#and it's getting a prime time slot!! that's big news!

[yibo-wang]

Fengqi Luoyang starring Wang Yibo will be broadcasted on Beijing Satellite TV from April 3rd 2023! Luoyang is the first online drama to be broadcasted on TV like this! Timing is from 7:30 pm onwards.

[ghibli-collector]

This is as close as we will ever get to a Spirited Away sequel…

Chihiro is all grown up in special one-off ad that aired during Ghibli TV broadcast in Japan.

January 5 was a big day for Studio Ghibli fans. Not only was it the 83rd birthday of co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki, it was the first Kinyo Roadshow (Friday Roadshow) of the year, and the movie to be broadcast in this prime-time TV slot was Spirited Away.

Like many Kinyo Roadshow Ghibli specials, this turned out to be a major TV event, with the station tweeting out tidbits of behind-the-scenes information about the movie throughout the broadcast, creating a sense of community amongst viewers. One thing fans didn’t expect, though, was a commercial that appeared partway through the film, which starred none other than Spirited Away characters Yubaba and Chihiro.

To be exact, it was voice actors Mari Natsuki and Rumi Hiiragi who could be heard in the ad, reprising their roles as Yubaba and Chihiro respectively, 22 years after the film debuted in 2001. The two were lending their voices to Subaru, with Chihiro explaining the car’s special “Eyesight” feature to Yubaba.

While viewers might’ve paid little attention to an ad like this in any other situation, the distinctive voices of these characters, which flowed seamlessly from the broadcast into the commercial, grabbed everyone’s attention. Fans were so excited by the surprise ad that “Chihiro’s voice” began trending on Twitter as soon as it appeared, with people leaving comments like:

“This made me so happy!”

“Thank you, Subaru!”

“Rumi Hiiragi sounds all grown-up now!”

“It’s a conversation between Chihiro as an adult and Yubaba!”

“It’s like Chihiro grew up and became a Subaru staff member!!”

“Natsuki still does Yubaba the same but Hiiragi’s Chihiro sounds so different!”

It’s true that Hiiragi sounds a lot more mature now as a 36-year-old compared to when she originally voiced Chihiro at the age of 14. And the extra years do add a special something to the exchange between characters, allowing us to believe that after all these years, Yubaba and Chihiro really do stay in touch.

As the commercial was a special collaboration between Subaru and Kinyo Roadshow, it was a one-off that only aired once on television. Here’s hoping there’ll be more surprise appearances from Ghibli characters in future commercials during the Kinyo Roadshow timeslot!

The conversation between Chihiro and Yubaba went as follows:

Chihiro: “Phew — I was able to get here without bumping into anything”

Yubaba: “Whoa, so you made it this far unscathed? Did somebody lend you a hand?”

Chihiro: “No, no-one.”

Yubaba: “What’s the point of hiding something like that? Be honest!”

Chihiro: “Ah, it’s Eyesight!”

Yubaba: “What do you mean — what’s up with these three eyes?”

Chihiro: “Don’t you know what they are?”

Yubaba: “Why would I know what they are?”

Chihiro: “This is ‘Eyesight’.”

Yubaba: “Huh, so it’s called ‘Eyesight’. How come it’s there?”

Chihiro: “Because these three cameras give you a wide field of vision.” [Eyesight activates with a beep]

Yubaba: “Aaaaaagh!”

Chihiro: “In dangerous situations Eyesight helps to avoid collisions. The rear-end collision rate of Eyesight-equipped cars has fallen this much.” [Graph appears on screen showing the new version of Eyesight is even more effective than previous versions]

Yubaba: “So Eyesight protects lives…”

Chihiro: “Eyesight is installed in a variety of Subaru vehicles.”

Yubaba: “So if there’s more Eyesight, there’ll be a society with less accidents.”

Chihiro: “And it looks like one person will receive one of these Eyesight-equipped cars as a present.”

Yubaba: “That’s thoughtful. Don’t hesitate to take them up on it.”

Chihiro: “Search for Eyesight and apply!”

[fourseasonsfigs]

Snowy Mountain Wenzhou (Handcrafted)

When I posted about the beautiful handcrafted Taolin Wen Kexing statue from this artist, I mentioned that I had bought a snowy mountain set from her as well. That set made the long sea journey over to me, and is now ready for prime time!

These two were sold as a set, ready made. I was very excited to get them, since I didn't have a Zhou Zishu in this size and style yet.

I will tell you though, I messed up with this set. These were shipped in a very large box, so I figured I'd have them wrapped up in air column wrap to given them extra protection.

I did NOT think this decision through. It did not occur to me that the force of the air columns would press down too harshly on the figures. So, a couple things happened.

First, Wen Kexing's beautiful head (and please do take a minute to admire this gorgeous paint job) got broken - you can see how under his jaw there is a big crack. As I've said with these ultralight clay figures before, they're actually pretty flexible and tough - they just can't take crushing damage very well. In this case, though, it was an easy fix - I just pulled open the crack a little bit more (yes, that's as unpleasant as it sounds), ran a thin line of glue, and pressed it back shut until the glue bonded. Good as new!

The other issue, however, was that the force of the air columns squeezing up against the figures pressed all the beautiful drapery against itself. As you saw in the Taolin Wen Kexing, the artist very carefully molds all these wonderful curved folds and drapes everything against the figure in layers and layers of clay. She did on this set too, before some of those curves all got compressed together for a month, in the heat of early summer shipping. So, those folds arrived all flat and stuck to themselves. I tried running the rounded curved handle of a powder brush under the folds to loosen them up, which actually did separate them from each other nicely. But the sheets of ultralight clay are so thin, that I was afraid of ripping them if I was more aggressive. What I need to do is run the clothing under warm water and see if I can make the sheets a bit more pliable to re-bend back into place, but I have to work up the intestinal fortitude to do that first. Maybe later this fall.

Alright! I'll do the normal photographic circle around the two of them, and then do a bunch of closeups of each of them so you can see all the beautiful detail.

Beautiful! Even a bit squished, they're still incredibly lovely. The camera had a hard time focusing on both of them at the same time, so here's some detailed photos, starting with A-Xu:

Just amazing. The way she does the lips on these figures alone is incredible. Not to mention how we get this beautiful modeling on the neck, so when the light hits it we get the Adam's apple and the shadows of the muscles.

If this was me, I'd still be paralyzed in the initial stages of picking out the right colors...not anywhere vaguely close to starting in on the first drapery fold of the first figure.

Alright, on to Lao Wen:

Ridiculous. If I was this talented, I'd literally never shut up about it. I'd be insufferable. Luckily for everyone, that's in no way a problem.

The shine on the lips. I can't get over it, it looks so perfect.

It's easy for me to forget when I'm staring at Wen Kexing's immaculate face, but I can't forget he's holding A-Xu's drinking gourd for him!

Here's a picture of all three statues that I have so far. If you missed my post about Taolin Wen Kexing, it's here.

I'm out of picture slots, or I'd just keep posting pictures of these two, I love them.

Are there more posts coming about figures I've bought from this artist? Absolutely! I love her work. There's a couple Crown Prince figs, among others, that I'm really excited about (yes, I have been obsessed with watching Legend of Anle)!

Material: Ultra-light clay

Fig Count: 443

Scene Count: 30

Rating: Forever beautiful

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[buldrokkastee]

@nenestansunsthings I would absolutely love to talk about Deepcolor some more so thank you for giving me this prime opportunity. Although I'll preface everything I'm about to say with the classic 'I am not an expert or even particularly good at the video game Arknights'. I'm not doing big brain clears and I'm usually splashing around waves 1-4 of IS3 at the highest. I get through most new and old content with the classic winning strat of big fish with big numbers.

That being said, this is what you'll need to start off on the path of being a Squid Expert. A Squexpert, if you will. Now then:

This here is going to be your perfect Deepcolor.

Obviously she isn't going to be your go-to for DPS or serious tanking or anything like that, your general use for her is going to be as an opener. With her Module it costs 11 DP to get her and her first tentacle on the field (Yes that's the same amount you could use to put Mountain down instead but that's boring) so for most stages you pop her down asap right after your flagbearer and use her summons to block the early enemies around the map until you have DP to retreat them and set down your Big Boys. Easy, cost-effective, simple.

Aside from that, her summons are decently tanky for their cost so you can also use them to bait ranged attacks or the bomb drones or kill annoying spiders in the corner of the map. She can heal them back up too with her S1 if they survive, something none of the other summoners in the game can do so far (Though most of them have a way to refresh their summons, which Deepcolor can't do without retreating and redeploying). Basically you use the tentacles as mini-Gravels. With her module you'll have seven to work with, which is more than enough to get through most maps.

In SSS she's pretty much going to be a very cheap Supporter you can drop in and retreat immediately for free transfer permits, and in Reclamation Algorithm she's good for quickly scouting out around a new map with her summons. Nothing too fancy for those game modes.

The place I bring her out the most is as a starting pick for IS3, since in the early floors you'll usually have deployment slots to spare that she can fill right up with cheap blockers until you've built up your roster a bit more. You can use her S1 in situations where you need the summons to stay in place for longer, but her S2 can also come in clutch if Gopnik the One Punch or the invisible dog show up and you need to stall. For the cost of 3 whole hope you'll have 7 funny little tentacle guys with 35% dodge (50% at M3) that can keep the bear from hell in one spot for a surprisingly long time even with terrible RNG.

She's unfortunately useless against the duck, but you can't win them all.

You'll also find a whole lot of little spots in maps where you just need something that can safely kill a spider, or bait the stun snipers, etc etc. No she won't carry you past the third floor but she'll pull her weight very well while you're starting off.

Relics Deepcolor has good and/or funny synergy with are:

Glory Pack - Congrats you now have seven stun bombs ready to go anywhere on the map.

Sui's Wrath - And now you have seven random 3K damage airstrikes waiting to drop for 3DP a pop.

Glorious Kazimierz + The Return - 35-50% dodge on all allies in her range means she can really help these bad boys proc when you need them.

Timeworn Poetry Strips - Mostly self explanatory, but also: Unlike Ling, Deepcolor's summoning is only limited by your actual deployment slots. So she can put all 7 of her tentacles down at once with this, which is mostly just very funny to see.

Hand of Flowing Water/Stalwart Aid Books- I wouldn't recommend getting her just because you got these, there are other units that use them way better. Doesn't hurt to have them though.

There aren't any specific operators I can think of off the top of my head that she has unique synergy with, since the whole point of Summoners is just to fill in gaps when they're not soloing stages. But if you put her next to Andreana in your base or on a map I'll consider it a treat for me specifically.

[dynared]

I'm once again bored, so I'm thinking over a character from Transformers who got either ignored and/or hosed and am wondering what Skybound or another series can do with him. With the Super Ginrai toy apparently due out soon, I'm turning my attention to Ginrai/Powermaster Optimus Prime/Apex Prime, quite possibly one of the most unique concepts in Transformers that no one really has fleshed out in any way.

Ginrai is the main protagonist of Transformers Masterforce, a truck driver who is accidentally bound to two bracelts that let him combine with a very familiar red looking truck.

Unfortunately, the narrative itself says little about the fact that the truck is Optimus Prime, with a clip show called The Big Book of Masterforce released after the series ended claiming it was meant to be a new body for Prime before the evil Devil Z stole it, and it was bound to a human.

The Marvel comic book meanwhile, ignores this in favor of saying it WAS Optimus, with his binary-bonded Nebulan partner, Hi-Q, helping to unleash his body's true potential. Only there it was Hi-Q who became the non-entity, barely appearing on panel until a plotline where Optimus cheated death by essentially downloading his brain into Hi-Q.

And yet despite both the popularity of the toy mold and design, and the flexibility of the idea, Powermaster Prime/Ginrai hasn't really been used in anything. Dreamwave floated the idea of Ginrai appearing in one of their sourcebooks, only for the company to have its rather famous dissolution due to Pat Lee's tomfoolery, Animated had plans to make their version of Powermaster Prime/God Ginrai without Ginrai or any Powermaster elements but the show famously ended with the start of the Hub Network, the Wings Universe had Ginrai as a separate character from Prime (and a paranoid neurotic) and IDW, as part of their hate-on for all things Japanese Transformers, didn't use him at all.

That said, there's a lot you can do with this character, but it feels like all of it is Year 4 or Year 5, rather than Year 1.

Optimus Prime - Agent of GI Joe.

With the Energon Universe going all in on the idea of Transformers and GI Joe being in the same universe, the human element has a much easier grounding figure than someone who just happens to come along and slots neatly into the Commander role without interference. If a human was able to transform into someone that looked like Optimus Prime and the government found out, well, odds are that person would be recruited by Colonel Hawk and the Joes to act as the Autobot commander, and possibly to ensure that the Bots act in the best interest of the US government.

From there, there's a lot of both Transformers action and spy fiction elements that can be implemented into the story. How long before the Autobots figure out the ruse? Will they? Will Ginrai or whoever the human is be forced to silence his allies to avoid his secret coming out? And how much of Optimus will rub off on him? Especially if Optimus isn't really dead and that Transector isn't empty?

Spike Witwicky - King of Braves.

Poor Spike has been through a lot in the first arc of the Transformers comic. Without spoiling too much, the series starts with his mom having died a few years back, his dad an alcoholic, and he gets hurt during the fighting between Bots and Cons. While characters like him are normally used in a context to provide a more "normal" set of eyes, the US cartoon eventually made Spike into an Autobot, as the head of Fortress Maximus. Unfortunately, The Rebirth miniseries where this occurred clearly had shown the series was out of gas at that point.

Still, given Spike's relationship with Optimus, the idea of Spike being forced to act as Prime's partner, or even more notably, his replacement, creates an angle that would be very interesting, IF we spend enough time with him to feel earned.

It's bad enough Spike was essentially a galactic ambassador to a war he never knew about, now he has to lead the people he got to knew and trust against enemies probably far more powerful than the Cons that started the war. How does he react to that given everything the war has likely taken from him? Does he embrace the opportunity to fight back against the invaders, or does he threaten to crack under the pressure? Not to mention the evergreen G1 characters Spike may know suddenly dealing with someone who's a full-fledged super robot, and may be the difference between victory and defeat?

Like my Star Saber meta, these are just some basic ideas for what could be a very interesting character later on with themes of identity, symbols, and the injecting of super robots into the American G1 framework in a more direct way than the Japanese shows did originally. Still, I think it's something that could be a lot of fun in the hands of the right writer.

[vxntagedior]

let me into your heart

summary | the only way for eddie to get to you is through a song

pairing | eddie munson x fem!bartender!reader

warning | fluff, angst, reader is like 21-22 so a little age gap, based on me and your mama by childish gambino

word count | 1.6k

Bartending was not the job you were expecting when you decided to stay in Hawkins. College was expensive enough as it is, and you knew that you wouldn’t fulfill that glory your parents wanted, leaving the money for your sister.

After graduating from Hawkins High, you worked as a waitress at one of the restaurants in town, and by the time you turned 21, you were just ready to leave. 

The Hideout was on the edge of town, mostly forgotten by the population of Hawkins, always empty, and slightly run down. Owned by the same people since it was open in the 1960s, you met the owner and his wife at your old restaurant and heard they were looking for a new bartender. 

Walking into that interview, you knew nothing about making drinks. Yes there were parties in high school, where everyone would just pour whatever alcohol and mixer they could find to get blackout drunk, but you never knew the preciseness that went into it. 

Tom, and his wife Pam hired you at the end, seeing the potential you had, and thought maybe you could give some new light to the Hideout. 

Since being hired, you have probably seen the same five people walk in, construction workers coming in after the day, just wanting to get drunk, and the only good thing that came out of it was you knew to pour a beer on your first day. 

You liked the bar was slow, it gave you more time to learn more with the head bartender, John, a close friend of Tom and Pam’s who was soon ready to retire. Soon enough, you were able to get the kinks out and be able to work on your own without John in the back with you. 

The Hideout in its prime was a big popular place, people coming in and out, bands playing every Friday and the weekends, the place full, and by the time everyone grew out of their party age, and started families it died down.

Coming into work Thursday night, you were ready for the same 5 people to come in and get black outed drunk, you weren’t expecting the group of guys setting up the stage.

“Hey Pam.” You knocked on the door to her office. “Is there something going on tonight?”

“Hi sweetheart, it’s my nephew Jeff and his band, I offered them the Tuesday night slot to play.”

You didn’t say anything else, just giving her a smile before going back to the bar. Looking back up at the stage you saw the four guys, three of them looked like they were still in high school while the one in front who just looked a year or two younger than you. Paying them no more attention you went back to your tasks, pouring another round for the guys who were sitting at the bar. 

Corroded Coffin, you learned their name, a weird one but it had potential. Their music wasn’t terrible, you were never into metal but they sounded okay. There were four boys, a drummer, two basses and a guitar. The eldest boy out of the group looked to be the leader along with vocals.

Tuesday night was the same as it was, 5 men coming in after working the night shift, needing a drink before they went back home.

“Ahem.” You barely looked up from your station, pouring another round of beers for the men, “We’re uh-Corroded Coffin, first gig.”

God, they needed to work on their stage presence. The drummer looked like a deer in highlights and the lead was just twisting his rings back and forth.

The crowd was quiet while they played, probably didn’t even notice that anyone was there.

Pam was the only one clapping when they finished, and probably the only person who enjoyed their set. Your attention was still on your tasks, counting your tips, wiping down the counters, stocking inventory, it was late and you knew no one else was gonna come in and you would like to go home early.

“So what did you think?” The voice brought you out of your thoughts, making you jump slightly. 

“It was okay.” You were honest. “Metal isn’t really my thing.”

Grabbing a glass and filling it up with ice, you pour the soda into the cup before sliding it towards him. 

“I’m Eddie.” He introduced.

“Y/n.”

That was the farthest the conversation went, you watched Eddie try to say something more before giving up and walking back towards his band.

-

You continued to see Eddie every Tuesday night, they usually had the same set, saying how it took them a while to learn a new song. There were originals along with a few covers from their favorite bands, ones you still didn’t know. 

“I remember you.” He said one night after the gig. “You were in my math class, my junior year.” It took you a moment to register it, but you did remember seeing him whenever you walked into class, he’d always sit in the back, his feet perched up on the desk, messing around with his friends.

“Yeah.” You smiled. “I do remember.”

“I’d always thought you’d leave Hawkins when you graduated, surprised to still see you here.”

“Yeah, I thought the same.”

Eddie tried with all the conversations he had with you to get a little deeper into your heart, maybe hoping his crush wasn’t one-sided.

“C-Can I walk you to your car?” You had gotten off early, finishing your closing task before Eddie and his band left.

“Sure.” Your bag was swung against your shoulder as the two of you walked out. It was around 12:30.

“You know there’s this new restaurant in town.” Eddie was nervous, he was constantly cracking his knuckles, twisting his ring back and forth.

You let out a quiet sigh, “Eddie, I think you’re great, and I think I know where this is going.”

Eddie stared dumbfounded at you, waiting for you to continue. “I barely know you, I’ve seen you twice and you’re already asking me out.”

“That’s why we should go.” Eddie was determined and wouldn’t take no as an answer. “We can get to know each other and go from there.”

“You're cute, but no.” You smiled, patting his cheek, pulling out your keys from your purse. “Goodnight Eddie.”

“Goodnight sweetheart.”

Eddie stayed out, watching you pull out of the parking lot when the rest of the band came out, ready to load everything back up.

“So.” Gareth asked. “What’d she say?”

“No.” He started to smile. “But I know she’ll say yes.”

It turned into clockwork, after their set, Eddie would have a drink with you, watch you clean up, help you sometimes, walk you out to your car and ask you out. And you gave the same answer every single time.

“No.”

It made you laugh about how determined he was to go out with you, and it just almost made you break and say yes, but not enough.

The Hideout was occupied once again by Corroded Coffin, you can’t remember how long they were here, maybe almost 5 months, you weren’t sure.

They had a crowd once, which seemed like the rest of their friends a few weeks ago but seen then it’s been a ghost town.

“So we have a new song tonight.” Hearing Eddie’s voice through the microphone, caused you to peek your head up. “It’s not really the stuff we usually play but it’s dear to my heart.”

“It’s about this girl who just can’t seem to open up her heart to me and hopefully this song can persuade her to change her mind.” You swore you saw him wink at you, before the song started.

Stopping what you were doing, you focused your attention on them, seeing Eddie front in center, starting to play his guitar.

Do what you want

I’m telling you

Let me in your heart

It shocked you that he could sing, just wanting to hear more and more. It was more high pitched than his normal voice trying to hit the higher notes

Can't stand it, backhanded

They wanna see us falling apart

You know that I love you

So let me into you, woo

Your fingers tap to the beat, smiling softly watching him sing, as his eyes focus onto you. At that moment it felt like it was just the two of you in the bar.

The rest of the song kept you hooked, just wanting to hear more of it, more of Eddie. As the song came to its end, you felt flush, clapping softly for them. Coming back into reality, realizing you were done with your shift, you quickly grabbed a cup, filling it with ice and soda, and grabbing a napkin and pen.

As Eddie started walking to the bar, he saw your figure, rushing out the door, barely sparing him a glance, was it that bad, he thought.

Looking down at his drink, his eyes did a double take looking at the napkin under it.

Maybe I can get a private concert?

Xxx-xxx-xxxx

His eyes widened, snatching the napkin, and following you out.

“Y/n!”

You looked up to see Eddie sprinting towards you car, a wide grin plastered onto his face.

Even before you could say anything, Eddie finally got to you, his hands grabbing your cheeks, pulling you towards his lips. Melting into his arms, his lips, you wrapped your arms around his neck, pressing up against him.

“I see you saw my note.”

“I think I’m gonna frame it.” His hands felt natural on your waist, looking down at you. “So dinner?”

“Pick me up tomorrow.” Removing yourself from him, you got back into your car, starting the ignition.

“Wait, I don’t have your address.” He grabbed onto your door, keeping it open to hear you..

“But you have my number.”

fin.

[centrally-unplanned]

something it occurred to me to wonder recently and thought if anyone would know, it would be you ;p

when Eva began back in 1995, how much was it anticipated? both narrowly in otaku circles, and more widely among 'people who watch TV in Japan'? as far as i understand the history, Gainax was pretty niche back then and mostly known for dating sim games, but the visual style of Eva is so immediately striking...

like, I know nobody quite realised just how huge it would become, but was there some sort of excitement for a new robot anime from the people who made Wings of Honneamise, Gunbuster and Nadia? or was it a complete surprise?

Hm, good question! I am not super confident in my answer, so my bet is "highly anticipated but not crazily so". Gainax was known but niche, having 'Otaku' success with as you mention Wings and Gunbuster...until Nadia: Secret of Blue Water came out in 1990. This would not have put Gainax per se on the map, as Toho and Group Tac were branded as the primary producers, Gainax as secondary, but it definitely put Hideaki Anno on the map as director. The show was wildly successful, aired in prime-time slots - which, fun fact, meant that its first season airing was interrupted due to breaking news about the onset of the First Gulf War - and Nadia herself became Best Girl in most of the Newtype/Animage style polls of the time until being dethroned by Sailor Mercury in 1992. Nadia was definitely still 'an anime', and it was a kids show in too many ways to be a real breakout. But it was the top of anime of its time, no debate.

Its success is what gave Anno the ability to finance Evangelion, and it meant he was also able to pull a lot of 'big talent' for branding purposes - which ofc was intentional, Anno is no fool. Hiring Usagi from Sailor Moon's voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi to be Misato for example, when Sailor Moon was the #1 anime of 1994, is certainly because of her talent but also because of her buzz, and he has a bunch of hires along those lines to make Eva the "oh man the best of the best are all here" kind of show.

(Again fun fact time - you prob know this one - he also tried to bring Kunihiko Ikuhara, Sailor Moon director, onto the animation staff, and as part of his tactics to woo him named Rei Ayanami after Sailor Mars, Ikuhara's favourite SM character that he famously cosplayed. Ikuhara was alas too busy with wrapping up his time on Sailor Moon and forming Be-papas to make Utena to spare the time)

All this meant that by the time Evangelion was getting ready for its Fall 1995 debut, the cover of the April 1995 issue of Newtype looked like this:

And hey, if you want some evidence of the buildup discussed, the first page of the cover feature starts off in 1990, with a discussion of the impact of Nadia:

Even here, once it transitions to discussing Evangelion, Anno is promising "something anime fans have never seen before". It was a common refrain in all the marketing material throughout 1995, that this show was going to be special. The manga adaption actually began print in February of 1995, as a hype builder. The Evangelion team was putting it all on the line.

Also I love that early concept art - the more gundam-esque pilot suits over the plugsuits would have absolutely been my jam, alas.

(This marketing material is more evidence against the mythical "mid-production pivot" theory that fans in the past surmised about Eva's intended story, but a topic for another time)

Still, this is just marketing - who wouldn't say your show will Change Everything, that is your job as a business! For all the inner-otaku hype and rep, Evangelion was definitely targeted at those otaku, and it wasn't marketed to an all-ages demo with wider appeal like Sailor Moon. Anno even remarks in the interview above it would be more of a 'cult hit' compared to Nadia. It had a Wednesday airing slot (at 18:30, not actually super late - another myth, it just had late night re-runs after its evening air slot), not a great time and definitely not a Saturday evening slot like Sailor Moon.

It was a show that instead grew over its airing and broke out of its slot and genre - its finale got audience ratings almost twice that of its premiere (though these numbers are hard to aggregate over different stations). Its about midway through its run that you start getting those "phenomenon of Evangelion" style articles, and when the ending hits the culture critics start jumping in as well and it becomes a true cultural event, and discussion of the show in mainstream magazines starts happening. That wasn't happening in 1995.

I wish I could say it all culminates with End of Evangelion being released and being the #1 film of the year and all that - but while it did well it got its clock absolutely cleaned by Princess Mononoke, which came out the same week. An honourable defeat at least!

Hopefully this is a good answer! Definitely more to be said on the topic, man this would be a great deep dive project...

[storiesofsvu]

Happy Thursday! It’s a very big day pascal!!!

(hint… that has nothing to do with l&o… im sorry for what im about to become…)

Okay, mothership. Let’s see how this starts out.

Okay… so… hear me out… our vic is recently out of jail, sure they were exonerated, BUT I guarantee you the parents/family of that little girl don’t fully believe it and they just became your prime suspects. (and if they don’t even question them in this ep I will be disappointed in them…)

Yeah I really like this new DA.

“ONLY TWO TRIALS IVE EVER LOST” ???!! JESUS FUCK he’s *good*

Ooooo and now there’s $10 million dollars involved. The plot thickens…

I think I say it every week, but I LOVE KATE

I know this bald guy from somewhere but I can’t remember where. OH!! IS IT NURSE JACKIE?! I think it’s from there.

That blue suit shaw’s got on is FIIINE.

You know… I think what I disliked the most about the OG l&o was cosgrove, mccoy and Nolan. Now two of those are gone and I’m actually enjoying the show more LOL.

Why is the courtroom backwards?

Very likely unpopular opinion: I think carisi would fit in really well on this show. We should replace Nolan with him, actually get him some screen time and court room scenes considering svu never lets him be a lawyer anymore (I know we’re getting some tonight but still. I’m salty with how few court scenes we’ve gotten since covid)

SAM IN THE GREEN PANT SUIT!!!! YES!! GIRL!!

Ooooo what a plot twist!! Yaass!

Okay… I might skip TO, we’ll see if it hooks me in the intro or not

It did not suck me in. the end.

SVU here we go!

Ooooooooo a JURY deliberating?!?! We’ve never gotten to see this before!! I think this would be a super neat thing to see more often!

Ohhhh fuuuuuccckkk me. Velasco in the leather jacket and on his bike. FUCK. I literally let out an audible groan and dropped the apple slice I was eating. FUCK. I am down bad for him rn.

Who’s kid is that with fin?

TERRY NAKED IN BED WITH A LADY!!! TERRY NAKED IN BED!!

Listen this like, 10 seconds of personal life is all I need on a regular basis.

Okay he’s found guilt but im assuming that the girl they “peer pressured” into it is gonna come back to bite them in the ass

There’s gotta be some weird ass connection here, OR it’s a Bronwyn 2.0 situation. The way she looked at him? Ugh.

Im over the two new girls on the squad. Over it. I don’t like either of them.

Ah.. yes.. here we go. fuck this shit.

“you’re the one who wrote the bau profile” ….they’re literally trying to be criminal minds now. They DO realize that criminal minds is currently airing right? And that they’re not directly competing with each other, right? Like…cm is on streaming, they’re on cable, and they’re on different days/time slots. Stop with all this profiling shit and stick to just the nypd detective shit. That’s WHY we watch the show and what we come for…

Welp. Adding new charges is certainly a way to go rn. BUT now the defence can come back and say that they’re making shit up just to bring a new case to convict.

I know (assume lol) that it’s the same actress but the three “versions” of Maddie look nothing alike to me. Like, that is not the same girl lol.

I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WHO TERRY WAS IN BED WITH. One night stand? Gf? Casual dating? Fwb? WHOOOMST

“why didn’t you tell anyone this before?” coming from CURRY is EXACTLY why it should’ve been another SVU detective in that room, they know how to act, how to encourage victims to open up. (I get that maybe the thought behind it was that she’s a woman vs the rest of the men, but still).

HAHAH not carisi calling out the other boys for being divorced when they’re giving him shit about marriage troubles. I love him.

Ohhhh gooodddddddd no. not repping himself… fuck.

Okay…either this guy is dumb AF, or he’s playing dumb. Like the comment in chambers all “where do I sit? I’m Canada, I don’t know how the law works down here” and now he’s getting cocky and repping himself? Like yeah, I lowkey get it, Im Canadian and know more about laws in nyc than up here but I’m sure this man wasn’t out writing fanfic while kidnapping girls lol. Like, does he ACTUALLY know enough to accurately rep himself? Probs not. Like that’s fucking dumb. Carisi should be able to get him on so many technicalities and make him look like an idiot/rile him up enough to explode.

Also highkey worried about benson on the stand. She’s already so wound up it might not take long for her to burst. AND considering the jump scare that was William lewis last week, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still on her mind and a perp grilling her on the stand is gonna give her flashbacks of that trial and we all know how that went….

How tf  did he get a MILLION dollars?!

“carisi’s right, that monster needs eyes on him” YEAH DUH. THAT’S YOUR FUCKING JOB OLIVIA! Get yourself/your team on it!

What do you mean you’ve NEVER BEEN ON A STAKEOUT BEFORE?!? Curr’s an iab captain, I’m SURE she had to start as a beat cop… cmon.. that’s lazy writing.

Okay, but madi’s mom isn’t texting the perp to actually sleep with him, she’s doing it to get under his skin, right? Or like, to seduce him and she’s going haywire to kill him, right?

This guy is SO gross.

How is he SO good in a courtroom???

I thought amanda was in this episode?

Yup. Called it.

Velasco could shoot me any day. Sir. Please. I am begging.

“and now fin I want you to leave” girl. What. You’re going so fucking rogue and im so here for it LOL.

Okay, im just now remembering the description of the ep that amanda’s in, I was confused lol

Okay, that ep was good. Lets see how OC does next

Wait… I wasn’t paying attention, was that the MIA cop? Sam? Cause if so… fuck…

Ok, judging by these flashbacks, yes.. god his poor wife.

Elliot.. youre talking like a cop. How long have you been doing this? You know better.

The pacing of these episodes is too slow, it’s getting boring. It’s too much of stabler UC and not enough of actual police work/in the office. Its losing my attention FAST.

Like.. I watch this show for the cast as a whole and when we get arcs like this it turns into the Elliot stabler show and im not here for that. Throwing Ayanna UC for the meeting was a great addition but now we’re back to the stabler show and I’m scrolling my phone not paying attention.

Also… OC always fucks up and doesn’t have subtitles on it and that makes me lose interest cause I just simply cant watch shit without subtitles lol

Man I really fucking feel for sam’s(?) wife. This is heartbreaking. Ayanna & jet both with the single fucking tear? PLEASE. I’m literally crying.

Okay, stabler’s older(?) brother? Was he once a cop too? Or is he just playing cop rn? Is he gonna get himself killed??

This man needs therapy. Period.

“im no cop…”

“relax. I’m atf.” YAS lol.

“youd be surprised” “maybe I wouldn’t” yeah…none of us would. Stabler’s always in trouble.

Well THAT’S SUSPICIOUS

Man, we all knew this was coming, like the foreshadowing (for us as viewers) was SO obvious, but this still suuuuper complicates everything, ESP with joe being MIA.

Okay. That’s all. law and order day is officially over and the rest of the weekend is all about taylor swift. I’m not sorry. T-minus one hour!!!

[gasha40k]

Currently a massive heatwave in my city and it’s slowly boiling me to death in my apartment like an unaware frog, so I decided it’d be a good time to distract myself by getting some tertiary work done on some lads.

From left to right: Kardon the Eternal, Lord Akselos, and some unnamed guy with a big ass axe

Starting with the most boring stuff, my World Eaters character goon squad is all primed and ready to be painted. Once I’m done assembling this army I’m gonna paint these three guys first because they’re the coolest, by far. I’m still mad proud of Akselos’ model and I’m super excited to see how he’ll look on the tabletop when he’s all shiny and colorful.

Epic unusable Chaos model, thank you GW

Speaking of painting World Eaters, here’s a CSM Legionarie that I whipped up a while back as a color test for my World Eaters army. The whole goal with my Khorne fellas is to keep them as default as possible, so the color scheme is very simple and coherent.

On this particular mini, I wanted to maximize my usage of Mephiston Red, which is exemplified most particularly on the rocket launcher, which I’d usually paint with Abaddon Black. I think that it being red, though, gives it a sort of retro feel, which I quite like. This may be one of the better single minis I’ve made, as well. No highlights or anything, but some decent, clean coloring, and a lot of Agrax Earthshade.

I have, however, been doing some highlighting on Lieutenant Sadrian’s model. I’ve also been cleaning him up periodically, coloring over little mistakes and trying to make his model really pop. He’s almost definitely the centerpiece of my Thunderbearers army now.

Check out how regal and leaderly he looks amongst his men. What a tactician!

Sadrian is one of the few models that I haven’t repainted in Skavenblight Dinge, alongside Big Harold, the Venerable Dreadnought that I’ve had since I started the hobby. They’ve both more than earned their stripes on the tabletop, having been in nearly every game I’ve played in the last two or so years, and I figured their paint jobs were pretty serviceable, so a repaint would be unnecessary.

While Sadrian is an elite taxtician that routinely exercises unmatched intellect and complex battlefield knowledge, he is also a by-the-books, reliable warrior and a ruthless marksman, hence the simplicity of the inscription upon his trusty bolt rifle

But to make him stand out more as an HQ, I added some minor highlights to his armor, particularly on his arms and helmet. I also highlighted much of his gun and did some detailing on the purity seals and red tassels. I’m very satisfied with the inscription on his gun. It’s crazy to me that I was able to write a word that small and, uh, have it be actually legible.

Every single painted Astartes model that I own. For context I have nearly 3k points of these fuckers and only 10 finished minis

I’ve painted a good handful of Thunderbearers Intercessors since my last post. Nearly a full 10-man squad, now. Sadrian definitely stands out, and I think that, when contrasted with the leagues of men that he commands, eyes are naturally drawn to him. I’ll never get over how satisfying seeing a cohesively painted army is to my weird brain.

I am so fucking in love with this model and I do not know why, although I figure it’s got something to do with its appearance in Dawn of War

In other news, I’ve got one of these disgusting classic Daemon Princes coming in the mail. GW recently did a made-to-order run of this model, and I’ve been trying to hunt an inexpensive one down for actual months. He’ll be a staple of my WE army whenever I get my hands on him, although I am kind of terrified as painting it.

I’ve just about run out of image slots on tumblr, so I’ll post a bit more about my Crusade (and some thoughts on 10th edition) next post.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Pixar's ELIO, directed by COCO co-director Adrian Molina, would've opened today... Albeit a much different version of the movie.

The delay from this date to June 2025 meant that the fast food promo deals put in place a while ago couldn't be changed, thus - HOODWINKED TOO style - some of the toys are out now, as seen in the pic above...

Yep, I've heard by now what ELIO has supposedly been going through.

It's a unique Pixar production in that it was delayed by about a year and a half...

... AFTER a teaser trailer and poster for the film were released, following a big info drop on the movie at the fall 2022 D23 Expo...

Not even THE GOOD DINOSAUR, an infamously troubled Pixar production, went through that. That film was delayed before anyone outside of D23 attendees saw any footage from the scrapped version of the film, though renders of the older bigger Arlo and the bipedal version of Spot did leak.

All of this agita for ELIO...

... and I feel fine! Yeah, I'm not really worried about this movie.

It's easy to equate "troubled production" with "oncoming disaster", something that's absolutely gonna fail, an abomination from the get-go.

Yet, TOY STORY 2 and RATATOUILLE exist. Other Pixar films, and plenty of other animated movies, go through some form of hell before the ship is steered away from the cyclone. Sometimes within a year or so from release. The end results are always subjective anyways.

So, I have no idea how ELIO will turn out. If it's a movie *I* myself like, if it's a movie that resonates with the public, yadda yadda yadda.

ELIO, however, does not seem like a GOOD DINOSAUR situation to me. GOOD DINOSAUR not only lost its director (Bob Peterson), but the whole movie was thrown out and the replacement director (Peter Sohn) started over from scratch with a few core elements retained. ELIO seems like it's going to be half the movie we saw in the teaser this past summer, and a lot of new stuff. Sections being reworked, rather than the whole movie being thrown out and Molina & co. starting over. Voice work to be done, especially post-strikes, and they'll need time to animate all the new stuff. Pete Docter isn't the leader John Lasseter was, Lasseter likely would've canned Molina and had another director reimagine the concept/story to his liking.

I think it's cool, if this is all true, that Docter is giving Molina and the filmmakers more time to rework the film. Especially after the marketing campaign has kicked in. With that, it probably should stay in June 2025. I had thought for a bit that it could move up a bit and take MOANA 2's place, because that Thanksgiving release sounds like it's going to be a crunch production, what with Auli'i Cravalho and The Rock signing on *just recently* to reprise their roles nine months before release. I'd delay that to spring 2025, honestly. Disney can afford to miss the Thanksgiving slot this year, they'll be fine. INSIDE OUT 2 and CG LION KING prequel can be their sole animation releases this year, even if the latter won't be billed as such.

As for its box office prospects? Big budget sci-fi animated features, even in a not-COVID world, struggle. Especially space-setting sci-fi animation. TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET, anyone? Only something very low-budget would cut it, but we're talking $200m Pixar movies, not that microbudget CLONE WARS movie. (STAR WARS isn't sci-fi to me, but you get my drift, right?)

Pixar, however, *did* score a box office hit with WALL-E all the way back in 2008. Despite the spacebound adventure and the future Earth setting, the marketing wisely focused on the cute robots in love. That got folks to see it back then, methinks. ELIO will need a similar hook, and it's a summer release as well, so it could be primed for a blockbuster run.

However, most non-sequel animated features play a different game now, in a post-COVID outbreak world: Open tiny, have ludicrous legs. That's fine if your feature cost $90m and you made around $250m at the worldwide box office, but like ELEMENTAL before it, ELIO's probably going to need to make around $500m worldwide to break even in the eyes of the money people - who seem to keep forgetting that animated movies have fantastic longevity beyond their theatrical release. ELEMENTAL had the fun premise and the love story working in its favor after its blah opening weekend (though it was pretty high for a post-outbreak animated opening), ELIO... I don't know what it has at the moment. Will the "kid becomes Earth's ambassador within a massive council of aliens" really get audiences to come flockin' in summer 2025? I do not know, but I hope it does good, for Molina's sake, and so we can be spared the five gazillion "is Pixar circling the drain???" articles...

All I know is, I'm looking forward to it. Space adventure and colorful aliens and stuff, by way of Pixar and their resources.

[aprillikesthings]

ugh my wired headphones are still hurting my head >:(

anyway

s3 ep2 huntara

ahahah I love this one

(if you're new here: i'm rewatching She-Ra for fic-writing purposes, and live-blogging my way through them making commentary and jokes and side notes about random shit. bc this is a REwatch there are many references to later plot points)

is that the Beta Kindergarten

(man I've been making a lot of Steven Universe references in these lately, but yeah I can't look at sandstone slot canyons without thinking "hrr hrr where's Jasper")

(wait has a Jasper cosplayer actually taken photos in one of these in like Utah? a quick image search says no. damn.)

how many times did I look at this establishing shot before I realized this part of the Fright Zone is the ruins of a ginormous spaceship

ALSO "day 135"? I noted yesterday that someone working on the show said sOMEWHERE that each season is about a year and I was like "ehhhh" but I guess that's not far off.

That makes the whole catradora arc even more angsty tbh. For some reason I thought the whole show took place over like a single year or so. But FOUR OR FIVE YEARS?? they pined for each other while trying to murder each other for MULTIPLE YEARS????

awwwwww

Listen. I love this ship. I'm always weak for "complete asshole with tough act is soft for one (1) person"

(tho lemme tell you. do not actually date those dudes irl. *sigh*)

why did so many 80's cartoons have extremely unrealistic quicksand scenes tho

gdi adora

The Crimson Waste is actually just a western bar full of furries. But seriously designing the characters in the bar must've been hella fun

AAHAHAAHH Adora being so, so blatantly gay for Huntara is one of my fave things

Did they need to establish that Adora is into women? Pfft, no. Did they still decide to show us Adora being absolutely smitten on sight for an older, big, buff, badass, butchy lady? YES.

Doesn't hurt that she looks likes this lol

like it's the least subtle thing on EARTH i love it so much

oh no now I want to look up fics

18 of them are explicit. well. I'm just gonna. leave that tab open.

ADORA. YOU COCKBLOCKED HER. RUDE.

lol there's a moment where Glimmer and Bow are like "ha ha we need to talk amongst ourselves" and turns around and Adora is still just staring at Huntara with googly eyes without noticing what Bow even said and lemme tell you, I've been that fucking obvious and oblivious

Huntara literally is like "oh my god you kids are gonna end up DEAD without me. FINE." Meanwhile, Adora:

Plot plot Huntara leads them to a trap and they get hit with tranquilizer darts and dropped into a pit.

that's just a nice shot tbh

EAT SOME DAMN SOUP your girlfriend spent TIME on that

she just refuses to be afraid of him

Anyway yeah this is when we find out he's just a clone of Horde Prime the Big Baddy of the series, Hordak is a "defective" clone, he was sent to "the front lines" to die and fell through a portal into Etheria. "with nothing but a broken ship, I built an empire..." the whole point of the portal is to bring Horde Prime through, which means that's what he was doing when he tried before and ended up with A Magic Baby (Adora) instead.

The animation in the flashback is clearly inspired by Lotte Reiniger which is super cool??

Back to the Crimson Waste, they've gotten themselves out of the hole, and Adora's upset because the whole point of this mission is her getting more info about Mara with the hopes of understanding her own past better

she's RIGHT

"...at least to me..."

LISTEN TO YOUR CUTE NERDY GIRLFRIEND YOU EMO BASTARD

She makes him a nice techy exoskeleton armor thingie

that's a start but c'mon I know you can do better than that

lolol the recorder baby critter KICKS HIM in an obvious "dude really????"

look at him!!! AAHAHAH

i'm gonna go over the image limit and tumblr's gonna cut me off and make me reblog this any minute now but this episode is jUST TOO GOOD

"I like being friends with you, too" ;_;

Huntara's "friends" make fun of her for being a softie while she swings the She-Ra sword around and then Glimmer drops in wooo

yeah I know this is a fight scene but eheheheh

and then they banged

okay they kept fighting but like, c'mon

the "sword point under the chin" thing is just so good and I loved the way they did the angles here

OH SHIT I forgot Huntara had heard of She-Ra

OH HO HO HOW THE TURN TABLES

Anyway Huntara does her little speech about how she also used to be a Horde soldier but left because Hordak was such a dick to his soldiers. "you would know, you were one of us."

called THE FUCK OUT

Huntara does her little "you can't defeat the Horde alone even if you're She-Ra" and she responds with "yah I'm not alone tho"

but also that shot is unnecessarily hot

....i've hit the image limit with two minutes to spare so I went back and deleted one because

hggghh

(not gonna get into how Shadow Weaver's face-touching thing is what made Adora do it here but yeah)

Huntara tells her minions to get lost, admits that the war scared the shit out of her and that's why she ran, but she knows that's bullshit and she promises to help Adora stop the war :D and then leads them to the place they were originally looking for: the ruins of Mara's ship!

AND EPISODE OVER

(gonna...see if any of those fics are any good 👀)

[fandomwritingbit]

So I legit wrote this in the middle of the night, had a dream and had to. I’m so sorry about the grammar and over all tone lol. Tis just a little cute Afton idea, sfw.

I like the idea of Freddy’s being more of a nightclub, like open ‘til ungodly hours, dancing, live music, bouncers on the door kinda joint. And you’ve got Mr Afton, the fella in charge of pretty much everything because Henry is useless and I mean everything: he has to pick up security shifts if no one else will, fix any shit that breaks, the bastard takes care of accounts, inventory. He just never sleeps. The place sucks every last bit of life from him and he hates it with every crumb of his “soul”. 

You could be wait staff there or security or whatever, but like everyone else on the payroll you know that Mr Afton is not one to mess with. Over your tenure there you’ve seen him physically pick up patrons and remove them from the club, not to mentions the fights. He’d never hit first, man is patient like that, will take their shit for face value and just chew them out, but the second some hard-man thinks they can take him, he isn’t holding back. Brutal fighting, not just enough to make them not a threat anymore, much further. Smashing their face in, kicking them when they’re down, breaking limbs, and if they’re particularly mouthy, spitting on them. 

So when it’s a Saturday night band slot that’s missing (11 ‘til 01am prime time slot) cancelled for whatever reason you’d expect him to go to their house and fuck them up for the inconvenience, but no. Seeing the club full with drinks flowing, he knows he can’t afford to loose out on the earnings tonight would get.

Everyone is astounded when he chuckles mean-spiritedly at the news, snarling at the nearest fucker that he’ll do it and Henry doesn’t object. Henry must’ve know of Afton’s history singing, maybe he’d even partnered up with Mr Emily in the hope that the club would give him the chance to do something he enjoys. That wasn’t the case though. Regardless, Henry knows that William can fill the slot finely but he’s surprised at the old-dog’s audacity in doing so. 

He takes the stage and the cunt just sings. And its good - like really good. Staff are looking at each other in disbelief that this man, who can sing like that, is slaving away at a shitty club, barley keeping the lights on. You could tell he was using this as a vent opportunity, every bit of pent up rage, at Henry, at Freddy’s, at his life in general being let out. 

And when he’s done he just walks off towards the back offices, really stunned staff following behind, you being one of them, from the look of his face he looks like he’s about to go outside and put a hole through the wall. People drop off in the journey until eventually its just you following him out, questions on your tongue; something about what he did had just hit home. He’s after a fag, a mix of indignation and amusement on his face, uncaring that he was getting ash all over. 

“The fuck are you doing here?” He spits, turning towards you in a sudden movement that catches you off guard. 

“I just...” You can’t think of words to say, the raised eyebrows and tightness of his jaw really making you regret coming out in-toe. Man is fucking menacing.

“You’re really good.” 

He laughs curtly, self-deprecation in his mouth. 

“Yeah. I know, shocking innit?”

~

Things are coming, big things. Just not having the time to write all the shit swilling around in my head :)

[mariacallous]

On April 14, Eva Vlaardingerbroek told Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show that the Dutch government was opening “insect factories” to force people to eat bugs as “a compliance test” to see how pliable they’d be to state control. “Our politicians know that when they control the food, they control the people,” she said. Vlaardingerbroek, a 26-year-old political commentator from Amsterdam, was an occasional guest on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, railing against globalism and “elites” and alleging that European governments are using the threat of climate change (which she calls a “so-called” crisis) to “rule by fear.”

Vlaardingerbroek isn’t anything like a mainstream figure in the Netherlands, but the fictional version of her country she draws is useful for Carlson. Her Netherlands—“the pilot country for an organization like the World Economic Forum” and “the tester kid of the 2030 Agenda”—supports his narrative that a liberal takeover of the US would lead to climate lockdowns and compulsory bug-eating. But by elevating fringe characters and encouraging them to repeat or reference unfounded conspiracy theories, Carlson—who was suddenly dumped by Fox News yesterday—has helped bring often dangerous misinformation into the mainstream around the world.

Tucker Carlson isn’t just an American problem. He’s a dark spot tracking across the global internet. His evening slot was Fox’s most watched show, pulling in 3.5 million viewers a night. But clips of his show posted on social media have had a far greater reach, appearing across antivax groups and globalist conspiracy theory groups like QAnon. He has had a particular hold on international far-right movements, which have latched onto Carlson’s amplification of the white supremacist “great replacement” theory—the idea that white people are being deliberately and systematically replaced by non-white people. The narratives he’s pushed have been picked up and amplified by Russian disinformation campaigns across Europe and the US and used as propaganda tools by authoritarians.

“Fox News launders these extreme ideas and brings them into mainstream discussions,” says Bharath Ganesh, who studies online disinformation and hate speech at the university of Groningen in the Netherlands. Far-right groups talk about the great replacement theory in their own circles, he says. “Then Tucker Carlson picks it up, and then it gets pushed out.”

Carlson’s exit came days after Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation suit by Dominion Voting Machines, a polling technology company. Dominion had accused Fox of spreading the lie that its machines had been used to skew the 2020 presidential election results. It’s unclear whether the two events are linked. But Carlson did repeatedly give a platform to proponents of the “big lie” that the election was stolen from then-incumbent Donald Trump. And in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, in which thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol, Carlson defended the rioters, saying the footage showed “peaceful chaos,” after selectively editing down Capitol surveillance footage provided by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Seven people died as a result of the violence, and nearly 140 police officers were injured.

On his show, which had aired since 2017, Carlson spun a story of a US that is relentlessly under attack from the forces of liberalism and “wokeism,” one where immigration, affirmative action, and attempts to confront the country’s history of slavery are a direct attack on white America. 

In many ways, Carlson treated his program as a “mirror” for far-right communities, says Jared Holt, senior researcher on hate and extremism at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank. Holt believes that Carlson’s team was highly attuned to far-right subcultures online, and that the topics Carlson addressed in his show were heavily informed by them. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen conversations happening among reactionaries on Twitter, or among faceless trolls on 4chan, only to see it pop up on Tucker Carlson’s show a day or two after,” he says. In 2020, one of the writers on Carlson’s show was fired for posting racist, sexist, and homophobic content on the 4chan-like message board AutoAdmit.

The ethno-nationalism of Carlson’s content resonates internationally because the online far-right is global, with communities in Europe, Latin America, and Australia overlapping, sharing spaces and stories. Groups in one country will often cherry-pick news stories in another to reinforce broader points. Overplaying the social impact of the influx of Syrian refugees into Europe in 2016, for example, helped build the case for the great replacement theory and support anti-immigration groups in the US and Australia. Such conspiracies can echo back and forth between countries, gathering momentum as they do so. 

Pushing the idea that London—whose popular, left-wing, Muslim mayor is a target of hate on Fox—is in violent chaos and terminal decline helps demonstrate the supposed dangers of liberal rule. But the lie then enters a feedback loop, with UK far-right groups picking up Fox’s coverage and using it to validate their own prejudices.

“Anywhere you see this international far-right movement, you see what we call appropriation,” says Julian Droogan, associate professor of terrorism studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. This was most evident during the Covid pandemic, when far-right conspiracy theory groups used the real sense of crisis to drive their own narratives. “It became all about white genocide and a plan to kind of install a liberal world government that was going to undermine white people and so on,” Droogan says.

There is still a significant overlap between white supremacist communities and antivax groups online. Fox and Carlson have a prominent place in Covid disinformation circles too. Screenshots of Carlson appear alongside coronavirus misinformation circulated in the Spanish-language Telegram group Verdades Ofenden (Offensive Truths) with more than 15,000 subscribers. Posts from this channel are regularly circulated in other Spanish-language and Latin America-focused disinformation channels, including those run by a network called Médicos por la Verdad (Doctors for the Truth) . The group was removed from Facebook in 2021 for violating the platform’s Covid misinformation policies. But its several Telegram groups have a combined total of around 98,000 members.

Droogan worked on several studies on the online far-right for the Australian government, following a 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a white supremacist who had allegedly been radicalized online. He calls Carlson’s reinforcement of the great replacement theory “the most dangerous of his actions.” That theory has been cited as motivation by several white supremacist terrorists, including the perpetrator of the Christchurch shootings.

There is, Droogan says, an implicit violence in the theory, particularly when it’s filtered through a US perspective. American mainstream media, and Fox in particular, gives platforms to people who use conspiracist terminology—including references to “elites” and “globalists” and nods to the “great reset,” like those made by Vlaardingerbroek—in a way that rarely happens on broadcast television in Europe or Australia.

“Terms like ‘race war,’ concepts like accelerationism—to go out there and create societal crises or to exaggerate them to intensify them to create some kind of culminating, purifying violence against all these threats to white identity—these really come out of the American psyche and popular culture,” Droogan says. 

It’s impossible to draw a direct line between content on Tucker Carlson Tonight and political events inside or outside the US. But his place within the information ecosystem means he’s been, at the very least, a passive participant in some startling coincidences.

In June 2022, Carlson interviewed Jair Bolsonaro, then the right-wing president of Brazil, who spent the months running up to the country’s elections in October trying to sow doubt about the validity of the vote. 

“During the interview, [Carlson] was speaking the same language as the far-right in Brazil,” says Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist with the Coalizão Direitos na Rede in Brazil. Santos says Carlson’s focus on anti-communism, skepticism about the Covid pandemic, and concern around “anti-white racism” resonated deeply with Brazil’s far-right. “The external approval coming from the US,” says Santos, reinforces and validates the views of the far-right in the country.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son, often featured clips from Carlson’s show on his popular YouTube channel, where he has over 1 million subscribers, with translations and subtitles in Portuguese. These clips, as well as others from Carlson’s show, would then circulate amongst the country’s far-right groups, appearing in Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups.

In the lead-up to the Brazilian elections, says Santos, short clips from Carlson’s show were being shared in these groups. “A lot of Carlson’s criticisms of [US President Joe] Biden, or what Biden represents, would be redirected into something that could help Bolsonaro,” says Santos. “And a lot of this comes from YouTube and social media networks, and that’s generally where the conversation starts.”

Then, on January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters tried to storm the presidential palace in Brasilia, after the right-wing populist lost an election runoff to his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro isn’t the only authoritarian that Carlson has boosted. He’s been a vocal advocate for Viktor Orban, Hungary’s president, who has railed against LGBTQ rights and migration, and who routinely accuses the American financier and bête noire of the far right, George Soros, of interfering in the country’s politics.

“[Carlson] is a celebrated figure in authoritarian countries he championed on his show,” says Matt Gertz, senior researcher at Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group. “He received a glowing reception from Orban, and his Ukraine coverage was touted and promoted by Russian propagandists.”

Carlson has echoed Russian talking points on Ukraine and criticized the US government for supporting the government in Kyiv. Several researchers told WIRED that Fox, and in particular Carlson, have been useful tools for Russia, amplifying narratives about the dangers of liberalism and the impending collapse of Western civilization. When news of his firing broke, Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov offered Carlson a job.

Yesterday, Vlaardingerbroek posted a picture on Twitter of herself with an arm around Carlson. “Tucker is the best of the best in the industry. He tells the truth like no one else does, in a way no one else can. I stand with him 100%,” she wrote, before retweeting the right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, who claimed that Carlson’s firing meant that “the evil ones will try to win and remove him from history, and commence another Armenian-style genocide against all of us.” 

[whats-another-song-contest]

I keep reading comments all over how disappointing the first Melfest heat was and apparently the least-watched Mello start in over a decade. There are even predictions about a possible NQ of Sweden (which I won't believe in because, well, it's Sweden and practically guaranteed around 20 televote points from Finland & Norway). According to Crystal Ball ESC on Twitter the next two heats are going to be even weaker than the first one, and there are speculations about the contest being rigged for Loreen since she got the ultimate pimp slot performing last in the last heat. What are your thoughts?

Oh, interesting question!

My feeling is that people are overreacting a bit by saying things like Sweden might have a non-qualifier before we've even heard all the entries. Another thing which I always keep in mind with esc stuff is the divide between the fans and the general public, since their tastes can differ drastically (see Latvia last year). As far as rigging the contest, I would say that's unlikely. I think that like most years we have a bunch of medicore songs and a few good ones, and because Loreen garners the most interest and likely has one of the better songs they've put her last to let people engage with the rest of the entries before she gets most of the attention (I'm also of the opinnion that people put too much store in the influence of the running order - just because it's the factor we know beforehand doesn't mean it'll be the most significant one on the actual night, when so many more and less predictable factors come into play). But I also only keep up with tumblr and YouTube comments, so I can't really evaluate the nuances of what fans are saying elsewhere.

I get where they're coming from though. To me it feels like mello has been running on empty for years now. Unlike countries with less established national selection procedures, where the varied selection processes may result in more diverse and risky entries, Melodifestivalen feels like a bohemuth whose deep roots make it very hard to shift. There is a very particular and established public perception of what mello is and should be in Sweden, and behind the scenes there is a whole industry which also helps maintain this expected fascade (how tired aren't we of hearing that the same few names have written most of the entries?).

It's like I said in my post comparing mello to doctor who: at this point mello keeps moving mostly on built-up momentum. But momentum doesn't allow for the quick turns and adaptions other countries can pull off so effortlessly. Momentum isn't a creative force, it's a derrivative one. For many countries, national selections are a sprint to be undertaken each year. Mello is a marathon we've been running since Björkman revolutionised the format in 2002. Another simile would be a garden: most countries plant new annuals every year, some have nice bushes they've been tending to for some years, and mello is the big old oak at the edge of the garden. It's majestic and showcases decades of dedicated hard work, yes, but no matter how much love and effort we keep puring into it, trees still grow old and wither. This particular one probably hit its prime over a decade ago.

I'm mixing my metaphors, but I think you get the point. We live in a very different world to 2002. We listen to and engage with music in ways you would struggle to explain to a 2002-ian if you were to go back in time and try. I think it's beyond argument that mello needs not just a reform, but to be revolutionised - the way they did in 2002 - to keep it interesting and relevant to current audiences: both the fans and the public at large. The transfer of management from Björkman to the new team (which happened before last year's edition) would have been a great opportunity for this to be done, but the tiny changes which actually were implemented are barely worthy of the name in my opinion. Behind the scenes they may have made a difference, but the experience of watching the show is very much the same - if not worse (glances at the painfully predictible voting procedure).

Real revolution would take inspiration, and that would equire entusiasm from people deeply familiar with the current landscape available to musical audiences. Mello feels like it's gone in the other direction, toward a more corporate "make a formula and stick to it" assembly line type deal. Though, I guess mello has never been the place you went for musical innovation; perhaps my tastes have just diversified with age. Either way, I agree with the general consensus that mello feels stale. There's a reason esc is my main interest, and it's the diversity of the music and performances. If mello feels more and more restrictive, esc is a liberating breath of fresh air. I can't wait for May to arrive!

[tangledbea]

I got into the series later then some other fans and I have heard it said that ratings for the show went down after season 1and continued to decline. Is this true? I guess this surprises me because I greatly enjoyed this series. Is there a reason as to why the ratings dropped in later seasons?

I think I got psychic damage from reliving this and writing this replay. XD

It is true, and, as far as I know, it was a self-perpetuating problem on Disney's part.

Now, I'm no expert in ratings. I don't know where to go to look for them, nor do I know how to interpret what I'm seeing when I am shown ratings (last time I saw a ratings number for TTS, my only thought was, 'Okay, but that looks like a lot of people are watching it?'). But here is how it appeared to me, a layman, as I was watching the series air.

"Tangled: Before Ever After" was a Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM for short), and was given a lot of fanfare by Disney Channel. It was aired in a prime time slot, on a Friday night, and ran multiple times over its premier weekend. The series started in earnest two weeks later, also on Friday evening. Disney aired reruns, made merch, promoted it, genuinely tried to get people to watch it. There were promotional posters up at the theme parks to drum up interest. There was a doll set and a Christmas ornament made to promote Queen For a Day, and after the episode aired, it was released on DVD. Tangled got its own panel at D23 Expo in 2017.

But from what I understand from what people who worked on the series told me, DTVA has a tendency to promote the newest, shiniest thing for a season, then turn its attention to the next big thing. In Tangled's case, the next big thing was DuckTales, which aired almost exactly five months after Tangled did. I guess numbers weren't quite where Disney wanted them to be, because despite pre-approving three seasons, they slowed on making merch after S1. I mean, a few things still came through for S2. There's the LEGO set of the caravan, for example. It seemed to me that they didn't catch the audience they were aiming for (girls from 6 - 12) and they didn't know what to do with the audience they grabbed (teens and young adults).

So, they stopped promoting it, stopped making merch of it (and what little merch was made wasn't aimed at the viewing demographic, but the target one), and what shot itself the most in the foot, they started changing the day and time they were airing it, pushing it more and more into time slots aimed at the target demographic instead of leaning into the curve and switching their focus to the demographic actually watching. New episodes aired on a moving target. If you weren't already keyed in to when they were coming out, it was difficult to figure out when it would be, because it kept changing. I had crew members tell me that they only way they knew when the episodes were airing was because of my blog. Sometimes they ran reruns, most of the time they did not. And when they did run reruns, it was in the middle of the day, when the only kids home were kindergarten-age. And when the series was on hiatus, reruns didn't air at all. This was no way to grab new viewers who might just happen to stumble upon it. At this point, the only way to watch it was to do so deliberately, either getting your butt up at 7 am on a Sunday or turning on DisneyNOW or your cable provider to watch it as soon as it dropped at midnight. The fandom had viewing parties, for goodness sake.

And then, Disney decided to blitz through the last part of S2 (after a six-month hiatus) and the first part of S3 in bomb format. The last part of S2 aired two episodes back to back, once a week. The first part of S3 aired them one right after another on consecutive week days before hitting us with a three month hiatus. Disney seemed to be done with it, and just running out the clock until the series was over. As a fan, it was an exhausting schedule to keep up. Even when it returned to its one episode a week format, it still aired first thing in the morning on Sundays.

It can't have helped that this aired when it did, societally-speaking. Things were rapidly moving from being aired on TV to being launched exclusively online. They were really trying to promote the use of DisneyNOW, and in the middle of Tangled's run, Disney+ launched.

Anyway, TL;DR, Disney didn't like the numbers it was showing by the end of S1, and so they stopped promoting it and started changing what day and time the episodes aired, which can't have helped those numbers. Instead of trying to make it better, they gave it up as a lost cause and made it worse.

[agentsquirrelsgotrobots]

It was time for Tarn's favorite chore involving his little microcon.

Voice box maintenance.

Darkmount's outlier ability caused strain on his voice box, causing little aches and pains to pop up in his neck, back, and intake. Tarn made it a habit to devote a day to spoiling his tiny student with both holistic and medicinal remedies whenever he thought Darkmount was getting cranky or was having issues keeping up his clear, optic shattering high notes.

Tarn noticed that on his last hunt, not only had Darkmount gone ahead of him and killed a victim without his permission, his voice was raspy after. Scratchy, even.

That wouldn't do, especially considering that the Peaceful Tyranny would be crossing paths with the Nemesis, and he suspected that Soundwave would request Darkmount be dropped off for a playdate with Datamine, the human convert that Soundwave adopted and modded to look like himself. Datamine was going to be about Nickel's size when he was finished growing, too big to dock on his Sire, but still only measuring up to Tarn's knees.

Then again, Soundwave only barely is up to Tarn's chest plates, so maybe he wasn't the best judgment of height.

Tarn scooped up Darkmount, who was playing with a large assortment of very finely crafted dolls that he had taken at a good discount as a bribe to ignore some autobot propaganda commissioned from a fine craftsman when strolling through a craft market on a planet populated by Nickel sized organics between hunts.

They were all works of art on their own, the artist's attention to detail unparalleled. They were all made to stand the test of time, easily taken apart and repaired.

He had included an Optimus Prime, with chest plates that could open to reveal an attached Matrix, a slot in the middle to slid a miniature dark saber, attached to a string and hidden just inside Optimus's chest. There was a Bumblebee with sliding mechanism where Darkmount could push up a piece of kibble on the neck to reveal an impressively detailed mangled voice box. A similar mechanism spilt into two panels that folded away under Bumblebee's armpits, showed off a gaping wound made by Megatron's blaster, the shot that won the Decepticons the war.

He had, on Tarn's request, included four Megatrons, two in ceremonial garb, their faces serene, one in his flyer alt mode, and one painted with the grime of battle, bubblegum pink energon speckling his plating and brown paint on his feet. His face was frozen in the middle of barking orders, his cannon painted as if primed to shoot.

This was Darkmount's favorite to play with, though he would often recharge with a haphazardly stitched, poorly made fabric Megatron that Kaon made for him, the professionally made version, donated to the temple of Megatronus in the newly restored New Kaon (Formerly Iacon) by a master seamster. Darkmount had slept with it for a night, accidentally beheaded the doll by cutting open the seam with one of his kickstands, and freaked out, demanding that Nickel fix it and making Tarn put it on the altar.

He hadn't played with it since, and Tarn saw him put a little bandage on the toy's neck.

There was a Soundwave thrown in there, but Darkmount had given it to Datamine.

First, a quick check up from Nickel to check for any repairable damage.

Then, bathtime and an evening of pampering before bed.

Darkmount grumped through his check up, snapping at Nickel's fingers.

"No damage Tarn. The little scraplet is just sore. I would recommend warm liquids for the rest of day."

Tarn smiled. "Just as I thought. Darkmount, how about a evening of just you and me?"

Darkmount nodded, and Tarn brought him back to his room.

Tarn took out a oil tub for Darkmount, and set it to warm while he cleaned up Darkmount's toys. He gave him his copy of Towards Peace while he pulled out the brushes and polishes he would need to clean him.

The tub dinged, and Tarn played the Empyrean Suite and dumped Darkmount into the tub. Tarn wasted no time getting Darkmount cleaned and polished, his plating shiny and gleaming.

The music ended as Tarn put two cubes into the warmer and pulled out a datapad with the List, Darkmount curled up against his chest as he rubbed his shoulders and neck.

"Hmm. I think we should put work aside for the night. The energon should be ready now." He set the datapad down and took out both cubes and set them on the counter. "Well then, tell me if it's a bit too hot."

Darkmount sipped his cube gingerly, sighing as the heat soothed away the scratchy feeling in his throat. He finished it quickly, and Tarn finished his too.

Predictably, Darkmount fell asleep soon after he finished the cube.

Tarn smiled, and curled up on the berth with him.

He loved watching his little pet sleep.