#also from sanc
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Zechs Marquise / Milliardo Peacecraft: A Heel Turn for the Greater Good
Zechs Merquise is the main character of Gundam Wing.
Ah, you thought it was Heero, or maybe Relena, didn’t you? Well, judging by the first act of the series, this is clearly not the case!
Zechs is the very first character we’re introduced to. He’s mysterious, handsome, ultra-competent. He shows concern for civilian safety and the safety of his men. He takes personal risks, fights on the front lines. He demonstrates right away that he has a strong ethical code that places great importance on the moral conduct of soldiers. His subordinates look up to him, his superiors value and respect him. We get all of this in act one of episode one.
Absolute hero material, so far! Hard to see why he's being framed like antagonist. Whatever, I'm sure he'll be on the winning team in no time! Just like Quattro Vegeta, or whatever.
By episode three, we’re introduced to the Tallgeese, a mobile suit that matches all the criteria for being the Big Damn Hero Machine that a protagonist would use: it’s ancient, it’s got a history, it’s the progenitor suit, it’s got no bells or whistles, it demands great strength and skill from the pilot but offers unmatched performance to those who can overcome its challenges. It’s the perfect suit for Zechs, and obviously the next step in his hero’s journey! This is the part of the story where he can finally meet the terrifying, so-far unbeatable enemy on equal footing.
...But of course, OZ is also introduced in episode 3. So now we know that Zechs works for some faceless, secret military organization– but that’s fine, right? It’s the Alliance military that’s the Big Bad Guy, and Zechs seems to be part of some elite special unit that’s only for brave, self-sacrificing soldiers! OZ hasn’t done anything really bad yet, while on the other hand, the Gundam pilots have been a bunch of mercilessly violent loose cannons who’ll kill anyone who gets in their way.
In episode four, we meet Noin, an immediately likable and equally skilled OZ officer who has a deep personal connection with Zechs. Already this is a power couple we can get behind. We watch as Noin suffers a humiliating defeat and a barrage of misogyny from a Gundam pilot, who kills a bunch of young recruits in their sleep. Definitely not a good look for the Gundam Team! while Zechs and Noin (and Treize, in a more literal sense) come out of this episode smelling like roses.
Just look at them! They’re going to make such a great team. I hope they give those homicidal Gundam kids what for!
It’s only when episode five rolls around that we finally see what OZ is really about: assassinations, covert schemes, foul play, political manipulation, and the ruthless accumulation of power. Uh oh!
But surely, Lady Une is the real baddy here, and Treize is no more than a shadowy puppet master whose true motives remain mysterious. Zechs and Noin are still such obvious Good Guy candidates, they really ought to be the main protagonists of this show by now! The big scary OZ that the Colony rebels warned us about seems a far cry from the OZ we’ve seen so far. Even after the point where OZ becomes the new uncontested Bad Guy, Zechs and co. keep their noses pretty clean.
And then! Then Zechs reveals his tragic past, his double-identity, his secret Count of Monte Cristo/ Man in the Iron Mask plot to avenge the ruin of the Sanc Kingdom and the deaths of his family, the noble house of Peacecraft! How romantic, how dashing! His quest continues to best the Gundams, but this takes on the hue of personal enlightenment; Zechs wants to defeat the Gundam pilots to prove he is capable of being a “True Soldier”, worthy of the power he’s been given, worthy of what has been sacrificed to his cause.
Boy, that’s some hero behavior! And it gets even better: Zechs and Noin leave OZ to begin championing the Sanc Kingdom and its policies of Total Pacifism. No one can say Zechs isn’t one of the good guys now, right? He even dresses up all spiffy in white and becomes an ambassador to promote peace in the colonies!
–Or rather, he tries to.
Because despite having gained a reporte with a few of the Gundam pilots, he still hasn’t managed to ally with them. They still view him as an enemy, no matter how hard or how desperately he tries to convince them that he’s turned over a new leaf.
He can’t beat them, and he can’t join them. Why?
Pictured: the saddest boys in the universe.
The second act of Gundam Wing is a crucible where every character is forced to re-evaluate their place in the ongoing conflict. You can see and feel his frustration building as the future spirals out of control.
What is the purpose of Zechs Merquise, or of Milliardo Peacecraft?
He has refused to be OZ’s mascot, the Lightning Count. He’s not capable of bringing peace to the colonies by himself. He can’t join the Gundams in their fight against OZ. He can’t even protect the Sanc Kingdom, because the very act of fighting in its name is used as an excuse to wipe it out.
He bids a heartfelt adieu to his Big Damn Hero Machine, the Tallgeese, and finds himself in possession of its polar opposite: the Epyon, a machine made to scour its pilot and the world of hypocrisy.
Finally, Zechs has his answer– the reason why his purpose eludes him, why all his best intentions go astray, why the harder he tries to align his moral compass to the Gundam pilots or embrace his pacifistic inheritance, the more lost he becomes: He is not the hero.
He has been trying and failing to be a hero since episode one because this isn’t a story about noble, heroic, chivalrous warriors doing battle in order to gain personal clarity and strength.
It’s not about man-vs-man conflict resolving in a test of skill. If it were, Zechs would have been victorious and completed his hero’s journey by now, and the show would be over.
But that was never the role he was meant to play. That’s not what the stage requires. The third act begins as he accepts a new mantle, and becomes the villain history needs in that moment to bring everything together.
“Zechs considers this place his grave. [...]He intends to pay for the sin of purging humanity, all by himself.”
–Not to purge humanity of “violent earthlings”, as his White Fang propaganda speech stated, but to purge the current generation of the means to wage mechanized warfare, and of the desire for combat and retribution itself, in order to finally bring the cycle of war between the earth and space to an end.
…But of course, nothing ever really ends, does it? History dances forward, with or without you, and all the sacrifices and fail-safes in the world will not stop new challenges from arising.
Nevertheless, if it is possible to choose, by means of noble principle, to be a villain for the sake of the greater good, in the full assurance of one’s own destruction and revilement, then surely that is also in some winding, definitionally tragic way, a path to heroism– and if this is so, then Zechs is strong (and disillusioned) enough to take it.
I do not think that the series supports the idea that his actions or their consequences are justified– only that they achieve their immediate purpose: setting the stage for peace. For now.
...And Now, An Important Note on Gundam Meta:
Zechs is what is referred to in the parlance of the Gundam fandom as a “Char Archetype”, or “Char Clone”-- a term I think is of debatable accuracy. For a longer discussion on Char Aznable and his role in MS Gundam, please see the entry: The Char Aznable Problem. But I want to make it clear that knowing about Char’s backstory IS NOT a necessary prerequisite to understanding Zechs’s story.
Zechs and Char share a lot of DNA as characters, that’s unavoidable– a masked man in red who poses a threat to the main Gundam pilot is a staple of the genre; he’s deliberately an homage to Char, as much an expected feature of a Gundam series as... well, Gundams. That much is not in question.
However: Char’s motivations only make sense in the context of the original Gundam series; if you try to apply the same logic within the structure of Gundam Wing, it becomes gibberish. But the gibberish is by design– If you don’t understand the context behind Zech’s late-series genocidal spiel on why “earthlings are the ultimate threat to peace so we must destroy earth, the source of all conflict yadda-yadda blah-blah”, then… yeah, you’re up to speed. No one else listening to White Fang’s broadcast understood it either. It’s MEANT to sound like the ramblings of an extremist madman who poses a catastrophic and unavoidable threat to both Earth AND the Space Colonies he claims to represent. That’s the basic nature of his Ozymandius Gambit: invent something scary enough that everyone has to band together to fight it.
So you don’t need to know about Char to understand Zechs– but knowing about Char does make Zech’s role (and Treize’s role!) in Gundam Wing that much more interesting.
Zechs is not a Char Clone, he is a conversation with the idea of Char, taking a theme and transposing it into a new composition.
--Anyway, it’s a little unfair to try and force a comparison between Zechs and Char, when Char had MS Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Char’s Counterattack to do everything he did, and Zechs only had Wing.
Now, I’m not a mathematician or anything, but I’d say that makes Zechs roughly…
Three times faster.
#milliardo peacecraft#zechs merquise#gundam wing#gundam wing meta#gundam meta#character analysis#parsing post#tinyozlion pgw
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Hello everyone! :D
Here comes more and more converted stuff from Hogwarts Legacy game, there are bunch random stuff. There are: dragon mural (in 4 recolors, also it's big wall object, that require 3 floors to palce it, but you can always resize it), herbology coat of arms, sanctum cabinet (in 5 recolors), astronomy altar, sanc rug (in 6 recolors), frog choir (stand is seperated from toads (toads are in 3 recolors), bookstand book quill, Percival Rackham statue, broom target ring, arch barrier, train deco bogies, broom race flag 3 (in 5 recolors), herbology desk (in 3 recolors). :D
Here are links for download:
-> Dragon Mural: https://www.mediafire.com/file/t2ea6zq2rk8e9qn/Hogwarts+Legacy+Dragon+Mural+by+JH.package/file
-> Herbology Coat of Arms: https://www.mediafire.com/file/5evycd0bicffhjj/Hogwarts+Legacy+Herbology+Coat+of+Arms+by+JH.package/file
-> Sanctum Cabinet: https://www.mediafire.com/file/iysouu90kdoyoew/Hogwarts+Legacy+Sanctum+Cabinet+by+JH.package/file
-> Astronomy Altar: https://www.mediafire.com/file/uak13evd7stukgf/Hogwarts+Legacy+Astronomy+Altar+by+JH.package/file
-> Sanctum Rug: https://www.mediafire.com/file/n5jh6axz8krzuk5/Hogwarts+Legacy+Sanc+Large+Rug+by+JH.package/file
-> Frog Choir Stand: https://www.mediafire.com/file/h8brvndln6ulngj/Hogwarts+Legacy+Frog+Choir+Stand+by+JH.package/file
-> Frog Choir Toads: https://www.mediafire.com/file/thf4bxn7fz7xe6s/Hogwarts+Legacy+Frog+Choir+by+JH.package/file
-> Bookstand Book Quill: https://www.mediafire.com/file/u425xcamduwvuz9/Hogwarts+Legacy+Bookstand+Book+Quill+by+JH.package/file
-> Percival Rackham Statue: https://www.mediafire.com/file/0u29irx1dd2f3sg/Hogwarts+Legacy+Percival+Rackham+statue+by+JH.package/file
-> Broom Target Ring: https://www.mediafire.com/file/3j61m19zbt7kfsi/Hogwarts+Legacy+Broom+Target+Ring+by+JH.package/file
-> Arch Barrier: https://www.mediafire.com/file/03bnujiapy6pfs3/Hogwarts+Legacy+Arch+Barrier+by+JH.package/file
-> Train Bogies: https://www.mediafire.com/file/pebdl14hxx323uv/Hogwarts+Legacy+Train+Cart+Bogies+by+JH.package/file
-> Broom Race Flag 3: https://www.mediafire.com/file/a0rg5aq703kewvr/Hogwarts+Legacy+Broom+Race+Flag+3+by+JH.package/file
-> Herbology Desk: https://www.mediafire.com/file/0fhjr6t80afwtlk/Hogwarts+Legacy+Herbology+Desk+by+JH.package/file
Please do not re-upload or claim as your own, feel to free recolor it but mention credits!
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I've been feeling inclined to vent about the general concept of "substance use" and "dependency" recently for no particular reason, and it's probably just my own brain finally processing some of the things that happened to me in The Bad Times but what the hell lets go with it.
I was pretty much straight edge until my mid 20s, no alcohol, cigarettes, weed, nothing. Then I got into a series of abusive relationships, nearly died of Mystery Diseases, and a pandemic happened right after. My life went from barely getting by in the world to bouncing between constant crises overnight. I was in therapy and had been for years, I had self care tools and was using them. I was medicated for all of my diagnosed mental health needs (ADHD wasn't on the record yet, so was still unmanaged, but I was doing my best behaviorally to keep on top of shit, obviously that stopped working fast). I worked full time plus going to school part time plus working part time at my internship for a grand total of about 90 hrs per week of work/school related obligations. I lived with several other people who I worked to support financially and who I needed to also support emotionally, and I still managed to run my household for the most part with minimal support except from wifey who was also working about 60-70 hour weeks at her own job to help us make ends meet and was only barely medicated and managed herself. I genuinely don't know when I slept or rested.
The first thing I tried was weed. I used edibles to sleep without nightmares or the anxieties that would keep me up for the rare few hours I had to rest. It also helped with the constant pain I was in. I would get high as fuck on a weed brownie or a pre roll on the one day off I had each month so I didn't have to think or feel or exist because it was the only way I could find to genuinely relax anymore without worrying about the growing mountain of Life Responsibilities that I could never catch up on. Life eased a bit, and I kept doing that.
One day, I had a rare night off, and wifey was going to go out to a club with some friends. I hadn't been anywhere fun in years. I hadn't had time or money or energy. I was desperate to see people and relax and maybe sance a little. A pandemic was on, and the local clubs were having discounts like mad. We went and got shitfaced on cocktails that cost less than lunch at a diner for a round and I made out with a cute girl and I came home laughing for the first time in years. From then on, we would keep a cheap six pack of something in the fridge and every once in a while I would down 2-3 and get fucked up for a bit between that and the weed. Life felt a bit easier and I kept going.
But behind the scenes the cracks kept forming. It wasn't the substances that were causing them. And they weren't even what was making it worse. But they were letting me pretend those cracks weren't there. Letting me run from a reality I knew I couldn't fix. By the time I realized how bad things had gotten, how deep into the pit I was, I was living in a tent in the woods, cooking my dinners on a campfire with my family, throwing back weed and cheap booze like my life depended on it because god what the fuck else do you have when a creek and a rainstorm are the closest you get to a shower and your bed is a pile of blankets in a military surplus tent with all the warm bodies piled together so you don't fucking freeze at night?
I was still working full time though, and for those hours, I had to be sober. No if ands or buts about it. And I was okay with that line, even if it left me riddled with anxiety and trauma and stress 16 hours a day while I worked my doubles in the ER and came home to try and scrub the COVID off in the creek before I went back to the tent. And then a coworker asked me if I wanted to join her on a cigarette break. I did. I desperately wanted to feel normal. To chitchat and talk about nothing important, and feel the breeze on my face. So I bummed a cigarette and smoked with her. That one cigarette became 3 a day. Then 6. Then, a whole pack. A nervous habit of sucking on a cigarette or a vape whenever I needed to fidget or relax while still being sober. It's been 3 years now and I've tried to quit half a dozen times but here I am in my fucking home office pulling on a cigarette like it's my last hope of comfort.
I don't drink anymore though. My body won't let me. Blah blah allergic reactions blah blah. Fine. I kept trying for a while, allergies be damned. But it stopped being worth it. Sometimes the cigarettes aren't worth it either. I choke on every inhale and my body dry heaves like it knows I'm putting in something it doesn't want. On those days I don't smoke. I don't think there have been many days I've gone without weed. I honestly don't know what to do with myself on the days I abstain. Like I do? I can cope. I just. I'm still so tired.
The part of me that broke all those years ago and said fuck it, lets see what drugs do, is still recovering. It's still resting and healing. Some days are better than others. Some days it does fine and it says "lets fuckin rawdog the day my mans" and I do, and it's great. Other times it's so small and frail that I know if I tried I might break it again, and I just can't risk that.
I've been told before that this is dependency. Maybe even misuse. I've been told by others that this is the point. If it's helping, then let it. I don't know what the answer is. Some days I resent not being the person I was before I started using weed and cigarettes to get through the day. I've tried other things too, and they've never done much for me, so I never went back. Does that mean that I'm not "dependent" I'm "self-medicating"? Is that a good or a bad thing? Does it fucking matter? I honestly don't know. I wish it didn't feel like it mattered. I wish that I could go through my days and feel like I had more of a choice. I actually miss being able to get high lol. Like weed hasn't given me an actual high in years, it just. Helps me get through things a little better. But how much am I really willing to keep living that way? How much of my life do I *want* impacted by whether or not I can smoke or have some thc? Some days it's fine. Some days I'm bothered by it.
The thing that gets me every time though is how at every single point when I made the choice to pick up a new "substance" it was because I was desperate, overwhelmed, and completely without alternatives. I knew full goddamn well every time what I was doing. I had years of both anti-drug war knowledge and addiction/recovery knowledge in my brain and I understood that I was at my most vulnerable, I was my most at risk. That making this choice could be fine or could be life changing or could be somewhere in between and it was worth being self aware as I did it. But I just. I was so tired. I was so broken down. I just needed to rest. I needed to feel something other than the stress and fear for a while. And no one was offering me anything else that made a dent. Trust me. I tried.
I don't say this to suggest to people that Drugs Are The Answer. I genuinely don't think they are. I still wish every day I had never picked up that first cigarette. I still wish that I felt well enough to live my life without needing help to rest and recover. But I can't blame anyone who makes the choices I did. I can't doubt the feelings of need and desperation that often drive us to interact with our support tools the way we do. I've also found over the years, that it's not just "substances" that people will turn to for help with avoidance the way I did. Avoidance is so very very human, and the way I skirted around acknowledging how beyond my capacity for repair my life was getting (even while actively working to resolve those things) had more to do with mh inability to acknowledge that I was failing people I loved than what tool I was using to avoid the acknowledgement. It could just as easily have been my work, or video games, or shopping, or gardening, or anything else in the world that allowed me to isolate myself in a world that felt smaller and simpler for a while so I could take a break from problem solving the way the rest of my world was steadily crumbling around me. I chose weed, alcohol and nicotine. Other people will make other choices. But maybe we all sometimes run away from problems we realize we can't solve until one day we're backed into a corner we can't run from. Maybe that's just human. Maybe the drugs just made me feel less like shit while I ran. And maybe that's part of how I survived to make things right for myself.
I really don't know. I can't know.
What I do know is that I left the relationship that was destroying my life. I'm safe now, and wifey and I are doing much better now that our communication isn't being actively sabotaged. I'm doing much better now healthwise that the food in my home is consistently safe to eat for me and I'm not being left without any food at all on a semi-regular basis. I *am* still the primary breadwinner of the household, but it no longer feels as though I have to run the household itself on top of that, and I *am* consistently supported (encouraged even) to rest when needed, even if that is still hard for me to do. I've stopped drinking, and that does feel better. I spend less time and energy seeking substances and I *do* smoke fewer cigarettes less often even if I do still smoke sometimes. I feel happier and more stable than I think I ever have. My life is. Mostly working? And pretty good now. The cracks have been able to heal in ways that are, if not structurally sound, at least working up to it. I am fragile, but making progress. Does that mean I made the right choices? The wrong ones? Will I ever know?
I dunno comrade. But. We all do what we can, what we must, and what we can figure out. Maybe judgement and shame about all that just doesn't help.
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(Sorry for bad my grammar i have dyslexia and English isn't my first language)
I wanted to share my experience with gender, if it's possible? Because i really wanted to share it with someone without them been someone i know in irl. I'm agender and i use all pronouns.
So, since I was little i never understand why people dividend humans between male and female that strongly. I tried to understand as i grow up, without knowing much about the queer community, at one point i remember clearly thinking "it's not about genitals because why certain behavior and action that are considered male or female and is has nothing to do with genitals! It's not about behavior because if a human act in a certain way they still get referred as their sex! It isn't about dress pants shirt and skirts... So what is it? What do I want to be?" And i answer my self with "none of those. Both terrible option to me. I just want to be me. I guess people will just see me as a girl, but people are wrong most of the time so whatever!"
Then i discovered slowly how much people see identity in gender, how important it is for a lot of people this. And how both cis and trans are willing to do to have a body that represents what's inside their identity. And it's fair, everyone should do whatever with their body to feel more comfortable. I don't think i relate to all of cis or trans experience but I understand the thought behind their their action and their feeling. It make sance, it's valid! Fucking get it! (The happiness, i hope for you)
I only started to realize that i might be agender years later, like 10 ish years after. And i ask my dear friend to use they/them and it's nice, nicer then she or he, like for a moment i felt very happy. Also i asked not to be called sis but sib, and it became a nickname i love and adore, and a lot of people use it because my friend call me that a lot. I use all pronouns because my first language doesn't have a they/them so it's much better like this way really. (It actually have it but it's not used so it creates confusion)
The thing is i never had body dysphoria. It's not my body at fault for people looking at me and assuming stuff, it's very common behavior, i don't fault them either. I do like my body, it's nice! I kinda need it to eat sleep draw eccetera eccetera... If i could change it i don't think i would, it's not necessary.
So it makes me wonder if using agender is correct, if it's fine? Even without dysphoria? I would love to know if there are people that had a experience similar to mine, maybe just to feel a bit less lonely in this experience? Maybe if you are feeling lonely in all of this, just know that even if perception is different from person to person, you are not alone, and people will love you even if we are different.
Well after all of that... Uuhh, i hope the people that run this page have a nice day and it goes to the people reading this. A big virtual hug to anyone who needs it!
Submitted February 17, 2023
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6.55 spoilers
ON MSQ:
wuk lamat is so cute I can’t deal!!!!!!!!!!! her dynamic with erenville is so funny and I’m very excited for more of them. loving the importance given to adoptive relationships and interacting with and sharing cultures
funniest pictomancer reveal. the art moogle getting blasted at the colibri sent me into a fit for REAL
the solo duty was hilarious to me going into it as a tank, and also as a miqo. friendly cat bonding via a hunt between a warrior and a dark knight with raha aggressively spellcasting in their wake
surprising literally no one I love raha SO much but his focus on how things affect others between his consolation to wuk lamat after noticing her nervousness with rhe colibri and his growth in choosing to sit out of this adventure so krile can have her moment to be part of things makes me so emo 😭
THANURI ARE SO REAL. the shoulder touch. the whole thing of being bound to the same decision together for the petition. that’s love and they are married
but also with the opposing side thancred and urianger are on I’m wondering if they’re backing another claim to tural’s throne and if the petition is from the brother that wuk lamat mentioned?? since he studied at the studium and whoever petitioned the lads seems to have been seeking archons. spicy times!!
ON RELICS:
the trial was pretty fun!! it didn’t feel too chaotic, telegraphs give enough time to process, and had interesting mechs. not pressed about the design of the final relic weapons but they do feel more like something that should be a DT 8m raid tier thing from what the live letter hinted at imo
ON ISLAND SANC:
the garleans not knowing how to vacation and getting excited about agriculture made me laugh shdghsf but I loved the bonfire reflection with jullus, how it does feel like camaraderie with the garleans has come so far from how it started when the ilsabard contingent arrived to help them, and really ties into the endwalker wrap-up
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39 episodes into Gundam Wing. Still enjoying it, I would say that the second half of the show is a lot stronger than the first half, but it is very disappointing to have not one, but two whole recap episodes in here. Unfortunately they confirmed an opinion of mine that I'd been thinking over since my last post.
Gundam Wing actually does very well with story telling in the moment to moment, but zooming out and viewing the events of the show as a whole so far, feels very... off. So much has happened in the show, and yet it feels like very little has changed at the same time.
Plot beats have this odd disjointedness to them. Things just sort of happen to the Gundam pilots and Relena, they can't change anything from where they are now, and haven't really had the ability to do so since the Romefeller Foundation takes over the Earth. They come close when the Sanc Kingdom existed, but that doesn't last very long at all. They're all just being tossed around an unstable environment with nowhere to really go.
I suppose that's what sets Wing apart though. There is no place to go back to. No White Base, no Argama/Nahel Argama, no Tekkadan, no 08th MS Team, no Earth House, no Inglessa Militia. Sure Quatre has something like that, but they don't show up enough for them to be that for the show. The space colonies don't want them back and White Fang just wants the Gundams as a form of propaganda to rile people up, the Sanc Kingdom was destroyed, those scientists are all over the place, and the Gundam pilots barely even want to work with each other half the time.
Which isn't a bad thing mind you, at least not inherently. Interesting developments are happening all the time, but there is so much that it becomes easy to forget a character or plot beat exists until they suddenly get brought back up.
Part of why Zechs sticks out to me so much compared to the rest of the show is probably because unlike a lot of other characters and factions, he does feel like a constant in the show. Even if he doesn't have an appearance for a bit, you can always be sure he'll pop back up in some way soon, and his plot is very easy to keep track of because of that.
Anyway, I'm going to cut off the ramble for now. I look forward to Heero trying to kill Relena (again) when I get back to it. And I've also decided what I'll be watching in Gundam once I finish Endless Waltz. The current plan is to go through War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory, and Thunderbolt, and depending on the length of those three I might include the Igloo OVAs. Once those are finished, I intend to go for After War Gundam X or Reconguista in G, both of which I've had my eyes on for a bit now.
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The Big Gundam Watch, Part 9.2: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Episodes 27-49
Well, it took a while, but I finally finished watching Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
I gotta be honest, guys: this was frustrating. The point I made in the first part of this where I talked about how Gundam Wing is at its weakest when aping aspects of Universal Century Gundam comes back in full force here. What got me particularly sour is that the show actually did start to rally by heading in a direction I didn't expect, rife with potential, before hard-stopping and saying "alright fellas, last batch of episodes, we gotta do Char's Counterattack now". But then, peppered throughout "we're doing Char's Counterattack again" is some really good stuff that just doesn't get the chance to soak in.
Let's get into it:
THE STUFF I LIKED:
Dorothy Catalonia is the most consistently great part of Gundam Wing's second half. At first, it's because she was the most straight-forward character in the series- she is Based and Warpilled- and seeing her be comically unsubtle about her love of and desire for war was pretty funny. She then begins to occupy the position of "villain who gets underestimated because they're so transparently villainous they seem incapable of subtlety", which leads to some shockingly simple but effective maneuvering to get exactly what she wants, including the death of her grandfather. But ultimately, when they decided they should pair her off with Quatre, her hawkishness is sensibly re-contextualized and made deeply sympathetic, in a way that the series doesn't really achieve with Milliardo and definitely doesn't with Treize, who have the exact same motivations as her.
Speaking of Dorothy, the way Relena's commitment to Total Pacifism didn't play out the way I thought it would was an extremely pleasant surprise. The whole time I was anticipating a corruption-style arc, where Dorothy acts as the devil on Relena's shoulder, urging her into taking violent action in the name of peace... but she doesn't. From the time she takes over the Sanc Kingdom through to the end of the series, she is 100% committed to the ideal of Total Pacifism, no matter how much of a disadvantage it puts her at.
I guess maybe that's why Relena was so hated when the show first aired in the West? But I thought her absolute commitment to such a childish ideal was actually the most endearing thing in the series. It's naive in the exact way that the character is portrayed as naive from the very start, but she takes every opportunity to show her commitment to it in bold, bombastic ways. My personal favorite was "my brother is Milliardo Peacecraft, I have no idea who this Zechs Merquise loser is, so kill him if you feel compelled to, it's got nothing to do with me"
In general, the whole Sanc Kingdom arc was the show at its smartest, because the conflict between Relena/the Sanc Kingdom and the Romefeller Foundation under Duke Dermail was simple at its core, which meant they could do more interesting things with it. "Invading force proclaiming to the world that they are saviors and liberators protecting the locals from hostile elements when their real goal is to destabilize the region" is effective as hell!
Tremendous credit to the series for being also smart enough to highlight that Dorothy/Milliardo/Treize's goal of "have a war so horrifying it scares mankind out of having any more wars" was even more naive than Relena's Total Pacifism because it was completely and utterly ruined by Lady Une's surrender.
I wrote in my notes "if Milliardo just flat-out refuses Treize's duel and fires the Libra canon at him I'm giving this series a +2 buff no matter what else happens", so I have to mention that's exactly what happens here. Except, I reduced it to a +1 buff for a reason we'll get into later.
There's a handful of really tight, exciting action sequences that do specific things to elevate them over "Gundam pilots lay waste to an entire army of dolls". The one that I loved the most was in Episode 39, when Quatre realizes that he won't be able to make it to Trowa in time to protect him because the Sandrock isn't properly kitted for space, so instead of trying to use his verniers he takes advantage of the nearby exploding shuttle to launch himself. That's a fucking BALLER maneuver, and actually adds more credence to the "Quatre is the brains of the team and a good strategist" thing the show starts to lean on towards the end.
Despite just saying "Gundam pilots lay waste to an entire army of dolls" in a negative context, the aforementioned scene immediately being followed by Trowa and Quatre bump into Duo, who decloaks Deathscythe Hell and starts tearing up the battlefield as Rhythm Emotion starts playing was also Fucking Unbelievably Cool
On the same subject: using Rhythm Emotion as an insert song a couple of times but waiting until episode 41 out of 49 to introduce it as the new OP was very bold, but the correct decision.
Ending the series with Relena tearing the birthday card Heero left for her is just raw, unfiltered kinography. Maybe the single smartest decision in this entire series. I was hootin' and hollerin'.
THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:
The last nine episodes are just Char's Counterattack. Any time I tried to give it leeway and thought they were gonna do something interesting or different, it slapped me in the face, first with Milliardo delivering a speech in a Sweetwater-style colony (when literally every colony shown in After Colony is a Halo-style ring), then ultimately resolving to drop a space fortress on Earth to usher in an ice age, and then even doing the "We stopped the drop!... Oh no, a piece split off and is still heading to Earth!" part. This was hack shit, and kind of made me hate Milliardo because the interesting thing about him was the idea of taking the Char archetype in a different direction, not just writing Char doing all the things Char did, again.
I made a post just the other day about what turned out to be the setup for pairing off of Quatre and Dorothy, which I mentioned right at the top here was one of my favorite aspects of the series. Someone corrected me that they did actually 'meet'- Dorothy was in the room when Quatre and Heero introduced themselves as students, and presumably Quatre was in the room when Dorothy introduced herself to Heero- but looking that up reminded me that really should've been Quatre she was dueling. As it is, it's almost the same problem I've talked about with The Rose of Versailles, where you have a REALLY STRONG arc built on a foundation of nothing.
While I thought the reveal of the true nature of Dorothy's "love" of war was pretty well executed, the same cannot be said last second reveal that the Gundam Scientists sabotaged Operation Meteor somehow and that the original mastermind was Quinze. It's a good concept, and would actually explain a lot of why Operation Meteor was so disjointed, but like the character himself, there was literally no time to develop this.
When it comes to suspension of disbelief, I usually let things pass unmentioned, as long as they don't disrupt me in the moment. That's why I wrote that post about Quatre and Dorothy; at the exact moment it happened I went "THAT'S RAD... wait, what?" Even worse than that, though, was Lady Une waking up from her coma, escaping the hospital, hijacking the Wing Gundam and somehow making it from Earth to Libra fast enough to knock Trieze out of the firing path AND not dying herself. It wasn't even cool because...
I hate Treize. I already talked about how much I hated Treize in the first part, and it only got worse here. And it's not "oh man, what a good villain" hate, it's just... he sucks. Everything he says and does is so incongruous and lame, and not in a way that reads to me as intentional. It's insane that he survived until basically the last minute, but the silver lining is that led to Lady Une surrendering on behalf of the World Nation and completely fucking up Dorothy, Milliardo, and even Treize's plans.
No need to go over my dislike of the Gundams in the series again, but man does Epyon suck. Fuckin' boneless Master Gundam is what it is, and transparently just given to Zechs so he would have a red mobile suit to use in the final conflict (because he's Char, ya see). It sucks even more because they did make a Tallgeese II, and it actually bridges the gap between native After Colony mobile suit design and Gundams like I was bitching about, but they gave it to Treize!
So much of Gundam Wing can be boiled down to "poor planning and not enough time". It was regrettable in 0079 that they ran out of time because they got cancelled, and unfortunate for ZZ that Char's Counterattack went into development and they had to scramble to put together a story that somehow fit- or at least didn't clash- with that, but this? There doesn't really seem to be any good excuse. I still don't know most of these characters' backstories or motivations, and some stuff that's implied in context but is never meaningfully addressed, like the fact that Dorothy and Treize are related.
Another overall problem I have with Wing is that it talks about war as part of the innate human desire for conflict, when those are two very different things. Even near the end, Milliardo talks about how the colonies gave in to their desire for conflict, and like... no they didn't! They were manipulated by an external, fascistic power (Romefeller) into fearing The Other (non-Romefeller-aligned powers on Earth) and started developing weapons for the fascistic power, and then those weapons were hijacked by an extremist sect (White Fang). No part of that is the colonies, as a united entity, going "we crave violence". In fact, mankind's susceptibility to fear and the manipulation that comes with it could so easily be worked into other theme that Wing likes to bring up- that mankind is weak- but that's more about literal, actual weakness. It's just so bad at trying to make its points.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS:
Once again we get some haute couture with Noin's non-uniform outfit of choice being a fuckin' cowboy fringe vest. Just amazing that when this woman isn't in fatigues or a dress uniform, she's ready to go to the rodeo.
Watching this dub has forced me to confront the possibility that maybe G Gundam also had a not-great dub, and I just love it because that's the one I saw when I was a kid. But to be honest, this dub would be perfectly fine if not for the fact that they had like six actors total, and major character's voices would be coming out of Random Soldier #3 one scene later.
There's a line in the final episode where Duo's like "we're gonna celebrate with some champagne when we get back!" and Quatre goes "just as long as it's non-alcholic". I was 1000% sure that was a dub thing, so imagine my surprise when I checked the subs and nope; Quatre is a good little boy in Japanese, too. Totally in character, but that's such a staple of 90's localization.
It's incredibly funny to me that the Wufei is responsible for both kicking off the Char's Counterattack portion of Gundam Wing by effectively staging a false flag attack for Milliardo because he's having a Category 5 Muh Justice moment, and then also completely ruins Milliardo's plans by actually killing Treize. Both because it's funny to be responsible for both parts of that, and also because, again, he's the one who pointed out to all the other boys that they got finessed into killing the Alliance brass.
Speaking of which, what the fuck was up with Wufei's cult of suicidal ascetic monks? Were they the only people onboard that colony? Did they murder millions of innocents for Wufei's (what can charitably be referred to as) "chararacter development"?
Duo calling himself "the God of Death" really takes on the energy of someone trying to force a nickname on themselves, especially the way that absolutely no one else ever acknowledges it. It gets even more laughable when he refers to the Gundam scientists as "the Gods of Plague". You don't have a Four Horsemen thing going on, dude!
Heero Yuy should never ever be portrayed with eyes this soft ever. Deeply unsettling.
IN CONCLUSION:
"Frustrating" is definitely the word for Gundam Wing, as far as I'm concerned. For a little bit there, I was comparing it to Angel Links, and re-reading that post, I think a lot of what I said about it also applies here. The difference is that when Wing tries to swings big more often, and in doing so, it will occasionally succeed. The trade off, then, is that the hackish lifting of entire Universal Century storylines with worse execution looks even worse. I don't think I would ever really recommend it to anyone- you're better off checking out literally any of the Universal Century Gundam stories- but if someone were hellbent on it, I don't think I'd go out of my way to ward them off, either.
But wait, I shouldn't be doing an "In Conclusion" section, because I'm not done yet!
Next up: the conclusion to the Gundam Wing experience, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz! My impression, based on what I've heard, is that even people who are out-and-out Wing haters think Endless Waltz is alright, so I'm holding out hope that this will be all of the stuff I liked about Wing and none of what I didn't.
Considering this one's a movie, and only 90 minutes at that, I don't think it'll take quite as long as my previous two Gundam Wing write-ups.
At least I fucking hope not.
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This is just a random observation that I noticed about Gundam Wing:
After like 10 years, I decided to rewatch the series and then I reread Heero’s Episode Zero chapter. According to EZ, Heero and Odin were only together by “contract”. That, to me, implied that Odin is not Heero’s biological father and that he’s only taking care of him out of some sort of obligation.
Now I haven’t read Frozen Teardrop and I don’t really plan to because, (I mean come on, have you seen that plot lol) I could pick apart what I do know about it but, it just seems a little odd. Heero’s chapter seems to lead the reader to the conclusion of Odin obviously feeling guilty about killing Heero Yuy and then he just randomly has this little boy with him. It’s as if that boy was Heero’s son and since Odin killed his father, he felt compelled to take the boy on as his own.
I understand FT says that Odin is in fact the boy’s biological father with Aoi Clark (who doesn’t even have an official character design btw) **Neither does Solo from Duo’s official backstory but I digress** being his mother but I just find it strange that the kid doesn’t have a name if he was Odin’s after all. Maybe it was mentioned that his name really is Odin Lowe II but why would that name not be alluded to at all in the series? The series alluded to his mantra that Heero repeats throughout the series which is basically to listen to the heart. Obviously Odin cared enough about Heero to take care of him. It just doesn’t make sense why this kid wouldn’t know his name/have a name. Also, I just find it random that Heero is related to Trant Clark, some random Oz soldier, that was curious about the zero system, with nothing really substantial mentioned about him like idk a great revelation that he’s like Heero’s uncle or something. Heero didn’t even end up fighting him lol.
I personally think it would have worked out better plot wise if Heero was Heero’s son rather than Odin’s because it would have only emphasized further that Heero really is the “perfect soldier”. He fights for the “revenge” of the colonies while beneath the surface he actually fights to avenge his own father without even knowing it. That’s the thing that makes Heero so pure intentioned though. He fights solely for peace within, not only the colonies but, the Earth as well (as seen at the end of the series). Revenge was never really the goal of any of the pilots or else they would have fully taken part in Operation Meteor, wreaking havoc everywhere for everyone both oz and civilians on Earth alike.
Also, I love how Odin’s character design in EZ was retconed for the more Heero looking one in FT/Glory of Losers and, at the same time, Heero Yuy’s design also has a striking resemblance to the main pilot. It’s like they couldn’t decide who Heero’s father should be.
Also, the Sanc Kingdom sought peace from Earth while Heero Yuy preached peace in the colonies and then you have the heir of the Sanc Kingdom end up with the son of the colonies’ prominent pacifist.
My headcanon is Heero is still the product of a love affair just not with Odin as the main man but Heero Yuy. Like his wife probably ordered for her husband to be killed for cheating with some younger woman, making Heero his illegitimate son, adding to the chaos of it all, resulting in his birth to be the actual catalyst that sparks war between the colonies and Earth. Somehow, I think that would have made more sense and really tie everything together so neatly and dramatically.
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New Mobile Report Gundam Wing Timeline
I redid the timeline again but this time with pictures! This is my take on what order all the anime/manga/novels/radio dramas take place in the Gundam Wing universe. For a quick recap, this is the order and dates:
Episode Zero (sans Preventor epilogue) - AC 187 to AC 195
Anime (sans epilogue) - AC 195 April 06 to AC 195 December 24
Chronicle of the After Colony Era - AC 195
Odds and Evens - AC 195 December 24
Anime Epilogue - AC 196 April 06
Battlefield of Pacifists - AC 196
Blind Target - AC 196
Ground Zero (sans epilogue) - AC 196
Endless Waltz - AC 196 December 24 to AC 196 December 27, Epilogue - AC 197 January 01
Ground Zero Epilogue - AC 197
Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1 - AC 197 March to AC 197 April 07
Episode Zero Preventor 5 epilogue - AC 197 April 07
Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 2 - AC 197 April 09
Frozen Teardrop - MC 22 Next Winter
Frozen Teardrop Epilogue - MC 23 Summer
The full explanations for the order of the timeline as well as pictures are under the read more:
Episode Zero: AC 187 to AC 195.
Obviously places first, being a prequel. For the specific dates mentioned we have -
Duo’s Backstory:
AC 187 - Duo is taken in by the Maxwell Church.
AC 188 - Father Maxwell and Sister Helen are killed in an attack.
AC 192 - Duo meets Professor G.
Heero’s Backstory:
AC 175- Odin assassinates Heero Yuy
AC 188- Heero travels as a hitman with Odin. Odin is killed by Dekim Barton. Heero meets Doctor J.
Trowa’s Backstory:
AC 190 - No Name (Trowa) meets Middie Une. Heads for outer space looking for a “home”
Relena’s Backstory:
AC 191 - Alpha Yuy enrolls at her school. Zechs saves Relena and realizes that she is his long-lost sister.
Quatre’s Backstory:
AC 193 - Quatre meets the Maganacs
Wufei’s Backstory:
AC 194 - Wufei marries Meilan
AC 194 - Meilan dies.
Episode Zero Operation Meteor: AC 195 April 06
2. Anime Series and Light Novel Series (sans epilogue): AC 195 April 06 to AC 195 December 24
Anime series begins on Relena’s Birthday, April 06 and ends Christmas Eve. The final battle later becomes known as “The Eve Wars”. The novelisation I believe is similar to the anime so for now I'm listing it as concurrent instead of an alternate interpretation.
3. Chronicle of the After Colony Era: AC 195
Takes place during the anime series, after Heero wakes up from his coma and is travelling with Trowa. Duo is still travelling with Quatre, and Relena has just revived the Sanc Kingdom.
4. Odds and Evens: AC 195 December 24.
Takes place immediately after the final battle of the anime series.
5. Anime Epilogue: AC 196 April 06.
Takes place on Relena’s Birthday the following year with her being too busy as Vice Foreign Minister to attend her birthday party. She also receives the bear and card gifts from Heero.
6. Battlefield of Pacifists: AC 196
For the three midquels, I put this one first. My reasoning is that Quatre first comes up with the idea to send the Gundams into the sun, to the surprise of Duo. Wufei realizes that he still has to fight for justice despite the war ending.
7. Blind Target Manga and Radio Drama: AC 196
This is the second on the timeline for the three midquels. The need to destroy the Gundams becomes more apparent for the boys as the remnants of White Fang use the Gundams protecting peace as a point for why the UESN cannot be trusted with total disarmament. Wufei meets up with Mariamaia and Dekim Barton.
8. Ground Zero (sans epilogue): AC 196
The final of the three midquels. After agreeing to destroy the Gundams, Duo, Quatre and Trowa suspect that Heero is secretly planning to continue to use Wing Zero and devise a way to learn his intentions. Wufei is already wearing the Mariamaia Doll uniform showing it takes place after Blind Target.
9. Endless Waltz Movie and Novelization: AC 196 December 24 to December 27 /Epilogue: AC 197 January 01
The Mariamaia Incident starts on Christmas Eve, exactly one year after the Eve Wars, and ends on December 27. The Epilogue takes place on New Year’s Day.
The Endless Waltz novelisation is concurrent with the movie. I also listed it in the same timeline due to not contradicting canon. It follows the same story with added extra backstory for characters.
10. Ground Zero Epilogue: AC 197
The epilogue for Ground Zero states that it took place in AC 197 making it take place after Endless Waltz. Heero also promises to stay by Relena’s side.
11. Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1: AC 197 March to AC 197 April 07
March- Heero is staying at the Darlian Estate by this point with Relena tending to his wounds that had accumulated over the series. Relena is planning to run for president of the UESN.
April 07- Relena throws a campaign party on the day after her birthday. Sanc Kingdom is under attack by a terrorist organization. Wufei and Sally gather the Gundam Pilots to carry out a rescue mission.
12. Episode Zero Epilogue: AC 197 April 07
Concurrent with Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 1. Relena throws a campaign party on the day after her birthday. Sanc Kingdom is under attack by a terrorist organization. Wufei and Sally gather the Gundam Pilots to carry out a rescue mission. Quatre devises a plan for them to rescue the hostages without anyone dying, enemies included.
13. Frozen Teardrop Preventor 5 part 2: AC 197 April 09
The new Preventor 5 team carry out the rescue mission. The mission doesn’t go as planned and fails. Relena sacrifices herself to save the Sanc Kingdom and is cryogenically frozen. Heero is also frozen sometime later.
14. Frozen Teardrop Light Novel series and Picture Drama: MC 22 Next Winter to MC 23 First Spring
25 years later Heero Yuy awakens to fight a new war on Mars along with the old and new Gundam Pilots.
There’s a full timeline for the events leading up to current day Frozen Teardrop that I will translate as a later edit for this post. It covers all the backstories as well as important historical events of the Mars Colony Era. I will also add the extra dates mentioned in Frozen Teardrop as I translate the series.
15. Frozen Teardrop Epilogue: MC 23 First Summer.
Heero and Relena have been married for 5 months and peace is slowly coming to Mars.
I looked over all my manga and light novels to check dates so hopefully this is all accurate. It all surprisingly fits in nicely too, so I guess the writers were careful not to contradict each other’s extra stories.
Content that doesn’t fit on the timeline or is contradictory to canon:
Glory of the Losers - This is a reboot, so it has its own timeline and canon with different versions of events from the GW series.
A Scythe in my Right Hand, You in my Left - This story is… odd, to put it nicely 😂. It’s a good story but it doesn’t make sense in canon at all, so it goes under the “Duo’s weird catholic fever dream” category of the timeline. It also didn’t have anyone from the show work on it, unlike the rest of the media, so it’s not considered canon in that regard and that’s also probably why it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the canon.
Operation Preventor Radio Drama Cassette - It’s a crack scenario revolving around the boys hosting a radio show that takes place sometime after Endless Waltz. Although the boys hosting a radio show is an unlikely scenario 😂, it does have good characterisations and hilarious interactions between the G-pilots.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Manga by Koichi Tokita - This is a retelling of GW and contains vastly different scenarios so it’s its own canon. The writers of GW also didn’t work on it so it’s not part of the main canon in that way too.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz Manga by Koichi Tokita - The sequel to the Mobile Suit Gundam Manga and the same deal as before where it didn’t have any of the original writers work on it. Although it really doesn't differ from the movie at all so it could also work as concurrent to Endless Waltz movie and novels.
#gundam wing#new mobile report gundam w#timeline#reference#my post#also helpful if you want to watch and read the series in chronological order for whatever reason
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Just found an old and abandoned wip!
This was around the time I was first playing with the idea of the home shrines being people of the light who were long gone, the one at Home being the mother figure, and the others in the realms being the children who brought you back home.
I planned for the smaller shrines to have small distinctions from one another, reflecting what realms they were from and the state of their environment. Wasteland’s clothes would look a bit more worn out and have traces of the black water, Prairie would have small grass stains, Forest would be tinted blue etc. There are also home shrines in the forms of birds before the Forest and Wasteland temples so the birds on their heads were supposed to be that (I can’t draw birds 💀) . The two at the back are supposed to be from Sanctuary and Enchantment. The Sanc statue is very bright and kinda looks like it has scales so I tried to incorporate that. While I was drawing this I thought all the shrines from the seasonal areas would look like this so I just copied it for Enchantment.
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Well after long enough here’s part two of Eridian Overrun (borderlands 3 spoilers ahead)
EO part one
This episode’s topic is
*drumrolls*
The fight for sanctuary plant gas (ft. Salvador and Krieg) + some developpement on Sally boy and Mr. Meatman
The plant gas
So I’ll try to summarize as much as I can, but basically, EO adds interesting features to the gas. Ya see, the antidote doesn’t rid you of the gas. It simply slows it down ALOT. Also, every time you go in the gas, a small quantity of it stays in your organism.
Now if you take those things and merge ‘em together, you get what I call « overexposure » Basically, if you accumulate too much gas, yet are still immune, you will enter a state of slow mutation. It is caused by the contact of this absorbed gas with pandoran spores. Overexposure can only stop by leaving the pandoran atmosphere, and therefore cutting contact with those spores.
There can be some other conditions that make you develop overexposure:
Big, but non lethal contact with the gas without having the antidote in a short span of time (ex.: Vaungh)
Going trough the early phases of infection before getting the antidote (ex.: Mordecai)
Being exposed to a big quantity of the gas with a underdose of antidote (ex.: Hector boss fight)
At first, the only symptoms are a greener taint to the blood, amplified gas boost and increased muscular strength. At this stade, the mutations can be completely reversed by cutting off contact with the spores quickly enough. Staying long enough out of pandora will rid you completely of the gas, and therefore, of overexposure. An example of this state are the vh2 by the end of FFS.
However, if some time has passed since the beginning of the mutations and you’re still on Pandora, then that’s where the real stuff begins. First of all, later stages mutations cannot be reversed, as they are too significant. However, it is still possible to stop the progress by leaving Pandora. Those mutations are: Apparition of plant spikes on the body (mostly the arms), green hands with claws, pointy teeth and first stage symptoms being further increased. Examples of this are Salvador, Krieg and Vaungh
Eventually, on extreme cases, you might grow plant limbs, but so far the only known example is the Hector boss fight
Salvador
After FFS, Salvador stayed for a bit on pandora (around a year or two) to just, yaknow, keep killing bad guys. After that, he took a little break from pandora, on Tannis’s doctor order. Later, he went back to Pandora. At some point, like a few months before the EO present (3y after bl3), Vaungh found him and invited him to the sun smashers. I know it’s not much clear, but the little drawing on the left top corner is his SS logo. Yeah they have logos like B team now. Also, SS is in an alliance with the raiders.
Krieg
So for context, PKATFF still happens (because Maya isn’t dead, it’s a bit different but it still happens.) and yk there’s still the god tier ending. Krieg stays a few months in the cave starting to fix himself. After that, with pretty good progress done, he starts thinking of other ways to help himself. Thinking about the raiders makes him realize that he can’t be alone anymore. He goes back on SANC.-3 to see his friends (and pretty lady 🫶) again. Sane Krieg’s goal isn’t rlly to get rid of psycho Krieg anymore, but to get a more shared control over the system. P Krieg still has the most control, but S Krieg can front sometimes now. He even got to see his face really recently. It’s was a pretty moving moment. Also, he kinda becomes a dad to Ava because Maya is like a mom to Ava (hehe fambly)
Oh and I know the arm in the drawing doesn’t look like Sally’s or Krieg’s and that’s because it isn’t.
« Then whose arm is it? » Good question.
#this is my fav part of the au along with PL scars#i just think it would be funny if like Vaungh Salvador and Vic hung out on pandora#three stupid bandits who blow up heads togheter#and yes SS - Raiders alliance = Salvador being in contact with them#look that man was criminally left in the dust by the fandom#bring back the angry short man y’all ☹️#also psyren canon#borderlands#krieg the psycho#salvador the gunzerker#borderlands au#borderlands rewrite au#au: eo#my post#au: Eridian Overrun
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SACRED RATTLE THE POWER'S IN YOUR HAND.
Just like the post I did on bells a rattle is not part of traditional hoodoo but if this is the item you feel attracted to I would suggest it.
One thing that every tradition, every culture, and almost every spiritual practice on earth shares in common is the use of the Sacred Rattle. Whether the rattle is a coconut or gourd maraca, filled inside with sacred seeds, or a latticework of glass beads or cowrie shells woven into a net and covering the outside of a dried gourd, such as it is with the Shekere or the cabasa; or a stick with shells, bones or nuts tied to one end.
The rattle in its many forms and shapes is one of three man made musical instruments found in some form in every culture and country. “The others being the drum and fluits.
In many places around the world the rattle always uses by individuals of power, such as a Shaman, witch doctor or Medicine men, conjure men etc. There are times that the Maraca and Sacred Rattles were viewed by Christians as the Devil’s instrument..
The various African and Indigenous earth related spiritual and religious systems within the Americas has and to this day uses its sacred rattle. Haitian Vodou has its Asson, Cuban Santeria uses its Asheke, Dominican 21 Division uses the Tcha Tcha, and Puerto Rican Sanse uses the Amaraca, which is also called the Matraca or simply la Maraca. The Caribbean Taino Bohique and Bohitu “Chamanes / Shamans” as the Shamans in every other culture also treasured their rattle.
The Maraca (rattle) is an instrument of great power, and similar to that of a European wand, used by wiccans, pagans or other magical systems.
Used for: These rattles are used to communicate with the realm of spirits, and summon deities. They could repel or vanquish unwanted spirits, heal, bless, activate the healing properties of roots, herbs, talismans, amulets, beads and stones. Like the European Wand, the sacred rattle is an extension of the body and works as the pointing finger in which we get our desires, and will pointed and focused outwards from the body. The sacred rattles are emblems that which is used to seek that which is Holy, and it establishes a connecting link between the material world and the spiritual realm. Through the proper use of the rattle, the Shaman could manifest the presence of spirits and deities.
Sound: The Maraca or Sacred Rattle works through sound vibrations, and is always used to concentrate a sacred space, and create protective barriers. In Haitian Vodou the Asson as is the Sanse Amaraca is used to summon the Loa, the Sances or the Messengers in Christianity uses a bell to call down saints, angels etc. While at the same time they can also ward of negative earth bound spirits which often get confused or can not tolerate the sound frequency. It literally acts as a Rattlesnakes rattling. Like the snake its rattling tail lete predators or unwanted energies and vibrations know that you acknowledge their presence.
Cleansing: Along side of herbs, tobacco, blessed waters and salt the sacred rattles are used for cleansing an individuals aura. It helps the practitioners of Shamanism, Sanse and Vodou in opening up blocked energy fields and help in binding or fixing weak or torn layers of the auric layers, which helps in re-establishing energy flow known as Ashe and removing psychic dirt or unwanted energy.
In Haitian Vodou they have a beautiful and unique sacred rattle which is unique to Haitian Vodou alone called the Asson. The Asson takes three different instruments and combines them into one. The rattle, the shekere and the altar bell.
In Sanse they don't combine the three into one, but use them separately and as I have stated often use them simultaneously.
The use of the sanctus bell is highly used in spiritual masses like Catholicism, lets all those know who have come to attend the event or church. In this case a supernatural event that's taking place before the altar. It is also rung heavily when a medium is about to mount a Loa or Spirit as a protective measure so that no earth bound or malignant force enters.
While the Rattle symbolizes the masculine phallic symbol, the bell represents the joining of both, the joining of the phallic with the yonic or vulvic “womb or vagina” to create life. The tongue or clapper of the bell is often made of two parts and symbolize the male semen and the female clitorus. (Bet you didn't know that) don't judge I read a lot) 😁
The ball part of the rattle can also be viewed as a womb, the sacred circle and earth. ”Present day Church bells derive from ancient Pagan traditions and not the other way around as most would have you believe. The bells are always rung to let those know a ceremony is to begin and when a ceremony is to end.
In traditional magic metal for bells should be iron, brass, or silver, and they are always kept on the house altars and shrines. Bells can be hung near doors on windowsills, outdoors and indoors. As the wind blows on bells and chimes it acts as a repellent for unwanted vibrations. Again sound vibrations very powerful.
Hope you enjoyed this post let me know your thoughts..
#Ritual rattle#Vodou rattle#Sound magic#Voodoo#Spiritual work#like and/or reblog!#likeandfollow#google search#Spiritual vibrations#Traditional hoodoo#Southern voodoo#Sacred rattle#follow my blog#like and subscribe#message me#ask me anything#Updated post
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Borderlands: Skies the Ultimate Treasure Hunter
And we’re back!
We begin this new series with a short drabble, in which Jack taught Skies how to feel good.
*Link to next chapter in reblog*
--
The Meaning of Style
Previously
“Why do I have to go to this thing?” Skies asked with annoyance.
“So I can show you off, obviously. My new bodyguard who survived a Siren attack. All those stuffy CEOs will be so jealous,” Jack replied. He was wearing a three piece black suit, straightening the bow tie as he checked out his reflection in a full-body mirror. He nodded to a box on his desk. “Now hurry up and change.”
Skies groaned as she grabbed the box. “I’m really not good at these things.”
“You’ve attended parties like this before, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but only to kill someone.”
“Well, we’ll see how the night goes. Now, change.”
Skies sighed and went behind a partition. When she opened the box, she scowled in disgust. “Ugh, you really want me to wear this?”
“Yeah, yeah, come on,” Jack replied impatiently.
Skies quickly changed into the outfit and glared down at herself, hating how her arms wrapped around her for some sense of comfort.
“Come on, Skies,” Jack groaned as he paced back and forth. “I wanna be fashionably late, not late late.”
Skies stepped around the partition. She was wearing a sparkling, full-length black dress with a slit down her right leg and spaghetti straps. It was beautiful and fit her perfectly, but her discomfort radiated like heat from a star.
“I’m...really not a dress person,” she grunted.
“Yeah, clearly,” Jack agreed, rubbing his chin. “I can’t have you folding in on yourself like this at the party. You don’t look intimidating at all, even with your awesome prosthetics.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” Skies suggested hopefully.
“No, no. You’re going. Just wait a second,” he ordered as he went to his computer. He typed on the keyboard for a second before another box digistructed onto his desk. “Try this.”
Skies took the box, sighing as she went back around the partition. She gratefully got out of the dress and opened the box. She cocked her head curiously.
After a few more minutes, she changed into the new outfit and stepped out.
“Now that’s more like it,” Jack grinned and pointed to the mirror. “Have a proper look.”
She was wearing a two-piece black suit, similar to Jack’s but without the tie and waistcoat. It also didn’t have a right pant leg or right sleeve, putting her robotic leg and arm on full display. She wasn’t accustomed to wearing suits this fancy, but she had to admit, she looked good.
“It’s not bad,” she nodded.
“Hell yeah,” Jack grinned, “let this be a lesson to you. ‘Style’ isn’t about just wearing something that looks nice. You have to feel good to look good.”
He clapped her on the back and ushered towards the door. “Now come on. Let’s go make a bunch of wrinkled dicks jealous.”
Skies smirked with amusement and followed him out the office.
---
Now
Skies stands in her bedroom on her ship, the Sky Rider, looking at herself in a full-body mirror. She slips on her boots, hooks her pistol holster and ECHO device off her belt, and pulls on her new ‘SANC III’ t-shirt. Then she grabs her brand new black trench coat- missing the right sleeve-, loaded up with all of her bombs and knives, and throws it on. She pops the collar, flips her long, messy brown hair over her shoulders, and grins.
“Looking good.” She looks at Jack’s masks hanging off her wall. “Right, Jack.”
Skies flicks the mask as she walks by and grabs her vintage Hyperion pistol- Bodyguard- and her Atlas assault rifle- New Beginnings. She exits the Sky Rider into the cargo hold of Sanctuary III, ready to begin a new day with the Crimson Raiders.
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I've been rereading some of my Bl3 h2o au and actually I missed it sm lol bbbbbbbbbbb info dump incoming
It's wild bc some parts come across as awkward to me now after about 2-3 years... To me this fic is very recent so to think I've improved enough to recognize flaws in such a short amount of time... Wha!!
Also Junpai-7 arc my beloved. That's all. I love this arc. Twin sun planet that hates the moon and has sun festivals with Digby Vermouth to celebrate longer days. Custom made RGB Guardian OC that designed mermaids and furthers 'Eridian experimentation' lore and she eventually teams up with the Crimson Raiders after talking to Tannis. The fact that I accidentally called Guardian possession as a lore mechanic because I wanted a way to fit being moonstruck into my silly au. There are pirates and vampires and double-crossing mermen and an Eridian Compass that points the owner to an underwater Vault that becomes a huge whirlpool with a giant sea monster inside. This arc is SO self-indulgent and I love it so much.
Also when ur reading the Pandora 'main story' stuff u can see where I decided the Crimson Raiders' new base on Pandora was going to be Roland's Rest while they build Sanc-III during the main story because it abruptly cuts back to it in the middle of an arc LOL (and also where I decided there was a Pandoran moon pool in the Salt Flats instead of a lineage factor to this one... Because moon pools... I wanted to fit one into the main story to have a basis for the 'revisiting junpai-7 with the Crimson Raiders' arc OK shhh)
And I forgot I killed off Emma and Nino and actually my heart broke when they died bc I was like 'Awww I missed the Black Ops Squad' AND THEN THEY WERE DEAD hhggghhh but This arc also has all the Obsidian Block lore with all the characters being named after H2O villains (Greg, Sophie, Dr. Denman, Will...) and ALSO explains some Eridian lore and I think is also the first time I refer to moonstone from tps as its 'scientific' name which is Cythium-3 :) AND this is where Barnabas betrays Zane after joining the Black Ops Squad and starts their whole thing. Very back-and-forth with the vibes overall... Also lowkey can't wait to see what the actual lore explanation is for the triangle jackets because I will be permanently ignoring that in favor of my Black Ops Squad designs thank you (the jackets were bc they were all part of the Dahl Black Ops outfit on Pandora (referencing that ECHO Captain has about Zane) before they were abandoned, but they were nice af jackets so they kept them and replaced the Dahl logo with the triangle design)
Also also there are SO MANY references to stuff that isn't just H2O... In the junpai-7 arc the Rogues (Clay and the gang) are in the process of smuggling the Eridian Compass to a place called Mariejois when Zane shows up to steal it for the pirate queen Cutlord Karuu bc I love One Piece and it's Pirates okay. Also Zane drinks and enjoys Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, in which he compares the headache after getting moon-driver-struck to getting his brain smashed in with a brick without the lemon.
Also oh my god Zoomer is baby I'm so sorry I forgot about you 🥺 he's so small and beeps so much... He's just doing his best... Yeah he will shoot you but he's trying his best okay don't judge him... Blane (stands for Blue Zane) on the other hand is a total dick and messes with Zane at every opportunity and I think that's beautiful. He's only like that because tediore accidentally switched out the personality cores for the clone so he's the exact opposite of Zane
#I forgot I worked future opportunity into the story too... With all the hyperion workers trying to survive and maintain their structure#I just missed this au a lot#Basically fixes every complaint I have with the main game#(Troy becoming the main villain after Tyreen dies. The full story taking place solely on Pandora with other planets being dlc stuff.#Getting to explore future versions of BL1 and 2 areas. Working in the consequences of the bl2 story into 3 (the twins using old Dahl and#Hyperion outposts to house the cult and do eridium mining). Old Vault Hunters actually being with the Raiders and around and important.#There's tons more but tag typing is ehhh. Let's just say Bl3 h2o au my beloved)#H2O au#Cruddy rambles#I FORGOT TO MENTION#Maya not permanently dying for no reason#Ava getting the Leech powers#Bc like. Otherwise she has basically a nonexistent arc... She complains and then gets what she wants in the end... Boo!#And the Vault of the Architects actually existing and having monsters that Troy absorbs to get his boss fight powers
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Paranormal Sanctuary AU; roots driven deep
a sanctuary for NYC's nightside, Clary caters to the paranormal by providing a safe & most importantly neutral space to buy & trade in supplies - be it silver, icons, bullets, or gossip - or recover when sick or injured. invulnerable within her own wards, she rarely leaves her safe space now that she's finished training. Inside her domain, her word is law, after all.
In a world where different paranormal abilities are normalized, government sanctioned academies have been set up to train psionics & hone their talents. Once a psion chooses their area of study, they specialize in it deeply. Some have multiple areas of aptitude, but one of the rarest aptitudes is that of a Sanctuary. More than just a healer or a supplier, Sanctuaries offer a fully neutral, fortified space for all sects of the Nightside. Whether it's a hunter looking for bullets & icons, a witch looking for rare herbs, someone looking for a safe place to recover, or anyone looking for the right bit of gossip, a local sanctuary is an invaluable connection.
Clary completed her training under the Order after her father's attack on her & her mother when she was 16 opened her eyes to the shadow World. Previously ignorant of it, she quickly dove in & found that her various Talents - healing chiefly among them - would lead her down the path of a Sanctuary. It was a heavy choice - the vows of a Sanctuary meant she would be barred from forms of aggression in that she'd feel the pain she might consciously inflict on others - but it also meant that she could protect others from experiencing the same fallout she saw in the aftermath of her father's reintroduction to her life.
Now fully accredited, she sticks to her domain & only leaves if absolutely necessary. Her wares & skills are high demand across all seven boroughs, with special orders making up a significant amount of her sales.
options for interaction
option i. meeting in the sanctuary - Default option, the easiest way to meet Clary is by using the services provided through her Sanctuary's main area. This can be through the occult shop, various paranormal services she or others she's contracted with provide, or while recovering from an injury.
option ii. meeting at one of the nightmarkets - Though infrequent, Clary does occasionally have to leave her Sanctuary for niche supplies in local markets. She's typically accompanied by a highly trained guard, but that doesn't mean shenanigans don't happen.
option iii. meeting in the academy/pre-Sanc. oath. - Finally, the possibility of meeting Clary after her father's grand re-entrance into her life but before her aptitude test at the Academy is a possibility. During this time period, she's operating under the assumption her Talent is solely healing so she'll take the path of a much more common Sedayeen healer & the idea that she might run a Sanctuary isn't even on her radar.
verse-specific notes
canon source from Lilith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet & Dante Valentine series.
Crossover compliant easily with: Supernatural, Lucifer, Shadowhunter Chronicles, other urban fantasy & paranormal based canons
Mundanes can see her store front as a bakery, & benefit from the healing magic laced into all of her wares. She does a significant amount of business from this alone, to the point she's actually hired two psionic-sensitive young women to help her manage this specific aspect of her business.
The real shop is through a door at the back of the bakery, which non-mundanes are intuitively guided to through her wards. Set up similarly to an occult shop, there's also a small sitting area where others can catch up on the nightside gossip.
Some of her most consistent sales on this side of the business come in the form of blessed silver bracelets & blessed copper cuffs, as well as specialty bullets, various stones, & specialty herbs grown on the rooftop greenhouse.
#☆ ❛ roots driven deep ❜ || verse. ( au. — sanctuary )#☆ verse intro. → au verses#☆ ❛ my plans are not terrible ❜ || verse introduction
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Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Viridis Walk and Inner Sanctum
Tevinter researchers performed a magical experiment in this palace a long time ago. Their objective was to tap into the essence of the Fade, but in doing so, they created a breach through which demons started pouring out. A fail-safe built into their experiment was triggered and froze time within the place.
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
Viridis Walk
In Viridis Walk [meaning green walk] we can see a bit the structure of the Gallows from Kirkwall as a style: Main stairs, golems at the sides of the stairs, and iconography all around to cause some impact in the moral [I suspect many items around this place are for religious purposes, so their impact on the soul is more positive than the statues of tortured slaves in Kirkwall, after all this place was meant for Tevinter mages, not for slaves]. In fact, this place looks like a garden showing with pride the rich culture of Tevinter.
The garden has many statues and devices spread all over the place: the stone lid of Razikale Ceremony, the Horned warrior holding a sword, those diapason-like claw-like devices, golems, etc.
All of them have a symmetrical configuration in this garden. It must have been beautiful to see, green surrounded with these metallic and stone sculptures. I think it would have looked similar to Razikale Reach.
On the chamber of the Inner Sanctum, we see once more two Ferelden Wyverns.
The Inner Sanctum is an isolated chamber which decoration has two strange things in addition to the Ferelden Wyverns: it’s door is elven [it’s an Elven Ancient Shard-based door], as the ones we saw being used by Alexius in the future, or the Ancient Temples in Frostback Mountains or Forbidden Oasis. They can only be opened with shards. This means that this Still Ruin was built around an ancient elven temple or they just brought the door from an ancient temple they may have ransacked.
The second details is at the top the door frame: there is a Tevinter symbol hiding another: a sun that belongs to Free Marches design. So far I’ve noticed, we only see it when we use the Free Marches decoration in Skyhold.
This looks to me like a choice. Why would you bother to put an element of this nature when you can do your work easier by not putting it?
Anyway, so in this garden we have Non-Tevinter elements: a hidden Free Marches Sun, a pair of Ferelden Wyvern, and an Elven Ancient Shard-based door.
The elven door prevents us from entering immediately, so we need to collect the shards first.
By exploring the small rooms around Viridis Walk, we get more insight of the experiment that was performed centuries ago. Research Notes explains how Helladius thinks that they can draw energy from the Fade, even though it may causes Breaches. The power in this manipulation seems to be important. We are also informed that this experiment uses blood “of six strong” ones. Sarpedon, opposed to this experiment, keeps casting doubts about it, and trying to delay it.
When we see the shape of the shards, we realise they are of the same nature than the ones we have been collecting to open the temple in the Forbidden Oasis.
In another room of Viridis Walk, we find more elements of research, Tevinter paintings on the wall [exactly, the six-headed snake that seems to be related to the representation of Tevinter arcane research], and the Skull bud with sword. The reason why I think this statue belongs to Tevinter culture is because this place: Still Ruin shows all Tevinter design everywhere, and the only two statues that seem to be strange in this place are the Griffons at the entrance of the Hall of Silence and this one. We know the Venatori are the only group who had explored this ruin, but I don’t think they may have brought statues into it. So these statues may have been here from the pre-blight time. It’s the strongest argument I have to connect this statue with Tevinter, sadly.
Once all shards are collected, we open the door of the chamber in the middle of Viridis Walk: The Inner Sanctum.
Inner Sanctum
Once we enter, we see the main chamber with a hole in the space and blood floating around it.
If we look down before approaching, we find a rug that belongs to Orlais. A rug with the symbol of the De Montfort family, also called the Montfort dynasty, a noble family from Orlais with ties to Empress Celene I. This family is not that old, so it’s strange to find this symbol here. A mere reuse of assets? If it were DA2 I would not doubt it, but in DAI they have a lot of items to use in all environments, and this ruin is in particular very detailed since there is a lot of Concept Art for this and Coravacus placed with a lot of care. To place this rug carelessly in the most important part of this ruin, in the moment of “truth”, seems unlikely. There is some intention in this.
The room is decorated with less conflicting elements: All Tevinter artefacts. These are presented in the Fade as “Temple of Dumat”, another artefact we can’t guess its function but it’s related to experiments that open access to the Fade.
There are some kind of vessels, that resembles the design of the urns used in DAO for many purposes, and one of them was to carry Andraste’s ashes.
For more details check Haven and the Temple of Andraste.
And finally, we reach to the object that has stopped the breach: this hole in space and time; clearly blood magic. I like to highlight that there are tendrils of blackness spreading out of the hole. They are floating as much as the blood around it. The artefact which is causing the time stop is this staff which has a skull. We also see a person lying dead at its base, the man who triggered this fail-safe when the experiment went out of control: Sarpedon. Behind all this, there is a Veilfile rune, which is not strange; we know Tevinters knew this art already.
At the hole’s base, beside the body, we find the note Journal on Certain Experiments, in which we read Sarpedon, the only person who seems to have been against this experiment since the beginning, activates the security measure to preserve the Western Approach from the Breach, in a time when there were no ways to seal it.
Once we take the staff, the time-stop effect is cancelled and the bodies that have been kept in time disappear [probably as Ameridan said in the DLC, you can delay the pass of time but not escape it]. Rubble falls, bodies dies, and the breach, which has been frost in time, returns to its activity pouring new demons into the place.
When heading back to deal with the Breach, we find a desk almost covered in rubble where we can read a curious codex: Responsible Blood Magic , which dates from before the fifth Blight. I assume it must be something from the Venatori since the Still Ruin has been closed until now. It tells us about the dangers of blood magic from a Magister point of view, questioning how much good it has when it requires the death of good people. Not the usual opinion you read among Tevinters. This shows in -game what Dorian told us once: there have been always a group of magisters who were against blood magic from old times.
In one of the corners that usually are ignored, we find some minor loot and a rug with Templar symbols. I don’t know what to think about it. The most reasonable explanation is that this is where the Venatori were working or resting so they introduced several non-Tevinter elements to the scene [I assume this too because there is a sacrificial altar behind the rubble, a very Venatori element in most of their camps]. Because otherwise, it’s hard to explain this unless we reduce it to re-usage of assets, and I try to avoid it simply because in Art of Inquisition they keep telling us, over and over, that everything in this game has been thought and has a meaning and a tale behind it, so... I will go with that.
As we make our way back to the Breach, and seal it for good, we can see the effects of time returning to its normal way: there are no bodies, they all turned into ashes like Ameridan, and everything is in calm again. A ruin lost to time and decay from now on.
[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]
#Western Approach#Tevinter design#Tevinter objects#Tevinter golem#Razikale Ceremony#Horned warrior holding a sword#Ferelden Wyvern#Elven Ancient shard-based door#shard#Free Marches Sun#Skull bud with sword#De Montfort rug#Sacrificial altar#De Montfort Symbol#Playing DA like an archaeologist
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