Do not be selfish if you only watch one of these shows.
So this past week has forced a lot of panic onto the Young Justice and Green Lantern the Animated series fandoms. Well, quite a few of us have taken this rage and turned it into something constructive. There have been several movements to save these two shows started by various entities. I follow yjfanvids and they have been very active in updating people regarding the state of the cause. Of course, they are not the only ones involved, but you can get a great deal of information through them and their blog in general is very good. Of the things that have been organized to save our DC Nation, the Twitter campaign and the online petitions are the ones that have been the most heavily followed.
Thank you internet.
Love it or hate it, Twitter does have quite a bit of influence on our society. #SaveYJandGLTAS was the official hashtag that the fandom had decided would be used this past weekend. On Saturday, people would live tweet during DC Nation with this hashtag in order to get it trending. Getting this trending, especially during the same weekend as the Super Bowl, would hopefully show just how large the fandoms for these shows were. I was a part of this and I was very surprised by the sheer number of people who had taken part in this. Even after we got this trending and the shows were over, people continued to tweet. They are even tweeting as I write this article on Sunday and that speaks volumes to the passion that the fans have for their shows. For those of you that are interested in joining this campaign, there are instructions for next week: #1). The new hashtag is #AntiReach, #2). Only use this on Saturday, #3). Send it to @cartoonnetwork, #4). Retweet positive tweets, #5). Show your support in any way that you can. I would like to add once again that your tweets should be positive because flaming Cartoon Network will not get our movement the respect that it deserves. It doesn’t take much time to tweet and anything helps so please help out these shows. Keep up with yjfanvids in order to know how we can make a difference.
I don’t want your sass Cartoon Network.
This is not what I want to hear from Cartoon Network after all that we have done. Luckily, the official Young Justice: Legacy Facebook page is on board with us. As I have stated, there are several petitions that were started in order to save the series. The two main petitions have already gotten a lot of support, but you can take a minute or two out of your day to sign them if you do care about the future of these shows. Luckily, we have a site like change.org that helps us make online petitions more official and available to people.
Even though it is true, do not send things like this to Cartoon Network.
The best way to support the series will always be to watch the shows on television when they come out and buying the official merchandise. You can get the toys at toywiz.com which will ship internationally if you live outside of the United States. you can also buy the DVD’s at various retailers both online and in store. Amazon.com is never a bad place to go for DVD’s. Unfortunately, not all of us have the money to buy toys or cable and some of us live outside of the United States which means that you have trouble being able to watch the show even with cable. However, the show does get a lot of support and it isn’t like they are in a terrible financial state. So, if you can’t support the show in a monetary fashion, you can always be a part of the online campaigns. I suggest you aid in the online campaigns even if you do support the show in a monetary fashion the way that I do, but anything and everything helps at this point. Please, do not lose hope that we can bring Young Justice and Green Lantern the Animated Series back. Both Futurama and Family Guy were cancelled by Fox, but their active fandoms helped bring them back. Futurama came back after quite a long time, so an immediate lack of success should not void you of hope for the future. We can do this together; Symbiosi.
I might prefer our shows being on a different network.
For those of you that didn’t catch on to the links in the article, here they are again:
Updates on the Various Campaigns: yjfanvids
Both Major Petitions: Give us back our shows.
The Place Where You Can Make Petitions: change.org
The Place Where You Can Buy the Toys: toywiz.com
A Good Place to Buy the DVD’s: amazon.com
Mahou Tofu 
It’s hard to describe how something so simple can mean so much. Its like finding a beautiful soul that complements your own; such a small life, such a sacred life, and yet… it holds so much, unfathomable potential when it has a voice. Or when it speaks of its past. Or even when it speaks of the future, awaiting an extended hand. yet, to a complete stranger, that soul means nothing more than an empty face. truly, it is the simple things in life that really shape the life at hand.
I grew up in a household without a real adult figure to look up too. I know that I am blessed as far as a blessing actually is when it comes to having a home – two parents, two siblings, two dogs (at the minimum), and a house big enough to hold the nation’s military. It’s a beloved, yet often overlooked life. Kinda like such a simple show.
But that house never became a home. My so-called parents never really cared for us – don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad people, but they were never parents. They were very hard working, to say the utmost least. But they were consumed by their work, and to escape the stress on their shoulders they turned to heavy alcoholism. Like anything else in life, I simply accepted it – this is what the average child gets, a slap and a word of disapproval? So be it.
But then I got to sit in front of the tele. My free-time was consumed by documentaries (I became a nerd at the earliest level humanly possible) but I also tried to find a place in the world. I didn’t have it in our empty house. I didn’t have it in my heart, and it was all because I didn’t know what I was looking for.
My preteen years were average; awkward hormones and legs that were too long took over my life. I was signed up for lacrosse and excelled in it faster than a galloping llama (I’m actually really good at it. that was a joke. Laugh.) I mastered the piano and the viola. Unusually though, I never really fought with my siblings – being sandwiched between a sister and a brother seems to usually provoke violence, but I never really had that urge to slap one of them. I’d watch them bicker and brawl and compared them to the animals I’d learned about on Animal Planet. That was life. So be it.
In the end, my sister turned to drugs and a very, very drastically, hermmmm, “dirty” lifestyle, to rebel against my “parents”. It turns out my parents’ drinking was the cause of my brother’s slight autism levels. I loved them both dearly and I still do, and like always, I try to find a peace between them.
But when did I go from sitting and watching them, to standing between them in the hope of peace? Well, when my favorite study shows weren’t on, I found a few other things that people didn’t take seriously. Batman, from 1960. The Justice League and JLU. Spider-man and his Amazing Friends. The X-Men. And I feel in love.
I felt peace and joy, rage and fear. I basked in the glory of triumph and the bitter tears of loss.
I smiled a I-knew-it smile when Batman was actually alive, and Robin had found him. I cried when Flash was ripped away into the Speed Force, and more tears fell when he was brought back.
I felt the defeat of the enemy when they were an earnest soul. I felt the lostness of a staggering soldier, trying to find out how it could change the world. But most of all, I felt the love. The compassion for people of differences. Flash found a little girl’s cat when here town was burned down. Batman gave a tip to a man who ended up helping him later that day. The joy of the simple things in life was shared on the faces of people across the screen. Sure, none of them were actual people, but anything was possible, right? Life is what you make of it, right? If that is true, then so be it – I wanted to become a hero.
I started small – giving out random smiles to people, or just smiling more often throughout the day, kinda turned people away from me (I needed to work on my smile).
After that, I attempted recycling. I was better at that, and my face stopped hurting as much. I did, though, later on continue to smile… still maybe too much now that I think about it. that’s okay though, because I got a few little awards about being the most green person in the school; then I wondered what green meant.
Spock from Star Trek taught me to always question things. I went from being the obedient shadow in the corner of the class to being that kid that never shut up. It was amusing, but some of my teachers wondered if I had Alzheimer’s.
I was tested. I do not have Alzheimer’s. I also found out what being green meant, and I liked it so much I wore all green the next day to school. It was wonderful.
My life tricked away, and deep in the corners of who I became, I became a person I was proud of. A person with a voice, two gentle hands, and a heart on full-throttle for bringing good to the world. My knees are scared with the many times I was thrown to the ground – sexual harassment, beatings by drunken parents, thrown stones because I was the equestrian student of a gay man – but I rose. I rose every time. Sure it was a process and tears were in my eyes, but the least you can do is try to be yourself. And I reasoned the logical choice versus the wanted voice, and with fists balled tightly, I never swung back. it was a simple choice, but it became a guiding light for the rest of my life.
A lot of people I know are aware of my fondness for heroes, but I feel like they don’t truly understand why I am such a fan. These shows shaped me; these shows gave me strength. I learned that, when slapped across the face, offer then the other cheek but stand up for what you believe in; its as simple as that.
It doesn’t matter if you believe in cultures or religions that are different from those around you. It doesn’t matter what thoughts fill your dreams or what path you walk – its what you do with yourself that matters at the end of the day.
Stand tall with a strait back, for proper poster is good. Have a loud, clear voice that can be heard across the mountaintops so people know where you are standing. But be humble enough to stand quietly to hear your sisters and brothers! Be YOU! Be strong enough to stand back, but have the heart to lead others that are lost if they ask for it!
I am not lying about my past – I relieve it often enough at night that I know fine details. I remember being nine and turning a corner at the stable I rode at, and a stone hit me in the chest, then another in the face. One fell from above and another in the stomach. I remember the shattered vodka bottle on the ground and feeling the fear coursing through me as my sister screamed at my parents – I held my brother that night and have never let go.
I remember being taken without my consent at school. I remember foreign hands touching me.
And the most vivid parts? I remember smacking that young man across the face and his hand dropped. I remember calling the police when my sister’s screams turned into tears. I remember standing back up to the other riders, smiling, and saying (I kid you not!) “Try me, ya’ geeks.” I thought the term “geek” was a curseword, I still live by that.
I became the person I am because of the world I was given. I am proud of who I am and the accomplishments I have reached. I am a leader of a gay-rights group in my town, plus a part-time worker at a stable teaching special children how to ride horses. I lost my parents in a battle with a bottle, where I could not lift a finger to help them – that was the hardest part about losing. I lost my sister to the same devil inside, and my brother is living in a world safe of our past.
According to the bible, a nonmortal man gave his son’s life to free everyone of a broken hope. He apparently shared love and compassion across all he could touch. Science is too embedded in my blood for me to see anything but when research has developed, but these stories! These are what define humanity! And YOU! You are what defines humanity! It is how tall you stand and how willing you are to get back in the saddle.
My story is not yet over. I am a sixteen-year old young woman in California who is in love with two shows that are soon departing. I will not stand for this; they are too brilliantly put together. I do not fight with fists, I use my calm words to usher willpower into those who are lost.
Children need these shows. Mankind needs shows like these. You cannot deny what these have done. These shows make us laugh and cry and scream and fall over, all at the same time; you don’t get that out of Adventure Time, Two Broke Girls, or Once Upon a Time. At a fundamental level, Green Lantern the Animated Series and Young Justice kindle hearts like how mine was lightened. I record the shows when I go to work, and talk about them with my valedictorian peers. I laughed with Impulse was introduced and hugged my brother when Kilowog got to meet that wonderful woman on a foreign planet. I felt my heart break when Miss Martian was the only one left alive in the dreamworld, and shed a single tear when Razer held Aya in his caring, scarred arms.
Because I have been there. I have stood above broken souls and I have stood six feet above my beloved. I have felt the darkness surround me in arms that would never let go – the scariest part about that? Darkness felt like it was hugging me, and since I was rarely ever hugged as a child, I embraced it.
I almost became the darkness: I almost fell to the same sense of monstrosity within me, the beast that consumed my family.
I guess I was destined to fall in their graves, but I didn’t. I became a nerd and a geek and a fool for believing in superheroes. I simply treaded a different path.
And now I am a sexy young adult who knows more colors in the rainbow because of these ridiculous shows. I recite my AP philosophy debates while watching Batman stop the Joker… again. In the 60’s. Seriously, if you haven’t seen that show, its ridiculous. Watch it. its on the Hub.
I rose. My family did not. These shows are falling, and now, it is our turn to help them. Help me aid those who were in my situation. It’s a simple wish.
Help me find the humanity in Frontier Space and between the letters of Symbiosi. Please.