This is what I get woken up by every morning. I can’t remember how many years ago I got given this damn alarm clock by my aunt (as a Bday prezzie), but it was probably 14 or 17 years ago, and is easily the most effective alarm clock I’ve ever had:
I thought bonnets covered all the hair to protect it while sleeping. My brain has decided to fixate on this, I’d be forever grateful if someone can explain.
Given the rate this comic’s going and the sliding time scale, by the time she’s a sophomore, the original cartoon would’ve been off the air before she was born.
Half a century old here! Agreed, those feelings don’t go away, but once children turned up in my life (nephew and nieces in my case), and I was able to love them in spite of them being childish and stupid, I was able to forgive myself for doing cringe-worthy things when I was small.
I’m also around your generation. Spousal Ms valdVin and I have no kids.
My own childishness escapades taught me to not tell my nieces/nephews stories of what they did when they were tiny tots. (Way younger than high school.)
I have no interest in being part of this conversation:
Nephew: Uncle, you’re embarrassing me in front of other people!
Me (insistingly, obliviously): No, I’m not!
OOH my brother showed me an anime about that. I forgot the Japanese title of it but it translated to “8th Grade syndrome”. If you’ve ever pretended to Kamehameha or whatever was cringe worthy, you’ll resonate with the main character. I haven’t finished it but the first chunk of episodes are fun.
Chuunibyou is kind of a fascinating phenomena, mainly because it’s listed as a personality disorder / mental health disorder in some cultures, but not in others, and in those cultures, eccentric types of 14 year olds do tend to be eccentric or express anxieties in ways that match up with 8th grade syndrome, whereas teens from cultures where there’s no notion of Chuunibyou, anxiety and eccentric self-exploration is expressed differently.
So, for example: a fourteen year old who has anxiety and is insecure, who wants to be seen as unique / interesting / cool, that’s most 14 year olds. However, teens with Chuunibyou cultivate a completely fictional identity.
Sometimes this is done online (sort-of like Catfishing, but usually without romantic intent; they just want to be perceived as someone cooler / more attractive than they really are). Sometimes this is both online and in real life, saying or implying that who they seem to be (a normal middle schooler) is, in fact, a secret identity cover. These fictional personas are sometimes things like “secretly a celebrity,” but in Japan, the personas tend to be legitimately impossible things: someone with magical powers, an alien, a dragon or wolf trapped in a human body.
This differs from pretend play such as Dungeons and Dragons, writing plays or stories, which is pretty typical and actually healthy for adolescents, because despite the obvious false-ness of their fictional identity, teens with 8th grade syndrome want other people to sincerely believe their fictional self is real. At worse, they can become deeply in denial or deluded about who they really are versus the story they’ve invented for themself, which can lead them to doing dangerous things.
It’s a really peculiar phenomena, and it’s interesting to me what aspects seem to be cross-cultural and which are unique to Japan.
I mean, mental illness in general is heavily culture bound. It’s just that the US and Europe have done really well in exporting/forcing our illness reportoires to other cultures.
Huh. I know a 52 yr old who has that syndrome. He hasn’t seen much anime, and not all of his personas know that they are fictional, but the delusion is strong enough to contaminate a professional psychic’s reading, leading the psychic to predict that he would indeed become a real powered superhero soon. You can tell him by his superhero gravatar…
I really don’t get the hate Teen Titans Go receives. Like, I can understand it not being someone’s thing, especially if they just want more of the original, but I’ve never understood the sheer, unbridled HATE that it seems to fill people with.
I don’t mind it, but seeing how much it clogs up the schedule DOES make me a little resentful that Steven Universe is relegated to the occasional “Steven Bomb”.
Maybe if they didn’t need to fill up 26 hours a day with TTG they could give SU proper seasons.
As much as the molasses trickle of new SU episodes irks me too, I’ve always figured that relying heavily on one or two cheaply made, popular cartoons helps CN fund their more ambitious but less profitable output, and if I’m right and that’s what allows SU to exist in the first place, I’m all for it. Although they could certainly use just a bit more variety in their schedules.
That wasn’t it. It’s either complaints that it’s pointless and insuliting to the old sow or it’s nothing like the old show that people were expecting.
They play it a lot because it’s property that the network owns the characters. DC and Cartoon Network are part of the Time Warner conglomerate, DC via Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network via Turner Broadcasting.
It’s like Nickelodeon constantly playing Spongebob or Disney XD constantly playing Phineas and Ferb.
The difference there is that SpongeBob still occasionally had a decent episode every now and again (before it, y’know, ended), and reruns of the older ones were pretty frequent . . . as for Phineas and Ferb, it kept contained to its run and is arguably one of the best (second best, imho) original Disney TV series in recent years, sandwiched right between Gravity Falls at #1, and SatFoE at #3.
Cartoon Network has straight-up better shows than TTGo! (so there’s no reason for it to overshadow the rest of their lineup), it relies mostly on cringe comedy or meta humor (it takes itself down constantly, as if the showrunners are trying to be liberated from it), the references are heavy-handed, and I swear if I have to hear one more repetitive, loud, annoying musical number I’m going to scream. I have younger relatives who watch the show constantly , and I make it my mission to try to show them something a little less . . . irritating.
They don’t have to like what I like- that’s not my issue. I’d love it if I could talk about my own favorite shows with my younger siblings, and get differing opinions on characters, plot points, et cetera, but it’s pretty unlikely I’d be so lucky. I still enjoy hearing them excitedly explain why they like the series they do (for example, Sofia the First has much smarter writing than I would’ve expected from a show originally part of the Junior lineup, and I wouldn’t have known it from initial impressions), but even without comparisons to the original Teen Titans, Go manages to hit every check mark on the list of “why”, from an unlikable main cast all the way down to really unfunny base humor despite being primarily marketed as a comedy.
Long story short, there’s a lot more to it than “it’s not the original Ten Titans so it sucks”, but that might just come down to me having spent more time around it and developing a laundry list of reasons not to like it.
Maybe fans of the characters can’t get over the fact that they are being shown as being classic cartoon characters and have basic personalities that are parodies of extremes instead of the serious, gritty, bleak characters that the comics and the previous show.
Funny thing is, the show was never meant to be serious and was always mean to be antics and fun happening between missions. Heck, they barely fight crime!
Yeah, if you hadn’t followed up with that second paragraph I was about to ask what the fuck version of Teen Titans you had watched, because anyone who says the original Teen Titans was dark and serious clearly hadn’t seen like, 60% of it. Sure, it had dark moments, but then it also had things like the Mad Mod episodes.
Might also have to do with the fact that for the period of 2010-2016, the comics and all related media pretended that the Teen Titans had never existed as a team, and the ONLY show that continued to acknowledge them was a bizarrely sexist random-humor filled version that totally took over all discussion of the characters.
1) The original was a cartoon about characters, not a slapstick type of cartoon focused on just being silly and wacky which is a very severe style shift in terms of expression.
2) All the characters are flanderisations or completely recharacterised due to the style of the cartoon shifting. This is the biggest issue with the reboot honestly as dumbing down the characters leads to…
3) …the characters acting in morally questionable, bizarre and confusing manners. They either act so stupidly it is unbelievable or do immoral things the original characters would never have done.
4) Combining the three points above, it was essentially ‘branding’ a cartoon as Teen Titans to draw in the original fans when apart from looking like them and having the same backstory concepts, nothing is really the same, and it is not something fans wanted. It is an unneeded spin-off which retains very little of the original and none of the style, character growth, or sense of humour that made the original appealing in the first place.
5) It is on Cartoon Network constantly and actually does feel like it clogs up the schedule more than any other cartoon I have ever seen, and it doing so is kind of salt in the wound if you were looking forward to more Teen Titans until Teen Titans Go came out and was nothing remotely like it.
Personally I don’t care because I never trusted the reboot to be anything like the original, but I can see how the small things could build up into a hatred for someone else that was more invested.
Also 6) the fact that they supposedly cancelled the awesome show everyone loved and replaced it with a mediocre one because too many girls liked the first one. That’s gonna lead to some resentment.
I didn’t know of that. Read up on it. And now I’m in an angry wth-state of mind.
I mostly didn’t like Teen Titans Go, because it appeared to be a step backward. I wouldn’t hate on it, but I also didn’t enjoy the style and after watching an episode, the type of humour displayed. But this now…that’s, that’s really something. Wow.
(Plus with what I’ve read in the explanation that it’s due to greater difficulty in controlling the gendered merch, that concept alone is just something I can only sit and stare at and wonder what’s going on in the heads of those executives)
See? You said,”wonder what’s going on in the heads of those executives.” And your assumption is that there is something going on in their heads, like logic. From (many many) years of observation, there is nothing going on in their heads that isn’t mysoginistic, homophobic, or an accidental ‘hit’ which is then cancelled. TW3, Smothers Brothers, Star Trek, … Couple of seasons and Voom! Gone, and rung down the curtain indivisible.
Many fans of the original show were undoubtably hoping TTG! would be a continuation of the series they grew up with and loved. When it turned out otherwise, their reaction was predictably hostile. Add in the fact that the show really is pretty poorly written and you’ve got a recipe for online rage rants.
I just generally don’t like “monkey cheese wacky lol random” humor, and from what I’ve seen this show shoots it at you with a gatling gun. The pace is too hyper and frantic for any of the gags they’re using to have any impact.
Is Lucy autistic? I thought she was just nice, and geeky? I’ve plenty of people like her that don’t fall within the spectrum. If so the vast majority of girls in cartoons and anime act similar to this, so there must be more representation than I thought.
I can explain as an autistic AFAB person myself, there’s just… things that are more than “nice and geeky”. I mean, she comes on strong. She doesn’t know how to “tone herself down”, so to speak. It’s in the communication and the expression of experience, that I see the autism.
And I think anime loves ND characters, especially in fem characters, because it’s easier that way to group specific “types” of girls. They just pretty much take a certain caricature/stereotype of girl and roll with it, in many cases.
I like it well enough though I haven’t seen an episode in a while because I no longer have cable.
I get that not everybody likes it but some people take it too seriously. They seem to forget that the original series also had goofy episodes like the time they all almost got baked into a pie by a wicked witch granny or any episode with Larry. I haven’t heard that level of complaints from shows like Batman the Brave and the Bold or Marvel Superhero Squad which are also not particularly serious.
I think the initial complaints had more to do with the fact that it basically replaced Young Justice as well as every other serious superhero property on Cartoon Network. It kind of felt that CN was abandoning action superhero cartoons in favor of cheaper comedy stuff. Comedy’s fine but it gets a little tiring if that’s all you’re getting, especially considering some of the other superhero projects that got dropped in favor of Teen Titans Go! (look up Batman Shanghai for one of the most gorgeously animated shorts made for the contest for the next DC superhero cartoon that TT:GO! won.)
Nowadays I think the main problem people have with it is that it is on practically every hour of the day and it’s become Cartoon Network’s Spongebob-esque cash cow, which is bad news if you’re interested in other programs on Cartoon Network getting more air time (Like Steven Universe, AWofGumball, or OK-KO)
Just my opinion. I’m not super-against Teen Titans Go as a show. It’s just not my taste, but I does get worrisome when it seems to be the only thing that Cartoon Network seems to air anymore.
Lucy was established as a big fan of Starfire back in Shortpacked because she considers her kind of role-model to show that girls can be “girly” but badass at the same time. It only makes sense that that love would transfer to the new series as well.
I appreciate the attempt because most artists ignore it/just don’t know about this entirely buuuuut that’s not how you wear a bonnet. All the hair goes in it or it defeats the purpose. Also after seeing her TTG poster, Lucy not only looks like but officially acts just like my sophomore year roommate.
Man, Billy would have creeped me out in college. Anyone talking about their high school other than exchanges like ‘yeah, I’m from that area too, I went to [School]’/’oh you don’t say, I went to [Rival School]’ seemed a bit over the top… or would, if I had ever witnessed anyone act like that.
(telling stories about high school is different, but I mean if anyone was like YEAH I WAS ON (MY SCHOOL’S) FOOTBALL* TEAM GO (MASCOT) I’d just be really uncomfortable, and although cringe culture is bullshit, I’ll admit I’d find it cringey)
You’re right, I stand corrected. I feel dumb because I pointed exactly that out to someone else during one of the other Billy and Lucy strips (wrt some people saying that Billy’s new floormates probably wouldn’t be charmed by her cheerleading)
I meant to expand on this but it was like 3am for me. It was called MOGA, which stood for ‘Most Outrageous Game A[ctivity? Not sure on that one],’ and it involved a bunch of representatives from different grades starting in the gym for like 10 minutes of hyping up, then the participants would run outside and do an obstacle course with like, slip and slides, climbing bars, vats of oatmeal, like something from a kid’s game show.
The year it got cancelled, first someone ran through the gym portion in one of those inflatable penis costumes, then someone fell off the bars and broke their wrist (the bars weren’t a permanent fixture like at a playground, so they probably were fairly flimsy to begin with), and someone else sliced their leg open on the edge of a makeshift slip ‘n slide.
But same. Probably didn’t help that the only sports team we ever saw was the football team. Plus, I assume there was a cheer team but I only ever saw one cheerleader, and it was a younger girl who was obsessed with being popular, but wasn’t, so I can’t really relate to any of this.
I was in band, but we didn’t have marching band so that was separate from sports and no one was proud of band (not because nerd shame, we just didn’t have a great music program).
Dear gods do I identify with Billie in this specific instance. I need at least 100 to 200 mg of caffeine actively in my system before I can deal with someone who’s that chipper before noon.
Oh my gosh, Lucy is adorable. It probably won’t happen, but it’d love it if some of that positivity would crack Billie’s shell a little bit. Not too much, obviously, just enough for some hilarious hijinks with these two.
Lucy has shown to get boundaries when clearly presented to her. Everyone’s getting all pissy with her for not picking up subtext, or the one time Billie said no passively. The main cast does that constantly, and you guys talk about how cute they are. Give the new character some time to develop
She has her own Gemsona and came up with a fusion with each and every damn character on the show, including the other fusions. She’s got a whole notebook.
I appreciate the attempt because most artists ignore it/just don’t know about this entirely buuuuut that’s not how you wear a bonnet. All the hair goes in it or it defeats the purpose. Also after seeing her TTG poster, Lucy not only looks like but officially acts just like my sophomore year roommate
Bagge, I love you (platonically/appropriately/fraternally), but I have to protest that a Hermoine doll can have anything in common with that creepy freakin’ elf thing.
Some little sentient being which parents put in a child’s room / living space, and they tell kids it moves all by itself? That sounds like the start of several Twilight Zones!
Well, everyone did say that Lucy was Forest Hall’s equivalent of Joyce! I wonder how long Billie’s been having dreams of being the top of the social pile and punching down? Probably since childhood; after all, it sort of goes with the ‘head cheerleader’ role, at least in popular culture!
I also think that it says a lot about Lucy that Hermione is her favourite HP character – The socially isolated intellectual who want to do the right thing but is occasionally undermined by inability to see the human flaws in authority figures. Oh, and she was ignored by her crush in favour of more stereotypically ‘sexy’ girls.
I find myself wondering if Lucy really, really needs a good friend who values rather than just tolerates her.
Not to throw the Objectionable Conduct* flag, but do you mean Canadian football armour? Certainly Ruth would be standing on the 55-yard-line, attempting a rouge.
PS There’s a great Tumble, Bikini Armor Battle Damage, which analyzes comic / game outfits which are drawn for women and compares them for.actual functionality v. The equivalent male characters. It very pointed, savage when called for, and quite a hoot.
Oh yeah I’m following that thing. Funnily enough I encountered this one argument once that trying to put women into functional armor is actually sexist.
Why?
Because they are so badass that they kick so much ass with no armor on at all. To try to shove them into male stereotype is sexist. Why do they need armor the squishy males need if they can kick as much, if not more, ass without it?
Joyce: Morning, Billie! You look… well, not so great.
Billie: Need… coffee…
Joyce: Didn’t sleep well?
Billie: Sunlight… woke me up…
Joyce: I hear they make light-blocking curtains…
Billie: Sunlight… coming from roommate…
I know right? Down with the oppressive regime! We no longer live on farms where we need to use every second of light!
Well I do live on a farm BUT THAT’S BESIDE THE POINT!
The Senate passed a version of the tax bill.
The House had earlier passed a different version.
In order for it to actually become law, they have to pass the same version.
The normal process at this point would be to appoint a conference committee and have them work out a compromise version that both the Senate and House would have to vote on again.
In this Congress, who knows. The House may just choose to pass the Senate version. If they do go to conference, leadership could just write an entirely new bill for them to pass – possibly scrawled in crayon at the last moment this time.
Regardless, the bottom line is that both the House and Senate have to pass the same bill and that hasn’t happened yet.
Oh goddammit, Lucy hovers over sleeping people too.
Dear extroverts of the world (or at least Joyce, Becky, and Lucy),
That is not cute. That is not adorable. That is not friendly. It. Is. CREEPY. Stop it. Please. It’s for your own good, really. One day someone you hover over will knock you on your ass.
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if Lucy doesn’t totes have a theme song playing when she wakes up, I’d be surprised
I got nothing to say but it’s okay
Good Morning Good Morning Good Morning~a
Good morning, Starshine
The Earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
This is way too mellow for a waking up song!
Let me share some super obscure deepcut here: https://youtu.be/ZOqq3TfpFxY?t=15s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1I7D5MsSvU
I used this as an alarm in the morning for about a week before I got sick of it, but I think it fits here.
Whoa. Flashback.
Top hit for “Annoying Morning Person Song“. Click at your own peril.
Okay, obviously I don’t html. Here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ODz8EWghc
Annoying early-morning song in Dutch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z84mGFiE5hk
Very effective in getting people up…
This is what I get woken up by every morning. I can’t remember how many years ago I got given this damn alarm clock by my aunt (as a Bday prezzie), but it was probably 14 or 17 years ago, and is easily the most effective alarm clock I’ve ever had:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEgiNag27WI
Take it away, Mr. Burns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlikAybIR-o&feature=youtu.be&t=16s
Please tell me that’s a real hat that exists.
Lucy and Dina NEED to meet. They must know that there are other true connoisseurs of fine haberdashery out there.
It’s not a hat but it exists! I’m wearing one right now lol. It’s a bonnet, you wear it to keep your hair from getting messed up in your sleep.
pretty sure that’s just a hair bonnet
I thought bonnets covered all the hair to protect it while sleeping. My brain has decided to fixate on this, I’d be forever grateful if someone can explain.
i think willis just doesnt know how bonnets work. he drew sal wearing one once in the same way
Oh! Okay, thanks
Did anyone notice that Lucy’s bonnet is a POKEBALL?
oh my god she has a hermione doll that she says good morning to that’s so precious
Is black Hermione canon in the Walkyverse? If so, I approve.
Hell, she’s 70% canon in OUR universe.
I really like the lighting in this comic
You just had to go with the abomination that is teen titans go, not the regular titans….
Wouldn’t that have ended when she was about 7?
Given the rate this comic’s going and the sliding time scale, by the time she’s a sophomore, the original cartoon would’ve been off the air before she was born.
Oh my god, I just realized I’m older than the comic characters now
Oh god Sarah is younger than me
Same, I started reading this comic as a freshman… in HIGH SCHOOL.
Don’t feel bad, I’m roughly Leslie’s age.
You know those feelings of cringe-y regret you have about some of the things you did when you were younger? Yeah, those don’t go away…
Half a century old here! Agreed, those feelings don’t go away, but once children turned up in my life (nephew and nieces in my case), and I was able to love them in spite of them being childish and stupid, I was able to forgive myself for doing cringe-worthy things when I was small.
I’m also around your generation. Spousal Ms valdVin and I have no kids.
My own childishness escapades taught me to not tell my nieces/nephews stories of what they did when they were tiny tots. (Way younger than high school.)
I have no interest in being part of this conversation:
Nephew: Uncle, you’re embarrassing me in front of other people!
Me (insistingly, obliviously): No, I’m not!
OOH my brother showed me an anime about that. I forgot the Japanese title of it but it translated to “8th Grade syndrome”. If you’ve ever pretended to Kamehameha or whatever was cringe worthy, you’ll resonate with the main character. I haven’t finished it but the first chunk of episodes are fun.
Is the anime Chuunibyou?
Chuunibyou is kind of a fascinating phenomena, mainly because it’s listed as a personality disorder / mental health disorder in some cultures, but not in others, and in those cultures, eccentric types of 14 year olds do tend to be eccentric or express anxieties in ways that match up with 8th grade syndrome, whereas teens from cultures where there’s no notion of Chuunibyou, anxiety and eccentric self-exploration is expressed differently.
So, for example: a fourteen year old who has anxiety and is insecure, who wants to be seen as unique / interesting / cool, that’s most 14 year olds. However, teens with Chuunibyou cultivate a completely fictional identity.
Sometimes this is done online (sort-of like Catfishing, but usually without romantic intent; they just want to be perceived as someone cooler / more attractive than they really are). Sometimes this is both online and in real life, saying or implying that who they seem to be (a normal middle schooler) is, in fact, a secret identity cover. These fictional personas are sometimes things like “secretly a celebrity,” but in Japan, the personas tend to be legitimately impossible things: someone with magical powers, an alien, a dragon or wolf trapped in a human body.
This differs from pretend play such as Dungeons and Dragons, writing plays or stories, which is pretty typical and actually healthy for adolescents, because despite the obvious false-ness of their fictional identity, teens with 8th grade syndrome want other people to sincerely believe their fictional self is real. At worse, they can become deeply in denial or deluded about who they really are versus the story they’ve invented for themself, which can lead them to doing dangerous things.
It’s a really peculiar phenomena, and it’s interesting to me what aspects seem to be cross-cultural and which are unique to Japan.
Culture-bound syndromes are pretty fascinating in general.
I mean, mental illness in general is heavily culture bound. It’s just that the US and Europe have done really well in exporting/forcing our illness reportoires to other cultures.
Huh. I know a 52 yr old who has that syndrome. He hasn’t seen much anime, and not all of his personas know that they are fictional, but the delusion is strong enough to contaminate a professional psychic’s reading, leading the psychic to predict that he would indeed become a real powered superhero soon. You can tell him by his superhero gravatar…
It reran for a good while. It was still airing all the time when I was a kid
I really don’t get the hate Teen Titans Go receives. Like, I can understand it not being someone’s thing, especially if they just want more of the original, but I’ve never understood the sheer, unbridled HATE that it seems to fill people with.
Media oversaturation. They play it too, too much and not enough of anything else.
I see. Maybe it’s because I haven’t actually watched TV in years that I’ve neither noticed nor been bothered by that.
I don’t mind it, but seeing how much it clogs up the schedule DOES make me a little resentful that Steven Universe is relegated to the occasional “Steven Bomb”.
Maybe if they didn’t need to fill up 26 hours a day with TTG they could give SU proper seasons.
As much as the molasses trickle of new SU episodes irks me too, I’ve always figured that relying heavily on one or two cheaply made, popular cartoons helps CN fund their more ambitious but less profitable output, and if I’m right and that’s what allows SU to exist in the first place, I’m all for it. Although they could certainly use just a bit more variety in their schedules.
That wasn’t it. It’s either complaints that it’s pointless and insuliting to the old sow or it’s nothing like the old show that people were expecting.
They play it a lot because it’s property that the network owns the characters. DC and Cartoon Network are part of the Time Warner conglomerate, DC via Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network via Turner Broadcasting.
It’s like Nickelodeon constantly playing Spongebob or Disney XD constantly playing Phineas and Ferb.
The difference there is that SpongeBob still occasionally had a decent episode every now and again (before it, y’know, ended), and reruns of the older ones were pretty frequent . . . as for Phineas and Ferb, it kept contained to its run and is arguably one of the best (second best, imho) original Disney TV series in recent years, sandwiched right between Gravity Falls at #1, and SatFoE at #3.
Cartoon Network has straight-up better shows than TTGo! (so there’s no reason for it to overshadow the rest of their lineup), it relies mostly on cringe comedy or meta humor (it takes itself down constantly, as if the showrunners are trying to be liberated from it), the references are heavy-handed, and I swear if I have to hear one more repetitive, loud, annoying musical number I’m going to scream. I have younger relatives who watch the show constantly , and I make it my mission to try to show them something a little less . . . irritating.
They don’t have to like what I like- that’s not my issue. I’d love it if I could talk about my own favorite shows with my younger siblings, and get differing opinions on characters, plot points, et cetera, but it’s pretty unlikely I’d be so lucky. I still enjoy hearing them excitedly explain why they like the series they do (for example, Sofia the First has much smarter writing than I would’ve expected from a show originally part of the Junior lineup, and I wouldn’t have known it from initial impressions), but even without comparisons to the original Teen Titans, Go manages to hit every check mark on the list of “why”, from an unlikable main cast all the way down to really unfunny base humor despite being primarily marketed as a comedy.
Long story short, there’s a lot more to it than “it’s not the original Ten Titans so it sucks”, but that might just come down to me having spent more time around it and developing a laundry list of reasons not to like it.
Maybe fans of the characters can’t get over the fact that they are being shown as being classic cartoon characters and have basic personalities that are parodies of extremes instead of the serious, gritty, bleak characters that the comics and the previous show.
Funny thing is, the show was never meant to be serious and was always mean to be antics and fun happening between missions. Heck, they barely fight crime!
Yeah, if you hadn’t followed up with that second paragraph I was about to ask what the fuck version of Teen Titans you had watched, because anyone who says the original Teen Titans was dark and serious clearly hadn’t seen like, 60% of it. Sure, it had dark moments, but then it also had things like the Mad Mod episodes.
Might also have to do with the fact that for the period of 2010-2016, the comics and all related media pretended that the Teen Titans had never existed as a team, and the ONLY show that continued to acknowledge them was a bizarrely sexist random-humor filled version that totally took over all discussion of the characters.
Well these factors play into it:
1) The original was a cartoon about characters, not a slapstick type of cartoon focused on just being silly and wacky which is a very severe style shift in terms of expression.
2) All the characters are flanderisations or completely recharacterised due to the style of the cartoon shifting. This is the biggest issue with the reboot honestly as dumbing down the characters leads to…
3) …the characters acting in morally questionable, bizarre and confusing manners. They either act so stupidly it is unbelievable or do immoral things the original characters would never have done.
4) Combining the three points above, it was essentially ‘branding’ a cartoon as Teen Titans to draw in the original fans when apart from looking like them and having the same backstory concepts, nothing is really the same, and it is not something fans wanted. It is an unneeded spin-off which retains very little of the original and none of the style, character growth, or sense of humour that made the original appealing in the first place.
5) It is on Cartoon Network constantly and actually does feel like it clogs up the schedule more than any other cartoon I have ever seen, and it doing so is kind of salt in the wound if you were looking forward to more Teen Titans until Teen Titans Go came out and was nothing remotely like it.
Personally I don’t care because I never trusted the reboot to be anything like the original, but I can see how the small things could build up into a hatred for someone else that was more invested.
Also 6) the fact that they supposedly cancelled the awesome show everyone loved and replaced it with a mediocre one because too many girls liked the first one. That’s gonna lead to some resentment.
I didn’t know of that. Read up on it. And now I’m in an angry wth-state of mind.
I mostly didn’t like Teen Titans Go, because it appeared to be a step backward. I wouldn’t hate on it, but I also didn’t enjoy the style and after watching an episode, the type of humour displayed. But this now…that’s, that’s really something. Wow.
(Plus with what I’ve read in the explanation that it’s due to greater difficulty in controlling the gendered merch, that concept alone is just something I can only sit and stare at and wonder what’s going on in the heads of those executives)
See? You said,”wonder what’s going on in the heads of those executives.” And your assumption is that there is something going on in their heads, like logic. From (many many) years of observation, there is nothing going on in their heads that isn’t mysoginistic, homophobic, or an accidental ‘hit’ which is then cancelled. TW3, Smothers Brothers, Star Trek, … Couple of seasons and Voom! Gone, and rung down the curtain indivisible.
Many fans of the original show were undoubtably hoping TTG! would be a continuation of the series they grew up with and loved. When it turned out otherwise, their reaction was predictably hostile. Add in the fact that the show really is pretty poorly written and you’ve got a recipe for online rage rants.
I just generally don’t like “monkey cheese wacky lol random” humor, and from what I’ve seen this show shoots it at you with a gatling gun. The pace is too hyper and frantic for any of the gags they’re using to have any impact.
I thought it was the Powerpuff Titans.
This pretty much confirms what I was suspecting about Lucy, and I foresee conflict (or at least a very important discussion) in the future.
That said, that’s a good Hermione doll.
As opposed to the Hermione figure who darkened Robin’s doorstep in Shortpacked!TNI
It appears to be non-white, too, which pleases me.
Honestly, it’d be really funny if she was awake
the whole time and just wanted to scare Lucy away.
She was awake for two thirds of it
Are we high enough level to unlock Lucy’s Tragic Past?
We could speed up the process with a few hundred dollars of microtransactions.
Can we also offer microspeculations instead?
For example: her tragic past, at some point, involves people wearing shoes.
SECRET SIERRA/LUCY CONNECTION CONFIRMED
Or roll the dice with *shudder* a loot box.
As an autistic person myself I declare about Dumbing of Age that with the appearance of Lucy:
**AUTISM INTENSIFIES**
Yes most my comments will continue to be about autism in the comic, it’s just too awesome that we’re getting good representation.
Thank you Willis!
Is Lucy autistic? I thought she was just nice, and geeky? I’ve plenty of people like her that don’t fall within the spectrum. If so the vast majority of girls in cartoons and anime act similar to this, so there must be more representation than I thought.
I can explain as an autistic AFAB person myself, there’s just… things that are more than “nice and geeky”. I mean, she comes on strong. She doesn’t know how to “tone herself down”, so to speak. It’s in the communication and the expression of experience, that I see the autism.
And I think anime loves ND characters, especially in fem characters, because it’s easier that way to group specific “types” of girls. They just pretty much take a certain caricature/stereotype of girl and roll with it, in many cases.
OH GOD I PUT IN THE WRONG EMAIL BUT THAT’S ME
I’m freaking out a bit oh no
Surprises stink
Oh, another Dexter and Monkey Master fan?
Lucy’s meetup with Joyce can’t come soon enough.
That meeting will be a supernova of happiness and cheer so powerful it’s sure to destroy the planet.
So I see Lucy has a Teen Titans Go poster on her wall. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
I’m not a fan myself, but I did like this recent video clip where they met their (animated) voice actors:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGjNAyEZqM
I like it well enough though I haven’t seen an episode in a while because I no longer have cable.
I get that not everybody likes it but some people take it too seriously. They seem to forget that the original series also had goofy episodes like the time they all almost got baked into a pie by a wicked witch granny or any episode with Larry. I haven’t heard that level of complaints from shows like Batman the Brave and the Bold or Marvel Superhero Squad which are also not particularly serious.
I think the initial complaints had more to do with the fact that it basically replaced Young Justice as well as every other serious superhero property on Cartoon Network. It kind of felt that CN was abandoning action superhero cartoons in favor of cheaper comedy stuff. Comedy’s fine but it gets a little tiring if that’s all you’re getting, especially considering some of the other superhero projects that got dropped in favor of Teen Titans Go! (look up Batman Shanghai for one of the most gorgeously animated shorts made for the contest for the next DC superhero cartoon that TT:GO! won.)
Nowadays I think the main problem people have with it is that it is on practically every hour of the day and it’s become Cartoon Network’s Spongebob-esque cash cow, which is bad news if you’re interested in other programs on Cartoon Network getting more air time (Like Steven Universe, AWofGumball, or OK-KO)
Just my opinion. I’m not super-against Teen Titans Go as a show. It’s just not my taste, but I does get worrisome when it seems to be the only thing that Cartoon Network seems to air anymore.
I still miss “Cow and Chicken” (sad face)
Didn’t she mention Teen Titans like way earlier? When Marcie was flirting with Malaya?
No, that was Young Justice.
Oh, thanks for the correction. These are all shows I wouldn’t mind getting into but haven’t had the time for.
Lucy was established as a big fan of Starfire back in Shortpacked because she considers her kind of role-model to show that girls can be “girly” but badass at the same time. It only makes sense that that love would transfer to the new series as well.
I’m not a fan of the characterisation in the show, but the character design is super fun so I can’t blame her for that poster.
That’s not how a hair wrap works? Or have I been doing it wrong?
Hair wrap? At first it looked like a Strawberry Shortcake hat to me, but it’s not. Someone other pop culture thing that Lucy likes. Pokemon?
Yeah all her hair is supposed to be in it or else it kinda defeats the point. Willis is trying at least lmaoo
I appreciate the attempt because most artists ignore it/just don’t know about this entirely buuuuut that’s not how you wear a bonnet. All the hair goes in it or it defeats the purpose. Also after seeing her TTG poster, Lucy not only looks like but officially acts just like my sophomore year roommate.
Ignore my second reply I meant to make that a separate comment smh
Looks like Willis redrew the panels so that Lucy is wearing it correctly. I appreciate it.
That was what drew my eyes immediately.
Damn you, Willis! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Bleh, was in response to captainrex7675
“Can we compromise and destroy all dorkRUXes?”
This is a good pun, a+++
I like Lucy is the nerd i could relate.
Is that a non-white Hermione? I approve!
hopefully, but I read it as just the lighting on my first read, so I hope word of willis confirms
She looks pretty brown to me, so depends on what your definition of white is.
Man, Billy would have creeped me out in college. Anyone talking about their high school other than exchanges like ‘yeah, I’m from that area too, I went to [School]’/’oh you don’t say, I went to [Rival School]’ seemed a bit over the top… or would, if I had ever witnessed anyone act like that.
(telling stories about high school is different, but I mean if anyone was like YEAH I WAS ON (MY SCHOOL’S) FOOTBALL* TEAM GO (MASCOT) I’d just be really uncomfortable, and although cringe culture is bullshit, I’ll admit I’d find it cringey)
*/cheerleading/etc
And I don’t think I’m totally off base, as Billy is the only character in the strip to really do this
Though the other girls on this floor were all “you were a cheerleader, that’s so cool” when they found out.
You’re right, I stand corrected. I feel dumb because I pointed exactly that out to someone else during one of the other Billy and Lucy strips (wrt some people saying that Billy’s new floormates probably wouldn’t be charmed by her cheerleading)
I was creeped out by that stuff while I was still in high school. Pep rallies were just completely off-putting to me
Our school had one really good pep rally at the end of the year but it got cancelled after the one when I was in grade 11 because it got pretty rowdy
I meant to expand on this but it was like 3am for me. It was called MOGA, which stood for ‘Most Outrageous Game A[ctivity? Not sure on that one],’ and it involved a bunch of representatives from different grades starting in the gym for like 10 minutes of hyping up, then the participants would run outside and do an obstacle course with like, slip and slides, climbing bars, vats of oatmeal, like something from a kid’s game show.
The year it got cancelled, first someone ran through the gym portion in one of those inflatable penis costumes, then someone fell off the bars and broke their wrist (the bars weren’t a permanent fixture like at a playground, so they probably were fairly flimsy to begin with), and someone else sliced their leg open on the edge of a makeshift slip ‘n slide.
But same. Probably didn’t help that the only sports team we ever saw was the football team. Plus, I assume there was a cheer team but I only ever saw one cheerleader, and it was a younger girl who was obsessed with being popular, but wasn’t, so I can’t really relate to any of this.
I was in band, but we didn’t have marching band so that was separate from sports and no one was proud of band (not because nerd shame, we just didn’t have a great music program).
I lettered in chess and academics and wore my letter jacket with pride in college.
I guess your school and probably also college were just a lot different than mine? I’m not entirely sure we even had letter jackets.
Does Lucy have dreadlocks? I dont think just throwing a bonnet on her hair over night would get it that long. Her hair must be crazy strong
No? I think she just has wavy hair.
Dear gods do I identify with Billie in this specific instance. I need at least 100 to 200 mg of caffeine actively in my system before I can deal with someone who’s that chipper before noon.
Oh my gosh, Lucy is adorable. It probably won’t happen, but it’d love it if some of that positivity would crack Billie’s shell a little bit. Not too much, obviously, just enough for some hilarious hijinks with these two.
Lucy’s adorkable, but I would probably react similarly to Billie for being woken up in the morning. Mornings suck.
true story, aunt’s middle name was dorcas 😀 she was an awesome lady and greatly exceeded it, and possibly even made it awesome on its own!
Yes, I knew a girl in high school named Dorcas.
It’s a Biblical name. That’s the Greek; the Aramaic version is the slightly more well-known “Tabitha”.
See, Billie? THIS is why you should sleep at Ruth’s place.
To be woken up by Joyce with a broken toe instead?
Better than this. Billie could probably sympathize with that more than this.
Also, Billie’s probably a pretty good choice for someone to deal ith a broken toe.
Also, that was (hopefully) not a daily occurrence. This? WILL BE.
Lucy has shown to get boundaries when clearly presented to her. Everyone’s getting all pissy with her for not picking up subtext, or the one time Billie said no passively. The main cast does that constantly, and you guys talk about how cute they are. Give the new character some time to develop
I bet she has some SU merch too. I mean, I would like to think so.
She has her own Gemsona and came up with a fusion with each and every damn character on the show, including the other fusions. She’s got a whole notebook.
Thank you. That’s part of my headcanon for Lucy now.
Lucy+Steven+Connie. Yes please.
Is it bad that seeing this bundle of positivity and adorable joy got me to think, “Okay. So what horrible thing is about to happen to her? ”
I don’t post often, so, preemptively, damn you, Willis.
Why would it be bad? It just means you’re well-adjusted. To Willis’ writing style.
Her pain will be sad, but entertaining. Also Willis characters tend to grow and develop in the long run, so just think positively?
I appreciate the attempt because most artists ignore it/just don’t know about this entirely buuuuut that’s not how you wear a bonnet. All the hair goes in it or it defeats the purpose. Also after seeing her TTG poster, Lucy not only looks like but officially acts just like my sophomore year roommate
Everybody Loves Lucy
I’m guessing Lucy has experience of non-benevolent cheer-leaders.
The Hermione doll is a bit like an elf-on-the-shelf. It can see if you haven’t studied enough.
……
…… what is this “studied enough” concept you dare speak of in Hermione-on-a-shelf’s presence?
And if you read webcomics instead of studying, she will glare at you in disapproval.
Bagge, I love you (platonically/appropriately/fraternally), but I have to protest that a Hermoine doll can have anything in common with that creepy freakin’ elf thing.
Some little sentient being which parents put in a child’s room / living space, and they tell kids it moves all by itself? That sounds like the start of several Twilight Zones!
That’s the thing with geeks… we KNOW why shit like that is a bad idea, but we do it’s anyway because it’s coool
Demonstrated by Alina Pete here
http://www.weregeek.com/2015/06/16/
So it’s like Roadblock?
Soon Lucy will be showing Billie how to show her love to Ruth via song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Z8IdVwK5Y
Talking animals may be involved.
Lucy, don’t you DARE force your roommate to wake up when you do! Just back off and wait for your roommate to wake up on her own. You can talk LATER.
Gah! Any roommate pulling crap like this on me would be lucky to leave the room alive (thankfully, I never lived in a dorm).
So, you approve of The Sal Response?
And of course, The Sequel
Yeah. If I’m sleeping, and someone goes to wake me up early the house better bloody well be on fire.
Well, everyone did say that Lucy was Forest Hall’s equivalent of Joyce! I wonder how long Billie’s been having dreams of being the top of the social pile and punching down? Probably since childhood; after all, it sort of goes with the ‘head cheerleader’ role, at least in popular culture!
help me destroy all Dorkuses to finally vainquish Lord Dorkdemor
billie, stop talking in your sleep
I also think that it says a lot about Lucy that Hermione is her favourite HP character – The socially isolated intellectual who want to do the right thing but is occasionally undermined by inability to see the human flaws in authority figures. Oh, and she was ignored by her crush in favour of more stereotypically ‘sexy’ girls.
I find myself wondering if Lucy really, really needs a good friend who values rather than just tolerates her.
I find myself really, really wanting Joyce and Lucy to meet and be happy, uncomplicated girl besties.
You. I like you
And this. I like this
Task 1: Joyce saving Lucy’s soul from Harry Potter fandom.
Anyone getting an image of Ruth in American football outfit/armor while holding a sword barbarian style with Billie clinging to her leg?
like red sonja?
Yeah but with more armor on Ruth. Barbarians are all nice but barbarians with functional armor are even better.
Not to throw the Objectionable Conduct* flag, but do you mean Canadian football armour? Certainly Ruth would be standing on the 55-yard-line, attempting a rouge.
(*Yes, the CFL have that penalty.)
Is there a difference between US and Canadian football outfit? I’m an European so my understanding of that sport is pretty incomplete.
Not really.
One would read “Saskatchewan” or “Toronto”, and the other would read “Green Bay” or “Alabama”.
What do you mean not really? There are some pretty significant differences. The one less down, and the way bigger end zone comes to mind.
The actual uniforms are pretty much the same.
There are differences in gameplay and rules.
PS There’s a great Tumble, Bikini Armor Battle Damage, which analyzes comic / game outfits which are drawn for women and compares them for.actual functionality v. The equivalent male characters. It very pointed, savage when called for, and quite a hoot.
Oh yeah I’m following that thing. Funnily enough I encountered this one argument once that trying to put women into functional armor is actually sexist.
Why?
Because they are so badass that they kick so much ass with no armor on at all. To try to shove them into male stereotype is sexist. Why do they need armor the squishy males need if they can kick as much, if not more, ass without it?
😂
Beeing addicted to revealing pictures of women’s body must really addle the brain.
🤣
Yeah though it’s still a cool excuse. Women being so badass that they don’t need armor like the wimpy guys XD
And to quote a griffin from EGS: Is there a combat advantage to humans having big mammaries and if so, do I want to know?
http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2133
Jeez Billie, that’s just depressing.
“Destroy all dorkuses…….sxxknsk
Destroy all dorkuses……..sxxknsk
Hey, sexy football team captain,
Wanna destroy all dorkuese?”
A+ Futurama reference, would read again.
What’s this Futurama you speak of?
I’m just imagining the next two panels after this strip ends.
I mean technically Dorcas *is* a name. ^_^
That early morning lighting though. Very nice.
And of *course* she has a Hermione plush. Of course she does. 😀
I like that Hermione and the poster characters get their own tags.
Where does she get her seratonin from? I absolutely must have
As a morning person, I approve this roommate
I dunno, from the amount of light in the room, she might be a late sleeper– by our standards. Clearly it is past dawn, already.
First appearance of Starfire! Collector’s Issue! This strip will be worth big bucks in the future so don’t close this browser tab!
Narrator: It was not the first appearance of Starfire.
Joyce: Morning, Billie! You look… well, not so great.
Billie: Need… coffee…
Joyce: Didn’t sleep well?
Billie: Sunlight… woke me up…
Joyce: I hear they make light-blocking curtains…
Billie: Sunlight… coming from roommate…
Someone should put a Geiger counter to Lucy to check if she is not producing her own radiation…
Oh, god, a morning person. Destroy it.
Seal it away in Phantom Zone together with Extroverts!
I think that happened, only by mistake we ended up here too. How else do you explain that somehow morning people get to set all the schedules?
I know right? Down with the oppressive regime! We no longer live on farms where we need to use every second of light!
Well I do live on a farm BUT THAT’S BESIDE THE POINT!
I’m not a morning person, but I’d still rather wake up and get stuff done before evening than sleep in and sacrifice my afternoon… 🙁
Hey. I just heard the tax bill passed. Was that the definitive pass, or does it still have to go through your OTHER legislative organ?
Best of luck to you lot.
The Senate passed a version of the tax bill.
The House had earlier passed a different version.
In order for it to actually become law, they have to pass the same version.
The normal process at this point would be to appoint a conference committee and have them work out a compromise version that both the Senate and House would have to vote on again.
In this Congress, who knows. The House may just choose to pass the Senate version. If they do go to conference, leadership could just write an entirely new bill for them to pass – possibly scrawled in crayon at the last moment this time.
Regardless, the bottom line is that both the House and Senate have to pass the same bill and that hasn’t happened yet.
Thanks.
Also, our much-esteemed president has to sign it into law after they both pass the same version.
That’s probably not much of a hurdle.
“I love to learn!”
“I love magic!”
“I love you, Hermy!”
“…Um.”
Oh goddammit, Lucy hovers over sleeping people too.
Dear extroverts of the world (or at least Joyce, Becky, and Lucy),
That is not cute. That is not adorable. That is not friendly. It. Is. CREEPY. Stop it. Please. It’s for your own good, really. One day someone you hover over will knock you on your ass.
No love,
Me.
Joyce already got choked, you got what you wanted already
A) Choking and punching aren’t the same thing.
B) I don’t actually want either of them to get punched, I want them to stop doing this shit.
I’ve kicked 3 different people in my family before realizing who they were. Now they throw my dog on me.
Lucy is terrified of cheerleaders huh
Good morning young woman mumbling hush