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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III. Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe.

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers.

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point.

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing. This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome.

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast.

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list.

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend.

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome.

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows.

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again.

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up.

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4.

So with our major players out of the way, let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands. Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off. Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain.

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more. The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have. This show is just great at costume design.

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback.

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious.

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working. Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant. Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time.

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up. F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly.

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly. At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in.

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do.

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense.

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room.

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda.

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian.

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go.

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it.

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior.

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances.

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included.

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her. It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag.

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you.

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him. Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t. It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to. So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight.

However at home Virgil points out it was Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.

#static shock #static #virgil hawkins #richie foley #robert hawkins #sharon hawkins #hotstreak #milestone comics #dc comics #dc animated universe #dcau #dwayne mcduffie #robert l washington IIII #kids wb #hbo max #2000s #animation #black lives matter #black history month

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murderborn-of-vengeance · 3 years

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Czarna Wdowa 2021 Cały Film Online

Welcome back everyone this is going to be my new marvel black widow movie video there's a bunch of announcements about what disney is going to be doing disney and marvel with the actual release of the movie people been asking about them putting it on disney plus apparently there's some news about that now so i'll explain what's going on and a lot of it has to do with what warner brothers is doing with their movies in 2021 and what's happening right now

The world just in general with movie theaters so if you're new to the channel be sure to subscribe to get all the videos we're obviously in the middle of Wandavision i'm doing episode videos for all that we're going to have falcon and winter soldiers starting in march so there's a lot of really really cool marvel stuff coming up we're doing that disney plus memberships giveaway all you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and just leave all your predictions about the black widow movie on the video so if you didn't see the news in the past week there's a new report from variety's insights team which is a very insidery business report that they publish about the movie and tv financials studio politics them releasing movies and tv shows and in it they talk about how disney is making some changes to their plans for the black widow movie release date because of what's been happening the last couple of months and now at the beginning of 2021 in january you may have seen that a lot of studios just delayed all their big movies pretty much up through april and last week kevin feige was doing a bunch of interviews to hype up the wand division episodes during those he talked about everything from deadpool 3 to the fantastic four movie to their new rebooted x-men movies they're doing in the mcu but he also talked about what's happening with the Czarna wdowa film online because now everybody's wondering if they're going to have to delay it again you probably saw when all the movie delays were happening people were making jokes

In their timelines like just wait for it disney's going to announce they're going to delay that black widow movie one more time it's already been delayed almost as many times as the new mutants movie last year when a lot of things got delayed they figured that by this time and by march april 2021 things would be better theaters would be open but so far that has not been the case the uk is currently under a big lockdown the u.s has been under a big lockdown there's still a lot of other places around the world where theaters are not open and won't be open for a while that's why warner brothers came up with their real grand plan to release all their 2021 movies on hbo max last year like we need subscriptions and it doesn't look like things are going to get better so why don't we just put all of our movies on hbo max and in some theaters on the same day for all of 2021 but in terms of the Czarna Wdowa film right now just nothing beyond april has been delayed again so there's still a chance that they could hit that may release date

But the big problem that marvel has that a lot of other studios don't have with their movies is that if they delay black widow again they have to delay every other marvel movie into like 2023 like pretty much every future marvel movie one of marvel's biggest strengths the connected nature of its movies also becomes a big problem too like we're at the beginning of marvel phase 4 right now all the movies happen in a certain order for a reason because each one tells a little of the overarching infinity saga style story that helps connect everything building up to avengers 5 it's like you're watching a tv show that's serialized and each of the episodes cost 200 million dollars so they delay black widow again it means they'd have to delay the shang chi movie which is coming this summer the eternals movie then spider-man 3 doctor strange 2 thor 4 love and thunder and so on the dominoes keep following well into 2023 most of you who are still in school right now if they kept delaying movies you would probably be married with children by the time avengers 5 rolls around but back last year in 2020 when the lockdowns first started happening after the first few movie delays everyone just started asking why don't you just put black widow on disney plus why not put the movies on disney plus disney pretty much has infinite money and they can just take it on the chin a little bit for a couple movieswhat do we have here there's also that extra thirty dollars that they charge for some of their disney premier movies like the mulan movie where you get it on disney plus but you have to pay an extra thirty dollars to get it early they're also doing that again with another movie raya in the last dragon in march so i'll talk about that in a second too that's another quote-unquote hybrid

Release movie that they're doing and apparently the reason why marvel did not do that with the black widow movie last year because originally they were going to release it in november didn't have anything to do with them being worried about losing money because yeah they'd lose a little bit of money according to the rumor it had more to do with the specific clauses in scarlett johansson's contract that prevented disney and marvel from releasing it on disney plus like apparently scarlett johansson's contract for the czarna wdowa movie has some special terms in it about how they're allowed to release the movie and how she earns a ton more money from a theatrical release from the box office earnings than from streaming earnings so apparently disney and marvel were legally obligated under the terms of her contract

To have to release the movie in theaters in some way they couldn't just put it on disney plus even if they wanted to what's changed recently though why there's all this renewed talk about a hybrid release for black widow then putting it on disney plus and in theaters on the same day has more to do with what happened with the wonder woman 1984 movie that was the first real big comic book movie this past year to do the hybrid release this last christmas releasing the movie on streaming on hbo max the same day that they release it in theaters where theaters are open around the world because there are some places where theaters are open so warner brothers is doing this hybrid release strategy for all of its movies in 2021 the big difference between what warner brothers is doing and what disney is doing is that warner brothers isn't charging the extra 30 dollars premier access money that disney is charging for some of its films but per this variety insights report disney and marvel are starting to feel like delaying the black widow movie straight up will just cause more problems than it will solve so they're thinking about a hybrid release strategy to fix everything they get to release the movie with no more delays meaning we get to see shang qi this summer and eternals in november no more delays for marvel movies because right now just based on the rate of how fast the virus situation is resolving itself most summer movies seem like they're going to be fine like theaters will mostly be open by later this summer and per this hybrid release strategy because they'd be releasing black widow in some theaters

Even if it's not a ton it would be enough to keep scarlett johansson from suing disney for the tens of millions of dollars she would potentially lose out on also on the side they'll probably pass her some extra change like here please take a couple extra million dollars don't sue us warner brothers kind of had to do that with gal gadot and patty jenkins when they released wonder woman 1984 on hbo max they gave him a bunch of extra money up front because they weren't going to be earning a lot of extra money on the back end you probably saw patty jenkins making a huge stink about all this christopher nolan got really pissed off about this too when they announced their big 2021 movies plan in fun fact 2 all the newer marvel phase

5 movies that they've announced like the fantastic four reboot movie the deadpool 3 movies ryan reynolds marvel is apparently also altering all their standard movie contracts with everyone to allow for streaming releases if things like this happen in the future so actors directors producers can't sue them if a big problem comes up or another big pandemic and they have to release movies on streaming so if you're wondering why you didn't see a lot of disney movies on disney plus last year it's not so much about them losing money it's more about lawsuits from people in studio contracts the next big disney plus test that they're running is for the raya in the last dragon movie is basically disney's version of avatar the last airbender they just released a new trailer for that this morning as i'm posting this video that's going to be released the first week in march so we won't have to wait too long to see what happens with that but they're charging the extra 30 dollars for the disney premier access just like they did with the mulan movie so if they're doing that for a pixar movie then you can bet that they're going to charge an extra 30 for the black widow movie this may if they also go with the hybrid release strategy like variety is saying they will what will probably happen you'll see in the next couple of months

Is marvel will wait till the last possible second that they have to before committing to an actual release strategy like they'll just wait till april to see if things get better and they don't have to worry about it and they can just release it normally in theaters like they originally wanted to right now everyone's assuming that things will mostly be back to normal by the summer so may is just sort of that in-between period like kevin feige himself is hopeful that things will be fine but he also said that he's trying not to make too many assumptions before we actually get to may so let me know in the comments if you think that marvel is going to pull the rip cord and do a hybrid release strategy for black widow in may or if you think the theaters will be fine by then thank you so much for wriging everyone stay safe and i'll see you in the next post!

You can see this video here:

https://myfilmyonline.pl/caly-film/czarna-wdowa-2021-film-online/

#Czarna wdowa #Czarna Wdowa online #Czarna Wdowa film

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eternaldarkness55 · 5 years

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Kurda's Assistant Part 1

(StoryInfo)(When the Disney Princesses Merida finally gets true love it's not how she expected or with who she expected. After her mom finally gave Merida her freedom and didn't force her to marry her parents knew she was strong and independent enough to live her own life. So when she moves to the USA her life became a bigger adventure and freedom then she thought.)

Then minute Merida walked out of the hotel in Salem Massachusetts She was wearing her usual green dress with her sword attached to her waist and her bow and arrows on her back. Of course everyone gave her strange looks except for a blond very handsome man who was wearing all blue gave her curious look.

Kurda: Excuse me miss you look like a very smart, brave, and adventurous girl. What's with the weapons?

Merida: I'm princess Merida from Scotland a princess should be taught to fight. Plus I love artery, I been dreaming of freedom and adventure my whole life and my parents finally let me have it and I hoping to find it here.

Kurda: I think I can help you with that, have you heard of vampires your highness?

Merida: Please call me Merida, yes I read about them, I love books and learning.

" My kind of woman" thought Kurda

Kurda: And what do you have to say about them?

Merida: Everything has a good one and bad one, I'm a good royal and do is my family but I know not all royals are good. It's the same thing with vampires.

Kurda: True I love your answer, my name is Kurda Smault and I'm a good vampire. I live in Vampire Mountain with a lot of other good vampires. I love exploring tunnels and making maps and I also love books and learning. I think it's time to have an assistant to help me who shares my loves and interests. What do you say Merida do you want to become a half vampire and be my assistant?

Merida: I'd love too!

Kurda: Great, follow me back up to your hotel room

They went up and Merida locked the door

Kurda: Now listen carefully, first we have to exchange blood

Merida: That's disgusting

Kurda: I agree, but that's how it's done

Kurda cut their fingertips then pressed their fingers together soon Merida dropped to the floor.

Kurda: Are you okay?

Merida: I feel cold

Kurda: Well that's normal, lick your fingers

She did her cuts healed

Merida: My spit heals?(Kurda gently pulled her to her feet)

Kurda: Yes, now I'm sorry but in order for this to work we need to fake your death so no one including your family. I'll have to give you something to numb you then brake your neck. Then I'll sneak into the funeral home and fix it, then I'll have to dig you up and release you from your coffin. What's a good place where we can do it where I won't get caught but where someone will find you soon?

Merida: I don't know I just moved here a few minutes ago. I don't know the town

Kurda: Then I guess we get to do some site seeing, but leave the sword and bow and arrows. Those kind of weapons are forbidden for vampires anyways if you love arrows you'll have to use an arrow gun.

Merida: Wait, what if we did on the roof early tomorrow morning both the inside and outside pool open at 8AM. Someone's going to come up there eventually.

Kurda: good idea, but is site seeing cancelled than?

Merida: Of course not!(Smiled)

Kurda: Good, better to do it now as a full vampire I can't be in sun light.

Merida put her weapons under the bed in the hotel then they started their tour of Salem Massachusetts. At 7:40AM they went up to the roof Merida drank the stuff that turned her numb and Kurda snapped her neck, left her lying on the floor and flited to Merida's room. At 8AM a lifeguard spotted Merida and was taken to the funeral home by ambulance. Later she was put in the ground on the cemetery.

6:00PM the cemetery

Kurda dug up where she was buried and opened her coffin.

Kurda: Need help(Smiled)

He pulled her out

Kurda: I know you're probably all cramped up but I need you to fill that hole.

Merida: Why can't you just do it?

Kurda: Because every vampire I know including me had to fill their own holes after being buried.

Merida: Fine(Smiled)

She filled the hole

Vampire Mountain the dinner hall(after Darren, Crepsley, Gavner, and Harkat arrived)

Darren looked around for female vampires but he only spotted two one with black hair in a ponytail and one with wild long orange hair.

Gavner: Wondering about the two female vampires? The black hair girl is named Arra Sails and the orange haired girl is named Merida. Merida is a Kurda Smault's assistant, you'll meet Kurda and the girls soon enough.

Darren was hoping to meet Merida she was gorgeous and was falling for her. Then he saw a blond haired vampire walk over to Merida and sat down next to her.

Gavner: That's Kurda Smault, hey Kurda come here(Called him)

Kurda: Hey Gavner and Larten, and who's these two?

Crepsley: The little person is Harkat Molds and the young man is Darren Shan he's my assistant.

Kurda: Pleasure to meet you both, well as the new member of our clan do you care if I give him a tour Larten? Merida and I were going to head to the tunnels anyways.

Crepsley: Of course Kurda, I have meetings with the Princes to get to anyways.

Kurda: Shall we Darren? Merida and I are going to explore the tunnels first then we'll show you around.

Darren: That's totally fine

The three left when they got back the last place they showed Darren was where the games are.

Kurda: Vanez this is our new member Darren Shan, Darren this is Vanez Blain he's in charge of the games.

Vanez: Very nice to meet you Darren, come you three come watch

The three sat down and watched Arra Sails on the bars and it didn't take long for her to win.

Darren: So is Kurda also your dad?

Merida: I love him so much he's definitely like a father to me. But no just his assistant, vampire’s even half ones like you can't have children.

Kurda: I love you too Mer(He out his arm around her and kissed her on the forehead)

Darren: So you must be close with Arra with her being the only other girl vampire here?

Merida: Are you kidding she hates me! She loved being not only the toughest bravest girl of Vampire Mountain but the only girl period. Then I came along and she despised me ever since. She doesn’t hurt me or anything we just stay away from each other and don't talk.

Merida: Speak of the devil(Got up and left to go take a shower as Arra came over)

Arra: I'm surprised you're here Kurda

Kurda: Just cause I value strength of the mind doesn't mean I think we should be defenseless or that I can't watch the games.

Arra: I just hope we get more than brains from you when you become a prince.

Kurda: I hope when become a prince you'll finally shake my hand?

Arra: No, I follow and obey you just like I followed and obeyed Merida since she became the first vampire princess. But I will never shake the hand of someone who refuses to take part in the games. And who the new guy?

Kurda: Darren Shan, Larten's assistant

Arra: Welcome to Vampire Mountain

She left as Merida came back

Merida: By the way to answer your question to who is my best friend here I don't have one yet.

Crepsley: Darren it’s time for you to meet the prince's

The Prince hall

Paris: So why did you blood him Larten?

Crepsley: Because he stole my spider, it was meant to be a punishment.

Arrow: I can't say I disagree with you punishing a thief. We must do same thing to Darren as we did to Merida, he must take the trials.

Mika: I suggest as the second newest member Merida be the one to train him. Your first trial starts tomorrow.

Everyone left

Darren: So you had to take the trials too when Kurda blooded you?

Merida: Yes, they have a rule about blooding children and when he blooded me three years ago I was only sixteen. I won all my trials so I'll be happy to help you. Also just so you know when they call me princess it's not just cause I got chosen they mean literally. I'm a princess from Scotland I moved to the United States to get freedom and adventure.

Darren: Well you definitely got that(Laughed)

Merida: You got that right(Laughed)

Darren: So these trials how hard are they? If they get to hard I can quit right? If I fail that's it right?

Kurda: The prince's should have explained what the trials were! Charna's Guts!

Darren: Why what's wrong?

Gavner: The trials are very dangerous Darren and if you fail without dying you'll be taken to the Hall of Death and dropped on the stakes till you're dead.(Put her hands on Darren's shoulders)

The hall of price's

Darren put his hand in the bag and pulled out a stone with the number 10 on it.

Paris: The water maze(Called)

Merida trained Darren by going out of the mountain at night and taking him to a nearby pond and making him keep his head under until he felt his head exploding.

Merida: When you’re in the maze and your head feels like that and you can't breathe you'll be tempted to panic and go faster but you must avoid both. And remember you'll also have to drag a big heavy rock which might get caught on corners sometimes but relax when it does.

The water maze room

Everyone came to watch Darren Merida blindfolded him so he wouldn't know where the vampires dropped him off. As soon as the vampires were gone and the water started he removed his blindfold and started walking. After an hour the water was almost up to the top Darren hit two dead ends and hallucinated the exit three times. After three hours of losing track of the way he was supposed to go he found the exit he he swam towards it but as he got closer the rock got stuck in a crack. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get it out. " I'm not going to die in this maze" he thought to himself as he looked at the door. Luckily he was close enough where his arm could reach the button so he pressed it and all the water gushed out. From where he was stuck though two vampires had to go into the maze to get his wet and unconscious body. After they dragged him out all the vampires gathered around him. Crepsley pushed through the crowd and crouched next to Darren.

Crepsley: Come on Darren come on Darren don't die on me please, breath(said worriedly as he pushed on his stomach)

After five pushes water came out of Darren's coughing mouth.

Crepsley: Darren you’re okay you’re okay(Said thankfully as he rubbed Darren's back who was still coughing)

Darren tried to stand but he was so water logged that he fell making Crepsley catch him.

Crepsley: Easy boy easy(Kept his arms around his waist so he doesn't fall again)

As he started hallucinating he looked at Merida.

Darren: Annie(Said happily as he smiled)

Then he passed out in Crepsley's arms later when Darren woke up in his hammock he saw Harkat starring at him

Harkat: Morning sleeping beauty

Darren laughed

Darren: I'm alive right I'm not dreaming?

Harkat: You are very much alive, do you remember anything?

Darren: I remember going into the maze but not coming out or anything after coming out.

Merida: You called me Annie than passed out(Walked in and walked over to him handing him a glass of blood)

Merida: I figured you didn't want water after almost drowning, who's Annie?

Darren took a drink

Darren: Thanks, Annie's my little sister

Merida: I have little siblings I had to leave too, my 3 triplet brothers Haymish, Hubert, and Harris.

Crepsley: Hey Darren I know you just woke up but you don't get long to rest before you have to pick your trials, come on you two.

Darren drank the rest of the blood then him, Merida, and Harkat followed Crepsley.

The hall of princes

Darren pulled a stone out and handed it to Paris

Paris: Number 2 the hall of flames

After that Merida trained Darren by holding a lighter to Darren's arms and legs.

Darren: Stop please(Cried)

Merida: Sorry Darren but this is exactly what you're going to feel in the hall of flames maybe even worse.

Once Darren's arms and legs were red Merida stopped.

Merida: In the hall of flames you have both fire balls and walls shooting out of the floors and walls. You have to be quick when you dodge them and don't let yourself get cornered. You'll be barefoot and only in shorts, you'll be tempted to use your spit right away but don't save it for later. Your ears is what will save you.

" This is your second task and you got lucky on the first, make a move in case you die" Darren thought. Darren leaned in

Darren: Can my spit save me from the fires of love?

Merida: No it can not

They kissed deeply

Merida: You know this means I can no longer be your coach. I'm going to have to get you someone else.

Darren: That's fine, it’s worth you being my girlfriend

The hall of flames

Darren walked into the middle of the room after the doors shut. Before Darren could prepare his hearing a fire ball hit him in the middle of his back causing him to cry out in pain. It was third degree burn but no serious damage or injury. He prepared his hearing this time there was a wall of fire that was going to shoot out right where he is standing. He avoided it by quickly running to the right corner. The only red/orange flame he wanted to see was Merida's and Crepsley's hair. Darren moved quickly remembering Merida telling him be careful about getting trapped because of fire walls. " I hope I live to see who's going to replace Merida as my coach" Darren laughed in his head. After 3 hours the heat was so intense it was making him dizzy and made it hard to breathe. But thankfully as soon as that started happening the trial was over. The doors opened two vampires followed by Crepsley walked in Darren's dizziness got worse to the point where he couldn't stander breath and he started having a panic attack so he fell to his stomach.

Crepsley: Darren are you okay?(Asked worriedly as he ran over to him)

Darren: I'm dizzy I'm dizzy and I can't breathe(gasped)

Crepsley: Hang on(Said worriedly as he picked him up and carried him out)

The doctors and everyone was amazed that Darren was able to dodge every fire ball and wall except the fire ball to the back. They only had to heal his back and stop his panic attack. After he was helped Crepsley walked in as the doctors walked out.

Darren: Crepsley(Whispered)

Crepsley: You’re okay now Darren(Rubbed his forehead)

Crepsley: Here(Handed him a drink of water)

Darren took a sip

Darren: Thank you, I have to go straight to the hall of princes don't I?

Crepsley: Yes, put your arm around my waist I'll help you walk

Crepsley helped Darren up and helped him walk to the hall when he got there he pulled a stone out of the bag and handed it to Paris.

Paris; Number 16, the blooded bores

Arrow: We have good news Darren, tonight is the start of the Festival of the Dead which runs all week. During that time nothing but the festival will be going on including the trials. The festival starts at 8 and the day after the festival ends is when you do your trial. That day off we suggest you do your training for the trial.

Mika: Which brings us to your new coach, Merida told us about her and your situation.

The audience muttered

Paris: The situation is Merida and Darren are dating

The audience cheered and whistled

Merida: Three more trials after this one Darren than it will be over, hang in there.

Arrow: That's it everyone, Darren stay, I have something I want to talk to you about.

Everyone left and Darren followed Arrow into a corner so they could talk privately.

Arrow: Has Larten explained what the vampire version of marriage is?

Darren: No

Arrow: When two vampires want to be lovers and choose to marry we call it " mating". It means without the wedding part two vampires stand before us princes and all of Vampire Mountain and agree to be mates for a century. After a century you just let us know whether you two still want to be mates or not. My point of telling you this as I tell everyone vampire who falls in love during their trials, Darren do it ask Merida to be your mate. Hopefully you'll get lucky and live through all your trials but if you don't and you die without being Merida's mate you'll regret it. On the date after the festival is over after you training ask her to be your mate.

After that Darren went to his room and slept until 2PM when he woke up Seba walked in.

Seba: Good you're awake, you still sore?

Darren: Very

Seba: Follow me and don't mention this to anyone

Darren followed Seba in to the tunnels until they got to one filled with spiders.

Darren: Their like Madam Octa

Seba: Yes, there called Ba'Halen's Spiders

Darren: So what are we doing here?

Seba: Too help your pain, spider webs have amazing healing properties and help with pain. But you must promise to not tell anyone or they will chase the spiders away trying to get the webs all the time.

Darren: I promise

Seba: Kneel and take off your shirt

Darren did, Seba sprinkled spider webs onto Darren's burn on his back. When Seba was done Darren put back on his shirt and stood up.

Seba: There now you can enjoy the festival

They left, that night when the festival started it was Darren stepped into a much weirder would. The band sucked and the dancing was horrible but it beat fighting for his life in a trail. Even though the spider webs worked he still didn't feel like doing anything yet so he took a seat Merida sat next to him.

Merida: I know weird right, I felt the same during my trials. I'd say let's ditch but we would be insulting them and would not be so popular anymore. Plus as a vampire princess I'm obligated to attend.

The howling contest was starting

Merida: Come on at least do this with me(Grabbed his hand)

They joined the group him and Merida didn't last long because they were still half vampires. But Merida laughed about the event anyways and did it for fun. In the end it was some vampire named Andy Jensen and he started being called something weird but Darren didn't hear what it was because he and Merida were sitting back down.

Gavner: Hey Merida how’s it going?(Walked over and kissed her hand)

Merida: Great(He sat down on the other side of her)

Darren: So you and Gavner know each other?

Merida: Darren I'm a vampire princess I pretty much know everyone(Laughed)

Merida: But Gavner and Larten are the first vampires Kurda introduced me too. We became close right away.

Darren: I thought you said you don't have any best friends yet(Laughed)

Merida: I don't, were definitely close but I haven't met anyone at all that I could call best friend. Who's yours?

Darren: Well like you I am also close to Kurda, Gavner, and Crepsley. Crepsley's been like a father to me I'm proud to be his assistant and to admit I love him a lot. But my best friend since we started hanging out when I've arrived here is Harkatt Molds.

Merida: whose Harkatt Molds? Is he that little person?

Gavner: Yes, he came with us, that's why I came over here I think you should meet him. You keep saying that there's no vampire you've been able to call best friend. Well I think that's because your destiny isn't to be best friends with a vampire.

Gavner stood up and held out his hand

Gavner: Come on

Merida: I'll see you later Darren(He pulled her too her feet)

They left to go to Darren and Harkatt's room, on the day after the festival was finally over Darren was catching some sleep before he would have to start his training with Arra. But it wasn't very good sleep since the nightmare he was having was painful.

Dream Steve: Is this your precious girlfriend(Seized Merida by the throat pulling her to her feet)

Dream Steve: She's pretty, I wonder if she's pretty in death too(Held a knife against her throat)

He slit her throat killing her

Darren: Screamed(Woke up and sat up panting)

Harkatt: Darren! Are you okay(Asked worriedly as he ran over to Darren's hammock)

Darren: I'm not sure, horrible dream, where's Merida?

Harkatt: She and the princes are in their usual meetings, but she should be done soon. She was planning on coming to see you.

Arra: In the meantime is time to train lover boy(Walked in)

She threw him a spear

Arra: Were going to spar, pretend I'm one of the bores

They fought for two hours

Arra: Well done

She left and Merida walked in

Merida: Hey how did the training go?

Darren: Good(He sat down in the hammock)

Merida: Hey there's the cutest creature I ever seen(Picked Harkat up and hugged him tight)

Harkatt: Oh stop it(Laughed)

Darren: Whoa I see you two are getting along(Laughed)

Merida: Yep, I finally met my best friend, Harkatt's amazing he reminds me of my brothers(Put Harkatt down)

Merida: You know Larten told me what happened with you and your ex best friend Steve. I'm sorry to hear about that, but now you and I both have Harkatt as our best friend and you have me as your girlfriend. Plus you have Larten as your new father, Gavner, and you have Kurda just like I do. You're not alone and are much loved.

Darren: Thanks babe, you made me feel better(Grabbed her hand)

They kissed

Merida: Anytime

Darren: I pray I make it through all of my trails but in case I don't I need to ask this. Merida will you marry me?

Merida: Yes(Cried happily as she jumped into his arms)

On the day of Darren's trail he was standing in the pit, spear ready, remembering what Merida said yesterday, and remembered their wedding that took place before his trial.

Paris: You ready Darren?

Darren: Ready

The blooded bore's were released it took a few minutes for them to notice Darren but when they did they charged at him. He jumped out of the way while scratching one of their eyes with his spear making it blind instantly. But he only got out of the way of the one he blinded the other sent him flying against the wall making him drop his spear. The half blind bore stepped on the spear before the other bore could charge at him he rolled and grabbed the pieces of the broken spear. Luckily both end were sharpe he drove the unpointy end through the not half blind bore killing it. The half blind bore jumped on him before it could do anything someone yelled and a dead bore was laying onto of him until he pushed himself out from underneath it. Harkatt was standing next to him and he helped him to his feet angry shouts started some of them yelling for a re-trail some of them asking for both his and Harkatt's deaths.

Mika: Silence(Yelled)

Everyone shut up

Arrow: Listen everyone the little person is not part of our laws so no he will not be put to death. As for a re-trail since it's not Darren's fault that he failed a re-trail is a possibility but us princes and generals will have a meeting about it and make a decision.

While the meeting was going on Darren sat in his room with Harkatt scared to death.

Harkatt: I'm sorry I brought this upon you but I couldn't let you die. You are my best friend like Merida and I couldn't live with her heart broken from losing her husband. Plus Mr. Tiny told me that someday I would find out who I use to be before I became a little person and that you are the one that is supposed to help me.

Darren: it’s okay Harkatt I get your reasons and I'm grateful, I just hope that I get a re-trial I rather die in a trial then on the pit of stakes.

Kurda: Hey Larten and Gavner are fighting really hard for you in there and they let me bring Merida to see you. How you holding up?(Walked in with Merida)

Darren: Not good

Merida: I'm sorry Darren I tried everything I could to fight for you in there but to be honest it's not looking good in there(Sat down next to Darren with Kurda)

Kurda: Harkatt can you cover for us?

Harkatt: Cover for what?

Kurda: We need to run I won't let be put to death and if Merida stays they'll know she's covering for me and they'll punish her. They can't put her to death since she's a princess but it's still better if you come with us Merida.

The three took off into the tunnels after a while they started hearing footsteps. It was just Gavner

Gavner: You idiots! Whose idea was it to run?

Kurda: Mine, I won't let Darren be killed and I won't leave Merida behind. Besides she's his wife now she should go with him.

Gavner: I'm not happy that you three ran but I don't want Darren dead either. I will help

Merida: How did you find us?

Gavner: Blood(Pointed at Darren's shoulder)

Darren: Damn I must have gotten cut when I was fighting the bore

Kurda: Come on

After a while of walking they heard voices

Gavner: Stay here I'll check it out

He did then came back

Gavner: Vampanese

Kurda: Darren you and Merida go live your lives we'll fight them. Go!

The two took off in opposite directions but after five minutes Merida and Darren stopped.

Darren: I can't leave Kurda and Gavner

Merida: Neither can I

They went back and watched the fight the two were doing really good. In two minutes Kurda stabbed someone in the stomach but as Merida and Darren stood there frozen it wasn't a Vampanese it was Gavner. Without a care that Vampanese were still there they ran to their bleeding friend as he slid to the floor and grabbed his hands.

Gavner: Merida Darren(Coughed up blood)

Merida: Gavner stay with us please don't die(Sobbing hard)

Gavner: Darren I'm sorry if my snoring kept you awake Merida keep Darren alive you'll never find anyone meant for you more than Darren.(Said weakly and in pain)

He died

Darren: Traitor(Yelled angrily as him and Merida stood up)

Merida: How could you!? I loved you! I loved you both!(Crying hard)

A Vampanese: Let's kill them

Kurda: No! They stay alive! They will come to our side.

Merida: No you stay the hell away from me!(Pointing an arrow at him with her bow)

Darren: Come on(Grabbed her hand and took off)

They ran as fast as they could while the Vampanese and Kurda chased after them. They stopped when they got to a river.

Darren: We have no choice, we'll be fine I promise, hang onto me tight and don't let go.

Merida put her arms around him as he held her tight, he jumped but Kurda grabbed his other wrist.

Kurda: Merida Darren please just let me explain I had no choice(Begged)

Darren: Let us go now!

Kurda: Don't be stupid you'll both die, let me pull you up please(Begged)

Darren: Even in death may we be triumphant(Yelled)

Kurda: Merida Darren no(Yelled worriedly as Darren and her vanished into the water and was carried away)

It's been almost a week since Merida's and Darren's encounter with Kurda and the Vampanese and Gavner's death. Since than they have been naked and has been looked after by wolves. But they can't stay away forever, today is the day Kurda is supposed to become a prince and they need to stop it. They also need to tell everyone that Kurda killed Gavner and has let Vampanese in Vampire Mountain. That's why there at Vampire Mountain now getting ready to talk to Seba to get his help Darren knocked on the wall.

Seba: I said give me a minute Vanez

He turned around and was totally speechless when he saw Darren and Merida standing there dirty and half naked with flower sacks tied around their privates.

Seba: Merida Darren what?(Sat down)

Darren: Hey Seba(They smiled)

Seba: What happened?! Where have you two been?!

Merida: You might want to keep sitting down for this

Merida explained everything and Seba's head was spinning

Seba: That traitor! What are we going to do the ceremony is soon?(Said angrily)

Darren: We have a plan

The Hall of Princes

Kurda went up the steps and kneeled

Darren: Stop(Yelled as he ran in with Merida)

Everyone stopped and gasped

Crepsley: Darren(Cried happily as he held out his arms)

Darren: Not now later(Whispered)

Merida: Kurda is a traitor I and Darren witnessed him kill Gavner Purl and let Vampanese in Vampire Mountain.

There was some confused and angry yells a few Vampanese that were in the hall with Kurda seized them and tried to attack them. Merida flipped them before the Vampanese could seize them again a couple of guards seized the Vampanese and pulled them out.

Paris: Everyone silence(Yelled)

It went quiet

Mika: Kurda is what they're saying true?

Kurda: It is

There was some gasps in the room

Arrow: Guards seize him, we'll have another meeting in an hour and hear Kurda explain himself.

Seba: Until than can I please make sure Darren and Merida get something to eat?

Paris: Of course, and let them take a shower and get them new clothes

After a shower Darren and Merida put on new clothes. Darren in shirt and pants and Merida in a long sleeve blue dress, they went down to the dinner hall and ate happily. Harkatt walked in and sat down next to them.

Harkatt: You're back(Said happily hugging them)

Crepsley walked in and sat down across from them.

Crepsley: I'm not happy that you ran but I understand your reasons(Grabbed his hand)

Darren: Thank you and I'm sorry

Crepsley: its okay, Merida I'm sorry you were hurt by the man that took you in.

Merida: Thank you

The Hall of Princes

Kurda walked up to the steps in chains and kneeled Merida couldn't stop crying knowing that she was betrayed by someone she loved so much and no matter the outcome today she was going to lose someone she loved so much. So Darren had to hold her.

Mika: Explain yourself

Kurda: What Darren and Merida said is true, I wanted vampires and vampanese to have peace with each other again. When I became prince I was going to let the Vampanese take over the Stone of Blood and Vampire Mountain.

A vampire: So you wanted us all to become monsters and kill humans when we drink from them?!

Kurda: No that was never my intention that was something I wanted to change when we had peace between the two clans again. Too many of us don't even care anymore that the Vampanese are still our brothers and sisters and rather kill them. I want to end that!

Arrow: And what about the Vampanese lord?

Kurda: Some of the Vampanese are just as scared of having a Vampanese lord as we are. I was hoping we could join them and stop the Vampanese lord. I'm a very sorry about Gavner I never wanted to kill him but he would of told everyone Vampanese were in the mountain before I could do anything.

Paris: I admire your courage and believe you had good intentions Kurda but you still betrayed a lot of us including Darren and your own assistant and daughter Merida. We have more reasons to send you to death than not. Does anyone have anything to say on Kurda's behalf that might make us change our minds? Give us good enough reasons and we might banish him from Vampire Mountain instead of kill him.

Darren felt like he should say something but at the same time Kurda hurt him and especially hurt Merida far beyond pain and took away someone they both loved dearly. So he decided to stay silent and so did everyone else.

Mika: That's settled than, Kurda Smault you will not become a prince. Tonight you will be sent to the Hall of Stakes.

Arrow: Until than we all will attack the Vampanese that are in the mountain and Darren and Merida will lead us.

In the tunnels

The fight between vampires and vampanese started and the vampires were doing well. Merida was doing an amazing job with her bow and arrows as usual. The battle was half way over when Darren saw Arra who was facing a Vampanese get stabbed by him in the stomach. She fell to the knees losing a lot of blood. Darren quickly ran over and stabbed him in the head with his knife killing him. All the Vampanese were dead and Arra was put on a stretcher.

Arra: Larten don't let them kill Darren let him live promise me(Coughed up blood)

Crepsley: I promise(Crying)

Arra: And Merida loss the only farther she had since becoming a vampire. Promise me you'll take her in as your assistant and child as well.

Crepsley: I promise(Crying)

Arra died that night Merida and Darren went to Gavner's and Arra's funerals but could not bring themselves to go to Kurda's execution. So they held each other while laying on Darren's bed crying. After a while of crying they fell asleep in each other's arms until they were woken up by Crepsley in the morning.

Crepsley: Hey sorry guys but Darren the meeting is soon come on

The three and Harkatt walked to the hall and the four walked up to the steps.

Crepsley: I'm not leaving Darren's side(Taking Darren's hand)

Merida: Me either(Taking Darren's other hand)

Harkatt: Me either(Taking Merida's other hand)?

Seba: Larten-

Paris: its fine Seba, you three may stay, let's get the meeting started.

Mika: So Kurda asked you to run and asked Merida to go with you and you took the offer?

Darren: Yes

Arrow: And Harkatt was covering for you?

Darren: Yes

Paris: You know the punishment for running away from the trials?

Darren: Yes

Crepsley: No!(Yelled)

Seba: Larten calm down

Crepsley: No! I won't let you kill my assistant! I made a promise to Arra that not only I would keep Darren alive but take Merida as my assistant also in favor of Darren and so she would have someone looking after her who loves her. She was only blooded three years ago like Darren she still a half vampire and has lots to learn. And she only became an assistant three years ago she needs someone and Gavner and Kurda is gone. I'm the only one left besides Darren and Harkatt the she knows and that she's close to and that loves her. You are not talking her husband away from her also, you kill Darren you have to kill me too.

Merida was crying happily after hearing that Crepsley promised to take her in also as his assistant and child.

Merida: Me too

Harkatt: Me too

Mika: Larten calm down and let us finish!

Arrow: Are intention is not to kill Darren, in fact we plan on doing the same thing to him as we did to Merida.

Darren: What?(Confused)

Paris: Who can't be touched by death no matter what law they break?

Crepsley: You don't mean-

Mika: That's exactly what we mean Larten

Arrow: Darren, become a prince, it’s either that or being dragged to the hall of stakes.

Darren: I'll do it, under one condition, I'm still Crepsley's assistant.

Paris: Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way, Larten will stay here and advise and help you.

Crepsley: Prince or not I will always be your master and farther. And now I will also advise and help Merida and be her father and master like Kurda was.

Mika: Of course

Arrow: Please welcome our new prince everyone Darren Shan. His ceremony will be tonight.

All the vampires cheered and clapped that night at Darren's ceremony he put his hands on the Stone of Blood putting his blood in. Everyone chanted his name while carrying him through the halls. When they finally put him down he got some sleep after drinking with everyone until his first meeting sitting in his chair as a prince. It was going fine until Mr. Tiny walked in clapping.

Mr. Tiny: So young Shan is a prince now just like Princess Merida how wonderful. Hello Merida.

Paris: Mr. Tiny, what can we help you with?

Mr. Tiny: I'm here to tell you the Vampanese lord is finally born

There were fearful mutters

Darren: Who is it?

Mr. Tiny: Now now Mr. Shan you know I can't reveal that, but I can reveal the destined hunters who are meant to track him down, find him, and destroy him. They are Darren Shan, Larten Crepsley, Princess Merida, and Vancha March. No one else can help them unless you're not a vampire. Which brings me to this, Harkatt I'm guessing you want to stay with Darren and Merida?

Harkatt: Yes

Mr. Tiny: I thought so, your hunt starts today and you have three chances to kill him. I make no promises you'll all stay alive and if you fail the Vampanese will take over the world and the world and all the vampires will come to an end. No Vampanese can kill any of you unless they’re the Vampanese lord unless you fail. Good day and good luck.

He left and soon so did Harkatt, Merida, Crepsley, and Darren to begin their journey and find Vancha March.

(Too be continued)

#cirquedufreak #vampire'sassistant #larten crepsley #darren shan #vampires #brave #merida #story #storyofmine #kurda smahlt

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