#old man Simon isn’t an original idea it’s just bound to happen

[s0l0b0d0r]

SOME random ninjago hc that is in the RTO au

i wrote a lot of hc that fit the RTO au, not necessarily associated with Future and so here we are 

it’s long so here’s a summary of the HCs, you’ll find them under the cut 

Timetwins childhoods 

 + Kronos HCs (as requested by @moonprincess101)

cyrus HC

Pixal HC

couple other than future in RTO 

EMs and elemental power in general 

Zane & the ICE EM reincarnation 

Morro & Ronin sibbling 

Nadakhan & Dilara 

AGE CHART 

Bonus : Pokemon AU (+ doodles !!)

WARNING : LOOOOONG 

Timetwins childhoods ( + Kronos HCs)  

“Acronix" and "krux" isn’t their birth names, Acronix came up with them when they were younger, as super heroes names after discovering their powers. Krux loved the idea and they kept referring each other as these names. Krux forgot what is original name was, but Acronix still remembers them. i’m guessing that they might use them again after getting back into society

They grew us in a country side village with their mother for a big part of their life, didn't socialized much til their mother passed.  Krux was always overprotective and nix, not having anything else to compare, thought krux directing him was normal. when joining the EMs when the serpentins wars happened, Nix easily became friend with some of the EMs, unlike krux . tho they really did not got along with wu and garmadon 

their elemental power was passed down to them by a Unknown Man whom they never met, as he left before their birth, Kronos :

- kronos was the previous user of the time element, he used it for good, preventing some disaster, saving people’s life, Wu knew him well. 

- tho he was young when he married and didn't know how what would happen to his power after having kids. he took his power for granted and overused them even for simple task. to him , having powers was normal and sounded arrogant when speaking with other EMs or people in general 

.- during his wife pregnancy, he noticed his powers started fading and freaked out, he went to wu, asking for help and learn the truth about what would happen to his powers after his sons where born. he was never seen again afterward. 

when wu met krux and acronix, he knew they were related to kronos , but when asking them about their father , the twins would not reply and looks uncomfortable 

- his personality shifted rapidly afterward, without powers he went mad, more aggressive, salty, self centered 

Cyrus HC

- Cyrus grew up taking inspiration from DR. julien work to build his own tech, he never really expected to become so popular later in his life and sometime feels overwhelmed by it .

- Cyrus is a billionaire, and donate to charity all the time , ninjago doesn't seems to have any problems beside villains attacking time to time, you can expect rich people of the world to be actually helping RIGHT ?

- Cyrus isnt paralyzed, i imagine him more having weak legs motor control that dont support his body weight enough to let him stand, if he did, he would feel dizzy very fast, (this is heavly based on this HC )

it has some hint in the show, but you dont wanna mess with cyrus, he can be agressive toward people that bother him or his loved ones, he will not hesitate to fight the best way he can ! 

Pixal HC

- pixal was a project he worked on for YEARS, but she was only fully finished at the beginning of S3

- pixal was built to be gender neutral, until she told her father that she wanted to be seen as feminine , and he loves and support her

- pixal is very polite and usually call people by title, unless she knows them personally, she would never call cyrus by anything else than “father”

- when she first got in contact with people other than her father, she found them fascinating, and specially zane, knowing that he was a nindroïd like her.

- she used to have a crush on zane that for a while, felt mutual, until she got dismantled .. she was glad zane found a way to keep her around but as time passed, the lack of physical body, zane becoming colder with her afterward , and him getting closer to cole after the event of S4. made her loose interest, they were living as one but she missed being herself 

- ronin was the one who dismantled her, after he captured zane, pixal tried to defend her friend but got destroyed, ronin used part of her body to repair his own . his left arm being partially made from pixal Original body

- she took inspiration from nya’s samurai X mech to build herself a new body 

- in the process she developed feelings for nya. like zane earlier in her life, she felt like it was mutual but she isn’t sure the relation is working out, nya and her are spliting and getting back together every month or so

-she is an hopeless lover and tend to crush on anybody that express kindness to her 

Couple other than future in RTO

RTO mainly focus on future, but also : samurai, Glacier, Scruff  and A BIT of jaya , in general, the ninjas (minus lloyd) are pretty much all in open relationships with one another and it’s mostly just polyninja but main focus on samurai and glacier  

EMs and elemental power in general

- EM lives longer that other people , roughly 120~ years instead of 80 , and that even if they lost their powers

- being an EM can be either genetic or Given .. Powers can be passed down only two ways : a Em can have a kid and during pregnancy, the element will start fading until the baby is born, element will take time to developed in someone’s body , it roughly take 10-15 years for someone to discover their power. however this process inst guaranteed, and some EM’s kid can be born without powers, this is usually the case when only one of the parent is a EM, in case a EM have more kids than powers (eg. twins) the power will either splits up, or one of he kid will be born without powers 

- the second option is strong bound, if a EM is dying (or dead) without kids or non of their kids inherited their powers , they can choose a Vessel .. it can be human, creature or any sentient being. 

- taking someone’s power away by force CANNOT happen, it’s BULLSHIT.. wu and garmadon simply blocked krux and acronix powers, they are still considered EM and if they wish to, can pass down their powers to someone else , who WILL be able to control it (tho since the power Split up, nix can only pass down slow and forward power) after that, the time blade will lose their powers.

Zane & the ICE EM reincarnation

for his HC i’m going to call the previous ICE EM “simon”  i cant remembrer who named the Ice EM simon, if you know it please lemme know !  i love it tbh

-julien and simon knew each other very well, they were Close friends 

- simon knew that julien loved making machine and heard about a new project "zane" a robot that could protect people that could protect themselves, julien loved zane like his son . later in his life after the serpentine wars , simon feeling old, wanted to pass down his elemental power to someone before passing away, and thought julien was perfect, after all they knew each other, but he changed his mind and decided to pass it to zane instead. He touched zane heart and after that, he slowly lost his powers till he passed . neither zane nor julien knew about it, but by freezing his heart, it gave him a part of his soul ( 9 STYLE) ,  a unusual but strong power source to zane, the elemental power of ice and changed his behavior a bit 

Morro & Ronin sibbling HC

Morro and Ronin are brothers , morro is the oldest and inherited the wind power, unlike ronin. 

ronin loved to provoque people and overall was a little brat. one day with morro, he annoyed a citizen of Stiix, that will later be known as “soularcher” that decided to curse him and his brother 

Morro was terrified and fleed, he eventually decided to join wu’s monastery , who adopted him. morro was sure that becoming the green ninja of the prophecy would make him a hero and lift the curse on his soul. he was even more devastated to learn that wu was wrong

on his own ways ronin tried his best to fix his mistake growing up , without much success. falling into robbery, con artist, failed marriage and alcoholism 

when morro came back as a ghost, he felt guilty and wanted to fix his mistake but he finally had people like nya and dareth (whom he met at a bar and chatted with him when he was sad) that cared about him and decide to fight for good for once 

Ronin had a wife and a daughter a WHILE ago, but lost them . his daughter was roughly the same age as nya and she remind him of her 

Nadakhan & Dilara

Dilara and nya are related

Dilara and captain sotto knew each other (family related ;;; OR she was cheating on nadakhan idk but either way she cared about him too )  and she help sotto capture nadakhan and his crew but made a mistake and got killed in the process

Dilara was just there to use nadakhan for his powers but nadakhan wanted her for his infinite wishes so I GUESS THEYre a good pair ???

AGE CHART 

BONUS : Pokemon AU for no reason but i’m happy of them 

THERE IM DONE BYYYYYYYYE 

[ayearofpike]

Thirst No. 3: The Eternal Dawn

Simon Pulse, 2010 478 pages, 26 chapters + epilogue ISBN 978-1-4424-1317-7 LOC: MLCS 2012/41874 (P) OCLC: 651759027 Released October 5, 2010 (per B&N)

When we last saw Sita, she was brain-traveling back in time to kill the first vampire before he was ever born, thus ending the line of eternal bloodsuckers forever. Little did we know that this was simply her way of writing herself out of Seymour’s life. She is very much still immortal. But Sita is learning that there is more to her family, both found and genetic, linked to an even older power that is bound to destroy her. That is, if the multinational trillionaire corporation that happened into some kind of crazy mind control doesn’t do it first.

Check out that fake boast on the cover: “long-awaited new book.” Um ... no? You ended the series, asshole, we weren’t long-awaiting SHIT. But we all know that the new expectations of the genre are that everything is a series, and so the publisher no doubt did more business by linking these books together even though there’d been no previous expectation for another Sita book before the reprinted bind-ups showed us Pike was at it again.

And there’s a lot going on in here too. The Eternal Dawn opens a door to a whole new world of vampire fighting with all the things it introduces. Sita, long a loner, now has a whole cadre of friends and assistants and hangers-on that connect her new world to the old world, and even to the ancient people that she’s just starting to learn about. Again, I get it: teens want to read about popular kids, or at least popular among a small select group. They don’t want a total loner, which actually has become troublesome in itself as school shootings become more regular and publicized and railed against. And also, we have a precedent of Team Vampire from those other popular sparkly vampire books that came out just before this. 

But this doesn’t really work for me. Sita has always been that strong solo artist who didn’t want to rope people into her fold, as much for their own safety as because they couldn’t do stuff as good as her. And yet by the end of this book there’s like eight people all living together. Yes, circumstances change, we’ll get to that, but for someone who read the original Sita books in 1995 and was expecting a story along the same lines, this part feels like a betrayal of her character.

Ugh, I’m already tired of writing about this book and this is only the introduction. Let’s see how fast I can power through the summary.

So for some reason Sita has relocated to Truman Village, Missouri. Well, we learn the reason pretty quickly: Teri Raine, a freshman runner at Truman College who has no idea that her ancestor is still alive and watching out for her. In fact, the first thing Sita does is straight murder a dude who’s raped other girls and now has his sights on Teri. But not just by draining him of blood, which she no longer needs after Kalika: she drinks enough to weaken his heartbeat and then crashes his car into a lake, where he drowns in terror. Holy fuck, Sita, you got even darker.

Back in town, she introduces herself to Teri as a budding writer who wants to hire her as a research assistant. She sets up a meeting with Teri at the club where her boyfriend is playing later that night. Then she goes home, where she feels suspiciously watched, and it turns out there’s a couple driving up to ask what she knows about IIC. This, it seems, is a huge multinational corporation with a penchant for privacy that has an extensive file on one Alisa Perne. Which ... come on, dude, it’s been twenty years, why are you still using the same alias? But these two are curious and suspicious, not just of Sita but also the company, where the woman happens to work even though she’s not totally sure what she actually does. But she does know that her boyfriend was looking into it, just before he mysteriously disappeared.

So Sita says she’ll stay in touch and then goes to her meeting, where she immediately gets all of the boners for Teri’s boyfriend. He’s super talented and totally hot and gives off this aura of worldliness and experience, all of which is like catnip to our eternal vampire. She hasn’t been intimate or even interested since Ray, or I guess Arturo technically. So all of this stuff that happened before was real, but up to this point Sita hasn’t really explained how it got written down or why she’s doing it herself now instead of using a muse like Seymour. She is, in fact, a published writer, and the story she shows her new ... kids? is Pike’s token acknowledgement of the vampire/werewolf dichotomy that you can’t ignore if you’re writing a vampire book in 2010. It’s enough to get Teri to agree that she’ll work with Sita, and they all shake hands and part ways.

But back at Sita’s house, shit is exploding. Like, she pulls up to the garage and bullets start hitting everything. She finds a weapon of her own and dashes out into the woods, where she encounters an unusually strong and skilled man with a Gatling gun. She disables him, but before she can learn who he is and why he’s after her he whispers something in ancient Egyptian and then is consumed by terrible fire. Is this related to the whole IIC mystery?

Who knows? First we gotta drool over Teri’s boyfriend in the pool. Sita wants to help him get this bread (or whatever the kids are saying) with his musical talent, but he isn’t ready for the spotlight. They talk a little more about Sita’s writing and the different pen names she employs, and now the boyfriend is starting to get some feelings that Sita is more than who she claims. Which, why wouldn’t he, she’s not exactly being subtle or cautious in throwing all her wealth at these random kids.

There’s a quick side trip to Fairfield, Iowa, to track down and extract information from the contract killer IIC hired to take out the employee’s boyfriend, and here I had to pause and do some Google Maps. According to the book, Sita flies to Cedar Rapids and then drives 90 minutes to Fairfield, but Truman College is in northeast Missouri. Does this make sense at all? No! There’s no such thing as “Truman Village” or “Truman College,” but there is a Truman State University in Kirksville ... which is already a 90-minute drive from Fairfield. In fact, to fly to Cedar Rapids from Kirksville, Sita would have to connect through St. Louis AND Chicago. How fuckin’ long does this impatient immortal want to travel? Does she not own a globe? There is a public municipal airport in Fairfield; it would have been more believable if Sita had literally flown herself. And guess what? I caught this easily avoidable flub because we’ve seen the hour-and-a-half drive from Cedar Rapids before. Not counting on someone with a master’s in English analyzing your shit, are you, Kev? Or, like ... a map?

But anyway, the killer gives up his next contract, which is a young Indian girl living in San Antonio. Sita flies there and meets the girl, who has been hideously scarred by having acid thrown in her face upon backing out of an arranged marriage. She copes with the pain and partial loss of eyesight by praying to Krishna, which resonates with Sita, obviously. The girl has contract work with IIC, basically answering weekly questions over the phone with yes or no, so it’s unclear to Sita why she’d be a target. But she arranges for the girl to be protected and then takes off for LA, where IIC is headquartered.

Once there, Sita waltzes right into the joint and asks to speak to the CEO. While she’s waiting, a creepy little girl in the waiting room smashes a vase, and Sita helps clean it up. But then she goes into the office, where she immediately feels oppressively observed, and also kind of intimidated that the boss isn’t scared. She (the boss) makes it clear that IIC did not send the fire killer, and Sita was pretty sure already, since the dude in Iowa wasn’t in the same league. She does offer to help Sita protect herself from this mysterious group if she joins up with IIC. But we already know Sita isn’t a joiner, unless it’s a group she can form herself with some random college kids who get her horny.

Instead, she goes to find the couple who tracked her down, but the dude is obviously dead. Well, not obviously, but someone with Sita’s senses can smell the amount of blood that’s been washed down the bathtub. She tracks down the woman and gets her the hell out of town, all the way to ... Barstow? An hour and a half? Seriously? Like, I get it that to someone from the city Barstow probably feels like a middle-of-nowhere armpit (and it is kind of an armpit). But haven’t we already learned that this company can reach people anywhere?

But then Sita leaves and waits to follow the boss home ... only she doesn’t go home for like two days. And when she does, she leaves everything unlocked. There’s another encounter with another creepy little girl, but then the boss is just sitting on the couch watching TV, easy pickings if Sita just wanted to take her out. Only she can’t. In fact, she suddenly finds herself unable to move, act, or even think on her own. The boss somehow manages to compel Sita to stick her gun in her mouth and pull the trigger. But at the last second, Sita thinks of Krishna and ends up shooting the TV. So whatever IIC is, it’s got power that isn’t easily resisted.

Sita ends up taking everybody back to her house in Missouri: the IIC employee, the scarred girl and her uncle, and of course Teri and her boyfriend. Easy pickings, right? Especially now that Teri is running in the NCAA championships, and the strongest performers will be considered for the Olympic team. So Sita, true to her pattern of non-involvement and letting things play out their own way

Just kidding. She totally meddles and gives Teri some blood to make her feel stronger and run faster, but not enough to actually turn her into a vampire. So she wins the championship, and now everybody is going to London for the Olympics.

But Sita’s not done making Club Vampire yet. She has to track down Seymour. Wait a second, didn’t he die? No! It turns out that he got the right medication to treat his AIDS in time, and now is a successful writer living in New York City. However, he’s never shown anybody the weird vampire series he wrote in high school and keeps locked in a desk drawer, so he’s freaked out that Sita knows so much about it. But he does pretty quickly believe her and tag along with the group.

So they go to London (yes, the entire fuckin’ squad) and Sita gives Teri more blood. The boyfriend knows that Sita’s doing something, and he’s highly against it and a little pissed, because Teri would never take a performance-enhancing drug but that’s essentially what this is. Sita gives her more blood, and Teri yells out the name of the original vampire in her sleep, which ... how would she possibly know that? But she turns it on right at the end of the race, winning the gold medal and earning an invitation to party with the president of the United States at his hotel.

And then Sita hears some heartbeats. Four of them, all strong and powerful like the fire killer’s. She knows she’s the target, and figures she’ll be safer if she goes to the president’s party and hides out behind the secret service detail. But the four assassins show up anyway, and Sita ends up going full Matrix, blowing away two at close range and then leaping the height of the ballroom to take out a third. The fourth manages to get away, and Sita has to hypnotize the agents into letting her go after her. The car chase takes Sita to a ferry dock, where she misses the boat and has to swim after it (with the help of some friendly dolphins). She sneaks up on the fourth killer and incapacitates her, then they get off the ferry and drive the killer’s car back across the English Channel.

Let me repeat that. Sita drives a car. Through the Chunnel. Back to England.

(Technically, you can take a car, but it’s like a train-ferry. You don’t actually DRIVE.)

She checks them into a cheap hotel room and sets about trying to extract information from this killer. Yes, they have a connection to the ancient Egyptian civilization that Sita saw before, but they’re not the same evil fourth-dimensional lizard aliens we’ve come to know and love. Their people, the Telar, go back much farther and older than even them. They’ve taken responsibility for the planet and the things living on it, but right now humanity has gotten too large and too hubristic, so the Telar wants to pare it down. They do know about vampires, because one of their number ended up marrying (guess who) Original Vampire like a thousand years ago. So they know about Sita, and have maybe due to blood purity fanaticism have been led to believe she’s even more dangerous than she actually is, which is why they’re trying to wipe her out.

It’s been a long-ass day, so both Sita and her assailant fall asleep. But Sita dreams of demons and evil, and wakes up once more out of control and ends up drinking all the blood of this poor immortal, in the most horrific way. It’s mostly left to our imagination, but when she comes to (thanks to the intervention of Seymour and the young Indian girl) she mentions the “mass of torn flesh” (292) on the bed and feels ill. And lucky for everyone! Teri and her boyfriend have followed Seymour to this random, how-the-shit-did-they-find-it hotel somewhere a solid two-hour drive from London, and they’re totally disgusted by what they see and the boyfriend tells Sita to kindly fuck off and never come back. 

What now? Sita can’t think of anything else but to find her prophet friend, the one who had Miracle Baby way back in the fourth book. The kid is I guess 17 now, and so engrossed in a video game that he won’t even talk to Sita. They’re living somewhere in the Greek islands now, and they drop in uninvited because the lady has taken pains to not tell Sita where she is now. Why is she so pissed? Well, she’s just as annoyed at Sita for trying to take the fate and the responsibility for all of mankind as the boyfriend was. (And actually, the events in this book are pissing me off kind of the same way.) But Sita wants some help and comfort and information, as best they’re willing to give it to her. She’s figured out that picking up the pieces of the glass vase gave IIC enough genetic information on her to be able to control her through their power system, and the prophet friend points out how the Indian girl can block this power. Which we’ve already seen. This is Sita’s protection. 

Still, she’s not willing to put a kid at risk when she follows her lead to Switzerland. Remember the Swiss fax number? Like, put two and two together, Sita. You can remember what someone you met once for ten minutes SMELLS like; you can certainly remember Original Vampire chasing you down from a whole COUNTRY. So she goes there and traces the dude to a hotel, where the owner says he’s been expecting a young blonde woman to ask about this former guest and points her to a secret vault that the guest said she’d be able to open. Inside is a book, in Original Vampire’s handwriting. It discusses how Krishna taught him about this ancient enemy, but stops short of explaining how to overcome it.

She makes a copy and then goes back to return it ... upon which she finds herself locked in a basement cell, the prisoner of the Telar. They’ve got an impressive torture device that taps directly into the pain center of a person’s brain, and they threaten to use it on Sita if she doesn’t tell them all of her dealings with IIC. That’s not a problem: Sita has no love lost for this company that has twice forced her to carry out her basest animal instincts against her will. But she stops short of telling them anything she knows about the ancient prophet or her current day reincarnation, so the torture begins. And again, she finds herself thinking of Krishna, and of Miracle Baby Teen, and finds she can control her brain even as overwhelming pain should be incapacitating her. 

So now the Telar leader doesn’t have control over her anymore, and he’s just about to kill her when everything starts blowing up again. It’s the Abomination, everyone says, which freaks the leader the fuck out. He takes off to warn the overarching bosses and instructs the remaining fighters to not let the Abomination leave this place alive. But they don’t stand a chance: this motherfucker has all of the lasers and straight murders EVERYONE except Sita. Guess who? It’s Teri’s boyfriend! Who it turns out was Original Vampire’s son with the Telar lady he married! No wonder he got Sita so horny. He knew how the Telar felt about vampires, but his dad was one, and he couldn’t just let Dad’s most ancient love die in some basement as a victim of immortal Nazis who also supposedly killed him for betraying the blood purity of their species.

He assault-helicopters them the hell out of town and then they take the whole clan to some abandoned mining town in Colorado, where he owns a safe house. And now Sita has to decide what to do, even though pretty much all the advice she’s gotten in this whole book is “do nothing unless you’re actually targeted.” I guess it’s hard to argue, though, that she’s not a massive target from both sides. She knows that IIC is using its wealth and power to manipulate world governments. She knows that the Telar intend to do the same and fabricate war so that humanity is pared down. And she knows that both powers are at odds. It seems pretty obvious which side is worse, but they’re not even given time to make that choice: the Telar are attacking.

Immortal Boyfriend has prepared for this kind of attack. He sends the mortals down into the mine, and he and Sita find a vantage point to repel the Telar forces. They dispatch pretty much the entire fighting force with a combination of guns, mines, and drones, but not before the Telar manage to release a toxin that makes even these immortals blister and cough. They make for the mine, but Sita hears some Telar nearby and takes one hostage to get the antidote, and he pretty much immediately joins Team Vampire to keep from dying. They go through the mine to Immortal Boyfriend’s other helicopter, but as they’re making their escape the bad guys target them. So it’s time to jump from another helicopter into another lake! Only it’s winter in the Colorado Rockies, and the nearest lake is frozen over, and Teri horrifically breaks her leg when she jumps and is about to die from blood loss.

Yeah. The whole reason Sita started this stupid club in the first place is almost finished, and very much does NOT want to be made over. She states it clearly. But Sita just can’t let her die.

We leap to the epilogue, where Seymour is preparing himself for a funeral. Everyone’s there: the Indian psychic (who has been healed by months of plastic surgery and a little bit of vampire blood), the seer buddy and Miracle Teen, the new Telar recruit, the evacuated IIC employee, Immortal Boyfriend ...

And Teri.

What the fuck? Whose funeral is this?

It turns out that yes, Sita did turn her goddamn descendant into a vampire against her goddamn will, and of course Immortal Boyfriend was even more pissed than before. So much, in fact, that IIC was able to train their system onto him. Sita was able to reason a little bit, but Seymour saw the writing on the wall and couldn’t just let this dear old friend he just met get shot with a frickin’ laser beam. So he charged the dude, and of course he stood no chance, but Sita dove in front of the gun before Immortal Boyfriend could fire it.

So here we are. And Seymour is the last one at the grave, paying his respects. But then Teri comes back. And she whispers into his ear that she is still here, that she is Sita inside Teri’s body.

Obviously now we have to fuckin’ read Thirst No. 4, right? And honestly, as annoyed as I am at how long this vampire story is getting dragged out, and at how much Sita is changing because of market pressures learning from time, this is still a better cliffhanger than “I went to prom with the vampire, somehow wearing a leg cast and one high heel, and thought about what everyone else hadn’t told me yet but I would be finding out in the next three books, so go buy them, everyone.” 

Still. This thing was hard to write, you guys. I will not give up with only five books to go, but seriously? I kind of want to.

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I saw:

Wonder Woman- I admit I was almost nervous about seeing this film.

 Wonder Woman was a key figure in my childhood. I had the Ms Magazine book reprinting golden age Wonder Woman comics, held together with packing tape from my carrying it everywhere, that I read and reread. My best friend and I got in the sort of heated debates only five or six get in over what Wonder Woman’s starting pose for “bullets and bracelets” should be. My best friend going with the then running tv show’s crossed wrists seemed silly when you gotta be ready to move, and it wasn’t like that in the original story. We played at being Wonder Woman and made up stories usung our dolls. The only Halloween costume I still have is the Wonder Woman one from back then, an object I take great care of. ** Heck, I still have my dolls, pencil sharpener, puzzle book and the rest of the Amazon Princess gear I gobbled up...

My Mom, whose father never approved of comics, had secretly read them as a little girl back in the 1940s, so approved whole heartedly. In fact Wonder Woman related objects have been a sort of running theke for gifts between us (me giving her a Wonder Woman plush bunny at Easter and her giving me a mug at Christmas being the most recent). 

So if both my mother and I have waited most if our lives and through scores of Batman and Superman movies for a Wonder Woman feature film, why the anxiety?

Well, because despite my love of the concept of Wonder Woman, I have really disliked some of the takes on the character over the years. As a little girl adoring the ‘40s comics and the ‘70s tv show (though the Superfriends take was fine for something so “childish”...I was a mature little tyke! LOL), , I’d tried the comics at the newstand and went “This is stupid!”. I ended up for some years buying it just for the Huntress back up stories. At my first comic store trip at 14 I tried some very cheap battered old copies from like around 1960 and....Ick! NO! But then along came the George Perez run, and here was MY Wonder Woman. I loved the comic during his years, but unfortuantely it wasn’t forever. The new creators had a vision of the character, both in personality and increasingly over appearance, that was dramatically different than me. Over the years tales of her have been a roller coaster...here feminist, there sexist, here a figure of peace, there a snarling war monger. 

So here is the thing, I admit my image of Wonder Woman has been rather specific. I saw her as someone that can kick your ass, but would rather not if she doesn’t have to. Her first interest is peace, despite being prepared before. If talk fails, she will use force out of a need to protect, but that force will be the minimal necessary for the job. As in she would prefer to restrain you than beat you to a bloody pulp. My Wonder Woman would kill as a last resort, shows compassion and kindness and has a sense of humor. She smiles as often as she glowers. I realize this is a reflection of my basic moral code. Did Wonder Woman shape my world view, or did I take to depictions of Wonder Woman that reflected what I believed? 

Which ever, my anxiety came from all those other Wonder Woman versions. The ones that were grim and brutal concerned me more than the old fashioned sexist ones simply because in the modern age the idea of “strength” seems to involve the ability to kill. The recent DC films hadn’t filled me with much hope. Bystanders should matter to a hero (Looking at you “Man of Steel” city smasher, when you could have taken your fight with Zod to a cornfield or the moon or...). A “gritty” Wonder Woman wasn’t something I wanted. 

Luckily it looks like I wasn’t the only one. Not that there isn’t plenty of violence  and our heroine does rack up a body count.

It begins by telling us of Wonder Woman AKA Princess Diana’s childhood, with the only little girl on the island if Amazon’s running off wanting to learn to fight. And OMG! Isn’t the woman chasing after her trying to catch the little scamp Dayna from Blake’s 7?????? Wow! Yep it really was Josette Simon!*** We get to see the child’s over protective mother reluctantly allow her demigod of a daughter get trained. We also see Diana embrace whole completely the legends and ideals of her people. These things always turn out to be a lot more complicated when you grow up...

And grow up she does. A WWI pilot crashes lands at the island, followed by pursued by Germans, leading to bloodshed and a corpse strewn beach in paradise. Finding out about the World War in progress, Diana wants to take the pilot (Steve Trevor, of course) back into the world, partly because he’s gotten a hold of info about a new a deadlier than ever before gas cooked up by a German scientist, a woman with an interesting bit of mask work covering her experimentation damage. Her main reason is the belief that such a war could only be the result of Ares, god of war, and that as an Amazon she is duty bound to stop him. Naturally, her first step in growing up us to defy he parent and go off to do what she believes is right.

Once out in our world Diana is a fish out of water, coping with a world where women don’t even yet have the right to vote and fashions are most definiately not conducive to battle. She is also incredibly innocent, with a sort of adolecent passionate belief in the world as a simply place. Just go to the battle front, kill Ares, and the world will be at peace. And so, through the story, she comes to learn the world is more complicated, but comes through quickly from the dark disillusionment that brings to find again the hope deep within, only now with a more mature understanding behind it.

Or, you know, lots of fighting and CGI work as Wonder Woman leaps over tall buildings in a single bound...oh wait, that’s the guy in blue tights...But she does leap, off the charts strong. There is a detour for brief romance, much to my mother’s annoyance. (My mother grimiced and muttered as the kissing started.) ****And there is the pyrotechnic superbeing versus superbeing ending, plus the emotional blow of a tragic sacrifice.  That sort if thing.

I liked the choice of WWI, not simply because WWII has been done by superhero films already and we are in the anniversary period for that war, but because it was a particularly messy, large and ugly war. It works thematically, both for Diana to assume Ares is behind all of it and to realize humans really are capable of such horrors, without the more simple good guy/ bad guy  dichotomy of WWII. 

On the other hand, I was a bit uncomfortable with how once Steve showed up he became more of the driving force in the story. In a way it makes sense. He has the experience in our world and knows how it works. He would seem the adult to her not yet fully mature personality in this sort of coming of age story. Yet, a few times I was a bit bothered and had a fleeting “SHE is supposed to be the hero of this story!” moments.

Over all I really enjoyed it. It can’t live up to the hype, but that’s okay because nothing ever does. My mother, who is notoriously hard to please when she has an idea of a character, gave this Wonder Woman her endorsement, saying that this one got the kindness as well a strength. But really, I don’t know if I can give a proper verdict when I have so much emotions tied up with the very existance of the film. Watching the first few minutes of the film I noticed I had tears on my cheeks. After 76 years there was FINALLY a Wonder Woman movie, so for now my feeling is just ....“YES!!!!”

**There are no photos of my wearing it. On fact there are no photos of me wearing ANY Halloween costume! What’s up with that? I dunno, but it just sort of happened. Talking about the costume with Mom she said there should be photos and was shocked when I pointed out the only Halloween pics I have are with jack o’lanterns, and many of them. My folks just didn’t even realize they weren’t thinking to take pictures of us growing up......

***I have a story about my best friend in high school reacting to a pic of her...but that’s for another time...

**** Since this week was my parents’ anniversary and Pop was called “Steve” I think it was reminding her of her grief too. 

[centaurianthropology]

The Magnus Archives ‘High Pressure’ (S02E11) Analysis

Diving!  Deep sea mysteries!  The return of a mysterious old antagonist and some immense Lovecraftian horror, and a few answers (that raise more questions) about one of the assistants.  This one hits all my buttons, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Come on in to read my take on ‘High Pressure’.

So we immediately get immersed in the fascinating world of deep-sea salvage, which is a departure from many of the more mundane jobs we hear about often in TMA.  I don’t know if the writer has ever done scuba before, but his descriptions continue to be one of the highlights of the show.  The level of obvious care in research and in detailing the job and the situation make it all the more immersive when things go wrong. And that’s critical, because the descent into horror (literally as well as figuratively this time) could seem slow, but instead builds a sense of dread that pays off in beautiful, unexpected ways.

I immediately hurried over to the Wiki page for ‘The Bosun’s Call’ as soon as I realized it was another story about the sea, as I thought that her captain, Kemp, might have been in that one as well.  No such luck, but there was a callback to an old episode.  The salvage crew was hired to find the yacht owned by the grandfather of the mysterious Simon Fairchild, last heard from in ‘Freefall’.  We knew very little about Fairchild, aside from that he seemed to have vanished, was involved with someone being eaten by the sky, and was a pseudonym for something.

So it was exciting to draw him deeper into the web of mystery that is this expanding and complicated universe (and indeed he seems as deeply enmeshed in the wider world of TMA as it is possible to be).  It’s interesting that both of the stories he’s featured in involve diving.  One skydiving, the other deep sea diving.  

Moreover, there are definitely similarities between the situations in ‘Freefall’ and ‘High Pressure’. Both involve people in dangerous professions that involve descent.  But while ‘Freefall’ was about a man who was temporarily—and then not so temporarily—trapped in a world of endless sky, this ocean, though as empty as that sky, did have a bottom, and a particularly creepy sunken wreck from the 1890s called the Maria Fairchild.  

Our protagonist, Antonia Hayley, found a hole in the hull while exploring the ship to recover heirlooms. The hole seemed to have been torn out from the inside, and the water beyond was far darker than it ought to have been.  When Antonia looked through that hole, she seemed to have been transported to the twilight zone of the ocean, or at least an endless expanse of crushing water similar to the twilight zone of our own oceans.  In this ocean, as there was in the endless sky, there was no life and no surface, no up or down; just an endless expanse of water.  The light was so dim as to be almost useless, but she made out, stretching as far as her vision could reach, an impossibly large, impossibly distant hand.  Even as it began to move, she bumped against the sharp hull next to her, and came back from whatever terrifying place she had been.  There is no word on what happened beyond that, as she was overcome by the bends.  Her diving partner and Simon Fairchild both seem to have disappeared.

Lore-wise, this one is rich, and ties together two surprising stories: ‘Literary Heights’ and ‘Freefall.’  Yet again, we have the impossibly large, impossibly distant being as a motif, now perhaps real albeit in some other, endless ocean.  We have the same language of impossible immensity used in ‘Literary Heights’, the same despairing smallness.

But what does that mean? Leitner seems more and more like a hub, a collector for all the impossible things that exist in this world, and a collector who imposes no restrictions and no safeties on the acquisition of knowledge.  We had the being made of lightning, first, and now we have at least one and possibly more than one being of impossible vastness.  Again I wonder if Leitner isn’t providing some sort of transport or access to other worlds through his books, and allowing other worlds access to ours. And I wonder how Leitner’s abilities, seemingly more based in his collection than himself, relate to those of Simon Fairchild.  He too, if we’re getting properly Lovecraftian, has keys to the Outer Gates, and we’re dealing with some serious Great Old Ones.  And more interestingly, this seems to be a family affair, with his grandfather having the same access to that endless ocean that he did to endless sky.  I wonder what might have lurked in that sky, if we’d had a first-hand account of Robert Kelly.

It’s also possible that Simon Fairchild is not the grandson of the man who owned the ship, but was himself that man.  We have Sims’ account that there was a con-artist thrown to his death from a window in the 1930s, linked to a minor haunting he himself investigated as one of his first cases as an Institute Researcher in 2012, who went by the same alias. While it may well be just a coincidence, I somehow doubt that the previous Simon Fairchild would have been introduced if he wasn’t somehow involved in the larger story of this one. There do seem to be records of the Fairchild family, at least.  They appear extremely wealthy, with links to aerospace and deep sea drilling, perpetuating that strange link to the sky and sea, and the strange vast places he seems to have access to.  That puts me in mind of the Lukas family, and I do have to wonder if these two dangerous, strange families ever crossed paths.

Not-Sasha

On another note, we got a bit more on Sasha, or well … we didn’t.  It turns out that, despite personally requesting her to work in the Archives, Sims didn’t actually know anything about her beyond that she started out in Artifact Storage, and still knows nothing more than the brief biography we got earlier this season.  

But if we got very little from the real Sasha, we got a surprising, if small, insight into Not-Sasha. It seems she has a more complicated relationship with the table than we initially imagined, claiming that the sort of thing that took over Graham didn’t seem the sort to allow itself to be bound to an object.  I have to think that, by extension, pertains to Not-Sasha.  She’s bound to that table against her will, putting me even more in mind of Michael and the beings that are also places.  If the table isn’t actually the origin of Not-Sasha, where did her kind come from, and how are they linked to that table?  Is it at all possible that our Sasha is in that table, and still alive?  

I also find it interesting that, despite her implied frustration with the table, Not-Sasha spends hours staring at it.  What is she trying to do when she looks at it?  She claims it’s not a fractal, but a web.  And Sims, to my surprise, agreed that they were all trapped by it.  What did he mean by that?  At least he seems smart enough to request that Sasha’s access to that table be limited.  At last I might see if my speculation that Elias actually knows about Not-Sasha and is studying her might be borne out or totally refuted.  Either way, I really want to know how both he and Not-Sasha react to this.

Also, why does Not-Sasha take extra-long lunch breaks in Mme Toussand’s wax museum?  Dare I dream of a multi-voice exploration of a wax museum? An archival staff field trip?

A girl can dream.

Conclusions

The horror itself was deliciously Lovecraftian, and took a really chilling turn with that impossibly immense hand.  I think we might finally be scraping the surface of the wider, WIDER universe at play here.  The idea that there is an ecosystem of monsters and horrors has been floated before, and seems all the more valid now that we’ve caught glimpses of being far vaster and likely far more uncaring of our existence or our world than either Jane or Michael.  This is the fear, not of the unknown, but of the unknowable.  Of something so immense and so alien that we cannot comprehend even a single one of its hands.  That is exactly the sort of horror that excites me the most!

We also got some great snippets about Not-Sasha, and more about Simon Fairchild, who definitely seems to be a big player in whatever game is going on in this universe.  What exactly he can do and why is a mystery I’m eager to hear more about.  I also really want to find out how he ties in with the Lukases or with Leitner.  More and more surprising links are being forged in this series, and I feel like we’re seeing this universe the same way that Antonia saw that impossibly large being in the endless ocean: the shadow of an outline of a single limb has been shown.  We can’t even begin to guess the shape of the thing beyond, and can only speculate as to its enormity.

Hell of an episode, this one.  

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1189

Monday, November 20, 2017

 Ottawa ComicCon put on a special edition Holiday con this past weekend so I went to check it out because it was FREE admission. Still had to pay $8 to park at the EY Centre though. The main reason I went was to pick up the book D&D&D (D)ungeons & (D)ragons & (D)oodles The Tabletop Fantasy Art of Tom Fowler since Tom was there. Much to my surprise Craig Taillefer was sitting next to him on one side and Ronn Sutton was on the other. I spent a happy half hour geeking out and swapping stories with them. After Tom signed my copy and generously drew a sketch inside I walked around the venue checking out the booths. It's been years since I've attended a con and I was impressed by some of the set-ups. Still, the comic vendors looked like the ones that sold stuff 30 years ago. Same tables of long boxes and makeshift walls for the wall books. I saw a lot of old Snail customers that I haven't seen in years. Some I recognized and some that I didn't. They all knew me though. The reaction of some folks was "what is he doing here?" looks that made me grin. I ended my sojourn hanging out with my Jee-Riz partner Chris as he helped at a friends booth. I can't say that I'll go to another con but I'm glad I went to this one.

 Action Comics #991 - Dan Jurgens (writer & breakdown art) Viktor Bogdanovic (pencils) Viktor Bogdanovic, Trevor Scott & Scott Hanna (inks) Mike Spicer (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). "The Oz Effect" concludes with the question of whether Mr. Oz was Jor-El or not left unanswered. Throw in a mysterious super powerful villain and it's more than enough to keep me reading. I liked Viktor's slimmer Superman. He looks more natural than the muscle bound version that Nick Bradshaw & Brad Anderson drew for the cover.

 Runaways #3 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). It's time to catch up with Karolina Dean as Gert tries to get the team back together again. Karolina used to be one hot mess but she's a lot better now thanks to therapy.  I am really looking forward to next issue when the gang goes to find Molly, my favourite Runaway.

 Wildstorm: Michael Cray #2 - Bryan Hill (writer) N. Steven Harris (pencils) Dexter Vines (inks) Dearbhla Kelly (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). Michael's first assignment is to kill Oliver Queen. Yep, that Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow guy. His next assignment is to target another well known name. These characters are bad guys in the Wildstorm universe and I think that's cool.

 Spider-Man Deadpool #23 - Robbie Thompson (writer) Chris Bachalo (pencils) Tim Townsend, Al Vey & Richard Friend (inks) Chris Bachalo (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Spider-Man tries to arrest Deadpool and mindless mayhem ensues. So a typical issue of Spider-Man Deadpool. But wait, what's with this lovely art that looks like the old Doctor Strange comic book? Why yes, it's Chris Bachalo. I am so happy and will be ogling the rest of "Arms Race" with glee.

 Star Wars #38 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). "The Ashes of Jedha" starts here. We've got Luke, Leia and Han trying to contact fighters against the Empire on the planet Jedha. That's where the Empire wants to strip mine the planet's Kyber crystals. The partisans appear to not want to play nice though. We'll see how the gang gets out of this fine mess.

 Not Brand Echh #14 - It was difficult finding every issue of the 13 issue run of the original series on the spinner racks back in the late sixties but I bought and read every one that I could. This title made fun of my favourite Marvel comic books back then and this latest issue doesn't spare the House of (sometimes bad) Ideas. It got a couple of genuine chuckles out of me so that's about $2.50 Canadian per chuckle. Here are the comedy sketches and their creative teams. Secret Empire Abridged: Nick Spencer (writer) Scott Koblish (art) Nick Filardi (colours). Better Than Canon: Katie Cook (writer& art). Gwenpool Absorbs the Marvel Universe: Christopher Hastings (writer) Gurihiru (art). Marvel Behind the Scenes: Nick Kocher (writer) Brian Churilla (art) Chris O'Halloran (colours). Love Can Be Nuts: Ryan North (writer) Erica Henderson (art). The Not Next Issue Page: Chip Zdarsky (writer & art). Forbush Man Returns parts 1 to 4: Jay Fosgitt (writer & art). The whole issue was lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles (letters).

 Batman #35 - Tom King (writer) Joelle Jones (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). "Rules of Engagement" concludes with a terrific sword fight between Catwoman/Selina and Talia, Batman's ex. The verbal repartee was great and just as great was the one between Damian and Dick. My question is "where the heck did Holly come from?". I hope that this family adventure theme continues because I really like having Selina, Damian, Dick and Alfred around.

 Maestros #2 - Steve Skroce (writer & art) Dave Stewart (colours) Fonografiks (letters). This is a beautifully illustrated Game of Thrones and Wands with wizard warriors plotting against each other. There's a rekindled romance and a shocking twist that makes reading the next issue a must.

 Champions #14 - Mark Waid (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Worlds Collide part 4. He's no Blue Fairy but the High Evolutionary pulls a Pinocchio on Viv Vision and all seems lost. The heroes fight through but there's still a ways to go to prevent total destruction. We'll find out what happens when Avengers #674 hits the racks on December 6.

 Aquaman #30 - Dan Abnett (writer) Stjepan Sejic (art & colours) Steve Wands (letters). Atlantis Uprising. The revolution starts here. Orin joins the rebel forces and King Rath becomes more unhinged. Meanwhile, Mera is in deep water. I am enjoying this book again. You should give it a try.

 Mech Cadet Yu #4 - Greg Pak (writer) Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Triona Farrell (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). It's all-out action as the four cadets and their robos fight against giant alien crabs and orders from their superiors. The General is not pleased. Let's see what happens to keep them in their mechs and not get kicked out of the program.

 Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan #2 - Declan Shalvey (writer) Mike Henderson (art) Lee Loughridge (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue tells us why the two heroes are teaming up. Makes sense. I like these straightforward good guys versus bad guy stories with witty repartee that don't tax the brain pan too much.

 Superman #35 - Patrick Gleason & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Travis Moore, Stephen Segovia & Art Thibert (art) Danei Ribeiro (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Hey, I thought Lex's armour was mostly green. The battle for the throne of Apokalips continues with Lois and Jon's lives still hanging in the balance. I still think that Lex will save the day in the end.

 American Gods #9 - Neil Gaiman (writer) P. Craig Russell (script & layouts) Scott Hampton (art & colours) Rick Parker (letters). This is like reading the novel again but better. The art enhances the story so much.

 Defenders #7 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Marquez (art) Justin Ponsor & Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is the funniest comic book on the racks for the week. Yes even funnier than Not Brand Echh #14. Brian has a great sense of humour. I'm wondering now if all the great artists that he works with are also going to work for DC. That would be ideal for me because he really clicks with David Marquez and Sara Pichelli. The five page fight scene between Elektra and Iron Fist is the best I've ever seen. Just as good as watching Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

 Wonder Woman Conan #3 - Gail Simone (writer) Aaron Lopresti (pencils) Matt Ryan (inks) Wendy Broome (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Some sorcery is added to the swords this issue.

 Mighty Thor #701 - Jason Aaron (writer) James Harren (art) Dave Stewart (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I must have missed Mangog's origin story back when Jack Kirby first drew him but Jason recaps it very well here. Mangog isn't the only long unseen character to pop up. The Odinson's best buddy reappears too. This issue is one awesome battle. The visuals are so striking I could feel each punch. What a great fill-in by James Harren.

 Super Sons #10 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jose Luis (art) Scott Hanna (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). I like the contrast between Jon's youthful enthusiasm and Damian's grim cynicism. The three year age gap feels like decades but each one is subtly influencing the other. This issue sets it up so that the two lads will be spending even more time together learning how to be heroes. This is one of my favourite comic books on the racks right now.

 Amazing Spider-Man #791 - Dan Slott (writer) Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Rain Beredo (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I am enjoying this point in Peter Parker's life where things are going well for him. His relationship with Mockingbird is sweet and chaste. His new job is challenging. The super heroics aren't too over the top and he comes out a winner this issue. I know the good times won't last but I will feel good while it does. My fanboy crush on Bobbi Morse is even bigger now because of the way Stuart and Wade draw her. Sigh.

 Incredible Hulk #710 - Greg Pak (writer) Greg Land (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Return to Planet Hulk part 2. Hulk has to survive a gauntlet to save lives and he smashes admirably. It looks like next issue swipes scenes from the Thor Ragnarok movie. I am looking forward to that guest appearance.

 Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #297 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Adam Kubert with Juan Frigeri (art) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Totally different Peter Parker. Totally different life from Amazing. The two titles aren't even trying for continuity and that's okay. I just want to read a good story and this one where Peter and Spider-Man are being pursued by the authorities is a good one. Throw in recent revelations involving Jonah Jameson and this fan is anxious to see what happens next. According to the next issue tease T'Challa will come calling.

 Star Wars: Darth Vader #8 - Charles Soule (writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Daniele Orlandini (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). We are witness to some Jedi rage this issue along with finding out what the stakes are for the good guys. Wondering what Vader is going to do keeps me coming back.

 Weapon X #11- Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers) Marc Borstel & Ibraim Roberson (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The Hunt for Weapon H concludes. Will Hulkverine be a good guy or a bad guy? The jury is still out on that. I like this team and am enjoying their adventures so far.

 Spider-Men II #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Elisabetta D'Amico (inking assistant) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Miles's search for his evil twin takes a terrible turn but he's got the Amazing Spider-Man helping out now. The two webslingers should be able to figure things out but you never know.

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