#and its not making the story worse until we see it damaging the integrity of the story

[dappersautismcreature]

ik a lot of yall like things to be evenly laid out and known but im sorry the lore right now is wavy and weird and gray. and that is ok, you will survive i promise.

not everything has to make sense, there will be mistakes, retcons, imperfections, jokes that get turned into canon, etc. its a story made by HUMANS, not everything is written down and remembered and edited like a book or script. this is rp.

if you are mad at bad for "messing with canon" consider that the admins gave him permission, he is trying to continue lore that has been put on pause like three times by now, and create fun content while helping gather cookies so eggs DONT DIE

gray area, it doesnt have to make sense, you dont have to connect everything to purely fiction or purely out of character. i promise you it doesnt, its not that important, mistakes can be made, things can be weird. this isnt a purely serious all intensive highly edited tv show, its a roleplay with like 30+ people all with pcs with individual lore.

calm the fuck down. yall are acting like this is the Final Sin. its just,, content,, you will be ok, the story will be ok, THEYRE ADULTS they can sort out their own issues if a cc doesnt like another cc including something in canon.

#i started this out sympathetic #but thinking of all the pathetic whining about 'my canon ToT' is getting on my nerves #its not yours #you dont get to decide anything #and its not making the story worse until we see it damaging the integrity of the story #wait for that and then we can talk #even then #moreso on the admins than the players #qsmp #qpurgatory 2 #tagging both because both are relevant #fandom neg #crit

[sunder-the-gold]

Reconstructing Mecha: The Combining Robot

Watching a number of vehicles transform into robot parts and then combine to form a single, larger robot is cool and I want to see more of it.

But I also would like to make it make sense. Because if at all possible, you do not want to design a robot this way.

It’s already bad enough that the robot is designed to come apart so easily, with so many of its internal mechanisms dedicated to the task of combining and separating, rather than having the structure entirely dedicated to maintaining its physical integrity in the face of damage.

It’s made even worse by designing the individual components to transform into shapes that have absolutely nothing to do with their component forms. A machine that transforms into a completely different machine already introduces so many more parts to break just from facilitating such a transformation, not to mention making room for all of the parts necessary to make the component function as a completely different kind of machine.

But from an outside point of view, we want the characters to do it anyway!

So, what would force an engineer to design a giant mecha this way?

Ah, now you’re thinking of complications that the protagonists must work around, and this introduces tension to your story.

Underdogs

Maybe the protagonists are The Resistance, and they can’t openly transport their giant mecha around, so they need to sneak it from place to place in the guise of various smaller vehicles that are easier to disguise. All of this effort is absolute hell on the maintenance crew, but they have no other choice.

Rules of the Game

Or maybe both the protagonists and antagonists labor under the same complications. Maybe their world features some kind of portal-based transportation network with a strict size-limit, so they can only send their giant mecha from place to place in pieces, and those pieces need some ability to move and fight by themselves until the whole team is assembled.

Magic! (Original Voltron)

In the original version of Voltron, the giant mecha was designed and built as a single robot rather than five. It didn’t become a combining mecha until the witch Hagar used a powerful curse to destroy Voltron by dividing it into five separate pieces.

But since it was magic that divided them rather than physical damage, the pieces twisted into five independent robots rather than broken and severed parts, and those parts could fight back against the curse to briefly return to their original form.

This also handily explains why Voltron separates at all; because eventually the curse takes hold again.

#mecha reconstructed #mecha #voltron #combining robots

[swan-of-sunrise]

Taking Care of Business (Chapter Eight)

Summary: Din, (Y/N) and their passengers are trapped on a frozen planet and must quickly repair the Razor Crest if they have any hope of surviving.

Pairing: Din Djarin X Reader

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings/Disclaimers: None

A/N: I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Eight The Ship (Previous Chapter)

Jolting awake, Din pushed himself off the ship’s dashboard and groaned; the last thing he remembered before being knocked unconscious was the ship falling through the ice that he’d landed on. He was still disoriented when he glanced down at his armor and noticed the thin layer of frost coating the beskar. He reached up and flipped several switches but before he could determine just how much damage the ship had sustained, a small whimper behind him made him quickly turn around; the Frog woman was curled up on the floor of the cockpit, violently shivering as her arms wrapped around herself to generate warmth. He knelt down and helped her back into her seat as she began to quickly croak at him and gesture towards the cockpit door. Her eggs, he suddenly remembered, they were in the cargo hold when we crashed…

“I’ll find your eggs, don’t worry,” Din promised her. “Gotta get you some blankets, keep you warm…” He hurried out the cockpit doors and jumped down into the cargo hold; there was a gaping hole in the side of the hull, through which snow and freezing-cold air was blowing, and different wires and cables hung limp from the ceiling. Storage containers were strewn across the whole floor, all covered in frost, and he found himself muttering a quiet “Damn it.”

It was then that he remembered the child and his partner, and he hurriedly opened his sleeping compartment only to see the child’s hammock empty. Fear clenched at his heart as he turned back to the cluttered floor. “Kid? (Y/N)?” The Frog woman’s frantic croaking echoed down and Din called up, “Hang on, I’m looking for your eggs!” He carefully began stepping through the mess and, after hearing a small noise, bent down and threw a tarp to the side to reveal the child, an egg in his hands as he stood before the open container. “No!” He quickly closed the lid and picked up the container of eggs to examine it. It was the second time he’d caught the child eating eggs, and he was worried that the passenger would eventually notice their absences. “I told you not to do that.” The Frog woman spoke out to him again and he answered. “Found them!”

“M-Mando?”

Eyes widening, Din set the container down inside the sleeping compartment and locked it before hurrying over to where the captain’s weak voice had come from. “Dank farrik!”

(Y/N) was at the end of the cargo hold, hidden behind a storage container with her left arm pinned underneath another one, and her lips were nearly blue from the cold. “I tried…I tried moving it, but-”

“It’s okay, alor’ad, I’ve got it.” Careful not to jostle her arm, he lifted the container and set it down behind him, his heart dropping in his chest when he realized that her shoulder was bent at an unnatural angle and that she was shivering uncontrollably. “Osik…I’m gonna help you up now, okay? I need to push that shoulder back into its socket as quick as possible and I’ve gotta get you warm…” He leaned down and wrapped an arm around her waist, helping her stand before walking her over to another storage container. “Just sit here for a second, I’m gonna bring the Frog lady down here…”

Once he helped the Frog woman down the ladder and returned her eggs to her, he handed her a blanket and hurriedly fastened another over the hole in the hull in an attempt to begin warming the space. Then, he fixed (Y/N)’s dislocated shoulder and used the spare bandages from the med pack to bind her arm into a makeshift sling; she stifled her cry of pain behind her free hand and squeezed her eyes shut, but not before Din spotted the tears in her eyes. He knew first-hand how painful that kind of injury could be, so he didn’t judge his partner for what others would perceive as weakness. Once he was finished tending to her wound, he carefully wrapped a blanket around her and went to dig his spare heater out of the wreckage, turning it on and urging his companions to sit near it as he prepared a little dinner for them. (Y/N) quietly accepted her tray of food, her smile polite but her eyes betraying her anger towards him; suppressing a sigh of frustration, he turned away from her to glance at the Frog woman.

“If you hadn’t guessed, we’re in a tight spot; the main power drive’s not responding and the hull has lost its integrity. I suspect the temperature will drop significantly when night falls, and I’ll have a better idea of our prospects at that time.” He lowered himself onto the floor and leaned against the wall, making himself as comfortable as he could given the circumstances. The Frog woman began croaking urgently at him, gesturing to eggs while she did, and Din hopelessly answered, “I’m sorry, lady, I don’t understand Frog. Whatever it is, it can wait until morning.” He looked over at (Y/N), who was picking half-heartedly at her tray of food, and continued. “I recommend you both get some sleep.”

The captain didn’t acknowledge his words but when he crossed his arms and glanced back down, he noticed the child waddle his way over and cuddle against his side beneath his cape. Well, at least there’s one person who’s not angry with me, Din thought dejectedly to himself; (Y/N) was right, he shouldn’t have run from the New Republic rangers, but he’d panicked. He didn’t want to put any of them in danger, but that’s exactly what had happened anyway.

Before he fell asleep, Din watched as (Y/N) quietly set down her food and stood, removing the blanket from around her shoulders and placing it on top of the Frog woman’s eggs before settling down on the floor opposite him and wrapping her uninjured arm around herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wake up, Mandalorian.”

Din quickly jolted awake as the all-too familiar voice rang through the cargo hold, his blaster in his hand before he could fully register what he was looking at. Zero, the droid pilot from the prison breakout job, was still in pieces and secured to the wall of the ship, but a wire was now attached to its head and its opposite end was being held by the Frog woman; when she croaked again, Zero’s voice emitted from the head. “This cannot wait until morning. Do not be alarmed, I bypassed the droid’s security protocols and accessed its vocabulator.”

As (Y/N) and the child began to stir, Din holstered his blaster with more force than necessary. “What the hell are you doing? That droid is a killer.”

“These eggs are the last brood of my life cycle.” The Frog woman explained, resting a hand on her egg container sitting beside her. “My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet that is hospitable to our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line. I must demand that you hold true to the deal that you agreed to.”

“Look, lady, the deal is off,” He growled in frustration, gesturing at the wreckage around them. “We’re lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives!”

The Frog woman was unperturbed. “I thought honoring one’s word was a part of the Mandalorian code. I guess those are just stories for children.”

Across from him, (Y/N) visibly flinched at her words and the child looked up at him with near-pleading eyes; Din finally capitulated, easing the child off his lap before clambering to his feet, grabbing his toolkit and storming outside to assess the ship’s damages. The ship was in a bad shape but as he continued to examine it, he determined that it could thankfully still fly, albeit with a fair amount of patches and repairs. He was busy rewiring some of the broken cables near the engine when (Y/N) slowly approached him, a look of apprehension on her face as she knelt on the snow beside him.

“It’s, um…it looks a lot worse than it is. If the repairs go well, we can be out of here as soon as tomorrow.”

(Y/N) nodded. “Good, good. I…well, on the off-chance that we don’t, I just…I wanted to apologize for using your Creed against you when we first met.” His brow rose in surprise at her words; out of all the things he’d been expecting her to say, that certainly hadn’t been one of them. “It wasn’t fair of me to throw it in your face to get what I wanted, and I’m sorry.”

Din was at a loss for words; almost from the moment he swore the Creed, people had ridiculed his way of life and would often try using it against him to gain an upper hand on him. It had bothered him at first but he’d eventually grown used to the jabs and insults, learning to ignore or shrug them off. (Y/N) was the first person he’d ever met who bothered to apologize to him for her words.

Seeing her begin to rise, he shook himself out of his astonishment and grabbed her wrist to halt her; she looked at him with widened eyes, and he cleared his throat before speaking. “Thank you. I’m sorry as well. I shouldn’t have run from those rangers, and I apologize for not listening to your warnings.” His partner’s usual cheery smile brightened her face at his words and Din blushed beneath his helmet, quickly turning back towards the ship and gesturing at the hole in the hull. “You should get some rest, alor’ad. Your shoulder-”

“Feels perfectly fine, Mando. I can still help you with…” She trailed off, looking past him and furrowing her brow in confusion. “I think the little guy’s trying to tell us something.”

Looking in the same direction she was, Din’s eyes fell on the child, who was babbling and pointing at something on the other side of the ship. With a sigh of exasperation, he called over to him. “How about you come over here and give us a hand? Make yourself useful.” Instead of waddling over to them, the child walked behind the ship and out of sight. “Hey, kid!” He exchanged a look with (Y/N) and they both got to their feet, hurrying off after him. “I said, hey! Where are you going?”

“Come back here, little guy!” (Y/N) added; they turned the corner and made their way over to where the child had stopped.

Din knelt down beside him, instantly noticing the fresh footsteps in the snow. “When did she go?” According to his helmet’s thermal scan, it hadn’t been that long. With a small sigh, he picked up the child and stood. “It’s not safe for her to be out there alone. C’mon, let’s go.”

They slowly made their way through the icy caverns, careful not to make too much noise as they followed the Frog woman’s footsteps. Beside him, (Y/N) had drawn her blaster and was holding it in her good hand while Din kept a tight hold on the curious child in the crook of his arm. They turned a corner and found themselves standing within a massive cave; icicles the size of mudhorns hung from the ceiling and strange-looking objects rested all along the snow.

The familiar sounds of croaking caught Din’s attention and he looked over to see the Frog woman sitting in a glowing hot spring, with all her eggs floating at the top of the steaming water. “There you are,” He exhaled in relief, hurrying over to the hot spring with (Y/N) close behind him. “You can’t leave the ship, it’s not safe out here.” He set the child down at the edge of the water and knelt. “Let’s gather these up…”

Their passenger made a sound of protest as he began carefully putting her eggs back in her container; while he worked, he noticed (Y/N) sit down by the edge of the spring and give the Frog woman a sympathetic smile. “I know that it’s cold, but night’s coming fast and we can’t protect you out here; in the morning, Mando and I are gonna start working on repairs and we’ll be off this planet in no time. When we get back to the ship, I’ll look through my clothes for anything that’ll keep you and your eggs warm, okay?”

Because of the stunt she’d pulled earlier with the decapitated droid, Din knew that the Frog woman had understood the captain’s soothing words and with a nod of her head, she began helping him gather up the floating eggs. He glanced over at (Y/N) and couldn’t help but take note of how the faint glow from the hot spring illuminated her features; without thinking, he blurted out, “You’re good at that. Talking to people, I mean, making them feel comfortable. I just usually tend to scare them off and-No! No.” Din scolded the child, who’d taken advantage of his distraction and tried reaching for an egg. The child, looking a little more than miffed, walked away and he continued placing eggs into the container.

“Well, you haven’t managed to scare me off.” (Y/N) remarked, the corner of her mouth curving into a teasing smile. “You must be slipping, Mando; I thought that bounty hunters, even former ones, were supposed to terrify everybody they come across.”

Just as Din was about to indulge in their usual playful banter, the child’s cry echoed throughout the cave and his head whipped around in alarm; the child was running as fast as he could towards them, fear evident in his large eyes, and it didn’t take long for Din to realize why. The strange-looking objects that were strewn across the snow were beginning to shudder and hatch, and pale spiders of differing sizes began to emerge.

Quickly standing, he hurried over to where the child was and picked him up before backing away from the hatching creatures. His eyes widened in panic as more and more eggs began to break open, covering the floor of the cave with an ever-growing crowd of spiders. While he closed the lid of the egg container and slung it over his shoulder, the Frog woman hastily threw on her clothes and (Y/N) ushered her out of the hot spring; an echoing growl made the three of them look up and Din’s jaw dropped when an enormous spider, easily the size of his ship, crawled out of a deeper part of the cave.

“Go, go, go! Back to the ship!”

All three of them sprinted out of the cave and into the maze of icy tunnels, closely pursued by the swarm of spiders. While they ran, (Y/N) aimed her blaster and began shooting at the spiders behind them and Din, seeing spiders beginning to appear in front of them, drew his blaster and fired. A tunnel beside them was quickly blocked off when the massive spider shot a web at its entrance, so they quickly hurried down another; the Frog woman leapt past both Din and (Y/N), who were forced to holster their blasters so they could run faster from the advancing spiders. Although he couldn’t see it, he could hear the largest spider pursuing them from above, the impact of its legs shaking the frozen ceiling of the tunnel. A sharp cracking noise above alerted him to danger and his free hand shot out to haul the Frog woman back just as the spider’s long leg broke through the ceiling and was pulled up.

“Take her and get back to the ship, I’ll buy you some time!” Din yelled to (Y/N) as they ran.

The captain frantically shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving you behind!”

Thinking fast, Din pulled out three bombs and threw two of them on either side of the tunnel, then threw the third at the ceiling where the largest spider was. The bombs exploded, causing the tunnel to cave in on itself and he turned to watch the creature’s lifeless body crash to the ground before running after (Y/N) and the Frog woman. His partner had drawn her blaster again and was shooting at anything that moved; Din quickly did the same but once it became apparent that there were too many spiders to shoot and kill, he holstered his blaster and pushed (Y/N) and the Frog woman behind him before igniting the flamethrower on his vambrace.

White-hot flames shot out towards the swarm of spiders and instantly burned them to a crisp, but as the three of them continued to run, even more of the creatures began pursuing them. The broken-down ship finally came into view as he and (Y/N) continued firing their blasters at the spiders, and Din silently prayed that they’d be able to get the ship into the air in time to escape the swarm.

“Cover me!”

(Y/N) continued shooting spider after spider while Din turned and handed both the child and the egg container over to the Frog woman; he’d just ushered their passenger into the ship when the captain let out a cry of alarm, and he turned to see that her good arm had been webbed to the side of the ship. A smaller spider leapt towards them and on instinct, Din caught it in his fist and crushed it before throwing it aside; seeing the spiders inching closer to them, he helped (Y/N) wrench her arm free before pushing her into the ship and following after her. He continued blasting at the spiders as they followed them into the ship, scrambling up the ladder and shooting at the creatures as they emerged from the hole.

Seeing that his efforts were useless, Din stepped into the cockpit and tried closing its doors but the influx of spiders kept them from closing all the way. Desperate, he began shooting at the spiders through the crack in the door and (Y/N) quickly did the same, firing at the spiders that were lower down. The child’s fearful cry rang out over the sounds of their blasters firing and Din looked over just in time to see the Frog woman shoot at several small spiders that had been attacking him with a small blaster; their gazes met and he hurriedly nodded in thanks before turning and using his flamethrower to take care of the rest of the creatures. The door finally closed, but the danger hadn’t yet passed; the spiders had begun crawling over the outside of the ship.

“Strap yourselves in!” Din dropped down into the pilot’s seat, pressing buttons and flipping several switches; his hands flew over the various controls as he prepared the ship for take-off, and they were soon joined by (Y/N)’s good hand. They shared a brief glance before resuming their work, and he muttered under his breath to her, “This better work.”

“From your mouth to the Maker’s ears,” The captain replied, reaching over him to press a final button and letting out a sigh of relief as the ship shuddered to life. “We’re good to go!”

“I’ve got limited visibility, so it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.” He called out as they both pulled on the ship’s main lever; after a long moment, the engines began firing and the ship began to slowly rise. It continued to rise and as spiders began dropping off of it, (Y/N) glanced over at him with a hopeful grin that he couldn’t help but match underneath his helmet.

Their happiness was, predictably, short-lived. Something large and heavy landed on the top of the ship, slamming it back down into the ground; the force of the crash sent (Y/N) toppling onto his lap and while she struggled to right herself, Din watched through the ship’s viewport as the enormous spider he’d assumed had died prepared to pierce its leg into the cockpit. Quick as a flash, he wrapped his arms around his partner and pulled her closer to him just as its leg slammed into the space where her head had just been. Another leg slammed into the cockpit before being pulled out; all four of them watched in dread as the massive creature peered at them through the viewport. Somewhere behind him, the child whimpered in fear and he felt (Y/N) tense in his lap as the spider suddenly latched its mouth onto the viewport above them.

Its attack was stopped by an onslaught of blaster bolts and moments later, part of the spider’s carcass slid off the front of the ship. The sounds of blasters firing continued, illuminating the cockpit with red-tinted flashes; with her eyes widened in shock, (Y/N) turned to him and shakily asked, “Who the hell could that be?”

“I don’t know, but let’s find out.” He loosened his hold on the captain and let her stand before getting up; he made sure that the Frog woman and the child were unharmed before drawing his blaster and cautiously making his way down into the cargo hold. The entire space was covered in sticky spider webs and spider carcasses, and he was quick to shoot at one that was still crawling; with a brief glance at (Y/N), the two of them raised their blasters and slowly emerged from the ship to see their saviors.

“Son of a mud-scuffer, you’ve gotta be kidding me…” Din breathed out, watching as the two New Republic rangers sat atop their X-Wings and expertly shot down spider after spider that was still on the ship.

They soon stopped and watched as the two of them stepped forward, and the man on the right called out, “We ran the tabs on the Razor Crest. You have an arrest warrant for the abduction of Prisoner X-Six-Nine-Eleven.” Din kept his eyes on the two rangers but he could sense that (Y/N) was shooting him a look. “However, onboard security records show that you apprehended three priority culprits from the Wanted Register. Security records also show that you put your own life in harm’s way to protect that of Lieutenant Davan from the New Republic Correctional Corps. Is that true?”

“Am I under arrest?”

“Technically, you should be, but these are trying times.” The man glanced over at (Y/N), who had already holstered her blaster. “We also ran the credentials that you gave us, Captain (Y/N) (Y/L/N) of the Alliance Starfleet. According to your service record, you saved the lives of thousands of civilians during your years of service to the Rebellion; the New Republic owes you a great debt of gratitude.”

Clearing her throat, (Y/N) replied, “Thank you, Ranger.”

“Let’s say I forgo the bounties on those three criminals…” Din interjected, realizing that his partner was uncomfortable talking about her service record. “Can you two help me fuse my hull so I can get off this frozen rock?”

“Let’s say you fix that transponder, and we don’t vaporize that antique the next time we patrol the Rim?”

Fair enough, Din thought to himself as they watched the two X-Wings take off. They made their way back into the ship, where the Frog woman and the child were waiting for them. “All right, we’re gonna repair the cockpit enough for us to limp to Trask. There’s nothing I can do about the main hull’s integrity, so we’re gonna have to get cozy in the cockpit.” His words brought back the memory of (Y/N) sitting in his lap and he was thankful that his helmet could mask his growing blush. “It’s the only thing I can pressurize. If you need to use the privy, do it now. It’s gonna be a long ride.”

With (Y/N)’s aid, the repairs were quickly completed and he said another silent prayer as he sat down in the pilot’s seat; the Frog woman was already strapped into her seat, her canister of eggs resting in her lap. (Y/N) dropped down into her own seat with an exhausted sigh and rested her feet on her storage container; since they couldn’t fix the main hull’s integrity, she insisted on moving her things into the cockpit to keep them safe.

“Okay, the repairs are all done,” Din informed the Frog woman, holding the child in his lap as he pressed the final buttons. “Let’s see if we can get this thing going once and for all.” He slowly pulled on the ship’s main lever and the ship shook itself to life; they continued to rise and in no time, they were leaving the frozen planet’s upper atmosphere. He breathed out a sigh of relief before turning to look at (Y/N). “Wake me up if someone shoots us, or if that door gets sucked off its rails.”

(Y/N) bit back a smile at his bad joke, but the sounds of the Frog woman’s concerned croak made the captain quickly look over at her and shake her head. “It’s okay, ma’am, that’s not gonna happen…”

“I’m kidding. If that happened we’d all be dead,” He continued, watching in amusement as the captain threw him an exasperated look and continued to reassure their passenger. “Sweet dreams.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading!

Mando'a Translations: Alor'ad-Captain Osik-Shit

Chapter Nine

Taking Care of Business Masterlist

Tagging: @remmysbounty​ @sinon36​ @seninjakitey​ @thatonedindjarinfan​ @ginger-swag-rapunzel​ @mostclevermiss​ @momc95​ @welcometothepedroverse​ @sarahjkl82-blog​ @zukoyonce​ @itsnottilly​

#din djarin x reader #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #the mandalorian #din x reader #mando x reader #grogu #the child #baby yoda #frog lady

[notcapableofbeingtheguy]

HANK’S TRANSFORMATION AS REACTION TO TRAUMA— DECENTER THE SELF

“I think the universe is trying to tell me something and I’m finally ready to listen.”— 3x07, One Minute

(Main Post)

To understand how Hank’s trauma transforms him over the course of the show, let’s start by thinking about what Hank is like at the beginning of the show.

At the beginning of the show, Hank is the picture of toxic masculine arrogance. In the Pilot, Walt envies Hank for his power and confidence. Hank is cool, successful, manly, and everything Walt feels he is not. But we as the audience see how Hank’s ego is hurtful to those around him: he is callous, racist, misogynistic, and focuses more on the power involved in his job (the ~thrill of the bust~) than his potential to do good. What we don’t yet see, initially, though— and what it takes a great deal of trauma to reveal to Hank— is how his masculine arrogance, his obsession with himself, is also hurtful to himself.

Over the course of the first 2 and a half seasons, Hank experiences several traumatic incidents of witnessing and inflicting violent injury and death. First, Hank kills Tuco in a shoot out. Then he witnesses the tortoise explosion in El Paso. And he reacts to this trauma by engaging in increasingly reckless violent behavior— starting with bar fights, and ending with his brutal beating of Jesse.

Why does Hank react in this way? I believe it’s because, up until his beating of Jesse, Hank’s ego prevents him from properly coping with his PTSD. Hank is shaken by the violent incidents he is involved with in the field— exhibiting clear symptoms of PTSD. He has panic attacks and insomnia and startles at loud noises. Hank interprets all this as his mind and body failing him, failing to live up to his idea of a proper man and a proper cop. To accept that he has PTSD, that he has reacted to these situations emotionally, rather than brushing these violent instances off like a Real ManTM, would be to totally shatter his image of himself. So, he doesn’t accept this. When Walt suggests Hank talk to a therapist upon returning from El Paso, Hank immediately rejects the idea, saying “[if you] start going down that road, [you can] kiss your career goodbye” (2x 08, Better Call Saul). He has so built himself up in his own mind, that he believes if he admits any weakness, he will lose everything— his job, the respect of his wife and friends, himself. He won’t confront his trauma, and he won’t confront his reaction to it, and he certainly won’t confront how his natural reaction to the trauma makes him feel (frustrated, humiliated).

So he turns the anger and frustration he has with himself and his failing mind and body outwards. He is violent and reckless. In episode 3x03, I.F.T, Hank has a panic attack in a bar bathroom, from thinking about the possibility of being sent back to El Paso. And then he proceeds to pick a fight with two other patrons, under the guise of DEA business, but clearly actually because he needs to outlet his rage and panic. And Hank’s reaction is even worse when he believes Marie has been hurt (after Saul places the false call in Sunset). He is first thrown into a panic, and then into an uncontrollable rage— leading him to brutally beat Jesse. But this turns out to be the turning point for Hank, the moment when he truly, authentically changes in response to his trauma.

Let’s focus in on the brief moment in between Hank’s beating of Jesse, and his grueling near death experience with The Twins. The crucible moment when Hank’s transformation as I have described it— his decentering of the self— begins. This moment is actually one episode, and it’s one of my favorites: 3x07, One Minute. In beating Jesse as he did— blatantly outside of the boundaries of his job, Hank realizes he has gone too far. This violence touches his personal life— he fears for Marie’s life, and reacts by beating a civilian as a civilian— and so it is harder to make excuses for it as just another part of being in the DEA. Hank knows what he did was wrong. And this is (forgive the metaphor) the Jenga piece that makes the whole pile topple. He finally admits to himself (and to Marie) that “ever since that Salamanca thing” he’s been “unraveling.” He admits that his shooting of Tuco and the El Paso incident are the reasons for his violent and wrong behavior— that they have damaged him. He finally admits that he has been traumatized, and he has reacted to it poorly.

And after admitting this, Hank does something incredible. Something unprecedented in terms of who we have seen him to be previously in the show. He admits fault, he takes responsibility, and he quits the DEA. We see Hank truly and honestly humbled— he admits to both his weaknesses and his wrongdoings, with an unparalleled level of grace and self-awareness. He starts to become a better, more honest, more responsible, less arrogant person. He even weeps openly in front of Marie. This episode is Hank’s high point of the series, in terms of integrity and strength of character.

But then, oh then, there is fresh trauma for Hank.

Hank’s violent injury at the hands of The Twins, and his grueling recovery, hammer home even harder the fears and insecurities Hank had when his trauma was just emotional. Hank’s injury brings him to his lowest point— he is bed-bound, unemployed, and needs his wife’s help to take a shit. Everything Hank was feeling before— about the failure of his mind and body to live up to his masculine ideals— comes back with a vengeance.

And this does continue to humble Hank in the positive sense I described above. I believe that the incredible detective work that Hank is able to do in seasons 4 and 5 is enabled by this increased humility. I think it’s very apt when Hank says, in One Minute, “the universe is trying to tell me something and I’m finally ready to listen.” Hank’s strokes of investigative genius — first those that lead him to Gus Fring, and then the pivotal revelation that Walt is Heisenberg— could well be described as him simply listening to the universe, in a way he wasn’t ready to before. Gus had primed the DEA to never suspect him with his cop-loving act, but Hank was able to get outside of that bias and make that mental leap when all the other officers refused to believe it. He listened to what the evidence told him. And, though you could argue that Hank finding Gale’s book in Walt’s bathroom was purely random, I think Hank’s willingness to even consider Walt as a potential Heisenberg (let alone to extrapolate that possibility from a set of initials and a visually identified handwriting match on a random book) shows significant growth. There are countless moments before that in the series of incredible dramatic irony, where the idea of Walt as a drug dealer would occur to Hank, and he would immediately dismiss them as ludicrous. Because, of course, if Walt were a criminal, Hank would have to be an idiot to have been fooled by him for so long. There was a barrier of ego that was keeping Hank from considering that possibility. And only when it was removed, was Hank ready to listen to what the universe revealed to him.

But, the effects of Hank’s injury on him are not all positive.

Hank is brought SO low, and is SO humbled by his injury, that it moves to the point of humiliation. And he reacts to this by turning his attention away from himself and towards his fanatic obsessions. He decenters himself, by centering his whole life on something else. First there are, of course, his minerals. Then, he becomes obsessed with taking down Gus Fring. Then, finally, he becomes obsessed with taking down Walt.

This fanaticism is bad for Hank. His fanatic obsession with minerals almost destroys his marriage. His legally dubious pursuit of Gus Fring threatens his fragile career (and, unbenknownst to him, puts him on Gus’s hit list). And his fanatic pursuit of Walt eventually leads to his death. This fanaticism goes so wrong for Hank because, I would argue, fanatic external obsession ignores the self, where true humility accepts the self in all its flaws. Think back to Hank’s humble behavior following his beating of Jesse. Hank actually thought a lot about himself— he analyzed the patterns of behavior he’d had since his encounter with Tuco, admitted to his weaknesses, and took responsibility for his actions. He deflated his ego by taking a look at himself honestly, rather than by refusing to look at himself at all. But, after his injury, this is just what Hank does— refuses to examine himself, instead spending all his energy on something else. And that turns out to be Hank’s fatal flaw.

If Hank had examined himself instead of buying so many minerals, he would have seen he was ashamed of his physical disability and was taking that anger out on his wife. And he could have rectified that much sooner. If Hank had examined himself instead of relentlessly investigating Gus Fring, he would have seen that he was going back to the same type of crooked police work that he previously realized he was doing and quit the force because of. And he could have conducted his investigation more safely and ethically. If Hank had examined himself instead of fanatically pursuing Walt, he would have seen that he was furious with himself for failing to see Walt was Heisenberg sooner, and felt a need to redeem himself. And then maybe he would have been humble enough to ask for help from other DEA agents instead of going it on his own. And maybe, he would have survived.

Ironically, Hank’s attempts to think less about himself and his problems, actually ended up letting those problems rule his life.

Hank’s story is, in the end, a tragedy. We see the kind of positive growth Hank is capable of. His reaction to his trauma— the way he uses it to become a better person, husband, and detective— is often inspiring. By season 5, because of this growth, Hank arguably becomes the hero of the show. But, painfully, he isn’t able to grow quite enough. His ego remains involved in his detective work— though this time in the opposite direction (he frantically tries to ignore himself, rather than inflating himself, but this ends up involving him too much in his work nonetheless). And this, among the various sins of other characters, leads to Hank’s death. Which is so painful to see, because we know what Hank was capable of in terms of self-reflection, growth, and integrity. We know what he fell short of.

#breaking bad #brba #hank schrader #hank #brba analysis #brba meta #trauma post series #y’all... #i fuckin love hank schrader #im so sad he’s dead #rewatching One Minute repeatedly to write this post CHANGED ME #hope y’all are enjoying my dissertation

[geniusinventora]

This started off small, but became a REALLY long post. So. Let’s talk about how Gyro talks to people and his general socialization skills. 

Under a read more after a point because well, this is going to get VERY long. There are a lot of aspects to this that just don’t come across unless you’ve spoken to me, or you over analyze how Gyro speaks in the show and in the comics.

Gyro has a very hard time getting the meaning he’s TRYING to achieve come across. Like- he wasn’t really socialized until his late teens. His only peer was his brother who he fought with constantly.

Gyro is just very, very bad at communication in general. He will say what is on his mind, how he thinks it with nearly no filter. While he does sometimes try and make things come across better, it doesn’t always work. It’s somewhat of that trope “He assumes people are smart enough to figure out what he’s saying”, but... not? Because it’s not like he’s trying to be pompous about it.

Miscommunication and hostility just come with talking to him. It really takes a lot for him to not be quite honestly inept at social interactions. It’s why he likes talking to close friends, or people who know him, and will almost always let someone close to him translate for him. Eventually people learn that the rudeness, sass, and his quickness to anger aren’t always purposeful or even noticed by him about 99% of the time.

. . .

The notecards that he uses in the first episode are actually something he’s had for... well since he was working with Scrooge. While he was somewhat socialized with people while with Akita, FOWL was a... unique work place. There wasn’t a precedent on how to act or react; just respect heron and bradford. And respect from Gyro is extremely hard to come by, partially because of how he was raised. Gyro doesn’t respect people, but if they do something wrong they lose it. Gyro respects NO ONE until they prove they should be respected, and then he does. It’s really ironically like how he was raised, though he’ll never come to make that connection. 

People he respect, or value, or become close with he TRIES to be better at talking to for a time. There’s an awkward phase will he will attempt to fix how he talks to a person- adjusting verbiage, colloquiums, and slang in an attempt to understand how they talk to him. Most of the people in the Duck Family are either in this phase, or past it. Where you can get him to notice that things he says aren’t always okay. That actions he do aren’t okay. He’s much more open to being corrected at this point, and while he won’t say thank you, will appreciate it. He doesn’t always change HIS speech, but he does clearly speak and treat the people in this category different than he treats about 90% of the population.

There is a very small circle of people, however that are past this. Gyro feels like he can TRULY be himself around them, and rather than caring about how he talks, he does the opposite; he just speaks as himself without worrying. It’s near identical to how he acts when he doesn’t respect someone with a huge difference. All it takes is a comment- sometimes a WORD to get Gyro to stop and re-evaluate everything he had said before he was stopped, and actually tries to correct himself and his behavior. While he is not trying to change or alter his own self, there’s just an understanding between him and the other that he just is like this. He doesn’t need to change, but he doesn’t expect the other to either BUT he does actually value their input, and doesn’t want to upset them. It’s mutual respect, at least from Gyro’s point of view. 

While within canon of the show, really the only person we ever see him speak to this way are Scrooge, and at the end of Astroboyd Fenton. Those are the 2 pure canonical ones that he will, should either of them point out he is taking things too far, or being rude, or anything will fix his behavior near instantly. Fenton will still get sass, and Scrooge being far more respected is due to his history with Scrooge, and the fact he wants to prove he was worth saving. Fenton... well that’s a peer. He doesn’t feel like he needs to be formal with him.

Within the canon of this blog though, there are a few people he respects. @lunarspeared​‘s Della is obviously one. Following the idea that he did spend 5 years with the Cousin Squad due to Della dragging him into it- then everyone in Cousin Squad he holds that same respect even if they aren’t close. This can lead to really interesting dynamics... especially if particular members of Cousin Squad don’t like him. He will no matter what though, take any and all advice that the cousin squad gives him. In some instances (and what’s been plotted with Ash, Oreo, Zak, and others) the Cousin Squad made notes on his cards- symbolically showing that they have just as much respect and value in Gyro’s eyes with their opinions and advice that Scrooge does within Gyro’s reasoning. Della, Donald, Gladstone, Fethry, and Scrooge being the ones who he relied on the most to learn to properly communicate.

@livesforgttn​‘s Black Heron and @tunnagan​‘s Bradford actually hold this respect, however as time passes it slowly starts shifting. @voidfcllen​‘s Gladstone also holds this as well. If you’re extremely close with him, and he’s spent a lot of time with an individual who has learned to see past the surface level of his words are usually the only ones he respects at this level.

Depending on his specific relationship with the triplets, the AU, and how it’s plotted he might have this with the kids. Really, it depends on how the children ask, if they respect him- if they’ve had more interactions than just what’s shown in canon, and a lot of other factors (whether or not he’s dating/married to Della or he was ever close to Donald). There are a lot of factors that I won’t actually force on a person, but would leave up to them if they wanted certain dynamics.

That being said, respect can be lost and gained tenfold. While there are extremely subtle differences in how he speaks and acts around the people he really trusts and respects- sometimes if you don’t really know how I play Gyro it can be very subtle to see. It’s why I’ll go to people and cry about how he’s being secretly soft, despite not seeming that way at first. Because of that, unless you know how close Gyro views a person, it can just look like there are some he’s slightly awkward around, but

Gyro’s also been lying for nearly all of his life, over some very very big things, down to what his favorite color is. Gyro is not a trusting individual and sometimes will refuse to ever be truthful with someone should he feel like doing so would put him in any sort of danger. Danger being mental, physical, or just situational of course. He really does follow the “look out for myself” philosophy, and lives by it to a dangerous degree that can make getting to know him hard. Which ALSO leads to problems in communications because he will always favor making himself more comfortable than whoever he was talking to. You know he likes you when he makes an effort to make it a more balanced in making sure neither party is upset by what he says, or by avoiding conversations that lead to possible conflict.

That being said, Gyro doesn’t “open up.” He doesn’t just start telling his whole life story, or feel like there are big truths to him. At this point he honestly cannot remember what secrets he are keeping. They’ve become such an integral part of who he is, he forgets that they are actually secrets at all. The Gearloose family, the fact his father disappeared, Tokyolk, FOWL, Bradford being the Director for FOWL, his feelings, his full name- There are a lot of MAJOR secrets that he keeps. Ones that, depending on where he is on the timeline, can cause more damage than good should they come to light.

His opening up to someone is the small truths. How he likes his coffee. Someone knowing his sleep schedule. Where he lives (cause no, its not at the lab.) He doesn’t see himself as the lies that he tells, or the secrets he keeps. He sees himself as the small details of himself that, unless you know him well, someone would never know. THAT is who he is, and if someone sees him that way he usually is very close with them. However, it can break the friendship/relationship if they begin to hold him and view him as what secrets he keeps because they are automatic for him. It takes little effort to lie to anyone about anything. When he hesitates or choses to be honest and show himself is what he considers opening up.

The exception to this is whenever a child is HIS child shaped. He will (nearly) never lie to them, and tell them the truth should they ask. The primary reason for this is because of how Fulton raised him. Gyro recognized that Fulton was hiding his intentions a lot, and because of that there was never a clear lesson or take away that Gyro got from all of the lectures he received. Because there was no reason behind “Inventing is bad”, he chose to ignore it. He doesn’t want a child of his to follow down the same path he did- so he will be OVERLY clear and transparent should they ask him. Any intentions, ideas, beliefs, or reasonings they want to know, he will almost always tell him. The only secret he would consistently keep is FOWL, but that’s more dependent on the timeline of the AU.

And, unfortunately these are not consistent across all verses. Any universe that Gyro is parent shaped to the Triplets (as in, from the time they hatched to show time) he is a lot softer! He understands how to be more personable, and caring towards the people he loves without being outright malicious unless it’s necessary. 

Alternatively, any universe where he’s even MORE isolated than in canon (Crossed Paths, FOWL Demise) or has some other circumstance affecting his mentality and being in some way (Taken, Dark Impetus) will make all of this much worse. Becoming more friendly, or taking the steps to actually try and have that in-between state that allows them to know he is making an effort for them can be all but gone. In other cases, he might actually just- not care at all. He doesn’t have what little empathy that canon Gyro does, and so therefor has never CARED if someone has bothered to try and understand him or takes his words at surface value.

Because of this, some universes he is much more... blunt than he is in canon or the blog’s canon. The Notecards that Scrooge gave him when he first began working for him were a HUGE help. @scroogemcdork​ and I have talked about it a lot. Scrooge was the first positive, influential work environment that Gyro had ever been in. He had NO IDEA how to act, speak, or really do anything. The cards were there as a crutch to help him learn what situations need a specific amount of tact. While they were slightly there to help him, he ended up valuing them a lot, and just kept them.

In fact, he usually keeps them on him at all times. Him using the notecards usually is a non-verbal (ironic, huh?) cue that Gyro is completely at a loss for how to treat someone, how he should speak to them, or how he wishes to present the ideas in his head. It usually, while at first APPEAR to seem respectful because he is attempting to be respectful it’s really the opposite. Gyro’s biggest disrespect he can show someone socially would be to use the cards on them, and to communicate only through those. You can usually tell when he is, because he starts sounding more empathetic, and uses words like “Sorry” and gets perspective on other people’s emotions and possible reactions.

If he’s using the cards on you, 90% of the time it’s either because he isn’t sure what to say, he’s being FORCED to be respectful, or he just doesn’t think you’ll ever understand the intentions he really wants to get out of what he knows he would say naturally.

Gyro usually is overly confident in himself and his abilities, however the one he knows he lacks is the social skill. He knows FULLY well that he is AWFUL at communication. He doesn’t hide that. In fact, usually he just either lets someone determine how their relationship with Gyro will continue. If they stop talking to him, then that’s on them. He has more confidence in himself, really thanks to Della (and the cousin squad if they were involved in specific plots), and in his eyes he has come FAR from where he was before.

Really though, in the end we only see him in ‘17 when he’s first using the old, worn down cards to present ideas to the Board. Something that has happened numerous times. Something that Gyro and Scrooge have obviously talked about before. He didn’t get that he was being rude or demeaning, and was forced to use the cards. He’s been extremely rude and socially inappropriate to Donald, the kids (never using their fucking names), Fenton (office bathroom. Need I say more?) and many other people we see in the show. 

Conversely we see him being extremely kind to Lil Bulb, and Boyd, and Fenton (after Astroboyd). It’s clearly something that he CAN be, however it seems to be that the relationship that someone has with him will change how he acts DRASTICALLY.

People’s reactions to him (standing up to him, cowering, ignoring his rudeness, trying to politely correct him, etc) will affect how he sees them. In the end, while he does act like a dick, the intentions and meanings behind so much of what he says. You either have to be close to him to know that while he is being an ass, it’s not entirely his intention... unless you’ve annoyed him but that’s how it is with anyone.

The longer, closer, and deeper a person gets to know Gyro typically is when I start seeing that they can see past the sarcasm, the sass, and honestly the cruel way he can sometimes act. Comments of violence, anger, and resentment that he’ll never act on or doesn’t even have being ignored, he can be rather telling if you read between the lines of what he’s saying.

And it only took me nearly 2 years writing him to be able to completely figure all of this out. So I hope you enjoy the quick guide- and yes I mean quick guide to Gyro and his miscommunication issues.

#» » 〈《 meta 〃 general 》〉 #» » 〈《 blog canon 〃 general 》〉 #if you were @ed its cause i was subtly saying you were my main or you really helped with this headcanon #anyways u H #WHO WANTS A FUCKING ESSAY EYYYYYYYY

[reversemoon255]

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution - Kizuna

I’ve been a fan of Digimon since I first watched it as a kid, but I’m also one of those weird fans where I’m more excited to see the series give us something new rather than treading old ground (I’m not very nostalgic in general), so I wasn’t actually that excited for Kizuna, especially after the terrible experience it was to sit through Tri. Still, the movie surprised me, and grabbed me a lot more than I though it would. I didn’t cry at the ending, but I did well up a bit. Still, this movie isn’t without its problems.

Rather than going over the goods and bads like I normally do, I’m actually going to go through this one chronologically, as I feel it’s the best way to tackle this film’s strengths and flaws. Sit back for a long one, folks.

Chapter 1 (Parrotmon and the First Adventure): We start out with the same intro music we got in the original Digimon Adventure movie. This first section is full of a lot of very purposeful callbacks, like Greymon VS Parrotmon and the recreated evolution sequences. This is the part of the movie where I think this works the best, grabbing people’s nostalgia right at the beginning, getting them to remember the good times with the Digimon before the drama starts. My only, very minor, nitpicky issue is that the Agumon to Greymon sequence is a bit choppier than the original, but it’s also not meant to play 30+ times over the course of two years, so it’s easily forgiven. Also, I’m gonna put PIN 1 in the aurora, because we’ll be coming back to that later.

The animation here is also fantastic (the few moments of off CG aside). It’s been a while since I’ve seen fight scenes this good, and this is probably the best they’ve ever been in Digimon. I also enjoy that Taichi and Yamato are immediately on good terms. So much of Tri was them arguing with each other, so seeing them as friends is nice.

Chapter 2 (The New Normal): Something I didn’t notice the first time, but did on a repeat watch was Sora’s Digivice with its timer ticking down in the opening credits. I’m not a fan of how little Sora was in this movie, especially considering her reinterpretation in the reboot hasn’t been that strong, but I do think the route they went with her was fitting for her character.

Seeing Taichi and Yamato in a rut while everyone else is pursuing their dreams is well done. I definitely feel like I’ve been there before in one form or another, and it’s easy to empathize with. Also, seeing the two of them drinking is so surreal. And them talking about how they have a hard time fitting their Digimon into their lives, only to almost immediately have the idea of losing on them thrust upon them hits very hard on the first watch.

Menoa’s voice... As a native English speaker, hearing people who are supposed to be American in anime only to spout obviously line-read Katakana is always a little vexing to me. I definitely weigh it a bit based on the budget of the show I’m watching, but this is a very big budget movie and they could have gotten a better trainer at the very least to go over the lines with her. Her character is well done, though. I thought she was certainly suspicious my first watch, but on a rewatch I caught more hints, such as her reaction after Izumi mentioned his database.

Chapter 3 (It’s in the Internet): This is where I started falling off a bit. Let me know if this sounds familiar, “Taichi, Izumi, Yamato, and Takeru must battle a Digimon inside the internet. Just as they seem to have the upper hand, it evolves and the children must rely on Omegamon to defeat it.” This particular part of the movie is recycled from Children’s War Game. Even Eosmon darting around the arena with a timer going, being difficult to hit and having to be forced to slow down is reminiscent of how Diablomon was defeated. This really took me out of the film, and it kind of gets worse, but we’ll get there.

Maybe this is me, but I can’t help but feel the whales during Omegamon’s evolution are a callback to Summer Wars >_> I do like the new version of his sword with the flared guard.

Chapter 4 (Some Old Yet Newer Friends): I don’t agree with Menoa’s explanation for why Digimon disappear, but my evidence as to why hasn’t appeared yet, so we’ll put PIN 2 in that. Menoa’s assistant on the other hand was a decent red herring. I wasn’t sure which of them it actually was until the full reveal.

I can’t properly express how excited I was to see Miyoko and Hawkmon after Tri. The 02 crew got so shafted that seeing them here and how involved they were in the plot had me legit excited. There’s actually a ton of 02 love in this movie in the background that I was very appreciative of. That brings me to another point, though, that this movie feels very responsive to Tri. The heavy inclusion of the 02 cast over many of the other original Adventure members, the number of cameos from the final episodes of 02, and a very certain plot point that we’ll stick PIN 3 in for now all point to this. Heck, it was even revealed to be in production near the end of Tri, which was supposed to be the series finalé, except people didn’t like Tri so they apparently didn’t want the series to go out on a sour note (though not a bitter-sweet one).

Chapter 5 (People Change): Can we talk about how Agumon finds Taichi’s stash? It’s a little too real, man. But this scene also brings up the point that the Digimon haven’t really changed since 1999, yet the children have significantly. The Digimon change their appearance and the humans change on the inside. It’s also a little weird how the Digimon aren’t that beat up about saying goodbye. I mean, they don’t want to, but they aren’t crying their eyes out. But we’ll talk about that more when we actually pull out PIN 2.

Also, seeing Sora at the end of this chapter, knowing what’s happening to her is really sad on the second watch.

As a little bonus, I was questioning the Digivice Smart Phones until Taichi turned his off and Izumi’s name popped up. Good show-don’t-tell. That scene also has some great lighting...

Chapter 6 (Better than Himekawa Maki): You definitely feel bad for Menoa. Her story is very (and probably purposefully) similar to that of Himekawa Maki’s from Tri, but in this case we feel more for her because she went through what our leads are going through right now. Her plan makes sense to her because of her tauma. And as we’re talking about the similarities to Tri, I’m going to pull PIN 3 and mention that Taichi and Yamato are going through the same thing that Meiko did. It’s strange that they’re recycling the Tri plot for this, but it works so much better here because our connections to these characters, that we’ve known for years, are so much stronger than those of the new ones introduced in Tri. And it’s 1/10th of the run time, too. It’s almost like Tri was terrible or something O_O

Chapter 7 (Touching Down like a Revenging Hurricane): So now we’re on to a Digimon trapping Chosen Children and reverting them back to children all for the sake of one Chosen Child who has aged up. Man, that sounds familiar. It’s almost as if this plot point was taken from another movie or something...

Look, I wouldn’t harp on it so much if every Adventure + 02 Digimon movie didn’t have plot elements recycled for this film. The beginning was Adventure, the first battle with Eosmon was War Game, Tri is sprinkled throughout, we’re currently on Touchdown, and everything from here up to the final is Revenge of Diablomon. Don’t get me wrong, this was probably on purpose, and they are well integrated, but it pulls me out of the movie super hard. As I’m writing this, I’m on the scene with the 100 Eosmon reveal, just like all the Kuramon. They also do the thing all the Kuramon do where they combine together and defeat Omegamon (by removing his arms, weirdly), only to have two Digimon achieve a new evolution to defeat it.

That being said though, it is, again, handled very well. The damage you see done to Omegamon in these scenes is heartbreaking, and you can certainly feel the weight of the situation.

I also want to pull PIN 1 here, because they bring up the aurora again. There’s never actually an explanation for it, is there? It just shows up one day. It helped Menoa make Eosmon, it drove Parrotmon and apparently other Digimon crazy, but where it came from and why it’s here is never actually explained. I feel like this is bait in case they’re ever at the point where they need another big nostalgia push again and a plot for another movie. But I also don’t want to see that. After Reboot wraps (even though I like it) I’d like to see a new cast, Digimon, and story please.

I also don’t believe a word of anything Menoa says in these scenes, but she does a very good job of pushing Taichi and Yamato’s buttons. I also want to point out, it’s Greymon that isn’t phased by all this and goes on the attack when they’re doubting themselves.

Chapter 8 (An Unreliable Narrator): Time to pull PIN 2.

This is the reason why I don’t believe Menoa. This scene. Menoa kept going on about children losing their infinite possibilities and being unable to supply their Digimon with power, but the Digimon we see going through this situation don’t reflect that. Evolution is a two-way street. We help the Digimon evolve, but in turn they help us evolve, and it is when we reach the pinnacle of our evolution, when the job of the Digimon is done that they disappear. Menoa sped through her evolution because she wanted to become an adult, and when she finally achieved the dream she had set for herself is when Morphomon disappeared, but she’s so traumatized by her disappearance that her views on the situation are negative. This has to be a bad thing, there can’t be a positive reason why the Digimon would disappear. But Agumon and Gabumon are happy. Happy that they could see the great people that Taichi and Yamato turned out to be.

Gotta say, the CG fight with Omegamon and Eosmon (Perfect) isn’t as great as the previous ones. Definitely gets better when we get to Eosmon (Ultimate). This is also a scene where they very easily show the stakes by having Taichi and Yamato getting injured, which we don’t see a lot of, not to mention Omegamon getting sliced up as I said previously.

Also, how many kids got stuck with Numemon as a partner?

Chapter 9 (We’re All Together): I hate that whistle. Every time I hear it in Adventure I start crying. And seeing Sora without Piyomon in these scenes is also heart wrenching on a repeat. I enjoy the others getting involved in the Eosmon fight, but I would have liked it if all the Chosen Children who were captured helped out (though I understand the nightmare that would be aging up all those 02 designs). Overall, just some good, back-to-back emotional moments.

Agumon Bond of Courage and Gabumon Bond of Friendship are decent designs. They definitely feel more newer Digimon than anything that would have appeared in the first season, but that’s ok. It took me a while to get used to Agumon’s new face (it’s kinda weird how human they get; makes me feel like wanted this to be a Bio-Merge). Though brief, their appearance is also beautifully animated.

Seeing Menoa lose Morphomon is also pretty emotional. Actually, this whole ending sequence (y’know, the part of the movie that’s the most itself rather than rehashing old material) is very good, and it’s constant heart-tugs one after another.

Chapter 10 (Goodbye for Now): As I said, there’s a lot of tug-at-your-heartstrings moments throughout the film (especially the ending), but this is the biggest one. This is the one that almost got me. I’m choked up a bit even writing this. It doesn’t help that they end it with a non-movie, realistic cry. But as Gennai said, as long as you have infinite possibilities...

This movie does feel like it embraces the epilogue from 02, and in that epilogue everyone has their Digimon again. And when’s the moment in your life when your life becomes chaotic and hectic and full of infinite possibilities again? The unifying thing everyone in the epilogue has? Kids.

I know that sounds weird, but it makes sense. I can totally imagine Taichi sitting on the couch, and his wife walks in and tells him she’s pregnant, and there’s this stunned silence for a moment, then Agumon pops out from under the cushions and says “How did that happen!?” I’m sure there are other ways it could happen, but that’s the most comedic and “Toei pushing having kids to help with the Japanese population crisis” way I can think of doing it.

I’ll also give special mention to the credits, where they go out of their way to show the 02 Crew with their Digimon, but the main cast without. But, again, we know they get them back. And hopefully they don’t make that movie anytime soon, because I’m sick of Adventure. I’d like new things, please!

Overall, this is a good movie, but it is, to me, heavily hampered by the fact that it is too nostalgic. The animation and writing is fantastic, but that writing is built on the back of elements from the previous movies. If you haven’t watched all those movies multiple times like I have, you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did (and I enjoyed it a lot, still), but be aware. Next time we talk Digi-Shop will probably be about Reboot.

Unless I manage to get my hands on the rest of the Xros Wars toys. (Where are you, MailBirdramon!)

#Digimon #Digimon Adventure #Digimon Adventure tri #Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna #Last Evolution Kizuna #Last Evolution #Kizuna #Review #Movie

[letbenfuck2021]

I'm soo conflicted about S2! Personally I only truly enjoyed Klaus and Allison storyline. I love Ellen Page usually but some scenes I found so boring I liked Sissy more than her. They really did Vanya dirty and I hate it so much. Partly I'm happy peolpe liked S2 so we can maybe have a S3 and hopefully give her a better arc but still

I....I think that it was the least integrated anon and removed from the story with Luther’s coming in a close second but his independent story fell off pretty quickly and integrates with the main storyline. But the problem of it being separate from the main apocalypse story would have felt less so if it had been written more strongly and the writers had given it the time it deserved rather than relying on out-dated tropes and storylines. I think TUA often likes to brand itself as being innovative and certainly there are some aspects of it that are very....weird and maybe even fresh but their story/character arc choices aren’t one of them.

I feel like I always harp on this but the character writing in TUA is bad. I think the character/character arc writing was at its height in the first three eps of season 1 where characters had clear motivations and solid characterizations. As the season went on the character writing kind of just got worse. See, characters need to make sense. TUA is a...fantasy/scifi...mishmash of a genre fictive work, that means that they can pull shit like season two’s final twist where they bend the rules they’ve established for time travel but what is less flexible is character writing because for a show like TUA that would be its grounding element. But honestly, it feels as though the writers this season somehow....forgot? about everyone’s character arcs from last season and opted to just have everyone play out the same character crisis as last season? I think the only ppl who’s character arc carried over was maaaaaaaybe....Luther and Allison? but....the decision for Allison to not use her powers anymore happened off-screen in S1 and she ended up using it again anyway, same for this season.....Luther....kiiiiind of has some growth but it happens so suddenly and also off-screen that it’s kind of....hollow.

TUA writers seem to rely A LOT on off-screen character growth or instant character growth. take Klaus and Ben’s relationship at the end of S2. In S1, we are given their dynamic. It's pretty run of the mill, a sort of...play on the buddy cop duo trope. Ben is a mostly responsible and level-headed person who has been chained to an eternal child with self-destructive tendencies. They constantly antagonize one another though they seem to care about each other to some extent but this doesn’t really change in S2. Up until Ben’s departure, Klaus continues to antagonize Ben and insult him and Ben continues to have zero respect for Klaus and his choices and criticize him for his actions. They never really reconcile or change by the time they depart so when Klaus asks Vanya about Ben in the car, the narrative tries to frame it as though its a big emotional moment when just a little while ago they were still throwing petty insults and comments at each other. It doesn’t make sense. It is an unearned emotional beat that rings as....well untrue. The flashback that they had given us that same ep doesn’t really help either because it comes too late and therefore had ZERO effect on the pair’s dynamic throughout their entire relationship. This is poor, unsatisfying writing.

And I could go on for ages about why Vanya’s arc just....really doesn’t work this season. yeah yeah, I know everyone loooooves this new, not-sad Vanya but it is wholly unsatisfying the way she got to that point. It happens instantly. She didn’t grow, she didn’t change. She was brain-damaged and magically all her problems are gone (also I could go on for ages about why this doesn’t work either. trauma lives not just in the brain but in the body. read “the body keeps the score”. its a great book and a very informative read and anyone who wants to write characters who have trauma should read that book). This isn’t growth. It’s an erasure. And some can argue that Vanya is more entertaining now that she’s not bogged down by her trauma and abuse but to that I say 1) fuck you but also 2) she may be more entertaining but she is rendered almost inert this season. There’s no way for her to really continue on her S1 storyline and she isn’t really allotted the time needed to create a new arc for her. Naturally, the arc that should have been hers should have been her figuring out her place within the family. Had her memories survived throughout the season (though they hardly seemed to make a difference once she DID get them back, she showed no fear of using her powers despite remembering that she killed the whole world a few days ago, no hesitance or shame towards her siblings who were complicit in her abuse and oppression but whom she had hurt immensely, why even give her memories back? now they have reset her arc AGAIN!!) this arc would have worked nicely into continuing her S1 arc. Her place in the academy was...arguably the most stable out of all the sibs. Where they all seemed to have vied for the top-dog position, Vanya’s placement rested permanently at the bottom but now that this has been disrupted, there’s a lot of reevaluation that has to be had. But! I digress because this was not Vanya’s arc. Her arc (if you can call it that) was...once again divorced from the main storyline until the end YET AGAIN!

Season 2 was....highly frustrating for me. It seemed to have a higher budget which means the sets were better, the action more elaborate, and it is honestly a beautiful show but the show did very little to improve its issues with storytelling and its writing and that was a real bummer because I am in the extremely bad and unfortunate habit of liking good stories.

Anyway anon, I have gone on FAAAAAR too long and this is a HUGE fucking reply but I hope that at least I didn’t bore you. Have a good one and thanks for the ask <3

#tua #tua salt #tua meta #the umbrella academy. tua season 2 spoilers #tua spoilers #long post #text post #Anonymous

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 3, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

We’re in this weird eddy where Republicans are trying to cling to past politics to gain advantage and the Biden administration is trying to move forward. On top of this struggle are stories about how the previous administration pushed the boundaries of our laws or, worse, broke them.

Yesterday, two Republican governors, Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi, ended the mask mandates and other coronavirus restrictions for their states. So far today, the Johns Hopkins University tracker has reported 88,611 new cases and 2,189 new deaths. The numbers are dropping, but they are still wildly high compared to other nations. Texas and Mississippi are both in the top ten states in terms of deaths per capita.

It is hard not to see the reopening of Republican-led states as a deliberate affront to President Joe Biden, who asked for a 100-day mask mandate and who has sped up vaccine production to end the pandemic before new variants throw us back into a crisis. The Biden administration has tried to take politics out of the national response to the coronavirus, and made it a point to respond quickly to the crisis in Texas two weeks ago, when the unregulated Texas energy system froze. Health officials worry that a rush to reopen will undo all the progress we have made against the virus, and they are begging Texas and Mississippi to reconsider.

Nonetheless, Abbott has reopened his state and today tweeted: “The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities. The Biden Admin[istration] must IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans & Americans to COVID.”

While Abbott is mired in past politics, the Biden administration today laid out a new approach to foreign affairs. Shortly before the White House released a paper explaining its national security policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a speech reiterating the administration’s belief that the world needs American leadership and engagement to help create order, and that countries must cooperate with each other.

Blinken promised to stop Covid-19 both at home and abroad, and to invest in global health security. He said we would address the economic crisis and the climate crisis and create a more stable, inclusive global economy. We will “renew democracy,” he said, “because it’s under threat.” Blinken promised to “incentivize democratic behavior” overseas without “costly military interventions or attempting to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force.”

Blinken identified China as the greatest modern rival of the United States and promised to “engage China from a position of strength,” working with allies to counter that nation’s rising power through diplomacy.

The Secretary of State emphasized again how the Biden administration sees domestic and foreign issues as complementary. “Beating COVID means vaccinating people at home and abroad,” he said. “Winning in the global economy means making the right investments at home and pushing back against unfair trading practices by China and others. Dealing with climate change means investing in resilience and green energy here at home and leading a global effort to reduce carbon pollution.”

“[D]istinctions between domestic and foreign policy have simply fallen away,” Blinken said. “Our domestic renewal and our strength in the world are completely entwined.”

Biden’s paper was even clearer, noting that we are at an inflection point that will determine whether democracy will fall to autocracy. “I firmly believe that democracy holds the key to freedom, prosperity, peace, and dignity,” he wrote. “We must now demonstrate — with a clarity that dispels any doubt — that democracy can still deliver for our people and for people around the world. We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history; it’s the single best way to realize the promise of our future.”

Meanwhile, stories continue to break about the previous administration.

Tonight, we learned that the Department of Justice under Trump loyalist Attorney General William Barr refused to investigate or prosecute Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, even after that department’s inspector general asked for a review of what it said was a misuse of her office. The inspector general found repeated instances of Chao using her office to benefit the Chao family company, Foremost Group, a shipping company run by Chao’s sister. Chao is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Also, today, the inspector general for the Department of Defense issued a review of Representative Ronny Jackson, who was Trump’s White House physician before he was elected to Congress from Texas in 2020. The review says he has an explosive temper, made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a woman who was his subordinate, created a hostile work environment, and drank alcohol and took Ambien while on duty. The inspector general recommended that the Navy take “appropriate action” with regard to the retired officer. Jackson said, “Democrats are using this report to repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity.”

Today’s biggest story about the previous administration, though, came from the Senate hearings about the January 6, 2021, attack, held before the committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the committee on Rules and Administration. While there is still confusion about what happened when, it became clear that there were some serious lapses in the protection of the Capitol, and it appears those lapses originated with Trump appointees in the Pentagon.

Because the District of Columbia is not a state, its National Guard is under the control of the Defense Department, and it is overseen by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. The Commander of the D.C. National Guard, Major General William Walker, told the Senate that, in response to a request from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the director of D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Christopher Rodriguez, Walker requested approval for the mission from McCarthy on January 1.

McCarthy’s approval did not come until January 5, when the event was already upon them. And, in what Walker saw as an unusual move, McCarthy withheld approval for Walker to deploy the Quick Reaction Force, guardsmen equipped with helmets, shields, batons, and so on, to respond to civil disturbance, without the approval of the Secretary of Defense.

Then, at 1:49 pm on January 6, then Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, called Walker to say that the Capitol had been breached. “Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency on Capitol Hill and requested the immediate assistance of as many guardsmen as I could muster,” Walker told the Senate. Walker immediately called the Pentagon for approval to move in his troops, but officials there did not give the go-ahead for 3 hours and 19 minutes. Once allowed in, the National Guard troops deployed in 20 minutes. But by then, of course, plenty of damage had been done.

The delay in deployment stood in dramatic contrast to the approval accorded to the National Guard to deploy in June 2020. Today’s testimony suggests that the Pentagon placed unprecedented restrictions on the mobilization of the National Guard on January 6, preventing it from responding to the crisis at the Capitol in a timely fashion.

The House will not meet tomorrow out of fears that militants will attack the Capitol again, expecting that March 4 will see former president Donald Trump sworn in for a second term.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#quotes #political #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #COVID-19 #January 6 2021 #assault on the US Capitol #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP #crazy GOP #sedition #lies and the lying liars who tell them

[gastrobrack]

Brave New World 2020 review from probably the biggest fan of the book you’ll meet in your life

(Mostly Spoiler Free) Okay so. I’ve been waiting for this show for a really long time because I absolutely love the book and it means a lot to me. My standards were admittedly pretty low because it can’t get worse than the 1998 movie, so I didn’t really mind when I saw the trailers and stuff where other people were complaining. 

TL;DR I thought the show was actually pretty enjoyable, but you have to read the book first in my opinion, or else it seems like it would be hard to follow at times. Where the show really screwed up royally was Mond’s storyline, which felt completely out of place and confusing, and when it ended up dominating the end of the final episode it just kinda ruined the story for me. The show is definitely more focused on the setting and characters than the societal predictions and themes of the novel, and for me that’s okay because we have the book to tell it better anyways.  I’d say watch it if you liked the book or are curious about it, but I don’t think it would really be enjoyable for the average viewer.

Side note: I watched this in the wee hours of the morning and some of the praise might just be the special interest talking, I’m just happy to be here and get more content

That being said, I think this show is like the Riverdale of Brave New World. However, in its defense it’s at least got the energy of the parts of Riverdale like the “epic highs and lows of high school football” and the “serial killer gene”, so it’s at least pretty funny. Personally, I knew that they would have to change a lot both to adjust for the longer runtime (around 9 hours) and to make the book enjoyable to a TV audience, because of course in the book you can have 2 chapters of exposition at the beginning and that’s not as enjoyable for a TV experience. So, let’s get into the pros and cons of the show!

PROS

-I really liked Bernard! In the book he means a lot to me personally (hell, I’m writing this while listening to my Bernard playlist) so I was of course kinda worried they might screw him up again like they did in the ‘98 movie, but I was pleasantly surprised! They did change him and divide his original personality between John and Lenina, but somehow they managed to create a new Bernard that both kept me on my toes and at the same time felt authentic and likeable! 

-Honestly, almost all the characters were done very well. They were all expanded upon in an interesting way while also staying generally pretty accurate to their book counterparts. I generally felt the same about them as I did with the novel, so I think that means they did a job well done. I think that John and Lenina were very different, but they still ultimately had the same general motivations. A lot of the cast’s interactions felt very natural, and I liked that they expanded upon Lenina and Fanny’s (or Frannie as she’s called here) friendship. 

-The show looked great, I know a lot of people really didn’t like the look of it because it wasn’t what they thought it would be when they read it, but for me that’s basically exactly what I imagined it would be. The costume designer clearly had fun making a bunch of outlandish outfits for everyone to wear and it’s all very pleasant to look at. 

-I think they did a good job fixing some of the problematic elements of the book without actually damaging the integrity of the things they were changing. For example, in the book, the savage reservation is quite literally just a native reservation, written in a way that clearly suggests Huxley didn’t really put a lot of thought into his depiction of real people. In the show, it’s a theme park where British people get to immerse themselves in the cultures of the old world, with the savages themselves being poor theme park workers reenacting events to shock and mystify the Brits. Now, admittedly, I think this makes a lot more sense as it ties into the consumerism that runs deep within their society. I know some people are mad about this because they think it’s cancel culture or something but honestly it’s not a big deal to me.

-This one might not be as important to some people, but I liked that the cast was pretty diverse, and the fact that John is the only straight one honestly made sense to me considering it would be in the World State’s best interest to encourage bisexuality amongst its citizens. Some of the characters (Helmholtz and Mond) are being played by women, and some people are kinda upset about that but I don’t really think it changed too much, although to me it is funny to think the showrunner thought he was doing something by “casting women of color to play white male characters” considering everyone I know who read the book didn’t picture either of them as white. 

-Honestly, I think the show did humor very well. It was very funny in a sort of dry way, and never felt forced or out of place. It all seemed like it naturally stemmed from the characters’ awkwardness and culture shock (on both sides) and it made me really happy as someone who loves all these characters to see them make me laugh.

CONS

-Now, I’m not usually one to complain about this too much, seeing as I love the book in a non thematic and academic context, but the message kinda got lost in all of it. I think the issues they brought up certainly were there, and could lend themselves very well to being good. The writers just focused on the entirely wrong things in the last episode, and that misguided focus completely changes the lens in which the rest of the show is retroactively viewed for me. 

-Mustapha Mond was just, where do I even begin. In the book, Mond doesn’t show up much except to provide exposition, and his position as an authoritative figure ultimately moves the plot towards the end of the novel. In the show, Mond gets this weird AI plotline that makes no sense, as in this version they have a sort of internet contact lens type system that allows them to connect to everyone else, and it is powered by said AI. The system itself doesn’t bother me as much as how poorly handled this plotline was. Not only was it completely random and was the only plotline in the show not to have some sort of roots in the events of the book, but it was extremely confusing to me. This leads into my next point, which is:

-The ending. Oh my God the ending. Now, look. I’m not gonna say much because I want this to be as spoiler free as possible, but the ending just honestly was a dumpster fire. The writers chose to focus the whole ending on the aforementioned AI plotline, despite the book providing a much more solid framework for an ending that they already seemed to be setting up. This shift in focus comes very late into the final episode, and it honestly doesn’t make any sense why the writers would really want to go this route. It feels like they were just adding things that didn’t fit into the story, and I can’t really discern why except for the possibility of setting up an unnecessary second season. I love the book, it’s my special interest, but I think I speak for everyone when I say we do not need a second season especially if its gonna be full of plotlines that make no sense and serve no purpose.  This heavily changed ending not only undermines the whole thematic purpose of the novel but honestly kind of goes actively against everything the book was trying to say in the first place. 

-They really don’t set up any of the world building, and although I caught on very quickly due to my familiarity with the book, it seems like it might get confusing for unfamiliar watchers. In the book, they explain their process for birthing and then conditioning children into their social body very in depth before they get into the actual plot and characters, and I think this show could have used some of that. Here, they talk a lot about conditioning but don’t actually explain what the conditioning is or why they have the caste system in the first place. 

-This is a minor disappointment more than anything and I didn’t actually notice till about the second episode, but there’s no more Ford talk, which is kinda disappointing cause it was pretty fun in the book. 

-Obviously it goes without saying that there’s sex in this, I mean it IS Brave New World. However, in this one, it just feels excessive and kinda just like it’s there for shock value more than anything. 

-This isn’t really a con so much as it is just a disclaimer, I know a lot of people are excited for Demi Moore as Linda and Joseph Morgan as the new character CJack60, but don’t get your hopes up too much, they don’t get to do much. If you read the book, you’d know that about Linda but I’ve seen reviewers get upset that she wasn’t in it more when she was one of the big names attached to the project. (FWIW she did a great job and I loved Linda in this whereas I didn’t in the book) As for CJack, he spends a lot of time just standing there and looking at things and doesn’t get to do much until the last 2 episodes or so. 

CONCLUSION

As someone who really loves the book’s setting and characters sometimes even more than the actual messages and predictions, I’ve always wanted an adaptation that focuses more on those elements, especially since that would make for an easier transition to the screen. Seeing this was a very nice breath of fresh air, because it embraces the inherently satirical and dare I say funny aspect of the story, as well as the characters’ individual quirks and distinct personalities. Obviously it’s not as hard hitting and important as the book, but I think those messages were better left in book form anyway. For someone like me, who loves the book with all my heart, this show honestly gave me most everything I wanted and it felt the most true to the spirit of the book’s world and characters out of any of the adaptations. I would say check out the show if you’re interested in it or enjoyed the book, but you should definitely be familiar with the book before you watch this. 

#brave new world #sorry this is so long #i pulled an all nighter to watch the show as soon as possible and im running on 2hrs of sleep #anyway stan bernard!

[lamortexiii]

Shades and Shadows: The Art of Shadow Work: Integrating Your Dark Side

Shadow work is not a concept specific to the metaphysical, psychologists too have stressed the importance of the shadow. Given the massive scope of the shadow, there is only so much justice I can do the topic in a single blog post. There is a wealth of information available on what the shadow is, what shadow work is, how to do it, etc. What I mostly want to focus on is the art of integration, why that’s important and why it can be challenging.

I first learned of the shadow through Carl Jung when I briefly studied psychology in school. Basically, the shadow contains all the parts of ourselves that have been deemed unacceptable, for better or for worse. That’s what makes the shadow a bit tricky, it contains both negative and positive qualities. It’s easy to understand why we would throw our more negative qualities into the dark, hoping no one will ever have to witness them, but what about our more positive qualities that have been shamed in one way or another over time? What if some of our more negative qualities started out positive, or at the very least with the best intent, and slowly mutated over time into the monsters we begin to see them as? I jokingly refer to shadow work as having a tea party with your inner demons, but in a way it is rather like that. Shadow work is not always easy, but it can become especially hard when you don’t like yourself very much.

There are two parts to shadow work: the first step is recognizing the shadow, the second and perhaps more challenging step is integrating it. The shadow itself is usually easy enough to recognize. In my experience, triggers are the easiest way to spot the shadow, particularly what triggers you about other people. When looking at what triggers you about others, it’s not to say that they aren’t doing those things. The key here is that if it didn’t exist in your own shadow, you wouldn't be having such a strong reaction, or quite possibly wouldn’t even be having an interaction like that with someone. What’s obvious in others holds the key to our own subtleties. This is where something like journaling can come in handy, start taking note of what sets you off during the day. It’s not always easy to look at ourselves, and when we do spot something in another that really gets to us, it can be hard to come to terms with the fact that in a way we’re just like them. However, when you recognize the shadow at play and feel ashamed or even angry about it, you’re not in acceptance. Since the shadow is born of nonacceptance in the first place, you are essentially doubling the load and hindering the process to an extent. I say to an extent because that can also be part of the process. Awareness is at least half the battle, but just because we become aware of something doesn’t always mean it magically resolves itself in that instant. We often go through this period of catching ourselves and getting irritated because we feel we should know better. It’s getting stuck in that part of the process that can slow things for us, but doesn’t mean we won’t get there in the end.

Tarot is also great for gaining insight into your shadows, especially when used in conjunction with journaling. There is an incredible amount of different decks out there to choose from. In my opinion, it’s important to find a deck with imagery that resonates with you, but you can make any deck work. One of my current favorite decks to work with when engaging the shadow is the Azathoth Tarot. The images are still true to the original Rider-Waite, but in a more Lovecraft manner. The imagery of the Dark Grimoire Tarot is also phenomenal for shadow work, as are many other decks. Tarot can be used to have a conversation with your shadows by asking questions and seeing what comes up. It can also be used by noting which cards trigger certain or strong emotional responses. I have a tendency to get agitated with the Seven of Cups. For me it triggers this feeling of not knowing myself well enough to know what I truly want. It’s like I have all these things I think that I want, but everything seems so lofty and up in the air. There’s no clear direction or intention, and I feel like that comes down to me. It’s challenging to come to terms with not knowing who you are and what you want. On a much deeper level, what was really eating me about the Seven of Cups was this underlying current of self-loathing. How are you supposed to truly know yourself and what you want in life when you can’t even begin to look at yourself in a way that is remotely loving?

The number one rule of shadow work is that it is not to be forced. Antagonizing the shadow is a surefire way to make things worse, and only further damages your psyche. When I first got into shadow work, I went about it in the entirely wrong way. Rather than that tea party I mentioned earlier, it was more like a scene from American Horror Story (like that one from season five where all the serial killers gather ‘round the table for absinthe on Devil’s Night.) But even in going about things the wrong way, I look back on it now and understand what was actually coming to light at the time was the extent to which I hated myself. The trouble was, I didn’t really know what to do with that information. Of course the answer seems obvious, stop hating yourself and learn to love yourself, but I had no idea how to even begin going about that. It took me a very long time to even acknowledge that I had shadows, and when I did finally begin to recognize them, I could not for the life of me accept them. I began the practice of shadow work by bringing forth my shadows solely for the purpose of beating them back down again. As I’m sure you can imagine, this did nothing in terms of healing, which is ultimately the goal of shadow work.

This is where something like expression becomes a good practice to adopt. One way of integrating the shadow is to find a way of expressing it in a less harmful way. I found abstract painting to be my method of doing so, but of course there are a number of creative ways to express the shadow. Until I discovered abstract painting, I always had a hard time expressing myself. I had this fierce determination to never let people see what was behind the mask, or masks rather. What began to happen with painting is that I began to see myself in my paintings. I began to see the faces, the colors, the layers that covered up what I didn’t want people to see, and the underlying parts that bled through sometimes. I feel what really gives life to my paintings lies in what’s beneath the surface layer, not just in what you see. In a way it gives them a human quality. Many of us have these underlying feelings and secrets that make up who we present ourselves as, and as many of us know, sometimes those things bleed through the surface. Painting not only allowed me to see those aspects, but to actually look at them with a sense of compassion for the first time. The real art of shadow work lies in its integration, but that process can’t even begin if we aren’t able to face our demons with love and understanding. When we are able to do this, then we are much more able to let others off the hook because we’re able to let ourselves off the hook. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to find those whose shadows play well with our own. Shadow work is a self-loving practice, and a bit unique to each individual. What I’ve covered in this post is barely the tip of the iceberg, so I would love to know in the comments if doing a series on shadow work in the future is something of interest to anyone.

Shades and Shadows Blog by @thecraftyvvitch

www.LaMorteXiii.com

<•Ø•>

#shadesandshadows #lhp #occultblog #witchcraft #wicca #pagan #highermagick #blackflame #coven #livedeliciously #thecraftyvvitch #psychvvitch #lamortexiii #luciferian #satanism #asabovesobelow #knowledge #freedom

[agl03]

I feel like ep 6 is going to be too stuffed for. FitzSimmons flashback with Mack’s parents, Daisy and Sousa being kidnapped, and Coulson dying again. Ep 7 we know is a Mack and Deke ep so I do think if we see Fitz it will be in the 706 tag and MAYBE we see what Fitz is doing in 707? But they probably won’t tell us until we get the FitzSimmons flashbacks bc it’s too confusing so maybe Fitz in the tag of 707 and then flashbacks in 708 and he’s kidnapped in 709 like you mentioned

Hi Anon,

Yes we have got a lot to get into 6 so that is why I think we are just gong to need to hold on for dear life from the get go.  But at the same time that is an argument for dropping Fitz after 48 minutes of OMG and AHHHHHHHHH.

I also won’t be surprised if we see the team split up, even by time, for the next few episodes and some stories might have more time to be told.  IE Daisy/Sousa’s kidnapping gets drug out a bit longer and that frees up more time for Afterlife for example.  

And if Robo Coulson goes and blows himself up like it makes it look like he is (I’m assuming dying is what he does best) its going to take time to fix him....or WORSE the Chronicoms/Hydra get to him before the team does.  Been awhile since Coulson’s been properly kidnapped (Season 5), he’s due.  Yeah all sorts of no good happening there and it would make Fitz integral to both sides who would want him working again or if the Chronicoms want to upgrade.  Because no way Jemma, Deke, and Enoch can repair him on his own with that level of damage.

I also need to add that Fitz and Robo Coulson’s reunion is gonna be one heck of a kick in the feels when it happens.  

7 will Indeed be a big episode for Mack and Deke in what I have dubbed “Mack is getting his dang base back!” but other things will be going as well.  

Right now I’m 50/50 given the hour on if Fitz pops up in 6 or 7.   Essentially he’ll pop up when it means where he is is going to become insanely important to what is going on.   If we don’t see him at some point in 6 we will get the biggest bread crumb yet.  And then he’ll be in the tag for 7.  

I think Jemma either knows where he is or deep down he’s in danger but the Inhibitior is stopping her from really putting it all together.  And I think that Fitz has likely been in danger from the second Jemma and Enoch left, with I feel this betrayal came from inside and he’s prisoner where they left him.  

Whether Fitz makes his epic entrance tomorrow or next week, I’m still looking at 8 as being when we get the bulk of “We Had Time” with 9 the start of Operation rescue Fitz getting kicked off then.

#aos spoilers #aos speculation #ask agl03 #we had time #the wait for Fitz

[etherian-affairs]

For a fic prompt: Pygmalion/Galatea-ish concept where Entraptra finds Hordak (severely damaged cybernetics, powered down/sleep mode) & decides to rebuild him into the perfect Lab Partner (her umpteenth attempt at building one) w/o knowing what she’s going to end up with. Hordak wakes up to exquisitely repaired/partly rebuilt body, b/c Entraptra uses First One’s tech in the rebuild, so it’s that aesthetic blended w/Horde design (think Alita/Gally’s 2nd rebuild “angel” body in Battle Angel Alita).

HERE WE GO KIDDOS. I hope you like it friend.

This actually gets to be a crossposted with Ao3 because it’s long enough to meet my requirements for Ao3 posting.

Story under the read more.

Red across the board. Matching the state of the ship crumbling around Hordak. The would be Lord stumbles through collapsing metal corridors, barely able to keep his balance. The crash was devastating. He had tried everything to soften it but with so much crew already lost there was almost nothing to be done. Now it seemed the rest were gone too.

Soon Hordak would be as well.

He manages to get into the sanctum, the lab. A last ditch effort for survival keeping him moving. His body is ravaged. Beyond what even his species biology and his many augmentations can handle. As he steps into the sanctum his broken leg finally gives, the bone cracking and snapping. He howls in pain. So close to his goal. Slowly he drags himself with his one good arm to the secondary maintenance bay in the sanctum. 

He grabs at one of the dangling data cables and slams it into the port at the base of his neck, issuing commands quickly. Hoping the computers can still decipher them. As sparking damaged manipulators extend Hordak feels himself going under. His last moment of consciousness nothing but his diagnostic feed.

-WRNG: TTL_SYS_FAIL\\Fallback To Core Function Mode.\\Life Support Priority.\\Nanocyte Protocols Engaging.

…

The Fright Zone was dangerous they said. A lifeless land destroyed by the Dark Comet. A place that makes the Crimson Wastes look downright fertile! Hah! How wrong they were! You just had to know where to look.

Entrapta had been curious about this place her whole life. Years and years and years ago the Dark Comet fell out of the sky. It nearly wiped out the scorpion people entirely. They’re still a refugee people to this day in fact, with no land to call their own. The black Garnet Runestone was lost, presumed destroyed, at the time too. The Dark Comet’s crashing had changed Etheria a lot.

And from a distance it looked like it was made of metal. Refined metal. 

For decades it had been too dangerous to even approach the comet. People would get sick at the fringes. Further in burns and things would start to mysteriously appear! Even bots would fizz out and fail! but as time went on it appeared that the exclusion radius around it was shrinking.

Entrapta has been keeping track of the dissipation rate her entire life. 

Now her time had come! The energies that hurt people seemed to be mostly gone! And she had some extra protection she had developed just in case there were stray energies left on site! So Entrapta journeyed to the Fright Zone to be the first to see the Comet up close and live to tell about it.

It was wonderful.

Her theories were right. It’s metal. Not just that it’s constructed. Some sort of vast vessel! Larger than any person made structure she’s ever seen! She spends hours alone exploring the exterior. Falling back only as the light begins to recede from the world in order to rest, set up camp, and make sure she’s not getting sick. 

The next day she actually makes her way inside, and it is even more incredible than the exterior. It’s tech all the way through. Corridors apparently made for humanoid habitation. Dead terminals at regular intervals. Piled up robots of strange designs that seem to have run out of power years ago.

And the bodies.

It isn’t Entrapta’s first run in with the dead, in fact she has done her fair share of dissection and anatomy studies, but it’s still not a common occurrence and there are many here. That is unnerving even for the normally unflappable Princess of Dryl. Most of the dead are in armor or uniforms of different kinds. Their bodies eerily well preserved considering their age. Perhaps the energies that until recently made this place impossible to enter also stopped decay? That would be odd but anything is possible here. 

Entrapta takes her audio recorded notes and then tries to largely ignore the bodies that litter the Comet. They are admittedly interesting in many ways. They are yet more confirmation that the comet is some sort of vessel, and that many appear to be from species she has seen on Etheria. They are not something she likes very much though.

Inevitably Entrapta’s exploration leads her into a large throne chamber. An interesting place to be sure. The room off to the side is much more interesting however. The door is open and even from a distance she can see the many containment tubes within, some broken, others still standing with strange murky figures held within. Tools littering the floor. Bolted down tables some of which have items still on them somehow. This side room is a lab. She would know a lab anywhere.

It does not take long for her to see the body in here. It’s different from all the others in many ways. For starters this one is not like anything she’s seen on Etheria. Its species is completely unknown, some sort of batlike humanoid? It also clearly has tech integrated directly into its body! In fact there is a cable connecting it to… well the vessel itself Entrapta supposes. The cable leads into a mass of them up above and she can’t track where exactly it all goes.

The body is heavily damaged. The limbs are all in various states of destruction, there are what are clearly large gashes on the creatures torso. She suspects that numerous bones must be broken. Yet at each open break there is an unnatural silvery film. Like a sealant. It’s strangely jagged and irregular and seems to move around itself like a liquid. It’s kind of like something Entrapta has seen from some first ones tech experiments she has performed, trying to make self repairing robots. 

Except this isn’t repairing, more like it’s just trying to keep things from getting any worse. Could this person have been a scientist? Trying to integrate first ones tech into the body to save their own life?

That’s when Entrapta sees the nearly imperceptible movement. This isn’t a corpse. This one’s alive. Whatever they did worked.

The Princesses entire plan for this journey changes immediately. 

She spends hours examining every nook and cranny of the lab. Gathering everything she can. Making trips in and out of the Comet to her little camp. Her work extends out from there, picking apart and salvaging from other parts of the ship. She needs tech, their tech. 

She journeys to and from Dryl more than once. Readying herself for what might be her greatest experiment, and what will definitely be her most harrowing. On the final trip she disconnects the lab entity from the cable attached to its spine. It took her awhile to be sure that would not hurt it, and she waited until it was the last thing to do even when she was sure. It’s also just not a pleasant thing to move this creature as the barely held together limbs start to really come apart at the slightest jostle.

It does not wake from whatever stasis it is in.

The final journey to Dryl is slow and careful, but once safely in her own lab the work begins in earnest. 

This lab creature is probably a scientist as she has previously noted to her recorder, at the very least it is more intelligent than the others aboard the ship. It’s alive. Entrapta can repair it, she’s sure she can. Secretly, deep down, she hopes that maybe she’ll finally have that lab partner she keeps trying to create. They never turn out how she wants, she just doesn’t have the skills in making true thinking machines from scratch.

With that secret hope, and the theory that this thing must be a scientist, Entrapta decides on her repair strategy. She will give it the best science body she can! Which given that this is Princess Entrapta also means it will probably be a great body for warfare too! She seems to just make weapons on accident a lot of the time.

Initial exploration of the flesh is promising. There’s tech woven all throughout the body that she can piggyback off of. She has this creatures salvaged tech from the ship to make use of too. Thus the broken limbs are tossed aside, unneeded. Internal biological organs are atrophied and weak. Whatever is keeping this thing alive is focusing on the brain. Entrapta will lean in to that. Don’t need most of those then.

Still most of this will be original work and integration will be difficult. The Princess soon decides on a radical solution. She will use First Ones tech as a bridge, and an enhancement. Some of what’s going on with the lab creature looks very similar to First Ones tech anyway! So it will almost definitely probably work! 

At first Entrapta worries the creature will suddenly awaken, giving her a big startle, but that soon doesn’t appear to be likely as it just lays there half dead even as she digs into its body with knife and power tools. There’s a joke about being a heavy sleeper there somewhere.

Limbs, organs, and flesh are all replaced with tech and metal. The more she works, the more she realizes she needs to remake or else she won’t be able to integrate it all. The only reason she can do this at all is that the silvery film and the First ones crystal she has chosen as a base seem to be able to attach to each other. Soon enough though a repair job becomes a total rebuilding of the creatures body with First Ones tech at its core. The initial synthetic components within being almost all she can keep. 

It’s exciting. Princess Entrapta is pushing the boundaries of known science. She is combining First Ones, Etherian, and Alien technologies all together with biology she barely comprehends. She has no idea what the end result of this will be yet even that unknown is too fascinating to ever let her stop and think about the potential consequences of her radical actions.

When she’s finally done she realized that she has no idea how to wake the being up. It’s actually kind of funny. Still the creature remains alive, if non-functional, and isn’t going anywhere. She has time to figure out how to boot it back up.

…

-SYS_CHK-STS_UPDT\\Foreign Hardware Detected.\\Initializing Integration Stack.\\Compiling System Profile.

The diagnostic feed was all Hordak knew of the world beyond his own mental prison, and it was not much. A quiet eternity of his consciousness being occasionally fed an array of error messages and warnings he could do nothing about.

When one of the system checks finally detected a change he had a brief nanosecond of shock before his consciousness returned to the black box dreams that kept him sane.

-STS_UPDT\\Hardware Profiling Complete.\\Compatibility Registration Underway.

Profiling and Compatibility Registration?  Whoever was working on him wasn’t Horde. The checks wouldn’t be taking multiple stages to complete with approved replacement parts.

Again his mind falls away before he gets a chance to really ponder what is happening to him.

-STS_UPDT-SYS_RBT\\Compatibility Registration Complete.\\Rebooting Core Functions.\\Rebooting Extended Functions.\\All Systems Online.\\Re-initializing Higher Brain Function.

Hordak gasps as his senses return, as his mind can touch a world outside of the blackbox keeping it alive. His fingers curl and claw into the metal table he’s on. They literally dig into it. That’s not quite right. He raises his arm to look at it and finds an alien limb there. A completely synthetic arm and hand. Impeccably machined metal and tuned actuators. It looks like Horde tech, yet not. There’s foreign influence, clean lines and coiled strength. Gleaming chromium metal that glints in the light of wherever he is. 

Then he realizes that the rest of him is the same. Looking down he finds his body largely replaced. Metal plates interlocking and familiar combined with what seems to be some sort of memory alloy to create flexibility. He has seen nothing quite like this in all of his years. How did any of this integrate?

Before he can pull the hardware profile up and begint to try to decipher what has been done to him he notices he’s not alone. A short woman with ridiculously long hair is staring at him in surprise from near a large display. He’s about to speak when she gets the first word in. 

“WOW! I was looking in to how to wake you up but you just did it yourself! How? Why? Did you know you were being repaired? Did you know I was done? How though? Oh! Sorry! Welcome to Dryl! I’m Princess Entrapta I rebuilt you! What’s your name?”

Hordak is taken aback by the loud spunky attitude before him. There’s a lot to process here. Inevitably he decides to simply answer her questions. “Hordak. My name is Hordak." 

There is much for both of them to learn.

[dysphoric-affect]

The End Of The Console Wars And The Dawn Of Unity

          Earlier this year, I watched in awe during the Video Game Awards as leaders from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo took the stage at the same time and delivered a joint address to those attending and watching at home. The platitudes were what you would expect and not in themselves groundbreaking - about what a great time it is to be a gamer and how exciting the future is right now - though not unwelcome and undoubtedly true. What was more meaningful in my mind is who the presenters were, what they represented individually and what their cooperating together - considering their background - to make that address symbolically represented: that the age of console wars is coming to an end and something else, something better for gamers and for the industry, is taking its place.

          The awe I felt stems from the fact that this is a far cry from the state of the industry not so long ago, when E3 press conferences, especially those of Microsoft and Sony, were not entirely dissimilar to war rooms. References to each other at that time were avoided at all cost, as if avoiding saying a vulgar word, with the competition only being invoked to point out how inferior what they offered was to the vastly superior console they had to offer. Hostility toward the competition was not only rife on their part, but felt encouraged to be had on the part of consumers loyal to their brand. And we took the bait.

          I’m embarrassed now to admit that I fell for this trap myself. I was an Xbox loyalist primarily, though because I grew up with Nintendo originally I had a soft spot for them as well. This made Sony the source of my own derision. With the original price tag on the PS3 and the eventually redacted “boomerang” controller design that console was initially slated to have, there was no shortage of fodder I felt given by Sony at the time to condemn their console. The trick is, criticism of those aspects of the console did have some objective validity, but there’s a fine line between making well-founded criticism based on rational thinking and deliberation from essentially accidentally supporting a valid negative position, but based purely from irrational, emotion-based brand loyalty which would have demanded I see what Sony offered as inferior regardless of the specific facts surrounding it.

          I feel especially embarrassed to have felt that way, because in life I have traditionally prided myself on being a rational thinker, but in that case, given my passion for the games industry I was easily led away from it. Thankfully that was as far as such sentiment ever got with me, but the capability was always there for that to spill over into applying such irrationality and emotion-based decision making in other areas of consideration about institutions in society. This was the great unspoken, and perhaps unidentified, insidious nature of what was going on at that time in the games industry: irrational hostility was being fostered, and once that’s been justified in one area of our life, it’s not difficult for such thinking to be applied and justified in other areas of our life, which in the longer term stands to have damaging repercussions for the society we impact. It wasn’t until I matured into an adult as well as gained a personal interest in philosophy that I became able to look back and realize the significance of the implications this toxic atmosphere stood to have.

          Real change in the industry in relation to these attitudes only truly started to occur however once those in the industry matured and changed their approach, as was probably always destined to be the case. As the negative culture in the past was brought out by those within the game industry in the first place, for better or worse it means the responsibility in turn had to fall on them to undue that kind of thinking and replace it with new, more positive vision. Thankfully, the effort to do so now seems to be in full motion.

          The advent of this finally began to occur with the advent of the concept of cross-play. We have taken if for granted for a long time that while we may be part of a fan base for game or series much larger than the player count of just those experiencing it on the same console we own, we can’t share in enjoyment of it with that larger community. Imagine, it was presented to us, those arbitrary barriers were now gone. Each fan could play with every single other fan of something they love, with community surrounding a game or series being built more within the actual games rather than without. It’s an extremely seductive concept, the seduction not due to any particular way the idea is presented, but simply intrinsic to the nature of the idea itself.

          Making the prospect all the more tantalizing was it being pointed out that it wasn’t a goal that needed to be worked for...the opportunity is already here. The backend networking for multiplayer or co-op between different hardware presents its challenges and necessary effort, but is entirely doable. Developers can make it happen and want to. Gamers, in one of the few cases of near universal agreement they’ve had, want it to happen, too. It remains only for those behind the different console brands to want to. The deciding factor preventing us from having a more connected and happier gaming community is no technical challenge: it is a simple act of will.

          Unfortunately, immediate consensus wasn’t to be, as Sony showed initial reluctance to the idea. The reasoning presented only served to exacerbate the general frustration at not making universal cross-play a reality: Sony was concerned about maintaining the integrity of the online experience of their brand. This explanation rang hollow to most, however. Microsoft has long been lauded for having the most solid and consistent online experience, though Sony has certainly improved dramatically in relation to their own, so the idea that connection to their service would be a liability rather than at least a non-concern and at most an asset even came across as fundamentally nonsensical.

          This being an issue was also compounded by a series of well-publicized hacks of the PlayStation Network that have occurred in the past; while Xbox Live has seen its on issues, the number and severity of the attacks in Playstation’s case create greater alarm. With this being the case, it would seem if anyone had cause to be concerned about connecting themselves to another, it would be on the part of Microsoft and Nintendo toward Sony, not the other way around. For it to be the other way around in spite of this felt like petty standoffishness stemming from the old days of the console wars rather than having any basis in reality or the interests of gamers...including PlayStation fans.

          That is one final point that rested against Sony’s philosophy of resistance, perhaps the strongest and arguably the only point that mattered: Sony’s own fans supported the change. It stands to reason there’s an impetus to make fans of the brand satisfied, so when the majority themselves are calling for that change, is it not worth considering its merits seriously rather than dismissing it out of hand? Add in the incident of the temporary cross-play enabling for Destiny, and the intensity of seeing that feature become a new norm in the industry became all the stronger.

          While Sony was making their decision, we saw the beginning of a broader change toward cross-play support anyway. Fortnite, Minecraft and Rocket League presented three of the more noteworthy examples of the cross-play concept manifesting as a reality, given the runaway popularity of those titles, but numerous other examples sprang up as well. Minecraft’s case was a particularly interesting one in that it saw the achievement of a different milestone, with Nintendo and Microsoft co-backing the production of an ad about their two consoles being able to work together. I’m not ashamed to admit watching that ad made me a bit emotional. I don’t even play Minecraft myself, but what it represented - about the gaming community coming together more - is really powerful to my mind and extremely encouraging as a gamer who always wants to see the industry get better not just in what it makes for us to play, but in the ideals it represents and promotes.

          Flash forward a bit, and we have the VGA’s mentioned at the start and a welcome change of tune from Sony, symbolically represented in the VGA presentation but more literally represented in a number of stories about them getting on board with the idea and even being in direct talks with Microsoft in relation to future ventures. Meanwhile, Microsoft has expressed an interest in expanding access to games that have traditionally been an Xbox experience beyond that console itself. They have candidly expressed their interest in making all future games of theirs available for PC simultaneously, which is certainly well within the realm of theoretical possibility given Microsoft’s ownership of the Windows OS most computers run on. And yet...even this isn’t the limit of where they’ve expressed interest in having their titles reach. Just recently, they’ve elaborated on this philosophy of expansion by emphasizing there is a more vested interest in people playing their games than in playing on the Xbox console specifically. For example, that interest goes so far as that they’ve expressed interest in bringing Halo: The Master Chief Collection to PlayStation.

          This is, in many ways, the best example of this industry-wide change in philosophy I’ve been discussing. I’ll admit, in the spirit of full disclosure, to being a long-time and avid Halo fan, but when I make that statement it isn’t about complimenting that franchise or Microsoft. What I am directing attention to is the fact that Halo, which has always been Microsoft’s flagship franchise for Xbox and closely associated with its success, is something they are willing to pass access to to players on their competitors’ console. This idea was so beyond inconceivable during that period not long ago I alluded to, that if you had presented the idea as a serious possibility, you’d have been considered an idiot, or insane. But now, it’s an idea that’s had interest expressed by Microsoft at the executive level.

          Those players on PlayStation are the key factor of note here, though. It isn’t about Microsoft and Sony becoming best friends, though they seem to be getting along better all the time, which is sure to be a boon for gamers in the future in as yet unknown ways. It is about simply letting players play the games they want. Gaming, like so many pastimes, can be an expensive one, and locking gamers out of access to numerous quality experiences deserving of being explored by all because they can’t reasonably justify - or literally can’t afford - the price tag of another console needed to access those experiences is a shame, and antithetical to the spirit of connectedness and community the gaming culture, at its best, strives to be about.

          Destroying these arbitrary and artificial barriers and instead working collaboratively on ways to bring the global gaming community ever closer together, as a family, is the rightful course toward which the industry should be directing itself. And, who knows...maybe in the process of fostering this spirit of inclusion, the game industry can get some of that positive spirit to rub off on those who play games and get them in turn to be more inclusive of others in the world outside of the games. And the world beyond gaming isn’t so different from the world of gaming in that one respect: both are much richer for getting others in on our fun. 

          So keep it up, video game industry. We all came to play after all, so let’s ALL play. Cheers.

#video games #gaming #online gaming #video game awards #sony #microsoft #nintendo #playstation #xbox #xbox live #psn #xbox one #ps4 #nintendo switch #project scarlett #ps5 #e3 #destiny #fortnite #minecraft #rocket league #Halo #master chief

[itsswimmingtragedycollection]

Netflix’s ‘You’ or ‘Why (young) people need to read more books’

First of all. the obsessed stalker plot is overdone. I mean Misery, Sleeping with the enemy, Fatal attraction, Secret window, The vanishing?? They’re suing. And despite this unimaginative plot, You is being sold as some kind of groundbreaking, fresh, modern take on the Stalker ™, so I guess it’s no wonder only teenagers can buy into that load of bs. Don’t get me wrong, a boring outline, doesn’t necessarily mean a boring story. Consider heist movies for a second. They are all the same, a group of people use their unique skills to pull off a never-been-done-before job, and get away with it. Regardless of whether it’s your cup of tea or not, different approaches, fresh perspective, suspense build up, comedy, action, character development can make this trope interesting over and over again. Unfortunately, You seems to have missed this memo since all of its characters, situations and outcomes have been done, in the same manner, a million times before. This is probably because the entertainment industry is big on recycling. As soon as a new generation of people, who are too young to have seen the classics of the past, matures enough to actually enjoy them, we are flooded with remakes  of this and that. Easy money. But, you know what? Being boring and unimaginative isn’t a crime nor does it do any real damage. The actual problem with You is the message it sends. Or better yet, doesn’t send. Not only do we see Joe humanized to the point where he might just be in the right, the show failed to condemn his actions at any single point. And if we take into account that their main audience are young people,it becomes worse. By a lot. As much as the term ‘young and impressionable’ is a cliche, it’s true. If you showed Joe Goldberg to a thirty year old, aka someone with a clear sense of self, firmly set values and moral compass, they wouldn’t face the dilemma of ‘Shit! Maybe he has a point!’ and ‘Damn lock him up and throw away the key!’. Like, for example, an eighteen year old would. At the same time, the vast majority of events that unfold in the season are presented through Joe’s eyes. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume we don’t get an objective perspective on anything. Or anyone. Which is a fairly weird choice if the aim is to show how easy it is to sympathize with a psycho given the fact that we don’t usually experience those type of people through the inner workings of their minds, but through their actions. But, that alone didn’t have to be a deal-breaker, if we had something to compare his impressions to, for good measure. Contrast is a powerful tool and its proper usage is what accentuates the main message in a movie/tv show. But who tf is Joe’s contrast. Peach? She’s about the same as he is, except for the fact that her idea of ‘helping’ Beck is using her wealth and influence in hopes she will stay by her side forever, and Joe’s is to essentially bend her to his will. Beck? I don’t think so. The only striking difference between them is how she doesn’t fit in anywhere, not her first job, not her second job, not with her friends, not with her family, not in her apartment, while Joe seems to fit in anywhere you throw him. Probably stems from the fact that Beck feels like a fraud while Joe feels everyone but him is a fraud (also part of the reason why we found the characters boring or fake, since he described them to us). His past? If anything it justifies his present actions. Paco? Joe’s mini-me? His purpose is basically to paint a picture of how an abused child grows up, so we’d find it even harder to dislike Joe. Even more so since Joe tries so hard to make life easier for him and eventually kills Paco’s abuser, which, in retrospect, justifies what he did to Mr. Mooney. Ethan? The most annoying mash up of every hipster stereotype you can think of? Barely even worth a mention. Honestly it would have been quite interesting to see the differences between how he experiences the world vs how it really is. Or maybe point out some red flags that nice-guy-by-day-murderer-by-night archetype displays, so we can spot them out. And it would also help get the point the show claims to make across. Instead, what happened was, people liked him and hated everyone else, and the show producers, writers and actors acted as if they pulled some grand prank.  ‘HaHaHa joke’s on you, even though we made him completely relatable,good-intended, smart, understandable and likable and all those other people stupid, shallow, boring and mean, he’s the shithead and you all fell for it!’ Kinda like when a three year old covers his eyes and thinks no one can see him.   I mean, the only time his portrait of Beck is questioned is when she pours her heart out to Dr Nicky and we get a glimpse of what is actually going on with her. But by that time, there’s no escaping this diluted, fantasy, basic white girl with daddy issues, attention thirsty, cheating whore, promiscuous fraud Joe’s been showing down our throats. Not only that, but up to that point, his conclusions were, one way or the other, confirmed. He didn’t like Benji, Benji turned out to be a prick. He had doubts about Peach, Peach turned out to be obsessed with Beck. He said Beck craves attention, what do you know, she has no curtains in a first floor New York apartment she can’t even afford. He says he knows what’s best for her, she becomes happier and more fulfilled when he takes over her life, until he kills, that is. The viewers don’t side with him because they really, really, actively want to, they side with him because it’s in the structure of the story. Which is reflected in the ‘Ozma of Oz’ by the way. That’s the first book of the series where Dorothy doesn’t crave Kansas anymore and Oz becomes what she wants. Much like the whole world of You is Joe’s fiction, and we are invited to abandon this world, where psychos are not desirable. Similarly, Peach and Joe both have a thing for the Oz books, specifically ‘Ozma of Oz’,they even get into a bit of a conflict over it, meaning they both want their ‘Oz’ to win. Also, another detail I consider important to the plot, is that Peach is a Salinger. Obviously not a coincidence. Salinger is known for his ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and controversial life. But mostly ‘Catcher in the Rye.’ That book is crowned *the* coming of age book, emphasizing how societies high expectations of young people and no consideration of each person as an individual put too much pressure on them that eventually leads to mental disorders. Basically, how the world ruins innocence. But on the other hand, and more interestingly, the most famous criticism calls it ‘a fictional hall or mirrors in which his own self was replicated and congratulated for its brilliance, charm and integrity over and over again.’ Doesn’t that sound familial? Isn’t every character in You just a version of Joe? Paco is a young Joe, Peach is a rich, female Joe with pedigree, Benji is a brute, rich, stupid Joe, Mr. Mooney is what Joe could have become, Dr Nicky pries into people’s lives and abuses his power (sleeping with a patient), same as Joe. Even Beck. She’s your average Joe, not taken to the extreme. And on top of that, he is congratulated for his charm, brilliance and integrity throughout the season, hence why the audiences like him over everyone else. As interesting as that may be, You asks the questions no one needs asked. And gives the wrong answer. Under which circumstances are psychos likable? How easy is it to identify with one? Can sick obsession look desirable? You says yes to all of that. And it says it to teens and preteens who are already being told that boys hit girls when they like them, so why tf not sell them on hot and sexy murderous stalkers as something to lust over? And them blame them for giving in and not their poor storytelling. Encourage your local teenagers to be better than that. See, shows like You, only thrive because they are well accepted. If young people read more books, watched more old and older movies, took more interest in understanding things in depth instead of taking them at face value, we wouldn’t have to even have the conversation ‘Why being attracted to Joe Goldberg is wrong.’ If more young people knew how may bigger, better things exist, a watered down, bland story like this wouldn’t stand a chance. And most certainly couldn’t get away with calling itself fresh, new, brilliant and provocative. My lit professor used to say ‘Every story has been already told.’ We change the names, the places, adapt it to our time, but in essence, all the love stories, the tragedies and everything else in between, have been written. Basically, everything ‘new’ draws its inspiration from somewhere, it doesn’t come from thin air. With that in mind, the more you see, read and hear, the wider your grasp on things becomes, and the easier it is to smell the bs. Which Netflix in general is full of.

#you netflix #you #penn badgley #joe goldberg #elizabeth lail #guinevere #guinevere beck #shay mitchell #peach salinger #peach #luca padovan #annika #kathryn gallagher #lynn #nicole kang #social commentary #netflix #writing #writers #writelbr #review

[nixalegos]

⇘ - Has your muse ever used a combat vehicle or siege weapon in battle? Were they enthusiastic about it?

Tagging @astralfox0893, @thalsianiii and that anon for this ask! Hope you enjoy!))

Somewhere on Argus, One Year AgoHeavy boots clanged as they carried the warlock down from the upper portions of the oddly designed bastion. He was running, because the entire structure had just started shaking as if on impact, and as a rule, anything that could cause a felsteed citadel to shake was bad news indeed, and his new spoil of war was simply too precious to lose.So it shocked him when he saw forces of the Army of the Light hobbling -in- swords and shields ready. “Wait! This one is mortal!” Came one, busy half carrying half dragging another who’d seen better days.“What in the HELLS is going on.” Nix said in obvious bewilderment.“We’re doomed!” Moaned from one of the injured Lightforged.“Elf, we are stuck, the Legion have us trapped in here bearing wounded, one of the champions and rest of the Army have already portaled away from that...colossus. We’re too far away now to call for help! And the Legions reinforcements are coming in from the other side. Make peace with the Light, our only hope lays with it now.” The leader of the band said solemnly.“Oh for Fel’s Sake.” The warlock snarled, coming closer to see just how damaged the rag tag band was. “How many.”“A battalion, maybe two, mechanized things, like those along the far wall.” A refit bay held a line of mortar tanks, set on anti gravity pods and half treads, all in various states of damaged.“I meant how many wounded...but I can’t think of a better disguise then six tons of legion forged felsteel.” The warlock said looking to where the other pointed, his mind already set on a plan of action as the others caught on.They sealed the hatch behind themselves in the least damaged one.

Nix had to crouch and lean over the controls, the pilots seat made for something a few feet taller then himself, a wraithguard, surely. Holographic control surfaces and 360 degree view. He had to hand it to the Legion, he’d never bothered to investigate one of the few burned out hulks left on the Broken Shore, but their vehicles came with a surprising amount of convenience and comfort. The symbols were in demonic, but off somehow, a military lingo he couldn’t quite translate.

“Engine works, hull is at...either eighty or twenty seven percent integrity? Cannon is jammed, unable to move.” He said as his gauntleted hands flew over the flashing symbols and the death spewing cannon carrier lurched to life, the sound of grinding motors and pistons and magic spinning up as they pulled out and facing the exit door. “We can fire to our left and behind us. That’s it.” “How much more time do we have til they come here?” The warlock said, curious.“Less then a minute, why?” The leader said, clutching one of their squadmates, invoking what healing they could.“Firing.” A blob of liquid felfire brighter then a sun streaked and smashed into the remaining damaged mortars, sending metal and sparks launched in every direction. “Let the Wyrmtongues fix -that-.” He said with a half mad cackle as they rolled out onto the dead worlds soil. And Nix instantly stopped laughing.“Oh fuck.” He said mostly to himself as the cracked viewplate showed a display of red stone like flesh stories tall, and the very air in the surrounding area choked with fire. A titan. A literal titan. Even a mile away it was impossible to mistake the stoic unfeeling expressionless face of a titan.And Nix only knew of one red skinned titan loyal to the Legion. No, not loyal...In command of. Was this the face of Sargeras himself? But it couldn’t be. It looked nothing -like- the images and descriptions ever told. Was there MORE, some lesser copycat? A son?He was so busy staring he didn’t even notice the imps and eredar striding past them, not attacking, heading into the building they’d just left.Sweat had beaded on his brow now as communications buzzed to life, a series of messages, pings, and demands of acknowledgement came from the other mortars they rolled towards drew his attention. He didn’t know the proper codes. He couldn’t properly -read- what was being said without time to properly translate.“HANG ON.” He yelled behind him as he forced the hulk of the craft to turn, and simply slammed the fire control. Over and over, fast as the power cycler could reload, three miniaturized suns streaking landing on the two closest tanks, and then turned them around as the third realized it was a captured vehicle, a started to fire back, nearly turning the damaged mortar to flip from the impact, but landed shakily, and rocketing past the wall of infantry.He said nothing, knowing others would get the signal now to fire upon them. He needed speed or shields, or a proper damn CANNON, he twisted the tank, the dull -THUMP- of a Dreadguard caught under the gav generator, crushing them and rolling past to grind them under the treads. “How far to the nearest fall back point!” He screamed as he alternated firing and feeding power from the drive to the cannon and back again.“Three, maybe four miles! We were expecting the Vindicaar to portal us away!”Nix could feel his teeth rattle inside his skull as every fresh impact, every dip and bump in the way forward slowed them down, forced them to go around, losing ground or cover in turn. Worse, the rest of the Legions forces were now hot after them, screaming for blood at their audacious deception. Nix spun the heavy gun around to the only other direction it could fire, the entire mortar rocketing forward as the next blast was sent screaming back into the face of their pursuers.He was cackling now, mad with joy as he saw soil streak in a bloody plume of fire and ash, again and again he sent more instant death the demons way, forcing THEM to take cover. To hell with the oversized giant now turning to observe the commotion! He’d fire at its ugly face too!The momentum generated by the cannon gave them the edge, the line of demons and their own siege craft slowly grew father and father away as they bolt blasted their way up a mountainsides low slopes, until it at last  enough coolant and...slime overheated the engine a mere twenty minutes away from the nearest outpost of the Light. They crawled out, bruised, bloodied, but alive.Nix was sweating, shaking, nerves a buzz and now, dead set. If he lived through this, he was so going to build his own one day.

[head-and-heart]

I'm kind of over the whole "it's been 6 years" excuse? Because despite 6 years, Kabby, Memori, Marper are all in the midst of plots that could've picked up the day after Praimfaya. Octavia's psychosis wouldn't be as advanced, but the Blake drama, homocidal tendencies, grounder BS were all set up already. So in 6 years, the changes they want us to deal with are BE, Madi, & BC being distant. That's awfully contrived writing imo, and a lot of fuss to basically cause drama for just 2 characters

Yeah … I agree to an extent for sure. 

Like, I honestly feel with the way Season 4 was going and the very real concern of repetitive storylines that so many shows fall into affecting The 100 (which the Grounder vs Skaikru conflict continuing for ANOTHER season holy fuck), the soft reboot was kind of necessary to keep the show fresh. 

But, I also feel that while in some ways they have handled the time jump well (personally, I think everything that happened in the bunker makes perfect sense and is pretty interesting, and I also love what they have done with Clarke), there are certain things that just. aren’t. landing. 

Like you said: a lot of the storylines feel like natural progressions from where we left our characters at the end of Season 4. Anyone could have seen Octavia’s downward spiral coming from miles away. She’s been spiraling since Season 3 - it isn’t out of the blue. And given the position Clarke was left in in 4x13 - alone on a deserted planet - her development makes sense too. 

But Echo was very much an antagonist to our mains at the end of 4x13. There were signs of her perhaps changing and I genuinely believe that - given the appropriate amount of screentime - that arc could have been carried out successfully. But there was no screentime dedicated to Echo’s “redemption” (if you can call it that). 

Personally, I don’t think Echo necessarily required redemption for her actions. After all, she was just doing it for her people (as Bellamy points out in 5x06), just like Bellamy and Clarke and everyone else. However, her actions were extremely traumatizing towards a lot of our mains in very personal ways. I can easily understand Echo’s actions and why she did them, but that’s not the point. It’s not about what Echo did, but how the other characters respond to her. None of them liked her or even trusted her at the end of 4x13. It’s jarring to see them all acting like she’s their best friend in Season 5 - not because such a thing is particularly difficult to believe (it’s been six years!) but because the audience never got to see it happen. 

We didn’t see her apologize. Didn’t see her fight for forgiveness. We didn’t see the ways in which she “proved herself” on the ring. We didn’t get to see how she has changed. And I’m sorry, but for a show that spent two entire seasons on a redemption arc for its male lead for an action he did in one episode, I find it very difficult to settle for a couple lines saying “she’s changed!!!”. 

You know what, Jason? Sure. I believe that Echo has changed. I just don’t care. 

It could have been an interesting, gripping story, to watch Echo evolve into the character that she is now. But because of the six year time jump and because that’s the time they chose in order for her character to develop in that way, we’ve lost that story. It’s not the kind of story that happens off-screen - in fact, it’s probably the most integral arc Echo has ever embarked on as a character and ever will … and we didn’t get to see it. At all. 

You don’t write a story like that off-screen for a character you expect your audience to root for. You just don’t. And because they did, they threw away every single ounce of potential there was for me to care about Echo as a character. 

She went from “antagonist” to “hero with a heart of gold”. She feels like an entirely new character and we have no kind of textual evidence as to how it happened.

Which wouldn’t matter, if Echo wasn’t meant to be an important character. But Tasya is a regular now. And she’s in an important relationship with the male lead of the show. It’s kind of important to see how that happened if you want the audience to connect to her and that relationship at all.  

Bellamy tells Octavia “you don’t even know her” in 5x06 and he thinks this somehow supports his argument, but really it is the main source of all the reasons why a) Octavia has no reason to forgive her, and b) why the storyline just won’t land. 

He’s right: Octavia doesn’t know Echo. And the audience doesn’t either. So why should we give a fuck? 

Genuinely, I would love to know. And not through someone telling me “Echo’s really cool cause she did this, this, and this up on the Ark but you’ll have to take my word for it cause you’ll never fucking get to see it happen lololol”. There’s a major gap in her characterization and they just can’t fill in the blanks through dialogue. That’s. not. how. this. fucking. works.

I just have no idea what to make of her. Or her relationship to Bellamy, for that matter.

I don’t hate her. I don’t like her. Instead, I just feel nothing every time she shows up on my screen. And the absolute worse emotion you can instill in your viewers is not anger: it is apathy.

So, yeah, I think the writers really dropped the fucking ball with her. And, unfortunately, due to the conflicting nature of his relationship to her in pre and post 4x13, Bellamy’s characterization is also collateral damage as a result of it.

The truth of the matter is this: B.echo was not a natural progression from where their relationship sat during 4x13. 

I’m not saying there wasn’t any signs that it could potentially happen in the future but it just didn’t make sense for the current standing of their relationship at the end of S4. Like Bellamy said, it took him three years to forgive her for what she did. They were nowhere near a romantic relationship. And, because of this, there was no way that taking it to that place post-time jump could possibly be for any purpose besides drama. And I genuinely don’t believe there was any way for them to write it without it coming off as being contrived.

I want to withhold my final judgement until that storyline has run its course so I can see what, exactly, the writers intention with it was but - as it is - I still don’t understand how it adds anything to the story in any way. Echo’s arc could happen without her being romantically attached to Bellamy. The Blake conflict could easily happen without her being anywhere near it (and, imo, would be more impactful, considering the audience has no reason to give a shit about Echo anyway). 

I’m just so “meh” about the entire thing. The time jump could have been so much better if they didn’t fuck up this one thing.

#the 100 #echo kom azgeda #antiecho #antibecho #kinda? #bellamy blake: he's the key to everything #meta: what all great things are made of #kate's ask box