#but lesser known example of this trope

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Obviously the structure of an episodic series often requires characters to go from 'complete strangers' to 'close friends/family' in an unusually short amount of time. I get it.

Writers need a 'new guy' in the group to ask questions about the setting that the audience can't, but still (especially in comedy shows) want the fun dynamics that come from all the main cast knowing each other super well. It's one of those functional tropes like L-Shaped Blankets where you're required to suspend your sense of disbelief.

Having said that, I love when writers choose to take this trope and retroactively justify it by later on revealing that the Seemingly Normal Everyman Character is actually as unhinged as the rest of the group— it's just that their weirdness manifests specifically as an ability to form found family dynamics with literally any group they join, almost immediately after joining.

Like, you assumed that they just fit in so well because your group has a special vibe, but then you accidentally left them in the supermarket for like five minutes and by the time you realised and went back they were already Blood Brothers with the cashier.

Characters who are like friendly dogs in that you can put them essentially anywhere, with anyone, and they will just be like “welp! Guess this is my New Family now” and just go along with it.

[abominationimperatrix]

A short list of extremely-specific lesser-known mythical monster tropes which I didn’t expect to be super widespread:

1.  Ogres which, when slain, spawn huge amounts of mosquitoes out of their bodies.

2.  Humanoid horrors that lurk at the tops of cliffs and kick passerbies down off of the ledge so that their mates and/or offspring can kill them.

3.  Depraved ex-human cannibals for whom one of their feet has rotten away into a spike of bone which they then stab people with.

4.  Creatures which resemble pitiful old men and beg people to carry them but their legs are actually tentacle-like “straps” which they use to kill or enslave their victims.

5.  Hairy ogres with axe-heads sticking out of their chests.

6.  Grotesque female humanoids with enormous, pendulous breasts, one of which they throw over their shoulder.  (That last detail specifically shows up more times than you would think possible.)

7.  Flying detachable heads.  Organs hanging down frequent but optional.

8.  The “animal that cannot lie down,” i.e. a monster without joints in its limbs that, you guessed it, cannot lie down and has to lean on things.

10.  So.  Many.  Backwards.  Feet.  Usually as a means of making trackers think they went in the opposite direction.

11.  Swallowers.  I.e., monsters that swallow huge amounts of victims but keep them inside in their stomachs before spitting them out when slain.  Most famously present in Sub-Saharan Africa, but basically everywhere.

12.  Bisected humanoids.  Creatures with only half a physical body, cut vertically.

13.  Headless monsters with faces on their chests.

14.  Natal revenants.  The undead remains of women who die in childbirth, usually as some sort of ghostly Succubus.

15.  Female creatures with hollow backs, the main giveaway of their supernatural nature.

16.  Living meteor demons that spread disease.

17.  Chicken-snake hybrids.

18.  Rattite-snake hybrids.

19.  Parrot-snake hybrids.

20.  Monsters that fly around in the atmosphere, and if you look at them you die.  (Related to number 16.)

21.  In arid regions, RAINBOW TASTE YOU.  (Because it signals the end of much-needed rain and is therefore seen in a negative light and personified as something malicious.  

22.  Owl demons!  Tend to be witchy/hag-like.

23.  Succubi whose only giveaway of their monstrousness is a single hooved foot.

24.  People cursed into becoming weird donkey-things.

25.  River blockers.  Monsters who block off water supplies in order to cause droughts, and must be slain for that reason.

26.  Monsters who inflict some kind of seemingly unsurvivable body horror on you, before resurrecting you long enough to go home at which point you promptly die for reals this time.

And many, many, more, but I’m tired right now.  Might update later.

Update:  Wow!  I did not expect this blow up, or for this many people to be interested!  This was very spur of the moment and off the top of my head, I assumed I would just be infodumping into the void.  I’m going to write up examples for all of these, I’m just going to need a little bit of time to get my sources in order to make sure they I don’t misrepresent or misremember anything.  How common a lot of these are varies, some tend to be primarily amongst neighboring cultures in specific regions, others tend to be downright global.  And some have dozens of instances while others are more like that Doofenshmirtz meme.  (I’d only have two nickels but I’m surprised it happened twice).  

[punkeropercyjackson]

Children's media can absolutely and does radicalize kids when written correctly,it's just that shitty bigoted adults in fandoms deliberately misenterpret their messages and trick them into believing they're canon and that's how we got here.Bleach had Ichigo be a goth punk dude who's a fantastic older brother and choose his female love interest because she's his best friend and he finds her weirdgirlness to be enchanting which is good rep for us because being punk is about nonconformity and so is the fact that he never joined the military system his species was largely a part of because he didn't give two shits about them but over half the fandom is convinced the mangaka is a 'sellout' and 'pandering' for not making him essentially a paranormal cop for the sake of pairing him up with the fem mc that he has a familial and queerplatonic relathionship with as confirmed by the aformentioned mangaka

Pjo had Percy hate the gods as much as Luke does and act on it too but directly TO them instead of grooming younger halfbloods to work for him as soldiers and in fact he basically adopted every one of them he came across as his siblings and pseudo-kids and this is explicitly framed as why he's a hero and Luke's evil but you see nonstop erasure of his anti-corruption and anti-authority mentality and direct action despite being his core character traits to make him more palpable as an 'average fantasy protagonist' when the point of him is that he's not normal in any way

The Owl House had 3/5 of it's mcs be poc with the two white ones being an autistic and ocd lesbian and the other a disabled boy with zero conventionally physical traits that're never made out to be ugly and the protag is an inmigrant afrolatina girl while the big villain is a puritan colonizer and every single ship on the show is queer including the m/f one and the token white boy has almost all the important characters to his arc being black and the only one who isn't is a fat asian girl who's also disabled but the HUGE amount of positive rep in the show is deliberately taken out of context for bad faith critisism by a bunch of 20/30/even 40 year olds who've never written actual good stories themselves and this includes them adoring and gushing over the colonizer guy while dismissing the poc and women in the cast as irrelevant

Across the Spiderverse had an EXTREMELY black in every way character literally named SpiderPUNK who makes his beliefs clear in every single one of his lines and isn't all talk for a single second but he's reduced down to 'annoying edgy older brother figure' and made to listen to Taylor Swift and go to Hot Topic and called 'obviously a skater boy' and every other poser punk trope in the books

Atla had Aang and Katara be a gnc boy of a lesser known type of asian race and Katara a brownskin native girl that reclaims femininity for herself with their character drives being to save the world with Zuko's arc hammering it in again and again that while he always had good in him,he WAS evil,he DOES have a lot of bad traits and that made him do a lot of bad things and THAT'S why he needed a redemption arc to be a hero but Aang gets called racist for following the buddhist belief that in-universe he was sole remaining follower of that killing humans is bad,Katara gets adultified and stripped of her actual personality to make her just 'hashtag relatable teen gurl' and Zuko gets infantalized and upholded as the least problematic character in the whole show

And my last and not quite like the rest example is Harry Potter,including the spinoffs and fanon.Everything in it is neoliberal bs and the fandom just made it worse-Oh,the house that's a metaphor for fascism and white supremacy legacies?They're just misunderstood little babies and every minority-coded🥺The lower class family who canonically were Jkr's best attempt at good people that still flopped?Awful homophobic bastards😡All the female characters?Perfect slay 'You can't sit with us' girlboss,precious little baby angel who can't tie her shoes without her reverse harem's help or manipulative self-obsessed hyperfemme pick me,those are the only three categories they can ever fall in.Marauder's Era not only existing but being very,VERY popular is nothing but whiteness-What is there for you to be attached to there exactly?With the canon cast i can least see why you'd have nostalgia but M Era is literally nothing.You just CHOOSE to pick a franchise that's violently bigoted towards basically everyone and who's creator actively influences and helps caused that hurt irl oppressed groups instead of making ocs since you're already building them from scratch anyway

It's not the fault of actual good creators and especially not kids in fandom that grown ass bootlickers couldn't accept that their precious 'escapist comfort media' isn't apolitical at all instead of absorving it's messages like they should have since they have no care for other people despite insisting how kind and unproblematic they are

[eclipsedrawsthings]

Lesser-Known BNHA Character Details

A list of things from the light novels, spin-offs, and such that I think more people should know about because they’re fun •w•

For reference on my personal canon hierarchy, with the exception of spoofs (SMASH, I’m looking at you) I consider the main manga and anime the top, and accept everything else that doesn’t contradict the information provided there—for example, I’ll accept Tsuyu’s ghost encounter as canon, but I personally believe she was with a cousin at the time since we know she doesn’t have an older sister.

Yaomomo’s mother is a very sweet person who goes out of her way to make her daughter’s friends feel welcome, adores Jirou, and has been nicknamed Yaomama. She is also a terrible cook and has the critical thinking skills of a sea cucumber (source: light novels, specifically volumes 2 and 3)

There is a pro hero named Odd-Eye who basically embodies Middle Schooler Syndrome. His Quirk is forcing people to reveal their embarrassing secrets (source: Team Up Missions volume 2)

Izuku likes zombie movies, or at the very least has seen enough of them to know their common tropes (source: Training of the Dead OVA)

Aizawa became a teacher out of peer pressure, mostly from Midnight (source: Vigilantes)

Izuku becomes a “bloodthirsty quiz demon” during trivia games. Most people are terrified by this, but Eri thinks it’s cool (source: light novels volume 4)

The large scar on Izuku’s right arm is from Dabi, not Muscular. When the boys land in the clearing, Dabi’s fire is seen brushing his arm exactly where he later has the scar (source: main story, training camp arc)

Kendo doesn’t feel fully comfortable being called a woman, noting that the word feels like “a burden” and she prefers to be defined on her own terms (source: light novels volume 4)

Rody’s younger siblings are baby weebs (source: Team Up Missions volume 3)

After the events of Two Heroes, the Shields are no longer living on I-Island, which is likely why Melissa is able to travel freely (source: Team Up Missions volume 1)

Shouto’s listed blood type of O is impossible, as Endeavor’s blood type is listed as AB. My best explanation for this is that Shouto has a mutation that results in his blood genotype being A and phenotype being O, meaning his actual blood type is A (source: Ultra Analysis and my 10th-grade biology class)

Hagakure knows how to make booby traps, and likely does so regularly (source: Team Up Missions volume 2)

Shinsou can read lips (source: Team Up Missions volume 3)

Kouda can’t actually understand animals, only control them (source: light novels volume 3)

Shouto spent a good part of move-in day running around campus helping Hatsume. Recovery Girl gave him the tatami mats, which he specifically wanted because he didn’t like how the floor felt on his feet (source: light novels volume 3)

Hagakure and Tsunotori liked the same anime as kids (source: light novels volume 3)

If Ochako could have any of the boys’ Quirks, she would want Bakugo’s, specifically so she could go wild in a fight (source: light novels volume 2)

Bakugo has never gotten Valentine’s chocolate (source: light novels volume 6)

Shouto has stated he’s “not looking for that kind of action” while in conversation with the grape, which to me implies that he’s not interested in girls (source: light novels volume 6)

Aizawa is supposed to tell Mic if he’s going drinking (source: light novels volume 3)

There’s plenty more of these, but I’m out of time for now! Let me know if you want a part 2 •w•

[anti-kawaii-daily]

hii!! can you talk a bit more about anti-kawaii? is it about being the opposite of kawaii or being kawaii but not in a mainstream way?

Sure thing!

In Japan starting in the 1970s, there was a cultural phenomenon called "kawaisa" (or 可愛さ in the original kanji), and it quickly became a staple of Japanese pop culture (and to a lesser extent other East and Southeast Asian countries as well). Kawaisa essentially turned Japan from the warrior and power based culture that was present in the country up until the end of World War II (which led to many theorists jokingly or not speculating that the reason this cultural shift occurred was due to Japan losing the war) into a country that places cuteness above all else in mainstream culture.

Since languages and terms evolve over time, eventually kawaisa became known as "kawaii", the most well known term for cuteness there. Kawaii culture is taken very seriously there, with things such as packaging on products and industrial products having elements of cuteness.

These construction barriers are a great example of kawaisa/kawaii in even the oddest places.

However, with time people began to get a bit fed up with mainstream kawaii due to essentially feeling like it's either A, promoting consumerism; B, used as a way to dismiss and discard "non cute" societal things such as illness (physical and mental), nonstandard and nonconventional standards of beauty, etc. ; or C, folks just got tired of it.

Enter the Superflat movement and anti-kawaii...

The Superflat Pop movement essentially criticized the consumeristic elements of kawaii culture, and soon enough it began to grow into what is now known as "anti-kawaii". This movement essentially allowed people to view the whole idea of cuteness in a much wider spectrum that before (even Erokawaii, which while on the kawaii spectrum, essentially allowed women to not feel like their sexual liberation makes them less cute or desirable by society, thus making it a bit of a middle ground between kawaii and anti-kawaii in my opinion).

If you are interested in learning more about kawaii culture in general I suggest checking these links out.

Sorry for the long answer bud, hopefully it's accurate.

[myobsessionsspace]

The Culture of Pop Music

Just like any other culture it has a history. It has people who belong to and appreciate it and it has people that don't.

Jungkook has clearly stated his wish to be part of it.

There’s been a massive resurgence of early 2000s trends including fashion and music trends. We can see music of 2023 sampling, covering, being influenced by and paying homage to that era in their sounds and visuals.

Jung Kook - 3D feat. Jack Harlow

Example of pop/r&b of the early 2000s

Victoria Monet - On My Mama MV & Jung Kook - 3D MV

There *IS* a conversation that has been going on for as long as I can remember AND before, as to pop music and it’s relationship with black culture. That’s not a topic that will be covered here. However it’s worth noting that Pop music, being so heavily influenced by black culture, leads to sensitivities when highlighting the things liked or disliked about pop music, it’s lyrics, visuals, sounds etc.

Victoria Monet MV & Jung Kook - Seven Performance MV

A lot of dance moves in pop music videos, seen as provocative by some audiences are praised and not seen as anything more than an extension of the music. The artists are praised for their sensual movements to the beat, reminiscent of how the listener may dance to the same song with their friends or partners at the club, in their car, at a house party, places you’d expect to enjoy pop music. The dancing mostly isn’t taken for more than what it, an addition to the visuals. Pop music videos are rarely seen as a reflection of the artists real life interactions, most viewers don’t expect the artists to dance off a car, on a metal fence or on a crane in real life.

Example of pop/r&b visuals & lyrics (Normani - Motivation)

Jungkook's pop/r&b visuals & lyrics (Jung Kook - Seven feat. Latto)

Music can be playful, music can be fun, music doesn’t have to be serious, filled with soul searching, heartbreak, lyrical genius, layered production or activist messages.

Pop music in particular is meant to be catchy, it’s meant to be easy listening. Not always require of depth and analysis. With pop music especially, sometimes it is what it is.

Justin Bieber - Sorry MV Jungkook - Seven

Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 song, with the video choreographed by The Lab's Sienna Lalau, who also featured in the video. Sienna and The Lab are also known to have worked with BTS and performed with j-hope at Coachella.

Example of Lyrics of a Number 1 pop/r&b song

Globally recognised Pop Star Justin Bieber with R&B artists Daniel Caesar & Giveon with their Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 song, Peaches

This is the genre that JK has based his solo debut on so far. These are a few examples of his peers within that genre. Not BTS.

Critically acclaimed Singer & Songwriter Victoria Monet, known for writing for some of the biggest pop stars including Ariana Grande. MV visuals with male and female dancers, chores, skin on display. Singing about confidence, sex and the addition of strong language to her lyrics.

Pop music of different decades has always had those that didn't subscribe to it and had lovers of it, it was seen with The Beatles, it was seen with Elvis, it was seen with Madonna. They all had the terms ‘scandalous’, ‘not suitable for kids’, ‘too provocative’, ‘basic’ etc attached to them at some point in their career.

Opposers of pop music have been heard time and time again over the years to praise their favoured genre for having more depth, more quality, more artistry etc whilst seeing pop music as lesser, as commercial and lacking artistic integrity.

Michael Jackson had major push back when shedding his child star image from his group with his brothers to become a soloist, yet today he is one on the biggest icons of music history, pop music, as are all the aformentioned artists.

In every period there were people for and people against.

This post is not about the harmful tropes within pop music, the objectifying visuals, the problematic lyrics etc. There are many issues with pop music, just like there are issues with rock music with parent and religious groups, divisive issues with country music, appropriation issue with the aforementioned and with Jazz music. Each genre has its issues. Each genre have people who love it or hate it.

This is just about the fact that pop culture exists, it has always existed, it's a culture that is important to a lot of people, it is understood and appreciated by a lot of people. It has always had people also against it, it has always had people trying to hold it accountable and people who do not enjoy it.

This is the culture, its always been here and most likely always will.

You don't have to like it, you don't have to love it, but there are those that do and that doesn't make one wrong and one right, it doesn't make one superior nor on inferior.

It’s the genre at present that JK wants to be apart of, that he wants to fit in with and he’s doing so well when looked at along side those successful and praised in that genre.

Comparing Jungkook to his old solo or group music and old style or comparing Jungkook to his members recent solo works does a huge disservice to him and to the other members. They've specifically stated that they wanted to show their individual colours separate to the group's.

By Jungkook's own admission he wants to be a global pop star, instead of looking to compare, either him to himself or him to others, when you look at the examples of popstars of today and of the early 2000s, Jungkook has achieved that and is continuing in that path. His solo rollout fits in with his pop peers.

It's a culture, its always been here and most likely always will.

💜

Jungkook’s Pop Peers:

Links & interesting reads

Who is Victoria Monet Grammy Nomintated Singer-Songwriter Victoria Monét? (Article)

Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You (MV)

Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body (MV)

Normani - Motivation (MV)

The music video starts with a child version of Normani watching 106 & Park, the music video countdown show that ran on BET from 2000 to 2014, and then shows grown-up Normani recreating scenes from some classic videos from the last two decades. Article Source

Who is Normani? From Fifth Harmony to Soloist (wiki)

Justin Beiber - Peaches feat. Daniel Caesar & Giveon (MV)

Jung Kook - 3D (MV)

Jung Kook - Seven (MV)

[angel-of-hunky-doryness]

The Conflicts of Disney's Hercules (Part 2): Hercules vs Hades

Or as I like to call it: why Hercules and Hades are the best example of a literary foil muddled and lost in its own movie.

LONG POST, sorry not sorry.

The hero vs villain dynamic is a Disney staple inspired by the many fairy tales and folklore from which Disney has long based their movies on. However, this dynamic went through a glow-up when Disney started their Renaissance period kicking off with The Little Mermaid (1989).

This era of Disney brought in much more personality and character to their protagonists, but also bringing in a new type of villain. Now this was a sharp departure from your atypical evil stepmothers and wicked villainesses that Disney was known from in their early days.

That's why when Disney decided to adapt Hercules (1997) the writers needed a formidable foe for Hercules to throws hands with to fit in to this new era where you had the likes of Ariel vs Ursula, Aladdin vs Jafar, Simba vs Scar, etc.

And in the Renaissance, Disney started leaning more into their Shakespearean influences. Nowhere is this more evident then Lion King (1994) and to a lesser extent- based on deleted scenes, the broadway version, and live action remake- Little Mermaid.

The reason I'm bringing this up is b/c, my dear reader, now we're getting to the Evil Uncle Trope.

Or at least a failed execution of it, b/c Disney did not utilize it well in Hercules. It's just barely touched upon.

Yes, yes, I know who the real villain is in the original myth of Herakles and that could be a reason it doesn't work. But Herakles vs Hera doesn't work well on paper when you remember that Herk was the affair baby and Hera is actively trying to smite him and this is a film meant for children. And something, something, she doesn't carry the kind of raw emo goth energy a walking-talking Bunsen burner can provide.

Jokes aside and the accuracy of the Greek Mythology presented, I think Disney Hercules was adapted well to a modern audience.

HOWEVER!

Now I've made it no secret in the past that I don't really view this hero/villain pair as the central conflict of Disney's Hercules.

That is mostly because whatever antagonism Hades and Hercules had going on it's very one-sided, and almost surface-level. Hades is over here having the biggest blow to his ego with a little bit of existential crisis thrown in for good measure.

While Hercules is absolutely vibing to the Muses singing the greatest mind-melting musical number of the film.

Not once do we get a character moment where this corn-fed farm boy ever stops to think, "Hey, Phil, I know Thebes is a bad place and all, but where do these mildly inconveniencing monsters keep coming from?"

In all two of his interactions with Hades(I'm not counting the opening scene, Hercules is a baby, fight me), Hercules never realizes in the entire movie how he was wronged by this tall glass of daddy issues.

Which are:

Flambe man kidnapped Baby

Lil sun spot is mortal now for plot relevance or smth

Attempted murder via the goon squad

Monsters keep coming out of nowhere after Herc saves the sassy lady from the Centaur(TM).

And Hades, to his credit, really doesn't care enough to tell him.

Why?

Because it literally never bothered Hercules. Hades is the obligatory monster of the week to Wonder breath. That kind of revelation wouldn't bother him, Hercules doesn't even know there's a prophecy about him. Hecc, home boy barely struggles with the Titans at the climax.

This is basically the Wanda-Thanos meme but the roles are reversed.

And I would like to emphasize, Hercules isn't bothered by the monsters Hades sends at all. He gets over it fairly quickly once he gets over his first battle jitters. If anything, the biggest issue Hercules is facing post-Hydra is that even though society has finally embraced him for his strength, he's still extremely lonely.

Which leads to this pivotal moment in the film:

What is the point?

He's still a freak, but this time after years of training he's finally useful. My pal Rudolph the Red-nose reindeer understands this predicament rather well. And the loneliness that Hercules feels b/c of his superhuman abilities is such a fascinating angle the writers of Disney Hercules go with that isn't emphasized enough.

And I can't stress this enough: The internal war Hercules grapples with, of being caught between two worlds, struggling with something he was born with and of doing everything in his power to fit into both of these worlds? Now that makes for a compelling demigod.

What's more, the strange shift in how society view his strength is such a interesting element that could have made a better antagonist than Hades was and I bet if this movie was made in this new era of Disney films (2015-Present) it would've executed it with this premise in mind. Since Disney has moved away from mustache-twirling villains and focusing on things like generational trauma and internal issues.

The fear and scorn Hercules once felt is now being turned to adoration, but wait, that's not what he wanted!

He just wanted to be treated like a person.

Take the discus scene, Hercules tries to play frisbee with the other teens in his neighborhood, but he immediately gets told to buzz off.

His goal of reaching Olympus isn't to reunite with his real family it's to finally be around others who are just as powerful as him, somewhere he wouldn't be out of place.

And the funny part about all of this is how well it ties in to Hades. Because Hercules upholding his duty as a hero is essentially what Hades did in his respective career until the moment he had his very own What's the point? moment.

Now first and foremost, I'm here to say Hades did his job. Regardless of how respectfully he did that in his later years....

No zombie apocalypses as far as I can tell, so kudos to you babe.

And that kind of job isolated him pretty badly when you consider Hades is with the dead instead of the other gods, almost making Hercules' dream the same as Hades'. However that dream has long since distorted and twisted from centuries of bitterness and anger.

Which adds another layer to their similarities. The dedication they had for their jobs isolated them even further.

And funnily enough, Hades and Herc were both assigned to this task by Zeus.

Now that we've established how similar H&H are let's see if we can glean how it played out for Hades by looking at Hercules' beginning. Hercules started out with so much determination and hope as can be seen in I Can Go the Distance (reprise). And as we follow Hercules to seek a teacher, to undergo years of training, and to follow through with all that he had been taught, Hercules never lost hope that he would finally be with people like him.

Well that is until Hercules' talk with Zeus.

And we learn Hercules has been putting himself through tons of risks and labors for nothing...?

He could've accomplished being a true hero back in his old farm town, and before you argue Zeus never explicitly told him to walk the path of a hero- then why did he send him to Danny DeVito???

And I'd like to make it clear I adore that Herc is being told off by his dad. Being Superman in Metropolis can go to one's head at his age especially now that he has proven time and time again how useful his strength is. Hubris is a major character flaw associated with greek mythology even if it isn't the flaw Herakles has in myth, keep this in mind for later as I explain what his flaw really is and how we see instances of it in the Disney film.

With that kind of journey mapped out, I bet about two drachmas and my 4 pound sponsor that Hades did the same as Herc. And as a result invested too much in his job for him to realize that he became disconnected to Olympus as a result.

Yeah, okay this is more conjecture and veering into fanfiction territory here and since I've been writing a fanfic on this guy for the past 6 years I tend to do that w/o meaning to. So if I ever start being a little too sympathetic on Mr. Brimstone Breath over there, take it with a grain of salt.

However, it is my personal headcanon since Hades did help Zeus in the original Titanomachy that my mans became extremely distant in his attempt to become a feared and respected god of the underworld.

And that came with its own reputation as mentioned in Gospel Truth Part II. Hades can get one-track minded and that applies very well to Hercules too.

So in the end, everything Herc and Hades were doing wasn't getting them any closer to what they really wanted: social acceptance.

And this was a big thing in Ancient Greece. The worst punishment a person could receive in those times was being exiled. Outcast. Permanent hermitage.

Let that sink in.

It can be argued that Hades always vied for Zeus' position, but I personally believe he did so because every other attempt he's made to change his circumstances after his What's the Point moment he kept hitting a road block either from Zeus or his arrogance to continue ruling a kingdom even if it isn't the underworld. Until he basically reasons, yup gotta take down the resident thunder dunder head.

And I think it's this factor of loneliness that both these guys share that really exemplifies or differentiates why each one is a great foil to each other. Hades is the dark reflection of what Hercules could be if he continued to toil after godhood/accepted into Mount Olympus to no avail for years and years and years.

It's a very similar trope we see in Kung Fu Panda with Tai Lung vs Po. And where Zeus fits into the role of Shifu.

Remember, both these two were serving their people, but Hades has been around far longer. After centuries, Hades grew sick and tired of serving ppl for basically nothing so he decided to put all his anger and frustration to force the world to bend to him instead.

But this is all hidden in between the lines so it doesn't hit home to the audience unless you take a deeper look into these two characters.

And all that I've talked about above is not even what we see in the film.

So, let's talk about what we do see.

Exhibit Alpha: All Hades Breaks Loose

As always, Hades is a showstopper. Don't tell him that btw he doesn't deserve it.

After executing a perfect 9.8/10 gymnastic spectacle, Hades shows up ready to pounce and do what he does best: Wheel and Deal with a trick ace up his sleeve.

It's so funny seeing Hercules talk to this guy, b/c he just had a falling out with his mentor and he's absolutely not in the mood to talk to this fast-talking flame head.

And Hades was ready to mop the floor with the guy, but b/c he can't get Wonder Bread's attention he has to whip out Meg a lot faster then he wanted to. He couldn't even savor the moment- it's like wasting a fine cigar.

But Hades doesn't skip a beat and like any mob boss, snaps his fingers, does a bit of blackmailing, and my beautiful boy catches on that if he loses his powers for 24 hours- talk about the confidence on Hades' part here- ppl will get hurt.

Hades, naturally, assures him things will be fine. I mean it's not like they're living in Greek mythology or anything. And after all, Hades assures him, Meg will be safe from harm.

They even shake on it. With left hands.....

And as soon as the two break apart, Hades doesn't hold back on telling his nephew how badly he screwed up.

Leave it to your estranged uncle to sucker you into a terrible deal and then outline why that was the worst mistake of your lifetime. Grade A uncle-ing I say. Wonder if he learned that from centuries of putting up with Zeus' offspring.

And while I have discussed this scene before in Meg vs Hades, we see here the same betrayal Meg had gone through with her ex, but now Meg is taking on the role of her ex. So let's look at it from Herc's perspective.

Anyone else feel their heart breaking when Hercules accuses Hades of lying????

But this is what makes the scene for me:

Despite everything, Hercules still chooses to fight.

You can really see the strength of Hercules' character here. Cuz despite his stupid decision, he still bares the weight of his responsibility even without his god-like strength.

Hercules faces the Cyclops as a normie. Hades would never.

This is the moment where Hercules rises above Hades in humility and upholds his duty despite the odds against him. This moment cements Hercules as a hero.

Finally the cycle of similarities is broken by Hercules' unselfish act. And it should've been in my opinion the moment he gained godhood and not the one below:

Yes, I know how important it is for Meg's redemption and to show how pure and true their relationship is. They're my emotional support OTP, okay, but what's more compelling?

Hercules being saved by the woman who just betrayed him, or Hercules risking his life to save the city of Thebes now that he's just like everybody else? He doesn't have his plot armor anymore, he's facing a giant that's already going ham destroying the populace while everyone is trying to escape. Isn't that true hero material? To stand and face the threat and buy the people time to escape?

But I digress.

And oh man, when Meg gets crushed we see a side of Hercules that was hinted at after Phil called out Meg for being a fraud:

We see Hercules' flaw.

In fact, the same flaw that Hades has as well:

Wrath.

Exhibit Beta: A Swell Consolation Prize

Hades loses. Big surprise there. I'm not covering the Titan scene since Hades and Herc just trade frowns and smirks, so imma leave that one be for this post.

But Hades really does sign his death certificate when he starts running away and reminds Johnny Beefcakes that he still managed to get him where it hurts:

And boy oh boy, when Meg died in his arms, Hercules has murder on his mind.

This is the first time Hercules has a vendetta against Hades (with 10 minutes left). A true, true vendetta. He was willing to let go tricking him by using Meg, but now b/c Hades knocked over the domino that led to Meg's death and the job title he holds, he's ready to go kick ass.

And Lord, the writers knock a home run to the impulsiveness that sits at this central character flaw of Herakles.

Hercules, our Disney version, is ready to cheat death, beat Hades to a pulp and do anything to get Meg back. Alcestis and Admetus style, baby.

So Herc grabs Cerberus and forces the bloodthirsty puppy to take him to his master.

And now realizing that he still has a chance of pulling one over on Zeus, Hades is willing to look over the abuse upon his pet and gets ready to use the wheeling and dealing technique.

And while Hercules does *convince*, and I use that word very loosely, to trade places with Meg, Hades agrees. While some have pointed out to me how clever Hercules can be this was not one of those moments.

Wow the son of my greatest rival??? Hercules made a really easy bargain that Hades was gonna propose anyway. Meg is insignificant in the grand scheme of things so who cares if she got a 'Get out of Jail' free card.

But, Hades messed up. Dude should've had his cake and eaten it too and just fished Meg out so Herc could take that dip and avoid what was coming to him.

Y'see Hades wasn't aware of the true hero clause Zeus randomly made up just like how Hades randomly made up a god-to-mortal potion.

So we get this ending with Herc's debt remaining unpaid.

I joked to myself as I was writing this post to include a post in my Hercules Conflicts series where it's Hades vs Hades b/c let's be real, Hades caused all of Hades' problems.

Self-fulfilling prophecies babyyyyy

Oy... Can you believe that now that Herc and Meg are alive and kicking as mortals they still owe a debt to Hades? Not the best ending, mind you. Sure, Hades isn't getting out anytime soon, so does it matter in the grand scheme of things?

But it is a sweet and well-deserved ending for our boy Hercules. Bc despite everything, Hercules realizes that the ppl who love him and know him for who he is: his adopted parents, his coach, and his girl that he would rather live out a mortal life with them instead of one with his bio parents. He knows now that the acceptance he has always been longing for has been realized and he'd rather have the life he knows than risk it all for a life that might make him all the more miserable.

And just like Hercules, Hades is now permanently stuck in the world he was forced into. Funny how they both ended up in the place they were actively trying to leave. It's a well-deserved punishment even if the dead are screwed without someone to keep the underworld in tip-top shape.

It's a shame Hades didn't meet Hercules sooner in the film because there is tons of material here that could've really had them be a formidable villain/hero pair up there with the likes of Aladdin vs Jafar. To have them actively oppose each other and force Hercules to grapple with the knowledge that this god is doing everything in his power to keep him off balance. imagine if Hades showed up early on just to gloat and mock the kid and confirm everything Zeus had told him?

Hercules could've grown up with that chip on his shoulder, wanting to be a fighter and a warrior just so he could take Hades on for realzies and take on the hoard of monsters he's sending to doom humanity. Just so it culminates in the classic: We're not so different conversation to mentally mess with the hero about his morals and life choices.

Could've been great.

Regardless, thanks for making it to the end, dear reader.

Till next time.

[distort-opia]

Hey,can you recall any moments where Batman shows an obsession with Joker’s neck? I saw you answered sth like this before^ ^

The only one I could think of is the Batman Vampire,where he literally bit him on the neck…Do you have any other proofs plz👉👈

To be fair, the neck thing is kind of a hero/villain staple :)) It's a trope, the hero grabbing the villain by the neck/collar in anger. TVTropes has it as Neck Lift and as Angry Collar Grab. (You know who does this way too many times to a fellow theoretical hero? Superman to Batman. Batman is villain-coded in relation to Superman. In this essay I will--)

[clears throat] Anyway, as you mention, I got asked about similar instances which you can check out here: Bruce being possessive, and a top of their most tension-filled fights (in which Bruce almost unerringly goes for the throat at least once). But yes, there's the classic example Batman biting Joker and becoming a vampire:

-- Batman: Bloodstorm (1995)

But this isn't even the only official or semi-official time a Batman was shown to be way into Joker's throat:

-- Variant cover to DCeased #1 by Ben Oliver

-- DC Artwork by Duncan Fegredo

-- Painting by Danny Roberts, titled "Inhabitants of Hell"

And even more damning, whenever Batman kills Joker in any kind of alternate Universe, it's almost always via the throat... except the Bruce Wayne of Earth-51 who shot Joker after Jason's death. Good on him for introducing some variety, because all the other are neck-related, starting with the Batman: Bloodstorm example.

Alright, this is already getting long. I'm putting the comic panels of Bruce killing Joker via throat snapping, as well as some lesser known throat grabs that aren't in any of the compilation posts above, under the cut.

So. Bruce has a thing for Joker's throat in death as much as in life, the Saga:

-- The Batman Who Laughs (2017) #1

-- JLA: The Nail (1998) #1

-- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986)

-- Injustice: Gods Amons Us -- Year Three #13

Counting Bloodstorm, these are like five separate alternate moments Bruce goes for the throat. Just saying.

And of course, then there's grabbing Joker by the collar (which if I started compiling, we'd be here all day-- it happens in almost all Batman/Joker confrontations), and grabbing Joker by the throat.

My favorite instances of the latter are when Bruce does it and then just... keeps holding Joker by the throat like that and they proceed to have conversations =)) I'm adding these examples below, since they aren't in any of the compilations posts I linked to before:

-- Batman/Superman: World's Finest (1999) #3

-- Batman: Secrets (2006) #2

-- Batman: Fortunate Son (1999)

-- Action Comics (1938) #719

-- Batman: The Dark Prince Charming (2017)

And I mean. Not from the comics, but there's a lot of examples in the Arkham games as well, from which I'll only point two out:

-- Batman: Arkham Asylum

-- Batman: Arkham Knight

...Anyway. Bruce has a universal Joker throat kink and that's that. It's the hill I choose to die on :)) Actually, it's the hill Bruce claims to die on himself:

-- Detective Comics (1937) #532

Hope you had fun with these!

[gaypiratebrainrot]

our flag means death fic recs - round one

hi all! i’ve put together a first small batch of fic recs for our beloved gay pirates. mostly stede/ed, but there’s some izzy in the mix, and almost everything i read involves some kind of smut. i’m also trying to focus my recs on lesser-known/trafficked fic, so i’ve left off anything that’s super high on the ao3 sort-by-kudos. and finally, i’m always on the hunt for strong writing, so, imho, that’s a feature of everything here!

as always, YMMV, so mind the tags!

in no particular order:

kissing is what lovers do (and we’re not lovers) by afterism (series, E, stede/ed, 12k) maybe my all time favorite fan fic trope is “they decide to have sex under the some platonic pretense even though they both have feelings, and then they have sex and don’t talk about the feelings” and this fic is an excellent example. the set up is great, and the characterization is ON POINT.

Rum and Linen by scarrletmoon (E, stede/ed, 5.5k) super hot alternate first time where ed’s a bit drunk and asks stede if he can kiss him. well done pwp.

Cut Through All the Noise by dance_across (E, stede/ed, 5.4k) alternating POV of stede and ed fantasizing about each other set at the end of episode ten. strong character work and also some very painful pining.

An Extremely Fun, Memorable, Deeply Cool Adventure by alsaurus (E, stede/ed, 4.6k) hilarious premise where stede invents blowjobs; well-executed with great dialogue. also, just incredibly hot.

Golden Teachers by Jimsnose (alivamae) (E, stede/ed, 2k) stede and ed do mushrooms together. delightful, funny, and really sexy.

and all the trees began to bend by howlikeagod (M, solo ed, 1k) a lovely and lyrical sad masturbation fic, poetic and full of yearning.

sickly sweet by blazeofglory (E, izzy POV ft stede/ed, 1k) an everyone’s gender-swapped lesbian AU, with izzy listening in on stede and ed. i am 100% sold on lesbian izzy, A+.

I’ll stick around by plutosrose, yammz (E, izzy/ed, 3.2k) very well-written and characterized hot izzy angst.

and that’s all for now, with more to come as i keep reading. if you enjoy, definitely leave the authors some love!!

[tirsynni]

Years ago (crazy to think about how many years, honestly), I started Sands of Time as writing practice to see if I could get into the practice of writing on a regular schedule (it failed). I had a bunny inspired by thinking too much about Ganondorf and his role in OoT and WW, decided it was as good as an excuse as any to work on writing regularly (failed so hard), and it ended up becoming a love letter to a game series which I've loved almost my entire life.

That fic kept going and going and taught me so much about writing, both in general and fanfic-specific. It ended up being far longer than planned, more detailed than planned, and even when I was distracted and tired and side-eyeing this massive WIP, it reminded me of how much I loved the Zelda games and the many details, overt and subtle, in them. Writing was more than just putting words on paper: it was translating the things I was passionate about. Even if there are some definite issues in the fic due to the many distractions occurring during its creation and how sometimes I wrote less because I was passionate to write and more because I was just stubborn about seeing the fic through, it's still a fic I'm very proud of. It is also, without a shadow of a doubt, my most popular fic. It is a fic that someone refused to rec because they wanted to hit lesser known Zelda fics, and holy shit, I preened when I read that.

I have been struggling with fic and fandom in the last year for many reasons, including some serious RL stressors. The other big reasons have to do with the evolution of fandom itself. I'm not talking about the rise and fall of the popularity of certain things. For example, while I'm not a fan of "reader" fic, I feel like it's a fantastic example of the things that can be done with the fanfiction medium and also a way to explore how tropes/genres/random things in fanfiction reflect different cultural changes in the same way horror movies do. What I hate, though, is the rise of negative feelings and negative takes in fandom, transforming it from a fun, collaborative atmosphere into an arena full of witch hunts, deliberately bad takes, and people terrified to write because they are afraid of being attacked for their content, pairing, writing styles, grammar, etc. I love fandom as a love letter to canon, an exploration of canon, an exploration of self and writing styles, among other things. Now it feels like it's no longer that.

Back in the Old Days, people put disclaimers on fics because they didn't want to be sued. Now people put disclaimers on things assuring readers that of course they don't advocate these things, these things are bad, they know it, they aren't a criminal, they aren't a pedophile, they aren't a Bad Person. Now I see people skip summaries just to tell people to stop attacking them for their pairing and to just let them write what they like.

I see people indulging in deliberate bad takes of the original content, of the original creators, of other writers in fandom, of different tropes, of game mechanics... fucking everything. Sometimes it's just a nasty circle. Sometimes it's done to elevate something else, because we all know the only way to elevate something is to put something else down. I understand vent sessions. I understand going to a friend and going "Holy shit, did you see that summary??? Wow!" It should stop life as a quick vent. It shouldn't make up the person's entire personality. It shouldn't require a full online presence. Hate should never be detailed in the comments. Call-out posts should be left to actual nazis, terfs, etc., not to someone who wrote a "gross" or "unhealthy" or whatever pairing. Seriously. If you waste so much time on that, you need to look into some self-exploration and therapy. In all sincerity.

Fanfiction is not a published work. It should be fun. It is put online to be shared with fellow fans. It is something where someone gets excited about something or has an idea about something or wants to explore something or just wants to write some kinky porn and then share it with fellow fans. That's why writers post work and then sit eagerly .02 seconds later waiting for people to comment on it because they want to share their thoughts and love and happiness and excitement and sadness and grief and their general emotions with others and they want those others to respond and share their thoughts and reactions, too!

I just saw a post tearing into Moffat's Sherlock series because it lacked sincerity for the audience and source material and instead indulged in its arrogance, contempt, and self-righteousness. My immediate thoughts turned to the Lord of the Rings movies. If Sherlock is remembered, it will be purely in the critical sense, an example as to how a popular series was forgotten and dismissed. LotR remains loved. It is a classic. It is something people repeatedly marathon despite the lengthy watch time. LotR was a love letter to its source material. It wasn't just the writers and directors: everyone involved was sincerely, fiercely passionate about it, and it shows. It drags the watchers in, prompted people who had never read the original to pick up the books, inspired so much fanfiction. It was sincere and passionate and loving and, in turn, its fans are sincere and passionate and loving.

The LotR movies explored and loved the genre, the characters, the message. Even when characters faltered, it didn't make them terrible people. It made watchers hold their breath, it made watchers cheer them on, it made watchers hope. Check out people who do bad takes of Frodo and his struggle with the Ring and watch how many people come out of the woodwork to defend Frodo. There was no tongue-in-cheek humor mocking the source material. There was no critical analysis of "Well, you see, this is how the hero was actually stupid." No. It was sincere. It was loving. It still makes people cry and cheer and happy even when they're wiping away a sad tear or two.

I've read fanfics where the writers insist on the worst takes for the characters. It isn't done out of humor or a teasing love or an exploration into the characters/writing styles/etc. The writers want to drag the characters down, put themselves on a pedestal, and do it not through sincere analysis but by doing the worst possible takes on the situation. This usually relies on going into the source material with a negative mindset and desiring negativity in return, feeding primarily on the negative takes of others rather than looking into the source material or looking for positive takes, or just having a "bad faith" mindset. They go into it with an axe to grind and want to drag everyone else down with them. It isn't one or two fics: it's a growing, poisonous movement which is one of the things driving people out of fandom. It isn't a love letter to the source material. It is hate and disgust and contempt and Moffat writing Sherlock, patting himself on the back all the while and surrounding himself with people doing the same exact thing.

I'm a strong believer in people writing whatever they want to write. You want to write this character being evil? Sure! You hate this character and want to make them OOC to bash them even more? Go for it! I've written so many things testing how far I could go or feeling angsty and wanting others to feel angsty or even feeling happy and grinning like a feral gremlin as people wrote comments talking about how the angst in the story made them bawl. Want to write vore? Want to write character death? Whatever! It is fucking fiction, and it should be something you can enjoy doing. Hell, an asexual person can write two people fucking without wanting to get fucked. A lesbian can write two men fucking. A pacifist can write a murder mystery. It is fiction. Write whatever you want, and I hope that you feel better after doing so, even if it is only in the catharsis way of having a bad day and getting it out by making characters bleed.

Already, I can fucking hear people insisting that all of this makes you a bad person. No. No. If you truly believe that, it means you don't understand writing. You don't understand art. OR it's not a misunderstanding but a deliberate Bad Take, an extension of the poison I described above, because you want to attack someone and you want any opening. See: Republicans going after Drag Queens now, probably not actually believing that Drag Queens are harmful but recognizing vulnerability and knowing they can manipulate others through hatred. If you truly believed that, you would be wondering about Stephen King and other writers, but instead, you use conservative attacks and uncritically promote purity culture and are oblivious to the day when the leopard turns around to eat your face.

It's exhausting. It's a growing trend that is poisoning the water that is fandom and is not only playing a part in driving people out, but is keeping people from ever trying their hand in the first place. It is keeping people from enjoying what should be a fun thing. It is fucking poisoning minds, because this is a damned slippery slope. Hammer/nail and all that. It is seeing one thing as "problematic" and knocking over one tile and then seeing a full domino effect because they never bothered to analyze what "problematic" meant or why they found that "problematic." It is people grabbing a torch with the hope they won't find themselves on the stake.

Let people enjoy fandom. Try having positive takes. Let fanfiction and fanart and fanworks in general be something enjoyable again. Maybe some people use it as a way to vent current political issues. Maybe some people want to explore certain sexual kinks and writing these two (or three or five or seven) characters going at it is a great way to do it. Maybe they had a funny thought and want to share it via fanfiction. Whatever. We can't go online and bash people like Moffat and then casually do the same exact thing. We can't bitch about conservative politicians attacking people and then use the same exact thought processes and methods to attack others.

Let people be sincere in their enjoyment. If you don't like it, find something you do like. Maybe take some time with some tools and explore things which make you happy instead of indulging in deliberate bad takes to tear others down and use those takes to bind yourself to others and their bad takes like barbwire. Remember why things like LotR lives on and makes people so happy and why Moffat's works are going to be used in classes in the future as to what not to do.

[miraculousalamode]

Miraculous A La Mode FAQ

welcome to the FAQ! this one is a long one; we wanted to give you as much information as possible! at the current moment, there are three mods taking care of everything here.

what is miraculous a la mode? miraculous a la mode is an event where the most important rule is the fic you’ll be posting with us cannot include the tag Adrien/Marinette, also known as the Lovesquare (or commonly abbreviated to LS). this includes adri(e)nette/marichat/ladrien/ladynoir. this also includes any kwami swaps or reverse crushes.

we want to give pairings (such as marigami, DJWIFI, julerose, marcnath, alyanette) that aren't written about as much a chance to be in the main spotlight for a fandom-wide event!

continue reading to see the entire FAQ!

is this a salt event?

this is not a salt event! this is an event simply catering to lesser-known and lesser-used relationship tags, giving them a chance to shine. we celebrate all aspects of the show here, but for this event specifically we want to focus on all the other ships. rare-pairs, crackships, polyships of all kind are welcome here, too! 

can the polyship include both Adrien and Marinette?

for this event we’re going to have to say no, as it would still be adding to the Adrien/Marinette tag on ao3. 

what’s a rare pair? what is a crack ship?

a rare pair is a ship that does not have a lot of fandom coverage, be it in fic or fanart form. statistically, these are ships that make up for less than 10% of Miraculous tagged ao3 fics. at the 10% threshold, pairing tags become common. as of Oct. 4, 2022 there are 58,267 miraculous ladybug fics, so the 10% threshold would be 5,826 fics. only two ships meet this criteria:

the lovesquare and djwifi. that being said: djwifi is still being allowed, as it is barely a thousand off from being a rarepair, and is only as common as it is because it’s a background pairing. if you exclude all lovesquare fics, djwifi drops down to less than 5% of Miraculous fics. 

examples of other rare pairs would include Felix/Luka (feluka), Chloe/Kagami (chloegami), or Marc/Adrien (adrimarc). 

a crack ship is a ship that is wildly impractical and unexpected, yet equally entertaining and interesting. these are ships that allow fic writers and artists to have fun with tropes. examples of crack ships would include Amelie/Anarka, Jagged/Gabriel, or Juleka/Felix.

i would like to participate! what are my options for participation?

we will have four different applications available:

the mod form will be the first available and will close before we open the writer applications

the writer form will open second, and will be available after mods have been selected. our calendar dates the writer's form opening on december 1st 2022, and will close january 7th 2023.

the beta form will open third, and will be available after writers have started writing. we will be updating this question in the future to represent the actual dates of the applications.

the artist form will open last, and will be available very much after writers have been accepted. our calendar dates the artist's form opening on march 5th 2023, and will close april 8th 2023.

i want to participate as a mod! what type of mods are you looking for?

we are looking for mods who are willing and able to moderate and oversee the following aspects of the event: 

graphics mod that will help make this event come to life! our current artist is a snake with a paintbrush, and while we love him dearly, we’d love someone more capable.

behind-the-scenes administrative on Discord to keep the event going

those with Discord modding experience are preferable, but not necessary.

i want to participate as a writer! what will i need?

you will need an account on discord (you must be 13 or older to create one) so that you can join the server and an ao3 account in order to participate! both of these are free. you will be allowed to post your work on tumblr at posting time as well.

i want to participate as an artist! what do i need?

you will need a discord account in order to join the server, as well as some sort of online posting space such as twitter, instagram or deviantart so you can post your work online!

what is a beta-reader?

for our purposes, a beta-reader is a person who reads the fic before it’s published in order to catch spelling/grammar mistakes, and potentially suggest improvements. there are many different types of beta-readers, and many artists have different preferences on how much help they want to receive.

i want to beta some of these fics that have caught my eye! what do i need?

you will need a discord account in order to contact and communicate with your writer, and some means of sharing the fic between the writer and beta reader. this could be using Google Docs as a means of collaborating, or sharing a Word file back and forth. the specifics of how a writer wants their work to be beta’d will vary from writer to writer, so it’s advised that beta readers are flexible and able to accommodate to the needs of their writer. a strong constitution against typos is also recommended.

i’m a writer; is a beta reader required to participate?

no! sometimes being forced to have another person look over your work can stress a writer out to the point that their creativity is hindered or slowed. having a fic beta’d is a recommendation, but not required for posting. 

i’m a writer; can i bring my own beta?

yes! they are allowed to join the server though it’s not a requirement. if you need any help such as creating a thread within the server for you to use feel free to ask one of the mods.

can i sign up as a writer and then do art for another fic i like?

yes! please read the requirements for participating as an artist further down on the FAQ.

can i sign up as a writer and then do art for my own fic?

yes!

can i sign up as a writer and beta someone else’s fic?

yes! more information about beta-reading will be within the server after everyone has accepted the invites.

how many fics can i sign up with?

you can write a maximum of three. each fic you submit an idea with will get an ID that we will ask you to keep track of so when it is time to advertise your fic for an artist to potentially match with you, we’ll know which fic they’re referring to.

will i get emails about the event?

yes! you will be getting an email from miraculouslagoonevents@gmail.com indicating whether or not you’ve been accepted into the event. please add us to your address book so we don't go into spam.

are multi-chapter fics allowed?

absolutely! the more words the merrier!

is there a minimum word count?

the minimum word count for this event is 5,000 words.

what if i end up writing a fic that doesn’t meet the minimum?

no hard feelings! it’ll still be included in our collection. the goal is just to write non-LS fics, the minimum word count is there to give you a goal to aim for.

what if i don’t finish my fic 100% by the day it’s time to start posting but i want to keep writing it after the fact?

that is fine, you’ll still be included in our collection.

can i collaborate with a friend for this event?

sure! multiple writers can work on a fic together. we will ask on our forms just to keep track of who is working on which fics. have decided on an artist-writer pairing, too? awesome! since the writer application will be first to come out, we'll have a spot in the form for you to write the artist's name down.

is this event nsfw friendly?

absolutely! but you must be 18+ in order to write nsfw for this event. if you are underage and write an NSFW fic in an attempt to add it into our event, you will be banned. there are no exceptions.

i’ve never written a non LS fic before. am i still allowed in? even though i don’t have any references?

absolutely! 

what type of fic isn’t allowed?

fics that are homophobic, transphobic, sexist and racist are not allowed. fics that talk about these topics are allowed, but will have to be tagged appropriately on our forms in order to not trigger any mods handling your fics. content warnings for any of the above must be used on your fics, or serious penalties can arise.

translated fics of existing works are not allowed. 

lovesquare content (adri(e)nette/marichat/ladrien/ladynoir) is not allowed, even as a background pairing.

crossovers are not allowed. this is a miraculous ladybug event only, which means that the popular ship maribat will be disqualified from the event.

although we're not considered a salt event, salt (in moderation) is allowed. please note that extremely salty fics will need to be tagged.

as for fics with suggestive content, we ask that it be tagged properly with any content warnings you believe fits your work, so if you word contains NSFW or violence, we ask that you tag for it on ao3 as well as on your forms so that we do not potentially trigger any mods handling your fics. 

what if LS is at the beginning before one of the two (or both) move onto different ships?

that would still be tagged on ao3 as marinette/adrien, even if it’s not the endgame ship, which is not our goal for this event. that would not be allowed in. this event is to not add any marinette/adrien content to ao3 and end up boosting the numbers.

is gen (non romantic ship) allowed?

absolutely! friendship stories and queer platonic relationships are just as valid as romantic ones!

can i have a miraculous ladybug oc paired up with a canon character as my ship?

yes!

what are ’check-ins’?

check-ins are your way of communicating with mods about your fic(s) progress. for each monthly check-in, we will link a google form where we will ask for your fic’s ID as well as the progress of this fic. questions such as ’have you hit significant progress into completing this fic’ and ’would you like to put a callout for a beta-reader’ will be on the form.

what are fic IDs used for?

organizational purposes, we require fics to have IDs attached in order for the mods to find them easily on the spreadsheet. when we post artist calls, we will be using your ID for the fic in order to entice an artist and/or a beta-reader to potentially work with you— they will show up into the discord with the ID ready and available for us to properly pair you both. that way, you’re still anonymous to the public while you work on your fic, but still get to advertise that this story is potentially on its way.

how much progress should i be aiming for whenever there’s a check-in?

check-ins will be once each month after writers join. each check-in, we ask that you have 20-25% of your fic done.

what are snippets?

snippets are pieces of your story that you’re willing to share on tumblr in order to gain the attention of an artist. when it comes time to share snippets on our blog, we will have more information on how we’d want it to be formatted. 

what are the requirements for the snippets?

standard procedure is a snippet being about 2,000 words long, with a summary at the top as if it were AO3, and relevant tags that you need the artist to know about before potentially selecting your fic to work with. we will have more information on this once it’s time for us to ask for snippets for the blog.

i’ve finished! where do i post my fic/art?

for fics, we ask to post on ao3 since that is our initial goal. we will have a collections available for works completed with our event. we will also reblog it if you post on tumblr, too! for art, wherever you see fit! whether you post it on tumblr, instagram, deviantart, we’d love to see it! we’ll reblog your art onto our blog if you post it onto tumblr.

i don’t have an AO3 account! can i still join?

you’ll have to make one in order to join our event. if you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. you can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue. it’s recommended you make that account long before you’re ready to start posting.

what does posting look like? do we have to post the whole thing on the day we choose, even if it’s multiple chapters? 

if your work is multichapter, you will not be uploading the whole fic on the same day! we will have a schedule laid out for you to be able to post at minimum once a week until you finished.

how do i know when to post?

you will be provided a “calendar” form when posting date starts to get closer. this will be the day you will post the first chapter of your fic. as long as you maintain a one chapter per week, you are free to post whenever. 

is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art?

if you pick a fic that is less than 20k words, you will only need to draw one artwork. however, should the fic be longer, we ask that you draw two arts accompanying the fic.

your art piece must be fully completed, with lineart, color, and including a background (as long as it isn't a solid background). if you’ve chosen to work with an NSFW fic, you are not required to draw NSFW.

i’m an artist and i love a fic posted onto the tumblr! how do i claim a fic?

in april, our blog will be circulating anonymous summaries and snippets of stories looking for an artist to draw for it. when you see a post of a story that you find interesting and would like to stake a claim to it, there will be an artist form available for you to fill out. please have all the fic IDs of all the fics you’d like to potentially draw for ready for your form for us to start matching you.

please only claim an NSFW fic if you’re older than 18. if we find out that you’ve lied about your age, you’ll be banned. no exceptions.

how many fics can i claim?

you can claim as many as you would be willing to work with. ideally, if you are capable of drawing what is expected of you, there is a potential of you being selected to draw art for up to three fics. 

as a writer, what if i don’t like one of my fics i proposed? can i drop it?

you will be able to switch out any of your proposed fic with another idea until april, where we will be asking for artists to pick from the selected summaries we’ll be posting on the blog. if you’ve submitted more than one idea, you’re allowed to drop any of them, as long as you still keep one fic, so you can be active in the event.

can i drop out? how do i get banned?

you’re always allowed to drop out. the only way to get banned is if you don’t communicate with any mods of you wanting to drop out. please, just notify us that you wish to leave the event there is no penalty. please keep in mind that while dropping out when you have an artist or a writer working with you on your event piece could be considered rude, we understand if you have an emergency, and you won’t be held hostage to stay.

i have a question that wasn’t answered…

if you’ve got a question we didn’t answer, our inbox is open, so go ahead and ask! 

[amarriageoftrueminds]

something i truly do not understand about smbcky and to a lesser extent, smstve shippers is how they so clearly prefer the stucky dynamic genuine love for each other and prominence in the story their emotional core being each other to the point that non-shippy general audiences call BS when newer entries try to downplay their relationship

but then they don't ship that but instead lie through their teeth abt what stucky in canon is and pretend that their preferred ship has the stucky dynamic

it'd be so much tolerable if the diehard SmBck shippers were honest abt what they are and stop acting like it's a soulmate/fated lovers ship and admitted that it's more of a meme/dudebro/"haha they hate each other it's funni" joke ship, which is what gen audiences did when their show was airing, gen audiences treated it like a meme cuz the narrative never gave it more depth than a bunch of glued-together buddy cop tropes and banking off audiences being invested in the IRL actors' public on-camera personas

those shippers would be much happier if they were honest abt what it is and isn't instead and wondering why romance-lovers prefer the dynamic that actually treated the emotions and feeling with depth and sincerity instead of the dynamic of 2 cishet dudebro hwood actors who think their jokes are hilarious but you can never tell when the joke even happened or not happened

Tbh I don't really know how smbcky shippers ship them because I don't see it! (Got it all blacklisted or filtered or w/e and tend to block those posts when I see them and move on. Hard pass from me.)

So I can't really comment on whether they habitually make up bullshit about stucky or downplay it, because I'm simply not seeing it! 🤷‍♀️

I guess stucky occupies a bit of a unique situation, in terms of shipping, because shippers can lean hard into it's canon romanticism and 80+ years of comics, without needing to steal from other canon ships.

(Like, I've never seen or heard of stucky fic with Bucky in Peggy's scenes, or Natasha's, or Sharon's, because none of them have the same profound place in Steve's life or the same profound lines so it would be, if anything, kind of a downgrade??)

Whereas the MCU canon definitely is trying to downplay and cannibalise stucky to feed other ships, in just the way you describe.

(And thereby inadvertently admitting that the writers don't actually rate the existing-canon as romance, for example. Putting Peggy in Bucky's scenes in WhatIf, while completely deleting Steve and Peggy's original scenes, which were supposed to prove they're a couple! Tell me you think stucky was legit without telling me...)

Most jarring to me was WhatIf, where they had Bucky casually bumping off zombie-Steve, with zero sign that this was his best friend, the only living person who's known him since he was a child, someone he'd sacrificed a whole limb for TWICE etc etc etc…

But was then expected to be upset over bumping off zombie-Sam?

H u h ?!

It was so obvious and cack-handed an attempt to shove down one in order to raise up another, that it was just... cringe? 😬

Maybe that's the origin of this, if you what you say is happening in sambuca and stvesam shipping, is really happening. They've swallowed the 'shit on stucky' coolaid the Rat is peddling and now they're doing precisely what the Corporate Overlords want? 🤔

Kinda sad to think about... 😥

And as for this 'copying X ship dynamic to fit Y ship while ignoring Y ship's canon as if they never liked it anyway' phenomenon...

I have definitely come across a similar thing in stucky fanfic too, actually!

I've seen Bucky's personality (and even physical description) overhauled and replaced with a sort of James Charles-esque, Darcy Lewis Tony Stark hybrid.

Which leaves me thinking, 'but if that's the kind of person you think Steve would want, then you don't actually ship stucky, you ship Steve/Darcy, Stny, etc?'

So it wouldn't surprise me if what you say is true, Anon, because I've definitely seen that ^ similar thing elsewhere with Bucky.

And yes, you'd think, if the 'dramatically romantic co-dependant burn the world for them childhood soulmate' dynamic is the one you're after, then you can't actually like the Sambuca dynamic?

(Cuz if you're not a fan of 'buddy cop dudebros who hate each other on sight are forced into proximity and bicker to the point of becoming an annoyance to the other characters', then why are you here?)

It's an especially odd choice to cannibalise another ship's canon for fanon when what is in canon is a lot of queerbaiting you could draw on instead!

(eg. them rolling through a field for comedic 'lol they're doing gay stuff!!' relief, 'now give us money like you did w/ stucky!!' Annoying, yes, but extremely useful from a shipping POV! No different than destiel or johnlock, when the writers were in on it but had no intention of following through. The fans didn't let that stop them!)

Maybe it derives from a sense of a stolen opportunity? Because FATWS absolutely could have been the 'emotionally resonant ship-establishing show'.

But instead they went with 'Mackie being sarcastic was hilarious in junkets so let's just have him throw casual abuse at Stan so we don't have to bother to do our jobs.' Gave Stan one (1) Emotional Scene and Mackie Zero (0). (While also, funnily enough, shitting on all of Bucky's backstory as if it didn't matter, while not even bothering to mention Sam's at all.)

And finished with a lazy insult; a montage, so that they don't have to bother actually showing them becoming good friends, in the six fuckin hours that they wasted on What FunnyNaziGuy Thinks. 🤬

I think also, Bucky stans seem to be more able to see the flaws in that show, because they never regarded it as 'his' (since he's not being made Captain America, sidekicking remains his gig etc.) Whereas Sam stans did see it as his, so they feel as if they're being disloyal and shitting on one of the few pieces of black rep available by criticising it (and double-down on refusing to address any issues about it.)

So perhaps Sambuca shippers who come to it from a Sam-stan POV almost can't criticise the crap they were given (eg. Mackie Yells at Stan for 6 hours + Nobody's In Character). Emotionally, it's much easier to criticise, eg. skrull Steve from Endlame, and pretend that shit was IC and he and Bucky haven't been It in Steve's films or Marvel's Batman & Robin in the comics for 80 years. 🙄

Definite ship-envy going on, though what the hell there is to envy in the way MCU treats Stucky I don't know!

.

tl;dr: haven't seen it personally but it wouldn't surprise me since that's what the MCU itself is doing and rarepair shippers are in dire straights anyway, poor sods.

[bestiarium]

The Huli Jing [Chinese mythology]

This is a bestiary of lesser-known mythological creatures, and as such I wrote no entry about the Japanese Kitsune, the 9-tailed fox spirits that are quite well-known and feature in many modern works of fiction. There is, however, a lesser-known Chinese variant of this creature, which is its own distinct folklore creature: the Huli Jing (which translates to “fox essence”), also called Huxian (or “fox fairy”).

In fact, the Huli Jing predates the Kitsune: these fox spirits have played a significant role in Chinese culture and mythology for many centuries. They are still a regular sight in modern Chinese culture: travelers in Beijing might stumble upon shrines to a Xianjia (which is the local, respectful term for a Huli Jing). People can pray at these shrines to beseech such a spirit to, for example, cure a disease. One story tells of a mother who prayed at a fox spirit shrine to save her son, who was ill. The following night, the Huli Jing appeared in her dream as an old man with grey hair and a long white beard. He wiped the son’s face with the long sleeves of his robe, and the next morning, the boy was cured, his fever miraculously disappeared.

In the Ming, Qing and Republican periods of China, the fox spirit was a common trope in literature and folktales. However during the Republican era, the idea of the Huli Jing was regarded as feudal superstition and had to be discarded. This persisted into the Communist era.

In the 18th century, the author Ji Yun wrote that foxes are somewhere between humans and non-humans. They are not human, but their intelligence seems to be almost human, so they’re not quite normal animals either. He also considered foxes to be between demons and divine transcendents. This perfectly demonstrates the role of foxes in Chinese culture: cunning tricksters, not malicious but not entirely benevolent either, creatures that can be regarded as mysterious, neither demonic nor godly. The Huli Jing embodies all of these aspects: supernatural, but neither demonic nor divine. 

These (usually, but not always) 9-tailed fox spirits are quite unpredictable: although they often seen as bad omens and evil creatures, other myths tell of them as friendly and benevolent beings who choose to help the protagonist with their powerful magic. Generally speaking, if you encountered a Huli Jing, you had no way of knowing whether you’d be drained by a vampire-like creature who sucked your life essence, or end up in a supernatural romance that might even end in marriage.

One characteristic that remains consistent about these spirits is their ability to shapeshift. They might appear as wise old men, beautiful young women, translucent ghosts, etc. Guo Pu (14th century author) further elaborates on this ability: when a fox reaches 50 years of age, they gain the ability to transform into a human woman. 50 Years later, it can turn into a particularly beautiful lady and also in a human man. Also at this age, foxes gain the ability to possess people: by doing so, the victim’s memories and knowledge are erased. When it reaches 1000 years, the fox ascends to heaven. At this point, it becomes a celestial being. Another characteristic of these spirits is that they are always considered intelligent and knowledgeable creatures. For this reason, they are sometimes depicted with a book in their mouth.

They can curse people with disease, misfortune and death. In other tales, they grant boons such as wealth, fertility or moral guidance about the Tao (a philosophical concept which is central to Taoism).

The Shanjaijing (the classic of mountains and seas) claims that the Huli Jing can speak but has a voice like a human baby. Furthermore, it also claims that the Huli Jing eat people, but also that if you manage to kill one and eat its flesh, you will be permanently immune to poison.  The man-eating aspect seems to have been discarded in later myths.

Source: Kang, X., 2006, The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press, 288 pp. (image source 1: ArtistFia on Deviantart) (image source 2: the Shan hai jing, a book from the 4th century BC)

[lazywhispersobject]

Review: ‘Madame Web’ is actually a good movie. Yes, really.

I'm not gonna lie: while I was heading to the theater, I was concerned going into “Madame Web.” The majority of X, formerly known as Twitter, users seemed to be against what they saw as meager storylines and weak writing, characters, and performances, especially compared to other Sony/Marvel superhero movies, so I was hesitant. I was expecting “Madame Web” to be a lot worse than it was, but a few good performances and strong found family themes elevate “Madame Web” above some lesser Sony/Marvel superhero movies.

Columbia Pictures’ “Madame Web” was released in theaters on Feb. 14 and follows Cassandra Webb (played by Dakota Johnson), a paramedic in New York City. Webb finds herself having to protect three teenagers from Ezekiel Sims, a murderous adversary with superhuman powers who is hunting them.

“Madame Web” is set in 2003 and sort of pays homage to the conventions of the comic book movies of that era. The muted color palette and minimalistic special effects are all designed to remind viewers of movies like 2002’s “Spider-Man” or 2003’s “Daredevil.”

Also, like many of those movies, Webb is depicted as aloof and antisocial, with her friend having to drag her to social gatherings. Occasionally, with these characters it doesn’t feel realistic, but Johnson really sells it which makes it all the better when she finally finds her chosen family.

The other star of “Madame Web” is Adam Scott. I’ll admit that Scott and his glorious deadpan was half of the reason why I actually watched the movie in the first place, and he absolutely killed it as Ben Parker, a name most Spider-Man fans will recognize.

That’s the other thing about Sony’s recent Spider-Man Universe — it doesn’t have Spider-Man, but it gets really close. Sony is trying to convince people that its movies are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they’re not. It is this confusion that is driving audiences away from its movies after films like “Morbius,” which was both a critical and commercial failure. It’s a shame too, because with better marketing more people might be able to actually enjoy this movie.

I mentioned that Adam Scott was half the reason I wanted to watch “Madame Web,” the other half was because of Isabela Merced. Merced, known for her starring role as Dora the Explorer in 2019’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” brings layers to the role of Anya Corazon, who was my favorite of the three girls. The A-plus-student Corazon was one of my favorite characters in the 2017 “Spider-Man” animated series. Still, Merced portrays her as more than just an intellectual here, which I appreciated.

Sydney Sweeney and Celeste O’Connor were okay as Julia Cornwall and Mattie Franklin, but the script doesn’t give them much to do other than be a goody-two-shoes and a rebel, respectively.

The writing for “Madame Web” is kind of basic. The hero gets powers that she can’t control, finds the other main characters and must come into her power to save them – it’s all been done before. I am willing to forgive it, though, because of the ending.

I’m a sucker for the found family trope. It’s one of my favorites and “Madame Web” is a great example of it. Webb is initially reluctant to save the girls, but after learning that their real families have abandoned or left them, she takes it upon herself to protect them. By the end, Webb accepts Corazon, Cornwall and Franklin as her chosen family.

The villain in “Madame Web” is also bland. Sims sees a vision of Corazon, Cornwall and Franklin killing him, which is fine, but what I don’t get is why he doesn’t just try to talk to them first, instead of going right to hunting them.

I also thought the dialogue mixing for him was off. Whenever he spoke in voiceover, it sounded much deeper than his actual voice.

There was a lot of good humor in “Madame Web.” Johnson and Scott have a good rapport as Webb and Parker, with Scott stealing the spotlight in every scene he is in. The girls also have good chemistry.

The music was surprisingly good. I appreciated the use of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” as a plot device, and Tiffany’s cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” was also appropriate for the scene, because they were, in fact, alone.

Unlike most of X, I actually enjoyed “Madame Web.” If you ignore what people on the Internet say, maybe you will too.

by Tyler D'Errico - The Collegian

"Cassie"

Madame Web premiere

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 53: Henchman joins heroes for one time only

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! In most cartoons the contrast between the heroes and the main villain is pretty black and white. Good is good, bad is bad, and never shall they be able to find common ground. But what about the lesser villains? The henchmen, the mooks, the hired help? Sometimes those guys are portrayed in shades of grey instead…

Episode 53: Henchman joins heroes for one time only 

There could be any number of reasons a henchman might temporarily team up with the good guys. They could be a victim of memory loss or brainwashing, they might have had a disagreement with their boss that drove them into the arms of the heroes before they decide to go back to being a bad guy, they might need the heroes’ help to defeat an even bigger bad that’s usurped their boss, or they might join up with the heroes while claiming to have been reformed but secretly planning to stab them in the back. 

So what about in ArchieSonic? The best example we have here is a scheming little weasel of a man (not literally) named Colin Kintobor Jr, but who is better known as Snively Robotnik.

Hoo boy, now here’s a guy whose loyalties seemed to change at the drop of a hat in ArchieSonic. Let’s take a look at this guy’s history, shall we? 

During the Great War Snively came to Mobotropolis to join his Uncle Julian, supposedly in service of King Acorn. But they were actually plotting a coup and successfully took over the Kingdom, exiling the King to the Zone of Silence and transforming most of the populace into robotic slaves.

Snively remained in the service of the newly rechristened Dr. Robotnik afterwards as his right hand man, although that role was often seen being fulfilled by the badnik Crabmeat in the early issues before Snively was introduced (and sometimes even afterwards). As the years went by Snively started to become more disillusioned and less trusting of his uncle, as Robotnik suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Freedom Fighters and started growing more abusive towards Snively. Snively longed to take control of Robotnik’s empire and prove that he could do better, and took full opportunity to try and do so in Sonic #30 when Robotnik was accidentally trapped in another dimension called the Void.

Robotnik soon returned though and the status quo returned to normal (aside from Uncle Chuck having regained his free will and joined forces with the Freedom Fighters). Snively started scheming about how to once again remove his uncle from power and was finally given the chance in Sonic #50 when Robotnik tried to use his superweapon, the Ultimate Annihilator.

The device was programmed to erase Knothole Village from existence, but Snively sabotaged it so that it instead fired on Robotnik himself. Snively didn’t have long to enjoy his self-promotion to CEO of All Things Evil though, as he was captured just a few days later when the Freedom Fighters came a-knocking at the front door.

Snively was imprisoned in the Devil’s Gulag, which led to the stuff I mentioned in one of the recent previous episodes. First there was the mysteriously engineered prison breakout, after which the other escapees put Snively in charge as they believed he was one who had freed them. Following that came the kidnapping of Nate Morgan, and Snively’s supposed death from a giant squid explosion when Nate’s rescue team barged in to save the day. However what actually happened was that at the last possible second he was teleported away and ended up in the clutches of none other than his supposed murder victim.

Maybe he would have been better off with the squid.

So, here’s the bit where I get to the topic of the day. In Sonic #73 the Freedom Fighters finally figured out someone was using a series of satellites to wreak havoc on the planet - causing meteor showers, earthquakes, prison breaks, the re-enslavement of all the formerly freed Robians, fun stuff like that - and went into orbit to investigate. This led to them discovering that the satellites had now combined to form a large space station, run by none other than the very much not-dead Dr. Robotnik. Except surprise, it was a trick!

After taking an accidental acid bath and melting off his fake skin, the big bad revealed himself to actually be Robo-Robotnik, the alternate dimensional counterpart of Robotnik who had tried to rule over all of reality with the Giant Borg. The Freedom Fighters were captured in an electric prison forcefield, but to their surprise Snively released them.

He explained that he needed their help to escape, as Robo-Robotnik intended to roboticise him too. The Freedom Fighters weren’t exactly keen on teaming up with Snively, but they let him escape with them before blowing Robotnik’s space station up and heading back to the surface. Once back on the ground, Snively pointed out that their plan to evacuate back to Knothole Village was doomed to failure, as Robo-Robotnik would have escaped the explosion by downloading his memory into a new body back in Robotropolis (giving birth to his modern Eggman design) and would have a file telling him Knothole’s exact location.

In exchange for keeping him safe from Robotnik’s shadowbots, Snively reluctantly agreed to join Sally and Sonic to sabotage Robotnik’s database and infect him with a virus (literally). 

After that Snively disappeared for awhile, going out on his own and not reappearing until after the Sonic Adventure arc. Robotnik’s army recaptured Snively in Sonic #94, and he agreed to go back to working for Robotnik when he was offered the chance to deal with his previously unmentioned daddy issues.

Having gotten that out of his system - and again, I mean that literally, as Snively willingly let himself be robotocised until the Bem intervened and deroboticised him - Snively stayed in his uncle’s employ until the Xorda invasion of the planet in Sonic #124, during which he mysteriously vanished. For awhile it was believed that Snively had been roboticised again, but this turned out to just be a duplicate that Eggman built for… some reason?

He got bored of it pretty quickly though and had the “Silver Snively” project scrapped. The real Snively resurfaced in Sonic #152 though, when Sonic and his “Angels” (ew) were investigating a city made of nanites that had popped up overnight and was rapidly spreading across the land.

Snively had developed some EMP detonators to halt the nanites, and after he explained himself to Sonic he worked with them to try and end the threat. Surprisingly, after this incident he actually joined the Knothole “Brain Trust” and continued his work on nanite experiments with them for a time.

But he soon wondered what he was doing there and felt that it really didn’t suit him that well. So it was no surprise that when Eggman came sniffing around Knothole and offered Snively his old job back that he accepted the offer.

But what was surprising was that this opportunistic, back-stabbing, power-hungry little man actually did have a moment of hesitation, because he was concerned for the well-being of his “step”sister Hope, who had been living in Knothole as a refugee ever since Eggman had roboticised her father and grandmother.

Snively actually caring about anyone other than himself was something that hadn’t really been seen in the series before, but here he was trying to convince her to leave Knothole so that she didn’t get wiped out with everyone else when Eggman attacked, although of course he didn’t tell her that was the reason. After ensuring Hope’s survival Snively returned to the Eggman Empire, and this time he got a spiffy new uniform to go along with his new position.

Snively stayed on the side of evil all the way through the rest of the pre-reboot era of the series, and ended up paying the price for that when he tried to break from the Eggman Empire and begin his own evil regime.

Following the reboot Snively eventually showed up again, now sporting a beard (possibly to prove he could at least grow hair on his face? LOL) and working as a scientist for GUN.

Commander Tower was rightfully suspicious of his motives, as Snively and Eggman had both previously worked for GUN as a step to creating the Eggman Empire and overthrowing King Acorn while trying to prevoke a war between the Kingdom of Acorn and the United Federation. In this timeline Snively left Dr. Eggman’s service much earlier than in pre-reboot. In fact, he returned to GUN right after the events of Sonic and Knuckles, claiming he’d been forced into working for Eggman and that he had in fact been spying on him the entire time and looking for an opportunity to escape.

Commander Tower let him come back to work for them, expecting that he was planning something shifty and that he would try to stab them in the back, but hoping to catch him in the act. Sure enough, Snively did have some sort of evil plan in the works.

Unfortunately the series was cancelled before we got to see exactly what he had cooking.

I would also like to give a brief shoutout to Bean and Bark for this segment. It’s true that they weren’t part of the Eggman Empire, but they did take on jobs for Eggy as mercenaries for hire - in fact, they were working for him for almost the entirety of the post-reboot series. But there were a couple of times where they briefly joined forces with the heroes too. In Sonic #187 Mammoth Mogul put out a bounty on Sonic, and pretty much every scruffy ne'er do well Sonic had ever fought joined forces to try and take him out.

During this battle Sally offered Bean and Bark double whatever they were being paid to take out Sonic if they helped her fight back against the other mercenaries instead. They quickly agreed and started attacking their former allies, but when the mercs managed to capture Sonic Bean and Bark decided to cut their losses and quickly switched sides again, figuring they might as well get paid by someone. Bean and Bark later also briefly joined forces with Blaze, Marine, Amy and Cream in the Sol dimension to take on the dreaded Captain Metal. Having been sent to the Sol dimension during the second Genesis wave that came with the comics’ reboot, Bean and Bark had initially joined forces with Captain Metal.

But after they stole Captain Metal’s Sol Emerald they came into conflict with both his pirate crew and that of Captain Whisker, and so they ended up working with Blaze’s team against their common enemies.

Are there any other instances of henchmen briefly joining forces with the good guys in ArchieSonic that I missed? Let me know in the comments! Next time I’ll be looking at - what is it again? Let me see here… “Random child rescues hero. The episode’s all about him now.” Hmmm, that’s another tricky one. I’ll have to think hard on that one and see what I can come up with.

[dennisboobs]

What needs the most attention on the wiki right now? I'm up for helping, I like having a little project :)

oh boy, uh. pretty much everything, honestly; right now i'm trying to figure out formatting for each type of page, like what section headings should be called and how to format episode recaps and the like. it's hard to explain, because i'm struggling with how to go about it all myself, and the prospect of recapping 15 past seasons per-character as i would typically do on my other wikis is daunting, especially with how disconnected sunny is, you can't really recap a season's plot without going into specifics per-episode, (unless it's like. dennis' arc in season 12 which is pretty consistent throughout with him exploring fatherhood & coming to terms with his childhood trauma which pushes him to take responsibility with his own kid) so i would say main character pages are a priority because that is the most overwhelming part to me right now, but with no template established i don't expect anyone to be able to do that when i can't even manage it myself yet.

i'd say... if you find yourself skimming a page and you catch something that's clearly wrong, biased, or subjecive, a quick edit or just straight up deleting a sentence or two would be super helpful. the sheer amount of text to skim makes it difficult for me to tackle lesser known pages, but if you guys keep an eye out for me it would be a lot easier for me to focus on the big stuff.

an example from frank's page of what to look out for, (and you see this a LOT with the "trivia"/"notes" sections at the bottom of pages

ive colour coded to make it easier:

purple: just straight up unnecessary point. you see this most often on pages where people will use a quote as an excuse to quote slurs or funny lines. this isn't trivia.

orange: a statement that is bound to require updating at some point. listing any occurences of a trope, running gag, etc that can't be easily tracked or requires a shitload of additional context (eg. on mac's page there was a list of every time he was seen wearing shoes other than his s2 combat boots, and it had a bunch of exceptions and required updating when it could easily be fit into an "attire" section instead that just mentions that he is most often seen wearing the same boots & blue dickies) i see this frequently with episode pages as well, where it lists shit like "this is the fourth episode in which the f-word is said". useless trivia and way too much upkeep

green: and here you see the additional qualifiers ("after being established as a main character"). any lists like this are just generally useless, and instead of actually mentioning the episode on a page like this (not in this case, but in the body of the text, trivia can be a little different), it should ideally be written like... an in-universe wikipedia page (with some exceptions ofc). you can cite episodes with the template {{ep}}, like {{ep|5x2}} instead of saying something like "In [[Mac's Banging the Waitress]], Charlie gets really drunk." you can instead say "Charlie gets really drunk."{{ep|4x4}} (which will appear as a superscript [4x4]) here's an example from den's page; instead of saying "In [[The Gang Buys a Roller Rink]]" you just state it like an actual irl wikipedia page.

also trying to update character pages so they use years instead of saying which "season" something happens, it reads way better to say "In 2006, x did y" rather than "In Season 3, x did y".

blue: THEORIES. GET THAT SHIT OUT OF HERE. no one should be drawing any damn conclusions. just state facts and leave the wiki readers to determine how that should be taken.

SO LIKE. if you can keep your eyes peeled and get rid of shit like this, it would be... a huge help. filling out minor recurring character pages with their involvement would be great too, rex's page is pretty light on content, i think bill ponderosa's is too, ive worked a little on both of their pages so i believe they might be a good example but they're still rough.