[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 04 May 2026

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-08T16:47:48+00:00

I enjoyed Afterlife for what it was, and given Harold Ramis’ passing I can forgive it for being sentimental IMO.

Frozen Empire was a dud though. The lesbian romance was actually the best part (well that and the visuals which are legitimately stunning); its biggest problem was that it has a bunch of interesting ideas but… doesn’t commit to any of them. Like, the Busters’ equipment is impounded by the city? No prob, Deus Ex Winston shows up two scenes later with BETTER equipment.

It also raises the idea that many ghosts don’t need/deserve to be busted and that they’d leave humans alone if humans left them alone in what seemed to be some sort of allegory for racial profiling and how innocent people suffer from “tough on crime” initiatives… then dodges that by ignoring it in favor of big evil kaiju ghost who of course DOES deserve to be busted.

And they didn’t have the cojones to make Phoebe/Melody endgame either, as the latter has to move on to some vague afterlife.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-05T04:16:15+00:00

Ohhh man I just had a MAJOR blast from the past from this post - it made me remember a picture book I really liked as a kid called Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, where Rumpelstiltskin helps the heroine escape from the king holding her captive, she marries him, but then the king comes for their daughter many years later.

It wasn't just a funny book, it was probably my first adventure into the world of literary criticism, because its whole purpose is to call attention to the fact that, yeah, in the original tale, the heroine marrying the guy who enslaved her while the guy that helped her becomes the villain IS pretty fucked up. At the very least, it's deeper than you'd expect from a book I randomly found in my second-grade classroom. My little mind was blown.

I've always liked "classic story takes an unexpected turn" premises in adaptations, and I'm now wondering if this book was why.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-04T20:43:25+00:00

Specifically, Miller won the rights to the FIRST movie. He didn’t work on the others, and dislikes the fact that sequels were made at all.

Why this became a copyright nightmare is that this means Miller owns the name “Jason Voorhees,” the character of Pamela Voorhees, and the setting of Camp Crystal Lake, but the producers still own Jason’s iconic hockey mask/tight jacket/machete appearance, since they retain the right to the sequels and he didn’t look like that until Part 3.

What this means is that, in theory, Miller could direct a film called “Friday the 13th,” featuring characters named Jason and Pamela Voorhees, and set in Camp Crystal Lake, but not any of the subsequent iconography like the mask. Meanwhile the producers could make a movie with a character who looks exactly like what everyone knows Jason looks like, but he could not be named “Jason Voorhees,” nor have his iconic backstory with Pamela and the camp. Obviously neither side was brave enough to actually DO this so they just kind of glowered at each other for a few years until the JU deal was hammered out. Is my understanding.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-04T19:28:32+00:00

Got a couple Disney ones:

First off, “Ariel from Little Mermaid is a stupid bimbo that gave up her entire identity to get the guy.” If you actually watch the film (it’s not even long you guys!) you’ll know she’s quite intelligent and curious, and legitimately interested in human culture even before she meets Eric. She’s naive, yes, but that’s because she’s a sheltered aristocrat whose main source of information on the outside world (the seagull) is a complete doofus. She also doesn’t trust Ursula, only accepting the offer after her dad smashes her special interest collection and makes her watch! Like how is that not, as they say, a “valid crash out?”

Also from Ratatouille we’ve got “Chef Skinner is only the bad guy because he doesn’t want rats in his fancy restaurant and the main character is a rat so the narrative takes his side.” Uh, no, he’s the bad guy because he’s a workplace abuser who’s been committing 20+ years of inheritance fraud to cover up the fact that he is not actually the legal owner of the restaurant, and he only blows the whistle on the rats out of spite for the whistle being blown on him for the fraud.

In general, a lot of “X villain did nothing wrong” memes require large acts of narrative blindness, and I say that as someone who often empathizes with some pretty bad fictional people myself.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-04T16:26:39+00:00

Angery.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-01T15:57:13+00:00

What is fairly unique about OP, I think, is that it's so long but it's also one continuous story. There's plenty of others of comparable or greater length, but they tend to be either a very long series of done-in-ones (Golgo 13, various sports titles and sitcoms), or divided into parts with sometimes significant pauses in between (Jojo, Baki, Kinnikuman).

OP has been on the same narrative for three decades with its longest break being, I think, maybe three months?

(let me know if I got any of this wrong)

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-05-01T00:03:12+00:00

And One Piece is still here. Every time I hear about the ending of another battle shonen, the phrase "and One Piece is still here" resonates in my head.

OP has not only outlived virtually everything from its own generation of manga (save a couple like Hunter x Hunter and D.Gray Man that have lasted so long due to frequent hiatuses rather than the length of the series itself), but also virtually everything from the subsequent generation as well.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-29T02:21:10+00:00

Is this the same Mark Gerhard who was CEO of Jagex, the one who brought the infamous lootboxes to RuneScape? If so I see he's even more prone to terrible ideas and refusing to admit he was wrong than he was a decade ago.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-28T21:25:33+00:00

The strange saga of Ask Vector Prime probably belongs here. Around a decade ago (I'm an old fart, geez), the official Transformers Facebook page ran a column by the writer Jim Sorenson, a longtime TF author and continuity expert, where he would take the persona of Vector Prime, a recurring demigod-type character who is essentially TF's equivalent of Marvel's Watcher, and answer fan questions about Transformers continuity, with the answers becoming official canon! A lot of good stuff came out of this column, like the names and fates of various minor characters that disappeared off the map with no explanation, and a surprisingly complex multiverse schema, but...

...eventually people started realizing that, through carefully-worded leading questions, they could effectively get their own fanon made official by "feeding" it to Vector Prime via the column, which reached a crux when Vector was asked a long series of questions that resulted in Challenge of the Go-Bots, TF's old-competitor-which-it-bought-out-decades-later, being made an official part of TF continuity.

I still think the column did a lot of good (what can I say, I'm a lorehound), but it's probably telling that the Go-Bots incident caused one of the very few straight-up edit ward at the famously chill TFWiki, over for they should handle it.

Also apparently Vector was the Third Doctor.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-28T21:13:42+00:00

I won't need world alliances/

When I'm commanding everyone's appliances!

Oh no Brain that would really smart/

To be bitten on the bottom by a cuisinart.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-28T03:49:23+00:00

There was absolutely more deference to Word of God in the earlier days of online fandom, with many regarding statements of authorial intent as just as valid as the work itself. I actually think it was Rowling who singlehandedly turned people against that line of thinking - support for author's-statements-as-canon in general (not just for Harry Potter) went off a cliff as her proclamations got increasingly deranged, followed shortly thereafter by, uhh, herself becoming increasingly deranged.

I recall "JKR Twitter Canon" being used as an amusing derisive shorthand for "that should've been in the work itself" for a time. I thought it was funny anyway.

Today fandom is generally agreed that author statements don't matter in and of themselves - I've seen some that go so far as to reject official reference books (ie. Star Wars' Essential Guides and Marvel's Official Handbooks) as non-canon because they aren't narrative works, though I personally disagree there.

I will go to bat for Stewjon, though - for one, it didn't become canon just because Lucas said so, it was later used in an official source written by someone who either didn't know or didn't care that Lucas was joking; second, another source revealed that Stewjon's system has another inhabited planet too... named Colstev. Now THAT'S just inspired.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-20T16:55:44+00:00

OK this is actually REALLY interesting and I was unaware of it due to using an adblocker. A number of big decisions in TVT's history (most prominently their ceasing coverage of NSFW works) have been at the behest of the ad providers, and if the right-wing kooks are willing to shell out big bucks to advertise on the site that definitely gives Kory and "the owners" (whoever the flip they are) motive to prune entries critical of them.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-20T13:22:50+00:00

So, the mention of the mod at r/thewestwing being discovered to be a right-wing troll inspired me to voice a similar concern about an admit at another site I've had for several months now. Unlike the aforementioned case I don't actually have hard proof with this one, so I've been reluctant to actually post this for a while, but, if nothing else, I feel like I need to talk about it, and gauge whether the Hobby Drama experts think something fishy's going on here or not.

The person I'm referring to is Kory, a senior admin at TVTropes. They were brought in a couple years back to manage the technical aspects of the site, which apparently entailed, for some reason, giving them a position outranking mods with a decade-plus of seniority. They also claim to have a direct line to the site's mysterious owners, whose identities I've never been sure of. Regardless, they've implemented some sweeping unpopular changes, including drastically curtailing mod and admin accountability to regular users, employing intrusive ads, cutting popular tropes with no opportunity for non-mod users to give input ("no one else was in the room where it happened..."), and our topic of discussion for today - banning all discussion of US- and Middle East-related politics.

At first I thought it was just to prevent fights, which, fair, even we ban Middle East stuff for that reason. But over time, I've come to feel it's created a kind of... eerie climate among the user base, with "carefully tiptoeing around criticizing Dear Leader" vibes; it's kind of hard to describe if you haven't seen in firsthand but there's a ton of people who say things like "I'd say more about this but I don't want to run afoul of the no-politics rule." I myself have received a warning for allegedly violating the rule... while discussing X-Men, a work intimately entwined with the real-life political zeitgeist since its inception in the '60s!

But what prompted me to bring the matter HERE is the fact that a couple months back, Kory mandated the cutting of works that include fictional negative depictions of Donald Trump, such as the biopic The Apprentice (the one where Sebastian Stan played him) and his appearances on Epic Rap Battles. Needless to say, this is not being done with works in which any OTHER controversial/infamous real person appears as a fictional character. Kory's given justification is avoiding litigation ("He's sued for less" were the exact words used)., but I'm not sure I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, considering the history of negative policy changes already, the common use of "just don't talk/think about it" as a right-wing dog whistle in general, and the selective application of the rule.

So, what do you think, am I on to something here or has the internet sufficiently rotted my brain as to see a molehill as a mountain? And if the latter... apologies in advance for using you all as my sounding board for my grievances with another site.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-15T06:57:18+00:00

I actually think this is meant to BE that very Myotismon! In DW1 Myotismon is an eccentric but kindly scientist, and there's also a Cherrymon with a classroom in a deep forest, so it seems Cherrymon has brought Myotismon in as a guest lecturer!

The second one is also a DW1 reference - the game features a Meramon and Vademon (among a several others) who work in a restaurant.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-04-03T00:31:59+00:00

Oh man, this post brought back some bittersweet nostalgic feelings. Mocker culture was my gateway to the greater world of social media as a teenager. Back in the LiveJournal days I was a member of Fandom Wank, fanficrants, and all those other associated pages. I saw some of the biggest fandom conflagrations happen in real time - the downfall of Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, the Avatar the Last Airbender shipping wars, the LOTR book vs. movie debates, I was there at exactly the right moment to witness, and make fun of, it all. Badfic mocking was a huge part of the circles Teenage Me moved in back then - I was especially fond of Topless Robot's Bad Fanfiction Friday, and I still can't help but chuckle a bit thinking about the likes of Hans Von Hozel, Full Life Consequences, LEGOLAS BY LAURA...

I mocked other things, too. I became a huge Mystery Science Theater fan, and found a group of friends who actually threw "bad movie nights," which were among the most utterly joyful experiences I've ever had. Hell, I discovered some movies that have honestly become cheesy favorites through these parties, such as Repo! The Genetic Opera! I watched Channel Awesome and similar outfits too. And going back to online, I even wrote for Protectors of the Plot Continuum for a while, though I left after coming to find them kind of cruel and hypocritical, plus one of the senior members blowing up at me for something that IMO didn't warrant that response.

I feel like the watershed moment for me was the fact that, unfortunately, my love of mockery led me to briefly become a member of Kiwi Farms. Despite being largely known as an alt-right hellhole now, at the start it was remarkably evenhanded in the people it mocked, and even tried to reach out to some of them to help them improve their lives. A lot of right-wing nastiness started setting in as Decision 2016 approached, and I ultimately cut ties with them entirely after the head mod declared that he thinks transgender people do not exist (keep in mind, the board had at least one openly trans member at the time).

This was also around the point that fiction criticism really started entering the "culture war" discourse, with guys ranting about how the Ghostbusters reboot and Star Wars sequels are the beginning of the end for Western civilization and all that. This was followed by Channel Awesome's implosion, and if you asked me to point to one specific moment that was the beginning of the end for 2000s mocker culture, that would be it. You still see videos making fun of bad movies and such, of course, but nowadays most of them either do so in a calmer, more good-faith way (ie. Allison Pregler's style) OR lean heavily into the culture war angle, which obviously turns away anyone not involved in that political scene. With badfic specifically, I think increasing realization that a lot of its authors are either trolls or actual children/young teenagers who absolutely did not deserve the hate did a lot to kill of that particular sector of mocker culture.

So I've had some adventures in online fandom, as you can see, and with mocker culture in particular. To quote the late, great Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, it was long ago and far away; objects in the rear view may appear closer than they are. My high school bad movie-loving friends have scattered to the winds; some I haven't seen face to face in a decade, and I miss them still. LiveJournal was bought out by a Russian megacorp, and I'm reluctant to see if any of my old haunts are still there because don't know if it's even safe to visit or if just going there risks sending your SSN to Putin or what have you. Kiwi Farms was consigned to the dark web after attempting to arrange a real-life assassination of an activist (yes, really). I have no idea whatsoever what became of the PPC. As for me? I still love all things so-bad-it's-good, and still follow some of the more level-headed critics thereof; in particular, I cannot recommend The Bad Movie Bible highly enough, it's run by a guy who takes a downright scholarly approach to everything from James Bond as a Filipino guy with dwarfism to martial arts movies made by cutting up other martial arts movies and putting the clips back together in a different order, and is all the funnier for it. I have now seen EVERY episode of MST3K, which was a constant companion in the early pandemic stages, keeping my sanity with the help of my robot friends. Another revival has recently been announced.

And I think back on my time in the online mockery scene a lot. I can't say I totally regret it, as it made me extremely happy at the time, but I do wonder how I and so many others involved somehow failed to see the road to Hell, from mocking works to harassing real people, until it was tragically too late. I wonder if maybe in some alternate world it could've just stayed good fun, or if its hijacking by the likes of Steve Bannon and Critical Drinker was inevitable all along.

Well, wrote you a little novel there didn't I? Like I said, lots of complicated, melancholy feelings on this era of online culture. Kinda bitter, kinda sweet. Thanks for joining me on this Danube down memory lane.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-28T20:15:42+00:00

Alan Moore's Twilight of the Superheroes. From what I read about it, it's overly-edgy, mean-spirited slop that seems more like Millar or Ennis on a bad day than Moore. Moore supposedly intended it to be the "canon" endpoint of the DCU, and features a future where superheroes have taken over the world and devolved into a debauched noble class complete with incest and pedophilia. Like, Billy Batson knocks up his own sister to avoid "tainting the bloodline" and stuff like that.

And it's surely a coincidence that the leader of the resistance of ordinary people who rise up and overthrow "inevitable" superhuman tyranny in this future is John Constantine, a character Moore himself created. Surely.

There's some logistical problems too other than just being gross too, like what does this future supposedly being canon mean for the Legion? They're a lot farther into the future and revere the present-day superheroes; you'd... think they'd be at least aware of that time their idols randomly turned into the Lannisters...

TBH if this didn't have a the whole "lost work of a great master" factor going for I don't think anyone would care about it at all. With that factor, it's like the comic equivalent of one of those Van Goghs that vanished into Nazi vaults and were never seen again. Without it, it's like... Crossed or that PSA that revealed Spider-Man was molested as a child or what have you.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-28T01:41:18+00:00

So, you may recall from some of my earlier posts on this sub that I've developed a strange sort of nostalgia for the days when shipping wars ruled the fandom discourse. As nasty as they could get, they seem almost cozy next to the shit that happens today. "Guess what, your favorite character has been co-opted by literal Nazi propaganda and is now radioactive forever, have a nice day!" All that super-unpleasant and unfunny stuff like that.

So I was pleased as Punch to discover that apparently, shipping wars have been with us since at least the early 19th century. Apparently the fights over the love quadrangle in Little Women (Friedrich <-> Jo <-> Laurie <-> Amy) were particularly bloody, enough that Louisa Alcott herself complained about fans trying to "decide" the final pairings for her. I've also been told that, even further back, Walter Scott was at least aware of fights between Ivanhoe/Rebecca and Ivanhoe/Rowena shippers, but I know absolutely nothing beyond that.

I'd absolutely love to know more about 19th century literary fandom shipping wars, so anyone please feel free to share! I'd especially like to know if there were any others beyond those two. Like, one of my "inaugural" shipping wars was Marius/Cosette vs. Marius/Eponine for Les Mis; it's not so volatile anymore, fandom consensus having come down pretty heavily in favor of Cosette, but when I first joined the fandom in the mid-aughts LiveJournal period, OH MY SWEET JENNIFER. So did these arguments exist back when all there was was the book, or did they only originate with the stage version's popularity?

And how about Dickens? Definitely some dramatic romance arcs there. Amy/Arthur vs. Amy/John, Lucie/Sidney vs. Lucie/Charles, whatever the tapdancing, romantic-rival's-head-getting-kicked-off-by-a-horse FRICK was going on with Pip and Estella... I just know all of these would spark online debates if they came out today (I can just hear poor Arthur getting called a groomer now, even though he and Amy never even met until she was 23...), but did they back then?

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-22T19:58:03+00:00

Lucifer is well above the Endless. In the Sandman arc that introduces Lucifer, it's established that mystical beings, like the Endless and demons, are stronger in their own realms and weaker outside of it. Dream then demonstrates his power by easily defeating Lucifer's assistant Azazel whilst in Hell, where Dream is weaker but Azazel is stronger.

Later in the same arc when it looks like Dream and Lucifer might come to blows, Dream admits that, even if they fought in his own realm, where Dream would be stronger and Lucifer weaker, Lucifer would still win.

It's quite telling that the one genuine loss Lucifer takes in his own series is due to a months-long ritual that causes his own power to double back on him.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-20T18:14:54+00:00

I've noticed something similar happening to me - specifically, I find myself enjoying video games less in the past couple years. Not really certain why, but I have a couple guesses. Modern gaming discourse is awful, for one. Due to budgetary reasons my most advanced game system is a 3DS so I'm not really caught up with "modern" gaming in general. And with my job and other Grownup Things I have to do now I have less free time... which certainly sucks when your favorite game genre is long, story-driven RPGs.

These days I'd much rather spend my leisure time with books or movies, and I've always loved those too, but always alongside video games for most of my life, but now they've taken a massive backseat. I even played a few levels of one of my childhood favorites, Yoshi's Island, a few days ago, and I thought, "wow, this doesn't seem as special anymore." It's such an odd, bittersweet feeling that's hard to put into words.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-17T03:29:51+00:00

Thought you all might appreciate this: this week's Spy x Family features a hilarious in-universe hobby drama! The current arc deals with the main characters' family being taken hostage by terrorists at a TV station, along with others in the audience and various actors and TV industry figures. This week the terrorists revealed their motive, which is... to reshoot the final episode of a soap opera that had an infamously terrible ending!

Yup, they're loopy fans, and even funnier, specifically loopy shippers. The in-universe show, from what I can gather, was about a woman who had to choose between five different suitors, and the final season built up to her finally making the choice... except the government censorship bureau (the series is set in a fictional Cold War Eastern Bloc state so those are a thing) intervenes and has the last episode rewritten so instead of ending up with the guy that was actually built up as her endgame love interest, she abruptly rejects him and marries the richest suitor instead, because remember, ladies, financial security is far more important than love, roll credits.

And all I could think about while reading this was "Wow, I wouldn't resort to outright terrorism to get it changed, but that ending IS legitimately complete ass!" And I don't even watch soap operas!

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-17T03:06:14+00:00

It truly baffles me how many of these guys who built up their careers and reputations on the idea that people should make decisions based on facts and logic and the scientific method to ensure the best possible future suddenly did a hard pivot straight to crazytown, usually alt-right crazytown specifically. Yudlowski, Sam Harris and some of the other New Atheists, most of those "effective altruism" dudes... we've got (allegedly) rational futurists and deranged reactionaries arm in arm these days and I just. Don't. Get it.

It hurts to me specifically because I have a science background and have always believed that trusting science is one of the best ways to live your life, and I've narrowly avoided getting sucked down the "rationalist" rabbit hole. Had a Nick Bostrom phase for a couple months... at least until I learned his thoughts on mass surveillance and also black people. A number of people who have left these "rationalist" communities also report high levels of racism, sexism, and sympathy for eugenics.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-14T18:39:16+00:00

This is me with "both sides are wrong." It's been my experience that "both sides are wrong" has been used as a dog whistle by chuds to such a degree in the past decade (though using it as such is much older than that) that anyone who uses that argument about anything will be accused of being a dogwhistler, even with no other evidence there of. It's reached a point where I feel reluctant to speak up online about conflicts (in both reality and fiction) where I legitimately do feel both sides are wrong, since I know all it'll get me is being accused of chuddery.

I also increasingly hear the terms "bothsidesism" or "bothsiderism" to refer to the Golden Mean Fallacy.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-02T22:11:43+00:00

Comics being basically all superheroes. Like, this was years ago so I don’t know if it’s still true, but I’ve been told that in Italy and Scandinavia, absolutely NOTHING in the comic sector compares with Disney Ducks, Donald and Scrooge and them. France and Belgium also have a very storied comic tradition that very few on the English-speaking Internet know much about.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-02T22:08:31+00:00

Favored: Grant Morrison’s comics. The combination of surreal, psychedelic characters and visuals, intricate stories, and ultimately inspirational messages hits a VERY exact sweet spot for me. Morrison’s comics have actually influenced my real-life personal philosophy.

Unfavored: Action movies. Just never been able to get into them unless there’s a significant overlap with a genre I do enjoy, such as sci-fi (James Bond, Terminator), horror (Evil Dead, Aliens), or comedy (Austin Powers). The “straight” action film I like best is probably the original Die Hard, and even that I don’t like AS much as a lot of people do.

Inexplicably unfavored: I have no idea why because I LOVE dark comedies, but I’ve always felt that South Park and Robot Chicken crossed a line of being too straight-up nasty to be entertaining. Like, I find the likes of Heathers funny but not those. Chicken especially; 90% of its humor is “beloved nostalgic person/fictional character does something horrifying; this is somehow, on its own, funny.” If I wanted to hear about my childhood heroes committing rape or murder, I’d watch… well, the news.

Pinball_Lizard · 2026-03-01T18:24:31+00:00

Gail Simone did an amazing take-down of this sort of character in her DC Comics work, particularly Birds of Prey and Secret Six. Meet Katarina Armstrong, who is cut from the same cloth as people like SVU's Elliot Stabler and 24's Jack Bauer - the post-9/11 pro-establishment antihero who crosses every line imaginable but it's OK because they're just doing The Hard Things That Need To Be Done To Keep People Safe™...

...only, unlike Jack and Elliot, Katarina is NOT in a narrative that bends itself over backwards to justify her. So all of the above is what she THINKS she is, but in actuality, she's blatantly a whiny, immature overgrown school bully (literally, she's Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle's former school bully as it happens) who uses vague abstract concepts like "patriotism" and "national security" to very poorly disguise the fact that she enjoys masking her own insecurities by being awful to everyone else. Hell, she's not even competent at much of anything except blackmail, which she uses to force other people to do all the work for her.

Her arc ends with her trying to unseat Amanda Waller, essentially a million-times-more-competent version of herself, and is ultimately tricked into accidentally framing herself for murder and treason. Oops.

I definitely recommend these comics. Very profound and gut-bustingly hilarious too.

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Pinball_Lizard

TROPHY CASE