#Drama Comic December!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Tumblr has 4 main sources of revenue.

#Drama Comic December!!

donelywell · 3 months

Text

December 2 2023

I saw on Twitter a while ago of people showing off their design for Sally Acorn. I never actually watched the Satam show or read the Archie comics, so I never got exposed to her glory.

I watched Lowart's videos on the Archie comics though, and from what I've seen there, she's a cool character! I would read the archie comics if it wasn't filled with weird teen romance drama and love. I dunno, it's just not my cup of tea. (yes, I don't like kissing, I'm 19 years alive and I still get weirded out to kissing scenes... I really am a loser) Which is a bummer since she seems so cool, but she's like in the heart of all the romance drama it seems.

#sally acorn #sonic fanart #sonic archie #You thought the swarm of posts about my road trip au was gonna be all the posts you were gonna get today? THINK AGAIN!

532 notes · View notes

juniper-clan · 2 months

Note

Okay, so I am BACK with Moon Phases. Fun facts that are just trivia but if you or anyone cares, here they are! Moon 2 (April) we see a full moon when Heron sees the kittypet, which means that night specifically was April 22 1701

The Gathering in September would be the 17th.

There was a Lunar Eclipse February 22 1701 (Moon 0) that would've been visible to them.

Ages: Heronstar is 19, Longstrike would be 14, Heronpaw is 8 (obvs).

As for birthdays, starting March 1st seems appropriate for 1) ease 2) it was the half-moon which is normally the healer meeting. This also means something interesting! February that month just missed being a full month by moon cycle, with the previous half moon that follows the full moon being January 31! So off to a wonderful and weird start when it comes to ages.

So, using the half-moon and pretending they both turned exactly 7 Moons old (Heron) and 2 Moons old (Long) for the sake of this.

Longstrike would've been born December 3. If you want to make that his birthday is up to you, I'm not gonna assign your characters a birthday, but he'd be a December baby.

Heronstar would be July 9th! Once again, your comic, your characters, your rules, so if anyone sees this ask, Unless Jade Says So those are not Official Dates. Fun trivia, there was a blue moon that month, on July 30th.

Slickpaw is being assigned half-moon baby as well for the sake of my sanity, which is already questionable at this point. He would be August 26th, which supports his claim to a lack of food, as a month later was the gathering where Howlstar announced that her Clan was starving and would now kill trespassers. [Also instead makes him the month Long and Heron fought after she saw the kittypet at the border]

For Drama, the gathering would've been March 14th, and the April Gathering with be April 12th, for when Howlstar might ask if anyone knows where that apprentice ran to

-Heron Anon (I am absolutely that in front of the pinboard meme)

This is you.

(Also this is amazing and this is all canon now. I don't make the rules history makes the rules)

#wow #I need this moon chart or calendar #I'm in awe #ITS CANON -bangs my gavel-#jcasks #jclore

132 notes · View notes

dnangel-alley · 4 months

Text

On 22 December 2023, Comic Natalie and Triball revealed the jacket illustration by Yukiru Sugisaki for the new 2024 drama CD titled "～変わらぬIDEAL～" which can be translated to "Unchanging IDEAL".

#daisuke niwa #dark mousy #manga #anime #news #drama cd #yukiru sugisaki #dnangel #d.n.angel #dn angel

32 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 months

Text

Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Intermission: Robots in Disguise Season 1 Retrospective (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my More than Meets the Eye retrospective. Kinda. For those of you just joining us for the past two years i've been doing a retrospective of the Transformers comic More than Meets the Eye, one of my faviorite comics ever. While it is as a patreon review i've been more than happy to and in december we hit the end of season 1.

So now.. we're in a weird in between place, as season 1 for MTMTE is over.. but we still have a big crossover event left. And to judge said event fairly.... I realzied I had to go back and re-read Robots in Disguise to properly gage said event.

Yeah i've never been a huge fan of the 2012 comic Robots in Disguise. See I first read RiD AFTER More than Meets the Eye, having loved what I could read of MTMTE and wanting more. This... wasn't the right mindset in hindsight as the two works are completely diffrent beasts: MTMTE is about a found family of disfunctional robots trying to move on from war, making quips, and dealing with their trauma. It is a LOT of things I love in fiction: a bunch of misfits who don't really fit into the society their a part of, clever jokes, spectacular world building, and minor characters given their day in the sun. It feels at times like the book was made for me, down to repadeatly homaging one of my faviorite covers of all time. It was easy to love it and it only grows as I dig into it.

RID in contrast.. is an attempt at a morally grey prestige drama that on paper is about the sacrifices and compromises the autobtos make trying to rebuild cybertron, and in practice is about a weak willed useless jackass, his jackbooted best friend, a well meaning non combatant who means well but also is judgey as fuck, and Starscream, who easily outmanuvers them because a sock full of quarters with googly eyes on it could out manuver them. Wheeljack and Blur are also there and they are delightful but not used nearly enough . I gave the book an honest chance and was badly disapointed, and I gave it a second chance despite utterly dreading this.. and was once again disapointed. RiD is just not very good.

Now i'll give some caveats: the book DOES get better in season 2, with a fresh cast and premise that work decently. It's not on MTMTE"s level.. but I respect writer John Barber and IDW for seeing what they fucked up and course correcting. Barber's work isn't my forte, but the guy isn't terrible an does have his fans for a reason, I just prefer More than Meets the Eye and Windblade more, with Windblade being a second, much more succesful stab at IDW doing an intrigue on cybertron book, one i'll defintely cover at some point. It helps Windblade got most of the standouts from this book as supporting cast, but it's genuinely good and worth your time. None of this makes season 1 GOOD, by any stretch, but I wanted to get it out of the way that YES the series gets better. But you can also largely skip season 1 or read the wiki without loosing much for either RiD Season 2 or Windblade.

That being said.. Season 1 is a mess. It wasn't that pleasant to re read despite it's bright spots and it took a while to get through, an utter chore to slog through this one. One of the only bright sides is it taught me I CAN review a whole series in one post again.. just probably in smaller doses than my last attempt with new teen titans, which was great but just about killed me. So other series I dislike like All New All Diffrent X-Men, Dan Slott's fantastic four or Jason Aaron's avengers are now more within my grasp to actually tear apart at some point.

For now though let's focus on THIS disapointing series, see why it is and also talk a lot about how much this version of Bumblbee sucks and this version of Starscream fucking slaps.

Do You Have Any Clue What Happens Now?

Like more than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise kicks off with the Death of Optimus Prime, a one shot setting up both series and dealing with the aftermath of Chaos, the big event that ended the previous era of IDW and allowed a soft reset for this one.

So as a quick recap since it's been a long time since I tackled this issue: The War is Over. At long lost the Autobots defeated the evil forces of the decpitcons after all of them were combined by an elder god into one giant deciptigod and Megatron disappeared after hyjacking it.

The problem is what comes next which is a great hook and part of what makes MTMTE works: the war is over.. but unlike most transformers stories that get to end the war, we see what happens now everyones free.

The Autobots take command.. but it's not going wella s Optimus Prime finds out: the planet has reverted to a primal state and thousands of civlians, dubbed nails by the autobots and something the nails aren't fond of, have arrived and the vast majority of them want the Autobots to fuck off their planet.

The Nails.. are one of the biggest wasted opportunities of Robots in Disguise. The IDEA is good: a bunch of bots who either fled one of the two sides or managed to opt out entirely return and aren't happy with the planet or military leadership. It's a concept with a lot of depth as on the one hand the autobots have a point

While the Nails had every right to nope out of a war they were tired of, the Autobots fought long hard and lost a lot to get to this point and blaming them for something that's objectively not their fault, the planet going bonkers, isn't remotely fair. On the other.. the nails have every right ot want the planet back and to want a part in it, and to want leadership that isn't just the autobots.

The problem is the conflict is handeled with the subtley of a sledgehammer and thus BOTH sides come off as assholes: The Autobots make up an embarassing faction name for them, push them around and Prowl goes into a creepy tirade about how this isn't "Their" planet and they didn't fight in the war and later sics the deciptcons on them afte rthey agree to get explosives put in their brains.

The Nails Meanwhile spend the start of the sreies, especially the death of optimus prime bitching at the autobots, treating them as facists, and treating them all like they were complicit in the senates corruption, which only gets more galling after season 1 of MTMTE as most were fully against it.. they just couldn't do anything about it. Neither could you guys. It dosen't help they HANG OPTIMUS PRIME IN EFFIGY for the crime of STAYING AROUND ON A PLANET HE JUST SAVED.

The lack of nuance makes me just.. not care about most of both sides: The Autobots come off like their trying to consolidate power and remain in charge because they feel owed it, while the Nails blame them for everything. We COULD have had a good story abotu trying to perserve the past while acknowldging it's flaws and making a better present, but instead it's just the nails either whining or making entirely valid points that the autobots, mostly prowl, try to police brutality away because they can't accept they shoudlnt' be running things.

In the middle of all this Perciptor examines the matrix and finds a map, with Drift seeing it as a map to the mythical knights of cybertron and wanting to go on a quest to find it. Rodimus agrees, while Bee wants them to stay here and be miserable dammit because he is. While on paper Rodimus is running away from his problems in practice.. he defintely is but makes a valid point: Why SHOULD he stay on a planet that doesn't want him. And when Ultra Magnus joins with them, he makes a valid point: finding the knights could find something to fix cybertron. While Rodimus' hopes finding the knights will fix everything is a pipe dream, those are Rodders faviorite kind, their not wrong to want to find a solution that isn't just "Try and make this work" and forcing people who genuinely dont' WANT to help you to do what you say isn't healthy. This isn't a war for all time: it's just a disagremeent about what you want to do now your free of the war.

Optimus ends their squabble by giving them each half the matrix and fucking off, deciding to shed his former mane and his planet. The Lost Light leave despite Bumblebee's bitch crying.. and then seemingly blow up.

And this is where RiD begins, our cast is barely holding Cybertron together, aren't adressing their problem and now they assume the lost light is dead. So what does this add up to?

Okay TECHNICALLY this isn't true: Bumblebee sets up a state funeral for the bots, which is Starscream's first big platform to worm his way into high command, and Wheeljack brings him up once... but really you could take this subplot out and replace the big shindig with something else and nothing would change.

In contrast the messy takeoff... is VITAL to More Than Meets The Eye: the explosion it causes sends a good chunk of lost lighters to the planet bellow, brings skids on board when they investigate the planet, and brings the sparkeater on board to set those up for much later. And that's not even getting into how the opening arc of season 2 follows up on it, which i'll save for when we get there. Here.. they just sorta assume their friends are dead, don't bother investigating or thinking that MAYBE a ship with a quantum engine did some weird shit. It's to the point that when Optimus is told during his sub plot, his response... is to not remotely buy Rodimus could be killed that easy and assume they'll find them eventually. Which.. they do.

There's also just.. legistics. I know this is a pair of comics about giant robots, science isn't strictly followed nor should it be. But if the lost light exploded.. there would be debris. And they HAVE plenty of ships. Someone could investigate. If the Nails think the autobots REALLY commited this sort of execution, as their said to outright suspect including their rep in the main cast metalhawk, then .. why would NONE of the thousands of bots with functioning space ships look into it. Or the deciptcons once their brain explode chips are turned off. It feels like an excuse to just have the two not interact.. which they already had being out of range and with Blaster spending the season getting coms up and running again.

Anyways the series proper mostly follows Autobot high command as they try to run this planet/prevent anyone else from doing so. Like the lost light exploision this is a possibly intresting hook... that's utterly bungled. They do do things with it.. but they don't do them well. And the best way to get into that is with the characters starting with their supreme leader

Bumblebee: He's Tried Nothing and He's All Out of Ideas

The idea of Bumblebee being forced to take charge of the autobots is a great one. Tranformers has gone to this well three times i'm aware of, and it's a concept worth exploring taking what's essentially the team's kid brother and forcing him to take the throne and see if he can make it.

IDW's last attempt before this wasn't great, with Bee making a deal with the goverment that backfired horribly, and generally acomplishing nothing. So trying AGAIN.. was a smart move. It was worth a second try.

Unfortunately... Barber entirely bungled that second attempt. Bumblebee is TECHNICALLY leader of cybertron.. but really dosen't try to lead. He lets prowl do whatever he wants and whatever prowl wants is usually some form of police brutality, he argues with metal hawk but tends not to have an argument other than "the autobots aren't all bad mkay" or "All decipticons deciptisuck", and he overworks poor sweet Wheeljack, fostering all their super science shit on him and being mad when the guy is doing work of his own. It's VERY transparent in every scene he's in Bumblebee wants peace with the Nails not because it's the right thing.. but simply so the autobots can hold onto the planet. While the Nails are often written as overreacting assholes, as the book goes on they mellow out and most of their actions are entirely... justifable. Their horrified Prowl put bombs in the decipticons brains, they don't want police brutality, they want to actually elect a leader.

Every move Bee makes is to keep himself in charge despite not having a single fucking idea what he's doing. I could buy him as a leader if he tried.. leading: Tried finding homes for the Nails, making actual negotations with the decpticons, send out a party to go tame the primal planet so they can expand iacon , actually hammer out a government. There's a LOT to building a whole new world after a war, it's the reason Hamilton got an entire, incredibly gripping act out of all the nation building. But instead RiD just ignores the intresting idea of rebuilding cybertron's goverment and how it governs itself from scratch and just focuses on Bee whining or various things that happen for the plot. And by doing so it makes Bumblbee and those loyal to him come off like power grabbing assholes who care more about being appricated for fighting the war and less about making a better world to live in or even making the world LIVEABLE.

What makes this so galling though is how the narrative treats bee: characters talk about his "great vision" failed or say he might win the election. That last part is Prowl/Bombshell playing Bee, more on that in a minute, but most of the cast talks his ass up when really he's just a guy way in over his head, which could be intresting to explore.. but they just.. DON'T. Instead we just follow a bland dithering jackass as he fucks up till eventually someone smarter, with more charisma and an actual plan takes his place. But before we can get to them.. let's talk about the most punchable face in Autobot high command

Fuck Prowl

Yeah I tried to make a clever title here, I really did.. but most attempts lead to a storm of profanity as I genuinely detest this version of Prowl. And as a reminder like bumblebee it's JUST the IDW comics version. Animated Prowl slaps. Prowl's G1 deisgn is great. I'm sure there are other prowls who don't suck all joy out of a page when they show up or are the poster boy for why we need police reform despite doing a police on a whole other planet. I"d like to meet them. But this prowl is one of my least faviorite characters in fiction. In fact I can't bleivei I didn't add him to my jjall before now.

Welcome Home Prick!

Now I will give one caveat to this character: Part of the problem is the multitude of writers: James Roberts, who wanted Prowl for his cast, wrote prowl as a giant asshole who could never let the war go and got two people killed with his overlord scheme. Nick Roche wrote prowl as a scheming asshole who paranoidly plots. And tha'ts not even getting into his asshole characterization in books BEFORE this era.

John Barber.. dosen't walk either of these back, but wants Prowl to be a complex symapthetic figure, someone who is a calculating draconian asshole.. but who was driven there by his betryal by spike in the previous ongoing, and who badly WANTS to do the right thing. The problem is rather than make prowl a layered intresting character.. he instead comes off as an asshat who constantly tries to justify the horrible shit he does as "for the greater good"

It's not helped that Prowl's first scenes in this era leave a truly terrible first impression: The first things we see from prowl are

Him bitching about the nails and being absolutely LIVID at their suggestion the autobots leave the planet, not because it's a stupid unfair suggestion, but because he feels OWED the planet and was also once nearly one himself.

Conscripting the Decipticons into his own private army he uses to try and supress a riot from the Nails, instead making it ten times worse and only not getting anyone killed because Optimus steps in.

In MTMTE, trying to convince Chromedome to stay so he can use his ex boyfriend to do mnemosurgery, something Chromedome VERY much dosen't want to do, mocking his current boyfriend and then flipping a table like a petulant teenager when Chromedome walks out on his ass.

Using Arcee as his own personal hit squad , having her assitnate ratbat then trying to act like he didn't ask her to do that.

It's.. nigh impossible to come back form all of that and Prowl really dosen't. He spends the season brainwashed by Bombshell, in part thanks to trying to blackmail Chromedome and forgetting "oh yeah he can do mind things to me".. and NO ONE notices. He's horrified by that fact, but it's VERY telling that the only action of his that was hintingly out of character.. was telling bumblebee he could win the election. GENUINELY supporting his friend instead of trying to talk over him... is something that was a HINT he was brainwashed and the only thing people felt off. Said brainwashing also feels like it came out of nowhere, with not the slightest hint, and feels like a way to soft reset the character... which then fails as he spends season 2 once again out of his head... and once again in a way that isn't remotely out of character. I don't blame prowl for what he did under bombshell for most of the sries, he was brainwashed. But it's DAMMING that he did enough in ONE VOLUME before being hypnotized to earn my ire. More than Meets the Eye dosen't HELP nad IS a diffrent writer.. but even under Barber he's just the worst and I don't look forward to seeing more of him during Dark Cybertron and beyond. I DO look forward to seeing him hurled off a cliff.

All Hail Starscream:

Taking a break from pure, unyielding rage for a second, let's talk about something the book does right. I may be giving John Barber a LOT of crap this review.. but I can't deny he writes the best Starscream. There are other great starscreams from the hilarously over the top unsubtle 84 version, to the compitent but still hilarously shady animated verison and i'm sure i'll only find more as I watch more shows. Starscream rocks. But this one takes all that and asks a question: What happens when you take Starscream out of war and put him where his lying and scheming are an asset and his bad past is a non factor if he can lie hard enough: Politics.

While the autobots drown post war, trying to find their place.. Star scream swims like a majestic dolphin. Granted he's a Majestic Dolphin who still gets shit on a lot as it's starscream and everyone knows not to trust him and he has to work hard for his schemes for the most part... but he's still FAR more at home here than he ever was trying to usurp megatron. With the Decpticons, might made right: Megatron was on top because he was a great tactician, sure, but he was also capable of kicking anyone's ass who dared defy him, and had a death squad just for making a gruesome example out of anyone who betrays or tries to leave the cause. While Starscream was strong he couldn't muslce out megs or the various destructive douchebags he hired.

In contrast on Cybertron post war... he simply has to outthink and outspeak his opponents, who even if they weren't mostly fuck ups, still aren't really public speakers. Starscream first weasles his way into command with a few simple moves: He goes to the autobots in good faith, which they rightfully don't buy, tells them about a planned false flag attack by ratbat.. then once he's foiled, steps onto the stage at the funeral the attack was taking place at and boldly offer shimself as a formerish decipticon representive. While Bee never trusts the guy, for good damn reason, from that point on it simply dosen't matter: he's in the room where it happens. And often.. he's somehow the voice of reason. He's always got an angle... but it dosen't change the fact he's right or he gives Metalhawk someone to back him up. Not only that some of the bonds he forms are genuine. Metalhawk genuinely warms up to screamer and Wheeljack is the only one to try and make amends, to the point that after my boy gets horribly injured, Starscream makes sure he's getting healed and genuinely feels bad the poor guy got hurt.

On top of that once the media is restored for iacon, Starscream plays to the cameras, with his biggest play since stepping on stage coming in the annual: The Autobots find a titan in the desert while looking for lost comrades, trying to keep starscream out of it as Bee is deathly aware finding them would be some very easy bipartisan points for Screamer. Screamer shows up anyway... and when Prowl's croney keeps a gun traind on him and metalhawk, Screamer easily turns the situation on them: He invites a TON of Nails to watch and essentially make it so if he gets shot, it's over for the autobots, then goes down himself. It's here he gets a stroke of pure luck: The titan they've found... deems Starscream as some kind of chosen one. This isn't necessarily a good thing long term... but it does mean a lot especailly to the religious. Now normally this would mean nothing or months of trying to find proof.. but because Screamer's crowd crawled down to witness the titan once it was safe.. they all heard it.

At this point.. Starscream's basically won. The only genuine compettion he'd have in an open election is metalhawk, but either way the Autobots have basically lost control and all that's left is to wait for the elections. Sadly for Screamer he soon has a no good very bad day as Megatron comes back and Starscream spends the next arc as a hostage after going to rant at his former boss, with Megatron not remotely interested in compromise.

That said Starscream has survivied being humilaited plenty and while the Autobots are autobusy dealing with Megatron and the decpeticons, not to mention prowl combining with devestator, Starscream reminds us who he is: He kills Metalhawk, later being genuinely regretful.. but acknowledging Metalhawk was, genuinely, the only thing in his way. He was the only oponent in his rise to power left: Megatron was dealt with, the autobots had shot themselves in the foot 87 times, he feels terrible about what he did.. but killing Metalhawk looses him a friend and someone who belivied in him.. but gains him a Martyr. In the aftermath Screamer basically declares himself LEADER OF THE DECPTEICONS.. ER CYBERTRON, everyone backs him and he gets rid of most of his major opposition by casting out anyone who won't revoke their faction. A few autobots like Blurr stay behind... but msot of the cast we know are cast into the wildnerness and it's their own damn fault.

We get one last issue with Screamer , a spotlight that shows this job will be hard as while speeching got him INTO the job, he has to solve actual problems. Three Monologues is the best issue of season 1 as Starscream rants at megatron in stasis, reflects to Metalhawk's corpse and genuinely opens up to an injured in stasis wheeljack. Not only that Starscream also gets his own starscream, Beast Wars Faviorite rattrap. I'm mixed on this version of him: the character is very well written, being a slimy weasel whose looking for an angle and who gets rid of a local altruist for star scream by framing the guy. It creates an intresting relationship too as Starscream recognizes the behavior of his own.. and takes Rattrap into his administration. As Screamer perfectly puts it the guy Rattrap framed.. was a liablity. He liked star scream, genuinely belivied in the titans... but as Starscream brilliantly puts it altrusim.. is unpredictable. Rattrap on the other hand is who Screamer used to be before he became god emperor of cybertron starscream the first: he can not only deal with that, but it gives him a minon.

Before we leave Screamer I also just want to say.. I fucking love that he put on the crown from transformers the movie. I've always loed that he just... had to have a little crown for himself and that even if this version is less of a joke, he's still starscream enough to need a crown. It's also a striking visual in this context: Starscream is in control of cybertron. Primus help us.

Metalhawk: Don't Let him Be Misunderstood

For any longtime fans of this series or MTMTE, this section is probably going to be controversial but on second read.. I didn't hate Metalhawk. He's still obnoxious at first, he is the one saying "oh well you should piss off the planet you just fought hard to save from a giant Decipticon monster god man". It's easy to hate him as he's constantly telling our heroes they shoudl fuck off.

Yet on reread.. him doing that is WHY he's entertaining. See when I first read the books it was a few years ago. When I can't remember, my memory catches a lot of things but some things are lost to the enternal bog that is the back of my head, but it was before 2020.. and thus before George Floyd's untimely murder. As a result a lot of what the autobots do read diffrentlY: what they did ALWAYS came off as awful: even when the protestors are slamming the doors down, sending out jackbooted thugs is NEVER a good look, and the way Prowl talks about nails and treats them as second class citzens for simply wanting a voice is ... all kinds of chilling. Prowl sees himself as a police officer, and he certainly is.. but the worst kind, the kind most are who will gladly do shady shit to persue what they think is justice and oppress civlians because their "above them. "

So while said realizations about policing and the various police beatings of innocnet protestors made Prowl somehow even worse.. they made Metalhawk better as a LOT of what he's asking.. comes off more resonable. His wanting the decpticons free was kinda bonkers to me when i first raed it.. but now I entirely get that maybe putting bombs in defeated enemy combatants is you know.. a war crime. If you really want to put decitpcons who are dangerous away.. use a jail. Give them a trial. It's not great but putting them int what's basically a gheto that also oused to be a gun is horrible.

Metalhawk simply wants a voice and change for his people. He grows out of throwing the autobots out, being far more willing to work with them than they are with him and making plenty of valid points. He evolves as a character from a whiny asshole who disrpescts the autobots to seeing them as fuckups.. but ones who, prowl aside, are GENUINELY trying, with Bee planning to basically let Metalhawk takeover after the big fight at the end of season 1 before Starscream put some holes in that plan and also metalhawk. He's often the only person speaking up for a bunch of people who greatly outnumber the people in charge yet have to listen to thir bullshit, something that's become more and mor erelevant as congress fucks up more and more . It's hard to boo him when he's right: the autobots probably SHOUDLN'T be running the planet. They shoudln't leave, but they shoudln't be in charge. They shoudlnt be using deciptcons as easy soldiers and shoudln't keep the bombs in their heads now their vastly outnumbered. He's the voice of reason in a calvlcade of jackasses and a schemeing asshole. He's still annoying at times.. but it's really hard to hate a guy who grows out of his most annoying traits and ends the comic betrayed by the most obvious cantidate, something he only didn't see coming.. because he genuinely thought his friend had changed.

Wheeljack and the Rest: Robots in Disguise has a large cast, but most of the best players are off to the side, Starscream excluded. So let's talk about them.

My easy faviorite is one I wish Roberts had gotten like he wanted, the man the myth, Wheeljack. now I like Wheeljack in general due to his design, a nice faceplate, a unique head, it helps him stand out among the standard faces most autobots have.

Wheeljack seems to be one of the few Autobots genuinely trying for a better tommorow: he tries to make peace with starscream, and is frequently working on other projects before bee yells at him for not being avaliable to put out all his fires. He's kind, considerate and also a genuius, getting a nice moment in the sun when he sneaks into a decipticon ship and fidns out their up to some shit, then escapes the horde. I mean Metalhawk DOES save him in the end, but the fact he did most of this himself and gets both of them out himself is impressive. Wheeljack sadly just dosen't appear a ton and ends the season getting his head crushed by megatron. He does come back during season 2 and quickly becomes besties with Windblade, something we'll get to eventually, so good for him.

Blurr is a close third in the characters I like and is the only one of the autobots to really explore the ideas MTMTE was, the idea of "what do you do with your life next". Blurr does help out at first but his mounting frustration with prowl leads to him noping out, only helping out to try and find Ironhide. He decides to open a bar, much like Swerve , and his is a nicely diffrent joint: while Swerves is basically the cheers of transformer,s a place to forget your worries, hang with pals and get into hyjinks, Macadams, a regular location in most transformers place is that.. but also a melting pot, as Blurr soon makes a bunch of former decepticon friends including Sky Byte, a nail who has a great outfit, with him gladly defending his patrons with his good buddy jazz, whose barely in this comic for some reason despite, as always, being fucking great.

Next up is Ironhide. Ironhide does get a pretty meaty roll, as his recent ressurection has convinced him he's immortal and he's getting flashes of a possible future.. .one where the autobots are gon by cybertron thrives. Naturally everyone assumes he needs help instead of you know.. remembering that they followed the matrix for so long because it had robot magic or the giant stygian being made out of a dark god and 80 decepticons they just fought a month ago. What i'm saying is "I can see the fuuuuuuttttttreeee" isn't that farfetched at this point. So Ironhide goes to explore the wilderness with my boys the dinobots who sadly are all kinda douchey here.. but they still kick plenty of ass. The group disappears for a while after a signal drives my dino boys mad... but naturally they show up just in time to be the calvary in the finale. Ironhide is great.. they just don't really focus on him and I wish they did. Same with the dinobots.

Finally out of the ones who actually do stuff we have Arcee. Arcee... is a lot to unpack despite her short screentime. If you'll recall, and if you don't i'm so sorry for reminding you, Simon Furman's approach to the most prominent female transformer.. was to make it so she was FORCED to become female by a mad scientest, a tonedeaf, transphobic take brought about because Simon Furman hates the very idea Cybertronians have a concept of gender.. despite writing male prounouns into this continuity, thus showing they do just .. all male.

So how did Barber tackle this transphobic mess Simon Furman had saddled him and other writers with?

Yeah he just straight up ignored tha tpart for the first 21 issues. Arcee does mention killing Jhiaxus, the mad scientest in question, again, and again and again, but otherwise as far as RiD is concerned, Arcee is just an autobot who was tortured a lot by Jihaxius and who Prowl uses as his hit squad. She gleefully agrees to this... but it's clear she has no real sense of purpose. She DOES get a well done spotlight issue after the Autobots are cast out, with her wondering if the endless violence is worth it and deciding to join the autobots, wether they want her or not. It's a BETTER characterizfation than Furman's, a person with clear trauma trying to find out "what now"... but that big black cloud of "I done a transphobia because I hate them girl robots" hangs over it. It's an elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. I don't FULLY fault barber for it as IDW could've wanted him not to and it was a subject that would need a through, out in the open exploration. IDW was clearly willing as they supported Chromedome and Rewind and would continue to support out and out queerness in this franchise, Barber just wasn't ready yet and thus kept Arcee out of focus. He'd TRY to deal with this later at least but it's still super uncomfortable for now.

Decepticon wise.. they don't really get to do much till the season finale of sorts: they mostly stand around in a gun barrel and plot. Ratbat, one of my faviorite casettes of Soundwaves, is very prominent, trying to weasle his way into power early on.. but then Prowl goes and kills him and i'm sad. Soundwave , my boy, does fuck all till the build up to dark cybertron while Shockwave is in the shadows preparing said event , mostly done in optimus primes subplot. It's a real waste too as having more deciptcons actually try to reform or at least integrate into society would be neat, instead their just mostly canon fodder after a whil ewith a subplot about one seeing what prowl did going nowhere.

So speaking of Prime

The Thrilling Tales of Orion Pax

I haven't mentiond it till now but RiD has it's own isolated subplot ala the scavengers, just one that only lasts this season. Optimus left after the one shot and while he calls himself orion pax as does this segment... i'm just calling him Optimus like everyone else: Optimus goes on his own thrilling space adventures with his crew of Garnak, an ork like alien, Wheelie, who met garnak while stuck on a planet where time was constantly in flux and is still traumatized from it and Hardhead, a minor character turned Optimus buddy.

The trio had captured Jhiaxus, the mad science guy but got some criptic info. Jhiaxus quickly breaks free and while Optimus intended to just soft retire, he can't deny the danger he or his apprentice turned master Shockwave presents, and thus teams up with this motely crew. The adventures are only across three issue but each is fun, the characterrs ar eintresting if underdevleoped and i'ts neat to see Optimus like this: Grappling with his past, unsure of his future, and unwilling to be Optimus again despite everything pulling him toward it. His characterization also takes a nice turn as he was a minor prick in the return of optimus, calling the circle of light a cult. Douchebags yes, cult no.

There's really.. not much to say here anyalis wwise: these adventures are well done and I wish they were the main focus, and clearly Barber agreed as Optimus takes over next season, if sadly not bringin most of these guys with him.

THey are vital for the build up to Dark Cybertron, with Jhiaxus and his goons being Shockwaves main minons and hinting at his mission.. which Shockwave happily outlines in a spotlight later.. well happy isn't an emotion he experinces but he still outlines it: He's been seeding 13 powerful ores, tying in previous things like super energon and such, and the final and 13th one.. is ressurection, bringing people back under his control. His plans feel vauge in theis build up, but involve jhiaxus taking a titan right to cybertron, the ores, and beating up soundwave, with Prime persuing.

The only complaint I really have is the art, which isn't bad, it's just dark, cold , and muted, and not really my forte, working better to represent the dark universe during the crossover. It's not bad it's just hard to make out the visuals at times is all.

So with that we have one last bit of pre-crossover buisnes sto attend to

THe Old Man's Back Again

I did mention Megatron came back right? Because he did. And since he has a big roll to play in the crossover and in MTMTE season 2, let's talk about where Megs has been. Megs was left half dead after becoming a giant pile of decpticons, coming back towards the end of season 1, having what's essnetially the season finale early and the rest of the issues are spotlights dealing with the aftermath.

Bumblebee's reaction is exactly what you'd expect

I mean it's not unwaranted: it's megatron. He was a walking death machine and a brilliant strategist. It's not wrong to expect that even shambling and half dead he's plotting something.. because that's EXACTLY what he was doing. Bee DOES decide to spare him for a trial after being talked into it, but reluctantly and with Megatron guarded to hell. Unfortuantely.. the person in charge of his security is prowl who has a bit of a brain bug at the moment, having taken out omega supreme.

Yeah turns out a LOT of the seasons events were Megatron

The field driving people into rages was him, bombshell was working for megs the whole time, and Shockwave was working with him.. if only till it was convient enough to bail and go work on his own scheme. It's a MILD stretch and I wish it'd been se tup better.. but like Starscream it's hard NOT to enjoy Meg's presence: he brings a genuine threat and meanace, pinning our heroess to the wall and barely being beaten. He's not as layered as he was about to become... but he's still a clever villian who scoffs at Starscream's bitch crying, not WANTING a compromised cybertron but an empire. He ends up loosing but barely does, having still caused a ton of damage and left enough of a gaping woom for Screamer to take the crown. While this Megs is pretty simplistic, he still serves as a good foundation for what's next: a man who genuinely THINKS he's doing the right thing and that peace really is possible if you throw away those pesky civil liberties and his plan and near victory underline HOW dangeorus he is, why the lost light needs to nerf him to put him on board... and why Cybertron will BADLY need his help in the mess to come.

So that was Robots in Disguise and this review.. was difficult to say the least. It's not a great book but it has flecks of greatness in it and later seasons of this side of transformers and other series would pick up on that

Next Time in March: DARK CYBERTRON BEGINS. Bumlbee and the Bumblefucks try to protect a cyberton that hates and fears them, Rodimus goes into a stygian hole in space time, and Shockwave's plan hopefully makes sense.

#transformers #optimus prime #idw #robots in disguise #prowl #bumblebee #wheeljack #megatron #starscream #meatalhawk #blurr #arcee

24 notes · View notes

paulrobinsonshotel · 4 months

Text

OK so I've been thinking, if RTD absolutely didn't want to go down the root of having a multi-Doctor/multi-companion extravaganza for the 60th, and wanted to go down a more subtle route using old villains and obscure comics to celebrate the show's history, imagine if instead of making the only real "anniversary" elements of the story be his Doctor and his companion, RTD had done the unthinkable, and asked Jodie and Mandip to stay on.

Obviously, there are multiple reasons why that didn't happen. Ultimately Thirteen and Yaz are Chris Chibnall's characters, and RTD may not have wanted to add to Chibnall's story. I'm also aware that Jodie and Mandip thought Chibnall's departure was the right time for them to go, so this ultimately wasn't down to RTD. But I do think (with Chibnall's blessing) he could've convinced them to come back with a good story.

I'm also aware that Jodie had a baby after filming POTD, and needed time away. However, since returning to acting, she has filmed other shows, including Time, which aired before the 60th specials. So there's no reason filming couldn't have been delayed to accommodate Jodie while still having the episodes ready for November/December 2023.

Imagine the end of Power of the Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor has her farewell with Yaz, goes to the clifftop and starts regenerating... only to end up with the same face by the end of it? Might not have the same impact on the general public as the Tennant return, but certainly enough to keep fans speculating for a year.

Then at the start of The Star Beast, the TARDIS brings her straight to 2023, where she just happens to bump into Yaz as soon as she steps out, who is still hurting after a year without the Doctor, and shocked she doesn't have a different face.

And imagine hearing Akinola's themes for Thirteen and Yaz in Murray Gold's style when they are reunited!

While I do think Donna's exit was more heartbreaking than Yaz's, I'd argue she got closure of a sort, marrying someone who genuinely loves her for who she is, and getting a winning lottery ticket. It certainly didn't need a fanfiction fix-it of being sorted by "just letting go" ("something a male-presenting Time Lord wouldn't understand" way to shit on your own progressivism Russell)

While the ending Chibnall gave Yaz was an appropriate and bittersweet one for her character, it was written in a way that permitted closure or another writer picking up the character in the future.

I criticise RTD frequently on here, but one thing he absolutely excels at is realistic family drama (the scene where Sylvia isn't sure she's saying the right thing to Rose was probably the best writing in those specials), and integrating that family drama with the magic and silliness of Doctor Who. Not saying Chibnall was bad at this, but it was never really the story he wanted to tell. RTD could've done some great stuff with the Khan family in the 60th specials, with her parents and Sonya supporting her in adjusting to life without the Doctor, and probably delivering some uncomfortable truths to Thirteen(.5) about all the time she froze Yaz out or pushed her away.

I'm not sure how the specials could've played out, but imagine if instead of Fourteen regenerating into Ten's face because he "needed to come home" to Donna (and not every other found family the Doctor had ever had?), we linked it back to Power of the Doctor, and revealed that Thirteen wanting more time (with Yaz), and Yaz not wanting her time with the Doctor to end triggered the Toymaker's interference. Her made her regenerate into the same face, and brought her straight back to Yaz, and to defeat him they have to let the change complete itself.

If they're going hard on marketing Ncuti's era as "Series 1" as if it's a brand new show, then I think having Thirteen and Yaz (the final Doctor and companion of the 2005-2023 Who) both accept that it's time to move on would be the perfect coda for the "NuWho" as a whole. No "bigeneration" fanfiction fuckery, but maybe Thirteen offering Yaz to stay with her for the change this time, and Yaz this time being the one to say no, not because the Doctor is regenerating, but because she's accepted that time with the Doctor has to end sometime.

And then in the closing seconds, we get to see Ncuti's Doctor, taking up the baton (and clothes) from Jodie Whittaker, just as it should be, his Doctor on his own terms, not a side character in the last guy's story.

As I said, I understand why this didn't happen, but honestly, this would've been so much better than what we got.

#anti rtd #doctor who #jodie whittaker #mandip gill #thirteenth doctor #yazmin khan #sonya khan #60th anniversary #the toymaker #murray gold #segun akinola #ncuti gatwa

23 notes · View notes

quartergremlin · 6 months

Note

Hello! Hope you are having a good day ✨. If you don't mind, I have been curious about Yuichi's family political drama 👁️ and what it means. The Usagi tree post is kinda old now and it's okay if you don't answer.

Thank you! I have Identified the Souce of my random chest pains and its stupid and silly, but less upsetting. I hope you are having a good one! \(@^0^@)/

okay so. usagi family tree post, the meme

im actually really happy that someone's excited about that! but

Short answer: I cannot tell you about it 😞 its spoilers 😔 Good news! I have all the arcs plotted out (on paper! not just in my head!) if you'd like to guess or hypothesize or what have you I can tell you that I did. very briefly. skim the wikis about yuichi/usagi/miyamoto and integrate some elements in those stories into mine.

Longer answer(?): the original plan was to get through the main revelations of Portal Baby by, like, December, and then start making the Yuichi story (a more polished, properly scripted, and potentially sometimes in color project) in the new year. Portal Baby was supposed to be practice. getting the characters right, their shapes and voices. practicing comic-making overall - figuring out what kind of effort I could maintain over an extended amount of time, etc etc. and then after I started hauling ass on the Yuichi story, I could make cute little comics in the portal baby world for fun whenever I pleased.

Then Clarification happened. Whoops!

I'm learning a lot! and i enjoy making it! It is exactly what I want to do with Portal Baby later on! but it is throwing a super-powered wrench in my carefully cultivated schedule to, yknow. actually get to yuichi's family drama.

uh but whatever i say about yuichi in clarification and portal baby is canon for my version of his character (most likely) so...

#clarification is to me like jesus egg is to mikey #and also jesus egg is to me #oh i very much still have brain worms about yuichi don't worry #hes in there right along side my furious thoughts about limestone cave systems and giant granite slabs in japan #askbox #rabbit family matters #< is the the tag for that #but i used it kind of sporatically so uh if you look in the archive in august #if any of yall are interested in that #SORRY THIS IS KIND OF SUPER LONG

34 notes · View notes

cantsayidont · 6 months

Text

December 1988. Power returns to the Village, in the authorized comics sequel to THE PRISONER (collected as THE PRISONER: SHATTERED VISAGE), by Mark Askwith and Dean Motter. A female British intelligence officer, recently resigned, leaves on a solo round-the-world sailing trip, only to find herself in the now seemingly abandoned Village, caught in a final deadly game of cat and mouse between the mysterious Number Six and the man once known as Number Two.

Meanwhile, the nameless heroine's estranged husband, MI5 officer Thomas Drake, confronts a mysterious conspiracy within his agency, which may be connected to the former Number Two and his recently published, heavily censored tell-all memoir, The Village Idiot.

An intriguing if necessarily oblique story, SHATTERED VISAGE loses the element of social coercion that's such an important component of THE PRISONER TV show in favor of modern John le Carré wilderness-of-mirrors espionage drama. However, it manages the difficult feat of moving the game on without undoing (or really explaining) what's gone before, and the ways it deploys familiar imagery and themes of the show are pleasingly clever. In particular, it captures the mordant wit and sharp-edged wordplay that characterize the show's best episodes. THE PRISONER creator Patrick McGoohan, notoriously curmudgeonly, reportedly said he "didn't hate it."

#comics #the prisoner #the prisoner: shattered visage #mark askwith #dean motter #patrick mcgoohan #the jacket blurb of the titan reprint refers to the heroine as alice drake #but while she is at one point referred to as alice #in context that's almost certainly meant as “...in wonderland”#not as her actual name #which i'm pretty sure we're not supposed to ever know #someone in the bookshop where we first see number two's book #is reading alice in wonderland #so it's a conscious motif

28 notes · View notes

deimosbreakfrost · 6 months

Text

hey y'all I'm BAAAAACK

Here's the final version of total drama December

Start: 12/01

End: 2024/01/01

You can start drawing during November, like that you will not need to worry about drawing during Certain Days in December. (Opcional, if you want to draw during December then it's your choice, I don't control your life, BUT I WANT TO) (I am joking)

Also, if you didn't posted a certain drawing in a certain drawing day, don't worry. You can post it in some other day, just don't take too long

Rules:

1. No NSFW.

2. No gore in Drawing Days that don't have the:

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want] warning

3. No harassing other participants

4. No using AI (you can use AI to trace it if you want, just if the result is completely different than the original)

5. No tracing (but you can use bases, AI art, but you FKING CANT trace other person's drawings, or stealing some random persons drawing)

In some drawing Days it will have a warning saying if some rule can opcionaly ignored if you want. Rules number 1, 3, 4, 5 NEED to be used in all drawings, the unic one that can be opcionaly ignored is Rule 2, the rest need to be respected and used in all drawings. If you ignore them, er... GET BLOCKED BISH.

Okay, The explanation of what is to draw in The Drawing Days:

Drawing Days: It's the day where you will post the drawing with the thematic of that day.

. Day 1: Ho Holy Chris

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want]

Basically Santa Claus Chris, you can draw him doing whatever tou want (if it's not NSFW)

. Day 2: Favorite characterS from each season

You can use 2 Characters per season if you want (in Ridonculous Race can be 1 or 2 teams of you want) (total dramarama not included)

Also, if You didn't watched certain season you can just put a " EU NAO SEI!!" (I don't know in portuguese)

. Day 3: LEAST FAVORITE FROM EACH SEASON

You can use 2 Characters per season Ridonculous Race can have 2 teams and total dramarama not included

. Day 4: Favorite Ships and least favorite ships

It can only be 1 ship per season, the Ship can be fanon or canon. Pro ships NOT ALLOWED!

. Day 5: Free spirit

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want]

you can draw whatever you want, an scenerio, a character, a ship art, a comic or idk an au art if you want

. Day 6: Do the evolution

It looks epic but it's not. So, this is what you would do/change in a certain total drama season (it can only be one season) also, when I say CHANGE I don't mean by putting your Headcanons on it, it's literally change certain things in the season, who would be eliminated in that day, who would win, which ship you would make be canon, who would you make be more loved, ya know this things

(It can be a text and a drawing at the same time if you want)

. Day 7: Album/Music reference

Kinda auto explicativo, né? Ok, it's a music reference. You choose the character, you chose the music in the post, you chose the album to make reference to and you chose the references

(Also, you can use the colors of the chosen album as the colors of your drawing if you want)

. Day 8: canon vs headcanon

The canon one needs to be canon as possible to the original and the other one can have your Headcanons, the character can be who you want. If you want to, you can put what stayed and what changed on your art or you can put in the description (in other words: you need to make a comparison with the canon character with your Headcanons)

. Day 9: Swap in

Two characters being swaped, Both have the personality of the other one. the clothes, the design and etc.

. Day 10: favorite TDWT song

Just do a drawing of you favorite TDWT song, that's it

. Day 11: most Deserved Elimination

The character that most Deserved the elimination

. Day 12: least favorite Elimination

That one elimination that you looked directly into the screen and said: nah, this CANT be happening, THAT one elimination that made you go MENTAL. Yeah you get it

. Day 13: meme redraw

It can be any meme of you choice (even the aletyler one, JUST DONT MAKE IT TOO MUCH SUGGESTIVE YOU CREEP)

Or it can be a Meme base

. Day 14: self insert

You in certain total drama scene. For example: next to your favorite character.

Or you can do an original piece with an original scene if you want, but you need to try have the same artstyle that in total drama (you can try your best)

. Day 15: fake Screenshot

You drawing in the TD artstyle, where it shows a Scene that supposed to be real, BUT ITS NOT!! You can use an fake Screenshot that already exist but you can draw a original one

. Day 16: Deserved Better

A character that in your opinion, deserved Better. The character is your choice

. Day 17: opinion Swap

A character that you changed opinions with

. Day 18: T.E.P.W

The extreme potential waste. The character that could easily be incredible and we'll written character but it wasn't

. Day 19: your choice

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want]

Again, you can draw whatever you want

. Day 20: WHAT IF??

A what if that you always have on your mind and you still asks to your self "what if IT really happened" it can be a text and a drawing

. Day 21: favorite season

Your favorite season, that's it

. Day 22: HEAR ME OUT, PLEASE!!

THAT one character that makes your kick the air, that one character that makes you start playing lovefool in your head ya know? Is that one character that you think is kinda... You get it

. Day 23: the "Confessionário"

Your HONEST opinion of certain thing of TD. For example, you opinion about that character that every one loves except you, a season that you think it could be better and etc...

. Day 24: Get ready

A character of your choice preparing it self for Christmas

. Day 25: How I love you

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want]

Two characters of you choice fighting. IN MIDDLE OF THE CHRISTMAS

. Day 26: What do you think about me

it's like a ship chart ya know? But instead of being about ships it's about what certain character of a certain season think about YOUR favorite character. You can use your Headcanons

. Day 27: Favorite challenge

You favorite Challenge, that's it

. Day 28: least favorite Challenge

Your least favorite Challenge, that's it

. Day 29: favorite season

Favorite season, é isso

. Day 30: close enough

[You can Ignore the rule 1 in here, If you want]

You are free to draw whatever you want

. Day 31: end

You can draw whatever you want, if at least has something to do with new year

If you want to WHE see your fanart just put

@SharkyRandom

And

@DeimosBreakfrost

Don't forget the

#TotalDramaDecember #DeimosTDecember

Idk why I am making this Drawing month, maybe is because I want to see more TD Stuff during December

Any questions, you can reblog and ask me

#totaldramadezember #deimosTDecember #total drama #td #tdi 2023 #total drama island 2023 #deimos post #gayloser post

25 notes · View notes

alteration-au · 3 months

Text

I am rambling a lot in this post. If you see this because I tagged you, I just wanna tell you that you and your art, be it writing or drawing, is amazing so you don’t have to read through this entire thing.

As of the 25th of December 2023 this AU is three years old

(Well, to be 100 % accurate it was the 20th with a little oneshot)

Putting it all together (according to AO3 statistics and excluding all the tumblr post on the @traitor-on-board story blog and the very few on @adventure-time-alterationau) I've written 126,855 words for this AU in the past three years.

According to my word document I have for ToB, that Blog has additionally 46,258 words alone.

The whole Henry Stickmin fandom is special to me. It's unlike any other fandom I've ever read comics and fanfics, admired fanart and animations or created content myself for.

It's fun to create for this fandom.

We've been given so many characters with so little background information and one of the things I love the most is seeing all the different designs, backstories and characterizations of the same characters. Be it the ones in the background with only a bio with a single sentence, the references to other games like Mario and A hat in time or the main characters like Henry, Charles, Ellie, Reginald and so on.

And I've barely seen people argue about their different headcanons.

Granted, I've grown past the part of my life where I actively seek out drama and noone is obligated to publicly or at all answer rude anonymous asks, but I haven't really seen anyone make a post about how a certain character can't be trans or gay or have a certain type of backstory that they do not agree with.

We can all be peaceful and appreciate each others creativity and love for the fandom and characters. Even if that love means to put them through hell and back and traumatize them beyond belief. (I've never written so much angsty stuff in my life...)

So... in celebration of me not having abandoned any of my stories yet and me roping my friend into this fandom to the point where they share their work with this fandom (btw. "Rare Hearts" on AO3) a thank you to all the blogs / people, aside from every single Kudo, Comment and Star on Wattpad, AO3 and here, who inspired me in the first place and keep my love for this fandom alive. And if you've made it this far I highly encourage you to check them out.

@ending-the-cycle-ask (Which is one of my favorite comics of all time. Is it a comic? Ask-blog with drawings? Comic with reader-input?)

ask-crashed-copperright and run-away-toppats (Which sadly doesn't seem to exist anymore...)

@sir-subpar and @jazzstarrlight (Who both seemed to have moved on from the fandom. But it doesn't change that they're both talented artists and are still doing great work)

@ask-thsc-blog (Who has so many posts that I'll just finally need to take an entire weekend off to scroll all the way down to catch up with the story again)

@unicwolf (Who I am constantly bothering to beta-read my stuff or help me with color theory. And just art in general)

@capturecharlesau (Whos' Terrence (and entire AU) will never leave my brain again because of his story and the similarities and differences he has to my Terrence. And my Terrence would try to murder CCTerrence)

#the henry stickmin collection #Anniversary #Alteration AU #appreciation post #links to talented artists

17 notes · View notes

broadwaydivastournament · 6 days

Text

Bebe Neuwirth in Caricature

I didn't plan it like this, but Bebe's caricature showcase just so happens to coincide on my schedule with Cabaret's opening night. So while she's glamming it up on the red carpet and readying for her soon-to-be-Tony-nominated performance, allow me to present beloved Diva Bebe Neuwirth in Caricature.

"Bebe Neuwirth," Sweet Charity, Published June 20, 1986 - Al Hirschfeld

"Cheers," Published December 11, 1990 - Al Hirschfeld

CHEERS: TED DANSON, KIRSTIE ALLEY, NICK COLASANTO, RHEA PERLMAN, GEORGE WENDT, JOHN RATZENBERGER, WOODY HARRELSON, BEBE NEUWIRTH, KELSEY GRAMMER, SHELLY LONG, AND ROGER REES, 1990

"Damn Yankees", Published February 27, 1994 - Al Hirschfeld

Pictured: Bebe Neuwirth with Victor Garber, Jerrod Emick, and George Abbott.

"Chicago," Published November 24, 1996 - Al Hirschfeld

Pictured: Joel Grey, Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, James Naughton

"Toasts Of The Town," Published June 1, 1997 - Al Hirschfeld

Pictured: Frank Langella, Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, Brian Bradford, Michael Hayden, Bebe Neuwirth, Rebecca Luker, Fiona Shaw, Lillias White, David Morse, Angie Phillips, Donal McCann, Michael Gambon, David Rasche, Lia Williams, Janet McTeer, Anthony Sher, etc.

By 1986, Bebe had a Tony Award and a solo Hirschfeld drawing to her name, and by 1997, she had another Tony and three more Hirschfelds from both stage and screen work. Hirschfeld had a sprawling collection of art not limited just to Broadway. And of course, the feature Hirschfeld most prominently exaggerated (though not by much) were her award-winning gams.

Bebe Neuwirth for Sardis, 1997 | Unrelated: Bebe Neuwirth and Donna Murphy for the 2010 Drama League Nominations

Bebe's Sardis portrait is, of course, her in character as Velma Kelly in Chicago. The style of her caricature seemed to bridge the change between the old-school exaggeration and comic features that made the drawings so distinctive, and the blander, homogenous styles of today. Bebe's portrait came a few years before the true shift began, and frankly, she's better off for it.

"Bebe Neuwirth," The Lights of Broadway, Autumn 2017 - Squigs

I've neglected to mention it so far, but each Squigs trading card comes equipped with a little "fun fact" section on the back. Most cards include a few biographical points, show credits, and a special "did you know?" With Bebe's return to Broadway this season, we can only hope we'll get another Squigs illustration to add to the list.

#bebe neuwirth #al hirschfeld #sardis #squigs #caricature

12 notes · View notes

the-vampire-queer · 5 months

Text

The Vampires Digital Media Poll: Round 1, Bracket 4

Please reblog for a bigger sample size.

Results get posted on December 10th. at 5PM CST.

<- Previous poll | Next poll ->

If you wish to learn more about your options, either as a refresher or an introduction, press the "Keep reading" button.

What is The Vampire Diaries (+ The Originals + Legacies) about?

Summary (TVD only, due to nature of spoilers when it comes to spin-offs): "This supernatural drama, based on the series of novels by L.J. Smith, details the lives of two brothers, Damon and Stefan Salvatore, who have been living as vampires for centuries. After years of moving from from place-to-place to hide their eternal youth (and bloodthirsty condition), the brothers return to the small Virginia town, Mystic Falls, where their lives as humans ended. Damon is snarky, handsome and charming, with a propensity for evil, while Stefan tries to remain noble -- in part to atone for bad behavior in his past." Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Source: The Vampire Diaries

Cast:

Nina Dobrev - Elena Gilbert (TVD)

Ian Somerhalder - Damon Salvatore (TVD)

Paul Wesley - Stefan Salvatore (TVD)

Candice King - Caroline Forbes (TVD)

Kat Graham - Bonnie Bennett (TVD)

Note: Cast lists provided here are not complete lists of people and characters featured in the media being listed. These are partial lists that include some of the main characters and their actors.

Additional information: The Vampire Diaries show is based on the books of the same name by L. J. Smith. Lots was changed in the book-to-show transfer. Some fans prefer the show over the books.

What is V Wars about?

Summary: "A doctor is pitted against his best friend when an ancient disease turns people into vampires; from the comics by Jonathan Maberry and Alan Robinson." Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Cast:

Ian Somerhalder - Dr. Luther Swann

Adrian Holmes - Michael Fayne

Kyle Breitkopf - Desmond Swann

Jacky Lai - Kaylee Vo

Note: Cast lists provided here are not complete lists of people and characters featured in the media being listed. These are partial lists that include some of the main characters and their actors.

Additional information: The V Wars tv show is based off of the comics of the same name. This show also features Vampire Diaries actor Ian Somerhalder, known for playing Damon Salvatore.

14 notes · View notes

yurimother · 5 months

Text

Vampire Yuri Manga 'Kiss the Scars of the Girls' Released

On Tuesday, Yen Press released the first volume of Aya Haruhana's supernatural school drama manga Kiss the Scars of the Girls (Shoujo-tachi no Kizuato ni Kuchizuke wo).

The publisher describes the manga:

“I’m sure someday, I’ll get you to look my way.” Danger and uncertainty are common for a young vampire, which is why Emille will be assigned a “Big Sister” on her fourteenth birthday, like all the girls at her school. Deep within a secluded forest, her sister will teach her how to hunt and safely feed on humans. Learning to rely on each other for survival cultivates a deep relationship comparable to that between family-but does theirs have the potential to evolve into something more?"

Kiss the Scars of the Girls was serialized on Comic Newtype from December 2021 until its conclusion in June 2023. Kadokawa publishes three collected volumes of the series in Japan. Yen Press plans to release the second English volume on April 16, 2024.

The manga is translated into English by Erin Husson with lettering by Nicole Roderick.

Kiss the Scars of the Girls is Aya Haruhana's first serialized work. They previously contributed to the official Shojo☆Kageki Revue Starlight Comic Anthology: Nine Stories and Ichijinsha's Nakigao Yuri anthology (Anthology of Crying Girls).

You can check out Kiss the Scars of the Girls today in English digitally and in paperback: https://amzn.to/46ntkG2

Reading official releases helps support creators and publishers. YuriMother makes a small affiliate commission from sales to help fund future coverage.

#yuri #girls love #news #manga #vampires #vampire #lgbt #gay #lgbtq #anime #lesbian #queer #gl

266 notes · View notes

pers-books · 6 months

Text

Children of the Circus

Friday, 3 November 2023 - Reported by Marcus

A new audio musical drama, Children of the Circus, is reuniting the cast of the seventh Doctor story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy for a unique special.

The limited edition CD set will be released on December 14th, 2023, exactly 35 years to the day that the first episode of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was broadcast on BBC One.

Once upon a time, there was a circus. A Psychic Circus, to be precise. A glorious haven for the misfits of the universe. But then, as is so often the way, it was hijacked by a trio of malevolent Gods. Things grew unpleasant. Now, years later, the Gods are gone, but the scars of those who survived the Circus remain. After all, you can't change the past. Unless you're the Children of the Circus... and you're willing to sing.

Based on the Season 25 story by Stephen Wyatt, Children of the Circus is a brand-new, original, musical play on audio from AUK Studios; written by Kenton Hall (with songs by Christopher Guard) and based on an idea by Barnaby Eaton-Jones.

The special features the return of Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) and Sophie Aldred (who played the Doctor’s traveling companion, Ace). But not as you’d expect. McCoy plays the High Poet; all befuddled charm and with a whisper of duplicity and danger. Aldred gives two magnificently different characters in the form of Captain Gren (the gruff owner of a Time Ship) and AJ (a sentient piece of rust, who navigates the Time Ship).

McCoy himself sums it up

To return to the worlds of Stephen Wyatt's imagination, but as a wholly new character called the High Poet, means I get to be involved with the Psychic Circus rather than fighting against it! As a lover of the circus myself, juggling this new role was a joy (though I'm sad I didn't get to play the spoons). What fun to be reunited with all the wonderful cast from 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy' again, 35 years later, and I hope you'll all enjoy this time-sliding, sidestepping sequel from Barnaby Eaton-Jones and his bunch of clowns!

Joining the cast in a major role is 1980’s icon (singer/actress/songwriter), Toyah Willcox. It’s long been known she was a fan of Doctor Who, as she appeared in Kevin Jon Davies’ acclaimed documentary 30 Years in the TARDIS, but to get her to create a multi-voiced role as The Band of Infinite Harmony (and get her own solo song, which can heard in full after the end credits as a bonus extra track) was something she clearly relished…

At last, I get to play all four members of the band and still have the last say…. love it. Seriously it was wonderful to play THE BAND and equally wonderful to hear this rather fab story unfold, a rock and roll odyssey of comic proportions.

Ever since producer/director Barnaby Eaton-Jones saw the original broadcast of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, he was fascinated by the world that Stephen Wyatt had created…

There was such a wild mix of horror, science fiction, music, and fantasy, that it blew my adolescent mind; with images and characters forever stuck in my head. I wanted to revisit some of the characters and introduce new ones. With the permission of Stephen Wyatt (who came up with the title for this new production), and the help of writer Kenton Hall and actor/musician Christopher Guard, we were able to create something rather unique in the audio medium.

Kenton Hall himself says:

Like most swinging, modern people, I receive a daily deluge of emails that begin with the fateful words “would you be interested in…” As a result, I have developed a tendency to give them, at best, a brief, withering glare. In this case, however, it read “would I be interested in playing in the sandbox of Stephen Wyatt’s marvellous ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’?” Does the lesser spotted gumblejack smell faintly of cinnamon? Spoiler: the answer to both questions is yes.

Songwriter, Christopher Guard, who played Bellboy in the original TV serial, added…

As with all the best things in life, I don't remember quite how or when it began. I think I'd sent some of my songs - recent and ancient - to Barnaby just as he was dreaming up a sequel to ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’. It was more a shooting star than a light bulb moment. Irresistible synchronicity had struck, and ‘Children of the Circus’ was a THING! It was just a question of time. Or timelessness. Stephen Wyatt blessed us, Kenton Hall seized his cosmic pen, and the rest is mystery. Unravelled. With music. How amazing to act and sing with so many of the original cast, to slip into Bellboy's loons once more, and to travel seamlessly beyond our wildest dreams.”

Starring Christopher Guard as Bellboy, Dee Sadler as Flowerchild and Ella, Sophie Aldred as Captain Gren and AJ, Toyah Willcox as The Band of Infinite Harmony, Ian Reddington as Delios and the Chief Clown, and Sylvester McCoy as the High Poet.

With Daisy Dunlop, Verity White, Kim Jones, Kenton Hall, Barnaby Eaton-Jones and Ian Kubiak.

Special guest appearances by Ricco Ross as The Ringmaster, Jessica Martin as Mags, Chris Jury as Deadbeat, Deborah Manship as Morgana, Gian Sammarco as Whizz Kid, Daniel Peacock as Nord, and Dean Hollingsworth as the Bus Conductor and Station Announcer.

Produced and directed by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, for AUK Studios.

A preview can be heard here

Limited Edition CD available to pre-order now

#Sylvester McCoy #Sophie Aldred #Toyah Wilcox #Serial: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy #Doctor Who

16 notes · View notes

freddiemercurylegendabovelegends · 6 months

Text

October/Novembre 1980 - Queen Story!

'Flash Gordon'

🔸“We saw 20 minutes of the finished film and thought it very good and over the top. We wanted to do something that was a real soundtrack. It’s a first in many ways, because a rock group has not done this type of thing before...”

- Brian May

👉 Queen's ninth studio album was the original soundtrack to the movie based on the comic strip character Flash Gordon. It was the band's first sortie into the film world and would prove to be their only full soundtrack album. Later they would write several songs for the first Highlander adventure in 1986, which emerged (in reworked form) as the album A Kind Of Magic, also in that year, but that was not a soundtrack LP.

The Flash Gordon music was recorded for Director Mike Hodges and Producer Dino De Laurentiis' $22 million remake of the 1930's black and white sci-fi film. Queen were first approached in 1979, and as writing film music was something they had all thought about but had not yet got around to, their Manager arranged a meeting with De Laurentiis and mentioned Queen's interest in scoring the film. Rumour has it that De Laurentiis' first reaction was simply, “Who are the Queens?” They were, as it turned out, the first rock band he had ever listened to and the outcome was that the band was commissioned to write the music for the movie.

Having just finished a lengthy European tour, and a further three week stint in Japan, spanning January to May, Queen spent the summer of 1979 working on The Game album, mostly at Musicland studios in Munich. It was during these sessions that they also started work on the score for Flash Gordon. Producing two albums simultaneously was not easy, but both progressed well. After touring, holidays and other ventures, more work on Flash Gordon and The Game followed in the early part of 1980, again in Munich, and then a U.S. tour commenced in June and ran through to October. After a well-earned holiday for most of October, Queen recommenced work on the Flash soundtrack in London and had completed it by November.

The music was composed, performed, arranged and produced by Queen, with the overall album credited as a Brian and Mack production. Like The Game, which was the first Queen LP to feature synthesizers, Flash Gordon continued the trend, though it features significantly more synths than its predecessor. Additional orchestral arrangements on the album were by Howard Blake, who also conducted the orchestra, and all of it was recorded at Anvil Studios. The orchestra features mostly throughout the film, to compliment Queen's music, though some of it did also make the final soundtrack album too.

Though some fans were dubious to hear Queen were recording music for a comic character-inspired film adventure, the album that emerged was a pleasant surprise on various levels. The music works well as an accompaniment to the visuals of the film, punctuated by sound effects and dialogue from the cast, including Max Von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Topol and the larger than life English actor Brian Blessed. Any reservations among the fans were soon cast aside when the album's only single Flash was released worldwide prior to the album and fared well in the charts.

All tracks were titled after the appropriate part of the film each part was written for, and when hearing the album in its own right the listener gets a vivid idea as to what's happening in the story. The drama of the action, dialogue and over the top special effects, with Queen's distinctive sound threading through it all, is a compelling and greatly unusual blend.

Flash Gordon was released in the UK on 8th December 1980 – a day that will forever live in history as a notorious date because it happens to be the day that John Lennon was shot dead outside his apartment in New York.

👉 The album reached No 10 in the UK charts, achieving Gold award status. It was well received by the press and critics alike and each review of the film made a special reference to the music from Queen.

The LP was nominated for a BAFTA award and an Ivor Novello, and the film premiered in London on 11th December 1980.

- Single from this album: 'Flash'

(➡️ read more on queenonline.com)

#freddie mercury #queen band #london #zanzibar #legend #queen #brian may #john deacon #freddiebulsara #roger taylor #flash gordon #1980

14 notes · View notes

biconickyoshi · 4 months

Note

Hello, it's me again. And I have a few questions for you. 1) Who will tell Zuko that he is a descendant of Avatar Roku? Will it be Uncle Iroh or his mother Ursa? And will the rest of Team Avatar know about it? It’s just that this fact can add drama to the relationship between Aang and Zuko, since Aang essentially fell in love with his descendant. 2) The Lover's Cave (season 2, episode 2) will it take place the same as in the canon or will the changes be global? 3) Will there be jokes about how no one pays attention to Zuko's scar? It's just that even in the comics, when Zuko became the Fire Lord, no one recognized him or pretended not to recognize him. It would be interesting if some character, most likely Sokka, noticed this.

Hello again! I'll do my best to answer your questions :)

I haven't quite decided on that yet! I think it would be interesting to have Ursa reveal it since Roku was her grandfather, but I'd have to either wait until The Search plot line to do that, or figure out some way to bring Ursa back earlier than that. I will likely end up going with Iroh telling him, as I do plan to adapt the actual "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" episode into its own chapter eventually.

Yep, I'm planning on the second chapter of Book 3: Earth being "The Cave of Two Lovers"! :) I'm very excited to get to that chapter, as it was the first thing I'd ever written for this fic back in December of 2021 as kind of a test to see if I wanted to try and tackle the whole entire rest of the story. And here we are, 2+ years later, and I'm finally almost there lol!

Haha that is a good point, even in canon people don't often mention his scar until it has plot relevance. I like to think that most people think it would be rude to bring it up, as they probably assume Zuko is an Earth Kingdom kid who was tragically injured in a Fire Nation attack, like the man who sold him the broadswords way back in Book 1 did. I like to sometimes have characters noticeably glance at Zuko's scar just to show that people do notice it.

#asks #atla #avatar the last airbender #the avatar and the fire prince #taatfp #my fic #atla au #zukaang

12 notes · View notes

Last Seen Blogs

sonararchive01

SonarArchive01

pickledmelons

legjames

Charlie

fgarcera

Pintamonas

mileviter