Addams! AU snippet 3: 'Photo'

FULL CREDIT TO WRITER NewFallenLeaves ON A03! HER TALENT IS SOMETHING IM FOREVER GREATFUL TO EXPERIENCE AND SEE, AND YALL NEED TO EXPERIENCE IT TOO! GIVE HER A FOLLOW AND KUDO AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF, SHE IS THE MOST DESERVING PERSON I KNOW OF IT!

Animated a little something for this Snippet! First time ever animating, be nice to me LOLLLLL

Full snippet below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Usagi had just about managed to convince himself that his encounter with the creepy turtle had been a one-time thing.

His actions had been so…encroaching. (Who licked someone’s open wound?) And the intensity of his gaze as he’d stepped backwards through the portal had seemed less like the unhinged stare of a psychopath and more like a promise. Usagi had gone about his business on the following days with the unshakable feeling that the turtle was not at all gone.

But one week had turned into two, his wounds were on the mend, and he’d seen no sign of the strange mutant since.

Slowly, it began to feel like nothing more than an uncomfortable memory.

On the third week after the incident, Usagi had finished his nightly routine of kata practice and stepped into the washroom to clean up before retiring for the evening. A breeze, cool after a warm day, blew through the ajar window and teased the hem of the open curtains. He leaned over the basin splashed his face and arms lightly.

A light flared in the mirror.

He whirled, in time to see another burst, the unmistakable glare of a camera flash. He darted to the window, slamming it open.

On a fire escape across the alley, the turtle held said camera in one hand, the other clapped over his mouth as he shook with mirth.

Shit. Shit.

By the time Usagi made it down the stairs and out onto the street, the turtle was gone.

***

Usagi spent the following day looking over his shoulder at every street corner. It was a useless exercise in paranoia. The turtle already knew where he lived.

Before he ducked into the ground-floor entry to his apartment building, he craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the rooftops, the fire escapes, the balconies. Anywhere the turtle might be hiding again, with a vantage point of his dwelling.

He saw nothing.

Once inside, with the door double-bolted and every curtain drawn, he allowed himself the barest modicum of relief.

Until he saw the paper on the center of his kitchen table.

Usagi was meticulously clean. He liked his dwelling uncluttered. The table never had anything on its surface other than a narrow, embroidered runner. But there, on top of the decorated cloth, sat a single photograph.

Fingers shaking, Usagi picked it up.

It was a photo of himself, turned to face the camera with a look of shock and dismay. It appeared to have been taken from a vantage literally just outside the window. Much, much closer than he’d seen the turtle. And the quality was laser sharp, with no glare from the glass panes. He could almost see the fibers in the texture of his fur. What kind of camera was this sophisticated?

It would have been an absolutely pristine snapshot, had the turtle not colored on the photo. In thick, red, globby pen. A clot of ink had been traced over Usagi’s head, just below his right ear. Another heavy scribble covered his forearm and hand, like a bloody wound. It only took Usagi a split second to realize they were poorly rendered likenesses of the injuries he’d gotten that day in the alley, when the turtle had literally dropped into his life.

He flipped the photo to look at the back. Perhaps it was just out of habit. The instinct of knowing that most people wrote names, dates, and special notes on the back of such keepsakes. If he’d thought about it more consciously, Usagi might have decided that he didn’t want to know.

But before he’d given himself a chance to realize that, he’d already turned the glossy sheet over.

In the same red pen it said:

Leo & Usagi First Date

And underneath it in a languid, looping scrawl:

‘Let’s do it again sometime!’

Usagi stared at the message, motionless.

Huh.

The turtle’s name was Leo.

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.

if your still taking requests maybe purly first kiss 🥰🥰

Oh hohohoho Purly first kiss you say 😏

(LINK ON AO3)

Curly knew he’d fucked up big time, not by robbing the liquor store but by being stupid enough to get caught. He shuffled his feet against the cold ground of the holding cell, one foot was bare (save for a tattered white sock) while the other had his nearly-decade-old sneaker. The other shoe was still at the liquor store somewhere.

He nervously tapped his feet against the ground and clacked his rather long fingernails against the bench until the man behind the desk snapped at him to be quiet. That only made him carry on even louder. He liked the way the pig behind the desk grumbled and covered his ears in response. ‘Good,’ Curly thought with a little smirk, maybe now the man would feel a fraction of the boy’s own discomfort.

Eventually, he grew tired of the tapping, so he swung his legs in circles for a little while. Once he tired of that, he hiked his legs up and hugged them to his chest, resting his cheek on his knees. Tim would come soon. He promised he would.

Thinking back to the incident, Curly’s chest started to throb a little. When his foot had gotten caught during the escape, he remembered crying out for help. But nobody had even turned to look at him. They just  hared  it out the window he’d pried open for them.

‘They were just scared,’ Curly thought, squishing his cheek further against his jeans. Curly tried his best to be glad that everyone had made it out safely, but a little part of him, a part of him that he believed to be very selfish, wished that he had somebody here with him.

Curly might lean his head on their shoulder in a silent plea for comfort, but he knew that anybody who was friends with  him  would shove him off with  a  sneer or a growl. Well, almost everybody.

‘Pony wouldn’t shove me away,’ Curly thought miserably, but then was stabbed with a potent pang of guilt at the thought of Ponyboy sitting in the station with him. Ponyboy wouldn’t deserve this... He was too smart and nice, and better  than Curly. Squeezing his legs even tighter, Curly found himself wanting a hug more now than ever before.

Tim arrived a little while later to pay the bail and bring him home until the trial. He said nothing the whole way out of the station, no sharp words, but no reassurance either. He treated the situation as though he was picking up groceries; curt and polite, yet clearly in a hurry to be gone.

When they got in the car, Curly expected Tim to start grilling him. He sat there in silence, digging his fingers into his jeans while Tim reversed the car out of the station.

“ Where's  your other shoe?” Tim asked once they were on the road. His voice was quiet and defeated.

“I lost it,” Curly said softly, head slumping forward so that his wiry hair would fall over his face.

---

When Curly got the news that he was going to spend the next six months in reformatory, he wasn’t surprised. In fact, he’d expected to get a way worse fate, this was something he could handle.

“ It's such bullshit,” Ponyboy said where he was lounging on Curly’s bed. Ponyboy had come over to return Curly’s shoe and stayed to say goodbye; as Curly would be leaving in a few hours.

Curly finished stuffing the last of his clothes into his bag and zipped it up, “I know,” Ponyboy wasn’t even the one getting shipped out and he seemed more upset than Curly did about it.

“I mean,  it's  not like you were the only one who-” before Ponyboy could finish his sentence, Curly scrambled over to him and shoved his hand over his friend’s mouth, muffling the words.

“ Shhh !” He hissed, then lowered his voice. “Tim doesn’t know that. I don’t want him going after the other guys.” He whispered into Pony’s ear.

Pony wrenched Curly’s hand away. “Why not?” He hissed back, “They deserve some comeuppance for just leaving you there. That’s not what friends do.”

“They were scared,” Curly replied, feeling the need to defend his friends at all costs. He knew that if Tim found out there were others involved, he’d go out to deliver his own form of justice; and that was never pretty.

“You would have gone back for any of them,” Ponyboy said back, his voice still a hushed whisper, but the angrier he got, the louder he got too, “It's just not  fair, Curly, if you have to get punished so should they. And I still think that you shouldn’t have to get sent away at all! It's so stupid!”

Curly groaned, trying not to get upset himself, “It is what it is,” he said, not really believing it. But he knew himself, and he knew that if he let Ponyboy continue making him think about how frustrating and miserable his situation was, he would start crying .  And Curly felt enough like a cry-baby lately.

“Well, it shouldn’t be!” Pony huffed, flopping down on the bed angrily. Curly leaned over him and was surprised to find tears were forming in the boy’s stormy, greenish-gray eyes. Fuck. That was going to make two of them soon if Curly didn’t get himself under control.

“Well- well it just is! It just is, Pony!” Curly snapped, his voice wobbling as he tried to mask his upset with anger. His heart was pounding while he thought back to what Tim had told him about his own time in reformatory- it was going to break him. No matter how much Curly said to himself that six months wouldn’t, he knew it would. He didn’t want to change; he was fine the way he was.

The lump in Curly’s throat grew. “I don’t want to leave you!” He yelled, tears pricking his eyes and slipping down his cheeks. “I don’t  wanna  be away from you, and Tim, and Angela, and all the others! Even if they left me there! I love them! I can’t help it!” He was full-on sobbing now, big globby tears rolling down his face and dripping off his chin. He felt so ugly right now, so he held a fistful of the covers to his face, partially to hide and partially to muffle his cries.

Before he knew it, there were arms thrown around him and he was squished into a tight hug. Curly sniffled and hugged Ponyboy back, burying his face into his friend’s silky orange hair. He could feel the cool drops of Ponyboy’s tears falling onto the back of his neck.

“ It's okay,” Ponyboy whimpered. “I’ll- I’ll send you letters and I’m sure your friends will do the same,” Curly was starting to calm down, and so was Ponyboy. “And if they don’t, well, I’ll go tell Tim that they left you,” Ponyboy said with a determined huff.

Curly pulled away. “Don’t!” he snapped.

Pony folded his arms. “I will.”

Before Curly could start arguing, the door creaked open.

“Curly, c’mon, finish saying goodbye.  It's  time to go.” It was Tim, and the exhausted, defeated look on his face nearly made Curly start crying all over again.

“Just a second.” Curly grumbled, grabbing his bag from off the floor and getting to his feet. Tim walked off somewhere down the hall, presumably to start the car. Curly threw the bag over his shoulder and started when Pony tapped him.

“Don’t forget your shoe.” Pony said, holding the once-missing left shoe out to Curly, who noticed that there was a little slip of paper sticking out from inside. He eyed it cautiously and Pony pressed a forefinger to his lips, ‘ shhhhh ,’

Before Curly to turn away to leave, he felt a hand grab his shoulder and turn him around. Before Curly could react, both of Pony’s hands were on his shoulders to steady him, and their mouths were touching.

The kiss was awkward and long, Pony’s eyes were squeezed shut and the little puffs of breath through his nose were tickling Curly’s face. Curly couldn’t shut his eyes no matter how hard he tried. He was running out of breath and sure that he would turn blue by the time Pony pulled back.

“Good luck!” Pony shouted, and without another word, ran off out of the house, shoving past Tim.

Curly was stunned silent. His face surly red as an apple. Finally, he opened the slip of paper and found a few things written there; one thing was the Curtis home phone number, another was a note that only read ‘I love you, Curly’.

So is the heathen factor like the weenie juinor of the whay army or something like that?

The Heathens are the faction of villains with standards and morals. The ones who don’t really want to get their hands dirty; they do bad things either for fun or because they have angst they’re moving past. The ones who aren’t reeeeaaaaally evil, but they’re still villains nonetheless.

Their leader is Harley Quinn, who is based out of The Batman’s universe but is really an amalgamation of all the sympathetic-leaning Harleys:

And the other founding members who go along with her are Yang Xiao Long (RWBY) (who, okay, she’s more of a corrupted hero than anything, and by “corrupted” I mean she remembered that time she beat up everyone in Junior’s bar and was like “Actually going apeshit is fun”)

Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria)

And Giovanni Potage (Epithet Erased)

And I think Velvet and Giovanni are the representations of the two extremes here - Velvet is “I am angry and sad so I lashed out, but I’m good at heart, but also I have done MANY CRIMES that I don’t really regret,” while Giovanni is like “Mwahahaha, I’m so evil! What, hurt people? That’s not the fun kind of evil! I mean I rob chain gas stations!”. And there are some “Yangs” in the group too, i.e. “Most people think I am a moral person but y’all informed me I could play evil and now I am going to do just that.”

Yang and Harley are crime wives. Velvet, I’m slating to have her canon girlfriends - I mean her party members Magilou and Eleanor Hume, and I’m also gunning for Emerald Sustrai (RWBY) to join the polycule. Giovanni, well, you may have seen that he’s my ULTIMATE HUSBANDO and as it stands, there IS a character in TBTC that is a self-insert of me (Rachel Inlustris, a cashier in Twilight Town), so take that as you will.

I don’t have a neat video tribute to them yet, but some examples of who has joined: Captain Jack Sparrow, any SPOP villain who isn’t Double Trouble or Horde Prime, THE FUCKING ONCE-LER, Globby and Felony Carl from Big Hero 6, the Spectacular Spider-Man versions of Electro and Sandman, the Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender from ASOUE, Lotor’s four generals from VLD (but not Lotor himself)...yeah, I think you can kinda see the flavor here.

They’re really a bunch of nice people who just like and/or need to commit crime. They’re up for being friends with anyone who will hang out with them, whether that’s the friendlier members of the WHAM ARMY or the more lenient members of the actual hero team (Ruby Rose is on the hero team, so of course she and her sister have gotta still be close even if they live with different found families). Is this going to cause some conflicts of interest? Absolutely! But the Heathens THRIVE on chaos (so long as nobody gets directly hurt because of them, or at least nobody who didn’t deserve it)! Also, they live in Twilight Town (Kingdom Hearts), which I would like to say is a thematic allusion to them being between Light and Dark but the truth is I just wanted them to squat in the Old Mansion and use all its basement lab stuff. Also my s/i lives there, so Giovanni being in that town is kinda important.

Big Hero 6: The Series - Least Favorite to Favorite Episode (Season 1)

Hi, everyone! So, I love ranking episodes of shows that I really get invested into from my least favorite to favorite and I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, so here’s my personal list of ranking the episodes from season 1 of bh6:ts from worst to best!

22. Big Hero 7 If I had to pick an episode from this season that I enjoyed the least, it would be this one. Not that this episode was terrible or anything, but I guess for myself, it seemed too predictable. Knowing that Richardson Mole was going to be the temporary seventh member of Big Hero 6, it seemed obvious that somehow he’d lose his memory by the end of the episode. Not only that, but I just don’t find Richardson to be an interesting character. Although, this episode does give me a small bit of hope that him and Fred can become friends someday. Not soon, but someday. High Voltage was pretty good in this episode though and the music was fantastic! Also, I feel like this is the one episode of the series where you if you didn’t watch it, there wasn’t even any minor details that come back in another episode. 21. Fan Friction I actually do feel bad about ranking this episode so far down the list, but if you read my review on the episode, you know why it’s here. While I enjoyed certain elements this episode had to offer, I felt really bad for Hiro. He was embarrassed by Karmi’s fanfiction of him and the others and clearly uncomfortable with all the “Karmutie” talk. I would have liked to see the nerd gang be more understanding as well. But I like that Karmi’s fanfiction inspired Hiro to create Overdrive Mode for Baymax as well as give the others ideas for their weapons. And their chibi forms were adorable! 20. Big Roommates 2 In which Honey Lemon moves into Gogo’s apartment and we’re introduced to Globby. I like that we got to see how the girls became roommates and the antics of showing how different they are which led to some bickering was understandable. But I’ll also admit that the talks about the glass being half empty/half full was getting a tad bit cheesy. Getting to see Globby’s origins was nice and he’s a very enjoyable character! Honey naturally felt bad about her purse being the cause of his transformation. While I enjoyed some of her lines while feeling very down about the situation, I felt like Honey was trying too hard to not be her usual, bubbly self. And while I was pretty confident about the quality of animation flow getting better throughout the season (which it did!) I must say this is the episode where I enjoyed the animation the least. Overall it was a decent episode. 19. Mr. Sparkles Loses His Sparkle Gotta say, I like that they took a villain that never made it in the movie and brought him in for the show. That being said, Mr. Sparkles is my least favorite villain so far. It’s probably because he’s only been in one episode (so far), but I just find the other villains to be far more interesting. However, I did enjoy how insane his game show obstacles were and would oddly want to try out for the show if it was real. It was great to see Mochi become a viral sensation! I liked his slow clap trick and how well received it was. There was also the B plot of the team needing to find a better way to get to their suits, leading to Hiro experiencing inventors block. In the end, I really love the solution of them all having a Skymax to deliver their suits when needed. Although, Hiro having inventors block felt very similar to the plot of Failure Mode. 18. Failure Mode Speaking of which, I have Failure Mode here. I admit, I’m surprised I have it this far down the list, but I think it was all a matter of just liking the other episodes more? Anyway, I did like what this episode had to offer. We got to see Hiro struggling with academics and understand that getting discouraged is okay as long as you don’t quit. It was also really nice to see Globby discover his powers and experiment with them in the best possible ways. There were some good jokes. And the Tadashi scene where we got to see him getting discouraged when another Baymax test went unsuccessful was really great. 17. Big Problem Ah, this was an interesting episode, wasn’t it? I felt that this was a nice introduction to Liv Amara. It’s definitely good to see a young female character running a successful company. I’m disappointed that she lost interest in Baymax after learning Hiro wasn’t his creator, but that’s probably for the best. Her interest in Karmi’s invention sparks jealousy in Hiro which I personally found to be understandable. But at the same time, it makes sense for Liv to want to fund Karmi’s project more since she’s a biotech major. Hiro learns a good lesson in the end though. Oh, and there’s also this rich guy that gets turned into a monster which is still currently unknown. With how the plot of this episode was, it’s hard for it to stand on its own, but (SPOILERS)...we’ll be getting some answers real soon. 16. Small Hiro One We’re introduced to two former SFIT students. One is Trevor Trengrove, a famous scientist. The other is Wendy Wower; also a scientist, but became a child entertainer. Both unique characters, but ultimately, Trevor was egotistical from the start. He holds a workshop at SFIT that everyone can attend...except Hiro who was ruled out to be too young. So, he gets stuck working as an assistant for Wendy Wower who was teaching kids (and Fred) how exciting science could be! Along the way, we learn some interesting facts. The most important one was that the thesis Trevor based his career off of belonged to Wendy. Somehow, Yama got his hands on the flash-drive that has proof of that and blackmailed him to create some new features to Mega Yama to defeat Big Hero 6. It’s not surprising to me that Trevor turned out to be a phony, but I do like that in the end, he owned up to his actions. And Wendy was very enjoyable. Despite her thesis being stolen, she still wanted to have a career and her teaching children about how fun science is is adorable. Also, the ending to this episode in which Hiro discovers that Granville taught at SFIT 20 years prior was quite the twist. 15. Aunt Cass Goes Out An entertaining episode. I thought it was interesting that Hiro decided that Aunt Cass should go out on a date so she’d be less likely to discover his superhero identity. It’s definitely not the correct solution, but seeing Hiro going through a dating site and deeming none of the men on there right for his aunt to be adorable. While Krei doesn’t deserve Aunt Cass in the slightest, I’m surprised that the date didn’t go worse than it could have. They had a common interest and kept his cool to impress her, but let’s face it. His true love is money. Or at least letting people know how rich he is. There may not have been an actual villain to face, but it was a nice change of pace to have a surprise party loving scientist be our antagonist. It was so sweet seeing Hiro being so protective of Cass and we can only hope he’ll learn to be more cautious with hiding his superhero identity. 14. Muirahara Woods An action-packed filler that was hard not to enjoy. I can’t blame Hiro and Fred for being curious as to what Gogo does when she’s on her own, but come on. Let the girl have her privacy. But their wacky adventures in the woods was hilarious. Hiro has a difficult time considering he’s more of a city guy. It doesn’t help that their tech stopped working the further they got into the woods, but Ned Ludd was there to help. I liked his backstory and that he also keeps a meteor (Bessie) which is the cause of the tech not working. He hates technology which leads to a malfunctioning Baymax getting taken by him. This is what I like about the episode. The team feels that things have been too easy for them lately, but Ned gave them a challenge. They had to be resourceful in order to get Baymax back and I loved that their weapons were as close to their regular weapons as could be. 13. Issue 188 Ahhh yes. The episode that introduced us to Karmi, High Voltage and Richardson Mole. It was cool to see that Granville paired up Hiro and Karmi for an assignment where he’s supposed to learn from her socialization experience. However, we quickly learn that she’s very antisocial. I like how she talks to her viruses. High Voltage are an electric mother-daughter duo that aren’t easy for Big Hero 6 to beat. But Fred believes the solution to their problems lies in a Captain Fancy comic. He may not own Issue 188, but Richardson Mole (an annoying 11 year old and Fred’s rival) does! I know I mentioned it with Big Hero 7, but I love High Voltage’s music. They’re great villains and this was a good introduction for them! As for Karmi, while I’m more than aware of how split the opinions are of her, I like her. She may not be nice to Hiro, but I do enjoy that she thinks Hiro likes her when in reality, she has a crush on his superhero persona not knowing it’s actually him. 12. Fred’s Bro-Tillion I’ve seen people not really liking this episode and it makes me sad! While this episode isn’t quite in my Top 10, it’s an episode that I really like a lot. It’s an episode that had a very nostalgic vibe to it. That may possibly be because Baron Von Steamer was our villain, but I loved how well this episode tied into things together. Fred learned how to dance because of Baymax and used those dance moves to defeat Steamer. Steamer himself was a really exciting villain and I love that he’s an arch nemesis to Fred’s dad. Before the team suited up, they had to attempt defeated Steamer in their catering attire which you all know I love. There were lots of good jokes as well. 11. Steamer’s Revenge Speaking of Steamer, his second appearance is right above his first. The two major plots to this episode were both equally enjoyable in my opinion. We have Fred who doesn’t feel like he’ll measure up to his dad in a superhero sense. I found that to be a realistic insecurity for him. He looks up to his father and loves the superhero world. He just wants to be like his dad and make him proud. And he literally had to be like his dad by dressing up as him to fool Steamer. It’s amazing how self aware Steamer was of him realizing that Boss Awesome defeats him because he always reveals his plans to him. And the giant statue of Boss Awesome being a Steamer weapon was a great twist. There was also the plot of it being Wasabi’s birthday and that went very well. I thought it was really sweet that the others got Wasabi’s car out of the bay, fixed it up and even upgraded it for him. 10. Baymax Returns The one hour pilot episode made its way to the number 10 spot! This was an incredibly satisfying first episode in many ways. It’s an immediate continuation from the events in the movie. The amount of references to the movie were great! We already get to see more the nerd gang’s personalities shine. We’re introduced to Granville who is an amazing professor and dean to SFIT. We’re reintroduced to Yama who’s working for our main season 1 villain. We got to see the process of Hiro rebuilding Baymax which I felt was a very important thing to watch. It’s good to see that it didn’t come as easy to him as he assumed. The conversation at the end with Hiro and Granville is still one of my favorite scenes. And at the very end, we’re introduced to the big bad Obake. 9. Food Fight I said I wanted more Aunt Cass and boy did this episode deliver. Cass gets herself unintentionally involved in a food fighting competition and it was amazing! She was truly in her element and enjoying herself. Again, we get to see Hiro being protective and worried for her which is always very sweet. We were also introduced to Momakase in this episode who is definitely one of my favorite villains! Cass managing to defeat her in the food fight was fantastic! And I love that Gordon Ramsay voiced a character in this episode! 8. Killer App What an exciting episode. We meet Noodle Burger Boy who starts out as the lovable mascot of Noodle Burger. But Obake turns him into a violent robot that can predict every move Big Hero 6 meets. NBB is pretty high up my villains list and seeing how quickly he turned evil and everything he can do is very useful. We also get to see Hiro and Wasabi clash while working on a project. I really do like that they both immediately didn’t want to work together instead of thinking it’d go well and despite many disagreements, they were able to come up with a good idea. Not only that, but seeing how well they worked together by switching suits in battle was incredible! And by the end of the episode, Obake knows the identities of the whole team! 7. Rivalry Weak Well this episode was a huge surprise! What sounded like a fun, comical episode of our main cast pranking the rival school SFAI quickly turned to a mystery starting to be unraveled. At SFAI, we discover a hidden room that belonged to Lenore Shimamoto. Honey Lemon learns that her idol was not only an artist, but a scientist too and had formulas that were way advanced given the time period. But she’s not the only fan of her. Obake is a fan as well and this is the episode where the team comes face to face with him for the first time! Definitely unexpected, but not a disappointment in the slightest. The tests he put our team up to was very clever and signing Shimamoto’s journal at the end was a nice touch. 6. Mini-Max What an adorable character, am I right? I like that despite Mini-Max being built to keep Fred out of trouble on solo missions, Fred sees him as a sidekick. And they actually work very well together. Mini-Max is for sure a useful character to have around. But thankfully, this episode had more to offer than a lovable, smaller looking version of Baymax. Hiro is suspicious of Granville for all the right reasons and seeing him spy on her led to amazing scenes with them. Seriously, the scenes between Hiro and Granville have been some of my favorites in the show! We learn that Granville left SFIT 20 years ago because of an incident that happened with a former student. She learned that even geniuses needed limits and later on, Hiro assures her that she won’t end up like that former student. But of course, my personal favorite scene (so far) happened in this episode and I can’t stress enough how much I love and appreciate the scene between Hiro and Callaghan. It was well written, emotional and showed how mature Hiro is. 5. The Bot Fighter I really didn’t expect much more of the bot-fighting world to be explored in the show, but can’t complain. Hiro returned to his roots for undercover reasons, but he does get sucked back into the world of bot-fighting. The culprit of this is Trina, a young bot-fighter who is self taught and claimed to watch all of Hiro’s matches. Now, I definitely get why some people wouldn’t enjoy the romantic parts scattered within the episode and it’s understandable why. But I found it to actually not weaken this episode. Why? Hiro’s crush on Trina wasn’t the main focus of the episode for starters. Even if Trina influenced him back into bot-fighting, it was also him missing that world that kept him from trying to find out if Yama was the one creating bad robots. Not only that, but we learn that Trina is an android. An android that Obake created. We know that he’s been watching the team, especially Hiro, for quite some time. Attempting to get Hiro on his side, he was trying to lure Hiro back into an old habit and used the image of a girl to do so. But for it to be successful, he designed Trina to have a personality that he knew Hiro would be compatible with. That being said, I loved that we saw more bot-fighting. We got a really sweet Tadashi scene. We got an adorable, supportive group hug. And we got a huge plot twist at the end of the episode where Trina called Obake her father and then it was revealed that she was a robot. All in all, great episode. 4. The Impatient Patient Hiro being sick was everything I had always hoped it would be. We got to see Hiro not surprisingly being stubborn due to catching a cold and trying to prove that an illness can’t slow him down. Except it can because he ended up getting tossed in a dumpster, resulting in a broken leg. So yeah, Hiro being sick and injured was highly entertaining. It was a real treat to see Baymax taking care of him and those visits to the doctor were hysterical. While we’ve only seen the Mad Jacks once, I really enjoyed them and I’m hoping we get to see them again. And Hiro ending up coming with that suit where he could have a video image of his face was awesome! Oh, and how can we forget just how amazing Obake was in this episode? He played Krei and the Mad Jacks like it was a game of chess and because of that, he discovered Hiro’s identity which was so chilling! 3. Kentucky Kaiju Ohhh boy oh boy do I love this episode! It was interesting to see that Hiro doubted himself due to not having a super power. But what made that doubt even better was that Obake had that doubt planted into him. So he creates super strength with a smart fabric that backfires horribly. I thought it was hilarious that he couldn’t get the suit off! Fred also gets an actual sized Kentucky Kaiju robot made which also goes wrong when NBB installs a CPU into it. This leads to one of, if not, my favorite battle in the show so far. The team has to face off against the kaiju and it was an insane battle to say the least! Hiro is able to use his super strength for a short time, but what makes the fight at its best is when Hiro only needs his genius brain to outsmart it! Fred’s dad giving him the advice of finding his true strength was very helpful and it only made Obake more interested in Hiro. 2. Obake Yashiki YOU ALL KNOW WHY THIS EPISODE IS SO HIGH UP THE LIST. One word. Tadashi. Okay, well it’s actually not the real Tadashi, but I’ll take an evil augmented reality Tadashi. When I first heard about this episode, I could not have been more excited. It was obvious from the beginning that this Tadashi wasn’t real, but how everything went down in this episode was amazing from start to finish. I loved that it was a Halloween episode. I love that Obake used the nerd gang’s biggest fears against them. I loved seeing NBB working with the Buddy Guards to steal the giant magnet. And most of all, I loved all the Tadashi scenes and Hiro eventually realizing it wasn’t him. That part where the logo on his hat changes to Obake’s logo and Obake’s voice comes out of Tadashi’s mouth was so terrifying and I LOVED IT! So...with an episode that I enjoyed so much, I wondered how could anything possibly top it?? 1. Countdown To Catastrophe BY HAVING AN EPIC SEASON 1 FINALE THAT’S HOW!! This finale was a great ending to our first season in so many ways. I don’t know where to start considering so much happened! I’ll just state everything I really loved. Hiro creating an energy amplifier which is what Obake created when he was the student at SFIT who Granville taught 20 years prior. That emotion in the scene between Hiro and Granville when she discovered what he was trying to make OMG SO GOOD. Finding out that Lenore Shimamoto caused The Great Catastrophe. Obake’s big plan being recreating it. Obake and Granville coming face to face again. His real name being Bob Aken. NBB putting a chip in Baymax making him evil. Baymax taking Hiro to Obake’s lair and him revealing that he wants to reshape the city and have Hiro as his student. Globby becoming a good guy. Everyone having to work together to stop the star from blowing up the entire city. Obake watching his dream die and as his lair collapses, he turns Baymax back to normal and decides to die with his dream. Seriously, that ending was so sad BUT SUCH AN INCREDIBLE SCENE IT WAS DONE SO WELL!!!! Yet another really nice conversation between Hiro and Granville. Granville calling Hiro by his first name and wondering what happened to Obake. It was all so good! I can’t put into words how much I loved this finale and how emotional I felt when it was over.

So, there’s my season 1 ranking episodes. I’m looking forward to season 2 tomorrow! :D

Big Hero 7: The Series

Big Hero 7 Season 2

The calm before the storm

*Nimble hands set up a camera to record a video, to which it finally shows Cora Mizichio in her living room. She lets out a deep breath before she smiles up at the camera.*

Cora: Hi! It's me again! Wow,a lot of things has happened since I started this video diary, and let me tell you: It was a very insane, yet stupidly awesome ride.

*She pulls out her phone and soon starts a montage of video clips she recorded showing herself and her boyfriend and friends as both themselves and super heroes.*

Cora: Turns out Baymax saved his chip in a rocket first to which Hiro and I decided to rebuild Baymax, but when one glitch caused his body to run around like a lunatic. Didn't help that Yama held Baymax's skeleton and yours truly as hostages for Hiro to do his dirty work on stealing something from Professor Grandville's desk, *Mutters under breathe* more on her later*clear voice*. Because of that it lead to Gogo, Fred, Honey Lemon, and Wasabi to help Hiro rescue us and make it home safely. But when Yama released an army of Boot legged Baymaxes to steal the thing; that was the night we all realized we can be way more. So we put on our suits and stopped the army, stopped Yama, and destroyed the thing. Since that night we became Big Hero 7!

*Cora smiles brightly to herself as she shows the official picture of themselves as super heroes that show their super hero names: Electro-Magnetic Alpha(Hiro), Aqua Girl(Cora), Omega Danger(Baymax), Chemistry Princess(Honey Lemon), Velocity(Gogo), Fredzilla(Fred Frederickson IV) and Blades Master(Wasabi). Then the clips start showing people they met along the way*

Cora: We've met a lot of new people since then, both as supers and students. There's Professor Grandville; a strict but fair dean who is more than what she seemed, Professor Seto my Bio teacher, Mole the pest that bothers Fred and Gogo and deserves a good butt-kicking, *Shows clip of Karmi*… Someone who also deserves a good butt kicking for her behavior to Hiro and I. Esmeralda the fashion major student from SFAI and the woman partially responsible for me going to bot fighting, Commander Carter who got us our super hero licenses along with Mr. Frederickson; both who help young supers get their license to protect them and assist them in whatever mission they are in. Tela-Patty the telepathic girl, Laser blast who uses, you guessed it, laser beams, Sparrow the archer who can hit any target. Finally there's Ice Frost, she can freeze anything and survive subzero temperatures, and who we learned is Miyuki Frost, an animation major student at SFAI. And as any hero can face, there's our Rouge Gsllery: High Voltage, the Mother-Daughter electric dancing crime duo. Globby, a man transformed into a -Globby- mess after a poor choice to steal Honey's chem purse was made. Momakase, a skilled thief and sushi chef who...turned out to be connected to my Papa, and Noodle Burger Boy was an innocent bot before he was hacked and reprogrammed by one man.

*Cora paused as she thinks over what to say next, her smile fading away as she thought about him, along with the memories came a whirlwind of emotions that clash against each other. Finally she looks up and speaks again with a determined brow on her face.*

Cora: A man named Obake, a very intelligent...and very dangerous, mentally stable man whose circumstances turned him into one of our most dangerous villains we ever faced … his birth name was Bob Aken, an orphan... but he was adopted into a Yakuza Clan where he gained a father, a mother...and a brother. He was renamed Kage Mizichio...and his brother... is my father, Mizuchi Mizichio. The heir of the Mizichio Yakuza Clan. The Demonic Titan. *Rubbing her arms as she swallows tightly* Their story was at first innocent and happy... but when their father, Isamu...my grandfather died; Nozako, their mother...*Gulps* My grandmother...took over and immediately darkened their world. They had a strong bond like Hiro and Tadashi, but Nozako's plans for my father and abuse to Kage forced them apart. In the end they both escaped... Kage twice since... he wasn't very successful the first time.

*Cora pulls out two photos, one showing a young Kage with a younger Professor Grandville, and the second photo showing him with a girl that bears a striking resemblance to Cora; save for the freckles, green eyes, and long strawberry blonde hair.*

Cora: With the help of my Papa he managed to get secret classes at SFIT where Professor Grandville protected him and encouraged him to grow. And there's Chara Bonete… she was just a highschool student who met Kage and they... fell in love. But when Kage tried to build an energy amplifier without anyone knowing it exploded. He survived because... Nozako's workers found him as doctors. She punished him by dropping him out of school...and taking away Chara's life. That was when Kage's bond with my papa snapped. Papa's escape was by accident. He was sent on a mission by Kage to retrieve a very powerful medicine that could cure all diseases and heal all wounds. He was supposed to also kill the herbal medicine maker and her daughter to hide any evidence... instead.. he fell in love with her, the daughter of the herbal medicine doctor...my mama. With patience, determination, and love. Papa regained his hope and faith and his connection with Mama grew deeper. But he knew that anytime Nozako could return and harm them, or worse, turn them into her own puppets like she did with him. So he faked his death. After Mama saved him with the very same medicine that he was supposed to steal, he ran away with Mama and Grandmama to San Fransokyo where they hidden themselves and the potion away from the world and from Nozako's reach...even me. But because of Papa's 'Death'... that lead to Nozako blaming Kage for his mission. He was kicked out of the only home he ever had, and since he didn't know Papa was alive he couldn't call for help. All those years of abuse, hate, and mistreatment turned him into a monster... a monster bent on Destroying San Fransokyo to rebuild it to his image, reclaim back his home from Nozako… and mistaking me for Chara. Thankfully Hiro and the gang saved me and stopped him from succeeding his plan. And by some miracle...Papa saved him. He convinced Commander Carter to get Kage help to not only receive treatment for his mental health, but to also get the surgery for his brain damage. A shard from the energy amplifier he built long ago struck his head...and Nozako left it in there to make him suffer. And now...

*Cora pulls out a letter her family received the other day and shows the contents of it.*

Cora: This letter says that Kage had shown significant recovery in both his surgery and his counseling that he's cleared to go home.. and by home I mean here. And the day he's gonna join us is also the day the new semester of SFIT starts. That alone is a shock cause... Hiro and I had been in SFIT for a semester. We've made it this far into our lives and relationship... But that leaves us with something.. what happens now? Kage can't be left alone, and he has to do something. Papa mentioned that he would talk to Grandville when he comes along. Thankfully the first Baymax is gonna join us and help Kage. *Whispers into Camera* That's another story for another time. *Clear voice* We got our answers to this questions we'd thought we would never ask and got closure. But a part of me feels that there's more that my family isn't telling me; I know why Papa had been overprotective of me before but...Grandmama never really told me why they lived in Muirahara woods for so long, or even how Grandmama made such a powerful medicine in the first place. And there's been someone at SFIT that's been seeing 'you know who' a lot...and she gives me a bad feeling inside me... but if we survived Obake and all these crazy things, I'm sure we can deal with whatever happens to us in the future. We're in this together through hell and back.

*Cora smiles brightly as she saves the video and shuts it off to prepare for bed. As she prepares her futon after texting Hiro goodnight with a heart emoji, the moon shines brightly above the bay of San Fransokyo. The waves crashing to the shore along with the pale glow of the moon gives off an aura of great beauty...and great danger. and it shines through not only Cora's window, but to Hiro's as well, then to the rest of the gang, to Mizuchi, to Kaguya...and finally ending it with Kage Mizichio. All of them unaware of their future ahead.*

A.N: Here is a new chapter from me as we near to the premier of Season 2~! The first Baymax is a reference to the KH3 crossover and so he will be joining too! There's also gonna appearances of Kage/Obake and perhaps even... Nozako and the sirens( Which will appear in the future as I post the chapters here). Also, my Editor will update the chapters so the wordings will be different a bit, so till then, enjoy this! Also, Finals is coming for me so I'm gonna be a little busy, so please be patient for me. As for the Hiro HamadaXCora Mizichio ship...

I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP AND I WILL SAIL HER INTO WHATEVER WATERS I PLEASE!

P.s: Please don't share your spoilers into the reviews.

Thank you all for following BH7! Love you all!

Karmi

First impression - Wow, this girl’s a total bitch. That’s not an insult, mind you, I’m totally fine with that. Just a statement of fact. 

Impression now - Still a bitch, but gradually becoming a nicer bitch. Also, no matter what the level of bitchiness, she’s a very entertaining and interesting character. 

Favorite moment - As of right now? This. It’s just hilarious.

Idea for a story - A good ol’ “Chained Heat” scenario with Hiro. Megan can try to help them get out of it, and all three can bond in the process.

Unpopular opinion - Two, actually. The first is that while Karmi is a bitch, she isn’t a bully to Hiro, and it’s kind of offensive to real bullying victims when that word is thrown around to mean the same thing as “jerk”. The second is that the notion some have that she’s some Creator’s Pet who gets favored by the writers confounds me - she was shown as pitiful and Hiro had to bail her out in “Issue 188″, she got her comeuppance at the end of “Failure Mode”, and she was the butt of several demeaning jokes (and sometimes not even deserving it!) in “The Impatient Patient”, “Small Hiro One”, “Kentucky Kaiju”, “Prey Date”, “Nega-Globby” and “Something Fluffy”. Also, the current arc is setting her up for some major heartbreak and humbling when you consider how much being Liv Amara’s “BFF” intern at Sycorax means to her.

Favorite relationship - Karmi is not big on relationships overall at the moment, but I really enjoyed the unexpected rapport she developed with Honey Lemon in “Nega-Globby”, especially since Honey Lemon seems intent on helping her get a different perspective on Hiro and her dynamic with him (specifically that alot of the negativity comes from Karmi projecting onto him out of her own insecurities.) 

Favorite headcanon - Karmi is a closet comic book geek like Fred and Richardson, which is why she gravitated toward Big Hero 6.

Hannah Watches LOSH - Timber Wolf

So I started to make gifs for the reviews because I found I was taking way to many screenshots in particular scenes in this episode. If anyone knows a good reference/guide on making gifs of parts of an episode with just one program that don’t stutter in tumblr and stay the same duration as the source, and the recomended sizes for images in text posts and, lemme know. I’m probably going to start assembling all images because i love them all and i hate how text posts kill the quality.

And this time I’m including the keep reading option.

Timber Wolf

The way the episodes starts off before the theme is on Rawl, focusing on Dr. Londo, and old man, with his robots, pursuing a werewolf like creature.

From an artistic standpoint, I found the planet’s environment very Halloween like. But here, writing wise, we get a dark glimpse of the show.

After the show’s theme, we cut to what is essentially a space version of the sea cucumber. Lorsax. Not sure how it’s spelled. We’ll just call it Space-Cucumber.

Lightning Lad is still the proud jock we encountered in the previous episode, as he cuts off Superman in mid question.

However, karma kicks in early by proving that Space-Cucumber is immune to lightning, and having a tentacle snag him.

The distress message, Dr. Londo does look panicked and anxious. Easy to believe he is in need if you’ve haven’t already seen this episode.

Oh Saturn Girl named Space-Cucumber Globby. Okay.

And it looks like Superman is coming out of his shell. He snarks back at Lightning Lad the very words he was told earlier playfully. That’s a good sign.

Garth u loser.

Creeping Cat B5.

And we get him insisting that Bouncing Boy used the system that he made to assist him, which results in one of my favorite funny moments.

That results in the ship hyper blasting off. And crashing onto the planet.

While we get our first hint at the Saturn Girl/Lightning Lad ship.

Upon landing, Bouncing Boy and Brainy are holding animosity towards each other judging by the facial expressions.

Lightning Lad seems to have the unquestioned position as the leader given Cosmic Boy isn’t in the picture. Makes sense given he’s a founder, but I think Saturn Girl is better.

Can’t help but smile at the confusion of Superman’s 21st century slang.

When Dr. Londo tells them about the Creature, he says it destroyed everything, including his team. I honestly can’t tell if he’s making that up or not, regarding if he had a team in the first place. More of that in the overall review in the end.

Ok, clearly the picture was several years old, given the hair was still dark for Londo.

Upon meeting Dr. Londo, Saturn Girl seems to be the hesitant one of the group, while the rest bought what he said. Obviously her powers give her an edge on the situation, but she is more observant than the others.

Thus return to more fighting B5 and BB. B5 is a stickler for order and doing things perfectly as much as possible, insisting that since he has a 12th level intelligence he doesn’t need to improvise, while BB is a “wing it” guy, as he will improvise in some way or another. But Brainy is also bad at picking up on social stuff, like Bouncing Boy being upset with him, who proceeds to break a rule Londo had set.

With the other three, Lightning Lad starts to tease Saturn Girl who snaps at him, catching him and Superman by surprise.

When she’s expressing her concern on what’s going on, they get ambushed by robots. When Saturn Girl gets separated from the boys, we see her powers can effect things physically, including robots. This knocks her out, but she is saved, but kidnapped, by the creature we saw in the beginning.

Bouncing Boy enters a restricted area, and is immediately hunted down by robots with guns. Nice welcome.

We then switch back to Saturn Girl, who is in a cave with the creature, groggy from her thought blast. We see her scared, telling, or begging rather, the creature not to eat her.

The creature is a good puppy.

Puppy is doing his best to tell you Saturn Girl.

“Why do I need permission? It’s a monster.”

OW

HIS FACE

DON’T DO THIS TO ME OW

And then Lightning Lad and Superman swoop in, being two well-intentioned dummies. Knocking Saturn Girl out in the process.

PUPPY WAS TRYING TO CHECK ON HER NO SUPERMAN DON’T TOSS HIM

Karma has a stalactite chunk land on Lightning Lad, but he somehow survives??

And after getting his shirt torn and scratched, he then zaps Superman on accident. Which he apologizes for.

However, Superman had to hold Lightning Lad back after puppy is knocked out, although he seems upset about that.

We return to Brainy, who insists he’s not worried about Bouncing Boy… until he finds him held hostage by robots, and proceeds to save him instantly. Saying he improvised.

Well gentlemen, I don’t think this is what you were expecting in his labs, judging by your expressions.

You two are trouble.

Where did they get that net? Did Londo give them it?

LIGHTNING LAD YOU MEANIE TO THE PUPPY. I HOPE SATURN GIRL GAVE YOU AN EARFUL AFTER THE MISSION

The power of improvising. Works well in college.

NO MAH PUPPY.

SATURN GIRL SASS

She went out of her way to make sure Puppy was comfortable before she proceeded. Saturn Girl for queen of the legion please. And Queen of staring down twits.

Okay, time to address one question we all have: WHERE THE HELL DID THOSE BOXERS COME FROM?! I mean I get censorship and that the plot would have been spoiled if Puppy had boxes in full monster form, but COME ONE.

Brainy, don’t poke the Puppy. PET the Puppy.

Dr. Londo. With evil robots and can’t-determine-good-or-bad creatures. An absolutely abusive parent.

Saturn Girl being the friend to help keep Brin from snapping and loosing control. What a good person.

Then this declaration Brin makes.

So. Good. Holding Dr. Londo accountable for the abuse and determined to get away from his abusive parent.

“Take them all.” Dr. Londo, do you really think the rest of the Legion will just forget about them?

And we get some more jelly Lightning Lad. Garth u loser.

FEAR THE GREEN SMART CHILD WITH PERI-COPTER HANDS AND THE ORB OF IMPROVISING.

LIGHTING LAD IS A TSUNDERE. SAY IT WITH ME.

And after Dr. Londo’s animals try to gang up on him but then are scared off, the truly sickening part begins.

Using his own son for research. Against his will. Saying he should have thanked him for making something for battle. The music during this whole part is unsettling, as is the issue. Brin can’t go back to what he was before. The damage that has been done to him, it’s permanent.

Dr. Londo taunts him on how long Brin can maintain control over himself, but Saturn Girl rejects that. Saying that he will have help.

And Dr. Londo? He gets off. Jurisdiction can’t touch him because of where the crime took place.

Brin. He doesn’t get justice. He doesn’t get what he deserves.

To Brin, parents are people who should protect children from harm in the world. But his father didn’t do that. He deliberately harmed him.

Nothing will ever fix that. Ever.

The only thing he can do is destroy what Dr. Londo uses for his projects. And when he’s done.

His final statement to the man who should have protected him.

… Are there a bunch of spare uniforms just lying around? A machine on board that just made the outfit? TELL ME~

Brin expresses fear that Dr. Londo is right, that he will lose control. But this time, Lightning Lad is the one to offer words of comfort. Perhaps he’s seen something similar?

And so, the episode concludes with Brin swearing in as Timber Wolf.

So final thoughts on the episode overall.

OW. THE WRITERS HAVE TAKEN A SPEAR AND JABBED IT THROUGH MY HEART.

Except for a little plothole where they said in the last episode Colossal Boy was on Rawl. Brainy said there wasn’t much else aside from Dr. Londo’s research station. I don’t know how big Rawl is compared to earth, but kinda bothers me this wasn’t addressed. The only explanation I can think of is that his mission took place on the other side of the planet, and/or that the incident was resolved before Brin was transformed. Which leads to two more questions.

How much time did pass between this episode and the last one? And how long had it been since Brin was experimented on?

There has been enough time for Superman to start emerging from his shell clearly.

When I was younger, I didn’t get the significance of this episode. Now I do.

One of the main character has been abused by his father and changed into something he didn’t want any part of. And he doesn’t get justice in the end. Dr. Londo got off.

Let’s look at another infamous abusive Father and his son. Ozai and Zuko. A father who burned his son’s face for standing up in what he believed was right, standing up for others. Zuko still associated Ozai as a father though, as evident by the Freudian slip of “Father Lord”, associating fathers with negative things. But Zuko does have someone for support. Iroh. Who cares so damn much about Zuko it’s literally making me cry while writing this. And Zuko eventually held him accountable. But whether Zuko got justice regarding what his father did is arguable. Ozai got imprisoned, but Zuko still went to see him after the war in the comics. He wasn’t completely freed from him after two years.

Brin, there is no other father figure. No one else for him to lean on automatically during the abuse. But the Legion stepped in. They were going to be his support. They were new, but they were something at least. But he was determined to completely cut Dr. Londo out of his life, and knew fathers shouldn’t be associated with abuse. That’s different from Zuko.

Both are different reactions, but both are understandable.

But hey, Timber Wolf was far luckier than another dog person I know.

Now regarding what Dr. Londo said about Brin destroying his team. Did Dr. Londo kill off his own staff? Did they leave out of their own free will? Or were the staff impassive about what Dr. Londo did to his own son? Because if it’s the latter, there is the chance Brin could have injured/killed them out of anger when he escaped. Hence why Dr. Londo had to get the Legion. The way Brin was, he would have killed him. But if Dr. Londo had killed the staff himself, then he could have set it up to make it look like Brin did it.

Personally, I like the episodes that are on the dark side. I do think cheery episodes are important, but episodes like these? They are important.

Personally, I can’t think of any better way this story could have been carried out.

Characters in this episode:

Superman has clearly started to come out of the shell he was in during the first episode. He has more freedom to be himself. And given just how much my heart was breaking over him the last time, this is good.

Brainiac 5 has more personality this time, other than the gay/bi (going of the comics here; I probably should have addressed he’s canonically bi last time, I apologize, I was very hyped), and little evidence of the crush. This time, we see him as someone who tries to maintain order, and stick to the system as much as possible. But in the end, he is capable of change. We also see he’s not aware of certain social ques.

Bouncing Boy: We see he’s far more relaxed than Brainy, preferring to do things as they come along, and to improvise. He doesn’t let himself get trampled on. Is a happy version of a college student.

Lightning Lad you brat. I love him. Karma has got him several times in today’s episode, and he’s a jealous baby who hates being wrong. Garth u loser. But also nice to see him being nice at the end.

I WANT TO PROTECT TIMBER WOLF SO BAD. I WILL GET ALL THE BLANKETS AND WRAP HIM IN THEM AND GET ALL THE GOOD FOODS FOR HIM. HE DOESN’T DESERVE THE SHORT STICK LIVE HAS GIVEN HIM. But I’m so proud he went to join the team that is meant to help others. That’s a good way to go forward. Kind of sad he doesn’t get any speaking dialogue from him before the transformation though. I would like to see what he was like before the experiment happened.

Remember what I said in the last episode, about the villains needing development? Dr. Londo is a well-developed villain that he leaves us with an impact. He’s manipulative and smart enough so that when he does get caught, he doesn’t go to jail. He doesn’t have any remorse for what he did to his son. I would put the guy in a pit with venomous spiders because of what he’s done. And I would have let him get eaten, like Lightning Lad said.

Well, that’s all from me today! Lemme know if you think I forgot to mention anything, feedback is appreciated! Or if the gifs aren’t working...

last night you told me that you loved me that you couldn’t bare to even think of doing me part and i told you not to fucking say that if you didn’t fucking mean it you told me you loved me again and I cried big globby tears you made me ruin my makeup

you knew it hurt me, that i was hurt, but you believed maybe just maybe you could fix it make amends with my broken pieces but even you know that many have tried and left me more shattered then when they started

you laughed it off said its whatever that i shouldn’t joke about things as permanent as death and it made me think maybe you didn’t know what you were doing maybe you said you loved me just to shut me up told me i am loved and that all of your other friends aren’t friends but people you just know and only i am a person who means something but maybe you didn’t mean it i told you not to joke fucking about that

but maybe there’s a chance that when a while ago when we roasted memories by a fire because a friends mom didn’t like her to have sugar you did actually like me but when a friend of mine asked you you planted an embarrassed smile on your pretty face and shook your head like it was a joke

maybe you’re trying to make up for that that you aren’t joking when you say you love me because you do and are sorry for the wrongs others have done to me that you’re sorry for the way you can only turn your pale face down smiling slowly and shaking your head knowing that finally you could tell me how surreal i am how my smile could stop wars and how i deserve so much more, not as a friend

but of course i’m being hopeful and the reality is you’ve probably never felt love like i know you wouldn’t fuck with me but my dearest, maybe you’re doing more harm then good

Whiffs of Napoli at San Giorgio Pizzeria

Shepherd Express

Chicago or Sheboygan. Eight years ago, this was basically the Milwaukee menu for serious scorching-oven fare. The former’s wave of Neapolitan pizzas seemed to be peaking, highlighted when GQ’s Alan Richman dubbed Great Lake as the ‘Best Pizza in America’. (It mattered so little in the oceanic pie world of Chicago that the place would be closed within a couple years). The big city scene was rounded out by the likes of the excellent Spacca Napoli, exocticized by the fired coal offerings of Coal Fire. Meanwhile our small town  neighbors to the north held every Milwaukee foodie’s favorite in-the-know secret: Il Ritrovo.

We had Piccolo. Also, maybe you could count whatever was happening at the short-lived efforts of Dick’s nightclub. Aside from that, well, it’s best not to think of the stone ages in today’s bustling scramble scene of catchup. Now we have Wolf Peach - much more than a pizzeria, but still, some occasional Neapolitan-leaning gems can be found alongside bone marrow and such. There’s Anodyne, a coffee shop’s success meeting the owner’s backyard passion project, yielding a from-Italy oven, some figuring-it-out salad days, and now frequent pizza brilliance. There is Carini’s, the Shorewood meets Sicily stalwart having added a 900-degree Acunto fire-breather. More recent is Bay View’s Santino’s, whose food can best be summed up by the fact that the restaurant often feels like the set of The Sopranos. Earlier this summer Di Moda opened in the space of Trocadero, because out with the gastropubbery, in with the fancy pizza. There will certainly be more. While the best of the new school has been Zarletti Mequon - Brian Zarletti schooled by maestro Roberto Caporuscio, president of the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli, in the hard streets of midtown Manhattan.

Amidst the wave it’d be easy to overlook San Giorgio, the new, next-door opening by the owners of Calderone Club. Especially considering it’s residence in the oft-forgotten, by Milwaukeeans at least, downtown dining scene. Especially in the large shadow cast by Calderone Club itself, the much beloved, pretty ordinary spot for Milwaukee pub style pizza.  

But, note the window placard on some walk by: “Vera Pizza Napoletana” it states atop the logo - a serious jester shrouded in white, pizza peel yielded like a most potent tool of war, his focus only on the red orb before him, it seeming to contain all importance in the world, even despite the steaming Vesuvius outline in the background. Or grab a spot at the “pizza bar” - a melding of the two greatest things made by man - and spot the same certificate hanging on the back wall. What it means: they are a member of the VPN, an official delegation that designates its members as making “true Neapolitan pizza.” Admittance is based on, among other specifications, having a 900-degree wood-burning oven, using ‘certified’ mozzarella, type “00” wheat flour, tomatoes yielding from the lush soil around Mount Vesuvius. There’s also plenty of overcooked minutia: intricate requirements such as “proper work surface (usually a marble slab),” and oregano that is "Origanum vulgare from the ‘Labiatae’ family.” But, what it means hanging here: San Giorgio joins the aforementioned Il Ritrovo, Sheboygan’s other pizza spot - Harry’s, and Madison’s Naples 15  as the only spots in the state for such certified ‘za.      

Does any of this matter? Is such acronym salad but a marketing ploy? Is it misplaced rigidity? Isn’t adherence to tradition a bit overrated in comparison to, you know, taste? And, when you’re pizza-hungry, do you mind if, say, they're using a “low speed approved mixer”? Or if the pie is over the 11-inch maximum size? Are all of these just crusty stipulations, rules ordained by the hall monitors of technique?

These are the things to ponder as you sit in the considerable shadow of the blue tile beauty made in Naples - a Stefano Ferrara, or, basically, a Mercedes Benz of domed, high-temp ovens. And it burns just so, like a finely tuned, precision-engineered machine. Or you think it does, until maybe you hear one pizzaiolo tell the next, under his breathe, in a moment of heated frustration, "I'll kill you," and you realize, with the glimpse of one mistake, one disagreement, that it’s a very different kind of precision at work here. There’s something inherently temperamental at play, the world of careful cooking and fetishistic focus mixing with kitchen bullshitting and operatic southern Italian machismo right before you. There’s no setting a timer and walking away. There’s a constant checking of the temp with a gun, an indicator of the dynamic state, there’s a spinning of the pizza peel, like Federer flipping his racket, the easy familiarity with a tool, known through repetition, non-sentient friendship, a paint brush pointed toward doing serious life’s work.   

The entire presentation feels more art than kitchen procedure. It’s also at least part pizza porn - what with the in-and-out of the long peel, penetrating and prodding. And it feels all aesthetic pleasure. Especially as the waitress whisks another fire-kissed pie of San Marzano tomatoes, and nostrils fill with the woody essence of charred flour, and there’s Italian marble under your elbows, and Louis Prima overhead.    

For certain people, it feels special, essential - the kind of people that plan their honeymoon around making it to Naples, and then decide to spend the rest of their lives denigrating Rome and the Amalfi Coast, fiercely defending Napoli’s place as the actual greatest place in all of Italy, if not the world. For others, San Giorgio is simply a classy, laid back, downtown-y type place of which there are less and less downtown these days.    

Whatever your personal baggage walking through the door, there’s not much getting around it: the way pizza freaks talk about pizza is awful. Like BBQ geeks, with their ridiculous wood preferences, the need to pepper convo’s with terms like “bark,”  to let you know they know of what they speak. Or the way mixologists denigrate lesser bitters, with a scoff, like our president toward reality. Having said that, for those same certain people, Neapolitan style pizza, like Naples itself, is well deserving of a flight or two of poetic fancy.

To start, the style is a texture lover’s dream. A perfect synthesis of dough and char, of pillow and base, of stretching and body, of delightful little black air bubbles, popping up like corpuscles, hardened flakes mixing with softer pockets. What pizza nerds call ‘leoparding’ happens underneath - dark spots bleeding through the golden crust, indicating a happy marriage between worlds of cool dough and extreme heat. It adds up to what might be the mouth’s version of getting into a really comfortable bed - memory foam melding into a just-firm-enough mattress.

Atop such framework, variations abound. There is the Margherita - wielding San Marzano tomatoes, fresh Fior di Latte mozzarella, Parmigiano, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil. (The ‘extra’ is an extra stipulation, of course). Or there is the Margherita D.O.C. - the same but with Mozzarella di Bufala, the D.O.C. meaning “Denominazione di Origine Controllata,” another authentication, which also, yes, indicates designations within designations, wheels within wheels. Whichever, whatever, these are the most elemental, the best introduction, either would rightly act as a top notch representative - the bread, sauce, melted cheese combination sort that should be sent up in one of those space ships, along with Robert Johnson recordings and Michelangelo prints as a sort of message: “beat this, aliens.”   

The “Calabrese” is the next, logical punch up.  Along with San Marzano tomatoes, mozz, something called Caciocavallo Cheese, and red pepper flakes, it showcases soppressata, maybe the most criminally under-used aspect of Italian culture, which holds enough spice, enough zing to make pepperoni seem rote.    

On the white pizza side, there is the “Quattro Formaggi,” which might very well translate to fat ‘Sconnie guy. It is smoked Provola cheese, fresh mozz, Fontina, Gorgonzola, and a bounty of fresh garlic. An oily, pungent punch of gooey melted cheese, sharpness mixing with smoothness, contrast and medley at once, it is a tongue and breath bop of rich saltiness and airy satisfaction. If going such a sans tomato route, the “Genovese” is built on a basil pesto sauce, popped by cherry tomatoes, with a Citterio Genoa salami that is good enough to make the over-gushing about soppressata seem a bit silly. It’s similar to what the crispy pancetta atop the “San Giorgio” does, this being another white pie offering with braised fennel, more fior di latte mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, baby arugula, a sunny side egg, and plenty of potential to kick start nap time. 

Really, if you top any such carbohydrate beauty with shimmering, globby cheese chunks, any type of sauce whatsoever, there can be no wrong orders. The only mistake to be made here is filling up on burrata, or the arancini, or the excellent croquettes. Or, asking for a pizza to go, which San Giorgio prefers not to do, religiously adhering to the belief that the oven is part of the experience, that it needs to be eaten hot, fresh, immediately. Not reheated, like by a tasteless barbarian.

Pizza. But not pizza ‘to go.’ And there you have it, the thing that somehow says it all: something both impossibly simple and elegant. The essence of elevated street food. But not in the hipster sense, in the 2000-year-old  timeless fashion, where fire meets grain, there are few, but fresh, ingredients, carbs and proteins in a single bite, cooking done with man’s first and most basic invention, a reduction to essentials, an overwhelming sense of everything you want in your mouth - all at once, in one hot bite.       

There is a street in Naples’ old district, where pizzerias abound, and mopeds whizz by, and there seems like an almost irresponsible number of corner cafes, and the cobblestone paths are packed and loud, and intimidating, if not just for the sheer volume of life. Within that first bite, between swills of Peroni, San Giorgio can feel like via Tribunali. Or at least as close to Naples as many might come. Despite being on Old World 3rd street, despite upbringing and the emotional bind of childhood pizza memory, and the reality that Midwest pizza might still be the appropriate everyday preference, and regardless of whatever VPN means or doesn’t mean, it’s nice, if for just a moment, to find that true taste, sense, of somewhere else.

Nega-Globby REVIEW

Well our dear old friend, Bob Aken was right. Further study did unlock more potential.

Globby is back and is trying to figure out where he fits in. Trying to get a job when your glob gets everywhere is a bit of a dealbreaker for most businesses, but Hiro manages to convince Aunt Cass to hire him. It's about what you'd expect it to be; a disaster. At least Cass gave him a chance.

In the meantime, Honey Lemon decides that she wants to cure Globby. It's a bit more diificult than she anticipates, but luckily, Karmi is able to help her with all the bio-related stuff. They make a great team and it's nice to see these two getting along. Between all their ideas and hard work, they managed to successfully find the cure for Globby, turning him back into Dibs.

Dibs does try to get used to being human again, but he soon realizes that he misses being Globby. Being a villain who later turned into a hero made him a feel special. After a heart-to-heart with Felony Carl, Dibs shows up when a battle with a new, evil glob monster Nega-Globby unfolds. He steals Honey Lemon's chem-purse and after it got run over by a bus, he's able to be Globby yet again! It's what he does best and it's really refreshing to see him continue to be a hero, loved by the citizens of San Fransokyo.

Of course, Nega-Globby never would have become an issue if it hadn't been for Liv and Chris. When Honey asked Granville if she could use her lab to attempt curing him, Liv happened to overhear this conversation. Later on in the night, Chris snuck into SFIT and managed to get a sample of Globby's glob. After messing around with it, Liv caused the glob to become unstable and it eventually escaped, but not before an eyeball merges with it. While there's been a lot of nightmare fuel in season 2 so far, that moment caused a physical chill to go down my spine. Also, Chris...I trusted you!

All of this leads up to the epic battle between Globby and Nega-Globby! Nega-Globby is a lot bigger and more intimidating, but Globby is able to do great on his own. Not only that, but Honey is able to use the prototype for a new chem-purse. It grabs the attention of our new foe and he gets into just the right form for Globby to swallow whole. And may I just say the music during this fight was incredible! When are we getting a soundtrack released for this show?!

While Globby may have won this fight, our last scene hints that this won't be the last we see of Nega-Globby. That eyeball looking around gives me the creeps!

Things I Liked:

“Please, Mr. Globby is my father. Or would be if my dad went through a freaky mutation.”

Honey’s new upgraded chem-purse!

BAYMAX GIVING A HUG TO GLOBBY SO PRECIOUS

Hiro convincing Aunt Cass to hire Globby

HONEY AND KARMI BEING BIO-BESTIES

Chris punching through the security bot

Globby really trying his best in the cafe

The cure was a success!

Liv’s smile after she messed with the glob

Chris dropping the umbrella in shock

THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION BETWEEN DIBS AND FELONY CARL

“Hey. You’re in a safe space.”

THOSE PHOTOS WITH OBAKE MY HEART

Honey trying to get through to Nega-Globby, thinking it was Globby

Dibs running up to Nega-Globby, completely forgetting he’s human

Dibs dropping the “Someone has to help” line

Globby is back and being a “freak” is his happy place!

THE SONG DURING THE FIGHT! WHAT A BOP!

Globby getting the appreciation he deserves

THE EYEBALL WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN TO GLOBBY

Things I Disliked:

Now, after what went down in Prey Date, I do think it’d be a little unrealistic for Hiro and Karmi to be good friends, but I’m sad to see them going back to their bickering ways so quickly. They showed great progress with what looked to be potential friendship, but Karmi is clearly uninterested and Hiro is still frustrated. Still, fingers crossed that it’ll happen at some point!

On a scale of one to ten...I’d rate Nega-Globby an 8.6!