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ms-demeanor · 4 years

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Stressed Computer Anon:

Hi friend!

You’ve actually given me the idea for a very helpful book I want to write but it’s pretty clear you’re not going to be okay waiting that long so here’s a very, very basic primer for people in similar situations

SO YOU THINK YOU’RE BEING CYBERSTALKED

If you’re worried about being tracked online by people who have somehow accessed your computer or phone and/or you’re worried about your computer being taken over FEAR NOT! This is VERY fixable!

So the thing is the only way that people can track you like this is by having some kind of network access to your devices. I can’t track your cellphone if it isn’t connected to the cell network (at least not without a pretty serious amount of legwork and a warrant) and I can’t track your computer if it’s not connected to the internet.

The absolute easiest, fastest, most guaranteed way to fix this problem is by disconnecting all your devices. I know that doesn’t seem great because what’s the point of having the devices if they’re not going to be connected, but don’t worry you’ll get this settled and get back online eventually.

What you are going to do FIRST is get on a device that you’ve never used before, get on a computer or phone network you’ve never used before, and you’re going to change your passwords. While you’re at it you may want to get yourself set up with a password manager. Here’s a step by step of the ideal way this would work:

Go to someplace with public-ish computers where you can use the computers for a while (school or public library works well)

Open up a private session of whatever browser is installed on that computer

Create a protonmail email account

(do the rest of the stuff that i’m going to tell you about)

Install a password manager AFTER you’ve sanitized your network and change all your passwords AGAIN using the password manager generated passwords.

Once you have reset all your passwords (steps 1-3) it is time to sanitize your network and your extant devices.

Start by doing a backup of your phone and your computer. This is a FILE BACKUP ONLY, you DO NOT want to restore from backup.

Make sure you’ve got the manufacturer installation discs and activation keys for any software that you have on your computer (or the online equivalent - you don’t use a disc to install MS office these days, you use a Microsoft account and you should have already changed your password for that) because you are going to have to REINSTALL your computer. This means you ALSO need an installation disc for your operating system.

Connect to your router and change the password, select the most secure security settings you router allows.

Reinstall your operating system on your computer and factory reset your phone (make sure you’ve written down all your contacts and saved all the files on your computer or phone to an external device because you will lose them with the reset/reinstall).

(Windows, Mac, Android, iOS)

Make sure that the only things you plug into your computer are things you’ve purchased - remove all wireless dongles for mice or keyboards, make sure the chargers for your phones are all ones that you’ve purchased and not any that were given to you, and only plug stuff back in if you’re 100% sure you know what it goes to.

AFTER REINSTALL/RESET TURN OFF ALL THE WEIRD WIRELESS CONNECTIONS YOUR PHONE AND COMPUTER MAKE. Turn off bluetooth, turn off network discoverability, turn off anything that lets shit talk to your computer or phone.

(This will break/disable things like smart speakers, activity trackers, and a bunch of other IoT tech. If you’re paranoid enough to be doing all of this stuff you should NOT be using those things anyway)

Once you’ve reinstalled your OS on your computer go online and set yourself up with a VPN. If you are feeling EXCEPTIONALLY paranoid you can do this using a mobile hotspot instead of your internet connection. Also if you are feeling exceptionally paranoid you can encrypt your devices.

Now that your traffic is encrypted go back into your router settings and reset your password again. You may want to consider purchasing a better/more secure router or one that has an included VPN (from that list I like the Synology router).

Since at this point your computer should be pretty much completely taken care of you can follow the steps in my other post on the issue to secure your phone.

At this point if you connect to the internet through a secured router and a vpn, and if you are using a VPN on the phone and don’t have any weird mystery apps installed and have shut down app permissions, and if you’re doing all of that carefully and well and you’ve changed all your passwords a couple times, nobody should reasonably be able to snoop your traffic.

That isn’t to say I’d consider this setup safe to plot against the government or anything or to prevent a subpoena to your wireless provider if someone filed one, but for the average weirdo on the internet who wants to creep on your traffic you’ve pretty much locked them out.

After that be careful about what you post online (because a SHOCKING amount of what people think has come from someone spying on their network is actually just stuff that’s reasonably extrapolated from your socials) and if someone approaches you in person about your online activities don’t be alone with that person and publicly challenge them about what they’re saying (maybe take a video of them and post that online). Also do not allow other people physical access to your phone, computer, or router.

Based on the descriptions you’ve given me in your asks it seems reasonably possible that you’re experiencing some upsetting coincidences and that nothing is happening, but there’s also a possibility that someone is remotely accessing your computer. If so, doing everything that I’ve described will close off their access.

If you continue to have these upsetting experiences after going through all of these steps I’d say to have a conversation with a reasonable friend and get a reality check. Unfortunately people are often very scared of computers and because they don’t understand them sometimes innocuous things can be upsetting.

There have been several people who have visited our hacker meetups over the years to beg us to stop the hackers attacking them when there is nobody attacking them or they’ve got things set up in such a way that it would be impossible to do what they think is happening. Fixating on the belief that you’re being attacked and tracked can be very upsetting and can make you more likely to misinterpret nonthreatening happenstance as a cohesive and intentional plan.

I’m not saying that’s what’s happening to you, your circumstance is in a gray area where I don’t want to tell you that someone is watching you and you should be paranoid because that’s not what it sounds like, but the things you’re describing reasonably COULD be because of intruders on your computer so there’s no harm in hardening your network. HOWEVER if you DO harden your network and that doesn’t make you feel any better it’s time to ask for some assistance from people in your life.

IN GENERAL to avoid having people remotely access your computer you should:

Make sure that you are very cautious about what programs you install

Do not open unexpected email attachments and do not click on mystery links

Use unique passwords across your accounts

Do not allow people physical access to your devices

Use encryption on your web traffic through a VPN or a secured router

Do not grant people permission to access your computer or allow people to talk you through the process of setting up access for them (so if someone calls from “microsoft” and says they need access to your computer to fix it just hang up)

Use a strong antivirus program

And in general if you think that something FUCKING WEIRD is going on with your computer you should

document every instance of it being fucking weird

take a photo or video of the fucking weird thing on your phone

think about what someone has to gain by accessing your system

think about the ways that someone could plausibly access your system

check in with someone who knows more about computers than you do (like me - this is the right thing to do! and similarly the people who come to the hacker meetups are doing the right thing! But it’s important to listen to these folks and learn from the conversation instead of dismissing the information they give you - that “what do they gain” question applies here too. I have nothing to gain by misleading you, so it’s very unlikely that I’m lying to you)

And in your life in general:

If you’re scared about something you should ask questions and learn more. Everything is much less scary when you know how to fix it or are able to identify the source of a problem. This is true for computers, it’s true for auto repair, it’s true for plumbing.

So I’m really glad you asked, and good luck. I hope this helps.

#long post

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satoshi-mochida · 4 years

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Tobyfox has provided a status update on the second chapter and beyond of Undertale sequel Deltarune in celebration of Undertale‘s fifth anniversary today.

First, here are the latest screenshots from Deltarune‘s second chapter:

Get the full update below.

Introduction

Hi everyone.

If you’re reading this, you must have been sticking around for about five years.*

I want to express my gratitude for everyone that has supported and encouraged me over this time.

Thank you.

I’ve said it many many times before, but I didn’t expect the simple game I made to receive so much attention. Because of that, many interesting things have happened, and now I can even spend my time making another game.

It seems both of us received a lot of happiness from this occurrence.

If it’s okay, I would like to keep striving to do things that make both of us happy.

Let me know what you think about that.

*Since the Undertale demo released in 2013, the game has really existed for 7 years. It’s already been more than 25% of my life…

Deltarune

I will make another.

I am making a game called “Deltarune.” It is the second game in the Undertale series.

The game will be released in many “Chapters,” the first of which I released two years ago on Halloween. Since that time, I’ve been working hard to figure out the rest of the game.

However, it’s a game that’s much harder to make than Undertale.

Graphics are more complicated and several times more involved.

Systems are more complicated.

Exposes the weak points of my creative and artistic ability.

Plot is much harder to tie together (more characters, more important locations).

Significantly more content than Undertale in one playthrough (especially cutscenes).

I have only made one game ever.

Unlike Undertale, this is the type of game that would normally have many designers working on each aspect of the game.

A story writer, a composer, an audio director, a map designer, a battle designer, a minigame designer, and an overall director. Instead, all of those roles end up handled by me.

The good news is that a few months ago, I completed a significant milestone regarding the game’s design. I completed readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all the cutscenes, examples of the music, etc.

Although certain details are still hazy, the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.

In summary, I largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing. However, that’s not the whole story.

We had actually attempted to develop the game since the time too. Development started around March 2019 and a 99% work was spent on investigating engines alternate to GameMaker, which I used for Chapter 1.

Without getting into the details, I decided a few months ago to go back to GameMaker after all. It still felt like the best fit for the project. So using Chapter 1 as a base, we’ve started creating Chapter 2 since May 2020.

A lot of progress has been made since that time. I believe we can complete this chapter, content-wise, before the end of the year (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting).

I feel very confident. And the strange thing is, even though we ended up using the original engine, I don’t regret the lost time, either. Not only was I still busy designing the game, but during that long period, I was able to think of many ideas that make the game’s story and characters better.

I’m glad that I’m making the Deltarune that I have now and that we are making healthy progress.

Deltarune Status Estimate

■ Chapter 2 (04.15.20 – 08.13.20)

Phase 1: Design

Main Design: 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)

Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren’t programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing

Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what’s there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done…? We’ll see what happens. It’ll be a lesson for everybody.)

■ Chapters 3 and Beyond

Phase 1: Design

Story and General Game Progression (first-pass): 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (first-pass, lacking cutscene instructions): 95%

Map Design (textual): 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn): 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don’t do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual): 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets / visual): 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (concept): 95%

Music (completed): 50%

Visual Design:BG Concept (first-pass): 75%, Important Character, Bosses (first-pass): 100%

Phase 2

Sprite Art: 20%?

Other Content Creation: 0%

Phase 3

Release Readiness: 0%

(These numbers can be somewhat deceptive though. My true design style is to reach the moment where we have to make something, then suddenly think of something different at the last minute. This is always how it’s been with me and my work. It feels like no matter how much I plan, everything comes down to what I think of at the last second…)

Team and Disability

You may have noticed from my phrasing, but yes, there is a team helping me create the game. Other than me, there are about three active team members working day-to-day, with a few other people pitching in from time to time.

Their roles of the main members are overall content implementation and organization, bullet pattern implementation (part-time), and art (Temmie). Other than designing, I still have the role of system programmer.

I’m extremely grateful to have a team helping me carry out my design especially because of my disabilities, which have also made development more difficult.

Although I have long suffered from wrist and hand pain, about five months ago my wrist was the worst it’s ever been. I could not play the piano, use the mouse, and barely could use the keyboard. I navigated everything through voice to text.

Through weightlifting, exercise, and various equipment I have been able to somewhat increase the stamina of my wrist to an extent. Various solutions have included trackball mice for each hand, using voice to text whenever possible, using a foot pedal to click the mouse, etc.

Now I can use the mouse and keyboard for a certain amount each day provided I take frequent breaks. I wish I could work without stopping. Once the world situation improves I would really like to take physical therapy again and/or investigate surgery to repair my wrist.

Future Plans

Once we finish Chapter 2, I would like to use it as the base to create future chapters from. After gaining experience from this chapter, I think making future chapters will be easier.

Part of me wonders if we could make the game faster if we increased the size of the team and did something insane like create multiple chapters in parallel. However, another part of me understands that, adding more people doesn’t guarantee that the game will be created faster if it’s not done properly. I’m already just barely avoiding becoming a bottleneck on development even with a team of this size, due to my physical limitations.

To that end, I am interested in making a list of people that could potentially help me make the game. I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to ask anyone to help, but I think if I could find just 1 person that works well with me, it’s worth asking.

Chapter 2 is proceeding at a good pace, so if we do take anyone on, it will probably only be for Chapter 3 onward. So please understand that anything you send in may not have an immediate result.

People I Am Looking For

Feel free to send in your portfolio if you have the following qualifications:

Worked in the game industry before

Worked under NDA before

Have professional references

A degree of creativity while also being okay with just following directions

Fluent in English

People I Might Actually Use

Music Transcription / Basic Arrangement (Part-Time)

I usually start making songs by playing the piano and singing. An important step after this is to take this basic outline and transcribe it into melodies and chords. Though there are not too many remaining songs to transcribe, it would still help my wrist to have someone else start this process for me. Although I know many musicians, I’m sheepish to ask for help to them, because the main role is actually just to help me compose my own music…

Helpful qualities:

Good at transcription.

Can stand listening to me sing.

Optional: can use an old version of Fruity Loops.

Bullet Pattern Programming (Part-Time)

I’m looking for someone to help me program bullet patterns into the game. These people will work from text and visual designs to create fun battles that match the feeling of the game. I already have one person helping with this, but I think a second person would help a lot. You have to be able to use Gamemaker Studio 2 to manipulate objects on the screen / okay with using pre-existing scripts to accomplish this.

Helpful qualities:

Sense of fun and understanding of player perspective and gameplay balance. This aspect is [many times] more important than programming ability.

Reliable.

Able to make patterns based off of visual/text instructions.

Fine working with a poorly made battle system.

Able to sprite bullets.

Good visual / timing sense.

Minigame Programming (Part-Time)

There are a few minigames and small interactive events in the game, which appear in and outside of battles. These could take any kind of form… who knows what I’m thinking! Have you made a game before?

Helpful qualities:

Same sense of humor as me.

Some level of spriting ability is useful.

You have to have made a game that is fun.

Ability to work together with me.

Unlikely to Hire, But Send Me Your Information Just In Case

Cutscene Programming (Part-Time)

Besides the battles, the largest amount of content in the game is definitely the cut scenes. You will have to understand Gamemaker Studio 2, but the majority of the work is simply using a scripting system that I created to make characters move around the screen. The most important quality you can have here is not programming ability but the ability to efficiently use the system in order to create scenes with a good sense of humor, timing, and emotion.

I’d strongly prefer to hire someone I know to do this because it involves the story. So I most likely won’t hire anyone else.

Helpful qualities:

Can take text instructions and impart a proper sense of timing, humor, and weight to them.

Fine working with a custom scripting system (or smart enough to make something better that makes the game easier to make).

Art (Part-Time)

Sprite art—Temmie has already drawn a massive amount of art for the game, and continues to do so. And I actually already have a few other artists that have helped me that I’m more than happy to keep working with if things become more overwhelming. So currently I actually don’t need any more artists.

However, personally, I’d really like to build up a portfolio of available pixel artists and even concept artists. It’s not as if this is the only game I will make during my life. Anyone chosen for this game needs to be able to match the style of the game, but I’m interested in seeing people with different styles as well. Knowing that I have different options can open my mind up to different creative pathways.

Helpful qualities:

Can take bad looking sketches and turn them into art that looks good (magic).

Don’t mind if your work gets completely drawn over or thrown out.

Anyone that can draw cute or cool poses is good.

Uninterested in seeing people that have an art style outside of the scope of the game.

Write (Full-Time)

Someone needs to transform into a new wrist for me.

Helpful qualities:

Flexible.

Doesn’t hurt.

Musical sense.

That’s everyone I’m looking for. The only other kind of person I might hire would be a single jack-of-all-trades type that can do any sort of things such as cutscenes, bullets, or even system programming, with a good degree of visual flair. (But if you can do those sorts of things, aren’t you busy making your own game already!?)

Anyway, I’ll show you the e-mail now. Just make sure you read these rules first:

Don’t send in e-mails about anything else!

Don’t send to other team members, Fangamer, etc. about helping out!

Got it? Then please send your information to this e-mail address:

[email protected]

Since Fangamer will be sorting through the e-mails for me, we’ll stop taking e-mails at the end of September so they don’t get overwhelmed. Ultimately, I’m only looking for one or two people, and to make a list of the rest of the potentially helpful people in the world.

Undertale is available now for PlayStation 4, Switch, PS Vita, and PC via Steam and GOG. Deltarune Chapter 1 is availble for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Deltarune.com.

#Deltarune Chapter 2 #Deltarune #Undertale #Tobyfox #RPG #Gematsu #long post

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pinkysfaultorbrainsfault · 4 years

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pinky and the brain - s1e2: of mouse and man

episode summary: brain needs money to build a perpetual answering machine to occupy everyone in the world for long enough for him to take over. to do that, he needs an absurd amount of money, so he decides to get a job in an office!

and then fake a nondairy creamer accident that turned him into a mouse, because as we all know, brain has to take the most dramatic path he possibly can in life, or he dies.

the rundown:

we open with pinky showing off his ass.

PRODUCED BY PETER HASTINGS. i assume that means the episode, and not the ass. the ass was initially produced by pinky’s parents and then helped along by the warner brothers’ dietary experts for their. mouse actors.

brain isn’t feeling it right now.

instead, as he plucks a rib from the lab’s anatomical model of a human being, and uses it to unpick his cage, he angsts - WRITTEN BY PETER HASTINGS - he angsts over the Dark Side Of Man, that has built war machines and pollution spilling factories and

VOICEMAIL.

😱

as pinky continues to stick his ass out (though onlyfans wouldn’t be launched for another twenty one years) brain runs through his latest plan, which, of course, involves voicemail.

look at those wiggles. this is a rough draft episode.

anyway brain intends to reroute all telephone conversations into his confusing, recursive, voicemail service that, he claims, will keep the human race occupied for “at least seventy two hours.”

“more than enough time for a well prepared mouse to seize control of the planet.”

“i see! so all we need now is a well prepared mouse.”

I???????

HOLY FUCK

brain is unhappy. i am not surprised.

“i am a well prepared mouse, pinky.”

“oh. well. there you are, then.”

unfortunately this plan comes with the pitfall that it will cost.... one million, six hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. which is a lot of money, or, as pinky puts it, “a lot of money!”

as brain wonders about how to raise these funds (”without running for congress”) pinky pinkys off to watch some tv.

HAVE YOU BEEN INJURED IN AN ON THE JOB ACCIDENT

YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS, EVEN ONE MILLION SIX HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION

LENNY PARVIK GOT ME TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVEN DOLLARS

EVEN THOUGH I’M NOW NINETY PERCENT FUDGE, IT’S OKAY BECAUSE LENNY PARVIK GOT ME ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY TWO DOLLARS SIXTEEN CENTS AND SOME CHANGE

<LOUD, INCREDIBLY DISTRESSED CRYING>

hm.

“pinky, are you pondering what i’m pondering?“

“i think so, brain, but i get all clammy inside a tent.”

anyway so brain’s new plan is to get a job, stage a

HIDEOUS ACCIDENT

and then sue them for one million, six hundred and fourteen thousand dollars in workers compensation.

this episode also has a lot of faces. god, but these mice are so bloody cute. youtube has not yet been invented, but one day it will be, and all brain has to do is sit in front of a camera and nom some corn and go O:O with his face, and everyone will be crying over him within minutes.

it’s so sad that he doesn’t know that.

but for now, he has a job interview to go to. good luck, brain! can’t be any worse than that time allsaints forgot about me and the manager acted like it was my fault.

“impressive credentials. you’re certainly qualified. are you married?”

“oh, yes, i have a lovely wife and two beautiful young children.”

“oh that’s too bad. we’re looking for someone who has no life. thank you.”

as family man walks off, dejected, in comes a completely unsuspicious fellow looking for an honest living honest living, just like in rent the musical.

his arm is acting up, a bit, but it’s fine.

“very impressive resume. princeton, harvard, six years in the industry-- tell me, mr brain, what are your long term career goals?”

“i plan on taking over the world.”

“you have drive! i like that! but confidentially, taking over the world is my job, hahahaha.”

”yes. haha. ha.”

”now. brass tax - are you married?”

“i do have a roommate. but he’s very busy with his own activities.”

HA HA HOO HOO HOO

<muah>

HAHA

“but. one more thing. about your head. isn’t it rather small?”

“no. not for my race.”

“no! no, of course not-- and your people are such... good... cooks... with their tiny heads, uh. please. excuse me for one second.”

“carol! send everyone else home! i got myself a minority person!”

BRUH I?!??!?!?!?!

anyway. brain gets the job.

“mr brain! welcome to the world of re-reinsurance!”

he’s delighted.

back at the labs, he plots his untimely demise at the hands of re-reinsurance,

stating the accident “could be bluffed by altering the mollecular matrix through a substrate platform of microwaves.”

pinky’s response to this is “look brain, i made a choo-choo.”

“oh, and me without my video camera!”

in simpler terms, he explains to pinky that he will stage an accident, “utilising the microwave oven and the non-dairy powdered creamer.”

“because”, to pinky’s apparent horror, “nobody really knows how a microwave works.”

“but why the powdered creamer, brain?”

“nobody knows how that works either.”

(and then, i guess, there’s a scene where some guys jump him on the train for some reason,

i’m only putting it here because this guy is like “oh, you’re funny, you’re a regular gallagher”

and brain’s like “you think gallagher is funny?”

anyway then he ties the dude into a pretzel and throws him off the train.

bonk. it adds nothing, but it’s very funny.)

“this is your cubicle right here. if you need any office supplies, ask the office manager and she should have them over in two or three months.”

it’s brain’s first day at work! his boss reads him the company policy on

vacations, personal phone calls,

and sexual harassment.

“don’t worry about it. you’re safe if you avoid all contact with other humans.”

“my goal in life.”

as brain unpacks the things that pinky has packed for his “home away from home,

awwwww.

his nosy cubicle neighbour inquires about brain’s “pet mouse,”

elaborating that he keeps mice! haha! to feed to his pet snake!

to be fair this is also me around snake people. more understandable in brain’s case, being that he is, actually, a mouse, and i am a human person who may be slightly obsessed with tiney small flofys.

;u;

(they play tennis on their lunch break and brain sets him on fire, so it’s not too bad.)

upon his return from the office, pinky, who has dolled himself up to the nines, presents brain with a Yummy Dinner of Food Pellets With Food Pellets.

i will say i think it’s really cute how this show keeps pushing the narrative that pinky just really, really wants to be an old timey housewife. he just spends his time watching i love lucy (when Fish TV isn’t on) and stuff like that and he’s just obsessed with the idea of dusting something alluringly but ineffectively and making brain little dinners.

and it’s so fucking cute!!! what??? it’s adorable. as soon as they get the world pinky better get a little dollhouse kitchen room with lime green everything and a functioning oven.

“please, pinky. i’ve had a very tough day.”

“oh, you have? you’ve had a tough day?”

“what about my day, brain? we always hear about your day, but what about mine?!”

“DO YOU EVER ASK WHAT I DID TODAY???!”

“very well pinky. what did you do today?”

“i don’t remember.”

“anything?”

“not a thing.”

“well, now i know how american gladiator stays on the air.”

the next day, at work, brain is vexed by the fact that nobody has refilled the coffee machine.

“sorry. that’s my fault. hey, you’re cute.”

“you know what they say. big ears. big earmuffs.”

.....okay.

unfortunately brain’s mechanical arm chooses now to malfunction.

she’s into it?

brain maintains that it was a mistake, and he doesn’t find her attractive at all, because brain knows how to talk to women.

she is no longer into it.

horrified by his semi-accidental fuckboy behaviour, brain heads out as quickly as he can, only to be immediately called into his boss’ office.

despite brain’s claims that “the young lady appears to have misunderstood me,” which i’m sure will hold up well on twitter,

mr boss man reveals that he has done some fact checking, and there is no record of brain attending harvard or princeton.

“oh.”

he is given the ultimatum that he either produce his diplomas, or HIS CAREER IN RE-REINSURANCE IS OH OH OVER!!!

very sad!

looks like it’s time to stage a workplace related accident.

he pours the creamer everywhere, discards his suit, and runs up to plonk himself merrily into the pile.

ahem.

HELP, HELP. A TERRIBLE OCCUPATIONAL DISASTER. I’VE BEEN MAIMED BY AN ON THE JOB ACCIDENT REQUIRING MASSIVE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION.

as others in the office crowd around to look, brain makes his dramatic reveal.

“i’ve been turned into a mouse!”

COLLECTIVE GASP.

obviously mr boss man won’t pay that kind of money.

so, as brain emphatically tells him, I’LL SEE YOU IN COURT.

conclusion:

as the goodfeathers sit on justice’s head, and bitch about jury duty,

The Man From Washinton asserts that brain’s claim that he is a mouse is preposterous.

good thing brain has xrays to prove it! they “clearly” define his “mouse skeleton!” wait a sec and he’ll grab them.

oh shit! where they go?

(”there really is only one conclusion here.” says a local doctor.

“this man is a mouse.”

“then i’m afraid the only conclusion here, doctor,”

“is that you have never seen these.”

“i trust this might keep you quiet.”

“it might.”)

(BRUH/???????????????) (if boss man is out here bribing people with lingerie, he could have tried that way before this got to court.)

egged on by the lack of evidence in Mouse Corner, christopher walken produces the artefacts from brain’s office cubicle.

“i ask you, when was the last time you heard of a mouse winning a bowling trophy?”

“ugh. pinky.”

“yes?”

turns out pinky is here because “they’re not covering this on court tv,” but does advise brain that “it’s a good thing they didn’t find the mechanical suit, eh, brain?”

oh shit.

“pinky, you must go to the office and get that suit from the kitchen closet. do you understand? if they find that we’re sunk.”

“oh! brain! you want me to help!”

off he goes!

fall mouse. bonk.

(he sneaks into the snack delivery.)

(poit.)

(unfortunately, he gets delivered straight to the vending machine.)

(”narf? ):”)

“well. yes. i had noticed his... small, furry head, but i assumed that was normal for his people.”

“and what people would that be.”

“i’m not sure? i think they’re from europe?? maybe france.”

“the size of my head and whether i was a man before the accident is not the question, here. the fact is i am now a mouse.”

(meanwhile, at fiero:

“try the fruit rollups. they’re yummy.”

“oh, i am doing well. poit.”)

“so how exactly did the accident happen, mr brain?”

“some bizarre thing involving a microwave oven? i don’t know exactly-- no one really knows how they work.”

“incorrect! in the oven, a magnetron produces microwaves which cause water molecules to align, and reverse alignment, producing heat, and not mice.”

“the accident also involved a.... nondairy powdered creamer.”

“ah. um. oh.”

(meanwhile,

pinky attempts to drive.)

“mr brain, in your experience with other mice, are they intelligent?”

“no.”

“exactly. your honour, i contend that mr brain is simply too intelligent to be a mouse.”

oh dear.

(meanwhile,

pinky tries not to get hit by a car.)

“but-- no, noo, i’m not intelligent.”

“i am a simpleton! yes. like any average mouse!”

“um. narf.”

that’s mean, brain, considering the aforementioned narf is on his way to save your gay little ass right now, but whatever.

“so you would have no problem with me saying that albert einstien was a champion surfer.”

“what-- i mean, no.”

“or that the temperature of the sun is a comfortable seventy degrees fahrenheight.”

“i wouldn’t know--”

“or that the fermi-dirac’s distribution function is a soup kitchen?”

“that’s preposterous! your honour, the fermi-dirac's function is, for any system of identical fermions in equilibrium,”

“the probability that a quantum state of energy -- E -- is occupied!”

“my word, man! don’t you know your quantum statistics!”

heck.

bonk.

“oh, blunder.”

and what a blunder indeed! the judge decides to rule that brain’s intelligence proves that he is “not a mouse, and that being the basis for your claim, i now dismiss charges against fiero and company.”

“.....very well. i’ll go now.”

“i’m afraid not. i find you guilty of fraud, perjury, and appearing naked in a public place. take him away.”

good thing they have human man sized handcuffs for this human man! brain looks incredibly perturbed, despite the fact he could probably swim in them. and also that he... kind of lives in a prison anyway, if you think about it. oh, cool, can’t wait to evade that cage so i can go live in my other cage.

hm.

luckily, pinky arrives to save us all from that particular moral quandry.

“i got the suit, brain! i got it!”

“pinky--”

the police attempt to intercept pinky,

so he knocks them over. hoo hoo.

brain falls over,

attempts to enter the suit through the shoe,

and is squoshed for his crimes.

faced with a veritable army of police, at this point,

pinky activates the emergency protocol,

says blue lives scatter,

and fucks off out of the courthouse.

we stan a legend.

unfortunately brain got a fair few ouchies during his prison break, so pinky bandages him up. it’s very cute.

anyway, i’m giving this one to brain, on account there were, yknow, a fair few ways that could have been mitigated. fiero fucked him over, though, so i’ll give him that.

brain: 5 ½ pinky: 6 ½ outside influence: 10

“egad, brain! brilliant!”

“but isn’t that horribly illegal?”

“............yes.”

#patb #pinky and the brain #this took so long lol #BUT THIS EPISODE WAS REALLY GOOD #IT GOT AWAY WITH SO MUCH BRO I ....

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afternoonpoppy · 5 years

Text

OH WHAT HAVE I DONE.

I meant to write a short little thing with a pair of new characters of mine and hiccups, and I wrote, uhh... A whole bunch of lore and character focus. And then some hiccups later on but mostly character focus. I’m so sorry.

Featuring the very good boy Allister, and Wolfram, a spellcaster from another world who got reverse isekai’d who has found himself stuck in this strange little world called Earth thanks to magic shenanigans. (Maybe I’ll write the actual story of how these two met at some point but it’d probably be pure plot and no hics sooo I’ll probably make note of that if I do it)

The sun had already faded for the day, the approaching winter leaving no light even in the evening sky. Allister shut the front door behind himself quickly to preserve the warmth inside his small home as he entered. Taking off his coat and scarf, hanging them up on the rack by the door, he surveyed the interior and saw no sign of activity on the first floor. He left his boots at the door as well, not wanting to track dirt inside, and made his way to the stairs at the back of the house to find the second floor - consisting of a simple hallway and doors leading to two rooms - to be almost as quiet as the first.

The presence of another soul in the house was betrayed, however, by a faint musical tune originating from behind one of the doors. Allister stepped up to the door and knocked gently first, waiting for a response.

"Come in," the response came after a moment, muffled by the wooden door and walls. Allister opened the door to look inside what had once simply been a spare storage room.

Small motes of multicolored light hovered about the room, occasionally shifting from a simple spherical shape to vaguely resembling different animals. Some were perched on the eclectic bookshelves Allister had recently furnished the room with, grabbing at different books and journals from the slowly-growing collection in the room and depositing them on the desk that sat at the room's back wall.

Seated in a chair by the desk, facing away from the door, was the highly-occupied, slim-framed young man that had requested the room be converted into a study, to begin with. He was positioned leaned over the desk, focusing his attention on furiously scribbling notes over sheets of paper and flipping through the books. Allister's old portable radio seemed to be the source of the music, sat atop the desk.

"Wolfram?" Allister addressed gently, feeling unsure if his presence was welcome in the room.

Wolfram turned, placing down the pen he'd been writing with as he looked at Allister. "You're home early, aren't you?"

Allister wondered just how long Wolfram had been caught up in his work. "I'm actually a bit late getting back - it's almost six."

"Oh." Wolfram glanced out the window of the study's back wall, furrowing a brow in thought.

Allister stepped into the room, taking care not to get in the way of any of the motes floating around. "Is the radio working out well for you?"

Wolfram nodded, idly turning down the radio. "It's easy enough to operate." He didn't say much else though, still staring out the window.

"Well... I'm guessing you didn't make as much progress as you wanted?" He gestured to the notes and scattered books on the desk. He didn't honestly understand what any of it was, but he did gather that it was a complex arcane matter.

Wolfram continued to stare out the window. "No. No, I suppose not." He sounded tired, and... disheartened.

Allister didn't care to hear his unorthodox roommate sounding like that, and found himself wracking his brain for some way to help. "Well, in that case... How about dinner? You must be exhausted, I'll bet the break and food will do you some good."

Wolfram's gaze lingered on the window a moment longer, then turned back to the desk, leaning over one of the books and letting his red hair hide his face from Allister's view. "It's fine, I am not hungry." At that moment, however, it seemed Wolfram's stomach was quite ready to disagree, letting out just loud enough of a growl to be heard by the pair. Wolfram visibly tensed up, likely hoping his stomach's complaints weren't so easily noticed.

Allister opted not to address it directly, instead softly reiterating, "A break will be good for you, Wolfram."

Wolfram responded with a tired sigh, but gave in and looked to face Allister. "Fine, but I want something freshly made, none of that packaged 'instant' meal nonsense you have in the pantry."

Allister shrugged. "They're not so bad. Besides, they're faster to make."

Wolfram shook his head, giving a look of disdain and repeated, "Something fresh tonight."

"Alright, alright, if you insist."

---

Per Wolfram's request, Allister went exploring through his refrigerator to find ingredients for a home-cooked meal, coming to the realization he had just enough for a sweet & sour chicken recipe. It would take a bit of time to make, but that did give him an excuse to keep Wolfram away from the study for a bit longer.

"So... What exactly are these little guys, anyway?" Allister asked, shooing a curious light-mote-rabbit-bird away from the chicken cooking in the pan.

"They are spirits, as I believe I mentioned once before," Wolfram answered rather unhelpfully from the kitchen table where he sat. He did seem to enjoy watching Allister cook.

"No, I meant, what... what are they? Like... If I ask 'what's a cat' and someone says they're animals that eat mice and purr and knock things off of tables."

"I see..." Wolfram thought on that for a moment. "Apologies, I often forget most humans don't interact with them often. In short, they are the product of magic in the environment that has gathered in a comparatively dense concentration and spent much time interacting with a particular natural aspect, such as a plant or a pond. From there, the dense magic that has gathered forms into one entity and gains a will of its own, which is now a spirit."

Allister glanced over at Wolfram with an expression that was uncertain at best.

"Hm, alright... Think of it this way; if you crack an egg onto that pan and expose it to the heat, it would change, yes?"

"You would have a fried egg."

"Yes. If magic gathers together and interacts with an aspect of the environment instead of heat, the same concept happens."

"You get fried magic?" Allister couldn't help but grin at his own joke if you could call it that, while Wolfram stared back with an eyebrow raised.

"It changes," Wolfram said, "and becomes a spirit."

"I... think I understand." Allister didn't understand, unsure if for his own faults or if Wolfram was simply a poor teacher, but moved on to a new question. "Are they intelligent?"

"About as much as an animal. They can follow simple commands, so I call them to my side for basic assistance."

"So they're... Sort of like your familiars?" Allister asked, calling on what little terminology he knew from pop culture.

"Similar in concept, yes. Though they have poor attention spans so it is best to have multiple around rather than relying on one and hoping that it does not grow bored." Wolfram absentmindedly placed a hand over his stomach as it growled once more for food. Allister wondered if the poor thing had remembered to eat lunch while he was away, as he was noticing Wolfram tended to ignore such things when wrapped up in work like he was today.

"Dinner will be ready soon."

---

Once the promised meal was prepared, a hearty helping of rice and chicken, Allister placed a plate on the table in front of Wolfram who immediately perked up at the sight and smell of the food. Allister sat down in the other chair with his own plate, idly asking, "So... You can cast magic?"

Wolfram was already shoveling forkfuls of food into his mouth by the time the question was asked. For someone with such small stature, he had displayed a voracious appetite when presented with food he liked, which seemed to be any of Allister's home-cooked meals. Though Allister couldn't quite tell if that was more due to Wolfram's tendencies to neglect the need for food.

Before taking another bite of food, Wolfram paused to answer the question with a confused tone. "Did we not establish this when we first met? The day you found me in your cellar? Having been transported to your world by magic? I have experience with the subject, yes."

"I mean, yeah, I know," Allister said in defense. "What I mean is... I didn't know magic was even a thing until then. And, well, you showed me that light spell you can cast, and I see the spirits..." Allister paused, suddenly second-guessing if he was about to overstep a boundary. Stories always talked about responsible usage of magic, was there some sort of magic etiquette he was ignoring?

Wolfram, on the other hand, seemed far less concerned, commenting between bites of food, "You want to see me cast a spell?"

"Is - is that alright?" Allister couldn't deny how curious he was about magic and what Wolfram could do with it.

"Well, I suppose, given how helpful you've been, some demonstration of my skill is a reasonable request." Wolfram exaggerated his tone as if the request were plain and tedious, but even Allister could tell Wolfram was playing it up. The young spellcaster clearly liked the attention.

Wolfram pushed aside his plate, which he'd already almost emptied completely, and began tracing a finger along the table's surface. As he did, he whispered a quiet string of words which Allister could not understand but had come to know to be the spell's incantation - the 'magic words' that made the spell work. Following Wolfram's finger along the table was a sparkling trail of light formed, leaving shapes and patterns on the surface of the table. Allister watched, mesmerized by the glow of the lines.

"It's a simple spell," Wolfram said, pausing in the spell's incantation, no new trails of light being drawn as he spoke. "The lines will eventually fade on their own if not refreshed, or with my command -" he whispered another spell phrase and waved a hand over the lines, causing them to vanish, " - which makes them ideal for writing if I want to keep it private."

"Or if you don't have a pen and paper," Allister chimed in. "What else can you do?"

"Hm... Ah, yes." Wolfram turned his focus to a small clock hung up on the wall, accompanying another incantation with a hand motion that the clock responded to by levitating off of the wall on its own accord.

"You can do that?!" Allister watched in amazement as the clock floated through the air at Wolfram's command. "I always thought things would be so much easier if I could move things around with my mind. Uh, or magic, in this case."

A slight grin began to spread over Wolfram's face. "Naturally, the use of magic makes numerous tasks quite a bit - hic!"

With a sudden hiccup, Wolfram's spell was interrupted and the clock clattered to the floor, startling Allister.

"Are you alright?" Allister asked, seeing that even Wolfram himself looked surprised by the abrupt interruption.

"Um, yes, I -" Another 'hic!' cut off Wolfram and jumped through his body, and he clasped a hand over his mouth, cheeks tinted red from embarrassment.

Allister held back a smile - seeing Wolfram so flustered was endearing in a way, but he didn't want his reaction mistaken for teasing by the younger man. "It's alright, Wolfram. You did eat a bit fast, didn't you?"

"I..." Wolfram kept his hand over his mouth, muffling another hiccup, then admitting, "Your cooking is quite good." He moved his hand to his stomach and added, "Perhaps... Perhaps you are not incorrect, however."

Allister frowned. "Does your stomach hurt?"

Wolfram didn't answer, sheepishly avoiding eye contact as he struggled and failed to quiet his hiccups. The way he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, however, told Allister that he was also 'not incorrect' about that guess as well. "Would you like to lie down for a bit?"

Wolfram hesitated, then said, "No, it's - hic - it's fine. It will pass soon, I'm sure, and I should be getting back to wor - hic!" After that last hiccup rudely forced its way into the conversation, Wolfram did not bother to finish the thought and sighed with frustration instead.

"Wolfram, I think you've been working hard enough as it is. It's fine for you to take a break for the night if - "

"It is not fine, Allister!" Wolfram suddenly shouted, causing Allister to flinch at the abrupt change in attitude. "It is not - hic - it is not..." Wolfram slumped over the table, defeat in his tone as he spoke now. One hand remained protective over his stomach, the other gripping the side of his head through his hair.

"Wolfram?" Panicked with concern, Allister found himself standing up from his chair and rushing to the other side of the table before he knew what he was doing. Gently rubbing Wolfram's back in an effort to calm him despite a hiccup or two fighting against the contact, Allister spoke softly, "Hey, hey, what's going on? You can talk to me, Wolfram, it's alright." Once Allister noticed what he was doing, he feared the contact would be inappropriate but was surprised to see Wolfram not only accept it but lean towards Allister.

"I'm... I'm sorry," Wolfram suddenly said.

"What? What for?"

"For lying." Wolfram lifted his head from the table to meet Allister's gaze. "I'm not - hic - I'm not the powerful wizard I wanted you to think of me as. I was still an apprentice in training before - hic - before all of this."

Allister was taken aback by the confession. It wasn't so much Wolfram's status as apprentice that surprised him, Allister hadn't really thought about how powerful Wolfram was, but surprise to hear Wolfram thought this image of himself was so crucial. "Wolfram, I.. I don't think any less of you for that. I still think it's amazing that you can do these things."

"Of course you do, you're amused by simple light and - hic - levitation spells."

"I'll try not to take any offense to that," Allister deadpanned.

"I've spent this time in your home focusing so much on my magic. Yet I cannot - hic - I cannot levitate a clock without dropping it from something as minor a nuisance as - hic!"

Allister nodded sympathetically, switching from rubbing Wolfram's back to gentle pats, unsure which would be more helpful at the moment. "So, um, if you don't mind me asking, what have you been doing in the study?"

"You recall the books we found in the cellar?"

Allister nodded. The day the pair had met, they had also located several tattered books hidden away in the cellar which Wolfram had claimed to hold some value and added to his growing book collection upstairs. "You said they were some sort of... arcane records?"

Wolfram hiccuped. "They were remaining journals from the mentor I studied under. I've been attempting to read through them to continue my studies. Unfortunately, it - hic - it is no simple matter, so doing this without a mentor is not an easy task."

"I see... And I guess it's not exactly easy for you to just find someone else to teach you, huh?"

Wolfram sighed, leaning to the side and letting his weight rest against Allister's chest. "Is... this alright?"

Allister felt warmth rushing to his cheeks at the contact. "Uh, yeah, that's fine. You sure you don't want to lie down, though?"

"I suppose," Wolfram answered. He stood up, allowing himself to be guided to the living room couch by Allister. Allister felt bad that the only bed he was able to offer in his modest home was the couch with some spare pillows and blankets, but Wolfram had insisted the meager accommodations were fine. That seemed to hold true here as well, as Wolfram wasted no time in making himself comfortable, one arm still draped over his stomach and hiccups jolting his body every few seconds, and yet, he was able to lie down suitably well.

"Do you want some medicine for your stomach?" Allister asked.

"I do not - hic - care for medicine." Wolfram tucked his legs in just enough to allow space for someone to sit on the other end of the couch. "If you'd like, however, I... I do find your company helpful." He buried his face in one of the pillows as he spoke, hiding from eye contact.

"Oh, I..." Allister was unsure of what to say, feeling that warmth return to his face. He was starting to realize, despite this perhaps being a poor time for it, that he did also enjoy Wolfram's presence. Allister accepted the invitation and sat down. "If, um, if you want, I don't mind if you stretch your legs out again."

Wolfram unburied his face from the pillow to look at Allister, gauging if he should or not, then stretched his legs out over Allister's lap. "This is fine?"

"Mm-hm." Allister nodded. "Hey... I know you're worried about the magic thing, but I think you'll do fine."

Wolfram hiccuped and autopiloted a nod.

"But, I don't know, studying on your own can be really hard, so... If I can help at all..."

"You want to help me - hic - study magic?"

"Well, I - I know I have no idea how any of this works or anything, but -"

"I might appreciate the help," Wolfram mumbled, sounding notably drowsy. "For now, I... think some - hic - some rest... sounds..."

Wolfram failed to finish the sentence and Allister noticed the poor thing had already fallen asleep. Allister watched the steady rise and fall of Wolfram's chest, which was occasionally interrupted by stubborn hiccups that amazingly failed to wake him. As Allister's gaze lingered, he realized something else about Wolfram - he was cute.

Allister grabbed a blanket from where it lay on the back of the couch and did his best to spread it out over Wolfram while trapped under his legs. It wasn't the best job Allister had ever done, but Wolfram didn't seem picky at the moment. Softly, Allister whispered, "Goodnight."

#wolfram and allister #poppy writes #hiccups

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storiesbeyondthestars · 6 years

Text

Season 8 Predictions and Speculation

Buckle in boys and girls, because this ended up being over 7000 words long (with no pictures, sorry, I’m tired), and consists of wild speculation of many different theories and storylines, and how I see them playing out. There’s a huge focus on Allura, Keith, Lance, Lotor, Acxa, and Honerva over anyone else, but with explanations as to why.

We have a combinations of theory, meta, and, well, most likely fanfiction ideas (also typos and me ignoring plot holes or things I can’t think of RIGHT NOW). I’m fine with that. This was fun to write. I really apologize to anyone if the link doesn’t work.

Also, yes. I am a klance shipper and that does colour things at one point, BUT I tried to leave it so where their relationship could largely still be seen as platonic too. Let’s do this!

I’ve said a few times that VLD, instead of being a straight-up adaptation of the 80s Voltron, is both adaptation and a sort-of prequel for it, as well as original twists and things thrown in. I think that this is a great way to make something new while still respecting the original material.

We’re seeing how Keith becomes the leader he was shown to be. We’re seeing how Lance becomes his best friend and right-hand man. We’re seeing how Allura became a Paladin. We’re seeing why their armour colours don’t match their lion colours (except for Hunk, since in the 80s he had orange armour, not yellow, and technically only Pidge matched).

In the 80s Voltron, the Galaxy Garrison was one of the main headquarters for the ‘Galaxy Alliance’. I think we’re seeing the Garrison building up to this, especially since aliens came to Earth and seem to be staying. Instead of the galaxy alliance though, we have the Voltron Coalition. It’s going to be like their headquarters.

The MFE fighters and Atlas, I think, are going to be like Vehicle Voltron, where they stay closer to Earth and defend things there while Voltron deals with farther away. (Edit: after writing this, I see that Fictional Crystals made a video saying something similar.) It should be noted that Atlas, in Greek mythology, holds the world on his shoulders.

So where does the story start in S8?

They’re working on cleaning up Earth, the coalition seems to be largely coming there as a home base. Things, all things considered, as probably very peaceful for the Paladins. Hell, they’re heroes there. They get Earth food. They get to be with their families. For most of them, they’re probably getting comfortable there again.

However, there is the fact that an Altean was found inside of the robot that tried to kill them. I don’t think she was just a power source. I think she was actively controlling it. I think she was still conscious when she activated the self-destruct in it.

That’s something that they should be very worried about. In fact, I think that this is going to be consuming Allura especially. Romelle, I think, will be used at first to identify who the Altean is and confirm that she was from the missing colony.

Sam mentions that they were looking for months though, so unless she was somehow in a stasis of sorts, the Altean should be dead. If she is, that’s going to leave a lot of wondering about what’s going on, and I think if she somehow is alive, they’re going to learn that Honerva sent her.

Fact: Romelle was the only Altean in the colony that knew what Lotor was up to. As far as anyone else knows, he just left and never once came back for them. The rest would still be loyal, nay, devout to him.

Theory: I think Honerva went to them and manipulated them. She’s presented herself as Lotor’s mother, and told them that Voltron killed Lotor. So now they’re loyal to her. In fact, Honerva may have told something similar to the Druids when she left, since the one Keith fought said that, “Haggar has forsaken us because of your treachery”, which, honestly, is an oddly specific thing to say and super strange.

Let’s focus on Allura first.

Taking a step back from that for a moment, I think at the beginning of the season, we’re going to see Allura and Lance already in a relationship. This is fine. This might even be healthy for both of them in the long run. However, I don’t think we’re going to see anything like a kiss or any super specific romantic stuff between them.

Time and time again, this show has gone with ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’, which isn’t great for a story in general, let alone an animated show. It’s not a writing practice I agree with, but I get it. They have to cut things in order to fit everything in. I believe one of the writers said that if they could have used all of the cut material, they might have been able to fill up another 26 episodes. We’ll never get to see those.

Anyway, with that in mind, they have 13 episodes left to wrap up everything with these characters. In fact, I’d dare say that we’ve largely seen the wrap up of the individual stories for Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro (In fact, you’ll notice I focus a lot less on them, because their personal stories are mostly done). So we need to see the wrap-up for Allura, Lance, and Keith (as well as everyone as a Team).

The reason I don’t think they’re going to show us any real romance between Allura and Lance, and just tell us that they’re together, is partially because they have 13 episodes left, and partially because it’s not a show about romance. The only reason that the romance will be included in a small way is for specific character arcs that were always going to end that way.

It’s why, after some thought, I’m sure they’re not shoehorning random ships in. The writers aren’t perfect and make decisions that I don’t completely agree with, but they do know what they’re doing. If they couldn’t write, no one would have been interested in the first place.

I think we’re going to be seeing the end of Allura and Lance’s relationship, and like I mentioned before going off on 100 tangents, I think this is going to be healthy for them both in the long run. There won’t be any wondering if they made the right choices in the long run, or any huge ‘what ifs’.

What’s going to lead to this tension very early on is the Altean. Allura is going to want to go to Haggar. She’s going to want to help the Alteans, to show them that Honerva is wrong about them and is using them.

I’ve said before that Allura’s story is not one about romantic love. Yes, she experienced it along the way, but it wasn’t the point. Allura’s identity has largely been tied to being ‘Princess Allura, daughter of King Alfor of Altea’. Think about it. Allura chose Pidge to leave because she and her family were the ones most likely to be able to complete her father’s work. Lotor grew up her so quickly, because he kept comparing her to her father, and clearly held him in high regards, and his more studious nature probably reminded Allura a lot of Alfor.

Shipping Sidenote

I think even her attraction to Lance is based on this in a sense. She genuinely liked Lotor. That was not a lie, and she didn’t get any kind of proper closure on that. Lance though, he’s been compared to Alfor a lot, including by Allura herself. I think she’s leaning more towards Lance not only because he’s a good friend, but because she seems some of her father in him, and she misplacing her admiration due to the heartbreak and hurt she’s feeling. Lance is her friend. Lance likes her already (thanks mice). Lance is a good person of her father and she sees other qualities that are the same that she always admired. Lance is safe.

I don’t at all mean this is a creepy way. Allura does not love her father that way. What I’m saying is that in her hurting, she’s misinterpreting her feelings for Lance. It’s why they came out of nowhere. Allura, before Lotor, has never had to seriously deal with romantic love as far as we know. Meaning she’s just as much as disaster as everyone else in that regard.

In S6, the castleship was destroyed, and in S7, Allura was treated less as a Princess and more as just another Paladin. This is shown by the fact that she’s very rarely referred to as a Princess, and the fact that she was wearing the same uniforms as the Paladins at the Garrison. If that’s not enough for you, she gave up her tiara to help Shiro (something she’s been shown to have almost all her life). This is the most stripped of her titles that she’s ever been. The most herself and not just a Princess.

Allura’s endgame is going to be all about building her own identity outside of her father. Not just that, but it’s going to be about surpassing him. Going from ‘Allura, daughter of the Alfor’ to ‘Alfor, father of the Allura’.

As I said before, Allura is going to want to go after the Alteans, and this is what’s going to be part of the end of her relationship with Lance. Why? Well…

Let’s take a look at Lance next.

Themes surrounding Lance can be largely boiled down to two things: self-worth, and romantic love.

People complain a lot about ‘they’re not addressing Lance’ or ‘he’s being overlooked’. Well, in this case, they actually do ‘show’ us instead of ‘tell’ us. There’s really no rhyme or reason to things like that.

Lance’s confidence is arguably at its highest in S7 in regards to his place on the team, and his usefulness. We don’t see him wavering like we did when Kuron was Black’s pilot. Lance knows how he fits into the team. Of course, there are still a few more things in regards to that that need to be addressed.

I think those insecurities are largely going to involve Keith, which makes sense. We were introduced to Lance being compared to him pretty much out the gate. Keith has been both a huge source of motivation, inspiration, but also insecurities for Lance.

I think we’re going to see Acxa hanging around Keith a lot. I don’t think it’s going to actually be portrayed as romantic between them, but Lance is going to think it is, just like he questioned Allura and Keith’s relationship when they ran off together. It’s going to make him insecure despite his relationship with Allura, because she’s never been able to help him emotionally in quite the same way that he could help her.

Lance is going to become insecure again due to this, and he’s going to want to stay on Earth. I think that this is going to be the thing that finally leads him and Allura to separate from one another. I don’t mean ‘finally’ as in ‘thank god finally’, I mean as in they could both kind of see it coming. Allura never got her closure with Lotor. Lance has all those ‘what ifs’ involving Keith. She wants to go to space. He wants to stay on Earth.

I think we’ll see Hunk and Pidge wanting to stay on Earth with their families too.

Keith though, he’s going to agree with Allura. Though they have their differences, the two of them are a lot alike. They do things differently, but often times have the bigger picture in mind.

Of course Lance will be a bit hurt by Allura at the time, and vice versa, and I think he’ll lash out at Keith like he did in the past during moments of high stress. He’ll accuse Keith of wanting to run away again. Maybe Hunk tries to keep things calm like before, but this time, Keith is going to end up storming away from them.

It’s not like they’re in deep space. Nothing can happen this time, right?

Well, in space, they were tricked into thinking that a predator that wanted to eat them was the safety of Earth. This time around, the safety of a friend turns out to be not-so-safe.

Time to talk about Keith.

I genuinely think that Keith’s gay, and that he was coded that way on purpose. I do not think he has romantic feelings for Acxa, and I do not think she has romantic feelings for him either. Him going back to save her at the time makes sense, because Keith started as the person that would suggest leaving someone behind for the bigger picture (Allura in S1), then grow as a team player to the point where he’ll run back for others when he’s told not to (Regris in S4, to stop the bombs in S5), to someone who in theory understands the concept of leaving someone behind but only when that person is him (flying at the shield in S4, telling Krolia to leave him in S5, saying he understands why she left him for the mission in S6). Keith would have gone back anyone that was on their side as it was, let alone the person that keeps saving him or letting him go. (Sidenote: this should not be surprising, because look at Shiro. Shiro who would go back and fight for anyone else, but takes shit care of himself. You know, the dude that raised Keith in his teenage years? Yeah.)

I think that Acxa was looking for the Paladins, specifically Keith. Maybe it’s on a personal level where she thinks that he could be a good leader, sees a little bit of Lotor in him, and she wants to be his sort-of right hand in the way she was with Lotor. I don’t think so though. He already has a ‘right hand’ he trusts without hesitation (as shown time and time again in S7 alone).

I really don’t think this is where this is going though.

Keith has always been the ‘special snowflake’ of the bunch, but he’s written in a way that, unless you hate him anyway, it doesn’t make him a bad character. For every one thing that makes him ‘special’ he has a downside that balances it out.

It’s not even that he’s part-Galra that actually makes him ‘special’ though. There are plenty of part-Galra characters. It’s whatever he has going on with quintessence, which was shown in S1, then shoved aside for everything else, and brought back slightly in S6, and then in full-force in S7. That wasn’t a mistake. They’re taking his connection to quintessence somewhere.

Not just that. Thematically, it would have made more sense for Shiro to land the killing blow on Sendak. I thought that was where it was going to go. But instead they chose Keith to kill him on-screen in a way that is framed very similarly to Zarkon defeating Alfor.

Given that Keith’s the leader of Voltron, and that he killed Sendak, I think perhaps the blade is encouraging him to take up a leadership role with the Galra. Maybe others are too, and this is another factor about why he wants to go back to space.

Keith would not at all want to be an Emperor. I don’t think he’d want to be any kind of political leader. He can be more of a military one like with Voltron, in charge of a small team, but politics? Nah. He’s not going to want that, but he’s going to feel pressure from a lot of sides to do it.

After his fight with Lance, he goes to talk to Acxa, who he’s been close to lately. Maybe he decides to apologize to Lance, to tell him he’s not going to be this Galra leader, but as a team they need to go after Haggar.

Then Acxa is going to lure him into a trap.

I think that Acxa is still working with Honerva, but only as a means to an end. I think they have a common goal: they both want Lotor back.

Now time to talk more about Acxa and Honerva to show I’m not taking a female character and making her bad for the sake of a ship because, ew. Also, we’re going to talk a lot about Lotor too.

So yeah, the Lotor stuff first.

First and foremost, we’re not done with Lotor. One of the first things you should realize is, unless they’re actually shown as dead, assume they’re not dead. Sometimes they are (side-eyes Shiro), and sometimes they’re shown as dead and still come back, but you know what I mean.

The Paladins are assuming that Lotor could not survive in the rift. Keep in mind, both Allura and Keith wanted to go back and get him, to bring him back out, but then the other three said no, and Keith sided with the majority instead of fighting, so they left him.

Lotor is not a normal Galra. I don’t mean in the sense that he’s part Altean, or seemed to value intelligence over brute force. I’m talking about the fact that Honerva was pregnant with him when Lotor brought her into the void. Maybe part of the reason (not the whole reason), she became so obsessed with Quintessence and the rift was trying to find a way to save her sick unborn baby or something. Given that she had notes and stuff, Lotor would see that love towards him, and it would make him value her more.

Keep in mind, he hated Zarkon. He also knew who Haggar was all along, you can tell, he just separates them into two different people, because Haggar didn’t know who he was and was a witch and monster that probably worked against him time and time again, but Honerva was the mother that loved him and wanted to save him.

Lotor values loyalty almost above all else. That shit matters.

Anyway, Honerva was pregnant when she went into the rift, and those creatures took over both Zarkon and Honerva, twisting them into the corrupted form of Zarkon that lived for 10,000 years as a monster, and Haggar.

When Zarkon died, the black bayard changed back into the non-corrupted form, showing that, for that split second before he died, he was free of those monsters. He died as himself. Honerva went to Oriande, and I think that perhaps it expelled the creatures from her body, hence the shift even in the subtitles from the name Haggar to Honerva. Like Lotor, she too separates herself into two different people.

My point is though, these rift creatures took over two adult minds. What do you think they did to an unborn child that’s essentially a blank slate? When Lotor used the black bayard, it was in its corrupted form, and I think that they showed us that to show that something isn’t right with him on that level.

That’s why Oriande didn’t ‘cure’ him like it did Haggar. That corruption is the reason he’s alive, it’s a part of him in a way like non-other. Or, perhaps, Haggar knew how to handle the white lion, and if Lotor would have done that properly, the creatures would have left him. Who knows?

We do know that there was something wrong with Lotor at birth. Zarkon asks if he can be saved. We also see little Lotor with glowing eyes. Yet, he’s been alive for 10,000 years and looks like a young adult.

Yeah, he can survive the rift for a long period of time. In fact, he’s probably the only thing that physically can.

What does all this have to do with Acxa though?

She has been loyal to him through everything. He killed Narti, and that had Ezor and Zethrid wanting to run for the hills. Acxa seemed to agree, but we later find out that she was playing everyone right alongside Lotor. He had to go on his own with the Paladins, and she was the oen that suggested going to Zarkon. Who do you think gave her that idea?

I don’t think she knew that Haggar would seek them out after Zarkon was gone, but she rolled with it, keeping eyes and ears with the Galra while Lotor did his thing.

I cannot stress that again. Lotor killed Narti, and she was still loyal to him. Unwaveringly loyal and willing to shoot Honerva for his sake. Lotor knew this. He trusted Acxa above all others.

Then she saw him unhinging during the fight with Voltron. She says ‘separate ties with Lotor for good’, but then she tries to plead with him later and looks genuinely heartbroken over what’s happening.

I think she’s still loyal to Lotor, and she wants to help get him out of the rift, which is exactly what Honerva’s planning on doing.

We know from interviews that Honerva actually does feel love towards Lotor. It’s what motivated her from being all ‘yes Zarkon kill the bitch’ to ‘ohfuckno activate babysitter-Kuron, give him black bayard’ probably knowing that Zarkon wasn’t going to come out of it alive.

Instant switch when she remembered. We have no idea what she wanted to use Sendak for. No idea what her plan was for capturing Lotor.

Neither Haggar nor Honerva are necessarily leaders. She has almost cult-like control over the druids, and now probably the Alteans, but she’s not an overall leader.

Honerva and Acxa are working together to bring Lotor back, and then they’re going to make him Emperor of a proper Empire this time. At first, Honerva wanted to use Sendak to bring together the Empire, and then probably off him for Lotor to take over (and proving some kind of loyalty).

I think that’s still her plan. Put her child in power, and be able to run her experiments and do as she pleases since she’s his mother and helped him.

Okay but what does this have to do with Keith?

I’ve said this in other posts, but it’s almost like a double-whammy. They need to get control over the factions of the Galra Empire for her plans to work. We know it’s in shambles with warlords running amok, and Haggar needs a new puppet.

Who is someone many people are likely going to follow? Perhaps a half-Galra that happens to be the current Black Paladin? The Black Lion seems to be almost a symbol towards the Galra too. Lotor presented himself as bringing Black back to the Galra, and Black showed Shiro Daizabaal as her home.

Not only that though. Lotor probably had the greatest collective forces in the shambles of the Galra Empire, and Keith just fucking shanked him. Came flying down from the heavens and delivered a holy ass whoopin’, skewering him in half. On screen.

The coalition, in this theory, already wants him as the leader, so she’s going to sink her claws into him and control him. Keith isn’t at all going to do this willingly. Perhaps this leads to some answers about Narti and Kova, since Narti’s the only character that was shown to be able to control minds directly of people that she didn’t create, and it’s still suspicious that she had Haggar’s fucking 10,000 year old cat as her seeing-eye animal (also, Haggar looking through Narti’s eyes in S4? Not to be insensitive, but she literally didn’t have eyes, so how was Haggar watching them? Oh, right. Through the fucking cat.)

(Kova is secretly the one that controls minds, Narti was just a puppet.)

She doesn’t want to keep Keith around permanently though.

NOTE: this Galra Emperor stuff might mean nothing at all. In fact, you can take that part out of the theory all together and it can still work as long as you just focus on getting Lotor back.

Honerva had zero interest in Keith as of S6. She wanted Kuron to get rid of him. However, I think she was also watching that fight through his eyes. Keith, if he would have been fighting as offensively and aggressively as he used to, would have beaten Shiro. We saw this in the fight, because the times he did go on the offensive, he was close to overpowering him (“There’s the Keith I remember”).

The only things that might have caught her attention were Keith’s strength (he did win in the end), summoning the black bayard from Shiro (which, yes, I do think is what happened despite some others not thinking so), and when his eyes changed.

Shapeshifting is not something associated with Galra. Not at all. We’ve seen half-Galra with strange abilities (Narti with mind control, and Ezor with turning herself invisible that was never really used properly again), but that doesn’t explain Keith’s eyes changing. Galra have never been shown to do that. It would have been easy to show. It wasn’t though, because it’s not a Galra trait.

Also, Galra haven’t been shown to have a connection to Quintessence.

Humans certainly don’t shapeshift. Humans don’t seem to have a stronger than normal connection to Quintessence, otherwise we would have seen more of the other Paladins doing stuff with it like Keith was shown to do in S7.

Originally, with him, it seemed more like a slight ability that may have been slightly watered down from human or Galra genetics over time. A part of me thinks that Krolia herself isn’t all Galra. A parent or grandparent could have been Altean, the only species shown to be shapeshifters at this point. Krolia doesn’t look like any other Galra we’ve seen, outside of Lotor and Acxa.

That might not at all be the case though. Or maybe someone even farther in the past wasn’t entirely Galra but far enough back where Krolia doesn’t even know about it. Genetics sometimes keep things around like that, and they randomly pop up every once and a while. Hell, maybe it’s just because he was born and grew up in his young years so close to Blue.

Doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that he then got doused with a vat of raw quintessence.

Honerva said a small amount of it could power things for a long period of time. She used it to keep Kova alive for over 10,000 years. Not just Kova, but Zarkon, herself, potentially Zarkon’s closest generals (Sendak seemed to imply that he was around when Altea fell), and then there’s Lotor, or course. Keith took a fucking shower in it.

It’s not like she has any way of knowing that, right? It’s not like someone loyal to her would have pointed it out, ri—

Oh.

Honerva went looking for answers, and the druid brought up what happened. I don’t think she knew about that beforehand though, because, again, she never seemed interested in Keith before.

Through all her observations, she knows Keith probably is a walking quintessence hotspot. It was Lotor’s idea to take the quintessence from the Alteans themselves, and she said that she was impressed with it. She definitely took it further, making a robot that can be powered by a single Altean that’s strong enough to technically defeat Voltron by sapping away it’s quintessence, and also doing a lot of other weird shit while fighting Atlas.

Honerva wants Keith for his Quintessence, most likely to open the rift to get Lotor back. This is exactly why Acxa’s working with her, because though she has a connection to Keith, Lotor means so much more to her.

Acxa was looking for Voltron, and Keith specifically. We literally have no idea where she went after she separated from Voltron, but she definitely didn’t tell the coalition that they were back. So where did she go?

I think she went back to Haggar and told them that Voltron was heading to Earth. That was how Haggar knew to watch Earth. She waited until Keith killed Sendak to make her move. She was absolutely keeping track of this somehow. Maybe she was already paying attention to Earth, but given everything else she seems to have been doing, she was probably tipped off about where they were going.

Also, I find it suspicious that Haggar was the one that gave the orders to target the Blade of Marmora, and then later all the Voltron Coalition.

Maybe other groups were hunting the Coalition down, but we know that Haggar gave the druids the job of hunting the Blade. The Blade, that also wasn’t on her radar until she was watching Keith through Kuron’s eyes, saw him dressed in that uniform, and introduced his Galra mother to Kuron as a part of the Blade of Marmora.

Yes, they were more out of the shadows since teaming up with Voltron, so she probably heard about them before, but that was the first time she’d shown true interest in the entire group specifically. I think she was trying to find Keith too.

That druid singled out Keith. Yes, Kosmo was the one that teleported Keith away, but still, the druid (who I know has a name but I’m lazy). Krolia was a higher ranking Blade with more experience. She’s arguably more dangerous than Keith. Then there was Allura, who is a walking power house. But he went for Keith.

This all leads up to…

Acxa gets close to Keith to trick him, and brings him to Haggar. Perhaps to use as a puppet for a while, but definitely to use to bring Lotor back (in this theory). Except, maybe she didn’t tell Acxa that Keith would most likely die doing this.

Loyal to Lotor or not, Acxa has a connection to Keith. She still wants Lotor back, but she doesn’t want him to die in the process.

So she’s going to go back to Voltron somehow to get their help. She’s a morally grey character, and that’s fine. It doesn’t make her demonic or anything like that. She’s allowed to make mistakes and be played herself.

Meanwhile on Earth…

The other Paladins do notice that Keith is gone. However, they think he left with the other Galra. Lance is probably going to be shown as the angriest about this, but also acting like he doesn’t care.

Then Keith’s mother and Kolivan show up and they’re all confused. Then Acxa shows up and tells them what’s up.

Side point

I don’t think that Atlas is made to replace the castleship, though there’s definitely the parallels of Shiro taking Allura’s place in that respect with it. I think that Atlas will be staying close to Earth to protect it and act as the new Vehicle Voltron.

I think that they’re going to work on creating a second castleship that Voltron can use to get around. Maybe it won’t be a castle, but another ship at least so the lions can recharge. It’s why they brought the whole fucking Balmera at the end of S7. So Shay could come back, and so they can get a crystal to power it. Maybe the Alteans end up living there as the explorers and peacekeepers they always were in the end. (With Romelle flying it in Allura’s old position).

This is what prompts all of the Paladins into going after Keith. Perhaps Haggar tries to keep them busy on Earth by sending other Altean-robots to fight them. That’s where Atlas comes in. Atlas and the MFE fighters are going to protect Earth, keep it safe so that the Paladins don’t have to worry. I’m not entirely sure if Shiro’s going to go with them or not.

If there’s a replacement castleship by this point, I don’t think it’s done, so they have to take the lions.

They realize that they’re going to need Voltron for this. They can’t leave Black behind. So once again, they need a temporary Paladin.

At this point, they’re not going to do a permanent lion switch again.

Just like Keith didn’t want to go into Black, Lance isn’t going to want to either, because he’s going to be blaming himself. It’s what Lance does. I think this is where he’s going to have a one-on-one talk with Shiro about everything. Shiro’s going to be the one to urge him to try, to go save Keith. I could see him encouraging Lance to go after Keith, to not give up, because he’s still there (unlike Adam).

I think that Lance will be the one that Black accepts, because he’ll be the one that wants to get Keith back the most out of all the current Paladins.

As for who temporarily flies Red? There are two options and I’m open for either of them. One is Coran finally getting the chance he’s wanted since before. The other is Romelle, explaining why she was shown in with Lance in Red several times during S7. She’s familiar with Red.

I’m leaning a little more towards Romelle, because of how they need to get to Keith. Allura can create wormholes again, and we know that Coran knows how to open them as well as long as Allura powers the teleduv beforehand. Plus, Coran helps pilot Atlas, so he’d be more useful on Earth, and Romelle going with them helps too.

No matter if Keith is being used as a pawn, or just basically a sacrifice, Honerva is going to use him to fight the others. Maybe he’ll be in a weakened state that she can take over (OR THE CAT CAN CONTROL…yeah I’m done with that) while also opening the rift to get Lotor back. Kind of like the last bit of energy he has left.

Allura is going to face Honerva, Altean vs. Altean. Since she’s there in this theory, Romelle tries to get through to the Alteans, because she’s a familiar face. They know her. She’d pump up Allura and rip both Lotor and Honerva down.

I haven’t focused much on Hunk or Pidge, and it’s not because they’re not important. Like I said before, their personal arcs are pretty much over as of S7. Here, they’re going to function in much more a team aspect. Planning together, being the ones to break in and fight sentries and stuff like that.

Lance is going to be the one to face Keith alone. I’ve gone through this theory before, even used it in a writing prompt. It’ll be the last Black Paladin vs. Red Paladin fight. Corrupted Zarkon vs. Alfor. Clone Shiro vs. Keith. Mind controlled Keith vs. Lance.

This is a secondary reason Lance has been compared to Alfor before. Why he was given the sword. It’s not a fair fight gun to sword, and not interesting visually. Lance could snipe Keith without much trouble.

Sword fights though are close up and much more intimate. We saw this in the Shiro vs. Keith fight, which was probably the BEST and most intense fight of the series to me.

There’s a reason why it’s important that Lance and Keith left off on seemingly bad terms. Keith’s been putting walls up again when it comes to Lance, having been rejected and having had time to dwell on that.

Haggar is going to use this to help control Keith, to get in his head. In this theory, Keith has had feelings for Lance for a long time, but Lance was with Allura. Haggar’s going to use that too. Hell, she’s going to use the fact that everyone seems to be using him for their own agendas when he doesn’t want to be a Galra leader. It’s a strong way to break through his stubborn defenses (plus she’d be sapping the quintessence from him).

Normally in a sword fight, Keith would destroy Lance. That’s the truth. No matter how much Lance has been practicing, Keith has been doing it for years and it’s his specialty (along with hand-to-hand).

Keith being weaker, and maybe a part of him still fighting back against the control, will allow Lance to put up a bit more of a fight, but ultimately, it’s going to be his words that get through to Keith.

It’s like how we saw Kuron react to Keith saying he loves him, except this time, Keith’s going to react strongly enough to either break through the control, or give Lance the chance to knock him out. Alternatively, it’ll give Lance the chance to quickly change bayards and maybe shoot something close by that’s controlling him (if there’s someone like Narti around).

(IF IT’S THE CAT KOSMO TAKES IT OUT. HENCE WHY HE WAS INTRODUCED. OKAY THIS TIME I’M DONE WITH THE STUPID CAT THAT PROBABLy MEANS NOTHING BUT LET ME LIVE)

There’s not going to be a romantic, love confession here. Maybe friendship and love. Definitely more personal stuff.

Then we get Lance getting Keith out of there, and ideally, we get a flashback of the actual bonding moment, because it’s being mirrored here.

Meanwhile, Allura ends up defeating Honerva, but she says something like she’s too late, and the rift opens again. Romelle’s words and Allura’s actions prompted many of the Alteans to agree to go with them, so they’re all bailing out.

The creatures are coming back out, but in a few form, because the Lotor that went in is not going to be the Lotor that comes out.

The Sincline ships didn’t quite function like the lions. They were ships that could combine together, but showed no sentience of their own. That’s going to change now, because the rift creatures (which were shown as being quadrupeds like the lions) gave them sentience.

Maybe Lotor lets Honerva and Acxa pilot two of the ships now, maybe he doesn’t need to. Maybe he looks the same, maybe he’s completely different, I’m not entirely sure.

If Lotor doesn’t let Honerva help him, I think he’s going to be the one to kill her, just like he killed Zarkon. As for Acxa, either she helps Lotor and goes back to him, she was back on Earth the entire time, or she goes back with them. I don’t want her to die, though that’d definitely make it super obvious that this Lotor isn’t right.

The Lotor that went into the rift was misguided, had a bad moral compass, but he wasn’t pure evil. This Lotor though is exactly the monster that Allura claimed he was.

The Paladins are going to retreat. Probably back to Earth.

What now?

There are many ways this can go. If it’s a mid-season kind of thing (which is…a lot but this show has been going full-tilt for a while now), there’s time to plan, to show the destruction the rift creatures can cause, to perhaps come up with an idea to save Lotor like neither of his parents could be saved.

Allura needs to have closure with Lotor in some form. She needs that.

Like Romelle was a Princess in the original, I could see her becoming something of a Leader with the surviving Alteans. The one to guide them into this new world with both Coran and Allura helping. This leaves Allura open to continue being the Blue Paladin.

Allura, however, will focus on alchemy. Somehow, she’ll figure out a way to make the lions stronger, to give them an upgrade.

Both Allura and Lotor were following in the footsteps of a parent. For Lotor, it was Honerva. For Allura, it was Alfor. Lotor did improve on Honerva’s work and took it to places she couldn’t imagine (but then later used herself). Allura is going to surpass her father too by somehow improving the lions, making them stronger.

Allura’s future is going to involve a combination of being an alchemist, helping the Alteans, and being a Paladin of Voltron, and kicking ass at all of them as the strong, confident woman she truly is. Alteans definitely age differently than humans, so in the distant future, I could see her eventually being the Black Paladin. But we won’t see that in the show.

There were some toys released a while ago with the lions looking different, perhaps that was done for a reason. Toys sometimes do spoil things amongst many franchises.

They all know Lotor’s going to come for them, so they’re getting ready for it. I don’t think the final fight will be by Earth though, they’ve already done that. The battle with Lotor technically took place by the ruins of Daizabaal were if I remember correctly (that’s where the rift originally was). Where would be a significant place though that we haven’t seen at all?

Who were the ‘bad guys’ during the first part of this season?

The fight with Lotor will be by the ruins of Altea, which we have yet to actually see. Allura said Altea and the entire star system was destroyed. Sendak said that Altea was the only world to fight back against the Galra, the only one to be completely destroyed.

We saw Daizabaal. We saw Earth. We have yet to actually see Altea, or what’s left of it. If there’s something left of Zarkon’s home that was destroyed first, there’s something left of that too.

Maybe Lotor offers them a challenge. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done something like that. It’d give him the upper hand luring them in. Maybe they go there first, knowing that there won’t be anyone else there that can get hurt in the process.

Of course, it depends on when this type of things happens and who’s on his side. There’s a lot that can happen in half a season. Either that, or this is going to be towards the very end and we’ll have a couple episodes with a single intense and emotionally draining battle in it.

Before they go, we’re going to see a lot of intensely emotional moments between characters and families. We’ll see Allura and Lance reconciling and agreeing to be friends. We’ll see Lance with his family. We’ll see Hunk with his. Pidge with hers. We’ll see Allura with Coran and Romelle, as well as the other Alteans.

Three important ones will happen though.

We’ll see Krolia with Keith. All of this happening doesn’t change the fact that the Galra need some kind of leader to get their shit together (even if it’s not an Empire). Everyone else will finally listen to Keith when he says he doesn’t want that. In fact, going off of him killing Sendak is just keeping those old ways alive. Instead, we’ll see Krolia as the leader (no, not Kolivan, Krolia). Maybe she needs to be an Empress for a bit before changing things. (Keith would be a pretty princess in this case, wouldn’t he, AJ?)

We’ll see Shiro with everyone else too. Some hugely emotional moments where they’re all talking about how far they’ve come.

We’ll see a moment between Lance and Keith too, where they get their shit together and are honest with one another. Keith is going to ask if Lance wants to fly Black, insisting he could go to Red (Romelle does NOT want a second time of that), but Lance is going to say no, because he’s confident in himself now. He knows where he belongs and that he’s good enough.

IF there’s any direct romantic implications, which I think there will be, this is where it’s going to be MOST obvious. We’ll see a hug no matter what, but if they want to do it, this is the right place to frame a kiss too where the judgemental assholes can still say ‘no they’re just HUGGING’ even though they’re definitely not.

Honestly, I’m not sure how whatever big final fight they have is going to pan out. I THINK it’s going to be with the rift creatures/Lotor, but there’s always the slightest chance it’ll involve Honerva as well, all things depending.

Of course they win in the end. Maybe people get scarred and injured, but no one is going to die from the main group.

Over 7000 words and I’m not even sure if they save Lotor to help him, or just defeat him. I’d like to think they help him this time around though. Or at least try to.

What I do know is that a show called Voltron is going to end with an epic battle involving Voltron.

I also think that, at the end, everyone will have lives on Earth/with Alteans/other aliens, but our current team of Paladins will also be shown to be going back into space in the end. They’ll be excited, ready to go as a team, and they’ll go together and by their own choice. The Galra Empire did do a lot of damage, after all, and there are plenty of worlds that need help anyway.

And that is how the show will end.

Things I did not address: What’s going on with the MFE fighters? I genuinely don’t know. Their inclusion threw me off. It really felt like they were setting up a spin-off series with them, and S7 was used to introduce them. They’re defending Earth while Voltron is off in space I guess?

I didn’t really address Hunk and Pidge, because like I said, their personal story arcs are either finished or almost there. We even saw Hunk reuniting with Shay, which is something that tends to happen at the end of a story arc, especially since she, more than anything else, was what really started his growth as a person.

Pidge, as well, was shown surrounded by her family. Her mom was there. Her dad was there. Matt was there. Matt has a masked girlfriend. Hell, Beezer was there along with Nyma (though Rolo was suspiciously absent…which I don’t know what to make of that at all). The goals she set out to accomplish have been accomplished. She now has friends, is part of a team, is less selfish. Again, what prompted her to grow and change has largely been accomplished and shown.

Shiro is another character who has found his place and where he belongs now. He’s not a Paladin anymore, but that’s okay. Shiro has had the amazingly unique story of being both The Mentor and being an active character in his own right. That’s incredibly rare in stories, since the mentors are normally shrugged aside or killed (which…yeah…was supposed to happen). He’s found a place as a bridge between the Garrison and Voltron more than anyone else.

I didn’t talk about the rebels or coalition really, or the rest of the blade, or even Krolia for that matter, cause I’m not entirely sure where that fits in with this. That can be worked out later.

SO, this is some wild speculation mixed with meta, mixed with theories, mixed with fanfiction ideas. I just pretty much planned out an entire story here that I do not want to write myself.

Hit me up if you’re interested.

…Also if even ONE thing ends up happening, I’m going to lose my shit. And I accidentally predicted a ton of stuff that ended up going down in S6 once. Maybe I’ll get lucky again?

#voltron #vld #klance #laith #theorytime #my thoughts #commentary #long post #seriously this is a very long post #be warned #I am SO sorry if mobile isn't work right and this doesn't show up as a link

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ironinkpen · 7 years

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“The Leader That You’ve Become”: Allura and the Blue Lion

Alternatively Titled: Dreamworks Let This Poor Girl Have Fun For Once In Her God Damn Life

I already wrote a long ass meta about putting Lance in the Black Lion and talked about Allura in it, but fuck it. I have free time (ie homework I don’t want to do) so let’s write another one about just Allura. This is gonna be long so like, in summary, my argument is that I think that: 1. Allura’s personality and quintessence match the Blue Lion pretty well, and 2. Putting Allura in the Blue Lion might allow for interesting character growth.

But yeah okay let’s go:

So I’ll be the first to say that Black Paladin Allura would make me shit myself out of pure joy. And scenes like the above definitely point in that direction. Coran says it himself, Allura’s a leader. She’s been running this universe saving thing since day one. Sure, Shiro leads the team, but he’s Allura’s second in command. She’s the one who owns the lions, chooses the missions, makes everyone train, builds alliances, gets the team to safety, organizes resistance efforts, and operates the castle. Shiro might be the head of Voltron, but Allura is and always has been Voltron’s leader.

Alright then, I’m sold. Let’s put her in Black!!

But… would that really be the best move, narratively?

For one thing, if the purpose of removing Shiro from the equation (for at least a little while) is to shake up the team, then putting Allura in as Black (at least immediately) is a very strange move. None of the team dynamics get challenged at all, really, because just be swapping out one stable leader for another. It would make sense, but it would kind of be a cop out to the whole big “ooh, what’s the team going to do without Shiro” build up.

Plus, the idea of consolidating the two roles of Leader of Voltron and Head of Voltron kind of stresses me out. That might just be a personal thing, but I feel like it’s really critical for these roles to be kept separate, and what happened to Shiro is proof as to why. If something happens to one of the leaders, the other is still there to handle things. But like, if Allura gets both jobs, and god forbid something happens to her, the team is left with two vacancies and no leaders at all. Then they’d really be screwed.

And on that note, we need two leaders to question each other’s judgement and decisions. We see this dynamic play out between Shiro and Allura frequently. When Shiro says “yeah let’s trust Ulaz,” Allura’s the one to step back and be like “what.” Shiro ends up being right to do so, but Allura’s questions are completely valid. How do we know this isn’t a trap? What have these guys been doing for the past 10000 years? Shiro was ready to trust Ulaz kinda just… ‘cause, while Allura brought the more realistic concerns onto the table.

And when Allura and Keith leave the castle-

-Shiro’s the one to be like, uh, we kind of need you guys here. He and Allura balance each other out. If you combine the two roles, the only judgement the team will follow is Allura’s, because no one else would have the authority to really challenge her. And while she is, again, a brilliant leader, that doesn’t mean she’s always right. Like, specifically in this whole “Keith and Allura run away” thing, they could have tested whether or not it was them being tracked in a different, safer way. Ditching the team and leaving them open to attack in the middle of the night was not the wisest move. This is why we need two leaders, so that one can point out when the other is being too brash or too trusting.

The final issue is:

It’s been emphasized by Coran time and time again that Allura’s quintessence is needed to operate the castle (specifically the wormholes, so that the team can escape if need be). Who would be able to do it in her absence? Can Allura even pilot a lion at all?

Alright so that lays out all of the potential issues with Allura being Black Paladin (and I want to reiterate: I could be completely wrong about all of this lmao, I’m but a mere teenager overanalyzing a children’s tv show). But how would her being the Blue Paladin instead solve any of them?

Well, for one:

This is the same episode where Keith and Allura run off together. Coran is shown to be capable of operating the castle (to an extent) without Allura!! We don’t know the full extent of the castle’s reliance on Allura, and I’m sure that’ll be relevant / explained in season 3, but one thing she’s definitely needed in the castle for is wormholing. It’s a pretty well-established fact that Allura’s the only one who can activate the wormholes.

But that could change soon.

Like Slav points out, the castle is outdated. There’s a chance that someone (maybe him, maybe Coran, maybe someone else) might fix it up to solve that problem.

So, who’s to say that they might not be able to fix things so that Coran might be able to make wormholes instead?

If that happens, Allura could pilot blue, since the team would still be able to wormhole away (assuming that’s really the main thing they need Allura in the castle for).

On another note:

Allura’s quintessence seems to be blue (it was pink at the end of season two but that was probably because of Haggar I think). I’m still kind of unsure on the whole quintessence thing because the only people on Team Voltron that we see actually using quintessence are Allura (seen above) and Shiro (seen with his arm), so there’s no proof that the color of the quintessence matters when it comes to piloting, but Allura does say:

And if Allura has blue quintessence… Hm.

We’re never told in the series what the traits of the Blue Lion are because Lance cuts Allura off, but a look on the Voltron website tells us that it’s “the friendliest of the lions and the most accepting of new pilots” along with having a confidence that “comes in handy in tough battles against bigger and better opponents.” Allura is undoubtedly friendly, as the Alteans are a diplomatic race. We see the extent of her friendliness when she’s willing to work with the Galra despite the fact that they killed her entire civilization (which, in her mind, happened like a few weeks ago thanks to the whole cyro freeze thing). She’s also quite confident in her abilities and judgement– like I’ve said, she’s a leader.

Additionally, the Blue Lion is the Guardian of Water, and water is typically tied to traits like adaptability and healing. We see Allura healing the Balmera, and we see her being adaptable when she… does anything tbh. Allura is frighteningly well-adjusted. As soon as she comes out of the healing pod she basically accepts that she’s been frozen for ten thousand years off the bat. She’s really good at going with the flow. She throws together a resistance between the Marmora, Balmerans, and the Olkari, works to train the team despite them being young and inexperienced because hey, they’re all we’ve got, and agrees to work with the Marmora (again, despite the fact that the Galra killed everyone she knew like a month ago).

And then there’s the whole “most accepting of new pilots” thing. The fact that that information is purposefully kept from the audience makes it seem to me that the writers are setting things up so that someone new is going to pilot the Blue Lion next season. And Allura’s a good bet for who it might be.

The main reason people seem to be nervous about about Allura not becoming the Black Paladin is that they feel that if she doesn’t, it means that Dreamworks is shoving her character to the side. But, like I’ve said, Allura is and always has been the leader of Voltron. She’s the Commander of the Castleship! Her not becoming the Head doesn’t invalidate the power she already has within the group. She is and always has been the most powerful member of the team. That first picture I showed, where Coran calls her a leader, comes before she’s ever stepped foot in a lion.

Also, it’s basically impossible for Dreamworks to push Allura aside next season anyway lol. We’ve just found out that there are other Alteans! And that they’re evil!! Plus we’ve got a mini-resistance with the Blade of Marmora and the Balmerans and the Olkari going, and Lotor, who in the OG series basically completely revolved around Allura, is coming to town. Allura’s. Got a lot on her plate, and her plot’s going to be central to the next season anyway. So I wouldn’t consider it too much of a loss if she didn’t pilot Black (or even a Lion at all!).

Okay so anyway I’ve been arguing so far that Allura could be the Blue Paladin, that it would make sense, and that it wouldn’t hurt her character, but to be honest, the biggest reason I feel like Allura should be Blue Paladin if she does become a paladin is that I think it would be good for her character.

We always see Allura as being this very serious person. She’s just lost her people in a war, the man who did it is still out there and is doing the same thing to others, and now she’s gotta deal with a bunch of punkass kids who don’t really know what they’re doing. She’s mourning and stressed. In the Space Mall episode when everyone leaves, she says it herself: “What am I supposed to do now, sit around and worry all day?”

She worries about the paladins, about her duties, about Zarkon. Sure, she handles this all incredibly well, but it’s clear that there’s already a lot on her plate. And she runs a tight castle-ship as a result.

But, on occasion, we get to see another side of her:

She likes having fun! She plays road trip games with the mice and gossips with them, she wants to go out and see pirates, and when she’s left alone in the castle, she plays bumper cars and races down the hallways (god bless the comic tbh).

The Voltron wiki describes the Blue Lion as an energetic and fun-loving lion. And I’d say that’s an accurate assessment. The first thing Blue does it take Lance out on a joy ride!!

The Voltron website describes Allura as “often feeling the weight of the universe on her shoulders.” Putting her in a happy, energetic lion like Blue would allow us to explore the playful, lighter side of her more, which would add a new dimension to her character. Whereas if she’s put in the Black Lion, I can’t see her character changing / getting more depth from the placement. It would be yet another responsibility, which would reinforce Allura’s current feelings of personal responsibility for the successes and failures of Voltron. And, from a writer’s perspective, why would I want to put my character in a role that wouldn’t change them? It’s much more interesting and dynamic to put them in a situation they have to adapt to and learn from.

Plus, we’d get to see Allura bond with the team! She’s sort of removed from the rest of the paladins at this point. We see her try to chat with Pidge in Season 1, but for the most part, the only conversations Allura really has are ones involving training/missions/fighting Zarkon (minus the ones she has with Lance, which are him being thirsty and her shutting him down lmao). Being the Blue Paladin would allow her to integrate herself into the team more fully and just. Be with them. Not as the Serious Leader but as an equal.

Alright I’m gonna wrap this up here before I write another ten paragraphs on why Allura deserves to be happy and have fun and have friends and kick ass without having to worry about that god damn particle barrier. Basically Allura being Blue Paladin would make sense, wouldn’t make her any less of the leader she already is, and would allow us to explore a new side of her! She was Blue Paladin in the OG series, and there’s a possibility that she might in this one, too!

And for one last parting shot:

Everyone else is color coordinated with their lions (minus Lance, kind of). And guess what color Allura wears?

#voltron #voltron meta #allura #god i should really do my homework lmao #if you read this mess i love you #i just really wanna have allura pilot a lion!!! but if she doesn't she's still a badass and I love her

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pinkysfaultorbrainsfault · 4 years

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animaniacs - s4e8: mindy in wonderland

episode summary: a lighthearted episode about mindy chasing a rabbit down a hole in the tree she’s always tied to, and ending up in a magical, literary dreamland. there’s no mice, but it’s fun, and takes up the whole runtime, and-- what? no, i-- look, it’s just-- i don’t--

sir, you don’t pay me at all--

alright fine ugh ughghghguhgughgu ugh.

great.

episode summary: the hip hippos are expecting a baby! unfortunately, ordering babies off the internet instead of concieving them through, like, hippo sex? appears to have its’ downsides, and instead they are presented with.... brain.

look, i don’t know either, okay? i’m dragging my hands down my face as we speak.

the rundown:

we open with the stork.

“i got a very special delivery! the rockefellers have been waiting weeks for this one.” he pronounces it “spatial”, probably because he’s high out of his mind. this is not a sober bird. please don’t drop that baby, my dude. that’s going to cause more problems than it solves, really.

spoke too soon, i guess.

unfortunately for him, our dude does exactly that, and ends up taking a bit of a tumble. gets all dizzy. this does not bode well for the plot. or the wellbeing of the baby, actually!

hold up. computer, zoom, enhance.

hmmm. that is a very familiar tiny face. troubling. anyway our resident avian expert on drugs seems to have survived his accident, and drops the baby off to the rockefellers with no further trouble.

they seem to look more. hippo shaped than usual.

“congratulations! you’re new parents!”

you’re welcome, weird stoner bird. they slam the door on him, wordlessly exacerbating his injuries. they care not for his plight, only that of their dearest, darling... not very.... hippo sized...................... baby.

hm.

“oh flavio! darling! a baby of our own, just look at him! let us call him--”

“--alfredo!”

“goo.”

alright. as existentially horrifying as this episode is, i laughed. maurice lemarche, completely dead in the face, sits in the recording booth, stretches his shoulders. “goo.” he says. deadpan. no intonation whatsoever. the audience cheers and he is given a thousand dollars.

i don’t know what it is about brain saying basically anything that appeals to my sense of humour so much. jockey for position basically did me in. i just. every time he says “goo.” i am in TEARS.

the hippos seem to have lost their enthusiasm, as anyone would have if they heard the voice of a grown man come out of their newborn baby.

“he’s... small. very small.”

“goo.”

still, marita sympathises with him. this is very definitely her child, after all! she steals him away to do mom things with, chastising flavio that ‘alfredo’ is “their little boy.”

“oh, you are right, my lightbulb of love. now our little universe has expanded to three.”

yeah, don’t include your.... shoulder... birds, then. asshole.

it’s very cute, i’ll say that. for all the fuss i make about the hippos, they do love each other, in a very healthy way that you don’t often see with married couples on tv. like, they’re kind of slowdancing their way out of the room. it’s nice! they would make good parents.

(”goo.” says brain, in the background, oblivious to the heterosexuality happening around him. “now, take me to my money.”)

credit to flavio and marita; they are very well prepared. this is a very loved baby. i’m not entirely sure how any child would feel about the presence of Clown Bear, but it’s the thought that counts. also i know that’s a changing table? but the design is sick and i wouldn’t mind a chest of drawers like that.

there’s also a theatre, i guess. or..... maybe just a really fancy shower???

Definitely Alfredo is gently placed on his little Alfredo Table. he appears to be asleep, or at least he’s deliberately choosing to keep his eyes closed. can’t think why.

but he, ah. sure went all out for this one. i respect brain for his dedication to the craft.

“now, sweet baby alfredo,” says marita, while the music does a terrifying swell in the background, for some reason, “it is time for your first bath.”

please stop looking at me like that, marita. YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO BATHING. am i about to be inducted into the alfredo cult?? i am, admittedly, a manlet, but i would like to think i am also unmistakably larger than a baby hippo.

(google has no data about the height of a baby hippo, apparently. they do weigh about 100lbs at birth, though, so i guess i have to be careful with this losing weight shtick. not that i’m ever gonna weigh 100lbs, quite frankly, but the minute i do marita’s gonna climb through my window and steal me off to los angeles.)

(i’m terrified.) (on the other hand, they’re definitely going to give me back as soon as they work out how much my medication costs over there.)

i’m literally babbling nonsense, at this point. anyway. brain gets a bath.

remember to Wosh U Mouse. wash he teeth and soul. marita proclaims excitedly that “babies love the bath”, and Definitely Alfredo is Definitely Enjoying Himself, judging by the screaming, so, yknow, good for him.

and then, i guess, flavio just pours boiling water on him for no reason, so brain freaks out and launches himself into the light fitting.

because wouldn’t anybody?

the hippos freak out a bit when the lights stop working, but soon get brain back down to resume their usual Alfredo Activities.

“this is highly undignified.”

but still, marita loves him.

and then she stabs him in the dick, i guess.

“GAH.”

“oops ):”

fortunately, nobody ever died of getting stabbed in the dick (as far as i know?) but even magical babies delivered by amazon need to get their vitals checked, so flavita take him to the hospital anyway.

bomf.

i’ll be dead honest with you, this scene is just torture porn. i’ll summarise it as best i can.

temperature is fine. blood pressure is normal. i am pretty sure inflating babies is not standard medical practice, but brain is cosmically unable to have a good day or he dies, i guess.

the doctor shows up.

“oh, but you’re a cutie. say aaaah.”

“if you think that you’re going to stick that thing in my--”

it’s not very comfortable.

“hmm. rather puny.”

“you have to feed him more.”

NOW LET’S TEST YOUR REFLEXES

i’m pretty sure this man has never been to medical school.

“and now to vaccinate. my, that’s a lot of zeros.”

my, that’s a... screenshot that lives on my laptop now, i guess. hopefully nobody i know ever has to borrow this thing, for whatever reason.

“i’ll see you in three months for a booster shot,” says dr acme, as brain swells and changes colours in a way that no baby ever should.

i feel like this is a good time to interject - my issue with this episode is not the core themes, or anything surrounding them. it’s the amount of unrestrained suffering that goes on within that. like. okay. if this was some kind of consensual dynamic between the three of them for-- whatever reason???? stress?????? - like i wouldn’t mind. i wouldn’t care. consenting adults can do whatever they want with their bodies. this is a positive space. no judgement here on pinkys fault or brains fault dot com.

but it’s not and brain spends most of the episode in pain and terrified and that’s really what i object to above all else. it’s the same problem i have with peatb, really. brain can wear as many cute dresses as he wants, but he’s gotta want to wear them.

but they’re back at the Hippo Digs now so. it’s fine, i guess.

“such a good boy. that trip to the doctor wasn’t so bad, was it?”

hm.

still, it appears i can never escape Terrifying News Lady, even in this hellscape. flavio does the classic dad thing of sitting down with the tv as soon as he’s home, leaving marita to deal with getting Definitely Alfredo settled in his correctly-sized-for-a-baby-hippo baby chair.

what are those straps connected to, anyway??? it’s not the chair, that’s for sure. is brain just wearing a harness for the hell of it? what on earth is going on?

but flavio! it’s time to feed the baby!

“is baby-waby hungry-wungry?” well are you, cranky big head mousie??? huh????

sorry for the paralysing fear that probably caused all of you. undeterred, the terrifying news lady continues to talk in the background about the “richest and most influential child in the world.”

oh no.

flavio vaguely wonders if they waited too long to feed their baby, as he has what could be possibly classified as a tantrum.

“you sophomoric, corpulent, pachycerebal aristrocrats! you are imposters and i demand to be taken to the rockefellers immediately!”

the birds don’t care. they’re chilling. marita attributes this to “baby gibberish” while flavio wonders about the “vocabulary he learnt from mr rogers”. he’s maybe a few hours old, at this point, a day tops, but i guess hippos learn latin in pre-k or something.

anyway so then they stick a tube down his throat and inflate him with guacamole.

and with that, “alfredo looks healthier already!”

this is the second time brain has been inflated in this episode. it is unsurprising that he dedicates his nights from this point to raising absolute hell.

but he needs pats first because he ate too much. :<

cut to that night, i guess! where brain is very convincingly crying. very loudly. the hippos look unimpressed, despite the fact that this is literally the most common factor of signing up for a baby.

“it’s the baby. you take care of him.”

well. alright.

air mouse. nyoom. he seems to catapult himself at something, like, once per episode. it’s on par with the closeups by now, surely.

bomp.

unfortunately, the bear is not weightbearing (bear ing. lol) and falls off the shelf on an epic quest for a Great Big Hug.

the resulting bomp alerts the hippos, who go fully, entirely haywire the moment they work out that Definitely Alfredo is not in his correctly-sized-for-a-baby-hippo baby bed.

turns out flavio sat on him.

“really, flavio, be more careful where you sit.”

so they put a padlock on his crib.

this is completely useless. i know this. brain knows this. he’s small enough to just... fit through the bars. but he decides to be dramatic, instead, because that’s what he does best.

“attica! attica! i want out! let me out!”

i am not old enough to get this reference.

i am, however, old enough to empathise with this exact emotion. i feel kind of bad for the hippos, actually. i’m sure they were doing what they thought was... right? in the context of... thinking they had a baby hippo rather than an adult mouse. easy mistake to make. i go check on my weirdly tiny hippos in their hippo cage all the time.

but who could be at the door?

“there seems to have been a mix up. uh. i have your baby right here.”

and guys?

i need to tell you how fast they just throw brain at the guy. it’s actually a little heartbreaking.

but! it’s okay! he still has time to make it to the rockefellers before they......... die. i guess.

man, this plan was not thought out very well.

conclusion:

thank god this is almost over.

the stork repackages the baby, who is now a good few hours old, at least, and delivers the bundle to the very, very different looking house.

they are not any nicer.

“oh, reggie. just look at him.”

“goo.”

“well, frau haussenheffer, we’re off on a cruise. goodbye baby. see you in a year.”

parenting!

“alright then. staff, we have a brand new charge.”

oh dear.

brain, as one can imagine, is having none of this.

but unfortunately, neither is the carpet.

bomp. cause of death: suffocating in the rockefeller mansion carpet.

good thing it all sort of blurs out, huh.

“brain?” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA “brain.” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA “brain, wake up.”

“i was dreaming?”

oh, thank god for that.

“oh, pinky, you wouldn’t believe the nightmare i had.” and it’s... probably best not to tell him, actually.

“it must have been a doozy, brain! but, oh, a delivery came for you.”

“it’s the rockefeller baby. can we keep it?”

oh dear.

so let’s ignore the fact that this asks more questions than it answers-- but okay, was that a dream within a dream, and why was brain dreaming about that in the first place, and-- and mark this one down as a severe case of outside influence.

brain: 3 ½ pinky: 5 ½ outside influence: 10

“it’s not too late. i demand that you deliver me to the rockefellers immediately!”

“

“aw, how cute. i just love baby gibberish.”

#patb #a!#pinky and the brain #animaniacs #i'm almost done with a! now!#only one more short to go #more importantly #i'm done with this short specifically. so i never have to watch it again

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