Onward

 Hey, we made it through a crazy year!

Let's all work to make the next year better. If nothing else, hopefully 2020 will give us that vision to learn from the mistakes of our society.

Let's end it with some kitties

Accents

I just realized that all of my favorite characters have accents. 

Hector, Garnet, Kenshin (he doesn't speak English, but I'm going to count that as an accent).

Even my favorite villain has an accent.

Scarlemagne

And my obligatory unrelated animal photo: wallaroo

Don't Abandon Your Plants

This may sound strange, but in middle school, me and a friend had a fort in a nearby cemetery. You may question our choice of locations, but it was the only place near our house that wasn't houses. There were bushes and trees and cool places to explore that we could pretend were wilderness. 

They have since cleared out most of the bushes and trees, which sucks (they also blocked off our secret entrances). But I still go up to visit four graves.

Anyway, this is leading up to the topic of my post. Me and my friend would sometimes find potted plants that people had thrown in the trash. We would rescue those plants and take them back home for rehabilitation. 

To this day, I will rescue plants that I find in distress. 

So when my mom buys orchids, and then throws them away when they're done blooming, I get upset.

Several years ago, my aunt bought me a little anthurium with little purple flowers. When you buy these potted plants, they're usually covered in blossoms. I imagine they use greenhouses and some cocktail of chemicals to get that many blooms out of them. When it finished blooming, it didn't get flowers for a few years. But all that time, it lived in my room, along with a few other potted plants. I have a mini jungle on top of my printer.

Then last year, I started researching ways to get them to bloom again. It mentioned something about the time of year, so I decided to wait until then. Weeks later, it got a flower! I was thrilled. And ever since then, when one flower falls, another shortly takes its place. 

Here's the current flower. 

I feel bad for all the plants that get trashed, because people weren't patient enough to wait for them. 

A second example. Earlier this year, I bought one of those beautiful, yet cheap, chrysanthemums for Lunar new year. It bloomed, and then the flowers browned and the leaves started to die. But I noticed new leaves popping up around the base of the stalk, so I repotted it and moved it to the backyard. 

A couple months later, it started getting buds followed by about 20 beautiful blooms. It looked far better than when I'd bought it. 

I should have taken a photo. All the flowers are done now, except for a couple that are on the way out. Maybe it will come back for me again next year! 

Magellenic penguins in the middle of their annual molt. Look at that pile of feathers!

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas guys! 

I hope everyone found a way to have some fun on this year's Christmas. I enjoyed having a day off to just work on some art projects.

I also saw a beautiful new movie. I got a free subscription to Apple TV, which I was excited about because of a new movie called Wolfwalkers. 

My enthusiasm was a bit tampered when I discovered that there's nothing to watch on Apple TV. I can't figure out how to browse their selection, but from what I understand there are only two things I'm interested in. Their choices are smaller than if I were to go into the movie section of my library. 

Anyway, I started watching Wolfwalkers. I was hopeful because their other films are amazing. Like The Secret of Kells. Their animation is so beautiful and creative. 

And Wolfwalkers seemed to top them all. It was gorgeous.

Man, I hate when they have content that's exclusive to a streaming service. Let me buy this freaking movie! I don't want the useless subscription. I just want the movie. 

Same with Kipo. Let me buy the freaking show! 

It feels like it really limits how well the show/movie does too. They must get so much more exposure if they're not limited to one single subscription.  But this thing really deserves an Oscar.

Anyway, I definitely recommend all of their movies. Wolfwalkers was one of the films that made me feel super light and inspired at the end.

Premature Plotting

Frivolous post about Fern stories~

I just read a few of my notes for Fern stories.  Usually I'll jot down the basic ideas I ahve on scratch paper. And then when I have a fuller picture, I'll copy them down in my notebook. Some of my notes are written when I'm in the middle of a series. It's mostly so I don't forget the ideas I have. But it also means that a lot of the things I write about end up getting changed in the course of the show.

For example, the notes I read were for Steven Universe. I wrote Fern interacting with some of the characters, and helping fix some problems. Now that the full series has been released, pretty much everything that I had Fern help with got solved anyway. I mean, of course it did.

 

So I trashed most of those notes and started over. 

This is precisely why I don't write them down in my real "Fern notebook" until the series has been completed. Because I don't want to tear a bunch of pages out of my good notebook XD  

This is also why I haven't been able to write much in my Fern notebook for a while: Because the Fern story I started writing is not finished yet. And I'm afraid it won't be finished for a while. (The third book in "The Name of the Wind" series).

A couple days ago, I finished watching The Mandalorian. I had Fern notes for that, which were also rendered irrelevant. Except this time, I kind of expected that to happen. It was just fun planning some interactions. Fern would have a lot of fun playing with a certain character.

(Oh my god, I was horrified though when he was eating the eggs! That's terrible!)

I'm always a little embarrassed to write about Fern's stories. Considering I'm sending my character in to interfere with movies/books/series made by other people. I'm even more embarrassed to actually name those things that I send Fern into. But I'll make myself do it XD

The last place Fern has visited is "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts." At first I just had her helping a certain lost character when he's a kid. And then giving him stuff to do when he's a prisoner. 

(Kipo spoilers below)

At first I told myself that Fern shouldn't mess with the ending, because I've also killed some of my favorite characters at the end of a story. It felt weird to interfere with a heroic sacrifice. But then I realized something. It doesn't matter about what I think about the end. Because if Fern went in there, there's no way in hell that she's going to just sit there and let him die. 

It's nice when you can turn tough decisions over to the characters. 

I guess this is the place where I should post the picture I drew. First, some context. Fern loves animals, and talks to animals, and can turn into animals. And animals usually like her, because she cares about them (and they also like her magic). Fern also loves to snuggle with animals of all sizes. And usually that's fine. In her mind, she thinks that you can snuggle with animals, but you can't snuggle with random humans. But then you have animals that speak English and wear fancy clothes. She doesn't differentiate between them and normal animals. So when she hugs animals that have human traits, sometimes they think she's pretty weird. 

 

In this picture, she's going, "Hey, Scarlemagne! Look, we have matching scars!" (They don't really match, but she thinks it's close enough)

(This would obviously be after he's started to act a little nicer).

Remember how I said I'm embarrassed to talk about Fern stories? Well, the same goes for Fern pictures. At least the pictures where she's interacting with other characters. I was nervous when I posted the picture of Hector and Fern. Now I've been agonizing about whether or not I should post this one on my art website XD  People will look at it and wonder who that weird girl is, and they won't read the description. 

But basically I'm over thinking things. I doubt more than a handful of people will look at it XD

Okay, now that I've vented, I'm going post it on my deviantart right now. Before I wimp out again.

Reuse Before you Recycle

I try to get the maximum use out of everything. It comes down to being sustainable. We live in an incredibly wasteful society, and it needs to stop. 

But sometimes it's hard to know whether it's better or worse to replace old things with new. For example, vehicles and appliances. Newer ones are far more efficient with energy and such. But it also takes a lot of energy and resources to build that new appliance, so it may actually be better to keep that old one instead of replacing it with something new. 

Anyway, that was a bigger buildup than I intended. Here's what I was getting at. I've been using calendar pictures as wrapping paper. If it's a small gift, I can just use one photo. But my dad had a big gift this year, so I plastered it with a bunch of calendar pictures. And that's when I started wondering. Paper is recyclable and biodegradable. But now I'm covering the paper in tape, which is not compostable. Is it better to use less tape, even if it means not reusing some pretty pieces of paper? 

This is an almost insignificant step in being sustainable. But it's the weird kind of things I think about XD

Anyway, the take-away is try not to be wasteful. Even if you're not as bizarre about it as I am.

Juvenile wallaroo

Skipping out on Editing

I've been writing a lot of poems recently. I'll jot them down in my notebook, and when I type them on my computer, I'm supposed to refine them.

Except I've been super lazy about editing my poems lately. I'm not sure why. I just type what I originally wrote, with only a few changes.

At some point, I'll need to give them a proper polish. Heh.

Peahen with her two peachicks, demonstrating some of the safety measures at the zoo.

Sometimes Characters Act Bratty

I just edited the part of Evva's story where she's being a brat. 

That part has always made me cringe. But when someone feels hurt or upset, they can definitely act like a brat. And even though she gets slapped with reality, I still feel a little guilty for making her so annoying in that scene. 

Also, when I write scenes where a character is upset or gets in a fight with someone, it puts the idea in my head that I also got in a fight with someone. I gotta shake myself back to my senses after @_@

Koala

Gotta Love the Coincidences

 Okay, this is just too bizarre, and hilarious.

I just checked out an audio book. It wasn't a book I'd ever sought out- it was just in a box of books Grandma was getting rid of, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's called Boy. And it's stories from Roald Dahl's childhood. Since I've read some of his books (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and other classics) I thought I'd read some of his true stories.

When I turned it on during my morning commute, the narrator's name caught my eye. I wasn't certain, but I had my suspicions. And I looked it up when I got home. 

The narrator is freaking Scarlemagne! 

I started laughing very hard. What are the odds that I randomly check out an audio book and he's the narrator? 

It turns out that I listened to another book he narrated: War Horse. That was a while ago, and probably the first time I came across him. His Scarlemagne voice is very different than his normal voice. I can only hear it when he growls.

Whenever I come across a character I like, I seek out other stuff they've done (like Gael Garcia Bernal, after I saw Coco). It was only last week that I rewatched the live action Beauty and the Beast so I could see Scarlemagne play Beast. The animated Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies. I only saw the live action one a couple times, because I like the cartoon better (Beast looks so much cooler when he's animated). Scarlemagne looks a little like Beast during the dance scene, with his fangs, mane, outfit, and ponytail. Plus both Scarlemagne and Beast dance, and go from bad to good. 

(Still angry that they didn't give Beast a proper name. All the little things they changed, but they left him nameless?)

Ah, no the War Horse audio book was not the first time I saw him! I actually have Nicole to thank for this too (She recommended Kipo in the first place). A while ago, she sent me a clip from one of the "Night at the Museum" sequels ((I only saw the first one). The scene had my favorite actor, Hugh Jackman. And I just now found that that same scene also has Scarlemagne. What do you know? That scene's even funnier now.

I'm back to my bad habit of referring to actors as if they were their characters. His name is Dan Stevens.

Avatar- I want to touch it

I'm having fun pointing out parallels and weird stuff in movies. So I thought I'd do another.

 

I just watched Avatar again (The blue people one. Not the Airbender series, though I need to watch that again. It's been a while).

 

I like the parallel of touching Jake. That sounds weird, but let me explain. 

The first time Jake comes to Home Tree, some of the Na'vi touch him. It's like a "ooh, what a creepy thing. I dare you to touch it!" 

And then at the end when Jake flies in on Toruk, the Na'vi reach out to touch him in awe. 

Parallels are fun. 

Also, it's always bugged me at the end about Norm. His avatar got killed, so he was left with his comparatively fragile human body. He masked up and grabbed a gun and hiked out into the forest to fight. I know why they did that. They needed to get Norm out of the way for the last fight scene. And I'm sure Norm did not want to be sitting alone in that trailer while the war is going on.

But think about it! Every creature on Pandora is in "KILL THE HUMANS" mode. No animal or Na'vi knows not to shoot Norm. How does he not die?

The Pilgrim

Over the Garden Wall has turned into my Halloween show. When I last watched it, I realized something. That's not surprising. OTGW is packed full of hidden details. I watched a couple of those "What you missed in OTGW" videos and while I learned a lot, I've never seen this topic covered.

Spoilers

In the episode at the spooky tavern, they introduce everyone by their profession. Butcher, Baker, Midwife, etc. They ask Wirt what he is, but Wirt says that he doesn't like labels. I think Wirt just doesn't know how to identify himself.  That's why he thinks everyone at school  doesn't like him. He has no self-confidence because he doesn't know who he is. When the people at the inn come up with a "label" for Wirt, he's very proud of it. It finally gives him that sense of identity he was missing.

 

Also, it bugged me that the tavern-keeper's song had so much important information. I hate it when songs have essential information that isn't mentioned anywhere else. It's hard to understand and absorb an entire song the first time you hear it. In this case, the song says that the Beast wants to turn people into a tree to use for lantern fuel. I totally missed that, which diminished the impact of the finale (I had this same problem with Frozen 2 - "not too far or you'll be drowned." That was incredibly important, but it was buried in a song so I never got it during the first viewing). 

But there is something else buried in this song which was important for Wirt. The tavern keeper says "don't believe his lies." When Wirt faces the Beast in the last episode, he's about to let the Beast put his brother's soul in the lantern. But Wirt very abruptly stops and changes his mind. He realized that the Beast was lying. If he didn't discover that (presumably from the tavern-keepers hint) he would have been trapped there forever. And Greg would have turned into a tree.

Honest Villains

Most villains seem to be liars. 

Some of them will say anything to get you to do what they want. Like the Chamberlain, in The Dark Crystal. 

And some of them lie about who they are to get what they want (surprise villains, like in Zootopia, or Coco).

 

 But there are also honest villains. 

You have Captain Hook, from the Disney Peter Pan. He prides himself on never breaking a promise. But he also twists those promises to trick you. For example, he says he won't lay a finger or a hook on Peter Pan. So instead he tries to blow him up. 

Then there's the blunt honest villains. Like Peridot. It doesn't even occur to her to lie. She's all about logic, which is why she's dangerous at first-she doesn't value anything beyond her leaders and her assignment. 

People have to remind Peridot if they want her to lie. And when she does, it's not convincing. "I do not steal Steven's clothes when he's not looking!"

Scarlemagne is a different type of honest villain. He doesn't need to lie. He has enough power that he pretty much gets whatever he wants. And if he wants information, he can just mind control you and make you tell. No lying needed. 

 

He also keeps his promise later on, when we're not sure whether or not he can be trusted. Well, mostly. 

"You promised Kipo no mind control."

"Oh, was that supposed to be forever?"

Fictional BFFs

I used to think it was really weird that people would have crushes on fictional characters. After all, fictional characters don't actually exist. 

It took a while before I realized that it's actually very common. I'm just weird because I'm not particularly romantic. 

 I'm also a hypocrite. Because while I don't have crushes on fictional characters, I totally want to be best friends with some of them XD  

 For example:

BFFs: Hector and Miguel (Coco - Thougb Hector is a major pain to all of his friends, until he's reunited with his family)
 

BFF: Nightcrawler (X-Men)

BFF: Connie (Steven Universe - she has more in common with me than any other fictional character I know)

BFFs: The Doctor and Donna (Doctor Who - this version of the Doctor in particular)

BFF: Yellow (Pokemon Adventures)

BFF: Kurama (Yuyu Hakusho)

Hiro Nakamura, from the Heroes TV show. I only watched the first two seasons, because it got way too convoluted. But I loved Hiro. If I were to watch anymore, it would be just to see him.

BFF

...Okay, maybe not at this point in his life.

(Also, he never gets much of a chance to like any humans beyond a handful of them)

It occurs to me that most of these guys aren't normal humans. One guy is... dead. One is blue with a tail. One is an alien with two hearts. One is a fox spirit. 

Which makes sense for me, I guess. 

 

 Then you have characters like Kipo, who would make friends with anyone (As Scarlemagne puts it, "that girl would find a reason to befriend a broom" ). So I'm not sure if it counts to put her on this list.

Also, it's important to note that many of my favorite characters are not on this list. For example, Garnet from Steven Universe is my favorite female character. But she's also not a people person. There are only two humans she interacts with on any sort of regular basis, and that's just because those humans are important to Steven (Greg and Connie). So as much as I love her character, I doubt she'd be interested in hanging out with me. (Scarlemagne actually fits this too. I just wanted to tease that I'd be a BFF with a crazy mind-controlling monkey).

And then there are characters like Tamaki, from Ouran High School Host Club. I love his character. But if he ever went "host mode" around me, I would freak the hell out. 

So yeah. All of the above characters are characters I think I would get along with. I like all of them, but there are also characters I love that are not here.

Which Fantasy World Would You Live In?

I just saw a post that asked which fantasy world you would rather live in: Pokémon or Zelda. 

I quickly decided Pokémon. Why? Because the Zelda worlds always seem torn by war! Look at Breath of the Wild! Everything is in ruins, and no one can travel anywhere without fear of getting attacked. Those guardians are utterly terrifying. Not to mention lynels and other things. Don't get me wrong. Breath of the Wild is a fantastic game. But I would never want to live there. 

In contrast, in the Pokémon world you can raise, befriend, and train very powerful and sentient creatures. There may be some dangerous things, but you  have a team of powerful Pokémon on your side to protect you. 

Of course you could make this question even more interesting by opening it up to other fantasy worlds. Which one would you want to live in? There seem to be infinite options. 

It's not just the danger and the magical creatures you need to consider. It's also the people and their society. For example, the humans in Steven Universe are remarkably accepting of anyone "different." Most of the fantasy worlds I've read in books are not that way. It seems like almost all of them have societies that are sexist, or racist, or something else.

If I were to live in a fantasy world, the choice is easy. It's also kind of cheating. I'd want to live in the world of my stories. Because I design my worlds specifically to be a place I want to live XD

Fern Tales

I don't usually write out Fern's stories. They mostly exist as notes, and a few comics and pictures.  

But lately there have been a few Fern stories that I've wanted to write. Like the Coco one I mentioned a while ago. I think it's because they're character interactions - not so much actions. The actions I can record pretty accurately as notes. But the interactions feel like they'll slip out of my mind if I don't write them down. They're more involved and detailed.

Anyway, I just wrote a new Fern one. Since no one else will ever see it, I don't have to polish it up. Which is refreshing. I've been editing the hell out of Evva's story, so it's fun to write something more chill.

Peachick (baby peacock)

Tear-Jerkers

There are a few movies that make me cry. But after i've watched them so many times, they no longer get that effect from me. 

When I saw the musical version of Les Miserables in the theater, I heard more crying than I'd ever heard before. It made me cry for the first several views. 

Then I stopped, I guess because I'd become desensitized to the scene. 

The same thing happened with Coco. I used to cry during the two "Remember Me" scenes. But I guess I've just seen it too many times. 

 

At least that's what I thought. 

I watched Les Mis several times when it came out, largely so I could hear the music. But then I didn't watch it for a while. When I watched it a few days ago, the ending made me cry again. So I guess when I've gotten enough space from a movie, it gets me again? Or maybe the pandemic has just made me more emotional. 

I'm about to rewatch Coco too. I haven't seen that in a while either, so I'll see if it gets me this time around.

 

So, those are the emotional scenes. But sometimes I start crying randomly during animal movies, not because of what's happening on screen but because of what it makes me think of. For example, Bambi, or a movie called Two Brothers (about tigers). I start thinking of how awful humans are to animals. Like the hunters in Bambi, or about how tigers are disappearing because people think their bones and stuff are magic.

The latest thing that has me crying is from the first category - it's just super emotional. I've already mentioned it: The ending of "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts." I've seen it a couple times. I cried even harder the second time. 

I wonder if I'll stop crying if I see it too much. TT^TT

Lately when I've gotten excited about a new show/movie, I haven't found anyone to be excited with. 

For example:

Coco

 

Steven Universe the Movie

 

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. 

 

I have friends that have seen them, but they aren't as excited about them as me. So I try to hold myself back (at least some, though that was very hard to do with Coco. I wanted to gush about that movie to everyone XD ).

Hmmm. Maybe that pent-up energy explodes. @_@

Lord of the Flies

Okay, we had to read Lord of the Flies in high school. I loathed it. 

Then someone told me that Lord of the Flies would only work with privileged white males. And a switch flipped in my brain:"Oh, that makes so much more sense now!" 

I still don't want to read it again, but now I find it a little funny.

And here's a grizzly bear XD

Jurassic Park Revisited

My work partner recently rented out a theater. Some places will let you rent out a room for $100, and they let in a set amount of people. So a bunch of us pitched in for the fee, and spread out through the theater to watch Jurassic Park. 

I don't think I've ever seen it on a big screen, so that was fun. And since we all knew each other, we could shout out random comments every now and then. Let me tell you, watching Jurassic Park with a bunch of zoo keepers is pretty hilarious. 

 Okay, this seems off-topic, but it will link in. At the zoo, you get jerks that shout at the animals or pound on the glass. So we have to tell those people to leave the freaking animals in peace. There's a scene in the movie where Dr. Grant and the kids are sleeping at the top of a tree. In the morning, brachiosaurs appear all around them. Dr. Grant makes a bellowing noise to call them over. I shouted, "Sir, please don't call out to the animals!" And everyone started laughing. 

You know something odd that never occurred to me until this last viewing? Jurassic Park is supposed to be a scary movie. Except I've never really considered it that scary. I always just liked watching the dinosaurs. Probably the scariest scene is the kitchen scene, with the velociraptors. It may be because I've seen it so often that I know exactly what happens. But I think this is a more likely explanation: The predators are carnivores. They eat meat and they hunt. It's just what they do. It's not a horror plot - it's just part of nature. Though nature can be pretty crazy sometimes. 

For the movies I grew up with, they have become so much a part of my past that I don't even really think about them when I watch them. This is also because i usually draw or sew or something when I'm watching them. When I do watch one of those old movies with my full attention, sometimes things pop out at me that I never noticed before. 

Example 1: The relationship between Alan Grant and the kids. 

It's obvious from the beginning that Alan  is not a kid person. But this time I really noticed how much Alan, Lex, and Tim bonded. Lex and Tim needed someone to look after them during horrible circumstances. Alan gets them through that in one piece. He's their protector and guide. And you can really see that when they all huddle together to sleep in the tree.

Example 2: Master Windu

Okay, wrong movie. But same guy. I never freaking noticed it was him! To be fair, you never see Mr. Arnold outside of the dark office. And there's a world of difference between a stoic office worker and a Jedi Master.

When I realized it was him, I looked up what other movies he's been in. And it occurred to me that everythigngI've seen him in, he dies. What the heck? (Except The Incredibles. And I only just learned that he was in that too! )

Anyway. Master Windu is one of the characters Fern gets to know, so I'm automatically biased in his favor. I've seen him play as many villains as good guys. And being weird like I am, I pretend to feel betrayed when an actor goes on to do villains. "No, don't turn to the dark side!"

And the Award for the Best Villain Goes To

 You know, I think I may have actually found my favorite villain. I've never had one before. 

Though it's only in the context of the full series. I didn't have much of an opinion of him until we got his back story. From that point, I liked him more and more until the end.

Now knowing his full story,  I can really get into his crazy villain side (Maybe I find it so entertaining because of the crazy times right now. Should I be concerned? ).

Also, if he were a human, I would not love him as much. I'm willing to forgive animals for almost anything. 

Although, does he count as a villain? Considering season 3 of the show?

Research Books

I've looked at many books about different people from around the world. I want to do my best to portray them in my stories. 

But there's something that's bugged me about them, and I finally realized what it was. Most of these books discuss different cultures in such a dry, distant way. It feels like they're reporting a different species. And it feels like they always miss the heart of the culture they're supposed to be studying. 

For example. I picked up what was essentially a small textbook about the American Indians of Yosemite. And it had tons of details about their clothes and their food and stuff. But there was absolutely nothing about what they were like as people.

How can "researchers" learn so much about a culture and then report on those people as if they were observing the rock-collection habits of penguins in Antarctica? I assume that it has to do with scientists being trained not to get attached to the things they study. 

But how can you ever hope to understand something if you only ever look at it coldly from the outside?

(Obligatory zoo photo)

Metal Bending

This is building off of a previous post about renaming the "Magic-Folk." They're now called Aevenn. It got too complicated to weave this topic into that post, so I'll discuss it more here.

For a long time, I've been thinking of creating a new race of Aevenn. I have the earth magic people, but their magic is mostly rock. And it never sat right with me how metal magic was included with rock magic. After all, rock and metal are extremely different chemically. It always seemed odd that they were lumped together in some elemental systems. 

I've been fretting over this for both the Aevenn, and also the earth dragons. I've already drawn and organized all of my dragon species, and I don't even have any ideas for another design of dragon. Unless I just made it similar to the existing earth dragons. 

And since I never wanted to design a metal dragon, it held me back from making a metal race of Aevenn. But also, you don't usually find big chunks of metal out in the world. It always seems to be in veins, or nuggets. It's not nearly as plentiful as rock. So maybe there are just fewer of the metal people. 

Anyway, I finally made a race of metal people. I don't know if I'll ever do the same with dragons, and it will probably continue to bug me about whether or not I should.

And on a different part of that same topic, what about storm magic? I have the storm dragons that can spit lightning. But some of them can also work with the wind too. Wind and lightning certainly go together with the theme of storms, but again they are very different from each other.

So I also wonder if I should split the storm dragon into two species - one for wind and one for lightning. 

(I doubt I'll make lightning humans though)

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Okay, I just watched the last episode, and now I have to rethink the whole post. Which is hard because I'm crying.

I'll return tomorrow (because it's late and I have to work tomorrow. I'm the kind of adult that stays up late and watches cartoons that make me cry)


Okay, I'm back! I want to write this before I watch any Youtube videos that analyze the show. Also, I've only seen this show once, so I may have missed a few things. I need to watch it again.

So, Nicole recommended a series to me: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts


Spoilers

I love Kipo. She's one of those characters that can make friends even with the must unlikely people. Like Steven Universe, or even Natsume Takashi.
I always like characters like that. Steven and Kipo show us that violence never solves the problem.
Plus, she's a jaguar. Since my animals is a clouded leopard, we match XD. Her jaguar arms are awesome.

 

 Also, we share a birthday!

I also love Wolf.
She had me crying some, but that's not why I was crying last night TT^TT

Kipo and Wolf are two of my favorites. Along with the character I'll discuss at the end.

As you may have gathered, there are very few romances in fiction that I like. And I have this really strange (and probably really annoying) way of laughing very hard when I'm watching a romance that I think is cute. Fortunately this has always been when I'm alone, so no one has had to witness it. But Benson and Troy triggered that.
I'll share an embarrassing moment. During the show, Kipo says that she likes Benson. And he says that he's gay. I started laughing so hard that someone literally looked into my room to ask what was happening. All I could do was gasp, "I'm watching cartoons!" Why was I laughing so hard? Because that same thing happened to me! Except it took me several years to find out XD

Benson also really has Kipo's back. He goes so above and beyond to get Wolf to forgive Kipo for keeping that secret in season 1. I was really confused when the TheaOtters said that Benson was a coward. I mean, look at how he's first introduced!

I really like Lio and Song too. And their whole family's relationship.
Seeing Lio mind-controlled is the worst :(   It's bad for Song too, but we don't know that it's her for the first chunk of the series, so it doesn't hurt as much. 

It's interesting seeing Kipo protect her dad. Part of me thinks "Dad, you're supposed to protect your daughter!" But Scarlemagne was trying to take him apart. And he wouldn't have had any trouble doing so. The other part of me is like, "Yeah, Kipo! Protect your dad!"

Before I get to what will be the longest part of my post, just a couple little things to comment on.
The show has some weird stuff that I could do without, but the rest made it well worth it.
I guess they never found a cure for the "cured mutes." I always assumed they'd be able to get Yumyan and the others back, so I didn't really mourn them properly. So we definitely get a lot more bittersweet to the ending.
We also never found out where the mutes originally came from.
It was also never really explained why Doctor Emilia attacked Kipo's burrow. I guess she was just looking for Kipo to destroy her?
I love how much faith Jamack has that Kipo is going to rescue him and the other prisoners from the doctor.
Okay, I know the narwhals are a parody. But it's really strange to see a buff narwhal.
I'm not sure how all the little bits of old technology still work. Like Benson's tape deck. I had some cassettes of the Harry Potter books from when I was kid and they just degraded over a decade. Let alone 200 years. But little stuff like that isn't as important to me as characters.
Dude, Song spent months with a hand covered in gold. How?
Also, when we first met Fun Gus, he had bones hidden in him. Wouldn't that hint that he'll end up digesting Emilia?
And Emilia is a very bad scientist. Even Lio and Song point it out. She's giving poor Hugo three formulas a day. How does she expect to figure out what triggers the mutation when there are literally thousands of formulas he's taken? 

Where is Mandu's family? Pigs keep their babies close when they're little (random thought from an animal nerd).  

And another animal nerd thought - baby Hugo makes chimpanzee noises. Wrong primate XD  (Everyone uses chimp noises for monkey noises though @_@ )

Dave's story of the fan war felt really weird. Benson became the last of his people because of a fan? Are we supposed to take that story literally?

Why does Wolf let Kipo call her Wolf? She hates wolves! 

I like all the ways they introduce the "KIPO" logo at the beginning of each episode. 

I love how they draw the night sky.


And now on to the main thing. Did you see it coming?
Scarlemagne.
Oooh, I love that name. I'll probably switch between the names Scarlemagne and Hugo, to fit the context. 

I love how his theme song is so menacing at first. But then it also has the gentler versions, for when he's younger (And also at the end).

He only appears once in the first seven episodes. Though we hear plenty of rumors about him.
When we found out that Lio knew Scarlemagne, I knew that he was going to have some sort of tragic backstory.
I also knew that I would fall for it. After all, I am a huge sucker for animal-like people. Especially if they have tragic backstories. And this sort of backstory in particular gets to me (It dates all the way back to the first Pokemon movie.)
I also understand why a non-human might want to destroy humans, considering what bad humans are capable of.

That being said, I fell for his backstory far harder than I expected.
After all, there's a family of mandrills at the zoo. I've been watching the baby mandrill grow up. He's so entertaining. And such a little stinker!
Here he is, being goofy

And now he has a baby sister too!
Mandrills are also a really good animals if you want something intimidating. They're the largest monkey in the world. I've never been close to one, and it's hard to judge sizes of animals from a distance. But I would not want a mandrill angry at me! Look at these fangs! These are from the dad mandrill at the zoo.

And Scarlemagne is far larger than this guy. He's like the size of a gorilla. Probably bigger, actually. 

His design seems like Beast, from the Beauty and the Beast animated movie. Did they do that on purpose? Because I think his voice actor is the same guy that did Beast in the live action version. Either way, the voice actor does an awesome job. The crazy laughs, the threats, the different tones, and of course the sweet little Hugo.

Young Hugo was so precious. He immediately reminded me of Paddington from the movies XD 

In the piano song he plays for himself, he says he can't play music because he might get found out. But he keeps playing anyway. I guess he's caught up in his fantasy and forgets where he is. And as he says, he's very bored. Of course he is. A smart little guy locked in a room and having to hide his smarts from all but two people. His song about not playing the piano gets him caught.

And it's true - Lio didn't even try to find Hugo when they ran. I get it. Lio has a new baby, and those parental instincts are strong. But it's still so sad. I like to think that Song was going to go back for him. Except she obviously wasn't able to. 

How old was Hugo supposed to be then? If he were an ordinary mandrill, he'd be about four or five. But he turned into a mute. So who knows?

Kipo, thank you so much for hugging Scarlemagne after hearing his story. I also wanted to hug him.

I bristled a bit when Scarlemagne called out against zoos. But he has no way of knowing that zoos are an attempt to protect injured or endangered animals. And maybe the zoo at Las Vistas wasn't one of the good zoos. 

When Scarlemagne tried to flee the stadium and got knocked out, I was relieved when Lio went back for him. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, even after everything Scarlamagne did. Go Lio!

At the end of season 2, I kept thinking that Kipo would work on befriending Scarlemagne. So when season 3 started, I was shocked to find that he'd been kept in an empty little glass box for months. They didn't even give him a piano! Not until a lot later, anyway.
Yeah, yeah, I know. He'd just tried to kill everyone and broke Kipo's trust and everything. 

But his prison is shockingly similar to the little box he was kept in as a kid - when he was forced to run on the treadmill. And he slept alone, curled up on the floor. They'd better bring him blankets or something at night (A great twist that Emilia ended up in that box, if only briefly. Though I was surprised that no one else protested that Scarlamagne suddenly had free reign when the box was destroyed). 

He didn't even care at first whether or not he got "the cure."

My favorite part was when he wasn't really evil anymore, but he was still such a little a**hole. Breaking everyone's stuff, and running away with that crazy laugh of his.
(It's like Regina, from Once Upon a Time, where she wasn't the villain anymore but she was still a snarky jerk) Anyway, I love it!
And it's even better because Scarlemagne couldn't stand up to a little kitten. I guess he can't handle crying children.

So I liked him more and more through season 3.
During the last episode when he said farewell, I got super upset. I kept telling myself that they'd save him at the last minute, or something.
But they didn't. And he sacrificed himself to save his baby sister.
And that's why I was crying.

And I get it. As a storyteller, I really get it. After all, I killed one of my favorite characters in the story I'm working on. I had to.
But I still wanted little Hugo to have a happier ending TT^TT

I just watched that scene again to help me write this post. And I'm crying even harder this time around. Oh jeez.
Okay, I've gone through a couple tissues, and now I'm ready to edit this. Now that I'm all emotional again.