Draqua's pad

nana-princess: So I finally watched all of Motorcity. At first, I didn’t like it. I didn’t dislike...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:50:00 -0400

So I finally watched all of Motorcity.

At first, I didn’t like it. I didn’t dislike it either. I just felt it was mostly explosions, interesting concept, awesome animation, but that it was lacking something.

I think I started enjoying it past the halfway point to be honest. It wasn’t my favorite show. It still felt like it was missing something. There wasn’t enough congruity, still a lot of holes. Who are the rest of the Burners? What’s their life story? How’d they meet?

My two favorite episodes were the ones that dealt with Dutch to be honest because he’s the character I really got to understand. I understood Mike too but it was implied i would; he is, after all, the protagonist, the hero. When the episodes focused on Dutch, I finally saw where he was coming from. I saw him getting from point A to point B. The rest of the characters seemed to start at point B and we never advance much more than that. Sure, Chuck learns that it’s okay not to be fearless and Texas learns that Roth has feelings but still, most of the characters don’t undergo some major growth.

Maybe we would have learned more in a second season, who knows so maybe my questions are just premature. I also felt Texas was just so…standard comedy, you know? I mean the episode where he tells Tooley he’s the secret weapon is gold, but apart from that, I just couldn’t like the character. Which I suppose speaks more about my likes and dislikes than the show itself. I just expected a little bit more of a show that everyone was saying was flawless.

I am hoping for a season 2 just because I feel the show has a ton of potential and the animation really is cool. Also, the series finale (which hopefully will end up being a season finale instead) was really awesome, exciting, a good mix of action, drama, bits of comedy, and friendship.

That’s what Motorcity does really well. It talks about friendship, shows how different people can get together to have fun, can have things in common without being similar. I love Chuck and Mike’s friendship just because that’s where I felt most of the emotion.

So to wrap it up, give the show a chance and check it out. It’s short so it honestly took me 2 or 3 days. Characters grow on you and the writing does get better. I hope the show gets another chance so we see even more growth in the series.

This is basically everything I felt about the characters of Motorcity as well. Thank you for such a succinct, and well thought out post.

Honestly, Dutch is both my favorite character and perhaps the best written/developed character. But its because Dutch is so interesting and deep that the other characters feel floundering in comparison.

We are shown a great deal about Dutch’s past and why he joined the Burners. We meet his entire family and there’s a subplot about his brother which both served to develop Dutch further and helped to flesh out the larger conflict between how Deluxe views The Burners/Motorcity and the reality of the situation. Meanwhile, we know exceedingly little about Chuck’s, Texas’, or even Mike’s family situation. Dutch had talents and hobbies which were brought up consistently throughout the season and tied into his backstory. Compare and contrast Dutch’s love of art to Chuck’s LARPing, for example. Dutch had a love interest in Tennie, who was also fairly well developed, had a family, had hobbies, and had a life/backstory outside of Dutch and the Burners which got referenced. Compare what we know about Tennie’s personal life history to what we know about Tooley’s, or Claire’s. Dutch went through a character arc within season one, starting out quiet and generally put upon, but rising to the role of temporary leader when Mike was kidnapped.

I too hope this show survives in some form or another, because I’d honestly love to see the rest of the cast get the sort of attention Dutch did. But for now: Dutch is the greatest character in the show.

Can character development also be considered moe? Well… Smokescreen is still moe.

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:10:18 -0400

Can character development also be considered moe?

Well… Smokescreen is still moe.

kingdomzelaybli: CMV Motorcity Tribute “Drop Detroit” (by...

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:57:42 -0400

kingdomzelaybli:

CMV Motorcity Tribute “Drop Detroit” (by Draqua)

IF YOU LIKE MOTORCITY EVEN A LITTLE BIT SIT YOUR NERD ASS DOWN AND WATCH THIS RIGHT THE FRICK NOW

Thank you!

“…Tony Fleecs’ Botcon-exclusive variant cover...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:57:00 -0400

“…Tony Fleecs’ Botcon-exclusive variant cover for “My Little Pony Micro Series” #5 featuring Pinkie Pie. In an unprecedented crossover between Hasbro’s “Transformers” and “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” Pinkie Pie cosplays as Optimus Prime, dancing on the massive hand of the Big Bot himself, as he gives a quizzical tilt of his head. The variant cover will be available at this year’s Transformers Botcon in San Diego from June 27 - 30. The regular issue of “My Little Pony Micro Series” #5 written by Ted Anderson with interiors by Ben Bates hits stores June 26.”

Well… That’s just Pie

Yes HUB Network, I missed Shockwave’s rocking tits a whole...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:53:19 -0400

Yes HUB Network, I missed Shockwave’s rocking tits a whole bunch…

(They’re onto us)

gocstudio replied to your photo: Best protagonist Wow this makes me so happy! Not many people know...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:28:51 -0400

gocstudio replied to your photo: Best protagonist

Wow this makes me so happy! Not many people know this series. Someday I’d like to redo my cosplay of her *sigh*

I love Jubei-chan. I consider it to be one of the better comedy/action animes form the late 90’s and I too think its a damn shame that it doesn’t get brought up more. I’m rewatching S1 right now in preparation for some video editing, and I’ve been blown away at how well the animation holds up.

Rock the classics

Whoa, my post on William Fowler got a huge influx of notes last night, and everyone seems to be...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:23:05 -0400

Whoa, my post on William Fowler got a huge influx of notes last night, and everyone seems to be mostly in agreement and tagging positive things about him in their reblogs.

Folwer must have way more fans than I initially thought!

That makes me feel really happy…

scribbles-and-slash: jm347-class-03-k64-firefly: I just made...

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:35:38 -0400

scribbles-and-slash:

jm347-class-03-k64-firefly:

I just made another gifset from this episode, but I couldn’t resist making one for this scene, too.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how fucking NICE the Constructibots are? And how god damn misunderstood? I apologize for this wall of text but please, give it a quick read because as much as I love this episode, it really bothered me…

Bulkhead says they’re no good and they’ll never be good, but they rescued Bulkhead and Blitzwing.

Not because they’re Autobots or Decepticons….just because they’re bros with no biases who just don’t want anyone to get squashed.

Then they go and lug all the supplies back to the Decepticon’s base, get materials and try and fix Megatron’s bridge, try and peacefully take the Allspark fragments from Bulkhead and only resort to violence when Optimus threatens them (as opposed to, ya’know, explaining the situation and how they’re being tricked in more detail than Bulkhead’s half-assed rambling earlier), try and keep their friendship with Bulkhead up until he literally tries to smash their amnesia-sticken heads in with a wrecking ball….hell, even AFTER that, Scrap still goes with Sari to save the Autobots who tried to kill him in Human Error…..

Their only “flaw” was that they drank a lot of oil and were slightly obnoxious…but think about it for a moment. Did you notice how FUCKING HUGE they are? They’re bigger than Bulkhead! Almost as big as Lugnut! Not to mention, cement trucks and power shovels are notorious gass guzzlers…all bots are shown to drink oil as a fuel source, so it makes sense why they’d knock back a few dozen oil barrels. It’s literally their first day alive and they’re probably not used to the sudden drain of energy that comes out of all the work they do normally (building stuff), PLUS walking, talking, transforming, and driving. They’re not doing it because they’re alcoholics…they’re doing it because they literally need that much oil to run properly.

Even their obnoxious behavior can be explained. If the Wreck-Gar episode proved anything, it’s that when a machine comes to life for the first time, they’re pretty much a blank slate, aside from the interactions their vehicle had with humans in the past. Mix and Scrap were always surrounded by construction workers, men who are known for cat calling and having frat-boy mentalities. Again, it makes perfect sense for them to act this way if that’s all they really know. Not to mention, Blitzwing abuses their innocence, calling a police siren a “quitting bell” and Megatron telling them the TRUTH that the Autobots kicked them out of Cybertron, a statement which, without the proper context that these two clearly would not have had, could easily make anyone believe the Autobots are just as bad as the Decepticons. They go with the bots who were nicer to them and gave them better oil because…well did you see how the rest of the Autobot gang treated them? Imagine you just meet someone really nice, they take you to meet their friends, and all their friends do is glare at you and judge you and talk behind your back? Obviously you’re not going to like them! And as much as I love Ratchet, how dare he make the comment that they’re not charming. They’re not, not by any means…but Ratchet…seriously? YOU’RE judging someone for not being polite?

Again, remember that this is literally their first week (at most) of existing. One side is telling them one thing, the other side is telling them the other, one’s mistreating them, but they’re still nice and friendly with Bulkhead and consider him a friend. If the Autobots took five minutes to put aside their judgements and calmly explain the entire situation, these two would have surely changed sides again! They’re not the hardest to convince, guys. As nice as they are, they’re pretty damn stupid too. Tell them they’re made of peanuts, they’ll probably believe you! But no. Optimus jumps to fisticuffs and Bulkhead BLOWS THEM THE FUCK UP! And even when they get amnesia and DO have the chance to be befriended again, what does Bulky do? He totally ruins it by trying to bash their brains in.

What the hell?! Bulkhead, what are you thinking?! You bots destroy building on a regular basis! Don’t chase away the guys who would willingly repair ALL your shit without a question! Oh, and if that’s not bad enough…Optimus says they have a second chance now AFTER Bulkhead chases them away. A chance to “make the right choice”

ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME?

BULKHEAD JUST TRIED MURDERING THEM AND YOU THINK THEY’RE GONNA SIDE WITH YOU GUYS? What, are you high!? Of course they’re not going to side with you!! No bot in their right mind would side with a team that stood back and let a team mate attack them! The Constructibots weren’t the ones who needed the second chance to make the right decision, YOU WERE AND YOU TOTALLY BLEW IT.

I guess what bothers me the most about this episode is how, a few episodes ago, Wreck-Gar’s episode had the strong message of “Don’t Let People Tell You Who You Are, You Can Be Anything You Want To Be.” Hell, the entire theme of the SHOW is “There’s More To Someone Than You Think”. Sari, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Optimus, Bumblebee, Prowl…they ALL have a story arc where they show that there’s more to their personality they even they didn’t know about…they’re more than they’re stereotypical character traits and they CAN change (pun not intended) and better themselves if given the chance.

The Constructibots were never given that chance. They’re written off as bad guys or immature fuck ups and never get any recognition from the other bots as to how NICE they actually are. Not only that, but between Mix’s technical jargon and Scrap’s kindly nature towards Snarl…the creators have actually shown that these two are both intelligent and warm individuals who just wanna help out, but can get a little immature at times. But again, Bumblebee’s immature, Ratchet is cranky, even PROWL was a jerk at first and all the bots seemed to be okay with that.

Maybe this show was TRYING to give a PSA-like message about not hanging out with the wrong crowd, stay away from drinkers and all that…but is that really a good message? “Don’t judge. Always give people a chance…unless they drink then fuck those guys because they’re no good and will never be good”?

And even if they were trying to make Bulkhead the “bad guy” in this episode, trying to say something like “even the sweetest of people can make mistakes once they’ve been hurt”…that heroic ending undermined it all.

And even in their episodes after Rise of the Constructicons, they’re not “bad” guys. Sure they’re written “badder” than they were in the first episode, (personally I think it’s because they were too NICE in the first episode for anyone to believe they would bully a little girl unless they changed their personalities slightly), but they’re still the lovable doofuses who could still be persuaded over to the opposite side if someone put an effort into it….Sari practically DID just that with Scrapper!

Alright….I think that’s all the rant I have in me right now. I apologize for this HUGE FUCKING TEXT POST but I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a VERY long time. Thanks for listening ;w;

I must say I agree with all of this.

TFA is very odd when it comes to the morality and ethical treatment of “Allspark Energy” birthed characters. So much so that it basically boils down to a case by case basis with no consistency or accountability held to the protagonists. Speaking of which, we here see yet another example of TFA!Bulkhead doing something violent, dangerous, and ill-informed towards another person with absolutely no consequences visited upon him.

Best protagonist

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:30:00 -0400

Best protagonist

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before all...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:43:19 -0400

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before all that much, but I really like the character of Special Agent William Fowler.

Here’s a man who once had a proud history with the US military, but upon entering his twilight years and starting to soften up around the edges, he gets saddled with a group of monstrous, mechanical aliens. These beings, with the exception of Optimus, are hostile and condescending to him initially. Bulkhead even physically threatens Fowler, who has no means of defending himself against such force, at some points and Fowler’s still expected to independently keep them out of the public eye all while wrangling their very open conflicts with the Decepticons.

Yet in spite of all this… Fowler never gives up the location of the Autobot base, even when under extremely painful torture via Starscream. He slowly builds a greater level of trust and friendship with Optimus Prime over the first half of S1. In S2, he bonds with Bulkhead (remember, the ‘Bot who initially wanted to leave Fowler for dead) through their shared past of being soldiers and inspires Bulkhead to come home even after extensive injury and poisoning. Though vocal in his complaints, he never stops trying to protect the Autobots from retaliation or eviction by the US government. He never lets his size, age, or limited abilities prevent him from doing his job and helping his comrades (see him standing up to Wheeljack and confronting Silas). And even when it seems like Optimus Prime is dead, an entire city has been leveled by the Decepticons, and Megatron has other major American cities in his cross-hairs; Fowler keeps a firm upper lip and does his best to verbally negotiate with the mad king Megatron has become.

I find William Fowler to be a really great, interesting, and inspiring character. There is infinitely more to him than a great celebrity voice and random jokes. He is strong, he is loyal, he is dynamic, and by god is he brave. He is the human ally the Autobots both deserve and need.

any-color-u-like replied to your post: So you ship Rarijack? yeeess I’m not the only one!...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:43:24 -0400

any-color-u-like replied to your post: So you ship Rarijack?

yeeess I’m not the only one! :3

obfuscobble replied to your post: So you ship Rarijack?

good ship. yes. yeeeeeeeeees.

The most honest and dazzling of all ships!

serikaizumi: Transformers: Robots in Disguise #20 John Barber...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:54:00 -0400

serikaizumi:

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #20

John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a) • Griffith, Casey Coller (c)

NEW CYBERTRON! It’s a brand new day—and STARSCREAM is in charge! But running a planet isn’t as easy as it looks… if BUMBLEBEE couldn’t do it, why does the former DECEPTICON think he can?

2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

*Variant Covers:

variant Livio Ramondeli cover, interconnected with issues 21 and 22!

Introducing fan-favorite character RATTRAP into the world of ROBOTS IN DISGUISE!

The dawn of a new age—or the end of everything?!

The countdown to DARK CYBERTRON continues!

Eeeeeee!

Fingers crossed he doesn’t get dead in one issue.

Consider the following… In 10 to 15 years, barring any sort of major catastrophe, all the...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:48:00 -0400

Consider the following…

In 10 to 15 years, barring any sort of major catastrophe, all the little children who are watching Transformers Rescue Bots right now will have grown up into teenagers and young adults.

Hasbro will inevitably be planning a revitalization of the Rescue Bots brand in some way. Maybe a show done in all 3D CGI. Maybe it takes place in outer space and the ‘Bots are space station repair workers. Maybe Decepticons are incorporated into the show. Maybe the re-boot is aimed at an older demographic this time and thus contains scenes of violence and crude humor. Maybe the alt-modes of the main cast are heavily changed, and maybe several cast members are removed and/or replaced with the exception of Heatwave due to brand recognizability.

Regardless, all those Rescue Bots fans will be tapping away on their IPad 20’s, holo-keyboards, and gabbing away through future!Skype about how Hasbro has made such a horrible mockery of their beloved childhood show and how this new installment can only bring shame and ruin on what was once such a pitch perfect offering.

Something I forgot to mention in my discussion of Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:43:37 -0400

Something I forgot to mention in my discussion of Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby from last night… This version runs with the concept that Nick Caraway may have had romantic feelings or at the very least extremely strong admiration for Gatsby.

So take that as a recommendation to see the picture if you’re fond of that particular reading of the text. Or if you want to see Toby Maguire make Bambi eyes at DiCaprio.

I’d been wanting to do a spoken version of...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:35:17 -0400

I’d been wanting to do a spoken version of demiurget’s double whammy dig at the Alicorn Twilight reactions and memories of Beast Wars past, and with the election season over, I figured now was as good a time as any.

All credit for the script goes to demiurget. Again, don’t take this too seriously.

So I saw The Great Gatsby this evening with my family, and we all really loved it. Easily worth the...

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:13:51 -0400

So I saw The Great Gatsby this evening with my family, and we all really loved it. Easily worth the price of admission for the soundtrack, casting, and camera work alone; but it also functions as a entertaining film in of itself by letting said excellent cast breathe new life into a fairly faithful adaptation of the original story.

At least that’s my opinion, old sport.

But by that same admission, I could understand why people might have some pretty big grievances with the picture, which I will discuss in brief below the cut given that it dips into spoilery territory.

So, one of the biggest alternations from novel to film in this particular outing is the character of Daisy, much to the re-framing of certain speeches and actions taken by Nick and Gatsby in the third act. For those of you of who read the original novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (probably in high school), you’ll know that Gatsby has spent the last five years pining after Daisy and trying to build up a lifestyle, persona, and tangible wealth suitable for a woman of her stature so that he might marry her. The cruel twist of this all being that ultimately Daisy is not really all that nice of a person. Like Gatsby’s lie of a life history, she is vain, shallow, greedy, and basically just as deplorable as her husband, Tom, just dressed up in a different skin. She is shown to be unworthy of the time and effort Gatsby’s been putting into pursuing her, and furthermore, it’s generally concluded that Gatsby never truly loved Daisy and that he was merely chasing the ideal of her/what she represented.

In Luhrmann film however, Daisy comes off as a much more sympathetic and tragic figure. She’s a suffering victim of the restrictive, sexist, classiest, racist lifestyle in which she lives, desperately wanting out but having no means of achieving her goals through her own means. The helpless by-product of a sick system rather than one of the causes. For example, in the book, Daisy was written to be dismissive and ignorant of her young daughter, often treating the baby as a plaything for her own amusement and tossing the child aside at the first sign of having to do any real work. In the movie, such scenes are absent, and Daisy seems regretful to have daughter since she knows her child will grow up in the same toxic environment she now lives in and probably experience the same ugly lifestyle.

Her love affair with Gatsby is still tinged with unhealthy elements, but not because of her emptiness as in the book, but rather because Daisy sees Gatsby offering her the promise of escape only to quickly realize that he’s just putting her on a pedestal and lacks any genuine respect for her as a person. The end result is: you end up quite liking Daisy on getting on her side a fair bit… which makes Nick’s condemning soliloquies towards her, Daisy’s potentially intentional murder of Myrtle, and the fact that Daisy leaves New York with Tom at the end rather unceremoniously all a little more than jarring. Still, I for one enjoyed this new take on Daisy’s character. But I can understand how some might find this damaging to the themes of the work, and make the movie going experience as hallow as book!Daisy is chiefly said to be.

Let’s keep in mind that this whole “Daisy is an awful, empty person” mantra is merely one of many interpretations of the novel’s text, one of the most popular to be sure, but certainly not the only one. Most high school literary teachers you’ve had probably discussed that Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship could be interpreted as incestuous, and the Mel Gibson adaptation ran wild with this…. But not every scholar or casual reader agrees.

I think it also bears remembering that The Great Gatsby as a novel was written in 1925, at a time when American women (at least some of them) were experimenting with new lifestyles, manners of speech, employment, and general rules of public acceptability… but were still ultimately under the heel of a man’s world. Luhrmann’s film was made for the new millennium and as such, at least hopefully, reflects a slightly informed look at the abilities, and worldview a woman like Daisy would have had at her disposal given her history and person context. Does it do so perfectly? No… But I’m still grateful to having at least seen a new interpretation.

Old sport

old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport old sport

So you ship Rarijack?

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:20:00 -0400

You know it (๑・ω-)～♥”

HOLY SHIT ISSUE 7

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:37:02 -0400

bronycurious:

THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. RECOGNIZING RARITY’S SELF CONFIDENCE ISSUES. SHOWCASING LUNA’S GUILT OVER HER PAST. DEVELOPING SPIKE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH RARITY.

FUCKING GOD TIER COMIC OMG

My thoughts exactly

texasuberalles: There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to...

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:06:39 -0400

texasuberalles:

There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to hate on Equestria Girls.

…There are also plenty of really dumb reasons.

Thank you

obfuscobble replied to your post: Any thoughts on the whole Equestria Girls thing? I… I have...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:48:20 -0400

obfuscobble replied to your post: Any thoughts on the whole Equestria Girls thing? I…

I have just now learned about Equestria girls. WOW. But I think my favourite part, other than your laid back “wait and see” attitude, is that soeone else out there knows about The Birds of Britain. Strange alien creatures, birds arrived in 1968…

You know it, man.

To any rate, like I said, there are some things about Equestria Girls that leave me apprehensive. Spike being reworked into a dog is the major one. But even then, this just removes one more obstacle to glorious Human!RariJack, so there’s that too.

On the subject of other upcoming things, I’m not too sure about this whole Agents of SHIELD business, but the Avengers Assemble cartoon actually looks pretty nifty. At the very least, I’ll be looking forward to watching the first couple episodes of both.