#REVENGE FROM BEYOND THE 90s

[snackugaki]

so normal about this trailer

so normal about turtles

[noctude]

this idea has been in my brain for over 2 months and I finally had time to make it. is this too earnestly cringe to upload? i am beyond the capacity to care. enjoy

now on youtube!

[link to drive folder w/ downloads including instrumental]

Everything was chill back in Hermitcraft 6 (lying)

Then Grian got up to his usual tricks 

The name of the game is kill or be killed

No swords no bows no PVP skills

First Rendog found his inner fish

But he couldn’t stick the landing and his bones went squish

Stress flew through the dares with talent and grace

But she didn’t catch the totem and she fell on her face

Then Ren came back with a sinister vice

Tricked X with a race and blew him up twice

Looks like steel beams can’t be melted by slime

‘Cause Jevin didn’t see Mumbo’s tower in time

Stress set a trap at the shopping district

And dropped Scar right into a pufferfish pit

Cub’s stunt got stuck and X felt robbed

So he got a skeleton to finish the job

This is the Hermitcraft showdown of Hermitcraft destiny

Players, mobs, and explosions as far as the eye can see

And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be

This is the Hermitcraft showdown of Hermitcraft destiny

Tango and Impulse were shopping at the mall

But the store detonated and it killed them all

Grian had a no-good-very-bad-day 

And when he made it back home he got blown away

Then False broke a block and before she could speak

A giant underground explosion sent her into next week 

Cleo signed up for a warehouse tour

But she didn’t read the waiver and she fell through the floor

And TinFoilChef went laughing to the grave

Then without another word went back into his caves

Tango’s game was a race against the clock

And Keralis threw an egg at the most explosive block  

Now revenge is a dish that’s best served cold 

But Bdubs got it boiling as Cleo foretold

And when Joe got the rug pulled from under his feet

He tried to play it cool but he couldn’t take the heat 

This is the Hermitcraft showdown of Hermitcraft destiny

It’s 90% explosions as far as the eye can see

And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be

This is the Hermitcraft showdown….

In another dimension

With danger abound

Mumbo threw his ender-pearl

But missed solid ground

And Doc had played smart

But Grian played mean

He was dead on arrival,

The trap unforeseen

Then one player remained,

One Dragon Head left-

For the ride of his life, 

Iskall auctioned his death

He beat Joe Hills And ZombieCle-o

And every other member of the Dragon Bros:

FalseSymmetry and BDoubleO

And Grian and Mumbo Jumbolio 

Also Rendog, Jevin, TangoTek and Cubfan, 

Stress, Scar, and X just couldn’t beat the Iskallman

TinFoilChef or ImpulseSV

Doc can rock with blocks but can’t flee

So Grian and Impulse forged a team

And together they built a death machine

With a narrative arc from beginning to end

And a wild surprise around every bend

When the show and the ride were finally done

Our champion knew that his course had run

All that remains from the end of this fight 

Is a piece of bloodstained diorite 

This is the hermitcraft showdown of hermitcraft destiny

Just way too many explosions - where do they get all that TNT???

And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be

This is the Hermitcraft showdown

(this is the Hermitcraft showdown)

This is the Hermitcraft showdown  

(this is the Hermitcraft showdown)

This is the Hermitcraft showdown 

(this is the Hermitcraft showdown)

Of Hermitcraft destiny

[syrena-del-mar]

The Nine Circles of Hell: Dead Friend Forever, Episode 7

First, a trigger warning: I'll be discussing themes of revenge porn, grooming, statutory rape, sexual coercion.

I'm going to discuss this episode with as much upmost care as I can, due to the sheer amount of sensitive material that came out of this week's episode I will also not being using any explicit scene screen captures from this episode. If there's anything you'd like to me to take out or want a more in depth conversation, feel free to use either of my message boxes.

Last week I said DFF had more to offer than just being a campy 90s slasher remake. While I first thought we were already in the depths of hell, thematically, with Non getting beaten by the mafia, I didn't expect this week's episode to somehow double that pain. But here we are. I was lulled into false security with the 5 minute montage of getting to know what Phee and Non's relationship was like. I should have remembered that I'm definitely watching the wrong genre when I expected more of those moments.

Non and Phee

This episode really continues and expands the idea that humans are not these clear-cut, unambiguous, good-or-bad beings that idea has now been depicted through Non and his relationship with Phee. Non has so much love to give and so much want for being loved, it's what leads to Phee in the first place, but it's also what leads to his downfall. Because Non loves so much and so hard, it's also why he wasn't ecstatic that Phee had to lie to his father and say that he was involved, just to get him out of trouble with the police. What started like a sweet date turns a bit bitter, because Non is seeing the consequences of his actions not only affect himself but also the others that he loves. It's also why he couldn't tell Phee about the sheer amount he owed Tee's uncle, because he was now well aware that if Phee found out, he would get himself involved.

Non lies and manipulates Phee, he tells him time and time again that nothing happened between him and Mr. Kreng. Non swears to Phee that he isn't lying to him and that he won't keep any secrets from him anymore. It pains him to do so, he's barely holding himself together by the end of a thread thread once he's Phee's arms and his face is hidden from Phee's view. Yet, he does. He keeps it a secret how big of a hole he has found himself in, because he doesn't want to drag Phee down with him. Non says it himself to Jin, he doesn't want to be burden, he'll figure it out himself. It's a direct parallel to the bigger issues that Non is finding himself in beyond just within the 'movie set'. He has the 300 million baht hanging over his head, his parents (in his point of view) regret having him and find that he does is bring embarrassment to the family, and now he has another adult willing to give him the 300 million baht with a fake sense of care. So he found, what he believes to be, a solution that would get rid of the 300 million baht debt and all it requires is giving up a piece of himself, but at least it won't come at a cost of burdening his parents or Phee.

In trying to protect Phee, his lies ends up costing him the one he loves the most, Phee. Now from this point on, this is all speculation, but when Phee accused Non of 'always doing this', I'm not in the camp that believes that Phee is accusing Non about being a serial cheater. I see why people are in that camp, but I initially jumped to that conclusion as well. Now, I'm more in the line that Phee is accusing of Non always feeding him lies, even after explicitly promising him that he wouldn't. After putting his neck out for him, after letting Non do things his way as long as he promised to tell him the truth, Non goes back to telling lies. Phee lashes out, and at the end of the day he's still a teenager, so he hits Non's weakest point. Just get lost and die. The very words that likely haunt Phee in the present-day, now as an adult. And Non's holds the broken bracelet, punishing himself, because he knew that there was no coming back from losing his lifeline.

Non and Mr. Kreng (Please keep my trigger warnings in mind, they will be heavily discussed in this section.)

Statutory Rape. Grooming. Coerced Sexual Relations. Nonconsensual Sex. Molestation. Sexual Assault. Sexual Abuse. Those are all words to describe the relationship that occurred between Non and Mr. Keng. Let's call exactly what it is. I think I'll lose my mind if I have to see someone another person call Non a cheater. There is no cheating when there is statutory rape.

Non is literally at the end of his rope, Mr. Keng clocked that immediately. He knew that Non was isolated, that he was completely othered by his classmates, he believes that Non has nobody else to turn to, and he knows that Non is in deep in a scam that target teens. In his eyes, he found the perfect victim.

Non is taken advantage of by a person in power, a person that he should be able to trust. Non isn't naïve, he clocked that Mr. Keng wanted something from him since the moment they first met. But he is vulnerable. He's being extorted by the mafia and he sees someone offering him the money that he needs to put an end to that. In his eyes, it was a way out, a means to an end that just cost him a piece of his soul. I truly think Non rationalized it to himself as prostituting himself, because he knew that money was never coming without a price. No matter how much Mr. Keng tried to sell it as 'brotherly' love.

But at the end of the day, it does not matter what Non believed or rationalized, because Mr. Keng was the adult in the situation. He had a duty, as a teacher, to protect Non and provide a safe classroom environment. Instead he target, manipulates, and coerces Non into having sexual relations with him. He knows the power imbalance he holds, first as a teacher and then with the 300 million baht he 'gave' him. Mr. Keng, knowing that Non's not close to his 'friends', physically isolates him. He takes him to his office that's half-lit, located in a long hallway with, seemingly, very little foot traffic. He prods at Non, asking what's been bothering him and has him visibly become emotional, before offering his care. He's a complete and utter predator, in every sense of the term.

I hope he dies a long, painful death.

Non and Jin

First and foremost, whether or not Jin was ultimately the one that posted the video does not matter. Filming a classmate being sexually assaulted is still child porn at the very least and, possibly, revenge porn (if he disseminated the video) at the worst. I was on the same boat as @respectthepetty and their take that Jin had to be the worst of them all. Like they said in that post, Jin is a coward and he even admits to it. There's nothing more cowardly than hiding behind a door, filming you supposed 'friend' getting sexually abused by your teacher, and then even considering putting up on social media for revenge because your heart is broken.

Yes, Top framed Non. Yes, Por demanded (and bullied) money from Non. Yes, Tee brought Non to the mafia. Those are all very bad things, don't get me wrong. All the physical and mental abuse they put Non through was hell. Yet, Jin was the only one aware that Non had already been seeing someone, which seemingly had upset him already. Then he sees him with Mr. Keng and instead of reporting that his alleged friend was being assaulted, he gets angry and films Non at his most vulnerable point in life. Even Fluke didn't want any part of that.

Jin takes away Non's dignity. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether he uploaded it online or not, he was still the one to film, transfer that file onto his computer, and contemplate whether he was going to post it or not. At every point since he found that Non and Mr. Kreng were in that room, he rendered Non powerless. That video would have never been uploaded if it hadn't existed in the first place. With just a point of a camera and click of a button, he is revictimizing Non every. single. time. that video is opened and seen by another person.

There are no words to fully describe or explain that kind of trauma that he has subjected Non to.

Final Thoughts

This episode was nauseating. It honestly took me about two hours just to get to the end. Usually, I can watch through a show I enjoy really quickly, but this episode was so hard to digest. And that's simply due to how realistic they are approaching the subject of Non and Mr. Keng.

Barcode and Ta really are the stars of the show. I'm not saying that the other castmates aren't amazing in their roles, but man TaBarcode really know are hitting every single emotional beat. I was never a TaBarcode nor a MacauChay girlie, but man Be On Cloud has truly brought out their best this time around. Even though I fully know we are heading towards an incredibly heart wrenching ending for PheeNon, I can't help but want to hoard and scramble for moments of them together.

It's crazy how well, everyone was able to pull their weight this episode. There were so many moments that with less talented, less experienced actors, could have fallen flat, but they didn't. Ta and Barcode's PheeNon was so incredibly heart-beating, butterfly inducing before we were brought back into their reality outside of their relationship. 2J and Barcode's scenes were.... so disgustingly real, for lack of better words. I knew that storyline was never going to end well but it had been more than I ever expected Be On Cloud to release. They're tackling such real issues that weigh on teens with incredible tact, there's no romanticizing what happened. Even Phee's reaction was so understandable when you put yourself in the shoes of a teenager. I'll reiterate again and again, whatever you think about Be On Cloud as a management company, as a production company, they really are breaking boundaries and doing something right. Whatever happens in the second half, I think I'll be here, recovering, for a long time.

[nothorses]

About that "a trans man committing a mass shooting proves trans people really are the gender they identify as" post: women have committed mass shootings too? Okay it's a lot less statistically frequent, but it happens (as the song "I Don't Like Mondays" demonstrates). It reminds me of the time TERFs on Reddit assumed the woman who shot up the YouTube HQ in 2018 was trans, and then when she turned out to be cis, someone immediately speculated she was getting justified revenge on an abusive BF who worked there (though that comment got downvoted and may have been a troll)

I took this opportunity to look more into statistics around mass shooter demographics, and interestingly, there are a lot of myths tied up in this issue.

This article looks into a few studies and databases to investigate the "90% of all mass shooters are white men" myth, and finds that in actuality, "It really depends on what type of mass shooting you’re talking about. Several of the highest-profile mass shootings in recent memory [...] were committed by white males, such as the 2017 Las Vegas attack by Stephen Paddock. But much beyond that, the stereotype breaks down; Muslim man Omar Mateen killed forty-nine people at a Florida nightclub in 2016 on behalf of a terrorism group; white male Adam Lanza killed twenty-seven people in 2012 at an elementary school, though Asian student Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007. And so on."

This article fact-checks the gender-specific claims as well, in the context of trans people, and finds that there have been more claims that shooters are trans than can be reasonably substantiated, and that even this number is overshadowed by the number of cis women who have committed mass shootings.

I bring this up because I think the first article in particular brings a lot of much-needed nuance into the issue:

"The whites-are-overrepresented-among-mass-shooters meme does serve a useful purpose in that it helps displace another myth about mass shootings: that they’re most often perpetrated by angry immigrants from travel-banned countries, and that nothing is more dangerous to America that the scourge of Islamic terrorism. … These are worthy ends, but we shouldn’t have to build another myth to reach them.”

What are we saying when we talk about these kinds of incidents this way?

What I find interesting is that in a lot of these conversations around crime, we recognize that crime is often the result of poverty. Indeed, this study finds that the number of mass shootings increases in countries that experience an increase of income inequality.

We can also often recognize that these numbers are skewed because they rely on media coverage, arrests, and criminal charges; all of which are influenced by societal bias. The first article on mass shootings notes that, "mass shootings with white victims tend to get more attention, both from journalists and those on social media, than those with victims who are people of color. This is a well-known pattern and explains why the public is quicker to react to a missing young blonde girl than a missing young black girl."

Are white mass shooters covered more because their targets- being overwhelmingly people and institutions they have ties to- are also usually white?

If "white men are overrepresented as mass shooters" means white men are particularly dangerous and must be feared, what does this imply about other demographics overrepresented in certain crime statistics? What does it mean when we find this isn't true- is there suddenly just is not an issue of white cis male violence? I would certainly disagree.

And I think this gleeful claim that "trans men are proving their gender" by committing acts of violence- again, far more rare than cis women doing the same- only plays into these issues.

Is crime the result of entitlement and privileged anger, or is it the result of a broken system failing its citizens? Are cis men committing acts of extreme violence because they are all- regardless of race- whiny pissbabies who take joy in hurting others, or is this the result of a system that teaches men they can only express emotion through anger and violence? That human connection is not for them, and that needing things makes them unworthy of manhood, love, or even life?

I'm not saying we need to coddle and woobify mass shooters. I'm asking: is this an issue we fix by fearing and hating and wishing death on whole demographics of people based on how represented they are in criminal statistics, or can we make systemic and cultural changes that meaningfully prevent this from happening in the first place?

Do we condemn groups as Bad because some of them have done violence, or do we examine the causes and work toward meaningful solutions?

Obviously, trans men and trans people in general are not in any way "overrepresented" as perpetrators in mass shooting statistics. But I think the people reveling in any new trans male shooter are making it very clear that they don't care about solving problems; they're just interested in looking for reasons to hate, fear, and condemn this specific group of people they already dislike.

[bougiebutchbinch]

On Izzy Hands

Popping this on this blog too, just so it'll show up in the tags... My superior alternate suggestions for a S2 ending are under the cut. We all know I'm right.

Honesty Hour time. The reason we were all like 'I bet he's going to die' is because WHENEVER a character has a cool redemption arc OR a queer character comes out and experiences genuine queer joy for the first time in their life, their mortality rate goes up by 90%. But it was such a disappointment to be proven right.

I think we all expected better of the writing team. They've committed to doing genuinely new and interesting things with this story in the past, rather than just trotting out tired old tropes! But... not in this case.

People say they want more Zuko-esque redemption arcs, but we can't have that if every character who was A Bit Of A Dick at first gets killed off. And... c'mon. The whole arc of Izzy finding a family in the crew, and healing after being abused awfully for ages, and finding happiness, and openly embracing his queerness and disability.... then just randomly getting shot by a dude? Not even as a dramatic 'protecting someone' sacrifice? He just randomly got shot?? And we're all supposed to feel sad about that rather than just kinda let down?

Yeaaaaah, I do not think they achieved what they were going for.

I understand that a lot of that was because they had to shorten the series SO MUCH more than they wanted, but still.... it would have cost nothing to let Izzy just sail away with the rest of the crew as the Captain of the Revenge, while Ed and Stede retired!! It felt kinda like they were building towards that all season! Hell, that would've been a more meaningful progression for all of their characters.

We could still have had the scene where Izzy tells Ed he has family and that he's loved! We could've had a fake-out death where we had all the drama and expectation that he would die! Then in the last scene he comes out as the new captain to officiate Lucius and Pete's wedding!

We'd have Ed and Stede letting go of Blackbeard for good and building something new together on land - but we'd also have Izzy finally moving beyond the 'Blackbeard' persona he helped Ed create (and, arguably, did more for than Ed!). He'd be a captain who actually gives a shit about his crew, but who has learnt from Stede and Ed the importance of being a bit softer and gentler rather than brutally efficient 24/7. He evidently already admires Zheng (the face journey he goes on when she downs the big guy at Jackiez is ... it's sure something!) and I want a million more hours of them interacting. I bet they could be a super-funny duo. Plus, he could inevitably drag Stede and Ed back in next season! And get revenge on the prince who shot him!

It would've been perfect.But no, they had to kill him off because the OT3 potential was too strong, and bury a career pirate on land. Meh.

I'm tempted to watch the next season, if there is one, just for Olu/Jim/Archie/Zheng, but I can't say I care that much about the writing anymore. I won't be crying if the show does stop here, but I will be crying over everything that could have been!

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

When the kids come back, I'll talk it out with them. If that's still possible.

*Whether or not this conversation took place we don't know but what I DO know is I LOVE how Kaz is written as a character. As deeply flawed, warped and messed up as he is.

Oh look another Kaz meta from Nate be shocked and awed *cough*.

Which honestly, is why I like his character so much. Kaz had to be built up in reverse, and the story and writing around him is SO good. Because he is such a deeply, horribly flawed person with insane ideology and a tattered moral code. As grey as the rest of them.

This tape is one of those bits where Kaz says a whole lot, and gets so close to a point, but doesn't quite hit it. It comes around to a theme of justification: "Yeah. That's it alright. I wanted to use those kids, to test that theory." But to the kids or to himself. I'd argue it might be both. Because Kaz is aware of his own flaws, and the kind of person he is. He is utterly ruthless and unashamed of that fact. Kaz will bring down nations, people-anything it takes, to get what he wants.

And in a way, he absolutely does. We know that from the canon events of other games. But he's not ignorant of himself, even if he searches for excuses. "I hate kids. That's exactly what I heard from the people who raised me."

Kaz never fully comes around to admitting that he's been angry and full of spite his entire life, but it's evident with how he talks. He's roundabout with it-as he is almost everything he says. But it's obvious what he's getting at. The things he says. He tries, desperately, to find a reason for his actions. But those reasons never 100% come to the point where he admits he might be part of the issue here.

This a completely valid point. But then of course, as nature is wont to do; he grew up. Everyone comes to the point in life where their opinions, thoughts, feelings etc are disregarded. Then suddenly BAM you're an adult, and people listen to you. And you don't know why.

But in conjunction with that, eventually we all reach a point in life where it doesn't matter how rough or terrible childhood was, we have to move on. We have to accept that it happened, we can't make it better, and there's only so long we can lean on 'rough past' as a reason. Eventually you have to move on-otherwise you get nowhere.

But Kaz never fully moves on. He comes close. He has moments within MGSV itself, but what happens after MGSV? He joins Foxhound in the mid 90's, trains up Snake-and has him kill Big Boss. That is the exact opposite of moving on. Even if he ends up understanding Venom at certain points. Even if he manages to admit at times, 'revenge solves nothing' him admitting it doesn't change how his life pans out.

He stays angry.

He stays hurt.

We don't know what kind of mindset he has upon his death in 2005, but his flaws are never rectified. His entire life is a tragic, uphill stream of doing it, failing, doing it again, failing. And dying alone in an Alaskan cabin. Because MGS is a cyclical form of storytelling, and the cycles always continue.

Ironically, Kaz does in his own way create a legacy. His own legacy of bloodshed and terror. The war economy, for-profit PMC's. A dictatorship where the leadership is cross-border, hell beyond borders.

Which, given how he talks and behaves in life, is what he wanted. And it doesn't matter one bit in the end. It gives him, personally, nothing. Unless some unmarked Alaskan grave counts as 'something'. You tell me.

Until they're broken-by force, by Snake, Otacon and Sunny.

*As a quick aside, I ADORE how RAD acts Kaz out.

[sleeplessinunova]

Pokemon type specialist stereotypes

Normal - “I like bread” damn ur boring. Normal type. Fucking normal type. I feel bad for anyone whos tried to text you cause you’re definitely the the to reply “k” and “ig” to everything

Fire - “RAAAAHHHH” Fire type trainers have no chill and they also think very highly of themselves, unfortunately without their booties theyre useless. Never seen a fire type trainer who texted in lowercase

Water - “Guys lets swim in a thunder storm itll be ok g—“ weirdly athletic. Like ig that makes sense but alot of water specialists are more built than fighting specialists. Or you’re a jolly old fisher.

Grass - “photosynthesis is real” believes in crystal healings and also calls themselves cottagecore while living in like…lumios city. You are not “eepy” you are 26 and unemployed, take a fucking shower.

Electric - Nothing distinct from Fire type, but they don’t have to invest all their money into boots. Definitely has unmedicated adhd

Ice - “chill out! Haha…haha…ha…” you’re either old or a sadist. Theirs no in between. Like you’re either a sweet old man who loves the snow or you think that frostbite is the funniest thing since comedy, get help.

Fighting - “HIT ME!! HIT ME!! NEVER GIVE UP!!” You think you’re a shonen protag when you’re actually the comic relief. Musclehead who chugs protien shakes and punches their poliwrath for 6 hours straight before going to football practice.

Poison - “The poison is already erroding your pokemon’s poor health…” you THINK you’re the sadist ice type trainer but you’ll never be them, stop trying. You have a salazzle because otherwise a single steel type ruins your whole month

Ground - “*earthquake property damage joke*” you and the steel type trainer will not shut the fuck up about how competitive your types are. Quit your wiglett measuring contest. Meta this, meta that, have you ever MET A GIRL???

Flying - You don’t exist

Psychic - “i gaze into the great beyond” may or may not be actually psychic. You’re who the ghost girl wishes she was. But you also have your head very far up your own ass and won’t stop reliving the glory days of when your type was considered powerful. You think you’re so above everyone and you’re probably using the psychic type to have a nerd revenge fantasy against the fighting type jocks who shoved you into a locker in high school

Bug - “im no standard bug catcher” yes you are timmy shut the fuck up. You didn’t actually like bug types that much at first but you made them your entire personality when you saw how mean everyone else was being

Rock - you became the ground type trainer after realizing they were you but better

Ghost - “Guys im a ghost trainer isnt that quirky, aren’t i spooky and scary guys im a ghost trainer guys guys where are you going—“ prolly lives in a “cottagecore” house and does nothing but scroll on joltiktok. Uses aesthetic as their personality. Definitely traumatized. Wants lavender town to go back to how it was in the 90s

Dragon - “The majestic dragon can only be tamed by the strongest trainers” you want to be lance so fucking badly its pathetic. Definitely plays dnd. Definitely owns a cape and is either too ashamed to ever wear it, or wears it EVERYWHERE

Dark - “absol is just a misunderstood bapy” you think your takes about dark types are subversive when they aren’t. No one cares about how your hydreigon would “never do something like that” KAREN—wait thats an actual dark type trainers name fuck

Steel - Basically the ground type trainer. You’re also guaranteed to have a metagross and you have a framed photo of steven stone over your bed so you forget how alone you are.

Fairy - You live in delulu land. You have never left delulu land. And you’re best friends with the ghost type trainer. Take your medication sweetums.

[bleed-more]

Hi!

I found your blog because of your ask blog and have been keeping up to date with Tim's asker antics. I just felt the need to get out some opinions in a place I know someone will hear it, and my brain is telling me I can't do shit about Marble Hornets on my own blog until I post my own art about it, so I hope you're fine with me rambling about it here. (If I'm somehow crossing a line of sorts, please let me know.) Also, fair warning. This is long. Very long. I put a TL;DR at the bottom.

I feel like this fandom should appreciate Seth as a character more. Most people kinda just use him as the secondary butt to "brought the dog" jokes, and while that is an amusing line, I feel like Seth has a lot of untapped potential as a character that isn't really thought about because of that joke being spun into his only personality trait. From what I've seen, people seem to entirely forget or ignore a little something about him being the founding member of ToTheArk. He and Brian are the only two characters throughout the entire story to work together successfully. Tim and Brian? They fell out. Jay and Alex? They fell out. Tim and Jay? You guessed it, they fell out. Seth and Brian are the only ones who could actually work together in a functional partnership until the end, but because people only really bring up Seth as the guy Alex yelled at for bringing his dog, that leaves a lot of untapped potential with their dynamic. What kind of person was Seth to be the only person able to collaborate with someone successfully while under the Operator's influence? Were him and Brian already close before it all happened? Was he just the only one with decent communication skills?? Plus, he's the one who started guiding Jay on the path towards answers, which implies that he knows quite a lot about what's going on. I personally imagine Seth to be a similar person to Jeff from EMH. He's calm and collected, good with tech, and quite good with solving and creating puzzles. Intelligent and very caring, wanting to see all the people he cares about make it out alive, so he's doing his best to help get this stuff sorted out for good while trying to maintain a level of anonymity so nobody else he loves gets caught in the cross fire.

TL;DR: People should really start thinking about Seth's dynamics and him as a character more beyond him bringing his dog.

YES YES YES YOU NAILED IT I 100% AGREEE

I have an entire novel's worth of headcanons I've collected about Seth because listen listen hear me out...

90% of the loose ends and plot holes left in Marble Hornets, when filled by Seth, make for an EXTREMELY compelling story that opens up an entire second off-screen plot line with Seth and Brian going parallel with Jay and Tim.

I feel like Night Mind said it best on his "Marble Hornets Explained series":

"When you finally stop to think about everything we've revealed, you begin to realize Marble Hornets was never actually a horror story."

"It was a revenge story."

I actually plan on digging into this fully through Act 3 of @ohgreat-moretapes 👀👀👀 and until then if you guys send headcanon asks here I will answer them!!!! (Just keep in mind some theories I propose about Seth might technically be "spoilers" if you wanna wait for the reveals over at the ask blog. I'll don't think ask blog spoilers will happen too often but just in case I'll put a spoiler warning above posts like that).

@sunnytheopossum is also working on a comic detailing the off-screen rise and fall of ToTheArk which I am SO HYPE for, so go send him lots of love and support too!!!

We need more Seth advocates out there!!! We shall canonize him the way he deserves!!!!

[head-empty-just-sigma]

*aHEM* okay. let's try this again

so i did a theory thing i guess like months ago where i tried to figure out why Fukuchi said that Fukuzawa's answer was wrong about his motives, and it SUCKED tbh. which is why it is now in the trash next to my sanity

and recently i did that again, but this time i went back and read 30+ chapters (starting from chapter 71 and backtracking a few times) and collected Too Many screenshots of panels to use while i write a new theory because i was unhappy with my first one but i promise i'm not going to make you look at all of them because that would be cruel and make this post infinitely longer

i'll include a tldr at the bottom for this since it really boils down to one point, and to get to that one point i want to cover quite a bit of context so i understand if you just want to read the Main Point lol

so let's try this Fukuchi's goal theory again but better this time

*distant sleep-deprived sobbing*

🔺spoiler warning for chapters 70-104.5🔻

Starting with what we know...

So this is the first thing we learn before we even know Kamui is Fukuchi, coming from Mushitaro in chapter 70. What I want to focus on is Ango's response to the information, because YEAH that's exactly what I said too the first time I read it!! Why does he say "eliminate" and not "overthrow"?? Don't people usually overthrow a government? Well, this makes more sense to us later once we learn Fukuchi doesn't actually plan on overthrowing anything. What he really wants is to eliminate the concept of different "governments" and different "nations" altogether. This is what we learn in his speech about heading what he calls 'the Humankind Army', in chapter 82. He's not trying to become the leader of the entire world, so to speak, he just wants the entire world to be united with a single army so that there are no borders and no armies beyond the One Single Army.

Okay, but why?

Fukuchi, now that he's be revealed in chapter 85, just straight up admits he plans on "eliminating" every single nation. He doesn't want to leave a single one out of his Humankind Army, because that would leave room for error. Every nation must be brought into the fold or eliminated altogether in order to prevent wars from ever breaking out again, according to him. I'm not going to explain how ludicrous this plan is because I don't need to, he's a villain doing villain things and he genuinely believes that he will get away with this because he has Bram and One Order. Not to mention, he is amplifying Bram's power to some degree, as this is something he reveals to Tachihara when the latter claims that taking over half the world's armies is an impossible feat in chapter 90. It’s possible he could do the same with One Order, since it is an ‘ability weapon’, but it’s impossible to know for sure until we see him use it.

I think the second image pretty much explains why he wants to eliminate the nations. He was a weapon of war, essentially, commanded by the nation he served to slaughter his adversaries while he watched his comrades die around him. He's clearly traumatized/haunted by the deaths of his comrades, as we're shown a couple of times that he has PTSD-like flashbacks or hallucinations to when he was on the battlefield. In one of these flashbacks/memories, we see him being told by a dying soldier to seek revenge.

calm down walmart batman

Now, here's where things get interesting, because in chapter 104.5, we learn that revenge is not his goal.

Fukuzawa guesses it is, saying it's revenge on the government that sent him and his comrades to war over and over again using a healing ability, and also punishment for Fukuzawa himself for ‘betraying’ Fukuchi and not going to war with him. However, Fukuchi immediately corrects Fukuzawa by straight up stabbing him in the gut... So his goal obviously isn't actually getting revenge on the government or Fukuzawa, or the ADA as a whole even.

I don't think he wants revenge, either. He's not necessarily vengeful, despite what those flashbacks might say. No... It's worse.

Fukuchi wants justice.

There's a few things that led me to forming this theory, so bear with me here...

I think these pages specifically are interesting because, while it doesn’t say much about his motives, we clearly see he has complicated views towards Fukuzawa. He offers Fukuzawa (him, specifically, not the ADA) protection from the government and the Hunting Dogs, and even acknowledges that he considers Fukuzawa a close friend in front of Atsushi. However, he is also upset or maybe even spiteful that Fukuzawa didn’t go to the battlefield with him like he wanted, and therefore didn’t have to experience all the horrors that Fukuchi did during the war. To some degree, he wants to make Fukuzawa suffer as he has (hence why he captured the ADA members and is displaying them for Fukuzawa to see).

Fukuchi also talks about angels a lot. Which does make sense considering he heads the Decay of the Angel, where ‘angels’ are more accurately Devas from Buddhist scriptures, which are mortal angels. The 5 stages of decay are what we witnessed at the beginning of this whole thing, when the DOA went through the first 4 stages with high-ranking politicians, and then Nikolai framed the Agency for the final stage with even more politicians as victims. The line about reincarnating is interesting to me, because it could be alluding to Fukuchi eliminating every nation and then creating the Humankind Army in its place as the ‘ideal reincarnation’, as there would be no more war. This, with Fukuchi, could be manifesting in the form of wanting to bring the world itself and these ‘angels’ to justice for their wrongdoings. But also enact justice on behalf of his fallen comrades who no longer have the ability to do so.

The entire theme of the Hunting Dogs is that they all have an extremely strong drive for justice, but all in their own ways. Currently in the story, however, almost none of them agree with Fukuchi anymore, and have either formed their own sense of justice that goes against Fukuchi, or has placed more value in something else over that justice.

Out of all the Hunting Dogs, the one who talks about justice the most is Tecchou. But we’ve already seen Tecchou find something worth putting above his sense of justice; Jouno, who he wants to find more than he wants to enact justice on Kenji for being a ‘terrorist’. Jouno also has his own form of justice, which is to protect the innocent above all else, as we see him declare as he defies Fukuchi in chapter 93 before being bitten.

Tachihara was the first to abandon his belief in justice and Fukuchi, stating that orders make him who he is as we see a panel of Mori telling Tachihara to destroy the enemy of the world (aka Fukuchi). Unfortunately, following orders apparently can’t save you from being stabbed from the past. And then blinded. And bitten. Tachi can’t catch a break or any story time even 2 years later

Teruko, who has already been told all of Fukuchi’s plans by the man himself as of chapter 103.5, still chooses to follow Fukuchi of her own free will, telling Atsushi that ‘justice is but a word’ in the face of that. I’m not sure if this means she’s no longer following a sense of justice at all, or if she just puts her will to follow Fukuchi to the end of the earth above it. Either way, she’s the only one still following Fukuchi in the Hunting Dogs at this point. However, she lets Atsushi go, which makes me think she’s resigned to letting Fukuchi carry out his plans but doesn’t want to get involved herself.

Fukuchi is the only one who believes in his own sense of justice above all else, and it could be what is fueling him to carry out whatever world-ending plans he has. There’s not many other explanations as to why a man like Fukuchi would be so determined to reach his goals, since we know for a fact that revenge is at least not the main contributor here. Not to mention, Atsushi calls Fukuchi a ‘representative of justice’ in chapter 83.5, and Fukuchi doesn’t correct him or mention it.

So besides another reference to angels, it’s interesting to see Fukuchi call the chairman ‘foolish’ for thinking he was doing all this to save the world. This adds to the idea that he doesn’t see salvation for the world as it is, which ties into the fact that he wants to remake the world under the Humankind Army. He doesn’t plan on saving the world as it is, nor does he plan on dominating it at the basic definition of the concept. He wants to carry out justice to destroy and then reincarnate the world under one army controlled by one man and one nation. It’s probably more accurate to say he wants to unite the entire world under the army more than under himself specifically, but it’s still debatable at this point.

Fukuchi’s mental state is also called into question a few times. We see Atsushi questioning it in chapter 91 during the ADA meeting in Lucy's room, and then obviously there’s the handful of flashbacks we get of the battlefield Fukuchi stood on, either surrounded by bodies or witnessing the end of one of his comrades, or standing before a crater where soldiers were most likely standing at one point. We also see during the two Fukus memory flashback that Fukuchi was scared he’d return from the war a changed person, which is why he wanted Fukuzawa to go with him. This is most likely what Fukuchi is referencing in chapter 103.5 when he tells Fukuzawa that ‘the person he knew before does not exist’, and that ‘the battlefield changed everything’. This mental state probably doesn’t help the whole destroying-and-rebirthing-the-world thing he has going on right now. Not to mention, in the memory in chapter 104, Fukuchi originally went into the military with the idea that his actions were ones that saved lives, and that war was not the enemy of everything on earth. He genuinely believed he could protect his comrades in war. But when he couldn’t save anyone, his views changed drastically to what they are now, which is shockingly similar to what Fukuzawa said in opposition to Fukuchi in the memory: that the only things found at war were actions that took away lives.

Conclusion/TLDR: Fukuchi doesn’t want revenge or to dominate the world by himself, he wants to destroy the governments and nations of the world and then create the Humankind Army to begin the reincarnation of one unified nation under that army. All for the sake of preventing war from ever breaking out again, and therefore enacting his delusional form of justice upon the negligent nations that allowed war to happen in the first place. This is also justice served for his fallen comrades that beg him to take revenge.

[a-little-bit-of-everybody]

a/n: Okay so ive been writing this thing, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH TLOU but i just want some advice or somth??? idk , any feedback is welcomed good or bad 🩷

tw: none rlly? SLIGHT IMPLIED death/ su!c!d3 of scientists, themes of hopelessness/ depression (if u see any others lmk xx), bad writing lmao, the world ending if u squint rlly hard and turn your head at a 90 degree angle clockwise 🩷🩷

--------------------------------------

"So destroy the city. Burn it to the ground. Maybe Ill get some peace when the worlds crumbling around me."

-------------------------------------

1

She was fixated. Fixated on fixing things. Fixing people. Watching the crumbled shell of a person come back to life, with nothing more than a few sweet words and her entire being. She'd see a broken person and would itch to help them heal, until they grew beyond her, like they always did. Until she broke, and they didnt want to waste the time, the enegry on helping her be fixed. They did not want to murmer sweet words to her, to watch that shell grow. Who would, when Itd cause such a burden on the other. So, she never fully healed. How could she, really? Healing requires the tender hands to bandage your wounds, words of affermation and acceptance and love that only come from a healed person. But she found herself void of them, having used them on the poor souls she'd tended to in the past. She knew Hurt People hurt people. She knew her wounds would bleed on those who did not cause them. She'd pry her eyes open in the morning to stare outside at the barren landscape, the emptyness reflecting her soul back at her. The world had been dying for quite some years now, and so has she. Sheremebered when she was 16 and the signs of a ruined world began to set in. The farms became infertile, not taking to any seeds, no fertilisation could help them, no amount of soft spoken praises could bring them back. The seas became all too poluted for anyone to even set foot on a beach. The former white sands replaced with white plastic, the sea a wave of rubbish waiting to consume us, the oceans lungs full of smoke from a cigerette. She saw how the sun hung in the sky. It was there, but seemingly more distant, as if it looked down on us in pity. Pitying what we've forced ourselves to become. Even the sun, somthing so bright, dreaded getting too close to this world- maybe it was contagious. Scientists promised hope and redemtion and a future of a new life on mars. We could thrive, they said, Live for many more years to come, this could not be the end of our dominating species. This was not our extintion event. Karma could not, surely, be the death of us..? They promised we could thrive on another planet, abandoning our mother to the fate we'd caused. But, still, 8 years later, all humans would wake up to this destroyed planet, this desolate existance. Soon after the sea began to rise rapidly, swallowing the lands with a purpouse to renew, Scientists gave up on painting a life on mars, the lies washing the canvas clean, tainting it a sickly yellow. They told us all the facts. The earth was angry. We were doomed. No god could save us now and no amount of praying would cease the terror about to insue. No other planet held any future for us. The thing is, you dont realise what you have until you loose it all. Until its snatched away from your desperate hands and your promised its never ever coming back. Scientists lost faith, so it seemed, what they knew was a burden too heavy to bear as they all left the public eye. Their fates unkown tradegys for the earths revenge. No one bothered to check their houses, letting them rest in peice, after all, who would know of their existence soon? When all was gone? But despite the dire times, the govermnent held onto society- claiming to fix it, but breaking it more. Soon, they also left. None could cope with the responsibility, none could pretend everything was normal, no regimes or rescues could bring hope to even the most hopeful.There was no saving us. Why save the damned when you know they'll crawl back down to hell to spite you?

[samobservessonic]

Next up are Knuckles & Tails, in what isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of a dream holiday destination. Although having said that, it’d be pretty funny if someone made a story about some old dears (maybe Madge and her husband?) taking a trip to stay in a B&B at the Land Beyond. Madge could fight Trogg as she goes without even realising she’s doing it

Anyway, I’m getting distracted

There’s a mysterious figure following them across the bridge and… oh really? I didn’t think we’d got up to her yet!

Meet Morain! She’s the sister of Errol and, prior to this read-through, would’ve been the first character to spring to mind if you’d said “The Nameless Zone” to me. We’re going to be seeing more of her from now on. I don’t really see people talking about her all that much, but I like her fine. I like that she has the Millennium Eye from Yugioh on her belt

I’m also not taking it as a good sign Errol could get turned back that she says she’s out for “revenge” instead of trying to fix the problem. Yes, I’m trying to get my own hopes down that there’s any hope of saving my boy, so I can avoid disappointment

It’s probably not surprising that a comic featuring a badass warrior girl in the 90s has the “but she’s a girl!” thing going on, I guess I just think Knuckles is a weird choice to have be the character to play a part in that - he’s spent his whole life alone, why would he look down on women? Not to mention that StC Knuckles is quite chill in general. And of course, Tails isn’t going to take issue with girls either. I just don’t think either of these two characters would, honestly

Which isn’t to say that I don’t think you should have stories about sexism in kids’ comics, I just think putting this trope in a story about these two characters is a bit of an odd choice. But maybe I’m getting lost in the weeds here - they might not even make a thing of this at all in the rest of the story

At the moment, Morain is fine with her belief that Tails is a strong leader, just like everyone else in the Nameless Zone is. But they’re under attack, so there’s no time for Tails to “joke”

Trogg! Trogg! Trogg! Trogg!

Also, aww the grey Enchanter King is more brown here. Let him be grey

Yesss! He’s going to summon the Dark One! The gang’s gonna all be here!

Back with the heroes and Morain is doing what no other character in these Tails stories has done so far - she’s starting to figure out that Tails might not be what everyone thinks he is

We leave off on the threat of more enemies, but now I’m even more excited to see the rest of this story. I’ve not read this one before, but I knew there was a story where Knuckles met Morain, I just didn’t realise it was this one. And if you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you probably know that I’m here for the girl characters mostly, so naturally I’m looking forward to seeing more of Morain as a part of the Nameless Zone cast

[angstics]

(sources: nyt 2014, bryan ferry: 1976, 1979, maximilianmogg.de 2021, gerard way: 2005, sleek 2016, bowie: 1973, 1978, ama 2014, gerard way: 2014)

gerard way on style, authenticity, gender, british music from the 70s and 90s... and COSTUMES. that was just a primer on the topic i actually want to talk about, which is how different the outfits this past tour have been stylistically from anything gerard has PULLED FROM or DONE.

this entire run, 2022-23, the closest gerard ever got to wearing something he would've worn during the first period (01-13) was the when we were young shows. part making fun: the second night (the first was cancelled) they wore a replica of their revenge album run outfit with HEAVY old age makeup. part homage: night three, they wore something so reminiscent of colleen atwood's work that in conjunction with gerard's tour designer (marina toybina) saying atwood worked with gerard on something not specified and toybina not claiming this outfit as she usually would, led people to believe this was the work of atwood. which is significant because she designed the original black parade costumes!

(wwwy2, wwwy3, 2004, 2006)

every single other show was unique in some way. from the tshirts to loose jeans to short shorts to tight skirts to a nurse uniform to a full joan of arc get-up. this isnt to say they didnt divert from the "uniform" back in the day with other outfits -- but the new stuff either became the new regular or they were rare. they were always on theme. even beyond that, the wwwy looks are what people know them for. it's part anti-marketing -- no defintion, no statement. they just performed and people loved it. the only person to even publicize it is toybina, who just talked about the craft.

it's also part anti-glam aesthetically. for a decade, the same figures informed gerard's performance style. in evolving past The Past, he moves away from those figures. never entirely, especially not in artistic ideology. like you can see traces of ferry's idea of the authentic self interrupting expectations or bowie's evolution into softer adaptations of past selves -- but not as much as the hesitant alien look which was explicitly about that. looking at original glam rock style like bowie as ziggy stardust, there is an accentuation, drama, and single vision which defined mcr's revenge and early black parade aesthetics. those periods were gerard's biggest dedication to hair and make up until hesitant alien, which he describes as a return to glam.

looking at the tour vision today, it has none of these qualities. ive talked about how the outfits (mostly) arent highly dramatic or highly gendered, which is why i dont think calling it drag fits. esp on the drama point, that's a key aspect of glam missed. there's no makeup, no accentuation, no BIGNESS. the tour is marked by its long-range simplicity. when the drama comes, it's in the dirty and off-putting, not style. it's interesting that when way does act as a character, like the office worker or dracula, it's entirely physical like a stage actor not a singer. though those are just sparks. he doesnt "break" because it's just gerard as we know him.

one final thread to address here is the gender sphere. if gerard explicitly pulled from glam rock mcr 1.0 into hesitant alien, and he's mostly divorced from glam now... where is all this newfound gender presentation exploration coming from? from female archetypes (cheerleader, jackie-o) to theatrical gender neutrality (any of the body suits) to what wouldve been called "metrosexual" in 2006 (atlanta, nj2) to just a general feminine outfit (firefly, 8/9 of the 2023 leg) -- the artist has their source, meaning, motivation, sure. this step back from talking about anything is sooooooo genius for getting people to take what they want from the tour's artistic output. interpretation fuels discussion. people keep talking about the possible narratives of the albums. people keep talking about the constructed interpersonal narratives. people will keep talking about the mysterious narrative of this tour.

what people have taken from the looks of this tour is that they are a recontextualization of symbols gerard has always connected to -- one example is how cheerleaders went from an old failed pitch to the im not okay mv to revenge photoshoots to the blood and teenagers mvs. but unlike the wwwy outfits, he isnt using the symbols in the same way. it's entirely new that he becomes the exploited female figure he's attached to. the inspiration is the self. there's no avoidance. i think "foundations" had a lot do with the direction of the tour -- its self-reflection forming a new image, in both lyrics and sound, is exactly what the tour looks have been about. not Glam, not Post Glam... not mcr 1.0, not not mcr 1.0... making up new words for an old language to write stories not possible with just the old

[spoocys-glade-of-dreams]

Something just occurred to me about the Captain Laserhawk Rayman thanks to the info we got from the behind the scenes stuff.

I know this is supposed to take place in the 90's so I doubt this is true, or is at the very least a possible reference I'd like to see either confirmed or denied in the series.

How many of you remember the Rayman 4 stuff? Do you remember the synopsis that was given to us?

Let me share you the one from the Raywiki

since the text is so small in this screencap: allow me to type this out for you in the post. At least the part that applies here.

"The plot of Rayman 4 is mostly unknown, though some story elements have been leaked to the public. The game is said to have been based around the idea of Rayman partaking in a training camp for video game heroes where he could interact with other Ubisoft characters including The Prince of Persia's titular character and Jade of Beyond Good and Evil. Dark Rayman was set to make an appearance, not in person but rather to be portrayed as a glitch in the program; a corrupt part of the game bent on taking revenge on the characters. It appears that the game was to be a reboot/retelling of the original Rayman game, and would have involved Rayman revisiting numerous locations from the original game recreated in 3D and to a high level of accuracy.[4] This contrasts with Rayman Origins, where the heroes explore locations based on the same themes as those of the original game, but with distinct differences; for example, the Desert of Dijiridoos is evidently based on Band Land, but is clearly not the same place."

Guys. Is Captain Laserhawk A Blood Dragon Remix going to be a massive Rayman 4 reference or do you think I might be overthinking this shit? Because if it is, I am dying of laughter alongside Murfy.

ALSO I AM PUTTING THIS HERE FOR THE GIGGLES

[popculturebuffet]

Beetlemania Epilogue: Batman Brave and the Bold (Rise of the Blue Beetle, Fall of The BB, Revenge of the Reach and Meanace of the Madinks) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy beetlemaniacs and welcome to the long delayed finale/epilogue to my look the blue beetle. So while I was working on this project which for those just tuning in was a look at all three men to wear the blue, Kev asked me to take a look at Ted and Jaime's brave and the bold apperances. Being a massive fan of both, enough that Brotoman asking me to do this retorspective in the first place was one of the easiest yesses i've made in my career, and absolutely loving brave and the bold it was an easy addition.

So for those less familiar with this cartoon, Batman: Brave and the Bold was a 2009 cartoon. Brave and the Bold is easily the most unique of the batman cartoons thus far: while each one has it's own touches, Bold decided to go against the usual dark and broody nature of batman he'd had in the 70's to do something a bit diffrent.

Instead BATB takes after the silver age of comics, a time of camp, innosence, and fun goofiness like batman getting his own dimensional imp, Superman and Supergirl having two pets with superpowers and capes a piece, and of course a bunch of kids from the future who still act like it's the 50s who come to grab a young superman, leading to one of my faviorite teams of all time. But not before you know making him cry because 50s. It was a time of brilliant concepts, bonkers carefree storytelling and superman in a pope hat.

And while some fans titled their head, some wailed he needed to be grim and gritty and I just said "oh cool plastic man's in this"... the change in tone was both brilliant and needed. We'd already had three fairly serious batman shows, each distinct: BTAS is a noir masterpiece, Beyond is neo noir putting someone else in the role and thus giving us a batman with school and family to juggle and an older bruce as the mentor, and The Batman was an attempt to really shake things up, using both a younger batman and wildly diffrent versions of his rogues. So while another likely would've worked, and as seen with Beware the Batman it did as likely will the caped crusader, I can't blame showrunners James Tucker and Mike Jelenec for deciding to do something entirely unique.

Thus while Batman's still stoic, instead of being a loner who slowly adds sidekicks and uses over the top silver agey gadgets, from having a jetpack and helmet in his suit, to being able to summon fighting gloves to having his batmobile as a transformer. It comes off as a child's idea of batman: a guy who can do anything and can use all those neat toy add ons you usually only see in his action figures. It's a batman that has a sense of fun about it: While he's stoic as ever, the world he's in is werid and he adapts to it.

The the other secret sauce here is the show's decision to be a team up show: instead of the batfamily, who still show up on occasion, Batman teams up with a fellow superhero in each episodes opening teaser as a fun one off adventure and then in the main story, another nod to the silver age in how many books would have more than one story, batman in particular. It's also telling that most of the main focus heroes are almost entirely b listers: Common sights include Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam, pre movie), Guy Gardner Green Lantern and Aquaman, the only a-list of the bunch and the main character. Some had shown up before in the DCAU, sure, but most hadn't gotten this kind of focus and some like Blue Beetle, our natural focus for today's, hadn't shown up at all thanks to rights issues. And even some like Aquaman got a revamp, with the stoic brooding 90's anti-hero of the DCAU replaced with a glorious large ham whose every bit as goofy as the silver age but every bit as badass as he is now. They also wisely kept his beard.

It provides a nice mix of actual silver age characters, and more modern ones like the Jason Rusch firestorm or Jaime that simply hadn't been adapted yet, as well as for whole teams like the Metal Men, JSA and Freedom Fighters to get proper first appearances in animation. This series is one giant love letter to dc and just about every hero they could cram in here and have it make sense is here> And if that wasn't enough, for me personally instead of doing a big 7 lineup of the justice league or just using heroes batman had teamed up with a lot like green arrow or plastic man, they just straight up decicided to recreate my faviorite Justice League Lineup of all time, the Justice League international, even bringing in Martian Manhunter just to make it as close as possible to the core lineup of Batman (Who was leader in those days), Martain Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Fire and Ice. The only changes were changing the beetle from Ted to Jaime (to fit the shows continuity) and adding Aquaman as it'd be all kinds of weird to not feature the shows breakout star.

So with what the show is down that finally brings us to the Blue Beetle and his long overdue first animated apperance. The DCAU PLANNED to include him but rights headaches meant Ted was relegated to the tie in comics. And since Jaime was such a fan faviorite , when it came time for Brave and the Bold he became the primary beetle instead, providing the fun angle of batman having a teen sidekick.. whose far more powerful than he is, if lacking experince. We rarely see Batman mentor superteens, and it's an intresting concept: He has a partner he can order around and such but can't REALLY stop if Jaime wanted to operate without him. IT's something I hope gets explored again sometime.

That said while Jaime was the main blue beetle, and one of the most common recurring cast members, the series , like most adaptations didn't forget ted exists or to honor him. And while they sadly didn't give us the two beetles operating at the same time, something we didn't get in full blast until Blue Beetle: Graduation Day LAST YEAR (He did mentor Jaime for a while but weirdly they didn't have him resume the costume for a while), we do get one hell of an episode focusing on both beetles in the past and present, another hell of a heroic death, and a time travel episode with Ted's best buddy booster going back to see his friend one last time... and fucking it up because it's his superpower. So join me under the cut as we put on the armor and see the dawn of a new blue beetle and the legacy he protects one more time.

The Rise of the Blue Beetle!: Stinger: Batman teams up with Green Arrow to defeat clock king. Honestly my reaction to this version of Ollie is mostly

As he dosen't really have anything that makes him that.. unique or intresting. He's cocky and wants to one up batman. That's about it. I love Ollie, but this version is so boring. It dosen't help most of his spotlight episodes feature someone more interesting.

The opening however.. is solid, spotlighting the two's competitive nature with each other (and contrasting Ollie's open boasting with Batman being reserved and not showing his compettive streak outwardly), and fighting Clock King. And not the more grounded, awesome version we saw in Batman TAS, but the goofy silver age version complete with robes and a clock face.

Is it the best cold open they could've used? Probably not. But it gets across the team up theme of the series, and the important fact that most of the foes we face.. aren't batman's usual foes. Most of his Rogues are mia, and the only one who gets used a LOT is Joker, and even then it's in more creative ways like having him be Batman's team up for the mid season finale (And leading to the glorious scene in the final fight of him just running around with a mallet like a giddy three year old), teaming up with his own inspiration, or adapting emperor joker. Just like the team up format allows for a wide exploration of the dc's heroes, the antagonists are usually guys you wouldn't see or at least wouldn't see fighting batman.

The episode proper begins with Jaime and his best buddy Paco talking superheroes, with Jaime hyping up batman. It's here we get two big changes: the first is Jaime's personality: Instead of a kind, reserved, if with a biting tounge when called for it kid who just wants to help out his friends and family and who feels overwhlemed, this Jaime is a superhero fanboy whose super jazzed to have power armor.

This change is hit and miss for me: it does kinda miss a lot of the point of Jaime and his personality, a kid burdened iwth incredible power and responsibility who uses it not because he wants to but because it's the right thing.. but I get it for the context of this series. Here Jaime's being trained and mentored by batman, and thus having him be a bit more cocky and eager in places opens up stories more as otherwise Jaime would just be waiting at home. Not only that the series already had a reluctant legacy hero in Ryan Choi, the Atom, so at least one of them had to change personality a bit and it made more sense with Jaime. So while i'm not a huge fan of this change, I understand it enough to not be all that bothered by it, especially since both his Young Justice and Movie Counterparts hem closer to the comics.

A change I DON'T like at all.. is that Jaime's best friend Paco (his family and brenda don't show up).. has NO IDEA who he is. There is absolutely NO justification for this either. We don't see enough of Jaime's home life for him having a secret identity to have any impact and there's really nothing about his appearances that coudln't of been done without him knowing. In fact his next two probably would've been better had he known. It feels like the producers didn't know how to handle a superhero who doesn't have a secret identity.. despite Plastic Man and Aquaman, neither of whom have one and are just fine, being recurring characters. It's an annoying decision and one i'm not a fan of at all, especially since Paco doesn't seem to be in ANY other adaptations.

The rest of the episode is okay. Out of the episodes I had to rewatch (and in our last case watch for the first time) it's the one I was the least happy to see again as it didn't leave much of an impression. On rewatch it has some intresting ideas, but is mostly just a typical "supehero needs to not rely only on his powers" story mixed with a training the peaceful villagers one: Batman and Jaime are shanghied to a colony of admittedly neat looking little protoplasmic blob men woh put out an energy charge. They kidnapped Jaime to help because a previous wielder of his Scarab saved them from Space Pirate and justice league villian Kanjar Ro. Ro is part of why I largely forgot this one as i've never been a huge fan of the guy. He dosen't look terrible but other than space pirate there isn't much to him. The DCAU used him well but also had him as a simple criminal helping frame John Stewart. Here he works decently enough as he's intimidating ENOUGH to be a foe for Jaime, whose the real focus here, and give batman a fight, while still clearly being a villian of the week.

I do like that already, even before we get to ted, the writers of the show get that Jaimee. .is tied into legacy and It's a neat idea to hint at just who carried the scarab before Dan Garret, the first beetle, who for all we know very well COULD have been the person who fought Kanjar Ro before. It's just a shame this NEVER comes up again which is disappointing. It'd be neat to know if the Scarab had a host before the reach dispatched it to earth.

The rest of the episode is pretty by the numbers though, and while the idea of jaime getting cocky isn't bad... he's just not cocky Enough with his powers for the message to work. The episode has more clever stuff like batman hooking one of the little goo people up to a power cable to save them when kanjar leaves them all tied to a piece of debris to die, with the little guys later hooking their guns into themselves, using the fact Kanjar Ro harvests them for fuel against him. It's a clever chekovs gun and speaks to the message of the episode that DOES work: relying on one's self and the power of inspiration.

I"ll also say Batman is kinda.. fucked as a mentor this episode: While I get his logic, having Jaime pretend to be his predecessor to inspire these adorable blobs to kill their opressors, a good message for all, it's still mildly fucked up Batman is asking a children to lead a bunch of people to posisbly die in a war against a ruthless space pirate. I get jaime needs to be a symbol but maybe do't gloss over just how big an ask your asking bats.

Finally i'll say the episodes climax has a good idea: Jaime forced to rely on his brains.. and Kanjar Ro taking the armor. The problem.. is the latter RAISES A LOT OF QUESTIONS, especailly since later episodes go with the idea from the comics, that the scarab coudln't bond with ted kord and specifically choose jaime, making it come off contrived as all apokalips that Kanja Ro JUST SO HAPPENS to be a compatable host. It dosen't ruin the climax, seeing someone evil let loose with the armor is neat and Jaime turning the gamma gong, Ro's weapon he used to strip Jaime of the armor in the first place, against him is genius.

Overall an episode that's jus tokay. i'ts not a bad start to the series or Jaime's time on the show, but it's still clear they needed an episode or two before they started really cooking with gas. Thankfully that only took the first 4 or so episodes and by the time we next saw Jaime this season, the show was firing on all cyllnders with a true classic.

Fall of the Blue Beetle!:

Fall of the Blue Beetle! is more like it and while i'ts not where my obessesion with ted started, that'd be

This episode certainly didn't hurt. It is where Jaime started to grow on me though and where a lot more of his character from the comics comes from.

The biggest part of this.. is Legacy. We got a touch of that with the previous scarab wielder in Rise, but a key aspect of Jaime is that he ISN'T the first blue beetle. That he has to step into someone else's shoes. And it's something that fits dc like a glove as one of DC's bigger draws, one that they snuffed out for a while, is Legacy. Most heroes have more than one version and many have sidekicks, something marvel almost completely avoids thanks to Spider-Man's existence being a direct response to the concept, who more often than not later take up the mantle or find their own new one, leading someone take up THEIR old costume. Often you'll also get heroes sharring identities: it's why we have 9 earth green lanterns, three flashes, and two supermen.

So the fact that Blue Beetle was ALREADY a legacy made ted fit right in long before Jaime had to follow him up after his fatal case of bullet to the head. And Jaime learns that early, and thus has to carry around the fact that not only did Ted die a hero.. but armor or no this could EASILY happen to him. He has to learn to think with his head and learns to appricate Ted as he was. It's not an overwhelmingly major part of the book but the fact Jaime is part of a proud legacy is still important and when he needs help for his final fight, it's Ted's grandaughter Dani and Ted's friends in the JLI who come to help... because they know it's what ted would want.

Brave and the Bold cleverly plays with this as while like his comics counterpart Jaime knows there were other beetles.. he dosen't know what happened to Ted off the bat and this episode brilliantly plays with that.

It also plays with another Key aspect of Jaime: his self doubt. At the end of the days Jaime is a throughly normal kid given great power. In the comics and movie a lot of it is simply not WANTING this power, but with no way to remove the scarab and live he does what he can with it anyway because it's the right thing. The poor kid teared up because during a fucking hurricane, made worse by a supervillian, the kid couldn't save everyone, with his vetran dad having to explain that.. you simply can't. And the fact Jaime was there still saved a LOT of people.

While this Jaime's way more happy in the roll from the off, being a superhero fanboy, the idea that he's not worthy of it still crops up here in a clever way: He and Paco have a campout, and when he recites the Hal Jordan Green Lantern's origin (Which he likely knew as he easily could've met Hal at this point as he DOES exist in this continuity), Paco is doubtful. For those whose attitude to green lantern lore isn't

Like yours truly, a quick recap: The Green Lantern corps are space cops, though thankfully not nearly as corrupt as that implies, who patrol sectors of space. When one dies, their ring finds a replacement. But in this case, dying Green Lantern legend Abin Sur didn't really have time for the ring to do it's thing so he crashed his rocket on earth near Hal Jordan, the nearest worthy canditate and gave it to him personally.

Paco.. dosen't buy any of this, thinking heroes aren't chosen and most dickishly that a hero.. is just their powers. It's just the RING that's special not the person.

Okay look I try not to go on tangents refuting a fictional character.... but given this kind of argument occasionally crops up in real life... no. While a heroes powers are cool and what allow them to do the job...it's the person that makes the hero. And the green lantern's are the biggest example of that. They were all chosen sure but each chosen because they can overcome great fear (Paco IS right that the idea of someone being WITHOUT fear is kinda fucked and the daredevil comics have gone into what exactly that means, it's why they changed it), nad because each one of them chosen brings something to the table. Hal Jordan can think on the fly like noone's buisness, Guy Gardner WILL never give up (Wether he actually should or not), John Stewart is a tactical and archetcural genius, Kyle Rayner has a boundless imagination and some of the best contracts, Jessica Cruz has deep and noble heart and empathy and the power to go on and Simon Baz has a drive no lantern can match. And tha'ts not even getting into Alan Scott, gay icon or the ones whole books I own but haven't read like Jo Mullen or Tai Pham, both of whom deftinely deserve it.

I do love the episode exploring this idea though as given it's something a kid watching this might've thought it nicely deconsturcts it.. and shows what hearing that would do to a person. IN Jaime's case he sprials and goes to his mentor for validation. And this brings us to one of the weaker parts of the episode as Batman is in Batdick mode this episode. Granted at FIRST it's a bit understandable: jaime interupts him during a fight with Doctor Polaris. That fight itself.. is a nice subtle nod to Jaime's history as in the comics, one big arc had him fighting the newest Dr. Polaris. It's really damn good for the record and I hope it gets reprinted. Later we can see batman having recently beaten the Squid gang from Ted's first solo issue. It's some nice background stuff.

Jaime is worried he wasn't chosen for a reason, and while Bruce not reassuring him at first is okay... bruce saying, and I quote "you are NOTHING like the blue beetle I knew" is a level of dickish only suprassed by this guy

Seriously bats, a teen comes up to you, is clearly going through something regarding being worthy of this. I get it, Bats was close to ted in this continuity.. but even in that context it's comes off pretty dickish to compare the kid to someone who had years more experince in the field.

Also yes, in this continuity Ted and Bats.. were besties. I had honestly forgotten that and it's a fun uniquely wholesome take. See in the original comics.. Ted and Batman weren't exactly FRIENDS. They were coworkers: Batman was the stern, often mean boss who expected everyone to do what he said without question, and Ted was the snarky guy in his cubicle who'd shut up when that guy said to but certainly would talk behind his back. It was a good comedic value. Even later, when ted was in his final hours in countdown, batman was someone he turned to.. and Bats didn't take him seriously.. and later deeply regretted it.

Here? The two utterly respect each other, and we get a lot of fun dialogue as the two talk about their gadgets: Bats is impressed Ted managed to get a mini laser working, he switched the coils, while Ted is suprised he can get smoke pellets on his belt because his always blew up. Bats then explains he had the same issue and the casing was ungodly expensive. Thankfully he just put it on the bat credit card.

As for how the two are interacting when Ted's a corpse in present day, that's where one of the episodes most clever aspects comes in: rather than have the intro be an unrelated cold open... the intro is Bats and Ted's on Ted's final case. We don't find out the last part till later, but it's a clever way to have ted around while still having him sacrifice himself in some way.

I'd also like to stop for a moment to talk about how great the voice actors are for our beetley buddies.. and this show in general. For Jaime we have vetran voice acting legend, feeeeee-hany fan, podcaster, and critical role hall of famer Will Fredidle, who does a great job with Jaime's wide eyed enthusasim, ocasional haminess.. but also his vunerablity and depth. You can sense at times in these episodes a kid who badly WANTS to be a good as hero as the heroes who inspired him, covering it up with a layer of jokes... just like his predecessor really. Granted this all comes with the necessary asterix of THEY SHOULDN'T OF HIRED A WHITE GUY TO PLAY JAIME.. which.. they really shoudln't have. It's.. not complicated and it shouldn't of taken till 20goddamn20 for that to be standard practice and not just what some productions did and other didn't. Given a cast this size they STILL coudl've cast my boy in a roll that wasn't racist. Hell he woudl've made a great booster (though who we got is excellent). So the casting decision dose'nt have a leg to stand on.. but Will still did a good job and I dearly miss his voice acting. He's still around granted: he's currently doing the podcast pod meets world with fellow BMW allums Danille Fischelle and fellow voice actor who really should be doing more of it these days Rider Strong. Seriously he was great in Star Vs. Maybe he's focusing more on his family, as he sometimes watches episodes of BMW with his son for the pod, and if so.. fair enough. I do miss these guys and I am glad Will at least is showing up in Legend of Vox Machina and that they have a podcast together.

The other will in the equation is will wheaton, star trek's scrappy doo turned geek icon. Will is a natural fit for ted and does him justice: this version's a bit more anlytical, but as we see later with boosters ep he can play the jokey side just as well and does ted really good. he's the bar that's set for whoever plays him in live action.. and i'm pulling for their top pick of Jason Sudekis. that is PERFECT ted kord casting and the only thing that could top this casting. If not.. will is old enough to still fit the part in the live action dcu. Just saying.

The freindship adds a nice layer to Batman's action: yes he's being bat dick... but it's clearly hard to talk about his best friend's death, someone who really got him as a crimefighter and he could relate to. Green Arrow uses similar methods.. but Ollie's ego's so big he's more concerned with one upping bruce instead of talking to him like a person. Given mots of Batman's partners defer to him in some way or form (and it's telling that for as much as his boisterous baffles our blue bat, he treats aquaman with respect), it had to hurt deeply. And as we'll see later the pain is still there and he's still not quite over Ted's death. It also explains why he's specifically mentoring Jamie: he wants to protect Ted's legacy. While the meteor mission in the last episode was to test of Jamie was ready to partner with him regularly with this ep it feels more like he wanted to make sure Jamie was worthy of his friends mantle.. and makes how proud batman was at the end all the sweeter. It also shows that despite batman using the worst possible phrasing, he DOES think Jamie is worthy.

It also adds a layer to Batman's

Behavior regarding what happened to ted, refusing to tell Jamie and then flying off in his batjet. Bats later fully admits he was worried Jamie coudln't handle it.. but it may be in part he simply didn't want to relive one of the worst moments of his life, when once again someone he loved died and he could do nothing but watch. He didn't want to saddle a teenager with his grief or the fact that in this job you CAN die. And that's something shockingly consitent about this series: Dead.. means dead. There's only three major deaths in the series: Ted's, B'wanna Beast's and the Doom Patrols, but all three stick. All are given weight and gravitas and all deeply effect bats.. not from episode to episode as this is more episodic but the moment still clearly shakes him.

Jamie isn't really happy with that explination and the scarab suggests checking the internet. Turns out ted has a fanpage run by a notboostergold. Who knew? It tells Jamie ted vanished a while back and is headquartered in Hub City, Ted's hometown in the comics though where he operates out of varried: he also operated out of Chicago, New York, el Paso and currently Palmera City alongside Jamie and his long lost slightly older sister we just met because the movies gave him one and DC thought "eh this could work". Which .. honestly it does, with Vicotria being more buisness minded and ruthless. Also sidebar but.. this.. this has happened with booster and ted right?

This had to have happened. We're alli n agreement, good.

Anyways Jaime heads to Hub City and finds Ted's old layer, covred with dust, something the movie ended up copying and I fully approve of. In fact it feels like the movie took some cues from this episode, turning Ted's adventure on pago island into a jamie story, having someone try and use the scarab to create robots, little touches like that. I don't mind as they did enough of their own thing with it and frankly more people are going to see the movie over this episode, so i'm fine with a good idea being used twice.

Speaking of which Jaime finds out the last cordinates were Pago Island. For anyone who knows Ted's origin that's a red flag. Quick recap for those who didn't read my review of Ted's first two solo issues: Ted worked with his uncle jarvis, found out he was a bad dude, and then brought dan to stop him. Good news: it ended terribly for jarvis with his robots sealed and him dead. Bad news: it ended with dan dead. Gooder news: Dan told ted to take up his legacy. So the fact Ted died on an island where nothing good happens cannot end well for Jaimie.

Batman DOES try ot make up for earlier, calling Jaimie.. only for Jaimie to tell Bats where he's going and where to stick it. Batman takes it like a mature adult and while flying ot rescue Jaime, mumbles "no more teenage partners"

This line.. just.. my god> I mean yes he says "adults got him into just as much trouble " right after.. but he still soley blames JAIME for this catstrophe. Jaime is screwing up yes.. but h'es a kid desperate to know he was chosen for a good reason and to live up to someone he found out went missing on his own because you coudln't take two bat minutes to try and explain things. Maybe tell him about ted without telling him what happened just yet. INstead you accidently told him he wasn't good enough then got mad when he was rightfully pissed you gave him nothing. His timing sucked, but you really should've brought up ted LONG before this.

And as a result.. it makes it VERY easy for Jarvis, still alive here, to con Jaime into giving him data on the scarab , claming he intends to improve humanity's lot and make things better. I get not telling him he was dead.. but maybe if you'd screamed "Ted kord was dead", as traumatizing as that would've been it woudl've at least stopped a villian you KNEW was still around fro mconning him

I"ll also say this.. Jarvis' scarab based tech.. looks amazing, very beetly and while I saw the twist coming... most viewers not familiar with jarvis' existance wouldn't. The tech all looks like something ted would make. It's something I give it over the movie where despite victoria kord's OMAC"s being based directly on the scarab.. they look NOTHIGN like the scarab armor nor the actual omacs. i'm fine with it being different enough to be visually intresting but the omacs and later caprapax armore are just.. boring. But that's a rant for another review.

The main takeaway is that Jamie has accidently given a mad genius an army of super fighting robots.. and by bringing up batman NEARLY caused the man's death. But not only does Jaime catch on the robots are weapons whne one spills i'ts bullets, Batman, being you know, the goddamn batman, is alive and well. He only gets tied up when Jarvis puts a gun to Jamie's head.. which i'm 90% sure is a bluff as the scarab can take on MULTIPLE green lanterns as we'll see next episode, but it speaks to Batman's character he doesn't risk it.

Jarvis.. is an excellent villain here, taken from your usual cackler to a guy who genuinely seems like his talk about wanting to make the world better is legit.. he's just willing to conquer it to make that happen. And a utopia forged in blood isn't rally a utopia is it? But Will does a great job as Jarvis too, making his voice similar enough to ted to buy him as an older ted.. but diffrent enough to hint at the twist.

With that Batman FINALLY is forced to explain what happened: Ted gave Jarvis the scarab because he genuinely thought he could help him use it. IN this continuity dan died another way. So when Ted found out from Batman that Jarvis was instead plotting world domination, he lept to stop it.

In the end though while they did beat Jarvis... he had one last play: launch a rocket full of his robots out to begin his world conquest. So much like with Countdown when backed into a corner.. Ted sacrificed himself to save the world, not telling Bruce exactly what his plan was till the was already on the rocket. As for how the Scarab got away that's easy: ted stole it back during the scuffle and put it on the rocket, so like the comics but in a much simpler way, it still got rocketed to el paso. Ted Kord once again died a true hero.

This dosen't help Jaime as he feels he failed Ted and his leagacy and was chosen just to do this. Batman explains the episodes aseop, similar to last times but executed better: it's not being chosen or what powers you have that make a hero. It's choosing to do the right thing> Despite not having the scarab Ted choose to use his intellect to fight crime. And while Jaime didn't chooose the scarab.. he choose to use it to help people and fight for good.

The two naturally escape, fight off jarvis, and fight the throng of robots, actually beating him this time and with Jaime setting it to explode. Our heroes win, Batman shows his pride and Jamie has his confidence back.

As you can probably tell.. I love this episode> it's one of brave and the bold's best and aside from the excess of bat dick, it's a compelling story of legacy and loss. If you haven't seen the show or are curious about ted and jaime after watching the film, this is an excellent watch.

Revenge of the Reach:

Revenge of the Reach is another banger episode. On first watch I wasn't really into this one and didn't really remember it but on rewatch it was a lot of fun. I'm also happy this episode is as good as it is... as this marks the final Jaimecentric episode in the series. The big reason for this is simple: The Justice League International.

For those less familiar with Ted and this show itself, the JLI was the first version of the justice league post crisis on infinite earths, the grandaddy of crisis crossovers and the event that brought Ted into the DCU. Writer J.M. Demattis finally got the gig writing the league after begging for it but the amount of stuff being reworked post crisis meant most of the vetran justice league was off limits. Demattis and his partner in crime Keith Giffen decided "Fuck it let's make this a sitcom", and used lesser known heroes including good old ted. The only vetrans to join the team were Black Canary (Who only stayed for about the first 12 issues) , Martain Manhunter, and Bats himself as leader before giving that headache to Jonn.

And since Brave and the Bold already had prominent spotlights for key members Blue Beetle (Jaime instead of ted), Booster Gold, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, featured Fire as a guest star and had Batman as it's lead, it was easy enough to simply introduce Martian Manhunter and Ice. Also Aquaman was there since, as said before, he was their biggest star. The team showed up a decent amount in season 3 and likely would've more had the series not been cut so short, eventually adding other members from the comics like Rocket Red and Captain Marvel.

So with season 3 cut in half and the crew knowing the end was nigh, there was less time to give Jaime more stories, instead focusing more on stuff they clearly wanted to get in before the end: Stories with the league, a whole episode dedicated to Superdickery that's one of the most glorious things ever put to film, an origins episode for batman and his other recurring patners that weirdly didn't have jaime. Season 3 was just packed and had only so much time left. It also had powerless which objectively sucks and I will get to when we eventually do a JLI in brave and the bold retrospective, one of a few Kev's floated along with the Starro arc and Batmite (the latter I especailly want to do as I forgot the late great paul rubens was his voice. ) So this is Jaime's last hurrah. And lucky for him, he got a heck of a writer on board as J.M. Demattis himself wrote this one.

Spekaing of the Starro arc, our intro ties into it and i'll likely be covering again when I do that one. It features a jack kirby creation, THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, with the intro for the segment funly done in the style of a 60's tv show. THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN are a quartet of adventurers who well.. challenge the unknown, experts in their fields who survivied a plane crash, put on matching jumpsuits and took on weird cases for the pentagon. They , to my shock came BEFORE Kirby would move on to Marvel, and with the challengers not having got a lot of traction, and even in recent dc works mostly showing up for one off apperances, I wouldn't be shocked if he reworked the concept of four adventuerers with public identtites who fight weird shit while wearing matching jumpsuits as the fantastic four.

Anyways the quartet fight a weird creatue with batman... but where this connects to the eventual story arc.. is after batman leaves a bunch of mini starros popping out of the meteor to posses the challengers.

So let's move on. Our main story has Jaime going out to space for an unauthorized solo mission. I'd say it was suprising Batman dictated when he could save lives or not .. but he is batman. And TBF, Batman probably wouldn't chastise Jaime if say he stopped a local fire or helped out with disaster relief. I"m sure the kid does the basic heroing stuff daily to stay sharp, and Batman, for all his faults would never want someone to not step in and help when they could. He just likely dosen't want Jaime tackling super crime without him.

Jaime fights Evil Star, whose name isn't a joke from me, but an actual Green Lantern villian, fitting given the Corps plays a large role in this. With some unknowing help from Paco, Jaime does in fact win on his own merits. Batman however isn't pleased as he apparently has Jaime chipped and followed him out there in his bat space suit. What I like though is Bruce isn't mad and his reasons for keeping Jaime on a leash aren't dickishness like last time: he TRUSTS Jaime, he both likely worries about his young ward, especially after loosing ted.. and DOSNE'T trust the Scarab, knowing nothing about it.

The two take him to Oa to drop Evil Star off. Oa is the home of the Green Lantern Corps I mentioned earlier, where new corpsman are trained and the central power battery, the source of their power is stationed. It's there a squad of Lanterns comes to pick up the leftovers, lead by Guy Gardner

So quick backstory for guy: guy was the second space cop green lantern for earth, being a backup for Hal Jordan and only not picked because Hal happened to be closer to where Abin Sur could land. For a while he was an also ran who ended up in a coma.

Eventually though Steve Engleheart decided to make use of him. During his run Steve made John Stewart the main green lantern and had Hal depowered for being mad at the responsiblity and such. Standard angst. Many a fan was simply, as tends to happen in comics, waiting for Hal to come back. Steve however didn't want that and had a simple thought: "Why CAN'T there be more than one earth lantern? Ther'es thousands of others up in space". So he not only allowed John to remain in the role, hence John getting to be the GLC's rep for crisis, but also brought Guy back, this time as a jingoistic right wing loud mouth. According to wikipedia Steve.. regrets the decision a bit as other people around him weren't fond of it and he got no royalties as he didn't create guy. Which is sad as this version became the premiere one.

But while steve lit the spark, it was Demattis who turned him into the tire fire we all know and love, deciding to pick guy for the JLI, likely because out of the four lantern's avaliable, Guy fit into the dynamic the most. While the JLI was still fighting superheroes, it made sense for a more comedic group to have a resident asshole, someone within the group who generally tends to start shit. The person no one likes but they can't really chuck for whatever reason. So for the JLI, guy was that dick, swaggering onto panel demanding to be leader and pissing everyone off with his abrasivness and general dickishness, paticuarlyl Black Canary who, in one of JLI's weaker moments, was portrayed as a straw feminist, working best against guy as a chauvnist. It was essnetially if someone had given Steve Dallas a power ring.

While Guy has mellowed out slightly over the years, he's still largely the loud obnoxious older brother of the superhero set, mostly known for challenging batman to a fist fight with predictable yet hilarious results

Guy ended up as BATB's main GL, mostly because he fit the tone well and James Arnold Taylor did a pitch perfect job getting Guy down. He never got bumped up to the status of Jaime, Plastic Man or Aquaman of being as close to a main character as the series format allowed, but he was still a memorable part of it and they did him good.

Which is bad for Jaime as Guy's approach to the lantern's request to take JAIME in with his prisoner goes over like a lead ballon, not helped by Guy basically saying "Shut up and get in the van' While his fellow lanterns do fuck all to actually explain WHY the guardians want Jaime. A fight insues and it's easily the best part of a standout episodes. See with the Green Lantern's what makes them so awesome is that the power ring can make ANYTHIGN they imagine. Any thought can be a weapon. There's limits of course: some things can tamper with the vibration, the user needs to be able to concetrate, the rings have to be recharged by reciting the badass oath, stuff to keep the stories interesting, but even with those limits the ring is a deadly weapon in the right hands. It's also what makes the lanterns fun in comparison to other heroes who share the same power sets: while they all have the same ring, each person uses it diffrently: from Hal Jordan favoring planes due to his airforce background, to Kyle Rayner going with a lot of Manga style designs due to being a self confessed "Manga nut with a power ring". It's just some writers can't see the full potetial and just have it be a glorified ray gun or have them only reatrain people with rings and such.

Demattis.. dosen't have this issue, and also fully gets that Jamie's scarab is just aas formidable, leading to a dope as hell fight as we get two fighters both experinced, both with weapons that can do anything going at it with highlights including guy making a sword and shield and later armor for himself, befitting his brawler styles.

Batman eventually steps in and stops this, though I like that he dosen't chastise Jaime. While Jaime esclated, he was faced with a bunch of people wanting to take his incredibly dangerous scarab that he saw as a friend and not explaning why. Guy on the otherhand.. is guy and tries to get Bats to butt out.. only for Batman to remind him he punched his lights out in this contuity too. Yes folks BATB made sure to adapt that moment for Guy's debut. Guy wouldn't listen to batman on a mission, with Bats keeping him on a short leash.. so Guy decked him. While Guy mumble's it was a lucky shot.. it's clear he's cowed and the Guardians step in.

They explain things to the trio in private: the Scarab is, like in the comics a dangerous weapon of the Reach, intergalactic conquerers the Corps defeated years ago, with the scarab users being a false flag: heroes sent to help them.. to keep the planet alive long enough for said user to conquer later when the programming tookover. The diffrence here is in the comics, the Reach played the long game, planning to wait a few generations to sell the planet and use it's inhabitants for slaves, slowly making them docile so by the time they were ready for market, they woudln't fight back. IT's part of what made them such a threat: Jaime coudln't just punch them away, he had to outsmart them.

Here their more like the borg from star trek: a cold collective with but one purpose, a hive of insects planning to swarm. The false flag part remains, it's just less nuanced. And tha'ts.. okay. I didn't like it at first, but I get that unlike Young Justice after this... BATB simply didnt' have the real estate for that kind of story, so they codnsensed it.

The Guardians let Jamie go for now as they want to see if he can control it and trust Batman's words. Guy being guy.. isn't convinced.. and proves a broken clock is right once a day as the Scarab, now in position to do some damage way sooner, regretfully hyjacks Jaime. The one weakness of this one is it's hard to buy Jaime and the Scarab as friends given we've barely seen the two and don't really see them bonding. It just beeps behind him, with the comics, movie and young justice taking effort to show Jaime warming up to his metallic parasite.

Most of the ep is really just a large fight between a possesed Jamie and the corps, and unlike the comics, where their on an even keel, or when Jamie is in control.. this scarab easily mows through them without anyone holding the leash, and Jamie only gets to wake up for a secona nd panickedly try to fight it's control.

So we're left with two sides; Guy who, again, being a dick assumes Jaime is a willing traitor

And Batman.. who see has come a long way, now fully respecting Jaime and has all the faith in the world he can fight this. He gets blasted a lot but is ultimately p;roven right even as a small reach squad arrives.. and easily mops the floor with an ARMY of green lanterns who barely hold them back.

Jaime ends up turning the tide though, fighting his way free and proving himself.. and Guy decides to trust him because why not. How Jaime wins is also clever: he has the lanterns load him up with thier power.. but choose THEM for a reason: since the lanterns run on a user's will, it allows jamie to tape into the scarb's hosts an dresotre there,s disarrming the scarabs. The guardians not only thank jamie ut plan to destroy them... and Guy, as is necesiated by tv law, steps in and tells them not to include Jaime's, with Batman fully graduating his old sidekick.

Revenge is a solid ep. It lacks some of the depth of Fall, but is still a fun episode with some really tightly animated action and plays with the toys it has beautifully. So that leaves us with one last beetlecentric episode.. only this time.. it's Ted's farewell.

Menace of the Madniks!:

We end this retrospective still in season 2.. and this is a very close second favorite out of this pile. It's also the only one I hadn't seen, having not really tracked down most of the episodes I missed, apart from the Doom Patrol one.

The opening.. is the Haunted Tank. Now the concept of a possed wwII era tank, is awesome and the car chase is great. But for some reason not only did the original writers think it being a CONFEDERATE ghost was okay.. but so did the staff of BATB. I get this was long before BLM but.. come on. Just.. come on. He has CSA ON HIS HAT. WHy is batman riding shotgun with a racist confederate ghost? WHY IS BATMAN TEAMING UP WITH...

Menance builds on Batman's characterization from Fall of the Blue Beetle, having been one of Ted's closest friends and working hard to mop up the Madniks, the only member of Ted's rogues gallery to have staying power after his death. Their a bunch of artists, doodly doo, who want to peddle their weird anti-society ways man. Basically their what Steve Ditko thought beatniks were, but work because they have great designs that help cover up being created by an old man who yells at clouds.

Batman is trying to take them down in ted's honor.. but wasn't the ONLY one with that idea as we get the glory that is Booster Gold. Booster was ted's best friend in the comics, a janitor from the future who came back to our time to get rich being a hero, learned to be a hero, and spent most of his time in the league dragging Ted into get rich quick schemes

The two are joined at the hip, with Ted's death shattering the poor guy. Their also shipped a lot. Not really my thing in most cases but this episode is very much "the two guys into me have to hang out and neither likes each other", and I suppport it.

And tha'ts how they cleverly account for Booster and Ted's history not having been brought up till now: Ted was close with both bats and booster.. but made sure neither one knew about it, with booster only finding out when Batman berates him.

Booster being a time traveler also allows for them to cleverly bring ted back without undoing his sacrifice: While he is VERY dumb, Batman outright snaps at him later when he asks too many time travel questions a time traveler should DAMn well know, and Skeets, Boosters robot buddy voiced by voice acting legend billy west (Who along with Booster's va tom everett scott is reprsing his role from the DCAU, the only actors to do so here), is worried Boost just wants to save ted. He dose'nt know: while he'd LIKE to, he's again not THAT dumb and simply wants to see him again and wrap up the madmen as they were the last case Ted worked before Pago island.

It's sweet at first as we see how close the two are: Ted's super happy to see booster, glad to work with him, and only mildly confused his best friend is here after seeing him just a week ago. It speaks to the type of friends they are: wo goofuses who need each other and speak the same very dumb language. Ted is way more relaxed in this episode and it implies his more withdrawn manor with batman.. is simply matching bat's energy. IT's a nice way to have ted still be the awesome science guy.. but inject the fun back in.

The two go to stop the Madniks together, but booster makes an oopsie and shoots the gun their stealing. Their all imoblized by it but if you thought "a weird raygun backfiring and spraying red ominous energy over a bunch of c list villians" is going to end badly, your correct as Booster going back to the present.. finds it ravaged by three weird energy monsters who i'm calling the Meganiks as unlike booster, you can put two and two together. Booster tells on himself, and Batman, having not even REMOTELY suspected him, makes Booster take them back.

This leads to the fun part of the episode: Ted awkwardly having to navigate his VERY different besties, with batman being utterly shocked Ted spends time with such a goofus, not getting that not EVERYONE thinks fighting crime is the funenst thing possible. Seriously this episode has such "my best friend hates my boyfriend" energy and I love it. The two naturally bicker a lot with Ted trying to be civil before just telling the two to shut up and admitting this is WHY he didn't tell them about each other. Eventually the two DO end up working together well enough when Ted's in real danger.

And that's where the two sweetest parts of this come from. The first is when Booster finally admits he just wanted to see Ted again.. and Bats not only realizes he was a bit hard on the moron, accidently end of the world or no.. but that their friendship was as strong as Bats own with ted. I mean really.. who WOULDN'T want one last moment with a loved one, wether that loved one knew it or not. It bonds the two.. and in doing so gives ted something better than simply finishing his last case.. he gets to see the two people he cares about most actually get along. It's a really nice way to end it and when they get back to the present bats decides to invite booster to patrolw tih him. They may not really get each other.. but mayeb they can help each other move on.

So all in all one meh, early episode and a bunch of REALLY strong episodes. In general Brave and the Bold was really fantastic and only had maybe a few duds. It's a glorious celebration of the dcu and I wholly recommend checking it out especailly if you love those boys in blue

For now.. it's time to let Jamie and Ted have a rest. I'll go back there someday, I still want to cover the movie at some point, the rest of Jaime's run but for now we can simply watch as one flies and one swings off into the sunset, for more adventures, and a bright future. The bluest, and bravest, heroes there ever were. Thanks for reading.

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Nite:Life 05 by Nick Holder 2001 Deep House / House / Future Jazz

Goddamn, this is far and away the best thing I've heard from this Nite:Life series so far, and legitimately one of the nicest deep house mixes I've probably ever heard in my life, period. Toronto native Nick Holder's been a terrific house producer since the mid-90s—see "Da Sambafrique" for just one example—and he also has a DJ career that dates back more than a decade further than that too. And with this Nite:Life release from 2001, he managed to lay down a fantastic set of jazz-infused goodness here.

Now, we all remember those glorious early-to-mid-2010s years when all that sax-laced deep house was seriously popping off, right? Bangers like Klingande's "Jubel" and such? Well, those years may have represented jazzy deep house's brightest moment in the sun, overall, but this stuff was going hard in the dance underground for a long time prior to that, and Holder here serves up a dope selection of some gems from 2000 and 2001, including a couple of his own, like the spectacular "Beyond Your Dreams," which draws this suddenly thick line of saxy haze satisfaction over a sensual, Brazilian-flavored shuffle 😌.

And you know who else is on here? Atlanta's Chris Brann, who is known best for that "King of My Castle" joint from the 90s as Wamdue Project, but here, he's got something called "Maria" as Wam Kidz, remixed by a duo called New Music Movement. And it's just fuckin' phenomenal when we've got the beat, the vocal, the keys, and this little p-funky siren-type synth sound all going simultaneously. Like, Jesus, dude; seriously, what a bop.

And truthfully, this mix really should've ended with the near-eight minutes of Solar House's excellent "Angel," which comes with a delightfully extended keyboard solo in its final third, but then Nick tacks on some unbeatable future jazz from Jazzanova too, who get remixed by Japanese duo Kyoto Jazz Massive on "Fedime's Flight." Tremendous song, but it has no real house qualities to it, so it doesn't really fit here, but I'm still by no means complaining about its inclusion.

So, a top-tier disc from the great Nick Holder here. Few things better in this world than jazzy deep house from around this time period in my book, and a whole lotta the tunes that ended up being chosen for this mix will show you why.

Listen to the full mix here.

Richard Worth - "Rise (Pikes Peak Mix)" The Rurals - "That Feelin (Savannah Remix)" Sandi Flores - "El Ray" Undercover Agency - "Outrun" Nick Holder - "Beyond Your Dreams" Nick Holder - "Inside Your Soul (Nick's Filtered Jazz)" 6400 Crew Present DJ Joeski - "Hustlers Revenge" Wam Kidz - "Maria (New Musical Movement Mix)" Marshall Jefferson - "Mushrooms (Mazi's Audio Soul Revival)" Solar House - "Angel" Jazzanova - "Fedime's Flight (Kyoto Jazz Massive Remix)"

[ifishouldvanish]

I was tagged by @red-hot-moon to list five songs and tag ten people! So here goes:

1. Carnavoyeur by Queens of the Stone Age

Little known fact I am obsessed with Queens and I adore the new album! This is my favorite track off of it–It's funky, it's catchy, it's groovy, it's sexy, it's nihilistic, it's Josh Homme at his best 👌

2. No Heart No Pain by OOMPH!

This one has just been coming up on my shuffle a lot lately and I'd forgotten how awesome this album is? The beat and synth here keeps the energy going here from start to finish. Wir lieben Neue Deutsche Härte 🤘

3. Mary On A Cross by Chez Kane

Unless you have been following me for like, 10+ years, you may not know that 80s Hard Rock is very dear to me? There are so many great artists in the revivalist movement and this song is an absolute banger 🙏

4. Hot Cherie by Hardline

Okay so, some original flavor 80s-90s hard rock/hair metal. This song has such a great buildup and chorus? It's just such an ear worm to me, I love it, no notes.

5. Beyond the Wheel by Soundgarden

Chris Cornell is an absolute fucking legend?? The vocal performance here just puts you in a chokehold and refuses to let go?? It's like some old god is rising from the earth and it gives me chills every time. I was lucky enough to hear it performed live shortly before he passed and it was an experience I'll never forget 🙏

Tagging... @mareyshelley @killingkueen @queen-mabs-revenge @ruiniel @starlightbards @morgana-lefay @ghostlysweetnight @zeco5000 @feuxx @sanguivorouscorvid or anyone else who sees this and wants to flex their flawless taste in music (yes, that means you, reading this! 🫵)