#also ignore the weird change in comic formatting

[isekaisaskblog]

Ive finally decided to make an askblog for isekai!!! Please send asks so we can find out whats happening to isekai

@mommyclan

[lucabyte]

A belief in Nominative Determinsim

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

What I think is annoying with how critics are handled in universe they are painted as straw men, and that is SO bad when you are trying to prove your point in an argument. Instead of trying to see the other side, and look at your OWN argument with a critical eye, and trying to see the other side's point. Or they get "called out" for what they're doing or it's a comedic moment. Like, Monoma could have been an excellent character. Monoma calling out 1A's shit, and getting them to rethink their stances is an interesting idea. Like, what if one of them has a not so great moral idea, and Monoma calls that out. He can still act weird, but just to paint Monoma as basically 1B's strawman against Bakugo critics and just dumbshit he sees around him is just wow. Like when Kendo was telling Dekusquad a vantage point that 1B could have used to one up 1A, dude was literally right???????????????????? It's like those fan comics of character A defending character B while the one in the wrong is portrayed via a speech bubble or gray humanoid thing. But it's just in canon format. God, it's so annoying. Why do people only get called out via characters Horikoshi likes?

Oh 100% agree with this. Rather than actually try to engage with the arguments/criticisms the other side has, he loves painting them as straw-men and belittling them.

One big example is that furry fat cat guy who mentions that it’s over for Endeavor when Dabi revealed what he’s done. The dude’s drawn to be such a caricature of a stereotypical loser that we’re not supposed to take what he says seriously.

Neito’s another example. When he criticizes Katsuki he’s always painted in such an exaggerated light when doing so to the point no one’s supposed to take him seriously, and is always proven to be “wrong” despite being right in his dislike for Katsuki.

The journalists and civilians who criticize the heroes and U.A are seen as pests, vultures, ignorant, and people who believe/dish out straw-man accusations. As a journalist, this offends me. Yeah, there are journalists/companies that are vultures looking to push one side of the story, but to treat a profession that’s not only saved lives but uncovered corruption with such sustain makes the “good guy” look worse in comparison. In addition, despite Hori trying to paint them as in the wrong, all these journalists were asking the right questions and all the civilians had very rational thoughts about the heroes who’ve failed them. Rather than acknowledge these points, Hori has Shota or whoever’s his mouthpiece of the chapter make them look like idiots… even though it backfires and anyone with half a braincell can tell Hori’s arguments collapse when even slightly challenged.

When Rikido and Fumikage harp on Katsuki for not changing, it’s treated as a “haha funny” moment rather than an actual callout.

The prison guard who questions AFO about something and tells the man to actually give him an answer instead of the typical “AFO knows everything” is also treated as a gag despite that being a good criticism of AFO as a villain.

In conclusion, rather than meaningfully engaging with the arguments against his themes and story, Hori relies on painting critics as straw-men and cartoonishly stupid people to make a point. This would be fine if he was pointing out how dumb racists are or something along those lines, but when trying to convince us that the your side is right, this strat fails spectacularly against anyone with somewhat of a brain.

[tailsrevane]

[comic review] avatar: the high ground (2022)

writer: sherri l. smith artists: various

it’s weird that i keep having to talk about star wars in my avatar reviews, but there are a lot of truly bizarre connections between the two considering i don’t think there’s any real cross-pollination between them aside from disney having a stake in both of them? but, yeah.

a lot of star wars fans are probably familiar with the story of splinter of the mind’s eye. this was a novel by alan dean foster (the ghostwriter of the first film’s novelization) that george lucas commissioned as a book that could be easily adapted into a low-budget sequel for star wars if the first movie didn’t make enough money to finance a sequel. of course, that was before the first movie totally redefined expectations for a summer blockbuster, so foster’s novel ended up not being needed for its original purpose, and it just sort of existed as a kind of awkward entry in the canon of the eu until disney nuked it. dark horse did a comic adaptation of the novel in the 90s with some of that gorgeous coverart that the dark horse star wars comics always had, which is the way i found out about it.

avatar: the high ground, on the other hand, was james cameron’s first pass at an avatar sequel script. it doesn’t appear that cameron altered the trajectory of the sequel for budgetary reasons, but rather due to a combination of just deciding to break the story differently and possibly technological breakthroughs in convincing underwater cgi? regardless, rather than wasting his first script idea, a decision was made to adapt it into a series of three hardcover graphic novels.

the resulting comis are… honestly not great, immo? i’d actually say this is my least favorite avatar comic i’ve read so far. like, even adapt or die which wasn’t great at least felt like it was something different? this felt like “avatar 2, but worse.” and repurposing it as a prequel is also kind of fraught because they obviously had a lot of the same storytelling goals in this version of the sequel so you end up with weird stuff like jake & meytiri’s kids running through what should’ve been their parents’ entire budget of “telling them to stay & wait in a place, them not listening & getting kidnapped” patience before the first movie? like, when the kids first get captured by blue!quatritch in the sequel, it’s this big shocking moment, but imagine if they had just been kidnapped & daringly rescued, like, last week? it would totally change how that would feel, right? there’s a very real feeling in the movie that this is the first time their innocence has been challenged like this.

… come to think of it, that’s actually another parallel with splinter of the mind’s eye? because towards the end of that book, luke has a lightsaber fight with darth vader, and when splinter of the mind’s eye was still considered canon that just made it really awkward that their confrontation in the empire strikes back was clearly supposed to be the first of its kind? i think this comic is just avatar’s splinter of the mind’s eye. i think it’s best to just pretend it doesn’t exist, because it’s definitely not going to impact the movies–i mean, no one’s really thinking “this is awkward becasue splinter of the mind’s eye got there first” when they watch empire, right? but it just makes the high ground pretty unsatisfying at the end of the day.

even ignoring those sorts of issues, it’s also just super obvious that this story wasn’t intended for a comic book format? it’s just a series of honestly pretty flat action scenes that don’t really translate all that well on the page. and it isn’t helped by the fact that the art, while pretty enough to look at, doesn’t actually do a great job of conveying the action in a way that’s painless to follow? it’s sometimes hard to tell characters apart except for in extreme closeup. so yeah, on the whole, really not a huge fan of this one, unfortunately.

c-rank

[bedsheetghost413]

Ghost rants about Mariko Tamaki's "Skim."

Honestly, the Mariko Tamaki hate is kinda deserved because "I am Not Starfire" is a shitty self insert, and "Skim" has a literal teacher-student romance that isn't ever shown as really bad or illegal. But I think people ignore her other work that is actually kinda good. I grew up reading her comics in middle school, and they felt important and like they had something profound to say. Probably because I was a gay tween trying to figure out myself, but it still shows that they still had an effect on me. Particularly "This One Summer" and "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me."

It's also kinda weird how the only people I've seen actually review her work are "comics/media is getting too woke now!!1!1!!!11" types. Like, it feels like they're just hating on her without trying to understand why certain artistic choices were made or if there was any meaning behind a character's actions. I remember that the art teacher did tell Skim she wanted to end things, idk if it was when Skim came to her house after she left the school or another thing, but every review I've seen skips over that. I feel like with the inclusion of that part, the story becomes more of a "teacher takes advantage of a student who feels lonely and isolated, feels guilty and bad about it, student still doesn't understand because she isn't mature enough to realize what happened was wrong" story. The art teacher feeling bad doesn't do anything to make the situation better or absolve her of her actions. She was the adult, and she should have kept things professional and legal. But it changes how the reader can interpret the story. I still don't understand why it was included, though. It could've just been a "gets a first girlfriend and then she breaks up with me for no reason" romance instead, maybe even make the girlfriend her friend's older sister (but still within an acceptable age range) to imply that the girlfriend broke up with Skim because she felt bad about dating her little sister's friend.

I always thought of "Skim" as being about a high school girl who's angsty and shitty. We're getting a small glimpse of her life and what happens in that time frame. We see how there's a tragedy at her school that she sees the response to as being "over dramatic." Which is ironic because Skim herself is just as dramatic, not how she thinks her classmates are being, but in the way a kid on a TV show goes through an edgy phase. I think people forget that a protagonist can be an asshole because that's another complaint I see brought up all the time. Skim is an ass. You don't have to like her, she doesn't care if you do, but she also does because she wants to be liked. She's a teenager, anyone who's recently been a teen, one that was an outcast like Skim and had an edgy phase, can relate to that. You want to be cool, but not like the popular kids are cool, so you go too far in the other direction, and you feel like everyone else doesn't like you, so now you feel like an outcast.

Another thing I don't get people complaining about is the diary format and how it's "too disjointed." It's a diary. Is it supposed to be like reading a day by day basis of what happened and how and where and when? No! A diary is meant to be a collection of thoughts, feelings, and other shit you want to get off your chest. Does it always work? No. Does it mean it's a bad format? No. I feel like it fits with what "Skim" is going for. It just may not have been executed well.

I think I might re-read all the books of hers I read as a kid to see if they still hold up as much as I felt they did. It's been a good few years since I've read any of Mariko Tamaki's books, so maybe I'll interpret things differently now. I based all of the above on what I remember thinking and how I interpreted the book when I read it in middle school.

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

I saw your SCP-682 comics (among many other masterpieces) and i just gotta ask- SCP-5000 reveals why 682 finds humanity so disgusting, so I'm wondering if -B also noticed *that* and how'd they take it

Very good question. There's some kinda... weird aspects of SCP-5000, and implications made by project Dammerung-related stuff, but I fully confess I mostly understand it second-hand from voice-over work from the likes of the Exploring Series, and SCP Explained.

Gonna ramble a long while about my own headcanons, and finally what Styx would likely think; in brief, he sees "It" as mostly just a benign tumor.

If anyone is unfamiliar with any of this, please scroll on by. This is long, and requires knowledge of SCP-5000 and SCP-2718 for context.

What I gathered though is that "It" is why humans feel pain, and that if the afterlife is just being a self-aware corpse as O5-11 described, feeling constant pain "feeds" "It". Hence, "You're not supposed to feel pain". Cure yourself of "It", and you'll get to not feel empathy, or pain, and die without issue.

A lot of the story is left up to interpretation, but it's presented as a nightmare scenario in the most literal sense, where the idea is scary enough to make you want to suspend your disbelief so that it has full effect. There's weird... holes to it, though.

When properly examined, "It" is something that exists in the collective unconscious of humans, but... animals feel pain. Animals feel empathy, at least in some capacity. It's a practical chemical reaction and instinct-complex to strengthen pack bonds.

I have to assume SCP-5000's canon isn't "materialist", as in, humans aren't just neuron-signals in meatsuits and nothing more. In that case, the "Individual consciousness" is implied to be sacrosanct, and anything else exploiting the "Individual" is a malicious, unjust force. There's a strong objectivist/individualist moral implication about SCP-5000, which already by default doesn't sit so right with me, as "no man is an island"; no matter how much you want to act like a unique individual, there are natural beliefs every individual will latch onto, such that the formation of a collective unconscious is just inevitable, and therefore the formation of "It".

I think beings like canon 682 see this as an inherent moral evil, and rationalize this evil as suffering, as from an empathy-less perspective, the individual is always supreme, so anything that subverts the individual is "disgusting". Even still, if the Foundation is trying to do humans a favor, what is the motivation? Just that the wailing of humanity is disgusting to them, and they'd like it to be silenced? That doesn't really justify anything short of a clean scorching of the earth, rather than the bizarrely sadistic approach taken by the Foundation in SCP-5000. If SCP-2718 only works via "It's" influence, then taking the inefficient, weird sadistic approach to exterminate humanity implies a motivation on their part that doesn't stem from empathy (that they aren't supposed to have) or logical self-interest (that they'd supposedly be left with). If all humans were wiped out, there'd be nothing for "It" to feed off of, and it's not a stretch to assume the Foundation could've done way more efficiently than they did.

All information we get as justification for wiping out humanity from the changed-Foundation's and 682's perspective is already biased, and riddled with logical inconsistencies that only more inconsistent conjecture can explain. Supposedly, "It" is such a threat that wiping out humanity is the more humane alternative, but with this information and these deductions, I feel that you can't really rationalize that or ignore some clear bias the heartless Foundation has.

So to finally answer your question: Ideally I'd rather just assume in my canon that the entity doesn't exist, but if it were to, SCP-682-B/Styx Nacht II would figure that "It" is not something separate from humanity, nor is it the same as humanity itself. "It" is "civilization" and "society", something that inevitably manifests in the unconscious of any species that becomes developed enough. Society isn't "good" or "evil", but the purpose of empathy is to keep the bindings of "society" strong.

So in his opinion, the ideal is to neither fear "It", nor believe "It" to be "supreme" over your own self. Hold this belief, and your afterlife will be fine, and the entity can't exploit you. Completely shackling yourself to empathy will make you suffer, but you'll still suffer if you try "hardening your hearts". The answer lies in the middle. "Suffering" is inevitable, even without "pain". Killing the entity doesn't solve that, and something else would take its place anyway. This is what he'd understand, and that normal 682 wouldn't.

I like SCP-5000 for the sprawling horrific scenario it is, but on a logical level, even with Foundation-canon weirdness, it kinda just comes across as a biblical apocalypse story written by an objectivist having a nightmare.

Hopefully I.. sort of explained myself, and didn't write something totally incoherent.

[the-blank-crossing-os]

BIG SUMMARY POST I GUESS

The Blank Crossing: the name of the series, since they all take place in the same universe. Has a lot of lore about its inhabitants and the supernatural forces holding it together. It's more named after the limbo between the afterlives tho, since the shows focus on it a lot.

Object Obstacle Course (OOC): The planned-to-be first installment of the series. It's a simpler, more traditional show in its viewer-voting format, but its challenges will be formatted differently, being obstacle courses combined with side challenges that must be completed DURING the courses. The cast consists of 10 contestants and one ever-so-weird otherworldly host... A cat. There will be plenty of hints to the other shows and the lore.

Reflection In Pieces (RIP): Set at least 18 years after OOC2, this non-competition show stars a young protagonist who just recently and suddenly died, and they aren't at all accepting this fact yet. The show will follow them and the Hallway Managers of TBC as they go on a journey to help them move on from their own interpersonal dramas, while also learning about themself. There will be 5 major characters and many sides and minor characters.

Bloodbath For Recovery Center (BBFRC): Set 21 years before OOC, this show is regarded as the show that went into history forever for changing reality show laws for good. A regular citizen, who was bored of how samey reality shows are at the time and is a really big fan of The Hunger Games, decided to start a show that caters to HER specifically, with somehow-gained spectacular equipments and a lot of lying. 30 contestants willingly signed up, for the prize is too valuable for any of them to ignore, and they soon realize that the situation is much more sinister than they thought... Canonically, 6 survived the game, with one being revived later on due to specific circumstances.

Medieval Objects Venture Elsewhere (MOVE): Set sometimes during or after OOC, it's basically the ooc contestants playing an abridged fairytale (basically, they recreate fairytales, with some changes to the stories in the way they want it) version of DND. Will probably be in animated comic format.

Flat Objects Event (FOE): Taking place in the realm of Eternal Peace (the afterlife basically), it's basically a joke show about flat fuck friday, where the contestants do whatever and the viewers vote on who's the best flat object. Set ? years after RIP.

Scientifically Godly Disasters (SGD): A side character we will see time to time tries again to mix all of the godly marks into a concoction, and this time, she drinks it and starts to gain powers. She announces the project's success to the other scientists, and exactly one of them is skeptical of it. He decided to set up a plan to stop her, fearing for the worst. Set ? years after FOE

(Will be updated sometimes)

[venusmages]

i really dont get the weird assumption that’s still super prevalent that comics are less intellectual or gripping than novels and this is coming from someone who reads more books than she does comics (though i want to change that)

ignoring the fact that learning how to make art that matches the story and how some of the BEST modern illustrators are comic/manga artists; the sheer technical aspect of it is like actually insane

you have to draw. a lot of pictures. in a row. and it has to look good (or at least readable). You also have to follow a lot of unspoken rules so the READER can understand what you’re trying to convey. then, sometimes you have to be the WRITER on top of all that. THEN you have to figure a way out to format the dang thing and make sure that the pacing is correct and that you can establish your atmosphere because PACING in comics is even more important i’d argue than pacing in a text-only novel.

You take in images faster, which means the comic artist has to make sure panels and color and composition all flow in a way that doesn’t feel too fast or too slow or skip over a big emotional moment. as someone whos finally trying to draw comics thats HARD!!!!!! EXTREMELY HARD!!!! and if someone is too stubborn to respect the artistry that goes into comic making then please slap them with a copy of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and do us all a favor ldfmlg

[czechforrain]

Caught up to the RWBY manga...and I’ve got opinions

CW / TW : Some discussions of implied sexual assault. 

Spoilers up to Ch 18 of the RWBY Manga and Vol 2 of the series TV show. 

So last time I commented on the manga I was just past the white fang thing with blake and I responded idk interested in how the manga took it’s approach with it. I wouldnt say positive but curious about it in a harmless way. 

THINGS REALLY FELL OFF THE RAILS. 

The manga basically speeds through the rest of volume two leaving behind major scenes and shortening the rest to where the impact of them is almost completely diminished. There are also some character differences that bear out due to the author giving people more or less focus.

The biggest changes are with Yang and Blake’s relationship. Now even if you dont like BEES, the formation of their friendship is a vital part of the show. Someone can read everything as “just friends” but them having a close relationship is inarguable. The moment where Yang confronts Blake on her single minded focus to find Roman / Adam and the White fang is this crucial moment where Yang gets through to Blake, shares her backstory and establishes a bond between them. 

It’s nowhere in the manga. IT WAS CUT. 

And it’s such a shame because up to this point you could have mis-characterized Yang as the dumb party blonde stereotype that even she would play up in the early season where it’s apparent that she’s someone who is sharp, focused and can read into people pretty well. She recognizes Blake’s anger and tells her that it isn’t wrong for her to want Justice but if she doesn’t take care of her self shell never be able to achieve it. 

Oh some other cuts. RAVEN. Just never showed up because they didn’t even fight on the train. They just kind of got to the point of train impact without facing that much obstacles before all the Grimm attacked. 

It’s really frustrating because 

1. That was an S tier Fight. 

2. It did a great job at pointing out what Yang’s weaknesses were. 

3. Introduced Raven as someone super important and powerful. 

For some reason they still have Banesaw around and he fights Blake later. It actually makes more sense he’d fight Blake than Weiss narrative-wise but that’s besides the point, it’s just kind of weird he’d just be there anyways since he wasn’t a big shot or anything. 

Oh and STRQ isnt mentioned at all. 

Ok now that we are talking about the Villains. 

Roman is weird, in the show’s he’s this dashing suave dude who’s like “ah there you are red, you’re too late hahaha” *dips but in the comic he’s got this weirdly sadistic side almost like he’s being built up to be more of a threat than what he was and a more unhinged person. He threatens murder directly a lot more and one time I even thought he threatened Neo but the paneling was just weird and he’s talking to Banesaw. Either way it seems like he’s less kind to Neo in general and since that’s literally the only person he seemed to get along with in the show that makes me care less about him besides “ 100% evil sunday morning cartoon villain” I’ll take my “80% evil sunday morning cartoon villain” thank you very much

BUT THERE IS ONE SCENE WITH HIM EVERYONE DESPISES

It’s a HORRENDOUS scene in Chapter 15 thought where 

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual Assault Implications 

Ruby gets captured, in the manga it’s because she’s trying to get back Zwei, in the show it’s because she falls into a hole. That doesn’t really matter anyways she’s tied up and well here’s the page 

followed by 

and this isn’t as bad as it was originally before pressure to change it  https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/f2f8j9/the_controversy_regarding_rwby_manga_chapter_15/ 

This is absolutely messed up. Just going over the content you have:

“I’d love to Entertain you myself”

“Have far more pressing concerns with a human like yourself”

“Plenty of Fun to be had, I’m sure”

and then Ruby gagged, and handcuffed to a chair as a bunch of tall faceless men in long black cloaks loom over her. You could say this all is just a misunderstanding and it’s just meant to foreshadow violence as a threat but it’s just done with such a sexual assault that the most charitable take is it’s a dogwhistle to that subject matter. Anyways thaat absolutely didn’t belong in RWBY and even reading it in Viz made me double take how they set up this scene and gave it such dark implications. Not that it was a deliberate narrative writing choice because it is undone really quickly. It just comes off as edgy and gross. 

Anyways some other things: 

JNPR Saga. Jaunedice is gone and while I’m not gonna lie, it’s definitely good that we didn’t have to relive through jaune going through his “ If I keep asking, maybe i’ll eventually get a yes through persistence” arc, I really feel like the pyrrha and jaune content is also weakened and though they might have overplayed this up in the show at least it ended up working on making me a shipper. Idk it wasn’t terrible but it felt a lot more surface level here. Also Ren and Nora were here too but even less prominent. 

Speaking of the dance, Blake goes with Sun instead of Yang. Because Sun invites her under the context of “you owe me”. Even though it’s done tongue in cheek, like even manga sun would hold it against her if she refused I think that this line does a good deal of disservice to Sun and also paints him in a weird Adam-ish tone. Sun’s whole deal is that he’s about unconditional kindness, he likes blake but he wouldnt want her to go with him unless she wanted it for herself. Leaning into the “haha let’s just say you owe me” leans more into something that Adam would use a source of manipulation. 

Oobleck: Is given a major glow up and actually ends up doing a lot in the end to the point at times it almost seems like it’s his story. He pulls of 300 IQ moves and ended up coordinating all the hunters and huntresses to the point of the breach based on the direction the wind was blowing and schematics he saw through someone’s pocket. Ok that’s an exaggeration but not by that much. The author is a fanboy over him and it’s good for memes but I’d argue it doesn’t improve the story by making him a more important character. I guess cool to see him fight a little bit more but it was kind of odd when he stunts on everyone so damn much. 

The fighting in general has some weak panelling except for a few scenes where it’s showing impact. The light as hell inking style makes it kind of annoying when there’s multiple people in one fight against a big target and you have to differentiate everyone and how people move from place to place. The way your eyes are supposed to move while reading a fight and how character motion transfers through panels. 

Neat informative video about that: https://youtu.be/zFFru4q_4H8?t=420 (whole video but I started at the point where they talk about panelling)

The art style is unique and i’ll give it that but too often it seems a bit more contrast and thicker lines would really benefit the series. Even when I was enjoying it, I still had these concerns. It’s just annoying when the artist is generally pretty good but you gotta zoom in to see certain things and all of that. 

So yeah, i’ve been disappointed in the later chapters to say the least and that’s incredibly incriminating when I wasn’t even that big of a fan of this adaptation to start with. I thought that maybe it could have been a loose reinterpretation for someone who was put off by V1/V2 animation standards/ wanted to get through the series even quicker but I couldn’t in good conscience recommend this as an alternative for the main series anymore. And that’s a shame. Luckily this all ends with V2 so we won’t have to worry about what else would be cut, shortened or ignored from the main series and we can focus on the actual show which all of love...or like at the least. 

[fnaf-sxc]

Any thoughts on, what you'll do with the unfinished M!As that you have on here?

FUCK

TL:DR: I might scrap the Magic Anons that are unfinished, I want to rework old ideas and comics but not make major changes to the AU, Im waiting for Security Breach for an idea I have.

Long ver under the cut:

I’ve re-reading parts of my AU to unlock the plot of them from my memories, its been interesting and some-what cringe worth it, mostly because my english was bleeagghhh, somewhat worst to the level I have now (?) I still dont know the time verbs but jfc sometimes the english text was literally a spanish phrase, that only sound good in spanish. 

There are also some topics in the AUs that I felt I did poorly, because I was younger and way inexperienced in storytelling... still, I still love a lot of things I did for the AU and even when there are some I wish i didnt implemented, I had fun

I am currently reworking the first meeting of Dark and Spring in a mini comic format because HOLY that is an old comic and is show poorly (i dont know if i should go with gijinka, animatronic or the furry ver (?))

As for Magic Anons... mhhhh

I quickly check just now and... well, is complicated, because retake them would mean reconect with the original ideas i had before and like i said, i didnt like how i introduced and potrayed some things, specially in The Spin Set, which was the first AU I did 100% myself, without talking and rambling to a friend to collectivelly make ideas... and I feel im weak when I do ideas on my own jklaghsjkd

The M!A that are left are Phantoms in the Room (pretty light hearted, nowhere to go), Big Bun (lighthearted, nowhere to go), Dominant (im somewhat uncomfy with this, nowhere to go) and Age Storm, which for some reason I begin to add actual plot to The Spin Set to it and because I begin to make it heavier, I begin to ignore the main plot jkhaskdas.

At first M!A were supposed to be a lighthearted escape from the AUs, unpredicteable and overall fun, but after I completed one and read it in one go I re-read it and is very messy chronologically, things happen too slow or too fast, there is nothing planned so is super weird and I didnt like that, so I begin to use M!S and try to think on a plot and make the asks interact and guide it, but I knew what story I wanted to tell and what I had to do. Which is why I also add rules to the ask and overall ignore thoses who were trying to gain control over what I was showing, what I was telling.

If anything this is the main base of the Sonic AU project im currently working, im telling a story, i know whats going to happen and what will happen, and people can send asks and interact, but never interfeer. I am the puppet master, and as much people want to take the lead and make me change the story, they cant.

I guess I complitelly broke the whole magic of the Magic Anons heh, but it was because It made me uncomfy to not be in control of my own story, and make a flip-flop comic had make no sence when I finished it. 

I used to had in mind “how do I make a comic that people like enough to want to do a comic dub about it?” and work towards that idea, make comics that were insteresting, had a structure and look atractive (as much as it can being a plain doodle and not fullcolor).... I even make a few myself to fullfill that desire I had. This is a problem I still had till today, I know it sounds selfish when I write it and people read it, but it was like a “personal goal”, the “reach this level of professionalism in your work”.

I dont think I want to retake the 5(6?) AUs I worked on originally, the whole “Silververse”, at least not with how they are currently. Like I said, there were choices I made that I didnt like when I re-read them, but i still have some nostalgia about it. 

I know The Fright is the only AU that has an end (which is not very good written im so sorry I wish i could write), Nightmare World never got to the endgame since I could never fully work on Nightmare/Golden relationship, their toxicity and their redemption to start like a healthy couple, The Spin Set has 2 endings and the more I remember them, the more I realize I had to do a lot to even get to the endgame stage, I never get to fully work on Purgatory Simulator and UCN is a whole new thing that I want to work on in the future.

There are 2 things I regret that I did a lot in the AUs and is hightly tied to how emotionally inmature I was back in 2015-2016, but I dont want to enter in discussion, All i want to say is that I can make it better, I can make it great.

I want to give closure but I cant in the current state things are, I need to fix but note errase the original aura this had. And with my FNaF hype back bc all it took was see the FNaF AR animatronics move like animatronics (bc this series at some point stop being about animatronics and more about “What did Mr Afton did now?????”), I want to work on things.

Here is the plan I have:

I want to rework a few comics, maybe not all of them, but a few, maybe add a few more to patch parts of the story I felt needed to be fixed.The Fright had ended, I could pulish it. Nightmare World never reach endgame even with all the backstory of the nightmares, I could make it happen. The Spin Set needed more development before I reach the 2 endings, I could make that happen, even better to what I had in mind before. Purgatory Simulator could be a short AU comparated to The Spin Set, but dense and straight to the point, and it would be great.

But that takes time, a lot of time, specially when Im just entering the world of being a freelancer, not having a stable job to sustent myself, and a lot of different projects Im working on and I dont want to leave behind. But i could do it, if you believe in me and have patience that I always come back, I could do it.

I also want to have fun, and not tie myself to anything.

On the other hand... I had an idea for another AU that includes UCN, FNAF VR, FNAF AR and the upcoming FNAF SB. It wouldnt be part of “Silververse” because the end of thoses is FNAF SL and FNAF 6, not a continuation as there would be too many timelines, but a frash start on another verse... this time in hands of another Nightmare Puppet, not Nightmarionne.

I have ideas, i’ve working on designs of thoses games for fun and to check if it could work, but I cannot do much till the new game is out. Its an idea I would like to do, and if I fail well, at least I will make comics about it.

So yeah- sorry for the long explanation/rant, Mr Hippo is my spirit animal (?). I guess this was a weight i begin to carry since 2016, the “work on too many things and only about one series” expecting to have something in return, so when my Sonic Forces art begin to have that recognition I lean more on that side.

But you know what? I graduated as an Illustrator, and along all thoses years I connected to the idea that I draw to make myself happy, and make people happy is such a bonus that makes me more happy.

I love FNaF, I dont have to tie and restrict myself for something I love, love is free and I can perfectly draw and be into something for months and then move to a different place, as long as it makes me happy.

And as long you sitll have fun with my content, things will be okay

[onechicago-upsteadrhekker]

A Chicago Med Halloween

Here’s a Halloween inspired drabble for our favorite characters!! It’s very light hearted and I hope it makes you laugh!

(Also, sorry that the formatting is kind of weird. I copied and pasted and I’m not sure how to change the format once it’s on a post...Anyways I hope that doesn’t deter you from reading!)

“Why are we doing this again?”

“Because our wives convinced us too?”

Will, Ethan and Connor stared at their reflections, not really sure what to make of themselves.

Connor started shaking his head, “Nuh-uh. I am not going out there like this!”

Will slid his eyes over to him in the mirror, adjusting his shirt, “Well, I’m not to thrilled about it but if we don’t go out there, we would never hear the end of it.”

Ethan shot Connor a look, “Why did your wife have to think of this? And why did she have to rope us into it? Couldn’t she have just made you do it?”

“No way,” His eyes grew wide, his eyebrows shooting up, “There’s no way I would have even considered this if you two weren’t doing this too. If I’m gonna look like an idiot, then so are you!”

They took another minute to gawk at themselves in the mirror before Will sighed, “We are never going to live this down, are we?”

“What is taking them so long?” Ava glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, her arms crossed impatiently.

“They’re probably too embarrassed to come out,” April chuckled.

Natalie grinned, shrugging, “I think they’ll look cute.”

Ava stalked up to the men’s locker/bathroom door and talked through the closed entrance, “Are you guys almost done?”

There was no response, so Ava knocked on the door, “Hello? I know you can hear me!”

She rolled her eyes, huffing in exasperation at the silence, “You aren’t getting out of this one and we don’t have all day, so I suggest you hurry it up and get out here.”

Ava glanced back at April and Natalie who also had their arms crossed, waiting for the guys to make their appearance. Finally, a muffled ‘we’re coming’ cam from the other side of the door and Ava moved back to stand by her friends, satisfied at the answer.

The door slowly opened, and Ethan was the first to grudgingly exit the bathroom. At the first glimpse of the costume, April started sniggering; Ava and Natalie trying to suppress their laughter.

Ethan stood discomfited before heaving an exasperated sigh and sticking his arm into the barely cracked open door to pull out Connor. At his appearance, Ava burst out in giggles not even trying to hide her amusement. Her husband was blushing, but it was hard to tell beneath his costume.

“Come on out Will,” Natalie coaxed sweetly, “Your friends have valiantly faced the music now it’s your turn.”

Will slowly emerged from behind the door, his head ducked in embarrassment as he stood by Connor and Ethan who also had their heads bowed as they shifted uncomfortably.

By now, Natalie, April and Ava were almost in tears from laughing so hard, all three of them taking out their phones to take pictures.

“This is definitely going on the community page,” April stated in amusement as she snapped a photo.

At this, the boys groaned.

“Please don’t,” Ethan wined.

“They’re going,” Ava affirmed also taking a picture, ignoring the way Connor was scrunching his face up at her.

It was hard to take them seriously when they were dressed alike as The Three Amigos.

All three of them had on big, black glued on mustaches with black outfits and a colorful Mexican Serape with cowboy boots complete with a ridiculously large sombrero on their heads. And to top it all off, Will had his guitar strapped around his neck.

Natalie smirked teasingly, “Are you guys gonna sing?”

Their eyes grew comically big as they shouted, “NO!” in unison.

The girls just laughed harder.

“Hey,” Connor exclaimed put out as he gestured at them, fed up with their teasing, “How come you aren’t dressed up?”

April blinked innocently, “We are.”

Will scoffed, “You guys look normal. We look like idiots. And Ava’s not even trying!”

“Yeah,” Connor agreed gesturing to his wife, “How come you aren’t dressed up!?”

The blonde frowned innocuously before protesting, “I’m going as a doctor.”

Connor spluttered, “You are a doctor! That doesn’t count!”

“Besides, Halloween isn’t my holiday. We never had it in South Africa,” She continued as if Connor hadn’t butted in.

“Well, you’re in America now,” Ethan pointed out and Connor and Will nodded in agreement.

Ava ignored that last part.

However, April and Natalie were semi-dressed up. April wearing a headband of cat ears and a tail pinned to the back of her scrub pants and Natalie had a plastic crown in her hair with a sparkly wand stuck in her pocket.

“We should probably get going,” April glanced at the clock, walking up to Ethan to drop a large bowl of candy in his arms.

Natalie nodded and turned to grab another bowl of candy to give to Will as did Ava for Connor. Snapping one last picture they ushered the reluctant doctors dressed as Mexicans towards the PICU.

“How on earth did you convince them to dress up like that?” Ms. Goodwin was shaking her head in wonderment an amused smile crossing her face.

Ava shrugged, “It wasn’t that hard. I’m good at roping Connor into things before he realizes what exactly he’s getting into,” She smirked, “And he can’t really say no to me.”

Natalie grinned, “Will’s a pushover. I was able to sweet talk him into it and once Connor figured out what he’d agreed to, he came begging to Will to not let him be fool alone.”

“And then they both gained up on Ethan, so I actually didn’t really have to do anything,” April finished.

The girls were watching their guys from across the lobby of the Children’s Ward along with Ms. Goodwin.

Connor, Ethan and Will were handing out candy to the kids that were well enough to be out of their beds. The children were laughing at their antics as Will strummed his guitar in a silly matter while Ethan and Connor acted out some kind of skit. They were just being silly because the kids were loving it and played with the three costumed doctors.

“Besides,” Ava began as she watched her husband play with a little girl fondly, “I think deep down, they wanted to do it. For the kids’ sake.”

Natalie and April hummed in agreement, wearing similar expressions of affection

Goodwin nodded, “These children don’t get to enjoy the things most kids do. Bringing Halloween to them; We’ll never know how much it means to them. To have one night of somewhat normalcy.”

The Three Amigos laughed as children started to hang on their legs playfully.

Ava bit her lip, watching Connor lovingly as the world slowed down around her. He might have been grumpy about dressing up in such a ridiculous fashion, but Ava knew that he truly didn’t mind because he knew just as well as she did that these kids deserved as much happiness and laughter in their life as possible and if dressing up in a fake mustache and large hat did the trick then he was all for it.

Chuckling to herself, Ava glanced at her friends who were also watching their husbands with love. She laughed out loud, the ludicrous image becoming clearer in her mind as a smirk played at her lips.

“Next year, I think we should make them dress up as Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

I hope you enjoyed that!! Tell me what you thought and HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

[decimadragonoid]

The Undertale - RETRACE Rulebook

For those who have read my fan comic project Undertale - RETRACE so far here or on Deviantart, we have reached the end of Chapter 1. Over time, more chapters will be posted. First off, thank you guys so much for tuning in. For those who are just starting to read this comic, welcome aboard! For those who haven't played Undertale yet but are interested in this story, I suggest you play the game through to the end, but it's your own decision.

Before we continue further into the story, there are some rules I'd like you to follow over the course of this comic. I will post this rulebook on existing pages. The rules are as follows...

   * “Is this an Undertale AU?” - No. It's not. This story isn't an AU or alternate timeline, but if YOU want to identify this story as such, then by all means, go ahead. I won't stop you. It’s up to you to decide.

- This story is a new series of events a couple years or so after the original events of Undertale.  * "Why the title 'Undertale - RETRACE?' Why not something simple like 'RetraceTale?'" - As I interpret this story as a new series of events a couple years or so after the Post-Pacifist Ending, calling this story "RetraceTale" or "Underretrace" and sugarcoating it to make my fanmade story known to the fandom doesn't appeal to me, nor is it something I see as beneficial to my vision of the game and my fan project overall. - Long story short, my story is set in the original universe in some way, shape, or form.

   * “What’s up with these new character personalities?” - I just felt it’d be appropriate for the characters to go through certain changes in character development, personality, and intellect. The story is set a couple years after the original Undertale after all.

   * “Are there going to be any RESETS?” - No. Plain and simple.

- In this story, the RESETS no longer exist. Although the word may be reintroduced a couple times or so, no one can RESET anymore, not even Frisk. They decided to willingly discard it forever, and they understand that any future actions will be permanent. They burned this bridge a long time ago.

   * “No! You can’t do that! What if someone dies and it can’t be fixed??”

   * “Keep it, but don’t abuse it.”

- No. Time shouldn’t even be messed with. Not ever.

   * “What’s the purpose of RETRACE?” - The purpose of my Undertale story RETRACE is to create my own interpretation and dig deeper into Frisk’s past to see what life was like for them before they fell into the Underground, as well as unearth a new antagonist.

- Questions include the following…    * What was life like for Frisk before they fell into the Underground?

   *  Did they suffer amnesia?

   *  What were Frisk’s parents like?

   *  What if Frisk actually met a monster long before they fell into the Underground?

   *  Was something or someone responsible for their misfortune before they fell into the Underground and returned to the surface with the monsters, and if so, is that person still around?

   *  If this person was responsible for Frisk’s past events, whatever they may be, is that person still around, intending to bring ruin?

   *  There’s so much ground to cover. This is gonna be one hell of a ride!  * "I really like your art style!" / "Your style for Frisk is awesome!" / "Nice upgraded outfits!" - First off, thank you so much for your compliments on my styles and interpretations for the characters! - I will treat this project as a learning process and improve over time. - As such, I might make slight changes to one or two of my designs, and nothing would make me happier than for you guys to be the witnesses of my improvements and potential design changes!

   * “Frisk/Chara killed everyone! They were responsible for everything!” - Don’t even go there with me. You WILL be ignored.

- You have your way of interpreting the game and Undertale comics, and I have mine. - I've personally seen other comic artists get bashed for their Undertale headcanons, views on the characters, and alignments. This will NOT be tolerated here.

- I can very well choose to depict Frisk/Chara as either a hero or villain if I wanted to. I could even depict the monsters as such. But this comic is not about taking sides. I'm simply making this story out of love for the game, and to tell a story overall.

- Toby Fox left the events and characters of Undertale to our own unique interpretations. There is no right or wrong way to depict the Undertale characters. That’s why comics like this exist. I only write and draw this story out of love for Undertale.

- If you don’t like this comic or my depictions, don’t say anything. Leave. Now.

   * “Can I translate this comic in a different language?” - By all means! If English is not your native language, or if you want to translate my comic in a different language so other people with different ethnicities and cultures can read and enjoy this story, you’re more than welcome to translate it in any language you want.

- All I ask is that you credit me afterwards. Also, be sure to translate this rulebook as well to avoid confusion.

   * “Can I/we dub your comic?” - Absolutely! I encourage comic dubs for RETRACE! All I ask is that you credit me afterwards.

- Show me some talent! ^^

   * “Are there any ships?” - No.

- Here’s the deal… I see the monsters as a huge family Frisk never thought they could ever have.

- And you don’t need ships to do it.

- However, if you say things like, “Oooh! I ship this!” or “This ship bothers me,” that’s okay. I won’t judge you for it. I'm not going to condemn you for shipping anyone. You have your own opinion. But just know that there are no ships to be had in this comic, and I don’t want any problems to escalate.

    * “Which monster do you see as the dad, uncle, mother, etc.?” - You’ll see.

    * “When’s the next page?” / “Bro, you’re taking too long!” / “I wanna know what happens next!” - When I say, “WHEN I CAN,” I mean, “WHEN I CAN!”

- Please don’t ask me this. I don’t appreciate being rushed or pressured, and neither do any other artists out there. It’s disrespectful to me and other viewers.

- If there is any huge delay whatsoever, I’ll explain myself.

- I have other responsibilities besides drawing comics. Of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy drawing Undertale. In fact, I love it!

- I don’t mind comments like, “I can’t wait for the next page,” “My feels,” “Aaugh!! Cliffhanger,” etc. But please don’t ask me when I’m posting the next page. I’m not a robot. I cannot stress that enough.

    * “Can I use this comic as reference material?” - Absolutely! Just be sure to credit me later!

    * “Can I draw fanart of your comic?” - Absolutely! I 100% encourage you to draw any Undertale or RETRACE fanart! Just be sure to credit me afterwards!

    * “Can I suggest any changes for the story?” - No.

- I have scripted this comic already, so it’s already set in stone. However, I will allow constructive criticism for any visual errors and story errors I might make.

    * “To be continued…?” - When one of my pages says, “To be continued…,” it means you’ve reached the end of a chapter.

- After the end of each chapter, I’ll prepare an askbox so that you can ask questions to any characters that show up in RETRACE or anyone outside the story, whether they be your favorites or any original characters specific to this story.

- This way, I can interact with you all in the most positive and/or appropriate way possible. - In addition, I will also give you the option to dub my askbox and the responses so far, which will be listed in the askbox's description for your convenience.

    *  “What questions can I ask?” - You can ask pretty much anything, so as long as it’s not anything NSFW-related.

- The question can be something totally random, comedic, sad, family-bonding, or related to the story.

- But for the sake of this rulebook, I’ll give you some examples…

    * “Hey, <UT!Character>! How’s life on the surface?”

    * “How’s it hanging, <UT!Character>?”

    * “What kind of hobbies did you find ever since coming to the surface?”     * "What do you like to do with <UT!Character>?"

    * “Any jobs?”

    * “Can I give you a present, <UT!Character>?”

    * “What kind of stuff do you guys do around the house?”

    * “How’s school?”

    * “What are your favorite subjects?”

    * “How did you feel after this happened?”

    * “Will everything be okay?”

- I will randomly handpick any question you ask any Undertale character, original character, or myself. If one of your questions haven’t been answered, don’t repeat the same question over and over again. Ask a different one, and maybe you’ll be lucky.

- If I make up some funny or weird scenario when answering questions, you can add on to the scenario if you want. It’s more fun that way, and it gives me the chance to interact with you all and keep the ball rolling! I wanna hear from you guys, so feel free to ask away!

    * “How many chapters do you plan to make?” - Let’s just say it’s almost as long as Lesser Dog’s extensive neck. When it comes to fantasy, I tend to write a lot. I try to draw and improve my skills as much as I can, but I do exceptionally well with writing it out.

- As such, I’ll also provide Undertale – RETRACE chapters in a novel format after the end of each chapter, if you want it. I'd like to make this project open to everyone who likes Undertale, whether they like comics, novels, or have any preferences, impairments, or even physical or mental disabilities.

- I want everyone to enjoy this story as much as I enjoy making it for Undertale fans, fan artists, and artists in general to see.

Also, I highly recommend you to play the game before viewing this comic. Whether you do or don’t is up to you. Otherwise, welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy this fresh, new Undertale experience! We’re gonna have a ‘skele-ton’ of fun, people! ~ DecimaDragonoid

[rwbyconversations]

The weaknesses of Volume 6

As someone who had sub-zero expectations going in, Volume 6 was overall a really good season of RWBY- in fact I’d called it the best overall Volume since Volume 3, if not overall, the best season we’ve had so far. Everything seemed to come together for this season, and most of the fandom has agreed that the opening salvo of episodes was the best the show had, and that the season hadn’t had a dud episode until the group reached Argus. I know some parts of the fandom don’t love the Argus episodes but I found something good in nearly all of them so I can’t say it was a complete waste of time. 

But, every cloud has a silver lining, and while Volume 6 was unmistakably a huge improvement over the previous Maya seasons, especially Volume 5, there are still several areas the show can seek to improve on as the show moves to the chilly frozen north of Atlas. So in this essay, I’m going to highlight the (ultimately small but notable enough to warrant talking about them) weaknesses I found in Volume 6. 

1) The show needs to more efficiently handle its villains (and why Cinder and Neo’s plot was a drag)

Weird that I’m saying this in the season that gave its longest episode to exploring Salem’s origin story, but Volume 6 had a lot of difficulty managing the pacing of its villains, and the largest subject of its focus arguably didn’t need to be in this Volume. I’m talking of course about Cinder and Neo’s plot this volume.

Now on paper, giving Cinder more spotlight should be what I want. After all, I wrote an essay last year detailing why parts of the fanbase weren’t fond of Cinder, so giving her focus should ideally be able to remedy those problems, right? 

Well, that’s the problem. In that essay, I talked about how Cinder’s two biggest flaws as a character were that she was very boring, and how her lack of backstory made it difficult to really care about her as a character. Cinder has effectively been the same character for six volumes in a row and much like Volume 4, the show has a golden opportunity to finally change that and give her a new narrative arc only to waste it.

Volume 6 should have been a drastic wake-up call for Cinder. Unlike at Beacon, where she lost due to Ruby’s sudden intervention and the awakening of her Silver Eyes, Cinder lost at Haven entirely thanks to her own failings. Raven beat her handily in straight combat and goaded her into the entire train-wreck of an operation to begin with, which for a power-focused individual like Cinder, should have really been an igniting spark to get her to begin seeking some introspection on why she’s lost twice in a row in failing to burn down the Academies. But sadly, just like in Volume 4, right as Cinder appears to be getting an arc about her recovering from her loss at Haven, she just ignores it and goes right back on her murder-Ruby train, as if she’s stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. 

Cinder’s refusal to move on from a basic arc of “Plan to destroy an academy, enact the plan, get slaughtered, blame Ruby, rinse and repeat” has made her easily the least interesting villain in the entire show. At this point we’re six years in and barring a few contextual clues, Cinder has no backstory, no sympathetic traits, not even any character development to differentiate her from her Volume 1 self. And this after the season where she dominates the villain screen-time until the final third when Adam hijacks the plot.  

Cinder’s plot in Volume 6 is therefore largely just setup for Volume 7, in that it explains how Cinder survived Haven and how she reaches Atlas. Along the way, she encounters the in case of bad season break glass button Neo, whose out for revenge and gets a really cool fight scene that’s ultimately just there for fanservice. 

Let me repeat. Good fight, really liked it. Let me also repeat- just there for fan-service. This is not an inherently bad thing, but it does have weaknesses. 

Neo was always coming back to the show and part of me feels like she was always being held in reserve in the event of a really bad season, so that the next one could have her return and generate some hype since her fan-base are that loyal. And sure enough, Neo’s return did see a notable collection of fans who had dropped the show after 4 and 5 coming back to see their ice cream queen return in a non-Chibi format. I won’t fault the crew for using a plan that worked. Where I take umbrage is that this fight was not necessary. It was a good fight, but I’d have much rather taken a Cinder scene of her actually recovering from Haven and thinking about why she lost again. Instead, Cinder and Neo effectively hijack all the villain screen-time for the rest of the season. And as someone who doesn’t adore Neo like her fans, this made their arc very tiresome, especially when the hints we got of the other villains were far more intriguing. I could talk a lot about the symbolism and thematic choices of the Mercury/Emerald scene in Chapter 9 but I’d struggle to find a lot to say about Cinder’s plot that wasn’t just “Setup for Volume 7.” 

The other problem of course is that the rest of Team WTCH are sorely underdeveloped. Hazel at least is interesting again now that he’s several miles away from Ozpin, Tyrian came back and was a delight and I loved seeing him all-but-begging Merc and Em to run so he could hunt them, but Watts remains crucially underdeveloped. He really needs to step up in agency in Atlas because his sardonic wit can only carry him so far, and the man’s voiced by Christopher Sabat, what more reason do you have to give him more to do? The man made the virus that Cinder used to cause the Fall of Beacon, can he be given some agency now please? 

Ultimately, Cinder’s plot didn’t need to be the focus for the villains and yet again, the fragments of focus they got showed how much more interesting they were as antagonists. While ultimately Volume 6 did finally give Mercury and Emerald more screentime than Volumes 4 and 5 combined and reminded the audience why you should be paying more attention to them, the rest of Team WTCH desperately needs development, Watts in particular. Cinder remains the worst villain in the entire show in my opinion, and it’s a shame that she’s almost guaranteed to be the one that makes it to the end of the show. I can only hope in Atlas she finally gets time devoted to what makes her tick, but at this point I’m almost at the point of not caring. It’s been six years, I won’t start caring for Cinder now if the show finally remembers to tell us why she joined Salem.  

... also I just think Cinder’s new costume sucks and I’d rather Em and Merc get new ones over Cinder and Neo buying extensions for their wardrobes.

2) Cordovin was a joke and she really shouldn’t have been

Show of hands, who actually took Cordovin seriously? Yeah, me neither. 

Even during the fight scene, the heroes don’t take it seriously. Having a fight the characters aren’t taking seriously isn’t an inherent flaw but it does mean you can’t expect us to turn around and take it seriously five minutes later.

Cordovin was a wasted character, and one that the show shouldn’t have undershot in all of her scenes by making her the punchline of nearly every joke. Her long-winded rant at the gate scene in Dead End is a huge factor in why a lot of fans, myself included, consider it the weakest episode of Volume 6 despite picking up in the back half. It just drags on for so long that Cordovin outstays her welcome from her first scene. 

Additionally, the show not taking her seriously steals a lot of gravitas from the mech battle, and plays a large role in why I think the mech fight failed to really excite a lot of fans outside of key moments like Ruby’s missile run and canon shot. Being alongside Adam’s confrontation with Blake and Yang didn’t help but even on its own, the mech battle drags. Not quite to the same extent as Haven dragged, but on rewatches I was making liberal application of the skip button. That lack of gravitas itself goes on to hamper Cordovin’s serious moment in the season finale where she realizes that her ego allowed the Leviathan a straight shot on Argus and undergoes a soft redemption to let team RWBY leave the city. However, this moment of taking Caroline seriously comes after the plot has made it clear that the entire reason the Grimm attacked Argus was because of Caroline over-reacting to Maria and breaking out her mech instead of scrambling fighters as Qrow predicts they will. Caroline is solely at fault for the Leviathan getting as close to destroying Argus as it did, so it’s difficult to care when she pulls her head out of her ass to do her job. 

A lack of investment also means a lack of emotional dedication, which I think showed in the lack of fanart Caroline has generated since her reveal. Her design being very drab and militaristic doesn’t help matters but unlike say, the Yang/Adam rematch where the stakes were present on an emotional and thematic level, Caroline failed to excite the audience beyond a few funny memes. 

The additional problem with lacking in emotional dedication/investment is, again, we don’t have enough interest in Caroline to take her seriously, she goes in one episode from the Kooky Racist Grandma to someone we’re expected to sympathize with. And additionally, asking the fans to sympathize with a character whose opening scene includes a not-too-subtle dig at her Faunus traits was asking a lot of the fandom, especially after the previous years showed that the show’s handling of the Faunus racism plot was... varied in quality. 

In short, Cordovin basically took a shotgun to her own foot in her first scene. Establishing her as an over the top comic relief character before expecting the audience to care when she broke out a walking advertisement for gen;LOCK was an extensive reach for the writers to try and unfortunately they fell flat. Trying to make the audience care for the problem she herself created is a similar long-reach. Hopefully this extended comedy sequence depiction of the Atlas military will be left behind as Volume 7 heads into the heart of darkness itself. 

3) Oscar desperately needs limelight

Oscar’s been in the show now for three volumes. He spent much of Volume 4 on his own, much of Volume 5 as Ozpin’s meat-sack, and now in Volume 6 he finally gets to... get some clothes. I like them, but they’re not suitable compensation for the character development that he clearly had stolen from him.

Oscar is easily the most underdeveloped main hero right now, and it’s a problem that’s haunted the series since Volume 4. Oscar wants to be a hero much like Ruby herself did as a child, but this sole fragment of backstory is never used to make a connection to Ruby. Aaron Dismuke, bless his heart, is giving this show his all and his impression of Shannon McCormack’s tones must be applauded, but much like Cordovin he’s not given much to work with. In a way, he’s almost the hero’s version of Cinder- a character who keeps finding themselves in situations where they should realistically develop as a consequence... only for each time they do, it either gets shuffled into the next volume or relegated to offscreen happenings. 

Volume 6 really should have had Oscar undergoing some kind of arc, be it his fear at being persecuted by Team RWBY and Qrow due to harboring Ozpin, his fear as his days as himself become more and more numbered, his acceptance of the fight against Salem or, most glaringly, his running off while the team is in Argus. But every time, Oscar just powers through these circumstances and never gets to develop from them. He never holds it over Qrow that he attacked a child, that Yang indirectly called him a bastard, he never thanks Ruby for having his back after the train crash, and he brushes off Jaune’s apology for smashing him into a wall and alleging he’s Ozpin masquerading himself as Oscar. 

Argus is really where Oscar should have stepped into his own. I was looking forward to him going solo and having to fend for himself for a short while, maybe have a scene where he forces Ozpin to come out and talk or gets to chat with Ozma himself about his place in the war against Salem. Have him be scared of losing his personality and just becoming another body for Oz to inhibit, have him be angry that his dreams of being a hero have been cruelly dashed on the rocks for some agenda he never signed up to. Oscar should be an emotional hurricane and instead he’s just a gust of wind. 

Seriously show, you had a golden opportunity for an Ozma and Oscar scene since we know Oz can speak to his past selves, and you know Arron has enough range to do both roles at once, why do you spite my farmboi. 

But he got a coat now so I guess that’s technically development. Kerry admitted in the Rewind for Volume 6′s finale that some parts of the season got pushed to the next one as they usually do, and I can only hope that Oscar finally expressing emotion was one such scene because Christ alive, he needs it after all the times he just got over crap offscreen this year. I want to like Oscar, he could easily have one of the most tragic arcs of the entire show if they went with it, but the show really needs to give me something to like about him in the first place. Or else he really will become the heroic Cinder, trapped forever in a nightmarish world of never getting to properly develop in spite of countless opportunities being handed to them on a silver platter.

... I still think Oscar lifted Qrow’s wallet for that costume btw. 

4) The reaction to Jinn’s story felt lockstep

I don’t have as much to say on this point but I find it rather saddening that all of the characters have much the same reaction to the truth of Ozma’s past- “Salem can’t be killed, you were leading us on for nothing”- when the weeks around the Ozma reveal had the fandom reacting to the story in a far more diverse way. Even in the hiatus we still have arguments over whether Ozpin was truly in the right or if the story was painting Salem as the true innocent party, to say nothing of the takes that Salem and Ozma’s relationship could be seen as an early iteration of Arkos or even Taruadonna with Salem as the abuser. 

The fandom had such a diverse range of reactions to Jinn’s story, with everyone seeming to have their own take on the episode and the truth wherein. Some people even used this to ponder if Summer Rose had learned the truth during her time and tied it in with Red Like Roses 2, where she laments having made a necessary sacrifice, to ask if Summer had learned the truth and bitterly signed on to the war against Salem in the hopes that she’d be able to turn the tide thanks to her Silver Eyes. 

“Just because I have to give you this origin story doesn’t mean you’re gonna take the right lessons from it.” 

Some idiots even decided that this meant Oz was the main villain now, but I’ve learned to drown those people out. 

But the show itself has a very flat range of reactions, with nearly everyone in-universe only taking away from the story that Salem cannot be conventionally killed and that therefore their entire journey is pointless. Everyone had the same reaction, with the only levels of variance being how angry they were at Ozpin and Oscar, ranging from Ruby’s “ask first if they have a plan and then be angry at Oz specifically” to Qrow and Jaune’s “physically assaulting a fourteen year old child.”  

It almost makes me wonder, if the characters themselves didn’t take anything from the lesson barring Maria connecting the Silver Eyes to the God of Light and that “SALEM CAN’T BE KILLED,” why should the fans? No one took this and went “OK so we can’t stop Salem with force, maybe try talking her down?” Their minds all immediately went to not just being able to shoot her.

Jinn’s story was great, but the reaction to it in universe felt very lacking and I only worry that the more people are told about it, the more chances we’ll get to hear a variant of “Salem can’t be killed.” It’s a shame that such a morally gray out of universe debate has been stripped to its raw components in-universe. 

Conclusion

Volume 6 was really good, I really liked a lot of it and it still warms my heart that I can say that about a season of RWBY post Volume 5. But there’s still a lot of work that can be done behind the scenes to fix up the flaws remaining. I chose three big flaws here but there are a few more I could bring up for quick points (mostly: Weiss getting shafted entirely in V6 feels like an overly corrective backlash to her constantly getting slaughtered in V5, Ruby’s agency does not substitute for a character arc and she still needs one, the introduction of the Faunus in Ozma’s flashbacks felt very contrived, Ren and Nora continue to feel useless to the wider plot but at least this time Ren wasn’t getting bodied every fight, so on and so forth), but ultimately we got more good than bad, and you don’t throw out an entire batch of apples just because of one rotten one near the top. I can forgive a lot more when the overall product is good, and Volume 6 certainly was a good season. Hopefully with these smaller problems fixed, which mostly just extends to “Give Cinder and Oscar onscreen development,” Volume 7 and onwards can keep the show moving forward into a brighter future and a better tomorrow.

[rayofspades]

Everyone in the World Forgot How Remakes and Sequels Work and I Have to Talk About It Because I’m Losing My Mind

I tried very, very hard to make this a coherent and somewhat organized post, but it’s still gonna sound like the ravings of a mad woman, so...prepare yourself.

Also, this isn’t gonna be an analysis of why remakes and sequels are so popular, because it’s exactly as simple as it seems: people like things that make them feel nostalgic and creators have caught on to this and realized that by remaking a familiar property, their new product has a built in fan base.

Great.

What I want to talk about is how the concept of remakes/reboots/sequels/whatever has been kind of destroyed. Both audiences and Hollywood have created these weird perceptions that are flooding the market in a way that is exhausting to audiences and confusing to creators. 

So, I’m here to discuss all the different types of remakes and why they work or don’t work and how this culture has been conditioned to support them regardless of quality.

Alright,

let’s do this.

Part 1: Cross-Media Remakes:

I find it somewhat impossible to criticize the existence to book--> movie remakes too much because they’re a vehicle for both creativity and audience expansion, even in cases where they’re motivated by money. Harry Potter and The Hunger Games made for some pretty solid movies, and that’s largely because those books just translated well to film. Obviously some changes had to be made to account for time constraints and visual storytelling, but they can get away with having a similar structure and still feeling entirely new based on the hard shift in presentation from book to film. 

I would make a similar argument for Marvel movies. From what I understand, those movies change more from their source material, and there are a lot of them, but it makes perfect sense to adapt comic books to reach a wider audience. I feel like the main reason people are becoming tired of Marvel movies is their overwhelming quantity, not so much the fact that they’re remakes. 

I would also love to talk about the popularity of GoT and LotR, but I don’t think I’m familiar enough with those franchises to properly discuss them, so I’ll leave that to someone else.

But there is something else I want to talk about.

While Harry Potter and The Hunger Games translated really well to film, the same isn’t true for some other cross media adaptations. 

Part 2: Adapt or Die:

In the late 70s, Stephen King wrote The Shining. I’ve read the book and I really enjoyed it, largely due to King’s writing style (the prose, the internal monologues, etc.)

The thing is, The Shining doesn’t really translate well into the film format; it’s really long and a lot of what makes it good is tied to its presentation.

So when Stanley Kubrick adapted The Shining into a film in the early 80s, he changed a lot.

Like

a lot.

The setting and characters remain pretty much the same, and the story follows similar beats, but certain events and themes have been drastically altered to the point where I would consider it a different story.

(Brief aside; the three most famous/iconic scenes from the film (”Here’s Johnny!��� “All work and no play”, and Jack frozen in the snow) are ALL exclusive to the film.)

Regardless, both the movie and the book have maintained their own popularity with their own audiences. Both are considered good and both are considered classics. 

Although, from what I’ve heard, The Shining film did receive criticism back in the day for being needlessly unpleasant. Interesting. 

It’s a somewhat similar story with John Carpenter. If you ask people to list good remakes, 90% of the time people will list The Thing (1982). It’s practically the poster child for “hey, not all remakes are bad, guys.” 

In this case, Carpenter was working from both a previous movie (The Thing From Another World) and the prior novella (”Who Goes There?”). Carpenter’s film definitely borrows more from the novella, but it was obviously going to be compared more to the previous film, and it is  v e r y different from the previous film. Carpenter’s film (like The Shining) received criticism for how gross and unpleasant it was, but became the definitive version of The Thing and stood the test of time to become a horror classic.

Basically, if you need to change the original product when remaking it, do it. That is the best thing you could possibly do. It gives the creator a chance to actually create their own unique product that just happens to be based on or inspired by an existing property. This is actually a legitimately cool phenomenon; taking preexisting stories and altering them to fit a new cultural context or simply expanding and improving on ideas. It’s a similar concept to “old wives tales” and fairy tales, and how those stories are constantly changed and retold and in doing so become timeless. Gee I wonder if fairy tales are going to come up later in this post.

Part 3: Bad Changes are Bad

*Strums guitar* This one goes out to all audience members out there who have convinced themselves that bad remakes are bad because they’re too different from the original. *Strums guitar*

Stop. 

Please stop.

Look, comparing a remake to an original to showcase how bad the remake is is perfectly valid criticism. It can highlight how an idea can be botched when it’s not handled properly. Sure. That’s fine. I highly encourage people to compare the dialogue, characters, and world building of Avatar: The Last Airbender and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. It’s important to recognize how one story is an utter fucking masterpiece and one is a poorly told train wreck.

Here’s the thing:

people seem to criticize the film on the basis of “it’s different” and, I mean, sure. But it’s not just that it’s different, it’s that it’s different and....um....

bad? 

Like, one of the “complaints” I saw about the movie was that firebenders now need actual fire in front of them in order to bend it, and I consider that to be just a neutral change. It’s not really better or worse, it’s just different. And please don’t comment on this post with “skflsfjsf NO it’s because in the original firebenders used the SUN as their source of fire” like yeah I know I get it it’s still an inconsequential change.

Now, saying that the earthbenders being held on land as opposed to the sea is a bad change? Yes, that is valid criticism because it makes no goddamn sense within the movie’s universe and just makes everyone look dumb.

That movie is an utter fucking disaster. It’s poorly directed, it’s poorly written, the casting decisions are baffling, the acting is horrible, it’s poorly paced, and it’s bad.

It’s a bad movie.

I would apply the same logic to the new Death Note live action movie (the American one). Putting aside the racial controversy for a minute, I’m fine with changing things about the plot and structure to properly adapt it into a movie. But...yeah. The plot is bad. It just comes across as really dumb and weird.

So yeah, bad remakes are bad, but it’s not as simple as just being “different.”

If y’all keep complaining about remakes making changes, then you’re only encouraging the products I’m about to talk about in the next few Parts.

Arguably the worst and most prolific products of them all...

Part 4: Sometimes, Things That Are the Same.......Are Worse

Alright, I’m gonna start with a really extreme example, but it perfectly captures the essence of what I’m trying to say.

In 1998, Gus Van Sant made the incredibly confusing and brave(?) decision to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. And I do mean “remake,” as in, it is shot for shot the same movie. It’s some sort of bizarre cinematic experiment.

I really like the original movie, so you would assume that, since this movie is literally the same movie, I would like it too.

I don’t.

No one does.

It’s the same movie but with worse performances.

It’s pointless.

Its existence is both unnecessary and confusing. Watching it was a bizarre experience that just made me wish I was watching the original.

(The best part about this is that 15 years after this remake came out, Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin solved remakes forever by making Bates Motel; a contemporary prequel/reimagining of Psycho (1960). This show takes the characters and key events from the Hitchcock film and puts them in a different setting with an altered version of plot points. The creators openly and repeatedly state that they did not want to just remake Psycho and instead wanted to tell a tragedy/thriller using the framework of Psycho. To me, this perfectly encapsulates what remakes are supposed to be. It’s a good show and it’s severely underrated. Please go watch it, just ignore like half of season 3 and you’re gold.)

Unfortunately, the most common and (arguably) the most frustrating type of remake/sequel/reboot/whatever is the “let’s do the same thing...but different” type.  They can be a retread of the original plot or just take the title and elements of the original and use them while adding nothing substantially new.

Independence Day: Resurgence, Alien Covenant, The Thing (2011), and proooobably most direct sequels in any popular franchise (like the Transformers movies) fall under this category. 

The most notable ones in recent years are D i s n e y  r e m a k e s, but those get their own section.

Also, I’m hesitant to talk about these because it might just be a cultural difference, but it deeply bothers me when I see Japanese live action films that are based on anime and they just...keep everything the same? 

Like, in a live action remake of FMA, why the fuck wouldn’t you make up some grotesque and upsetting monster thing for the Nina Tucker scene? Why would you just use the design from the manga/anime??? WHY WOULDN’T YOU ADAPT IT TO MAKE IT WORK FOR LIVE ACTION?????????????????????????????????????

But hey, what do I know. It might just be a culture thing.

From what I’ve gathered and experienced, people have the following problems with these types of overly-faithful and/or pointless remakes:

1) They’re boring because it’s just a retread that feels inferior. 

2) They try to replicate elements of the original without understanding the actual appeal (aka the tangible details are addressed while the underlying ideas get sidelined or misunderstood).

3) They just...don’t adapt well.

Even if we were to take The Last Airbender and give it to a competent director who has a decently written script, that’s a case where you probably should have changed a lot more to properly make the jump from animated show to live action movie. Obviously, a lot of things would need to be cut or moved around in order to properly pace it.

I’m gonna talk more about this type of movie in a different section so for now let’s move on to the most recent remake craze that’s driving me up the wall.

Part 5: “I’ve got the power of remakes and anime on my side”

Fuck.

So part of the appeal of anime for me has always been its creativity. While some of it is pretty derivative when looking at specific genres, I’ve always found there to be a significantly wider range of creative ideas and concepts in anime than in any other medium. 

But now the industry’s running on fumes and someone let it slip that you can make a quick buck by just remaking a popular IP.

Fuck.

And I don’t wanna rag on the new-ish trend of readapting old anime for the sake of following the recently completed manga. This has had unbelievably successful results with FMA:B and Hunter x Hunter (2011) becoming massive critical hits (and two of my favourite shows).

(Although it hasn’t escaped my attention that studios have, in fact, used this gimmick to make half-baked and poorly crafted products with the knowledge that the existing fan base will buy that shit anyways. I’m looking directly at Berserk (2016) and Book of the Atlantic.)

But now they’re also adapting/sequel-ing shows purely for the sake of cashing in on the original (or adapting pre-made sequel products that were already made with that mindset in the first place).

Clear Card was boring as fuck and transparently existed to sell toys. 

I dropped Steins;Gate 0 after around 8 episodes when it become abundantly clear that it took the “let’s take elements of the old plot and just....do stuff” route without keeping any of what made the original cool and unique. 

The Evangelion movies seem really antithetical to the original show, and the third one feels like it was made by someone who thought they understood Evangelion and hated it. (But luckily the original is coming to Netflix next year so who even cares. Give me that 10/10 show.)

Although I will admit, Devilman Crybaby’s existence kind of falls under what I was saying earlier in this post. It’s one of many adaptations of an old manga that is changed substantially to fit the current cultural climate, with some unique aesthetic changes thrown in there for good measure.

It’s pretty okay.

But um...

Oh boy...

We’re about to get into it lads.

Part 6: Production IG Broke My Whole Brain. Brain Broken. Dead. No Brain.

Hooooooooo boy.

So, FLCL (also known as Fooly Cooly) is one of my favourite shows. In fact, it’s the only show I’ve ever watched that I have absolutely no problems with. None. Not even nitpicks. 

I’ve watched it 6 times, including with director’s commentary. It has an utterly perfect and unique/fluid aesthetic and I wish its visuals were just playing in my brain all of the time. It’s an arthouse comedy, which is a...rare (nonexistent?) genre, and it pulls it off perfectly. Its cool, its beautiful, its silly, its poetic, its creative, it has great themes that can reach both teenagers and adults, and there is literally nothing else on the planet like it.

So when it was announced that they were making a sequel 18 years later with a different cast of characters, I was...weirdly excited. Like a pavlovian happy response. I got even more excited after seeing the trailer.

Only a short while before the show aired did it dawn on me.

Wh...what are they doing?

From the trailer, I could see that they were taking some familiar plot elements (Medical Mechanica, Haruko, N.O., Atomsk, etc.) and adding some different protagonists.

Um

who gives a single fuck about the plot of Fooly Cooly?

The plot elements...don’t matter. It’s just a vehicle for cool and amazing things to happen.

So the show came out, and I saw more clips on youtube. While it is cool that they’re using different episode directors with some different art styles, the difference in quality between the directing and overall visual presentation is shockingly noticeable. I partially blame the fact that the anime industry isn’t as financially stable as it used to be, but this is also a Production IG show that’s based on an extremely popular property, so that’s barely an excuse. 

It mostly just looks like an anime with some cool stylistic elements, whereas the original looks stunningly perfect, dynamic, unique, and beautiful in every single solitary shot. 

I’ve read and watched many reviews of the sequel, both positive and negative, and from what I can tell it’s a textbook example of a “lets take components of the original and just...use them...while kind of missing the point and appeal of the original show.” Fooly Cooly is made of 100% intangible details. That thing is lightning in a bottle, and by taking the tangible details (plot elements and callbacks) and putting them in your show, you’ve already proven that you’ve completely and 100% missed the point.

Also:

this is the new show’s MAL score. While I consider anything between a 6 and a 7 to be “okay,” MAL scores tend to be higher since people rate on separate components of the show.

Like, a 6.7 on MAL is probably a 3 for everyone else. Yikes.

But honestly, the quality of the show is completely irrelevant, because that’s not the actual problem.

The only way to make a new FLCL product would be by accident. Have a director make a deeply personal product in which they do whatever the fuck they want. Have it be stylistically wild and make it look amazing. Create some sort of arthouse comedy with resonant themes and then just get Production IG to slap the FLCL brand on it to appeal to people’s nostalgia.

And that’s when it hit me.

That’s when my whole brain broke.

That accidental, spiritual sequel product can never happen. 

Because it looks like a huge risk to producers. 

Somehow, by remaking one of the most original and generation defining pieces of media ever created, Production IG proved that we do not live in a world where that type of product is allowed to exist. It can’t exist.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Part 7: Disney and the Culture of Hype(rbole)

When I was young, my family owned two versions of Cinderella on film. The 1950 Disney animated version, and the 1997 live-action version with Brandy. 

Obviously, they’re the same story. They follow the same beats and have the same characters. However, there are some major differences in scenes, character portrayal and, most notably, the songs. Both are musicals, but with completely different soundtracks. 

If we want to go even further, we also owned Ever After, which is a completely different retelling of Cinderella with a whole new plot made for an older audience (and it’s also very good. Check it out)

In other words, I have nothing against live action Disney remakes, In fact, I think Disney movies based on fairy tales have become their own type of fairy tale; classic stories that are being constantly retold and reshaped to remain both relevant and timeless. It’s beautiful.

What the fuck is Disney doing in the 2010s?

Right now, the trend seems to be completely recreating older Disney classics, only making them live action and, um, “fixing” them.

If you want a detailed analysis of this, go watch the Lindsay Ellis video about Beauty and the Beast. I’ll briefly sum up, but you should definitely watch the video.

Look, I personally don’t hate Beauty and the Beast (2017), but once you notice that the Beast’s character arc doesn’t really exist...

and that there are a bunch of plot threads that either don’t go anywhere or are just kind of pointless...

and that there’s a weird trolley problem with Belle and the servants that completely botches the moral of the story....

and that by adding a bunch of logic to a fucking fairy tale you’re stripping it of its appeal and also just creating plot holes...

and that the singing isn’t nearly as good as the original...

and a bunch of other problems with acting and characterization....

you start to notice that “hey, they made the exact same movie....but worse.”

But, people are okay with that.

Most people didn’t even really notice. And that’s fine, like what you like. I enjoyed the movie well enough, even though I definitely prefer the original. But...I would probably also like a different retelling of Beauty and the Beast if it was a good product. Except, then it would also be...new? And potentially better? Or at least a lateral move.

I just watched the trailer for the new Lion King (2019), and it looks...kind of good. But even thinking this...I kind of long for death, because the entire trailer is just “hey, remember THIS from the original.”

I’m just...I’m just done. I’m burnt out. I’ve had it.

When are we gonna stop making the same movie over and over again?

Or when are the changes actually going to make sense? I’ve seen most of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and it just goes in the opposite direction of changing everything, but the changes are just.....uggggh. Not good. Bad changes are bad.

The thing with Disney is that they are also a hype generating machine, especially after purchasing both Marvel and Star Wars. I once heard someone say in a video that, back in the day, people were trying to make the best possible product so it would sell and get popular. People...don’t really need to do that anymore. If you get 304958493093 billion people excited about the next movie in their favourite 80s franchise by promoting and hyping the shit out of it, then you’ve already secured tons of butts in seats before the movie even comes out. Every movie is an event movie if it comes from Disney and is part of one of their big franchises. Every new thing based on an old thing is the new “best thing.”

Even a new sequel that I actually liked, The Incredibles 2, was weirdly hyped up. (Also, even though I liked it, it didn’t escape my notice that there were a bunch of plot problems with the villain and the script proooobably needed another draft. Just saying.)

So, the big questions are, in this current culture, are we ever going to get another original sci-fi property, like the 80s Star Wars trilogy? Are we ever going to see a boom in a genre outside of Disney owned properties? Are we ever going to get another insane, passion-project smash hit like Fooly Cooly?

No. I don’t think so.

Not in the current state of things. 10 years from now? Maybe. 20 years from now? Probably. 

Part 8: Concluding Thoughts

I don’t know, man.

People are still making original things, but they’re not as popular and/or creative as they need to be to change where we are right now.

The very existence of Get Out does lend me some hope. It was a creative and original movie and a very large audience of people (including myself) really liked it. 

Yay.

More of this please. 

So, um, yeah.

I’m going to go watch Fooly Cooly for the 7th time and scream into a void.

Mmmm bye.

[sunnysynthsunshine]

San-Soho (The Young Ones/Black Mirror)

note: even though there are meta-references to the actors playing these characters (Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson) the characters are still the same, even if they have similar appearances as their actors outside of the “san soho” realm.

Some dialogue I have added in myself, but the rest of the fanfic’s format was based on the original script of the Black Mirror episode San Junipero written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris) they own the concept,and (The Young Ones was written by Ben Elton,Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, Directed by Paul Jackson,Geoff Posner and Ed Bye, with the characters belonging to the actors who played them).

Britain's equivalent to San Junipero is San Soho

(when Rick Pratt wanders San Soho he meets a punk called Vyvyan as their lives change forever)

(this is also mainly told from Rick's perspective)

Chapter 1

The year was 1985

Walking along the sidewalk of neon sparkling Soho was the sarcastic but socially timid Rick Pratt,

A young man in his early 20s he was dressed quite plainly

He experienced 1985 before this was one of those many times

He decided to visit the local nightclub

He had a loose grey shirt, black badge covered blazer and red boots on, not usual nightclub attire but he wasn't really a party person so he focused on Pac-man which he was not good at

when suddenly he saw a beautiful orange-haired man in a trihawk dancing on the dance floor to The Clash.

Rick tried to ignore the punk but he noticed him

“Oi!”

He tried to run off but the punk kept gesturing to him moving his head in his direction when he wasn't moshing

“Wanna join”

“Pardon?” Rick said unable to sense the gesture due to the loud atmosphere

“Right” the punk mumbled before he ran over to Rick and dragged him to the dance floor to join him

“You're going to enjoy this” the punk shouted before Rick started to mosh

Swaying his body in an animated fashion like that of a vintage cartoon character

The crowd was crashing like a wave except covered in spike studs and band logos

Rick felt like a stammering Ian Curtis as he clambered making sure he didn't hit anyone

He ended up clambering with that punk from earlier.

Part of Rick wanted to enjoy this cool “rebellious” activity but the other felt like he was ruining the event simply by being there.

He felt uneasy he didn't want anyone thinking anything weird was going on.

Rick was unsure about the concept of moshing but tried to continue anyway.

Chapter 2

When the song was over he left the dance floor he felt a bit embarrassed he could feel his nerves acting up so he just sipped his lemonade and walked out the fire escape door.

The punk from before caught up with him “Why are you running away?” he asked

Rick  made an awkward smile “Sorry I’m not into *moshing*”

The Punk answered back “No shit you were like the world’s most stiff giraffe back there”

Rick was going to walk off only for the punk to say “I was taking the piss...obviously”

“I’m Vyvyan, sorry for forcing you to mosh with me, I only get to do these on Saturday nights

Rick sat on a low wall

“It wasn't that Everyone was looking at us crash into each other”

Vyvyan tilted his head “Why would they care?”

Rick made a couple miming gestures with his hands

“You know? two blokes grinding into each other like cheese graters”

Vyvyan lit a cigarette and smoked it

“Okay: one, there’s not as many uptight tory folks here as there used to be, and two,

This is a punk part of town nobody’s judging here”

“You want one?” he offered as he leaned over holding his lighter to where Rick was sitting

Rick nodded as he also took a cigarette

Vyvyan spoke again “if they were staring it’s because they were intimidated by me sod em”

Rick chuckled “your such a stupid fascist you know that?”

Vyvyan smirked proudly “Thank you”

Rick looked at the sky “I’ve never moshed before”

Vyvyan stared at him surprised “Never, as in you’ve never gotten a gang of mates to just destroy the dance floor to Iron Maiden?”

Rick shook his head “Never I’d usually listen to punk rock music alone

Living in a right-wing house that was frowned upon, tattoos, androgyny the whole lot

Vyvyan was shocked “What are you a hermit? that’s one drab existence you’ve got there”

Rick shrugged

“They vote the pigs, the officers attack people like rabid dogs I want to be a revolutionary Anarchist poet but I can’t do much else they worship thatch like she’s God outside of literature I’m politically pathetic”

Rick looked down when Vyvyan sat next to him

“Yeah, Well. No one knows about half the shit I’ve done, like Riding a motorbike up someone's staircase”

“With your folks, they come from a different place on the political spectrum tories will always be nasty in my eyes”

“Yep I agree with you there, it doesn't help to have no mates, they simply don’t understand concepts like shyness, trust issues or anxiety

I get panic attacks sometimes around crowds and what they say is just deal with it.

“from past social experiences I’ve had to repress many things depressive episodes, nerves and flashbacks just because I don’t want to bother others or bring the mood down”

“I always feel weird when put into lively situations but that’s because I haven’t gotten the chance to fully express myself in that way”

Rick kicked his legs against a wall when Vyvyan looked at him

“What would you like to do that you’ve never done before?”

Rick smiled “Oh so many things I’d like to go to concerts, I’d like to perform for people, I’d like to, I’d’ like to

Vyvyan put his finger on Rick’s lips “Soho is the party hub of London might as well nick all the time we have left while we still can”

They went to fortune tellers, they went to thrift shops, they bought some “magazines” and they checked out the local comic strip club seeing the likes of French and Saunders, Alexi Sayle and Peter Richardson and Nigel Planer onstage telling jokes.

Rick and Vyvyan then ran off to a pub where they got completely sloshed usually Rick would be able to hold his lager but when “Come On Eileen” was playing on the radio Vyvyan had thrown him into his arms as they danced until after a few more minutes Rick was getting tired and Vyvyan was getting bored “Boring bastard” he mumbled angrily as he grabbed Rick’s sleepy face shoving his head into the cake that was in front of him.

Rick cheerfully said, “Hey Vyv this is like Laurel and Hardy or do you prefer Chaplin?”

This ramble of questions cascaded into Vyvyan yelling “Shut Up!” in Rick’s face

Rick was suddenly silent he was probably asleep but then Vyv remembered what he said about mental health before as he quietly carried Rick over his shoulder driving him back to his place in his yellow Ford Anglia.

At Vyvyan’s house, he let Rick relax on his sofa covered in his universal monster themed blanket

He was about to mumble “I’m sorry” when Rick suddenly awoke to scoff “You bloody fascist” pointing his finger at Vyvyan aggressively before he threw a tantrum “You got your hands over me  How dare you! And to think you thought you’d get a snog from me”

Vyvyan was annoyed but not annoyed enough to get violent so he chased Rick around the room

There was a short intermission from the fight when Vyvyan accidentally turned on his record player making the Cliff Richard hit “Living Doll” play which made Rick pause going into a dream-like trance badly singing out of tune

it was not long until they were both yelling “Virgin” at each other while pillow fighting.

However, because of the fun “fight” as they were no longer angry they were laughing

When Rick’s pigtails were undone Rick then pulled at Vyvyan’s hair leaving orange hair dye stains on Rick’s shirt

What started off as a chase around the house, dancing and pillow fighting resulted in Vyvyan trying to playfully choke Rick only for him to aggressively hug Vyvyan in return

After the snog and shag was over

Rick innocently licked his lips “I’ve never done anything like that before”

Vyvyan smirked “All the more reason” as he unlocked the handcuffs from his bed

Rick hesitated “you're a lovely bloke. I can’t”

Vyvyan shrugged “Alright then”

Rick stumbled over his words “you see -I?”

Vyvyan nodded “I understand”

Rick looked at the time and scrambled to get his clothes on before he was about to dash outside “I have to go”

Vyvyan stared “in this crap weather?”

Rick shouted back “It’s been great to meet you”

Chapter 3

He shook Vyvyan’s hand before he left

Later in the early morning, Rick was looking around his wardrobe for different outfits

He tried a green suit but it didn't work, he tried a basic shirt with a tie and jeans that didn't work, he even tried a blue and red anorak but that didn't work so he just had to settle with his pair of yellow dungarees.

A few days later at the same club, they met at Vyvyan tried to talk to Rick but he was talking to someone was that Peter Richardson’s son he was with?

He wandered into the restrooms that Rick had went off to he surprisingly still had his pigtails in

They said nothing

Rick looked in the mirror his hands on his cheeks unhappy a fake smile projected on his face amongst the red lip balm smudged under his lips

“I don’t know how to do this”

Vyvyan was confused “do what?”

Rick whined “Just help me can’t you just”

He settled “It’s like talking to a bloody hologram”

Vyvyan looked down and then back at Rick’s upset face he smiled

“You want to get in my car?”

Vyvyan raced his Ford Anglia down the highway the street looking like it was a 1980s music video

Rick asked, “How long have you been here?”

Vyvyan answered, “In Soho?”

Rick nodded

Vyvyan thought for a while

“ a couple months but the main thing is I’m planning to enjoy myself before I finally pop my clogs...guess I’m a lurking wanker like you”

Rick chuckled “Yeah”

Chapter Management

Edit Chapter

Chapter 4

Vyv’s car suddenly ended up in the upcoming lane luckily they prevented danger as the car skidded to a halt

“SHIT!” Rick yelled

Vyvyan started erupting into laughter his gravelly nasally voice being more loud than the traffic

“Your face”

They then went back round to Vyvyan’s place to have another shag even though outside of the dream system version of Soho Rick and Vyvyan were virgins

They then chatted about their past loves Rick apparently once had a big crush on a Scottish makeup artist and they remembered about when they watched the comic strip days before that Vyvyan and Jennifer Saunders were making subtle body language to each other.

Rick then remembered not only were they in the simulated afterlife of Soho but they were fictional characters with vague memories of the meta actors who played them in real life

He looked at the clock and then remembered something dark,something secret something Vyvyan should never know.

“I’m just going to party and nothing is going to stop me not Tories and definitely not that facist God”

Rick then walked off in a huff

Vyvyan continued to enjoy life in Soho without Rick but that was hard

A few days later and Soho looks like it’s in the 2000s

Vyvyan walked into the night club while Feel Good Inc by the Gorillaz played in the background

Vyvyan could see Rick with his hair down in more “Emo” attire playing dance dance revolution only for him to stop when he noticed Vyvyan.

Vyvyan started hounding Rick with questions in the restroom

“Wait a minute I’ve been looking for you why did you piss off like that?”

Rick was irritated “Why are you here?”

Vyvyan shouted “Why did you hide from me?”

Rick ran off some people could notice when Vyvyan saw that Rick was on the roof of the nightclub

Vyvyan ran up to where Rick was “Please tell me your pain slider is turned down”

Rick moved his eyebrows “Maybe,Maybe not”

Before he walked away “I’m not going to jump”

Vyvyan sighed looking down and then back at Rick “Look I’m sorry alright,I’m a lurker too I-I

Rick felt solemn “I don’t know how long there is,I wasn't prepared for this I wanted to…”

Vyvyan shut him up with a kiss

They had another passionate night in Vyvyan’s place but then the unpleasant question was mentioned again

Rick exhaled “I have 3 months”

Vyvyan whined “Why? I’ll have nobody to play fight with at the pub every night nobody to have slapstick arguements with it’s not going to be the same”

Rick explained “my real life self, he was married he had kids,he had a happy life he entertained many but then he took a tumble on a quadbike and lost part of his spark eventually that caught up with him and he’s in the afterlife now I’m still around because I’m a fictional entity he created but like with imaginary friends I’m fading the more I’m forgotten I don’t want the same fate"

Vyvyan started to sob “Don’t leave me this way”

Rick smiled at him “I’m dying the people’s poet is dying nothing but that scares me”

Vyvyan whimpered “I want to visit you,let me say hi”

Rick again walked off the time changed from 11:59 to 12:00

Later a more grown up Vyvyan arrived at a hospital 

he now had glasses and was balding looking like an old man he was taken to a private room where Rick was quietly resting he was a lot more older than before he looked like he was in his 40s or 50s.

he looked at Rick for a moment

“It’s time for you to pass over and me soon probably”

He shrugged,

Vyvyan then took out a ring and put it onto Rick’s frail finger

As he was given the device to transport him and Rick back to Soho

After a few days, he did the same 

It was a sunny day in early March when in Soho Vyvyan parked his car near the seaside as he ran over to rick who was folding his hands happily,

“Miss me?”

Vyvyan  was lost for words “Of course I bloody missed you Happy Birthday” he shouted as he aggressively hugged Rick in an embrace as they ran along the seaside chasing each other like old times.

The End~

(dedicated to the late great pan global phenomenon,Lord of Misrule and Peoples Poet) Rik Mayall (1958-2014) (The Future is as bright as you make it, Love is the answer~!)

[onyx-archer]

My Idea for the Future of Comic Books.

I've been telling people in my personal life that like comics (and few that at least like to hear about weird ideas I have) that the current release method for comics is slowly killing the industry, among other things. I've put a lot of thought into how to fix the problem, and while I'm no expert, I think it comes down to a number of factors. All of it will be under the cut, as to not overwhelm you if you don’t want to read it. Keep in mind that this more or less entirely pertains to the Big Two (Marvel and DC), but can be applied to all but the smallest publishers really.

All of the issues I can see with the industry are as follows:

1. Limited Distribution: The Direct Market makes it harder for people to get into comics. Be it because of the hobby's requirement to go to a hobbyist store of some kind, or hope that they can find a copy on Amazon. Digital stuff does help a little, but that leads into the next problem.

2. Digital Prices/Digital Marketshare: From what little we as a community know about digital sales, thanks to a few bits of info that can be gleamed from smaller, indie creators, we know that there isn't a super huge digital market for comics yet. This would probably improve if the publishers stopped charging print cover prices for digital books, but that probably won't happen any time soon. Of course, digital markets come with the advent of piracy, but it's not like that was entirely avoidable thanks to scanning groups.

3. The Release Format: I'm gonna say something a little controversial here: single issues aren't really worth the price at this point. I say this because of how story arcs for comics these days are typically written; stories are very rarely self contained single issue affairs anymore. This also plays into the comics only being available for purchase through extremely limited channels, whereas you can sell a graphic novel or a trade paperback in more easily accessible markets than hobbyist stores like Comic Book stores. The single issues also tend to sit unsold because it's easy to over ship them, which is evident in basically every comic book store in North America.

4. Marketing: This issue is mostly aimed at Marvel, but can be applied universally. A big issue Marvel has is that they launch books with little fanfare, only to cancel them 6 issues in because of low sales. The books basically just get axed because they aren't marketed properly to potential fans. Tent pole titles like Spider-Man get marketed, sure, but for every Spider-Man or Thor, there's a character with a smaller fanbase that's getting snubbed because the big books hog all of the marketing budget, making it harder for them to gain any sizable fan traction.

I could also throw overall quality of storytelling/writing, but that's more of subjective issue in most cases. After all, just because I don't like the writing of recent Spider-Man material doesn't mean nobody does. I could also throw in my problems with people in the comics industry being shitheads on social media, but that’s not important right now.

Anyway, my solution idea attempts to address the 4 big problems. It's basically as follows:

1. Changing Formats: This here's probably going to get me the most flack, but I don't really care. What I'm suggesting is a complete overhaul of the format of comics into something a little more enticing, and potentially profitable: graphic novels. Now, the industry already releases trade collections, but I think given the fact that most comic story lines are written for trade collections already, we might as well just get graphic novels instead. This has a number of benefits, but I'll get into that more as we go. One I’ll bring up now though is that Graphic Novels, over all, have a better shelf life than individual floppies.

2. Dial Back The Number of Releases: A big issue some smaller titles have right now is the lack of marketing, and this suggestion is a pretty reasonable way to limit the issue. What I'm suggesting is, along with the change in format, a company like Marvel only releases, at most, 4 things a week. Preferably, 2-3 books, but 4 is still within reason as far as I'm concerned. This, combined with a format change, will cut down on the ugly look of a pile of unsold issues, and can be stored more efficiently. It will also allow for a more efficient marketing, and less clutter on shelves, and if all companies adopted the practice, less competing for a reader’s attention.

3. Quarterly Release Schedule: Something that would be a byproduct of going to a graphic novel format would come with a release drawback, but at the same time, it would make each release easier to justify purchasing. If I only had to buy Spider-Man 4 times a year, for 20-25 bucks a pop, I'd be happy. Of course, to make sure you don't misunderstand, each volume would have to guarantee a conclusion to the story being told by the time the last page is turned. Sure, an ongoing subplot that ties stories together is fine, but it would make things easier to recommend to fresh eyes, as a more complete feeling story is more satisfying, and is easier to keep up with and/or remember.

4. Writer Rotation: This is a simple thing, but it's basically necessary to ensure a release schedule of graphic novels. The benefit of superhero material is that writers go from project to project with enough frequency, barring a few notable exceptions, so this would be a huge boon for a format change. The ideal number of writers is 2, but it can work with 3 or 4, but no more than 4. This would require a bit of teamwork on the part of the two writers, but it would allow for a more efficient output, giving each writer a window of 3 or so months to draft subsequent releases. I would also have at least 2 different main artists on board, just to make the process less daunting for a single main artist. This would come with the caviate that a writer can only remain on the book for, at most, 4-5 years at a time, to prevent burnout and/or creative stagnation. (I probably explained this poorly, but hopefully this one made sense)

5. A Variety Title: Something to keep things a little less stale, I’m proposing that each week, there’s what’s effectively an anthology/variety type book. It would, hypothetically, be similar to something like Weekly Shonen Jump, only it’d be under specific brandings. Marvel is easily the one company that I can point to an example of: Amazing Fantasy, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, etc. Basically, these would be weekly titles that focus on a subset of Marvel’s characters for a number of purposes.

Short, self contained oneshot stories to help with the less frequent main title releases. 

Test new solo titles for unproven characters before committing to a larger book.

For the sake of showcasing newer writers to the public to gauge reactions before handing them the keys to a bigger title.

The big thing is that these would be released monthly, and wouldn’t count towards the previously mentioned release of only 3-4 books a week. They would also be sold cheaper, and individual stories could be sold cheaply in a digital format.

6. Ship To Non-Specialty Stores: A benefit of a format change would be a wider set of options for the release of books on a more frequent basis. Book stores, or other retailers that have book sections (like Walmart) wouldn’t have a problem with stocking the stories in their book sections, allowing for more eyes to be on the comics. This would have to come with the caveat of either having a rating system like video games in a easily visible place, or simply limiting the more mature stuff to Amazon and more specialist stores. Still, it allows for more potential readers to find the books easier.

7. Lower the Digital Market Price: This one is a harder pill to swallow, but realistically, this would have to be done. Heck, this idea alone can ignore all of the previous ones, and that alone would probably boost digital sales. Most people buy digital goods because it’s marginally cheaper in some cases, and they don’t have to go anywhere. The cheaper price is usually the result of not needing to print actual copies of a product, but comics have failed to grasp this concept. I think it’s a no-brainer if you change the format, but it’s obviously something the current format needs to do too.

So yeah, that’s some shit I probably put way too much thought into, but those are just some ideas I have when it comes to fixing American Comics. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.