#persnickety pete

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Bonus Poll #8: Puppet Poll

Propaganda (stolen unedited from the wikis):

Immortal Doll (Friends at the Table: Bluff City)

The immortal doll is a puppet doll similar in appearance to a little boy. After being broken by the Neighbour family, the doll was repaired by Marlin Guppy, who was somehow able to give it additional sentience (as all objects have partial consciousness). It has been speculated that “the paint makes [the doll] immortal because the paint never dries”. Although the immortal doll cannot speak, while covered in magnets in Part Five of America's Playground it can make an affirmative and negative sound. When seen in America’s Playground, he is dressed in a little suit with a magnetic suit underneath. The immortal doll is described as long long-limbed and gregarious, leaving a dripping trail behind it. He moves as though he’s falling in a very specific way, as though his limbs are connected by rubber bands, similar to the spider man in Spirited Away. Known Abilities: Transporting to a different location Movement Getting longer (may be dependent on how many people are looking at it) "Speaking" (when covered in magnets)

Nikola Orsinov (The Magnus Archives):

Nikola Orsinov is a recurring character in the Magnus Archives and is either an acolyte or an aspect of The Stranger. She appears as a plastic female mannequin dressed as a circus ringmaster, although she can disguise herself as human using stolen skin and a 'borrowed' voicebox. She is the main antagonist of Season 3.

(Sorry for lack of audio propaganda. The Magnus Archives is the most well-known of these anyways.)

Persnickety Pete (The Bridge):

Persnickety Pete aka Parsnip Paul aka Pretentious Pierre aka Particular Pietro is a ventriloquist dummy and mayor of Ocean View. Persnickety Pete has vacant eyes, a creepy smile, and a tux, like one would expect a ventriloquist dummy to look. He was part of a new act for Ocean View's Triton's Follies, where he cycled through a variety of partners (who he most likely killed). After an issue with the Actors Association, he was declared mayor of Ocean View, purging all of the actors in the process. He attacked Frank Hayward for disrespecting him and turned the man's arm into something that resembled a crushed tomato. Persnickety Pete is a showman, and while he is both creepy and violent, he puts The Show above all else. He becomes easily upset when people aren't nice to him, and will lash out. He likes to try to convince people to put him in front of mirrors.

(The work assembling the song from the clips in the episode was done by @greerbaiting and you can reblog the audio by itself posted by them.)

Inspired by @the-puppet-bracket and a post by @equalseleventhirds!

[ah0yh0y]

just finished The Bridge anyone got any reccomendations for a podcast like that?

also loosing my mind over the fact The VAlley and The Flood is now canon in the Bridge universe might post my thoughts on that maybe 

[forensicated]

02x12 - The Chief Super's Party

This episode was originally the series ender for series 1 but a strike meant that only 11 episodes were finished by the time it came to air. It was tweaked with some reshoots and edits to explain cast changes.

Uniform head over to yard with Mike and Dashers. They have to break in to an office where they find a man beaten and tied up on the floor. He's rather sarcastic about how long they took - even when Pete and Abe claim it was just a couple of minutes. The man claims that the burglars stole a van and some of his sheepskin coats.

Reg has been sent to coventry by the others after he applied for the Chief Superintendents Clerk's job. It's not a popular position as the person who holds it essentially ends up making life hard for the officers with overtime refusals/expense claims/unforgiving memos and so forth. He's in two minds whether or not to attend the party that the Chief Super is holding that night at the pub for the retiring clerk that most people have muttered about in the last few episodes and consider a persnickety pain in the arse. Alec tells him he won't be the only one ignored - Dave Litten has said that he will be returning to attend after 'poncing off' to join another Division. Alec tells him that they're clearly jealous and that's why they're ignoring him and that he should find his niche and stick to it.

Ted drives the man around to see if they can spot the van as it hasn't been spotted by any other officers. Pete drives around the other end of Sun Hill, claiming it's a waste of time as they'd be long gone. Roy is aware of the man who was tied up and his business partner as they've pulled similar dodgy schemes before. Ted also thinks it's iffy but they have to look into it despite both men thinking it's an inside job that they've now shown some 'violence' in as part of to make it look different from the others. Ted suggests he does an obbo overnight to watch the man to stop him from having to go to the party. Roy won't hear of it - if he has to suffer through the party, so does Ted. Brownlow is expecting everyone to be there.

Pete speaks to a cafe owner who has heard whispers in the cafe that the theft of the van/coats is an inside job. He can't give them names or locations however.

Yorkie drives June and Jim to the party. The boys aren't looking forward to it, however, June is - as much as she pretends she isn't aware that Dave will be there and she definitely hasn't had her hair and makeup done for him!

Also attending is DS Tommy [not yet Frank] Burnside. "Some nice boozers out in Epping," Bob says dryly. "Haven't heard of any?" Burnside claims he's attending to say goodbye to Henry but Bob claims it's because he's heard about the free booze. Roy asks him where his bottle is and that he has to bring one or he doesn't get in. Sadie won't sell him one over the bar so he has to go to an off licence.

Roy reminds Ted to go steady on the booze because he has a promotion board hearing coming up. Upstairs at the free bar, June is having a struggle trying to pull pints without a ridiculous amount of head on them. Dave sits at the side of the bar looking bored.

Local businessmen, including Bernie - Roy's car lot owner friend - have been invited to make up numbers and can be heard laughing over the general hubbub. Charles keeps being distracted by them and looks for Roy to keep an eye on them, threatening Roy that his feet won't touch the ground if Charles is embarrassed in front of his golf club friends by them or Ted who is obviously drunk.

Tom stands with Bob but makes no secret that he's eyeing Viv up. Burnside returns, pilfering a bottle from the side of the bar and pretending he brought it with him. He hands it to Roy who is wise to him, getting dragged out to the stairwell while Brownlow makes a speech and presentation to Henry, his clerk. Roy asks Burnside what he's doing on the manor because he knows he's up to something. Burnside tells him he's over as a social call cos he fancies June and wants to try his luck. "Do what?" Roy scoffs. "How can any bird in her right mind be interested in a bloke as obnoxious as you?!" Burnside claims he's rung her a few times and she's knocked him back only to say that, if he was truly serious, to turn up that night.

Roy walks away laughing, 'promising' not to tell anyone.

Ted makes drunken snarky comments throughout Charles' speech which, judging by Brownlow's side looks, can be heard.

Dave is glad that he's on night duty and will have to leave soon as it's a dull party and he's spent it leaning against the bar. Burnside tries to chat June up in front of him and Dave tells him to leave it because 'she's taken!' Reg isn't having any luck either, asking Viv if she wants to have a dirty weekend with him. "Look, Sonny, if I wanted a dirty weekend, I'd choose a man." Bob slips out, unable to stick drinking in the same room as Burnside much longer. He's on night shift too so he walks out with Taffy and Jim wondering if they could get away with doing the same.

With Bob gone, Tom chats up Viv and Mike starts to make a move to leave for a date. Roy has noticed that the Scotch is rather strong so asks Mike to water it down before he goes. Seeing her chance, Viv sidesteps Tom to make a move on Mike, asking him what he's doing that night. In response, Mike puts her down very harshly which seems quite out of character considering how he is often the peacemaker for Ted. "Got a sick dog at home, got to go look after it. Think it's on heat or something." Thanks a lot, Pal!" she snaps back with June wincing for her.

Mike puts in too much water so asks June to top up Roy's drink a little bit. She pours it out from a bottle that Mike recognises and asks her to stash it away and not serve anyone else from it - or the other bottle that was brought in but won't tell her why. "Did anyone tell you, Mike Dashwood, you've got a right way with women(!)"

Roy corners Ted and warns him that he's already too drunk and needs to go home - but not under his own steam! Ted slurs about Reg likely being the next clerk and that he's warned him if he ever grasses on him he'd punch him. Mike interrupts and leads Roy to one side and tells him that two bottles of Scotch that were stolen from the warehouse have turned up at the party. He tells Mike to send June over to him at the buffet and, if Burnside asks why, to feed him a story to keep him away. When they return, Ted has already gone and Mike fears that he'll be driving home drunk.

Most disturbingly of all, Roy eats celery with far too much enthusiasm.

There's no excuse for it, Roy!

At a table with Dave, Mike slips in a 'casual' reference to June being Roy Galloway's girl. Dave almost chokes on his drink in the process.

Roy has June 'casually' look around the room whilst holding a plate of food as cover to see if she can spot the man who gave her the bottles of Scotch. She can't be sure but she thinks it's one of Brownlow's guests. He tells her to let only Brownlow's guests drink that Scotch - as they're asking for it by name - and to not open the 2nd bottle but put it to one side with the other once it's empty. When the party is over he'll collect them. June asks him to tell her what is going on and he claims - if it comes off - "It's a rare coup." Roy tells Mike to start tracing where the scotch came from in the morning, knowing that it's likely one over on the Super...

Getting nowhere with June, Dave leaves to go over to his nick for night duty, claiming 'This lot ain't worth waiting about for, you know what I mean?' to Roy.

Alec is surprised to see Bob arrive back early for his shift. "It's quiet as a graveyard, Bob. Nothing happened at all. Not. A. Dicky. Bird. Nothing in that book since 5." Alec committed the ultimate sin of a policeman - mentioning the Q word and a woman comes in, shouting the odds.

Henry - the clerk - and his wife start saying goodbye to the people at their party. A large group ignore them and continue their own conversations. It seems that no one really wanted to attend.

Roy spots Brownlow looking at him talking to his friends and, with a knowing smirk because the Chief Super has just had a glass of stolen whiskey poured for him, he raises his glass to him. June winks across the room at Roy and Burnside spots it, looking between them and reading more into it after what Mike told him with Dave.

Ted drives home with music booming from his car. The rocking of the car is making Ted fall asleep, waking in time just to avoid a skip. He swerves to avoid it and crashes into someone's fence. His car is stuck in the mud and he staggers out muttering "What have I done?" as the homeowner comes out to shout at him. He runs off, pretending he's running after the man who did it when a crowd gathers.

Jim arrives slightly late for the briefing, having to sneak in behind Bob. Pete tells him a van load of sheepskin coats are missing and that he's to let him know if they turn up. Bob reports that a man has called in, complaining that he has a car in his front garden. "Why don't they have little plastic gnomes like everyone else?" Taffy laughs. Given that Taffy and Jim were seen drinking at the party - Bob thinks nothing of sticking them in a car together to drive out to see what has happened with the crashed car...!

Ted rings his girlfriend to tell her that he's crashed the car while drunk. He's alright but he's going to disappear for a little while whilst the heat dies down as he can't afford to be breathalysed at the minute so he tells her to say she doesn't know where he is and he hasn't been in touch if contacted.

As Roy approaches June to gather the bottles, Burnside is seen leading Viv out. "When one door closes..." he smirks at Roy. June tells Roy that Burnside is under the impression that she's having it off with someone else and that whoever it is has scared him off good and proper. "Why'd you want me?" Roy asks with June taking a double take in response before realising what he meant. She tells him that she has the bottles ready for him. She's worked out what the problem Roy might have with it is too. "It's nicked, isn't it....?" Roy grins and tells her they'll have to see.

Jim and Taffy attend the crashed car and Taffy recognises who it belongs to. The man shouts at them when they ask for his name and tells them that he used to be a copper. Bugger. There's no easy way of pulling the wool over his eyes as he knows the procedure and he's very - very - angry! Taffy whispers to Jim that the car belongs to Ted and that he should go over to the phonebox round the corner and ring Bob to ask him what to do.

Reg has a discreet word with Roy to tell him Bob is outside. Bob tells him that Ted has crashed in someone's front garden and he's done a runner. They don't think he's hurt given how he ran away and they are aware he'll be hiding so he doesn't have to be breathalysed. Roy doesn't want Charles to hear about it, knowing it'd be the end of his career. The car has only superficial damage so he's had it towed into the station car park and parked it in such a way that hides the damage. Roy asks Bob if he can square it with the house owner that they'll get him a new fence if he doesn't take it any further. Roy reminds him that 'good boys can't be bad boys'. [I wouldn't say that...there's a very Sun Hill officers that were very bad boys, Roy...!] Bob says he'll help cover unless it gets iffy.

Ted hides in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant, asking the manager for somewhere to hide whilst the dust settles.

As the party settles down and the stragglers leave, Charles makes plans to head home but asks Roy to pop in in the morning as there's something he'd like to discuss. Roy agrees and lingers at the bar so Brownlow asks him if he's hanging on. Roy covers, saying he'd offered to make sure June gets home safely. June is amused when Roy says to give him a few minutes to go before giving her the bottles. "You not taking me home then, sir?" "Taking you home? You don't want me to take you home do you?" he repeats, looking shyly at the bar. "Some might venture that I'm the mystery man you're having it off with and that would never do, would it." "Yeah, perhaps you're right..." June muses, "That'd never do. I do have my reputation to think of... sir..." [I can't help but ship them! Especially how Roy can't look at her when he repeats 'You don't want me to take you home, do you?' and keeps his eyes down on the bar!]

Ted spends the night on a restaurant boat, surrounded by bottles of alcohol which - thankfully - he doesn't seem to have continued to drink. Ted staggers to his feet holding his head and leaves the boat. The sudden brightness as he opens the door blinds him at first but he makes his way out and walks along the docks. Ted hasn't made contact with anyone yet but in his walking around he spots the man who was found tied up at the start of the episode and his business partner selling the 'stolen' sheepskin coats on the docks. He legs it to the nearest phonebox and calls Roy at home to tell him, brushing aside what also happened the night before. Roy calls Bob and reports it, arranging to meet him at the docks with Jim and Mike. Ted tells them he's not asking for absolution when they arrive but he has found the evidence they need. Unfortunately, they're spotted by one of the men so have to make chase.

The boss of one of the fish companies on the docks comes running at them to tell them that 2 men have gone into his cold storage when the forklift came out. There's no other way out so, amused, Roy tells the boss to send his men for breakfast and leave them to 'sweat' as it were for half hour. Roy wants to turn Ted's problem into a success story but Ted doesn't think it's enough to save him. Bob tells him he's straightened things out with the homeowner but he does have to buy him a new fence. Bob is worried that the chief super will kick off about the unauthorised overtime of him and Jim, but Roy just smiles. "With any luck the overtime will be the least of the chief supers worries." "... Have you got something up your sleeve?" Bob blinks. "I think you could say that."

Bob takes Ted over to the homeowner to settle things - promising to pay for the new fence AND get the man into the special constabulary. Roy sends Mike to the golf club to trace the moody scotch and he and Jim sit and wait outside the cold storage.

Reg arrives early and goes into the parade room. He calls Brownlow at home and reports Ted for drunk driving. He says he doesn't like to inform on a fellow officer but he's smiling the entire time - then asks about the new clerk's job. Instead of answering, Brownlow hangs up.

Roy and the others prepare to make their arrests. They enter the cold storage in style on a forklift truck wearing the sheepskin coats. Huddled together they find the two men in question.

At the golf club, Mike talks to the manager about fake spirits. He claims everything is legit and nothing is bought over/or under the counter. One of the golf club members is the manager of the distillery of the scotch in question, however. Mike looks through the golf course members and rings the station after telling the boss to go and get him all the spirit receipts for the last quarter.

As Roy et al return, Brownlow orders them to his office. In the parade room, June is fussing a stray dog. Roy asks her if she's seen Ted and she tells him that he's upstairs in the canteen. Without another word, Roy goes upstairs. June sighs, looking at the dog. "Thank you for taking me home last night sir..." "That's alright June, all in the course of duty..." she mimics.

Brownlow tells Ted his behaviour was a disgrace and completely unbecoming of an officer which showed both him and Brownlow up and that he was in no fit state to drive home.

Mike asks June to put him through to the Super's office - and quickly - before Brownlow can continue his rant at Ted and Roy. Mike tells him that the scotch came from one of the guests last night and that he stole the bottles from his employer. In front of Brownlow, Roy makes a big show of telling Dashers not to take the matter any further so as not to cause more embarrassment to the Chief Super - obv! Roy asks Ted to leave the office because there's a matter of great delicacy that has arisen. He tells Charles that a guest of his knowingly brought stolen Scotch to the party. Scotch that he and his friends were asking for by name all night.

Ted sits at his desk, contemplating his career - knowing that any chance of promotion has now gone even if he does keep his job.

Roy returns to CID, gathering Mike for an early lunch on a restaurant boat with Bob at the behest of the Superintendent. Ted asks why not him and Roy says they didn't think it'd be Ted's sort of thing. Ted smiles. "If the Chief Super says you've gotta go someplace - well... you've gotta go"

[greerbaiting]

The Bridge Characters as Guide to Troubled Birds

Etta: 

Bertie: 

Kate: 

Roger: 

Frank: 

Percy: 

Nora: 

Bollard: 

Challenger Deep: 

Yvette: 

Persnickety Pete: 

[bertie-renard]

If Persnickety Deep isn’t your ultimate brotp then wtf are you doing 😩🤚🏻

[artblahrg]

• Perssssnickety Pete! •

[promithiae]

Dear @thebridgepodcast WHY DO I HAVE PETES CREEPY ASS SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD? THAT EPISODE WAS LITERALLY THE CREEPIEST SHIT I'VE HEARD IN A WHILE AND NOW I CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD

[equalseleventhirds]

i’m thinking so hard about the bridge minisode ‘the museum of oceanic curiosities’ and it’s so WONDERFULLY crafted

like. yes it’s spooky YES it’s terrifying

but like. hearing yvette’s voice when we the audience KNOW she disappeared (not just that she disappeared, but who took her and when and where), but she sound so calm! so casual about it! oh no that’s just a rumor!

and then you hear the story of the museum and wow what a cool and creepy story! but, you know, stories, they build on each other, they feed each other, but they’re only stories...

and the little note of ‘i don’t think the average person knows how they taste’, the monster lampshading its own hunting, of course, what a silly thing for a monster to ask, why would it even ask that, surely it’s just a story...

and then the door opens

and then. how do you taste?

[morrithal]

Persnickety Pete performed at Triton's Follies because he's God's mistake

[true-blue-megamind]

FAN THEORY THURSDAY – Why Did Metroman Retire?

Happy Almost-Friday, everyone! And even though Minion threatens to smother everything he cooks in old Limburger cheese each time I say it: SPOILER WARNING!

Yes, I know, it’s three a.m. and it’s technically Friday, but I’m still calling this Thursday night, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Okay, let’s be honest, Metroman is a character who seems, on the surface, to require little explanation in the film Megamind. He’s only present in the beginning and end, and we spend half the movie believing he’s dead, and we learn that Metroman has done something almost unheard of among superheroes: he’s chosen to retire. The question is: why? There is a tendency to think that he's simply a spoiled rich boy who, (in his social life, at least,) does what he wants without regard for others, but is that really fair? Or could there be other possible reasons? Well, let’s take a look at a few fan theories that may explain why he chose to abandon heroism for a music career.

Metroman Didn’t Want to Be a Hero

Although he’s clearly based on—and perhaps even poking a little fun at—the Man of Steel, Metroman was no Superman. (I mean, okay, he was technically a super-man, since he had strength, speed, and powers far beyond what a human would possess.) Except, here’s the thing: he’s not a carbon copy of the Man of Steel; Metroman and Superman have completely different lives and personalities. This remains true despite the fact that they share a similar origin—that of being aliens from a dead planet—and identical powers—including laser-vision and flight. Even their code names are comparable. However, if we look deeper, it becomes obvious that Metroman and Superman are two very different characters.

Superman is all about being an upstanding hero. Although he can be annoyingly persnickety, and sometimes displays nearly oppressively unyielding strictures about right and wrong, one thing you can say about the Man of Steel is that he’s generally integral. He is exactly what his public image portrays him to be: a Good Guy through and through. The same isn’t true of Metroman, and in some ways that makes him a more complex and interesting character.

The childhoods of the two heroes are extremely different. As I’ve mentioned in Why Was Megamind Raised in Prison, when a boy, Metroman was a bully, not only making young Megamind an outsider and the object of everything from teasing to physical attacks, but also inspiring other students to do the same. Superman, on the other hand, far from being a bully was bullied by Pete Ross. Rather than using his powers against others, he was too responsible and good-hearted to use them even against Pete Ross. Metroman is adopted by super-wealthy parents, and is essentially a trust-fund baby, while Superman was adopted by a farm family. He grows up with a good work ethic and hometown values. Indeed, this economic discrepancy continues into adulthood. As far as we can tell, Metroman doesn’t need to work and has no job outside being a superhero. Superman, conversely, has to earn a living as a journalist. Finally, in the majority of comics, Superman avoids most public appearances, unless he feels they serve some beneficial social purpose. Indeed, he goes to great lengths to keep his identity a secret and avoid the public eye as much as possible. The first time we see Metroman in the film, however, he is basking in a crowd’s adoration at the dedication of a museum in his honor. Indeed, in the original script, then called Mastermind, Metroman’s real identity seems to be widely known. (In case you’re wondering, this is where the name Wayne Smith, commonly used in the fandom, originates from.) So, we see that these character are actually very different: one is a hero strictly for the greater good, and the other, while he certainly does a lot of good things, is also in it for the fame.

This may seem like I’m being harsh toward poor Wayne Smith, but his flaws do not, in fact, make him a bad person. The issue is that we’re comparing him to Superman who, while still certainly imperfect, is intended to be a better-than-average person in every way, including moral. Make no mistake, Metro City’s former hero isn’t any sort of villain; what he is is normal. If we’re honest, most of us would be pleased by wide-spread accolades and honors. He reacts to positive fame the same way nearly anyone would because, at his heart, he’s really just a typical guy. That is the material point: Wayne Smith really only wants to be an average citizen—a music star, perhaps, but still a relatively ordinary person. In that way, he and Megamind are alike: they both desire, more than nearly anything else, to be normal. The key difference is that Megamind’s sincere and driving concern for his city also makes him ideal for becoming a hero. (You can learn more about this particular fan theory in The Warden and in Megamind and Identity.)

So, why did Wayne Smith become a Defender in the first place, then? Again, I’ve briefly touched on this in previous posts, but it appears likely that Metroman was pushed into heroism just as much as Megamind was pushed into supervillainy. Because he was a bully with superpowers, it’s likely that adults around him realized something had to be done about Wayne. Otherwise he was a danger. So, they constructed an environment—the Li’l Gifted School—where he could be conditioned to seek the praise of others as well as to fight Megamind, who had been singled out as his future nemesis. (In fact, that conditioning is probably why he opted for a career that would put him on stage, aside from a probable love of music.)

Because the path chosen for Megamind involved more hardships and pain, it’s easy to forget that Metroman was in essentially the exact same plight. However, the fact remains that these were both children, and they were both being coerced into perceived destinies they didn’t want. Neither of them were given a choice and, in the end, both of them cast off the expectations pressed upon them to become the people they really wanted to be. The difference is that, because of our natural biases, Megamind’s rise to Defender of Metro City seems more noteworthy than Metroman’s step into Mr. Average Joe. The truth, however, is that both characters were basically doing the same thing: being true to themselves.

Metroman May Have Had Health Concerns

We know Megamind and Metroman are close to the same age—although the latter appears to be about a year rather than days old when he lands on Earth—but what that age is is open to supposition. We know, however, that they are almost certainly in their thirties, probably in their mid- to late-thirties. (Take a look at How Old is Megamind for more information about that.) However, we can see that Wayne is already going gray around the temples. Of course, some people’s genetics simply cause them to go gray earlier, and that’s certainly a possibility, but one fan theory suggest there may be more going on. The idea has been put forward that Wayne’s super-speed may be having an adverse effect on him, forcing his body to work overtime to keep up. The resulting physical stress could be making him age prematurely.

That’s not the only factor to consider. As hard as heroism may have been on his body, the effects on Metroman’s mind would have been even greater. Before the events in the movie, Metro City’s authorities—and, indeed, all its citizens—became too reliant upon their superhuman hero, and as a result that hero was run ragged. That isn’t a mere hypothesis. A scene that was storyboarded but never included in the final film makes Metroman’s plight perfectly clear. We see him being called from one end of the city to the other for everything from a massive explosion to an old lady needing help opening a jar. Keep in mind that, when hearing a cry for assistance, the hero would likely be unable to tell who truly needed him urgently and who was simply making unnecessary demands, thus he would have to rush to every call he heard. Even the city’s law enforcement seems to take him for granted, refusing to take criminals he just hand-delivered to jail because they’re on lunch break. The cumulative effect is that Metroman looks nearly frantic with stress.

This is important because, aside from the obvious mental and emotional concerns, this sort of stress accelerates aging as well. According to an article in the Huffington Post, when glycation and telomere shortening, as well as the over-oxidation, are caused by enduring heightened stress for prolonged periods of time, it can result not only in graying hair and premature wrinkles, but heart trouble as well. Even the memory can be affected, as one study by the University of Wisconsin found that stress can age a person’s brain up to four years faster than normal, and contribute to cognitive problems later in life. (The study was part of a presentation—you have no idea how badly I wanted to write that word in all-caps—and is thus currently unpublished, but information about it can be found in an article from Over Sixty.)

Metroman Retired for the Good of Everybody

As you can see, in a strange way, having a super-powered Defender was actually crippling Metro City. In fact, it may be truly damaging to the local infrastructure and official organizations. Youtuber Olaf Scholtens, in his video Megamind: Power and Identity, uses the metaphor of an airplane manufacturer to explain what’s going on. (If you’ve read my own post Megamind and Identity, you’ve seen this before.) Engineers and factories put a lot of effort and expense into making certain aircraft are as safe as possible, but what would happen if they felt they could confidently assume a superhero would simply catch any plane that crashed, saving everyone on board? Safety standards would probably become far more lax, and people might be in far more danger as a result. Given the way that nearly everyone in Metro City seems to assume Metroman will always save the day, it’s possible that, within the urban area, the same thing could be happening with things like building code enforcement, large construction projects, and even public safety measures. Bridges might not be properly built, fire hazards might not be addressed, and, given the blasé attitudes of the cops in the storyboard, law enforcement officers might not even be bothering to keep an eye on things. By retiring, Metroman forced the city to become more self-sufficient again.

That, however, may not have been the only problem Metroman was trying to solve. Remember the whole discussion about the former Defender’s school boy bullying and the apparent conspiracy to turn one boy into a hero and the other into a supervillain? It’s possible Wayne may have felt remorse for the former and found out about the latter. Having battled Megamind so much in the past, he also may have realized that the blue man never actually hurt anyone, and in fact went out of his way to stage their confrontations in abandoned places. (Again, you can read more about that in both Megamind and Identity and The Warden.) It may be that Metroman real “brilliant plan” wasn’t simply to fake his death, but in doing so to prod Megamind into becoming a hero and thus accepted by society.

There is an alternative theory, put forward in a Reddit post, that Megamind and Metroman’s parents may have known one another, and may have sent both children to Earth with the intention of them becoming a dynamic duo, fighting evil together with Megamind as the brains and Metroman as the brawn. This could have been what Megamind’s father meant when he told his son: “You are destined for greatness.” While there is very little support for this in the movie, it would explain why, in the vast cosmos, both of the young survivors were sent not only to the same planet, but even to the same city.

Whatever the reason may have been, one thing is certain: there certainly is some evidence that Metroman intended his one-time nemesis to become a hero. One of his lines, after Roxanne and Megamind discover he’s still alive, supports this. You know the one. “If there’s bad, good will rise up against it. It’s taken me a long time to find my calling; now it’s time you find yours.” Then, of course, there is another line, when Music Man is watching his former enemy take the role of Defender of Metro City: “way to go, Little Buddy. I knew you had it in you.”

If Metroman really did purposefully help Megamind step into heroism, that could also explain why he didn’t stop Megamind from taking over the city—perhaps he trusted the blue man not to harm anyone and to eventually come to his senses—as well as why he refuses to overtly help defeat Titan. He does, however, clearly subtly assist Megamind, as the latter almost certainly went back to Wayne’s hideout to scan his appearance and voice into the holowatch. All of this together makes it seem quite plausible that Metroman not only wanted to retire, but also wanted the blue man to take his place.

Megamind and Metroman by White-Night-56 on Deviant Art

Maybe this means that, now that Megamind is the Defender of Metro City, he and Music Man occasionally get together to commiserate over the more difficult aspects of being a superhero and joke about the old days.

It’s also quite possible that all of these fan theories could be true. The film Megamind is, among other things, surprisingly subtle, complex, and subversive for an animated movie. Every time I dive deep into some aspect or other of the plot, I am once again impressed by the amount of thought and detail that went into this work. No wonder Megamind—and its characters—have so many dedicated fans.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Okay so neither of these submissions made it in which is fair, I'm glad these tournaments had enough submissions they could eliminate the obscure ones, but I need to tell my captive audience you all that Persnickety Pete from The Bridge deserved to win the Puppet Poll, and Ver'million Blue from Friends at the Table: PARTIZAN deserved to win the Blue Hair And Pronouns tournament.

[vintagemiserie]

not to be a persnickety fucking asshole fall out boy fan but good lord could pete wentz spare a few hours to actually learn how to play the bass guitar

[falafel14]

El Camino Review: “Dude, you’re my hero and shit.”

 Where to start? (Bitch). 

Okay so I loved that Mike was the one who gave Jesse the idea to start over in Alaska. Jesse’s determination to follow a path that Mike recommended for him felt like he was desperate to honor one of his very last memories of Mike, which felt like a very Jesse thing to do. Then there was Mike’s line about how Jesse can never put things right. It’s the one thing he’ll never do. And when Mike said that I couldn’t decide whether he was establishing that Jesse’s redemption was impossible or just calling his redemption an impossibility so that Jesse could subvert expectations. In my heart, I wanted the latter. But I got the former. So was I disappointed? Actually...no. We’ve lived with the Choose-your-own-Jesse-Pinkman-ending thing for the last six years. I fan-ficced my own Jesse resolution and that gave me closure. Now I feel like I’m getting to see Vince Gilligan’s own personal Jesse resolution that he needed to give himself closure. And Vince’s choices are very different to mine, but understandably so. Vince is the one who personally made all those creative choices to put Jesse through the worst kinds of Hell (not me, I didn’t do that shit...). So after years of torturing this character so excessively I can understand why Vince needed to deliver his most abused creation to a place of peace and safety (Alaska apparently).     

And if I couldn’t get a redemption story for Jesse...well, at least I got one for Skinny Pete! Damn. Skinny has always been my favorite of Jesse’s friend circle and this film solidified why. Like Jesse, Skinny’s another smart compassionate guy who could have amounted to so much more if he hadn’t fallen into the drug world. The moment when he called Jesse his hero brought me to tears. I mean Skinny never saw the worst of Jesse’s crimes, but this line suggested to me that regardless of what Jesse had done, Skinny always saw Jesse as an impressive, admirable and decent person. And that was fucking lovely. It was heartwarming to see characters like Old Joe prepared to help Jesse out purely because they remembered him as being a good kid. But Skinny’s the one who risked his own freedom (”I’m on probation, yo!”) to give Jesse a chance to escape. So here’s hoping that your mad piano skills are discovered in prison, Skinny Pete! Oh and Badger’s lines about Skinny’s driving had me howling - “You couldn’t drive Miss Daisy!”, “You couldn’t drive Thelma and Louise off a that cliff!” Vince, if you want to write a straight up comedy next, then I’m here for it.      

Skinny Pete aside, I’d say my favorite parts of El Camino were the flashbacks. I mean...who knew we were going to get so much fucking Todd? And you know from my fanfic that I wanted the full horror of Jesse’s time as Todd’s prisoner/pet explored and...yes, it was every bit as horrific as I had expected. And yes, I feel terrible for laughing so often at Todd’s cheerful oblivious psychopathy. I wasn’t laughing all the time though. Who knew that the most heartbreaking line of all Breaking Bad canon was going to turn out to be... “Pepperoni”? Let’s just get it out of the way and say Aaron was devastating once again as Jesse Pinkman and is surely set to win a fourth Emmy for this role. And if Aaron’s going to be in the lead category this time, could we get a supporting actor nod for Plemons? Because DEAR GOD, he was blood-chillingly brilliant as Todd.

Then we have these two fuckers back together again. I knew they’d have to bring Bryan back in some way and Jesus, if you’d asked me to pick any missing Walt and Jesse moment from canon that I’d like to have seen...I swear my first choice would’ve been the journey home from 4 Days Out. This was the last time Walt still had his humanity, the last time we had juvenile “Yeah bitch!” Jesse and the last time before their relationship was so horribly poisoned by betrayal. Just before the mess of Combo’s murder, then Jesse’s heroin spiral, then Walt letting Jane die that they never came back from. It was just so wonderful to go back to a time when you could see these two genuinely cared for each other, even while being the most hilariously dysfunctional odd couple (”I totally graduated high school, dick!”) I never thought I’d get to see Bryan and Aaron acting together as Walt and Jesse again, especially this version of Walt and Jesse. It was a gift. This scene alone made the whole of El Camino worthwhile. 

Which is not to say the rest of the BrBa movie is anything shabby. While it is a getaway story rather than a redemption story, it still had me on the edge of my seat. Man, I love that Vince is such a merciless writer. Like, normally in a movie when your antihero character is in a room hiding from police, the writer will give you a moment of tension then allow the character to slip away. But Vince is all nope! The worst is going to happen. Jesse is going to get caught and worse still those guys aren’t even real cops but men who were complicit in his kidnapping ordeal. Man! And I love how Jesse gets a moment of being a badass when he judged that the Kandy Welding guy wasn’t going to shoot him, but then we get him being a dumb dipshit thinking he could call the bluff of the Disappearer guy. And yet it all felt consistent because Vince’s writing and Aaron’s performance have always balanced Jesse’s smart and stupid moments so well. And while I personally didn’t want Jesse to commit further crimes and get more blood on his hands in his bid for freedom, I can’t begrudge Vince going all the way in making Breaking Bad a contemporary Western complete with its own gunslinger quick draw scene. That was awesome (”Dude, you’re on fire...”)

Did I love everything about El Camino? No. Like Felina was for Walt, Jesse’s resolution did feel a little overly neat. I didn’t really want the Vacuum repair guy to be the solution since Saul had stressed that Jesse would only have one shot with him. The guy then giving him a second chance but being persnickety over the exact money felt like a contrivance. Also, I didn’t like Jesse screwing over his parents again. I know that Jesse’s folks could be dicks, but still. Lastly, the letter to Brock. It was pure fan service, I know. But if the moral of this story is - ‘Jesse doesn’t get to make things right’ - then he shouldn’t get to write a letter to Brock either. Because what could Jesse possibly say that would make things better for Brock now? I have to say, that beat didn’t feel earned for me. 

Finally though, I will say I liked the choice to end on the Jesse/Jane scene. As with the Walt flashback, this comes just before the end of S2 and the last hope Jesse had of a happy ending. Because I don’t really feel like Jesse’s new life in Alaska will be happy from now on. I feel like Jesse will always be lonely, scarred, self-loathing, guilt-ridden and haunted. He’ll never escape who he has been. But the message of Jane’s last line seemed to be simply telling Jesse to be his own master from now on, which I suppose is a good mindset for a guy whose biggest downfall was being too easily led. Did Jesse redeem himself for his crimes? No. Could he have ever redeemed himself for his crimes? Probably not. Do I think Jesse should go on suffering? Nah...leave him be. 

[greerbaiting]

The full version of Persnickety Pete’s song for @bertie-renard

[yaboyspodcastpalace]

persnickety pete: sings his creepy as fuck song

me: 👏👏👏👏👏👏 woo!! encore!!!

[artblahrg]