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adultswim2021 · 11 months

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Delocated #1: “Pilot” | April 1, 2008 - 12:30AM | S01E01

I have to admit that I don’t really remember the lead-up to this series. It must’ve been reported somewhere, and I surely anticipated it. In this chronological watch-through for this blog, I’m mostly relying on records of what shows aired at what time, but as far as the ancillary things surrounding those shows (like how they were announced or promoted or audience reactions) I’m mostly relying on my own memories, if I have any. For this show I have a vague sense that I must’ve known about it beforehand. I posted on aspecialthing.com, where Jason Woliner also posted. He was the DP and editor of this episode. I have some inkling that I watched this episode knowing “a guy I know on a message board worked on this”. Oh yeah, this would’ve been post Human Giant. I don’t mean to damn anyone by giving their top credit as “associated with me online”.

The comedy pedigree doesn’t stop there. In fact, I’m only leading with the guy I know because he’s the guy I know. Yet another case to be made for me doing a bad job writing this blog. But, please, read this anyway: Jon Glaser stars as “Jon”, a guy who’s in the witness relocation program. He was primarily known as being part of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, doing hilarious characters in sketches and comedy pieces. His personal bodyguard, Mike, is Kevin Dorff, and his boss at Copy City is Brian Kiley, both of whom are also from Conan. Eugene Mirman plays a guy from the Russian mafia. I can’t recall him ever being on Conan, but he’s definitely from the same New York comedy scene. He must’ve done a few things on there (UPDATE: He did stand-up on Conan; can’t find any evidence of him being a sketch player and I don’t feel like clicking page 2 of google to find out).

I don’t recall if the show ever makes a point to fully lay out exactly what “Jon”’s involvement was in whatever mafia-related crime he witnessed, and I don’t think it really matters. What matters is that the Russian mafia wants him dead. He’s agreed to put himself and his family on camera because he’s also a buffoon who, like many other clout-chasing but unexceptional American dipshits, is absolutely enchanted with the idea of becoming famous. So the show-within-the-show exhibits a bit of tortured logic: put your anonymous witness and his family on camera for a reality series, BUT, outfit them with ski masks and micro titanium vocal harmonizers that have been surgically implanted onto their vocal cords so that they can’t be identified.

The premise of the show is that he’s moving his family to New York City to live in a bitchin’ loft. He’s taking on a job at a copy shop, “mak-in’ cop-ees” as us 90s kids refer to it. When they get to their new accommodations, they find out it’s a crappy little studio apartment, basically a hotel room. Jon gets on the phone with the producers to yell at them and thoughtlessly refers to the fact that he didn’t put his family in murder’s way for a rinky-dink studio apartment. His wife is aghast after overhearing this cold display. The fact that she and their son have become pawns in his opportunism motivates her to leave him, taking their son “David” with her. Eventually “Jon” begins a dating, and we see a montage of disastrous dates. He quotes a crass Billy Joel lyric to Julie Klausner, a disgusting crime. I was literally so enraged that I said “ma’am, is this fella bothering you?” to my TV.

A central scene in the pilot is one where “Jon” is out clothes shopping and he spots Paul Rudd. As he’s complimenting him for his work, we hear a gun with a silencer go off. Apparently the assassin was trying to kill “Jon”, but they shoot Paul Rudd instead. This is a tragic occurrence, causing “Jon” to loudly mourn the entertainment world’s loss by weepily listing Paul Rudd’s credits as he lay lifeless in his arms. Mike eventually joins in. Though tragic, This is a key bonding moment for the two of them. Later we see Mike also quote a crass Billy Joel lyric to “Jon”, strengthening their bond further.

The final scene is we see Eugene Mirman talking on the phone, discussing his botched assassination attempt. He makes a dramatic proclamation vowing to kill “Jon” if it’s the last thing he does. He eventually questions how reality TV cameras got into his apartment.

The pilot, in particular, plays with a lot of reality show tropes that are later dispensed with in the regular series. Talking-head confessionals and scene transitions with establishing-shot b-roll set to generic-sounding hip-hop beats are seen here, but not really seen afterwards. Jon Glaser notes this in the commentary. By the way, there’s DVD commentary on this episode. He also notes that the ski mask was, for the most part, mistakenly worn inside-out for this pilot, and if you really look closely at the seams you can tell that’s the case.

He also notes that the Paul Rudd scene is actually taken directly from a demo they shot for the series. The demo is actually called “Relocated”, and is rather short, and doesn’t include “Jon” having a family. It also makes a point to mention that Eugene’s character is an alternative comic, who performs in Russian. The demo ends with “Jon” performing with Yo La Tengo, and we get to see him sing a few bars of “Sugar Cube”. Way to not cheap out, Adult Swim.

Another thing to note is that there’s a doorman character in this who obviously has a fake mustache, which gets pointed out by “Jon”’s son “David”. This seems like a set-up for some kind of plot where we find out the doorman is a mole or something. This actor actually doesn’t come back for the series, and is replaced with Assy McGee’s own Larry Murphy. I forget how this thread plays out, but I’m pretty sure it’s just an ancillary bit of weirdness.

The thing about this show is that it’s in many ways a very typical Adult Swim show; it’s an intentionally stupid premise, and the writers could, if they felt like it, rest on their laurels and just be satisfied with the idea that the main joke of the show is that it exists at all and hope for the best. I’m talking about shows like Saul of the Mole Men, or Fat Guy Stuck in Internet. I feel like those shows sorta got away with something, even though time hasn’t been kind to either of those shows.

This show is so much better than that. In fact, the thing that strikes me about this show is that it has this uncanny ability to refresh itself and become something entirely different. The status quo on this show gets shaken up fairly frequently. Characters are killed off. Plot lines that could fuel material for an entire season are burned off in the span of a single episode. It’d be like if Twin Peaks solved Laura Palmer’s murder in episode 2 and somehow didn’t suffer for it. I haven’t watched it in a while, and I’m glad to have it in the mix.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

Superjail #2: “Superbar” (FINE CUT VERSION) | April 1, 2008 - 12:45AM | S01E01

Here’s another one I’m gonna save for later: Superjail’s first proper episode was presented in a mostly-finished state. I remember watching it and thinking it was great, though, for whatever that’s worth. I actually got a hold of a copy of the as-aired-on-April-Fools version of this, and the main thing I noticed is that it started off with a back title card that said “Waiting” on it for about 10 seconds, leading me to believe that this was some sort of internal Cartoon Network thing they were making fun of on Space Ghost. There’s also no theme song or credits; the opening has generic library music over it with a subtitle explaining that the real theme song hasn’t been cleared yet.

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #delocated

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animusiem · 11 months

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Billboard USA Exclusion Zone Episode 16 (06/17/2023)

I'm so excited for this week not gonna lie. Yes it's mostly because of Metro Boomin Spiderverse mini album bomb which crossed over to the Global Excl US chart. But looking at the new entries and I just realized the scope of what "global music chart excluding America" really like because damn this is a very chaotic week.

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8. "Sprinter" by Dave & Central Cee

It's kinda interesting to see a grime song having its biggest debut as I do think that grime might be the next big thing in Europe around 4 years ago. I do think this song has a good beat, but the lyrics man are just bad. One particular highlight is talking about Central Cee hooking up with a feminist...seriously.

15. "S-Class" by Stray Kids

Well I found another penis music-core again and it's due to the chorus which...what's up with the melody here?

20. "Los del Espacio" by LIT killah, Maria Becerra, FMK, Rusherking, Duki, Emilia, Tiago pzk & Big One

Remember that posse cut Te Bote that somehow became a hit in 2018? Well we got another one of those posse cut here with all of these artists. All I can say here is that it's at least more upbeat and fun than Te Bote. Apparently this type of posse cut is a big thing in Argentina alongside BZRP Music Session. I love how it changes genres so that it didn't felt stale. Good stuff.

27. "Popular" by The Weeknd ft. Playboi Carti & Madonna

From what I heard, The Idol is another show about exploitation in the entertainment industry? I mean there's already Oshi no Ko and Perfect Blue that have done this concept better but hey just like the former, we have a pop song to go along with it. Now this is one of the few Abel songs that I actually enjoy. 2000's pop-n-b is a perfect fit for Abel and I want Madonna like this. Oh btw fuck Playboi Carti, he didn't add anything to this song but a nuisance.

42. "Ta OK" by DENNIS E MC Kevin O Chris

I think you know how big of an impact streaming and TikTok has in music being more decentralized that we have high debut for Reginal Brazilian song that only ran one and a half minutes.

51. "Calling" by Metro Boomin, Swae Lee, & Nav ft. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie

Short review for Across the Spiderverse: One of the best animated movies of all time go watch it if you haven't already. Now for the soundtrack though, I would say it's consistent and played it straight. But because of that, there's no standout songs unlike say Sunflowers or What's Up Danger. But Metro is still a great producer and this song is a great example. I love Swae Lee hook, NAV gave his best performance ever, and A Boogie didn't embarrassed himself here. I hope this became a radio hit...but I want this to be bigger.

61. "Annihilate" by Metro Boomin, Swae Lee, Lil Wayne & Offset

When the beat to this song was used in the movie I felt chill and really showed the scope and the eerieness of the Spider Society looked like. I do think that Offset should do more than his basic verse, but Lil Wayne just go off in this song. I don't know why he always turned up in these CBM films' soundtracks but I approve it.

62. "Am I Dreaming" by Metro Boomin, ASAP Rocky & Roisee

The production saved it from being mediocre. That string and the percussion is just immaculate and showed that he can do more than his typical trap rap stuff given the budget. Roisee got too much filter on her and ASAP Rocky just doing decent here.

77. "El Cielo" by Sky Rompiendo ft. Feid & Myke Towers

I think I'm kinda sick of Feid but with this song, I'll give him another chance because I like the groove and the atmosphere of this song.

79. "Pişman Değilim" by Semicenk ft. Doğu Swag

We got another first here as this is the first Turkish song I am reviewing. And wow this sounds like 2016-17 pop rap stuff complete with the piano, blocky percussion, and strong hook.

103. "Lilith" by Halsey ft. SUGA

So apparently Diablo IV came out recently and seems like video game devs seeing the success of Enemy, are gonna hired musicians to soundtrack their games. Here's one observation of this song, this beat is actually great. But seems like SUGA just cannot ride the beat well.

114. "Makeba" by Jain

This song has one of the tightest bass I've ever heard this year so far. Of course beside that this song seems to be influenced by some Arabic element to it by the sandy feel of the production. It's just a good song.

116. "Obsessed" by Riar Saab ft. Abhijay Sharma

I think I knew that this week is gonna be the most diverse one I've covered when right after a song from French artist that had Arabic influence, I got a punjabi rap song that blew up in Canada.

153. "Self Love" by Metro Boomin & Coi Leray

This is definitely the most underrated song from the Spiderverse album. I love the lowkey pop trap sound juxtaposed with Coi Leray voice which I would describe as if Playboi Carti going pop. And I love this song because the lyrics can be about anything, but the voice clip of Gwen at the end of the song made it seems like it was her song and I love that kind of soundtrack writing.

163. "Tere Vaaste" by Varun Jain, Schin-Jigar, Shadab Faridi & Altamash Faridi

Last time I talked about the soundtrack from this movie it was a ballad. Now we got the upbeat song here...which is still kinda lowkey. But as someone who only watched like bollywood movies from the 80's and 90's, hearing synthetic percussion in this song does threw me off.

186. "Topline" by Stray Kids ft. Tiger JK

...At least the trumpet is good here???

190. "All The Way Live" by Metro Boomin, Future & Lil Uzi Vert

I think this is the weakest song on the album which is such a shame. I love it when Future on Metro's production, but he's kinda checked out here. The production does saved it but this is indeed sounded like above average Baby Pluto song.

193. "Me Entere" by Tiago Pzk & TINI

Tiago Pzk was supposed to be the next big thing in reggaeton scene...and then he just didn't. Anyways this song is too bouncy even for me.

I highly recommend everyone to listen to these songs

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lady-rhaesnow · 3 years

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Visual representation of how 9x04 promises to burst into our screens tomorrow night … 🙃🙃

That being said … tread carefully friends. This episode promises a lot, covering multiple heavy topics so if you need to talk to somebody know that we’re all here waiting to listen 🌻🌻

#gearing up for a monster of an episode #cpd 9x04 #beware the triggers #also if Jay Halstead’s knocking down my door you won’t hear me complaining #chicago pd #one chicago #jay halstead #jesse lee soffer #praying for some domestic Upstead fluff … or Vought getting punched #both is good #Upstead #also is Burzek finally going a be thing season??#Kevin central episode and it’s about damn time

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tedturneriscrazy · 3 years

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Here we are with Eda's Requiem! This is one I've been eagerly anticipating, thanks in no small part to one Raine Whispers. You know the drill.

Opening with Eda being a soft owl mom❤

Also, she has her own keepsake Grom photo❤❤❤

Oh, impending empty nest syndrome? (Heh, how approriate, considering she has a literal nest)

Ooh, a preview of bard magic?!

Oh, that seems...ominous...

That was an impressive flying sequence! Whatcha training for, Luz?

There they are! Raine! My beloved!

Oh my god they're adorable

Wow, Eda, you sure do sound like you definitely don't want Luz to stick around for a while longer

Guess Lilith took the brain cell with her when she left

Ah, a race! So Luz wasn't playing Grudgby after all

Boy, Eda is doing her best to avoid that particular subject, huh?

Really pushing the "apple blood = booze" angle here

Oh, hey, it's that one demon hunter lady! Makes sense they'd all be wild witches, I suppose

The bartender's name is Kevin and I don't know how to feel about that (that's my name)

Either that mask spun around or Eda's punch was powerful enough to twist his head around. In which case, damn

Oh, there's the band! Bard magic!

Even with a mask they can't get over the stage fright

(I still love them)

Also, very impressive how they can pull stuff off with singular string plucks. Guess they're the head of the Bard Coven for a reason

Bards Against the Throne. BATs. Clever!

Ah, there's the sewer scene that kept showing up in promo images

Trailer shot of Raine!

Aaand blushing at being embarrassed by Eda. Looks like they'll kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll.

Still, glad to see they're not bitter exes

Flashback time!

Fuck, the framing is so romantic, it has to be intentional

Facing your fears by punching them in the face? Sounds like Eda, all right.

Those who were hoping for blushing Eda are being fed

They really wasted an opportunity for Luz to train with Willow

"LEAN ON ME!" Let's hope Hooty doesn't cover Bill Withers anytime soon

"You're not our mom!" Give it a minute, Amber.

So food fanfic girl's name is Katya! Good to know

"Rainestorm" it's not Rainedrop, but I'll take it!

Forgot to mention: these two are so obviously yearning for each other and it's amazing

I'm sorry, but Raine summoning Eda's...mandolin(?) while lounging like that is sexy as fuck

The way the curse affects that magic is fascinating

Oh yeah: title drop!

Amber turned around quickly, didn't she?

Keep on putting that off until the last possible moment for dramatic effect

Everything about the Cup of Ephemeral Glory is hilarious

And Eda's gonna miss the whole thing, isn't she?

Where's Admiral Ackbar when you need him?! *remembers TRoS* Oh. Right. God that movie sucked.

Ooh, Abomination and Beast Keeping heads!

Also, Horde Prime is that you?

(Looked it up. That is, indeed, Keston John)

Sick burns, King

Every once in a while Luz reminds us how good she really is with those glyphs

If people weren't simping over Darius before, they will be

It's really cool to see more beast keeping and abomination magic in action, ngl

Also glad to see resourceful use of invisibility glyphs

Also also, loving the way Raine is bridal carrying Eda. They stronk, indeed.

Oh shit, utilizing the curse

Uh, Darius? Buddy? You literally turn into abomination goo. A bit of mud seems like small potatoes in comparison.

Oh shit, they're going feral

This sequence is amazing

Oh, there's the question.

Raine, you botched that quote, but I appreciate the sentiment

(God, they're cute)

Aw fuck

NOOOO GODDAMNIT RAINE

(The stage fright gag was set up to punch us in the gut, well done)

Eda is clearly devastated...and so am I💔

Oh that picture is wonderful

Somehow I had a feeling Luz wouldn't win the race

Even the vomiting? Wow, this episode is just callback central

Even Eda knows the power of social media (and her username is Badgirlcoven!)

Okay how dare they show such an adorable shot of Willow in her room (Might have to post separately about this)

Amity still rocking the purple hair

KING DAD REAL?!?!?! AND HE HAS WINGS!!!

KING CLAWTHORNE!!!😭

Much tears very cry wow

Eber is a little shit love it

Oh hi Kiki fuck off

I am very okay with Darius calling Alador a hack

KIKIMORA I WILL END YOU HSSSSSSSS

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHYYYYYYYYYY

I guess they're not dead?

THEY BETTER BE OKAY IN THE END I SWEAR TO THE TITAN

Wow! Loved this episode! My favorite this season, probably due to Raine! I love them! I'm a simp! I'm Raeda trash!

That aside, so many amazing moments, and the music was top notch. This show is a gift!

See you for Knock Knock Knockin' On Hooty's Door! It'll probably hit us out of nowhere, knowing how this works.

Can't wait for this post to be buried by the Comic-Con panel😆

#the owl house #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #king clawthorne #raine whispers #kikimora #hooty #toh s2 spoilers #the owl house s2 spoilers #the owl house season 2 spoilers #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers

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myriadofunchartedworlds · 3 years

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I've been rambling so much about the finale today because I have so many thoughts about the growth of the stories of the different characters and/or relationships.

BATHENA 4.13 had them talking about how communication is still an issue for them and with it came the underlying hurt of "Do you not value me enough to include me in your decision making especially when it comes to life-changing choices?". But Athena literally walking through fire for Bobby - and also essentially going against protocol and risking the job she loves - is a loud declaration of how valued Bobby is in her life and how much more important he is.

HEN So Hen's story actually mostly "wraps up" in the previous episode, where we not only see that she has earned the respect of her study group but also her mom. Her struggle to prove herself despite being a "minority" in so many ways is shown here. Hen is a woman who defies odds. She's a well-respected member of the LAFD, despite being a queer woman of color in a boy's club. Now, she's an older medical student who was able to successfully diagnose and seek help for a patient (her mom) better than a real doctor did. She demonstrated an empathy this doctor failed to have and basically assuaged any doubts her mother had of Hen making the right choice by pursuing this career path. She also grew from her struggle of entrusting Nia to someone else, of allowing another person she perceived as failing Nia to love her. While there was closure when they discovered why Nia was separated from her birth mother, this new step of allowing Nia to be a part of their lives again while knowing that it is not in a parental capacity speaks even more of her ability to love deeply. I think with her, it's less growth and more of further proof of Hen's heart and love for people.

MADDIE Her admitting to Sue that something was wrong and then telling Chimney that she needs help is a huge thing. We saw how she was trying to appear fine and put together for him in the previous episode. We also know that she began this show as a "lone wolf" thinking that she couldn't drag others down into her problems with her. (Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Buckley + Doug for being awful examples of "love"). Buck had to convince her to stay and let him be her support system. Chimney had to work to be let in. Maddie is more often seen as the one supporting instead of being supported. So Maddie realizing it's okay to ask for help and also realizing she has people she can count on is the biggest sign of growth from Season 2 Maddie.

CHIMNEY We know Chimney sees Buck as a little brother, especially since he's Maddie's brother; but he also had no say in Buck joining the academy and then the 118. With Albert though, he definitely could have stopped his plans in the tracks especially since it would have felt remarkably similar to Kevin joining the academy and becoming a fellow firefighter. That he supported Albert's firefighting journey (and likely encouraged him every step of the way - we know he and Buck probably did a lot of drills with Albert, with Hen definitely helping with the written parts) feels like a beautiful full-circle journey. Now he gets to do what he loves with a brother again. Also, not to mention how he used to be jealous of Albert but now he lets the boy "follow in his footsteps"? As someone who struggled with constantly comparing herself to her siblings, this is huge. It's damning proof that he no longer sees his brother as the golden child he has to compete with but a person he gets to share the things he is passionate about with.

BUCK + EDDIE (But not in a Buddie way, hear me out. It's worth it). The will is such a game-changer and basically the loudest statement anyone could ever make, both with regards to Buck and Eddie. With Eddie, it is the biggest proof that he has finally found someone he could trust Christopher with (aka his whole world). Eddie's core struggle is similar to Maddie (and most of the 9-1-1 characters), which is being able to let someone else help him as he juggles his different roles. Eddie came into LA feeling like he was drowning, cutting himself of from his former support system because his parents wanted to permanently take Christopher in. That definitely made him more wary of asking for and accepting help. But lawsuit fiasco notwithstanding, there was suddenly a person who provided him with help without removing his autonomy and parental rights. This person introduced him to Carla, got "bring your son to work day" all cleared, built a skateboard for his son, and poured himself out to save Christopher during the tsunami. The will is him acknowledging that after Shannon, after his parents, he can finally relax a bit and not worry about Christopher or even himself. Did you see how unworried Eddie was when he saw Buck the first time he woke up? Did you notice how, after checking that Buck wasn't hurt, he didn't have to even worry about making sure that Buck would take care of Christopher while he was healing up? The guy knew his world was in good hands. Now compare that to the Eddie who was stunned after Bobby let him bring Chris to the station, to the Eddie who hesitated before telling Buck about his son, to the Eddie who debated about letting Shannon back in to Christopher's life again. What growth. With Buck, his central struggle has always been finding people who love him enough to stay. Buck 1.0 was him avoiding commitment because he thinks this is all he can get to temporarily fill the void. Firefighting and the firefam were another set of void-fillers (hence why he fought so hard to come back to the 118). Both the arc with Red and that really damning statement in the crossover (where he actually doubted that Hen would break rules to rescue him for a second) tell us that he's not completely secure about people staying for him. He wasn't enough for his parents, for Abby and Ali, for Maddie (for a while), for his firefam. That's why he thinks he's expendable. Eddie including him in the will takes on a different light when you think about all it's trying to say. It's not even just, "You have people counting on you now." or "You have a Christopher that's going to stay a you stay for him too.". It's also Eddie saying that, "Even if I might leave you physically, I am leaving the last part of me - my life/heart/world - Christopher to you.". Which is a less cheesy, less cringy and much more concrete way of saying "I'm still here in spirit.". Buck finally has two someones who will stay. (And now I think I've just made myself cry).

#J rambles some more #finale thoughts #Bathena #Bobby Nash #Athena Grant #Henrietta Wilson #Howard Han #Maddie Buckley #evan buckley #eddie diaz

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dragolianx · 4 years

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How I’d rewrite Miraculous Ladybug a.k.a Miraculous Ladybug Final Mix

Before I start I just want to say, I actually loved this show. I always appreciate shows that establish their own universe separate from the big publishers. Ben 10, Generator Rex, Big Hero 6, hell My Life as a Teenage Robot does this well.

When I started Miraculous I had high hopes and season 1 definitely delivered. However, season 2 had some issues and season 3 only made it worse.

Say what you want about the show, but there was a noticeable shift in quality between season’s 1 and 2 and an even bigger drop in season 3.

I won’t touch season 1 since it did its job well. It established the world and explained some of the rules and lore about Kwami and Miraculous powers.

Now the end of season 1 gave us new antagonist in Lila. Her arrival shook up the established flow of the school. She was the new kid so she hooked everyone with stories of traveling around the world. However she had a habit of lying about herself to make herself seem interesting.

She lied about knowing ladybug and about being the latest in a family of superheroes.

Marinette knows that she’s lying because Lila claims to be Ladybug’s BFF, but she never met Lila before that day.

We then get the episode Volpina and so far this was the closest Ladybug came to surrendering. The only other akuma to get close to getting her earrings was Lady Wifi at this point. She knew how to manipulate people, even if she was sloppy with her lies at first.

When season 2 starts however she’s no where to be seen until the season finale, Hero’s Day. This is where I’d make my first change.

Season 2

Make Lila stick around for season 2 instead of adding her back at the end of the season

Her absence is attributed to her “Traveling around the world” when she’d really just at home skipping school.

Her mom believes that the school is closed due to constant akuma attacks. The problem with this is that the school would most definitely have called her about her daughter’s absence. Or at the every least gave her a courtesy call about how the trip is going. It also make’s Lila’s mom seem incompetent because she doesn’t bother to go her kid’s school.

If there’s ever a parent teacher conference this lie would be easily dealt with.

Instead have the season 3 premiere episode “Chameleon” be the season 2 premiere. Instead of having the class change the seating order because she came back have her manipulate it so that she’s sitting next to Adrian and that Marinette is sent to the back.

Instead of Adrian telling Marinette to take the high road, have him warn her that without actual proof she’d just be isolated even more by the class. Adrian then promises to help Marinette whenever he can.

This worked in the episode because it showed just how persuasive she could be and how she could sway people she barely knows.

The episode would play out the same way, except at the end Bustier has Adrian stay where he is because she insists that he be a “good role model” and help Lila because of her “Disabilities”

In the end, the seating order is changed permanently and Marinette is moved to the back of the class. Lila begins to wedge herself between Marinette and the class.

Other big changes I’d make to season 2 would be moving Zombizou closer to the episode Despair Bear. At least make them be within an episode of each other. These will be the seeds for Chloe’s redemption, which can work in the show if Astruc would get his head out of his ass and learn how to write his damn characters.

Going off topic for a bit, but Kevin Levin from Ben 10 has tried to kill Ben for most of the original series run. After his mutation he tries to frame Ben for crimes and then off him when they were dragged into a gladiator match. He even teamed up with Vilgax to trap Ben in the Null Void and take the Omnitrix.

When Alien Force rolls around Kevin still tries to kill Ben, but when he meets a Majester Plumber and witnesses him die because of weapon deal gone bad, the same deal that Kevin set up, he realizes that he could be good and teams up with Ben and Gwen.

The same can be said for Chloe.

The most she’s done was prank Marinette, get Alya suspended, and plagiarize Marinette’s work.

As an antagonist she sucked. Hard.

Over the course of season 2 Chloe should steadily get better at not bossing people around and stop playing the “Mayor’s Daughter” card for her own selfish reasons.

At the same time, we should get small hints at Lila driving a wedge between Marinette and the class.

It could just be her mentioning how flaky Marinette can be because she’s never on time for events or just disappears sometimes.

It’d be hard for Marinette to counter this without revealing herself so the class begins to question her.

The season plays differently with Chloe mellowing out and Lila planting seeds of doubt.

Another thing worth mentioning is how Adrian/Chat Noir factors into the show.

In season 3 we see him miss his mom more, but it comes out of nowhere. We the audience know his mom is dead and assume he’s sad about it, but we don’t get actual scenes about this until Gorizilla and it’s not touched again until Felix.

In season 2 we should get more of how Adrian handles his isolation and how the loss of his mom affects him.

Have him lean on Marinette for support like how he asked her to lean on him for help with Lila.

Also have Chat Noir more involved with the whole temp hero thing and have Master Fu keep him in the loop.

Balance seems to be a central theme to the show, but Ladybug seems to be holding all the cards between the duo and Chat Noir is just in the background.

This makes him seem more like a sidekick instead of a partner since he’s almost never consulted when it comes to choosing heroes.

When Anansi happens have Adrian pick Nino to use the Turtle Miraculous and save Alya

The same can be said for how Chloe gets the Bee Miraculous in Style Queen.

He’s known her the longest and sees that she’s been making an honest effort to change, so as Chat Noir her gives her the Bee Miraculous.

This way Chloe gets to have her secret identity and prove herself to Ladybug and Chat Noir as a worthy hero.

Queen Wasp is removed from the series entirely

Maledictator happens because Audrey threatens to go back to New York and Chloe doesn’t know if she wants to go with her or not because she knows she wants a better relationship with her mom, but she’s also making progress at being a better person at school.

Lila sets off the celebration for Chloe leaving and that make Chloe want to leave because she thought she was getting better, but it seems as if her efforts weren’t good enough. Marinette doesn’t participate and defends Chloe since she hasn’t bothered Marinette or anyone else for the last few weeks and Lila takes this opportunity to make it seem like Marinette wants Chloe to stick around and bully the class.

Instead of defending herself Marinette chases after Chloe, and Adrian follows soon after once he hears the news.

The episode play nearly the same way until Chat Noir get whammied by Maledictator and becomes an actual cat.

Ladybug then gives Chloe the Bee Miraculous again and the episode plays out the same way until the end where Marinette offers to be Chloe’s friend and she accepts

Event play out the same leading up to heroes day and the season ends the same way. However, as a reward for their bravery in facing Hawkmoth and Mayura: Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee get to keep their Miraculous

Season 3

Since we moved Chameleon up a season and removed Queen Wasp, we’ll give those two episodes to season 3 as exposition episodes. One where Fu explains in detail to the current holders what happened to the order.

Have it be different from Feast sense the whole reason was Ludacris to begin with. Introduce the concept of an order dedicated to chaos that wants to use the Mirculous for various reasons. The temple is attacked and Fu managed to get away with the main miracle box with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous in it.

We also get Fu choosing Ladybug to be the new guardian if something should happen to him with the other heroes agreeing that it should be her.

She begins her training after this episode

In another episode explain what happened to Adrian’s mom

We know that she has some sort of sickness keeping her in a coma and that only the Miraculous can fix it. We know because Adrian mentions how Natalie showed the same symptoms his mom did before she “died”

Have Gabriel remember what caused her to use the Peacock and how he found them to begin with. Have him study the grimoire to learn how to use Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous to save his wife.

Remove Animaestro since it adds nothing to the plot and was just an excuse for Astruc to shamelessly insert himself into his own show.

As a writer this is a major sin if done wrong. And while other cartoon creators have done this, the make their appearances cameos and don’t take up a majority of the episode complaining

The love Hexagon remains mostly the same, but Marinette doesn’t get super jealous of Kagami and ends becoming friends with her after getting to know her better. Meanwhile have Adrian subconsciously react to Luka’s presence around Marinette and have him question why when he thinks he’s dead set on loving Ladybug.

The episodes leading up to Ikari Gozen remain the same except Kagami doesn’t reveal her identity in the fight and Chat Noir gives her the Dragon Miraculous before she get captured by her mother.

Chat Blanc would be completely different. Instead of a what if episode, we have Chat Noir gets akumatized because it’s the anniversary of his mother’s death and he can’t hide how sad he is. Hawkmoth capitalizes on this and Chat Blanc is born. The other heroes show up to deal with the threat and the new reserves show up to help as well.

Chat Blanc almost sets off a world wide Cataclysm, but Viperion uses second chance to warn them. Have Monkey King disrupt Chat Blanc’s powers and then have Queen Wasp paralyze him so Ladybug can find the Akuma and cure it.

Felix plays differently as well. For starters have him not be related to Adrian and make him look different from him entirely. Felix and the other Quantic kids can be in a different class altogether. His introduction can play into the whole Lila situation as he and the other quantic kids don’t buy into her lies, but they can’t prove any of them are false.

For this to work even more, Lila’s lie of knowing Prince Ali doesn’t come up since she didn’t leave the school.

Now comes the big episode of the season, Ladybug.

This episode was good for so many reasons, but this time we’ll up the ante.

Lila still plants the necklace and test answers, but this time she goes further.

When they’re sent to the principal’s office she throws herself down the stairs can then claims that Marinette pushed her.

This time the evidence is damning and Lila’s mom is called. With the actual scrapes and bruises to help sell the story along with the test answers being put in Marinette’s bag and the Lila’s necklace in her locker Marinette is expelled and the same events as the episode take place, but this time Nino isn’t akumatized because it’s implied that he’s known Marinette for a long time so he should know she’d never get physical with someone or cheat (But she has taken the occasional cell phone)

Alya looks for clues to prove that Marinette is innocent and Nino joins along with Adrian.

The trail goes cold and then the episode pans out the same way. In the end Chloe makes a big scene about Marinette being expelled and find proof that she didn’t cheat on the test and didn’t steal the necklace, but can’t ultimately prove that Marinette didn’t push Lila. She then uses the “Mayor’s Daughter” card to get Marinette back in school, but the damage has been done. Most of the class believes Lila over Marinette and begin to isolate her. Although, Alya decides to finally do some fact checking on Lila after the string of incidents that morning and finds out that she’s been lying. She apologizes for how she’s been acting and nukes the ladyblog since she deems it “tainted” and commits to the school blog.

This shows a great deal of growth for Alya since he doesn’t feel the need to follow superheroes since she is one, and is willing to give up something for her friend’s sake.

After all of this happens Marinette is stripped of her class rep title and the Class nominates Lila.

Hearthunter and Miracle Queen don’t happen at all sense Chloe is fully redeemed at this point. Instead, Lila returns as Volpina to lure out Fu since Hawkmoth managed to figure out that he was in town after Hero’s Day.

Volpina creates an illusion to lure him out, but Fu realizes this and runs to find Marinette while in disguise. He gives her the Miracle Box and he loses his memories. Marinette stashes the box in her room before trying to get him somewhere safe, but when he gets to the train station he’s Akumatized by Hawkmoth and Ladybug and the other heroes must fight their mentor.

After the battle Marinette calls Marianne to take care of Fu and the two leave Paris while the other heroes watch the train depart with heavy hearts.

My biggest gripes with the show are how the character are never allowed to grow and how much the status quo remains mostly the same at the end of each episode.

Almost none of what happens in a regular episode changes the flow of the story, and only the season premieres and finales seem to hold any weight. Not to mention Astruc’s obvious bias towards certain characters. He expects Marinette to be super mature, but she’s 14. He stated that he hates Chloe and Felix and goes out of his way to treat them like garbage.

In Felix’s debut episode he had him make an enemy with damn near the entire cast and even had Ladybug deck him.

Astruc for the most part doesn’t change anything and plays things too safe, unless it’s pointless fanservice that just serves to anger the fans even more.

I rewrote the last two season of Miraculous because for the most part, it’s become a sinking ship that could have easily been fixed.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #miraculous season 3 #miraculous ladybug rerwite #ml salt #Miraculous ladybug salt #marinette dupen-chang #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #Nino lahiffe #chloe burgeois #gabriel agreste #ladybug #chat noir #carapace #rena rouge #queen bee #Astruc can't write for shit

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florrickandassociates · 4 years

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TGF Thoughts: 4x07-- The Gang Discovers Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein

What a weird episode.

This episode is something else. The writers REALLY overestimated how much the audience (or at least the fandom) liked the pee tape and Melania divorce episodes if they thought this was a good idea.

My recollection of those episodes is that because everything was fake-but-real, the stakes wound up feeling lower and I stopped caring, and when I’m not on board with the plot, the surreal shit and the whimsy feel more annoying than innovative. This episode might fare slightly better in my opinion than the other two because of its central device (more on that later) but it’s (somehow!!!) even more audacious and wild than the episodes that came before. Not my favorite look for the show.

I DO like the tributes to musicians we’ve lost to COVID-19 that play over the credits.My one quibble is that they could’ve used a little card to inform viewers what’s going on and why. Last week I caught the artist in the captions but this week I missed it (or it wasn’t there), though I figured out pretty quickly it was John Prine.

Starting off an episode with Liz is always a good choice.

Liz and Marissa are, for reasons we’ll discover later, in New York and investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide.”

It drives me INSANE that Marissa consistently has the sound on her phone on. I think we’d know she was taking pictures without it.

Liz’s old boss, Wilbur Dincon, has tasked Liz to independently investigate what happened. If this case goes well, RBL will get more business from the DOJ.

I’m sorry, did you just say “S-H-U” instead of pronouncing it like “shoe”? I mean, I’m an expert on prisons because I watched Orange is the New Black so I know it should be said like “shoe.” (tbh i have no idea if one is more correct than the other)

This case has lots of details but it’s really only the thematic points that matter, so I likely won’t discuss any plot points… just what they’re going for.

Good to know Liz was ahead of the curve on knowing Epstein was a dangerous creep.

Liz is promised she can investigate anyone she wants and think outside the box. Sure. I believe this as much as I believe Diane is in charge of pro-bono stuff because STR Laurie has great intentions.

“Synergy” is such a great bullshit word. Has everyone ever said it for a reason other than the following three: (1) To mock the word synergy (2) as a euphemism for cost-cutting measures that will fuck over employees (3) because they think it sounds professional and want to cover up the fact they don’t know what they’re talking about?

In this case, “synergy” means that RBL needs to cut their payroll by 20%. Fun times.

Diane and Adrian (Liz is downstairs) are not happy about this, even when Mr. Firth reminds them it’s more money for them. They’d rather have less money personally but happier employees since they’re not soulless.

Mr. Firth says they have to do the layoffs. But if it’s any consolation, they get to hand pick who to lay off!

The dogs are still being walked through RBL, in case it wasn’t clear enough that STRL sucks.

The whole firm gets to work on sorting through the Epstein evidence. Liz tries to keep things organized-- murder evidence on one side, suicide evidence on the other.

Associates, however, immediately begin interpreting the word “evidence” loosely. Is there a photo of Epstein with someone they’d like to suspect of murder? Then it’s “evidence of murder”. Ok, Leah.

As expected, this immediately turns into bickering over politics. Sorry Liz-- it’s going to be tough to keep your staff on target with this one.

“No! No conspiracy theories. No insane charges. Everything we do, we need evidence, so let’s start here.” Ah, if only everyone could think like Liz.

The room focuses on evidence for about two minutes. Then they find a way to make it about conspiracies again. Go team!

Also everyone at RBL thinks they have better knowledge than professional medical examiners of the marks left on someone’s neck after they hang themselves. They also all believe that pretending to strangle themselves is the best way to prove their point. It’s a hilarious sight for Diane and Adrian to happen upon.

Adrian and Diane immediately start seeing their employees as numbers and imagining the cost savings of laying them off. Marissa is making $89,000 a year with three years of experience. Jay is making $89,000/year with eight years. Damn, that is so unfair to Jay. (I could see it if Marissa is more vocal about wanting higher pay or if they’re more concerned with losing her… but being vocal about money is probably closely related to Marissa’s privilege and there is zero evidence Marissa is any better, more efficient, or more hardworking than Jay!) I can’t remember how this plot ended last year, but I thought Jay ended up making more than Marissa after he complained?

Adrian seems to see Jay as the more disposable of the investigators, which is quite sad, especially since from what we see, Marissa and Jay seem to be equally skilled.

I wish we got to see the salaries, rather than just billable hours, of the other associates. But I’m glad they finally get last names!

Kevin Walker has been at the firm 7 years and has 2643 billable hours.

Diane imagines the red X over Marissa. I can’t tell if the Xs are to demonstrate who they think they should cut or just to show deliberations.

Lucca has been at the firm for 4 years and has 2788. Her title is “associate” but shouldn’t it be “Head of Family Law”?

Leah Davis has been at the firm for 3 years and has 2657 billable hours.

Jancie Muncy has been at the firm 11 years with 2456 hours; Micah Carroll has been there 5 with 2582 hours. John Danzette with 6 years and 2074 hours; Rosalyn Brock with 4 years and 1991 hours (we learn later she was on medical leave for part of the year). Josh Withers with 11 years and 2162. Linda Keller with 2 years and 2389; Mike Roberts with 3 years and 2147. So what I’m getting is that Lucca has the most billable hours of everyone?

I wish it told us their salaries. How much do the billable hours matter if we don’t know how much $ each hour is worth?

I really like this device. It’s a good way of showing how tough this decision is and how dehumanizing the process becomes.

Adrian jumps into the conversation and tries to convince everyone Epstein’s suicide isn’t a conspiracy-- it’s just incompetence. Apparently he has a sink that breaks every week and no plumber can fix it because they are all incompetent. I understand this analogy-- no one does their job perfectly 100% of the time-- but I am really concerned about Adrian’s sink. This sounds like a bigger issue than incompetence.

“People do just enough work to get by,” is a very true statement though. I have often thought that it’s kind of incredible the world is as functional as it is.

If you have 4 or 5 conveniently incompetent breakdowns at once, though, I’m not sure I believe it’s purely incompetence. Feels a bit convenient.

Diane jumps in and makes a case for why the conspiracy is also likely. This strikes me as counterproductive since what REALLY needs to happen here is for the associates to dig through the evidence. Why not go back to Liz’s original system where they look through the evidence and see where it leads them?

Lots of news footage and photographs in this one.

Diane’s larger point seems to tie back into Memo 618: “We all have to obey the law. I mean, if we’re told we have to check into with the police every 90 days, we do it. But certain people don’t have to. They’re given special treatment.” Diane claims this is America-- “a special fucking off-ramp for the well-connected.”

Isn’t it possible both are true? That there’s a lot of incompetence and also systems in place that protect the rich and powerful? Also none of this is evidence!!!

(I do like this scene for showing Adrian’s POV (cynical about human nature) vs Diane’s (fed up with the government and the treatment of the ultra wealthy). And the show can’t really dig into evidence they don’t actually possess. But evidence-free speeches don’t seem productive!)

Liz is like, okay then… and splits the room into three groups to look at evidence. I am glad Diane and Adrian helped her so much.

Liz is NOT happy about the layoffs when Diane and Adrian loop her in. She’s opposed to cutting anyone. Diane says she could lose Kevin, but Liz sees Kevin as someone newer employees look up to. Adrian suggests Lucy (who?) and Liz says that Lucy actually should get a raise. Diane points out this will look bad to the clients. All good points. This seems like an impossible decision.

Case stuff happens. Lucca knows a “hairdresser to the stars” through Bianca.

And now for some scenes where Diane and Julius try to report Memo 618 to the government and do the right thing! The Kings have said these were intended for episode 8, and while they don’t really feel that out of place since there’s clearly a thematic link between 618 and Epstein’s connections, this bit of info explains two things: (1) Why this ep is 53 minutes long when it feels like it could make its point in less time and (2) why the Julius stuff that happens later in the episode feels a bit anticlimactic because so much else is also happening. My guess is in an episode where it’s more of the focal point it would feel like a much bigger deal.

Do you ever just see a shot of Diane and think, “Damn, Taylor Swift does really look like a young Diane?” Because I do. All the time.

Lucca visits the famous hairdresser and he makes time for her right away. And he gives her a letter from Epstein that he (a) has in his possession and (b) has in an unlocked drawer in his salon. Whatever.

Lucca convinces him to let her have it, and RBL makes a video to establish chain of custody. I’m shocked we’ve never seen them do this before.

“It is Thursday, May 21st, 2020” Liz says. Nah. You’re in an office. It is not.

The envelope contains a key, a secret code, and a letter that says “If I’m dead, watch out for BUD”. Welp, there goes any hope of this not turning into RBL chasing conspiracies!

Rumors about layoffs (40%! Just paralegals! Everyone!) have spread, in case there wasn’t enough chaos.

The partners are indeed discussing who to fire, and they can’t decide on anyone. So they decide it’s time to get out from under STRL and buy themselves out. It’ll take 20 million, but they can pull that together.

This would play better if we knew why they decided to sell to STRL in the first place. Who WOULDN’T have seen this coming?

Liz tells Adrian not to make any promises he can’t keep and he is like, this is like our marriage. Diane is still in the room which is awkward and funny.

Marissa finds “BUD” on a blueprint. A clue! Meanwhile, Lucca and Jay (really, Jay) figure out the code.

This is the portion of the episode where I can leave the show playing on my phone and go check Twitter instead of writing any commentary.

Julius gets arrested for speaking out about Memo 618! It feels less impactful than it should when it’s sandwiched between a bunch of scenes following the conspiracy. (Also I am a little surprised they didn’t have Julius and Diane go to the press before the government.)

The conference room squabbles again and Liz asks, again, to tone down the conspiracy theories. They instead begin fighting about even more conspiracy theories.

Unless there’s another conference room scene later, I think this was the moment I understood what the Kings were doing and started to like the episode more. As soon as I realized “BUD” was a Citizen Kane reference, I burst out laughing. This episode plays way better when you know the point they’re trying to make is that this is a lot of fuss that will ultimately be futile (though Marissa and Jay DO come close to finding BUD) than when you’re supposed to be riveted by watching people debate fake evidence.

Why does Eli Gold have a cheerleader friend? Who knows! Who cares!

Adrian suggests that he, Diane, and Liz involve their own homes in the scheme to getting 20 million dollars. Liz objects since she’s a single mom-- very fair. Adrian argues that they’ve done well in the past so they’ll get it back. Liz and Diane attack that idea before I can-- if that were really true, they never would have sold to STRL.

Liz mentions losing ChumHum and the fallout from her dad’s scandal and then says “let us not forget why we joined STRL in the first place.” I feel like that line would work better if the “let us not forget…” came before the “we lost ChumHum”. Because we don’t actually KNOW why they joined STRL. And, as I said in a previous recap, I can roll with it for the sake of plot, but I can’t take lines like “let us not forget why we joined STRL” seriously when there was LITERALLY NO ON SCREEN DELIBERATION about it.

Adrian says STRL doesn’t value them, their employees, their history, or their culture. To which I say, DUH. Why would you think they did?

The only important thing about this cheerleader is that she’s played by the amazing Donna Lynne Champlin. Kind of sad she’s in this silly, non-recurring role. She’s so good. (Also she was totally on TGW playing a different role, shhhh). (Go watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, everyone!)

CONSPIRACY THEORIES! It’s another conference room scene. Maybe this is where I realized it was a Citizen Kane reference? But I think it was the earlier one.

Hey, it’s another Julius scene. Watching these and knowing they were meant for a different episode, I can’t help but notice that they do feel like pieces of the A plot of a different episode. The whole system is rigged, Julius and Diane realize.

Adrian, Liz, and Diane tell Mr. Firth they want out. Mr. Firth tells them they need to cobble together an impossible 80 million, not 20 million, because not all of the partners have been bringing in more revenue more than they used to. You see, Diane hasn’t been bringing in any money because she’s been in charge of the pro bono department. Ah.There’s the catch.

I’m shocked they went up to Mr. Firth without reading every inch of that contract. Aren’t you guys partners at a law firm? I’m shocked Diane went ahead with taking charge of pro bono without looking for a catch. This sucks for the character and all, but how are these name partners at a liberal firm that’s seen more than its fair share of drama this naive about big corporations!? This plot twist is devastating… until I start to think about all the things they had to believe to get to this point.

Still, it’s satisfying to hear Diane hiss “you fucker!” at Mr. Firth.

Mr. Firth turns into a villain quite nicely. I wonder if we’ll see more of him next year. My guess is the remaining three episodes were going to tie together the corporate overlords plot and Memo 618 and wrap everything up more or less with a bow so they could do a new concept next year. I feel like they’ll either move on completely and tell us what happened, or do an episode like 2x02 (the one that wraps up all the Maia/Rindell Fund stuff in one go so it doesn’t hang over s2).

Dincon drops by unexpectedly and isn’t impressed with what Liz and the team have done, since all they’ve done is collect conspiracy theories (and possibly travel all over the country? Jay and Marissa go to the Virgin Islands; it is unclear if the architect and key maker and lawyer and everyone else were in Chicago…

In Dincon’s defense these conspiracy theories sound like complete nonsense.

Dincon shuts the RBL team down, but Marissa and Jay are still off adventuring.

Diane asks Dincon what Memo 618 is because Epstein’s life was built on it. “Then you have your answer,” Dincon replies. This scene is another tell that those Julius scenes weren’t meant for 4x07.

Aaaaand now we get the direct parallels to Citizen Kane, with some shot-for-shot remakes and even a sled (ha!).

There’s a secret door! Marissa and Jay are excited to investigate! Marissa references Parasite, which I haven’t seen yet because I’m awful at watching movies.

Marissa and Jay find nothing and leave. “I think we lost track of the real story: the underage girls,” Marissa realizes. Yup. That is the takeaway. Looking at all these conspiracies is fun but useless, and the most important truth has already been uncovered.

After Marissa and Jay leave, we get to see what was in the secret room… BUD is Epstein’s penis. And… that’s a wrap on season 4? What a fucking weird way to end a season.

#the good fight #tgfthoughts

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double-bubble-discourse-queen · 4 years

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I’m not particularly critical of Riverdale for its cringeworthy dialogue or ridiculous storylines. For the most part I actually think its camp is enjoyable. I’ve seen it accused of trying to take itself too seriously, but personally, I always thought that Riverdale was aiming for camp and being genuinely good was never one of its goals.

I don’t care to criticize the camp or the cringe and I feel like most criticisms fall flat in that regard, since I doubt a CW teen drama about Archie characters would’ve ever been something to take too seriously…but damn, do I think there is real, more pressing criticism to be made in regard to its treatment of characters of color and queer characters.

The Betty/Veronica kiss being used as marketing tactic was queerbait in its simplest form.

Josie was marketed as being a main character, but never got the screen time the other leads did. Valerie was barely seen after breaking up with Archie. Melody never got any kind of story of her own. Now none of the Pussycats are even on the show anymore.

Riverdale turned Chuck into a misogynistic dudebro, which deviated from his character in the comics and had highly unfortunate implications since he was really the only supporting black male character at the time. Yes, they tried to rectify this in s2, by featuring him apologize and promise he wasn’t that guy anymore, but it doesn’t feel like it means much since he fell off the map after that.

Kevin was introduced as a walking stereotype, his relationships were never really explored, and his significance as a character seemingly dwindled with each season until this tickle porn thing we have going on now in s4.

Jughead being aro/ace was changed, despite the show billing an actor who was interested in exploring that.

Ginger Lopez and Nancy Woods are a couple in Afterlife with Archie, which was also penned by RAS, but in the show Nancy doesn’t even exist and Ginger was just a Vixen minion of Cheryl’s who had maybe, ten lines tops. The erasure of Nancy and Ginger squandered the opportunity for more characters of color in the cast, potentially even sapphic characters of color if their queerness in Afterlife were to carry over. On that note, I definitely feel like Toni deserves better.

She was initially introduced as a device to create friction between Betty and Jughead and tease a love triangle.

While she had some cool scenes after that and I myself liked the idea of Choni at first, Toni as a character has become eclipsed by that relationship. Her story now revolves around her white girlfriend, who has openly admitted to gaslighting her.

As of the latest episode, the little background she did have has seemingly been retconned.

I don’t really know where I was going with this. I guess it’s because when I see people criticize Riverdale, I mainly see it in relation to its over the top ridiculousness. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s totally fair for people to want more grounded stories, even in a show full of camp. I just think its treatment of characters of color and queer characters should be more central to its criticism because I feel marginalized representation should be prioritized over silly lines or fighting unseen bears.

#riverdale #riverdale discourse #queerbaiting #toni topaz #kevin keller #chuck clayton #josie and the pussycats #nancy woods #ginger lopez #afterlife with archie

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iamdatfilmbitch · 5 years

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When They See Us, Part Four

I was not ready for part four at all. In the first few minutes alone when Korey Wise hears he’s been found guilty on multiple charges, I died inside. That could be a testament to Jharrel Jerome’s acting, he was phenomenal this entire episode and the entire series. I felt the anger in Korey’s soul when he lunged towards the prosecutors, screaming “YOU LIED ON ME!” I felt the fear in his heart about having to go to jail. All he wanted this whole time was to go home. But little did I know that he wouldn’t see home for about another 13 years, the longest sentence of the five boys.

This episode alone taught me a lot about the legal and prison systems. For instance, Korey was the oldest of the boys at 16, and because of this, he was legally able to be charged as an adult. At 16, Korey can’t buy cigarettes, he can’t drink alcohol, and he can’t legally consent to sex, but he’s an adult when it comes to prison sentences. The stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. So while the other four boys were sent to juvenile detention centers, Korey was sent to Riker’s Island. He was surrounded by men maybe twice his age and twice his size. The other prisoners beat him up senselessly. Guards just stood by and watched; nurses just patched him up and sent him back to his cell. No one was any help.

Korey’s mother finally comes to visit after some time. She explains that it’s hard to get from Harlem to Riker’s Island. She tells him that she doesn’t have any money to add to his commissary account. I can’t believe prionsers have to pay for stuff like hygiene items or phone calls, and those like Korey who can’t afford it just have to go without it. Korey asked his mom if there was anything he can do to help, which crushed me. Imagine being a child, wrongfully imprisoned, and you’re trying to console your mother instead of the other way around. He tells her that he’ll request a transfer. Hopefully he’ll be moved to a jail closer to Harlem so that she could visit more, and maybe make this a little easier on her. But Korey went from being 7 miles away from Harlem to 352 miles away, as his transfer sent him upstate to Attica Correctional Facility.

At Attica, Korey is violently beat up yet again. The other prisoners heard he was a rapist, and damn near killed him for it. Korey learned at Riker’s that it’s safer to go to solitary confinement than the infirmary, so he requested this at Attica. We watch him heal, grow older, and grow crazy inside those four lonely walls. He begins talking to his transgender sister Marci who isn’t really there. Later on, he finds out she was murdered, a heartbreaking and common thing in the transgender community. We also see Korey suffer when the air conditioning breaks down, naked and burning up in that solitary box. There’s a moment of relief as a guard name Roberts befriends Korey. Roberts provides him with reading material and playing cards, and even lets him work in the facility as a janitor. The air conditioning comes back on, Korey’s scheduled for a parole hearing. Things are finally starting to look up for him. But then the parole board requests that he take full responsibility for his crimes before continuing the process. All hope is lost as we know this is something Korey cannot do, and I don’t blame him one bit.

Korey continues to go through the vicious cycle of the prison system: he requests transfers to try to be closer to home but still ends up far away. At each new facility, the other prisoners damn near kill him, and he requests solitary again. He still refuses to admit to his crimes and stops going to his parole hearings, deciding to just serve his maximum sentence. Eventually, Korey ends up at Auburn Correctional Facility where a prisoner named Matias Reyes recognizes him from a fight they had back at Attica. Reyes, seemingly a changed man, apologizes to Korey for that fight, and later on admits to the rape of the Central Park jogger! With the help of Manhattan prosecutor Nancy Ryan, Korey was set free, and all five boys were exonerated of all crimes in 2002. In 2014, they received a $41 million settlement from the city.

Although these men received a big settlement, no amount of money could make up for what they went through. They never received an apology from Trump, the police or the prosecutors involved. These assholes still don’t think they did anything wrong. They think Reyes was just an accomplice to the original five, even after he admitted and it was proven that he acted alone. I have no faith that the justice system will change. But I’m still grateful for this show because I know it’ll spark change within our community. Everything those corrupt cops did was illegal, and if we educate ourselves on our rights more, we can use that against them. If we educate ourselves on our finances more, we can afford lawyers who will take them down. Thank you Ava DuVernay and everyone involved for resurfacing this story. To Antron, Korey, Yusef, Kevin and Raymond, we see you. You are not the Central Park Five, you are the Exonerated Five, the Innocent Five. We stand by you and all the other Black and Latino people criminalized by the system ✊🏾

When They See Us, Part One

When They See Us, Part Two

When They See Us, Part Three

#when they see us #ava duvernay #central park five #central park jogger #netflix #antron mccray #yusef salaam #kevin richardson #raymond santana jr #korey wise #innocent five #exonerated five #black lives matter

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fuckyeahrebelfinn · 5 years

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@captainamericagf

Amanda I wanted to clear upa few things about IX’s shooting and John’s post ect and it’s going to be too damn long for your inbox, so here’s to hoping tumblr’s tagging decides to work.

(Also @vaderey)

Re: the tag FN2187 on John’s photo.

I’m sorry to say that that “only” signifies that it’s about Finn. John is a very inconsistent tagger who rarely tags at all and only at times where he finds whatever tag very central to the post. FN2187 have been his go to tag for Finn since TFA came out, probably because it’s the only truly unique identifier for Finn. If he just tagged #Finn it would drown in the thousands upon thousands of other Finns on Instagram, but there’s only one FN-2187.

So I hate to rain on everyone’s theories about a Stormtrooper uprising - including my own - but all that means is that whatever badassery was going on Finn was central to it, but with no indication of what kind of badassery it was.

Finn’s injuries:

As for the lack of plasma burns indicating anything can I just remind everyone that lightsaber injury to hands tend to result in not plasma burns but lost hands?

I mean look at all the plasma burns that Luke got in his duel with Vader at Cloud City?

Oh wait, that’s more cuts and bruises because Vader was throwing shit at him. Not to mention all we’ve seen was John’s hands. Nice jumping to conclusions there Anon.

Finally I have a very hard time seeing John being excited for a scene that kills off Finn. Not to mention, they’re nearly done shooting and given JJ’s preference for shooting as chronologically as possible this is likely something at the end of the movie. That John is still this excited about it all makes it look like IX might treat Finn well. Obviously nothing is certain and JJ may still end up butchering Finn’s storyline as much as Rian did, but that John even dares to display this level of confidence this late in the game make it seem to me that we may get an Episode IX that’s worth watching.

Re: Yavin IV.

Here people are really beginning to pass of complete speculations as facts :/

Yes IX is currently shooting at Cardington Air Sheds which was used as the sound stage for the Rebel base in both ANH and RO because it’s the biggest damned sounds stage in the UK and they needed the cavernous feel of the big interior of the Massassi temple. All them being at Cardington means it that they need a huge freaking sound stage, which given that all we’ve heard is that the sake on IX is massive doesn’t sound unlikely for say a really big battle.

Also the shooting at Cardington is done by Vic which means it’s scenery shoots or big battle panoramas, which again fits with the only named actor being spotted at Cardington being Joonas, the Finnish guy who’s inside Chewie.

And everything we’ve heard from Kevin Smith’s visit to the IX set as well as a goodly assortment of rumors says that IX is huge even for Star Wars, that we’re looking at something at a heretofore unprecedented scale. So big panorama shots and overviews of a gigantic ground battle does not sound implausible. It may or may not involve Yavin but we don’t know either way, personally I think it doesn’t and it’s all about size :P (for once).

Re: Rose and Loan.

This one is purely on that Anon leaping to the assumption that she’s not important, especially as John said “the entire crew” and they automatically assumed that wouldn’t include her. I know there’s not been much reports on her, but lets be real it’s because both fandom and media couldn’t care less about her or any of the characters of color. Come on, the only reason we occasionally hear anything about John is that he’s the only one still on social media apart from Mark (who for the record appears to have a minuscule role in IX) because media and fandom could on the whole not give fewer shits about anyone who isn’t Rey or Kylo.

That said I finally managed to dig out a good source of info on Loan and her movements on twitter (for those interested it’s named @dailytranloan). Between that and my own Googlemancy this is what it looks like:

Loan was spotted on multiple occasions in London in August and September, i.e. while IX was shooting at Pinewood. She drops out of sight about the time where the shooting moved to Wadi Rum but we have no clue if she went with them or not. She was only spotted in London once after the return of the shooting to England and New Year, but have been confirmed seen (photo evidence) three times between New Year and today.

So it looks like Rose may have a much bigger role in IX than anyone suspected and that she’s making it all the way to the end and beyond it.

I think that covers most of the things your anons have been throwing at you.

tl;dr John have been excited about IX since they started shooting, in fact before they started and his excitement and enthusiasm have only gone one way, up. If people are disinclined to trust him I’m not going to argue with them further but I’m beginning to believe that all those doomsday anons are not all in good faith and that a certain group of someones have begun trolling because it’s becoming increasingly clear that Finn is going to be the male lead in IX and be treated as such by the story. Which spells nothing but doom and judgement for a certain other character and we know how much they all only tolerate Finn when he’s safely ensconced as a side character.

I understand being worried about IX, damn bitch me too, but this constant cry of doom when we get something positive rings false to me.

Personally I’m going to take John’s word on it unless we get solid indications otherwise.

~Mod Mara

#john boyega #episode ix #rose tico #rebelfinn #kelly marie tran #loan tran #star wars: episode ix #star wars episode ix #jj abrams #vic mahoney #mod mara #epix #spoliers #jb #lt #jja #vm

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emperorsfoot · 6 years

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Osmosians

Whether you choose to accept the Omniverse ret-cons that Osmosians are mutant-Earthlings, or still remain loyal to the Alien Force/Ultimate Alien canon that they’re aliens, you have to agree that they deserve more development. One of the “core three” main characters is an “Osmosian” yet deplorably little is actually explained about them. Not only is that not fair to the character, its also just plain bad writing.

But this post isn’t complaining about that. This post is suggesting a Fan Theory and sharing a head canon.

Using Omniverse Ret-cons...

Osmosians are mutant-Earthlings:

Okay, so they’re not aliens. Osmosians are humans from Earth that just happen to have super-powers. That’s fine. This is fine.

But we should have been shown more of them. Other human-Earthlings with “Osmosian” powers. Or, if they didn’t want to create a whole bunch of other characters, then give us more information. Servantis seemed to know what he was talking about. Give us some statistics. “1 in every 11 people has the mutation”. Too common? Okay, the mutation is unique to [x] demographic, but only 1 in every 11 people in that demographic have the mutation.

If its a genetic mutation then it’s passed genetically. Mrs. Levin does not appear to manifest the gene, so how did Kevin get it? “Devin” Levin might not have ever existed, but he had to have some kind of father. Since Mrs. Levin doesn’t carry the mutation, it had to come from him. Is the Osmosian mutation attached to the Y-chromosome?

After all, all the Osmosians we actually see are male.

My main man, Kevin. Our central Osmosian!

Aggregor, our Osmosian warlord. Terror of the Andromeda Galaxy, Predator of Celestialsapians, and super-sexy badass spear-fighter. (Sure, because of the Omniverse ret-cons he’s no longer his own person but a failed “clone” of Kevin. Servantis trying to reproduce the Osmosian mutation. But he’s still one of only 4 Osmosians we ever see on screen.)

Devlin, Kevin’s son from the future who’s super cool and (much like the next one on this list) was only ever seen in ONE episode.

Finally, our sexy space-dad, Devin Levin. Sure, Devin doesn’t exist. But we actually get to see him on screen. That’s more than can be said about a lot of other characters that supposably exist in this franchise.

Now, one could easily just say, “Renkon, you’re thinking too hard. We don’t see any other Osmosians because its a NEW mutation. For all we know, Kevin is the first. That’s why all the Osmosians are directly related to Kevin. That’s why Servantis took it upon himself to coin the name ‘Osmosian’ in the first place.”

Well, ya know what, you’re probably right.

But I have an alternate theory!

And now, the actual Fan Theory:

So, in the original series, Max says that almost all of Earths myths and legends can actually trace their origins to alien encounters. I suggest that Osmosians are old as any other Earthling myth. Just nobody noticed because the myth -and Osmosians themselves- are from a small ethnic group that has been marginalized (and persecuted) consistently across human history.

I have said it before on this blog, but “Levin” is a Jewish name.

And guess what, we Jews have a mythical monster that actually fits Kevin’s powers pretty damn well!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, גולם the golem.

But what makes the golem such a good fit for Kevin? Allow me to explain.

Golems are mostly male. There are a few instances of creatures fitting golem characteristics that are female. But, over all, the vast majority of golem we see in the mythical canons are male -just like every damn Osmosian we actually get to see in canon is male.

Golem are not creatures for “good times”. They are meant to be threatening and ominous figures. Rather like Kevin. Yeah, he’s a good guy, but he’s also got a dark streak to him. He’s edgy, and dangerous, and violent, and kinda gets off on people being afraid of him.

But while they might be dark and threatening figures, golem are not malevolent creatures. In fact, they’re guardians and protectors. All that ominousness and intimidation is for the purpose of deterring outright attacks and intentional harm to the Jewish people. Now think about Kevin and how territorial and defensive he is. Ben raises his voice to Gwen, Kevin turns around and tells him to shut the fuck up and respect her. Kevin’s house is destroyed and he straight up murders the guy who did it. Just imagine literally any scene when his car is involved. Kevin is territorial and protective, just like a golem.

Finally, lets talk powers.

Golem are creatures molded from cray, or sculpted from stone. They are stone men. And Kevin’s most used power is the ability to absorb and copy stone (among other materials that would make acceptable golem).

But that’s not it. Golem are also supposed to be shape-shifters. And what’s Kevin’s second favorite power?

His shape shifting.

And, let us not forget that Kevin was shapeshifting before he ever learned to control it.

“Osmosians” are actually golem, or at the very least the decedents of golem, and the “Osmosian mutation” or “golem gene” is attached to the Y-chromosome which is why the only Osmosians we ever actually see are male.

So, that’s my theory.

Y’all are free to disagree with it. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of you will disagree with me. But I’ve been thinking about this for a while and felt it was about time I shared.

Obviously, Kevin himself is secular.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t be of Jewish decent and descended from a line of golem. Or that “Osmosians” are just what a stupid goy like Servantis calls golem.

[ Part 2 of this post can be read HERE ]

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dcarevu · 5 years

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DCAU: Beware the Gray Ghost

“When crime haunts the night, a silent crusader carries the torch of justice. Those with evil hearts beware for out of the darkness comes the Gray Ghost!”

Batman meets his influence, while simultaneously, in a way, meeting himself from another universe. How is this possible? Find out next time, same bat-time, same bat-channel! Well, okay, maybe not, you could just scroll down… So was this episode a tired, old has-been or a star worth remembering?

Episode: 18 Robin: No Writer(s): Garin Wolf (Teleplay), Tom Ruegger (Teleplay/Story), Dennis O’Flaherty (Story) Director: Boyd Kirkland Animator: Spectrum Airdate: November 4, 1992 Grade: A

Beware the Gray Ghost is a fantastic episode of Batman the Animated Series with something there to satisfy the older and newer fans, bridging the gap between them. And in fact, historically, it kinda did just that, bringing new respect to a certain actor who guest starred in this one! It is also an episode that I noticed has a very distinct feel to it, turning it into a tribute to not only the old Batman show from the 60’s, but also just old, Twilight Zone-esque noir crime shows in general. The music, the plot, some of the more subtle details, it’s all there. But instead of using these to craft some sort of parody or critique, it all ends up being a very respectful look at days past while undoubtedly still being Batman the Animated Series.

“The Graaaaaayyyyy Ghost!”

Spectrum animation is back with this one (which is odd, because apparently they shut down after bankrupting themselves with Heart of Ice… Anyone know how this all worked?), but in addition to that, my copy of Batman the Animated Series on Blu Ray just arrived! I couldn’t be happier that the first episode we watched on Blu Ray was a Spectrum episode. This created a very noticeable leap in animation quality. I’ll go more into detail at the end of this post also, giving my basic first impressions on how the Blu Ray release stacks up against the DVD one. But yeah, I’ll say it right now, it makes the show go from beautiful to breathtaking. Some of the color-usage in this episode is the best the show had done up to this point, and a variety of styles was used.

We have the scenes which are in exclusively black and white (displayed when we get a look at the original Grey Ghost tv show), we have the sepia-toned bits showing Bruce Wayne’s childhood, we have the bloody reds when explosions and fires happen (fire count!), and then we have the typical dark-deco look of the show. They all flow together seamlessly, and you can’t help but admire how realized this episode must have been before it was finished and then aired on TV. I cannot think of a single way I would improve the look of this one, aside from one or two funky-looking shots of Batman.

One of the few funky shots of Batman...

...but they’re made up for by how awesome some of the other shots are.

The closest to a perfect episode (animation-wise) you’re gonna get. Period. Char (again, my watching-buddy, and DCAU-virgin) pointed out the animation for when Batman and Grey Ghost are hauling ass away from the exploding remote-controlled cars too. Very dynamic angles were used that only studios like Spectrum and TMS could have pulled off.

If Akom worked on this scene, it would have been such a disaster. Speaking of Akom, now I’m thinking of their version of an explosion/fire vs Spectrum’s. Just for funzies, let us compare shall we?

From The Cat and the Claw (Part 2).

These next few are from Beware the Gray Ghost.

The difference is quite clear. One makes you jump out of your seat in awe. The other makes you jump out of your seat because you’re about to upchuck your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When I mentioned earlier something about this episode never straying into parody-territory, well, it does not necessarily look back at the genre/Batman show and play it completely seriously either. They walked a thin line between both and decided to put Bruce Wayne into a setting that we can all relate to; sitting in front of the tv, watching your favorite show before bed.

The Gray Ghost in this story isn’t an old, retired superhero, or a superhero turned villain. He’s an actor, and one that played in a somewhat dated, silly “superhero” drama. This immediately adds a sense of seriousness and realness to it while also managing to not let the cornier aspects go. Both worlds exist in this episode. The whacky Gray Ghost show, and the noir, gothic world of Batman the Animated Series. They don’t necessarily have to merge in a typical way and clash tones, because they are able to reference and display the Gray Ghost show as fictional. The way it’s used makes it all relatable, and it gives us a look at what influenced the dark knight, along with a borderline-tragic story about the downsides of fame and being known for one thing and one thing only. Batman may seem super-powered to the many thugs that he battles in the alleyways, but he is a human just like you and I, one that did have a childhood at one point. Even if that childhood was tragically ended with a few bullets. Batman feeling the level of nostalgia that he feels in the episode is so god damn adorable, and it’s another moment, much like The Cat and the Claw, where we see him being Bruce Wayne, not Batman, but also somehow being himself. It's that middle ground between the brooding, shadowy figure and the rich, chillax playboy.

A smile we rarely get to see.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Bruce acknowledges the cheesiness of the explosion causes.

While Batman is enjoying his childhood tv show, at one point almost seeming to forget why he’s watching it in the first place, we see Alfred subtly bringing that memory to life even more. Batman may no longer have a father, but Alfred is the closest thing he could ever hope for. TV superheroes clearly are not Alfred’s thing. He even mentions that fact when he says he prefers his fireplace to a black and white screen. But that’s not the point. The point is that Bruce is being transported back to feeling the warmth and protection of a father figure, while throwing out all of his worries for a bit and feeling a sense of thrill and enjoyment. Alfred seems to understand this. He knows Bruce more than anyone else could. Almost all of the flashbacks we see in this show are sad ones. And that gives the ones like this so much more power.

Alright, now, for those of you who don’t know (like all two of you), this episode has the very special guest star, Adam West. To me, this elevates the episode immensely, and strengthens the central themes and thesis tenfold. We go from a story about an actor being kind of a one-trick pony to the same story being told by someone who lived it. We go from a story where Batman gets to meet his idol to that same story featuring that very idol. And not just an idol to Batman, but an idol to many kids and adults who were around when Batman was still airing. Even those who went back and watched it later! Hell, when I was 5 or 6, I watched the shit out of Batman: The Movie, and I’m only 23. And y’know, we have things like Catman in The Fairly Oddparents, and the Fearless Ferret episode of Kim Possible. I’m not knocking on those, but damn, Adam West had to get tired of Batman goofs at some point. In fact, the team behind Batman the Animated Series was a little bit nervous that he wouldn’t wanna participate. But I’d be willing to bet that this episode made him feel good.

The Gray Ghost kinda reminds me of Arthur from The Tick. Great shot here, by the way.

The Gray Ghost is posed in the same way as Batman in the end credits. Such a cool detail that I actually missed my first time watching.

I love that despite wanting to stay far away from 60’s Batman vibes, the team wasn’t ready to dismiss it as bogus. And I get the sense that maybe Batman’s reverence in this episode is not only representative of all the Batman fans’, but also that of the crew behind Batman the Animated Series. They wanted Adam West to feel welcomed, and like the show wouldn’t exist without him (because it likely wouldn’t). So honestly, hats off to them. To further show a lack of satire, it wouldn’t surprise me if that is why Bruce Timm’s voice and image was used for the main villain.

Bruce Timm’s voice acting wasn’t the best, and I’d be willing to bet that he hated doing it, hahaha. Still a really fun nutjob of a character.

I’ll relate it to the episode of The Nostalgia Critic where he squares up against Mara Wilson. Mara Wilson, in real life, saw a Nostalgia Critic video about one of her films, and was kinda offended by it. But through a series of events, she and Doug Walker (the main creator and actor of NC) ended up cool, and he even put her in one of his videos! To make it even better, he actually had her play the antagonist, or probably more accurately, the protagonist. She basically ended up embarrassing and getting even with the Critic character in the episode. It’s still one of Doug’s favorite episodes to this day, and I have a feeling that he set the plot up like this to show her that he actually respects her quite a bit, and to soften the blow of the shit he’s thrown her way over the years. The team behind Batman the Animated Series may have done a similar thing in making Adam West’s character, along with Kevin’s Batman, defeat Bruce Timm’s character together, and if that’s the case, I love it. Not only does Adam West get the admiration of their version of Batman, but he also gets to help Bruce Timm’s character get his comeuppance. And then, of course, West’s character gets the attention he deserves at the end.

I know this is a video release, but it looks a lot like a thicker Blu Ray case. Kinda like, well, the Blu Ray release of Batman TAS!

Oh wow, never noticed this foreshadowing either. Matt Hagen will be a name that we’ll see pop up in a couple of episodes.

Garin Wolf, Tom Ruegger, and Dennis O’Flaherty obviously treaded carefully, but likely without even thinking about it. Because it is so genuine-seeming and charming. And honestly, thank you, Adam West, for being such a great sport throughout all the time you were alive. I wish there could have been another official DCAU tribute after his death, but this being the one thing we got should be more than great enough for any Batman or comic book fan out there.

This dude was pretty obviously voiced by Alfred’s voice actor. Times when having a voice with so much character takes me out of the show!

A look at some of the Gray Ghost episodes. I’d kill for a Gray Ghost animated series, following what we have shown here.

Wow, that Batmobile is awfully close to the ground.

Just a nice still. Boy does he ever look like a classic pulp costumed crimefighter. They nailed his design.

A picture of Bruce Timm after he saw the finished product of I’ve Got Batman In My Basement.

Before I go, I’d like to, yes, mention the Blu Ray copy of the show I just received! So far, I’m mixed on it. While the visual and audio quality is mostly superior, there are a few moments of a shot being too bright or whatever. Also, I don’t know, I think that the dirtiness is part of what made the original show look so charming, and it was truly meant to be seen on the technology that was around at the time. Everything is so crisp now, and it just doesn’t look as old as it once did. On the other hand…they got rid of the spot above Batman’s lip during the theme song! Hot damn! That makes it about 10x easier to sleep at night… From what I understand, there are also some new special features and such that I can’t wait to view. All of the old ones are there too, which brings me to the pilot, The Dark Knight’s First Night. I was really, really, really hoping that they would bring in the original sound for it. On the volume 1 DVD, I was always kinda weirded out that it said the original music and sounds were lost. I mean, as far as the music goes…it’s just music from the 1989 Batman film, how hard can that be to get ahold of..? Hell, one of the versions on Youtube has the original music and sounds, so what gives? Could it be a copyright issue or something? I don’t know, but this same problem exists on the Blu Ray release too. Kind of a shame. Oh, but wait, as a plus, this complete series doesn’t just include every episode, but it also comes with Mask of the Phantasm and Subzero! I hate when complete series box sets don’t come with the movies that are just as much part of the series. This is an incredibly consistent problem across basically every tv show ever, and I get why it’s a thing, but it still annoys me. This problem doesn’t exist with Batman the Animated Series any longer. Well. Kinda. Mystery of the Batwoman is strangely…not included? I know that this one was technically released much later, and I also remember it sucking, but it’s still a part of the show! Why not include it? Personally, if I were in charge, I also would have thrown in Batman and Harley Quinn too, but believe me, I wasn’t banking on that one. I can forgive its absence. Overall, though, I’m super happy to own this, and even though I’ve seen all of Batman the Animated Series already, this gives me something new to enjoy with it. Also, even though it’s not a perfect release, I think I still consider it a step up over watching the show on DVD. At least, if we’re talking flat screen TVs (watching the entire show on VHS would be awesome, honestly). I give the Blu Ray release a B. Maybe a low A.

Char’s grade: A Fire count: 9

Next time: Prophecy of Doom Full episode list here!

#batman tas #batman the animated series #batman #beware the gray ghost #the gray ghost #gray ghost #dcau #dc animated universe #adam west

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jbuffyangel · 6 years

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The Weekly Rundown (10/07/18-10/13/18)

Sorry so late! I’m getting caught up on articles. Almost there :) Time to rundown what I’m watching, loving, hating and everything in between! Spoilers ahead!

God Friended Me (”The Good Samaritan”)

Confession time: I didn’t pay very close attention to this week’s episode, but Miles and Cara continue to be adorable. Pretty sure I ship it.

Manifest (”Turbulence”)

I’m not really feeling the chemistry between Josh Dallas and Athena Karkanis. However, the chemistry between Melissa Roxburgh and JR Ramirez is smoldering.

Josh Dallas is my blue eye baby who makes me feel all the things. He conveyed so many emotions without saying a word in the scene where Ben and Grace discussed the man in her life. WOW!

I want to believe Grace is in love with Ben and not Danny (because it's Josh Dallas and that's all the reason she needs), but I'm not buying it... yet

The whole twins being different ages is a never ending mind bender.

Seriously though what did Ben do for a living?

The Gifted (“coMplications”)

All I want is for Marcos to hold Dawn forever and snuggle with Lorna. Why can’t I have the things that I want?

But seriously though these Marcos and baby scenes are killing me.

Marcos fighting the Frost sister’s mind control was amazing. He was ready to tear everything apart to get his Lorna and his baby. SO HOT.

Andy, buddy what are you doing? Sure, they gave you a better hair cut and cool clothes, but Reeva is crazy. Tell me you know that boy!

I’m having trouble understanding why Reed didn’t want to tell his wife and daughter his powers were coming back. He has two mutant children! They tried to equate Lauren’s fear of “coming out” to Reed’s but it’s just not the same. He was her parent and he hunted mutants. She legitimately feared her father’s rejection. Reed isn’t in the same situation at all and I see no reason to for him to be lying to everyone for months.

Kate hugs Reed once he tells her the truth, which is nice, but were we really expecting her to reject him? Did the writers forget they have two mutant children?

The Gifted blew past all the build up to Clarice and John’s relationship and now they’ve sewn the seeds for the break up - in the third episode. This whole “Clarice is a spy for the Erg and lies to John about it” storyline is only going one place. John is doing his fair share of lying and pushing Clarice away. Needless to say I am unhappy with how this relationship is being handled.

F.B.I. (“Green Birds” and “Prey”)

Finally got caught up on F.B.I. I thought “Prey” was a much stronger episode than “Green Birds.”

I am so glad they cast Sela Ward! I love her. Her character is much more likable as Maggie and Omar’s boss.

I’m here for Omar doing hot things because Omar is hot. I feel warm every time he talks about his military experience.

Still a little iffy about this show, but I’ll stick with it for now.

This Is Us (Katie Girls)

The depth of my hate for Jack's father knows no bounds.

"Or you can stay and I'll kill him." Honestly, I was okay with that option too Jack.

Randall is a mess watching his brother's movie and I stan this bromance so hard.

I am really freaking glad Randall is taking Kate on because I AM SO MAD AT HER.

Well that conversation swerved quickly. Stay on point Randall.

Okay well now we're off on a whole other thing and Kate is crying. Good grief children.

Not sure how Randall & Kate's discussion became a fight about adoption. The point was to discuss Kate's insensitivity regarding her remark about being the only person able to pass on Jack's genes. How did she turn it into Randall's insensitivity about her miscarriage?

Beth, Miguel and Toby having a group text to discuss their messed up in laws is AMAZING.

Randall is terrible at apologizing but also WHY IS HE APOLOGIZING?

I'm trying to hang with my girl Kate here. I've had a miscarriage and it's devastating, but your personal pain is not an excuse to be hurtful to others. Understanding where Randall was coming from was not a long bridge to cross.

I am so relating to Kevin putting the pieces together regarding Jack's service.

Beth got fired? NOOOOOO. My Beth!

Toby's reaction to Randall showing up was gold.

KATE AND JACK ARE DREAM SEQUENCING AND I AM NOT OKAY. Btw Jack could you advise Kate to stop being such a jackass to Randall? Thanks bro.

Awkward Rebecca and Jack is the worst. You are soul mates kids. Get it together.

Jack wants to marry you Rebecca and have lots and lots of babies. You are his dream.

I hope Randall and Beth have 9 months of savings. Suze Orman says you need 9 months of savings.

Marriage is never 50/50. But I think Beth and Randall have been going 90/10 for awhile and it's time for that ratio to shift.

I love how the writers find commonality in their characters in ways you never thought of before. Randall and Toby sharing their struggles with depression and anxiety was such a beautiful way to bond these characters

Kate wanted to marry Mark Paul Gosselar. Same girl.

"You came across the country to say you are sorry. That's the most Dad move ever." HELLO KATE. NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN. You could have added that he didn't need to apologize and you are the one who is sorry but I don't want to editorialize too much. Carry on.)

Rebecca pulled a Jack Pearson on Jack Pearson. EPIC.

Marry you the man who does dishes.

A Million Little Things (”Save The Date”)

HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP. THEY. ALL. FOUND. OUT. That was fast y’all! Wow!

If we’re blowing past the big affair secret does that mean we’ll find out the reason John killed himself? It’s an annoying mystery. Cough up the answers, show.

All the awards to Grace Park. She’s been sadly under utilized on this show until now and boy did she come out swinging. The scenes where she confronts Eddie and Delilah were amazing.

I cheered when Grace slapped Eddie. I have no sympathy for him. He’s cheating because his wife is gone at work all the time? It’s called a mortgage jackass. Guitar lessons aren’t going to get it done.

It irritates me when people act like they have no choice in who they sleep with. Eddie is walking around like falling in love with Delilah was an accident. Listen pal you are a grown ass man. You made choices. Own it. Cheating is such a mean thing to do. Nobody is forcing anyone to stay in these marriages. Get a divorce before you go hopping into bed with someone else.

I’m only slightly less angry with Delilah but that’s only because her husband jumped off a building. Her scene where she screams to friends to ask if she was the reason John killed himself was gutting. Guit is a bitch.

By the way, even if Jon made his peace with the affair it doesn’t make the affair okay. Also, nobody asked for Katherine’s opinon. Pretty sure she’d tell everyone where to stick if if they’d did though.

I feel like Gary is representing the audience in this episode, i.e. me. I don’t think the writers needed to muddy the water with Gary’s issues with marriage, his parents divorce and his birthday. I understand Jon and Delilah were his shining example of marriage bliss, but we didn’t need to make this about his childhood trauma. His anger was warranted by itself. Delilah and Eddie did an awful thing.

We need to move it along with Maggie’s storyline. She’s the friends-with-benefit-rando-friend-everyone-just-met-but-pretend-like-they’ve-known-her-since-always. Her impermanence in all of these people’s lives makes the level she’s included in things... odd. Let’s get the cancer out in the open and solidify her relationships - particularly with Gary.

Blindspot (“Hella Duplicitous”)

Jane's hair is long. That's how ya know she's evil again

Seriously how do they not know Remi is back? She's so cranky. Jane is much more cheerful. Also, I feel like her voice is three octaves lower.

Remi can fight with samurai swords. Who knew? A list of all of her skills would be great.

Do I call her Remi or Jane y'all? I'm going with Remi for now.

Remi's impression of Jane being worried about Kurt was pretty spot on. Well played evil one.

Anyone else enjoying Remi looking all murdery every time anyone mentions Roman is dead? Same girl. Except I'm sad Luke Mitchell isn't on the show anymore not murdery because that'd be weird.

Jane's dying except she's Remi so like that's a double dose of suck.

Oh score. Cure. This is like Elena being vampire. They'll fix it. I ain't worried. Imma gonna get Jeller babies. Or should I say PLEEEEEEEEEASE give me Jeller babies.

OH MY GOD SHE'S HALLUCINATING ROMAN. Luke Mitchell IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so here for Roman being the crazy voice in Jane/Remi's head.

Sorry Remi. Your super evil terrorist group is canceled. Sorry not sorry girl. Watch Season 1-Season 3 and catch up girl.

Two Sandstorm operatives is more like a club than a terrorist group, but okay Remi. Gotta start somewhere I guess.

It's weird that the cure is re-erasing Remi's memories but also let's re-erase Remi's memories. I ain't a fan.

Damn. Blake is dead? That... was unexpected. Okay so now I'm imagining that Blake and Roman are happy in heaven together. Leave me to my dream.

Kurt is scared... I love you my cupcake.

Wiping her memory and meeting Kurt Weller was the best thing that ever happened to Remi because she's not nice and Jane is awesome. Kudos to Blindspot for reinforcing their central love story while also wreaking absolute havoc on it.

Is Zapata evil now? Is everybody evil now?

Weitz is director. Ugh.

"You can't keep watching me all the time." Girl, he does that when you are totally healthy. Kurt Weller giving Jane fuzzy bunny stares is the show. Seriously, someone show Remi S1-S3.

Haha. She squeezed Kurt too hard to hurt him. What a bitch. Also awesome.

Zapata's smile when she sees Reade on TV. Girl go home.

Rich and Patterson are gonna cure Jane using Santa magic and it's gonna be friggin awesome.

Reciting the wedding video is creepy Remi.

Noooo.... don't break out Mama Shepherd. She be crazier than you Remi and at this point that's saying A LOT.

#manifest #this is us #a million little things #FBI #god friended me #the gifted #blindspot #the weekly rundown review #weekly rundown reviews

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valeriemperez · 6 years

Note

CP loves the idea of suiting up this episode. So let's all shower her with love as well with #RunIrisRun. The haters are @ing her more frequently on IG and Twitter lately.

Yes, please use #RunIrisRun in all your #TheFlash tweets tonight, and be sure to @ candice and the writers with love every once in awhile.

Another tip: if you have friend/family/fellow students/sorority sisters/coworkers etc who don’t watch the show, ask them to tune in to that episode as a special favor to you. And if they have social media, post that they’re watching especially etc

Good idea. More people tweeting, as well as posting on Facebook and Instagram, and being positive about Iris in #TheFlash hashtag is key.

Do you have any guesses as to why Iris suddenly has super speed? Speedster babies? Freaky Friday switch with Barry? The Thinker’s master plan?

My options are pretty much: A) Meta transfers Barry’s powers to her, B) Barry is able to share his powers with her, C) She takes Velocity 9 because the city needs a speedster and Barry’s out of commission, or D) She’s pregnant with his Speedster babies.

A half hour passing by to wait for Iris the 2nd day is probably 10,000 years to Barry as a speedster. He always gets excited when he gets to see Iris, but I don’t know how he hasn’t died of boredom giving the slowness of time………. actually, nevermind. I think I answered my own question. 😄

LOL, the excitement of getting to see her for those 15 minutes keeps him alive through the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of boredom.

So do we know that it’s science that will give Iris speed? Because then she could get it again in the future, right? OMG!!!

I don’t know, but I consider metas as part of the “science” umbrella because that’s how they came into existence.

Given that Iris’ powers are temporary, I wonder if her speedsuit might get passed onto Dawn, or if she’ll maybe even run into Dawn while she has super speed. (And if she does have the suit, that could be another clue about her identity.)

Aww, that would be super cute.

I hope Iris saves Central City and gets a Jitters drink named after her. :o)

Damn right!

I don’t know if this question has been asked, but is it possible that Devoe was going to be a speedster when he was struck by lightning, but the speed force rejected him and chose Barry instead?

It’s totally possible. If Devoe somehow knows that, it would explain his fixation on Barry. We’re still waiting for him to unveil his plan, so it’s hard to guess.

I’ve been seeing some people on Twitter using #RunIrisRun in random, positive conversations and it made me smile.

Good. I hope everyone keeps using it until the episode airs in March!

To that Anon worried about the writers here’s something to remember. Just because people tweet things to the writers doesn’t mean they will a) care or b) do anything about it. I out of curiosity went to Sterling G*tes and Thomas P*und Twitter likes and they mostly liked positive tweets about WA and Iris and Ralph. To be honest it’s what the writers like and pay attention to that should be the main concern. So we can keep spreading positive tweets but we don’t have to live in a constant panic.

This is something people forget. The writers enjoy their work, so no matter which side hates what, the writers have to be motivated by their own drive and can’t rely on us.

Re the Flash ratings situation, I think people need to keep in mind that lower rated shows tend to have low, but very consistent ratings (i.e Kevin probably). However, higher rated shows tend to have lots of movement throughout the season. For example, This Is Us started the season with 13 million viewers, and a freaking 4.0 in the demo. The most recent episode had 9.4 million and a 2.5 in the demo. However, it’s not a flop. The variance is always larger with more successful shows.

Very true. The lower your ratings are, the more consistent they need to be. Flash is the only show on the CW that can afford to fluctuate the way it does, but I still don’t want it going any lower.

Haters can hate Iris all they want, but leave CP out of it. They sound like petty little shitbags, getting mad at an actress for reading some lines.

They give themselves away every time.

Snowbaffoons are never really “Original Team Flash” because they tend to leave Cisco out of most scenarios. They just want their precious Snowbaffoon, because they are so obsessed with hating a black female character and her actress. I say we keep trending for Iris from now until the episode. Either way, the writers don’t give a shit.

Yes, ignore them and keep trending for Iris.

Tears. Delicious tears. Haters have been trying to get rid of CP before we could see her as Iris on TV. Their hatred and jealousy is eating them alive.

Meanwhile, we keep being fed.

#the flash #iris west #anonymous #tatiana's thoughts #long post for ts #more asks under the cut

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samanthasroberts · 6 years

Text

6 Shockingly Dumb Reasons People Invented Famous Characters

You would think that every pop culture creation would come about one of two ways: as the result either of sudden inspiration from a creative genius, or of a laborious corporate process involving dozens of designs and focus groups. But in reality, famous creators have ideas the same way the rest of us do: via random thoughts, laziness, or last-minute desperation. For example …

#6. G.I. Joe‘s Snake Eyes Was Created To Save Paint

Snake Eyes, the silent ninja commando from the G.I. Joe series, has been a fan favorite ever since his debut, because children love characters who wear cool helmets and never say anything. And hell, look at him!

Eat your parentless heart out, Batman.

But Snake Eyes’ popularity is made all the more remarkable by the fact he only exists because a toy company was too cheap and lazy to paint a damn action figure.

And somewhere, a young Quentin Tarantino gets the idea for The Gimp …

G.I. Joe started as a comic, but it wasn’t long before toy company Hasbro’s profit senses started tingling, and they began to belch out action figures in a stream of screaming plastic vomit. But soon, the toys would come first, then were inserted into the comic as characters — they were simply a bunch of generic soldier designs painted different colors and hastily given names and backstories, because children don’t give a shit.

The most impressive thing about Hasbro’s G.I. Joe line was their dedication to maximizing their profit margins, and nowhere is this more evident than the design for Snake Eyes. To save money, they didn’t even paint the toy. It was churned out entirely in the same shade of black as the plastic that came out of the vat. Their explanation? Oh, he’s a ninja or something.

Because all ninjas carry MAC-11s and wear mini-satchels.

Amazingly, in spite of the fact his creation took less effort and imagination than putting a cape on a potato, Snake Eyes went on to become one of the most beloved characters in the Joe franchise. “He’s so dark and mysterious!” Sure, kids. Oh, and look, here’s his “invisible motorcycle”! Vroom!

#5. Batman’s Harley Quinn Was Created For A Throwaway Joke That Was Never Used

Most fans know that Harley Quinn, one of the most popular characters in the Batman universe, did not originate in the comics. Her first appearance was in Batman: The Animated Series, in one of the rare examples of an adaptation that donates a character to the source material, sort of like how Norman Reedus was created for The Walking Dead TV show and gradually began to appear in other movies.

But in case you think that Harley Quinn was brought about by some stroke of creative genius, think again. Her creators never had anything significant in mind for her. She was made solely because the show’s writers needed the Joker to have a female henchman in order to make one gag in a single episode make sense. And then they didn’t even wind up using the joke.

Or her original design, thankfully.

Quinn’s first appearance in the series came in the 1992 episode “Joker’s Favor.” The idea was that the Joker would make an attempt on Commissioner Gordon’s life at his birthday party by having a girl with a gun jump out of a giant cake, effectively ruining the Commissioner’s big day. Harley Quinn was created to be the person in the cake. You may recognize this as the same role Erika Eleniak played in Under Siege.

’92 was a big year for faux-pastry eroticism.

But while the episode was already in production, the writers decided that it would be funnier to have the Joker himself pop out of the cake rather than some ditzy dame, so they changed the script to make that happen. Rather than go to the trouble of removing Harley Quinn completely, since they’d already written her into the script and everything, they diminished her role to that of a background member of Joker’s gang, fully intending to never use the character again.

To everyone’s surprise, viewers loved Harley Quinn, so the writers brought her back for future episodes, and her popularity grew to the point that DC comics made her part of the official Batman canon. Granted, the official Batman canon also includes Batman turning into a weretiger and the Joker becoming an Iranian diplomat, but still.

#4. Shredder From Ninja Turtles Was Inspired By A Cheese Grater

The Shredder, the eternal nemesis of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is a scowling Japanese man dressed in spiked metal armor like Road Warrior Hawk and/or Animal. As best we can tell, he never takes this armor off, even when he’s just hanging around the Technodrome in between battles. When you think about it, there’s nothing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that doesn’t sound like it was inspired by a late night of pizza and beer. Every aspect of the original comic created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird can be boiled down to a conversation that begins with “Hey man, wouldn’t it be funny if …”

Lots of beer.

The Shredder is no exception. According to Eastman, the inspiration for the character came to him one night when he was washing the dishes. There’s no word on how astronomically high he probably was at the time, but while washing one of those flat cheese graters with a handle, he gripped it like a wrist guard and remarked to Laird about how cool it would be for a character to wear them as part of a costume.

Considering how much pizza cheese that suit could generate, it’s a better design for an ally of the turtles.

“We could call him the Grater,” Eastman suggested. Luckily, Laird was either less stoned or generally more level-headed, and came up with “the Shredder” instead, which sounds more like a villainous ninja and less like an irritating shift supervisor. The two then went ahead and wrote a villain into their comic who wore cheese graters all over his body, and a pop culture legend / impossible-to-find action figure was born.

#3. Pac Man’s Inspiration Came From A Pizza

Back when video games were first invented, brainstorming meetings resembled an insane game of Mescaline Libs — which is like Mad Libs, only played with 100 percent more mescaline. “A plumber who gains strength from mushrooms and dodges barrels thrown at him by a gorilla at a construction site? Sure, why not? Kids’ll buy any goddamn thing we tell them to.” Any random object that a programmer saw in their day-to-day life could become the central component of a video game pitch, and Pac Man started in that exact way.

Back in the ’80s, Namco employee Toru Iwatani sat down to eat a delicious pizza. Upon removing the first slice, Iwatani remarked on how much the rest of the pizza now looked like a face with an open mouth. Anyone else would brush off this casual thought with the realization that sometimes stuff kind of looks like other stuff, but Iwatani’s mind started racing about the potential for a video game in which a pizza runs around a maze eating dots (see “mescaline,” above).

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that all life’s problems can’t be solved with pizza.

Quickly, this spark of inspiration ran through the usual hamster wheel of increasing absurdity until it became the story of a sentient pizza man eating his way through a maze while being pursued by vengeful ghosts. Iwatani pitched the idea as “Pakkuman” — “Pakku” being the Japanese onomatopoeia sound for eating. When the game was brought to the west, it became “Puck Man” (because “Chomp Man” would’ve sounded ridiculous and we are a nation of sober adults) and eventually “Pac Man.” And so, one of the most iconic characters in video game history was born — insofar as Pac Man can be called a “character.”

#2. Teen Titans‘ Wonder Girl Came About Because The Writer Never Bothered To Read Wonder Woman

Back in the 1960s, DC writer Bob Haney noticed that basically every major superhero on the company’s roster had a teenage sidekick, and thought it would be interesting to have them all team up. The idea became Teen Titans, and it initially starred Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, who somehow had neither drowned nor been swallowed by a whale at this point. However, Haney eventually decided to rope in the rest of the Justice League’s abandoned plus-ones, including Wonder Woman’s lesser-known sidekick Wonder Girl.

It’s in Robin’s contract that he always gets to be the most scantily-dressed team member.

But Haney apparently didn’t actually read the comics that featured Wonder Girl. Otherwise, he would have realized that she wasn’t a sidekick at all. Wonder Girl was Wonder Woman back when she was a teenager. This would be like drafting a team of Back To The Future characters and treating old Marty and young Marty as two separate people. See, in the ’50s, DC put Wonder Woman in a bunch of bizarre paradoxical time-travel adventures in which she teamed up with two younger versions of herself (one as a teenager and one as a baby) and her mother, and they fought dragons and swordfish, because these are comic books and not gold-leafed tomes of literature.

Remember what we said about the early video game industry? Double that for Silver Age comics.

Haney evidently only glanced the covers of these issues, because he couldn’t be expected to read a comic about a bunch of women. Consequently, he wrote Wonder Girl into the Teen Titans as a completely separate character. Infant Wonder Woman (named Wonder Tot, because comic books excel at being comic books) missed out on a Teen Titans membership card for some reason.

Well, maybe if Wonder Tot had stuck the goddamn landing …

However, fans of Wonder Woman quickly pointed out this bizarre blunder, and DC was forced to hastily retcon Wonder Girl’s backstory. It turns out that this Wonder Girl is a different person after all — a girl named Donna Troy who developed Amazonian powers and decided to take on the mantle. Because in comics, there’s no corner out of which you cannot write yourself.

#1. Where The Wild Things Are Was Created Because The Author Had Trouble Drawing Horses

Ordinarily, if you pitch a children’s book about a little boy getting stranded on an island filled with gigantic, grotesque monsters, international law requires you to phone Roald Dahl and ask for his permission first. Also, your mind’s eye will probably conjure up an image that is more H.P. Lovecraft than Richard Scarry. Author Maurice Sendak turned this concept into the beloved children’s book Where The Wild Things Are — which, incidentally, is full of illustrations that look like H.P. Lovecraft and Richard Scarry got into a fierce doodling war on the same cocktail napkin.

Lovecraft won.

But in Sendak’s original vision for the book, the titular “wild things” weren’t monsters at all; they were horses. He originally pitched the idea to his editor as Where The Wild Horses Are, and was given the green light to write and illustrate it. Unfortunately, several months into the project, it became increasingly obvious that Sendak couldn’t draw a fucking horse if it were the ransom of the Universe.

Eventually, his editor stopped tearing her hair out and asked “Maurice, what can you draw?” The answer was, obviously, horrific inhuman monstrosities. They decided that was going to have to do, considering the amount of money they had already pumped into the project, and Sendak was given the go-ahead to draw whatever the hell popped into his mind, changing the title to Where The Wild Things Are, because “things” could be anything.

Including repressed family trauma.

The idea of trying to endear a platoon of nightmare creatures to children could have been a disaster, but it became one of the most enduring classics of children’s literature, and one of the most successful last-minute audibles in history.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/6-shockingly-dumb-reasons-people-invented-famous-characters/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/04/26/6-shockingly-dumb-reasons-people-invented-famous-characters/

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olicitysecretsanta · 6 years

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OSS @lageniuswannabe (LisaAnn) Fan Fic Gift from @bandanab310

Hello @lageniuswannabe (LisaAnn), it’s your secret santa @bandanab310 (Ariel). Happy Holidays!! Here is your present: a fanfic. I like to write good amount of my fics like episodes. I think it’s because I hardly get the chance to actually write ;) Since this is a Christmas fic and we didn’t really get a Christmas episode for the midseason finale (but hey I guess a wedding reception made up for it), this is my desire for next year’s midseason finale. So it’s going to be angsty, no one’s going to die (I never want anyone to die) but some people are going to get hurt. I mean this is a made up midseason finale episode. But it’s also going to be fluffy. The title comes from one of my favorite Green Arrow comics, The Sounds of Violence by Kevin Smith. This comics villain (Onomatopoeia) is a bad guy that I would love to have on Arrow some day. He has no agenda, no ties to Oliver or his past. He is just a killer who wants to kill, and Team Arrow just represent the biggest game in town. As in the comic, which I highly recommend, he comes out of nowhere. So I hope you enjoy and once again Happy Holidays! >—>AO

Ratings/tags: Mature, mentions of graphic violence, people get hurt, but it ends incredibly happy, fluff, Olicity (Oliver/Felicity), Theroy (Thea/Roy), Wildcanary (Rene/Dinah), Next season’s midseason finale wish, Next season’s villain wish.

The Sounds of Christmas

>—>

This was going to be the first Christmas Day that Felicity and he were going to spend together with no sadness or conflict or hurdles between them.

Not spent in a hospital waiting for her to wake up and finally believe that she’s still alive.

Not separated across town from each other grieving the death of a man that she never did love the way she did him.

Not in an empty bunker with an impending conviction hanging over their heads and their team fractured and no idea what to do next.

No this Christmas Day was just going to be them and their family celebrating the love & happiness that they had fought so hard for. That they earned after all those past Christmases.

They had celebrated Hanukkah last week. Oliver and William having learned a couple more Jewish prayers and accompanying Felicity and Donna to temple on the last night. Donna jokingly saying it was a start to make up for not having a traditional Jewish wedding. (Oliver is already planning for Felicity and he to renew their vows during next year’s Hanukkah.) Oliver would forever continue to cherish and celebrate his wife’s heritage and traditions as much as she does his and their son’s.

Their son. He might never get over the happiness that he always feels when he thinks about this family of his that he thought he could never have. What a foolish man in so many ways he was. That’s another reason why this Christmas has to be perfect.

He has a plan. He’s going to surprise his two favorite people and skip his morning run (something that Felicity would probably say is the marker of the apocalypse) and make a big breakfast. They are going to than open presents and enjoy some time just the three of them lounging around watching more Christmas movies, the ones they haven’t seen yet during this holiday season. At night they will all head down to the bunker where Thea and the rest of Team Arrow were decorating for their team’s Christmas party, with all their families invited.

Oliver was flipping the last peppermint chip pancake when he heard his and Felicity bedroom door slide open. A quick rhythm of bare feet was immediately followed by his wife’s arms around his stomach and her lips on his upper spine. Turning off the stove he turned in her arms to face her.

“Merry Christmas, Hon.” Oliver said before giving her a kiss that she lazily reciprocated, moving her hands slowly up his body until she was framing his face.

“Merry Christmas, Babe.” Felicity replied breaking off the kiss. She looked him over noticing that he was still in his sleepwear and then the large breakfast that spread behind him and on the kitchen table before looking back at him with a questionable look. “Are you or someone else dying?”

Oliver shook his head and chuckled, “Close enough” he said more to himself before replying with more volume and lightly, “No I just wanted today to be perfect and give you and William an incredible Christmas.”

She immediately smiled and kissed his lips quickly again before stepping away and walking towards Williams room, “Don’t worry it will be.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Oliver asked

“You’ll see” Felicity answered with a wink.

Oliver turned back and placed the plate of pancakes on that table as he heard Felicity jumping on William’s bed shouting, “IT’S CHRISTMAS!! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!”

Yeah today was going to be the perfect Christmas.

>—>

The team holiday party was in full swing. Thea and Curtis had decorated the bunker amazingly.

Oliver watches as he leans against one of the pillars at Roy twirling Thea in the center of the main platform to the light Christmas music. Roy coming back to help earlier that year and him being cleared of charges (being Mayor did have some perks) was the best thing to happen to his sister. Thea had not looked or felt as happy as she did now in so long.

The rest of the team were still sitting at the large conference table eating the berry cobbler that Oliver had made, exchanging various presents with one another.

Zoe opened the gift from her dad. “New Headphones. Thanks Dad.” She says kindly trying to play off her air of disappointment.

“Ah Ah no pouting Zo. You know you get your big gift on Dia de Los Reyes.”

“What’s Dia de Los Reyes?” Curtis asks.

Before Rene himself can respond, Dinah next to him answers, “Day of the three kings. It’s a catholic celebration of when the three kings arrived in Bethlehem to meet Jesus.”

“Thank you, mamacita” Rene says placing a quick peck on her lips then turning back around to Curtis, “See Di cares enough to know about my traditions. I thought I could have expected the same from all my teammates.”

Before an argument, however friendly in nature, can start, Dinah interjects, “Now boys, as much as I know you two are an old bickering married couple let’s keep it civil…for the kids”. Pointing to William and Zoe who are seated next to each other.

“It’s fine Aunt Di, I think its funny anyway.” William answers before turning to Zoe. “So I guess we’re both lucky to celebrate two holidays filled with gift giving.”

“Yeah,” Zoe responds “it’s pretty cool but also frustrating because Papa waits till day of the three kings for my big gift and I know this year he got us season tickets to the Star City Wild Dogs.”

“That’s so cool, I’ve never been to a hockey game actually. Central City never had one and my dad hasn’t been able to take me. That’s usually the busy season. For both jobs.”

“You can join us for a game….I mean if you’d like too, that is.”

“I’d like that a lot….Hey also Felicity built me a PC for my Christmas present and downloaded PUBG and of course Overwatch. You should stop by and play.”

“Awesome, next week before Christmas break is over for sure.”

The slight blush rising on his daughter’s face during this whole exchange does not go unnoticed by Rene. He quickly rises from his seat and rushes over to his team leader.

“Considering who his father is, your boy there best not be getting any ideas, Hoss.”

Oliver knows that William is nothing like he was with girls at his age and is about to reassure Rene of this fact when an alert goes off throughout the bunker. Damn it this was not supposed to happen tonight.

Reluctantly Oliver walks up the platform and towards the computer that Felicity is already in front of. “What do we got?”

“Apparently our bad guy of the year doesn’t believe in the holiday spirit. Facial recognition picked up his creepy masked face.”

“Where?”

“What? Why would he be there?

“Where Felicity?

“He’s at Verdant.”

The team share confused but also worried looks after the mention of the old headquarters. Oliver breaks the spell when he starts to dictate his orders. “Thea take William and Zoe to the apartment please. Quentin can you go with them. Everyone else suit up.”

The team move together. Oliver is about to step away to get ready himself when he feels Felicity’s hand on his wrist causing him to look back at her.

“Be careful out there. This one is not like anyone else we’ve dealt with.”

Oliver knows this. This particular bad guy has so far killed and attacked randomly and has been gruesome. Leaving his victims in pools of blood or head shots in the center of the forehead. The people that he has left alive describe him as never saying a meaningful word, only mimicking the sounds his torments made.

“It’s going to be ok.” Oliver reassures his wife before leaning down to give her a kiss and turning away to get ready for the field.

>—–>

The team take various positions throughout the exterior of the abandoned nightclub.

“Green Arrow, you know this is probably a trap.” Arsenal says through the comms

“I know. Which is more reason to be as vigilant as we can.” Green Arrow responds “Overwatch how does it look inside?”

“Considering that there is no longer any workable technology in there, all I can go off of is heat signatures. Which only indicating that there’s one person in the office upstairs. Besides that you’re going in pretty blind.”

Things go wrong from the very start. As they bust in together, from their various entry points, they are all met with C4 explosions rigged with archaic (but incredible fine) tripwires. The explosions are not enough to cause fatal damage but enough to disorient and cause a few scraps on all of them. Mr Terrific and Arsenal, both entering through the upper windows, gingerly pull glass shards out of their arm and leg. By the time the team is regrouped on the bottom level, their ominous foe casually walks out of the upper level managers office above them as if he’s a simple home owner opening the door to a messenger ringing his doorbell. He greets the heroes with a simple monotone word.

“Boom” Black Canary acts first sending a powerful sonic cry towards the old and worn scaffold platform which doesn’t have a chance and immediately begins to crumble. Their bad guy effortlessly flips himself over the railing as if this is all part of a pre-orchestra stunt and lands in front of the team. Returning to his causal stance of hands in his trench coat pockets he looks back at the crumpled mess he was once on before turning back and addressing the group once again. “Screech” arbitrarily mimicking Black Canary’s Cry The team move as one beginning their attack on the masked villain, who in incredibly immediate response pulls out guns from his pocket and counters their assault.

He moves like he’s expecting their shots. Dodging. Flipping. Shooting Green Arrow’s and Arsenal’s arrows out of mid flight. “What the fuck!” Arsenal exclaims Finally Green Arrow finds his opening in the chaos and with a quick deep breath releases an arrow. It goes through the full masked foe’s left shoulder, seemingly taking him by the slightest surprise from the subtle grunt of discomfort that he makes. Green Arrow considers its enough as the masked man makes a break for it towards the back of the club. Realization of where he is heading towards immediately hits Green Arrow and he’s the first to move as he announces, “He’s going down towards the foundry.” >—>

He is the first to make it past the threshold of the door of his old headquarters, the rest of the team a few steps behind. But those few steps are enough for things to get even worse when Oliver feels more than see another thread like tripwire being triggered and a heavy door slam behind him. He immediately turns around and bangs on the door. He can hear his team on the other side. Hears Dinah’s Scream and blasts from Curtis’ T-spheres. But he knows this is not the same door that was here when this used to be his domain. No they’re in the twisted world of a madman. Oliver activate his comms, “Overwatch, any chance you can get this open” He knows the answer before she gives it. “No there’s no tech to hack. Guys there’s another entrance down there, Arsenal knows where it is.” “Copy that.” Oliver here’s Roy answer “Hang tight, Hoss.” Rene muffles through the door “We’ll be down there to save your ass in no time.” The sudden sound of static filling the space below brings Oliver back to the threat at hand. He slowly descends the stairs, an arrow already nocked ready to fire. He halts halfway down the steps when he hears his own name. “Oliver Queen is Alive.” “Oliver Queen runs for mayor.” “Is Oliver Queen the Star City Vigilante?” “Mayor Oliver Queen to run for second term. A sure fire win predicted.” “Oliver Queen freed of all charges after FBI investigation thrown out” Surrounded by several televisions playing various news reports about Oliver stands the masked man, the arrow still in his shoulder and a simple remote control in his hand. Head tilted up at Oliver on the stairs curiously waiting to see what he does next. “Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak finally tie the knot in a secret ceremony. Congratulations to the first couple of Star City on their nuptials.” This final sound bite is what causes Oliver’s grip on the bowstring and jaw to tightly set. The message is loud and clear to him. “You know who I am.” It comes out as a statement from Oliver’s mouth not a question. The silent mask only nods in answer. “Why are you doing this? What is this all about? Revenge?” A shake of a head his only answer “Then why!!” With a click of the remote all but one of the televisions turn off. The remaining TV with a clip of Oliver himself during the press conference he held after the repeal of the anti-vigilante act in May answers “With The Green Arrow and his team, Star City will always be protected. No threat will stop them from continuing to make our city safer and a place to be proud to live in.” A twisted realization dons on Oliver “Is this a challenge for you? Some sort of game?” The masked man just shrugs as if to say, “Well…” There’s a pause before he then gives an assertive nod. “Yes”

All at once there are bullets flying towards Oliver, who immediately vaults over the stairs and lands behind one of the discard steel tables. The mirage of bullets continue for another minute before the clicking of empty gun chambers sound out in the old lair. “Click?” “Click?” The villain questions as Oliver raises from his shelter. “Drop your guns.” The mask man obliges and raises his hands above his head. “Now take off the mask.” The foe begins to lift it but stops when it reaches the base of his nose only exposing his mouth. He then lifts his hands up once again. Oliver moves swiftly forward placing the arrow directly in front of the man’s face. Inches away. “I said. Take. It. Off.” Instead of moving his hands towards his face the masked man moves one hand down towards his coat pocket. “Don’t” Oliver warns. When the hand continues to move down, Oliver releases his grip on the bowstring… The shock of the image of the masked man’s hand around the arrow, the tip barely pressing into the skin below his eye, is short lived when Oliver feel three sharp pains suddenly in his abdomen causing him to sink to the floor. “Bang. Bang. Bang.” Gripping his side. Already losing the natural rhythm of his breathing, Oliver feels more than sees the shooter stalking towards him, then bend down and place the still warm barrel of the gun in the middle of his forehead. “Who are you?” Finally a meaningful word is said by this masked man. “Onomatopoeia.” Oliver closes his eyes expecting his end to come. But it doesn’t. Instead when he opens his eyes he’s alone. Keeping one hand pushing down on his side he presses his comm link on with the other. “Felicity?” He says weakly Immediately she knows something is not right, “What’s wrong?” She answers. As if on cue Oliver hears the rapid footsteps of his team. He give a grunt of pain when they take over his hands feeble attempts of stemming the blood flowing out of him. “Overwatch, Green Arrow’s been shot we need you to call the hospital.” Roy immediately orders taking charge of the team. “Mr Terrific bring the van around the back entrance of Verdant we aren’t going to have much time once we stop the bleeding as much as we can.” “Dig’s calling Dr. Schwartz, she’ll have a team prepped for surgery.” Felicity answer Roy before silencing everyone else’s comms but Oliver’s. “Oliver. We are going to get you help. Everything is going to be fine ok, Hon.” “Felicity…I’m sorry.” Oliver answers in between breaths. “Sorry. Sorry for what. You have nothing to be sorry for.” “Today was supposed to be…perfect. I jus…I just wanted us to have a…perfect Christmas.” “It is going to be perfect once you come home to me Oliver. Remember you are always going to come home to me. To William. To our family.” Felicity exhales a quick steadying breath before she continues. “To our baby. Yeah that’s right I’m pregnant. I mean we’re pregnant. That’s my Christmas gift to you. So you better not die on me Oliver Jonas Queen. Because you have one more life to keep on fighting for. You hear me?” Her question is answered with silence. “Oliver?” Suddenly static fills her ear, “Blondie,” “Blondie,” both René and Roy answer followed by an annoyed huff from Roy before René continues, “we stopped the bleeding for now. Hoss lost a lot of blood and is unconscious but I think he’s going to be ok. We’ll be at the hospital in ten.” “Thank You” Felicity answers with as much strength as she can muster “we’ll meet you guys there.”

As she turns off her comms she catch Roy no doubt addressing René “you know I was here first. Right.” >—->

Oliver stirs awake gradually. The warmth of his wife’s hand in his the final anchor that brings his eyes to finally open.

“Hey, Hey. You’re ok. You’re ok.” Felicity gentle greets him, running her hand through his hair. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired.” Oliver answers. He hates being groggy from the anesthesia of surgery but he feels more safe with Felicity here with him. “What happened?”

“Our bad guy shot you three times close range in the abdomen. Two went through and through but one wanted to be a prick and stick around inside you and cause some damage. Good thing you don’t need all of you spleen.”

Oliver gives a little chuckle at his wife’s babble before he winces in pain from his recently open stomach. Felicity responds by gentle rubbing a hand up and down his arm as if to take away his pain.

In a way it does.

“What about Onomatopoeia? Did they catch him?”

“Who?”

“It’s what he called himself. Onomatopoeia.”

“Of course it is. I should have known. No. He was gone by the time the team got to you. The creep that he is though left the bloody arrow you shot him in the shoulder with in the middle of two circles made out of your blood. Just like his equally creepy mask. So yeah creepy monotone voiced bad guy who only says words of sounds.”

“Any DNA results from the arrow?”

“Not yet. But we should know soon.”

“Good.”

Felicity rests her head on his shoulder and they stay silent for a moment just looking at their joined hands, their wedding bands making that subtle clinking sound Oliver always finds peace in. He is the first to break the silence.

“So you’re pregnant?”

“Oh you heard that?” She shyly asks looking up at him

“I did.” He answers looking back down at her with a gentle smile that reflects pure love and happiness and wonder all at the same time.

“Believe me that was not how I wanted to tell you, but I had to make sure that you’d come back to us.”

“Us.”

“Yeah, me, William, and the baby.”

A slight wave of guilt comes over Oliver at the mention of his, now oldest, remembering the promise he had made to him to always be there for him, how is he supposed to keep that promise for two children when he doesn’t know if he can do it for one.

“Is William ok?” Oliver asks

“See for yourself.” Felicity answers moving slightly to give him a view of a sleeping William on a cot next to the bed.

“Is he mad at me?”

“No Oliver, you know he got over that months ago. He understands now why you do what you do and that these incidents might happen. Just as long as they don’t happen too often, he’ll be ok.”

“Good.”

“I’m sorry.” Felicity mumble into his shoulder

“For what.”

“This wasn’t the Christmas that you planned. I know it wasn’t perfect.”

“Who says it wasn’t. This is our life. We are together. All four of us. Being the best people that we can be. And accepting each other for who we are.”

Felicity tilts her head up to give him a kiss and he tilts his head down to meet her lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. Now get some sleep. I’m right here.”

“Always.”

“We’ll get him, Felicity.”

“I know we will, I’m just glad that you came back home to us.”

>—>

Unbeknownst to the Queen Family, Onomatopoeia watches on from the ledge of the building across from the window. His mask is once again lifted just enough to reveal his mouth as he chews gum and blows a bubble.

“Pop”

He leaps from his perch, landing on the ground below and stalks back into the shadows.

[End Episode Title Card. Wait Till mid-January. ;) ]

#arrow #olicity #olicity secret santa 2017 #olicity fanfic #olicity fic #submission

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