#WE CAN HAVE MODERN SPEEDY

[disabled-battlekukku]

if sega makes tails adventure a classic exclusive thing i'm gonna cry. a lot/neg

[ordinaryschmuck]

If a Teen Titans movie is legit happening for James Gunn's DCU, it should have a mix of a modern and classic roster. Meaning it should have...

Robin/Nightwing

Kid Flash

Speedy

Wonder Girl

Starfire

Raven

Cyborg

Beast Boy

That's eight characters, sure, but with a tight enough script, each of them can work well in a movie. And we can always build on the others in sequels.

[pluckyredhead]

hey! if you have time, do you have any recommendations on what comics to read for a good grounding for the arrows? i know you have a roy-specific reading list, but if you have any comics recs for the family in general, or especially mia and connor, i would be forever in ur debt 💜 thanks!!

Sure! Here's a Green Arrow/Arrowfam recs list, with emphasis on Connor and Mia, in chronological order:

Green Lantern/Green Arrow: This has been collected under various names but anything with "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" in there is likely to get you what you're looking for. These are the iconic Hal/Ollie teamup stories from the 70s by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams (originally published as Green Lantern (1960) #76-87 and #89. Ollie had been around since 1941 but it wasn't until around this time that he really developed into the character we know him as today, and this is a great introduction to that. It also contains "Snowbirds Don't Fly" and "They'll Say It'll Kill Me But They Won't Say When," the two-part Roy addiction storyline; the beginnings of Ollie's relationships with Hal and Dinah; and John Stewart's first appearance. These comics are 50 years old so they are definitely dated in many ways, but they're masterpieces and so, so beautiful to look at.

Green Arrow v1 (1983): This four issue miniseries is hard to find but I love it. It's basically what if Ollie starred in an Agatha Christie novel, and it's so fun.

The Longbow Hunters: The miniseries that created the "modern" Ollie (this was in 1987 but that's still "modern" according to comics historians). Ollie and Dinah relocate to Seattle and deal with several serial killers, including Shado. Great characterization, beautiful art. Content warning for sexual violence and torture.

Green Arrow v2 (1989): Continues on from The Longbow Hunters and runs for 137 issues. The first 80 issues are written by Mike Grell (who wrote and drew The Longbow Hunters) and they're all very solid. If you're just looking for Connor, he is introduced in #0, which comes between #90 and #91 (comics lol); he's a regular character until #100, at which point Ollie dies and Connor becomes the lead for the rest of the book. If you really just want to read about Connor, you can completely skip to #102, which is the first one he stars in properly, and just read from there. He's delightful in them and the art is solid. Content warning in that Connor's globetrotting adventures mean a lot of ethnic stereotypes and orientalism, sadly.

Green Arrow v3 (2001): This is the book where Ollie comes back. It begins with "Quiver" by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester which is my FAVORITE GA book of all time and serves up Arrowfamily in a way it's never been served before: we get Dinah, Roy, Connor, AND this story introduces Mia! This volume unfortunately gets worse as it goes along and by #60 it is hot garbage but I would recommend the following key issues:

#11-15, "Sounds of Violence," in which Connor gets shot and Ollie loves him so so so much.

#32, in which Roy and Connor bond.

#34-39, in which the Arrowfam fights the Riddler and Demons; a very good Mia story.

#43-45, in which Mia is diagnosed as HIV positive and becomes the new Speedy.

Green Arrow v I don't even know anymore, the Rebirth volume (2016): After about a decade of just unreadably horrible comics, this is very much a return to form for Ollie: he's a swashbuckler who is dating Dinah and raging against injustice again, and that's how I like him. It's not a perfect comic but it was such a breath air after so many years of crap.

Green Arrow v who knows (2023): This is the current comic and it is a shot of joy straight to my heart every single month. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[ducktracy]

Conspiracy theory I didn't come up with: Part of why Hollywood is so weird with Looney Tunes and Muppets is that they resent the voice work involved. Even dumbass execs know you need Kermit to sound like Kermit and Daffy to sound like Daffy and they HATE that they can't just recast them with some random celebrity.

HMMMMM… i unfortunately don’t know enough about the Muppets to throw my two cents in there, but with LT—i both see where you’re going with this and somewhat object at the same time.

i guess my point i’m about to bring up just as much proves you right, but they DID get away with some celeb stunt casting with Space Jam 2 (lol) thanks to Zendaya and Gabriel Iglesias. and hell even going back to TLTS, you have Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen… Frank Gorshin voices Daffy in Superior Duck.. so there IS the fair share of celeb stunt casting with these characters, which i guess does in a way sort of prove your point, but to me still makes me think it’s not entirely it

one of my biggest complaints with modern LT revivals IS, however, that they never seem to write the characters with Mel Blanc in mind. i realize the man has been dead for 35 years and we obviously can’t raise him back, but the originals were so often written to cater to his voice talents and his quirks and his specificities, and while you have incredibly talented voice actors like Eric Bauza or Bob Bergen or Jeff Bergman or Joe Alaskey (RIP), the one little ingredient missing from their deliveries is because they aren’t written with Mel in mind. Mel’s involvement is just as important to the characters and their personalities as the directors and writers and animators

which leads me to my next point in that i just think that nobody understands the Looney Tunes characters, simple as. they don’t! they are not some big happy family à la the Muppets, who, in turn, are not some big happy family. likewise they are not mindless drones who drop anvils and blow each other up and repeat the same 2 bits over and over and over again. i don’t think Space Jam 2’s ineptitude is a product of execs losing their minds over the inability to stunt cast—i just think you don’t know your Looney Tunes if you’re going to genuinely play up a Bugs Bunny death scene as a sincere, heart felt moment. come on!!!!!

i still think a lot about the excerpt in Jerry Beck’s 100 Greatest LT Shorts book where one of the contributors—whose name escapes me—had a WB exec tell him in the ‘90s that nobody likes Porky because “people don’t like pigs”, and his quip in the book was “well, i’m people and i like pigs!”. likewise the whole political correctness bit in Back in Action is true to life! the Speedy complaint surprises me less but the whole “first they tell me to lose the stutter, then they tell me i’m not funny” actually happened! WB hasn’t known what to do with these characters for half a century at this point and it’s unfortunately nothing new. i wish it were just a matter of grievances at celebrity voice casting, but i really do think it’s just because nobody knows how the hell to characterize or approach the characters.

likewise, that is very much by design. the original run is lightning in a bottle. its brilliance is the product of so many ultra specific circumstances and benefits and histories and trial and error that you just can’t really replicate. i mean, you can, but even with the most meticulous studying and planning and adaptation and mathematical calculations and all that other jargon, even if you put all that into your work… you’re still not Chuck Jones with Chuck Jones’ life experience, you’re not Bob Clampett with Bob Clampett’s life experience, not Friz Freleng, not Bob McKimson, not Frank Tashlin…

i am a loud proponent of thinking that honoring these characters correctly and accurately and respectfully is possible. i think it can be done. i think it is possible to study all of the quirks of the directors, of the writers, the animators, the characters, how the characters talk and walk and play off of each other, how the directorial tone is dictated. you have to be a complete nut to do it, but i think it’s possible. but that just goes back to the original question of: well… why try and make carbon copies of the originals when the originals are right there? (which, i admit, is another question that i myself get huffy about and am like “just because!!!! why not!” but i can’t act like i can fully deny it either. it’s a valid question.)

ANYWAY. i just went on a huge tangent, some of which is completely unrelated to your ask and your point so MY APOLOGIES! i do think you have something there, but i really do think the main perpetrator is just a lack of understanding and awareness. or, we do have adaptations that show potential and they aren’t given the light of day to be realized and help set the course a little because we need to think of our tax write-offs first. god forbid!

[charmsandtealeaves]

Making up for a few lacklustre reading weeks…

Read this week:

Choose Your Own (Sexy) Adventure by @ghostofbambifanfiction (Ch. 47-48)

WIP, choose your own adventure, modern AU Jily, Rated E

Too many cooks can occasionally write a story.

Laughter in the bedroom by heartnipnops

Complete (3k), Jily smut, Rated E

After stewing over something new she'd like to try in the bedroom, Lily finally tells her boyfriend James. She wants to peg him. James, albeit surprised, agrees to give it a try.

The Queen of the Quills- Jily edition by @elliemarchetti (Ch.3)

WIP, Regency Jily, Rated T

James Potter, London's most evasive bachelor, an impertinent libertine, has decided to get married. He has also already chosen his wife, the debutante Lily Evans, a self-confident young woman who has not the slightest intention of being seduced by such a man.

Pinkest Bluestocking of the Ton by @wearingaberetinparis (Ch 18)

WIP, Regency Jily, Rated M

Dearest Reader, the ton are abuzz with the latest gossip, and so it is my honour to impart to you the news that the Duke of Peverell has returned to London at last! A year after setting off on his tour of Europe, Lady Peverell's son has returned and rumour has it that his mother is preparing for the most joyous of occasions: a late summer wedding that sees her son wed the next Duchess of Peverell. It is my sincere hope that you have stored a bottle of wine for this most delightful of upcoming events for if ever there were a more determined mama, this writer is Icarus and this society paper has been scorched for flying too close to the sun. A Jily Regency Romance inspired by Shondaland's "Bridgerton".

Quest for Camelot by @petals2fish (Ch.21)

WIP, Quest for Camelot Jily, Rated T

After the legendary Excalibur sword is stolen, Lily and James embark on a quest to retrieve the lost weapon. Lily searches for the sword to prove she is capable of being a knight despite being a girl. James searches because his falcon, Marlene, is desperate to find it for her master, Merlin. Along the way, they attempt to outwit the sinister Ruber, navigate through magical obstacles, decode puzzling prophecies, and uncover surprising similarities between themselves. As their journey progresses, they both cannot deny the feelings growing between them with each passing day. Will they make it out of the quest alive, or will one of them perish in the ever-growing darkness that threatens to swallow the entire realm if Ruber gets his hands on the sword? Based on the 1998 movie Quest for Camelot, but with more plot and less singing

Reset by @ncoincidences (Ch.4)

WIP, amnesia Jily, Rated G

A mishap with a drunken dark wizard leaves Lily an amnesiac. The last ten months of her life has been completely wiped, which includes her breakup with James eight months before. To aid in her speedy recovery, James has to keep Lily under the pretence that her life has been the same as it was.

To Bring Down A Kingdom by @mppmaraudergirl (Ch.3)

WIP, Tristan and Isolde inspired Jily, Rated M

If we do this…” “For all of time, they will say it was our love that brought down a kingdom.” A story about forbidden lovers, the battle between duty and love, and the cost of betrayal. Inspired by the film Tristan and Isolde.

[turboacek-blog]

Fans don’t know what they want: Star Wars edition

Don’t know if I’ll make this a recurring type of post but just something I always think of when watching series that’s been on for a long time from Marvel to Pokémon to Dragon Ball etc

So I finished the live-action Ahsoka show and overall I thought it was pretty solid, the thing was I have the benefit of watching most of Rebels and the Clone Wars so my connection to these characters is different from someone who’s never watched them or not a lot as this series was very much a follow-up of Rebels with the Ahsoka clone wars connection as the connecting aspect

Not going to talk too much about the show as it’s still new as I’m posting this

But one thing I kept seeing online and even since the sequel movies was that the lightsaber fights have been slow and boring etc…

And while I agree in a certain sense that they don’t look as fast as animation or the prequels

The problem is that one of the big complaints of the prequel movies was how they were using lightsabers back then

Like people hated how flashy and speedy they were swinging their lightsabers

And I think that has shaped how they have done Star Wars since episode 7/the sequels aired

The basis of the action standard has been the original trilogy and the closest real-world equivalent in sword fights

Where sword fights aren’t about the flash and the blades are mostly heavy let alone how sharp and deadly they are so when there’s a sword fight it’s not about the clashing etc It’s about if you get one hit it’s over

So ever since I’ve noticed that they treated the lightsabers more like heavier swords vs these lighter laser blades

But now whether it’s from the prequel kids and enjoyers are now more of the vocal majority or the choreography hasn’t been the best but now people are calling out that the modern lightsaber fights have been slow and boring

So fans went from don’t make the fights like the prequels to make the fights more like the prequels hence fans don't know what they want

Even if it's more than preferences and audience changes over time

For myself, I’m mixed

Like I think there’s definitely a balance, as you can say that some moments in the prequels they were spinning that deadly blade super casually, and those extra moves showed some openings making people act like oh there was the kill shot, but also light sabers aren’t swords, like lightsabers have the inherent benefit of having the clashing and being able to swing more casually given their size, cut metal and other things, and let alone using the force as an excuse for the movements

I understand the want or need for realism in products such as Star Wars it helps keep things grounded and believable but there’s also the fantasy aspect that I do think needs to be embraced more as yes the choreography of the lightsabers needs to be seen as swords so we have a concept for what’s going on but you also have to be creative with it in a way that shows a lightsaber isn’t just a glow stick sword

I think in some cases it’s a choreography thing as without spoiling too much Ahsoka herself isn’t as fast in her series compared to her in animation, part of the reason is that she’s older and they even comment on that as she’s like 50 in the show and was like 16 in the clone wars a pretty big difference but it’s also they aren’t choosing to make Ahsoka acrobatic or fast since they want Rosario Dawson to actually be the character they even have a moment showing that Ahsoka was faster when younger, and they have moments that give that sense of speed and such but mostly lightsaber fights are just sword fights now

I think there’s definitely some work around like the light trail effect of the light sabers is practically gone now and I think that added will give a better sense of speed and effect

And if you’re going to choreograph essentially a sword fight then get stunt doubles or whoever to help make it feel faster and more fluid, and have fun with camera direction to get more excitement from the critics that think it's boring

Overall it’s funny to me that people used to hate (some still do) the prequels but in terms of things like action people now would prefer that to what we have now

And I do think the rise in things like anime has raised standards for how to perceive action as there has now been some anime influence in even things like Creed 3

Not my most formatted post but oh well

[sunsoakedhighhopes]

In this case, Steve is actually doing something for himself for once, not as a part of the US military, and not exactly as Captain America either, though obviously Captain America is going to have a role to play.

Steve stops by an island prison, which is, I guess, under territory of France, now controlled by the Nazis, to check in on a friend, who is a political prisoner after France's defeat by Germany.

As usual, Steve just does not give any fucks. He never sugarcoats his feelings about the Nazis, he never plays political, even if it might be to his benefit to do so. Obviously antagonizing the warden of the prison where his friend it being kept isn't the most political tactic, but i guess it's true that Steve knows that he doesn't have to play nice in this situation, because he is Captain America, and he knows that he can take this whole prison down, if he needs/wants to. (One thing Comic Steve is not lacking, which is, I think different from his portrayal in the MCU, is confidence. Of course, a lot of that is possibly down to the fact that the vast majority of Steve's early life and backstory wasn't established by Marvel until much much later -- after his original run had completed.)

One thing I've also noticed about these early issues is that we never really get any kind of internal monologue from Steve, which is something that's much more prevalent in modern comics.

So we don't actually have Steve's motivations. He tells the warden that he's just there to check up on his friend, and there's never anything shown -- no scenes between him and Bucky or anything else -- that would indicate that this wasn't his true intention when he arrived, but I really kinda like to imagine that he went to this place with the full intention of Captain America-ing it up, and rescuing his friend. So, like, Steve is not bothering to try to placate this guy in any way, because he fully knows that his friend isn't going to be there much longer.

So, they bring out Steve's friend and he's.... looking a little rough.

Steve is of course quite horrified. But after a pointed look from the warden, Tom insists that they haven't treated him badly, and in particular the warden has treated him very well -- he just, you know, likes being so thin that he can barely stand and you can count each and every rib.

Then Steve is quickly ushered back outside where he is shown to the hut where he will be staying, and I'm only including this panel because Steve is wearing a pith helmet, which is a hat that really shouldn't look good on anyone, and yet, here he is, looking handsome as hell.

Steve obviously didn't fall for any of this bullshit, and again, I love that Steve just apparently wears his uniform under his clothes at all times. Like, is he afraid to pack it in his suitcase? I guess it does help with the speedy magical girl transformation into Captain America, but like, he's literally on what appears to be a tropical island, wearing his uniform under a suit -- how is he not absolutely dying from the heat?? Also, does this mean that Bucky is always wearing his uniform as well? Does he wear it to school? And once again, where are Bucky's parents??

Okay, so this prison warden guy is really not the brightest, because he doesn't even wait for Steve and Bucky to leave the island before torturing Tom again. Like, what exactly was the thought process here? Did he think that Steve was going to be like, "Well, my obviously emaciated friend says he's just fine, so I guess everything's good. I'm just gonna hang out the beach for a bit and get a tan and then head home."

Unfortunately for Steve, this prison torture chamber is set up like a Bond villain's lair.

No, but like, literally. Bond villain setup here.

This is the second time that they've put Steve in a man vs beast type situation.

Interesting, because here we have, canonically, the wings on Steve's helmet are made of steel, and are sturdy enough to use as a weapon.

And unfortunately, yes, Steve does kill another animal here, but in Steve's defense, it seems like the only other option was getting eaten by sharks. And I just think this was probably one of those popular tropes in the forties to show a character was really strong and fearless. We can't judge these comics by today's standards. And again, it's not like he really had a choice.

He does leave the third shark alive -- again, proving that he only killed the first two because he didn't have a choice.

When Steve crawls back out of shark pit, he finds the warden looming over Bucky with a knife, about to stab him -- which if you've been paying attention, threatening Bucky in front of Steve is just about the fastest way to ensure your imminent defeat. Although unfortunately, Steve does not in fact feed the prison warden to the sharks. Come on, the set up was right there!

They then rescue Tom, who somehow hasn't figured out that his friend Steve is Captain America, despite Steve arriving on the island that same day with a small boy named Bucky -- and you know what, whatever, we'll go with it. Maybe Tom is being tongue-in-cheek here, maintaining Steve's secret.

Tom says he's going to Greece to continue fighting against the Nazis, and later, Steve and Bucky read a newspaper article about a new addition to the Greek forces, an American pilot who had become a terror for the Nazi forces.

[jamietarttownsmyheart]

please i need colinjamie headcanons or prompts i’ve been deprived of them for too long

i am. so so sorry for how late this is. and how uncoordinated the rest of this will probably end up being, but, just, ima unleash random colinjamie thoughts on u and hope it makes sense lol and that you enjoy them, but since idk how long it'll end up ima put everything under the cut

random hcs

colinjamie have definitely watched the owl house at some point. maybe this is fresh in my head since the final episode just came out a few days ago, but i definitely see colinjamie watching the owl house together. two options:

maybe colin was chilling with his niece (i want colin to have a niece or a nephew so bad, he gives uncle vibes and also i want jamie to interact with the kid at some point too) and she was watching it and he got invested. and then jamie got invested via colin. OR. henry was visiting the stadium on spring break and mentioned the owl house to jamie, who was curious, watched and episode, and then got invested. flash forward to colinjamie fwb era and colin dropping by one day and finding jamie losing his shit over the episode hollow mind. jamie needs to lose his shit with someone and colin is the poor soul who came over for a hook up but ended up having to watch two seasons of a disney cartoon.

that being said, i also think that jamie, if he ever watched avatar the last airbender as a kid, only ever watched until mid season 2. life got more complicated and he was more concerned with playing well than "lazy" things like cartoons. he never got to zuko standing up to his dad. he'll get there someday, it's gonna be great

colinjamie have a unique sense of style that they somehow make work, it drives so many people mad

colin had a crush on lightning mcqueen when he was a kid. (11 years old? idk how old colin is, so im putting him at 28 in s3, making him 11 when cars came out) he thinks about this childhood crush and figures its pretty telling that he's got a speedy car and a cocky but talented boyfriend

jamie is dyslexic, and when he realized audiobooks existed, he was thrilled. still, his favorite way to experience books is to have colin read them out to him.

that being said, his favorite way to enjoy drake is to have colin rapping along

colin takes jamie along to theater performances, musicals, and the ballet.

jamie found the "whose the worm now" moment so hot. he can't let colin find out

random prompt

prompt #1

so this might be because i just re read the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, daisy jones and the six, and carrie soto is back, as well as binging all of the daisy jones and the six show, and have been listening to taylor swift all month, but i am craving something specific?

like, i am so here for an au with actor or pop star jamie (have y'all heard phil dunster's voice?) and richmond player colin hughes. its giving posh spice and david beckham.

just the different flavors of it all. if we have it in modern times, as in, the time ted lasso is set in the show, we can do so much. (we can also have a colin who is not actually a fan of his bf's music. it's not that he hates it, it's just not his style. jamie knows this, and writes songs about colin anyways. colin loves listening to these songs regardless of them not being his style.)

then of course there is the other option--i am so bad at timelines and math, so dont come for me when this is all wrong, but i, on my 7 husband of eh kick, was like omg?? give me hollywood star jamie tartt and football player colin hughes who are "roommates."

prompt #2

im a sucker for vampires and vampire hunters. i think it can go either way for them in terms of whose the vampire and whose the vampire hunters.

prompt #3

a canon divergence au where colinjamie were dating s1. jamie and keeley were dating prior to his loan to richmond and stayed friends after their breakup. he really did love her, but still hadn't learned to be accountable yet. keeley still comes around to the club bc she's jamie's best friend and wants to test the playing field with roy.

[findroleplay]

21+ | nb ! looking for literate writers who are interested in plot-centric, character-driven threads that focus on worldbuilding. i don't mind doubling, or writing multiple characters for one thread. i'm also interested in crossovers, one universe bleeding into another (bleach characters popping up in naruto or vice versa for example), or giving canon characters verses. as for shipping — anything flies as long as there's chemistry. i would prefer to stick to canon muses, but well thoughtout ocs are also appreciated! only requirement is patience, i work 2 jobs and also study, so replies may vary from twice a week to once a week, a notice will be given if life gets busy. i mostly write on discord. given that most of the writing is plot-heavy, there likely won't be speedy replies.

fandoms and aus i'm interested in :

☆ naruto (any canon-divergent timeline that excludes kaguya. would love to go back to the original idea of naruto — have more politics, gangs, expand the world a bit. time travel aus are also fun. any modern reinterpretation, we can talk headcanons and so on. verses for bleach, jjk, and other fandoms are also welcome!)

☆ bleach (exploring the early days of bleach, slice-of-life that leads into more action-packed plots. crossovers and verses are really welcome)

☆ jujutsu kaisen (same as bleach, survival aus, too, zombie apocalypse or any aus)

☆ hxh (anything that focuses on the spiders, found family trope, put more emphasis on the license exam, or even come up with our own license exam, au, crossovers and verses)

☆ castlevania (mostly the netflix drama since i'm not familiar with the games, again expansion on world-building and what each vampire brings to the table, we can expand on clans, include more supernatural elements)

☆ x-men (anything from crossovers, verses, aus, including other characters into this universe, i don't really care so much about canon as much as character-driven threads)

☆ dc (as a more noir or gothic setting, focus heavily on the characters and their journeys)

☆ marvel (mostly spiderman, but we can discuss this, same as all of the above)

☆ some cartoons (totally spies, juniper lee, w.i.t.c.h., american dragon, samurai jack, etc)

☆ atla (worldbuilding, crossovers, and canon divergences are more than welcome)

☆ death note (expanding the universe, building our own cases, as with all of the above, one universe bleeding into the other or just giving DN characters verses for other fandoms)

☆ wednesday (exploring the world and adding our own twists, we can definitely talk ocs here)

like this ask and i'll reach out! please don't like this if you're only interested in nsfw plots, i really want to create more with these worlds, and i'm looking for literate writers, we can have separate text channels for anything more light-hearted. thanks!

_

[disabled-battlekukku]

Sonic opinions that may or may not be controversial

Sonic character design is at its worst when they try to make it as "Sonic-like" as possible, and at its best when it's at its most unconventional (i.e. Fang the Sniper, the Witchcarters, the Kukku Empire, the humans in Sonic Unleashed and Chronicles, SatAM and AOSTH characters, etc)

Infinite's maskless design is lame

Sally Acorn, Amy Rose, Princess Elise and Lanolin aren't the worst characters, you just want to hate female characters. There are way worse written characters and you choose those three to bash on

That said, Chris Thorndyke and Charmy Bee aren't annoying, you just hate children. Chris' unwilling to let Sonic go in the finale of Sonic X's season two wasn't a dick move, that's his character arc. And of course Charmy being loud, annoying and basically dooming the resistance by turning himself into a zombot to try and save someone makes sense. He's a god damn six year old

Ian Flynn trying to "simplify" Fang the Sniper takes away all that made him interesting, his weirdness and confusing design (he literally took away Fang's hybrid side and him being originated from the Special Zone. Blaze exists, why can't Fang be from another dimension too?)

Gemerl not having Emerl's personality isn't neither a betrayal nor a bad take on his character. In fact, it makes his contrast with Emerl and comparison to Omega and Metal Sonic better. Shard is not coming back guys. Cope

Sonic Forces should've been less focused on Classic Sonic and more on the Rookie. In fact, Shadow should've replaced Classic Sonic in the storyline

Sonic Colors is worse than Sonic 06 in terms of storyline and the DS version should've been the real deal

As fun and awesome and amazing as Sonadow is (totally not speaking from bias), making it non-canon is the best for everyone

Characters like Shadow and Omega shouldn't have a classic form, but it would be interesting to see other modern characters in classic form

Classic characters shouldn't be confined to the "classic universe". Archie's best parts were when classic and modern characters interacted (Mighty and the Werehog, Shadow and the Hooligans, Jet and Speedy)

The idea of the Babylon Rogues being associated to the Kukku Empire in the past IS an interesting concept. What isn't is the Kukku Empire being associated with the Babylon Garden. They should be their own villains

As goofy as Sonic Chronicles was, it wasn't a bad game at all

Western and eastern Sonic media should be treated with the same respect

Sonic characters acting immature shouldn't be a big deal. They are kids, no matter how many times you point out how they removed the ages at the Sonic Channel site. Amy Rose herself was at her best when she was an immature hotheaded girl

As much as I wish Silver was more serious at IDW, him acting excited and happy isn't bad either. He's healing from multiple broken futures

Silver and Blaze are better staying out as platonic. If Sonic and Shadow's tanabata references can be seen as platonic, then those two can two. That said, their relationship should still be seen as meaningful to both of them (perhaps more to Silver than to Blaze). Male and female friendships exist without it being instantly romantic

MORE. UNSEEN. CHARACTER. INTERACTIONS. PLEASE

Sonic Shuffle shouldn't be shafted just because of the weird gameplay and human-like characters. The Maginaryworld characters should make a comeback (ESPECIALLY with to the implications of the angel statue in Sonic CD's Wacky Workbench)

We need more truly irredeemable female villains (Surge doesn't count, I'm talking about characters like Witchcart, Lien-Da, Thunderbolt)

For the love of God, Sega. Bring Classic characters back

If you can give personality to Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic II, you can give to the other robots (and no, making Tails Doll an eldritch horror doesn't count)

Hyper Sonic should come back. Maybe even make it the "third stage" to the Super Sonic and Super Sonic 2 duo

As good and amazing as Amy's everything was in Sonic the Comic, that shouldn't be the blueprint of her canon character. At max bring back her crossbow (and her girlfriend)

Tails Adventure is better taking place before Sonic and Tails meeting. If he was confident enough to follow Sonic and help him defeat Eggman's ass he should be confident enough to abolish the monarchy (last part is /hj lmao)

Tails Adventure mentioned, the Kukku Empire should make a comeback too. If Shadow can come back the Kukkus can. They weren't cntrl+alt+del from existence like Mephiles was y'know

We don't want to see the classic universe. We want to see classic CHARACTERS

Sega. Hey Sega. Sega. Are you hearing me. Sega. Bring classic characters back Sega. Sega-

Post-genesis wave Archie character designs sucks ass. The color palettes make it worst (Antoine I'm looking directly at you)

[mariacallous]

“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” Ukrainian general Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted late last year. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

That blunt assessment from the Ukrainian commander in chief, made in a November interview with The Economist, prompted waves of enormous pessimism. Headlines around the world seized on the idea that the war had essentially ended. Ukraine had fought valiantly—and lost.

Politicians in the West, particularly Republicans in the United States Congress, declared that it was time to stop supplying Kyiv and push for major concessions to Moscow.

The general’s actual point, however, wasn’t quite so fatalistic. In an accompanying nine-page essay, published in the British magazine, Zaluzhnyi doesn’t use the word “stalemate.” Instead, he called the war “positional,” with both sides trading just tiny slivers of land. Critically, however, he said Ukraine can still win. But it will mean, he wrote, “searching for new and non-trivial approaches to break military parity with the enemy.”

Technological innovation, more modern equipment, and changes in strategy could still turn the tide of this war, Zaluzhnyi argued. He laid out five areas where progress could mean overcoming their Russian opponent: achieving air superiority, improving mine clearing, expanding counterbattery, recruiting more soldiers, and advancing electronic warfare.

To achieve those goals, he wrote, Ukraine needs a once-in-a-century technological breakthrough.

“The simple fact is that we see everything the enemy is doing and they see everything we are doing,” Zaluzhnyi writes. “In order for us to break this deadlock we need something new, like the gunpowder, which the Chinese invented and which we are still using to kill each other.”

In recent months, WIRED has spoken to a host of NATO leaders and military analysts, as well as Ukrainian officials, regarding the future of the war. The consensus is clear: There is no silver bullet Ukraine can develop that will win this war. But there is agreement that Ukraine can and must innovate if it hopes to overcome its better-resourced and dug-in enemy.

“The thing that will break the logjam will be the right combination of new ideas, new organizations, and new technologies,” Mick Ryan, a 35-year veteran of the Australian Army who writes extensively on the future of war, tells WIRED. “It's really about how you combine that trinity of ideas, technology, and organizations into something new.”

Ukraine has already changed the future of warfare. Its use of aerial drones has revolutionized combat. It has developed and deployed the world’s first tactical naval drone. It jury-rigged a remarkably effective air defense system. It is leveraging artificial intelligence to conduct high-precision missile and drone strikes. It has consistently bested Moscow in the cyber and information spaces. If it can scale any of these technologies, or come up with new ones, it has a fighting chance to actually win.

Zaluzhnyi has sketched out the breakthroughs Ukraine will need to win this war. If it can do that, it may also change the future of conflict forever.

Embracing Positional Warfare

In November 2022, just nine months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zaluzhnyi triumphantly declared that Ukraine had liberated a huge swath of territory in Ukraine’s southeast. Months prior, Kyiv had liberated Kharkiv, its second-largest city, and was continuing to push the Russian invaders back. Now, in a surprise move, it was on track to liberate Kherson.

The speedy attacks caught Russia by surprise and prompted its extraordinary withdrawal across huge swaths of Ukrainian territory.

That run of victories, made possible by new weapon systems delivered by Ukraine’s NATO allies and its own creative use of technology, drove sky-high expectations ahead of Kyiv’s 2023 summer counteroffensive. Western media anticipated that Ukraine would break through Russian lines with similar ease and speed.

Ukraine’s drive to regain more territory, however, crashed into dense and well-fortified Russian defensive lines, descending into the positional warfare that Zaluzhnyi describes. Ukraine inched forward in some areas and retreated elsewhere. Moscow had, apparently, learned from its mistakes.

“The Russian military is often underestimated in terms of its propensity to learn and apply lessons on the battlefield,” Karolina Hird, an analyst for the Institute for the Study of War and the deputy team lead for their Russia desk, tells WIRED. Russia had swapped in new, rested units; fortified complex layers of trench lines; and laid 15 to 20 kilometers of minefields through Ukrainian territory. They named this formidable defensive network for the since-ousted commander of the war effort: the Surovikin Line.

This new “active defense,” as Hird describes it, is a fairly traditional set of defensive tactics. Even with advanced Western artillery and counterbattery, and advanced tank systems, Ukrainian soldiers simply couldn’t advance without facing constant shelling and dense minefields.

“The Ukrainians didn't necessarily have the equipment or the type of trained brigades to break through that incredibly soundly arrayed defense and overcome Russians—that were defending in a doctrinally consistent and, actually, quite sound way,” Hird says.

The failure to advance has prompted a tactical shift from Kyiv. During one of his nightly addresses in early December, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said it was imperative that Ukraine beef up its own defensive lines. It was a recognition that the front lines had, for the time being, frozen.

While some interpreted this development as a sign that the war is all but over, Ryan, the Australian Army veteran, says it’s a prime opportunity for Ukraine to refresh its strategy.

“Maybe Ukraine should embrace positional warfare for the time being,” he says. “Maybe that is the way it reconstitutes, regains its strength, and thinks through the problems that it has—from the tactical through to the strategic level.”

It’s a strategy that has already shown some dividends, Hird says. “Ukraine is very much preparing defensive positions, letting Russians run themselves against those defensive positions.” Ukraine estimates that Russia has lost more than 400 tanks, 500 artillery systems, and 30,000 soldiers in December alone.

“Whenever Ukraine feels that they have the equipment they need, the support they need … and the initiative shifts to their side, they can use those defensive positions as springboards,” Hird adds.

While a slowdown in fighting may benefit Ukraine, it helps Russia as well. It is now a race against the clock to plan how Ukraine may launch another counteroffensive that can breach the Surovikin Line.

Enough to Win

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Kyiv has received tens of billions of dollars in military aid, including a raft of advanced equipment. But Ukraine’s position has also been, as Zelensky put it recently, that the aid was “not enough to win.” (But, he added, “we are thankful it was enough to defend.”)

Fearful of Russia’s “red lines,” the United States has consistently slow-rolled or withheld key technology that could help Ukraine’s advance. Meanwhile, Zaluzhnyi wrote in The Economist, Russia “retains and is able to maintain a superiority in weapons and equipment, missiles and ammunition.” What’s more, Moscow’s defense industry is ramping up production of the ammunition and gear necessary for its continued assault on Ukraine.

“We know that with continued US support, continued Western support, that likely would be the final push that Ukraine needs to liberate its own territories,” Hird says. “But political considerations, financial considerations, defense and industrial base blocks, that sort of thing, really inhibit our ability to bring that to bear. And that's very much what Russians are counting on.”

A particular problem has been Russian artillery.

Ahead of Ukraine’s 2022 counteroffensive, the country received shipments of the American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). Those systems, particularly when fitted with medium-range missiles and aided by counterbattery radar, were able to quickly move and target advanced Russian systems well behind the front lines, clearing the way for Ukrainian forces to advance freely across the battlefield. But novel technology became routine fairly quickly in battle. “Russians have very much learned how to target HIMARS,” Hird says. “So Ukrainians can’t use them to the same effect.”

“Now, at each step of the way, the Russians are interfering with you, right?” Ryan says. “They're doing camouflage for their locations. They move things more frequently, now, than they used to. They attack counterbattery radars and other detection systems with loitering drones. And they are denying the use of precision munitions, in large parts of the battlefield, through the use of electronic warfare.”

To overcome this problem, Ryan says, Ukraine needs to close the “detection to destruction gap.” Ukrainian forces need to be able to avoid detection and to be mobile enough to evacuate in a matter of minutes if they are picked up by Russian radar or drone surveillance—while, at the same time, detecting Russian positions and attacking before they can escape. The gap, he says, has shortened from about 10 minutes from detection to destruction to just two or three minutes.

“It’s a complex set of problems, but it’s a known set of problems,” Ryan says. He believes it will require some heavy lifting from NATO’s research capabilities to solve them.

There’s also a question of scale. Since Ukraine managed to destroy some of Russia’s advanced and expensive artillery system, Moscow has deployed a huge number of its older systems, opting for brute force instead of nimble targeting. Russia has achieved parity not through technology, but through volume.

According to leaked Pentagon documents, as of early 2023, Russia owned nearly 5,000 artillery systems—of which only about 20 percent had been destroyed. Ukraine, by contrast, has received, at most, a few dozen HIMARS systems. Even if the missile system is less effective than it was in 2022, a greater quantity would undoubtedly give Ukraine an edge. That’s also true for the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which Ukraine began receiving late last year. A group of pro-Ukrainian Republican lawmakers decried that weapon transfer as a “job half-done,” as they arrived in small quantities and equipped for only some of their intended capabilities.

“All these innovations—at the end of the day, it’s about scale,” Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s minister of defense, tells WIRED. “If you don’t have the innovations which can be produced in such quantities that will change the course of the war, it means that they still have to rely on the existing methods and existing weapons systems.”

There is some optimism that new weapons deliveries could tilt the balance more in Ukraine’s favor, particularly the Dutch-supplied, American-made F-16 fighter jets and the Abrams M1 tank. Ukrainian soldiers are training on both platforms now.

“Mr. Putin is going to find out that there’s a whole lot of weapons systems coming on board that he is not going to be able to respond to,” US senator Mike Rounds, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, tells WIRED. “And it’s going to give Ukraine the opportunity to continue to advance and take back the land that is theirs.”

Throughout the war, more and more advanced missiles and launchers have enabled Ukraine to strike deeper and deeper into Russian-held territory. Now, Ukraine has successfully managed to attack supply routes as far as the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to Russia, and Belgorod within Russia proper.

But Kyiv wants to reach even further into Russian territory, stepping up its tactical strike campaign to attack Russian ships, airfields, supply depots, and command centers that are currently out of reach. If Ukraine can destroy Russian warehouses and stockpiles near the front lines, and increase the distance its trucks must travel to resupply its positions, it could negate the effect of Russia’s overwhelming artillery.

But Ukraine still lacks several types of those longer-range missiles and has relatively low quantities of the munitions it has received. “We’re probably not going as fast as a lot of us would like,” Rounds told reporters at the Halifax Security Forum in November.

More HIMARS and long-range munitions are critical in overcoming that parity, but they will be meaningless if Ukraine runs out of more basic ammunition. “It's not just a matter of providing some of the new technologies,” Rounds said. “It's a matter of making sure that they actually have the other resources that they need to make it through the winter time.”

In recent weeks, Ukraine has had to ration its 155-mm caliber artillery shells due to shortages. Various NATO countries have tapped into their stockpiles to provide those shells over the past year, and are now scrambling to boost domestic production. Bill Blair, Canada’s defense minister, admitted in November that there are “shortfalls” in that production capacity. “We need to see the same type of investment and progress in increasing production here in North America and in Europe,” Blair said.

Ramping up that production in NATO countries could take a year or more. Zaluzhnyi wrote that Ukraine needs to produce this equipment, and even more advanced weaponry, itself.

Some of this is already happening. Ukraine’s defense industry is being “overhauled for innovation,” Hird says. A prime example is Kyiv’s Seababy naval drones, which were developed inside Ukraine and have managed to deliver devastating damage to Russia’s Black Sea fleet. But the volume of output will need to increase drastically.

So as Ukraine tries to boost production at home, it is fighting a three-front war: one on the front lines; another deep inside its occupied territory and even in Russia itself, where warehouses and stockpiles sit; and a third in the information space, worldwide, in trying to convince its allies to continue and boost their support.

Fortifying its defenses will buy Ukraine time to come up with new strategies and test out new technologies—but it should also be an invitation to rethink its “strategic influence narratives,” Ryan says. That is, convincing NATO to not just maintain its support, but increase it.

That also means fighting back against Russian propaganda. Last month, the BBC and the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank, uncovered a massive Russian disinformation campaign on TikTok, designed to discredit Ukrainian officials using narratives tailor-made for Western audiences. It is just one skirmish in a broader information war, where Ukraine is losing ground.

While Kyiv has its supporters, like Rounds, Blair, and Pevkur, it also has new opponents. Mike Johnson, the recently elected speaker of the US House of Representatives, has held up billions in military aid. Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, has similarly frustrated support from within the European Union. Big wins for pro-Russian politicians, from Geert Wilders in the Netherlands to Robert Fico in Slovakia, could threaten future aid packages.

Information Superiority

An “essential” part of breaking out of this position warfare, Zaluzhnyi wrote, is obtaining “information superiority.” Understanding the battlefield better than the enemy.

It may seem counterintuitive. This is a conflict where, as Hird puts it, “everyone knows what everyone’s doing at all times.” The war in Ukraine is probably the most visible conflict in human history: Both sides have employed a suite of drones, radar, aircraft, and satellite to chart every inch of the conflict. But, as Ryan explains, an aerial view is only a piece of the picture.

“We confuse increased transparency with increased wisdom,” he says. “And they’re two very different things.”

Military planners often talk about ISR: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. (Sometimes the acronym is expanded to include target acquisition.) Certainly, Ukraine has managed to do incredible reconnaissance, particularly thanks to its fleet of drones, which it has integrated tightly into its ground operations. But it can do more, Ryan says. Russia’s ability to quickly move and deploy its reserve units has previously caught Ukraine by surprise, he notes.

Figuring out how to not just improve its intelligence collection, but make it more accessible, will also be key.

Last fall, Luxembourg and Estonia launched a new IT coalition, with an eye to connect the private sector to the Ukrainian military. “The coalition, of course, will not change the course of the war immediately,” Pevkur says. “But it’s just one piece of the puzzle to find the solutions.”

“We’ve sent some software to them to help shape the battlefield,” Pevkur says. He says they’ve already received “good feedback.”

One such piece of software is SensusQ, an Estonian AI-powered platform that mixes real-time footage with a variety of other inputs, from social media updates to human intelligence. The company says its platform is already in use in multiple places across Ukraine.

Kyiv has also used software developed by tech giant Palantir to conduct target acquisition, deploying AI and facial recognition technology to identify Russian positions. While Palantir has not revealed exactly which capabilities it is providing to Ukraine, the company recently unveiled “a ChatGPT-style digital assistant that enables operators to efficiently deploy reconnaissance drones, devise tactical responses, and orchestrate enemy communication jamming,” as the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology described it last June.

Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, told a US Senate committee last year that Ukraine’s ability to integrate new technology into its military, particularly AI, has seen the timeline from procurement to implementation trimmed “from years and months to weeks and days.”

What makes this innovation particularly remarkable is how widespread it has already become.

“I think the Ukrainians are well down this path to what I call the democratization of digital command and control,” Ryan says. “They have pushed down digital command and control, the access to information, on smart devices in a way no other military has really done.”

Decentralizing intelligence collection and distribution means units are armed with much more information on the front lines, and are more equipped to make decisions on the fly instead of being reliant on senior commanders. Ryan says it will be crucial to push that information further down, and more quickly—but it will also be necessary to improve the flow of information upward.

“The Ukrainians are pretty good at bottom-up adaptation,” Ryan says. But they need to be able to apply battlefield lessons quickly, in a systematic way. “It’s been improving, certainly, since my first visit—and I’ve had some pretty long conversations about it on my last one, about six weeks ago. But I think that systemic learning culture is something that they need to continue improving because the Russians aren’t very good with bottom-up innovation.”

Given the speed at which Ukraine is learning and adapting, it will also require that its NATO partners be willing to adapt at the same speed. Pevkur insists they are already well on their way. “So that means that when they have the weapon system and they use it, we will get some feedback, we will change it,” he says.

Prior to last summer’s counteroffensive, American military planners held a series of tabletop exercises with their Ukrainian counterparts to game out how the fighting could play out. Ryan says that kind of collaboration needs to be broader and deeper, geared to win the war, not just individual battles.

“We can be their strap-on brain,” Ryan says. “We can work through the theories that might help with more effective offensive operations in this scenario. I mean, NATO has hundreds of people who are military planners and can help do this.”

What Comes Next

In the coming months, Ukraine and Russia are likely to opt for missile and drone strikes instead of big ground operations, as winter sets in and they work to refresh their ground forces.

If last year was any indication, Moscow will spend early 2024 expanding its defensive lines and deploying a huge amount of hardware to the battlefield, new and old—mines, artillery systems, fighter jets, and missile launchers.

If Ukraine hopes to advance this year, it will likely need to discover its own equivalent of gunpowder. That may come in the form of uncrewed land vehicles, which could crash through Russian lines and clear the dense minefields in its way. Or, perhaps, Ukraine will finally find a way to network its drone fleets and attain air superiority over its skies. Maybe it will achieve a breakthrough in electronic warfare, devising a way to jam Russia’s systems and neutralize its missiles and loitering munitions. Kyiv may receive the long-range missiles it has been requesting or begin producing its own. Perhaps it will be all of the above, or something else entirely.

But as Kyiv and its allies work feverishly to find that breakthrough, it will need to continue perfecting the tactics that have made it such a worthy adversary thus far. That will mean holding its international coalition together, making the most of its existing weapon systems, and figuring out how to adapt on the fly.

[undergroundbillions]

I went though the trouble of passing the whole thing through Google translate for the server, and i know this is far from perfect, but for now I'd like to introduce you all to my favorite Russian review of Rag Dolly by Таня КОТ.

"On May 22, 2017, the premiere of the play "Rag Doll" based on the play by American playwright William Gibson took place at the Chamber Theater. Participants of the magnificent action are the actors of the senior group of the theater studio "Green Cat". Artistic director - Kuryanova Elena. I must say that I saw a great many performances with the participation of children. But not all of them were for children. Probably, in our modern world, crammed with gadgets, crazy toys and wild entertainment, kids have nothing left to do but love what is presented to them. But there are kind, good fairy tales, instructive films and ... amazing performances, to which I attributed the "Rag Doll". This is the right children's performance, teaching justice, self-sacrifice, the ability to make friends. It would seem that you will not discover anything new in it, and the story is as old as the world - a dying girl, a father kissing a bottle, dolls that come to life exclusively at night. But after all, children are the same at all times: they believe in miracles, look at the world with wide eyes, sleep in an embrace with soft bears, dress up Malvin in formal clothes. And the deeply ill Marcella is no exception. Mad doctors gave her a myriad of diagnoses that contradict each other, prophesied a speedy death: "Fever!" "Cold!" "And fever!" "Nonsense! She has no temperature." "Forty degrees." But how can a young creature die, who never had time to live? Especially in a good children's play. A rag doll, which has no lungs or spine, but has a kind, warm heart, helps Marcella to fight a terrible illness, to believe in a successful outcome. Annie's comrades are just as fearless and wise, except that Andy let us down. He was afraid of the villain's threats. But the prospect of being baked with an apple in your mouth is by no means rosy.Is not it? Fearless friends go to the hospital to the puppet doctor, because only he can help the hopelessly ill Marcella. Reasonable Panda, charming Baby, unfortunate camel are also going on the road. And the benefit of the heroes is in a fairy-tale world, because only in it can the best means of transportation be ... a bed. How difficult it is to reach the goal when trouble lurks at every step. Formerly the beautiful Yum Yum bird, now a fearsome bat, the ferocious wolf was once Marcella's dog. And General W. is that other type from whom you can’t hide and you can’t run away. He dreams of kidnapping the beautiful Marcella. The place of his bride is vacant, but the fatal bat claims it. Such serious passions flared up on the stage. And our brave dolls continued on their way. A witch who wants to hang herself in splendid isolation, who in fact turned out to be Marcella's mother, a magic ring seized from the General, dances that can appease even the uneducated, a pseudo-fish floundering in the depths of the sea - these are the dreams of a little girl. Or is it not a dream at all? It is no longer clear where the dream is and where the harsh reality is. Only the hands of the clock move inexorably forward, and if the puppet doctor does not examine Marcella, she will die at exactly six o'clock. Of course, there can be no sad outcome in THIS story. The toys, lost on the road, met again and embraced each other. And the puppet doctor received Marcella. “She is not sick at all. It's just that her heart is broken,” he delivered a disappointing verdict. Is it possible to reanimate a heart, assemble it into pieces and make it beat joyfully again? “We all make mistakes, baby. You have to be able to forgive,” perhaps this is the secret to a happy and long life. It was through forgiveness that Marcella found peace… and felt better. And Annie sacrificed her heart, because she is a true friend: faithful, sincere and reliable. And besides, dolls do not die, which cannot be said about girls. The story ended, as expected, safely. I would like everything to end well in life, and the kids never get sick."

[fletchingsandstars]

Ok so @elioherondale tagged me in this challenge and here is what I’ve come up with.

We’re going to start off with the Green Arrow on going. The most important thing to me for a Green Arrow run is getting the family all together. Because canon has gotten so weird around the Arrowfam, I’m going to do what I want and say Mia, Connor, and Emi all already live with Ollie. Emi is still pretty new to this, but they’re all an established family. I think a great way to explore and re establish the Arrowfam’s dynamics would be to do it with the perspective of a new Arrowkid joining the family. Enter Cissie! Ollie and Cissie both find out that he is her dad, so Cissie is moving in. We get to see Cissie’s struggles with finding a place in her new family, as well as Ollie’s struggles to be the parent all of his kids need. I think adding Cissie as a new kid would give a good perspective for people who are new to Arrowfam comics to show the dynamics and personalities of the family.

The big thing I want to explore with Ollie specifically is his childhood. We don’t get a lot on Ollie’s childhood or even really anything before he became Green Arrow, so I want to explore more of his formative years. Since most of what we know about Ollie as a kid comes from when he bonding with his own children, I want to do a series of small arcs where he connects with each kid and we get to see flashbacks to Ollie’s childhood to see why he can relate to them (side note: might make this a fic series). I know none of this is centered around a typical superhero plot but Ollie’s at his best when the comics focus on him as a person not as a hero persona.

As for Roy’s run, he’s definitely going to be Red Arrow and he’s getting Lian back. I’m ignoring everything they’ve doing with “Shoes” because it’s stupid, it makes no sense with Jade’s character, and they also made Lian like 10-ish years younger than Roy in current canon. It’s bad. So instead, we’re going back to young Lian and Roy and Jade are working out co parenting. I also want to get Roy to bond with his siblings. We haven’t really gotten a lot of Roy interacting with his younger siblings so I think it would be fun. Also I want to do a storyline where Tim North comes back, possibly as a “villain” who is pretending to be Roy as Speedy.

For the third character, this will be very predictable for me. I want an Eddie Fyers mini. He just disappeared after Ollie came back from the dead, so I want to explore what happened with him. I think this would be really fun because over the span of GA 1988, we watch Eddie go from a little rat with no morals to actually considering why Ollie does the things he does and starting to think about his own actions, plus he spent a lot of time helping out Connor. I think it would be really fun to see what happens to my favorite CIA hit man after he quit and took care of his homoerotic rival’s kid for a while. I also think it could be fun to narrate the whole thing as letters to Connor in a parody of that period where Roy wrote letters to Lian in his head.

If the third one needs to be an ongoing, it should go to Shado or Jade. They both deserve their own ongoing that respects them and gives them more good characterization.

As for an event to tie it all together, all I can come up with is Hard Traveling Heroes but with Ollie and the kids instead of just Ollie and Hal (Hal will still have a part in it). There’s a lot you could do with a modern version of this story as long as Ollie is written in character, and I think it could be a really great bonding moment for the whole family. I also think it could be a good way for Cissie to discover that she can be a hero without living up to her mother’s expectations and would be a good way for her to take up the Arrowette mantle again, since she definitely will if she’s in comics again.

People are more than welcome to add on if you have ideas.

[dahliaduvide]

"His name is lost to history, but perhaps he wouldn’t mind. His motivation was a speedy payday, not posterity. A ballad that stirred the passions could sell for a penny. Sometimes he sold his work directly to the printshops, but he often took to the streets himself. He borrowed tunes from familiar songs, and had a talent for singing his work that helped him draw a crowd and sell his broadsides."

"Our modern notion of a songwriter would have been nonsensical to him, of course. His trade was partly creative, but his task was also to record and remember the familiar songs already sung, and re-shape them for new events and local happenings. He was a kind of tabloid journalist in his time. Today, we might think of him as a historian of oral traditions, a cataloger of folkways. But that’s not quite right. He was no mere archivist, no passive documentarian. He shaped and reshaped these traditions. Writing was an astonishing technology, and the reach of the printing press gave it newfound power. Oral traditions were chaotic, unfixed, unwieldy—stories forever in revision, never complete. Versions would branch without end, and older branches would be lost with time. How did the lyrics go? Well, that would depend. You could say a song existed in superposition, until someone sang it in their particular way."

"Though he would have been dismissed as a scabrous hack at the time, the ballad writer has such a knack for poetic and efficient depictions of monstrous violence that it can start to feel like he is an artist, or a proto-artist, who is governed by a bloodthirsty aesthetic. But the truth is, he may not be a single man—he may be a composite, his single authorship an anachronism. Or he may be merely a transcriber. The song’s structure and rhythm are so clean that it suggests a writer’s hand, but it could be that the story and its language were born entirely in song, from the community. Later, scholars would bicker over what counts as folk tradition, but a song’s evolutions in oral tradition and popular writing surely would have crossed back and forth countless times. The past is so foreign and strange that we should be left humble when we write our histories. Whether he is one writer, or several writers, or the people as a whole, the shape of his thoughts—his entire manner of thinking—is unreachable."

Excerpts.

Thoughts.

Truly a beautifully written article, and you should totally take the time to read the entire thing. He interweaves perspectives from performers, listeners, and even what the creators of these broadside murder ballads might have been like. Artful writing, hard thoughts, and self-examination.

This article really put into words a vital part of my vision for this project, creating modern murder ballads to draw attention to cases, raise awareness and hopefully get some justice for the Knoxville girls of today.

[freyalvyblog]

ms pacman and galaga arcade machine

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galaga arcade for sale | galaga ms pacman machine

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The Pinballspot ships worldwide. If you live abroad, you can get very cheap shipping costs from us.

Arcade cabinets ship from Fastenal to Fastenal outlets (where applicable) – There are nearly 5,000 outlets in the US and usually one will be nearby for easy pick up. If we choose this route, the machine will be at your place within 45 minutes for very easy pick-up. This shipping option is determined by city and state. (included in the price of the arcade)

carefully pack and secure the arcade cabinet on a pallet for shipment. If you plan to transport from Fastenal, the playroom can be placed on your back during transport. Please be safe and use a cart when transporting around the house.

WARRANTY Comes with a 12 month warranty on all electronics. We build every game room with new electronics. The warranty does not cover misuse of any kind or if installed in a company location. We have fully trained staff who can answer all your questions over the phone. Technical support is available throughout the life of the machine

Please call us and contact Livechat support if you have any questions about this game.

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