Title: As Bright As The Stars Universe: Pinocchio/The Princess And The Frog fusion/crossover. Rated: G Genres: Romance/Drama. Key character(s): Ray, the Blue Fairy. Warnings: Canon mixing, crossover. Summary: A radiant night star welcomes a new yet familiar face to the heavens.
A03 link: Right here Fanfiction.net link: Coming soon!
I've got another half complete one-shot for a new fandom that I'll finally finish and post at some point in the near future. There's also a much older one-shot that I'm planning on rewriting and reposting. And I've not forgotten about two of my (currently) nowhere near complete fics, Unnatural and Stray. I definitely would like to pick them up again at some point. Once Stranger and Horse Of A Different Color are complete, I'll start on my next non-STARS related multichapter fic. Unnatural is just one possibility though; I have about a billion ideas for multichapter fics.
I don't know how well the entire story still holds up -- sometimes I don't really like going back to look at my old writing (haven't looked at Knight Errand in years for this very reason), so more than likely it'll be getting a spit and polish job. Sometime back I came across this YouTube channel that talks about Danger Rangers. Aside from one video I haven't really watched any others from them yet because I know that doing so would make me wanna pick up my story again, and I don't like having too many big stories going at once. My process tends to be "whatever fandom or character I'm most into at the moment is what I start writing about."
I'll share a list of the other multichapter story ideas I have next post.
-- Eric opening the door only to find the Decepticons from Transformers Animated (and more specifically, the episode "Transform And Roll Out!") standing there was inspired by that one scene from the Shazam movie where the kids find all those doors that led to weird alternate worlds. Also, Transformers Animated is one of my favorite Transformers media. I'd call it a pretty good cartoon overall.
(No, that's not the stealth crossover mentioned in the A03 tags.)
-- I felt that Aurora's past time of watching horror movies could be turned into an interesting character trait where she often references them, especially in weird situation like this. I've never actually seen Chopping Mall myself, so I've no clue if it's any good or not.
GENERAL:
-- I was told Cyan has a hang-up about his superpower and comparing himself to the others, so I thought I'd set that up early on. In fact, I'm setting up several reoccurring elements in this story -- including hinting at which new Rover will be made leader of these guys when they officially become a team eventually, and character relationships.
-- In New Dogs On The Block, most of the recruits were given weapons. For NDNT though, since Eric and co were kind of recruited at the spur of the moment, I felt that going that route wouldn't be realistic. Instead, it's just Blades, Cyan, and Aurora who get their original weapons. I've always thought the weapons EW devised for everyone were pretty dope and creative while feeling like they could genuinely fit into canon (leagues better than that awful sponge gun Colleen had in the show), and I will be debuting the rest of their weapons in their next story.
Powerplay is a special case. He was the only new Rover who never received a weapon. I came up with the idea of the Hydrant Cannon, because I thought a water cannon-type gun would be a fire weapon for the Rovers.
-- I never understood why Colleen was named second in command of the Rovers. Field medic and surgeon is fine, but she's never displayed any kind of decent leadership skills in the show. In fact, in a number of ways I would say she's the exact opposite of what a good leader should be. I don't think I'd personally give someone like her that role, but well, I decided to stick with the show's idea this time, because I thought it could be interesting to have other characters question and even criticize this choice, and her growing into the role as she learns what she needs to do in order to be a good leader for others. Or maybe as she matures, she realizes she's not cut out to be a leader, and chooses to give the job to somebody else instead. Both would be solid story arcs for her.
-- The new recruits bungling the first usage of their superpowers was a very new addition to the plot. There's a YouTuber I watch named Pup who covers a lot of different media, like Spider-Man, Batman, and Sonic The Hedgehog. I watched a video he did covering the DC/IDW Sonic crossover, and in it Pup makes an interesting point -- when the Sonic characters temporarily stepped into the roles of the select DC characters, it would've been interesting to see them make mistakes in trying to use these new abilities and things (apparently they didn't, so the crossover honestly sounds very straightforward and boring as a result). So I thought that'd be cool touch for NDNT. It isn't like the new Rovers were shown how to use these powers. Screwing up makes characters feel more human, and we the readers can get more invested in the story as they learn how to better control and wield their new abilities. And since this isn't a thirty minute TV show but a full-fledged story, it's something I could easily tackle. Honestly, I also think it's kind of a funny scene.
ETA: I've seen a few people say that the Rovers not being taught how to use their powers before being deployed against Parvo was unrealistic, or apparently holding a grudge against the Master for not teaching them how to use them. I'll give him more leeway because in the meta context, this is a thirty minute cartoon. They could've done a two-parter pilot, like the Disney Afternoon did for some of their shows, showing the Rovers getting trained, but well, Tom Ruegger didn't go that route that for whatever reasons. In universe, Shepherd was in a rush to stop Parvo IIRC. I suppose he could've recruited the Rovers earlier, but eh, I'm not pressed about it. *shrugs*
-- The Vulpomatrons are actually in my own idea. In the old stories Zaygos and his minions originally appeared in, they use Fox Mutants as their troops. But to me this just makes him little better than a Parvo knockoff. I mean, does that mean Zaygos has his own Cano-Mutator? Why? So I did some brainstorming, remembered those classical Greek automatons from myth such as Talos or Hephaestus' creations, and voila. To me, the Vulpomatrons compliment the ancient science-fantasy feel of Zaygos and co. Their being based on foxes is a nod to the Fox Mutants. I thought they could be a lot smarter, quicker, and faster than the average robot because, well, they're foxes.
I don't know if the etymology of the word Vulpomatron is correct or not. Language is not one of my strong suits. If someone has a better name for them, then I'm all ears.
-- Streetwise being this ultimate Rover fanboy struck me as being kinda amusing. He was described as being very enthusiastic about being a Rover, so why not?
-- Oh boy. Humor and Road Rovers. Time for my unpopular opinion!
The show ain't very funny. The weird boy stuff isn't funny. Colleen pretending to forget Blitz's name isn't funny. I'm sure people will think I'm saying all this because Blitz is my favorite Rover. If you swapped out Blitz for Hunter during these scenes, the joke still wouldn't make me laugh. I mean, what is the punch line? "Haha, they called him weird! Haha, she called him Blister/Booster/whatever! That sounds like Blitz!" This isn't particularly clever or quippy.
Blitz getting injured repeatedly is not funny. Now, with something such as The Simpsons, The Three Stooges, or Looney Tunes, physical slapstick can be very entertaining, yes. And yes guys, I'm fully aware that the same company responsible for Looney Tunes is also behind Road Rovers. But since RR is trying to be a touch more serious then those particular series are, the physical slapstick in it doesn't work as well to me.
"LOL random!" humor, i.e.: the Russian name song, is unfunny. Same for jokes that are just "Oh, you know this popular thing? Well, let's have our protagonists reference it!" Oh, Colleen referencing the Spice Girls and Bob Dole as she fights? So hilarious!!1! That totally won't date the show badly at all!
This is how the joke police-type fans come off to me:
And my reaction to these people as well as the "jokes":
If fans believe this is the height of comedy, then that's fine. Humor is subjective, after all. But it sucks for somebody like me because the fanbase will get upset at you for not wanting to repeat these exact same six jokes nine million times in your story, complaining that you're being too serious and forgetting that RR is a comedy, how dare you!
No, I enjoy actual funny humor that doesn't bring the dang plot to a screeching halt or screw up character development. I can name funny action/adventure shows, cartoons included, where this is successfully done -- Jackie Chan Adventures, pre-time skip One Piece, The Middleman, Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ("Ewwww, you're not a real TMNT fan!" Oh do shut up), Powerpuff Girls. Not every single joke in those shows landed either, but they definitely pull it off better and succeed in actually being funnier than RR.
But of course you'll have a popular fan just completely eschew the running gags all together and the joke police are mysteriously quiet. This crowd is super self-entitled while clearly having a different set of standards for popular fans versus unpopular ones
People have the Rovers do these same tired jokes in their fics over and over and over again. Back when I actually read RR fanfiction, it got to the point where, if my brain recognized that a scene was about to trot out one of the running gags, I'd just skim over that part. If watching this played out mess in the show was bad, then reading them in prose form is just as awkward, and about as funny as a children's cancer hospice, especially when the author would repeat it multiple times. I also knew somebody who told me that the fics and such that desperately try to be humorous are even worse in quality than the ones that don't. I guess wanting to focus on worldbuilding and developingthese flat, plain white rice-ass characters is much less important than a mind-numbing running gag, because I've never see the joke police bring up the possibility of expanding on either the cast or their world. I mean, could be interesting to have uplifted animals think about or discuss how mankind and animals interact since the characters are, y'know, dogs.
... Nah, just throw another "Blitz fall down, go boom joke" joke in there instead! I mean, RR fans who actually are interested in storytelling? That's for stuck up robot people who can't feel any emotions!
Just because you only want to see lulz and Hunter and Colleen swapping spit doesn't mean you can go around pushing your stance onto other people. Another person and I were discussing this very same topic recently. She described RR's jokes as noise. I think that's a very accurate description. I also think the humor detracted from character development and the plots. The funniest stuff to me is the dry humor of the Master, and the "blink and you'll miss it" jokes. Shag seeing Colleen in her night clothes and his reaction -- it makes me smile. Shag blowing up the billboard advertising Cats was funny. Hunter saying "This is why they don't give dogs guns" or whatever after Shag caused a lot of property damage -- that stuff was actually funny!
So excuse me for daring to try writing a different type of humor that isn't just a copypasta of the show's. I use the interplay between the characters as the basis for jokes, but not ones at their expense, or, if it is, it's not continuously putting them down.
-- The title is a play on the saying "between a rock and a hard place".
GENERAL:
-- I started watching Steven Universe before seeing the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. Now, either I was watching Amethyst saying "I didn't ask to be made!" or Rocket's angst-fueled rant in the middle of the movie, was reminded of the other character (I can't remember which) having a very similar moment, and more or less reacting like this:
Admittedly I've not seen the last Guardians movie, and that's honestly because I have MCU fatigue. IMHO the internet abuses the heck out of slang terms like "x fatigue", but in this case I will use it because that's how I feel towards the MCU -- general indifference mixed with weariness, especially when I heard about the fates of Lila and the rest of Rocket's fellow experiments. One of several things about the MCU I've gotten real annoyed with is them killing off the heroes' loved ones near constantly in every other movie (while keeping less interesting, insipid/or insufferable characters around). They kill off their villains way too quickly too.
-- A friend actually got me into Steven Universe! I did not start off with the first episode however, which I'm sure Connie would disapprove of LOL. I stuck with the series, even though the episode I came in on was kind of boring (it was the one where Onion had gotten hold of some Gem artifact and was using it to multiply things). I find many of my viewpoints on the show differs from a lot of other people's. I don't mind the townies any, because I feel that having a supporting cast is handy for fleshing out a fictional world, among other things. I like the Diamonds, especially Yellow, though Blue is right behind her. Why yes, I do support Nazism/genocide/racism! How did you ever guess that? /s
🙄😄
-- This idea had been floating around in my brain for the longest time, and I'm so happy to be able to finally write it out. Having characters that share common ground come together and talk as equals is something I find really satisfying, and I wish more people would write stuff like that. Especially if one character has figured out how to handle a problem or a situation and can advise the other one.
-- I think I've only ever seen like two or three SU/GotG crossovers out there. None of them featured Rocket and Amethyst interacting in any capacity. Such a missed opportunity for some good character development/interaction. Unfortunately, missed opportunities like that are pretty commonplace for fandoms in general.
-- I do believe Amethyst would find Drax hilarious.
-- I couldn't resist having Rocket snap at Amethyst “And don't you even think about trying to sing at me!” XD Personally, I'm very impressed that SU has a number of songs that I actually really enjoy and still listen to to this day because they're bangers. Not every show (or even movie for that matter) has songwriting on that level. At the Elena Of Avalor subreddit I once admitted to finding the songs in that particular show super bland and something to skip through. Yes, even Esteban's song in that one episode. And Victor and Carla's one-time attempts at rapping was so cringey that even my TV screen wanted to look away in embarrassment. Another poster there was very shocked by my admission. I wanted to reply "Gee, I'm sorry I don't like modern-day basic bubblegum pop and whatever the heck that was that Victor and Carla were trying to do", but my response to her was polite. I think the vast majority of songs in the Disney shows that have come out in recent years are aggressively mediocre, if not outright underwhelming. I would honestly prefer if they cut the songs out all together, because all they do is just eat into time that could be spent on furthering character development/or the plot.
So yeah, again, real impressed over here that SU's music is so good.
-- I don't particularly like raccoons, as in the real animals, but Rocket's a pretty interesting guy. I like both his voice actors, Bradley Cooper and Trevor Devall in several of the cartoons respectively. They suit him. When he actually looks like an actual raccoon and not some kind of demonic terrier, that's pretty cool too lol. In the future I may do a Character Corner feature for Rocket, as he will be appearing in a couple of STARS-verse stories coming down the pipeline. Amethyst? Well, while I really started liking her after she underwent her character development, I probably won't be doing one for her unless I do some SU stories. Which I have considered, but taking into account everything else on my plate, unless I have a really, really good idea for a fic, probably won't be happening.
FUN FACTS:
-- Rocket denigrates my favorite Crystal Gem. 😯
So you know how you put in all the tags for your story, and there's the relationship field? Well, that can be used to describe any kind of relationship in the fic, not just romantic pairings (which is what I'd always assumed). Here's how you're supposed to distinguish between non-romantic relationships and romantic ones:
I've gone in and fixed this on my stories. Personally, I just tag the relationships that are actually important to the story, because there is an issue of people tagging every single ship there is, including background ones. This means that if you want to read something featuring a particular couple and try searching, in some cases you get back a bunch of results where said couple just gets a mention or the like. It's pretty annoying.
-- I've been trying to update New Dogs on Fanfiction.net, but the struggle is real. My Microsoft Office license expired around a month or so ago, but since I've switched to using Google Docs to write my stuff it doesn't really matter. Plus Google Docs is actually free. Back when I did have Microsoft Office, it was just simply a matter of changing the .docx file into a .doc document under the "save as" field and then uploading it to the site, but the system's so finicky that updating multichapter fics there is a chore now. I keep getting error messages even though I've tried uploading new chapters as a rich text file or copy and pasting it. C&P did work, but then when I moved on to the next step, the new document wasn't there. But I was able to post Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions just fine.
I still have lots of praise for FF.net and think it's a viable source for reading and posting fanfic, but they make it hard because the site has gotten so janky at this point. I mean, on my end the sixth chapter of New Dogs doesn't even come up. I just get an error message. I saw a lot of people saying to just keep hitting enter until FF.net finally accepts your story, but I can't continuously do that because of issues with my hands.
-- So now that Hell Is Paved is done, the next one-shot will be much lighter in tone. I honestly don't know when I'm gonna get around to writing up the notes for Hell Is Paved. I know I do have a lot to say on the topic of xenofiction and how the subject of predator/prey dynamics has been handled in a number of animal-centric worlds.
-- Currently working on The Stranger and A Horse Of A Different Color.
-- This is kinda off topic, but the one bad thing about choosing not to engage in fan communities means you have no way of knowing if somebody out there might've saved some fan art or a fanfic that you really love but got taken down, because you have no clue who's safe to approach and who isn't. At this point, any cool fic or art I see gets saved to a flash drive/cloud/etc.
Always fun to imagine who could voice the characters in your works, and that's what this post is for. I should note certain voice actors are different from the ones Evil Writer selected for his Quick Strike-verse, and that this is just how these characters would sound per my setting. I ended up hitting upon the idea of having different VAs for STARS, especially since some of the characters have gotten touched up for my AU.
Hoping to be able to do one of these for almost every story I have featuring OCs, or fics where a character doesn't have a voice actor for whatever reasons.
I'll update this list every time I post a story with new characters.
Lord Death:Oded Fehr Roles: Ardeth Bay (the 1999 The Mummy), Ras Al Ghul (Young Justice).
I think he's done more voicework at this point than live action roles? My selecting him was a nod to the character's Middle Eastern roots in the QS series. I feel he could successfully portray a sinister, domineering, cold sorcerer.
Lady Dread:Bebe Neuwirth Roles: Lilith (Frasier, Cheers, Wings), Mirage (Aladdin), Belladonna (All Dogs Go To Heaven: The Series).
Randomly remembering Mirage one day was what nailed Neuwirth as Dread's VA. Dread isn't as over the top the way Mirage is all the time, but I think Neuwirth could easily dial it back some as needed. She sounds playfully sinister and elegant, all the while relishing the idea of mowing down the good guys or any innocent people who get in her way for for kicks (yes, she will be a reoccurring villain).
Zaygos:Robert Englund Roles: Scarecrow (Injustice 2), Freddy Krueger (og A Nightmare On Elm Street series).
If you're a horror fan, then you already know who this guy is. One October I was watching the (really fascinating) documentary Never Sleep Again, which is about the Elm Street movies. I thought "Y'know, t'd be a nice little nod and a wink if the OC bad guys in STARS had VAs who were known for being horror villains." The perfect Zaygos voice would be a mixture of Anti-Pops from Regular Show and the Khan in The Master of Orion.
The jury's still out on Kaymat, Vile, and Lustfox, though I have a couple of potential choices for Lustfox.
Tyron:Liam Neeson Roles: Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List), Qui-Gon Jin (the Star Wars prequels).
What else can you say about Liam Neeson? He was a shoe-in for Tyron all way back in the day thanks to the movie Rob Roy. The man's voice just exudes regal gravitas.
Another voice actor carried over from the QS-verse verse. Sweet, but not a pushover, with down to earth, and -- call me stereotypical for saying this -- girl next door energy.
Cyan:Rob Paulsen Roles: Holy crap, just go and watch a cartoon, especially one from the late 80s-'90s.
I've already discussed this dude here before and why I like him so much. I think he's talented and versatile enough to devise a voice that could fit Cyan in this "What if my fanfics were an actual animated series" scenario.
Streetwise:Daveed Diggs Roles: Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson (Hamilton), Andre Layton (Snowpiercer).
Diggs ultimately won out because his portrayal of Lafayette has such a cheeky, energetic vibe I thought fit Streetwise perfectly. He also succeeds in not sounding like an American putting on a corny French accent.
Dama: She's been more of a tricky character to cast, but a friend of mine ultimately landed upon these four actresses. Either Laura Fraser, Karen Gillan, Sharon Rooney, or Amy Manson
Laura Fraser Roles: Kate (A Knight's Tale), Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul).
Karen Gillan Roles: Amy Pond (Doctor Who), Kaylie Russell (Oculus).
Amy Manson Roles: Merida (Once Upon A Time), Maladie (The Nevers).
Looking over the profile EW wrote for Dama as well as reading the fics she's appeared in, I landed on her characterization here as someone who's inwardly torn about her heritage at times, but also fearless and ready to face down trouble with a can-do attitude and cleverness. So a voice actress would have to successfully embody those qualities. The only one I'm actually familiar with is Frazier and Gillan.
I don't have anyone for either Eric or Blades yet. For the latter, I'd prefer a authentic Japanese actress. I've had a couple of ideas for Eric, but am still in the process of sussing them out. Originally Tom Hanks was going to be Powerplay, but now I'm considering a younger voice actor who's a native Canadian. I have no shortages of choices there to choose from.
Oh, FYI, Professor Hubert's og voice actor, David Doyle, passed all the way back in 1997, so EW brought up the idea of recasting Hubie in the QS-verse. My own personal choice for STARS? Jeffrey Combs. I really like the idea of someone who played an amoral scientist in the movie Reanimator voicing another scientist character that's more upright.
The context behind this scene is super unhinged (an understatement), but that's still like the standout line for me in that movie.
Title: Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions Universe: Watership Down/Oren's Forge fusion/crossover. Rated: T. Genres: Drama/Tragedy. Key character(s): Hemlock, General Woundwort. Warnings: Alternate universe, canon mixing, crossover, violence. Summary: Individuals can justify their acts of brutality and cruelty to
themselves all they want, but ultimately they who live by the sword
shall perish by it.
