Been bingeing T.U.F.F. Puppy and Bunsen Is a Beast while I've been sick. Here's a liveblog of highlights I enjoyed:
Every line of dialogue in these shows is fantastic...
- "You don't need to breathe- You just need to obey my every command."
- "In the interest of our friendship, which is way more important to me than anything in the world... I'm taking the speedboat. Think about it- You don't want the hassle of owning a speedboat!"
- "I've been nice this year. And by 'Nice,' I mean I've kept my more sinister acts on the downlow through deception, deceit, and occasionally framing others."
- "This is the greatest moment of my brief life!"
- "Anywho, Santa... You're looking buff! Have you been hitting the gym~?" / "Are we seriously doing this?"
- "To protect my standing on the nice list, can you please refer to me as Marsha during this particular evil mission?"
- "You guys have to save Christmas! ... I would, but I'm in a box and I'm 5."
- "You don't need to know the laws when you're a criminal. Or a baby! Just a little fun fact I thought I'd throw out there."
- "I know you are lying to me... Your status says I'm lying to The Chameleon."
- "You voluntarily touched me in an affectionate way!"
- "I love our new crib! It was an impulse buy. (Gasp)- We should steal a baby to put in it!"
- "If I'm so dumb, how come I've been getting away with slowly poisoning you?"
- "You're going down for armed robbery!" / "They're not armed." / "Are you kidding me? Have you seen this man's guns?"
- "Let me leave! I'm not even helpful!" / "I'm never helpful and I'm still here."
- Okay... Such good animatic redraw material.
- So many silly characters, many of whom look like cinnamon rolls but would actually kill you. I love them. I should finish my 'fic WIPs. Dudley's later flanderization-characterization still makes me sad... He cared so much about working in Season 1 that he couldn't settle down on vacation. He'd explore, he'd volunteer for things, he obsessed about paperwork... That's who he is... He was good at his job. I miss him.
- Who do you think has the higher kill count: Chameleon eating [confirmed sentient] bugs his whole life, or Keswick wiping out his home dimension? ... I guess it would HAVE to be Keswick because he would've killed the bugs too, huh?
- I really love the worldbuilding vibe of "You're allowed to kill other creatures, but if the ambulance is called, everyone is treated equally." Yeah, we sell flea collars and body spray. Yes, the Chief got incredibly sick when Dudley wore a flea collar into work; that is a thing that happened.
- Making one of the main characters a flea was pretty fantastic in itself, let's be honest. How many anthro shows have a bug main character (unless the show is all about bugs), and how many of them have a special mobility aid thing that magnifies their appearance, keeps them off the floor, gives them extra strength, etc... It's great.
- I love the Chief's monitor cart:
Why does it sit in chairs? How can he use the hands? Outrageous.
- It's heavily implied that even the creatures that look and act feral are actually sentient, which just makes Kitty bringing the Chief dead mice as a form of affection so much darker...
[cnt'd]
- How on earth did The Chameleon get invited to career day to speak to little kids about being a super villain? Whose idea was that?
- I love "Guard Dog"- It's probably my favorite episode. So many good quotes, such a goofy set-up, you get to travel outside Petropolis, it delves into some of the in-universe witness protection lore... It's great.
- I love Chameleon snuggling with Dudley because they're handcuffed together and he's cold-blooded. I like the end when Kitty is handcuffed to 5 people at once, but Dudley leaving her that way feels justified because she left him for the entire ride to Petsburg.
- I particularly enjoy Kitty only having 4 limbs, so Larry and Francesco are both chained to the same leg. I feel like they could very easily rip that off, especially with how often Francesco tries to eat stuff.
- I wanna talk about Chameleon's side hustle of going on dates with people who ask him to shapeshift into their dream person.
- Wannabee was forced out of the auditorium halfway through his evil scheme so the students could have play rehearsal.
- I will never be over Wannabee gushing over how cool he thinks it is that he can make honey and that he will outright tell you he makes it mouth to mouth. They could've given us bees passing the honey by hand, but no... No, we get to see them do it mouth to mouth and Wannabee brags about it. Hilarious.
- My adoration for Birdbrain is also growing. What do you mean he's lonely and cloning himself to save his species? What do you mean he can just walk into T.U.F.F. headquarters and shred their files for his nest material because he's endangered and they can't hurt him? That's hilarious.
- I think I said this years ago, but I really like how there's no romance between Birdbrain and Zippy. He hates her equally to all his other henchmen. Everyone he works with is useless, so he leaves them in the car with the window cracked instead of bringing them to heists. Man wants a partner and kids so bad, he puts up with the most annoying people you've ever seen... He hates them so much...
I can't stop thinking about the B-plot in "Pup In the Air" of Birdbrain trying to keep his deposit on the house he rented, but his henchmen just keep making terrible choices-
- Every time I think about how Owl's name is Terry, it just cracks me up. I don't think Birdbrain knows Owl and Bat have first names because the only two things they ever say are "Who?" and "Where?" so they can't communicate who they are as people.
- Also, shout-out to the commitment to Bat being blind. Unclear if he uses echolocation... He just kinda runs around. Why on earth does he have a gun?
Bonus screenshot to highlight Bat's gorgeous wing design:
- Why don't Owl and Birdbrain get feathered wings? DO they have feathered wings? I assume they don't, because Owl flies like this:
And we know Birdbrain can't fly, but his arms don't become wings either:
- Obsessed with Snaptrap having the power to erase minds and the only time he uses it is when wiping the minds of critics who were mean to his dancing clone.
- Some of these hero-villain relationships are so good... Dudley broke The Chameleon out of the holding cell so they can enter a two-person contest. Dudley pretends he's been poisoned and The Chameleon just goes along with it because it makes him look like a cool villain. Kitty gets dance lessons from Snaptrap... Dudley and Snaptrap were roommates... Snaptrap dated Dudley's mom... Dudley dated Birdbrain... They are so goofy.
- Speaking of Dudley dating Birdbrain, that episode cracks me up for many reasons, but one of them is definitely "Dudley getting in the way and being a pain even when he's trying to do his best job being sweet and helpful." "I'm blowing kisses~ And now they're hitting you~" /starts jabbing his fingers all over Birdbrain while Birdbrain's driving
- Can't stop thinking about how much I love Larry. Him and the evil crew he pulled by being a silly brother-in-law <3 I wish they would've delved into the Larry & Snaptrap are brothers-in-law thing in-show (It was only confirmed in outside trivia iirc), but... them.
He sit:
This would make a great "Draw the squad" meme, actually.
Oh, I just looked it up to see if I could find a source (because it was years ago that I read this fact and I suddenly worried it wasn't real). No direct source link, but here's what I found on the Wiki:
I've always assumed that means he's married to Pat since she's the only confirmed sister Snaptrap has-
But like, I think about this all the time... The Snaptraps are canonically a crime family, so did Larry know what he was getting into? Are they on good terms? They're not divorced. Is it a forbidden love? I still want a huge rivalry between the rats and the shrews... It would be so funny...
We know Snaptrap and Francesco share a bunk bed (or at minimum, a room with bunkbeds in it). I assume Larry goes home to see his wife, right? We know she's an actual successful criminal who thinks her brother is a failure, so, like... why does she let her husband hang out there where he's being tormented daily?
I watched the episode where Snaptrap gripes that Larry's face scares off girls, but like... that's so funny. Is it because he's married? Some of the other members of D.O.O.M. - like Ollie - are sad that girls don't talk to them, but Larry doesn't, like... ever discuss that. I wish he would've bragged about being married. I think it would drive Snaptrap up the wall. Maybe he does. I really wish we would've seen Larry at the Snaptrap family reunion. Larry, your wife...
I doodled Larry with his Murray hair because it's cute when he ties it back :)
- It will never not be funny that when Larry defected and founded his own league of villains, he broke the entire crimefighting system by refusing to call in advance to tell T.U.F.F. what he was about to steal. Overnight sensation. Everybody hates him for that.
- Once upon a time, I joked that Larry probably worked with his brother-in-law instead of his wife because Snaptrap's crimes are smaller, so Larry probably gets out of jail sooner and can spend more time with the kids, house, etc. Knowing what we know about what a meticulous planner he is when he takes over, I think that sounds about right. It's all one big, elaborate thing... That's very Larry.
- There are so many little moments of the Snaptrap-Larry hatred I enjoy, like how they play word games together and Larry just gets in his face about it. Larry rarely communicates directly with T.U.F.F. (barring the episode he's his own villain), but in "Girlfriend or Foe," he jumps on the call just to brag about how he's beating Snaptrap in the game and I think that's fantastic. Even back in "Share-a-Lair," they were playing word games.
- In the truth syrup episode, Snaptrap admits he doesn't actually hate Larry, but he's hard on him because he thinks Larry has the most potential to be evil... but Larry straight-up confirms that he's been putting black widows in Snaptrap's gym bag. It's so funny to me... Snaptrap is mean in predictable ways, but do not mess with Larry. He'll get you back.
- I like how they went on a gameshow where Snaptrap had to guess Larry's secret desire, and it was-
The reason they lost out on their free vacation to Maui was because Larry stuck a rattlesnake in Snaptrap's pants at the airport and they couldn't get on the plane. He just can't help himself... He hates him so much. I just love them. He sit...
Why does Larry just have access to rattlesnakes and cobras? What does he do in his spare time?
- I like when Snaptrap breaks out of the holding cell to get snacks and then he goes back. That's always great.
- I love how committed Mikey is to being president of the Beast welcoming community. He has ONE JOB and he's going to do it. He loves his gift baskets. What do you mean Muckledunk's biggest export is silent whistles and they sell 9 per year? What.
- Everything Mikey says is fascinating to me. Also, within the first ~60 seconds of knowing him as a character in Episode 1, you get so much... He's an extravert, he does his research, he knows his town history, he plans ahead, he gets excited when he doesn't mess up his prepared speech, he's savage for no reason... It's great. Flawless character introduction.
- Like... Just the entire dynamic of "Bunsen is the first Beast to come to human school - and he's a member of a species known for eating humans - and it's on Mikey to make him feel welcome, not just as a fellow student but as an authority figure" is really interesting to me. Most of Bunsen's friends throughout the series are Beasts, which makes sense- Bunsen's actually pretty shy. Like... you wouldn't guess it by looking at him and his role as comic relief, but he's definitely less social than Mikey.
This screenshot just tells you the whole series dynamic:
It's Mikey and Amanda at each other's throats and Bunsen anxious in the background. SO funny. I also watched "My Gym Partner's a Monkey" years ago (and a little bit of "Squirrel Boy"), and both those shows lean into the "human is the comedic straight man and the non-human is the wild one" vibes.
But no... not Bunsen Is a Beast. It's Mikey who's the energetic, off-the-wall wild card. Bunsen just lives here. He's straight-up just a nerd who got sent to human school. Love that for him. Mikey's driving this car, but Bunsen keeps him from plowing into buildings and lakes.
Literally your best defense against Mikey is that when he gets too excited, he faints. This happens in multiple episodes.
Bunsen has such incredible "Perfectionist, told he's mature for his age" vibes... In Episode 1 when he almost eats Mikey, he whimpers, "Sorry, Mikey... I failed to co-mingle..." Everything in Bunsen's plot line comes back to "If you screw up, we can kick your whole species underground again." That's so much for a little guy. Ugh. My heart.
I think he'd get along fantastically with Hazel. Mikey would be a lot for her.
- Every time Mikey and Bunsen try to say something in sync, but fail to do so, it's funny to me...
Your honor, this is a show about friends and kindness...
- I totally forgot the person Amanda invited to school for the "someone you wouldn't normally hang out with" event was someone with a restraining order against her. That's objectively hilarious.
- Cracking up at Mikey asking Amanda for break-up advice. Also, Bunsen warned him that if he tried to have a break-up talk with Willa, she might just eat him, and Mikey did it anyway. There is one thing this boy will not compromise on and it is "I am not comfortable with this. Stop coming onto me." Love that for him.
- I forgot Mikey got invited to a dance by Bunsen's cousin and he was so terrified he stopped breathing.
- "Extremely horny rich girl" & "Guy who will lure her in with promises of kisses and then dodge at the last second so something horrible happens to her" is such a funny combo. Mikey-Amanda rivalry, you will always be famous to me... You cannot get Mikey to accept her flirtations... He would sooner chew his arm off, I think.
- I can't believe Mikey threw Amanda off Santa's sleigh. Flying above the city. Really high. On purpose. Of course he would.
- I always forget Bunsen's house was just, like... built in the middle of the decorative roundabout piece.
- Mikey sending his own clone to run his conspiracy club is still one of the funniest plot set-ups I've ever seen. I didn't see it coming because Mikey was bringing in clones for every club he's in, but... yep. I can see how this went wrong. Mikey is such a terrible dad to his clones; it's so funny. He just dunks on them every time he sees them.
- I like how Nerd Mikey is equally as unhinged as regular Mikey. Logically he would be - He's a clone - but what is going on inside his head... Sir, you can't just leave school property to go back in time...
- What do you mean Mikey is in the "Amanda Stares at Mikey and Makes Tiger Growl Sounds" club. I mean, by default he kind of has to be there, but that's so funny...
- Totally forgot Mikey wants to write a song called "Hey Mom- Get Out of My Room." His hatred for his clingy parents plagues him constantly.
- Amanda- "I'm going to watch Munroe change his shirt. Raowr." / Mikey, screaming- "I will DIE in this shirt!"
- It is SO funny that even if you ask him directly, Bunsen will avoid questions about whether he eats people, but his first instinct to smelling Mikey covered in barbecue sauce is to tell him he smells delicious, and his first response to his BFF Wolfie suggesting they eat Mikey on a plate of noodles is "That does sound good." Hey. what.
And Wolfie knows Bunsen's hesitant about it, because he blatantly calls Mikey delicious, removes Bunsen's eyes, and tries to eat Mikey while Bunsen's looking for his eyeballs. Later he actually does get him in his mouth. And Amanda. omfg Wolfie...
We literally get to see a health class short film that's like "Let's talk about people-eating urges and feelings of guilt that come with it!" omg. Bunsen, why is that in your house? Why was that already on your person? Do you wanna talk about it?
I wonder if BiaB would've done better if it had been played with Invader Zim vibes. These shows have similar energy, but Zim has the colors and music to match its dark vibe.
BiaB also gets pretty dark, but the colors and music make it so peppy and cheery... I think that's silly. You can tell it's got FOP energy (Sweet on top, horrifying underneath).
- Bunsen has so much anxiety about following rules even when they're in direct conflict to his happiness... He is doing his best...
- Forgot Bunsen is personally offended to learn that humans don't give Santa gifts, because Beasts give gifts to their present-giver. He just has such a strong sense of personal justice and loyalty...
- I cannot get over Bob slowly fading from the timeline, but continuing to report the news anyway. He's flickering, gradually losing his legs, but he acts like nothing's wrong.
They brought him a stool because his legs got disintegrated... They throw things through his head..
- I can't believe Amanda almost put a kitten in a woodchipper.
- Mikey's parents are so overprotective, distant, and weird about him, they canonically have not given him The Talk about where babies come from. He doesn't know his middle name.
- I LOVE how Mikey's relationship with his parents is just, like... him screaming that he wants them to back off and let him grow up. They just spy on him with a drone. "Stalked by his parents" is such a silly thing to do with your main character.
- They leave him at home to fend for himself, but still micromanage what he's allowed to do (Ex: He can own a llama and a scary praying mantis, but not a dog). Heavily implied they avoid their son because germs. There is no doubt in my mind they will continue spying on him when he's an adult. That's rough, buddy.
- Is Mikey a kleptomaniac? He just steals things... Amanda's dog. A shopping cart. He took some guy's lamp for no reason. He just took it on his way out.
- It's not like "Mikey is a massive guilt-tripper" was new to me, but it's still SO funny to watch him blatantly take advantage of Cosmo and Wanda even after Timmy repeatedly asked him to stop wishing. Timmy gave him an inch and he fought for a mile.
- Perfect depiction of the Mikey-Timmy relationship:
Mikey, please stop running Cosmo and Wanda ragged- / I totally hear you. No <3
- Mikey is older, but Timmy is unquestionably the more sensible and responsible one of this duo. Which is horrifying.
iirc, the "Beast of Friends" crossover took place when Season 10 was airing, though it's probably pre-Chloe since she wasn't there. Consider: Timmy resisted Chloe as a godsister because Mikey had already turned him off to the idea of sharing fairies.
- I totally forgot Mikey got sent to the future once. I can use this...
- Timmy calls Mikey "kid who's older than me" because Mikey didn't like him just saying "kid"
- Mikey adored the crossover. I think Timmy's glad he didn't have to hang out with Mikey any longer than he did. Just in August, I scrapped my "Best. Day. Ever." prompt for the 130 which was about Mikey running Timmy ragged, but... I kinda want to bring it back. Mikey is exhausting. He will break you down.
- I like how Mikey was excited by everything Timmy showed him, but Timmy was uneasy about Bunsen's house; it's Timmy who took charge of trying to explain things as realistic to his confused dad. Mikey literally did not care if people were put off.
- I still think it would be funny if Mikey and Dev switched drones for a day. Also, you'll see this in my Dale character profile on the sideblog, but my headcanon is that Mikey grew up and went into security with a pinch of robotics on the side (taking after his parents), so he just, like... bothers Dale. They met as kids when Mikey tagged along on an installation trip for the Dimmadomes, playing into my long-time headcanon that all the rich people in Dimmsdale have wild security systems because of Mikey's parents. Dale does not like him. Mikey's been mailing Dale Waffle House coupons for 20 years. There are no Waffle Houses in California.
- Mikey would snap Peri like a toothpick. He's just a lot and I cannot imagine a world where Peri has the patience for him.
Anyway, thanks for reading my liveblog. Silly, silly...
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“You’ll always be alone.” The tiny voice inside her head keeps saying. It drives her forward, it goads her into action. What does she care if she’s alone? She chooses to be alone. People are a liability, they’re a distraction. She holds the lives of people in the palm of her hand all the time, so she knows just how fragile people are.
Still, that stubborn part of her watches as a couple pass, shy glances and holding hands, whispering about the up and coming holiday. Another year, she’ll watch from the sidelines, the pinks and reds, hearts and stars. The laughter and the soft whispers. At least this year she had her own room somewhere well away from inns, where the oh so joyous sounds of coupling seeped through the walls on all sides.
She wasn’t bitter, or so she told herself, sitting in front of her fireplace and glancing around, “Happy Nameday, Suzume... you survived another year.” Wish a soft sigh, she blew out the candle on her single cupcake, picked up on her way home. She didn’t make a wish, it was just the comfort of tradition that prompted the little ceremony. The night drifted into deafen silence as she sat the cupcake down and climbed the small set of steps to her lofted bed, curling up in the middle of the soft mattress and closing her eyes. Maybe next year.
Hello, I'm sorry for the long delay in answering this message; I was on Tumblr hiatus last year, but wanted to come back and answer in case you're still interested.
I watched it via Hulu 30-day free trial back in early 2019 I think. It might still be there, if it's not it might be on Paramount+
Thanks for reaching out, and good luck in your future pursuits!
I definitely went into it thinking the target audience was probably 7-year-olds and that I wouldn't like it, but I honestly think it's my first or second fave of the Hartman show quartet. I love worldbuilding and writing 'fics for FOP, but that also makes watching FOP episodes "work" for me, as I feel like I need to be in "on" brain in case I catch something new.
Ergo I rarely turn on FOP episodes when I'm feeling down or want to turn off my brain, but I watch TUFF all the time. It makes for a fantastic "comfort and uplift" show. It also has some fantastic worldbuilding elements, some of my favorites being:
The multi-species bathroom set-up
Endangered species rights
Toy stores that sell actual pet toys
Weird hamster tunnels between skyscrapers are an actual part of the city's design
Still have to wear the cone of shame to avoid chewing on your butt
Flea collars are legal, but deadly, and the ambulance will still treat insect patients with full respect
The boss in the show is a flea and there's one scene where an employee has a bug bite and the boss just mumbles an apology for the bite because "He got hungry"
Snaptrap is actually a capable villain but he lives in a city of people who put yarn and tissue boxes in their safes
POV: You're an ectothermic prisoner so you beg your warden for snuggles because you're on a train with no blanket
It is made explicitly clear that the anthro bees still transfer nectar mouth to mouth like real bees and for some reason I find it hilarious, they very easily could have anthro'd this to be bees handing nectar to each other via basket, they just chose not to
There's an episode where Snaptrap opens a dance studio and all his dance moves are named after actions he does while committing crimes
The character who accidentally destroyed his home universe has a fear of being hunted down by orphans, these came up in completely separate episodes and I think about this a lot
Keswick swore an oath that he wouldn't work for villains and that's the excuse he gives when they try to recruit him, it's not "I choose not to do crime because it's bad," and he even says once that if he "didn't work for the good guys then nothing he does would be legal" and he's also been known to sadistically laugh when random civilians get hurt from his own inventions, and sometimes hurts people with inventions that aren't even part of the plot and I think about him a lot, I love Keswick and I'm glad he's so weird despite being on Team Good Guy
Also unrelated to worldbuilding, but there's one scene where two members of an evil villain squad can't show up to a crime because they have jury duty so their third member has to commit the crime by himself and it's my favorite joke.
Also one of the villains has the power to break out of jail any time he wants, but he chooses not to because being locked up with a cellmate is the only time someone will willingly hang out with him. He's also an unpublished pop-up book author.
The worldbuilding is really fun and there's a ton of quirky, silly dialogue, so I hope you get to watch and enjoy! Sorry again for the delay!
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Snaptrap: I was born into a massive crime family and all my relatives bully me for failing to succeed at villainy. My crimes began with acting out against a system that didn't give me alternate food options despite my horrific allergies and now I'm in too deep.
Chameleon: My entire family cut me from their lives with no warning. Now I’m so touch-starved that I accept punishment as affection, and being locked up with a cellmate is the only form of physical contact I can get.
Bird Brain: All my family were wiped out and except for my clone, I’m the last member of my species. I'm new to the adult world and trying to provide for several henchmen who can't be left alone. I can hardly make it to crime scenes by taking the bus, so forget commuting to a regular job.
Meerkat: I'm desperate to get with the "in" crowd and will imitate everything my idols do despite immediate risks to my health and my total misunderstanding of villain social etiquette. There's a staggeringly high turnover rate for my friends and I refuse to acknowledge the problem may be me.
Jack:
Larry: I was roped into a criminal organization by marriage and there is no way out. Every day is one cruelty after another and even when I quit, I couldn't escape it. I feel like I have no real friends and no real support.
