#The expendables gunner

[maxkennedy24]

#the expendables #gunner jensen #barney ross

[melancholyromance]

“To Billy!” • The Expendables 2

#the expendables 2 #sylvester stallone #barney ross #jason statham #lee christmas #toll road #randy couture #hale caeser #terry crews #gunner jensen #dolph lundgren #l.r. gifs #my gifs

[komotionlessqueenmm]

Imagine # 1,043

Gif NOT mine. (Found on Pinterest)

If this gif is yours (or you know who's it is) please let me, so I can give you/them credit.

Gif credit goes to - Unknown.

Year posted - 2023

*I actually teared up a few times while writing this one, because the dream described in this one is literally a dream I just had a few hours ago. Doesn't help how vivid and real my dreams look and feel.

"I heard you moaning my name in your sleep." Gunnar stated with a smirk, thinking he'd caught her having a wet dream about him. "You died in my dream." (Y/n) frowned before glancing at the rest of the team, who were across the warehouse packing equipment. Gunnar had since frozen at her words, his smirk vanishing. "You all did." She added bitterly before standing up and walking away, suddenly in desperate need for fresh air. The Sweed remind frozen there for several minutes, shocked and honestly appalled by the thought of (Y/n) having to watch them all die. When the guys laughed particularly loud at something that had occurred, Gunnar snapped out of his mind and went looking for (Y/n), finding her smoking a cigarette on the roof. He walked across the roof, and sat beside her, so close their knees touched. It was his way of showing her that he was still here, still alive. But she didn't even turn to look at him, instead the cherry of her cigarette simply glew as she took another long drag, her eyes locked on the darkness of the night sky.

"What happened?" Gunnar asked suddenly, genuinely curious about how bad her dream must have been to shake her up like this. "We were on a mission, on some off the grid tropical island. An island that was lost, and supposedly untouched by man for decades." She took another deep drag, and Gunnar wondered why he'd never noticed her smoking before. "Well that was bullshit of course." She chuckled darkly. "Why were we sent there?" Gunnar asked, his eyes locked solely on her, while her gaze remained elsewhere. "To find and retrieve an ancient artifact. Worth millions. It was like a dream come true, easiest job we'd ever been on. That's what we thought anyways." Her tongue swiped out and across her bottom lip before she continued. "We were deep in the jungle, separated into teams. You, me, and Caesar were travelling down the river in kayaks. Ross, Christmas, and Toll were on foot. They were gonna check an old temple deep within the jungle, we were gonna check an old village nestled within a massive cave a ways down the river." She snuffed out the rest of the cigarette.

"I wasn't there in the dream, but I still saw it happen, Toll had accidentally tripped a booby trap. An old bouncing Betty was triggered, and then he was gone. Then bombs were going off at the base of trees surrounding Ross and Christmas. Ross got pinned, and ended up dying when a wolf with only half a face came and tore his throat out. Christmas made it out, only to be cornered by two Jaguar... I don't know if he'd lost his knives or what... But he... Well he didn't stand a chance." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. It wasn't until then that Gunnar realized just how deeply he cared for (Y/n), as he fought an internal battle to resist taking her in his arms and chasing that nightmare away. "We only had two kayaks, so as usual me and you paired up together. But when Caesar was suddenly shot through the heart, you shoved be out of the boat and into the water, yelling to get the hell out of there until you were also shot through the heart." Tears welled in her eyes, and she didn't even hide wiping them away. The sight broke Gunnars heart. "You guys kept floating down river in the boats, and I stayed in the water beside you, using your bodies as cover, and hoping whoever had shot you would think I had drowned." She sniffled as her nose began to run from her bodies reaction to her crying.

"No such luck I guess. Caesars boat got flipped when it bumped a bolder, tossing his into the water, and breaking part of my cover. A bullet struck the water just a few inches from my head, then my legs got tangled up in this jumble of rocks. Of course my foot got stuck." She shook her head. "You kept floating down the river of course. And I couldn't tear my eyes away, even as I heard men shouting and running into the water. Your voice still ringing in my ears, telling me to get outta here." She ran a hand through her hair, and Gunnar placed his hand right above her knee, trying to offer her comfort. "I uh got my foot free, and tried climbing onto a bolder, hoping to use it as an advantage point." She cleared her throat. "But I was surrounded, mostly by these deformed looking animals, and only about four guys. But they had rifles, and I'd lost mine when you tried saving me." (Y/n) finally turned her gaze to Gunnar then. "I couldn't help but look downstream where you were, sighing in heartbreak as I muttered "Oh Gunnar." Then I was knocked out when one of the men struck me with the butt of his gun." Gunnar realized that what he had heard while she was asleep, and had assumed to be scandalous or lewd, had actually been her parting words to him as he was lost entirely to her.

"I woke up in a cave, one right off the river, it wasn't quiet where we had been headed, but probably not far off. Anyways I had my hands tied behind my back, and I was struggling to stand up. When I did I saw that wolf with half a face. One side was normal, while the other side was missing all the skin and most of the muscle, like it was dead and decaying." (Y/n) had since turned her eyes back to the far distance. "And it wasn't until it looked at me and growled that I realized it was gnawing on Ross's severed arm. Lucky ring." She sighed heavily, and Gunnar gave her leg a light squeeze, encouraging her to continue. "I could hear this rhythmic thumping coming from a corridor to my right, it was alluring in a way, almost hypnotic. Knowing I was the only one left I needed to decide if getting the job done was worth it, or if running away was a better idea. I know most of you guys would have wanted me to run and save myself, but I couldn't just let you all die for nothing, I just needed to figure out what I was going to do." Gunnar frowned deeper, knowing that's exactly what they'd want, and that's exactly what she'd do. And he hated it.

"I don't really remember how I got my hands free, I think I used a stalagmite, or something like that. But right as I broke my bonds one of the guys from before had entered the chamber. He was the one that had the sniper, and had killed you and Caesar." (Y/n)'s fingers moved to pick at a string on the hem of her shirt. "He started talking about the artifact we were there for, about how it had some effect on living things, made them bloodthirsty, dangerous. He didn't seem upset about it, or about what he'd done. He was smiling in fact, as if he were proud of his accomplishments. Fucking asshole." She hissed as she shook her head. "He just kept monologuing, and then these weird monkey looking things started attacking my legs. So I kicked the little bastards off, one of them tried jumping at me, but I caught it by the throat, and I just squeezed and just kept squeezing even after I'd felt it's neck break. I... I was so angry, so... Heartbroken." (Y/n) wiped her eyes as a new wave of tears threatened to spill.

"Something had happened then, and despite clearly being on the same team, the guy and that wolf were now at each other's throats. It was as if the violence I had caused, triggered something in everything around me and they all just started killing eachother." She swallowed thickly. "I took my chance and took off down the corridor I heard the thumping coming from. And the closer I got to it, the odder the corridor became. The floor had turned into a small stream, with sand, rocks, and everything. But the walls, the walls were the strangest thing. It was as if they were made of carved wax, intricate tribal designs carved all across the walls, which were shiny from a thin layer of it melting in the heat that was coming from further down the hall." She frowned as she tried in vain to understand. "When I reached the chamber the floor had eroded into a pit filled with fire, while a narrow path lead to the artifact. The artifact itself was just a small statue of some lost deity, but you could still feel it's power. It wasn't until I managed to tear my eyes away from the statue, that I realized you were all hanging from the ceiling. Even Toll, who was only a pair of legs by that point. I screamed and cried, and I realized that this thing couldn't leave the island, and neither could I." She chuckled bitterly.

"I never have had the nerve to ask Ross to teach me how to fly." She then shook her head before continuing. "I knew you had what I needed, because you were the only one crazy enough to carry c4 in your pocket for "emergencies". So I scaled the wall and ceiling, cussing and crying the entire time from how much it hurt my muscles and hands, until I reached you." Gunnar squeezed her leg again, and this time (Y/n) rest her head against his shoulder, sighing deeply as she did so. "You looked so peaceful, like you were only sleeping. I remember resting my forehead against yours, whispering about how I wasn't far behind. And after placing a kiss..." She hesitated, but the feeling of Gunnar leaning ever so slightly into her kept her talking. "Against your lips. I took what I would need, and made my way back down to the ground. I then planted the c4 and set up the detonator, when I was finished with that I sat on the ground beside the statue, looking up at all of you and whispering my apology for failing you all. And with one final look at you, I triggered the detonator." She sat upright from leaning against Gunnar. "Then I woke up, found you all okay and in good spirits. But I can't get those images out of my head, how real it all felt, how much it hurt to watch you die, and for what? For nothing." Gunnar stopped her rambling by taking a gentle hold of her head and turning her to him.

"That's never gonna happen." He assured her before closing the distance between them, kissing her tenderly despite wanting to pour all of his want into their first kiss. (Y/n) had jumped in surprise initially, but quickly melted into the kiss, having been harboring a crush on Gunnar for years now. Gunnar pulled away first, both of them still a little dazed from the kiss. "We're never going to a lost island, and we are never going to go retrieve some ancient artifact." (Y/n) smiled at his words, a content sigh passing her lips when he kissed her once more. This time when he pulled away he had a smile on his face. "And Barney is going to teach you how to fly that shitty plane of his." He added as he pulled her hands into his own, his thumbs tracing the backs of her hands as they simply gazed at eachother. "Whatever you say big guy." (Y/n) hummed softly, knowing he was true to his word, despite the almost playful look in his eyes. All was well in the world, because they were alive, he was alive. And now he was hers.

#imagine #gif imagine #extended #reader insert #gunnar jensen #gunnar jensen x reader #Gunnar Jensen imagine #the expendables #The expendables imagine #The expendables x reader #Gunnar Jensen x you #The expendables x you #dolph lundgren #dolph lundgren imagine #Dolph lundgren x reader #actor #self indulgence time #The expendables gunnar #gunner jensen

[cinemabuffoon]

Missing them today

(they aren't dead the franchise just screwed them over)

#the expendables #wesley snipes #antonio banderas #terry crews #doc #galgo #hale caesar #movies #action movies #film #the expendables 2 #the expendables 3 #barney ross #lee christmas #gunner jensen #toll road #yin yang #cinema #meme

[stephendorff]

The Expendables 2 (2012) dir. Simon West

#dolph lundgren #the expendables #my gifs #gunner is so freakin funny #i love him so much 🤣❤❤

[ninimackbrews]

Someone please for the love of god find me Dolph Lundgren smut!

Please, anything at this point… and of his characters, I’ll take whatever i can get!

#dolph lundgren #the punisher #the 1989 Punisher #the expendables #Frank Castle 1989 #Gunner Jensen #Ivan Drago #Rocky #Universal Soldier #Sergeant Andrew Scott #Andrew Scott #Masters of the Universe #He-Man

[rattythescientist]

I’m so happy to find out that expendables fandom exists, but it was perfect if I did that in my 15 years yeah, I felt a little lonely having only one person (hi, Nate!) to share my crazy thoughts with… But I don’t see much more slash content there, why isn’t anyone shipping Barney/Lee, they are obviously like good old friends (probably with some benefits), and what about Gunner and his little Chinese bro, who jokes about having family in Expendables 2? I saw Toll Road/Hale Caesar fic once, and it was fluff! Please let’s do some stuff about team relationships, even if it will contain some OOC 😭

p.s. sometimes Russian localisations are dumb, but in case of expendables the word «неудержимые» fitted amazing to the franchise, in my opinion - even better that the verbal translation of the word “expendables” that in Russian will sound like «пушечное мясо»?

I’m so bad at writing bilingual texts, so feel free to ask about Russian words if you’re not native! I love both languages for their specifics, I also love and speak German, why did this post turn into sincere confession, it was supposed to be shitpost omg

#the expendables #the expendables 2 #barney ross #Lee Christmas #slash #big buff men do fluff #toll road #gunner jensen #hale caesar

[ficmesideways]

Request for Anonymous Gif Source: Gunner (Unknown)

Imagine being in a relationship with Gunner and he finds out that someone is stalking you and sending you threats

-------- Imagine --------

“What is it (Y/N)?” He said surprising you, making  you spin around quickly and hiding the note you had been in the middle of reading behind your back.

“Gunner, you scared me.” You said trying to hide your nervousness as you tucked the note in your back pocket and then brought your hand around to your chest.

“Must have been something interesting, normally I can never sneak up on you.” He said and you knew how he was eyeing you and glancing toward your hip are that he had seen you try and hide the note. “If its…if you think you need to hide something from me I promise you, you don’t. I’ll be calm n matter what it is.” His voice held something dejected in it and you knew how hard he worked to not revert to his more deranged self at times. You didn’t like hiding this from him, but you were scared. Not of him, never of him, but what would happen if you voiced what was happening, almost like speaking about it would make it more real.

He moved to sit on the couch nearby and grabbed a steel water bottle, all patience as he waited for you to decide whether to tell him or not. You sighed shoulders slumping as you moved to sit next to him, pulling out the note and handing it to him as you sat on the couch, bringing your knees to your chest in an act to comfort yourself. You watched him closely as he read the letter and the threatening things it entailed. The details from your stalker had been getting more and more graphic as the weeks had dragged on and you knew he had gotten to the worse part when he crushed the bottle in his bare hand.

He took a minute after finishing the letter, letting out very deep controlled breaths before turning to you, and noticing the small ball you mad eof yourself pulled your smaller body not his lap. He wrapped his long arms around you and made you feel so safe for the first time since the letters had started coming as he whispered. “Don’t worry my little sötnos I will take care of this. We will. Together.”

#gunner jensen imagine #the expendables imagine #My Imagines #gifs not mine #tw: stalking #tw: threats

[pelova4president]

Shadows are to protect I

Alessia Russo x Putellas!Reader

shadows are to protect II, III, IV

summary~ You just moved to Arsenal and everything was unknown to you but now you had Alessia. Your situationship with Alessia was everything but perfect but at least she was there, sometimes.

this is pure angst

Alessia is your whole heart. You could tell her that a thousand times and she still wouldn’t leave her boyfriend.

He doesn’t even get her, not like you do. He doesn’t appreciate her like you do. It should be you holding her hand on the streets. It should be you kissing her in the bars of London.

You didn’t really know when you started to feel that way. You’d just moved to England, a very scary move from your comfortable and warm Spain. Spain and Barcelona was all you’ve even known. Expending your world was just as terrifying as you’d ever believed.

The welcome was cold, very cold. It was the completely opposite of what you were used to, it was quite literally what you were petrified of. You left the warm sun kissing the dark little freckles on your face and exchanged the English rain dropping down on your hair. You weren’t even sure what to call it, not in English and not in Spanish either.

But even now you weren’t sure if you’d go back and stay in Barcelona. The sun might shine there most hours of the working days but you’d always be in the shadows. In the shadows of La Reina, Alexia Putellas, your sister.

The two coloured club had offered you a contract extension where you’d get paid twice the amount you did last year. You’d driven to the club like you did most days but this time you had one thing in mind, or so you thought. Signing for another three years and being the average defender in the team for whenever one of the original starters couldn’t participate.

A red and blue pen rested between your thumb and point fingers as you listened to your manager talk about the future. But most of it fell to deaf ears. “Alexia and you would be the head of the Champions League campaign. Imagine this, the Putellas hermanas on top of Europe.” he said full excitement. It wasn’t the whole campaign that set you off but how he began his sentence, ‘Alexia and you’.

You were sitting here, ready to sign your contract, for your future. They wanted you to sign and still their first thought was Alexia.

Without saying a word you stormed off. You were not doing this again for three more years.

You had spiked interest from multiple clubs, not only Europe but America too. But when Arsenal let your agency know that they wanted you, you knew that that was it. From now on you’ll be a gunner, through and through.

You got picked up from the Airport. With a sign reading ‘Putellas’. It felt good. They didn’t have to clarify which Putellas sister they were picking up, there was only one in London now, you. The bigger man, he might’ve even be twice the height of you introduced himself. And with the little English you had in store you thanked him and told him your name.

The man you now knew as Keith was a simple man. He opened the door for you and didn’t say much. You liked it that way, the silence was fine by you. You liked that the intimidating car you were sat in had tinted windows. Not so you couldn’t be seen but because it gave you some sort of comfort. When you were younger and Alexia was a rising star she had you sit in the backseat, where nobody could see you and where you’d be safe she’d say.

The little droplets of rain were doing races and you had lost for about the twentieth time when the car came to a stop. Keith grumbled something about being there and got out. You didn’t really know what to do and what they expected of you so you opened the car door. Picking your bags up you placed your right foot outside and your left followed.

It all went too fast, Jonas showed almost all the rooms in the building and the wet pitches that were not in any state to be used. You had to film a few shots for your signing announcement, get through a few medical test and finally got to go home.

Keith drove you to your temporary apartment just a few minutes away from the training ground. You had a streak of almost one hundred days of English on Duolingo so you thanked the tall man in the few words you had learned to say and got out of the black Range Rover.

You were home. You were home, you kept repeating those words but you didn’t believe it. You were home.

This is it now. North London is your new home.

The appartement was empty except for the blank furniture, it had no personality and it was hard to think there ever would be. Four white walls, a grey couch, a black kitchen and an all white bed in the middle of your bedroom. They didn’t even tell you that the kitchen would be just as empty as the apartment.

The sound of a notification alarmed you out of your emotionless state. You forgot to put your phone on do not disturb. ‘Where are you?’ it read. Alexia knew you didn’t sign for Barca the day before but she didn’t know you’d be gone by the morning. Tapping on the do not disturb mode you traveled to your all white bed.

And that is how it went, do not disturb mode on. You we there, at the training ground and the games but not really there. You weren’t in the right mindset to talk to anyone yet and that’s why it was so goddamn frustrating when McCabe or Mead tried to get you to talk.

You sat alone at lunch, didn’t go out with your teammates and barely stayed in contact with your sister. That was until Alessia Russo came into your life.

You didn’t mean to let her in. You decided early on that you were at Arsenal for your career and career only. But she changed that, so quick. And before you knew it you were falling for her.

She came into Arsenal and everyone was a fan of her. It seemed like she was friends with everyone instantly and it made you curious.

Alessia had been a gunner for almost a week when you realised she lived across from your apartment. She came knocking on your door one evening, offering you some of het pasta since she had made too much. You knew that she’d been searching for an opportunity to get you to talk to her but you didn’t expect her to come knocking at your door like that.

You let her in and she started to talk to you. You couldn’t exactly call it a conversation since she did all the talking and you muttered out some broken English once in a while. But even though you hated to admit it, she was nice company. It made you feel less lonely, she made you feel less empty.

You’d told Alexia about your move to Arsenal before it officially came out and she wasn’t pleased, at all. She was mad, mad that you didn’t tell her earlier. You told her what had happened and what was racing through your mind when you made the decision but she just couldn’t fathom out the thought of you feeling that way. And that made you feel even less understood, it felt like your life was slipping away from you and you only made it worse with every next move you made.

But Alessia made you feel like you were okay for a moment. After the first day of eating together she offered you food almost everyday and after a month it became a tradition, you would diner together every single day and she even learned you English. You didn’t really progress in your Duolingo streak and didn’t talk much either so the help was very much needed.

It wasn’t until the first half of the season had been played that you realised you had other feelings for her. You saw her as more than just a friend. It was all going very fast and the feelings intensified by the day, that may be because she was the only one you really could talk to. It hurt you to even think about living without her and that might’ve the first warning you should’ve seen but you didn’t.

It was Alessia who kissed you first. You both had been drinking and the two empty bottles of red wine next to your grey couch were the evidence of that. Alessia was a touchy person, just like everyone in Spain so you didn’t mind. She was giggly and teasing you relentlessly.

“I bet you think about me hmm?” she hummed and started to climb on top of you. Taken aback by the movement you didn’t really react to anything she had just said. “I want to kiss you.” she whispered into your ear that was tinted red by now. You didn’t answer. “I’m gonna kiss you now, okay.” she leaned in, placing her pink lips on your red ones. It was sweet but turned desperate very quickly.

The blonde slept sweetly beside you that evening. The thoughts raced through your mind and none of them were making any sense. It was hard to think straight with Alessia next to you, that was what made things so complicated. But now that she was laying in your bed you couldn’t not have her there, you needed her.

Alessia started to stay over more and more, it became your new normal. Half of her closet was laying in yours and she even brought her favourite mug with her. You bought all her favourite foods so she would feel comfortable and she appreciated it, just not enough to stay with you.

You came home on a Thursday evening one day but Alessia was nowhere to be found. Normally she would be laying on your couch, watching some sappy Netflix show you refused to watch with her. A bowl of nuts in her hands she didn’t really like but it was a healthy snack so it would do. But the only thing you found on your couch was her blue hoodie. Well it was yours originally but she basically claimed it as hers now.

Putting your cold groceries away you walked towards Alessia’s front door. She had given you her spare key after leaving hers in her home, locking herself out for the second time. She had bought a keychain with it, a little Barca jersey with your name and number on it. You smiled down at the colourful jersey and opened the door.

Walking in you heard some laughter coming from the living room that you could describe in detail. It was a light living room with two big windows that were open at all times, she liked it that way. She bought a brown couch after you broke her beige one. You had gifted her a few plants to make the room a real living space but knew she didn’t really care for them so you’d come in and give them water.

The photo’s in her hallway were those of her mom, dad and brothers, who she adored so much. And even though she didn’t like to have pictures of herself in her home she had one of her and her best friend Ella after winning the Euros.

When you stepped into the living area you were a bit taken aback by the man sitting next to your Alessia. His left hand was draped over her shoulder, like it was the most normal thing. His right was resting on her thigh. Who was he?

You stood still, watching the pair until Alessia noticed you. Her eyes had gone wide. “Hey, what’re you doing here?” she asked carefully. You didn’t answer. “Luke, this is my teammate, and well, this is my boyfriend Luke.” she introduced you and stalked towards your frozen form.

Boyfriend? You thought..

Alessia gave her boyfriend some weak excuse and walked you back to your apartment. You were in your own home again, a safe place. When Alessia started to talk again you cut her off. “I- you have a boyfriend? I thought we had.. something?” you looked almost lost to her. “Well, you thought wrong. Whatever you thought we had, we didn’t.” she said without any emotion behind her eyes, like she hadn’t spent the whole of last week in your house, in your bed, wearing your hoodie.

She left your house like nothing had happened.

Were you really that stupid, did you really think she’d like you. You had created this whole other reality, one where she’d actually like you and wanted to be with you.

You kept to yourself even more now. Alessia had gotten you out of your shell to some extent but now you had crawled back in again. Every moment you weren’t training or playing football you were at home but it didn’t feel like home anymore. It wasn’t as empty as it was when it arrived but it felt like it. The life had gone away and that’s not something you can fix with a few overpriced paintings and some weird cactus.

You couldn’t eat dinner without Alessia, you couldn’t watch horrible movies without Alessia and you just couldn’t sleep in a bed without Alessia.

It was the one time you decided to go out and drink that she came over to talk to you again. She acted like nothing had ever happend, like it was back to normal again, like she had slept in your bed the day before. But you liked it, craved it even. You had longed for Alessia to come back again and save you from yourself.

So she ended up in your bed and stayed long enough for you to fall asleep. But not long enough for you to wake up to her scent or her sleepy blue eyes and messy blonde hair.

It went on like that, she came home with you for the night and you forgot about all the things she had done to you and you woke up to an empty bed. You did feel bad for the Luke guy, well you did in the beginning but somewhere along the way you started to lose that sympathy.

You were mad. Angry. He could drive her to training and hold her hand out in public. He could kiss her on the streets and wake up to her snuggled next to him. He could have all those domestic little moments and gestures you longed for. It wasn’t fair.

Alessia had prepared dinner for the both of you and you were watching a movie when you felt the need to talk to her about this whole situation. “Lessi, i really like you. I want you and i to be together because i love you.” there, you said it. Alessia didn’t look at you, she stared blankly at the movie infront of her. You reached for the distraction playing on the television and paused it but she still wouldn’t look you in the eyes.

“I love you.” you repeated again, hoping for a response. She sighed, “Look, i don’t know what you think we are but we aren’t that. I don’t know how many times i have to tell you this but i have a boyfriend and you’re just there for a quick fuck. That’s all. You’re not special just because your sister has won a few trophies. I can’t do anything about the fact that you’re fucking lonely but leave me out of it.” she hissed.

You just said you loved her, for the first time. You handed her your fucking heart and she stomped on it like it was nothing. Alesia knew your relationship with your sister was complicated and being in her shadows was something that hurt you the most in this world, but yet she brought it up. You’d told her everything you never dared to say out loud and she used it to damage you even more. She is your whole world but to her you’re a ‘quick fuck’.

You were hers but she’d never be yours

“Please go away.” you asked her, tears threatening to escape your tired glossy eyes.

You were left alone in your apartment and the loneliness was more torturous than ever. The fucking lasagna Alessia had made you had turned cold and you looked at the wooden table infront of you. There was a picture of you and Alexia framed, Alessia had printed it out to make you feel more like home but it only made you miss it more, especially now.

Looking at your phone you opened your chat with your sister. You hadn’t texted her in about a month, the last text being about your mothers birthday that you couldn’t attend.

You needed her, you needed you sister to protect you. You needed her to protect you from the sun and to place you in her shadows again. For once it was all you desired.

A/N let me know what you think of the fic!! Also, i don’t know if i should write a second part and if or how i should end up Alessia and R together. I could make R fall in love with someone else too??

#woso x reader #woso fanfics #woso community #engwnt #alexia putellas x reader #alexia putellas #alessia russo #alessia russo x reader #arsenalwomen #arsenal wfc #arsenal women #arsenalwfc x reader #barca femeni #barcelona femeni #barca women #angst #shadows are to protect

[mastersoftheair]

"Masters of the Air details: Part 3-Gunnery.

Guns:

"A lot of people have been asking about the guns used in Masters of the Air. I believe that full auto blank firing guns were going to be used originally. It turns out that the muzzle blast from blank guns could damage the sensitive screens used in the volume for the video walls, so they came up with another type of gun developed by a sharp special effects master. He made guns that operated on compressed air and would feed belted, projectile-less shells and links and spit out the empty shells from the bottom of the gun and the links out of the feed way just like the real guns would. The guns would recoil, and rattle and the muzzle flash would be added by VFX in post-production. "The guns worked well but fired slower than a real M2 50 cal at 600 rounds per minute. They did need a lot of tweaking and frequent reloading so some of the production staff were less than happy at the time needed to service the guns and keep them running. No good non-blank firing options exist for this kind of work so I thought that this was an impressive effort and ultimately looked good on screen."

Empty Brass:

"The shells and links dropping from the guns at a prodigious rate is a very important part in my mind as is the number of shells that should be all over the floor around the gunners. We were filming Regensburg which historically was a long running battle with the Luftwaffe so the amount of ammunition expended was amazing to say the least. "Each gun fires about 10 rounds per second so there are 10 empty shells and 10 links spitting out of each 50 cal gun per second. Imagine what the floor would look like and imagine walking all over those empty shells. "They actually made rubber empty shells and links painted perfectly to look like the real thing with the intention of people being able to walk on them and not have their feet flying out from under them like they would with the real thing. "At one point during filming, I couldn’t see enough shells on the monitors for the cameras, so I asked for more brass and I met resistance from one of the crew saying that they had already put some in. I had to pull up wartime images on my iPad to show them, and the director, just how bad it would look in the middle of battle so they could understand that just one half of a bucket of brass was not going to cut it. We needed at least 10 buckets so they stopped filming to fill up the floor with brass and links as it should be. The gunners should be wading through the brass around their boots. "This was an eye opener for them, and they ended up filming a lot of scenes showing this dramatic aspect or aerial warfare. It sure looked good!"

Feed Chutes:

"Reproducing fully complimented B-17’s is quite a chore. Some items are harder to replicate than others. One of these hard parts to reproduce are the flexible feed chutes used for the ammunition to get from the ammo box to the gun. Since the gun is swinging all over the place so do the feed chutes. Dave helped supply some of these parts and set them up for each gun position just like in the blueprints. There is an open end for the top and a closed end meant for the bottom. "All of the feed chutes used in MOTA were the real deal. Most of it had been dug up in some of the airfield digs that have been going on over the last few decades at the old dumps in East Anglia. I even found some at a military show that I bought for the show as we needed all that we could come up with. "As you can imagine, the feed chutes that have been buried for 75 years, are pretty beat up. Their saving grace is that they were made from stainless steel so they didn’t corrode away like most other metals did but they were seriously bent and twisted. Dave and others made wood former's to straighten them out and get them looking good once again. Dave had one chute that had heavy visible wear inside of it from all of the ammo that had passed through it during the war. For all we know, it could have actually been on the Regensburg raid! "I thought it was really cool that original 8th AF ammo chutes were used in the series."

Gun Mounts:

"One of the hardest parts to find are the gun mounts or recoil adapters that the 50 cal guns were cradled in. The guns impart a lot of hammering shock load when fired and this would tear up the aluminum structure of the aircraft so they made these mounts so they would recoil and absorb the shock of the gun. These mounts (Bell E-11 and Edgewater E-12) are quite hard to find and when they do show up they get snapped up by collectors. Each B-17 would need 8 of these so BGI went into production and made them from scratch. Anything BGI does is impressive, and these were especially so. As I mentioned above, they originally intended to use actual firing 50 cal guns so these mounts needed to be fully functional and not just some kind of plastic replica[...] "Frankly, to walk in and see a row of these rare mounts, all brand new, was quite a delight. There are a lot of collectors out there drooling heavily over these and many of the other props that were fabricated for the series. "One very cool aspect of being involved in this project was to see history come alive. I have been learning about this stuff since I could read and thankfully, I was able to get to know a lot of WWII veterans who lived it themselves. I have listened to their stories and have asked countless questions about how they did the things that they did. "It is quite another thing to see this stuff come to life with your own eyes. It answers some questions and generates a whole lot more. Getting down to the details is a lot of fun for us WWII nerds. "One aspect that came to life on the MOTA set involved the early B-17’s that had their waist gun windows straight across from each other. I had read and learned that this was a problem for the gunners and Boeing ended up staggering the waist windows so the gunners would not interfere with each other. "The MOTA B-17’s were the F models and when the actors were in place, with full flying gear, it was incredible to see just how crammed up they were around each other. "The other fascinating thing is all of the various connections that each gunner and crewman had. Each waist gunner, and all aircrew for that matter, would have four connections to the aircraft for: Oxygen, headphones, microphone and their electrically heated flying suit. All of these wires and hoses for each gunner connected up over their heads and hung down around them. Now imagine not only bumping to each other and swinging the guns and maneuvering in this cramped space with the wind from the open waist windows but keeping all of your life saving umbilical’s attached at the same time. It doesn’t take much to pull one of these out or break one off, which could be disastrous. "The actors on MOTA were constantly having trouble with this and needed to look out for each other just like they must have done in combat. We were also constantly looking at the monitors and trying to be sure that they were still plugged in. "A wonderful project that was a real honor to be involved with for sure. The devil was definitely in the details."

#looooooooooooooong post again Sorry! #i italicized sentences that i really liked. and then indented for readability #masters of the air #hbo war #behind the scenes #long post

[maxkennedy24]

#the expendables #gunner jensen #barney ross

[lonestarbattleship]

"Japanese Plane thwarted in Suicide Attack!

For month the Japanese haveeemployed aircraft in suicidal attacks upon our forces in the western Pacific. Initially piloted by the 'Kamikaze Corps', purportedly volunteers, these planes were employed to crash dive on the decks of our ships. The enemy has expended a large number of planes and personnel on missions of this nature with negligible results. This series of five pictures illustrate why.... And how our anti-aircraft gunners deal with the kamikaze!

This final picture in a series of five shows the end of an enemy Frances twin engine bomber after a suicide attempt on an Escort Carrier. The plane burned for a few seconds after this photograph was made and then sank leaving only a blob of oily smoke to mark the fiery end of another kamikaze suicide pilot. A battleship may be seen in the left background, another escort carrier in the right background.

(See photographs number 270982, 270986, 270985, 270983.)"

Photo released on April 20, 1945.

US Navy Photo: 270989

[komotionlessqueenmm]

Imagine # 1,015

Gif NOT mine.

If this gif is yours (or you know who's it is) please let me, so I can give you/them credit.

Gif credit goes to - @theliesmithsgifsets (Unless told otherwise.)

Year posted - 2022

Tags - @80s4life - @wafners-eternity-serum

"Seriously (Y/n), how the hell do you get any sleep at night?" Christmas asked before sipping his beer, the woman in question chuckled softly into her own drink. "He snores like a fucking bear." Ross added, making Gunner roll his eyes, despite the grin on his face. "Who said anything about sleeping?" Gunner mused suggestively, his hand beneath the table giving (Y/n)'s thigh a playful squeeze. "Didn't you say something about only lasting ten seconds?" Caesar taunted the Sweed, who scoffed angrily at him. "If Gunner only lasted ten seconds, then I would have time to work on my projects." (Y/n) cut in before winking to her lover. "But considering none of my projects have been touched in literal weeks, that is most definitely not the case. Seriously it's a wonder I can walk straight." (Y/n) snorted at the groans emitting from the others, and totally relishing in the smirk on Gunners face. "But to answer your question Christmas, I wear headphones to bed." Christmas and Ross both snorted in response to her words. "Otherwise I would have killed him ages ago." (Y/n) teased, before pecking Gunners pouting cheek. "I've been tempted a few times." Ross hummed before sipping his beer. "I don't snore that loud." Gunner huffed, now entirely fed up with the teasing. "You rattle the fucking walls." Caesar sassed, making everyone but (Y/n) and Gunnar laugh.

---Later at home---

"Do you really have to sleep with headphones because of me?" Gunner asked in a soft tone as he joined (Y/n) in bed. "Oh baby." (Y/n) sighed softly as she scooted closer to him, resting her head against his solid chest. "I don't wear them because of you honey, I've just always listened to music when I sleep, and I never wanted to bother you with it, so I wear my headphones." (Y/n) tilted her head up to look at him, smiling softly at the confusion in his eyes. "Why would your music ever bother me?" Gunner asked with a slight tilt of his head. "Well most people can't sleep with music playing." (Y/n) shrugged, tangling her fingers with Gunners larger ones. "Well I've slept through much worse Princess." He squeezed her hand a little. "So no headphones tonight?" He asked. "Are you sure Gun?" (Y/n) sat up to look into his eyes properly. "Yeah of course." He nodded his head. "And if your snoring starts to bother me?" (Y/n) asked playfully, snickering when Gunner rolled his eyes. "Then wake me up, so I can exhaust you to the point where you'll sleep through a hurricane." He sassed with a grin, pulling her more firmly against his body. "Oh really?" (Y/n) hummed as she turned to straddle Gunners hips. "On second thought, why don't I just exhaust you now?" Gunner mused with a grin, his eyes sparkling when (Y/n) not so subtlety grinded against him. "Maybe." She whispered with a smirk, giggling when Gunner kissed her hungrily.

*I personally have always slept with music playing, so I have to use headphones sometimes. Anyways Gunners snoring in the second movie, had me cackling all over again, and this little story blossomed from that. Hope you enjoyed! 💚

(Update : I realized I spelled his fucking name wrong again! Fuck I keep doing that! *Aggressively facepalms* Maybe one day I'll remember it's ar and not er.)

#imagine #gif imagine #extended #Gunner Jensen #expendables #dolph lundgren #gunner x reader #expendables x reader #Dolph lundgren x reader #gunner jensen x reader #expendables movie #gunner imagine #gunner jensen imagine #expendables imagine #dolph lundgren imagine #gunnar jensen x reader #Gunnar jensen #expendables x you #Swedish giant #seriously i love him so much #🥰🥰🥰 #Gunnar Jensen imagine #Gunnar Jensen x you #Gunnar Jensen x y/n #Gunnar Jensen fluff

[eriexplosion]

Clone Wars - Shadow of Malevolence

Having expended everything I remembered about this three parter in the first part, I'm going into this one not remembering anything whatsoever.

First of all 'diabolical droid commander, General Grievous' I love that the writers simply do not know what this man is. Droid? Not a droid? Who knows, not the people writing this that's for sure!

I love when the clones get the salt and pepper hair... absolute top tier look right there. And one of them even gets a name, Matchstick - taking bets on if he survives the episode because I have a haunting feeling the answer is no.

"The Jedi are never that harsh with their clones." "The care these Jedi show for their troops is a weakness." "A weakness we shall continue to exploit."

Cannot get over that this exchange between Dooku & Grievous is actually about Grievous punching a head directly off a battle droid and getting told off because they're expensive. It's weakness not to decapitate your troops with a single punch, this is why the Jedi will lose. Clearly.

Honestly, I think that there's a strong preference for Grievous in like, the 2D series where he's an incredible badass but I love coughing little freak Grievous. Most character of all time. He has several things wrong with him.

Their target is a medical station with 60,000 injured clones though, fucking. Hands off the boys, Grievous.

One thing I like about this episode is that it really gives us the first bits of the Ahsoka & Anakin sibling dynamic that works so well for me. We got lots of them interacting last episode, but I don't think it has quite the charm of their back and forth over how Anakin TOTALLY doesn't hate Ahsoka's flying he just enjoys her company so she should come with him as the gunner and definitely not fly. Awkward big brother Anakin is my favorite.

UNEXPECTED NALA SE APPEARANCE. I forgot she was here so early. Headcanon possibilities abound with that, is Omega on the station somewhere? What about early pre-deployment batch? Some of the behind the scenes stuff makes it sound like they were only allowed into the field because someone spoke up for them after 99 died, but they're probably still Nala Se's pet project to experiment on. So many options just with her being here.

"Broadside, if we make it through this one, drinks are on me." "I can already taste it."

OH YEAH THEY'RE TOAST. AT LEAST ONE OF THEM. NEVER MAKE PLANS.

I love that Plo Koon knows that this random smuggler's route is the habitat of DANGEROUS POSSIBLY SHIP EATING SPACE MANTA RAYS. Is he particularly knowledgeable in smuggler's routes or does he just know a lot about space marine biology? I hope that he has a book about the Purrgils.

The "It's just smiling at ya!" bit from Anakin. I adore him, god.

Also yep, Matchstick is gone, doomed by making plans for after the mission ;A; don't like that, put him back. (Also lost an unseen clone named Tag, which is the cutest name ever oh my god)

And once again Plo Koon saves the day with clear headed thinking mid-battle. Best Jedi master.

At the end there's another little exchange that caught my attention, this one between Nala Se & Anakin:

Do not take the lives you saved lightly. I don't. But I also can't take the lives I lost lightly.

Once again I am TORN UP by how much Anakin cares about people and wants to do right by them, that even in victory he's thinking about their lives being lost I am In Agony about it. But also, it's interesting to see this Nala Se who seems a little more caring about the clones. She didn't escape immediately and stayed to oversee the evacuation, for one, but also praising Anakin for the lives he saved. She's almost likable and then goes on to do things like drug Fives to lead directly to his death.

I was going to do all three tonight but I'm getting a little sleepy so third one tomorrow. I am going to be turning around the thought of Omega or the batch being on this station with Nala Se ALL NIGHT, I just know it.

#the clone wars chrono rewatch

[stephendorff]

Dolph Lundgren as Gunner II The Expendables

#dolph lundgren #the expendables #my gifs

[waheelawhisperer]

regarding my last ask, you mention RWBY: Amity Arena as being particularly bad. i have never heard of this game before

if you have time, and are willing to humor me yet again, i would love to hear your wisdom

First of all, I'm sorry it took me a week to answer this. Work has been absolutely brutal (I've regularly been leaving the office between 8:00 and 9:00 PM for like 2 weeks now) and I really haven't had time for anything that takes actual effort. Please bear in mind that A) I'm tired as hell, and B) this game shut down in early 2021 so everything I'm telling you is based on memory that would potentially be spotty even if I was at my best.

To start with, I'll give you a brief explanation of what Amity Arena was before getting into the reasons why it sucked ass. RWBY: Amity Arena was a PVP mobile game where the goal was to destroy your opponent's base (which consisted of a central tower and two turrets to defend it) located at the other end of the map using a collection of units derived from the show. Each player had a deck of eight units, which they could deploy into one of two lanes corresponding to the two turrets. The units in question would advance toward the opposing tower, eventually converging on the base structure, and could potentially wander between them via the use of skills or by targeting enemies that stood close enough to the border for them to lock onto and follow.

The player deployed their characters by expending a resource called Aura. The player had a maximum of eight Aura, which regenerated at a set rate over time. Each unit cost a fixed amount of Aura, ranging from 1 to 8. The order of the cards (representing the units) in the player's prebuilt deck was shuffled at the start of the match and then cycled in order as the player deployed units. The player could hold four (I think?) cards in their hand at a time, and as they played a card, the next card in the deck would appear in their hand.

There was a great deal of unit variety: units were broken up into melee and range, grounded and aerial, and some cards could deploy singular strong units and others deployed swarms of weaker units (for example, Scythe Ruby deployed one powerful fighter, while White Fang Gunners deployed three relatively weak ranged fighters), and some cards had special skills they could activate to gain an advantage (Shadow Blake, for example, could dash a short distance and leave behind a targetable clone, making her very good at drawing aggro and switching rapidly between lanes, while Shield Pyrrha could throw her shield, dealing damage to all units in its path).

(If you've noticed something about the naming convention for the units above, you're on the right track: I'm about to talk about the gacha system)

So, there were a few ways to actually acquire units to add to your deck: first, you had to progress far enough up the ranks to actually unlock them. There were specified tiers that you moved up through by winning enough, and each tier gave you access to a broader selection of units. After every game, you'd get a randomly generated crate that you could open to get currency and copies of cards. Once you had a card, you could upgrade it with additional copies, and you could use the currency you got to buy stuff in the shop (new units, cosmetics, crates, premium currency, etc). I'm not going to go into exactly how the different currencies worked, mostly because I don't remember, so suffice it to say that like a lot of other mobile games, you could buy shit with real money and it fucking sucked.

Like every gacha game (or game with gacha elements), the rates were awful. Units were divided into four rarities: Normal, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. The unit distribution in each rarity was reasonably balanced early on, but as the developers added more units, it started to skew toward the Legendary category because adding new basic units didn't make money and adding rarer units did.

To give you an example of how much money, consider this: I remember one of the relatively big-name players (inasmuch as a RWBY mobile game has big-name players) would regularly roll for units on release so he could stream himself using them and give the playerbase an idea of what they did. When Sienna Khan released, this man spent 800 fucking dollars trying to get her. He wasn't even going for duplicates. He just wanted the character.

(IIRC this guy spent low 5 digits total on this game, it was insane)

This was an egregiously bad incident that didn't represent the average player experience, but I'm including it to point out that trying to even acquire new units, much less stay competitive by enhancing your cards with duplicate copies, could get real tough real fast.

(You also had to go for duplicate copies of your core units, because matchups could swing significantly if the opposing units had enough of a level advantage - say, by allowing them to survive burst from a unit that would counter them at equivalent levels)

This is before we get into the way the game balance was consistently and completely fucked. I won't bother listing every single instance, but I will go over some of the more egregious mistakes in terms of unit design. Let's start with...

Neon Katt: Probably the single most hated character throughout all of Amity Arena's run, Neon Katt somehow managed to be more annoying in the game than she was in the show. Upon deployment, Neon skates toward the opposing tower and taunts all units that enter her range. Sounds like an okay unit idea, right? Well, you're not wrong, but they fucked up the concept. First, Neon is cheap as hell (costs 2 Aura). Second, she was initially invincible until she hit a turret, so she could run down a lane and get chip damage for free while also providing utility in the form of her taunt (Neon was a major contributor to the godawful chip meta where you just spammed long-range skills that could hit structures and avoided interacting with your opponent as much as possible until the game was over). Third, her weight value was Heavy at launch, meaning she could actually push other units, which lead to the hilarious and annoying Disco Bear strat (deploying Neon behind an Ursa Major, an extremely strong, slow, and durable tank) and pushing it at top speed into the turret while preventing it from taking damage along the way.

Nobody liked this. The playerbase begged for nerfs. The devs eventually patched out Disco Bear by making her weight Light and decreased the range of her taunt or some shit idr, but it took seven fucking months to get an actual nerf, which they did by changing her from being invincible to having an HP value of 20. Normally, that would mean she dies in one hit, but they set it up so that she only takes one damage per hit, meaning you had to hit her 20 fucking times before she'd finally die. They eventually nerfed it down to 14 or 15 or something, but then they buffed it back to 20, so fuck them and fuck Neon lol

Baby Death Stalkers: Not as obviously obnoxious as the rest of this list, but they warped the meta in insidious ways by invalidating a shitton of single-target melee units. Baby Death Stalkers dropped five relatively fragile melee units with high damage and attack speed for the low, low cost of 1 Aura, allowing players to both hold a cost-effective counter to a large number of units in reserve and cycle their deck at minimal cost when necessary. Baby Death Stalkers hard countered most single-target melee units without an AoE skill or high attack speed because you could drop them around the target and force them to land five attacks to clear them, during which time the Baby Death Stalkers could attack uninterrupted with their high damage and attack speed as the target killed one, turned, reacquired a target, and repeated the process. This was how you got the comical and frustrating sight of in-universe badasses like Ren and Winter getting their asses kicked by five baby scorpions.

Using Baby Death Stalkers to counter a higher-value card often gave the player a 2+ Aura advantage, something that could rapidly snowball, and even if there wasn't a target in the field to hard counter, you could just drop them in front of one of your own higher-value units as a cheap meatshield or toss them out to cycle your deck by drawing a new card for minimal cost.

Jinn: Jinn is what happens when you think Neon isn't obnoxious enough and decide to make a unit that's actively worse for the game. She's also what happens when you look at the issues with both the playable meta and the game experience as a whole and think "that's not a bug, it's a feature!".

To start with, Jinn was a Legendary card, which meant that not only was the game continuing to release a disproportionate amount of higher-rarity cards (that made money), actually getting her was a pain in the ass. Yay, gacha.

Jinn was capable of stopping time around any unit for 7 seconds (i.e. everything caught in the blast was essentially frozen as it was. It couldn't take action, but nor could it be harmed). This meant she could be used to protect vital units by freezing them so that they didn't take damage from active effects or weren't prioritized by enemy units or to counteract enemy threats by freezing them until the player could deploy a counter or bring a skill off cooldown, and she could do it for two Aura. This is already insanely strong, but Jinn was a structure, meaning she'd just sit out on the field without moving into range of the enemy and could be used multiple times if she survived until her skill cooldown refreshed, and her incredibly low cost meant she could both provide enormous amounts of utility insanely cheaply and help cycle the deck as needed.

To make matters worse, Jinn was very obviously not playtested, both because she was broken as shit and because she initially stayed on the field long enough that if you could cycle the deck quickly enough, you could deploy two copies of her and make your towers permanently invincible, forcing a draw at worst. You could literally just say "fuck it" and prevent your opponent from even having a win condition.

(and also some of her early interactions were bugged as shit - if she used her ability on certain units during their skill animations, she could make them invincible and jump structures to the top of their priority list, so if this happened you had an unstoppable juggernaut hell-bent on destroying your towers to the exclusion of all else)

Finally, Jinn enabled a shitton of other cards that would've otherwise been okay without a get-out-of-jail-free card vs. their counters. Some of the cards I talk about later just got... so much fucking worse with Jinn. Holy shit.

White Fang Gunner Barracks: This was honestly the card that gave rise to the worst meta I've ever played. White Fang Gunner Barracks was a structure that would periodically spawn a White Fang Gunner (relatively weak ranged unit), which was pretty forgettable initially because it took a while and only spawned one at a time for a cost of 5 Aura, but then they fucking buffed it so that it spawned two at a time. It also spawned three Gunners upon expiring or being destroyed. Three White Fang Gunners is a 2-Aura value as it is. That means it only has to spawn enough Gunners to grant 3 Aura in value to pay for itself. It spawns 2 Gunners per wave. Each Gunner is worth two thirds of an Aura unit. One wave is worth 1 1/3 of an Aura unit. If the structure survives to spawn 3 waves (which it almost always did unless you had one of its small number of counters on hand to deploy immediately and the opponent couldn't protect it from those counters with Jinn), it's not just paying for itself, it's giving you more value than its cost (6 Aura vs. 5)... and it could just keep spawning Gunners. This thing stayed on the field for 45 seconds. It spawned a wave of Gunners every 7 seconds. That's 6 waves of Gunners if not stopped - 12 total Gunners from the waves, 3 Gunners from the destruction/expiration effect, for a cumulative 15 Gunners and 9 Aura of value. Admittedly, it took time for the Gunners to build up, but once they did, they could mow down a tower in seconds and you had to constantly dedicate a response to them, while the Barracks was a set-and-forget card that let the player using it focus on other parts of the battle while it did its thing.

Gunner Barracks defined the meta for six straight months. Every team had to have one of its small number of counters, all of which could be negated by Jinn and most of which were higher-rarity than Barracks and thus it was easy to level up Barracks to the point where it could survive the burst/DoT output of units that ostensibly dealt with it. This was genuinely the least fun I have ever had playing this game.

Chip Meta: I won't go into the Artillery Arena chip meta a ton, but there was a very obnoxious point in the game's lifespan where the primary method of winning was to use cards with long-range abilities that targeted enemy turrets directly to chip them down with minimal response. It was boring and uninteractive and most people hated it, much like they hated the way the abundance of AoE and presence of Baby Death Stalkers invalidated both large swarms of units and a number of single-target units.

Launcher Nora and Rifle Pyrrha: These two units were late additions to the game that were meant to help provide counterplay to the bullshit that was the White Fang Gunner Barracks, among other things, but they were annoyingly overtuned on launch and the game died before anyone could bother balancing them properly.

Launcher Nora was a unit with massive attack range (one of the three highest in the game, iirc, and one of the very few units that could outrange turrets with their basic attacks) and high AoE damage. Being a Rare card, she was easy to upgrade, which meant that she'd often just barely survive things meant to kill her, and her absurd range meant even getting to her without a skill with the range to either close the gap or just outright hit her could be extremely difficult. If properly protected, Launcher Nora could just sit on the field and tear your base and forces to pieces with very little counterplay.

Rifle Pyrrha wasn't as bad, but she was still an example of the devs kind of rushing stuff out and not giving a shit. Rifle Pyrrha was a cheap (3 Aura) ranged unit that had a long-ranged active skill automatically kited backwards after every basic attack, making it hard for melee units to catch up to her. She absolutely shat on things like the stream of Gunners coming out of the Barracks, but represented just... one more frustrating thing to play against in a game already full of them.

This isn't even getting into the way so many units and interactions were outright bugged and how much shit just didn't work. The Apathy were a unit that periodically duplicated and initially had no cap on the number of copies they could create, meaning that if you left them alone long enough, they'd just fucking spawn enough additional Apathies to crash your goddamn phone. Checkmate was supposed to make allied units in its AoE temporarily invincible and sometimes just didn't. Sienna Khan's skill regularly bugged out. Etc etc.

Compounding every one of the game's problems was the fact that the developers were extremely unresponsive and regularly ignored community feedback. Neon went untouched for ages despite the community crying out for changes at every level of play, units like Jinn and Barracks took far too long to be addressed for the community's satisfaction, even basic QoL changes or new features the community had been begging for for years never got implemented... Like, it was real bad. Units were extremely over- or undertuned and stayed that way for a long time, patches gradually went from addressing large numbers of units to only addressing a few, the devs stopped responding...

And eventually the game just died. The incompetent balancing drove players away (the playerbase decreased to the point where most people who still bothered with the game could identify the bots the devs seeded the lower levels of the ladder with so that newer players had someone to play). The devs went AWOL around December 2020 and just kinda stopped pushing shit and the team running the social media (official Twitter, community Discord, etc) admitted that they had no idea what the fuck was going on. The game went a month or two without any new content while the community wondered what the hell was happening and posted memes to cope, and then there was an official announcement that the game was shutting in January 2021. I don't know if the devs just sucked or if the killing blow was really Rooster Teeth's influence. I know RT had a hand in it because they were pushing the dev team very hard to ship new units in time for Volume 7 of the main show's release and that led to a lot of the problems mentioned above with the game balance, but I don't know how much responsibility each party bears.

Well, that's my half-remembered history of Amity Arena. As with almost everything else Rooster Teeth has ever touched, it remains an object lesson of what not to do.

Sorry it took so long, I've been very busy.

#rwby #rwby amity arena #amity arena.