We were there, LeMay said, because he was trying to find out why the Third Air Division wasn't doing its job any better. Part of the reason was bad formation. Group commanders were instructed to check out all new crews in formation before they flew. There was to be more practice flying in formation.
Another reason for the trouble, LeMay ground out in his gritty, patternless speaking voice, was that lead pilots had not learned to fly with lead navigators and lead bombardiers.
"Wrong, sir," I thought to myself. In the 100th's case, we had a good lead crew in each squadron, but the command pilots messed us up.
"I am a pilot," LeMay said, "but I am the only person in this room who is also a trained navigator and a trained bombardier. When I was a group commander in the First Air Division I flew a mission as a lead pilot, a lead navigator, and a lead bombardier. I learned that a mission goes wrong when all three don't work together.
"Too many times, the command pilot, who is supposed to lead a mission, is the one who causes it to fail. Every time he sees a burst of flak, he takes the wheel and swerves his plane. That causes trouble for the whole group.
“If there is anything that is necessary on a bomb run it is that there be no evasive action.
“Too many command pilots have their own special ways of taking over on the bomb run. Some of you think you can spare your group from the flak if you descend and confuse the anti-aircraft— and you ruin the bombsight computations. Some of you, under-standably, want to keep your formation tight so your bomb pattern will be small. That is commendable. But you have to depend on your wing men to keep in place. You can't jockey back into place. The lead plane must fly straight and level. What you must do on the bomb run is to let the bombardier and the Norden take over."
This guy is tough, I thought. I was seeing a group of full colonels getting chewed out.
"We know all this," Doug whispered, "but how is he going to make the brass keep their hands off the wheel? Egan and Harding take over on the bomb run."
As the briefing continued, LeMay said, "Now I want you here to tell me what went wrong on the St. Nazaire and La Pallice mis-sions."
One by one the colonels or lieutenant colonels who had flown right seat spoke. Yes, my group assembled on time. Yes, we made the wing rendezvous as briefed, but the other groups weren't there. Yes, we flew good formation during the whole mission. Yes, we were at the fighter rendezvous, but the fighters weren't. At the I.P., we tucked in tight, but the bombardier missed the target.
After all the command pilots talked, LeMay said, "Do any of you lead navigators or lead bombardiers want to add anything?"
Of course, we didn't. We were all first and second lieutenants. Not one of the command pilots had described a mission anything like the way it was really flown. Even so, who among the lieutenants wanted to contradict our own brass?
Silence. Uncomfortable silence.
"Lieutenant Shore, Group Navigator of the 390th. Who was the bombardier with you in the nose on the mission of July 18th?”
Marshall Shore pointed to a bombardier.
LeMay turned to the bombardier. "Do you have anything to add?"
"No, sir."
"Were your bubbles level during the bomb run?"
When Colonel LeMay asked that question, I must have gasped. I knew exactly what he had in mind. Maybe because of the sound I made, Colonel LeMay looked directly at me.
He slowly winked. Something was wrong with one side of his face, and it was a grotesque wink, but that was what it was.
I felt my heart speed up. I could hardly breathe. I looked around at the other navigators and bombardiers. How many of them knew what LeMay's question meant? What he was really asking was who was flying the plane. If the bubbles in the bombsight were level, the Norden was flying. If the bubbles were off, a pilot had overpowered the controls-and was probably doing evasive action.
When I looked back at Colonel LeMay, he was still looking at me. I winked back at him, and nodded. That funny smile again. He looked at the bombardier.
"Did your equipment work all right?"
"No malfunction, sir."
One by one LeMay addressed all the lead bombardiers and asked them several irrelevant questions-and the one about the bubbles.
Then he turned to the navigators, me first.
"Lieutenant, give me your story."
"Sorry, sir, I wasn't leading those missions."
"What group are you in?"
"The 100th, sir."
Colonel LeMay turned to Colonel Harding. “Why is he here, Chick, if he isn't a lead navigator?"
"He was the lead on Trondheim and Warnemünde. Before he replaced the navigator on the lead crew, he was on a wing."
Colonel LeMay looked back at me.
"Trondheim? Good show."
"Thank you, sir."
He turned to Lieutenant Marshall Shore of the 390th.
He asked several questions, but I recognized the key one.
"Lieutenant, when you were on the run from the I.P. to the tar-get, what was the maximum deflection of your compass heading?"
"About twenty-five degrees, sir."
By now every lead navigator in the room knew what was going on. If the Norden was in charge, the corrections wouldn't have been more than five or six degrees. Only a pilot could jerk a plane around more than that.
At the end of the debriefing Colonel LeMay knew what every bombardier and navigator in the room knew, and I doubt if any pilots knew he knew.
I realized I was in the presence of a very bright man, and a very skilled leader.
On the way to the mess, Colonel LeMay went in first and then waited as we all filed past him. One by one he asked our group designation and shook hands with us. As I went by him, he said,
"Trondheim?" He looked at my name tag. "Your name is Crosby?"
"Yes, sir."
He smiled, that funny grimace of a smile, and turned to the next officer in line.
That was it.
— Harry Crosby in his memoir, A Wing and a Prayer
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Every time I go to hyrule castle I remember that video about the royal guard weapons and how they were shiekah tech created to mimic the master sword (and failed - they're powerful but brittle and no more effective against the calamity than anything else). And I just remember the little detail of the wings on the hilt. On the master sword, they face up when the blade points down. On the royal guard weapons, they face up when the blade points up.
And to me, that little detail is very indicative of what they thought about the hero and the cycle.
The wings face up when fi is at rest. Waiting. Sealing. Not lifted.
For them, their swords face up when they brandish them, when they raise them against their enemies, when they wave them around and cheer.
That's what they think the hero does. That's what they think they can replicate and take for themselves.
That's not what a hero does at all.
Sure, he spends a lot of time doing that, but it's a fraction of the whole. The hero does not do it for glory or pay or fame. He is kind. He helps everyone who asks. He gets things for little kids and listens to their stories and helps people find their pets and goes out of his way to leave the stranger a little happier them when they met. He spends hours crawling through mazes and enemies to find something he can use later.
He does not raise his sword in anger. The job is not done once the villain of the day is skewered on his sword. It needs to be sealed, the darkness pushed back until the next generations can take up the call. It's passing on the torch to yourself. The master sword must seal evil during those intervening centuries.
The heroes soul is one, by breath of the wild, long forged in faith and love and determination and the flames of war and loss. The curse of demise makes it so that only one strong enough to stand against it can push it back. The heroes soul is one that is pure. It's a long reset game, and everyone knows the way it plays out.
And under rhoam, hyrule believes it knows all there is to know about the hero and the cycle. It thinks that it can shove the pieces where it wants them, that with the aid of the ancient technology it can force the warnings of history to bend to it's desire. It thinks enough violence will solve the problem entirely. It makes the master sword mimics with the blades facing up.
And it gets it wrong.
The hero reduced to a silent weapon, a shadow of the royal family, the princess helpless and unable to act, unable to access her own power.
It tries to force the issue with manpower and restrictions and piling societal pressure on the children, and hyrule falls.
Immediately, zelda is able to unlock and channel the full extent of her power, she can make a plan and not have it dismissed, she sends link to safety and travels hyrule setting the parts of a constantly moving puzzle into place, she meets ancient spirits and talks with the master sword and seals ganon on her own for the century it takes for link to return.
When he does, rhoam does not order link to save the princess. He does not pile titles and restrictions and pressures on him. He asks him to save his daughter. The hero finally gets to act at his own pace, and he chooses kindness. He chooses to go out of his way to talk to people outside his station, to listen to kids stories and leave strangers a little happier than when they met. He gathers allies loyal out of trust and not forced respect for things he hasn't done yet.
By choosing kindness and not violence (though there is an incredible amount of both), link becomes able to defeat the calamity and save zelda and the kingdom. Zelda is able to guide him and trust him to come. By working together as respected equals, they save the world.
And afterwards, the master sword is returned to her pedestal, triumphant, blade down and wings raised high.
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what are you guys' headcanons about how timelords (or maybe the doctor/master in particular since theyre always special cases) scar?
i dont have any real thoughts yet but the two times it's come up in my fics now ive sorta gravitated to the idea that maybe they dont necessarily scar in the same way that theyre regenerated like, clara voice: whys it got lines on it? it's brand new. how can his hair be all grey? he just got it.
like i think maybe they come preloaded with a bunch of scars that they didnt necessarily get but it's just like every other part of their body like "who frowned me this face"
and then along with that, the same way that their hair barely grows, maybe they dont really get scars from injuries either. unless it's special cases. ive made 13 had a scar where 12 got shot by the cyberman once bc shes so like, stuck in all the trauma from that time so it shows on her body, but like im not married to that idea
im not married to any of this. not attached at all. i dont have a good reason for 'they dont scar' except for like i said it's like hair and stuff. im asking in case anyone had some actually fun ideas/headcanons. like something a bit more nyarlothepy
i also dont think it'd be like impossible for them to scar, the example i gave was crossregeneration but also just within one regeneration i think it can happen the same way their hair can grow but i think it'd take a bit of a special occasion. something thats gonna leave a lasting effect on them you know? otherwise regeneration stuff just smooths it over makes them look new again
especially the last version of the master i feel like he might have gotten some serious scars in his time spent on earth
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Out of curiosity I looked up 80s Netossa
Netossa is significant for being the only black doll in the original SPOP. She had a grand total of four episodes (which sucks bc I feel like out of the characters her design is one of the best). I believe she also had no powers in the original solely relying on manmade nets vs. Generating energy ones in the 2018 version.
As far as I know, there has been two versions of Netossa made. One released in 2013 figure (sadly with no brushable hair) and ofc the original figure from the 80s
While the 2013 suit is more accurate to the cartoon design, there's just something charming about her 80s figure. Plus those nets look more accurate to the cartoon than the 2013 version. Either way, she truly lives up to her name as a captivating beauty!
Interestingly there's a backstory for her on the 2013 figure's packaging.
She was also supposed to have a doll in 2016 here's the prototype
What could have been... A perfect blend of 2013 and 80s.
More info on the 2013 figure here
Darah.com
Art of She Ra
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Oh, brother... I mean, sister
I really am interested to see how Fubuki and Tatsumaki clash in the manga.
Unlike the webcomic, they’re not going to be fighting over basic respect. Fubuki and Tatsumaki have more of a relationship and Tatsumaki, spiky as she is, has come to recognise that her sister is indeed a hero who can stand on her own two feet.
That’s good.
And yet, nearly in the same breath, Tatsumaki puts herself under pressure to lead her sister by example. New situation, new troubles.
You don’t need Madame Shiwababwa’s crystal ball to tell that when it comes to examples, making one of the worst criminal in the story to date, Psykos, would be an irresistable place for Tatsumaki to start. Which Fubuki will absolutely not want to have happen for both personal and strategic reasons.
The moment it’s realised that Pyskos is alive, there is going to be the manhunt of manhunts. The Hero Association will absolutely need her to be apprehended and questioned before having her put on trial. They legitimately need to know why, how, and with whom Pyskos did what she did.
The public needs to see a vile villain brought to justice. It sure is strange how organising a massive campaign of terror resulting in several billions of dollars’ worth of damage and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives doesn’t result in instant forgiveness, isn’t it?
Fubuki needs to have her apprehended and questioned but for her own personal reasons. She needs the closure of understanding what happened to Pyskos, yes, but she’s also got a good strategic mind and learning why her friend went so wrong is one she’ll understand must be found out. Fubuki probably sees herself as the only one who can get the truth out of Pyskos...and she’s probably right.
Tatsumaki needs to wring her neck. Even if Tatsumaki were not the over-the-top protective big sister that she is, the obsessiveness of Pyskos towards Fubuki and her stated ambition to kill her would trigger anyone. Never mind Tatsumaki. With the pressure to provide an example to her younger sister on her, Tatsumaki will be extra keen to show how justice is executed. Literally.
The sisters will almost certainly come to blows. As Bomb noted, the sisters are very much like each other, especially in how inflexible they can be in their convictions.
The very fact that they do respect each other has the potential to fuel a conflict with the rage one feels against another person who *ought* to be able to see where one is coming from. There’s a whole dimension of bitterness that comes from fighting people you’re close to who should see things your way that the webcomic doesn’t have access to. I hope we get a bit of it.
Depending on how it pans out, the conflict could drag Saitama and Genos in. Saitama, of course, doesn’t see the point in killing people, even those as vile as Psykos. If not for himself, then for the pain she inflicted on Tatsumaki, Genos will be on Team Kill The Bitch Already. Whether he’s prepared to acquiesce remains to be seen.
This could be very tasty indeed.
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