#like that sort of ability to look back on previous episodes and build on it productively. but constantly

[kindaorangey]

you know i dont think i will ever leave miraculous purely because it's the only show that consistently remedies its red flags

#ml #like you remember in shadowhunters when malec have that awkward lead into a sex scene #and a bunch of people pointed out that consent isnt rly established in that scene #and then next season they had a flashback where they showed what happened immediately after the scene cut off to show consent *being* #established #like that sort of ability to look back on previous episodes and build on it productively. but constantly #adrien is the biggest example of this bc his s1 self is awful #chloe is the second biggest example of this bc it looks like theyre gonna do the bully redemption trope initially but then they dont #n another major example is the love triangle stuff. with luka and kagami being sources of jealousy but also getting enough agency #that they get to be angry when mari and adrien are messing them around #and they avoid the 'girls fight over a guy' trope and vice versa #like. 🤷🏼‍♂️ #idk what else to say #theyre not the best writers by any means but while other writers dig themselves into holes these writers dig themselves out #so i rate them

[mandos-mind-trick]

Here's To The Future - Part 4: Rampage

Summary: The war’s over. That should be cause for celebration, except the wrong side won. Things begin to change quickly, and it doesn’t take long for Midnight to realize something’s not right among the clone army. She should be glad the war is over, but the threat of her losing her boys is all too real. She did swear she would do everything she could to keep them from being separated when the war ended.

She’s not going to give up on that promise. Even if it kills her.

Pairing: The Bad Batch x reader (no clonecest)

Warnings: Some violence, mentions of slavery, a brief mention of blood and injuries.

A/N: Takes place during episode 5. Not much plot wise, mostly just a filler to get to the next part which will be sort of the build up to the climax of the story. Also an excuse to have Midnight and Omega interact a bit more.

Also I am still looking for a beta reader for this one, so if you’re interested…

< Previous | Next > | SERIES MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST

“But she looks so peaceful! I don’t want to wake her up!” 

“She’s been asleep almost sixteen standard hours. While she likely needs the rest to catch up on her missed sleep, oversleeping any more may inhibit her cognitive abilities, awareness, reaction time-” 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever that means. I’ll wake her up.” 

She’s already mostly awake by the time large, calloused fingers trail along her cheek. Though the noise in the ship isn’t anything new, it was usually dampened by her door. It’s a lot louder in the bunks with nothing but a privacy curtain to keep the sound out. Sure her room is now uninhabited, but she can’t bring herself to leave Crosshair’s bunk yet. Not while it still smells like him. 

“It’s time to get up, cyare.” Wrecker says softly, a vast contrast to his previous volume. 

She leans into his touch, groaning quietly. “Five more minutes.” 

“Tech says you have to get up.” Wrecker counters, gently stroking her cheek. “Something about cognitive whatever.” 

“He’s not my mom.” She pouts. “Lemme sleep till we land.” 

“We have landed.” Tech says, appearing next to Wrecker. 

“What?” Midnight sits straight up, narrowly avoiding smacking her head on the top of the bunk. “When? Where”

“We landed moments ago on Ord Mantell. We’re investigating the contact Echo knows about.” Tech says, offering a hand. 

Midnight ignores it, sliding out of the bunk with a groan. Wrecker catches her easily, keeping her from falling face first onto the floor. She rubs her eyes, trying to blink life back into her body. “How long was I asleep?” 

“Sixteen standard hours.” Tech answers. “Though you have caught up on some missed sleep, by my calculations you need at least five days of nonstop sleep to recover completely.” 

Midnight blinks at him, her sleep drowsy brain trying to process his words. Had he been keeping track of how much she was sleeping? It’s not that unusual for him, he knew the ins and outs of every member of the squad down to weird little habits they didn’t even notice. The fact that he was paying so much attention to her is touching. 

“Aw, Tech,” She wraps her arms around him, resting her cheek on the hard plastoid of his chestplate. “You’re so sweet. But I need a lot more than that to make up for a lifetime of poor sleep.” 

“Hmm.” Tech adjusts his goggles. “Well, I’ll have to do more calculations...” 

Midnight stands on her toes, kissing his cheek. “You do that, my sweet nerd.” 

She makes to walk away, but a disappointed groan stops her. She turns back around, finding Wrecker standing there with a pout. “Well, what about me?” He asks. 

“I can’t forget you, Wrecker!” She grins, stepping up to him. She stands up on her toes, cupping his face. She traces the scar on his cheek for a moment before she pulls him down, pressing her lips to his in a sweet kiss. 

“Better?” She asks, pulling away. 

He nods, sneaking back in for another kiss. “Better.” 

****

Ord Mantell city reminds her a bit of home. Or, at least this part of it does. It’s brighter than the lower levels of Coruscant, and a lot cleaner, but if she hadn’t known better, she would have assumed they’d returned to Coruscant. 

Despite their missing member, Midnight takes the spot in the middle between Tech and Echo once more. It’s still natural for them, even after all this time. 

Omega walks in front with Hunter, their leader grilling her a bit on the rules he had laid out since their last mishap. 

“Remember the rules?” Hunter asks Omega.

“Don’t wander off, keep my eyes and ears on my surroundings, and trust no one but my squad.” Omega says. 

“And if you get into trouble?” Echo asks. 

“Use my comm and give my location.” Omega says confidently. 

They make their way down an alley, Echo taking the lead. 

“This is the place.” He says, stopping at a flight of stairs leading down to the entrance of a bar. 

“Charming.” Tech snarks.

“I’ve seen worse.” Midnight shrugs, following them down the steps. 

The bar is dimly lit, and mostly empty aside from an Ithorian and a Weequay arguing over a gambling table, and a Trandoshan. 

“Which one of them is Cid?” Hunter asks Echo. 

“I couldn’t tell ya.” Echo answers. “I only heard about Cid. Never actually met him.” 

“That would have been information to share earlier.” Tech says. 

Hunter approaches the Trandoshan. “We’re looking for Cid. You know him?” 

“Cid, huh?” The Trandoshan says. “Nope. Doesn't ring a bell.” 

“What about them?” Hunter nods at the other two who were now getting into a physical fight over whatever they were arguing about. 

“Was I not clear? You’re in the wrong place.” The Trandoshan taps Hunter with the wrench in her hand. “So unless you’re here to spend money, get lost.” 

“Great plan, Echo.” Wrecker says. 

Midnight watches the Trandoshan sit at the bar, narrowing her eyes. She moves closer, leaning up against the bar. Omega plays with the buttons on one of the dejarik tables as the others argue. 

“You know, it’s a bit odd.” Midnight says. “This place is called Cid’s. So unless that name was picked at random...” 

“You’re Cid.” Omega finishes for her, stepping up closer to them. 

The Trandoshan turns, crossing her arms. “You’re both sharper than your friends over there.” 

Omega activates her comm, the sound echoing in the close quarters. “I found Cid.” 

The other four turn to look, Midnight leaning against the bar with a smirk on her face, Omega pointing up at the Trandoshan behind her. 

***

“I had a good thing going with the Jedi.” Cid says as she leads them into her office. “They valued my insights. But now that they’re all dead, the demand for my services has declined. Thanks to this new Empire.” 

Midnight leans against the wall near the door, the others looking around Cid’s office. 

“Times have changed...for all of us.” Hunter says.

“No kidding. I never had clone deserters come to me before.” 

“Yes, well, we separated due to a fundamental difference in ideology.” Tech says. 

“That’s cute, you thinking I care.” Cid cuts him off. “Cut to it and tell me what you want.” 

Echo plugs himself into the scomp, bringing up an image of the bounty hunter. 

“We encountered this woman on Pantora.” Hunter says. “Do you know who she is?” 

“No.” Cid shakes her head, staring at the holo of the woman. “But I know a bounty hunter when I see one.” 

“Can you find out who hired her?” Echo asks.

“That depends on what you boys do for me.” Cid says. 

Hunter and Tech share a look, Midnight rolling her eyes. They were still very new at this.

“Are you fresh outta the tube? You pull a job for me, and I get the information you want. That’s how this mercenary thing works.” 

“Mercenary?” Echo asks. 

“Not too quick, are ya?” Cid asks, moving behind her desk. “Clearly the kid and cover girl back there are the brains of your operation.” 

“What kind of job?” Hunter sighs, asking exasperatedly. 

“A rescue.” Cid says, sinking into her chair as they move closer. “There’s a nice bounty on a kid named Muchi. My sources say she was taken by Zygerrian slavers who are holed up on the other side of the planet. Bring me the kid and I’ll get you your intel.” 

“Well, who collects the bounty?” Wrecker asks. 

“Oh look, it talks. We split the bounty 70-30, my favor. Take it or leave it.” 

“Grab a kid from a few Zygerrians?” Wrecker says, moving towards the door. “We can do that in our sleep.” 

“Looks like we have a deal.” Cid says, tossing the puck to Hunter as the others file out. “Details of the bounty are on that. Don’t screw it up.” 

****

“What do you think?” Hunter asks as she leans up against the side of the pilot’s seat. 

Midnight shrugs. “I don’t trust anyone. But, if she can make good on getting this information, she might be useful to have around.” 

“And if she can provide us a way to make credits...” 

Midnight sighs. “We don’t have to-” 

“Keep your credits.” Hunter cuts her off, already knowing where this is headed. 

“Why?” She presses. “I have more than enough.” 

“I want you to keep them.” Hunter says, his tone telling her he’s done arguing this point. 

Wrecker groans, clutching at his head, really finishing the conversation for them. Midnight moves to the empty seat, plopping herself down. 

“You all right?” Hunter asks Wrecker, watching him. 

“Yeah, yeah. It’s nothing.” Wrecker nods, getting up from the copilot’s seat, leaving the cockpit. 

“According to Cid’s intel, the Zygerrian slave traders are hiding in the ruins of Old Ord Mantell city.” Tech says as Echo and Omega enter the cockpit. 

“What’s a slave trader?” Omega asks, taking Wrecker’s abandoned seat. 

“Someone who buys and sells people for credits.” Tech explains nonchalantly. 

“People can be sold?” Omega asks in surprise. 

“They don’t have a choice.” Echo says. “They’re captives treated like property.” 

“That...doesn’t seem right.” 

“It’s not. And we are going to stop it from happening to that kid.” Echo says. 

“As well as earn a decent amount of credits once the job is complete.” Tech interjects. 

“Yeah, that too.” Echo says before exiting the cockpit. 

“Don’t worry, Muchi. We’ll rescue you.” Omega says, holding her trooper doll. 

They land a distance away from the city, making their way to an overlooking cliff. Sure enough, there’s a ship sitting in the city, and several Zygerrians roaming around. Omega, Tech, and Wrecker scan the city with binocs, looking for the captives. 

“I have a visual.” Tech says. “I only see one child.” 

“Poor Muchi. She looks scared.” Omega says. 

“I’m clocking two dozen hostels.” Tech continues. “Multiple entry points with minor fortification.” 

“Simple smash and grab like that time on Kuat.” Wrecker says. “Easy enough.” 

“I’m in.” Omega says. “What are we waiting for?” She makes to move forward, but Hunter stops her. 

“You get back to the ship.” He orders her.

“But-” 

“That’s an order.” 

They leave Omega behind, sneaking their way down into the city. Tech leads the way, all of them careful not to make too much noise. 

“Echo, you’re the eyes in the sky.” Hunter says as they stop. “Wrecker, Midinght, draw the Zygerrian forces out. Tech and I will grab the kid.” 

“Not a problem.” Wrecker says. 

They move further into the city, waiting for Echo to get into place. 

“Echo, sitrep.” Hunter asks, ducking behind a piece of rubble. 

“Two roving patrols on speeders. First guard checkpoint dead ahead.” He goes quiet for a moment. “Hang on. I think I’ve got company.” 

“Well, take care of it. Quietly.” Hunter says. 

There’s a yell and Echo falls from the building, hitting the ground with a thud. A Brezak flies out of the sky, narrowly hitting them. It lands, hitting Wrecker with its tail, throwing him into a rock. Tech, Hunter and Midnight fire at the Brezak, but it flies off. They find themselves surrounded by Zygerrians, one of them firing an electric net at them, knocking them unconscious. 

***

Midnight leans against the fountain, glaring down one of the Zygerrian guards. He’d been the one to chain her up, being a little too touchy for her liking. Once they get free, she’s going to smash his head in. Her arms are cuffed behind her, the position not exactly comfortable. She supposes it could be worse, though. 

“It’s getting looser.” Wrecker says, tugging at his collar, trying to get it off discreetly. 

His body suddenly jerks, being electrocuted by his collar. 

“Do that one more time and you’ll be-” Echo is cut off in his threat by his own collar electrocuting him. 

“Save your energy.” Tech says from next to her. “We are going to need it.” 

The Brezak that had attacked them flies overhead, landing on one of the tallest buildings. Midnight can just make out a figure standing at the top, looking down at them. That must be their leader. 

The Brezak roars, the three people that had been there before shrinking back in fear, the child whimpering. 

“Relax, Muchi.” Wrecker says. “We’re the cavalry.” 

“What are our odds out of this, Tech?” Hunter asks. 

“I am not certain.” He replies. 

“So much for being smart.” Wrecker snarks. 

Tech sighs. “This is not a standard military operation, and seeing as how we’ve never been tasked with rescuing a child from slave traders before, there’s no data I can compare it to.” 

“We need to signal Omega before their scouts find her.” Hunter says. 

“Except our comms are over there with our weapons.” Echo says, nodding at their pile of gear. 

Tech looks up, eyes widening before he turns back to Hunter. “We won’t need a comm to signal her.” 

Hunter turns, looking up at the roof of a building. Midnight glances over, seeing Omega there. 

The door to the building slides open, the lead Zygerrian coming through. Midnight hates him immediately upon first sight. He walks with his hands behind his back, holding himself upright with an air of arrogance and self importance. He reminds her a bit of Admiral Tarkin. 

“Look at what we have here.” He says, walking closer to them. “Five new slaves to add to my collection. “Strong ones too. You should fetch a nice price.” He steps in front of Midnight, grasping her chin in his hand. His grip is tight, his claws threatening to break her skin. “This one especially.” He smirks at her. 

She’s not sure what possesses her, but she leans her head back, spitting right in his face. He releases her, wiping it off of his fur before rearing back and slapping her. Her head snaps to the side, her cheek burning. The others shift, rattling the chains. Midnight turns back to face him, glaring at him. She can feel the slow ooze of liquid sliding down her face. He’s caught her with his claws. 

“You’re going to regret that.” She says, as threateningly as she can. 

He smirks, chuckling. “Even the most defiant of slaves can be broken.” 

“The Republic outlawed slavery.” Echo says angrily, trying to draw his attention from her. 

“We’re not in the Republic anymore, skug.” He says, turning and walking away. 

“You’re lucky we don’t have our gear, because this would go very differently for you.” Echo says, trying to direct Omega discreetly. 

Midnight shifts slightly, wiping some of the oozing blood onto her armor. It would be easier to clean off that than if it gets into her clothes. 

“Are you alright?” Tech asks her quietly. 

Midnight rolls her eyes. “I’ve been hit by men before, Tech.” She turns to look at him, the look on his face cutting off her breath. 

His brows are furrowed behind his goggles, eyes narrowed. There’s a dark look on his face, his eyes full of anger. She’s never seen him look like this before. At least, not up close. 

Something falls off to their left, drawing everyone’s attention. Omega must have knocked something loose in her attempt to get down to them. A couple guards begin walking in that direction, but Wrecker kicks a rock, knocking the feet out from under a guard. Midnight bites back a laugh, but is quickly sobered as another guard ignites his electro-whip, whipping Wrecker with it. 

“We can make do with one less slave.” The leader says, turning back to them. “Maybe I’ll feed you to my pet.” The Brezak roars in response. “As for the rest of you, you will be part of a new beginning. With the meddling Republic gone, we can return to Kadavo and rebuild what was taken from us. Under this new Empire, our operation will flourish once again. And if you do not comply... the person next to you will pay the price.” 

Midnight resists the urge to roll her eyes. She hates monologues, especially given by assholes who think too highly of themselves. Thankfully the leader is distracted by something, one of the guards carrying over a struggling Omega. 

“I found her sneaking around the cage.” The guard says. 

“I wasn’t sneaking.” Omega says. “I was unlocking.” She holds up a bolt. 

The large cage begins shaking as something snarls inside. The Zygerrians run to try and close it back up, but the doors fly open, a rancor bursting out. The Zygerrians fire at the Rancor, but only succeed in making it angrier. 

“A rampaging adolescent rancor is not the distraction I was anticipating.” Tech says. 

“That’s their problem.” Wrecker says, bracing himself against the fountain. “We’re getting out of here.” He snaps the chain holding all of them in place. 

Echo works on removing their bonds, Omega coming up to the child. 

“It’s okay, Muchi. We’re here to take you home.” She says. 

The older Falleen points at the Rancor, speaking in Falleen, but none of them need to understand to know what he’s saying.

“The rancor is Muchi?” Echo asks. 

The others grab their gear and weapons, Hunter tossing Echo his as the rancor runs through the city, tossing Zygerrians as it goes.

“Gear up. We have to go after Muchi.” He says. “If we don’t capture her, we don’t get our intel from Cid.” 

They follow Hunter who tracks the Rancor, running through the city. The other captives follow, barely managing to keep up as they stop for a moment. 

“What about them?” Omega asks, motioning to the Falleen and the human. 

“Omega and I will get them to safety. You find Muchi.” Echo says. 

“Right. Go for the speeders at the south entrance.” Hunter says. 

Tech translates for them as they head off in their own direction. The others follow the path of bodies, finding Muchi surrounded, but easily taking out the Zygerrians. 

“She’s doing fine on her own.” Wrecker says, impressed. 

Midnight is impressed as well, silently cheering as the rancor takes out Zygerrian after Zygerrian. That excitement quickly ends, though, as Muchi turns on them, having taken care of the rest of the Zygerrians. 

Of course. How exactly were they going to convince a rancor they’re the good guys? 

Wrecker and Tech draw their weapons, but Hunter quickly puts his arms out to stop them. They need Muchi alive, and as unharmed as possible. 

A roar sounds behind them, the brezak swooping out of the sky with the Zygerrian leader on its back. They turn and fire, barely missing getting taken out by it as it lands. The brezak turns on Muchi, the Zygerrian lifting his electro-whip, but Hunter tackles him off the brezak before he can hurt Muchi. 

Muchi turns and runs, the brezak following after her. 

“You’re going to pay for this, skug.” The leader says to Hunter. 

“I’ll handle him.” Hunter says as Wrecker, Tech, and Midnight run up to him. “Go get Muchi.”

They run after the rancor, following the sound of the fight between the brezak and the rancor. Muchi must have won as the brezak flies off, leaving them facing down the angry rancor.

“Any ideas how to stop that thing?” Wrecker asks Tech. 

Tech pulls out his datapad, typing away. “Rancors adhere to a social hierarchy. You have to challenge the alpha for authority.” 

“Oh that I can do.” Wrecker says, tossing his blaster aside before he runs at Muchi. 

Tech and Midnight watch as Wrecker and Muchi fight, beating the piss out of each other. Hunter joins them soon after, watching as they begin to slow down, getting tired. 

Echo rides up on a scooter with Omega, Wrecker and Muchi barely swinging at each other now. 

“How long’s he been at this?” Echo asks as they hop off the scooter. 

“Too long.” Tech answers. “He’s losing his touch.” 

They weakly swing at each other one more time before Muchi flops on her side, falling asleep. Wrecker leans against her, gently patting her head. 

“Aw. She’s kinda cute up close.” Omega says, stepping up closer. 

“Nicely handled, Wrecker.” Hunter says. 

Wrecker grunts indistinctly, giving him a thumb’s up. He’s going to sleep really well tonight. 

***

They eventually get Muchi and Wrecker roused again, transporting them back to the city. Omega rides happily on Muchi’s back as they make their way towards Cid’s. 

“Aw. That’s a good rancor.” Wrecker says, patting Muchi’s head. 

A male Twi’lek comes out of Cid’s, approaching Muchi happily. He speaks to Muchi in Huttese, hugging her face. Cid pushes past the two Gamorrean guards, looking at Hunter in disbelief for a moment. 

“See, Bib? All is well.” She says. “Now, about the matter of payment.” The Twi’lek snaps at one of the Gamorreans and he hands over some credits. 

Omega slides off the rancor, the Twi’lek and Gamorreans leading Muchi away. 

“Bye, Muchi.” Wrecker says. 

Muchi turns, roaring happily at them. 

“Gotta say, fellas.” Cid says. “I wasn’t sure you could pull this job off.” 

“You could have told us we were going after a rancor.” Echo says. 

“Hmm. Must have slipped my mind.” Cid says. She points at Hunter. “You, dark and broody. My office.” 

Tech turns on Midnight as Hunter makes his way into the bar with Cid. He tilts her head back, looking at the scratch marks on her cheek. They’ve stopped bleeding, but the skin is still burning. 

“They’re not very deep.” He says, studying them. “But they need to be cleaned.” 

“I’m fine.” She says, trying to push his hands away. “What’s the worst that could happen? My skin falls off?” 

“Yes.” Tech deadpans. 

Midnight gives him a horrified look. “Okay. When we get back to the ship you can clean them.” 

“Good.” He takes her face again, poking at the cuts. “They shouldn’t scar. It doesn't appear to have broken too deeply into the dermis. Bacta should clear them up rather quickly.” 

Midnight tries to bat his hand away, but he’s insistent on poking her face. 

“Do they hurt?” Hunter asks, appearing out of nowhere as he steps up to her. 

“They do when someone’s touching them.” She tries to push Tech’s hand away, but he’s insistent. 

Something comes over Hunter’s face as he stares at her, his eyes hardening and the look darkening. She looks up at Tech, finding a similar look behind his goggles. She looks past Tech at Echo, his eyes narrowed. 

“Oh.” She says lamely, letting her hands drop to her sides. 

“I hope you gave him what he deserved.” Wrecker says, stepping closer. 

“I did.” Hunter says, his voice dark. “Come on.” He puts a hand on her back. “Let’s get back to the ship.” 

***

Midnight changes clothes, stretching out her limbs now that they’re free of the armor. Her skin itches a bit, the bacta gel having absorbed quickly after Tech applied it. The cuts are already healing, hardly more than raised bumps. By tonight, there’d be no sign of them even being there. 

She had protested the use of bacta on them, seeing as how they weren’t that bad and they’d probably heal well on their own, but after seeing the looks on their faces, she had quickly given up. She hasn’t seen them that protective in a long time. 

It makes sense, though. 

They’re entirely on their own now. They don’t have the GAR to fall back on. If something happens to one of them, they only have each other to fix it.

She slips some credits into her bag before tossing it over her shoulder. She leaves her room, making her way towards the ramp. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Hunter asks, stepping in her way. 

“Supply run.” She answers simply. 

“By yourself?” 

She gives him a look. “Uh, yeah. That was the plan.” 

“You’re going to wander around an unknown city by yourself.” Hunter lifts an eyebrow at her. 

“Yeah.” She shrugs. “We need to stock up on some things.” 

“She is right.” Tech says, stepping up behind her. “We are running low on medical supplies, as well as hygiene products.”

“Not that any of you use them.” She murmurs. “Plus if we’re going to be spending time here, I’d like to get to know the city a bit better.” 

“Let one of us go.” Hunter says. 

“Uh, no.” Midnight says, Hunter giving her a taken-aback look at her outward defiance. “I’m going. I am the least recognizable of all of us.” 

“She has a point.” Tech says from behind her. 

Hunter stares at her for a moment before his shoulders slump and he sighs. “Don’t wander too long.” 

“Can I go?” Omega asks, all of them turning to look at her.

Midnight looks to Hunter, shrugging. Hunter looks down at Omega before sighing. “Fine. But stick close to Midnight and don’t wander-” 

“Keep a close eye on my surroundings and trust no one but my squad. And I’ll use my comm and give my location if I get into trouble, I know.” She says. 

“Quick learner.” Midnight smirks. 

“Be careful.” Hunter says, wrapping an arm around Midnight’s waist. 

“Usually am.” She murmurs as he leans down, kissing her softly. 

“Keep an eye on her.” He murmurs, kissing her again. 

“Two eyes.” Midnight says. “Don’t worry. Think of this as a learning opportunity.” 

She kisses Hunter one more time before slipping past him and heading for the ramp. She heads down the steps, Omega skipping happily after her. 

“What was that you were doing?” She asks before they even make it out of the landing bay. 

“What was what?” Midnight asks. 

“You and Hunter. I saw you and Wrecker doing it earlier too.” She says. 

“Oh.” Midnight blinks, trying to figure out how to explain it. “We were kissing.” 

“What’s that?” 

Midnight lets out a long breath. “Well, it’s something you do when you love someone. It’s one way to show it.” 

“Oh.” She says, going quiet for a moment. “What’s love?” 

Midnight laughs. “That’s a complex conversation for another time.” Midnight puts a hand on Omega’s shoulder, stopping her at an intersection. “Keep close. Don’t stare at anyone too long, and try not to make eye contact. We’re trying to be discreet.” 

Omega nods. “Right.” 

Midnight pats her shoulder. “Come on. This way.” 

She leads Omega down a street, walking slowly as she looks up at the sky. It’s visible between the buildings, starting to go yellow with the setting sun. Midnight smiles softly, dropping her gaze back to the street in front of her. “Reminds me a bit of home.” She says, skirting around a drunk weequay on the street. 

“Where are you from?” Omega asks, looking up at her. 

“I’m from Coruscant. Born and raised there.” 

“Is it a nice place?” Omega asks. 

Midnight laughs. “Well, depends on how you look at it. The entire planet is one big city.” 

“Wow.” Omega breathes. “There must be a lot of people there.” 

Midnight nods. “Close to three trillion, it’s estimated. Though, most of them are very poor and live in the lower levels. There’s lots of crime down there, since the police can’t and don’t bother to help. I grew up so far down, I didn’t see the sky until I joined the GAR. Spent my whole life in artificial sunlight. I’d never seen dirt or a real tree until I got off Coruscant, either.” 

“You’re like me.” Omega says. “I spent my whole life in a lab on Kamino. I didn’t get to wander often. I didn’t really want to, either.” 

Midnight snorts. “I don’t blame you. Some of those regs had some nasty attitudes.” 

“Yeah they did.” She laughs. 

They walk in silence for a few moments. “How did you know about me? When you approached us on Kamino, you knew my name.” 

“Well, you’re sort of famous.” Omega says sheepishly. 

“I am?” Midnight asks in disbelief. 

“Yeah. You’re a member of Clone Force 99 and you’re not a clone.” Omega shrugs. “They talked about you all the time. Tarkin asked about you too.” 

Midnight grimaces. “I’m sure he did. He really wanted me to join his squad.” 

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Omega says. “They really care about you a lot.” 

Midnight nods. “Well, we’ve been through a lot together.” She nods. “I care a lot about them too.” She nudges Omega gently. “And you.” 

“Me?” She asks in disbelief. 

Midnight nods. “Of course. You’re part of the squad too.” 

Omega smiles. “I’ve never had a sister before.” 

Midnight blinks in surprise. Of course, the boys would technically be her brothers, as they were all clones. Even though Midnight’s not a clone, she had integrated herself into the squad rather successfully it seemed, to the point Omega had known who she was. 

“I haven’t had one either.” She says, slowing as they reach the shop selling medical supplies. 

She leads Omega inside, making quick work of grabbing what they need. They head on to the next store, picking up more personal items and some hygiene products, not that the guys would use them regularly. 

“We should get some food.” Midnight says as they pass by a few food vendors. “I know the guys have to be hungry.” 

Omega stares wide eyed at all the choices. “These look so much better than rations.” 

Midnight smiles. “They are.” She wraps an arm around Omega’s shoulders, leading her towards one of the stalls. “Maybe someday we’ll get to eat food like this all the time.”  

“Really?” Omega asks, blinking up at her. 

Midnight nods. “Someday when we can put this bounty hunter business behind us and find somewhere nice to settle down.” 

“That sounds fantastic.” Omega says dreamily. 

Midnight nods. “It does. It really does.” 

Taglist:

@amyroswell, @dangraccoon, @hunnythebee​, @lokigirlszendaya, @kriffingmeshla, @storm-breaker7  

#star wars #star wars fic #the bad batch #the bad batch fic #the bad batch x reader #poly bad batch #tbb x reader

[ammonitetheseaserpent]

Moar MD OC info because my mind has been INJECTED with. basically an entire small, interwoven story since the first post where I introduced the concepts.

This is uh. gonna be a long post

Serial Designation Q

- If I had to sum up his personality in a few words, they would be ‘chill chaos’.

- The drug-like substance he consumes affects the light he gives off, which is what allows her to shift its color.

- Her fighting/hunting style is kinda reckless, like a honey badger; mainly leaning on brute force, sheer determination and the light trick.

- She doesn’t exclusively do psychedelic effects with his lights for hunts, though - it has entertainment value for him as well.

- Also yee she’s bigender :D

- (I’m starting to debate calling her Q instead for uh. standout purposes. cause I’ve seen a few Ys by now and I don’t wanna cause confusion hhhnshsjdbdb Edit: made the change; I think Q fits him better now that I mull it over :0)

Weird Frog

- That’s the JP-Dilo-Sentinel (name given by Q).

- It guards Celadon’s residence with the Packleader, and was built to give the Sentinels more variety.

- It is particularly small and fast and, instead of the stun stare, the sound of its screech gives off an AoE effect to temporarily paralyze any nearby drone who hears it.

- It has a very playful attitude, putting its all into fending off attackers but also having fun with it; y’know that one scene in Agony of a Witch where Hooty was fending off Lilith and the EC. Yeah uh. that’s pretty much WF in a nutshell.

- It’s quite curious and won’t immediately attack a lone drone it sees approaching the residence unless that drone is clearly looking to be a threat.

The Packleader Sentinel

- It’s the primary guard of Celadon’s residence, and sort of a parental figure to Weird Frog.

- Its stun stare is stronger than that of an average Sentinel, to the point where the flash can cause a bit of lasting damage in drones.

- It was basically built to be like. the Final Boss of the regular Sentinels. Like, something to fall back on if the need arose.

- This one’s a bit silly but: I imagine it was designed based off the Indoraptor and Scorpios Rex like. in-universe. Cause Liam said that the Sentinels were made raptors bc the humans just. liked dinosaurs and thought they were cool. So I imagine the Jurassic Park/movies being in this universe, and while they’re working on the Packleader someone just goes ‘hey what if we based it off those freaky-looking hybrid dinos, like the one that’s a raptor but bigger and creepier :0’.

Avarice SOL

- He was the result of a faulty one-off experiment.

- He has a powerful, insatiable drive to take parts of drones to build on his own form, and bothers Celadon on a regular basis (as stated in the previous post) bc the Hellsinger residence has a lot of what he wants.

- He stole a drone’s voicebox so he can speak, and… I imagine him sounding like that one mackerel in that one Dexter’s Laboratory episode.

Cure PHX

- They were started by Celadon’s parents in order to combat Disassembly Drones. Celadon later finished them, adding the healing abilities they now have.

- Not only can they release a signal to shut off physical pain in other bots, they also have ankle spurs to secrete a substance that’s basically the bot equivalent of melatonin.

- Their functions can be a bit wonky sometimes, and the full power of the UV light/radiation from their wings is only meant to be used in short bursts; too long will cause them delirium from the excess heat and power.

- They’re fully sentient, though due to the nature of their creation, their voicebox is kinda messed up and can produce garbled, birdlike sounds that take effort to form into words - I imagine Cure sounding somewhat like half-healed Centipeetle from Steven Universe.

Celadon Hellsinger

- Her residence is kind of run-down but she refuses to patch it up bc it ‘enhances the elusion factor’.

- She owns a weapon called the Frequency Gauntlet (I uh. stole the name from a mobile game called Monster Legends if I’m being completely frank) that was p much the pet project of her parents and grandparents. they all collaborated to make it.

- The aforementioned Hellsingers are gone now, so she just lives w/ Cure and the two Sentinels (speaking of the two Sentinels her parents basically. donned the FG and stole them very sneakily; I haven’t decided if they were stolen b4 they were put in with the other Sentinels and so they were more chill with drones they didn’t see as a threat, or if the Hellsingers tweaked their programming but uh. yeh)

- She’s usually sort of a pacifist; not nearly as concerned w/ actively confronting and doing battle w/ the DDs as her parents were, and is perfectly content with hiding from them (which doesn’t work out too bad as the Hellsingers made their residence as secluded and unnoticeable as they could to reduce the possibility of being tracked down).

- She’s aroace bc uh. yeh

Extra story bit

- Basically uh. Q happened upon Celadon’s residence at some point while traveling wherever and went over to get a closer look. He was met halfway by Weird Frog, and the two quickly became friendly toward each other. Then later, through WF as a common thread, Q met Celadon and now they’re… not friends, exactly, more like. acquaintances on peaceful terms. and they act a bit like siblings. Q thinks Celadon is cool, while Celadon is a bit more hesitant and often baffled by his antics.

#murder drones #murder drones ocs #md ocs #my ocs #original characters #random snippets of my day

[c-c-cherry]

Tell me about that reigen and ritsu thing on the backburner, I'm curious!

(In exchange, have a picture of Scrungly Lola, my gecko.)

Chef!! It’s been awhile!! Thank you very much for the Lola. She’s very lovely and sweet. I have many many thoughts and fics in the back of my mind right now, but here is my little half-baked Reigen and Ritsu idea that I've been chewing on:

(General warning for talk/mention of suicide in the context of miscommunication/misunderstanding)

Alright alright alright. For those who have seen the OVA (the train OVA, my beloved OVA, the OVA where we get a smidge of Reigen canonically suffering), you know that Reigen is trapped in this spiritual dimensional cursed version of the train in his sleep. As the episode goes on, he becomes more desperate and hopeless and blah blah blah you’ve seen the episode you know what happens. 

But there’s a moment where Reigen writes a note. And when the other espers come in to save him, Reigen tries to hide that note. I wasn’t really sure what it said, but weeeeeks ago @cryran88 sent me an English translation and if you haven’t seen it already, it is SAD. 

Now…post-train OVA. This could be as post-canon as I see fit. Ritsu is helping out in the office for whatever reason (mob is sick, studying, some event, literally any reason) and Reigen asks him to grab something out of the filing cabinet where they keep the info on previous jobs. When Ritsu opens it, a shit ton of files fall out because its way too unorganized, which he picks up with help from his powers. 

A specific folder catches his eye, though: the one from the hot spring trip, filled with spilling papers and an under-the-table receipt and every other document that had to do with the case. He’s sorting it all back into its folder with his psychic abilities when a little glimmer makes him stop. He pulls out one of the papers, trip itinerary on one side and blank on the other…until he looks closer. With his powers aiding him, some kind of writing appears on the blank side, almost like invisible ink. 

Key words stick out to Ritsu as he floats it into his hands and reads it. “Sorry,” “useless,” “gone” ...as he reads closer, he recognizes it to be Reigen’s handwriting. What is this? Why does he have this in here? 

“Have you got it yet?”

Ritsu jumps as he hears Reigen’s voice across the room. In a panic, he shoves everything back in the cabinet, taking the one slip of paper and slipping it in his back pocket.

“Yeah—yeah. I’ve got it.”

He reads it again when he gets home, at night, when he’s sure he won’t be interrupted. He concludes it's a suicide note. He isn’t sure how Reigen did this or how he concealed it without powers of his own, but it has to be one. 

After that, Ritsu becomes completely obsessed with Reigen—monitoring him, making sure he’s okay, obsessively looking into details in the note to try and undo the damage he thinks has been done. He feels responsible. No one else knows about it, and the guilt and worry of being the only one to know drives him up the wall. Did he do something to make him feel this way? Ritsu never really hated Reigen. He thought Reigen was happy where he was. He didn’t want him gone. 

There are more unspoken details with other characters and moments and build-up I would write in between of course, but the fic would essentially peak with Reigen catching on and finding out that the note he wrote on the train somehow transferred over to become visible in this realm due to psychic interference. And now it’s in Ritsu’s hands, and it’s really, really not what it looks like.

At first, there's the age-old lesson of "you're a kid, you're not responsible for adults and how they feel," and "you can always talk to me," and "I promise I'm not feeling that way, and if I was, you shouldn't burden yourself with issues I should be working out with help from other adults."

But then there's another issue. To convince Ritsu that he really is alright and doesn’t plan on leaving them like that anytime soon, he would have to explain why he really wrote it. He can no longer sugarcoat his experience on the train. He doesn’t want the kid to have to know about this terrible stuff he went through, but he realizes he has no choice, no other way to convince him. He has to tell the truth.

Juicy, hurty, comforting in the end, you get the gist. I’m not sure what other characters I would bring in and what roles they would play just yet, but Ritsu walks out with more of an empathetic lens towards someone he initially kind of resented, and Reigen is forced to be weak. Those are two things I just love.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings!! I don’t even know if there would be an audience for this type of fic, but I think it would be fun to write regardless! Anyone else got any juicy ideas? I always love to hear them.

#reigen arakata #mp100 #ritsu kageyama #prompts #fic prompt #story ideas #mob psycho 100 #cw suicidal themes #hurt/comfort #fanfic

[gnomey22]

Erica's Timeskip Lore: A Failtopia Analysis

When I first watched episode four of Season 2, I enjoyed Erica's timeskip cutscene. With that kind of production quality (by which I mean, Wafferscotch's artwork), how could I not? But I did feel like it was... a mistake, of sorts. Like, it was resetting her character development from Season 1 all the way back to how she was when she was first made, just because the fans liked her that way. However, I've had about a year to grow from this misconception, and realise that Erica's timeskip lore is some of Failtopia's best writing.

Let's start from the beginning - how she was in Season 1. In a word, she was pessimistic. Not outright hateful, but she had very little faith in anyone's intelligence due to the absolute destruction and failure of her previous teams. She knew that the FailFleet Miis were good fighters, and they literally had the gods on their side, but it was hard to believe they would've gotten through a single fight without Kronkui's guidance. She constantly calls out their strategic mistakes, insults them for being as weird as they are in such a serious situation, and pretty much saves them from certain doom with her healing. However, she isn't exactly immune to it herself.

She joined this team, after all, and Failboat has been insisting on befriending her this whole time. As much as she'd consider herself the straightman of the group, she often goes along with their antics, such as the pause-unpause dance they sometimes do as they walk. She never 'softens up', but her faith in some of her teammates grows beyond what is strictly necessary, in two cases: Failboat, the questionable leader, and Chi, the innocent child. Both of them are the more powerful members of the party, but trying to maintain personal relationships takes up a lot more of their focus, and both of them look up to Erica greatly. These are the two people that Erica would go beyond calling 'acquaintances', although it is noteworthy that she ends up being the first party member to get 'acquainted' with everyone. (Pirahnyawn was technically first, but Daniel Failboat ignores this, so it's safe to say it isn't canon.)

However, it's clear that Failboat's complete lack of any leadership qualities got to Erica in the end, since they've lost their friendship by the time Season 2 happens, and don't build it back immediately like Erica and Chi do. (This is what justifies both of their returns in my eyes: how important they each are to Erica's development, who herself is vital to Season 2.) Erica obviously wasn't in contact with anyone near to the start of Season 2, and the reason for that is exactly what is displayed in her cutscene.

She's been going from party to party after the events of Season 1, much like she did before joining the FailFleet Miis, but this time, there's no urgent threat, and she's had her character development, she knows it's possible to grow closer to people on an adventure, as long as they actually care about her! Failboat and Chi were likely the only people to not see her as 'the annoying pessimist in the corner', which worked wonders for her self-esteem, but back out with these teams, even though she saved the world, she's still relegated to this, and only used for her healing abilities. The FailFleet Miis were at least skilled fighters beyond their stupidity, Erica could trust in that. With these people, there's nothing to trust in, and all the weight falls upon her shoulders, just as it did beforehand. She can't handle this. No-one should have to deal with that, she knows from her experience with the FailFleet Miis that she does, in fact, matter as a person, and all of that is being thrown away by these idiots! Once again, healing is the only thing she's good for.

Which raises one question: why is she even still healing?

Her switch to the Warrior class is not a smart one, she has zero experience with a sword and not much more experience on the frontlines of any battle. Her cautious personality should've stopped her from throwing all her training away, especially with the return of the Dark Lord as a threat, but she's not holding herself back any longer. She's been shown that she was right all along, the idiots on her teams were never to be trusted, and that if she doesn't want to be seen as an object for healing, she should go it alone, with no healing at all. She's stubborn in these ideals, hence her personality switch. It was an accident from Daniel Failboat's point of view, but it makes perfect sense for the trajectory of her character arc.

But her personality hasn't just changed from 'angry' to 'less angry' to 'even angrier' over the course of her arc. All her experience has culminated in a new formation of her personality, and although this is definitely my theoriser brain looking too deep into things (that's what I've been doing this whole essay, why not double down?), there is one scene that perfectly demonstrates where she's at right now. When she denies having her face stolen, to Mar.

This is obviously a complete falsehood, she had her face stolen multiple times in Season 1, all of which technically at the hands of the man who stands before her. Mar, the former Dark Curse, who she has teamed up with to stop this new Dark Lord. Knowing what Mar is capable of, how dedicated he is to atoning for his past mistakes, and the fact that he was a healer in Greenhorne, Erica finds him the only suitable teammate to stop this new threat, as long as they don't bring up the Dark Lord stuff. That would only drive a rift between them, and she doesn't need any more of those. So, she pretends not to fully recognise him, and gets on his team under the guise of 'investigating who he actually is', even though they are both fully aware of who Mar was. Later on, Mar questions her on why she knows so much about what it's like to have your face stolen, and she's essentially faced with two options: bring up the fact that Mar was the one who stole her face, and finally release her full rage at him, inevitably resulting in her travelling alone once again... or continue her facade, despite the faulty logic. In a move that is far more cautious than it is stubborn, she chooses the latter. It is stubborn, she's sticking to her ideals of hanging onto this acquaintanceship with Mar by a thread, and she doesn't do it in a very kind way, but it's more accurately described as cautious, keeping her head low so she doesn't start a fight with her only remaining ally, a powerful one at that. She's certainly more upfront and truly confrontational than she was in Season 1, but there's still that spark of 'I need to keep this team going' that makes Erica such a compelling character.

This isn't to say that Daniel Failboat intended any of this outside of the cutscene, because he really didn't, I'm just reading really far into a stupid Miitopia playthrough. However, what that stupid Miitopia playthrough actually presents us with is surpassingly thought-provoking and fun at the same time, so of course I'm going to hyperfixate on it enough to write such a pointless essay about it! Failtopia is a beautiful thing. So idiotic at its core, and yet it houses some of the best character writing I've seen from any media, by pure accident. Erica isn't even my top example of this.

#failtopia #failboat miitopia #failtopia erica #very long rambling #writing an essay I will never be graded on #Erica #Peak example of a well-written character #She's the fans' favourite for a reason #None of this is that reason but still #failboat

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Stampede - Episode 11 - July not go boom just yet

Another Saturday is upon us and episode 11 of Trigun Stampede dropped this morning.  I may have procrastinated a bit on watching it since I’d been binging Psycho-Pass season 1 and was more interested in how that show was gonna end before watching another episode of Stampede (Thanks Merdo for that suggestion).  It definitely reminded me that a lot of series have issues with world building, but I was more critical of Psycho-Pass not having the discussion of Hobbes or Locke among their philosophical debates than some late world building that would have been stronger if they’d not kept so many clues subtle but that would be a whole ‘nother meta and I’m not looking to add Psycho-Pass to my current backlog. I have two asks I’m still sitting on, I’ve decided I’ll write them after Stampede wraps so if you’d be patient to wait a few more weeks, I’d greatly appreciate that. Episode 11 doesn’t have a cold open and instead starts with the OP.  Our action returns to Meryl and her Derringer with a whopping two bullets to fire.   She is quickly able to find Wolfwood strolling through the hall and she called out to him addressing him as just ‘undertaker’.  She asks him where Vash is.

Of course, having completed his likely useless contract, he replies that isn’t his business anymore.  Their interaction is one of her trying to get an answer from him and he just avoids it by joking around.  Meryl kicks him in the shin and we get an oddly placed comedic moment from him before they go their separate ways.  Well, this was not what I had wanted to see happen.  Meryl knows she has little fighting power and she needed to recruit Wolfwood to come with her. The only remaining option is that she will have guilted him enough that he’ll feel like he has to come back and help.  Wolfwood looks at his empty pack of smokes and the action turns to Vash in the giant vat/tank.

Vash tries to struggle as Knives gracefully swims before him.  He uses his knives to hold Vash into place and complete a sort of connection with him.  We can see lots of blue plants in the tank as well in their closed form.  Conrad watches from a control room as he’s monitoring the progress of the connection between the two brothers.

At this point, the mechanics of what is happening are pretty far off of the manga if someone is looking for this to be cannon compliant.  In the manga, Knives had realized he could fuse with other plants and he at one point in time did attempt to fuse with Vash but failed since Vash wasn’t too keen on that option.

One of the key points of Knives plan to fuse with the other plants was to continue to keep his identity separate from them so that he could enact his own will while the rest of the plants were unable to exercise their own choices.

It appears that Stampede is taking this in a very different direction.  Meryl is able to find the location where Conrad is.  I’m sarcastically going to note that they must have very well labeled signage.  She clearly followed the signs that said, ‘crazy science control room’ this way.  She tries to threaten Conrad but can neither shoot him nor can she shoot through the tank.  Conrad is clear to note it bulletproof, but I’m certain it likely can’t withstand Wolfwood’s upgraded laser beam potential.

We get info dumping about the plants from Conrad.  The body of the plants are only a fraction of their true form and that they are linked to another dimension.

This is very briefly mentioned in ‘98 as the beings beyond our outside of time and also discussed in the manga.   However, in this case they are really focusing on Vash’s ability to make a gate between the two locations.  Hence the previous comments about sacrificing one of the twins, likely was about Vash being able to be used as a portal.

Conrad than explains that the difference between plants and independents like Vash and Knives is that the brothers have souls while plants do not.  Honestly, based on what I read from the manga, I never interpreted that plants to be soulless more that they were contained by their basic plant nature/biology.  We saw from the plant point of view and the fact that Vash knew each and every plant personally, implied that they were individuals but trapped in their role.  That’s how Knives lost, the plants stopped supporting him and it gave Vash the chance to take him on even footing.

Anyhoo, in this version, Conrad wants to find the core of the plants so that they can have souls and become all independent.  We know that would be a problem since humanity would die on the planet without regular plants.

The rest of the episode will flip back and forth between what Meryl sees on the outside and what Vash sees on the inside of his mind while Knives tries to make sure he’s most useful to open that gate to that core.

Thus, this becomes another both flashback and conversation between Vash and Knives through Vash’s memories.  It starts with the recent flashback where Knives said he would make sure they’d free their brethren.  Yet, Vash tries to state that humans abuse plants because they crashed on the planet and it was their fault this entire situation exists.  Of course when you are villain like Knives, that’s beside the point.

Meryl argues with Conrad that plant independence is the only answer since humanity is slowly killing itself on the planet anyways.  So his plan is to use Vash’s gate to allow all the plants to come into awareness and become independent dooming the planet to death.

Wolfwood then wanders off to find Roberto’s body to take his pack of cigarettes.  He really needed a smoke.  He takes a drag off the cigarette after thanking Roberto and thinks to himself that “Gotta make a choice, huh.” meaning he’s thinking about doing something.

It may have taken him seven months in the manga, but Wolfwood was able to rescue Vash from Knives on his giant ark of havoc.  It is clear that Wolfwood is going to do something to rescue Vash since he’s mulling it over.  Since his showdown with Livio is incomplete, I guess he won’t die in the next episode either.  Unless Livio happens to pop up, but I don’t think we have time for that.

The action then returns to Vash’s mind as Knives tries to synchronize himself with him.  Vash runs into the children he was unable to save as Rosa’s voice tells him to leave this town.  This is pretty typical hero mental gaslighting.  Knives appears becoming Wolfwood and shoots Rollo/Monev the Gale who becomes geranium flowers.

Knives steps forward to tell him he’s no hero, he’s a coward who can see people die.  Only then does Vash even realize he’s in a sort of dream state since his hand is normal.  He then determines that he needs to find the exit and runs which makes sense for him.  However, no matter where he runs, Nai is able to find him and when he’s at the crash memory a young Nai tells him to just forget about Meryl and Roberto.

Meryl and Roberto become flowers as well and Vash can’t recall who they are.  Knives pushes Vash’s loss as everything begins to turn into flowers in his distorted memories.

At the same time in the real world, branches continue to grow out from Vash and start to spread outside of the tank.  Knives assures Conrad it is okay as Meryl panics.  We see Vash in a desert sandstorm struggling when he is able to catch a single red petal in his hand as child Nai declares that Vash should unleash his powers and they can remake the world. 

With that Vash is able to change the landscape to the garden of his past and Nai stands across from him.  When we return to it, Vash is now looking at Rem under a tree with flowers all around and petals in the air.  This is very much like the dreams that Vash had in the ‘98 anime when he’d have discussions with Rem.

Petals block our view of Vash looking at her in shock before he becomes a child and runs to her to embrace her.  Meanwhile,  Nai also in child form refers to her as ‘that woman’. 

The syncing is stalled at ~90% and Conrad is there to info dump and tell us that the question of whether it is a love of humanity or love for a younger brother will determine the fate of the planet.  Though, Knives form of love is quite twisted from the start.

There is the map for the break and then it returns to the July MPs at a noodle stand on the night shift since the Humanoid Typhoon is on the loose.  Not like they are working all that hard after the one guy shot Vash and they didn’t bother to chase them?  I think the only point of this was so that people can say that Vash is in July before we get the zoom out to see that Vash’s tree branches are growing all over the place.  The somewhat restrained neon lights of the city and again the fairly empty streets seem a bit odd.

This must be the set up for a future time skip.  The July MPs say that they are on patrol for Vash.  Therefore, when the city is destroyed the rumors will link that fact with Vash and not anyone else. This then returns to Meryl yelling at Vash to wake up while avoiding his growing roots in vain.  I give you some credit for trying but this is beyond your control Meryl.  Not quite sure how much this is serving the plot.

We return to Vash’s memory of his time with Rem and Nai as they discuss her favorite flower.  They have their typical bickering and it is clear that Rem wants to protect them and is trying to instill certain behaviors in them so that when the rest of the people wake up, they will appear to be human.  Interestingly, she already knows about Nai’s abilities while Vash is very human. This goes back to the party where Nai sulks that he doesn’t need to eat anything.

This scene allows for us to see that Rem told them that she loves them and cares about them.  Vash is able to freeze that moment and ask Knives if he did not feel that love, but instead we get a foreboding looking door for him to enter.  Which, he does have to step through.

This is going to be our Tessla flashback scene as indicated by the flower placed there by Rem.

This setup is a symptomatic of Studio Orange’s approach to Stampede.  They got it close but missed the mark - or in this case - the meaning.  This version sticks with the red germanium.  This flower was chosen by Rem because it symbolizes strength and determination.  It was how she motivated herself to become involved in Project Seeds and keep her own goals.  Vash adopted that as well into his determination to not kill.

In the manga, the flower that she leaves for Tessla is not her own favorite flower but one reflecting the loss of an innocent life.  She chose to use a [white] lily instead which is linked to rebirth and purity.  Both of these are valid to apply to Tessla, she was a pure virgin birthed being and deserved a better fate than to be a simple test subject, tortured to death.  The manga shows that there was no respect shown for Tessla when she was alive or in death besides Rem’s lily for her.

If Studio Orange weren’t so intent on making their own mark on Trigun, they would have just copied the original here, and it would have kept the original meaning. 

Yet, now by shifting the flower symbolism it does not make sense since they didn’t stop to understand the meaning.  Especially when Yasuhiro Nightow clearly uses flowers symbolically in his works.  Or the studio takes his use of flowers and then expands upon it.  Studio Bones took the red geraniums from Trigun and made sure they were in Blood Blockade Battlefront for both Klaus and Leo; two characters who are driven by determination and overcome obstacles.  They even took it further in the episode ‘Day In Day Out’ adding in additional flower symbolism for Steven that wasn’t in the original manga.  Ellen shows up to his dinner party with a bouquet of yellow lilies which are a common thank you gift and are supposed to be happy.  However, as his entire group of ‘normal’ friends were all there to betray him, the anime altered the scene where he leaves the frozen people to be dealt with in his living room.  The manga has him burying his face in his hand as he slouches forward while in the anime they chose to have him take a single yellow lily from the vase and he hands it to the nameless subordinate.

Additionally, the entire confrontation scene shows the vase full of yellow lilies from every angle demonstrating that these lilies are the negative meaning of their color - that they represent falsehood and the entire group of friends were lying to him from the start. 

But, I’ve settled on my opinion that Studio Orange doesn’t want to do their homework on things like these.  If Rem’s favorite flower is her favorite flower, well, it applies in all situations.

Like in the manga, Nai and Vash are able to hack into the database and reveal all of the information of Tessla.  In this case now, her dissected body is - still alive?  So, that is how he was able to absorb her eyeball.

The twins scream in horror as Rem comes to comfort them.  We don’t have time to show Vash’s arc where he tries to commit suicide and ends up injuring Rem severely before snapping back to it and saves her.  Instead, it switches to another conversation between young Vash and Nai where Nai is reading the Bible.  This is where they decided to get his whole sinner language in Stampede from.  In contrast in the manga, Knives formed his opinion through a study of human history and how it is stuck in a cycle of violence and not learning from our mistakes.

The flashback ends with Knives telling Vash that all of this is to protect him from humans.

This then leads to Vash stating that everything is his fault b/c this is why Knives crashed the ships.  It was all for him, his current adult form says.  And with the gaslighting complete, Vash’s mind breaks from his safe space.

The Vash tree is expanding out all over the place, Meryl is trapped under a branch or root while the city attempts to shoot it. 

Knives keeps pushing Vash as he tries to hold onto his memory of Rem.  Of course Knives is going to blame Rem for everything!  She’s the reason things didn’t work out they way the should have.  That meddling woman!

Stampede continues to make female characters weak and one dimensional and we still haven’t gotten her philosophy why you can’t take another life.  More that Vash’s mother obsession which was much more prominent in the anime and manga is finally dropped in here and of course falls flat.  Being cliche, it is Knives who cuts off Rem’s head which breaks him completely.  His memories are lost and he turns black/dark brown.

Knives rejoices in his success!  He’s finally gotten his brother back from the evil clutches of women who are decent motherly figures.  Wow.  Good job Knives.  The portal then opens behind Vash to the next dimension as dark purple flowers bloom all over Vash’s branches as the plant takes over the entire city of July.

We also see the plants open their own sepals (I mean they aren’t actually sepals but best term I can think at the moment) and they are all plugged into Vash via their belly buttons and they also look pregnant?  Did Knives just have Vash impregnate all of the plants?  Whaattt?

Or is he going to give them a soul through a sort of umbilical cord and birth out independent plants from the regular plants?

And with Knives reading of the Bible he’s referencing Armageddon for humanity and the end of the human world.  Glad to see Knives would have been a keener at Sunday School.

Knives enters the other dimension to touch its core (you dirty bastard) and the giant plant becomes a giant humanoid plant form that at the end of the episode looks like it is going to stand up and walk away to continue his destruction of humanity.  And the episode ends!

Quick thoughts on this episode

1.) The weird pacing continues and I’m not a fan of how frequently they go back and forth.  I get that they want to give us a sense of urgency but it feels like the conversations are almost too disjointed and it would be better to let them have some space.  It would have been better to have the entire sequence of Vash and Knives at most, interrupted once by what was going on between Meryl and Conrad.  If you could even call it an interaction, it was more Conrad info dumping and Meryl being distressed and unable to do anything.

2.) Breaking Vash’s mind is remarkably easy.  Compared to the anime or manga, Vash is mentally a lot stronger than the Stampede version.  Again, this is for the sake of time and not good storytelling or narrative structure.  He was like a lamb led in for the slaughter based on his behaviors so we aren’t surprised.  More that he’s been gaslight by Knives when they were together and still falls victim to it.  Knives notes how he has to be cute and pet like to survive with humans, but we have rarely seen any silly behavior from him since he’s just been a sad boi, passively falling into Knives path set out for him.  All in all it is hard to see the mental strength and tenacity in Vash at this point in time.  Certainly, Luida and Brad say it and tell it to Wolfwood but we don’t get to see him act on it.

3.) Knives has made a giant Ent from Vash opening the portal and connecting with the blue plants.  Is this thing going to walk to the next city to destroy it?  I take it the control room where Conrad and Meryl are as well as whatever hallway Wolfwood are in are still a part of the main body.  What on earth is going to happen with all those red plants?  There is only one episode left and it feels like it too will be rushed and end on a cliffhanger.

4.) Stampede checks the bare minimum of “I read the manga” boxes at the surface level but not beyond that.  Characters and names are dropped along with technology but everything is trapped in the sci fi demo mode.  I guess this episode is supposed to match the scene when Knives tries to absorb Vash into him and fails in the manga . . . but Knives seems so much more powerful.  Previous examples of times when Knives forced Vash into using his angel arm only removed his memory from that time but he didn’t lose anything else.  Now, it seems like Knives just went in and blocked all those memories.  The power imbalance was always a part of the manga with Vash settling on being a gunslinger but this is just so much more.  Vash never stood a chance in this version.

Characters:

1.) Vash is trapped and we still don’t get how he learned his moral backing from Rem yet.  He’s even black and almost frozen like the plants that Knives has as statues.

2.) Knives is very successful and is gonna go touch that core.  I’m going to guess the core bites back at him?  Or the core only wants to be touched by someone like Vash with a pure morality?

3.) Meryl was useless.  She’s trapped under a branch and could only try to cry out at Vash.  Hopefully her run in with Wolfwood will spur him to action since there is no Milly or Vash to make him more engaged.

4.) Conrad will die reaching his mad scientist goals.  Since Knives prevented him from dying as opposed to killing him.

5.) Wolfwood might be feeling conflicted.  With Knives in the other dimension, I’m not sure how he can do much of anything unless he laser cuts the giant tank and everything spills out?  I was surprised he didn’t make a move in this episode as well.

All in all this is too compressed together and no build up or delivery.  Just lots of action all the time and never enough for the story to breathe.  I don’t have much else to say, but I’m not surprised at this point.  Episode twelve has a lot to cover or cram in, but the paradoxical pacing will happen again.

#trigun stampede #trigun maximum #trigun anime #Vash the Stampede #millions knives #meryl stryfe #nicholas d. wolfwood #william conrad #tessla #rem severem #trigun stampede episode review #trigun stampede meta

[papabearbobbynash]

911: 6x13 "Mixed Feelings" Thoughts

Honestly, I was not expecting Buck's new cognitive abilities to show up like that and as someone who wasn't really found of the idea when i first read on the synopsis (since it looked like they didn't have anything else to come up for the character) I kinda liked. Especially since somehow we just watched Eddie grab the man to help both of them make some profit of it LMAO (unhinged criminal gay energy right there LMAO). However I hope they touch Buck's PTSD and accident consequences seriously later.

I loved Bobby and Athena in this episode. Since the beginning of the season (actually since season 5) they have been going through a lot. It's Samuel's illness, Tania's cold case, Wendall's death. All this after they were trying to go on a vacation to clear their heads of previous problems in latest season and they didn't actually go on that travel, so they needed a break. I love their energy this episode, I was really happy to see their flirty chaotic energy back from the cassino robbery. Hopefully the writers aren't shy and keep showing us this side of them, because it's wonderful and hilarious as they are unhinged LMAO.

Talking about people who needed a break, we have Chimney and Maddie who also have been dealing with a lot since season 5, but differently from bathena seems like their break isn't coming anytime soon. Just as Buck got injured and Chimney had to deal with family drama we have them as target of a scammer. They need a break hopefully they can get some till the end of the season.

The Henren plot is confusing to me. I was at the impression that Hen and Karen had established some sort of agreement with Denny's father before when Eva showed up wanting custody, but seems like it was not the case? The gap between that point and this plot point shouldn't exist or be this confusing. However, I'm somehow satisfied they seem to be handling properly (I mean, acknowledging the father was in the wrong for allowing this situation to go this far without Henren knowing), but I'm going to keep alert about this one because I don't know what to expect from this storyline even though i'm interested in how the bio dad will play a role in their lives.

The calls were actually interesting (the vibrator one has me wheezing) and finally the callers aren't all making puns when calling 911. The build up was a bit too long to my taste, but it wasn't a long painful one so I'm not really bothered.

I think it was a great episode.

#911 on fox #911 spoilers #evan buckley #bobby nash #athena grant #eddie diaz #chimney han #maddie buckley #hen wilson #karen wilson

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 s02e01 Points of Departure

s01 table of contents • s01 wrap-up • previous episode: s01e22

I did pinky promise!

That's definitely John Sheridan. Captain (?) of the Agamemnon.

Partner: Is that the new captain? What happened to the old one?

Me: Nothing has happened to the commander. The commander of deep space 9 is still in command.

Partner: .... ???

oops, heh. Got my Star Trek brain on 100% of the time.

There is still so much going on. The episode has only been going on about thirty seconds and I already feel like there’s ten new plot threads. Sheridan, Sheridan’s deep animosity for, and ability to defeat, Minbari. Minbari warships in Earth space.

And there’s still all the old plot threads! Which I am pretty sure I remember OK. I was dead dog tired last night.

Love Ivanova’s threats! “Knock it the fuck off or I’m putting you in the fusion reactor.” I’ll help.

I appreciate Ivanova doing a little recap.

Oh, dang, that’s more abrupt than I thought Sinclair’s departure would be. Just a Gold Level message that, fyi, he left sometime in the last 8 days and he won’t be back. Bye guy.

That’s great rationale. The Minbari want Sinclair, so they get him. But we’re sending the guy who kicked the Minbari’s ass to command B5, since the Minbari picked their fave for the last one.

And Delenn never got to tell Sinclair the Super Secret Info!

Sooooo the Sheridan/Delenn endgame is going to be Enemies to Lovers?

LOVE Ivanova’s second recap. She should recap everything that needs recapping.

I can’t believe we just found out about vibe showers but haven’t gotten a single, sexy vibe shower scene. This is the 90s. Can I expect a titillating Susan/Talia life-saving co-showering scene?

Good set-up for Sheridan being a sympathetic, likeable figure. Ivanova did not enjoy running the station by herself for over a week, and anyone she’s stoked to see, I’m stoked to see!

Oooo. Betrayal and Minbari on Minbari violence. Sheridan the Star Killer! What a name!

Ivanova: I’ll say a prayer for [Garibaldi] tonight. Dr Franklin: He’s agnostic. Ivanova: Then I’ll say half a prayer.

That’s the friendly Ivanova vs Garibaldi antagonism I’ve always loved so much.

Kalain is going to be a problem, but I’m not sure how, precisely. Or how it’s going to help wrap up any of those many, many plot threads dropped last episode or this one so far.

Hostility! Sheridan vs Minbari: may it bring much interesting viewing. And Sheridan’s just super casually name dropping the Grey Council and Minbari cultural knowledge when that stuff seemed to have been extremely under wraps last season. A shift in worldbuilding, or proof of Sheridan’s Super Secret Classified Knowledge for character building? Questions, questions.

NO, you can’t hurt Lennier, he’s too adorably sweet. Even with that hilarious two-finger martial arts (??) stance. Indisposed is a way to describe Delenn’s condition, but considering how unsure she and Lennier seemed to be of her survival, very sweetly optimistic.

Yeah, where’s the Trigati? 

Oh shit! Lennier is about to drop some Super Classified Minbari Info?! Fuck yea.

I’m SO MAD that HBO is currently ahead of Firefox’s plug-ins so I can’t gif every second of Delenn in front of all those explosions.

The horrible truth is...humans are Minbari? Sort of?

This is a step up in the mysticism! I love it! How totally bonkers. So bonkers, it feels like a real religious belief. The Greater Minbari Souls aren’t reincarnating well into Minbari babies, and new Minbari have seemed lesser recently because, for some reason, they’re reincarnating into humans. What the fuck, I mean, did JMS do way too many shrooms in the 80s?

Ahhhh maybe don’t talk about the super secret Minbari-Human soul exchange in the middle of the crowded bridge, though?

OK, I now have worldbuilding answers, but way more questions. I’ve been wondering forever if they have faster-than-light communication, and they do - Sheridan sends a message through the jump point. But then he says the Minbari warship looking for the Trigati was waiting in hyperspace. A...space outside of normal space that the jump points send ships through and brings them back into normal space in other locations?

Oof, And Sheridan can’t win with the Minbari. They’re mad at him for this, too.

Ivanova: I learned awhile ago that there’s enough guilt in the world without grabbing around for more.

Nice exposition, Lennier. But how will the Earthers discover this on their own? I’m intrigued by both that, and by how Delenn’s chrysalis keeps growing. And the weeping, and the cracking.

I appreciate that, although Sheridan feels too superstitious about his speech to not give it, he just goes and gives it to an empty command dome.

Going to miss Sinclair. But I like Sheridan so far.

next episode

#John Sheridan #Susan Ivanova #babylon 5 #woodsfae b5

[salmonthestoryteller]

RNM Season 4 Episodes 10-11

There was a surprising amount of good scenes packed into these two episodes.

I loved everything in the interactions between Bonnie and Dallas. As well as their interactions with Michael. Bonnie and Michael’s hug when he came through the gate especially was adorable.  She's like his kid sister and I love it.

Isobel and Kyle are simultaneously adorable and painful.  Their hug got to me, too. And Isobel looking at his picture on her phone.

More Evans twins - I'm really glad to see their connection brought to the forefront again.

I surprisingly approve of the current Echo plotline despite sort of breakup 4.0 when the alien mist had Dark Liz in control.  The alien mist addiction.  Max admitting he was allowing fear to control him when it came to erasing his powers. Echo has spent a lot of the previous seasons saving each other from one physical threat or another.  But rarely has emotional vulnerability been necessary during that. This current plot is much more about emotional vulnerability for Echo, and I find myself enjoying their scenes.

Rosa continues to be wonderful. I loved her scenes with Liz, but I especially loved her scenes with Kyle.

Malex, what can I even say?  Their scenes were pretty much everything I could have wanted.  Including Alex building a trap that caught Bonnie and Dallas. Lol

And the proposal - of course, the proposal took my breath away. Curious if they are going to have Dallas marry them in the pocket dimension or not.  I kinda want him to just so their siblings can give them a hard time about it later.

Alex dying… I'm kind of on the fence with that one. Seems kinda an unnecessary plot with so few episodes left? But also slightly curious about which deus ex machina we're going for to save him.  Max getting his abilities back, Michael getting to unlock healing; Liz’s alien mist?

I… just can't get into the Tezca redemption arc. It just feels too far removed? I appreciated her as a villain, the threat to the main characters that I felt she was capable of making a viewer feel.  But in a sense, she did not really do enough villainous acts on screen for me to feel attached to her redemption.  Her biggest acts are all in a nebulous past that I don't think the show has taken the time to connect the viewers to enough. Most of our flashbacks were on Earth.  What little information we have from Oasis itself is more legendary than a proper full tale.  And the type of time it would take to tell that full story is too much.  It's a whole separate story by itself. So to spend so much time redeeming a character whose entire story is caught up in a tale we do not and will never fully know feels like such a waste of time that could have been spent on other characters.

And, yeah, I still don't feel anything about Clyde as a villain.  His villainy feels too cartoony for me. I'm kinda waiting for him to tie someone to a railroad track.  But he threatened Liz's student!  Yeah, and? Are we forgetting that our first Villain was Noah and he used Isobel to kill three other teenage girls in cold blood?  And I’m supposed to be all - oh, Clyde is so scary for… threatening to kill one person and shoving Bonnie into a pocket dimension he already knew she could survive in?

Look, under different circumstances - in a different show, Clyde might be scary with his obsession to complete his cult's work. But in this show, with the villains we've had, with it literally being just Clyde against like a dozen people, I just feel more disappointed in our Heroes than threatened by Clyde. Like, seriously guys? Do you need Greg to come shoot someone for you again?

Shivani’s descent into villainy on the flipside has been far more real. Far more human and in the present time plot. I'm pretty much expecting her to be killed, and I will be sorta saddened by that.  But I’m not sure I see a different ending to her arc. Especially now that she's joined forces with Clyde.

#roswell new mexico #Season 4 #character thoughts #episode thoughts #meta

[nerath-mp]

Lore: The Legacy of Bael Turath, part 1. The Doylist Perspective

Bael Turath and its lore is a big part of my setting, rooted as it is in the "story" crafted for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons during its development. I also happen to have a lot of the info from its development due to me being a shameless 4e fanboy and still 'Ardent' defender (well, Battleminds were the defenders, Ardents played the leader role for psionic classes). I wanted to see it through both an external-to-the-narrative Doylist perspective and then dive into my setting for the Watsoninan look.  For more on this Doylist/Watsonian narratology frame of analysis - think how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would explain why something happens in a Sherlock Holmes story and how the in-fiction Doctor Watson would do so.

Much of this material from a game developer's point of view will come from two sources, a pair of books released in advance of fourth edition's core rulebooks - Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters and Wizards Presents: Races and Classes - these previews were a compilation of essays and teases from the developers, talking about the project of making the new edition and providing a first look at some of the concept art for the books. They are unabashedly marketing material, hyping the new edition - a variant of the usual previous articles found in Dragon Magazine issues or which are now (as I write) done as slickly-produced video podcast episodes hosted on Youtube and D&D Beyond websites.

 (Source: Book covers, artists are Raven Mimura and William O’Connor, respectively; Description: the covers of the two “Wizards Presents” books, one featuring a beholder, the other has a human male fighter and a female tiefling rogue with twin burning daggers in a dungeon environment)

As cheesy as they are, and as crass as their intent is, I liked these books - even as I didn't get them until after 4th edition was released. Game development and setting creation are big interests of mine, having worked one a couple of professionally published, modestly successful TTRPG games shortly after I graduated university. Even now, I find the activity of working on world-building gives my ADHD brain the dopamine hit it seeks, and I can focus on it for days at a time.

 Project Orcus, Teams Flywheel and… Scramjet? Really?

According to Richard Baker, early work on 4th edition started in earnest back in 2005 as Project Orcus. The development team recognized that third edition D&D, easily one of the most successful of the iterations of the game, had become a bit of a ungainly beast with over a hundred official releases and the d20 OGL re-opening the cornucopia of third-party materials only imagined back in the heyday of early TTRPGs, before the hobby firmed up and intellectual property needed to be protected. The team broke into two groups - one focused on mechanical elements of the edition, the other on giving those rules some sort of anchoring in the story elements of the edition, something Ed Stark likened as "I’d like some flavor with my rules." So if one worked on the mechanical elements of a class, those abilities needed to be incorporated into the published story elements.  

A similar approach, albeit taken in reverse direction, led to the incorporation of early Greyhawk names for spells, people, magic items, deities, and such into Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as well as D&D 3e. 5th edition returned to using a pre-existing setting, but changed it to the Forgotten Realms due to the 'generic' nature of the setting and its broad popularity in the consumers and fandom. D&D4e's unique approach was to custom build the setting assumptions alongside the mechanical aspects.

The teams decided to give each other nicknames - Flywheel for the mechanical group, and 'SCRMJT' or "Scramjet" for the story element group.

  Story element fundamentals of 4th edition

Many of these world building conceits are found now on the TVTropes page for 'Points of Light' (rabbit hole warning for those prone to looking up from that site only to find hours have passed without notice):

The World is More Fantastic

The World is Ancient

The World is Mysterious

Monsters Exist All Over

Creatures Need a Place in the World

Adventurers are Exceptional

Magic Is not Everyday, but it Is Natural

"Good" and "Evil" Mean More

Remote Gods

One Sun, One Moon

No Forced Race Relations

Death Matters Differently

Fantastic Locations

Less Evil Fighting Evil

(Apologies for the random capitalization there, just quoting the book)

From these conceits, the default 'setting' emerged, creating a setting higher metaphysical stakes, acknowledgement of the supernatural elements, more danger filled and reliant on the actions of exceptional heroes - the adventurers. Safety and predictability is found only in a few places, the 'Points of Light' with mysterious, dangerous, ruin-filled wilderness surrounding them. This sort of setting is set to enable easy construction of big-scaled heroic campaigns, where player characters 'matter' from level 1 to level 30, and their actions carry ripples across the world.

(Source: “Fantasy Castle” by unknown, found on Flickr; Description: elaborate medieval gothic castle in bright light, with sea mist below the foreground)

 Anyway, back to Bael Turath

The first mention of Bael Turath by name is in the "The World" essay by Chris Sims, under the section "Living in the Light" but in the previous section it is foreshadowed in this paragraph:

"Where civilization failed, traces of it remain. Ruins dot the world, hidden by the ever-encroaching wilderness, sheltering unnamed horrors. [���] Ancient magics set in motion by forgotten hands still flows in them."

Bael Turath is a Edenic Fall of Man/Atlantis/Tower of Babel single origin for humans. Bruce Cordell sketches out its role as story element in his essay "Fallen Empires" - it was the original human birthplace/homeland, created by a unnamed god who also was responsible for the creation of humans in general.

After the very Hellenic creation myth of the gods defeating their titan creators to protect the mortal world, the humans of Bael Turath grew in power and influence, finding themselves in conflict with another 'Beginning of Time' civilization, the dragonborn of Arkhosia.

In order to win against the dragons, the humans made pacts with ambitious, evil powers, slew their own creator god, drank its power and their rulers mated with dark spirits, becoming the infernal tieflings.

The deicide and corruption of their souls was not enough to ensure victory and Arkhosia destroyed the civilization in a pyrrhic victory that cost them tumbling into their own dark age and become more or less a more nomadic, scattered people.

 Bael Turath in this way sets up a lot of the conceits for 4th edition:

fallen empires,

ruins with forbidden and powerful magics lost to history,

the tragic flaw of humanity, and;

explains why the other races have specific, living, creator gods, but humans do not

(Source: environment concept art ‘Tiefling ruins’ for Wizards of the Coast; Description: ruined buildings and monuments with sharp, bladed and clawed motifs overgrown by a foggy woodland) 

It also sets the stage for why there may be monsters, strange environments, animosity among races and cultures that need to be overcome by the actions and words of the heroes in the face of some Greater Threat ™.

The rise, the hubris and the fall of Bael Turath's humans also foreshadows the cyclical nature that makes the setting feel ancient, lived in, and less set piece/theme park - all big historical elements carry within them the seeds of their own downfall.  The most recent of these in the default story elements, is the fall of Nerath, a sort of Roman or Zhou empires - another golden age that falls due to an internal weakening and strife that is toppled by an external threat, plunging their region of influence into a chaotic 'dark age' of strife that fertilizes the setting with plot hooks, providing the opportunity for the next great civilization to emerge.

(Source: untitled interior art for the Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Rules Compendium, artist unknown; Description: am adventurer walks along a road flanks by statues of hooded figures holding lit lanterns, the road leads to a ‘point of light’ a densely populated city with a palace atop of hill)

 Classes and Races: Tieflings, Warlocks, and Bael Turath

Let’s start this bit about races giving a very brief summary of where tieflings came from in the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Tieflings first appeared in the 1994 Planescape setting, itself an elaboration on the “Great Wheel” cosmology of the Outer Planes of existence first set out in AD&D’s Manual of the Planes. The Planescape tiefling referred to any human who expressed some physical characteristics associated with the “Lower” (Evil-aligned) Outer Planes – the Abyss, the Hells, and so on. Some of them were the result of making pacts with beings, others inherited the traits from a parent, you could be cursed into one, or you could become infected with the power through an item or just travelling to one of these evil planes. They were soon joined by similar “humans + planar influence” creations – the aasimar (“Upper” Outer Planes, the good-aligned counterpart of the tiefling), the genasi (elemental humans), shadow people (negative energy plane), humans with axiomatic (lawful plane) traits, and the anarchic (chaotic plane) types. All of these had in common the influence of the plane had a minor, but quite varied, physical feature and usually a minor mechanical one evocative of the planar source.

(Source: Tiefling by Tony diTerlizzi for Planescape Campaign Setting, TSR Inc; Description: two tieflings converse on the streets of Sigil, the City of Doors, each tiefling exjibit different physical traits – one had goat legs and tail, as well as large donkey-like ears, the other have small horns in her hair)

Bael Turath and its fall makes its appearance in the companion book, Wizards Presents: Classes and Races indirectly in the section on the rethink of humans, written by Bruce Cordell.

Bael Turath's destruction gives a reason to keep the origins of humanity vague enough to avoid discomfort with modern sensibilities (note: this their intent, not my opinion of the result).

The relatively short lifespans of humans, make them focus on recent histories, which echo this cycle of rise and fall of civilizations, focusing on the most recent Nerath empire's fall.

This perspective allows them to put aside the mourning for what was and work towards the next big empire and hope this one will last and thrive.

This gives humans a 'hook' that distinguishes them from the others races - instead of just being relegated to the omnipresent default 'normal' species in the game settings.  Humans never give up, but in that refusal of fate lies the very seeds of downfall as well, as this drive to press on doesn't necessarily carry with it wisdom about how to go about rebuilding, or acknowledging the moment as a civilization tips from rise to stagnation and towards a fall.  Focusing on the future, they often remain painfully blind to the present.

Matthew Sernett also speaks of giving humans a distinct flaw and the team chose 'corruptibility.'  Humans are not necessarily always corrupt but their drive to move on and the lack of wisdom as to how to do so leads them to making compromises or losing sight of their goals more so than other races with their more stable cultural anchors.

Next it pops up in the dragonborn as a historical enemy, a cause for their own scattering and their own cultural desires to recapture Arkhosian's utopian myths, and pointing the dragon humanoids to where more of their lore and treasures could be found - either in the vaults of their enemies or in the ruins of Arkhosia proper, guarded by the very devils that the tieflings of Bael Turath bargained with.

Of course, Bael Turath also has a central role in the tiefling essays by Bruce Cordell, Chris Sims, Chris Perkins, and James Wyatt. In this stage of the development, tieflings are the "cursed people", a natural hook for those looking to play the antihero or the tragic hero, the outsider, the mistrusted, the target of stories and fears about their real motivations. The unifed look of what had been a very diverse "humans related to the Lower Planes" visual appearance is credited to Bill O'Connor's concept art of the proud, but misunderstood, humanoids with long fleshy tails and heavy horned brows and an undeniable, if dangerous, sexual energy.

 (Source: “Tiefling female body design” by William O’Connor for Project Orcus concept art; Description: profile of female tiefling nude, knees drawn up to chin seated on a pillar with her tail curving forward)

Also in the tiefling section,  we get how they generally interact with modern civilizations, how they form their own communities, and the artist notes on the conception of culturally 'tiefling' weapons and armor as obsidian-like with cruel elaborations of hooks and serrations while they wear items that either conceal or accentuate their diabolic features and revel in their exotic sexual energy.

(Source: concept art for “tiefling weapons”, artist believed to be William O’Connor but not confirmed; Description: a variety of melee weapons with a number of cruel hooks, barbs, serrations in the blades and other elements)

(Source: unknown tiefling woman by unknown artist - I couldn’t get Google to decipher or match the signature in the lower left; Description: female tiefling with deep red skin, tattoos on her face, shoulders, navel and lower belly, barbed tail,  dressed in black leather, holding a thin carved bone rod or long wand)

Editing interjection - don’t you hate how some artists just fall into a memory hole online? This picture was EVERYWHERE online in the late 00s and now I can’t find a proper credit. This happened a lot when sourcing these pictures, so I apologize to the artists in question

 The next stop for Bael Turath references is in the Warlock class write-up. These sorts of nefarious, or foolish pacts are thought to originate with the proto-tieflings of Bael Turath and the Fiend-pact warlocks were one of the intended goals of their pacts with Asmodeus and his servants. Bael Turath's connections are what make pact magic so seductive and set the tone for the "evil curious" or at least "morally mercantile" nature of the class, as opposed to the presumed selflessness and piety of the divine classes like Avengers, Clerics, Invokers and Paladins.

(Source: Tiefling warlock by William O’Connor; Description: a female tiefling warlock from 4e Player’s Handbook in red clothing with brassy ornamentation, a barbed tail, heavy ram-like horns, a rune-covered rod and a wavy kris blade)

Wrapping up my thoughts on Part 1.

4th edition was an effort to build the ‘story’ of the edition in a way that provided a lot of hooks for new gamemasters, fit-to-purpose the mechanical elements of the edition, and invited existing players to imagine a lot of traditional elements in a slightly different light.

The result was a world fully-designed for heroic adventuring to happen and be necessary for its survival – it gave adventurers a reason to exist. It also created a world that was one-step further removed from direct linkages to real world history or cultures but which contained a cycle of rise and fall of civilizations that provided lore, dangers, locations, and rewards for adventuring.

Bael Turath is the default origin for humans, and tieflings. It sets the tone for a heroic flaw within humans, provides ample dependant mechanical elements – classes, items, spells, treasures, styles of gear and dress, monsters, etc. And it creates an origin for tieflings, who, in previous editions, had only a loose connection to the planar cosmology to unify them but manifested that connection in a wide variety of ways. Now tieflings have collective look, origin myth, style, and relationships with other races and beings in the world.

Human become the flawed idealists, always seeking the future, the next big civilization. Prone to corruption by outside forces or their own lack of strong cultural anchors.

Tieflings fulfill the play fantasy of the edgy antihero, a dark past, mistrusted by others, and given the option to embrace their origins and live by deceit and dark powers or reject them and fight against their nature.

However, the execution of this lost sight of certain aspects and in doubling-down on the edginess and playing into that tiefling haunted hero play fantasy, the writers tied them to a particularly destructive set of tropes that have their source in religious and ethnic intolerance, bigotry and genocide.

(Source: Fell Court by Howard Lyon, from Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale; Description: three tieflings seated and eating at an inn’s common room)

#Lore #Nerath #dnd campaign #Bael Turath #turathi #tiefling #content warning

[flameo-hotman]

,,,,,, weren't you going to go to sleep?

I did but I left my queue running. I dreamt I had gotten my hands on a box set of Atla but it was different than normal because this one had like twenty seasons and I watched them all.

The first couple seasons were dedicated to different Avatars. The first book was Wan and a more in-depth look at his life. Stezo dealing with politics and being the coolest dude ever. (He was aroace in my dream, and as such will be in any fic I write of him.)

Then there was Yangchen and that one was from the perspective of her sky bison Singling. It was melancholy because Singling saw how lonely Yangchen felt as the Avatar. How with each mission as Avatar Yangchen fell deeper and deeper into a depression.

Then there was Kuruk and the time he spent with his friends. The way they began to drift and the steady build up to him trying to track down Father Glow Worm. I think for this one my brain really just was pulling from the Kyoshi novels. The season finally of course was the fight between him and Father Glow Worm.

Then there was Kyoshi and her battle against Chin the Conqueror. At one point she needed information and so she snuck into the base that he was using as his headquarters. She in this episode pretended to be a normal serving girl and like she was applying for a job. Her ruse worked and she was able to get in and start looking for the info but got caught by another serving girl who decided to Allie herself with Kyoshi and went back to Yokoya with Kyoshi and become the first Kyoshi Warrior.

Then there was Roku and his life before he learned he was the Avatar. It focused on his friendship with Sozin and how it bordered on more at times but that Sozin would carefully allude to his feelings for Roku saying things like “I would give you my nation if you would but just ask but there are things for which I may never give freely” and “to caress your hair is the greatest temptation and yet the memory would haunt me for the rest of my days, so it would be better still to cut my hand from my person.” But Roku was straight and had no gaydar whatsoever. But also Sozin didn’t start the war because of his crush on his friend, but instead made comments during their childhood that foreshadowed what he would later go on to do. Comments that showed how he thought everyone was beneath him and Roku.

And then there was Aang and his adventures before he went into the ice and the friends he had in all the different nations. Then it switched to the childhoods of the Gaang before the show and then the show itself with added episodes. Then the comics with added content. And then we start to get into the later lives of the Gaang.

Some of the post war stuff with the Gaang was funny fluff and some stuff was dark and I would love to write fics about both. But there was this one season where Ozai had escaped prison with the aid of a dark spirit who granted him a twisted form of his previous bending and there was some sort of buffer that was keeping everyone in the Fire Nation from leaving well also keeping people from getting in.

Azula ended up siding with Zuko because Ozai was granted the ability to absorb other people’s bending by this dark spirit and he’d started by stealing Azula’s bending and she wanted it back.

In the end Zuko, Azula , and the Kyoshi Warriors were able to put a stop to Ozai and undo what had been done. They needed to travel into the spirit world and find the dark spirit and tried to fight it. And it turned out that there was a way to curry favor with it by selling some of their memories to the thing.

For each memory they sold to the spirit they would buy a day of peace from it. And so each of them sold a handful of memories buying themselves what they thought would be a couple of weeks. During which they were planning on contacting the rest of the Gaang and seeing if there was a more permanent solution. But they didn’t realize that the spirit would only be collecting payment from one of them and so when they got back to the human world and the first day of peace was had they realized something was wrong.

Zuko as it turned out was the one who payment had been collected from and when they asked him if they should also write to his uncle Zuko seemed confused. He didn’t remember having an uncle. In fact he had forgotten multiple people. (It had some flwogb vibes during this part tbh and hey love flwogb so I didn’t mind one but.)

They went to the gardens after Suki sent out the letters and Zuko asked when they got turtleducks in the pond which was deeply unsettling considering how much he loves those turtleducks. In her letter she didn’t mention the lost memories but only that something had gone wrong and they needed help with a dark spirit.

When the Gaang and Iroh arrived they were taken aside and privately told about what had happened and how they weren’t sure what all Zuko may not remember anymore.

Turned out that Zuko had forgotten who Iroh, Toph, his mom, the turtle ducks, and Sokka were. Also he didn’t seem to remember Appa or Momo.

The Gaang was able to defeat the dark spirit and get Zuko’s memories back. And I am highly tempted to write this season as a fic because of how much I loved it.

Anyways that was a pretty neat dream and high key I want that box set lol

#flameo-hotman #ask the hotman #anon #long post

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 21, part one

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Reunions

All together in The Unclean Realm, The Yunmeng trio find a spot inside where they can sit down and have a proper Yanli-Wuxian reunion, while Jiang Cheng sits across the table watching them. 

For years Jiang Cheng has been rejecting Wei Wuxian's free and easy affection; now Yanli might be the only person Wei Wuxian offers to hug until Wen Yuan comes into his life.

Jiang Cheng is really going through it. He'll do nearly anything for Yanli--except, uh, stay in the goddamn inn with her when she's sick and the Wens are hunting them--and what makes her happiest is Wei Wuxian. He's brought them together, and so he's happy, even though he's excluded from their dynamic. This absolutely fucking kills me.

Here Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are sweetly pledging to always keep the trio together and put each other first. Neither of them will keep this promise. 

Wei Wuxian will leave first, to take the Wens to the Burial Mounds. Jiang Yanli will leave second, staying in Lanling at Jin Zixuan's request instead of accompanying Jiang Cheng to retrieve Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng will be the last to let go.

(more after the cut)

Nie Huaisang comes literally running in, filled with joy at Wei Wuxian's return. When he goes to pat his shoulder Wei Wuxian flinches away.

I feel like something important is happening in this rapid sequence of glances and expressions between Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang. NHS is startled, and WWX realizes he's shown something about himself that he didn't want to show. He glances at Jiang Cheng and back at NHS before laughing and covering his slip with a squeeze of NHS’s hand.

NHS switches from shocked to cheerful just as quickly, helping with the coverup. It’s like they have a quick mutual agreement, rooted in their history of shared shenanigans, to not point out that something is wrong.

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji is wandering around the grounds, having feelings. At this point it's presumably been at least a couple of weeks since their breakup fight. 

He sees Wei Wuxian sitting contemplating his flute, and as he sees him he goes from sort of neutrally apprehensive to full on angry judging, complete with sword clenching. 

Part of this may be that his feelings are hurt over their fight, but the larger issue is his distress over Wei Wuxian's apparent heretical cultivation.  That, at any rate, is what's on his mind when he's selecting music, later in the episode, and when he's selecting flashbacks. 

Party Time

Later, the Nies host an excruciating party to celebrate Wei Wuxian's slaughter of Wen Chao return. Jiang Yanli is sharing a table with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng is sharing a table with his crippling social anxiety. 

Everyone starts grilling Wei Wuxian about his sword, because that's suddenly all anybody cares about even though Jiang Yanli, Nie Huaisang, Meng Yao, and probably plenty of other people don't carry swords most of the time.

Wei Wuxian says "after the Wens caught me, Wen Zhuliu crushed my core, so I can't use my sword any more, too bad so sad, can we change the subject?" And everyone is very understanding and admires his resiliency. HA HA HA HA HA. Of course he doesn't opt for that simple lie, but instead mopes audibly without saying anything.

Nie Huasiang tries to change the subject by asking how he killed Wen Chao. Apparently "I had a sexy ghost mostly flay him" isn't good party chat, though, so neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng opts to tell the story. 

Everyone lapses into awkward silence, all the more noticeable because there are no dancers, musicians, or entertainers of any kind at this event. OP has gone to audit-kickoff meetings that were more fun than cultivator banquets.

Moment of Clarity

While the awkwardness builds, we hear the sounds of the Song of Clarity. Lan Wangji is skipping the party, which is part of why Wei Wuxian is so mopey. But instead of sitting and stewing in his anger, Lan Wangji has shifted gears, and is starting to work on his "save Wei Wuxian's soul" plan.

This isn't the God-botherer version of soul saving, however. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian disagree about correct practice, but they both are still practitioners within the same spiritual system, and the majority of their beliefs are closely aligned.

Lan Wangji has powerful magic at his disposal, and now he's taking a step back from his plan of forcing persuading Wei Wuxian to give up heterodoxy, and instead he's preparing to use his magic to offset the consequences of Wei Wuxian's choice.

He still isn't ready to accept that choice, but he's working on it. This is a big moment for Lan Wangji's relationship with Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji is a deeply, deeply uncompromising person, as well as being super bossy, and he’s taking his first steps toward supporting Wei Wuxian’s free agency. 

Wei Wuxian leaves the party in the middle of Yao's toast, saying "I have to see you and your lover all over my tumblr dashboard but I am NOT going to listen to you talk!" He takes his wine to go roam around near Lan Wangji's quarters to pine and feel conflicted.  Lan Wangji has thoughtfully set up a projection scrim to catch his shadow and make the pining easier.

Jiang Cheng comes looking for Wei Wuxian, partly to reprimand him for rudeness and partly to see what the hell is wrong with him. Jiang Cheng is trying very hard to be pleasant. He's bad at it, but he's trying.

Wei Wuxian is trying to be unpleasant and he's pretty good at it. He won't say why he isn't using his sword. He’s obviously super fucking depressed about it, calling his former self childish for liking to spar, and only smiling once during the whole exchange.

He finally tells Jiang Cheng that he will always want to do the opposite of what Jiang Cheng tells him.  Jiang Cheng lets this go with an eyeroll.

(Point Break Quote Alert)

But actually this is a sign of trouble, right here in River City, with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for abandoning the Jiang Clan. Wei Wuxian has just told Jiang Cheng he has no intention of obeying him; not just about the sword, but in general. That's no way for a disciple to talk. 

OP has nothing to say about this gif. OP watches gif over and over and over and over

Wei Wuxian ends the conversation by tapping Jiang Cheng's chest with his flute and then walking away. The (still nameless) flute has no problem with this - does it, like Subian, recognize Jiang Cheng as an extension of Wei Wuxian?

The next day, Wei Wuxian is chilling in his room, looking ungodly sexy in his bold slashed robe, holy frack. I mean, he is sex-on-toast at all times, but the cut of his post-burial-mounds combo is particularly heart-stopping when he decides to stick a knee or two out. 

He's meditating and flashing back to being in the burial mounds, where he was also meditating. I admire his ability to fractally meditate about meditating. 

Chenqing

He didn't put a sock on the doorknob, so Jiang Yanli comes in and startles him. He brandishes his flute at her before calming down. The flute definitely does not see her as an extension of Wei Wuxian, because when she touches it, it smokes and then knocks her out of the frame so fast it's comical.

Did they put her in a jerk vest for that shot?

Wei Wuxian hides the flute from her, freaked out by its behavior. She, however, is unfazed, and gives him the first & only affirmation he's gotten about his new cultivation path, and says the flute is "like Mother's Zidian."  She kind of walks him through the whole "first class spiritual tool" concept, beaming with approval and telling him he must name the flute.  

Jiang Yanli is hardcore Jiang Clan, seriously. Freedom and impossibility. You survived 3 months of mystery trauma and now you're all fucked up? We'll roll with it. You have a demon flute now? Rock on. You're going to use necromancy to beat the other clans in a group hunt? Gold star for you.

He names the flute Chenqing, which @hunxi-guilai​ translates and explains in depth over here.

Bichen

Lan Wangji has finished practicing the Song of Clarity, and regardless of whether it's had an effect on Wei Wuxian, he himself seems much calmer. 

As Wei Wuxian contemplates Chenqing, Lan Wangji contemplates Bichen and remembers Wei Wuxian's assertions about resentful energy way back in Gusu summer school. 

This time when he grips his sword, it's loosely, as if he's made some progress with his anger.

Soup

Jiang Yanli sits Wei Wuxian down for some soup, and talks to him about what's going on with him, saying he's changed. He insists he's fine and works very hard to be convincing.

She's not convinced but says she won't press him, and then abruptly shifts tone and works very hard to act like everything is fine. She leaves, taking a lot of soup with her, and Wei Wuxian remarks that it's unfair she is giving so much to Jiang Cheng. But of course, some of it is secretly for Jin Zixuan.

Everything isn't fine, as Wei Wuxian scream-meditates with resentful energy just rolling off of him. He's got some of the dark energy stored in the Yin sword in his bag of holding, but I get the impression that a lot of it is just stored in his body.

Club Ruohan

At some point in the episode we stop in to check on Wen Ruohan. He and his wind machine are mad that Wen Chao is dead. 

Meanwhile, his interpretive dances with the Yin iron now turn his puppets into...Klingons? Sure, why not. 

Literal Stand-Up Meeting 

Jiang Cheng needs Wei Wuxian at games night a meeting and comes running to Jiang Yanli to find him. He is freaking out and she tells him to chill. 

No matter what fuckery is going on in the world, Jiang Yanli is going to find herself a nice little outdoor table and she is going to sit her ass down and have some tea and civilized lady activity. Queen.

This shot of the meeting is composed so nicely. The blocking (placement of actors) in this scene encapsulates the familial dynamics, and I’ll talk about that as soon as I finish admiring Jiang Cheng’s proportions. 

Here we have four clans represented by four family pairs around the game war table. The Jin cousins, despite their differing personalities, are side by side, matchy-matchy, in lockstep. Jin Zixuan lets Jin Zixun do the talking for him, so maintains his own rep as a reasonable guy.  

The Nie brothers are even closer together, also in matching greys, Nie Huaisang giving all of his attention to his brother/clan leader. You can see his careful watching of his brother's temper...not fearful for himself, but fearful for Mingjue.

The Lan brothers have a growing distance between them; they are in different colors (which is pretty usual for them), and Lan Wangji is standing well away from his brother and the rest of the group. Partly this is his personality, but it's also symbolic of his growing distance from his brother and other proper cultivators. He's carrying WWX-related secrets, and he's wrestling with what he's learned.  

While Nie Huaisang is looking at Mingjue, Lan Xichen is turning around to see what's up with his own volatile sibling.

Lastly you have Jiang Cheng, alone in the room, with his shidi nowhere to be found, and seriously feeling the heat because of his isolation. 

He's alone in his purple, but the color value (lightness/darkness) of his robes exactly matches Xichen's. 

And Xichen, bless him, makes a point of speaking to him respectfully as a fellow clan leader, gives him a path out of the "where is your brother" conversation, and is just generally his kind and helpful self with Jiang Cheng.

Next: Awkwardness Increases!

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #wangxian #the untamed meta #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #restless rewatch the untamed #my gifs #canary3d-original

[medusinestories]

Onwards to the episode in which we get to see Flint and Silver each having a very bad day (as well as two literal dicks that nobody had asked to see).

Black Sails VII (s1 ep07)

- We open on Pastor Lambrick's sweaty face as he intensely rehearses the Easter sermon and he’s obviously eaten up by what he did with Miranda. His sermon, unsurprisingly, focuses on sin, keeping sin hidden, and the hell that awaits the sinner. Which leads us nicely onto Flint, who’s distracted (by his own sin? by thoughts of Miranda? both?) during a meeting with Eleanor. Eleanor is pissed that Miranda let Richard Guthrie send a message to the Andromache and then waltz into town to close up his business; Flint tries to take the heat off Miranda, once again protecting her (at this point, he may not know the contents of the letter).

- During this meeting, Flint is startled when Silver first speaks up to say that the mob in the street was bad - clearly Silver is a sort of intruder in this meeting. But Eleanor, after Silver reminds her by unsubtly clearing his throat, tells Flint that he’s not to harm Silver because he was instrumental in setting up the Consortium. Silver looks so pleased with himself in these scenes, and Flint quite defeated when he tells Silver to follow him back to their camp. I love it.

- To parallel Flint/Miranda’s Sulky Sex scene from ep4, we have Anne/Rackham’s frustrating/disconnected sex scene. It shows us a few things about them mainly that Anne wants to keep a lot of control over what happens, hence Rackham being tied up (though of course this might also be his kink), her wearing a shirt that covers up most of her body, and the reverse cowgirl position that means that she’s both in control of what happens and completely avoids eye contact. The position reminds us of the Flint/Miranda scene, where Miranda was also on top, but their scene involved more eye contact (yes glaring counts, he’s still intensely focused on Miranda), gentle touching (on Miranda’s side) and her being naked and open to him. Another parallel is that both Flint and Rackham aren’t in the right frame of mind for sex, Flint being angry and Rackham lost in a sea of worries (and probably also somewhat angry/disappointed at Anne for forcing him into the plot to kill their crewmates). The difference between Flint and Rackham is that while Flint doesn’t seem to have any trouble performing, Rackham is miles away and doesn’t even notice that he’s lost his erection - again. Anne is frustrated by this, and apparently knows him well enough that she offers to put something up his arse, but he’s clearly not in the mood, and she leaves in a huff, abandoning him all tied up as a sort of revenge for his performance problems. Whatever the problem is between them isn’t put into words (because Anne can’t yet, for starters), unlike the one between Flint and Miranda. The intimacy between Rackham and Anne, so often described as close partners, seems much more distant to me than the one shown between Flint and Miranda. I’m not sure whether it’s because of anyone’s sexual orientation, or just the fact that they’re fucking but they’ve never discussed the big important things, such as Anne’s identity/feelings/etc.

- In this episode, Dufresne gains a lot of power: with a freshly (and badly) shaved head and a new tattoo, he’s been promoted to Quartermaster on the Walrus in Billy’s place. And very quickly he has a problem to deal with: Randall revealing that Silver stole the page. Gates had actually already told this to Dufresne, as is revealed at the end of the episode, which might explain why Dufresne is relatively calm during the whole conversation, while DeGroot wants Silver and Flint hanged and Howell is surprisingly ruthless: he brings up the idea that it may be better to kill off Randall in order to get to the treasure, if they can’t make sure he’ll keep quiet about Silver being the thief. Dufresne is actually quite kind towards Silver in the scene where he puts Silver’s memory to the test - a test that could result in his death if he fails it and that Silver constantly grumbles against (I love his grumbling!). Basically, at this point Dufresne remains quite a sympathetic character, which will change a lot as the show goes on, especially after Jannes Eiselen had to leave the show (such a sad story, RIP Jannes).

- In the meantime, the Flint and Gates relationship is crumbling. It's sad to see, especially since they're shown sharing chuckles as they talk about Dufresne's appointment in the beginning of the episode. But then Gates brings up the subject of Miranda and demands explanations about the letter Billy found. We're not shown exactly what Flint answers, but it's clear that he's actually trying his best to give him an explanation without incriminating Miranda too badly. The sad thing is that Flint is actually telling the truth: he actually wasn't involved in any betrayal of his crew and and can only guess at Miranda's motivations. But the fact that he's lied time and again in previous situations, including on the Maria Aleyne where he claimed Lord Alfred drew a weapon on him (and Gates secretly verified that this was a lie), and used men as pawns to advance his and Miranda's plans, is now catching up to him. Flint seems truly hurt when Gates accuses him of using the men for his own purposes, and turns spiteful, telling Gates that he should have been "a better father" to Billy and helped him "understand the world he was living in" (suggesting that such a forthright character as Billy can't really survive in a world of pirates who are all ready to stab each other in the back). After that slap in the face, Gates says he's exhausted from Flint and threatens to take it to the crew. Somehow, this pushes Flint to bare all: he tells Gates about his plan to keep a part of the treasure and use it to build up Nassau, depicting himself as a sort of saviour, doing it for the men's good: they'd rather be rich men in a safe place than dead thieves hanging from a noose. Gates sees this as delusions of grandeur, and tells him that while he'll see the Urca plot through, after that they're done. I actually think he sees Flint’s point, since he doesn’t just throw him to the crew, but won’t admit that out loud. The whole of this scene hurts bad, because you can tell that Flint is desperate and sad to be losing his closest ally and friend, and that Gates is hurting from the loss of Billy and exhausted from the toxic relationship he has with Flint, where he's played enabler to his manipulations for years.

- While Flint and Gates’ alliance is breaking, Silver has to forge one with Randall or die. Randall finds out in the beginning of the episode that he’s been voted out of the crew. This is apparently due to DeGroot’s fears that Randall could be a fire hazard, which the crew took disproportionately to heart. Randall is furious with Silver, who smugly tells him that in these situations, a setback often comes with a new or unexpected opportunity. He’s right, but at this point he doesn’t know that he is the opportunity Randall’s going to latch on. Randall reveals that Silver is a thief, and Silver denies it, saying that Randall is both a halfwit and was in a haze of opium when he heard what he thought he heard; he even tries to convince Randall that he was mistaken (this, my friends, is gaslighting). However, by revealing that Silver was the thief, Randall sets a chain of events into motion which could either end with his death (if Howell has his way, since Randall is an inconvenient witness) or Silver’s (if DeGroot tips the balance, not trusting Silver to remember the coordinates and not wanting to sacrifice Randall for nothing). Silver figures out that these are the outcomes, and tries to talk sense into Randall by making a deal with him: he’ll care for Randall and make sure he can stay on the ship. But it’s only when Silver finally admits that he is the thief and that Randall was right, that Randall accepts the deal. Later, Silver realises that Randall might have orchestrated the whole thing: he’s now got Silver to serve him, doesn’t have to take any risks on the ship, and gets to remain with the crew. Silver wonders if Randall is a genius rather than a halfwit (a word thrown about a lot to describe him). And it seems quite obvious, considering what happened, that Randall still has strong survival skills (an amputee with impaired cognitive skills doesn’t stand a chance of survival outside a crew and he must be aware of it), that he still has a good memory and an ability to pick out useful information and that he’s aware enough of what’s going on to be upset by the crew’s rejection and Silver’s attempt to gaslight him. I think it’s important to recognise that Randall is more than a comic relief or a grotesque character: he’s a disabled man who's lost parts of his cognitive ability and is struggling to survive.

- This episode focuses on Vane facing his past. He seeks out the island where he grew up and its master, Albinus. I’d forgotten or never really registered that Albinus was a pirate and that the men who work for him were mostly his crew - and likely slaves (or children, hence Vane?) that he managed to capture/press into service. He’s retired from pirating and set up a system where his men cut down trees for timber all day, without wages. It’s not clear exactly how he holds so much power over these men, although it seems that everyone is terrified of him. He’s extremely strong physically, seems shrewd, speaks rather well, and his tattoos suggest that maybe he’s involved in some kind of ritual (truly religious or just for show?) which would make him all the more scary to superstitious people. Vane is clearly still frightened: he barely makes eye contact and practically stutters when he first tries to make the deal with Albinus, which is that he’ll take some of Albinus’ men as crew and send Albinus part of their earnings as tribute. It says a lot about Albinus that Vane, after years of having run away, is still so scares that he’s willing to pay him a tribute. But he changes his mind as he stares at a boy bearing the same brand as he does: he tries to persuade the men that Nassau is a pace of pleasures rather than hard labour, and confronts Albinus. The fight is brutal and ends with Vane buried naked, just after Albinus tells him that he’s proud of him. But of course Vane wouldn’t be Vane if he didn’t rise from the dead at the last minute and kill Albinus, goaded on by his inner Eleanor voice.

- In the meantime, Mr Scott returns to Eleanor, apologising for what he did, telling her he betrayed her out of love. However he also reminds her of his slave status: technically, he belongs to her. The argument upsets her, and he quite cleverly uses this moment to ask her to free the slaves who were on the Andromache. And it works: by the end of the episode, she’s made arrangements for the men to work on ships and has bought the women’s freedom and found them jobs in her tavern. But Mr Scott has still decided to leave Eleanor to join Hornigold’s crew, to refrain from meddling with Eleanor’s affairs, since he disagrees with her so strongly re: the Urca. Hornigold approached him earlier in the episode, and the introduction to that scene is quite interesting: Hornigold says to Mr Scott “I’ll need to know your secret” and Mr Scott looks startled and frightened. It seems that he’s startled because he’d been giving food to the slaves, but in light of S3, it could be a much greater secret that’s being referred to. Mr Scott is relieved when he realises that Hornigold is simply talking about tolerating Eleanor, who he clearly can’t stand.

- Flint’s bad day continues, of course, with the big confrontation he has with Miranda. He’s furious about the letter (of which he now knows the contents thanks to Gates), telling her that it could have got him killed, or destroyed the plans they’d made and asking her whether she was trying to embarrass him. This sounds so weirdly petty, and yet it also sounds exactly like the kind of argument that would come up in a bickering couple. Miranda answers that she was trying to help him out of that life, because she wants to move on. This is where Miranda utters the famous “there is no life here, there is no joy here, there is no love here”. I noticed that, covered by Flint yelling at her, and distorted because her voice has gone very shrill, Miranda says another line, which sounds like “you used to love, then”. If that really is what she says, it’s extra-extra-extra heartbreaking to hear (if someone wants to check it for me, it’s around 35:40). It’s obvious that Flint and Miranda’s views on life are very different, and I can’t help but think back to the fact that, as a carpenter’s son from the country, Flint has had to struggle all his life to become who he is. So when he says that you can’t get a life without having a war, and Miranda tells him he’s wrong, she’s speaking entirely from the point of view of her privilege. She’s never needed to fight as hard as he has to be happy, because she got extremely lucky in marrying Thomas. And when she says that Thomas would agree with her, I’m certain she’s right. But life has never been like that for Flint, and there’s no way he’ll ever entirely agree with their point of view. Rewatching this scene is tough, btw, because they both have great points, they’re both hurting so much, and there’s so much to take in between the body language, the facial expressions, the tones of voice and the actual words that it’s a whole whirlwind. And it feels very, very real.

- It’s absolutely hilarious to see Rackham get robbed by the whores taking advantage of his lack of knowledge (and research). He should absolutely have done a better job and has no clue how to run a brothel. He’s lucky Max takes things in hand after having heard from Idelle that the girls were taking advantage.

- Then we have the beautiful Drunk Flint scene. Eleanor notices him feeling very sorry for himself after Gates has pretty much broken up with him and he’s still reeling from fighting with by Miranda. I think Flint feels very misunderstood here. He thought that he was doing something good, to save Nassau and avenge Thomas, and doesn’t understand why they can’t see it, why they only see the terrible methods he uses to reach his goals. So he’s full of doubt, clearly wondering if he’s the villain of the story, and puts the question to Eleanor: is their plan worth it? Eleanor is the only person who still believes in him, which leads us to the only scene that I would ever call straight-baiting. Flint hovers near Eleanor, breathing heavily, and a variety of emotions play over her face during this moment of tension, as she seems to think this is leading to a kiss. It does, he gives her a chaste little forehead kiss and leaves. All the elements are in place to make your average viewer start shipping these two. I actually find it hilarious that the ship barely exists in the fandom (though I wasn’t there in the beginning of the fandom and I guess the viewership changed a lot between S1 and S4).

- The scene with Flint and Gates glaring at each other from their respective ships and Parson’s Farewell playing in the background... epic! We know this is the beginning of a big struggle between them, especially since we find out that Gates has pretty much decided that he’ll hand Flint over to the crew once they get the money. But nnnnggh that scene! The ships leaving on their hunt! Awesome and heartbreaking!

#black sails #flint #gates #flint & gates #miranda #flintmiranda #eleanor #flint & eleanor #mr scott #eleanor & mr scott #silver #randall #dufresne #degroot #howell #vane #rackham #max #pastor lambrick #ableism cw #long post cw #black sails rewatch

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing #81 Review

i swear i actually thought no one was interested so i didn’t write one but a grand total of two (2) people said they wanted to read it, so here it is. honestly, my opinion’s been going a bit downhill, but the art is really cool and there are some decent parts so. holding out i guess? i really hope taylor has an end goal or at least a cohesive plan, otherwise i don’t see this series going anywhere i’ll particularly enjoy

the cover is very straightforward in its imagery, this villain has nightwing in the palm of his hand, easily manipulated, easily controlled no matter the action dick thinks he’ll take. 

what i find interesting is the colour: both previously and heavily in this issue, the colourist has chosen to make pink this villain’s main colour, with different shades of pink as accents. so why the red in the cover? possibly to just make it more eye-grabbing, though one could argue that pink is even more eye-catching than red. maybe to convey a sense of dread or fear that pink won’t fully get across. either way, it’s definitely a decision i’m curious about.

so melinda zucco is in a high enough political position within bludhaven that she is next in line to become the mayor after the previous mayor died and dick just,,,,didn’t have any idea she existed? dick didn’t know anything about her? forget dick’s own brilliant detective skills, forget his doggedness at anything zucco related, you’re telling me bruce never found her and told dick about her? maybe he wouldn’t have now, but back when dick was a young kid, he definitely would have at least made dick aware of her existence, to let dick know and ask if he wanted to interfere with her life or anything.

i have a thought about zucco’s facial expressions. she is very much stone-cold poker face throughout the entire issue. the only time i see her pull a different expression is near the end when dick corners her against a wall with an arm around her throat. 

this is most certainly intentional, what with the varied and intense expressions we see on other characters, dick most prominently. i’m wondering what exactly is the creative team’s reasoning behind this. in these panels, zucco is meeting with the most dangerous, powerful, near-bloodthirsty man in all of bludhaven and becoming the mayor of the city respectfully. in both of these panels, there is barely a hint of emotion in her face: no fear, no determination, no satisfaction. it’s just odd, considering the circumstances she’s in, regardless of any training recieved.

just spitballing here but. like. from what i’ve read so far, dick doesn’t really seem like bludhaven’s guardian angel. more like when peter parker first put on spandex and blindly stepped out into new york.

dick, how exactly can you underestimate someone from one move. so he caught your escrima. anyone with enhanced reflexes can do that. you still don’t know how he can actually fight, and this is shown in the next set of panels. 

i just don’t like the wording here. dick’s “underestimated” him, but beats him up easy in the next page. in addition, i don’t know much about combat, but i would assume it would take more than one move to determine exactly what an opponent’s skill level is, made even more complex when you add physical enhancements and metahumans and aliens into the mixture.

idk my first thought when i saw that he caught the stick was “ah ok he’s enhanced” because obviously he couldn’t have reacted fast enough if he wasn’t (as there are few people trained enough to catch it on human reflexes alone.) then the wording in the next panel, i’ve underestimated him, made me think “oh no ok so he’s not enhanced, he’s just a really good fighter and can give dick a run for his money in a fight.” then, it turns out my first assumption was proven correct in the next panel. it just comes across as misleading to me.

(also sidenote but his curls are cute.)

have i praised the art enough in this series? no, i have not.

i adore the way this is laid out and illustrated. without even having to read the text, the action sequence is visually engaging and intense, and easily followable from one panel to the next. dick’s physical expertise comes through quite efficiently, and i love the special attention shown to draw our attention to dick’s escrima in the bottom right corner.

also that move in the middle row leftmost panel that’s the mcu black widow move to get up off the ground it was the first thing i noticed and it made me laugh; thought it was worth noting

i’m really loving dick’s escrima sticks in this run. they’re just so multipurpose, it’s hilarious and exhilarating. kinda reminds me of bruce’s belt, the way the button in the middle does eevveeerrryyytthhiinngg. 

got a problem? don’t worry! dick’s installed a feature into his escrima that can fix that! (i like thinking dick helped make them it makes me happy and makes my engineer!dick side satisfied)

yawn. your big heart is your one true weakness yadda yadda the fact that you care will be used against you blah blah we get it. jesus can the villains please find a different weakness to exploit, this is getting old.

i need dick’s capacity to empathize and care and love to stop being a weakness that villains sneer about. bonus points if dick saves everyone anyway, either because of or despite his great big heart and the villain is surprised by the goodness of mankind or some shit like that.

i need it to be a strength, right from the get-go. the fact that he cares so incredibly much should be an asset that dick has and will use. he’s a very complex character with years of background, it can’t possibly be that hard to find another weakness of his. 

ooooh this is cool, gosh i absolutely love this.

because what exactly is the reader doing? we are seeing the fear in dick’s face, just as this villain intended. even better, we’re seeing the reflection of it from the villain’s glossy mask, telling us exactly what we’re seeing and exactly what he likes so much about it.

dick’s standing up straight, shoulders drawn back, looking up at this villain’s face with determination and resolve, but his suit is tattered. one eye looks to be swollen. his hair is falling limply around his eyes, as opposed to the curls from earlier. his escrima aren’t even part of the main focus, instead blending into the side of the mask in the outer corners of the mask’s eyes, which tells you exactly how big of a threat they are to this villain.

poor bitewing’s quite alarmed.

also on second thought why would you bring your puppy out like this, when you know you’re gonna end up fighting someone in the suit. a) how many grey three-legged adorable little puppies live in the bludhaven area dick? and how easy will it be to connect the doggo running around with nightwing with the doggo that dick grayson owns? and 2) is this puppers trained? does she have fighting experience? how exactly can you ensure she will survive this highly stressful situation?

dick take better care of your dog 

you know what? i was with tim on this one. why exactly is dick so optimistic and trusting about the people of bludhaven? bludhaven, which has been described as gotham’s smaller, smellier, more corrupt sister city once or twice. it’s not just the corrupt people in power, the entire system needs to change and people need to have faith and hope in order for them to come together, espcially if they’ve been living in conditions like how bludhaven has been described. from how clueless dick is about his own goddamn city, i can tell he hasn’t been here long.

it was a nice moment of hope, i’ll admit. but it was a tad unrealistic for me.

also it was in a weird place in the comic. this sort of confrontation and big get-together of the people to rejuvenate hope in each other feels like it should come near the end of a run, if not the end of an issue. certainly not in the first third of an issue. the pacing’s a bit off to me.

loyal little puppy patiently waiting for her human to wake up. i love her so much.

no it’s not. it’s bitewing.

living for this t-shirt honestly. do comics of dc characters exist in the dc universe? they must if the mug and the shirt are any indication

(now i’m imagining the first batman movie that came out in the dc universe and bruce just. being so offended at who they chose to play him.)

well, yes. but when a group of people are put through hellish conditions over and over again, they soon become desensitized to the pain and terror of their everyday lives in order to both stay sane and keep their life relatively stable, and part of that becomes ignoring or blocking out anything that isn’t directly important to you or your loved ones. having a bleeding heart will most likely get you killed in a city like bludhaven if you don’t have the same skills that vigilantes have.

and of course, people are more than capable of coming together and rallying under their city’s vigilante after seeing the good they’ve done and how they’ve helped the people, but that sort of trust takes time and effort to build. dick also had the whole ric arc and was gone for a while, which has been referenced several times in this particular issue in fact. that’s not going to make bludhaven’s citizens any more likely to trust him.

maybe i’m being a bit harsh but this comic is comic off as a bit too idealistic for the amount of change nightwing can do in a city given the present and past circumstances as well as nightwing’s own abilities. even dick grayson can’t pull off everything.

ok seriously this needs to stop this needs to stop.

right now, dick reminds me of oliver queen in the few episodes of the cw’s arrow i watched. he does the punchy-kicky-fighty and occasionally has smart insights due to the skills he gained from his past that he certainly definitely totally has but only ever exhibits once, while his team does all of the background research and information gathering and actual work.

this is dick’s city. if he has the same intelligence, worth ethic, and stubbornness in this run that he’s been shown to possess all his life, then he knows this city inside out. he’ll have meticulous notes organized in a ridiculously efficient system, he’ll have scouted out zucco long before this started, he’ll have known when anything big happened in the bludhaven political landscape in an instant.

i’m really not liking exactly how much dick’s relying on babs and tim in this series. sure, he loves them and cares for them and likes working cases with them. but he always pulls his own weight, has always been a mentor figure to tim instead of what’s weirdly becoming the other way around, and takes point on the cases in his own damn city.

what kind of weak-ass oracle is this?? redacted fbi files are child’s play. babs used to hack into the fbi for fun. this one particular picture is so out of character i want to laugh.

reading this series has unfortunately made me confront that, despite the tiny fluid acrobat dick that lives in my head 24/7, canon dick is impossibly 5′10 and muscular at that.

mmm. titties.

tim said hydrate or die-drate bitch

love how dick’s doing all this intense brooding and stuff meanwhile bitewing is curled up in a soft comfy post having the time of her life.

you don’t understand i would legitimately kill myself for her.

also the lighting in this one scene is cool. the blue tones come off so well.

they’re just. so multipurpose!! they can become a bo staff. they can cut glass. they can become a grapple hook/line. they can electrify someone. they’re a funky colour. i’m becoming really attached to these things. absolute solid choice in weaponry.

if you’re gonna write up every rookie mistake dick has made during this series to head trauma, then dick shouldn’t be out and about at all, much less in costume.

see this? this is just straight up wrong. dick most definitely should have spotted her, and would have immediately moved to take her down.

scratch that, dick would have done a full check of the building, because he knows not to break into places uninformed, especially if the owner of the apartment was raised by the maroni family. someone as highly trained, experienced, and competent as dick wouldn’t have done this.

and if you chalk it up to head injury, (which is probably true), than his ~love interest~ and his little brother should have done a much better job making sure he stays in his house.

zucco looks so awkward it’s fucking hilarious

are those shadows that mimic a domino mask, to both reflect and hide the fact that his mask is missing? are those bruises around his eyes, to show how, despite what good he’s doing, being nightwing is hurting dick right now? 

(isn’t his domino mask supposed to have an electrifying feature that keeps people from removing them?)

it’s a little odd how the three known villains of this series are all coloured in warm shades, more specifically pink. meanwhile, in earlier issues, dick’s fondest memories were in pink, memories of him and alfred in particular. why has the colour pink changed from signifying something benevolent to something malicious? idk i hope this gets explained later.

this i did like. either it’s just a display of brute force in anger, or dick slipped the ties and pulled them off once untied. both ways, it’s an unintentional display of power, and i think that’s kinda cool.

again. dick is,,,tall? sort of? weirdddd

i’m so glad most readers are unified in the notion that this was the absolute dumbest fucking thing.

i’m hoping this gets disproved or something soon. and i hope dick doesn’t fall for it, because he definitely knows better than to take something as important as this at face value.

what exactly is taylor trying to accomplish here? why is he trying to go back on what we all knew was a happy, loving childhood and throw strife and disharmony and (what i’m assuming will be) infidelity? this will not end well at all.

---

,,,,,this review got way longer than expected lol. and i realize most of it just became me ranting. i guess i didn’t realize how ticked off i was originally. fingers crossed it gets better.

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @bikoncon @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy @red-hood-redemption @capricorn-stark @batshit-birds​ @comics-observer

#nightwing 81 #nightwing #dick grayson #dc #nightwing 81 meta #nightwing meta #dick grayson meta #dc meta #river thinks too hard

[offbeatcappuccino]

Why Ko Moon Young Didn’t Become the Pretty Witch of the West : It’s Okay To Not Be Okay and Cancel Culture

After I finished watching Its Okay to Not Be Okay, I grappled with many questions, one of which, is why did I end up wanting to root for Ko Moon Young’s happiness at the end. While for many, it might appear straightforward as to why Ko Moon Young is the protagonist, if you dove right into the first episode of the show and you didn’t look at any of the promotional material, you could have easily believed that she was the antagonist. In fact, Ko Moon Young could have become one of the most detestable characters of 2020 rather than one of the most endearing ones. Within the first episode, we see Ko Moon Young make a little girl cry, refuse to care for her ill father, and manage to stab Gang Tae’s hand. By episode three, we see Moon Young chase after Gang Tae in Seojin City even though Gang Tae makes it explicitly clear that he doesn’t want to see her again and despite such warnings, she continues to make unwanted advances towards him. 

While many fans would be quick to point out that she is “badass”, everything she does in the previous paragraph is definitely not badass because they are unhealthy and intrusive. Other fans of the show may attempt to justify her behavior by claiming that she has antisocial personality disorder and her history of trauma, but I don’t think that Moon Young is a character, whose behavior need to be justified. Moon Young is a flawed character and was never intended to be a role model of what ideal and healthy behavior should look like. However, Moon Young challenges us to reevaluate the idea that people are one-dimensional and stagnant. While this may seem like common sense, as we now live in a world of “cancel culture” and first impressions, it is a necessary reminder. Through Moon Young’s character, the audience can reach two conclusions. Firstly, all of us can have flaws that co-exist with our redeeming qualities. Secondly, it is important to understand what is the source (e.g. trauma, upbringing, etc)of our flaws and choose to embark on a journey to resolve what is holding us back from achieving warmth in our lives. In this post, I will be analyzing Moon Young’s redeeming qualities and how she grows as a person throughout the course of the plot. 

For a woman that struggles to treat others with respect, Moon Young in many ways possesses almost a clairvoyant-like property into addressing universal human emotional needs. We see this immediately through her art, the children books that she writes. One of the reasons that Moon Young becomes such a popular children’s book author is because her work is able to comfort and soothe each person’s deepest vulnerabilities and fears regardless of their age. Before Moon Young even embarks on her own healing journey, she becomes a guiding light for others and this is perhaps her most admirable quality. 

We see this quality in many of her unconventional tactics that provide the necessary catharsis for many of the OK Psychiatric patients to acknowledge and move on from their trauma. In Episode 3, when Ko Moon Young, effectively aids in the escape of a VIP patient and takes him to his  politician father’s rally, he is finally able to vent his own frustrations of being considered inadequate and unworthy by his father and in doing so, finds much-needed contentment. Additionally, she is the first person to truly offer friendship to Sang Tae and provides him with the opportunity to become an illustrator for her books, and she does this because she truly values his talent and follows through with the promise. She doesn’t use Sang Tae simply as a cover to bring Gang Tae closer even though one may assume that at first glance. For Moon Young, Sang Tae really is her friend and “older brother”. For Gang Tae, Moon Young helps him prioritize his own self care and realize his own self worth beyond his relationship with his older brother. These examples suggest that Moon Young’s greatest strength is her ability to truly see individuals beyond their predicament in a world that reduces people to their mental illnesses. Unlike many who simply pity, Moon Young empowers these characters by supporting them in their journey to take back control of their own stories. Maybe this is because Moon Young, herself suffered years of abuse and trauma by her parents, and thus she is able to empathize with these characters in a way unparalleled to those who we may define as conventionally nice like Gang Tae or Ju Ri. 

For Ko Moon Young, her trauma stems from the abuse that she faced at the hands of both of her parents. Ko Moon Young’s mother, a murderer, who probably has some sort of personality disorder, controls Ko Moon Young because she is her “greatest creation”. It can be argued that her mother’s controlling behavior is what may have reinforced any antisocial like personality traits that Moon Young exhibits. On the other hand, her father, who despises  what his wife represents, tried to kill Ko Moon Young as a child, so that she wouldn’t end up becoming a monster like her mother. The lasting scar from both of her parents is what effectively makes Moon Young build a wall over herself and causes her to come off as cruel and difficult to others. 

However, after having to re confront her trauma when her father tries to choke her again during a routine visit to the hospital ( and with the entrance of Gang Tae and Sang Tae in her life), Moon Young demonstrates an unwavering determination to not become what others expect her to be. She proves time and time again that she is more than an empty can. She breaks the chain that her mother had over her life by symbolically cutting her hair in Episode 7 and also tells her father off when he tells her that she will turn out to be like her mother. She makes amends with Juri despite their distasteful past and upon realizing that the brothers are left alone in the castle with her mother, she risks going back to the castle and confronting her biggest fear to save them. Perhaps, the greatest indicator of Ko Moon Young’s growth is her admission to her mother that she feels sorry for her because she hasn’t found the warmth that Moon Young found. In Its Okay To Not Be Okay, Moon Young’s character arc is much like ice that melts. She may be stubbornly stiff and cold but through the warmth and support from those who care about her, she ultimately melts into the very water that nourishes the magnolias of her garden. 

#seo yea ji #seo ye ji #ko moon young #its okay to not be okay #tvn #kim soo hyun #moon sang tae #moon gang tae #nam ju ri #ko dae hwan #do hui jae #psycho but it's okay #netflix #kdrama

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

the wolf should’ve been afraid of me.

Titans 3.04

just under the wire! ... i hope.

like with the previous review, i’m typing this up as i see the episode. here we go!

spoilers ahead.

1. ... well. that was an interesting cold open.

1.25. i don’t know whether to admire this show’s restraint when it comes to gotham and its excesses, particularly arkham asylum. it’d be easy to go hammer and tongs, like suicide squad (2016) did, or any number of bat media did, at a tropey, colourful~~insanity~~ that can be quite damaging, casting mental illness in strangeness and criminality. it definitely shows gotham as... separate from the rest of the country, its own ecosystem of heroes and villains, a sort of rogue state. 

but that ecosystem is still human, with its heroes needing to clip parts of themselves away just to survive, growing old and needing to be recycled, its villains languishing in the same kinds of systems that fail everybody else who needs to be helped. it’s a quieter, tenser sort of wrongness: not strange enough that you can dissociate, but not close enough that you can completely empathise. gotham is its own creature.

1.5. i know that the reasoning behind this is more doylist than anything, but i’m so glad that joker was killed off with little fanfare right at the start of the season. he is the one man in the batverse that’s transcended its confines as this sort of ethereal boogeyman/eternal edgelord and to justify his presence in the series would mean giving him this tired, overblown importance and too much of a stab at colourful, tropey “madness” in this otherwise-subdued series. i wish all batmedia would follow suit and get rid of this fucker.

1.75. so jason is bucking scarecrow’s control! or reminding him of who exactly holds all the cards right now. circling back to what i talked about in the last review, it��s remarkable just how little time it’s been since jason’s “death” and he’s already got ‘minions’ and elaborately set up plans to track, break and kill the titans. just how long has he been planning this? when did he first look at WE weapons prototypes and think that’s something i can use to blow somebody up? and the most unsettling question: did he plan his own death at the hands of the joker just so that he could break batman?

at this point it’s obvious that the scarecrow at least started jason down this path, but it’s frightening just how far he’s travelled already.

1.8. aaagh, less than one minute in! i’ll shut up. 

2. conner washing his hands at the sink reminds me that he was directly in the line of explosion when hank got blown up and he’s probably got atomised hank-bits all over his skin that he’s desperately trying to wash off.

... you’re welcome.

2.25. conner, don’t you speak to gar fucking logan like that, sir, no!

2.3. if anything it’s the lex part of him that gave him the knowhow to recognise the weapon and build a de-activator for it. 

anyway, for that ‘half-breed’ and ‘talking tiger’ comment?

(i wish, tho, that we actually see conner more interested in the superman part of his legacy, like maybe listening to stories from gar, or even better, dick, so we get a better idea of the pressure he’s feeling to live up to that part of him and not the part that’s lex.)

((i talked about conner’s stages of moral development in his introductory episode last season, but i wonder if the next stage of his self-actualisation would be to further integrate the parts of himself and realise that they are only parts and he, conner, is an entirely different person unto himself that can make decisions on how to use what he has and what he knows. his superman abilities can be used to destroy. his lex knowledge can be used to save.))

3. oh dawn :((

3.25. is this the last we see of dawn and hank? i mean, we know donna is coming back; would it be a stretch to think they’ll try to have a go at resurrecting hank as well?

3.5. “deathstroke didn’t make us into killers.” good, because deathstroke didn’t make jason a killer either. there’s a missing step there you need to be looking for, dick. 

3.75. dick did try to break the cycle, step away from gotham, run from the possibility that he could turn into batman. it didn’t help; he couldn’t fully withdraw from his vigilante persona the same time he loathed it, and batman literally haunted him both asleep and awake. but maybe gotham doesn’t have to turn anybody into anything. maybe gotham has nothing to do with it at all. it’s about taking responsibility, realising some sacrifices are pure bullshit, and building an actual family instead of merely a team.

anyway: hugs!

(oh, also? mr “i hate flying”? i mean, there’s perfectly valid reasons to hate flying that’s not related to childhood trauma, but then again, this guy was literally a ‘flying grayson’ once. also also, remember that he also gets sea-sick. must’ve a lot of fun stories to tell.)

4. ooh that gar/kory confrontation was brief but cool!

listen, i have never seen a psychiatrist with that extravagant an office and SIR I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW--

4.5. kory’s so unused to reaching out for help and it’s breaking my heart that HPG likely is some kind of impostor that’s maybe causing her symptoms in the first place. 

kory and dick have mostly been apart this season but it’s remarkable how their journeys have paralleled each other; kory processes her grief, isolation and existential dread into a determination to take care of this new family she has, no matter what it takes; dick does much the same, forging ahead with plans and solutions until he has no fuel left in him and spirals into a massive breakdown.

4.25. listen titans this really is a TERRIBLE continuity error. we aren’t goldfish; we can clearly remember that two minutes ago it was gar’s upper arm that was burned, not his forearm. COME ON.

“sensory deprivation tank” *SNORT*

anyway, gar is the BEST

4.5. i wonder where these visions of experimentation took place. was it on tamaran, or on earth, after she came to hunt down rachel/trigon and before she lost all her memories? is HPG a part of the scientist group that experimented on her? ... god, i hope not. i mean, i think he is, but it would be cool to have some positive therapist representation in media. 

5. you’d think the van transporting a dangerous supervillain that only batman could catch would be more secure but... i’m also not entirely surprised. 

5.15. i love dick gives ZERO shits about hiding himself or even ensuring scarecrow is adequately contained. just turns away after kidnapping him in BROAD DAYLIGHT and says ‘let’s go’. I LOVE THIS DUMBASS

6. lmao gar is having a really really shitty day SOMEONE GIVE THIS MAN A BREAK or just a goddamn story arc of his own

6.5. i’m really confused about the timeline here. so... sometime ago, kory came down to earth to hunt down trigon, yeah? at some further point down the line she and her sister were kidnapped and experimented on. THEN she somehow escapes but... loses her memory? a few months pass and then we see blackfire alive and well and free; she kills faddei, can impersonate other people, and is clearly seeking out kory. but now she’s still in the experiment facility...? what’s going on?

i’m not entirely surprised about the facility being mostly deserted. either the biggest investors in this project gave up on it and it was left to the most fanatic to carry on, or they were deliberately trying to lure kory and get her to free blackfire--expand the environs of the experiment, so to speak.

7. hopefully barbara is going to get something to do other than listen to various men give her Attitude

8. how do you terrorise a terrorist? well:

i love when dick is a scary-competent motherfucker.

8.25. ooooh, the attack on crane at arkham a ploy to get crane to blackgate? nice one dick, i didn’t even think of that. but why though? to protect crane from the titans? to intercept the van to blackgate and “rescue” him? seems likely--red hood was there, except dick got to crane quicker.

9. still reeeallly unclear about the komand’r situation. was komand’r captured after s2? is this all A TRAP?? if so, why are you stepping into the only thing that can contain you, kory????

9.25. so... definite parallels between dick/jason and kory/kom here. i’m just. i’m still. really confused. i’ll shut up now.

10. this may be my favourite dick look yet:

woodsman!dick in a beanie.

10.5. i unironically love how titans has made this bizarrely-devoted-to-his-moniker, toxin-spewing supervillain into a tamer version of hannibal, psychoanalysing his victims into submission. it’s of a piece with how inward looking titans is, the way all of its villains are obsessed with how our protagonists’ minds work, to the point where they would actually spend time inside of them. 

there are no big plots to end the world. no apocalypses or endgames here. these villains collect the titans’ insecurities like infinity stones. the way the titans defeat them is by achieving character growth--literally winning by the power of love. literally “the real superpower is the friends we made along the way”!

10.7. anyway, i’m betting dick is used to this bullshit from crane and is humouring him in the service of getting more information. the story about the wolf? an implicit threat, not to mention dick getting to control what crane knows about him and what methods he would use to manipulate him.

am i giving dick too much credit here? i don’t think so. he’s really impressed me so far this season.

10.75. like. there’s a real unreliable narrator vibe coming off with every person that talks about bruce (much like how the various members of the titans talked about jason’s motivations) and to buy into crane’s talk about bruce being a psychopath is to fall for the same manipulation that jason fell for. dick is the only person who hasn’t really psychoanalysed bruce this season, and i think some part of his detective brain is piecing things together into a bigger picture.

11. i’m glad kory rescued kom but did she have to kill the scientist?

(i mean, yeah, probably - the less people know that kom escaped the less likely they’re going to have the fucking govt on their doorstep, but still.)

11.5. dick’s gonna come back to wayne manor, stare straight at komand’r and go, well which room would you like? because the team might as well adopt ANOTHER person, yeah?

12. oh MAN that red hood/nightwing fight was AMAZING! and he did the thing! the boomerang escrima thing! i’m so delighted!

12.5. the anger and disbelief in dick’s voice when he says you told crane EVERYTHING?! tells me that he knew exactly what he was telling crane himself.

12.75. “everything you are is because of him” - oh that reminds me of halluci!bruce from last season. i hope we see halluci!bruce again--he is so vicious but so entertaining... so much more effective at tearing dick down than crane or jason combined. goes to show that dick’s biggest enemy is own fucking head.

12.8. oh no! dick’s shot! crane is in the wind with red hood! blackfire is now with the titans! i love it!

honestly this season’s pacing is such a big step up from the last couple. gold star, show.

#titans #titans spoilers #meta #dick grayson #koriand'r #garfield logan #komand'r #conner kent #dawn granger #jason todd #jonathan crane #a byronic cupcake #badass strawberry truffle #manic pixie pop tart #a tragic jalebi