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nanuk-dain · 4 months

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Generation Kill Research Results

We all know that there's really specific stuff in GK that only those who were there would know, much of which we get in the books Generation Kill (Evan Wright) and One Bullet Away (Nate Fick).

I needed some more intel for my fics, so I went hunting for all the things RL Ray said about GK relevant topics on reddit. The result is a list of all his comments, from radio frequencies to how exactly he got burnt by Rudy's stove to the MRE components and the truth about the Zeus attack and what colour the PT shorts of Recon guys were.

The list has been vetted by @bookishdea to make sure that there's no personal info about the RL guys in there.

It's sorted by topic: weapons/equipment, radios/comms, beanies/uniforms, officers in Recon, Humvees, MREs, Humvee arrangement/Reporter, Zeus attack, explosion of Rudy's stove, Captain America's name, invasion, Recon training/conditions of OIF, Ripped Fuel, First Recon, Afghanistan/Ray's Marine Corps career, characters/people career background, paddles, GK production, float tapes.

I hope you find interesting stuff in there. I originally made it for myself, but since the effort went in already anyway, I figured I could share it with those who don't want to risk coming across RL Marines infos, but who might still profit from the GK-specific infos.

- all intel are responses of RL Ray (plasmata) on reddit in various subreddits, collected 23. Nov. 2023

- Q = question asked on reddit, A = Ray's answer. There's not always a question supplied, just where it's necessary to understand his answer

weapons/equipment

- At the time most of the Marine Corps was still using the M16s and M249 (SAW). Recon units were one of the first ones to get M4's and Para-SAWs (carbine versions of the M249). So, folks like officers and regular support folks were still carrying their standard M16, while 0321 Recon Marines were carrying M4s.

- Q: I was rewatching GK (again) and I think it was episode 2 when Rudy and Pappy took out the RPG team. I don’t know what the sniper rifle caliber is called I would think it’s a .338 laupa because that was standard sniper rifle of the Marine Corps.

A: No. It was an M40 A3 which shoots a 7.62x51mm NATO round. It is essentially the same thing as a .308 They are based on a Remington 700 and modified by USMC armorers. Anyone that went to sniper school would shoot that rifle. Recon marines go to sniper school. Those who didnt would still crosstrain on range so they werent totally ignorant to the weapon.

- Q: Why do some of the men in the 1st Recon Battalion have no attachments on their M4 ie Q-Tip, Christenson, and Ray, while others like Brad, Fick, Fruity Rudy had optics and grips?

A: Because some people think that having that shit on your weapon makes you look cooler. It is all personal preference.

- Q: I've always wondered if the real Brad rocked that PVS-17 the whole time like his character did.

A: He sure did. It is an easy way to always have NV handy without having to have something strapped to your fucking head all the time (PVS-7's).

radios/comms

-Q: In ep 2, right after the ambush scene when there is a radio check, whatdo the "up" numbers mean? (up 120 and up, up 700 and up, up 200 and up..etc)

A: It is a short way to indicate status. "Up" means we are all good and no one is injured or dead. IIRC the number indicates rounds of ammo left.

- Q: In the ep 2 episode intro somebody says: "All Hitman Victors, be advised, we are rolling freaks to TAC 1-1-9 at 1400 Zulu. How copy?" I understand everything expect "rolling freaks". Any ideas?

A: It does mean "rolling freqs" which is shorthand for "Changing radio Frequencies."

As you have seen in the series, the military communicates using radio's. As a security measure, everyone changes to a different radio frequency at the same time at set intervals. Lets say that the enemy was able to steal/capture a US radio. Then they would be able to listen in on all our radio conversations...this is bad. So, just in case that happens we all change frequencies (along with crypto fills and other things) so that radio only has value for a very limited time.

This is definitely also combined with crystallographic signature changes as well as something known as frequency hopping (SINGARS) for additional security.

- Q: So how would the teams be able to keep up with the new radio frequencies? Are they passed by runner or is a CYZ used?

A: They are typically pre-planned in a "comm plan" (communications plan). If a radio were to come up missing then they would change the comm plan and distribute however they could.

If you look at the HMMWV windshield next to Brad Colbert in the series you will see a clear acetate with something printed on it. That is a cheat sheet of the comm plan.

- Different types of radios are capable of different radio bands. Most of what you hear in GK is all VHF (ground plane) band radio traffic. The vehicle radios and the handheld ones do VHF. Different groups have different "freqs" (pronounced like freaks) or frequencies that they use. Just like the FM radio in your car, you can tune into different radio stations by changing the frequency. Bravo 1 is on 95.7 Hot Country....and Bravo 2 is on 103.3 Smooth Jazz. You are always switching between the different freqs to talk to who you are supposed to be talking to. So, my personal radio may be set to be on Bravo 1's channel, but the vehicle may be set to Bravo 3 and then another guy may have his set to the Alpha channel. Just like setting the presets in your car, you can do that on these radios as well...so you can quickly switch between them.

The reason you also hear pilots in some of them is that some radios are UHF (line of sight) band to talk to pilots. The small handheld radios were both VHF and UHF radios so we could do things like call for fire missions and give the pilots our 9 lines.

Com plans utilize multiple channels across different spectrums (HF, VHF, UHF, Satellite) and many types of radios that have different spectrum capabilities.

Dude, have you never played with walkie-talkies as a kid...hahaha. You know someone is talking on your freq because you hear them. Only one person can talk at a time on any radio channel. You can only be "tuned" to a single frequency at a time. There is a very rigid etiquette when using radios to keep things clear and efficient.

We switched from the 77's to the AN/PRC-135 in 2002 (1st Recon Bn).

The 135's would do HF freq hopping, auto antenna tuning, and directly take crypto fills. But, the best part was they had a detachable face with an extension cord; so you could seal up the radio in your ruck (waterproofing and all). Then you would have the radio face in your front deuce gear to control the radio if you needed to switch freqs or something.

Edit: I just realized that I was talking about the 104's not the 77's. Yeah, late 90's the 77's were replaced by 119's.

beanies/uniforms

- Part of it is real (the black beanie's) and the rest is done by David Simon. The real part is that we all wore black beanies. It wasn't breaking any rules as they were allowed, but most other units frowned on wearing them unless in private. We did all wear them everywhere and it kind of became a “thing” that the recon guys are the ones in beanies.

The David Simon/ Ed Burns part is the rest of the scene. I think they were trying to explain to the audience who Recon Marines were and used Trombley/Espera to do that. It was a wise choice as neither Trombley nor Espera were Recon Marines at that point…which he mentions in that scene.

It followed the PT uniforms we wore also. The Marine Corps wears “green on green” shirt/shorts. Recon’s official PT uniform is “black on black”…so if you see guys PTing in black you know they are Recon Bubbas.

officers in Recon

- A little late to the party, but there is no such thing as a recon officer. The "Reconnaissance Man" MOS is 0321 and is only for enlisted marines. Godfather was not a recon marine...no officers are.

1st Recon is comprised of many that are not recon marines; support personnel like motor T, communications, navy corpsmen, intel, etc. Officers that are platoon/ company/ battalion commanders are typically Intelligence or Infantry officers.

- Q: Not trying to correct you as you were there, I definitely wasn't... but Fick mentioned he went through BRC in his book. I guess maybe some officers go thru BRC but retain their MOS whether infantry/intel/whatever?

A: Rarely, some officers do go through BRC/ARS; but even if they do they still never are recon marines and are never in a recon team.

- Platoon commanders for Recon are kind of in the rear with the gear...they don't go out with teams. They typically command a ROC (Recon Operation Center) and provide support and are a liaison between the team and higher-ups. They feed the teams direction (via radio comms) and take intel and generate reports (again via radio comms)...but they aren't with the teams.

Humvees

- Q: If I may ask...were you guys ever told why you weren't given closed-top humvees (except of course the lead vehicle).

A: Because we didnt' have them. The HMMWV's we got were Army surplus ones we scavenged.

- You don't go to war with what you want, you go with what you have. Everything has to be adapted on the fly...which is what happened. Everything in war is a calculated risk with a margin for "acceptable losses". Were we lucky? Sure.

MREs

- Q: In ep 5, when Ray is making MRE cookies, would that actually work? If so, how good could those actually be?

A: Yes it actually works. The sugar will melt and crystalize in the creamer which makes it solid and like a cookie. When you haven't eaten anything other than MREs for months straight they are good.

PS2: Ray seems like a good guy to have drinks with in a bar.

I agree...but I am a little biased.

- Point of clarification: These aren't really MRE's, they are just components of an MRE that can come in different MREs.

Personally my favorite MRE was the Beef Stew. It came with a pouch of Beef Stew, Jalapeno Cheese, pack of two crackers, and something like Skittles. It also came with a little packet with things like Folgers Crystals Coffee packets, creamer, salt/pepper, wet wipe, etc.

There were 24 different MREs in a 12 pack "A" or "B" case. Each had a different main meal and then accessory packets that included things like Peanut Butter, Regular Cheese, Jalapeno Cheese, Crackers, "Bread Slice", Charms, Skittles, Lorna Doone Cookies, M&M Cookies ("Cookies with Pan Coated Chocolate Disks"), Nature Valley Granola Bar, Strawberry Milkshake, Pound cake, Hot Cocoa Mix, etc, etc, etc.

The GK time generation of MREs were fairly new at the time and included new meals like "Bean Burrito", "Cheese Burger", etc. There were quite a few that were in the previous generation like "Beef Stew" and "Minestrone Soup". Probably the absolute worst one was "Pork Slice in Jamaican Style Sauce".

- It was a common tradition in Brad and my old platoon to stash fun things to share amongst the team at fun times. Like when your team is all wet and cold and hasnt really slept for weeks then you bust something fun out to share…it is a great pick-me-up. My favorite thing to do were king size snickers bars.

Humvee arrangement / Reporter

- Q: Who sat in the passenger side rear seat before the reporter came along?

A: No one. We determined who was in what vehicle right before the invasion..so we knew we had to fit Evan in somewhere. He really wanted to be with Brad and me...so there he went.

- Q: Why?

A: Because we're awesome. Honestly it was because he was told we would be the go-to team (because of Brad and me) for any special fun missions and he didn't want to miss out on those. That and I think he liked our dynamic as "characters".

- Short answer is because that is where he chose to be. For this war the US did something interesting in allowing for journalists to be embedded with the military units for the invasion. There were a ton of journalists that came and got a briefing on different unit types so the journalists could pick where they wanted to be. There were three journalists that after hearing what Recon was and that we would be a combat unit (so you may get shot at if you go with them) picked to be embedded with 1st Recon.

The three journalists then came to where we were staged in Kuwait and met with the BN Commander (Godfather) and were then briefed more specifically on who we were and what our role would be during the invasion. After that briefing two of the three journalists decided they didn't want to kick it with us...pussies. I do remember one of them was some guy with Men's Journal.

Evan then started hanging around us and learned that our team would likely see the most action and be at the front the most...so that is where he wanted to be. After a few nights in the tents hanging out with us he decided that he wanted to be in our vehicle as he liked our "characters" for his story.

Evan, in retrospect, would frequently say he's not sure whether he was more brave or stupid/naive to embed with us for the invasion. After each firefight/ambush he would say that he was going to leave...then we would tell him to stop being a huge pussy...so he kept going.

Zeus attack

- Q: Was Trombley actually just sitting there observing like he did in the film? [note: about Zeus attack]

A: Yes and no. Lots of people were kind of looking. I was the one that jumped up and observed the gun firing to find its location. I then called Walt up to the MK-19 to walk him in on target while calling in CAS via rotary wing at the same time. I got a Navy Achievement Metal with Combat V for that action. Interesting the series got it wrong on that.

explosion of Rudy's stove

- I didn't set my face on fire, Rudy set my face on fire…hahaha. That was all healed in just a few weeks like it never happened…I heal fast. It is a common joke amongst my friends that i am Wolverine because of my rapid healing.

- Rudy was heating water for coffee. It didn't explode. To use diesel fuel in those stoves we would preheat the fuel tube with a hexamite tab. Hexamite tabs turn to gel when they burn. Rudy was carrying the stove outside and some diesel on the outside of the stove caught fire in his hands. He then dropped it and the hexamite splattered off it all over my face. Burning gel all over my face

Captain America's name

- Yeah. A little into the invasion he went running into these mud huts with a fixed bayonet. I was sitting in my HMMWV with my team watching him run in and made the comment “This guy thinks he is Captain America!” We all started calling him that afterwards. To not embarrass the guy publicly they used it in the book and film instead of his real name.

invasion

- Q: Given the might of US military and Nato forces, could the invasion have been planned better? Maybe take more time to get there instead of the confusion and rush?

A: There was a plan and it worked pretty well. Our unit was only one small part of a much larger machine so you don't get to see the overarching thinking behind the entire invasion, you just see a tiny tiny part of it. Two quips that sum it up nicely are "Speed is far more effective than a plan" and "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"

- Q: Why weren't tanks and armor part of your group specially when entering hostile town?

A: Because they were needed elsewhere and we were essentially probing the battlefield so the commanders would know where best to direct the invading force...including armored units.

Recon training/conditions of OIF

-Q: How do you cope with the constant dangers and lack of sleep, food and hygiene. Most people would operate at lower levels under these circumstances and make mistakes. Was there something you guys did that made things better?

A: You fight how you train. We were used to little sleep, food, and hygiene because that is how we always trained. So, when it came to war we were already very comfortable and used to operating in that condition. Same shit, different day.

- All Recon Marines have the same MOS...0321. There are team roles such as Pointman, Navigator, Slackman, RTO, Assistant RTO, Assistant Team Leader, and Team Leader. Every Recon Marine is expected to have held each role to be well rounded. You may be the RTO in one team and then a Navigator in another.

All Marines (not just Recon Marines) are marksman and have to qualify just the same. This is independent of their MOS. Every Marine is a Rifleman.

Nearly all Recon Marines have gone through Sniper School...this is nothing super special.

- Q: Though I did do underwater football with a few of the Recon guys for PT a few times. That was a pretty brutal game. Put a plastic chair in either side of the deep end of the pool (12'+ at Flores) and put an underwater weight between the chairs in the middle of the pool. Line up 5 guys on either side. Dive in on the mark and try to get the weight into the seat of the chair opposite of your side. Tap if you need air, usually you get released pretty quickly... After a second or two. And that was about the only rule. Underwater everything was game. Grabbing, choking, ripping off masks...and it was a brutal workout. You'd be sucking wind after a few goals.

A: When I was in we played a lot of "Underwater Soccer" which is basically the same thing just without the chairs. Two team on either side of the pool and a weight (either a 25lb bar weight or dumbbell) in the middle on the bottom. Your team gets a point when you touch the opposing teams wall with the weight in hand.

The other game I used to love was the "Whistle Game." In this game a metal whistle was thrown into the middle of the pool. It was every man for himself. You had to grab the whistle from the bottom of the pool and rise to the surface and successfully blow it. If you did then you got to get out of the pool. Everyone else keeps going. It was one of the "Pays to be a winner" games.

- Another fun side note: We used to play a game called "Tap-Out Pass-Out" in which we would ground fight (think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) and the only rules were no eye gouging. The game was only over when someone would pass out or tap out. While Rudy is/was an amazing standing fighter, he wasn't great on the ground. I am very good on the ground and would always beat him, much to Rudy's chagrin. Because of that Rudy began to diligently practice and improve his ground fighting, so I don't know if you should mess with him on the ground now.

Ripped Fuel

- Q: Ray, how much Ripped Fuel have you had?

A: Believe it or not I only had 2 the entire time. Two were issued to each marine as part of a med kit. The rest was just swallowing Folgers Coffee Crystals that came in the MREs.

First Recon

- Former B Co, 1st Recon Bn 0321 (1999-2003) checking in. 1st Recon was a Battalion in 1990? It was a Company when I first got there (I was in 2nd Platoon - 1st Recon Co)...then it changed into a Battalion a year or two later.

Afghanistan / Ray's Marine Corps career

- Question: Were you on this float? What did you do before joining 1st recon? Did you go to Afghanistan?

Answer: Yes. I was a pipeliner, so I was always always at 1st. I did go to Afghanistan. I was in 1st Recon Company, 2nd platoon on this float. It is the same platoon as Brad Colbert but I was in a different team.

- You can petition to "try out" for recon. If you pass a screening (run by Recon Marines) then you typically go to a "RIP" platoon (Recon Indoctrination Platoon or something like that) to be weeded out if you aren't able to hang. From there you go to a Recon MOS producing school (ARS or BRC) and if you pass that course then you become a "Roper" until you pass the unit Indoc. It isn't just jump right in.

- Q: I guess that means you went fleet grunt first then tested into recon yeah?

I enlisted 03XX then got 0311 out of SOI, then was picked up by recon at the graduation of SOI.

A: I am a fellow pipeliner. When i went in, 0321 was a secondary MOS (circa 2000)…so I was an 0311 with the secondary of 0321.

- Q: What year did you graduate boot camp? Company? Platoon?

A: January 2000, San Diego, Mike Co., Plt 3014

- Q: The 9/11 attacks solidified my choice in enlisting. At the time, I was a Sophomore in HS. 3rd period Geometry. Where were you?

A: Sitting in a pub in Darwin Australia (it was night time there) on libo. Shore Patrol comes running into the pub screaming for everyone to get back to ship (15th MEU on the USS Dubuque). Get back to ship just in time to see the second tower fall on tv. Go to drunken sleep as we set sail for Pakistan (Bravo Platoon, 1st Recon Company).

- He [note: Ray talking about himself] picked up Sgt. before he got out through. Fellow B Co 1st Recon alum. Yut Yut.

characters/people career background

- First Recon Bn is not just Recon Marines...it includes all the support personnel that are needed for a unit as well; like Armorers, Motor T, Intel, Supply, Communications, Admin, etc.

Jeff wasn't a Recon Marine; his MOS was Motor T. He was a Motor T Marine assigned to First Recon. We loved Jeff because he was super pessimistic and hateful. When Darnold was shot and medevac'd out, Jeff filled the vacancy in Kocher's team.

- Capt. Eric Dill was our Recon Platoon Commander during Afghanistan and can be seen in Part-8 @ 11:42. His/my platoon is the one that he handed over to Fick after we got back stateside.

- One thing to note is that Fick wasn't with Recon during Afghanistan...he was an Infantry Platoon commander. Afghanistan is where Fick became buddies with our current Recon Platoon commander, Eric Dill. Dill convinced Fick to come over to 1st Recon after getting back from Afghanistan. This is also where we "found" Garza, Leon, etc and convinced them to come over from the infantry to become Recon Marines.

- The first casualty was Darnold in Eric Kocher's team. He was shot in the forearm when we drove through an ambush. This is the scene where Walt was possibly tangled in the electrical wires and I believe it shows a HMMWV monster-trucking a car. Dirty Earl (Jeff Carizalez) then took over for Darnold in Eric's team.

paddles

- Paddles aren't just a Recon thing...they are generally a boat team thing...which Recon guys are amongst. Honestly, it varies as to who would get one. Some think that only other Recon Marines should get them...others think that support guys should too.

Typically the size of the paddle matters. The bigger the paddle the more senior/experience/loved the guy was. When I was in the small novelty paddles were for thank-you's to folks. Regular 4 foot paddles were for solid Recon Marines that were liked. Large 6 foot paddles were reserved for guys that had been there a while and were exceptional.

GK production

- David Simon (the guy that did Gen Kill) was really the instrumental piece to making it what it was. Early on HBO was going to have someone else do it...and it was straight up fucking Michael Bay style. David wanted real Marines to be able to watch the series and see not a single thing wrong with it; from the dialog, equipment/uniforms, actor body types, mannerisms, etc. He gave us a hell of a ton of leeway to just "be ourselves" so he could have that in the series.

I got involved early on when they were working on the scripts to make sure the slang and jargon added was Marine Corps specific and current. Even the radio chatter in all scenes was written by real Marines...all the pilot sides of radio chatter (like when calling CAS) was recorded by a real FAC.

All the actors were put through a two week "How to be a Marine" course. From how to wear their uniforms, how to carry their weapons, hazing motivational physical exercises, etc. One of the biggest problems was all the actors wanting to do exactly what Rudy Reyes did on set; and Rudy lives in a comic book so it wasn't all exactly accurate.

In one of the episodes, the Oscar Award winning Director (different episodes had different directors) was going to have guys flying when shot like you see in the typical movies. After the Marines on set (Eric Kocher and Jeff Carizalez) told her that was not real and she did it anyways; Eric and Jeff started just making comments like "This episode is going to fail fucking miserably", "Wow, this episode is going to suck balls", "This is the worst fucking thing I have ever seen"...as you already noticed, those scenes were redone.

float tapes

- About the Float Tapes: OMG!...these videos are gold. Watching through them now. I have already seen Gabe Garza (Part-3 @ 1:04 far right) Tony Espera (Part-3 @ 7:50) as they were both with that infantry unit at the time.

- I had never seen these so it is fun to relive this float. In Part 4 when they are doing the "Steel Beach Party" he has a part where he films guys playing hacky-sack with "Black Shirts = Cool AF" on screen. The black shirts are Recon guys (everyone else has to wear green). In that shot are Eric Kocher (in the green flight suit) and Larry Shawn Patrick (tall guy with sunglasses on) along with some other brothers. There were 22 Recon guys total on that float in 4 teams. I haven't seen me or anyone from my team in the videos yet.

- Part 36 @ 3:17 is Rudy Reyes, a guy i forgot his name right now in the SERE shirt, the blond guy to his right (James Klepel /was on my team), and the guy that walks in behind Espera (Luke Meister / also on my team).

Real Evan Wright intel (twitter) about GK

camera

- Reporter's camera was a Leica m6 50mm, analogue (film, not digital)

Manimal

- Anthony "Manimal" Jacks usually wore his teeth and was a serious person who spoke to me a lot about his family & his concerns about doing right, if we crossed the border. Being "Manimal" was sort of a character he played to amuse people

MRE crates

- As is clear in this photo, Holsey, too, could scarcely contain his joy that I was taking his picture. Note: he's seated on an MRE crate. Those are like general propose chairs and tables in the field, like "apple boxes" in the film industry.

#generation kill #ray person #research #information

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 9 months

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PROPAGANDA

HINATA HYUUGA (NARUTO)

1.) When Hinata was introduced she goals, weaknesses, interesting interactions and relationships with characters other than naruto and a personality of her own. Post timeskip in shippuden, however, she was reduced down to simply 'naruto's future love interest' and little else. The entire Hyuuga plotline was dropped and she no longer had any relevance or personality outside of naruto. Part 1 hinata was shy and insecure on the surface but underneath that she was determined & hardworking, even to her own detriment. Her struggles were compelling. Her interactions with neji and her family are something you look forward to seeing more of. In shippuden she's like a flat carboard cutout of hinata. Her shyness exaggerated, her relationship with her family suddenly perfectly fine and boring. In part 1 naruto inspires her to keep trying but he isn't the reason she's working so hard, in shippuden he's pretty much all she thinks about. Her change in character design really highlights these changes - the perfect little wife for cishet men to fantasise about.

2.) Her entire personality and arc is boiled down to “shy uwu waifu in love with Naruto” and basically any development she gets, which is barely at all because Kishimoto hates women, is as attributed to NARUTO and Naruto only. Even her reaction to her beloved COUSIN’S DEATH makes her be like “omg I love Naruto” and serves to further NaruHina, which is absolutely insane she would Not react like that. Naruto only starts being romantically interested in her at the beginning of like, The Last movie, which is after 500ish episodes of her being treated as the sidelined love interest who is devoted to a guy who only cares about her when she’s a damsel in distress on a fight.

There are so many parts of her character that are/could be interesting, like her part in the Hyuga Clan due to being born as a superior and her dynamic with her cousin Neji as a result, (which could have had SO many great moments of reconciliation and standing up for each other grrr grrr) an exploration of the impact of her bullying & being looked down upon (even when she’s supposed to be a superior member, which adds to the shame) LIKE MANY OF THE CAST, seriously the people Naruto trauma dumps to are mostly consisted of people unfairly treated like that and it could have been used to further NaruHina WHILE showing her struggles

She is an incredibly capable fighter but the moment Naruto is there, she instantly becomes defenseless and needs to be saved by her crush, mostly as a “wow look at him isn’t he so brave and kind to do this for her?!”

There’s an episode where she is literally used as a defenseless punching bag for Pein by trying to sacrifice herself for Naruto and telling him she loves him, JUST so he can be more angry and have more motivation to beat Pein’s ass (aside of the yknow. Killing his loved ones thing) AND her confession is ignored by Naruto for the rest of the series. Just like any moment she shows her crush for him is met with obliviousness, which would be fine if they weren’t the main couple and didn’t go on for THE ENTIRE SERIES!!!!

In Boruto, the shitty sequel, Naruto is basically her deadbeat husband in her bland lavander marriage and Boruto is rightfully mad about Naruto’s distance from the family and even says he left her basically a single mom and barely pays time to the family, and Hinata’s role in the show as the housewife is being like “no you see Boruto you have to understand your father’s pov as the Hokage” and the narrative treats NaruHina’s marriage as a Good, Healthy Thing as if the characters are not miserable in this marriage.

3.) Man I don't even like her that much but she deserved SO much better. She was introduced as the heiress of a really powerful and renowed clan with complex dynamics, yet the author somehow decided to do almost NOTHING with the potential she had, and gave her very little personality besides being shy and fawning over the protagonist. She gets slightly more active in Shippuden (part 2), but her character still pretty much revolves around her love for Naruto, which sucks because again, she has so much potential. It's no secret that women in Naruto are badly written, and Hinata certainly is no exception. The male characters get dozens of episodes/chapters about their motivations, their backstories, what pushes them to keep going, and Hinata gets almost nothing besides her lifelong crush on Naruto that we are reminded of literally every time she's on screen.

NIKI NIHACHU (DREAM SMP) (CW: Bullying)

1.) Ohhhh my FUCKING GOD okay. So first off, MCYT (Minecraft Youtube) is not synonymous with the Dream SMP. The Dream SMP is MCYT, but not all MCYT is Dream SMP. I just want to make that clear before I start. (Also, the DSMP characters are referred to with a c! in front of their name, and the person playing that character is referred to with a cc! in front of their name.)

Anyway. So Niki, right. The Dream SMP had a LOT of ccs, and I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head but I think there were like…four women? Out of…god, at least fifteen people, maybe twenty? Which would have been fine, I’ve seen worse ratios. But the thing is, a lot of the male ccs’ fans were uhhh…not great about treating cc!Niki like a person. We’re gonna move on to her character in a bit, but cc!Niki got bullied, harassed, and criticized no matter what she or her character did.

c!Niki is either a mean girlboss or gentle and nice. When I saw people talking about c!Niki while the DSMP was active, their views of her were very one dimensional. Maybe part of this was because cc!Niki didn’t get a chance to develop her character as much as someone like cc!Tubbo did. One of the DSMP’s fatal flaws was a lack of communication and organization, and…yeah. It was very difficult for white male ccs to organize people for lore, but for cc!Niki it was…also bad. The misogyny that cc!Niki experienced from fans is inseparable from the misogyny that c!Niki also received. It’s a really shitty package deal.

OH AND ALSO. You know how the DSMP ended by getting like, wiped from existence or some shit I don’t remember. And Dream did this without letting the majority of the ccs resolve their character’s stories/arcs? Will it surprise you to learn that afaik cc!Niki wasn’t informed about this at first? Yeah. Overall she was just treated horribly by everyone and so was her character.

2.) Literally only like three people ever did storylines with her, two of whom immediately dropped it as soon as something else came up. She didn't even get to officially participate in the revolution despite repeatedly offering aid, and eventually ended up just. Building her own underground city. To have something to do. The only people to actually include her in storylines consistently ever were the anarchists, toward the end of the server.

3.) ok, so, the thing is, this isn’t just about the DSMP. historically, in mcyt spaces, women content creators have been harassed and treated terribly by fans (and talked over/ignored by other ccs and the fandom) for, essentially, daring to be women, and niki has been subject to that. cc!niki (the real life person, for those who don’t know mcyt player/character differentiations) was/is really good friends with cc!wilbur soot (i haven’t been keeping up with this corner of streaming recently but assume this is the case). however, despite being close irl friends and working really well with one another, niki had to deal with endless bullshit from people who shipped her and wilbur (and people who didn’t!!), so much so that they stopped streaming together for a while. this is just some background so you understand the baseline we’re working with here. (this is going to be more of a meta analysis on how cc!niki was treated by other ccs, as that’s my specialty and also in a rp space it affects how her character was played) (fan treatment of her also factors in a lot here since fiction is highly affected by realities like this in mcrp) niki’s character in the dream smp, and the lore she had (she went from a kind baker to one of the last holdouts against a tyrannical government, to a broken girl resorting to revenge for stability, to someone who was finally able to find healing and support in a safe space and worked to do the same for others) was largely ignored or disregarded by both fans and the other content creators on the server. hell, when her best friend died nobody even bothered to tell c!niki! she had to find out from his own goddamn ghost! (can you tell i’m mad about this?) she put up with so much shit on that server, in-character and out, and never even got to have a fucking break about it. justice for c!niki!

#polls #round 1 #week 1 #new #cw bullying

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cityzenshark · 3 months

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Things to fix in Earthspark part 3

Nightshade's sudden intelligence

Character traits and their lack of relevance

Lack of character flaws

These are my personal takes, no hard feelings

1. Nightshade's unexplained sudden intelligence.

In "Hashtag: Oops", Hashtag gets her alt mode and discovers her (possible Outlier) ability to hack into the intranet systems without needing a hardwire connection. In the same episode, Nightshade makes the dugout by themselves that consists of a super computer and fancy systems.

Where and who does Nightshade learn from to build all those? Wheeljack? They never met him until "Disarmed". Tarantulas? They meet on the next episode. Alex? Possibly, yet there are no scenes or dialogues. The internet? The farm has bad wifi, it's been reminded several times. Nightshade is more interested in books than the internet.

It took Hashtag at least one whole episode to learn about her ability and this naturally leads her to learn about tech. But Nightshade's knowledge came out of nowhere.

Like I said in the first part of this post, involve Wheeljack and the parents in making the dugout. From there, we could see Nightshade learning from Wheeljack first and later more from Tarantulas.

Have Nightshade feel overwhelmed by their own intelligence that they struggle to understand themselves which is why they refuse to have an alt mode. Now that's a start to their character arc.

2. The lack of relevance of certain characters and their traits.

Alex is a professor (right?) in Cybertronian history and culture yet this is only shown in the pilot episode and no more. This went over my head and I thought he was a stay-at-home husband throughout the whole season. The lack of show of this makes his trait irrelevant to be honest.

Tarantulas promised to help the family, didn't he? Where is he when they need all the help in the finale? They shouldn't have replaced him with Soundwave. The latter has nothing to do with the Maltos.

Wheeljack should've had the most involvement with the Maltos next to Bee. Besides Twitch and the dugout, he should be their defacto medic. Have him help the Terrans understand their biology (seriously, the show never considered discussing that at all). Have him study the Emberstone water. He's a scientist - come on now.

Arcee. Just Arcee. Why is she even in Season 1? She plays no important role in it until the finale where she and Wheeljack block the Terrans path. I expected a little bit more from her...

Elita should be Jawbreaker's mentor, not Grimlock. Even though JB is a dinobot like Grim, Elita is the one who taught him about finding the right alt mode. Not to mention Grim is suffering from very recent PTSD - he could've killed JB by accident.

Show Elita together with Optimus more. She's the Second in Command but Megatron is constantly with OP, I forgot he's not OP's second.

3. Lack of character flaws. I'm focusing on the main characters here.

This is a HUGE problem in children's shows nowadays. Character flaws are what makes progress feel earned and have meaning. Everyone has something they dislike about the people they love. It's normal.

The twins are proven to be impulsive and short tempered but the difference of how their personality affects their temper is blurry.

Have Thrash be the angrier twin since he's the big brother. He's the one who jumps into conclusions, throwing assumptions everywhere. The episode with Swindle should've concreted his distrust towards Decepticons/new people. Meanwhile Twitch is more levelheaded and open minded to contrast with Thrash.

The triplets have confidence issues. Nightshade and Hashtag with their intelligence & abilities, and Jawbreaker with his reaction. This is proven when the kids get stuck in the dugout because Nightshade & Hashtag don't plan the security out properly.

Jawbreaker is the only Terran whose flaw is shown well. I don't know why people don't like it. JB feels left behind, of course he'd overreact and get overconfident when he finally got his alt mode.

Make Nightshade eccentric by having them mimic their book's main character. Children tend to do that, I know I did. After 'Disarmed', their siblings get annoyed and tell them to cut it out, further signifying the Terrans' rocky emotional state due to their missing link.

Hashtag is the embodiment of 2010's internet energy which is perfect to make her trust the internet too much. It could also add "internet info vs books info" banter between her and NS.

Robby should act like an actual 14 year old. (He acts like 10 - 12 imo.) Kind of an emo, easily annoyed, visibly irate of his siblings' constant emotional presence. Have him wish the cybersleeves are gone. Those things do not look comfortable.

Like Robby, Mo should feel weirded out by the emotional link, the cybersleeves, and the Terrans occasionally but not as much as Robby. Other than that, she acts like a nine year old with high emotional intelligence.

Writers should avoid treating official media as their personal fanfiction.

#accidentally posted this incomplete #transformers #transformers earthspark #earthspark #tf malto #tf terrans #its complete now

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storm-and-starlight · 7 months

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Narrative Absence in Gravity Falls

Or, the reason why Ford's introduction DIDN'T go down like the Stan Balloon

(you know the one)

Lets talk about narrative absence, character introductions, and plot twists in Gravity Falls, because honestly? There's some really fascinating things to talk about. Spoiler warning for a show that's ten years old at this point, I guess? and essay below the cut

Ford's introduction is one of those plot twists that, mishandled, would have fallen flatter than the second dimension -- a new character introduced barely a handful of episodes before the massive finale, with massive backstory that changes everything we think we know about the setting, the backstory, and one of the lead characters? It sounds like a recipe for flubbing the landing and yet it's one of the best character reveals of, imo, all time. Like... the kind of reveal I want to write an essay about. Which I'm doing!

Part of the tricky thing with last-minute reveals is not only not having the time to let the audience get to know the new person the way they know the old cast, but also getting the character's place in the narrative to feel earned. A piece of writing advice I've heard is to never introduce a new character more than three-quarters of the way through a story, and two-thirds is better if you can manage it. Ford shows up at literally the last possible second, according to that (seriously, episode thirty out of forty total, and three of those are the finale), and yet he meshes so well it's like he was always there! And it's because he kind of always was. We never saw Ford, but we saw the holes he left behind, and in seeing those holes we could see what kind of person he would be, and so he's not really a new character at all -- he's Stan's version of what Dipper is to Mabel, and he was all along.

(A really quite obvious example of the whole "Stan's version of what Dipper is to Mabel". Just look at that sweater!) (Which, incidentally, is relevant to another point from later in the meta.)

Part of why it worked is, admittedly, the textual foreshadowing, but there are already enough discussions of that (right down to the DVD commentaries) that I don't really feel the need to go into it here, and also it's totally possible for a plot twist to be foreshadowed and STILL come off as stupid, like, the stupidity doesn't rely on the fact that the audience could have picked up on it beforehand. So we'll leave the foreshadowing out for now, and talk about the other major element why the Ford reveal works so well: the space in the narrative. We never saw Ford, but we saw the giant gaping hole he left behind, and we could see the shape of him in it. He's not really a new character -- his outline was there all along.

Okay, "giant gaping hole" might not be the best way to describe it. Narrative absence might be better -- there's a... gap in the story, a place where a character should be and yet isn't. In Gravity Falls, there are three of these -- the big honking WHO'S THE AUTHOR? that's the main mystery of the entire show, and two others that are... subtler. Because WHO'S THE AUTHOR is 1.) explicitly discussed in text and 2.) a driving element of story structure, rather than a negative space in story structure, and therefore something that doesn't need to be explained like the other one does, I'm not really gonna bring it up until much later.

The other major absences -- the ones that only come about because of the way Gravity Falls is built as a story -- are a lot more interesting.

Gravity Falls as a story is structured a lot around the idea of narrative foils and counterparts. There are a lot of these in the show -- pretty much every character who has a consistent speaking role in multiple episodes comes in a duo -- Wendy and Soos, Candy and Grenda, the tall teens vs the goth teens, Manly Dan and Tyler Cutebiker -- it's not something that was meant to be an explicit symbolic element (at least to my interpretation), but it is something that was on the writers and character designers minds.

The most prominent of these opposing pairs is Dipper and Mabel, who are outright narrative foils -- they are markedly different in every way, and their differences are complimentary, meant to help make the other character shine, or to fill narrative roles that the other one cannot. It's a very balanced way of making a pair of main characters, and it's really noticeable. Very neat, very symmetrical, very clean.

(Yeah, I know it's just a screenshot of the first episode, but it's a nice example of how their characters are opposites. First episodes are good at that.)

This is where the first absence comes in: Stan Pines has no opposite.

He's just straight up not given a foil in the show, and for someone so important to the entire narrative, that's... noticeable. Soos and Wendy aren't his direct opposites, and he and Dipper are very different people but are never arranged as opposing counterparts that fill in the holes of the other's narrative the way a proper foil does (this actually comes in later, like, Dipper is sort of set up to be opposite to Stan but it's a really weak sort of opposite -- the basics are there but the narrative never focuses on them the way it does on how Dipper and Mabel actively complement each other), and Stan and Mabel are set up not as a contrasting pair, but as a complementary pair. This goes beyond simply the fact that she's textually his favorite twin (though that is an element of it! That's a pretty darn big element of it!) -- she's shown to be basically a younger, nicer version of him. The clashes he has with her aren't about being different, they're about being too similar, or aimed at the same goals. Boss Mabel is the best example of this, with Mabel taking over Stan's job and having to become like him, but Land Before Swine also reinforces that connection with their fight being the main conflict of the episode and Dipper getting the B-plot with Soos.(Hence part of where the Dipper thing comes in -- Mabel is foil to Dipper, and Stan is similar to Mabel, and so Stan and Dipper have elements of foil-dom but aren't actually foils.)

Hell, from Not What She Seems she even gets the famous "Grunkle Stan, I trust you" line, while Dipper is placed as being the one to not trust Stan.

Stan Pines stands alone as the only character without a contrast in an entire cast full of pairs, and it leaves things unbalanced. Like, once again, the Dipper thing comes back in, because if they wanted to make a balanced set of relationships it would be set up like a triangle, with the similarities and differences between Stan and Dipper and Stan and Mabel focused on in the story itself, but instead it's just Mabel who gets the plotlines emphasizing her thematic connections with Stan, and Dipper just gets plotlines dealing with their relationship as people, which is a very different experience.

And this is the source of the second absence: Dipper Pines has no complement.

This one is less dramatic than the foil relationship, because "contrasting pairs" are just straight up a fundamental design aspect of the show as a whole, but it's still very much there. Mabel is shown as being strongly similar to Stan, but Dipper doesn't have anyone who shares his interests at the level they matter to him. There's no one with whom he clicks. It's a negative space in the story, and it makes the whole thing lopsided. Dipper should have a similar counterpart, and Stan should have a foil, and the way the rest of the relationships are structured and the characters are designed it's kind of glaringly obvious that they were designed and written with those roles in mind, and yet... there's nothing.

It leaves two very big holes in the story -- subtle ones, yes, that you probably aren't even going to pick up on at all your first time through the show (I certainly didn't, it took me a long time to pick out all the little story-structure-and-themes related stuff that generates this) -- but they're very, very much there. And, really, the place they intersect is... interesting. "Stan's foil, who is complement to Dipper, whose relationship with Stan is the same as Mabel's relationship to Dipper" (except different, because there's a whole nother essay I could write on how Stan&Ford and Dipper&Mabel are themselves a contrasting pair, in that one set of twins "got it right" when the other set "got it wrong", but that's only semi-relevant here and really requires Ford to be part of the analysis) ends up in really only one place -- "Stan's nerdy twin sibling who is connected and deeply involved in the mysteries of Gravity Falls".

And whaddaya know, that's exactly what we got. There's a big honking hole in the narrative, and Ford fits it perfectly, because he was the reason the hole was there in the first place.

It dovetails so nicely with WHO'S THE AUTHOR because that's also a big honking hole in the narrative, it's just one that's talked about in the text because, well, the characters can see it, so they can talk about it. (Gravity Fall is, alas, not meta enough to have the characters discuss the thematic implications of their own narrative arcs and character relationships.) It's the biggest absence in the story, and it gives Ford a textual place to fit in, and that gives him just that extra little bit of thematic consistency with the rest of the show, which makes his reveal that magic combination of unexpected (because holy shit Stan has a twin????) and expected the whole time (because holy shit of course Stan has a twin, it all makes sense now!), and that in turn leads to it being one of the best character reveals ever.

---

(There's one more thing I'd like to talk about here, and it's "how did Hirsch manage to write something so subtle into the story in the first place"? Because Gravity Falls, for how good and tight of a mystery it is, is surprisingly unplanned (seriously, watch the episode commentaries, it's honestly really cool how they managed to take random elements they tossed in for flavor and build up on it to enhance the mystery). I think the answer is "because he knew there was supposed to be a character there in the first place", which -- that'll do a LOT of surprising things to your ability to foreshadow and make room in a story. Knowing how it's going to end means even subconsciously, an author knows what needs to happen in that story to make room for that ending, and knowing that there was going to be a character who'd be Stan's foil and Dipper's thematic parallel, and that the most important thematic parallel in the entire show would be the one reflecting Dipper and Mabel's relationship in the older generation that didn't quite get it right. And Hirsch and the writers, obviously, have an incredibly strong grasp of the characters in the show, like I could write another entire essay on how well Gravity Falls manages to pull off "character as fate" and "character as plot driver".

Anyways, all of this really boils down to OH MY GOD LOOK HOW GOOD THE CHARACTER WRITING IS IN THIS SHOW IT FULLY FORESHADOWED FORD'S EXISTENCE EVEN WITHOUT ACTUAL PLOT SUPPORT and like. that's basically just my entire opinion on Gravity Falls anyways.)

#gravity falls #stan pines #ford pines #stan and ford #gravity falls meta #meta #why yes I AM writing meta for gravity falls #a show that is over ten years old and had one of the most active analytic fandoms ever #and I'm having a fucking amazing time doing it

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oneatlatime · 1 year

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The Winter Solstice part 2: Avatar Roku

This episode opens with a complete cul de sac of a conversation. I guess it was for character development? We already know Sokka and Katara are ride or die, but I like the idea of Appa getting to express opinions and be understood and listened to.

My thanks to this guy for moving the plot along.

Zuko is back to being an asshole. And he was so much more interesting last episode.

Zuko is only 16? I thought he was at least mid-twenties. He's in charge of a whole ship at 16. That's an alarming notion.

You know I haven't even met this firelord guy yet but something tells me that Iroh is right and Zuko is giving him too much credit. I'm kind of impressed by how much of a shadow the firelord character is casting over the show without even being introduced yet.

I don't get Katara's point here. It's too dangerous is exactly the reason they're there? It's a killer line but I don't think it makes sense? Also what is with their faces here? Sokka's poor teeth.

This asshole. I was hoping he was a single episode character. He's so good at being a villain that he undermines Zuko as the main villain. Although judging by the reaction of the guy on the left, Zhao's villainy is not typical of fire nation military. He's unusually evil. Also since when is Zuko a traitor? And why does Zhao wear a toga outside of his armour?

Going above the cloud ceiling actually made it worse. Did not see that coming. I have no knowledge of meteorology or whatever the relevant science is, but if they're high enough up to be above the cloud ceiling, shouldn't it be getting hard to breathe?

How. You know it's a good thing that airbenders were all monkly before they disappeared because I think they're all secretly one man armies.

Zhao is a butt, but he's a clever butt. Zuko probably would know more, although in this instance I don't know that he does? Unless that villager he kicked through the door told him. Actually that's probably why Zuko was so close on their tail. So yeah, Zhao is a clever butt.

I know the feeling buddy.

I know that feeling too.

Sokka very solidly being relegated to comic relief in this episode.

Surely if the temple was abandoned it wouldn't be so well swept? Or lit?

Airbenders once again being a one man army.

I was about to point out that there was no way they could know where they were going, but the show beat me to it. Points for self-deprecation.

Avatars can bend magma? Would that be earth bending? Or firebending because of the heat? Or waterbending because it's liquid? Actually, can water bending bend all liquids, or only water based ones? Could waterbenders bend oil? Can anyone?

I know as little about vulcanology as I know about meteorology, but wouldn't it be kind of hot walking there?

This sage's speech here is really well done. Worldbuilding, plus one hundred years of historical context, plus real world consequences to both the Avatar's disappearance and the firelords who took advantage of it. Of course the avatar never appearing would have consequences. Things have gotten warped. Also interesting that the sage uses the word 'hope.' What were they hoping for the next Avatar to do? Were the sages originally against a fire nation war? Were they hoping the avatar would appear and defeat the fire lord who started the war before it really got started? Has this 'Aang defeats the firelord' plan been in place for 100 years?

Sokka not being relegated to comic relief after all! I'd love to know the context of Sokka's dad inventing fake firebending and then feeling the need to pass it on to his son too. A party trick? Actually that would be pretty tasteless (or pretty gallows humour) given that they're southern water tribe.

How is this bridge still standing. Also pretty.

Sokka and Katara proving that they share a brain. Both a good plan, and a good save. Seeing them bounce off each other is always fun.

Momo has the most adorable sneeze!

"What took you so long?" Never has a rebuke been delivered in a more friendly way.

What is with the stairs in this temple? First Zuko can sneak up unheard, then Zhao and a whole crew/platoon/brigade/whatever shows up without anyone noticing? Is this temple carpeted?

So Aang has a maximum of about seven months to learn three other elements to a high enough standard to be able to defeat the firelord and whatever armies he brings with him. No pressure.

BADASS!!!!! You guys are screwed!!!!!!

Lava bending! Magma bending? Badass bending!

Momo saves the day! Did not see that coming!

This whole sequence is so good.

Zhao does not see nuance. Kind of satisfying to see that all the Fire sages are royally screwed. That's frankly quite realistic. Remember in school when one kid misbehaved so the whole class had to miss recess? Same energy from Zhao. Makes sense too: dictatorial empires are not interested in mercy or fairness.

I love the lighting on Zuko's boat. Very yummy textures.

And just like the southern air temple, this one also makes the correct decision and ends on silence.

Credits tell me that one of the voices this episode was done by someone with the abominably badass name of Clement von Frankenstein.

Can you believe these two shots are from the same episode? So pretty.

Final thoughts

I honestly forgot that this was part two of a two part episode. It was pretty much 1000% standalone.

This episode is also good. I think I preferred part 1, because the fire nation in general does get on my nerves a little. Part 1 had Zuko and Iroh being alternatively stupid and badass, which was fun to see. But I'm finding increasingly that Zuko and Iroh are not at all representative of the fire nation in general, and the fire nation in general annoys me. This episode is still really good, and it set up a whole lot for the rest of the season, but it also had Zhao the butt, so points off for that.

Sokka fell hundreds, if not thousands, of feet and is totally fine with it to the point where it never gets brought up again. As Sokka, or as Sokka's sister, I would have had to lie down for a bit after that.

Seeing Aang and company with the addition of the fire sage work as a team is fun, and I like how much understated yet important work Appa and Momo had to do this episode. Appa got them there safely through a hail of flaming whatever-those-were, Momo played Aang's shadow behind the firebending door and retrieved Appa when the temple was sinking, and Appa got them out of there again. They would be so lost without Appa.

There really wasn't much Katara this episode. There wasn't much Sokka either.

How are Aang and friends going to get out past the fire nation blockade again? How is Zuko?

The fact that Zuko is only 16 is something I'm going to have to turn over in my head for a bit. Learning that rattled me. I would say at first that he doesn't feel 16, but looking back at previous episodes with the knowledge of his age, I'm going to have to reevaluate all those times I called him an ass. Maybe he was just being 16. It feels crazy to put a 16 year old on a globetrotting manhunt and in charge of a ship, but this is a world where the Kyoshi warrior ladies are led by a girl Sokka's age, and a pair of teenagers are escorting a child avatar across the world with no adult supervision. Some of this is cartoon logic - it's a kids' show, so the heroes will be viewers' ages or close on, but also, every time I catch myself wondering where the responsible adults are, I have to remind myself that the war ate them up. I thought before this episode (when I thought Zuko was older) that it was a reflection of the state of the war that the fire nation had adults fighting while the other nations were reduced to relying on children/teenagers, but finding out Zuko is a teenager too puts a whole different spin on that. Seems this war has been universally destructive.

Zhao was determined to arrest Zuko (again, why is Zuko a traitor suddenly? Is it because he won the duel thing?) but the (bad) fire sages didn't try to stop Zuko; in fact they worked under his command. So I'm guessing Zhao's opinion of Zuko isn't the fire nation's opinion of him? Actually, is there any indication that the fire sages knew who Zuko was when he showed up?

This episode had good fights, lots of pretty heavy plot stuff and exposition stuff, both for what's coming and for the past and present state of their world. Not much in the way of humour, which makes sense given the subject matter. This episode could have devolved into an infodump, but it didn't.

I'm happy to see how consistently this show is sticking to the idea of consequences that can't be handwaved. Avatar disappears leads to fire sages losing hope. Fire nation going to war leads to previously non-partisan group getting twisted into serving the nation, to the point where they become the enemy of their previous purpose, which can be done to them partially because they have lost hope. Related: that one fire sage did not have to go against his fellow sages and his order's bastardised purpose. He could have taken the easy path, especially since the fire sages' purpose was changed long before he was born, probably. That's some impressive strength of character, to be loyal to an idea that basically died out before you were born. Given Zhao's general nature, all of the fire sages would have been arrested at the end of the episode regardless of what happened because Zhao had to have someone to blame, but that one sage couldn't know that. He's had weeks to come to a clear-eyed decision to betray the corrupt principles of his whole order/career/role. And he does! Good for him.

Now we have our ticking clock for the rest of the season. I loved what Roku said about how Aang will be able to learn the other bending styles because he's done it before. It establishes this permeability and connection between Aang and Roku, and maybe other avatars too. It kind of drives home that Aang isn't just a fun kid (although he absolutely is and I hope he never loses that), he's also something greater, bigger, older. He's like a cosmic entity, or a semi-divine being. And thank goodness he is such a goof, because a cosmic entity or a semi-divine being with unmatched and unmatchable skills and power that was also wrathful, or prideful, or any other negative quality, instead of a goofy happy peaceful kid would be apocalyptic.

That being said, this connection to Roku also goes kind of dark: how much of Aang is Aang? How much is an avatar an individual, as opposed to the sum of avatars that came before them? Can you separate the incarnation from the avatar? Will Aang ever get to belong to himself?

The fire sages are mostly quite old, and the last avatar was during their grandfathers' time. Is there anyone alive who remembers what it was like to live in a world where there is an avatar active? Bumi is very old, but he's Aang's age, so assuming becoming the avatar is something that happens when you're born or soon after, Bumi probably won't remember the last avatar. There was the old man from last episode that recognised Aang's airbender tattoos or clothes. Maybe he remembers the previous avatar? How closely do the last avatar dying and the air nomads getting wiped out coincide?

For that matter, even if Aang saves the world and gets reinstalled globally as the Avatar, does anyone know how to operate in a world where he's present? How do you address an avatar? Are you supposed to invite him to political events? Is he supposed to have a say in nations' internal conflicts? What is the avatar office and responsibilities in the human world? Is there even space for, or a need for, an avatar anymore, beyond the obvious 'defeat the fire nation' angle? What if, over the last century, people have taken over covering what were originally avatar responsibilities? Do those get given back to Aang? Are there any jobs that can only be performed by the avatar that have been left hanging for 100 years? How much clean up is Aang going to have to do? How many spirits like the black and white spirit from part 1 have been rampaging unpacified for a century? Are there whole swaths of the world made uninhabitable by unhappy spirits?

All the above questions could apply to a world that hasn't seen an airbender in a century too.

Also imagine how much it would have sucked being alive during the time when Aang originally should have appeared as the Avatar. Every new fire nation atrocity would have you thinking "surely this is the last straw that provokes the avatar into coming out into the open" and then, year after year, fire nation atrocity after fire nation atrocity, no one ever comes. I'd be so bitter.

The fire sage bringing up how long Aang has been gone made me think of something else: are Aang and Bumi the only people still living who know what it's like to live in peacetime? Everyone born in the last 100 years has been born into war. Forget about remembering how to live in a world with an avatar, or any airbenders, does anyone remember how to live in a world at peace?

Which makes it so fitting that it's Aang - one of two people who remember peace - that is being set up to defeat the firelord and if he does (rather, when he does - it's a kid's cartoon, the good guys are going to win somehow), it's going to be Aang, in his role as Avatar, who will be ideally placed to guide the world into transitioning to being at peace. I feel like it would be a different story if an avatar forged in war was being tasked with ending the war - for one, probably a much bloodier story. There's something quite poetic about one of the last people who remembers peace being the one destined to re-introduce/grant/give it to the rest of the world.

Looking back on what I wrote, I think I said more about random tangents that this episode made me think of than I said about the episode itself. Obviously it got me thinking. I guess that means it was good?

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar roku #avatar the last airbender

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piracytheorist · 11 months

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Ranking SxF episodes least favourite to most favourite

No, I have nothing better to do. Temperature reached 42 degrees today (Celsius. That's 107 if you're American) and it was like that most of the day so going out was out of the question. We were also let off work today so I had a little too much free time so what was left was being inspired by a random video for another show and going at it for SxF!

This is all my personal judgment heavily based on stuff I liked. You most certainly will disagree with me and that's fine! Just don't argue with me because that's just personal opinions, I'm not trying to change anyone's minds or prove anything!

I didn't want to say "worst" in the ranking because even the episode I consider the weakest, you'll find out soon which one I'm talking about, is still a great episode that I've enjoyed watching in my rewatches. Just not as much as the other episodes.

There's a high chance I will change my mind after a while on this. I made the rankings quite quickly and more on instinct than anything else. But hey this is my blog I post what I want.

I chose to rank each episode by five criteria, the things I love the most about the show: 1) Humor (intentional or not), 2) Character (defining or cool moments and such) 3) Cute (mostly Anya and Bond adding to that XD) 4) Plot (how much development there is and how well the action is delivered) 5) Feels (of any kind).

So under the cut the rankings go!

#25, Least Best: 10. The Great Dodgeball Plan

Humor: 7/10 Character: 5/10 Cute: 5/10 Plot: 4/10 Feels: 4/10

Yeah, I don't have much to say about this one. As far as fillers go, it's pretty good stuff, and the anime team did a good job adding new scenes to expand it so that they could fill an entire episode about it, instead of shoehorning this chapter into another episode that wouldn't be relevant. Again, it's a good episode, but one I had no problem skipping in my, like, fifth rewatch of the entire show XD

#24: 22. The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon

Humor: 6/10 Character: 6/10 Cute: 4/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 5/10

I'm not into sport-y action in fictional media, and this episode has a little too much Nightfall and almost completely no Forger family moments so it was doomed for me to be at the bottom. Don't misunderstand me, the action was good and Nightfall's ridiculousness was enjoyable. But not something I'd rewatch a ton of times. I also like that we got a little bit of political mention in this one, so plot points were added.

#23: 17. Carry Out the Griffin Plan/ Fullmetal Lady / Omelet Rice

Humor: 7/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 5/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 3/10

I think I've made my stance on the moments of Damian bullying Anya clear, and no episode of the show has made me as uncomfortable as this one has. It's still got nice moments between Anya and Becky and I love the small glimpse into Sylvia's life and the ending with Yor and smol Yuri, but my biases don't allow this episode to go any higher.

#22: 20. Investigate the General Hospital / Decipher the Perplexing Code

Humor: 7/10 Character: 5/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 5/10 Feels: 7/10

I'll be honest, I feel kinda sad this is so low because Anya is so adorable and such a GremlinTM in this one, but there's only so much her little back can carry. Extra feels though for Twilight worrying over Anya's stress. Again, a very well-standing episode as far as fillers go, but not one to keep me at the edge of my seat.

#21: 19. A Revenge Plot Against Desmond / Mama Becomes the Wind

Humor: 7/10 Character: 6/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 6/10

I have to be honest. I don't really like George. He annoyed me more than anything else. Most of my enjoyment of this episode comes from the second part. Yor's part was funny and cute and even sweet, especially at the end, but as far as this ranking goes, the George plot dragged it down. Interesting addition, however, that xenophobia has run so deep in this country that George fears he'll be sold off as a slave in Westalis, so plot point up.

#20: 7. The Target's Second Son

Humor: 7/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 8/10

The two different part of this episode, once again, make the ranking a little skewed. I actually love the second part, especially the discussion between Loid and Yor. Loid picking up Anya and whispering in the sweetest voice ever about recording Spy Wars for her makes me fucking melt. Unfortunately, it's tied to an episode with bullying and no retribution, so it's dragged down a little.

#19: 18. Uncle the Private Tutor / Daybreak

Humor: 9/10 Character: 6/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 6/10

Yuri was fun. Daybreak was ridiculous (affectionate). Anya was cute. Twilight in action was interesting. I want to remind you that I absolutely adore this show, so this episode being number 19 on the list doesn't mean it's bad. It means it's very good but not epic like the ones on the top of the list.

#18: 23. The Unwavering Path

Humor: 8/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 7/10

I laughed so hard at Yor decimating the tennis ball with the racket, that alone earns a high humor point. I loved the moment of Twilight supporting Carroll Campbell after he beat him at tennis, so character points added for that. Plot was interesting, at first I was annoyed that the tennis match was for nothing but then I found it interesting that it kind of paralleled Nightfall's obsession with Twilight. Feels points added for the end where Twilight goes and buys his girls' favourite snacks :D

#17: 25. First Contact

Humor: 5/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 5/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 8/10

This one is only so low due to the limited points in humor and cute section. This was, after all, a serious episode, but you'll see down the line that there are other serious episodes that got more points in humor and cuteness. It still got 9/10 for character thanks to a great introduction on Donovan and 8/10 for plot and don't get me wrong, it's still a great episode that I like rewatching. It gets extra feels points because of Becky being best friend material and because of the "Is that why you're using force to bring other nations to their knees" moment. Hey, I never said the "feels" part didn't include angst :)

#16: 6. The Friendship Scheme

Humor: 7/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 6/10

Unsurprisingly, the first part is more favourable to me. Yor saving Anya and Anya supporting her and loving her is adorable. We get a bit of spy stuff, we're introduced to the Handler and we love it, and Anya's punch was absolutely delicious.

#15: 8. The Counter-Secret Police Cover Operation

Humor: 9/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 6/10

I'll mourn the day where I'll watch the ending of this episode and not laugh hysterically. It's so dramatic, especially with the music added to it, I've laughed every single time like the first time I watched it. Again, Yuri is both satisfyingly funny and with good character motivations, with a great setting of his extremism and not a condemnation of him for it. A bit of cute points added for the Yor and Yuri flashbacks.

#14: 4. The Prestigious School's Interview

Humor: 8/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 9/10

I'll always love the ridiculousness of the Forgers bringing three sets of clothing for the interview. Character points very up especially for Loid defending Yor and almost going ballistic on Swan. Feels especially for the ending family scene, and this whumper also appreciates how the anime added the bandage around Loid's hand :)

#13: 13. Project Apple

Humor: 7/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 7/10

Again, I feel it's unfair that such a good episode ranks almost in the middle but that's just because the competition is very high lol. A good balance of Anya being an Ulcer-Inducing GremlinTM, Bond being the bestest boi, Anya and Bond being the cutest duo as well as all the other pets at the adoption fair, great introduction to the Doggy Crisis Arc, and Bond and Anya bonding!

#12: 3. Prepare for the Interview

Humor: 8/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 9/10

After the first two episodes were packed with plot, the third episode comes with great balance of character and dynamic moments. Especially having read the original manga chapter, I feel the director and animators did a great job adding more stuff to expand this episode. The flow was so natural I felt shocked to know almost half of the episode was anime original. With all three Forgers coming together at the end to catch the thief, and with Twilight having a realization at the end of how Yor inspired him, I love what this episode makes me feel.

#11: 15. A New Family Member

Humor: 8/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 10/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 9/10

An excellent conclusion to the Doggy Crisis arc and welcoming of Bond in the family. That moment in the above screenshot alone is enough to make the cuteness skyrocket. Plot doesn't need to be high as it's the conclusion of the arc, but feels and humor more than make up for it. The only thing I would say about it is that it's hard for me to watch it on its own, it kinda needs to follow the impact of the previous two episodes. Which says a lot about how good the build-up and conclusion of that story was, by the way!

#10: 9. Show Off How In Love You Are

Humor: 9/10 Character: 8/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 9/10

A lot of humor for Yuri's overdramatic reaction at the first part! Also for Anya's reactions the next morning XD This episode is very defining for Twilight's perception of Yor. He opens up to her about feeling jealous of her relationship with her brother, and the next day, from the first moment he feels hesitant and guilty over doubting her. Yor unintentionally but honestly proves how much she already cares for him and respects him and it's the beginning of her realizing how much she values being a part of the Forgers. Overall, satisfying and fulfilling despite the secrets those two keep from each other.

#9: 5. Will They Pass Or Fail?

Humor: 10/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 8/10

This episode sold me with how unapologetically it gave no single fuck. It was ridiculous and they loved making it so and it shows. Such kind of humor is art. A relaxing episode (for us, certainly not for Loid) after the heavy packed introductory episodes and the stressful interview one, we get to sit back and enjoy Twilight becoming the butt of the joke and get his butt kicked, while Anya, Yor, and even Franky have the time of their lives. Princess Anya is adorable, especially with her badly-acted "Oh, no, save meee" and the ending scene of Loid and Anya warms my heart!

#8: 12. Penguin Park

Humor: 8/10 Character: 7/10 Cute: 10/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 9/10

PENGUINS! Enough said! I had so much love for penguins as a kid that if I was gifted a huge penguin plush I would be hysterical. Among the best fillers, it still has a solid plot and good character moments, and I absolutely adore how Anya tries to help Loid in his mission in such a way that the only reason he doesn't get suspicious is because she's too little for him to imagine ever being involved in something like this. Which adds both to the humor and the feels. Extra feels because again, this whumper appreciates an exhausted Loid :D

#7: 11. Stella

Humor: 7/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 7/10 Feels: 9/10

Anya showcasing massive amounts of bravery and kindness, and finally being recognized for it. Twilight feeling genuine pride for her. A legit intense moment of a kid almost drowning. A grand rescue! It's SO GOOD YOU GUYS!

#6 21. Nightfall / First Fit of Jealousy

Humor: 8/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 10/10

My biases all out in the open. A subtle hint that Twilight is genuinely happy as a part of the Forgers and I become a puddle of feels. At the same time, while it's clear we should root for Yor and distrust Fiona and her methods, it's great character building for her and spot-on dynamics between the rest of the characters. Anya rubbing her face all over Yor and Bond to basically tell Fiona "begone you foul witch we are happy as we are" is perfect. Loid supporting Yor (with a heavy hint that it actually means a lot to him that Anya is happy with Yor as her mother) and then showing a hint of genuine emotion that's so strong he doesn't even realize is seeping through his smile and I AM DONE. It's the beginning of my end.

#5: 14. Disarm the Time Bomb

Humor: 6/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 6/10 Plot: 9/10 Feels: 10/10

I cannot express how much I love the "You know nothing about war" scene. It's so raw and so human and so disturbing (in a great storytelling way) that this moment alone makes me trust fully in the way Endo will handle the story in regards to war and politics later on. It's more of a character moment, mostly for Sylvia but in a subtler way about Twilight too, so it deserves a solid 10 in that regard. Plot is still heavy and action-packed, some humor and cuteness manages to sneak in, and then there's the moment of Bond having the vision of Loid dying which I kid you not, when I first watched the episode I felt like someone punched me in the gut. That alone skyrockets feels up to 10, but then there's also Anya apologizing to Yor for running off on her own and Yor hugging her tight while being realistic about the situation. Deserved spot in the top five.

#4: 16. Yor's Kitchen / The Informant's Great Romance Plan

Humor: 7/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 10/10

Look. I tried to be as honest as possible in my rankings, and I ranked each episode separately before seeing where they ended up on the list. The fact that with absolute honesty, this episode ranks so high says a lot about how, though combining two wholly different plots, it does so many things I love about this show so good. Yor feeling accepted and genuinely happy over seeing Loid and Anya enjoy the food she made for them means so fucking much for me. That's her revelation of love for this family, and she's still got way to go before she even falls for Loid romantically. It's still a filler but it's so good for character and long overdue focus on Yor. Franky's part has sufficient humor and character on its own, and with Twilight deciding to console him at the end it's all tied up with a neat little bow.

#3: 24 The Role of a Mother and Wife / Shopping with Friends

Humor: 9/10 Character: 9/10 Cute: 9/10 Plot: 6/10 Feels: 10/10

I unapologetically barely acknowledge the second part of this episode because the first part hits SO HARD that the second feels like a commercial break in comparison (apologies to any who loved it. I actually find it a great part on its own, but when put next to the first part, it pales in comparison for me).

This episode ended me. I don't know if I'm biased on my rating because I recorded my reaction to watching it, and I saw myself laughing so hard and so often, as well as saw my own near-crying face in both scenes where baby Twilight was shown, that I can't help giving such high numbers on the humor and feels part. Though okay this episode wants you to feel stuff, so maybe it's just the humor part that may be a little biased. I wouldn't actually consider it the funniest episode of the season. Anyway, I don't think there's actually a lot to say regarding why I rated with the numbers I rated. It's a great episode that has a lot to say about Twilight, Yor, and their relationship and connection, and it's made with so much love by everyone, from Endo himself, to the cast and crew. I love it and I will continue to love it.

#2: 2. Secure a Wife

Humor: 10/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 7/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 9/10

Yor's introduction is, for real, one of the best and most satisfying character introductions I've ever had the pleasure to lay eyes upon. She is flawlessly presented in her full glory, with her (natural) weaknesses revealed. From her first episode you learn everything you need to know about her, and she is seamlessly inserted into the plot and the lives of the established characters so past that, you get to enjoy her being an irreplaceable part of the story. Her motivations are clear, her character agency is well established, and it's all done succinctly and efficiently within 20 minutes of screentime. It's fabulous. At the same time, the episode delivers great humor, a bit of expansion of plot and world building, as well as feels for how Twilight and Yor start connecting without even realizing it, and the hands-down best proposal scene I've seen in fictional media in my entire life.

It's for a fake marriage and still nothing compares to it. Your otp could never.

#1: 1. Operation Strix

Humor: 9/10 Character: 10/10 Cute: 8/10 Plot: 8/10 Feels: 10/10

A quite honestly perfect introductory episode. In a little more than twenty minutes of screentime, it establishes all of the following:

Twilight and Anya's characters and motivations, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

The basis of the relationship between Twilight and Anya.

The plot of pretty much the entire story.

A succinct presentation of the political situation without long exposition scenes.

The mood and setting; a careful balance of found family humor and realistic anti-war stance.

At the same time, it manages a tight and self-sufficient episode plot that fits the characters' backgrounds and MOs, it delivers meaningful flashbacks, and all that while being honest about what it's trying to be, without fanfare and badassery trying to cover up leaks like flex tape. Every scene, every shot, every second has a reason and meaning. Paired with episode 2, it's genuinely a near flawless introduction to everything Spy x Family is about. It gives you all you need and prepares you for the awesomeness that follows!

#Spy x Family

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year

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Do you think people in twst can tell apart Leech brothers only by their hair and this eye shape thing for players executively?

I’m pretty certain that the twins’ eyes are like that in-universe, not just “for the benefit of the player”. It’s one of their distinguishing physical traits. The twins are always depicted like that across all forms of TWST media, even if it’s not an interactive medium (as in, the “player” themselves is not present) like the game (ie in trailers, in the manga, etc).

For as much as other characters comment that Jade and Floyd “have the same face”, that comment feels more like the initial reaction others have upon seeing them for the first time rather than “they look exactly alike to me” after actually knowing them for a while. When Yuu and co. see the twins for the first time in episode 1, Grim remarks about their faces being the same (and it carries over to episode 3 when the twins play significantly bigger roles). In Endless Halloween Night, Riddle also mentions that when he didn’t know Jade that well, it was difficult for him to tell Floyd and Jade apart. I would liken this to when you see someone at a first glance, you’ll notice the big picture before you begin to take in the details (think of a camera zooming in) rather than focusing on one detail before pulling out to reveal the big picture.

The direction of the hair stripe is but one visual indicator of the differences between the twins. Floyd’s stripe curls in from his right, and Jade’s curls in from his left (which forms a “J”, something he tells Riddle as a hint to remember him). Their earrings are also on the same side as their black hair stripes.

There have been a number of other references to the differences in how the twins physically present themselves, such as when Floyd complains about Jade having to do his bowtie for him, but Floyd eventually always undoing it anyway. This pertains to Floyd’s more lax and sloppy way of dressing, whereas Jade is neat and dresses more conservative. Floyd has also demonstrated more of an interest in fashion, as he’s always browsing footwear and expresses that he wants to dress in a style that is unique to himself (since merpeople don’t usually wear clothes).

In terms of the eyes, Jade’s unique magic incantation (shown in episode 4) specifically has him mentioning to “look into [his] left eye”--the golden one. Floyd’s golden eye is the one on his right, though his unique magic does not involve eye contact at all.

I don’t believe there are many lines which reference their eye shape other than in vague terms, like saying that Jade “looks calm” or something. The closest thing we get to a remark on eye shape is when Eliza (in Ghost Marriage) described Floyd as “[having] kind eyes” while describing Jade as “[having] a pleasant smile”. It could be that Eliza is talking about the feeling behind those eyes rather than the shape, but I’m inclined to believe she’s talking about the shape because 1) the slanted downward eyes Floyd has are known as a cute or a moe trait in Japanese media and 2) I don’t think Eliza would judge that Floyd’s character is kind just because of how he looks; she has used mainly physical descriptors when talking about the other boys (ie Leona is “wild” and has “.

Since Eliza used different traits for each of the twins, it implies that she notices different standout traits about them, so it’s also likely that Jade and Floyd’s eye shapes are notable or distinctive in some way in-universe. It’s just not something that’s often remarked on because (I assume) it’s not really relevant or as noticeable unless you’re intently or regularly staring at them (and given their scary reputation, why would you??). Like... I assume that we also don’t regularly comment on other people’s eye shapes irl, so why would the characters comment on it in-universe unless it was specifically for something fashion or maybe vision related???? There’s no reason for it to really come up.

#Jade Leech #Floyd Leech #Tweels #notes from the writing raven #question #Eliza #spoilers #Grim #Riddle Rosehearts

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fernsandsunflowers · 10 months

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You guys want to hear my heavily Adhd fuelled bat shit crazy theory on what might have happened to God or how we might start to find them? Because it's a whole ass journey and I'm in the car now so might as well just see where the road takes me you know.

just bear with me OK.

A close friend of mine finally finished season 2 and we were theorizing. And while talking about all the very many things that were left open ended, she brings up Gabriel's prophecy. And I realize that shit Neil Gaiman you sly fox you had me actually forget that there was an entire prophecy!

So I start thinking of all the ways that someone could have actually made me, a person that loves spending an inexcusable amount of time dissecting anything that is even remotely prophetic, forget that it even happened. And I think, it was may be because the first and last (third) moments of real memory that Gabriel had are addressed and seemingly resolved soon after. So the second one, the middle child if you will, is kinda forgotten. So, after google searches trying to see if there are any theories out there about Gabriel's prophecy (because I haven't come across any on tumblr?? if there are theories out there please send them my way!) I decide to take matters into my own hands and go back into the episode. Then I noticed something and then something else and now I've rewatched all three moments several times and I was writing a post here comparing them when monkey brain started to make wilder connections and now here we are and I just need to get it out.

First Memory:

Gabriel 'quotes' God. Soon after Gabriel says those words Crowley says hey wasn't that what God said to Job and then we jump into the Job memory where we hear God say those words, albeit slightly different. God poses the sentence as a question, while Gabriel says it in the first person.

Things to note about this memory :

Gabriel's Purple eyes return.

You hear God's voice overlay-ed over Gabriel's

Not do you remember the morning stars..?, I remember the....

Gabriel is in a lot of pain, remembering hurts his brain.

He says "I can't remember those things, my head isn't big enough, not anymore".

The memory comes after he is pushed by Crowley to remember. This little point is not entirely relevant more just me continuing to die on the Crowley is Lucifer hill: I think it's significant that it was this particular line that was quoted and it was triggered right after Crowley asked "what is the very first thing you remember" and not when Aziraphale asked Gabriel the exact same question. and the line happened to have the phrase 'morning stars'.

Second "Memory":

Not a memory but a prophecy with a little drop of memory at the end.

"There will come a tempest. and darkness and great storms. and the dead will leave their graves and walk the earth once more. And there will be great lamentations. Everyday it's getting closer."

I don't know a lot of biblical lore but some of the word choices used are very significant and directly refers to moments of judgement and reckoning and the second coming. Tempest and great storms is maybe referencing Noah; the dead will leave their graves - the second coming? and then great lamentations - from the book of lamentations, ie destruction of Jerusalem - also a judgement day type situation right? Dissecting this prophecy was the entire reason I started on this but I've gone off-track now. If anyone does have more detailed theories on this though I am so interested!

[very sneaky to end the prophecy with everyday it's getting closer - a drop of something Gabriel - because that could be referencing just the second coming getting closer AND also be a little something that will help us slightly dismiss it. Because it puts the audience back in the mindset of the song and hey the song get's addressed right - what was the other stuff Gabriel was saying, eh it's probably not important]

Things to note about this moment:

Purple eyes

God's voice overlay

This is the only time Gabriel goes into this zone pre getting his memories back where he is not pushed into remembering. Crowley simply says the word 'tempest' and it triggers purple eyed god voiced Gabriel.

Gabriel is not in pain. He does not say it hurts to remember.

He also doesn't seem to know what happened : When he comes out of it, he seems to switch back into his body almost but not quite. He shakes his head a little and looks somewhat confused both by his surroundings and by Crowley standing in front of and staring. And in that same state of confusion he asks "who am I? What's happened to me?". And in theme of this season immediately after he says that, something flashy and distracting happens, this time in the form of Shax knocking on the window. And very suspiciously, in my opinion, the camera never shifts back to Gabriel again. We go from Shax at window to Crowley's reaction to Shax and then camera stays on Crowley and follows him out the door. We only see Gabriel again once Crowley returns to the bookshop. And Gabriel is back to testing Gravity.

Third Memory

This one is less 'violent'? in terms of Gabriel remembering. And everything Gabriel says is addressed in the next episode. He says his memory is in a matchbox, no he took it out and put it in a box and now it's... everywhere. He remembers the institutional problem bit. All these things come back and happen as he says and so again, the middle child is neglected.

But let's look at some things to note:

No purple eyes this time or God voice overlay

Continued references to it being painful to remember

He is like an empty house, something that once contained something

He is, essentially in this case, asked the right question by Crowley, a question direct enough that he can give a straight answer.

But the only thing that doesn't quite make sense is that when Crowley asks where are your memories now? Gabriel says 'Everywhere'. Which strikes me as a really odd thing to say about a fly. Even if it is the only thing that's not bound by gravity.

So what is my extremely taken liberties and am I high??? theory you ask?

It was not Gabriel that responded to Crowley - It was God or some part of them that is somehow contained within Gabriel (without his knowledge).

I did warn you this was insane.

It was not Do you remember the morning stars, but I remember the morning stars. And you hear their voice saying it. It strikes me as extremely odd that Gabriel would describe a memory that is supposedly his, that is supposedly his first memory using God's words. He even refers back to it during the conversation he has with Crowley in the third memory (where he remembers putting his memories in a matchbox). He says "like when I remembered how it all began" - but why would he have used that exact phrasing when he wasn't there to hear what God said to Job? Only Crowley and Aziraphale were there.

The prophecy moment was completely weird and Gabriel was not even Jim in that moment. By this point Gabriel was very decidedly inhabiting the roll of Jim - book shop assistant who is sometimes called Gabriel. And by this point he is also somewhat aware or had accepted that he was once this person called Gabriel. So why does he look so lost in that moment - like he wasn't Jim or Gabriel? Who am I? What has happened to me? Could it be someone else also inhabiting the body of Jim, sometimes called Gabriel???

He says an "empty house", a house can contain things, many things. We know that living things can be containers. If a fly can contain something as expansive and large as the memory of a supreme archangel and still be a fly; why wouldn't a supreme archangel be able to also hold the memory of God? or at least some of the memories of God? "my head isn't big enough, not anymore". That is such an odd thing to say. Because it didn't make sense I kept rationalizing it for some reason as Gabriel being human now so his head isn't big enough to contain or recall the memories of an angel. But that's ridiculous and completely wrong, obviously. He's still an angel, he just doesn't have his memory. So if his head (his house) is now empty, they how could it be too small to remember things?

Unless there was something else taking up space?

Where is your memory now? Everywhere. I know this this scene had no God voice, but 'my head is too big', and 'who am I, what's happened to me' all are said by Jim!Gabriel. Normal eyed. Everywhere is just again a thing that doesn't quite make sense in context. But what if that was again not in reference to the fly, but rather in reference to God. That their memory was... everywhere? Scattered for some reason or the other throughout the earth, in different beings, in angels or humans or flies even.

If God or a portion of God's memory is in Gabriel then Gabriel not being present in his own head would allow another's memory space to, I don't know... answer questions?

It's honestly probably doesn't make any sense but hey what a concept right lol if you made it all the way here thank you!

Also just a random little note, I thought it was just interesting that it was Crowley that was involved with any real leads on Gabriel's memory. Not just finding the files and figuring out he wrote a note on the box - but every time Gabriel had any real burts of memory or gave any real answers it was when Crowley asked and not when Aziraphale asked. I don't know if it was just pure coincidence but I just thought it was something of note!

k byyyyyeeeeeee

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens spoilers

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veliseraptor · 1 year

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February Reading Recap

Getting to this one real late but it's fine because I only read three books in February anyway.

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie. I'm a sucker for books that are doing something interesting with format, and this one caught me with the "ghost hunting TV show episode" format and then surprised me a little by being both better and scarier than I expected. I don't think I'd say that it's among the best horror I've read, but it was a good time, and spooky, and left enough of the "what's going on" vague and undefined for me to appreciate it.

There's at least one interesting thing that the author did with the format that I completely missed, though (having to do with time stamps, so that's on me for never paying a lot of attention to time stamps). Makes me wonder a little what else I might've missed. This author wrote another horror novel I've seen floating around (The Children of Red Peak), and I enjoyed this one enough that I'll probably give it a read.

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 2 by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat. I'm still in very familiar territory with this one so far based on what I remember from the first time I read it, but it is (as with most cnovels) definitely rewarding reread with the benefit of hindsight. I am very much enjoying it, still, and finishing this volume kicked me into trawling AO3 for fanfiction, so I feel like that speaks well of the experience.

The drawback (one of the drawbacks) to this novel being so damn long is that we're not really in a part of it that I have particularly strong feelings about, and because of the novel's length it's also going to be a minute before we get to the parts that I do remember having strong feelings about. me @ Ye Wangxi though: 👀

The Glory of the Empire by Jean d'Ormesson. This book is both fascinating and very hard for me to figure out how to talk about. The conceit is quite possibly my favorite thing about it - this book is written as a narrative history of a completely fictional empire, in the style of (classically) Herodotus or Suetonius, but in more modern terms I think was meant to evoke Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which I haven't read. I wonder what would be different (or not) about my experience reading this book if I had that background, since I do feel like this is a text that is very much existing in deliberate conversation with those it is playing off.

I imagine I do not have to explain to the Goncharov website why this is a fascinating exercise. It's a history! Of an entirely made up empire! Including citations of articles and books and asides about different interpretations/the relevance of new "discoveries" to the author's argument. It's conceptually fascinating. It also reads as (not to put too fine a point on it) orientalist and bordering on racist in the way it talks about real cultures external to the one being imagined. It is possible that is on purpose as part of the author's project, since it does very much feel in keeping with the texture of the genre d'Ormesson is pastiching here, but also it is possible that it's just an artifact of this being a book written in French in the 1970s, and it's hard for me to say how much it is one or the other. Certainly for some people it might not matter at all; for me it would make a substantial difference.

Anyway, fascinating book, still not sure what to make of it, kind of want to shove it at other people I know and go "here read this and talk to me about it."

Presently I am reading Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikvosky which I am (unsurprisingly) really enjoying (I can probably call him one of my favorite authors at this point); I have a whole bunch of scattered things I'm looking at reading next and no clear idea where I'm going to land, though I do think I might try to get into finishing my Wheel of Time reread soon.

#reading recaps #sometimes i read things

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thatseventiesbitch · 2 years

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The Danny Masterson Trial and That ‘70s Show: An Overview

Below the cut, you’ll find information about Danny Masterson’s recent court case and how it relates to That ‘70s Show. Please be advised that much of the material is sensitive, and involves references to sexual assault.

I have been following a reporter on twitter for the last few months, Tony Ortega (@TonyOrtega94), who is doing a fantastic job of reporting on the Danny Masterson court proceedings. The trial is not public or streamed anywhere because of the sensitive nature of the crime, and to try to protect the victim’s identities. Various news outlets have released the women’s names, but Tony has always referred to them as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3 and I will as well out of respect for their privacy.

Tony has been in the courtroom every day from the very beginning, and he transcribes everything that goes on each day of the trial. I’ve followed along and read each day of testimony via Tony’s transcription, and there were some details that came up relating to That ‘70s Show. That’s, of course, where my main interest lies. This post attempts to summarize the mentions of That ‘70s Show and/or its cast that came out during testimony, for posterity and others who might be interested in the information.

First, just a smidge of background.

WHAT is he accused of? Danny Masterson is accused of forcibly raping three different women.

WHEN did the alleged assaults take place? The assaults took place in the early 2000′s. When Danny was working on T70S.

WHY is a 20-year-old SA case only now being brought to trial? Each of the three victims testified that they were members of the Church of Scientology at the time of their assault - Danny was also a member, and still is today. Each of the three victims testified that the Church of Scientology was the main reason they did not report the assault at the time, or why they didn’t process it as assault at the time. They reported the assault to members of the Church, and were dissuaded from going to the authorities because they feared being ex-communicated from their community for reporting a fellow Scientologist of a violent crime. Several of the women also testified to being told that what they experienced wasn’t rape or sexual assault by an authority figure in the Church. Each of the 3 women have left Scientology and no longer consider themselves Scientologists today. There were very strict limits on how much Scientology could be mentioned during the court case.

Onto the That ‘70s Show content from the testimony.

The first relevant tidbit came during Jane Doe 1′s testimony. JD1 states that a few days after her assault, Danny called her. He said he “fell off a raft and hit his butt on a rock on a trip with Ashton Kutcher, and he was sitting on a donut so now he knew what it felt like so we’re good now, right?”

The next incident is from Jane Doe 3′s testimony. She’s explaining that their relationship ended after she processed his assaults and some other concerning/abusive behavior in their relationship, but that she did have some contact with him after their break-up. One example was when, in the winter of 2002, she heard about a plane incident involving Masterson and other people on his show. She says she was concerned about him. DM said he wanted to see her, so JD3 says she went over to his house of her own accord.

Here is the word-for-word transcription from Tony: “He had called me and said he had almost died in a plane crash. They were with Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama filming some Girls Gone Wild thing and something went wrong and there was no oxygen in the cabin. I was very upset and I went over to see him and I noticed he had gotten a jacuzzi.”

Next. During Jane Doe 3′s cross-examination, she was asked if in 2001 she appeared in the show DM was on, and she says yes. [Now, like I said, the identity of these women has been made public by some publications and so I was able to find the episode she appeared in. It is S4xE4 “Hyde Gets The Girl.” Jane Doe 3 plays one of the women who is invited to the party by Hyde’s friends, as a potential girlfriend for Hyde.]

The final mention of That ‘70s Show and/or its cast that I remember from testimony is from Jane Doe 2. She describes her assault, and then says that afterwards she and Danny had some conversation. Here’s the relevant bit, from the transcription: “He just said, you're a very passionate person. And I was like, he also said I was neurotic. And both of those things are true. He said you're very passionate, and I said, so are you, look you work so hard and look at this beautiful home and these things. No, not like you, he said, you're a very passionate person I'm not like that. On the bed he also mentioned Mila Kunis.”

She was asked a follow-up question about that, but the defense raised an objection that the information was irrelevant and the judge agreed, so the objection was sustained.

How did the trial end?

Danny Masterson’s trial ended in a mistrial, declared by Judge Olmedo on November 30, 2022. The jury informed her that after deliberating for days, they were deadlocked on all three counts and did not think that more time or more information could help them reach a verdict. The splits were as follows:

Count 1 (Jane Doe 1): 2 for guilty, 10 for not guilty

Count 2 (Jane Doe 2): 4 for guilty, 8 for not guilty

Count 3 (Jane Doe 3): 5 for guilty, 7 for not guilty

A mistrial in this instance means that Danny is considered neither innocent, nor guilty. The jury could not decide.

A mistrial in this instance also means Danny can be tried again for the same crimes if the judge and the prosecutor think a different jury could reach a verdict - double jeopardy does not apply. Judge Olmedo has already set a tentative date for the retrial, which is March 27.

My commentary

First and foremost, sexual assault cases are very triggering for many people for many different reasons, and my heart goes out to anyone who feels that way. My heart goes out to anyone who wasn’t believed. My heart also goes out to the 4 Jane Does (an additional woman testified to being raped by Danny, but was not named as a plaintiff on the case) who bravely shared their stories with the court and the world, and are grappling with this non-verdict. If the case is brought again in March I will follow along once again, hoping for justice for these brave women.

Learning that one of the Jane Does was actually on

That ‘70s Show

is... I don’t know if I’ve fully processed how I feel about that yet, but it’s not good.

I think the mentions of the That ‘70s Show cast just confirm how close of friends they were with Danny - specifically Ashton and Wilmer. How close of friends they remain today is anyone’s guess. For what it’s worth, Ashton (and Debra Jo, Kurtwood, and Laura) currently follows Danny on twitter but Wilmer does not and neither does Mila (although she does not have twitter) or Topher. Mila and Ashton were still spending time with Danny in 2019, when photos of them together at a friend’s wedding were leaked (the allegations around this case became public in 2017). Who knows what any of that necessarily means today.

I have heard about the plane incident with Ashton, Wilmer, and Danny before. Something about, their cabin lost cabin pressure and Ashton actually performed CPR on Danny because he passed out and his oxygen mask was on wrong. Here’s a blurb about it from IMDb.

In terms of the outcome of the trial itself, I feel frustrated. I understand that real life is not like a TV show, and that real law is often confusing and sometimes kind of nuts. The jurors had to follow their jury instructions. They did the best they could. It’s still very frustrating.

Tony Ortega (@TonyOrtega94) did a wonderful job covering the trial every step of the way, and literally transcribing every word along the way. If the state decides to bring the case again in March, I know Tony will be covering it again just as thoroughly, and I will be following along too.

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #T70S #Danny Masterson #Danny Masterson trial #Scientology #Ashton Kutcher #Wilmer Valderrama #Mila Kunis #trigger warning #my essays

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shiningdesignersreflections · 6 months

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Chapter 3: Popular Channel

Narrated by Angel.

Angel: Hello, everyone! It's Episode 611 of the Drinking Guide with Boba, and today's topic is...

Narrator: In front of the milk tea shop, I modeled my new milk tea design, waving at the camera and smiling sweet smiles.

Narrator: Now the Boba has more than 10,000 fans!

Choose either "That fast?" or "How come?"

If "fast," ...

You: You hit 10,000 fans just like that, Angel?

Narrator: Not only that, my live stream gets over 100,000 people! I owe it all to Nikki.

If "how," ...

You: How did it grow so fast?

Narrator: Because I followed Nikki's suggestion, of course! Aren't I much different now?

Narrator: Ever since I wore my designs on the live stream, my fan counter started going through the roof.

Narrator: Every time I reviewed a milk tea live, I'd wear something appropriate for the product.

Narrator: And they always featured eye-catching elements relevant to milk tea. That is my unique Boba style.

Narrator: That set me apart from the countless other live streamers.

Narrator: Plus, I'm a true pro with mad skills. Then you throw in the distinctive fashion style and it's a given.

Narrator: See, the fans love me now!

Narrator: Several comments popped up on the screen...

Netizen A: I love the outfit! Want! Where can I get it?

Netizen B: I wish I had Boba's milk tea handbag! So cool!

Netizen C: Talented Boba! Not only a great job on milk tea shops, but tres-cool threads! And the ponytails complement the hat perfectly!

Narrator: I winked at the camera.

Angel: I designed all my outfits. They're not available anywhere.

Angel: However, interested parties can contact me for partnership, so we can get everyone the milk tea handbag they wanted!

Narrator: A wave of cheers flashed across the comment section.

Narrator: With a hyped audience, I turned the camera on Nikki and Momo.

Angel: Let me introduce to you two of my best friends, Nikki and Momo!

Momo: Hi all, this is Momo, the favorite of all you humans!

Narrator: At Momo's fervent request, I put up a crawler that read, "Special Guest from Moments: Master of Barbecue."

Narrator: While it baffled the audience, Momo remained undeterred.

Momo: Milk tea goes swimmingly with barbecue!

Angel: Come on, Momo and Nikki, let's get in line!

Momo: Oh god, there must be hundreds of people before us! This is too much... Not everyone can be a blogger.

Nikki: That's what makes Boba great!

Angel: You're gonna send me to cloud nine if you keep this up! But it won't seem long with us doing live stream.

Narrator: The fans loved to see us three banter, too. And people were coming up to me to say hi, so the wait wasn't boring at all.

Momo: So many viewers! Has my reputation as the Master of Barbecue far proceeded me?

Narrator: As Momo relished in his newfound "popularity," a fan ran up to me.

Fan A: I'm a fan, Boba! Can I be on camera?

Angel: Sure!

Narrator: I pulled the fan over to say hi to my viewers.

Angel: Feel free to approach me if you see me in a line!

Angel: I can tell you whatever you want to know about milk tea!

Narrator: With Nikki on my left, a fan on my right, my favorite shop before me, and me wearing the special Angel milk tea fashion...

Narrator: It was just perfect to combine everything I loved all at once. I felt fulfilled and energetic!

Narrator: Until...

Narrator: The man in front slowly pulled out a virtually endless list.

Narrator: The familiar cap, sandals...

Narrator: You again?!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

#angel #shining nikki #chapter 3 #sr designer #transcript #milk tea #boba tea #bubble tea #social media #popularity #marketing #popular channel #live stream

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thevulpinehero1 · 9 months

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Gwatch: Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Ep 2

Time for Episode 2. After a high-octane first episode, EP 2 has some minor administrative stuff to take care of in regards to laying out the situation the protagonists will be in. As before, be wary of spoilers.

Pictured: the Captain of the White Base asking a sensible question about war machines that would later be almost exclusively piloted by people too young to legally drink

Let's talk about Zakus. People love Zakus. They're cute little cyclops guys, and they get totally manhandled basically from start to finish whenever they appear which gives them underdog points, but it's worth noting that at this point the story goes out of its way to establish that even a Zaku, the punching bag mook suit of future Gundam lore, is a huge threat.

Char reports losing two Zakus, and his superior cannot believe his ears. These are the shaky beginnings of mobile suits, and the Earth Federation doesn't really have any horses in that race yet. They're still trying to fight off Zakus with tanks and planes, and the Zakus are as far above conventional military vehicles as the Gundam is above the Zakus.

Two Zakus murdered entire crowds of people. They're stated to have wiped out almost every single military officer and engineer that was supposed to staff the White Base. They're directly responsible for the ongoing crisis that the protagonists experience throughout the series; those two random guys Amuro yolo'd in a suit he could barely get to stand up were more effective in stalling the Federation war effort than almost anything that follows.

And they sort've need to be that effective, because the audience needs to be sold on the premise of mechs as a weapon of war, subject to the logistics and concerns of the battlefield. Previous shows in the genre have been more super robot types, so they got a free pass, but the Zaku needs to show why you wouldn't just use a tank or more conventional vehicle, and that threat level has been established early on (even if it's mostly brushed over; as mecha fans will admit, the question "but why does it have to be a giant robot?" doesn't have any good practical answers outside of it being cooler. Even if you ignore things like the square-cube law and the difficulty in scaling up a humanoid body, even if you ignore how complex mecha would be in comparison to a tank loaded with the same armaments, the simple fact is that humanoid is not a particularly effective shape to be on a modern battlefield.)

Sayla Mass shortly after slapping a random civilian who has understandably elected to get himself away from an active battlefield instead of roaming around looking for survivors, then telling him he should be left behind to die instead of being evacuated. Her sweater has become part of her skin; she's a Na'vi from the neck down.

Sayla's an interesting character who basically never appears in other Gundam shows, despite the fact that she'd be pretty relevant to a couple of them and the series being quite happy to include previous major characters in later instalments. I forget why this is the case -- I think it might have had something to do with her VA? -- but either way, she's one of the few who doesn't return in any meaningful role, which means we can only enjoy her here.

Part of what makes her fun to watch is that, when she's not just randomly slapping potentially traumatised survivors of a military attack, she's generally pretty effective. Within minutes of us being told her name, she's pulled a gun on Char, who's snuck into the colony on foot to do a bit of spying (which is honestly something of a habit for him as the Gundam series goes on). He almost immediately disarms her because he's Char and also extremely effective when he wants to be, but hey.

Char Aznable playing Touhou in his off time. Seriously, this guy dodges lasers like it's going out of style.

As Char makes his escape with the valuable data, we're treated to what will become a fairly common sight: Amuro getting out the beam rifle and just kind of yeeting all of his ammunition at nothing in particular. This time, he has excuses; he's aiming at human targets in a mobile suit, and he's never really killed a human in cold blood before. He also pulls off a couple of neat shots where he hits two missiles mid-flight. But I remember the amount of times 'oh no I fired wildly with my rifle and didn't hit anything, and now I have no ammo!' became a complicating factor becoming something of a joke to me.

We're then treated to the first ever battle between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, which ends up as more or less a stalemate. Make no mistake: Amuro gets completely manhandled by Char, who's an accomplished ace pilot with five battleship kills to his name. But the Gundam is so OP for this point in the series that, even though Amuro can't really touch him, Char can't really capitalise on the opportunity since the Gundam can tank his weapons head on. In the end, their skirmish is a mutual loss. Amuro loses to a pilot. Char loses to a suit.

But Char walks away with a head full of the Federation's military secrets and a much better understanding of the Gundam's threat level, and he has supplies and reinforcements on the way...

#mobile suit gundam #gundam '79 #anime blogging #spoilers #screenshots #char begins the gundam tradition of being way cooler out of the suit than in one #Bright's there but he's not captain yet #still chooses to be kind of an ass about things though #seriously the Gundam completely hard-carries for a while #Gwatch

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rurus-kadoo · 11 months

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My Thoughts on Genloss

Excerpts taken from my conversation with my friend who'd already seen it <- the red stuff will be commentary from now-me

Uh oh, my input is no longer wanted "You were not supposed to fail" gurl the BEES "Your failures have not forgotten" I think only the "are you alone" failure screen is different "who even are you" "You are never alone"

I'll help you, glitch person!! D: <- clueless

What in the actual heck

"(Doot)" mood

"Finally, I got the-" "BOO. B[WORD I'M NOT GONNA SAY!]" "Okay, listen, who's haunting who right now?!

I don't trust squiggles

"RUMBISH RUMBISH? MY TUMMY'S A LITTLE RUMBISH RUMBISH!!" *looks directly at the camera* "Wet." Gagooby >:) I don't like splagebi, gonna be honest. I haven't been paying attention to the fridge magnets, is behind you what they've said the whole time?? "Looks like this contestant is running out of slime. I mean slime. I mean slime. I mean slime. I mean slime." "Please don't send me to Christian hell, I don't want to go to Christian hell again"

Also don't think I didn't notice the fact that Ranboo can't remember the things that happened when his mask lights were off and also that they were flickering after Slimecicle left What does it mean when they're flickering?!?!?!!?!?! <- clueless

Genloss is so surreal

Squiggles feels like the embodiment of chat but I know it's deeper than that Also I love how chat had the option not to haunt at the beginning and it just did not cross your minds at all

I found the creature Shicklester? The lobicklarp

Light on = fully in Flickering = starting to question/feel weird Off = talking to the man in the TV (Hetch? I think that's what he said) <- clueless

Uh What rat people do <- clueless

That's some interesting surgery

Uh The glitches came on and the slime turned red and he started screaming like a normal person would if someone had cut open their stomach Earlier, the glitches only came on when that TV guy was around, but he seems to be trying to get Ranboo out, which seems like a good thing, but then he keeps saying "Don't resist" which feels weird <- starting to be less clueless And in the last one Ranboo was confused but in the light-hearted silly atmosphere, and when he was saying the demon was trying to kill him, it didn't quite feel that way But this time his distress is immediately evident And it sounds like he's on the verge of tears "I don't want to do this!" "I need to find this key inn order to live"

Okay that's weird, dude literally said "you gotta perform surgery" and he's saying Ranboo misinterpreted it based on "on" or "in" And Slimecicle literally said he swallowed the key Something's wack here <- ohoho I had nooo idea Meanwhile, squiggles is talking about what a gushy gooshy guy Slimecicle is

There's the one girl freaking out and then the rest of the captives are being total crapheads "Did you try the button that works? Hey how about you try the working one?" "Just figure it out!" "Try harder!" Just leave them, Ranboo, they don't deserve it "the one girl" EXCUSE YOU THAT IS NIKI NIACHU <- my friend I CAN'T SEE HER I DIDN'T KNOW PLUS I DON'T WATCH ENOUGH OF HER CONTENT TO RECOGNIZE HER WAILS OF DESPAIR

*audible gasp* Frank!!! :D He's back!! <- clueless

Well that's some pretty good costume-makeup-work Cuz I'm pretty sure no actual human beings have that villain facial structure

"I want Turner to be my Turner." 🥺

I'm noticing some continuity things, which I'm not sure how relevant they actually are to the actual Genloss universe <- clueless For example, Slimecicle being both the slime demon and the hospital patient And Sneeg's hat being pulled from Slimecicle's guts Okay, Frank is canonically the same Frank, it's not just me going "skeleton? Frank!!", which to me confirms the continuity things from episode 1 to 2 are in fact relevant So what the heck happened to Sneeg, and why is Slimecicle a person instead of a demon now? I guess we'll have to see... <- clueless

..Chat's going to save Frank, aren't they? Please tell me you guys saved Frank over the actual living people

WAIT THERE HE IS THERE'S SNEEG Of course he's next to Frank

Wait Why is squiggles freaking out about the hat "Bad hat bad hat bad hat" And now the glitches are here Because the hat is on his head I keep telling you, I don't trust squiggles <- the one thing I was right about the whole time

Sneeg just escaped, I think!

Noooooooo D: He didn't escaped

Uoh Oh I don't like this

THE TAKEN THE TAKEN THE TAKEN THE TAKEN THE TAKEN <- I played the game before watching this, so "The Savior, The Taken, and The Villain were very present in my mind.

Okay Niki's been sobbing her eyes out this whole time and now that it's her turn, she's just Fine with things? Everything's just so nIcE

HE KILLED FRANK

Fish are the key to everything, calling it here <- wrong

I still can't believe he killed Frank Frank did nothing to deserve this

What the heck Niki's dead SHE'S NOT DEAD SHE'S WAILING Well now she's dead

Mans literally gave his means of controlling Ranboo and the gang to Ranboo and the gang

Aaaaa the lights <- talking about the mask lights The door What was he reaching for Was that squiggles behind the curtain

What is this why museum And the lights are back on W h a t Why anvil

"STOP backseating!" Mood

*gaspeth* SLIME DEMON!! NOOOOOOOO Rip slime demon

What Teleportation

Other dude didn't last long lol

Pffft mister man just said "y'all are taking too long!!! I'll do it myself >:("

The door malfunction XD YOUCANTURNAROUND

"Everything you're doing is not what I intended" I figured as much XD

Always press buttons Oh gosh the room lights

What if one of you just like Looked?

Oh dear That is pooling blood

"THEY SLAY'D THE SLAY KING" Ah, Squiggles Keep on squigglin ..I don't trust 'em

Them: surely it can't be this door, the Puzzler is going to make it more tricky than that The Puzzler: The Puzzler: guys it's literally just the door, dude that just died went through the door marked don't

No he didn't No way man dropped the detonator Frick Well they're not dead, so it wasn't the detonator

Okay what if you just took the arrow and stuck it manually to the middle of the target Oh nice, dude had the same idea

Woah it's the MCC minigame but in live action

Okay guys there's literally no need for all this fighting, you could literally stand in a single file line and make it Sneeg's just defending Ranboo, all casually

Well it very much seems like The Puzzler is dead Ominous closeup on his chair for forever

Hi Ranbooo Come on Ranboo you can't tell me you don't desperately want to sit in the chair I'd want to sit in the chair if I were you I mean look at that chair That's a very sittable chair It's also very shredded but still

I'm sorry mister puzzler man, can't understand what you're saying dude

BOX es

"the truth will set you free?" <- eyerolling

Ranboo doesn't look like he's doing so well <- clueless

WHY IS HIS VOICE CLEARER NOW SQUIGGLES, YOU'RE LOSING CONTROL? IS THAT WHY? Don't let him flee? Is that what you're saying, Squiggles? (I legitimately can't tell lol)

THE LIGHTS ARE OFF THE LIGHTS ARE OFF

Ohh crap Oh dang Sksgsajsvsuwsvwospnxvvfiwgqhakduwisbduqbdvucdioewjwbqpnxcfhwinewoqofhcyxjdbvwwksxyuansgausjau

Ooo Ranboo talking to the cameraman spooky What is perhaps more spooky is Hetch's voice not being distorted <- still mostly clueless but suspicious now

I do NOT trust this man "I'll tell you all in time" aka the line every "oOh I'm YoUr FrIeNd! ToTaLlY nOt GoNnA bEtRaY yOu!" says <- no longer clueless in one regard but hopelessly clueless in another

He sounds like he's gonna cry!! D:

Ok mans changing his story 11 times a minute and he expects anyone to trust him?

This guy big sus <- amogus iT's NoT wOrTh DwElLiNg On ThAt RiGhT nOw DUDE LET THIS POOR GUY DWELL ON THAT RIGHT NOW HE NEEDS TO DWELL ON THAT

THE HERO <- the original game stuff had "The Savior", which I misremembered We've had The Taken and now The Hero Where's The Villain, Hetch? <- by Fall Out Boy <- also I'm getting rather close >:( frik u hetch

Mans having a crisis and you're telling him "just keep going! Don't dwell on that! I'll get that mask off you eventually!" Like, man- <- bordering on creepily accurate (perhaps due to the extremely amazing job of the writers giving us subconsciously registered foreshadowing)

"Looks like they upped security since, uh..." Man literally couldn't be more suspicious

OOOOOOOO Hetch asking chat what to do and Ranboo choosing yellow anyway "I DON'T CARE" Good for you Ranboo!

Well crap Dksbhssgeusj Nzhwhsgs oh vd Nzhwosbshadsyw Mwhuahsvajbwwhjahsis Zjhzwuoqbwgdovdsggey

NOT THE CREEPY SECURITY ROOM WITH BLOOD POURING OUT OF IT

The streamers aren't creepy at all

"You did tpk your whole party last week" gurl what kinda DM do you have??

Charlie's Let's Play I can't-

Oh my gosh

"STOP WATCHING" <- when I found out Charlie was actually live I flipped XD Mans not taking this well and you can't blame him

NEITHER are taking this well

I'M not taking this well

It's so so so so so creepy having Charlie freak out like a sane person should instead of being the comic relief like he has been I can't I can't I can't Gah I love this so much "Uh, uh, maybe in the Suba?" He's freaking out and still managing to be comic relief but it's still so wrong aaaaaa <- I cannot stress enough how deeply unsettling it was to see Charlie Slimecicle in such sheer terror

run rUN RUN RUN RUN

Hetch is here aaaaa "F[ric]k off, Jerome"

"Tell them that the Hetch did this" "the Hetch"?

Charlie's asking the good sane questions <- and that TERRIFIED me I don't think Ranboo cares <- and that TERRIFIED ME

Ohoho Yeah he's embracing the villain arc I got the feeling Ranboo, more like Ranmyknifethroughyou They bleed electrical wires

The ringing behind the music is so

THAT PAN TO CHARLIE AA WHAT IS THAT SOUND Oh That's that sound Hi security

Ch Charlie? WHAT THE CRAPPP

He didn't tell them the Hetch did this

I know he hasn't won, and not just because there's more runtime This just doesn't feel right <- the least clueless I could possibly be without knowing spoilers

And he takes a bowCRAP CRAP I KNEW IT CRAP DANGIT HETCH CRAP CRAP CRAP

Dude

That's such a hard decision aaaaaaaaaaaa

THE GUTTURAL SCREAMS

"LET ME DIE"

s silence

and the credits roll

#generation loss spoilers #generation loss #genloss #long long post #dudeeeeee #I'm still reeling #while I'm here I'd like to plug my friend Asterlyyy's Take Me To Church genloss edit #it's so gooood ahoeihoaihohaehoaiehotihearhhi

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