pre-rescas happy gordon for your viewing pleasure

3, 7, and 12, mista and fugo :3

TONY UNSHADOWBANNED PARTY I know this was from a month ago but I'm gonna answer it anyhow lmfao

(For this ask game)

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

For Mista, the Trish cleavage scene. You know the one. I don't think I have to explain this much. Boy Why Did You Do That. The only good thing to come out of that scene was jaunty jigglesacks + overeager horndog insane psychic damage combo of lines in the dub.

I could take this a lot of ways for Fugo tbh. Because there's a lot of things that drive me insane about him as a person, but looking at him as a character, I LOVE that he's rash and hurts his friends and his defining character moment is him making a selfish, cowardly decision. I guess I'd say his misogyny in Purple Haze Feedback? I'm admittedly a believer that, yes, he would fucking say that, but it sucks that he would. At least he gets better by the end lol. Fugo voice I'm sorry women Sheila E is me

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I love that Mista has been designated Beautiful Brown-Eyed Bisexual Man by literally the entire fandom. Bi Mista brings us all together. And I do like the idea that his queerness is something he discovered much more slowly, and as a direct result of the gang. Something about that really ties in with the idea of the Bucci Gang as less of a realistic gang, more akin to a drag house or similar queer pseudo-family. Credit to that concept to Fox figcookie01 btw this is one of my favorite Vento Aureo analyses ever and it really informs how I conceptualize the Bucci Gang. Anyhow.

I also really like when people actually take care to explore his character and make him a very distinct, smarter-than-he-looks, older brother-type figure. It's really interesting when people explore his spirituality, too, whatever religion that may be, because that's a pretty important part of him. AND also OCD Mista truthers who know when to treat his superstitions and compulsions with some weight I love you forever. I think he's a character that gets watered down in fanworks a lot, but when his characterization's good, it's really good. There's plenty of artists and writers that have really blown me away with their Mista (and I say this as someone who's picky about characterization lol)

With Fugo, first of all. The PHF scars. Another thing that Mandela Effected the PHF fandom, but it's so so important to me. I love you physical, tangible, blatantly visible proof that Fugo has grown as a person since the day he abandoned the gang. Awesome. I also like that people mix and match his manga/anime colors, and every artist kinda draws him in a different way.

My favorite thing is probably the Fugo-Abbacchio stepkid and stepparent/siblings/Big Goth and Baby Emo Who Secretly Looks Up To Them dynamic. It’s awesome when it’s cartoonishly antagonistic and it’s awesome when it’s actually very sweet and heartfelt. Out of all the Bucci Gang dynamic interpretations the fandom’s produced, theirs is one of my favorites <3

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

SO MANY FOR BOTH OF THEM LOL. But I’ll try to list some I don’t talk about as much.

Besides The Carpenters, Mista’s a big fan of folk, acoustic singer-songwriter pop, and soft classic R&B/gospel. Artists with really strong voices tend to catch his attention. The Mamas and the Papas, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Simon and Garfunkel, The Seekers, and Gordon Lightfoot are some of his favorites. He’s also just a big sucker for love songs in general, and the hopeless romantic in him loves old girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shirelles. He’s also very much Schrödinger’s Guy to me. Cis? Trans? Who knows. Depends on what the situation calls for (though more often trans to me as of late). He’s just Some Dude.

Fugo’s a surprisingly good singer, but he’ll rarely do it if he knows other people are listening. A lot of times, he’ll sing in the shower, or when he’s alone in the car. As he gets older, he gets less self-conscious about it, and he’ll sing around the house when he’s with Giorno, or do duets with Mista for fun. There are also very much timelines in the Vento Aureo Multiverse in my brain where Fugo’s transfem. This also tends to coincide with transfem Abbacchio timelines, so there’s another layer added to Fugo looking up to Abbacchio, and I think Giorno (always transmasc to me) is really instrumental in helping her work through things and take pride in her transness. Maybe a little bit of a self-indulgent fluffy comfort hc that helps me work though my own genderisms lol

Retrospective Review - Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One is arguably one of the most iconic Batman stories in the character's history. For me personally, alongside The Long Halloween, Year One is one of my favorite Batman stories. So I was very interested in this movie when it came out because it is very much the definitive Batman origin story, even though stuff like Zero Year has retconned it out of canon. So I was looking forward to this adaptation. Its without doubt the most faithful adaptation of a story that I have seen in an animated film. From character design to dialogue, it is almost a complete copy. And that's a good thing because of the quality of the story.

In essence, this is a parallel origin story. This isn't a story of how Bruce trained himself to become a vigilante, but more on how the idea of Batman came to be when he arrived in Gotham and what his first year as a vigilante was like, while in parallel, Gordon joins the GCPD as a lieutenant and navigates the corruption within the GCPD. We basically follow the both of them as their paths intertwine and how they become allies by the end of the movie. Its a compelling narrative and Frank Miller deserves a lot of credit for it. The film navigates the connections between the seedy underbelly of Gotham to the mob to the police. The film portrays Gotham as a city that is rotten from the inside and there seem to be only two men who are doing anything to fight the corruption. I think what helps the film considerably is that the source material is naturally cinematic, so nothing major additional needs to be done to make the movie compelling to watch.

In terms of tone and content, this is probably among the darker Batman animated movies. Miller's stories played a huge part to push Batman away from the campier content of Adam Wes, towards the modern interpretations of Batman. For an animated film, this film shows violence like gun shots and blood spatter, seedy aspects of the life like prostitutes and pimps. So this is definitely not a movie aimed at kids. Whereas the DCAU and The Batman movies were spinoffs of animated shows that were aimed at children, the shackles are off here. The story does a great job characterizing and endearing us to Gordon especially. I will say that the Gordon side of the narrative is slightly stronger and has a bit more of the focus whereas the narrative in the original story was more balanced. But that works in the movie because we are naturally more aware of the Batman story while the Gordon story is more relatable and is new to us. He's shown to be a moral guy but he's also prone to mistakes, such as his affair with Sarah Essen. He is not above beating the crap out of a bully cop and leaving him stripped naked in the snow. The animation is strong. I mean, obviously this isn't theatrical movie level animation, but the film is able to have some great visuals. There are some terrifying visual shots of Batman, like when he confronts a witness and when he confronts Falcone and Loeb at dinner. Also, the Bat breaking into the Manor to give Bruce the inspiration to become Batman is another superb visual. Rewatching the film also reminded me of how much this film influenced Batman Begins, from the device in his show that calls the Bats to evade the cops, to the final shot of Batman and Gordon meeting on a rooftop to discuss Joker.

There aren't too many complaints I have with the film. The film is extremely faithful and briskly paced. It manages to encapsulate all the major story points without being rushed. I am not overly fond of the Catwoman prostitute origin from the source material. And like I mentioned, Batman himself seems like the second lead to Gordon in the movie. But these are fairly minor complaints overall. Its a compelling movie and a real solid adaptation.

Definitely the voice acting coup of the movie is to get Bryan Cranston as Gordon. He is pretty fantastic. Delivering the weariness, the determination, the conflict, the anger etc... all of it throughout the movie. He's honestly a fantastic potential casting choice for live action even though no complaints at all with JK Simmons and Jeffrey Wright. Ben McKenzie, who ironically went on to play Gordon in Gotham on Fox, plays Bruce/Batman. He plays the role fairly monotone. It works brilliantly for Batman because he has that cold, emotionless tenor which is terrifying when he's threatening the villains. But it feels a little flat when he's playing Bruce or doing his inner monologue. The rest of the voice cast is strong as well but the focus is really on Bryan and Ben because there is a lot of inner monologue for these characters. Eliza Dushku as Selina, Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen, and Fred Tatasciore as Detective Flass are other standouts.

Overall, Year One is a stellar adaptation and captures what made the source material so good. Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Lauren Montgomery, and Sam Liu know their stuff as Producers and Directors of this movie. Huge credit obviously to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli for the source material. An 8/10.