Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

... not to avoid something that everyone and their dog hates.

Over and over, I find that if I avoid something because of negative reviews, I almost always end up loving it. It happened with season 3 of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with season 9 of Perry Mason, with TMNT 1987, with Equestria Girls, and with many other things. I also in general love things everyone hates, regardless of whether I initially avoided it myself or not. The Batman series is a good example of that. I enjoyed it from the start, compared to everyone who tears their hair out over it.

I finally got around to buying/seeing Ghostbusters 2, mainly because of the two cartoon episodes it comes with. One of them is a favorite. (The other was WTH territory and I sincerely hope that it isn't typical of the later seasons.) Honestly, I ... ended up loving the movie much more than the original. I think there were only four instances of swearing and a couple of naughty comments, compared to swearing practically every two minutes in the original (or it felt like it, anyway). It was creepy but wacky, had many more character-developing scenes, and Winston had a lot of good screentime. It felt much more like the series, and that may have been the point. They probably knew a lot of kids would be watching it because the series was running right then. Also, the plot point I really wasn't crazy about before I saw it, them being discredited and having gone their separate ways at the beginning, ended up in practice feeling a lot like TMNT, especially Ray and Winston at that birthday party. LOL. So I actually ended up not being too bothered by that after all. I can see myself rewatching this movie and enjoying it, whereas I'm honestly not sure I would rewatch the first movie, at least not in full. I have rewatched my favorite scenes from it.

I can't remember if I mentioned, but Build-a-Bear had a 30% off deal the weekend before this one and I was able to get Michelangelo with that. We were finally going to be in the area and I couldn't pass up a chance to get that much off of him. Then I discovered that the big Slimer plush was on clearance at a Wal-Mart other than ours. I couldn't get him then, but the other day I was able to go back and get one. Our Wal-Mart still isn't clearancing them. It was awesome to get him for $7 instead of $15!

It felt so good to get my 31_days challenge done last week. Some pieces I really enjoyed writing, but others were puzzling, and it was definitely frustrating to have to worry about the day's piece each day when I really wanted to be writing my Turtles fic. But I kept on because I wanted to do the challenge too; it was a story I'd wanted to tell for some time. I still think I'll also write the original Snakes and Chita story I was going to tell, though, which was a third-person narrative oneshot involving one of the last times Snakes put up with looking all over town for Chita when she deliberately ran out to make him find her after an argument. I have a very distinctive image of the opening lines of that fic and they have never gone away, so I need to write it.

I tried to basically keep to the prior versions of the Snakes and Chita tale that Snakes related in two earlier fics. When I realized I had some details wrong in a couple of pieces, I went back and redid those parts. For a couple of other parts, however, I decided that I wanted to tell it slightly differently and that would either make more sense or be closer to what I wanted, so on a couple of points I deliberately made it different from the earlier accounts. Like, I didn't have Snakes and Chita go gambling all night long the first night they met. I mean, they'd been beat up in the first casino when Snakes tried to defend her. It seemed much more likely that they'd go try to take care of their battle wounds. And then at the end, I changed the point where Snakes lost track of Chita's trail in 1910. I wanted Chita to turn up again, but not decades older. I drew inspiration from both a role-play where I'd used her and from the fact that she was always intended to be characterized as sort of a flapper wannabe, and had Snakes lose track of her trail in the 1870s. She found a portal to the 1920s, where she fit in and was happily staying for the most part. (I will speculate that the portal was another result of Dr. Faustina's experiments.) But then she returned to the 1870s once, heard that Snakes was alive, and found the portal to the present-day to see him again. They were able to converse and have some closure at last.

Chita was very interesting to characterize in that last piece. Unlike other versions of her, including the role-play version, this Chita actually did mature a little bit. She wasn't as superficial, was willing to touch the scar that she had always avoided before, and felt badly for how her past cruelty had negatively impacted Snakes. But she wasn't ready to settle down and she recognized it; she had finally opted to stay single. She wants parties and material objects and yet she knows they're not what truly bring happiness. Still, she can't make herself not want them. I drew some inspiration from my own feelings regarding her love of material things and not feeling ready to settle down.

She was never meant to really be a likeable character, so I am amused that I kind of got fond of her and developed her a little. Even some of her superficialty is endearing to me. But since she has plenty of negative characteristics, I would totally understand anyone not liking her. What she did to Snakes was horrible. Not that it was worse than things Snakes did canonically, of course, and so there is definitely the possibility of redeeming her. That was kind of where I was going with the final piece.

I would never have her and Snakes get together again, but they parted on civil terms, and this past night I ended up drawing a cute picture meant to take place around that point where Snakes is standing watching her dance as she whips her boa around him. I sketched the whole thing out very quickly and I quite love it. I might ink it before I scan it, though.

Apparently I had Snakes on the brain after that themeset, because yesterday I had a weird dream involving him. It seemed to take place in the Old West, before The Poisonous Posey episode, even though some things ended up not making sense. Dr. Loveless was there too, and Snakes seemed to be working for/with him and there was some explosion planned for Jim West. Snakes seemed all into that, the little weasel (despite the fact that he seemed to not know Jim in the episode, so there's where it doesn't make sense). Then the tables were turned when Jim escaped and Dr. Loveless chained Snakes to a bomb that was set to go off in a couple of minutes. He was begging and pleading to be set free, and finally someone did. His characterization felt very similar to what's seen in the actual episode: pretty much a pathetic coward who likes to set bombs as ways out of his problems and ends up digging his own grave by doing so.

I never at all intended to become intrigued by him with that characterization, and yet it happened when I was fleshing out his character out of necessity in The Night of the Deadly Codename. And of course, that also led to Christopher rightfully taking his place as one of the darlings when I studied the episode more. I wonder if there's any chance at all that I could have seen that episode when I was very young. Mom insists that Dad used to watch WWW in reruns, so I wonder if there's any chance I saw it back then. That would be hilarious. And it would mean I did encounter Christopher years ago, just like all the other darlings. I want to say I have a vague memory of watching that episode in bits and pieces when I was a kid, but I'm probably just inventing something in my mind because I want so badly for there to be a time when I saw Christopher years ago. Still, wouldn't it be interesting? Snakes is one of my favorite characters to flesh out and develop, and if I actually saw him many years ago and just don't remember it now, that would be rather intriguing.

I also started thinking again about maybe making a Snakes plushie. I'd have to learn some basic embroidery so I could make the scar raised up, but that would be an interesting challenge. Now that the weather's cooled down, I feel like working on my other projects too. Maybe I can finish Barry's clothes at last and also make Mike's jacket!

I just love autumn so much. As always, I celebrate meteorological seasons and not calendar seasons, so for me Fall started on Thursday. It was a beautiful cloudy day too, perfect for the first day of Fall. When the sweltering heat of summer fades, my sewing creativity seems to wake up again. I am excited for what this autumn will bring and hope that it will be happy and enjoyable.

I think I'm almost done with the Turtles fic. I have the climax largely written, or all written, unless I add more to it. Then I just need the epilogue stuff. The story will definitely end where I decided it should. And I may or may not continue it in oneshots or other multi-chapters. We'll have to see. One thing I do know is that while I'm totally cool with watching the series in all its formulaic glory, I don't think I could make myself write stories that are all so formulaic like the series' nonsense, with Shredder's crazy plans failing, etc. I think I could only do a handful before it wouldn't feel believable to me any more. It's easy to watch nonsense; not so easy to create it yourself time and time again.

I kind of have a vague idea of the alien computer still being around after all and discovering that Baxter is finally human again. That would be kind of cute. And it would be interesting to see how Baxter would react to the computer while sane, and whether the computer would want to help him like before. That might be one of my oneshots. And if I do continue things, Baxter and Barney need to have a proper conversation again. Maybe Baxter can finally tell him that Krang was trying to murder him when the cross-fusion happened.

One problem I discovered while writing is trying to keep Barney from feeling too much like a Kylo Ren trope of wanting to go to the dark side/not caring if he has to kill a family member to do so. I fleshed out some of his scenes in chapters before I put them up and had him monologue and have doubts and wonder if he's just acting tough to impress Shredder when he appears as though it doesn't bother him, what he might have to do. I don't really want Barney to be sympathetic, exactly, because really, how much sympathy can you have for someone who willingly joins a megalomaniac while sane because he wants power and recognition? But when he's only in one episode and we just don't know much about him, I don't think it would be fair to paint him as irredeemably evil just to contrast him with Baxter being redeemable because of wanting to be honest at first and then having gone nuts. (Seriously, compare him in season 1 with the season 2 opener. He is sane in season 1 and just wants to invent something that would be helpful to the city's population. He really doesn't know what Shredder's up to. He thinks the guy just really hates rats in the city. He doesn't know Shredder is marketing the Mousers in order to murder someone, nor that Shredder is stamping Baxter's name on them so he'll take the blame. And Shredder is going to kill him just because he saw Shredder and could say that Shredder offered to market the Mousers and was using an old house as a hideout. By season 2, after he's been framed for attempted murder, blamed for the damage the Mousers caused, and thrown in the insane asylum for talking about the Turtles, Baxter is cackling madly about giant talking Turtles and is clearly insane. It is very sad, actually.)

So anyway, this story already inadvertently inverts pretty much all the angles of the other Baxter fix-it fic. I also hope to invert the Kylo Ren trope when it actually comes time for Barney to follow through on his vow to kill Baxter if he interferes. I really like how I've written the climax.

Then I drew Leonardo for the first time since my childhood, and this time he actually looks pretty good! I think I'll be able to draw those Turtles pictures for my "opening" clips that I wanted.

And I always meant to muse on this thought: Coming back to things I like that everyone hates, I actually liked when there was a girl who was part of The A-Team. She seemed to be a reporter if I recall correctly, so I kind of equated the situation as April O'Neil and the Turtles. Heh. The girl seemed to fit just fine into the A-Team's plans and it was nice to have someone around that I could more easily relate to.

Along those lines, I also tried comparing members of The A-Team to the Turtles, but that didn't go so well. Naturally I got B.A. and Raphael, but then I kind of stalled on drawing any other logical parallels. I guess Murdock could be equated with Michelangelo, since they're both the most out there members of their teams. But Hannibal and Leonardo and Face and Donatello don't seem to make very good parallels. And I keep wanting to equate Murdock with Donatello because of their mechanical know-how. So ... heh.

This has been one very long week. Not bad, really, but long.

A week before, I was ranting on the Pony forum again about Funrise's distribution and how I still couldn't find Sunset Shimmer. A couple of people told me that the 12-inch size has started popping up in Targets. Someone else showed me that there have been a couple on eBay too. That made me hope that maybe my Target would actually have one too. I called and they did! But Dad wouldn't go in, so I had to ask my sister to get it for me. After a very long and tense day of waiting, she was finally able to bring it the next day.

I'm so thrilled to finally have her after a whole year of trying! She's gorgeous! I think the 12 inch and 20 inch sizes eliminate a lot of the sculpting problems Funrise seems to have with the smaller sizes. I think if the 12 inch size had been around to begin with, I probably would have collected it instead of the 10 inch size.

This has also been a week for getting other things I wanted. I've always been in love with the Archery Twilight Sparkle doll, even though I figured I'd focus on getting the two-pack with her and Flash instead. But on Monday, I discovered that Archery Twilight was on clearance for $4! That could not be passed up. Then on Thursday, I was at K-Mart hoping they'd still have the Twilight with the upswept hair that I've always wanted to be able to get. I thought they might be clearancing her by now. They had one left on clearance, and they also had the two-pack on clearance! I probably really shouldn't have, but I couldn't bear to leave the two-pack behind even though I'd just got the Archery Twilight, so everything came home with me.

I'm really glad to have all of them. If I'd got the two-pack first, I probably wouldn't have got Archery Twilight, and oddly enough, even though her glasses are wrong, she's the most accurate hair-wise of all my Twilights. I gave her wings to my original Twilight, however, since naturally human Twilight doesn't have wings except as Midnight Sparkle and since my original Twilight should have purple wings instead of yellow. I have a couple of pictures in my Scrapbook. I am continuing to have fun with Dad's tablet.

This week I also finally wrote the rest of that long Ginger and Lou ficlet that's been a problem for months. The whole thing was originally written around one scene, the initial scene I dreamed about with Ginger falling down the stairs in some big mansion and Columbo wandering in, and that was probably part of the hang-up with it. I'm so chuffed to finally have it done! Now maybe I can go on to the other ideas that have been accumulating for that theme set. I have quite a lot, including a demented Five Nights at Freddy's parody. I'll probably write that one next, unless I try to do an Easter oneshot and I don't know if I'll have the chance for that.

And I don't recall whether I posted about this or not, but last year I wanted to make a silly music video with Ginger and Lou and the Ghostbusters song. It required a lot of new artwork, however, and I just ran out of time. I've been trying to get going on it this year and hope I can do it, but I'm not sure there's even enough time now. I bought the song last night and was listening to it on Repeat and realized that my initial evaluation overlooked the instrumental parts other than the one at the beginning. So that's even more pictures I'll need to make. I'm using a few screengrabs and a few appropriate webcomic pictures, but the rest will be entirely new artwork for this MV. I'm just not sure I can do it all. I'll also need to at least ink all the pictures, if not outright color them. And if colored, they should really be digitally colored and I can't do that, so I'd need to see if anyone would be willing to come onboard the project and do that part of it. But I'd only want to ask people I knew well and I doubt any of them would have the time and I'm sure none of them would have the interest. It would be a pretty big commitment. I don't even know if I can stick with it, so I don't like to ask anybody else to try to. (Plus they might have a different vision of how they should be colored.... It's generally better to do everything myself when possible.)

I started drawing another picture for it today, one for the Black Agnes statue story where the possessed statue is putting people in comas, including Mike. I've never drawn Mike quite right, though; I realized that I think my drawings look more like Joey Aresco than Joe E. Tata. Heh. I love Joey Aresco's shaggy hair.... But so this time I tried to draw a Mike that looks closer to how he does in the episode. Only since I haven't been drawing him that way, I wonder if he'll even look recognizable to those who follow the webcomic....

I also created an idea for a framing story in the MV instead of it just being entirely random ghost-busting scenes. In between those, the framing story has Jim Rockford encountering the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man outside his trailer and calling Ginger for help. Ginger, Lou, and Jim get batted all around by the thing, and then Ginger finally has enough and blasts it with his shotgun. Marshmallow goes everywhere, Lou stares, and Rocky drives up. Jim goes, "Hi, Dad. How about some marshmallows?" Then they start roasting marshmallows while Ginger and Lou flee. Then there's a silly omake where Lou tells Ginger about some weirdo making the MV. Ginger responds with a flat look and "What." I was telling Ladyamberjo about that last night and got the giggles imagining Jim's expression when he sees the Marshmallow Man. James Garner is totally one of the masters of the WTH expression.

Was fiddling with the below picture over the weekend. Ecks being playful and cheeky and Wye tolerating it.

I could not get the Scrapbook to upload this, for some reason. I had to go into Post Entry and upload from here.

Ecks is the third Christopher Cary character I've drawn. It's interesting trying to make each one look different, yet still recognizable as the actor. Ginger (in my icon) is the oldest and the one I've drawn the most. I try to make him look a bit older and his hair isn't quite as long. It also flips at the back just slightly. Snakes, of course, has that snake scar. I also try to make his bangs a little wilder and more pronounced. Ecks is ... this.

( Here )

I'm toying with a picture where Ecks is talking to Illya and displaying his scar; haven't got very far on it yet.

I did something very logical: I bought a set of pencils that includes something that looks strikingly similar to my old flesh-colored pencil. Since I mostly draw people these days instead of animals, I really can't color much of anything without that pencil, so paying $3.98 for the set of 36 long pencils seemed a very proper investment.

I also bought the DJ Pon-3 doll, which also seemed a very logical investment, considering they only had two of her left and one of them had a badly crunched box. (She was fine, luckily.) I got the other one, since I don't know if they'll get any more of her in while the sale's on or if the one in the good box would still be there later.

I looked at the Hello Kitty plush and ended up thinking that if I want one, the Build-a-Bear one is higher quality and might be worth the extra eight dollars (and however much more it would take to clothe her).

Think I'll ask for the Batman set for Christmas and hope Dad won't get confused on what I'm talking about.

Following the same train of thought as the previous, locked entry, I was just working on a bit of chapter 8. I really haven't planned any other stories in this series. (I hadn't planned on writing this Scarecrow one either. Heh.) I'm still thinking that when I'm done with this one, I'll do the oneshot of the meeting of the Riddlers and maybe do the cracky thing crossing over with the 1960's show.

But now I also have a possible idea for another multi-chapter, should I decide I want to do it. Yin was mentioning that the commissioner and the district attorney have to okay the idea of raiding Arkham based on the information from Penguin. That got me thinking, "Hmm ... district attorney...." The Batman series doesn't have a Harvey Dent, either. Now I have a plunnie of him being the focus of a new mystery.

The Riddler may know him from Dent prosecuting his case in the past. Perhaps the Riddler is the only one of the main characters who really sees that Dent isn't necessarily the white knight the others believe him to be. I was never crazy about the idea of Dent really being a white knight, since to flip and turn into Two-Face, I felt he would have to have had some instability and darkness before that, and it seems like most portrayals of the character agree with that assessment. And I don't really like the character on Gotham; it disgusted me that he ( Spoilers! )

But anyway. This isn't about the Gotham series; it's about The Batman. So the plot would probably follow Dent's gradual descent to being Two-Face and succumbing to complete madness. Maybe he would be doing some shady things while at the same time seeming to be an aboveboard district attorney and a friend to Jim Gordon and Batman. The Riddler would sense the darkness in Dent and maybe see a bit of it, but he wouldn't be widely believed. The commissioner and probably Batman would think he was just bitter because of Dent prosecuting him, at least at first. Yin wouldn't know what to think, but she probably wouldn't just outright dismiss him.

There have been several versions of how Dent got disfigured, ranging from the most famous (being hit with acid by a mobster), to it happening in an explosion (The Dark Knight) to The New 52 (I think the sister of someone he prosecuted threw acid at him?). I'm not sure how I would write it happening. Or if I'll write this fic at all. But at least the idea's here, if I want it.

... Suddenly it occurs to me that reimagining Clayface as a former friend of Bruce's and an upright policeman may have been The Batman crew's version of Two-Face. But that won't stop me from using Dent if I decide I want to. It would be a much different story than Ethan's, since Ethan is a much nicer guy than it seems Dent ever really was.

I think I'll draw Dr. Portman and Jonathan Crane. You know, I've never drawn Portman at all, in all the years I've used her as a villain? I'm a little worried now that I may end up making her look too similar to my redesign of Florence, just with glasses. Both have short-cropped blonde hair, slightly curly, and green eyes. I'll work hard to make Portman look different, especially since I was just complaining about similar designs of characters on The Animated Series.

Speaking of that, I did run across two The Batman characters who look similar. A doctor at Arkham in the season 1 episode Topsy Turvy looks almost exactly like the president of the Riddler's university in the season 4 episode Riddler's Revenge. The latter is basically identical to the former, just with red hair instead of dark. Maybe if I ever address that in the fics, I'll say they're brothers. LOL.

Bleh. Saturday was spent mostly in pain. I hate when that happens, especially when it's so bad I can barely think straight. The only good thing about it is that when it's that harsh, it's usually gone sometime the next day. I'm definitely grateful for that, but I feel bad that I really couldn't converse with people when I was trying to.

This past week I've been amused thinking back to when I first became interested in Boba Fett. I had the figure of my brother's, as mentioned, and I wondered who he was. Mom and I looked on the figure chart and found his name. Then I wanted to see him in action, so we watched the Star Wars films again (or rather, the latter two, since we didn't have a copy of A New Hope back then) and ... well, it was pretty much instant intrigue.

Then I started doing very strange things. I had Kit and Molly from Talespin become Boba Fett's wards. I don't know what happened to Rebecca. I do remember at that time I was on the rocks with Baloo, which was totally unfair to him. I think it started because I didn't like the way he acted in the episode Stormy Weather, which was childish of me since he was only worried about Kit getting in with a creep and doing dangerous things. But so anyway ... Kit and Molly were Boba Fett's wards. And I made up silly posters on some pink paper one of my aunts gave me that said "The Kit and Molly Show! With Boba Fett Too!"

Mom thought it would be nice to give her one of the posters, so she could see I was enjoying the paper. So I did, and she read it aloud and Dad was there and went, "... Hey, isn't that the guy from Star Wars?" and I wanted to sink into the floor.

I also remember that one of my first hurt/comfort adventures involved Kit bringing Boba Fett ... somewhere, and saying he wouldn't wake up, or something (I was six; I don't think I knew a big word like "unconscious" yet). And then after a while I was embarrassed by the whole thing and when I had him wake up, I wasn't sure how to have Kit react and it was all very weird.

I used to occasionally draw Boba Fett, but all that armor was confusing to figure out, so I didn't do it very often. I did draw Kit and Molly a lot, badly. Mom drew better, and I'd have her draw paper dolls of all the characters we used in our stories. So there were the paper doll storylines and the action figure storylines. Later on, since later we mostly played with figures and there weren't existing figures for everyone I wanted in the stories, we developed a verbal-only storyline that we still have ongoing today.

I remember other oddball adventures back in the day like Kit being a brat and pretending he had amnesia and saying his name was Guacamole, because I thought that was a hilarious word. LOL. Poor Kit. I did such weird, weird things when I was a kid. And I had no concept of OOCness.

Leonardo Turtle owned a restaurant with his brothers. Probably a pizza parlor. LOL. Later on he sold it to Rebecca.

Don Karnage and Mad Dog hung out together. I wasn't crazy about Dumptruck or Gibber, so they weren't there. Over time, Karnage and Mad Dog pretty much became OCs rather than the Talespin characters. Eventually they really only shared the names and a couple of key personality traits (Karnage's conceit, Mad Dog's whining). I even redesigned them as other animals (Karnage as an Alaskan Malamute, Mad Dog as a Siberian Husky). The OC versions became the central characters in the stories I used to write and sell in the old neighborhood to get money. I also created a skunk character, Jackly the Pew, who was originally based on the Tiny Toon Adventures character Jonny Pew. (Jonny ended up being Jackly's brother.)

I created a whole bunch of skunk characters actually. I loved Fifi on Tiny Toons and she entered the storyline, as did Miss Skunky (an orange skunk who cameos with Jonny Pew in the episode), Red-and-White (a blundered version of Miss Skunky when I couldn't remember what she looked like), and a collection of girls either inspired by Fifi or who were early attempts at drawing Fifi when I didn't have a picture to be looked at: Viva, Vivi, Vifa.... Vifa, who started out as a sweet girl, eventually showed her true colors as a femme fatale and became one of my primary antagonists even today (albeit as a human version, not a skunk). I first tried that in my sixth YGO mystery and it continued from there.

Later, Vifa developed a twin sister named Flo. Flo was originally just Vifa in disguise, but then I wanted her to be another actual character. For the longest time, I had trouble giving her a separate personality from Vifa, but recently I differentiated them by having Vifa interested in money and jewels and Florence interested in power. Vifa could be pettily bent on revenge, while Florence didn't usually bother with that. Lately, however, she has gotten so frustrated with Ginger and Lou overturning her plans against them that she has made it a personal goal to defeat them someday.

Meanwhile, Jackly (or Pew, as we started mostly calling him) started out as an antagonist, frustrated by Karnage doing stupid conceited things and Mad Dog being embarrassed and whining and bawling about it. It was only after Karnage enlisted in the Army that Pew started becoming friends with Mad Dog. Eventually, they actually became closer friends than Mad Dog and Karnage had been.

Karnage drove General Stilton (from The Cat From Outer Space movie) utterly mad with his nonsense of wanting to look in mirrors and shiny hubcaps and anything else that resembled a mirror. Karnage eventually made friends with Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H. Yes, we said "Screw time periods!" and pretty much added anyone we wanted. The setting was the present day, but anyone could wander in from other eras, at the same age they were in the other eras. And characters like Karnage remained anthropomorphic animals, while human characters stayed human. They co-exist together very easily.

Karnage was in the Army for many years, and then left to marry a mirror. LOL. It was a gag based on something from years earlier, when he'd talked about it and Mad Dog talked him out of it because he wouldn't be able to go on dates with anyone and back then, Karnage was a Casanova and loved dates. But this other time, Mad Dog couldn't talk Karnage out of it and Karnage said he regretted listening to Mad Dog that first time. There was a big wedding in New York City, with Lieutenant Schrank from West Side Story very unhappily running security and Ron Updyke from Kolchak: The Night Stalker being abducted by a bunch of rabid Karnage fans that demanded that Karnage be allowed to marry the mirror or they would keep Ron hostage in a hot-air balloon.

Ah, good times.

Currently the main characters are in Los Angeles, where they've mostly been for three years, since Karnage married the mirror and went to L.A., where he burst into court and got on the witness stand and said, "I solemnly swear that I'm glorious." Hamilton Burger's expression was priceless. LOL.

There was a sanity hearing, which dragged on and on because the judge and Karnage's lawyer were crooked (something Karnage was oblivious to), and Mad Dog and Pew and company came out from their main residence to participate in the hearing. Eventually Karnage was put under the observation of some doctors, who are fascinated by him and aren't much help, except for keeping him from doing dangerous stunts like getting on bridges and screaming about being wonderful.

Both Vifa/Vivalene and Florence pretended to be nice girls and talked with Pew, who wanted to give them a chance to start over despite thinking they were both awful in the past. He learned their true colors later and felt deeply betrayed. Then he met Virginia, a mysterious girl who likes to steal things and then pretend she didn't, and generally is a mercenary out for a buck. Her full origins are still unknown, but she causes trouble for the characters every now and then, including Ginger and Lou.

Fifi worked for a private-eye character called The Tester, who used to test Pew with mystery scenarios to train him to be a detective. The Tester is the English Cat from Scat Cat's Aristocats band in disguise, albeit I've never conclusively revealed that. Fifi eventually disappeared and they're still not sure what happened to her, but a girl resembling her has surfaced in London. She has amnesia and was found wandering by Simon Templar, who took her in as his secretary. She has adopted the name Patricia Holm, the name of Simon's girlfriend in the books. This is the TV Simon, so there is no real Patricia. And since Fifi is an anthro skunk, there is no romance going on between them. If she has any feelings for Simon, she will keep them to herself.

And as if all this nostalgia isn't enough, today I woke up with an urge to finally write my sequel to my fic for the much-hated TV show The Batman. I honestly really enjoyed the overhaul and found the series very fun and fascinating. About six years ago, I wrote a oneshot examining their version of The Riddler and then did a multi-chapter involving him that ended in a mysterious way. I never abandoned my idea and desire for a sequel, but I've just never got around to it. Now, suddenly, I really want to do it.

I re-read the oneshot tonight and will probably re-read the multi-chapter tomorrow. Maybe I'll re-read the three Riddler comics from The Batman Strikes! tie-in comic series, too. I really only liked the first one of those, though. And I especially detested the last one and felt The Riddler was OOC and the issue didn't live up to the awesomeness of its cover. I remember I planned that my sequel would tell the story that I thought that comic issue would, based on the cover.

I also want to bring in the idea from the main comics where The Riddler eventually at least semi-reformed and became a private detective. The first multi-chapter I did ended with him supposedly dead, but his body missing and a paper left in the freezer chamber that had the first riddle he gave Batman on it. I'm not sure I ever will reveal how he got out of the morgue, since there should always be some mysteries surrounding him, but I'm thinking the sequel involves him turning up as a private detective under his real name and staying in the shadows for a while, only revealing his identity to Batman and Yin later on.

I really hated that they dropped the Yin character from the show after season 2. She was awesome! And she certainly should have at least been in the episode where Ethan comes back to himself, since they were partners.

I don't know when I'll actually get a chance to start writing any sequel, though, or if I really will at all despite the abrupt burst of interest. I've got all the October Writing stuff to work with, and an idea to write a book about season 1 of Mannix, and I've been seriously neglecting my Perry blog lately.

http://thesecretlifeofexcons.tumblr.com/

Please have a look and check back for future updates! I promise that knowledge of the Rockford Files episode in which they appear is not necessary; just an enjoyment of slice-of-life storytelling. As per Aubrie's suggestion, I made an intro comic in addition to the intro post I'd already planned.

FINALLY. A season 4 My Little Pony episode I actually liked again! I haven't really liked an episode this season since the Castle one! By this point I wasn't expecting much from it at all, so I was absolutely elated to love it!

This one was just lovely. Rarity was more the way I like her (although loading all those bags on poor Spike was terrible). In one way I thought Rarity's transformation to being snappish happened a little too quickly, but of course there's only so far they can go with the amount of time they have. And that betrayal must have cut really deep. Ugh, that Pony was just awful. I wish her tricks would have been found out so she'd get disqualified. At least her assistant wised up and quit. I'm glad Rarity gave her the costuming job, too, so Rarity could go back home.

I really adored what I got out of the episode, that even though Rarity wasn't acting her best after the betrayal, her friends still cared about her because they knew she was just having a bad time and she wasn't usually like that at all. It hits very close to home and means a great deal to me.

Rainbow was pretty cute. I was terribly amused by her standard feeling on musicals, which I share. Musicals are normally not a favorite thing of mine, although it's usually more because I don't tend to find them funny when they're supposed to be funny and I think some of the song topics are bizarre.

Also, it was really a switch to have Rainbow thinking Apple was being too brutally honest! Usually Rainbow is way blunt.

Loved the Ponies' version of New York, too. So much fun. Nice to see such an urban setting once in a while. I am a city girl at heart. I could never be happy out in the middle of nowhere.

Overall, this was such a refreshing episode after the last few weeks.

I'm having a lot of fun with my friendshippy 100songs fics, too. I kind of think I write fairy tales, just about friendships rather than romance, although I definitely believe and even know that there are strong friendships as well as lasting romances (just that both are rare gems). My stories are meant to be a celebration of friendship in all its facets, and of how a true friendship can come through all events, from good times and bad, arguments and peacetime, and the just plain weird. And a little shameless hurt/comfort now and then is nice to throw in.

I have a squeeable image for a ficlet I think I'll write for Valentine's Day, where Ginger is making fun of and deriding the holiday for its general association with romantic couples, and he and Lou eventually decide to go out to dinner and celebrate being single and being friends. I have an image of them clinking their glasses in a toast that I'd like to draw, but I might not because positioning two people so things they're holding will meet is one of the most hair-tearing experiences I have with drawing.

I suppose the definition for a lot of the friendships I write would be "bromance", but that term absolutely bewilders me, since it's supposed to be deeply platonic and yet it's a portmanteau of "bro/brother" and "romance". Seems to me that the term kind of defeats its purpose. I prefer not to use it because of that.

I wish so, so much I could draw realistic people and make them look like themselves. It drives me nuts that I haven't been able to draw much the past year or so because I just can hardly draw anything decent with the live-action people I love.

I have this intensely detailed and intriguing image in my mind I long so badly to see come to life on a sheet of paper. I envision Coley Rodman in his room at Ray's golf club in the present day. He's looking at the viewer and is stretched out on the bed, mostly on his right side and at the foot of the bed. He's wearing his hat and scarf, along with a dark gray tank top, black jeans, and one leather glove. That hand, the left, is either on the bed or resting against his side. His bare hand is petting Jane/supporting her position in front of him. Jane, the silver Persian cat, is blissful, loafing, and purring. She's also holding his other glove under her front paws.

Coley seems to wear the gloves when he gets tough, and canonically is depicted in one scene with one glove on and one off. In the picture, the symbolism is that while he's relaxed, don't provoke him or you'll be sorry. Jane holding the other glove means that if you hurt the cat, you're really in for it from him.

Today has not been my day for writing. Instead I've been wasting copious amounts of time all over the place!

Here, have this picture before I ramble: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com/art/A-moment-of-relative-peace-in-the-Black-Crown-303915753

I have learned again that the fanfic situation concerning Duke is ... blah. Pretty much all that turns up is various romantic stuff and/or humor. I think I'm just about the only one on FF.net who writes serious, dark Duke stories (except for a couple I have Favorited). And without fail, the only other stories about him that are serious and dark also have the manga backstory as a base. Gah, things would probably be so much different for Duke in the fanbase if the anime had only used the manga for its Duke introduction! He is a serious and dark character in the manga and not really that much of a flirt. Instead, he's mostly remembered by the fans for those awful cheerleaders and other anime-only stunts. Even stuff like his cynicism and realistic outlook, which made it into the anime, is usually overlooked.

I know I shouldn't be surprised at not being able to find anything good to read, but I guess I'm spoiled after all the wonderful stuff that turns up at ygodrabble. I wish there were more Duke fics there.

I also wish I wasn't the only person (aside from the occasional fanwork of Crystal's) who writes and draws stuff concerning Duke's snarky store manager. Gosh, he's so fun. And there is an absolutely fascinating relationship that YGO fans are totally overlooking. He and Duke are definitely close. You don't call your boss "Dukey-boy" and get away with it unless there's some kind of friendship or other bond there. I've seen their scene in Japanese as well and feel the same about them being close.

And I am thrilled and excited with Hawaii 5-O! (Old version.) Eeee, an intense two-part opener for season 8 with Harry Guardino as the main good guy guest-star (I will forever have a soft spot for him after seeing him play a wonderful Hamilton Burger in The New Perry Mason) and a plot twist that helps me work out a problem I've been having with my fic The Denying Detective! Now if I can just get over the roadblock of the current scene I'm fighting with.

... And if I can just settle down and get into a writing mood, period. I am bouncing off the walls, wasting time, and rambling away instead.

Also, I am rather intrigued that when I searched "Hamilton Burger" on dA once again, and they searched by popularity of art pieces, my little sketch came up before something that's been there for years.

http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com/art/In-the-district-attorney-s-office-302488403

Leon did come out looking a bit similar in some respects to David Tanaka, but I tried to make them different. (And Leon really wasn't meant to have hair like that in the first place. It just ... happened.) Poor Leon, another neglected character like David, with close ties to a major main character.