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wyrmoffastring · 3 years

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Jason sent me an email. It's below, under the cut, along with my reply to him.

Hi Daniel,

I closed the thread for two reasons: because I had other obligations to deal with, and because I wanted answers to my questions from someone that was actually engaging with it.

Backing up, though, I really don't understand the hostility and vitriol you're spewing in my direction. Like, it is so disproportionate that it's incomprehensible.

Considering that vitriol, I'm hoping that we can have a private conversation so that I can better understand your position.

Thank you for making a pass at answering my questions on Tumblr, but I have some counter points.

Purchasing a digital item gives you access to a form of that item that others, who did not purchase said item, do not legally have.

How is this different from an NFT? You're buying the form of the token that gives you the legal right to that item. What's more, you have the legal right to sell that item, whereas if you "buy" a wallpaper, you're actually just licensing it for private use. You're not allowed to resell it next year, when you don't want it anymore.

if I want to buy a digital wallpaper, the seller will then provide me with a full resolution of the image, that I could not, legally obtain otherwise.

And an NFT seller provides you with a token. Are you saying that it's the resolution that makes a wallpaper acceptable and an NFT not? By which I mean, the fact that the art is available on the web makes selling the rights to that art unacceptable?

Which leads me onto your second point:

NFT is not the same as DRM.

Functionally, I disagree. An NFT is a DRM: it manages the digital rights to a thing.

When you purchase NFT you get bragging rights. You get to say you paid money for an online picture that was not created specifically for you and was made only to be sold as a sort of internet trading card. You're allowed to transfer the link to the image into your own NFT wallet. That's it. Everyone else can see the NFT. Everyone else can right click and save the image. You get to brag you paid money for the image.

And that's bad because...?

For example, I could imagine that under the image on the credits page of our games, it might say:"The NFT of this art is owned by Scurvy Danny," letting the world know that you had specifically financially supported the artist.

DRM limits the way a person can interact with digital media. A DRM will check if your copy of a game was legally purchased and stop you from using it if it detects, well, many things.

Well, I could certainly image a world in which, if you bought the NFT for the, say, Werewolves: Haven Rising art, whenever you opened your omnibus app and looked at the art, you'd get some sort of special effect inside the app that would be facilitated by the ownership of the NFT. By owning the NFT, you'd have the right to that special effect. That sounds like DRM to me. Everyone that didn't own the NFT wouldn't (legally) be able to view that special effect.

Now, hold up, I hear you cry, but what if you don't pay for a specific quality of an image? What if you just pay for a commission and that commission is then posted to the artist's gallery anyway, for everyone to see? That's exactly how you said paying for an NFT is!

Well, as someone who does that type of work, I'm happy to explain.

When you commission an artist, they create a bespoke image for you, that they would not have created otherwise. And often you will get a higher res version compared to what is posted in the artist's gallery, but if you don't, you still didn't just pay for your name to be attached to an image everyone else can access. You paid for the service of the artist creating a digital image that they wouldn't make if you never paid them. You paid for the time they spent creating something that caters specifically to you.

I'm talking here about selling NFTs of the art that we've already commissioned. So, again, taking the Werewolves: Haven Rising example, we'd sell the NFT of that.

In this instance, the buyer would get their name attached to the piece of art, yes. And the artist would get paid for work that they've already done.

I really don't understand what's offensive about that. That someone's paying to have their name attached to the piece of art that wasn't created specifically for them? That the artist is getting paid for doing nothing?

There are of course other ways artists can make money from already created digital content. Prints are a good example, but of course Jason already said how bad that is for the environment compared to XRPL, because oh no, you're using paper and ink! That's a higher carbon footprint than XRPL!

Yes! If the argument against NFTs is the fact that they have a carbon footprint, you have to make a comparison to what the alternatives are. If the alternatives have a larger carbon footprint, then the argument is negated.

So is buying a new sweater that I technically didn't need but I did it anyway because individual people decreasing their own carbon footprint to zero wouldn't be enough to stop, let alone reverse global warming, what we need to do is force the top polluters (corporations) to stop fucking polluting

I'm aware of all these things, but other people keep arguing in the thread that cryptos are untouchable because of the carbon costs. So, whatever point you're trying to make about NFTs is lost to me here. The best I can glean is that you're saying that NFTs on the XRPL don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

and besides, we've already been thru this, the carbon footprint of the NFT isn't what's actually the most concerning thing about them in this case.

But, again, I don't understand what is concerning.

You can make prints and zines of your work with small and medium printers that you trust. I know MANY artists that do this, that do not employ print on demand corporations specifically because of their sketchy practices, and they're doing fine.

But then someone would have to make those prints, warehouse them, inventory them, and account for them. That's a whole investment of capital and/or hiring someone. It would also take a lot of time. And, unless the print run was huge—which would be a large financial risk for us—the artist themself would probably make less money than with an NFT sale.

Specifically, making prints and zines isn't our business. We don't know anything about that business. I don't want to start a new business completely unrelated to interactive novels.

And, to top it all off, it would have a significantly greater carbon impact than an XRPL NFT.

But another option many furry artists are already screaming at me about is selling adopts. You create a character, design them, often even write a whole backstory, and then put them up for sale. It is a digital collector's item that's existed long before crypto. You can then use the character however you like, you gain all rights to the character and can legally roleplay as them, put them in your book, comic, whatever you want. And many people just collect them. And we didn't need NFT for it.

I'm happy that you have "adopts," but I don't see what the relevance is. That the furry community is small enough that the social pressure/shame of using someone else's adopt prevents unauthorized use? I don't get the point of comparison.

But that doesn't allow for a middle man, so I don't think that option would work here, because CoG and Jason want something they can take a percentage off of.

Two things about this. The first is that artists have tried to exploit their artwork that they did on their own, and it failed miserably. They don't have the marketing reach that we do. Secondly, it's the games that we publish that give these artworks significant context. As cover art, the art is in dialogue with the work, which we produced. So, should we get a cut? Absolutely.

In particular, by making a whole collection of NFTs, they collectively give each other value. An individual artist trying to make one of these works into an NFT and selling it has much less contextual value. (The "collectable cards" analogy.)

Remember, this art is not being commercially exploited right now. I'm trying to get money to the artist from work they've already done.

Yes, artists can have other venues of getting money off their old art already. But the way you wrote about it in the thread made it clear you specifically want to be the one facilitating it.

Yes! Because they won't make any significant money off of it themselves! If we do it, they'll make more money. And they won't have to do any of the work!

The problem is, Jason, we don't need you to make money. But you need us. You need your authors. CoG will not exist if every writer decides to move to another venue, use twine, RPG maker, or hell, learn Python or HTML and code their own game from scratch. You have no idea how motivating to learn spite is, and what you're doing now is making a lot of people want to show they don't need you and your crypto bullshit simply out of spite.

Again, I don't understand this spite. What have I done that is deserving of spite? I've suggested a method to create a carbon-lite source of periodically recurring revenue for our artists on top of the payment we already make for generating the work. Why is that spite-inducing?

Regards,

-Jason

My reply:

You either do not understand what an nft is (nothing, it's nothing, it's like you buy a cake but all you get to take home is the receipt, except you were made to believe you own the cake, how many more ways can i explain this) or you believe I can be convinced if you just keep explaining why being a middleman who does nothing is good actually.

I'm almost 40. I have worked in education and finance all my adult life. Two things required of me, always, were research and due diligence. You're not going to convince me a scam is not a scam. If every MLM currently operating in my country couldn't, neither will you.

You seem to want to feel like what you do is some form of service for people on your platform and it is. Allowing people faster and easier access to sell their games is a useful service. But it's not as useful as you think it is. It's certainly not "people will overlook us getting involved with something that's been proven a scam over and over" important.

No, buying bragging rights to an image that you have no proof was even made by the artist (as the many nfts sold have been outright stolen) is not the same as sending the artist cash on ko-fi or Patreon. Support via Patreon will get me bragging rights and a shout-out too and it will let the artist keep a lot more money.

There won't be fees they'd have to pay to mint an nft.

There won't be fees they'd pay for purchasing the crypto to mint the nft.

There won't be fees for converting the crypto back to cash.

The value of what they earned won't drastically change day to day.

The money will actually mostly profit the artist and not a third party.

And you admitted you want to be that third party because you believe without you artists cannot prosper.

Except they do.

Yes, some great authors got their foot in thru CoG. Chris Huang would probably be my first example as he is now a successful author. But the fact he started with your company is superficial. He could have started with someone else. He could have paid his own entry fee to Steam and done it himself. I don't use your platform to promote my art and i know for a fact I earned more this year from my art than many of your writers. And all I got is a Twitter account and word of mouth.

You pay them ~17% (25% if what's left after steam takes their 30% iirc) of the game price in the end.

I know people who earn more from putting their game on itch.io and doing almost no advertising. You provide a service, yes, but it's not essential.

The way you dismissed every argument your writers had for you on why they don't want CoG anywhere near nfts is disheartening. Just exactly what do you plan to sell when your writers and artists leave?

And you also had the nerve to say you want to let artists get paid without them doing no work?

They do all the work, Jason. They code the games they draw the art, they test and edit and gather feedback, you don't even provide beta testers, your writers organize all that. Most I know don't even do it through your forum anymore (citing you as the reason they don't use it by the way) and advertise on unofficial discords and Tumblr.

Your engine isn't even the superior if interactive fiction engines at this point anymore, not with so many other free options out there that don't require users to align their art with one specific publisher to use them.

I don't have vitriol towards you, Jason. I don't even have spite because I never even published with you, only played games from your platform. I do have a lot of disgust though. You genuinely disgust me at this point, for your causal dismissal of actual issues, your lack of concern for people who rely on your platform and whom you need to produce your profit and for your delusions about how important to them you are.

And don't start with "but this isn't different from how you would earn money in other commission based jobs" I know it's not.

I think commission based pay is disgusting, i think the way publishing in general is structured is disgusting and I'm glad it's becoming more and more obsolete by the day.

I plan to make your delusional reply public as well so if you hoped to keep this hidden by sending an email, tough. You're the owner of a public publishing company, you're in a position of power, I'm a forum user who tried to give people info and got accused of harassment for it.

Good luck with your scam currency.

#choiceofgames #choicescript #cog #interactive fiction #cyoa #cryptocurrency #nft #shit's tiring y'all

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musicallisto · 3 years

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🍨 for now you see me? I'm an ENFP-T, Gryffindor Pukwudgie, 9w8, and neutral good. I'm a perfectionist with no motivation, I'm pretty selfish but I'm always there to help others. I've got fairly messed up humor and I get angry easily. I have too much to say and I'm very competitive. I'm always tired. The gender for this ship is male please. I play Minecraft a lot and I like to listen to music alone so I don't have to worry about my music being to loud if people talk to me. Congrats on 800! :)

sorry for the shadow & bone spam, I lost all decency when the trailer dropped. anyhow, I’m back on my requests - here’s your vanilla milkshake, but keep a close watch on it, or daniel atlas might just make it disappear...

You met Daniel through your brother Jack when they started working together as the Horsemen

And when you learned that your brother would be working with him, you made it a point to irritate your brother by saying that you were such a fan of the incredible and mesmerizing Daniel Atlas, and that his tricks weren’t mere pickpocket cons

When you actually met Daniel in person, though... Let’s just say things were a little bit different, and that he was... Not exactly like the person you saw on TV

To speak plainly, he somehow managed to push all your buttons and be one of the most irritable people you’d ever met, all while being weirdly charming and endearing

You were driven mad by his smug grins and his cockiness, as though he were the leader of the entire world and not just of his team of magicians

You reminded him often, in pretty heated quarrels, that you didn’t care if he wanted to boss his associates around, but you were not one of his back-up dancers and even less one of his groupies, and he had zero business in dictating what you ought to do

And you two could get seriously intense, so when you argued the other Horsemen exchanged concerned glances and looks that made it clear that they wished they were anywhere but there... but were lowkey kind of enjoying the drama unfold

Cue then Merritt, probably the one who took the greatest pleasure in this literally groundbreaking argument, who would ask for a time out, look at the both of you successively, then smirk - you could practically see him relishing in the interpersonal chaos he was about to cause with his words

“It’s pretty obvious that you two have unresolved tension that neither of you want to admit. Danny bosses you around because he understands you won’t be as easy to charm as the others, and it’s the only way he can pretend you’re his. And Y/N, you could just as easily ignore him, but you always pick up the fight, and for some reason insist on spending time with us despite knowing damn well Danny will be here: seems like no matter how hard you try to convince yourself that you hate him, you don’t, you’re actually very attracted to him, and only argue to save face. I suggest you two sort it out like civilized adults so we don’t have to suffer through all of this every other morning.”

A very, very long silence ensues. Absurdly long. You look at Daniel and he looks at you, and then you both look at Merritt, with anger and horror and something else in your eyes.

“That’s bullshit”

You, Daniel, and Jack all spoke at the same time, but Merritt doesn’t lose his grin

He knows he’s right. He’s always right. After all, he can read minds.

Still, despite your reluctance to admit anything he’s said is true, after the altercation your relationship is more and more cordial

He does card tricks for you and you ask him to do them again and again and again until you can finally figure out the trick, his tell, a giveaway, anything

You even find yourself laughing at some of his jokes, even when they’re terribly bad

Until finally he confesses, uncharacteristically bashful

“Hey, remember what Merritt said? About us? Yeah... he kind of, what was right. On certain things.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“So I suppose we should... sort it out.”

“I guess.”

Exchanged followed by the longest (and best) makeout session you’ve ever had

Jack is a little bit wary of your relationship at first. It’s not that he disapproves of it (he understands you’re a grown-up and can make your own decisions perfectly), but he knows who Daniel is and how unstable he can be, whether that be in his whole demeanor or his feelings for someone

Besides, dating in the situation that they’re in... hunt down by the FBI and Interpol, wanted in every corner of the world, having to travel from country to country every now and then for their shows... they may always be a step ahead of the police, but it’s still risky and he doesn’t want you getting hurt

But Daniel assures him that in the event of you not being able to take care of yourself (which is more than unlikely, but a concerned brother is concerned about everything), he’ll be there for you and won’t let any harm befall you, because you’re the real deal to him

Daniel is also often tired, from working all the time on his shows, performing in front of thousands of people, but also running away from the law and plotting his next moves, so sometimes he just wants to crash, and your arms are the best place to do that

You cuddle often on the sofa, with some random movie you’re not even paying attention to playing in the background, talking about anything and everything until you both fall asleep

And you even let him listen to your favorite music, which he understands is the ultimate demonstration of love for you

You definitely teach him how to play Minecraft, and he’s frustrated at first because he can’t figure out how the game works (he gets blown up by a creeper then dies of hunger in his first two tries), so he’ll pretend he hates the game, but later on he’ll sneak onto the computer and open a creative mode save - and have a blast

“Look, babe, I made our house”

“But it has no roof?”

“Who cares about a roof? It’s got a jukebox wall!”

When he’s carefree and unbothered like that, he almost reminds you of your brother

All in all, despite everything, you’re really glad you met Daniel, because he became your closest friend, confidant, and partner in everything

800 follower sleepover

#brokenandheadoverheels #800sleepover #ship request #nysm #now you see me #daniel atlas #daniel atlas x reader #daniel atlas imagine

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thenightling · 3 years

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Show and movie recommendations for people who like Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman

This morning someone asked me for some movie recommendations that are like Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. There’s really nothing quite like The Sandman but I will list similar films and shows here.

1. Over The Garden Wall.

Over the Garden Wall was an animated mini-series that aired on Cartoon Network in 2014. It is a very unique mini-series that was shown as ten minute shorts. When compiled together the shorts tell a full length movie about two brothers lost in a surreal forest known as The Unknown. Most of the visuals are inspired by early twentieth century Hallowe’en greeting cards. This is a very, very underrated mini-series. I actually consider it my comfort food of media. I watch it when I’m not feeling well and it makes me feel better.

2. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas.

I know a lot of people might think of this one as overrated and far too common place but when I was eleven-years-old I felt like I was the only one in the world who loved it. I saw Nightmare before Christmas in the threatre in 1993 and was fast obsessed. The King of Halloween is weary of his routine and feels like something is missing from his life so he discovers and attempts to do Christmas. It has a beautiful score by Danny Elfman and many surreal and wonderful imagery.

3. Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.

Labyrinth is a fantasy film from 1986 featuring David Bowie as The Goblin King. A young girl named Sarah wishes away her half-brother. After the baby is actually abducted by goblins Sarah must solve an intricate maze within thirteen hours to save him before he is transformed into a goblin. The film is full of goblin creatures created by Jim Henson and you can see how it had some influence on certain aspects of The Sandman including Barbie’s dream world in the A Game of you story arc.

4. The Company of Wolves.

The Company of wolves is a horror film based on the short story collection The Bloody Chamber and other stories by Angela Carter. It was directed by Neil Jordan, director of Interview with The Vampire. Most of the film is set in the mind of a sleeping pubescent girl who is apparently having her first period. In her dream world she is Little Red Riding Hood. And her grandmother tells her various stories about werewolves. Werewolves fast become a metaphor for puberty, masculinity, and sexual awakening and all those confusing and frightening emotions that come with them. For all its symbolism and subtle beauty this is still very much a horror film.

5. Clive Barker’s Nightbreed

Sometimes sold as Night Breed or Nightbreed I strongly recommend tracking down the Cabal cut or director’s cut of this movie. It’s not just longer. Some scenes are entirely different from the theatrical release. It even has a different ending. The plot deals with a man named Boon who has been having strange dreams of a place called Midian. An underground city entirely inhabited by monsters. He yearns to be a part of that world. Meanwhile Boon’s own therapist frames him for murder and manages to even convince Boon that he might be the killer. But things get even more strange when Boon discovers that Midian and it’s monstrous inhabitants are, in fact, real. This film is based on the book Cabal by Clive Barker. This one is very much a horror film.

6. Pan’s Labyrinth.

Not to be confused with Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, Pan’s Labyrinth is a Spanish language film about a young girl in a very unpleasant situation so she escapes into a fantasy world where she is a lost princess. Beautiful, surreal, and very well made. Pretty much any film by Guillermo del Tor can fit on this list. My only complaint about this movie is that it is ONLY available with subtitles with no dub option. I understand that Guillermo del Toro does not like badly dubbed movies but this is very inconsiderate for the visually impaired. I am visually impaired and have to sit very close to read those subtitles. Either that or learn Spanish...

7. The Dark Crystal and it’s one season prequel series: Dark Crystal / Age of Resistance.

Similar to Labyrinth only with a surprisingly more serious tone and no song numbers, The Dark Crystal is a movie that takes you into a surreal fantasy world inhabited entirely by puppet creatures. The prequel series recently aired on Netflix and has the same charm and beauty as the original.

8. Swamp Thing.

The 2019 Swamp Thing series for DC Universe (now on HBO Max) only got one season but it features a character you might recognize from The Sandman. Matthew Cable. After Matthew’s death he becomes Morpheus’ raven in The Sandman. There’s actually a lot of atmosphere in this show and it is very underrated.

9. Lucifer.

Though not faithful to the comics the premise of Lucifer is based on events from The Sandman: Season of Mists and The Sandman: The Kindly Ones where Lucifer quits ruling Hell, moves to Earth, opens Lux and takes up playing piano.

10. Justice League: Action episodes Trick or Threat and Supernatural Adventures in babysitting.

The Justice League: Action episode Trick or threat features the first TV animated appearance of Cain and his House of Mystery as they appear in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. The Supernatural Adventures in Babysitting episode features the Magdalene grimoire. This is the spell book that was used to summon Morpheus in the very first issue of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

Bonus mentions:

MirrorMask Stardust Howl’s Moving Castle Princess Mononoke The Wizard of Oz Return to Oz (features a character Jack Pumpkinhead who helped inspire Mervyn Pumpkinhead on a superficial level) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (animated or TV mini-series)

10th Kingdom (TV mini-series)

Gulliver’s Travel’s TV mini-series (features a young Tom Sturridge) Rise of the Guardians Maleficent

Faust (1926 silent film) Tales from the Crypt (TV series) Tales from the Cryptkeeper (animated series) Carnival Row (TV series) Sleepy Hollow (1999 film) Neverwhere Good Omens @sex-and-games-in-new-york-city

#The Sandman #Sandman

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catsauceeartofficial · 4 years

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Things I Would’ve Loved To See In A Danny Phantom Reboot

I’m a big enthusiast when it comes to storytelling, and Danny Phantom literally has so much potential. And I’m very upset Butch was too coward to go darker. So here are my thoughts on if DP had a reboot:

Deeper ghost lore and kinds of ghost, A lot of fanfiction I have come across have so many versions of lore that all totally make sense and are supper cool (e.g. Ghost core types, states of ghosts, the idea of ghosts being ghosts, ghosts’ obsession). Ghosts that wreak havoc upon Amity Park because they are so filled with rage and need to be contained and put back in the ghost zone. Ghosts that, despite having moved on from their past, stay because they want to see the next Cowboys vs Aliens 3 movie happen and only cause trouble for the fun of it (exhibit A, Johnny).

Spookier ghosts, just give us way meaner ghosts! Ghosts that have eyeballs hanging out! You can’t just give us funky ghosts and funky ghosts only. From the physically gore-ish to the psychologically horrifying ghosts (Like Penelope Spectra!), I would have loved to see these kind of ghosts and episodes.

Different cultural interpretations of ghosts. Of course, done respectfully, with deep research and understanding of said culture. So many cultures touch on the spiritual aspect of ghosts and spirits. It makes for incredible stories and ideas.

Danny Phantom being Trans, need I say more? (Butch Hartman can suck a dick)

Danny Phantom with much more unique, mysterious powers, he’s a Halfa, of course he’s a mystery, a phantom! While other ghosts have powers solely linked to an obsession or something they relate to closely, Danny doesn’t have that. He’s a mystery. I want seasons of Danny exploring and discovering powers he doesn’t have the means of understanding or controlling because it’s just that bizarre and one of a kind. Maybe he can tap into the memories of ghosts when they are extremely emotional, something about having the human connection?

Hilarious quirks about being a half ghost, like Danny showing up in photos looking like a cryptic entity, being super silent, scaring the shit out of people. Fun ghost stuff.

The bullies need to have their character development moments!! They had so much potential for character growth and exploration. Topics like toxic masculinity, abuse and bullying could’ve been explored through them! GIVE THEM THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THEY DESERVED

The friendship between Tucker, Sam and Danny being tested in the form of their own self reflection. People have also written good fanfiction about it, and the one I love the most is when Sam is being questioned about being friends with Tucker and Danny because of her favoritism towards unconventional-ism to spite her parents (Of course, Sam loves her friends with a passion). Or maybe when Danny has had a tough day (i.e getting found out by his parents and just showing up to Tucker’s home) and the two have no idea what to do, but in the end, they just needed to be there for Danny and likewise. Friendships like relationships are complicated. I would love to see these things being explored.

Danny’s ghost powers becoming a little more unpredictable in the later season. In relation to the earlier comment about ghosts obsession, ghosts can also become powerful with fickle emotion, especially aggression. Danny has always tiptoed the line of human and ghost, but when he gets too angry in a particular episode, he goes absolutely feral, intense ghost form and stuff. It’s a new thing he has to struggle with and it even makes him fear becoming ghost.

More Danny and Jazz moments, because siblings need so much screen time to annoy each other. But also, I would love moments where Jazz has Danny’s back and sometimes, covers up Danny’s disappearances in front of their parents with humorous excuses.

Danny’s secret is revealed to his parents in an unfavorable situation, and his parents struggle to accept and understand Danny’s revelation. Jack and Maddie have spent their whole lives thinking ghosts are bad, and the only way to solve a ghost problem is to shoot at it. With Danny, its a whole ‘nother stack of cards to deal with. From the fact that their son is no longer human, throwing a wrench into everything they know about ghosts, to holy shit, we actually killed our son. Maddie especially finds it harder to accept, believing that they need to help Danny get rid of his ghostly half, even if it meant destroying his core. But Danny doesn’t need help, he’s long accepted that he’s Halfa. Slowly, the Jack and Maddie learn to accept it, and a comically unsure about their jobs as ghost hunters.

Hey that movie about Planet something, never existed. Saving a planet from an asteroid is suppose to be the peak finale of Danny’s reveal to Amity Park as a half human half ghost?? Get outta here

Instead, let’s have a season finale of an epic ghost showdown that even Danny himself, will struggle terribly to defeat. He has to face off against a ghost that even with the help of his friends and his ghost powers, seems almost impossible. Even the ghosts of Amity Park are threatened if they ever get in their way of world domination, and they don’t hesitate to crush the cores of the ghosts. Its a culmination of the past relationships he has made with the ghosts, friends, family, allies, and even nemesis, working together to stop an ultimate evil. Because when he first faces off the ghost, he’s alone, and in their final showdown, he has people who will stick with him thick and thin. With everything he has learnt, struggled to control, and mastered his ghost powers, there is an epic showdown.

Trust me, I have so many ideas for the season finale showdown in my head. The ghost having the power to just grab and destroy a core, or control it. They have their ghost armada and they enjoy playing mind games, torment any poor soul who dares get in her way. Danny Phantom attempts to stop her in the ghost zone before she can enter the human world, but he gets absolutely destroyed, almost having his core taken from it and you can bet that shit will hurt like hell. He gets trapped in the ghost zone, too weak to make it back to the human world and alone, until Vlad of all ghosts, manages to fish him out of the ghost zone and Danny finds that the humans and ghosts have taken refuge from the big Ghost boss.

As much as I dislike Butch Hartman and his homophobic cowardly ass, make no mistake that he pioneered a generation of cartoon and art. He made a style uniquely distinct that even artists reference when it comes to character design. But his stories have so much potential that we can’t shy away from. We need more mature themes for kids to learn, more openly LGBTQ+ friendly episodes and of course, more diverse characters and cast.

Feel free to add more! There’s just so many ideas for a DP reboot, and they really are amazing

#danny phantom #danny phantom reboot #trans danny fenton #danny fenton #op talks #ramble

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lievmultimuses1 · 3 years

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Fandoms I Write!

This is my main blog which focus on superheroes type of muses but i do have four other sideblogs that have other type of muses! i do ask you for patience because i also run a gif blog and i am always making gifs

this is open to non mutuals so feel free to check my open starters tags!

TOTAL OF MUSES: 3.421

Can't pick a muse to interact? Don't worry i know i have a lot of them so why not try your luck? send me random starter and i will use a random number generator to pick a muse from all my blogs and make you a starter, if you are a multi muse i will try to make it as open as possible for any of your muse or you can add who you want the starter.

discord: crystalclear#4625

guidelines! muses! open starters! edit icons!

@lievmultimuses1: Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, Ant Man, Aquaman, Archer, Arrow, Avengers, Batman, Batwoman, Black Lightning, Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Cloak & Dagger, Constantine, Danny Phanton, Daredevil, Deadpool, Defenders, Doctor Strange, Doctor Who, Fantastic Four, Flash, Futurama, Game of Thornes, Gifted, Good Omens, Gotham, Green Lantern, Guardians of the Galaxy, H2O: Just Add Water, Hancock, Harley Quinn, Harry Potter, Hawkeye, Hulk, Inhumans, Iron Fist, Iron Man, IronHeart, iZombie, Jackie Chan Adventures, Jessica Jones, Jurassic Park/World, Justice League, Kim Possible, Kingsman, Lara Croft, Legends of Tomorrow, Librarians, Lucifer, Luke Cage, Man from UNCLE, Man of Steel, Mandalorian, Marvel, Matrix, Men in Black, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Neon Genesis Evengelion, Once Upon a Time/Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pokemon, PowerPuff Girls, Preacher, Punisher, Sailor Moon, Sarah Jane Adventures, Scooby-Doo, Shazam!, Smallville, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Star Trek/Discovery/Pickard, Star Wars, Stranger Things, Suicide Squad, Supergirl, Swamp Thing, Teen Titans, Thor, Torchwood, Totally Spies, Venom, Wonder Woman, Xena: Warrior Princess, X-Men, Young Justice

@lievmultimuses2: 6 Underground, 007, 9-1-1, 21 Jump Street, 24/Legacy, 1600 Penn, Ace Ventura, Ally McBeal, Almost Human, Anger Management, A-Team, Bad Boys, Barney Miller, Barry, Baywatch, Blue Bloods, Bones, Bounty Hunter, Broadchurch, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Burn Notice, Castle, Chance, Charlie's Angels, Chicago Fire/Justice/Med/PD, Chicago Hope, Chuck, Covert Affairs, Criminal Minds/Beyond Border/Suspect Behavior, Death in Paradise, Designated Survivor, Detroit: Become Human, Dexter, Die Hard, Dollhouse, Drop Dead Diva, Elementary, Empire, E.R, Fast and the Furious, Finder, Franklin & Bash, Frasier, Fringe, Get Smart, Go On, Gone Girl, Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, Guardian, Hannibal, Hart of Dixie, Hawaii Five-0, Homeland, House, House of Cards, How to Get Away with Murder, In Time, Jason Bourne, John Doe, John Wick, Jonathan Creek, KC Undercover, Killing Eve, Las Vegas, Last Enemy, Law & Order/SVU/UK, Legally Blonde, Lethal Weapon, Leverage, Lewis, Limitless, Luther, Man of a Ledge, Masters of Sex, Matrix, Mentalist, Miss Congeniality, Mission Impossible, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Robot, National Treasure, NCIS/Los Angeles/New Orleans, Nerve, Newsroom, Night Manager, Night Shift, Nikita, Nip/Tuck, Ocean's Eleven, Pan Am, Peaky Blinders, Person of Interest, Prey, Prison Break, Private Practice, Psych, Quantico, Recovery Road, Red, Revenge, Ringer, Rules of Engagement, Rush, Rush Hour, S.W.A.T., Saving Hope, Scandal, Scrubs, Sherlock, Sif Feet Under, Spy, Station 19, Suits, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Thick of It, Third Watch, Veep, Veronica Mars, West Wing, White Chicks, White Collar

@lievmultimuses3: Shit my Dad Says, 2 Broke Girls, 7th Heaven, 8 Mile, 8 Simple Rules, 10 Things I Hate About You, 18 to Life, 27 Dresses, 30 Rock, 50 First Dates, 50 Shades of Grey, 90210, A Cinderella Story, A Dona do Pedaço, A Força do Querer, A Turma da Mônica, A Walk to Remember, According to Jim, Arrested Development, Austin & Ally, Baby Daddy, Bad Education, Beverly Hills, 90210, Big Bang Theory, Big Daddy, Big Love, Big Time Rush, Black-ish, Boy Meets Girl, Boy Meets World, Bride Wars, Brothers & Sisters, Californication, Camp Rock, Carmichael Show, Carrie Diaries, Casual, Client List, Community, Cougar Town, Desperate Housewives, Devil Wears Prada, Drake & Josh, Easy A, Everybody Hates Chris, Everybody Loves Raymond, First Daughter, For Better or Worse, Fortysomething, Freaks and Geeks, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friday Night Lights, Friends, Friends with Better Lives, Full House, Fuller House, Get Down, Gilmore Girls, Girl Meets World, Girls Trip, Glee, Golden Girls, Good Luck Charlie, Gossip Girl, Grandfathered, Great Gatsby, Great Indoors, Greek, Grown Ups, Hangover, Hannah Montana, Heartland, Hey Arnold!, Holiday, Hot in Cleveland, House Bunny, House of Payne, How I Met Your Mother, How to be Single, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, iCarly, Insatiable, Insecure, Instant Star, Jessie, Joey, Just Friends, Kenan & Kel, King of Queens, Last Man Standing, Life as We Know It, Lipstick Jungle, Liv and Maddie, Love Thy Neighbor, Lying Game, Mad About You, Mad Men, Mamma Mia!, Marlon, Married with Children, Mean Girls, Middle, Mike & Molly, Modern Family, Mom, Mr. Deeds, Music and Lyrics, My Wife and Kids, Nanny, Nashville, Neighborhood, Neds Declassified School Survival Guide, New Girl, New Normal, Not Going Out, Notebook, O.C, Odd Couple, Office, One Big Happy, One Tree Hill, Overboard, Paren Trap, Pretty Little Liars, Pretty Woman, Princess Protection Program, Raise Your Voice, Riverdale, Royals, Samantha Who?, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Shake it Up!, Shallows, Shameless, She's Out of My League, Significant Mother, Simpsons, Skins, Some Kind of Beautiful, Sonny with a Chance, SpongeBob SquarePants, Starstruck, Suburgatory, Superior Donuts, Switched at Birth, That '70s Show, This is Us, True Jackson, Two and a Half Men, Ugly Betty, Ugly Truth, Victorious, Weeds, We're the Millers, What a Girl Wants, What I Like About You, Will & Grace, Young Sheldon, Zoe Ever After, Zoey 101, Zoe Ever After

@lievmultimuses4: 3rd Rock from the Sun, 13 Going 30, 16 Wishes, 17 Again, A series of Unfortunate Events, Addams Family, Alice in Wonderland, American Horror Story, Angel, Beauty and the Beast, Being Human UK/US, Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Change-Up, Charmed, Click, Danny Phantom, Descendants, Dracula, Early Edition, Fairly OddParents, Fear the Walking Dead, Freaky Friday, Game of Thrones, Ghost Whisperer, Gifted, Good Place, Grimm, Harry Potter, Hemlock Grove, Heroes, Hobbit, Hot Chick, I Dream of Jeannie, Invisible Sister, IT, Legacies, Legend of the Seeker, Life on Mars, Lord of the Rings, Merlin, Munsters, Originals, Outcast, Pushing Daisies, Raven's Home, Resident Evil, Returned, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sailor Moon, Secret Circle, Sense8, Shadowhunters, Shaun of the Dead, Silent Hill, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, That's so Raven, Tru Calling, True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Walking Dead, Westworld, Wizards of Waverly Place, World's End, X-Files

@lievmultimuses5: Bolt, Cars, Frozen, Lion King, Princess Diaries, Princess and the Frog, Toy Story

#ooc // Liev speaks

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medea10 · 3 years

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Medea’s Worst Year of All-Time Anime/Game Superlative

Nobody saw this year coming…except for maybe Barbara Walters! Who could have predicted that this year would bless us with Australia burning, the entire west coast of the U.S. set on fire, stupid people setting fires because they wanted to reveal a baby’s gender, murder hornets, Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying, an almost war with Iran, serial killer mascots arrested, policemen killing unarmed black folks for having a counterfit $20, policemen killing unarmed black folks for breaking up a fight, policemen killing black folks for holding sandwiches, policemen killing unarmed black folks for fucking sleeping, a wide variety of “Karens” coming out of the woodworks, the end of Bojack, the end of Steven Universe, the end of Empire, and a pandemic so huge it’s killed the economy, canceled fun, and given the U.S. president the dumb-fuck idea of injecting bleach to kill the virus!?

SERIOUSLY, WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED ALL OF THIS WAS GOING TO FALL IN OUR LAPS LIKE HOT COFFEE ON THE CROTCH?!

At least there was anime this year.

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At least there was SOME anime this year.

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Biden won the election and Vickeblanca came out with Black Catcher this year.

Hey internet, it’s Medea here to give you her trashy opinion on this years anime and games that she’s watched or played. Because for some reason, my loser-ass loves to do out-dated as fuck memes! I shouldn’t complain, this shit brings a lot of attention to my page every year when I do this. Yes, 2020 was a complete dumpster fire so large that Domestic Girlfriend is crying foul. Many of us had to go on lockdown and ended up binge-watching the entire 957+ episodes of One Piece. I did no such thing. I am one of those “essential workers” so I didn’t hunker down for 9 months straight. But when I was home, I was watching anime. Actually, I would have done that even without the pandemic. I’m an introvert and find the human race to be deplorable.

You all know how this goes. I go over the best this year had to offer me. I had to search really hard to find the good in this year, especially in the anime world. Many things had to be put on hiatus or were delayed to a later date. Just a reminder, I don’t discriminate in what year the anime or game came out. If something came out in the happier times of 2007, that anime or game counts! Let’s get at it!

First Fandom of 2020: Interspecies Reviewers

Did anyone expect a fan-favorite of 2020 was going to be a hentai? Did anyone have on their batshit 2020 bingo card that a hentai was going to grab everybody’s attention? At the beginning of the year, my mind was set on the Railgun sequel and Eizoken. It wasn’t until licensors, streaming sites, and TV stations in Japan dropped this series that I started to pay attention. And got immediately hooked! It’s about three men going to different brothels and reviewing their time with the ladies. And these ladies are of different species! So with every bang comes possible enlightenment, new kinks, or a night of having your dick sucked off more than humanly possible. This anime blew away all of my skepticism and first impressions right out the window. Maybe it’s because I��m a degenerate and am often curious about sexual content, but this was a guilty pleasure of mine this year.

Favorite Main Character of 2020: Moroha from Yashahime

I know the majority of this story is going to revolve around Towa and Setsuna, but can we please focus a little more energy on the spunky, quarter-demon girl?! I know they’re pitting Moroha as the comic relief, but I’m hopeful that she’s going to surprise us one day. We fans of InuYasha would spend the past decade and some change wondering what InuYasha and Kagome’s daughter would be like. This year, we got our answer with Moroha. She’s got this wild side to her, probably due to the fact that she’s spent her entire life on her own. And while she’s silly at times, she can get down to business in a pinch. She has her father’s sense of smell. She has a sword. She’s able to shoot sacred arrows much like her mother. And to top it all off, she has this special rouge that if she puts it on, she’s able to unleash that ¼ demon power inside her and become Beniyasha! Yeah, I know the power only lasts a minute, she’s only 14, give her a break! I will gladly go through another week scratching my head at the confusion this story gives me if I get to see one more second of Moroha and her crazy antics or her bad-ass slaying.

Favorite Villain of 2020: The Devil Believers from Black Clover

This was one hell of a year for Black Clover. It would have been an easy choice to pick the devil and possible super devil that appeared during the elf fight. But I’d like to give a nod to the filler arc villains. And you can’t blame this group for wanting the power of the devil. They’re literally the bottom-rung of the Clover Kingdom and ones with little to no power or mana. So I can agree with why they would want the power of the devil. For one thing, they’d have more power. And for another thing, they’d be able to exact revenge on those who have wronged them. On some occasions I agree with exacting revenge and when it comes to the nobles and some characters in Black Clover, some folks do deserve death. I mean, have you met the king of the Clover Kingdom? Plus, this town and many other poorer towns get looked over by the kingdom. Peasant uprise! Anyways, I thought these people were really crafty in their crimes. I mean, they were able to knock Asta out on his ass with specially made poisons. I was actually hooked to this story of Black Clover (despite it being a filler arc). I know we’ll never see them again as they have been exiled, but it did have me semi-rooting for them.

Favorite Video Game Character of 2020: Honey from Pokemon – Sword & Shield (Expansion Pass)

Sorry Raymond from Animal Crossing!

Honey is the saucy wife of Mustard…I did not expect that to come out the way it did, but here we are! She has one hell of a team you can fight once a day. She looks out for her husband, the dojo, and the students of the dojo like they were her own children by providing food, drinks, and others. However that does come at a price as you do have to give up a sizable chunk of your watts that you collect in raid dens. I’m sure a bunch of MILF chasers were more than happy enough to give her all their hard-earned watts just so they can have their one-on-one moment on the beach with Honey.

What won me over was when that one guy from a rival dojo bad-mouthed her husband’s dojo and she…I think she kicked this guy’s ass herself. I don’t think she used any of her pokemon. Game Freak won’t show it, but we all know she kicked this guy’s ass to a point where he’s begging for mercy.

Honey, for the win!

Favorite Game of 2020: Animal Crossing New Horizons

This game was just Zen for me. I know the release of this game came with some controversy like Gamestop saying it’s an essential business and will remain open for people to get their copies of the game. Hell, I was one of those assholes in line waiting to get a copy on March 20th. Did I predict that a pandemic was going to rage out of control when I got a prepay copy of this for Christmas 2019? NO! I only predict political things, not deadly pandemics! The good news, we social distanced, didn’t catch the covid and got the game.

Anyways, this game has been a non-stop calming and fun ride. I can even forgive their botch-up of Bunny Day. They even have events for holidays I never thought they would ever touch. I mean, does anybody know when Museum Day is? Probably not until Animal Crossing had an event for it! I’ve been able to let my freak-flag fly with designing my island. And this goes way beyond New Leaf for the 3DS. I can make a sign post with the words “Fuck Trump” on it and post it in my yard. I can dig up trees and plant them elsewhere. I can poop in a toilet. I can craft furniture and put my own design on it. My furniture can have Tracey Sketchit’s beautiful mug on it. I can sit on Tracey Sketchit’s face. I am a sick fuck and I don’t care. I can give Raymond and Bob maid outfits. Magical time in my game! My hopes for next year…I don’t know, get the Festivale furniture, get Papi and Olivia to join my island, maybe visit Danny Trejo’s island, who knows, sky’s da limit!

Favorite Het Couple of 2020: Nasa and Tsukasa Yuzaki from Tonikawa

This is one of the most unorthodox marriages I’ve ever seen. But in this 90 Day Fiance world we’re living in, I shouldn’t pass judgement on these two getting married in episode one and not knowing much about each other. Nasa meets Tsukasa as he was about to be plowed by a truck. Tsukasa saves his life. Nasa says she’s beautiful. Tsukasa says she’ll be his girlfriend if they get married. He agrees. She disappears. Four years later, Tsukasa appears in front of Nasa’s front door with a marriage registration form. Congratulations buddy, you’ve got yourself a waifu! In some way, this felt like watching Yamato and Takeo from My Love Story. I was fascinated with them progressing through their relationship. The only difference is that Yamato and Takeo took the old-fashioned route. This couple did everything ass-backwards in terms of having a relationship. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Nasa and Tsukasa’s relationship during each episode. I find them cute.

Favorite Yuri Couple of 2020: Karin Asaka x Emma Verde from Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club

AAAAAAAAAH! I’M IN IDOL HELL AGAIN! Yeah, no kidding! I came this close to putting Miu x Nicole from that abomination 22/7. But thank God for Love Live! There’s no telling if any of the girls from the Love Live franchise are confirmed to be lesbians. But fuck it, all of them attend all-girl schools, no males exist anywhere, and Sunshine gave us Kanan x Mari! Yeah, you know Kanan and Mari is canon as fuck, don’t at me. So naturally, I found more third-years to ship in the new Love Live series. Now I know I should have put up Ai x Rina or Ayumu x Yuu. Especially the latter due to recent events! But Emma x Karin is my OTP.

Now Emma is an exchange student from Switzerland and in coming to Nijigasaki, she first meets Karin and they became instant friends. When Emma said she wants to become an idol, Karin helped her quite a bit. Even though Karin had no interest in being an idol as her modeling career is starting up, Karin would occasionally help Emma out. And surprise, surprise, Karin ends up fascinated with the idol world and Emma helps her come to the light to be herself there. Okay, I’m totally reading this in some fragmented way, but I’m currently playing Love Live School Idol Festival All Stars and the app game has a lot more stuff involving stuff the anime has yet to talk about. Confirmed or not, Karin x Emma for the win!

Favorite Yaoi Couple of 2020: Eiji Okumura x Ash Lynx from Banana Fish

It took me a while to get here, but I finally made it to 2018’s overlooked gem. Forgive me for not being fully caught up, but from what I’m watching at the moment, I’m sticking to my guns and supporting the hell out of this. I mean, I could have mentioned The Titan’s Bride here…but fuck no, I ain’t goin’ down that mess! Ash has gone through a lot, I mean a helluva lot in his past. His cute boy looks have made him a target on the streets of New York, with mafia dons, and with prison inmates. But dude can kill if you mess with him. Then you have Eiji, who is just a literal example of a “pure cinnamon roll (until episode 8)”. These two are as opposite as you can possibly get. Ash is from New York and Eiji is from Japan. Ash likes hot dogs with everything on it. Eiji likes grilled fish and natto. Ash spent the majority of his life killing on the streets. Eiji was a track superstar. You get my meaning. But when we got these two together it’s quite adorable. Ash is really able to change when he’s around Eiji. Ash isn’t some heartless killer on the street about to kill a thug with prosthetic fingers. When he’s with Eiji, he’s a joker that can easily get scared of pumpkins. And even in later episodes, you got these two acting like a husband and wife.

Fandom That You Didn’t Expect to Get Into: Les Miserables – A Girl Named Cosette

Let me explain a little something. Les Mis! I have never seen the play, watched the movie, or read the novel prior to picking up this anime. Not a single one of those! And that’s a bit of a head-scratcher when you realize I was a bit of a musical theater nut in my teenage years. But one thing I do like is when Japan does an anime based on plays or historical events (like Romeo x Juliet or Rose of Versailles). The second I popped in Les Miserables the anime, I wanted to binge watch the whole 52 episode series. It is by no means a perfect adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. Several key players end up surviving all the way up to the end of the story! But because this was my very first viewing of anything Les Mis, I took to the story of Cosette and was eager to see what was going to happen next in her tale. Unlike the movies and play, Cosette was the main focus of the story besides Jean Valjean and Javert. And thanks to watching the unfortunate stories of Cosette, Jean Valjean, the Thenadiers, Javert, Marius, and the rest, I thought it was time to watch the OTHER adaptations to Les Mis.

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Russell Crowe sucks.

Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

Higurashi or When They Cry is one of my favorite fandoms of all time! So naturally when we heard that it was making a comeback, I was excited. It was also very odd that Higurashi was given this sequel or reboot. Ahem! There’s another franchise that needs a face-lift. Umineko still deserves a better treatment. Plus, now that this series was out of the faulty hands of Studio Deen, Higurashi will get the special care it deserves. Believe it or not, it wasn’t just the anime that made a comeback for me, but the manga as well. Since 2009, I’ve read several volumes (out of order) and would every now and then come back to read the story. Back to the anime, this reboot or sequel…you know what, I’m gonna call it a “rebooqual”! This rebooqual sucked me back to the town of Hinamizawa and all the murders. Every week, I find myself comparing the current episode to one from the 2006 version. But then the fourth episode of each arc seems to catch me off guard.

Where are they going with this story and these twist endings to our favorite arcs? I did not expect Rena to turn a simple attempted murder into the end of School Days! I didn’t expect Rika to die in the most disgusting fashion they could think of. Could someone kill Teppei fucking Hojo? I will pay ¥5000 for someone to do that job. So yeah, because I know how much of this plays out and who does what, I’m usually watching and reading while making wise-ass remarks. But I still have fun with it.

Fandom That Inspired the Most Crack: Konosuba

In a year where I caught up with the popular Isekais like Shield Hero and Re:Zero, I found the wacky misadventures of Kazuma Satou to be amusing as all get-out. From the first 5 minutes, I found myself laughing at Kazuma’s misfortune. Seriously, how the fuck do you mistake a tractor for a car, have a heart attack, piss yourself, and fucking die in the first couple minutes to the series? You can only get away with this shit in gag animes! But it’s not just Kazuma’s dumbass, there’s a mage who only does explosions, but loses all her energy after one blow-up. Then there’s a busty, blonde who gets turned on by getting hurt and can’t strike anything with her sword. Anime’s biggest masochist or Cheryl Tunt incarnate, I haven’t decided which one to believe! Then you have this loud, crazy goddess chick named Aqua. She’s also useless about 86% of the time! Watching their unfortunate missions is all the crack that I need to get through this year. Seriously, Darkness is just all kinds of fucked up, but we love her.

Last Fandom of 2020: Yashahime

That’s right, the InuYasha sequel gets top spot here! Even though week after week I find myself asking more questions than when the episode started, I’m still hooked. If you’re like me, you watched and fell in love with the series InuYasha. So if they’re doing a sequel, you’re expecting to see all of your favorite characters from the prequel like InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Sesshomaru, Koga, Rin, and the rest. Actually, no! Quite the opposite! We’ve got Sesshomaru’s daughters, but no Sesshomaru. Rin is sleeping in a tree we think! We’ve got InuYasha and Kagome’s daughter, but they’re M.I.A. None of the girls even know a thing about their birth parents.

Now are these new characters a catch like the ones from the previous series? Some are! The three main girls, yes! Especially Moroha! I’ve already praised her name earlier in the superlative. Towa and Setsuna do take on some personality traits from their parents. Setsuna is definitely serious like Sesshomaru and Towa sometimes has a carefree yet loyal aura to her like Rin. I know I’m always skeptical when a series gives us a sequel featuring the offspring of the main characters. Especially when you’ve got some lame examples like Boruto and Eureka Seven AO (I might retract my diss on Boruto later)! As each week gives us a new episode, we’re unraveling new clues into a lot of things involving our old favorite characters, as well as the new ones. So I have high hopes for Yashahime for the time being!

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League vs. the Whedon Cut: What are the Differences?

https://ift.tt/38SVA8s

This article contains Zack Snyder’s Justice League spoilers.

Whether you love or hate his style, there is no denying Zack Snyder is an original. From 300 to Watchmen, and Man of Steel to Justice League, his characters often hover above the screen as much as occupy it. They’re mythic figures who’ve stepped off a Botticelli canvas, or at least Frank Miller comic book panels, and they’re imbued with such a sense of scale from their director that the aesthetic is nigh impossible to duplicate. That is only clearer now thanks to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a restored four-hour edit of Snyder’s original vision for the DC superhero movie team-up and their universe at large.

Admittedly, you’ve seen the movie’s tale before, back when Warner Bros. released a truncated, heavily reshot version into theaters in 2017. But that two-hour theatrical cut of Justice League, assembled by director Joss Whedon, really is a night and day different film. It shares many of the same scenes and story beats, but it lacks Snyder’s singular grandiosity and tonal consistency.

Comparing all the significant changes between the two versions—which we’ll hereby distinguish as the “Snyder Cut” and “Whedon Cut”—creates a fascinating juxtaposition of the different choices filmmakers can make with similar material, as well as the drastically disparate visions the directors had for these six superheroes and the larger DC Extended Universe. So join us as we contrast all the major changes (and by and large improvements) made by Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The Opening

One of the most surprising changes made by the Snyder Cut comes immediately. Back when the ostensible Whedon Cut of Justice League opened in theaters, one thing many assumed was unchanged from Snyder’s vision was the opening credits. With imagery clearly filmed by the director—including unused footage from the Superman funeral sequence in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice—the downbeat credits were edited to Singrid’s rendition of “Everybody Knows,” a cover of a song from one of Snyder’s favorite musicians, Lenoard Cohen. I’m also fairly certain only Snyder would film a homeless man with a cardboard sign saying “I tried” in a superhero movie (the destitute figure may still appear in the Snyder Cut in an overhead shot when Cyborg is later surveying the bleakness of the world).

Indeed, quite a bit of the Whedon Cut’s opening credits scenes are used elsewhere in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, including breathtaking imagery of the Superman symbol draped in black over London’s Tower Bridge. But the new edit foregoes a traditional opening credits sequence for a more restrained montage that returns to the climax of Batman v Superman, and to the moment when Henry Cavill‘s Superman dies. In pained slow-motion, we again experience the moment of Doomsday’s spike piercing Superman’s heart and see how his scream reverberates throughout the world.

The Snyder Cut is more directly linked to the previous movie with Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, complete with hair, hearing Superman’s cries from deep in the bowels of the Kryptonian ship. Meanwhile the echoes of Clark’s anguish reverberate all the way past Zeus’ magical cloak to Themyscira where the Amazons (rather impressively) have an entire army guarding the Mother Box they obtained 5,000 years ago. When the Mother Box hears Kal-El’s death rattle, it begins to crack, drawing a terrified Amazonian closer to its new glowing light.

And finally, we end with the cries being heard by Cyborg. It is on the image of a hunched over Ray Fisher that Snyder chooses to include his “directed by” title card, indicating a strong sense of solidarity with the character and the actor who plays him after Cyborg was largely sidelined in the Whedon Cut. Clearly this is going to be a different movie.

Batman

Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne remains the focal point, at least in terms of leadership, of both the Snyder and Whedon cuts of the film. But right down to how they’re introduced, these are subtly diverging interpretations of the character. In the Whedon Cut, Batman has the first scene of the movie that isn’t shot on an iPhone. It gets Affleck in costume immediately and features archetypal Gotham City imagery as Batman uses a criminal as bait for a Parademon, an alien from the planet Apokolips that Batman is already familiar with. He’s so aware of these creatures that Batman ignores the thief spelling out the subtext of Justice League’s first act: With Superman dead, where does that leave us?

By contrast, you intrinsically feel that absence in the Snyder Cut. Whereas Whedon and WB got Batman in the costume faster for a tongue-in-cheek action sequence with screaming crooks and flying aliens, Zack Snyder’s Justice League ignores the Batsuit for a clean two hours. Instead, it opens with Bruce Wayne already “north” in a remote part of Europe near the arctic. We get the impression he’s been traveling for weeks on a horse and over mountains, sporting a bushy beard as he reaches the fishing village Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) has provided supplies to.

The scene where Batman meets Aquaman is more or less the same, but tonally Snyder evokes a funereal quality by letting the scene breathe in Bruce’s desperation instead of Arthur’s flippancy. And rather than Bruce noticing an inserted mural of Mother Boxes being what upsets Arthur, it’s Bruce pulling a trick from Momoa’s on screen wife on Game of Thrones which sets Aquaman off: he reveals after his hosts have made fools of themselves that he too can speak Icelandic. (There is also no longer a joke where Bruce says, “I hear you can talk to fish.”)

This somber opening is strikingly different and a vast improvement (see the Aquaman section for more). After Arthur rebuffs Bruce’s request to team-up, Bruce’s defeated return trip home is also subtly changed. For starters, we see his journey to his private jet where Alfred is waiting. In the Whedon Cut, the pair’s conversation after Bruce has shaved is a reshot sequence with some admittedly amusing character-building dialogue, like Alfred saying, “I miss the days when one’s biggest concern was exploding wind-up penguins.” The Snyder Cut’s version is more expository and ominous. As neither has seen a Parademon yet in this version, Alfred doubts whether Bruce needs to build a team based on the ravings of a now incarcerated and visibly insane Lex Luthor. Batman says he isn’t just doing this based on Luthor.

“I made a promise to him on his grave,” Bruce broods about the Kryptonian alien he hounded to near death in the last movie.

The next time we see Bruce Wayne is in a scene that appeared in the Whedon Cut, if slightly different. It’s when Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince breaks into his “building” with million-dollar security. However, the Whedon Cut led viewers to believe this airplane hangar-like space was the Batcave (even though it visually looks quite different). The Snyder Cut confirms it is a decrepit warehouse near the docks in Gotham harbor. Gone also is the cheeky line, “Yeah, it looked expensive,” from Diana when Bruce mentions the cost of his security equipment.

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By Mike Cecchini

In this off-site Batcave area, it’s also established by Alfred that he and Bruce Wayne have built new gauntlets that absorb energy (they come in especially handy later when they save Bruce from Superman’s heat ray vision).

The first time the gauntlets are used occurs when Batman leads a nascent Justice League beneath the tunnels of Striker Island in Gotham harbor. Up until that point, most of Affleck’s scenes remain the same, even if they breathe or are edited slightly differently. Batman recruits Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) to join the Justice League while talking about competitive ice dancing, and looks positively exhausted when Barry sees the Bat-Signal. The early Commissioner Gordon scenes are also the same, albeit now without composer Danny Elfman’s Batman theme from 1989.

In the tunnels, Batman’s scenes diverge again though. There is more of the misterioso act when Victor Stone (Cyborg) says, “I heard about you. Didn’t think you were real.” The Dark Knight answers, “I’m real when it’s useful.” Additionally, Batman doesn’t really mentor the Flash in this sequence or in any other going forward. Gone is the Flash admitting he’s terrified at seeing Steppenwolf and Bruce advising he “save one” person and will then know what he needs to do.

Instead, the Flash says, “I guess that’s the bad guy” in the Snyder Cut, and Batman stoically responds, “Good guess.” Bruce also drops his sense of humor, losing some solid bits like “Sorry guys, I didn’t bring a sword” when the Knightcrawler starts shooting up Parademons. Now he simply says, “My turn.”

However, Bruce remains the stoic team leader, harnessing a steadier team dynamic. There are no insert shots of Commissioner Gordon telling Batman it’s good to see he’s playing well with others after the Striker Island fight, and rather than berate Wonder Woman and his team members into bringing Superman back from the dead, Bruce and the rest come to the same conclusion, silently.

During the sequence where Cyborg reveals the Mother Box can bring Superman back from the dead, no one says Kal-El’s name out loud. The Flash even asks, “Is everyone thinking it or am I going to have to say it?” The camera pans around the table and lands on Bruce, who is watching Cyborg’s projected image of Superman’s cape. It’s a nice moment for Affleck, who looks much more alert in this version than the Whedon Cut. The dialogue in the Snyder Cut can often be perfunctory and expository, but the vast four-hour running time leaves room for the actors to indulge in quiet moments. The only person who doubts the idea is Alfred who in another scene warns Bruce, “If you can’t bring down a charging bull, then don’t wave the red flag.”

Batman counters, “I’m operating on complete faith now.” Quite the about face from the last movie.

The team otherwise staying on the same page, even after the Superman fiasco (more on that below), is a stark difference with the Whedon Cut. Here Bruce invites the team into the Batcave proper after they lose all three Mother Boxes, with teammates regrouping; in the Whedon Cut there is a strained attempt to create tension. Particularly between Bruce and Diana….

Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot has spoken in the past about how she was unhappy with the Justice League reshoots. While still not knowing the full details of what occurred behind the scenes, Zack Snyder’s Justice League makes apparent why she’d be disappointed with the direction of her added scenes.

To be fair, Wonder Woman is still objectified to a certain degree in the Snyder Cut. Her non-warrior attire still revolves around several low-cut dresses, and there is still a (much more understated) flirtation between Diana and Bruce. In an early scene of her and Bruce discussing their prospective teammates in front of a computer—with an awkward stab at humor where she coaxes out of Bruce that Arthur said no—there’s a moment where their hands trip over the mouse at the same time, like they’re in a teenage rom-com. Similarly, when Barry and Victor are digging up Clark Kent’s grave, Barry asks Victor if he thinks Wonder Woman would “be into younger guys.” Victor dismisses the thirstiness by saying, “Barry, she’s 5,000 years old. Every guy’s a younger guy.”

But these moments are few and far between. In the Whedon Cut, they’re constant with Alfred teasing Bruce about Batman inviting Wonder Woman to a candlelit team-up dinner, and a gross gag where Flash saves Wonder Woman during the Striker Island fight but then awkwardly lands on top of her body and gets flustered. Perhaps most frustratingly though, her character arc is reduced to a lot of flirting with Bruce, and coming to see he is right when he chastises her for “still being hung up” on Steve Trevor. She then helps him undress from his armor and shares a drink with him, like co-workers with a forced “will they or won’t they” chemistry.

All of that is gone in the Snyder Cut, which instead focuses on presenting Wonder Woman as the most ferocious and noble of the film’s six superheroes.

Her first scene is much the same as in the Whedon Cut, although it’s another film school-ready example for what a difference post-production makes. We see a group of eco-terrorists take a school group hostage, and Wonder Woman stops them. But in the Whedon Cut, the scene is nimble and brightly colored with a tongue-in-cheek quality, right down to the way Elfman uses an orchestra to play Hans Zimmer’s previously electric “Wonder Woman” theme. In the Snyder Cut, the sequence lasts nearly eight minutes in a desaturated, gray color scheme. The sadism with which the terrorists want to kill their hostages is belabored, and Junkie XL uses a fearsome version of Zimmer’s Wonder Woman theme while introducing one of his own, which relies on a haunting choral harmony.

In the new cut, Wonder Woman not only throws the bomb through the roof but jumps with it to make sure it explodes faar above the skyline. And when she returns, her power move to stop the head terrorist from killing the school children is to obliterate him into dust, with his hat blowing out the window and before the faces of shocked and unnerved London police officers. Meanwhile Wonder Woman then turns around after slaughtering this man (plus another terrorist who’s head she smashes into a wall) to rather jarringly smile at the school children. She leans down before one girl to say, “You can be whatever you want to be.” It’s actually sweeter than her saying “[I’m] a believer,” but I’m not sure it works given the new tone of the scene.

The next time we see Diana is a longer version of the scene where she discovers her mother has fired a burning arrow into the Temple of the Amazons in Greece. Snyder actually uses an impressive long one-take shot where Diana remains in focus, cleaning a statue at the Louvre, while her co-workers stay out of focus and needle her with questions. It’s a genuinely dryly funny, restrained moment, unique for this genre.

There is also an all-new scene of Diana going to Greece and retrieving the arrow from the temple. It’s one of the better additions that feels like a pseudo-Indiana Jones scene of Diana using the arrow to unlock a hidden chamber beneath the ruins, and then descending with a torch. Below she discovers a spooky room filled with spooky murals containing even spookier images of Mother Boxes and war… and a godlike monster DC fans will recognize as Darkseid.

Diana’s narration of what these images tell her is also different (more on that in the Darkseid section), with no lakeside chat with Bruce. Rather than using romantic imagery, Snyder favors to-the-point storytelling between colleagues as Diana tells Bruce in his new Batplane that the Age of Heroes defeated Darkseid. That age is over.

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While Bruce is recruiting Barry, Diana has a nice scene with Alfred about making tea before Victor Stone summons her by hacking the Bat-computer. She has no idea who he is in this scene (as opposed to having seen him earlier in the Whedon Cut), and there is no conversation where she convinces him to meet her. Instead, he designates location, summoning her. Their next scene together is more or less the same as in the Whedon Cut.

Overall, Diana has few added scenes and is honestly one of the less developed characters in the Snyder Cut despite being one-half of the team’s leadership. So the inclination of giving her more to do than discover Darkseid/Steppenwolf’s backstory was a prudent one, but all it left her with was smiling longingly as Batman drives off in the Batmobile during the third act. Ugh.

The Amazons on the other hand…

The Amazons

While Wonder Woman’s scenes in the Snyder Cut largely remain the same, the Amazons are given subtle but fierce new texture in their few added moments.

The movie opens with the Amazons tirelessly on guard when the Mother Box awakens. The next time we see them, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) is arriving to inspect the phenomenon for a prolonged build-up to Steppenwolf’s attack. When one soldier tells their Queen maybe the box will go back to sleep, Hippolyta remarks, “Evil doesn’t sleep. It waits.”

Steppenwolf eventually attacks, leading to one of the best moments in the Snyder Cut. When he says his Parademons will feed off their fear, Hippolyta calls to her Amazons, “Daughters of Themyscira, show him your fear!” In a tribal yell matched by Junkie XL’s score, they chant back, “We have no fear!” Slaughter commences.

The battle is much bigger and more reliant on slow-motion, including shots of Hippolyta flipping off walls and hesitating to bury the other Amazonians alive. Yep, when she tells her sisters to seal the cave, it’s a death trap. The door collapses, and then the whole structure also falls into the sea. There is then A. Long. Beat. of Hippolyta thinking she’s killed Steppenwolf before he and his Parademons ascend from the sea to slaughter more of the Amazons.

The Amazonians’ defeat is largely the same, although there is now a long denouement, with the Amazons having a musical prayer that grieves their dead and brings magic to the arrow they’ll fire to warn Diana. The Amazons and Wonder Woman iconography are also much more heavily featured in flashbacks to Darkseid’s first attack on Earth 5,000 years ago. We get better shots of Zeus and Ares (David Thewlis from Wonder Woman), and Amazonian Venelia (Doutzen Kroes) being filmed like she’s one of Snyder’s 300 Spartans in the ancient war. But all of that is just background for…

Steppenwolf and Darkseid

Steppenwolf is one of the most dramatically improved characters in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Beyond more spikes being added to his armor (and his chin being slightly shrunken from its ridiculous size), the Ciarán Hinds-voiced baddie’s motivations are wholly different. In the Whedon Cut, he was a generic “conquer the world” supervillain who was defeated thousands of years ago on Earth by an alliance of men, Amazonians, and Atlanteans. He then returns and refers to his Mother Boxes as “mother.”

While he still chases magic boxes he wants to use to conquer the world in the Snyder Cut, he’s at least a little more nuanced and a lot more despairing toward the whole endeavor. Steppenwolf is revealed to be a meek middle management malcontent with dreams of coming home. As we eventually learn in dialogue exchanges over BvS’ weird molten metal intergalactic telecommunication technology, Steppenwolf is a pariah back home on the planet Apokolips. Long ago, he was party to a failed coup against comic book creator Jack Kirby’s ultimate space fascist, Darkseid (Ray Porter). Think Thanos before there was a Thanos.

“I fall before you,” Steppenwolf moans during his first conversation with Darkseid’s minion DeSaad (Peter Guinness). “Let me make a plea that I may come home after I take this world in [Darkseid’s] name.” But DeSaad will not hear it, saying Steppenwolf is basically on probation for helping an attempted coup against Darkseid millennia ago, even if Steppenwolf then changed sides and killed Darkseid’s other betrayers. Now Steppenwolf has a debt of a 150,000 worlds he must conquer in Darkseid’s name if he wishes to return home.

Basically, Steppenwolf is a putz. Hence he can be both menacing and pathetic when he first attacks the Amazons and remarks of them, with a hint of resigned boredom, “Defenders? Defenders have failed a hundred thousand worlds. They always fail.” And it’s with exhaustion he decides to create his home base on an irradiated scrap of Russian land because it’s toxic.

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Darkseid, by contrast, is introduced to be Emperor Palpatine meets Sauron. Aye, there’s a real Lord of the Rings level of ambition to Diana’s flashback to the Age of Heroes. Rather than Steppenwolf, it’s Darkseid who first steps foot on Earth, turning some of the soil into the scorched cursive hellscape that Kirby fans will be intimately familiar with. We also get a better look of his foes, including an alien Green Lantern whom Darkseid personally kills by cutting off his hand. The green ring flies away before the fiend can grab it.

The sequence is filmed to mirror the opening moments of The Fellowship of the Ring, with Darkseid’s defeat harkening back to the glorious day the people of Middle-earth were victorious. However, personally speaking, it doesn’t reach that height, with Darkseid coming off like more of an overpowered Orc who’s out-flexed by Ares. Yep, David Thewlis’ villain from Wonder Woman is revealed to be the guy who whoops Darkseid’s ass in the end, planting an axe in his shoulder blade and leading the Greatest Evil to be carried from the battlefield, screaming.

Much later in the movie, Darkseid is introduced properly when Steppenwolf reveals he’s learned Earth is home to the Anti-Life Equation. It’s a pretty vague secondary MacGuffin in the context of the Snyder Cut, although Steppenwolf says it would give Darkseid power over the multiverse—it’s unclear why Darkseid did not know it was on Earth when he lost to Ares and the band of heroes, or why he never could come back for it.

However, Darkseid then appears on the telecom with Steppenwolf, causing the Spiked One to take off his armor for the first time and show his bare flesh in fealty to his space dictator. Darkseid promises Steppenwolf he can come home once he’s taken Earth and brings Darkseid the Anti-Life Equation.

We also get a glimpse of how Darkseid plans to use it. Elsewhere in the movie, Cyborg has an inexplicable vision the moment right before a Mother Box is used to bring Superman back from the dead: It’s of an Armageddon much darker than the Knightmare scene in Batman v Superman. The sequence begins with the Amazons finally off Themyscira. They’re burning Wonder Woman in a funeral pyre after putting two coins on her eyes for the boatmen. Hippolyta cries.

Elsewhere in a montage, Superman grieves over the scorched body that can only be Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Darkseid appears to place a not-so-comforting hand on his shoulder. Later we see the ruins of the Hall of Justice that diehard Superfriends fans will recognize, with an evil Superman flying over it with heat ray eyes. Finally, we see Darkseid himself murder Aquaman with his own trident…

This appears to be an inevitable future of “the Snyder Verse.”

Aquaman

But that is not the destination of the current film. The Snyder Cut, after all, has to lay a lot of groundwork that’ll make us care about these characters in the here and now.

Aquaman is the first to get that treatment in his early scene with Bruce Wayne (detailed more above). The Whedon Cut includes Arthur Curry saying, “You’re out of your mind, Bruce Wayne” as he gets into freezing cold water to swim away. In the Snyder Cut, we don’t see him shoot off. Rather Arthur disappears quietly beneath bubbles between shots. Snyder’s desire to emphasize the godlike wonder of these characters is then underlined in neon when several villagers see him off by singing a worshipful Icelandic hymn in Aquaman’s honor.

If the point is missed, after several minutes of crooning, one woman walks up to caress the sweater Aquaman took off and sniff it, savoring his undoubtedly godlike musk.

The sequence of Aquaman saving a crew from a shipwreck is almost exactly the same in the Snyder Cut, although there are no added jokes about him calling the captain “Ahab” in the bar. Additionally, there’s a really nice grace note of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “There is a Kingdom” playing when Aquaman goes to brood stoically before a raging storm. It’s exactly the same as in the Whedon Cut, but Whedon makes it generic blockbuster filler with a White Stripes song playing in the background. Snyder goes for a mournful, reflective tone that resembles the better elements of his version of Justice League.

Afterward Aquaman makes his first of two trips to Atlantis in the film—meeting Vulko (Willem Dafoe) in a scene that was entirely deleted. It turns out the effect of Atlalnteans only talking in air bubbles was always a Snyder affectation, although what was lost in the Whedon Cut (and eventual Aquaman movie) is that all the properly born Atlanteans speak with English accents. Dafoe’s Vulko is a bit hammier, seeming adjacent to Dafoe’s wonderful turn in The Lighthouse. But Amber Heard’s Mera speaking her lines in a purely Posh London accent after a whole movie of her using an American one in Aquaman is a real trip.

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What brings Arthur back the second time is Steppenwolf diving below the waves for the Mother Box. He learns of its location (which is unexplained in the Whedon Cut) by torturing Atlanteans whom Parademons have dragged from the ocean, reading the water dwellers’ minds with some gruesome sci-fi spider robot.

Steppenwolf’s actual attack on Atlantis is much more coherent in the Snyder Cut. With action beats given time to pause, and Steppenwolf’s surprise appearance underwater less hilariously cringe-inducing. Mera also gets a cool moment where the villain has her pushed against the wall and says she can’t run away, “I wasn’t trying to,” she responds. Previously, we saw her use superpowers to suck water out of air pockets; now she uses it to suck the blood out of Steppenwolf’s face. He of course throws her back into the water and almost kills her if not for Arthur’s chivalrous, splash-page rescue of his future love interest.

Most of Aquaman’s subsequent scenes play out the same, although he is much less brutish and frat bro-y. There are at least three fewer “yeahs” and “alrights!,” and there is no scene of him sitting on Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, blurting out he’s scared and horny at the same time.

The Flash

Interestingly, the Flash is both the least developed of the superheroes in the Snyder Cut and also the most unchanged by Whedon. It appears that Ezra Miller’s seemingly improvised humor was the element of least importance to Snyder, and the most useful thing Snyder filmed for Whedon’s purposes.

Maybe that’s why the Flash’s first scene in the Snyder Cut does not occur until nearly 70 minutes into the film. It’s also a wholly different introduction scene to what we saw in the theatrical cut. In the restored sequence, Barry Allen is applying for a job as a dog groomer at a pet shop when the unnamed woman who just left—or as fans know her, Iris West (Kiersey Clemons)—is almost pancaked by a semi-truck. The driver, in a rather crude cliché, is a simpleton reaching for his food on the cab’s floor when he slams into Iris’ convertible.

Luckily, Barry sees it coming and slows things down for another somber needle drop on the soundtrack. The whole thing plays like a more wistful, alternative rock version to one of Quicksilver’s big scenes in the X-Men movies. In extreme slow-motion, Barry catches a hot dog from an exploding hot dog vendor, placing it in his pocket, and then catches Iris out of her shattered car. When time returns to normal, Iris realizes she was saved by this cute dork, who then rushes back in time for the pet shop owner to be unsure who broke her window in the blink of an eye. Barry’s feeding the hot dog to her canines.

Otherwise, by and large, the Flash’s scenes remain the same until near the end. Snyder has removed Whedon’s unfunny addition of Barry drawing glasses on the eyes of someone in line while waiting to see his dad at prison, but the Miller/Billy Crudup scene remains the same but longer. Bruce Wayne still breaks into Barry’s loft and tells Barry his superpower is that “I’m rich.”

In the Striker Island action sequence, rather than “save one,” the Flash leads an exodus of civilians to the surface. And when debris nearly falls on them, he creates a shield by running so fast he looks like lightning in the sky blocking the falling rubble. He also is wounded by a Parademon laser blast so sharp it leaves him bleeding from the side of his leg, temporarily hobbled.

The one significant change before the climax is Barry and Victor digging up Clark Kent’s grave. It’s a sincerely quiet moment that (Wonder Woman leering aside) is refreshingly earnest and hushed for a superhero movie.

“I could do this in a second,” Barry says. Victor responds, “Yeah.” The implication is they should take their time and give Superman the honor he deserves. After his body is exhumed and wrapped up, Barry says, “He was my hero.”

Cyborg

Of the main five heroes in Justice League, Cyborg turned out to be the most important by far. Whatever occurred behind the scenes between Whedon, the producers, and Fisher, the actor had reason to be frustrated simply because his character arc was removed. In its place, he was forced to say, “Booyah.”

The Snyder Cut restores Victor Stone/Cyborg’s importance from the opening credits onward. It begins by basking in what isn’t sad between Victor and his father Dr. Silas Stone (Joe Morton). Initially, we spend more time with Silas, as the father throws himself into his work at STAR Labs to better understand the Mother Boxes.

Eventually, Cyborg gets his own flashback to a time when he was more man than machine. Under an aching musical theme written by Junkie XL, it’s revealed Victor was a gifted genius (his dean even says so!) at Gotham University. Victor is so intelligent, while also being a football star, that he can get away with hacking into the school’s database and changing a friend’s grades.

We also meet his mother who defends her son’s kind heart from the dean in a sequence that’s intercut with his slow-motion football glory, plus a side of melancholy because daddy wasn’t there. Only mom shows up for the game. Afterward they argue in the car about whether Dad really cares about Victor. A car is then seen rushing (unsurprisingly) into frame, T-Boning their car.

The process of Victor becoming Cyborg is only hinted at in scenes through various other flashbacks. But we do see Silas being told his wife is dead and that he’ll soon have to let his son go, too. Hence the bad blood between the two nearly throughout the Snyder Cut’s whole four hours. When we see Silas come home to Victor at their apartment, the son will not even speak to his father. Instead he reluctantly agrees to listen to a recording his father left for him. On the tape, Silas tells his son that the fate of the entire world is now “in your hands, Vic.”

Thanks to the alien technology of the Mother Box used to resurrect Cyborg, Victor has superpowers, which we see him fumblingly try out by flying on his father’s Gotham rooftop. But that’s “just the tip of the tip” of the iceberg, according to Silas’ voiceover. Victor’s high-end computer body now gives him the ability to control the world’s nuclear arsenals and the world’s economy.

This is visualized in a CGI mind palace created in Cybrog’s digital brain. There Fisher gets to play Victor as whole, and without a red eye. Some of it is effective, like floating missiles above his head. Other bits are just ludicrous, like financial markets being personified by a CGI bear slapping a CGI bull. It’s… weird.

But there are nice elements too, like Victor choosing to use his superpowers to see folks suffering, and giving a struggling single mother $150,000 out of an ATM machine. Through it all, he remains hooded and lonely, catching glimpses of people staring at his glowing countenance. It’s why he destroys his father’s recording when Dad tries to stop talking about Cyborg’s powers and instead address Vic as a loving father.

What draws Victor out of his proverbial cave is of course his father being kidnapped by Parademons. He seeks Diana Prince’s counsel but ignores her when she says his powers are a gift—I did miss the line, “If these are gifts why am I always the one paying for them?” Still, as in the Whedon Cut, he shows up on GCPD’s rooftop to join the team.

The one big addition during all the fighting is that when Cyborg flies now, his famous comic book face armor that protects everything but his red eye is finally used on screen. Plus he gets to save his father. Silas is shocked his son came for him, but Victor only says, “You’re my father.” Nothing more needs to be said.

After the Striker Island fight, however, Victor again takes center stage when Aquaman accuses him of possibly being compromised by his alien tech body. Cyborg reveals in a visual flashback, which Victor walks through in his mind palace, that the Mother Box was acquired by the Allies during World War II, taken from the Nazis’ collection of occult goodies in 1944. For nearly a century, it sat undisturbed in the Department of Defense until his father Silas realized it was similar to the technology used by the Kryptonian ship in downtown Metropolis.

That’s how Silas discovered its power, and in a horrifying flashback, he uses it when he looks at his son’s body on a slab, Vic’s lower torso gone. When Silas uses the magic box on Victor, the son screams bloody murder.

It is Victor Stone who puts the pieces together for the nascent Justice League and gets the heroes to begin acting like a real team. He puts together for the others that the Mother Box can be used to bring Superman back from the dead, and projects an image of Big Boy Blue for everyone to see.

Vic leads the team into STAR Labs to do the deed. And when Silas sees his son, still not talking to him, walk by with Batman and other weirdos, Dad doesn’t call it in. In fact, Vic and Silas are why the heroes win in this version, because after the Superman resurrection is bolloxed up, and Steppenwolf arrives to retrieve the third Mother Box, rather than run away, Silas sacrifices himself by heating the box with a laser so hot, that Batman can conveniently track wherever it goes in the world.

One could argue Cyborg was the most crucial of the heroes in organizing a true team team. Well, him and the legacy of another…

Superman

One imagines Superman’s treatment by Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio in what we now call the Snyder Cut, and Batman v Superman before it, played a major role in Warners’ eventual lack of confidence in the filmmakers. The beginning of the Whedon Cut even starts by course correcting where Whedon might’ve thought Snyder went wrong. Hence the awkward smartphone video of Superman talking to some children with a big smile on his face (and mustache unconvincingly erased from it).

Honestly, though? The depiction of Superman in the Snyder Cut is at times quite heroic and sweet. Certainly sweeter than the abysmal “no one stays good forever in this world” line of dialogue from BvS. However, there are major caveats.

Someone who unequivocally benefits from the new version is Amy Adams’ Lois Lane. While she again has relatively little to do, the rare moments where she is on screen in the Snyder Cut count a hell of a lot more. For starters, there is a genuinely heartfelt sequence about grief—one that it’s fair to wonder if Snyder has added special emphasis to. We follow Lois as she begins her morning routine by getting out of bed, buying a cup of coffee, and going to spend an hour or so at Superman’s memorial in downtown Metropolis.

The soundtrack plays Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “Distant Sky,” and the scene bleeds a dignified sorrow as Lois unfurls her umbrella in the rain and walks up to Superman’s memorial to lay flowers. The cop she gives her morning coffee to asks Miss Lane if she ever skips a day, and she says there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. This is the transition to the Superman flag in London.

Afterward Lois goes nearly two hours before appearing again in the film, while Diane Lane’s Ma Kent (who is seen early in the picture leaving home) vanishes for well over that amount of time. It makes their reunion scene in Lois’ apartment feel awkward and obligatory after such a long pause, but the restored scene is still better than the “Clark told me you were the thirstiest girl he ever met” in the Whedon Cut. At least until the Ma Kent of this scene is pointlessly revealed to be Martian Manhunter. (Sigh.) It’s almost as bad a bit of forced world-building as future Barry Allen warning Batman about Lois Lane in BvS.

Meanwhile the League all comes to the idea of resurrecting Superman at the same time, and there are no second guesses other than Alfred’s skepticism. Thus begins a resurrection sequence where it’s genuinely affecting to hear Zimmer’s Superman theme again as Kal-El’s body is placed into the Kryptonian ships goo-room. Similarly, Snyder achieves another grace moment when Lois sees Superman flying in the sky right after his resurrection. Before this moment, Lois made the decision in bed that morning for this to be the last time she’d visit and grieve Superman’s death at the memorial. We’re also teased to the fact she keeps a pregnancy test on the nightstand. So she made her final trip to his memorial.

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Unfortunately, his return is much the same as it was in the Whedon Cut, with the gloomy gray cinematography and the outright sinister version of Superman who’s apparently forgotten his identity. In fact, he’s more menacing than the familiar footage of him smacking down Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Now he takes time to study his monument before still coldly attacking the other superheroes and using his heat ray vision to try and murder U.S. soldiers stationed by his memorial.

If not for the interference of Batman, Superman would’ve killed servicemen. For what it’s worth though, he tries to kill Batman too. Gone is the “do you bleed?” callback to the previou cut. Instead Superman uses his heat ray vision to try and cook Batman inside his own cowl—which is only stopped by Bruce’s special “energy absorption” gauntlets.

As with the Whedon Cut, Bruce’s death is prevented when Lois shows up, but now of her own volition, and she and Clark fly away to Smallville. And once there, Superman’s soul returns and we get nice Americana scenes of Clark Kent watching a butterfly land on his hand, and Lois joining him in the wheat field.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says of the engagement ring he planned to give her before his death, and which she keeps on her hand. Soon Ma Kent joins them and it’s a lovely moment of reconciliation with the women in his life. It’s also far more emotionally effective than the version of Lois apologizing to Clark for “not being strong” after he died in the Whedon Cut.

And yet… it’s compromised by the constant foreshadowing of another heel turn in Superman’s future. The Kryptonian ship keeps warning, pleading even, with Cyborg that there is “no turning back from this action” as he prepares to resurrect Superman. Only then does he have a vision of an evil Kal-El drifting over a smoldering Metropolis. This muddle created by these conflicting sensibilities—folksy domesticity versus foreboding doom—do not mesh. At all.

At the very least, Clark returns to the Kryptonian ship to find there was a black Superman suit hidden all along in the corner. Additionally, he hears both of his dads’ voices, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Pa Kent (Kevin Costner). Some of it is old audio about “they’ll join you in the sun” from Man of Steel. Some of it is new recordings, which don’t really make sense as both men are dead. But we hear Pa repeat, “Fly son” and Jor-El intone, “Love them as we loved you.”

Black-suited Superman then flies into the orbit, taking the same Christ pose he had in Man of Steel, visually suggesting the Lord is risen, hallelujah. Superman then flies to the Batcave and meets Alfred, who tells him where to go… for the end of things.

The Ending

It is the ending, when everyone comes together, where the Whedon Cut and Snyder Cut perhaps most definitively diverge. It’s still technically the same ending: the five main members of the League show up in a nondescript Russian town to fight Parademons. Superman returns at a desperate moment and they all prevent the Mother Boxes from becoming one ungodly MacGuffin that would destroy Earth, knocking Steppenwolf on his CG ass.

Yet how these elements are incorporated, and where they leave the DC Extended Universe, are like on different planes of existence. From the top, the gore level (as with the Striker Island fight) is just more extreme in the Snyder Cut. Batman shoots Parademons with his Batmobile and then later uses the aliens’ own plasma guns against them; Wonder Woman beheads and cripples more computer generated baddies than all the armies of Gondor combined. Even Aquaman’s trident tastes blood.

There is also a much stronger sense of teamwork in the Snyder Cut. Batman’s suicide play of driving headlong into carnage makes more sense in this version as he crashes his plane into one of Steppenwolf’s magical machines, which brings down a force field and lets the team enter beneath the villain’s dome. And instead of Wonder Woman coming alone to Batman’s rescue, the whole team fights alongside his Batmobile for a freeze frame worthy of a splash page. It really is bizarre that Whedon, who was so good at these kinds of images in his Avengers movies, took this one out.

Once inside Steppenwolf’s evil lair, things are also far more exciting. There are no civilians (or randomly shoehorned in Russian family) to save. But there are enormous stakes as Cyborg has to stop the Boxes by merging with them. In the process, he enters his proverbial mind palace to face the three boxes in the flesh, as they’ve turned into literal witch crones. At first they appear as his dead parents, promising mom is ready to be reunited with her “broken boy,” but it’s a ruse that torments Victor to an even greater degree.

Meanwhile Steppenwolf has opened a Boom Tube portal to Apokolips where Darkseid, DeSaad, and Granny Goodness are waiting to take over Earth and claim the Anti-Life Equation. It was always “save the world” stakes in both versions, but you actually feel them in the Snyder Cut, particularly since… the heroes fail.

In a development that maybe would’ve left a Flash solo movie with nowhere to go, Darkseid and Steppenwolf briefly win, the three Mother Boxes merging despite Cyborg’s best efforts. The world instantly begins being ripped apart by a CG blur which presumably will turn Earth into a hellscape. The Flash, who is further afield from the action and bleeding from a gruesome wound in the side of his stomach, knows he has only one choice: to run backwards in time fast enough to reverse the flow of time.

It’s a trick that is expected to play heavily in DC Films’ upcoming Flashpoint inspired film, and Barry executes it here to undo the heroes’ defeat. Running into a seeming tornado of blue computer generated lightning, Barry undoes the damage and gives Cyborg a little more time, with Superman’s help, to stop the boxes from combining.

The action prevents the world’s end and allows Aquaman to skewer Steppenwolf like a fish on a hook. In the Whedon Cut, Steppenwolf is slashed by Wonder Woman and unsatisfyingly undone by becoming so fearful that he triggers his Parademons’ scent, and they eat him alive. Essentially, it’s a dippy retread of The Lion King where Scar is devoured by his own hyenas.

While certainly more bloodthirsty, there’s no denying there’s a satisfaction in Aquaman stabbing Steppenwolf, Superman punching him, and finally Wonder Woman beheading him. That is justice for her fallen Amazonian sisters.

Afterward, the whole direction of the DCEU still pivots toward darkness in Snyder’s vision. The Boom Tube to Apokolips stays open long enough for Steppenwolf’s head to return home. Darkseid crushes it beneath his foot. He also accepts that, for whatever reason, they cannot reach Earth through the Boom Tubes due to this defeat. “We will do things the old way,” Darkseid hisses. He summons the armada to head to Earth, setting up a very different future for the DCEU.

Epilogue

Continuing on the divergent paths between the Whedon and Snyder Cuts, the epilogue of the latter (complete with a title card) essentially presents the road not taken in the DCEU. Many of the elements we saw in the Whedon Cut remain, such as Bruce and Diana opening up Wayne Manor to become the headquarters for the Justice League by building a table “with room for more;” we also see Barry tell his incarcerated Dad he got a job at the Central City crime lab; and of course there’s Superman’s beloved shirt rip.

However, there’s so much more added on by Snyder. Some of it is very intriguing, such as Diana taking the arrow from her mother and looking out at the horizon of the Aegean Sea by the Temple of the Amazons. The implication is she’s begun yearning to return home. Could this have once been the plot thread of Wonder Woman 2? Could it still become the plot thread of Wonder Woman 3?

The most effective element is, again, Cyborg as he reconstructs his father’s broken audio recording and hears Silas’ love as a “father twice over.” It’s bittersweet Victor never got to verbally reconcile with his papa, but just saying, “You’re my father” might’ve been enough.

Movies

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By David Crow

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The Dark Knight: Why Heath Ledger’s Joker is Still Scary Today

By David Crow

Yet the epilogue ultimately becomes a teaser for what Snyder’s original vision for a Justice League trilogy might’ve looked like. In the Whedon Cut, the sequence of Lex Luthor on a yacht with Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) comes as a post-credit sequence. In the Snyder Cut, it’s part of the body of the story. The build-up to Lex’s escape is longer, and once on the yacht he has no quippy joke about “forming a league of our own.” But he does tell Deathstroke that Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne.

That captures Deathstroke’s attention and seems to set up potentially catastrophic events for Bruce’s future in Affleck’s now defunct The Batman movie. It also would appear to further set up the Legion of Doom Justice League sequel with Deathstroke and Luthor.

But that’s pittance compared to the far bigger stinger for the future. In one more “Knightmare,” and another vision of a future where Darkseid has turned Earth into a Mad Max apocalypse, we once more see Affleck’s Batman as a road warrior in a desert, this time with Amber Heard’s Mera, the Flash, Deathstroke, and Cyborg as his road trip buddies. Clearly Cyborg’s vision earlier in the film came to pass, with Mera swearing she’ll kill Darkseid in order to avenge Arthur.

The biggest bombshell here though is that this is where Jared Leto reprises his performance as the Joker. I wish I could say it was better than this grubby, grinning, awkward reshoot moment where he talks about giving the Batman a reach around. Bruce’s dialogue isn’t much better as he mumbles, “When I held Harley Quinn, and she was bleeding and dying, she begged me with her last breath that when I killed you—and make no mistake I will fucking kill you—that I do it slow.”

We’re a long way from Adam West, eh? The sequence ends with Evil Superman appearing with heat ray vision, coming to kill all of them. This clearly stands as a trailer for Justice League sequels that almost certainly will never be. It’s also a vision for the Justice League trilogy Snyder originally planned with Terrio that’s making its rounds across the internet. Part III was meant to be about Batman and the Flash in the ruins of a destroyed Earth traveling back in time so Batman could make sure that Lois Lane never died—sacrificing his life so Superman never turned to evil. Again.

I can’t say this scene adds a lot to this movie, any more than the final, final tease of Harry Lennix’s Martian Manhunter showing up one more random time to give Bruce Wayne a pat on the shoulder. He says your parents would be proud of you and that he wants to join his team. Affleck’s Bruce is strangely not perplexed by any of this and gives off a general “Cool story, bro” vibe.

Martian Manhunter travels into a future we will never see, setting up a sequel that has been abandoned. It’s a shame, but it is so brazenly, defiantly Snyder’s vision—and so far removed from the Whedon Cut’s goofy ending on Superman and Flash having a happy go lucky race to the Pacific—that one can at least give this to to the director: He did it his way. There’s something to be said about that.

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deuynndoodles · 4 years

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read on ao3 or click read more!

suspicion increase by deuynndrabbles and @whimsicalweast chapter summary:

Three kids have a sleepover. One word- Mabel.

“Seriously, Mabel?” The boy groans, and looks at his sister with The Look.

“Yes, seriously,” she says, in a tone that is anything but serious.

3k | ch. two

Danny is currently curled up in a rainbow blanket (given to him by the boy, but he mentioned it was knitted by Mabel- he doesn’t necessarily need it because of his ice powers, and therefore likes the cold, but he figures it’d be weird to refuse) in the attic, aka the twins’ bedroom.

He glances over to Mabel, who is currently laying on her bed coloring in a coloring book on her belly with her feet in the air, her tongue sticking out playfully, he starts to reflect on what landed him in this spot in the first place.

(Danny accidentally mentioned he didn’t have anywhere to go that night, and Mabel had none of that and scooped him up, dragging him to another room in the Mystery Shack and asking her great uncle if Danny could stay over for the night.

The older man didn’t seem to care all that much, only giving them a few warnings such as “Don’t stay up too late”, and “Never let Mabel have any Smiley Dip”, and “Don’t raise the dead again”.

Danny found everything he mentioned fairly standard sleepover rules.

The two children thanked the man, one certainly more enthusiastic than the other, and Mabel rushed up the stairs, hopping each stair two at a time, gripping Danny with her right arm.

Mabel’s brother didn’t seem quite as eager to have Danny over as Mabel was, but remained quiet throughout the process for the most part. Well, he did reprimand his sister for inviting over a stranger, which was a reasonable response. But. He was right here, jeez.

All Mabel did was blow a raspberry at him and told him not to worry, but her brother didn’t calm.)

Still feeling the kid’s gaze focused on the back of his head, Danny pulls out his phone and dials two very familiar numbers, one to a specific techno-geek and the other to a goth activist, but is only met with “The person you are trying to reach is currently unavailable, please call back later or leave a message at the beep.”

He sighs, dropping his phone back into his jeans pocket and gives the twins a smile, saying, “I’ll try again in the morning. It is kinda late, anyways. And who knows how late it is for them in Illinois.”

Mabel gives him a wide grin and nods her head, but her brother just gives him an uncertain glance before returning to the journal in his hands. It looks fairly odd to Danny, a red cover with a six fingered hand slapped on the front and a bold number 2 in the center. But he’s not one to judge.

(So now here he is, kidnapped by a thirteen-year-old girl, staying in the attic of a tourist trap wrapped in a multitude of blankets in between two twin beds.)

He still feels as if he’s gotten whiplash from this whole scenario. But he just pulls up the blanket draped around his shoulders to cover his cheeks, content with the situation as well as he can be.

Mabel is now laying on her back, placing her bare feet on the slanted ceiling. Her brother is still scouring his journal, with two other identical covers sitting on his bedside table. He’s chewing on the end of the pencil he holds, occasionally pausing to write a thing or two in the margins. Their pig, deemed ‘Waddles’, is snuggled up to Mabel on her bed.

Danny himself is in a make-shift nest (no matter what you call it, Mabel will say it’s a bed, but Danny will call it a nest) surrounded by a various amount of blankets and pillows.

“By the way, what do ya like to do, Danny?” Mabel says, her tongue stuck out quite dorkishly and she grins a wide brace-filled grin at the boy.

Danny blinks, and then the audio forms itself into words in his brain. “Video games, I guess?” He says, tilting his head slightly and the blanket falls back onto his shoulders. “I don’t have a whole lot of free time.”

(Danny doesn’t share the reasons for this.)

“Cool!” Mabel draws out the syllable, and flips over onto her belly again and props her arms up on her pillow. She turns to glance at her brother. “Hey, bro-bro? Do we have any video games in the shack?”

The small teen furrows his brow. “I don’t think so,” he mutters, setting the book in his lap aside on his bedside table to join the two other identical volumes. “Soos probably has some, but for now I think we just have board games downstairs in the gift shop.”

Mabel gasps, and smirks. “How about Candyland?” Mabel grins, and her brother groans.

“Fine,” he says. “You okay with that, Danny?”

Danny shrugs, and says, “I don’t really care, to be honest.”

Mabel takes the neutral answer and grins even wider, sliding off her bed with an “oomph” and trotting downstairs to retrieve said board game.

The brunet on the bed sighs and looks over to Danny, who simply blinks at him in confusion. “What?” Danny says, and the boy tentatively offers a slip of paper attached to a clipboard along with the pencil he was chewing on to him.

“Can you write some things down on Phantom?”

(Danny is suddenly reminded of the fact that he had agreed to hunt essentially himself- his brain hasn’t quite caught up and he’s sure he’ll bolt up in the middle of the night and go “I’m hunting myself with two thirteen-year-olds”.

But he hasn’t quite comprehended this fact yet.)

Instead, Danny grimaces at the chewed and slightly wet pencil, but takes the clipboard and starts to write in slanted print anway.

After a few minutes, he offers the paper back to the boy, and he starts to read the text out loud. Danny rolls his eyes at this. (He knows what the paper says, thank you very much.)

“Phantom’s a pretty friendly ghost. He’d save people from oncoming ghost attacks back in my hometown. Nobody really knows where he’s from or how old he is-”

(It’s not like Danny’s going to go and share his life story to this kid he doesn’t even know the name of. Besides, it’s technically the truth. Excluding a certain trio, a sister, and a whole world of ghosts.)

“-or how he died, but they never can find out because Phantom is fairly elusive. He typically stays in his own haunt, so it’s unlikely you’ll see him anywhere else.” The boy pauses his reading, glancing up from the paper to meet sky blue eyes with hazelnut brown. “This is all you know?” He says, shaking the scrap of notebook paper.

The door is slammed open to reveal an excited Mabel with a decorated cardboard box in her hands. (To be honest, both boys had pretty much forgotten she was downstairs.)

“Who’s ready to play Candyland?” She exclaims, and doesn’t wait for an answer before she plops down on the wooden floor and sets up the game.

“I get red!” Mabel says, and picks up the piece that is now ‘hers’ and sets it by the start. She grabs a blue and sticks it by the start as well. “Danny, which color do you want?” She shakes the green and the yellow gingerbread man figures, a wide grin still adorning her face.

“Green.”

Mabel shoves the yellow one back in the box. “Poor yellow guy, he’ll be all lonely in there. Well, we’ll make it quick!” She grins, and offers the deck of cards over to her brother who shuffles and sets it down next to the board.

The first card is a purple, and Mabel decides that she goes first and moves the red figure. Danny goes next, and takes an arm out of his blanket nest and moves his character five blocks forward.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, the yellow man is reunited with his best friends after Mabel yells “I win!” and flips the board over in victory.

(For a quick second, Danny is reminded of when Sam would brag whenever she’d win the round of Doom they all played together, slamming the controller down on the couch and announcing her victory to two sour boys.

Though of course, this girl is the complete opposite of Sam so he isn’t really sure why he thinks of her.)

“Seriously, Mabel?” The boy groans, and looks at his sister with The Look.

“Yes, seriously,” she says, in a tone that is anything but serious.

Danny snickers, and stops as he sees Mabel’s wide grin as she believes Danny is on her side.

(He’s neutral.)

“Anyway, let’s focus on Phantom,” Dipper says, and pulls out the slip of paper that Danny filled out. He reads it out loud again to his twin, and she smiles as she listens.

She seems to almost deflate like a balloon when he mentions that they might not see Phantom, but when Dipper thinks of that night last week of seeing a bright light above the trees at just before sunrise-

He’s pretty sure they’ll see Phantom.

And besides, Danny’s parents are ghost hunters so he knows a couple things. They’re bound to find something.

“Though you guys could probably find a bunch of animal ghosts and stuff in the woods. Seemed pretty supernatural to me,” Danny throws out, and glances up at the twins.

Suddenly, Mabel’s balloon is filled with helium again and she sits up straight with an excited expression. “That sounds sweet,” she says, drawing out the last syllable annoyingly long and Dipper groans on the inside.

But he can’t say he isn’t excited, because he definitely is. He just doesn’t show it as much as the girl does. His heart is still beating fast, and a grin adorns his face. He just doesn’t flail his limbs around like Mabel is currently doing, hammering questions about ghosts at Danny, while the boy looks at the floor and responds with short, concise answers.

‘Yeah,’ Dipper thinks. ‘Let’s do this.’

And then Mabel hits him over the head with a pillow from Danny’s nest, knocking his snapback off his head and he turns to glare at her.

“C’mon, lil’ bro! It’s sleepover time! We can focus on those ghostie thingies tomorrow!”

Dipper abstains from responding, but he thinks ‘You were just asking Danny a bunch of questions about them’ as Dipper tugs his hat back on.

“Now, let’s paint your nails, boys!”

She lifts a few bottles of nail polish in her hands and a smirk adorns her face.

Danny groans, and says, “Ugh, fine. But I want black.”

(He’s still thinking of Sam and Tucker.)

Dipper soon has rainbow nail polish smothered over his fingers, carefully painted and Danny has all black nails and toes. (Danny found it hard to object to that puppy-dog-eyes face when she begged to paint his toes.)

“Who’s ready for makeup?” Mabel smiles, opening a drawer.

“Uh, no,” Danny deadpans, “I didn’t agree to this.” Dipper falls over onto his bed with a groan.

If Mabel didn’t notice her brother’s clear discomfort from this entire situation, she’d call herself blind.

She believes that she knows Dipper better than he knows himself, and now is just proof of that. Danny’s examining his makeup in the mirror, and Mabel watches Dipper fiddle with the pen in his hand unconsciously, spinning it around. He stares down at the hardwood floor as if it’s the most interesting thing in the world with brown hair falling into his eyes.

Dipper has a tendency to avoid things that makes him uneasy, so it makes sense he’s quiet throughout the sleepover. Not that he was ever really that loud in the first place; Dipper usually waits until attention is diverted away from him so he blends into the background when he’s wary of anything.

Or anyone.

Dipper has never been a social butterfly like Mabel, and she doesn’t blame him for that. He still tries. . . Well, at least he used to. Ever since their last summer at Gravity Falls, he seems so different, so closed off.

With everything that occurred last summer, he’s grown even more distrustful of people in general, and she can’t blame him for this either. (She still feels guilty about what she said to him when they were trapped in that ideal world, paradise, but was really just a trap. She was too blind to see, and she has Dipper to thank for ever getting out of there.)

It makes sense, after all.

(A small part of her blames this mysterious town for what it’s done, who’s really responsible for this shift in Dipper’s personality, and Gravity Falls no longer has him haunting the streets but that voice still echoes in her brother’s head.)

Mabel knows that Dipper doesn’t particularly trust Danny yet. She’s still trying though, okay? Games, makeovers, icebreakers; nothing seems to work for them. The two could get along so well if they just talk to each other! (Danny seems down to get to know her brother, but it doesn’t go the other way and she hates it.)

It really irritates her, how she can’t do anything to get Dipper to trust Danny.

She huffs to herself, pulling out another packet of blush and sticking it in the other makeup she holds in her arms.

Mabel knows that she can’t force him to get closer to the teen, or Dipper’ll just shut them both out, which wouldn’t do either of them any good. He may not be sure of Danny, but Mabel just knows he’s nice.

Mabel likes to think she’s a good judge of character, and she’s gotten better at it in the past year. Danny has yet to make her suspicious, so that’s positive!

Besides, there’s no way he’s one of those annoying gnomes, or a vampire, or anything else. He wouldn’t have been able to get through the weirdness barrier if that was the case.

(Though she knows this, she finds herself checking his eyes as she smothers makeup over his face. Just to make sure.)

She definitely cares about her brother, there’s not doubt about that. But Danny had nowhere else to stay! She couldn’t just leave him to the wolves, or even worse, the crazy town members. After Danny mentioned he had to go, he just seemed so lonely and that wouldn’t do!

Even if Dipper doesn’t like Danny, he has to understand why she’s doing this.

She does want them to get along, but she can’t just throw them into a closet together. (last time she did that with Dipper- well, there were some unforeseen occurrences.) She can’t force them to be friends. So for now, she’ll just try to lighten the mood. Try to have fun, it is a sleepover after all!

There has to be some way to get them to talk to each other and she’s gonna find out how.

“Hey, Dipper, you good?”

Dipper has a full face of makeup, the makeup surprisingly working pretty well on both Danny and himself. “I’m fine,” he says, and it’s true. Mabel can be annoying at some times but he still loves her.

“Dipper?” Danny questions, and Mabel immediately responds.

“Yup! It’s his nickname because of a birthmark he got on his forehead!” She gets a little closer to Danny, and stage whispers, “It's the Big Dipper.”

“Mabel!” Dipper exclaims, feeling his ears reddening.

“What?” Mabel shrugs. “He was wondering.”

“No, I was double-checking to see if that was his name.”

Dipper turns to glare at Mabel, and then calms. “Yeah, uh, my name’s Dipper.”

“Do you really have the Big Dipper on your forehead, though?” Danny asks, and it’s a fair question, but it still slightly irritates Dipper.

Dipper nods, and wipes the makeup off his face and grabs his cap from the ground (Mabel had thrown it off to make it easier to apply makeup), steadying it on his head once again.

“Cool,” Danny says, sounding genuine, and Dipper pauses. He was almost expecting him to laugh at Dipper for it. “Space is awesome, I think it’d be cool to have a space birthmark or something.”

“Um, thanks.” Dipper says, and glances at the floor.

(He thinks of how familiar Danny feels, not for the first time that night. He still can't place why, though.)

Stan pops in, slamming the door open. “Kids, get ready for bed. Your Grunkle wants to be able to watch babies fight without the ruckus above his head.”

Dipper finds himself yawning, and nods in agreement.

“C’mon, Grunkle Stan! It’s a sleepover,” Mabel argues, and Stan shakes his head, arms crossed.

“Lights off in five,” Stan says, and it sounds odd coming from such a gruff voice.

“Okay, Grunkle Stan,” the twins say in unison, Mabel’s in disappointment and Dipper’s with agreement.

Despite her craziness a few minutes ago, as soon as Mabel’s head hits the pillow she’s out like a light. Dipper watches Danny curl up in a ball on the floor, his head facing away, and his eyes start to droop.

He falls asleep.

Danny is left the last awake, with Mabel snoring and Dipper exhaling softly on his bed. He’s curled into a ball, The blanket essentially a cocoon around him, and he gazes out the open window. The window lets in soft chilly air from the summer night, but Mabel and Dipper are both curled up tight in their blankets so they don’t notice.

Danny slides his blankets off, instead settling them into a mattress shape and curls into a ball again on the fluffy floor.

He still gazes out the open window, watching the waxing moon gently shine through the panes of glass and make pretty shapes on the floor. It’s serene, and there’s no sound except for breathing in the room.

The halfa sighs, tracing a circle in the floor as a stim as he watches the moon. He isn’t sure how he’ll get home if he can’t contact his friends, but he hopes they’ll be awake in the morning.

He finds himself yawning, and eventually drifts to sleep.

#dp #drabbles

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endless-vall · 4 years

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Fake Weddings and Prom Dates - Thomas x Isobel fanfic

Summary: Isobel and Zoey come over for Dinner at the Mendez residence. After dinner Isobel and Thomas get to reminisce about old times.

Author’s note: I don’t think I actually mentioned it in the previous part (that you can find here) that Isobel is my second Moty MC (both of which romance Thomas). I created a second one since the old-childhood-best-friends trope didn’t really work with my other MC.

Again, I’ll say that this fanfic is a part of a series. Isobel and Thomas’s story. It’s not exactly a multi-chapter fanfic, each fanfic can be read as a stand alone (atleast for now) but reading all of them will give you a better understanding of the storyline and world building. This is the second part :)

Hope you’ll like it! Enjoy ~

Tagging: @drakewalker04 @ao719 @narrytheworld @beardedoafdonutwagon @drakewalkerfantasy @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @catlady0911 @mcchoices @chetachisblog @god-save-the-keen @furiouscloddonutpeanut @writtenbycandy @asprankle @cora-nova @lilyofchoices @paisleylovergirl @dandeservestheworld @mfackenthal @quacksonlover @blackcatkita @annekebbphotography @badchoicesposts @ab1901 @senseofduties @doroshi-desu @romancehereicome @teraizer Please let me know if you wanna be tagged in future works for Thomas Mendez x MC/Moty/Perma tag! Let me know if you want to be untagged!

About a week after Isobel and Zoey move to Goldcliffe, and settle in, Thomas invites both of them over for dinner.

Isobel has found a job at Carmina, while Zoey and Luz became friendly at school.

“Sure, We’ll be there.” Isobel answers, and they talk a little more before hanging up the phone.

Being able to catch up with Thomas after all this time has been amazing. Being able to chew his ear off about daily struggles has also been pretty fun, and helping him with has grouned her and reminded her that everyone had their own obsticles, and she wasn’t the only one who had it tough at times.

Alma was coming over pretty often, and she had been teasing Isobel about a certain ‘handsome lawyer’ as she called Thomas, but Isobel brushed it over every single time.

Thomas was her friend. And he was definitely not over his late wife. He needed her to be his friend. They were just friends. Right?

“So, where will we be going?” Zoey asked eagerly, raising her head from her homework.

“We’ll be having dinner with Thomas and Luz this saturday. Does that sound good?” Isobel sat next to her.

“Ooooooh, yes!” Zoey answered one last question, and closed her notebook with a thud.

“Guess you don’t really need my help anymore,” Isobel noted as Zoey stuffed her notebook back in her backpack.

“I can do my homework on my own, mommmm” Zoey giggled as she rolled her eyes, and immediately streched over so she could plant a kiss over Isobel’s cheek.

“But thanks anyway.” She noted before taking her backpack back to its place.

Saturday came by soon later, and Isobel found herself holding Zoey’s hand and knocking with her free one over a fancy door of an even fancier house.

“This place is huge!” Zoey noted, whispering to her mother.

“No kidding.” Isobel nodded, her eyes scanning the place. She double-checked the adress a few times just to be sure she’s at the right place.

But then again, Thomas was a lawyer now, so maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised.

The door opened and Thomas stood there, still wearing an apron.

“Oh! -- Are we early?” Isobel checked the time, but they were actually late by fifteen minutes.

“No, no, just a little mishup from my side. Come on in, dinner’s almost ready.” He stepped aside and let the both of them in.

Zoey saw Luz in the living room and rushed to her side, letting go of Isobel’s hand and forgetting her behind.

Thomas closed the door after them. “You can take a seat in the living room too, I’m almost done.” Thomas gestures to the living room, but Isobel follows him instead. “Can I help you in the kitchen?”

“Um, Sure. If it’s not too much trouble.” He answers as Isobel leans against the counter.

“It’s not. Mmmmm... It smells amazing in here.” She closes her eyes and enjoys the smell. It’s a familiar one, too. Mrs. Mendez used to make it all the time.

“Let me guess, beef enchiladas?” Isobel opens her eyes back and beams at Thomas.

“If you can tell that by just the smell maybe it’s not a lost cause after all.” Thomas laughs, as he turns towards the fridge. He takes out some cheese and chives.

“So, we only need to grate some cheese and cut chives. Which one do you want to do?” He asks her.

“I’ll cut the chives. Sounds not as messy.” Isobel turns around and starts working.

“Good call.” Thomas takes out the grater and grate the cheese.

With them working together, the enchiladas are ready in no time, and after a quick change on Thomas’s side, the four of them sit around the table.

“Oooh, it smells so good!” Zoey notes.

“It does smell better than your usual ones, dad!” Luz comments.

Isobel and Thomas share a look before bursting into a good-hearted laugh.

“Well, dig in!” Thomas calls, and they start eating.

After dinner the girls run to Luz’s room, already in the midst of some sort of a game Isobel and Thomas failed to see starting.

“Well, that was fast.” Isobel comments and Thomas nods. “At least they’re getting along fine.”

They do the dishes together, finishing them in record time.

“Yes, I’m so grateful Zoey has a friend at school. It must’ve made her first few days a lot easier. And mine.”

Thomas smiles at her, as they move locations to the sofa on the living room.

“Do you remember when we were their age?” He suddenly asks.

“How can I forget?” Isobel rethorically asks, as she sinks lower in her seat, almost leaning against Thomas’s shoulder but catching herself before she does that.

“Do you remember when we got fake-married under that pine tree we used to hang out around?” Isobel doesn’t know what in the hell made her bring that up, but now that it was out in the open she couldn’t take it back.

To her surprise, Thomas breaks into a smile. “Of course I remember! We even gathered a few witneses!”

“If by witneses you mean Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear, then yes we gathered some witneses.” Isobel comments, and Thomas chuckles.

A few seconds of silence pass, but not the awkward kind of silence. It felt as if both were lost in memories, just enjoying the presence of one another.

“You know, you were actually my first kiss back then.” Thier lips barely touched, since they were both around nine years old, it was just as part of the ceremony.

It’s not like they were in love back then, it was just like that ‘if you’re not married by 40 and i’m not married by 40 then we’ll marry each other’ type of deals, only the opposite way.

“I was your first kiss?” Thomas’s eyes widen, and he looks at Isobel with amusement. Or is it... something else?

“Well, my official first kiss was with Toby Brown, but that one was horrible, so I like to think about our fake wedding kiss as my first one instead.” Isobel explained, shrugging.

“First of all - You keep calling it a fake wedding, but I take it very seriously, you’re hurting me, Isobel!” He jokes, and they both laugh in return.

“Second of all, Toby Brown?! Really? I don’t think I actually knew this. Yikes.” He mocks her and Isobel gasps in response.

“You dare mock me? I might haven’t been around to see that - but I know you went to prom with Suzanne Thomas! Two Thomases. Ha!”

“Not you too...!” She knew that card would make itself useful one day or another, and that day came.

After they finish teasing each other, they settle more comfortably against each other, now leaning against each other for support.

“Real talk though, she ditched me halfway the prom to be with Dave Anderson. It wasn’t even worth all those jokes they made about us.” He shakes his head.

“Didn’t you like her though?” Isobel couldn’t have really known, since she didn’t know Suzanne that well. When she left Goldcliffe, Suzanne was just someone who was in their history class, that’s all. She never really imagined her together with Thomas.

“No, not really. I just didn’t want to go alone to prom, and she happened not to have a date.” Thomas shrugs. “I guess I always thought we’d go together to prom, I never really thought about asking someone else, and when the week of the prom came I realized I never asked someone else, and you were in an entirely different town.” He admits, and Isobel stares at him.

“You always thought we’d go together?” She blinks at him.

“I mean, I knew that you were living somewhere else. We’ve kinda lost touch for two years already. I just never really came up with a backup plan.” He chuckles. “Until Suzanne, I mean, not that it turned out to be a really good backup plan, that is.”

Isobel shakes her head and smiles, resting her head back on Thomas’s shoulder.

“While I had a decent prom date with Danny Robinson, I think I’d actually preffered going with you.” She tells him.

“Yeah?” He turns to look at her, but doesn’t change their positions. Suddenly he feels very close to her face, and Isobel is very aware of that.

“Yeah,” She manages to let out without sounding too flushed.

When two sets of footsteps running down the stairs echo throughout the house, Isobel and Thomas realize how close they were suddenly sitting and sat back up, straightening their backs.

The girls don’t really turn their attention towards them, continuing their tag game.

Isobel smiles as she watches them, but then remembers the time. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we should be going soon.” Isobel lets them know they had only a few more minutes.

“Awwww...” Both Zoey and Luz make puppy-eyes at Isobel, and while it’s extremely hard not to surrender, she stands her ground.

“Oh, before you go!” Thomas rushes towards both Isobel and Zoey, who stand at the door. Luz is right behind him, already have said her goodbyes. “I almost forgot,” Thomas says apologetically, while handing Zoey a little bag.

“A present?” She cocks her head and looks at Isobel, as if asking permission to accept it.

“Thomas, you shouldn’t have,” Isobel suddenly feels embaressed she came empty handed. She thought of bringing something nice for dinner but with everything that has been thrown at her that week it simply skipped her mind.

“No, I wanted to. It’s not really much but I thought Zoey would like it and Luz helped me pick.”

Isobel nods and Zoey peeps into the bag.

“Eeeee!” A happy squeel escapes her lips as she shows Isobel the contents of the bag. There are glow in the dark star stickers just like they had in their old apartment.

“Thank you very much Mr. Mendez!” Zoey beams.

“Yes, thank you.” Isobel joins in too, placing her hand over Thomas’s shoulder, only for a second before removing it.

“You’re welcome,”

“We should really be going now, but thank you for dinner and for everything.” Isobel says goodbye once again to Thomas.

“Good night!” He calls after them as they make the way to their car.

“Good night Thomas.” Isobel smiles to herself, and Zoey smiles with her.

#playchoices #playchoices fanfic #mother of the year #moty #thomas mendez x mc #thomas mendez #thomas x mc #fanfic #fluff #childhood bestfriends trope #my writing

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