#Shameless Knockoff

[swiftfootedachilles]

But maybe I'm just too young to keep good love from going wrong

Lover, You Should've Come Over by Jeff Buckley

[killscreen65535]

I don't get the people touting palworld as a clever deconstruction like no it just sucks. If you want a monster franchise that's sort of fucked up and yucky and weird and has guns and wants to talk about how war is hell. AND is actually fucking good and has a heart instead of just being like "lol look at how SHOCKING and CRAZY we're being". Digimon is right there.

[good-beanswrites]

WAH HEY BEANS!! okay so i was looking at the plushies and merch again and i suddenly had a thought in LCSyS, what are their thoughts on like merch?? i have no idea if you've mentioned this before and if so i am silly. i can totally see fuuta go OH NO IVE BEEN TURNED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

YES AHAHAHA I love that!! This is for the gone-public variation of the au

This made me realize the wide range of official merch, plus I think a lot of them would love supporting artists once they're out and have access to the internet again lol. Overall I think the plushies would cause the biggest stir around the facility 😂 I mention bootleg merch, like when you have random companies making weird/ugly knockoffs -- I don't think real Milgram has that but it was a fun idea for the story lmao

Haruka isn’t used to having his own image on so many things. The others are really sweet about taking care of his plushie and doing kind things for it to boost his own confidence (although there was One Singular Moment of jealousy where his tiny counterpart was getting more attention than himself and needed to be talked down lol) He and Muu have plushies of each other that they’ll plan cute matching outfits/accessories with.

Yuno loves her own plushie, and is excited to share it with Yura. She takes really good care of all the plushies she has, and they genuinely bring her warmth, especially post-milgram when they all separate <3 She (or maybe Mikoto, I haven’t decided) gets only the weirdest/most concerning buttons on her personal bag. She loves her Borderline Suicidal Fuuta, Crazed Bug Muu, Grieving In A Hospital Shidou, Rats Mahiru, and so on. She asks Amane for permission to add Waterboarding Button to her collection. For her more public displays, she likes the aesthetic things from the anniversaries and birthday art. She loved those days of dressing up for the photoshoots, so they carry nice memories as well as being super cute. 

(I tagged you in the art I thought of, but yeah,) Fuuta puts up a big act about how weird and capitalistic it is to have merch of oneself, how plushies are “for kids,” and also how ugly/skrunkly his t2 one looks... His refusal to interact with it only makes the others interact with his more. I can see some of the prisoners (*cough* yuno *cough*) carrying around their Little Fuuta and sharing full conversations and activities while he looks on in horror. In the end, he caves in order to set a good example for Amane, and keeps a few in his room. He never admits that he also gets really attached >:3 Another secret -- he likes using the special bluetooth headphones. He thinks they look cool and the voices are a fun touch, but he’d never dare tell the others. 

Muu has one of those really aesthetic merch bags where she keeps buttons, plushies, stickers, keychains etc. She has a little something for every prisoner, but there are definitely a few who have some shameless favoritism… Once out of Milgram, she makes a lot of social media posts focused just on the plushies in different locations and outfits. She keeps them in pristine condition, caring a lot for them.

Shidou gives the plushies to his kids, and the prisoners laugh/brag about which one each child chose as their favorite. (I also like to imagine the conversations Shidou must have with strangers: “aww your daughter is so sweet! Who do you got there, honey? Aw, you’re squeezing ‘em real tight! Is that your favorite disney princess or something?” “Ah, that’s a little doll version of the divorced cop who lives a few streets over. In a prison uniform.” “O.oh…?”) He likes adding stickers to his tech, using some of the cases, and thinks the album covers look nice to display.

Mahiru goes crazy over the plushies. She sews little mv outfits for all of them, alternate outfits, and other accessories to hand out. She starts planning on making custom plushies for other people – her bf, Hinako, Shidou’s family, Lucky, etc. She was genuinely upset by how sad her T2 plush looks, thinking no one will love it – Jackalope breaks his experiment-long internet ban only once to sit with her and scroll through pictures that people had posted of them treating the plush kindly because of her looks. Also, even though they broke up, she excitedly shows her bf the buttons that feature the two of them 😅

Kazui already has a lot of records/CDs collected, and he makes a really nice display of all the albums for his wall. The other prisoners love gifting him bootleg merch of his own videos – tshirts and things from random companies that are juuust off somehow. (I have no clue about her sense of humor, but maybe one day Hinako wears one of the Cat marriage buttons like “I got married and traumatically divorced and all I got was this this stupid button)

Amane would have tried to match Fuuta acting too cool for the plushies… if it weren’t for every single other person absolutely fawning over them. She can admit to loving them and carries a different one to set with her each day, treating them kindly and dressing them up with Mahiru. She also enjoys adding stickers to her notebooks and things, they end up completely covered by the time the later mvs come out. At the very end of the experiment, she ends up using merch to cover up the old cult stickers on her backpack.

Mikoto owns the most of his own merch, claiming “it’s John :)” (and then John points to the same things claiming “it’s Mikoto :)”). They each have a T1/T2 plushie to carry around, though they end up like that Garfield "to be loved is to be changed" plush -- they really go everywhere. Mikoto gets those anniversary art shirts with the prisoner’s face taking up the whole center, and wears it to each of their mv shooting sessions, much to their embarrassment. He owns a lot of the stands to keep on his desk while he works, using them for rubber-ducking when needed. He posts I feed him rocks.

Kotoko prefers the more general things when she goes out, feeling like it’s odd to show off the other’s faces out in public. (They claim they’re famous anyway, but she insists you can never be too careful.) So she wears a lot with the main milgram logo/inno and guilty symbol/Jackalope/etc. In her personal space, though, she has a ton of the others’ things, and tries to play down how much she really likes the plushies :3 When Mahiru’s finished with it, she’s excited to show Lucky both of theirs.

Everyone owns a lot of Es merch. They try to be subtle about it post-reveal and not overwhelm their poor guard, but it comes out eventually and does scare them just a bit. 😅 Later, Es really enjoys having something of each of the prisoners close even when everyone goes back to their lives.

[furbland-channel]

so I know this is a bit of shameless promo but I wanted to point out that if anyone’s into bootleg/knockoff stuff (specifically toys) you might wanna take a look at the wiki and discord I guess

anyways here’s (funny) crawl spider

[serendertothesquad]

"Wordsville" and the Problem with Cash-Cow Copies

[note original day of creation was February 15, 2024. just...just for reference. trust me bro.]

Hello.

Tonight I am in a silly mood fueled by sleep deprivation.

That means you all get an introspective blog that I will complete within a week and then ask "why'd I write that?"

So here's what's on Seren's lovely table of discussion tonight...

Put...put away the glasses. You don't need your glasses. This is the highest-quality thing I can get.

But et voila. A little project in the works called Wordsville.

Now, at this point you might be asking why I'm referencing "cash-cow copies" in the title. And whoo-hoo...oooooh...well, I don't want to make this some kind of clickbait blog, so I might as well perfect the atomic bomb in five minutes and land it on you folks.

What if I were to tell you that this is a blatant, shameless, slap-a-digital-coat-on-it-and-call-it-a-day copy of Odd Squad?

Ahhh, see, now I have you intrigued. Hopefully. If you are, then peep down below and let me discuss things a little more in-depth for you non-believing hacks asking me if I'm borderline insane.

So to put things in perspective, allow me to explain what Wordsville is, starting with my own personal summary.

Wordsville is an up-and-coming episodic (not to be confused with serialized, that's a whole 'nother ballgame) TV series that is produced (and will later be distributed) by Sinking Ship Entertainment and is made with assistance from WNET, a PBS station located in New Jersey, and TVO Kids, PBS Kids's girlfriend from Canada that's definitely real.

It was announced back in October of last year with a press release from Kidscreen, which didn't give much info aside from the following blurb:

Wordsville stars two child detectives on the hunt for missing words that are causing chaos in their town.

Sounds a little familiar, don'tcha think? Two kid detectives, finding something missing...and that "something missing" is causing chaos where they live?

Oh, but if you think the similarities end there, then no. No the absolute fuck they do not. I've got my bathing suit on and God damn it if I'm not gonna jump all the way in the pool instead of dippin' my little toes in there.

Doing a little bit of digging reveals more tidbits from a casting call for the series. It's rather wordy (ayyyyyy I did a funy), so let's take it piece by piece and discuss accordingly.

Wordsville is a town populated entirely by kids

A town that is populated entirely by children? Now c'mon, surely that doesn't ring a be-

...Ah. Whaddya know. Yes it does.

And with the adults as useless and idiotic as they are, it might as well be a town full of solely children. Next question.

and it’s a place where words matter. A lot. Every kid citizen has a special connection to words. And that means that if something happens to a word, there are far-reaching consequences.

A special connection to words? Like how there are children who have a special connection to normalcy? Stopping, oh, I dunno, hypothetically speaking...

...oddness?

Okay okay, I'm reaching just a wee bit here, but you can't read this and not tell me it echoes the funny kids math show to some degree or another. If an odd thing happens to a person, the whole town suffers. You've seen it. I've seen it. It's been the basis for many an A and B-plot. Must I elaborate? Good, because I don't plan on it. Continuing.

If the Main Street Baker bakes delicious donuts and they all mysteriously disappear, nothing else in Wordsville can taste good until they are returned.

Town Baker walked so Main Street Baker can sprint while blowing their lungs out.

If the Town Doctor’s soothing medication gets swiped, the whole town gets uncontrollably itchy until the medicine-napper is uncovered.

Ignoring the incredibly dark implications of this as well as the implications of this shoddy knockoff town having only one single doctor...

Dr. O walked so the Town Doctor can sprint while blowing their lungs out...over their massive paycheck.

(I technically could have also put New Dr. O too, but I'd like to spring for iconic OG's here. New Dr. O is neither iconic nor an OG.)

And let me remind you that "Torontonians get uncontrollably itchy due to something odd" would, by technicality, classify as an odd problem. Because...I mean, y'know...the cause is something odd happening. Doing shit with words is odd. This needs absolutely no explaining.

If the Local Scientist does an experiment with electricity and all the lights in town go out, they won’t come back on until the experiment wrecker is revealed.

Yep, I've taken shots of every IPA I can. We nearly hit the main character quadfecta, if you discount Dr. "bro thinks she's part of the team" O. All they needed was a bit about a high governing body and we'd round out the quad squad in proper with Oprah!

There's also a sneaky lil' crumb in the form of that blurb relating to Oona, who did, indeed, experiment with electricity in one episode and wound up proving why she can never take up Crossfit.

Hmmmnnnnext!

In each crime, the episodic word disappears and can’t return until the mystery is solved. The impact of the missing word is felt all over town.

This is another one of those things that I gotta wrench a hammy for in terms of comparisons, because about the only thing I can reasonably compare Odd Squad to is the second sentence.

See, here's the thing. You get oddness that happens to a person. Oftentimes, that oddness spreads to other people, whether directly (in the form of diseases and disorders) or indirectly (like the Town Baker's cakes being split in half, which wouldn't please Torontonians poppin' in for a whole cake and eyeing the display to get a feel for one). In a sense, normalcy disappears and, well, it can't return until [insert partner pair here] solve the case. It's kinda the entire schtick of Odd Squad as a franchise. It's formulaic, just like how Wordsville's "words disappear and nothing can be normal until the word returns" schtick is formulaic.

Is it a stretch? Perhaps. Mileage may vary. I think it's a bit of a stretch, personally. But hey, I'm a grown adult critiquing a ripoff of a kids STEM show. I shouldn't be talking. But I didn't start this fandom nearly 10 years ago just to let Sinking Ship's piss-poor attempt at really capitalizing on one of their biggest franchises sliiiiiide right by me on a floor smooth enough where I'm falling on my ass every 10 seconds.

Luckily, best friends and partners Sage and Chase are on the case and run the only detective agency in town. These tech-savvy sleuths solve mysteries entirely virtually because their reading, listening and digital literacy skills are their greatest strengths. Sage and Chase always catch their culprit and make sure everything is right with the word.

Now where in the McFuck do I start with this one? The PAW Patrol catchphrase thrown in complete with shared name? The fact that there is only one detective agency in the entire town? The fact that Sage and Chase are best friends as well as work partners? Or the pun that made me actively cringe in a way I haven't felt since Whitney told James she wanted to go on the lake?

I mean...this is about Odd Squad, so...I guess the second one sounds most plausible.

But that doesn't need explaining either. There is only one detective agency in town. There is one Odd Squad precinct per city or per state.

No, neither does the third bit. I already referenced Olive and Otto above. You should know what's up.

(I've also read that blurb five times now and...well...we'll get to the digital stuff in a bit. That just needs a whole side-set of word vomit.)

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

In my digging of this series -- which, well, wasn't all that much -- I managed to find a few blurbs on our two main characters. The casting call for them, funny enough, called for, and I will quote this exactly, "talent to look 9."

As in, they want the actors to physically look 9 years old.

Which puts that qualifier in the same ballpark as Odd Squad UK's "talent must be Canadian but live in the UK". But at least that prerequisite actually had a legitimate earnest reason behind it, which is that the production needed to be Canadian in a lot more than just the "Canadian prodco works on a British series" sense. Hiring kids who have to physically look 9 years old and will probably be yoted onto the street the second puberty hits them like a truck is a practice not even the most egregious bosses of family-owned-and-operated businesses could pull off.

But enough about the qualifiers. Let's get started on our character comparisons and civil cidiscussion! (Oh the irony...)

And remember this: the casting call was handled by Larissa Mair Casting, who previously did casting for Odd Squad. So that means there will be tinny lil' crumbs of bonus material for me to dissect and discuss! Huzzah! Aw God why can't this happen for Odd Squad UK...man, I'm gonna have to go into my sobbing corner...

First up, we have Sly Sleuth, originally referred to as "Sage" here. I'll also be referring to him as "Sage" in this blog.

Sage is a great detective; thoughtful, extremely logical, and talented at getting information out of people.

Thoughtful of others. Logical. And can wrench information out of suspects like a badass.

Yep, we got an Olive that got hit with an Olando-fied beam. (And because half of you don't know who Olando is: Sage is meant to be a male Olive. I hope that clears things up for you.)

What else?

Nothing related to vocabulary or literacy gets by this investigator. Suspects can underestimate Sage but that is always a mistake. Sage doesn’t scare easily and won’t take no for an answer, traits that make an excellent detective.

You could tell me this was how Olive was meant to be written in "My Better Half", word for word, and I would honestly believe you. Right down to asking, "Her name was Sage in pre-production?"

About the only place I can draw the line here is at Olive not scaring easily. We don't know Sage's backstory -- and once again, this is an episodic series, so don't expect much in the way of plot, backstory included -- but Olive, at least, has a legitimate reason for all the times she covers her ears at loud noises or sharply reacts to something startling.

The former is because of The Censor-Friendly Bullet Massacre of '15.

The latter is because Dalila Bela marched straight out of a viewing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and never looked back.

I...can't really say either applies to Sage. At least not yet. We'll have to see if Sinking Ship decides to bring Wordsville into its lil' multiverse that Odd Squad and Dino Dana and Endlings and Playdate already share.

Sage is also wise, which is why the name “Sage” is completely appropriate.

Sooooo does that mean his name is Sly because he's cunning like a fox?

Well then in other news, Olive is named such because she was inspired by the famous Law and Order character Olivia Benson. I have fifteen folders that back me right the hell up. Also I contacted Sinking Ship the other day, they explicitly told me.

No, no, but in all seriousness. Olive, too, is very wise. Historian buff, knows her shit about Odd Squad, doo-dah, doo-dah.

Anyway, next up we have Chase, who was renamed to "Gabby Gumshoe". (I'll be referring to her as Chase in this blog, as well.) Let's see what's on the chopping block for her in terms of our favorite food-loving, hella tall, crazy silly blorbo.

Chase is a fantastic detective, but is also goofy[,] funny, visually oriented, and, like the name suggests, loves the “chase”.

Now there's a man who got hit with a yassified beam, right there.

I'll leave it up to you folks whether you consider Otto to be "visually oriented". But in terms of "loving the chase"...yeah, I'd say that fits.

To lay it down: Otto is a rookie agent. Common sense would lead anyone to assume that he has an absolute blast solving odd cases and absorbing every bit of knowledge about Odd Squad that he possibly can. He finds out a villain's on the loose? He's right there, by Olive's side, workin' to catch 'em. He finds out oddness has run rampant throughout the town? He's right on that shit.

Chase, on the other hand, is someone I wouldn't call a rookie. It's made quite evident that she is, for all intents and purposes, seasoned. Seasoned enough that she manages to keep the detective agency she works for afloat and get approval from the others in Wordsville, Sage included. This, perhaps, is because she's not really meant to be an audience surrogate in the same way Otto is. Otto, at least for the first few episodes, serves as a way to ease the audience into Odd Squad and show them what the organization is and what they do without yoting them into it and leaving them asking "Where am I?" more times than a drunkard. Chase doesn't fill that role, because it could be argued that such a show like Wordsville doesn't really need an audience surrogate. Whether that's true, though, remains to be seen.

People tend to underestimate this investigator, but Chase often notices things like a chocolate stain when someone said they didn’t like chocolate or a squiggle of icing that turns out to be the antonym of the word they’re tracking.

Y' take Otto's...Otto's love of food...and y' put it in a gorl...and BAM you got a character.

...

That isn't a joke. It's dead-on serious. Even the casting call script pins Chase as a kid with a sweet tooth! It's just Otto but with a less diverse palate! Otto eats everything! This kid eats sweets! God sakes, give her some juice, make her Oprah, I don't give a shit, fucking hell I'm driving 50 minutes to Burger Ki-

Chase is also great with computers and incredibly artistic. A graphic note taker[,] Chase loves to draw, has a great eye for details, is a big fan of the “zoom in” function, and really enjoys creating animated re-enactments of Word Mysteries.

All right, we finally have somewhere we can draw the line.

No, not at being tech-literate. With being artistic.

Otto's artistic talent kind of varies throughout the franchise. In drawing on paper, he's pretty solid for an I-just-recently-turned-10-please-praise-me-year-old. In making paper airplanes, he's solid enough to take down a grown-ass man and rock his sunglasses when he's done for.

In computer drawing...well...if you can believe it, concepts like Ibispaint and Photoshop don't exist in the world of Odd Squad. (Okay, maaaaybe Photoshop does. I don't think it does. But it could be a good in-universe justification for it.)

We don't know Otto's digital artist merit because we never see him make any digital art. All of his art is solely non-digital. On Chase's side of things, she lives in an era where digital drawing is, like in real life, the norm. It's a contrast that might be one of the more glaring ones when it comes to comparing these two shows.

Now, as for the "creating animated re-enactments" schtick...if that isn't an excuse for Sinking Ship to work their animation magic after the Sandy Cheeks movie, then I honestly don't know what is. If you wanted to make the show animated, you could have made it animated. Would've been cheaper, too!

(And "Word Mysteries"...it's not as grating as Wild Kratts's "Wow Fact", but it's edging pretty close. I blame WNET. That's solely a PBS thing right there. TVO Kids would never.)

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

So we've gotten the discussion about the two main characters out of the way. Now we can dive into the heartier meat. The kind where's it's purple on the inside but you still digest it anyway.

I'm talking, of course, about the sample scripts- script. Singular. There is one script. Uno.

Now, lemme give you a bit of a rundown: casting calls for Odd Squad -- really, most shows, but this is a blog about Odd Squad -- often come with sample scripts. This is so talents can read their parts aloud for the camera and have the tape submitted to the casting agency for consideration. Odd Squad in particular has had quite an interesting ride with sample scripts, from entire episode plots being adapted into final products (with a bit of tweaking) to characters having names different than what they're named in the final product (which is the case with both Sly and Gabby). They're nothing on the scale of ABC Me dropping episodes earlier than PBS or shorts getting dropped as an alleged April Fools prank, but they're pretty damn good crumbs to chew on.

The sample script starts out with Sage and Chase on, of course, a video call. (Sinking Ship made a Zoom reference once. Pray they do not make another by the name of a friendly drug called "Speed" or that term for peeing known as a "Whiz".) Chase explains that she just gave her office chair's wheels a tune-up, which, of course, makes her hungry. Hungry enough that she declares a "cookie break" and immediately takes out a ginormous cookie from hammerspace that just made the European bakery down the street from me start sobbing. (Look, they make good cookies. Giant cookies. Cookies I need two hands just to hold properly. Trust me, it's- it's massive.)

However, when she bites into the cookie, she finds that it tastes absolutely gross -- "not sweet, not even sour". While she ponders if her body has forcefully rejected one of the best sweet treats known to humankind, Sage begins to grow suspicious and asks if it's a Word Mystery they need to solve.

Which is, coincidentally enough, when the Main Street Baker calls in a fit of hysteria, explaining that their "delicious donuts" are gone. And because we can't take enough from Odd Squad, we get a bit of "literal humor" in the form of the donuts both being delicious (probably) and them spelling the word "delicious" prior to their disappearance. After Sage explains what "delicious" means as well as what synonyms are, it's shown that the culprit also struck other pastries, up to and including gingerbread people, which Sage absolutely takes personally because he's a kid of pure culture who gives a big "fuck you" to holiday-specific treats being enjoyed only during said holidays.

Chase, in true Otto fashion, decides to take more bites of her cookie and instantly regrets it. Sage, in true...well...Clint Eastwood fashion (I shit you not, that's literally what it says in the script), declares that they need to find the word "delicious" and fix the pastries.

And...yeah, that's about it. Like I said, there's really not much to go on with casting call sample scripts. Especially not ones from Larissa Mair.

My conclusive thoughts on it, you ask? Well...they can try to hide it, but all it's doing is enforcing my point. From the Main Street Baker having donuts missing similar to how the Town Baker had bagels missing in "Soundcheck", to Chase being an idiot who is obsessed with food the same way Otto is (right down to his willingness to drink Odd Todd's pickle juice when it tasted gross in "Bad Lemonade"!), even down to the "literal metaphor" kind of humor as it applies to singular words. Am I stretching? Perhaps. But these supposedly insignificant pieces are just part of the bigger picture, the larger issue at hand in this long-winded piece.

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

The digital aspect of Wordsville is one of the ways they decided to put a twist on the precedent that Odd Squad set. And it's so blatant and in-your-face that it's on par with shoving a red flag in someone's eyes to blind them.

But here's the thing. The digital aspect been done. Amusingly enough, by the same company.

Lockdown is a show that fits right in with the others at the Shows-Made-During-the-COVID-Pandemic-About-the-COVID-Pandemic club. It was a way to capitalize on something in society that probably will never be relevant again until around 2050. Maybe even earlier than that, at the rate we're going.

I haven't seen it, so I can't speak much about it, but from my side of things it looks a lot like Unfriended if it took place during the pandemic and wasn't a horror movie and involved teens and not young adults/adults/I haven't seen the movie in many years bite me.

But the main difference between Lockdown and Wordsville, relevant to this editorial, is that Lockdown has a legitimate reason to be shot entirely on electronic devices. It's part of the plot. It works, I'm sure. For Wordsville, it makes no sense for the outline and isn't just limiting, but is downright insulting for something "rooted in the 21st century". It's good to be unique when making a show, but there's such a thing as trying too hard to be unique to the point where it's detrimental to your show's quality. Making the show be a digital-only angle isn't a smart move, especially for a detective procedural.

And if it's trying to differentiate itself from Odd Squad...well, do I got some bad news for you.

The show already did an entire Zoom parody in the span of an 11-minute episode.

And I still hate it with all the vitriol of an old woman who hates kids playing with beach balls in the yard pool. It sucks ass. It's entirely unneeded when you have three children sitting around the same table. I could vomit on you all day about it. But at least it's far more justified than Wordsville having its entire formula based on it. You can rip off a show without being limiting.

(don't. seriously. don't.)

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

Before we get to the conclusion, I need to dive deep into Odd Squad's own popularity and explain it a little more beyond just little "trust me bro" tidbits.

If you've been following it for as long as I have, then it's no secret that Odd Squad is one of Sinking Ship's cash-cow franchises. You've got the main series, six different spinoffs, a live show, a book...and I didn't even provide a whole damn list! Point being, it's huge. It doesn't have many roots in pop culture, but from a certain angle, it is an absolutely massive franchise that continues to grow, even in spite of its controversies.

Unlike works such as SpongeBob or Bluey, Odd Squad isn't popular enough to get bonafide ripoffs. The formula is relatively easy to copy, and if anything there are shows that have a similar premise but aren't even close to ripoff territory (K.C. Undercover, for example). It's just that, for all the ripoffs people have done of shows and movies over the years, the motivation for industry bigwigs in taking Odd Squad and running with it just...isn't there. I can connect it to Disney or Dreamworks or Viacom all I want, but at best they have a vague awareness of it that only goes as far as "oh, that's a thing, I guess". At worst, they see it as a pile of shit that would never turn a decent profit.

It could be argued that Sinking Ship wasn't all too well-known in the entertainment sphere up until Odd Squad came around. Looking at their resume doesn't show all too much in the way of what's popular. This is Daniel Cook, Roll Play, Playdate...they don't stick in your head, right? Yeah, none of them stick in my head either. Odd Squad was their first big hit for them, something that really helped them gain ground as a company. It's the one that's pretty much linked with Sinking Ship in news articles. Like husband and wife, but for the TV industry.

But to Hollywood bigwigs, that means about as much as finding a stick on the ground. I guaran-goddamn-tee Bob Iger is not going to put his grubby little hands on the funny kids math franchise and twist the hell out of it. The only way that's happening is if you run "Odd Squad, but make it Disney" through an AI generator. (Which, for the record, I have not done. You can't really replicate Odd Squad characters in animation without making them look like they walked out of yet another Law and Order spinoff that's far more kid-friendly.)

However, even with Odd Squad's varying popularity, there are shows that go just a little beyond having a similar premise to it but don't dive into ripoff territory. Sort of like a next step up.

A long time ago, a few friends and I in an Odd Squad Discord server were discussing the show Numberjacks. You know, that show that Jacknjellify may or may not have used as inspiration for Four's design? Yeah, that's the bitch.

The show has a few similarities to Odd Squad. You've got the focus on math, a system for exiting the couch headquarters that's similar to the tube system, and even the existence of kid agents and incredibly odd villains, one of which, need I remind you, Twitter tried to make into a sexyman for all of two days to varying degrees of success.

I will admit, I haven't seen Numberjacks in several years. In fact, the last time I saw it was when it was brought up as an Odd Squad ripoff. If I recall correctly, the episode that I picked to watch on a whim was "Seaside Adventure", wherein a few numbers take a vacation and trouble occurs. Or something like that. I really can't remember many details.

One thing I do remember, though, is distinctly thinking that I could see the Odd Squad similarities, but...it's not a ripoff. The series premiered in 2006. By that point, Tim McKeon and Adam Peltzman were off on their own ventures as they wrote for cartoons and other things. Thus, Odd Squad hadn't been birthed yet. If anything, Odd Squad took cues from Numberjacks, not the other way around -- but even with the existence of Odd Squad UK, we don't know that for sure. I don't even know how popular Numberjacks was in the UK. I'm a dumb lil' American, not a Daphne-Moon-esque English woman.

Since then, I haven't found anything that has come close to what Wordsville aims to accomplish. Granted, though, I have not looked very hard. I'm moreso keeping an eye on PBS to see if they're going to try and rip off Odd Squad rather than keeping an eye on any random B-lister studio. (And no, I'm not talking about WNET. They are a PBS station, but I'm referring to PBS as a whole entire network, not a sole affiliate.)

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

So the question remains: is Wordsville an Odd Squad ripoff?

Yes. On multiple counts. Right down to the name inspo. Guilty as charged. Right to jail.

From it being for the 4-7 demo not unlike Odd Squad's own 4-8 demo, to Sage and Chase being referred to as "Word Detectives" in lieu of "agents", to it being a detective procedural not unlike Odd Squad and its spinoffs, to the synopsis of the show being described as having "a case rooted in a vocabulary lesson" similar to Odd Squad having episodes rooted in STEM lessons, to it actively encouraging the audience to solve mysteries along with Sage and Chase...to Sage and Chase having alliterative theme naming...

Yeah, safe to say, we've got ourselves a ripoff.

There's no denying that Odd Squad is a fantastic franchise. Even through all of its issues, including financial controversies, heavy criticism, and mistreatment from PBS, it has remained strong for nearly 10 years, and will stay strong for many more. Maybe one of these days, it will plant roots deeper into pop culture and become one hell of a phenomenon. We'll have to see.

But the fact that Sinking Ship Entertainment has to resort to borrowing a concept that is unique in its nature, a concept that has already been done, a concept that has been given life and creativity by the people who birthed it, and then try to pass it off as its own original IP is not a good look on them. It's been done similarly before with their other big franchise, Dino Dan -- key word being "similarly" because it's one show and three spinoffs focusing on different characters. That isn't the case with Wordsville, though.

Put it this way: it's a company ripping off not someone else's IP, like many other companies have done and continue to do. It's a company ripping off their own IP.

And really, it doesn't matter how it's done. Stealing is stealing. At the end of the day, all it shows is a complete lack of creativity and a complete craving for the almighty dollar. More so if it's a company stealing from themselves and passing it along as okay.

In spite of this, however, I am perfectly willing to give Wordsville a shot when it comes out. Not so much to see if it's good (though my curiosity is piqued), and definitely not to hate-watch (which has the opposite intended effect on a show or movie), but to see just how far Sinking Ship is willing to push the envelope in affirming viewers and industry buddies alike that this is not, by any and all accounts, a copy of Odd Squad. I want to spot similarities. I want to take whiskey shots until I can do a zoom-zoom to a hospital and then ask if they've got a bottle on board the rig. I want to give a full, I-watched-this-show-now-here-are-my-overall-final-thoughts addendum on the entire issue.

As of now, Wordsville has no narrow timeframe. All I know is that it's releasing this year, likely on TVO Kids in Canada. Whether PBS as a whole will adopt it into its roster -- and if anything, it'll be WNET-exclusive, otherwise we would've heard something about it at the TCA Winter Press Tour a few days back -- for American audiences remains yet to be seen. Rest assured, though, that I'll be keeping an eye on it and rushing to it as soon as the first episode drops. After that, I'll give a proper addendum so I can finally put this issue to bed. Along with myself. Revenge bedtime procrastination is a bitch.

Thanks for reading. This honestly started out as something silly, but then I became analytical. So you got a mix of both in this one. This may or may not be the norm. Day-by-day, y'know?

Seren out.

[drivestraight]

fuck marry kill: iliad, odyssey, aeneid 🫣 + why

fuck the iliad marry the odyssey and kill the aeneid.

iliad is sexy for the obvious reasons. odyssey is abt a failed war hero bereft and homesick and it’s about storytelling and how the truth really stops mattering when your life was never really yours and just part of a larger narrative of beings bigger and greater than you. aeneid is a shameless knockoff of vergil trying to fit the romans into the greek narrative. like don’t get me wrong the aeneid is definitely The masterpiece of the romans but at the end of the day it is inferior

[trashmenace]

Floater by Gary Brandner

Floater by Gary Brandner 1988 Fawcett

Twenty years after a high school tragedy, three people are sent mysterious messages about a class reunion they're compelled to attend. One of the more shameless It knockoffs, down to a clown theme.

The titular floater is the astral spirit of their classmate who is able to possess bodies, control car engines, and check credit records from beyond the grave. A good chunk of the book is supposed to be the terror of their inability to leave their hometown, but came across as just frustration with rural shops being closed on weekends.

A hint of creepiness with flashbacks of the floater learning to possess bodies, and I like Brandner's writing, but not much of anything going on here. At least it wasn't 1100 pages.

Available from Amazon

[soullistrations]

First Lines

I was tagged by @mithrilwren to share the first lines of my last ten fics! Thanks again for tagging me! I....really have not written a lot so my last ten is most of my fics. also included the two fansongs I uploaded bc...poetry right?

Recipe for Disaster (Sanji and Zoro get kidnapped by fine-dining pirates)

“That is not a fucking loquat.”

2. War Paint (double drabble about sokka, suki, and eyeliner. i'm sensing a dialogue theme)

“Ow!”  “If you weren’t fidgeting, I’d be done by now.”

3. coordination (and other 'c' words) (Sun Xiang/Jiang Botao/Zhou Zekai threesome fic. They have sex. For teambuilding reasons.)

Sun Xiang is beating himself up again. He’s doing a good job of hiding it — he has his head down, scribbling notes as Jiang Botao shares his observations on the day’s scrimmage. Nobody’s noticed the tightness around his eyes, or the grimace when Jiang Botao praises him for breaking free of the others’ encirclement and rejoining his team’s formation so quickly. Nobody, that is, except Jiang Botao.

4. Reignite (one of two songs on this list--this one is for Zhang Jiale, and though the sound mixing on the track really sucks it's one of my favorite things i've made)

Is this all there is? Six years, and I’m going out with a whimper, not a bang - and here I thought we’d be eternal

5. burning up (for you, baby) (Caleb/Essek, the M9 have a beach day and Essek gets a sunburn)

The successful completion of a world-saving quest calls for a week in the sun: relaxation, rejuvenation, relocation (while the heat of Trent’s still-ongoing search dies down). With amulets slung over bathing wraps and under wide-brimmed hats, the Mighty Nein make their way back to Nicodranas, pay their respects to a grateful Yussa, and hit the beach.

6. The Way Back Home (ostensibly a collection of SPN songs I've written over the years...but i've only posted one so far)

I once saw you looking at the stars and you told me they were friends that you once knew. Well, I've been looking at the stars Wondering if one of them is you, Wondering if one of them is you.

7. because you're by my side (a very ampersand-y Chu Yunxiu & Su Mucheng fic where cyx has seasonal depression)

Thursday was phone call night. It always had been, since just after the first Season Four match between Misty Rain and Excellent Era, when Chu Yunxiu insisted on showing one of the only other girls in the league the best spots to eat in Suzhou. That next Thursday, Su Mucheng had called to complain that Chu Yunxiu had ruined her on jianbing, because how was she supposed to find any that tasted as good as the ones they had last weekend? And ever since then, it was a weekly tradition.

8. even if we're just dancing in the dark (lookit i was jamming to the song of the summer before it was cool on tumblr) (jk but this one was a lot of fun) (it's a magic au where Zhang Jiale gets rescued from prison by Ye Xiu)

Ping! Twenty-eight. Ping! Twenty-nine.

9. pics or it didn't happen (oh my god this fic was so long ago) (Outsider POV fic where Baozi opens a knock-off McDonalds and chaos ensues)

Happy’s Brawler spotted working at McDonald’s knockoff! Posted by ExcellentAutumnLeaf at 23:48 L-O-f*cking-L, it looks like Team Happy’s finally collapsing under the weight of its own shamelessness!

10. i am no icarus (I invented so many Italian nobles for this fic) (Princess Isabella and Countess Livia get together to upend the balance of city-states in Northern Italy.)

Vicenza had clearly spared no expense when it came to decorations, Isabella thought, watching the streets of the city pass by the window of her carriage with a sardonic eye.

This was a fun look back, thank you! I'm tagging @bisexualshakespeare, @granny-griffin (hi this is theetwinkleboy) and anyone else who wants to participate!

[mlobsters]

supernatural s9e20 bloodlines (w. andrew dabb)

LOL oh my god at the (quick check to make sure i am actually watching spn) hair color change like in the craft!

the craft (1996) [jesus it came out when i was 16??? what is time]

gonna throw the blond in the knockoff boyd holbrook (corinthian) / spn!brady (i called brady boyd hollbrook with a dash of armie hammer i am very consistent in my thought process lol) pile with bartholewhatever because apparently all slim white blond men occupy one spot in my head

spn s5e20 brady / the sandman - boyd holbrook as the corinthian / spn s9e3 bart

we also have budget tom cruise

another hunter via fridge origin story?

DEAN Agents Bonham and Peart, FBI. We will take it from here.

100% heard bottom and pert and died inside a little bit. what i get for having the captions off to screenshot something

why are sam and dean speaking with southern accents, is this someone's recounting of meeting them (like the lilt up on "profile" from dean, the way sam said "last night" for ex. i'm just... they sometimes, like jackles especially does the again uhgin sometimes and other little bits of accent slip in but not like this)

little bit of andrew garfield maybe? lol good god brain, get it together. this actor was also in the vampire diaries as a character i may or may not have seen, already wasted too much time not gonna get a picture

i have a feeling i'm going to commit about 5% of this episode to memory.

MARGO Yeah, you'll what? David, come on. You don't want this. You ran away to be a human. You always had a soft spot for 'em. Look, you're out. Stay out.

slow blink at the stanford era sam parallel

what the fuck is happening. why are sam and dean acting so weird talking to this nice boy ennis who looks about 18. who also has a post-stanford era sam parallel

DAVID Wow. You are so in over your head. Let me give you the short version. Chicago is divided up between five monster families. ENNIS What? Is that a joke? DAVID Do you hear a laugh track?

i mean, i snorted

just insert me saying wtf is happening continuously

he's got the patented single tear of man pain too!

~and the real monsters were the humans~

they must have really been shooting in chicago because it looks like shameless! lol. have they ever shot on location before?

ENNIS But I couldn't walk away. This is my fight now. Hell, it's a damn war, and I got to start somewhere.

laughing loudly, WHAT IS GOING ON. it's like a spinoff test

ENNIS Who is this? VOICE ON PHONE If you start hunting, the monsters will kill you. ENNIS Dad? Dad?

??????

what did i just watch

from the wiki

This episode was also planned to be a backdoor pilot for Supernatural: Bloodlines, a series set in Chicago and based on the characters introduced in this episode, however it was never picked up by the CW.

losing it. that still doesn't explain why sam and dean were acting so strange and accented (briefly) 😂

when people talk about spn getting worse as the seasons go on, this type of episode is what i was worried about haha at least there was a very specific reason it was Like This

i know i'd heard there was a spinoff that didn't go anywhere but i still am somehow very surprised and confused

not-andrew garfield and ennis were good it was just a completely absurd not good episode

[shortoncache]

Marry My Husband dream cast

{Note: Just imagine that they're the correct age, or that the makeup artist did their makeup magic.}

Maybe Han Hyojoo as Kang Jiwon. I do think she would execute a bigger transformation. (I like Park Minyoung but she's not tall and looks elfin no matter how they try to frump her up.)

Maybe Park Shinhye or Yoo Inna as Jung Sumin. I would feel more confident about Yoo Inna's acting but I think it would feel like the twist would be more impactful if Park Shinhye did her super naive-looking version of the cute girly character and then had the evil manipulative side. (Actually, I think Song Hayoon wins in terms of casting but I'm new to her so I wouldn't have known to pick her.)

Jung Woosung as Park Minhwan. He's just got big extravert energy, and I could see him playing a shameless cheater. Other actors could pull off this character well, too, but I think most would portray more of a stereotypical sneak while I could see Jung Woosung playing up the audacity.

Won Bin or Lee Jonghyuk as Yoo Jihyuk. Won Bin can pull off a certain introverted masculinity well suited to Jihyuk. Lee Jonghyuk is less chiseled but he looks like he could be related to my dream cast pick for Heeyeon.

Lee Hanee as Yoo Heeyeon. Like look at this pic: she almost has a knowing look like "I got you, bestie," and she looks like she would know how to identify knockoff jewelry. (The actress they chose does have the eyebrows and the youthful enthusiasm down, though.)

Lee Seunggi as Baek Eunho. He's got the cozy childhood friend sort of look. (Lee Gikwang is cute but why the heck does he keep bulging his eyes out? Was he filming for a cop thriller in between Marry My Husband shoots and he forgot he's supposed to be in a romance drama?)

PLAYIN, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jin Seoyeon as Yang Juran. Someone who looks sharp enough to harbor suspicions of Manager Kim. Someone who looks like she still has the energy to raise kids. Someone who looks good in a short girlboss haircut! (Gong Minjung's Juran makes looks tired and beat down. I get that her husband is garbage, but the Juran in the webtoon doesn't seem like she's reached such a low point yet.)

Kwon Yul as Manager (?) Lee. At this point it's less dream cast and more me racking my brain for a guy with the right look that's done a decent job in a similar enough character before. But I had to name someone because I think they're trying to rewrite his character with a very different one, Lee Suk-joon, a much older, crabbier-looking guy who has no chemistry with Gong Minjung, and I can't let that slide. But anyway, honestly, Kwon Yul seems like a pretty darn good fit anyway.

역사극채널CNTV, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[gourde]

Yeah it's kind of wild that so many people are willing to pay real money for such a shameless knockoff. If it was released for free (and didn't have all the AI stuff attached to it obviously) then I probably wouldn't have a problem with it bc then it would just be a weird fan-game type thing, but relying so heavily on blatant plagiarism to prop up a game that's being sold for 30 dollars is ridiculous

LITERALLY LIKE THE DESIGNS HAVE TELL-TALE SIGNIFIERS OF AI GENERATED ART. AM I IN A SAW CHAMBER RIGHT NOW. CAN ANYONE HEAR ME

[midmorning-bomb]

Thanks for the tag @meggie-stardust, I'm always up for some shameless self-promotion.

Rules: Post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to AO3 (Sort by date posted.) If you have less than 10 fics posted, post what you have!

Honey Dew (Stiles/Peter) “We used to have ritual szable, you know. Slung across our backs, stained with the blood of the unworthy. Then later, daggers hidden in our cloaks or the pins of our hats. And now omegas are supposed to, what? Threaten an alpha with your salad fork? Politely flag down security? Tch. I stabbed a suitor with a steak knife once, clean through the meat of his palm.”

Leave the war with me (Stiles/Peter) Stiles has taken a punch before. He��s gotten into scraps. He’s scrappy. Words usually save him before it gets too far. Stiles talks his way out or he runs. He knows it’s looking pretty dire this time, though, when he’s thrown into the basement to find Erica and Boyd chained to the ceiling like a low-budget Saw knockoff.

To the Child Drifting Out to Sea (Stiles/Chris) “It won’t be them.”

Changed (Stiles/Peter/Chris) Peter should have protested more, he thinks.

Milk & Honey (Stiles/Peter) There’s a story about a boy in the preserve. There’s a story about a monster in the forest. There’s a story about a thing that tears apart the wicked, leaves them in pieces, haunting the woods around Beacon Hills.

sleep baby sleep (Stiles/Peter) Stiles looks down at the new line on his forearm and sighs. This one won't be a long wait, at least. You're so beautiful, I wish we had more time.

Please don't go (Stiles/Peter) “Fuck you, Peter! Fuck. You. You do not get to do this to me.”

Sway (Stiles/Peter, Pre-Stiles/Peter/Chris) There’s another world where this isn’t happening right now.

Better Days (Stiles/Peter) It starts out as making up for his lost year. Stiles wants to try everything and Peter wants to give him everything, so it works for them.

Possibly Maybe (Stiles/Peter) “Charming.”

Tagging anyone who would like to rec some of their own recent work!

[majorbitchi]

(Turn the sound on... You can hear her snoring 😴!)

I've been kinda bored with my Tamas lately, so I decided to start up some generic virtual pets to keep things interesting.

This is a Touma Pet. It's a shameless Tamagotchi knockoff 😂 but you know what? I actually like it 🤷🏿‍♀️ The pets are not super needy and the device has its own quaint charm despite its shady beginnings 👀

This is the second edition that features removable AAA batteries and a different interface than the previous version (which had blatant knockoff Tamas). It feels well made and weighty with batteries installed. It has its own original characters (12 I think 🤔) and 12 unique games you can play to earn money (including a flappy bird clone 🤣). I know people have complained about the shitty speaker quality but despite that, the sounds are adorable and fun! (just keep the volume on the lowest setting lol) There's also a lot of cute animations. You can farm and sell crops, go to the movies or amusement park, go on a trip abroad, or just go to the local park for a serotonin boost 👌🏿 There's also close range chat features and you can send your pet to another device! I just ordered another one so I can test that out.

It has some things in common with the 4u/On/Meets Tamas (changing room decor, marriage, traveling to other locations, school/work, shopping, generations) but they so far seem to handle them differently.

The only con is that pretty much everything requires the in game currency.... Except 💩 and 🚿 anyway 🙄 but honestly, with 12 different games (and farming!) it's relatively easy to make enough money to keep them happy.

For a $20 On/Meets clone, I'd say it's worth it if you like quirky offbeat v-pets. It shares some similarities with the abovementioned Tamas but it has enough original content to make it distinctly different. I'll definitely be posting more about this fascinating little critter 👌🏿

[deadmomjokes]

My brain’s tendency to go from an initial idea to something totally different and wildly off-the-rails of the initial scope and premise is both baffling and hilarious. And I swear, it happens every time I try to write something, outline or not.

Pulpy noir murder mystery one-shot but make it urban fantasy >>> dramatic irony laced howdunnit about the saving power of love as a deliberate action and breaking the cycle of apathy by choosing to care, ft double romantic subplots, Southern Gothic Horror but make it magical realism, elves as monstrous instead of ethereal, #acab; wait how did YOU become a main character, you little one-off exposition machine with a placeholder name? guess you need your own set of books now and oops I think I just created a Literary Universe

Chilling backstory of ruthless, manipulative villain from the above >>> Big Gay Tragedy, hero’s fall from grace wherein an angry asexual becomes a literal nightmare monster to save his marginalized people and his BonesMcCoy-knockoff boyfriend, functional commentary on how working within existing power structures to affect change frequently leaves the marginalized in a catch-22 of performative worthiness designed to maintain status quo for those benefiting from the current power dynamic; villain has evolved into tragic Anti-villain/Anti-hero, update initial project to reflect shift, GOSH DARN IT that’s another book we have to add at least

Three immortals hanging out in a cabin in the woods accidentally get found out and have to convince their discoverer not to turn them in to the government >>> depressed and compassion-fatigued immortal wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy, has to convince his coroner and himself both that life might be okay actually, complicated by the fact that he’s accidentally party to kidnapping said coroner, who is definitely having the Worst Day of Her Life but handling it surprisingly well for someone running on caffeine, spite, and the Hippocratic oath

Steampunk Sherlock Holmes but make it a magical realism fantasy roadtrip >>> ... actually that one is basically still the same nvm

Cars, but make it people >>> Oh hey turns out that’s a thing already and Cars is based on a 90s movie that’s based on an obscure book; who knew! anyway >>> anti-imperialist ecopunk Weird West middle-fantasy, once again about the choice to care for others over the convenience of neutrality and safety of apathy (not that I have some strongly held thematic opinions or anything)

Short story written to-market for a SFF magazine competition, maybe drop some allusions/analogs to current world events to make it *~Timely and Relatable~* (I really want to win this thing, I need money, I’m a shameless sellout) >>> Does the end really justify the means, or do the means determine the end? If saving one person means killing five more, is it worth it? If that one person could save ten more, would your answer change? Does that change who you thought you were? Is there ever a right answer to the question of who deserves to live? Is true pacifism even an option in a world where violence is also an option? Oh yeah and some contemporary fantasy I guess, just slap some pointy ears on those dudes or something

Basically what I’m saying is that sometimes your heart knows better than your brain, and you should never be afraid to play around and just Go For It because some of your best ideas may come from asking “What if” about 37 times in the course of a single outline point, and so what if it ends up totally different than your initial starting point, the joy is in the journey, right?

Also you never come up with a plot resolution as perfect as “dying girl tries to stab a demigod with a borrowed demon sword on behalf of an undead terrorist, demigod proceeds to pat her on the head, give her a shiny new powerup that may or may not be cursed, and scoop everyone up in a cup & dump them outside like an unwelcome but ultimately harmless spider”* on purpose, that stuff either comes to you in dreams or at 11pm on a weeknight while attempting a sleep-deprived writing challenge that forcibly shuts off your inhibitions.

Aka, let yourself be weird, it works out way better than you think.

*Yes that is a legitimate plot point I am using in one of my novels. I had agonized over how to solve the corner I’d written myself into for months before the “screw it, idc anymore” kicked in, whereupon this brilliant solution immediately asserted itself like I hadn’t brought myself to tears trying to work it out logically.

[punchy-mchurtyfist]

LITERALLY one minute into Happiness Charge and it already feels like they tried their damnedest to recreate Heartcatch. From the stylized art to the villain grunts lookin like knockoff snackies and even the fairies having the same general silhouette. Wow! Absolutely shameless!! I haven't seen them so shamelessly try to recapture that lightning in the bottle since Black and White 2: Electric Boogaloo

Fortunately, Heartcatch is my favorite season so if they had to plagiarize themselves they couldn't have chosen a better season to copy.

[vibrantlifeboringdeath]

Every town has the shameless KFC knockoff that is actually way better than KFC