#he could be the antagonist but i think it's way funnier if he's just another spy and abe's ex

[kayzowl]

merry oofmas briarrrrr, are you sick of me yet >:D @aliosne @oofurixmas

I immediately latched on to your spies/assassins suggestion as well as kikumomo, so in this AU Kikue and Momoe are competent spies both training up their (currently incompetent) protégées. Momoe and Abe don't know yet that Hanai is Kikue's son... it will be a big third act twist, so shhh, keep it a secret.

Izumi and Mizutani make gadgets and do man-in-the-chair stuff for them back at hq, probably overseen by Shiga because otherwise they would get nothing done, ever. (That is mostly a lie, they are both competent, they just also horse around approximately 110% of the time. maybe sakaeguchi and the rest of the team can also be there with various specializations. hamada did not finish the training so he is an information broker on the outside that they use all the time)

They get a mission to investigate a (short, loud, filterless) star athlete after he shows up a bunch around some longtime enemies and they start wondering if he's a target or a recruit or a third worse thing, and his teammate with horrible social anxiety ends up getting caught up in all the drama, as well. :)

[notnights]

So obviously it's still too early to properly analyze the exact relationship dynamic between Jax and Gangle in canon. I promise this is less of me trying to find legitimate proof of any character speculations, and more just a string of very quick, messy personal thoughts on the topic. Context and motivation for their behaviors are likely to be explained in future episodes, and until then there's still quite a lot of uncharted territory left to explore. (Although I will say that both these characters are surprisingly more active and engaging with each other upon rewatch. aka, their willingness to be around one another seems mutual, the bullying is not.)

The only information that we can currently gather about Gangle are her canon appearances, the preview screenshot Glitch posted on the official account and to a lesser extent, Gangle's concept art sketches: Alot of it being about her fixation and dependency towards her comedy mask. We don't know whether she's fixated on the actual sensation being happy 24/7 or just the ability to appear joyful around everybody else just yet, or What her real-world equivalent of the mask was, or even if there ever was a real-world equivalent to begin with. But, Personal indictment is that she does genuinely want long term companionship and meaningful connections with other people. Or at the very least, not be subtly ostracized out of social convention. I think she believes that curating her outward demeanor might change the way others perceive her, and hopefully the way they interact with her as well. It doesn't really help that each of the circus crew are all a bit too much in their own heads to notice, one way or another. Even if they do mean well at the end of the day, it's never quite what she's really looking to accomplish. (It also doesn't help that her digital design is so detached from being human either, she's essentially a flat face on a piece of string. One can't really blame her for trying to make the most of what she's able to display tbh.)

So far, we know Jax is apathetic, violent and generally antagonistic towards everyone in the main cast, sometimes deliberately towards the girls. I think it isn't all that farfetched to believe he latched on to Gangle because she was malleable enough to target without facing most of the consequences. Subsequently, there's also the idea of him relating Gangle's tragedy mask to her willingness to comply: It's an emotional vulnerability for her (She already sees herself as less deserving of human interaction in this state, she won't have anyone else to go to, she doesn't seem to like being left alone). It's not farfetched to assume Jax sees the tragedy mask as a more "complied version" of Gangle, more entertaining and easier to string along. Me thinks he prefers it, but again. It's too soon to tell. Anyways something something designated role in group activities something something internalized self-worth I think Gangle and Ragatha have very similar philosophies when it comes to people pleasing and it almost makes me believe in the theory that they secretly don't get along even more.

(btw plz feel absolutely no pressure to respond to any of this at all - Again, very messy thoughts that I barely had time to collect. Ribbun is an unexpected infection with unfortunately very thought consuming brain fodder to me personally. Have a nice day.

I like these thoughts! It'll be really interesting to see how the Comedy and Tragedy masks work for Gangle.

I do agree Jax probably prefers Tragedy Gangle as even if it's only as deep as "she's funnier like that." And Gangle is the easiest victim for him in that state.

We've seen everyone (but Kinger, who Jax kind of doesn't bother too much, and you could argue it's because Kinger doesn't give an entertaining reaction) fight back against Jax's behavior in some way. Ragatha yells at him, Zooble isn't afraid to get physical, and we can tell Pomni had death on her mind when he threw her off the truck. The most Gangle has done is timidly resist for a few seconds before compiling. Steps on her mask, pushes her, grabs her and puts her in the drivers seat, she doesn't say anything.

She has a couple of bite back words, but then Jax just bites back and it shuts her down. Which is interesting because when Ragatha yells at him it's clear he thinks its funny and merely snarks back at her, often getting her to yell more. He gets different reactions out of everyone in the group and picks different entertainment from that. Gangle might be the one he knows he has proper control over.

As for the Ragatha and Gangle thing, I was really interested in the fact no one cared when Gangle broke her mask in the pilot, not even Ragatha who is our outwardly most caring. You could say it's because she had tunnel vision on Pomni, but I immediately interpreted it as, yeah Gangle's mask breaks all the time, she's crying all the time, eventually people stop caring. The boy who cried wolf, etc etc.

Even if Ragatha doesn't have direct conflict with Gangle, the fact Ragatha is someone who internalizes everything, and projects a positive outlook, I imagine someone like Gangle would make her pretty uncomfortable.

Here Ragatha is trying her darnest to keep it together and remain positive, meanwhile Gangle is crying all the time behind her.

"It's not so bad here Pomni, I promise!" as Gangle cries in the background.

Gangle being a constant reminder of how Ragatha, and maybe all of them really feel about being stuck here. Too early to say if Ragatha resents Gangle for this, or how she really feels about it. But if she does that's so sad because (we also don't know yet) Gangle has no control over these feelings, it wasn't her choice for her avatar to work like this.

Which honestly could be a good allegory for how certain people view mental illness in the real world too. Ragatha being a loved one who's uncomfortable with Gangle's moods, or even believes if Gangle just tried hard enough like her (example: keeping her comedy mask safe) she'd be fine. Ooh sad comic ideas.

[lividria]

i feel like ridley is incredibly important (and funny) as a main antagonist in nintendo's roster because of the dichotomy compared to the other main antagonists of the other series when you think about them

bowser is the ruler of an entire kingdom who actually cares about his subjects, and is madly in love with the princess of the neighboring kingdom but is incredibly misguided in his attempts to marry her which only leads to alienating the two further and making the situation worse, and is never taken seriously because he's not all that bad a guy deep down (and pure evil shows up every other week who he is absolutely nothing when compared to them)

ganon is the result of a spiteful curse on hyrule by an angry demon who wanted nothing more than for the downfall of his enemies, doomed to constantly come back and fail to achieve his evil schemes because he's stuck in an endless cycle of bloodshed and saved worlds, and whenever he's unlucky enough to be a human instead of a boar thing he is the king of a people who have one of the harshest environments possible and has to put up with the hyrule royal family's bullshit and will always fail to do what he believes is best for his people because the prophecy says so

kirby kirby lore gives me a headache so i'm not even going to try and get into the ancients void termina dark matter bullshit

with pikmin, you're up against nature itself

pokemon jumps between insane people attempting to achieve their perception of perfection and destroying/endangering their family, themselves and/or their entire region/world as a result (i didn't realize this described so many of the antagonists until right now, huh), the mafia, satan, and also ghetsis who honestly deserves his own paragraph but i'm lazy

i know nothing about fire emblem & persona but i think they're a big part of the nintendo pantheon too somebody fill this in for me, and i could probably go on with this with smaller series like earthbound but i'm lazy

but then with metroid, there's ridley. there's no long description, there's no underlying complicated motivation or deep fleshed out character, there is just a really angry sadistic purple space dragon who hates you in particular, and continuously comes back just for another attempt at revenge because he fucking despises you and everything you stand for and he will always come back.

which is even funnier considering there are actual metroid villains that fit with the other nintendo villains in that way, like dark samus is the avatar of a lovecraftian horror that takes the form of basically living uranium, mother brain is a rogue AI control freak who betrayed her creators, raven beak's whole "power is everything." shtick and being willing to just doom his entire army to death by X just for his own personal gain, the metroids themselves are bioweapons created to stop the rise of a horrible skinwalker parasite only to turn on their creators and be used for evil by numerous outside forces, but then ridley and i guess the space pirates in general are just really really angry jerks who have a vendetta against the protagonist and there's nothing more to them

and also if i was the main antagonist of a game i'd be ridley so there's that

[taylor-titmouse]

my review: i liked how comedic it was, youre good at comedy. i like sex farce

the dubcon felt a lot more like noncon in this one, kinda like the tower book (autocorrect flat out wont let me try to write the actual title. sigh.) and the threats felt a lot more threatening and the villains a lot more villainous. the bandits are definitely the most antagonist-y antagonists youve written aside from the cult in the risen king and our lovely wizard friend romick. mark and george are especially unpleasant (in an amusing way) and i wonder if you intentionally wrote them to be misogynistic as thats something i picked up on from them. they (sam and vanesse too but to a lesser extent) felt like they were written to be actual threatening sex criminals whose acts are considered sex crimes within the narrative/universe, once again similar to romick. angre definitely did not seem to be having a good time during the sex scenes and neither did vanesse when the goblins got her. now none of this is bad in my opinion, i actually quite enjoyed these aspects. but i do think its something people who are sensitive to that type of thing should be aware of

another thing about the story is how it handled gender and expression and all that. that was my favorite aspect of the book. i also enjoyed the world building. youve got a good eye for fantasy world building thats both fun and makes sense. i think you also do in-universe species-ism/prejudice very well too. id read a book by you thats a field guide to the world youve crafted

this is an interesting takeaway because what you're saying much more accurately describes the first draft, to the point that when i read this ask the first time, i was suddenly paranoid i had somehow uploaded that version. the second, final draft involved taking a lot of that real threat out and making it funnier, and trying to play closer to the space the chique books are in, where getting fucked by whoever catches you is a common, acceptable risk.

like the only sex in the whole thing that you could call non-consensual was vanesse and the goblins, but it's presented as a fair punishment given what she does to angre, and it's not presented as a horrible/violent violation, just an annoyance. it's a villain getting what was coming to her. tonally it's different from what people generally think when it comes to non-con, which is why i group it in with dub-con. if she would consider anyone she defeats on the road fair game, the same must be true of her. that's the nature of the world. she "consents" by playing the game, essentially.

similarly angre knew the risk he was taking and specifically goads vanesse into fucking him, so i don't know where you got the idea he didn't want the sex. he came twice. he was fine.

anyway. the question of whether i wrote georgie and markie to be misogynistic on purpose is really funny. no man it happened by accident in the book about fantasy intersectional misogyny. i didn't think about it at all.

i'm glad you liked it i'm just very "huh." about some of your takeaways lol

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Sideshow Bob

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

For over thirty years now The Simpsons has provided the world with all manner of wacky shenanigans.  And when it comes to cartoons, what better way to cause shenanigans than by having a villain show up to wreak havoc? Most often the villain is the decrepit billionaire Mr. Burns, but sometimes you get a hilarious and memorable one-shot character like the affably evil Hank Scorpio. But in the middle, between being a major member of the cast and being a guest character, there is one man: Sideshow Bob.

The man with the palm tree hair and multiple attempted murders under his belt has cemented himself as one of the most iconic antagonists in television history as he seeks vengeance against Bart Simpson for thwarting his original scheme to get Krusty the clown arrested. With a little over a dozen major appearances across the history of the series and zero successes to his name, he is very much the Wile E. Coyote to Bart’s Roadrunner, and it’s typically as funny as that sounds.

But as we all know, many characters on the show have suffered the curse of flanderization, where key parts of their initial personality are magnified until that’s all they’re about, so named because fellow character Ned Flanders had his religious beliefs cranked up to 11 as time went on. The same could be said about Bob, with his desire to kill Bart overriding any sort of closure he receives at the end of every episode… But does this diminish his quality as a villain?

Motivation/Goals: Fitting for an animated sitcom, Bob’s motivations aren’t the most complex in the world. In his first appearance, he merely wanted to frame Krusty to take over his show and turn it into something more high brow, but after Bart helped thwart his schemes his new goal became to murder Bart, and that’s mainly what he’s stuck with. “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” and “The Day of the Jackanapes” mix things up a bit by having him target Krusty as well, but Bart dying is something that would have inevitably come to fruition if he’d succeeded.

Frankly, this just makes Bob even funnier as a character. This dude has beef with literal fucking children and despite being a genius he literally never wins. He truly is the perfect second banana to a clown, always suffering for the gag while never getting the limelight he feels he deserves.

Performance: Perhaps the single thing that makes Bob stand out is that he has always, in every appearance, been voiced by none other than Kelsey Grammer, AKA Frasier Crane from Cheers and Frasier (Or Beast from X-Men: The Last Stand). I think it’s pretty obvious he kills it as Bob, bringing just the right air of menace and class to have Bob be seen as a legitimate threat while also being able to deliver some great jokes. Also, he gets to sing quite a bit, which is always a treat.

Final Fate: Every single time he appears, Bob is inevitably thwarted and sent to jail, usually worse off than when he started the episode. There are a few unique examples where Bob gets it a bit  worse than usual; “Brother From Another Series” has Bob save the day but then get arrested anyway because Wiggum is a fucking idiot, while “Funeral for a Fiend” features him going completely insane.

Best Episode: It does not matter how much time has passed, “Cape Feare” will always remain the #1 greatest appearance of Sideshow Bob. It has it all: Movie references, musical numbers, murderous plots, and classic gags! And speaking of gags, the episode contains one of the single funniest gags Bob has ever been a part of.

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Coming in at a close second would be “Sideshow Bob Roberts,” where Bob rigs an election. The entire episode really shows just how little conservatives have changed over nearly 30 years; the episode aired on October 9, 1994, and its jabs at the right wing are as timeless as ever. It also helps that the episode is a riot, with tons of good gags. “Krusty Gets Busted,” “Black Widower,” “Brother from Another Series,” “The Day of the Jackanapes,” “The Great Louse Detective,” and “The Bob Next Door”  are all solid entries as well, and feature Bob at his most cunning, though they’re always gonna be in the shadow of “Cape Feare” (and “Sideshow Bob Roberts” to a lesser extent).

Best Quote: It’s gotta be this one, if only for the sheer absurdity of how posh Bob makes catcalling sound:

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Final Thoughts & Score: Previously I compared Bob to fellow animated antagonist Denzel Crocker, in the sense they both became increasingly flanderized and their roles began to make less and less sense as time went on with the show, with Bob’s murderous impulses never going away even when there’s plenty of reason that they should. Both “Brother From Another Series” and “Day of the Jackanapes” give pretty nice end points for Bob’s arc; the former, if they had cut out the mean-spirited ending, would have had Bob redeemed and finally given him a bit of peace, and the latter has him actually reconciling with Krusty (and getting the death penalty). But they continued to bring him back, with “The Great Louse Detective” also giving a great end point for Bob, complete with a musical number! But then he’s back for “The Italian Bob,” the worst of his appearances, which then ties into his next appearance in “Funeral for a Fiend,” which also gives us a nice stopping point. But no, he keeps coming back with the same goals each and every time: Kill Bart (or sometimes Krusty).

But the thing with Bob compared to Crocker is that while the latter shows up a lot in his series to the point he’s a main antagonist, Bob is used extremely sparingly. He has 15 major appearances over the course of The Simpsons run, with one of those being a “Treehouse of Horror” segment and some of those appearances happening several seasons apart. The lack of oversaturation helps make the flanderization sting a bit less; sure, he’s always sliding back into the same old evil routines, but he doesn’t show up enough where it becomes completely stale. Some of his later appearances end up being a bit less impressive than earlier ones, but he’s still enjoyable enough that none of his episodes are downright awful.

A lot of this is thanks to Kelsey Grammer’s voice work. He’s really a perfect fit for this egotistical, classy attempted murderer, and considering Grammer’s a decently big name thanks to Cheers and Frasier, it’s probably not without reason they use him sparingly. Still, I think what ultimately keeps Bob great compared to a lot of other cartoon villains is that he’s just such a ridiculous concept that it’s hard for him to not end up being fun whenever he appears. This is a former sidekick to a TV clown who wants to murder a small child, he has a long-standing rivalry with rakes, and he enjoys singing opera. He has stolen a nuke, stolen someone’s face, rigged an election, and attempted to assassinate a clown by hypnotizing a child and rigging him with explosives. His schemes are wacky, convoluted, and cartoonish, but Grammer’s performance will convince you that these actions are the most brilliant a criminal could conceive of.

Has Bob lost a little bit of luster over the years? Sure. But much like the show he’s part of, writing him off completely because of a few weaker showings is a bit disingenuous. Bob’s a high 9.5/10, leaning a bit more towards the 10, and maybe they’d get there if they could commit to giving him a proper ending. But hey, even if they never do, I’m not gonna complain when I hear Grammer drop a “Hello, Bart” for the fiftieth time right before Bob steps on a rake.

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 101 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: I'm not sure (how poetic for this episode), I think I listened to it randomly on the couch because I wanted to know what happened to Jon

ORSINOV: "Is it… your Elias who listens?" Is this the first time a character has brought up the topic of what the tapes are and/or who is listening? I think so. Jon talks about this with Tim, but that doesn't happen for another few episodes.

ORSINOV: "Oh, don’t worry, it’s not for you. You won’t even need a coffin – we’re going to use every piece of you." JON: [MUFFLED EXCLAMATION] You can totally hear how he says "of me?". As far as I know this "effect" was achieved by Jonny just shoving his fist in his mouth, right? xD

I love the eerie song in the background. Is it the skinless choir? (Okay, because I'm constantly complaining about British locations and their pronounciation, it's only fair to bring this up as well: Who the hell did decide how to pronounce choir???)

ORSINOV: "Oh, of course! So, Elias, can I call you Elias?" It feels like everybody knows about Elias and it's some unspoken law not to openly talk about it because it's so much funnier that way.

ORSINOV: "You know, I must say Elias, can I call you Elias? You have not raised this one very well." This is also a clue. Because "this one" implies there were other Archivists he raised. But Jon's predecessor was Gertrude and she started out in the Archives around 1965 (MAG 4). We know from MAG 49 that Elias only joined the Institute in 1991 and was promoted to Head of the Institute in 1996. He did not "raise" Gertrude. Or should I say, "Elias" did not raise Gertrude.

ORSINOV: "He is rude. And he just will not stop asking questions. Ooh, but now, I can ask the questions! How are you feeling?" JON: [MUFFLED FEELINGS] First of all, muffled feelings is hilarious. Second, the PG-13 version would say "not good", but I think it's "fuck you" XD

ORSINOV: "So, I thought, out with the old, in with… well, in with the you!" JON: [PADDED PANICKY PROSTESTATIONS] You can totally hear he's calling out for Elias.

ORSINOV: "Oh, no, I’m afraid he can’t See you, can you Elias, can I call you Elias? What’s the point of having a secret place of power if you can’t hide it from a big, stupid eye?" Confirmation of what Elias said in MAG 92 to be true. The Stranger is antithetical to the Eye. I Do Not Know You. It's about not-knowing (unknowing, hehe) and hiding. I wonder if Elias was a bit concerned about the development of Jon being with the Circus. I mean he needed a Stranger mark, but maybe Not!Sasha did already count for that? There was nothing he could do to intervene here though.

I hear a last "fuck..." from Jon there after Orsinov leaves.

MICHAEL: "I’ve come to a decision, Archivist. I’m going to kill you." JON: [FRUSTRATED GROAN] I think at this point, after being a month with the Circus and they haven't killed him yet. After Daisy, Mike and Jude. After Not!Sasha, after Prentiss... Jon is actually a bit tired of death threats.

MICHAEL: "Before I do, however, I want you to understand… even if it does go against my nature. So." All of this is against its nature! Giving answers and most of all, putting itself in a clear position. The clear position of the antagonist. That is not how the Spiral works, it takes away what makes you question yourself.

MICHAEL: "Quiet, Archivist. The cramped casket sings loud, but not loud enough to drown out screaming." Ohhh, now I get the rain soundeffect from the beginning of the scene! That is actually sooo clever, I fucking love these little details that make everything work!

So many of these monsters and avatars are out to get revenge. Revenge against Gertrude, who did those things to them. But Gertrude isn't around anymore and they settle for revenge against the Archivist, even if Jon never had anything to do with it. But they don't care. They probably don't even see that. What's the difference between this Archivist and the last one? Archivist is Archivist and will act like an Archivist. Hereditary sin, as Christians call it. The believe that Adam and Eve passed down their sinful nature to all humankind. It's blaming individuals for wrongfulness committed by their ancestors. It's fucking stupid. But, it's something that is deeply embedded in European cultures with Christian backgrounds...

MICHAEL: "Michael Shelley, though, he is easier to keep track of. He was born. He was pointless." And he was 92 years old at every point in canon xD

Zemlya Sannikova, The Land of Sannikov... is a Soviet 1974 adventure film about the fictional Sannikov Land loosely based on the 1924 novel of the same name by Vladimir Obruchev. (yeah, I copied that from Wikipedia)... This is hilarious!

MICHAEL: "Is a thing evil when it simply obeys its own nature? When it embodies its nature?" Oh yeah, gimme more of these philosophical shit, I love it!

MICHAEL: "The mind does not shatter, Archivist. It is soft and malleable. It bends and twists and returns to what it was, though what you see and feel may leave their mark upon it." YES, this is what I'm talking about.

MICHAEL: "And yet it was a map. A map to me. It made no sense, lines overlapping and inverting, but once within, Michael knew which turns to make, which doors to open, which mirrors to shatter." I think this map is less an item of direction as it is an item to stay on the path, to have a clear goal, something to focus on. It could be an artefact to cancel out a specific Fear, like the old syringe in MAG 45 or the camera with the broken lens.

The voice acting of the statement is phenomenal. 

JON: [Defeated] "Okay." T___T 

I love this scene so much. Jon chose to die here. He chose to die and that decision was denied to him. I will bring this up in MAG 121 again^^ 

Don't forget to turn down the volume right after "Oh. Oh no."

HELEN: "I don’t know. I never know, not really." NOT REALLY!

JON: "No, not, not really, but…" NOT REALLY!

@a-mag-a-day

[canonicallysoulmates]

J2 Main Panel Phoenixcon 2022

The very first thing that Jared says is "ladies and gentlemen, look at this handsome fella" I can't with how much he loves his husband ❤️

During the Gold panel there was a fan from Surprise, Arizona and during this one Jared brings it up and that he had just learned about this place so the crowd starts telling them some of the more unique names Arizona locations have like Christmas, Nowhere, Why- the boys are confused but amused 😂

Jensen says they're there to answer all of the fan's questions by which he means probably twelve, and I'm mentioning this because I have done enough of these Main panel posts to tell y'all he is correct. On average the boy's main panel consists of 12 to 14 questions.

You know when you throw something against the wall to see what sticks? That's Jared saying 'why' at random times to see what joke lands (cause they were told there's a place called Why in Arizona) and Jensen says he's gonna keep saying it until he gets everyone to laugh to which Jared says that he swears it gets funnier and Jensen goes "it doesn't. but to him it does!" It's cute but also very husband-ish.

Let's get into the questions, first up: Who would they say is better at rock, paper, scissors? Only one way to find out and that is to actually play the game. The first time they both get rock, the second Jensen gets scissors and Jared paper so Jensen wins. x

How did Jensen feel going from a protagonist in spn to an antagonist in The Boys?

Jensen says "what are you talking about? Soldier Boy was a good guy." He forgets who it was, he thinks it might have been Lee Marvin who was asked once a long time ago why he always played bad guys and his response was "I've never played a bad guy in my life". The antagonist is the hero in their own story which is what Soldier Boy is and Homelander is, they don't see themselves as the bad guy they think they're the good guy. In their mind they're right and everybody else is wrong. So, he just tried to follow that path and make Soldier Boy be like 'of course I'm right' and an unapologetic know-it-all, and doing that was a lot of fun. That people say it's always good playing the bad guy but he thinks the reason you're able to have fun with it is because you're doing what your character thinks is right but you know it's not.

The fan had mentioned that they only watched the show so they could see Jensen's season. Jared said he only watched to see Jensen's butt- sir you are so flirty today!

Anyways, Jensen hopes they enjoyed the show, says he's been a fan long before he got the phone call from Kripke. He thinks it's wildly entertaining but also incredibly smart, and to be able to live 15yrs in a world Kripke created and then go and play in another world that he is owning and operating Jensen will forever answer that call.

Fan also says that they're only watching Big Sky for Jensen, and Jared pats Jensen's arm and tells the fan to keep an eye open for the jacket that Jensen is wearing which is when Jensen reveals that he just walked off set with the jacket on Friday. That the wardrobe department is probably wondering where it went, and we'll see him wearing the jacket in the 11th episode. No thoughts, just these two being husbands. okay, maybe some thoughts cause it's such a little thing but the fact that Jared knows where the jacket comes from and the story, and that it's something Jensen's character wears in a future episode it's kinda domestic like of course he knows where Jensen got his jacket, of course, he knows that his husband just walked off with it, of course, he knows little details. x

What is some advice they would give their younger self?

Jared replies that he thinks everything you do in life has a trade-off, there's no such thing as a win-win. For instance, when he was growing up he was very task-oriented, if he had a goal he was gonna reach it and it's great he loves where he is now and he loves meeting people that are passionate about a project that he is passionate about as well but that meant he skipped a lot of stuff he didn't go to homecoming, had to miss prom cause he was doing debate or drama practice. He's proud of it but everything has a trade-off so he would tell his younger self to try to be present in the moment as much as possible and understand that nothing comes for free which sounds like it's bad but it's actually wonderful. And then as you grow up and get married and have kids those friends who aren't married with children and wanna go to parties and stuff you don't see them as much but you have your spouse and then you have kids and you end up seeing a lot of people who your kids are friends with their parents so everything kind of gets set in a certain direction and it's a wonderful part of life you learn a lot about yourself. But he would tell his high school self, or college aged self, to try to remain present as much as he can but it's difficult.

Jensen shares a story about Jared. The first couple of seasons of spn were a big shock to Jared's system. Jensen had already been working in Van and kind of knew the drill so he adjusted a little quicker than Jared did, Jared had a tough time settling into the fact that this was his life now and he was missing his friends in LA and his family in Texas and went to Jensen emotional several times to open up to him about this 🥺😭

And Jensen thinks if Jared could go back to talk to that version of himself he would tell him what he just told the fan which is you're missing what's outside the window right now because you got your head in your hands. And even though his life never went back to that- something they talk about is how they pressed pause in 2005 in LA with their lives and they never pressed unpause their lives just completely changed. They moved to Van, lived there for 15yrs and it set them on a whole different course.

The road is very long, the journey is very long. Don't sweat the small stuff, and you might just be able to take more in than if you keep your eyes shut. x

While working on spn were they offered any other roles they wish they would have taken?

Jared jokes Soldier Boy, then says that's two different answers and that he's gonna let Jensen answer for himself even though he knows his answer. Yes, he was offered other roles, movies, and bits here and there but no, he's not upset that he didn't accept any of them. When you're shooting a tv show you're pretty much busy from July to April so they're like 'hey there are these young guys on a tv show we'd love them in a movie and there are 4 or 5 shooting during the summer that they'd be great for' and he and Jensen did that between seasons 3 and 4, they had two months off due to the writer's strike so they figured it was kind of like a hiatus so they could go ahead and work in the summer. Great time shooting the film, an awful time going from shooting the movie to Van to shoot for another 9 months, so it helped him understand the value of his time and what his time is worth as well as about his own mental health and being able to wind down before running another marathon. So he doesn't regret passing on any other offers.

Jensen says he doesn’t regret not being able to do anything that was a possibility, he does wish he could have made it happen but he's not sad that it didn't; there was definitely a movie he was in talks about and trading e-mails and calls with the director but he wasn't available at the time so the train stopped there but had he been available he would have had to jump through a lot of hoops. He had a really good shot, and it's a movie he really likes so every time he watches it he thinks how fun it would have been to have been a part of that at this point the crowd asks him what movie it was and I wanna know what would have happened if Jared had said no. Because before Jensen reveals what movie he was talking about he turns towards Jared to see if Jared thinks he should say what movie it was, and it's only after Jared says yeah that he reveals that it was Deadpool. Sir, if your husband had said no would you not have shared the name of the movie?

Anyways, he says it was probably a good thing because his ex-girlfriend was on there so it probably would have been awkward. But it would have been cool. x

Do they listen to any Latin songs that make them wanna get up and dance? Daddy Yankee, Selena, Bad Bunny? The question was in English but it may as well have been French with how confused Jensen is; Jared has listened to Selena cause growing up in San Antonio she was on the radio quite a bit, so he has heard El Chico del Apartamento 512 more times than he can count. Says Daddy Yankee is badass, Luis Fonsi- you know them from Despacito don't you mi amor?

Jensen is still kind of confused and struggling to think of a song, Jared mentions Despacito...Jensen says that's Justin Bieber. *takes a deep breath* Jensen I love you but if you had said that in front of my Puerto Rican ass you would have discovered the power of la chancla. Despacito existed and was a hit before JB's pasty ass was ever put in the remix.

He can't resist cranking up La Bamba when it comes on the radio, he got to work with Lou Diamond Phillips and he thinks he's awesome and did an amazing job in the Ritchie Valens role. Jared mentions Feliz Navidad, and Jensen says that he knows for a fact Jared loves Livin' La Vida Loca. x

They ask the fan if they have any recommendations and she says Daddy Yankee. I somehow can't imagine these men listening to reguetón. But if they ever decide to check out Bad Bunny, I highly encourage watching his music video for his song El Apagón. And actually y'all should go watch that too, I'll even provide a link, put on closed captioning if needed. El Apagón.

Who is their favorite person in the entire cast to work with? Jensen says it would be hard to pick one, that there was a reason the show lasted as long as it did and it's because he was clearly Jared's favorite 😆 Then jokes his favorite was Rob Benedict.

Jared answers that obviously he and Jensen saw so much of each other over 15yrs that if they didn't greatly enjoy working together they wouldn't be there right now but that it was very fun to meet his now wife, and mother of his kids on set. And if she happens to watch a youtube video of this question and he doesn't say her, he's gonna be in deep trouble, sleeping outside at which Jensen goes 'oh, yeah sister Jo'. Do I even have to say it at this point? 🤨

What do they do to keep their friendship close?

Jensen says you're looking at it. Jared jokes avoid each other as much as possible.

Jared says one of the things he has learned now as a 40yr old husband and father who has met a lot of people is that when you're really close to somebody you don't have to call each other every day. His brother who is one of his best friends lives 10 minutes away, they'll go 6 weeks without texting each other but when they see each other it's like no time has passed. He thinks with friends that you go through a lot with you can pick up where you left off. They both have three kids of their own, and Jensen is in a different state currently but when they get the chance to get together and download it's kinda like 'see ya when i see ya'. He knows Jensen has his back and vice versa.

Jensen says when you spend as much time together as they have, you cover a lot of topics and subjects and know where each other stands on just about everything so there are long stretches where they aren't getting face time and it's like 'bro, I have so much to tell you!' And he thinks it will always be like that, it's just easy. And in fact, it's like that with the rest of the cast, they all have lives, and different jobs but when they come together to do cons it's like getting the band back together. Or, he and Jared will just wave at each other at drop-off.

Jared thinks it goes back to what they were saying earlier about being present, he's always felt this way about himself and he sees it with Jensen as well the thing that Jensen mentioned in the Gold panel about how to be an actor when they call action nothing else can exist, you have to be present you can't be thinking about the bill you forgot to pay, you have to be there at the moment and that's how they live their life. So it never feels like ' man, why didn't he call me?' it's like 'oh I know what he would have said if I said hey I have this problem'. So he knows what Jensen would say so when he's with him he doesn't have to talk about dumb shit. They can call each other whenever and they have and will continue but they also know how busy each other is.

Jensen adds this is also something they're very used to, they've lived pretty much their entire adult life being out on the road being away from loved ones, having long distances between a lot of the relationships whether family, friends, girlfriends, spouse. So, it's something that they're very familiar with, it's very normal for them to go long stretches without seeing someone they hold so dear. But at the same time it's like Jared said, right now he's right there; that his wife and kids are at a monster truck rally and he'd love to be there but he's not because he's loving being there at the con. And that's just what it is, they've got no problem with it, he's got no problem with it, that's just their lives, their normal. x

Now y'all know I got thoughts! I find the progression of their answer so interesting, it's like seeing the door turn to glass but being left translucent. They start off by trying to make it sound like they don't see each other that much because they're really busy and they don't feel like they gotta contact each other about the small stuff but on two separate, recent, occasions they indicated differently. When Jared was on the GG podcast he mentioned he had been texting Jensen about an app Jensen knew about that would let Jared stream tv in his trailer. And during an interview, Jensen said he and Jared talk quite a bit and that producing has opened up a whole other part of their lives and given them a whole new set of topics to talk about and spitball with each other. And of course, there's Jensen's mention of the school drop-off, the kids go to school together, both these men have talked about going to parent teacher-meetings.

So they're obviously trying to downplay things. And then! Then Mr. Ackles decides to point out one little thing, and this is when the door turns translucent, he points out that they're used to having to be away from loved ones, and having to go long stretches of time from someone they hold so dear. And when talking about long distances between relationships after mentioning family and friends he pauses and then stumbles to girlfriend and spouse. Interesting he would say girlfriend and spouse instead of just saying wife or just saying spouse, makes one wonder what word his brain was throwing at him when he paused....perhaps one that starts with h and ends with d 🤔

In conclusion/read between the lines translation: they love each other but they know their chosen career means they can't see each other every day, and that's okay they know they each have work responsibilities it sucks but it's also normal for them to have to go through long periods of time apart, and they both accept that. they keep in contact as much as they can with their schedules and when they get the opportunity to be together in person they are 100% present in the moment, enjoying it, and loving it. It's all very healthy, committed, secure, long-term relationship ❤️

Continuing on, what’s the best time of year to go visit Austin? Both boys answer either Fall or Spring. Summer gets really hot, and Winter can be hit or miss. So, October/November or April/May, maybe even March.

I just have to say that Winter in Central Texas is only hit or miss if you don't suffer from pollen allergies because if you do it's a miss. Because they have a bunch of cedar and juniper trees and those little bastards release their pollen in Winter so if you have pollen allergies get ready to not be able to breathe and have your ass kicked by Cedar Fever. Sincerely, someone who had their ass kicked by Cedar Fever. x

Is there a story arc that they were disappointed got cut off?

Jensen says they were actually quite a lot, his top two are Michael, he wishes he could have played that a little longer, and Purgatory.

Jared says he would have liked to see more of Sam as a father but they didn't have a lot of time left in the episode. He had a fun time when Sam is realizing that he has powers and so do others that's something he really liked a lot, he loved playing Gadreel but that's something he got to do for a while, and he too wishes we had seen more Michael.

Then the boys get all confused because Jensen thinks Jared didn't know that he'd be playing Gadreel from the very beginning but Jared tells him he did, but Jensen is still confused and Jared's like "Jared knew, Sam didn't, you did" then he pauses cause he's getting confused too; then Jensen starts wondering if he's mixing up what happened in the show for reality then Jared tells him that what they didn't know was Gadreel/Ezekiel's motivations or why he was an angel on the run but he knew he was playing an angel and so Jensen's like 'maybe that's it'. Then he says he missed his nap 😂

Then Jared starts to say that Tahmoh played Gadreel before he did but a fan tells him it was the other way around that Tahmoh had to watch Jared's reel to play it but Jared remembers Tahmoh on set watching him but Tahmoh always tells the story that he had to base his performance off of what Jared had done. Jared says he'll have to verify cause now he's curious. Then he says that storyline was a lot of fun and starts to say it was s12 and the fan says 9. Jensen is just confused and says he doesn't remember shit, to which Jared says Jensen needs his nap. Jensen starts to joke around that he's grumpy and he's tired- and Jared jumps in to say "and handsome" 😂

If they could do an spn movie what characters would they like to see come back or what story would they like to tell?

Jared says there are so many stories they could tell, and hopefully will, and there are a lot of characters they'd like to see come back. Charlie, Garth, Ash, Alistair- Jensen says he would like to go toe to toe with Alistair again, that he was awesome. x

The next fan brings up the s1 spn commercials and how incestuous they were 💀 They don't actually say they were incestuous what they say is that they look at those commercials now and are like "why is it sexual? isn't it brothers?" The best part about it is the boy's reactions, especially Jensen's, cause they're just nodding and laughing like "yeah 😏"

Anyways, the question is for Jensen and it's basically what are the twins up to cause they're very rarely posted. Jensen says that he and Jared have talked about this since they both have 3 kids- and Jared goes "I didn't do two at once though" to which Jensen replies "listen, I didn't plan it!". He continues, saying, that he was good after one. That they made the perfect one, why risk again, why roll the dice. Then D told him she wanted 4 or 5, and his reaction to that was that she better find someone else to help her there but after a tedious negotiation - his words not mine! - he agreed to one more, just one more that's it and then two came out. Sir, of all the ways you could have worded this. These men have made comments like this before, they haven't really bothered to make it a secret that the last kiddos were not in the original plans but it's been a while since one of them has been so emphatic about it.

It continues, he says the kids will ask him all the time who his favorite is and he tells them JJ but that he's able to get away with saying that because he tells them it's because he's known her longer. That doesn't make it better, buddy. Then, when he says that, Arrow usually goes and draws him something very mean like him falling down a well. But that the twins are amazing, and they've been waiting till they got a little older to put things out but also he has pictures or little videos that he thinks he'd like to share but then the parent part of him is like "don't put too much of your kids out there, reserve some of that stuff for yourself" so he holds off and tries to keep some of those memories his. I'm not gonna say a word.

Jared decides to share that his favorite is O but it's because she's had the least time to piss him off. To which Jensen pitches in that knowing O he's pretty sure she's pissed him off more than the boys combined. Also, O and Zeppelin are in the same class, they (the school) were smart to separate Arrow and O cause the world ends when those two unite. x

If they could have their character sit down with their kids what would they hope Sam and Dean would teach them? Jensen answers mechanics. Cars these days are not really mechanically friendly to people who wanna tinker, they're mostly computers so it's a good thing he does have a 1967 Chevy Impala, he wishes Dean would come and teach him what he's looking at; Jared says all 3 of his kids are starting to learn to read or read better, and he heard a great quote the other day that he loved and had never heard before about the importance of getting kids reading: "at some point in your life you're learning to read from then on you're reading to learn". When everyone was at home stuck during the pandemic he was still traveling it was just in the pages of a book, he was still learning and meeting new people so he'd be like Sammy go put 'em in a library and just teach them how to read better.

Jensen then asks Jared what would he want Dean to teach his kids? Jared jokes and says that he would warn Dean to stay away from O. Then he says that his brother and he have this, Jensen and he have this, Sam and Dean have this and that's the shared loyalty and sacrifice. He starts to say "our boys" then corrects himself to "my boys", yeah I heard that slip, Jared.

Continuing, they're 8 and 10 and go between being best of friends to mortal enemies and he was the same with his brother but growing up, and like someone had asked earlier what they would say to their younger self, to nurture those relationships and friendships, and some people are close with their family and others aren't so close with their blood family but they have found family meanwhile they'll talk to the boys when they get in small arguments and let them know how lucky they are that they have a built-in best friend. Nurture that, go play, go get in trouble together, and have each other's back, and that's something Dean had in spades.

He asks Jensen in turn what would he have Sam teach his kids? Diet. Jensen can't get his kids to eat vegetables. For Halloween, he and Jared did the switch witch so the kids got to pick 10 pieces of candy, two per day, and then the rest of the candy would be left out by the front door and then the next morning there would be some toys. x

Last question! Are Jensen and Steve thinking about going out on tour or doing more concerts? Jensen doesn't know. They are wrapping up the third album they're hoping it'll be out by the end of the year, maybe in January, but he doesn't know if they'll do other shows. They don't currently have any plans to but sometimes after you get one under your belt it's hard to stop there so he's hopeful they'll do more shows. x

J2 Main Panel Phoenixcon 2022

[fatgumsurpremacy-remastered]

Have you watched Emesis Blue? What did you think of it?

(I LOVED IT)

I have! I’ve also written some stuff about it!

Cw: spoilers, obvious dark subject matter

Okay, I wanna talk about the beginning and how well they portrayed true relationship between Jeremy and Fritz. It’s clear they’ve got a mutual trust in one another and it hurts all the more when Fritz finds him dead. I’m still 100% devastated by the ugly ass smile Medic gives in the respawn. That hurts me so bad man. The way they portray Fritz’s mental state decaying is chilling but it sheds him in a light that this was bred from necessity. He clearly cares about Jeremy, there would be no reason for him to go to the slaughterhouse otherwise. And while plagued with these visions he doesn’t want to worry Jeremy with trivial detail.

The setup of all of it was amazing and the amount of Kubrick references absolutely had be absorbed. It’s nice to feel a story flesh out certain properties to something entirely it’s own. The looping sequences sent chills down my spine but my favorite mindfuck were the conaghers.

Zed has to be one of my favorite renditions of Engie because of how they portray him as an active threat rather than passive danger. While he appears cool and sadistic, that coolness is out the window the second he gets a chance to play with someone he deems a threat (ie) Fritz. The moment he said “I’da got you.” and starts giggling showed me just how fucked up he was if he wasn’t already. He’s got a childish ass outlook on this, and him stuck inside a place like Teufort is absolutely NOT GOOD. (Love Teufort but it’s the shittiest map. Also my favorite though.)

Maynards design had me frothing at the mouth, I’m just gonna say that straight up. He didn’t even do nothin outwardly he just kind of went along, which- yeah I guess let your creepy younger brother tourture that poor twink. He really does give off the vibe of a man disconnected, Medics whole bit about strangling him was out of left field but necessity. That scene in particular made me feral.

It showed us what I imagine to be an anomaly in the loop correcting itself, but therefore making the entity more aggressive, the entity in question Fritz. That whole scenes cinematography is brilliant.

Now I get on to my absolute favorite character ever.

Fucking soldier.

Never thought that someone could do such a damn good job emulating Rick may but FUCK did they. The lower, and more stark tone to the character made his wacky lines way funnier: it shows someone who seems incompetent being truly skilled at what they do. Surviving. While his methods are ridiculous it’s his leaps of faith that save him.

With bat out of fucking hell sniper he showed that he doesn’t like to give mercy. He shows a side that would make him antagonistic. But throughout the whole film he shows nothing aside from compassion, even towards the people he barley knows. That elevator scene says it all to me. He has reason to be suspicious but through that he chooses to be kind. It sunk my heart seeing the warfeild scene, it was quiet in a way. It was bleak and chaotic but he seemed perfectly fine to be there for just a moment.

Jane lost… a lot. In this film. He lost his coworker to the pits of an evil fucking loop. He lost a friend in Demo when Demo froze. (That scene broke me btw.) He lost dignity and connection and hope. And afterwards he looked so… dead? He won.

He escaped but what was the cost in the end? The loop continued on. His blank stare shared with medic and the attempt to blow him and the venue itself up over spies inaccurate details really shows his need for the truth. This film helped me out a lot with characterizing Solly in the future he’s honestly a darling.

On the topic of the loop and the way they constructed it holy shit. Those beginning shots were so so affective at building the atmosphere. I thought it’d be found footage till the end but NO, it just set up the mood and shit RAGGH

[izzyisafreak]

what do u want to happen in OFMD season 2? 👀

I have so many thoughts, thank you for asking! Here's a probably incomplete list of things I want to happen:

1) Lucius being alive, literally don't care how or why but bonus points if it's funny, and bonus bonus if he's hiding on the ship and that becomes part of a major plotline

2) Would love to see Izzy slowly come to understand that he really fucked up with Ed, and see him try to fix it

3) a scary Kraken the scariness of which mainly stems from him completely losing any remaining sense of self-preservation, thereby leading the crew into dangerous situations without plans (this is the behavior that really kicks Izzy into gear, lord knows he does not vibe with casual disregard of self-preservation)

Just to ramble about that point for a bit, I can see the Kraken being a scary presence on the ship, especially around the others, but bonus points if they make it clear that he's only putting it on in public (i.e. Ed crying alone last season). He had gotten just a glimpse of being able to have what his mother and the world told him he'd never be able to have, fancy things, Nice Things, and whether Izzy understands it or not, I think the way Ed interpreted their convo was through that lens. What was he thinking, thinking he could have that kind of life. That he could try to be a nicer person. He sees the Kraken in himself and he's terrified of it. But now he has convinced himself it's the only thing he's allowed to be. Honestly i don't think Izzy was intending to do anything more than bring Blackbeard the strategist, the brilliant sailor he admired, back. The Kraken doesn't have self preservation, because deep down, Blackbeard doesnt want to live if he's living that way. So i feel like that's going to get the remaining crew of the Revenge into trouble. and as Izzy said "I'm not dying, not for that ponce and not for you." So I see Izzy coming to realize that this is not what he wanted and coming up with some kind of plan to fix it. This might inherently involve some character redemption for Izzy but i really would love for him to stay a grumpy grumpy bastard at the same time. This brings me to

4) Izzy still an angry little man but we get to see his whole antagonistic vibe used in ways that are actually helpful for everyone else. Would be very fun to see him get along with the rest of them, but in the way where he's reluctantly grumbling the whole time and they're all like 'and this is our angry guy that we've adopted, if you look at us the wrong way, he'll probably kill you 😊'

Back to the Ed situation, to combine my earlier hopes into a hope that relies on 1 and 2

5) Izzy (and like the entire remaining Revenge crew except Ed) discovers Lucius in the walls but only AFTER he's already started to realize he needs to do something to help Ed. Then everyone gets to team up on some crazy plan to like, go get Stede or something idk

6) First Badminton brother style, Ed sees Lucius as a ghost and it's both sad and hilarious. Ghost!Lucius is basically the voice of Ed's inner conscience, letting us as the audience hear Ed's internal conflict without him having to voice it himself.

7) speaking of the Badminton brothers, i want there to be a triplet. Then after Stede somehow accidentally kills him in some ridiculous way, I want there to be another badminton, some other family member, inexplicably played by the same actor but now with no canon explanation. I want this to continue in the same inevitable pattern of them dying and another one showing up (always the same actor) until the end of the show. Endless Badmintons. I think it would be absolutely hilarious

8) Jim gets to have some murder attempts, as a treat, mainly of Blackbeard and Izzy, mostly in the early part of the season. Would love it if Izzy is very very aware of the danger they pose whereas Blackbeard comically somehow doesn't notice every single time (if he did that'd be bad for Jim probably so better for him not to notice, also funnier too)

9) would absolutely love to see Izzy duel someone but like in a context where we're rooting for him and he gets to look deadly competent and very very cool. Bonus points if it helps redeem him in the eyes of Stede and/or the crew

10) a slowburn love story for Izzy, like it would not be resolved or even Near Resolved by the end of season 2. I'm pretty biased toward an eventual Pete/Izzy/Lucius because 1) i think it'd be cute and 2) i would die for actual polyam representation, that would be so cool. But I'd take anything, I just want him to start healing

Though to be clear, I don't want it to be the romance that heals him, that's why I want it to be slowburn. I want him to be an active participant in his own healing, would love to see clear signs that he is Trying. He's still a bastard, but he's a bastard who will sit and watch the talent show without complaining. Would love to see moments where he snaps at someone, starts to walk away, stops and grimaces at himself, turns back and through gritted teeth attempts to rephrase whatever he said in a nicer way. Then the fact that he is trying, is getting better in his own way is what opens him up to have more meaningful relationships with other people in the crew.

11) Lots more backstory for the rest of the crew + Izzy. Whether that be through literal flashbacks or just mentions of what they did/where they came from before the events of the show, I would love to get more info about everyone.

12) would love to see Black Pete go through some kind of development re: his what seems to be compulsive lying or strong need to boast about things and the way he idolizes Blackbeard. I think the latter part is going to fizzle out as soon as he finds out Blackbeard tried to murder Lucius. But it would be interesting if someone (I'm biased toward Izzy lol) just kinda confronted him on it and were like, dude why do you do that? You don't need to try to impress people all the time.

I'd like it to be Izzy because I love Izzy but also because I think he'd be like, if you want people to respect you, then just work on being a fucking great pirate. Learn how to sail, how to swordfight. Fuck, if you agree to take it seriously, I'll teach you. Don't make me regret this. That could be a season 3 plotline for all i care i just think it would be fun and would help them both. I want to see Black Pete become truly competent in his own right, get to the point where he can be like, i did this really cool thing and it was badass, and he really did do it, and people really do believe him.

13) during the early season aftermath when it's still just the few remaining crew on the revenge, I want Frenchie to pull off a really cool con, fuckery style, but in a similar vein to what he did on the rich people ship, and i want it to get them out of a situation where they otherwise could have died, and I want everyone to be very impressed, especially Izzy

can you tell i like Izzy, he's in like 90% of my bullet points lmao

14) i want to find out where in god's name the rest of Blackbeard's crew went and where his ship is, it's so funny that he literally just left his ship somewhere

15) more subtitled Olivia, that bit killed me I would love more of that

16) oluwande and jim. More please, i love them. That is all. But also Jim having to reveal more and more about themselves over time and they hate it but it fills oluwande with glee so they slowly start offering more and more information of their own free will

17) i think the whole point of the end of last season was that stede and Mary would never see each other again but also hear me out it would be hilarious if Mary met Ed, like, the 'the love of your life is BLACKBEARD?!" potential is fantastic also Mary is awesome and i love her and would love to see more of her

18) post reunion, we see everyone eat breakfast lunch or dinner several times and each time the meals get more and more ridiculous and elaborate with no explanation and a grinning Roach in the background. Also more doctor Roach. More Roach in general ("come back! it's just a dream!" absolute top tier comedy, i need more)

19) oh and duh i want stede and ed to reunite, however they decide to do it is fine, a little angst would be fun for sure but definitely a happy ending with a really sweet kiss would be great :)

And given that i have almost 20 points here I'm gonna stop for now lmao if i think of any more big ones maybe I'll add on more! thank you for coming to my ted talk and thank you for asking!!

[mk-wizard]

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.

[book-o-scams]

'Sorry Wrong Ed' Alternate Ending Storyboard Sequence

Check out Al Kang's Ed, Edd n Eddy portfolio!

Al Kang worked on the show during seasons 3-4 and had roles on the storyboard and prop teams apparently. (IMDb says he was credited as Al Choi at the time, but it also says he worked on season 1 episodes, which doesn't line up with the timeline he mentioned.. anyway.)

I discovered his portfolio a few months ago after seeing fandom discussion of the alternate 'Sorry Wrong Ed' ending. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few other treats as well! But yes, I even sorta liked what I learned about 'Sorry Wrong Ed' in the process... (I threw in a little analysis comparing the two endings at the bottom)

I noticed Al seemed to mix up the order on these, so I thought I'd try my best to figure out the right order. This was the most confusing one for me to try and figure out the order of since almost all 8 pages were out of order. I think I finally figured out what's going on in the original ending.

So this alternate ending starts at an unknown point with Eddy flat on the ground, presumably injured, picking himself back up. At this point in the final cut of the episode, Eddy has just been squashed by a tree, but this seems more like a different injury, and he's not even retaining his injuries from the truck scene... The scenes with Jonny and Plank from the final cut of the episode seem to not exist at all here, Jonny and Plank don't appear in this sequence.

Anyway, Eddy picks himself up in the middle of an on-going scene, sees Jimmy drop a coin in a jar for Ed, who has inexplicably turned the cursed phone into a scam on his own. Edd is glaring at the off-screen kids, who have somehow learned about this phone and are excited to kill Eddy with it.

Eddy: "Jimmy! No!"

Jimmy answers the phone: "Hello?"

Ed: "HA HA HA"

Edd: "You people don't seriously believe--"

Then we sync up with gags that did happen in the ending of Sorry Wrong Ed, with context that makes its tone a little more sadistic than random. Jimmy's paid phonecall drops the sandbox on Eddy.

This page has the most skeletal dialogue...

Kev: "Yes." (I think he's meant to be fist pumping because Eddy got hurt, more of a "Yes!")

Jimmy: "BAD LUCK EDDY PHONE." (this dialogue must have been a placeholder)

Edd: "HA HA" (sarcastic ha-ha or did Al mean to write "Ed" for this?)

Jimmy seems to offer the phone to Edd.

We sync up again with Edd's denial from the final cut of this episode, except now it actually makes sense that he's so one-track-minded, because there are people actively arguing with him and keeping him disengaged from the victim.

Edd: "There must be a cargo plane overfilled with playground supplies..."

Sarah interrupts him.

RING RING

Sarah: "Oh, that's for me."

Eddy at this point holds Ed responsible, as he should, and starts running to stop Ed or Sarah. Ed offers no explanation for his betrayal.

Eddy: "Ed! What are you doing!?"

Sarah: "Hello?"

Sarah's paid phonecall summons the hippos, the most random moment in the final cut of the episode. Note how both of these slapstick gags were storyboarded on the same generic background, seems like the lane or an empty lot, but clearly a different location than Eddy's front yard from the aired ending.

And that's all we have to go off of!

I'll put my updated opinions below the cut, but suffice it to say, I like the episode a little better now! Knowing what the ending was going to be and trying to figure out the choices that led to the ending we got, I feel more appreciative that it didn't end up a lost episode or something and less annoyed that it was 11 minutes of one joke.

I know I have a reputation for not finding slapstick funny and disliking this episode, but violence was never my only issue. Lots of episodes have lackluster slapstick that I just let wash over me. My point that never gets as much focus is that this episode never felt FINISHED to begin with. It's just a slapstick vacuum with no ending and no point, and it used to be frustrating to me not knowing for sure if my hunch was right or not that it felt like the episode just wasn't working and they had to cobble it together from the scenes that almost worked.

I am surprised to say I like the episode more now that I know that is pretty close to the truth. Judging from this peek into the episode's development, this episode seems to have reached Danny Antonucci's and/or Wootie's (the episode's lead board artist) limit for being mean-spirited with the characters without a reason. I'll still probably avoid rewatching it, but knowing the episode has no ending specifically because it's been trimmed to bare bones is somehow reassuring.

The most obvious flaw to this original ending is the lack of motivation for Ed's or the kids' actions. The kids presumably still weren't in the rest of the episode, so there's really no reason for them to be here other than reiterating the same idea from 'Your Ed Here' and 'The Good Ole Ed' that the neighborhood kids are always looking for a reason to gang up on Eddy, something that isn't really true of those characters in earlier seasons.

I think I can imagine how, on paper (in the writers' outline), this episode sounded funnier. Trying to imagine this ending as part of the whole episode, I think the script's idea of the final joke is that Ed is not satisfied with ending the tests at the point where they tried to return the phone to Rolf. I think Ed converts the curse-testing process to a scam at that point, building off of how Ed already wasn't processing Eddy's safety in anything so far, and is probably more focused on proving to Edd that curses are real (as Ed was previously in league with Evil Tim). The addition of Ed running his own tests and the kids arguing Eddy's point against Edd's while Eddy's busy, does sound more like a complete manic cartoon boiling point than the way the finished episode just petered out with Edd as the sole antagonist. But unfortunately, in visual execution, suddenly piling in so many aggressive characters and so much random violence at once, would only really result in it petering out at a higher volume.

Meanwhile Edd's characterization is made much more structurally sound in the original ending. He's annoyed FOR Eddy's sake, and the only reason he's not actively helping Eddy is because like 3 other characters were supposed to be arguing with him while this was happening. It seems extremely apparent to me that the cuts made to this ending were for the sake of mitigating Ed's reputation in the fandom, as well as the kids', and I think it's really unfortunate that Edd's characterization was the cost for salvaging everyone else's. I'm glad I already considered his behavior in 'Sorry Wrong Ed' non-canon, because now it feels like the reason the aired ending is so out-of-character is just because Edd is basically arguing with the ghost of the original scene. I formally forgive 'Sorry Wrong Ed'. Production turnarounds are tough and AKA did their best to not turn this into another forgotten 'Special Ed' episode that simply wasn't working.

I think ditching the original ending was ultimately the right call. It was not an exemplary episode, but I can admit it's less out of place to have a pure "vacuum of violence" story than it would've been to essentially give the kids a supernatural revenge plot like this. That would've been really weird to have to accept-- Eddy definitely wouldn't want to be friends with anyone at the end of the movie if THIS was their past. Changing it to an unaware Jonny and a questionably aware Plank being responsible, indeed, was a vibe that landed much more like standard EEnE fare. It was weird enough that the kids all saw Santa in JJJ, can you imagine if they all knew curses were real AND participated in attacking a neighbor with one??

If there was a silver lining for me the first time I saw this episode, it was that none of the kids were directly involved in Eddy's suffering. It made the questionable reality of the cursed device slightly more acceptable that only the Eds and Rolf know about the curse. If this ending had happened, I would've reacted the same, but I would've rejected its continuity even more than I do now, because it would just feel like they animated one of the DC Comics (where the kids can blow the Eds up with fireworks at the end or the Eds can randomly be crushed under an avalanche of anvils)-- the art could end up gorgeous but the characterizations don't exactly land as real human beings, the balance this show strives for typically.

And I think that's all I wanted to say! In the end, I found myself liking 'Sorry Wrong Ed' slightly more than I used to, all thanks to this glimpse into how the animation production system morphs the outcome of a cartoon. Thanks so much to Al Kang, for sharing your art and this insight into the industry! I don't know whether he did both the gesture drawings and the revised art, but judging from his other boards I think the cleaned up art is his, and I liked seeing the poses that almost were!

[lizacstuff]

Edser/SCK anon asks (36 spec)

I accidentally deleted an ask that was interesting, if you don’t see yours here, resend it!

(Asks below the cut)

Anonymous said: Do you think that scene of Eda confronting Selin about it is the end of the episode? I'm so drained, Liza. When will this suffering end?

Oh honey, we have SUFFERED. We have. No doubt about it, but I’ll talk more about that in a minute. (We can overcome) 

First the fragman, could it be the end of the episode? I suppose so. It’s no fun thinking that it might be the cliffhanger and we have to live with that for 11 days instead of 4, but here’s the interesting thing, according to people who look closely at these things, the outfit Eda was wearing when confronting Selin, Hande was wearing that today while filming at Art Life. We also know that at Art Life the set was dressed for some sort of party or event. An event that had the word ‘love’ on the table. So which comes first? The confrontation with Selin or the Art Life scenes that do not include Deniz or Selin?? I don’t know.  The other wild card factor is Bige’s availability. I’m sure most people have heard by now that, sadly, her father passed away this week. This show does not work on a timeline where they can wait.  So they might have had to write her out of a few scenes already in this episode, and it’s unknown what her availability will be for next episode. That could end up changing things a bit, so we’ll see.  Maybe there will be a second fragman that gives us more context.

Now back to feeling drained by this storyline. I get you. I feel you. But here’s how you shake if off. Boil it down for yourself. Why do you continue to watch this show? I’m going to guess it’s for the same reason I continue to watch this show.  Edser. Eda and Serkan are still magic together in every single scene, and Hande and Kerem’s chemistry can turn even the most turgid, ill-advised story or scene into gold. They are worth watching whether they are looking into each other’s eyes or reading the phone book.  

So... my advice is to emotionally distance yourself from the plot. The plot is just the device to keep these two actors on screen together playing these two characters. And that sentence is truer for this show than for any other show I’ve ever watched (and I’ve watched A LOT of shows.) It’s all about these two characters and these two actors. So ultimately the plot doesn’t matter. Let the plot go. There is nothing to worry about, Edser is endgame, Edser is the reason this show exists, they are all the matters on this show. So knowing that, just enjoy their individual scenes, appreciate them for what they are and don’t tie yourself into knots over the nonsense these hack writers throw at us. It will all be fine in the end. 

Anonymous said: I kinda find it funny that what Erdem suggested turned out to be the way Serkan got his memory back. It was a scene fit for a romcom. Obviously it wasn't how I pictured him to remember but at this point I'll take it. Lol! Erdem should be a fortune teller or something!

You’re right. Erdem was on the right track. It would have been funnier if Erdem had hit him to get his memory back and once it worked, then Engin could have held Serkan down, while Erdem continued to bonk him in the head to bring back more memories.

Anonymous said: i totally feel the mixed feelings with the fragman, but it seems like its an ep with great edser moments where they're together and trying to solve this problem, at the same time they just couldn't keep the drama out of the fragman this time?! at a time where everyone is relieved and positive for the first time in weeks?! just seems like a bad move by the production imo and i'm not even that concerned with the plot like others are. another anon said this, but there is def selin fatigue

Selin fatigue is real!!!! But to be honest I was in Selin fatigue by ep 29. And it’s just gotten worse episode by episode. (though we had a bit of a reprieve from her in 34-35) but the fragman brought the fatigue back with a vengeance. The producer has tweeted before about how the show has to have drama, so, I guess that’s where we are. Drama. They think this is what sells, I guess?

They produce those fragman’s with the Fox viewer in Turkey in mind. So perhaps that’s the kind of tease that works well there? I have no idea. Honestly, I think they’re not worried about online fans and international fans because they know we’re so invested that we won’t give up. 

Anonymous said: Normally i would also calm down with the pregnancy thing, it’s probably selin’s last desperate attempt at keeping serkan BUT you know why it scares me? Because they’ll probably introduce the “Kemal is Serkan’s biological father” storyline and I hope that it’s not correlated to selin’s fake pregnancy...like, Serkan would never leave Eda but this Kemal thing will probably remind him how he never had a real father growing up so i hope this doesn’t push him to be by Selin’s side. However, it’s also true that I really don’t think that he and Selin had s*x so I also don’t think they can follow this path. I’m so confused I think we just need to wait and see haha

Yes, we need to wait and see. I see no reason to go down this speculation path unless we’re forced to, because it seems very unlikely to me. Clear it from your mind, and then, if the worst happens, we’ll deal with it then, not now. 

Anonymous said: Idk if u follow sck news on twitter but they posted pics/vids from set today in the office and it looks like a party with food and a sign that says “better together”. Someone commented a theory that serkan will orchestrate a surprise engagement party for eda while she talks to Selin and the ep will end with her turning down the proposal bc Selin is “pregnant” and then we have to wait for the next ep for serkan to tell her it’s not possible 🤡🤡 what do u think?

Yep, I follow sck news, who doesn’t? ;) I think this speculation is plausible, and as long as she’s upfront with Serkan about why and Serkan is able to shut it down immediately next ep, then I can live with this as a cliffhanger. 

Anonymous said: Part 1. You mentioned in a previous ask how Engin didn't tell Eda that Serkan remembered everything when he made it in time for the wedding. Honestly his lack of action was not surprising, upsetting or disappointing. That's just who Engin is. He's a talker, not a doer. Engin is Serkan's friend similar to how Ceren and Fifi are Eda's friends (I'm talking pre amnesia plot). They care about their friend's happiness. Engin has always talked reason to Serkan especially about his feelings for Eda.

Part 2. But Engin's reason for doing that is Serkan's happiness. Of course he wants Eda's happiness but mostly only because it's tied to Serkan's happiness. He has stood up for Eda before like when Serkan accused her of working with Kaan or when he said she deserves to know the truth about her parents death, but whatever Serkan says goes. He never acts in opposition to him. So if Serkan says he won't stop the wedding, Engin isn't going to do anything despite believing Eda should know the truth.

Here’s the problem with this, it’s not just him not caring about Eda. It’s him not caring about Serkan. He should have done it for Serkan, knowing that Serkan would regret his inaction the rest of his life.  It costs him nothing to tell Eda at that moment and let her make the decision. 

That’s one of my biggest problems with this cockamamie plot. From the first Fragman of 29, I said it was impossible that Selin could have hidden him away and rekindled her relationship with him because the other character wouldn’t allow it. Oh but they did. This storyline ruined pretty much every single supporting character, (outside of Melo) because otherwise, if they would have acted in-character or even like normal humans, it never would have worked. And that continued all the way up to this stupid fake/real wedding.  Writers... if you have to ruin every supporting character to bend and twist and make it so your antagonist isn’t immediately jailed or carted away to a mental hospital, that is a sign that it doesn’t work and you need to go back to the drawing board. 

Anonymous said: I have to say, they really do well with the casting on SCK. Especially when they want actors who look like they are related. Eda and her grandmother looked like they were related. It was great casting. Now Serkan and the new character look like they could be related. They have similar features. If the point is for us to speculate that they are father and son, I think they did a good job.

Yes, they really do. I’ve also always thought that Neslihan looks like she could be Kerem’s mother, they have the same coloring. Evrim looks like she could be related to Hande.  They have done a great job with that. 

Anonymous said: That fragman for ep 36...part of me wants to hope that it will all be solved pretty soon, since we got edser separated for so long we deserved them together now. But part of me also knows these writers suck so I’m expecting the worst. I just wanted edser together again 😭

You and me both, babe.  You and me both. 

In the meantime, lets remember to enjoy this show while it lasts. And if we can’t enjoy the plot, as I said above, let’s think about the things we can enjoy.  So if in this episode there are a dozen great Edser scenes and then one that rips out our hearts... let’s concentrate on the dozen, okay? The one that rips out our hearts will resolve itself soon enough. 

[shadowofthelamp]

The cape thing is true, and also the reason why Dib’s big head jokes were made. I think it was called “Save the Dib” or something similar and they tried to make his design more interesting because he was considered annoying or a bully by most of the audience

God save the Dib, yep! Lemme just... here we go. Might have to open in another tab because the text is kind of light. More analysis under the cut.

The execs didn’t like Dib because... well, I love him dearly, but in the first dozen or so episodes he’s a sadistic little weirdo who often started shit and enjoyed seeing Zim in pain, which is a bit of a hard sell when the character is the human child stopping an alien invader who obviously should be the bad guy! The human trying to stop that should be the good guy! Right? Meanwhile, the closest comparisons I can think of on another kid’s cartoon show (as main characters, anyway) are Mr. Crocker from Fairly Oddparents, or later, a weirder and more antisocial version of Candace from Phineas and Ferb, both intent on stopping the protagonist's fun.

He had to play center stage with Zim, who’s outrageously over the top, and so he had to be a credible threat to him with a strong enough personality to not get steamrollered. Nick probably felt like he was too unlikeable and not funny enough- Zim loves causing humans pain, sure, but he’s way more bombastic and amusing about it, with a funnier voice to boot. They kind of switch off being dueteragonists instead of having a ‘true’ protagonist and a ‘true’ antagonist. It basically depends on the episode- you’re supposed to be on Dib’s side in Battle Dib, for instance, but cheer when he gets his comeuppance for being a straight-up sadist in The Wettening. 

As the memo says, ‘Dib’s becoming a whiny bitch’- the balance of ‘snappy and anti-social but still likeable’ is hard to hit, and to pump Zim up, it seems like some of the staff weren’t doing enough with Dib’s character and reducing him to something more one-dimensional. (I can personally attest from fic that every single main character is haaaaard to write from this show. They all have pretty complex inner motivations/interesting speech patterns.) He wasn’t funny enough, and episodes starring him couldn’t get approved because of that.

I assume this is part of the reason why Dib’s feelings towards Zim in particular shifted fairly drastically- early Dib is still completely fired up about being able to DESTROY THE ALIEN MENACE AND PROVE EVERYONE ELSE WRONG, end-of-series Dib was more resigned to the fact that no one was probably ever really going to listen, so he’d thwart schemes as they came but didn’t purposefully stir anything up. It’s a little less... abrasive, for lack of a better word, but his own sense of duty kept him from just checking out entirely so he had a reason to be there for the plot while they could dial his personality back a bit. Middle-series Dib kinda depended on the needs of the particular episode. It’s understandable character development (Zim doesn’t destroy the Earth for a year straight, Dib realizes maybe Zim’s just kind of incompetent) but definitely was part of this initiative too.

Anyway, yeah, the ‘big head’ jokes 100% came from this, according to this chart his head actually should be BIGGER than his body, even without the hair spike. They wanted him to look silly because the show is supposed to be, at heart, a comedy about a pair of similar genius outcasts being idiots and fumbling around doing dumb things for attention they’ll never get. 

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Any advice for writing comedy (specifically the "style," for lack of a better word, of comedy Epithet Erased does)?

Ooh! Yes! A warning, though: comedy tends to be less funny when it’s explained. So if you’re a passive enjoyer and don’t want some of the fun ruined for you, go ahead and skip this question!

For anon, though, here are some tips on the EE comedy style!

Comedy is usually better if you have a knack for it, but you certainly can break it down into different types and components. The EE style of comedy is very reliant on exaggeration, trope subversion, and multi-punch humor. (I’m sure there are probably official names for these, but I don’t study comedy professionally!)

Exaggeration is the sort of “baseline” humor of EE— EVERYTHING is exaggerated. It’s what makes the world so colorful and fun. Most characters are extreme versions of their personality— think Giovanni or Percy— with very few “straight man” characters to play off of them (Molly or Ramsey). Whatever adjectives are used to describe these characters, they are that adjective ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. This also means that their gimmicks are incredibly important— they don’t even feel like gimmicks so much as a core part of a character’s personality! For example, Howie’s obsession with work. Basically, if someone does something, they do it 120%.

Trope subversion is pretty prevalent in EE, too. Giovanni is the BAD GUY... but he’s also the dorky mom friend who ends up as the main character’s mentor figure (not an antagonist) and teaches her the life lesson of the first arc. Mera is the COOL SECRET FINAL BOSS... but she’s terrible at quippy one-liners and gets flustered easily! Those are traits aren’t usually attributed to those archetypes, which is what makes them fun and funny.

Multi-punch humor is what I’m calling Jello and co.’s improv style, which is “being VERY good at building up on each other’s jokes.” A lot of that improv comedy style translated over from Anime Campaign into EE! If you’ve ever heard of a “one-two punch” in comedy, it’s when a joke has one punchline which is funny, but immediately afterwards there’s ANOTHER punchline that’s FUNNIER. EE does that but on steroids. Almost anytime one character makes a joke, even just a slightly funny one, another character adds to it, and they keep going pretty much until they run out of characters. I’ll give an example of this from NSBH, since it has a scene that I feel demonstrates this concept very clearly and I want more EE fans to watch NSBH:

(Dawn, Quiggly, and Clover are at a bar.)

Bartender: What sounds good?

Dawn: *Cough* Mhm! Uhh! ... Quiggly, you first! (Setting up a potential joke for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: Hm. What do you have in the way of mixed lemonades? Any sort of... exotic berries? Anything that’s not just yellow. (Knocking down the joke by calling back to the character’s gimmick— a love of lemonade.)

Bartender: Uh, we’ve got a— you talkin’ alcoholic? (Setting up the joke for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: HAH! NO! (Knocking down the joke.) Why would I dump POISON in my LEMONADE? I’m no fool!

Bartender: Uhh, well, I guess we just got a shipment of raspberries. So I could probably whip you up somethin’ fruity in your lemon drink?

Quiggly: Mhm, mhm. Do you have any mint? Just like— a mint leaf. Just one. Just a sprig. (Building on the joke.)

Bartender: I mean we’s got some mint growin’ out back, they’s like weeds. (Setting up for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: Yeah, that sounds good. Just gimme like, two sprigs of that and a raspberry lemonade.

Bartender: ...consider it done.

Quiggly, to Dawn: See, that’s how you know it’s going to be a quality drink— when they say they’re going to put some weeds in it. (Knocking down the joke.)

Dawn: [Dawn’s smirking and has her hands folded, kinda leans in for a second.] I’ll take a WATER! (Building on the “non-alcoholic drinks” joke.) ...ON THE ROCKS! (Building on the joke again by using a phrase normally reserved for alcoholic drinks.)

Bartender: Water... with... ice. Right. O-okay. Do you want... any alcohol, or...? (Setting up the joke for Dawn.)

Dawn: NO! (Knocking down the joke.) [Her eyes flash for a second.] But I WILL take one of those weeds stuck in the side of the glass! It’s time to CELEBRATE! (Building on it and knocking it down again by calling back to Quiggly’s punchline.)

...And that’s just the BEGINNING of that scene. It goes on for basically the REST of that episode. The point is, the characters can keep building off of each other for a REALLY long time.

There’s a lot more I can talk about because comedy is such a broad subject (even in EE), but this post is getting pretty long already, so I’ll cut it off there for now! Maybe if someone wants it, I’ll make a part two to this guide.

[wackology]

Dumb HBCU/WR movie ramblings

Ok so I've been thinking a bit about the HBCU and a potential Wacky Races movie in development a bit and I got a lot of shit to say about this so buckle your seatbelts and hold on to your hats as you witness my incoherent ramblings and fanon headcanons.

So it pretty much agreed upon that any next installment of the HBCU is gonna take a while to come out considering how WB has put the HBCU in standstill for their dr seuss cinematic universe and liveaction-animation hyprid movies. Hell even the director of Scoob said that. The possibility of us getting another cinematic HB film in the next 5 years are close to none but if we were to get a movie it would probably be wacky races themed. Why? Cuz the Scoob film left off with Dick escaping prison with the wacky races on his mind (or in this case, his prison cell) and it would make sense for WB to continue the HBCU (which they probs don't plan to) with a character we are pretty familiar with and the only likable character in Scoob. Which begs the question, where would the plot go narrative wise?

Dick probably won't be the main character of the story but I can practically guarantee it will be Penelope Pitstop. I mean they already got concept art and i think they have models too that were unused and the people on scoob said they didn't add her to the film because they planned for her to be part of something bigger. Basically, I bet my left arm that the protag will be penny because apart from dick and muttley, she was the most memorable character of the show. We must also consider how they would tie up other hanna barbera characters and properties into a WR film thats part of an HBCU installment.

So basically, with this in mind I have created a few theoretical plots/premises that might happen in a WR movie

1. A Hooded Claw driven girl power film

Claw is an og and classic antagonist for penny, and if they really wanted to make a film centered on her the hooded claw is the perfect character to play the bad guy. I feel like the plot would go a bit like this: In order to kill penny and get her inheritance, Claw sponsored/set up the wacky races to kill penelope under the guise that good ol uncle sylvester was supporting Penny's girl power dreams to be a racer. Basically, he acts all supportive and shit for her to chase her dreams and enter this new race but under the mask actually set the whole thing up as an elaborate plan to kill her.

He lets the most deranged, insane and wacky people enter the race, from a gangster mob, to literal monsters to a pilot racer and a military tank duo with guns and canons thinking that Penny's survival chances in this race will be close to none, especially with it being a sausage fest and him not believing  in girl power. He even hires a professional mercenary with an evil dog to help kill penny in the WR (yes, dick, and yes he was sucessful at killing the pigeon in the scoobverse so he is actually considered quite the exceptional and competent villian in universe).

The rest of the film would be her racing and doing good despite all the odds and ends at her winning the grand finale, much to the frustration of Claw.Basically a film of empowerment for young girls to enjoy. This plot would probably be the most faithful to the original WR and most likely be a prequel to Scoob since the movie implies that Dick was doing all the skull shit after the wacky races sooo yeah.

There could also be a peter/penny subplot, perhaps not as romantic interests but as platonic friends or just some flirty exchanges between them, as well as a dick subplot with him not liking to race much at first and doing it for just the money but coming to love it as the film progresses. This plot would also probably be the least HBCU type film since it is mostly WR based and by nature would already have a ton of characters but they might try to replace some of the less memorable characters with other HB characters that are a bit more memorable than the boring racers but not as well known to have their own films (could see the country bears replace luke and blubber bear as well as any other character replace the lumberjack guy).

2. The Great Race inspired film

So we kinda get the idea in scoob that dick hasn't been in the Wacky races for a while after muttley disappeared and all the skull business happened but as we all know, dick was the character who made the races actually interesting. So the execs couldnt just have the wacky races without dick so what did they do ? They got a doppleganger of course, that being this boyyyy

Basically, the Wacky Races executives used Dick's way less famous twin brother  the Dread Baron and his dog friend Mumbly to fill in for the two once they realized Dick wasn't going to come back after prison. They were wrong of course but dick doesnt know he's been replaced and escapes thinking he was going to join the races again but when he does find out it bruises his ego a lot.

This idea technically serves better as a subplot and could be woven into the hooded claw story above if we just changed a few elements( make it happen after scoob instead of before, perhaps DB and Mumbly were hired by claw to kill penny and dick has to begrudgingly help penny and peter to get his place back in wacky races). After plot stuff happens it ends with dick being in the WR again and DB finding employment elsewhere in the Laffalympics which can easily tie into the established HBCU since it has the yogi gang, mystery gang, captain caveman and the teen angels gang and blue falcon and dynomutt.

Does this theoretical plot draw a lot from my personal desire to see DB just once. Yes. But do i care. No

3. The super HBCU plot(probs the most likely)

So the end credits basically tell us that after the scoob movie that the mystery gang and other HB characters joined the falcon force and are fighting baddies and crap.

Dick has escaped so they will probably start looking for him and in order to do so they get tangled up in the wacky races. Dick isnt the main antagonist tho( he's either trying to sabotage the other wacky racers because he is salty af or begrudgingly has to help out the heros or main antagonist) but the falcon/scooby gang discover a huge conspiracy happening within the wacky races that goes something like this: this race was set up kind of like a scavenger hunt across the world or the US to find mcguffins that are actually really powerful and crap when assembled, which is what the villain was trying to do because evil reasons. Basically wacky raceland done funnier or just Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run.

In this premise not only would the og wacky racers and scoob cast be in it but i bet there would also be a bunch of cameos and references to other HB characters and they might even join in on the action and be racers too. I have no real clue on who the main baddie would be but I think it would be a johnny quest bad guy or something:( in the end credits they are teaming up with Quest industries after all).

I feel like the entire vibe of a premise like this would be very mad max like but without all the apocalypse stuff and just pure unrefined insanity. I kinda based these ideas off some of the unused concept art in scoob and I'm pretty sure the gang and the falcon force would team up with penny cuz they were planning to do so in the og concept art.

I have a few other ideas in my head but those arent fully developed but I might post them one day lol. But yeah, thanks for listening to my dumb shit lol

[sometimesrosy]

who is/was your favorite “villain” on the 100?

You know what? That question is too hard. Because there have been some great villains, and then sometimes those villains don’t STAY a villain, and what makes them great might have been what makes them great non-villains. So in order to answer that appropriately, I’m gonna have to go by season. 

Season 1-- Bellamy Blake. He most definitely WAS a villain. He was the main villain on the ground for the first half of the season. And the same qualities that made him the best villain made it so Clarke could bring him to her side. Setting up the essential dynamic of learning to understand your enemy as your own shadow, making peace with them, and in so doing, becoming a whole and healthy individual. He’s not the enemy anymore, but that yin yang push and pull gave season 1 it’s energy.

Season 2--Lxa. Wow I never thought I’d say that. But I am. For much the same reasons as Bellamy. The enemy shadow within yourself thing. She might not have stayed a villain (although I maintained she was Clarke’s love interest/antagonist through s3 because she was an obstacle to her getting the peace and unity that she wanted,) but she started one. She’s the reason the grounders attacked the delinquents. She was ready to annihilate them at any moment. Revealing that the water girl was the heda was SUPER bad ass and great female empowerment. I don’t personally like Lxa as a character, but as the villain/antagonist of s2, that’s some good stuff. And tbh, the alliances she made with Clarke, the FRIENDSHIP, the ROMANCE are part of what made her a good villain. Because we thought something good could come of it and then. OMG THE WORST BETRAYAL OF THE WHOLE DAMN SHOW AND THE TRAUMATIC EVENT THAT SET CLARKE UP FOR NEAR DESTRUCTION. Maybe I can say this now because she came back in season 5 and apologized, admitted she was wrong and said that love wasn’t an enemy, thereby allowing Clarke to process and heal from that trauma. hmm. 

Oh wow. Wait a minute. There’s a correlation between Clarke’s shadow being Bellamy in season 1 and her shadow being Lxa in season 2 and 3. [symbolism and deep analysis coming up you may want to look away until s3 villain also yes, it subordinates CL in the story to BC, tough noogies. CL is subordinate in the story to BC.] Okay. The same dynamic is set up with BC and with CL with Clarke attempting to win L to her side with the same techniques as she did B. It didn’t work. L refused to partner or give up her power or honor her agreements, leading to that terrible trauma of betrayal, genocide and horror, which she ran away from and was dragged back kicking and screaming to face. I think they used the Clarke’s shadow story of CL to actually deepen the connection between Clarke and Bellamy. They couldn’t have had him betray her that badly and have it come back to be something like a healthy true love relationship. But I think they needed Clarke to sink to the dark side while letting Bellamy rise from his dark side, in order to create the symbolic balance that has them spinning around each other... like binary stars, right? She needed the pain from love but he couldn’t be the one to give it to her. Therefore they brought in another love story to punch Clarke in the heart. Very cruel. Very hard. Intensifies everything. Wow I don’t know if I could do that to my characters. But it was effective. In the long run. Even bringing her back for that resolution after 6 years of healing. (all of this is really about a way to tell a story and make it deeper and more difficult without harming the essential romance irredeemably. Use a mirror of the relationship that plays out some of the possibly harmful elements. Make that relate subconsciously, but not really. you guys can all ignore it. it’s not really about villains. although i like it because you get the enemies to lovers thing but the harmful parts are shifted into the secondary relationship.)

Season 3-- PIKE. I LOVE PIKE. LOVE. I get Pike. Pike is a teacher and he will do ANYTHING to protect his kids. And he was a really good leader and managed to keep Farm Station alive despite being hunted across the mid atlantic. Hey. This also follows the shadow villain theory, because Pike is BELLAMY’S shadow. He is who Bellamy could have become without the balancing element of Clarke. He is a good man at heart who has demonized “the other” in order to protect his own. (This is also what Lxa did, btw. Although she did make alliances when it was in her benefit.) He would not have become as violent as he did if he hadn’t been attacked, but in reaction he became a xenophobe. I mean, I can’t say this isn’t a reaction to the trauma that he experienced. Being hunted by Azgeda. I do think that he could have changed if he’d lived. He was already cooperating with Indra, and while he’s biased and bigoted against grounders, he was not blind. He recognized, I think, that he was wrong and there was room for him to learn. Alas, Octavia took care of that. Also, other than Bellamy and Clarke, he’s tops on my own “hot” list. I know he’s too old for all y’all, but not for me. :)

Season 4-- The real villain is Praimfaya, so I’m gonna pick Roan as my favorite villain. Is he a villain? Is he an ally? No one ever knows. One minute he’s working with them, the next minute he’s capturing someone. One minute he’s making deals with them, the next minute he’s putting roadblocks down in front of them. One minute he’s refusing to be allies, the next minute he’s allying. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MIND. If he weren’t raised in Azgeda under Nia, with all that politicking and power plays he might have been a good guy, but he can’t help wanting to replicate the domination of his mother. Too bad because he’s funny and insightful and sarcastic and I think he really LIKES Clarke and Bellamy.

Season 5-- TOUGH TO DECIDE. Is my favorite the awful truly awful Octavia who mucks everything up because she’s gone to the darkside. Or is my favorite the awesome Diyoza who is no longer a villain by the end of the season, but was formidable and quite the opponent, and really another shadow of Clarke, who Clarke could have been if she had been pre-apocalypse. I think I’m going with Diyoza, because she’s funny, and reasonable, and she likes everyone and Octavia is just so damned grim and vindictive. It might make a more evil villain but as for who I like better? I think it’s Diyoza. Both were fun, but Diyoza is fun as in I liked her character, and Octavia was fun as in, OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT. Octavia also has that storyline of being the symbolic representation of the toxic state of humanity, caught in the cycle of violence and perpetuating it. She’s definitely more important in the storyline but I like Diyoza better.

Season 6-- Hands down: Josephine. We again have the shadow aspect of Clarke, trying to TAKE OVER Clarke. She’s not as arrogant as Russell, but she’s more psychotic. She’s also funnier and more charming. Kind of combines the fun and evil aspects of Diyoza and Octavia from last season. And she probably edges out Pike as my all time favorite villain because she is both evil AND likeable, whereas Pike was misguided and likable. Well, maybe less likable.Some of him was likeable. And he wasn’t writing pro eugenics books. He was volunteering to go down with the delinquents.Anyway. Josephine has a fantastic story. The way she refused to relinquish Clarke’s body like the entitled brat she was, and then tried to mess with everyone around her to get her way. Of course, when Bellamy had her, and she started digging into his relationship with Clarke that was great for story momentum, and then we had the sympathetic True Love story of Josephine/Gabriel, even though you knew it was wrong. Sympathetic but also toxic. Is true love really good if it enables such evil to be done? ANywAY. Loved Josephine. Also, great outfits. A+ for getting Clarke into some decent clothes. That tailored coat was great.