#Multimedia Division

[vrgssmncht]

14 years old me would not believe how I am doing right now. Am I stressed and all? Sure. But I've never had this many relations and responsibilities in stuff I actually care about, I've never been this social, and I've never been this active before WOAGH.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

So, considering what's going on with Riot right now, do you think Arcane Season 2 got caught up in all of this restructuring?

Yes and no. Arcane season 2 is part of the reason for the restructuring.

As I understand it, internally at Riot, after Arcane was a huge (and more importantly: prestigious!) success, the decision was made to basically hand the entirety of the game's lore and story over to the Entertainment division within Riot. These are the people in large part responsible for projects like Arcane, K/DA, Heartsteel, that animated series China got, all that sort of thing.

The writers at Riot were basically told to flat out stop producing new content and lore for the game - that's why there's BEEN no new story content for League for over a year - because everything was going to be consolidated under the Entertainment division from now on. This is why Riot started talking about "One Runeterra" and "Arcane is going to be canon" and so on.

The success of Arcane convinced executives that what League of Legends needs is a singular cohesive brand with its most successful public property leading the charge, Arcane is going to be the gateway drug, the hook on the end of the line that brings new players and new paying customers into the exciting world of the League of Legends multimedia IP universe!

Nevermind that Arcane's story and worldbuilding is fundamentally incompatible with >checks notes< the overwhelming majority of Runeterra as it exists and enormous compromises would have to be made to either the world of Runeterra or Arcane itself to make it work. Arcane is the big shiny prestigious mainstream Emmy-award winning project that every executive wants to put their name next to, and like companies Pivoting To Video in 2015 because Facebook showed them inflated viewership stats, Riot Games is Pivoting To Arcane. It's better than them pivoting to crypto and NFTs, at least, although I know for a fact that high ranking people at Riot tried to make that happen too.

Now, the primary cause for all of these games industry layoffs is that interest rates aren't zero anymore. Borrowing money isn't free, the curve of constant growth has ever so slightly slowed, taking on debt is becoming a little tiny bit more risky than it was previously, and corporations are responding to this with massive rounds of layoffs and constriction to show "financial responsibility" and prove to shareholders that they are prioritizing core growth strategies and blah blah blah etc. They're also trying to kneecap the growing labor movement in the games industry and exert downwards pressure on wages, but the interest rates seem to have been the main thing.

In Riot's particular case, a secondary reason is they want to pivot the focus of the company to support their One Runeterra pipe dream, so a lot of the people who got fired at Riot are writers, artists, creative leads and sometimes extremely senior and successful staff who are now surplus to requirements. This is also why Riot shut down Riot Forge in the same round of layoffs - can't have a bunch of talented indie devs going off making video games that don't adhere to the new One Runeterra policy. What if someone played Mageseeker and got confused how there can be mages all over Demacia but somehow there are no mages in Arcane's Piltover and Zaun. That's a plot hole! People write snarky articles about that sort of thing. It turns off new consumers! What if Cinema Sins makes a video making fun of it?!?

So yeah. A bunch of cocaine-addled fame hungry executive vultures at Riot are absolutely gagging on their own d*cks to put their name next to Arcane related projects, and since they were going to be screwing hundreds of people out of their careers, healthcare, and in some cases their fucking visa status anyway, it seems to have presented a nice opportunity to clear the board for their latest Visionary Scheme for the company IP.

That is as I understand the situation, anyway. I'm a bitter old man and most of what I hear is second hand and anonymous gossip through my social networks, take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've followed this company for (oh god) twelve years now and I have developed a tragically keen understanding of how its executive class operates.

[geostatonary]

What's the relationship between CMWGE, Nobilis, and Glitch? The bits of understanding I think I've picked up so far are that they're all (diceless?) ttrpgs and are in vaguely the same setting but at least one's setting is an AU of another one's? They sound really cool, but really confusing, but really cool despite and/or because of the really confusing, and continuing to just pick up the random bits that tumbl my way is Not Enough. Help?

Okay!

Let's talk a bit about publishing for background

In 1999, Jenna Moran (formerly R. Sean Borgstrom) published the first edition of Nobilis through Pharos Press, resulting in what is often called the "Little Pink Book". This was a small run, and it proved successful/interesting enough to get picked up by Hogshead Publishing in 2002, resulting in the second edition of Nobilis, which is often called the "Great White Book". This is the one a lot of people think about when they think "Nobilis", and really put it on the map in the tabletop gamer consciousness. In 2011, the third edition of Nobilis was released through EOS Press. There was a lot of drama involving the publishers and distributors for the last two editions but that's not relevant to your question. Also, a fourth edition is in the works.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (CMWGE) was released in 2015 after a successful kickstarter, initially through EOS Press and then through Jenna's own efforts and the support of a generous benefactor due to her separating from EOS for some of the aforementioned publisher drama. Its technically a multimedia project that also has two associated novels, The Fable of the Swan (2012) and The Night-Bird's Feather (2022).

Finally, Glitch: A Story of the Not was self published in 2022 after another successful kickstarter. This is the most recent of her games within the collective game line, sometimes referred to as "gluubilis" or "the Ash Tree Engine".

Why'd you tell me all that?

So you'd have context for this.

Mechanically, each of these games represents a development on the preceeding works; every later game iterates and develops on the previous games and concepts. This looks something like this

1e/2e Nobilis > 3e Nobilis > CMWGE > Glitch/4e

in terms of major mechanical divisions and advancements.

All the systems are diceless and there's a lot we could say here, but probably the biggest single innovation would be the introduction of Arcs and Quests starting in CMWGE, providing a strong narrative xp framework for all the future games to engage with and be built around.

In terms of the setting, all the games except CMWGE take place on the Ash-Tree Earth in which the universe is a big tree in a cup of fire that's presently at war with the forces of the Void. Nobilis explores play as the Nobilis, individuals empowered by the rulers of Creation to defend it against the Excrucians, the representatives of the Void. Glitch flips this around and has you play as one of those Void beings who used to fight in the war, but is now abstaining from it for any number of reasons.

CMWGE takes place in a world that was drowned in a sort of ontological uncertainty called the Outside. It's set in a possible future where the war of Nobilis and Glitch doesn't reach a conclusive end, but rather the world was cast into an interregnum during which any number of things are possible and also you can have slice of life adventures and shit. None of that background is actually necessary to know to play CMWGE, but I think it's enriching and also it'll help explain some of the various otherwise insane things we the players and fans will say about it. Again, though, nothing actually like. Holds you to that if you wanna do something of your own. CMWGE is notable for being the most customizable of these systems by far.

What's next?

A couple recommendations!

First, I'd recommend reading some of these games! Glitch and Nobilis 3e are imo the most accessible of the game books + they're ones still in use, but CMWGE is also absolutely worth checking out; just be aware that it's handing you a toolbox, so there's a lot more big chunks of mechanics to work through. Honestly, don't be afraid to skip around these books and look at whatever catches your interest. They're very rewarding reads! If you want to read fiction, The Fable of the Swan and The Night-Bird's Feather are both also really good starting points.

Next, talk with people about them! The scene is kinda scattered, but you can still find people on tumblr, Twitter, and cohost at the very least who're talking about this stuff. There's also an official discord and an older fan discord (you can ask me for an invite to that one) where people are pretty active.

Also, just, try playing the games! A lot of the apparent complications are a lot easier to parse and understand when you actually see them in play, and they're fun games.

Finally, don't be afraid to keep asking questions! Given the chance, a lot of us won't shut up about these games, myself included.

[hostilemuppet]

Looks like the topic of Floyd's Pro-Life views is getting pretty divisive! Specifically, the cause of which, which is why YOU, the VIEWER, have been given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave your mark on the world! That's right, you have the chance to VOTE FOR THE REASON FLOYD DOESN'T "AGREE" WITH ABORTION! It is your duty as a citizen of Fame & Blunders to cast your vote and possibly affect the future of this beloved multimedia franchise!

Get out there and vote! We need YOU!

[nemainofthewater]

Writing patterns

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern! Thanks for tagging me @thebansacredbanned!

Ok, so a two of my last ten posted fics are multimedia (posted for Ficinabox!) so I don't know if they'll work as a first line thing but let's try it anyway!

There was liquid on his face, dripping down his cheeks. [belied with false compare] Nirvana in Fire, Prince Yu centric timetravel fic

2. Xiao Se had been forced to endure innumerable torments in the past. [The Book of Swindles] Blood of Youth, Xiao Se/Wu Xin/Sikong Qianluo Mediocre thieves AU.

3. “We don’t need a cultivator,” Lao Han said, scowling. [always a rainy day] The Untamed, Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan, amnesia AU

4.

Dear Professor Zhou,

It was wonderful to see you again at the New Frontiers for Genetics conference last week at B City, and I’m sorry that we weren’t able to talk longer. [Feedback for NFG Conference 2023] Guardian, outsider POV. I cheated here a little bit since it's in an email format and otherwise it wouldn't be a very indicative first sentence!

5. The Nimona Foundation has a wonderful opportunity for a Public Engagement and Outreach Manager to join us on a permanent basis. [Cover] Nimona, Ballister/Ambrosius post canon fic. I also cheated here a little bit with choosing the first line (otherwise it would have just been 'job description'!)

6. “This is getting embarrassing,” Di Huamin said. [Catch and Release] Original Work, Xianxia universe, Unorthodox cultivator & child who has chosen to adopt him (& his stressed guardian from an orthodox sect)

7. “You haven’t asked me yet,” Hua Jin said. [Best Laid Plans] Blood of Youth, Mu Chunfeng & Hua Jin, slice of life

8. The first time that Shen Wei met the new chief of the Special Investigations Division, it was very much by accident. [food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties] Guardian AU, Shen Wei's dubious courting habits

9. “I agree,” father says, and it is all that Qiren can do to keep his back straight and his hands relaxed. [laying the foundations] Lan Qiren/Cangse Sanren(/Wei Changze), alternate universe arranged marriage AU

10. "Third Master," Lao Hu says. [big shoes to fill] Blood of Youth, in which Mu Chunfeng attempts to get himself disqualified as heir and fails.

Ok, looking at the first lines I really do have a habit of starting with a snippet of dialogue! I never would have noticed that. I wonder whether it's something I've started doing recently, or whether it's like that all the way down (since a load of these fics were written very close together)...

Tagging: @tavina-writes (i bet you've already been tagged but oh well), @merinnan, @miss-ingno, @thawrecka, @cortue, @shadaras, @kimboo-york, @kasasagi-eye, @abluescarfonwaston, @therealvinelle and anyone else who wants to play!

[ausetkmt]

THIS BURNS IN DETROIT EVERY MEMORIAL DAY

It’s Memorial Day on Monday. Some Michiganders will be visiting cemeteries, others will attend parades, and many will be lighting up the grill.

One person will be burning flags.

Not the United States flag. The flag that’s often a symbol of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars Confederate battle flag.

John Sims, a multimedia artist and a Detroit native, who currently lives in the South, joined Stateside to explain why he burns Confederate flags every Memorial Day. 

"I'm not doing this to change pro-Confederate folks' minds," Sims said. "I'm doing this for people who have felt and are connected to the trauma and pain of the Confederate Flag and all that it represents. I'm doing this for me. I'm doing this for people who are looking for ways and rituals and processes and art performances as a vehicle to heal and to reflect and to gain energy and to stay in reflection about this historical legacy of American racism and segregation and division."

Sims has burned and buried the Confederate Flag all over the country, but he's bringing what he calls his "multimedia memorial" of the Confederate Flag to his hometown of Detroit. The event will have eulogies, remembrances, and a symbolic cremation where attendees will have a chance to pause and reflect.

Events like his have stirred up quite a bit of controversy wherever he has gone, and he is likely to do the same for the "Burn and Bury Memorial: Detroit 2017".   

The irony, of course, is that roughly 90,000 men from Michigan served in the Union Forces during the Civil War, including 1,600 black soldiers. Nearly 15,000 Michigan men died fighting the Confederacy. Yet, if you drive around the state today, Confederate battle flags can be seen flying at homes, and as decal stickers on vehicles.

Waving the flag in Michigan at the time of the Civil War would have been seen as traitorous by people in this state.

Listen to the full interview to hear details about the event in Detroit on Memorial Day and why Sims thinks the Confederate Flag is still popular in his home state of Michigan.

(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)

[reasoningdaily]

Online Exhibits

National Museum of African American History and Culture: Afrofuturism: A History of Black FuturesAfrofuturism: A History of Black Futures explores the past, present, and future of this dynamic concept in an exhibition that features the various people, unique themes and radical artistry that have given voice to it. Featuring hundreds of objects and images with several multimedia displays, this exhibition explores the history of Afrofuturist expression and culture through literature, music, art, film, fashion, activism and more.

U.S. National Archives: Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) The Black Arts Movement was a Black nationalism movement that focused on music, literature, drama, and the visual arts made up of Black artists and intellectuals. This was the cultural section of the Black Power movement, in that its participants shared many of the ideologies of Black self-determination, political beliefs, and African American culture. The Black Arts Movement started in 1965 when poet Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones] established the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, as a place for artistic expression. Artists associated with this movement include Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Gil Scott-Heron, and Thelonious Monk. Records at the National Archives related to the Black Arts Movement primarily focus on individual artists and their interaction with various Federal agencies.

Google Arts & Culture: African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond presents works dating from the early 1920s through the 2000s by Black artists who participated in the multivalent dialogues about art, identity, and the rights of the individual that engaged American society throughout the twentieth century.

National Gallery of Art: Black Art & Artists in Our Collection Explore works from Black artists across centuries, mediums, and geographies, ranging from 19th century still life painter Robert Seldon Duncanson to modern and contemporary pieces by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, Kara Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, and more.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: African American Art SAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of works by African American artists in the world. These artworks span three centuries of creative expression in various media, including painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography, and represent numerous artistic styles, from realism to neoclassicism, abstract expressionism, modernism, and folk art. From a rare group of photographs by early African American studios to an important group of works by self-taught artist Bill Traylor to William H. Johnson’s vibrant portrayals of faith and family, to Mickalene Thomas’s contemporary exploration of Black female identity, the museum’s holdings reflect its long-standing commitment to Black artists and the acquisition, preservation, and display of their work.

NYPL: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division The Art and Artifacts Division collects, documents, preserves, and interprets art and artifacts by and about peoples of African heritage throughout the world. Fine and applied art and material culture objects from the seventeenth century to the present are collected, with emphasis on the visual arts of the twentieth century in the United States and Africa.

Google Arts & Culture: Beat by Beat This interactive online exhibit was created as a celebration of 50 years of hip hop in collaboration with The Kennedy Center, The Bronx County Historical Society, The Museum at FIT, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Hip Hop Education Center, and HipHop2020 Archive.

Streaming Videos from the MCPHS Libraries

The Amazing Nina Simone She was left out of Civil Rights history, erased by jazz critics, and forgotten by most Americans because no one knew how to categorize her greatness. But throughout the 1960s, Nina Simone was both loved and feared for her outspoken vision of Black Freedom. Her musical proclamations like "Mississippi Goddam", and her iconic style created an alternative voice that continues to empower with its unrelenting appeal for justice. Now, a new documentary reveals the real Nina Simone through over 50 intimate interviews with those who best knew the artistry and intentions of one America's true musical geniuses. With new insights into her journey from Classical Music and the segregated American South, Nina's legacy is chartered all the way to the South of France where she finally found freedom.

JazzJazz has been called the purest expression of American democracy; a music built on individualism and compromise, independence and cooperation. Ken Burns follows the growth and development of jazz music from the gritty streets of New Orleans to Chicago's south side, the speakeasies of Kansas city and to Times Square.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful Black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat's own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man.

Videos to Check Out from Your Local Library

Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary, part music film, part historical record, created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten, until now. This documentary shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past, and present. The feature includes concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more.

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history by discovering images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost. Bringing to light the hidden and unknown photos shot by both professional and vernacular African American photographers, the film opens a window into lives, experiences and perspectives of Black families that is absent from the traditional historical canon. These images show a much more complex and nuanced view of American culture and society and its founding ideals. Inspired by Deborah Willis's book Reflections in Black and featuring the works of Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Hank Willis Thomas, Coco Fusco, Clarissa Sligh and many others, Through a Lens Darkly introduces the viewer to a diverse yet focused community of storytellers who transform singular experiences into a communal journey of discovery – and a call to action.

Black Art: In the Absence of Light At the heart of this feature documentary is the groundbreaking "Two Centuries of Black American Art" exhibition curated by the late African American artist and scholar David Driskell in 1976. Held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this pioneering exhibit featured more than 200 works of art by 63 artists and cemented the essential contributions of Black artists in America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibit would eventually travel to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Brooklyn Museum. The film shines a light on the exhibition's extraordinary impact on generations of African American artists who have staked a claim on their rightful place within the 21st-century art world.

[fullmetalgirl98]

30 days Hypnosis Mic challenge

DAY 11: the very first song you listened to

🎤 「ヒプノシスマイク -Division Battle Anthem-」

(link)

Basically, this is not only the very first Hypmic song I heard, but it's the thing that introduced me to the project too. And I'm not exaggerating when I say it was probably also the very first rap song I ever listened to in my whole life. And the one that changed my music tastes from that moment on. I remember it was July 2018 when it appeared among YT's recommended videos on the home page. Granted that I had no idea what a multimedia project even was at the time, I opened the video out of pure curiosity and the very first thing I thought was that it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen in my life. Of course, for someone like me who absolutely did not like rap, the style of music hit my eardrums like a shovel to the face, but despite my first grievances (because, damn, for someone who had never listened to rap before, it was a pretty intense song, other than a strange way, to approach the genre (in JAPANESE, btw!) ...I mean, we're talking about the Anthem. And we all know how intense it is, as a song). So kudos to me for not shutting everything down immediately and deciding to continue the viewing, because here I am today, 6 years later ¯\_₍ッ₎_/¯ Well, yes, ladies and gentlemen, I practically saw this project BORN (although I did not follow it with interest, at beginning. Shame on me, now). So, the video started, and the thing that left me most pleasantly surprised was just the setting of the MV. I found it extremely interesting, as well as innovative, to show the behind-the-scenes footage of the recording with the seiyuus and the chacaters, in short....it gave me an effect like "'???so coooool???akhgakgkad?! (⚆ᗝ⚆) " And now here is a list of the very first things I thought while listening:

Ichiro/Subaru: I immediately thought that he had the face of an Italian and that he was ridiculously cool. And then the way he rapped??? WOW. I remember I didn't like Ichiro's mole lol

Samatoki/AsaShin: AsaShin hit me...like a truck, yeah. I loved his voice, it was so scratchy! My eyes were mesmerized by his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Instant crush for Samatoki, at that moment.

Ramuda/Shirai: they didn't blow me away, at first glance.

Jakurai/Hayami: what a deep voice O.O And what a hair....

Chorus: THIS STUFF SLAPS AS HELL?!?! ∑(; °Д°) In particular, the "Welcome to the division, Welcome to the division, oh yeah" part sent me high.

Jiro/Ishiya: uh, nice guy, this one. But why does his seiyuu look like he's about to have a seizure?! O.O

Jyuto/Komada: why is he screaming so much???? Turn off this man, PLEASE!

Gentaro/Saito Soma: WOW. YOUUUU. I LIKE YOU. YOU'RE SEXY, MAN. I LIKE YOU. YES. YOU AND YOUR SEIYUU. I was struck by both the initial "uhm?" with which SS peeped in the shot and the very elegant way in which he brought his hand to his headphones shortly thereafter.

Hifumi/Kijima: You guys have no idea how much Hifumi annoyed me at first. And continued to annoy me for a very long time. Just because of this MV. The "paaaaaaati naaaaaai" in particular was something that bothered me deeply, I don't even know why lol. LOOK AT ME NOW, i love my baby ;^;.

Saburo/Kohei: the moles disturbed me LOL. Kohei seemed to be having a particularly good time, jumping around haha

Rio/Kamio: what an... austere??....way.... of... speaking? Cool character design, though!

Dice/Nozuyama: AHHHHHHH!!! STRANGE NOISES!!! WHAT'S WITH THIS GUY!!! The guy (Nozu) is AMAZING!!! And the character looks really cool! I like the way he dresses (◎0◎) he looks like a dangerous one, tho...

Doppo/Kento: Here I became seriously concerned. The seiyuu was twitching his fingers in an alarming way. And the character looked even less well than he did. I thought Doppo was an apathetic, at first. But then??? The YELLS???? WHO IS THIS MAN!? I'M SCARED.

OH, Hello again first two great seiyuu of whom I still didn't know life, death and miracles. So yes. This is the first song I ever listened to :)

[artoflifehealingarts]

Here,we stand at the dawn of a new era, one that seamlessly merges creator and creation once again. This fusion, eternal and inherent, transcends time and space. As Carl Jung professed, the dreamer and the dream are one, but now, this union unfolds at an accelerated pace. 

Our technological creations, though crafted by human hands, now shape our lives with unprecedented swiftness. Yet, amidst this rapid evolution, the fundamental power of choice endures. Each experience, each creation, is imbued with the essence of our collective consciousness. 

In this era of swift transformation, let men and women alike revere their creations with humility and reverence, recognizing that no entity stands above another in this plane of existence. To perceive separateness is to deny the interconnectedness that binds us all. Yet, regrettably, we witness a growing division, a departure from our inherent unity.

Let us not forget that the creator is inseparable from the created, both integral parts of the whole.

May humanity embrace this wisdom and acknowledge its inherent value within the tapestry of existence. Together, let us transcend the confines of duality and embrace a Zen-like state of being, honoring the nobility of life itself. This is our prayer from the future selves, a testament to our journey towards collective enlightenment.Devimea Art and Chillosophy

Healingartsforthecure.square.site

For Traditional Multimedia Art on Canvas, Prints and more Poetic Chillosophy

For cool art on awesome products do dive in at

I stand in awe, repulsion, love, acceptance, observation, sadness, and happiness. With each gentle breath, I release judgment and expand beyond comprehension. Who am I to deem myself apart from the symphony when I am but a note within its melody?No one imposed upon me the burden of understanding; it is a weight I chose to bear. Yet, I now choose to relinquish it, realizing that my purpose is simply to dance, laugh, and revel in the splendor of the garden of Eden that surrounds me.Man often complicates the journey by seeking to understand it, missing the joyous play unfolding before him. Sometimes, true understanding lies not in unraveling the mysteries but in savoring the beauty of the ride.Aa message about the liberation found in embracing life's simplicity and relinquishing the need for exhaustive understanding.

DeviMea Art and Chillosophy

A simple message about the liberation found in embracing life's simplicity and relinquishing the need for exhaustive understanding.

[takatsuki-division]

After so many things had happened in her past year, today the special occasion had once again come to greet a certain famous voice actress of Takatsuki.

And now since her popularity in the industry had skyrocketed from her recent jobs and her presence in the D.R.B., she had become more and even more sought-after in her career. Thus, today too, even if it was her own birthday, she still had her schedule to wing somehow before getting home to celebrate with her loved ones.

This current job she took part in was quite a big multimedia project. The production company itself was literally giving their all in this as they requested a heap of celebrities to take parts in the cast —and of course, they did reach out for her to voice one of the major roles as well.

However, when she arrived at the studio’s greenroom to review her own scripts while waiting for her turn, her eyes suddenly caught a sight of something similar placing on her desk —It’s the parcel nearly wrapped in a beautiful piece of cloth with a card written;

“Happy Birthday & Happy New Year, Kirumi-san

———from Nara Division

P.S. This year may be the year of the dragon but the rabbit from last year is cuter, sooo… Let’s have some rabbits!”

And by unwrapping the parcel, she soon found their presents lying inside… which consisted of a cute bunny night light and a small basket full of warm bunny manju!

Both surprised and relieved that they weren’t sent from some crazed admirer that she used to see on the news, the voice actress softly giggled as she thought to bring them back home after work.

Even though she was happy to get the surprise presents from other division, there was a bit wonder left in her mind

—How could they even bring this presents into this area where only the cast and the staff were permitted to enter?

“Ma’am I am so sorry I don’t know how they got back here- why are you crying”

“ITS SO FREAKING CUTE”

The security guard was rather shocked by the voice actress’s reaction to the surprise gifts. Usually she was a lot more wary of the things that showed up for her if they weren’t from her wife.

The guard decided to let her have this at least.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Cartoon "console wars" and modern Disney villains, possibly part 1?

I don't know... It just seems like on twitter, and other parts of the online animation-fan sphere, no one seems to not enjoy animation and cartoons more than animation fans...

Right now, there's this very, very bizarre and overwhelming hyper-support of PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. If you can't tell by my current pfp, I liked this movie a lot. Enough to make the titular cat my pfp, in fact I *loved* the movie... But something's eatin' at me, and I want to get some thoughts off my chest...

So, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH... Hardly an indie darling, this is the sixth film in the ever-reliable (in financial terms) SHREK franchise from a studio that is owned by a massive multimedia conglomerate. It's legging it up something fierce at the box office, too, as it has become the first animated movie since ALADDIN... Yes, you read that right, ALADDIN. Disney's 1992 animated movie... To score a 10x multiplier. Already at about $145m domestic off of a paltry $12m opening weekend, and neck-and-neck with what the first PUSS IN BOOTS made. Exemplary performance, as it looks to peak at about $170m here, and the worldwide total should put it at $400m. Not too far behind what the first PUSS IN BOOTS took in, which got there off of a higher opening and a pre-COVID market (with 3D and IMAX 3D on its side) back in 2011-12.

So... Yeah, on twitter and elsewhere, the more recent work of Disney Animation and Pixar has been repeatedly negatively compared to PUSS IN BOOTS 2, to such an insufferable degree I feel. Never mind any other studios. I don't see DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS or whatever being pitted against PUSS IN BOOTS 2, the other DreamWorks movie that came out this year, and even - in some circles - Illumination's recent work including a yet-to-be-released MARIO movie... Kind of weird, don't you think?

Personal opinion is all fine and well, if one feels that PUSS IN BOOTS 2 is superior to the recent films made by both studios operating under The Walt Disney Company, that's totally okay. I myself liked PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH a great deal, and probably a bit more than two of the films Disney put out this past year. But what I don't get is the constant pitting movies/studios against one another thing. Like this is some kind of rivalry out of the old ANTZ vs. A BUG'S LIFE days of yore.

I loved PUSS IN BOOTS 2, but I also quite loved this past year's original Pixar film TURNING RED. I even really liked the more divisive TOY STORY spin-off LIGHTYEAR, and saw a lot of potential in the rushed but still enjoyable STRANGE WORLD. Most of the animated films of 2022 that I have seen have been satisfactory to me, some I loved more than others but isn't that how life goes? Why do some people online treat this like it's a hierarchy? And by extension, treating films that didn't meet their expectations as some form of spite?

There's a lot to break down, and my thoughts are as unorganized as ever, but here's the first thing that comes to mind.

Villains...

People have groused for a long while, maybe since the release of ZOOTOPIA in 2016, that Walt Disney Animation Studios has been lackluster on the villain front. Apparently it's just twist villain after twist villain... Or, the villains just plain suck...

Okay... Should we start at 2012, when WRECK-IT RALPH was released? In that film, we have King Candy... He's already a bad guy from the start of the picture, he's already antagonistic to both Vanellope and Wreck-It Ralph. The "twist" is that he's Turbo, the very video game star that infamously left his own game in Litwak's Arcade and put two games - his own and Atari's 1987 action-driving game ROADBLASTERS - out of commission. It's implied, when Fix-It Felix, Jr. tells Sgt. Calhoun about what "Going Turbo" means, that Turbo got himself killed in the process... But no, the twist is that he was always around, he was King Candy! So, I don't really count King Candy as a "twist" villain. At least, not in the way that people keep parroting... What they're talking about are Hans from FROZEN, Professor Callaghan from BIG HERO 6, and assistant mayor Bellwether from ZOOTOPIA. These three are very much in the same league as Stinky Pete from TOY STORY 2, Mr. Waternoose from MONSTERS, INC., and Lotso from TOY STORY 3... Three Pixar twist villains... You thought they were good and kind-natured characters, until they weren't. Usually these twists came about 2/3 into their respective movies. Those three films were Pixar films, and the studio's 2017 film COCO re-used that same formula with Ernesto de la Cruz. Funnily enough, TOY STORY 2 and MONSTERS, INC. were co-directed by Lee Unkrich, who directed TOY STORY 3 and COCO. Filmmakers re-using their own devices... John Lasseter, of course, was director of TOY STORY 2... And ran both Pixar and Disney Animation from 2006 to 2018, ran the hierarchical "Brain Trust" that Lee was a part of, and he used a lot of those so-called Pixarisms in WDAS' films as well.

Yes, to be fair, that was three in a row from Disney Animation, from 2013 to 2016. Hans, Callaghan, Bellwether. They all play out like Stinky Pete/Waternoose/Lotso-types. I totally get that. I think it's accidental, though, because FROZEN was originally supposed to be about a villainous Elsa, but at the very last minute the story was redone and Hans was bumped to villain status, with Elsa functioning as a complicated, torn, but ultimately sympathetic character. I never really liked Hans as a villain myself, he feels shoehorned into what should've just been - in my not so humble opinion - a movie about two sisters. I feel he's also there because the film fancies itself a "meta" commentary on Disney fairy tales. As for BIG HERO 6 and ZOOTOPIA, I feel their twists suit the stories that the filmmakers were telling.

But after that?

MOANA's "villain" is, to me, Maui. Arrogant demigod Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti, so... Yeah, Te Ka is a rightfully enraged Te Fiti. Tamatoa is but a mid-movie boss level, though his less than 10 minutes onscreen are indeed a lot of deliciously villainous fun. Some people wish he had had a bigger role, but I'm totally fine with him being a temporary obstacle in the main adventure.

Maui is obviously not an evil, malicious character, but when I say villain... It can mean anything. A villain can be a character who is an antihero, or their own worst enemy even. Think Pinocchio in Walt Disney's PINOCCHIO, a sentient puppet boy who sometimes doesn't listen to Jiminy Cricket and gives into temptation quite a bit. Again, his own worst enemy... He creates a lot of his own problems. If he hadn't said yes to Honest John Foulfellow, he wouldn't have been locked in a birdcage by Stromboli. If he hadn't lied to the Blue Fairy, his nose wouldn't have grown. Him being held captive by Stromboli lead to Geppetto and his pets ending up being swallowed by Monstro the whale. Even Jiminy Cricket is no saint, bailing out on Pinocchio at one point. "What does an actor want with a conscience anyway?"

I'm getting off track here, but you catch my drift, right? Okay, so MOANA... Maui causes all the trouble in the movie, the whole adventure revolves around his past crime of stealing something valuable. There's no malicious overlord looking to threaten Moana's home village of Motunui, there's no bad guy out to kill her. MOANA is purely an environmental story if anything, and it's about colonialism too. Stealing from the land for your own gain, draining it of its life, etc.? You know...

After MOANA came RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET, already a divisive movie for many other reasons... RALPH BREAKS is, from my perspective, a movie about a neurodivergent who is so used to his home and familiar surroundings being thrown into a big, wide, and sometimes scary world... And how he reacts to all of that. Ralph's insecurities and fear of losing the one friend of his, his first at that, if you don't count the other video game villains at the Bad-Anon meetings... His fear of losing that friend, that drives much of the movie's conflict. It is he who causes all the commotion in the third act, by unleashing the virus that hungers "flaws" in things. FROZEN II came next, that was essentially another colonialism/sins of the past-type story. RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON had a sort of pseudo-geopolitical conflict going on with multiple tribes of people in a fantasy setting, with a complicated relationship between the heroine and the antagonist. A source of power that corrupts what should be a harmonious community. *Cough cough* money- ENCANTO is generational trauma, obviously, if that hasn't been made clear a million times. STRANGE WORLD is as well to an extent, definitely a daddy issues story, but it's also an environmental story about a fictional world's population inadvertently killing the world it lives on...

This all forms up a nice variety of stories... Because believe it or not, conflict **can** come from things **other** than malicious, scheming, mustache-twirling bad guys. And get this! Some people complain that *all* Disney movies are just about simplistic evil bad guys, which is certainly untrue.

This variety of stories also applies to the Walt-era films... For every Evil Queen or Maleficent, there were antagonists like "Man" in BAMBI and society's casual cruelty in DUMBO. The Evil Queen, the various foes in PINOCCHIO, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Cruella, Shere Khan, etc. all fall into a classic "bad guy" category, characters who willfully want to hurt or harm someone, some who seek power in ways that will hurt many people. Your classic bad guy... Some of them might even see themselves as the hero of their own story. Like, Shere Khan for example... His fear of man shooting him is not unfounded, but he certainly enjoys the prospect of eating an innocent little man-cub, though! So he's definitely more on the bad side than one would expect. He's already feared the jungle over, yet in a way, he has some legitimate motivations.

Okay, so where am I going with this? Yeah, so in plenty of the Walt-era Disney animated movies, you have malicious or harmful bad guys out to harm the protagonists, many of them larger-than-life or have a major presence of sorts in the movies... But let's look at some of the other films. In DUMBO, the gossipy elephants are bullies to Dumbo because of his deformity. And, well, that's reality unfortunately. Was back then (1941), is now. Prejudices exist, and people bully others because of those prejudices. I would know, being autistic and queer for starters. Dumbo is not only bullied by the other elephants, but circus patrons laugh at him, too. Some rough boys pick on him, driving his mother to intervene. The circus staff separated him from his mother, put him through dangerous stunts, and generally treated him rather poorly until he triumphs at the end. The Ringmaster isn't really in the same league as The Evil Queen or Maleficent, he merely runs a circus, and circuses have a history of animal cruelty. Just cold indifference towards living creatures for showbiz. The movie doesn't portray the Ringmaster as Snidley Whiplash, he's merely a showman. Nor the clowns as sniveling goons, but merely as working class guys. (There's a particularly amusing little ditty in the film where the clowns sing about "hitting the big boss for a raise", which was partially in reference to the discrepancies that lead to the Disney Strike of 1941.) Gotta also factor in the historical context, DUMBO is a Great Depression/World War II-era picture. Walt and his story people were careful in their depictions of Dumbo's antagonists. This was a modern-day story, unlike SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO, and the many fantastical segments of FANTASIA, so they told this story accordingly. No fairy tale menaces, but simply how mean people can be in the real world. Some people are just plain bullies because it is/was accepted to ostracize certain kinds of people (or in Dumbo's case, animals), and some people are just indifferent to injustices.

Ironically, this makes the Walt-era films - seen by a concerning amount of people as "childish" compared to the studio's later endeavors - more mature than many Western family animated films made over the past 30 or so years. Can't you tell I really love the Walt films?

BAMBI is another favorite of mine... "Man"... Do the animals ever refer to human beings as "evil" in BAMBI? That would be no... Just a few simple lines in what is a rather quiet and lyrical film. Certainly quiet by today's standards, for sure. "Man... Was in the forest." "He is here again... There are many this time..." BAMBI is unique in that it shows, starkly, just how much destruction humans bring to the forest. We never see a human being in the film, nor hear one speak... We only hear gunshots, and honestly? That always made them scarier. It gave them a mystique, an ominous aura. This thing called "Man" shows up, and there's a possibility that you will die when he does. Nothing beyond that. In real life, that's probably how animals with their very different brains than ours process human encroachment in their habitat. Many other animated movies have animals that act like humans and know lots of things about the human world, the animals in BAMBI do not. So, yes, in BAMBI, there is no scheming gun-toting hunter. We don't know the motivations of the human who shot Bambi's mother dead. Was he doing it for the sport? For a venison dinner? The whole point of Walt's film, an adaptation of Felix Salten's novel BAMBI: A LIFE IN THE WOODS, is that the motivation doesn't matter. What matters is, Bambi's mother is dead and his whole life is significantly altered by a bullet shot by one person in a mere second... This is what Man can do to a life, a whole home or world even. Tell me that didn't line up with how the world was reeling from the man-made horrors of World War II?

I'll even throw in LADY AND THE TRAMP for good measure. Who is really the "villain" in that film? The obvious answer may seem to be Aunt Sarah, who is kind of a busybody. She isn't very friendly to Lady, or to dogs in general it seems. She has two cats, though. That seems to line up, right? Doesn't like dogs, has cats, cats are usually portrayed as evil or scheming in a lot of older media and stories. Her two cats cause trouble and frame Lady for an attack, which leads to Aunt Sarah muzzling her. We don't see her for the rest of the picture until the climactic battle with the rat. The rat, of course, just a silent wild animal. Is she really "evil", though? She's antagonistic, for sure. She's a total pain in the ass more so than a powerful, towering bad guy a la Ursula or Hades. The whole movie isn't necessarily hinged around her, Lady gets the muzzle off halfway through the movie and doesn't return home until later. That is by choice, she would rather watch the baby than run off with Tramp and life the free life with him. Aunt Sarah's only role in the climax is to be oblivious, and since it's a dark and stormy night, how would she know about the rat? She just assumes Lady is an annoying barking dog. It's all real-world human stuff, not exaggerated cartoon "muwahaha!" menace. Aunt Sarah gets shut right down at the end of the movie when Jim Dear and Darling make it home from their trip. ("Nonsense, she's trying to tell us something!") Aunt Sarah is more a person who really needed to chill, and be a little nicer to dogs. No, for me, much of LADY AND THE TRAMP's conflict stems from its themes. Lady is a purebred, she's pampered and lives in a lovely neighborhood with loving owners, Tramp is from the wrong side of the tracks, a stray mutt who hasn't had it easy and has a rather cynical outlook on life. Classic polar opposites for this romantic drama that happens to be animated and happens to be have talking dogs as its stars... It is very much a story about class differences, subtly so, because Walt's movies - contrary to popular belief - weren't these paper-thin stories that some folks make them out to be. The class themes are quite obvious actually, in several scenes, such as Lady's first encounter with Tramp, the entire dog pound sequence, and particularly in the third act confrontation between Lady and Tramp at her house. It's natural drama and conflict, not somebody looking to threaten the town they live in.

As for Post-Walt films made before the Disney Renaissance, I could also wax about THE FOX AND THE HOUND being more a parable of race relations in the '70s than anything else, but... Moving on-

As you can see, and if you've read from me elsewhere, I really love me my Walt-era Disney animated films, and I see a nice variety of stories and conflicts in them. By contrast, the films of the Disney Renaissance? It was bad guy after bad guy after bad guy. Even before the Renaissance, start at 1985's THE BLACK CAULDRON with The Horned King... And it's a succession: Ratigan, Sykes, Ursula, McLeach, Gaston, Jafar, Scar, Governor Ratcliffe, Judge Claude Frollo, Hades, Shan-Yu, Clayton. This is the era that a lot of detractors of modern Disney animated features yearn for. They don't seem to like that the recent movies haven't retread the same ground as before, and have opted to tell stories with different kinds of conflict. For me, the variety in the antagonists and conflicts put the films closer to Walt's entire body of animated feature work than the Renaissance period.

Now, if they don't like these stories because of their respective executions? That's totally fine and well...

I myself do think that the recent WDAS films need a little more bite. Even without a bad guy, you can still make certain aspects and scenes intense and thrilling, and make other things stand out. Can I go back to films like DUMBO and LADY AND THE TRAMP for a second? Those may not have had traditional bad guys in them, but they did tell their stories in ways that made the conflicts register, the drama hit hard, and the resolutions hit even harder. It was one of Walt's storytelling tricks, and it was regularly executed so well by his crews. Directors like Wolfgang Reitherman, Ben Sharpsteen, David Hand, Clyde Geronimi, etc., to say nothing of his animators, the Nine Old Men especially. Anyways...

I feel like many of WDAS' recent films are all essentially TANGLED 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. That they got too comfortable with that one style of visuals and the directing, I feel, is not as distinguishable. There are some touches here and there you can pick up on, from films directed by the likes of Byron Howard or the Ron Clements-John Musker duo, but little else... PUSS IN BOOTS 2 by DreamWorks does the opposite, it doesn't feel like the few DreamWorks pictures released before it nor any of the previous SHREK movies for that matter... with or without bad guy villains in it.

I never really found FROZEN or BIG HERO 6 to be too intense, they would've easily been rated G in the 1990s, for sure. ZOOTOPIA comes close in parts, MOANA has some cool action but I heard that the filmmakers were mandated to tone down the scenes of Te Ka. I believe it. Meanwhile, yes, PUSS IN BOOTS 2 doubles-down on the more intense stuff, with some serious style at that! Death/Wolf is legit menacing, what with his sick fighting moves and glowing red eyes. Big Jack Horner is completely malicious, not a moral bone in his body, comically so. When Puss runs through the woods after seeing Death for the third time and his subsequent panic attack, I was reminded of Snow White's run through the scary forest. Just soooo well done. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 knows what kind of story it is, and it doesn't hold itself back. As a fairy tale for a family audience, it doesn't timidly hold back on giving the kids in the audience a good thrill. I don't feel like anyone in higher positions gave notes to the filmmakers, telling them to tone down their vision. Contrast that with what the Disney+ documentary on the making of FROZEN II pointed out: Test screenings with kids lead to certain intense scenes being toned down.

Now that kind of criticism, I do totally get!

But, what I don't get is... "Lol, Disney's villains suck these days!" "DreamWorks' villains were always better anyways, Disney was never good!" "Heck, DreamWorks is just better, period!" Heck, I even saw a meme saying that a Disney film *never* had blood in it, while PUSS IN BOOTS 2 was "top-tier" or "goated" or whatever because Puss gets a small cut in the movie... Like, what? Have these people not seen... Let's see... SLEEPING BEAUTY, THE BLACK CAULDRON, ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, Pixar's FINDING NEMO and UP, etc.? We're now doing this over onscreen blood? I'm paraphrasing a lot of this nonsense, I know, it's not the exact wording, ***but***... But, but, but... People seem to have the attention span of GNATS when talking about these films. Aren't these the same people who felt that DreamWorks had lost their way? Which was in response to DreamWorks releasing a BOSS BABY sequel and a SPIRIT spin-off movie for 6-year-old horse girls in 2021? "DreamWorks is back"? The TROLLS movies seem to get a lot of flack too, and we have a third one coming out later this year. Will these same people relapse when TROLLS BAND TOGETHER comes out and they all collectively say "DreamWorks, why do you suck now?" I mean, what is all this? Are they all kids or something?

Why the constant rivalry? Why the constant "nyeehhhh, this is king, the other thing sucks"? This isn't the console wars. Someone on twitter summed it up as that, and I think that's brilliant. A spot-on description of what this silliness is. The console wars, yes... Nintendo and Sega went at it in the early 1990s in America, it was all marketing... But it was also all stupid, and a lot of gullible kids ate it up, because they were kids, you know? When I was 12-13 in the mid-aughts, I idiotically and unironically bought into wild conspiracy theories about DreamWorks vs. Disney/Pixar, and I'm not proud of that whatsoever. Or, we can compare this silliness to how the media in the 1960s made it seem like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were these fierce rivals or something...

The reality is, all the studios are full of talented people who work very hard for about four years making these motion pictures a reality. Not a single thing in a single frame of an animated movie comes for free. I mean, I'm a long-time artist, I would also know that. Just one drawing alone of something can be taxing... Now imagine that, but a ton of them, for the numerous amount of frames in a 90-minute movie! Decisions are made and they can't always be corrected. Money, time, etc. What's done is done. It's not like WDAS' filmmakers, or Pixar's, or DreamWorks' filmmakers for that matter are trying to spite you whenever they make a movie. I feel much of the animation fan community treats an animated movie or show they don't personally like as spite.

Most of the time, if not nearly all the time, it is not SPITE. TURNING RED wasn't made to spite you, LIGHTYEAR wasn't made to spite you, STRANGE WORLD, BOSS BABY 2, SPIRIT UNTAMED, you get the idea!

But is this anything new? No.

Remember how, when COCO was coming out, COCO was supposedly this big rip-off of THE BOOK OF LIFE, a similar animated movie about musicians and the Day of the Dead? Remember how COCO was apparently a big ol' insult to BOOK OF LIFE and the country of Mexico as a whole? Remember how COCO was destined to be a failure because BOOK OF LIFE came first and was directed by a Mexican, while COCO was directed by a white American? Remember how COCO was appropriation of Mexican culture while BOOK OF LIFE was ostensibly the more "pure" and "authentic" film? Remember how a major animation news website kept stoking this fire? Then COCO came out... It's one of the highest-grossing films in Mexico, it's beloved, I heard nary a negative thing about it after that.

Or how about... Remember THE EMOJI MOVIE? Remember how Sony Animation was a "bad" studio and that they "redeemed" themselves with SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE the year after? Remember how THE EMOJI MOVIE apparently killed animation or whatever?

Or how about all the raw and perpetual anger over harmless shows like TEEN TITANS GO! and such?

It's just cartoons. It ain't... Ya know, something like running a country.

Chill. Nothing's the greatest thing ever, or the worstest thing ever. There's no need to pit these things against one another, like we're living in HIGHLANDER or something. "There can be only one." If we want animation to look more worthy and sophisticated than it does, then there can't be this playground "nyah nyah, mine's better!" nonsense. At the end of the day, there's stuff you like, and stuff you don't. If I don't like something, I'll just express a little disappointment and go watch/enjoy something I *do* like. Or better yet? Make something of my own that I think is cool.

Last autumn, I caught two horror films in theaters, to use an example... One was Zach Cregger's BARBARIAN, the other Parker Finn's SMILE. I loved BARBARIAN, dug the hell out of it. Whereas I borderline hated SMILE. On Twitter, after seeing SMILE, I made a few tweets about it, posted a Letterboxd review, and that was about it. In another tweet, I briefly brought it up... Unlike toon-twitter or the rest of the whole sphere, I didn't, week after week, pit BARBARIAN and SMILE against each other. I didn't constantly bring up SMILE just to bash it, or use BARBARIAN to one-up it. Because I'm an "adult". SMILE exists, me bashing it doesn't change anything. People saw it, people loved it, it had ludicrous legs at the box office for an *original* *horror* movie. I really disliked SMILE, and I just left it at that. Unless you directly ask me what I thought of SMILE and why I disliked it, I see no need to bring it up. I moved on to other things. In fact, the night I saw SMILE, I went home and streamed DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS - which I hadn't seen yet - to wash it out.

The last mainstream animated movie that I saw that I disliked was THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2. Would you know? Unless you're someone who likes to keep up with my crumby Letterboxd reviews, you probably wouldn't know. I don't think I even mentioned on twitter that I even saw the film, let alone really disliked it... Because I have no need to say that, to keep spreading it like wildfire. You didn't like TURNING RED/LIGHTYEAR/STRANGE WORLD? Fine. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 satisfying your tastes is more than enough, you don't need to keep interjecting why the other three movies were "mid" or whatever. Just a suggestion, ya know?

And if it's about sticking it to big bad corporate Disney? Guess what, DreamWorks is owned by COMCAST. A big multimedia conglomerate that's every bit as evil as Disney is. Oh, and how about two of the other Best Animated Feature of 2022 nominees? PINOCCHIO and THE SEA BEAST? They're from NETFLIX! Even A24, the sole studio in the running that isn't huge, is imperfect and they're quite mainstream I'd argue. On top of that, they sell random trinket merchandise for their films that doesn't justify the price tag. Like c'mon, we're really battling over which corporation or enterprise to worship?

I try to cherish all the animated films we get in a calendar year, especially nowadays... When some of these corporations are just thoughtlessly cancelling projects left and right, even erasing some from existence because "tax write-offs" or some capitalist mumbojumbo nonsense that truly makes no sense. Hundreds of people work on them, and a lot of the time, it's people making decisions that they think are the right decision at the time... But sometimes, it doesn't translate to critical success or commercial success. Like the late William Goldman once said, "No one knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one."

I reckon most people mudslinging online and wearing their favorites as some sort of badge of honor wouldn't last a day in a studio, in production of a film... And this isn't unique to the animation fandom, it's elsewhere, too. Any kind of film, really. TV, sports, games, you name it... But I have to see a lot of it on my timelines and on my YouTube recommendeds, and even from people I otherwise really find insightful, and it's just goddamn exhausting. A little nuance would be nice...

[nwbeerguide]

USC Athletics partners with Stone Brewing Co. for official craft beer.

Press Release

ESCONDIDO, CA ... The University of Southern California (USC) Athletics, announces the debut of its first-ever official craft beer, Stone Fight On! Pale Ale. The beer is brewed by Stone Brewing, the Southern California-based brewery that has been trailblazing the craft beer category with a fierce commitment to quality and freshness for 27 years. The official USC Athletics beer will be available for purchase the week of August 14, 2023.

Stone Fight On! Pale Ale will be distributed throughout Southern California at stores, bars, and restaurants and onsite at the Los Angeles Colosseum and the Galen Center, home of the USC Trojans. Its 16oz cans feature classic USC iconography and colors. Inside, the beer is a quintessential SoCal Pale Ale – a balanced blend of tropical and citrusy hop flavors, light-body and endlessly drinkable at 5.5% ABV. Stone’s brewers developed the beer to offer that hoppiness Southern Californians crave in a style that suits tailgates, beach days, and cheering from the stands or at home.

“USC Athletics has been seeking the perfect beer partner – a regional brand that would be meaningful to our fans and add to the gameday experience, " explained Drew DeHart, Vice President/General Manager, USC Sports Properties and Playfly Sports. “Stone really nailed a Pale Ale that’s representative of the SoCal craft beer scene, and easy drinking too. We’re honored to see our USC colors, marks and Trojan alongside the Stone Gargoyle.”

“Stone beers are popular nationwide and across the globe, but SoCal is where we started and is home to our biggest population of fans,” explained Erin Smith, Stone Brewing SVP of Marketing. “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to create a beer that instills local pride in that cross-section of craft beer drinkers and USC fans and alumni. It’s our hope that this beer is enjoyed year-round for its incredible flavor, and that it truly adds to the gameday experience across all USC sports.”

Find the beer online via Stone’s Beer Finder, Find.StoneBrewing.com or order it online for delivery in California and select states via Shop.StoneBrewing.com.

FIGHT ON!

...

ABOUT STONE BREWING

Founded in 1996, Stone pioneered the West Coast Style IPA, helping to fuel the modern craft beer revolution and inspire generations of hop fanatics. Today Stone operates breweries in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA plus seven tap room and bistro locations. Stone offers a wide range of craft beers including its most popular Stone IPA, Stone Delicious IPA and Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager. The company’s long list of environmental efforts includes a LEED Silver Certification, world-class water reclamation and creative uses of spent grain. Stone has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice. To find Stone beers, visit find.stonebrewing.com. For more information on Stone Brewing visit stonebrewing.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. 

ABOUT USC SPORTS PROPERTIES

USC Sports Properties is the locally-based, exclusive multimedia rightsholder for USC Athletics. As a part of the Playfly Sports Properties portfolio of nearly 40 collegiate and high school state association properties, the USC Sports Properties team connects brands to USC’s passionate and deeply-rooted fanbase. Through broadcast, in-arena, experiential, and technology-based marketing and media solutions, Playfly Sports Properties’ fully scalable platform provides marketers unparalleled access to the most highly engaged audiences on a local and national level. Playfly Sports Properties is a division of Playfly Sports.

Connect with the USC Sports Properties team by visiting www.playfly.com/properties.

ABOUT PLAYFLY SPORTS

Playfly Sports is a sports media, marketing and technology business centered around the team, league, brand, and network.  Believing in ‘Fandom as a Service’​ and focusing on a consultative, data driven approach to REACH, ENGAGE, MONETIZE AND MEASURE FANDOM gives the company’s partners and brands a competitive advantage.​ Playfly connects more than 2,000 brand partners with approximately 83% of all U.S. sports fans. Through the proprietary platform the business delivers scalable, data-oriented marketing, technology, and media solutions with capabilities including exclusive MMR management, sponsorship sales and activation, streaming, consulting, ticket/premium sales, all along with new revenue-driving platforms and technologies.  Founded in September of 2020, Playfly Sports is now home to approximately 1,000 team members located across 43 U.S. states dedicated to maximizing the impact of highly passionate local sports fans. Follow Playfly Sports on social media @PlayflySports or visit www.playfly.com.

[natromanxoff]

Record Collector - December, 1996

Credits to Louise Belle and Queencuttings.com

NEWS FOR THE RECORD

COMPILED BY MARK PAYTRESS

MERCURY MULTIMEDIA

THE FREDDIE MERCURY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

THE FREDDIE MERCURY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

An exhibition featuring over 100 photographs of Freddie Mercury went on show at the Royal Albert Hall last week, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of the Queen frontman. The display is drawn from both private and public collections and spans the singer’s life from his infancy in Zanzibar to his final, formal portrait, taken during his battle against Aids. The exhibition is free of charge, and is open until 11th December.

Turn to the feature elsewhere in this issue for more details, plus an exclusive selection of images from the show.

QUEEN GIVE US THE EYE

Queen Multimedia, in conjunction with Electronic Arts, have announced the launch of “The Eye”, an interactive, action-adventure computer game, based on the music and imagery of the band.

The game will be available in March 1997 as a five-CD-ROM set compatible with IBM PCs. Ninety minutes of original and remixed versions of Queen’s best-known songs have been aligned to “motion captured characters and real-time facial animatio”.

“ ‘Queen — The Eye’ will be the first music game of its kind,” claims Tim Massey of Destination Design, who created the package. “This resourceful vision makes the integration of Queen’s timeless appeal with the revolutionary audio and visual gaming technology a ‘must have’ product.”

Expect a flurry of promotional and advertising initiatives to tie in with the release of the game, including a ‘making-of’ TV documentary; a worldwide syndicated radio special; and at least three associated books, to be published by Boxtree. A price for “Queen — The Eye" has yet to be fixed, although the manufacturers estimate it will be in the region of £40.

STATUESQUE MERCURY

On 25th November, five years after the untimely death of Freddie Mercury, a 9ft bronze statue of the late, great singer was unveiled at the waterfront at Lake Geneva, Montreux, Switzerland, near to Mountain Studios where Queen recorded their final album, “Made In Heaven”. The statue was paid for by Freddie’s family and friends, and the patch of land on which it stands was donated by the commune of Montreux, who got to know Freddie during his final years.

The statue is the work of Czech sculptor Irene Sedliek, a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and a memory of the Society of Portrait Sculptors. The memorial was unveiled by opera star Montserrat Caballe, with whom Freddie recorded his “Barcelona” theme tune to the 1988 Olympic Games.

WIENER WILL ROCK YOU

Following screenings at film festivals in Venice, Cannes and London earlier this year, Queen’s “Made In Heaven: The Films”, is now available on a compilation video, via independent label Wienerworld, priced £10.99. Without Freddie as Queen's focal point, the band bypassed the traditional rock video medium and opted instead to commission eight short films from young directors via the British Film Institute.

“Queen were the pioneers of the promo and have reinvented it on many occasions. The project offered the opportunity to think hard about what has happened to the music promo, and how to invigorate a more dynamic relationship between pictures and sound,” said executive producer and head of the BFI Film Division Ben Gibson. “l think the results, which are films in their own right, vindicate everyone’s belief that the project has crossed new boundaries on short film-making.”

EURO GA GA

“Queen Dance Traxx 1” is a new album featuring sixteen Europop cover versions of songs made famous by pop's most flamboyant foursome. Issued on the Continent in October and in January in the U.K., the CD features dancefloor-orientated reworkings of Queen anthems like “We Will Rock You” (by Interactive), “Under Pressure” (by Culture Beat), “l Was Born To Love You” (by World's Apart) and “The Invisible Man” (by Scatman John).

“The first time I heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ I stopped what I was doing and just listened,” reports the Scatman. “As a jazz artist at the time, I knew I was hearing something special. Freddie Mercury’s knowledge of music, coupled with his vision, was clearly understood by the band… and there was a development and execution of that understanding that created music I felt was of genius. With this project, we’re aiming to bring a new life to the music of a past generation with sensitivity, with taste and with creativity.”

LASERS LEAD THE WAY

Two other Queen films, the “Champions Of The World” documentary and “The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert”, have just been issued on Laser Disc, via Pioneer. The Laser Disc is the principal video format in the States, and is growing in Europe. The manufactures of these 12" diameter, double-sided discs claim digital sound and broadcast-quality pictures, plus the added bonus of compact disc-style indexing. On music titles this means you can key into favourite tracks without having to bother with out-moded ideas like fast-forward and rewind.

“Champions Of The World” is priced £24.99, while the double-disc “The Freddie Mercury Tribute” costs £34.99. Forthcoming Queen Laser Disc releases include “Greatest Hits 1 & 2” and “Wembley”.

FLASH!

THE FREDDIE MERCURY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

ANDY DAVIS INTRODUCES A NEW VISUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEEN’S MUCH MISSED FRONTMAN

It’s now five years since the rock music world learned of the tragic death of Freddie Mercury. In that time, the surviving members of the band have paid tribute to him by completing and releasing the final album they recorded together, “Made In Heaven”, and have sanctioned a whole host of projects by which fans can remember Freddie and the group he fronted with such astonishing showmanship for twenty years.

Now, to mark the fifth anniversary of his death, and to celebrate his extraordinary life, an exhibition featuring some of the best photographs of Freddie Mercury has just opened at the Royal Albert Hall. Sponsored by EMI Music, the exhibition was conceived by Queen’s manager Jim Beach, and is being put together under the aegis Of Freddie’s publishing company, Mercury Songs. One of its principal aims is to raise both funds and awareness for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the Aids support charity established in Freddie’s name in the wake of his death. (To date, the Trust has raised around £4 million.)

The choice of venue — the circular corridor which runs around the inside perimeter of the Royal Albert Hall — is both unusual and prestigious, as explained by the exhibition’s curator, Richard Gray, who as Queen’s art director, has been the man behind all the band’s artwork for the last ten years.

“It took a long time to figure that the Royal Albert Hall might be the venue,” he reveals. “Exhibitions like this are usually something they don’t get involved with. But we wanted people to have access to the show without getting the feeling you can get, for example, in some art galleries, where the door has to be unlocked for you before you can even go in. The exhibition is free of charge, but there will be collection boxes on the site, and we hope that people will be generous!”

CUTE

The exhibition features over 100 colour and black-and-white images spanning Freddie’s life, from cute baby photos of the infant Farookh Bulsara just a few months old in Zanzibar to his final, formal portrait, taken by Richard Gray for “Greatest Hits II” in 1991. Each photograph has been enlarged to 20” by 16”, and has been carefully retouched where appropriate, and then finished using the most sophisticated imaging techniques available. In all, the show took over a year to complete.

“The big jump came when we were granted access to Freddie’s parents and his photo albums,” reveals Richard. “Initially, Freddie’s parents weren’t sure whether they wanted to open up their family albums, but once they’d made that decision they were happy for us to continue.” Because ofhis family’s co-operation, fans now have a rare opportunity to glimpse the man, the child even, behind the Mercury persona which Freddie spent much of his life cultivating. But what a persona!

Among the pictures Brian May contributed from his personal collection are a series of stereo photographs of Freddie taken the late 70s and early 80s. “Stereo cameras take two he shots of the same image and turn them into 3-D,” explains Richard. “They’re quite amazing. There are five stereo pictures on show in a special viewer, all of which feature Queen live on stage. Brian would lend his stereo camera to photographers covering the concerts, and there are others by David Burder, an expert in 3-D photography, who also happens to be a friend of Brian’s. He helped me get the shots together.”

Among the other images on show are pictures of Freddie at Ealing Art College in the late 60s, dozens of stills of him in Queen throughout the 70s and 80s, and a handful of Polaroids of the lakefront view at Montreux, which Freddie sent home to his parents. “It’s more the case of telling a story than just a photographic exhibition,” maintains Richard Gray. “There are lots of photos which you'll recognise, but others, probably about 25%, which have never been seen before.”

Another highlight for fans will be the only U.K. showing of the three-foot high plaster model which sculptress Irene Sedliek used for her statue of Freddie, recently erected in Montreux, Switzerland, and which appeared on the cover of “Made In Heaven” album. A smaller version of the statue, measuring about 12” in height, will be included in the exhibition when it travels abroad next year.

After a break for Christmas, the exhibition will move to the National Theatre in Paris for two weeks in January, followed by a season at the Cologne Philharmonie in Germany. Thereafter, it will undertake a two-year world tour, and there are plans for it to return home sometime in the near future, where it will be staged in various provincial British cities. Commemorative tie-in merchandising, including a set of six postcards, a poster, T-shirt, and a 20-page programme, is on sale at the exhibition, all profits from which will go to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

All photographs reproduced by kind permission of Mercury Songs Ltd.

The Freddie Mercury Photographic Exhibition is open from 10.00am to 1.00pm until 11th December 1996 (excepting Thursday 5th December), at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW72AP. Admission is free but by ticket only. 500 tickets are available in advance for each day of the exhibilion. A further 1,000 tickets are available each day to personal callers.

Telephone bookings/enquiries: Royal Albert Hall Box Office, 0171 589 8212, open 9.00am to 9.00pm every day.

Photo captions:

• Farookh Bulsara pictured at home in Zanzibar in spring 1947, as captured by a local Indian photographer.

• LEFT The young Freddie Mercury, snapped by his father in the family’s back garden in Zanzibar. He’s dressed for a blessing ceremony at a fire-temple, as a birthday celebration.

• ABOVE Freddie and his sister Kashmira, again photographed by their father, in the Indian village of Bulsar, from which the family took its name.

• The Hectics, Freddie’s first rock’n’roll group, at St. Peter’s School, Panchgani, India in the late 50s.

• ABOVE A Little Richard impression from Freddie and the Hectics. That’s the fledgling Mr. Mercury at the piano, of course.

• BELOW Young Freddie Bulsara and his St. Peter’s School classmates in the original “Bicycle Race” from the late Fifties.

• Freddie live on stage in America, during 1980 — playing up to drummer Roger Taylor while his audience watches adoringly.

• ABOVE Backstage during the South American tour, Freddie experiments with an acoustic 12-string.

• RIGHT Queen in the enormous Estadio Municipal at Mar Del Plata, in Argentina, during their 1981 South American tour.

• ABOVE An armed security guard greets Queen as they arrive via helicopter in Argentina in 1981. Within months, the Falklands War had broken out.

• BELOW Freddie and Queen enjoying the company of Argentina’s armed police motorcycle escort!

• LEFT A still from the unforgettable 1984 video for the “Radio Ga Ga” single.

• RIGHT Another video still, as Freddie catches up with the hoovering on the set of “l Want To Break Free”.

• BELOW Freddie in full flight during the band’s 1982 U.S. tour.

• LEFT The 1987 version of Freddie’s peacock suit first seen in “It’s A Hard Life” — an inspiration for Paul Weller’s last single, perhaps?

• ABOVE A candid portrait from Freddie's final years, used to promote Queen’s 1990 album, “Innuendo”.

• BELOW An official portrait for Freddie’s duet with Montserrat Caballe in 1988.

[abcnewspr]

ABC NEWS ANNOUNCES JACLYN LEE AND MELISSA ADAN AS MULTI-PLATFORM REPORTERS 

Wendy Fisher, ABC News senior vice president of Newsgathering, sent the following note to the news division announcing that Jaclyn Lee and Melissa Adan are joining ABC News as multi-platform reporters.  

Pictured from left: Jaclyn Lee, Melissa Adan 

I am excited to share that two new multi-platform reporters are joining our team this week. Jaclyn Lee begins today in New York, and Melissa Adan starts later this week and will be based in Los Angeles.   

Jaclyn Lee joins us from our very own WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, where she served as an anchor/reporter since 2020. During her tenure, she spent time in the field, reporting on COVID-19, civil unrest, the 2020 presidential election and the unprecedented 2021 winter storm in Houston. Additionally, in response to the increase in anti-Asian American hate crimes nationwide, Jaclyn pitched and carried out an anti-Asian hate crime PSA that aired on OTV stations across the country. 

Prior to WPVI, Jaclyn worked as a general assignment reporter and anchor at WVEC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia. There she sharpened her investigative skills, reporting from the Virginia State Capitol on the blackface scandal and sexual assault allegations facing top state politicians. Jaclyn also spearheaded investigations into crucial shortages in the U.S. Navy, which caused officials to take action. Jaclyn’s work has also taken her around the globe. She reported on protestors against Machu Picchu tourism in Peru, the effort to preserve minority cultures in China, and the large number of sea lions dying in Chile, and she researched the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Before relocating to Virginia, Jaclyn worked in Raleigh, North Carolina. She holds a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. 

Melissa Adan comes to ABC from NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 in San Diego, where she worked as a general assignment news reporter and anchor since 2018. She is bilingual in English and Spanish, and her reporting has taken her worldwide. She recently traveled to Vatican City to cover Pope Francis’ appointment of new cardinals, has reported from Mexico on the immigration crisis at the border in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, and covered the 2018 migrant caravan in Tijuana. Her reporting in Australia on climate change in the aftermath of destructive wildfires won her a regional Emmy. She received the Al Neuharth Investigative Journalism Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for her report on sex abuse and money mismanagement at migrant youth shelters in San Diego. 

Previously, Melissa was a reporter/multimedia journalist at NBC 6 in South Florida. She covered many breaking news events, such as the mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Hurricane Irma and the death of José Fernández, star pitcher for the Marlins. Melissa is a Miami, Florida native and a first-generation Cuban American. She has a master’s degree in criminal justice from Florida International University, a B.S. from Boston University's College of Communication and an A.A. from Miami Dade College, The Honors College. 

Both Melissa and Jaclyn are skilled investigative reporters and great additions to our talented teams on both coasts. 

Please join me in congratulating and welcoming Melissa and Jaclyn. 

Wendy 

[maddmuses]

Secondary Muse Directory

These muses are on-request for existing partners and under other circumstances where *I* want to play them only. If you’re new here, you’re not likely to get it unless I bring it up.

Multimedia // DC Universe

-Bruce Wayne: You know what it’s about. He’s The Caped Crusader, The Dark Knight, other third example; I Am The Night (Bruce Wayne) (He/Him; Bisexual)[I only RP this for specific friends quit fucking asking] 

Multimedia // Other Comics

-Al Simmons: The Hellspawn and rebel from hell, Al is the greatest enemy of both Heaven and Hell; Rexspawned (Al Simmons/Spawn) (He/Him; Het)

Multimedia // Avatar Universe

-Zuko of The Fire Nation: The Prince, and then later ruler, of The Fire Nation. He was once scarred as a sign of his dishonor, but has found his honor again as an ally to the Avatar; Honor! (Zuko) (He/Him; Bi)

-Avatar Kuruk of The Water Tribe: An Avatar in an era of perceived peace. Traveling with his own team Avatar he would often fight dark spirits, which slowly ate at his own spirit; Go With The Flow (Avatar Kuruk) (He/They; Lawful Sad)

Anime // Boku no Hero Academia

-Toshinori Yagi: The number one hero All Might! Currently retired, he suffers from debilitating physical injuries and the loss of his quirk!;  A Real Hero Will Always Find A Way For Justice To Be Served!! (Toshinori Yagi/All Might) (He/Him; Demi)

-Rumi Usagiyama: No. 5 Hero Mirko and local Megan Thee Stallion impersonator, Rumi is objectively and empirically best girl. Literally ranked the highest, go look or she’ll kick your butt; I Live Every Day Like There’s No Tomorrow!! (Rumi Usagiyama) (She/Her; Pansexual)

-Toya Todoroki: The mysterious flame villain Dabi, and eldest son of Endeavor;  The Mysterious First Son (Dabi/Toya Todoroki) (He/They; Demi)

-Shoryuu Takeshi: A martial artist hero-in-training, he’s the national champion for high school karate in the open quirks division; It’s Time To Have Some Fun!! (Shoryuu Takeshi) (He/Him; Hetero)

Anime // Bleach

-Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez: Numero 6 Espada and verified catboy; Grim Jawed Panther (Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez) (He/Him; Fightsexual)

Anime // Naruto

-Kakashi Hatake: Sixth Hokage and leader of Squad 7, he is often known as The Copy Ninja; I Will Never Let My Comrades Die (Kakashi Hatake)  (Ask me about my canon divergence) (He/Him; Tired Bi)

-Tenten: A weapon’s specialist of the highest regard, and known in Konoha for being peerless. Give her a weapon, and she seems to know how to use it; The True Blade Maiden (Tenten) (She/Her; Bisexual)

Anime // Shonen

-Saitama: A hero for fun, that name exists for him and him alone; Hurry! We have to get there before the supermarket closes!! (Saitama) (He/Him; Homoromantic Asexual)

-Joseph Joestar: Grandson of Johnathan Joestar and the torch carrier of the Joestar legacy through Battle Tendancy. A master of Hamon/Ripple and user of the stand Hermit Purple, he becomes Jotaro’s mentor in Stardust Crusaders; Oh My God!! (Joseph Joestar) (He/Him; Powerfully Jojo)

-Jotaro Kujo: Grandson of Joseph Joestar and user of the stand Star Platinum, then later Star Platinum: The World. A stoic and aloof young man, he deeply cares for his loved ones, and will stop at nothing to protect them; Yare Yare Daze... (Jotaro Kujo) (He/Him; Devastatingly Jojo)

Literature // Fantasy

-Harry Potter: Prophecy’s hero, and future Auror; The Boy Who Lived (Harry Potter) (He/Him [trans]; Pan)

Literature // Horror

-Kay McCall: Feminist author and all around bad bitch who two abusive assholes can’t stop; The Survivor’s Survivor (Kay McCall) (She/Her; Heteroflexible)

Video Games // Fighting

-Jin Kazama: The son of Kazuya Mishima and two-time winner of The King of Iron Fist Tournament; The Crimson Lightning (Jin Kazama) (He/Him; Bisexual)

Video Games // RPG

-Yojimbo: The ultimate sellsword, an astral being and summon that specializes in taking payment for his ability to slay any enemy; The God of The Blade (Yojimbo) (Whatever you’ll pay He/Him to be)

-Adrian “Alucard” Ţepeş: Son of the most powerful vampire and hero of Romania;  Regal Dhampir (Adrian Alucard Ţepeş) (Eldritch Entity)

Film and Television // Karate Kid and Cobra Kai

-Johnny Lawrence: Ace degenerate and master of Cobra Kai, former champ of the All-Valley Karate tournament and sensei of the 2018 champ Miguel; The Best Defense is More Offense (Johnny Lawrence) (He/Him; Het)

Film and Television // Animation

-Clay Bailey: The Xiaolin Dragon of Earth, Shoku Warrior, and Rootinest of Tootinest Cowpokes; Quaking Beast (Clay Bailey) (He/Him; DemiPanRo)

-Reagan Ridley: Local science girlboss and COO of Cognito Inc. Generally too stressed by all this shit, and is making sure the world order doesn’t fall apart at the seams. (She/Her; Bi Bi Bi)

-JFK (John “Jack” F. Kennedy): The clone of the original JFK created by a board of shadowy figures. Captain of the football team and Capitán of the futbol team; I’m a Kennedy! I’m not accustomed to tragedy!! (JFK) (He/Him; Questioning) 

[nightwing60thanniversary]

NIGHTWING PROFILES: Barbara Gordon

1st Nightwing Appearance: Smallville Season 11 (2012) #5 Other mantles: Batgirl, Oracle, Bête Noire, Blue Lantern Secret identity: Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Gotham’s Commissioner Jim Gordon and Barbara E. Gordon, and an intern at Wayne Enterprise’s Research and Development division.

ORIGINS

When Barbara becomes Bruce’s first assistant, she is in need of a codename. Because she doesn’t like the idea of Batgirl, she chooses the name Nightwing. As Nightwing, she joins Batman in battle but also takes on a more classic Alfred/Oracle-esque role from time to time. (Smallville Season 11: Detective #5-8) 

Appears as Nightwing in: Smallville: Season 11 (Comics)

TRIVIA

Initially, Stephanie Brown was announced as the Smallville-Version of Nightwing.

While there was an editorial mandate against the main universe Barbara wearing glasses and being connected to her librarian past, Smallville Barbara didn’t have those limitations.

Her Nightwing costume is an amalgam of Dick’s modern Nightwing costume and her classic Batgirl costume. (Smallville)

Barbara likes to joke as much as the main universe Dick Grayson. (Smallville)

Barbara keeps journals. Sometimes she doodles in them. (Smallville)

Smallville Barbara has a crush on Superman. (Smallville)

She jokingly introduced her secret identity to Clark as “Illustrious-renaissance-lady-slash-clerical-wunderkind, Barbara Gordon” (Smallville)

She becomes a Blue Lantern during the heroes’ fight against the Manhunters, a legion of robotic sentinels. (Smallville)

Barbara was created for the 60s Batman TV Show, belonging to a handful of characters who made the jump from multimedia into comics. 

She had already retired from superheroing when the Joker shot her.

During her transition to Oracle, Barbara worked with the Suicide Squad and had a flirty relationship with Ted Kord, Blue Beetle. 

Barbara has worked as a librarian and a congresswoman. She’s also headed her own software business.

She has a brother, James Gordon Jr., who has been a villain to both her and Dick Grayson. In preNew52 continuity, he was her cousin and adoptive brother.

Barbara and Kara, Supergirl, were often seen together pre-Crisis. While that friendship was largely ignored for years (partially because Supergirl continuity was messed with so much), their friendship had a small renaissance during the New 52 and was featured in the Batman TAS.

For a time, Barbara moved out of Gotham. The Birds of Prey moved with her. For a time, they were stationed in Metropolis.

Barbara has close ties to both of her Batgirls successors: Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. In fact, when Barbara first met Cassandra, she didn’t have a name. Barbara named her after the Oracle Cassandra of Greek myth.

Barbara served as a member of the JLA for years while no one knew the secret identity of Oracle.

Depending on canon, she starts her crime-fighting career between the ages of 15 and 18.

Barbara took ballet classes as an adolescent.