#ww2 wrestler

[goldenvulpine]

ok here is a helpful guide for Superman fans in Tumblr when referring to different eras of Superman:

Golden Age Superman: Kal-L. The Original. Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good. Can actually fly now. Has a disturbingly high kill count. Loves Toxic Women (Lois Literally Drugged him one time). Literal WW2 veteran. Not from Kansas. Smallville, East Coast (likely New York). Is now married to Lois. Head of the Daily Star (not Planet). Is Power Girl’s cousin. Is very aggressive. Still saved people from suicide canonically. Canonically religious (Married Lois in a Kryptonian Ceremony). “What trauma?” Seen everyone he loves die.

Silver Age Superman: Kal-El. The Most Popular. Speaks fluent Kryptonese. Total “50’s Dad”. The Strongest. Also the most conformist. Strict Code against killing. Lawful Good. From Smallville. Is canonically Religious (For Rao, his culture’s God). Has multiple cousins. From Smallville, East Coast (likely Maryland this time). Says he wouldn’t hit a woman. Probably has. Sneezed a Solar System Away. Somehow the WEIRDEST one. Also the biggest Prankster. Was Superboy. Was part of the Legion. Saw Pa die. Refuses to acknowledge his trauma. Needs a hug but won’t say it. Works for the Daily Planet. Alan Moore loves him.

Bronze Age Superman: Kal El. Actually just Silver Age Superman but “weaker”. Still the Strongest. Your favorite writer’s favorite Superman. Neutral Good. Originator of the Clex Drama. Met God. Is a pure scientist. Has Three Canon Endings. All of them are literal tragic endings. Is best bros with Batman. Is the Original Nightwing. His cousin is the Second Nightwing. Dick is actually the Third Nightwing. Loves his bro Jimmy Olsen. Smarter than Batman. Made a vow to protect life. Newscaster. Grant Morrison and Mark Waid love him.

Dark Age/Byrne Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El). Still moody. Weakest Superman. Thinks he’s Neutral Good, still Lawful Good. Doesn’t like Krypton. Designer Baby. Best Journalist. Canonically a Porn Star. Died. Came back. Most insecure Superman. Loves ‘Murica. Killed like three people one time. Strict code against killing. “Superman is what I do, Clark is who I am”. Legion who? Superboy who? Supergirl who? Football Star. Pure Sarcasm. Agnostic. People say they hate him but is the reason Smallville, Man of Steel and STAS exist. Literally wants to fuck Jimmy’s Mom. Triangle Era (90’s) Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is less moody now. Makes more Jokes. Still a drama queen. Smarter. Stronger. Wants to write a Novel. Married Lois. Jimmy is the Best Man. Good Leader. True Lawful Good. The Superman you probably think of the Most. Coolest guy. 90’s Superboy (the best) 90’s Supergirl (Matrix). Was once Gangbuster (Chaotic Neutral). Mind so strong, he killed a psychic in his sleep without knowing it. Christian (Married Lois in a Church). Still knows Kryptonian Kung Fu (Torquasm Vo/Rao). Dick Grayson’s 3rd Dad. Tim Drake’s 4th Dad. Slept with a Mermaid in Collage. Is fun.

Post-Crisis/2000’s Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El) Retcons out the ass. Kara comes back. Knows Boxing now. Knows Kung Fu. Held a Black Hole in his hand. Destroyed Moons. Agnostic. Still Lawful Good. Loves his wife. Loves his adopted son. Chris Kent. His son is Nightwing. His other son is also Nightwing. Walked the earth one time because of war crimes. Saves people from suicide again. Was a Kryptonian general one time. Literal Genius. Smarter than Batman. Is the GOAT. Hates the President.

New 52 Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El) Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good to Neutral Good. Lower kill count than Post-Crisis. Loves Toxic Women (Loves the craziest version of Diana). Had a Mid-Life Crisis in his Mid-20’s. Was a Wrestler. Talks like Jason Todd/Wally West/Nightwing/Peter Parker/every mid-20’s white boi in the 90’s-00’s. Everyone hated him. Wasn’t as bad as they say. Is the Andrew Garfield/Spider-Man of Supermen. Killed off without good reason.

Rebirth Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is literally just Triangle Era Superman. With kids. No Chris tho. Still Lawful Good. Strongest of the Post-Crisis versions. Tries to be a good dad. Is a decent dad. Except for the time where he left Jon alone. So he’s a bad dad. I’m still not over that. Bendis loves him. Says please alot. Watches Anime. Kind of a dead beat. I miss Chris.

if you want summations of other Supermen I didn’t cover you are welcome to ask.

[bambiraptorx]

I’d like to know more about your AU featuring Ferret Splinter.

I’m also a bit curious as to the associations you don’t like about the current canon design for a Rise splinter. In my AU he’s starting to slim down a little since I’m pretty sure things are a bit more rigorous.

But that is a long way of saying I’m curious as to why so please elaborate on why you don’t like the design

I'm happy to share! First things first, it's not a singular AU so much as a design I'm planning to work into all my fics. I just added the lore to the original post to make it a little more interesting and to explore what differences might arise leading to or because of Splinter being a ferret mutant instead of a rat mutant.

As for the reason for the redesign in the first place, it's not because Rise Splinter is short and chubby, I want to say that straight out of the gate. He can be an extremely competent fighter and fat at the same time. (And if you want a real-life example of this, look at sumo wrestlers. They definitely aren't thin.) My issue is specifically with him being a rat.

From here on, I'm going to be discussing racism and racist imagery, just a heads up.

In Rise, Splinter is a Japanese immigrant who gets turned into a rat. If you know anything about the anti-Asian and anti-Japanese propaganda that's been used over the years, that is very much not a good association. If you want to see examples, look at the first and third examples of WW2 anti-Japanese propaganda here, or this one here. Then compare those designs to Rise Splinter. It's bad.

(And there's other iffy parts in Rise, like the joke in the movie about him knowing what rats taste like. Given the history of anti-Asian propaganda in the US and the fact that Rise Splinter is canonically a first-generation immigrant, that's not great. The jokes about him being a bad driver when its a common stereotype of Asian people? Also not great.)

I'm not Asian or Japanese myself so I'm probably not the best person to explain this fully, but I don't particularly like the idea of using a character design that looks uncomfortably close to a racist caricature. And this problem of Splinter being an Asian-coded rat-man isn't unique to Rise by any means since it's been a staple characteristic since his character was created in the 80s, but that doesn't mean that we have to maintain that.

For me, that means redesigning his character to not be a rat, and using the redesign in my stories instead of his canon design. Does everyone have to do this? No. But I think more people should at least acknowledge that Splinter's design does have negative associations, and evaluate what that means for their own work. There's several good video essays on youtube if you want to learn more.

TLDR: Splinter being an Asian-coded rat man has racist connotations and Rise Splinter in particular looks like a racial caricature, thus my redesign of him.

[wildbeautifuldamned]

Antique JAPAN Japanese Postcards Sumo Wrestlers Rikishi Memorial Card Prewar WW2 ebay kobento

[lsdjellyfishu]

Happy Halloween everyone! Here is a spooky Godzilla story I scanned and translated into English, from the Godzilla comic. It's "Warning from G" by  Shinobu Kaze.

You can read and enjoy the whole thing here, in PDF, or image by image:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBneTwlYivW3Rl43nsG5wHoXfQz5aGQu/view?usp=sharing

By "conventional" Godzilla standards, this might be one of the weirdest Godzilla stories to ever exist. It mainly concerns Godzilla being killed by a martial artist, and Godzilla subsequently posessing a baby. Brief panels from this comic have appeared online over the years,often with biwilderment, and it's no surprise why.

While I maintain it's certainly out there, I think it's incredibly fascinating once you know more about the background of the characters  and philsophy behind the story, which is rooted in "Japanese Occultism".

The story appears to largely be based on the philsophies and religious teachings of Onisaburo Deguchi.

The short version is that Onisaburo, according to Wikipedia, was a Japanese religious teacher who believed in a spirit world that reflects humanity. He believed that humanity needed to come together, and that negative energy/vibes, creates and continues horrible actions. While I'm always skeptical to praise spiritual leaders that sound nice on paper, it's worth noting that Onisaburo was a critic of imperial Japan, as he apparently believed that the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan has a negative impact on the human and spiritual world. Therefore, the idea of the story is that ambigiously, post  WW2, perhaps ideas and hatred still linger, or so much hatred exists in the world that Godzilla, a manifestation of evil, appeared (if this sounds a little like GMK, you're not wrong!).

Therefore, the stories titular "warning", is that if humanity continues to be horrible to one another, the world will get worse and worse, before horrible creatures will appear!

You can read more about him here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onisaburo_Deguchi

I think if you're a fan of other Japanese series (Yu Yu Hakusho), this may also ring a bell. It's the type of thing that may be repeatedly referenced in Japanese media (Like Journey to the West), that may not be immediately obvious to "Western"/"Non-Japanese"/"Non-Asian" viewers.

That brings us to the second weird intersection of the story, "martial arts". I couldn't find any English resources on Moshibe Uehara, so I apologize in advance if some of that was a little unclear, or if he was a real person and I've just misidentified someone. It's worth noting that one

Professional Wrestler Jushin Liger is brought up at one point in the story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jushin_Liger

What adds an extra layer of weirdness, is that Jushin Liger, the wrestler, partially bases his persona on the actual anime/manga series "Jushin Liger", by Go Nagai. We'll get to Go Nagai in a moment...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jushin_Liger_(TV_series)

Seishi Moribe

The character Seishi Moribe was a real martial artist. Unfortunately, little if any, information exists in English. What I can find about him was that his father was a personal bodyguard for Hideki Tojo, and that he was a martial artist before becoming a wrestling promoter. He later trained Masaharu Funaki, a renowned Japanese MMA Fighter. Funnily enough... Funaki would go on to play a small role as the commander of the Mutant Squad in Godzilla Final Wars!

Anyways, Horibe claims to have invented the "bone method" from the story (which really doesn't have an english translation as far as I can tell), and his supposed feats with it are unreliable.

Ootomo Karo, whom the story claims originally invented ed the bone style, was a real general during the Nara period.

So, you wind up with a Godzilla tale that is, one part Godzilla, one part Japanese spirtuality, and one part martial arts. I think it surpsingly works well for what it is.

Shinobu Kaze is awesome, and I recommend looking into his other works. That brings us to "Go Nagai", one of the most famous mangakas who is up there with Tezuka Osamu and Toriyama Akira. While not directly credited, the credit of the story is given to Shinobu Kaze AND Dynamic Pro. Dynamic production was one of Nagai's studios/production crews. It's unclear if Nagai was directly involved with this, but it's pretty significant to have this involvement. It makes sense, as some of the ideas in the story also line up with Devilman's theming and style.

PS: you may have noticed that my scans and image quality are a lot better. I've invested a lot in a better setup and process, so I intend to pretty much translate all of the Godzilla Comic and Godzilla Comic Strikes back over time.

[freakqueer]

how did you meet your partner(s)?

i met c. eight years ago on tumblr, we started talking because he got into the same obscure 1960s ww2 show i was into just so he'd have something to talk to me about (which i only found out in the past year, i thought he'd just been a fan of it naturally).

met cherry when he dm'd me to ask which wrestlers i was talking about when i said i wanted some wrestlers to call me slurs and now in a little over a week we're celebrating our first year anniversary

my lover is one of c's best friends, and we bonded over talking about orange cassidy and chuck taylor <3

[itsneonbright]

Carlos’s Condo...

Carlos Reyes [Rafael Silva] is a Policeman and one of our core characters. He is a longtime friend of Michelle, and the love interest for TK. As with all sets, the most interesting part of a Set Decorator’s job is telling the story of the character through their environment...usually their home. All we knew about Carlos was that his last name is Reyes. At Modernica, I found an ornately framed picture of someone who could be his Grandfather in a WW2 uniform, and then I found a 1970s picture of some cops by a police car and thought that one could be his father.

Extrapolating, Carlos’s family has been in Texas for generations, and perhaps even when it was part of Mexico. I wanted to honor that culture and gave Carlos lots of Aztec and Mayan sculptural figures along with traditional Mexican craft items like the ceramic Palomas, papyrus paintings, a metate/molcajete, a Mexican wrestler (luchador) photograph, with a nod to Tom of Finland, and carved wooden “Spanish” table and lamps from Arte de Mexico mixed in with high-end furnishings in black bolstered leather from HD Buttercup. Being a gay, Latinx policeman from a Catholic old-Texas background makes Carlos a very interesting character! 

9-1-1 Lone Star set decor

[farsight-the-char]

I want to talk about my Magical Girls, specifically, the "Red" one, Victoria Dracaena, aka "BLAST DRAGON"

The oldest at the start of the "Adventure" at 26, and the only one to have a hero licence already.

Coming from a Brazilian isolated town, broke free from her abusive parents to pursue her transition at 14, and spent her teenage years honing her powers* and getting a proper education, moving in with a weird hippy family.

A thrill seeker, at 18 she switched to a more vigilante approach to her powers, fighting basically anyone she deemed evil, her burning fists and enhanced durability enabling her Justice.

Local authorities, realizing her intentions (and realized her potential use), fast-tracked her to a hero license and payroll (mostly to keep track of her), at 21. She spends most of her cash on fancy food and sex workers.

Bombast in her approach, akin to a wrestler in her approach to stopping crime.

At 25, she earned the attention of the Cysym** "Sanguine", and accepted the bond with her, allowing the 2 to defeat a Parasite Demon, far before the other Cysym had bonded.

San grants the two super-speed and processing ability, also allowing Victoria Flight. She and Mio (leader) are the only ones who can Fly on with their Cysym forms.

San is probably the most Active of the scattered Cysym. The most direct in methods, who refused to shy away from the "Super Hero" element of Cysym role.

...

175cm tall, mixed black/native, Victoria views herself as extremely attractive with good reason. HRT has treated her well.

Her "Super Form" adds dragon scales and increases her size.

The heart and "Cool Big Sis" of the team. The one who loves being a superhero the most.

Also the official mentor to the youngest member Runa.

......

*Thermal Energy generation and enhanced strength/durability. In the TDA verse, most of the human population has powers as a result of the USA over producing the "Empowering Elixer" during WW2, and the series takes place in 2040.

**Cybernetic Symbiote. Aliens who have come to Earth to slay their invading "Cousins", the Parasite Demons. They grant their bonded powers (on top of the ones they already have) and a combat form.

[nakuuro1994]

So “Mrs. Oyama’s Dragon Pearl” tells the strange & spectacular misadventures of a kindly 65 year-old Japanese American grandmother who accidentally finds and grabs a rather large and ancient crystal ball-like black pearl that’s wedged inside a old and seemingly abandoned shrine while vacationing on a remote island within the Devil’s Sea (a.k.a. “The Dragon’s Triangle”) as she magically grows and transforms into a bigger, stronger and much older magical wish-granting dragon as a result. Not to mention that she also soon realizes while still holding the ancient magical black pearl herself that it would allow anyone who holds it to forcefully transform her into a wish-granting dragon at anytime in order to grant the owner 3 wishes a day.

But while trying desperately to hide her new magical powers and abilities and her new dragon-like form from her own grandkids so she won’t have to worry about getting them involved into any dangerous magical situations, her three hyperactive and rambunctious granddaughters ultimately did find her new mystical black pearl regardless as their newly magical grandmother was now under their complete control as they all started to go on various magical misadventures together as a result.

Not to mention that her actual name will be “Mrs. Hana Oyama” as she’s normally a sweet-hearted, laidback, easygoing and fun-loving but also extremely greedy, miserly, opportunistic and nearsighted Japanese American grandmother to three beautiful, hyperactive and rambunctious 10 year-old triplet granddaughters named April, May and June Oyama who’s she’s also taking care of them after the tragic deaths of their parents in a sudden car accident.

~ (List of Main Cast & Characters):

* April Oyama 大山淳 (The Prideful, Sassy and Neurotic Nerdy Triplet and “The Brain” of The Oyama Sisters) ♀️

* May Oyama 大山メイ(The Shy, Meek and Sweet-Hearted Artsy Triplet and “The Beauty” of The Oyama Sisters) ♀️

* June Oyama 大山エイプリル (The Rough, Tough and Brave Tomboy Triplet and “The Brawn” of The Oyama Sisters) ♀️

* Mrs. Hana Oyama 大山華 (The Greedy, Miserly and Opportunistic Yakuza Grandmother turned Laidback, Fun-Loving and Easygoing Wish-Granting Dragon via a Magical Black Pearl) ♀️

* Mr. Subaru “Sonny” Oyama 大山昴 (The Strong, Stoic and Fearsome Yakuza Grandfather and former Sumo Wrestler) ♂️

* District Attorney Kenshirō “Kenny” Oyama & Mrs. Moana Oyama (The Kind, Caring & Loving Late Parents of both April, May & June Oyama) ♂️ ♀️

* The Three Wise Guys/Ichirō, Jirō & Saburō Oyama (The Blind, Deaf & Mute Yakuza Enforcer Uncles of both April, May & June Oyama) ♂️

~ (List of The Citizens of SeaHaven, WA):

* Officer Bonnie O'Hara (The Kind & Caring Ex-Military Single Mother & Beat Cop) ♀️

* Officer Jacob McMahon (The Young & Naive New Recruit) ♂️

* Lt. Gloria Murphy (The Loud, Proud & Reckless Female Cowboy Cop) ♀️

* Lt. Vivian Callahan (The Prim, Proper & Strictly “By-the-Book” Cop) ♀️

* Dr. Fujiko Murakami (The Sly, Sarcastic & Sloppy Gothic Forensic Analyst) ♀️

* Chief Aphrodite Jones (The No-Nonsense Police Chief) ♀️

* Susanna Bailey (The Calm, Cool & Stoic Native American U.S. Marshal) ♀️

* Angela Baker (The Sexy Wino Volunteer Firefighter Milf & Former Porn Star) ♀️

* Shannon O'Hara (Bonnie's Rebellious Teenage Daughter) ♀️

* Reagan O'Hara (Bonnie's Fun-loving 10 Year-old Daughter) ♀️

* Donnie Baker (Angela's "Dumb Jock" Teenage Son) ♂️

* Ronnie Baker (Angela's Intellectual 10 Year-old Son) ♂️

* Detective Penelope Wu (The Aristocratic Cantonese Private Investigator) ♀️

* Red Slugger/Natsuko Murakami (The Japanese Oni/Baseball-Themed Vigilante) ♀️

~ (List of The Makarov Family Members):

* Alexi “The Cossack” Makarov (The Former WW2 Soviet General Turned Russian Mob Boss & The Archenemy of The Oyama Crime Family) ♂️

* Boris “The Bear” Makarov (The Former Spetsnaz Soldier Turned Mob Enforcer/The Murderer of SeaHaven District Attorney Kenshiro Oyama) ♂️

* Natasha Makarova (The Mystically Cursed Russian Mob Wife of Alexi “The Cossack” Makarov & The Madam of the “Red Star Lounge” of SeaHaven) ♀️

* Veronika Makarova (The 10 Year-Old Spoiled Mob Princess Daughter of Boris “The Bear” Makarov and The Arch-Rival of The Oyama Triplets) ♀️

~ (List of The Main Black Pearl Dancers):

* Krystal Brooks (Age: 25, Canadian American, Born in Toronto, Canada, Hair Color: Blonde, Cup Size: GG) ♀️

* Leilani Kamealoha (Age: 23, Native Hawaiian, Born in Honolulu, HI, Hair Color: Black, Cup Size: E) ♀️

* Stephanie “Sugar” Freeman (Age 26, African American, Born in Tampa, Florida, Hair Color: Black, Cup Size: H) ♀️

* Rosetta “Rosie” Santiago (Age: 24, Mexican American, Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Hair Color: Black, Cup Size: EE) ♀️

* Morgan O’Shaughnessy (Age: 27, Irish American, Born in Dublin, Ireland, Hair Color: Redhead, Cup Size: F) ♀️

* Young-Hee Song (Age: 28, Korean American, Born in Seoul, South Korea, Hair Color: Black, Cup Size: DD) ♀️

So essentially these 6 women who work as regulars at the nightclub downstairs would essentially grow to form a strong “big sister” like bond with the Oyama triplets as some of them even help babysit the girls whenever Hana or their three uncles would be “out on official business”.

Not to mention that Leilani Kamealoha is usually the one who would often volunteer to help babysit the girls the most as she has some experience with raising children due to her rather large family back home in Hawaii as well as coincidentally being their actual maternal aunt (as the girls would regularly just call her “Auntie L” for short).

~ (List of Hana Oyama’s Powers/Abilities):

* Atmospheric Adaptation

* Aura Generation/Manipulation

* Chi Manipulation/Generation

* Cloud Flight/Air Walking

* Wingless Flight/Levitation

* Decelerated Aging/Semi-Immortality

* Dermal Armor/Scale Manifestation

* Elemental Breath Powers

* Draconic Element Manipulation

* Enhanced/Supernatural Condition

* Enhanced/Supernatural Durability

* Enhanced/Supernatural Endurance

* Enhanced/Supernatural Intelligence

* Enhanced/Supernatural Regeneration

* Enhanced/Supernatural Senses

* Enhanced/Supernatural Vision

* Enhanced/Supernatural Strength

* Enhanced/Supernatural Swimming

* Enhanced/Supernatural Wisdom

* Fear Masking/Fearlessness

* Magic Resistance/Immunity

* Antler Protrusion

* Claw Retraction

* Prehensile Tail

* Super Bite

* Omnilingualism

* Prehensile Torso

* Shapeshifting

* Animal Morphing

* Camouflage

* Elasticity

* Human Disguise

* Malleable Anatomy

* Mythic Morphing

* Personal Size Manipulation

* Thermal Resistance

* Regenerative Healing Factor

* Spirit Physiology

* Weather Manipulation

* Mysticism

* Reality Warping

* Mystic Object

* Spell Casting

* Magical Teleportation

* Transmutation

* Wish Granting

But nowadays she under the complete control and servitude of her three adorable 10 year-old granddaughters whom she has to grant their respective 3 wishes everyday now.

(While still trying to find time to run her restaurant/nightclub, co-running the crime family all while grieving for the loss of her youngest son).

So essentially The Oyama Family essentially owns/runs a local Japanese Restaurant/Nightclub called “The Black Pearl Lounge” which is a front for all their various criminal activities and it’s named after the magical Black Pearl that originally cursed Mrs. Oyama into a wish-granting dragon.

Also Mrs. Oyama tends to lie about the family’s various criminal activities from the triplets since she doesn’t want to have them exposed to the “dirty side of life” and to preserve their innocence (Y’know because they’re only 10-year old girls and they just lost both their parents in a tragic car accident recently).

Not to mention that Mrs. Oyama herself has three strict rules for the girls to follow…

* Rule #1) Don’t make any trouble for her or the rest of the family (especially when it comes to wishes)

* Rule #2) Always pull your own weight around the house and keep up with your chores and responsibilities around the restaurant

* Rule #3) DO NOT GO DOWNSTAIRS TO THE BASEMENT!! (That’s for grownups)

The Black Pearl Lounge itself is a three story building with their main apartment being the top floor, the main restaurant itself being on the second floor/lobby and the third floor/basement being the actual strip club.

Also Mrs. Hana Oyama herself is often the one taking care of the Oyama sisters (with some much needed help from the three uncles as well) while her husband Sonny Oyama is still grieving over the loss of their son Kenshiro as he won’t start to actually interact with the girls until later in the story.

But unfortunately for her, even with her newfound godly powers, she still has a small list of rules to follow when it comes to her own wishes….

~ Rule #1) She can only grant 3 wishes per day (but a group can split the wishes up individually if there’s more then one person around)

~ Rule #2) She can’t forcibly make people fall in love with one another (unless they already have mutual feelings for each other beforehand)

~ Rule #3) She can’t bring people back from the dead (but she CAN allow people to communicate with the spirits of the dead through mediumship)

~ Rule #4) She can’t actively kill anyone with her wishes (but crippling them is fine)

But yeah, Hana Oyama herself is normally a very sweet-hearted, laidback, easygoing and fun-loving mother/grandmother but she’s also extremely greedy, miserly, opportunistic and nearsighted with a very sassy/bold attitude towards most people outside her family.

(She’s also very much a doting grandmother towards the triplets as she’s pretty much do anything to please them except whenever they break her 3 household rules).

Plus the triplets absolutely love to hangout with their grandma whenever they can as they absolutely love making wishes and go on magic adventures with her (plus they weirdly love to watch her dragon transformations as well as they think it looks super cool like a werewolf movie).

~ (List of Main SeaHaven Locations):

1. The Black Pearl Lounge 🐉

2. The Red Star Lounge🪆

3. SeaHaven Police Department👮

4. Ocean View Elementary 🏫

5. SeaHaven Public Library 📚

6. Ruby Shores Boardwalk 🏖️

7. The Baker Household🍸

8. SeaHaven Fire Department👨‍🚒

9. Seaside High Magnet School 🏫

10. Little Neptune’s Pizzeria & Grill 🍕

11. SeaHaven Natural History Museum 🌎

12. SeaHaven City Hall 🏙️

13. SeaHaven’s Little Tokyo ⛩️

14. The O’Hara Family Residence ☘️

15. The Murakami Family Residence 👺

16. Freedom Park Naval Museum 🚤

17. SeaHaven General Hospital 🏥

18. SeaHaven Aquarium & Marine Park🐬

19. Astro-Land Amusement Park 🎡

[jamesgalgano]

VINCENT J. GALGANO, MY FATHER, MY LOVE , MY LIFE!

Vincent Galgano , my father , my love my life By james a galgano

Time has too many ways of playing tricks upon your unchosen life There is some pseudo truism which states the good die young This may be true, but they did not know my father, Vincent who died today At the age of 104 years young as he and his memory will remain forever to me He was a good honest loving husband and father for as far as the eyes can see still Born to immigrant parents who travelled to find their dreams passing through liberty They fell on hard times during the Great Depression their father unable to find work Chose another path to help his family survive running a speak easy until he died My father’s brothers helped there dad anyway they could until his life was taken short away Leaving Antonio, Frankie, Vincent, Angie and Mikey to help their mom my grandmother dear When World War two hit our shores 3 of the brothers signed up to protect democracy Antonio and Frankie spent time fighting overseas, my dad remained behind helping our cause First as a mechanic, servicing vehicles destined for the battle lines changing with each year Then as a master sergeant training integrated forces to learn to do the same across USA He married Carmela Ammirati , my mother and became father of a daughter Elaine at 24 After, WW2 ended he took a mechanic job for buses in New York City , Where I was born 1952 When my brother Anthony was born in 1953, our parents moved us to oceanside by the sea My dad became involved in union politics becoming shop steward then president of his branch Yet even after his job his and my mom’s dream was to one day own a house of their very own In 1958, he got a job in the post office as a carrier and moved us to Commack further east By 1959 after my sister Gloria was born, dad became involved once more in union there Becoming Commack postal workers elected representative and the local’s democratic chair Nevertheless, to meet mortgage demands he took addition jobs to meet rising costs He worked these jobs not only for this but to also give each of us a catholic school education By 1967, my parents grew tired of this life and chose to take us to Arizona to try once more It took my father until 1968 when he became permanent and was once more elected union rep He did this until the day he retired in 1979, after moving my mom to a new home in Mesa He told me he regretted this early retirement he did so until the day he died 12/15/2021 Even though my father many years worked 2 or 3 jobs after work, he often took tony and I When he cooked at Long Island Arena for all events then cleaned up after we often were there With him to watch every event and to help him clean arena seats after every event, Where we met circus performers, hockey players, wrestlers, roller rink players, and the like With my mother, he took us where they saved throughout the year to spend summer vacations In Lake George where we discovered folk music and protest music then being born anew Or Hyanis Port, where we met Bobby Kennedy walking with his family on Hyanis streets My dad drove us across country from New York showing us the nation as all should see He was and will always be my hero. He never looked for recognition of fame only to help others Instilling in each of us that all are created equal and must be treated same way no matter what When my took ill he cared for 17 years until she gave up the ghost to escape excruciating pain After my mom died 2009, I returned on my sabbatical and each summer to care for him there He always remained political and active in union until day he finally departed from view Yet, no matter this he will remain my love, my hero, my guide through this my life through Knowing we had a loving mother like Carmela and role model like Vincent we were never alone They gave us love support with what little they had to make our house a loving home

[memecucker]

I think one of the things that’s making reading the history of pro wrestling is when all of a sudden other social issues kinda pop up and yeah it’s not like that’s unique to wrestling but it’s interesting nonetheless.

For example the guy that’s considered to be the father of Japanese professional wrestling was a guy named Rikidozan whose background was in sumo. The name “Rikidozan” was actually his shikona which is basically someone’s sumo name they adopt but his government name was Mitsuhiro Momota while his birth name was Kim Sin-rak because the father of Japanese pro-wrestling was a Korean guy born in Korea. When he was young a Japanese businessman saw a lot of potential in him and sponsored his travel to Japan to attend a sumo dojo but his Korean ancestry was still known which resulted in a lot discrimination and harassment so he decided to get adopted by his sponsor so he could take his name and disguise his Korean heritage. That helped when it came to racism from common people but backstage there was still some amount of discrimination which culminated in a pay dispute when Rikidozan felt he wasn’t being properly compensated given his success and popularity because of his Korean heritage which caused him to retire in 1950.

After Rikidozan retired from sumo he worked as a supervisor for a construction company owned by a different Japanese businessman that also helped sponsor his sumo career named Shinsaku Nitta. Now during the war Shinsaku Nitta was an officer at a POW camp for Americans but he developed a reputation for being a “good guard” in that he felt compassion for the prisoners and would sneak extra rations or cigarettes to them. After the war word of mouth about this “good guard” spread and resulted in Nitta’s construction company doing very well during the occupation and reconstruction of Japan as it meant he was highly prioritized for contracts since a lot of GIs basically said that they owed their lives to this compassionate Japanese guard that would risk his own life and well being to save them from starvation. And one day some Americans in Tokyo decided it would be fun if they organized a pro wrestling tour with American wrestlers from Hawaii matched up against local guys and since Nitta was very tight with the American community he was able to go “Oh! If you guys are looking for Japanese people that would be good for this then I definitely know a guy” and got Rikidozan booked for the tour.

And so after only a month of training introducing Rikidozan to the world of American pro-wrestling he managed to wow the American organizers and he wound up being booked to be the main Japanese wrestler who would go over the visiting American opponents. Since this was post-WW2 Japan under Japanese occupation the crowds absolutely ate it up seeing this Japanese champion who was able to stand up to and defeat one American after another. He would then go on to tour heavily in the USA and would eventually found the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance the first Japanese pro wrestling promotion and direct precursor to NJPW and AJPW.

But yeah anyway I think that’s kinda interesting. A guy who spent much of his life subjected to anti-Korean racism and discrimination in Japan which wound up ending a promising sumo career early would eventually end up becoming a hugely popular hero and symbol of restored Japanese pride and dignity in the post-war era.

[thermodynamiclawyer]

yeah, this is gonna be a trainwreck. here’s @bandagegirl ‘s and my GHS headcanon masterpost. our goal was to have at least 3 per character, if not more. we kinda had to group the last few characters together in the end, though. it’ll be split up in categories between the characters in the Game, then Anime-Only, and then overall Worldbuilding at the end as for easier reading.

Game Characters

Gregory

the Lost World/Gregory House is Gregory’s own manifestation through loneliness and envy. (see Worldbuilding)

he’s WAY older than a grandfather of James. he’s more of a great-great-great-great grandfather, but it’s easier to just call him grandpa.

he’s been long dead in reality for years. always constantly dreaming and manifesting his Lost World and eventually never woke up.

there is almost 0 records of him from reality. because of this, there is no clear time period he originated in, unlike the guests.

he’s a collector. he loves historically significant antique items to put on a shelf and learn all about.

as taken from the manga, his favorite historical subject is War.

he suffered from frequent night terrors as a teenager, making it difficult to sleep before the manifestation of the Lost World.

while he usually tries to set up a weekly chore schedule for the residents in the hotel, he usually ends up doing everything himself (both because the guests throw in the towel very quickly and that Gregory wants to do everything right).

his magic abilities include teleportation and immortality, but he’s still very prone to injury.

Gregory Mama

she’s actually a manifestation within the Lost World that Gregory used to cope/punish himself with.

has the tendency to adopt new guests as family members only to eat them/their souls later. this also applies to Gregory attempting to manifest new family members in the past, to which he stopped after Gregory Mama has shown to steal their souls each time.

obviously, she’s not Gregory’s real mother, rather a personification of the abuse Gregory suffered in reality.

as young children usually don’t use their parents real name often, she doesn’t have a real name.

James

he’s a child who escaped reality after discovering a forgotten family member (Gregory) in very old family photos; having little to no relation to the rest of the family.

plus, hearing rumors of a hotel that only appeared during moonless nights only encourage him to take on a challenge.

since he’s related to Gregory (even if it’s very distant), his monster transformation was a lot faster, becoming a full rat in little under a month.

he LOVES horror movies, especially slasher films. he might be a little too influenced by them.

he owns a large range of weapons, from toy water guns to actual chainsaws. that doesn’t mean he’ll use them responsibly, though.

he’s a very smart kid, even to the point where he can be manipulative to both the kids and the adults. he’ll even convince other kids to take the blame for him whenever he starts problems.

his parents from reality miss him very much.

Catherine

in reality, Catherine was a German nurse in the 1940’s during WW2.

as a human, she was actually afraid of the sight of blood and would get lightheaded whenever she had to treat a soldier’s wounds. however, as a determined nurse, she tried her hardest to become tolerant of blood. tolerance became fondness and fondness became obsession to the point where she was hurting her patients just to see blood again.

she is attracted to both men and women, however she experiences internalized biphobia. due to this, she’s desperate to find true love with a man while specifically trying to avoid romantic relationships with women.

she knows how to take care of children.

she molts her skin during periods of time, you know, since she’s a lizard.

she didn’t gain magic powers along with her transformation, but instead gained physical strength.

Cactus Gunman and Cactus Girl

both originated in the Mexican revolution, especially around 1910.

Gunman had been shot in the chest a few times in his life and surprisingly survived each of them.

Gunman’s personality completely changed once he arrived in Gregory House with his sister, becoming a paranoid coward from the brave “hero” he made himself out to be.

they both grow seasonal flowers in the springtime. Gunman grows one large red flower on his head, which he hides with his hat in the spring time. he prefers to only show to his potential lover. Cactus Girl grows smaller white flowers in her hair.

Gunman is in dire need of glasses.

Gunman is quite fond of gardening, and loves to talk about flora. sometimes, Lost Doll will accompany him in the courtyard while he weeds.

they would die for each other, so don’t cross them.

Cactus Girl can shoot better than Gunman, but prefers her lasso and other melee weapons. she’s sworn off using guns after the revolution.

Cactus Girl has the ability to spawn in zones in smaller closed areas, such as turning her hotel room into Cactus Land; sort of like a pocket dimension. it’ll disappear as soon as she leaves the room.

sometimes, they both don’t need to eat due to the occasional Photosynthesis, and can go a long time without water.

Hell’s Chef

he worked as a highly regarded chef in Russia at a fancy restaurant, with mixed European family origins.

him and Mirror Man were coworkers of some sort.

he came from a long line of wrestlers, but broke family tradition to cook as a passion and career.

he died after the restaurant went up in flames.

his throat is still scratchy and rough from the incident, so he isn’t much of a talker. not to mention the language barrier and that he’s still attempting to learn the language everyone else speaks in Gregory House.

while the appearance of his meals look absolutely irredeemable, Chef’s cooking is actually very tasty; so much that you almost can’t taste the poison. he prefers making meals that are hearty and savory, rather than “looking good”.

he prefers to do all the food shopping and butchering. nobody knows the best ingredient selections like he does.

like Catherine, all of this “magic ability” went to his incredible strength.

most, if not all of his body is made out of wax, with vein like wick all throughout the body, giving him general bodily structure.

Neko Zombie

(see Worldbuilding)

Clock Master and My Son

My Son was a stillborn in reality; the death of him and his mother gave Clock Master an alcohol addiction and depression.

1960 is the year My Son and CM's wife died, making it when time stopped for CM. he’s sort of “stuck” in 1960 in a way, which is why the year is plastered on both of their foreheads.

My Son was technically "born" in Gregory House.

when Clock Master came to Gregory House, an infant My Son was already waiting in his room. Because the child died before getting a name, CM referred to him as My Son.

while CM's time abilities are getting worse with age, they never were great to begin with due to the Lost World's unusual flow of time.

My Son's time abilities on the other hand have the potential to be the most powerful ability out of everyone's when he gets older, being able to play multiple timelines at the same time and even rewriting reality. this is due to being born in the Lost World, so his ability has adapted to Gregory House’s “time” system.

Judgement Boy + Gold

instead of a singular character, Judgement Boys are classified as a “species” considering there are multiple of them, with more being produced in the Judgement Factory daily. there is not a singular JB.

the Judgement Factory in Gregory House is a sub-factory of a much bigger Core Factory, where it branches off into different zones and other manifestations. There are countless Judgement Factories in existence, all with numerous JBs being produced and trained.

Judgement Boy Gold is an individual one-of-a-kind model, however, there are more in the “Metal” series similar to him in different factories with a variety of training jobs.

JBs came into existence after a lawyer in the early 2000’s won a court case that suppressed the rights and safety of these assembly line workers in a Toy Factory, which caused hundreds of workers to be injured or even killed. realizing the consequences of his actions, he spiraled downwards into insanity and ended up in Gregory House, rarely leaving his hotel room and eventually manifesting the Factory.

most models or designs of a Judgement Boy are based off of toys; one of the very few things reflected from the lawyer’s fatal court case.

the standard JB’s appearance is a bastardized caricature of the original lawyer, only with added cages and robotic features. the lawyer began transforming into a red monster with sharp teeth and claws, but never saw the results as he disappeared into the Core Factory one day, never to be seen again.

see @ask-factory and the #extended factory tag for a more extensive story.

Mummy Family

Mummy Papa, Mummy Dog, and Mummy Mama originated somewhere in the 1980’s.

the reason they’re in Gregory House is an overlap of death and the fact that Mummy Papa was unintentionally poisoning the 3, leading to ending up in the hotel as a “punishment”.

they’re Bloodhounds.

Mummy Papa loves to collect weapons and owns a saber collection, especially older historically significant ones.

Mummy Dog enjoys morbid facts and likes to tell the other children about death.

Mummy Papa has Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is triggered when the sword shifts in his head. because of this, he keeps himself and the rest of his family sicker with unclear motives, perhaps to have the ability brag about their ailments. (more details here)

Mummy Mama suffers from more immune-system based illnesses and anemia while the other two deal with physical and phantom pain, which they all pass off as colds.

the plant in Mummy Mama’s head is a parasite, and needs to be fed directly to continue living if Mummy Mama gets too weak. (the plant prefers blood)

TV-Fish

one of the few characters classified as a species.

TV Fish have a wide variety of fish or other sea creatures they can be. the TV Fish in Gregory House are much smaller.

some TV Fish don’t even have to be TVs. some can be other electronic appliances just as long as they’re combined with a fish skeleton.

they can be found across other Zones and places besides the Lost World, some with localized and native species differing from what we already seen.

TV Fish are an invasive species in the Lost World.

they’re attracted to people with better memory. a person more intact and in touch with their memories could attract an entire school of TV Fish!

Roulette Boy

practically a God, Roulette Boy has reality bending powers.

however, since he follows his own rules strictly, he sets limits on himself as to only use them for his games, and won’t apply them to himself since he’s the Game Master.

nobody knows what the “rules” he follow are, but he restrains himself on what he can do while hosting a game. though, once you’re in his game, it’s almost a free-for-all and he can change you to be whatever pawn he sees fit until the game is over.

while RB prefers traditional board games, nothing’s stopping him from hosting RPGs or other turn-based video games (as seen in Lost Qualia.) he also loves gacha games and gambling.

when not hosting a game, he likes to roleplay.

Angel/Devil Dog

she is not a guest in Gregory House, neither a manifestation of the Lost World. she is a messenger from an entire separate outside world/reality, and she’s always been Angel Dog.

her, Death, and Gregory have been around equally the longest.

her and Gregory have a long history of rivalry. she’s always meddling in the Lost World and trying to let souls out a backdoor. whether she’s doing it to free them, or just to piss off Gregory, depends on her mood.

Angel Dog has a solid grasp on reality, however, her reality is different from the guests. it’s why her and Neko Zombie get along.

she doesn’t have a split personality disorder, as she chooses to become Devil Dog whenever she feels like it. her decision making is very emotion-based.

she’s a Dachshund!

Devil Dog likes soccer, and Angel Dog likes american football.

Lost Doll

ever since coming to the Lost World, she has either stopped aging altogether or she ages very slowly, as most object-based guests do.

she’s a wooden marionette with the ability to change her size.

in reality, she belonged to a very poor family who could only afford a few outdated wooden toys, which is why Katie was so special to her.

she’s good friends with James, even if she’s usually the one falling victim to his pranks. sometimes, when Katie takes over, it can be the other way around.

she has poor volume control and tends to shout when she’s excited or provoked.

she’s the youngest guest.

Death

Death, like Gregory Mama, is a manifestation of a part of Gregory's life.

he was created from Gregory’s favorite comfort movie, The Seventh Seal.

Death used to work in Gregory House as a doorman, welcoming the guests and wishing them goodbye, but fleed when Gregory Mama appeared and got rid of all other "manifestations".

his goal is to free Gregory's soul and end the Lost World, which is only possible if Gregory is the only person left.

Anime Characters

Dr.Fritz

Dr.Fritz is also German like Catherine, but came a little later in time.

back in reality, his body slowly stop responding, so he illegally tried to build himself a new body. that new body wasn’t fully ready yet when he decided to transplant his own brain when he was wheelchair bound and starting to lose arm control, so it was a very long process.

because of his condition, doctors either didn’t treat him correctly or flat out ignored his problems, so he has a strong mistrust to other doctors, which is why he wanted to operate on himself. the other doctors said there was nothing they could do, but he had other plans in mind.

he was there for the Berlin wall falling, and still has a piece of it as a keepsake.

he falls apart easily and has to re-sew body parts or snap his neck back into place. Catherine helps put him back together (in return, Fritz helps her shed.)

Catherine calls him Fritzchen on occasion.

he documents the species of the patients he treats out of curiosity and hopes to help them better. his treatments may be considered “unethical” but he knows for certain that if it’s to cure or treat the patient, he’ll go great lengths to break any rule in the medical field.

Mono Eye Wizard + Frog Fortune Teller

both are canonically married to each other, i just wanted to make sure everyone knew :]

Mono Eye Wizard wears a helmet, and he’s also an amphibian with one eye underneath his robe.

both are very interested and knowledgeable in the Magical and Paranormal side of the Lost World.

both held onto their souls for longer than most people, but lost them in the end.

Wizard is normally very powerful, he just SUCKS at summonings. (plus, he’s a little bit of an idiot)

on the other hand, Frog Fortune Teller isn’t very powerful, but she is very smart (and stubborn). she’s almost always right, especially if it’s a bad thing she predicted.

Wizard, and other characters such as Musha Dokuro and Egypetit all worship the same Dark Lord.

the little horned skeletons in Wizard’s cult are also classified as a species. sometimes, he allows in other interested members.

Wizard is fluent in latin.

Second Guest

the Second Guest, as shown at the end of the season two, has the silhouette of a rat. that’s her actual form; a shadow.

her “job” is to eavesdrop on other guests to go and report to Gregory Mama.

she’s very fast, quiet, hard to catch, and a big snitch.

the others call her “Hello Sister” as a title, while Gregory Mama calls her “My Lovely Daughter.”

her cigarette embers still glow on the wall, which is one of the only signals she’s in the room, especially in a poorly lit one.

usually only Gregory, James, and Mama can “hear” what she’s saying.

Chef strongly dislikes her and Lost Doll avoids her like the plague.

Prompters

a pair of indistinguishable twins, escaping reality after being rejected of their dream to become famous theater actors. both young adults.

they work multiple part time jobs, including helping out in the Judgement Factory in the hotel and Kabuki's theater, along with Poor Conductor’s performances.

they share drinks at the bar. their favorite drink is a raspberry/strawberry milkshake with two cherries. don’t forget to give them two straws!

they’re both learning how to cook with Hell’s Chef. so far, they can dice onions very well. :]

Public Phone

he’s in the Lost World as a punishment for being a greedy thief in reality.

he can create fake alibis, passports, various cards in addition to faking voices.

he’s drinking pals with Clock Master.

he takes any currency, just nothing fake. only HE can be the swindle here.

he’s a perverted little bitch.

Various Species

Haniwa Salarymen are classified as species, created from overworked businessmen in reality. The occurrence of them are very common, and season 1 happens to focus on one of them.

Black Ducks are a species, specializing in working kiosks, amusement parks, and other booths. Speed Mouse is never seen without a team of Black Ducks. Street Vendors sometimes accompany them.

Musha Dokuro are an invasive species to the Lost World.

Trap Mice are a (rare) artificial species built in the Lost World.

Dead Bodies are also classified as a species. they are the result of Death freeing an individual’s soul, leaving a husk/empty body behind.

species like these show up in reality to those who are close to their visit in the Lost World, appearing in the background or the corner of their eye, replacing real people.

individuals in all of those species are not visible/noticable until you interact and get close with them. they’re like NPCs.

Others

Wooden Lizard was Captain Wood’s favorite keychain that came to life.

Fat Chicken is an omnivore. He can and will eat anything.

(see here for Pig Gentleman and Mirror Man.)

Mirror Man can summon his own pocket dimension.

Kinko and Inko know more than they lead on, and Kinko is definitely much more powerful, but he can’t be bothered to do anything about it. he’s lazy.

Inko smokes cigars, but hates cigarettes.

Earth Man (from Lost Qualia) is non-verbal. he’s also very eco friendly!

Hell’s Taxi is a manifestation of a false sense of hope to escape the Lost World. it can also manifest in Reality to pick up new guests.

Egypetit’s head is made up of Gold, a strong conductor of magic in the Lost World.

Poor Conductor was powerful enough to manifest his own room into the Lost World, rather than checking into the Hotel himself.

Unbaba is semi non-verbal and cannot remove his mask. he’s definitely powerful enough to make guests lose their souls.

Bonsai Kabuki needs to water his head frequently or else he’ll be drained of energy, and be unable to open his third eye.

The Rainbow Dragon fossils, which Bonehead is after, are cursed, and uses his wife’s voice to compel him into seeking after them to claim yet another victim.

Toilet Baby may not be as powerful, but he can still summon dangerous attacks related to pocket dimensions.

Sleepy Sheep is used as a vessel in his sleep for those who are powerful enough to enter dreams.

Worldbuilding

Gregory House was a real place back in Reality, and it originally belonged to Neko Zombie and his loving family.

However, years and years of built up envy and hatred from Gregory, a person who didn’t receive the same love and luxuries as Neko Zombie, manifested the Lost World as a way for him to cope with the things he didn’t have in Reality, bringing the house down with him.

The remains of the house in Reality is now a mere rumor in the town, but its influence spreads across many zones to this day.

Neko Zombie is the final remaining member of the original owners of the house.

Him and Gregory are LONG forgotten for generations in Reality.

Zones are a loose term in the Lost World, which could mean alternate realities, different dimensions, etc. The Lost World is a zone with its own manifestations.

Another Zone could have its own origins and realities. Reality is not a zone, if that makes sense.

A Zone itself can manifest as a single individual or object being the Core that keeps the zone existing. (See The Core Judgement Factory that branches off Sub-Factories into different Zones.)

The Lost World is a very large Zone that reaches and branches off into other Zones, pulling in individuals.

Because of Zonal shenanigans, time moves a lot differently in the Lost World.

awful hospital does a better job handling zones better than this, actually. we took a little bit of inspiration from it. see here and here for a better grasp on what i’m trying to say.

[meneatyoghurt]

I was looking at this article and there's some great stuff about Carlos's condo.

All we knew about Carlos was that his last name is Reyes. At Modernica, I found an ornately framed picture of someone who could be his Grandfather in a WW2 uniform, and then I found a 1970s picture of some cops by a police car and thought that one could be his father.  Extrapolating, Carlos’s family has been in Texas for generations, and perhaps even when it was part of Mexico. I wanted to honor that culture and gave Carlos lots of Aztec and Mayan sculptural figures along with traditional Mexican craft items like the ceramic Palomas, papyrus paintings, a metate/molcajete, a Mexican wrestler (luchador) photograph, with a nod to Tom of Finland, and carved wooden “Spanish” table and lamps from Arte de Mexico mixed in with high-end furnishings in black bolstered leather from HD Buttercup. Being a gay, Latinx policeman from a Catholic old-Texas background makes Carlos a very interesting character!

Kind of sad though that Owen and TK's place is all about Owen. No TK presence at all, and they don't talk about TK's apartment in New York. So looking forward to TK maybe making himself at home somewhere new.

(I was looking for set pictures because I'm just not convinced the fire is in the Strand house as some people think. I know a lot of people have said the walls are too light to be Carlos's place, but I think that could just be the lighting...from the fire. I love his place, but honestly I wouldn't object to them having to find somewhere new together so they can create a place that's for both of them, instead of TK having to try and find his place in someone else's home.)

[eirikrjs]

I think it's fascinating to think of the Gaeans as a perversion of Buddhist teachings because, if you think about it, we see a similar thing on the Law side, where the Messians seem to be enacting a perversion of Christianity insofar as the message of the New Testament is concerned, at least in SMTII anyway.

The difference might be that there’s a lot more perversion (or exploitation) of Christianity in real life than perversion of Buddhism... that I’m aware of. (Well, see below.) Reminds me of those small statues of kneeling Christian soldiers you sometimes see in people’s gardens.

What are the chances that the figurative soldier on the left would join a hypothetical Messian movement? (BTW, that statue is currently sold out at Walmart, where I grabbed the image.) How many Americans joined the armed forces during the Iraq War just to get revenge against these religious “others” in revenge for 9/11? Honestly, maybe I’d rather not know.

Anyway, this is one of those responses where I was compelled to change my tune after even a little research. There are plenty of examples of race-related Buddhist violence in S/SE Asia, but maybe more relevant is Buddhist justification for Imperial Japan’s militarization leading up to WW2. What I had no idea about was Daisetz Suzuki’s involvement in the nationalist movement; Suzuki was a popularizer of Zen outside of Japan and frequented Carl Jung’s Eranos getaways that were also attended by the likes of Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell, both of whom quote Suzuki’s Zen writings.

Meanwhile, the most realistic Gaeans are probably the suicide units, another echo of Yukio Mishima but maybe something else instead.

I know I remember some student riots from ‘60s with similar uniforms but neither the name of the incident nor if they were violent or not. Maybe I’m mixing it up with something else. But the essence of Imperial Japanese religious zeal + actual supernatural setting is pretty much the Gaeans to a tee. I’m also unsure just how much influence Aum Shinrikyo could have had on the Gaeans before the infamous 1995 sarin gas attack and how notable they were in the Japanese public consciousness prior. They are probably more easily felt in the Gaean murders in Yoyogi Park that kick off Nocturne.

The broader rosters of both factions are then primarily composed of fairly unrealistic units. But it’s interesting to see that there’s still a Western/Eastern split between them as far as cultural influences go: Messians have references to Leatherface, Terminator, Scanners, and wrestler Abdullah the Butcher (though he was most well-known in Japan); the Gaians have crazy magic monks and a bunch of guys and girls that would slot perfectly into any ‘80s “occult boom” anime--and there’s also maybe the hannya motorcyle dude from the Italian film Demons. Thanks for ruining the consistency, Dario Argento & co.!

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Eddie Gribbon(center) in Home Talent (1921, Mack Sennett)

Gribbon was a burly ex-wrestler. He initially played Keystone cop, stunt and bit roles in late 1916/early 1917, and worked for the post-Sennett Keystone-Triangle company. He returned for higher-profile parts during 1919-22, often seen with a pasty face and a battered derby hat tight on his head. Gribbon also returned to Sennett for a final sound short in 1933.

The New York City-born Gribbon started in films in 1916 with Keystone. He then joined Al Christie's comedy troupe where Gribbon co-starred with Betty Compson through 1917, followed by WW1 service in which he served as an infantry drill sergeant. After his Sennett stint, the 6'0'', 190 pound, blue-eyed, brown-haired Gribbon became a favorite for producers seeking burly, bone-headed toughs for features. He got a rare featured role in the Tiffany offering Night Life (1927). Gribbon worked in one of Mabel Normand's Hal Roach shorts, and also appeared with Slim Summerville in the latter's Universal shorts of 1930. Gribbon starred in some shorts of his own in the early 1930s. He also played in RKO shorts of that period. In 1940, Gribbon appeared in the Our Gang MGM one-reeler, The Big Premiere, and played a storm trooper in Chaplin's The Great Dictator. He also supported in features. In the late 1930s and early 1940s Gribbon appeared in RKO shorts starring Leon Errol, and in 1943-44 he made Columbia shorts with the Three Stooges, Harry Langdon and Hugh Herbert. During the 1940s, Gribbon found plenty of work at Monogram in Eastside Kids and Bowery Boys films. Also, during WW2, he worked as a security guard at the Bendix aviation plant in LA. Gribbon had a recurring role as "Canvas" in Monogram's "Joe Palooka" series in the later 1940s. In the early 1950s Gribbon worked as a comic foil for Buster Keaton on tv shows like "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and "You asked for it," performing a number of old comedy routines.

He died at 75 at his North Hollywood home, after a 3 month illness with cirrhosis of the liver and conjestive heart failure. Eddie's interred at Calvary Cemetery in East LA.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp.508-509 

[art-heap]

Fck the one time a podcast advert sounds interesting i Miss the title and it’s nowhere to be found?

[whitelippedviper]

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. Fuck war, love comics.

So I’m making my way through Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and like I’ve seen Yaz’s work before.  I have the first volume of Venus Wars--but it just didn’t click for me. MSG: The Origin tho is goddamn sorcery on the page. You need to know this first off, you don’t need to know anything about Gundam to read this.  The whole thing is this is the book retelling the story that started it all but like Yaz’s from the heart version.  And two volumes in, which is like...1000 pages of comics, and this is a masterpiece.  

I’m mostly going to talk about the art, but story wise, military stuff is generally not my bag.  Unfortunately, it’s a genre that is grossly popular in American comics, not just in straightforward military stories, but superhero comics as well.  Too often these heroes have design updates that are all too happily to enlist heroes whose past models leaned more heavily into daredevil circus performers or wrestlers.  You know the look.  When your favorite hero goes from tights and a cape look to body armor looking shit everywhere.  War on crime right? And then these companies on their film side have all kinds of connections to the military industrial complex--hell these companies often employ ex-military, or in some notable cases ex-CIA to write the damn books.  And when you couple that with how interested the military has always been with warping people’s brains to keep the war machine humming(they once put acid in a whole town’s water supply just to see what would happen!) it’s quite unnerving!  So besides being extremely anti-war in practice, I’m also pretty tin foil hat when it comes to seeing the edges of the military in pop culture, particularly when the message is like “look how cool this is!”

Which as a sidebar is one of the things that makes the Aubrey Sitterson GI Joe thing complicated to me, because like...I don’t think GI Joe is a good thing, and I don’t believe leftists should be getting their pay pushing paper for something that could not BE more military industrial.  Like let's make kids think how cool being a soldier and going to war is--and then those kids grow up, and what a surprise we are in like ten wars that we know about, and will be for forever--and you get this kind of brainwashing that turns Kapernick trying to say “hey, maybe cops should stop shooting black men” into a debate about “respecting the flag” because the NFL is in bed with the military….agh.  I hate it.  I hate it all.  From Operation Condor, the firebombings of dresden, hiroshima and nagasaki, the genocide of the american indian, fallujah, Abu Ghraib, our complicity in Saudi atrocities in Yemen and Qatar...we are not the good guys of history!  We kill for empire, but our empire isn’t colonies, it’s more war. Our chief export is war.  And I would love to expatriate to a country that doesn’t have these values, but I don’t know if even then I could shake that shit from my stomach.  And even more insidious than our war is our financial arm, our banks and investors who have killed as many people with pens as any soldiers with guns.  We are an empire of atrocity!

So when I see military comics, or cop comics, it just reminds me that I live in the most warlike country of the last 100 years, and all of those innocent people that are caught up in our bombs, and the way we turn whole regions into chaos to serve our ends and make more money--my relative prosperity as an American is built on the bodies and bloodshed of innocents the world over.  I mean why is America what America is?  It’s because WW2 basically moved europe's wealth to the US, and then we spent it on more bombs and we stepped in not because of any real moral thing--we stepped in because england owed us too much for us to let them go down.  We as a country became a world superpower, the world superpower, through war profiteering and slavery.  That’s a huge aside, but I’m saying, I fucking hate war.  And maybe find ways to not contribute to more of those sort of comics?  But more than that in an aesthetic sense, the codes for military in American comics are so bland and it seems half the time to justify not having to do interesting character designs. So surely there is a better fit for someone like Sitterson who has the politics I do, I think, than writing war comics to a patriotic pro-military audience, so I wish him the best, but fuck GI Joe. (And as an aside aside, if it were Frank Miller and not Aubrey Sitterson with the controversial opinion that book isn’t getting dropped--these companies only do these things as financial calculations, and if you are a big enough cash cow you can say or do whatever you want in comics for the most part but if you aren’t--you better protect your neck because these companies don’t have your interests in mind. And we live in stupid times) So I can fuck with Gundam because 1) it hates war as much as I do. And 2) they’re not trying to make everything look like utilitarian military shit.  They’re about looking goood while they are hating war.   The story is really rich, background characters positively radiate and each have their own character which comes to the fore at different parts.  In some respects, Amuro Ray haunts this comic like death, because he’s the end of so many terrific characters that you really grow to love, and the Federation cause is somewhat murky at best, as is their exploitation of kids like Amuro. I kind of think Yaz does my favorite faces in all of comics, unseating Jose Munoz:

This kind of caricaturing is really lovely for a story this rich and dense, because you get so much just from how a character looks and the faces they make, and it’s quite appealing to look at I think.  There are characters you fall in love with just because you want to see Yaz draw their face again.  The range of expressions he has in the toolkit is amazing to me. Yaz’s style in general to me is like magic.  Lines don’t connect, and it’s like he can just shift around these minimal set of lines and accomplish anything on the page.  It’s like he has a set number of lines that he’s working with on every page, and he just dips his brush into the page and waves it around and those lines bend and contort into perfection.  He’s one like Kirby where he kind of just sits down at a page and the images come out of his brain.

 It’s not overly rendered, but it still is textural and inky.  I think this also has my favorite lettering in comics.  I don’t know who was responsible for it in english, but I love the obvious care that went into varying the lettering, and just how gentle and elegant it is.  It probably was just a font in a computer--but it doesn’t FEEL like that, which is cool. Oh also Yaz watercolors various pages in the book, and they are almost all stunning.  I’m planning to read his Joan of Arc book which is all watercolored, so that should be interesting. But I think what comes across more than anything reading these books, because of not only the comic, but the production value of the books themselves--the hard cover, the essays at the back, the slick pages, the thoughtful lettering--what comes across from stem to stern is that these books are a labor of love and passion in a way that you would not expect from the retelling of a decades old giant anime franchise!

Hideaki Anno said in his essay in the first book: “And I sense a certain good grace.  He decides to draw Gundam--well known to the masses as a premier franchise of the plastic model and anime industries--not from weariness, not as expiation, nor to return to his roots, but in earnest as a work of his own” and I think he’s absolutely correct.  There’s a love and attention to every inch of these books that is really inspiring to behold whether as an artist or in whatever you do to fill out your days--seeing something, anything, done by a master, with care and concern is a special thing to behold.  I mean I don’t know for sure that Yaz actually gives a shit about this book--but that’s what comes across on the page.  It comes across that he cares about these lines, about these stories, vividly, and even more surprising, the people whose charge is getting the work out to others, they seem to care just as much, so what you get is a very very special book.

In some ways, these dueling masters, Char and Amuro Ray, also express this concern and care.  At one point Char loudly criticizes Amuro Ray for his lack of style.  And while Char’s vanity, his secrecy, his romantic rogue ideal is extremely alluring, and any scene he’s in, I’m pretty glued to the page--he’s like Harlock or Queen Emeraldas.  We don’t have these kind of artist villains in American comics for some reason.  The closest I’ve seen was Ron Wimberly’s Prince of Cats which has characters who besides their bloody monstrous ideas, consider style to be important.

But even with all of that going on with Char, I’m surprisingly drawn to Amuro Ray--who is a character even without watching the original Gundam series(something I’m planning to rectify this winter--trying to finally knock out all the Gundam I’ve put off for years) that you just kind of know even without ever knowing why.  He’s a legend.  Like Luke Skywalker.  Even his name when you say it, you feel like you are speaking the name of a god.  But he’s a punk kid who has been dragged into this war against his will, and is desperately trying to balance doing the right thing, and keeping his identity.  I love that sometime he just refuses to go out in the Gundam which puts Ltg Bright in these particular binds(Bright might lo key be my favorite character in the series weirdly, for how he kind of morphs through being a snotty prick, to being in over his head, to being someone capable of real genius creativity. I’ve been watching Iron Blooded Orphans which is a Gundam series about child soldiers and is really brutal and depressing, and Orga is kind of like Bright mixed with Char.) His mercurial nature speaks to the nature of his art versus Char.  Amuro Ray belongs to the fickleness of inspiration, so because of that he’s not really reliable, but when he shows up he’s capable of things Char isn’t, moments of improvisation and grouchy genius that are the linchpins of the romantic appeal of the series.  

Versions of this character archetype I feel usually are supposed to be incompetent or dumb to those around them, but their conviction carries them, they have the most will--but in Amuro Ray’s case, he’s just an asshole.  The despair of it all, which is never lost on Amuro is that whether he does something, or doesn’t do something, people are going to die and it’s going to hurt.  And knowing that, that in the end horror is inescapable, and that death is undefeated--like what do you do?  How do you function?  What do you choose when there are no good choices?  Char is a little different, because his aim is revenge.  Which that side of Char that he hides behind his rogue’s grin, and devilish acts is really stunning when it first comes out in these early books.  He’s so careful to let that out, and when it does, you’re like “oh man, Char isn’t playing the same game the rest of you are”.  Agh.  It’s soo good. Comics like these keep the fires going.  There’s an infinity of them out there to be sure, but nothing makes me happier than a truly great comic.  Those comics that years after you remember the experience of reading them, where you were, what music was playing.  A great comic is a great lover.  It won’t last forever, though there’s a LOT of this book still for me to read--and I get in this mode where I both want to just inhale the whole comic as fast possible, and I don’t want this experience to end.  This is that sort of thing.  Which should be evident, since I bothered to write about it, haha.  I could never just review comics.  I’m like Amuro Ray with comics criticism, I need the right situation to be compelled to climb in and do it.  I don’t fundamentally love writing comics criticism--but when I experience something great, I have to talk about it and write about it.  Comics like these affirm everything about being involved with comics for me.  Check it out, see if you feel the same way.

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