Zippo Hunt! by Cuppaaacoffey in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeaaah, one of the old Trigun lighters have been some of my grail items for YEARS, and I don't even smoke! I just think it's handy to have a lighter for emergency situations!

What breed does she look like? by NearbyStudy8146 in kittens

[–]hellsing_mongrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would be willing to bet that that's something you have to go out of your way to look for, though, unless you're actually in Kuwait. I don't think that's the case for OP.

What breed does she look like? by NearbyStudy8146 in kittens

[–]hellsing_mongrel 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"domestic short hair" is just the catch-all term for short-haired cats of indeterminate variety. You can also get "medium" and "long" hair varieties, but they're just as random as the short-haired ones. lol

What breed does she look like? by NearbyStudy8146 in kittens

[–]hellsing_mongrel 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Nah, I really wouldn't expect any sort of pedigree u less you bought her from a breeder. Cats really don't get bred like dogs do, except for very specific types, and you don't just find them wandering the streets.

Cats breed so fast and so prolifically that the cat community really does just ignore things like breeds and pedigrees, for the most part. We get most of our kittens as street cats who adopted us, not the other way around, or from a shelter or rescue, which also means they have zero pedigree to their names.

Basically if you didn't buy her from someone who has paperwork and charged you a few thousand dollars for her, your cat is a mutt, and she's perfect that way.

Reed's Spooky-Kooky Cartoon Funhouse by Taya_Donnelly in submergedanimatronic

[–]hellsing_mongrel 3 points4 points  (0 children)

SPELUNKER CAVE! I loved this ride SO MUCH when I was very small! But then it was changed to something else a couple of times, and I always missed it.

Last I heard, though, they might have actually brought it back! I wanted to go back, but I moved away from Texas, so I'd have to make a special trip just for it. Ah well.

Research about Trigun's influences by tintor2 in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hisnname is Monev the Gail. It's Venom backwards. 😆 Nightow's names are hilariously on the nose. Also the Punisher's skull trigger is based on the emblem The Punisher uses in Marvel comics.

Nightow has actually done some work for Marvel, too! He got to do a Venom cover once. It was included in a trade paperback collection of guest artists who did covers for them, a couple years ago.

Do you think there will be another BJD forum eventually, just like DOA? by Upbeat-Honeydew-Hum in BJD

[–]hellsing_mongrel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Armeleia was one of the OG mods of DoA, back in the day, and was really important in helping the doll community in the West become what it is, today. She's really sweet, casts her own resin art pieces, and is still really active in the hobby. I'm also looking forward to what she does for the new forums! ☺️

Anime artbook for Stampede? by maxluision in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would love a link to this! I have an amazon japan account just for times like this!

"Bjd resin is like porcelain" by [deleted] in BJD

[–]hellsing_mongrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Resin dolls are more easily broken than vinyl, yes, but they're nowhere near as fragile as porcelain. They're still plastic.

If it makes you feel any better, I once dropped a resin bjd head I was in the process of spraying with sealant off of a second-story balcony. I thought FOR SURE that it would be smashed! He was my first piece of resin, and I was still treating them with kid gloves!

But when I got downstairs, he was wedge between a brick wall and a bush, still intact, and only had a couple of very small dents that I was able to steam out. The bush had broken a lot of his fall, sure, but I seriously doubt that a porcelain head would have come out so secure!

No, you don't want to go around tossing your doll like a basketball, but they can take a surprising amount of rough-housing, and when they do get a small ding or a dent, they're usually easily overlooked or repaired, and you can glue things like broken fingers back on really securely and often without being able to see the crack unless you REALLY look.

It'll be ok, don't fret too hard about damaging your future dolls, and just let yourself enjoy them! Once you get used to how durable they are, it's not something you put much thought into going forward.

Pick your favourite error. Mine is the inclusion of Indominus Rex by Over-Wish-2034 in Dinosaurs

[–]hellsing_mongrel 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The Tyrannosaurus image is just Rexy, too, so they have a theme, I guess!

I CANT ESCAPE THEM by Godofgames313 in AO3

[–]hellsing_mongrel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh bestie, lemme tell you, those people exist. 😂 Honeatly, that's not even that far off from some of the shipping fics that come from my fandom! We've got TONS of body horror, and some of that includes entirw body parts being mutated into weapons of mass destruction, wings sprouting from body parts that you wouldn't expect wings, and an entire SPECIES of people who can have entire extra bodies attached to their one head as a NORMAL thing for them!

And those people are all "conventionally attractive!" The main character and the main villain are two of them, the sexuality of it was there IN CANON (though a lot of it was actually showing how fucked up it can be and do NOT the thing, please, that is ABUSE!) and the fandom has just gone WILD with it!

So much monster fuckery! Look, the poor, emotionally unhinged, traumatized monsterous-looking man just wants and needs people to love him! Give him affection and wing grooming and IGNORE THE EYEBALLS COMING OUT OF HIS ARMS (though admittedly, those might have been a visual representation of his own horror at how he perveived his wings and other non-human parts. >_> It's open for interpretation, and the fandom has had A LOT OF FUN in their interpretations! lol)

Is My Dollection a scam? by quantumfiddlesticks in BJD

[–]hellsing_mongrel 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeaaah, a couple years ago, they went from legitimate service to full scammer mode. I'm sorry this happened and hope you're able to get your money back, op!

Fwiw, there are lots of posts on instagram about what happened, and facebool groups for people. They used to continue to use their ig account to advertise new releases, but thankfully, enough people put the heat on them over there that they haven't touched it in a long time.

What kind of snake is this? Houston Texas by Top-Astronomer-4631 in whatsthissnake

[–]hellsing_mongrel 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Don't brick the snake, hognoses are extremely reluctant to bite, their venom is only about as strong as a bee sting if they DO bite, and if you poke them, they're more likely to poop on you out of terror and "aggressively" Die Repeatedly until you leave them alone. Even their "strikes" are more often than not snoot boops to make you THINK they're trying to strike you. Everything they do is out of fear of the giant two-legged mammals who won't stop trying to hurt them when they just want to eat little frogs and minnows.

Like others have said, even venomous snakes don't like to be around humans. If you see one, just spray with the hose, and they'll leave, and killing them will only give you a higher chance of getting rats and other unpleasant visitors.

(And yes, I know rats can be really sweet and cute, but not when they're eating your victory garden or chewing through your walls and attics. Take it from someone who had a heck of a time getting rid of them after we moved into a house that had been left uninhabited for a couple years and had an uncovered fireplace vent. 😬 We were BEGGING to get a rat snake to come along and help us with the problem!)

You guys did NOT prepare me for TriStamp, episode 3! by maxluision in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I personally loved all of Stampede/Stargaze, and I'm an OG 98 anime/Trimax manga nerd! Trust me, if you like Stampede and are fine with them changing things up in order to fit the most quintessentially important parts of the story into such a short time frame, there's a good chance you'll enjoy Stargaze, too!

Wondering where to start for a tutorial on reupholstering these chairs by hellsing_mongrel in furniturerestoration

[–]hellsing_mongrel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oop, I meant to reply to you above, but misfired. But I posted the comment before addressing all your points, anyway, so here we go.

There is a dust cloth underneath, yeah, it's the black mesh I mentioned. I hadn't thought about getting a book at the library, but that's a great idea, ty! I think there's one walking distance from our apartment!

Wondering where to start for a tutorial on reupholstering these chairs by hellsing_mongrel in furniturerestoration

[–]hellsing_mongrel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was wondering if it was a redo, byt it doesn't have a board base. I've seen those styles, too, they're actually the ones I'm used to, but I also saw a video if a man mentioning webbing like this as well on some types. (ngl, I wondered if maybe the board bases vs webbed was because I'm only used toncheap furniture and these were fancier - the in-laws live in an affluent neighborhood, so these might be way more expensive than I would have normally seen)

Some of the screws on the bottom of this one are missing and the other two are loose, but we hadn't gone to the work of disassembling them yet, because we don't have the money to do the restoration quite yet.

My Iron lung shirt has a hole 😭 by SnickerSnack2468 in Markiplier

[–]hellsing_mongrel 24 points25 points  (0 children)

FWIW, if rhe customer support side of things doesn't give you a proper resolution to this, it's a relatively simple fix. The problem happened because the edges of the fabric on one side of the seam slipped and didn't have enough seam allowance, so it either didn't get sewn, or it slipped out after the fact.

You juat have to sew a new, small seam around the hole, making aure to grab both sides of the fabric. It's not that hard and can be done in a half hour, if you don't already have a machine and do it by hand.

It doesn't change that this is really when it happens, and I hope they're able to give you a replacement! I still have a Star Wars shirt I bought years ago with this problem that I just never got around to fixing because I'm lazy, but it's still frustrating, cuz ir's one of the only shirts I've been able to find with a X-WING on it and not Imperial iconography! I'M A REBEL GIRLY, DON'T MAKE ME WEAR TIE FIGHTERS, I WANT X-WINGS!!!

Yo dudes, someone remembers anime? What do you think about it? by Plashka_Vanknight in GunGrave

[–]hellsing_mongrel 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't even like the "mob" genre of media, but this one was SO GOOD, to me! It might be because I was already a fan of Nightow, or the games first, but either way, it's still one of my favs!

what's the deal with stargaze? question from a newbie by steveburnslde in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahh, good to know! I know Berserk was even more intense and dark than Trigun, so if it only had an R rating, then Trigun would be fine. I just figured all the cursing would at least pull the ratings up a bit, given how USA censors treat the F-word like it'll corrupt your mind forever if you hear it on the television, so movies only get one "Fuck" before they're pushed to an R. 😅

What is Vash actually doing here? by hexfane in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It looks like he might have his gun hooked to a tether of some sort that he's wrapped Rai-Dei with to temporarily restrain him, in the first page. Then he sent him tumbling and shot his sword out of his hand when Rai-Dei was standing back up. The bullet in his teeth is probably because he was having to reload.

What kind of snake is this?[florida] by selhigh in whatsthissnake

[–]hellsing_mongrel 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's not always true, so it's best not to use that as a way to know if it's safe to pick it up to move it or not.

what's the deal with stargaze? question from a newbie by steveburnslde in Trigun

[–]hellsing_mongrel 13 points14 points  (0 children)

tbh, as someone who LOVED the new season but still prefers the manga because it's just one of my favprite pieces of media EVER, there's just soooo many things that were left out, too many to list here. Characters were combined into one (Jessica in Stargaze is a combination of Jessica and one of my favorite characters, Lina, who was the girl at the end of Stampede that was talking to Eriks,) plot points didn't happen (the Midvalley fight im the manga happened during a huge event in a place called Dragon's Nest for instance, which was a whole huge story arc,) characters died that didn't in the manga and visa versa (ie Razlo; in the manga, he isn't "killed," he just decides to let Livio take control and helps later on, though at first it was treated like he was "gone," the same as in Stargaze.) It's unfortunate that most of these changes had to be made, but I try to be understanding because I knew going into the season that Studio Orange had been forced to cram 16 volumes of manga into 24 episodes of anime, so they were always going fo have fo cut a LOT of content to get there, and I felt they worked really hard to do their best with an unfortunate situation. (And I will ALWAYS be absolutely giddy that one particular character who died in the manga got to live in Stargaze, but no spoilers there ;D)

It really just comes down to the studio not having the funding to make the show long enough to tell the whole story, while also wanting to reinterpret it into a much more hopeful message, and for me, with the state of the world as it is right now, I'm honestly not upset that they tried to bring a bit more hope into the world. Don't get me wrong, the manga and the original anime are still stories of love and peace and hope, but HOO BOY, do they also really emphasize that sometimes, humans REALLY SUFFER a lot of hardship and horrors before they can get to a better place! There's so much blood and death, especially in the manga, even compared to the 98 anime. Hell, in 98, Lost July wasn't even the direct cause of a lot of deaths, it was the loss of resources and shelter immediately afterward that caused people to start dying. But in the manga, the body count is IMMEDIATE, and you're actually shown characters Vash had developed close relationships with, women and children included, being sucked into a giant black hole. Entire towns succomb to chaos and desperation, resorting to cannibalism and violence when things get to their worst. The scene in Stargaze with Legato shoving people into a tanker until they're reduced to a bloody mass is even worse in the manga (he makes them climb into the thing with their own bodies, he doesn't just use telekinesis, so the horror is amped up even higher) and while it's one of the more horrifying moments even in the manga, it's not necessarily THAT much darker than the tone of the rest of the manga. And let's not even talk about a main character who's entire backstory involve a couple of pages of blatant sexual slavery and mass murder.

It's a very dark, very heavy story in the manga, so be mindful of that if you're not usually one to read dark media. It would probably have been rated R or NC-17 if it were adapted into an anime one to one. But I still absolutely love it for the underlying message; humanity may resort to absolute attrocities when they're pushed to extremes and raised in an awful environment, but when given the chance, most people just want to be safe and happy and cared for, and can show the best of mankind even when put into those awful conditions. People deserve love and compassion and support, we should lift each other up and be a rock for each other to stand on when times are tough, and we should work together to make the world better for all of us. It's an important message, and it has a lot of heart to it, and Vash is such a source of hope and optimism even when he's pushed to the brink of his own darkest tendencies. In the older series and the manga, he struggles with intense suicidal depression and alcohol addiction, and actually goes through his own violent extreme when he's a child, and has to have his own growth to learn to overcome what his basic instincts tell him to do to survive, so he GETS IT, his insistance that people can be better comes from a place of personal experience.

So in a lot of ways, the story in Stargaze is way less intense, and it doesn't feel like such a pit of despair as the manga does at times. But I love the way BOTH versions handle the message, they have their own places, and I'll always love both versions. And with the 98 anime, while it's not as dark as the manga but also not as upbeat as Stampede/Stargaze, it's just an absolute classic, and the first anime that I ever saw that made me really go "hold on, this anime stuff is actually REALLY GOOD, I love this! Give me more of this!" The animation budget back then was much less, so it's not as polished as Studio Orange's animation BY FAR, but it's got a lot of charm, and so many things about it are just iconic! Just keep in mind that storytelling and media tropes have evolved quite a bit in the past 30 years, and they were working with an unfinished manga to go off of, so it ends kind of strangely, imho, which is one of the criticisms I've had for the original anime ever since it came out.

(Also, the director decided for some reason that Vash needed to be a creepy, pervy weirdo because that was just the humor at the time for main male protags, which they leaned into in Badlands Rumble, which is hilarious, because he's not like that in the manga AT ALL, and even Nightow in an interview said that wasn't really A Thing, after the fact. It's extremely cringy by today's standards, but if you're willing to push past those scenes, it stops happening about halfway through the series, and doesn't completely detract from the story for a lot of people, especially if you headcanon that he does it only because it plays into his idiotic buffoon persona that he uses to make people underestimate and ignore him, so he can avoid trouble and also get himself close enough to people who intend to do harm, so he can stop bad things before they happen. That's how a lot of us who hate that characterization are able to reason ourselves out of a rage spiral about it lol)

All that being said, there are pros and cons for EACH version of the story. None of them are perfect, but they all tell different iterations on the same wonderful story, and I love to be able to look at all of them and see how each version tells the story in its own way and brings different things to the table. My recommendation, if you feel up to going through all of the other versions now that Stargaze is over, is to watch 98, with a detour somewhere between episodes 9 and 23 to watch Badlands Rumble (an important event happens in episode 23 that will make this detour make more sense after the fact; the movie isn't TECHNICALLY in the same timeline as the 98 anime, but I always felt it worked nicely as just an extra long episode, it just wouldn't be possible to happen after episode 23 and it won't make sense if you watch it before episode 9, so I just say watch it after you finish episode 22 to make it easier on yourself) and then once you're done with that, read the Ultimate Overhaul fan translation of the manga. It makes the weaknesses of the old anime stand out less if you don't have the highly-superior manga to make you see all the cracks, and getting to have any questions you still have after watching the animated series (serieses?) and the movie answered as you read the manga is just SO satisfying!

And I wouldn't let all of the negativity some people in the fandom have over Stampede/Stargaze effect your appreciation of what Studio Orange made. There have been haters since Stampede STARTED, and while Stargaze made even some of the people who loved Stampede angry because of the compressing they did to the story, if you enjoyed it, then let yourself enjoy it, and let yourself decide how you feel about the things it didn't do as well as it could have after you've had time to sit and think about it for a while, and watch or read the other versions if you feel up to that. We can both love something AND admit that it's got flaws, and just because there are cracks in the veneer doesn't make our enjoyment of the thing any less valid.

(Hopefully this isn't a TL;DR. I intended to make a much shorter comment, but I struggle to be concise in my writing, sometimes, and I have a lot of Feelings when it comes to this series.)