#watched the pilot but haven't really watched the show proper

[bookishnewt]

I am absorbing Hazbin Hotel content through osmosis and am having character ideas. Had old ideas in passing to the point I did incorrect quotes but the lady in my head is slapping me in the face.

Thoughts about her so far:

In Life

In life she was known as Katherine Lane, her stage name was Jolene.

Born in the 1910s. Died in her 30s-40s (1940s-50s).

Lost both parents over the course of the first world war. Being a young child at the time Katherine did not fully understand why her parents died and took what happened as them abandoning her.

From then one she worked hard to ensure her own survival. From thievery as a child/early teen, being a rum runner during the Prohibition era, to a performer in clubs.

As Jolene, Katherine attracted some admirers one of whom became her husband. The marriage did not last as Katherine kills her husband in the spur of the moment. She covered up the crime as an drunken fall down the stairs. She does not regret it as he was more of a bastard than she first thought.

Her Death

Through her later years in life Katherine began adding murder to her list of crimes committed. After the whole mess with her first husband she began poisoning the men who would harass her coworkers. She was always careful to make them look like accidents.

One coworker was aware of her actions and sought out Katherine for help. Her sob story of an abusive husband hit home with Katherine. So she agreed to help.

The coworker arranged it so Katherine could meet the man. Over the course of her talk with him something felt off to her. Unlike her usual victims he did appear abusive. Despite her doubts she keeps her promise and kills him.

Days later she learns the truth, her coworker lied. There never was any abuse, she had Katherine kill her husband so she could inherit his small fortune.

Angered by the deception Katherine confronted the woman and wound up having a similar death as her late husband's.

In Afterlife

Is 9’ 6” (290 cm). Demon form is based on a orb-weaver spider.

Viewing Katherine as dead and gone she assumes a new name to suit her new life: Arachne.

Still reeling from the final days of her life Arachne decided to hide herself away from Hell and any potential enemies from her old life.

Voice Claim: Samantha Pauly (All You Wanna Do - SIX)

[resisteverything]

Just for fun (I am really not invested, haven't even watched the full thing): why do you dislike Hazbin Hotel?

This is the biggest one, the hotel is useless. Charlies whole goal is to redeem sinners with the hotel, but by the end of the season there are only two guests, and then one of them dies. This is particularly bad because of the six month deadline set in episode one. Like what is Charlie even doing over those entire months?

The main characters are weak. I expected to learn more about Angel dust in the show itself, and see a new side to him, but in the end his entire character is summed up with Addict, except the show gives him less personality than Addict does. And he's the best one. Charlie is just a Disney princess parody, the only unique trait of hers being that she swears randomly and has daddy issues, the latter only mattering in one episode, the other seven either shafting her character or giving us no new information about her. Vaggie never once does anything that isn't what Charlie told her to. Alastor is vague and mysterious, but the intrigue and fear factor he brought is just sort of ruined in the show proper. He doesn't work as a foil to Charlie or an antagonist because he never does anything for forward the plot.

Nothing happens in this show. Episode one's only contribution is the dead angel and six-month deadline, everything else is skipable. Episode two changes nothing except that Pentius is at the hotel now, and he doesn't do anything. Episode three is only important in that Alastor hears about the dead angel head, info which he doesn't use until episode seven, like no other character is aware of the angel head. Episode four is only important in that episode six centers on whether or not angel has redeemed himself, except in episode six has the question be answered with "Actually heaven doesn't care about that and was never going to listen to Charlie", episode five is only important in that it's setup for Charlies meeting with heaven, a meeting that ends in her being kicked out and nothing having been changed. Episode six is that meeting. Episode seven is Charlie literally giving up on her motivations to prepare to do battle with heaven, and episode eight is them fighting that big battle. Nothing Charlie did from episodes one to six actually brought them closer to resolving the conflict, and season two is just a return to the previous status quo of hell.

The series is packed full of side characters that should not be so numerous in an eight episode season. Why is Carmilla Carmine, a character that shows up in two subplots a more relevant character to the narrative than any of the main characters? Why did we get half an episode dedicated to the Vees dicking around in ways that in no way affect the plot but never got to see Charlie and Angel dust have a real conversation that wasn't antagonistic? Why did Charlie work out her issues with Vaggie with a completely new side character she's never met before this episode instead of with Vaggie? Why is Vox spying on the heroes for all of episode eight instead of doing anything? Didn't one of them actively try to incite a war against heaven? Shouldn't she be siding with the heroes?

The show has a bizarre relationship with the pilot. It expects you to understand that Charlie taking Alastors hand is a big deal, or know who Cherri bomb is, because these things are in the pilot. But it also Retcons things like Lucifer's characterization, or Husks reason for staying at the hotel. It makes the show hard to follow plot wise.

The tone is all over the place. Pentius dies as a joke that kills a serious moment but then they try to make it serious. Charlie and Vaggie have a serious conversation with jokey slapstick noises in the background. Valentino flips between scary and goofy at random. Angel gets raped and it’s a big deal, pentius gets raped and it’s a joke.

[digi-tama-in-your-pocket]

I don't think it's bad to enjoy a "childish" show. Like look at the people enjoying Bluey or My little Pony. I for myself really adore the Hamtaro-Anime!

I haven't watched the Tama-Anime myself, do you know a good place to be able to watch it?

Oh, I didn't mean anything bad by calling it childish, I was just trying to set expectations because I praised it a lot. I watch cartoons almost exclusively, I didn't want anyone coming into it expecting Digimon Adventure level story telling.

As for where to find it... let me just whip up a

Master Post of English Subbed/Dubbed Tamagotchi Media

TAMAGOTCHI VIDEO ADVENTURES - https://archive.org/details/videoplayback_20200604_2141

This is a pilot for a USA Tamagotchi cartoon that never got greenlit. I love that it keeps the color pencil aesthetic of the USA packaging in tact, but the voices are.. a choice.

TAMAGOTCHI: HONTO NO HANASHI "The True Story" and ANIME TV DE HAKKEN!! TAMAGOTCHI!! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU6ljemBE7o

This is Raw, but most of it you don't need to understand, it just tells the backstory of the Vintage era. Oyajitchi gets the Tamagotchi Planet drunk, and all the Tamas evacuate to earth, a UFO crashes into the back of a depressed professor Banzo, and he and his assistant Mikachu build the v-pets for them to live in and study them. The second half of the video are just short skits showing off the personalities of vintage era Tamas. These were considered lost media until recently, there are still a few missing shorts.

TAMAGOTCHI THE MOVIE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUUL5HLW4Lg&pp=ygUUdGFtYWdvdGNoaSB0aGUgbW92aWU%3D

English dub, if a sub exists, I haven't found it. This kicks off the Tamagotchi Connection era. The previous era of Tamagotchi had kind of an early pokemon vibe to it, sans the humans, they were weird creatures being studied, but this era will feel more like My Little Pony with the characters living in a community and being more individuals.

TAMAGOTCHI THE MOVIE 2 - THE HAPPIEST STORY IN THE UNIVERSE - https://archive.org/details/tamagotchi-happiest-story-eng-subs

Only a sub. They never dubbed this one. I think it's a better movie. I think this takes place before the anime series proper.

LETS GO TAMAGOTCHI - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWFJtQSVLrU&list=PLKXwifP6PSMUvFOebxBHCs1gZRmlAJpK8

A series of shorts, showcasing the Tamagotchis personalities, they're very cute. This is the dub. I've managed to find a torrent for a sub version on nyaa.si but there was literally no difference in the script, even a Japanese pun got translated the same as in the dub.

TAMAGOTHI SEASON 1: https://archive.org/details/37.-tamagotchi-battle-on-the-great-donut-contest

This is a dub of the first 12 episodes, which is the whole first season, said to be lighter on story than the rest of the series ( wish I could see the rest of the series to find out ), it's in a kind of a messy butchered state, a character speaks a bit of japanese out of nowhere in one part, I haven't watched all the episodes yet myself. You can find the first four episodes subbed on the Tamagotchi Archive Youtube channel, but i've never found any of the main anime subbed elsewhere.

TAMAGOTCHI - WELCOME TO DREAM TOWN - https://archive.org/details/tamagotchi-friends-webseries/01+%E2%80%93+Welcome+to+Dream+Town.mp4

This is an english dub for a webisode series they made to promote Tamagotchi Friends, and I only learned about this series last night ,as well as the device it's meant to promote. Supposedly these are just very short bits taken from a later season of the anime though. I haven't watched it yet. You can find subbed versions on this youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ9rSKXGta_5flT2XLekrPq1m4ZFU1iWx

And that's all I can find. I really wish there was more. There's several seasons of the anime neither dubbed nor subbed , and lots more shorts ( coincidentally you can find all the Raws easily on archive.org, youtube, and elsewhere ) . But the anime officially ended a few years ago, and Bandai seems to have no interest in localizing it, they only seem interested in selling the v-pets and nostalgia based merchandise with gen 1 and gen 2 characters on it in the west. The only chance we have at official re-releases is if somebody like Discotek gets the licensee, which could happen, they have been doing great things with Digimon, and reminder, they have an official wishing thread for lisences on Reddit that they check from time to time, I'd suggest mentioning that you want it ( you can slip in other licenses you'd like as well, I want to see Animal Crossing Kirby and Mario anime myself )

That's still a slim shot though and I think we'd have better luck getting a fan subbing group to take the lead, but I don't know how to coax anyone into doing that without coming off as a freeloader trying to benefit from someone else's hard work, but god, please, if any fan subber is reading this, please consider the Tamagotchi anime. Save us from Bandai's miserly ways.

[qberryshortcake]

Are you wondering how to get into Gundam and need an autistic transbian with insomnia to help guide you? Well you're in fucking luck!

Happy for u tho/I'm sorry

Start with either Witch From Mercury, Iron Blooded Orphans, or Mobile Suit Gundam. All three you can go in blind and have a grand old time. WFM is the lesbian one though, and my proper intro to the franchise.

What even is a Gundam?

Let's get a little vocabulary out of the way. A Mobile Suit is a bipedal giant mech, generally with one pilot, that uses a combination of mounted weapons and weapons held in the mobile suit's hands. This can be railguns, tank cannons, missile launchers, or a good old fashioned energy sword.

Are all mobile suits Gundams?

No, actually! It's a poodles/dogs situation. All Gundams are mobile suits, but not all mobile suits are Gundams.

What makes Gundams special?

It varies from series to series. In some it's that they use a special power source. In others it's a direct interface with its users. They often require less training than other mobile suits, and have a much higher skill ceiling. No matter what, one rule is more or less universal: only a Gundam can beat another Gundam. This is one of the driving forces for every antagonist. It's also why these shows get so heady.

Who is Char Aznabke?

The antagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam (see below). He's iconic, charismatic, stylish, and machiavellian. There is a Char in every Gundam spinoff. It gives you a sense of dramatic irony knowing that, because if nobody is wearing the mask, you're trying to figure out who will. And if somebody is, you're wondering what they'll do.

Okay, where do I start?

Let's bring out the timeline chart (bear with me):

This may seem intimidating at first, but once you break it down, it starts to become a bit more scrutable.

The first thing to understand is that Gundam has a singular canon timeline, the Universal Century, and the rest are spinoffs. You could theoretically start down any of these timelines and have a grand old time. That being said, some starting points are better than others.

Universal Century - if you're down with old animation, you can't go wrong with watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam! You can start with Gundam Origin to learn about Char Aznable's backstory, or jump straight into the original anime

Future Century - This is one of the weirdest wildest Gundam series with Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I haven't seen this one and I personally wouldn't start here? But hey if you want a giant robot tournament where every country has a themed Gundam that has sliiiiight racist vibes? Uh well then this is truly one of the shows in all of Gundam.

After Colony - This is where a lot of us originally bounced off of the series. Gundam Wing was what was on Toonami back in the day. The dub isn't...great, and the story is *extremely* edgy. That being said is is rife with ship bait and Deathscythe is an incredible Gundam design. All the same themes, just very hamhanded.

Correct Century - this takes place in the far far future, and technically the previous three timelines converge on this one. It's so far in the future that Gundams are practically a myth. This is Turn A Gundam, or as it's usually stylized, Ɐ Gundam. I haven't gotten to this one yet, but I love the moustachio'd design of the titular Ɐ Gundam. I wouldn't necessarily start here, just because this one kind of assumes the viewer has seen at least a Gundam before. From what I've heard at least.

Cosmic Era - While I own several gunpla from this series, I have only seen an episode! It's... I've never heard a single good word about this one. As far as I know it is more geared toward younger viewers, which also means it is the most shamelessly about advertising gunpla...well other than a couple other series we'll get to.

Anno Domini - okay here is where it gets a little odd because there's multiple timelines that use this abbreviation. The first is Gundam 00, or Double O (not zero). This one is really fun. It takes the edge from Wing and makes it kind of humorous. A slow burn, where you realize that maybe a single force having a monopoly on violence, made up entirely of child soldiers is,,,not the best idea? Great place to start.

Anno Domini - Gundam Build Fighters and Mobile Suit Gunpla Raiders G are, charitably, celebrations of the gunpla hobby. I wouldn't start here.

Post Disaster - God I almost wish this had been my first series. Iron Blooded Orphans is about a bunch of dudes being guys. They escape from slavery and go into business for themselves, and get embroiled in a political conflict while escorting a princess back to Earth from Mars. Fantastic show, but it clocks in at 50 episodes, so keep that in mind if you start this one.

Ad Stella - this is where I started. Witch from Mercury is absolutely incredible. Just 26 episodes. It follows Suletta Mercury and Miorine Rembran, after the former wins a duel, and due to sci fi anime logic, becomes betrothed to the latter.

Great, anything else I should know?

I said this in another post but if you're still on the fence because giant robot shows you've seen in the past haven't been great, I get it. I was the same way. The point of the robots being humanoid is because it takes out the abstraction of using vehicles of war, without cutting down on the scale of the wars being fought. When a character, for example, goes to destroy a military base single-handedly, you get that disconnect.

Sure it's a pilot doing war things, but it's *very* different when your opponents are as outclassed as most things and a Gundam.

It's always been about the horrors of war, the victims of those wars, and the wounds and scars that are left on the soldiers of those wars. The cool robot is so that a character can lose an arm but still have to keep fighting. In some series that character may have felt the pain of losing an arm while jacked into their mobile suit. It brings a viscerality that fighting with planes, tanks, and starships simply wouldn't be able to replicate.

Oh. And uh. Gunpla. Gunpla are the Namco Bandai line of models. They all require minimal tools and no glue. They're generally posable and some are extremely posable. They come in 1:144, 1:100, and 1:60 scale (primarily). They're also not cheap. The smaller models cost around 30-50, but they get expensive quickly. So uh. Don't? Get into them?

[mdhwrites]

Reccomendations for cartoons to watch include: Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Regular Show, the later seasons of MLP Friendship is Magic (for the sake of completing it and being able to properly evaluate the show), Steven Universe, DuckTales 2017, OK KO, Big City Greens, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Kim Possible, Hilda, Helluva Boss, Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, She Ra 2018, and the Ben 10 franchise.

I actually still have another ask that is mostly this same list but I think Hilda and Helluva Boss are new. Mostly responding because something I find interesting about myself given how ruthless I can be with TOH is that, well...

I probably will never truly be able to be some big reviewer because when I start disliking something, I drop it. That's actually the big reason I'm responding is because there is NO WAY I am watching the like 4+ seasons of MLP:FiM that I didn't watch because I just can't engage with stuff I dislike. I find no joy in it and while I can rant for a couple episodes, it just loses my interest.

I never seek things out because I think I'll dislike them. I just don't think life is enjoyable that way. It's why I have no plans to return to Helluva Boss. I absolutely believe people would potentially send me asks about it with how polarizing it is but I got to the episode when Moxie and Blitzo are interrogated, went "Ah, I see, the two characters I hate the most and don't even find funny (Stolas and Blitzo) are the actual main characters and the pilot was potentially kind of a lie for what the real focus of the show is. I'm out." And I haven't watched an episode since. My brain struggles to click with media after all so why would I bother with media I actively know I dislike already?

I'll comment on a couple others that I have at least had experience with on the list in a minute but since Amphibia, I've watched the first season of Craig of the Creek and think that show is just AMAZING. There's at least one episode I keep wanting to do a blog on just because it exemplifies how much the show understands the wonder of fantasy and childhood without actually being fantastical. I've also seen S1 of SpyxFamily and some of S2 but right now the only streaming service I have consistent access to is Hulu (the Disney+ I was borrowing cancelled theirs to swap to Hulu) and they only have S1 dubbed of SpyxFamily.

I'm hoping to sometime soon actually watch Over the Garden Wall finally and just have been kind of a mess as of late as for why I haven't yet. I've heard only good things, and shockingly few spoilers, and it's about time I gave it a proper shot.

ANYWAYS:

Steven Universe: Watched the first episode and only really liked Greg so just didn't bother watching more. Steven was fine but I actively hated all three of the gems because of how brain dead they were in both segments of the episode. As far as pilots go, I think SU might genuinely have one of the worst I've ever seen for convincing you to like a main cast.

Gravity Falls: I rewatched the first episode recently and went "This is oooookay." Something about Dipper's VA just bothers me. Not like they're doing a bad job but that it falls into an uncanny valley my brain doesn't love. I really wish I could better explain why that show refuses to properly click for me.

Regular Show: I forget why but I've seen a few episodes. It's not bad but I don't think it's really for me. I find Rigby and Mordecai annoying more than anything else. Not awful but I think without it feeling like they're actually meant to be learning something, they fall into the trap Randy and Howard from Randy Cunningham fell into eventually for me where I was like "Okay, assholes can be fun for a while but if that's all you're ever going to be, I don't care."

Adventure Time: I have seen as many episodes where Fiona and Cake show up in that show than I have Finn and Jake. XD I have genuinely liked what I've seen and just for some reason never sought it out. Maybe someday.

Star Vs: I need to give S2 a chance but MAN when I got told they break up Marco and Jackie for NO REASON I lost a lot of interest in the show. I like Marco more than Star, and I've only seen S1, and thought Marco and Jackie's relationship was genuinely really nice and kind of unique. Also knowing it's most people's cartoon punching bag doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm for it.

Kim Possible: I remember rewatching the pilot a couple years ago and being shocked by how much I didn't care for Kim. I think the fact that Bonnie is the only one who gives her shit but she's actually just genuinely amazing at everything and liked by most make her just not compelling to me which is a shame because I have REALLY fond memories of the show. I'd probably commit to a rewatch of Danny Phantom first though since it has been just as long since I watched that.

(Weird fact: I was looking at Hulu's unfortunately limited amount of cartoons and saw they had Kick Buttowski of all things which is WILD to me.)

She-Ra: I've seen literally one episode, thought it was good, and definitely is one of the ones I keep telling myself to watch because everything about it seems like it'd be up my alley. These are also my thoughts on Voltron though with how much... less divisive that last season of Voltron is, it's definitely below watching Princesses of Power.

Ben 10: Loved the original series as a kid, tried the first two spin offs that came out and didn't really jive with either but I thought Julie, the tennis girl Ben gets with, was super cute. I know a friend who would LOVE to see me get into Ben 10 and do some reviews of it.

And just as an anime shout out, a part of me is still tempted to give Little Witch Academia another try. Not only is it just an obvious next show for me to watch but it's one I REALLY want to like because I like a lot about it... I just absolutely despise Akko from the like four episodes I watched a good number of years ago now. I thought almost all of the supporting characters were great though.

Just... Consider this my weird, rambly blog late at night about cartoons and the fact that I do wish I engaged with media better. One of the worst elements of it is that I don't engage well with scripted content well if my brain isn't already in an alright place. Like I don't go to television for distraction and cheering me up. I vastly prefer streams for that as I can actually turn my brain off during those normally. It's something I've talked about before and something I'd like to change. Heck, I even at one point had a therapy goal to watch something at least once a week since that'd still be easier than streaming or writing. Whoops. *sigh*

I do also appreciate the recommendations! The reminders are good sometimes since I don't feel like I actually stay in the loop all that well. And since I kind of assume this is the same person who sent a list before, I decided I felt like actually responding, especially because the MLP pitch is an interesting one but man... That's a LOT of Starlight Glimmer I'd have to put up with when just like six episodes of her as a good guy made me want to light both her and Twilight on fire to put them out of their, and mine, misery. That's without me getting into the fact that I just think the characters in general got worse by then, almost like series shouldn't last for that long because finding new angles on characters becomes REALLY HARD (says the dumbass with a series of his own that honestly is longer than he should reasonably plan a story for.)

Again, late night rambling while my brain deals with suddenly snapping out of a hyper focus on a game for three days and doesn't deal with that well. *sigh* Have a good night everyone, take care of yourself and see you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[retrograderesemblance]

“top 5” 80s shows, top 5 characters and why

tops 5 things! // @timeguardians

80s shows

1. The A-Team (1983-1987) This is the only show on this list that I've finished. It's horribly cheesy when it wants to be, and when you get a bad episode, it's a legitimately bad episode... but I'm weirdly fond of this series. The way the writers sort of drip-feed (?) you overarching storylines and character backgrounds is done in such a strange way that I'm not sure that original viewers would've gotten the same viewing experience as modern viewers who are able to binge the show. The Vietnam War veterans angle isn't something that starts to take proper shape until s2, but from s2 onwards, the episodes that allude to the characters' war experiences are done in good taste and I think make the characters feel more complex. Granted, there's no real payoff for these references, but there's also a sort of silent understanding among the main characters. They all worked together during the war, and they all understand that they don't need to talk about what happened. I think there is an argument to be made to the fact that even tho the characters left the war behind, the war is something that will continue to follow them for the rest of their lives.

2. Remington Steele (1982-1987) I haven't watched past s1 mostly bc I'm not ready for the show to abandon Murphy and Bernice and double-down on the Laura/Steele romance. I really like this show tho. Decent set up, decent episode plots, a good balance of humor and seriousness. For as much crap as I put Laura through on my blog, I seriously do really like her. She was apparently the first female private eye on television too ?? and this show became the blueprint for what would become Moonlighting. So that's cool!

3. Magnum P.I. (1980-1988) This show is at it's best with the Vietnam War-based episode plots. Apparently this was the first tv series to show Vietnam War veterans as protagonists in media; everything before this showed veterans as some trauma-possessed mass killers ?? which feels very '70s, honestly... While you sometimes have to power through half a season of cheesy monster-of-the-week-esque eps, it's worth it for the more serious performances. Tom Selleck was literally the perfect casting choice for Magnum.

4. Booker (1989-1990) Even tho I didn't finish s1, I liked this more than 21 Jump Street. While I like the og series, the concept becomes very wash and repeat after about 20 eps in when you consider the implications of how many high schools exist in the same city. The acting in Booker is a lot better, and it's an interesting setup for a private eye plot.

5. MacGyver (1985-1992) This is not my favorite 80s series by a longshot, but I watched the first 4 seasons and the tv movies, so I feel like I need to mention it. The pilot is the best episode, as weird as that sounds. MacGyver is known for things like being able to escape a locked room with a stick of gum and a lighter... but weirdly he only does that in the pilot ???? The series overall is... not good? *snorts* The plots are half-baked at best, the supporting cast makes you groan when they make appearances, and for some reason every single woman that MacGyver is friends with or in a relationship with, dies in some horribly tragic accident. While I would recommend this, dO NOT watch it expecting some cinematic masterpiece.

characters

1. James Bond (from the book series, not the movies, tho Timothy Dalton is closest to book!Bond) Oh my beloved James Bond, always on the verge of turning in his resignation letter akjdnakjbfajbf. I've only read about half the books so far, but I've jumped all over in the timeline and Bond is honestly a very jaded character. He's the epitome of a workaholic, but at the same time he knows he's not happy. Every time he tries to make some sort of change in his life to seek happiness, all his plans blow up in his face and he's often left lonelier than he was before. It's very interesting to follow a character who sort of just lives in the present, bc he fully expects not to live past the age of 40.

2. Sonny Corleone from The Godfather Love me a slightly unhinged male character who supports women's rights. There's a whole thesis I could write about how Sonny and Michael are essentially foils in the plot. Their father assumes that Michael is the more "Americanized" of his children and they butt heads over that, which is so hysterical bc Michael ends up proving that he was the most traditional of them all; Sonny was the one who was the most "Americanized" despite being g.roomed to take over the business from his father. Hate what the sequel films did to his character and background, but alas, book!Sonny will always be my favorite.

3. Janis Ian from Mean Girls I like Janis for the simple reason that's she's petty. She sees through a lot of the bullshit, but she's also self-aware enough to know that she's not above bullshit of her own.

4. Fanny Price from Mansfield Park I like how she made up her mind and stuck to her decisions and didn't let herself be bullied into changing her mind.

5. Ed Chigliak from Northern Exposure I think his character is really well done, showing sort of a modern Alaskan indigenous experience through the eyes of a character who's half-Tlingit, half-White. He's a nice person and enjoys his hobbies and wants to tell stories. He's not bitter like other characters on this list; he's just happy to be here.

[haropla]

I've never watched IBO. I've heard bad shit about it, but only from non-Gundam watchers who tried it. If you wouldn't mind me asking, what's wrong with it? I wanna hear the perspective of a long-time fan!!

gosh, apologies for length. and also spoilers.

oh, first off, I just wanna say that I actually haven't been into gundam for that long compared to other vocal fans. while I had a lot of false starts, I only really got started in January of 2018. gundam just means that much to me that it might seem like longer.

that being said, since you're asking about my perspective as a gundam fan, the original mobile suit gundam drew me in because of the fantastic writing, especially the thematic writing that's reflected in pretty much all the other aspects like worldbuilding and characterization. something that's (mostly) fun about going through the other entries of the franchise is how different entries handle themes of anti-Imperialism, humanism, found family, and of course, how War Is Bad. honestly, the original gundam was so good about this approach towards thematic writing that it got me to Really think deeper about the media I consume.

but it's one thing to put a new spin or perspective on these themes, and another to outright resent them on top of still being written badly, and that's where my main beef with IBO lies.

as a gundam entry, it tries to make one of the protagonists being a child soldier look like a cool thing. many gundam entries but especially 0079 show that participating in a war during what's supposed to be your formative years is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting and scars you for the rest of your life. any cool moments that come about are not worth the loss of human life or even your own humanity. the cool robot fights are simply a vehicle to tell a compelling story with well-integrated themes.

in IBO, all of mikazuki's actions and "personality" attributed to his being a child soldier/laborer upbringing are framed as being actually unironically badass. the first episodes detail that mikazuki has taken a potentially life-threatening surgery not once like most of the other featured children in tekkadan, but three times in order to do his job better. but this is played up as "mikazuki's so cool for risking his life like that!" even though mikazuki lacks a personality to adequately show that he feels fear and guilt. his being a sociopath not only makes him a better soldier when the time comes to pilot his personal gundam, but it also somehow gains him the romantic interest of two female characters which are directly labeled his harem.

even though we're told by orga that mikazuki's dream is to own a farm, he looks a lot less engaged actually working on a farm compared to when he's choking out a grown man that already apologized to him and his friends in said farm. when he demonstrates illiteracy despite being a teenager, it's played up as a charm point when he pouts about it, rather than a tragedy he never got any formal schooling thanks to living in poverty for all his life. it's thanks to his dog-like sense of smell that he's able to foil a kidnapping plot, even though that likens him more to a beast than a proper human. and because he leaves pretty much every single decision up to orga and thus lacks real agency, he's set up as being cool pretty much because he lacked a proper childhood. something that's supposed to be tragic is set up to be a point of admiration.

and that'd actually be fine if it wasn't a gundam series, but it also doesn't even bother keeping up this idea into the second season. it very much resents being gundam but it also doesn't hold up as being its own anime either.

tekkadan is set up to be one big found family formed from these disenfranchised children. but after an entire season of tasteless violence committed to and by these kids where you're supposed to root for them, the second season sets them up as the "proper" antagonists and the major members are all killed horribly, mikazuki included. but mikazuki still gets to be played up as cool regardless because he gets an awesome last stand. and despite being a show centered around having a found family, the ending is supposed to suck slightly less because mikazuki left a kid behind with one of the girls in his harem. but also it's fine that tekkadan got horribly butchered? if it was going to stray so far from what makes gundam "gundam" then why didn't they bother sticking with it?

IBO's huge problems stem from being a very confused show. and the big thing is that it's a gundam series that doesn't respect gundam themes. it doesn't respect gundam themes, but borrows great moments from past gundam entries without understanding the context or what makes them great, like mika copying amuro's tension-filled descent to earth while he's burning up or mika copying how kamille punched a fascist without following up how kamille understandably gets dogpiled because he didn't think about the Other fascists still in the room when it happened. it's a show that shows how cool being a child soldier in a way that definitely earned it its fans only to kill off the child soldiers violently and dismantle that system and it's treated as a good thing. through framing and subtext, they've shown that they only really care about how cool the fighting makes the characters look, so then why bother aping politics with the colonist protests if they don't care about being a proper gundam series? why bother putting in yet another tasteless situation in which protesters are gunned down when we're only really meant to feel bad when kudelia's assistant who's largely uninvolved in the actual politics dies in the process? if it's just supposed to be a mafia story, then why do we keep getting plots centered around war and politics? and again, it centers around found family, but the series ending is supposed to not be as bad because the still-teenaged protagonist got someone pregnant before he died.

and this isn't even getting into the stuff that's straightforwardly bad, which you may have already heard from other people who have watched. the first char clone of this series is a pedophile. no real tension or suspense is maintained over the course of the series because any real concepts and emotional throughlines are resolved in the next episode and discarded, like with akihiro mentioning his long lost brother and then meeting him right after. they expect the cool moments to be enough to make you like the shallow characters, and the characters that are Actually likable either don't stay that way or are killed off. despite having a female writer, most of the female characters are mainly important because of their connection to male characters, and two of them are introduced literally ass and boobs first.

and there's these screencaps.

yeah, speaking as a gundam fan and as just a general media consumer, there's. a lot I really don't like about IBO.

[taldigi]

Hey my man, I gotta say I really like your rewrites/fixes of the ML series! like I haven't watched the show proper in ages just cuz of disappointment, but I got an OC(s) that I don't wanna give up on with it. What would you say to a Firefly-themed miraculous in your style piloted by a disabled girl in a wheelchair? Like how would I make her fit in your ver of the world?

Ooohh?? Fishing for free art??? jk, I tease. A firefly, huh? I like the name Glou. Kindness would be their thing.

“All it takes is a single act to light up someone’s life!“

In my main rewrite, there wouldn’t be a place for a firefly hero, as there are ONLY 3 miraculous and such. Kwami and miraculous are only tangentially related. But their corrupted form sounds good for a darkness-related enemy.

Ah, I can see it now, an akuma that steals light wherever it goes, selfishly hoarding it for itself... and it is defeated by putting the fire out. ;D

My rewrites/aus tend to cut the fat of extra characters and unnecessary concepts, so I can’t really tell you how they would fit in. But I can spitball a bit?

I’m not practiced in making characters in wheelchairs, but I would imagine the miraculous wouldn’t “fix” their disability rather than change to accommodate it. So perhaps floating is a natural part of the moveset. 

Fireflies and floating give me paper lantern vibes or even hot air balloons, so fire seems appropriate rather than lightning (some people like to use the name lightning bug instead!) My light research also tells me that the bug themselves are popular for putting into said lanterns. so.. Theming? Paper lanterns definitely.

Some people use a lantern to search, so a dowsing rod would be a cool “weapon” to have, especially if they have a lantern hanging off the end of it.  I would grant them the ability to find anything they’re looking for (except for other miraculous users, to keep it from being overpowered). they would grab the ends of the Y shaped rod and it would glow and point in the direction they need to go to find the object.

I would take more time to look into more cultural implication, myths and folklore around fireflies, but otherwise, that’s how I would do it.

[dreamerandcrazy]

Ok, so I haven't been able to comment much on my Riverdale rewatch mostly bc i'm watching it with my boyfriend and we have an agreement of no cell phones when we're watching, otherwise we can't pay proper attention to it. But I wrote down some notes about the episodes I did watch (I watched up until ep 6, which is very ironic bc apparently today is its anniversary, so yay for my perfect timing). I actually remember most of the stuff that happened in s1, so here's mostly a few things I paid more attention to or noticed about the characters and the ships, or things i'm able to look at through a different view now that i've watched all the seasons. Strap in if you want to see my notes, if not just scroll please, no ship or character hate here please. Also, feel free to ignore, this is really just a personal look in some stuff I didn't notice in my first watch.

- Betty's character used to be much happier and lighter in season 1. I know we're introduced to "Dark Betty" right in episode 3, but still, I feel like the way Lili played Betty in season 1 did not hold the same "darkness" as it does in the following seasons. The scene where she is dancing happily in her bedroom because she's going to homecoming with the boy she likes? The scene where she introduces Jughead to the Blue & Gold and gets him to work with her? Her genuine innocent happiness at seeing her sister again after so much time? The way she interacted with Kevin and Veronica? Those were all chef's kiss because she actually feels like a teenager in them. In all her girly glory, she radiates youth energy and it's a thing that was sadly lacking after s1. Btw this is not a critique at Lili's acting at all, I blame it entirely on Ras and his obsession with dark Betty.

- There's actually so many indications of Cheryl being a lgbt character in the first episodes that I have no idea how I missed it the first time. But then again, there were many indications with Veronica as well, and sadly that's not the path Ras chose for her.

- Jughead in s1 is truly so superior in so many ways that it's not hard to see why he quickly became such a fan favorite. I think even if he wasn't played by Cole Sprouse, he still would have conquered many fans' hearts. Sadly, the things that made Jughead such a loving and interesting character for me also fizzled out in s2 when the writing team decided to make him a woke serpent leader instead of allowing him to sticking to his true personality as a passionate mystery lover, a dedicated friend and very nerdy, which was very cute. I feel that we got some of that back for him in s4, which was good, but sadly s1 is where my love for him really stayed to stay. But I still care for him, and s5 has a promising storyline for him which i'm excited about, so let's see if s5 Jughead can become better than s1 Jughead.

- Going back again to Cheryl for a sec, I just noticed that the red lipstick actually wasn't that common for her in s1? At least not in the first five. I wonder when did it start becoming her trademark? Anyways, it's actually a really good look her and allows you to appreciate Madelaine's natural beauty even more.

- Also, did anybody notice how Alice lowkey figured out who killed Jason in ep 2 lmao, like... in episode two she legit says she wouldn't be surprised if the Blossoms themselves had killed Jason, which... is what happened LMAO, considering we know it was his father. And even more hilarious and tragically ironic note, in ep 6 she's laughing at Betty suggesting that Hal killed Jason because "do you think your father has the stomach for it?!"... Ma'am... i'm-.... 😂😂😂😂.

- This rewatch has reminded me of how much I adored and how I much I miss Josie and the Pussycats. The girls were such a nice addition to the cast, and their songs were so beautiful. I truly wish we get to see them again someday, but at the same time I also think the actresses deserve to be at a work place where they're given the treatment they deserve and not completely ignored and treated like extras.

- Archie/Valerie was super cute and is very underrated in the fandom, but i'm glad Valerie stood up for herself and didn't take any of Archie's or Cheryl's sh*t. Still sucks because they were really good together, though.

- Why was Jason not allowed to talk, lmao? Like, i'm sure it's become a running joke in the show at this point, but back when season one was airing what was the excuse for it? He appeared in so many flashbacks and scenes and we still never heard a single word ☠️☠️☠️☠️. I just want to know what was the reason lol.

- I liked s1 Reggie, but I feel like Charles Melton's Reggie is better because he actually feels like a douche with good intentions lol, and he has more of a personality. Most of the time I even forgot about Reggie in s1, but after s2 he definitely made me more aware of him. So for that, I like Charles Melton's Reggie more. But the actor from s1 still did a good job with what he was given.

From now on I will be talking about the ships, so bear with me, and know that I am a multishipper. Yes, I have my preferences. No, my word is not law, it's just an opinion, so please respect it.

- Bughead is still super cute in s1. I feel like from s1 they will always be my otp, even if I no longer feel as strongly about them now and have a different insight as to where I would like their story to go, and now I definitely see the problem others had mentioned before of how they kind of took over the show, which is something I kind of closed my eyes to before... But I really loved them in s1. It felt like a very juvenile teenage relationship, they didn't give much thought on why and if they should be together, they just went for it like teenagers usually do, and they were very very cute together.

- I feel like if you don't count Beronica (because they really were the best no matter what you say or ship), if there's a ship that deserves "best chemistry" award for s1 is probably Varchie. I lost my interest in them years ago, but this rewatch reminded me of why I actually loved them once. They never really became an otp for me, but Kj and Camila's chemistry in s1 was VERY GOOD, and I really liked them. Their kiss in the pilot was electric and the s&xual tension was OOF, and that chemistry carries on through the season. You can easily tell something will happen between them eventually. It makes me sad bc I don't know what happened after s1, but their chemistry from s2 onwards was just... not there for me. Which is ironic bc it's the season they truly started dating and they got a lot of smexy scenes, but I just... didn't feel it. But I'll leave that comment to my s2 rewatch. For now just let me enjoy Varchie's chemistry in s1 while it lasts because it was really good.

- Now we get to Barchie, who I made clear was the reason for my rewatch, so let's get to it. I LOVED the way Barchie was written in s1. I remember when I first watched Riverdale, I was curious about their dynamic but didn't put much thought into it because I loved Bughead too much and wanted them to be together, and I thought Barchie would be the traditional "first og ship" thing and wouldn't have a big follow up, but boy was I WRONG and am I GLAD for it. I'll talk more about their development in the next seasons when I get there, so for now let's focus a bit on s1. Just in like the first two episodes, there is so much Barchie foreshadowing, like, it's legit insane how it was right there in my face and I missed it the first time! "I have never felt what i'm supposed to feel with betty", "it's not my fault he doesn't like you", "I can't give you the answer you want"... Omg, those are obvious eyebrow raising "this will come back to bite you in the a$$" moments and it's incredible how they actually DO! I would call it clever writing, but like... it's Riverdale lol. So I really am just glad that the ship was done this way, i'm glad Barchie has the back story that they do, they've really come a LONG way and i'm happy I get to experience their whole growing storyline. It's also especially good because s1 actually provides you with scenes that show you their friendship and how they're so close, you see them hanging out, talking, their pictures together, everything was just really done well with them. Still have a bit of critique with the way Archie contradicted himself sometimes regardinf his feelings for Betty, but let's be honest, we've watched enough Riverdale to know that's just a problem with the writing.

- Kevin/Joaquin is still my favorite Kevin ship, i'm sad it's completely impossible to go back to them someday so for now i'll just be really glad it existed and that I got to see them even if it was short-lived. They had great chemistry and their kiss scenes always outsold.

- Beronica... sigh. Beronica. The most wasted chemistry i've ever seen on CW and I've watched a LOT of CW shows. There was so much potential there, s1 was practically overflowing with them and it's one of the reasons it became some popular. I remember when the Beronica fandom was the biggest one, ah, good times. Veronica and Betty were easily the best part of season 1, their friendship, their lowkey romantic moments, they were just superior in every way. This ship deserved better, not even just as a ship, but as a friendship.

- Veronica's s1 hair >>> Veronica's hair in seasons 2-4. I loved the side part and I am glad it's back in season 5, it looks so much better like that.

- Cheryl, as always, deserves better. Can't wait for her to meet Toni so I can watch again Cheryl finally get to love someone and be loved back, which is exactly what she deserves.

For now, that is all! I will probably make another post soon when i'm done with season one and from season two on I will be live-blogging the episodes since I will be watching it alone. Once again, pls, no hate, my thoughts are my thoughts. Peace.

[davidmann95]

I haven't been able to tolerate a comics news site since ComicsAlliance shut down so what news out of SDCC is actually worth knowing about?

I’ve gotten so many questions regarding SDCC-related news that I figured I’d just do one big post, and this seems as opportune an ask to build that off of as any. To kick off, in terms of news that’s not for me but is a big deal, there’s a trailer for the next season of Doctor Who, and Star Wars: Clone Wars is shockingly coming back for a final reduced season years after the fact. Congrats to the fans of both franchises! Plus yesterday we got the announcement of Orlando and Foreman’s Electric Warriors for DC (as well as Orlando’s Dead Kings with Matt Smith at Aftershock Comics) and the Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark October crossover.

So first and foremost in terms of the reaction it picked up, OH MY GOD:

It’s like the Bat In The Sun team handed over their production to their shitty kids but made them work off a third of the budget. I kept seeing the jokes about it on Twitter, and I kept thinking they were surely hilarious exaggerations, AND NOT A ONE OF THEM EVEN SLIGHTLY WAS. At least it now makes sense why Hawk and Dove is here, given the Liefeld connection: this is 90s as helllllllllllllllllllllll, and while a part of me hopes it swerves unexpectedly in a couple seasons into Fun 90s DC with Starman and Wally West and an Electric Blue Superboy and Titans One Million, I can’t pretend I wouldn’t gleefully hatewatch this if it wasn’t behind a paywall. What it really comes down to is that, as I saw someone mention, the over-the-top content warning at the beginning isn’t actually by any means to get rid of anyone under 18, but specifically to appeal to them over anyone over it: there is nothing about this show not precision-crafted to appeal to teenagers watching something they technically aren’t supposed to, since anyone older than that will just laugh until the stars grow cold. And while it’s one line in particular that’s rightfully drawn all the attention, to me the clear defining moment is Beast Boy taking his big goofy dramatic leap, and you expect him to transform, but that ain’t happening (I fully expect he’ll just have claws and growl and do assorted Wolverine shit instead), because that kind of thing is for STUPID KIDS, whereas this is RAD. 

RAD, dare I say…to the EXTREME.

Also, the pilot Robin’s scene was presumably drawn from was written by Akiva Goldsman, Greg Berlanti, and Geoff Johns. So was it the guy behind Batman & Robin, the guy behind the CWverse, or the recent President of DC Comics who ushered FUCK BATMAN into the world? Because all three of those possibilities are equally hilarious. In any case, the rubicon has been crossed: easily one of the top ten, probably one of the five or so most iconic superheroes of all time said fuck in a piece of mass media. Where we go from here, nobody knows. But at the very least I’ll take the L for my original certainty that this would take place in the CW DCverse, because that clearly isn’t going to be the case. Though boy, imagine if it was. Personally I like to imagine this is a totally normal DCU, and suddenly going full 90s and murdering a bunch of people is their universe’s version of normal teen rebellion.

Additionally, it’s now seemingly set in stone that the fourth DC Universe live-action show alongside Titans, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing will be a Stargirl show where Courtney Whitmore learns about her legacy and tries to track down the Justice Society, described as in the flavor of Superman ‘78 and Wonder Woman. Again, if it wasn’t behind a paywall I’d check it out.

And before turning to comics proper, we learned from WB itself that there are no plans to idiotically pour millions into making a functional Justice League Snyder cut a thing, unsurprisingly making some of the worst people on the internet be just the absolute worst (I’m interested myself in it artistically even if I don’t think it would be very good, but at this point it would feel like a validation of some really rotten people’s behavior if this happened). Meanwhile the first trailer for the Dragon Ball Super movie dropped, and yeah, I’m still happy to see Broly. This looks big in a way Dragon Ball for all its action rarely gets, and seeing Paragus suggests Toriyama understood what worked about the original flick, which is a very good sign. Did they swap out Vic Mignogna as Broly though? Wouldn’t blame him, I know he’s said he hates the part, but surprising nonetheless. And the Spider-Man game dropped another trailer, along with a ‘Velocity’ bonus suit designed by Adi Granov.

The big comics news of the day was of course the long-awaited confirmation that Green Lantern is being relaunched - apparently as The Green Lantern - in November by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. What’s surprising is that Morrison’s currently insisting that since the last decade or so of the franchise has dealt with constant upheaval and cosmic apocalypse, his run is going to scale back down to a character-focused study of Hal (“He’s a loner and a drifter and he’s an unreconstructed man. It was nice to do that and to go a little bit old-fashioned with it. He doesn’t belong here at all, you know? He’s longing for the heavens, and to be back up as a Green Lantern. We’re doing Hal Jordan where, you know he’s a good cop, but is he really a good guy? And we’re looking into his relationships and how he deals with people. And also the fact that, if you’ve got a job as a space cop, it’s hard to be stuck on the planet Earth. He has other lives on other planets.”) amidst him going about his duties and dealing with weird alien crimes and space threats, such as stopping aliens from ‘parking’ a planet-sized artificial megastructure near a sun and causing damage to nearby worlds, and solving the murder of a gaseous lifeform.

I doubt it’ll necessarily stay there forever - his Batman and Action Comics runs, after all, were both initially marketed as staying on the smaller side by his standards, and the one idea we know of Morrison having once had for the Green Lanterns back in the day was making them a multiversal force. But it’s remarkable how, well, normal this sounds coming from Morrison. Clearly this must be a passion project if he’s doing a monthly again for the first time in 5 years, especially since DiDio mentioned he had to be persuaded (ultimately persuading himself as his attempts to brush off the proposition led to him thinking about the possibilities and rapidly talking himself into it) to make time for this amidst an incredibly busy schedule of surely more profitable and creatively unshackled projects, but on the surface level? This sounds like the closest Morrison has come since his JLA days to writing a regular superhero comic. At this point in his career, I’m very, very curious what that’s going to look like. Just hoping he read the King/Shaner oneshot on whatever reread he surely went through to catch up on current continuity. And also hoping this guy was right that it’ll turn out “the REAL construct that was limited by our willpower and imagination all along was…REALITY.”

On smaller notes:

* Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha are taking over Aquaman, with an opening arc that shows him washing up amnesiac on an isle of forgotten sea gods. DeConnick seems to be like the Jeffs Lemire and Parker where my appreciation of their work is limited to very, very specific slivers: none of her Marvel superhero stuff I’ve read did anything for me even if I could see the talent behind it, but her Lois story in the last issue of The Adventures of Superman was pitch-perfect (and also had a great Aquaman bit!). This gets at least an issue from me.

* DC announced new titles for DC Ink and DC Zoom, including Cassandra Cain, Oracle, Dick Grayson, Creeper, and Wonder Woman books, while also announcing some artists for the existing titles.

* Geoff Johns is doing (ugh) Shazam with Dave Eaglesham, who showed off a really great, fun cover suggesting the possibility of a tonal shift away from Johns writing the absolute worst version of that character imaginable. On the likelihood of said possibility though, I think @intergalactic-zoo put it best. I might just check it out in trade if word of mouth is overwhelmingly positive, but then, lots of otherwise rational people liked or at least saw merit in his original crack at it with Gary Frank, and you were all deliriously, impossibly wrong back then, too.

* And finally, speaking of Johns, he’s doing Batman: Three Jokers as a 3-issue mini with Jason Fabok, a smart move given that is precisely as much as I’m willing to invest in this out of morbid curiosity. What’s really baffling though is that it’s being released under Black Label. It would seem to destroy the stated purpose of the line by immediately releasing Very Important Continuity Comics under it, but maybe this means Batman’s gonna follow in his protege’s footsteps and say a fuck. Anyway, I’m mostly just hoping it isn’t revealed Fun Golden Age Joker is actually not the original in order to rub out the prospect that he was ever truly anything but a terrifying sidekick-butchering murder machine at the center of very serious stories, because that feels to be like a real possibility. And absolute no question one of the three is gonna turn out to be the lost child of Marionette and Mime in Doomsday Clock.