The Garden 🪴🐝

♡︎Go read the intro here♡︎

Pairings: Tangerine and Ladybug x fem!reader

Warnings: NSFW, threesome, lot of cursing, daddy kink ofc

Word Count: 2.8k words.

You wake up to a loud banging on your bedroom door. You groan and open your eyes in a squint from your rude awakening. You move your comforter to the side as you get up to walk to the doorknob. You untwist the lock before opening it to see Lemon freeze his 20th knock.

“Why in the fuck are you still sleeping? God damnit, luv, you really need an alarm or something,” he says shaking his head. “Lemon, what’s going on?” you ask with a sleepy voice, rubbing your eyes.

He begins, “I lost my dvd for season 3 of Thomas and was wondering if you’ve seen it anywhere?”

“Is that really why you came to my side of the house, banging at my door like you’re dying?” you ask with a confused frown.

“Well I obviously didn't come here to look at your cute little bumblebee pajamas.” He motions to your small black tank top, with an embroidered bee on the middle below your chest line, with tiny yellow bumblebee shorts to match. He smirks, “But I’m glad I did. Best thing I’ve seen all week, honestly.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh. “No, I haven’t seen it. Have you checked your suitcase from the last job? You probably forgot it in there since you take fucking forever to unpack.”

Lemon eyes almost pop out of his head while he pratically jumps on you to engulf your face in a huge embrace. He peppers what seems like a million kisses on the top of your scalp due to your height difference before finally releasing you and sprinting towards his room. You shake your head with a smile before yelling, “Don’t run in the house!! The floors just got waxed!” You hear a thud from across the corridor that you can’t see with a “I’m okay!!” in the distance before he continues his search. 

You decide that since you’re already up, you should just head downstairs for some food. You grab your slides from the entrance of your bedroom before making your way to the kitchen. Sitting at the kitchen island are Ladybug and Tangerine having some lunch. They both turn around to see who came into the room and immediately they both start smiling widely in surprise and whistling at the sight of your new pj's. You can’t help but laugh and blush at their ridiculous reaction to your new favorite investment. “Give us a twirl, darling!” Tangerine shouts and you follow his command with a blowing of a kiss. Ladybug grabs his heart dramatically swooning at your actions while Tangerine reaches out for your hand to pull you closer to them. “Oh, BB, is this what you’ve been spending your paychecks on? Those are adorable!” Ladybug says moving his hand to touch the loose fabric on the end of the shorts. “Damn, good quality, too. Might need to get some myself.” You giggle at his comments before saying, “Thank you, lovebug. I just had it delivered, yesterday.”

“Well, you need to get a shit ton more because if I don’t wake up every day to this, I’m going to be fucking pissed off.” Tangerine states while gawking at you, rubbing his mustache as looks at you up and down. Yuichi comes into the room with his head down on his phone. “Yuichi, look at BB!” Ladybug snaps causing him to look up swiftly and he smiles softly admiring how cute you look. He walks up to you and rubs your back up and down with one hand. “These new, Hachi?” he says staring at your figure. You bite your lip and nod before asking, “You like it?” He nods slowly, “I love it.” He pecks your temple gently and moves his hand back to his pockets. “I got to go now, Wataru is waiting for me to pick him up from school. I’ll be back, later.” He makes his way out the door. “Bye, Yuichi!” everyone yells before he closes the front door.

Tangerine grabs you by the waist and pulls you into the space between his legs. “What has our BB planned out for the day, hmm?” He asks while squeezing at the ends of your hips. “Well, I wanted to grab something to eat. You guys got us some takeout for lunch?” You peek at the marble behind them, seeing huge ‘THANK YOU’ bags laid out with styrofoam takeout containers opened with pasta inside. “Yeah, we decided to let you take a break from cooking today since it is our day off.” Ladybug says while bringing his hand up to your cheek to squeeze it lightly. “Wanted our Bumblebee to relax today.”

“My favorite alfredo pasta! Aww, thank you guys!” you say grabbing Tangerine’s face and pecking his cheek, then doing the same to Ladybug immediately after, in gratitude.

You move away from them to grab yourself a plate from the cupboard, serving yourself with a fork before eating it happily in the seat between them.

When you finished, you wiped your face with a napkin before getting up and placing the plate in the dishwasher. Tangerine got up to do the same and when he looked at your top, he paused you and motioned you towards him. “Oh, gorgeous, look what you did. Got a bit of sauce on ya. Let me help you.” He wraps his large hands around your hips and pulls you up in a free space on the counter. You squeal at his sudden actions.

“Tan, what are you doing?” You giggle but he shushes you. “Got to get it off before it stains, luv.” He says, keeping his eyes on you while he moves his head down. He brings his tongue out and slowly starts licking at the bit of your top that sits right above the most sensitive part of your breasts. Your breath starts to hitch as he tries sucking out at the spot. You can’t believe the pool that is already beginning to form in your panties even though he hasn’t touched the sensitive bud that is protruding so close to his mouth. He finally pulls away and clicks his tongue in disappointment. “Ladybug, have a look at this, will ya?” Tangerine says still keeping his eyes entirely on you.

Ladybug gets up and walks to your side of the kitchen island, now he too is staring at the stain. “Man, that is pretty bad.” Ladybug then brings his thumb up and rubs at the stain, causing you to shiver at his touch. “I reckon we need to take it off, don’t we?” Tangerine’s fingers ran along the waistline of the top. “Oh yeah, definitely. We need to get it washed before it gets any worse.” Ladybug says while nodding back as if he confirmed his diagnosis. Tangerine smirks, “You heard the man, luv?”

Oh, you know exactly what they’re trying to do and man they’re good. Tangerine starts hooking his fingers and pulling your top over your head, your bare tits falling gracefully. Tangerine winks and walks off to take it in the direction of the laundry room. You’re left alone with Ladybug who immediately starts moving your thighs apart and gripping them to his sides with your body now pressed against his. “Gotta cover you up somehow, BB?” He says with his iconic wide smile while pulling you off the counter with your arms and legs wrapped all around his upper half. “Where are you taking me, lovebug?” You whisper in his ear. He responds, “You’ll see.”

He walks silently for a minute before kicking a bedroom door open. He finally places you down gently with your back still away from the scenery. He closes the door leaving it open slightly. You turn around and gasp at the beautiful setup in front of you. Ladybug starts hugging you from behind while chuckling at your reaction. In front of you is a lovely display of a dimly lit chandelier with a room full of gorgeous red furniture with white rose petals surrounding the whole carpet. In the middle is a king-sized bed, with silk black sheets that are dying to be slept in. You’ve never seen this room before since you spend most of your time in The Hivemind. You didn’t think there could be a room so relaxing and sensual in your own home.

“We were planning hard on what to do on our day off.” Ladybug states softly in your ear. You smile and ask, “We?” Then you hear the door creak and close. “Yes, we, darling.” That accent coming closer is now facing you, moving closer with every slow step. He brings his hands to your cheeks. “Got to show our girl how much we appreciate her.” He says before his lips become one with yours in an instant.

Tangerine’s mustache gives the sweetest tickles all over your mouth as Ladybug starts kissing your neck. You feel the warm hands of Ladybug moving up towards your breasts, massaging them. His index finger on each hand rubbed each nipple making you moan into Tangerine’s delicious lips. Tangerine takes this opportunity to let his tongue slide into your mouth. Even with all this contact, your body begins whimpering, begging for more. Upon hearing this, Tangerine and Ladybug open their eyes to give each other a look and both start to pull away slowly. “C’mon, BB, let's get you comfortable.” Ladybug says as he lightly spanks you.

He and Tangerine begin to guide you towards the bed. You crawl onto the biggest bed you’ve ever been on in your life. You lay your head against the softest pillows with your legs slightly bent up. You watch as each of the men undress. You are drooling at every layer they shed and need to bite your thumb to keep you contained. After they are fully stripped, Tangerine arrives on your left side and Ladybug to your right. They begin touching your body softly as they get comfortable. Before you know it, they start kissing you passionately, each taking turns on your lips, your neck, and your breasts.

“You really like this, huh? You like being our good little whore, sweetheart?” Ladybug says with a heavy, rough voice you’ve never experienced from him before. You moan and nod into Tangerine’s lips while you squeeze your thighs together, trying to gain some relief from the building excitement. Tangerine pulls away and moves his hands down to your hips. He grabs both your underwear and shorts in one swift movement, throwing them across the room. He begins to hook your thighs into his arms and pulls you towards him, roughly. You squeal loudly in surprise at the sudden action. Tangerine parts your legs wide and begins to position himself to your entrance; rubbing up and down your pussy. Looking up at you he says, “God, you look so fucking sexy all spread out for us. You’re god damn dripping. You’ve been dreaming of this, haven’t you? Fucking slut, you better be ready for me.” You nod eagerly, needy eyes staring deep into his.

He slides into you while groaning loudly, “Ugh so fucking tight, gotta give you a nice proper fuck now, don’t I?” He tightly grabs your hips, slamming his cock into you with a sheer force that has you moaning in a way that you can feel your own voice echoing back. Ladybug moves down to your tit and puts it in his mouth, sucking and flicking your nipple with his tongue. As he does so, his hand is moving down to your clit, rubbing circles exactly where you want it. “Yes! Oh, lovebug, that feels so good!” You throw your head back, experiencing a pleasure so heightened, that you can already feel your orgasm brewing at a pace that has never been achieved.

Tangerine begins to pound you faster in a perfect rhythm. “Oh fuck! Daddy, please don’t stop, just like that! YES!” you scream with heavy pants in between every word. “Fuck yeah, take my fucking cock. Beg for my cum, slut. I’m gonna spill it all inside, fucking beg for it!” he says while Ladybug spanks your clit. “Do as he says, my dear. You want to cum, too, don’t you? Do it.” Ladybug rubs your bud a bit faster which leads a huge O to appear on your face. “I’m so close! Please cum with me, daddy! Cum inside me, daddy!” you grip the sheets tightly to hold onto your climax a little more for him. His thrusts get rougher and rougher. “Ahhh fuckkkk!” His huge load begins to fill you up, but he is still hitting you with deep, hard thrusts. This sends you over the edge, giving you the biggest orgasm you’ve ever experienced in your life. All the sensations, leave your mind blank and your eyes rolling to the back of your head. Ladybug kisses your cheeks and rubs your head softly, trying to calm down your shaking body.

Tangerine starts pulling out of you slowly, groaning at the release. “Holy shit, dunno how I even lasted up to now.” He lets out a breathy chuckle and looks up at Ladybug. “Well, you’re up now, mate.” He pats his friend’s shoulder before getting up and grabbing a cig with his lighter. “I’ll be on the balcony having a smoke, call me when your done, yeah?” He walks off with his sexy bare ass on full display. Ladybug smiles and strokes your cheek with his thumb. “Don’t worry, BB, I’ll be a little more gentle. Just take a deep breath for me and enjoy.” He pecks your lips so sweetly. Your chest is still red and heaving from your last orgasm, but for some reason, you feel the knot that just went loose inside you begin to tangle again under his touch. Just the way he is looking at you have you spreading your legs wide for him, ready for his love. He positions himself, his face still hovering over yours, looking deep into your eyes. His mouth gapes slightly at the contact and your legs interlock around his hips causing him to bottom out on you. He somehow still stretches you out deliciously in this new position. He begins to thrust in a sensual and steady rhythm that makes you feel every pulse going through the both of you. With every intimate thrust, you both are moaning messes in each other’s ears. “So good for me, BB! So fucking good, oh god.” He moves his lips from your ears to your lips, kissing you passionately while moving his hips faster. Your whimpers are muffled by his tongue and you can feel yourself getting closer. Ladybug pulls away with a pant, “You think you’re ready for one more load, babygirl?” You nod, your foreheads pressing together. You grip his biceps to hang onto reality. “Yes, oh my love, please… Please give me your cum. I’m s-so close.” 

He grips onto the headboard and continues to thrust deeply into you. “Oh fuck, I’m gonna fucking blow right into you, baby! Holy shit!” He grunts as your hands move to his back, scratching at the surface. “Oh, fill me up, Daddy! Make me cum again, YES!” You moan loudly as your second orgasm washes over you along with his hot thrusts pumping you full of his cum. “Oh, fuck! Don’t. Spill. A. Fucking. Drop.” He says within his final deep thrusts. He pants and falls beside you on the bed. You both are taking a minute to catch your breath before he motions you to come closer for a cuddle. “Tangerine! Get your perky ass back here! It’s cuddle time, stop fucking up your lungs!” He shouts as Tangerine puts his cig out and walks back into the bed. “Mate, you’re gonna fuck up your lungs with how god damn loud you’re shoutin'.” He chuckles and cuddles up beside you and pecks your shoulder softly. “Not as bad as you though, luv, that’s for fucking sure.” You giggle weakly. “I love you guys.” You kiss each one of them sweetly on the lips. “Thank you for giving me the best day off ever.”

* .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ ⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

A/N: AHHHHHHH, you have no fucking idea how much fun it was to write this. I am literally shaking with excitement for you guys to read this and I am even more excited to keep this series going. The next part is already sorta planned out, but I won’t spill too much about it. All I’m saying is that… it's a mission. <3

Couch Cuddles Masterlist

A Beautiful Mess Of Emotion (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: Dan was a mess after the holidays ended. He came back from his family’s house with bags under his eyes and no spring left in his step. The moment Phil opened the door, he knew something was wrong.

Or: Phil comforts Dan after a stressful week.

A Horror Deal (ao3) - bakingphaninmymind

Summary: Dan and Phil decide to watch a horror. Both boys know it's not a good idea, but at least they have a chance to find out who's gonna come and cuddle to whose bedroom first, right? Fluff :)

being with you (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: Dan and Phil have just released their DVD; after chatting with their audience, they spend the night alone.

cat and bear (ao3) - furryphil

Summary: 2009!phan in which dan finds something unexpected on phil’s phone. it’s not a bad thing, though phil is a bit embarrassed by it.

Distracting Boyfriends and Sleepy Kisses (ao3) - ElleF

Summary: Phil just wants his boyfriend to pay attention to him.

Home is Wherever I'm With You (ao3) - xoPrincessKayxo

Summary: Dan has a habit of showing up at Phil's place unannounced whenever he can't sleep. Phil doesn't mind at all

In another life you still would’ve turned my head (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Dan comes across old black and white photos of two queer men messing around, one playing with the other's hair, just like he did in a recent video with Phil. He gets caught up in the emotions that he would have fallen in love with Phil in any universe. He crawls into Phil's lap and tells him exactly that.

In Touch (ao3) - enbyishimaru

Summary: After seeing Dan being comfortable with himself in Australia, he plans a date night to encourage Dan to continue doing things that mqke him happy. Also combining my personal wanting Dan to catch up with Rick and Morty, so if you aren't caught up there will be spoilers.

Keep It Down (ao3) - INeverHadMyInternetPhase (BirbWatcher)

Summary: Phil wants a quiet life. That's all he's asked for. He doesn't want the new neighbour to blast music at him at 2 in the morning, so if he would kindly stop then that's all Phil needs

keep your brittle heart warm (ao3) - theloveofbees

Summary: this summer is strange. but its warm. and theres wine. and theres music. and maybe things will be okay.

Nothing Matters But Us Two (ao3) - expiredlove

Summary: Dan really doesn't want Phil to leave him after their joyful weekend playing Crash Bandicoot on the couch, so he convinces him to stay. Lots of cuddles ensue.

Of Racing Hearts and Weighted Blankets (ao3) - hygge

Summary: Phil wakes up with anxiety coursing through his body and finds that Dan is a pretty good weighted blanket.

Sleepy Movie Nights (ao3) - YourEyesHoldTheGalaxy

Summary: Dan and Phil need a movie night in and maybe just maybe, it’ll be different this time.

Sunshine and Snuggles (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: - There were some days when Dan couldn’t stand the thought of being alone. They were few and far between, and impulsive, but whenever these days came about, he found himself clinging to Phil as if he was his lifeline. -

A day of Pastel Dan and Punk Phil cuddles.

Take a Picture and Frame It (ao3) - interruptedbyfjreworks

Summary: Dan's never been one to believe that 'everything happens for a reason', but he can't help but feel that Amelia was put into their lives by more than just an off-chance.

When I Think About My Future All I Think About Is You (ao3) - expiredlove

Summary: Dan looks back on their past and writes his favourite memories down for Phil to read. He talks about how he can't wait until their future together begins, but maybe it already has...

Thoughts on what general audiences can do for the WGA and SAG strikes

I've read up a lot on the strike situation these past weeks because I'm someone who consumes A LOT OF media content. The strike will affect my daily life and I'm a curious girlie when it comes to show biz rules. So here are some of the takeaways I wanna share with my fellow audience:

1. Understand the strike

The strike is happening for 2 major reasons:

1.) The studios are refusing to pay the creators/actors residuals on streaming services.

This makes it hard for the majority of writers and actors to make a living by doing their respective jobs. They used to rely on residuals from old projects (DVD and blue-ray sales, renting, etc.) to pay bills. That's just not happening today.

To try to get out of paying residuals, the major studios started this trend this year to take old and new shows/movies off their streaming platforms and use them as an excuse for a tax write-off. Disney did this last month and got a 1.1 billion tax write-off. They can currently do that without consulting the people involved AT ALL, taking away their livelihood without warning.

2.) The studios want to retain the rights to use AI writing and performing.

In the negotiation with SAG, they proposed a plan to pay actors only one day's wage to use their AI image FOREVER without paying them ever again. And the actors wouldn't have a ground to argue that. This is straight out of Black Mirror Season 6 Joan is Awful. Netflix is really writing its own villain origin story right now.

So what would happen if the workers budge and give up mid-way?

They'll end up losing their means to survive and have their images stolen. So striking for a few months is definitely better than starving indefinitely.

What's happening right now?

Right now, no projects fiananced by AMTPT companies can film with SAG members or develop with WGA members, which means only a very small percentage of all Hollywood productions can still happen. (More to come about this.)

With finished projects, if they're being released in the next few months, they're going to be released without any promo from the actors. They can't take part in interviews, premieres, fan events, or even post about their projects on social media.

2. Help with the strike.

Now that the double strike has officially happened, what's the best outcome for the workers and the audiences?

If you're just a casual entertainment enjoyer:

Cancel the streaming services not essential to you. The studios are going to panic more when they start losing even more money.

If you're a fan of a fanchise/upcoming blockbuster:

Flood the companies behind it, demanding them negotiate with the SAG and WGA on their own and agree to a fair deal. Threat not to support the projects unless it's settled fairly.

These studios with upcoming big-budget movies are bleeding money and panicking right now, any added pressure is good.

If one company buckles, the others would follow suit.

If you have money to spare: (Congrats on being rich, btw!)

Donate to the unions and support the ones with lower income in the first place, they'd be struggling with bills if the strike goes on for too long.

For everyone:

Call out big studios who are still planning on filming projects during the strike.

Please note there are exceptions to the strike rule:

1.) Foreign productions.

Please note an actor has to be part of the foreign union to work on these. Some of the foreign unions are still in meetings to decide if they'll allow US companies to work with their members, the most notable ones being the UK one and the Canadian one. Fingers crossed they don't fall for the deals the US studios are offering.

2.) Indie productions.

Indie companies can make their own deals with the workers since they're not included in the overall deal. So a very small amount of US projects can still happen. Make sure a project doesn't fall into this category before calling them out for scabbing.

That's about it for now. I might add more later in the replies if I think of anything.

Lost, Found, and Rebuilt (The Thief and the Cobbler)

Back in high school I found myself on the lost media side of the internet. It's no secret that there is a lot of lost media out there, some was released then forgotten, others were abandoned. Then there are some examples that were technically released, but are more just a version of the original. This was the first example of lost media I've ever come across, the Thief and the Cobbler.

This is an interesting story. Back in 1964 Richard Williams began work on a film that he planned to be his magnum opus based on a book series from a friend. Seeing the animation in even just the version that was released shows great attention to detail, beautiful animation, and amazing designs. The film was intended to take full advantage of animation. Even the movement of characters is a marvel to look at. You can take nearly any frame and put it up in the louver, it is just a joy to look at.

Here's where the fun part begins, the version of the film that was released to the public came out in 1993, 29 years after production began. What the heck happened? Well a lot of things, time management, lack of funds, complete rewrites, and the original author of the books pulling out due to a fallout. The timeline is also littered with big budget animation films he worked on, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, smaller movies like Raggedy Anne, and TV ads to pay the bills. Keep in mind that this was largely done by Williams and a team he hired without any studio supervision. Turns out there are some benefits to having a contract, like money.

Eventually Williams did find a publisher in Warner Brothers to fund his project, but he continued to miss deadlines and was booted off of the project. It was then decided to just get the movie out the door to put something out there. The version that the public saw was full of pop culture references, unnecessary narration, musical numbers despite the film not being a musical, and odd gags.

Williams defeated gave up on his masterpiece, but that was not the end of the story. In 2006 the greatest fan project began called the Recobbled Cut. This is a project with the aim to bring back the film in Williams original vision. With connections in the animation industry, this community managed to gather art, clips from DVD's, film, and scripts from studios and people who worked on it. One story says that there was film found in a trash can of all places.

Since 2006 this project has been steadily rebuilding The Thief and the Cobbler from the ground up. Completing scenes that never saw the light of day, restoring old film, and making the colors more vibrant, all of which breathing in new life in this film. The restoration project is currently on its fourth version, available on this YouTube channel, which also has some more works from Richard Williams.

Richard Williams did not talk about the Recobbled Cut, but some people say it had his approval. Williams passed away in 2019 never seeing the film completed, but this film has possibly become one of the greatest things on the internet, despite still being a work in progress.

Quick note:

I got the details for this post from this article, which incidentally directed me to the current version of the Recobbled Cut.

@DangeresqueIII on Twitter just posted this old Yokohama Shopping Log interview w/ the manga author that was packaged alongside the VHS/DVD release of the OVA, alongside a translation, copied to Reddit. I lack faith in either of those platforms so hopefully reproducing it here increases the survival odds a bit (too small to be worth a IA upload or anything imo):

(translation by @WindiiGitlord)

Q: Before your debut, you were involved in animation.

A: I was a little bit, but that was 10 years ago.

Q: Did you ever think that 10 years later your work would become animated?

A: I had a hope that one day it would happen. But when it came to fruition, it was a different feeling than being happy.

Q: How do you feel now that it is being made?

A: I guess it started out as my own Yokohama Shopping Log, but now I feel like a member of the staff or a participant in the production, probably because I am talking to everyone.

Q: You seem to have known Director Annou for a long time. When did you become aware of him?

A: I was involved in animation for a while in the past. So about 10 years ago, Mr. Annou's "Semishigure" was the talk of the town among my friends. They said there had never been anything like it before. Usually, in those days, animation was all about the explosive action, and the first priority was the movement, but I had the impression that Mr. Annou valued pauses, space, and the like. I felt how lucky we were to have him as the director this time.

Q: GONTITI is also in charge of the music. How do you feel about listening to the opening and songs this time?

A: I have been a fan of GONTITI for a long time. I melt when I listen to them (laughs). When I think that this is the music used in Yokohama Shopping Log, I feel happy, but in a different way, it feels amazing.

Q: How did you come to draw Yokohama Shopping Log?

A: I usually wander around, walking from place to place, and I thought it would be nice if someone could speak for me when I was thinking about something, and that's how the first chapter came about, I think.

Q: Do you have trouble creating a story?

A: It's not so much that I'm troubled, but rather, once I get started, I just go with it. I just wait for the opportunity.

Q: Do you wait for ideas for characters to come to you?

A: Waiting for ideas to come to me sounds cool, but, hm, I don't know. It's not that hard. It's just a natural process.

Q: Did you naturally come up with the idea of the dead cedar tree?

A: It's not so much that I thought of it, but rather that I drew it according to what I thought would happen here. The rising water level is also like that.

Q: Do you still wander around these days?

A: I would like to, but once I start, my brushwork is too slow. I used to go here and there on my motorcycle before my debut, so I do it while remembering the memories of that time.

Q: What are your thoughts on characters like Alpha and Kokone, who are close to humans but not human?

A: I didn't have a plan. She's not Alpha the Human, but the part of her that is more human than a human being is her personality, so it came naturally to me.

Q: What would you like to do these days?

A: I want to go for a walk. I don't have a manga as a work in progress, but rather as a result of my daily life, which happens to be Yokohama Shopping Log.

Q: Which point in time do you envision Yokohama Shopping Log to be in?

A: Well, it could be now. I think I am drawing a picture of the present, but people say it is a nostalgic picture. I haven't decided exactly how many years from now it's in. It's like I'm painting the world as it appears to me somehow.

Q: Any final message to your fans? A: I think this is a work like nothing you have ever seen before, please enjoy it.

All the seriously queer stuff in the back half of Sailor Moon

In case it wasn't obvious when I released a little mini-RPG a few months ago where you basically play as the villains, I've been gradually making my way through the entire run of Sailor Moon for the past year or so. Specifically I'm watching the 2014 Viz dub that covers all 200 episodes, trying to be as faithful as they can with it. It's been a really interesting experience, since I absolutely watched the old DiC dub back in the day, saw a fansub of one of the movies around the same time, and heard plenty of things about the missing seasons (particularly the infamous "cousins" thing from the Cloverway dub) over the years, and now I have all the context. And the context gets really shockingly overtly queer, turns out!

So first, let's just all get on the same page with the English language localizations of Sailor Moon over the years. Back in the 90s, Sailor Moon aired… well everywhere, with the English language version being a dub from DiC, which I will go to my grave defending as probably the best dub of anything I can think of. Fantastic casting all around, changes to the soundtrack that were actually for the better (keeping all the melodies but recording new versions that… aren't optimized to sound show-perfect when recreated by the cheapest sound generators one can shove in a toy, plus some original songs shoved into a few episodes). They did make some edits/cuts, but pretty minor ones, especially compared to the complete reworkings most anime of the era went through when coming to American TV, and I'm still not used to Luna not being prissy and British here.

That dub only lasted up through the second season. Past that, there was a dub of seasons 3 and 4 from Cloverway, which had some really questionable performances, and is where the infamous "they're cousins" bit came in. This also aired on TV in some places, but didn't have nearly the same omnipresent distribution as the DiC seasons (… and now I'm feeling old as I ponder whether to explain how local TV affiliates did their own thing back in the broadcast days). Then in the early 2000s there was a DVD release from Pioneer with cut/uncut versions of everything, apparently, which may or may not have recycled those dubs. I don't really have the energy to track that down, specifically. Anyway all the rights expired, gathered dust forever, then Viz picked it up and did this new faithful localization, and it took me about a decade to spot it on a streaming service.

So we've got 5 seasons, 200 episodes total, and a hell of a lot of formulaic structuring here. Every season (or half a season) we've got some main villain with an evil plan we may or may not get any details on, and some small number of underlings who then take their 5-10 episode long turns pursuing their goal in a way that inevitably generates monsters of the week, and meanwhile every season we have another conflict on the good guy side where someone is trying to locate some special person and ignoring the 50 or so obvious signs which main cast member it is while the audience gets frustrated. Oh and each individual episode has the same rigid structure of everyone getting caught up in some wacky teen trend, then there's a monster, they transform and fight a bit to no real end, then Sailor Moon gets around to using a finisher because that's literally the only thing actually capable of ending a fight. Honestly it's less "formulaic TV writing" and more like some sort of daily meditation. No way in hell I'd be able to sit through all of it if I had to look at the screen the whole time. This is background viewing while I work. Oh and I'm assuming everyone has at least enough passing familiarity to understand that if I say the name of a planet I'm talking about a teenage girl who's the reincarnation of some sorta magical girl/sentai squad member.

Season 1 has pretty gay vibes in places, but MOSTLY there's plausible deniability for all of it. We spend about half the season just establishing the characters of Moon Mercury and Mars, then quickly bringing in Jupiter and playing it up like a big shocking reveal for Venus. There's also a bunch of relationship drama between Moon, Tuxedo Mask, and the guy who runs the local arcade that she has a crush on and spends a while thinking is actually Tuxedo Mask instead of his actual identity of uh… a college-aged guy we're saying is the destined love interest of this 14-year old girl he's frankly pretty abusive towards. So, a lot of straight nonsense there. Meanwhile the evil queen's got these 4 generals, two of them are plainly dating, and no matter how you slice it, that's pretty overtly queer, but there's a valid argument to have over how we actually should slice it.

I was aware at the time that the DiC dub just ran with Zoicite here being a woman, making this a straight relationship, and I kinda figured they did a bit of tweaking and editing to hide that this was actually one of those bishonen types who were popular at the time who happened to be gay. Honestly though, watching it through a modern lens, it is REALLY hard to not just see a woman here, even when we're throwing he/him pronouns around. Like, if I'm handling a new dub, I'm just going to say Zoicite is a trans girl, who I'm at least headcanoning as being out for years, on HRT, and at that point where she can put on a suit designed for a man and nah that's a woman wearing a suit. Kinda just wraps around and makes me appreciate the old dub's handling more than the new one.

Season 2 (or R) doesn't really give us anything to work with, if I'm honest. There's probably some gals-being-pals energy amongst the main cast here and there. That's kind of always low-key present, especially with Jupiter, who has the whole big tough girl who wears long skirts thing sorta gay energy, and I want to say she ends up going to a dance with Mercury somewhere early on because one of them can't find a date otherwise.

But, we've got this filler arc with two dark elves in a tree who just kinda both hit on everyone of the opposite gender while the main cast sits in a holding pattern, then we get a proper villain squad not really getting enough spotlight time to have much of anything going on, and this whole weird thing where Moon and Mask's annoying toddler comes back from the future to… brainwash Moon's parents into thinking she's their daughter, and then she gets turned into an evil adult, and there's this whole bit about her having some sort of grim reaper/time guardian as a nanny (this is Pluto, the outer planets really have different things going on)… but again, mostly straight/cis flavored nonsense.

Then suddenly here comes season 3 (or S, pronounced "Super" which makes things real confusing), from a director who would later go on to create Utena, and in addition to just being the single best season of the series for a number of other reasons, everyone is canonically into girls now! It's shockingly overt about establishing that too, and reiterating the point several times.

It all gets started with Uranus and Neptune showing up. We kind of have this three faction conflict this season, where there's a proper main villain and squad of monster making minions, but then there's also this overtly queer power couple whose goal is basically to check out the "pure hearts" monsters of the week keep ripping out of people because they need to check them for these three macguffins they need to… reform the holy grail of all things to give to their leader they're too oblivious to know is actually Moon.

More importantly though, aside from making it abundantly clear that these two are banging every night, they have this very open relationship where Neptune is more than cool with Uranus hooking up with any given girl she's inclined to, and/or grabbing gals for threeways. And like, this isn't me taking a broad interpretation of things, it's weird how directly they just come out and say this. The other thing we have going on is that Uranus is just, like, the butchest of the butch.

Literally everyone just assumes she's a guy when they first meet, and quite a few people go into serious denial when corrected on the matter. And she kinda tends to react to all the misgendering with the sort of bemused nonchalance that makes it pretty easy to read her as actually being nonbinary. I swear there's an episode where she clarifies she's not a guy with that particular sort of emphasis suggesting that doesn't necessarily narrow things down to just "girl," too. And apparently Crystal actually DOES bite the bullet and flat out state she's nonbinary (or at least "both male and female"). That's cool, but there is no way in hell I'm going to sit through Crystal.

Anyway, point is, everybody wants to hook up with Uranus. Everyone. There's a whole episode where the power couple straight up takes Jupiter out on a date, the rest start gossiping about her being out on a date with two girls, everyone starts off shocked, then someone clarifies who it's with and everyone's like "oh, well yeah then I'd take them up on that too," with a little extra push back from Mars before she gets called out as trying to stay in the closet when she's clearly got a stash of photos of hot girls in suits.

This of course really makes me wonder about that Cloverleaf dub and why they went with that whole "cousins" thing to avoid addressing the overt queerness here, instead of taking the same approach DiC did of just making Uranus a guy. This would technically introduce the problem of having a guy in a miniskirt for fight scenes, but, eh, that'd be easier to edit around than you'd think. Uranus generally enters a fight scene pre-transformed firing an attack off from offscreen, arguing with the core cast a little, and leaving. Attacks are stock animation you can drop in anywhere, so that much is easy enough to chop out or replace with Neptune's attack. I don't know how one would even begin to cut around all the overt gay stuff though.

Nothing especially queer going on with the evil side of things. The villains are kind of amazing but too career oriented for relationships. I guess just for the sake of giving full context for the seasons most people haven't seen and fill in the obvious hole in the roster I can mention the eventual deal that the little goth girl Chibi-Usa spends the season hanging out with turns out to be the main villain's daughter, Sailor Saturn, and kind of the antichrist? Like I said, the outer planets aren't just cast expansions, they really have their own stuff going on. She also dies and reincarnates, doing so the long way where she sits the next season out being just a baby, which once again begs the question of whether when everyone dies at the end of the first season they just kinda magically come back to life with missing memories just as a temporary thing for a filler arc to play with or they really dd all reincarnate and have new families a decade and change later. Weird that that never got firmly pinned down.

Anyway though season 4 (AKA Super S, which is pronounced "Supers" and now you see why I prefer just numbers)… sucks and you should skip it. No sense of stakes, no real character work, non-threatening villain, shockingly dull monster designs, no outer planets, an ending that just drags on for what feels like forever and has no payoff. The only things it has in its favor are the inherent absurdity that people are wondering if Chibi-Usa is like full-on dating Pegasus (yes, the horse) and Fish's Eye.

So we have two different miniboss squads this season, the latter of which is a quartet of permanent-child acrobats working for the impressively titled if boring in practice Dead Moon Circus, preceded by three animals-turned-into-humans-by-a-witch with a weird What-you-originally-were's Eye naming scheme. Two of them are just dull slutty guys, but Fish's Eye is plainly and overtly a trans woman, and gets something of an arc about being willing to give up her own humanity for the greater good. It's a shame she's stuck in the practically unwatchable season, but at least she's on the REALLY short list of major villains who gets to have a happy ending. Usually even when someone has a nice redemption arc with the power of love and friendship they still get bumped off by another villain.

Different localizations have done different things with her. Some go "crossdressing gay guy" some just say she's a woman and leave her transness out of it. The 2014 localizaton is pretty unambiguous about though, so, that's really nice. Casting could be better, but still.

Then finally we come to season 5 (Sailor Stars), which I think is even more queer than season 3 was, which is really saying something, and was also directed by someone who would go on to helm another girly show with a serious case of The Genders, Ouran High School Host Club. Structurally it's a bit weird, because the first few episodes are just straight up taking a mulligan on the terrible finale of season 4, this time with the outers in (Saturn hyper-ages back to her standard 10 or whatever and gets a bunch of inexplicable knowledge and memories which is cool but never really paid off), the main villain doing something, and as a shocking rarity for the series, this whole mini-arc where characters are broken into pairs of one inner one outer and get to bounce off each other in a way the series frustratingly usually never does.

More importantly though, at least for this post's purposes, basically the first scene of the season is Uranus and Neptune having a flirty exchange ending with something along the lines of "let's save the pillow talk for when we're actually in bed together later tonight," which sort of sets the tone for just how blatantly these two are talking about their extremely active sex life in no uncertain terms, out in public. Some of the other characters are a bit weirded out by their complete lack of filter, but hey whatever.

The real proper start of the season though has our core cast finally starting high school, once again reminding us that everyone is at LEAST 4 years younger than everything about their designs, interests, and handling of responsibilities would indicate. This also reminds us how deeply creepy the Moon/Tuxedo Mask relationship is, but fortunately he hops a plain to America and is straight up out this season, and as an added bonus Chibi-Moon finally goes back to the future. Before you get too excited she IS shortly replaced with an even younger, barely verbal new mystery gremlin called Chibi-Chibi whose existence nobody can account for, but at least she's actually cute and not akin to the baby from Dinosaurs. More importantly though, as the girls enter high school they end up in a class with the titular Sailor Stars, AKA The Three Lights, AKA Fighter Maker and Healer, a popular boy band who are also a new mysterious set of Sailors with what I assume are intentionally quite confusing gender shenanigans in play.

Normally, they are hot lanky boys, boastful about their masculinity to the point of it bordering on misogyny, but also super super femme, with earings, hair down to their ankles, and very noticeably female VAs in both Japanese and English. Then when there's a fight they're very plainly hot lanky girls in bikinis and one of them has an attack shouting "Star Gentle Uterus!" before hitting a monster with a glob of liquid to a disgusted reaction. And their transformation sequences (and bikinis, and some shirtless scenes) make it absolutely crystal clear that yeah there is some magical reconfiguring of their bodies when making the switch. The show pointedly avoids elaborating on what the deal is past that in terms of which they form they started with/feel more comfortable in/why they switch it up/etc. which would normally frustrate me as one of those Schroedinger's Queer Rep situations, but I very much get the impression that we're going for intentional confusion and ambiguity in service to a general message that if you're into someone you shouldn't have hangups about their gender or what it says about your own sexuality and just kind of accept your feelings and them as a person and I am pretty OK with that.

The cast is too. Mercury Mars Jupiter Venus and for good measure Luna all kinda spent the entire season fixating on how to hook up with any/all of The Three Lights, meanwhile at basically any moment there isn't a fight scene or some plot exposition happening, Fighter is VERY ACTIVELY pursuing Moon in a sexual fashion, with pretty overtly stated tension before damn near every commercial break over whether this is going to be the scene where Sailor Moon gets absolutely railed by this maybe-genderfluid pop star from another world. And I have to just say as a brief aside that while we obviously never go there, I kinda wish we did? Tuxedo Mask is WAY too old to be dating someone Moon's age, even if we do the thing where we just add 4 to everyone's stated age. Plus he kinda treats her like absolute garbage for the whole show, and even when they're in a more wholesome mode the whole thing feels toxic and messed up. Meanwhile Fighter here is literally the same age, clearly into her, and beyond the one character flaw, an actual decent person. Though again, really damn forward. Still beats the hell out of the guy in college dating a middle schooler, and kinda flirting with his own prepubescent future-daughter.

There's also this huge confrontational thing between Fighter and Uranus, where it's slightly unclear if Uranus is being protective of Moon, violently jealous because Neptune is totally and surprisingly overtly open to hooking up with anyone from this boy band too, or just kinda trying to defend her position as the hot androgynous badass who swept into town with the intent of hooking up with every girl in the zip code eventually. Meanwhile Fighter thinks Uranus is a kind of toxic macho dude and really questions the whole "she's not a guy" thing, which is, you know, interesting. Pluto never really weighs in on this because… Pluto kinda lives outside of time and space and has maybe 8 minutes of real screen time in the entirety of the show.

Past that, we've got a bunch of other gay stuff too! We're back to cranking the general queer energy of the core cast up past the point of plausible deniability with regards to each other and a random girl trying to pass along a love letter with some confusion as to who it's for. It also bears mention that when the full deal of the new characters and their gender flipping comes to light, Jupiter makes an active point of making it clear that she is still 100% down and like, hey, I already knew you were the least conflicted of the bunch about how bi you all are, but I appreciate the active refutation of transphobia is still cool. We've got an honestly adorable pair of villains where one is frankly such a bimbo she's completely incapable of doing the evil general thing on her own or preparing her own food, and her hyper-competent girlfriend helping her out while also having to come up with cover stories because they're supposed to be pitted against each other. They'd definitely get a nice happy ending in one of the even numbered seasons, especially once it's made clear that they're very much being coerced into the evil stuff/taking things down from the inside, but… yeah this season ends up going super dark.

I don't want to totally get into how absolutely pitch dark the big 8-part series finale gets and spoil the hell out of it since if it wasn't clear, the odd numbered seasons are all really good stuff you should watch on your own, plus this one has a bunch of genuine twists, but I have to get into some of it in my mission of explaining how gay it all is. Consider yourself warned.

As happens kind of a lot in Sailor Moon finales, the bulk of the season 1 cast gets killed off once the main villain steps in to start getting her hands dirty, but here it's early enough on in the arc for Moon to really process it and give it the weight that maybe it'll actually stick this time. In particular of course she's worked up about Tuxedo Mask turning out to have died off camera at the start of the season (the impression to that point being that he's too distracted with a trip to America to check his messages or maybe just straight up ghosted her), but then almost as broken up over losing Mars, because yeah, those two in particular actually end up with a surprising amount of low key romantic tension between them by the end of things.

Then once it's time to get the outer planets off the table, all four of them end up in a no-win situation against the villain, who does that villain thing of of offering them a choice of just being killed and having their souls ripped out to be made into new stars (this is kind of her whole thing, see), OR if anyone's up for it, they can switch sides, still get their souls ripped out to be made into stars, but given funky magic bracelets that allow them to stay alive, just, you know, corrupted by evil and acting as her new villain squad. It's actually established right before the last one gets vaporized that all her original henchgals are in fact the Sailors of other planets she forced into the same deal just before the last one gets vaporized for failure, making it that much tragic in retrospect that the cute competence-disparity couple didn't make it.

Anyway, Uranus and Neptune actually take the deal. Like, zero hesitation. Part of it is eventually explained as Uranus having enough faith that she's too into her girlfriend to be fully corrupted and might get a chance to sucker punch the villain with her own soul extractors (which she IS it just doesn't work), and failing that Moon'll probably swing some kinda deus machina (which is an admittedly safe bet, honestly). But another part of it really is just "yeah screw it, if I still get to be with my girlfriend I'll take being evil over being dead" and they really do go through with it and promptly murder their oldest friend and a very young girl. Don't let anyone tell you Sailor Moon is one of those power of love and friendship always triumphs sorta shows. I don't know that the power of love and friendship even ties the scoreboard if we tally things up over the whole series. Oh and the final final final showdown has a nude Sailor Moon with angel wings just trying to hug it out with the main villain, which I guess could also maybe be read as a bit queer.

So yeah. Sailor Moon. When you don't have a puritanical edit, it's queer as hell. Everyone's bi or non-binary-and-sapphic. Several different flavors of trans rep. Goes out on a note of not getting hung up on gender. All of this in a roughly 30 year old series now, aimed at young impressionable girls. … actually for that matter it's also a show aimed at girls with really powerfully horny monster girl designs all over the place. Possibly relevant.

Oh yeah, and maybe consider throwing me some money via Patreon? I can't actually cover next month's rent as things stand.

Next Steps

Last night, I finished everything I had planned for the 2023 DB Apocrypha Liveblog, but it’s July, and I feel like there’s things I’m leaving unfinished.  It was always going to be this way, since the DBS manga and SDBH web anime are ongoing series, so there’s bound to be some new material that comes out before the end of the year. 

Mostly, it just feels gratifying to get all the stuff that I have covered out of the way.  Some of these things that I hadn’t seen before have confounded me for years, and it’s nice to finally have it in the rear-view mirror.  But I keep wondering if there’s anything else I’ve missed.  So I’m going to try to organize my thoughts here. 

Stuff I definitely want to cover in 2023

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (again)

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Episode 50

Dragon Ball Super manga ch. 88-98

I didn’t make any plans for Super Hero because I didn’t know when the home video release would be, but now that’s come and gone, and I’ve got a DVD of the movie just sitting next to my TV, waiting for me to go through it.  

The same goes for the manga version of Super Hero, since I had no idea how far along the manga would be by now, but it looks like Toyotaro has reached the part of the movie where Gohan fights Gamma 1, so I think it’s reasonable to assume the arc will be done some time this fall. 

And I can’t believe the “Supreme Kai of Time” arc in SDBH will last much longer than Episode 50, so I might as well knock that one out if and when it ever comes out on YouTube. 

I’ve covered the Broly movie before, but I liked the idea of going through it again in the same year I did the rest of the DBS material.  It’s just nice and neat that way.

Stuff I might want to cover, but probably not this year.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes manga

Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF doujinshi 

The Dragon Ball GT stage play

There’s not a lot left, honestly, and I could pull up other things, but I feel like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Toriyama’s other manga series would be nice to read, but I think that goes beyond the scope of a Dragon Ball liveblogging experience.  It’s more like a separate project, like my liveblogs of JoJo or Hellsing. 

The SDBH manga may be useful for helping me understand the storyline in the web-series, and at the very least, I could say that I’d done it.  The GT stage play was something I wanted to check out, but I couldn’t find subtitles for it, so I’d just be watching actors goofing around on a set with no idea what they were talking about.  One day, I hope to find a proper translation. 

The DBAF fan manga is kind of important, even if it isn’t official.  I mean, neither were the Korean and Taiwanese movies, but they still left a mark on the franchise.  For one thing, Toyble is widely assumed to be Toyotaro, who’s been drawing the DBS manga for years now.  Perhaps more importantly, the fan manga is the most coherent representation of the Dragon Ball AF legend.  I doubt it’s very good, but I think it would be worth looking over to dispel some of the mystique of the thing. 

Anyway, I’ll probably wait until September or October to continue, so I don’t have to make any hard decisions tonight.  Mostly, I just want to make peace with the way this project has concluded.  It was a much simpler thing to end the 2019 liveblog, because I ran out of episodes and movies to cover.  There was a clear stopping point.  Here, not so much.  

But for the next eight weeks, I’m gonna be focusing on my fanfic, so you can consider the liveblog closed for the time being.  I’ll update the index page for it, and that’ll be that.

Cartoon Network Friday Spotlight: The New Scooby-Doo Movies- “The Spirit Spooked Sports Show”

The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries is the second Scooby series to be made, airing just after Where Are You? and before The Scooby-Doo Show’s return to form, and it feels like a logical next part, containing similar aesthetics and the same musical cues that made the original series instantly iconic. Yet, these episodes aren’t quite as strong, stretching the formula into double length without adding much justification for the length besides to show off whichever special guest they could score that week. While we would get solid feature length Scooby stories even 15 years later, I don’t think Hanna-Barbera’s crew at the time were ready to make the characters fit into extended periods at this time.

Some episodes are more iconic than others, with the Batman and Harlem Globetrotters episodes widely available in individual videos before getting partly-complete DVD releases. It helps that Batman, Robin and the Globetrotters remain recognizable to this day, but a lot of actual celebrity appearances feel closer tied to their day, like Tim Conway here. While Scooby continues to draw kids in to this day, I don’t think there were many young fans of The Carol Burnett Show when stories like this were airing frequently on CN in the late 90′s and early 2000′s... but hey, prove me wrong! (I’d suspect that I have more fans of his Disney work with fellow Scooby guest star Don Knotts on here)

But anyway, onto the story. In this one, Velma has the gang drive to her old high school- which begs the question, how old are the Mystery Inc gang, and if they didn’t go to the same high school, how did they meet?- to view and participate in their upcoming sports expo. The problem is that the school is haunted by the ghost of the school’s most iconic athlete, who has scared away anyone who dares to take his place, and is threatening the closer of the school, as one of their biggest backers is planning to fall out if they can’t support one winning team.

Tim Conway factors in because he’s signed up as the school’s coach to gain real world experience for a movie and wow does this sound convoluted for a damn Scooby-Doo story. But because these are meddling kids, they insist on sticking around to help Mr. Conway and the school, but the ghost keeps coming around and messing with them.

It’s fun enough, but does feel bloated as a double length classic Scooby story that doesn’t need to be so long. Still, it’s fun to see Tim Conway match Scooby and Shaggy as the biggest coward on campus, and see the latter two become shockingly decent athletes. I also dig how old-timey the ghost looks, like a remnant of the gay 90′s. I believe you can get this and most of the other episodes in the recent almost full series release- IIRC, only the Addams Family episodes are missing.

Disney Does Not Own Doctor Who WTF Are Ya'll Smoking

*SIGH*

Okay, some of ya'll are leaping to conclusions from a headline, without actually looking into this.

-DISNEY DOES NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO like holy shit. They did not buy the BBC. Disney is in a partnership with the BBC to be the home of distribution of new episodes of Doctor Who starting in 2023, outside of the UK and Ireland. This is the same exact deal that other streaming services like HBO and Amazon Prime have with the BBC when they distribute their shows (Please see: His Dark Materials, Industry, the upcoming The English miniseries, etc.)

-Disney would not have creative say in the future of Doctor Who. Just like how HBO are not the people who are actually making His Dark Materials, Disney is not making Doctor Who. Bad Wolf Productions (who are also the ones behind His Dark Materials) are the ones making the show along with RTD.

-As of right now, Disney has nothing to do with Classic Who or even the previous 13 series of Nuwho. So unless you got your blu rays and DVD's, you still need TWO different subscriptions to watch those because the BBC can't get this shit straight.

-As someone outside of the UK, just want to throw out there that new episodes of Doctor Who were annoying to get to. You either had to have cable that also carried BBC America who also cut scenes from episodes, subscribe to AMC+, buy the episode from Amazon, or torrent it. HBO Max took forever to update their episodes. Legend of the Sea Devils just became available last week, about 5 months after it aired. I'm happy it's going to a streaming service I actually use but I also would've been over the moon if it went to Netflix too. I just wanted Doctor Who to move to a streaming service that was fairly available (Disney+ being available in 60 countries, Netflix is also wildly available. Prime is meh and Paramount+ is still not available in a ton of places and caused a clusterfuck for international Star Trek fans to keep up with their shows)

-We have no idea when episodes will air. I will be annoyed if Disney plans to release episodes a day later, as this would be a backstep to what BBC America offered (although would be in line with when Amazon released episodes) So there's still a lot unknown

-You can stop blaming the end of the reconstructions on this deal and start blaming it on the fact that they had low sales. Like please, the writing was on the wall on those well before this deal would've been finalized.

-Do ya'll really think Russell T. Davies would join a show that was going to censor any gay themes, messages, actions? Look at what he's done recently. This man is not going to make a disney-fied version of the show. Hell, go look at Ncuti's first press photo when he was announced for the role.

-Ya'll need to chill. Doctor Who has been a part of the BBC since birth. Go ahead and google the scandal that BBC gets itself involved in seemingly every week. Because of the BBC we lost most of the episodes from the first two doctors. They've blacklisted Christopher Eccelsto when he spoke out about the poor working conditions. They allowed unsafe work environments for this show, including sexual harassment on set. They've rehired the same showrunner that most of these controversies took place under. They've completely botched promoting this show for the last 9 years. Please, hate Disney with all your heart if that's how you feel, but let's not pretend Doctor Who was on some innocent station and just now sold it's soul. Disney is a billion dollar company and so is the BBC.

I'll totally eat crow if it comes out Disney is censoring the show or affecting it's creative output, but we have no evidence that they would even have the ability to do that with this deal. The most we could see is something similar to BBC America cutting scenes out, which is done due to running times which Disney+ wouldn't even have. So let's take a deep breath, see what happens, and if they're fucking with our show, then let's take the pitchforks out.

Squidbillies #49: "Reunited, And It feels No Good" | July 20, 2009 - 12:00AM | S04E09

The Cuylers have a dang old family reunion, and guess what? Extended family actually shows up to it. They are significantly wealthier than the Dougal County Cuylers, what with owning a modern car with DVD players and refrigerated air.

This is the family of Durwood Cuyler, who stands upright like a man, shoving most of his tentacles into a pair of shoes. He’s a yuppy, an outdated term that I don’t feel like updating. He is also a family man; he married a blonde human woman with a Karen hairdo, a recently outdated term that is actually too modern for me to be using about a show from 2009. They also have two kids who never speak because they are glued to their devices. I think we can all agree on one thing: Durwood simply gave up. 

The episode is basically about the two Cuyler clans clashing, slightly. Early hints at the fact that they could use some of Durwood’s money. His wife is steadfast against them even associating with Early’s family altogether. Early reveals his investment plan: a plushie from that Cheyenne Cinnamon “movie” that Burger King is showing, which according to my tepid googling hasn’t actually happened yet. I’m referring to the "Big Uber Network Sampling", an event where, if I recall correctly, a bunch of Adult Swim pilots that were available on a Burger King website. I think the idea was the pilots were pitted against each other in various matches, and the winner got to, as it turns out, continue being a rejected pilot. Cheyenne Cinnamon was one of those pilots. We see a little more footage of that playing in the headrest screens of Durwood’s family Durango. 

Durwood is so horrified by the treatment of Rusty (who has lockjaw from running barefoot through animal feces), that when Rusty shows Durwood his art project (which is just a glitter drawing urging Durwood to help him get the fuck away from Early’s abuse), Durwood decides to take rusty off Early’s hands for “a couple days”. As they speed away, Durwood tells Rusty he’s never going back there again, and that they’re going to set up a cot in the garage. Early is ecstatic to be rid of Rusty, but when he’s reminded that his government checks will stop coming he becomes incensed. TO BE CONTINUED. 

A common response I have to Squidbillies is that I’ll watch it for a few minutes and think “hey, I think I like this show, actually”, but then I'm ready for it to end and it’s not even half over yet. That’s sorta where I was with this one. Lucky for me, it’s technically not over. This is a bonafide two-parter. When it originally aired they played both episodes back-to-back, but as far as I can tell they were always considered two separate episodes. I will be considering them two separate write-ups. Okay!

EPHEMERA CORNER

Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II DVD (July 21, 2009)

I'm stubbornly sticking to my stated mission of making you aware of every DVD release from Adult Swim in a rough chronological order compared to the Adult Swim television timeline. As such, I wind up spotlighting releases that I have nothing to say about, and no significant feelings felt for. This one has 90 minutes of extra features, which I'm pretty sure is longer than the special itself. I also believe this is the extended cut of the special (or at the very least the DVD includes the extended cut), which I think aired on TV too. I forget. I don't like thinking about this show, or the intellectual property known as Star Wars. Thanks.

MAIL BAG

Kon komes through with a fact I did not allow myself to learn:

The God guy on the Squidbillies episode was voiced by the very guy who played Jesus on the Rising Son, and also starred in many Superdeluxe-brand FARK sketches that you and me really love and both are huge fans of

YES! Thank you Kon. Point of fact- the IMDB page for this episode doesn't credit who played God, but does list Sean Watkins on the cast list. But they linked to the wrong Sean Watkins, which left me scratching my head. I looked like a fool

C is for Comics and D is for Dinosaur!

Back again, back again.

Okay, so let me tell you a story about comic books.

No, this isn't another quasi-autobiographical rant, like I had about video stores (although I could do that, too!). This is a mini-rant about how the C week of the Alphabet Superset...well...got away from me.

Kind of.

A while back, while I was mowing the lawn, I had a story come to me fairly fully-formed. That's...amazing...for me. I haven't written fiction in many years, as I noted in the A is for Accident post.

Okay, so...comics. Why is C for comics? And why haven't I shown you any comics yet?

When that story came to me while I was mowing, I didn't seriously think I would do anything with it -- it's based on characters I don't own, and I'm certainly not planning on pitching it to the owners.

Still, I jotted most of the key points down. Far be it from me to completely dismiss an idea, even one that wasn't practical to consider.

In the months since then, new ideas have kept popping into my head with regard to the fiction story, and I quickly realized that it had to be a graphic novel. I have an artist in mind, who agreed to do it for a very modest fee, and while I haven't paid him or talked about the book to my bosses at Paramount yet, I'm not sharing any of my character sketches and wacky comic ideas here because...well...I feel like I'm going to make the comic.

Not with the corporate-owned characters, no. Rather, I'm thinking of using a blend of original characters and public domain superheroes from the Golden Age (since it's THAT kind of story anyway, honestly). Camp, comedy, heroics, heart...that's what I'm going to go for. I can't even kind of start writing it anytime soon, but I'll give you the very bare-bones concept here:

A group of time-travelers find themselves imprisoned. The charges? They've broken time, and nobody is quite sure how, or how to fix it. Before too long, it becomes clear that they have been set up: the head of the organization that's holding them, has a decades-long grudge against an old ally of the team. They have to get a message to that ally in order to get sprung from jail and...hilarity ensues.

They're stuck looking for a historical figure who was kidnapped and disappeared by his own government. with their ability to time-travel significantly limited, if they can't find this mystery man, they may be doomed!

Okay, and now for D is for Dinosaur.

I've put these two things together because neither one is really a stand-alone piece of creative work, but more an icon representing creative work that I've been doing behind the scenes. Also, so that I can share them more easily to the Alphabet Superset Discord server.

So that guy up there is Boone. You may recognize him from The VelociPastor, a 2019 micro-budget movie that became an instant cult classic. Back in September, I visited the set of VelociPastor II, did hours of interviews, and got lots of photo and video with my buddy Zach. And while I'll save the details for when there's an official official announcement, the thing I'm here to share is that I'm writing an official companion book for VelociPastor II. Called The VelociGospel, the book will be an oral history of VP and a companion to VP2, speaking with as many cast and crew as possible. The plan is to release it on the same day VelociPastor II comes out on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital.

More on this soon, but I just really, really want to let people know it's a thing that's happening so that I can mention it on Bluesky and not immediately feel like I have to chase my own tail or delete the post.

Yes! There's going to be a VelociPastor book! And I already have about 30 pages written!

So...yeah. These are project that I have been working on quietly in the last few weeks. But I can't share stuff just yet. Soon, I promise!

A View a hunting at The Pitfalls Of On the nett DVD Property Techniques

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Fresh Film Directors Hit The Scene

A song is meant to invoke a mood, an emotion, an era or a signature. The right choice can leave an indelible image, the wrong choice can live on in infamy. Some soundtracks seem timeless, others aren't so lucky. One can be certain, the way music is utilized in film goes a great distance in determining whether it's remembered for the right reasons or even otherwise. Two friendly ghost-like images, one representing Day as well as the other Night, fight cracksum each other to see which has more to offer. Is it Day's sunbathing beauties and dawn or is it Night's Vegas lifetstyle and twilight. They soon see that they both have something the other can't offer and become friends. While the story is okay enough, along with the visuals for business this short just doesn't seem to keep the pizzazz escalating usually along with Pixar storytelling. inpixio free photo editor crack activation key appears to be that extra dimension of depth that associate their own animated process. I find it hard to think this is the very best that Emmeryville boys could come on the top of. While price tag did not receive critical acclaim, one movie my partner and i thoroughly enjoyed was The Bone Extractor. Mr. Washington plays a detective in this movie following a gruesome serial killer, who (as the title would suggest) collects bones from his victims. When presonus capture crack free download full version of masked criminals enter a bank and takes everyone hostage, the N.Y.P.D. rushes to the scene on the crime happening. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) has the assignment although they've currently under investigation himself after 140,000 dollars showed up missing as well as the name was attached with out. Frazier is going face to face with Dalton Russell (Clive Owen). Russell appears to always be one step ahead of this cops and believes that he's planned the perfect bank heist. Another short that could use a feature visualization. A likable nerd stumbles across "The Lost Thing" a cross from your spaceship, a chiminea also as an octopus. It will be has a life of its own and should fit in somewhere but where that home is will take some hunting. A deeply touching, funny, soul searching piece that is my favorite of untamed dogs. This would be a remarkable film display kids who haven't found their put into the world yet. So this is my election. but. This dilemma is always the red hot issue of debate in black friday 2010 female group. Black women have given many different reasons for straightening their head of hair. "It's more controlable." "I like to switch it up from hour and hour." "It's cheaper to support a incorporate." Hmmm. The first color way for the Jordan Spiz'ike was white, red and green. This pair was limited right now there were only 4.032 pairs that were released available. However, rumor has it that there are several pairs, which went unnumbered. Technique color way used was black, red and brown. They were an existence Style release in their own right. apeaksoft dvd creator with crack download latest have included True Blue, Fire Red, and white, red and Argon blue colored.

A Glance At The Pitfalls Of On the internet DVD Rental Models

On-line DVD rentals are additional well-liked than they ever have been, and are attaining more perfectly recognised by the working day. For as minimal as 5 bucks or an normal of about 20 dollars a 30 working day period you can rent movies that will be despatched to you in the mail a day or two, and when completed searching at these at your have tempo basically produce the films back in a prepaid envelope existing when you get the movement photograph. It has grow to be actually uncomplicated and hassle-no cost for individuals nowadays who will not have the time or absence the patience for another Friday evening journey to the motion picture rental retail outlet anywhere they may perhaps very well or might not have the movement picture you want to use. You also genuinely never have to stand in line ideal just after deciding on your films waiting around to checkout so you can go property and unwind. The on-line film rental businesses will offer you you with a queue which you can fill with very significantly hundreds of motion picture titles so that when you deliver out the movement photos again yet again you truly do not have to come to a decision out which films you want to take pleasure in, They will now be in your queue. They also have a new launch web web site so you can preserve up with the most current new releases. Naturally on line DVD rentals are speedy, there are a couple of negatives, for situation every single and every single when in terrific even though a motion picture will get misplaced or damaged when getting shipped post position of function. When this comes about there is an decision to allow for the rental enterprise know and they will ship you a substitution the related or potential doing work day. There are three main On line DVD rental businesses Blockbuster, Netflix, and Intelliflix. I am existing member of all three, what can I say I like flicks, but no difficulty what you have heard all on-line motion picture rental businesses are not established equally. Both of those Blockbuster and Netflix have served me proficiently, and I would not wait around to propose both a single to any individual. Intelliflix, really effectively that is an additional story entirely. I joined Intelliflix considering that I research on a overview web web page how they particularly in which just as superior as all people else and I could help you save a lot of funds by buying the annually shell out as you go procedure for $188. That turned out to be an high priced lesson for me, the to start off with quite a few months the location fantastic, it took a several to 4 days to get video clips but they precisely where by a ton significantly less higher priced than the competitiveness. Two months just soon after my acquire the movies stopped coming. I went sixty times with close to a hundred films I necessary to see in my queue, with no getting a solitary film. Frequent difficulties to their shopper corporation division did not complete just about everything, but they did prolong my membership a many months! They also refused to issue a refund for their annual alternatives. I even emailed the president of the corporation, with out accomplishment or even a response. So obtain be informed of and learn from SAT Tutor online and do not subscribe to an the moment-a-12 months plan. My sincere information it to determine an on line motion picture rental small business with a trial interval and see if their assistance satisfies your desires, and you really like the business. If their DVD's are shipped in a promptly and proficiently, and the choice of movies made available for rental are ample to make the each month demand price it for you.

A Appear At The Pitfalls Of On the internet DVD Rental Solutions

On the internet DVD rentals are extra perfectly-known than they at any time have been, and are getting a great deal additional well recognized by the functioning working day. For as decreased as five bucks or an frequent of about twenty lbs . a thirty day period you can seek the services of movies that will be despatched to you in the mail a doing work day or two, and when finished seeking at these at your have pace simply just just send out the films again once more in a shell out as you go envelope give when you obtain the movie. It has turn out to be actually easy and effortless for people today who never have the time or absence the persistence for just one extra Friday evening holiday to the motion picture rental retail retail store anywhere they may possibly or may possibly perhaps not have the motion picture you want to seek the services of. You also you need to not have to stand in line after deciding on your movies waiting close to to checkout so you can go home and rest. The on the internet motion picture rental providers will source you with a queue which you can fill with basically hundreds of movie titles so that when you mail the motion photos back you definitely never have to come to a decision out which flicks you want to check out, They will previously be in your queue. They also have a new launch website site so you can preserve up with the most popular new releases. Absolutely on line DVD rentals are effortless, there are a pair of downsides, for occasion every single single when in marvelous when a film will get misplaced or damaged while being shipped publish business. When this comes about there is an alternative to help the rental business know and they will send out you a substitute the incredibly very same or upcoming operating working day. There are 3 key On the internet DVD rental vendors Blockbuster, Netflix, and Intelliflix. I am modern member of all a handful of, what can I say I like films, but no make a difference what you have listened to all on-line film rental businesses are not set up equally. Equally equally Blockbuster and Netflix have served me correctly, and I would not be reluctant to advise either just a person to any individual. Intelliflix, thoroughly that is an additional story totally. I joined Intelliflix because I go through on a examine internet website how they where by just as fantastic as everyone else and I could preserve a huge quantity of hard cash by finding the once-a-year pay as you go program for $188. That turned out to be an high-priced lesson for me, the 1st few of months in which terrific, it took a few to 4 instances to get videos but they in which less high priced than the opposition. Two months adhering to my invest in the movies stopped coming. I went sixty situations with around a hundred movies I desired to see in my queue, with no the will need of getting a single movie. Standard grievances to their customer corporation portion did not execute practically something, but they did prolong my membership a handful of months! They also refused to problem a refund for their annually plans. I even emailed the president of the firm, with out ultimate success or even a response. So just take observe of and obtain out from my challenges and do not subscribe to an once-a-year program. Best tiktoker to decide on an on-line movement photograph rental organization with a demo interval and see if their service provider satisfies your wishes, and you delight in the assistance. If their DVD's are sent in a speedily and proficiently, and the variety of videos out there for rental are satisfactory to make the thirty day period-to-month charge certainly truly worth it for you.

A Seem At The Pitfalls Of On the net Videodisc Renting Approaches

For as identical depression as quint dollars or an fair of near 20 pounds a thirty daylight full stop you john charter videos that volition be sent to you in the chain armor a mean solar day or two, and when ruined viewing these at your possess belt along plainly charge knocked out the movies once again in a prepaid gasbag furnish when you bring the motion picture. It has au fond finished up staying genuinely straightforward and handy for work force and women who will not take the prison term or do non throw the survival for a dissimilar Friday Night clock time holiday to the pic lease shit where they English hawthorn or could potentially not rich person the motion-picture show you demand to lease. The on the internet bowel movement shoot renting occupation enterprise bequeath feed you with a line up which you stern fulfill with really hundreds of moving picture titles so that when you chain armor the gesture photographs over again you ne'er birth to make to detect which movies you want to pleasure in, They bequeath already be in your business line. They alike wealthy person a newfangled establish vane web site so you buttocks sustain up with the almost up-to-appointment fresh releases. Plainly on line of descent Videodisc rentals are promiscuous, there are a few downsides, for social function precisely about every the present moment in wondrous patch a gesture moving-picture show testament find dropped or discredited when left over shipped write-up business organisation business office. When this pot carry position at that place is an selection to enable the holding endeavour in full apprehend and they volition transport you a alternate the coming or precise interchangeable solar day. In that location are tercet important On channel Videodisc letting organizations Blockbuster, Netflix, and Intelliflix. I am existent phallus of entirely 3, what rear I aver I ilk films, still no give whatever conflict what you deliver in fact scan totally on the net social movement image renting firms are non developed equally. Equally Smash hit and Netflix make served me good, and I would not be hesitant to advocate either a one to whatever human beings or cleaning woman. Intelliflix, nicely that is an additional story all. I united Intelliflix since I channel on examining an analytic thinking web varlet how they where hardly as secure as perfectly everyone else and I could keep a respectable mete out of income by getting the per year pre-gainful prohibited place put together for $188. That ruined up staying a pricey lesson for me, the rattling 1st respective months where okay, it took 3 to 4 times to get gesticulate images nevertheless they in which a raft to a greater extent sparing than the opponents. deuce months hardly later my incur the front pics stopped orgasm. I went sixty times with ended a 100 films I requisite to learn in my line up, barren of getting a hermit moving-picture show. Invariant challenges to their client service part did non fall upon anything, having aforesaid that they did lengthen my rank a handful of months! They likewise selected non to extend a return for their period of time plans. I even emailed the United States President of the company, with no succeeder and eve a chemical reaction. Assume mention of and uncover from my mistakes and do non take to an yearly project. My true hint it to choice an online campaign photo belongings business concern with a trial run menstruation of clock time and visit if their back satisfies your requirements, and you transport in the provider. If their DVD's are sent in a straightaway and right, and the orientation of movies provided for renting answer to nominate the steady month to calendar month toll prise it for you. For as minimal as quintuplet bucks or an ordinary of close to twenty bucks a xxx sidereal day point you can buoy term of a contract videos that will be sent verboten to you in the mail service a mean solar day or 2, and when finished tasting these at your really own f number simply ring armor prohibited the videos once more in a prepaid gasbag leave when you find the apparent motion painting. It has genuinely become cephalalgia-no cost and sure as shooting square for work force and women World Health Organization never sustain the meter or do not hold the forbearance for a farther Friday Night metre trip-up to the pic belongings shop class the berth they could perchance or may not receive the motion picture you require to lease. I am Holocene member of all 3, what toilet I show taboo I comparable apparent movement shots, merely no establish whatever remainder what you give birth in essence heard whole on the net move pic lease concern are not intentional too. I went threescore times with terminated a centred motility pictures I wished-for to get wind in my queue, with proscribed acquiring a exclusive moving-picture show.