The Dragons Lair

thinkin’ ‘bout how you can draw a line from “you are responsible for your daydreams and fantasies and only freaks fantasize about fucked up things” to “having fantasies that involve fucked up things is immoral because it’s actually a fucked up action you are choosing to take” to “i did not feel fully in control of that daydream fantasy where fucked up things happened, therefore i was actually shifting into an alternate reality for which i am not responsible”

anyway good luck to the teen who tried to imagine a nicer draco malfoy and wound up daydreaming about beating him to death instead, hope she figures out she isn’t an interdimensional murderer eventually

lots of people are bringing up intrusive thoughts and that’s valid, but like. not every weird thing that pops into your head is an intrusive thought. when your imagination goes in directions you didn’t expect, that’s not necessarily an intrusive thought. it is completely normal to find yourself imagining things without consciously choosing to imagine them. it is normal to imagine a conversation where the words that come out of someone’s mouth are not ones you would have chosen or expected.

your brain is a miraculous meat machine designed to find patterns and it takes the whole world in and spits weird things out. every single writer has gone to write a specific conversation and ended up writing a completely different one because that’s the one that their imagination constructed. every writer has gone to write one story, and ended up writing another, because some part of them found patterns and decided that a different version of the narrative made more sense.

not to keep ragging on ‘i wanted to make a character nice but instead i killed him’, but maybe those were intrusive thoughts! or maybe she was having a nightmare! i’m not clear on whether she was just daydreaming intensely or lucid dreaming or what. but for whatever reason, the inputs that girl’s brain has been getting her whole life decided that a nice story with that character didn’t make sense. her imagination imposed patterns that did make sense to her, instead, and those patterns involved mistakes and hurting people and things spiraling out of control. that was the narrative that made more sense to some part of her, so that’s where the story went.

not having total control of your imagination is a normal part of how the human brain works. you want things to make a certain amount of sense even when you’ve made them up, and which patterns are important are different for everyone.

there are corners of the internet now where people are being told from a young age that when people tell stories about fucked up things, it’s because they want to, because they are fucked up people. they are being given a fundamental misunderstanding not only of how writing (or roleplaying, or whatever) works, but of how the imagination itself works. the idea that the people you are imagining can seem to have a mind of their own and do things you don’t want is, to them, just a fake excuse people are making. so when it happens to them–the way it happens to anyone who imagines other people–it makes more sense to believe that they are being acted upon by outside forces. that the people they are imagining are not actually being imagined by them, but are real people.

i mean, don’t get me wrong. people who write fucked up stories generally do enjoy writing (and reading) them. but writing fiction is fundamentally just imagining things and then writing them, and if you understand that imagining a story where bad things happen to fake people isn’t harmful then why not enjoy the things your brain is going to spit out anyway? the stories you enjoy are going to be the ones that make sense to you, and those are also going to be the stories you imagine and the stories you write.

the only reason you wouldn’t enjoy it is if someone has convinced you that the pattern-seeking part of your brain preferring dark narratives is a reflection on your morality as a person. or if you’ve convinced yourself that your imaginary friends are real people that you’ve murdered.

Nordic Style Dice Sets

URWizards on Etsy

that’s it that’s the whole entire anime 

The slowed-down Chipmunks are both brilliant and terrifying

By now, we’re all pretty used to people speeding up vocal samples to make them sound like Alvin And The Chipmunks. It’s how Kanye West launched his career. But what happens when you slow down Alvin And The Chipmunks so much that the vocals sound like they were sung by a regular human? As it turns out, you get an amazing collision of pop vocals and sludge-filled doom metal instrumentals.

Toronto-based electronic musician Brian Borcherdt, best known for his work with Holy Fuck, is the mind behind chipmunkson16speed, which is the result of finding both a bunch of old Chipmunks records and a suitcase record player with 16 RPM setting.

More at avclub.com

This is insane.

this is the best song in the world? 

I might listen to this on a regular basis now…

It’s like really good? Like if this was a real band, I would go see it. 

Three things: 1) This is really dope. 2) I can’t believe the people who originally made these recordings didn’t go on a massively successful run as a goth-rock band, which would have led to a massive spike in bass-bass-drums-keys quartets. 3) How much money am I gonna have to pay the National to start covering songs in this style? 

how is this just stoner metal

OKAY SO SLOW ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS TURN INTO GOTH ROCK I can dig it.

Holy shit I dig this

i feel like these 3 would have a lot of trash talking to share if they ever got together for a boy’s night

*sebastian & iago arguing over who has it worse, babysitting headstrong royalty or serving a corrupt usurper with delusions of grandeur*

zazu: excuse me gentlemen but i may be uniquely qualified to offer comment on this matter

This still gets me everytime

Considering that the last one took place a few years ago and we haven’t heard anything from the original yjbigbang blog in a few years, would anyone be interested in a Young Justice Big Bang this year?

wednesday night mood

this is a current mood

TEAR IT UP HARDSTYLE, JOE

imagine when going to the movies meant that somebody would be performing the live soundtrack and sound effects on one of these

THIS INSTRUMENT IS CALLED AN AMERICAN PHOTOPLAYER AND THE PERFORMERS NAME IS JOE RINUAUDO HE HAS A WHOLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL WHERE HE RECORDS SONGS SPECIFICALLY WRITTEN FOR THE PHOTOPLAYER

HERES A LINK TO MY FAVORITE SONG

JOE OFF THE SHITS

尻を出さなくてもセクシーなEarth2ディックを描いてみたかっただけ。

ディックに限らずEarth2のキャラデザインすごく好き。

Dick being an overprotective dad is 👌

Earth 2 | Dick Grayson by Jorge Jimenez

for my next trick i will continue getting completely carried away with my ideas and die because i’ll try to do one comic a day

In light of the bad decisions made in the new killing joke movie, and the corresponding negativity surrounding the dc animation, I’d like to point out all the positive things that came from the DCAU and other animated projects.

But first:

Batman the animated series is SO IMPORTANT to the history of animation. Its tone and popularity mad way for all of the wonderful cartoons of the current decade. BtAS is one of the shows that gave animation, other than Disney, a fighting chance. It challenged the dynamic of animated television being “just for kids” and gave us wonderful, complex, and thought provoking stories. I will stand by its influence to my dying breath.

Now that that’s out of the way, an actual list.

-Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker.

You cannot deny that Conroy is a damn good Batman, and Hamill is a FANTASTIC joker. They are iconic in the roles. When I heard that they were reprising their parts in Justice League Action (along with Clancy Brown), I was ecstatic. Both of them are living legends.

-“I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman!”

-Small time crime

Something that’s often overlooked in comics in general are the more average criminals. I love a good supervillain as much as the next girl, but BtAS episodes like P.O.V, and Appointment in Crime Alley are fantastic watches. They give us a better look at less glamorous super criminals which is REALLY refreshing.

-Respecting origins

Beware the Grey Ghost. Just Beware the Grey Ghost. It treats a kinda hokey premise with the respect and dignity it needed, to look back on how far the genre has come. Damn if you don’t get a bit teary eyed watching it.

The same principal in the Justice League Episode Legends, which is loving tribute to silver age comics. If you’re a fan of that time period, please go watch this.

-Renee Montoya

I’m in love with her fuck. But really, she was a fantastic introduction to the universe, and a Hispanic protagonist for once.

-Harley Quinn

Yeah ya’ll knew this one was coming. Look, even if you don’t like Harley, you can’t deny that her creation was damn awesome, especially since she’d stuck around to this day. The episode Mad Love really shows how fucked up their relationship is, and treats it as such. Hell. Yes.

-Mr. Freezes’s backstory/ Nora Fries

That revamped backstory is another one that wriggled its way into the mainstream. Fighting for the life of a loved one is already painful, but having your freedom ripped away, and any chance at your loved one’s survival is even more heartbreaking.

-Baby Doll

Both of her episodes deal with disabilities… Hear me out. Because of her appearance, altered by an illness that makes her never age physically, she has issues being taken seriously for her work, having relationships, being a member of society, and letting go of the past. She’s lost so much that her physical disability that she has trouble coping and ends up with a mental disability as well (I’m not sure what but you can form your own opinion). Putting this character on the small screen is an example of how a character can mean something to someone, even if there’s no direct correlation.

-Mask of the Phantasm

I don’t care what you’re doing go and watch this move. I swear it’s amazing. The joker is amazing the storytelling is amazing, Andrea is amazing, the Phantasm is amazing, the soundtrack is amazing, EVERYTHING is amazing. We get a good female character, who not only shows the fallibility of Batman, but has her own issues to deal with that hurt her more than they hurt Bruce. Even though the Joker is a villain, he doesn’t totally steal the spotlight. We have a great mystery, especially with the target audience, and a natural set of flashbacks detailing the Bats origin.

-Static Shock

All of it. All of Static Shock. I don’t actually now how to break this down into bullet points but STATIC MUTHAFUCKN SHOCK. In all seriousness, I have a huge soft spot for this cartoon, because it’s what got me into comics in the first place, but Static/Virgil, and the whole show really, is representation sorely needed. I saw so many black kids dressed up like him that Halloween because they all wanted to be a hero. This show dealt with some shit too. When we find out Richie’s father is a racist, it really hits home how friendships can be torn apart through bigotry, even if it’s not direct. It handled guns well, especially for younger children. I could quote Static’s lesson at the end verbatim for over 5 years. They deal with drugs, homelessness, and multiple types of racism, with quite a bit of tact, and are a good way to introduce the serious issues to kids. Not to mention that he would have slipped under the radar without this show. I very much doubt h would have gotten a New 52 relaunch without the success of this show. Just. Static Shock.

-One of the best Superman origin stories to date

That origin is very highly regarded as the most faithful adaptations of all time. Though it didn’t introduce anything new, it holds up and stands out over the course of time.

-Making Lois Lane a badass

(Confession: I’m 100% convinced that they saw April O’Neill, shrugged, and said take what’s good about her and chuck it into Lois. I’m aware I have no evidence bite me. (Yes I’m aware it’s technically the other way around)) But really, Lois was fukin badass. She was always chasing her story, passionate about everything she did, worked hard to maintain her success, and treated Superman as a person. Even if Lois got herself in perilous situations she had a reason to be there. Whether it be chasing a story, or fighting for an interview Lois always had some form of agency. She was kidnaped because of Superman, sure, but she made the choice to be connected to him with that interview, and eventual relationship.

-Speed Demons

In a nutshell, Flash is a bit of a showoff, but it’s part of his style and throws off his competitors/adversaries. I like that it also shows Superman isn’t above having a little fun for fun’s sake.

-Livewire

You cannot deny that Leslie Willis is just flat out cool. Though she never made it as big as Harley, she did appear in Supergirl, and continues to be a superman villain in mainstream comics today.

-WAIT I TOTALLYFORGOT KYLE RAYNER WAS IN SUPERMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES WTF

I JUST FOUND THIS WHEN I WAS LOOKING STUFF UP FOR THIS LIST I TOTALLY FORGOT I LOVE IT OMG Sorry

-Terry McGinnis

Batman Beyond was just pure quality, like, I don’t even know how to describe it. I mean, Terry’s lasted this long, and like Static got a comic reboot.

-Diversity

I know it’s not enough, but the DCAU Justice League had 2 women, one of whom was Hispanic, and a black man. It was a step up from superfriends and gave the same needed representation that Static Shock provided.

-Continuity

Honestly, so much of this is just flat out continuity porn. Like the first episode of the second season of Justice League is almost a finale to StAS. It has quite a few callbacks that gave fans something to chew on.

-Reasonable discussion of religion

In the Terror Beyond from Justice League season 2, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl talk about their religions with actual tact and grace. There’s a whole heck of a lot of tolerance and (minor spoilesrish thing) Hawkgirl does not challenge Grundys beliefs. Despite disagreeing, seeing that his ideas won’t hurt anyone she allows him to slip away thinking his soul is waiting. It’s very mature and really shows what the universe is capable of.

-HEREAFTER

Tears. Nothing but tears. I’m crying just thinking about it. One of the best Funeral scenes. “Justice doesn’t always have to come from the darkness”. TEARS.

-A believable shock reveal

Hawkgirl betraying the team feels completely genuine, fucking sad, but totally possible in the universe. This beats out every SHOCK TWIST I’ve seen in the past 6 years. I feel like this treated its audience like adults, and I’m grateful for it.

-The CADMUS arch.

Amanda Waller, Question, Captain Atom’s “Betrayal”, Lex’s manipulation, Doctor Hamilton’s betrayal, the callback to A Better World, the romances between Huntress/Question, and Ollie/Dinah, The superfriends reference in Ultimen, the Suicide Squad in Task force X, AMANDA WALLER, giving the spotlight to lesser known heroes, the political discussion, and THE EPILOGUE.

-Epilogue

This gets it’s own bullet because it was a masterpiece of storytelling. It NAILED Batman’s compassion, had a reference to MoTP, served as a much needed finale for Batman Beyond, devolved Terry beautifully, AMANDA FUCKIN WALLER, and a nice side message about how family can be forged.

And that’s just stopping at the basics of the DCAU, not including Teen Titans, Young Justice, a slew of animated movies and other TV, and all the comic tie ins.

I have strong opinions on the way people are taking the female characters in the animated universe and reducing them to “Things for Bruce to feel MANLY about”. The only one of FIVE in depth onscreen romances that even comes close to this is Barbra, so I understand why people are mad.

Look, I’m not saying we shouldn’t critique, we should always seek to improve, but ignoring any and all good Bruce Timm has done undermines media as a whole. Should Barbra and Bruce be fucking in TKJ? Probably not. Should they have been fucking in TAS? Nope. But saying that the “DCAU needs to die” is shitting on years of animation and comic book history.

so as usual i was like “lol what if kaiba was Online and had a bunch of throwaway handles he uses to lurk duel monsters forums and whatever” and i was like “wait, what if YUUGI did too??” 

so: kaiba and yuugi are both somewhat active users of a popular duel monsters discord/forum/what-have-you, but neither of them say anything about who they really are. they play it all very close to the chest. sometimes they just want to talk about duel monsters, without the additional celebrity baggage of being Seto Kaiba and Yuugi Mutou, The World’s Best Duelists and Legendary Rivals. so they just come off as completely anonymous, reasonably experienced duel monsters aficionados, who might have even played competitively, but don’t make a big deal out of it.

So, Yuugi sees Red_Scapegoat viciously defending Kuriboh’s usefulness against some duel jocks, and is like “oh sweet they must be a fan,” and Kaiba notices that KCBlimp2 has extremely insightful and well-thought-out opinions about deck composition, and soon enough they start backing each other up when the discussions get real heated and tagging each other in the content they know the other person likes. yuugi’s like “i wonder what Red_Scapegoat has to say about the latest solidvision update?” and sure enough, they have a scorching hot take about it: low effort garbage designed to keep industrial illusions and the stockholders happy for another quarter. (yuugi wisely decides not to share this opinion with kaiba.)

finally Red_Scapegoat messages KCBlimp2 like “you run a control deck, right? there’s a good chance i’m dueling someone in the next few weeks with a spectacular control deck. my beatdown deck has struggled against them in the past. what do you suggest?” KCBlimp2 writes up a helpful and thoughtful analysis on control decks and how to handle them.

three weeks later, yuugi and kaiba are dueling an exhibition match and yuugi realizes that kaiba is making extremely good use of every single strategy he typed into discord on his phone at 1 AM while joey was half-asleep against his shoulder during movie night, down to some of the exact cards he suggested, and yuugi’s like… oh my god! what the fuck!! he should’ve figured it out when Red_Scapegoat only replied with a polite, if definitely frosty, “lol” to his BEWD memes

meanwhile: kaiba’s fucking ecstatic. he can’t wait to tell KCBlimp2 that all his strategies worked