thiscouldbeyourusername

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Alter-Ego AU

'Scourge' is just a rockstar stage persona Sonic made up so he can live his creative dreams as a bad-boy rock star. It started with editing his pictures online as a teen, but now well in his 20s he regularly has to dye/paint his fur and exchange his surgery scars for uh... 'cooler' claw marks so he's not recognized in public. It's even a running gag that 'Scourge' is often mistaken for Sonic. Sonic even trained his voice extensively to lower it slighty and speak with a more gruff tone in public.

The only time he'd ever be at risk of being found out is if Eggman himself decides to act out during one of Sonic's shows and target him directly. Fortunately he hasn't been found out despite a few close scrapes. It helps that your manager knows Chaos Control :)

(I made this as an example piece for comms, more info below)

PSA: I stream on twitch! I have Halloween specials planned on the 28th, 29th and 31st, starting at 6PM. For 3$ (inks only, $6 if you want color!) I'll scribble your blorbos in your halloween costume of choice!

twitch.tv/umbraborealis

Come hang out!

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Fanfic Idea

Ugh! I had this idea to write a fic about what-if Marinette was evil instead of Gabriel! But now with the whole Shadybug and Claw Noir special coming, I feel I have to wait, so things like 'Good Gabriel's good guy name' and what he calls who makes heroes (currently I'm calling them champion but I don't know anything) are more accurate to the show!

Plot

Essentially, it would've been in this universe, so no Shadybug. Instead, her name would've been Miss Fortune (I've been in this fandom since the beginning, I've always wanted that name to be canon). She takes the image of a shy sweet girl Marinette Dupain-Cheng but when things don't go her way, she becomes Miss Fortune.

Luckily, Paris has a hero in its corner, the amazing Chat Noir who battles the evil Miss Fortune. However, he also has an ally in the form of Papillon, a mysterious benefactor who helps him by sending him champions.

Characters

Adrien will still be our innocent sunshine child, but he has a whole lot more on his shoulders, trying to stop Miss Fortune from wrecking havoc and eventually becoming Guardian.

As Chat Noir, he and the champion have to work together to fight Miss Fortune. I have this system where Miss Fortune has a anti-charm (like Anti-bug) and if the two destroy it, the world healing begins.

Alya is still how she is in the show. Except she despises Miss Fortune. Her blog is towards Chat instead and she insults Miss Fortune anyway she can. She wants to rid the world of Miss Fortune, unaware she's her best friend.

Chloe would be a much better person (she still has some of her original flaws, so she would be not be like Zoe), liking Adrien like a brother and treating Sabrina like a real friend. Of course, Marinette doesn't see their relationship as platonic so she targets her. This version of Anti-Bug would've have Papillon give Chloe the power of the original Ladybug miraculous until Chat decides to give her the bee miraculous to use.

Lila would've been a person who always told the truth and while not all of her stories from canon were true, she does have some real amazing tales. This attracts Adrien to her (again platonically) much to Marinette's chagrin. One story is that Miss Fortune stole her bag once and Chat Noir got it back for her. Marinette thinks Lila is lying and Chat doesn't remember Lila specifically but he does remember giving someone back their bag.

So she briefly becomes Miss Fortune to embarrass her but this just inspires her to become Volpina and her and Chat briefly work together to take her down.

Gabriel is a much better father here! He's still busy and Emilie is still dead. But he's allowed Adrien to go to school and have a less stricter lifestyle. He still misses his wife but goes on a more healthier path instead and tries to move on while helping Chat Noir as Papillon.

Zoe would've been a person who acted nice when in reality, she's a massive witch. She still has feelings for Marinette but Marinette takes advantage of these feeling instead. She assist Miss Fortune also, not liking when things don't go her way. Half of Chloe becoming akumatized episodes would be Chloe either needing the bee miraculous or her helping Chat as a champion. Zoe would play dumb when confronted but some people start seeing the truth through her and Marinette's lies.

Shipping

So Marinette likes Adrien to disturbing degrees. Finding her strange since kindergarten, Adrien at best can be civil towards her. In the Animan episode of this AU, he would've weirded out by Nino's crush on her but would've still helped him, because he's a good friend and he feels he would be a good influence of her.

He and Miss Fortune jokingly flirt with each other sometimes, but they really hate each other with a fiery passion.

Adrien is bisexual in this fic. Who is Adrien's partner? Luka. Instead of liking Marinette, he takes a shining to Adrien instead. Adrien is smitten as both himself and Chat Noir. Luka would be a frequent character in season 1. Often times, Chloe and Juleka (and sometimes Nino) would try pairing them together frequently.

Marinette used to have a crush to Luka and he used to give her a chance but with all the lying and her accidently making it clear she likes Adrien, he also can now only be civil to her.

Chloe is also bisexual. Nathaniel initially has feelings for her instead of Marinette in 'Evilluastor'. Season 1 would plenty of cute moments. Not sure I should write whether they broke up but are on good terms or have them be in a poly relationship with Marc and Kagami.

Down the line, Chloe gains feelings for Kagami. Marinette in this AU, never lets go of her mean feelings for Kagami and instead Kagami enters the scavenger hunt in 'Ikati Gozen' with Chloe, causing the two to bond. Kagami never has feelings for Adrien (but I'll say it again, Marinette doesn't see it that way).

That all I have to write, bye!

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Soviet Warners

Returing to an old old AU, wanted to redesign these fellas

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Goncharov (1973) is full of unrealised gay potential just by virtue of having that moment in Capri, you know the one and if you do, you won't argue with me

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

As a qualified Sonic fan, I'd say that Chris is a pretty popularly hated character. TV Tropes is about right. Though I'm one of the few who think he gets too much hate his way, I don't think he's that good of a character either. His job is to be an audience surrogate, more or less. I'd chalk his existence down to the fact that Sonic franchise as a whole is less popular in Japan than anywhere else, ironically enough.

A relatively popular opinion I've seen regarding this is that many people would prefer Helen the wheelchair-bound girl to be the lead human character since there was a pretty sweet episode that had Sonic take Helen out to see the nature. I believe Amy Rose fans have a bone to pick with Chris since in Sonic X's take on Sonic Adventure 2 events, Chris usurped Amy's role of reminding Shadow what Maria truly wanted.

I'm going to largely agree with what you said comparing the way Chris and Adrien have their lives depicted in their respective shows. Chris is too attached to Sonic for his own good, building a transporting machine (at the very beginning of Metarex season) just to see Sonic. And despite being an adult by that time, he is de-aged back to a kid when he arrives to Sonic's world due to different time flows. The show doesn't really elaborate on that de-aging beyond first few and episodes and the final one, though it is a kids' show, so, fair enough.

(I've actually been considering an MLB x Sonic crossover with a similar setup to Sonic X. I probably picked up on those similarities between Adrien and Chris too, if subconsciously.)

I'd recently been learning about Sonic X out of curiosity lately and been wondering why the character Chris was extremely hated by many; so I went to TV Tropes and found this under Unintentionally Unsympathetic:

Pretty much no one has ever sympathized with Chris over being a Lonely Rich Kid caused by the absences of his parents. While he's meant to be painted as such, fans don't really buy it due to him always being shown to have a average social life while having good relationships with his friends and family such as his grandpa. And the anime didn't show just how lonely Chris' life was before he met Sonic aside from a brief clip fifty episodes in. All of which makes Chris look like an Informed Loner who doesn't really seem to have the kind of life that would make him such a needy and clingy person.

Hmm, I wonder who this reminds me of?

This might be an unpopular opinion (I’m not that familiar with Sonic X discourse), but personally, I think Chris is a worse character than Adrien.

With Adrien, you can clearly tell he has a miserable life being forced to do whatever his father needs him to do, in addition to the whole Sentimonster thing.

With Chris, he has a far better life by comparison. He has a lot of friends, and both parents, while busy, seem to care for their son and hate that they barely get to see him. Sure, it doesn’t excuse how often they’re absent from his life, but it’s clear that they still love their son. It really doesn’t do a good job showcasing how important of a friend Sonic is to Chris, especially since Sonic typically tends to prefer solitude instead of hanging out with Chris.

He’s also arguably more entitled to Sonic’s attention than Adrien is with Ladybug’s. Towards the end of the second season, due to the presence of Sonic and his friends in the human world, time itself was starting to come to a standstill, meaning that they had to go back to their homeworld. What does Chris do? Just when the others go through the portal home, Chris turns it off and pretty much kidnaps Sonic. Sure, he admits he was wrong, but it’s hard to take his claims of “being alone again” seriously before Sonic leaves for real.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

@ the oscars

I'm just appalled at the absolute guts they had to imply that adults only endure animation to make children happy. And that's coming from the stars of Disney live-action remakes.

Ladies, if there's one thing everyone has to continuously endure, that would be those very remakes you were in.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

This is what I, as a Russian, have to say regarding the invasion of Ukraine.

I am writing this simply to get things out of my system. I don't make a whole lot of posts, and I don't know what is the reaction to this is going to be. I also feel that this post would be speaking over people in Ukraine, as whatever I'm experiencing is in no way comparable to the experience of people in the midst of this war. And it is a war. I can't really deny it or call it anything else other than a war or an invasion. I apologize to any people who are going to have problems with this.

I sincerely wanted to believe that things would not escalate to these proportions. I realized that Russia hung a Damocles' sword over Ukraine, and yet I did not expect anything of that scale. I don't think anyone anticipated the exact amount of action undertaken by Russian armed forces.

This has left me incredibly distraught and overwhelmed. My anxiety and depression have peaked in the last few days, and I feel like I'm losing any will to live. Everything feels meaningless.

My actual relatives are the kind of "deep nation" Vladislav Surkov once waxed lyrical about. I am very afraid of actually discussing the matter with them, as I'm bad at debating. I have always condemned imperialism, and the actions undertaken in Ukraine by my state, by the country where I was born and raised, fall squarely under the definition of imperialism. This makes me feel like I am personally responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, simply by being the citizen of Russia.

This Russian does not want war. I do not want to kill, I want love.

And yet, it happened. It had to at some point, and it would be ignorant to say this was fully unexpected.

I hold no ill will towards the people of Ukraine. Ukraine is a beautiful country with rich history and culture. Ukrainians, the simple people who just want to live, deserved none of that.

My online friends have told me I'm way too into doom and gloom. Yet there's no other way for me to feel. There are still a lot of things that provide an escape for me. But I can't feasibly isolate myself from the entire world.

My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine. I wish you the moral strength to endure the current situation. Hope dies last. Don't let it perish under the armed strikes.

But I would also like to take time to address people who supported Russia and Putin. As someone who has identified as solidly left-wing for several years, it disgusts me to see American left-wingers defend Russia's actions. Ukraine shouldn't be equated with its neo-Nazis, and neither should Russia be equated with the Soviet Union. The people who lead Russia, the ones that made the decision to invade Ukraine, are very much stuck thinking in terms of the old Russian Empire/USSR. The terms that are simply no longer true in the modern world. By supporting Russian government, you are subscribing to a retrograde, imperialist way of thinking. Russia is not an "anti-imperialist power". Remember to keep that in mind.

Do not trust Russian state media, as they are all kowtowing to Putin. Listen to what Ukrainians have to say and double-check your sources. Separating truth from forgery is especially important now.

The tiny gleam of hope that I still have keeps getting bleaker and bleaker. But I hope that things will get better anyway. Someday, the barrage of depressing news will end. And I would like to hope that this will be a good thing.

Take care.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

so let me talk about the dream I had that night

in it danny gonzalez was participating in a ping pong tournament organized by neil cicierega and to apply for this tournament you had to submit a framed picture of a king riding on a horseback while holding a whole grand piano in one hand

legit woke up being convinced this is something neil cicierega actually did

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

I'm going to go ahead and jump on that suggestion of Miraculous World: Russia. Now, here's a surprising opinion: the best way to make such a special is probably not making it at all in the first place.

Don't faint. I'm a qualified Russian, I'll explain.

First, a bold claim: the very concept of a superhero reeks of individualism. Years of socialist rule have made the concept of a homegrown Russian superhero if not impossible, then very hard to execute properly.

A Russian film called Чёрная молния (Black Thunderbolt) comes to mind. It was a very heavily marketed movie all the way back, and kid me bought into the hype — I saw it in cinemas and had it on DVD. And yet, it is a divisive film. It's a carbon copy of Raimi Spider-Man, essentially, trading spider powers for a flying black Volga. To top it off, the film's big song, performed by none other than Belarusian-born Eurovision winner for Norway Alexander Rybak, ended up way too similar to I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith.

The one character that many Russians feel represents the Russian hero (not a superhero, that is a very important distinction) is Danila Bagrov from the Brother movie dilogy. And yet, calling Bagrov an action hero (which many ended up perceiving him as) misses the point in my opinion. Aleksei Balabanov (the director of Brother and Brother 2) apparently understood this and, in Brother 2, blew this aspect out to self-parodic levels, but did it in such a way that it flew past many people's heads. There's an upcoming comic book anthology about Danila Bagrov, consider that. (And Bubble Comics is responsible for it.)

Honestly I ended up skipping the Shanghai special, but the reason New York special worked at some level is because the US is where the concept of superhero came from. (Though it brings to mind the villain of The Incredibles: if everybody's a super, no one is.)

I brought up Major Grom: Plague Doctor, a film adaptation of a comic book series by Bubble Comics (yeah, the very same one I mentioned above...) in an ask submitted to IOTA. I think it's a great way to introduce a comic book plot in a Russian setting, and has the backing of an actual comic book, to boot. (Crossing over MLB and MGPD is something I've been thinking about quite a lot, as a matter of fact. Let's just hope Tommy Assbrain doesn't think about that either. I could easily imagine him saying that Kirill Grechkin — someone who ran over an orphan girl to death while drunk driving and bribed his way out of a prison sentence — is similar to how he always viewed Chloe Bourgeois.)

It would be great to compare this film to an earlier short based on Major Grom's character. The short was quite an Americanized one with Igor Grom as a reckless action hero. (The short is now non-canon, and Grom was recast, but it's implied that it's events happened in movie canon in some way). In MGPD, Grom was played by an actor who initially struck many as not having the right vibe, being not much of an action guy. Yet, it worked. Tikhon Zhiznevsky's Grom is brave, quick-witted and very human. And the film does a good job showcasing this. For someone like Grom, killing people for greater good is not an option.

Miraculous is a franchise that mixes and matches elements of superhero and magical girl plot. But Russian environment has broken a lot of idealists. I, for all I know, can't imagine a show like Miraculous going deeper into what it means to be a hero in different circumstances. Ultimately, it's an extremely status-quo led show. If Miraculous did make a Russian hero the same way it created most of its other heroes, I, as someone who grew up in Russia, would find myself unable to suspend my disbelief. And doing it in a different way is a risk Miraculous won't take. I'd be over the moon if they did, but not having many high hopes.

And of course, I'm incredibly scared of stereotypes. As if you aren't. Animaniacs reboot had an episode in Russia and features Putin to make fun of him, and almost all of it makes me cringe a bit despite the fact I love the Animaniacs reboot.

So here's my two kopecks. I'll be honest with you, if the prospect of a foreign show you followed from some of its earliest days having an installment set in your home country makes you scared rather than excited, it speaks louder than a thousand words.

I’m betting my skin cells that if there’s a possibility of a Miraculous World: Russia, we’d probably have another Russian family subplot taking a quarter of the runtime.

That, or the new characters featured will have several Russian stereotypes.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Finding yourself in Paris wasn't worth it

“Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t ya wanna go ape-shit?” 😈

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

"Sonic... but no longer a hedgehog."

Get ready for the story of a lifetime

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Very much agree with you on Anima-nyet. Some of the jokes did resonate with me, but, generally, it's just a rehash of Cold War-era stereotypes of USSR as this eternally frozen (Sochi? Never heard of her...) humorless (there was a ton of comedies produced in the Soviet Union, some are absolute classics, but the West chooses to ignore them for whatever reason) land. Your work is a nice change of pace. (Considering the fact that the Warner brothers who founded the studio themselves came from a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, this becomes even more interesting...)

Anyway, keep 'en coming, people need 'em! (And by people I mean me.)

Your Soviet Warners design are amazing. They strike a special chord within me. I enjoy seeing Soviet Bloc animation getting the love it deserves. Signed, an actual Russian.

Aw thank you! I grew up with Soviet Bloc animation too, it’s very important to me.

The idea came to me after being a bit disappointed with the Anima-nyet episode. (There are better jokes than ‘Russian men dressed cartoon character’)

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

If you can’t reblog this, unfollow me now.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

You can literally make anything and anyone problematic if you try hard enough seriously give me people and things and I’ll make them all “problematic” right now.

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

I used "In the daytime, I'm Marinette etc" as a prompt for Talk to Transformer thingie. These are some of the results.

In the daytime, I'm Marinette, just a normal girl with a normal life. But in one hour of the day... ... I can't be normal!" ...

It felt like a dream, and as something that came true, I thought that the day would end in a different manner.

I went to her bedroom where she and I were sharing a quiet afternoon meal.

"It'd be nice if we could sit at the table and not fight with each other, we can go to sleep, but I'm worried…"

"...I'm sure that the others do not think that I would be that unreasonable."

"...Hmm... But there's only one way to go about it, so please, don't make me upset..."

"...Well, we still have this whole 'I-will never betray my boyfriend even though I was promised a relationship' problem."

"...Ah... Well, that's fine too, the only thing we have left is time too. If someone wants to be our boyfriend, there are lots of places you can go..."

"...If you say so."

In the daytime, I'm Marinette, just a normal girl with a normal life. I love everything about life and everything about the outdoors. When I walk around in the summer or when I hike in the mountains, I love all the different places. I enjoy my friends and family and I love it when they come and hang out. One of my favorite things is when I'm outside in the sun. My sunburns are so mild and just a little bit painful sometimes. I'll keep my hair loose in my eyes, since it's almost always damp when I come in the sun. It makes it nice and soft underneath my thick skin. I like the bright colors and I love to do it with my hair on. I go for short shorn hair. There's nothing better than being outside and having the perfect length and color. I love my short hair, and I love to walk the street, while enjoying nature and the water. I'm not really sure why there's only one picture of me on the beach. I

In the daytime, I'm Marinette, just a normal girl with a normal life.  Sometimes I'm Marinette while still working with the gang. On the bright side, on Sundays I will spend some of my free time with my family in a quiet corner of the forest. I've worked at an orphanage and a convent, so you wouldn't think I would be much of a nun. It wasn't until one day that I was asked by Marinette if I had any jobs to do. There are plenty in L.A., don't get me wrong, but on Sundays I can put on a convent shirt, make some little money to make it through the day, and maybe take on a few freelance projects.  So, while I'm still in charge of keeping the orphanage staffed, my job is to be my own boss.  On Sundays I am my own bosses. Even before I knew Marinette, I knew she was the type who didn't mind taking risks. 

  We would always have small parties, even though everyone else is busy. We would meet at this very spot. We

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

Aaaanyway fan children aus are cancer killing star vs fandom and you can't change my mind

[thiscouldbeyourusername]

I do remember watching and loving Extreme Ghostbusters. While they did have a team of tokens in a way, it was never really the focus of the series, it was never brought up or highlighted for some sort of "brownie points".

Also while I have not seen the 2016 Ghostbusters, from what I know, they failed to create a non-forced feeling of true equality and diversity not only by making cast full female, but also by overdoing the whole sassy black woman thing with their sole black member. Original Ghostbusters did have a black guy, as did XGB, but they were a part of the team like everyone else was. And in both cases, they had a science background. The black woman in 2016 GB was, like, a janitor? (Black nerds are a stereotype on their own, bit let us keep this can of worms closed.)

'Give me one example of Pandering' Okay. Extreme Ghostbusters. It's widely appreciated, it's generally well liked, but the 'New Ghostbusters' are a blatant array of minorities specifically to be diverse. Actually, another example of Pandering is the Ghostbusters Remake, where the all-female casting was SPECIFICALLY aimed and shouted up as if that mattered more than the quality of the movie. There, that's two examples.

I’m not familiar with Extreme Ghostbusters, but SO MUCH YES to the 2016 remake. As a woman, I felt insulted by the entire concept.