa turns to leave, pausing before he close the door, 

“No…funny business.” Aizawa murmurs, closing the door. Katsuki immediately looks over at Deku, squinting his eyes in skepticism. 

“Why do you have a thing with the school security?” He asks, 

“Ah…it’s nothing you need to worry about Kaachan.” Deku says, in an almost dismissive tone. 

“The fuck thats supposed to mean?” Katsuki puts up an angry front, really feeling annoyed at the fact that anything about Deku could still be considered a secret between the two of them. Because for god sake, Katsuki knows about One for All, nothing can be as big of a secret as that. 

“Just leave it, please?” Deku sits down on his futon, eyes looking around the room once again. 

“Tsk.” Katsuki takes the towel from his shoulder and drapes it off the back of his rolling chair, grabbing a pair of slippers from inside his wardrobe. Thankfully, he can move around his room without issues when Deku is sitting on his Futon. One of the only pros of how small the damn dorms are at this rich ass school. 

“Let’s go eat, nerd.” Katsuki grabs another pair of slippers from his closet and chucks them in his general direction. 

 __________________________________________

“Are you fuckin’ allergic to anything?” Katsuki asks as he opens the fridge, a few people are studying, or otherwise lounging in the common room, but thank fuck its none of the more loud-mouthed extras. 

Tokoyami is sitting at the table, eating what appears to be a bowl of cereal, while Kota and Sato are sitting watching some nature documentary on the T.V. 

“Uh, j-just shellfish…Why?” Deku asks, taking a seat at the island on one of the stools. Katsuki hopes he can reach the entirety of the kitchen from where Deku is seated. 

“I don’t know how much this quirk works, so I don’t want you going into shock or some shit cause I ate something.” Katsuki explains, looking at the ingredient on the back of the instant curry he bought a few days ago. 

“Oh, Good idea! I’ll have to make sure not to eat any Peanuts.” Deku says, smiling. Katsuki has to look away to hide the nameless expression on his face. Why did the Nerd have to remember his minor peanut allergy? Why did he not know Deku can’t have shellfish? Katsuki  has been cooking for their entire shitty class since their first year, and he is certain he has made something with shrimp, crab for sure…. 

Katsuki makes their curry, dividing it up into two bowls, spicing his serving to his liking, Deku’s, not so much. He remembers from the few times the nerd was over at his house when they were kids, that he doesn’t handle spicy foods very well. His loss. 

“Oi, Nerd, wait–” Katsuki halts Deku with a smirk before he takes his first bite, Katsuki takes a large spoonful of his curry and eats it, watching Deku carefully. 

“W-what?” Deku asks, looking between his curry and Katsuki, 

“Pfh, Nothing. I just wanted to see if you could taste what I eat.” Katsuki assumed not, but with this damn quirk you can never be too sure. 

“I already knew that because I got shampoo in my mouth in the shower and you didn’t say anything.” Deku takes a bite of his curry, “Oh wow! This is delicious! Thank you Kaachan!” Katsuki smirks and turns away, his full attention going to eating. 

Katsuki stays planted in his seat the entire time they eat, casually catching a glimpse of Deku getting up and going into the kitchen for a few seconds every couple minutes. It's only after the fourth time it happens that Katsuki looks up and watches Deku fill up a cup of water and drink it at the sink. 

“You drink a shit ton.” Katsuki comments, 

“I don’t usually, I mean, I stay hydrated but I just feel like I have a thirst that I can’t quench…” the air between them goes silent once again. Katsuki finishes his curry first, opting to do the dishes while Deku finishes, considering he can't go anywhere without him at the moment.

“Kaachan, can you get me another glass of water?” Deku asks, pushing his bowl away. Katsuki rolls his eyes but fishes out two glasses from the cabinet, filling one with water and the other with milk for himself.  As much as he loves spicy food, he still likes to neutralize his insides with milk after intaking such high levels of spice. 

Katsuki takes a few stips of his milk between cleaning Deku’s bowl and putting away leftovers for any extra that don’t want to cook for themselves, 

“Kaachan, do you normally not drink anything with your meals?” Deku asks out of the blue, 

“Hah? I mean, No, It’s bad for digestion.” Katsuki answers honestly, turning around to wipe the counter down where they ate, Deku is memering to himself again, Katsuki only catches the tail end of what he is saying, 

“If I'm thirsty when Kaachan is thirsty but he can't tell, does that mean the weaker of the two senses is overpowered by the other? Is it the same for emotions? What about distance? Could I travel farther away from Kaachan because I'm stronger?”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Katsuki ditches the damp cloth on the counter, palms immediately crackling with anger, 

“I–The water, I was thirty because you were–” Deku goes to explain but Katsuki doesn’t care about there stupid connected sense, 

“Like hell you actually think you are stronger than me!” Katsuki walks over and takes a fist full of Deku’s shirt, or well, his shirt. He doesn’t let off any more explosions unless he wants to ruin his own thing because of Deku. 

“Kaachan…My quirk is basically super strength…” Deku says, hesitantly. 

“I could beat your ass anyday, three times over.” Katsuki shoves Deku in the chest, he stumbles off his barstool slightly, Katsuki ignores the mild thrum on his own chest from the blow. 

“I–We, I know you're strong, but in terms of lifting weight, If we use our quirks, I have the advantage.” Deku explains, but Katsuki won't hear it. Even if he knows the Nerd has a point…He has  All-mights quirk for crying out loud, of course he can bench more than Katsuki himself, he has an explosive quirk, it does nothing to enhance him physically. He would never admit that to Deku, under his dead body. 

“I’m going to bed.” Katsuki abruptly takes off from the kitchen, But is halted in his tracks just outside the kitchen. Katsuki’s heartbeat quickens. 

“Deku, hurry up.” He doesn't look back, He tries to take another step forward, but he can’t. He scrunches his eyes close, trying to will his breathing to slow down, sinking…sewage…his throat closing, breathing ragged and slugedy. 

“It’s only seven…I was supposed to study with Todoroki and Lida tonight.” Katsuki barely hears Deku’s shity voice through his panic. Why is he panicking again? Oh, right He can’t move. 

Muzzles, Quirk canceling handcuffs. Wood, forcing his back straight. T.V camera’s flashing around him, everyone ignoring his screams, Aizawa, Present Mic, All-might—

“Hey–” Katsuki jumps out of his panic, finding his feet able to move again. He looks around only to meet Deku’s worried eyes, “What's wrong?” Deku asks him, in an honest to god earnest tone. 

“Bed.” Katsuki answers as a response. Suddenly exhausted. He hasn't….freaked out because (hell if he would admit to ever having a panic attack) in a long time. Since second year. The sludge villain attack was at this point, the least horrific encounter with villains he has faced. He thought he was over that. And the way the teachers handled things at the sports festival in his first year have been rectified, or well, at least they never bound and gagged him on national T.V again…

“O-okay, but um—I was hoping we could stop by my dorm-” 

“We can get your shitty toothbrush tomorrow.”  Katsuki says, feeling like he is dragging his feet. Lucky said feet are moving so the nerd is actually listening to him for once. 

Deku doesn’t say a word to him the entire elevator ride up, not when Katsuki stops by his room to grab his own tooth brush before heading into the bathroom. The nerd only speaks up once Katsuki is finished with his skincare and dental hygiene (even if he is dead tired he can't have ugly ass skin and yellow teeth) 

“C-can I use the restroom before we go to sleep?” Deku asks, quietly. Katsuki looks between Deku and the row of stalls. He doesn’t have to go at all, and since they are connected Katsuki would feel if Deku had to go, 

“Tsk. Hold it.” Katsuki walks toward the door and doesn’t get stopped in his tracks. He goes back to his dorm, kicking off his slippers and falling into bed. He hears Deku do the same, and the unfamiliar ruffle of the futon in the last thing he hears before he shucks his hearing aids onto his bedside table and promptly passes out. 

__________________________________________

Izuku’s eyes burst open, his immediate surroundings unfamiliar, but one thing's for sure he isn't underground, he isn’t chasing down Kai Chiasaki. Eri is safe and—

“Ahh–mpph-” Izuku slams a hand over his mouth to stifle his shock of realizing where he is and feeling it… His, or, oh god no…Kaachan’s sweatpants he is wearing are cold and wet and sticking to his thighs in a familiar yet long forgotten way. 

“No, no no–please, why didn’t I insist on going before I fell asleep?” Izuku looks down at his lap, cold piss slowly making his presence known by the itchiness creeping up on him. Izuku slumps down in defeat. Who is he kidding, even if he did pee before bed, like he doesn’t every night, this was still a possibility. 

Izuku looks around the room, Kaachan is still dead asleep in his bed, thankfully. Izuku takes a moment to center himself and assess the damage, something he hasn't had to do since his first year at U.A. 

The first thing that makes his breathing pick up is the fact that this is the first time he has wet a Futon. A mattress? He is a pro at cleaning mattresses at this point in his life (much to his dismay) but this? It's basically a giant thick blanket…But Izuku isn't sure it can go in the wash, nor if it would even fit in the communal washing machines on the common floor.

His instinct is to grab his phone and call one of the few people who know about his nighttime issues…All-might, Aizawa-sensei or Lida. He has never had to call them about this before, they just know because of different circumstances. All-might knows because initially, Izuku thought it was maybe a side effect of taking such a strong quirk, but now with having a handle on his quirk and the issues still persisting, they both ruled that out. 

Aizawa-sensei had to know because of the training camp they attended their second year. It was only fair that Izuku gave his teacher a warning that the accommodation beds the school was paying for, probably wouldn’t come away from this without being soiled. Aizawa referred him to Hounddog for therapy when they returned to U.A the next week. 

Hounddog also knows everything…But Izuku would never call him for this sort of thing, not being as close to him as All-might or Aizawa, or rather he is close to him in a therapist way and not this kind of way. 

Hounddog was the one who suggested Izuku start wearing protection to bed in his early months of his second year. They had been working on his nightmares, the source of his bed wetting, but they were seeing no progress and the dog hero just wanted Izuku to be comfortable. It became a normal thing in Izuku’s routine. 

Iida found out by accident…Izuku got careless, or rather, comfortable with him…issues. It was just normal to him at this point. So when Iida knocked on his door asking if he could borrow his graphing calculator late one night, Izuku let him in and told him it was in the drawer of his desk. 

He didn’t specify what drawer and Iida opened the larger drawer on the base of his desk rather than the small one under the face of the desk. The large drawer that Izuku stores his protection in, for lack of a better place to put it. (He often left his wardrobe open because of the mirror inside the door so they would have been in plain sight if he kept them there) 

Iida was of course very understanding once Izuku calmed down and was able to explain why he had a desk drawer full of All-might themed diapers. The engine hero never told anyone, to Izuku’s knowledge, and has even been great at helping Izuku make excuses on why he often declines sleepover requests from their other friends. 

Izuku trusts all of these people, and he would love to be able to call any of them right now, even if so they could just calm him down and talk him through what to do…But his phone is in his room, along with the protection he kept trying to figure out how to subtitle get from his dorm without Katsuku knowing, or seeing or being suspicious at all. 

Because if there is one person in the world Izuku doesn’t want to know about this particular issue of his, It's Kaachan. 

Whether the blonde will ever admit it, the two of them are equals, more or less now. Atleast, way more similarly matched compared to when they were kids, after one of them manifested a quirk and the other…didn’t. 

Kacchan is strong, but so is Izuku. Kacchan has an amazing quirk, so does Izuku now. They have both fought villains, some ending in victory, others not. They have faced death of one's dear, of civilians, or friends, family… But only one of them seems to be struggling with, well, all of it. 

Izuku knows damn well Kacchan doesn’t have weekly therapy sessions with Houndog (even if he thinks he would benefit from them) But that's the difference, Kacchan would benefit from Therapy, sure! It would help him with his anger and constant foul language, but Izuku. It’s different.

He was barely functioning outside of class before Aizawa got him the help he needed. He was putting on a false facade for everyone, while going back to his dorm and suffering in silence. Whether it be from nightmares, flashbacks or other PTSD symptoms. He was debilitatingly stuck in a constant state of fear, while also, forcing himself to move forward, fight villains, Basically encounter the very thing that was causing him stress and anxiety in the first place… 

Anxiety…Izuku swore he felt a the familiar bone chilling, gut wrenching feeling from Kaachan earlier in the kitchen, but such emotions live so deep inside of them, it's hard to tell if it really was a feeling as a result of the quirk, or i just being so close to the explosive boy for so long brough up his old feelings from childhood….

Izuku looks over at the sleeping boy's face and it's peaceful, not a single wrinkle or worry line evident as he rests. It's hard to imagine him falling deep into a nightmare that feels so real you lose control of your bladder.

So yeah, Izuku really didn’t want Kaachan to know ... .but in the situation he has found himself in he sees no other option than to go to his childhood friend.

“K-Kaachan.” Izuku shout whispered into the cold night air of the room. Nothing… “Kaachan, hey—” Izuku shouts again, the blonde doesn’t even stir. 

He stands up, ignoring the cold dribble of pee that runs down his legs from the change in gravity and quietly, walks over to Kacchan’s bed. Izuku hovers his hand above his friend's shoulder, stalling because he is really signing himself up to be made fun of, probably cussed at and most likely, ridiculed for the rest of his time at U.A. 

“Kaacha—wah–” 

“Fuck off!” Katsuki jumped up from his bed, startled away by someone grabbing him. He flung his sheets of in an instant, sparky flying off his hands, ready to attack whoever the fuck it is. Blood kink girl? Crusty ass lip fuckers, the giant ass lizard—Deku? 

Katsuki looked down at Deku, seeing his mouth moving but not hearing anything but a faint grumble of mushed together words, 

“Hold the fuck on and shut up—” Katsuki leaned over and grabbed his hearing aids, popping them in and immediately being assults with a reched sob—wait what? 

“I didn’t mean to! I-I’m s-s-s-o sorry Kaachann! P-please don’t—I’ll clean it up! Please—Hck—” Wait…Clean what up? Hah? 

Katsuki takes in the scene in front of him. Deku is sitting on the floor by his bed, tears streaming down his face. Katsuki takes a step forward towards the nerd, only stopping when his sock becomes wet and warm and—oh.

“I-w-wanted to wake you up so you c-coul–hck–” 

“S’fine, Nerd…Get up.” Katsuki reaches his hand out toward Deku. He can’t just let him sit in a puddle of his own piss all night, blubbering like a baby. “You have to shower and I need to get a towel or some shit for the floor.” Katsuki pulls Deku up, albeit slowly, the Nerds legs are shaking. 

“I–Didn’t mean too—” Deku says, whipping his eyes, 

“Well I would hope you didn’t purposely piss on my floor.” Katsuki huffs, but Deku starts crying again, loudly. 

“Shhhh, You wanna wake up the whole floor? it’s not big deal…I should have told you not to wake me up…fuckin’ can’t hear shit when im sleeping, stupid hearing aids and all that.” Katsuki normally has a very good idea of what's happening in his surroundings, but even he will admit, not being able to hear is his biggest weakness. 

“I—the futon.” Deku lowers his head. Katsuki looks between Deku and his floor bed, now noticing that the floor isn't the only place that houses a large wet spot…

“You wet the bed?” Katsuki asks, Deku nods, but doesn’t look up at him. 

“Fuck’n hell…And then you…again? Really?” Katsuki can’t fathom having an accident, let alone two in the span of one night. 

“You’re the o-one who didn’t let me go b-before we went to bed.” Deku looks up at him through his curly green bangs, 

“Tsk, You knew this was gonna happen?” Katsuki turns away, ready to head towards the door, 

“I—” Deku pauses, Katsuki looks back at him. “Will you make fun of me?” Katsuki has to think about the question for a second…His gut instinct is to say yes, of course. This is easy ammo…they are seventeen, almost eighteen, a few months away from being pro-heros. Wetting the bed, or even just pissing your pants is not normal, But— 

Katsuki has been there. Not in the last ten years, but, as a kid he wasn’t one of always walk away from his and Deku’s playdates with dry pants and Deku never made fun of him for it, if anything he was always helpful…So,

“No, this…fuck, was out of your controll, stupid nerd.” Katsuki has to cut the nerd some slack. This situation is mortifying, he would bet Deku’s worst nightmare consisted of something akin to this exact scenario. 

“I need to go to my dorm…it’s…” 

“Just spit it out, it smells like piss in here, and that's not me making fun of you.” 

“Ihavetogetmyprotectionfrommydormorelsethiswillhappenagain!” Deku mutters, all in one breath… 

“pro—Diapers? You wear Diapers!?” Katsu`ki asks, thinking he must have misheard Deku…Deku doesn’t–He never—as a kid, that was Katsuki. Deku was the one always drilling, taking breaks and staying hydrated and maintaining his health by not holding it until he was dancing in line for the restroom..

“You said you wouldn’t make fun of me.” Deku says, arms crossed over his chest, 

“I’m not! It's just—-Are you…sick?” Katsuki hates to admit he would kick himself if the nerd was close to kicking the bucket and he didn’t realize. 

“N-not physically, no.” Deku answers, calmly. And Ah. It all clicks. 

“Nightmares?” Katsuki starts walking towards the door, sliding his slippers on once again. He looks back just in time to see Deku silently nod. “Shit sucks…” Katsuki says, opening the door to follow Deku out to the showers.

[izzyspussy]

rewriting this post that was originally some asks, so that it's in order and easier to read!

when richie and eddie buy a house together and then eddie starts fixing up a vintage car in the garage, all the car dudes in the neighborhood flock to him and try to make friends with them. at first he tolerates them out of a sense of manners and not wanting to make the neighbors hate them before richie has a chance to make his own friends, but eventually they grow on him.

he's still standoffish and gruff and it's weird between them because they're all the Typical car dude and eddie's… not. his favorite color is pink and he listens exclusively to 90s girl rock and he's into clean eating etc. but he's the Supreme when it comes to cars, and he's tough and funny and matter of fact, so they all have to admire and like him anyway.

meanwhile, all of their wives are hanging out with richie inside and having similar Gender Clash because they have in common that they do not know or care anything about cars or, like, manual labor of ANY kind. but again they are all Typical suburban wives whereas richie is scruffy and dresses like a dyke and drinks whiskey and makes dick jokes. but he's also sweet and romantic and loves kids and animals (and has very good looking arms), so again they all admire and like him & have this strange genuine friendship.

@thecrimsondandelion said:

okay so sorry i didn’t realise more was coming and i answered the first one!! sorry about that, some of it might be repeated. but yes! i love this like the car dudes would think that Richie is the car fanatic. bc Eddie dresses in higher-end fashion, keeps his nails immaculate, they’ve heard him blast “Because We Want To” by Billie Piper from the garden when he’s going for a swim. they see Eddie during his run and he’s wearing almost too short shorts and a Spice Girls t-shirt and like yeah, the guys come up to Richie at first like “what make is she” again i know nothing about cars and Richie’s like “huh? idk red, old, the roof comes down too which is neato-burrito, but you’ll have to ask my Eddie if you want the details.” Eddie’s extremely guarded, and he actually takes great pleasure when the guys notice the scar on his cheek and look a little shocked by it. and he thinks about saying it was an accident while working on a car, “oh, i was stabbed. but you should see the other guy.” and gives them a sly smile. and they have no idea whether or not to take that seriously, he and Richie seem to have a wacky sense of humour Eddie will hear them driving, and then later on pull them aside and say something sounded off. It’s hard not to be super fucking impressed by him Eddie isn’t mean, he has a wall up, and acts a little more stoic in front of those guys. so it’s surprising to them when Richie comes out and kisses him on his scarred cheek or temple and Eddie lights up, looking all sweet and soft on Richie. the way he grins and spews out a string of insults when Richie slaps his ass, like he’s so incredibly fond. tells his bf so sincerely and fiercely that he loves him they’ll come over at like 2pm drinking beer, and Eddie’s 1. judging them for drinking Bud Light and 2. judging them over his protein shake about drinking at 2pm like, maybe they see Eddie fracture/break his wrist while working on the car, and they’re panicking. but fuck, Eddie’s broken his arm, been stabbed in the face, skewered by an alien claw. this is fucking nothing. The guys are fucking losing it, and Eddie’s sighing, wincing a little, and calming shouting on Richie to drive him to the ER, but at least Richie panics a little they have a newfound respect for him after that ———— the more i think about it the more i love the thought of Richie hanging out with the neighbourhood wives. He’s crude, big, loud. they shouldn’t like him, he’s definitely not what they’re used to in their little circle but Richie gives them celebrity gossip, they watch Greys Anatomy together when the guys are doing Car Shit. He brings back autographs from their kids favourite celebrities if he meets them and omg, when they find out one of his best friends is Thee Beverly Marsh, designer extraordinaire, they lose it (and also wonder why she ever lets Richie walk around looking like a Muppet) they’d honestly not know who to think is more handsome. Eddie has a very lean and built body, he dresses so well, polite and kind to them. but then Richie is big dad bod, huge arms, charming. and they’re both so sweet and loving to each other, even when they bicker they’ll peek into their garden and see the two of them cramped together in a hammock napping, or trying to push the other out. or see Richie come home from a tour with a huge bouquet of flowers, beaming grin plastered on his face like he’s never been happier in his entire life honestly, it’s Richie that the car guys end up not quite getting, they used to get him when he told his Shitty Unoriginal Jokes before his public breakdown/coming out. He’ll rush into the garage and rattle off some impressions, make an incredibly crude dick/sex joke (which they just struggle to get used to) they call Richie ‘a little weird’ and Eddie fucking glares at them, and if looks could kill they’d be done for. Yet Eddie will call Richie a gangly asshole, muppet looking mother fucker (‘oh you best believe i’m a mother fucker, Spaghetti’) but Richie loves making the car dudes feel a little weirded out by him

back to me again:

okay several more headcanons came to me while reading this god bless

1. richie only ever calls eddie “eddie my love” to other people. this started in childhood, with his own parents, because of the song. it’s was genuinely just an in joke with his parents while talking about his friends. and he might have brought the joke into the group too, but before he got around to it he Realized and he would get way too anxious that eddie would Know. he slips up with bill without noticing until later. at the time bill notices and doesn’t Assume Things because he just kind of figures whatever that’s about he probably just doesn’t get it. richie slips up with stan, who knows the song, so that’s fine. ofc later stan notices that richie never says it in front of eddie and realizes that it’s not as much of a joke reference as richie might have them believe. by the time ben and bev and mike come around it’s habit to say eddie my love casually when Eddie’s not around. for the longest time, eddie has no idea that richie calls him that. it’s not a momentous reveal, no confession, and eddie just thinks “that’s so romantic I hate/love it and I want it to stay”. so it’s like this unspoken thing that eddie just kind of has the privilege to know that any time richie has to represent him to someone else he has to include that he’s loved as being as important and as much a part of who he is as his name.

the car dudes and their wives know eddie, through richie, as “eddie my love” because richie casually and naturally refers to him that way so often.

2a. the car dudes and the wives both do that gendered-group thing where they complain about the ‘other’ gender, and in this case ofc the spouses. the wives, as can often happen with straight women and gay men, forget that richie is not One Of Them. so they’ll start in on like, smh husbands don’t know how to clean. and they’ll look to richie to be like so true my husband also doesn’t know how to clean. but he has to beak it to them gently that eddie does know how to clean and he doesn’t do any of that. and the wives are like oh my god… richie is a husband…

2b. richie is not always a husband though, sometimes he is a wife. he converses like a wife, when permitted. he has whisky or beer instead of wine, and he manspreads, and swears a little more than these good Christian ladies are used to, but otherwise it’s the same. the quibbling, the tangents, the nonsensical idioms, the folk traditions removed from all context, live laugh love.

there eventually is at least one bisexual car dude and one bisexual wife, who both after a few rounds of “smh husbands/wives [x]” and richie/eddie seemingly not having that problem, say “gosh i wish i could be gay and not have problems”.

and when eddie hears this from bisexual car dude his reaction is basically “lmao you’re stupid and also maybe bisexual. look into it.”

but when richie hears this from bisexual wife he girl friend talks her. “I totally understand, no stacey that does make sense, ofc you’re totally right but You Know Men and their little baby man feelings” etc and is giving her that bullshit dinner-at-olive-garden version of relationship advice along with the other wives.

HOWEVER eddie happens to be inside getting himself another canned strawberry margarita at this moment and HE says “honey no if your husband is making you feel like you need to become a lesbian you tell him. you TELL him that if he doesn’t shape up you’re gonna become a fucking lesbian. which one is he. I’ll tell him myself.”

because Eddie’s gender is in fact not ever husband OR wife. Eddie’s gender is bitch.

3. eddie likes to leverage his Supremacy and lord or over the other car dudes. he has the coolest car, he has the best tools, he has the sharpest skills, he has this dope ass garage, and if you wanna bask in this glory you better kiss my fender baby.

so the car dude with the least amount of situational awareness and/or self preservation instincts says something unflattering about richie. he doesn’t necessarily mean it as an insult per se. it’s like when a person tries to jokingly bust your balls but you don’t actually know them well enough yet, with a side helping of this guy is not planning to ever know richie that well. he just thinks he can do that because eddie does that. but eddie does the banter thing with richie, never behind his back. so honestly it’s like a double miss, because oblivious car dude has overstepped a boundary and attempted to presumptively include eddie in behavior that eddie doesn’t approve of.

so, you know, say it’s something like “wow that guy is pretty weird huh”

and Eddie’s like “your fucking attitude in my fucking garage is pretty weird, jeffrey”

and so jeff (as eddie knows perfectly well he prefers to be called) has to say whatever car dude speak is for “I’m sorry your majesty please don’t banish me”

4. Eddie’s face literally every time richie shows himself in the garage even if it’s just for ten seconds: don’t u wish ur girlfriend was hot like mine

5. richie is very nervous around the car dudes actually, big gay fear, until eddie has wife talk with him about them. “smh tom doesn’t even know how to drive clutch”/“…and then greg told tonya’s mother, he said to her-” etc. at which point they simply become boy wives.

several of the other losers are also nervous about the car dudes, and are a little thrown that richie seems as comfortable with them as with women. they’re like so… the car dudes… and he’s like oh, those are just Eddie’s girl friends :)

6. richie bawls his fucking eyes out at romantic tragedies. one time the wives make the mistake of putting on like titanic or whatever toward the end of the play date. it gets dark before the movie is finished but none of them notice and don’t turn the lights on.

eventually the car dudes are like hmm it’s about dinner time we should go home probably. and they come in to the house only to be caught in the eerie stare of several pillow clutching mascara teared raccoons crying together in the dark.

the two groups stare at each other for a moment and then eddie says “so I was thinking of modding-” and the dudes just turn around and go right back into the garage

(this is one of the only times that eddie feels like A Man, in alignment with how these men in particular are men, because clearly this is some kind of Women’s Ritual that he will never understand)

[popculturebuffet]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review and Analysis: This Films What Makes Me Feel Alright

Hello all you happy turtles! It's time to grab some pizza and party sized cool ranch doritos and pull your old high school sketchbooks out of some ancient backback in your closet, it's time to talk TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. As a massive TMNT nerd who was beyond hyped for this film coming from the powerhouses of both Point Grey Pictures and one jeff rowe, how did the film stack up? How did it spin kick on it's own? And why did they think Bebop nipple piercings were a good idea? All this and more under the cut, with FULL SPOILERS so if you haven't seen the film, you've been warned.

A New Coat of Ooze: Mutant Mayhem's story of how it came to be is oddly familiar: a massive movie company who has an iconic IP has no idea how to use said IP on it's own, and taps creators who have had some recent noticable and well loved succeses to make them a hit.

If that sounds familiar.. it really should as it was sony's creative desperation to get something spider-man centric only they would get profit from out that lead to Into the Spider verse and i'ts sequel. So it's funny and endearing to me that a film that wouldn't of gotten away with it's utterly unique and grungy art style without spider-verse.. happened for pretty much the exact same reasons.

Like with spidey, Paramount.. really didn't know what to do with TMNT for a while. And it's weird because when they first aquired the heroes in a halfshell from mirage, they had a pretty solid plan: the 2012 show, while messy as it went on, started out really promising and was a huge hit. The IDW comics prior to it were a massive hit for the company and are STILL around today, having outlasted other long term idw liscenses like transformers and having kept a consistent continuity for a decade while also leaving room for crossovers with ghostbusters, the mighty morphin power rangers, the goddamn batman and now street fighter.

So what went wrong? Simple.. they tried WAY too hard to mimic the transformers formula with their theatrical film, Ninja Turtles, not only not getting that audiences were tired of "Micheal Bay makes a weirdly sexual comedy about your childhood and it may have robots", but what really made the franchise work. The sequel from what i hear is slightly better but it just wasn't enoguh. Not helping is they quickly lost their shit on the tv front, as after the 2012 series concluded, they launched the creative, hilarious, and gorgeous Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. which proceded to last only two seasons because it wasn't an instant hit, aka the same issue most nick shows fell into, not helped by the fact that Nick also seemed to pick up Cartoon Network's bad habit of hating action shows. We DID at least get a really good Rise film that gave the series a nice epilogue, but it's still sad it sputtered out so fast.

So Paramount turned to something they really weren't using.. their film animatoin department.

Paramount Pictures Animation is neat to look into as it had a steep rise.. then fell right off a cliff. It was a bit spottier at first, producing two of the charlie brown films, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And don't come back) and my beloved Race for Your Life Charlie Brown... mostly for this theme song.. okay ENTIRELY for the theme song.

And scattered experiments like Cool World, which was so good Ralph Bakshi punched a man over what they'd done to his idea, Bebe's Kids, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.

It wasn't till the late 90's and the nick boom they really started seeing success with the rugrats movies, jimmy neutron, spongebob and even the failures like Hey Arnold and Wild Thronberries were still neat. And yes i'd like to talk about any and all of these films at some point, they made up my childhood etc etc.

Eventually they got a cushy partneriship with dreamworks, still releasing the ocasional original effort like Rango, Barnyard and TinTin (The last of which I WILL be covering next august, I simply didnt' have room in pirate month this year. Once dreamworks left.. it seemed like Paramount genuinely had no clue what to do with the animation divsion. We had things like Sherlock Gnomes or Wonder Park, and the ocasoinal spongebob movies but it's clear that with Nick constantly cutting itself off at the knees they had no idea what to do. The closest they got was the turdtastic loud house movie and the totally awesome Rise of the TMNT films on netflix, but they just had no idea what they were doing. I mean it's telling that their trying to get extra paw patrol tickets by promiting a double feature with saw X. I.. I wish that was just some stupid joke I made as it's comedy gold. Eventually they came across an idea: Stay the course in focusiong on ips they own.. but bring in someone who knows what their doing to create something truly jawdropping.

So for Mayhem Parmount brought in two proven successes. The first were producers Point Grey Pictures, helmed by friends, writing partners and permenant teenagers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen has made quite the name for himself as a producer. While Point Grey started as mainly a way for Rogen to produce comedies starring himself and a pre-outing as a sex monster james franco, over time Rogen has proven to be REALLY good at making adaptations, with point grey having had a hand in both the Boys, which I haven't seen but seems to be a MASSIVE improvment over the original comics , which isn't hard but it's still nice they tried, and Invincible, one of the best superhero shows PERIOD and a fantastic adaptation that changes what needed it, moves around pieces and ultimatley creates something really special. So tapping him to adapt a big property like this was a no brainer. He even had animation experince thanks to Sony Pictures Sauage party and while this was Point Grey's first family production, it's clear it wasn't too hard for Rogen to adapt. As for their director they picked a hell of one: Jeff Rowe. For those not familar with him Rowe helmed the Mitchells vs the Machines, sony's first post spider-verse success and the film that helped codify the 2d on 3d style that spider-verse made popular and peanuts pioneered. And it was clearly just ont hes trength of word of mouth alone as Rowe went right from machines to mayhem and only got better. From interviews, the two worked really well together: Rogen was hands on but didn't make the mistakes lord did of being way TOO hands on, simply pitching neat ideas, adding to the film and clearly being heavily involved, while still letting Rowe steer the ship. Rowe in turn learned to have a good work life ballance and give his employees one, preventing the kind of nightmarish working conditions present on other flims such as, sadly, Across the Spider-Verse.

For the direction of the film Rowe was a fan of the franchise as a kid, specifically the toys. He recalled a really sweet story about he and his dad spent a saturday trying to find Tokka and Rahzar and really loved the toys designs and uniquely grungy astetic. As such Rowe really didn't lean into or heavily research the rest of the franchise. Which set off my alarm bells when I read it in a review close to release: after all a LOT of bad adaptations come out of the person adapting it not giving one iota of a shit about the source material. Eventually though I realized I was .. over panicking. What jeff meant was more "I don't want to be overly reverent to the material and see what we can do on our own with the basic concept' rather than "THE TURTLES ARE GOD YOU FOOLS GODS. GODS I SAY!". There are still little nods in there and bits taken from other series; There's a mention of the turtles taking in a knicks game (something that happened in out of the shadows), April's design borrows heavily from her design from Rise while still being unique, Donnie has glasses like the bay movies, there apparently was a miyamoto usagi sticker on a notebook (thanks tv tropes for noticing), and there's a TON of refrences to the 87 continuity as it's clearly the one rowe knew best. And while I do get a LITTLE tired of that being the one continuity most creators seem to lean on the most, I don't hate it and plan to binge the whole giant thing soon I just feel there's a LOT more turtles to pull from, paticuarlly the idw comics, the nods are neat stuff like them having their belts form that series, the various obscure mutants. The Ninja Rap even shows up. Rowe and Rogen clearly love them some turtles.. they just wanted to do something new with it and I completely love and respect that. The biggest swing and the one that's paid off the most was leaning on the teenage aspect. Rowe and Rogan were baffled that no other version of the franchise had done the obvious: Have actual teens voice the turtles. There are reasons for that: For the various tv shows it's simply easier to know the va's wont' age out of the roll, and to the 2012 and rise series credits, they both still tried to make the turtles feel younger and had va's that still made them sound sorta like teens, paticuarlly rise... but it's not at all a bad concept and i'm shocked it took this long for someone to try it.

Another aspect was having the boys all record in one booth. Rogen had the idea.. but Rowe had to explain that it'd be a sound mixing nightmare.. but eventually agreed to it when they tested it out and he saw how much having the four actors playing the turtles riffed off each other and just how much material they got out of the boys adlibs. It adds a natural feeling to the boys conversations: it feels like four teens riffing who just happen to be turtles. It was indeed an audio nightmare.. but the nightmare was worth it and Rowe was greatful and apologetic to his sound crew.

The final bit was simply taking from teen movies, the film even outright has the boys watch Feris Buller's Day Off, which gives me one of my faviorite lines in the film, courtesy of Raph: "Being in high school means you can hyjack a parade whenever you want. "

There's more to get into as we go but with the film opening decently and paramount being so confident in the film pre-release they announced a two season tv show and a sequel, the future looks bright for the green machines. So now we've seen how the pizza gets made let's see how it came out

Perfectly Sketchy: Rogen and Rowe's "Teenage Energy" philosphy went into the design. Rowe wanted to find a unique look for the film, but it was a bit of a puzzler at first: There's SO many incarnations of the tmnt, which one do you pick for this? Do you go with the mirage comics, the 87 cartoon? 2003? the next mutation if you huffed some paint? In the end Rowe decided

Instead he made a brilliant decision: if the film was going to feel teenagery, then why not have it look like the sketches teenagers make in their notebooks? It's an idea that just oozes brilliance and still fits the franchises history like a razor decked claw glove. Part of what made the early comics stand out was it's sketchy, frank miller-esque style, and the toys stood out for largely echoing that as much as you could in three dimensions at the time. So it still fit.. but did something entirley new with it. As as a result the film has a look that simply nothing else has: porportions on most things are off, the backgrounds arne't hugely detailed , did you when you were a teen?, but still pop gloriously, and the characters all have SOMETHING that would be off model anywhere else. One of the thugs in the turtles first act of vigilnate justice, for instanc,e has a weirdly crooked head with indents. It's a look that's perfectly stylitic, fits the series history, and it's a kind of weird that perfectly complintes a series that was already having our heroes fight space dinosaurs by the third issue. I especially love how the shurikens are not even yet still throw perfectly and Mikey's hey arnold head. It's a look that pops with creativity and the crew really took to playing with. It's a style that will, much like spider-verse lead to this, undoubtly lead to more unique swings and I cannot wait to see what people come up with as a result

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

The film's core comes from a rather genius decision to simply pick apart a key part of the franchise... the fact Splinter keeps the boys isolated from humanity for most of their lives and encourages them to stay hidden. Now credit where it's due some continuties justify it well enough: sometimes splinters hiding from shredder, or already had a sweet rent free sewer apartment he set up for no reason, trying to find his lost son and complete his family while avoiding a mutated alley cat or simply was waiting till the boys could defend themselves. They often have a lot of enemies... but even that shouldn't mean they can't get an education or have friends. April and Casey stick by them no matter what. They should be able to at least try for a normal life or the idea of them WANTING more than hidnig all the time should really come up more. The only ones that have really tapped into this are the IDW continuity which is just now having the boys integrate post armageddong game, out of the shadows which from what i've read has a throughly intresting subplot about the boys wanting to become human and leos' resistance to the idea (which also makes him come off as a bit of a jackass honestly as it's not his choice and "We're turtles end of story" is not an excuse). We've had the turtles say move into an apartment but this is the first to just flat out ask: why CANT the boys at least try to live with humanity instead of under them? And if so why did splinter keep them apart?

It's part of what really grounds the boys in this incarnation and makes them feel so damn real. The other of course was the decision to have actual teens play them and riff off each other. We get them making unteiotnally douchey digs at each other, such as the other three mocking Leo attempting a batman voice, casually talk about how they'd like to meet drake or have brunch with tom brady, which leo no you can do better man, or do some goofy shit while april marvels at their stupidity.. and then double down when told it might make people like them less. By making the biggest attempt so far to make the turtles FEEL like teens instead of young adults, an evolution the franchise has been undergoing since the 2012 cartoon and honestly reaches it's apex here, it makes us feel for them that much more; These are just kids who simply want to be loved and accepted, like any teenager. That awkwardness, wanting to fit in, wanting to simply belong.. it's one of the most painful parts of a teen and transplanting that to the tutles wa sa brilliant move. One of the earliest scenes is what sells this the most: the boys going to see Ferris Buller's Day off.. and just wondering what it'd be like to be normal. That lost shot of them sadly returning to the sewer... looking on screen at something they only wish they could have... it's so heartbreakingly beautiful.

The reasons WHY Splitner restricts their time in the outside world and refers to humans as "the demon scum of the earth. They lust to destroy that which is diffrent than them"

Giving Splinter a deep fear of humans is a brilliant move. It's something that really coudln't be done in most incarnations as he's been the pet of a martial arts master who treated him well, said martial arts master living in a sweet sewer apartment after being clumsily blamed for murder, got reincarnated as a rat after dying in ancient japan, a martial arts master who turned his back on his heritage because his clan let his family die, became a movie star, fucked a spider lady, had said spider lady put him in gladatorial games, then got depressed after becoming a rat but gladly adopted his sons. Here they strip that away and we're left with a splinter who was just a rat who was yelled at by other animals, shooed by humans just for trying to survivie and whose only friend was a cockroach.. who he ended up eating after humanity killed the poor guy. Finding the boys also abandoned in the sewers and covered in ooze, as oozual, not only made him into a rat man.. but also gave him the one thing he never had: a family. We also get a REALLY adorable montage set to de la soul's eye know that makes me REALLY glad the copy right hurdles around them are gone so we don't have another spider-man no way home situation because the song both slaps and has a nice soothing tone that really fits. We'll get more into the music on i'ts own later, I just really love this montage.

It also makes what follows..

We see that Splinter GENUINELY tried to go out into the world.. and the result was humanity throwing things at him despite carrying 4 small children and said children nearly being hit by a car. It's a really unsettling sequence. While yeah everyone going "rat man" and throwing things is a bit on the nose... given how a LOT of humanity acts to LBGTIQ+ persons, People of color, diffrent religions I could go on but i'm depressed enough as is, it's not really that much of a stretch that they'd throw things at a rat just trying to show his sons the world. It reminds me a LOT of the x-men and it's honestly weird to me that the othe rbiggest mutant franchise int he world HADN'T taken a page from them sooner.

It gives the film nuance: Splinter IS objectively prejudiced, leo even says so directly, but you can see how those prejudices formed and why he's so terrified for his own kids. He's worried a world that hates and fears them will also hate and milk them.. a runner that while awkwardly phrased, I don't think Seth or Jeff have heard of the term milking before, is hilarious, especially the usual refrain of "we don't even have nipples. " He just wants them safe and happy and you can tell he really does love them. He taught them the martial arts to protect them.. and the how is also really clever and a really fun idae: instead of "I learned it from a book" Or "I happened to be owned by a ninja master" or "I was reincarnated" we instead get him teaching them.. via martial arts films, instuctional videos, and the ocasional youtube thing. I love it because it honestly makes way more sense than it should as shown in the animation: splinter watched the films, learned the movements himself and then taught the boys. It's also a nice bit of meta text as Jackie Chan himself is a practicing martial artist who makes martial arts films and did his own stunts. One of his films is apparently even in the montage. It's one of my faaviorite takes of the film.

One of my faviorite scenes is Splinter's biggest pet the dog moment: the pizzza party. Splinter brings in a bunch of pizza hut pizzas

It's neat because it both clearly misses the point, Splinter really dosen't seem to get that simply bringing down a bunch of pizzas to have a human style prom and having kelvin captain kirk cutout won't fill the void inside. I mean I could think of a lot of uses for a chris pine cutout, i'm not saying it's a bad gift and it's sweet he's trying SO HARD to get his boys to open up and Jackie Chan just nails the dad energy on this one. It's just clear that they don't want to stay there there whole lives as safe as that is.

What brings it to it's head is one of the films more brilliant decisions. Originally, while I haven't found many specifics the film had other antagonists: Baxter Stockman was originally the boys teacher (they went to school during the course of this film in this draft) and became the fly again, while Shredder was TCRI"s heavy in earlier drafts. Both were nixed, the former likely due to abandoing the school plot and the latter for the entirely on the mark decision that it was just too much. Shredder.. is THE arch enemy to the turtles. The one constant in every universe. So it makes way more sense to save him for a sequel and let someone else take the reigns. As Rowe has teased Shredder's going to be a bit of a wakeup call: just as the boys think they have it figured out .. in comes shredder to kick their asses. Which really has happened A LOT across the franchise, with it being a regular tradition that the shredder beats the shit out of the turtles the first time they fight. Even in IDW where they do rally and turn the fight on it's head.. he still easily handles them all one on one before they rally as a team. It makes sense to save their ultimate test for a sequel while still giving them one hell of a trial by fire

Instead we got Superfly, who better fit into the fantastic racisim narritive. If the boys want to get love and acceptance by fighting for a world that hates and fears them x-men style.. it only makes sense they have a magneto on that other end.

Like Magneto Superfly has a tragic backstory behind his hatred of mankind.. Superfly was the creation of Baxter Stockman and what they did with Baxter both completely floored me.. and drove me to tears. Instead of what he is normally, either a put upon target coerced into villany who strikes back at both the turtles and those who wronged him, or a narcsitic monster who will gladly do whatever he wants and kill anyone in his way, here... Baxter is just a deeply lonely old man who just wants a family. At worst he steals from TCRI.. but given we see their a horrifying company who wants the mutants as weapons and will gladly torture teenagers for a buck, it's not hard to side with him. It's really nice ot see a heroic baxter.. and sad to see him go so quickly.

It puts Superfly's hatred in perspective: like splinter he saw just what huamanity does and how his kind is treated and grew up having to raise his younger siblings. Like Splinter he seems to really love them. And like splinter his attempt to take his siblings topside.. went horribly wrong with them being chased by an angry mob for just..c oming to a snack bar. But it's right after that we get the clear diffrence: Splinter just ran in fear and while he trained the boys ot protect themselves, he just wants a line between himself and humanity. Superfly.. wants them all to pay. He wants to mutate the world that killed his dad and drove him and his siblings into hiding. The only way they can be accepted.. is if humanity is mostly gone and what's left are enslaved.

IT's that sadistic streak that ultimately defines him as a villian: the turtles just want to be accepted, splinter just wants to be loved, the rest of the mutant "cousins" just want a home and have been indocrinated and browbeaten into thinking there isn't another way. Superfly.. wants things his way: he wants blood, he wants revenge and if anyone stands in his way no matter their age or being his family he will kill them. It's that anger inside that makes him a true monster.

And that extends to his own family. Superfly's an abusive parent to Splinters flawed but loving one: The rest of the mutants turn stone quiet when he subtly/notsubtly threatens the turtles if they happen to disagree, and during the chase not only are they all desperate to get the thing back but Wingnut in paticular gets the most telling line

Wingnut: Superfly's almost here and he's not going to be as nice about this! Leo: You're not being nice! Wingnut: He'll be less nice!!

While the other mutants SEEM jazzed during the bowling alley scene, it's very clear later none of them were that enthused about the idea. Both sets are afraid to speak to their parental figure.. but the diffrence is clear in motion: the boys hide from splinter because they know he'll say no, it's a standard teenage thing and as seen with the pizza party when Splinter finds the various knick knacks they've picked up on their heroic journey, his response is to try to bring the surface to the sewer. It's awkward as hell and dosen't remotely work.. but it's still a sweet gesture and you still feel bad for him when the boys quickly leave to finish their half assed plan. Splinter ultimately wants what's best for his kids and even if he's not always right in carrying that out, I never doubted he actually loved his children.

This all brillantly comes to a head towards the end: While Splinter plans to just.. isolate the turtles after their nearly milked, the one time he seems GENUINELY angry the whole film, he still wants to save April, the one good human, who warned him the boys were in danger in the first place.

This leads to a touching bit in itself: the boys COULD fight the other mutants, their trying to do a genocide after all.. but instead the boys.. just talk them down. I mean i'm used to this kinda thing by now, most animation these days is about forgivness, but it still works: earlier when meeting each other the turtles gladly bonded with their cousins, who i'll talk about in more detail later: Mondo and Mikey were both chill, raph finally found some people who liked to hit stuff, presumibly while blasting Limp Bisikit, it was really sweet. THeir relutance to stop them added a nice dimension to things: they UNDOUBTLY want to stop superfly's plan.. but they genuinely like their cousins and see them as good people in a bad situation. Likewise the cousins are utterly destraught at the fight afterwords and miss the turtles. These are simply at the end of the day teens 20 somethings and whatever scumbug is who just wanted to not be chased iwth torches.

So it's utterly heartwarming when the turtles and splinter simply offer their home. They may not have humanity.. but they'd have each other. It's also YET ANOTHER idea that seems obvious in retrospect but most turtle series never really thought of: why.. can't other mutants stay with them? They usually order suplies and stuff descretley anyway or in this case take them out of nescsity, if they can afford pizza for 5 people reguarly, why NOT let other smove in. I mean I get it meta wise, you dont' want to overcrowd things. But it's a nice thought i'm glad gets realized: that the boys aren't alone and now have a whole new family to lean on.

And of course Superfly can't take that. To him there's only one way to go: never stop making them pay. I'll also say I like just how poweful superfly is: he's got strength inunerablity, and super smarts, which I thought was a nice touch. I assumed he woudln't have baxter's intellegence and I'm glad to be wrong. He's only stopped and only then breifly by sheer numbers.

What follows is a LITTLE on the nose, with superfly just.... saying outight he and splinter aren't so diffrent, down to both having said "You'll be safe if you just LISTEN TO ME".

That part.. dosen't quite work for me. What does work is the animation on splinter during the struggle between everyone else and superfly.. the dawning realization of what he is as Superfly states the obvious and his determination as soon as Superfly says "the diffrence is i'm not a punk". Superfly just wants to get revenge on a world that hates and fears him.. Splinter just wants his sons to be happy. And he finally realizes that even if there's a lot of risk involved, they DESERVE to live out there with everyone else. There is something better than hiding or murder.

I also like how Superfly.. drops the pretense: once his plans done he just goes on a massive kaiju attack: I also like how fucking horrific his form is: the whale part's a bit goofy at first.. but then you see how much STRENGTH that gives him as he destroys it. Even if we get the ocasional joke (I didn't need that horse is gold), for the finale Superfly is just a nightmarish, imposing threat that threatnes to run our heroes lives and also maybe end them. The glee he takes in crushing the boys alive... it's fucking terrifying.

I also love the bit of the boys panning... seeing all the destruction.. and seeing the media blame them too. Their trying to HELP people.. and get blamed. I'd suggest moving to krakoa but a lo tof shit has went down and living with one old man full of fear and regret is what started this whole caper. And the boys.. fight on anyway because it's the right thing to do. Despite all the hate... someone has to stop superfly. And in doing so.. April makes sure they get the glory and praise they deserve anyway.

Finally I love splinter's turnaround right before the final fight... where he admits he was wrong.. but hasn't FULLY turned around on humans. He's simply realized he can't let his baggage with humanity weigh down his sons. And it pays off brilliantly during the time square fight, as when Splinter is downed.. someone helps him up. And what I love is that while it COULD just be someone who saw April's newscast clearing the turtles and other mutants.. it's left ambgious. As far as we know it was just a nice guy and gal helping an old man up regardless of if he was a giant rat or not. It dosen't paper over all the films flaws with the rat man mob scene but it does help quite a bit.

The film brillantly tackles prejudice and I like how unlike most films.. there's no easy answers. Our boys have to do something big and loud to get accepted and it's not guaranteed to shield them, as seen with the stingers. THey find friends , activites and get what they want.. but it's likely not the end.. but that's okay. The important thing is for the first time the turtles are out of the shadows and into the sun. And it suits them. Seriously this last twist was brilliant and i'm shocked it took a tmnt this long to just.. let them be public since 87, and since media has evolved, it means when we get to the series we can actually explore what that means: how will they adapt? will everyone accept them? will april realize Leo is into her and it wasn't just a friend thing? there's a lot of questions I can't wait to be answered.

Change is Constant

I didn't have a good segway so.. CHARACTERS! MY WHEELHOUSE. LET'S GO.

Starting with the boys, their more of a package deal here. They still have unique deisgns, takes on the cores of their personalities, all you'd expect from a good tmnt adaptation.

What changes it up a bit is the recording together: while most sets of turtles have great chemistry, this one.. really feels like their brothers thanks to the shared recording: they talk over one another, dunk on each other and goof around. This has always been a thing, and part of the franchises charm, but how they do it here feels more real, helped by the fact they clearly took some adlibs in. Both the BTS bit where they try to comfort Donnie only to both mangle the lyrics and writhe in pain and the bit with the new york accents both sound like the boys just started riffing on the prompt given, didn't stop and they rolled with it because it was comedy gold. It also means a LOT more pop culture refrences.. but it works. It dosen't feel like too much

Admitely I don't know how current the refrences are to ACTUAL teens, but they work well enough and don't feel like their horribly date the film. Plus it'd be.. weird to have a turtles work that didn't reflect it's era in some way, as all 4 cartoons and most films and comics reflect their time either in writing or in the general vibe.

The downside to this is the turtles indvidual personalities, while present.. get kinda underplayed. Leo and Raph make it out fine enough: After the radience that was Rise Leo and ben schwartz being at his peak slacker doofus (while also still being badass), we're back to Leo being Teachers Pet. But thankfully like the 2012 film they play with it: like that Leo his brother's don't really respect him as a leader, but rather than the usual raph snarling at him like wolverine, here it's more just their his brothers, they woudln't respect him anyway and benig their dad's mouthpiece just makes them ignore him harder. He's the dutiful son but he's simply outnumbered. Raph dosen't get a ton of spotlight, but gets enough to be a fun little murder baby and probably my faviorite of the 4. Instead of the usual brooding loner, sometimes ultra violent sometimes just sassy, often both, here he's more an obnoxious older brother who picks on leo the most, is happy to do dangerous stunts and badly needs therapy. He's essentially Reese from malcom in the middle as a ninja turtle. He still loves his brothers and loves a good scrap, but he's got some issues to adress.

Mikey and Donnie likewise aren't bad but kinda one note: Mikey gets it the worst: he's a bit goofy.. but since they ALL are this incarnation it dosen't stand out as much. He gets some nice bits and one hell of a impariment shot, but not much else.

Donnie fairs better, but suffers from the unintended consequences of a good choice. As part of grounding things a bit, Donnie isn't a super genius. He's just a snarky little otaku who does really like tech, but on the resonable level of a teenage boy. As a result he dosen't get as much to do as most donnies as he's not hotwiring shit as often or making super lasers. It works for me, it's intresting to have a donnie whose just a normal kid who happens to be really nerdy, but it means plotwise he dosen't have as much to do as Raph as the ringleader to the boys mischief or Leo as the leader of the band during hero stuff. I get why: they only had a hundred minutes and it's remarkable they crammed as much in as they did, but it's something I really hope the series can course correct. I don't mind the boys riffing and hope it continues, but I also hope we get them more as their own people too.

As a final note I love Leo's crush on April. IT feels like a better realized version of the Donnie one from 2012. Instead of waffling over wether april notices or just dosen't want to turn him down which..

And then having it go from cute to "spiraling obessive dickhole", here April notices something's weird, but is clearly more intrested in the "giant talking turtles who can help my rep" thing and thus dosen't really pry. It only REALLY crosses into that at the end when he transparently asks her out.. and she waits till prom to ask "wait this is a friend thing right". But that could be nerves or her being just as scared of her feelings as he is with his. It also helps that while he's intrested in april romantically the two do bond: out of the four he' sthe most empathetic at her barf reputation, priortizes her not out of his crush but because she asked for their help and later works with her at her club. It's still somethign the series could work on, but for "a way to both mine jokes and get leo to go against his dad's wise council" it works fine. It's better than "how dare you ruin my ship you bastards" and "Mikey stop being a sex creep. "

So moving on to April herself, I mostly like this version. She's the third time this franchise has gone with a teen april and the third to have her POC. I've liked the turn to teen april as instead of being a big sister to the turtles, and essentially another authority figure when they already have their dad, she's on their level and it opens up fresh possiblities. Mayhem is the first with this take on april to have her be a reporter again, and it's honestly nice to see that work at a school level, having her TRIED to be on their equivleant of channel one.. and end up puking. And i'm not a barf joke man but walking back into the theater after a bathroom break to see her ralphing to "UnwritteN" may be one of my faviorite cinema moments of 2023, up there with walking back into Barbie to find she and ken now had cowboy outfits they'd apparently stolen.

I also love how it gives her a personal stake: she just wants to be loved same as the turtles and like them realizes this isn't WHY to do this. She also provides a nicely needed straight man to the goofier brothers without being reduced to the old sterotype of "Joy killing female foil. ", something her fellow teen aprils and most aprils in general have thankfully achieved. April is just a person and reacts with annoyance to the boys because their going on a 4 minute tangent saying new york sterotypes while mike does a rumpshaker.

We do have to unpack that mostly though and that comes from April being kind of a dick at time's. She's pressuery when the boys are undercover with SUperfly's gang.. even though she can HEAR what their saying.. and thus hear that he's clearly indocrinated the others and that the boys may not want to harm THEM. I get her not wanting Superfly to succeed, his plan is fucking horrible, but even for a teen it's weird she dosen't see the nuance. She can also be a bhit short with them, though the latter I acknolwedge in hindsight as being like the boys: she's a teenager and teens aren't perfect. This is still a great april and continues Ayo's streak this year of great voice acting roles.

The other mutants are great. I was worried: While the cast for them is fucking stacked and Seth called in a lot of his rolodex to fill it out, and himself as credit where it's due he tends to show up in shit he produces and bring his absolute best rather than showing up because he can, i've seen plenty of films fall flat because they tried to add too many characters from the source. Just this year I felt one of the biggest issues with Transformers; Rise of the Beasts is that they tried to jam so many autobots and maximals in, a total of 10 but didn't bother to give any of them but optimus, bee and mirage an actual character.

Here while the characters are one note, they have charming designs and work more as a unit like the boys, but are still friendly and likeable enough that your fond of them like the turtles and happy when they join the family. The breakout is easily natasha dimoscu's wingnut. I already loved wingnut, but this is easily the best verison: she's cheery kind and gets some great subtle jokes, the wifi one is fucking great as is her swiping Donni'es akira voices. All of them are pretty charming though. The only one to not really feel like a character is Hannibal frog, a sad waste of hannibal burgess, but everyone else gets something fun to do: Bebop and Rocksteady are rageholic morons who then get a sweet character arc as they realize their rage is because Superfly ENCOURAGED them to be constantly angry, and it's fun to see a version of them that's genuinely heroic. Not so fun is Bebop's pierced nipples.

I am genuinely baffled by this design choice. I don't doubt Bebop would get pierced nips, it' sin character. But why Seth thought anyone would want to see that, why he made HIS CHARACTER HAVE THEM, OR WHY HE MAKES IT SO PROMINENT will be a question that will haunt me for years to come. Or until we get creators commentary to explain why he hates viewers eyes. For the record I have nothing against nipple piercings, I just question why anyone thought giving them to Bebop was a good idea. OR their so large or

I also like Scumbug and i'm happy to see Splinter in his first relationship where his partner hasn't died horribly or put him in gladiator games. I did not need to see them make out with clone high level tounge. I"ll let this discord conversation with my good friend @kammieceleek handle the heavy lifting.

I mean their a cute couple but please, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN NEVER

Anyways capping us off we have TCRI, who are decent enough. I like remaking them as this sort of paramilitary goon squad that shows the worst of humanity. Cynthia herself.. is fucking great. I like that to anyone familiar with Krang, it's DAMN obvious who she either is, or is a stand in for, with the name, apperance and Maya Rudolph somehow doing the Pat Fraley krang voice and tics while also doing a thick german accent. She's a brillaint combo of over the top hammy.. and an utterly sadstic monster, shocking the boys just for speaking, not carring that they don't really belong to her, and willing to kill them just to get her super weapons. She's what a remade krang should be: still over the top.. but also dead seriously terrifying. My only complaint is she's a bit OBVIOUS as a sequel hook. Like Rowe was really banking on that sequel and i'm never a fan of when films do this when they don't KNOW this story will continue. It is clearly, with the film slowly picking up more and more money and more than enough in merch, but he coudln't of known that.

So with that we just have one bit of buisness to wrap up

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

The soundtrack for this flim is liquid gold. It's so good to my ears and full of such nice cuts. Guardians cemented my love of needle drops in film in tv: If you can pull it off well do it. And this film does it so damn good. The film skews to hip hop, likely due to wanting a "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" vibe, which really does fit teendom well. I will admit it's also pretty explicit here and there, so kids may be disapointed to find they can't stream these songs, but it's still a stacked selectoin

So before I break it down track by track, something I regret failing to do with spider-verse as like this reveiw it was massively behind, I whipped up a playlist as Parmount's own leaves out several tracks. While I get the what's going on bit being left out as that bit is a good suprise why it has'nt been added weeks out from the film I don't know. You can find it here

Ante Up is a song i've heard maybe once or two here, but is a perfect gag for the opening grocery run, while still showing off just what our boys can do.. even if their doing it for some party sized cool ranch doritos. Which is still a great reward.

Danke Scheon shows up in the clip of feris buller. This dosen't really count but I do think the film is a perfect fit, since John Hughes was an inspiration for this film, and it's an idealized version of the freedom the boys desperately want. Not a John Hughes film I was ever a huge fan of, but it works and that "You can hyjack parades whenever you want" joke is so damn good.

Now we come to a track I wasn't familiar with but is easily my faviorite now: Eye Know. I"m glad more films are using De La Soul's music, mostly because it makes ME want to know them better as I haven't heard much and even after really enjoying three is the number, thanks to the weird rights limbo it wasn't avaliable to stream ad nauseum when No Way Home came out. Thankfully just a few short months ago, the whole De La Soul catalogue is up. This song is a really gentle, really fun love song with one heck of a chorus, and it nicely meshes with Splitner raising his adorable little children. It's one of my faviorite scenes of the movie.

The next track is another perfect selection but for something more hilarious and badass: While Push It To the Limit verges on a parody of training montage music it works for one where we find out the turtles and splinter learned ninjitsu from movies,, instructional tapes and whatever they could scrounge up. HOw their learning is awesomely rediculous, so it needs backing that's cheestastic.

Love is an Illusion by Ronnie Walker was nice for Leo falling for APril. It's a really crisp, dreamy love song so it fits.

Okay look i'ts only there for a second, but I can't tell you how much I love Ninja Rap making a cameo on this soundtrack. The soundtrack is cheesy good and one of the more iconic ninja turtle songs for a reason. It's not as good as say Pizza Power or the various awesome theme songs, but it's goofy fun that fit the film it was in. It's also one of Vanilla Ice's better songs, though that isn't huge compettion especially since he made a weird as fuck sequel I still can't comprehend that was also compeltely ninja turtle free for some reason.

Cavern By LIquid Liquid is fun, a nice chill beat to meet turtles to.

Dance by ESG is already a fun song and fits the boys going full blast on their plan well. THat's.. about it. THankfully I have more for unwritten. I'm not a fan of Vomit humor most of the time unless you have a paticuarlly inspired twist like say. a mad scientest making everyone in the room vomit at a bar as a thought experiment leading to an image like this

That's just beautiful. But i'm just not a gross out guy, so this gag working for me was a lot... setting the most embarassing moment of April's life to FUCKING UNWRITTEN, a song I heard 998 times over the course of the 2000's as every fucking movie and tv show overused the hell out of this throughly mid song, it was transedeant. First and only good use of unwritten. Well done.

Now we come to what's easily the best musical bit of the movie. And it has some steep competition from Eye Know and another song we all know is coming, but the No Diggity Scene is just one of those sequences that once you see it you know "This shit is iconic". This is a scene that's now etched in tmnt lore and for damn good reason. It's also a brilliant way to get up to the chain to superfly and have a few weeks of sluthing and our heroes getting better pass as our heroes easily blaze through some goons and those shots of EACH turtle getting to burst in and lead the assault?

And look I admit this montage hits a sweet spot that was also started by guardians: setting an action montage to music that somehow fits despite having no right to. In this case a mellow smooth as hell jam perfectly complmenting some frantic action. So fucking smooth.

Wake Up in the Sky grew on me as let's face it, a song that has bruno mars saying fly a dozen times nad saying he's super fly works. I just don't like it a lot because trap is'nt something that fits me musically. I prefer more intricate beats or at least a really solid one thorugh the whole thing. The more relaxed beatwork here isn't for me, but I can't deny it fits Superfly's big debut well.

Fitting me much better is the use of Shimmy Shimmy Yay for the bowling scene. It's fucking great, a song that's never not awesome and that's also a bit low key while being way more my speed.

The use of BOTH major versions of What's Up? .. is an easy close second for best use of music int he film and one of the most brilliant masterstrokes. And this all comes to Seth Rogen. When the chase scene wasn't quite working, he suggested the slackcircus version of he man. It's also awsome in that the song's themes of isolation PERFECTLY fit what the mutants are going through. So not only did they manage to stick one of the best meme songs in human history in a feature film.. but they did so with it being ENTIRELY relevant. The switch from the 4 non blondes version to slackcircus is fucking genius and the song adds nice manic energy. It'll also hopefully give this song a rightful ressurgence as the heman cover is , while hilarious, also GENUINELY good. The original ain't too shabby either.

The boys version of butter is hilarious and got me to listen to the original which is alright. Mr. Lonely isn't a bad song, and perfectly fits Splinter's mope session.

Finally we have can I kcik it, an objectively awesome song. It fit the trailer perfectly and it fits our ending as our heroes are finally allowed to mingle with the surface adn get their happy ending beauitfully. A beautiful ending to a beautiful film.

So overall mutant mayhem is fucking awesome. If you haven't seen it after all this go see it, support the hard workers who made this film possible by supporting the ongoing strike and thanks for reading.

[beatcroc]

Do u think u could elaborate a lil about btb and pizza tower lore?? Thank u

oh god i'm not the most well-read on either BUT uh. spoilers for both medias i guess.....i need to stress that these should NOT be seen as like dramatic edgy series because of what's going on under the hood though, that's not the point of them or what they focus on, and it'd be a huge disservice to think of them as 'taking themselves too seriously' type things for this, haha.

EDIT: it's been a bit since i made this post and in looking around since then i've discovered i might've gotten the wrong impression about some of the pizza tower stuff. i intended to only mention what was fact/hard canon here, but some might be extrapolated anyway, so take it with a pinch of salt.

---

bigtop burger is, for all intents and purposes, a chill and lighthearted series of animated shorts about a bunch of college kids who work at a clown-themed food truck. their clown boss is more than a little strange and suspicious but they're content to let it slide because he's generally friendly and well-meaning; and again, the series is only really About the kids and their day to day lives, and the wacky cartoon antics that may occasionally come with that. such as, say, watching their boss slice a truck in two with a katana. it's a little weird for sure but we don't question it.

they have a rival burger truck, zomburger, which is zombie themed, and led by a guy who is defintiely totally not actually undead. the kids this guy employs are pretty into the whole gimmick [because theyre theater majors and "get paid like thousands of dollars per hour" <-presented as the most bizzare thing that's happened], and so have no issue doing things like firing cannons at our clown-thmed protags during a highway chase. their boss has some kind of serious beef with the clown boss, but that's their problem. the kids are chill with eachother.

what they're Not telling you is that the clowns and undead have some kind of ancient feud [possibly even a war???] going on, and zombie guy was apparently[?] only using the food truck thing as a ruse to get at clown guy. both types of guys are insanely powerful and it's heavily implied that neither of them should be mingling with normal humans in the first place, which is why the food trucks and the other employees have their respective gimmicks as cover. also magic of some kind seems to be real, with illusory and portal-type stuff seen so far.

there is a possible implication that clowns are Actually Dangerous and the zombie guy's hunting them is like warranted, but given this unrelated short by the creator apparently set in the same universe, i'd like to more confidently say that it's just zombie guy being an asshole assassin type and they're both high-ranking freaks duking it out in public which is like the worst place possible given their general disinterest in hurting anyone else.

aside: bigtop's lore is a lot more plainly-presented and actually meaningful to the series and the character dynamics, but as it is currently it's nothing more than a backdrop for The Hijinx to play off of so they still never really say anything too direct about it or have characters respond to it. [that said, the most recent episode could easily be considered a turning point so we'll see how things go from here]

----

pizza tower is, for all intents and purposes, just a funny 2d platformer game where lots of silly things happen to its really excitable protagonist and you get tons of endlessly amusing expressions and animation out of it. it feels somewhat like a playable 90's cartoon, and this is its primary charm. again, you aren't supposed to really question the framing of everything. that'd be like asking why bowser is a fire-breathing turtle. because he is. that's just how it works who gives a shit. pizza tower has you kill a big pillar guy halfway through a given level and then you have to get the hell out on a timer before it all collapses, and there's a funny little janitor guy you can get as a bonus pickup to help you out in each level. each floor of the tower has a different Theme for its set of levels. traditional game stuff. you get to the top of the pizza tower and beat up the jackass pizza guy that threatened to blow up your own pizzeria. [there's more to the gameplay than that but this is just what's lore-relevant]

what the game slides under the radar with its completely-dialogue-less style is that the big pillar guy more or less IS the tower, pillar and janitor were the original residents of the tower before it got turned into the pizza tower [yeah.], and the little janitor guy, who is pillar's brother, is generally fine with helping you destroy the place because for the past [amount of time] he's been fighting a losing battle of helping keep his bro intact in the wake of it being taken over by the jackass pizza guy, who has pretty much defiled it beyond repair for his own amusement since finding it. pizza guy cloned pillar guy a bunch of times and split his consciousness between the duplicates and made them all keep all the portals to the pocket dimensions in the tower [the levels] open. pillar guy's original body has since become derelict and horribly overgrown with.,....pizza..., and it's the last one you destroy to bring the whole thing down. he gives you a tired-looking thumbs up as you blast him off the screen.

none of this has anything to do with the protagonist, who doesn't know about any of it and is Exclusively there to beat pizza guy's ass for threatening his business. and if he has to bring down pizza guy's whole tacky-ass establishment to do that then SO BE IT.

you might notice in the larger background screenshot that the protag guy is Also being cloned in that facility. you do fight a clone of him as the 4th boss and encounter more of them in the level that background is for, but there seems to be very little concrete canon for what exactly pizza guy's intention with protag and his clones was.

aside: this isn't even touching on the other side to this, which is the weird amount of actual character depth that mr. funny cartoon protag man himself seems to have. i am not going to get into that on this post because it will make me really abnormal but oh my god dude.

[mickeytheticklee]

Happy spot

Pairing: Sam Carpenter x LeeReader

Summary: After Sam feels a little down she knows her gf will be there to cheer her up

Warnings: Tickling, mouth tickles, a bit sentimental in the beginning kissing, nothing too major

Note: I'm back (for a bit) but I thought I could share a fic for this rainy day :)

Sam recollects a memory she had before arriving to New York.

When you two started seeing each other it happened to be after the brutal attack of Woodsbro. Already Sam wasn't in the best mental state, you knew that. Sam wasn't the best at being vulnerable towards her feelings, knowing that she wasn't okay and was trying to seek help. You being the supportive girlfriend was willing to help her towards every step, every trial, even on her bad days you would help her. She talked about that with her therapist, that moment she told you and she was embraced by your touch for almost an hour.

“I never cried so hard after that."

“I just feel bad...that sometimes I don't show how much she means the world to me."

Sam knows you do a lot around the house. After your day job you tidy up the house a bit and then make dinner for Tara and her friends. You make sure Sam comes home to a clean house. The smell of a home cooked meal with fresh lilac sheets. Then you having the energy to snuggle up to Sam every night so she sleeps soundly. All that you do and Sam feels guilty that she hasn't given much back. Even though you say her smile is the best part about your day, or that it's the least you can do since Sam saved your life.

Sam came home extra early tonight, seeing what you maybe up to around this hour. Since you had the day off you had lots to do today. You were too focused on your special meal of the day that you didn't notice Sam coming towards you, planting a kiss on your cheek.

“Hey.", Sam says. You turned around and hugged her, as Sam notices your little chef outfit on. You watching a season of The Bear suddenly made you a chef, even though just last week you burned a grilled cheese.

“I have a surprise for you on the couch. But don't open it until I come.", You say, eager to finish cooking so you can give it to Sam. Sam always loved your gifts made by hand. It made her feel like a kid, having a huge smile from getting gifts from her school crush. Learning new things seemed to work for you, although you often had paper cuts and Sam had to kiss all of them so you'd feel better. She sits on the couch, waiting patiently for you to arrive. You did your jolly steps to the living room, handing a purple bag to Sam's lap. She thought you actually bought something when you really didn't, you just made it and wanted to be extra by wrapping it in a bag.

“Open it. I think you're going to like it.", You say, barely containing your excitement. Sam can show by how you weren't sitting down or else you would get jittery. She took off the wrapping paper, now holding a crochet stuffed bunny you made for her. It was cream colored, with a mini crochet blanket so the bunny won't get cold. Sam didn't know what to say or do, in the same breath she wanted to hug you but also wanted to cry. She was never gifted with a stuff animal, with all the years of being alone she drenched of having a stuff animal to hold closely to her chest.

“Do you like it?", You ask, followed by a warm smile to Sam. She sets the bunny on the coffee table next to the bag. She grabbed your entire body to her lap, hugging you tightly with love. You loved her security blanket hugs, until the hug ends up in the wrong spot.

“Love you too Sam ACK! SAM!", You say, feeling an unfamiliar squeeze to your mid area. Sam was never going to let you go. For a gift like that she plans on hugging you until she falls asleep. Hugs like this you couldn't escape from. You did once, until Sam chased you down and dragged you back so you can watch 90 day fiance with her.

“SAM! SAM! NOHOHOHO!!", You say laughing which each poke sent against your side. Your legs keep kicking with your head throwing back in laughing on Sam's shoulder. She smiled, enjoying the big grin you had on your face. Gifts weren't your love language but affection was, especially for tickles. Being tickled was worth a thousand gifts for you.

You looked at her, trying to hold the last bit of composure you had. Until you were moving at Sam's skittering fingers moving to your sides. “What's wrong? I'm barely touching you.", Sam says, giving you that teasing voice. You pout, cupping her hands and softly presses your lips to hers. Both of your heads were screaming fireworks at the kiss. The moment was romantic until her fingers caught back at your side. Instead of holding it in you giggle, which is much better than making funny faces to Sam because you're holding it in.

“Sam! Let go!", You say, tugging at her arms again.

“You want me to let go? I can do that.", Sam says, setting you down on the couch, making your tummy lay on her lap. Sam's hands come under your shirt, skittering her nails across your ticklish tummy. You laugh your head off, trying your best not to kick Sam due to how bad you squirm. You knew any violence would cause her to restrain your arms. “SAM! SAM! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!", You laugh, trying to get Sam's piano fingers off your tummy and torso. Of course you weren't trying, your hands were still covering your face as you knew for a fact the laughing was making your cheeks turn pink.

“STOP!!", You say before the tickling overtakes you, making you unable to say anything else. “Stop what darling?", Sam teases, knowing you love it, but also knowing you can't say the tword. She stops the tickling momentarily to give you a chance to respond. You were about to until she makes eye contact, making it impossible to recite anything. You smile in silence, in which Sam's heart was about to burst by how adorable you were. “Spare me please?", You ask politely of Sam to take it easy. Sam doesn't listen, she never does but it's because she goes by the opposite of what you say.

“No.", She says with a lovely grin and tickles your tummy again. This time you did kick as you didn't see the tickling coming. “FUVKFUCKHAHAHHA!!", You say, the cursing coming up as you laugh. The torture stops for a minute once again for Sam to say something absolutely ruthless, or corny.

“You know, they should make shirts that say tickle the cook. I'd certainly like that.", Sam says, causing a light blush to appear on your face. Withstanding all the tickling your apron was still on, being wrinkled up by the moving.

“But I guess kiss the cook works well too.", Sam says, putting an evil smirk on her face. This time you were grateful you weren't pinned upon Sam's great strength. But with your sudden movements she unexpectedly had your arms pinned under her knees. “No no no no SAM!" You say, giving little kicks for Sam to see. You kind of regret it, knowing that in seconds she could attack your feet. She kisses your forehead before moving to your lips, whispering a tease into your ear to give you loads of butterflies.

“You're so cute when you panic baby.", Sam says, giving you loads of tummy kisses afterwards. You didn't know why she trapped her arms if all she was giving was tummy kisses. But then the raspberries and armpit tickles came and that's when being pinned down was needed. “NOOOHAHAHHAH!!", You say, giving the biggest belly laugh Sam has ever seen. She felt so content of giving you pokes on your stomach, leading down to your armpits to messing with your ticklish ears.

“Don't be so dramatic I know you love this." She says, bundling you up with belly kisses again. She luckily set your arms free to wiggle around. But within that time you locked lips with her again. It was almost turning into a post tickle make out thing until she wanted a few kisses on your tummy. Fluttering tummy kisses was a good mix with the kisses. You both gave soft pecks, giggling in between and feeling Sam's hands wrap around your waist.

“Your so fucking adorable.", Sam says.

“And you're the best girlfriend ever.", You say.

“Gosh y'all are so gay.", Mindy says, rolling her eyes at the intimate moment you guys were sharing.

[magicalgirlpictureencyclopedia]

Idk why I'm back here, but I do want to say that I think we should talk more about gems in the magical girl genre such as Petite Princess Yucie, Jewelpet Twinkle, and Fairy Musketeers rather than niche 2010's titles we've (the fans, idc about them much) all agreed on aren't good. Besides beloved 90's-2000's titles (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Ojamajo Doremi, Tokyo Mew Mew, Shugo Chara to name a few) and the rare retro fan who is into Minky Momo or Creamy Mami... I see a lot of, "Well, [×] was a bad show and the genre is ruined!", but it always comes off as someone who doesn't really watch the genre. There's a lot of good shows out there if you check them out, but if you aren't actively looking for recommendations or looking for titles then you can't really expect to find much.

As harsh as it may come off, in my experience the average American magical girl fan isn't going to watch or even know of obscure titles much to look for mhch more. Most people's introduction to the genre here was through Sailor Moon, and that expectation of those action oriented media sticked. Therefore, the majokko (魔女っ子, witch girl) and magical girl idol titles are pushed into the background. Some would point the finger at licensing, but it also misses how a lot of these titles aren't commonly talked about as is. It was worse before Retrocrush on Discotek, but at the least you can find people who are into stuff like Magical Emi or Pastel Yumi. Still, it's hard for me to grasp how a lot of the genre is ignored in bigger magical girl spaces, especially on sites such as Twitter. I get highly confused when I only see people talking about Precure or Sailor Moon, yet make a lot of assumptions pushed to places that aren't really responsible for that.

Sure, licensing could be better, but that's a complex issue I've seen people go into. A friend of mines posts about how deals were set up for shows like Shugo Chara, but companies weren't interested. There's a massive problem overall with getting girls media off the ground as well. However, it is also on fans to check out more than what many would call the "cream of the crop" if they want other experiences. The optimizing of "dark themes" from newer fans also does not help, as it relegates the genre into a very odd competition between which is more mature or serious, yet forgetting at the end of the day many of these titles are for kids and cam stand on their own without vague comparisons. If you're not even going to look into say, titles beyond Princess Tutu, then I can't really take demands of wanting the genre to explore other themes seriously when several already have done that...

Yes, I'm saying this because most people in the online spaces I frequent at most will just watch Precure, Madoka Magica, and Sailor Moon, yet refuse to look at anything else and commonly put themselves into discussions to make generalizations about media they know they will never watch. It's especially weird to see as a fan of adv games/visual novels and mecha anime, where I see people do the exact opposite - dig up old titles and openly talk about them. I'm not expecting fans to automatically know what stuff like Galaxy Fraulein Yuna is, or games like Silky Lip and Valis, but I do think with media critique and common complaints your scope of criticism should be beyond a popular 90's titles and a few from the 2000's. I also find so many conversations dull cause I've been in the fandom for a hot minute and recommendations I rarely see, but moreso complaints about the same 6-8 shows instead of uh, idk, watching something else entirely.

Again, enjoy your shows, just don't jump into convos "educating people" (telling me or others stuff like majokko don't count, too many other examples to list here), or claiming all of the genre was boring/good/bad/kiddy before [×]. I also promise you it's actually rare to find a magical girl title that doesn't address "serious themes", cause even the ones about fairy tales and cutesy magical schools have child abandonment and trauma rampant through them. :/