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sanchoyo · 3 years

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danny phantom, season 3, episodes 7-13 thoughts! cannot believe im finishing this series so fast. ...cannot believe it ended like that...uh. one of the weirdest finales to a show I think I've seen, it really stood out against the rest of the series, and not in a good way, in my opinion. I paused to yell in caps lock...several times, I think, out of anger... BUT. ANYWAY, HERE WE GO.

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-the fentons putting the kids to Work in the lab, with NO SAFETY GEAR. AT ALL. THEY JUST GOT BACK FROM SCHOOL AND ARE TIRED!!! and when jack asked how danny his day was and danny tried to say it was bad jack cut him off :( for the 400th time, i am stealing these kids.

-maddie and jack IMMEDIATELY SELLING THEIR LAB AND WORK FOR A LOT OF MONEY. and danny cant get into the portal anymore, oh no!!! he could always just steal vlads I Guess.

-THEY ARE VLADS NEW NEIGHBOR. OH MY GOD. this is a sitcom format. a butler came with the new mansion. i would absolutely try a kiwi fudge milkshake, why is the butler disgusted.

-the..guys in white bought the lab to shoot a missile. into the ghost zone thru the portal. bro i hate these guys

-jazz straight up setting her new bedroom up in the library. i am very very jealous

-"RATED E, FOR ENTRAILS"

-I like how the 14 year olds very quickly realize if the giw destroy the ghost zone itll destroy OUR ZONE because its just. like. the other side of the quarter so to speak. and the giw, a fully funded government agency, didnt consider that...(or worse, are willing to risk that anyway...)

-a...graphic novel version of the constitution? what in the world have you been READING SAM

-'cool, I always wanted to be called a meddling kid!' scooby doo reference...

-can they keep the butler. I love him.

-ecto latte....I also want to try that. is ectoplasm edible...

-YESS I KNEW DANNY WOULD USE VLAD'S PORTAL. vindicated.

-DANNY WHY DIDNT YOU JUST ASK JOHNNY NICELY. STEALING HIS BIKE IS SO SO RUDE.

-youngblood is also into astronaut stuff, thats really cute. and him being like 'phantom, dude!! :D' ALL EXCITED. THATS ADORABLE.

-the slapstick comedy of the giw slipping and falling and running into shit in the lab. is funny, but also, because this lab has NOOO safety codes in practice. god its a wonder dannys the only one to have died here...

-JOHNNY, SKULKER AND YOUNGBLOOD HELPING DANNY!!! I keep saying it but the other ghosts helping him. is my fav thing in the world. and, it's a really good thing the missile in the real world was harmless...otherwise the fentons wouldn't have had a home/lab to come back to...

-WULF WANTED POSTER!!! we havent seen wulfy in so long :( very funny the box ghost is offended by how much these ghosts are wanted for. first off, what do ghosts even DO WITH MONEY. does the ghost zone have its own currency??? what are ghosts BUYING

-the box ghost is So Funny, im so glad hes still got his bubble wrap. u are VERY wanted in THIS house box ghost. you are SO scary king. dont give up on ur dreams

-this needs to be a meme format. I made a transparent version, very very messily, for future use.

-this is a Fellow and a Friend

-box ghost accidentally bringing lunch for everyone, and giving people at the mall free shoes. SHOES ARE SO EXPENSIVE, ID BE SO GRATEFUL. helpful king. i feel SO bad for him lmao, he's putting in SO much effort. he wants the evil aesthetic So bad but hes Just Too Silly. I understand your plight, box ghost....

-oh my god. pandoras BOX. 'THOSE OF US IN THE BOX TRADE' HOW MANY ARE IN THIS BOX TRADE. I WANT IN. pandora is a multi-armed ghost goddess and i love her.

-SKULKER WHY ARE YOU RUNNING FROM THE EVIL UNICORN?? YOURE A HUNTER!! JUST SHOOT IT!!!!!!! JUST HUNT IT!!!

-box ghost...where did you get the cowboy hat. I respect it, i just want to know

-JAZZ COMING IN WITH THE BAZOOKA TO FIGHT THE 10 HEADED DRAGON!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! and the rest of the fentons I Guess

-ignoring the sam/danny moments. I simple do not see them.

-...why doesnt danny just fly over the maze. or do the whole 'real world people act as ghosts in the ghost zone' and turn back!!! I know its just to show off the ghost greek monster designs. but STILL.

-danny being like. um. hi pandora. i found your box. >< polite...PANDORA IS SO GIANT. GIANT GHOST WOMAN. SHES GOING TO BEAT BOX GHOSTS ASS. another ghost thats nice to danny to add to the list :) and HER FORCING BOX GHOST TO APOLOGIZE. and having sandwiches with danny after making box ghost clean up. I LOVE HER.

-DANNYS 'BEWARE' AT THE END JAKHDJFKN

-okay, when dash pulled out danny's seat and was calling him buddy, for half a second I was like 'this is a prank, hes gonna pull it back' BUT THEN FRIGHT KNIGHT MY BELOVED IS BACK. AND EVERYONE STARTS CHANTING FOR DANNY TO BEAT HIS ASS WITH GHOST POWERS AND DANNY DOES WAY TOO EASILY, and im like, yup, this is a dream LMAO

-danny is getting an A+ in science :) my smart son

-DANNY WAKING UP FROM THE DREAM RIGHT BEFORE KISSING SAM AND BEING LIKE 'that was a dream...no, a NIGHTMARE!' same. not to be a hater but, shouldve been val. maybe I am a hater

-...danny running and checking the 'tapes'...why is his whole house constantly being recorded. hes been in ghost form/fights plenty of times in his house. does he have to run and wipe the tapes after?? every single time?? god

-letting this image speak for itself

-this is SO cursed

-NOCTURN'S DESIGN FUCKS SO HARD. the Venice mask vibes. also his space pattern not moving while the rest of his animation does is big chowder vibes. but this guy is basically the sandman but Evil, huh. I love dream plots. also, nocturn's design feels very similar to clockwork, like, red eyes and a scar over the same eye, but also just the purple, and the Cosmic Vibes. I want to see them fight. anyway nocturn's va was also avatar roku AND alfred in several batman cartoons.

-the 'sleepwalkers' designs were super cute in shape (kinda remind me of oogie boogie! pillow-cased shaped, which is appropriate for the 'king of dreams's minions) until I looked closer at their eyes. why do they look sewn shut!! (they open their eyes a few times, so they aren't, but they look like it...)

-I like how this show has been pretty consistent (with a few exceptions) about a Ghost Being Huge (or getting larger) = Very Powerful

-2 months of summer camping??? wtf, do camping things usually take that long?? I've never been to a camping...thing like that. but isnt that basically their entire summer??

-'the entirety of nature is your bathroom!' and thats why I do no camping despite loving nature LMAO.

-sam, at least TRY TO BE NICE TO THE OTHER GIRLS YOU'RE GOING TO BE SHARING A CABIN WITH. also, the amount of times people in this show have their SHOES ON THE BED!!! IM DISGUSTED

-swamp creature Is A Ghost. Big Foot is a Ghost. starting to think in this universe, every single cryptid or legend is a Ghost Actually

-paulina crying not only because star is missing, but because SHE FORGOT HER SUNBLOCK AND SHE BURNS SO EASILY!!!! okay girlfriends

-ghost cops are the real monsters at the camp. i.......I mean. fair. no one missed you walker

-WULF!!!!!!!!!!! WULF IS BACK!!!!!!!! MY FRIEND WULF :D MI AMAS VIN!!!!! kaj danny lernis Esperanto :)

-'relax kid, we arent here to do any harm' *immediately shoots danny* yeah. ghost cops. and also danny bringing walker 'wulf' and walker IMMEDIATELY SUCKING DANNY IN A THERMOS. FUCK OFF

-haha walker Bald. and haha walker Frozen Now

-the fenton thermos can...reverse its polarity to close portals? okay

-LIBERA MIA AMIKO. :")

-ohhh they end the ep with them star gazing, thats pretty cute...

-dani is back! ...with a new voice actress? wiki says AnnaSophia was in 3 diff movies in 2007 when this aired, so she was probably too busy... (including, bridge to terabithia aka the movie that ripped my heart out that I mentioned in the first ep Dani was in...kinda wanna rewatch it now)

-shes still scared of vlad, who's still being creepy and spying on her. 'shes hardly going to come home to daddy!' I WONDER WHY. also does vlad's cat look more evil than last time? love the concept of him going shopping for cats and being like 'give me your most EVILEST looking cat, please, so I can pet it in my spinny chair dramatically!' ...oh god white cat hair on his black suit. I have a black cat and her hair is still way too noticeable..

-vlad has a big 'valerie' button in his office. can he be pressing that button every episode, thanks

-'theres a GIRL called dani phantom?' yeah valerie. no relation, obviously, even with her looking EXACTLY like danny. so sad valerie just wants to help her dad and her get out of the place theyre in now and vlad using her. ill MAUL HIM

-dani having to STEAL FOOD. :( and valerie immediately being like oh poor kid :(( and trying to help her!!! and then dani immediately helping valerie!! this episode is starting SO well

-...and then valerie catching her. DAMN IT. and being surprised dani knew danny?? HELLO VALERIE I KNOW YOURE SMARTER THAN THIS. I AM SO SORRY THEY WROTE YOU THIS WAY. I STILL LOVE AND BELIEVE IN U !!!

-valerie lying her ASS off for a chance at gettin danny. ok <3 also 'they couldnt catch a ghost if it was living under their own roof' JSDHKJHNK

-danny. why dont you just tell valerie!! this would be so much easier if he was direct. there is NO way valerie would hurt danny (fenton) she'd be HORRIFIED. esp since she got on board helping dani!!

*is held* :)

-look at valerie and danny. flying together. about to go beat vlads ass together <333

-DANI SCREAMING AS VLAD IS MELTING HER. WHAT THE FUCCCK

-...fucking vlad convincing valerie hes a good dude with his stupid duplication. FUCK. DANNY JUST TELL H E R

-jesus christ how many times has danny had to watch loved ones die. even if she didnt stay perma-dead. glad they fixed her...

-valerie and dani pranking danny when he came out, oh :( cute...them havin fun and laughing together...babies

-BUT THEYRE JUST LETTING DANI LEAVE, AGAIN??? SHE WAS PREVIOUSLY STEALING FOOD. CHRIST GIVE HER A PLACE TO LIVE. OR A FAMILY. actually, I think it'd be really cute if, since danny isnt ready to out himself, dani went and lived with valerie?? dunno if her dad would have the money but,, it'd be a cute concept. big sis valerie...

-'tomorrow, it's game on!' 'and ill be ready to play!' THE FLIRTING....DANNY/VALERIE REAL

-oh my god,, valerie found out about vlad in the end. But he doesn’t know she knows!!! the DRAMA!!! HOLY SHIT THAT ENDING.

-this episode was. SO Much and probably one of my favorites out of s3. (I mean, there has been a gross lack of valerie this whole season, so thats not a hard choice to make...)

-FINALE EPISODE TIME.

-the title screen looks different! so no title card...

-vlad has his own fucked up satellite that looks like him?? okay. why does the animation look so different?? are they mixing cg in?? for what. anyway, vlad and the gang in SPACE. danny is 100% living his astronaut dreams rn

-'defeating frostbite' YOU BETTER NOT HAVE. YOU STOLE HIS COOL MAP. FUCK YOU VLAD

-wait oh my god. vlad is the final series boss, isn't he. I half expected a fake out, for another boss to show up midway, and for him to finally have to have a real truce with danny for this ep. ITS THE FINALE. VLAD FEELS SO UNDERWHELMING.

-And it's like-- his character isn't bad, i just feel like..he has more potential! they WANT him to seem like some smart super evil genius, but the way he's written makes that SO hard to believe...but the solid backstory and design is THERE and its FRUSTRATING.

-...DANNY CALLING VLAD OUT SAYING HE NEEDS THERAPY LMAOO THATS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING.

-my grandpa technus is in the finale too :) 'well look on the bright side, at least im not downloading them illegally!' he says while stealing dvds. feels like hes calling me out. im watching this series on a bootleg website lmao. anyway, him turning the tech into a transformer. love that

-mASters BLASters sTOp diSAsterS shut the fuck up. you will never be valerie or danny. bite chomp kill. violence

-like this if u crie everytiem

-my god the 3d/cgi mixed in looks SO BAD IT DIDNT AGE WELL AT ALL

-the white stripe in dannys hair kinda rules tho. did he just KILL HIS GHOST HALF??? 'revert his human half back to normal' UM. you ever unkill yourself. why are his friends/jazz so mad about it, he'll be in a lot less danger!! christ. they can still hunt ghosts!! as humans!! if they want to!! hes 14 if he wanted to be normal. let him. vlads stupid little team has things COVERED apparently. why are they acting like this. jazz would never act like this. is this fake whats going ON

-oh my god jack was in a college band. vlad was also in the band. what did instruments they play. i didnt need that headline to tell me they sucked, but i want to KNOW MORE REGARDLESS

-valerie was here for 0.3 seconds.

-sam calling danny selfish. the audacity. no one is stopping YOU from hunting ghosts, girl. valerie does it!!

-I'm halfway through the episode and incredibly underwhelmed so far.

-why would they send jack and 3 teens to space to destroy the asteroid. why not professional astronauts. not even the 3 teens that have already been to space this episode...

-jack getting beat up by teenagers. ON TV. IN SPACE. I GUESS. I GUESS EVERYONE AGREED TO SEND JACK BECAUSE..VLAD SAID SO? we know it was to embarrass jack, but why would everyone agree. why didnt any other space program Do More or whatever, they sent like, 3 rockets/missiles tops?? no way

-danny attempting to punch vlad in the face. i WISH HE WOULDVE LANDED THAT HIT.

-vlad outed himself on live tv, on purpose? and BLASTED AT THE TEENAGERS HE HIRED. LMAO. HES HOLDING THE WORLD HOSTAGE, MAKING THEM PAY HIM BILLIONS TO STOP THE STUPID ASTROID. THATS YOUR GRAND PLAN??? REALLY. REALLY. im like. lmfao

-jack just now, on the last episode GETTING TOLD HE MADE VLAD A GHOST. THIS SHOULDVE HAPPENED WAY SOONER. jack's reaction was one of the only times in this entire show hes seemed human. 'an old friend? no. you? yes.' GET HIS ASSSS ACTUALLY. HE STRAIGHT UP LEFT VLAD IN SPACE. GOD DAMN. that is a Murder! I mean, I guess vlad could fly back to earth, but...I mean, he'll have to, right? no food in space. (that we KNOW of...)

-'thE WHolE EArtH, INTangiBLe?!' oh my god.

-...the white strand of hair somehow still had ghost dna, I guess, and getting blasted turned him back into phantom. I GUESS. I GUESS.

-the fentons being the first to clap for danny despite not knowing hes phantom...that was sweet. and very sudden character development, not at all gradual over the course of time or episodes like it probably should have been...

-sam and danny kissing. IT SHOULDVE BEEN VALERIE, BUT OKAY, I GUESS. also, its a little underwhelming, considering theyve kissed already...

-ALL of the ghosts being ready to beat danny's ass? really. no they wouldn't, they've worked together before, and some of those ghosts are friendly!! cringe. why is the last ep written like this. I mean they came thru at the last minute but. was really cringing for a minute there, why did they write it like that

-valerie is there for another 0.3 seconds! ....she should've been more involved. dani is also there! for also like 0.3 seconds. almost fast enough to miss. (btw, I think shes still homeless at this point, are, we going to...do ANYTHING ABOUT THAT IN THE LAST 5 MINS OF THE SHOW)

-the cgi smoke or whatever it is. this whole post is me saying the cgi is bad, but IT IS.

-'danny or should we say. DAAANNNNY.' this is like the 3rd or 4th time hes been outed damn, but to the whole world, again. and valerie saw, and is just. an extra in the bg clapping. bro im so mad.

-TUCKER IS THE NEW MAYOR? WHAT THE FUCK?? HES 14.

-i think. this is still linked to the dream ep a few times ago. hes still dreaming. this is a plot a 14 year old would write. this feels like a bad fanfic. so much got rushed, and not tied up. vlad wasnt really even the villain this episode, a fucking. non-being asteroid was.

-they kiss again. ok. sure. whatever at this point.

-VLAD IS NOW A FREE-ROAMING SPACE NOMAD. I GUESS. THATS. SURE. WHATEVER. THE END, I GUESS. cannot believe I'm saying this, but: they did vlad dirty.

-IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE HIM A VILLAIN, MAKE HIM A VILLAIN!!! DON'T MAKE IT A METEOR!!! STOP BEING WISHY WASHY WHO WANTS TO SEE DANNY VS ASTEROID!!! I didnt even WANT vlad to be the final villain because his character is SO back and forth (esp this season.) but he has done some FUCKED UP SHIT AND I WANTED THE WRITERS TO DOUBLE DOWN, PERSONALLY, IF THEY HAD TO MAKE HIM THE FINAL BOSS. the cabin ep where he basically held danny and maddie hostage? FUCKED. THE DANI THING? FUCKED. FUCKING COMMIT AND MAKE HIM ACTUALLY SCARY OR HAVE HIM FUCK OFF AND AGREE TO A TRUCE!! WHAT IS THIS DYING IN SPACE NONSENSE. (and, he will (fully) die out there, right? still half human, still needs food and water. I imagine he'll like, slowly half-die but this time his human side is dying. will he come back 100% ghost? we dONT KNOW. WE DONT GET TO SEE, ITS PLAYED LIKE SOME FUNNY THING AT THE END, THEN THATS IT!!! WHAT!!!)

-I don't know how to articulate how FRUSTRATING THAT IS. having him basically out himself and ''hold the world hostage'' does not track at all in my brain. like. he's always been scary because he is HUMAN, TOO. like, if he was 100% ghost, he'd be LESS scary, but vlad MASTERS has more power and influence than vlad PLASMIUS because of his position as mayor, his money, too, and his (supposed, s3 made me doubt it) intelligence/manipulation skills, and his being in good graces with jack made it HARD FOR DANNY. him outing himself for,, money and to 'control the world' i guess?? MONEY WAS NEVER HIS LIKE, MAIN GOAL. yeah obv he likes money and is materialistic and values his Rich Life, but hes got billions, the end goal? 1. getting maddie (and or danny as his son, but to me he always treated that as secondary) 2. ruining jack. this feels like they wanted to say 'oh he just wants POWER' which is. HMM?? OKAY?? obv he /does/ want power (usually over certain ppl, tho), but seeing him try to get it like this FELT WEIRD SOMEHOW. weird like the ep where he tried and failed to take over various historical civilizations, because like,, how is that realistically going to do anything for him?? just, being in that time forever and never seeing maddie aka Goal #1 again?? HELLO??? this was like that, but worse

-this was such a weird ending to an entire show. why did season 3 only have 13 episodes?? why did it feel so weirdly paced?? WHY WAS THE ENDING LIKE THAT. I think. I am going to pretend I did not see that. fucked up, dudes. I'm like...hm. I shouldn't have watched that because now I'm mad. valerie sweetie im SO sorry you shouldve been more present. it felt like..if they knew this season was going to be short, and the last season, they should've spent more time wrapping up EVERYONE'S plot lines for the entire season. imagine how cool it wouldve been if every single ep of season 3 was working towards something, a big, nice wrap up at the end, with nothing feeling TOO rushed because they'd been heading towards the End for the whole season....

I will probably end up writing a follow up full series thoughts post. In a couple of days so I can sit with my thoughts. BUT. overall, I really liked the show! (ignoring the finale and some of the moments that aged pretty poorly...) it was charming and a fun concept and very fun to watch in general :) and I am pretending the finale didnt happen <3 and I’m gonna dive RIGHT into the dp tags and mix fanart and posts in my queue, very excited to run and look at that 🏃🏻 (and, of course, make more fanart myself hehe >:3)

#dp thoughts #danny phantom #sanchoyorambles

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love-takes-work · 4 years

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The Art of Steven Universe the Movie: Outline & Review

The Art of Steven Universe The Movie was released March 3, 2020. It's a wonderful journey through the concept art, character development, and experience of fashioning these ideas into the movie we all love.

Nuts and bolts: The book is published by Dark Horse, and it was designed by Ryan Sands (a zine specialist), with commentary by Takafumi Hori, Kat Morris, and Rebecca Sugar. It includes art by Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Takafumi Hori, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Angie Wang, Ashley Fisher, Becky Dreistadt, Chromosphere, Danny Cragg, Elle Michalka, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Jasmin Lai, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, Julian De Perio, Katie Mitroff, Leonard Hung, Miki Brewster, Patrick Bryson, and Paul Villeco.

Full review below with low-quality images.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

An introduction explains the same origin story that Rebecca Sugar told us in the movie DVD's commentary: that she accidentally restored her phone to factory settings and lost years of important stuff, and she ended up applying that devastating premise to her movie. That combined with the concept of "breaking" the main premise of a TV show to make a movie was how she got started developing the story. The opening of the movie styled like a storybook is blocked out with some great drawings and breakdowns of which narration would go to what storybook pages. This is combined with some partial sheet music for "The Tale of Steven." Rebecca writes about how she felt having to wrap pre-production on Season 5 only to take on this even bigger movie challenge. The biggest challenge was writing all these songs in such a short time--six weeks--and having to deal with the stress, being crushed under all that pressure while still wanting to do this story so badly, and it was humbling to still have to work so hard to sell the idea. The feeling of relief to finally be done that Steven expresses in "Happily Ever After" is very similar to what Rebecca went through feeling like she wanted to be finally done but still knowing what she had to do to climb an even bigger mountain. Some very cute Steven-at-age-16 and Connie in Space Camp clothes follow. Notes indicate that Steven and Connie are the same height now, but his poofy hair is just slightly higher than her head.

Notes from 2017 also give us the "Neckstravaganza": design notes on Steven's new form, with a neck and a jacket. It's very cool.

Some beautiful Joe Johnston boards follow, with sequences from the "Happily Ever After" song. We also get Angie Wang's final design (with Ashley Fisher's color) of the injector, including some sketchy concept art for it from Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido. In the rough concept notes, they call this the "Mega Injector," with notes for Takafumi Hori to use for scale. It looks beyond huge in a Leonard Hung drawing.

Spinel concepts are next. Some notes explain that aivi & surasshu (the usual composers) were involved very early since it was a musical, and Rebecca included them when pitching the story to the Crew so they could organically develop the sound. The heart shape was central to Spinel from the beginning, and early versions of her had an entire heart shape to her head.

(There's a doodle of what looks like a cartoon dog in the pile of drawings shown in this section. It's not clear what that was.)

Spinel was given the heart imagery partly because Rebecca had learned early on about the importance of symbols, and when it came time to assign one to Steven, the star was chosen because it's so positive and is read as gender-neutral. Rebecca still hadn't used hearts for anything, so it was time. They also incorporated really old, dated character design ideas to make Spinel feel like an outdated cartoon from the rubber hose era.

The aspect of her design with the running mascara versus cute eyelashes predated the rotation of her Gem. Rebecca likes to start with more realistic sketches when she's figuring out a character, and then she'll move to making it more cartoony. A quote from Miki Brewster is shared: "Spinel can do anything, as long as it's entertaining!" Her "best friend" form is described as "a doll for friendship fun & games! Of a different era--hokey, charming, weird...super gullible and trusting. Incredibly loyal, constant entertainment machine!"

When it comes to developing her "worst enemy" form, Rebecca explains a bit that she has a really complicated relationship with old cartoons because nostalgia is not compelling to her--the animation from the 1930s is so neat, but considering the social limits and the way the industry was at the time, Rebecca doesn't think she could have participated. Especially considering nowadays she even had to struggle to be allowed to tell the stories she needed to tell and it would have been impossible five years ago. The norms of the time aren't entirely extricable from the art itself.

Takafumi Hori weighs in with commentary on how fun it was to animate a scary but fun character on top of Miki Brewster's boards for the "Other Friends" fight sequence.

Next, moving on from the central new character, they also spend some time discussing Steg. Rebecca first explains "Steg Multiverse" as a character so uplifting he can make you fly, combining Greg's unending support and Steven's positive power. She makes reference to the early "stegosaurus" concepts they had for his look, but they didn't want to lose the opportunity to have his hair flow. Rebecca confirms that the pompadour idea was established in "Steven and the Stevens" so they wanted to give it to Steg, and she credits Paul Villeco for really finalizing his design and bringing him to life.

And of course the poofy hair from Steven and the double-necked guitar was essential for Steg.

Next, the book gives us a whole page of handwritten notes about "Drift Away." Kat Morris explains the intentional duality of the scene--how Spinel should be shown seeing her own past with new perspective, being embarrassed, blending together who she was with who she is. The partial lyrics to the song and some sketchy boards are offered.

Rebecca shares her personal connection with the subject matter--how she once left a stuffed animal in her garden and the side facing the sun faded. It really made a mark on her as a child that things changed without her, because of her actions, and that she'd left this treasured toy alone without thinking about it all that time, letting it be affected by the elements without her interference. She wrote "Everything Stays" for Adventure Time based on that plushie, and realized that she was writing about it again for the Steven Universe movie.

Many beautiful miniature boards are shown in this section.

Partial sheet music for "Drift Away" is also offered here. It's credited to Rebecca Sugar and Aimee Mann. The music sheet is followed by some lovely images of the garden by Julian De Perio, Patrick Bryson, and Leonard Hung.

Takafumi Hori returns for a discussion of the final fight sequence during "Change," which he animated from Jeff Liu's boards. He discusses trying to keep the fight feeling dramatic and serious even though Spinel's fighting style is funny. He wanted to keep her tension. Hori-san throws in a word of thanks for being allowed to work on his favorite show again, praises Jeff and Miki, and compliments Rebecca Sugar's demos. He hoped we'd get a soundtrack album. (Of course, we did.)

Some final boards by Rebecca Sugar and Becky Dreistadt of the characters in their show gear descending the steps close out the book. There are also some cute little doodles at the end on the credits page, like a head of lettuce with caption "lettuce adore you" and Spinel in a drifting go-kart laughing, captioned "drift away."

The back cover pictures Steven with his arm around a heartbroken Spinel, comforting her.

Overall, the book is wonderful--the accompanying information is generally not new to anyone who watched the DVD's documentary and commentary, and many of the sketches have been released one way or another directly by the artists through Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr blogs. There was still plenty of wonderful new concept art that wasn't already out there, and looking at some of the iterations Spinel and Steg went through was particularly captivating. There was no new insight into the development of the plot beyond the premise and the Spinel-related conflict, though; nothing about how they decided to focus the Garnet storyline, the Pearl storyline, and the Amethyst storyline for how they would each get their memories back, and there was no spotlight on their movie versions--modern Cotton Candy Garnet, copycat baby Amethyst, and factory settings uncustomized Pearl. I was hoping especially for some Amethyst stuff because the movie was the first place we got to see her with the simple default outfit and segmented limbs. It was primarily an art book with commentary on some of the most definitive movie aspects--it didn't reach the depth that Art and Origins gave us. It has a start-to-finish feeling in a sense, but it's mostly just splashes of information that are fun to know. It's a great companion and definitely should not be missed by any fan of the movie. I recommend it heartily!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe the movie #the art of steven universe the movie #movie art book #myblog

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inkykeiji · 3 years

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omg clari u listen to asking alexandria?? i haven’t listened to them in ages but after seeing u mention dont pray for me and touya-nii i had to go listen to from death to destiny again LMAO

but ur RIGHT this song is so touya-nii ugh i can just picture him blasting this as he drives way too fast in his fancy car with a hand on reader’s thigh... bonus points if she doesn’t like this kind of music, if he likes seeing her squirm and get uncomfortable at the screaming UGHHHH it’s not even that heavy but god just picture it

now i’m missing shows so much 😭 i saw asking alexandria on their tour w crown the empire and black veil brides in 2018 (lmao i was real emo) n they were SO good ...oh to go to a show w touya-nii and have him get all possessive when some dude accidentally rubs up against me in the pit

OKOK ILL STOP RAMBLING NOW LMAO hope you’re having a good day and getting lots and lots of rest!!!!! mwah </3

-🦖

i do!!! or, i did ehehehe <33 (threw this under a cut because it got loooong ehehe)

i stopped listening to them after from death to destiny because, yk, danny left and i was very :(((( because he was my fave but yeah!! i’ve lost track of how many times i’ve seen them live; AA + a7x + slipknot were my FAVOURITE bands for so fucking long it’s unbelievable. i met them, too!!! super super nice guys, james and sam smell SO good ahahaha danny’s the only one that was a lil ._. because he clearly did not wanna be there, but once we got him laughing he was a lot nicer! my best friend loves ben tho ehehe <33

i know danny’s back now, and they’ve made what?? two albums with him once he returned??? into the fire i liked a lot, but the rest of that album just made me :/// idk i really hated it aaaaaah 🙈 reckless and relentless is my favourite album out of all of them!! BUT YES YES YES I CAN TOTALLY SEE TOUYA-NII BLASTING ASKING OMFG!!! dear insanity, welcome, to the stage, someone somewhere, a lesson never learned, and another bottle down are all on my touya-nii playlist 🥺🥺

OH MY GOD i went to that tour too!!! my best friend also LOVES andy with her entire heart so when we heard they were touring together we absolutely had to go!!! that was a fun show ehehe aaaah dino babie i miss them a lot too :(( you know what i REALLY miss??? metal fests. literally all of the metal fests i went to as a teenager n in my first year of uni have been fucking cancelled before covid was even a thing and i’m so angry about it >.>

OOOOOOH MY GOD WHAT A FUCKING CONCEPT DINO WAAAAAAAH I KIND OF WANT TO ????? WRITE THAT OH MY GODDDDD like okay imagine; touya’s favourite band is coming to town, right? and god, he rarely gets this excited about anything, but he loves music so much, and reader just can’t bear saying no to him when his eyes are so bright and clear (without the drugs) and a genuine smile’s slapped across his face, so she agrees to go with him even tho she fucking hates his music 🥺 n then she gets like omfg knocked down or something (during a wall of death, maybe??) or felt up like u said and touya fucking loses it!!! AAAAAH DINO UR BRAIN IS HUGEEEEE oh my god oh my god 🥺

it is, once again, my turn to apologize for rambling ehehehe 🙊 it seems like we have similar taste in music tho, that’s super cool!!!

#danny wanted absolutely nothing to do with us until we got james n ben laughing #then he was all ??? what’s going on #i met slipknot too!!! they’re so chill #i was a mess because i loved corey n sid more than anything but god that show was incredible #i’d love to see them again :(( the energy is just INSANE #‘IT’S NOT EVEN THAT HEAVY’ AHAHAHAHA this made me giggle for some reason but ur RIGHT it isn’t #from death to destiny had a good mix of screaming n singing #but reckless and relentless is still my favourite by far #the lyrics on that album;;;; holy fuck #i was rambling about this in that other music ask from a few weeks ago but MORTE ET DABO?????????#INCREDIBLE #waaaah okay i’m rly rambling now BUT YES DINO UR BRAIN IS MASSIVE N GORGEOUS #i hope u had an awesome day!!!!#ily lots bb pls be safe <33 #🦖.anon #clari gets mail

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psycheterminal · 3 years

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Yay, I have 30 followers!

My askblog has 20 followers! Check out @ask-impure-vessel

I currently am writing the in-progress Of Masks and Nests on Ao3!

I am working on: (# - denotes tentative/placeholder titles)

Hollow Masters (Danny Phantom/Hollow Knight crossover) In which Plasmius and Wyrm become Pale King and Vlad Masters respectively and Wyrm unfortunately brings some of his demons with him. Rough draft “half done.”

Gendered Child of the Abyss# The Gendered Child escapes her minders in the White Palace and ends up in the Abyss, where she makes a voidy new friend who pulls her back in time to play and save the vessels from their agonized fate. Maybe save Hallownest and her mom, too while they’re at it.

These Earthly Chains An activist finds in modern day the sealed away but suffering gods of Hallownest and decides to save them, but is this such a good idea? Inspired by a dream, SCP and Belief and Strings. Only loosely, the dream was very odd.

A Knight To Remember# (RWBY/HK crossover) Weiss Schnee after a very hard night for Ruby decides to ask her friends to help her with her semblance, using a very old book-and accidentally summons a familiar; this familiar is the Hollow Knight. Inspired by The Loneliest of Them All, just taking the rough concept in a very different direction and rebuilding the RWBY setting while I’m at it.

Wrote stuff for and will likely never post/finish: Pandora’s Vessel It’s a self-insert. I posted the beginning of it and tried to expand on it. I write on it for fun, but I’m likely never gonna post it or will have to massively rework it.

Songweaver Self-insert about isekai’ing as a butterfly at the height of Hallownest and trying to figure out how to survive the upcoming infection. While having trash taste in romance.

#meta

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highdwightofmylife · 4 years

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I was thinking abt this morning -- say all the killers take a road trip and they take like idk 3 cars. Who goes with who? What kind of chaos ensues LMAO? whose the person who doesn't shut the fuck up and talks for 6 hours straight? Whose the person that sleeps on someone else's shoulder? Whose the person that navigates and/or do they get the drivers lost? Whose the person that just decided to eat the entire time and what do they eat? Whose the person that has to go to the br every hr? 💕💕💕

GOD I LOVE THIS CONCEPT THANK YOU IT’S A BLESSING

it’s obviously very out-of-canon and makes no sense in the normal setting buT WHO CARES LMAOOO

Killer Road Trip Headcanons

There's three cars, and the designated drivers are the (arguably) most mature. Evan, Michael, and Philip.

All three drivers refuse to have the entirety of the legion in the same car despite how much they try to convince them. In the end, Evan gets Frank, Michael gets Joey, and Philip gets Susie and Julie.

Evan's car is... A mistake. Riding shotgun is Sally, who's trying her best to read a map. In the back is Frank at the window, Rin in the middle, and then Danny. Poor Rin has to deal with Frank and Danny leaning over her to slap each other like childish kids. Luckily for her, Frank tuckers out after about two hours and then she just has to put up with Danny, who mellows a little when Frank's out of the equation. He keeps taking pictures of the moving landscape and posing for selfies with Rin and the sleeping Frank. Evan almost crashes the car when Danny reaches round him to try and take a picture together.

In Philip's car, the person riding shotgun is Susie. She promised she would be an amazing navigator! Philip was foolish to trust her because she can not understand a single line in that map. But she really tries! Philip just makes sure that he can see Evan's car at all times so he doesn't get lost. In the back, the middle seat is taken by Julie, with Lisa to her left and Anna to her right. Lisa mostly just gurgles and excitedly points out the window, and she hisses and spits if Julie accidentally shifts a little too far on her side. Anna is much more chill. She hums soothing tunes and before you know it, Julie is snoozing on her shoulder. Anna doesn't mind! She puts her arm around her and pulls her into her side. Bonus: Demogorgon is in the very back of the car boot, sometimes peeking over the seat. He's a good boy. Lisa keeps reaching back to pet him and it usually keeps him happy for a while.

Michael is driving a pick-up truck. This is important information, because in the truck bed is Bubba and Max. They're just vibin, laughing together, having fun. They're playing eye spy through indecipherable blubbers that no one but they understand. Joey is with them, mostly because Bubba demanded he was bringing his pet chicken and Joey wanted to pet the lil dude. Joey gets jostled around quite a bit whenever the truck goes over bumps, but Max and Bubba take super good care of him! They quickly grab his shoulder to stop him from getting hurt or something. It's a bonding experience. The front of the truck has two passenger seats beside the driver, because it's a pretty hefty truck. Adiris sits beside Michael (she has to remove her head piece to fit), Herman is by the window. Adiris babbles at talks to both of them, but only Herman ever responds. Michael just drives, and although nobody has a map, he seems to know exactly where he's going. Herman is... Herman. He sits there and giggles and points at things and tries to converse with Adiris, despite the language barrier. Michael quickly discovers that the more he hears Herman cackle, the more he wants to knife him.

It's Danny that constantly had to go to the bathroom. He kicks Evan's seat and whines and says he's gonna piss himself until Evan finally pulls over. And then he spends like half a fucking hour pissing in a bush. H a l f an h o u r. He just gets distracted while he's out there and it gets the the point where Evan is like "Frank go with him and make sure he comes back as soon as he's done."

Lisa has a snack bag of leaves that she occasionally offers to Julie (who's nervously laughs as she's handed a leaf). Nobody knows why she's eating leaves. She's a gremlin and we love her.

Demo gets restless so Anna takes him to stretch his legs a few times. One time she forgets him and gets back in the car and they start driving. They don't remember until 5 minutes later when Julie is like "wow Demo is being unusually quiet" and then Anna is like fuCK STOP THE CAR (but in Russian). Philip slams the breaks on and they hear a thump. Demo had been running behind them and fucking slammed into the bumper. He's okay! A little tired, but okay!

Herman ends up falling asleep with his face pressed against the window, eyes open, drool sliding down the glass.

Joey goes into a gas station because he's arguably the most human looking of all of them (in this particular car at least), to buy gas station snacks. He was sent in for sandwiches and instead came out with a bunch of chocolate bars and candy. Bubba is over the moon. He also buys a small box of wheat cereal for Bubba's chicken, hoping it will like it.

Also the chicken's name is an indecipherable babble because Bubba named it, but if you somehow managed to translate the Bubba Babble™️ then it'd be named Betsy.

#dbd headcanons #general dbd trash #i am a meme now

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karenxmenfan · 4 years

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(above: Jack Kirby, John Verpoorten, Glynis Oliver; John Paul Leon; Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, Julianna Ferriter; Daniel Acuña)

READING THE ETERNALS

Jack Kirby’s Gods return to the Marvel Universe

PART 1 — INTRODUCTION

“When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands acceptance or dominance.” When Jonathan Hickman’s return to Marvel was first teased in 2019, I thought they might do something unexpected and announce a new Eternals series. Kevin Feige had revealed an Eternals movie not too long before, so it seems possible. I knew practically nothing about the characters, aside from Sersi being an Avenger, that it was Jack Kirby’s baby, and they were tied to the Celestials. I met these massive Space Gods in the beloved 1999 miniseries Earth X. That series includes a basic recap of the Eternals and Deviants in service of an epic plot surrounding the Celestials and their relationship to Earth.

The Hickman rumors sparked an interest in the characters, so I decided to read the original run from the beginning. What I found out is that there’s a lot of silly fun to these characters and I’m genuinely excited for the movie. The concept is weird and doesn’t quite have the same generative power as, say, the Fantastic Four, but it’s still enjoyable and Jack Kirby’s art is always a treat for the eyeballs. It’s easy to get caught up on all the essentials, since these characters are used so infrequently, but their presence is heavily seeded throughout the Marvel Universe. I’ve put together this reading guide to offer a roadmap for anyone wanting to take a deep-dive into THE ETERNALS!

WHO?

The Eternals are secretly one of three branches of the human race that were ENGINEERED BY ALIENS (a fact that gets reiterated nearly every time they appear in a comic). Yes, it’s that old urban legend that human evolution was kickstarted by extraterrestrial influence. In this case, massive space beings called the Celestials came to Earth and did experiments on apes, resulting in homo sapiens, but also the Eternals, powerful god-like beings, and Deviants, “monsters” who have unstable genes so no two are alike. Make of that what you will, it’s kind of messed up. Anyway, many thousands of years after their first visit, the Celestials return to Earth again to check up on their creations, and to see if the planet is worthy to survive.

PART 2 — KIRBY

The main draw of this series is Kirby’s art, weird ideas, and how funny all the characters are as they strut around exclaiming everything. What’s interesting here is that it’s not actually a part of the Marvel Universe - there’s an issue halfway through where they fight a robot Hulk, which is pretty explicitly based on a fictional character. The best characters in the whole book are Sersi, who is a hip, with-it party girl, Thena, and of course the Deviant leader Kro (the romance between the latter two is very good).

Entries in blue are favorites

The Eternals (1976) #1–6 — Where it all begins!! WHO ARE THE SPACE GODS? Some human archaeologists discover, with the help of a disguised Eternal, the big secret of the human race, and their relationship to Eternals, Deviants, and the Celestials who created them. This kicks off the series and the first arc where all the various Eternals are brought out of hiding as the Deviants, led by Kro, launch an effort to keep the Celestials from returning to judge their creations - this includes an attack on New York where the Deviants pose as demons from space hell. Meanwhile, the Fourth Celestial Host arrives on Earth…

The Eternals (1976) #7–13 — Picking up after the attack on New York, the human race is now formally introduced to its ancient siblings. This arc starts to get more into the relationships of the characters, with Sersi getting thirsty for a flummoxed, stuffed-shirt anthropologist, while Kro and Thena drop hints of a previous romance. Through their story, we see more of Deviant society, which introduces future BFFs The Reject and Karkas. Meanwhile, the Celestials are floating around the planet making observations like colossal roombas and freaking out humanity who start to get very worried. We also see the introduction of the Uni-Mind, where all the Eternals fly into a blue flame and emerge as one giant brain-thing. In this form, they leave Earth for a while.

The Eternals Annual (1977) #1 — A fun little adventure with Thena, The Reject, and Karkas (who has a human disguise in this) dealing with some Deviant menace who brings Jack the Ripper and Atilla the Hun to the present day to cause mayhem. The Eternals (1976) #14-17 - The momentum of the series comes to a halt - the Uni-Mind returns to Earth and the Eternals get swept up in a battle with a robotic Hulk who goes on the loose, and then a secret, all-powerful monster that Zuras was hiding in the basement.

The Eternals (1976) #18–19 — Probably with the knowledge that cancellation is nigh, the story picks up again. Druig becomes obsessed with uncovering the whereabouts of a secret weapon that is able to kill the Celestials (planting the seeds for the Dreaming Celestial). Ikaris tries his hardest to stop his cousin’s folly and avert the wrath of the Space Gods and I think it eventually comes to an end when the Celestials make Druig disappear? I guess this is when Jack Kirby peaced out of Marvel…

CREDITS* full series (Writing/Pencils - Jack Kirby; Inks - John Verpoorten, Mike Royer; Colors - Glynis Oliver; Lettering - Gaspar Saladino, John Costanza, Irving Watanabe, Mike Royer)

PART 3 — JOINING THE 616

Since the original series kind of was cut short with Kirby’s departure, the Eternals’ story gets picked up in other Marvel comics, where the heroes slowly learn about their existence.

Thor Annual (1976) #7 — Since the original series kind of was cut short with Kirby’s departure, the Eternals’ story gets picked up in other Marvel comics. This issue starts off a storyline where Thor recovers memories of the Celestials and some secret that Odin has been keeping from him.

(Writing - Roy Thomas; Pencils - Walter Simonson; Inks - Ernie Chan; Colors - Glynis Oliver; Lettering - Tom Orzechowski)

Thor (1966) #283-289, 291, 300-301 — Spurred on by his meeting of the Eternals, Thor takes the question to Odin. Odin won’t tell him anything, so this sets Thor off on a journey that takes him to the Eternals, the Deviants, and eventually the lead Celestial, The One Above All, who shows him hints of a deal between Celestials, Odin, Zeus, Zuras, and the other deities of Earth. Joining forces with the Eternals, Thor tries to stop the Fourth Hosts’ judgement of Earth which puts them at odds with the Norse and Greek gods. Thor finally learns the whole truth just in time to stand against the Celestials on the Day of Judgement. This is the big culmination of everything that started in The Eternals #1!

(Writing - Roy Thomas, Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio; Pencils - John Buscema, Keith Pollard; Inks - Chic Stone, Gene Day; Colors - George Roussos, Glynis Oliver, Marie Severin, Bob Sharen, Carl Gafford; Lettering - Joe Rosen, Tom Orzechowski)

Iron Man Annual (1970) #6 — Rhodey is flying around and accidentally happens upon the Eternals’ city, but it’s overrun by Deviants! They’ve incapacitated all the Eternals and are trying to steal their power source or something.

(Writing - Peter Gillis; Pencils - Luke McDonnell; Inks - Roy Richardson; Colors - Carl Gafford; Lettering - Diana Albers)

Eternals: Secrets from the Marvel Universe (2019) #1 — This one-shot collects a series of backup stories that ran in What If? through the early 1980s. This covers the established origin of the Eternals and Deviants, but also goes into more detail about the branch of Eternals who left Earth to populate the solar system. It also ties in the Inhumans and creates a relationship between these two very similar groups of characters.

(Writing - Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Peter Gillis; Pencils - Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Bruce Patterson; Inks - Chic Stone, Alan Kupperberg, Bruce Patterson, Joe Sinnott; Colors - Carl Gafford, Ed Hannigan, Nel Yomtov, Glynis Oliver; Lettering - Michael Higgins, John Morelli, Tom Orzechowski)

Avengers (1963) #246-248 — The Avengers crash one of Sersi’s parties and get dragged with her back to Olympia for some Eternals business. There we find out about the Eternals who went to Titan, and everyone finds out Starfox is an Eternal. The main plot involves a supervillain infiltrating Olympia to steal the power of the Uni-Mind. At the end of this story, the majority of lesser-known Eternals decide to leave Earth in a Uni-Mind for good, greatly narrowing their cast to just the essentials.

(Writing - Roger Stern; Pencils - Al Milgrom; Inks - Joe Sinnott; Colors - Christie Scheele, Julianna Ferriter; Lettering - Jim Novak, Diana Albers)

The Eternals (1985) #1-12 — This is actually a solid series, and does a huge amount to introduce new concepts and characters into the Eternals. It’s more of a standard Marvel superhero comic than Kirby’s weirdness, which perhaps allows it to fit more neatly into the greater shared universe. The best thing is that it features a lot of Kro and Thena as the latter becomes leader of the Eternals despite them not taking her seriously, and the former becoming embroiled in a sectarian power struggle with Ghuar (that guy from “Atlantis Attacks”) to lead the Deviants. The two find their love rekindled, putting them at odds with the other Eternals (Ikaris is a big asshole in this). Meanwhile, Sersi collects more human pets, including a guy she saves from suicide and tries to show that life is worth living. Central to everyone’s machinations is a plot to harness the power of the Celestials, playing off of the hints left by Kirby about the Celestial who was killed during the Second Host (this is the continuing foundation for the Dreaming Celestial idea).

(Writing - Peter Gillis, Walter Simonson; Pencils - Sal Buscema, Keith Pollard, Paul Ryan; Inks - Al Gordon, Keith Williams, Danny Bulanadi, Sam de la Rosa, Al Williamson, Tom Morgan, Geof Isherwood; Colors - George Roussos, Bob Sharen; Lettering - Joe Rosen, John Morelli, Rick Parker)

The Eternals: Herod Factor (1991) #1 — A little one-shot that is fun largely because it ultimately is about Thena and Kro. It’s written by Roy Thomas so doesn’t stray too far from established canon.

(Writing - Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas; Pencils - Mark Texiera; Inks - Bob McLeod, Christopher Ivy, Mark McKenna, Ian Akin, Sam de la Rosa; Colors - Mike Thomas, Dana Moreshead; Lettering - Jean Simek)

PART 4 — SERSI & THE AVENGERS

Despite the Forgotten One (aka Gilgamesh) joining the Avengers in issue #300, he doesn’t seem to have ever made much of an impression. His tenure does little more than to lead the team to another, more famous Eternal - the cosmopolitan Sersi! She definitely makes her mark on the team in the early 90’s. For better or worse!

Avengers (1963) #307-310, 325 — Gilgamesh is injured in battle, leading the Avengers to seek out the aid of his fellow Eternals - except Sprite has transported all of Olympia to the Negative Zone. After helping fend off Blastaar, Sersi joins the team in Gilgamesh’s stead. At this point she becomes a series regular and fans can start reading Avengers from here for more. Issue #325 is a great fill-in by Mark Gruenwald that features Sersi at her best – throwing a party and hitting on stymied squares.

(Writing - John Byrne; Pencils - Paul Ryan; Inks - Tom Palmer; Colors - Christie Scheele, Tom Fine; Lettering - Bill Oakley, Rick Parker)

Avengers (1963) #325 — A great fill-in by Mark Gruenwald that features Sersi at her best — throwing a party and hitting on stymied squares.

(Writing - Mark Gruenwald; Pencils - Rick Levins; Inks - Fred Fredericks [et al]; Colors - Ed Lazellari; Lettering - Brad K. Joyce)

Avengers (1963) #370-371 — Kro works at the Pentagon and has an outreach database for Deviants, which he uses to form Delta-Force! This team includes his kids with Thena who have the ability to merge into a grotesque fusion, and they need to save the Avengers from Ghaur.

(Writing - Glenn Herdling; Pencils - Geof Irsherwood, Mike Gustovich; Inks - Al Milgrom, Kevin Yates, Tom Palmer; Colors - Chris Matthys; Lettering - Bill Oakley)

Avengers (1963) #339, 344-347, 355-366, 372-375 — This is Bob Harras’ grand epic to ruin Sersi. After Sersi forms a version of the Uni-Mind with a bacteria-based group of Eternals (it’s… a thing), her behavior becomes erratic, presumably some Eternals mind-sickness. She begins to fawn all over Black Knight, linking to him in a soulmate ritual against his consent (he’s falling in love with Crystal). It’s all because of an alternate-reality Black Knight who wants to get revenge on Sersi because his version broke his heart. When everything is finally resolved, Sersi and Black Knight enter a wormhole and leave the dimension. At least Sersi has a cool costume.

(Writing - Bob Harras; Pencils - Steve Epting, Gordon Purcell; Inks - Tom Palmer, Steve Alexandrov, Fred Fredericks; Colors - Kevin Tinsley, Sarra Mossoff, Scott Marshall, Evan Skolnick, Tom Palmer, Gina Going, John Kalisz; Lettering - Bill Oakley, Michael Higgins, Rick Parker)

Heroes for Hire (1997) #5-7 — Sersi returns to a post-Onslaught 616 universe to warn about another plot by Ghaur to form an “Anti-Mind.” He’s been resurrected as a giant gold statue and is controlling all the Deviants. Once the day is saved, Sersi goes off on her separate way, with her bond to Black Knight severed at last.

(Writing - John Ostrander; Pencils - Pasqual Ferry; Inks - Jaime Mendoza; Colors - Joe Rosas; Lettering - Jonathan Babcock)

PART 5 — REBIRTH & DEATH / THE MODERN ERA

Having exhausted the story potential of the Eternals throughout the 80s and 90s, Marvel decided to pull in a ringer to give the franchise a reboot.

The Eternals (2006) #1-7 — the Eternals have all forgotten who they are thanks to Sprite, and the return of the Dreaming Celestial forces them to wake up… I am not a big fan of this run, and hold a bit of a grudge against it. John Romita Jr’s art is good though, especially when he’s drawing big bulky things. The biggest shame is that the Deviants are pretty generic here, and Kro is nowhere to be found. I mostly recommend reading this because it reintroduces the Eternals in the modern era and sets up the scenario for the next volume, with Makkari taking center stage and arranging Druig and Tiamet, the Dreaming Celestial on the board.

(Writing - Neil Gaiman; Pencils - John Romita Jr; Inks - Danny Miki, Tim Townsend, Tom Palmer, Jesse Delperdang, Klaus Janson; Colors - Matt Hollingsworth, Dean White, Paul Mounts; Lettering - Todd Klein)

The Eternals (2008) #1-6 — Druig is brainwashing as many Eternals as possible to his cause as Thena and Ikaris race against him. The heart of the story, though, is how Makkari is being used as a megaphone/alarm system by the Dreaming Celestial to warn about an intergalactic menace called the Horde that is coming to consumer Earth - a role that is overtaking his personality like an addiction. Sersi gets some good scenes in this but her character is kind of diminished in favor of Makkari. The story is actually pretty interesting, and salvages a lot of the ideas that Gaiman brought to the table. There’s a three issue X-Men crossover after this but I don’t have much to recommend it - Acuña’s not even drawing it.

(Writing - Charles Knauf, Daniel Knauf; Art - Daniel Acuña; Lettering - Todd Klein)

Thor: The Deviants Saga (2011) #1-5 — A little romp with Thor that takes the newer elements established by Gaiman and the Knaufs and brings them more in line with the previous depictions of the mythos. It does include a lot of details and references that Eternals fans should get a kick out of – Karkas and Ransak play a large role, Deviant Ereshkigal makes a return as does Ikaris’ dad Virako, there’s a lot of Kro – but it’s kind of meandering and doesn’t amount to that much. It ends with the entire cast essentially writing themselves out of future appearances.

(Writing - Robert Rodi; Pencils - Stephen Segovia; Inks - Jason Paz, Jeff Huet; Colors - Andy Troy, Will Quintana; Lettering - Jeff Eckleberry, John Rauch)

The Ultimates 2 (2017) #4, 6, 100 — Overall this is an amazing series, but as it pertains to this reading list, these issues shed light on the origins of the Marvel Universe, and thus, the Celestials. Created in the very first iteration of the cosmos, they not only have survived the many subsequent deaths and rebirths of the Multiverse, but they stand in opposition to a host of opposite, evil Celestials, known as the Aspirants. The Aspirants lay waste to the Celestials, who manage to live on through the surviving One Above All (this is even after the Celestials were seemingly all killed by the Beyonders in New Avengers [2013] #30).

(Writing - Al Ewing; Art - Travel Foreman, Filipe Andrade, Marco Lorenzana, Scott Hanna [Inks]; Colors - Dan Brown, Matt Yackey; Lettering - Joe Sabino)

Avengers (2018) #1-6, 8 — This series combines with Aspirants with the Horde of the last Eternals series to introduce the Dark Celestials, retconning the Celestial’s origin even further. The evil Dark Celestials have killed off their more colorful brethren and are coming to destroy Earth. Meanwhile, the Eternals are found to have all killed each other for some related reason. Ikaris holds out long enough to give Iron Man the power to make a Uni-Mind, which saves the day. The Celestials return and are cured of their Horde sickness – in return, they give the Avengers an ancient Celestial corpse to live in. Not my favorite, but as of this writing, it is the last time any of these concepts have appeared in the comics.

(Writing - Jason Aaron; Pencils - Ed McGuiness, Paco Medina, David Marquez; Inks - Mark Morales, Jay Leisten, Juan Vlasco, Karl Story; Colors - David Curiel, Justin Ponsor; Lettering - Cory Petit)

The History of the Marvel Universe (2019) #1 — As the name implies, this is a straightforward and beautiful explanation of the MU’s origins and the role the Celestials play, told from today’s vantage point with all the retcons and retrofitting that have happened over the years. Includes the obligatory origin of the Eternals and Deviants and the first three Hosts of the Celestials.

(Writing - Mark Waid; Pencils/Inks - Javier Rodriguez; Colors - Álvaro López; Lettering - Joe Caramagna)

PART 6 — XTRA-CREDIT

Being an X-Men fan, it's worth noting the times when the Eternals, Deviants, and Celestials have run into the mutants.

X-Factor (1986) #43-50 — Judgement War! X-Factor ends up on another planet which is visited by its own Celestial Host. The team gets involved between a set of Eternals and Deviant-type sects, trying to stop the Celestials from judging them unworthy.

(Writing - Louise Simonson; Pencils - Paul Smith, Rich Buckler; Inks - Al Milgrom; Colors - Tom Vincent; Lettering - Joe Rosen)

X-Force (1991) #77, 79, 82-90, 96-97 — X-Force starts running into people associated with the Damocles Foundation - a group of Deviants, Eternals, and Humans.

(Writing - Joseph Harris, John Francis Moore; Pencils - Adam Pollina, Jim Cheung, Angel Unzueta, Terry Shoemaker, Anthony Williams; Inks - Mark Morales, Rob Stull, Ray McCarthy, Bud LaRosa, Harry Candelario, Scott Koblish, Derek Mei, Scott Elmer; Colors - Marie Javins, Steve Buccellato, Mike Thomas; Lettering - Comicraft, Chris Eliopoulos)

Earth X (1999) #0-X — Issue 0 is basically Uatu explaining the history of the Marvel Universe to X-51, with a heavy emphasis on the role of the Celestials. This includes a very brief discussion of the Eternals and Deviants, but mostly focuses on the creation of humanity and the birth of super heroes, as the various Celestial Hosts visit Earth. By issue 9, the Celestials return for their Fifth and final Host, and more of their relationship to earth and Uatu is revealed as the remaining heroes defend their planet. Really really good and a must-read in general, even if the Eternals themselves are just footnotes. John Paul Leon makes the Celestials look like the coolest things the Marvel Universe has ever produced. The Reject does get to play a role in the sequel Universe X, though.

(Writing - Jim Krueger, Alex Ross; Pencils - John Paul Leon; Inks - Bill Reinhold; Colors - Matt Hollingsworth, James Sinclair, Melissa Edwards; Lettering - Todd Klein)

New Eternals: Apocalypse Now (2000) #1 — Apocalypse is behind some ill-defined plot that involves destroying Lemuria and turning Karkas into a kaiju. Ikaris’ father Virako is brought back, and they have some quarrels over leadership. This is another good one for Eternals fans but it’s kind of incomprehensible. At the end, the Eternals adopt new superhero identities as “the New Breed,” but this is never mentioned again.

(Writing - Karl Bollers, Mike Higgins; Pencils - Joe Bennett; Inks - Scott Hanna; Colors - John Kalisz; Lettering - Benchmark)

Uncanny X-Men (2012) #1-3 — Mr. Sinister messes with the Dreaming Celestial and it’s bad news for the planet. Magneto comes in handy.

(Writing - Kieron Gillen; Pencils - Carlos Pacheco, Jorge Molina, Rodney Buchemi, Paco Diaz; Inks - Cam Smith, Roger Bonet, Walden Wong; Colors - Frank D'armata, Rachelle Rosenberg, Jim Charalampidis, Dono Sánchez-Almara, Rex Lokus; Lettering - Joe Caramagna)

There’s more stuff with Eternals in it throughout the Marvel Universe, and even more with the Celestials, but this is pretty foundational and focused on the Eternals of Earth. Most of this stuff is on Marvel Unlimited, and the stuff that isn’t is looking like it will be included in a new Omnibus - ”The Complete Saga” - (currently scheduled for December, 2020), like the 1985 series and the “Herod Factor” one-shot. With the MCU movie scheduled for February 2021, it’s highly likely we may be seeing a new series before too long. I recently came across this fascinating bit of research on the behind-the-scenes of Jack Kirby’s work on the The Eternals -- check it out! Four Color Primer: Sersi & The Eternals Part 1

*issue credits gathered from marvel.fandom.com

#eternals #celestials #marvel #deviants #comics reading list #eternals reading list

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wastefulreverie · 5 years

Text

Phanniemay19 Day 2: Secrets

Word Count: 4571

Genre: Humor/Drama

Paulina was a shameless revenge seeker. She was sure that most teenage girls would resort to petty tactics like meddling in other people's relationships or harmful pranks. Paulina wasn't like most other girls though; she was from Amity Park, the most haunted town in America. And she wasn't afraid to play by her own rules.

It was a known fact that all of the Amity Park ghosts seemed to have some sort of gimmick about them. The Box Ghost, a loser in overalls who liked cardboard a lot; Skulkreex or something, who allegedly hunted other ghosts for prey; Ember McLain, an edgy rockstar who stole power through chanting; and most infamously, Danny Phantom, Amity Park's very own superhero. Some ghosts were just obsessed with their fixations, while others gained their power from it.

Fascinated by this concept, Paulina did some research on ghosts with specific fixations. Originally she'd been trying to learn if there was a ghost that specialized in turning people ugly. Instead she discovered something much more interesting.

She'd heard about a ghost that could reveal other's secrets from some goth college chick from the Skulk and Lurk, a pisspoor cesspool of emo debauchery. A goth book store wasn't the sort of place that Paulina would normally ever set foot, but she was desperate. No one else seemed to really know what was up with the ghosts besides the punk rockers and the crazy ghost hunters, and out of the two she preferred the punk kids.

"So you're looking for a ghost that can like totally screw up this girl's social life, right?" the goth girl asked. She had bright blue hair and nose ring that kept drawing Paulina's attention. Paulina didn't mind body or ear piercings, but facial piercings always managed to freak her out….

"Pretty much," she shrugged.

The girl scoffed, "Shit, I wish I had that much ambition when I was your age. Resorting to ghosts to deal some revenge; that sounds wicked."

Paulina crossed her arms, "Well, it's what this girl deserves. She just moved here and is making me look like an idiot in front of all my friends. I won't stand for it."

"That's a fun attitude," the goth girl laughed. Paulina didn't get her sense of humor, but whatever. "Anyway, I think you should try summoning the Secret Ghost. She's a ghost that's super obsessed with revealing other people's secrets. She can sense people who are hiding things and feeds off of them when they're revealed."

"So… if I summon this ghost, she can reveal all of Bree's secrets and embarrass her?"

"If that's what you want," she answered with a sly grin.

Paulina didn't hesitate. "I'm in. How do I summon this lady?"

The goth girl reached for pen and started writing down instructions. "Well, first off, her name's Tajana…."

It took Paulina a week to follow the goth girl's instructions. Her first attempt to summon 'Tajana' had ended disastrously, and she had accidentally invited Technus into her house instead. Then the Fentons had to come over and completely debug all of her family's technology, which wasn't fun since it was the Fentons for God's sake. She'd rather be on the receiving end of one of Dash's world famous wedgies than deal with Jack Fenton's ghost chatter. How his children lived with him… she didn't know.

Her second try summoning Tajana was much more successful. She performed the ritual in her bedroom and was greeted by a blue skinned, purple-haired, five-foot tall woman with a tail. She was smaller than some of the other ghosts that Paulina had met and wore a red tunic that blended with her tail.

"Human," Tajana spoke, "what have I been summoned for?"

Paulina had been half-expecting to be attacked on sight, so Tajana was already coming across more friendly than Paulina had anticipated.

"You are Tajana, correct? The ghosts that can sense secrets?"

"I am, indeed," the ghost nodded. "And what is that to you?"

"I want to make a deal," Paulina proposed. "I have a rival, and I want to reveal her deepest, darkest secrets. If you would help me do that, then we both win; you get power from her secret, and I get the satisfaction of exposing her."

Understanding her intent, the ghost grinned. "That can be arranged…"

"Great!" Paulina exclaimed in relief. "So how would we go about doing that?"

Tajana shrugged and drifted a few feet to the left, moving to sit on Paulina's bed. "Well," she started, "I don't really have the power the reveal secrets, it's more of a… premonition. I can sense who has strong secrets and from there I can predict the best course of action that will reveal them."

"So you can sense the future?" Paulina was confused.

"Not the future, no. I can… how do I put this?" Tajana groaned. "If someone has a strong secret, they give off a certain type of energy. For instance, you have a moderate energy; you have some secrets, but they aren't exactly riveting. Once I lock onto someone's secret energy, I can expedite the most probable scenario that will lead to a secret's exposure."

"Okay… I think I get it? Are you just going to follow me to school, then? I'll show you which girl is Bree, the girl I want to humiliate."

"That's… a bit complicated," Tajana winced. "Ghosts have to have some sort of tradeoff for their abilities. I can do some things that other ghosts can't, but in exchange I can't do things that other ghosts can. One of those things is that I can't go invisible. I doubt I'd make it five seconds in the human world without causing a complete panic."

Recalling Casper High's chronic ghost problem, Paulina couldn't tell Tajana that she was wrong. Usually when a ghost appeared, the default reaction was to get out of the line of fire at whatever cost. "Yeah, that doesn't seem like it'd work out…. So how am I going to get you close enough to Bree to expose her secrets?"

"Well, there's always possession," Tajana said offhandedly. "I can do that."

Paulina balked, stepping a few steps away from Tajana. "Possess? You mean like take control of me and lock me in my own body?"

"No," Tajana assured quickly, "that's overshadowing. Possession is a bit different. Any ol' specter can overshadow. Possessing takes different skill; both of us are aware and share control of your body during possession."

Paulina raised a brow, gauging if she was serious. "You can do that but you can't turn invisible?"

She regretted her words immediately when Tajana's aura flared and her red eyes darkened in fury, "Are you judging me, human?" she floated off of the bed and towered over Paulina. "I told you that in exchange-"

"No!" Paulina denied, blood rushing in her ears. "Not judging!"

Tajana closed her eyes for a moment, her aura fading back to normal. Paulina released a shaky breath of relief once the ghost had evidently placated. Tajana returned back to floating above Paulina's bed and resumed as if nothing had happened, "So would you be open to that idea?"

Paulina was taken off guard by the question, "Uh… with you possessing me?"

"Yes." Tajana stared at her, unnerving Paulina. It took her a moment to realize that the ghost wasn't blinking.

"I think it'll be weird," Paulina admitted, finding it difficult to associate herself with the notion, "but as long as you don't overstep your boundaries and let me have control over my own body, I'll do it. Anything to get back at that bitch."

Tajana smirked deviously. It wasn't the most attractive smile because fangs jutting from her lip gave a formidable impression rather than encouraging. "Then it's a deal. I'll cease my possession once both of us are satisfied."

To seal the deal, she offered her hand to Paulina. Realizing that she wanted her to shake her hand, Paulina faltered. Did she need physical contact to possess her or was this just a social gesture that Paulina was misinterpreting…?

"We're not going to do this now, are we?" she asked warily. "I'm not uh, ready to be possessed. After all, school isn't until tomorrow morning."

"Oh," Tajana's eyes widened in understanding. Paulina didn't even see the ghost lower her hand, it just materialized back at her side. Weird. "Well, I guess we'll wait until then."

Tajana left Paulina alone for most of the night, which Paulina was grateful for; but she still didn't get much sleep with the ghost's nearby presence. She woke up about an hour before school started, which was a little later than usual for her but she'd only gotten about three hours of sleep.

True to her word, Tajana only possessed Paulina rather than overshadowing her. Paulina had sat nervously on her bed waiting for the feeling of Tajana taking control, but the feeling never came. After about twenty seconds after Tajana had vanished from Paulina's vision, Paulina started to question if she had been fooled.

"Are you… did you do it?" she asked aloud.

Yes, Tajana spoke in her mind. Paulina jumped. Her voice drowned out everything else for a moment, loud; almost like she was speaking through a pair of headphones. The truth of the matter was what felt weirder, Paulina wasn't accustomed to a disembodied voice speaking in her head.

Well, I do suppose that it does take some getting used to. Of course, not that I know - I've never been on your side of possession.

Paulina squeaked, "You can read my thoughts?" She suddenly felt very invaded and was regretting her decision. What if she thought something she didn't mean to think and the ghost got angry? What if she thought something really embarrassing? (Really embarrassing: like how I pretend to make out with Phantom in the shower with my shampoo bottle pretty much every day?) Mierda! God, she hadn't wanted to think about that right now, that's so humiliating, oh God-

Stop freaking out about it. I've been in the minds of perverts much less self-aware than you, sweetie. Nothing you say will make me judge you too much, or make me angry enough to kill you.

You're totally going to kill me. "Uh… alright. I'll keep that in mind…."

Paulina sensed that Tajana was giving her the mental equivalent of rolling her eyes, but didn't say anything about it. I mean, what could she say about it?

"Let's just… go to my school," Paulina suggested. "We can talk more on the way there."

Well, it's your body, Tajana spoke. I'm just here for the ride.

Paulina didn't know if it was because there was a ghost in her head, nerves, or if the universe decided to spice things up today, but Casper High seemed unnaturally brighter. Colors that had been dull yesterday now popped out to Paulina. The gray water fountain was actually sort of a bright bluish, the yellow-green lockers glowed with unnatural saturation, and the orange flower that Star always wore was practically a physical sunset. She hadn't realized that there could be so much vibrance in the world.

Yeah, I assume that's probably from me, Tajana butted in on her thoughts. Paulina still wasn't used to the intrusion and fliched. But just ignore it. We have more important things to worry about.

"You're right," Paulina muttered under her breath. I'll try to find Bree.

She knew that Breeana often got to school early and hung out near the cafeteria with some of the other A-List boys. Slut. She'd only moved to Casper High two months ago and had climbed to the top of the social ladder by fucking around with some of the jocks. When she arrived at the cafeteria, Bree wasn't there yet, so Paulina opted to wander aimlessly around the school until she found her.

She had probably spent no less than five minutes looking for her rival before Tajana spoke again. TURN BACK AROUND.

Paulina immediately clutched her head. "Ow," she hissed. "That was loud."

Well, I said turn back around, Tajana commanded. Before Paulina could react, Tajana took control for a moment and made Paulina turn back towards the main hallway. She collided with two nerd girls that cursed at her but Tajana kept on walking.

Do you sense Bree? Paulina thought.

Maybe. It's vague but… this is the strongest energy I've ever felt from a human. This person has some big secrets…. I have to feed on their secret energy. I can't let an opportunity like this slip away.

Paulina nearly laughed out loud in excitement. It has to be Bree! I just knew that she had some big dark, dirty secret! Everyone else in this school is too boring; she's the only one that fits the bill!

Tajana guided Paulina down the hallway, dodging backpacks and stray elbows like an expert. Eventually, Tajana slowed down and leaned against a nearby locker. Paulina crossed her arms and looked around, I don't see Bree anywhere.

Not her, him, Tajana corrected. She tilted Paulina's head toward a familiar group of losers. Fenton, Foley, and Manson were huddled together in their usual place, engaged in some sort of hush-hush discussion. The one with blue eyes and black-hair, he has many, many secrets. It's almost overwhelming. The two beside him share some of his secrets, but they aren't as strong.

Paulina scoffed in disbelief, "Fenton?"

She hadn't realized she'd spoken audibly (and very loudly, at that) until the trio of freaks turned towards her. There was at least ten feet between her and the losers, but it might as well have been one foot. A few onlookers watched the interaction with curiosity.

Danny bristled awkwardly, "Uh… hi Paulina?"

Oh shit. She hadn't meant to draw attention to herself, especially to that dweeb. Now he and his friends had closed the space between them and they were only an arm's length away.

"No," she blushed, nearly mortified, "not you."

Yes, him. He's the one; his secrets are valuable. I need them.

Fenton's a nobody! He doesn't have secrets. The poor kid's practically an open book! We shouldbe exposing Breeana Ahluwalia's secrets instead; she's the whore that's been talking shit about me!

"Okay?" he nervously raised a hand to his neck. "Why'd you say my name then?"

Look, we can reveal her after this guy. Look at him - he's clearly hiding something!

"I doubt that," she hissed, answering Tajana. Danny gave her an odd look for a moment before she realized her mistake. "I mean… I thought you were someone else," she deliberately laughed. It distracted boys when she laughed. "It was a stupid mistake."

Instead of captivating Danny, her laugh only befuddled him. He threw her a skeptical look, "But you said my name?" Shit, he was actually questioning her logical.

She shrugged weakly, "I didn't say it was a smart mistake."

"Alright then," he replied, turning back to his friends. Manson and Foley gave her odd looks before all three of them took off down the hallway.

Follow them, Tajana whispered. You can't lose sight of him.

I don't want to follow around Fenton! I need to get revenge on Bree! Why don't you get it? Our original deal was to reveal her secret, and you're not holding up your end of it!

Tajana sounded agitated, Trust me, if you do this one thing for me I'll help you with your rival or whatever. All you have to do let me figure out the best way to reveal him! Easy as pie!

I don't know… Paulina hesitated, do you swear that you won't forget about Bree?

Yes, Tajana broadcasted a semblance of honesty to Paulina. I promise.

Fine, then I'll follow around Fenton or whatever so you can reveal his secret. Happy?

Extremely.

It wasn't how Paulina wanted to spend her day: a ghost rambling in her skull, constantly reminding her to spy on Danny Fenton - as if she wasn't doing an adequate job! She was ultimately stuck tailing three losers with little to no explanation available to her friends, who had all heard about Paulina's strange encounter with Fenton in the hallway that morning. But alas, this is how things were going and there wasn't exactly a way for her to get out of this situation. She figured that Tajana would stay in her head until she did want she wanted and ghost hunters were out of the question since Tajana could probably evade them.

You got that right.

Stop listening.

I actually can't. Suck it up.

Jeez, this entire thing was getting stressful quickly. At least the loser trio hadn't noticed her following them yet, or so she thought. If they knew they were doing a pretty convincing job at hiding it, but she doubted that the two boys had good enough poker faces to pull it off.

She'd sat close to him in three classes, watched him across the room in gym class, and kept a keen eye on him during lunch. When he left to go to the bathroom in Lancer's class, she tried to follow him but Lancer wouldn't let her because of his stupid 'one person at a time' policy. School, as usual, was bullshit.

When school let out for the day, she reluctantly refused Star's offer to hang out and lied. She claimed that her parents were grounding her unless she studied enough to get her Chemistry grade up to a C. Star seemed suspicious, but there wasn't anything Paulina could do; so she ditched her friend and followed Danny Fenton and his entourage to the Nasty Burger instead.

Oddly enough, Paulina didn't think she could recall a time when she visited Amity's favorite burger place alone. Ever. Usually she was with her friends, watching them make fools of themselves and using the nerds to put on a show. Sitting in a booth alone (save for the nagging voice in her head) was foreign to Paulina. And in a way, it was comforting. Or, at least she thought so until she remembered that she was stalking someone.

We're not stalking, we're just waiting. Sooner or later, an opportunity will present itself. When it does, you and I will swoop in and manipulate 'Fenton' into revealing his big juicy secret. … and then we'll go find Bree?

Tajana sighed. Yes, we'll expose her too. For the thousandth time, I swear-

Paulina looked up. Tajana had stopped talking for a reason and she had sensed it. Fenton had stood up, made some loud excuse to his friends, and ran out the back entrance of the restaurant.

This is it. This is our chance!

Finally.

Paulina pushed herself out of the booth, waited until Foley and Manson were looking away, and also slipped out the back door. Her first impression was that the alley smelled rank, and wrinkled her nose. Focusing, she looked both ways and couldn't see Fenton which was impossible - he shouldn't have been to move so fast.

"I knew it," he Fenton said, somewhere to her left. She turned and he was sitting on top of the dumpster. He hadn't been there when she looked a second ago… what?

Concentrate, Tajana chastised.

I am. "F - Fenton? How'd you…?"

He crossed his arms. He looked so out of place on top of the dumpster, almost like some kind of bad boy… but Fenton wasn't a bad boy. "The jig's up," he said. "I know you've been following me because my ghost sense keeps going off around Paulina. Who are you? Kitty again?"

He voiced was laced with venom, which is definitely not what she expected to hear from the kid who spent most of his time stumbling through life as Dash's punching bag. Nevermind that, what was he even talking about? His 'ghost sense'? And what did he mean 'Kitty again'? Sure, there was that one time a ghost turned her into the anime character Sayonara Pussycat but why would he be talking about that incident? Hell, how would he even know about it?

"What the hell are you saying, Fengeek?" she demanded. She was not going to let this nerd confuse her.

He rolled his eyes. He pushed himself off the dumpster and hit the ground hard, landing on his feet. That sort of impact should have at least made his knees collapse, but he stood up straight, giving no indication that he was in pain.

"I know overshadowing when I see it. Now get out of her or I'll force you out."

Paulina didn't know how to respond. How had he figured out that Tajana was in her? Of course, he had mistook possession for overshadowing, but he had figured the gist of the situation out. She didn't know how to respond, but before she could even think about it Tajana took the reigns. Paulina felt frozen, unable to control her own actions; Tajana was in control of her now and there was nothing she could do.

Her face contorted into a smug glare. "Force?" Tajana laughed, her voice echoing hauntingly. "Who are you to force me to do anything, ignorant child? Who can't even tell the difference between overshadowing and possession… pathetic."

Instead of cowering in fear, as Paulina expected Fenton to react, he grinned. "You're someone new then, huh? Not from around here either? Going on the fact that you don't know about me…."

"What's your secret then, human?" Tajana egged him on. "What makes you believe you're so superior?"

"Eh, just a few months of experience, I guess," he shrugged. Before Tajana could verbally goad him again, he threw up his arms into the air as if he was summoning something from the sky. He muttered something under his breath, confidence drawn all over his face. A flash of light sparked around his waist, hovering there before expanding into a ring of luminance around him. The light began to spread to the rest of his body, leaving dark material in the places it touched.

At this surprising sight, Paulina tried to take a few steps back but Tajana still wouldn't let her move. This is it! No wonder his secret is so strong, he's…

The rings of light passed Fenton's torso, revealing a familiar white emblem on his shirt. Her mind lagged, refusing to process the shock of the revelation. Blue eyes were replaced by green; inky black hair was drained of its usual substance, leaving behind gravity-defying, ivory tufts that seemed to blur with movement. He was - was-

"A halfa! An actual halfa! Oh and the myths - the myths are real!"

No, he's Phantom. He's Danny Phantom. What the hell? Tajana had insisted that Fenton had some kind of deep secret incomparable to anyone else she'd met… and this was it? Paulina didn't understand, no, she couldn't understand. What was Tajana even blathering about 'half ofs?' Paulina couldn't shake the feeling of general wrongness that was here; none of this was right.

Now Fenton - Phantom - whoever he was; looked confused, "If you didn't know, why were you followi-…?" he trailed off. He shook his head and jumped five feet into the air. Paulina's stomach dropped when she realized that he wasn't falling down. "Ugh - whatever," he declared. "Don't think that'll stop me from kicking your butt! It's up to you whether Paulina is involved or not."

She'd seen Phantom fight ghosts many times, but now that she knew that he was Fenton, she couldn't help but perceive his actions through a murky lense of disbelief. The notion of Fenton - the cowardly son of infamous ghost hunters - using ghost powers was just perturbing. On top of that, he was fighting her because he thought that Tajana was controlling her, which was true… but at least it was consensual? She couldn't handle it all. She wanted to squeeze herself into nothingness, escape this dizzy, confusing situation. Yet Tajana forced her to stand; to face Pha - Fent - no, Danny… head on.

"Don't tempt me, halfa," Tajana laughed. Once again, the reverb of her voice occupied the alley unnaturally. Rising to his challenge, she also leapt up into the air, hovering opposite of him. "Thanks to your little revelation… I'm much more powerful now."

"Oh," Danny raised his eyebrow, feigning interest, "and what's that supposed to mean?" He clenched his palm and willed a sphere of ecto-energy around his fist, extending it towards her. At that sight, Paulina's mind reeled with panic. Tajana, don't do this, you won't win. I'm going to get hurt. You can't win against Danny.

The ghost mentally scoffed, No.

She tilted her head, looking unimpressed at Danny's ectoblast. "Secrets empower me," she explained. "Therefore, the exposure of your secret has only made me stronger."

"Oh, joy," Danny deadpanned. And with that simple quip, he shot the blast directly at Paulina. Internally screaming, muffled by Tajana's presence, Paulina only felt a faint tingling sensation strike her stomach. Tajana on the other hand... Fuck! This heavy meat suit is hindering my reaction time!

Uh, did you just call me fat? Do you wanna fucking go, puta?

Sorry, this isn't exactly the time!

Tajana held a hand to Paulina's stomach, hissing at the burn that grazed her own body residing underneath Paulina's flesh. They were still in the air, but Tajana was lagging in flight, too slow to do anything else. Not wasting any time, Danny closed in on her and summoned another ectoblast. Instead of shooting it at her, he grabbed Paulina's shoulder and intangibly forced his hand through Paulina's chest.

It was like electricity was shooting all throughout her nerves; she felt Tajana be ejected from her body and the sinking sensation of gravity return. With Tajana somewhere behind her, Paulina began to fall towards the ground, a whopping twenty foot drop that would certainly render her severely injured from this angle. But before she could shriek in alarm, the cold hand that had pulled out of her chest moments before wrapped around her waist, pulling her back into orbit. Phantom. (yet, Fenton.)

He flew them back to the alley, making sure that Paulina's feet were planted firmly on the ground before he stopped supporting her balance. Then, he swiped one of the thermoses from his belt, lunged back into the sky, and tracked down Tajana. Paulina observed in horror as the ghost she had made a deal with was hopelessly sucked and contorted into Danny's containment device. With one last agonizing wail about her "rightful power", Tajana fell silent inside the thermos.

Paulina didn't even notice when Danny returned to the alley, unconsciously floating a good foot off of the ground. Even his reflexive use of otherworldly abilities unnerved her; how much of a ghost was Danny Fenton?

"Well, looks like she was all bark and no bite," he commented snarkily, tossing his thermos up in the air for good measure. He attached it back to his belt and turned back to Paulina. Noticing her bafflement, his expression softened with concern. "Are you uh, okay? You were overshadowed; a ghost took over your body," he explained.

Paulina just gawked. She still couldn't believe….

Sensing that she was uncomfortable, he tried reassuring her. "I got rid of her though, don't worry!" He forced a heroic smile, and for the first time, Paulina could see the real kid underneath Phantom's noble veneer.

"Fenton," she whispered, "what the fuck?"

The bold smile fell off of his face faster than she could think 'whoops'.

#phanniemay19 #phanniemay #danny phantom #ghost oc #paulina sanchez #danny fenton #oneshot #secrets #identity reveal #wrwritings #phicc #fanfiction #OP

319 notes · View notes

wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 5 years

Text

Though I know I should be wary

Still I venture someplace scary

Ghostly haunting I turn loose.

Betelgeuse.

BETELGEUSE.

Psycho Analysis: Betelgeuse

“It’s showtime.”

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Here he is, the ghost with the most, the bio-exorcist extraordinaire, the spook who has lived through the Black Plague (and had a pretty good time during it) and who has seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times (and it keeps getting funnier every time he sees it)! From the Tim Burton movie of almost the same name – his name is actually spelled like the star in the constellation of Orion, not like what the movie and the cartoon’s title says it is – Betelgeuse is one hell of a guy, an undead menace like no other. Between the performance from none other than Michael Keaton (which is not surprising since the guy was more of a comedic actor prior to Batman, which this film came out before) and the direction and style granted to him by Tim Burton in his prime, Betelgeuse has cemented himself as one of the most delightfully enjoyable jackasses in fiction.

Actor: I want to believe this is what convinced Tim Burton to cast Michael Keaton as Batman. In fact, I like to imagine this movie is why anyone casts Michael Keaton in anything, ever. Birdman? Spider-Man: Homecoming? Minions? All because of his performance here. He’s clearly having a blast, and he fills Betelgeuse with the sort of insane, depraved manic energy a sleazy undead conman should have. Keaton has apparently said this is his favorite role and he’s down to do the sequel if it ever gets out of development hell, and if he can still provide the same wacky performance as he did back in ‘88 I think we have nothing to fear. He is the glue that holds this film together along with Danny Elfman’s score. Case in point: most of Keaton’s lines were ad libbed. Think of all the hilarious deliveries, dialogue, and jokes that BJ spits out, and think if there had been someone else playng him. I don’t know if anyone else could have come up with anything funnier.

Motivation/Goals: Betelgeuse really seems like an agent of chaos, just doing what he does because it seems fun to him. He is just so gleeful about the prospects of killing people on the job, and he gleefully torments the Maitlands even while they ask for his help, sexually harassing Barbara at every turn and just being a real creep. Later in the film, he implies he really wants to get out of being undead, and so tries to coerce Lydia into releasing him, even forcing her to marry him in return for help freeing the Maitlands from accidentally being exorcised.

Really, the guy just likes to cause a ruckus. It’s not really expanded upon in the movie, and he’s just played up as a hilariously creepy jerkwad, but apparently the musical adaptation expands on why he does what he does. As far as the movie goes, though... yeah. He’s just a jerk. A really, really funny jerk.

Personality: Betelgeuse is like a sleazy used car salesman cranked up to eleven. He’s motormouthed, he’s unpleasant, he’s sleazy, he’s perverted, and he’s an incredible jerkass… and yet, you just can’t help but love the guy, because Keaton’s energy just shines through and makes him a jerkass in a lovable sort of way. It’s sort of the same principle as Gaston; he’s just so cartoonishly, hilariously over-the-top in how much of a pig he is that you can’t help but enjoy him, especially since he does get his just desserts in the end.

Final Fate: Betelgeuse tries to force Lydia into marriage, and poofs away the Maitlands to make sure they don’t say his name. But this backfires spectacularly: shrinking Adam allows him to drive a toy car into Betelgeuse’s foot, casuing him to drop the ring before he can seal the deal with Lydia, and poofing Barabara out onto the surface of Venus only serves to allow her to wrangle the Sand worm and have it crash through the roof and eat him alive. And then when Betelgeuse gets stuck in the waiting room, he ends up between the man with a shrunken head and the witch doctor who did it to him, and after stealing the witch doctor’s number, Betelgeuse finally is able to get a little head… just probably not in the sense he’d have liked it.

Best Scene: Once he says “It’s showtime,” all bets are off, and he really delivers on his promises to help the Maitlands. It’s actually kind of shocking that he holds up his ends of the bargains he makes; maybe people wouldn’t try and screw him out of his end of the deal if he wasn’t such a raging perverted jackass.

Best Quote: The guy is just a fountain of quality quotes, particularly when he rattles off his qualifications. But I really have to give it to one line, a line that absolutely baffles me as to how it made it into a PG rated film, which Betelgeuse says after kicking over a tree in the town model:

“NICE FUCKING MODEL!” This is then followed by him grabbing his crotch with cartoonish honking noises. It’s incredible.

Final Thoughts & Score: It’s really hard for me to not call this the definitive Michael Keaton performance, as far as comedies go anyway. He is just really throwing himself into to the role and having an absolute blast with it; there’s not a single moment with him that feels forced or tired, he’s just constantly putting all his effort into making this ghastly slimeball a likable antagonist, and boy does it pay off. To this day, Betelgeuse is a beloved and iconic character in Tim Burton’s filmography, to the point where the guy got his own cartoon show which is in and of itself considered a beloved cult classic. And as if that wasn’t enough, he got his own musical! It takes a special kind of villain to score a big musical gig; just ask a certain green witch.

The thing is, there isn’t much to analyze in the way of character here; he’s really just the way it is because it’s funny. The movie is a dark comedy, after all (though not the darkest comedy starring Winona Ryder that came out in ‘88). Hell, I think the most interesting thing to glean from him is how his most popular outfit, the one he wears all the time in the cartoon and is on everything from the posters to DVD cover, is actually only worn by him for about five minutes of screentime, with the rest of his appearances featuring him in what appears to be ratty, nasty old pajamas. I think part of why the stripey outfit became his signature style is because not only does it look cool, but he wears it for his big moment when he frees the Maitlands and really lets loose.

The other interesting thing to glean from Betelgeuse is how despite being a nasty, horrible person, you just can’t help but love the guy. He’s just so darn funny! Like I mentioned before, I think it is because in a lot of ways, he is like Gaston, who is the poster child for toxic masculinity. Betelgeuse is a slimy sexual harasser, he has no sense of personal space, and he tries to force a young woman to marry him; in real life, this guy would be a vomit-inducing psychopath who people would rightfully want hung out to dry, but here, in this film, he’s hilarious. I think that, much like Gaston, it’s the energy and fun pf the performance, and at least here with Betelgeuse it has to do with how utterly cartoonish he is and how everyone around him has the intended reactions. And, of course, he never really wins, even if he does cause a lot of mischief along the way.

I think Betelgeuse is the sort of magical jackass more fantasy films should aspire to have; there really aren’t many characters worth mentioning who are in the same vein as good ol’ BJ. With that in mind, I think he deserves a 10/10. I think he’s one of Tim Burton’s finest creations, the most lovable of rogues, a truly impressive phantom menace, and he really holds the film together. I long for the day when Michael Keaton’s dream comes true, and they finally make Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian or whatever other absurd concept they would do for a sequel if they decide not to got with Tim’s joke script.

All I can say for sure is: boy am I glad Burton and Keaton changed this from a straightforward horror film into a dark comedy, because I’m not sure I’d like to live in the universe where Betelgeuse was legitimately evil and tried to rape Lydia. Yes, this was really what the film’s original script was like. It just goes to show that sometimes it’s better to be funny than it is to be scary.

#Psycho Analysis #Betelgeuse #Beetlejuce #Beetle Juice #Michael Keaton #Tim Burton

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