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therecordconnection · 1 year

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"Here's to the Damned, to the Lost and Forgotten": "People Like Us" From Doom Patrol, S01xE08

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When I had heard the news that confirmed Doom Patrol was cancelled and that the second half of its fourth season (coming out at some point later this year) would be the last hurrah, I got really sad. Shows get cancelled all the time and I don't normally get upset, but this was different. It's kinda like how Ron Swanson felt after he found out Lil Sebastian died. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have cared. But Lil Sebastian was different. Lil Sebastian meant something to Ron in a way that no old bureaucrat ever could.

Let me just say it right now: Doom Patrol was the greatest superhero show I've ever seen, maybe the greatest superhero show I will ever see.

If you are completely unfamiliar with the show, I will give you a (spoiler free!) rundown of what the show is about. Doom Patrol follows the story of five characters: Larry Trainor/Negative Man, Cliff Steele/Robotman, "Crazy" Jane Morris, Victor Stone/Cyborg, and Rita Farr/Elasti-Woman (all pictured below).

Each of them have traumatic pasts and each were involved in accidents that gave them unique metahuman abilities but also left them all disabled and/or atypical in a very unique but true-to-life way. Cliff is a former race car driver who gets in a car accident but survives and lives on as a brain in a robot body (prosthetics). Rita Farr is an actress from the 1950s who is exposed to a strange toxin underwater during a film shoot that causes her to become a blob-like creature that sometimes loses control of her physical form (mobility). Jane has sixty-four distinct personalities, each with their own superpower (neurodivergent). Larry was an Air Force pilot who got horribly burned via exposure from radiation while testing an experimental space shuttle and eventually becomes tethered to an electrical spirit from another dimension (physical). Victor was involved in an explosion that blew off most of his body parts until his father uses experimental tech to turn him into a mix of half-man, half-machine (prosthetics). All of them (except Victor) are found and put in the care of Dr. Niles Caulder/"The Chief", a brilliant old scientist confined to a wheelchair. In short, this show follows a group of very broken people as they attempt to heal and deal with their respective traumas and try to come together as a superhero team. Even shorter, it's a show about atypical/disabled/neurodivergent characters who are seeking redemption and a chance to rebuild their lost lives with the shitty hands they've been dealt.

The show skips the whole "there is nothing wrong with us" conversation and gets right to the brass tax: There is something very wrong with each of them. The robotman can't feel anything except for emotions (read: mostly anger at being a brain trapped in a tin can), the actress has to deal with her face and limbs melting into a blob that can consume and crush people when under emotional duress, "Jane" is only one of sixty-four others that can come out to play whenever they choose, the former pilot will give everyone radiation poisoning if the bandages come off, and the cyborg has PTSD and some issues with a computer running his brain half the time. To the public at large, they're a bunch of walking freaks. To us, they are a rag tag bunch of misfits that represent and, in a way, stand up for the people who are atypical, the people who are different, and, most importantly, the people who have been brushed off and discarded by society.

A lot of their struggles involve dealing with a soulless government organization known as "The Bureau of Normalcy," which wants anybody who is even slightly abnormal removed from the world. I admit that the Bureau's role on the show and even the name is a little too on the nose, but it serves its purpose and sends the message the show wants to send loud and clear: Being different, whether you're born a certain way or have to endure a disease/issue that you didn't ask for, there is still beauty to be found and people who will love you regardless of what you look like, sound like, or have to endure in order to live your day to day life. Doom Patrol was a show that was on the side of the abnormal. It celebrated those that get stared at in public. It celebrated the people who are deemed weirdos and freaks because of their gender presentation or sexuality. It celebrated the people who manage to find hope in a world that would rather see them removed. There is a genuine and wonderfully human beauty to be found in this very weird show that contains robots, wizards, cults, a talking mouse and a cockroach who is a religious fanatic, carnivorous butts, sex ghosts, a man who is a triple combo of animal, vegetable, and mineral, a strange time lord that thinks humanity peaked on August 6th, 1980, and Alan Tudyk playing the snarkiest narrator/villain god I've ever seen in a television show. I will recommend this show until the day I die.

After the news hit, I began thinking about whether there's one single moment that will define the show for me, one moment that serves as the show's thesis statement. I ended up finding three scenes, but I'll write about one of them now and maybe save the other two for another time. Anyway, for me, if there's one scene that I think will define and illustrate what Doom Patrol wanted to do and who it wanted to celebrate, I think the scene posted at the top of this post is what it will be. I'll be getting into spoilers for the show from here so if you have any interest and it wasn't obvious already, I highly recommend watching the show. With that out of the way, I'd like to talk about Larry Trainor/Negative Man singing a Kelly Clarkson song with a drag queen in a cabaret that exists on a sentient, genderqueer street named Danny.

So, Season 1, Episode 8 is an episode called "Danny Patrol." Throughout the first season, we learn that Larry Trainor's (played by Matt Bomer) full backstory is this: he was a handsome ace pilot with the U.S. Air Force in the early 1960s living all the hallmarks of the American Dream. His only issue is that he's a gay man living a lie, being married to his wife, Sheryl, and being a father to their two kids, Gary and Paul. But unbeknownst to his family, Larry is having a love affair with John Bowers, one of his colleagues. After his accident leaves him a completely hideous looking radioactive man (similar in look to Deadpool), he spends decades conflicted about all the things he hid from. He regrets the secrets he hid from his family and the pain he caused them, he regrets not being fully emotionally open with John and pushing him away after the accident left him radioactive and ugly as all hell, and he regrets flying the experimental rocket plane that turned him into Negative Man. Of all the Doom Patrol members, Larry is the one who hides from the world the most, quite literally in the sense of him being bandaged from head to toe and still keeping his sexuality hidden from the world.

In "Danny Patrol," Larry and Victor Stone find themselves investigating Danny the Street, a sentient, genderqueer street that is being hunted by the Bureau of Normalcy. Larry and Victor agree to help, as Danny might have information on the whereabouts of their missing chief, Niles Caulder (who disappeared with the villainous Mr. Nobody earlier in the season.) While exploring Danny, Larry enters "Peeping Tom's Perpetual Cabaret," a building that hosts drag shows. The happiness found in this building fuels Danny and allows them to thrive. Prior to Larry and Victor entering Danny, we are introduced to the origin story of drag queen Maura Lee Karupt (played by Alan Mingo, Jr.) Maura Lee was originally Morris Walker, a bureau agent tasked with infiltrating Danny the Street and eliminating them. One visit to Peeping Tom's later and Morris (now Maura Lee) embraces who she feels she truly is and leaves the bureau behind in order to remain on Danny the Street.

In the Cabaret, Larry is asked by one of the drag queens to get up and sing for them. He responds, "I don't sing." Larry is told that in order for Danny to keep going, the party has to keep going. Larry agrees and approaches the stage. Danny (who can only "speak" through rearranging words on signs or flashing them on spotlights) gives Larry the encouraging message, "Don't Worry, Larry. I got you." Once on stage, Larry begins the opening to Kelly Clarkson's "People Like Us":

We come into this world unknown But know that we are not alone They try and knock us down But change is coming, it's our time now

In any other show, eye rolls and groans would start at the idea of a TV show stopping to deliver a seemingly random musical number. For Doom Patrol, a musical number is the least weird thing that occurs. By the time you've reached "Danny Patrol," the idea of an old gay man who walks around looking like the Invisible Man singing a Kelly Clarkson song isn't out of the realm of possibility. You don't even bother questioning how or why Larry even knows the song, he just does. Just roll with it.

If Larry Trainor had to sing a song, Clarkson's "People Like Us" is a perfect choice for him. From the opening lines quoted above right until the end, it's perfect.

Hey, everybody loses it Everybody wants to throw it all away sometimes And hey, yeah I know what you're going through Don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive

The song is important to Larry's character and he's the Doom Patrol member best suited to deliver a message like this. He's the one member that doesn't really want to get involved in things at all and for the first few episodes struggles with even wanting to be alive. What's the point of living if you're stuck being a bandaged freak that can't really get close to anyone? What's the point of living if you have to hide who you really are? Which in Larry's case is being a gay man in a world that didn't accept him back when he was growing up in the fifties, and only marginally accepts him now. Being radioactive certainly doesn't help things. If any Doom Patrol member was going to tell you, "Don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive," it would be the most convincing coming from Larry, a man who has been through absolute hell––he gets tortured and experimented on for years by the Bureau of Normalcy in the sixties––and is still alive to tell you about it.

Right before the chorus starts, Larry looks towards Maura Lee in the audience and invites her to join him on stage, which she does. The pre-chorus of the song is where the heart of the show really comes out. Larry and Maura Lee deliver these lines with gusto:

Oh, people like us we've gotta stick together Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever Here's to the damned to the lost and forgotten It's hard to get high when you're living on the bottom

These lines are representative of whom and what Doom Patrol wanted to celebrate: the damned, the lost, and the forgotten. At it's core, Doom Patrol is a show about truly odd outcasts and misfits learning to realize that all they have are each other. If they don't look after each other, nobody will, because "normal people" don't give a shit about them. Though the show focuses on comic book characters with superpowers, the metaphor works for marginalized groups in the real world. For example, it's called the LGBTQ+ community for a reason. The people within that community have to look out for each one another, because there's no guarantee that anybody else will.

During the performance, Larry is temporarily shown as human again. No bandages, no goggles, no need to hide. It's the first time in the series that Larry looks genuinely happy gets to be who he is without any fear. The look on his face and the way he's beaming when he watches Maura Lee perform the second verse is pure bliss. It's a little cheesy and it's even a little hokey, but Bomer and Mingo, Jr. are so damn committed to bringing the song to life that you don't get anything but genuineness out of them. It's colorful and full of life and full of beauty. It's one of the show's most heartfelt scenes and one that I hope will define the show once its all fully said and done. The show uses the song as a message of defiance and perseverance in the face a world that casts out the weird, the odd, the different, the broken. Larry and Maura Lee sell it perfectly:

They can't do nothing to you, they can't do nothing to me This is the life that we choose, this is the life that we bleed So throw your fists in the air Come out, come out if you dare Tonight we're gonna change forever

We are what we choose to be and fuck anybody that tries to take that away. That's the message Larry and Maura Lee want to spread. "You won't break us, no matter how hard you try. There is beauty in being different and Doom Patrol argues that a better world is one where those that are different are just as loved and just as embraced as those that are "normal."

Beyond Larry and Maura Lee, even Cliff Steele/Robotman gets in on the fun a bit during the song. During the episode, Cliff and Rita travel to deal with one of Jane's more dangerous personalities, Karen, a woman who believes life is one big rom-com and is using hypnotism to keep a boyfriend submissive to her and her whims. During that trip, Cliff sees a little boy riding by slowly on a bicycle. The boy stares at him and Cliff thinks its because the boy is scared of him or thinks he's a freak. Later, while Larry and Maura Lee are performing their song, we cut back to the boy returning to Cliff, this time in a makeshift robot costume made out of cardboard, to show that he also wants to be a cool robot like him. Cliff is shown teaching the boy some cool robot dance moves. You can't help but have a big smile on your face during that.

The whole damn song is an optimistic showstopper, which is something that DC needed for a long time. In a modern era where Batman is too dark and gritty for his own good, Wonder Woman retired and walked away from mankind for one hundred years for some reason, and Superman kills people (fuck Zack Snyder, by the way), it's beautiful that there's a DC property like Doom Patrol provides a reminder that no matter how dark things get, we have to try and keep going. "You've just gotta turn it up loud when the flames get higher." The Doom Patrol are heroes not because they perform outstanding feats and save the day, but because they inspire people to keep going, even when the chips are down. Their continued presence in our world is proof enough that even those who are dealt the shittiest hands can find ways to keep going, even in the face of impossible odds. Even though the sequence ends with it being revealed that the song didn't happen and Larry repeats, "I don't sing," you're still happy that for just one single moment, Larry got to live out a fantasy. He got to be free. He got to be happy. And everybody deserves that. Even radioactive men who are covered head to toe in bandages.

Doom Patrol's greatest triumph will forever be that it gave a home to the bizarre and the weird, and celebrated them. It not only has a love for its strange cast of characters, but it embraces those characters, warts and all. Though they're all superpowered and clearly ripped out of the pages of an old comic book, there is something so wonderfully human about the Doom Patrol. They struggle just the same as any of us. They battle inner demons, sexuality, trauma, disability, and more, just the same as any of us. They don't win at the end of every episode, but they do make a little progress each time they grace our screens. They help each other, they love each other. They remind us that we're all we've got and we've got to take care of one another. Doom Patrol's thesis statement is that there is beauty to be found in the lost and the forgotten. The Doom Patrol is DC's best kept secret. They're out there and you can find them if you know where to look. If you seek out the strange and the bizarre, you'll eventually find them. The Doom Patrol, both in the show and in the comics, are weird and different and strange. They're a unique superhero team unlike any other. I will miss them when they disappear from television, but my life is better for knowing that they're out there, standing up for the broken and the different.

Here's to the damned, to the lost and forgotten.

Here's to the Doom Patrol. Thank you for what has been a truly unforgettable experience for me.

#original post #doom patrol #Youtube

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fiddletwix · 5 months

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Thoughts on Doom Patrol's Finale

Stayed up last night to finish Doom Patrol MAJOR SPOILERS:

I personally think it was the mostly perfect ending to this marvelously weird and amazing show. I legit bawled for a while. I did kinda get spoiled on Rita’s death, thank you TV Line for not thinking through your screenshot selection for headlines, but that didn't negatively impact how I reacted to it. I finally looked up what people were saying about it, and some people were massively disappointed, but it leaned mostly positive. I get that people are annoyed that the Immortus/Butt stuff got resolved so quickly and seemingly cheaply, but it's very on-brand for Doom Patrol to resolve their big baddie of the season with less of a big battle and more of a goofy fizzle. This has never been a battle-heavy big spectacle show. They did have battles and some spectacles, but overall it was always about the characters evolving, changing, fucking up, and trying to be better. And this was, by far, the most battle-y battle the show has ever had, even if they didn't get to really affect much, so I find it to be fine.

Ending it with Immortus being stopped by the butts singing Shipoopi and then her and them teaming up for a thousand year long musical tour is definitely not what I expected, but it was funny and very “Doom Patrol.” Plus, feeding her ego by giving her a thousand-year long successful music tour in the time stream is a rather good way of taking down that egotistical god-like brat. She demanded attention, so she got it. It’s not like it wasn’t established beforehand that the butts like musical theater like her as well. It didn’t really come entirely out of nowhere. The show just has a weird way of stitching things together sometimes.

There has never really been a time where this team has really vanquished a big threat, if you think about it. They were technically defeated by Mr. Nobody, and he only exited the show due to circumstance and ‘leaving to be on an animated show.’ Dorothy tamed the Candlemaker by giving him a talkin’ to. They didn’t stop the Eternal Flagellation – in fact, Rita did everything in her power to ensure it would happen. They didn’t beat the Bureau of Normalcy until Rouge decided to burn it to the ground. They kinda beat the giant rat and roach, but that’s only partially. Mr. Nobody moreso beat them by changing the narrative to force them into getting down and nasty.

The one big win I will give them is stopping the Decreator, but that also wasn’t a big battle or spectacle deal. Plus, it was also reliant on Mr. Nobody and Jane. The others didn’t have a big role in that.

That’s not to say they were never successful in what they tried to do, they obviously were, but when it came to taking down big bads, they didn’t really do that very often. If they suddenly started doing it now in a huge final battle spectacle, it would seem kinda weird, in my opinion. I also know people were upset with the Doom Patrol disbanding after they went through so much to become a true team and all that stuff about doing anything if they stick together....and yeah....I get that...But you also have to understand that another common theme in this show is that these people never wanted to be superheroes to begin with.

They constantly said they didn't want that, they weren't heroes, etc. They tried to be when they felt they had to or when they wanted to save someone they cared about, and sometimes they were quite heroic, but this was mostly just a group of people who had their humanity robbed of them. They basically holed themselves up in this manor because they felt they had nowhere else to go because no one would accept them, and their families were either estranged or dead.

The hero thing was mostly just forced on them through necessity due to Niles giving them powers, which everyone just assumes gives you the responsibility to use those powers for heroism, which isn’t really fair. Rita kinda pushed it on them because she decided that’s what she wanted and what she thought she was destined for. All Cliff wanted was a second chance with Clara and to be there for his grandson as long as he could. Leaving the manor and going to live with them allowed him to do that. I would say Cliff dying threw me off…..but I feel like it really didn’t. I had a slight feeling Rita would die (before I got spoiled) but I knew that even if Cliff got his longevity back his Parkinson's wouldn’t go away. The best I could hope for is that Immortus would be able to cure him or something, and that sounds like an even bigger cop-out.

It was also nice that Immortus gave him that crystal that allowed him to watch Rory grow up even if he couldn’t be present for his life. The fact that all of those major events happened in the car he fixed up for Clara and Rory is sweet as pie as well. Even if Rory will likely not really remember Cliff, it’s clear he’ll treasure that car and his memory. He keeps it at least until he’s old enough to be a grandpa, and that’s incredible. Even if Rory repeats some of Cliff’s mistakes, it’s clear he’ll be a better person, possibly because of Cliff to a degree. All Larry wanted was love while being honest with himself and to be a good father to Keeg. Him going off into space to become a star with Rama and Keeg allowed him to finally do that. Rama is such a perfect person for Larry in a lot of ways, and vice versa. Ending with him being a block of lead at the bottom of the ocean while Larry just kinda meanders and hopes he stumbles upon another gay/bisexual man with the ability to survive massive levels of radiation and doesn’t mind his disfigured appearance and accepts the radioactive energy child living in his chest doesn’t really sound like a happy ending. I would prefer if they were able to stay on Earth, but it’s quite beautiful and fitting with them as a star. (I know they said sun, but the sun is a star and I feel weird calling it a sun for some reason.)

All Jane wanted was to protect Kay, make her happy, and give them all some peace. In addition to allowing herself to love and be loved. Finding her peace in space with Casey (AND THEIR KITTY!) and starting a romance with her allowed her to do that. (Although, I will admit their relationship was a bit rushed. I was wondering what the heck happened to Shelley. She just kinda vanished after Jane was unable to kiss her that one time. I think she and Casey have a really cute dynamic, though. I like them together.)

Rita wanted to be a superhero, a better person, a leader, and a star. She got to be all those things, and she even got to have two families who loved her for who she was. She also got to fall in love after being afraid to be in a relationship, fearing she’d kill any guy she was intimate with. Like Rita said, she lived two lifetimes, which is far more than most people get. She was terribly miserable after Malcolm died, and allowing her stay dead and pass on allowed her to finally be with him.

If your love is confirmed to be in the afterlife and you attain immortality, that kinda sounds like hell. I do wonder how they’re able to be in the afterlife together because I thought they established that each afterlife was just for one person, but I’m not going to poke at that because I thought that was unfair BS to begin with.

Vic still wanted to be a hero, but on his own terms with his friends and family. He also wanted to make a difference in smaller communities and integrate more with other people instead of only being in the hero crowd. He got that. And I love that he got “tattoos” to represent the important people in his life.

Rouge…..Mmph. She wanted to be a better person and do good. But she also couldn’t let go of the bad part of herself. In that respect, I feel like her becoming an anti-hero of sorts and just burning down the Ant Farm was also perfectly suitable as an ending for her. I kinda wish she had been able to wind up staying alongside...someone, though. Loneliness is another big part of her character, but she winds up alone, for the most part. Rita’s dead, the Sisterhood hates her/is gone anyway, and the Doom Patrol is disbanded with most of their members either gone entirely like Larry, or dead, like Cliff. It’s particularly sad because the episode prior to this one had her literally beating herself up and declaring how much she hates herself and needs her friends, but then her friends all leave.

So, while it is sad for them to disband and basically say “Well, we’re fuck ups whose only accomplishments are very roughly cleaning up our fuckups, and we’re kinda toxic to each other while staying holed up in this house.” it does make sense. I don’t agree that they were really ‘toxic’ toxic, ya know? But I can totally see how the manor and the Doom Patrol as a whole were holding them back from spreading their wings and finding true happiness and contentment in life. Splitting off and living life on their own doesn’t negate how important they were to each other. If it wasn’t for each and every one of them, they never would have been ready to leave the nest, so to speak.

What really gets me there, though, is they will likely never see each other again. Rita’s dead, Cliff’s dead, Larry’s a star. I guess Vic and Rouge can still meet up, and Jane might come back from space sometime, but that’s about it. If it was just them deciding to split up, you could find solace in the fact that they could reconnect someday, but that clearly won’t happen here. That’s just a personal gripe, though. As long as they’re happy, I’m happy for them.

I really did want to see Mr. Nobody just once more before the series ended – he’s just such an amazing character and so much fun – but you can’t have everything I suppose.

So, yeah, I am perfectly content with this being the finale of the show. I think it’s one of the best TV show finales I’ve seen in a long time. Farewell, Doom Patrol, my flawed, lovable, hilarious, fuckups who wormed into my heart with some of the most ridiculous and beautiful insanity put to screen.

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munohlow · 3 years

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Ok real quick gonna propose an idea for that powerpuff girls reboot:

Don’t

But it if they really must (they shouldn’t!), there’s some better ways I think they could go about it, as well as what I’ve seen floating around (like don’t).

Pretty much all of these are assuming they’ll go the gritty reboot route because that’s pretty popular atm. A dark gritty take on anything is getting a bit tired, I think people are more open to weird and sincere stories, whether they’re adaptations or original. But recently a lot of comics (good comics!) 10+ years old are getting faithful adaptations (good adaptations!) and reviving that early/mid 2000’s taste for “what if Superman, but bastard?”

Aright one route they could go would be like that of Samurai Jack season 5 on Adult Swim. Written and animated by the original team and keeping to its truest nature while maturing it a bit along with the original fan base and maybe have an overarching plotline. The difference being that keeping it like the original ppg would create a stronger contrast with more mature and brutal violence, similar to Invincible’s friendly neighborhood Spider-man vibes and use of graphic violence.

This would be the second best way to adapt besides not doing it at all..... but that would also take more money and might not last beyond a season, ending with a solid conclusion like Samurai Jack did. Plus I’m semi doubtful the original team would be on board to drag out the girls’ story, especially like this.

Addressing the leaked script, a common comparison made was to the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy. Both are loose adaptations about child superhero siblings coming together after years of being apart, dealing with childhood trauma and their parent’s wrecklessness as adults.

And talking monkey.

Where Umbrella Academy made changes for the sake of depth and character development amidst the sci-fi madness, the CW Powerpuff Girls script attempted to be edgy and gross for the sake of being edgy and gross. They just want to be mature and topical while ignoring everything enjoyable about the original. It also just straight up sucks. I’m no writer but it seems like a lot of people who are writers are pretty pissed about paid professionals pushing this to the point of post-production. Well not post production, it was being filmed, but I enjoy alliteration. That’s also pretty far into development for something this bad, while it was rejected and is being reworked, it still got approved by enough people to shoot a pilot. If the leaked script itself isn’t a marketing ploy, I imagine that’s the real reason it was shut down. CW probably would’ve went through with it, otherwise. Maybe just keep it cancelled, yeah? Yeah.

This idea isn’t mine either but instead of the child star allegory, it could be more interesting to sort of see it carry on from where it left off, as the continued adventures of the powerpuff girls. Similar to the The Venture Bros. (a show I have not watched but know vaguely about, again this is someone else’s thought, I just think it sounds good) the girls can be grown up but start to realize they want to explore their lives and goals as individuals outside of heroism.

This at least appeals to me because you can keep the show’s status quo, keep the characters together, and have them grow into better more interesting characters as opposed to starting with a dour world where everyone is dead or just worse insufferable people. Instead, begin where audiences are comfortable and open to a new interpretation then let the characters realize there’s more to life and explore what kind of people they can become. (Or just don’t do it.)

Also just hear me out, but maybe, possibly? perhaps the professor was a good dad in the original cartoon? And let’s keep that? Let him remain a wholesome father figure? Is that okay? Don’t make this reboot? But if they do, keep him a nice loving parent?

Since this is the CW/ Warner bros who own DC comics, the best case scenario (cancelled) would be to make it more like the MANY SUPERHERO SHOWS THEY ALREADY MAKE. The good ones, anyway. I’m pretty sure the girls have crossed over with some DC characters in the cartoon already, why not make them canon DC characters? Maybe not. Could be cool! Better not, though. But they could still model the show after some of their better shows. Flash, Arrow, Supergirl are all not bad depending who you ask. I just finished Gotham, that was neat. Superman and Lois sounds like it’s pretty good so far. Powerpuff girls would better suit an earnest, straightforward, lighthearted take. Keep the humor, idk maybe up the violence to keep it dark and cool if that’s what people want (we don’t) and have it contrast with family drama like Invincible. All that to say that a darker, comical, well-written, DC-ish superhero thing they should look to for reference should be Doom Patrol.

This show fuckin litty. It’s like the better parts of Legends of Tommorow and Titans put together, as in it’s super weird and dumb but in a way that’s fun and moving. I recently rewatched season one as refresher before getting into season two and dammit if it didn’t get me in my feels amidst the quarantine. It’s about broken people working through their issues and pulling themselves together to help one another. Admittedly, it doesn’t have the best representation of those with disassociative identity disorder, as one character sometimes referred to as “Crazy” Jane has a different superpower with each of her alters. The character is very much a product of the 80’s but the writers of the show do their best to show that Jane respects the alters and their free will. But it also deals with topics of abuse, self-image, trauma, disabilities, homophobia, discrimination, and more in a way that gave me some catharsis while watching after all that’s been going on the past couple of years. Aside from all the comedy and action, it all flows together naturally, which is what you want in any series, not just your gritty superhero show. Doom Patrol is also batshit weird, every episode feels almost self contained/ freak-of-the-week while still following the main overarching plot, and Powerpuff Girls is very much like that, without the bigger plot or mature themes (as it should remain, let it be). Many will find it vaguely similar to The Umbrella Academy because GERARD WAY WAS INSPIRED BY DOOM PATROL TO WRITE THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY. The og comics, not the show, but still.

Also let’s address this

The hell was this about?

Anyway Idk maybe I sound like “Old Man Yells at Cloud,” but this really isn’t the way to go. Don’t do it, CW. Leave it alone, CW. Just don’t do it. We don’t need more sequels and reboot cash grabs, there’s plenty of up and coming writers with good original ideas waiting for their shot. And even with all those new edgy shows and movies, some of which are actually not bad, not everything needs to be so grim. Like sure Teen Titans Go! is a goofy reboot but it’s still just a fun dumb cartoon, it’s not bad, I bet that other ppg show was also just fine. Maybe YOU are “Old Man Yells at Cloud.” But what do I know?

And all THAT to say you should go watch all those other things I mentioned and some old ppg episodes back to back, instead. Don’t fuckin do it, CW

#powerpuff girls #powerpuff cw #powerpuff bubbles #powerpuff blossom #powerpuff buttercup #the cw #samurai jack #invincible #the umbrella academy #venture bros #doom patrol #dc #gorillaz #more nerd shit #long post #umbrella academy #don’t do it

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just-a-quirkless-loser · 3 years

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How Could You Love Me🥺🐬

Part Two: Redemption

Part One

Alpha Gang Orca x F! Omega Reader

Requested by: @obsidiansigns03

Words: 3.7K

Warning: NSFW (read further for the surprises). Sexual Content Below!!!

“Darling, I’ve told you about lifting heavy things!” Kugo Sakamata, known to most as Gang Orca, is such a worrywart. It seems he’s gotten even more worrisome for your safety as of late. You try to come up with a reason for his behavior but, you simply chalk it up to behaving as he normally does.

“Sakamata, I’ve told you I can handle it,” you’re currently moving around chairs in one of the new bakery locations you opened. Being the lazy person you sometimes are, you’ve decided to stack four chairs on top of each other and carry them to the small tables that littered the bakery space.

“Haven’t I told you to call me Kugo?” he quirks one of his nonexistent brows.

“Hmmm, you may have told me once or twice. I can’t really remember,” you grin.

“You want help remembering?” Kugo steps into your personal space, arms looking you into his chest. His eyes are now a raging inferno, drawing you in so close that you wouldn’t mind being burned.

“Woahhh there buddy,” you giggle nervously. You take a step back, putting the chairs in between both of your bodies.

“Can I please help?” it’s comical to see him give you his pout. Such an intimidating stature and yet such cute red eyes. “I promise I won’t take over. I’ll only do the lifting. Scouts honor!”

You look at him holding up four fingers (apparently, he thinks that’s the scout hand placement) and you purse your lips to stop yourself from laughing.

“Aren’t you supposed to be out there patrolling?”

“I just got off my shift. Now, please?” you didn’t get the chance to confirm since he was already hauling the chairs out of your hands. You decide to let him help with the decorating as you go to the back to get all the baking ingredients and equipment settled.

It’s been an amazing month since you’ve solidified your relationship with Kugo. Things haven’t changed much from how they were before; you still bake him cute, little confectionaries so he can snack after his patrols, you’re still his biggest supporter, and you’re still as close as ever. The only difference is your lack of trust in him.

Yes, you trust him to keep you safe and sound but, after the incident of him leaving before, you’ve grown weary of putting all your trust in him. You try your hardest to fully trust him but, there’s still that inkling doubt in your mind that something may happen and Kugo may run away from you once again. That inkling voice in your head always spouts nonsense about how you aren’t worthy enough to be with Kugo; you’re trying your hardest not to believe it. Despite your fears of abandonment, you still love Kugo with all that you have. You suppose it’s better to love him fully and bear the consequence than to allow your subconscious to ruin what you’ve worked hard to build.

One thing you didn’t know before you started dating was that Kugo is a very sexual person. You would’ve never imagined that the shy, bashful man before you is secretly a freak in the sheets. Well, from what you have done, you imagine that’s what he’s like. You still haven’t found the perfect time to fully...submit to one another.

By sexual, you mean that Kugo is very active. He’s spent almost every night at your home ever since the hospital discharged him and, almost every night, he’s done something to set your core on fire.

First, it started off with lingering touches on your skin, his blazing eyes almost telling you what would soon happen. His smooth skin always set small sparks off whenever you touched, making your eyes daze off a bit. Then, he would grab you roughly, pinning you beneath him on whatever surface he’s chosen to play with you upon. His large tongue always managed to reach the depths of your soul. Just thinking about it now makes you wet.

Kugo sniffs the air as he looks at you. Blushing like the buffoon you are, you quickly rush back to the baking area. You’ve learned that Kugo’s sense of smell is rather explicit. In other words, he can always smell whenever you’re aroused.

“Little one, what are you thinking about back here?” you’re trying to distract yourself with a ladle as Kugo follows you into the back. His eyes are zeroed in on you like you’re his prey. He seems to tower over you although, considering how large he is, you’re pretty sure Kugo towers over everyone.

“Taxes,” you fight your urge to facepalm. Out of all the things you could’ve chosen your lie to be about, you chose taxes.

“Really?” even though he knows you’re lying, he still plays along. He loves seeing the way you squirm and blush under his watchful eye. Perhaps, his love for dominating you comes from his instinctual need to catch his prey.

“Yeh, taxes are so awesome. Really cool,” why won’t you shut up?

“You know what I think is cool?” Kugo’s breath is fanning your front. He’s on his knees in front of you, his face directly in front of your stomach. His fingers have slipped underneath your shirt, playing with your stomach. In a quick moment, he has lifted you in the air, his arms hooked around your thighs to guide your core to his mouth. He’s careful of his teeth as he licks your clothed pussy. You whine out, tongue lolled out the side of your mouth. “The way you smell. It’s intoxicating. My own Nirvana.”

“Y/N, Kugo? Are you here?” you’re saved by Kugo’s mother. You’ve created a special relationship with her, often inviting her to things simply because you missed having a maternal presence. So, of course you invited her to your new bakery.

“Just pretend we aren’t here. She won't know,” Kugo whispers to you. You wiggle around as you try to get down. If there’s one thing you know about Kugo’s mother, she has no problem scoping the place out. “Please, baby. I’m hungry.”

‘No, Y/N. You must resist. You must resist his perfect, long, thick, tongue,’ you’re doomed. You nod down to him and stop wiggling, rubbing his head. At least you chose a bakery with high ceilings.

“I hope you both know I can smell you. You really think I didn’t s-” you stare like a deer in headlights as Kugo’s mother walks in on the both of you. If you think you were blushing hard earlier, this new blush has nothing on you. Your ears feel so hot. Your shame is on display. And, Kugo has the nerve to laugh. “Ohhhh, so that’s what this is.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

You glare down at Kugo and pop him on the nose. It’s his fault your boyfriend’s mother has seen you in such a position.

“No, it is not. I thought I saw a mouse so Kugo was just picking me up,” you could tell she didn’t believe the lie. Of course, you wouldn’t believe it either since Kugo was clearly likcing in areas that shouldn’t be licked in public. “Now, put me down Kugo.”

“But you smell so good,” you shot him a death stare. Now was not the time for him to be flirting. You swear this man has no shame.

Once you're set down, Kugo gets a call, alerting him that a villain is rouge in the city. Thus, he gives you a quick kiss on the cheek, hugs his mother, and leaves you alone to deal with the woman that birthed him. Sometimes, it seems that the universe really likes watching you struggle.

“Aheheh hehe, sooooo, how’s your day been?” you cringe at your tone as you continue messing with the ladle you were holding before Kugo had come to conquer you. “Do you like the bakery?”

“Cut the shit, Y/N. Since when have you and Kugo been sexual? You tell me everything but this. Has he been pressuring you? Do I need to go kick his ass? I’ve told him about his domineer-” Kugo’s mother was storming towards the door as she spoke.

“NO!” you yelled. She whirls around on you with wide eyes. You look at her with a mirroring fish expression as you cover your mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. He hasn’t pressured me into anything. Even if his presence is a bit...loud at times, I know he’ll stop the minute I tell him.”

“Oh. Then, why haven’t you told me about this?”

“It’s kinda embarrassing discussing my sex life with my boyfriend’s mother,” you blush as you think about it. “I swear, I trust you. I just think talking about sex is a little too much for me to handle.”

“Well, I’ll respect that. I just have one question: Did you talk to Kugo about what we talked about last week?” the look on your face told her you did not. She shot you a disapproving look. “Y/N, darling, you can’t keep this from him. Letting these thoughts continue will only damage you further.”

“I know, I know. I just can’t bring myself to talk about it. We’re in such a good place,” you were supposed to bring up your insecurities with Kugo but, you never found the right moment. Things were going good and you didn’t want to mess it up just because your subconscious was being a bitch.

“Just because you’re in a good place doesn’t mean you stop talking about the things that bother you. Keeping things to yourself is what causes problems. How do you expect him to improve if you can’t tell him the truth? Eventually, mating season will come and Kugo will become even more dominating than what he is now. You need to tell him,” this is why you love his mother. She’s such a blunt person, always telling the both of you when you’re wrong. “So, what are you going to do today?”

“I’m gonna make cute little orca cupcakes,” you yelp as she hits you in the back of your head. “Whaaaa? I’m literally running a bakery.”

“You know what I meant,” she hits you again for extra measure.

“Goodness, woman, are you sure you’re not really a hero in disguise?” she raises her hand to hit you again. “Okay, okay, no need to hit me anymore. I’ll talk to him tonight.”

“No, you’ll talk to him as soon as he comes to pick you up,” you pout.

“Mama Orca, I’m gonna be here at the bakery all day. He’ll go home eventually. I’ll just meet him there.”

“Nope, I’ve decided. I will text him to come back to the shop once he’s done with work for the day. Then, you’ll talk to him,” you gave her an exasperated look which she responded to by lifting her hand again. You’ve lost this battle.

You go on about your day, catering to the few customers that walk in. It’s always a delight to see their faces the first moment they bite into one of your pastries. They always compliment the chef, not knowing that they’re really complimenting you. You never correct them though, you don’t do it for praise. You do it because you like to make people happy.

It’s been a long day. Your feet ache from running around all day, your back hurts a bit from being hunched over the mixer, and you feel a slight headache coming on. Truthfully, you just want to go home and take a nap in your bathtub (Kugo’s told you time and time again not to do it but, that’s not going to get in your way of relaxation). Nevertheless, you stayed after closing time, waiting for Kugo to come pick you up.

“Is everything okay?! My mother said it was an emergency,” you gave his mother an incredulous look. Oh, yeah, you forget to mention that she stayed with you the entire time to make sure you didn’t try to run home. Whatever anyone ever says about the woman, she’s definitely a ride-or-die.

“You told him this was an emergency?”

“It is,” she gives you an innocent look. “It’s a love emergency.”

“Love emergency?” Kugo looks confused.

“Yes, a love emergency. Now, Y/N, tell Kugo what you were telling me a few weeks ago,” now, she didn’t need to say it like that. You can already tell you’re going to be in trouble once this conversation is over.

“Weeks?” yes, you’re definitely going to be in trouble with the way Kugo’s looking at you. “What have we talked about when it comes to our problems?”

“To always talk about them together so we can face them together. What’s my problem is your problem and what’s your problem is my problem,” you repeat the mantra he’s told you over the past month.

“So, what is it then?”

“Well,” you look at Kugo’s mother for a bit of extra encouragement. “I’ve been feeling some type of way about our relationship,” a look of heartbreak crossed Kugo’s face.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, no, no. This isn’t that type of conversation. I love you and I love our relationship. I’ve just been feeling a way about what happened before our relationship. I know you try everyday to make up for what you did and said but, I always find myself thinking about it when I’m alone. I feel like I’m just not worthy of your love; I’m scared that one day you’ll realize what I’ve been thinking all along and you’ll leave me again,” you look away from his scrutinizing gaze. “I don’t want you to leave.”

The room is quiet for a few moments. Well, more like a few minutes. You waddle on your feet in front of him as he continues to stare at you. His stare never wavers, never falls from your form, and you’re beginning to think that you’ve pushed him a bit too far.

“Mother, she’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Kugo drags you out of the bakery, leaving your keys to your apartment. Well, it looks like you’ll be staying the night with Kugo. The car ride is silent as he drives you to his home, the air tense with no music and no words exchanged. The only thing reassuring you is his hand that rests on your thigh, rubbing circles on your warm flesh.

It seems like the ride is longer than the normal 25 minutes. It seems like forever till you’re pulling into the driveway of his secluded home.

“Go in the house and get undressed. I want you on the bed waiting for me once I walk in,” he pushed his keys into your awaiting hands. You wanted to protest but, the look in his eyes alerted something dormant in your mind that this would not be a good time to argue (not unless you wanted to end up naked outside for the world to see you).

You race into his home, running to his room as you undress on the way. By the time you cross the threshold, your nipples are pebbling with a mixture of excitement and anticipation. You lay yourself across the bed, looking up at the ceiling as you wait for his heavy footsteps.

“Darling, do I have your permission to please your body in ways you’ve never known?” a gush of wetness leaves you. Staring up at Kugo’s lustful red eyes, you feel safe enough to give yourself away. You nod. “I need verbal consent, love.”

“Please, just do what you want with me,” you groan as he wastes no time sliding down your body to your pussy. His warm blood makes the room even hotter as he lifts your hips up to meet his mouth. He’s always so careful with his teeth when he first licks up your slit. Just like the times before, he keeps your hips in such an iron hold that you can’t squirm away. His tongue is hot and coarse, long enough to lick your clit in one go. It starts off with long, calculated, jerky strokes but quickly ends up with him feasting on you.

You whimper as his tongue slips inside your hole, your legs spasming when he reaches his long arms up your body to pinch your nipples. Every time you look down at what he’s doing, you groan and the look he’s giving you. His eyes watch your every movement, always taking note of how your eyebrows furrow when his tongue does something you like.

You nearly jump five feet off of the bed when his tongue slides even deeper into your pussy. You can feel his grin once his tongue finds that spongy part of your pussy, attacking it mercilessly. You're shaking hard enough that his head shakes as well when your orgasm crashes into your body.

“Fuckkkk Kugo fuck , fuck, fuckkkk. Oh my fuckkk, please, can’t, OHHHH FUCKKKK,” you screech as he doesn’t let up; he continues to eat you out with no signs of stopping. You push at his head a bit and only then does he slide his tongue out of your delicious heat.

“What’s wrong baby?” he wipes his tongue all around his mouth without breaking eye-contact. “I told you this morning I was hungry. You told me I could use you however I want. You can’t take my tongue, baby? Is it too much for you?”

Your breath hitches in your throat as he licks you clit for emphasis, his fingers spreading your lips so he can easily suck your pearl into his mouth. You try to pull away but, his strong grip continues to keep you captive. Another orgasm later and he’s sliding back up your body. You hadn't even noticed his nakedness until now. Not surprisingly, Kugo is every bit big that you’ve felt before. Still, your eyes widen significantly.

“Calm down, baby. I promise to be gentle,” you scrunch your brows.

“But, I haven’t,” you blushed and jerked the air in front of your mouth. Kugo’s laughter booms around you, getting rid of any nervousness you had before.

“Baby, you know your pleasure is my pleasure. You don’t always have to give me a blowjob just because I like eating you out. Just enjoy yourself,” your positions are flipped. You’re laying on Kugo’s chest, your smooth skin rubbing against his own. You always thought he’d feel a bit different but, it feels so natural to slide your skin against his. “Baby, I want to try a different position for our first time. Something that’ll make you feel really good. Do I have your permission?”

“I trust you,” that was enough for him to turn you around reverse-cowgirl style and spread his legs. He slotted you in between his legs, you clits rubbing against his shaft.

“You can start whenever you want to. Don’t be pressured to take everything at once. And donnnnn ohfhhhh fuck yes,” Kugo leaned back as you started to drop yourself down on him. Your ass was softly nestled against his thighs, his dick already halfway in your heat. The searing pain of the stretch made your toes clench, the pain turning into pleasure as Kugo began to rub your clit. “Fuck, baby. You don’t gotta uhh take fuck yes baby.”

You ignored his heading and rammed yourself down the rest of the way. Only a bit of his dick wasn’t inside of you and you felt like you were on fire. As you tried to lean down on your chest, you felt his dick slide into your pussy deeper. You were trying hard to fight off your orgasm as you slowly slid yourself up a bit and pushed yourself down roughly. You said a punishing rhythm for yourself, Kugo cursing up a storm. You went to lean up when Kugo’s hand slapped your ass hard.

“Ohhh, no you don’t. Take that dick like a good girl,” you mewl as he pushes you back down and helps you guide your hips. He’s managed to work his finger into the tight rim of your ass, assisting your ride in that way as well. “Fuckk yes, baby. Take your dick. Take all of it.”

“Kugooo, not gonna last. Fuckk Kugo. FUCKKKK,” you scream as you cum again, urging Kugo you pick your hips up and plow into your pussy.

“You like it when I use your pussy? You like being a toy for my pleasure?” you couldn’t even answer through the moans. His brutal fucking was taking a toll as you laid your body all the way down, taking his thrusts like the good girl your are. “Babyyy, I’m gonna fucking cum. Ouu fuck, can I cum inside?”

‘Always such a gentleman.’

“Pleaseeee, yess,” not even a few seconds later, Kugo was spilling his hot seed into your womb. You’ve never had a man cum in you before and you’re glad you waited till this moment. It feels so personal between the two of you.

He pulled you off of him and laid you on his chest, his hands playing with your hair. He was letting you calm down before he showed you what he really brought you for.

“I wanted to wait till I did this,” Kugo sat up and slipped out of the bed. He kneeled next to you, fumbling underneath the bed for something. “Gotdamnit. I know I put it right here,”

“What’s wrong? Do you want me to he-” you’re getting ready to get out of the bed to help him search when he pushes you back down quickly. “Baby?”

“I’ve got it,” he pulls out a small velvet box. Your jaw drops, tears already forming. “I’ve had this here, underneath this bed, since the first time you came over and you kissed me like there was nothing else that mattered. I didn’t know when would be a good time to give this to you but, I know now that I shouldn’t have waited. I should’ve given it to you that night.”

“I know that we’re still early in our relationship but, I’d really like to marry you one day. And, you taking this ring doesn’t mean you have to marry me right away but, I hope you’ll come to realize just how much I love you. I’ve known you for over a year and I’ve loved you for eleven months. All it took was one month for me to see how you’re my person,” you silently nod and cry as you allow him to slide the ring onto your finger. “So, please, will you do me the honor of being my future bride?”

“YES!!!”

—————————————————————————-

TagList💕

@sakurashortstack @sinclairsamess

#gang orca #gang orca x reader #female reader #bnha #mha #bnha fanfiction #mha fanfiction #ao3 #anime fanfiction #fanfic #anime

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dragonthewriter · 3 years

Text

Six Months Later

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34321180

Six Months. That’s how long it had been. Of course, that wasn’t how long it was supposed to take, Beast Boy had original said he was going to be gone “A month, month and a half at most. Just need to get in tune with my animal nature.” As puberty began to hit him, and rather late, he was starting to show signs of his animal sides taking more control, and even he had to admit it was making him a liability. So he headed off, taking his part of the T-ship.

Raven had kept in contact with him. All the Titans did, but Raven was the only one who did everyday. A trend noticed by everyone excluding the empath herself. Their nighttime chats had often run so long, Raven would wake up to her communicator still out and still on. The first few times, Raven would apologize the next time they spoke, only for Beast Boy to tell it was fine. He wasn’t about to tell her how cute it was to hear her yawn and snore softly.

He started by heading to Africa, where he was raised. He had stayed with the tribe his parents had befriended, and who had taken him after his parents died and before the Doom Patrol showed up. He would tell her stories of going on hunts with the other men in the tribe. Even with his vegan sensibilities, he understood it was their way of life, and could respect that they took great care in only hunting for what they needed. It was around this time, she noticed his voice cracking a bit.

After two weeks there, he moved on, traveling to every biome on the planet he could reach. The arctic, deep in the amazon rainforest, the arid desert. He would regale Raven with what forms he learned, what unique things he gleaned from his time in their shapes. As it felt he had crossed off every location on his list, he told he was planning on coming home. “Just a week with the Doom Patrol, and I’ll be back in Jump City.”

But things kept coming up. At the six week mark, Mento fell sick, and he wanted to be there until his adoptive father felt better. The disease took longer to overcome than expected, and in that time, the Brotherhood had made a move in France. With Mento still down, Beast Boy joined the Patrol in their mission. Most of their time was just playing recon, Beast Boy and Negative Man doing the work of trying to track down their enemy.

When he wasn’t flying over the city, he was keeping in touch, talking when he could, texting when he couldn’t. After two weeks, Raven awoke to one last message. “Found Base, Going dark. I’ll message you.” The three days before she heard anything felt like the longest in her life.

Then she got his call. At first, she didn’t recognize his voice, puberty definitely coming hard for the changeling. His voice has already gotten past the random breaking and was deeper. She heard him tell about how the Brotherhood were all back in prison but she wasn’t listening, focusing less on what he was saying and how he was saying it. His regular scrawny form did not match the voice he now spoke with.

A week after returning from France, Mento was given the all clear, and Beast Boy was sent to return home… Until the Titans East had a problem and needed back up. Since Midway City was closer to Steel City, Beast Boy made the journey.

A group of rather B-list villains had made trouble for the East team, and an extra Titan was enough to begin balancing the scales in their favor. Raven and Beast Boy’s nightly chats remained, now the empath hearing how he had stopped Johnny Rancid by himself, and other exploits she had to wonder how much he was embellishing.

A message she did get from Bumblebee gave Raven pause. ‘Are you dating Beast Boy?’ followed by ‘Does he have a girlfriend or is he fair game?’ Raven ended up assuming Bumblebee just wanted a rebound after her and Cyborg broke up due to distance, and her only other choices were a civilian, which always had problems, one of the twins, who were way too young, and Speedy and Aqualad, who were comfortably in a relationship with each other.

Raven did begin to suspect something though, when Kitten used her one phone call after Titans East arrested her to ask Raven if ‘it was open season on the green guy, or do I have to fight another one of you titans for the privilege?’

Once all villains were in prison, and Titans East released Beast Boy from their service, he was finally on his way home.

Until a storm hit his ship and he crashed just outside of Gotham. A quick phone call to his mentor, and Robin secured a place for Beast Boy to crash at Wayne manor, and the use of the Batcave to repair the T ship. Of course with the watchful eyes of Alfred using schematics from Cyborg to make sure he did everything properly.

Just a day shy of the six month mark, his ship was airborne and headed back to Jump. Raven decided to use the couple of hours of flight time to mediate before their reunion, figuring six months apart had lower her defenses to Beast Boy’s abrasive personality. On the phone was one thing, but in person was a whole different thing.

On her way, Robin stopped her, and said Alfred wanted to forward a message to her. “Tell Miss Raven that Master Garfield was quite eager to discuss her at length, and is quite fond of her. Also, if she enjoys tea as much as he says she does, I would love to have her try my own, as it would be nice to have a hero who actually appreciates it come by for a cup or two at some point.” Being the two more emotional stunted titans, neither truly grasped the message, focusing more on the tea portion.

—————————————

“Really,” Cyborg asked. “No more vegan?”

“No, i’m still preferring to stick to that diet, but there were times I didn’t have the luxury. When in rome and all that.”

“So you don’t want to join us at the next Bbq and…

“Friend Raven!”

Raven barely noticed Starfire call out her name. She had entered the common room to greet Beast Boy, but stopped when she saw him in-between Cyborg and Starfire. Half a year ago, he barely came up to Cybrog’s waist, but now he was just about as tall as Starfire. His body was much more filled out, as well. While he wouldn’t been at Superman level of muscle, he was far past the almost stick figure he had been when leaving.

And then there was the hair…

It was long, coming down past his jawline on the side of his face, the rest gathered into a ponytail behind his head. With the way his head had been turned, she couldn’t see his face, but when Starfire called out her name, he turned to her.

His eyes sparkled when he saw her. There were still that familiar shade of green, but something in them shined, and Raven noticed his pupils were more cat like.

Even his face was different. Baby fat cheeks had become chiseled features, and his snaggletooth fang had found a home inside his mouth. But when he smiled at the sight of her, she could see the fangs were only sharper and longer.

And framing either side of his face was that hair. Raven was already back on it, unable to get past seeing it like that.

“Come over, and say hi to the new Beast Boy,” Cyborg said, patting him on the back. Raven floated over to them, as Cyborg continued. “Notice anything different?”

Raven was never one for being at a loss for words. Even when she answered with silence, it was always clear to the listener, that it was planned. Yet here she was, unable to speak for a moment.

“You hair,” she muttered out, making Beast Boy blush.

“Wow, I’m like a foot and 3/4 taller and you notice my hair first?” He brought a hand up to his head. “Yeah I never had a chance to get it cut, but first thing in the morning…”

“Don’t!” Raven said too quickly for even her own obliviousness to overcome. Everyone was now staring at her, Beast Boy’s transformation forgotten for her reaction to it. “I mean, you shouldn’t. It looks nice like that.”

It seemed to make Beast Boy relax, but Cyborg and Starfire just gave her a look.

“Well, if you think it looks good, I’ll keep it,” he said, giving her another warm smile that made Raven feel a bit weak in the knees. She could hear the words relay to her by the Batman’s butler. ‘Quite fond of her.’ Raven saw his eyes sparkle once more.

‘Oh.’

‘OH.’

#bbrae #teen titans

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buttterknifeee · 3 years

Text

An Introduction Pt.3- Teen Titans x Aquagirl!Reader

Pt.1 Pt.2

Requests for this series is now open!!! You can request for ships, episode inserts, and headcanons for this series!!! More info can be found here

Summary: You guys are like the "Friends" of the crime-fighting world. Robin's totally Ross and if this was one of those episodes, it would be called "The one where aliens get their asses kicked"

Ships: none, see info above

A/N: Once again this is a reader insert for the Teen Titans 2003 show season 5 episode 10 (the one where they all meet!) I also added an epilogue for funzies.

You found yourself in a dark bubble of Raven’s magic, floating up to the alien ship. You had offered to water jet all six of you up, but you weren’t even sure if you could create that big of a geyser. Besides, a quiet bubble is much better than a large geyser. Beast Boy, however, disagreed.

“That dark energy stuff gives me the--” He was cut off by a glare from Raven. ”Uh...I mean, it's cool!” He gives a guilty grin.

Robin tells us to go to the firing control room, and you all crept through the hallway in a single file line: Robin, the pink-haired girl, Beast Boy, You, Cyborg, and Raven, who you noticed was still near the entrance. Cyborg gave you a look as if to say Keep going; I’ll handle this. You nodded and continued walking forward.

You were walking near Beast Boy, when you noticed a cut on his arm, with that part of his suit torn open. You pointed at it.

“Hey, you alright?” you asked, referring to the gnash.

“Oh this?” He replies. “This is nothing. When you’ve been a part of the DOOM patrol, a little cut is nothing.” He smiles confidently, patting his wound. You realize that he was totally bluffing when a comical tear springs from his eye and his arm tenses.

“Here I can help.” you say softly. Concentrating on the air between your hands, you condense the liquid in the air, forming a small bubble of water. You move that bubble of water onto his arm and it begins to glow. You let go of the water, revealing Beast Boy’s arm to be completely healed.

“Dudeee,” he stares in awe of your handiwork. “That's so cool-” He’s interrupted by your stumbling; healing really does take a lot out of you. He lets you lean on him, and the two of you continued walking forwards. After a few seconds, he stops.

“Uh, guys?” he says. And that's when you noticed it too. The six of you were surrounded by alien soldiers, and they seemed really out for your blood. “I think they know we’re here.” The six of you charged at the fleet of soldiers. But Robin seemed to have an idea.

“Raven!” he yelled. “Take out part of the floor!” Raven looked at him with confusion, but then nodded and did as she was told. With a large SMASH, she removed the part of the bottom of the ship, revealing the water below. The water below you realized, suddenly understanding Robin’s plan.

“Aquagirl! Now!” he yelled, holding off a soldier with his staff.

“On it!” you yell, punching another alien out of the way. (Apparently with water powers came enhanced strength, which you found out at that moment.)

Concentrating on the water below, you raised your arms, allowing the ocean to shoot up from below. Instead of blasting the water through the entire ship, you carefully controlled it to grab onto the aliens that were attacking your friends, pulling them through the hole and causing them to fall into the ocean below.

You looked at the door to the control room, which was locked shut.

“I got this.” Robin said, placing something shaped like a birdirang onto the door.

As the bidirang counted down, you heard Trogaar talking from behind the door. “The Earth scum shall learn it takes more than six juvenile heroes to defy the mighty Lord Trogaar!” he said, most likely with a smile on his face. You all looked at each other, prepared to prove him wrong.

The door exploded, and Robin was the first to get through. “We’re not six heroes,” he declared. “We’re one team.” Him considering the six of you a team sparked something inside of you. You all split up to take down Trogaar and his guard, with Robin at the lead. You took on a guard, kicking him in the stomach and sending him flying towards a wall.

You noticed that Robin was on the shoulders of Trogaar, and you sent a jet of water to his face to knock him off balance. That didn’t work and he threw Robin across the deck. Luckily, he landed on his feet. The two of you joined to fight Trogaar, taking turns to land punches and kicks. However he overpowered you and Robin, throwing you both across the room. You landed on your back, but Robin hit the wall with the back of his head and fell to the floor.

“Robin! Aquagirl!” The alien girl yelled. You got up as quickly as possible and helped Robin up from sitting position as she and Cyborg tried to take on Trogaar, only to be thrown in your direction as well.

Still leaning on you, Robin looked at Cyborg’s arm. “Can you rewire that into some sort of weapon?” he asked.

“I can try,” he said, getting up. The four of you were in a fighting stance, despite being injured and surrounded by Trogaar and his goons. Suddenly, you hear a voice, as clear as day.

“Get away from my friends!” It was Raven, supporting an injured beast boy. “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” she chanted. Part of the ship exploded, sending it crashing into the ocean.

You found yourself standing in the ship, the roof torn off and making a slow descent into the ocean. All of the alien soldiers were groaning on the ground, but Robin, Cyborg, and the alien girl were all unharmed. The four of you watched in horror as Trogaar aimed to attack Raven when BLAM! You turned to see Cyborg standing next to you with a smoking sonic blaster in place of his arm. He grins.

“Alright I’m only gonna say this once. Boo-Yah!”

“Yo, is it just me or are some of these guys starting to move again?” Beat Boy points out, still slumped in Raven’s arms. He was right; a few of the aliens began to twitch, making attempts to get up. You turn to the other 5 people.

“You guys don’t worry. They’re in the ocean now, meaning that they’re in my territory.” You cracked your knuckles, your eyes glowing blue.

It’s the next morning and you find yourself sitting with Robin, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, looking at a view of the bay and an island

“Thanks so much for the new suit Cyborg!” you say, fiddling with your brand new outfit. You were wearing a cropped short-sleeve rash guard and swim shorts, both with deep cyan and black patterns. He also gave you black gauntlets with curved spikes ‘To protect yourself from bad guys and still be aerodynamic!’ according to him. Robin gave you one of his old yellow belts, since he figured you’ll probably need something to carry stuff in. Finally, you found some black scuba shoes from the swimwear store that allowed you to walk and swim with ease.

“Its no problem AG! I figured you needed a new outfit if you’re gonna be a superhero now” Cyborg chuckled, calling you a new nickname that he probably made up just then. Superhero, you thought. I like the sound of that.

Raven had a far away look in her eyes.“That's quite a view.” she said, still staring that the scenery

“Somebody oughta build a house out there,” Cyborg agreed, his voice now softer.

“Yeah, if you like sunshine and the beach.” Beast Boy added, making an obvious dig at Raven.

“You know, you're kind of funny.” Raven said to your surprise, smiling softly at Beast Boy. This was obviously too much for the guy’s ego.

“You think I'm funny?” Beast Boy sat up straight, looking at Raven. “Dude! I know some jokes!”

You laughed at Raven’s face of pure regret, before a familiar voice brought your attention to behind you. It was the alien girl, now in a purple outfit similar to the one before, but this time it seemed to really suit her.

“I look .. nice?” she asked, obviously insecure. You took her hand again.

“You look amazing,” you reassured her, causing her cheeks to flush.

Robin stepped forwards. “I still don’t know your name,” he said.

“In your language, it would be ‘Star Fire.’” she says with a smile.

“Welcome to Earth, Starfire.” Robin said.

She looked at you all shyly, certainly different from when you first met. “ I thank you all for your bravery and help, and I wish to ask permission...to remain here. Where the people are most strange ...but also most kind.”

“You don’t need our permission,” Raven said calmly.

“But if you want our friendship, you've got it.” Robin added.

“I could use a new friend,” you say with a wink.

“Guess we could all use some new friends.” Cyborg agrees.

“Besides, we kind of made a good team.” Beast Boy says proudly.

“I thought we might want to keep in touch, so Cyborg and I designed these.” Robin fished out four black and yellow communicators. You, Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire each took one and observed them. They were similar to flip phones, but they were circular and had no logo on the front.

“Made ‘em outta my own circuits, '' Cyborg said proudly.

“When there’s trouble, you know who to call,” Robin said. You all smiled at one another. You were a team.

Epilogue

While everyone else was still smiling at one another, you excused yourself and walked a few feet away. You opened your new communicator, dialing in a phone number you know by heart. You waited for the person on the other line to pick up, and began to speak.

“Heyyy dad. It’s (y/n); you must have been worried sick, I’m sorry… Yeah no I’m fine, really. I’m in uhhh Jump City and I made some of the coolest friends and I was wondering... if I could stay here? I’ve been spending the whole night wanting to go back home, but I think this might be home for me. I understand if- oh? Really? You’ll let me stay? Wow, thanks dad. I-I promise that I’ll be careful and that I’ll go to school here, I know there's this high school called Murakami School I’ll try to… I love you too dad. I’ll talk to you later.”

You flip your communicator closed, and walked back to your new friends. Raven looked at you.

“Are you alright?” she asked, noticing your change in mood.

“Yeah,” you say, a smile forming on your face. “I’m great actually. Just had to call home.”

“You're going home???” Beast Boy asked, a frown falling on his face.

You chuckled, “Of course not.” You lightly punched his shoulder. “Besides, this is my home now.”

“Awe Yeah!” the green guy cheered. You laugh, feeling extra cheerful. Now that you’re in a team, you really do feel like you belong. You looked at your new team.

“Anyone up for pizza?”

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fatiguing-thoughts · 3 years

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Golden Eyes - Paul Lahote x Reader

A/N: I thought of this last night when I had trouble sleeping. Can’t wait for you all to hate me, but I thoroughly enjoy it and encourage you to read until the end. It’s kinda a sad one folks, but I give to you a soft Paul

Paul and I sat in the meadow as we had grown accustomed to. He had found it on patrol a few months ago, so now we come here as often as possible, now that the threats of impending vampiric doom was dwelling since Bella and Edward got married a few days ago. It was time for everyone to breathe for what felt like the first time in forever.

I inhaled the fresh scent of teakwood cologne on Paul’s chest. My head rested on his bicep as we laid down. Simply enjoying the company of one another, laughing at each other’s stupid jokes, and giggling whenever he whispers yet another sweet nothing into my ear.

The light shone on us almost magically, it almost felt surreal. I felt the warmth from the sun’s rays shining on my skin, pairing with Paul to make the almost chilly day bearable.

The deep rumbling of his chest sent waves of happiness throughout my body, his laugh was the air I needed to breathe. Paul really made me feel things I never knew were possible.

Suddenly, the air grew quiet. The sounds of nature came to a halt. We no longer heard the sounds of birds nor the rustling of the wind. Paul’s chest tightened and he inhaled deeply. His large body turned over onto mine, crushing me into the ground.

“Paul?” I asked, voice trembling.

“Shhh.”

He looks around, trying to find the source of whatever killed our blissful moment. Though that only lasted a few seconds before I heard his voice once again.

“What’re you doing here, Irina?” Paul asks, letting himself get off of my chest.

I turn and see the woman I recognized from Bella’s wedding. She stared daggers at us all night.

I looked into her golden eyes, and I saw nothing but pure disdain. She was not happy to see us.

“I came to apologize to Carlisle for my behavior at the wedding.” She smirks, looking over at me.

“Well, you’re about fifteen miles away from their house.” Paul says, growing more uneasy by the minute.

He stood in front of me, I began to stand myself but my legs were trembling with fear.

She wouldn’t be stopping to see us for any good reason. She might’ve actually came to apologize to Carlisle, but smelling us out here might’ve presented too good of an opportunity for her.

“You killed him.” She scoffs, her golden eyes burning holes into Paul.

I knew Paul wasn’t trying to escalate the situation, as he was trying to avoid more conflict and was hoping she would just leave. But it was after then he knew that he had to phase.

“He tried to kill Bella.” Paul reminds her.

I latched onto his bicep in fear.

“He wanted to be like us!” She yells, beginning to walk closer.

“Move back.” Paul whispers, shoving me backwards.

His body bursts into one of a large grey wolf, snarling. He backs up closer to me, protectively standing in front of my trembling frame.

“Cute.” Irina scoffs.

Before I could even blink, she was running at us. Thankfully Paul was able to actually see her as he met her in the middle. He threw her into a nearby tree, snapping it in half. Paul runs over to where she landed, hoping to just destroy her.

“Where the hell are the rest of them?” I mumble under my breath, panic fully setting in. I tore my eyes from Paul and Irina and look into the tree line, hoping to see the rest of the pack.

Irina was a seasoned vampire, she knew what she was doing. I had all my faith in Paul, but I worried for his safety greatly.

A loud wine caused my blood to run cold. It was Paul. Irina had crushed his ribs.

“Paul!” I scream, almost running over, but I couldn’t bring myself to run-- it was like my legs were made of concrete.

It was then that my eyes almost bulged from my skull. I watched as she grabbed him from the neck, killing him instantly. I watched as his lifeless body slumped to the ground, his eyes rolling.

“I’ll protect you until my dying breath.” The memory of Paul’s voice rang through my head, echoing around the walls of my skull. He meant those words more than anyone else would ever have.

I immediately fell to my knees, screaming but nothing came out. I tried to run over, but I couldn’t get up from my collapsed state. I was stuck to look into the love of my life’s dead eyes.

Until she stalked over to me, far too slowly. She grabbed me by the throat, lifting me off the ground with an enormous smile on her face.

I watched as the rest of the pack charged out of the treeline, though it wasn’t before she bit me.

I fell to the ground as Irina was grabbed by Sam and Jacob-- being destroyed.

I was flailing on the ground, convulsing as the venom surged through my body. It felt like there was no longer blood traveling through my veins-- it felt like fire, like corrosive acid. I was looking around, screaming-- trying to get up and run to Paul. But I couldn’t, my eyes simply just faded to black-- ignoring the signals my brain was attempting to send to them. Suddenly, I was void of all sight and sound.

Suddenly, I hear my screaming again and I’m sweating profusely. Anxiety coursing through my veins.

“(Y/N), wake up. Please.” Paul begs, gently shaking me awake.

My eyes shoot open and see a worried Paul leaning over me, clutching onto me for dear life. I immediately grab him, pulling him into me.

“(Y/N), you had a nightmare. You’re okay, I’m here. I’m here, baby.” He whispers, raking his fingers through my hair as he held me close.

He picks me up, placing me in his lap, shushing me as I sobbed into his chest.

“I got you, baby. I’m here. It was just a nightmare. It’s okay.” His raspy voice soothes.

“P-Paul.” I choke on my sobs.

“Shhhh, talk about it when you calm down.” His warm hand rubbing circles on my back, my head on his chest.

Hearing his heart beat was the best thing I had ever heard. I was so grateful to hear it, to feel his chest warm. To see him alive.

We sat there for a few minutes, waiting until my uncontrollable sobs turned into slight sniffles.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He whispers into my ear.

I nod, pulling away to look at him. I felt that it was better to tell him, afraid this dream was an omen of sorts. Maybe to consult with Alice.

“I’m just so happy to see you.” I press my forehead onto his.

His warm hands stayed on my waist, his eyes never tearing away from mine, patiently waiting for me to tell him about my nightmare.

_______________________________

Word Count: 1166

A/N: yeah sorry I love you guys tho, don’t kill me lmaooooo I just wanted a little bit of a angsty thing, I wanted a shocker. I wanted to scare some of ya. Please lemme know if you enjoyed or not. Including a very soft Paul.

#paul lahote #paul lahote x reader #paul lahote imagine #sam uley #jacob black #jared cameron #quil ateara #embry call #leah clearwater #seth clearwater #twilight #twilight x reader #JUST READ TO THE FUCKIN END OK

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grigori77 · 2 years

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2021 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 2)

20. ENCANTO – Disney have delivered another stormer that seemed almost tailor-made for the festive season, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas or the Holidays in general at all, the masters who brought us Zootropolis, Jared Bush (Moana) and Byron Howard (Tangled), putting together another precision-crafted family-friendly slice of magical wonder to reward the whole family. Fifty years ago, a magic candle created a safe-haven for a small community in the heart of the Central American jungle, presided over by the family Madrigal, whose offspring were awarded special powers that have helped shape this little corner of the world into a paradise. But now the candle seems to be waning, and it’s up to Mirabel (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz), one of the youngest generation of Madrigal children, to save the magic and set everything right, but there’s a catch – Mirabel is the only sibling who has never been given any powers, which has been a source of great consternation for her since childhood, surely making her the least qualified candidate in the whole family, and yet … typical of Disney, there are some weighty themes mixed into all the magic and wonder on offer here, and Mirabel is the kind of perfectly-accessible emotional proxy for any viewer who feels they could or should be something else, something better, which makes her an ideal role model for many of the film’s intended audience. She’s also sweet and stubborn and tenacious and it’s an effortless thing to follow her on this adventure, you cheer her on every step of the way and your heart breaks along with hers when things are at their darkest. That said, there are plenty of other great characters on offer here too, from super-strong (literal) big sister Luisa (up-and-comer Jessica Darrow) and flower-powered “perfect” sister Isabella (Doom Patrol’s Diane Guerrero) to mysterious black sheep prophet uncle Bruno (the great John Leguizamo) and shape-shifting little brother Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), and while the action quota is lacking here there’s a riot of enjoyably colourful musical numbers to make up for it, while the animation and design work is first-rate, bringing the characters and settings to life with vivid beauty throughout, particularly in the story’s predominant setting, the Madrigal’s family home, the Casita, which is magically alive and essentially a character all its own. This may be somewhat standard family entertainment by Disney animation standards, but when they can consistently turn out results of this pure quality I can’t fault them for it. Spell-binding perfection, basically.

19. WRATH OF MAN – Guy Ritchie’s latest (regarded by many as a triumphant return to form, which I consider unfair since I don’t think he ever went away, especially after 2020’s spectacular The Gentlemen) is BY FAR his darkest film – let’s get this clear from the start, anyone who knows his work knows that Ritchie consistently maintains a near flawless balance of humour and seriousness in his films that gives them a welcome quirkiness that’s one of his most distinctive trademarks, so for him to suddenly deliver a film which takes itself SO SERIOUSLY is a hell of a departure. This is a film that almost REVELS in its darkness – Ritchie has always bathed in man’s baser instincts, but Wrath of Man almost makes a kind of twisted VIRTUE out of wallowing in the genuine evils that men are capable of inflicting on each other. The film certainly kicks off as it means to go on – In a tour-de-force single-shot opening, we watch a daring armoured car robbery on the streets of Los Angeles that goes horrifically wrong, an event which will have devastating consequences in the future. Five months later, Fortico Security hires taciturn Brit Patrick Hill (Jason Statham) to work as a guard in one of their trucks, and on his first run he single-handedly foils another attempted robbery with uncanny combat skills. The company is thrilled, amazed by the sheer ability of their new hire, but Hill’s new colleagues are more concerned, wondering exactly what they’ve let themselves in for. After a second foiled robbery, it becomes clear that Hill’s reputation has grown, but fellow guard Haiden (Holt McCallany), aka “Bullet”, begins to suspect there might be something darker going on … Ritchie is firing on all cylinders here, delivering a PERFECT slow-burn suspense thriller which plays its cards close to its chest and cranks up its piano wire tension with artful skill as it builds to a devastating, knuckle-whitening explosive heist that acts as a cathartic release for everything that’s built up over the past hour and a half. In typical Ritchie style the narrative is non-linear, the story unfolding in four distinct parts told from clearly differentiated points of view, allowing the clues to be revealed at a trickle that effortlessly draws the viewer in as they fall deeper down the rabbit hole, leading to a harrowing but strangely poignant denouement which is perfectly in tune with everything that’s come before. It’s an immense pleasure finally getting to see Statham working with Ritchie again, and I don’t think he’s ever been better than he is here – he's always been a brilliantly understated actor, but there’s SO MUCH going on under Hill’s supposedly impenetrable calm that every little peek behind the armour is a REVELATION; McCallany, meanwhile, has landed his best role outside of his sterling work on Netflix’ excellent Mindhunters, likeable and fallible as the kind of easy-going co-worker anyone in the service industry would be THRILLED to have, but giving Bullet far more going on under the surface, while there are uniformly excellent performances from a top-shelf ensemble supporting cast that includes Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Sicario), Andy Garcia, Laz Alonso (The Boys), Eddie Marsan, Niamh Algar (Raised By Wolves) and Darrell D’Silva (Informer, Domina), and a particularly edgy and intense turn from Scott Eastwood. This was BY FAR one of THE BEST thrillers of 2021, a masterpiece of mood, pace and plot that ensnares the viewer from its gripping opening and hooks them right to the close, a triumph of the genre and EASILY Guy Ritchie’s best film since Snatch. Regardless of whether or not it’s a RETURN to form, we can only hope he continues to deliver fare THIS GOOD in the future, and since he and Statham have already reteamed for imminent Continental crime caper Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, I guess we’ll find out soon enough …

18. FEAR STREET (PARTS 1-3) – Netflix have gotten increasingly ambitious with their original filmmaking over the years, and some of 2021’s offerings have reached new heights of epic intention. Perhaps their most ambitious release of the summer was this adaptation of popular children’s horror author R.L. Stine’s popular book series, a truly gargantuan undertaking as the filmmakers set out to create an entire TRILOGY of films which were then released over three consecutive weekends. Interestingly, these films are most definitely NOT for kids – this is proper, no-holds-barred supernatural slasher horror, delivering highly calibrated shocks and precision jump scares, a pervading atmosphere of insidious dread and a series of inventively gruesome kills that would make Wes Craven proud. The story revolves around two neighbouring small towns which have had vastly different fortunes over more than three centuries of existence – while the residents of Sunnyvale are unusually successful, living idyllic lives in peace and prosperity, luck has always been against the people of Shadyside, who languish in impoverishment, crime and misfortune, while the town has become known as the Murder Capital of the USA due to frequent spree killings. Some attribute this to the supposed curse of a local urban legend, Sarah Fier, who became known as the Fier Witch after her execution for witchcraft in 1668, but others dismiss this as simple superstition. Part 1 is set in 1994, as the latest outbreak of serial mayhem begins in Shadyside, dragging a small group of local teens – Deena Johnson (She Never Died’s Kiana Madeira) and Samantha Fraser (Olivia Scott Welch), a young lesbian couple going through a difficult breakup, Deena’s little brother Josh (The Haunted Hathaways’ Benjamin Flores Jr.), a nerdy history geek who spends most of his time playing video games or frequenting violent crime-buff online chatrooms, and their delinquent friends Simon (Eight Grade’s Fred Hechinger) and Kate (Julia Rehwald) – into the age-old ghostly conspiracy as they find themselves besieged by indestructible undead serial killers from the town’s past, reasoning that the only way they can escape with their lives is to solve the mystery and bring the Fier Witch some much needed closure. Part 2, meanwhile, flashes back to a previous outbreak in 1977, in which local sisters Ziggy (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) and Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd), together with future Sunnyvale sheriff Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland) were among the kids hunted by said killers during a summer camp “colour war”. As for Part 3, that goes all the way back to 1668 to tell the story of what REALLY happened to Sarah Fier, before wrapping up events in 1994, culminating in a terrifying, adrenaline-fuelled showdown in the Shadyside Mall. Throughout, the youthful cast are EXCEPTIONAL, Madeira, Welch, Flores Jr., Sink and Rudd particularly impressing, while there are equally strong turns from Ashley Zuckerman (The Code, Designated Survivor) and Community’s Gillian Jacobs as the grown-up versions of two key ’77 kids, and a fun cameo from Maya Hawke in Part 1. This is definitely retro horror in the Stranger Things mould, the perfectly executed period details bringing fun nostalgic flavour to all three timelines while the peerless direction from Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon) and wire-tight, sharp-witted screenplays from Janiak, Kyle Killen (Lone Star, The Beaver), Phil Graziadel, Zak Olkewicz and Kate Trefry strike a perfect balance between knowing dark humour and knife-edged terror, as well as weaving an intriguingly complex narrative web that pulls the viewer in but never loses them to overcomplication. The design, meanwhile, is evocative, the cinematography (from Stanger Things’ Caleb Heymann) is daring and magnificently moody, and the killers and other supernatural elements of the film are handled with skill through largely physical effects. This is definitely not a standard, by-the-numbers slasher property, and while it pays strong homage to the sub-genre’s rules it frequently subverts them with expert skill, and it’s as much fun as it is frightening. Give us some more like this please, Netflix!

17. THE HARDER THEY FALL – I love a good western, those who’ve been following me for a while should know this by now. Netflix’ latest certainly fills that requirement in fine style, adding an intriguing and timely Black Lives Matter spin with a largely African American cast bringing a collection of famous real life black figures from the Old West to life in intriguing and sometimes quite surprising ways. The main crux of the story is the fervent rivalry between outlaws Nat Love (The Last Black Man in San Francisco’s Jonathan Majors) and Rufus Buck (the indomitable Idris Elba), which is rekindled when Buck is broken out of prison (well, a train-bound prison transport, at least) by his old gang, prompting Love to go on the hunt for the man who gunned down his whole family when he was just a boy. The resulting misadventure draws in the likes of Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beats), Cherokee Bill (Judas & the Black Messiah’s Lakeith Stanfield) and legendary black lawman Bass Reeves (the mighty Delroy Lindo), building to a substantial and thrilling all-action gun-battle climax in Buck’s outlaw stronghold of Redwood City. On the surface, this is pretty standard Wild West entertainment, ticking all the narrative boxes both revisionist and classical, but there’s some real style and verve to this film, debuting feature director Jeymes Samuel (probably better known by his stage name of The Bullitts as a singer-songwriter and music producer) showing some impressive skill with action and actors as well as a sharp eye for some artful visuals while crafting a compelling story and razor-witted script with his co-writer Boaz Yakin (Safe, Remember the Titans), and it does a really fascinating job of capturing several of the true life subjects portrayed here (it’s certainly far better in realising its intended goal than similarly-styled but far less successful 90s guilty pleasure Posse). Indeed, it’s the cast here that shines brightest – Majors is a compellingly complex and rewardingly fallible (anti)hero and Elba oozes understated menace in one of his best bad guy roles to date, while Stanfield is clearly having the time of his life, as is RJ Cyler (Me & Earl & the Dying Girl) as Jim Beckwourth, although the true star turns here come from the film’s three ladies, Beats delivering a masterful turn alongside Watchmen’s Regina King as Buck’s tough lieutenant/lover Trudy Smith (one of the film’s few purely fictional main characters) and Danielle Deadwyler (The Have & Have Nots, Watchmen, Paradise Lost) as unassumingly diminutive badass Cuffey (inspired by real life legend Cathay Williams) – but really, this whole movie is seriously hot stuff, a hard-edged but gleefully unapologetic nose-thumb at what’s traditionally been a white-led genre for decades. If nothing else, this alone makes it worth a look.

16. RAYA & THE LAST DRAGON – with UK cinemas still closed in the first half of the year I had to live with seeing ALL the big stuff on my frustratingly small screen at home, but at least there was plenty of choice with so many of the big studios electing to either sell some of their languishing big projects to online vendors or simply release on their own streaming services. Thank the gods, then, for the House of Mouse following Warner Bros’ example and releasing their big stuff on Disney+ at the same time as in those theatres that had reopened – this was one movie I was PARTICULARLY looking forward to, and if I’d had to wait for the UK reopening in mid-May I might have gone a little crazy watching people lose it and dump major spoilers all over something I still hadn’t seen. That said, it WOULD HAVE been worth the wait – coming across a bit like Disney’s long overdue response to Dreamworks’ AWESOME Kung Fu Panda franchise, this is a spellbinding adventure in a beautifully thought-out fantasy world heavily inspired by Southeast Asia’s rich, diverse cultures and fascinatingly varied histories, bursting with red hot martial arts action and exotic Eastern mysticism and brought to life by a uniformly strong voice cast dominated by actors of Asian descent. It’s got a cracking premise, too – 500 years ago, the land of Kumandra was torn apart when a terrible supernatural force known as the Druun very nearly wiped out all life, only stopped by the sacrifice of the last dragons, who poured all their power and lifeforce into a mystical gem. But when that gem is broken and the pieces are divided between the warring nations of Fang, Heart, Spine, Tail and Talon, the Druun return, prompting Raya (Star Wars’ Kelly Marie Tran), the fugitive princess of Heart, to embark on a quest to reunite the gem pieces and revive the legendary dragon Sisu in a desperate bid to vanquish the Druun once and for all. Moana director Don Hall teams up with Blindspotting helmer Carlos Lopez Estrada (making his debut in the big chair for Disney after helping develop Frozen), flawlessly executing a thoroughly inspired screenplay co-written by Crazy Rich Asians’ Adele Kim which is full to bursting with magnificent world-building, beautifully crafted characters and thrilling action, as well as the Disney prerequisites of playful humour and tons of heart and soul. Tran makes Raya a feisty and engaging heroine, tough, stubborn and a seriously kickass fighter, but with true warmth and compassion too, while Gemma Chan is icy cool but deep down ultimately kind of sweet as her bitter rival, Fang princess Namaari, and there’s strong support from Doctor Strange’s Benedict Wong and Good Boys’ Izaac Wang as hard-but-soft Spine warrior Tong and youthful but charismatic Tail shrimp-boat captain Boun, two of the warm-hearted found family that Raya gathers on her travels. The big scene-stealer, however, is the ever-entertaining Awkwafina, bringing Sisu to life in wholly unexpected but thoroughly charming and utterly adorable fashion, a goofy, sassy and sweet-natured bundle of fun who grabs all the best laughs but also unswervingly champions the film’s core messages of peace, unity and acceptance in all things, something Raya needs a lot of convincing to take to heart. Visually stunning, endlessly inventive, consistently thrilling and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, this is another solid gold winner proving that Disney can do this kind of stuff in their sleep, but it’s always most interesting when they really make the effort to create something truly special. As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the studio’s finest animated features in a good long while, and thoroughly deserving of all the praise and attention it’s received …

15. THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES – so what piece of animation, you might be asking, could POSSIBLY have won over Raya as my animated feature of the year? After all, it would have to be something TRULY special … then again, remember Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse? Back in 2018, that blew me away SO MUCH that it very nearly became my top animated feature of THE PAST DECADE (only JUST losing out, ultimately, to Dreamworks’ unstoppable How to Train Your Dragon trilogy). When I heard its creators, the irrepressible double act of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), were going to be following that up with this anarchic screwball comedy adventure, I was VERY EXCITED INDEED, a fervour which was barely blunted when its release was, inevitably, indefinitely delayed thanks to the global pandemic, so when it finally released on Netflix at the tail end of Spring I POUNCED. Thankfully my faith was thoroughly rewarded – this is an absolute riot from start to finish, a cinematic gem I look forward to going back to for repeated viewings in the future, just to soak up its awesomeness – it’s hilarious to a precision-crafted degree, brilliantly thought-out and SPECTACULARLY well-written by acclaimed Gravity Falls writer-director Mike Rianda (who also helms here), injecting the whole film with a gleefully unpredictable, irrepressibly irreverent streak of pure chaotic genius that makes it an affectionately endearing and utterly irresistible joyride from bonkers start to adorable finish. The central premise is pretty much as simple as the title suggests, the utterly dysfunctional Mitchell family – father Rick (Danny McBride), born outdoorsman and utter technophobe, mother Linda (Maya Rudolph), much put-upon but unflappable even in the face of Armageddon, daughter Katie (Broad City co-creator Abbi Jacobson), tech-obsessed and growing increasingly estranged from her dad, and son Aaron (Rianda himself), a thoroughly ODD dinosaur nerd – become the world’s only hope after naïve tech mogul Mark Bowman (Eric Andre), founder of PAL Labs, inadvertently sets off a robot uprising. Cue a wild comedy of errors of EPIC proportions … this is just about the most fun I had with a movie all year, an absolute riot throughout, but there’s far more to it than just a pile of big belly laughs, with the Mitchells all proving to be a lovable bunch of misfits who inspire just as much deep, heartfelt affection as they learn from their mistakes and finally overcome their differences, becoming a better, more loving family in the process, McBride and Jacobson particularly shining as they make our hearts swell and put a big lump in our throat even while they make us titter and guffaw, while the film has a fantastic larger than (virtual) life villain in PAL (Olivia Colman), the virtual assistant turned megalomaniacal machine intelligence spearheading this technological revolution. Much like its Spider-Man-shaped predecessor, this is also an absolutely STUNNING film, visually arresting and spectacularly inventive and bursting with neat ideas and some truly beautiful stylistic flair, frequently becoming a genuine work of cinematic art that’s as much a feast for the eyes as it is the intellect and, of course, the soul. Altogether then, this was definitely one of the year’s most downright GORGEOUS films, as well as UNDENIABLY one of the most FUN. Lord and Miller really have done it again.

14. THE SPARKS BROTHERS – those who’ve been following my reviews for a while will know that while I do sometimes shout about new documentary films, they tend to show up in my runners-up lists – it’s a real rarity for one to land in one of my top tens. This lovingly crafted deep-dive homage to cult band Sparks, from self-confessed rabid fanboy Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim), is something VERY SPECIAL INDEED, then … there’s a vague possibility some of you may have heard the name before, and many of you will know at least one or two of their biggest hits without knowing it was them (their greatest hit of all time, This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, immediately springs to mind), but unless you’re REALLY serious about music it’s quite likely you have no idea who they are, namely two brothers from California, Russell and Ronald Mael, who formed a very sophisticated pop-rock band in the late 60s and then never really went away, having moments of fame but mostly working away in the background and influencing some of the greatest bands and musical artists that followed them, even if many never even knew where that influence originally came from. Wright’s film is an engrossing joy from start to finish (despite clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes), following their eclectic career from obscure inception as Halfnelson, through their first real big break with third album Kimono My House, subsequent success and then fall from popularity in the mid-70s, through several subsequent revitalisations of their fortunes, all the way up to the present day with their long-awaited cinematic breakthrough, revolutionary musical feature Annette – throughout Wright keeps the tone light and the pace breezy, allowing an endearing sense of irreverence to rule the day as fans, friends and the brothers themselves offer up fun anecdotes and wax lyrical about what is frequently a larger-than-life tragicomic soap opera, utilising fun, crappy animations and idiosyncratic stock footage inserts alongside archive clips and talking-head interviews that have been made with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek style – Mike Myers good-naturedly rants about how we can see his “damned mole” while 80s New Romantic icons Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, while shot together, are each individually labelled as “Duran”. Ron and Russ themselves, meanwhile, are clearly having huge fun, gently ribbing each other and dropping some fun deadpan zingers throughout proceedings, easily playing to the band’s strong, idiosyncratic sense of hyper-intelligent humour, while the aforementioned celebrity talking-heads are just three amongst a whole wealth of famous faces that may surprise you – there’s even an appearance by Neil Gaiman, guys! Altogether this is 2+ hours of bright and breezy fun chock full of great music and fascinating information, and even hardcore Sparks fans are likely to learn more than a little over the course of the film, while for those who have never heard of Sparks before it’s a FANTASTIC introduction to one of the greatest ever bands that you’ve never heard of. With luck there might even be more than a few new fans in 2022 thanks to this film …

13. P.G. PSYCHO GOREMAN – one of the year’s undeniable top guilty pleasures was this fantastic weird, thoroughly over-the-top and completely OUT THERE black comedy cosmic horror that doesn’t so much riff on the works of HP Lovecraft as throw them in a blender, douse them with maple syrup and cayenne pepper and then hurl the sloppy results to the four winds. On paper it sounds like a family-friendly cutesy comedy take on Call of Cthulu et al, but trust me, this sure ain’t one for the kids – the latest indie horror offering from Steven Kostanski, co-creator of the likes of Manborg, Father’s Day and The Void, this is one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen in years, but it’s also one of the most gleefully funny, playing itself entirely for yucks (frequently LITERALLY). Mimi (Nita Josee-Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) are two small-town Canadian kids who dig a big hole of their backyard, accidentally releasing the Arch-Duke of Nightmares (Matthew Ninaber and the voice of Steven Vlahos), an ancient, god-tier alien killing machine who’s been imprisoned for aeons in order to protect the universe from his brutal crusade of death and destruction. To their parents’ dismay, Mimi decides to keep him, renaming him Psycho Goreman (or “P.G.” for short) and attempting to curb his superpowered murderous impulses so she can have a new playmate. But the monster’s original captors, the Templars of the Planetary Alliance, have learned of his escape, sending their most powerful warrior, Pandora (Kristen McCulloch), to destroy him once and for all. Yup, this movie is just as loony tunes as it sounds – Kostanski injects the film with copious amounts of his own outlandish, OTT splatterpunk extremity, bringing us a riotous cavalcade of bizarrely twisted creatures and mutations (realised through some deliciously disgusting prosthetic effects work) and a series of wonderfully off-kilter (not to mention frequently off-COLOUR) darkly comic skits and escapades, while the sense of humour is pretty bonkers but also generously littered with nuggets of genuine sharply observed genius. The cast, although made up almost entirely of unknowns, is thoroughly game, and the kids particularly impress, especially Josee-Hanna, who plays Mimi like a flamboyant, mercurial miniature psychopath whose zinger-delivery is clipped, precise and downright hilarious throughout. There are messages of love conquering all and the power of family, both born and made, buried somewhere in there too, but ultimately this is just 90 minutes of wonderful weirdness that’s sure to melt your brain but still leave you with a big dumb grin when it’s all over. Which is all we really want from a movie like this, right?

12. SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – the MCU’s top big screen offering of 2021 was, perversely, also the biggest chance the studio took in several years (yes, even more than the entertaining but ultimately underwhelming Eternals), folding in a C-list Marvel superhero who’s long languished as something of a sort-of-racist stereotype that the comics have been trying to dig out of that particular hole for years. Thing is, this movie does a really beautiful job of pulling off that trick all in a single movie, while also delivering a genuinely excellent shot-in-the-arm corker for the franchise which compares very favourably indeed with similarly racially-charged recent offering Black Panther. This time it’s South East Asia in general and martial arts action in particular that’s the focus here, and while MCU-debuting writer director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy) may not have previous form in this arena, he’s just the kind of talented indie cinema alumnus that the studio have always had such great luck with upgrading to big budget work in the past, and as with previous choices he proved impressively adept at ushering in just the kind of all-action thrill-ride with added emotional heft and fantastical wonder we’ve come to expect from the MCU. Breakout star Simu Liu is perfectly cast as Shang-Chi, self-exiled former heir to the Ten Rings, the powerful Asian crime syndicate ruled over by his near-immortal warlord father Xu Wenyu (a typically masterful performance from the great Tony Leung), who seeks to bring his wayward son back into the fold, along with his estranged daughter Xialing (rising star Meng’er Zhang), to help him find the mystical hidden land of Ta Lo, a place of magic the siblings’ later mother came from. Yeah, I know, sounds a bit out there, but the MCU’s gotten really good at making that kind of stuff work, and this is no exception, Cretton and his co-writers, David Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984 and the incoming Spider-Verse sequel) and Andrew Lanham, weaving a tight, compelling and thoroughly inspired tale of familial strife, clashing cultures and just a dash of (admittedly PG-13-friendly) cosmic horror which fits perfectly into the colourful tableau of the franchise at large. The cast are all excellent as usual – Liu and Zhang handle the action duties with incredibly game skill and determination while also crafting rock-solid characters for themselves that promise a long shelf-life in the MCU at large, as does Leung, who effortlessly proves he can still handle himself just as well as the kids while also showing what a heavyweight, award-winning acting talent he still is (brilliantly realising one of the most sympathetic MCU villains to date), matched step-by-step by the true queen of Asian cinema, Michelle Yeoh, as Ta Lo’s faithful guardian (and the siblings’ aunt) Ying Nan, but in the end the film is roundly stolen by Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s faithful and irrepressible best friend Katy, and the welcome return of a former MCU alumnus whose identity I refuse to give away here because it’s such a wonderful and absolutely inspired twist when they arrive – the action’s first rate, the second unit and stunt teams (as well as several very game cast members) creating some pretty hardcore and visually arresting fight sequences and chases (and for once even the now almost obligatory CGI-heavy climax is a STRONG ONE), and the sense of humour is, as usual, firing on all cylinders, while the film is frequently a rich and delectable feast for the eyes. SCATLOTTR secures its place in the MCU with confident assurance and more than a little cocky swagger, all while maintaining an impressive record of cultural respect and positive representation, so it would thoroughly deserves its position on the franchise’s throne for 2021. Had it not been for Loki …

11. SPACE SWEEPERS – all throughout the pandemic and the interminable lockdowns, Netflix have been a consistent blessing to those of us who’ve been craving the kind of big budget blockbusters we’ve (largely) been unable to get at the cinema. Some of my top movies of 2020 were Netflix Originals, and they continued the trend into 2021, having dropped some choice cuts on us over the past twelve months. This phenomenal milestone of Korean cinema, lauded as the country’s first space blockbuster, certainly went big instead of going home, writer-director Jo Sung-hee (A Werewolf Boy, Phantom Detective) delivering big budget thrills and spills in a bombastic science-fiction adventure cast in the classic Star Wars mould, where action, emotion and fun characters count for more than an admittedly simplistic but still admirably evocative archetypal plot – it’s 2092 and the Earth has become a toxic wasteland ruined by overpopulation and pollution, leading the wealthy to move into palatial orbital habitats in preparation for the impending colonisation of Mars, while the poor and downtrodden are packed into rotting ghetto satellites facing an uncertain future left behind to fend for themselves, and the UTS Corporation jealously guard the borders between rich and poor, presided over by seemingly benevolent but ultimately cruel sociopathic genius James Sullivan (Richard Armitage). Eking out a living in-between are the space sweepers, freelance spaceship crews who risk life and limb by cleaning up dangerous space debris to prevent it from damaging satellites and orbital structures. The film focuses on the crew of sweeper vessel Victory, a ragtag quartet clearly inspired by the “heroes” of Cowboy Bebop – Captain Jang (The Handmaiden’s Kim Tae-ri), a hard-drinking ex-pirate with a mean streak and a dark past, ace pilot Kim Tae-ho (The Battleship Island’s Song Joong-ki), a former child-soldier with a particularly tragic backstory, mechanic Tiger Park (The Outlaws’ Jin Seon-Kyu), a gangster from Earth living in exile in orbit, and Bubs (a genuinely flawless mocapped performance from A Taxi Driver’s Yoo Hae-jin), a surplus military robot slumming it as a harpooner so she can earn enough for gender confirmation. They’re a fascinating bunch, a mercenary band who never think past their next paycheque, but there’s enough good in them that when redemption comes knocking – in the form of Kang Kot-nim (newcomer Park Ye-rin), a revolutionary prototype android in the form of a little girl who may hold the key to bio-technological ecological salvation – they find themselves answering the call despite their misgivings. The four leads are exceptional (as is their young charge), while Armitage is a cracking villain, delivering subtle, restrained menace by the bucketload every time he’s onscreen, and there’s excellent support from a fascinating multinational cast who perform in a refreshingly broad variety of languages. Jo also delivers spectacularly on the action front, wrangling a blistering series of adrenaline-fuelled and explosive set-pieces that rival anything George Lucas or JJ Abrams have sprung on us this century, while the visual effects are nothing short of astounding, bringing this colourful, eclectic and dangerous universe to vibrant, terrifying life; indeed, the world-building here is exceptional, creating an environment you’ll feel sorely tempted to live in despite the pitfalls. Best of all, though, there’s tons of heart and soul, the fantastic found family dynamic at the story’s heart winning us over at every turn. Ultimately, while you might come for the thrills and spectacle, you’ll stay for these wonderful, adorable characters and their compelling tale. An undeniable triumph.

#encanto #wrath of man #fear street #fear street trilogy #the harder they fall #raya and the last dragon #the mitchells vs the machines #The Sparks Brothers #psycho goreman #p.g. psycho goreman #pg psycho goreman #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #space sweepers #2021 in movies

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overanalysingfandoms · 3 years

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How I would rewrite Teen Titans

I'm not actually probably going to write this, this would just be the direction I would have taken the show if I had the choice.

My version will have 6 seasons and 2 movies.

Season 1

The exact same, only maybe have Robin and Starfire get together at the end.

I don't really have any major problems with this season

Season 2

Pretty much the same except build up Raven's friendship with Beast boy more e.g. show her supporting him after Terra's gone both times or have her have a moment with him in Titan rising.

Season 3

Oh boy. A lot. I want to change a lot. First of all I want the tone to be a lot more like Deception. Have both Robin and Starfire as his secondaries instead of switching it to just Robin, so they balance eachother out with Robin being harsh and arguing with Cyborg while Starfire is gentle and supportive with him even though she isn't happy about his decision, this would also mean Robin and Starfire's relationship could be built up and tested, whether or not they're dating.

Second of all, motivations, this is my main problem with the season, I think it would have been far better with better motivations from the main hero and villian. Brother Blood has so much potential but since he has such vague motivations and we don't know what he wants he becomes far less interesting, they tried to recreate the Slade and Robin dynamic and it really didn't work. So I would have Blood less focused on Cyborg and more focused on his crime school before beginning to get more annoyed at the Titans for getting rid of his schools. I would have his main motivation to be something generic but believable like using his students to take over the world and using Cyborg as a stepping stone to do it. As for Cyborg I would use the theme they originally introduced in Deception, his struggle with his robot and human sides, and not have it resolved in one episode but rather the whole season, take away his whole 'I want to be a leader' thing and Brother Blood being 'his villian" and instead have him join the Titans East to get back his blueprints which wouldn't be retrieved in Wavelength.

Also have more focus on the og Titans when Cyborg's away to show how it's effecting them.

I would also have Sarah Simms show up at some point in this season and cut out the thing with Jinx in Deception and Sarasimm in Cyborg the Barbarian later on, make it one sided. Maybe have had Cyborg argue with Sarah at the start and be reminded of her by Sarasimm so he goes back to apologise.

That was long, sorry, there's just so much wasted potential in Season 3.

Season 4

Make this season 5. Now this is a massive change but it would be so much better, season 5 felt very anticlimactic after season 4, so if it is instead put before season 4, with a few tweaks it would work a lot better. This would also mean the stakes would be raised each season.

So the changes, so many to make.

First of all have the same episode structure as all the other seasons, some plot, some filler, it's just a better format.

Secondly make the Brotherhood of evil smaller and also have the main villians be on a council instead of the Brain ruling them all (think V.I.L.E. from Carmen Sandiego) this will add more spice to the villians as the brain being the main villian with everyone else as his got boring due to his utter lack of charisma.

Make the Doom Patrol come later on in the season.

Have newer Titans show up in more than one episode to allow them to develop friendships with eachother and so the team up at the end of the season feels more natural. Season 5's finale would also come as more of an emotional gut punch if we saw all the other teams frozen after Trigon takes over.

Season 5

I wouldn't change a huge amount, just a few little tweaks.

Have more emphasis on Slade and I still don't want to redeem him, I think he should stay bad.

Make Raven and possibly Trigon less powerful. I know this sounds strange but a problem I've always had with season 4 is how it treated the other Titans, except from Robin they were mostly didn't do anything about the plot. Have them at least do some damage to Slade and the army when they show up at the tower so they don't seem really weak for example have them used against eachother and defeated one by one so they seem less useless.

Also have the powers Raven has given them have a small effect on Trigon, which gives them some hope (this could be mentioned by Robin in his later conversationwith Raven)

Put more emphasis on Raven's relationship with Beast Boy and have him be another secondary who she comes to for comfort, giving the penny and beast form more meaning later on.

I would also have Starfire, Beast boy and Cyborg have to team up together to beat each of their evil selves instead of just switching.

For defeating Trigon I have a few very specific ideas, have Raven try to defeat him on her own but fail in the final blast in her speech but then look at the penny, take her friends hands as they stand in a circle and all say Azerath Metrion Zinthos together, emitting a huge wave of white light and defeating Trigon together, Raven later saying she couldn't have done it without them.

Also during the start of the second part of the finale have a montage of everyone else frozen in stone before going back to the Titans.

That was a lot for just a few tweaks but oh well.

Season 6

The Starfire season, yay.

Now, I'm not entirely sure what I would do for this season but I have a vague outline and a few ideas.

Have the season focus on Starfire with both Robin and Raven as her secondaries with a subplot about Raven and Beast Boy.

I would have Slade come back working for the Gordanians as a mercenary who has been told to come to Earth and recapture Starfire for them as the first plot episode and the thing that kicks everything off because I just love this idea so much.

I would keep the same format as the rest of the series still, but maybe throw in a couple of space adventures.

I would have a more deep exploration of Tamaran's lore and culture as well as Blackfire's return, maybe as the season's main villian or working with the season's main villian or perhaps just for one episode but I think it would be good to have her back.

I would have the finale have the whole universe at stake, maybe giving the Gordanians or some other bigger alien race we're introduced to later on in the season (perhaps the Psions) have dalek like motivations of wanting to get rid of anything that isn't them and either Starfire or Tamaran is the key to this.

Slade once again doesn't redeem himself and gets away.

That's all I have for that.

Movie 1

Be like a Trouble in Tokyo but for Raven and Beast boy, I have no ideas apart from this.

Movie 2

Have a movie to wrap everything up with Slade.

Have all of the extended Titans help out on this with a focus on Jericho and Ravager.

Have a huge final battle with a lot of personal stakes and have Slade finally captured.

Have a cute little flash forward scene at the end, possibly with all the Titan's children taking over and showing how they've all grown.

Tada!!!

So that's the end and WOW did it take forever to write that.

Hope you enjoyed reading it and feel free to add anything on.

I might do more little rewrite things later, not as long as this bc this took me like half an hour but episodes or other shows or books because this was actually quite fun.

#that is the longest post I have ever made #I won't be doing that again anytime soon #sorry idk how to do read more #teen titans #starfire #robstar #robin #meta #rewrite #rewrite teen titans #beast boy #raven #bbrae #cyborg #sarah simms #cysarah

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vallerygallery · 3 years

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Young justice season 4 theories part 2

Alright strap in cause this is part 2 of loosing my sanity trying to predict season 4 of young justice. And oh boy are you in for a ride today.

So my last post on this (linked above) was mostly on Wally West, Greta Hayes, the Legion of superheroes, Jason Todd and Bart Allen. I went on about Easter eggs and other thing but I’ve just scraped the barrel on the absurd amount of speculation I call theories. So I’ll go ahead and develop my thoughts on the legion, and add some other details that I’ve seen that I think could lead into some other story arcs.

The Legion Of Superheroes

I’ll be the legion isn’t my forte in comic book knowledge buuuuut, here’s my take on what could happen. This will have some similar points to the ones I made in my last post but bare with me. I already touched upon the easter egg we had and how this might be a way we get Wally back. But what I think is more likely is the house of El.

So let me explain... I've already said that we could meet Kara but I think it could be anyone from the house of El. One of the founding members is superboy, which one though changes so we could see a storyline from that prespective. If we do I think it could go in a bunch of different directions and I might make a post separately for all the ways I think this could play out uf the focus on the superman family. (Tell me if you want to see this).

Other than that it could center on rectifying some mistake in the timestream. Maybe some domino effect Bart caused by avoiding the reach invasion. I don't really know how else this could work but I kinda see this as a posibility.

The Outsiders

With the outsiders I’ve seen that the members deviate A LOT from the comics. Obviously, the series wants to go where the comics can’t. They want to see the characters grow at a rate that’s basically unseen. But some current members that I think could be brought into the team without taking away from the story. So here are my characters:

Francine Langstrom

Sebastian Faust

Indigo

Batgirl

So I think any of those characters could work well with the team and the storyline we’ve been seeing hence why I think they could appear. And while I know Batgirl already appeared I meant Steph or Cass. The others however I did have to do a little digging so here’s my logic...

Batgirl

Batgirl is really straight forward since we have 2 to choose from. Cass and Steph. They just feel like logical desicions to come out of Batman inc. as Jefferson called them. There is really no other though and I know Batgirl has been a member before sooo yeah.

Sebastian Faust

Faust is part of the magic side of DC which in my opinion is something we could see more of. We already know there's a bunch of magic users from the Misplaced episode so I don't think it could be much of a stretch. We could even see other members from justice league dark for all I know. I think that with just Zatanna and Dr Fate it could be good to introduce other magic users affiliated to the Justice League.

Simmilarly, Faust is linked to Markovia (granted its through a vampire invasion but still) and we know that with Brion still there it's going to continue being a huge part of the storyline going forward. More so because the light has agents in the government. So I think he could be a good option to have show up.

Indigo

Indigo is one of the many Brainiac iterations. So it could just go in a bunch of different directions. It could also indicate we' be exploring more about the superman family which would be great in my opinion. We have a lot of options since I think the writers won't go with the most obvious choice but I still think that this is perfect cause it crosses over with the legion of superheroes. Tell me some storylines you think could happen.

Francine Langstrom

Ok so in all fairness I'm not the most up to date on this character but from whaat I've found she could be a pretty good fit.

The Phantom Zone

Another point that I touched previously was the phantom zone was referenced with the words 'ghost pit' which seems too close in my opinion. Again this could be used to bring Wally back or... it could have a tie to the house of El. We could be seeing more growth there. It could also tie in with what the legion is going back to stop or to vandal savage if he starts employing criminals. It's likely that they could be employed or in alliance with the light as we keep seeing it grow. It could also be similar to how the light crossed the reach although I do believe it would be more likely to see the light hurt here as these are meant to be the absolute worst criminals Krypton had to offer. We could also see Kara and it could all depend purely on how she was raised after coming out of the phantom zone. This could give many different storylines but I think one that could be interesting is one where she-s raised by Darkseid. We’ve seen it with Superman previously so I don-t see it as a stretch. Besides it would give the writers a lot to work with.

Those are just a few thoughts and I have more considering time doesn't pass there but I'm unsure how it could play out since there are so many posibilities. Especially since I really think it will be coming into play I’m interested in seeing how it comes to be an important player. I think the writers have a lot of potential to make a remarkable storyline if used correctly.

The Doom Patrol

This is one I doubt will happen but I think we could come to see flashbacks or some variation. So ever since I saw Garfield have the flashbacks with the heroes they’ve lost I thought they were setting something up. But with it they also go ahead to talk about the Doom Patrol. I know that its in passing and while I don't think we'll have an entire season I believe we'll see more of them cause they're a huge part of Garfield. If anything we might get to see some of the members as they go through grief. I think it could fit in with season 4 cause while they are part of Gar's past they also have their own phantoms to get over. It could be an interesting dynamic if they take a simmilar approach as they do in the tv show. Where they are plagued by their past, they've lost their family and I think them grieving while trying to help other would be an interesting dynamic.

#yj #keep binging yy #young justice phantoms #young justice #young justice theories #season 4 #young justice season 4 #phantom zone #superboy #wally west #doom patrol

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theodora3022 · 4 years

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Fairy

Pairing: Yandere! Overhaul x pro hero! reader

Summary: You are a popular hero with a lot of fans, Kai Chisaki included. Little did you know the masked man’s obsession went above and beyond average fans.

Notes: I just watched some season 4 and inspiration just hit me like a truck~ Reader has a wind quirk, scroll down fast now if you are not a fan of that.

This takes place before the incidents from the show :)

You’re still here? Enjoy.

Companion headcanons can be found here

Warning: Yandere, kidnapping, stalking mention, imprisionment

The way you float around by the winds, reminds him of – fairies from the legends of old.

Such swiftness, such fluidity! Perfection, downright mesmerising. And your gleeful laugh, sounds like the sweetest chant to Kai’s ears.

Someone like you is too flawless to exist outside a storybook, where the fairy lives in a secluded forest, far from the disgusting world of humans. You are so compassionate, so naïve -it is only a matter of time someone take advantage of that. He is not going to let that happen.

He felt disgusted by how your fans oogles at you. How dare they taint his lovely fairy with those dirty eyes!

He got it all planned out, a fantasy-looking cottage deep in the woods, some artificial, transparent wings, and bam you are his little fairy. He deserves a reward for trying to cure the word of its hero syndrome, right? And what can be more fitting then a mystical creature from a time before quirks even existed.

Sure, you have a quirk, but it does not matter here! After all, it grants you this unique grace, which caused him to fall hopelessly (he can let one person keep it). Sure, you are a hero, but he can cure you. Once he got you locked up in the safety of his base, there is plenty of time and methods available.

The day he saw you on TV, answering that reporter’s question after taking down some minor villain. He recognized you from the information bank of yakuza, but he never took any interest in you prior to this. When the interview ended you bid him the viewers a good day then you flew away. You seemed to go slow on purpose to get the camera a good shot.

That is the worst decision you ever made, but you do not know that yet.

Kai was hooked. You are doomed.

He starts doing research on you as a pastime, labelling it as “information gathering”.

Whenever a fan asks for an autograph, you nod to them. Whenever a reporter requests an interview, you say yes. You got a solid reputation of being sympathetic, which feeds his illogical obsession even more. Oh and you bet he is going to exploit that kind heart.

When he asks for your autograph during your usual patrol, you signed his notebook without questioning. Just another fan, you thought. Boy were you wrong. You missed the fire burning in his golden eyes.

He also learned that you never been in a romantic relationship before, which is good, because that means you are clean. That is when his mind is set on making you his.

Unfortunately, you are strong, with a quirk that enables you to sense any odd air movements around you. Stalking is out of the question. So he skips to the next option: taking you from that filthy word. He will probably pay villains to attack you, fake your death and erase any evidence of his involvement.

“Remember me, (y/n)?” The masked man said after you woke up in the depths of his base. Quirk cancelling handcuffs slides coldly around your wrists. He looks disappointed when you shook your head. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, giving how popular you are, hero. However that needs to be changed.” He said as you grab your chin with his gloved hand, forcing you to look up.

“W-why am I here? What do you want from me?” You stutters? How cute! Kai almost doesn’t want to clip your wings.

“From now on, you’re my fairy, my pretty little winged darling. And do not even think about escaping- I would hate to remove your precious quirk. After all, I love nothing more then seeing you fly.”

#bnha #bnha x reader #bnha overhaul #yandere overhaul x reader #yandere overhaul

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2020 Part 1 (#20-#11)

Hello Hello Hello animation fans! And welcome to something i’ve wanted to since last year. See I had the idea for a best episodes list back in 2019: rather than do a best shows list, which would be only about half of 20+ shows anyway, I thought i’d do a best episode lists: to give as many shows a possiblitiy to shine as possible while still honoring the best of the year. But my own natural foibles got the better of me: I INSISSITED on watching everything I missed.. then just kept putting THAT off until it was was spring, shows were coming back and I just threw up my hands. I’ve regretted it ever since and vowed, especially since in the interim animation went from just being something I analyized for fun to my analyzing it for fun AND profit, to get it done this year. So I had to make a few caveats. First I gave myself at first till the 31st of the year and then due to covid and everything that happened, until the end of the first week or so of the year, i.e. today, to watch as much as I could. So several shows are missing. Some I REALLY got behind on and don’t have an excuse for (Craig of the Creek and Big City Greens), others I also really liked but my depression made it really hard to watch (F is for Family and very nearly Bojack), some I just kept putting off ever starting or forgot to start entirely (Hilda, yes even since season 1, Kipo: Age of the Wonderbeasts and It’s Pony) and some.. I gave up because as you can tell I sit on shows way too often (Ilve action wise I still need to get back to Doom Patrol), and I realized i’d rather watch stuff old and new I care about than waste time with something that I just stopped liking, i.e. Rick and Morty and Big Mouth which i’m guaranteed some flack for saying but I dont’ care. I have my reasons, and while I originally GAVE those reasons I decided to leave them out: this list is not about me bitching about why I quit certain shows. I’m a grown ass man, I can quit a show anytime, and given last year was such a craphole, I think we could use less piss and vinegar and more sugar. So before we begin, a bit about the state of animation last year: It was in flux. WIth a new decade dawning we got great new shows like Owl House, Close Enough, which in a year full of terrible suprises not only FINALLY got released but did so with a second season order, Solar Opposities, the Midnight Gospel and Kipo: Age of Wonderbeasts. Ducktales returned for it’s best season ever. Amphibia returned for a pretty good season. Disney brought back the wonderful mickey mouse shorts towards the end of the year, FINALLY given D+ some non-movie animated content. The Casagrandes got better as it went and just barely didn’t make this list and the Loud House kept on trucking and shows no signs of stopping with a season renewal and a movie coming out. And Adventure Time staged a comeback a few years after it died and while I haven’t seen BMO yet, Obsidian was fantastic and only barely didn’t make the list.

Not only that but we got great new series announced for the next two years: Lumberjanes is FINALLY getting adapted and by Noelle Stevenson herself. Gendy Tarkovsky is not only returning to children’s animation but with a wonderously weird concept about immortal unicorns turned into teens> There’s a promising show about a ghost and a plucky tween coming this summer. The Rise of the TMNT movie is still happening. Craig McCracken is also coming back. But naturally given this was 2020 the news wasn’t all good as we said goodbye to a lot of shows.. and this was after 2019 already took several from us, OK KO still being the hardest loss to this day and Star Vs very disapointing finale still leaving a bad taste in my mouth: Most gutpunchingly, the two frontrunners of animation at the time, shows that truly changed the game and probably gave other shows a chance at life they never would’ve had, including some on this list, ended.

Steven Universe took it’s final bow after we got one last trip to beach city with the Future miniseries, with the show ending gracefully and beautifully, and having pulled off it’s third succesive possible ending for the franchise and it’s defntive ending for steven’s story. Bojack did the same not long before, ending on a bittersweet but beautiful note and with a one two punch of the series best episode and i’ts second best episode, a satsifying but bittersweet finale we’ll get to. Both shows as I said have set hte standards and tones for most animation after them, and both’s absence is felt. She Ra suprisingly ended, though with a beautiful and wonderful finale we’ll, again, get to, and on i’ts own terms, but given it was the most likely to take up the shield from steven, it was another punch. Less peacefully was the ending of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a show I caught up on after it’s demise which was screwed by the network over toy sales because that’s.. still.. a thing.

There is a light of hope, as the movie is somehow still in production and if it does well we may get season 3, but it’s dim and given the show, despite it’s flaws, had found itself and the finale, which they were given weeks to put together, was spectacular and, say it with me now “we’ll get to that”, I really hope it does. And that nick learns how to run an animation company for fuck’s sake.

Infnity Train while not dead, is on life support despite having it’s best season in season 2 and an okay season that still tackeled racisim very well even if story wise the season faltered, at a time when we REALLY need to tackle racisim in our entertaiment period. Venture Bros meanwihle was just flat out canceled for no given reason despite both having as eason renewal order and you know, being Adult Swim’s highest rated and best show for over a decade. Like Infinity Train and Rise there’s a SCRAP of hope, both adult swim and hbo max are apparently looking into ways to bring it back so a finale movie or a season 6 comic are propable, but given the show ended on two big cliffhangers, and given 2020 already had pushed back a LOT of things I’d looked forward to for good reason, and had now just outright killed a show, it was a massive shattering blow and easily the biggest of the year. But coming VERY close was finding out Ducktales was ending. While the finale would serve as a proper finale, I feel the show easily could’ve had more seasons.. Disney just dosen’t let shows go on forever, or sometimes not even for a reasonable amount.. or put those shows it didn’t let go on a resonable amount on Disney Plus.. and I will be bringing that last part up until Wonder Over Yonder is FINALLY put on the platform, along with MANy other shows. Figure it out. But yeah that was ANOTHER show I thought would lead the way and like Gravity Falls lead to Ducktales, Ducktales will probably lead to more shows including HOPEFULLY a frank and matt lead Darkwing Duck.. and even that’s in jeapordy since instead it might be done by Seth Rogan’s company who while not bad people and if their working on Frakn’s reboot great.. are not the people who spent three seasons setitng up a reboot in a unvierse they already spent three seasons deftly crafting. I DOUBT Frank won’t be involved since Let’s Get Dangerous was promoted to hell and back, but again given this is disney.. it worries me and I won’t be settled on this till we get conformation of a proper reboot with frank and matt at the helm.

Point is it was a rough year for animatoin even without covid taken into account pushing back seasons and forcing a change in work habits. But as this list attests even in the worst year in recenet memory, here’s hoping 2021 dosen’t say hold my beer, there was some damn fine animation, including some of the best i’ve ever seen and the shows that did leave or are getting ready to gave us one hell of a show. Before we get started one last bit of buisness for transparency: As I said i missed some shows and others I did watch but given despite this list’s sheer size it was still VERY tight, for the record each show got four nominees a piece, and some had even more episodes considered before widdling it down, and even at the 40 episode mark there were some tough cuts and by the end it was brutal. So here’s the show’s considered.

Shows Watched: Steven Universe Future, Infinity Train, Close Enough, She Ra, Ducktales, Amphibia, The Loud House, The Casagrandes, Rise of the TMNT, Animaniacs, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Adventure Time: Distant Lands, Solar Opposites, Bojack Horseman, The Owl House, The Midnight Gospel Shows That Did Not Make the Final List: The Loud House, The Casagrandes, Animaniacs, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Adventure Time: Distant Lands, and Solar Opposites. Final note: all episode’s i’ve done reviews of at the time of this list will have links in the title to said reviews in case your curious So with that in mind , here’s my top 20 list, part 1.. becasue these posts are going to be long as hell so I needed to split up gang. On with the show after the cut as this is a really damn long one

20. Fragments (Steven Universe Future) “I bow to your strength.. my Diamond” Steven Unvierse’s final act was a masterstroke. The show ended with every major conflict resolved as the Diamonds decided , if only for Steven’s sake at first, to change their ways and helped him restore the corrupted gems, while Lars made it home. Our heroes were FINALLY, after seasons and almost two in-story years, as Steven “Finally Done, Finally Us, Finally Me”, the last part being especially pogniant since, while done thanks to a horrifying action on whites part, his breif seperation PROVED there was nothing of rose left; She’s gone. So Future uses this cleverly: With the conlfict of the movie resolved things were still very nice.. but eventually Steven started breaking down piece by piece: As the series went on it became clear what it was: A deconstuction of some of the less healthy part of the mostly fairly healthy and wonderful main show. It showed just what happen when someone whose put his identity into having some kind of destiny, someone whose felt their purpose in life is to make other people’s better and solve their problems and be a good person.. has no issues to solve. Oh sure there’s an antagonist here and there and Jasper refuses to change or admit no third great gem war is coming and that peace really has come.. but his family are finally happy with who they are, and are moving on with their lives. As someone whose had people move on without them and whose clunt to people this hits close to home.. hits close to home a lot.

So as the season went on Steven clung to everything, taking it VERY badly when Lars and Sadie not only revealed their attempt at a relationship failed after years of build up, and never told steven because they thought it wasn’t his buisness, which is true to a point as them breaking up isn’t anything to do with him but someone should’ve told him it was amicable given the amount of shit he’s seen between you two, just saying. But it still meant a good chunk of his friends leaving town, and him, behind. Attempts to fillt his gap with tv watching or gardneing, aka what the crew amazingly dubbed “Depression Hobbies:”, a term that hits close to home, failed and then a far WORSE attempt to fill the void in his life by proposing to connie failed.. she turned him down firmly, but gently recognizing this was a terrible idea, they were too young, and he was clearly going through some stuff. As garnet put it “Your partner is your compliment, not your missing piece”. Another beautiful term to stick in my brain.

So as if this wasn’t bad enough his body started mutatating and it turned out the pink form he’d gained was actually supposed to just be his body’s version of adrenline, but since he’d spent years in constnat struggle, his body was treating his emotinal stress like do or die situations with predictable results. We’ll get to that more in a bit but needless to say steven’s family were concerned and Greg returned from managing Sadie to TRY and help his son.. only to drive a wedge between them as Greg’s Smothering Parents seemed like the life Steven never had, instead of obnoxious people who refused to reconcile with their son even decades later despite plenty of effort on greg’s end and Greg having to raise a child alone with only marginal support from the gems at best at first. But Greg’s tragic inablity to see his son was hurting, as with everyone elses lead to him nearly getting them hurt in a car accident and thus this episode. After getting chewed out by the gems, who tragically simply don’t realize what’s wrong with steven, can’t figure out why themselves and he refuses to tell them, Steven runs off, to the one person who would never tell the gems where he is and the last place they’d expect him to go at his lowest: Jasper. And thus we get one of the darkest and moodiest episodes of the show’s long history.

After having lost a lot of his sense of peace of mind: his best friends are gone, his girlfriend is next, his parents and sister are constantly busy, there’s no one for him to turn to. Steven NEEDS someone like him and while his family is trying they just don’t know how to reach him and deep down he dosen’t WANT them to. Like me at times, shocker I know, he fears deeply that if they knew some of the flaws about him, some of the problems he’s had, they’d hate him. When as time would bear out for both of us, as my first stint of therapy near the end of colllege proved, it just means they understand you better and can HELP YOU.

So instead he turns to Jasper, and he does so for good reason: He wants to control his power and emotions.. the problem is Jasper dosen’t WANT what Steven wants. Steven wants to feel godo again and feel healthy and be the person people want him to be. Jasper.. wants a fight. She wants a diamond, someone to serve, someone stronger than her who will LET her be what she feels she’s meant to be: a warrior, a destroyer, a breaker of worlds. So she slams that steven shaped peg into a round hole, and it’s horrifying and uncomfortable to see our hero turned from a loveable hero.. to a power obssed, almost vegeta-esque asshole .. in short she’s made him into the very thing he spent years fighting against, all because he’s so scared of himself he can’t face himself. It shows just how bad things have gotten: that steven’s hates himself SO MUCH, that he’d rather become something worse than face the truth and let his family help him. So convinced they don’t need him that he needs to be something ELSE.

And so tons of training, abuse and hard labor lead to the moment Jasper and fans had been waiting for: a rematch between the two. And.. it’s easily one of the series best fights. For a series that’s at it’s core about ending the cycle of violence and often big exchanges of words and someone emotinally healing are treated as big as victories in combat.. the show has some of the best fight scenes in cartoons period, and this being the penultimate one, we’ll get to the last one next time, it’s a brutal, dbz style slugfest, something unlike the other fights in the show, with two opponents full of rage and hate going at it with everything they have.. ending in Steven, for one breif terrifying moment having BECOME what his grandmothers and mother used to be: A sadstic monster drunk on their own power “Your right jasper, I WAS holding back”

But when we next see Steven, running into the house and ingoring his rightfully concerned family..... he’s not that guy anymore. He’s back to who he was at the start of the episode: A scared teenager who deeply hates himself and who wants to be better but is ironically shutting out the only people who can help him. And one.. whose committed murder. This was a VERY bold move to make: Steven KILLED SOMEONE. Sure it was shattering so it got past censors, but in his lowest moment.. steven did the one thing that to someone who treasures all life, is anthemia to him: he killed, did what his mother did before she changed, did what his aunts have done countless times to countless worlds. And it horrifes him, with him desperate to bring jasper back and using everything he has, his powers and his aunts essences, to try and fix his mistake. And unlike anyone else in his postion he succeeds.. and Jasper, ignoring steven’s attempts to apologize is surprised at first at being shattered, knowing what happened.. befor bowing proudly, FINALLY getting what she was REALLY after: A diamond to serve. And steven can only gaze in horror at what he’d become and at the realization he can’t go back from this and he has no idea what to do now. An utterly grippling, utterly terrifying character piece with some of Zach Callistons best character work in the show’s storied history, with Steven shifting from being drunk on his power to utterly broken at having broken jasper. One of the series finest moments.. only topped by some things the series proper did.. and some more on this list.

19. Perils of Peekablue (She Ra and the Princesses of Power)

“They are my people. Which means most of them have sworn revenge against me at some point “ She Ra was easily one of the best shows of the 2010′s. While it started out excellent, and pretty gay, it ended being a masterpiece, and fabulously gay, as is befitting something related to He Man in some way.

A masterful space opera, She Ra had some great bones in a thrilling love story, great humor, great action and wonderful characters most of them main and supporting going through some form of development. It was a wonderful, magical show and I look forward to Noelle giving Lumberjanes the series treatment, both because the series concept is frankly better built for an ongoing tv series than a monthly comic, and because after this series she has my utmost faith in whatever she does. Also her story about how she both came to terms with her sexuality and met her partner was VERY lovely. Seriously check it out. Also her partner was the one who co wrote another entry on this list, just a fun fact. Point is this show was awesome. But as I said part of the show’s strength was it’s character and that shines on this day in the limelight episode covering what’s going with the rebellion since She Ra shot off into space to rescue her best friend. We do get to see the best friends squad breifly, but their simply heading home: With Catra rescued and on the path to being a better person, and firmly in adora’s lap because again this show is wonderously gay and because it annoys her and Catra gets off on that, our heroes are wondering how everyone else is fairing. So we see that, as with the Rebellion not doing so good against Horde Prime, our heroes seek the solution to their problems with the same solution homer simpson always uses:

Well okay less starting a new life and more getting the help of the mysterious prince peekablue, who I now realize is where the whole pikablue name for merril probbaly came from.. or maybe nerds making things up in the 90′s werne’t that creative. You decide!

So we get the ragtag team of Mermista, Seahawk, Scorpia and Perfuma, as the quartet try to bluff their way to the prince for help. Naturally we get Seahawk being seahawk, i.e. an awesome ham with a voice way older than he looks, Mermista being annoyed by that and being forced to admit she tried out pyromania to see what it’s like, which naturally is the most romantic thing Seahawk’s heard in his whole life.. as well as some VERY charming ship tease between Scorpia and Perfuma as Scorpia enrouages her the two bond and Scorpia finally likes someone who both likes her back and isn’t so obssed with her sorta ex and tied up in her own issues a relationship is impossible. Look I was suprised she found someone else as everyone here, but i’m happys for her. She’s the nicest person on this show and is now dating the second nicest person on this show. It’s nice okay. 2020 didn’t give me much nice, it gave me the emotoinal equilvent of being constnatly stung by hornets.

We also get a lovely musical number from Scorpia about being a spy.. and the revelation Peekablue.. is just Double Trouble. THEIR BACK BABY. It was nice for them to make a comeback for one last apperance and they do provid vallid information.. but prove to not be too useful despite this both due to their habit of being only out for themselves, hence setting up an elaborate cabaret act under the ocean.. and because Mermista got chipped by the crowd, so now our heroes are stuck in a giant coffin surronded by the thing she can manipulate. It’s only through a harrowing sacrifice by scorpia that Perfuma and Seahawk escape but with their sorta partners now brainwahsed to the other side. To amp up the tension back home.. things are even worse as Spinerlla, whose been brainwashed for several episodes and seriously worrying her wife Netossa... has made her move and with the rest of the rebellion’s leadership gone, chipped everyone but Frosta and King Micah, who dosen’t last long, meaning not only do our two remaning heroes BARELY escape, but the horde now has, between both plot lines, four really heavy hitters, as later episodes would bear out that Spinerlla is basically the red tornado when it comes to wind powers. Point is perils is a fun, breather episode... that then turns into a still fun but also heartbreaking episode as our heroes loose and loose bad and their only hope is in our ohter heroes making it back to htem in one piece.

18. 100% No Stress Day (Close Enough) “Long story short I owe them three grand” Close Enough.. has not had the easiest existence. It was greenlit in 2017, used it’s pitch reel as the trailer meaning everyone thought it was MUCH farther along, was meant for TBS but got shelved because the show it was to be paired with, The Cops, was created by sexual predator Louis CK. And since he came up and h’es primarily responsible for this show getting shelved for so long... Louis CK is a bastard. He harassed women, literally and metaphorically waved his dick around to show his superiority, knew he could get away with it, and ACTED contrite when caught and rightfuly punished for it by loosing everything.. then has spent the last year or so TRYING to mount a come back, with the help of Dave Chapelle who I lost ALLLLL respect for in recent years, despite not having apologized or done anything that resembles him having actually learned his fucking lesson or tells me that, could he get away with it, he wouldn’t just do it again. I’m taking time out of this unrelated thing ot make sure he does not get ANY power back, as too often preadatory or abusive assholes get away with this and get right back to doing stuff, like say Doug Walker, who I only bring up to remind people he’s a bad person who enabled worst people and abused a lot of innocent critics, and let htem lovingly euologize a man he knew was a preadator in life without telling any of them about said behavior, which he coudl’ve done without outing the victim to the world against her wishes. Because as another episode we’ll get to next time briliantly put it

But now i’m done reminding people of assholes, I can get back to what’s really important: The fact this show is a goddamn miracle. Not only is it as good as I hoped, which let’s face it in this year it was just as likely the show would be the video equilvent of scabies, but it got RENEWED. Turns out it’s being delayed.. was a blessing in disguise as it sidestepped being part of a failed animation block, and instead go to be the first adult animated show on HBO Max with tons of promotion. And judging by the future lineup of adult animated programming.. it’s probably going to be the ONLY good one for a while as other offering includes the prince, about life with the royal family, and a show about a 12 year old whose constantlly going thorugh trauma because they apparently did not get the irony when watching moral orel and also skipped the entire third season. And possibly got some brain damage I dunno. Hopefully will lead to much better shows down the line and actually gets a second chance at life, and even if it clocks in at only two seasons, it’s still a damn miracle and I will acknolwedge it.

So yeah as I said the show is fantastic and was one of my faviorites this year. The show treads some familiar terroitory as it does use the formula from Quintel’s “Regular Show”: Normal problems that spiral into bizzare chaos that still has it’s own effed up internal logic. The thing that honestly makes it BETTER in my opinon, is the passage of time. Quintel is no longer the brighted eyed fresh out of college and menial job guy he was: he’s married with a kid, and that fully informed this project, as instead of being about doofing around in your 20′s, it’s about the pressures of hitting your 30′s: from aging to keeping your relationship fresh to all the perils that come with parenting, to missed opportunities you deeply regret. There’s a lot of good stuff they dig into here, but it never overdies the comedy, simply ads a bit of depth to it. And regular show wasn’t LACKING that by any means, i’m not bashing the show.. i’m just saying Close Enough is starting at the level Regular Show was at at it’s best.. and could easily and handily suprasss it with time it now has.

And I was first given a good and proper introduction via this episode, as it leaked beforehand due to a french animation festival and I couldn’t help reviewing it, as i’d waited quite some time. But honestly while I like the first episode in the all in the show proper, quilty pleasures.. I feel this is a WAY better first episode and shoudl’ve been swapped with Quilty, as it introduces things even better and lets the whole cast shine, and thus is one of two close enough episodes on this list. The episode starts with Emily, the stable but stressed and anxious half our our main couple at the doctors office where we get a great barrage of jokes off the bat, from the laundry setting a blaze leading to one of the series best lines

Naturally this has lead to her body constnatly sleep fighting .. while she’s awake, so Josh, her husband and loveable doofus, offers to take care of errands so she dosen’t implode from the stress. This also displays one of the series best assets: While Josh and Emily are an optimistic and impulsive idiot and a stressed out, often voice of reason.. they actually LOVE each other. It’s like a far more healthy of early seasons homer and marge, where BOTH get in over their head but both clearly love and respect each other, and while Josh CAN be irresponsible.. he still holds down a decent job (Though Emily is more of the breadwinner and her job provides the insurance), is attentive to their daughter candace, and WANTS to be repsonsible. Trust me after countless dom coms where i’ve had to restrain from yelling “GET A DIVORCE” at the screen, it’s nice the tide is turning and Bob’s Burgers has become more of the norm couple wise than the exception. But yeah so the main group splits up: Josh takes candace and his best friend and local weirdo played by Jason Mantzokus every series needs, and easily my favoirite character, Alex to do errands while Bridgette, Alex’s ex husband, Emily’s best friend and both the bbay of the bunch and the most irresponsible one.. gets her high to help her relax.

Both plots are really great: The boys and candace run into a ham shortage, a joke that actually plays better in the pandemic age, and stripper clowns because in the series best gag so far, Alex explains via flashback he bet them they couldn’t make a dog, and one did so.. using his dick.

Just in case you were wondering if JG was enjoying the fact he could use adult humor now, though another part of the series charm is while it freely makes more adult jokes, it dosen’t ever get into gross or dudebro territory. It just means the censors are down and they don’t have to hide beer as soda anymore. They also have to tangle with some hamburgalers who are reselling the meat at rock bottom prices and creating the shortage.. and who deny being hamburgalers despite their tactics being backing up into houses with a large van and stealing hams. OUr heros avoid becmonig meat and naturally end up both in a car chase and then a bet for their lives in a game of Ladder World, josh’s latest game. Meanwhile Emily blazes it and we get a great getting high montage, as it shows BRidgette’s idea does genuinely help a bit.. until they run into Timothy, the teacher at cadance’s school who I hope gets an increased roll as he’s always a delight and this is his best apperance. Depsite the understandable awkwarndess and paranoia of running into your kids teacher while high, being an open minded guy Timothy offers them wine and then weed and even takes Emily punching him when her trip takes a bad turn, giving her a stern but fair “bitch use your words!” before the next seen has him helping her through her issues with some solid advice, allowing her to arrive in home just in time to save her husband and the cave goblin who lives in her house from clown strippers and meat gangsters.. which sounds like one hell of a gay porno. All in all a solid, always hilarous, always charming ep that shows the series off at it’s best.

17. How Santa Stole Christmas! (Ducktales)

“No, no.. Christmas is a SAD story?”

This is my third and hopefully FINAL time talking about this one, though given it has a high chance of showing up on the series best of list, probably not. Not that I mind, this is a VERY good episode, I just don’t have anytihing new left to say. It’s a heartwarming, fresh, engaging christmas special that uses the characters perfectly and for once actually strips down the cast effectively instead of making you wonder where everyone else is, while still giving everyone an apperance. It also has Webby giving Lena (And Violet) an adorable cheek smooch when delivering her parents and I will never not find that fucking precious. Plus it’s gay as hell with plenty of gay subtext between Scrooge and Santa, a sentence I never thought i’d say but i’m so glad i’ts my job to get to type things like that, and said kiss so that helps. But even besides that it’s just REALLY damn good. Again i’m leaving this short both because i’ve talked about this twice now, once when it came out as I do regularly for ducktales and again for my best christmas specials list, but it’s really that good and made it damn high on my bet christmas specials list and is only so low here.. because despite being a terrible year in every other respect we got some REALLY good episodes this year. So yeah this one’s a classic, I love it but i’m tired of talking about it till at least next december. Moving on.

16. Finale (E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shreddy or Not, Anatawa Hitorijanai, and Rise) Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Oh and Blue your leader now” As I mentioned in the intro. Rise of the TMNT was unjustly canceled this year and even worse got it’s season order chopped in half and was given just weeks to throw together a finale. So it’s remakrable that not only was the season pretty damn good, having the series usual problems of sometimes overdipping into the boys stupidity hence the episode where everyone but Raph keeps eating poison, but also had both great character arcs in Baron Draxum’s reformation and Splinter getting more and more fleshed out and more screne time, and great laughs. Seriously Clothes Don’t Make The Turtle, aka that episode where our heroes end up trapped in an 80′s dress up montage, BARELY didn’t make the list.

And as a longtime fan of the franchise I couldn’t be happier this fresh take, which I was aprhensive about at first because it looked like yet another dumbed down teen titans go ripoff, and given it was dumb to begin with... but instead was a fun action comedy with a lot of really unique and intresting ideas. And despite the rush to finish.. they delivered one hell of a finale and on the high chance season 3 dosen’t happen... it’s a hell of a note to go out on. First things first: yes i’m counting multi parters as one episode. Not more seralized shows like SU Future or Infinity Train, where events can flow in and out, but stories that are clearly one big story, in pieces like the old days. Since hour long episodes of shows are fair game, I felt it only fair that multi parters around the same length as an hourlong special be given the same treatment. Not that any hourlongs made it this year, sorry fans of Obsidian and “Let’s Get Dangerous”, though both are throughly EXCELLENT episodes this was just a tight list.

Okay good. So yeah the finale, split over four episodes, is an epic: taking plot threads from all season and series and weaving them into a well paced, emotoinal, finale. Like previous more serious episode the comedy’s downplayed.. but it doesen’t feel like an entirley diffrent show and works well, and the always great fluid animation was kicked up to 11 for this one. So to make a long story short: in this series shredder is a demonic set of armor, but came back wrong at the end of last season when the food clan revivied him, so while the clan now has him back, they can’t really use him. And current head Foot Recurit, a spunky foot recruit whose failed to rank up despite being tough and ambitious and worthy of it, is at a loss how to reviive her master. The turltes, naturally, end up accidently blundering into the solution as they head into Splinter’s head to find the info to beat Shredder. The show gives splinter easily one of , if not the best, backstories he’s ever had: While at the start the character was highly annoying, being a lazy asshole who didn’t train the boys and did nothing.. the show eventually give us valid reasons WHY he’s like this: he didn’t like being turned into a rat by big bad of season 1 Baron Draxum and thus has depresion over that, had quit fighting since he’d been forced to be a cage fighter by his ex for a while, his ex being a giant spider just in case you thought this would be remotely normal an forgot what show we were talking about and genrally just had no horse in the tight training he usually does in most continuties.

This episode adds another, heartbreaking lair: We find out back when he was Hamato Yoshi, Splinter’s mom left to ward off shredder when he was a boy.. and thus never came back and presumibly died. Understandably he had no time for the clan at that point, constantly defying his grandfather.. and why should he have time for them? They took his mom away for a thankless duty sacrificing herself to stop something he had no way of knowing was real, another reason he never trained the boys. And his grandfather rather than be AT all apologetic clearly, via his actions, thought of this as some great honor and was baffled why Yoshi would have no intrest in repeating his mother’s actions or have any sense of honor, duty or even love for a man who as far as he could tell, threw his mom to the wolves and had no regrets about it. So we see Yoshi as both a rebellious teen and as a movie star throwing out his grandpa.. we see those in reverse of course, but the later scenes give context to those showing why Yoshi was so rude.. because he lost his mom and it still hurts him. HOwever helping her frees the shredder.. but also Karai who bizarely, in this continuity is not only an aincent ancestor of theres but a firm ally instead of either a deadly enemy or a fremeny of sorts. Or Splinter’s dang daughter, one of 2012′s best plot elements.. that was then wasted by turning her into a snek for a while because that show really went off the rails. So it quickly turns from a heartwarming and awkard family reunion.. to our heroes and karai barely escaping with their lives as shredder demolishes the lair, and Draxum, now a good guy after a season’s worth of wonderful chracter development, and Splinter stay behind, with Draxum cleverly bluffing and pretending ot be evil again.. only to try and take out shredder.

Meanwhile we get this series take on “the turtles going to teh woods to retreat” as Raph beats himself up for being a bad leader and our heroes learn to tap into their hamato nimpo.. which basically means super magic ninja powers which allows them to bring back their classic weapons and enhances their magic, as it was never in teh weapons but in them all along. Also April gets Karai in her, phrasing, and a glowing boost to her bat. The result.. is one of the best fights of both the year and the franchise PERIOD, which is what got me to catch up to see the finale because I saw a fan video synching it up to “Spin and Burst”.. and while not a naruto fan.. that song is fucking awesome and that video showed off an utterly marvelous fight. See for yourself

youtube

Seriously I wasn’t kidding. I’ve been a fan of this franchise since 2003. This is one of the best sequences in it’s history with or without the added soundtrack: The fighting is fast, frentic, beautfully animated and cool to watch and perfectly combines the series humor, with our heroes giving out quips and callbacks at the right times, with it’s fast paced and wonderous action. It also shows how far our heroes have come: while PART of it is them having super mystic powers unlocked.. they both had to work to reach those powers, and spirtually rather than phsycially,in the third part, but each power is merly an upgraded versoin of their old weapon powers, ablities they’ve spent the entire series mastering, paticuarlly leo who went from BARELY being able to work his portals to using teleport spam here. While they did pull a power BOOST out of their ass, it would’ve meant nothing had they not been anymore skileld than when they started and it makes the fight feel rewarding and impactful. And it ends with the hamot clan as a whole, with new ally foot recurit aka cassandra jones ina great last minute reveal that they CLEARLY didn’t have time to build up better, and smoke that bitch. Also Leo’s leader now bye. It’s just a damn good finale and I dind’t even get into all the great character stuff, including the great payoff of Casey’s face turn after seeing just how much of a monster the man she always wanted to serve is, and how he’s hurting Splinter, who ACTUALLY cares about her well being despite being an enemy. It’s just good stuff that fits the franchise like a glove but iwth the series own unique stamp on it. Nuff said.

15. Toadcatcher (Amphibia) “Your not upset because you lost the fight, your upset because you lost your friend! Your upset that Anne stood up to you and things between you will never be the same again.” Amphibia was one of the first shows I covered reguarlly and along with Ducktales one of the most popular.. so yeah it’s weird it not only is low on the list, but this is the only represtintive. But this was a high volume year for quality and while the show had other standout episodes like gravity falls tribute “Wax Museum”, Marcy’s introduction “Marcy at the Gates” and noir patische “Little Frogtown”, as this list already shows it was a really tight race. It dosen’t help that while Season 2 isn’t terrible.. it’s a bit more uneven, and unlike season 1 it’s weaker stretches of episodes weren’t as easily covered, as instead of airing every weekday, it was a weekly release. Which I prefer, as it means they aren’t being dumped out en masse and are given room to breathe and the passage of time feels more warranted when it’s spread out over a few months intead of a few weeks. It just meant the weaker episodes stood out more and drained on me more.. but it also meant the stronger ones were all the more a breath of fresh air. And nowhere was this more apparent as teh worst episode of the season, and series, thus far, Quarallers Pass.. was paired with Toadcatcher, an utterly marvelous episode and followup to ironically the series best so far, Reunion.

This episode catches us up with Sasha, Anne’s former best friend who tried to kill her in a sword fight, one where the entirety of wartwood including her adopted grandpa was at sake and Sasha knew this and did not care. She then followed it up by letting go when Anne was depseratley holding on, with the help of her new family, to save Sashsa’s life.. and Sasha let go. I discussed the full implications in the review so I will avoid trigggering anyone, and I mean tha tin the medical sense anyone using it ironiclaly or to mock people using it as it’s intended can get fucked, but she clearly didn’t intend to make it, but Grime saved her and spirted her off. So we catch up with both licking their wounds from the ordeal: Sasha has decided to take the Jasper route of horrible coping mechanisms and is training constnatly, readily kiling dolls of the plantars but still unable to truly hurt Anne, burying her feelings over her guilt and her best friend rightfully turning on her and then trying to save her anyway despite Sasha trying to gut her. Grime.. is binging on the wonderfully terrible teen soap Supscion Island, coming back this january on the cw, that was intorduced last season and generally not carring the king has his best men, women and nonbinary folks out for his head.

So both issues come to a head as General Yuaan, scourge of the Sand Wars, defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian Army, and she’ll never miss a chance to say that, has come for Grime whose in no condition and has no will to fight back. He also finally confronts Sasha when she snaps at him for it, pointing out she’s simply burying the fact that she lost Anne, things won’t be the same, and she won’t deal with it. The episode adds real depth to grime, going from an intresting but semeingly just evil overlord.. to someone who worked his way out of a fighting pit to be given a thankfless if cushy job by the same people who threw him in in the first place, someone who to my shock at the time.. CARES about his protege. While allowing Sasha in was simply to their mutual advantage at first.. he’s grown to genuinely care about her as his friend and offers to let Yuaan have him so she can be free. but Sasha refuses. Despite her issues.. she CARES about the old toad and together, and using Yaan’s ham against her, they beat her, and decide to rebuild their army... after Grime finishes his soaps of course. Can.. relate. A thorughly good, throughly emotinally episode that dosen’t lack the series humor but does have a depth and rhthym to it that the series has at i’ts best.

14. Quack Pack! (Ducktales) Jesus I was so tired when making this I nearly forgot an entry. And shame on me as this was one of the best episodes of an already amazing Season. Season 3 is easily ducktales best and i’ve been proud to cover it. It’s been my most popular feature and while not every episodes been GREAT, only one’s really not been very good, and none have been out and out bad. While it may be the end of the shows run and not without problems, they still have trouble ballancing the adults at times if not nearly as bad as before, to the point Launchpad just sorta vanishes after Let’s Get Dangerous outside of the Christmas Specail that takes place before the season anyway, and Louie is often written VERY badly.. but i’ve talked about these things all season in my reviews.

Point is those faults are overwhelmed by the strengths; The character ballance is better, several side characters have gotten tons of payoff to their arcs and more development, and the main plot is easily the best in the series history: By having essentially one main plot with two focuses, before they merge at the halfway marker, it allows the season to be far more streamlined after the really messy way season 2′s plots were handled. It just shows the show at it’s best and has produced amazing episode after amazing episode and it was really hard to widdle it down to the ones that got selected here and even then one got left out.

But one boost I haven’t mentioned is their wilingness to take risk. While past seasons had flashback episodes and what not this one, in hindsight, has some of the more risky episodes of the series, ones you really COULDN’T do in seasons 1 and 2: a whole episode flashback to the twins, basically taking our present day kids out for the whole season, an hour long special focusing on what, to fans not familiar with darkwing duck, is simply a very engaging side character and his new sidekick.. and launchpad (The ducks aren’t OUT of the special, but they aren’t the focus and aren’t around for most of the climax). An episode with really dark emotional moments.. which isn’t unsuaul for a disney show, see next time, but for one so close to their chest it was a lot. They were settled in enough to take plenty of risks and it’s paid off. It’s not to community levels of experimentation, but it’s still nice, intresting breaks from the usual adventures.

And one of the best and boldest of these was Quack Pack. Taking our heroes and plopping them into a TGIF sitcom. Of which this plot not only happened TWICE this year, three times if you count the entirety of beef house, which I do so let’s call it three, but both cartoon examples are on this list. But both tackle it in diffrent and intresting ways so both got on here. IN this case.. during a stock plot about a family photo, complete with Donald having his Don Cheadle voice back, we get some great parodies of convetions of les.s. good sitcomes nad even some of the greats: there’s the constnat catcphrases (ranging from a sticomy version of Della’s “On the moon”, to Beakly’s “I’m not a spy.. which sh’es understandably inscnesed to find out is her catchphrase) ,and even the wacky neighbor with our lord and savior Goofy showing up in the roll, as a nice nod to the more sitcom side of the Disney Afternoon. We just get a lot of good gags.. until Huey becomes aware, starting to realize things are off, with his guidebook being empty and things just not adding up. We even get a great bit of him being forced to do a disney channel/that 70′s show dance transtion only to react with exesntial horror. Naturally, given their lives,a genie did it, Gene, played by Jaleel White in a pefect bit of casting. Having been imprisoned in his lamp since the 90′s. Gene’s a bit behind on how sticoms work, but was just granting a wish, Donald’s wish, which the family figures out by trigggiring a flashback, Goofy VERY MUCH included. where we find out it was, unsuprisngly Donald’s fault.. though in his defense, and in the best line of the episode, when confronted about wishing for a normal life “I wish for that 30 times a day. How was I supposed to know a lamp was under me this time?”

And we find out why and it’s heartbreaking: Donald just wants a normal family, where everyone’s safe and, most tellningly “No one gets lost.”. It’s the climax of a series long HATRED of going on these adventures. For everyone else it’s fun, thriling, good stuff.. to him.. it’s not only a reminder of what cost him 10 years with his sister and his adopted sons their mom for that time, but a reminder of a lot of pain and humilation. To him he just wants the normal life he used to have back, despite that not being an option and his kids to be safe and his sister not to leave again. Granted his refusal to undo the wish is selfish.. but i’ts understandable. And while the rest of them try to break the wish, and end up fighting the horrifying audience it’s GOOFY who gets donald to see all families are diffrent and that there is no normal: just what you make and enjoy. It makes donald realize that as hectic as his life is.. it’s his life, his family.. and maybe. it’s not so bad. After years of denying how much he used to love adventuering.. he realizes part of him stilld oes and no amount of turning against it will fix what he lost... he just has to enjoy NOW. It’s good solid character development for my favioriote member of the cast, and overall a fun, genre spoofing episode that pokes fun at the genre but reallyg ets how it works.

13. Growing Pains (Steven Universe Future)

“ What do I do? How do I move on from all the stuff I've been through? How do I live life if it always feels like I'm about to die?! “ So yeah big recap of steven’s emotional well being to get into future earlier, but rewinding a bit, this one takes place with our hero at a low point. Not “oh god I comitted murder what am I now oh god” low as we got to earlier and the series itself wold get to later, these lists make time warped and space bendeble, but still pretty damn bad. As mentioned before Steven tried proposing to connie, not helped by Ruby and Sapphire both being fully on board, as both are hopeless romantics seprate but when combined as a Garnet their shared braincell can get working properly and has settings other than “emotoinal pain, peppy (ruby), a bit distant but kind (Sapphire) and horny”. While it was as beautiful a propsal as you’d expect from Steven.. Connie gently rejected it since you know, he also wanted to be permafused and their not even legal marrying age left. He’s 17.. despite what this episode claims. She’s 15 or 16. They aren’t ready and she knew it not even ruling it out entirely, just saying “not now”. But as this episode bears out.. Steven really isn’t an emotinal state where he could properly process that way and after shooing her away, even though she WANTED to talk it over and genuiely make sure he was okay as she damn well knew this wasn’t easy on him, but also knew it’d probably be bad to press him while he was clearly in pain. So like everyone else she made the mistake of leaving. So Steven’s binging on junk food, and bemoaning the fact that even dogcopter is getting married.. also Dogcopter is gay. Given the show he’s a fictional character in, you THINK i’d of been less suprised but you’d be wrong. Point is steven isn’t dealing well and is going pink and with the gems gone for the weekend, and Greg unavaliable due to being busy as a manager, Steven is getting worse and his body is starting to warp. Thanfkully connie comes to check up on him and insits he see a doctor.. and since her mother’s a doctor and thankfully had a cancelation. Unthankfully it turns out, to Prianka’s understandable frustration.. Steven’s never been to a doctor. Which does make sense, Greg taking him in might’ve alreted authorties to his lack of schooling or his injuries from age 13 onward, plus he had no idea of knowing how his body would react to tests. That being said given by this point in the series Gems are well accepted and known around town and everyone loves and adores steven, Greg had no real excuse by this age especially after the second gem war. And that’s proven by the fact it turns out steven’s body has tons of internal scars which, due to him turning out to have a wolverine style healing factor, mean h’es alive and without brain damage, but still has plenty of internal scars. It’s a godo metaphor for his mental trauma: he came out of his various happenings ALIVE.. but not mentally okay and with PLENTY of ptsd. When Prianka asks him to list his traumas.. he dosen’t even get past season 1 before she’s understandably horrified, though she’s figured out exactly what’s causing his pink mode: as mentioned before his contstant life of danger and having the threat of a fight at any moment over his head for 2 solid years, maybe 3 given the third light game shows he still had a lot of work to do before the movie and future, and honestly still does at times during both, mean his flight or fight response has been shot so the adrenline charged pink form, meant to protect him from danger.. is triggering for EMOTIONAL pain and suffering.

Steven dosen’t take it well and keeps enlarging when pressed.. and accidently spills the beans about the proposal... and understandably, even if she was FULLY in the right can’t be around Connie: while she had every right to reject him, it dosen’t mean it hurts any less. Sometimes even when you do the absolute right thing.. it can still hurt to be on the receiving end of that. But Connie is still Connie, aka the most emotinally stable and mature person in the main cast very much including the sentient space rocks who are centuries older than her, so she called Greg who naturally dropped everything because his son needed him. It shows the genuine conflict, one, again that I’ve grappled with: Steven is so obssed with not boterhing those he loves, he fails to see they’ll help him when he needs it without a second thought. So Greg thankfully calms him down and taks over the failed proposal with no judgement or anything just support. Sadly things go downhill from here but it’s a good episode that turns the entire series on it’s head with some damn good character work.

12. Annhilation of Joy (The Midnight Gospel)

“Again? How Many times is this guy gonna die?” “Until he learns” The Midnight Gospel was a plesant suprise. Penndelton Ward’s return to animation after leaving Adventure Time, the show is a collberation between him and podcaster Duncan Trussel. It was a suprise both in how quickly it came together, and in how it’s real nature wasn’t properly expressed in the trailers: while the series does tell us the trippy adventures of Clancy, a 40 something “Spacecaster” who uses an illegal simulator to visit worlds to interview various people.. said interviews are expercts from Trusseul’s own podcast, the Duncan Trussel Family Hour, something this series has badly made me want to listen to. As such while dealing with zombie apocalypses, a quest to avenge a dead lover, being processed as meat and meeting death herself while looking for his hose, Clancy interviews his subjects, including Death herself, and talks on various subjects related to medation and spirutality, throughly fascenating interviews greatly woven into trippy visuals. Hopefully the show will be back for round 2 at some point as both Ward and Trussel are game, but for now the first season stands on it’s own as a throughly trippy, throughly wonderful blend of Trussel’s words and insight and Ward’s boundless imagination. And the best of these, narrowly beating out the final epsiode which uses an interview with Truseel’s late mother to inform clancy’s own actions, as Clancy’s Mom is dying from cancer same as Trussels tragically did. But I like this one slightly better due to it’s great blend of the subject with the plot. Once again Clancy is ignoring his pain, and his sister’s calls, by diving into the space vagina of his simulator, taking a weird form, and easily my faviorite of his shapeshifted forms of the season: a living rainbow that wouldn’t be out of palce in a pbs kids show, complete with the fact he makes musuical chimes when touched not unlike a children’s toy and has chosen this form to enter the simulator’s jail. It’s there he gets engagled, literally, with Bob and Jason. Bob is an angry, upset prisoner who chewed his own tounge out years ago, and Jason is his soul bird, a represntation of his pain bound to him by blue rope that Clancy got tangled in. So Clancy is taken along for the ride with them as every time Bob dies, the celestial beings in charge of the prison put him through weird emtional torment, pluck out his heard and weigh it against a feather plucked from jason.

Thus while Clancy and Jason have a spirited conversation about Buddishm and about not treaing spirutality like a game with levels and having to earn progress but as an emotinal journey, Bob goes through a buddishm inspried journey of his own, mixed with a bit of edge of tommorow. He dies, gets tourtured then resets.. but slowly learns to empathize, to let go of his anger and violence and help those around him. It’s an utterly mesmering journey to watch this angry green big headed man go from a violet convict who will gladly shoot and stab.. to a pacfisit eager to help those around him. And it’s thorughly convincing and backed wonderfully by the interview and easily a sign of what this weird and unconveintonal series can do at all cyllnders. Seriously Netflix you’ve been on a loosing streak decisionmaking wise. Make. More. Of. This.

11. Save the Cat (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) "C'mon Catra. You're not done. Not yet..."

God that image is unsettling. Anywho back to She-Ra, and somehow this is the second time i’ve had to rewind the progress of a season by about an episoide. Weird. Point is saved the cat is one of the most tightly packed and thrilling episodes of the series.. and the crux of Catra’s character arc. Before this Catra had hit her lowest point, having lost ..j well everything. She pushed everyone from adora, to the nonambigiously a couple trio, to her own best friends away through her shitty behavior and inferoirty complex and somenoe she THOUGHT was her friend.. turned on her for money. Oh and as an added stomp on the tail all that betryal, all the blood spilled in her name.. was for nothing. Horde Prime made her irrelvant: she couldnt’ manipualte him because a combination of a god complex and an army of loyal drones meant he had nothing to hide and eyes everywhere. She had nothing. Eveyrthing she did every sacrifice she made every worse and worse turn she made a s a person... amounted to NOTHING. So it was at this point she and glimmer, despite you know killing Glimmer’s mother, were forced to work together.. and Catra sacrificed herself both to get Glimmer safe and because for once.. she wanted to do something right. Her self loathing, some of it warranted, a lot of it already there from an abusive childhood, left her with one option: sacrifice herself and HOPE, something good can come of it, Apologize to Adora, hte one person she ever loved and hope she can at least surivive this. Naturally, Adora having seen her friend/love of her life has not only REALIZED what she become, but sacrifice herself.. isn’t having this, and after an episode of repairs both on the ship and emotinally, our heroes are naturally, despite any personal hangups with her ready to save Catra. Naturally this hits snags. On Bow and Entrapta’s end, they accidently free a horde clone she mistakes for hordak and, having no other real option and with the guy being useful, Wrong Hordak is born! I love me some Wrong Hordak. What a guy, makes you cry, und I did.

The main issue though is Adora let herslef be captured.. only to find Horde Prime is a sadstic bastard and has not only chipped Catra, but is using her newfound peace of mind to play with adora’s head, using Catra’s heartbreak from the past to manipulate Adora in the present.. and force them to fight because hey he’s a sadistic jackass with a god complex. They make their own fun. But Adora gets through to her .. only for Prime to decide fuck it and try killing her with Adora BARELY saving her with her power, and Catra, as she fades, wondering why Adora even bothered. And the why is simple.. as a wise fictional version of a wise president once said “Dying is easy young man, living is harder”. Not the last time that quote will be relevant in this top 20 list, but the point, and it was delebrate on Noelle Stevenon’s part, was to subvert this kind of thing> The bad guy gets redemption but then dies seconds later. Instead.. Catra has to LIVE with what she did and make up for it, become a better person and work for redepmtion, instead of just getting to end in some big blaze of glory. But at the same time.. it’s the better route. The harder one sure.. but she gets to have a life and to undo the damage and maybe for once.. actually live instead of just trying to surivive. IT was the right call in a series full of them.

But yeah the day is saved, our heroes have two new roomates and Catra weakly greats Adora.. but with genuine warmth for the first time in .. years I guess? I don’t know this series time span. Point is the healing and the ship tease for our finale can begin and this episode is a tense, well put together masterwork. The pacing really is what put it up this far, as it really ratchets up the tension, and being the last season, meant there was no guarantee anyone, including catra, was going to make it. Excellent stuff all around.

So that’s where we leave off for now. i’ll be PUTTING PART 2 HERE WITH A LINK. once i’ts finished For now watch this space and..

#best of 2020 #2020 #best of list #Steven Universe #Steven Universe Future #She Ra and the Princesses of Power #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rottmnt #ducktales #amphibia #the midnight gospel

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