#it’s funny!! the point is that it’s entertaining!! it’s supposed to be a COMEDY for crying out loud

[sailforvalinor]

My literature professor: “When Benedick says, ‘Peace! I will stop your mouth’ and kisses Beatrice, Beatrice has no further lines in the play, she’s completely silent, symbolizing how by marrying Benedick she is surrendering all of her power. In being silent she is submitting to patriarchal values of—“

Me: “—ma’am, there are 29 lines left in the play.”

[sharkboywrites]

Hello! May I ask for the BG3 gang with an autistic gn Tav who is. Very Very Large but also quite young (think like... Older teen.) who just decides that Astarion/Wyll/Halsin/Gale etc is their new favourite person and WILL NOT leave them alone.

It would be very funny if they just... didn't realise Tav was actually A Kid™ and thought they were just a weirdly clingy grownup. Except Halsin. Halsin would know Immediately.

Inspired by my dumb ass being enormous and this having happened to me irl many times.

Bg3 Characters With a Young Older Looking Autistic Tav

A/n: This idea is so silly I love it. This is obviously written as platonic because reader is younger and baulder's gate characters are older and I don't write weird stuff like that lol although I'm sure that's expected. Also also i did all of them together because I do not have the energy to write sperate headcannons for each of them, dont worry they all get their moment

Gn Reader, Child/teen Reader

This was an... interesting situation

Everyone on the team assumed you were just assumed you were a bit childish for an adult

I mean could you blame them? You were massive, anyone would assume you were an adult

Except for Halsin

He could easily tell your age, but it's something he kept between the two of you, mainly for safety

Halsin takes more of a dad approach if you cling to him

He's very protective of you and teaches you new skills

He also keeps anyone else on the team from hitting on you, for obvious reasons, but wouldn't say why

He's also the most attentive when it comes to your autism, he's always keeping an eye out for you and helping when he can

It took the others longer to find, though

Wyll was the second to put two and two together

Once he realized, he grilled you about why you didn't tell anyone about it

He isn't too harsh though, and takes a more "fun uncle" role

He always makes sure to entertain you, he's the guy who's got fidgets on him just for you incase you need them

He also decides not to tell anyone for your safety after consulting with Halsin, but he does wish you said something sooner

Gale is the second to last to find out, after trying to teach you something about magic

He had questioned why you didn't know any of this, it was supposed to be common knowledge for someone your age

Or someone he thought was your age

He just stared at you blankly for a good minute after you told him how old you actually were

He's more upset at himself for not noticing to be honest

He realizes how that actually makes a lot of sense

Gale, like Halsin, also takes a more fatherly approach

he teaches you things you may have not known before, and is one of the most helpful when it comes to working through your autism

He's a knowledgeable man and can tell what you need, probably before you do

He's very protective, often insisting that you stay out of battles, but it's not like you listen to him in that department

For comedy's sake, Astarion is the last to find out, and he is pissed

He's mad that no one told him, even if it wasn't too long Gale found out and most of the party knew

He looked so dumbfounded when he found out and like Gale, was more mad that he didn't realize sooner

He's upset, but he gets over it quickly after a day or two of snarky comments and like Wyll, takes on a cool uncle postion

The whole party suddenly wants to protect you and it's suddenly become one of their top goals to return you to your parent/guardian if you have one, next to y'know, getting the worms out of your head

If you don't have somewhere to go they may or may not argue on who takes you once it's all over

Generally, you're taken good care of from then on, much better than you were before

Everyone's very attentive to you and tries to be aware of what you may need at any given point

Since they all have some type of trauma, they want to make sure the same doesn't happen to you, especially so young

Being in this situation is stressful for anyone, let alone a child, and a child with a disability

They do their best to make you happy and keep you safe

They may struggle, but they do their best, and now you have people to call family

[snowandglasslabyrinth]

Damn, the Velma show really sucks. All the characters seem wrong and one-dimensional. There’s nothing funny, I genuinely laughed once and it’s because sarcasm gets me always. Also, specifically it was Velma’s line after climbing the wall to perform a break and enter into Fred’s family’s mansion.

Velma is painfully mediocre as a character, she is contradictory and evidently treats people poorly, laughs in Norville’s face when he says he has a crush on her, and just seemed really mean and poorly written. I also really hate the fat phobic jokes. That’s not right, it’s not funny, it’s just in poor taste and mean. Having it so that she eats french fries out of the garbage is insulting and just pointless. She’s got some massive crush on Fred cause he’s ‘hot’, she’s fairly shallow as a character but loves to point out (see ep. 2) that all the other characters are shallow. People in her school think she’s ugly until she wears revealing clothing, then everyone pays attention to her - in my humble but angry opinion that is a bad message to spread to young adults and teens.

Norville is a whole case, the drug references and jokes are neither funny nor entertaining and after his ridiculous and clunky line about being anti-drugs early in the first episode he pauses as if the audience needs a moment to laugh. It was awful. I get that it’s meant to be a play on the idea that Shaggy was a stoned character but that doesn’t mean it’s funny.

Daphne is vapid, and she’s always been a little bit vain (the stereotypical girl character to an extent because in the original series she was a round character full of depth) but in the show she has become a high schooler obsessed with sex who treats everyone horrifically. The obsession with sex is a thing for all of the highschool girls in the show, I don’t know who had that kind of experience in highschool but I certainly didn’t so it feels uncomfortable and inappropriate (also feels like that because they anime bubble censor a bunch of naked teenage highschool girls as they talk about sex in tv, that shouldn’t have been allowed.)

Fred is just a douche. I mean I know that’s a choice that the writers made but I strongly hate who he’s become (and yes I know I’m supposed to hate him but I think it’s supposed to be because he’s a jerk not just because he’s poorly written uninteresting and a man child that acts like a stereotypical ‘macho’ man). And the amount of times he calls himself a ‘puss’ is annoying and, unfortunately for the show, still not funny, so only sarcasm points for comedy right now.

Some side character notes: Velma’s dad’s girlfriend is an awful and boring stereotype. The show leans on cliches and stereotypes heavily I.e. any character in that show practically. The other students are boring and not memorable. There’s a moment where Fred stands up for Velma and accidentally cuts a student’s foot off, reminiscent of the comedy in those bad adult cartoons that are overpopulating Netflix right now (Paradise PD, Hoops (is that what it’s called?) and others). If I didn’t mention other characters it’s because I don’t remember they exist.

Okay tl;dr the show sucks, it’s not funny, I loved Scooby Doo as a kid so this hurts me, I hate what they’ve done with the characters.

So, I know I usually don’t make my own posts or write reviews but I literally got 10 minutes into the second episode and had to stop because it was bad, very bad. The first episode was bad enough but I thought I would torture myself and then I gave up because I just couldn’t anymore. Thanks for reading all of this if you have, and don’t watch Velma.

:)

[william-m-lucipher]

RATING A FEW OF MY PUPPETS!

THEY ALL HAVE THEIR UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES! HERE ARE MY OPINIONS ON A HANDFUL OF 'EM!

SIXER: MASSIVE AMOUNT OF BRAIN SPACE, FILLED WITH COMPLEXITIES! ALSO A GOOD CHUNK OF EMBARRASSING NERD MEMORIES. HIS MIND IS WHERE ALL THE LUXURY WAS!

BODILY EXPERIENCE WAS INTERESTING, HIS EYESIGHT WAS LACKING EVEN WITH THE GLASSES. IT SEEMS HE'D GONE A WHILE WITHOUT RENEWING HIS PRESCRIPTION. SURE, THE GLASSES LESSENED THINGS, BUT YEESH! ONE EYE WAS ALWAYS WORSE THAN THE OTHER, BUT THEY WERE BOTH IN BLURRYTOWN. TALK ABOUT A LACK OF DEPTH PERCEPTION! THE EXTRA FINGERS THOUGH, THEY WERE FUN! AND THAT GUY HAD A DECENT-ISH PAIN TOLERANCE THANKS TO THOSE OLD BOXING LESSONS HE AND HIS BROTHER WERE FORCED TO DO. IT WAS FUN TO TEST THE LIMITS!

A SOLID 8/10, GREAT GUY TO WORK WITH, POSSESSION EXPERIENCE COULD'VE BEEN BETTER THOUGH!

PINE TREE: BRAINWISE, LESS COMPLEXITY, MORE COMEDY, AT LEAST IN MY EYE! HE WAS A SMART KID, SURE, BUT MAN, RERUNS OF HIS LOWLIGHTS WILL KEEP ME ENTERTAINED FOR AGES. IMAGINE AN ACTUALLY FUNNY CRINGE COMPILATION THAT NEVER GETS OLD! THAAAAT'S PINE TREE!

AS FOR THE BODY, BETTER EYESIGHT, BETTER JOINTS, AND THE PAIN TOLERANCE WAS TERRIBLE, WHICH WAS GREAT FOR ME! IT WAS THE FIRST THING I NOTICED WHEN I TOOK THE STRINGS, HAHA! THOUGH BEING SWEATY, SMELLY, AND TICKLISH KINDA RUINED THE DELUXE SUITE FEEL. EH, WHEN DEALING WITH THE HUMAN BODY, THERE'S NO WAY TO HAVE IT ALL, EVER.

7/10, AT LEAST I'VE GOT A LOT TO LAUGH ABOUT.

HIRSCHEY: I THINK IT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS AT THIS POINT THAT I'VE BEEN PULLING THE STRINGS WITH FLANNELBRITCHES FOR A GOOD WHILE NOW. LONG BEFORE HE EVEN SECURED A ROLE WITH THE MOUSE, I'VE BEEN A SUBTLE INFLUENCE!

NOW LISTEN, I'D LOVE TO SPILL EVERYTHING, BUT THIS GUY HAS ALL THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS TO RUIN EVERYTHING IF I MAKE THE WRONG DECISIONS WHILE USING MY OTHER PUPPETS IN THIS REALITY. LET'S JUST SAY, HIS BODY IS MID, BUT HIS MIND ALONE ADDS EXTRA POINTS! I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO EXPLAIN, HAHA!

9/10, WHAT A GOOD FRIEND!

BURNSIDES: OH WAIT, I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS YET! WINK! HAHA, COME BACK TO THIS POST FOR THE ANSWER ON SMOKEY'S BIGGEST FAN IN A FEW DAYS.

?/10, TO BE ANNOUNCED

EAS-Y: THE ONE I'M CURRENTLY USING! GONE BY SEVERAL DIFFERENT NAMES, BECAUSE THEIR MEAT SUIT IS LITERALLY STUFFED WITH SEVERAL DIFFERENT PEOPLE DUE TO CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, HAHA!! THE HUMAN MIND HAS SOME WEIRD COPING MECHANISMS. E.A.S STANDS FOR THE SILLY NAME FOR THEIR SYSTEM THEY PICKED ONE DAY ON A WHIM.

MY FAVORITE ONE HERE HAS TO BE ZILLARA, WHO I ONCE REFERRED TO AS "T" DURING AN APRIL FOOL'S EVENT ON THE SYSTEM'S ABANDONED ACCOUNT. (IT WAS SHORT FOR THE COLLECTIVE DEADNAME OF THIS VESSEL.) HE'S AN OLD HOST AND AN OLD PAL! Z'S BEEN SO... GENUINELY NICE TO ME FOR ALMOST TEN YEARS NOW. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM?! HAHA!!! Ah... ENOUGH ABOUT JUST ONE GUY, THOUGH, THIS PLACE IS PACKED WITH EM! BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T HAVE WIGGLE ROOM. THIS MIND IS MORE SPACIOUS THAN PINE TREE AND SIXER'S COMBINED, BUT IT'S ALL BEING USED ON KEEPING FOLKS COMFORTABLE AND GUARDING HARMFUL MEMORIES. LISTEN, I'M NOT SALTY ABOUT THE MEMORY GUARDING. I TOOK A PEEK, AND JEEZ, IT'S DEFINITELY FOR THE BETTER.

ANYWAYS, THIS PLACE IS LAYED OUT LIKE A WHOLE SMALL TOWN! BEST VACATION HOME OUTTA ALL OF 'EM! AS AMAZING AS HIRSCHY'S IS, IT'S BUSY BUSY BUSY EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME. PARTIALLY MY FAULT FOR GETTING HIM INTO THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY. SORRY THERE, BUDDY!

THE DOWNSIDE TO IT ALL IS THAT EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE PLENTY WHO LIKE ME HERE, I'VE ALSO GOT A FAIR SHARE OF ENEMIES WHO CALL THEMSELVES "PROTECTORS" AND "GATEKEEPERS." NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF AN ANGRY SECRETARY LADY, LET ME TELL YOU!

BODY WISE, IT'S QUITE THE PAIN BUFFET! BAD JOINTS, MIGRAINES, LOW PAIN TOLERANCE, AND MAN, THE TICS AND SEIZURES! YOU'D THINK GIVEN MY EXPERIENCE WITH BODY SPASMS WHILE PUPPETING PINE TREE, I'D HATE THESE, BUT THIS IS DIFFERENT! IT'S SOME OF THE FUNNIEST PAIN, THE PUNCHLINE HITS YOU OUTTA NOWHERE, SEVERAL TIMES, IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT WAYS!

8.5/10, TALK TO YOUR PROTECTORS AND YOU MIGHT EARN THE FIRST 10, OR AT LEAST A 9.8!!!

IN SUMMARY:

- SIXER'S A DECENT PUPPET, BUT A BETTER ALLY. STILL A SHAME HE NEVER JOINED ME

- PINE TREE IS A PERSONAL COMEDY CLUB!

- HIRSCHEY IS A GREAT PUPPET, AND A POWERFUL ALLY WHO COULD EASILY BECOME MY WORST ENEMY

- I'M UNDER NDA ABOUT GUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

- EASY HERE IS, WELL, THE EASIEST ONE!!

MAYBE I'LL RATE A FEW MORE SOMETIME, LIKE CHARLES GUITEAU, OR WITH LUCK, YOU!

[artbyblastweave]

I prompt you to elaborate on the idea of deliberately making something in a story boring, for I an always interested in your analysis.

In The Boys (Comic version, which I have complicated but more-positive-than-most feelings about) Garth Ennis very deliberately wrote most of the superhuman combat scenes as short, brutal affairs in which whoever was more powerful or better-equipped would just slaughter the other side in a matter of seconds; if the sides were more evenly matched it was then a matter of who swung first. To my memory, there were only a handful of fights blocked like fights instead of like curbstomps. This was in service to Ennis's artistic vision; violence as a swift, brutal thing, only glamourous in the sense of black-comedy dismemberments or the grim satisfaction of being alive when the other guy isn't, and with the majority of all conflicts playing out through via prep-work and intelligence-gathering done in advance of the first punch being thrown.

It was an aggressive refutation of how superhero fights go in more straightforward superhero fiction, with clever tricks, drawn-out dramatic brawls, violence as a palatable form of spectacle, something marketable after-the-fact. A lot of the fights the titular team got involved in consisted basically of jumping distracted supes; one of Homelander's jobs was to just unceremoniously decapitate any earnest upstart supervillain and then have the marketing team at Vought write a comic portraying the fight as something with genre-typical stakes. To this day, I feel like there was a level of honesty about violence in this portrayal. In real life, it's not fun!

But! It did introduce some problems. Namely, a series in which almost every single fight is something Nasty, Brutish and Short created, for me, a form of doublethink about how seriously we should even take the Vought capes as threats. A series in which every fight is deliberately uninteresting (if you aren't entertained by curbstomps) is a series in which every fight is deliberately uninteresting, and from there your enjoyment of the series rides or dies on how interesting you find the non-fight political intrigue, character dynamics, and so forth. The version of Garth Ennis who isn't writing capes is, in my opinion, pretty damn good at that other stuff, so I inched through.

The show patched the majority of my difficulties. It retained the broad thesis that cape fights would largely be curbstomps, and the other broad thesis that capes would largely be useless or counterproductive at their supposed role, but combined this with a number of actual fight scenes. It made Butchers team significantly less powerful, with a significantly greater focus on the sneaky bastardry necessary to flip assets and find weaknesses. It made killing any given supe much, much more of an endeavor, something genuinely very difficult and impressive, and it made every given supe death much more of a plot point or a character beat than it would have been in the comic. The supes being less interesting than typical for their genre, that was preserved- but the situations involving supes that we, the audience, are privy to? All very interesting still!

Now on the other side of the spectrum, you've got Worm, and you've got Jack Slash-as-an-examination-of-Joker. "Your philosophy is ill-considered and fake deep, and you aren't funny" is actually a fairly common clapback against The Joker within officially published DC comics properties, but it butts up against the fact that he's taken pretty seriously as a threat regardless of that fact! Jack Slash is an attempt to reconcile that, to figure out how someone as LOlrandom as Joker could last longer than three minutes as a serious contender, and the answer is "subtle secondary powers that puff up his win rate, in a way that his self-absorption prevents him from recognizing as anything but his own innate talent." He's blatantly shallow. Everyone talking to him is palpably rolling their eyes within the text, but he's got the brute-force necessary to undercut anyone trying to one-up him (Theo's interlude, Tattletale in the parking garage.) It's called out multiple times that's it's mysterious that he's doing so well when he's so mediocre. The candidate he picks for the 9 is a dud. He can't come up with anything more interesting for Cherish than having her do all the other tests over a second time. His big comeback is just Slaughterhouse 9! But More of them! Fuck Yeah!

But! Despite the text being aware of how shallow he is and how thin his ideas are, all of his ideas keep working. It doesn't matter that it's edgelord bullshit- it's edgelord bullshit that everyone else is forced to take seriously and respond to, which is where the actually-great character work in the S9 arc happens. And at this point I think there are basically two camps within the audience. Camp one consists of people who, despite Jacks clear shallowness, nonetheless are entertained and engrossed by the batshit combat scenarios he masterminds, even if he shouldn't be able to mastermind them. I am a counselor at Camp One. Camp Two consists of people who call bullshit on the ability for such a shallow guy to mastermind all that crap and bend everyone to his will, who don't really find anything redemptive in the eventual reveal that it was powers-enabled because they still had to sit through the implausible bullshit. This is a position I have no choice but to respect because it's the position of my cousin, who I adore and want to remain on good terms with at family gatherings. The things we do in service of family, amiright

[yurisorcerer]

In a development I definitely wouldn't have predicted even a week ago, the title of "first anime to make me cry this season" goes to Mayonaka Punch.

This is *very* different in tone, structure, and even subject matter to every prior episode of this show and, judging by the previews, probably many of the later ones, too. Rather than focusing on the main group, this is a spotlight episode about Fu, probably the least-focused-on member of the group so far, and an old friend of hers named Aya. It's much more poignant and heartbreaking than funny, and I think MayoPan, somewhat surprisingly, manages to make this massive shift in mood completely work.

Before now, the series hasn't really grappled with what it *means* to be a vampire. It's been an obstacle or inconvenience or a role that comes with a set of rules or even a prop for some of Masaki's videos earlier in the series. With this episode though, MayoPan drills down on one of the oldest tropes in vampire fiction; the tragedy of immortality.

Fu met Aya when the latter was, going by her appearance, roughly a high schooler. She got Fu into western rock and pop music, and the two played music together, with Fu singing and Aya providing guitar. Aya eventually gets the idea that Fu is *such* a good singer that they could even go pro. Fu knows---and Yuki tells her this much---that this cannot possibly work. She can't go out in the sunlight and doesn't age, so people will start talking at some point. The entire thing is a foolish dream, and Fu knows this. But she can't bring herself to tell Aya, and she ends up stringing Aya along right up until the very moment that they're supposed to debut as a duo on an outdoor stage. The sun catches her outstretched hand, which briefly alights, and scared and confused, she runs away.

Back in the present, Masaki finds out about all this from the other vampires and gets it in her head that she should record Fu singing covers. Fu is initially very reluctant, but after a somewhat strained heart to heart she ends up seeking Aya out upon learning that she moved to New York some years ago. Then, upon meeting a friend of hers, the episode delivers its solemn last twist; Aya is dead. Fu will never see her friend again.

All of this loses something in the retelling, but in the moment it's really, truly heartwrenching. (I *love* Masaki and Fu's conversation, too. Fu goes back to this idea several times that she doesn't *deserve* to sing, since she abandoned her friend, but Masaki contends that there's *nobody* who doesn't deserve to do the things that make them happy. There's something really powerful in that, and I think it's a theme the show will come back around to.) Fu makes a kind of peace with Aya's passing, and the episode has a semi-happy postscript in that she *does* end up singing for the channel, pouring her passion into a new version of her dream in her friend's memory, but it's definitely bittersweet as opposed to just straight-up happy.

With this episode I think Mayonaka Punch has firmly placed itself in roughly the same category as Zombieland Saga, another show about undead entertainers that is fully willing to mine that status for both comedy and pathos. ZLS was, until now, kind of a one-of-one, so I'm really happy to see something picking up its torch in this way. I don't know if it'll ever touch this territory again, but I'm glad that it did. Not only does this do an amazing job of making Fu immediately one of my favorite characters, it's just also a frankly incredible piece of character work top to bottom, a story so self-contained that it's almost a great anime all on its own.

[avelera]

I watched the first episode of Kate Winslet's "The Regime" and had a few thoughts.

First, the good:

- Really excited to see Matthias Schoenaerts (Booker in The Old Guard) in it, so that was already a huge plus.

- Kate Winslet is definitely acting her ass off.

- A lot of worldbuilding and research about dictators both historical and modern definitely went into the script. I could see snippets of many known dictator affectations, like germophobia, on display.

And now the... not exactly bad but the ???:

(Cut because we start to get into some actual spoilers)

I really don't know where the show is trying to go just yet. I can't quite tell if it's a flat out comedy in the style of Death of Stalin, as advertised, or if it's actually going for a deeper dramedy where we're supposed to feel some level of pathos for Winslet's and Schoenaerts' characters.

Basically, it feels like a fictionalization of a historical dramedy.

However, in Death of Stalin and other dramas and satires based on real historical events, we know where this is all going, to some extent. We can tell if the Bumbling Advisor's advice is, well, bumbling because we know how things are going to turn out.

Right now, in The Regime, we don't have any grounding in reality to be able to determine if the decisions being made are bad or good or simply incompetent and doomed to fail.

We've got a lot subjective view points like the various ministers and Schoenaerts' character to give their perspective on what the country should do next, but we don't have any objective birds eye view, historical knowledge, or even an actual person average person in the this fictional country to tell us what they're really thinking, unfiltered through the subjective POV of all these characters with very pronounced agendas.

In a way, I do consider that quite clever from a writing craft standpoint. I feel just as isolated and wrapped in cotton wool as Winslet's character. Which is part of why I wonder if I'm supposed to sympathize with a figure that, to my eyes, reads like Marine le Pen from a dystopian world where she actually won in France.

As an American, I can't tell whether or not the country turning away from America (who was clearly trying to take advantage, in a cobalt deal that to my ears echoed the British oil interests in Iran at the beginning of the 20th c.) is meant to be seen as a good or a bad thing. Truly. I don't mean that as saying I want or expect America to be the good guy, but I can't tell if I'm relatively anti-American compared to the creator of the show (ie, that America is just assumed to be a good guy so it's meant to be a negative harbinger of bad things to come that they turned away) or relatively pro-American (ie, that it's a show made by non-Americans so by not seeing this as a clear good thing that they reject America using terminology that echoes current Russian rhetoric) and I should be cheering on their choice to turn away.

On the one hand, this ambiguity if intentional is quite masterful! I can't quite tell if I'm supposed to see Schoenaerts as a straight-shooter who is supposed to help this rather hapless dictator maybe achieve some good, or if he's a violent MAGA-type thug who is going to get her ear and put their country down the path to atrocities. I just don't know yet, because this isn't a historical dramedy so I don't know how these events play out.

And I can't tell quite yet if that's a good or a bad thing from the writerly perspective. On the one hand, I'm personally more baffled than intrigued as to why I should care about anything going on in it so far. It's not all that funny, so I'm not entertained or amused just at the nonsense happening, because I can't tell what I'm supposed to see as nonsense and what I'm supposed to see as serious worldbuilding leading towards an actual fictional country narrative that will allow some commentary on our own global situation, or if it's just intrigue for the sake of intrigue, or if it's a character study and I shouldn't care about the actual events in the fictional country because it's the absurdity of the personalities I should be focusing on. Or if I am supposed to be laughing, what aspects I'm supposed to be laughing at.

Basically, it hasn't won my trust yet. I'm mildly intrigued, mostly because of Winslet and Schoenaerts adding complexity to what in a normal satire might just be flat comedic characters. But I can't even really tell yet if the story thinks it's a comedy or if it just has comedic elements (like, say, Succession).

Maybe I'm just basic, but I wouldn't have minded a bit more signposting and a bit less of a feeling that I'm supposed to grasp what point the story is trying to make on its own. I don't really know what the thesis is yet, because it's not based in real events, there's no objective truth for me to look at and say, "Ah, they're saying this historically terrible person was misunderstood, or bumbling, or actually heroic, or well-intentioned," etc etc. I only have their word for it and they haven't actually told me yet what their word is trying to say, y'know?

Verdict: I'll probably watch a bit more, but I am a little perplexed at present as to what the takeaway should be.

[caitlin666]

The main vampire kisses (book series) complaints I see and my thoughts on them

* Raven’s personality is cringey

I think the readers forget Raven is only 16. It’s pretty clear that Raven was written to be a realistic teenager, and all teenagers have their cringey moments.

* It’s annoying how Raven goes on about how “goth” she is

Honestly this comes down to personal preference. Because I personally LOVED the descriptions of her outfits and the objects she owns. And lots of preteens and teens like these descriptions because they feel inspired by the main characters of books they read and want to recreate outfits or buy objects that character owns

* The story is predictable

Personally I disagree. I first read the books at 12/13 and then 16 and then again at 20 and there are plot points I am genuinely surprised by because I forgot them. I personally feel the stories have their twists and turns but to each their own

* The story/writing is juvenile

This is a book series for PRETEENS AND TEENS. Although some very young adults (18-22) may enjoy the books as well, any older and it is highly likely you may find the writing style childish.

* The story is too cheesy/silly for me to take seriously

If you pay any attention at all, it’s pretty obvious this is supposed to be a

comedy-fantasy series. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously

* The story is too flat and boring

Are we even reading the same books? I found almost every page funny/comedic or at least entertaining.

* Raven is only goth by aesthetic/appearance/fashion

She literally mentions enjoying Bauhaus and The Cure (goth bands) AND mentions enjoying Dracula movies and Anne Rice novels

* Raven’s only personality trait is hating preppy people

I think it’s normal for alternative teens to have “not like other girls/boys/people” stage. I definitely did as a teen and cringe now at it, but it’s normal. Also Raven clearly has other personality traits if you look hard enough

* It’s annoying how the main two towns in the series are called Hipsterville and Dullsville and never properly named

The author Ellen Schreiber said she purposefully did this so lots of people could identify their closest dullsville and hipsterville to themselves and connect to the story more. For example, my town is quite conservative and very dull, but the city centre is more chill with a solid amount of punk and goth people. The towns not being specifically named is because a decent amount of people (in western countries at least) will have a dull conservative town and a chill/alternative/hipster/artsy city by them. People can think about what their own dullsville and hipsterville would be and apply it to them

Are there any other complaints I forgot to address? Lemme know. And yes, I understand that this series is not perfect, but these specific complaints are stupid/silly/ridiculous.

@victor-the-vampire

[ssruis]

cpdb rui + nene cards and emu5 tsukasa + emu cards for the alien alien/niccori survey team/opera space opera “alien race w the goal to spread love and cheer because positive emotions are their society’s fuel (like monsters inc. laughter as a fuel) invasion for Benevolent Reasons” ruikasa/emunene au where emu+tsukasa crash land on earth and are found by rui+nene who have to hide them from authorities/fix their ship… maybe len as the alien ship AI rin as the AI rui made/found/whatever… do u see my vision… the dish I’m cooking up…

Assorted vague ideas that may or may not end up making the cut:

> CPDB cyberpunk dystopia being a result of emu’s grandpa giving earth (his favorite little planet) some technology because he was like surely the humans will use this to usher in a new era of peace and love 😊 (he was wrong)

> emu’s grandpa gave them souped up hyper competent chat gpt/ai to solve their more boring meaningless issues so they could focus on creating art and then capitalism ruined it 😔

> no I don’t have an agenda against ai generation what would make you think that (graphic design major being told to use generative AI because “that’s the future” when it Looks Like Shit)

> emu crash lands them on earth when they’re meant to be going elsewhere because she wanted to take “a quick teeny weeny detour” to look at her grandpa’s favorite planet (she knew something was wrong w it. Energy outputs were bad? Maybe the alien society wrote off earth as a lost cause) and tsukasa’s like no absolutely not (they wrestle with the controls -> crash land -> emu’s like oopsie daisy 😊 while tsukasa has a hysterical fit)

> if I want to be really evil emu’s grandpa could have died on earth and she wanted to see if he was alive? But I don’t want to hurt emu like that… I’d rather just go the path of her Really Really wanting to save earth. Au version of Wonderstage.

> or maybe tsukasa and emu are just sent to see why it’s failing. But I think the crash landing thing is really funny.

> ohh maybe instead of emotions it’s music based (harnessing the true emotions behind music) and the reason earth has begun to fail is the increasing drive to create empty pop songs that go viral. That would be a better explanation than the general positive emotion harvesting if you’re assuming everyone in the CPDB dystopia is “happy” (complacent with the status quo of capitalism driven entertainment)

> “it’s a tragedy to view it from this small fry of a planet, but it’s a comedy if you view it from space” “I fell in love with you from far far away” “when this song reached over there and resonated, it was you who gave it meaning! Sure enough this universe is wonderhoy!”

> “I don’t read the lyrics anyway, so give me something catchy” “is it about the numbers than the artistry/awful price to pay for vitality/then what do we do? Was that how it’s supposed to go?/the mind going in circles and slowly dying away” “don’t disguise yourself, fantasies and ideals are fine”

> “The trembling streetlights, the pelting rain/My wavering feelings, an emotional telepath/The lost two make contact/And my heart learned of love “A fluorescent light repeatedly switching off and on/The paranormal confusion quietly ate into you/The parallel signals intersected due to singular point/Created-reality-blind acceptance-itus, sensitivity instinct”

> “we will set out to study the world’s smiles” “Between us, we have something that will turn the impossible into a possibility”

> ^ I can probably do something with those lyrics. General vibes to work with. Etc.

> (rui kamishiro voice) sometimes the cure for complete apathy/hopelessness and disillusionment with the current state of the world can be two goofy aliens (nene kusanagi voice) what the fuck are you talking about

> obligatory rui making joke threats about dissecting emukasa (as he did w wxs sekai plushies/aliens in 2024 April fools) & tsukasa going “y. You’re not serious right” “hehe” “RIGHT??”

> tsukasa initially is very “we need to fix this ship and Leave we have a job to be doing” (realizes the state of the earth) “nnnrgg FINE we have to fix this”

> (sees one bug) “nvm emu can we explode this planet into a million pieces and leave- emu. Emu why are you letting it crawl on you dONT GET NEAR ME WITH THAT” (emu chasing him around w a centipede in her hands)

> emu is immediately infatuated with nene “your voice is the prettiest thing I’ve heard in the whole universe” -> “you make me happy just by existing and I want to make you smile every day”… nene goes from “I want nothing to do with this” to “ok I’m involved now. Not just because emu asked. Rui stop laughing at me. (Would be crying and throwing up on the inside if emu was even a little upset)”

> as with all my aus the ruikasa dynamic is “oh he’s pretty and very talented” vs “what an interesting guy (I want to put him in a maze and watch him solve it for rewards)” -> “this guy is fucking insane and is going to kill me one day (said with begrudging fondness and irritation at his own shit taste)” vs “what an interesting guy (I want to put him in a maze and watch him solve it for rewards) (also I am madly in love with him)”

> they destroy the ai thing or something yay happy ending. Idk. I’m not a polisci major you can’t expect me to have a good neat solution for a huge societal issue.

> ending is hard because I don’t want to separate them but emu + tsukasa have way too much left on the home planet to ever consider leaving it permanently… hmm ending where emu + tsukasa are like we gotta go back for a bit but we’ll return to check on the progress -> more permanent way for visits to happen is set up with the eventual intention for rui and emu to join tsukasa and emu on their adventures?

> saki as a researcher on the alien planet w the rest of L/N… tsukasa prioritizing getting communication set back up first and foremost and rui’s like “is he gonna contact his home planet and ask to be rescued even after he promised to help” & then tsukasa calls home just to tell saki (+ she updates toya) he’s ok (she was understandably distraught thinking her brother fucking crash landed somewhere and died) tsukasa tenma voice I’ve upset my sister. I’m going to go run directly into traffic.

> rui and nene live together (making money thru mechanics and programming). Nene has a shit load of arcade games that she and rui fixed up. Neither of them like how society is but they’re both kind of like “wtf can we even do” although rui does his guerrilla shows on the side (how he finds emu+tsukasa maybe?). Rui dragging himself home at 4 am wounded from nearly getting caught by security and nene’s like are u fucking kidding me.

> actually I think nene playing video games and making money by being a top player is a funnier idea than her helping rui with mechanics. She has some tech knowledge by virtue of living with him but she’s also rank #1 in several competitive games. Nene is the real bread winner in this household.

> I think nene should play video games with emu… emunene arcade date while ruikasa are in the workshop downstairs fixing up the ship (tsukasa is kinda useless he’s just micromanaging/doesn’t want to third wheel emunene because nene kept giving him death glares last time)

Nene: (long winded gaming explanation) so that’s why you want to keep the higher ground during the game

Emu: woaw! you’re so smart nenechan!!

(Loud explosion heard from downstairs) (tsukasa screaming) (rui laughing)

Nene: um. Is tsukasa ok.

Emu: yep he just does that sometimes 💕!! Ooo what’s this game called??

Nene: (whatever it’s not my problem and I’m having fun with emu) this one is called DDR do you want to play 🥰

[skaruresonic]

what were your favorite things about starline before he was ruined

Oh, God, Starline. ;A; How I miss the poor bastard.

Beyond his design, my favorite things about him included his foppishness, his showmanship, his meticulousness, his (relative) calm demeanor, his "comedic intern" angle, and his devotion to licking egg-shaped boot.

Oh, and the most prominent aspect of his character, the linchpin on which all else rests: the simpery.

I will give credit where credit is due, his simpery of Eggman coupled with his more cautious and lowkey nature (at least, compared to Eggman) offered a genuinely new and refreshing dynamic at the time. It didn't seem to come with strings attached as it usually does.

I also used to like his penchant for unintentional comedy. It seemed to be the same flavor of comedy with which they tinge some of Eggman's character.

Granted, Starline was probably always meant to be something of a buttmonkey, but later issues had him ping-pong between being Better Than Eggman(tm) and a buffoon. The constant switch made it difficult to fully invest in him in either case, because one minute we were meant to consider him a srs bsns mastermind and laugh at his failures the next. And not in the balanced way Eggman's humor generates; there were times I genuinely couldn't tell whether we were supposed to root for him or not.

And then, of course, he got crushed under rocks. Big oofed.

Starline used to be funny. Watching him rant and rave? Cry tears of joy? Make an uwu face as Rough and Tumble embarrass him in front of his idol? Funny, because it subverted his otherwise suave Bond villain image, and because you knew that eventually Eggman would crush his windpipe like a squeaky toy. Selling your soul to the devil can only end in tragedy. It filled you with a morbid sort of joy and a dark anticipation as you waited to see how bright this dumpster fire would blaze.

This was one pathetic meow-meow of a man, strange yet oddly compelling. Shame his delusions of grandeur stole away the entertaining aspects of his personality for a more boring, straight-laced character. Even bigger shame that we were supposed to pretend he never meant anything to begin with.

That's not to say Starline could never have had character development, nor that he should have remained a static character. Just as Sonic exerts a positive influence on others, show us how Eggman exerts a twisted influence. Make Starline's devotion to Eggman even unhealthier and fucked-up than it already was. Not in a "I can fix you" kind of way, but in an "I will light myself on fire to keep you warm" kind of way. To the point of self-destruction. That seemed to be the logical direction for such a character, anyway.

But nah, they had to drag us along Starline's unimpressive journey to strike out on his own. Which, like... He stole 90% of Eggman's shit anyway, so how effective was he really? And even if the whole point was that Eggman made him and he's nothing without his idol, then why did the book give him two mini-series? Has he been mentioned even once in the book since his death? Somehow, I very much doubt it.

I don't want to get into it with his creation of Surge and Kit because I'd rather pretend they don't exist, thanks. Yes, I'm aware Starline was originally conceived as their creator, but I think Flynn should have caught on that his character had changed. Realized that trying to cram him back into the original mold would only break him.

And you know what. Even after having suffered 30 issues where Starline was fucking insufferable with his whole "I'll surpass Eggman" schtick, I still felt sad for his passing.

To make matters worse, I felt foolish for my emotional investment, because dammit, I guess I was hoping his story would have culminated in something more substantial than "his favorite flowers are forget-me-nots (snicker)."

Now that I've learned that IDW can drop even their most popular characters in a heartbeat, I'm never making the mistake of even accidentally becoming invested in them again. They're not going to bother developing them or even give them a proper sendoff, so why should I continue reading?

Fs in the chat for my boy. They did him so dirty.

[ms-scarletwings]

I am sorry to bother you but I have to say, I feel Dib got treated too harshly most of the time. It's the point of the story yes but at times it just feels flat out sadistic for no reason.

It's why the Gargantis Array comic storyline sucks to me, it was just two issues of buildup to make Dib a gross fat joke and humiliate him across space. Jhonen just really seems to love torturing Dib more than anyone and it's rarely even deserved.

Oh, this is the opposite of a bother, friendo!

I actually have a lot of reading to still do on the topic of the comics. I’m woefully only really up to good knowledge about issues 46-49 and a lot of bits of pieces otherwise. If what you’re saying rings true, that is sad to hear, but pretty interesting still. I’ve always in the back of my head been a little afraid that Dib’s karma could be flanderized to the point of making him a butt monkey. Especially when we all know that’s supposed to be Skoodge’s job! (waka waka)

As for the show, honestly? I think they managed the balance just fine. It’s not so much that the show was specifically cruel to him, but that sadism broadly was one of its central themes and there were no efforts made to exclude Dib from that. And why should they have? He’s not an innocent woobie, and in fact is actually in the seat of a very ambitious antagonist against the real main character’s goals. Arbitrary events of misfortune and pain were the bread and butter of the series back then, and almost no one was spared. Jhonen (who cameoed himself in the show just to choke on a fish and die for a joke) also from what I hear injected a lot of his own qualities into Dib, so I imagine it probably IS very entertaining to him to give the boy the works.

From what I have seen of the comics, that looks like a much finer line to tow. And this more of an off the cuff ramble, but you know what I think??? I think they made Dib a touch way too sympathetic actually. There’s so much more focus on just him and Zim’s side antics, and the more time you take Dib off world and away from the rest of the Earth side characters, the fewer reminders they give you about how many of his problems are majorly self inflicted and how much of a disturbance he can be to society. And, for better or worse, a less dark overall tone in the comics means that the moments of overtly black comedy are going to stand out a little more against the modernized background by contrast.

And there’s another elephant in the room that kind of gets to me, personally. As well as I can put it well, the art style change kind of really affects the lens he can be viewed through. Maybe more than most people want to admit. And I’m not dissing the rounded down, brightened up change, it’s not a better or worse direction from the show… but it is a different one with different strengths and weaknesses.

Like, look at Dib’s early season model sheets for a base of reference.

Now compare him alongside the comic and Florpus interpretation of Dib Membrane. OBVS I am simplifying a ton here, there’s a ton of room for more range than these examples.

I’m not here to say he’s a better or worse Dib visually, he’s still Dib to me! But is notable how comic Dib actually breaks a ton of the “rules” of what kind of character they wanted Dib to be. To put it one way, they sanded down some of his edges and he’s not as apparently “skrungly” as he used to be.

What I like about the change is that it actually gives the better impression of him actually being the lil dorkass kid he’s always been. He’s got a slight aesthetic shift that shows off his unique interests and it definitely sets him apart from Zim, who actually retained most of his own show design. He’s still got some funny lookin’ qualities and he’s so much more endearing

One of the downsides of all that, however, is probably that he’s so damn endearing and as a default.

I dunno if you ever watched Little Shop of Horrors, amazing musical btw, but, it’s supposed to have this whole tragic ending where the main character’s, Seymour’s, long chain of mistakes catch up with him and he meets his demise. In the movie, they casted Rick Moranis for the character, and he played such a puppy-eyed, adorkable Seymour that it made audiences suddenly too bummed out to even appreciate the dark ending. They hated it so much that the crew actually just changed the ending completely so that Seymour gets a consequence-free happy ending with everything he ever wanted. Even though he’s literally a serial murderer of sorts. You were always supposed to feel for him, but not to the point where watching him fail just makes you feel horrible.

I think Dib works kinda like that on a meta level.

If there’s any ruling on what goes over that invisible line when it comes to handling his character, I think Florpus Gaz nailed it right on the head. Dib is never supposed to just utterly break under the weight of his world. Can he sometimes crack? Yeah totally, especially in the “brink of madness” sense. Or if it’s funny. The golden rule is not to give him more than he can handle, and Dib CAN handle a lot of bullshit. He may be a frustrated lil squirt but he’s been at this for a very long time, and it’s hype af watching how he’s not slowing down even in the face of that. Dib and Zim’s biggest POSITIVE shared trait is the strength of their spirits against a world that is ultimately callous and cruel at every turn to them.

Every second you write Dib where he’s wallowing in despair or feeling sorry for himself is a second you come closer to that line and it’s what you need to dish out in wary moderation.

So I guess the TL:DR of what i think I’m getting at here is… it’s all about perspective.

But I really should read more of the comics.

[johnny-chaos]

Gordon is notably characterized by his obnoxious and deeply uncool behavior but he's also defined by an incredible earnestness and desire for things to be taken seriously . And Benrey, on the other hand, is obnoxious too but for the exact opposite reasons-- devaluing things that, by Gordon's standards, should be taken seriously (such as murder) while playing up the absurdity and inconsistent application of rules in general (and also acting like a fucking third grader).

In that way the two of them have a lot in common, but with that one major caveat of seriousness . Really, they're both pretty earnest, and they both just wanna make jokes n have fun-- Gordon wants to be a justin.tv streamer and he talks to himself like an anime protagonist (GORDON SPRINT!!) and Benrey's whole thing is having his day ruined bc he couldn't play games with his friends . But Benrey also knows treating the game like it's real is idiotic, while Gordon can't help but treat it as if it were (and Scorpy Socpens n Wayne R. TV use this for some extremely good comedy).

In addition to THAT, you have Coomer, who, over the course of the webseries, realizes his life is a lie and his world is fake - subsequently becoming more lucid, serious, and aloof. His character arc brings up the question of What Does It Truly Mean, To Be Alive? (a tried and true story point !) They're all functioning on different understandings of their world-- they all understand nothing matters, but Coomer is just now realizing, and Benrey's always known it, and Gordon method acts so hard that he almost forgets it.

With that context HLVRAI becomes an argument on existential nihilism -- Coomer presents the question "nothing is real so is living this life valuable?" and Benry's response is essentially "no- if nothing matters then why care ? Do whatever you want forever ." And Gordon's is "of COURSE it's valuable, fuck you, this may not matter but I can care and try and hope and LIVE, BABY!!! leave me and my magmar plush OUTTA THIS!!" Quite a 4chan vs Tumblr argume(I am shot and killed)

But even though I describe Gordon as v earnest and sincere, it's not enitrely accurate, bc while he has a lot of Genuine Expressions of Emotion, he also seems to use anger to mask laughter ("if i had a knife i would gut you" said with an audible smile). Makes him seem less genuine and more like he's playing up the reactivity, but you still get a rly potent feeling that these are people he enjoys being around, and I'm sure that's also just Wayne R. TV playing gmod with his friends bleeding through .

Coomer's obviously the MOST sincere, he has literally the only lines that are SUPPOSED to be taken seriously. And Benrey may not be very sincere, but he IS (in Wayne R TV's words) the most sentimental, which is REALLY weird. He's constantly talking bullshit, but Scorpy Socpens still gives him these moments where it seems like he might actually care ("we should turn back.. we're going further . into HELL" and "why are we here? ..what happened to your arm?!") LIKE!! he and the others are all entertainers, they're all supposed to make you laugh (except for Dr. Coomer at one point), but Benrey especially, as he's this manifestation of insincerity and irony and absurdity--and yet?? some semblance of motivation??

If hlvrai is an argument on nihilism, then it's ALSO about how what makes life worth living is the people around you actually . Because of benrey's "nothing matters" mentality he gains Gordon's ire and subsequently becomes the antagonist as his stupid shenanigans are reframed as actively hindering the group (even though yeah EVERYONE gets in the way of everything all the time). Thus he becomes the Big Bad even though he's really just, not cut out for it . he knows his actions don't have meaningful consequences, but that sentimentality inevitably slips out, and yeah, his whole purpose is to be funny. you can't be funny to yourself now that's just embarrassing. he has the powers to shapeshift and time travel but he only does it when it's relevant to Gordon. i am constantly thinking about how he says "it replenishes your electronics" in this calm, mellow voice like he's got nothing to worry about and is just enjoying the moment . he just wants to play games with people, man!!!

and even though Gordon is so SO fucking uncool, he's allowed to be because he actually gives a shit!! even though they're both annoying, Benrey is the one who becomes the villain because of how detached he is. Gordon can stumble over his words and be clumsy as hell but he cares so deeply-- about the others, about putting on a show-- that his embarrassing attempts at being the hotshot hero of the story don't detract from his value. yeah this world isn't real but my friends are. yeah nothing matters but we can still try to help each other out. you are supposed to care!!! bitch

[morgue-xiiv]

for the ask game: Idiot Doom Spiral

OKAY! I been working on this one for a while so it's gonna be great. Really high concept.

This is tough, not because he doesn't have good or bad thing about him, but because like. Everything about him seems like an opinion or vibe based thing. Like okay he's homeless because he lost his keys and ID and couldn't prove he had a right to enter his own home. Is he a fucking dipshit as I've heard many people say or is he a potent reminder of the insane precarity of our lives? I think the latter. Every person I've spoken to about it has a different idea of how he could get into his own house and every one of them runs out of ideas if you say "and if that didn't work?" even a couple of times. Even the game says there should be an obvious solution yet does not provide one. Oh your landlord would let you in. What if you rented through a managing agency and the staff turnover is high so no one recognises you? How would you even CONTACT your landlord? with the phone number you wrote down and carry with you everywhere even if you're on a jog? Oh your staff would let you in at work. Suppose they don't though? Suppose the main point people are on a week long business trip or your security guard says "look man I know its you but I'm not allowed to let you in without ID I could lose my job", you're a grown man so your parents could easily be dead or very far way. my absolute favourite take was "well the supervisor in your building would recognise you!" Yeah thanks Monica Geller, tell me you're American without telling me you're American. Hell, what if all this beurocracy is HARD and lying down on a beach drinking is EASY. That's the real reason, you maybe could get in "if you tried hard enough" but everyone has a limited ammount they CAN try and traumatic experiences like the cops locking you up for asking for help sap that energy Realllly fast. You, too, are probably 4-8 comedy of errors events from homelessnessliness. It blows!

1) He's very invested in his work and doesn't accept anything that falls bellow his standards of excellent BUT his job is predominately hollow overcompensated manipulative bullshit. BUT advertising is art even if you don't agree with the art or its aims. He's focused on his artistic fullfilment rejecting low concept ideas even if he thinks they would be functional effective ads.

2) I seem to recall him rejecting fascism as 'low concept stuff' but I can't find the line now so take my word for it. And I'm not even sure.

3) IDS was a very controversial Tory scumleech who oversaw massive punitive cuts to financial support for the disabled in the UK and it's funny as fuck now to call him Idiot Doom Spiral because they abbreviate the same. (that's meta as shit sorry)

3) he seems to really appreciate the company of his friends but he clearly views himself as "above" them somehow. Buddy, you had a fancy job but you're here in the dirt those are your mates now. coked up marketing exec aint the win over drunken small business owner and professional non-caller of Abigails even when you were society approved.

4) not above a little beneficial fraud. Does however take a pen "for his trouble" without negotiating or revealing that price in advance. But sometimes it's the racist lady's monkey pen so for the love of god yes please take it I hate that pen.

5) TFC: he's supportive if you tell him you're dating Kim

6) I really feel like there's more but he has so much dialogue goddamn

7) oh he refers to his ex as a "sweet piece of ass" the objectifying misogynistic little cumstain.

8) smart enough to not drink medical spirits

9) If you tury to embark on the cocain skull quest he pretty much looks into the camer and says "not unless we the studio get More Money to make a Bigger Game!" and that's really funny. I mean kinda sad now but that meta shit is funny. I guess in narrative he doesn't know that's what he's doing.

10) he's pretty entertaining and can chat shit on all day if you keep him in booze. We all need that friend.

[cantsayidont]

Recent hateration and holleration:

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F (2024): Geriatric latter-day revival of Eddie Murphy's action-comedy franchise is the best of the three COP sequels (no great achievement), but there's no reason for it to exist other than money, and it's so determined to replicate the beats of the 1984 movie that it even reuses several of its hit songs. Eddie Murphy returns to the streetwise wiseass humor that originally made him a star, but it now feels pretty stale, he's too old for this kind of thing, and the inevitable appearances of his original costars (Paul Reiser, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, and Bronson Pinchot, though curiously not Ronny Cox) are further reminders that the elements that made the original entertaining were, shall we say, of their time. Taylour Paige is appealing as Axel's estranged daughter Jane, but an already flaccid story is further deflated by the casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, dreary as Jane's cop ex-boyfriend. Why Gordon-Levitt's character is in this movie at all is unclear; it felt like much of the role might have originally been written for Reinhold (who's absent through much of the story), but was split into a separate character because the producers got nervous about not having at least one male lead under 60. Gordon-Levitt isn't much of an action star, he has no flair for this kind of comedy, his chemistry with Murphy is nonexistent, and his supposed romantic chemistry with Paige barely rises to the "awkward handshake" level. Kevin Bacon, playing a villainous corrupt cop, is the only one who seems to be having fun, but the movie gives him precious little to work with. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Nah. VERDICT: Not unbearably awful as these things go, but the stench of desperation is hard to ignore. If you're tempted, just watch the original.

SPACE CADET (2024): Charmingly silly comedy, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, about plucky Florida bartender and sometimes alligator wrestler Rex Simpson (Emma Roberts), who never got to go to college, scamming her way into the NASA astronaut candidacy program with the help of her friend Nadine (Poppy Liu) — who also pretends to be all of Rex's references, baffling the program's hunky deputy director Logan O'Leary (Tom Hopper), who's becoming a little sweet on Rex. Along the way, Rex and nerdy fellow AsCan Violet (Kuho Verma) help each other out, and Rex finds she might have a real flair for it after all. The story doesn't always pay off its amusing setups as well as it might, and credibility is obviously not a high point, but it's cute and funny, and Roberts is a delight. CONTAINS LESBIANS? There's a throwaway line or two suggesting that Violet is bisexual, but that's about it. VERDICT: Contrived but appealing, a movie I would have adored when I was about 12.

[ms-cartoon]

Hello There!! :) Sorry to bother you but I just wanted to let you know that some leaks for future episodes of Helluva Boss, for EP 6 And 12 were just leaked on 4Chan and I wanted to know your thoughts if you saw them. I've seen them myself..and I've gotta say, this just made me more annoyed and made me just wanna avoid the show even more, it's so damn predictable and it's just more proof that the show refuses to put Stolas in the wrong and call him out on what he's done and make us feel bad for him, and he's just nothing but this "UWU baby. 😒🤦‍♀️ It's just so frustrating, I REALLY don't see this show getting any better and seeing these animatics for the future episodes of the season just proves my point.

Heck, sometimes I'm even wondering why HB needed to be made, yes it was obviously made to keep fans invested and entertained until Hazbin's arrival but this spinoff has just been a mess and all over the place, and relys on shipping to get the fans entertained + I feel like a spinoff should be able to stand on it's own without connecting to the show it's based on, ya know? It also just feels Viv isn't as passionate about HB as she is with HH, like HB the more I think about it, just feels like nothing but a cash grab and just there to keep fans invested, and it'd working since the fans will eat up anything from Viv. I'm not saying Viv and her team aren't passionate and hard work is shown with the Animation + Voice Acting, but everything else, especially the writing..isn't very good. Idk man, I just feel like HB is just a cash crab and such, at least with HH it has so much potential and something going for it and seems like a story Viv actually WANTS To tell and explore, which I hope it delivers. 🤞💙 But with HB, it's just all over the place and it went from a comedy show about assassin Imps to a romantic yaoi fanfic show, it's facts. I thought this show was called, "Helluva Boss" not "The Stolitz Show"/"The Stolas Show" This show just feels like a fanfiction and all it's emotional scenes feel emotionally manipulative too and just not earned, they're just there to make you feel for the characters. For example, remember how in EP 6 (Truth Seekers) It seems Blitz was gonna change for the better and try treating Moxxie better and stop being an asshole? Well, the next episode just completely throws Blitz "Depth" right out of the window and he goes back to his same ways and WE are apparently supposed to feel back for him, especially at the end of that episode..but I don't, because he did that to himself.

And while yes, it takes time for a character to grow and change, they still try putting effort in the process when it comes to redeeming and trying to better themselves and you slowly see them grow as time goes on, even if they slip up at times and it isn't easy. But with Blitz, it's like Viv and the writers completely forgot about the last episode, and his and Moxxie's so called "heart to heart" moment and just had him to continue being the same unlikeable, loud, annoying, creepy Boss that he's always been since the Pilot, and had him stalk his employees (ON THEIR ANNIVERSARY, BTW) just because it's funny.

(Let's not forget that HB pretty much spoiled HH and it's premise when it comes to Charlie's goal to redeem demons and help them get to Heaven. But it just seems pointless and just reckons HH, since Heaven is revealed to be just as bad Hell and it just makes Charlie's goal useless, tbh. Though, I like to pretend the C.H.E.R.B. EP doesn't exist, Lol.)

(I've mentioned beforehand that I really do use to enjoy and like the show a lot and was a fan, but things started to take a turn sometime after EP 3, where it went downhill for me and I saw a drop in quality. I rewatched the show and saw in-depth posts on here and just realized how bad some things are in the show and just how flawed it really was. I mean, when being a fan, I didn't really pay attention and just saw on flawed it was, plus I also stopped watching and left because of it's toxic and horrible fandom and how they attack and harass you if you say one negative thing on the show or their favorite ships, and say you're homophobic..which is ridiculous and just so sad, especially when some of these fans are adults, almost close to their 30's and yet act like children when not everyone blindly praises the show like they (and the majority of the fandom) do.)

Yes!! I have seen the leaks. Just now after you mentioned them. (I'm surprised it wasn't that hard to find them).

Honestly, Stolas existing as a character hardcore irks me at this point. Not gonna lie, lol! Just knowing this show is going to try its hardest to have us pity him or Blitzo, even when they don't even deserve it, frustrates me. For real!

I'm not gonna spill a drip of tea about the leaks, but from what I've seen so far (in some ways, in these specific scenes), let's just say it's similar to the last few episodes that were released. And if you read my rants, you'll know it'll be the same issues I've mentioned about this piece of crumbled mess we call a web show. At this point, I really am done with this show. Like, I'll still watch the show just to make fun of it, but my ratings for it will stay at an all-time LOW!

Yeah, I can pretty much tell from the first season that Viv's effort and determination for HB faltered completely and will probably never click again. It's no secret she's more invested in HH. I mean, it's fine if you wanna put more of your focus on the MAIN show you really wanted to release. It would actually make sense that her interest and effort for her spinoff fell drastically because she started paying more attention to HH (even if it is the main reason why it's terrible). I can tell at this point that she loves Hazbin Hotel a lot more than Helluva Boss (I mean, I do too. But that's not the point) However if you're going to make a spinoff just to keep your fans entertained enough to have patience for the big thing, at least put more effort in the plot and the potential the show could have. And I'm not just talking about the fans that will go ~~uwu gaga~~ or teary-eyed over everything that occurs in this mess as long as it keeps the ship going. I'm talking about the people that actually expect this show to make sense and have some good plot points!!

Pretty much all that you said is accurate! It can't be any more right than it already is.

For real, where the holy hell did the plot go!!?? What is the point of this show?? What lessons are being learned?? If there are any lessons learned, they should've been learned from the very beginning it became something serious instead of the characters going through the same repetitive sh*t only to not learn a damn thing. If I'm missing something, someone's gonna have to let me know! Cuz, my god! This show IS ALL OVER the place with its plot points! How are you gonna expect me to feel bad about any of these characters if they're never gonna learn their lesson? You can't just make a scene where they start to see the error of their ways and make it seem like they're going to try and change for the better only to completely forget about all that they learned (or are supposed to learn) just to act the same as they always been. Like, what was the point of that build-up? Where did all the potential go?? You mean to tell me all that was just some kind of filler episode that supposedly never happened???? NO! That's not how this works! You can't just do that??

It was supposed to be just a comedy. A sitcom about a bunch of assassins getting their job done. Fulfilling requests from every sinner to kill or get revenge on anybody in the living that did them wrong. We only had very few episodes containing that plot, only for it to turn into a drama and into a rom-com added with pointless drama so suddenly since episode 7.

And you raise a good point about the whole heaven thing. Charlie's goal just seems completely pointless since the cherub episode. In heaven, Angels are supposed to be seen as... well, the complete opposite of what the sinners and demons of hell are. We're supposed to see them as good people ( or angels?). The kind of people that do no wrong. Or probably have done some wrong but begged God for forgiveness so they earn their place in heaven (not really sure if it works like that. That's just based on my assumption and just seems to make sense). They could be considered really nice beings who hate committing felonies and only want to be good. But all we saw was a whole freakin' FACADE from the Cherubs!!! They just seemed sweet while only wanting to keep people alive. But later, they literally try to murder and fight these imps!! Cursing and even calling that old man sh*tty! Umm, WHAT?? Angels using bad words.... Is that even allowed?? Charlie wants to redeem every sinner... Okay, but what would be the point if they're just gonna act the same as they did in hell. They would just be keeping a whole facade to make themselves look good!

(What ever happened to those Cherubs after they got kicked out of heaven anyway?)

Yeah, Helluva Boss was enjoyable for a while. A short while actually. It wasn't perfect, but it was still enjoyable to watch. But unfortunately, it failed to be seen as one of the best shows I've seen. The plot is just not there anymore. The characters are terrible and fail at being characters. The jokes aren't even funny no more. They might as well be jokes for kids under 17 who just laugh at every single f bomb being dropped. The fans that do watch and enjoy this show might as well be a bunch of 12-year-olds if they don't even see one flaw it has. I'm sorry. But considering how toxic fans can get, I have every right to say this.

[charmac]

technically I got into the show via episode one (as in. episode one, season one was the first episode I ever watched) BUT the person who got me into the show eased me into it by sending me YouTube compilations and scenes that they specifically thought I'd appreciate. so the actual first thing I ever saw from sunny was Mac and Charlie being stuck in a pool from the white trash episode! honestly I don't think this is a bad approach regardless of if you're trying to get someone into the show or if you just want them to understand what it's about

Tbh I think at this point most people’s first exposure to the show is through clips (or at least A clip) since it’s such a meme-d show in internet culture, but I personally don’t think there’s compilations or episode snippets that could do a brand new viewer more justice than actually showing them a full episode (or 3 or 5 or 10) of Sunny.

Clips are funny and entertaining out of context and there’s some really great compilations people have made (especially made by members of our Fandom here!!) that get points of the show across or highlight great gags, but that can never capture what an actual episode of Sunny is from start to finish.

I think the most attractive and compelling element of the show (as in, what really draws people in and makes them crazy about Sunny, if you’re really trying to explain to a friend what makes you so obsessed with this show) is how all the insanity and hilarity in an episode almost always revolves around an extremely broken idea or completely dysfunctional motivation.

…But maybe that’s just me, because I saw out of context clips and compilations for years before I got into the show and it basically did the opposite effect of explaining what Sunny was about and what made it so rich and compelling. I thought it was supposed to make no sense and be a live action cartoon with no real plots of consequence or continuation of a story, and mindless characters without any consistency or depth. Sad.

Bonking 14 year old me on the head (you could have been watching Season 8 live!! Season 8!!

I guess it depends on if you’re showing your friends the show because you want to get them into a funny silly comedy or because you want to explain why you run multiple social media accounts and a self-created blog for the show, haunted every waking minute spiralling daily about episode meta and character analysis.. I suppose my answer always defaults to the latter..but most people’s probably doesn’t… lmfao