#12freddofrogs talks

[12freddofrogs]

So as a general question to the Girl Genius fandom: has there ever been any confirmation on what happens if a slaver wasp infests a child Spark before their breakthrough?

(Most) wasps don't affect Sparks, but at the same time you are not really a Spark at birth. Although the kids do seem to be unusually brilliant, so clearly there is some indication from early on. Maybe you are immune from birth.

For that matter, do we know how old you have to be to get wasped? Could an infant be caught when they were born, or would we say they need to have an understanding of language? An infant won't be able to understand any orders, but if they're already inclined to obey it might be easier than doing it on their fifth birthday or something.

(Mostly I'm wondering how Sturmhalten handled new Sparks. They're rare enough there might not have been any born into the town at large... but it's equally possible there was a teenage boy working in a tavern who one day built a robot to collect and clean dirty plates. What happened to him? Did he throw up the remains of a wasp embedded in him for over a decade and assume that's a usual part of breakthrough? Did that wasp never manage to enter at all? Did the town perhaps notice when a small child was immune to the wasping, or were his parents - ordered to present him for it but no one thought to be more specific - just not questioning it, because they were too glad their son would be free.)

[12freddofrogs]

I made myself a dragon! Eyes are a little wonky but I don't care; I love them.

They're Fidelis from Deltora Quest, aka the Topaz dragon. Pattern from BeeZeeArt, and topaz fabric from Spoonflower.

[12freddofrogs]

I really don't understand the general perception that "Fairytale means nothing bad ever happens!"

Like, I understand people who think "All fairytales have a happy ending," or "Fairytale means the good guys win." A lot of people grew up on Disney and those are the only fairytales they know. I understand that.

But Disney movies do have villains. There are witches and curses and I am fairly sure every one of those movies has a part where its possible the princess would die.

Like, not even getting into actual fairytales and the dark things that happen, the most basic Disney kiddie movies have conflict. It is a basic element of what makes a story. They might live happily ever after but bad things happen before they get to that point.

[12freddofrogs]

Three episodes into Artful Dodger.

Thoughts so far that are not particularly spoilery but will be under a readmore nonetheless:

1. Baby Dodger is adorable. I love his little accent ("guv!") that very much feels like a literal Dickensian street child. I want more flashbacks. Give me all of the flashbacks.

2. Belle and Jack steadily creating all of modern medicine themselves within a week is a little bit dramatic, but I don't care; it's fun. They have a fantastic dynamic and it's a fun balance of genuine respect and also being very annoyed at each other.

3. Actually everything about Belle is fun? I like that she's just running a different subplot entirely. Just blackmails a surgeon into teaching her. Doesn't fully grasp her class privilege but does have a pretty good idea of it; is very willing to use her title to actually fix things. Assists with surgery in a ballgown and a tiara, and presumably climbed out of her window wearing it.

4. On a character level, I support Jack's desire to not thieve and want him to do well about it, but also I adored watching the Artful Dodger do a pickpocket with the card. He is so good at it, its his absolute skillset.

5. Fagin is less annoying then he was in the first episode. The fact he does actually seem to care about Dodger/Jack helps, the whole e2 scheme being almost entirely for Jack's benefit with the gambling debt rather than to make a profit himself. That said, Fagin definitely has some plan upcoming that Jack isn't going to like.

6. I liked Fagin making a "best of times/ worst of times" reference, but it was almost too subtle. Different book entirely. I am very much hoping Jack will at some point say "Consider yourself part of the furniture" or something equally blatant as a reference to the musical. Tells Belle "Its clear we're going to get along."

7. I want Oliver Twist himself to turn up at some point. Ideally as a very nice guy, because that is more in tune with the book of the virtuous kid, regardless of Jack's feelings towards him, and it would be kind of great if Jack just punches Oliver and he's still not telling anyone about Dodger.

But come on, you can't just name a character 'Jack Dawson' and call it an adaption (spin off? Sequel? Its not trying to be Oliver Twist), there needs to be significant link. Yes, yes, Fagin is there but they are inventing half their backstory so it helps but doesn't really count. I am still mad about that book that just named characters Peter, James, and Wendy and called it an adaption with no closer link. That's not an adaption that's an allusion.

(7 and 1 are linked, btw. Please give us a flashback of baby Oliver and the Artful Dodger. Show us a scene from the book, or make one up during the book's time period. I want it. I will not give you anything for it but I want it. Please)

[12freddofrogs]

And I think I do want to do a proper summary of my thoughts on Once Upon A Time, season 1.

It's a fun show to mock, in a lot of ways. Most of those ways the show itself is in on the joke. Like, the dwarves hatch from eggs. I responded with "????" and that was absolutely the intended reaction of the audience.

And at the same time, the dwarves hatching from eggs makes sense? It's in dialogue with traditional fantasy. Old fantasy stories that claim that dwarves are single-gender, and while newer versions say "they're not, but humans can't tell the difference," this is just OUAT having fun with "if there aren't female dwarves, where do new dwarves come from?"

Genuinely, there is some really great writing moments. The whole Beauty and the Beast retelling? I swooned. It suffered a little from the pacing, but I don't know what else they could have done from that - the story couldn't practicably have been more than one episode, so they needed to get all of the romance into forty minutes. They did okay. That shot of the chipped teacup? Fantastic.

Or the reveals? A young Regina saving a little girl off a horse, and that crying child admitting her name is Snow White was amazing. Or August pulling up his pants to reveal wooden legs, answering immediately exactly who he is. Graham's appearance in the last episode. Multiple episodes leading up to Rumpelstiltskin bottling True Love, and then being able to use it in the finale, with the bonus amount of effort to establish how powerful True Love actually is. Some of it was over dramatic, but it was always fun, and if you give it a little slack for the dramaticness the reveals are actually pretty good.

Some questions remain. The big ones (what happened to Baelfire? Why are they not back?) will absolutely get answered later on. Some might get forgotten.

I do have a problem or two with the in-universe timelines, especially the flashbacks. They're split up over episodes, but taken chronologically they're just... not working?

Like, let's take the dwarves doing an intervention for Snow White. They told her she's not acting like herself since she took the potion. Which is absolutely correct, but, how do they know? Let's remember their meeting: Snow broke into the castle the night before Charming's wedding. She met the dwarves, fights, rescues, she goes off to stay at their place. The next morning, Grumpy goes to tell her that Charming ran off from his wedding, only to find Snow had taken the potion. Like, she had known them for less than twenty-four hours before her personality completely changed; how close could they have gotten?? I don't think the wedding could have gotten delayed, seeing the amount of effort that went into Charming not being supposed to know anything went wrong.

Or Charming himself, having spent, what, a week as a prince before he met Snow? He's a hero, he's brave, he's in love with Snow and ready to fight. Why is he still in silks after going on the run? I get that he grabbed the clothes he had to pack, but it just feels... odd? Not the silks specifically. Like the writers forgot that the backstory they gave him should change a lot of things, that a farm boy isn't a prince. Give him a year-long engagement to Abby, at least, before he starts to adjust.

But I guess my real, big issue with season one is that time that Kathryn got kidnapped and drugged by an unknown person, and at no point did the Sheriff consider it might have been the same man who kidnapped and drugged her earlier in that same episode. Come on, Emma. Do a serious hunt for Jefferson, not just "Where did he go?" Not to mention Regina would have been delighted to be able to frame Jefferson for her own crimes, when he made himself into such a suspect.

But yeah. Ultimately, a lot of fun. Can't wait to see where it goes from here.

[12freddofrogs]

Okay, this cannot be the first time Regina has had fun ruining Mary Margaret's life. It has been 28 years of Regina having completely control.

Framing her for murder might be the most substantial one. But, you know, Mary Margaret might have started dating someone who wasn't her true love, but he was sweet and kind and made the loneliness go away a little, and Regina couldn't have Mary Margaret start to find any happiness.

Or maybe Mary Margaret was really invested in a project at the school, building a new garden, and whoops, the mayor has decreed, just as Mary Margaret put on that last coat of paint that the garden has to be bulldozed.

A dozen little things. Maybe Regina's largely ignored her for the past ten years, since Henry arrived, but come on that was absolutely Regina's main hobby when they first arrived.

Like, there is a reason it was Belle, not Snow White (or both, probably both) locked up in the asylum. I would much rather be trapped in the role of a teacher than to be locked up in a padded room; Belle is objectively worse off than one of the major figures Regina built the misery for. That has to be because Regina wanted to be able to dangle hope in front of Snow and to snap it away again, to make a game of ruining Snow's day and all Snow can ever do is smile at the mayor.

[12freddofrogs]

Call me naive, but I am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Shadow and Bone adaptation. It's already the kind of dark that Netflix likes, filled with romance plots, and I think Netflix could potentially handle it well. Its apparently going to have significant changes to the plot, though, and here is my predictions:

Going to start with the SoC gang not formed yet. Potentially Inej will be the newcomer, someone who can discover the world of the Dregs with the audience, although I hope not. It is possible she learned knife throwing already in this adaption, though.

Ketterdam in Season One will mostly be setting up what parem is. We'll get a little bit of our crows' backstories and flashbacks. They're probably dealing with some criminal who may or may not already be a SoC character, who has parem-addicted Grisha.

Van Eck is a recurring character, but not too major. An upstandig citizen who gives the Dregs some information about parem, and offers to buy it if they can get the other bad guy's stash. He just wants to get it off the streets, you see, and Kaz Brekker will not give up something valuable for nothing so fine, he'll pay. For entirely selfless reasons, of course.

The story of parem will also influence what's happening in Ravka, but ultimately not too much. Maybe Darkling has some of his army try it, which is portrayed as crossing another line.

Meanwhile, Nina and Matthias are going through their backstory. A grisha warrior who in the first episode gets captured by Fjerdans, introducing more worldbuilding.

They get shipwrecked and learn to rely on each other.

Season One ends with Matthias in Hellmouth and Nina going to the person in Ketterdam she's heard might be able to help break him out: a Kaz Brekker.

Which is convenient, because Kaz has just sold a small pile of parem to Van Eck, who has offered to hire him for another job. He'd thought it was suicidal, although the money appealed, but now there is someone who might know how to get them into the Ice Court.

All while this is happening, the arc of Shadow and Bone is going on.

I feel like that's going to be less changed from the original. Couple of subplots cut here, one or two added there. A lot of montages.

It'll interact with the SoC plot, but slowly. Nina will be proving how grisha are treated awfully. Rumours of parem will be swirling around. Potentially Alina almost tries parem at one point to increase her power.

But mostly the plot of 'young girl learns to use her powers' is pretty similar.

Of course, this is a Netflix adaptation, so I think we can probably say there will be the following sex scenes, with various amounts of fade-to-black.

Mal/Zoya (or potentially Mal/other girl who is not Alina to indicate he is a flirt)

Alina/Darkling

Alina/Mal

Alina/Nickolai (next season)

Nina/Matthias (probably after they tell each other their names)

I have no idea what Wylan is doing, tbh.

Jesper might get a night of fun with a one-night-stand, but I feel like that would be less of a sex scene, more him waking up in someone else's bed.

But I can live with all of these. Fine, good. As long as we don't get a Kaz/Inej scene. That should be plenty of couples to keep Netflix happy.

I do think Kaz and Inej will kiss on screen, and break apart because they can't, they physically cannot. It's more touching than they got in canon, but you know, an attempted kiss and then a frantic step away might be okay. As long as they recognise Inej is also traumatised by this kind of contact, and it's not just Kaz.

[12freddofrogs]

Fact the first: in the Justice League Action episode “Play Date”, we discover that there is an in-universe video game starring the Justice League, in which players get to choose which hero to play as.

Fact the second: We see an image of how this video game portrays the Batcave.

We don't actually see the real Batcave in JLA, but judging by every other adaptation this seems pretty accurate. They've got the dinosaur, the card, the giant penny, a variety of batmobiles. There is a uniform collection up against the wall. Maybe its a little rearranged, with certain souvenirs placed together because it makes a better background rather than spaced out like in the real cave - but all in all, it's much closer to the real cave than you would expect from a video game developed in the same universe. The developers wouldn’t have ever seen it, after all, and even if the information is available that Batman took the dinosaur once, it’s a bit of a leap to assume he displays it in a cave.

Fact the third: Batman says that Robin plays, somewhat regularly. (And in fact, informs Toyman that Robin is a better player.)

Conclusion: Robin made his own mod to make the Batcave setting closer to reality, which then accidentally went viral.

Secondary conclusion: Batman was not pleased.