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fanfic-obsessed · 1 year

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Not Our Jedi

Let’s take some time today to imagine a variation on Order 66.When Order 66 declares the Jedi traitors it is believed, without question save for one thing. Each Battalion, each clone is absolutely certain that their Jedi were not traitors (This is, of course, excluding the few Jedi who were like Pong Krell and thought of the Clones as less than human). Their Jedi alone had stayed true (For the purposes of this idea there is a battalion stationed in the temple who consider all of the Jedi in residence as theirs. The Coruscant Guard claimed a number of the Shadows, including Quinlan Vos. Also, by and large the clones consider any Jedi they interact with regularly as ‘theirs’). In addition, through chip related hand waving, the clones believe that only their own battalion have stayed true, all other clones in the GAR have betrayed them and are a danger to the non traitor Jedi.

Frankly Sidious’s words and actions did not dissuade the clones of this. Neither did the actions of the nat borns that supported the new emperor. Instead it convinced the entire GAR that the evil Jedi traitors have somehow taken control of Palpatine. The Nat born officers that claimed their Jedi were also traitors…well those nat borns tended to be the ones treated the clones like meat droids anyway, so it was all too easy to assume they were in league with the Jedi traitors.

Every battalion decided, near simultaneously, that they had to take their Jedi and run. Regroup on some uninhabited world (Somehow none of the battalions managed to pick the same uninhabited world) and any nat born that tried to stop them was killed outright. They could make a plan for saving the former Chancellor and the Republic once they were certain that ‘Their Jedi’ were safe. The Jedi go along with this because 1.) The force is telling them to 2.) They can feel that something is very wrong with their men and 3.)Their men are nearly panic stricken at the thought of their Jedi reaching out to other Jedi.

In the chip-addled minds of the clones they are convinced that their Jedi reaching out to the traitors would be disastrous. Not because they thought their Jedi could be convinced to be a traitor, but because their Jedi was soft hearted and kind and trusting and the traitor Jedi would HURT them, either emotionally or physically.

Anakin Skywalker, in the midst of falling to the dark, still marches on the temple with the 501st. By the time they reach it, the entire thing is empty. Not only that it is stripped bare courtesy of the temple bound battalions who evacuated everything not nailed down (and a few things that were). Even the Force felt different in the empty temple. This was enough to pause Anakin’s fall. It also gave the 501st the chance to convince their general that they need to retreat and regroup on an uninhabited planet with Anakin’s pregnant wife (By getting them both out of the line of fire they prevent Padme’s death and manage to bring Anakin mostly back to the light).

Sidious thinks that with one Order he was going to take control of the GAR and be able to use millions of controlled clones in taking full control of the galaxy. Within 2 days the entire thing, including the Coruscant Guard, vanishes. What’s more his shiny new apprentice has also vanished and not a single one of them is picking up their comms (Communications across the GAR have been shut down to keep their Jedi from being tempted to contact the traitors) and the Force is not nearly as dark as it should be.

This goes on for months, the Jedi trying to carefully coax their battalions to let them reach out to other Jedi. The clones panicking and destroying more communication equipment every time and being in all other ways just to the left of their old selves. No one knows what's going on, least of all the clones, and the war has all but ground to a halt. There is so much trauma on all sides of the conflict that many of the Jedi are legitimately afraid that this was a break from reality on the part of the clones and, not knowing how widespread this was, were concerned that their men would be labeled as defective and killed.

I cannot stress enough that none of the Jedi, save perhaps Anakin Skywalker, knows about Order 66, the chips (though Shaak Ti does know about the chips she did not connect them to the strange behavior of the cadets ), or the ramifications thereof.

Finally, after months, Ahsoka has an idea. She goes to Rex and the other officers (without the urge to kill Ahsoka, Rex did not fight the chip or make the connection to Tup and Fives) and starts asking about who the enemy is, who the traitors are, since they cannot trust the Emperor (who is being controlled by ‘traitors’) or the separatist or even each other really because they came from all different battalions and felt some loyalty to their old comrades. At last she asks if there are any other Jedi/former Jedi that they can reach out to, to start to figure out who to trust. Rex is quiet for a long moment. At last he says that General Kenobi always chooses what is right. Whatever side Kenobi is on is the right one. All the other officers agree.

Ahsoka helps them make plans to track down the 212th. Internally she is a bit horrified because 1) no one being should make up the entirety of another person's moral compass 2) is aware that her grandmaster is, like any other sentient, capable of making the wrong choices and siding with the wrong people 3) she knows for a fact that Rex also knew that and 4)she still has no idea what is wrong with her men.

It takes another few months to track down and make contact with the 212th, a few weeks after that to convince Cody (who very much thinks that they are traitors and should be shot on sight) that they are on General Kenobi's side. At last they find a neutral place to meet and two Jedi meet for the first time since the Order went out.

Obi Wan is ecstatic that Ahsoka is ok. In the intervening months he has learned how to ask questions of the controlled clones where they will answer with information that they do not consciously know (Still never stumbling on the chips or their function because none of the 212th had the correct information). So when he asks Rex if he knows why the Jedi are believed to be traitors, Rex answers with ‘the chips Fives warned us about are active now.’ From this Obi Wan is able to get more information about the chip and convince Cody to have it taken out.

After the removal Cody has a mild to moderate panic attack once he wakes up. Dealing with memories of abducting his general, the death threats he delivered to his younger brother and a Togruta who might as well be his sister, the horrifically uncharitable things he thought and said about any clone not in the 212th. He also wakes up realizing that the Jedi are not traitors and has to reconcile what he would have done when confronted with any of them. I imagine that it is sometime shortly after Cody wakes up that Codywan gets together (I love the idea that they had an understanding that they would explore their relationship after the war, this also neatly skirts the issue of consent while under a mind control chip).

With it confirmed what was going on, the 327th and the 212th began to remove the chips wholesale. There are whole new branches of psychotherapy that are developed as the dechipping continues and Clones begin to realize exactly how kriffed up those chips made their heads. Though the process for dechipping the entirety of the battalions takes months, as soon as the process is nailed down and there are a handful of dechipped clones, they begin to try and track down the other battalions (They find Plo Koon and his Wolffe pack next).

With the rest of the galaxy, the disappearance of the clones and the Jedi has changed both nothing and everything. Palpatine is Emperor in name and function, he has many people in power to back him (Or who would back whomever promised them power). The Jedi do not need to be dead to be scapegoats, just absent. In fact, without the inherent tragedy of the Purge and the march on the temple, they actually make a better scapegoat. What has hurt Palpatine’s regime is the lack of 3 million clones ready to enforce his every command. The nat born military officers that would have supported him are dead, the ones that wouldn’t have chosen to desert with clones and the Jedi. It is too close to the end of the clone wars to use droids. This leaves him entirely without a military at the most vulnerable time of his new regime (When it is between 6 months and 3 years old).

What would have become the Rebellion in the Canon universe is also struggling. Order 66 and the Purge is such a defining moment. It would go on to become the moment of rock bottom for many worlds, the moment where there is nothing left that can be taken away so you might as well fight. Though it may never be pointed at, it was in that moment that many of the Rebellion founders found their courage to fight back, to Rebel, to deny the Empire that the Republic has been for decades. In this universe there is no tragedy of unimaginable proportions, no genocide to spur secret meeting, no rows of faceless white to fight against. Instead we have a tense holding pattern, restrictions that are unenforceable and thus ignored.

Some systems talk about seceding, some just quietly stop showing up. As the months drag on there are more and more empty pods in the imperial senate. More and more systems suddenly stop accepting imperial credits, or abruptly seem to have their own military and won’t take Senate comms. Then entire systems seem to be blockaded from Imperial ships.

Palpatine played his ace in the whole and it was a good one, unveiling his empire. Without the immediate glue of the Clones, that empire began to unravel.

The Jedi and Clones know none of this, creeping between worlds in the outer rim and wild space. Once they discover the planet that the Coruscant temple was evacuated to, it is decided to make this planet their home base, their new home which they call Haven. Once they find where Kamino was evacuated to (thankfully not far), the cadets are moved to Haven. Thankfully it seems that Obi Wan Kenobi remains the only person that every chip-addled mind seems to think would always choose the right side (Everyone, including Obi Wan and the dechipped clones, is both baffled and a little concerned) so Obi Wan can go in with a few dechipped clones to each speak with each Jedi.

By the time they find the 501st, Luke and Leia are just over 2 years old. The forced downtime has given Padme and Anakin the time to actually have several adult and emotional conversations.

Anakin’s march on the temple has highlighted the cliff that he almost stepped off, and without an enemy to beat it becomes very clear that this cliff is something he wants no part of. Something about the combination of 1) Raising children, 2) dealing with clones that even Padme can tell are NOT acting right, 3)No longer being constantly under battle stress and 4) Doing just a little self reflection (assisted by his wife) and reeling that Holy Kriff he was ready to kill kids (He has already done so but this is the difference between manslaughter and first degree murder).

Padme has also realized that she has some very unhealthy mindset she doesn’t want to pass onto the children. There was something about the way the clones agreed with everything that Anakin said that was striking in all the worst ways, for both of them (The chips meant that ‘their Jedi’ could do no wrong).

They are both so glad to see Obi Wan, even more so when he tells them that they have a way to fix/free the clones. The last grip Palpatine had on Anakin’s mind fades when Obi Wan is nothing short of ecstatic for them at the birth of the twins, and is not surprised about their relationship (he is a bit surprised that they are married, and how long, but he just sighs and goes, ‘well I guess no one wins that bet’). The 501st is dechipped, assigned a therapist to deal with the issues caused by the chip (and marching on the Jedi temple), and they are all brought back to Haven.

During this entire process the combined Jedi and Clones are still entirely cut off from the rest of the galaxy. They could not risk being found by the Empire or Sidious and had no idea about who they could trust. They have managed to grow, create, figure it out, or do without everything they could need. It takes ten years to find all of the Clones and Jedi. There is a slowdown in year six that lasts for a year and a half when they start having to ration the fuel for their ships, which led to the more mechanically inclined managing to invent a whole new propulsion system.

After 10 years all of the Clones and Jedi have been found and brought to Haven. With everyone safe it is decided to peek out into the galaxy to find out what is happening.

They poke their heads out into a very different galaxy. The Republic and the Empire have both crumbled under its own weight, without the Jedi or the Clones to prop it up. Instead smaller States, rarely bigger than a system or two, have cropped up across the galaxy. Palpatine was dead, killed by rioters on Coruscant in the final days of the Empire in year 8 (Sith might be able to cause a massive amount of damage, but even they can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers).

In spite of what the Republic Propaganda, and later Empire propaganda, these smaller governments did not immediately throw the galaxy into a lawless free for all. Nor did the lack of Jedi involved cause more suffering that would have happened otherwise.

The residents of Haven decide to adopt something similar, theirs was the only inhabited planet in their system (one of the reasons the Clones chose it) but there were three other habitable planets. Thus the system Tonbrei, named for the Dai Bendu word for completeness and unity, joined the galactic stage and started making trade agreements. Their primary exports were their new propulsion system and teachers for Force Sensitive children.

#star wars the clone wars #order 66 #Order 66 happened differently #fanfiction prompt #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #star wars au #star wars #sheev palpatine #codywan #bamf obi wan #anidala #padme amidala

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antianakin · 5 months

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You know what I despise just as much as Imperial apologists? Separatist apologists. People claim that the CIS did nothing wrong, that they were the "real heroes of the Clone Wars", that their benevolent movement was hijacked by evil people, but in reality, the CIS was intentionally designed to be an evil force by evil people. Sure, there were some "good" folks on the Separatists' side, but in the end, they CHOSE to align themselves with some of the most despicable people in the galaxy. Also, they tend to forget that the CIS was created by Sith as a means of weakning the Jedi Order.

While I certainly don't think the Separatists were heroes of any kind, I don't think that the actual politicians in the CIS were intentionally aligning themselves with people they believed to be despicable. It's made pretty clear in "Heroes on Both Sides" that the CIS parliament seems to have no clue that their whole army is being led by the corporate alliance. They call out that the whole point behind the CIS was to free themselves from being connected to the corporate alliance the way the Republic is, and they believe that they've SUCCEEDED at that. So it's less that they've intentionally aligned themselves with evil people doing evil things so much as they were completely and utterly duped and manipulated into a position where they've ended up unknowingly supporting the very evil they claim to be against.

What I WILL say about the Separatist politicians though is that every single one of them that we're shown seems to be very willfully ignorant. When Mina meets with Padme, she refuses to hear a bad word against Dooku, even though presumably Padme could say a lot of things about how Dooku allowed her to be nearly executed on Geonosis simply because she wouldn't join the CIS. And after Mina's assassinated, Lux tries to speak to some of the Separatist politicians who gathered for a peace summit to tell them that Dooku killed his mother and he's shot down cold for lying about it and then thrown out of the building. Mina and the other Separatists have been manipulated SO HARD into believing in Dooku and his promises that they can't believe anything or anyone that goes against what he says, even when it's someone they consider a friend or the child of one of their own.

That willful ignorance moves them far away from being "heroes" of any kind for me. I can appreciate that they had legitimate grievances against the Republic, that they believed they were doing what was right for their people, and that there was a lot of things that were clearly hidden from them. So they're by no means the ones most at fault for the war. But they SHOULD'VE been more willing to accept that Dooku (and by extension themselves and the entire Separatist movement) was not perfect when told or shown evidence by people they claimed to trust.

The other mark against the Separatists is that the King of Onderon that we're introduced to in season 5 is HORRIFIC. The guy who is explicitly said to be the new Separatist leader is terrible and the people hate him and much prefer the old King (who, by implication, was presumably more pro-Republic or at least served primarily back when Onderon was still a member of the Republic). And this was MINA'S PLANET. Mina is not someone who is represented as just some stupid vapid politician, she's supposed to be smart and kind, she's Padme's mentor. She's supposed to be someone who truly CARES, but her people are suffering under a Separatist installed ruler and there's no mention of that at all during her one episode. There's no indication that she was even aware or paying attention to it. So long as the war never made it to her planet, she seems to have been looking the other way. And we can probably assume similar stuff is happening on the other Separatist planets, too, that Separatist rulers have been installed who are willing to basically let Dooku and the Corporate Alliance do whatever they want with no regard for how it'll impact the actual people. And Dooku is going to be able to continue to manipulate and blind the Separatist politicians into not realizing what's going on or believing that this is just a temporary necessary evil of some kind.

The major advantage the Republic Senate has for me is that there IS at least a small group of people (small being relative, there's so many politicians in the Senate that a group of 2000 people is considered small) who DO recognize what's going on in their own government, and who are actively fighting against the corruption they can see and acknowledge. They don't believe their system is PERFECT, but they believe that it's still the best system available and worth fighting to make it BETTER and remove the people keeping it corrupt. The CIS doesn't have that. Every single person is so willfully ignorant to everything that they can't have people like Padme or Bail or Mon Mothma who can see the problems in their own government and actively work to make it better from the inside. And this just makes the Separatist politicians unknowingly part of the problem they don't even realize exists (or aren't willing to admit exists), which means that their people are just going to keep suffering while their elected representatives sit on their high horses and do nothing.

So I don't think they're EVIL, but they're not heroes either. Much like Anakin, they're manipulated by someone they should be able to trust and who presents himself as someone trustworthy, and they're not mindful enough to recognize the truth behind what they've gotten involved in or humble enough to listen when someone tries to make them aware of it. So yes, it was an evil force designed by evil people with the explicit purpose of weakening the Jedi AND the Republic enough for Palpatine to maneuver himself into power, but I don't for a MOMENT believe that the actual politicians involved in the CIS ever realize that until it's far too late. As far as they're concerned, it IS a benevolent movement and if they ever realize the truth of it in the aftermath of the war, then from their perspective it probably DID get hijacked by evil people. The Separatists are, in many ways, a tragic story. They SHOULD'VE been a good thing, they should've been a group of people genuinely working to try to create a new, better system for their people. They had the best of intentions, but much like Anakin, it's mostly just paving the road to hell.

I'd love more fics that look at the Rebellion era where you get both Republic and Separatist people having to work together and instead of the Separatists being all high and mighty about how THEY always knew the Republic was corrupt and everyone else was just too naive, there's some people who point out that the Separatist movement was literally run by the corporate alliance, that their entire ARMY was being run by the Techno Union and Trade Federation, that the Separatists were CLEARLY getting tax benefits from the Banking Clan that the Republic was NOT getting. I'd love more acknowledgement that yes, the Republic was corrupt, but that there were a LOT of people who knew that and were working to fix that problem, but that the Separatist movement wasn't some perfect idyllic government that didn't do anything wrong ever in their lives, either. The Separatist army did a lot of really fucking heinous shit to people and I'd love more Republic Rebels throwing that back at all those Separatist Rebel characters who get so high and mighty about knowing the Republic was corrupt. Like sure, great, you knew the Republic was corrupt, so did a LOT of people, many of whom were working to actually DO something about it. Come back to me when you're able to tell me you knew YOUR government was corrupt, too, then we can talk.

#star wars #separatists #the clone wars #republic

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samasmith23 · 1 year

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Why do some people think that stories portraying darker subject matter is always an inherently bad thing?

I’ve recently encountered this weird mindset in regards to certain online fandom spaces, wherein people will argue that fictional characters experiencing intense trauma and pain is somehow inherently problematic and negatively reflects on the creator’s skills or ethics. This feels like such a narrow-minded and shallow understanding of a piece of media, since characters undergoing hardships is often a necessary element for them to grow and develop as the narrative progresses. Plus, while some stories can indeed be more intense and graphic in what types of trauma is depicted, it’s mere inclusion doesn’t automatically make the story or it’s author inherently bad. For instance, even though I personally haven’t read the manga series Berserk by the late Kentaro Miura (May he Rest In Peace…), based on what I’ve heard from others while the series does include graphic depictions of sexual assault which the main protagonist Guts suffered from in his past, said-assaults are NOT framed in a gross or exploitative way, but are instead utilized to analyze and discuss the character’s feelings of physical and psychological trauma derived from said-horrible events, and heavily factors into Guts' overall backstory and development as a character as he tries to heal from the violent trauma of his past and discover some sense of happiness in a bleak world.

And yet despite this I’ve encountered a few people accuse Berserk of being “pro-rape” or even outright stating that Miura “deserved to die” (which is an absolutely disrespectful and disgusting thing to say!) simply because he included these darker elements in his manga. Like... that's as stupid as someone claiming that Quentin Tarantino is automatically "pro-murder" simply because his movies include lots of scenes of characters killing each other.

I’ve also encountered far less overtly toxic examples of this kind bad faith media criticism in comic circles. Awhile I was incredibly confused when I saw some people on Twitter arguing that Saladin Ahmed was “ill-suited to writing teenage characters” simply because of two scenes in his Miles Morales: Spider-Man & Magnificent Ms. Marvel runs respectively, which involved Miles being tortured by the new supervillain, The Assessor (who would later make clones of Miles as a result), as well as the final battle between Ms. Marvel and her evil robot-duplicate Stormranger getting quite brutal at times (you could see blood from the impact Stormranger’s punch).

In regards to the Miles’ torture scene, I've seen a small number of people argue that the scene's existence was inherently inappropriate due to Miles' status as a Black minor, going as far as to label it as "dehumanizing" and "really insensitive to the real trauma of black boys." I'm not sure how I feel about this as those labels feel a tad extreme due to the fantastical nature of Miles' stories. Like, as brutal as the scene with the Assessor is, it’s at least given a more ficitional sci-fi vibe due to the high-tech laboratory, the Frankenstein operating table, and the fact that this whole ordeal leads directly into Miles' own version of Spider-Man: Clone Saga after The Assessor acquires Miles’ DNA in the process. So it feels less grounded and not as reflective of those real-life traumatic experiences Black men and boys unfortunately go through in the U.S. like I saw a few critics of Ahmed’s run claiming. Plus, Ahmed had Miles be rescued by both his father Jefferson Morales and Uncle Aaron Davis teaming-up together. So the narrative frames the Assessor’s torture of Miles as a bad thing whilst depicting two older Black men actively putting aside their personal differences in order to save their son/nephew as a major narrative focus as well. How exactly is it "dehumanizing" or "inappropriate" then?

And it seems like this bizarre criticism isn’t just limited to Twitter comic fandoms, since a certain Lily Orchard recently made an AWFUL video which outright accused animation fandoms and creators of “fetishizing the torture and abuse of POC women” in cartoons like The Legend of Korra, The Owl House, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. As soon as I saw the thumbnail for that video I knew it was going to be an absolute dumpster fire.

In it, not only does Lily engage in those similar types of arguments like the ones I mentioned earlier about Saladin Ahmed’s portrayal of Miles & Kamala, but Lily went multiple steps further by outright accusing various scenes from The Legend of Korra, The Owl House & She-Ra of being “literal torture p*rn” and “fetishized abuse against POC women.” With Korra, Lily accused the scenes of Korra brutally poisoned with the Red Lotus’ liquid metalic venom, Korra still being significantly weakened by the poison during her final battle with Zaheer (causing her to fall and tumble down cliff-sides) and Zaheer trying to use his air-bending to suck the oxygen right out of Korra’s lungs (the same technique he previously used to assassinate the Earth Queen), plus the Unalaq fight from the Season 2 finale where extracts the Avatar spirit from Korra and kills all her past lives one by one with a water-whip as “white centrist writers being turned on by the trauma and torture of a woman of color.”

And in regards to She-Ra, Lily accused Catradora shippers of being an example of fandom going “full mask-off” simply because she found 2 or 3 random comments defending Catra’s abusive behavior prior to her gradual redemption arc in the final season simply because they found the Adora & Catra fights “hot” (which I know for a fact does NOT represent the entirety or even majority of the She-Ra fandom & Catradora shippers).

It’s just… I honestly don’t understand why Lily is describing these scenes as “torture p*rn” or “abuse fetishizing.” Like, it’s not unexpected for characters to undergo traumatic crap during their story arcs, and most often it’s for the purposes of raising the dramatic stakes of the conflict or to have said-characters eventually undergo some sort of positive change arc (which is what happens in both Korra and She-Ra btw). While the abuse Korra suffers at Zander’s hands is indeed violent, it’s intentionally disturbing and off-putting in order to increase the viewer’s suspense and fear over whether or not the main character will get out of this alive. Personally, when I first watched the Season finale of “Book 3,” I was on the edge of my seat and constantly worried for Korra’s survival, and while she is left physically and psychologically scarred by the whole ordeal I’ve heard that the entirety of “Book 4” (which I still haven’t seen BTW) focuses on Korra healing from her trauma and becoming more spiritually enlightened in the process. YouTuber and MarySue author, Princess Weekes, though had some interesting analyses about Korra’s portrayal of overcoming trauma and how its heavily rooted in East Asian philosophy, despite Weekes' overall mixed feelings about the series in general:

And while I can’t comment on The Owl House (again, haven’t watched any of it), I can say that Lily’s characterization of Catradora as “torture p*rn/abuse fetishization” is 100% wrong since the show frames Catra’s behavior towards Adora and others throughout Seasons 1-4 as toxic and unhealthy, and Season 5 is all about her fixing herself on her own volition after realizing the harm she’s caused, and it’s only AFTER all of that when Adora & Catra become lovers. But the way Lily describes the scenes in Korra & She-Ra (which are honestly pretty PG in their levels of brutality despite being fairly dark for family-friendly animation) you’d think she was talking about some over-the-top violently explicit tentacle hentai or something, as she even goes as far as to compare the Korra & Zaheer fight to FREAKING The Passion of the Christ (seriously… Lily actually compared Korra to Mel Gibson's antisemitic guilt-tripping exploitation film which unnecessarily stretches out Jesus' torture and crucifixion; which in the Bible occurred in just a few brief passages instead of 2-and-a-half hours like in the movie).

Geez… given how Lily so inaccurately mischaracterizes these scenes from Korra and She-Ra, I’d honestly hate to see she’d react to Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is heavily centered around the characters suffering from intense depressive episodes and experiencing emotional breakdowns, whilst also including lots of psychoanalytical and disturbing imagery. Knowing Lily, she’d probably ignore the fact that NGE’s director Hideaki Anno was suffering from severe depression while creating the series (which heavily influenced the show’s overall production and themes), and instead accuse all the depictions of depression and trauma in EVA of being “unrealistic” and “inaccurate” since according to her all fictional depictions of trauma are inherently inaccurate since there’s no one universal depiction of trauma (Lily actually said that in her terrible video), and accuse all of the series’ violent and sexual imagery of being “torture p*rn” whilst calling Anno a “perverted abuse-fetishizing creep who is turned on by torture” (which feels incredibly SWERFy on Lily’s part, as well as needlessly hostile towards people who are into BDSM or sado-masachism and practice it safely and consensually) just like she did to the creators of Korra, Owl House, and She-Ra (even though NGE and especially the movie The End of Evangelion is highly critical of exactly that kind of gross and toxic behavior within Japanese Otaku subcultures).

So my overall question is this: why do Lily and some other people think that including intense trauma or brutal torture scenes in comics or animation, even when said-scenes they're framed in the story as bad things are inherently “problematic,” “dehumanizing,” “fetishistic,” or “torture/trauma p*rn”? It's like... I can understand not wanting to stomach intensely violent or depressing scenes if they can't handle them, or being critical if they feel unnecessarily mean-spirited or exploitative, but often times having darker elements is an unavoidable aspect of giving a story a sense of conflict. Conflict is necessary in order to have a plot or to develop characters, except it feels like a lot of people on social media believe that the mere inclusion of any type of darker conflict or subject matter is inherently ethically dubious regardless of how its framed within the overall narrative.

I just don't get this kind of mentality and why it's become so prevalent online these days... I really don't...

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dairy-farmer · 4 months

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Ooooooh Had A Thought >.>

Remember the Justice Lords? There are legit "Evil Who Think They Are Heros Just Doing What Must Be Done(tm)" versions of our beloved Bats. And? Depending on the timeline? Their Reign of terror/Authoritarian takeover? May have started amping up around that time Jason supposedly "pushed" somebody of a building.

Batman may have just... been okay with that. Never lost Jason.

But! Imagine if in this universe he was a BIT more paranoid. Made sure Dick didn't use his family's signature move. Nothing to connect the two. A secret kept secret.

Tim follows for a while but... well... things start getting... DANGEROUS.

No longer the Batman he was supposed to be. Tim stops. Batman has broken his heart. Robin, how could you? Etc.

The Bats go full Dark Timeline. No ones having fun. They try to "Bring Justice, Bring ORDER" to other worlds. Like they did their's.

Get a face full of Absolutely The Fuck Not with a side of Get Out Of Our Reality from the normal JLA. And?? Whoms't is that? There is an extra, BRILLIANT, Robin. Vicious and deadly. Brutal in a fight.

They don't have one.

Why do they not have one? Their realities should be nearly identical. This makes no...

Their Bruce grapples, they are being forced back. They have seconds. There! A lucky grab. Cowl ripped back.

Timothy Drake? They lose footing. Sucked back towards their own reality. The Kryptonian clone preventing them from taking Drake with them. And then it's over.

The others are raging. Cursing and stomping like children. But all they can think is... he? Was RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

And imagine it. You like in a tyranny. The newscasters hide fear behind frozen smiles. God like men and women overthrew everything, kill as they please and change the rules to suit them. It's IMPERATIVE no one suspects you EVER have been anything less then enthusiastically supportive. People disappear for less.

The world went mad before you were ever old enough to do anything about it.

And suddenly? Your creepy, reclusive neighbors, with too much power, somehow connected to The Powers That Be, are acting like they KNOW you. Not your family. YOU.

Acting really, REALLY friendly. Want to Be your friiiiend.

Showing up everywhere.

Your parents trips are suddenly being green lit. But there is an under tone of "don't come back". They are afraid. You are afraid.

Ha ha! Don't WORRY, says your neighbor, he'll look out for you!

You've never spoken.

His hand feels possesive on your shoulder. His children LOOM. Smiling and smiling all around you like beautiful sharks.

You don't understand.

It's like they all share a secret about you that you don't know. They keep poking and prodding, trying to get more and more of you. LEARN more and more about you.

And the lingering touches. So many lingering touches. You're so tense, so tired, you could shake to pieces.

There hasn't been an Ivy attack in YEARS, not since she was...

Yet somehow the buildings hit. JUST your rooms. You're not stupid. Can't breathe. Too hot! Their faces cooing masks of "concern". Oh noooo. They say. How could this HAPPEN? They hum.

Hands already patting and stroking. Scooping you up. And? Tim is not DUMB.

He squirms. Tries to hold on to coherent thought. But it's pointless. He's outnumbered.

And they aren't ANIMALS, they'd protest. They are so very, very sweet. So gentle. So loving. Help their Timmy finally relax and feel so, so good. Hands that guide him up and down. That hold him still while others move. Skin to kiss, a clever little mouth, ready to devour.

So warm. They are OBSESSED.

Just? Imagine getting turned into the Emotional Support Fuck Robin for the Evil Bit Think They're Heroes BatFam all because your ALTERNATE self was a bamf.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can just imagine the GuILT that would hit tim and the other universe when they look into the invading universe to both keep tabs and to make sure they can't come back because dealing with hostile universes is more of 'keep an eye on it' sort of situation. of course its not long before they find out what's happening.

no one but tim had seen the...oddness in the other bats' behavior towards him. tim notes it in his report about how he was unmasked by the other dick moments before they were forcibly sucked into their world and something about the intent look that had been shot at him...unnerved tim. having someone like dick grayson lock on you with that sort of intensity is never a good thing.

so tim is...worried. something in hus gut just turned at the lock the other dick grayson had given him. it wasn't hostile. not like how the other bats had been to their own counterparts. the other bats had been whopping them good. it wasn't until him, cass, steph, and barbara were called in that many of the plans the other bats set up dissolved. but unlike the others there hadn't been such a...lingering sense. the other batman had perked up and drifted their eyes to him when they learned that it had been tim's plan that resulted in the rescue of the other bats. there was something...appraising in that look but also something...hungry. like a starving, half-rabid coyote stumbling across an injured bunny.

it turned tim's stomach and so when the report of the other world comes in tim can't hold back the visceral reaction of what they were doing to their tim. their tim who had nothing to do with bats and who had lived a perfectly normal life with his parents until that bruce sent them away and threatened them with torture and death if they ever returned.

tim can't help him.

THEY. the justice league of his world can't help them. opening portals to other worlds blurs their lines, makes it easier for the influence of one to enter another. the monitoring is just so they can keep an eye on it which they construct whatever barriers they need to to keep their universe separate.

the justice league doesn't like going in to other universes and "saving" or liberating it. its too much of a gray area because then what's to stop them from going into EVERY universe that they find distasteful and doing the same? no. best to keep their noses to their own grindstone and let the universes of others be no matter how torturous it might be.

and so now tim is stuck...watching. and thinking about his cowl being pulled off his face in those final moments while starving eyes dug into him.

#answered asks #asks #anonymous

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juanarc-thethird · 1 year

Text

Recent RWBY Chapter thoughts

I have read many people saying that someone must die in order to return home. And all this happened because Jaune "believes" that Alxy killed Lewis to get out. "Believe" is the key word here. Jaune isn't sure what happened to Lewis, and I don't think the cat is hiding the information. Throughout the show the cat technically has not lied, he only answers what they ask him. Nothing more and nothing less.

I don't think anyone has to die to get out of Ever After. This is what I think happened with Alyx and Lewis. Jaune says that Alyx is a cruel and ruthless person, and that Lewis is the kind and clever one. Alyx poisoned Jaune, thinking that he would help in some way what she saw in the herbalist's smoke. So she left with the cat and her brother. What did she saw? I have some ideas, but that's for later.

So when they get to the tree maybe Alxy and Lewis had a fight, maybe. If this actually happened, the cat would never have mentioned it because Jaune and RWBY didn't ask that question. The point is that somehow or another they did find the way out and may be that Lewis wanted to bring Jaune. But of course this is when he discovers that he was poisoned and the fight started. I don't know exactly how it happen or what happen, but maybe Alyx wanted to kill her brother in a way to keep him quiet once they arrive the real word. But Lewis is clever, somehow or another he was able to stop his sister, but tragically he made her "ascend". But in Lewis eyes, he thought that he killed her, since the cat says that those who are not part of the Ever After cannot ascend.

Then upon returning to his world, Lewis decides to write the story and because of him for not being able to help his friends and his sister. He wrote the adventures of his sister and the others as a way to apologize to them for everything that happened. I wouldn't say he lied, but maybe he wrote what happened this way as a way to heal from this horrible experience.

Now, what happened to Alyx? The cat doesn't remember what happened and as Jaune said, the cat returned to him after a few days. Since the cat is very curious and nothing was happening, he didn't stick around on the tree, and he no longer cared what happened to the siblings. So he returned to Jaune to see if he has something interesting for him. Jaune took this wrong and he thinks the cat is guilty.

Now comes the complicated part. I believe that Alyx did ascend and become the Jabberwalker. You see, from what Jaune told us, he tried to guide them just like the story, but Alyx, being cruel, committed crimes everywhere they went. In all that narration the Jabberwalker was never present. It means that the Jabberwalker appeared later. First clue.

Second, the Jabberwalker is always scares when he has to fight a group. We figure this out when RWBY and Neo and their clones attack him. The Jabberwalker panics and runs away or becomes paralyzed in fear. The Jabberwalkers that attacked afterwards were copies of Neo, so they weren't afraid of RWBY and Jaune. Where am I going with this? Alyx poisoned Jaune because she knew that he is the only one who can stop her, what ever she is trying to do. He is stronger than her, faster than her, bigger than her. So the poison was the only way to get rid of it. The Jabberwalker only attacks people that he knows he can beat. The first time it appeared, Yang was lonely and tired, a good prey for the creature. Same idea, different tactic. Both Alyx and the Jabberwalker ar scared easily.

Third, ascension supposedly helps reborn creatures by taking their memories and transforming them into something better using those memories. Like the King, in the story they say he played Alyx fairly (I think it was Lewis who played the King), but after he was beaten for the first time because of Alyx cheating, he was reborn as a prince and started cheating too. In Alyx's case, she was already evil but using her memories the tree turned her into the Jabberwalker. This was unintentional, since the tree's job is to make creatures better and give them a new role, not make them worse. And since Alyx is pure evil, only more evil can come of this. That's why the tree turned her into something big, strong and fast, and with the desire to end everything in her path.

Fourth, what I think she saw in the smoke. I think she saw herself as a monster. And trying to escape that, she made a lot of bad decisions. In the end, fulfilling what she desperately tried to avoid.

I think there is more to the story that Jaune has not told us and that the cat knows about Alyx. Honestly, it would have been better if the episode had been a little bit more about what Jaune had to go through with Alyx and Lewis. Just to get a better idea of these two siblings. Just to get a better idea of these two characters. I also believe that no one will die. I think Neo might become good, learning what happened to Alyx as a lesson. Or maybe just stop hunting Ruby and maybe do something else. Everyone will get out of there, I hope that Jaune will become young again (The change of his image when he got angry in the reflection gives hope that this may happen), but I think that everyone else in his world will be a little older. I mean, Lewis and Alyx's clothes look kind of old and Jaune met them and ran into Rwby later. Time must pass more slowly in the "Ever After." But like always, this is just my thoughts, I may be wrong.

#rwby jaune #rwby jaune arc #jaune #jaune arc #rwby vol 9 #rwby volume 9 #rwby #Jabberwalker #Alyx #Lewis

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kaiasky · 4 months

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🌂 you meet your doppelganger. it has all your memories and personality, but knows that it's the copy, and it will disappear in 28 days unless it kills you.

🌂 it is not more evil or less intelligent than you or anything like that. it has your personality and body down to a T

🌂 somehow you both know all of the above. maybe instinctually, maybe the way the doppelganger came into existence (like touching a magic mirror with known properties) means that you know

🌂 what do you do? is your doppelganger trustworthy?

🌂 does your answer change if your doppelganger has a few handy supernatural abilites that you do not? for example: resilience to damage, an amorphous body or agelessness?

cw for discussion of murder, suicide, etc. obviously in a fictional setting.

This is going to sound bad, but I don't really have a strong desire to keep living. like, I'm not going to kill myself now or ever; I plan on living my life to the fullest and to a ripe old age, and all that. but like if a magic mirror came down and said you'll die in 28 days... in some sense, them's the breaks. bummer. idk.

so like. I think I'm more averse to killing than being removed from existing, and so I think for us the answer would be pretty obviously that original kaia goes to work and lives life, and tries to be there for mirror kaia. And mirror kaia enjoys 28 days of party time doing whatever i want so long as it won't cause problems for original kaia. (eg, no leaving a criminal record).

if mirror kaia wants to kill real kaia at the end of those 28 days she's welcome to ig but I don't think they would. i would like to be there for her at the end though. picnic in a nice peaceful place.

if one of us has superpowers (in such a way that they could be a benefit to society and not a danger, i think) then yeah i think normal kaia is beefing it in a polite and caring way and there's mutual agreement on that. same 28 day thing, but superpowers kaia has to find a way to hide a clone body I guess. and we have to be really niceys about killing me.

unfortunately this is peak k5-25 situation. (n.b. k5-25 is the name i adopted on the evening of may 25 20..22? when i decided i was quitting tumblr and queued a bunch of posts for the rest of eternity so i (kaia who was posting on 5-25 and sad about quitting tumblr) would live forever, unlike 'the rest of you shmucks who die when you go to sleep'. as sort of a sacrificial effigy that would keep kaia (real) off of tumblr. as u can see it didn't work but it worked for some months until k5-25 started posting cringe and i had to kill her (delete her posts). the point is tumblr account @kaiasky would belong to whichever of us is ceasing in 28 days and they get to k5-25post about it. i think i'd pull a page from the harrowhark book and show up on my last day with a stack of a thousand letters with opening conditions on them i think that'd be a nice way to be remembered by myself.

#cw suicidal ideation #cw suicide #thanks for the ask!

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brandwhorestarscream · 4 months

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Lets begin with this.

Your earthspark-morph AU is amazing. It flows so well with Dotties character and the whole idea that we never really get told why she's missing her leg; just that it was lost in battle. Also? Megs 100% would offer her a spot in the hive after that. Like, she saved 2 of his kids. The least he can do is offer her protection against the autobots, who are now undoubtedly going to kill her if she returns from the hive.

Also? I feel like the first thing that would happen after Dot and Megs negotiations would be Dot asking for Megs side of the war story. Cause she's definitely heard the Autobots side (Cons wanna take over the planet; they're all evil scum; experiment on bots for fun; yadda yadda.) She's seen all the propaganda. But she's military; she knows that's what it is. So she wants to know the other sides version. Something she would never be able to ask if not for the unique circumstances.

She learns the horrors of how morphs are treated; how the Autobots intended genocide is what kickstarted the war in the first place.

Shes shook.

Hey I'm glad you liked it!

The bots aren't gonna kill Dot tho. Why would they? It's not like they know she tried to stop the eggs from being smashed, and getting kidnapped by cybermorphs isn't exactly a crime

She is eventually gonna want to return to the surface. She has her whole life up there, family that she loves and friends she adores and a dream job as a park ranger to someday get to

She is with the hive for awhile, tho. The medical team stabilizes her, and manages to perform a proper amputation surgery to minimize the damage. It takes them awhile to make her an acceptable prosthetic: the perfect blend of cybertronian tech and cloned material harvested from her, allowing her to experience a sense of touch in her replacement limb. It moves with such precision the individual toes can wiggle. It's an engineering marvel, but ofc takes a bit of time to be fine tuned and ready for continuous use

While she's down there, she gets to know the morphs. They're... frighteningly familiar. They're so much like the autobots, so much like people, it's a wonder she had ever thought of them as monsters. They're... just people that look different. That's literally it. They laugh and have inside jokes and are actually rather affectionate with each other. They all have their place in their massive family, and the hivemind is a marvel. They don't even need to talk to each other to communicate! They treat her very well, grateful that she protected their unhatched siblings.

Speaking of said siblings! Megatron's jealously guarding them in the throne room, tucked safely in two honeycomb-like shells under constant watch from the praetorians and the queen himself. Dot is given permission to see them when she speaks with Megatron, who's also a lot more... docile, almost? Than she would have expected. Previously she'd only seen him in battle, where he was downright savage and acted entirely without mercy. But when he's comfortably at home in his hive, watching over his two eggs... he's much more quiet than she ever could have imagined. It's strange to think of him as peaceful, but that's all that really comes to mind seeing him relaxed in his throne and gently stroking the precious eggshells.

He agrees to let her return home once her leg has been fixed up. He's not keen on just letting a strange alien join his hive, though for now she is a welcome guest. He has no interest in keeping her as a pet or a companion or an unwilling prisoner. But in the days before she's ready to leave, they visit often. They talk. He tells her about his children, both living and dead. She confides in him about how she'd like to have children of her own someday but worries she never will. She asks about the war, eventually, why it started, and is shocked and horrified to hear about how awful Cybertron was for the less fortunate. Slavery isn't exactly that far away in humanity's past, and there's still inequalities based around something as trivial as "frame type" and "skin color". She can barely wrao her head around the idea of the good and honest autobots being slave drivers. She can't imagine the morphs living their entire lives in quarantine because they were considered dangerous and dirty. And then hearing that the fighting started because of an unprovoked bombing in sn attempt to genocide them--it's all too much. She's sick to her stomach, hearing all of that--those are the kinds of people she's been working with? That the government and humans as a whole were so happy to back and support?

Needless to say, when she leaves, she has every intention to resign from working with the bots, but only after giving them a piece of her mind (and maybe also blowing the whistle on them, idk I'm just rambling at this point)

#cybermorph au #dot malto #megatron

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quirkless-accident · 2 years

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For Am when he discover his student Elle is Phantom ( Danny as teachsr) clone

" Elle ! What where you thinking ? ! That was dangerous! Sometimes I wonder who do you take after!" said Phantom while scolding Elle

" I take after you! I was created by your DNA! If you forgot I am your clone!!" Screamed Elle

".......sometimes I forgot " said Phantom

All Migth who was listening " SAY WHAT? WHO IS THE CLONE OF WHO ??"

All Might stopped abruptly outside of the teacher's lounge. He had been on his way to grade his papers. Usually there was nobody inside this time of day, but it seemed that a very lively couple of people were inside, now.

And they weren't in the least bit quiet.

"Seriously, Elle, that was incredibly dangerous!" Phantom was saying. That was strange, though. Phantom never raised his voice. In all the years he's known the young hero, he's never heard him yell. Not even on the battlefield.

"It's fine, Danny," Elle Fenton huffed. All Might knew the two must be related somehow, what with their quirks, but they usually kept it professional at school so less questions were asked. It was strange to hear Danny arguing with his family so heatedly.

"Just-you could have gotten killed, Elle. I need you to be more careful," Danny's voice was calmer, though just barely. He could practically see the tension leaving his shoulders as he says, "Geez, sometimes I wonder who you take after."

"I take after you!" Elle shouts at him. "Remember? I was cloned from your DNA, Danny! If anybody is to blame for my attitude it's you."

"Right..." Danny said tiredly. "Sometimes I forget."

All Might has said over and over that a true hero buts into problems they have no business being in.

That's the excuse he tells himself when he opens the door.

Danny is rubbing his temples as he leans against the coffee counter, while Elle is slumped in a chair across from him, arms slumped and looking absolutely murderous. When he steps in, both of them stiffen and look at him.

All Might can't lie to save his life, especially when faced with someone as perceptive as Danny, so he doesn't even try.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused," he starts off, closing the door behind him. "Who's the clone of who?"

"Shit," Danny and Elle say in unison. It's almost scary how alike they are, now that they're next to each other. Both have the same slump in their shoulders, the same nervous ticks, the same way their eyes scan for an exit before remembering they can walk through walls.

"Should have had this conversation at home," Elle says, shooting Danny a look. Danny shoots her the same look back, and All Might suddenly feels dizzy from how exact they look. The same sharp nose and jaws, the same furrow in their brows, the same roll of their eyes. It's a staredown, and if it weren't for the fact that Elle was a bit younger, he would have thought they were looking in a mirror.

"Don't sass me," Danny tells her before turning to All Might. "It's a long story."

"An evil billionaire megalomaniac tried to make a clone of Danny since he wouldn't be his son or apprentice," Elle says bluntly. Danny shoots her another look, but she's pointedly ignoring him. "I'm his clone. Not his cousin or sister or whatever we decided to go with."

"That is...A lot to take in," All Might tells them after a few moments of trying to wrap his head around that face. She's being completely honest. Her words were said with a conviction that only honesty can provide, and it makes a frighteningly large amount of sense. Sure, family can show resemblance, but it's scary how much these two are alike. Outside of looks, all of their mannerisms are the same, and it's really quite fascinating to look at. "How is that possible? I've never heard of any cloning attempts that were successful."

"It almost wasn't," Danny says, suddenly more serious than he had been a second ago. Elle is also eerily quiet now. "There was a lot of complications, but we managed to get Elle stabilized before we took the guy out. We destroyed any evidence of the cloning equipment and registered her as my sister." Danny turned his gaze from the floor to All Might. His eyes pinned All Might in his place, and Danny, in this moment, looked much older than he was. There were stress and worry lines crisscrossing over his face as his frown deepened. He was being completely serious, a rare look for the young hero. "I need you to keep this to yourself, All Might. Nezu already knows, but otherwise don't breathe a word of it, okay? I don't need Elle getting taken by the Commission or the Guys in White or something."

"You have my word," All Might said without hesitation. After all, he knew how the weight of such a secret could affect the world. Danny and Elle relaxed considerably. Had they really thought he'd say no? Maybe scream it from the rooftops or post on hero forums? Still, though, Danny was looking more like his usual self as his frown lessened.

"Thanks, All Might."

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dani phantom #dani fenton #all might #toshinori yagi #mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no academia

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Uncle Ben and Little Luke

AKA we combine several types of time travel for maximum Soft Chaos, let’s go

EDIT NOW THAT I’VE WRITTEN THIS UP: jfc this ended up much angstier than initially intended uhhhhhhhhhh sorry

So a common enough thing I’ve seen in time travel fics is characters getting de-aged when tossed back physically, to neither the age they should be in that time, nor the age they were from the time they left, but whatever is most convenient. This is usually de-aging OT Obi-Wan into his TCW self, for reasons relating to, chiefly, removing the damage of Tatooine absolutely destroying his body alongside PTSD-driven alcoholism, but also because fic writers are horny, and Ewan McGregor playing a late-thirties negotiator is on average more appealing to people than Alec Guinness playing a vaguely feral desert hermit.

So, here’s how it plays out:

We take Luke and Ben from some point in the OT. There are a variety of options depending on how angsty we want it to be. My first instinct is ‘right after Owen and Beru die’ but I want to have that sweet angst where Luke knows that his dad is Vader and that Obi-Wan was trying to convince him to kill his own father without telling him that.

We’ll go with shortly after Bespin, and then they end up significantly before TPM. The Obi-Wan of the timeline proper is, eh, let’s say eighteen. Not really ready to be a knight, but old enough that we don’t have to worry about “if we go save Shmi, do we somehow wipe out Anakin?” which is absolutely a worry. Anakin is a toddler, and is in no place to be evil, on account of being literally two years old. He can’t even explode people with his brain yet.

Now, Ben finds himself mid-thirties, as is traditional. He’s not upset at this, because his joints hurt so much less than they used to! His knees aren’t exactly teenage-perfect, but by the Force are they better than they were in the years before he died! His hair has color! He doesn’t have arthritis! And, goodness, no physical withdrawal symptoms! The psychological aspect is still there, but nonetheless, he’s in much better shape than he last remembers being.

Luke looks like he’s about six. He was recently twenty-two. This is not an upgrade. Ben keeps having to carry him. He can’t see over the counter when they enter a bar for information. He can’t enter the bar in the first place. He’s very annoyed by all of this.

Ben is not annoyed. Ben is having a lot of emotions, actually, but annoyance isn’t one of them. He didn’t get to help raise Luke the way he might have if Anakin hadn’t lost his shit, okay, he sees a small Luke and he wants to hug him and cry.

Luke would like to be able to purchase a speeder part without the lady at the stall asking him if he needs his “dad’s” permission.

Once they figure out when and where they are, they need to decide where and how to leave. There are general shenanigans to gamble their way into enough money to hire a ship. They are in the ass end of nowhere, but definitely not Tatooine. There appears to be a jungle. There appears to be a significant variety of man-eating creatures. There appears to be a temple to the Force of questionable origin. None of this is actually helpful, except for the moment they find a “baby’s first lightsaber” in the temple.

Luke only has one hand and, being a six-year-old, his body is growing too fast for him to bother with getting a wired-in prosthesis the way he could as an adult. He can get a more basic prosthesis, but nothing that attaches to the neurons. He’ll outgrow it too fast.

He’s tiny and he’s not used to doing things with just one hand. He uses the Force to do what one hand can't, and every time someone tries to tell him he's misusing the Force he whaps them with the empty sleeve.

So, you know, they find out what year it is. Ben has a breakdown. Luke is upset that he left behind his friends. Ben admits to him that Leia was his twin. Luke stares in horror because dude, she kissed him, you couldn’t have mentioned this earlier???

Ben points out that Beru and Owen were keeping Luke away from him for nineteen years, and then they had about three days of awkward travel to find Leia in the first place, and then Ben died. He didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out how to tell him.

(This sparks an argument that lasts several days. All onlookers assume that Ben’s son is throwing a tantrum. He doesn’t correct them, even though this is a very valid reason to be upset, because the truth is much harder to explain.)

Sooooo they travel. Mostly, Ben plays Sabacc, cleans house, and pays their way towards Coruscant. Luke still really wants to learn to be a Proper Jedi, even though Ben is pretty sure that Luke would have... a lot of difference of opinion with the Temple, but sure. Coruscant. They can at least stop by, and see Qui-Gon, and Mace, and Quinlan, and Bant, and everyone else that’s still alive and not tragically deceased in the horror following the start of the Clone Wars and then the birth of the Empire, and Ben can have a nice sob over all his dead friends being alive again.

Ben is only barely holding it together while Luke is in the room with him at any given point. But it’s fine! It’s fine. He’s fine. All of his loved ones have come back to life! It’s great! HE’S FINE.

He is not fine.

Luke is also grieving all the people who haven’t been born yet, but he’s... significantly more okay than Ben is.

The closer they get to the Core, the more often people just assume Ben is Luke’s father, and then look shocked and uncomfortable when Luke flatly calls him by his name, and they just... compromise. This is the point at which Luke starts calling him “Uncle Ben.”

Ben cries in his bunk later that night. Luke overhears it and wonders how the HELL Ben is more unstable now, when there’s a chance to fix things and no Vader or Empire trying to kill or capture both of them, and all his friends are alive.

(Luke will later learn a lot about PTSD and realize this is actually a fairly normal situation, to process significant events and emotions only after gaining safety or catharsis.)

(Twenty years on a ball of sand with an alcohol addiction and debilitating fear of the man you raised as your own brother is not, in fact, safe or cathartic.)

At any rate, they’ve settled into that pattern by the time they reach the Inner Rim. The Inner Rim is the part of the galaxy at which they’ve collected enough money (and mental stability) to travel a little better, and to take a few more risks.

Risks like “manipulate people with those baby blues.”

Ben tells Luke that he’s a menace, after he pouts so cutely that he gets a free scarf added on to a purchase that Ben makes. Luke responds that Ben has no room to talk, since he flirted a free breakfast out of that one inn owner.

Also, Luke is currently physically six. That is objectively a situation that sucks. He deserves to use it for all it’s worth if he’s stuck like this.

“You know, if you keep wearing all-black and looking longingly at the velvet cape and Space Chanel boots, the temple is going to worry that you’re a darksider.”

“Uncle Ben... you told me, yesterday, that I sparkle so brightly in the Force that it’s almost blinding.”

“Yes, but the gloves--”

They don’t agree on this, but Ben relents. He does actually understand good fashion, unfortunately, and he’s not unaware of how much Leia taught Luke about such things.

Luke’s about forty years ahead of the curve, of course, but Skywalkers are prone to such things. It’s usually in regards to technology, granted, but...

They get to Coruscant. Ben is very obviously a Jedi. He knows all the right words and walks like a Soresu master and feels warm and comforting in the Force. They let him in with minimal questions. They note down “my first padawan left the order to have a child, but died shortly after; I consider Luke here to be my nephew, and have raised him as such,” and move on.

Luke is vaguely annoyed because he already had an uncle (and aunt) that raised him, but he admits that a person can have more than one uncle. He can live with this. Ben was more family to Anakin than Owen was, in some ways, so it’s kind of true. Luke is even working on feeling more childish affection for Ben instead of the complicated mess of emotions that come from being lied to about some very large and important subjects, and then seeing the person saying those lies have regular emotional breakdowns due to something as small as Luke saying he likes the curve of the hull on that freighter.

(Apparently he sounds just like his father did as a child. This is almost heartwarming.)

The thing is! The thing. The thing is, they almost make it to the Halls of Healing to get looked over for weird viruses, or Outer Rim Parasites, or whatever the hells needs to be happening. They almost make it without Ben having a flashback to dead younglings or brainwashed troopers or the declaration of a Sith Empire. They almost make it without incident.

Then Ben sees Qui-Gon, and freezes, and does not move again.

Luke cannot get him to restart.

People are staring.

They haven’t even made it to Medical, Uncle Ben, come on.

Young, local Obi-Wan comes over and asks if there’s something he can do to help. Or maybe this “Ben” knows Qui-Gon? Master Jinn doesn’t recognize Ben, but maybe Luke knows more?

Luke does know more, but what Luke actually says is “he probably needs a mind healer.”

(Ben will not appreciate this.)

(Ben is unfortunately standing in the middle of the hallway and completely unresponsive, and is unable to argue with this assertion.)

(Ben is pretty much proving this assertion entirely correct, actually.)

Obi-Wan is helpful, if a little bitchy in the manner of most late-teens individuals, and offers to help get Uncle Ben down to the Halls of Healing. It involves Obi-Wan gently pushing on Ben’s shoulders, and Qui-Gon offering to carry Luke so he can be in Ben’s sights (because Ben is a Mystery, and Qui-Gon is quite fond of those, so he wants to stay involved). Ben kind of just... shuffles on down.

There are medical tests. They ask about how Luke lost his hand. He refuses to talk about it. They ask how Ben got all his scars. Luke says he doesn’t know. They ask if he knows why Ben looks like he’s been through a war. Luke says it’s because he probably was.

They check for foreign viruses. They find evidence of thus-far-unpatented vaccinations. They ask Luke if he knows what he’s vaccinated for.

“How would I know? I’m six.”

They agree that this is a good excuse.

(It is not. He’s lying. They do not know this.)

They do some more tests. They find a lot of questionable medical bullshit in Ben’s body. Most of this is from the clone wars, but they don’t know this. Someone realizes they haven’t gotten a ping back from the Shadow Network regarding “do we have permission to pull the medical file of a Jedi that isn’t in the normal database? We’re assuming you know who he is, since we don’t.”

The Shadow Network does not know who Ben is.

The healers, of course, go “huh, that’s weird, but maybe the name he gave his nephew was fake. We can’t exactly ask ‘Ben’ for more details right now. We already had to sedate him. Let’s check the DNA!”

The DNA pulls up as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The padawan who brought this guy in two hours ago.

“Huh, that’s weird. Let’s call in Kenobi and ask if he knows what’s going on.”

Obi-Wan absolutely does not know what’s going on.

They ask Luke.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he says, lying through his teeth and not even pretending otherwise.

“You’re not a very good liar,” teenage Obi-Wan tells him.

“I’m not trying to be,” Luke says. “Can you get Master Yoda? I feel like we’re going to need him.”

They normally wouldn’t get Yoda on the request of a six-year-old, but they also normally don’t have a catatonic thirty-something Jedi who looks like he’s been through a war popping up in the medical database as the pimply teenage padawan that broke his pinky trying to do a Badass Ataru Flip last week.

Or... whatever Luke i... is... oh dear.

“Young one,” Qui-Gon asks, while people whisper-shout behind him, not realizing he’s cutting the Correlian Knot and just asking the kid himself. “Do you know why your midichlorian count is so high? It’s almost unheard of.”

“Uncle Ben said my dad was the Chosen One,” Luke says, because he is capable of being a little shit and is actually really eager to let Ben deal with some of the fallout. He feels for the man, really, but he’s also tired of being the one to field every single question.

Also, the expressions that pass on Qui-Gon’s face are hilarious.

(Luke may or may not be more affected by his six-year-old brain than he would like to admit.)

“Thank you,” Qui-Gon says, sounding more than a little strangled about it.

It takes another three hours for Ben to wake up.

He listens to the questions. He hears what they say his ‘nephew’ said. He looks at Luke.

“Is this revenge for not telling you about Leia?”

“It’s not revenge,” Luke does not lie. “I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“It’s pretty easy to explain.”

“It’s not my secret.”

“This is revenge for the Leia thing.”

“No,” Luke says. “Revenge for the Leia thing was when I ate a live frog in front of you.”

This is the point at which someone interrupts and points out that they appear to be stalling.

“Oh, he is,” Luke tells them. He gestures at Ben. “I can’t tell you more, because it’s more his story than mine.”

“I’m afraid, Master, that I am very likely to have an emotional breakdown if I allow myself to consider the reality of this situation for longer than the fraction of a second I already have,” Ben reports, full of false cheer. “Suffice to say, I am far from stable and have only held out this far for Luke’s sake.”

“Can you explain why you have my DNA?” Obi-Wan asks, as the person who’s most concerningly involved in this situation.

“You can,” Ben says, smiling like there is absolutely nothing wrong in the slightest, ever. “I’m you, from the future. I actually died and spent a few years dead before coming back. I’m not sure why I’m younger than I was when I died, but I appreciate being able to put on my shoes without my knees attempting to mutiny.”

“He needs a mind healer,” Luke reiterates, in case the strained grin hasn’t made it clear. “So do I, but not as much.”

“I have felt literally every person in this Temple save for Luke and Yoda die,” Ben reports, looking a shade more manic than a few seconds earlier. “It’s very overwhelming to feel you all being alive again. I may be approaching a mental breakdown, and I’ve been rather strictly advised against using alcohol to treat my traumas again.”

Luke kicks him in the thigh. It’s not a very hard kick, because he is very small, and he does actually like Ben. “I’m not letting you turn into an old drunk again.”

After several seconds of silence, a healer quietly suggests that everyone clear the room, and asks if someone could fetch Master Yoda as the youngling requested.

(THIS IS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND WORDS. I started it less than two hours ago. Why am I like this.)

#Ben Kenobi #Obi Wan Kenobi #Luke Skywalker #Qui Gon Jinn #Time Travel #De Aging #Phoenix Posts #Uncle Ben and Little Luke

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pluckyredhead · 2 years

Text

Character Profile: Match

No one asked for this one, but I’m doing it because a) I want to, b) dude only has, like, 40 in-continuity appearances so it’s easy, and c) I might be writing fic about him in the near future and I want to prime the pump. So!

Match is a clone of Conner Kent/Kon-El, the 90s Superboy, and first appeared in Kon’s solo book. Basically, Kon was created by shady geneticists at Cadmus Labs, who cloned Superman without his knowledge or consent. After this was discovered, the shady people were ousted, whereupon they formed a new shady lab, The Agenda, and cloned their clone to create Match. He may or may not have a bellybutton.

Match has been designed to be sold as a super soldier, and is thus stronger and more durable than Kon, as well as programmed with more extensive knowledge than Kon had when he first came out of the test tube. Kon’s less troubled by that than by the fact that they’re treating a person like he’s property, but Match is unbothered:

Kon, being a very good and sweet boy, tries to get Match to see that a) he’s as human as anyone else and b) they’re basically brothers, but Match isn’t having it. They fight, the bad guys’ base explodes, and Match refuses to let Kon save him, leading to his presumed death in a nuclear explosion.

Of course, he’s not actually dead...

Match next appears in Young Justice during the “Sins of Youth” event, where it’s revealed that he took Kon’s place on the team several issues prior and no one noticed. (No one comments on the fact that he’s supposed to be dead, but I guess they’re all used to living in a comic book universe by now.)

Omg these BABIES. They were so little!

You can see that Match has a much more relaxed, colloquial way of speaking than he did the last time we saw him. This is the beginning of a trend: every time Match shows up in a new book, he has a completely different personality than the last time. Before, he was a compliant and robotic; now he’s a sassy enforcer.

(It’s later revealed that Match used a hologram to disguise himself as Kon, which is hilarious because, sweetie, you could have just dyed your hair. Either way, the black hair is here to stay.)

Match continues to not do very much through the remained of Superboy and Young Justice - the Agenda kills Kon’s first love, Tana Moon, during “Sins of Youth,” but Match has already bailed by then and isn’t really complicit, and he shows up during the “Joker’s Last Laugh” event as a Jokerized version of himself, but the whole team thinks he’s just Kon playing a particularly unfunny prank and ignores him until he goes away. (This is the start of his crush on Cassie, though.)

He next shows up in the 2000s Teen Titans run as part of the Titans East, a team of evil Titan counterparts brought together by Slade, and as promised, he’s completely different than both of his previous iterations:

Yeah, he’s a bizarro now, which annoys me so much. Bizarros are created via a specific process! Any clone of a Kryptonian is not automatically a bizarro! If that were true, Kon would be a bizarro! UGH. Geoff Johns, grow an imagination, please.

Anyway yeah, Match is in a bunch of issues of Teen Titans but he doesn’t do anything except be a bizarro and be in love with Cassie, because her entire existence has been reduced to being an object of desire. I hate this series so much.

However, I do enjoy that it put Match on the same team as Bart’s evil clone, Inertia, because I ship the crap out of them.

The Titans East are eventually defeated, and because Match is too powerful to leave running around free, his body is taken over by Joey Wilson, a.k.a. Jericho, a.k.a. Deathstroke’s son who can possess people and keeps going back and forth between being good and evil. This is actually super fucked up under any circumstances, and I like to believe that Kon, who argued so firmly for Match’s personhood and freedom when they met, wouldn’t have been okay with it if he had been alive at the time. But the Titans are fine with it, I guess?

A little bit later, Match attacks the Titans (the grownup ones, not the Teens), while a panicked Joey explains that he can’t control him anymore:

Everyone looking real unfortunate here.

It’s eventually revealed that Jericho is playing them: he’s the one in control, and Match is the terrified prisoner. Because yeah, that’s what possession is! Ugh this is so dumb. I’m not saying that Match is a nice person or anything, but human rights are still human rights, Titans.

Jericho leaves Match’s body and causes havoc, Match is basically forgotten, and the next time we see him, um. He’s been killed by Superboy-Prime and his DNA has been harvested to create three more evil Kon clones, all of whom are promptly killed by Damian and Rose, because it’s not murder if they’re a clone...? AGAIN, I THINK KON WOULD RAISE SOME OBJECTIONS HERE. I mean, he’s there and he doesn’t. But he should!

This is pretty much how things were left with Match by the time the New 52 kicked off a month or so later. Kon is a completely different character with a completely different backstory, so there’s no Match...

...until this year, when he turned up on the Suicide Squad, of all places, with - you guessed it - a completely different personality!

That’s a bit of a spoiler (sorry), because when the series begins, the reader is meant to believe that this is the real Superboy:

He certainly believes himself to be the real deal, even though he has almost complete amnesia regarding his past life and how he ended up in kryptonite shackles. (It’s established that he has the same bomb in his head to control him that the rest of the Squad does, presumably laced with kryptonite I guess?)

“Superboy” is fully the boy scout you’d expect him to be: he defies orders to save lives, pulls his teammates back from unnecessary cruelty, and when they’re sent to kidnap a rookie Teen Titan named Bolt, he helps her escape instead. But he becomes increasingly concerned by his amnesia, and by the fact that a teammate with psychic powers, Nocturna (another character who is completely different every time she shows up), says there’s something very wrong with his mind. During a particularly stressful mission to Earth-3, he starts to “fracture,” and an alarmed Waller tells the team to get him back to base now for his “medicine.”

But then the real Superboy shows up:

Yeah, Kon heard about the whole Teen Titans kidnapping attempt and shows up to figure out what the hell is going on, since he knows he’s definitely not on the Suicide Squad. Match, distressed by this revelation, breaks down even further:

Meanwhile, the Squad finds a massive cloning facility full of yet more Superboy clones. Turns out Waller picked up where the Agenda left off, and the “medicine” she’s been giving Match keeps him looking and speaking more like Kon, but also fucks with his memory. Match refuses another dose when it’s offered to him.

Kon, who recognizes Match from the previous continuity (Infinite Frontier is a mindfuck, just roll with it), gently reminds Match of who the Agenda is and promises that he and the League will help Match and ensure that Waller faces justice. But just then, one of Waller’s failsafes kicks in, and the Squad is teleported to another dimension against their will.

MATCH JUST WANTS TO BE GOOD!!! KON IS TRYING SO HARD TO BE A GOOD BROTHER!!! I’M CRYING!!!

Since this issue, Match has remained on the Suicide Squad, since he can’t really leave, what with the bomb in his head and all. He's been taking a variation on the serum that allows him to think clearly and retain his memories, but leaves him looking like a bizarro. He and most of his teammates are secretly trying to figure out a way to escape the Squad, and he and Nocturna have begun a romantic relationship, which is a little weird for me since a couple continuities ago she was Jason Todd’s adoptive mother, but oh well.

I’ve liked Match since his original incarnation, but this version is my favorite. I didn’t like turning him into a bizarro, but this adds so much nuance and pathos to him. It’s also more in keeping with the original Bizarro, who generally means well even as he’s causing chaos. I also love that we’ve returned to a version of Kon who genuinely cares about his clone, and shows such grace and compassion to him (honestly, more than Clark showed Kon, which might be part of why Kon tries so hard with Match). And just think how excited Jon will be to get yet another new big brother!

I’m given to understand that there is a Match on the Young Justice cartoon. I know nothing about him. But look at the Tiny Titans version!!!

I lied, this version is my favorite.

Like I said, I ship Match very hard with Inertia, and I have fic planned with them, but so far all I can give you is a cameo in Say It Just One Time. HOWEVER, @irolltwenties has written them here and here and you should absolutely read both fics immediately.

Next up: Inertia, obviously!

#match #superboy #suicide squad #character profiles

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dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 3 years

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This may be a minor gripe but something that has kind of bothered me about discussions and depictions of Dan is how often people seem to forget that Dan isn't just an older evil Danny, he's a combination of Danny and Vlad's ghost sides. Like people always talk about him like Danny threw away his humanity and turned evil but that's not even true. Sure, we can say that Dan is the result of Danny's action but that's a little unfair. (1/2)

(2/2) Him cheating on a test, coincidentally putting his loved one's in a position where they could be killed, is absolutely not his fault. Letting Vlad take away his ghost powers with a strange contraption might not have been the smartest move, but we are talking about a grieving CHILD here, of course he isn't going to make the best decisions. If anything Vlad's the one to blame here, and even then, it's not like he could predict what happened

---

you aren't wrong, my friend. it really isn't entirely danny's fault and the whole 'if you cheat on a test, you'll loose everything you love' moral is confused at best. i think as fandom we find it more interesting to look at danny's potential evil and moral struggle with himself. so simplifying it to be dan is a worse case scenario of danny makes the conflict less abstract.

particularly because when it comes to self blame danny isn't going to go easy on himself just because it was excusable mistakes.

i think another talking point should be how danny is the target of the time assassination more than vlad is, even though vlad is part of the evil whole. you could argue that danny is the catalyst of his friends death and vlad inventing the claw things. but vlad invented the claw things. maybe because his human side survived and acted relatively harmless from then on? or maybe it's because the observants based on the available evidence recognized danny as more of a threat. i think that fits actually, for all vlad tried to be an evil mastermind, his achievements outside of terrorizing a teenager and theft isn't particularly impressive. danny was the one who got shit done. all his fights he finished one way or another and i could see how that would bleed into dan defeating everyone.

the real question is how to we fix this. ideally we could shape this idea so it's less confused, though i do honestly find the dynamic of half danny, half vlad interesting. if for not other reason. than two half ghosts make a whole. actually that's something else to be said about dan. his self-loathing is what led him to killing his human half, another negative aspect coming from danny.

i wonder if we could frame it like fusion, from su. obviously dan isn't stable or healthy, or based on love. he's most comparable to malichite. but with less internal debate. dan took the best and worst of both of them. danny's determination, danny's fighting ability, danny's anger, danny's sarcasm, vlad's anger, vlads lack of morals, vlads schemes, vlad's control. heck, vlads desire to rule the world. i don't think we ever got that from danny.

maybe if vlad was more involved in the fight with dan it could have been used as an opportunity to compare and contrast their characters. to go we're not so different you and i. danny gets to recognize that he has that dark potential. vlad gets to be humbled by the fact that what he wants isn't good for anyone, especially himself. and to be fair, we do see some of that humbling with future vlad, but none of that character growth is given to present vlad, so, really it's just another vehicle for danny angst. it also depends on what you want to do with vlad though. he's a fascinating character and could be given redemption under the right circumstances or be a character who has the opportunity for redemption but chooses not to be redeemed every time.

that fits him and makes him both a more pathetic and despicable villain. it's hard to pity someone who ignores the opportunities to heal and grow.

as for danny, he becomes far more aware of the consequences his actions, especially his selfish and cruel ones can have. because that potential was always there. he has a history of abusing his powers. perhaps for this specific incident him abusing his powers can be something less understandable than almost cheating on a test that he couldn't study for through no fault of his own. (maybe i just have flexible morals?). maybe it could be something more character relevant, like he did something particularly vlad like, maybe he set up a prank at the nasty burger to get dash but it set off the explosion that killed his family. or maybe he did something particularly cruel and manipulative. there are better catalysts than a test. either way he recognized that he should never go that far again and strive to avoid being actively cruel.

he also has the opportunity to recognize that vlad does have a human half, even the one he's fighting everyday. he can face some conflict in it's not entirely clear what trait belongs to vlad and what trait belongs to him. he can empathize with vlad and he can recognize that situations aren't always in black in white. those who fly the highest, fall the hardest, after all.

it can be a growing experience. and while making it solely a danny goes bad and learns not to do evil kind of story. maybe we could cut vlad from the equation and just have danny face himself, full evil refection. i think exploring both vlad and danny through this fusion is far more interesting. especially because we can build on what's revealed about vlad in these episodes, in later ones. danny sees a future where vlad chills and that maybe his vlad could get their. later he see vlads past and what he lost to become who he is.

and then there's vlads turning point episodes. i don't know when motherly instinct took place but maddie fully recognizing he's a bastard and rejection him, was a turning point for his sanity, and danny helped it along. then we have danny rejecting him repeatedly, then we the clone episode, which we can all agree was a desperate move on his part, that danny once again thwarted. and we can all agree that this was the cannon turning point for his character where he stopped fighting for a family and started trying to be danny's villain. in that episode, i think danny could potentially pity vlad enough to try and reach out. he's not going to justify what vlad did and he's not going to apologize for stopping him. he went too far. he hurt danny and dani, he crossed a moral line that can't be justified even with his desperation. but if he changes...

he lost this time but if he changes, maybe they'll reach the point where they're ready to accept him.

i think the same thing could be said about his relationship with jack and maddie. if he changes, if he reaches out. if acts like less of a crazy fruitloop, his friends would be there for him. jack is still trying to be there for him, even if he's being oblivious about vlad's faults. vlads the one driving wedges into his relationships and pushing everyone away.

and that's so freaking human and understandable.it would be such a cool thing to explore with his character.

i could also see a potential arc where after valerie finds out vlad and masters are the same person she tries to get close to him, both to sus out how evil he is and to understand him as a halfa. afterall danny got her to acknowledge dani as human enough, the same would apply to vlad/plasmius, right? only he's a bad person and the more she uncovers about vlad masters the man, the more she realizes it's not the ghost half that's evil. but this is a double edged sword because, vlad is getting attached to her and encouraging her to be more evil. he's encouraging her to go darker and darker in her fight against ghosts and her fight specifically against phantom. to the point where she finally draws the line and says, i'm not doing that! boom exploring the moral ambiguity of her character and getting her to take a hard stance on her morals, because there's a line too far for her.

and boom a further breakdown of vlads character because he finally had someone outside the fentons to redeem him. she could have helped pull him out of the hole he'd been digging himself into. she wanted to help him. he got attached to her, but he and his bad decisions decided to dig himself deeper instead. so once again he's 'abandoned and betrayed'.

from that point, i think it'd be time for him to finally face jack head on. not through manipulative schemes. not through veiled threats and insults. but the full confrontation of 'i always hated you. you ruined my life. you're the reason i lost everything'. which is really just his own self loathing speaking. and jack... empathetic jack can see that vlad desperately wants help. and jack would offer it to him. jack would try to hug it out and apologize and give vlad the love and friendship vlad's been fighting to steal this whole time.

and vlad would reject it.

he'd probably lash out a jack and go into a full breakdown/world destroying attack. could finally put the stolen crown to use and try declaring himself king and embracing his megalomaniac thing and actually be a threat this time. and THAT would be our series finally. everyone teaming up to fight 'king vlad'. danny probably finding out that he's technically king because he beat pariah dark but the matter being a bit confused because he had help. val and danny trying to find the ring of rage or at least find someone who can make one. secrets are out. i imagine vlad, upon revealing himself to jack would out danny to make danny as sad and alone as him. except nope, his family still loves him and val has had the character development to come around to him. (she's still gonna punch danny for lying for so long.) the ghosts will come and help because no one wants another tyrannical kind and vlads obviously off his rocker.

ah, the could have beens

anyway, i didn't mean for this to become a full vlad character analysis and rewrite when we were supposed to be talking about dan, but hey, i'm a simple creature. i like good writing, and i have to rewrite things myself, so be it. - Hestia

#dpjl #hestiawrites #danny phantom #vlad masters

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padawanlost · 3 years

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I have a couple of questions about Karen Miller/Traviss (are they the same person?) who wrote the Clone Wars novels. Are they still considered canon? Also, I heard that Karen Traviss was abused online or something, was that over her Star Wars novels? Really, I mean that just takes toxicity to a new level.

This is a hot topic but one that desperately needs to be explored because to this day people are still spreading misinformation about that happen as a way to ‘defend’ their points. So, here we go:

Karen Miller and Karen Traviss are not the same person.

Karen miller wrote novels like The Clone Wars: Wild Space and the Clone Wars Gambit series.

Karen Travis wrote novels like The Clone Wars movie novelization and the Republic Command Series.

Both, in my opinion, are very talented writers but both also suffered thanks to sexiest and overzealous fans. There are many reason why they became ‘infamous’ but the main reason is their political stance. They both had a lot of sympathy for the clones and the enslaves citizens of the GFFA, and both were not shy about calling out the Jedi Order and the Senate for their inaction. Of course, jedi stans hated them. To add insult to injury, Karen Traviss was the writer who ‘killed’ Mara Jade (btw, this wasn’t her idea but she’s still hated for it).

Karen Miller ‘crimes’:

Her biggest ‘offense’ was being mistaken by Karen Traviss (more on that later). Beyond that all she did was write Anidala and portraying Anakin and Obi-wan as good but flawed people. This is the kind of stuff she wrote:

“Coruscant was out there. Padmé was out there. There was a heart in his chest, beating, but it was only an echo. She was his true heart. She was his home.” - Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Siege

“He saw himself a candle. He saw himself behind a wall. Brick by brick he tried to raise it. Brick by brick, it was destroyed. Every death was a hammer blow. Every loss a chisel. The Sith were a wily foe, they knew where and when to strike. They were drawn to weak places, to old griefs and unhealed wounds.” - Karen Miller. The Clone Wars: Wild Space

To weep for a fallen comrade was to display unseemly attachment. A Jedi did not become attached to people, to things, to places, to any world or its inhabitants. A Jedi’s strength was fed by serenity. By distance. By loving impersonally. Karen Miller. The Clone Wars: Wild Space

Nothing particularly edgy or offensive. Imo, she’s one the best prequel writes in the game.

Karen Traviss ‘crimes’:

Beyond killing Mara Jade, she’s known for being critical of the Jedi and Republic and advocating for clone wars. She supported the highly offensive and controversial idea that clones were human being who deserved the freedom. She also believed that love (romantic or platonic), family and friends were not inherently evil and that Order made mistake by banning them.

Karen Trraviss is also know for writing so much of what we know of Mandalorian culture and she struck a nerve that too.

She wrote things like:

“The only thing [the clones] all had in common was their appearance—although they were starting to age differently, she could see that now—and what the Republic had done to them. Apart from that, they were individuals with the full range of virtues and habits of random humankind, and she now felt completely at home with them. If she had a side in this war, this was the one she chose: the disenfranchised, unreasonably loyal, heartbreakingly stoic ranks of manufactured men who deserved better.” Star Wars - Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss

Serenity, my backside. Passion. Passion and anger and love. That’s what this galaxy needs, not serenity. Passion for change. Anger at this brutality. Love-buckets of it, for everyone, love between child and parent, between spouses, between brothers and sisters, between friends. We need more attachment, not less. Attachment can stop us from tearing ourselves apart. The Clone Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss

He wanted to ask her why only a handful of Jedi objected to a slave army, and why they could claim to believe in the sanctity of all life and yet treat some life as being exempt from that respect. [REPUBLIC COMMANDO: TRUE COLORS BY KAREN TRAVISS[

Fandom (over)reaction:

Because of her ‘polemic’ takes, she started getting a lot of hate from the fandom. She used to interact with the fandom and her reward was to get constant death and rape threats. Some fans threatened her with ‘corrective rape’ to change her mind about the Jedi Order and other topics. Apparently, she responded by calling these fans ‘talifans’.

And the fans used that reaction to further vilify her. she was accused of hating the Jedi Order, of favoring Mandalore over them, getting the size of the clone army wrong, of ruining the OT by killing Mara Jade and now, of attacking fans. She was basically bullied out of the franchise.

However, her depictions of Clones and Mandalorians as heroes, while portraying the Jedi as petty or villainous, frustrated some fans, who felt that her stories and characters were counter to Star Wars. These fans wrote negative reviews of her books, and created a petition to George Lucas to stop Traviss from writing further Star Wars books. Traviss also received rape and death threats. Traviss wrote about these experiences on her blog, attacking the fans who created the petition, and likening them to Muslim extremists by calling them "Talifans." Traviss ultimately retired from Star Wars writing due to the threats she received. [x]

It got to point where she had to write an open letter to the fandom explaining she DIDN’T hate the Jedi Order, she just didn’t believe things like war crimes and slavery should be so easily overlooked.

“No sane human can hate someone who doesn’t actually exist. From a writer’s perspective, the more super-powers characters acquire, the harder it is to develop logical story arcs and true human drama…but I don’t have any real feelings about fictional characters that stay with me once I step out of character-point-of-view-writing mode and get on with my life […] My real problem, then, is not with fictional Jedi, but with the people who refuse to believe they can do wrong. – Karen traviss [x]

If you want to know more about this, check this out :)

Now, back to Karen Miller

A few years ago, a popular sw tumblr tried to discredit Traviss writing by spreading the info that she was a sexualizing Ahsoka with Bail so people started hating her for that too. Thing is, Karen Miller was the one accused of doing that but here is the deal:

Neither Karens ever wrote Ahsoka interacting with Bail Orgarna. What actually happened was that someone wrote a fic about Bail sexualizing Ahsoka on fanfiction.net, someone read it and decided the writing style was similar to Karen Miller’s so OF COURSE it must be Karen Miller who wrote the fanfic. Thanks to that genius level of deductive work, over the time people started saying that Karen Traviss wrote about Bail wanting to fuck Ahsoka as extra proof that SHE IS EVIL and should not be taken seriously.

Conclusion

Regardless of what you feel about someone writing, it’s NEVER okay to send them rape or death threats. Never! unfortunately, some hardcore jedi stans still spread the ‘karen traviss was attacking us’ without explaining exactly transpired between her and the fandom. According to their narrative, she was the *only* one in the wrong. That’s why there’s so much misinformation about her and what truly happened online.

My take on this ‘controversy’ is very simple: stop sending rape and death threats to women. I don’t care if you agree with her or not. The moment you believe a women *deserve* to be rape or killed, or support those who do, you lose any more ground you might think have. The situation becomes even more dire if it’s done to protect FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. 🤦‍♀️ I swear...this fandom....

#ask #englishlady #sw meta #sw fandom #karen traviss #txt #karen miller #meta: fandom

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hermitcraftheadcanons · 3 years

Text

Hermitopia AU Masterpost 1 [COMPLETE]

This is a gathering place for the events of the Hermitopia AU, as well as art and writing resulting from it (art and writing listed at the bottom). Please read the AU introduction and rules here before submitting! Feel free to join the discussions on the HCHC discord server!

(Disclaimer/PSA: All points are asks contributed by the community, the mods take no credit for the ideas within them)

If you would like specific credit in the masterpost, please sign within the text of the ask! (A dash and a signature at the end should do.) Asks not signed will be treated as anonymous.

Summary posts:

Not all elements of plot and character will be summarized, but here are a few basic things you may want to be familiar with before submitting an ask! (Unless you are purposely aiming to create an [ALTERNATE] idea for a Hermit)

1 - Starting positions and each Hermit's powers (based on the submissions from Day 1)

Summary post 2 - Interpersonal connections (based on Day 1 and 2 submissions)

Make sure to check out the second masterpost here for more up to date information, including newer art and writing!

Asks:

- (copied ask) [summarized mod comment]

- Hermitopia | Scar was experimented on by Cub. He gained dangerous powers and wings that resemble a dragon’s, but he keeps both hidden. Unless someone makes him angry. He has no idea who gave him his powers. Eventually he and Cub decided that they wanted to control things beyond their corporation, so Scar ran for mayor. (there are things to fill in but im lazy) [Scar assumes he got the powers in an accident during research. He enjoys having them but has no idea that they were intentional.]

- Hermitopia AU team ZIT is a superpowered crime-fighting trio!

- owing to a very particular set of guidelines he put in place, Joe can now copy powers if he sees them in use and can reverse-engineer how those powers are used. needless to say, this is massively overpowered in the right hands.but it got worse. at some point, there was an... incident... on ConCorp grounds, something to do with a mass amount of entities causing time dilation -- and Joe was caught in the thick of it, unable to be rescued for a while.the problem is, he got out by piecing together how the time dilation worked.needless to say, Joe... has a ridiculous powerset. so he chooses largely not to use his powers anymore unless it's absolutely dire or petty enough to shrug off as a random occurrence. nobody needs to know that one of the most powerful Unaffiliated in the city is standing right in front of them... especially not ConCorp.

- doc was a former high ranking employee of concorp before he volunteered for an experiment and it went horribly wrong. since then, the company has tried to erase any evidence of his existence. doc is now seeking revenge for all that the company did to him and is determined to tear it apart

- HI ok follow up asks will be sent later when my thoughts are coherent but concept: cleo has like super messed up healing powers where she can make healing go Too Far. also i pin her as unbound, considering, like, everything - shovel-shuffle

- So, his power was meant to be super-regen, right? except things don't always quite go to plan. Someone volunteered for the powers surgeries and is arguably dead. Etho is a name shared by the many many clones that developed themselves out of the leftovers. They're not quite individuals, not quite a hivemind. Any one of them has no fear of death because the others will continue, but they all act independently around their overarching goal. (which I won't snitch about) - DragonKay

- Bdubs was a hero. Key word? Was. He climbed the ranks through the government, he was a loyal and dutiful member of society, and he used his plant manipulation powers to subdue evil-doers without hurting them. But he’s always been a friendly guy, and he couldn’t help himself—talking to the Unrestrained, especially those in custody, was interesting! ...but it’s a slippery slope to walk, being friendly with the enemy and not sympathizing to their cause. Nobody knows where he is now, but there are rumours of a vigilante with similar abilities, and his three compatriots, two of whom he helped escape from ConCorp... They call themselves the nHo. - slimetek [Bdubs deserted Concorp while helping Doc escape after his experiment went wrong]

- Concorp managed to make a device that allows animals to speak or translate their thoughts into writing. This means that the good old mayor Scar has a certain cat giving some advice on how to run the city.

- Iskall is an assasin/mercenary against their own volition. An accident they'd rather forget almost killed them, and in exchange for their freedom and free will they got to live as a cyborg. Though its hard to forget with the implant that covers their eye and the limb of cool metal hanging at their side - @ghastly-ghostie [Iskall works for Concorp off-books, bound by the debt owed to them for the life saving experimental modifications]

- so I think grians original powers could be like cloning, but something goes wrong and the clones are different people. as a result of the duplication process, some funky magic rocks are made. the clones decide to take most of the funky rocks and run off, leaving grian with one rock that gives him some new abilities and the clones' rocks give him others. also uhh mechanical wings bc yes. so grians plot is him trying to find them while also causing problems on purpose. infinity stones. update to my grian ask from earlier, I had better ideas: the rocks are old like magic things that grian finds before the cloning and ends up collecting, but his clones snatch them - simplyskipper [some of the alternate Grians are aligned with different factions in Hermitopia, while the locations of others are farther or unknown]

- Hermitopia- Impulse has solid-light powers. He has golden crystals implanted in his hands, which he can reflect light through to solidify it into all sorts of shapes. This can be used to make barriers, projectiles, and much more, though more detailed constructs take more time.- @mleemwyvern

- Hermitopia AU Poultry man is a well-known chaotic neutral leaning towards good, as a one of the unrestrained.

- I think Team ZIT should be a little be wild card-y, that's how they act after all! [they are employed by the government for standard crimefighting, but they don't always take Scar's word at its intended meaning and often play a bit on the chaotic side when given instructions]

- [Hermitopia AU] False is an antihero/vigilante type who's specialty is not defined by powers or the such, but just... the absolute skill of being able to dual wield two (more sci-fi era) short swords. Maybe someone upgrades them to be "enchanted" (electrical, fire, etc. something that tech could do well probably). She's willing to be paid-for-hire, but if you go past her moral line she's also willin' to backstab you. -- @cheshire-vex [she's a free agent who sort of drifts between Concorp, the government, and whoever else will pay her on a job-by-job basis]

- Hermitopia impulse has more connections then one may think. He has ties to people pretty much everywhere, for reasons unknown. There is a 100% someone will come and greet him wherever he goes. [the greetings are usually friendly]

- Hermitopia Au! Keralis is a hero who most people wouldn't expect to be too skilled at fighting. His power is similar to hypnosis so he has no need to get very physical. Yeah, that changed when some bastard villain decided to attack his friends shop. [that incident caused his employer Scar to realize his untapped potential for protecting people and assign him to a few more high-stakes jobs]

- Hermittopia!TFC was one of ConCorp’s first experiments and as such his powers are a bit less...refined then the others. He has geokinetic powers, allowing him to psychically control rocks and other earthen materials. He used to be one of the VEX programs top graduates, but has since parted ways with them for unknown reasons and now operates his own plans of keep crime in Hermitopia under control. -lechairpourriedegrianri [he is considered Unaffiliated and both Concorp and the government largely leave him to his own devices, since he is helping to keep the city together]

-Wels doesn't have powers. He does have a super-suit made of fire and heat resistant carbon fibre (like the material used for the space shuttle) and has a built in hologram projector. One time, he used the hologram projector to project an image of himself, which everyone thought was a clone. He didn't have the heart to tell them otherwise. (AKA everyone thinks Wels has powers but he doesn't) -Silverwolf53 [he got the suit in Project VEX]

- To follow up on the Impulse ask- Team ZIT are a space-themed superhero team. Government-aligned, at least for now.Tango has meteor-like powers, he can shoot fire from his hands and feet and often uses this to propel himself at high speeds. Zed has gravity powers! He can increase or decrease the density of any object, to the point of making small black holes. They all have space-themed costumes, and it was probably Zed's idea. - @mleemwyvern

- TFC was the first participant in project VEX

- Grian was an attempted success. It fixed some problems with Etho's unintended cloning, but at the same time created some problems of its own, seeing as the clones appeared to have a life of their own.It's fine, though. It's probably fine

- I would say Grian is unrestrained, a bit like Etho, Chaotic in his own way. Does not activily Try to hurt people, but does mostly what he wants for fun.-Ciara

- Xisuma is a civilian- he has hero friends, but despite all their teasing he’s never wanted to go through VEX training. But in the night, the unrestrained Void walks the streets [Void is a symbiotic creature made of nothingness that uses Xisuma's body as a substitute physical form]

- Bdubs was such a good man... he could be trusted to look after Doc, couldn’t he? Somebody had to oversee him, somebody who was reliable and would never, ever consider betraying the mayor and ConCorp...They let their guard down, and Bdubs got curious. Bdubs made a friend.And then they lost him.- Slimetek

- The hels hermits are considered evil by default. How do you spot these clones, how could you protect yourself? Well in the past it was a lot easier, just look for their red eyesNowadays contacts exist but that doesn't stop people trying to call the police on tango, calling him a hels. Hes netherian, they have unnatural eye colours and their iris fills the entire eye, hes not evil but if people keep doing this hes gonna be!

- Beef woke up from his brain surgery to receive telepathy powers, took one look into the mind of the overseer, and noped put of there as fast as he could go.He's on very public record. After all, the mind control he may be capable of is a very convenient explanation for anyone who turns against concorp... ~DragonKay

- Hypno can’t control minds.They say he does. It’s why he’s named Hypno, after all.In reality, he can’t control people like that... but he can control what they see.Your best friend might look like your greatest enemy. A pit of lava might look like solid ground. A 100-foot drop might look like a step down.It’s a good thing he’s a hero, and a good thing he keeps his true powers hidden beneath a guise of low-level hypnotism. There’s no telling what he could do if they let him go. [he works for Concorp, helping to protect VEX trainees from people trying to harm them before they get a chance to finish the program, as well as keeping other resources safe]

- The 9th Street Incident [referring to an earlier Impulse comment] was a friendly greeting. That particular version of Etho just thought that drawing weapons would be a friendly greeting for Impulse, but Tango and Zed seem to disagree

- They still don’t trust Bdubs. He was with the government for a long time, and things are hard out there on the run. Besides, they don’t know what he got up to there. ConCorp could have any sort of information on him, something that might scare him back.Bdubs understands this. He doesn’t want to go back. He’d hate to go back....but they think he will, and maybe there’s something he’s not telling them. An ace that ConCorp has yet to play.- Slimetek

- Mumbo works for concorp as an engineer specialising in robotics, most recently taking on the task of maintaining Iskall's cybernetics that somehow they just keep damaging. Iskall assures him they're just.. very clumsy. So far Mumbo hasn't caught on.

- Ren's power is that hes a werewolf, but he only found out when he was in his late teens with his childhood friend Iskall. He still feels guilty about it, he did kill his best friend afterall. Or so he thinks.He's lived off grid ever since, too overwhelmed with grief and guilt to rejoin society. Most assume he's dead too - @ghastly-ghostie [Ren dropped Iskall off to Concorp as a last ditch effort, running away before he could see whether they took his friend in or not. They did, starting Iskall's plotline. Iskall told Concorp about Ren's abilities, triggering a panic in the Concorp ranks at the fact that Ren is a superhuman being created by some force other than their own project]

- Where does Void come from? The same place all powers come from.Little did they know, something survived the crash and has taken a human host. Maybe it's not the only one...No, that place is not Concorp. Concorp's original goal was to develop technology by reverse-engineering from a crashed alien spaceship. These aliens did gene-editing the way some people do nose jobs, so they adapted that technology, too.~DragonKay

- i've already said a bit about it in the discord but i have hermitopia cleo brainrot. joe being there was able to save her by giving her the regen powers along with her puppeteering telekinesis power. anyways cleo is presumed dead, sent by concorp into a mission as fodder basically until zit could arrive. but now there's is one (1) bitter undead vigilante against concorp that is presumed dead

- Stress’s name has a few meanings in relation to her. Whenever she gets too angry or /stressed/, she transforms into the StressMonster, a monster that feeds off of other people’s stress to become more powerful. Luckily, the monster is rarely seen, but does terrible things when she is. She’s one of the most feared creatures in Hermitopia. Stress hates her and tries her best to hide her from her friends, but it can backfire sometimes. - @guster-animations

- to follow-up on Joe being presumed dead: remember the time dilation incident he was stuck in? ConCorp figured it was best to cut their losses and not try to send anyone in to rescue him -- it would be a pointless mission. so they abandoned him, quietly announced that he had died in the line of duty, and put the affected area under high security clearance in order to prevent any future accidents. they figured he was already dead. and Joe figures, given that they up and abandoned him, maybe it's for the best that they continue to figure just that. he changed his last name to "Hills" -- a joke about the biome containing the time anomaly -- and otherwise proceeded to stay under the radar. he still uses the time dilation area as a base of operations, sometimes; it's very useful to have a hideout that people physically cannot get into/out of without his direct assistance. is he nursing a grudge, coming up with some convoluted scheme to get back at the paramilitary group for abandoning him? or does he just want to live a relatively normal life off the grid? who knows. that's the Joe [REDACTED] Hills difference. -@betweenlands

- False has some big scary power that is almost Eldritch she just happens to prefer a sword and doesn’t really care for who she works for as long as they’re paying... (they don’t need to know of the power that had harmed the ones she loves the most)

- Keralis once encountered Void sulking around where Xisuma worked. So fearful for his friend’s safety, he used his power on Void and told him to go away. Apparently the charm is still active, because if Void spots Keralis anywhere, he’ll turn tail and run. No, it’s not because he’s scared. Absolutely not.

- Grumbot serves as a sentient supercomputer created by Mumbo for Grian. Grian is using Grumbot for... various activities, all of which harmless, but a certain evil clone [Helsknight] has reverse engineered the technology. Concorp would like for Mumbo to give them the tech, but mumbo stuck some eyes to the computer, got emotionally attached, and refuses to give up his baby boy.

- When Impulse hears his friend/colleague Bdubs has been "taken over" by the mind-controller [Beef], he wants to go on an off-the-books mission to rescue him! Just giving up like they were told to isn't in his nature.Of course the rest of ZIT are with him. Heroes save people! It's what they do!~DragonKay

- Hermitopia is a mixture of sleek futuristic and cyberpunk in terms of style. It really depends on where you live and work (ik this doesnt include any hermits but whatever) - @ghastly-ghostie

- I wonder if Cleo's overactive healing powers affect herself and if any injuries she receives immediately heal over like wolverine or deadpool

- Ren used to be friends with Cleo too, but then she died. Strangely enough, she died on the same day that Ren killed Iskall. Ren’s lost all his friends. It’s hard living in isolation when there’s no one left that even cares about you. (Unless— no, that’s impossible.)

- I was thinking about Biffa, like you do. And Biffa would totally be some robot that was created by Project VEX in its early stages, however they realised fast that it was easier to use humans and give them powers, maybe its not their strong suit with robots. But Biff went sentient and glitched and was scrapped so hes just out there doing his thing. Hes a wildcard and plays for which side he wants at the time, sometimes he'll help or sometimes hes the one causing trouble. He looks pretty similar to a android like in Detroit:Become human but hes a bit uncanny and eerie, maybe its the eyes or the blood red armour. Powerwise, he's got more strength than a human does, mainly because he isn't limited like others are. try not to get punched by him, it'll hurt! [He's convinced Concorp will destroy him if they find out he's alive and Unaffiliated] -lucodak

- Going off of my thing about hermotopia impulse having friends everywhere....this may include the nho. Okay, they beat him to a pulp on one of his solo patrols once, but theey felt bad n patched him up! He has to keep it a secret. He brings them dinner alot. And checks in on them.

- Beef is the perfect cover-up for Bdubs’ desertion. ConCorp doesn’t want any other employees getting bright ideas, now, do they? Nor do they want employees getting nosy and trying to figure out where Bdubs went. They don’t have to tell people what Beef’s powers are. They just release that he developed powers after brain surgery, and a rumour that he was spotted lurking around before Bdubs suddenly betrayed ConCorp... and people draw their own conclusions. -Slimetek

- xB is pretty sure he’s supposed to be evil.I mean, that’s what sentient AIs usually end up being, according to a quick internet search. And yet he’s... not. Or maybe he’s just on the wrong side. - Slimetek

- Yes impulse is friends with the nho....what he doesn't know? He's....easily susceptible to hypnosis. Very easily.......Of course, after impulse is basically a very tired n warm cuddle bug, so, cuddle piles tend to happen after all information is spilled. He must've fallen asleep at their apartment again! Whoops! But it's okay.....they take good care of him if he does! [Beef is using his mind reading ability on Impulse without his knowledge, to make sure that he hasn't spilled their location and to predict the government's next moves. He feels slightly bad about it but feels that it is necessary for the nHo's survival.]

- So far, Grian has only ever encountered two of his clones, NPC Grian and Robot Grian. Technically three, if one were to count Ariana Griande. Grian doesn't really, but some do. [Ariana Griande is a popular musician in Hermitopia who is building a career using the magical stone of voice enhancement she recieved through the cloning process]

- To handle the two Grumbot issue: the one working with Helsknight can be Jrumbot, a legion of robot drones meant to work as Grumbot’s physical form that ended up being hijacked by Helsknight and turned against ConCorp

- There...aren’t a lot of “normal” animals left in Hermittopia. ConCorp took one look at the animals populating the city and decided that, hey, they could make some improvements. Species after species, they modified their behavior, appearance, internal structure, whatever they could fix, tweak, or add. They were just improving their lives and the lives of the citizens of Hermittopia, after all, but the new animals quickly outcompeted the old for resources and habitats. And if it makes it easier for ConCorp to stick a camera in one or two of them, or set up robotic animals to keep a better eye on the city, no harm, no foul, right?(Bonus: there is one (1) singular cat left in Hermittopia, resulting in a spy movie-style heist where two teams of Hermits attempt to “rescue” the cat simultaneously. The cat keeps wandering away from both teams. Shenanigans ensue)- Adonis [the cat is Jellie, who orchestrated the competition between Team ZIT and Cleo and Joe for her own entertainment, getting away from both parties in the end]

- The Leak:Not all mutations are the result of controlled experiments! If some alien tech got away from the crash site, concorp never would have picked it up. It might have got into nature, not as refined as they made it in the labs but causing little changes here and there. Ren may have become a werewolf from being bitten by a mutant wolf~DragonKay

- Impulse is able to use his powers to create illusions or male things appear invisible! Sort of. After all, light dictates what we see. It takes a lot of focus, though, so it's not that practical. -@rayveewrites

- The one thing Hels wasn't able to steal was the cloning technology, hence his hostility with Concorp -- he needs the cloning device, because how else is the void going to get a body of their own? - SilverWolf53

- *glances at the hermitopia werewolf ask* okay but what if the same mystery people who made ren into a werewolf also created jevin, and maybe Etho? idk if either of them have been given any hermitopia headcanons yet lol. but im sure the same people who made a werewolf could make a sentient slime (or perhaps rescue one) or make... whatever etho is. [Since the "second organization" is an incorrect assumption believed by Concorp, Jevin was created when he came in contact with a waterway contaminated by The Leak. Concorp assumes he was created by an opposing organization and not by accident, and therefore would like to bring him in along with Ren.]

- hermitopia - mumbo and grian were friends back when cloning experiments were still happening (or . as friendly as you can be with someone who's treating you like a lab rat), but after everything went wrong and grian escaped, mumbo has his memories wiped nd thats why he's trusted w iskall's stuff? bc he inherently remembers working on high-level things without knowing where he learnt it - muscle memory, yk?anyway massive angst with grian maybe recognising mumbo, but not the other way round, and trying to rekindle their friendship? and that's where grumbot comes in? -gin [Mumbo's memory was wiped so that he would forget the deadly purpose of Iskall's cybernetics, which he was working on at the same time as the Grian project in the background. Mumbo does not remember creating Grian's mechanical wings or Iskall's arm and eye, and he has no memory of either individual previous to "meeting" Iskall as the person assigned to his repair and upkeep.]

- Etho doesn't so much have powers as he is powers. All the powers the ‘original’ had went into creating him; now he just exists, as whatever sort of being he is. Not a human one, that much is obvious. ~DragonKay [Etho has no powers beyond the hivemind and his training, due to the error in the experiment that caused the clones]

- Mumbo started the button as a joke. A nonsense social expirement to see how much people want worthless signs of status. Unfortunately things got out of hand, and violent too. But hey! It's not his fault that the five special anomalous stones were misplaced into the prize dispenser! It was just chance that they fell into the hands of the clone of the worst gremlin in the city! Don't fire him! [He was not fired, but Cub was Decidedly Unhappy with him for a good long while]

- Void mostly trashes ConCorp facilities- trying to figure out if any of his siblings survived the spaceship crash, but occasionally he’ll pilfer from a bakery, because X is a health nut and Void just wants a gods damned cookie [Void very much dislikes unseasoned chicken]

- If the Stress Monster gets too big, too dangerous, Cleo is sworn under oath to Stress to zap her with her healing powers. Cleo doesn’t like to do it, overhealing a stressed Stress makes her so calm she gets knocked out for a couple of days, but Stress can take a small comfort in the fact that at least one person out there can stop her

- Ooh with the self healing Cleo she'd be able to develop a small amount of super strength, with how the mind keeps from going full throttle because it would destroy the body once she gets over it it's hysterical strength whenever she wants [it is quite painful, but a good backup plan]

- Being a hive mind of disposable clones that can spawn new copies at will, it can sometimes be hard for the Etho Entity to remember that it is indeed a big deal for other people when they get hurt. This can make him come off as callous to those around him, placing him firmly in the "villain" category in most citizen's books, but he really doesn't intend any harm!

- Grian used to be tall, but then the cloning happened. With each clone they stole a little bit of his height making him the short man he is today. He needs to capture those clones and get his height back. [Grian isn't entirely sure how to accomplish this, but he's dead set on trying! He misses being tall!]

- While Grian was perfectly fine with Ariana Griande living her own life, he did insist on one thing.Her "older brother" getting backstage access whenever she was on tour. He's very proud and supportive of her and her music career.

- Mumbo is perfectly content working in tech, watching the other hermits get up to crazy shenanigans. Except of course, there was that one time he was out testing some new gear and accidentally saved a crowd from some villains... and there were all those times after too...But hey! It’s not his fault that people like him, and he certainly isn’t going to get caught by Concorp during his after hours activities. [Mumbo considers himself an accidental hobbyist, not thinking he has the nerve or the skill for proper hero work. Time will tell if he's right about that or not...but unfortunately, he probably is. This should be fun.]

- There’s still some people overseeing VEX, even over Cub. They’re the ones that push Cub to do certain experiments or to scrap one. They’re the ones to give Cub the decision for Iskall’s life debt. Scar was under them too for the longest time, but eventually he wanted out. Cub still wanted in. They were still in the right, right? That’s what they tell him. He’s starting to doubt it. [Cub is way too invested in everything he's built to even think about going rogue now, but he does resent and occasionally question the judgement of his superiors increasingly as his project begins to fail more and more often. He also fears that Scar's shift in career will be seen as a betrayal, rather than as a tactical attempt to gain the company influence in the government.]

- Been thinking about the impulse + nho asks and just,,, what would happen if concorp/the government found out? It cant be good with interrogation/hypnosis on both sides (incase you cant tell,, the brainrot got me as well) (apologies if this is a mess im excited) [Hypno is assigned to set up an illusionary conversation to make Impulse reveal nHo location to Concorp and government agents while thinking that he's actually talking to the nHo in a random encounter]

- The one mind Beef can't read is Etho's. Their hivemind is just too weird for him to comprehend. If he ever tries to listen in, it sounds like just a bunch of static from an old TV.

- for hermitopia au!: Out of most of the heros, the most reckless may be team zit. sure they tell themselves they'll plan out missions but it's hard when they share a braincell and tango just runs in. impulse and zed share a look everytime and have to run after him to make sure he doesn't get too hurt or overwhelmed by the enemy. in their defence its hard to plan ahead against an enemy when you dont know what they are thinking.-lucodak ["You might not have known what they were thinking, Tango, but we'd generally like you to know what you're thinking!"]

- i bet ConCorp really wants to make it out like theres some secret shady organization creating all these people with mutations, rather than their own operatives deserting and their own failure to contain dangerous chemicals... whether its malicious coverups or just ignorance to the fact they messed up, wonder what would happen if that sort of thing came to light...? [If they found out that the unintentional superhumans were a result of the poorly-contained crash site? Cub would lose his job...maybe worse. If Cub found out (and he hasn't, yet) he would do everything in his power to keep that information from his superiors.]

- (paraphrased) Impulse accidentally walks in on heroes and agents breaking down the doors of the nHo's hideout and confronting them. Scar claims that they did so on information Impulse himself provided and thanks him for his service. Impulse, feeling confused and betrayed, resists Hypno's attempts to illusion him back to Scar's side and flees the scene with the nHo, knowing very little other than the fact that he doesn't want to be manipulated by the government any more (and still not knowing that Beef has been reading his mind)

- Impulse may have been labeled a traitor. But do you really think that Impulse, secret rebel, starting to learn how dangerous and corrupted Concorp really is, wouldn't let his best friends know about the danger they might be in? I think Team ZIT is more loyal to each other than to the government. - @mleemwyvern [ Impulse's first stop after escaping with the nHo is to find a place to secretly meet Tango and Zedaph and tell them about the way he was tricked. It takes a lot of explaining and a lot of trust, but they eventually decide to believe his claims and are left with a choice: will they openly go rogue and become a target along with Impulse and the rest of the nHo, or are they better off using their established image and reputation to keep an eye on the government heros' movements from the inside?]

- (two asks combined, paraphrased) Ren runs out of supplies and decides to head back into the city, confident in his ability to stay off the grid after so many years of experience and such a long time away. Once there, he runs into Doc, and they hit it off quite quickly. However, the more Ren talks the more Doc realizes - with his ex-Concorp knowledge - that Ren matches the description of Iskall's main target exactly. He warns Ren, who is then faced with the knowledge that Iskall is alive and assigned to kill him...so many questions and so many tears to follow...

- Why did Hermitopia start needing heroes? When the Unrestrained started to appear, if course. Why did the Unrestrained start to appear? A question asked a little less. When did the VEX program start? When did they start taking more risks? When did they stop caring about certainty and safety and shift towards trying to push boundaries they weren't ready to? People can be so enamoured with the concept of superhuman abilities, something bright and glorious and good- and perhaps they could have that too- they don't ask all the right questions. It's all an elaborate game of damage control, don't let the flashy heroics fool you, they've made mistakes, terrible, terrible mistakes, and now there are villains running loose with powers they fooled ConCorp into giving them. Are they villains? Are they victims? Does it matter? They're causing problems. [Project VEX has developed into a solution to its own problems, a self perpetuating cycle...one that Cub, as a businessman, is very familiar with. It's what keeps the wheels of industry turning. It's what keeps innovation creeping forward. It wasn't intentional, not this time...but if it keeps his project alive, he'll take it.]

- One time, Jevin had narrowly dodged being captured by Concorp. He was laying low in the forest out of town, when he had a run-in with some sort of wolf creature. Thankfully, claws and teeth couldn't exactly hurt him anymore, so he just played dead until it gave up.When the moon set, the wolf-thing slowly transformed into a human being. Ren was horrified at the thought he'd lost control and hurt someone- again- but Jevin assured him he was fine. Jevin got the feeling that the werewolf needed a friend, and Jevin himself needed a place to stay for a while... -RayveeWrites [Ren and Jevin are not currently in the same location, but they each have a means of contacting each other for help if needed]

- Worm Man wasn't a well- known super, but plenty of people have noticed that he seemed to vanish at the same time Team ZIT first started active duty. Those people have also noticed that one of the members has a very similar power set to WM.Officially, that's just a coincidence. Officially.-RayveeWrites [Zedaph was trying to get some unofficial practice while still in training in the VEX program]

- A common misconception is that Bdubs conjures up his vines from nowhere. He can't.Like any plant, his vines grow from seeds. They grow unnaturally fast, when Bdubs wills it, but they have to come from seeds. Where do these seeds come from, you may ask?Well, a long time ago, Bdubs ingested some strange fruits. Somehow, in wild defiance of human biology, the seeds contained in those fruits worked their way into his muscles and germinated. Some of the roots worked their way into his brain and fused into it; the rest spread through his muscles, grew beneath his skin, coiled around his bones. Thanks to the way the vines connected to his brain, Bdubs is able to command the vines, and their magic, at will.The vines produce seeds; some stay in his body to replace the old ones when they die, and most work their way into a pair of 'seed pods' in his wrists. Bdubs provides the nutrients, the energy; the vines provide the seeds, the magic. As an extra bonus: if the vines were to be totally removed from Bdubs' body, he would be at best extremely weak, and at worst dead. The vines have grown into his muscles, to the point where they've essentially replaced them in some areas. It's fortunate that they connected with his mind so early on, otherwise he'd be dead. -RayveeWrites [Concorp developed the fruit, and the fact that Bdubs is evidence of the unlikely success of that experiment makes them all the more angry at his betrayal]

- A lot of excellent xB information (it's too long to copy but please read it it's very good)

- Iskall has exactly one (1) failed assignment. That assignment? The kill or capture of Stress. Stress and Iskall have been, or should it be were now, friends for a very long time, since before Iskall even met Ren. So one can imagine the stress this causes Iskall, to be told to kill his one remaining friend that he knows is alive. Of course, this stress is quite enough to to Stress's Stress Monster into one it's strongest yet seen forms, allowing for Stress to then get away. (1/2)(2/2) Of course, Con Corp doesn't- and can never- know the true reason that Iskall cannot kill or capture Stress. If they knew, if they subjected Stress to the same hell he's in- no, that cannot happen. So Iskall hires False to protect Stress, to interfere whenever they send him on a mission for her. Luckily, False is good at keeping secrets when she wants to, and this one she'll keep. But as far as Con Corp knows, Iskall has severe stress and trauma from being a cyborg, and that's why he fails. [This all adds up to a monumental waste of Concorp's time and money, which also results in False getting payed, so all parties involved are happy except for Concorp >:)]

- Impulse would take a bullet for his teammates, and he knows they might be about to take one for him, keeping him updated on what's going on government side of this... slander. Still, Tango and Zed are great actors, and if he didn't know better, he might be a little worried they would *actually* be hunting him down in the name of justice [Tango and Zed are now being sent on missions to retrieve Impulse, which they must pretend to lose believably. They occasionally overestimate their friend's abilities and give him a few more close calls than he'd like, but overall the ruse is holding up.]

Writing:

- Wels, Hels, TFC, and Grumbot

- Bdubs Concorp promotion and desertion

- Joe Hills in his time dilation hideout

- Etho clones, ZIT, and the nHo

- Keralis and Void

- [ALTERNATE] Reveal of Impulse's situation with the nHo

Art:

- Impulse suit design

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #hcraft #Hermitopia AU #masterpost #long post #mod Shade

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androgynousblackbox · 3 years

Text

Thoughts about the fifth season (spoilers)

Okay, so normally I would make these posts as neutral as possible because I want them to reach anyone who enjoys the show. Even if you are someone that really fucking hates incest ships you can read them and still have an idea of what I liked, what didn’t, etc, without me bringing up that element. You can disagree or agree without being reminded “oh, yeah, he is one of THOSE fans I don’t like” and that is totally fine by me. Curate your own online experience and all that. But this is season is quite literally about the relationship between Rick and Morty, so as a rickmorty shipper I just can’t separate that from what I enjoyed about it and thus I am going to be talking from that position during all of this. If that makes you uncomfortable, that is cool, I get it. You can skip this one if you want. Also, this is going to be a general big mess of thoughts and whatever because I have lots of them so, bear with me. -Some of the shippers I was with on a server will know this already, but from the very first episode I was sure we were going to have two major themes: 1. Rick is a flawed human being, not a god, not a ultra genius who is always destined to be on top of everything and knows how to get out of any situation. Just a man. And that is why he needs other people, which is somethig he had to accept and understand about himself, especially after the fourth season was all about dethroning him as the patriarch of the family and break away the illusions that Beth had about her own father. We have standed too long having Rick win on everything and coming out like a badass, so it’s time to kick him down a bit and let him lose. 2. Morty’s heart is always going to get fucked over, which is something that gets even more explored on the Planetina episode: he wants a place to belong with a person who doesn’t make him feel like the odd one out. Combine the two and my idea was: they want to assure us about their relationship on some kind of way, this is about them and what they feel regarding each other. Probably about why or how Rick became so jaded because why else include Rick freaking out about Mr Nimbus just mentioning Diane’s name and how much he changed, on a first episode no less, if this isn’t something we are setting up to see later. They explicitely brought someone from Rick’s past to talk about that past and make a point to tell us that changed Rick. -So, we have the two major player set up like this: on one hand, Morty aspires for that companionship but he is not willing to compromise his own moral for it, whatever he has left after starting to take on some Rick’s traits. He is desperate for that connection and if that means leaving Rick behind, so be it. Rick will still be there anyway. On othe other hand, Rick also wants that connection and companionship but it’s too disfunctional and can’t make it quite work because there is always a part of him that wants to keep distance. With the alien lady, evne with the crows, it’s all about escapism and pretend like everything is fine, it’s just fun and he doesn’t have to care because they are just having a good time together. He tried to do that too with BP by keeping away the info about his daughter, but he called his bluff because BP knew Rick too much to not see that comic. It’s rebound after rebound because he is missing the one person that can keep him in check, that truly knows what a piece of fucking shit he is and somehow still comes back to him. BP saw that, knew what was happening, and prefered to get the fuck away because he didn’t want to compromise his own values like that either. But Rick doesn’t have that problem with Morty. It truly is Rick and Morty one hundread years because, no matter how fucking bad it gets, they still choose one another. -Now, the way they keep building up this relationship, these connection, even regarding the rest of the family, to me is brilliant in restrospect because it perfectly illustrate how much they have changed from what they were before and what that means. Morty is more independent and less afraid, right, but that doesn’t make him more happier because he is still lonely and Rick is being reminded, over and over again, that he can’t be alone either. -Regarding the way Morty have behaved, I have seen some people being concerned about how Morty is becoming more independent and therefore not relying on Rick as much for anything, so it’s like what is the point of their relationship anymore. And like, to me it makes sense they show because they have already told us on past seasons that Morty has stopped viewing Rick with that wide eyed expression for a long time. He is learning from him and can defend himself, so why does he need Rick at al? The answer is because he loves him. You can read that as platonic or romantic or whatever, but for better or for worse Morty just loves Rick. You shouldn’t love people because you need them, or at least that is not a healthy basis for any relationship. I said this on another post: you cannot make anyone to be your center for your mental health like that, and I feel like they aware of this point, which I really fucking love because it would have been easy as fuck to write any pairing like that. -If you stay for the “Behind of scenes” scenes, the writers talk about how this season is about building trust between Rick and Morty. So it starts with Morty going around cleaning up some of the messes Rick left behind without telling Rick and then fucking the portal gun because he doesn’t trust Rick to not “kill him” to finding out he did that, just like Rick in fact doesn’t trust Morty to not be doing unnecesary bullshit. So Morty, hurt because his suspicions were right, puts an ultimatum and Rick, being the petty fuck we all know him to be, takes it kind because of course he would. -What does Morty does immediately after this? Latch onto another sketchy as fuck older man whose name ends with Ick and hope that is the connection he craves, because after all “we are like brothers now.” So rebound for him, rebound for Rick, rebounds for the crows, rebounds for everyone. Yay. -I know it has been however many years have passed since this show started, and it was obvious for fucking everyone who watched it, but I do really like that they use the exact words for how their dynamic has been: unhealthy, toxic, abusive. Lack of trust, lack of boundaries, secrets. Just straight up calling it as it is. So they have both of them confronting that fact, being aware of it, and to top it all off, make Morty the only being now on their universe that knows everything about Rick, every single thing he has kept even from BP, like the true reason he joined to their guerilla group, and still makes the conscious choice to go after Rick even when, as far he was aware of at least, there was another option. -So, okay, now what, might someone ask. We have put everything out there and we have talked about what is wrong about their relationship, does this mean we are doing the boring healthy bullshit now? Well, nope. Considering that Morty did went out of his way to guilt trip Rick into getting back and Rick admits point blank admits he get it, Morty refusing to demand things be different because he is just desperate... they are still and probably always going to be a condependent mess, but hey, a condependent mess that at least is kinda self aware about it and won’t pull the “I am going to break up with you on a whim” move again, hopefully. I do think and expect some things to change, but only as far their dynamic during adventures goes and regarding the rest of the family, with everyone being on the know that those two are an item neither of them can get in between. Rick is probably still going to want to keep some things in control, he is still not going to express his feelings to Morty directly and Morty is still going to be a little shit that will want for validation that won’t come his way. It’s a shithole house, but at leat it’s their home kind of thing, and personally, that is how I like it. -The “adventures as a metaphor for a relationship so this is not like a real break up” is real funny when you hear the writers literally calling it a break up and a relatonship. Also, the amount of times that they say “my partner”. Like, I am sorry, but how the fuck I am supposed to believe this wasn’t for the shippers, fucking how? Like even if you aren’t one, and you go “it’s a metaphor!! it’s not like an actual relationship, they are not saying they are together as a couple”, that is flimsy as fuck because we have determined already that Rick uses adventures as an extension for all his relationships. There is a intentional paralel between BP and Morty and how Rick treats the both of them, like he would do anything for them but still be kind of a lying piece of shit too, so it’s definitely canon on the sense -Omg, we had miniature cute Mortys who like crayons and also big hot adult Morty, fucking finally. I cannot fucking believe they wouldn’t know the blessing they were throwing to fandom with that one, they know what they are doing. -Rick as a boy dressing on the same colors of Morty could have been a cute little detail, like aww, they are family, so they pass down those colors from one generation to another because family, but fuck all of that, let’s make it creepy and fucked up because why not. But it’s also interesting because if Ricks breeded Mortys and put those colors on them, isn’t that another way of saying “you are connected to us just as much as we are connected to you”? Because they didn’t had to chose those colors, but they did it because it meant something for them. On a very fucked up way, I think they might even feel themselves more fathers to Morty than even Beth, because many of them didn’t cared manipulating her in order to gain more Mortys even if they could just clone them easily. -”You all really are bred for forgiveness”... Not really, or else “Evil Morty” wouldn’t exist and Cop Rick, the good one, would have never been attacked by using the attachment of Ricks against him. But Morty had made his choice and that choice was Rick, and even then Rick cannot fucking believe it so he has to reduce it to his breeding. -So, the finite curve has been destroyed and almost all Ricks were killed, the ones that weren’t coincidentally fucking off to another place just when that happened. That means that now there is true infinite universe where Rick is not the smartest man on the universe, where Rick doesn’t even exist at all, so we may have adventures where other people where the smartest people on their universe and Rick could finally meet his equal or someone even worse. -The final speech of Mr Poppybutthole is kinda the perfect ending to everything, because he is talking avoid being afraid of the people he loves finding the “true” self of him and not loving him anymore, but Morty did that and he still loves Rick and, listen, I have FEELINGS about it, okay. -After exploring this, which was the true only canonical mistery of the whole series, while also dumping off the backstory of Rick so nobody has to theorize about it anymore, it feels like they going two routes: either we are dumping anything about serialized anything, at least for a while, and we are back to just silly adventures with asshole grandpa and traumatized kid, or... we are introducing another big baddie that we are going to drag to hell and back. Maybe Evil Jerry? That could be fun to explore on the show. My bet is on the second option because I think that is the kind of thing that Justin really enjoys doing and that is why it appears on Solar Opposites as well, with the whole Wall as a central points behind all the shenanigans of the aliens. -The only misteries left are: the weird Rick that killed his family, if he wasn’t killed already on the Citadel, and Birdperson reunion with his daughter, for which he might ask Rick’s help in the future when he cools down or maybe Rick gets his daughter back for him on a ridiculous plan to make him return his calls, because that is something he is going to pull. The Jessica thing and her quest for becoming an actual character with her own thing going on. -This finale made rickmorty canon on all the ways it could without having them literally making out willingly, and after Naruto, I don’t think that is a line they are not willing to cross at some point in the future, even if it’s just a joke. They already did with the parasites. I honestly don’t even know how you can watch the show and think “fuck yeah, they hate those ships just as much as I do!”, because with the way the writers talk about it and literally this entire season being nothing but a building up for their relationship, I would have been turned if I didn’t ship it already.

#rickmorty #incest implied #andro is talking

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