#instead of Mari piloting the robot

[amethiosspouse]

Aquamarine sibs theme but instead of if I can stop one heart from breaking, it's the day you vanished with the stars from hi3 😭

Or worse: NIGHTGLOW. 💀

STOP NOT NIGHTGLOW NOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

ISTG IF WE LOOSE HSR HIMEKO TOO IM GOING TO DIE. WELT DIDNT DIMENSION HOP FOR NOTHING!!!

But like....I have an idea for a possible AU outcome.

ok this is such a long explanation but:

This takes place after Amethio ends up joining the RVT and leaving Mari to fill in for him as an Admin. Mari becomes so mentally unstable they need an AI of some sort to help them pilot their body. During one of their battles with the RVT, Mari's robot thing gets impaled (YET AGAIN! BROSKI CANNOT ESCAPE THE IMPALEMENT DEATH!!!) while Mari is INSIDE the robot, asleep! :3

Originally, I was gonna have Amethio's Ceruledge do the impaling but it would be angstier if it was one of Aqua's Pokemon.

AND BONUS: NIGHTGLOW IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND WHILE MARI GETS IMPALED :3

[symphonic-scream]

Okujima in the Mech au

They met when they both joined the Pilot academy, Makoto age 15, Haru age 14. They initially had high syncing scores, but each scored higher with the people who would be coined as their partners

From day one, Haru was down bad for Makoto. It was on sight, just "oh, oh wow". Makoto however, is as dense as a cement brick. She had no clue she was the class lady killer, and had the gall to be surprised when her own partner Eiko confessed to her

Poor Haru just, accepted that was the way things were gonna be. Watching the girl she loved be with someone else, especially someone so outright with PDA as Eiko. She was there to be a pilot, after all

They were friends though, which is why Haru was racing through the infirmary after the finals to find any sign of Makoto or Eiko

She'd lucked out. Barely a scratch on her, but she knew how few that happened to. No matter how well a student had done, the final exam wiped out as many as it could.

Instead of finding her friend, Haru crashes into Sae Niijima. Standing, right outside the room filled with black bags. "No, please, tell me-"

"Makoto isn't in there." Instant relief. "She's- they rushed her into surgery, i-"

Names scroll on a tablet at the edge of the glass, listing off the names that belonged to the lives now contained in those quiet black bags. Haru doesn't know why she focuses on it, Makoto was in-

Eiko Takao - confirmed deceased

It's a tense few hours as Haru and Sae wait for news about Makoto. As far as either have been told, her situation was dire. Chances of her making it were low, but the medical and research teams went for a Hail Mary. And all they could do was wait

And wait. And wait. There were attempts at idle conversation-

Sae: so. You and your partner got out just fine?

Haru: he has a light concussion, but yes

Sae: I imagine you two will get a great assignment

Haru: oh he's currently signing over for retirement. I'm, partnerless at the moment

Eventually, many long hours later, Tae stumbles out into the waiting area, clearly dead on feet but determined to update her wife, "she made it, we- Makoto's gonna live"

Super big relief. Haru heads out soon after, feeling like her world was no longer being ripped out from under her. It'll get all tilted when she later visits Makoto and sees the wires and machines hooked to her chest, finding out just what lengths had been taken to keep her alive

And so, both had passed their final exam, and in need of a sync partner. With practice scores as high as theirs, it only made sense they were assigned together, herded towards a program that would, in half a decade, become Elite Pilot Team 3

They spend a lot of time together after that. They have to, to keep their sync scores up. When either has nightmares from the exam or a mission, they'll slip into the others dorm

Makoto prefers not to talk about it. She feels less than, remembering the jokes their former classmates used to make about her being a robot or heartless. Everything has felt so filtered, dampened, less, since the incident

Haru is open with most of her concerns. Losing Makoto, dragging Makoto down, losing her life and leaving Makoto partnerless again, all alone. She doesn't mention that she doesn't want to die without telling Makoto the truth, about her feelings,

For the first three years of the program it's just them and Akechi (according to official channels; unofficially they've been having Akechi and Joker work together while erasing their memories of it), who grows tired of their bullshit rather quickly. However, his attempts to end the painful pining he witnesses are thwarted by Cement Brick Makoto

Things really kick up when the second batch of pilots are brought in and the program is fully running. By now Makoto and Haru are a well oiled machine, easily shifting between their very different styles when paired. This is when they introduce the solo mech's for the elite team, separating them in combat from time to time

A year or so in is when the jokes start. Makoto is known for reminding the younger pilots of curfew, making sure they follow their health regimes and don't act out in ways that would get them punished. Whereas Haru always checks in on if they're eating enough, taking care of themselves, such and such

So. They're basically like the team mom's. Makoto mostly shrugs it off, still in her "tin man no heart" rut while Haru is falling further at the idea. They truly do act as a healthy married couple would, if one spouse was unaware of the romantic aspect. It was still a work in progress

Haru, again, who likes to be more open with her problems, has regular "ladies nights" with Ann and Hifumi (Yusuke joins occasionally, or Shiho if she was already spending the night on base) where she just. Gushes.

Ann: you should just tell her, it worked for me

Haru: yeah but her last girlfriend and partner died. I don't wanna reopen that wound

Hifumi: uhm, that kinda sounds like an excuse?

Skip along to the Current Time Place, which is right as the two final pilots join Team 3. This is where the like plot starts? It would be right after the blood transfusion incident that none of them remember, with Futaba and Sumire only having graduated for a few months

Attacks on the city become more frequent, so things get a little more serious around the pilots. Things start slowly changing, mostly for the worse, and about 4 months in is when things change dramatically

A high grade monster attacks. Whole team deployed, Joker and Akechi piloting the duo Arsene, Makoto, Yusuke, Futaba, and Haru in solos to provide support (note; the mech's are a mix of monster and electronic parts. Joker, with monster DNA, can bypass the limits set by the man made mechanical parts. You'll see why this is important soon)

While the Duo backs off to prepare a big attack, close range solos Makoto and Yusuke bombarding it's defenses while long range Haru and Futaba provide cover fire, something new happens. See, this was this monster's debut. So they didn't know what it had in store

It opened its mouth, certain parts began to glow, and a shock wave extended from its form. Not the kind that knocks you back, no. I don't know the word for it since I'm not a big science person but, it killed all electric components in its range

The Duo were unaffected due to Joker, and the outer support solos were out of range. However, the other two? Their mech's powered down around them, leaving them sitting in big tin cans

Oh. And Makoto's Replacement heart stopped.

Big panic. They have no way of getting to her without leaving Yusuke to die, so the Duo focuses on killing the monster fast enough that they can save the two stranded pilots. The situation is tense enough, but it slowly dawn's on them that whole most replacements these days are more bio than electronic, that didn't apply to the heart

It's a race against the clock. The second the effect fades as the monster is killed, the others are rushing Johanna and her pilot back to base. She's immediately rushed into surgery, both Tae and Wakaba trying anything they can to get things going again, leaving the rest of the pilots to. Wait

Haru is evidently distraught. She couldn't even do anything but wait as her partner slowly died out there, and now all she can do is sit and wait to see if she never got the chance to come clean

Even when she's out of surgery, Makoto's under a medical coma for a week while they adjust the new prototype model they hastily installed. During this time Haru doesn't leave her side, lying against her good side on the tiny cot, staring at the mess of wires and tubing just keeping her partner alive

After the first week, the medical part of the coma ends, though Makoto still doesn't wake up yet. Tae assures Haru that she's just building up strength again, that a Niijima wouldn't go down so easily

It falls on deaf ears

After 16 days, Makoto finally stirs. Her chest feels heavy, like she was hit by a large truck, that familiar but hated Controlled Pulse Machine making her veins feel just a bit stiff. And yet, there's a familiar comfort, warmth on her right side. That tickle of soft curls against her collarbone, the burst of just warmth in her chest as even her soul realizes whos-

Wait, warmth in her chest? That tingly, scrambly feeling in her gut, the way her mind felt at ease so completely, the way her body sang at every point where they lay connected-

Makoto hadn't felt like this since- since she lost her heart,

It's a struggle to pry her eyes open, but it's worth it for the sight of Haru resting against her, the little rush it sends through her mind. And how the light from the window cast that glow on her just right? Oh fuck did Makoto love that

Oh how Makoto loves Haru,

And it hits her like the metaphorical truck from earlier, that she's feeling, and feeling love. And it wasn't even a new feeling! This whole time she'd been so focused on the negative what if that she completely overlooked the truth that was there all along

"Haru," her voice cracks from lack of use, but it's enough to jolt the younger woman awake. Makoto tries for a reassuring smile, but it's hard when she can still feel each cable running into her chest

And Haru, she just breaks into tears, crying into Makoto's shoulder loudly, finally feeling more than just empty since they wheeled the other half of her soul into that Operating room. A weak, but tender hand rubs at her back, and another trail of tears mix with her own

"I'm sorry I worried you,"

"just, shut up and let me hold you, dummy"

Tae rushes in when she was alerted to a change from the Pulse Machine, and is so relieved to see her sister-in-law awake. She has some tests she needs to run, but she also knows those can wait until after she lets the reunited partners do their thing

And Makoto hadn't felt this alive since the academy, recalling when their class got a weekend off to go to the amusement park. Eiko had refused to ride the big mega coaster with her, so Haru stepped in instead. That rush, the adrenaline and joy as they were bashed around, their fingers touching by their restraints, laughing and holy crap Makoto had been ignoring these feelings for far too long

It clicks in her mind. She almost lost her chance. She almost never got to realize it all, or tell Haru-

"Can I tell you something, Haru?"

"are you planning to file for retirement?"

"not just yet, but- it's- well, you see-"

"...Mako?"

"I'm in love with you"

Their eyes meet. Wide staring, the room silent besides the collection of medical machines. It's almost like time is frozen for a second-

"really? Like, actually? For real?"

"I'm sorry it took me so long to realize but- fuck, I think my heart's always beated for you"

Haru crashes their faces together, a poor attempt at a kiss that might leave a bruise- "ah I'm so sorry I should have asked, if was rude if me to- you might not want to-"

"uhm, I would very much like to? If you do too-"

And this one is more of a proper kiss, still fueled by overcharged emotions and nearly a decade of the worst pining imaginable. They was into them, becoming less rushed and more lazy, Haru's hand at Makoto's jaw, and other over that patch of abdomen the infirmary linens failed to cover, Makoto with one buried in Haru's messy hair, the other slowly sliding down the line of her spine

They have shit to talk about, but that's for later. There's ten years of affection they have to catch up on

When Makoto is finally released from medical a month later, her room in the quad unofficially becomes their room in the quad. Haru does talk to counselor Kawakami about what happened those two weeks, and after only three months they get engaged, and married soon after

They wasted enough time after all

And besides other plot occurrences, they're smooth sailing

...until about a year after the big climax bit

Remember how Haru has no Replacements? Not anymore

In the incident that leads to both filing for retirement, M'Lady is nearly torn in half, the sync and crushing of the compartment leading Haru to need her right arm and shoulder amputated, which means. She would be getting a replacement

It's Makoto's turn to sit at her side, and to get her hand crushed when they connect the nerves to Haru's new arm

And of course, the first thing she touches with said new arm is her wife's face

(Makoto gets her hand crushed two more times in the epilogue when they have their kids but shhh that's not important)

But yeah I skipped a lot of little details cause I've been writing this for Too Long lmao

ASK ME ABOUT RHEM PLEASE

[toku-explained]

Zombie Wiped Out

Decker: TPU transporting DG001 are attack3d by Gazort, and so Terraphaser fights it off before arriving at the test site. Kanata's had a fascination with robots since at least when Kimg Joe crash landed 10 years ago. The initial plans for Terraphaser go back to trying to develop a weapon against he Giants of Darkness, but after the threat ended fears of the danger lead to it being shelved, Asakahe pushed to resume the project after the Sphere attack. A cyclone comes straight for the test site, brought by Raibasser, as Asakahe has Terraphaser target it, Kurahoshi realises kaiju are specifically targeting it. We saw some similar kaiju activity towards Ultroid Zero. Attempts to install Hanejiro in Terraphaser lead the Hinabasser children to attack. Kanata transformed into Decker at human size, without realising it, so I guess, Decker itself decided being giant size was overkill. Hanejiro pilots Terraphaser, but there's an overload preventing the TR Mega Buster from working at the moment.

Geats: The fact she's dying make Neon more willing to return home, but the removal of her videos and learning her mother has a tracker on her makes her furious. Apparently their overprotectiveness stems from a kidnapping when she was a girl, but Neon doesn't accept that, she again runs. 3rd wave starts, Buffa now using Magnum. Mary strategically rescues, but gets bitten by Da-Pan despite still not having fully turned, deciding to team with Buffa to eliminate the others. However Na-Go chooses to fight to the last, Ace informed her and Keiwa that all damage from this round will be undone once cleared, so if she hasn't turned by then. Keiwa gave her his Boost Buckle, and she recalls her wish for a world she can find true love, and she defeats most of the zombies. Had Da-Pan actually kept playing he probably would have made it, instead he loses his qualifications, and Neon tel,s her mother that she will be leaving, no matter what she says.

Donbrothers: Anoni kidnap Yuriko, Haruka's aunt, promising her release if the Donbrothers round up the Juto, they chose Yuriko since she's the only relative any of the Donbrothers have ...Kijino questions them not including Miho, but sees her name on the lost, not discussing it with the others, while Haruka spots Hanamura's mother, Shizuka, is on the list. Yuriko enjoys her kidnapping too much, but they treat her well. Kijino winds up being a test subject for Miho, while Haruka ends up confronted by Shizuka, as Sayama and other Juto invade the Anoni hideout, killing them, while Shizuka is sketchy about Hanamura's whereabouts, Haruka runs off when Sayama rings her with Yuriko's phone, he in person tells them to hand over Murasame. Choushinki is rampaging over spice. Inuzaka remembers time with Natsumii, when Sononi approaches, nervously asking to work together against the Juto at the same place the others were summoned to. He doesn't know what she's talking about, but Choushinki gives him a chance to tell the others, it gets away, ad as the others run, Miho approaches Don Momotaro, identifying him as with the Don Clan, sue promises if they don't kill the Cat Juto she'll stop them, argues the Juto might have done nothing wrong, and the human copied is killed if a Juto is slain. The cat's play, crane's weave stories, and the penguins... Miho attacks the base, OniSister grabs her aunt, they knock out Miho as they see the Donbrothers and Noto arrive, but Don Momotaro stops them charging in, leading to a brief clash with Sononi and Sonoza until Don Doragoku appears fighting Choushinki, Kijino and Inuzaka both spot Miho right before ToraDora Onitaijin is formed to fight ChoushinKing. Afterwards, Inuzaka watches as Kijino rushes to the side of the woman he loves, and that woman smiles at her husband, and is shaken to the core.

Futo PI: The original Alcohol is, of course, Kiku, Kuya seems genuinely confused. Kiku even recognises Phillip as Raito, the Sonozakis having visited on a dig, she was one of the first test subjects, and aimed to keep Kuya oblivious even while finding him a bride to continue the work. As a High Dope, she can use some abilities without using the Memory directly, to counter her they have to finally properly use Xtreme. On losing she has the mansion destroyed by her butler, forcing them to leave her behind. When they reach Accel Trial, Scream is still avoiding him, Brachiosaurus makes an appearance with Bando Yukiji, who properly introduces himself. He'd hoped to avoid dealing with them at all but Tokime has made their conflict unavoidable, and reveals himself as Aurora. A few days later after some discussion, Kurumi takes Kanna to her club. Kuya intends tompay them when he can earn some money. Also hilariously he doesn't drink. In the City, Bando is planning to make his move.

[pintsizeddeepthoughts]

From Start to Finish: Television Reviews – Battlestar Galactica

Executive Producer: Ronald D. Moore and David Eick

Starring: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackoff, Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas

Number of Episodes: 76

Years: 2003-2009

Country: United States

“It’s not enough to survive, one has to be worthy of survival.” – Commander William Adama

Where does one start a review of a show as messy and sprawling as this one? The original Battlestar Galactica was a cash grab meant to ride the wave of sci-fi mania after the success of Star Wars in the late 1970s. Lasting only a season, the cheesiness of that show hid a very dark idea – after a nuclear holocaust, there are only 50,000 humans left and they are being pursued by a race a killer robots (called Cylons) bent on their extinction. Fast forward twenty-five years, veteran sci-fi show runner Ronald D. Moore was intrigued by similar ideas: what if, instead of weekly episodes not linked to each other so they could be run in syndication, there was a show where things that broke or were depleted in the previous episode didn’t get fixed?

Starting out as a miniseries that became a backdoor pilot, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica released in 2003 was dark and gritty, filmed in a mockumentary style aboard a ship one could confuse with a submarine or aircraft carrier. The ship had obvious limitations and people who took those limitations seriously. It understood that few of the people, outside of the commander and his second command, had ever been in actual combat before. The characters were fully realized and fully human, prone both resiliency and rash emotion. It understood people told lies to protect themselves from internal and external forces. It knew that mistakes would be made and did not shy from showing us the consequences of the characters’ actions.

And what characters. Although the cast would expand and change over the course of the show’s four official seasons, the core would remain. At the center of the show is Commander William Adama and President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin. Adama (via a towering performance by Edward James Olmos) is flexible, a bluffer, practical, sentimental, and unusually humanitarian for a career military man. His calm demeanor hides explosive rage and as more is asked of him he has to dig deeper to find the will and cleverness to survive. By the end of the series, these asks break him and he begins to come apart. The same goes for Roslin, portrayed with commanding warmth and steeliness by Mary McDonnell. The secretary of education before the holocaust, she grows into her role as president. By the second and third seasons, she’s been tempered by the fires she’s had to put out and the decisions she’s been forced to make. But, like Adama, it comes at a cost that begins to accumulate beyond what she can tolerate.

The show was at its best when it focused on the basics of what it would take to make the fleet survive. The first season featured episodes focused on finding water, finding fuel, and trying to figure out where to go (they settle on a mythical plant, Earth). The second season featured the discovery of another battlestar and how things could’ve gone differently – and very wrong. The third season began with the occupation of their new home by those same Cylons and featured humans using suicide bombers against their occupiers. The fourth season showed all the accumulated battle damage finally taking its toll on the ship to the point of no return. These were real problems that forced characters to react and stretch beyond their comfort zones. For some characters, these storylines cost them everything (I am forever haunted by Michael Hogan’s performance as Saul Tigh in season three). For others, it stripped them of the lies they’d lived by for years. It left them bare, raw, exposed to grief that grips the soul.

This brings us to the controversial series finale, which is tellingly titled “Daybreak”. The series could’ve ended at the fourth season midway point (titled “Revelations”), a brutal, cold, and cruel episode that would’ve cemented the series theme of grim grief. But that’s not how grief works. Eventually it recedes and, one day at a time, day does eventually break the horizon. A lot of what happens in the series finale ties to the sloppy mythology that Moore and his team of writers made up as they went along. While this mythology did provide the show with some of its greatest emotional highs and its best mysteries, it’s not the show’s center. To the end, the show focused on the characters and the series finale nails the correct tone. Grief ends. Dawn does return.

Along with Lost, Battlestar Galactica was a pioneer in showing that serialized storytelling could work on television. As such, the show runners made pioneer’s mistakes. Moore famously admitted they made up the story as they went along, which left them scrambling to wrap up loose ends in the second half the final season (not always successfully). Still, the show is important because it did not flinch from the reality of a such a bleak story. It did not flinch from being cruel to its characters at times or from giving them moments of heartbreaking grace. Edward James Olmos, from the very start of the series, recognized the show’s strength and power and frequently told his fellow castmates that this would be the best job they would ever have. It’s hard to disagree.

[timelxrd-victorious]

I’m grumpy about this again, sorry, but it’s really funny (and by funny, I mean infuriating) to me that there will be people going on and on about how Rose Tyler is a Mary Sue for the Doctor, when those exact same people are Dead Silent on both River Song and Clara Oswald

I mean, specifically:

Rose ended up trapped in a parallel universe that was not her own, twice, the second time after fighting for years to get back to her home universe to save it & the alien she loved, only to end up stuck in Pete’s World with a half-human clone of the Tenth Doctor and she had that decision forced on her by Ten because he was on a massive guilt trip.

River Song was the daughter of Eleven’s companions, conceived in the TARDIS, was granted Time Lord regeneration powers as a result of this + the ability to perfectly pilot the Doctor’s Type 40 TT-Capsule, married a robot duplicate of the Eleventh Doctor (in an alternate timeline that was then erased), and spent literally her whole life obsessed with the Doctor (first trying to kill him, then because she’d supposedly suddenly fallen in love with him)

Clara Oswald split endless copies of herself along the Doctor’s timestream because she was “the Impossible Girl” and “born to save the Doctor”, convinced Eleven, Ten, and War to not use the Moment and instead seal Gallfirey off in a pocket universe, eventually had a stable job at Coal Hill High School as a teacher (tying her further to the Classic series than any other NuWho companion), had her whole arc in Series 8 & 9 being about her becoming exactly like the Doctor, Season 9 revealed her + Twelve made up the mysterious “hybrid” of the prophecy, she was explicitly killed off for real but then revived and made immortal & given her own TARDIS

And yet people still call Rose Tyler a Relationship Sue when River Song and Clara Oswald are right there.

[scope-dogg]

Knight’s and Magic: Final Thoughts

Isekai anime have been very popular in recent years, and 2017′s Knight’s and Magic was one of many cashing in on that trend, with the added twist of being a mecha series. However, what many may not realise is that the Isekai genre of anime was originally born out of the mecha genre, with the first Isekai anime arguably being the 1983 classic Aura Battler Dunbine by Yoshiyuki Tomino. While Isekai has split off and diversified into its own extremely prolific and popular genre, mecha has kept a foothold within it, and subsequently some of the greatest mecha shows have been fantasy-themed, with great titles like Magic Knight Rayearth and The Vision of Escaflowne following in Dunbine’s footsteps over the years, so really Knight’s and Magic should be viewed rather as the continuation of a fairly long tradition of fantasy mecha rather than Isekai but with robots. Adapted from the early volumes of a currently ongoing manga by the same name, it’s a short series, but one with high production values, superb mechanical design and entertaining action. It’s also a series that I ultimately simply cannot stand.

The plot setup is that Tsubasa Kurata is an unassuming but highly talented programmer working in contemporary Japan - or at least he is until he’s killed in a road traffic accident. As he dies, he has but one regret - that he’ll no longer be able to live with his hobby of building plastic model kits of giant anime robots. As is often the case with such a setup, he finds himself reborn into a fantasy kingdom called Fremevilla as the son of nobles called Ernesti Echavalier. However, to his joy, he finds out that the main weapon for fighting back against these monsters is the Silhouette Knight, a kind of gigantic magic-powered mecha. Thus, he devotes himself to the art of learning everything there is about these machines and one day building and piloting one of his very own.

There’s nothing really wrong with this premise, but Knight’s and Magic is flawed in how one-track it is. The show’s really only about one thing - how robots are cool. Of course, I agree that robots are cool. Knight’s and Magic’s lineup of robots in particular is very cool, both in their form and unique functions. However, anyone who’s actually a fan of the mecha genre knows that just having cool robots isn’t enough to carry a show - you have to have compelling characters and interesting narratives. The all-too-frequently trotted-out line of “[x mecha show] is actually good, unlike the rest of the genre, because it focuses on the characters instead of just the robots” is probably the single most effective thing you can say if you want to piss off a mecha fan, because that sentence describes literally every mecha show that was ever worth a damn, even going back to the genre’s roots in the 70s. However, it arguably doesn’t really describe Knight’s and Magic. The series’ creators come off as just as obsessed with robots as its main character, and it comes at the expense of the characters and setting. Each new episode comes with a cool new robot or a cool upgrade for an existing one, but practically none of them feature development of the setting or its characters. Fremevilla and its neighbours never come off as anything more than “generic fantasy kingdom”, the supporting cast are all cut from extremely generic-feeling moulds, and Ernesti never undergoes any growth or exhibits any notable character traits beyond “likes robots.”

Now, there have been several characters in mecha anime who are in large part defined by their dedication to giant robots as an ideal, or simply to their aesthetic, and some of these are truly excellent characters. For instance, Gai Daigoji from Nadesico, Akagi Shunsuke from Dai-Guard, Noa Izumi from Patlabor, Sei Iori from Gundam Build Fighters, or the Super Robot Wars Original character Ryusei Date. The difference between all of these and Ernesti is that being fans of robots isn’t the only thing that makes them relatable or endearing characters, whereas in Ernesti’s case it’s basically the only thing that defines his personality. It also doesn’t help that he’s perhaps the biggest Mary Sue main character that I’ve seen in a mecha anime. His gimmick is that his past-life experience as a programmer also makes him profoundly adept at magic, and that he’s a genius Silhouette Knight designer. He’s always totally successful at everything he tries and everyone loves and respects him for his accomplishments. Ironically, it’s this that makes him an unlikable character for the viewer, because, again, he has no real admirable qualities beyond liking robots and being good at making and using them. It’s a character’s struggles and tribulations that ultimately make them truly sympathetic, and Ernesti is never really challenged until right at the very end of the series, and ultimately that challenge only feels like a mild speed bump for him. This results in a series that despite all its cool robots and flashy battles is fundamentally dead as a story at its core.

However, all of this simply describes a series that I would find boring and mediocre rather than one I actively disliked in a serious way. However, this is arguably the first series I’ve watched since Gundam Seed Destiny that really ground my gears quite badly, and it all boils down to one specific moment in the show’s narrative. To explain why, I need to diverge from my usual review format and spoil not only this show, but also it’s forefather, the original mecha Isekai, Aura Battler Dunbine. I really don’t think spoilers for the former is anything to worry about but spoiling the latter is probably more of an offense. As such, the remainder of this review is below this spoiler cut:

Dunbine is not everyone’s cut of tea. It’s old, has bad animation, it’s long-winded and has a sometimes confused and scrambled narrative in accordance with some of Tomino’s worst habits. However, it was also a work of great imagination that really delivered on communicating a valuable message in some engaging ways. It’s a message that Knight’s and Magic cheerfully and infuriatingly tramples all over. Let me explain.

In Knight’s and Magic, the show’s hero is an outsider who enters into a fantasy world and uses his real-world knowledge to bring about a revolution in technology. This also happens to be the chief descriptor for a major character in Dunbine too.

However, this isn’t the description of the show’s protagonist, Show Zama.

It’s the description of the show’s villain, Shot Weapon.

Shot Weapon is the creator of the Aura Convertor, the technology that powers the show’s mecha, the Aura Battlers, and other weapons besides. The introduction of this technology destroys the peace of Dunbine’s world, Byston Well, and causes it to descend into anarchy and bloodshed. However, the real devastation doesn’t occur until Shot’s creations are transported back into our world, where they inflict destruction almost beyond imagining. Ultimately, Shot Weapon’s actions condemn him to a punishment of being forced to live forever in Byston Well in a state of eternal suffering, like Cain after murdering his brother Abel. Dunbine’s ultimate, most crucial message is that those who manufacture weapons and spread death are to be condemned.

Knight’s and Magic gave itself the exact same opportunity to deal with this exact same theme. The show’s final arc is that a kingdom called Zaloudek has accumulated vast military power and used it to invade its neighours. We get to see as they descend into a neighbouring kingdom, slaughter its just and rightful rulers and install themselves as tyrants. Now, enter Ernesti and his friends at the conquered kingdom’s borders. At this point he’s achieved his aim of creating his own unique robot called the Ikaruga, and in its first battle effortlessly dispatches the Zaloudek soldiers guarding the border. In the aftermath, he examines the wreckage of a destroyed Zaloudek Silhouette Knight. He and everyone else see the obvious - this machine, the Tyranto is based on Ernesti’s designs. Previously, one of the prototype Knights he’d constructed in an earlier arc was stolen by a mysterious foreign agent, and now it’s become clear what happened to it. The source of the military strength that’s fuelling Zaloudek’s ambitions of conquest are the new technologies that he created, reverse engineered from the stolen mecha. As he looks upon the wreck of the Tyranto, the show is presented with a unique opportunity to do something that it’s thus far not done - challenge its protagonist with the consequences of his actions. Sure, Ernesti is not exactly the same as Shot Weapon - he only wanted to create robots because he thought they were cool, while Shot Weapon wanted power. However, in this case the end result has been the same - death, destruction and oppression. Ernesti has a chance to think about whether the things he’s done are right and acknowledge that he’s at least somewhat responsible for the disaster that’s played out, even if it’s just to acknowledge that he has a duty to set things right by beating Zaloudek. This is an opportunity for him to grow as a character for the first time.

The show swerves this opportunity without flinching.

Sure, Ernesti does liberate the kingdom in the end, but it’s clear that it’s not as a result of any real moral calling. He just wanted to build more robots and fight with them. His motivation in the final battle is that he wants to destroy the enemy’s flying battleship because he’s worried that battleships might replace Silhouette Knights if he doesn’t. He remains a totally one-dimensional character right to the end.

As I said before, Ernesti’s obsession with cool robots arguably mirrors that of the creators of this show, if its myopic focus on them is anything to go by. Perhaps this seems extremely out of character for me to say, but this is an infantile obsession. Yes, I like giant robots, but I don’t like them so much that I miss the point. The core of not only the real robot genre that both Knight’s and Magic and Aura Battle Dunbine belong to despite the fantasy trappings of the show, but arguably of the mecha genre as a whole, is that technology can be a force of destruction and great evil when not used responsibly. Yes, the protagonist mecha in these shows are meant to be heroic, but only in their opposition to those who’d use technology as a tool of death and oppression. This is the core of the soul that makes mecha as a genre compelling. It’s a point that Knight’s and Magic completely misses and why it’s fundamentally a failure. It’s as if it’s trying to be what the mecha genre’s detractors try to paint it as.

That said, despite my misgivings there is entertainment to be found if you only want dumb action. But I’d highly encourage you to check out any alternative. If you want a fantasy mecha series, Dunbine, Escaflowne and Rayearth are all much more compelling stories than this - even ones I’m not so keen on like Panzer World Galient and Ryu Knight are fundamentally more interesting as stories than this. If you want a story with a mecha fanatic in the lead role, you’re much better off watching Patlabor or the chronically underrated Dai-Guard instead.

[yoditorian]

tell us about the crest in drift 👀

❤️razor crest jaeger my beloved❤️

so we’re gonna go through this in points so that i don’t get lost and just infodump bc i can see her so clearly and i WILL get carried away

series masterlist

(a lot of this is me combining canon pacrim stuff and canon mando stuff pls just pretend it makes sense, and under a cut because i did in fact get carried away)

basic technical specs:

190ft tall

1k tons

beskar skeleton

steel and beskar alloy shell

modified single pilot

okay SO i worked these out on the basic specs of canon jaegers bc i needed the razor crest to be smaller so she could be a single pilot rig. essentially, where there would have been a second pilot, the neural link is established within the AI system. the tech learns from him, it’s basically a backup copy of his brain so he’s essentially drifting with himself.

the conn-pod is a Weird Shape because so is the canon razor crest and we love that for her. she has a bridge that lowers for boarding rather than a door or hatch, since she’s smaller so the pod is fused to the skeleton for stability. there’s no head-detaching/attaching here.

weapons systems and armour:

twin laser cannons (mounted on the outer shoulders)

propulsion engines (mounted on the spine)

whistling birds (right forearm)

reinforced shoulder/chest/thigh plates

pulse cannon (left hand)

these are all the canon weapons from the razor crest as a ship and din’s armour, plus the pulse rifle bc i love it. 

as i touched on here, the razor crest has a lighter skeleton than the heavier duty jaegers so she can’t handle the weight and kickback of the standard plasma cannons. instead she has twin laser cannons which are lighter and work off the power generated by the propulsion engines. 

the engines themselves serve as an extra boost in combat, the propellors provide the kinetic energy to power the laser cannons and the pulse cannon. they can be engaged in a similar way that we saw koska use her jetpack in the fight with boba in chapter 16 in that they can put more force behind movements in hand to hand combat. 

the whistling birds are essentially the same as they are in the show, stored in the right forearm and single use (?). the pulse cannon (which i haven’t yet sketched out) is a similar attachment on the left hand. the prongs stick out from the wrist across the back of the hand and (obviously) electrocute when they make contact. however it doesn’t have the same disintegrating power that the rifle from the show does.

the armour is something i want to talk about though. the razor crest jaeger was initially supposed to just be the ship as a giant kaiju fighting robot because who doesn’t love that BUT i also wanted to incorporate the mandalorian armour since the design doesn’t easily translate to pacrim combat suits.

she has a reinforced chest plate with the ka’rta beskar and reinforced pauldrons, one of which has the mudhorn signet (the symbol of the jaeger team she fought with previously). all decommissioned jaegers are marked with orange lines to single them out (although mech decided they liked them and so there’s a note on the razor crest file that they’re not to be removed or painted over). the bits of her design that i haven’t sketched out also includes a lot of the recognisable parts of din’s armour like the blue triangles on his hands, the orange/black design of his gloves, and the two different thigh plates. 

pls enjoy my terrible sketch below:

TAGLIST (add yourself here):

@bee-dameron @keeper0fthestars @thevoiceinyourheadx @firstofficerwiggles @ew-erin @chatterbean @1800-fight-me @mary-meee @capsheadquaters @altarsw @thebigspook @darnitdraco @greeneyedblondie44 @deafmandalorian @sarahjkl82-blog @captain-jebi 

[dukereviewsxtra]

Duke's Monsterween: Scoob

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Xtra Where We're Continuing Duke's Monsterween By Talking About The Final Scooby Doo Movie On This Year's Monsterween, Scoob...

No Synopsis Today, Let's Dive On Into Scoob..

The Film Starts With A Flashback That Answers Questions That Most Us Have Had For Decades Like How Did Scooby And Shaggy Meet And Become Friends?, How Did Scooby And Shaggy Meet Fred, Velma And Daphne? And How Was Mystery Inc Formed?...

Before Cutting Back To Now Where They're Grown Ups The Gang Attempts To Turn Mystery Inc Into A Business By Getting A Benefactor In The Form Of Simon Cowell...

Really? Of All The People You Had To Have Cameo In This Movie? You Had To Have Simon Cowell? I Mean Having One Of The Shark Tank Guys Would Have Made More Sense Than Having Simon In This Movie...

Anyway, Simon Basically Says He Loves Everything About Them Except For Shaggy And Scooby Who He Believes To Be The Gang's Weakest Links And Are..

Not Liking What Simon Is Saying Despite Fred (Played By Troy Bolton)

You Can Try To Outrun High School Musical, Zac But You'll Never Escape It!...

Velma (Played By Jane The Virgin) And Daphne (Played By Cosette? Sophie? I Don't Know What I See Amanda Seyfried As Anymore!) Defending Them, Shaggy (Played By Will Forte And Not Matthew Lillard)

And Scooby (Played By One Of The Men Of 1,000 Voices, Frank Welker) Leave Saying That They Know When They're Not Welcome...

They Go To A Nearby Bowling Alley To Let Off Some Steam While Bowling But When The Bowling Balls And Pins Turn Into Robots But They're Soon Saved By Their Childhood Heroes, The Blue Falcon (Played By Marky Mark Of The Funky Bunch) Who Is The Son Of The Son Of The Original Blue Falcon Who Has Retired

And Dynomutt (Played By Deep Wang) Who Is Having A Hard Time With His Partner's Replacement. Meeting Their Pilot, Dee Dee (Played By Kiersey Clemons)...

Not That Dee Dee, Focus!

Anyway, She Tells The 2 That The Robots Were Sent By A Supervillain Named Dick Dastardly (Played By Lucius Malfoy And Not Paul Winchell)...

And Yes, I Know I That Winchell Passed A Few Years Ago, It's Just Hard To See Another Actor Voice A Character That He Voiced Because He Was Such A Legend...

Hell, Despite How Good He Is I Still Have A Hard Time With Jim Cumming Voicing Tigger As Let's Face It He Was Tigger

Anyway, They Believe That Dastardly Is Out To Kill Them For Some Unbeknownst Reason And They Want Their Help To Stop Dastardly From Collecting The Skulls That Will Open The Door To The Underworld...

Shaggy Refuses At First But With Scooby In, Shaggy Decides To Follow...

With The Bowling Attendant Telling Fred, Velma And Daphne What Happened, She Gives Them One Of The Destroyed Robots To Analyze And When They Do They Discover A Mustache Hair Which Leads Them To Dastardly ...

Who Is Revealed To Have The First Skull Already...

But As They Drive To Him, The Robot Reactivates And Relays It's Location To Dastardly, Who It Turns Out Was Only After Scooby Who When All The Heads Are Put Together Can Open The Door To The Underworld...

Meanwhile, Shaggy And Scooby Help Dee Dee Discover The Location Of The Second Skull In The Gobi Desert But Blue Falcon Decides To Take The Advice Of One Of His Twitter Followers And Goes To Romania...

Back In The Mystery Machine, Velma Does An Information Search On Dastardly's Work And Discovers That Scooby Is The Last Descendant Of Alexander The Great's Dog, Peritas As The Blue Falcon, Dynomutt And Shaggy And Scooby Arrive In Romania Only To Discover That...

Set By Dastardly...

Who Already Has The Second Freaking Skull From The Gobi Desert?!?

Anyway, After Telling Shaggy That It's Scooby He's After, Dastardly Chases Scooby To The House Of Mirrors Where He Tries To Sway Scooby To His Side

But After Scooby's Pronouncement Of His Name Pisses Dastardly Off And One Minor Scene, Scooby And The Others Escape On The Blue Falcon's Ship As Dastardly Crashes In A Bumper Cart...

Telling The Others About What Dastardly Said, The Team Starts Paying More Attention To Scooby Which Leads To Shaggy Getting A Little Jealous Of Scooby Being More Important Than Him...

Blue Falcon Tries To Help Shaggy But This Leads Shaggy To Try And Help Falcon By Saying That He Understands The Pressure He's Under As His Father Left Big Shoes For Him To Fill But Unfortunately Falcon Doesn't Really Know What To Say To That And Leaves...Wow!...You Could Have Had A Moment There But Instead You Blew It By Having Silence, You Freaking Morons!

Back In The Mystery Machine, The Gang Start To Miss Shaggy And Scooby Only To Be Stopped By A Police Officer Who Is Actually Dick Dastardly In Disguise..

Taking Fred, Velma And Daphne Captive, They Manage To Escape Their Cell With The Help Of A Robot Whose Head Dastardly Replaced With A Mini Vac When He Believed Him To Be A Suck Up...

Searching Dastardly's Ship They Watch As Dastardly Discovers The Location Of The Final Skull Head

Before They Go Into A Room To Use A Communication Device To Tell Dee Dee About Dastardly, The Location Of The Final Skull And To Oh, I Don't Know Save Them?!? ...

But While In Said Room, They Discover Dastardly's Reason For Doing All This And It Has To Do With...

Turns Out That They Found A Backdoor To The Underworld And Attempted To Get The Treasure Of The Underworld But When Muttley Went In, He Didn't Come Out Stating That It Was A One Way Trip Because He Wasn't The Chosen One..

As Dastardly Sends The 3 Friends Back To Their Cell, Team Falcon Arrives At The Location Of The 3rd Skull, Messick Mountain (Named After Scooby's Original Voice Actor, Don Messick) Which They Enter To Discover A Mesozoic Island, Where The Skull Is Really At...

Once They Land, Shaggy's Jealousy Comes To A Head, Saying That He Wasn't Okay With Him Taking Off His Collar, Despite Giving Him The Nod For Him To Do So!

This Leads Shaggy To Give Scooby An Ultimatum, Stay With Him On Board The Ship Or Going With Team Falcon, Ending Their Friendship...

So, He Decides To Go With Team Falcon Because He Feels That It's The Right Thing To Do...

Going Through The Woods Looking For The Skull, They End Up Meeting A Native Named Captain Caveman Played By...(Sighs) Tracy Morgan...

Yeah, I Don't Know If He Was The Best Choice To Play This Character...

Don't Get Me Wrong, I Like Tracy Morgan On SNL And The Few Episodes Of 30 Rock I Saw But I Just Don't Think That His Type Of Comedy Would Work Well For This Character...

Anyway, They Tell Captain Caveman What They're Looking For So, He Take Them To The Skull While Shaggy Somehow Reunites With Fred Who Wants Shaggy To Take Him To Scooby Because He's In Danger From Dastardly...

I Think You Know Where This Is Going, Everyone Say It With Me!...

Fred Is Dastardly!

Yep, The Real Fred Is Still On-Board Dastardly's Ship And He Made A Costume Of Him So He Could Not Only Get The Final Skull But Scooby Too..

However, On The Bright Side He Gives Them Fred, Velma And Daphne Back In Return...

While Also Destroying Team Falcon's Jet In The Process...

As Team Falcon And Mystery Inc Fight About Who's Fault This Is, Shaggy Eventually Gets Everyone To Come Together And Use Whatever Parts They Can Scalvage To Get The Mystery Machine To Fly To Athens...

But When They Arrive, It's Too Late, Dastardly Has Opened The Portal And All Hell Has Been Unleashed Along With Cerberus Himself...

As Team Falcon And Mystery Inc Deal With Cerberus, Dastardly Gets Muttley From Hell And Makes A Run For It , Falcon And Dynomutt Work Out Their Differences And Fred And Velma Discover That The Only Way To Close The Portal Is For Master To Be On One Side And Dog To Be The Other...

Meaning That In Order For It To Close, Shaggy Has To Be In The Underworld And Scooby Has To Be On The Outside...

It's Honestly A Sad Scene, I Literally Almost Cried At It...

I Said...Almost...

Because Once It Happens And Everything Is Another Portal Appears With Shaggy Getting Kicked Out Of Hell...

I Guess Mephisto Didn't Care For Shaggy And Scooby's Friendship As Much As He Cared For Spider-Man And Mary Jane's Marriage...

Anyway, Dastardly And Muttley Are Arrested By Their Own Robots Who Are Now On The Side Of Good, And Mystery Inc Finally Open Their Business Without Simon Cowell,,.

This Film Is Pretty Good, It May Not Be As Memorable As The Live Action Scooby Movies But It Is Pretty Funny And It Does Have Some Good Moments, So For That I Say See It...

Next Week We Start Our Halloween Look At Disney, So Till Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[andmaybegayer]

Watched Rebuild of Evangelion 3 now so hoo boy what the hell was that.

Alright I’m writing this before reading anything anyone else wrote about the Rebuilds so that I don’t copy anyone because I have had a Moment thinking about this.

It’s not... good? on it’s own? these movies don’t stand on their own. Well, the first one does but that’s because it’s a retelling of the first few episodes of the original series cut down for time and with a bigger budget. But the other two, just, aren’t anything.

When I was trying to think of how to write this I thought “these movies are not intended to be viewed alone, but in comparison to the original series” and I think that’s true but it also sounds like the thing an insane person would say so I didn’t WANT to say it but it’s true.

2.22 is just Evangelion minus any of the interesting parts. it’s Evangelion written by this guy.

Like, if you read this post, I didn’t really mention the story. I spoke about the sensory quality of the show, the music, the animation, the new character who exists. That’s because there isn’t anything else to talk about in 2.22.

Nothing... happens... in it? Like, you get this new character, Mari Illustrious, but I don’t think you ever hear her name other than her answering her phone, and that is a tiny moment. You never see her meet any other characters and as far as I can tell her entire personality is “good at robots, guns, and throwing things to asuka when she needs them”, I don’t think she’s ever even tangentially involved in any personal conflicts. Given how deeply the original series cares about the motivations of each individual character, it’s weird to bring in this weird new girl who appears to exists solely to give the anime character model makers another statue to produce.

Asuka and Rei both have a crush on Shinji, which is out of nowhere and doesn’t go anywhere. It happens and then the story goes elsewhere and it’s basically never explored again. There’s none of the usual post-fight dialogue and bargaining that all the characters have with each other, just, here’s some cool robot fights. Have fun. You like that, right?

Asuka’s character starts off promising! She’s an overachiever prodigy who likes to throw her weight around and who thinks she doesn’t need anyone else, except then she finds out she likes having friends! Except this also doesn’t go anywhere. It just kinda gets disregarded because she’s swapped in for Suzuhara during the test that goes bad so she’s injured and offscreen for the rest of the movie. Her role is filled by Mari who once again does almost nothing other than Being Good At Robots.

The movie spends just, so much time on random shit. There’s a 10 minute sequence where they go to an aquarium and it’s just worldbuilding! Evangelion was never about worldbuilding and this worldbuilding doesn’t pay off in any way! It’s just, like, oh yeah, all ocean life is dead, we brought some back, but they have to stay here. The ocean used to be blue. Isn’t that interesting, to you, person watching? Same with the fights. Long fight sequences were always a part of Evangelion that was fun to watch but they were not actually important.

I think... this is supposed to be like, what would happen if all the people who complained about the end of the series, and who think that evangelion is too impenetrable, got what they wanted. It’s just a boring ordinary anime, with big action scenes and cute girls who have crushes on the shitty main dude.

I don’t remember it for certain but I think that Evangelion was about two things: 1) depression, and 2) opposing generic anime tropes. Getting in the big robot doesn’t solve your problems, it’s just running away from them. Asuka is a tsundere, but you shouldn’t be trying to date that girl, she needs serious help. Rei isn’t a beautiful blank slate for you to mould however you want, she’s got shit she needs to work through and trying to date her isn’t going to help either of you.

It seems like 2.22 is just Evangelion if it leaned into the trope that fights are cool and girls are there for you to fuck, hence the brief love triangle around Shinji/Rei/Asuka. It would also explain Mari, who appears to be from an entirely different universe where 14 year olds actually like piloting giant robots with the weight of the world on their backs. You need the context of the original show to understand why this is so weird. It lacks any of the meat that would make watching this alone worthwhile.

And then you get to 3.33. Look. I get that some people probably liked 3.33. I understand. But 3.33 is like, three different things simultaneously and I don’t know which part you liked because they aren’t all good.

Now, there are good parts. But I think they only make sense in the context of the original show. Everyone is constantly telling Shijni what to do: pilot the evangelion! don’t pilot the evangelion! Like this is the whole thrust of the series. Do you do the big thing that lets you run from your problems, or do you do the small hard work that is actually becoming a better person. The first one is very appealing if you’re afraid of the hard work of becoming a better person, so you have to grow up before you can do it, you have to accept that sometimes you have to do hard things to get what you want. But if you’ve only seen the Rebuilds, then you have no context for what the hard thing looks like. Everyone has done nothing but take the easy route of flying around in big robots shooting at aliens. You have to compare it to the end of the series, where Shinji thinks long and hard about what he needs to do to actually be happy in this world, and decides that he actually can improve himself for the better.

You spend 10 minutes at the beginning with Asuka recovering a McGuffin from space while backed up by Mari who appears to communicate entirely in sassy quips. Then we watch for another 10 minutes as they make a flying boat. The only really important narrative information conveyed in these 20 minutes is that it’s 14 years later, and that Shinji has been stuck in space all this time. Almost none of your points of reference survive this time skip, so we now have to establish a whole new pecking order and set of characters for this movie.

In 3.33, he does none of that. He instead bullheadedly fixates on piloting the Evangelion as the way to solve all his problems, and as a result causes an even greater disaster. This is Shinji if he didn’t learn anything from his experiences. This is about what happens when you don’t improve yourself. It seems to suddenly snap back around to the message of the original series, that you need to connect with other people and sort yourself out, not hide away and perform great feats to appear to progress, but it’s framed so weirdly that I can’t figure out /why/ you would go through all of this just to tell this story.

I’m not sure what the message is. It’s not sufficiently different from the original to claim a new message, but it doesn’t seem to have any message if you disregard the original.

I’m just baffled by it. It’s not the same, it’s not telling the same story. This feels cautionary, this is what not to do, but it’s also not different. The story is not distinct from the series. It still relies on the series to give it meaning. This is a series for people who watched evangelion, but I’m not sure why you would watch it. Is it for people who watched evangelion, and didn’t like it? Is it supposed to be like, what would happen if the entire series was made in the style of The End of Evangelion? I’m not sure. I’m going to go read some other people’s writing on this now, and hopefully that will clarify it.

[papermoonloveslucy]

PARLEY BAER

August 5, 1904

Parley Baer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He studied drama at the University of Utah. Early in his career, Baer was a circus ringmaster and publicist before entering military service in World War II. In the 1950s, he had a job training wild animals at Jungleland and was a docent at the Los Angeles Zoo. The highlight of his radio career was originating the role of Chester in the radio version of “Gunsmoke”, a role played by Dennis Weaver on television. Baer is perhaps best known for his recurring roles as Mayor Stoner on “The Andy Griffith Show” and Doc Appleby in “The Dukes of Hazzard.”  

“Radio is the most nearly perfect medium for an actor. If you have an audience of 5 million people listening to you, you're giving 5 million performances.” ~ Parley Baer

On radio, he did four episodes of “Grandby’s Green Acres” starring Gale Gordon and Bea Benadaret, a summer fill-in for Lucille Ball’s “My Favorite Husband.”  Baer would also later appear in four episodes of the television version, “Green Acres” (1965-71). 

Baer’s first collaboration with Lucille Ball was playing MGM’s Mr. Reilly in “Ricky Needs an Agent” (ILL S4;E29).  Disguised as Miss McGillicuddy, Ricky’s agent, Lucy is determined to see Dore Schary herself, but remembers that they previously met, so she meets with another Metro executive Reilly instead.

Baer returned to the series as Connecticut furniture salesman Mr. Perry in “Lucy Gets Chummy with the Neighbors” (ILL S6;E18). Neighbor Betty Ramsey (Mary Jane Croft) takes Lucy to her favorite showroom, where Lucy mistakes stock numbers for price tags and goes over the budget Ricky allowed her. 

Baer made five appearances on “The Lucy Show.”  In his first appearance he is Mr. Evans, who sells Lucy Carmichael a sheep to help maintain her lawn in “Lucy Buys a Sheep” (TLS S1;E5) in 1962.

Two years later (finally in color) Baer returns to “The Lucy Show” to play Jack T.  Kasten, a humorless Danfield judge that has to tolerate an overzealous “Lucy the Meter Maid” (TLS S3;E7) in 1964. 

In “Lucy and the Undercover Agent” (TLS S4;E10) in 1965, Baer played Colonel Dietrich (codename HIM) of US Intelligence.  After seeing a James Bond film, Lucy, the Countess and Mr. Mooney find themselves embroiled in a spy caper that ends up with Lucy disguised as Carol Channing.  

When Lucy develops super strength in “Lucy the Superwoman” (TLS S4;E26) in 1966, she is examined by Dr. Davis (Baer) to determine the source of her sudden power. 

Baer once again dons judge’s robes when “Lucy Sues Mooney” (TLS S6;E12) in 1967. This would be his last appearance on the series, but not his last with Ball...

On “Here’s Lucy” he played Dr. Cunningham, Harry Carter’s psychiatrist, in “Lucy’s Vacation” (HL S3;E17)...

 and in “Lucy’s Bonus Bounces” (HL S4;E16). There may have been intentions to make Dr. Cunningham a recurring character, but this never came to pass. 

ON THE DESILU LOT...

Between 1952 and 1955, Baer made three appearances on “Our Miss Brooks” starring Gale Gordon and Eve Arden.  

In 1956, he made an appearance on the Desilu sitcom “December Bride” starring Verna Felton. 

In May 1959, he did an episode of Desilu’s “Whirlybirds” a series about helicopter pilots.  He shared the screen with Herb Vigran, who Baer is sometimes mistaken for and who also did several Lucy-coms. 

That same year, Baer did “The Hanging Judge” a non-Lucy-Desi episode of “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse”.  The show was hosted by Desi Arnaz. 

From 1956 to 1960, Baer did three episodes of “The Danny Thomas Show” aka “Make Room for Daddy”, a show that moved to CBS in 1959 and did a crossover episode with “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”. In one episode, Baer acted with Mary Wickes (Madame Lamond), and in another he appeared opposite Shirley Mitchell (Marion Strong). The series was not produced by Desilu, but it was shot at their studio. 

In 1960, Baer did one episode of the short-lived Desilu series “Harrigan and Son” about a father / son law firm. 

In April 1961, Baer did an episode of “Angel” shot on the Desilu lot. In his episode, he played the title character of “The Dentist” and acted opposite Doris Singleton (Carlolyn Appleby), a recurring character on the short-lived series.

Perhaps his most famous work on the Desilu backlot was as Mayberry Mayor Roy Stoner in seven episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show” from 1962 to 1963. 

Back on the bench as a Judge on “My Living Doll” on the Desilu backlot for an episode aired in February 1965. The short-lived series was about a psychiatrist (Bob Cummings) entrusted with the care of a sexy robot (Julie Newmar). 

In 1966 and 1967, Baer did two episodes of “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C” on the Desilu backlot. In 1966, Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) turned up in a cameo on “The Lucy Show.”  At the end of 1967, Lucille Ball sold Desilu to Paramount and Gulf + Western. 

In 1946, Baer married Ernestine Clarke and they had two children. Baer died in November 2002 after a stroke. 

[tsunflowers]

the ending segment is mari complaining to sakura that SHE doesn’t get to drive a combining robot and sakura’s like “I would say pilot instead of drive” and mari’s like whatEVER and sakura says “well you can join and be yellow” and mari says “NO, I will never be yellow” and sakura’s like “you wear yellow though.” and then I think it ends with mari complaining about the people’s tax dollars being spent on the flamengers’ shit? wish we had more mari-sakura interaction in the show

[fallingin-like]

november 23

the real folk blues by @annawrites [requested by @allforthebee]

see which other fics i’m reviewing this month! / my review request post!

this absolutely amazing and captivating fic that has the foxes as space bounty hunters and neil who is, as usual, and exceptionally skilled runaway. set away some time to read this fic as soon as possible, because once you start, you won’t be able to put it down until you finish.

this is such an entertaining, fun fic and you did an amazing job at balancing the softer moments with intense, action-packed scenes. at all times i was fully immersed in the story, you handled everything so well. i’m always a fan of your writing, so it’s not a surprised that i had a wonderful experience rereading this.

bits that stood out to me:

”counting stars has become a habit, something to subdue the memories” ah this is really cute and i can totally imagine canon andrew, lying on the roof of some building counting stars instead of trying to sleep

”renee cracks a chicken bone smile in the corner of her mouth” i have never heard this phrase before but i love it!

”there’s a collective intake of breath - andrew, who remembers every single bounty ever placed, can’t remember it ever being this big” for some reason, i love when this kind of thing happens. it feels so cool, knowing someone wants that character that bad and gets me excited for what kind of skills the hunted person has, to be able to evade the people looking for them (reminds me of john wick lol)

”nathaniel wesninski alias neil josten is a hacker, con artist, engineer and pilot” BLESS HIM FOR BEING SO CAPABLE AND SKILLED

matt’s infamous bell peppers and beef with no beef!!! that’s funny and i think about it surprisingly often

”renee pulls up a few more photographs of neil wesninski on the hologram screen. she deals them out like cards until they fan out in a neat timeline of faded hoodies and various iterations of the same polished smile, a mouth sharpened to cutting perfection… the eyes, in contrast, look consistently hunted” holograms and just this space tech is SO cool. i love seeing how the foxes view neil before they meet him. it’s interesting how many sightings they have of him, but also how blank he seems, when we all know that there’s so much personality under that surface

”the ISSP are a bunch of corrupt, incompetent idiots” LOL

”’tone down the optimism, day,’ andrew drawls. ‘we might start overestimating our chances’” agh i love your characterization of all of these characters and this is a great example of why! and i like that you used drawls, it feels very andrew-like

”andrew waggles his fingers lazily in the air” yeah this is andrew

woah i have never seen the art for this fic (i guess because i have the fic downloaded and i just read that version instead of going on ao3, the pictures must not have downloaded) but it’s great!

gasp, i love the idea of the foxes Dressed Up

ALLISON BEING BANNED FROM PLAYING!! “her former alias - lady luck, also known as poker alice” oh this is great. for some reason, them having reputations like this really excites me

”it’s in my blind spot” ANDREW this is so funny

ahhhh i can’t believE you added the “better luck next time” line in!!

okay so the whole action part of this scene is so intense, love andrew throwing the poker chip as a diversion, and neil pretending to give up for a moment before ACTIVATING HIS ARMED SHIP AND SHOOTING EVERYONE. ugh, hearing about neil being so good at what he does (steering, hacking, while taking off his jacket) makes me love this scene so much

”vowels rolling like a pair of dice” this is so good on its own, but paired with the casino scene that precedes it? stunning

”kevin values his ship, and his life, in that order.” i can imagine. i wonder, is there competitive racing in this au? i can imagine kevin being obsessed with that

thank goodness riko is dead, one less thing (on a list of many things) to worry about. whoop and i see that easthaven has passed, good.

KEVIN DAY WITH A METAL ARM AND A TRANSMITTER PLATE THAT COVERS HIS TATTOO YEAH

oh dang limb regrowth tech in this au? wild

”’minyard and the monster, how lovely to see you again.’ neil greets him through the once more hijacked comm. they’ve been playing this game for weeks now, racing each other across the milky way like starved lovers. even allison is starting to run out of lewd jokes” i find it so interesting hearing about this relationship that’s being built between them even though they basically never meet in person, the joking from neil’s side

these hints of andrew’s eye mods are really great, i definitely didn’t notice them as much as i should have when i first read this fic, but every time after that, i appreciate little details like these more and more

RENEE WITH A KATANA YES PLEASE

”andrew shakes off the last dregs of sunday sleepiness that cling to his lips like the skin on warm milk. neil wesninski might have become a game by now, but the malcolms still mean business” ohhh boy, even knowing what comes next i get nervous hearing this. i love the contrast between the softness of what sundays mean with the conflict to come, especially when you jump right into the action

”renee pants, her voice cool and slippery like broken tiles amid the crackle of static” oh i love this description

LOL i can’t believe that andrew got matt’s dessert rations and gets to invite neil to be a part of their crew

”missions are slow and neil’s face keeps showing up on big shot, though not for lack of people trying to hunt him down.” i don’t know why but i really like this!! you go, neil!

oh oh thank you so much for the way that you describe neil alone on his ship, his hoodies, gloves, “one sad-looking sock”, “the one sock he’s wearing has holes”, talking to himself, “yet he’s still inexplicably trying to shield his robots from andrew’s gun” so cute!

”eyes like the gleaming insides of a wire in the dark” this!!!!

the! cats! neil made his robots cats!!

NEIL HACKING INTO THEIR COMMS I LOVE HIM

”neil is like a live fish under his hands, constantly wriggling and sliding out of his grip, fingers twitching back toward his abandoned project like flies caught in a spiderweb” ahh squirmy neil is super cute, “neil shivers under the touch like he’s not used to being touched at all” this doesn’t surprise me. even if i didn’t have an idea of what his childhood might have been like (with mary and nathan, i imagine there was not very much affection), he’s probably been alone for so long, when would the last time someone would have touched him? i don’t think i would be able to handle it

ahh barefoot neil is always cute

SCARS no matter how many fics i read, i always love moments when neil’s scars are revealed

NEIL RUNNING LAPS IN HIS TINY SHORTS AROUND AND AROUND AHH

”neil slinks into the room late, looking tousled and a little sticky around the edges like he’s just woken up from a nap. he freezes when he sees andrew, stuck standing right in the middle of the projection, and only moves when dan throws a cushion at him” your writing actually paints scenes in my head which for me, a person really bad at visualizing things, is really impressive. it makes the experiences of reading exponentially more interesting, and doesn’t happen that often.

renee as praying mantis!! what a perfect nickname. is she religious in this au as well? i can’t remember if any religions even exist in this au (whoops i know nothing about cowboy bebop)

”she looks stiff and faded like old newspaper in the light of the kitchen lamps” what a gem of a sentence

me: sees the nickname gorilla and gets excited because i know some action is going to go down

”the three of them would just  about reach his head if renee sat on andrew’s shoulders and lifted neil up” THIS IS AMAZING. i mean, andrew and neil are tiny but they are not that tiny

”andrew begins tonelessly, tracing patterns into neil’s skin” if we ignore the fact that andrew is telling a terrible terrible story, this is so soft

”his breathing is viscous now, like syrup in his lungs. his left eye aches and the corner of his mouth twitches painfully into the ghost of a manic grin. he bites his tongue and it tastes like the word please” i am speechless but i really wanted to acknowledge this sentences lakjsdf

NEIL WINNING THE BET ABOUT BEING ABLE TO STEAL THINGS FROM THE VENDOR AND ROBBING THE MAN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. uGH you do such a good job of integrating humour like this into your story and having it fit the tone and pacing of the fic effortlessly.

excuse me how is it possible that you followed such a lighthearted scene with something so devastating as andrew explaining his past to allison and neil and have it still flow??? “because… i did not mean for you to get hurt” ANDREW YOU’RE SO GOOD

”he’s smoking outside and watching the dusk unfurl like an exotic flower when there’s a crash inside the store” this description is so gorgeous

what in the world, andrew i don’t even know how to describe you. he really just helps catch the robbers with his headphones on while choosing things to buy, killing a dude, then checking out, no big deal???? i understand neil’s attraction to him a little bit more now…

andrew and renee sharing clothes is now canon, please and thank you

oh no, lola is Bad News, especially when it comes to threatening neil’s family

NEIL PACKING ANDREW’S LEATHER JACKET AHH

”the bebop crew are basically overgrown children and react very well to the little sugary rewards for good behaviour” yeah this is very true haha

”’your blatant flirting woke me up,’ matt grins weakly. ‘can i have a lollipop too, neil?” i remember this whole scene so well, the second the infirmary was mentioned i knew it was lollipop time. matt, is basically how i feel right now HAH

woah wymack taking care of bonsai trees? i didn’t know i needed that in my life so badly. just like neil and the twins, so tiny :’)

uhm so, the tape that nicky sent to andrew? it’s actually making me cry (which is super rare for fics) “i hope you know that i love you”, “things aren’t so easy at the moment, and maybe they still aren’t easy for you watching this ten years from now, but i’ll always be there for you, and for aaron, too. i hope that one day we can be a family. happy birthday, my little piyoko, don’t eat all the cake by yourself!” i love this so much, and it makes me so sad and happy. this nicky is so good, and as much as i think andrew needed to see this, i think that i needed to read this more. thank you

nicky calling the twins his little piyokos, his lucky birds ;-;

the reunion scenes are so good, i really don’t think i can write anything that sufficiently describes how i feel. the way that nicky acts, the new relatives, older aaron, it all feels so right, so real.

andrea minyard deserves her own bullet point

neil just goes and makes all the police ships crash by controlling them remotely just for andrew to be hit by a moon rock?!?!?

”something irritatingly warm rises and swells inside andrew like yeast dough and he plunges his fists into it and kneads it into submission, twists it until all that remains is sticky, frothy anger” and “andrew sits down on a crate and prods at the yeasty mass still fermenting in his insides. the sudden bloating of anger has subsided to the usual starchy nothingness, but there’s a sugary residue of unease that he doesn’t want to examine any further right now” as much as i adore your jokes and beautiful descriptions of scenes, sentences like these ones that blow me away completely are why you’re one of my favourite fanfic authors. these are the kinds of sentences that i carry with me even after i am finished reading

”i can’t decide if you two are more like toddlers or like an old married couple… either way, it’s really bizarre to see andrew having feelings other than hate and destruction” LOL

thea is the coolest person ever

”kevin makes a noise like a dying dog” me too, kevin

NONONONONO ICHIROU AND JEAN AND EASTHAVEN

thank goodness neil is here

apparently i am very fond of the words “juice pack” and think it is cute. why? i also do not know

huh, riko naming his identity kevin king?? feels… not good

oh boy, lola is back

ANDREW CAN PICK OPEN HIS HANDCUFFS THANK YOU FOR THIS

is it bad if i am happy that all these people are dying (proust, lola, etc.)

NEIL AMPUTATES NATHAN’S HAND WITH A CLEAVER WHILE HE’S HOLDING A CLEAVER AND THEN KILLS HIM LDKSJFLK

oh dang, it’s stuart (i trust him)

andrew’s eye! thank goodness, because although it kind of sucks, it also Really Does Not Suck

”it’s stiff and awkward and neil quickly wriggles out of it. kevin must be really shaken up, because he tries andrew next. andrew waits passively until he’s close and then steps to the side at the last moment, smothering his amusement in a cough when kevin walks straight into the wall with open arms. serves him right for thinking even for a second that andrew would let him” LOL i love you, anna, so so much

money!! woohoooooo (or should i say woolonghooo okay sorry that’s like the world’s worst pun)

BELL PEPPERS AND BEEF WITH ACTUAL BEEF AND NO PEPPERS YES! what a great way to bring things full circle, even though it’s small

sweet dumplings filled with fruit? i am intrigued

THE SHIRT

i can’t not acknowledge the bit with the key, neil is too clever for his own good

we finally get to see bee! ugh i love the relationship between bee and andrew

”they may be marks of destruction, but they are still andrew’s; still proof of his existence” yeah (like a good yeah)

interesting about andrew’s memory not being as good without his left eye. does he have eidetic memory in this au? maybe it’s better if he doesn’t

i remember the first time i read this fic, in startling detail. this fic was so good then, and it has been just as good, if not better, every time i have reread it

it’s kind of embarrassing, but one of the things that i remember distinctly (among a lot of other things) is the noodles! reading this fic never fails to make me want to eat instant noodles

so one thing about me is that i am actually really bad at visualizing things. when i read stories, i can never imagine what a character looks like, i just see the feature that is being highlighted at the moment, and the second that sentence ends, that image is gone. like i just have a magnifying glass to someone’s face but i can’t piece together the parts. it makes it so that i often struggle with the visualization of stories. but something about your writing makes it easy for me to pictures scenes happening. everything is so vivid, and real (hence, the instant noodle cravings lol) and i love that so much. it’s so special.

the flow of this fic is amazing, the characterization is incredibly authentic and really helps with carrying the plot. you integrated lighthearted scenes with pure angst and awful things (easthaven) and i’m honestly curious as to the cowboy bebop episodes you took inspiration from. this fic was so well written, you are so skilled at introducing characters, locations, plot points, although i’m not familiar with this universe i wasn’t confused at any point. you explained everything without me noticing. this was just a breathtaking fic. thank you so much for writing this!!

[glapplebloom]

Now its time for the Reboot.

Say hello to Blisstina Francesca Francia Mariam Alicia Utonium. Bliss for short. She’s the Older Sister of the Powerpuff Girls made from Chemical W. In short, she’s the Prototype of the Powerpuff Girls. And like a Prototype she has things the other girls don’t have.

First is Teleportation. The girls have it too but she can go long range. Of course, this could be because she’s older. And her unique power is Telekinesis: the ability to use your mind for various things. In total, she has appeared in eight episodes and one short, making her the Powerpuff with the most appearances outside the core three.

So let’s get one thing out of the way: her design is not that good. That is a lot of hair in the back and in an awful looking color too. I like the idea of it glowing but the default is that same blueish green color. 

Her Prom Look I would say is actually better. Her outfit looks nice and her hair is done in a way that you can see her in a silhouette instead of Cousin It. And a single long Ponytail would fit alongside the girls better than a super long hair.

Two things that I do want to point out is the following. 1- She made a cameo appearance in The Bubbles-Sitters Club, 10 episodes before the Power of Four Special. That’s pretty clever.

2) Remember when the four fused together to create what the Wiki calls Brambles? This is actually a reference to the original concept of Dynamo. In the pilot series Whoop-@$$ Stew, the three girls fuse together to create Dynamo. In the original series that turned into a giant robot. But its nice to see it brought back here.

While she does have things that makes her seem Mary Sue-ish (the original girls get teased on the first day of school yet she’s instantly popular) she does have plenty of flaws that makes her a unique character on her own. Sadly, between the original’s more focus on action and the not as good writing talents of the Reboot, we can’t really see that potential.

So of the three, who deserves to be known as the 4th Powerpuff Girl? If I’m going to be honest, its Bliss. Bunny was created with ill intentions and was basically treated as an afterthought in terms of the show writers. Bullet faired better, but overall he was a pet at most and his own hero. With Bliss, she is in fact a sister by having the same father. So by that knowledge alone, plus the more time spent with her, she should be the rightful heir to the 4th Powerpuff Girl.

But there is one more. A fan character but one well known. For the finale, we’re ringing that Bell.

[thanksjro]

Polyhex Wars, Book 1 Part 2: The Timeline for the Robots Being Gay Goes Back Further Than I Thought

Ratchet wakes up from that whole, “mystical passing out” thing to find himself strapped to a table with his head all poked into with wires. Optimus and Prowl are also being subjected to this treatment, but they’re not awake yet.

I guess we all have that one character we just latch onto, don’t we?

Chromedome was there when all three of these guys collapsed, and went to go get help. Ratchet explains that there was black fire and breaking glass and it was all like some god-awful acid trip.

No kidding, doc.

Ratchet seems to think that all that actually happened, but it turns out that it was all in their heads, much like everything else that they’d seen. Chromedome just saw them drop with a flash of light.

Optimus wakes up, and First Aid explains that their mental trips into Limbo are coming closer and closer together,  and becoming more violent as a result. There’s a good chance that the next time they have an attack, they’ll be sharing a dreamscape.

Prowl hasn’t woken up. Optimus is worried that he’s stuck in Limbo, and demands that they be put back under to guide him back to the land of the living. First Aid has his reservations, but what is he gonna do, argue with the space pope? Optimus and Ratchet are sent back in with the power of mind-transfer.

Let’s take a quick look at some Chromedome canon before we move on to the next chunk of story, because I want to try and get a feel for why Roberts seems to like him so much.

In the Marvel comics, Chromedome was kind of a reclusive computer nerd, who very much disliked the fact that all his programming skills were only being applied to the war effort as opposed to literally anything else. When Fortress Maximus decided to up and leave, he went along gladly. He ended up getting paired with a very outgoing, vain Nebulan partner named Stylor when the whole Headmaster thing happened. They had their differences, but ultimately were brought together by the common goal of kicking Decepticon ass for the greater good. Comic Chromedome is a relatively nice guy, if a bit cowardly- his final entry in the series was heading for the hills when Unicron showed up, but honestly I can’t really fault him for that.

And then there’s the Headmasters anime. Yeah, Chromedome was an anime protagonist back in the 90’s. Anime Chromedome is a completely different entity than his comic counterpart. His whole thing is that he wants revenge for the murder of his friends at the hands of Sixshot. He’s also a Headmaster- no shit- but it works a little differently, in that he’s the only one involved with the process. Chromedome himself IS the head, and the big body he plugs into is just this sort of inert mecha that he pilots when he wants to be able to reach the higher shelves at the supermarket.

Anime Chromedome is the second-in-command to Fortress Maximus, and he’s a bit of a jackass at times, but he seems to have his heart in the right place. You know, when he isn’t busy beating Decepticons to death. Anime Chromedome goes hard.

Getting back to the story, we return to the scene we left at the end of Part One, with the 40 Autobots having been caught in a trap in Darkmount.

Well that lasted all of five minutes. Poor Grandpa.

This starts a chain reaction, and it isn’t long before all the Autobots are throwing punches. Blaster goes full cowl, taking four guys on at once, and potentially kneeing someone in the nuts so hard they flies up into the air and are promptly exploded by gunfire. Blaster throws a gun to Sights, who is a sniper, and then is right back in the center of the fracas.

Sights is a sniper here, but it looks like the only Sights in Transformers canon is a bird who can turn into a fusion cannon. They probably aren’t the same character, unless there’s something I don’t know about birds.

Sights hauls himself up to a ledge using a grappling hook, and starts picking off Decepticons. Things seem to be turning around for the Autobots at this point, because Sights is the best.

Sights is what some might call a Mary Sue- he’s the best at sniping, rivaling Optimus Prime himself with his accuracy, everyone seems to know him, and he singlehandedly has turned the tide of this fight. As the Autobots escape, he manages to explode a key piece of Decepticon equipment, killing over a dozen enemy troops.

This is an earlier work, if you couldn’t already tell.

We do see some neat transitions in the writing, though.

Ratchet and Optimus have entered Limbo, and are feeling a little manic about the whole thing, especially since the space is just filled with corpses from the Time Wars. Like, it’s a carpet of dead bodies.

Roberts was all about that edge from the get-go, huh?

The two robots start walking, looking for Prowl.

Over with Red Alert on the Celestial, he’s not really feeling the vibe on this spacecraft. Neither is Hot Shot, but neither of them can really pinpoint why exactly that is. Sideswipe points out that Getaway doesn’t have his Nebulan partner with him- for this particular story, we’re going with the take on Getaway as a Powermaster, which means he has a smaller person who plugs into his body to act as a battery, kind of like a reverse parasite.

Comic books are weird.

Toy gimmicks are also weird.

This cues in the Autobots that things might not be on the up and up here. You know, that and the whole “Witterquick” thing. The boys load their weapons, but keep them concealed as they approach not-Blaster, who’s beginning to worry that he’s been caught after all this time.  He must have sort flavor of social anxiety, because he’s kept his cool over the video chat for the last few weeks, but the moment Red Alert enters the room, he blows his cover and orders the Decepticons to attack.

Back at Darkmount, it seems we’ve lost a few people, as the count has gone from 40 to 29. The boys are running through the halls, completely clueless as to where to go in order to escape.

Don’t be shocked by the language, this is G1 Silverbolt, not the one who fucks is a complete gentleman to a spider.

I’m still convinced that this Courier guy is evil. You should be tossing him out the window, not looking to him for help.

The Decepticons are gaining. Hound, exasperated, asks as nicely as he can for Silverbolt to try and wake Courier up as they attempt to keep the distance between factions as wide as they can. Laser fire quickly becomes involved, and Swerve and Bumblebee go from the back of the pack to the front. Little fellas can move when they want to.

While Sights does another cool thing with some guns he stole, Courier wakes up and says- with some trouble, since he’s just woken up and still bleeding from that leg wound- that they should jump into the sewers to escape.

That’s all well and good, but if they intend on doing such a thing, they’ll need to put a bit more distance between themselves and their assailants. Everyone starts shooting at the ceiling, attempting to bring it crashing down. Everyone except Sights. No, instead Sights goes on picking off any Decepticon who gets too close for comfort, until they manage to bring the house down.

The strong, silent type, Sights is. Tall, dark, and handsome, too, most likely.

Back in Limbo, Ratchet’s starting to crack.

As if on cue, the ground starts to crack, revealing lava of all things, and the whole scene turns into Dante’s Inferno-flavored Hell. Yeah, proper noun Hell. Optimus and Ratchet are exploded by contact with a downpour of acid rain, then their bodies reconstituted, only to be burned to crispies by the lava. When they wake up from that, they find themselves stuck on a spinning silver plate in the sky, where they have an excellent view of where Prowl’s gotten to- he’s stranded on an asteroid with a big, scary Decepticon, who’s about to complete wreck his shit.

You know, the snark has always been there in Roberts’ writing, but it didn’t really hit its stride until after this piece of work.

Meanwhile, in the sewers, our Autobots aren’t doing so hot. Courier’s probably going to die if they don’t get him medical attention soon. I guess they just didn’t have any sort of medic on the Celestial when it was overtaken, which seems like a massive oversight. Or maybe they’re dead.

We don’t have time to worry about the hiring practices of the Autobots right now though, because a few Decepticons just arrived on the scene.

Well, there goes the token girl character.

Seems like nobody told these ‘Cons to not hit their deep cover operative. There goes several thousand years of Autobot secrets, dumbasses. Soundwave’s going to be so pissed.

The Autobots quickly fall into formation and start defending themselves. Turns out Rev-Tone’s on the scene.

Hi Rev-Tone!

Someone gets shot and proceeds to explode, which causes enough chaos for a Decepticon to load up a missile launcher without being noticed and fire it into the crowd.

Things are looking hopeless, so that means it’s time for Sights to make his Heroic Sacrifice™. Hound begs him to stay, because he can’t bear to lose anyone else.

Unfortunately, the Hound/Sights coffeeshop AU slowburn fit written by Rewind will have to have a fix-it fic tag, because Sights is almost immediately and literally ripped apart by a smattering of Decepticons. Knowing his time is running out, he busts out the big guns.

Oh my god he’s got fucking laser vision.

That isn’t quite enough though, so he initiates self-destruct, thereby saving his fellow Autobots and dying a hero.

You know, if you stack Sights on top of what was left of Quark after the interrogation scene, you make a whole robot. Worst. Duobot. Ever.

Not to worry though, because Wheeljack’s taken the opportunity to be all weird and cryptic, and insinuates that they potentially COULD bring Sights back from the dead. Because of course he can.

We don’t get to find out how that magic’s going to happen though, because it’s time to check in on Optimus and Ratchet.

Things aren’t going great. They crashed the disk, and it turns out that the giant Decepticon threatening Prowl and throwing body parts at him is Galvatron. Optimus leaps into action, attempting to use his magnetic repellence on the enemy.

I guess that’s a thing he has.

It works, but it’s taking a lot out of Optimus, so they need to figure something else out fast. Optimus, ever light on his mental feet, surges the power so that Galvatron explodes. Ratchet goes over to Prowl to see what his deal is, and it’s looking like he’s going to need brain surgery.

“Now back the hell up, Optimus, you’re breathing contaminates all over Prowl’s exposed brain.”

Back on Cybertron, it turns out that things might just be okay after all, as Hound and company have stumbled across the lost city of Subterrainia. Subterrainia did not exist in Transformers canon at the time of this writing, but it would in 2012, when Roberts used his immense power as a hired writer for the franchise to make it so.

Now that they’re in a place that has medical equipment, they can heal their wounded and indulge in a little lore. Trasher provides us with the backstory of this lost city.

Long before the War, Transformers lived on the surface of Cybertron. Then, one day, someone said, what if we didn’t do that? Then they built Subterrainia and lived there instead. Then the War happened and people sort of just forgot that it was there. The end.

That’s literally it.

After that riveting explanation, we check back in with Optimus, who I suppose forgot to put on his patience hat this morning, as he asks Ratchet to hurry up with the life-saving field surgery he’s currently in the middle of. Ratchet calls him out on it, as he should, and Optimus apologizes, going back to worrying about his troops outside of Limbo.

Over on the Celestial, Red Alert’s just had his arm shot off, and there’s a continuity error running amok.

You are supposed to be back at base, mister!

The Autobots are getting their asses kicked, and it’s not hard to see why- a lot of the Decepticons on this spacecraft are heavy hitters. Starscream’s here, the entire Combaticon team, it’s wild.

Then Starscream calls for escape plan 3 to take place, and they just… leave. It’s strange, and it’s sudden, and the Autobots can’t help but agree. Red Alert decides to see what’s on the computer to try and figure out what they’re planning, and ends up setting off the countdown for a bomb. Slapdash yells at him for being an idiot.

Back down in the City of the Mole People, Getaway’s come back from checking out the place, and informs Hound that it’s completely abandoned. He theorizes that the Decepticons killed everyone who lived here, an will probably come looking for them sooner rather than later. That’s all fine though, because Courier’s back and better than ever.

I still don’t trust him.

He says he knows how to get out of Subterrainia- which only chalks up more points against him being a true Autobot- but hold on! What about Sights?

Sights just got Goldbugged. It’s Ammo now.

Roberts will never let a pair of robot titties go unnoticed. I can’t believe that Wheeljack, with the limited time they had, would go and make Ammo this attractive, and then have the audacity to show him off with a dramatic reveal. It was completely unnecessary, but here we are, staring at Ammo’s strong arms and thighs, wishing to be held by Hotbot 9000 over here.

Hound is all about this overhaul. Look at him, getting all flustered.

Ammo as character is present in the IDW run of the comics, but in name only. They are very different creatures, much like the different iterations of Quark. Roberts is very into recycling, and here is no exception.

After Ammo’s debut, the narrative checks in on Autobot City, where things aren’t nearly as sexy; Starscream made a beeline for the place the moment they left the Celestial, and they’re wrecking shop. He’s doing this without orders to do so, by the way. This is just how Starscream wants his Monday to go, I guess. It’s looking pretty grim for the Autobots, and Optimus is still stuck in Limbo. Hopefully he gets back soon.

[aion-rsa]

The 7 Greatest Comic Series Based on Toy Lines

https://ift.tt/35Ng3I0

Set your nostalgia rays to the '80s. Some toy lines actually ended up as even better comic book series.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Comic book icons and heroes have been appearing on toy shelves since the days of Captain Action and Mego. But sometimes, toys that win the hearts and minds of kids of all ages are given their own comics, allowing toy fans to see their favorite bits of plastic in action by some of the best writers and artists in comics.

Many toys have graced the pages of comics over the years, including memorable curiosities like Sectaurs, Madballs, Visionaries, Go-Bots, and so many more, but there have been a few properties that have transcended their humble plastic roots to become the stuff of comic book legend.

Here are but a sampling:

The Saga of Crystar: Crystal Warrior

Back in 1983, Marvel published Crystar, a concept they had developed specifically to sell the license to a toy manufacturer. Remco was wowed by the world Marvel had created and produced one line of figures in 1982. Marvel then followed the toys up with a comic written by Mary Jo Duffy with absolutely stunning covers by the great Michael Golden.

The toys were things of beauty, produced in translucent plastic, and the Crystal Warriors stood out on the toy shelves. Remco produced a bunch of good Crystal Warriors and an array of evil Magma people. The toy company also produced two dragons, one magma and one crystal (which is a sight to behold), a castle, and some accessories.

The story of Crystar was pretty simple: the good agents of order, the crystal warriors, faced off against the agents of chaos, the Magma people, led by Crystar’s brother, Moltar (because what else would you named the leader of the Magma people?). The world of the comic was well built and functioned within the parameters of the toys and still holds up pretty well today. Marvel must have wanted the book and toy line to succeed because there were frequent Marvel Universe guest stars in the Crystar comic including Dr. Strange, Nightcrawler (from X-Men), and Alpha Flight.

It seems that Marvel still holds the right to Crystar as the character made a cameo appearance in one of the six million Marvel Zombies series. The  property might be obscure, but as far as toy/comic tie ins go, Crystar was a (I shouldn’t) diamond in the rough (I did).

Shogun Warriors

Is there anything cooler than giant Mechs? How about giant Mechs based on an ultra-popular Japanese toy line stomping around the Marvel Universe? For two years, Marvel fans got to experience Shogun Warriors as a legitimate part of the Marvel Universe proper.

Shogun Warriors was a Mattel property that united a bunch of robot toys from Japan under the same banner. There were tons of toys and vehicles produced by Mattel, in many different sizes, but Marvel only had the license for three of the robots, Raydeen, Combattra, and Dangard Ace, piloted by an American stuntman, a Japanese test pilot, and an oceanographer from Madagascar, respectively. The humans and their Mechs had many adventures written by the great Doug Moench with pitch perfect artwork by Hulk legend Herb Trimpe.

Things took an odd turn in Shogun Warriors #16, when the Warriors’ human handlers were slaughtered by the villainous Primal One creating an odd last few issues that were kind of ponderously depressing. Marvel’s Shogun Warriors had an ignominious end, as all three Warriors were destroyed off panel by the Samurai Destroyer in the pages of Fantastic Four once Marvel lost the license.

While it lasted, the Shogun Warriors was an entertaining book that really displayed the talents of Trimpe, a man born to draw '70 eras Japanese robots, and featured luminary guest stars like Reed Richards and Tony Stark. The oddity of Marvel destroying an in-continuity property to explain a lapsed license makes Marvel’s Shogun Warriors a great point of curiosity of the Bronze Age.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

The original Masters of the Universe toys, produced by Mattel, came packed with mini-comics of their own. These mini-tomes fleshed out the world of He-Man and his allies and enemies, and they were just the beginning of a long standing relationship between He-Man and the world of comics.

In 1982, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe appeared in a miniseries from DC that saw He-Man dwell in a much more Robert E. Howard world. He-Man was introduced in DC Comics Presents #47 written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by iconic Superman artist Curt Swan. With Swan on board, you know that He-Man went toe-to-toe with Superman, as the Man of Steel was mystically transported to Eternia. The special team-up introduced the world to Skeletor, Beast-Man, Teela, Man at Arms, and Battle Cat. The issue, which remains a hotly sought after back issue to this day, led into a three issue series written by Kupperberg, with art by George Tuska and Alfredo Alcala which briefly established He-Man’s world as an alternate dimension to the DC Universe. DC only published five He-Man stories in the '80s but they established the foundation for everything that would follow. 

After DC, Marvel’s Star imprint, a line of comics for young readers, tried their hand at He-Man, but the books were watered down versions of the already watered down cartoon. Marvel also featured an odd little adaptation of the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie where all the characters looked like their toy counterparts instead of the actors that portrayed them on the big screen (except Beast Man for some reason). The property returned to the edgier roots a bit in the early 2000s series published by MV Creations before returning back to DC in recent years, which features revamped versions of the classic characters.

But those original DC books remain some of the most beloved toy comics of all time as DC really fleshed out a back story that would become the inspiration for cartoons, films, and future comics. DC was the first to give life to Mattel’s enduring line of heroes, warriors, monsters, wizards, and whatever the heck an Orko is.

Micronauts

According to legend, one Christmas, the son of comic book great Bill Mantlo opened his Christmas presents, and lo and behold, Micronauts! As Mantlo watched his son open his toys, the writer supposedly began constructing a backstory for the little metal men. At Mantlo’s request, then Marvel got the Micronauts license from Mego and the rest is history.

Like Shogun Warriors and Transformers, Micronauts were Japanese toys from a number of different toy lines joined together under one branding umbrella. The toys were cool, but unlike many toys of that era, they arrived on shelves without much of a backstory, until Mantlo came along and crafted one of the finest examples of innovative world building of the era.

Once again, Marvel incorporated Mantlo’s Micronauts into the Marvel Universe as the heroic team consisting of Acroyear, Bug, Commander Rann, Biotron, Princess Mari, and Prince Argon, took on established Marvel villains Plant Man, Psycho Mann, Dr. Doom, Molecule Man, and Hydra agents Fixer and Mentallo, plus their own adversary Baron Karza. The ‘nauts even teamed with the X-Men in an early '80s mini-series that was quite a big deal at the time. The book featured complex characters that often flipped sides between good and evil and firmly established the team as important parts of the Marvel Universe.

It was so enduring that, despite not having the Micronauts license anymore, many of the characters that Mantlo created that never had their own toy remain part of the Marvel Universe, like Bug for instance, who was a founding member of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy! Micronauts stands as one of the greatest examples of what a skilled creative team can do with toy property. Despite its simple premise, Micronauts remains one of the best executed comics of its day.

Rom, Spaceknight

The toys covered in this article all were very successful and each made their respective companies a great deal of money. That’s what’s so amazing about Rom, which had a very successful comic series that ran an amazing seven years, yet, the Rom toy arrived on toy shelves stillborn, selling only 200,000 - 300,000 units for Parker Brothers in the U.S. The toy barely survived a year, but the comic thrived and became a regular part of Marvel’s publishing schedule for the better part of the decade.

This was thanks in part to writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema, who brought the character to life in a way that the noisy and stiff toy never could. Yes, the same writer who breathed fresh life into Micronauts, wielded the same world building magic with Rom. Rom the toy was a barely articulated hunk of plastic that made noises, Rom the comic was a richly detailed science fiction epic centered on a group of brave Space Knights taking on the evil of the vile Dire Wraiths.

Rom’s war with the Wraiths brought more than one major Marvel character into the battle and Rom was even summoned to the first Contest of Champions. Even though he didn't participate, his inclusion in Marvel’s first event book shows how important Rom was to the tapestry of the Marvel Universe in his day. The Spaceknights and the Dire Wraiths are still part of the Marvel Universe, while Rom has moved on to IDW.

Oh, and both Rom and the Micronauts are now part of Hasbro's shared movie universe that includes the Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, and others. 

Transformers

Transformers is one of those toy properties that lives in perfect symbiosis with the world of comics. The comics, first published by Marvel for a good nine years, before other companies like Dreamwave and IDW took over the license, all fueled the stories and histories of Hasbro’s Robots in Disguise.

You might think that robots that disguise themselves and vehicles would be hard to justify in any sensible plot, but one would be wrong. Writers, particularly Simon Furman for Marvel, fleshed out their world in the pages of the Transformers comics, and gave each Transformer human motivations and personalities that went hand in glove with the toys kids were consuming at an unheard of rate. As Transformers remains a huge part of the cultural consciousness, the stories and characterization of the robots continue to be fed and informed by the work Marvel did for so many years. 

Like many other Marvel licensed properties, the Transformers started as part of the Marvel Universe, with guest appearences by Spider-Man and Death’s Head (who first appeared in Transformers) but the Autobots and Decepticons were soon shunted off to their own reality. Dreamwave and IDW continue the legacy in many different forms and iterations feeding multiple generations of Transformers fanatics.

G.I. Joe: A Real America Hero

There has seemingly always been a comic called G.I. Joe on the stands in one form or another even before anyone heard the term Kung Fu Grip. From a syndicated strip from King Features in 1941, to a comic published by Ziff-Davis in set in the Korean War beginning in 1950, to two issues of DC’s Showcase published in 1964-1965. But it was in 1982 that Marvel began publishing a comic series based on Hasbro’s new line of G.I. Joe toys that the entire comic industry changed. 

Writer Larry Hama was tasked by Hasbro and Marvel to create a group of modern day soldiers with specialties, codenames, and personalities that could drive the new toy line. Hama and a host of artists also came up with adversary for his Joes; a colorful group of terrorists with a perfectly colorful array of gimmicks. This new enemy, Cobra, would come to define the modern day Joes and bring to life a story that continues to this day in toys, films, comics, and television.

The Marvel Comics series allowed these characters to grow far beyond their static plastic origins. This was no easy task, as Hasbro continued to introduce new toys that had to be inserted into the story no matter how far-fetched they might be. At the time, ninjas like Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow became as popular as Wolverine and Spider-Man.

Many kids who grew to love comics in the '80s owe this love to G.I. Joe. Marvel even went so far as to advertise each new issue on television bringing in droves of new fans to the newsstands and into the comic shops with each animated advertisement. The G.I. Joe comic legacy continues today with multiple titles by IDW, but the original Marvel series shaped a generation of comic book lovers, making it the most important toy to comic adaptation ever published.

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Feature

Culture

Marc Buxton

Dec 18, 2019

G.I. Joe

Transformers

from Books https://ift.tt/2PCSa0u

[seuzz]

Mary Sues: What You Should Really Be Worrying About

So, a couple of weeks ago, the Writers Write blog posted an article: Mary Sues and Why They Make the Best Protagonists. As it happens, I've been thinking a lot about Mary Sues recently, so the article’s appearance in my Tumblr feed gives me an excuse to put my own thoughts down.

1. What is a Mary Sue?

Yeah, good luck answering that question. A visit to TV Tropes (No link! It's the Sargasso Sea of the internet!) confirms that there's no widely agreed definition of the term, let alone a commonly agreed analysis of what makes the Mary Sue obnoxious. But Christopher Dean (the author of the above article) lists five traits of the Mary Sue:

- is an idealized version of the author themself - outshines everyone - can solve any problem - has flaws that are actually virtues - has some kind of secret

To these I would add:

- receives constant emotional validation - is given unearned victories

I include the last because it’s the trait I've heard most often mentioned in connection with characters like Rey and Carol Danvers in the Star Wars sequels and Captain Marvel—and no, I'm not going to talk about those characters or movies!—and the trait that is hit most heavily by those characters’ critics.

But is it a bad thing to give a character these traits? Dean argues that they aren’t, and that many respected and beloved characters have them: Tarzan, James Bond, Peter Parker, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker ... You can go read his article to see if you agree.

2. What's the Problem with Mary Sues? Dean's Answer So if Mary Sues are a perfectly acceptable character type—

Or, better, if their traits are not flaws of characterization—

—then why do readers so often dislike characters who have these traits?

Dean pins the blame on writing skill. Skilled writers know how to write characters with these traits. Unskilled writers—don’t look now, fanfic authors, but I suspect he's thinking of you—don't.

Well, that may be. But if an author goes in dread of writing a “Mary Sue”, it’s no help to advise them to “Write better.”

I've got a different take on the issue. Here's the tl;dr:

A "Mary Sue" is not a mistake of characterization or of character creation. It's the result of bad plotting.

If a Mary Sue is a character type, and if non-Mary Sues have many of the same traits, then no wonder it's impossible to define what a Mary Sue is.

But there is one trait that is not commonly found in non-Mary Sues:

- is given unearned victories

Even if you agree that Luke Skywalker, James Bond, Tarzan, and Harry Potter are “Mary Sues” by some common definitions, it is hard to argue that their victories are unearned. On the contrary, these characters tend to lose a lot of blood in the course of their stories.

But “is given unearned victories” is not a character trait. It is an attribute of the plot.

3. Plot Structure Here I have to make a digression to talk about what a plot is, how it is structured, and what it is supposed to do. [These points are not original to myself; I learned them from David Mamet, among others.] Basic points:

a. A story describes a protagonist who jumps into action to achieve a goal whose stakes justify the expenditure, overcoming significant opposition in the process. These elements (Who wants what? What is stopping them? What happens if they don't get what they want?) define the shape of the story. They give the beginning (the who stung into action to achieve the what), the end (the who getting the what, or definitively losing it), and the boundaries within which the story will move (the stuff connected to the who, the what, and the struggle to get it).

b. A plot is the machinery that carries the protagonist to their goal. It is the set of actions performed by the protagonist (and the antagonist) while trying to get from A to Z.

c. A plot is constructed of scenes, where each scene is a micro-story. That is, each scene is defined by a protagonist, a goal, a plan by the protagonist to achieve the goal, opposition to the protagonist, and stakes associated with achieving the goal.

d. Every scene ends with the protagonist failing to achieve their immediate goal.

4. Wait, What Was That Last Bit? Yes, that last point is probably a surprise to hear. In each scene, the protagonist is trying to get something; and each scene ends with the protagonist failing to get it.

So let me try to explain why this is the way you want to write your scenes.

a. Failure decisively ends a scene by forcing the protagonist to set a new goal and come up with a new plan. This leads to variety.

b. Failure (provided it has been justified in a way the reader can accept; plot-induced stupidity in the protagonist doesn't count) frustrates the protagonist; it also frustrates the reader, which forces the reader into greater sympathy with the protagonist and strengthens the emotional connection.

c. Failure (again, provided the author is good) forces the protagonist into difficult choices that cause them to evolve. Failure is what causes character development.

d. Failure that results in renewed resolution in the protagonist will (all other things being equal) elevate the protagonist in the estimation of the reader.

By contrast, stories in which the protagonist achieves each goal they set will be boring, the way a one-sided ball game will be boring. (No one, not even fans of the winning team, enjoys a 151-0 blowout.) Instead of sympathizing with an underdog, the reader may come to feel contempt for a character who can never fail. The successful protagonist will have no reason to change, and will be the same person at the end of the story as they were at the beginning. And though the constant victories may feel earned in the sense that competence has been rewarded, they will not feel morally merited as a result of grit.

It's the last-mentioned consequence, the lack of moral merit, that causes victories to feel "unearned.” But the other consequences—boredom, lack of variety, lack of change in the protagonist—typically lead to reader resentments that fasten onto otherwise admirable character traits (hyper-competence, popularity with other characters) and make them obnoxious, even when the writing is otherwise adequate.

5. Can We Have an Example? Let's look at Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (1977). Here's a plot summary of that movie, emphasizing how Luke's scenes invariably end in disaster for him and others.

Luke, while cleaning some new droids, discovers a message from a beautiful princess. He wants to learn more about her, and lets one of the robots talk him into removing the restraining bolt that shackles the robot. The 'bot then shuts off the message; worse, the 'bot runs off the first chance it gets, which will land Luke in a heap of trouble with his uncle if he finds out.

Luke sets off the next morning to retrieve the robot. He catches up to it, but instead of returning home he pauses to spy on some hostile natives. He is ambushed and saved from death only by the intervention of a friendly hermit.

The hermit tells Luke of his heritage and asks Luke to leave home on an adventure. This is test of character, and Luke (who has said he wants to leave his home world) flunks it by inventing transparent excuses to remain behind.

Luke learns that enemy soldiers are on their way to his home. He rushes back to warn or defend his aunt and uncle, but arrives too late and only finds their corpses.

Luke and the hermit want to get a planet where they can deliver the fugitive robots and the secrets they are carrying. They succeed in booking passage on a freighter, but they arrive to find their destination blown to rubble. Worse, they are captured by an enemy space station—the fearsome Death Star.

Luke discovers that the princess is aboard the station, and talks his companions into trying to rescue her. They do get her out of her cell, but have alerted the station, and are trapped by enemy units.

The company (minus the hermit) successfully escape the Death Star and return to the princess to her people. But their ship has been tracked, and their escape tells the enemy where the rebel base is located. The Death Star approaches with the intention of destroying it and ending the rebellion.

Luke and friends mount a desperate sally against the Death Star. Even here Luke only succeeds due to the timely intervention of an unexpected ally. Without that ally, he would have been killed before he had a chance to get off the winning shot. (Go back and look: Vader locks his targeting computer onto Luke, and has even started to fire, before Han swoops in.)

Every time Luke sets a goal for himself, he fails to achieve it and typically winds up in even worse trouble. Yet his perseverance makes his final victory all the sweeter, and we get to watch him grow and evolve under pressure.

For contrast, here's the exact same story, with the exact same character, but in which he achieves each goal.

Luke, while cleaning some new droids purchased by his uncle, discovers a message from a beautiful princess. He wants to learn more about her, but he's too smart to fall for the robot's sly suggestion that he remove a restraining bolt. Instead, he reprograms the 'bot and forces it to play the rest of the message.

Knowing now that he has to get the 'bot to a nearby hermit, Luke sets off with the 'bot the next morning. He runs into some hostile natives, but quickly dispatches them with his blaster and quarter-staff, rescuing the hermit.

The hermit tells Luke of his heritage and asks Luke to leave home on an adventure. Luke exclaims that this is the chance he's been waiting for, and rushes home to pack a toothbrush.

Luke arrives at home in the middle of a firefight. With his blaster and quarter-staff again, he saves his aunt and uncle and kills all the enemy soldiers.

Luke and the hermit buy an old space freighter and Luke pilots it himself to the planet where the robots need to go.

They arrive in time to learn that the Death Star is approaching, and that the princess is a prisoner aboard it. Luke, after delivering the robots, races off to the Death Star. He successfully infiltrates it and gets out with the princess without setting off any alarms.

The Death Star, while still approaching the planet, is intercepted by a fleet led by Luke. He succeeds in firing the killing shot that destroys it before it can blow up the princess and her planet.

Of course, it's impossible to judge without seeing the alternative story dramatized, but I think Luke in this story would be denounced as a Mary Sue, and would be so denounced even if all of his original character traits were unchanged. The only difference is that he would succeed in each scene instead of failing.

6. Keeping Things in Perspective Having your protagonist constantly fail sounds like a risk—they may come across as a loser or a bumbler. There’s a couple of things to keep in mind that will help protect your protagonist.

First, success or failure is often a matter of perspective. Think of the escape from the Death Star. In one sense it's an absolute success—our heroes (minus one) get away. But in another way it's a terrible failure, for in escaping they are leading the Death Star to the one place in the galaxy that they want to keep it far away from, the Rebel base. So it is possible to partially resolve the tensions that drove the just-ended scene while still throwing your hero into even worse trouble.

There are two ways to do this. 

The first is playing a kind of “Monkey’s Paw” game with them: Give them what they were fighting for, but withhold the benefits they thought would come with it. This happens in Star Wars when Luke and Obi-Wan reach Alderaan, only to find it has been obliterated. They got to where they wanted to go, but they didn’t get what they wanted out of the trip.

The second is by giving the protagonist what they want with all the benefits, but giving it to them in a way that leaves them worse off then they were before. This happens when Luke and Han pull Leia from her cell. That's what they wanted to do; unfortunately, they've alerted the security forces, and now she and they are likely to die a lot more quickly than they would have if they hadn't tried to rescue her.

By resolving some of the tensions while keeping other tensions in play or introducing new ones, you can keep constant failures from being demoralizing, to the readers or to the characters.

Also keep in mind that the failures need to be failures of the protagonist's own, conscious plans to achieve a predetermined goal. However, the protagonist can, unwittingly or an accidental byproduct, be making substantial progress toward ultimate success. In his talk with Obi-Wan, for instance, Luke fails to embrace his destiny. But he learns many elements of that destiny, which prepares him for that destiny when he finds it thrust upon him.

Meanwhile, save the unequivocal and absolute failures—as when Luke fails to save his family from the stormtroopers—for moments when the protagonist needs to undergo a massive reappraisal of their lives.

7. Summing Up There are a lot of reasons not to employ the concept of a "Mary Sue" when critiquing stories or when writing them. The term itself (as TV Tropes notes) long ago became flame bait. And no one agrees on which traits of a Mary Sue are the obnoxious ones.

But if I am right, then the real problem is not that a "Mary Sue" is a bad character type. The problem lies  in a plot that has failed to challenge the protagonist by setting them up for the kind of failures that lead to character development and audience sympathy.

It is often said that an author needs to be his protagonist's worst enemy: Once you introduce your hero, your job is to make their life sheerest hell.

Instead of worrying that you have created a Mary Sue, then, concentrate on making sure that you're doing everything you can to kill your hero. If you can pull that off, then you will have gone a long way toward protecting your character from the charge that they are a “Mary Sue.”