#of animated characters alfred has played

[illiana-mystery]

Here it is...the moment you've all been waiting for in this Animated Alfredo marathon...put your hands together for...The Incredible, Marvelous Multibear!!!

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

funniest disney history facts i can think of atm

literally EVERYBODY thought the lion king was gonna flop and pocahontas would be their greatest movie ever made. people begged to ditch lion king and work on pocahontas.

the reason robin hood ends so abruptly is that there was an actual ending planned and storyboarded but the crew spent too long arguing about everyone’s fursonas to finish animating it

madam mim was way less comedic in the original book but because her character was too similar to maleficent (who was in their latest film at the time), the sword and the stone crew decided to differentiate her by making her fucking hilarious

when making a goofy movie, jeffrey katzenberg (studio chairman at the time) told bill farmer to give goofy “a normal voice.” farmer, who had been voicing goofy for eight years at that point, including in the goof troop show that a goofy movie was a sequel to, was very confused. after making an attempt they decided to scrap that note completely.

as of march 2023, farmer is still voicing goofy, and tony anselmo has been voicing donald since 1986. the 2017 reboot of ducktales, which was slated as “wanting to do for donald what goofy movie did for goofy,” featured both actors as those characters; they had also been doing the voices for the original ducktales and goof troop/goofy movie. all the times goofy and donald interact in the 2017 ducktales however, donald was voiced by guest star don cheadle as a joke

current voice of mickey mouse bret iwan has stated that he has attempted to play kingdom hearts and did not do well

disneyland’s current world of color halloween overlay features a plot that is basically “the disney villains simultaneously adopt a goth kid” and i love it

people will make jokes about “well math says that the beast would’ve been 11 when he was cursed” well that was actually the original intent, but a flashback scene of baby beast was scrapped because he looked “too much like eddie munster”

when disney sent a representative to pixar to check on toy story production, she was like “this is all great! what style of music are you thinking” and they were like “for what” “for the songs” “we uh. we weren’t gonna have. any songs” and she went dead silent and then went “i have to make a call” and left the room

saludos amigos and the three caballeros were made as ww2 propaganda. the government commissioned disney to make movies to make latin america like them so that they wouldnt side with the nazis and provide them an in to invade, and latin america really liked donald duck so

saludos amigos was apparently the first time many usamericans realized that latin american people were like. people. film historian alfred charles richard jr said that the film “did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the americas in a few months than the state department had in fifty years”

while latin america generally liked both films, chilean cartoonist rené rios boettiger fucking hated the chilean segment of saludos amigos, seeing the main character of pedro the plane as a weakass bitch, so in response he created condorito, the most popular comic character in all of latin america

disney wanted to adapt ts eliot’s old possum’s book of practical cats. his widow adamantly refused, and then sold the rights to andrew lloyd webber bc he wanted to make it sexy and she said “tom would’ve liked that”

in case you haven’t seen the defunctland, walt disney wanted epcot to be a futuristic utopia where he was basically the dictator. then he died so they just made it another theme park

speaking of defunctland the first defunctland video was on disneyworld’s alien attraction and please watch it. please it’s so funny

after the huge failure of the black cauldron disney was going to shut down its animation department. the department tried to convince them to keep them alive by showing them the one scene they had finished for the next movie– the mouse burlesque from the great mouse detective. it worked

the only attraction the black cauldron ever got was in tokyo disneyland where they put a tour under cinderella’s castle where everyone had to escape the disney villains trying to kill them, only to end at the horned king and the cauldron, who would try to sacrifice them to satan. this tour was popular but was closed in the early 2000s as the tunnels didn’t fit earthquake regulations and i want it in disneyworld so bad

walt disney once referred to his unionizing workers, led by goofy’s creator art babbitt, as “commie sons of bitches,” and i want a mickey build-a-bear that calls me a commie son-of-a-bitch whenever i squeeze its paw

[moider-time]

AU where Bruce Wayne is a voice actor.

He always had an interest in acting and would've tried it but his anxiety always stopped him from getting into the game. Even trying out for the school play would get him stammering and unable to read his lines. To this day, he mourns the fact that he never got to play Benvolio.

He had given up on his dream years before he heard that there was going to be a reboot of his favourite childhood cartoon, The Gray Ghost (all of Gotham probably heard the scream he let out when he heard the news)

Sadly some of the original cast had passed away before the reboot so they couldn't reprise their roles, and this includes the original Gray Ghost. So you have Bruce hoping like any other fan that they get a good replacement. He talks about it so much that Alfred jokingly says "well Master Bruce if you're so worried about it, you should audition"

And Bruce laughs but he can't stop thinking about it. He twists and turns in bed because the idea of playing The Gray Ghost, of being to kids what the original voice actor was to him as a child, he can't say it's not appealing. He dwells on it for the next few days and while he doesn't know if his inability to perform will extend to voice acting, he wants to try.

On his way down to auditions, he is sweating. He has to have Alfred drop him cause his hands won't stop shaking. Seeing all the people in the waiting room almost makes him turn back around but Alfred talks him back into it.

(I'd like to think that everyone else there either didn't recognise him because he barely leaves the manor or they recognised him and realised that this man is chock full of anxiety so it's better to not bother him)

So he gets into the booth and once he's started reading his lines, he really gets into it. It's so much easier for him to get into character when there aren't dozens of eyes on him. He finishes, thanks them for the opportunity, goes back to the manor, grabs his stuffies and screams into his pillow.

It's weeks later when he gets a call saying that they want him as the new Gray Ghost. He absolutely does not cry into his biggest teddy bear, what are you talking about? He does hug the crap out of Alfred though. They have cookies to celebrate.

Before you know it, everyone is in love with the new voice of The Gray Ghost. Both new and old fans agree that Bruce was a great choice. I can see Bruce using a pseudonym though. Bruce Wayne is a name that has a lot of weight behind it, weight that he doesn't want to feel when he's voice acting. So he asks them to credit him as Bruce Pennyworth or smth. Alfred is sobbing.

He requests to record his lines at home because he isn't always up for leaving the manor and he doesn't want to slow down production. He'd totally have a professional ass set up cause when he's interested in something, he goes in.

Bruce Pennyworth gets offered more voice acting roles whether it's for cartoons, movies, anime dubs or ads. Harvey and Clark both wondering why the voice over in an ad for toothpaste is about to make them act up. Every single one of the batkids went through the "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE BRUCE PENNYWORTH?!?" phase.

( @bruciemilf come get your juice)

[rickktish]

A list of mutable batfam headcanons that live inside my brain:

Steph deserves to be 6’ minimum, preferably 6’1” or 2”

Bruce is constantly trying to balance his need to be at the same eye level or above the people he’s intimidating vs his need to do his funky little gargoyle crouch. His favorite thing about the GCPD roof is that it has lots of surfaces he can crouch on and still meet or look down at Gordon’s eye level

Tim and Damian suffer from “too similar to get along” disease and must either become best friends or despise each other until the end of time

Babs prefers light, natural toned makeup. Steph prefers pops of color and decent amounts of jewelry when she can get away with it. Cass prefers jewelry and no makeup at all

Jason’s comfort meals are all variations on soup served with bread for dipping

Jason is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy is an ass at the beginning of the book and it’s a good thing he decided to change himself so he could take his place as Best Fictional Man Ever. Dick, who read the book in order to be able to connect with Jason better, is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy has done nothing wrong ever and only needed to work on his social skills, meaning that it’s his improved ability to communicate that makes him worthy of Elizabeth Bennet at the end. Neither of them wants to listen to Tim’s analysis of what this says about their relationships with Bruce

Duke has never engaged in non-Alfred approved chaos. This is not because Duke seeks Alfred’s approval, but rather because their senses of humor are in perfect alignment and Alfred is always pleased to discover that he approves of Duke’s particular instances of chaos even after the fact

Damian never had stuffed animals growing up, but after being corrupted by Dick’s influence he can no longer sleep without a minimum of one in his bed

Damian collects posters and articulable action figures. His favorite ones are the ones that can stand on their own, which he uses for posing practice in his drawings. His favorite figure is of one of the characters in Cheese Vikings who has a zuko-esque backstory and a secret propensity for gardening

Dick always buys the most beat up box of cereal at the grocery store because he feels bad for them

Cass loves not only ballet, but other works by classical composers as well. She will unironically listen to the local classical station, and can identify the Borodin String Quartet by the sound of their instruments alone

Tim and Bruce watch and read Gray Ghost media in all its various forms and discuss it together as a bonding activity

Alfred and Jason’s shared birthday is usually celebrated with them making each other cakes, meaning that everyone gets to enjoy not one but two cakes for the day

Jason specializes in cheesecake above all other cakes, though he did make Damian a black forest cake for his birthday once right after he’d finished playing Portal

Literally everyone is surprised when they learn that Damian plays video games. No one has ever once looked at him and thought “yeah, i bet that kid plays console games” and he’s actually really insecure about it, but he also refuses to wear any kind of merch outside the house. He owns dozens of gaming and anime T-shirts but refuses to be seen as anything but completely neutral outside his own territory

Most of the bats wear drug-detecting nail polish at all times, though the base and reactive colors vary by the bat in question

Bruce and Dick have both had therapists straightup quit on them and are therefore reluctant to go back to therapy ever again

Duke’s favorite book is Walden Pond

Alfred read Lord of the Rings aloud to Bruce when he was a kid

[atom-writings]

hetalia axis & allies (+ canada) xmas headcanons

1.6k words ~ gender neutral headcanons

tw: uhhh christmas obviously. mention of religion and underwear?? uh... i think that's it

a/n: this is my first christmas as a jewish convert so that's been weird. anyway I just wanted something quick, so its mostly a list of gift ideas (:

America

Alfred is SUCH a huge Christmas fan. I mean, canonically he dresses up as Santa, so he goes all out for the entire month of December. He's been working on a huge holiday home display for decades, and it shows.

He plays Santa at his local mall during the weeks leading up to Christmas; and on the night of, he hands out hot cocoa outside his house. It's fun, but it also means he's a little distracted when it comes to you.

What he would get you: Posters of your favourite movies, super comfy pyjamas, expensive figures of characters you like, candy you like but never get for yourself, model planes or Legos for you two to build together, novelty pens, a stupid cowboy costume so you can match <3, those handmade coupons because he 1. Loves you and 2. Forgot about Christmas until yesterday

What he would want: Any video games, Funko Pops, vinyls of music he likes, those big packs of shirts (he is constantly running out of shirts because he rips or irreparably stains them,) Marvel comics, anything with an eagle on it, those mini wacky waving inflatable tube men things, bulk pens and pencils because he also breaks those constantly-

England

Arthur is not big into Christmas and never has been. He'll celebrate with you, but he's not going out when it comes to any aspect. If anything, he finds it a little exhausting getting gifts for everyone

But, he does adore walking around and looking at all the lights. He'll do that a couple times with you in December.

What he would get you: Any novel you’ve mentioned even once, tickets to a concert both of you will enjoy, classy jackets that fit you perfectly, cute keychains, fancy art supplies, fragrances that remind him of you, bags/purses that fit your style, CDs

What he would want: Sewing supplies (thread, new needles, new fabric scissors,) framed photos of the two of you, Doctor Who merch, foreign tea, a book on how to take care of your eyebrows properly (he will not learn otherwise,) slippers, those sarcastic magnets that all millennial women have at least one of, any ridiculous piece of merch with the union jack on it

France

Francis has very mixed feelings about Christmas. On one hand, he hates how consumerist it has become, but on the other hand, nothing makes him happier than seeing the joy the season brings to others.

Plus, he does enjoy giving and receiving presents. The music too? Wonderful. As long as you don't get too stressed out, the holiday should be perfect.

What he would get you: Tons of clothes; stuff that's already your style, and completely new stuff, room decorations (NOT posters,) a reservation at a nice restaurant, bracelets that he made for you, makeup (if you like that kind of thing,) candles that smell like his cologne, CHEESE

What he would want: Fancy fabric, any clothes (he doesn’t care what they are as long as you think they’d look good on him…) paintings or photography, literally ANYTHING creative you’ve made, hair ties (he loses at least 5 a day,) bird stuffed animals, (Basically anything! Francis is not picky)

China

Christmas is a new occurrence for Yao, and he isn't the biggest fan. He'll buy you stuff for it, but he would do that normally. The lights and the music aren't anything special to him either. Basically, he won't celebrate unless you want to.

What he would get you: Elaborate, very expensive jewellery, huge stuff like a car, Chinese cookbooks, traditional clothes that he made specifically to represent you (: luxury handbags (that he got at SUCH a good discount,) tons of weird off-brand merch of your favourite show, probably a nice meal too!

What he would want: Yao is hard to buy for. Soft robes, stuff to help with back pain, face masks, Hello Kitty keychains… reading glasses maybe?

Russia

Although he isn't as excited about Christmas as he is about the New Year, he still loves the holiday. It's a nice excuse to see family, and everyone is just so happy around the season! He's especially excited to celebrate it with you.

He's not the best at giving gifts, but he could be worse. Regardless of whether you like all of it, you're gonna get a lot of stuff.

(Also, he plays Santa for the kids sometimes. It's so cute-)

What he would get you: Random knick-knacks he probably found at a local market, knitted hats and gloves in your favourite colour, a scarf to match his, tickets to go somewhere warm on vacation, stuffed animals! books that made him think of you (usually philosophical or religious novels,) pretty rocks (:

What he would want: SUNFLOWERS! (This works for every occasion,) baked goods, clothes that aren’t 250 years old- new doilies and paintings to decorate his house, pictures of yourself, friendship bracelets, stuffed animals, if you can make a scarf somehow, DO THAT

North Italy

Feliciano cares about Christmas in a more religious way, but he's never mad about getting presents. So, he'll probably spend most of the day in church, but he still did put a lot of effort into getting you stuff you love.

What he would get you: Pajamas & bath robes, shitty romance novels that he wants you to read, weird hand-made knick-knacks, makeup, strange mugs that he found at a thrift store, a painting of you (: probably a pair of his boxers-

What he would want: New paint brushes, novelty pasta shapes, fancy jackets, any art that you’ve made (regardless of quality,) cat stuffed animals, The Ability To Get A Grip, skincare products, shiny garbage (For art purposes, duh,) those handmade coupon things

Germany

Ludwig does not enjoy Christmas particularly. He's terrible at giving gifts but he wants to so desperately that he spends all of winter stressing out about it. Yes, he's excited to see your reaction to his gifts, but at what cost?!

Although he does still like all the decorations at least. Maybe he just likes re-decorating though.

What he would get you: Puzzles you can complete together, soft sweaters, practical stuff you need (like book bags, lens cloths, that kind of thing,) stationery, reservations for private tours at museums you would find interesting, a subscription to whatever silly service you want (:

What he would want: Books about city planning, nerdy card games, a fun lanyard, a new coffee machine, those aroma-therapy diffuser things, household tools like vacuums and stuff (Get him an air fryer. He’s going to be fascinated.) stress balls, pens (He is boring.)

Japan

Kiku really has no particular feelings towards Christmas. If you weren't there, the most he would do was put up a mini tree. He's stressed out by both giving and receiving presents and is only willing to do that kind of thing if you want to.

What he would get you: Electronics, merch of your favourite Sanrio character, books that he thinks you’ll like, stickers, a bento box, comfy sweatpants, cute hairpins, plushies from your favourite media, a bunch of pillows, some obscure Japanese snacks too!

What he would want: Miku figures, posters, video games, manga, general nerdy stuff, history novels (he likes to correct them,) blackout curtains, cute face masks, a Polaroid camera, a guide on socialization (Seriously.) a knit scarf, if you can knit (:

South Italy

Romano desperately wants to care about Jesus more than getting gifts. He's a devout catholic, g*ddamnit! But... he does just really love eating baked goods and getting gifts more than anything. Getting together with family, the music, the lights, he just ADORES the holiday.

What he would get you: Blankets and pillows, your favourite snacks, clothes that are a little more revealing- cruise tickets (if going on wouldn’t be hell for you,) a journal where he wrote down all of the things he loves about you (completely honestly,) religious items, fancy perfumes

What he would want: Paintings from local artists, post-its (so he can finally remember SOMETHING,) anything with the Italian flag on it, stupid bumper stickers, pictures of the other nations that you’ve written insults on, fancy patterned scarves and fabric

Prussia

Like Alfred, Gilbert loves Christmas in a very childish way. He embraces that side of himself during the holidays and he'd love it if you joined him in that. He constantly insists on going out to see the lights, and he just can't get enough of Christmas movies. Even the bad ones (He's a Hallmark girlie.)

What he would get you: A vintage music box, hair dye, DVDs of your favourite movies (just to have,) stationery, random snacks he picked up from a gas station an hour ago, weirdly sentimental jewellery? Vintage journals, pictures of himself

What he would want: Coupons (???) goofy temporary tattoos, metal CDs, tea (he’s weirdly embarrassed about liking tea and doesn’t buy it for himself?) vintage maps that he can frame and hang up, probably like, WD40? DC comics, novelty trophies, Pokemon cards, video games

Canada

More than anything, Matthew loves winter. So, therefore, he loves Christmas! Seeing you smile when you open your gifts, he looks forward to it all season. It seems like the only time of year when everyone else is either as miserable or as happy as he is, so it's his favourite holiday.

Cuddling up in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa, watching some old Christmas movie, its all he wants.

What he would get you: Comfy hoodies, comfy slippers too, hot cocoa packs, big stuff like a new PC or fridge or smth- decorations for your room, face masks, fidget toys, novelty Canadian keychains, figures of your favourite characters, festive sweets (like candy-canes and stuff.)

What he would want: Anything with a maple leaf (yes, he wants MORE of that,) boring stuff like socks, wood-working tools or like a new snow shovel, fairy lights, DVDs (because he still uses them? Why.) a new phone case, gift cards (HES BORING,) pre-packaged crafts, lotion and cologne that smells like pine

merry christmas if you celebrate! this'll probably be the last full thing I post until 2024, so thanks to all you readers for sticking around this year (: you have no idea how much it means to me. i love yall. and to all a good night or whatever santa said

[zahri-melitor]

Yeah no I'm still not cool with the pet situation. A character's pet is for the animal's life, not for [one emotional scene].

Titus makes sense. There have been several generations of Ace the Bat-Hound over the decades. There was at least one when Dick was Robin. There's another when Tim is a young Robin, back in Knightfall era (he hid out in the tunnels with Harold while JPV was Azbats!)

Bruce, trying to win Damian's affection and teach him how to connect and bond with others, to give him a responsibility and someone who will love him unconditionally, getting Damian a dog? Makes 100% sense. He clearly thinks kids should have a dog, they're set up to have a dog, they're familiar with having a dog, particularly large working breeds that protect the property.

And Tomasi & Gleason use Titus several times, in several different comics in the run, for emotional beats.

Alfred the Cat exists entirely for the emotional beat of Alfred giving Damian a cat that swipes at him, then Damian in the next comic 'winning' the cat's affection while feeding him and playing with him, showing as a character the cat (and by parallel Damian) has changed in his time at the Manor. I get the comparison. It's cute, but I don't see the point in doing this immediately before killing Damian, particularly when Titus, who was established earlier, is right there in the scene and doing...nothing.

A similar moment of Damian appearing like a child playing with his puppy and looking innocent could have occurred, and it would feel less like Damian's affection is hoarding and transitive - he can only care about his latest animal, the earlier ones are present but forgotten in the glee for more and newer pets.

Batcow is completely superfluous beyond being a visual joke. Nothing about her holds up in any way.

"Sure, you can keep the cow," says Bruce through his gritted teeth, because he wants his son to like him and not run back to Talia. Despite that being a plot point well established as not likely to happen, as we've been over it before during Reborn and Damian rejected Talia and the League of Assassins, and we're at the start of a story where Damian's going to choose to go to his mother to save Gotham while the rest of the family are desperately trying to protect him from having to face her, because they're worried she'll kill him/end the world.

"Sure, we can have a cow living in the Cave. It's not like we know any farmers with superstrength and flight who could take a meat-raised cow off our hands and care for it in better circumstances, who you could still visit occasionally."

[nat1-seductionroll]

So hear me out: The Batcomputer has the Sims 4 on it.

All packs and kits. No one knows who bought the DLCs or who put it on the computer. Violence mods(deadly toddlers, extreme violence, life's tragedies, etc) are installed. No one knows who installed them. But everyone has their own household. Have some ideas.

Damian's household

It's Damian as a sim because he needs a human sim to play as. The other seven slots are animals. Titus has a sims dog counterpart. Ace does too. Alfred has a cat sim counterpart. The other four are two more cats and two more dogs, all named after fictional classical characters. The house is MADE for the animals. Laser litter boxes, cat trees, automatic feeding bowls, pet beds EVERYWHERE.

Jason's household

He installed the violence mods. Reason? His household is called Jason's Bitch Murder House. It's Jason as a sim, Joker as a Sim, and whatever sibling pissed him off that week as a sim. The house is DESIGNED to kill sims. Except Jason's sim. Jason's sim gets a small area that doesnt kill him.

Tim's household

He has a sim in the basement. There's the household plus one in the basement. The household does not work. The basement sim is their source of income.

Cassandra's household

Cassandra's household's house keeps changing because she is the only one who can build badass multimillion dollar worth of gorgeousness. Since its probably a communal world and therefore same account, she makes the others siblings houses.

Bruce's household

He denies about playing it. But he does. And his household is Sims Bruce, Sims Alfred, and the six siblings that behaved the best that week. Unless, however, there is a mod installed where there can be more than 8 members of the household.

Dick's household

IT WAS DICK. HE PUT THE SIMS 4 ON THE BAT COMPUTER. HE BOUGHT ALL THE PACKS. HE BOUGHT ALL THE KITS. Why? Bruce said he couldnt play the Sims 4 on patrol because its unprofessional but Dick is just like BUT SIMS DICK IS SAD(Inspired by this post). He did it out of SPITE.

I also have some for Steph, Babs, Alfred, Duke and a few of the Kents if you want them. Also maybe Harley Quinn.

[clueless-fan-critic]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Now That’s Moon Girl Magic!!!

 One 

In my opinion, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is one of the best new Disney shows in the 2020s and I’ll calmly make an argument for anyone who thinks otherwise. It has popping color, even poppier music, excellent characters, and strong storytelling all wrapped up in this fun, groundbreaking Disney show. With Season 2 coming out, I thought it was time to share what I got to say about its revolutionary ways and how it may even set the bar for future Marvel projects and even MCU ideas.

The Characters

Lunella Lafayette, played by former X-Factor contestant Diamond White, is one of the most bombastic but relatable super-genius black girls at the time I write this. I love how her intelligence isn’t just her sole personality trait as she’s confident, sassy, and optimistic. Lunella is still a young teen who worries about fitting in, cares about her family, and tries to be the best person she can be.

I liked that they don’t make her into a bullied nerd like Peter Parker, which would contradict the whole message about protecting her community. She’s still pretty social around her fellow students but doesn’t have that social finesse which makes her have a lot of friends.

She’s a flawed character: she’s over-competitive and obsessed to the point of disregarding her work and other people. She does overcome and learn from those issues in order to become a better person in the end.

Devil Dinosaur is more than a pet sidekick meant to be cute or the comic-relief. He does get his time to shine from his insecurities of being too big to a fear of jellyfish. With basically growls and snarls made by Fred Tatasciore, Devil conveys a huge range of emotion from joy to sadness to anger.

Casey Calderon is the best friend and manager of Lunella whose savvy with fashion and social media. She’s pretty much what you expect from the girl who’s into social media as exuberant and charismatic, but never shallow or vain. She genuinely wants to use her skills to help Lunella’s message spread. She’s the support to the superheroics of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur in making the heroes more human in the eyes of the LES.

Many other characters have not only impacted the story but also the main cast itself with the Lafayette family and various members of the LES.

The Lafayettes have their times to shine in their own ways whether as shoulders for Lunella to get support from or voices of reason that plays into the lesson that she must face. Adria Lafayette acts as a strong moral compass for Lunella to follow like protecting the LES from gentrification. Both James Jr. and Pops aren’t as big as the Lafayette women, but they do get there times to shine throughout the show.

In the finales “O.M.G. Issue 1 and 2”, we get the reveal of Lunella’s grandmother Mimi, played by MCU alum Alfre Woodard, is the Original Moon Girl or O.M.G. who helped build the portal generator that Lunella rebuilt years later. It gives us a deep look into how the super-genius doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The Beyonder, voiced by the famous Laurence Fishburne, is a fun and interesting character that acts more of a reality warping nuisance to Lunella than an actual villain. Combined with Fishburne’s comedic delivery and stylish  animation, the Beyonder is a hilarious trickster learning about humanity the best way he knows: messing with superheroes.

The Villains do create a dynamic with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur by creating various conflicts both externally, internally, even symbolically. The first villain of the show Aftershock was an electrical villain who literally stole power from the LES, putting businesses at risk of closing, which can be interpreted as someone taking away others’ autonomy from their homes. Another set of villains were the Muzzlers, basically high-powered tech giants wanting to gentrify the LES and take away anything unique from the people. They even “silenced” the people with their tech and rendered them voiceless, but the people prevailed together.

The show not only showcases obscure Marvel characters in new, refreshing ways, but also creates their own stellar ones that put together what it can showcase.

The Animation Style

The most eye-popping way it stands out is the animation. The colors and style beautifully blends with the music. Every time a fight scene happens, the colors become much more vibrant with heart-pumping music from various artists. You can really tell that the animators put a lot of love and passion into making something both familiar but also standout with its fight scenes.

One of my favorite scenes is in Episode 3 “Run the Rink” with Moon Girl fighting Gravitas to a Childish Gambino song. A Childish Gambino Song! You know that you got a hit when you get a hit song from a famous rapper.

All the musical scenes play into the story in an entertaining way while fueling the animation on a higher level.

The Stories

Almost every story plays into Lunella’s development throughout the first season from self-love and self-acceptance to fighting for one’s community. One of my favorite episodes is “Hair Today Gone Tomorrow” that perfectly addresses various issues about one’s hair. I think a lot of people, especially black women, can understand how we can get insecure about themselves. “O.M.G. Issue 1 and 2″ highlights how people of color, especially those in STEM fields, were essentially erased from the work they did and all credit was taken from them by the higher-ups. The main villain of the finales Maris Morlak is both a terrifying and relatable person whose motivations are sympathetic in how his work was taken from him and was erased.

What’s Next For Moon Girl?

With Season 2 coming out of woodworks, I’m hoping to see more adventures, heart, and fly music that elevates Moon Girl to a different level and even set more bars in terms of storytelling and animation for both Marvel projects and even the MCU itself.

[lovefrombegonia]

I had a very strange dream about The Batman 2 film....

Basically, I dreamt of a particular scene and it was full of pining between Bruce and...uhh...I am pretty sure that character was supposed to be Harvey Deny but Bruce was calling him some weird name? Mikey?? Idk but some petname. So, basically, Bruce was...well...sad. He was sad because something weird af happened to him. Something related to his father. Like, I think some rich old dude said something to him and Bruce was having a quiet mental breakdown. He was also supposed to go to a party or big gala or something. It was very important. Bruce knew it. Alfred knew it. Harvey knew it.

But no one wanted to force Bruce to go. He was looking like a pathetic meow meow after the breakfown. He was shirtless??? He was sitting on his bed with only his pants on, with a guitar (don't ask me why he has a guitar)...and there was like a mirror or reflection on a window. Basically, he could see himself. He was just staring...just staring, and Harvey couldn't tell what he was thinking exactly but it was all very sorrowful. Then Harvey just went to him, slowly, talking about something, a past outing of theirs when they went to some club and Harvey was a fucking HORRIBLE DANCER. Like, when he talked about the club, Harvey is dancing like this:

Bruce remembered that too, and he started stirring out from his own thoughts. He looked more animated, the more Harvey was talking to him. And then it happened. Harvey walked towards him, on the bed. Bruce's back was facing Harvey and he could see him walking towards himself. Then, the lawyer's arms went around him, trying to reach the guitar Bruce was holding, and he tried to play some song. It was a song they both knew. Harvey was able to play the tunes well but....boy...he could NOT remember the lyrics well LMAO He sang the first line well maybe... and then he started making shit up. In a very ugly voice too. Not on purpose tho, Harvey was trying to sing well for Bruce. It's just that his singing SUCKS. Bruce knew it too. But he could see how his friend, his Mikey(?) was trying to cheer him up, and he found it so endearing and hilarious that he actually started laughing. A small laugh. A chuckle maybe. But his smile was big and he was looking at Harvey's smiling face with his big, big eyes. A small moment of happiness and affection.

Harvey and Bruce. That moment was only theirs. And then the moment passed. They talked about their club outing a bit, Bruce commented on how Harvey played the song well, that he still remembered. I feel like Bruce was the one who taught him. They had some small talk...maybe. I don't remember much. What I do remember is Harvey, with a heavy smile, asking Bruce, if he is ok to go to that important party. He said yes he is, even if he really wasn't. Harvey knew he wasn't too. But it had to be done. They both knew it. But they decided they would make it work. And...I think this is the party where Harvey gets attacked.

[thesinglesjukebox]

CHAPPELL ROAN - "GOOD LUCK, BABE!"

Good Song, Babe!

[7.76]

Alfred Soto: Hey, y'all, Spotify played "Good Luck, Babe!" after ILLIT's "Magnetic" -- are the streaming gods Jukebox-friendly? Maybe a synth line patterned after Wham!'s "Last Christmas" and a vocal that commands attention despite singing a line like "sexually explicit kinda love affair." Then again, that's how people talk. [8]

Jeffrey Brister: What if the narrator of “I Kissed A Girl” was a fucking liar whose inability to admit her attraction and healthily process and metabolize her emotions made her so transparently readable her spurned girlfriend shot a bullet made of yearning, resentment, and justifiably venomous smugness directly between her eyes? [9]

Taylor Alatorre: I have a soft spot for music that performs a kind of empowerment driven by romantic spite, while at the same time being precision-engineered to make the singer look small-minded and weak to the sober bystander; this is why I can never forswear Drive-Thru Records or pre-2016 Drake. In that vein, "Good Luck, Babe!" can be heard as a more ideologically palatable version of "Hotline Bling," right down to the self-degrading tinniness of the initial backing synths. Both songs construct a character whose presumptuous sense of entitlement becomes more apparent with time, and both ask us to sympathize with that character, not in spite of that entitlement, but because of it. Because relatability, and because we're hard-wired to believe almost any convenient lie if it's made to sound pretty enough. Chappell Roan's relative vocal restraint here represents her attempt to come off as the reliable narrator, to prevent too many of her unnervingly real feelings from spilling over. It's an effort that comes undone as soon as she gets to the bridge, when she drops the blasé affect, claims the power of omniscience, and uses it to peer into her rival suitor's future bedroom. "You're nothing more than his wife" -- sure, whatever you need to tell yourself. What, too cynical, you say? Whichever reading the listener goes with, they're choosing cynicism, either the listener's toward Chappell or Chappell's toward the other girl, who at the end of the day may just be a garden-variety bisexual; we're not allowed to know. Love is still a battlefield in the 2020s, queer love not excepted, and "Good Luck, Babe!" isn't afraid to show off the sometimes gory aftermath of those battles, caked in just enough gloss to give us the option of seeing something different in it. A potent cocktail of unraveling passions and high-grade copium, it arrives just in time to be used in AMVs of the final season of Sound! Euphonium, otherwise known as the official anime of yuri-baiting. Good luck, Kumiko! [8]

Will Adams: A breakup song directed at a queer person who was clearly uncertain, self-conscious and anxious about their identity leading them to push a great thing away? Oof. I'm the problem, it's me! But any discomfort I have with seeing myself in "Good Luck, Babe" is assuaged by its giant hooks, a bridge that mounts the tension (sadly, a rarity for pop at this point), and Dan Nigro's production, which draws from the same pillow-soft '80s synthpop of "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings." It's the sugar to help the medicine go down. [8]

Leah Isobel: I'm convinced that Taylor caused a lesbian pop revolution. Not on purpose, obviously, but perhaps inevitably; of course her simultaneous insistence on both the femininity and the import of her perspective would inspire a generation of gay girls young enough to look for validation from pop culture and old enough to perform deep reads on the line "she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers." Some of those artists have even made minor commercial breakthroughs, though nothing has heralded the arrival of a real-deal pop star the way that "Good Luck, Babe!" has. On a musical level, I don't know if I see it. It's catchy, sure, but its chorus isn't quite as singalongable as "Red Wine Supernova," and it doesn't sell Chappell as a persona the way "Pink Pony Club" does. Its production and vocal delivery are so arch that all I can see are the references: a little Wham! synth here, a little Marina & The Diamonds-circa-The Family Jewels whoop there, a "Bags" melodic bite for good measure. (Sidebar: I'm compiling this for an eventual piece about how Immunity is the most influential pop album of the last decade no one steal this from me thank you!) But maybe that's it. A pop star is voracious, ambitious, all-consuming; she cannibalizes. What "Good Luck, Babe!" offers isn't mushy sincerity, but steely-eyed purpose. I don't love it, but I do respect it. [7]

Hannah Jocelyn: I've written so much about about the power of "Good Luck, Babe" but I don't think it's perfect. Among my nitpicks; the "sexually explicit kinda love affair" line doesn't land, the ending nearly kills the momentum, and I've always heard some weird aliasing artifacts on the hi-hats, even in the 24/48 flac download (which might be the nerdiest thing I've ever written on TSJ). But there’s a reason I've been obsessed with this song, and it's not just because I've wound up The Other Woman in emotional affairs with queer/questioning women before. I wasn't as on board with Roan at first, then this song made me go back and get acquainted with the Femininomenon. Unlike most of Midwest Princess, this is not OMG I'm a girl??? and I like GIRLS??? music, and unlike several similar songs about loving women in denial, it's not self-pitying. This feels more real, with palpably complex emotions underneath the showy vocals, and it feels messy in a way that queer pop stars were once supposed to avoid. I could go on and on, and I have, but I'll say this: I genuinely think this song will change lives and cause people to reconsider their identities. At least one of my friends has already mentioned crying to this song. I recently spoke with a music writer that claimed music wasn't necessary, but for the right person, some songs are. [9]

Alex Clifton: I don’t know what I can say about this song that Hannah didn’t already say in her excellent Billboard article, but I’ll try. Up until now Chappell Roan has been my good-time music, with tracks like “Pink Pony Club” and “Red Wine Supernova” regularly stuck in my head.  She’s a girl from small-town Missouri in full drag regalia aiming to give everyone a great time, and she constantly delivers on that front. “Good Luck, Babe!” sounds happy but is one of the more lyrically devastating songs I’ve heard this year, and Roan’s performance is incredible. The way she screams “I TOLD YOU SO” at the end of the bridge rips at something in my heart. It’s angry as all hell but also has a level of concern; Roan doesn’t want the subject to end up in a dead-end relationship and just wishes she’d get her shit together. It’s a delicate line to thread but goes to show that Chappell Roan isn’t just a novelty pop writer. It’s exhilarating watching someone’s star rise, and to watch this song specifically become the catalyst for additional recognition is unlike anything I’ve seen before.  [10]

Ian Mathers: I was hugely impressed with "Casual," even more so with Roan's first record overall, but I'm lightly gobsmacked here with how quickly she's put out something else that simultaneously feels like it could have been on The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, like it sums up what that album was doing (and how well it does it), and like she's already moved past her work there. And it's her most successful single so far? It very much feels like things are going to keep going up from here. [10]

Jackie Powell: When “Good Luck, Babe!” came out last month, it wasn’t what I was expecting on my first listen. I got a tease from friends about what this song was about, but I was underwhelmed by the fact that I couldn’t clearly understand the story that Chappell Roan worked very hard on constructing. Her vocal style on other tracks like “Red Wine Supernova” or “Casual” is much more based in her chest voice and as a result is much easier to lyrically comprehend while listening. On “Good Luck, Babe!” Roan slurs a lot. She opts to implement much more mixing in her head voice during the hook which matches the sonic feel of the synths and drum machine that producer Dan Nigro has added in. The hook flutters and it flutters in a tone that’s paradoxical to the story she’s trying to tell. This is a song about rage, is it not? This is a song about compulsory heterosexuality, a phenomenon that is incredibly frustrating as it is prevalent in 2024. We don’t hear that rage until the absolutely mind blowing bridge where Roan’s upper register soars when she tells her past lover that she told her so. This story that Roan tells is one that so many queer people often face. It’s that same level of discomfort that Ben Platt and Renee Rapp have both sung about in their respective songs “Andrew” and “Pretty Girls.” This track’s importance can’t be understated. Its rise in popular culture can’t be undervalued. But I do wish that the story was illustrated more blatantly. Slurring aside, where is the music video for this? The video for “Casual” was exactly what a Roan fan would expect: a cross between the films Splash and Jennifer’s Body with a dash of heartbreak. I’m reminded of the queer women artists like Hayley Kiyoko and Zolita who have both gained a following for the honest queer stories they’ve portrayed in their music videos, which have garnered meaningful amounts of views. Meanwhile, DJ Louie XIVI recently had a Pop Pantheon episode that pondered if the music video is indeed dead. I would hate for that to be the case for Roan, an artist that thrives on theatrics, visuals and play— the fuel that her exponential and unexpected rise to stardom requires. [7]

Isabel Cole: I feel like it was probably deliberate to set the big bursting kiss-off chorus up in the flutiest part of her range where she can't really enunciate, but I still find it annoying to listen to. The bridge is pretty good, though. [5]

Mark Sinker: Gorgeous control of voice over bare control of desire; fragments of the crunchily expressed across the oldest (cliched, she says it herself) story, oh i'm the “other girl”!!¡¡ and then the closing device (which you can call brechtian if you’re fancy, or lazy) undermines it a little, at least musicially.  [6]

Joshua Lu: The bitter, lesbian reimagining of Gwen Stefani's "Cool" I never knew I needed. [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: I am all for Chappell Roan's meteoric rise to fame as the next local drag supporting queer, but this song feels as basic camp as the fonts used in the visuals for her Coachella performance.  [6]

Nortey Dowuona: If anyone is wondering why this is the Chappell Roan hit, it's because it sounds like a synthpop song from 1986, and pop fans are still somehow locked into 1983-1988 as the best time to listen to pop music. That said, "you're standing face to face with 'I TOLD YOU SO'" is a FANTASTIC LYRIC. [9]

Katherine St. Asaph: The belted "I TOLD YOU SO" is unexpected and amazing. The part that flips the hook from "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" into a soprano trill is great -- between "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" ("Footloose") and "Red Wine Supernova" ("What's Up") she's now three for three on rewriting the Great Karaoke Songbook for 2024. The line "you have to stop the world just to stop the feeling" is so perfect it feels like it must have been written in stone centuries ago and just now unearthed. But if I'm being completely honest with myself, everything else in the track is pretty mid, and repeated listens just make the mid parts seem proportionally larger. [5]

Andrew Karpan: An exuberant jubilant kiss-off for fans of Roan’s last version of this (“My Kink Is Karma”) but more pointed, less funny and charged with a contemplative melancholy bellied under its titanic build. The radical space of queer longing turns into an ocean that lifts all boats. “With your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife.” We are lifted and listening.  [8]

Rachel Saywitz: I worry sometimes that I’m not wanting enough. Or I want, but the wrong things. Or I don’t want the right things enough. Chappell Roan is want, maximized and poptimized, and “Good Luck, Babe” is its earnestly sweet manifestation. Roan masters pop’s narrative drama as she coaxes her past, closeted self to breathy, sapphic jubilation with the wave of a bouncing synth wand and a Florence Welch operatic belt. Love is want, at its core, and I feel it cascading through me with each listen, urging my spirit to coalesce with my mind, for once. I want, I want, I want. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[autolenaphilia]

Broken Sword: the Shadow of the Templars

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a point-and-click adventure game by Revolution Software from 1996.

Broken Sword is an attempt to tell a serious conspiracy thriller/mystery story, with a complex plot and intelligent writing. Yet one that isn’t too serious and has plenty of humor and told with colorful visuals reminiscent of 2D animated movies.

It starts with a murder and bombing in Paris that our player character, the american tourist George Stobbart witnesses and narrowly avoids being killed by. And he decides to investigate the mysterious killing. He teams up with french photojournalist Nico Collard, and they soon discover a complex conspiracy involving the Knights Templar and their lost treasure.

Broken Sword is very much an amalgamation of its various influences, with there being clear influences by Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,various stories and myths regarding the Knights Templar, and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Gabriel Knight overall is the most obvious influence, which is not surprising, because it was one of the few prior attempts to create this kind of serious mystery adventure game. The protagonists are even a comedic blonde-haired american man and a dark-haired intelligent woman. Yet it does synthesize its various influences into something that feels fresh.

The story and writing is excellent. It is a story that treats its audience like adults and respects their intelligence. So it isn’t afraid to drop in references to things like Alfred Jarry’s play King Ubu. And the writing carries this learning lightly, with a genuinely witty sense of humor. It’s one of the funniest games I ever played.

And you need the humor, because this kind of conspiracy thriller stuff needs a certain tone to work well. It needs to take itself and its characters seriously enough that there is some genuine tension, yet not take the conspiracy theories too seriously. And Broken Sword manages this balancing act well. The conspiracy theory about the knights templar is used to provide the story with a dramatic weight drawn from history, and combines that with modern paranoia about the chaos caused by global neoliberal capitalism, yet it never takes that stuff too seriously. I like the Eco-inspired reveal that the modern evil conspiracy isn’t actually ancient, it just pretends to be and wants to appropriate the power and prestige of the templars. And the game knows how to keep the conspiracy stuff just fantastical enough to remind us that this is a fantasy, without being too over-the-top for the game’s serious tone.

It’s not the same as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, where both the author and his most ardent fans took The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail conspiracy theory underlying the novel’s plot as fact. Broken Sword is often suspected of being an influence on The Da Vinci Code, which might be true, but might be a case of similar influences on both works. Broken Sword does reference The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail several times, characters are named Plantard and Lobineau, although the Jesus bloodline idea isn’t part of the actual plot, like it is in Gabriel Knight 3. What I would argue however is that Broken Sword is the kind of intelligently written conspiracy thriller that Dan Brown wants to write, but isn’t capable of writing.

The game is not perfect. The characters in the Syria sections rely on ethnic stereotyping that hasn’t aged well, even if I like the boy who learned english from Jeeves and Wooster tapes. And while George is far more likeable in this regard than Gabriel Knight, his closest predecessor, his infatuation with Nico does go into creep territory at one point very late in the game. These are both things that director Charles Cecil himself regrets. Still, I very much enjoy the writing in this game.

The fairly grounded if humorous tone of the game is reflected in the gameplay too. The game is very standard point-and-click adventure, no surprises here. But the game’s puzzles are largely devoid of the moon logic that could sometimes be a problem for contemporary adventure games, a design decision that reflects Broken Sword’s tone. The puzzle design is fairly simple, but therefore fairly intuitive. And that makes for a rather fun game to play. There are a few dodgy puzzles, but overall this game feels fair.

This is an adventure game where you can die, at multiple points in the story. And this does work to make the gameplay reflect the tension of the game’s thriller plot, by having actual stakes, game-overs, that George can actually die. And true to the game’s tone, they can be funny too. And while your progress can be set back quite a bit by a game-over if your last save was a long time ago, that’s perfectly fine. It has a point in creating tension. And there are no Sierra-esque “dead ends” or unwinnable situations that I could find, of the type “the player missed an item they need to progress, but can’t go back for it, so they are stuck,” so the game doesn’t become too hard. Those are not fine, and they are thankfully not in Broken Sword.

Finally the game’s presentation is top-notch all around. The graphics on a technical level is nothing spectacular by today’s standards, it’s fairly low-res 2D graphics. But by 1996 computer technology had progressed to the point that Revolution could use more detailed and slicker-looking 2D art than the pixelart of many previous point-and-click adventure games, and they took full advantage of that. The art design of this game is excellent. This game looks gorgeous, especially the lovingly-detailed backgrounds. Broken Sword has this warm and colorful cartoon-like look to it, reminding me of traditional 2d animated movies and the Tintin comic books. And the game’s animated cutscenes fit fairly seamlessly with the rest of the game, due to artstyle consistency (not always the case with video games), and help with the animated movie feel.The animated movie feeling is so convincing because Revolution Software hired people with that kind of experience to do the game’s art and animation, such as Eoghan Cahill and Neil Breen who worked for Don Bluth, or Roslind Allen who had actually worked for Disney on the Ducktales movie.

They similarly looked outside the video game industry when it came to the game’s music. The game’s composer Barrington Pheloung had composed music for various theatrical films and television shows, most notably Inspector Morse. And Pheloung composed an excellent soundtrack, that helps with the game’s epic feel, and the music is actually performed by an actual orchestra, instead of just using MIDI as many game soundtracks did at the time.

The game is fully voice-acted, which was becoming standard at the time, but the high quality of the voice acting is anything but common, not even today. The accents are often dodgy, but in a fun way. The standout actor is of course Rolf Saxon as George Stobbart, which would turn into the role of a lifetime for him. He would reprise in all future Broken Sword games and he feels irreplaceable as George.

Broken Sword: the Shadow of the Templars was a huge success, and remains popular and beloved to this day. It spawned a franchise that is still on-going. It feels like a point-and-click adventure game milestone. And this is despite it not being a very innovative game, there is little in the gameplay, story or presentation that we haven’t seen before. As a game, it really doesn’t do much that we haven’t seen in its predecessors in the genre by Lucasarts or Sierra or even Revolution Software’s own previous games, like the excellent Beneath a Steel Sky.

Broken Sword is still an adventure game classic that deserves its accolades. That’s because it does what it does very well, with a minimum of flaws. The game is not all that original in concept, but the execution is of the highest quality. It manages to become a classic milestone game by that alone.

Broken Sword is such an enjoyable experience to play that it feels like a benchmark of quality for point-and-click adventure games, one that is rarely met. In fact, Revolution Software’s Broken Sword sequels haven’t really reached the heights of the original, as much as I like the second and even the third game in the series.

Revolution haven’t even been able to fully recapture the magic in the game’s remaster from 2009, the Director’s Cut, which is overall a weaker version than the 1996 original. It adds puzzles and entire sections of the game where you play as Nico, but they don’t add much to the story. These additions are artificially grafted onto the original and feel like it, as they detract from the pacing. It reveals how tight the original game design and pacing is. The new art is by the great Dave Gibbons, but similarly it clashes with the original art. The new animations are worse too, often looking like a cheaply made motion comic compared to the movie-like original animations. The remaster also removes things, including bizarrely censoring the blood and violence in cutscenes. It’s a weird decision that maybe has to do with the fact that the remaster was created for the DS and Wii consoles, made by the sometimes aggressively family-friendly Nintendo. This also included removing the ability for George to die and get a game-over, removing the tension that created.

However, if you buy the Director’s Cut on GOG, it includes the original MS-DOS version of the game as an extra. And that version is easy to get running on non-dos systems with Scummvm. And this is something I recommend you do, it’s a great game.

[stephensmithuk]

The Missing Three-Quarter

Published in 1904, this forms part of Return.

"Weird" in its present meaning is first recorded in 1815.

A three-quarter is someone who plays near the back of a rugby union formation.

Trinity College, Cambridge, was formed in 1546 by the merger of two existing colleges. It is the Oxbridge college with the lowest proportion of state-schooled pupils and no less than six British Prime Ministers are among its alumni. More infamously, four of the five members of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring went there.

Professional sport was just starting to get going on the UK, to considerable controversy. Rugby Union and Rugby League split because of a disagreement about paying players. Many of the clubs were made up of lower- and middle-class players who were missing work to play rugby, so split off in 1895 to form the latter which has slightly different rules and were pro from the get-go. Rugby Union remained amateur until 1995.

The first England international rugby match - and indeed the first such match between two national sides - took place in 1871 against Scotland; they lost. The Scottish team included a non-white player, Alfred Clunies-Ross, who was half-Malay.

Matches were mostly among the "Home Nations" until 1905.

Rugby Union has 15 players to a side - one notable difference from American football is that you're not allowed to pass the ball forwards.

Cambridge is accessible by train from King's Cross and Liverpool Street.

Klinger points out that the richest man in England is so cheap that he's taking the bus.

Intercepting someone's telegrams, telephone calls or mail legally required a warrant signed by the Home Secretary. This of course had the potential for abuse.

The Cambridgeshire Fens are low-lying, flat and marshy. Not good for hiding.

Draghounds follow a prepared scent trail instead of a live animal; thus the sport remains legal despite the more general ban on fox-hunting within dogs passed in 2004.

Pompey was a Roman Republic general and statesman, but the name is also one closely associated with Portsmouth.

Trumpington is a real village, first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book.

"Consumption" or tuberculosis was a common thing in Victorian/Edwardian literature to inflict on innocent, attractive female characters, who could die in a "beautiful" manner.

The BCG vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis did not start being used on humans until 1921; the main treatment at the time was rest and good food.

[azalea-bee]

@juicezone the other part of your question!! :D

this ended up getting super long bc i had so many thoughts about various dc characters so hopefully u don’t mind hehe

9. do they identify with any specific labels (regressor, flip, pet regressor, etc.)?

dick- he thinks of himself as a cg! i think he definitely regresses too but it takes him a while to come to terms with it. eventually he gets comfortable with calling himself a flip :]

tim- ooh. i’m conflicted bc i love other people’s regressor tim headcanons a lot but in MY head i mostly see him just being a babysitter sometimes!

cass- definitely a regressor but not aware there’s a word for it yet. she makes a great cg too bc she can instantly tell when someone goes baby mode :D

jason- a regressor! the babiest guy ever. he hates it but it helps him a lot so he learns to work with it <3

duke- maybe regressor? i haven’t made up my mind about about him yet, i need to read more of his stuff :] but i think maybe an older kid regressor!!

damian- regressor! and also a pet regressor, not sure what kind of animal though? cat and/or dog most of the time probably :]

barbara- babysitter mostly! in my head she wouldn’t want to be solely responsible for anyone as an official cg but she doesn’t mind watching someone occasionally! usually cass. and she’s also great for helping out over comms if someone regresses on patrol by accident <3

steph- i picture her as a tween/teen regressor most of the time, like a 12-15ish range! i think it’d be so subconscious most of the time tho that she doesn’t notice or label it for a long time. i can also see her age dreaming to a younger age to play with other small friends!

kon- ooh. a flip! i think he’s already such a mom friend that it’d be pretty natural to take care of his friends. but he definitely regresses too, little kid range mostly! and i think he’d pet regress/dream to play with krypto sometimes too :D

bruce- idk what label he’d use, but i think he regresses around alfred sometimes! i don’t see him being a cg to his kids very often, but maybe with cass or dick if they ask him to :] and he’d take care of clark if needed too!

clark- regressor! he’s just a little guy :D

now for two who aren’t bats or supers (sorry) but i love them so i’m adding them:

cassie- regressor! to me she is a very wild/hyperactive regressor who is very difficult to corral due to her powers, but she really wants to be good! she just gets excited :]

bart- super wild regressor just like cassie, except he thrives on mischief and stubbornness lol. woe to anyone who has to watch them at the same time (it’s usually kon)

[elysianstars]

I actually love that Mika Pikazo designed Engage's characters. Her art is so colourful and vibrant and fun, it's a great fit for the game itself! Alear's outfits make no sense, but we've gotta accept that's par for the course with anime. Male Alear looks so pretty that I wish they'd used her art for in-game portraits, instead of his 3D model. I love Celine's ridiculous bell skirts, and Alfred's impractical ruffled sleeves, and Nel and Rafal's cool spiked collars that look like crowns, and everything about the Ivy Trio because hey, let's have three of the most unreasonably hot characters join all at once and create an utter menace to bisexuals across the world. Everyone has their own distinctive silhouettes, and shared style elements between certain characters, like the stripes of black lace on Firenese royals.

You know what else I love? No paired endings except for Alear! Now I can enjoy watching an entire support chain between different units, without worrying I'm going to accidentally get them locked into a romantic ending that I don't like (which happened several times in Three Houses) or instigate any child unit weirdness (one of my least favourite features in Fates). All the fun of seeing their bonds develop and personalities shine, with none of the awkward drawbacks.

Plus I get to recruit every single character that I like, no choosing factions, or feeling like I'm missing out on chunks of the game if I get too attached to a particular side. I want all my eggs in a single delicious basket, please. Replay value? I'm happy to play the exact same story over 500 times if I actually like it, the same was rewatching a favourite movie until I can quote half the dialogue off by heart.

Oh, and the way genderlocking S-supports got kicked into the garbage like it deserves? The way gender just...absolutely does not matter in the slightest, at any point in this game? Perfect. It feels like I'm finally 100% welcome. I could make a whole separate post about why Engage means so much to me on this specific issue, but for a quick example, look at Alfred. One of the characters whose S-support is most obviously a romantic confession. Look me in the eyes, and tell me that if this game were made ten years ago, and the developers had to pick just a few characters as same-sex romance options, he would've been included. Not a chance. Wlw players would probably get Yunaka, mlm players would get Rafal. Do you see what I'm saying here? Yeah.

There's myriad other things I love about Engage, but I just wanted to shout some positivity for a few that I've seen mixed responses to (except removing the genderlock, I haven't seen anyone small-minded enough to criticise that yet, but I like saying how great it is regardless).

[spider-jaysart]

Headcanons for my Batkids Young age au part 4:

Batkids ages:

Damian: 5 years old

Tim: 9 years old

Jason: 12 years old

Duke: 7 years old

Cassandra: 8 years old

Stephanie: 9 years old

Dick: 15 years old

Superkids ages:

Jon: 5 years old

Kon: 9 years old

Little Damian is easy to distract with the animal discovery channel since he loves it, due to his trait of being an animal lover, especially cartoon shows that have animals as characters in it, but if anyone tries to steal the living room remote and change the channel, he will get upset and give a really big tantrum until they change it back

Jon tried pretending to be a puppy one time after wondering what it was like for Krypto, so he would always be trying to make cute little fake barks, eating his food with his mouth instead of his hands or fork and spoon (though, Lois made sure to remind him about table manners), and he would also always be playing with Krypto outside in the backyard on his hands and feet too, running around all over the dirty ground like that, which would dirty him and his clothes up, giving Clark and Lois extra, unnecessary laundry to do. Though, thankfully for his parents after almost a month of this little act of his, Jon stopped doing it after deciding that he liked living like a human better

All of the Batkids always ask Dick for piggyback rides

When Kon had came over to meet baby Jon for the first time, he was a little jealous at first at the thought of a sibling taking over his place as the new child in the family but after finally meeting Jon, those bitter emotions left him and he instantly grew to love the little half Kryptonian. He also began to enjoy spending time with little Jon, enjoying their fun times together, he later on realized that maybe having a sibling instead of being an only child probably wasn't so bad after all

Damian likes to paint on Tim's face sometimes when he's asleep and hides once he wakes up, since he'll know that it was definitely him, since it's not the first time that he usually does this to his big brother

Duke has a favorite lion plushie that helps him feel safe whenever he's having a nightmare or can't sleep at night. Though, during a loud stormy night outside the Manor, Duke, after going downstairs with his plushie to go grab some of Alfred's delicious chocolate chip cookies, bumped into little Damian in the hallway upstairs. He could see that the boy that was usually a tough one, was slightly shaking and had a bit of an almost fearful expression on his face. Duke, who was curious, asked his little brother what he was doing walking around the halls so late, though, Damian, who didn't want to look like a coward, just replied saying that he was just looking for Titus since he had left the room. Duke knew he wasn't being honest though, since he had seen the puppy peacefully sound asleep in the boy wonders bedroom while passing by after coming upstairs and before he could say anything about it, a loud thunder struck outside, creating a loud sound, made Damian jump in front of Duke, revealing how scared he was feeling, so after seeing the reaction of his little brother, he asks him if he's scared of the thunderstorm that's going on, but Damian cuts him off, telling him that he is being ridiculous, since he isn't afraid of anything, which Duke knew wasn't really true at the moment. After a few seconds of Damian still trying to deny that he was actually scared while Duke was telling him that he obviously was, Damian jumped up in fear once again, due to another thunder strike that had happened at that very moment, so Duke, who can see that he was obviously scared, gives Damian his favorite trusted lion plushie and hands him one of the cookies that he had gotten from downstairs, telling Damian "Here, you can have Liony, he's good at protecting you when you're scared." Damian, hesitantly, as he's hugging Liony the plushie tightly in his arms, asks Duke "But what about you? How are you gonna fall asleep without him?", since he knows that it's his favorite plushie, but Duke tells him that he will be fine and that he needs him more than he does and that's what Liony is there for anyways, to make sure everyone's safe. He also offers that if he wanted, he could sleep in his room for the night if he wanted and and that they could even hang out the whole night while he holds onto Liony, which Damian accepts. So they spend the whole night in Duke's room having a fun time together, building a little fort with the beds pillows and blanket sheets, then sitting in it with their flash lights on once they're done, while eating their chocolate chip cookies, talking and quietly laughing the whole night together. Later on in the early morning, Bruce and Alfred, while checking up on the two young brothers in the room, see the sweet sight of them both asleep in their fort together, both hugging eachother and Liony the brave plushie who was in the middle. A warm smile grows on both of the men's faces as they both quietly leave the room and gently close the door so that they won't wake them from their peaceful sleep

@theredheaded-stuff @paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 @camo-wolf

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Barbie and the Secret Door!DPxDC AU

I've always wanted to see a Barbie AU so I'm gonna make one. If you've never seen BatSD, you can find the plot here. (Btw, at the very end there's a clip where Malucia's parents come back from a trip and laughingly ask her if she attempted to take over the kingdom again. I recommend watching or listening to the songs because they perfectly describe how delusional almost every single character is. I love you grandma and little fairy girl for being two of the most grounded characters in this movie.)

First, the roles:

The Grandmother played by Alfred.

Princess Alexa played by newly picked up Jason.

Nori and Romy played by Sam and Johnny.

Queen Unicorn played by Dan.

Unicorns played by Danny, Dani, and Vlad.

Princess Malucia played by Youngblood.

The Main Attendant played by Aragon.

Sniffers played by Walker and Skulker.

The Little Fairy Girl played by Star.

Second, tweaking the story:

Instead of fairies/mermaids/unicorns, it's vampires (amity parkers), nagas (ghosts), and banshees (halfas). trogs (the attendants) and sniffers (idk they're like bloodhounds) are nagas as well.

All animals are mostly normal w/just enough magic that they glow.

Vampires have purple or red eyes, sharper-than-normal teeth and nails, pointed ears, and the ability to turn into bats.

Nagas have green or red eyes, sharp teeth and nails, a tail, and the ability to turn into a snake.

Banshees have neon green or red eyes, sharper-than-normal nails, and the ability to tell when someone's close to death.

Stealing their magic turns them into humans.

Youngblood is a naga who doesn't have an ability (therefore is the most human looking of the nagas) and has decided to steal everyone's magic because he deserves it. (via Malucia's scepter) He hasn't stolen the castle servants' magic because it would make things harder for him.

Skulker and Walker don't "sniff out magic".

They've yet to realize that humans need to eat and drink water on a regular basis.

Jason's 11 years old, Youngblood's 6(?), Danny's 10, Dani's 8, Star's 11, Johnny's 12, Sam's 11. The rest (on the list) are adults.

Something I'm not gonna tweak: the fact that the palace servants don't try to revolt or usurp Princess Malucia. They seem extremely tired.

Now, onto the actual idea:

Jason is very nervous and untrusting of his new surroundings. His favorite activities are sneaking books from the library into his room and going to school. He's very resistant to interacting with Bruce because if he is like how the rumors say he is, how is he supposed to fight him off? Alfred notices and gives him a fairy tale book written by one of Bruce's ancestors about the house.

The book leads him to a door in one of the rooms he's never been in. This door leads to a fantasy world. There are tons of bright colors and weird plants. He spots a glowing, green puppy and starts following it. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and was confronted by Johnny and Sam. (Johnny trips because he isn't used to having legs.) However, they notice the clothes he's wearing and realize that he's not from there and probably has no idea what's going on.

They tell him that the Evil Prince Youngblood has been stealing everyone's magic. Since Jason doesn't have any he might be able to help them. When Jason asks why they can't do anything, they reply with something along the lines of "how would we sneak past the guards or win a fight against them? we don't know how human bodies work."

Eventually, they start leading Jason back to their base when they nearly get caught by Walker and Skulker. Thankfully, the two get distracted by a rock thrown by Star and they get to the base quickly. (Unbeknownst to them, Star gets caught.)

Jason sees that a good portion of the camp has been stripped of their magic and made human. They seem to be rather disheartened at their situation. This makes him want to help (especially when he meets Danny, Dani, and Vlad and learn they're being hunted more religiously than anyone else.)

POV changes to Star's. She's being led into a large reception hall where a tall, shadowy figure is sitting on a throne on a raised platform. Then the lights come on and she sees that it's just a child sitting on a raised throne. (if you don't want to look at the image: the platform is eight half steps high, the throne is 9 steps high)

Youngblood ignores Ember, Walker, and Skulker in favor of Aragon and his plans to throw a celebration after becoming the most magical prince ever. Walker and Skulker gain their attention and announce that they've caught another naga child. Youngblood gets upset with them for not finding the much-more-magical banshees, but quickly turns his attention to Star and demands she gives him her magic. Then, he forces her to play games with him, Aragon, and his two guards.

Switch to Youngblood's POV. Walker and Skulker come back into the room to announce that they are certain that they know where the Banshee King is. Star starts to ask how they found him before snapping her mouth shut, which Youngblood decides means that she probably knows something. He goes to talk to Walker and Skulker and finds they know the general location (a forest) that he's in, not the exact location.

While he isn't happy, he does have an idea. He tells Aragon to prepare to go get the Banshee King. He then looks overly surprised that Star's there and tells her that she can leave since she's not of use to him. Once she's out of the room, he orders Skulker and Walker to follow her.

Back to Jason. He's figuring out a plan to sneak into Youngblood's castle and get everyone's magic back. Then Star bursts into the hideout and tells everyone that Youngblood took her magic and has the location of the Banshee King. Jason was going to ignore that when Danny and Dani started crying about their big brother being in danger. Now he's got a plan to go with Sam and Johnny to retrieve Dan.

When they get back to the base with Dan, they find everyone captured and depowered (with the three banshees missing.) He tries to fight Youngblood, but loses because of not knowing how to deal with magic. (also there's like 4 guards surrounding Youngblood.)

Youngblood says something about how powerless Jason is as he and his lackeys are leaving that almost causes him to give up and go back to the manor. Sam convinces him to stay and help because they'd not have gotten to Dan in such a short amount of time without his planning.

So, he plans.

He gets a small group into the castle and they watch as Youngblood takes the last of Dan's magic from him. The group is convinced they were too late and that they can't do anything now. (Youngblood has used his scepter to turn the reception room into a party room filled with all types of sweets.) But Jason noticed that there was a small crack in Youngblood's scepter, meaning if he hit it just right with enough force he could break it.

It was a gamble, but it worked. He broke the scepter and everyone got their magic back. Youngblood got clean up duty (because there's still candy and cake everywhere.) And Jason was more confident in being able to handle himself.

After Jason leaves back to the mansion, Youngblood's parents come back (he's still cleaning up his mess) and ask him if he tried to take over the kingdom again. His punishment is going to need to wait until after they give him his presents. (much to Aragon's disapproval)

Jason (in the mansion) probably puts the book in his room and decides to get training from Bruce. (and become robin)