Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Am I the only one who thought Puck II was a complete rip-off of Grace Choi?

(I only read the "funny" Alpha Flight as a trade paperback long after it had been cancelled; So I may have the timeline wrong.)
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Spectrum
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by Spectrum »

Grace Choi- Outsiders (vol. 3) #1 (August 2003)
Puck II- Alpha Flight v3 #1 (May 2004)
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Sasquatch

Post by Jabroniville »

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"BOYS WE ARE OFFICIALY DEALING WITH A ****ING SAMSQUANCH!! .....LOOKS LIKE A ****ING TEN FOOTER BY THE LOOKS OF THOSE THINGS!!"
-Bubbles, from "Trailer Park Boys"


SASQUATCH (Walter Langkowski, aka "Wanda Langkowski")
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979)
Role: Powerhouse, Team Scientist, Team Icon (Eventually)
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight, Beta Flight, Gamma Flight, Omega Flight
PL 11 (179)
STRENGTH
3/14 STAMINA 3/10 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 6 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills: 
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+7)
Deception 2 (+4)
Expertise (Football Player) 6 (+7) -- Uses Agility
Expertise (Science) 9 (+15)
Expertise (Science) 2 (+17) -- Flaws: Limited to Radiation
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 8 (+10, +12 Size)
Perception 4 (+6)
Stealth 3 (+4, +0 Size)
Technology 8 (+14)
Treatment 3 (+8)

Advantages: 
Beginner's Luck, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Grab, Interpose, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Science), Teamwork

Powers:
"Possession of the Great Beast Tanaraq" (Activation -1) [-1]
"Natural Size" Growth 4 (Str & Sta +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (12 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]

Enhanced Strength 7 [14]
Enhanced Stamina 3 [6]
Protection 3 (Extras: Impervious 11) [14]
Leaping 7 (1,000 feet) [7]
Power-Lifting 1 (800 tons) [1]
"Healing Factor" Regeneration 2 [2]
"Animal Senses" Senses 4 (Low-Light Vision, Acute & Extended Scent, Extended Hearing) [4]

"Arctic Creature"
Movement 1 (Environmental Adapatation- Arctic) [2]
Immunity 1 (Cold) [1]

"Super-Strength Feats"
"Thunderclap" Affliction 11 (Dodge; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (22) -- [25]
  • AE: "Groundstrike" Affliction 11 (Dodge; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery, Limited to Ground) Linked to Damage 11 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Limited to Objects) (17)
  • AE: "Groundstrike Line" Affliction 11 (Dodge; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Line +2) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery, Limited to Ground) Linked to Damage 11 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Line) (Flaws: Limited to Objects) (17)
  • AE: Penetrating Strength Damage 10 (10)
Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Strength Feats +11 Area (+11 Affliction, DC 21)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +3 (+13 Sasquatch, +6 Impervious), Fortitude +6 (+13), Will +7

Complications:
Involuntary Transformation (Tanaraq)- During moments of great pain or rage, Walter's personality may be subsumed by that of the Great Beast whose body he has possessed.
Enemy (Tanaraq, The Great Beasts)- Tanaraq is kinda PO'd that his body has been taken over, and sometimes makes this known.

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 48--24 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 84 / Defenses: 17 (179)

-OK, here's one of Alpha Flight's big guns. How big? Well, he's still alive, unlike much of the team, so that's pretty big. Somehow, Sasquatch has come to be the FACE of Alpha Flight in the Marvel Universe. He went from "Team Strongman" to "The one who survives all the team-killing events".

-Walter's got one of those "only in comics" origins, where he goes "Hey! Y'know that horrible accident that created the Hulk and ruined Bruce Banner's life? Well I'm gonna REPLICATE IT! On purpose!" The procedure turned him into an orange-furred creature from Canadian mythos, but it later turned out that wasn't the radiation; it was the Great Beast, Tanaraq, taking over his body! This resulted in some very convoluted storytelling, as he was killed by his teammate Snowbird after Tanaraq completely took over Walter's body... but when she later died, his spirit possessed her body, transforming into a white-furred Tanaraq because she could ALSO transform into Tanaraq, since her powers allowed her to turn into all "Canadian Creatures". Later, Snowbird's spirit transformed the body so that it mimicked Walter's natural one (I think comics writers don't imagine what the synopses of their stories would read like).

-My only Alpha Flight issues featured the white-furred 'Squatch- despite being one of the most iconic members of Alpha Flight, he was never given much respect elsewhere. The famous Thing/Champion issue features Sasquatch being one of the only guys to outright job to the Champion of the Universe, instead of being disqualified for silly reasons. Walter was established as strong, but wasn't given many wins over anyone of value. And the main characters of the Alpha Flight book was usually either Heather or Mac, and Northstar, Snowbird & Aurora were usually given bigger roles as well. When I was a kid, Sasquatch wasn't on ANYONE's "Favorite Characters" list- kids I knew preferred the Hulk, Thing & Colossus.

-The cancellation of the book led to Walter disappearing for a few years, and he was skipped over in the 1990s Revamp that saw a bunch of newbies join. What was thought to be him turned out to be an unintelligent, ACTUAL Sasquatch- not Walter. Despite that, Walter was eventually chosen as the sole survivor of the team when they were killed fighting a man with the combined powers of all the world's de-powered Mutants- this led to an awful, AWFUL Scott Lobdell-written Alpha Flight full of Joke Characters, and that stain on his character led to him falling into disuse once more, save for a brief Omega Flight book, where he was the sole Alpha Flight member on a book full of Americans and the guy who killed the rest of the Alphans. He was a more-minor character in the "We're getting a Limited Series! No- an ongoing! No- sales fell again, so we're back to Limited Series!" Alpha Flight book, and hasn't appeared in a big role since.

-Sasquatch is one of the few Alphans with some respect in the Marvel U. He's gone toe-to-toe with The Hulk, The Juggernaut and The Thing (alot of "The"s in there), all without clear winners, and in terms of raw power, is well-thought-of in the ranking pile of Earth-borne powerhouses. Not a bad gimmick, since the rest of Alpha Flight has been mostly forgotten or made fools of.

-Sasquatch is a PL 10.5 monster on offense (+11 with Area Effects), dealing out +14 Damage from +7 Accuracy- one more notch of power than guys like Warpath, Colossus and Thing get in my builds (and has +13 Toughness), but of course balances it out with relatively weak offensive and defensive skill. He's got the full gamut of Powerhouse-themed stuff, from Impervious Toughness +10, size (he's about 10 feet tall to some artists, and 12 feet plus to others), lots of raw strength (Marvel is of course typically low-balling it's stats, as their "Class 100 And Under" guys routinely lift airplanes or battleships, all of which weigh FAAAARRRR in excess of 100 tons- I figure 800 tons is good enough to use Extra Effort to boost it higher), some Senses, and a small bit of Regeneration. He's also much smarter and more skilled than other Bricks, going up in cost as a result.

-Not a bad balance, all in all, though he falls to 9.5 in Defense thanks to his sheer size, which I think is accurate based off of his Brickishness in the comics. Ol' Walt is highly-powerful, and probably the top dog on Alpha Flight, but would probably lose in an all-out war with The Thing, by virtue of Ben having way more Combat Advantages, and much higher Saves in general. This is backed up by Sasquatch losing BADLY to The Champion of the Universe (one of the few guys the Champ didn't wuss out on by coming up with "rule violations" that DQ' the REAL contenders), whereas Ben fought to the last drop of fortitude he had left.

-Builds like this, with a distinct superhuman form and a "normal" human identity, always make me think of "Morph" at a single rank for "One other appearance", but really, it for some reason doesn't apply to characters like this. DCA's official "Captain Marvel" build sure didn't have it.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:35 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Goldar
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by Goldar »

Yay, I am back!

After being locked out since around Dec 24th, I am back! Thanks for your help, Jab.

I love your Alpha Flight builds.

While not a major power team, for a while Marvel promoted them as such. And while most of the characters were not all that unusual, AF had/has a very large fan base. I think you captured them perfectly here.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by catsi563 »

Good ole Walter. Always one of my favorites from Alpha Flight. Such an iconic look big orange Furry and a powerhouse. :)
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by greycrusader »

Oddly, Sasquatch really got DE-pushed over the years-he started out supposedly as Canada's answer to the Hulk or Juggernaut, but has almost NEVER defeated major league opposition since his very earliest appearances, perhaps as a result of Alpha Flight's always-faltering status in the MU. And despite Walter Langowski's reputation as a Bruce Banner class scientist, he was retroactively revealed to have failed in his attempt in replicating gamma-mutation (as Jab stated, ole' Walt just opened himself up to Tanaraq possession) and hasn't ever been shown inventing any super-tech or pulling off any really impressive cognitive feats. More like he's a less a "comic-book genius" scientist and more like a highly intelligent real-world scientist instead.

And yeah, giving Snowbird the power to turn into an albino Sasquatch makes him utterly redundant.

All my best.
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Squatch II

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
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SASQUATCH II (No Name Given)
Created By:
Steven T. Seagle & Scott Clark
First Appearance: Alpha Flight (vol. 2) #1 (August 1997)
Role: Powerhouse, Dumb Animal
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight
PL 10 (124)
STRENGTH
12 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -4 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE -3

Skills: 
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+7)
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+5)
Insight 2 (+2)
Intimidation 13 (+10, +12 Size)
Perception 6 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+6, +2 Size)

Advantages: 
Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Startle

Powers:
"Natural Size" Growth 4 (Str & Sta +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (12 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]

Leaping 6 (500 feet) [6]
"Healing Factor" Regeneration 2 [2]
Impervious Toughness 11 [11]
"Animal Senses" Senses 4 (Low-Light Vision, Acute & Extended Scent, Extended Hearing) [4]

"Arctic Creature"
Movement 1 (Environmental Adapatation- Arctic) [2]
Immunity 1 (Cold) [1]

"Semi-Mythical Creature"
Concealment (All Visual Senses) 4 (Extras: Action- Reaction) (Flaws: Limited to Recording Devices, Limited to Crap-Ass Grainy Footage) [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +12 (+6 Impervious), Fortitude +13, Will +4

Complications:
Disabled (Animal)- Sasquatch cannot speak to human beings, nor does he understand their world.
Relationship (Tribe)- Sasquatch is the Alpha Male of his tribe of Sasquatches, and wants to protect and provide for them. Alpha Flight themselves essentially make up a different tribe of his.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 39 / Defenses: 13 (124)

-And here's the "other" Sasquatch. This one was thought to be an animalized Walter Langkowski, but turned out to be an ACTUAL Sasquatch. Funny, of course, how it managed to be just as big as the one we knew, and exactly the same colour. Also, the idea of a whole family of Thing-class powerhouses living out in British Columbia seems kind of weird. And by weird I mean AWESOME and they should totally take a look at the concept again (of course, there's already a whole tribe of Wendigos out there in my homeland as well. Comics Canada is way cooler than Actual Canada). Oh, and this thing died in a Heroic Sacrifice, protecting his teammates from some super-nano-machines.

-A much weaker, dumber, less skilled version of Sasquatch. Still nasty, but unwise to actually play as, being basically an animal. He's PL 9.5 on offense, PL 9 on defense, so he's not super-elite or anything, but he's dangerous nonetheless.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by danelsan »

greycrusader wrote:And yeah, giving Snowbird the power to turn into an albino Sasquatch makes him utterly redundant.
Sometimes I think about how bad Beast Boy might feel on a team with Martian Manhunter.

"so, he can shapeshift into anything I can, plus a whole lot of stuff I can't, including people. And he doesn't have to be green while doing it. Oh, and he can control his density, getting a super-tough hard body or walking through walls like a ghost. Also, near-Superman strength and toughness! Flight and lasers from his eyes, too! Have I mentioned Telepathy?"

Of course, with Martian Manhunter having an entire super-team's worth of powers, a lot of supers could feel redundant around him...
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Heck, Martin Manhunter is Superman + Intangible + Shapechanging + Telepathy + whatever the writers feel like adding. ^_^
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote:Am I the only one who thought Puck II was a complete rip-off of Grace Choi?

(I only read the "funny" Alpha Flight as a trade paperback long after it had been cancelled; So I may have the timeline wrong.)
Yeah, that could be so. Same general "look" to both characters, though Grace is much bigger & stronger.

But part of my hates you for reminding me of that god-awful Outsiders book :).
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Haha- Chez Lindsay does an epic takedown of RENT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qfFbtIj5w

I enjoy RENT for what it is... but she's dead-on here. The kids in the show always annoy me, and the movie makes it worse by casting actors in their thirties (though seeing Idina Menzel's butt during La Vie Boheme is worth the price of admission alone. It's SO WHITE!). And yeah, the stage version makes it clear that they're living the life of the target of Pulp's Common People, and could basically leave at any moment.

A lot of the problems come from the fact that the show's creator was the same age as most of the characters, so he was basically like "yeah, SCREW THE SYSTEM!" and "NO DAY BUT TODAY!" (ie. "Seize the Day") without any real answers, because hey- he didn't have any. He was just like "enjoy the world while you still have it", because he and most of his friends were living under the specter of AIDS back when it was a supreme death sentence.

It's also funny from reading the comments of the video that ONCE AGAIN people in today's era can't "get" what Angel is, exactly. Because as I've said repeatedly, the early '90s was WAY different for the "T" part of the "LGBT" crowd- you weren't SUPPOSED to use labels, which is why Angel's pronouns are never universal or agreed upon (all the males, including Angel's lover, say "he"; all the females say "she"- nobody corrects anybody else). Angel doesn't "identify" as shit; Angel is ANGEL, and that's all you need to know. THAT was how the "T" worked in the early '90s.

And GOD I love the bit where she cracks about the big love song Roger's been talking about all show being the worst friggin' one.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Batgirl III »

I say this as someone married to a transgendered person, but I think a lot of Millenials (and Gen Xers who only started to pay attention to LGBT issues since the mid 2000's) tend to forget that transvestism is a thing. Transvestites are cisgendered, often heterosexual, people who enjoy dressing in the clothing of the opposite gender... But, unlike transgendered people, they don't have any desire to change gender.

It will very from production to production, performer to performer, but I've always "read" Angel in the film as a transvestite and not a transwoman. (S)he doesn't seem to put any effort into presenting any female secondary sexual characteristics (no breast implants or falsies, no corset for the feminine hip to waste ratio, etc.) Heck, the big final shot of Marc's home movie — I mean documentary — is of Angel without a wig and in a men's white cotton t-shirt!

By today's terminology, Angel would probably be "read" as genderqueer or genderfluid. But in the Reagan Era when the film/musical is set, Angel would most likely have been considered part of the transvestism community.

(And, yeah, like Jab and Lindsay, I like Rent despite the main characters bring mostly impoverished-by-choice whiny douchebags. Angel and Collins are the only characters I really sympathize with, althoughbtge film's version of Joanne also seems like someone I could learn to like. But, yeah, Benny is the good guy, not the villain.)
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Jabroniville »

I remember Randy Milholland's rant about the play, and his character (Davan in Something Positive) joking about writing "The Anti-Rent- a play where the hero is the "Benny" character, and the villains are the entitled whiners who demand to live in his space rent-free.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Alpha Flight- Guardian! Marrina! Vindicator! Puck!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote:Oddly, Sasquatch really got DE-pushed over the years-he started out supposedly as Canada's answer to the Hulk or Juggernaut, but has almost NEVER defeated major league opposition since his very earliest appearances, perhaps as a result of Alpha Flight's always-faltering status in the MU. And despite Walter Langowski's reputation as a Bruce Banner class scientist, he was retroactively revealed to have failed in his attempt in replicating gamma-mutation (as Jab stated, ole' Walt just opened himself up to Tanaraq possession) and hasn't ever been shown inventing any super-tech or pulling off any really impressive cognitive feats. More like he's a less a "comic-book genius" scientist and more like a highly intelligent real-world scientist instead.

And yeah, giving Snowbird the power to turn into an albino Sasquatch makes him utterly redundant.

All my best.
Sasquatch & Snowbird also suffer from artist-related maladies: both are really, REALLY hard to draw. Sasquatch because he's furry, but with different lengths of fur all over his body (even DALE EAGLESHAM finds him difficult to draw)... as well as being almost twice as tall as most other characters, making it hard to "block" scenes featuring more than one person. And Snowbird because of her ability to transform into animals. I would bet MONEY that artists beg the writers to only let her transform into a few different types of animals for this reason. Unless you're George Perez, that's gonna kill most artists, who generally focus only on drawing humans and backgrounds. There's a reason "Wildlife Painter" is like, an entire genre of art.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Figured I'd drop some notes about the motherland:


Image

CANADA
Actual name:
Canada
Population: 34.3 million
Capital: Ottawa
Primary Language: English & French
Super-Powered Representatives: Wolverine, Alpha Flight, Turbine & The Right-Riders, Major Mapleleaf
Fun Facts:
-Started out pretty much like America did, with tribes of Natives being first allied with, and then subverted by the settlers. The English and French were the major powers, eventually fighting a war between "Upper" and "Lower" Canada (the English won heavily, and Canada became anglo-dominated). Lower Canada was, naturally, further North than Upper Canada, because f*ck you, we're Canadians, that's why. Generally speaking, the Natives were treated better than those in the United States- they weren't explicitly given a genocide, but were politely shoved into reserves.

-There are currently a LOT more Natives in Canada as a result. They're usually just called "Natives" because of course they're not Native AMERICANS, though community leaders try to change the name every ten years or so, once one name becomes a sort of short-hand racial slur. They're currently pushing either "Aboriginal" or "First Nations" on people, but it's only a matter of time before people start using THOSE with disgust. This is because Natives tend to be very poor, and end up with the same sort of "drunken hobo" stereotypes that other really poor people do (Natives are five times as likely to die via alcoholism as other races). Because... the world sucks.

-Canada was dominated by England for years (getting into both World Wars by proxy immediately), but gradually lost dependence (compared to America, who took indepdence by force- Canada took it in a very Canadian way: silently, boringly, and with a "wait, you weren't independent of us yet?" from the motherland) and eventually became a Constitutional Monarchy with no major legal links to England. It's a major American ally, but with a much smaller military force- the combined border between our two countries is the longest in the world, and has been undefendeded for longer than any other, with only a relatively minor skirmish in 1812 (Canadians like to smugly claim victory, but this was basically Revolutionary War Part II, with England squabbling with the U.S. and nothing really changing. English troops did burn the White House up pretty badly).

-Politics are less volatile than American ones, with a multi-party system (though only two have ever held power, two others have attained "Official Opposition" status with the second-most votes). Issues remain between the English side and Quebec, which are perceived as whiners by the rest of Canada, while the Quebecois like special treatment and considerations (such as, famously, bilingual signs and labels on EVERYTHING, meaning all products sold in Canada need French on the labels, too). The Conservatives and Liberals basically trade off on leading Canada, though both are generally more liberal than their American equivalents (especially true of the "Tories"), with the powerful New Democratic Party (think Democrats if Bernie Sanders-types took over) coming close behind. Libertarians would be in constant agony here. Quebec eventually voted (barely) to stay a Canadian Province in the 1990s.

-There are ten provinces and three Territories (with Nunavut forming in 1999, cutting the Northwest Territory in half- this was after I left High School, so now I no longer know all our capitals. It's like "Iqualut" or something). The Provinces (except the Maritime ones, which are tiny) are HUGE, much like the rest of Canada, but most of the population is close to the American border by reasons of weather (it is COLD up north). Distances between major cities is INSANE here compared to almost anywhere else, with Edmonton being three hours' drive from the next city of over a million people, and the next closest are multi-day trips.

-Canada isn't a major cultural force officially, but a huge number of celebrities are Canadian: Pamela Anderson (you're welcome, thirteen-year-olds of the '90s), Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, Leslie Nielson, Rush, Celine Dion (sorry about that), Nickelback (REALLY sorry about that), Justin Beiber (okay, Rush has gotta make up for some of that crap, right? Neil Peart stands alone) and more. Only a few Canadian TV shows can sprout up under overwhelming American cultural presence, but the Degrassi series is a stand-out- showing real-life young teenage issues in the early '90s (such as a kid with AIDS, which was WAY ahead of its time). Also, The Rock is legally a Canadian citizen, since his father (Rocky Johnson, who wrestled in the WWF and in Calgary's Stampede Wrestling promotion) was born in Nova Scotia, and the Canadian government made that rule a thing.

-Regarding the accent: It's a little bit true, though obviously gets exaggerated like most accents. The further east you go, the more people say "aboat" (not quite "Aboot") and "eh"- Western Canada sounds a bit more like Western Americans (ie. California), but with slightly different vowel pronounciation. I've been told by New Jerseyites and Californians alike that I have no accent, but someone from Maryland told me I did. So who knows?

-The hockey thing? No joke. Paul Henderson's winning goal in the "Summit Series" is a bigger deal in Canada than the "Miracle On Ice" was in the States, and Wayne Gretzky is still a national hero. Almost everyone has at least a passing knowledge of hockey, the country basically shuts down when Canada goes far in hockey in the Olympics (I've seen this happen thrice), and there is hockey on the money (specifically, the $5 bill. Some Americans have said "There's hockey on the money? That can't be real" upon seeing it).

-Tim Horton's is a bit of a national thing. It's basically a cheap sandwich shop with like two kinds of coffee, but you can become wealthy (not rich- WEALTHY) just by owning a couple of franchises (which are apparently quite tough to get). It used to be all about donuts, but they suck now. In large cities, they're EVERYWHERE. It has the same kind of "people hang out here for hours" quality of Starbucks, if Starbucks just had plain coffee, staff with thick foreign accents, and actual meals.
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