#and why working on things not original comics or fan comics is like eating nails

[triaelf9]

I was thinking last night before bed like...I wish I liked doing fully finished illustrations more and like, I enjoy it for VERY specific thing, but really, what I love is comics. And I love telling my own stories, the connection there is just something I can't explain, I just LOVE it

Without that connection, it's really hard to finish something, or get started on it, and it makes commissions REALLY hard for me to do, they're SUPER draining. It also makes things other than patreon/ko-fi hard to make stuff for b/c like, I just wanna comics. All day, every day.

But the more niche I realize that I am, the more it's like "ah crap, comics don't pay well, they take REALLY long to make, how am I gonna support my family on comics" and then it's like, well, I know where my heart lies at least, but the collapse of things is just always there

It's funny b/c I know that my stories wouldn't be what they are without my brain and how it works, but also I would be so much more productive and be able to work on more things and probably support my family better without the ADHD. So eyyy, it is what it is I guess lol XD

So...yay! But also like... oh no ^_^;;

[millennialzadr]

WHY I LOVE ZADR!!!

HEY GUYS WHASSUP? LMAO

So this is a whole ass giant long post of me absolutely spewing my feelings of love for ZADR, it was the very first thing I wrote when I made this blog and I think it’s a nice, positive thing for my fellow shippers to inhale and enjoy 👌👌

it was originally a reply to mitarashiart’s post about why HE loves ZADR (link in replies) but I decided to delete that and make my own post since MY WHOLE ENTIRE TEXT WALL WAS SHOWN IN THE REPLIES and drowned out anyone else who was trying to talk (thanks tumblr mobile u fuckin idiot)

I had also posted a summary of an AU that I’m working on in the original post, but decided to remove it since it just about doubled the length (I’m thinking about posting it separately along with the wips I’ve been putting together, we’ll see 👀)

But ANYWAY, here is about a million reasons why I think ZADR is the fucking best, so if you like reading gushy gay ship feelings, please enjoy ❤️❤️❤️

[Posted June 2019][WARNING, LONG ASS THOUGHT BARF]

SOOO, holy hell y’all my journey back into this fandom has been a wild and unique experience for me, i went from adding invader zim to my bookmarks on kisscartoon, rewatching the series, finding out theres a movie coming out, finding out there was a shitload of content i’d never seen before (commentaries, lost episode scripts and audios, panels, the COMIC, episodes i’d never seen because the dvd i used to watch was scratched!! and a FUCKLOAD of quality modern fan art like oh my GOD) and finally curiously googling ‘zadr’ (which i was way into when i was maybeee 13/14) to see if there was any interesting new art, and holy hell, mita (the artist above) singlehandedly THREW me down the hole into modern zadr hell, first with his absolutely stunning IZ art (all his art is dope tho check him out yo), then reading the above explanation put the final nail in the coffin like, 100%

so i wanted to add onto his post here on why this ship got me so fucked up, both for anyone who might be wondering why on earth i’m shipping two characters from a kid’s show (i’m very aware how weird that is at first glance trust me) and also so i can get some ideas down for possible future reference (will i ever draw them? maybe)

(first of all, a disclaimer, and this is not pleasant to write but it’s important to address for clarity’s sake: I have no interest in romantic or sexual relationships between minors, and do not ship zim and dib as they are presented canonically in the show (as children). what i’m interested in is the conceptualized relationship they may have as modern adults, and i view zadr more as taking the concepts of existing characters and experimenting with them with different interpretations, which i personally think is a constructive and fun creative outlet, especially if these characters hold personal significance for you (childhood faves of course). growing up together is an important facet of their relationship, and certainly they were important to each other even as children (see: mopiness of doom) but as an adult i’m personally curious about what kind of adults they might’ve become, and that’s the focus of my interest. i’ll still be reblogging regular IZ art because it’s dope but if you see shippy looking art of them as tiny lil beans its either friendship or chibis (and i personally headcanon zim as getting taller with dib but some people stick with his canonical height when drawing them as adults, which is super short. it still doesn’t mean he’s a kid). aaand i wish i didnt have to write this and it would just be obvious but we live in a sick sad world and it is sourced from a children’s cartoon so i feel its necessary. end of disclaimer)

NOW THAT THAT’S OUT OF THE WAY

- ok, first reason’s a bit obvious - the nostalgia. holy hell, the feeling of rediscovering a ship that was popular when i was a preteen during the mid 2000s and discovering a totally new perspective on it as an adult comes with an almost totally overwhelming sense of nostalgia and comfort, as well as inspiration!! the kind of art that seems so common for zadr, these sketch pages of scenes and expressions and visual gags where artists would just scribble every idea they had and LOVE doing it, this was exactly the kind of art that made me so passionate about drawing as a kid, and it still sparks such a powerful feeling of love and admiration for me to this day. fan content of iz and zadr is simultaneously achingly familiar and totally new and fascinating, and it just makes me SO damn happy to consume, it is most definitely my new comfort content. and just, GOD. THE ART!! SO GOOD. FUCK

- now for the characters themselves: for some reason i just really love the thought of a mid twenties, modern Dib?? lanky goth dork, disaster bi, depressed as shit, uses bad sweaters and memes to cope?? when i was a kid i didn’t even LIKE Dib, but now i totally sympathize with him! he’s just a hyper obsessive nerd wishing there was more to life than the situation he got stuck with, how wildly relatable. he was a pretty big asshole as a kid (even to people besides zim) but he was also totally isolated and constantly bullied, so there’s a lot of room for growth. i feel there’s a lot of juicy character development potential for that boy, and there’s always been a special place in my heart for characters who are totally sad and screwed and hopeless, but there’s one thing, or person, that means the world to them and could possibly save them…

- aliens. Zim. i love nonhuman characters, i love monsters, i love aliens, i love characters that don’t understand human shit (and thus have much less room for shame or fear bc theyre just totally oblivious the negatives of modern society) and need guidance (bonding!!) from their human. i also love morally grey characters and characters with skewed logic, they’re always really interesting, and Zim himself just has such a unique personality and set of mannerisms, he contradicts himself a lot and you can never quite expect how he’ll behave, and i love that in a character, it makes them super versatile and fun, especially since there’s so many different possibilities for their development. Also, Zim is a gremlin, a little shit, and a disaster. I also love those traits in a character. And don’t even get me started on his character design?? big sparkly eyes? expressive antennae? monster teeth? complimenting colors? he’s adorable.

- mutual obsession. for someone like Dib, who seems almost repulsed by how boring and slow the people around him are, Zim quite literally personifies Dib’s  escapist fantasies, both as an inhuman entity from beyond the stars, and as a person who’s knowledge, charisma and mystery far exceeds that of anyone Dib has met in his entire life. (so basically what i’m saying is that for a shunned, jaded misanthropist, an actual alien is terribly alluring, even if said alien is dangerous, stupid, and possibly insane). not to mention Zim vindicates Dib’s entire life passion, the supernatural! Even when their relationship is totally negative, there is not a single inch of room for Dib to get tired of Zim. as mita explained, they validate each other. for Zim, WHO AGAIN, IS TOTALLY SHUNNED, ISOLATED, AND HATED BY EVERYONE HE KNOWS, Dib is the only person in the universe who gives a single shit about him!! he gives Zim credit as a threat, a capable invader, which if you ask me is the sole thing Zim is after (he’s hellbent on his mission because it would win him the approval of the tallest, all he’s ever wanted is recognition from the people he thinks so highly of). He literally gets depressed when Dib isn’t around to pay attention to him, not even the tallest were enough to motivate him before Dib came back. these two have no one and nothing without each other, and while lifelong nemeses is fine and dandy, i personally prefer friendship, affection and love, cause i’m a softie like that. how could they possibly get there after years of actively trying to kill each other?? well, i think under just the right circumstances it could become a possibility after a long, long time.

- growth. i. love. me. some. good. character growth. especially for characters with trauma/mental illness, bc again, relatable. these boys have issues, and as mita mentioned, their canon stories are actually INCREDIBLY sad! but the happy thought is, they could recover! they could help each other recover, for little reason other than the two are the only source of happiness for each other. now of course this also opens the gate for angst lovers, but at the same time offers potential for comforting, uplifting content of the boys supporting and inspiring each other, maybe even to the point of becoming happy and healthy enough to create the lives they want for themselves (as in appreciating life and doing things that make them actually happy instead of the delusions of grandeur they both sought when they were younger). gimme that positive shit and let the poor beans be happy  щ(ಠ益ಠщ)

- LITTLE THINGS. LITTLE THINGS THAT ONLY COME WITH CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. WITH HUMAN/NONHUMAN. WITH THE SHOW’S WEIRD LOGIC. Zim being the person Dib knows best and vice versa. Zim having an involuntary respect/admiration for Dib because he’s tall. Learning each other’s needs, limits, and communication methods, both emotionally and biologically. Sensitive antennae. Affectionate bickering. Being less insecure bc your partner literally has no idea why you see your flaws as flaws. Laughing at the flaws they do notice because they make no sense. Zim only wanting to eat waffles and chow mein. Dib being forced to overcome his depression lethargy and stay hygienic/keep the apartment clean because Zim has a sharper sense of smell and is afraid of germs. Endless conversation about anything and everything because they’re from literally different worlds, and endless intrigue. TOUCHING. TALKING. DOING EVERYTHING LIKE ITS THE VERY FIRST TIME AND ALWAYS NEEDING THE OTHER TO GUIDE THEM. HOLY HELL THERE IS SO MUCH POSSIBILITY FOR TINY LITTLE MOMENTS THAT MEAN THE WORLD. FUCK. GOT ME FUCKED UP.

so that wraps up the why. fuck man. its just such a good ship. if you read this big ass text post, thank you for indulging me, i hope you enjoyed it! because i enjoy it very much 👀 so stick around if you’d like to for a shit load of IZ and zadr content on this blog, possibly (MAYBE) even from me!! come roll around in alien hell with me why dontcha ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ its a fun time! thanks for reading!!!

-

SO THAT’S MY MANIFESTO Y’ALL, FEEL FREE TO REPLY WITH YOUR OWN REASONS!! I WOULD LOVE FOR THIS POST TO JUST BECOME A BIG GIANT PILE OF LOVE AND YELLING!! GO NUTS! SCREAM ABOUT IT! INFODUMP! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! I’LL READ EVERY LAST REPLY! Y’ALL DESERVE TO ENJOY YOUR SHIP BC IT’S LITERALLY THE FUCKING BEST!!! LOVE Y’ALL!!!!!!

[slothgiirl]

forever isn’t for everyone part 10

We all head straight to the hotel, just in time for the first interviews of the day; throwing Jamie and Miles to the wolves. It's a nice place, that we won't enjoy. Having lost a day means that after using the hotel for interviews, we'll have to run to the venue. Only Lucy and the two band members get off at the hotel. 

The rest of us, unlucky as we are, have to get and attempt a soundcheck down half our crew. It's hell. 

Made worse at the thought of Alex holed up in the tour bus as we rush around. Unbothered by work as he's just Miles' plus one. Having stayed up all night with Miles, playing guitar and making my head want to explode as I'd laid in my bunk, thinking about how deft his hands on the strings were. Working myself up and worst of all-- missing him. 

Lucy had been right. I text her as much only to hear a snort above me. Unhelpful in everything except gossip. 

By the time Miles and Jamie get back, having been grilled to hell and back, Jamie looking like the worlds most uncomfortable toddler who's cheeks have been pinch way too many times by strangers, most of the set up has been done. The California sun beating down on us as we enjoy munching on the food set up for us. 

It's one of those days when I could care less if it's any good. That fucking hungry. 

Miles keeps glancing down at his phone, a bundle of nervous energy instead of the usual chaotic energy. He reminded me so of the boys in school who would talk back to the teacher and cause riots of laughter among students. He gets up, grabbing another beer and pacing around the room before collapsing into a chair once more. 

It's making me nervous. 

"You alright Miles," I venture, when he sits down by me, frowning down at his phone. 

"Yeah. Yeah," he says dismissively, not bothering to look up from his phone. "Just peachy doll."

I roll my eyes, but persevere. Part of my job is too make sure the talent's holding up. And we might not be friends outside of work, but you can't live on the road for weeks with people and just not care about them. "You're calling me doll. Now I'm really worried."

He laughs humorlessly. "It's all right Ellie. Really."

"Is it Alex?"

Miles' eyes pierce my gaze, the goblin child mirth absent in lieu of surprise. "No. No. sort of." He glances down at the ground, at the carpet the color of cat vomit, whose original color had been lost to time. "He's just got a bit of a headache. That's all."

"Right," I reply, unconvinced by his slippery gaze and the airy tone. 

" 'm sorry about whatever happened between you two," he utters bluntly. "Say the word and I'll send him away.”

"You don't really mean that," I note, fiddling with my thumbs, unable to hold his gaze now as color rises to my cheeks, "or else you'd have offered at the start of the tour. Not two weeks before it ends in south america."

"Technically," Miles counters, pointing his finger right at me, "its just a break before the festivals.  I can make do with out 'im." 

"I highly doubt that," I remark. Everything's in order in the venue. I'll give myself this one night to skip the concert. While people watching could be fun, and there was nothing like the energy of a live band filling the venue with hundreds of screaming fans, I was a bit over it tonight. Having spent the majority of yesterday in the same confined area with Alex, and being careful not to make it too obvious I was avoiding him, had drained me. 

I walk out the door and into the warm summer night. It was a nice change from Utah. The city bathed in lights as the sun set. Just like that an entire summer gone by. Tomorrow was a second show. Then Pomona. Then San Diego  Soon we'd be in South America and then onto Europe. Miles had been wrong, there was only a week before Europe. 

I let out a breathe as I wish for the first time in my life for a cigarette. All this traveling with a rock band and I'd finally picked up some bad habits. I walk down sunset strip and right into a liquor, wishing I had thought to nick some of the cigarette boxes that filled an entire bowl backstage. Thank god for riders. And next year I'd be doing it all over again with another band. The thought filled me with dread. I'd gotten used to Nick and Jamie. To Ben and Miles who often ended up ontop of tables dancing and dunk and pulling Alex up along with him. 

As soon as I take a drag, I can feel the knot inside my chest begin to ease up. More and more neon signs light up. It's not Vegas, with its kitchy over the top theatrics, but Los Angeles feels like every noir detective movie I'd seen. It's so much like the grimy and cheesy eighties action movies set in these very streets. If not for the actual stale smell of actual garbage. The cars honking every five seconds.

Streets clogged like heart arteries with cars. 

I slip into the first bar I find that's playing loud music. The strokes. God, how I used to dance around my room to their music at one in the mornings instead of finishing my assignments. 

"What can I get for you," the bartender, young, maybe only a year older than me, asks in her vocal fry Californian way. 

"rum and coke," I reply. 

"I love your accent," she replies, already pouring out the cheap rum and coke. I set down a ten-er and find a seat in a small alcove, the crushed velvet seat smelling thickly of cheap beer and cigarette smoke. I slump in my seat and watch people come in and out. 

At least I'd seen the TLC Chinese theater on the way in. Even got a picture that wasn't completely blurry at a red light. Months into the tour and my will to go sight see was dead. My feet would not, refused to even think, of walking another two miles down to the famous street. 

I was almost for sure spending my week off curled up in my bed watching random reality tv shows. 

After my rum and coke I grab a cranberry vodka, feeling like a teenager who'd taken a juice box to school. 

The door opens and a familiar face walks in, already chatting up a girl. It's Alex, with the sort of charisma that takes weeks of hacking at his reserved nature to get through. The girl, a acid blonde, is eating it up, giggling against his shoulder as they order drinks. 

It's heartbreak all over again.  

Instead of doing the rational thing, and leaving before I cry in a random bar, I sit there and watch. Watch as he wraps his arm around her, curling his fingers around her waist. She leans into him, laughing loudly like all these Americans do. Stumbling a little as they take a table by the entrance. Alex smiles evenly, even as she wipes tears of laughter from her eyes. 

Shouldn't he be at the concert with his bezzie mate? 

I swallow back bitterness. It's been three months. Plenty of time to have gotten over him if I hadn't been on the road with him for all of that time. That was all. As soon as this tour was over I'd never have to see his face again. 

Even if I wanted to. 

Even if my heart still fluttered when he smiled softly, eyes sparkling with delight as he got absorbed in the conversation. In Miles and even Matt to some extent. He was charming despite his distant nature. The very picture of having your head in the clouds. The dreaminess only made him that much more appealing. I down the rest of my drink, feeling my throat burn, before resolving to leave. This was a sign I should go to the Chinese theater. Get a photo of me among the walk of fame. Why torture myself about Alex? 

He'd been an ass. I had to remind myself of that night, of the week leading up to it when he wouldn't even give me an explanation for why meeting up for breakfast was too much for him. 

When I look up, they're gone. 

I sigh in relief. 

The night in LA is less black, then a midnight blue. The light pollution illuminating even the grimiest corner. I start to walk in the direction of the crowd. Even at eight, the street was as busy as ever. Like New York, like London, this culture capital never slept. It eased any reservations I had about wondering alone at night in a foreign city. 

I'd just get a taxi back to the venue. 

I'm almost down to the light when two figures catch my attention out of the corner of my eye. Down a badly lit alley. There's a homeless woman sleeping at the entrance.

I stop and stare. 

Alex's auburn hair obscuring his features, but I'd know him anywhere. Know the curve of his spine, the way he carried himself, curled in on himself in a way that could only be described as dainty. His lips against the blonde's neck. It's salt in the wound that's been reopened. fuck. I should've stayed behind in Utah. 

I'm about to turn tail and run when my eyes focus on the blonde. Her arms held still by Alex's hands. Back against the wall. It's a red flag ringing in the back of my mind. The flag that my mothers had impressed into my little prepubescent mind, both of them telling me what to do if I ever felt uncomfortable with a man. Both of them biting their nails with each word.

I stride forward without another thought. Jaw clenching shut. 

It doesn't take long to reach them. But my shoe makes an awful crunching sound as I step on a discarded crisps bag. 

Alerting Alex. 

Words well up in my mouth. Stop. What the fuck are you doing. Alex. But they all die on my lips as Alex looks up, his eyes meeting mine. Instead of the caramel color I'm used to, so bloody fond of. . .his eyes like a pair of rubies met mine. A look of utter devastation crosses his fine features. "I can explain," he utters in a rush, lips stained carmine with blood. 

My brain short circuits. Not wanting to make the connection. Not wanting to hear it. I wish I'd stayed. I don't want to know. I don't. Fuck. Jesus fucking christ. 

My mouth can't form words. Can only look from Alex to the hands, still clasped tightly around the blonde. Her smile dazed as she sways, all her weight on him. Alex lets her go. 

She sways like the branches of a willow tree in the wind, almost falling over before the jolt of the fall kicks her back into consciousness. Her eyes widen as she looks at both of us for a tense second. Her mouth widens comically into an O before she screams. 

Alex moves, surging forward and pressing his hand to her mouth, silencing her scream before it can make its way out of the alley and into the trafficked street. He gazes deeply into her frightened eyes. "Forget this night. You had a drink with a stranger and then went home. Now go on. Run back home and sleep the night away." He wipes the last hint of blood from her neck before he lets her go.

Her gaze slacks as he speaks, until the fear retreats. And just like that, like malleable clay, she walks out of the alley, and off into the night. I watch her disappear around the corner. Still shocked silent. 

"El," Alex whispers sadly, much too close for comfort. Having crossed the distance between us while I was distracted. A mistake on my part. A primal terror surging through my mind, telling me to run. To get as far from Alex as possible. "Why'd you have to see?" 

His eyes still unnaturally red.

I shake my head slightly. Aware of his hand reaching for my cheek, frozen in the air, as if held back by some invisible force. "No." I shake my head much more firmly. I don't. I don't want to make the connection consciously that the back of my mind already has. That my mind is insisting of as everything off about him falls into place. 

Alex closes his eyes, taking a step back. "I can let you forget this all if that's what you wish." When he opens his eyes once more, they're back to his normal color. It eases a lump in my throat I hadn't realized had built up. 

This. . .this Alex I might be able to deal with. So much more familiar. If not for the blood on those lips I had spent so many nights kissing.

I rup my temples. "No. No. What the actual fuck."

"El."

"Stay the bloody hell away from me Alex!"

"El please," he pleads, arms held up in a calming motion as though I'm freaking out over nothing. Like he's not a v. . .no. I refuse to go there despite the evidence. "Let's go somewhere to talk."

"I'm not going anywhere alone with you," I spit, stepping back. Wanting to put more distance between us. Had he done that to me? How would I ever even know?

"Of course not," Alex replies, voice wavering, choked full of emotion as he continues, "somewhere crowded-," 

"So you can brainwash me!"

Hurt flashes across his eyes, "I would never hurt you," Alex insists. 

"You already did." I state. Because it had been three months. And Alex, my first serious adult relationship had just-I was left heartbroken. 

He closes his eyes once more sighing. I could run right now. But something more complex than simple fear roots me to this spot in the alley. Alex rubs the bridge of his nose before trying once more.

"El," he sighs with centuries of built up melancholia, "please just listen to me and then you can decide whatever you wish. I'll never bother you again. But El-," his voice breaks. "El I can't refuse for this to be my last memory of you."

My heart flutters, still longing for him even now. Even with the blood drying on his lips. And I can't help but say, "okay."

[amostexcellentblog]

So, I watched the Live Action KIM POSSIBLE Movie...

And I wrote down some thoughts and observations while I watched:

The stunt work and action scenes are terrible so far

Patton Oswalt has a cameo as Dr. Dementor in the opening, that’s random

When you see it in live action it’s really hard to ignore the fact that teenagers SHOULD NOT BE DOING WHAT KIM AND RON ARE DOING OH GOD WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS?!?!?

Kim’s mom is played by the red head from HIMYM, I wonder if this is where she thought her career would end up

Kim is running to catch her bus but stops to use her hair dryer grappling hook to catch a baby stroller from rolling away. Kim you could’ve just shouted at the lady “Hey your stroller!” and let her catch it. Seriously, It was barely moving, wtf Kim?

More bad stunt work, with Kim having to use the grappling hook to swing onto the school bus, because in this world bus driver won’t stop and wait if they see one of their students running to catch them I guess...

Drakken is being held in high security prison in the glass cage from Skyfall

Holy Shit, the actors playing Drakken and Shego are On Point! Like the mannerisms, banter, it’s like the cartoon versions come to life! I’m starting to have hope for this movie...

Drakken is in a high security prison yet him and Shego can just stand around arguing for 5 minutes after she breaks in without a single guard coming to see what’s going on. Makes sense.

They kept the school sign sight gags!

Ron is livestreaming his first day of high school and I’m suddenly struck that Kim and Ron now exist in a world where social media is a totally normal part of their lives. And that to the people watching this on Disney Channel have never known a world where social media isn’t omnipresent and think it’s totally normal for kids shows to joke about livestreaming. 

Oh God, am I old now?!?

How does social media work for Kim and Ron though, like they joke that Ron only has one follower but how do him and Kim not have like a million followers from saving the world all the time? Like they should be major influencers but that doesn’t go with the “just average kids” thing.

The kimmunicator is now a necklace that projects a video screen to let Wade talk to Kim. I wondered why they did this before I realized that nowadays the kimmunicator is just an iphone with facetime.

I’M OLD!!! It’s not fair, I’m only 25 and already the tech dreams of my childhood have become ordinary?!? Meanwhile the people who grew up with the Jetsons are still waiting for their flying cars! Why me?

Mr. Barkin is just all wrong, he doesn’t have his tough guy exterior

Ron is such a good friend... Oh god, after all these years I still ship them SO HARD!!!

Kim and Ron made a new friend, Athena, she’s a super fan of Kim and has already used the words “Selfie,” “Cosplay” and “Comic-Con” in under a minute. I remember when kids shows would treat going to cons as weird. That was before the nerds took over. Better times. I feel so old...

Athena cosplayed as Kim and dressed her dog as Ron because she didn’t have anyone to go with her. She says this like she expects them to laugh but Ron just tells her that he’s always wanted to be a dog.

I didn’t notice it before, but the actor playing Ron is actually perfect?!?!?! He totally nails Ron’s goofiness, loyalty, and lack of toxic masculinity

Not totally sold on the actress playing Kim though, she’s not bad but she lacks a certain spark. Like, she isn’t indistinguishable from her cartoon equivalent the way Ron Drakken and Shego are.

We got a cameo from Kim’s cartoon outfit and Chritsy Carlson Romano who voiced her!

Athena is really eating up a lot of screentime, if I remember my DCOM tropes right this means she’ll either turn out to be evil or an undercover ally in the third act

I ship Kim and Ron so hard I can’t even appreciate the lesbian subtext between Kim and Athena. This is literally my only het ship.

Ron just found Rufus in a lab where he’s been experimented on to become super intelligent. I liked Rufus better as just a character quirk of Ron’s, he didn’t need an origin story!

Ron is still adorable

Kim’s jealous of Athena and I understand because I don’t really like how the movie’s OC is hogging screentime from Ron and Kim’s friendship

Also, where is Monique!?! Did she get shafted because they needed to focus on Athena? (Yes.)

Yup, Athena’s evil. Called it.

Also she’s robot apparently.

Kim brought her mom and grandma to fight evil with her. I love this because it’s feminist and sends a message that it’s ok for kids to ask for help when they’re feeling overwhelmed

I don’t understand Drakken’s plan so I won’t summarize it

Athena turns good at the end and saves the day, joining Team Possible. I am not a fan of this last development. Team Possible is Kim and Ron a third member just throws the group dynamic off.

There’s a set up for a sequel where Drakken is turned into a kid and enrolls at Kim’s school.

“I need to get home and change out of these clothes into a sensible leather body suit”--Confirmed, Shego is Gay Culture

Anyway, overall it was better than I expected. They nailed a lot of what made the show special. It’s no Descendants but I do hope they make a sequel, there’s a lot of potential here. Whether there is a sequel or not is up in the air, because ratings wise it was both the highest rated kids show in its timeslot but it was also one of the lowest rated DCOMs ever. So it’s a mixed bag, but hopefully Disney will give it another chance.

[megatentious]

My lengthy defense of the most hated Persona game

Here’s my grand defense for the most hated game in the series: Persona 1, AKA Revelations: Persona. I know it’s too late to try and rehabilitate the game’s reputation on the internet, but I’m hoping that by rambling in modestly structured form for a bit, at least some folks might be able to look at Persona with a fresh perspective. It would be cool if everyone could try to understand what the game did so well and why it resonated so strongly with me and 2 or so other people. If you are the kind of person that thinks games age and become archaic, then I probably don’t have any hope of reaching you, but still, try to put yourself in the right mindset and approach the game on its own terms, and maybe you’ll discover something quite special.

So, Persona. Persona does very interesting things with choice. As the first Megaten rpg released in America, the negotiation system was a revelation (har har), providing the choice to talk your way out of battles and into rewards is a natural D&D element that never got a foothold in countless videogame conversions of the game, and in the first Persona these elements are at their peak. With every demon having four moods, four series of animation and four sets of voiced sound effects, the expanded options really let you get into the headspace of the demons you’re conversing with, unlike traditional SMT’s more spare binary system. Getting into the thick of things with complex sets of reactions (Joy + Interest, that’s what’s up) makes for a fun simulation.

The theme of choice is also really built into the game’s fabric, it’s the reason why in old usenet postings, Persona was recommended to folks who were fans of Gold Box games, during a time when RPG labels were more porous and that sneaky “J” hadn’t yet latched itself omnipresently to the term. Choice here also extends to the fifth character in your party, a friendly way to promote replay value without new game plus, and certain choices locking you out of giant chunks of the game, an unfriendly way of getting you through the game again. In a world though where developers are desperate to ensure that gamers experience all content (so many buzzwords!), the chutzpah of Persona being willing to lock you out of huge swathes of the game is something I actually admire.

It’s easy to underestimate the impact of the modern day setting in a post Persona 3/TWEWY/Alpha Protocol world, but dungeons that were hospitals and police stations and high school students snarling “EAT THIS” with MIGs in pitched street battles felt revelatory. Exploring the comically low-rent polygonal city (is this another reference to the abstracted icons of SMT1 and 2 world maps?) was actually fun, as ridiculous as waiting for traffic to pass might seem. There are also many complaints about the first person perspective dungeons, even though the rest of the game is third person, but the setting variety is nice and many of the wall patterns are quite evocative (Deva Yuga looks like Persepolis!)

The game also does PSX-era philosophizing in a tasteful and generally thoughtful way, while contemporaries were drawing from Evangelion, Persona looked to Zhuangzi and Jung. Not very high-falutin, true, but at least middle brow enough such that my 14 year old Sophie’s World reading self was entranced. The game has something neat to say about loneliness and identity and the way we construct the world around ourselves (all hinted at in the moody intro. The story is very nice and very Kaneko, even if he’s overestimating the literary quality in this interview, I’m very fond of it and it is my franchise favorite.

Here’s where I alienate the remaining people who might have been on board with me so far: if you ignore the loss of the Snow Queen Quest, a 20 hour alternate version of the story that takes place in a series of SMT:If... like towers, Revelations: Persona is actually the superior game. “Lunarvale,” a hodgepodge of America and Japan cobbled together by localizers attempting to mask the game’s origins, is actually more weird and interesting than the Mikage-cho that appears in Persona PSP. This bizarre mashup, combined with a nonsense translation attempt, somehow manages to better fit the lurid dreamscape vibe the original developers were going for. I can’t undersell how one-of-a-kind and wonderfully unsettling the game’s atmosphere is in the PSX version, and this is helped along of course by the sound.

Here are excerpts from some things I wrote on the music in this game:

Revelations: Persona has the best soundtrack in the franchise, possibly the best soundtrack ever made. In raw quantitative terms it's ridiculous, 113 songs and 3 hours of music without being looped, and all without doing Persona 2's trick of repeated (but still awesome!) remixes. Two majorly sweet leitmotifs for the two major quests, employed creatively and thoughtfully, four fantastic composers on four discs, cohesive and thematically coherent when by all rights it should feel disjointed as fuck, this is a generous OST!

Hidehito Aoki (R.I.P.) composed the dungeon music, which is exquisite. Lengthy songs that are moody, elegant, just plain beautiful and get you PUMPED! The iconic Deva Yuga Monochrome: School Revisited Dream-like, synthy, catchy, beautiful, quintessential Persona sound. Pandora's Den (Deepmost Area): The climax at 1:12! Ice Castle/Black Snow The twists and turns in this one, so effing good. Sebek Music, Karma Palace 90's music is the best!!! Misaki Okibe's range is ridiculous, she composed some of the most memorable, interesting tracks in the whole game. Reverse Dream World: You think you have this song figured out in the first few seconds, but stick around to see where it suddenly veers off to around :30, hilarious and awesome. Theme of Nemurin's Love: The intro! The power of a simple lovely melody, a little Uematsu-esque. Augustia's Wood: The save music, so memorable, I love the grumbling. City 2 Accident: Do you remember wandering the streets in the town, disoriented, listening to this gorgeousness, thinking about how Lunarvale suddenly seemed so scary, like an unsettling dream? Bar Attacked by Harem Queen: A bit of jazzy beauty. And most important of all of course, Misaki Okibe is the composer of the Pharmacy Music, featuring vocals by one Hidehito Aoki of all people. Satomi Tadashi Drugstore Song In our heads forever, teaching us about item use since 1996. 

More alienating for readers who have gotten this far: the “whitewashing” character designs were all improvements, Kazuma Kaneko redrew everything himself and it’s easy to tell that a lot of thought was put into the redesigns. Finally, Mark is also >>>> Masao, everyone’s always yelling about the jive-talking but to me he came across as quite smart and savvy. I dunno, maybe this is just a Flavor of Love/Outsourced minorities just wanna see themselves effect operating here, leave me alone you guys! So yes, the franchise’s current fanbase might not be fond of them, but the cast is comprised of characters that are meant to be iconic and not friends you wish you had in real life, a cast that, FFVI-like, is meant to evoke broader themes and not follow the typical arcs of many RPGs these days. Check out the classiness of Yuki’s design, and allow me to quote some more stuff on how Tsuchiya, master of the character theme, nails it for each party member.

The sign of a good character theme is when you can extrapolate from instrument choice and melody to personality. Here Tsuchiya is the man, no one does it better this side of Uematsu. I hear these songs and I've got a perfect picture in my mind of each cast member. It's what I think of when I think of "videogame music" ha, here are my personal favorites, I could listen to these endlessly. Mary/Maki: Cheerful, just a hint of melancholy in the notes, love that slap bass. Yuki: Starts a bit slow, but soon we learn that Yuki's cool but determined. Alana: The song tells me she's brassy, energetic, fun. Chris/Reiji: Dangerous, exciting, a bad-ass delinquent. Ellen/Elly: Classy, elegant, confident.

Some also rag on the dungeon design, but it seems unfair to expect centerpiece labyrinths along the lines of Strange Journey or Etrian Odyssey in a game going for something completely different. Nevertheless, you’ve got tricky mazes with dead ends that test resource allocation skills and provide a sense of accomplishment. Encounters are tough and require thought, careful consideration of when to flee and negotiate is imperative for dungeon survival. This is something that gets lost a bit in the PSP remake as the encounter rate is increased but battles are a bit easier. Exploiting elemental weaknesses isn’t as elegant as in later games, but with a ludicrously high 14 damage types breadth supersedes depth. And there’s even a positioning system to consider that the developers decided to drop from later games rather than refine. In the end, surviving the dungeon and beating the boss is an RPG staple that just plain works, although yes you will probably grit your teeth at some of the loading times.

And finally, you don’t have to take my random word for it. Parish really liked it too! How’s that for an appeal to authority?

For series buffs, it’s fun to trace this game’s historical lineage, as one of the earlier spinoffs of Shin Megami Tensei, it's easy to spot the mainline series influence: the occultism of the opening ritual, the hospital as first dungeon, the first person perspective for dungeon travel, BLUE POINTER MAN, and the omnipresent danger of demons in town and dungeon alike. Revelations: Persona is drawing from a rich and storied history, but manages to recast SMT traditions in interesting new directions. Again, the atmosphere is really unbelievable and something I haven’t come across in other games. It’s more than a simple curiosity and it doesn’t deserve dumb dismissal or sneering derision for its flaws. Revelations: Persona is a real marvel, modern games ought to draw more inspiration from its lessons, and the game belongs in the RPG canon, there I said it!

[the-musical-cc]

In the entire Ghostbusters franchise of film, TV, and games, who are your best characters?

TRICK QUESTION! ALL OF THEM EXCEPT RON. Nah, JK *cracks knuckles* here goes.

Look, thing is, I really love all the characters, particularly when those who didn’t get much of the limelight, like Peck, start getting more of a backstory, allowing me to better connect and understand them, but if I had to go for like my top six or whatever, this would be it:

Janine Melnitz (In any incarnation, really), Eduardo Rivera, Jillian Holtzmann, Garrett Miller, Egon Spengler (Again, any incarnation although dorky RGB Egon holds a special place in my heart), IDW Kylie Griffin and Patty Tolan. That’s the short-ish answer. My reasons? Under the cut ‘cause it’s gonna be long.

Janine Melnitz- It’s no secret to anyone who’s seen at even 5% of my GB posts that she’s my fave, but it’s not really an unbiased opinion, I guess. I watched the cartoon as a young kid and she was my favorite back then, so it makes sense that even now she’d still hold my heart. The games and films don’t really give us much detail about her, except for some vague generalities, but even these vague generalities make for a pretty lovable character. What’s not to love about this tough-as-nails, no-nonsense kinda character constantly surrounded by either scientific nonsense, sass or plain out bullshit? And yet she still finds the time to care. She’s full of love and rage in equal amounts and GOD, do I love it. The cartoon pretty much cements this and adds a layer of the weirdest mix of tomboyish attitude with flirty, playful charm- for most of the seasons, at least. I’m also a sucker for the kind of hero who doesn’t have the ‘Power’ to justify the ‘Responsibility’ but ACTIVELY chooses to take the responsibility either way, simply because they are that kind of person, which started as a tendency in the cartoon, having her grab the proton pack to fight when the need came and continued in the comics, both IDW and NOW. I could go on and on with reasons I love Janine, but this is long af already, lol, moving on.

Eduardo Rivera- I admit a good part of the soft spot I have for him stems from him being a latino guy (Probably of mexican descent, since he uses the term ‘Chamaco’ and I'm not sure other latin-american countries use it) but it’s mostly the context in which he is a ghostbuster. It’s like someone took the power-fantasy of one of those fans who think they own the material because they’ve liked it for years, and decided to go completely the other way. Eduardo is a bit of a smartass but more often than not it plays against him, he isn’t a chick magnet, isn’t a scientst like Egon or even scientifically inclined as Kylie or Roland, isn’t physically very strong like Garrett and has a bit of a scaredy-cat streak. In terms of people fit for being a ghostbuster, he’s probably at the bottom of the list. But he IS a ghostbuster, and a constant in the few episodes we got is him constantly failing to do as well as his team-mates and just trying to be better. Taking care of them as best as he can, trying very hard to feel like part of the team, refusing to back down when something isn’t going his way. He’s the real underdog story in GB, the way I see it, and I love it. I wish we’d gotten to see and know more of him than we did, but even with what little we got, I love him.

Jillian Holtzmann- I think she's a general fave in the new team and I can see why. If anyone ever wondered what a mad scientist would be like if they were on a sugar rush, Holtzy's the answer. She mixes a bit of the generally cooky vibe we got from the tech of the old team and how they used it or learned from it –with seemingly complete disregard for common sense unless Winston was there- with a higher energy and a more playful disposition. She's loud and rowdy and loves joking around. Geeky. Unsubtly gay but not really a token gay either. There is just so much about her that I needed to see in media when I was younger and I love that today's kids get to see. She's not all perfection either, under all that flare, she's still scared and insecure and a little bit lonely, but getting better. I generally love how the new team is so damn feelsy, because, dammit, I'm a sucker for team-as-family dynamic, but I really feel deeply for how awkward at her affection Holtzy is, and how patient and understanding the others are for it. It's just really wholesome.

Garrett Miller- I’m gonna be straight up and say a disabled Ghostbusters really made an impression on me back in the early 2000′s when ExGB was on in Canal 5. Before rewatching I couldn’t really remember much of it- hell, I was under the impression that Egon and Janine were an official couple in the series, for whatever reason? (I wonder if I just assumed because they were the group’s ‘Mom and dad’?) and didn’t even remember Eduardo having a crush on Kylie, but I DID remember Garrett clearly. How he looked, who his Latin-American dub actor was, his attitude... it just really stuck with me. Upon my rewatch I realized he was also one of my favorite types of character; he comes from all kinds of bad places in the sense of toxicity. Hung around would-be neo-nazis when he was young and adopted a lot of their attitudes without meaning to, has a generally bad attitude about asking or receiving help or accepting any sort of vulnerability, even though at times it comes back to bite him on the ass. He actively works towards getting better too, working on his empathy and tolerance for ways of thought that don’t match his, and that just really gets to me. Unlearning toxic behaviors is never easy, showing it as a struggle without making it a lecture through him really cemented Garrett as a fave.

Egon Spengler- What can I say. He was my crush as a kid in the cartoon (according to my mom, at least) and now as an adult, Ramis Egon is my crush. Embarrassing fangirlish-reasons aside, you gotta love a guy that's somehow figured out portable atomic lasers that catch ghosts but most likely has forgotten to eat for the past two days. He's the perfect mix between being a genius and being a dumbass. And I know a lot of fans find how he seems to find the emotional fields completely alien... cool? Even though, when you have problems reading other people's emotions IRL it's anything but? But what I love is the lengths he goes to try sometimes. It's clearly not easy for him to understand even his own feelings at times, always translating them to the intellectual approximate, but he's still constantly trying. And when he does get it right, like he clearly has with the companionship with the rest of the team, it's beautiful. It's glorious to see him act just a little bit immature with the rest of the guys when they pile on Peter or start teaming up to throw shade at someone. It's beautiful to see him being able to come out of his shell more and more, the more he learns how to. I guess that's what really gets me about him, thinking eventually everyone finds their place and their people with whom they can be more true to themselves.

IDW Kylie Griffin- Why specifically the comics Kylie? I feel like ExGB Kylie suffered from this thing in the late 90s, early 00's where they thought making a female character mean was a feminist thing; I appreciate the whole 'Women don't HAVE TO be agreeable or make men's feelings their priority' thing, but... I'm just not a fan of someone who constantly humiliates a person who has a crush on them simply because they can. IDW Kylie keeps the edge to her attitude but on a much more reasonable personality. She has little to no tolerance to bullshit- but still seems mindful of boundaries and of who deserves to be on the bad end of her temper and when. I'm tempted to say she's more 'Mature'. Less on the 'Edgy' side. What I love about her is how she balances the gloomy, goth aesthetic with a kind, eager to learn and help others type of personality, without this meaning she's a pushover or naïve in any way. Plus, she's both a dog AND a cat person. Sure, it's possible this was who the original Kylie was under all those layers of soapbox activism and 'Better than you' attitude, but I can't know for sure.

Patty Tolan: You know how a lot of people was whining about the way she spoke? Ironically dubbed as a 'Racist stereotype' even though the whole argument against 'Ghetto speech' is racist in it's core? But anyway, you know the way Patty expresses herself? If people would have bothered to listen to what she said rather than try and find reasons to get mad, they would have noticed that what she said and what she did was what mattered. They immediately saw a black woman, using a commonly regarded as 'Black' pattern of speech and stopped paying attention. A mistake, I think. Patty has a degree in History (Confirmed by IDW but I honestly thought as much before that) and is the most well-read of her team, on top of possibly being the only one of them with common sense that isn't over-whelmed by other thoughts, and having the most practical way of thinking that doesn't get too reliant on the ghostbusting gadgets. Patty singlehandedly puts the myths that looking or talking a certain way determines whether you're smart or not to rest, in what Ghostbuster respects, and I love her for it. I'm not gonna lie, it's also really impressive to see someone exorcise another person via slap. That's Phoenix Ikki level of badassness, and I will never be over it.

Thaaaat’s about it? Wtf this is so long. Thank you if you read all the way to here and I hope this answer was a good one.

[kanaidblack]

The new Villainous short, an analysis

Because I have nothing better to do on a weekend! Yay!

 I’m pretty sure that at this point everybody knows that a new Villainous short was released today (by “today” I mean November 4 of 2017, if for some reason you are reading this in another day); there’s a ton of references in the short, and since it was in Spanish and at the time I’m writing this there’s not English version of the short (fan made or CN made), I decided to write a “small” analysis of the short video. It’s more likely that by the time I end this, tons of people already posted something like this, but I want to do this anyway. Notice that this is NOT a resume of the video.

The video starts with this:

Warning!

We are not responsible for the physical, mental and emotional damage that the comments of the Lord and Master Black Hat may provoke in the audience. It is recommended use safety googles or a helmet when you visualize this video. The prolonged exposition to this show may cause sanity loss, soul loss, hair loss, nail loss, welts, itch, hard snot, stomach ache, headache, mononucleosis, tonsil inflammation, farts, desire to pee (it says “desire to go to the bathroom”; I don’t know other places but in Mexico that means you wanna pee), arthritis and swollen eyes, spasms, uncontrollable fits of laughter, urge to wear a hat, villainy, extreme evilness, sharp fangs or teeth, hyperactivity, among others. Discretion is advised. This section is mere filler and had nothing to do with the previous one, you should stop reading before you regret it. We don’t understand why are you still reading. Seriously, nobody reads the warnings and ended watching it (the video) anyway.

Then we cut to this:

Black Hat Organization

Villain Orientation Videos

Vol. 1 of 666.

Then the video starts with tons of TV’s showing video of several Cartoon Network’s villains as the intro of “Black Hat Organization Lost Cases: Ooo, with Black Hat”. A narrator’s voice greets the watchers because it means that we want to stop being an annoyance at became great villains thanks to the capacitation of the video. Something that called my attention was the narrator’s voice. There’s a Latin-American YouTube channel that dubs fan shorts and comics from Villainous, and the narrator’s voice sounds like the Black Hat’s voice of that channel when he dubs narrators; either CN contacted that guy to work with them (which I think is pretty impossible) or the narrator is Alan himself.

Black Hat then greets the watchers but is shortly cut because he starts to insulted them as he goes mad; later he presents himself, but he says we already know it because, apparently, the short is part of the “Black Hat Organization villain orientation video ahora en español” (now in Spanish) VHS, volume 1, which apparently we bought; according to Black Hat, the point of the video is that he “will mock of the pathetic forces of evil and we will give him our money”. Later we cut to several scenes of the Lich King only to later change to Count Lemongrab, much for Black Hat annoyance. For the rest of the video Black Hat complains about how Lemongrab is, in his opinion, a pathetic villain and points other stuff too.

Regarding Lemongrab as a villain we learn this:

Black Hat says than Lemongrab voice is annoying and that he’s an idiot for not having security as he sleeps.

He shows surprise when he realizes Lemongrab has ears (as he picks his own ear).

He complains about how Lemongrab’s “minions” are “as sweet as 5.0.5.”

Lemongrab’s villain speech is pathetic and that his sentences are too long.

He says that Lemongrab has no class (as Lemongrab strips) and is ashamed of him.

Lemongrab is pathetic because he allowed the Pup Gang to be disrespectful at him.

Lemongrab’s torture chamber lacks of torture devices.

He is “a crybaby, incompetent, poorly dressed guy that only shrieks” (he calls him that as Bubblegum tries to talk with him when he’s torturing Finn, Jake and the Pup Gang.)

His mistakes are: being a big piece of… lemon (he clearly wanted to insult him in this part), being a crybaby and not hiring Black Hat Organization.

However, Black Hat praised Lemongrab when he wanted to eat the apple because that was “fruit cannibalism” and becomes proud when he “tried to eat” Peppermint Butler. He was also pleased when he blasted the Pup Gang and when he tortured them and Finn and Jake.

He ended his analysis by calling Lemongrab “deplorable” in his file. 

However, in Black Hat’s opinion Princess Bubblegum (whom he calls “the bubblegum girl”) is THE REAL villain in Ooo because:

After she spikes the dirt Lemongrab was eating he says that she looks like the most intelligent person in the video and even ask Flug is she wasn’t really the villain instead of Lemongrab.

When she says that she knew a way of be her past self all the time Black Hat says with joy: “clearly this girl has a disturbed mind. I’d love to extirpate it from her…”

When Finn is putting the pieces of the candy people on Bubblegum Black Hat says that “is one of the most evil rituals he knows” because she’s using “parts of his minions” to boost herself and he says that that’s pretty effective. Then proceeds to say that he is going to remove an arm off Flug, presumably to boost himself like her.

Black Hat asks if he’s really the only one who sees that Bubblegum is more diabolic than Lemongrab, especially because she created him “and condemned him into a life of suffering”.

He says that Bubblegum is pretty intelligent by “pretending she agreed in her rival’s terms when in reality she’s sending the worst of her society” and that is a really great villain lesson to learn.

He, however shows great disappointment because she didn’t learn of her past mistakes (by cloning Lemongrab); he even says that the situation is going to became worst because “it will end in one of them eating the other”.

He praised her when she was cutting the legs of a candy with her scissors, but the scene apparently became too much for him later.

Black Hat also:

Wanted to see Lemongrab breaking Manfried because “wanted to see his sweets organs”.

Was disgusted of Cinnamon Bun.

Every time Finn and Bubblegum shows affection to each other he becomes really angry.

He says that Bubblegum and Finn should squeezed Lemongrab instead of putting a note. He proceeds to say that he will show an example and calls for 5.0.5. to come.

When Bubblegum rejects Finn Black Hat laughs and says “you can see the part when his heart breaks in half!���

By the way, the information of Lemongrab’s file says this:

Count Lemongrab

Subject: Lemongrab.

Age: ???

Gender: Male.

Species: Fruit.

Taste: Sour.

Status: Alive (unfortunaly).

Abilities: None.

Occupation: Count.

Creation of the ruler of…

…grab has become independet of…

becoming in the dictator of…

war against the Candy Kingdom…

eating his own clone to…

and satisfied his own hungry of po…

the regimen of the Count Lemong…

At the moment he doesn’t represent a…

for the powerful Candy Kingdom.

creator, the scientist and prin…

Bonnibel Bubblegum alias Prin…

he’s nothing more than one lemon o….

ridiculous and pathetic.

The video ends with a live action Black Hat “squeezing” Lemongrab and with a special thanks list, aka “Black Hat’s black list”. In italics I put the ones I recognized and I could translate; the names in normal letter where the ones I didn’t recognize, even if I traslated their names. The names in black are the ones who have diferent names in spanish, but for some reason were already in English.

Flug, Vilgax, Yellow Diamond, Marvin (the Martian?), Lex Luthor, Peppermint Butler, Cambot, Phil Ken Sebben, Top Cat. The Red Guy, Mojo Jojo, Mandark, Excusator, Nergal, Katz, Hammerhead, Aku, Grodd, Siniestro.

Snorkel, Sticky Stud, Secuencia, Diego, Diego Mejia, Gafael, Kimmy, Kim, Black Manta, Spuntaneous, Salmonella Fitzgerald, Him, The Beast, The Kanker Sisters, Father, King Ramses, Malek, Medusea.

Some of the names where recognizables others… not that much. Who are those people? Animators? Future characters?

Regardless of that, we did learn lots about Black Hat:

In Black Hat’s opinion, pineapples are evil, but lemons are useless.

According to him, once he puked on a past minion’s face and that’s the reason Flug works for him now; he says this when he plays with the red skull in his desk, maybe implying that that’s his past minion’ skull.

He says that minions should taste their master’s food first as a safety precaution.

Watching Lemongrab being punched by Finn and Bubblegum make him laugh so much that in one point he loosed control over his powers and the video cuts momentarily to this beautiful picture:

He also laughs maniacally when Peppermint Butler is crying over the spice serum in his eye and you can hear a little echo in his laugh, perhaps because he wasn’t in full control of his powers at that point.

He stays that “(a minion) only learn their lesson if they can see light at the end of the tunnel”, and that’s why he complains about Lemongrab’s excessive long sentences.

He IS the original Black Hat, the one who created the “black hat” type of villain in movies.

According to him, a real villain shouldn’t let a pubert to be disrespectful at him.

The sound of a hero screaming in pain is “always put a smile in his face”, but then the camera show Black Hat not being happy at all, causing that the person with him (Flug? The narrator? Alan!?) to laugh awkwardly.

“Rule #43 of the manual: Do not stop attacking until your enemy’s heart stops beating!”

But there are other things that fans may not notice:

The fact that Black Hat wants to rip off one of Flug’s arms and use it in a similar ritual than Bubblegum’s to boost his power may suggest that Flug is in fact, not human, but a supernatural creature.

He says that 5.0.5. is indeed a failed experiment. Alan already confirmed that in his Pixelart conference, but now we have an actual canon confirmation.

Black Hat’s manor may have a torture chamber.

There’s a manual of how to be evil, apparently.

Sometimes you can hear “Black Hat Organization”, other you can hear “Organización Black Hat”.

Black Hat’s Organization “please stand by” picture is Cambot fighting against one of Black duplicates (specifically, the short one) who is using a fish as a weapon.

Technical difficulties. Don’t go away! 

The short was clearly archive footage.

 Is more likely that Alan was the live action Black Hat at the end of the video.

BLACK HAT HAD A MOUSTACHE!

See!?

(By the way, why is thay woman smiling? Did she saw a hero coming to her rescue? Is she smiling because the photo? Is she happy because Black Hat is about to kill her? Is she insane as Demencia? Is she Demencia’s ancestor? Is that Demencia!?

 It was clearly that the video was shoot just after 5.0.5. creation, because you can see a picture of him glued at the VHS tape’s case.

By the way, in a bigger version of the image you can see clearly that Demencia’s feet are in her head and Flug is in shorts with Black Hat too close to him.

You can take that as you want.

Also, this picture.

Black Hat organization

Introduces

The New Security System!

Batteries not included.

If you call now we will include this key chain.

Pieces come separately; if you don’t buy anything we’ll keep your money!

[aion-rsa]

Twilight Is Much Better Than You Think

https://ift.tt/3xXjwlu

The first crush I ever had was on David Bowie’s Goblin King from Labyrinth. He was a big haired, pale skinned other worldly bad boy who wanted to keep teenage Sarah with him forever despite being vastly older than her. I was 9.

So I get Twilight. Based on the series written by Mormon Stephenie Meyer, who at the time proudly confessed to never having seen a horror film, the first of the films came out in 2008 to wild commercial success, almost instantly generating a rabid fanbase of largely (but definitely not only) teenage girls. Nicknamed ‘Twihards’ these fans were obsessed not only with the films and books but also with the stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who at the time were a couple in real life. It was intense. It was a lot.

Four subsequent (and lesser) films followed and while the fans got louder, so did the sneers. Now the series has landed on Netflix and is potentially reaching a whole new generation of viewers, as well as scratching a delicious nostalgic itch for original Twihards more than a decade on. Outside of the cultural phenomenon of the franchise, it’s easy to forget how genuinely intelligent the first film really was. The main reason for that was director Catherine Hardwicke.

Hardwicke gets teenage girls. If you have any doubt about that, watch her feature directorial debut from 2003 Thirteen. Co-written with then 14-year-old co-star Nikki Reed, it’s a painful drama about a destructive teenage friendship that taps perfectly into how achingly important and casually destructive certain things are when you’re that age. Twilight taps into the same thing, focusing on incredibly melodramatic teenager, Bella Swan. Mocking Bella is no smarter than mocking Kayla from Eighth Grade or Tracy from Thirteen. It’s not news: teenage girls can be a bit like that, and Hardwicke sets out her stall from the off.

Indeed the first lines of Twilight are Bella’s voiceover pondering her own mortality, “Dying in the place of someone I love seems a good way to go,” she mopes, with absolute sincerity.

There is no way these films would have been the teenage catnip that they were without the perfect casting of the two leads. Hardwicke found Stewart first, an up and comer at the time who is both preternaturally beautiful but somehow incredibly awkward with it (as a case in point of how this could have gone wrong – take the miscasting of Chloe Grace Moretz in Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie – Stewart would have been far better). Hardwicke ran ‘chemistry tests’ to find her Edward and to say there was chemistry between the two would be an understatement. Stewart carries Bella’s heavy earnestness with empathy while Pattinson is pointy, brooding, pale faced and interesting in all the right ways.

Yep, Catherine Hardwicke gets teenage girls.

Armed with the perfect leads, but only a tiny budget for a blockbuster – $37 million – Hardwicke made a romance fizzing with the kind of burgeoning sexuality coupled with melodramatic obsession that can be so common to pre-teen or teenage fantasy.

Forget the later movies which feature buff werewolves walking around with their tops off. The genius of Hardwicke’s movie is a similar innocence to Meyer’s books. It is pure fantasy.

Edward is the embodiment of the ‘safe’ boyfriend young teens fantasize about – an older, more experienced man who still looks young and handsome. A man who doesn’t like anyone else at all, but loves you completely. A man who desires you endlessly but – and this is crucial – can’t have sex with you. And a man who will love you, and only you for all of eternity. 

Bella and Edward do shag, and get married and have a baby later on in the series, which is all somehow less interesting than the tingly but chaste first installment but that’s not to say part one isn’t about sex, because it absolutely is.

Edward wants to eat Bella so badly you can smell it. Or at least, he can certainly smell it – he’s driven crazy by the pheromones she gives off.

While Edward is ‘safe,’ he is also dangerous – he points out very clearly that she is powerless against him. She could never outrun him, he is far stronger than her. In a scene where he asks her to dance and she refuses he even says “I could make you.”

There is something a bit kinky about this, and rightly so. Lest we forget, Twilight was the inspiration for the tame erotica series which began with Fifty Shades of Grey. Bella is the young version of Anastasia, learning that maybe she quite likes being submissive.

There is no reason young teens (of any gender) shouldn’t explore different parts of their sexuality. Love it or hate it, the romance works.

Read more

Books

Twilight: What Was The Deal With Jacob and Renesmee?

By Nicole Hill

Rewatched years on and Twilight is a lot more than that though. It’s easy to forget how intentionally funny it is. Though we are on Bella’s side, that doesn’t stop Hardwicke gently poking fun at her. An early scene in science class sees Bella walk in and pose right in front of a fan like it was a wind machine. Later in the same lab, Edward sits in front of a taxidermied owl so he looks like he has literal angel wings. For a girl as melodramatic as Bella, it’s perfect (and if you need any more proof of how utterly melodramatic Bella is take the scene after Edward saves her from a car crash where she tells Edward “Why didn’t you let the van crush me, and save yourself the regret?” As if he would genuinely rather a girl he barely knows was dead…)

Twilight is funny. But Bella isn’t funny. Which is part of what makes it funny. Another weapon Hardwicke has in her arsenal is Anna Kendrick, as Bella’s very lovely friend Jessica. Kendrick is massive now and very clearly has great comic timing but Twilight was a breakout for her. Jessica is the anti-Bella. Cute and comfortable with her cuteness, incredibly tolerant with Bella, she’s a generally speaking well adjusted young woman, and Kendrick nails it. It’s notable, for example, how often she responds to Bella by saying “ha ha yeah, that’s really funny” (and not sarcastically) which actually draws attention to how NOT funny Bella is. Or how, while Bella is mooning out the window pining for Edward, Jessica is commenting on how good her boobs look in the prom dress she’s trying on. She’s a wonderful antidote, and Hardwicke knew exactly what she was doing in casting her.

The elephant in the room is perhaps Taylor Lautner as Jacob. Not the strongest of the cast and less of a breakout post-Twilight than the two leads and Kendrick (though Lautner did prove he can also do comedy with his regular role in Brit show Cuckoo), Jacob did become a counterpart for people who liked their chaps a bit less pasty and a bit more buff. 

Hardwicke made Twilight an enormous hit, grossing more than $400 million worldwide and setting up a franchise which would go on to gross over $3.3 billion. But after the first film she was out. Though she was offered part two it was on the proviso that it come out just a year after part one which gave her too tight a turnaround to be able to deliver the film she wanted to make. Instead the rest of the franchise went to male directors.

Talking to Vanity Fair in 2018, ten years after she launched the franchise, Hardwicke points out that her film kicked off a trend of female-led YA movies including the three Divergent films and the four Hunger Games movies none of which were directed by women, saying “that was a heartbreak for me. There are other badass women out there that could have done those.”

Whether you like Twilight or not, it was an undeniably successful movie which truly understood its audience. Years later studios are still trying to capture that magic again – YA romances have come and gone to various degrees of success, but Twilight is the one that endures. Whether teenagers of 2021 discovering the film for the first time will still identify as acutely remains to be seen, but either way, as a cultural phenomenon Twilight is way smarter than a sparkly vampire movie deserves to be.

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The Twilight movies are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Twilight Is Much Better Than You Think appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mattsagervo]

Interview: Tal M. Klein, Author of 'The Punch Escrow'

The Punch Escrow has been a huge critical and commercial success, author Tal M. Klein's debut novel has garnered praise from everyone from NPR to Felicia Day, and with good reason. Set in the year 2147, Escrow combines a compelling story and cast of characters with masterful world-building - transporting the reader to an all-too believable future, constructed from a mix of imaginative fiction, and speculative extensions of real-world science and sociological trends. 

It has garnered many favorable comparisons to Ready Player One, which does it a bit of a disservice, since it's a work of breathtaking originality. The only similarities I note are that it successfully integrates, and updates, some beloved science fiction ideas, and that it has been fast tracked to the big screen; a film adaptation is already in development at Lionsgate.

I had the opportunity to interview Klein about the book's origins and influences, what to expect from him in the future, and how he masterfully constructed the world of 2147 - from science, to music and more. 

Matt Sager: Like a lot of great science fiction, The Punch Escrow has several themes, and is clearly about a lot more than a future of human replication and teleportation. How would you describe the book's plot and overall themes - or more bluntly, "what is your book about?"   Tal M. Klein: I like to say it’s a hard sci-fi technothriller with a love story at its core. Joel Byram, an everyday guy in 2147 New York is duplicated en route to Costa Rica as a result of a teleportation mishap, the company that runs teleportation wants to “fix the bug” by killing one of the duplicates, religious zealots want to use his circumstance as propaganda, and his wife is kidnapped by a rogue scientist. Now Joel is fighting to save his life and in his wife in a world that has two of him. The core elements of the story are rooted in identity: Are we who society says we are? Or who we think we are? Or who those who we love believe us to be?  

MS: You’ve attained huge success with The Punch Escrow - you’ve attained massive critical and commercial success, the book has been optioned by Lions Gate, and as of this writing it’s number 1 on Amazon’s Hard Science Fiction charts. Did you envision this level of attention and success for your debut novel?  TMK: I set out to tell the best version of my story. That was my criteria for a “job well done.” I’m thrilled people are digging it. The credit for its success is equally shared by my wife, my editorial team of Robert Kroese, Matt Harry, and Adam Gomolin, and Howie Sanders at United Talent Agency.  

MS: I’ve been told that the concept for the book came about over an argument over the plausibility of Star Trek transporters - can you elaborate on how that led to a book about teleportation and cloning? TMK: What you’ve been told is true! Back in 2012, I was complaining to a co-worker about J.J. Abrams’ over the top use of lens flare in the Star Trek reboot, when suddenly, our CEO interrupted our conversation by shouting “It’s bullshit!” It turned out he wasn’t talking about the lens flare, but Star Trek’s transporters. He was an expert in quantum physics and went on to explain that nobody in the right mind would ever step into a transporter if they knew how it worked. It was then that I realized that there wasn’t a good origin story for the commercialization of teleportation. The fact is, I initially set out the write The Punch Escrow as a textbook from the future, with scribbles in the margins by a smartass named Joel Byram. That was the first draft. By the time the final draft was done, Joel’s story became the focus on the book, and the “textbook” was relegated to liner notes, explaining the world Joel lived in.  

MS: I’m very aware that you're not a fan of J.J. Abrams' lens flare. Cinematography aside, are you a fan of the new Star Trek franchise? Other than the transporter argument, has it had any influence on your writing? TMK: Hah, well, discounting for his penchant for lens flare, I’m a huge J.J. Abrams fan, the first movie of the Trek reboot was great. I didn’t really care for the second or third. MS:  J.J. Abrams aside, I know that you’re a huge fan of Star Trek - which is your favorite franchise, and how has it influenced you as a writer? TMK: I’d qualify that by saying I love Star Trek, but I’m not a Trekkie. I say that because I learned my lesson at San Diego Comic Con. If you tell a Trekkie that you’re a Trekkie, they expect you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire Trek cannon, which I do not possess. So, yes, I am a Star Trek fan. My favorite franchise was DS9, but my favorite season of all time was TNG Season 6. MS: Which other science fiction television shows, films, books and writers would you cite as your biggest influences?   TMK: Larry Niven, Scott Meyer, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and, because The Martian undeniably catalyzed me to write my book, Andy Weir. As for television shows, I think it’s fair to credit modern detective shows like Psych and Monk for helping me wrap my mind around Rube Goldberg plot devices. Most influential was my favorite show of all time, the X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen. I think they really nailed the technogeek persona. Influential movies run the gamut from The Princess Bride to Donnie Darko and everything in between, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention District 9, Looper, and Gattaca. MS: The Punch Escrow strikes me as a book that's in equal parts hopeful and fearful for the future. There are themes of utopian technology corrupted by corporate interference. How much of that - the good and the ill - do you see unfolding in the present? Is your fictional vision of 2147 similar to your actual view of the future? TMK: To borrow a phrase from The Jester, There's an unequal amount of good and bad in most things. The trick is to figure out the ratio and act accordingly. I don’t think future is dystopian or utopian, it’s just us progressing along our evolutionary path. MS: Music plays a major role in the book. I understand that we have a music industry background in common. What was your career in music like, and how did it contribute to the Joel's soundtrack, and the new genre of redistro? TMK: I never think of anything I do artistically as a “career” — music and writing are my hobbies. I’m very serious about my hobbies, but I pursue them for the sake of pure joy rather than income. MS: One of the most original ideas in The Punch Escrow is the brilliant, if gross, race of genetically engineered mosquitoes. What was your inspiration for these bugs that eat lighting and crap thunder, so to speak? TMK: Everyone loves the mosquitoes! The near-scandal is that I cut the mosquitoes in the third draft of the book because I learned about bacteria that eat methane and excreted oxygen, but my beta readers freaked out on me, so I put the skeeters back. The reason the mosquitoes are there is because I wanted to solve for air pollution but in a very messy, human way. Humans tend to to opt for quick fixes and shortcuts, I think it’s because we are a breed largely driven by the pursuit of instant gratification. MS: Hard science fiction like The Punch Escrow seems to grow more relevant by the day as AI and robots are, to varying degrees, infiltrating the workforce and performing tasks that were once the sole domain of humans. Do you see this as a growing issue, and if so, need it be a threat? Is AI really capable of supplanting people, and is that really what corporations as a whole want?  TMK: Will apps and robots take the place of people? Absolutely. But if we look at what happened in the Industrial Age, people were prophesizing similar doom and gloom scenarios, and that’s not how the future turned out. There will be plenty of human jobs after AI, it’s just that those jobs will be different than many of the jobs we have today. MS: How did you come up with the idea of a machine language - that is, a language by machines, for machines, cars talking to one another, etc? How surprised were you when Facebook had to shut down it’s AI because it had created a secret language for itself? TMK: If you’ve ever played with AI, it makes sense that two pieces of semi-intelligent code might form a more optimal method of communicating than our cumbersome language. I was a bit taken aback by what happened at Facebook, yes. But it wasn’t shocking. I also understand why they pulled the chord, but I kind of wish they hadn’t.   MS: What do you think machines are saying about us, and if AI continues to advance, do you think that they are going to develop an opinion of us? Do you think it will be favorable, and/or within our ability to influence?    TMK: Code will likely always be subservient to its programmer. As such, I think we need to add ethics to the list of engineering core competencies. If engineers exclusively focus on successful code execution without regard for anthropological outcomes in the age of AI, we may very well end up with evil robots.   MS: Are there sequels in the works? What’s next for the Punch Escrow universe, and for you as a writer? TMK: I’m contractually obligated to deliver two more books that take place in the world of The Punch Escrow. One of them will likely be a sequel of sorts in that we’ll get into matters unresolved in The Punch Escrow, but the other is shaping up to be a standalone novel with a narrative that is ancillary to that of The Punch Escrow. But who knows, both are at the very early formative stages.

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 8.16.2017

Slightly overdue and quite possibly not at all aniticipated, I have at last finished the Wednesday Roundups and have come to give my usual reviews and ratings~

So let’s get into it

DC’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, DC’s Batwoman, Image’s Descender, Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine, DC’s Gotham City Garage, DC’s Justice League of America, DC’s Super Sons, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #10 Ryan Stegman, Nate Stockman

It’s amazing how, for close to ten years now, I have felt like Peter Parker -- as I knew him and grew up with him -- has been a shadow of himself in Marvel comics. The potential for his growth, the sense of personal responsibility, everything that I had felt him growing toward while I was an avid Spidey fan felt gone back when I stopped reading because I felt like the illusion had been purposefully broken.

Peter was never going to grow up, he was never going to move forward, and his lifetime of adventures were never going to have consequences that truly stayed and mattered. 

Now, that’s a general disillusionment longterm comic fans all have to face some time, and it’s always going to be felt most severely on those that brought us into the business to begin with, but it’s one I always struggled the most with when it came to Spider-Man. Because the MC2 had sort of given me a “preview” to what his next steps could have been, and how his story could continue as a father and family man. I knew it enriched the parts of Peter I liked rather than took them away. Missing that in current iterations was dreadful.

But, amazingly, and wonderfully, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your vows seems to provide for me what a decade of previous Spidey books could not. My Peter.

Story: Considering this is a one-and-done story, albeit one obviously leading up to the upcoming arc, it feels like it completely uses its pages and panels to their fullest with no wasted time and no sense of drag. Honestly, the fast pace in this issue is more reminiscent of classic pre-trade comics rather than the current lay of the land which seems more interested in first expanding and dragging stories out. And this manages to do it with three stories wrapped up by the end. 

The main story is about Normie Osborn, his birthday, and what will be his driving motivations to become the next Green Goblin. It’s honestly heartbreaking to see the complexities of a completely bratty kid whose suffering ultimately stems from the anger and frustration of having lost his father at a young age and feeling completely alone and misunderstood because of it. As the main POV character, we honestly get to dig into his rottenness and his tragedy more than most new villains you usually see and I love that as simple as his motivations are, you can really get the sense that it’s believable for a kid to fall into these trappings through his inability to properly grieve. It sets him up to not only be the antithesis of Annie, as I’ve been imagining he would be, but a foil to Peter as well, and that’s pretty fascinating in a character I genuinely feared was going to be pretty one-note.

For the B story we have Peter and Annie May bonding on a father-daughter day. I think this is vital not only because we just came off a Mary Jane focused story but because it’s that relationship that ends up saving them in the end. I love how Peter’s both protective of Annie, but supportive and grateful of her in a way that’s both completely Peter and also the signs of a great parent who is not ashamed to be surpassed by his child and wants her to know when he’s proud. They’re absolutely adorable, and relateable, and I love that Peter has obviously taken after Aunt May and Uncle Ben when it comes to being a parent. Usually it’s seen as “cooler” or “more interesting” to have good guys/childhood heroes grow up to be bad parents even against their characterizations beforehand just because it’s edgy, and I’m just so grateful that Renew Your Vows hasn’t fallen into that. 

The less expanded other subplot in the background is of the Lizard and his son desperately trying to get some sort of Oscorp chemical to save the son from... something. I may need to reread, but I’m fairly certain this will be set up in the future for a continuing storyline but it also works well here to emphasize the importance of parent-child bonds. 

Art: I honestly have been really impressed with the art on this title from the start. It’s very agile and creative while also not stylized to the point of being cartoony. The colors find a nice balance between being bright and having a touch of grunge and texture to it. If you’ve been a fan of the art for the book beforehand, you’re going to keep being a fan because I know I am.

I also want to take a moment and applaud a book for doing the rare thing these days and maintaining its art style and individual character for ten issues. That may not seem like a whole lot, but nowadays it feels like such an accomplishment to just have an artist on two consecutive issues let alone a rotation of artists who at least attempt to adhere to the certain style of the book. 

Characters & Dialogue: I went into Normie more above because he was so central to the plot of this issue, but it stands to be said again that I’m just genuinely floored by how well this comic does with making a layered and rounded villain out of what could have so easily been a stock Evil Child Genius version of Norman Osborn. I mean it was even in the name, and that impresses me so much. I like how there’s a sophistication to his dialogue, but also both his dialogue and running monologue are shorter sentences than you usually see with such educated words, which still makes it feel like the voice of a child. It was a neat little touch.

Peter also is just such a great character in this book. He gets less panel time than Normie, but in that time we see the layers of Peter. He’s protective, he’s funny, he’s supportive, and he’s quick to leap in head first. But while this Peter maintains all the fun of a younger Peter Parker (one that lets his daughter eat a disgusting amount of ice cream to be on her good side), there is a kindness and push toward empathy that seems more nuanced and matured to him than the Peter of old. His final words to Normie are both heartbreaking and full of pathos. He obviously regrets not being able to save his friend, but he’s also recognizing the signs of tragedy repeating itself in Harry’s young son. It’s a great, subtle moment.

Annie doesn’t get as much time as Normie or Peter, but we can see that her skills as a vigilante are advancing quite nicely, but her confidence is still stunted slightly. At least, it is around her father, who is of course her biggest inspiration and biggest hero. Even when she saves him, she is cautious to be excited about it, both because she’s concerned for him and also because she is concerned about making mistakes. Ultimately she’s adorable and full of sugar so I don’t think there’s anything not to love. 

DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016-2017) Matthew Manning, Jon Sommariva

Honestly I don’t know why I’m being rewarded lately with my favorite franchises getting amazing official crossovers, but I am, and I’m so happy about it. IDW and DC have been collaborating quite a bit for the past couple of years -- with IDW getting to release those original Mister Miracle omnibuses and now getting all these crossovers with arguably their biggest property to date and DC’s biggest property to date. Twice. 

The thing is, I was a pretty big fan of the first Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover by Tynion and I wasn’t really all that sure what to expect with this new crossover and whether or not it’d repeat the same steps or if it’d be able to capture either the DCAU or the TMNT2012′s tones in the process of telling its story. 

Fortunately, today’s all about me getting squarely handed my butt with these surprises!

Story: My concerns about this retreading the meet-and-greet storyline of Tynion’s crossover were pretty much immediately dashed thanks in no small part to Manning absolutely nailing the tones of the two cartoons right from the start. There’s monsters, there’s mayhem, there’s an actual mystery to solve (holy crap remember when Batman used to solve mysteries) and the badassness of the Shredder was on display without allowing him to make a cakewalk of the Rogues Gallery. 

I just loved how everything was able to tie together with these two continuities so neatly, and how it made it just that much more interesting for the ultimate reveal of who was behind the whole even, even if it was hinted at from the very first issue. It was a great mystery story of following the clues until we got to the end.

Oh wait. No. It didn’t get to the end because the story wrapped up in issue five of this six issue series And I’ll be honest... this really baffles me to the point of almost taking me out of my praising mood. 

Like... I’m not going to say that this was perfect at all until #6, but it was well paced, well choreographed, and it made full use of a huge cast of characters with lots of neat crossover potential satisfied nearly on every front -- we got Bats in NYC and we got Turtles in Gotham, we got respective villains in both. It was an incredibly solid, fun crossover that had a very satisfying conclusion. And then another issue. 

Obviously they wanted to expand on this story more. The Gotham Rogues shined the most for the first five issues, really driving the plot on all sides, and then #6 had the Kraangs taking advantage of the previous mayhem to enact their own invasion of Gotham. And there were obviously a lot of years that passed in between -- obviously in Gotham since we moved from B:TAS to TNBA, but also the Turtles while eternally teenagers seemed a bit older, and I don’t think it was a mistake on Manning’s part that April or Karai or any of the other growing Hamato clan’s members didn’t come through the portal with them. With a series that is still very much airing, they just couldn’t risk too much continuity plot holes since who knows what’s happening next. 

And I really get that, but if that’s the case, then perhaps the first storyline should have been 3/4 issues, and then allow this second storyline to have at least more than 1 issue. The way it stands now it seems more like a cruel epilogue teasing a future crossover continuation than an ending to what was otherwise a super solid and tightly written crossover. 

Art: The art was fantastic. Seriously, not only were both of the very different animated series’ styles represented in the art, but it was still very much its own blend. Everything felt cohesive without being overly off model from the original designs... Okay Barbara had some pretty strange anatomy in a few panels. Or pages. More than a few. Look, we have to do something about boob sock costumes especially if she’s going to be standing right next to April -- who’s her size and not that much younger than her -- who proves that this artist has at least seen someone wearing a sport bra before. 

But other than that, I really liked the art and I believed the colors REALLY popped. And I have to also thank this publication for having the common human decency of putting the covers between the issues which the collected version of Tynion’s crossover did not have in the least. 

Characters & Dialogue: Obviously a crossover is going to boil down all characters to the characteristics fans identify them with the most both for recognizability and so that we have the fun of seeing favorite characters bouncing off each other through a crossover. What’s the Joker like with Shredder, what’s Raphael like on fear gas, what’s Batman’s exchanges with Leonardo like. 

That’s the fun of a crossover and I don’t really expect noncanon crossover comics to dive into a character study and provide any type of growth throughout the issues. It’s good fun.

That being said... I’ve never been a huge fan of Don’s girl craziness in the TMNT 2012 series but could let it pass for his genuine affection for April that is beyond “oh wow a girl!!!”, they have a genuine relationship. But having him drooling over Barbara all the time just makes me annoyed. 

And also means that we can add Donatello of the freakin’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the never ending list of characters in comics who have hooked up with or fallen in love with Barbara Gordon. Let the woman live, people.

Other than personal nitpicks, though, the characters are great and it felt like the best of what I love from both of these cartoons brought together.

DC’s Batwoman (2017-present) #6 Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV, Renato Arlem, Adriano Lucas

Oh, my long standing annoyances, will you ever allow me the peace of just enjoying a story instead of giving me a reflexive groan to the heavens each time I start reading tropes I don’t like. Like Bad End Future flash forwards where everything is fascist and terrible? 

Maybe. Depends on how gay things are allowed to be. So let’s get into it -- can Marguerite Bennett’s ability to write almost anything to my liking, can she make a Same As It Never Was Future Tense The Savage Time Futures End 2099 Watchmen Current America that I’ll appreciate reading?

No. But the effort is incredibly commendable!

Story: As is probably gathered by my response here to begin with, I’m not easily won over by this “darkest timelines” filler stories be it in comics or movies or television episodes. It just rarely affects the current storyline of the characters, will be retconned or lead to huge plot holes in the future, or just in general has nothing particularly fun or interesting to say. 

And I’ll be honest, current times just make me that much less interested in fascism being used in my escapist media. Like. Guys I just want to watch superheroes punch Nazis, not my lesbian Jewish superheroes help begin some sort of fascist totalitarian state with way too much Nazi imagery like good lord. 

Anyway, there were things that I found interesting from the start. Kate seems to be trying to dismantle the system she is guilty of starting, Jason is... honestly he’s somehow the Dick Grayson of Batman Beyond 2.0 and working with Kate so that’s weird. 

Somehow, beyond all common sense, Harvey Bullock is still alive? 

I do like Renee as Commissioner but as sweet as it is to have older lesbians in a comic... *long suffering sigh* Look, I might be sensitive to this because I just watched Atomic Blonde or maybe because I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with the treatment Renee has gotten compared to Kate but... There’s just something supremely off putting to me that a brown woman is portrayed as having the long standing unrequited love and can’t move on to find her own happiness and then dies for the tragedy of the white woman. 

We really have to look at these patterns and start questioning things here. 

Also Tim is evil Batman. Again. Stop doing that, Tim. I barely put up with it during “Titans Tomorrow”, and I don’t nearly have that much of a relationship with your current incarnation that I had with that Tim. Just saying. Watch your butt, Birdboy.

Art: The art is very good. There’s a few fun action splash pages, I thought the panels were organized and flowed really well, and best of all I really enjoyed the fact that Gotham actually had color to it for once. 

Too many times artists seem to think that Gotham can only work in shades of gray, but I found the cityscapes a lot more interesting and popping with this style. So that’s encouraging that we may once again get a change in how Gotham looks.

Characters & Dialogue: Bennett is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers so far as characters go -- I’ve enjoyed almost all her work from both DC and Marvel and she maintains that here. I don’t know how much input Tynion has on the Batwoman scripts right now to earn that writing credit but being more familiar with Bennett’s work now I really felt this story was more hers than his. 

That being said, and as strong as the characterization is, I’ve always felt that Bennett does have a tendency to write internal monologues from characters with this distant narration that feels cold and impersonal to the story being told. That works here, given the circumstances and how this is supposed to feel alien and unfamiliar to the Kate we have been reading in the previous issues. But I would argue that it’d work better if most of the internal monologuing and narration didn’t come off that way in other stories. 

Image’s Descender (2015-present) #23 Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen

Man is Image killing it with their creator owned line. It’s hard to imagine what sci-fi could really elevate the genre in comics more than the likes of Saga but it absolutely feels like Descender is aiming squarely for that spot, taking the more cerebral route of an AI or Blade Runner which is needed more in comics in a way that’s still approachable. But other than nerds like me, does it manage that approachability?

Couldn’t tell you since I am a nerd like me, so I’ll just lay out my perspective.

Story: It feels like for over 20 issues now we have been building to the point where all of these factions of characters would meet and their plots would begin to overlap, which makes it all the more just shocking that we’re at that point. It’s definitely a huge task given the sheer number of characters in the cast at this point, but I am also incredibly tempted to say that because we’re in the middle of this “chapter” (and yes I’m saying that a lot this week) you really feel the lack of a beginning or ending on this one. We have so many characters we’re following at one time that there’s not really any other way to tell this story but in fractions. And as enjoyable as that is, it means you either have to sacrifice POVs every couple of issues, or you have to drag out tension for each plot across multiple issues. And we’re doing the latter.

Now I don’t want that to come across as a condemnation, it’s just a fact of the way this story’s being told. And personally I don’t think that makes individual issues as rewarding as it is to read a whole chapter in succession. And yet, I can also say with confidence that what I do love about this story and how I’m hooked on finding out what happens next, I personally feel invested enough to buy per issue rather than wait for trade, at least for now. So perhaps I’m too analytical on this issue right now. After all, I’m not having difficulty remembering from issue to issue what each group’s plot is or what danger we left them off at the time before, and it’s usually when that begins to blur that I feel a comic is worth waiting until the trade. 

Art: I am a huge fan of Dustin Nguyen, as always, but I’m once more burdened with the question in my own mind “is the water colors fitting for this harsh, slick, futuristic setting” and I just still can’t say that I feel that it is. It’s beautiful, and as someone who has been reading comics with Nguyen’s style since all the way back during the Winick run on Batman, it’s impressive how far his style has developed and how much he’s honed his craft. But that doesn’t mean that specifically the choice to make this a textured water color comic rather than a digital comic was the best aesthetic choice, and I know at this point I am beating a dead horse with that opinion, but it’s just what strikes me as so off putting each issue. Especially since we are in a science fiction story, taking place almost entirely in outer space, and yet the majority of backgrounds as well as space between panels is white. It’s just a real disconnect that I can’t tell yet if it’s being inventive or going to eventually have a symbolic meaning with the story. 

Guess I’ll have to wait and see with everyone else!

Characters & Dialogue: Another difficulty with this kind of storytelling and seeing every character for a few pages each issue is that there’s not a whole lot of time to really advance characterization unless it’s over the span of a whole chapter. So I have to imagine that things that seem small in the moment -- Tim-21′s escape, the doctor saving Telsa, Effie telling the Nagoki what he “wanted to hear” will all have vast implications in the upcoming issues, but it’s not something I can dissect as it is now. 

That being said, I really do love all these characters and I love how lovable they can be while still understanding how they can view each other as utter monsters due to their own pasts and motivations. It’s pretty amazing work on Lemire’s part. 

Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine (2017) #1 Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas

Somehow, someway it snuck up on me over the past year or so that Tom Taylor just has absolutely made my life better with his contribution to comics. Like, that’s a weird epiphany to have in the middle of a Wednesday night, but my friends on Discord with me last week got to witness it in real time. I love Taylor’s writing, and most importantly I love how he writes Laura, I love everything about her under his pen and I’m glad to have back-to-back weeks of his Wolverine. 

This week... with a TWIST!

Story: So what’s happening in the Marvel universe right now? Couldn’t tell you. I imagine the timey wimey shit for Secret Empire has allowed for this crossover within a crossover within a summer event but I have no actual context other than I wanted to pick this, the Ms. Marvel, and the Spider-Man comics up. Because that’s how I role. I have wisely stuck to my guns throughout this summer and only read Marvel titles which, y’know, fucked off into space for a whole summer-long arc rather than stay around for Nazi Apology feat. Steve Rogers of Earth-whatever. I’ve been much happier for it!

The point is, we get a crossover with Wolverine and Wolverine. A Logan from before he knew Laura, and a Laura who... looks like she’s in her X-Force uniform for some reason? Uh. Again I’m completely going in blind on this one I have no context, but we’ll assume it’s a pre-All-New Wolverine in spite of titles because she doesn’t seem to have any problem murdering people and that’s like a whole Thing in All-New and I can’t imagine Taylor, who’s writing it, would like... forget that. 

Anyway, it’s an excuse for a team up where Laura is helping Logan same Amiko from being kidnapped by the Hand and gives her some life advice while getting some much needed life advice of his own. And it’s as simple as that and yet not simple at all. Like most of Taylor’s stuff, the embrace of the general comic book premises belies a much deeper purpose that you can look for, and this is all about Laura and Logan’s relationship, or at least the relationship they both wish could have been. It’s closure in a way, for Laura to receive an open hug from a Logan that’s still very much her Logan, but is not yet as jaded as to not give her a much needed hug. 

Oh, Logan. Whenever you eventually reincarnate yourself back into the main Marvel Universe as yourself and not a clone or another universe’s son or another universe’s angry grandpa or as another long lost son or as another clone or as a dying salamander, I hope you keep this message to heart.

Art: It’s wonderful. I mean the anatomy’s great, the colors are muted but still varied, there’s some real tone to Laura that some artists don’t give her enough of. I could nitpick a few things like costumes (woops already did) or that Logan didn’t meet my personal Hairy Enough for Wolverine requirement, but the main criticism I’m really going to have here is that this had a very simple panel structure for the majority of its pages which could use some more variation, especially for action scenes. But then again the best scenes weren’t action but were of the characters actually interacting so I think simple panels for simple things is more than appropriate.

Characters & Dialogue: I’ll be the first to admit that Logan’s not really my guy. I don’t go out of my way to read a lot of Wolverine where he’s not in a team book or a crossover or a team-up or another team book or another crossover or a tv show or another team book. And I have a lot of frustration with him in the majority of those. It’s kinda my thing with Bruce Wayne -- when I love him, I love him, when I don’t, I really don’t. 

But, to me... this was good! It was maybe even great. Strangely dynamic for Logan and it was just overall interesting to see Logan written by Taylor and it not being from Laura’s perspective. I’m so used to his voice for Laura that the gruffer, less nonsense and more weary tone from Logan was surprising and fitting. And it made the final pages just that much more poignant.

And of course Taylor’s Laura is just my tastes to a T. So everything’s good by my account. 

DC’s Gotham City Garage (2017-present) #1 Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Brian Ching

I had no idea this book was coming out. I had never seen advertisements for it. I had no idea what to expect. And what I got was Robo Cop meets Fury Road meets Road Warrior meets DC Bombshells. And maybe Blade Runner. 

Given that this is a digital first and I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I still have... no idea where this could be going or what it’s based off of other than those statues that used to be sold by DC with everyone on motorbikes and the mentality of “hey people like Bombshells! Let’s try this statue collection too!” with apparently no memory of how that worked out for them with Ame-Comi Girls. 

Did I mention this is trying to repeat the lightning in a bottle of Bombshells? I feel like that can’t... really be... overstated. 

Story: uhhhhhh Well. This is tough to nail down because as a Digital First it’s very short and I also have no idea what’s going on so my judgments here are... lacking, let’s say. And I have nothing but questions. Like. Why is it in Gotham and fascists are Batman themed while Lex Luthor is in control. Why is Kara adopted by Jim Gordon. Why is there a picture of Barbara and Kara together but no mention of Babs in Kara’s monologues or so on. Why are humans robots and robots humans. Are humans robots at all. How did Jim know about Kara’s super powers if she’s never been in the sun before. 

I k now I’m just listing questions but that’s basically everything that happened to me while I was reading and I just... have no answers to give you. 

I just think we can all agree that Big Barda does, indeed, wear a mohawk just like she wears everything else: like a boss.

Art: It’s fine. I mean, digital comics are always a bit rougher around the edges due to their incredibly tight update schedules and I always try to account for that. And it’s a cute, inoffensive style that definitely is going to try to undercut the no doubt supremely scanty clothing of the... garage...girl...people. And I liked how dull and gray toned everything around Kara looked in the Garden while outside there was almost a sort of sepia tone but the real colors came in with the... garage....girl...people. But even then, there are little visual cues throughout, like Kara’s own colorful accents despite wearing “assimilated” clothing. No doubt that’s going to be gone soon when she joins the...

Again, I can’t express enough about how much I don’t know what’s going on.

Characters & Dialogue: We really only have Kara as a character right now and while she definitely has a voice, it’s not really one that I would say stands out in the crowd of YA character types. I’m not trying to be dismissive of that -- I actually think that Kara has always worked best as one of the Youths’ outlets in comics, but it’s basically just. Too early to really give my feel on things. 

Basically I feel like I wasted everyone’s time with this review lol

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Vol. 1 Steve Orlando, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald

I have some huge reservations about this title, but after really thoroughly enjoying the Road to Justice League of America Rebirth storyline that came before this, and loving the majority of the lineup as much as I did, I was ready to give this comic some time to really find its feet. Not to mention I’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work in the past. But now we have to see how well lofty expectations hold up.

Story: I’ll be honest with you, the most distracting part of this entire project is that Bruce is like... bankrolling 40 different superhero teams right now with none of them being the Outsiders and I find that shocking and unusual. Especially since there’s already a Justice League, Bruce seems to be making this particular team all about “second chances” and...Lobo’s on it. 

But to my surprise, this was actually addressed by the story. Not answered by any means, but the characters for the most part seem very self-aware of the oddness of their team given Dinah and Frost’s conversation with each other on the subject. They allude to there must be some reason that Bruce has decided on the team that he has if he’s willing to go through all of this trouble. 

Especially Lobo. Who is on a Justice League team. This is... Well it’s a thing, for sure. 

Throughout this volume all of the cast gets major moments to shine, I felt like, and the relationships were explored to quite an extent, but this falls into the problem that so many other comic books from DC does too, and that is that no moment can be too great or grand... without Batman immediately showing you up, taking credit for the situation, or just completely dismissing it out of hand. Oh, classic Batdickery.

Art: I actually felt the art was very good under both main artists on this title. It’s very house standard, in that it’s very much trying to replicate the Jim Lee standard style that almost all the DC line was all but forced to produce at the start of the New52. But it’s still fun and I enjoy the costume designs for everyone, especially Vixen who seems to have my favorite costume I’ve seen on her yet.

Characters & Dialogue: This is a huge cast, so the ability to focus on any character... other than Batman, I’m sure for regulars to comics this is the furthest thing from a surprise. Still, there are some genuinely unexpected relationships, most of my favorites revolving around Ryan Choi. 

Most of these characterizations aren’t going to be groundbreaking for any of the characters, but of course this is also the only place where you can get most of these characters anymore, which sucks especially if they’re some of your favorites. So there’s that. 

DC’s Super Sons (2017-present) #7 Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez

The real question of the ages is, does there exist a title that is having more fun with its premise right now than Super Sons? And honestly, I don’t think the answer to that question is “yes” because Super Sons is a complete riot every issue and it continues to invite everyone along for the ride. It’s honestly really impressive. 

This issue continues with Jon meeting Damian’s Teen Titans and getting his foot through the door for a real team up. And that’s exactly what the world needs.

Story: We have another mid-storyline issue here but once more we have one that knows how to make a single issue feel really encompassing. We have Jon joining the Titans, proving himself to everyone but Damian (who’s just a grouch and old and it’s hilarious that he looks like Old Man Bruce from Batman Beyond), and really beginning to finally fight back against some of Damian’s nastier moments. 

It’s simple, but it works because of that simplicity and fun. The premise is easy to follow and I can easily see a new fan picking this issue up as their first comic and being engaged from start to finish. 

And then we even get left on a cliffhanger that is beyond just “uh oh bad guys!” We just learned that Damian’s treatment of Jon and his insistence that they’re “training” is at least partially because Lois is behind it. 

Mind. blown. Way to go, Maaaahhhhmmm!! 

Art: I have absolutely fallen in love with Jorge Jimenez’s art on this series. It’s so unique and fun. I love how fantastic the colors work with the bright storytelling, the way action scenes really do seem diverse and varied. But most of all I love that it’s just so expressive for Damian and Jon, their adorable faces make a great range of emotion and look endlessly endearing. 

Characters & Dialogue: This is mostly Jon-centric, though Damian gets some good moments too. And for Jon, what his character needs and has needed for a while now is confidence and a belief in himself. He wants praise from Damian and other superheroes, but even in the moments where he gets that, it’s clear that his father’s words about needing to help people are at the core of his real desires, and that’s what has carried him this far. 

And while I do think that Damian’s prickliness is lovely and a trait which should never go away, it’s honestly really encouraging to know that, for at least this story arc, a good amount of his treatment toward Jon has been revealed to be because he feels responsible for Jon at Lois’ request, and I love that about Damian. It’s a similarly frustrating trait he shares with his father, I must say. 

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #28 Shea Fontana, David Messina, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Just as I wasn’t really hesitant to call out Rucka’s run on this title, I held nothing back in the last issue when it came to my reservations about the current storyline and whether or not Fontana’s voice would really capture the essence of what had made not only the previous run so great but had made Wonder Woman so great throughout it. 

Reservations are gone because I’m officially on board with this run and feel like we have regained the momentum and understanding of Diana’s character that I had dearly missed, specifically her relationships and how much she treasures them to her literal fault. But let’s not give it all away.

Story: Like I’ve said many times before, the midsection of any ongoing storyline is going to be difficult because there’s this real lack of a beginning and ending to it most of the time, and one of the strengths that I praised Greg Rucka for in previous Roundups and reviews on this blog is his ability to know how to make a comic feel like a completed arc of its own while feeding into a greater narrative, which is something of a dying art even among the greats in comic book writing today. While I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily resolution in this issue, Fontana proves that she understands how to make a single issue story work. 

Diana has a bounty on her head, something that doesn’t seem to really surprise or upset her that much, as it shouldn’t since not only is she Wonder Woman but she has a bit of a stubbornness to her that is a fairly defining feature. What drives Diana here and therefore the drama of this storyline is actually her guilt over how her presence can endanger others -- an interesting continuation of Steve’s worries back in Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor (2017) I reviewed earlier this year. Not only that, but she has a genuine guilt and fear that she will eventually survive the ones she loves most outside of Themyscira -- Steve, Etta, and assumedly all the other people she has come to cherish. 

That’s a far more interesting perspective on Diana’s fears and character than almost any writer has tapped into before and it’s honestly kind of shocking that it’s taken so long for that source of internal conflict to be focused on as it is here. 

There’s a lot of levity to subside the emotional turmoil, and of course great action in which both Diana and Etta get great moments. But as I said, as the middle of a story, there’s not really a solid end here so much as a TO BE CONTINUED sorta feel, as to be expected. But I loved the arc we got to see in drama being presented for Diana’s relationship with Etta, it coming out in the open, and them attempting to address it before being interrupted by bullets all within a single issue. Good good work!

Art: I was worried about the art for this run as much as I was about the writing but I am always pleasantly surprised to have my fears proven wrong. because this was some great art. I don’t think the artist worked well with Etta’s hair texture (or knew what to do with her hair in general) and there was at least one panel where the colorist.... unfortunately swapped color palettes on Etta and whitewashed her to Diana’s skin color. It’s stuff I’d hope they would look out for. 

I do love the variations in body types and NOSES especially in this issue, though. I always look out for that in comic books, especially ones that feature lots of women and I was incredibly surprised by that. Though I wish so much that Diana would be allowed to have her curls again. 

Of course, I’m biased in that account, though.

Characters & Dialogue: Since Diana and Etta’s characters drove the plot for most of this, there’s only a few little moments I want to cover that weren’t mentioned with the story summary. Diana’s compassionate and forgiving nature was consistent throughout -- her mourning of the doctor, her tenderness toward Etta, her fear of endangering others, and even her compassion for the hemophiliac sniper that almost gunned them down. 

I love how badass Etta’s allowed to be in her current incarnation, I love that her grudges and anger are not only justified but aren’t minimized or looked down on by Diana even though it’s a huge difference in opinions between them. And I love the comfort she has around Diana and wants to do her best around her as well. 

Also I want to thank Fontana for remembering that Diana is vegan, like I just about teared up because holy crap, she GETS it, she GETS Diana.

There was a surprising amount of variation this week, which I hadn’t really been expecting given that the majority were DC books to begin with. But picking favorites is fortunately not hard when you’ve got a Class-A contender in the ring punching my lights out with feels. So for my single issues of the week I have to go with Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine

Between our two trades, I had the most un and joy from reading Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which would seemingly be for super obvious reasons.

But I thought all the comics were great this week and highly recommend you check them out! Of course I’d love to hear back from you – agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed any comics I should’ve picked up? I’d love to hear from you.

Before you go, however, I need to share that I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery just yesterday actually.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

RenaRoo Patreon

RenaRoo PayPal

[puddygeeks]

Beauty

Garnier SkinActive BB Active – Combination to Oily skin BB cream

Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I’ll admit that I’m still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we’re getting down to real talk, it’s a little out of my budget right now. I’ve been using luxury makeup for quite a few years as my treats throughout the year, but now that we’re committed to saving for a place to live and a wedding, spending money is a thing of the past! Alongside the cost, I’m now getting up at 6am, and so a long makeup routine is not something I have the energy for. That’s where this BB cream comes in! Originally I bought it for Florida as I wanted something lightweight with SPF, that wouldn’t melt too badly in the heat. This gives reasonably good coverage without being overly obvious, stays pretty well over the day and doesn’t feel thick or cakey on your skin. With a layer of powder and some concealer, I’m happy with the finished result for a Monday to Friday at work. At £9.99 per bottle at full price, which has lasted me 5 months already, it’s an absolute bargain! If you fancy giving it a try it’s currently on offer for £6.65 at Superdrug.

Coty Airspun Translucent Loose Powder

This is another product I would consider a luxury item, and honestly I don’t know what I’ll do when it runs out! I don’t use a huge amount of this day to day, I mostly use it for cosplay, but I love to keep it in my daily makeup bag instead of with my costume makeup as it can be used to fix so many problems. I use this powder mostly for contouring when I need an extreme contour to look like a different character, but I also use it for parties or nights out, when I want a heavy makeup look. On a daytime look, I’d mostly use it to fix any shine or areas where I have a larger skin problem I want to cover, like when my dark circles get too raccoon like. Currently it’s not too costly, as there seem to be some U.K sellers on Amazon meaning you can get it for £12.99 including postage, but the last time I ordered it from Amazon I had to have it shipped from the U.S. which got expensive fast, and I think I ended up spending around £30 for it. However that was two years ago and I still have plenty, so I’d absolutely say it’s worth the cost.

Maybelline Tattoo Brow 

As I mentioned earlier, I now get up at 6am Monday to Friday for my job, and as someone who is absolutely not a morning person, this has been a struggle. I’ve tried to keep my makeup routine as minimal as possible, because I can’t bear to think about getting up any earlier, and Tattoo Brow has helped to keep it short & sweet. This usually lasts about 3 days before I need to start filling my brows again, but at the moment I’m on day 6 and still only need to top up rather than completely shape my brows. I find shaping my brows to take me a while in the morning, so having them prefilled is amazing. It’s easy to do, and once you’ve applied it you can chill out for 2 hours whilst it works its magic. Then you simply peel it off (pain free and doesn’t pull the hair out) and your eyebrows are done for at least 3 days.

L’Oreal Paris Miss Manga Mega Volume Mascara

I originally bought this as my bestie Hollie rated it and it was far cheaper than the mascara I had been using. I honestly thought it looked like the best mascara in the world and would make my lashes look huge. It turned out that Hollie just has mega dollie lashes naturally and it wasn’t the mascara that was doing it haha! Having said that, this mascara has given me the fullest lashes I’ve ever had, it’s just unfortunate that mine are very short. As you can probably see from the photo, my bottle is very well loved and coming to it’s end, but I thought I’d include it as it’s a budget item that really does the job. I’m not sure if I’ll still get the exact same one next time, as there’s a couple of different “Miss” named products in the Mega Volume line that I’d like to give a try. For now though, if you’re thinking of trying a new mascara and saving some money off those ridiculous £20 a bottle brands which don’t really do anything extra for the money (here’s looking at you Benefit) I’d definitely rate the Miss Manga for only £7.99! Maybe I’ll even review them all over 2019.

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lip

I have wanted some of these for the past 3 years since my bestie Claire let me use hers. They’ve been out of my budget pretty much the whole time, so I waited until I went to Florida and planned to buy some to bring home. It was only half way through my trip I realised there wasn’t any shops near us that stocked them and I’d need to buy them online, and I didn’t have time to do so. I was pretty devastated and thought I’d have to wait until I could afford to import some, until my lovely friend Helen came up with these babies! She’d been trying to sell them for ages and they were brand new, so I snapped them up immediately. And I must say, they have absolutely delivered. They apply beautifully (bar the fact I’m personally terrible at them) and they last all day, even through meals. The colours are to die for and I can guarantee I will absolutely be buying more! Thanks Helen! ❤ I currently have the shades Skin Tight, Mannequin, Posh Spice and Androgyny: my absolute fave! I’ll be posting a photo of each on my Instagram later this month if you’re interested in seeing them on.

Kent Brushes Pebble Brush with ladybird

Okay I know I’m late to the party on this one, but I finally invested in a tangle teezer style brush. It took me forever to get one as I just felt they were incredibly overpriced for a hair brush, but I decided to give it a go when I saw this one for £7 and see if it made a difference. I’m so glad I did! My hair has always been ridiculously knotty, but especially now that it’s coloured I find that it dries out easier and can matte up if not well looked after. I’m much more invested in hair care now, as I want to keep my bright colours without ending up having to cut all my hair off to rescue it again, so keeping it matte free is just another step I need to do. I’d say they’re definitely worth investing in if like me your hair knotts a lot, because they’re designed to pull through the tangles without causing total agony. Recently, I even had a cashier during my food shop ask me how my hair is coloured and so healthy, so I guess I must be doing something right?

Food

Aldi Choceur Milk Hazlenut

Okay I’ve only got one food product this month so I thought I’d throw it into the same photo. We’ll keep this one short and sweet – if you like Ferrero Rocher, you will love this. It’s chunkier, but it’s basically a Ferrero chocolate bar and it’s heaven. As you can tell, my January eat healthy goal has gone very well!

Movies and TV

Spider-Man into the Spiderverse

I cannot even put into words how much I have to talk about this! I know I’m way past the hype and I pretty much saw it as late as possible in cinemas but here’s why: I’m not a Spiderman fan. I’ve tried to be, I’m just not. I like Tom Holland in Avengers, but I haven’t bothered watching his films. I know I’m a terrible comic book movie fan, but you can’t like them all. I watched up to Andrew Garfield, and although I honestly found his films okay, I just have never got hype about Spiderman. I wasn’t planning to see the Spiderverse at the cinema, although I was intrigued by the trailer and loved that it was Miles Morales they were following. (Plus not gonna lie I am a huge fan of Gwen Stacey in all forms!) What eventually got me, was seeing all of the hype online. Slowly it started to convince me, until I saw people creating their own Spidersonas and realised that the love for this movie was huge. So I decided to give it a go. And honestly, the only thing I can say without any spoilers to show how much I loved this movie: it made a previous non Spiderman fan want to cosplay several characters. If this film can make a Spiderman fan out of me, I’m pretty sure it can make a fan of anyone. Go watch it.

How To Train Your Dragon: 1&2

Speaking of being late to a series, I am seriously late to this one. I tried watching the first many years ago, mainly just because of my uncontrollable love for Jay Baruchel. I would literally watch anything if his iconic voice and hot skinny self was in it (see Fan Boys, I am so far from into Star Wars but I love that film cuz I just adore him as nerdy, awkward Windows <3). For whatever reason at the time I couldn’t get into it and always meant to go back to it. Karl forced me to watch it last weekend and we burned through both movies. I am beyond excited for the third movie, and it is definitely on my list for cinema visits this month. These films are heart warming, fun and carry some really important messages. And now I want my own Toothless plush to cuddle. And my own Hiccup.

Birdbox

I know literally everyone has talked about this and most people are sick of hearing about it so I’ll just keep this brief. This movie messed me up. I truly enjoyed it, but I was sweating like crazy the whole time and actually felt like I should keep my eyes closed. It definitely got in my head and made me nervous. I thought it was an excellent concept and really stood out from other apocolypse films I’ve watched. Also Sandra Bullock is a goddess as usual and I continue my lifelong worship of her.

Maniac

I thought I’d better throw a TV show in here to mix it up. Yet another thing that messed me up. It probably took around 5 episodes for Karl and I to decide if we actually liked this show, and even by the end I’m not sure if we could say that we did. But it was intriguing and completely different from anything else. At the very least I can say that Jonah Hill and Emma Stone have shown how incredibly talented and versatile they are. I can’t even comprehend how difficult it is to play a single character so many opposing ways in one show, but they nailed it and the result was something powerful and unique. By the end of the show, we didn’t realise how attached we had got to the characters and how badly we were rooting for them. Worth watching, at the very least for how much it stands out from the crowd, makes you think and for an example of excellent writing and acting.

Music

I don’t have a particular album that has been my favourite this month, instead it’s an artist. I’ve been on massive James Arthur binge as late, I’ve always liked his music, but recently I’ve realised how much. Every time he comes on the radio I turn it up, and his  voice always makes me all gooey and doe-eyed. So I’ve been listening to a lot of it! Here’s my songs of the month, including my latest James Arthur loves.

Empty Space – James Arthur (How have I only just found out Tom Felton is in the video for this?! This just made top of list!)

Nothing Breaks Like A Heart – Mark Ronson ft Miley Cyrus

Sunflower – Post Malone & Swae Lee

The Power Of Love – Dalton Harris feat James Arthur

Sweet But Pyscho – Ava Max

Without Me – Halsey

  And that’s a wrap!

Hope I’ve been able to give you some inspiration for the month. Let me know what your Jan faves have been in the comments

Peace

Kit xx

January Favourites 2019 Beauty Garnier SkinActive BB Active - Combination to Oily skin BB cream Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I'll admit that I'm still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we're getting down to real talk, it's a little out of my budget right now.

[thunder0-0sage]

Summerbolt (manga script) - chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: NEW STUDENT

 We see Seiren on the cover, stretching out his fist, where his four rings form the word ‘king’, smiling with great ferocity while being surrounded by many cute girls, hugging him and looking at the pervert with love.

‘Constantly surrounded by gorgeous babes, our ‘king’ is looking for a queen that can steal his heart! Or NOT!!’

  Yuki Iceflame is seen in a school uniform, looking aside from shyness, blushing and pulling her skirt down as much as possible with her one hand, holding it with the other one around the elbow, standing in front of a black desk where her name’s written.

‘We have a new student, everyone! It’s time for Yuki’s fight for survival to begin in the most dangerous environment – ‘Sunbird’ High school!!’

Yuki: ‘-It’s a pleasure to meet you, everyone … I-I’m Yuki Iceflame … and I look forward to working with all of you, so please, take good care of me!’

Everyone from the class: ‘-Welcome aboard, Yuki!!! Let’s get along from now on!!’

The baby doll then goes ahead and sits on one of the desks closer to the black board. We hear a brief summary of what’s happened so far by Yuki after that.

Yuki: ‘-So, just to give you guys some information. Ever since I arrived in Deckstoru, all kinds of crazy things have happened to me and my friends, Hikaru and Seiren. After fighting an unknown enemy force we wind up in jail, we were later freed and had to fight the haters that didn’t approve of our actions. That didn’t go so well but with the help of many supporters of our kind, the deviants, and Hikaru and Seiren’s families we managed to hold off the royal army and the deviant haters’ attack, forcing them to retreat and let us live in peace. I started living with the Summerbolts afterwards and a few days later, I was enrolled in the only deviant High school in the region – ‘Sunbird’, so now it’s time for my first day in school!!’ (the class teacher, Tenji Line, stands behind the desk and gives a sign to everyone to stay quiet)

Tenji: ‘-Everyone, please, can you keep calm for at least a second? Let’s create a proper atmosphere for Yuki so that she can get used to things around here faster, shall we? Now, we’re already aware that Suru (a combination of the first syllable from Hikaru’s last name and the last syllable from his first name, pronounced as ‘Saru’) and Sele (a combination of the first syllable from Seiren’s first name and the last syllable from his last name, pronounced as ‘Seil’) are something like our local celebrities. The same counts for you as well, Yuki. (everyone from the class starts shouting and whistling at them as Hikaru roars against them with a comical angry face, Seiren bows and then waves to his fans with a smile and Yuki looks in different directions from shyness, blushing even more) We’re in school now, however, and fame doesn’t matter here at all. Your abilities are what matters. As we already know, you use an ice deva, very rare in our school, which automatically makes you very valuable for any school activity. Please, think carefully before you decide which club you want to join. I can personally recommend the one in which Hikaru and Exo from our class are. Try … avoiding contact with the rest of the boys, whenever possible …’

Seiren: ‘-That’s not fair at all, sensei!! How exactly are these two better than the rest of us, huh?!’ (half of Tenji’s face is in shadow at the time while veins start forming there)

Tenji: ‘-Look, Sele, just because you stopped some random soldiers …

(his arm becomes several times longer, launching to Seiren as it’s enlarged fist smashes the pervert in the wall behind him and then Tenji’s destructive angry face is seen) … DOESN’T MEAN I WON’T SMASH SOME BRAINS IN YOUR SKULL IF YOU KEEP ON ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT!!!!’ (his arm returns its original length and his fist – to its original size after which the class teacher sighs, calming himself)

Seiren: ‘-Y-yes, sir …’ (falls from the crater in the wall while Yuki is comically puzzled, observing the situation)

Yuki: ‘-Looks like everyone in this school is scary, as well.’

Later on, we see how all the students from ‘Sunbird’ are eating in the school’s canteen and fights are raging in several places, through which Yuki tries to pass unharmed and without losing any food, successfully reaching the table where the six boys from her class are sitting, joining them.

The moment she sits on her chair, Vega Waren jumps in front of her, holding a bottle of ‘Jack Willshire’ (the main type of alcohol manufactured in Deckstoru, similar to the whiskey on Earth but having a rather purplish color and way stronger) in each hand, with a wide smile on his face.

Vega: ‘-What up, girl?! This is an official welcome from the boy group of our class! I’m Vega Waren! Would you like a drink?’ (puts one of the bottles on the table, pushing it closer to the baby doll who shakes her head with an awkward smile and a little confusion)

Yuki: ‘-No, thanks. Are you even allowed to bring any alcohol in school? And aren’t you underage?’ (the rest of the boys sigh while Vega looks around the canteen with a challenging smile)

Seiren: ‘-Many have tried to take those bottles away from him but none have succeeded. It’s just practically impossible.’ (important note: Vega is a very serious alcoholic with many years of experience)

King Orsa pushes the drunken bastard aside, standing in front of Yuki with an equally wide smile.

King: ‘-Hi there, Yuki! I’m King, King Orsa! By the way, do you work out? (shows her his plate, filled with quite a different type of food from what everyone around him is having) If you are, this stuff here will help you build up a tremendous muscle mass in no time and besides, they’re very tasty!! (starts eating, stuffing his mouth with huge quantities of food, disgusting Yuki and the other boys to a maximal level while the baby doll shakes her head with an awkward smile once again) I just can’t get enough of them!!! It’s too bad you don’t work out, honestly. You’re in pretty good shape but we can always be better, right?’ (important note: King is a maniac on many subjects but above all else, on fitness and eating huge amounts of food)

Exo Drazz stands in front of our baby doll afterwards, smiling slightly while she’s observing with horror how Vega is drinking and King is eating like an animal behind his back.

Exo: ‘-Hey, Yuki! I’m not good at stuff like working out and drinking lots but if you need something to be fixed, then I’m your man, Exo Drazz!!’(Yuki nods with a smile while Hikaru hugs Exo over the shoulder)

Hikaru: ‘-Exo here is our techno-genius. You’d love to have him on your team, Yu.’ (important note: Exo is extremely smart but a spineless coward at the same time)

Yuki: ‘-It’s a pleasure to meet you. So, you’re the smartest person in school?’ (Exo laughs, shaking his head and confusing Yuki)

Exo: ‘-I’m the best at technological stuff but the smartest guy in ‘Sunbird’ is Hikaru.’ (Yuki is ultra-shocked, hearing that)

Yuki: ‘-Seriously?!’

Tokura Braveheart pushes Hikaru and Exo aside.

Tokura: ‘-Yeah, He just tends to go crazy from time to time.’

Seiren, Vega, King, Exo: ‘-All the time!!!’

Hikaru: ‘-Hey!!!!’ (Tokura bows in front of Yuki, taking her hand and kissing it with a most proud and prestigious look)

Tokura: ‘-I am Tokura Braveheart and will always be at your service, my dear Yuki. Anything you need, feel free to tell me.’ (important note: Tokura acts like a ladies’ man all the time while actually he’s never kissed a girl and doesn’t know anything about women)

Yuki: ‘-Well … um … thanks but I think this is already too much for me.’ (Tokura grabs both of the baby doll’s hands with an extremely worried expression, making the other boys slap their faces with their palms, comically depressed)

Tokura: ‘-Why, honey, why? (looks at the boys’ five next to them) Was it them?! Did those brutes scare you to death?!! Not to worry, my dear!!! (steps ahead with an even prouder look) Your knight is here now and I won’t …’ (Vega and King smack him in the head from behind with comical angry faces, throwing him beyond the table and making Exo scream like a girl and Seiren to laugh his ass off)

Vega, King: ‘-IT’S YOUR BEHAVIOUR THAT’S SCARING HER, IDIOT!!!!’ (Tokura gets up in a second and light blue energy starts forming around him, terrifying the drunken bastard and the maniac along with his deadly expression)

Tokura: ‘-Looks like you forgot who you’re dealing with, weaklings …’ (a sphere of energy forms around the ladies’ man, becoming invisible in the next second and starting to push everything around it further back)

Exo: (with an unbelievably scared comical face, trembling and eating his nails with very high speed) ‘-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! TOKURA’S GONE INSANE AGAIIIIIIIIIIN!!!! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE RIGHT HERE!!!!’ (Seiren hits him on the neck with a comical angry expression while Vega and King step up to Tokura with challenging smiles)

Seiren: ‘-Shut the hell up!! This guy ain’t nothing special!!’

King: ‘-Come on, kid!!! I’m gonna beat the crap out of your little ass now!!!’

Yuki: ‘-He’s your age.’

Exo: ‘-But he looks younger.’

Hikaru: ‘-What difference does that make?!?!’

Exo: ‘-Please, don’t yell at meeee!!!’ (King and Vega are thrown at two different tables after clashing with Tokura’s invisible energy shield head on, destroying the tables and the people there start fighting them)

Student 1: ‘-Can’t you let us eat at peace at least one time?!!?!’

King: ‘-Sorry, it wasn’t on purpose!!’ (fights rage there almost immediately as Hikaru jumps to stop them with a comical angry expression)

Hikaru: ‘-WOULD YOU BASTARDS STOP IT ALREADY?!!!?!’

Vega: ‘-Why don’t you try and stop us then?!!?!’

Seiren: ‘-Hold on, motherfuckers!!! Why did you leave me behind?!!!’ (also jumps to where the fight is and now everyone’s involved in it)

Hikaru: ‘-Damn idiot!!!!’ (Yuki is most comically puzzled while observing the situation)

Yuki: ‘-You’re all idiots, from what I’ve seen.’

Suddenly a hand draws Yuki and Exo in the fight as well and she’s comically shocked while he’s comically terrified, screaming like a girl again.

Student 2: ‘-Come on now, you two!! Your classmates are fighting over there, after all!!’

Yuki: ‘-Hey, hey, I don’t like where this is going one bit!!’

Exo: ‘-Please, I don’t want to fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!’

Hikaru hits one of the students while King throws Vega at Tokura, using Exo as a shield, after which Vega and Exo hit each other, rolling aside and Seiren throws a table at King, hitting Hikaru with a chair in the back.

Seiren: ‘-HA-HA!!! How do you like this, son?!’ (Hikaru envelopes his fist in lightning, smashing Seiren in another table, still comically angry while Vega is trying to get to the comically scared Exo, who’s trying to run away from the fight)

Vega: ‘-Oh, no, no, no!! You’re not going anywhere!!!’

Exo: ‘-Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I want to liveeeeeeeeeeee!!!!’

King: ‘-Kid, I’m coming at you!!!’ (runs to Tokura who starts yelling at him with a comically angry and ashamed expression)

Tokura: ‘-Stop calling me ‘kid’!! It’s not my fault I look younger and I’m a bit shorter than you guys, okay??! Stop teasing me like that already!!!’

A part of the canteen explodes in red fireworks and Seiren launches himself on an explosive surf from there, heading straight for Hikaru, thrown aside by the clash between the maniac and the kid.

Seiren: ‘-YOU’RE GONNA DIE TODAY, SUMMERBOLT!!!!’ (Hikaru smiles in a most destructive way, jumping on an electric surf and heading for his eternal rival)

Hikaru: ‘-NOW WE’RE TALKING, BLACKSCALE!!!! LET’S SEE WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!!!!’

Yuki is attacked by a rock deviant, creating an ice wall to block his fist while a water deviant attacks her from the side and she dodges his water shots, surprising him with a fast double kick, crushing him in the rock deviant and throwing both of them aside. She suddenly smiles, creating an icy surface beneath her feet and starts surfing across the battle, trying to fight with whoever she can get her hands on. Then we see her thoughts on the matter.

Yuki: ‘-This … this is actually quite fun … (Vega throws a student at her, after which Tokura pushes King to him and Exo is dragged in the fight between Hikaru and Seiren, everyone’s faces more comical than ever) … to be with everyone like this … (she head-butts the guy thrown to her when a girl catches her from behind, starting to burn her with her golden flames but then Exo is thrown at her, allowing the baby doll to escape, hitting a guy who’s about to hit Seiren with a table in the back, smashing him in the sealing) … to fight with them … (when the boy falls, she kicks him to another girl, tormenting Vega with many tentacles nearby, both of them fried by someone’s red lightning , comically puzzled) … to have fun with them … (Tokura is pushing back a few students at the same time, roaring and managing to crush them in the kitchen from where the cook jumps out, also joining the fray) … to just be here!!! (she throws another girl to Tokura, laughing loudly and with a huge smile, screaming to the sealing) I LOVE DECKSTORU!!!! I TOTALLY LOVE THIS TOWN!!!! (lots of smoke has risen around the canteen from all the fights and people start getting up and getting ready for round two with decisive smiles when they look at Yuki with great shock) Come on, you guys!! What, you tired already?! Cuz I’m ready to go a … (hits something, turning around and seeing that she’s spilled a girl’s drink all over her clothes, making her dreadfully mad) … gain.’ (Exo jumps ahead with a most comical terrified expression, trembling a lot)

Exo: ‘-IT’S ULURA NIGHTSONG!!!!! THE STRONGEST FEMALE DEVIANT IN THIS SCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!’ (green lasers start jumping around Ulura’s fingers, clenching her fists and looking at the scared baby doll with a most destructive face)

Ulura: ‘-You … pathetic insect … we’re gonna settle this right now! Better get ready to die!!!’

‘Trouble follows Yuki, no matter where she goes!! On her first day of school she went and pissed off the last person she would want to fight!!!’

 THE END

 Sorry for not posting anything these past two weeks, everyone. There were a lot of holidays and I just couldn’t find the time. I’ll make up for that now, though, by giving you three chapters in one week!! Also, I decided to draw at least some sketches of my characters to help you get a better idea of them. I’ll upload them by the end of the week.