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david-talks-sw · 1 month

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No, George Lucas is not a "traitor"

You may have seen angry tweets and thumbnails such as these, in the last few days.

Context - Disney is going through a proxy battle, and George Lucas sent out a statement that read as follows:

So immediately, all the grifting influencers who based their entire platform around the narrative that "Kathleen Kennedy & Disney betrayed Lucas' legacy" banded together and agreed that the new line was:

"Fuck George Lucas, he betrayed us and betrayed himself. Lucas sided with his own abusers!"

Here's why this line of thought is absolutely childish and uninformed.

1- Get real, he's a shareholder, of course he'll say this.

I don't need to expand on this, do I?

He owns stock. Someone threatens your money, you defend the money. The question becomes: why does he think that sticking with Disney CEO Bob Iger will result in more profit than siding with?

Variety theorizes that it may be because Nelson Peltz has admitted that he has no media experience.

And if that's the case? I'm not surprised at all, because...

2- George has always hated amateur studio execs

The following is me simplifying a lot... but George's relationship with studios has never been a good one.

When he was working at American Zoetrope, with Francis Ford Coppola, they were commissioned to adapt George's short film into a feature, THX-1138. The studio execs didn't like it and forced Francis to refund them the money (which is why he agreed to direct The Godfather, to get out of debt).

Moving on to American Graffiti (1973). When George writes Graffiti, he shops it around to studios and they all essentially told him to go fuck himself.

"American Graffiti went around to every single studio twice and they all said, "It's not a movie, there's no story, and there are no movie stars in it." And Star Wars— it was, "What in the world is this? Wookiees and robots? I don't get it." [...] It'd be hard to make a movie [like American Graffiti or Star Wars] today in the system because all these middle management people get in there and interfere in the process. I think that's much worse for filmmakers than it's ever been in the past." - Star Wars Insider #43, 1999

Except Universal. But throughout the process they're being irritants.

They object to the title because they don't know what it means.

The president is convinced it's a bad movie to a point where when he sees audiences cheer for it in test screenings, he argues they're paid actors.

They force Lucas to trim 5 minutes out of the film. Why? Just because.

This approach the studio execs were taking comes from the fact that none of them were artists. At this point in time, studios had been and were being bought by corporations who thought they could make a quick buck in the movie business.

Eg: Warner Bros wasn't run by the Warner brothers anymore. Paramount was now a subsidiary of Gulf+Western.

So when he's receiving notes, they're coming from - you guessed it - amateurs who think they know what they're talking about, but in reality have no clue. They did market research and think they know everything.

This subject is covered in The Offer (2022), a series about the making of The Godfather (reeeeally good show, I watched it twice).

In this scene, for example, you have a studio exec with no artistic sense whatsoever trying to tell Coppola which poster he should go with, and you get the idea of what I mean.

youtube

(Fun fact, a young George Lucas even makes a cameo in the pilot episode, in Coppola's office.)

George also went into this subject during his 2015 interview with Charlie Rose.

It's a 4-minute clip, so here's the relevant bit:

"[Big corporations are] known for being risk averse. And movies are not risk averse. Every single movie is a risk, a big risk, like... The movie business is exactly like professional gambling... except you hire the gambler. You use some crazy kid with long hair, you give him $100 million and you say "go to the tables and come back with $500 million." That is a risk! Now, the studios have been going to think of it that way, they say: "well, maybe if we told him that he couldn't bet on red, maybe if we told him because we did market research and we've realized that red wasn't" -- so they tried minimize their risk. [...] They're basically corporate types. They think-- some of the worst things happens when they think they know how to do it, then they start making decisions that ensure it's not going to work. " - Charlie Rose, CBS This Morning, 2015

Now, ironically, this is the same interview in which he compared Disney to "white slavers", but clearly he was still smarting from his own ideas for the Sequels having been ignored.

But considering how little a fuck he gave about those Star Wars films once they came out and how often he visits the now visits sets of like Ahsoka and The Mandalorian, I think he's over it.

Again, this doesn't align with some Star Wars influencers' narrative that "he's fuming, he hates these movies, he feels betrayed and angry!" But if you ask me, he likely couldn't care less, and dubbing Disney his "abusers" is giving them waaay too much credit.

He made his movies, told the story he needed to tell and is now probably just enjoying his retirement, raising his daughter and putting together his museum, part of which is possible because of the money Disney keeps generating for him, as an investor.

So it doesn't surprise me one bit that George Lucas, of all people, to side with the Devil he knows rather than the amateur exec, because the latter is a painful road he knows all too well.

#george lucas #star wars #francis ford coppola #discussion

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hesthermay · 2 months

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐏𝐓 𝟏)

PAIRING: sergeant hunter x fem!oc reader

SUMMARY: the assignment of miri rocksled to clone force 99 brought an even higher success rate than the two groups presented on their own; in the times of the clone wars a well working and formidable team was necessary for the republic, but little did it know that the decision would become the biggest thorn in the empires side. master rocksled had never been like other jedi, and the bad batch had never been like other clones, and as they navigate the end of everything they had known and the beginning of something dark those traits are put to the test. rules no longer exist, lines are blurred, and forbidden waters are tread as the bad batch fight the great fight for everything they deserve.

WORD COUNT: 3.1k

RATINGS + WARNINGS: general audiences, mature themes, angst. female oc, use of she/her, mentions of death and order 66. eventual series. follows the bad batch timeline.

NOTES: bada bing bada boom another one?! what?! im just fuckin good like that (im really not this has taken me a bit but im done and now im ready for you all to see it)

STAR WARS MASTERLIST THE GREAT FIGHT MASTERLIST

The scene that Clone Force 99 and their General walked into was familiar to them at this point.

Chaos, in its entirety, had consumed Kaller as Republic forces fought off Separatist battle droids coming from every direction. The ground, covered with snow, was black with ash from the repeated firing of weapons; this battle had been long, and it was not over yet.

Depa Billaba had requested backup, and though these were not the fighters she had wanted, they were all she was going to get. The Republic was stretched thin, it had seemed they had reached the climax of the Clone Wars and though it was only an inkling, it felt as if something was just over the hill.

“Master Rocksled!” Someone called from the treeline. The young Caleb Dunne, sent to retrieve said backup, watched in awe as the stories he had heard came true right in front of him.

Miri Rocksled was not like other Jedi, and in very fitting fashion, her troopers were not like other clones. Master Billaba had told him that was why she was assigned to them, and together they were the odd ones out of the GAR.

Caleb’s words had been lost in the noise, but eventually the last droid had been smashed and all attention was on him. “Master Rocksled,” he repeated, breathing slightly heavy.

“Commander Dunne, it looks like we’re your reinforcements,” she replied, grinning slightly as she walked closer towards him, the clones following suit. “What’s it looking like down there?”

After a plan was devised, the padawan was sent back to his master with the promise that they were right behind him. There was doubt, and a lot of it, upon his return. It did not look promising, him showing up empty handed with talks of five clones and one Jedi, but he asked for trust anyways. And it was not in vain, as the giant boulder that had caught the attention of the droids came crashing into view, making for a grand entrance.

Clone Force 99 made quick work of things with detonators, blasters, their very skilled sniper, brute force, strategic maneuvers, and one orange bladed lightsaber.

“I don’t believe it,” Captain Grey started, lowering the binocs as he watched. “That’s Clone Force 99.”

The two Jedi turn their heads to glance at him, and then one another. “And that’s Miri Rocksled,” Caleb whispered to his master, eyes blown wide.

……..

“Master Billaba,” Miri greeted, sheathing her lightsaber and clipping it to her waist. For a split second she gave thought to the second saber she was set to receive soon and the excitement to have an addition to her signature handle.

“If you’re done hiding down there, I suggest you launch a counterattack,” Hunter interjected, helmet under his arm. “Another droid battalion’s approaching.”

Grey stepped forward, on attack mode in the presence of clones who regarded the protocol he was held to as merely a suggestion. It was even evident in the way they had just addressed a Jedi General, someone who outranked them all as an army. “The General is the one who gives the orders around here.”

Billaba held out her hand, an effort to ease the clone's frustrations as they were not needed, nor helpful.“He’s right, Captain. This is our chance,” she nodded her head slightly, sure of her words. “Launch the counterattack.”

With that, the men were sent on their way and Master and Padawan came out into the open. “There you are little Jedi,” Wrecker stated, pushing his way to the front. “You missed all the fun.”

Caleb, who pulled his hood off, grinned. “Watching your team in action was all the fun.” Miri was reminded of being a padawan and being in awe of some of the Masters when she watched them spar, or went on assignments with them.

Billaba stepped forward, placing a hand on the young boy's shoulder. “Care to introduce your new friends, Caleb?”

“Yes, Master. This is Wrecker,” he gestured to each one as he named them off. “Hunter, Echo, Tech, and Crosshair.” He turned back to her when there was only one left. “And, you know Master Rocksled, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do,” she affirmed with a slight smile before turning her head back to the rest. “While I’m not sure ‘fun’ is the sentiment I would express, I agree with my Padawan. Your exploits were quite impressive. The Council was right when we assigned you to them,” she directed at Miri, who only shrugged one shoulder.

“Exploits?” Wrecker questioned, confusion written all over him as he looked around.

Behind him, Crosshair walked by with his rifle propped on his shoulder. “Don’t overthink it, Wrecker,” he commented, as snide as ever. Crosshair had been an acquired taste, but his attitude was tolerable with some time.

“Thank you, General,” Echo stepped up, almost as straightlaced as ever. As a reg, Echo expressed different traits than that of the experimental unit when it came to working with others, but that was not a testament to his place within the Batch. Echo had found a home in Clone Force 99, one that he had not thought he would get a chance at after the Citadel.

Master Billaba’s inquisitive eyes were once again on her fellow Jedi. “Would you care to explain where my actual reinforcement are, Master Rocksled?”

Miri sighed ever so slightly, for her answer to that question was not a good one, nor a helpful one. “Rerouted to the capital. I’m afraid we’re all you’re getting, my friend,” she replied lowly.

“Ha! We’re all you need,” Wrecker boasted, hands on his hips. And for almost the first time since this interaction had started, Tech looked up from his device.

“Actually,” he held up a finger, a signature pose for the brainiac of the group. “If my intel is correct, the General will not need any of us. The Clone War may soon be over.”

Intrigue trickled down from the crown of Miri’s head at his words. Her feeling, the one that had been nagging and nagging, that something was to come entered the forefront of her mind. She did not hear the responses to Tech’s statement, but she did hear him begin once again, more information to unload. “I am referring to the encrypted comm chatter. Clone intelligence is reporting that Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi has found and engaged General Grievous on Utapau.”

“No way,” Miri whispered. This had been something her, Obi-Wan, and Anakin had been trying to chase for ages now, and it would seem one of her friends had finally reached their goal. General Grievous was the answer to ending the droid army that upheld the Separatist’s defenses.

“If he captures or kills Grievous, the Separatist command structure will collapse,” Echo affirmed her thoughts.

“And most likely the droid armies along with them.”

“A fascinating theory,” Master Billaba cut in, “yet unfortunately not something we can control from here. I suggest we focus on the task at hand.”

Hunter glanced at Miri before looking back at Billaba. With a shrug of his shoulders, he stepped forward. “Any orders? Or shall we do what we do?” Helmets were placed on heads, and Wrecker cheered, boisterous voice filling the space around them.

“Let’s blow something up. Yeah!”

Caleb had watched them this entire time with a smile on his face, and it made Miri feel giddy. She always got a kick out of impressing the younglings and padawans. “Well, Caleb, shall we let them do what they do?” Master Billaba questioned, as if she had seen the same thing. It was nice, to see her Padawan smile in these trying times he was forced to grow up in; a welcome change when circumstances permitted.

“Only if I can go with them,” he countered eagerly, looking up at his mentor.

She glanced over at Miri, who only nodded before the woman grinned. “Very well,” she conceded.

“Hey, kid, you ready for this? We move fast,” Hunter emphasized, deep voice coming out gravelly through the modulator.

“Good,” Caleb shot back with a quirked brow, “that’s the only way I know.” He earned a laugh from Wrecker before they started to dart off, but Miri remained where she was. It was Hunter who shot her a look over his shoulder, a silent question.

“I’m going to speak with Master Billaba for a second,” Miri answered, playing off the heaviness on her shoulders. “Go on, Sergeant. I’ll catch up,” she smiled, hoping it would be enough to send him off. She was his general, and technically she had given him an order that he could not go against, but things were different in the Batch.

Things were different between Miri and Hunter.

As inappropriate and forbidden as it was, the pair had found themselves harboring something of a romance. It was not spoken of, it couldn’t be spoken of; but it did not need to be. Miri knew she was special to Hunter, and he knew he was special to her. It was as simple as that, for the Jedi Order would only let it be so.

It had worked, however she knew she would be questioned later. The pause before he nodded told her he had picked up on whatever it was she was trying to keep at bay, and even though he ran off after one final salute she still felt his presence as she turned to her colleague.

“What is it, Master Rocksled?” Billaba questioned, eyes still trained on her padawan in the distance.

“Do—” she started, but had to rethink her wording once again. “Do you feel like something is about to happen?” She asked, sincerity written on her face because she was desperate to know why she had grown heavier by the minute. Billaba’s focus had now moved to her, squinted eyes watching the young woman as her question hung in the air. “Like…like we're at the top of the hill, but what’s on the other side isn’t what we’ve been expecting?”

“Miri…” She whispered, shaking her head ever so slightly as her mind registered and her thoughts raced. She never got to continue, however, as behind her Captain Grey received a message through the commlink in his helmet. As Miri’s eyes watched him turn away from them, she grew ominously cold. Dread poured over her body, and in her peripheral she saw Master Billaba cautiously look over her shoulder, as a hologram activated.

A cloaked figure, hunched over with a voice almost familiar to them, spoke directly to the clones. “Execute Order 66.”

Captain Grey did not respond verbally, but he did comply by putting the holo device back on his belt and staring at the Generals before him for a moment longer, before drawing his weapon and firing two shots off, both aimed at their heads. Lightsabers were drawn as the pair dodged the blaster fire, but more troopers were closing in.

Depa Billaba and Miri Rocksled found the same weapons their soldiers used against their enemies aimed at them instead. In the back of her mind, Miri knew this was it. The crest of the hill they’d been climbing for three years, the cause of the sick and twisted feeling in her stomach, and the ultimate demise of the Jedi Order as a whole.

In the distance, it would seem that the same feeling had reached Caleb; the dread had stretched through the air and clouded around him through the Force, and he slowed his pace until he was still. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he heard the sounds of saber blades deflecting blaster shots, and he slowly turned.

Troopers, his troopers, drawing in on the two Masters, shots aimed to kill. His ears began to ring and he sprinted toward them, drawing his own saber. “Master!” He shouted, a desperation in his voice he knew would raise brows, but he didn’t care. Horror filled his body Billaba and Rocksled were separated, and the distance between the troopers and the Jedi was growing smaller and smaller. He stopped in his tracks as his master risked a look at him.

“You must run!” She screamed, hand held out in a desperation she knew would be frowned upon, but she didn’t care. As his feet remained glued to the ground, her eyes remained on him. With her back exposed, a shot landed on her shoulder that rendered her arm almost useless as she tried to defend herself. “Run, Caleb!” She cried out, words echoing as her padawan turned and followed her orders.

Miri had been pushed far enough away that the Bad Batch couldn't see her when they turned and watched the kid run towards the brutal scene, but she was close enough to still see the fall of Jedi Master Depa Billaba, and every emotion that she had been warned about filled her to the brim. Fear, horror, anger, grief, they washed over her until her limbs felt like they were made of stone. Sweat covered her face despite the snowy climate of Kaller, and she felt every burn from a grazed blaster shot, every bruise from trying to fight them off, and when the first successful shot landed on her left thigh, she fell to the scarlett stained snow. As they drew in closer, like predator hunting prey, one hand reached out on instinct. The Force, a power not to be trifled with yet one she was not even sure one would come to her, pushed them back but did little to stop them.

One opportunity, that she was lucky enough to have given herself, to escape. To where, she did not know. With whom, well, she knew it would be nobody. She was on her own, and she deliberately pushed the existence of Clone Force 99 out of her mind. She could not afford to think of them participating in this betrayal, could not afford to feel the debilitating heartbreak of her boys turning on her. Instead, she grunted as she struggled to rise from the ground, the cold seeping through the gaps between the bits of armor she wore as she held a hand out towards where her friend lay. Depa’s lightsaber flew to her and smacked against her palm, and she grasped it with a tight fist as she retreated. Pain radiated from the wound on her leg, and her skin stung as it rubbed against the fabric of her clothes, but she used it to push her forward, to fuel her escape as she attempted to form a plan in her hazy mind.

The treeline was the obvious choice, more things to hide behind, more things to block their view as they aimed at her. She skirted through the woods, not caring for the prints she left behind; she was too weak to hide in the treetops to avoid the snow so she did the best she could to make up for the trail leading them right to her. Trickery.

They would find her, and they would shoot at her, and to them they would succeed. Miri Rocksled would fall at the hands of the Cone Army, and it would be logged somewhere for someone to keep track of.

But this would not be so, as the drop off before her filled in the gaps of her plan. She would need to pull out some theatrics, rather unconventional for a Jedi but she never claimed to follow the grain, and perhaps she could pull off this scheme.

And so, when the shots started firing in her direction once again, she did not dodge them. She ran towards the drop off, feeling the heat from the blaster fire as it got closer and closer, and once the edge was in sight she drew Depa’s saber, turning as if she was cornered and this was her last chance to fight. Convincing, as the troopers took her bait and opened fire directly on her, and she only put up as much of a fight as she needed before the real test began. Her focus drifted from the men before her, and the outside noise drowned itself out. The Force, as present as ever, was all around. It was one with her, and it was always with her.

Her heart slowed in her chest, and it seemed as if things moved in slow motion as she let Captain Grey shoot her in the abdomen, the pain harsh but dulled with the rest of her senses as she used the Force to put her body in a state of comatose. She dropped the lightsaber, using the momentum from the shot to send herself over the edge. She let herself plummet towards the snowy abyss below, slowing herself slightly. When her body collided with the ground, clouds of powdery snow erupted around her, almost shrouding her as the clones looked over the edge.

Her eyes weren’t quite shut, lashes touching as she lay with her head rolled to the side, arms splayed out. Her heart was barely beating, her body mimicking all signs of death in the very name of preservation. In her mind, she thought of her own clones as the ones above confirmed that they had taken out both Jedi Generals. They scooped up the lightsaber before retreating, the presumed dead woman left to freeze on Kaller only a small blip in their minds.

Memories of her squad replayed in her mind as time passed, the coast long since clear as she remained stuck in the icy hold of the world around her. Memories of Hunter, of how beautiful he really was to her, how much he wanted to protect her.

If you don’t move, you’ll die.

His voice, just a whisper of him, echoed in her ears when all noises had been blocked out by the ringing silence.

You are going to freeze. You are bleeding out.

Wake up, Miri. Wake up.

It was with the last snap of his words that all her senses rushed back to her at once, jolting her from her stupor. She gasped, eyes wide as her body worked to resume its normal functions after such a pause. Pain seeped in as much as the cold, and she reminded herself that she was fighting the great fight; she did not have time to dwell on such things. Escape was imperative, and time was dwindling. She had been trained for this, her whole life had been learning how to survive against all odds with the gift she had been given, and this was not going to stop her.

all works on this blog belong to hesthermay.tumblr.com: do not copy, repost onto other sites, or claim my content as your own.

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mydarllinglover · 24 days

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Stars Collided || Sixteen

The three were blindfolded, as they were escorted to a new place.

"Ani, Snips." Lovisa spoke, hurriedly. "Thank you, for being the first friend's I've ever had, and caring about me more than who I am to the Kingdom, but for me, you have no Idea what it means to me, and I... I love you, both, I'm so sorry you're in this, because of me-"

"It's not because of you" Ahsoka cut her off, with a snappy tone. "Don't do that to yourself."

"We're not going to die, M'lady, we'll figure it out, I know it, don't embarrass yourself by admitting your inner thoughts, too soon." Anakin told her, a slight teasing in his tone

"It does not matter to me even if you both are paid to be in my presence, you have treated me with so much kindness and humility, than anyone ever has."

"Lovisa, stop it, I can not have my last moments with you being... sentimental, don't ruin my image of you."

"We're not going to die" Anakin repeated.

"Shut it!" A guard told them, as he took off their blindfolds, and they were dragged along, by their chains, into what looked like an large arena, stands full of people shouted and jeered, chucking things down, as they walked below them.

Four pillars stood, in the middle, and that's when they spotted someone chained to the first one.

"Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked.

"Anakin? What on earth are you doing here? And the Princess, Anakin!"

"I was protecting her, Master!" He defended, as they were also chained to the pillars.

Lovisa quickly ran her fingers through her hair, grabbing a clip, from her thick curls, just as the guard walked over to chain her, between her two friends.

"Good job." The man nodded, with sarcasm.

"Death to the royals!" The crowd had started to chant, upon noticing Princess Lovisa, in attendance.

"Ignore them, Lovey." Ahsoka told the girl, who looked around, a worried look on her face.

"Who- Is that the handmaiden?" Obi-Wan stretched to peer at the last pillar. "Anakin, you had strict instructions!"

"This isn't the time, right now!" The boy cut off the man.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" They looked up, where a group of people were stood, Count Dooku, General Grievous, the man who had captured them, a boy by his side, and Jabba the Hut, a large round man, who referred to himself as king, among the people of his small occupation, though, he was no such thing. "We have a somewhat special guest for you, tonight, though, not as special as her sister. The spare, Princess Lovisa Amidala, of Naboo!" Jabba the hut, introduced, as a bright light shone down on her, almost blinding the girl.

"Cunt!" Voices roared.

"Traitor"

"Kill her!"

"Bitch!"

"Down with the Royals!"

The people were angry, as their voices carried, some were hoarse, as they strained their vocal boxes.

They continued to throw things, at her, as she attempted to shield her face, with her arms.

"...Let the show begin!" Jabba bellowed, after allowing the crowd to finish their threats, a wide smirk plastered to his gruesome face.

A large bell was rang, announcing the beginning of their end.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Anakin commented.

Without waiting to see what was at stake for her, Lovisa got to work on needling the clip into the lock of the chains, breaking it from the inside, a skill she had mentally thanked Padme, for teaching her, many times.

"Oh my god!" She heard Ahsoka gasp, beside her.

Lovisa spared a look, over her shoulder, as she wiggled her hands free.

An gate was being raised, as a mass variety of all sorts of animals walked out, letting out a range of different sounds, causing goosebumps to raise along her skin.

She got to work of undoing Ahsoka's chains, as she could hear Anakin and Obi-Wan conversing their own escape.

"Up, go up!" Lovisa rushed, as she marched back to her own podium, using the chains to hoist herself up, so that she could stand on top of it, and far out of the way of the beasts, that looked hungry.

Ahsoka copied the girl, as she also got to the top of her own.

"Just relax, concentrate." Obi-Wan told his Padawan.

"But, what about the girls?" He asked, looking at his master.

"They seem to be on top of things." Obi-Wan shrugged, looking at the two, as they stood, assessing the arena.

"What?" Anakin looked over, to be amazed at the sight, how had they done that?

An large animal, with horns along its nose, charged at Obi-Wan, and he used this to his advantage, dodging out of the way, allowing it to pierce his chains, setting him free from his pillar.

Another went for Anakin, and using the force, as well as his own chains, he hoisted himself up, jumping into the air, and flipping onto it's back, breaking the connection of the metal, to the pillar.

An white catlike animal had claimed Lovisa, as it attempted to climb the pillar to get to her, but she used her chain, as a whip, to beat it down, seeming to anger it more.

That's when it jumped once more, just managing to claw her back, leaving deep scratches, as she wailed in pain.

Ahsoka watched, as Anakin was dragged off of his ride, being pulled along in the sand and dust, as the animals began fighting each other.

She waved her own chains down, grabbing the attention of two of the animals, as they both hurtled towards it, and just in time, she yanked them up, letting them collide into each other, dragging the animal that was attacking Lovisa, into their fight, taking the focus off of her.

Anakin, somehow, had managed to tame his, being able to hop back onto it, using his chain as a lasso, before turning It into a harness, for his beast, as Obi-Wan, continued to taunt his own, even managing to get it to knock down his pillar, as he claimed an long electric shocker, from one of the guards, who had been leering the animals over towards their captees.

Lovisa stood tall, as Anakin rode his beast towards her pillar, halting to just below it.

"Jump!" He shouted.

She braced herself, before doing just that, landing behind him, her arms instantly wrapping around his waist, as she kissed his cheek.

"What about me?!" Ahsoka called.

"Hurry up, Snips!" Anakin called to her, moving closer.

Ahsoka took a deep breath in, before throwing herself down, and landing behind Lovisa.

Obi-Wan had managed to get on top of his own beast, as he rode it over towards them.

"What now?" Lovisa asked.

A group of large looking scorpions, rolled from the gates, circling the two beasts.

"You just had to ask." Ahsoka breathed out.

They watched, as Jedi swarmed the arena, unsheathing their swords, and that's when they spotted Master Windu, speaking with Count Dooku.

Guards ran into the new battlefield just as the Jedi had, battling each other, as Anakin and Obi-Wan avoided the crossfire, on their beasts.

"Here, found these, thought you may need them." A Jedi shouted, as they tossed swords at the two, who were quick to grab them, cutting all the existing chains, and joining the battle.

"Gimme that!" Ahsoka demanded, shoving a guard, and taking their sword, she was glad that Colo had took pleasure in teaching the handmaiden tricks and defensive moves, as they waited for their dear princess to finish her lessons for the day, something that she had been unaware of.

Lovisa crawled along the floor, keeping low, as she avoided the many people, rubble, animals, and gunfire.

She found a lone gun, jumping up and shooting at anything that didn't resemble a Jedi.

As they continued to fight, Lovisa and Anakin had found themselves pushed together, assessing the battlefield.

"You don't seem so helpless." He commented.

"I always said I could protect myself." She raised a brow at him, shooting down a guard.

The corner of his mouth raised, as he watched her, before forcing himself back into defence mode.

"Wait- Is that?" Lovisa gasped, and they looked over, to see all three puppies were among the fighting, the three of them were chewing at the trouser leg of one of the guards, knocking him down, as they continued to attack him.

"Artoo!" Anakin called, excitedly.

The Jedi, as well as the Princess and the Handmaiden, were forced into a circle, as the guards kept coming, surrounding them.

But then, they had come to a stand still, dropping their weapons, as they stared at the Jedi, waiting on orders.

The Jedi had also lowered their swords, as they looked around.

"Master Windu." Count Dooku called down. "You have fought gallantly... worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order. Now. It is finished. Surrender and your lives will be spared."

"We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku!" Master Windu refused.

"Then, I'm sorry, Old friend." Count Dooku nodded, and the guards had raised their weapons, once more.

Anakin twirled the sword in his hand, as he prepared to resume the fighting.

"Look!" Lovisa shouted, noticing what others hadn't.

Hundreds of soldiers, being led by Master Yoda, marched into the arena, as they shot down the guards, surrounding the Jedi, spurring them on, to join the fight.

One, on top of a horse, rode over to Anakin and Lovisa, blocking them both from the battle.

"I have strict orders to get the princess out and far away from here." He said, to Anakin.

"Go." Anakin told her, as he grabbed her waist, to lift her up on top of the horse.

"No! I will stay and help!" She demanded.

"You will not, you will get on this horse, and let..."

"Rex, sir." The man introduced himself.

"And let Rex take you to safety, understood?"

"Anakin!"

"Don't argue with me." He told her, as he put her on top of the horse. "Rex, do not let any harm come to the princess."

"I won't sir, I'll bet my life on it."

"Good, get her out of here!" He smacked the back of the horse, making it cry out, before galloping away.

"Where are you taking me?!" Lovisa yelled.

"Base, your highness, they'll meet us back there."

Lovisa looked behind her, watching Anakin fight against the guards, it was almost like a dance, how graceful and persistent he was, her heart swelled at the sight, as he got smaller, and smaller.

#anakin fanfiction #anakin x reader #anakin imagine #anakin x you #star wars anakin #sw anakin #anakin skywalker #anakin skywalker x reader smut #obi wan and anakin #ahsoka tano #anakin star wars #anakin and padme #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin smut

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opinated-user · 5 months

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transcript of the clip LO posted: "some make the argument that star was meant to be this way because it's inspired by anime, but that's a statement that need qualifying. which anime? well, sailor moon obviously. but that sentiment is found on any of the other shows. anime is a pretty wide medium with many irons and many fires, but the phrase anime inspired always narrowed it in small niche and culturally embarassing side of it that even Japan doesn't like to be reminded of it" (source_not_found) "when someone says anime inspired they never say that they were inspired by hello kitty or hamtaro or that silly one where everyone is sharply dressed and ridiculously buffer" (an image of Jojo Adventures) "no, it's always this shit that no one in their right mind would be caught with."

the last part of the clip shows this:

let me debunk this clip piece by piece. 1. you literally just said that SVTFOE is inspired by Sailor Moon, the anime that really popularized and cemented the magical girl genre for the public. although it wasn't the first one, it's the one everyone immediately associate whenever "magical girl" it's mentioned. to say that SVTOFE is inspired by Sailor Moon it's already saying that it has magical girl elements and many conventions of that genre baked into it. that's what it means. even the less knowlegeable people in anime will know what Sailor Moon is and if you tell them "this is inspired by Sailor Moon", they would know what it means. the fact that you insist that needs more "qualifying" and go on this completely incoherent rant talks more about your own ignorance than anything. "this show about a magical princess that comes from another dimension to earth in order to fight bad guys was inspired by this other show about another princess from another world that comes to earth to fight bad guys" is not a confusing statement at all, so i'm confused as to what you thought was necessary to "qualify" here? LO, when people say that your video are becoming worse because you lack structure and keep pulling words that don't end up connecting to any central idea, this clip is an example of what people mean. this whole rant was entirely unnecesary and it didn't help your point come across. any editor would have told you to either remove it entirely or worded it a lot different. by your response i can see that you think you were doing something there. i promise that you didn't.

2. LO, Japan is not embarassed by anime. i actually don't know from where you took that one. otakus were seen as embarassing because they were our equivalent of the incel stereotype that doesn't interact with people and lives indoors all day, but even that's changing. anime by itself was always part of the cultural expression of the country. they treat Evangelion like here in the west we treat Mickey Mouse, they plaster the images of those characters everywhere in the most populated areas. similar to how you have the "baby sister" you decided to romance in baldur's gate all over your tumblr, while trying to insist you don't have incestuous attraction to your younger sibling. but at least they don't do it to flaunt their incestuous attraction. you keep projecting this image of Japan being embarassed and annoyed by the existence of anime without any evidence or even an attempt to explain how that makes any sense. the anime industry is huge, it's one of the cultural products that Japan more profits with because they can export it to the rest of the world and the rest of the world wants more of it. in what planet does it make sense that they would be "embarassed" by something like that? 3. do you want to know why nobody ever says that something was inspired by hello kitty or hamtaro, LO? that's because Hello Kitty doesn't have an actual story. it's an cutesy aesthetic around a bunch of cute characters that a company made in order to sell cute merchandize. there was to my knowledge only one show made with Hello Kitty, but i believe none of that had anything to do with the official canon of the character. if you think about it, Hello Kitty is kinda like Barbie. it's a recognizable icon completely by itself. there can be stories made with it, but Hello Kitty will never go through a character development moment and will never change. she will always be just a cute kitty, just like Barbie can be whatever is the most convenient for Mattell in any given moment. as to Hamtaron, it was just a slice of life anime about cute animals. it was cute, indeed. but it didn't do anything new that thousands of other people weren't doing after or before with their own spins on it. here, a list of anime/manga that were exactly the same as Hamtaro without being directly inspired by it because nobody really invented the "slice of life story through the perspective of a pet" genre. it took me one google search to find, there's more if you want to see. if you're so desperate for more content "like Hamtaro" it was always that easy to find. ... more so, again, what does this have to do with SVTFOE or literally any other show that isn't about cute animals being cute? about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and nobody ever was inspired by it in the west... you have to be joking with that one.

here are videogames inspired by JJBA: https://www.thegamer.com/best-jojos-bizarre-adventure-video-game-references/#bayonetta

other manga and anime it inspired: https://www.cbr.com/jojo-bizarre-adventure-anime-manga-inspirations/

shows in the west that it inspired/have direct references to JJBA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHhNUVtozKY one of the shows mentioned is Monkey Kid, which her wife watches. do you know why you don't hear that something wasn't inspired by this, LO? because nothing of the shows you watch had anything that could be inspired by JJBA or you wouldn't even understand the reference in the first place. one of the other shows that also had references was Amphibia... which LO refused to see because *checks notes* it had a plot.

4. the two things i circled in red are not even anime. they're games. the one with two girls hugging and looking up with fear is Rape Lay, a infamous game about raping underaged girls and their mother until you get them pregnant and they either kill you or you force them to have babies. the other one is Doki Doki Majo Shipan, a game whose main objective is that you have to undress and touch the bodies of different characters in order to find a "witch mark". many of those characters are underaged, but a few are adults and you play as a highscholer so it's still not better.

i just want to ask the following. why did you bring two games, two infamous games about touching or raping underaged bodies for that matter, when talking about SVTFOE at all? just why? what was the thought process here? how does this make your point any more clearer? how it does examplify better that "anime inspired" is bad when you don't even show anime and is instead games? anyone should seriously question why you brought this games up at all when talking about a show that was made by Disney. a show about a underaged magical princess of another world. why did your mind ever went to those games when talking about this? you just exposed, with no warning mind you, a bunch of your audience to these games to discover by themselves. you did that. and that was bad and you should feel bad about it.

#lily orchard

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peupeugunn · 1 year

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okay but imagine if shadowhunters had had filler episodes. just them doing dumb nonsense that didn't have any effect on the plot. bonding.

clary learns about the nephilim education system and she doesn't know whether to be horrified or amazed cause on the one hand they're giving knives to four year olds, on the other hand, izzy is a fully certified forensic pathologist at 19.

simon spends an entire episode dragging raphael around new york tryna find him a replacement jacket because even though the kidnapping situation was very fucked up he feels really bad!!! the episode ends with them picking out a really amazing jacket and then raphael having to pay for it because with all the supernatural crap happening, simon honestly forgot that he's a broke college student.

jace and alec episode with them on their day off just chilling (izzy and clary following them because clary Does Not Understand Parabatai and izzy thinks this will help. somehow.) they go to the library and spend some time curled up together reading. they get coffee and go to the park. jace screams at some ducks while alec provides moral support. they go for a movie. they walk around the city holding hands. they go back to the institute to spar a little and then head off to bed. clary through the episode keeps asking "are they dating? are they not? seems like they are?" but izzy keeps denying the dating allegations. clary then finds someone in the institute that can actually explain parabatai with actual words and she barges into izzy's room in the middle of the night screaming "YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME THEY'RE SOULMATES ISABELLE!"

there's an episode that is literally just. magnus' cats. nothing else. magnus provides narration like this is a nature documentary.

malec's second date, where they just sit on the couch and watch tv and trashtalk the characters. the entire episode is edited to look exactly like a youtuber-reviewing-a-tv-show thing. the first time time an action scene comes up, alec gets so mad at how unrealistic it is and magnus gives him a detailed explanation of how and why movie fighting is so different from real life fighting and why they're choreographed that way. the episode is an hour and a half because magnus and alec keep getting sidetracked and start talking about random stuff. it ends with them falling asleep together on the couch.

a magnus & catarina & ragnor episode with them just hanging out. cat and ragnor keep making fun of magnus for being so in love but he keeps agreeing with them with a lovestruck expression and that takes the fun out of it. the episode is a clipshow style thing except it's not clips of stuff we've already seen, it's their adventures (including, obviously, peru.)

a jimon episode where simon sits jace down and explains in detail the entire plot of star wars. all the star wars. jace asks so many questions and they get so sidetracked at times but simon powers through. at the end, jace reveals that he actually has watched star wars and he knew everything simon was saying but let him go on and on for hours because he wanted to see whether simon would figure it out and also cause jace likes spending time with him.

a clizzy episode where izzy jokingly asks clary to paint her and clary gets so excited!!!! so izzy goes along with it. clary keeps talking like she's doing a tutorial on painting except izzy can't see what she's doing. through the episode, izzy keeps doing more and more ridiculous poses and clary paints and sketches them and somehow they turn out actually good?

i have more ideas but like. idk about you guys but i'd have watched the hell out of this stuff.

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invisibleraven · 9 days

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I don't know what that means!

Peterpatterlina

Since Julie refused to skip school for band practice (lame) the boys had to find a way to amuse themselves. As such, they decided to catch up on all they had missed in the past twenty five years. Alex had Willie for that, making sure he understood all the new slang as well as the joys of be gay, do crime.

Luke and Reggie stuck to watching things. They started with Star Wars, the series that brought them together as kids, sneaking in to see the original trilogy when they were probably too young to do so. They were less enthused about the rest of the films, but did enjoy the live action shows that Carlos insisted they watch.

From there, they started watching movies and shows old and new alike, though sometimes they had to pause and get context for historical events and memes.

Eventually they figured they should watch Friends-Flynn told them that it had aged badly, and though they might have fond memories of the first season, the rest was not as good.

But hey, it killed time right?

(Even though Flynn was right and they both agreed that Ross sucked and Chandler was not nearly as appreciated as he should be)

"Do you think lobsters actually mate for life?" Luke asked as they sat through a clip show.

"I think wolves do?" Reggie offered. "Why the sudden interest in the mating habits of crustaceans?"

"It was the thing Phoebe said, about Rachel being Ross' lobster. I think I want that-someone for the rest of my life. Afterlife. Whatever."

Reggie gave a sly grin. "You mean Julie?"

Luke bit his lip, a faint blush tinting his cheeks. "Maybe. But... not just her."

Reggie looked at Luke then, not daring to get his hopes up. He knew how he felt about Luke, and how it had changed since their little chemistry experiment. How he also felt about Julie, a deep well of love that he could never speak of. He had buried his feelings deep, figuring he had no hopes in either harbour and had resigned himself with an afterlife of loneliness and pining from the sidelines.

"R-really?" he finally choked out. "Who else?"

"I think you know man."

"I want to hear you say it."

"It's you Reg," Luke said, cupping his cheek. "It's always been you I think. But it's her too."

"Me too," Reggie rasped out, whatever else he was going to say being swallowed in a kiss that was blistering, messy, and perfect, just like the person giving it to him.

"Oh."

They broke apart, turning to see a devastated looking Julie in the doorway to the studio.

"I'll just... let you two get back to it."

"No Julie wait!" Luke yelled, rushing to catch her. "It's...complicated."

"Looked pretty simple to me."

Luke looked at Reggie frantic who gave him a despairing, look and a shrug, not know what they could say or do to make this better. Then he burst out, "You're our lobster!"

"I don't know what that means!" Julie retorted, her face screwing up in anger.

"Can we explain it?" Reggie asked quietly.

Julie softened then, nodding, letting herself be guided to the chair, hands folded awaiting their explanation.

"Have you ever watched Friends?" Luke asked.

"No," Julie shook her head. "Flynn has and told me it's not worth my time, so I never bothered with that particular cultural touchstone."

Reggie took it upon himself to explain the reference they were making, and then looked at her. "So... we want you to be our lobster."

Julie looked at them both then. "Lobsters don't mate for life, sorry."

The boys faces fell then, until Julie took their hands in hers. "But wolves do. As well as a bunch of other animals. Even more have poly relationships. So maybe we can find the species to suit us?"

Reggie and Luke nodded vigorously, pulling her into an embrace, and though research was tempting they asked Julie for a suggestion for a show she loved they could watch together.

Even if they spent more time making out than actually watching Buffy.

#filled prompts #ficlet #rukebox #peterpatterlina #julie and the phantoms

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ts1989fanatic · 11 months

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Taylor Swift's fans are renowned for their loyalty and dedication.

Known colloquially as "Swifties," they sell out stadiums in minutes; spend weeks creating intricate outfits that pay tribute to her albums; comb through her lyrics to find Easter eggs and secret messages.

Back in November, the fandom received national attention for taking action after Ticketmaster bungled the Eras Tour presale.

The backlash was so loud and so fervent that the Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster's parent company. The power of Swifties became clearer than ever.

Indeed, the sheer passion of Swift's fans has helped make her the biggest pop star in the world — but that doesn't grant them absolute access to her life and personal space.

Recently, Swift obsessives have been exhibiting overzealous — and frankly concerning — behavior. Videos have circulated online that show swarms of people camping outside her home in New York City and Electric Lady Studios, where she's been spotted working in between tour dates. Other clips show fans chasing her car down the street.

It's one thing to wait for hours in the pouring rain to watch Swift deliver a spectacular concert. That's her job. It's another, more sinister thing to wait for hours on the sidewalk, just to film her car entering her home garage. That's her life.

Swift has been candid about fending off stalkers throughout her career, making this behavior particularly egregious for anyone who claims to care about her well-being.

"My fear of violence has continued into my personal life," she wrote for Elle in 2019. "I carry QuikClot army-grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds. Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I've ever had online. You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things."

This is not to say that Swift's most fervent fans are all stalkers, but it's easy to see how this behavior could be triggering for someone who's been stalked. And as Swift said in her "Miss Americana" documentary in 2020, "There's a difference between 'I really connect with your lyrics' and 'I'm going to break in.'" Some Swifties clearly need to be reminded of where that line is.

This is also not the first time Swifties have overstepped. Some fans have been known to harass members of the LGBTQ community for analyzing Swift's songs through a queer lens. Others have sent insults and death threats to music critics for less-than-glowing reviews of Swift's music.

Of course, this behavior isn't unique to Swifties. But Swift's lack of admonition is uniquely strange. She has marketed herself as someone who's not afraid to speak up to defend her values, someone who has explicitly condemned homophobes and bullies in her music.

Swift has also said she's proud of her affectionate relationship with fans. She has invited Swifties to her Nashville home for album listening parties; sent personalized notes to celebrate milestones; donated money for college tuitions; protected concertgoers from aggressive security guards.

Unfortunately, a healthy relationship cannot be sustained with affection alone, be it interpersonal or parasocial.

At the risk of sounding like a wannabe therapist, constructive feedback is essential for growth — and when someone you love disrespects your boundaries, it's not constructive to say silent.

This is something that Phoebe Bridgers, Swift's friend and collaborator, knows all too well.

Although Bridgers experiences fame on a vastly different level than Swift, she has also been subjected to abuse and entitlement at the hands of "people with my picture as their Twitter picture."

In a March interview with Them, Bridgers said she was "bullied" in the midst of a speculative frenzy about her dating life — while she was on the way to her father's funeral.

"I've had people take more than I'm giving, and I'm giving a lot," Bridgers recently told the Wall Street Journal. "I'm pretty fucking transparent, because I would value that in someone whose music I liked when I was a kid. Seeing any representation of any feeling and anything true was awesome to me. To be punished for that is so dark."

"There's a higher chance that you'll meet a fan that you hate than a fan that you love," she added. "You're way more likely to be confronted with someone who just violated your privacy."

If these quotes rub you the wrong way, you may be the problem.

Connecting to a person's music does not give you the right to violate her privacy, and Bridgers isn't afraid to draw that line. I wish more musicians would follow suit.

Ahead of Bridgers' final performance at the Eras Tour on Sunday, I hope Swift is able to absorb some of her bravery and wisdom. It's OK to criticize people for bad behavior — and the fans who stick around are the ones worth keeping.

ts1989fanatic

Even the media can get it right on occasion, the recent behaviour by some so called swifties is bordering on STALKING and needs to stop.

Unless we all want to go back to why she disappeared again.

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ikemenomegas · 1 year

Text

Gave my love

Portgas D Ace x Reader || Shooting Stars

a/n: Make a Wish prompt fill for panda-anon. I am crying because my first draft spun off into the void of my own technological mishaps, so I hope the second version is satisfactory. I'm sorry it took so long (it took forever for me to do the rewrite these last few weeks have been a bit hectic) I hope that you enjoy it! I apologize if Ace seems at all ooc, it's been a long time since I last took a deep dive into his character. He reads to me as someone who would be kind of a tsundere about romantic feelings but able to be happy if he told himself it was "just friends" so he could pretend to be normal about it. The boy has so many excuses: Butterflies? he's happy to see you, feeling hot? he's made of fire, jealous of your attention? you were his friend first... (also the linked song aged remarkably well, it's fun and noisy and is where the title came from) Thank you so much to my friend who braved an omegaverse fic to edit for me. I hate editing my own stuff and she did such a good job making sure that things weren't too obtuse. cw: omegaverse, alpha!reader, Ace's canon compliant self worth issues

The trouble with narcolepsy isn't the daytime hours. He'd learned to manage those when he was a kid. The trouble comes at night, when his body is visited with the opposite impulse.

Ace rolls over for the nth time. Now, with the same insistence it had put him to sleep, his body pulls him awake.

He follows that pull with heavy, silent steps. He stretches his arms above his head and feels his back pop. He leaves his hat by his bunk, suddenly eager for the sea breeze through his hair.

He hesitates for a moment. Though he no longer gets cold, he considers wrapping something around his shoulders. His pillows and blankets still smell faintly of you. He looks at the bed.

No one is around to accuse him of something so treacherous as longing, but he still jerks his head away and pretends as if he hadn't spent much too long considering such a thing.

When he leaves the covered floors of the ship a bird - he cannot see where it come from - flutters down and nearly clips his head. It's not a seagull. He wonders for a moment, could it be?, but he quickly casts the thought away. Probably not.

A flash of light streaks across the sky, distracting him.

The worn railing is smooth, almost soft, beneath his fingertips when he leans over it. He folds his arms and lays his head in the cradle of his elbow.

He's been dealing with insomnia for the better part of a decade, either waking in the night or not sleeping at all. He'd see Luffy, sprawled out on the floor of the hideout, snot bubbles and not a care in the world. Even though his little brother didn't often notice his midnight absences, even when Ace would show up with prey in the morning, being unnoticed had not left him feeling unwanted.

Knowing someone was waiting staved off the loneliness. Becoming Whitebeard's son had been the best decision of his life. Yet tonight, he has no desire to disturb the sentries or wake a crew member for company.

A glossy black crow lands on the rail within easy reach. It cocks its head at him, warbling low in the back of its throat. Ace narrows his eyes at it, staring until the crow shrinks back, feather ruffling. This was the bird that had almost hit the back of his head, he's sure of it.

It looks almost sheepish at it places a little bag on the rail between them.

When he doesn't pick it up right away, the bird pushes it closer with one delicate claw, bobbing its head.

He picks it up slowly, keeping an eye on the bird. It tilts its head back and forth, clicking in the back of its throat. It takes him a moment to catch it in the dim light: the reflection of your Eye in the black marble of the crow's.

A grin showing teeth makes its way across his face.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi." Sound comes out of the crow's open beak like there is a microphone in its throat, like there's a snail in its belly. It doesn't move in synchrony with the words, but in an unsettling sort of pantomime.

Your voice is made ragged by the crow, but even with one word he knows it is yours. His grin goes lopsided and he weighs the pouch in his hand.

"Fancy seeing you here, pretty bird" he says.

The crow makes a hacking sort of cough he knows to be its version of your scoff coming from its mouth, but the bird rubs its beak against the gleaming wood of the ship, as though to take the sting from the sound.

"I do occasionally have good timing," it says with your voice.

He leans his head on his arms and looks directly at the bird. His gaze cuts through the animal in front of him and to you on the other side. One side of his bangs falls across his eye.

He has some idea of what you do, but not exactly. He knows it's dangerous, for a certain value of dangerous. You go to places he hasn't seen yet.

When he asks you where you are, you tell him about places you've been, never where you recently were. You don't relent even when he pries, whining low in his throat at your typical evasiveness. The crow speaks the rusted over name of some island he's never heard of.

When he asks you how training is going, the bird does some funny little movements that require it to over-correct when it nearly falls off the rail and imitates the sounds of bo staffs colliding.

The sentry peeks down from a higher level. Ace waves them off, feeling suddenly defensive. He wants to keep this moment a secret.

The bird freezes, looking up from where it's hunched over in an all too human kind of expression that reminds him of the last time you were a guest of the Whitebeard pirates and you'd raided the kitchens with him, sneaking around with unnecessary stealth, pressing back as if to hide him from every passing shadow until he was giggling into your shoulder, you scents mingling as you sweated under the hot atmosphere of a nearby volcanic island.

He snickers as the bird shakes its feathers flat again, giving an experimental little croak and finally straightening up when the noise doesn't immediately bring the sentry back running, looking out for his crewmate. The bird bumps his hand, as if to draw attention to it, and Ace draws his fingers through the soft, smooth feathers.

When you creakily ask him about his own recent adventures, you offer tidbits from the news to get him started, and it warms him in a very strange way to think you've been keeping an eye on him.

Eventually, the late night catches up and a comfortable quiet settles around the two of you.

Ace listens to the crow's low gargly kkqrk as it moves on its perch. He smirks to himself at the sight of the shining black bird shifting against the star scattered, velvet night.

"Are you going to open it?" you, finally ask. The bird pecks emphatically at the rail by the velvety bag.

All of the bird's expressive hopping and pecking for excited emphasis is so very un-human. It amuses him to imagine you puppetting the creature, instructing it to dip and flap for his benefit, even though he knows it is more akin to the bird itself interpreting your emotions.

Even so when the bird, looks at him, he can almost see the pleading look only you can pull off. Truly and delightfully uncanny.

He sighs as if it is all a chore, bobbing the pouch up and down on the string wound around his fingers. The crow follows with the movement with its beak and then its whole body.

"Should I?" he muses. "Suppose I save it-"

The bird all but stamps its little grey scaled foot in expressing your impatience and he laughs at you, at the odd humanity of the motion, as he finally does open the bag, drawstrings tangled in his fingers.

The contents of the pouch glitters, even in the starlight.

"How nice," he says, opening the mouth of the bag wide to reveal an array of crystals inside. "A good bit of shine."

All pirates of course liked things that gleamed. As did crows. The bird tilts its head between his face and the bits of rock in his hand.

He shifts them around in the bag. There are many colors.

"You should try one," it - you - says, shifting its weight. The bird stayed almost perfectly still, head tilted as it took in his incredulous expression.

"I am not dumb enough to eat rocks."

"I know."

The bird, peers up at him, blankly expectant.

Ace looks back in the bag and eventually plucks one of the crystals out. It's orange bleeding into purple like a storm ridden twilight and edged like the inside of a geode.

He glances once more at the bird, at you, but the creature just shuffles its wings to sit more primly against its body. Ace has never been very good at backing down from a dare.

Still he bites down very very carefully.

The crystal cracks apart under his teeth and spills sweetness on his tongue - plum and passion fruit, tart and bright and dark again, like the last touch of a setting sun. The outside is hard and cool like stone, but falls away to jelly by the time his bite sinks to the center.

He cannot help the way his eyes go slightly wide.

"Where are these from?" he asks.

"I made them," your voice slips from the bird's parted beak, almost shy. "The King of Kettles taught me," you add fondly.

He nibbles on more of the crystal, candy he now knows. Rock candy, he thinks as he grins to himself. He's not sure when the last time someone brought him candy of all things. Sugar is expensive no matter its source, and sometimes hard to find among the islands. Even syrups made from fruit would take a long time to make.

"Make sure to brush your teeth!" The crow interrupts his thoughts with a trumpeting, too loud, cackling sort of caw.

He stuffs a corner of the crystal into the crow's beak, interrupting the sound with a choking, fluttering, sputtering.

One thing about birds is that regardless of interpretation, they are sometimes not very good at managing their volume.

The crow hunches over, sending Ace as dirty a look as it can manage. You consider having it play dead, just to get back at him, but the shuffling attention of the sentries has you, the crow, freezing in his shadow.

You are reminded, somewhat guiltily, that your welcome on Whitebeard's territory does not give you unrestricted access, even for stolen moments like this.

But again, Ace waves off the inquisitive sentries, and they go, because he is the commander of the second division.

Ace can tell that they're curious, but this is for him, for now. In the morning if they or anyone asks, he will tell and laugh and tease. And it will be real.

This is real too. He feels protective of this moment, even if it is only a crow with your Eye as a glossy, curved reflection. It's his little secret.

It's not in his nature to keep secrets. Not for long. But for a while, he wants to keep this one. Not out of shame, not like the other, but because this one is warm like a glowing coal.

It is his, to follow the direction of a falling star and have a bird deliver him a gift and a conversation. You can't tell him where you are or where you're going, but you have frequent, funny little names that are familiar enough that you can tell him stories and he knows of whom you speak. The King of Kettles, Catfish, the Forlorn Maiden - all of them people he has never and likely will never meet.

Do you have a secret name for him, do you tell people about him? Something meant to safeguard him from the world?

Will there ever be a time when he isn't the secret? When that secret doesn't drag a darkness along behind it to cover those who know?

Another flash of light goes across the sky - blink and you'll miss it.

He sees it, you don't, going in the same direction as before. It flies away into the night.

Slowly, through the odd technicolor vision of the crow, you see a closed off, thoughtful expression take the place of the easy smile from before.

"What are you thinking of?"

The crow's hissed approximation of a whisper should be unsettling but it isn't.

Ace leans his arm on the railing and looks over at you, at the crow. The corner of his mouth lifts up, but he can't put enough of his heart into it to cover the melancholy.

He finds himself wishing for your scent. Sending a bird is one thing, but if he had not seen the Eye, he wouldn't have even been able to tell you it was you there, and not some well trained pet.

"I wish you were here," he sighs, reaching out to run a finger over the bird's smooth head feathers.

The bird ruffles its wings and says nothing. There is a long moment of nothing, long enough that Ace thinks of going back to bed. Sleep is finally reaching for him, he can feel the chill of it on his skin.

It's through the quiet of the dark that it finds him, a dull sound, almost at the edge of hearing.

He reaches out with his awareness, scanning the sea for any creature stupid enough to attack one of Whitebeard's fleet. A Sea King would be a bit of bedtime fun. Or it might be the distant sound of canons, although intuition tells him that isn't it.

The sound gets closer. It is not canons or the writhing movements of a deep water monster. It is more like someone shaking out sheets, but as regular as a sleeper's heart - the flap of wings.

He sees a shape, black on black, in the distance. It vanishes between one blink and the other, melting into the night. Another shimmer of light falls overhead while the wingbeats suddenly disappear.

Ace remembers owls and the way they hunt, swooping silently down upon their prey. He looks up to see if the watch is at all disturbed, and then to his left. The crow is gone.

The wingbeats return, now soft and so close. Right below him. He looks over the rail and a familiar face rises up to meet him.

This crow upon which you sit is longer than him if he were to lay down, feet and fingers pointed as far as they would go. It drifts upon the shallow eddy stirred up by the ship, drifting alongside.

"Hello," you say. You're smiling. Teasing snatches of scent get caught in the sea breeze.

From behind, the crow that had been your mouthpiece swoops down upon your shoulder.

"Willful thing," you say to it.

It croaks, head bobbing cheekily.

"Hi," he says. His heart feels like it's soaring, light alongside you, every whoosh of blood a wingbeat.

"I heard you," you say, nudging the crow's chest with your finger.

"You do occasionally have good timing," he says, grinning wide.

The enormous bird flaps a few times, slowly, up to the level of the rail.

He catches you when you slide over the side of the ship and step onto the deck. He never feels the flames when they come from him, but your palm sliding over his makes him feel like he's burning.

"I think I'm going to be in trouble with your Father," you say, shrugging a shoulder, "for the bird."

It croaks again, and then caws, as if to prove a point. The both of you wince.

"I'll tell him you came for me," Ace replies. He doesn't bother to keep quiet now, but that's alright. The bag of sweets you brought him dangles around his wrist like a charm.

You're a little breathless when you look at him. He can see stars reflected in your eyes.

"Whenever you want me."

#portgas d ace #portgas d ace x reader #one piece x reader #one piece #it's implied that the reader is somehow involved with the revolutionary army #alpha!reader #omegaverse #panda anon #thank you so much for your patience #this was super fun to write #and i really enjoyed getting back into his character a little bit #hope that i did it justice!#i forgot how young and repressed ace is XD #he will absolutely reject outright romance so you can't tell him that shhhh #just pretend there's another reason he's special and it'll be fine and give him time to figure it out #prompt fill #make a wish prompt fill

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lunawings · 20 days

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Okay, I watched AiPri episode 1

...........

First of all, the way they refer to AiPri is super different and it's jarring. Before, like, PriPara/PriChan/PriMagi was something you could do. AiPri is something you become. You don't do AiPri, you become an AiPri (Idol Princess)?

This will take some getting used to.

As I predicted from the day it was announced, Mitsuki is already an AiPri and Himari is already a fan not knowing it's her. Her AiPri name is Mii or Miichan and she broadcasts to her Miichannel (......).

Himari's sister Hiiro calls to make sure Himari isn't late and her mother reminds her to keep up with her skin and hair care......

Himari's room is ginormous, but it does seem like she has a roommate. (Mitsuki? It's implied that Mitsuki snuck out early to go do AiPri stuff.)

Himari is nervous about starting their first day of junior high and not knowing anyone, but Mitsuki nudges her forehead (their secret good luck sign) and takes her hand and they are off.

These guys are all the student council, apparently.

Himari and Mitsuki's brothers go to the school too. It's implied that Himari's brother is very protective of Himari, but Himari kinda has a crush on Mitsuki's brother.......

AiPri isn't outright banned I think(?), but the principal Victoria seems to be against it? I wasn't quite sure she said in her speech. (She's shown later in the episode watching AiPri though.)

After establishing that Himari is shy and could never see herself doing becoming AiPri, she spectacularly falls and flips over onto her bracelet, attaching it to her hand. (You know that viral clip of like a Bollywood actress fainting into a suitcase? It was basically that.......)

(Also wait... did she accidentally steal her bracelet from the student council!!?)

"SO CUTE!!!!"

(....i....is it...?)

Himari is being forced to debut immediately even though she doesn't want to. Despite Himari not recognizing Mitsuki as Miichan, Mitsuki recognizes Himari immediately after seeing her on a screen for five seconds and runs to her. Mitsuki/Miichan asks why she's there, and Himari insists she was forced, but Michiru asks her, isn't it because you wanted to be an AiPri? Himari realizes this is true.

Mitsuki gives Himari their good luck headbonk and Himari finally realizes it's her. The secret's out already. (But, considering they were shown performing together in the OP I figured...)

I kinda like the CG. I like the soft shading.

The Buzzilume change kinda hurts my eyes though. Why do they need to have so many.... lasers...........

I've been wondering if Buzzilume comes from like... someone told them that "buzz" as in like "what's the buzz" means like rumor, i.e. secret or something haha.

Student council gets the VIP death star.

One of them has a thick Kansai accent but I'm not sure which because she wasn't on screen while she was talking.

Is this really supposed to be the audience?

Ugh, I dunno. It's just the beginning, but I thought this episode was super cringy. I got a lot of secondhand embarrassment from it. Specifically from the scenes below:

-There's this scene where Himari is forced to address the entire school despite neither knowing nor having any chance to prepare for it. They didn't make it seem like she knew and forgot, it just seemed like she was picked randomly. It was supposed to be like an analog for her debut and show how Himari actually can overcome anything (with a little help from Mitsuki) but like... that would never happen in real life. So cruel.

-Chi is determined to break all the rules and make AiPri as little a secret as possible. The joke is she's putting her secret out there but nobody will listen to her, but... in order to make that work, they've made her super annoying haha.... ha...

-Himari ROLLING OVER AND FALLING INTO HER BRACELET... REALLY.............

-Seeing Himari's mascot/manager felt like in PriChan when Rinka was showing off Silk except we are actually supposed to think it's cute........

-Realizing Himari overcame her fears and put everything into performing to.... a bunch of.... floating c...cards.........?

Welp. Neither Himari nor Mitsuki left a big impression on me and Chi was kind of annoying. Looking forward to getting to know the student council at least, I'm pretty sure I'll find my favorite there.

Also the yellow girl does seem to be the Rinne character, as her voice was inviting Himari to the AiPri Verse and she has like, triangle pupils. It's also heavily implied in the OP that she is indeed Mitsuki and Himari's teammate. We'll see, we'll see.

Oh, and Himari didn't choose a name for her AiPri persona in this episode. Mitsuki is Mii so... (Hii? lol)

#just realized i called mitsuki michiru the whole post #fixed it hopefully #clearly the charcters left a big impresson on me.........

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zeglythofficial · 2 months

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Hi! Anon of the rant.

About this https://www.tumblr.com/zeglythofficial/742759379451953152/some-tea-z-the-discourse-on-her-man-has?source=share

I never thought RZ was that kind of person!

But appearances can be deceiving. Based on everything I've seen, I truly feel sorry for her and her future. And I hope from the bottom of my heart that she stays far away from TB as possible.

If you want to boost your boyfriend's doomed career, do it using JR's merits, but he doesn't, right?

She could have been a big star on her own, but she chose the stupidest path, partnering with someone who clearly doesn't have the capacity to even pursue a solo career without the support of her girlfriend.

It's sad to see so much promising future being thrown away. Because she actually had a chance of reaching maximum level.

Among all of them, the only one (apparently) with the right choices is TB, congratulations to him.

I'm not a zeglyth shipper, I liked their dynamic and thought it was genuine. But I was wrong.

I really hope she stops this LG and Sejanus thing. For someone who claims to be a fan of the story and the character, doing something like this is terrible.

But, she is not against using someone she called a friend until recently, story characters are the least of it.

I don’t think she is really that tbh!

1. That post was poorly written…almost on purpose.

2. We must remember that we can see zeglyth with our own eyes as well regardless of what that anon says. The BTS clips, the interviews, red carpets etc wasn’t all a lie. It’s very clear to me that Zeglyth are genuine friends. The way they touch tells me that. The way he defended her told me that. Keep in mind that R has been singing T praises way before the movie was released.

3. I do think they were telling the truth about R liking the online attention she gets from T and Zeglyth though. That’s not a lie but to say she’s only using him for that? No, I don’t believe that. She’s caught off guard by their popularity. It probably sucks that her bf isn’t well loved but her friend is. The most liked post on her IG is T’s bday post. I think it hurts her a lot to see her bf will never get that kind of attention so she’s showing him down our throats.

4. R and J will never be a power couple. It’s laughable to think about. If R and her team truly think that, they are way out of touch with her fanbase. We don’t care about J. We don’t like him. We never will. It’s a tough pill to swallow for R but she has way more chemistry with T. She knows that too which is why she’s fighting hard to promote J and Sejanus.

5. R will regret trying to boost J’s career when they break up. It will be a nasty thing to witness. I hope she braces herself for that because and I’m not saying this to be mean but it will be deserved imo. No woman should help a man’s career. He’s a man, let him do it himself.

6. This is a bad look on R. She needs to cater to her neutral fans! She has fans that don’t care about T, J, Zeglyth, THG, they follow her for her projects and her career, nor relationship drama. Did she forget that?

Overall, R/J are not a power couple, T will be successful and J’s career launch won’t go anywhere. Wasn’t TBOSAS suppose to help launch J’s career? It didn’t and Ryan Murphy is a hit or miss right now. Won’t be surprised if J’s career continues to flop.

#my answers #about r + j #about t

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la-scree · 17 days

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Hoo boy I'm about to have a hot take and I'm sorry for putting it on your dashes. But I've done this event five times and I have Thoughts. Mainly one thing:

The XV event was better than the XVI one.

Yes we got good glam to show off our tits and we got a doggo mount but if this was a means for me to want to play XVI, this wasn't it.

Welp, going under the cut here so if you haven't done either the XV or XVI questline, turn back. Probably won't be as bad but you know, people probably don't want to get spoiled.

(Same Yua. Same.)

We good? Cool.

For me, what draws me to a story is the characters. With Noctis, he felt more active during his event as we do a mini road trip with him. He asks questions, he tells us a bit about himself, hell at one point he goes fishing and is like 'hey I wanna take a picture!' and having recently played it on Cinder, it felt nice. He takes the lead at times and it was fun.

Then I did the XVI event and at first, I thought it was nice and good. The fight idea felt like something from Persona and y'all know I do love that series (despite all the bullshit) and facing yourself and your fears are in fact tasty. But Clive...he was boring. It felt like I was guiding a lost puppy because Yoshi-P's insert told me to due to guiding stars he saw in a dream. Lead Clive to airship, lead him to various points in Gridania where he says basically the same thing until hearing about Garuda.

Funny how Garuda is some kind of key thing in both events but in XV's event, not only do we fight them but we understand a little about them and that this kind of thing is a test for Noct mainly. We don't know shit about XVI's Garuda or what a Bearer is. And if someone is going to say 'oh they don't want to spoil the game!' I am going to retort with that they did not spoil XV for me. All we know is that Noct is on his way with his bros to see his fiancee. If you played the game you would be able to figure it out but if you're like me who knows it through osmosis and an old memory of someone playing the game but not much, it wouldn't bother you.

I didn't connect with Clive but I wanted to...in the non sexual way unlike most of Twitter. Yeah, most of my exposure to him is people talking about his tits, how breedable he is, and getting him naked. There is the rare moment that someone puts a clip on that shows some kind of emotion he has that doesn't involve any of the above and I'm just like "Where is all the stuff for this?!" I want to see emotion come from Clive or at least SOMETHING other than blank face. He sees his Ifrit before the fight starts and yells "THAT'S THE THING THAT KILLED JOSHUA!" and he's never mentioned again. My knowledge of XVI is bare fucking bones but when Torgal got more of an emotional response than him...something is weird.

As a side note, never do complete memory loss plots for short term stories like this. Because people may assume (like me) that it's an excuse for them to have no personality. Btw Cid and Yotsuyu want to know your location. No reason. Also, I know when it comes to something heavy like that, you need time for that. I'm doing this with Cinder as she regains her past life memories up until 6.0 and Yua's bit in Faerun has her with no memories but both regain pieces as their stories go on.

So long story short: XVI event felt like a nothing burger but the wrapping (rewards) were nice. If I want to get into the game, Yoshi-P's insert saying to go play XVI won't do it. It might be from people who enjoyed the game and have passion for it that might. Make me have an emotional connection with the character, make me root for them when they need it, make me feel SOMETHING!

If you enjoyed the event and thought it was S-tier then good. I'm happy for you because we need some of that around. It just made me look more at the event after my third go and think '...hmm, the joy I feel is decreasing. Why?'

#ffxiv #ffxvi #ffxv #lita has thoughts

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mobius-m-mobius · 10 months

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Fave shows tag game

Rules: List 5 favourite shows (in no particular order) and answer questions accordingly.

Life on Mars

Good Omens

Mad Dogs

Loki

Psych

@loki-is-my-kink-awakening Thank you so much for the tag lovely!! Putting my answers to the questions behind the cut 😊

1. Who is your favourite character in 2?

Oh no not this😅 Don't wanna start off totally indecisive but In all honesty Aziraphale and Crowley are such a package deal I've never been able to decide who I liked more so both it is!

2. Who is your least favourite character in 1?

Probably Frank Morgan since he's meant to give everyone the creeps and totally untrustworthy but if we're talking main cast then Ray because everyone else is just too good ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3. What's your favourite episode of 4?

Episode two THE beloved my one and only 🥺💖 12/10 would gladly watch Owen and Tom sit around chatting and mirroring the cafeteria vibes either as Lokius or themselves for the rest of my days

4. What is your favourite season of 5?

Gotta be S2!! All the earlier seasons are gold so was very tempted by the latter half of S3 but S2's like a tour de force

5. What's your favourite relationship in 3?

Baxter and Quinn would an obvious one since John and Phil are married in every role and this is no exception but the dynamic between Baxter and Rick is so weirdly fascinating?? They just clash so instantly, usually to great disaster but will never stop themselves or learn from their mistakes, absolutely obsessed tbh

6. Who is your anti relationship in 2?

I don't really have one?? If pressed I wasn't interested in Anathema and Newt being shoved together for no real reason or the implication of ending up with someone because you're told but I don't have any active dislike for them or their pairing

7. How long have you watched 1?

Well I was pretty late to pick the show up and watched for the first time around three years ago, have since rewatched the entire series at least 5 times in full, and various clips more times than I could ever count lol

8. How did you become interested in 3?

Thank my url namesake, lol. Truly the most stunning TV experience start to finish I've had with a flawless all star cast and just criminally underrated show in general!!

9. Who is your favourite actor in 4?

🤣🤣 Feel as if I've walked right into this one and y'all don't even need to hear the answer but that would be Owen Wilson, whose take on Mobius has honestly been life changing for me 💖

10. Which show do you prefer 1, 2 or 5?

Oh man as much as I adore Psych I'm stuck between Life on Mars and Good Omens on this one... Oh this is the worst, okay, I'm going... Life on Mars! When taking the point of how much I love both main pairs out of the picture there are more elements of and characters in LoM I think I enjoy more

11. Which show have you seen more episodes of 1 or 3?

I've watched both fully through multiple times but Life on Mars just edges by with having more episodes so that'll be the one!

12. If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

Loki or Ravonna just for sheer proximity of how much time would be spent around Mobius lmao, literally my only primary consideration

13. How would you kill off your favourite character in 5?

Laughing so hard at this because ironically my favorite character in Psych has pondered many scenarios potentially resulting in his own death lmao. If necessary he'd probably prefer a blaze of glory gunfight but I don't think he'd mind being taken out by his favorite land mine going off?? "Sweet music. And then…nothin' but red mist." 😂

14. Would a 3/4 crossover work?

Not necessarily unless you mean would it work in terms of turning me on in ways I've yet to experience in this life because yes, yes, and YES 😳😳

15. Pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely, but strangely okay couple.

Idk if it would be the most unlikely but Sam and Chris would've been cute and I always enjoyed how earnestly Chris ended up admiring Sam's approach to the work and who he is as a person

16. Overall, which show has the better cast, 3 or 5?

I mean Mad Dogs is my favorite show of all time in part because of how talented the cast is in balancing their roles and I can't see that changing plus I'd follow those guys anywhere

Tagging @faylights, @too-funky, @safedistancefrombeingsmart, @symphony-in-silver, @colourfulwatson, @bebx, @linz33y, @michaelsheens, @veraynes-blog, @aleerax, @abitofboth, @eyeldritch, @lovingvincent, @seekers-who-are-lovers, @z-aliada, and @alternatively-undesignated as always only if y'all feel like it plus anyone else who wants to join! 💕

#ahhhhhh this was SO much fun!!!!#wouldn't have imagined pairing or comparing some of these and had a blast thank you again for the tag #hope your week's off to the best start and you're doing well <333 #tagged

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natlacentral · 2 months

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There's no better way to commence IGN Fan Fest 2024 than with an exclusive clip and deep-dive on Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Our reporter Alex Stedman chronicles her visit to the set and what insights she learned from the series’ creators and stars. She also provides a preview of what the cast told us in their upcoming Fan Fest interview streaming this Friday, Feb. 23rd. (Here's how to watch IGN Fan Fest 2024.)

It’s June 2022, and the Fire Nation is attacking the Northern Water Tribe.

Or, at least, that’s what’s very much playing out in front of me and a gaggle of other journalists on the Vancouver set of Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender. Throughout the day, we watch the thousands of LED panels within the volume shift around the real-life actors, who twirl and jab and dance in various martial arts styles to bring to life the battles of the animated classic. It’s surreal and immersive – at any moment, a group of Water Tribe residents might get in the snack line behind you. Or, just maybe, Aang himself will pop over your shoulder to get a glimpse at your notes.

It’s something that’s noticeable throughout our visit to the set. For a lot of the young cast, this is their first time doing interviews about their live-action translations of these beloved characters, and there’s a sense of nervousness… behind just about everyone except for Gordon Cormier, who arguably has the most pivotal role in the show as the titular last airbender, Aang. If the 13-year-old (now 14) feels the pressure, he doesn’t show it – in fact, he seems perfectly at ease as he chats with the journalists throughout the day, his father always close in tow.

Plus, the kid just seems like he loves it here on the set. When I ask him what the most complicated scene he’s shot yet is, he can’t sit still while he recounts the story of filming his fight with Zuko in Omashu. Instead, he jumps out of his seat and performs.

“Zuko is like, ‘I'm going to get you.’ I jump over the table, I get over, he grabs a staff, he tries to swing at me,” Cormier says, miming a punch.

“Then I'm like, ‘Uh-oh,’ I duck under the table.” You guessed it – Cormier ducks under the table.

“Then I hop back up, I grab a bowl – and this took, I don't know how many tries – but after I duck under, I grab the bowl, I flip it, I catch it, and then he stabs into it,” he continues, acting it all out as he goes. “Then he has this staff, I kick it and it hits him in the face and I just run away.”

Eventually, Cormier sits back down, satisfied, if a bit frazzled: “I just lost my train of thought.”

And, as Cormier hops around in front of us, all childlike excitement and curiosity, it’s little wonder that showrunner Albert Kim and the bevy of other producers just couldn’t get their minds off Cormier after his initial audition.

“You see someone, and you realize they've somehow captured the essence of a character,” Kim tells IGN. “That's what it was like when we first saw Gordon. He just seemed like Aang.”

He revealed as much in a wide-ranging interview with IGN a few weeks ago, the culmination of a year and a half of coverage on Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender for this digital cover, anchoring IGN Fan Fest 2024. With various interviews with the showrunner, cast, crew, and more, we’re gearing up for the release of the eight-episode adaptation, hitting Netflix on February 22 – and hopefully giving you the most comprehensive preview, too.

For his part, Kim always knew casting on his Avatar: The Last Airbender “was going to be probably the biggest challenge of them all because you're asking a hell of a lot from some very young performers.”

They are, indeed, asking plenty of this young cast. Aside from the complexities and growth behind each individual character, there is a lotof pressure behind the adaptation. Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is not only one of the most beloved animated series of all time, but it’s probably safe to say it’s one of the most beloved television series period, animated or live-action. Plus, there’s no erasing the stain of the much-derided 2010 M. Night Shyamalan film adaptation (which Kim has purposely avoided, he revealed previously).

Basically, there are a lot of eyes on Kim, Cormier, and the entire production, and Kim knows it. He even reveals that his own son was hesitant about him taking on the project, given how protective fans are of the property.

“He is in the contingent of fans that think you cannot improve upon the original,” Kim says. “So he was a little wary. And he was also probably a little worried for me because he also knows how ruthless the fans and the online community can be if you get something wrong, so he was a little bit protective of me on that side, but I think we won him over.”

The pressure increased, too, after original Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko announced in 2020 that they were leaving the series. Originally executive producers, DiMartino and Konietzko said in an open letter that “things did not go as we had hoped.”

“Having them leave was a blow,” Kim admits. “And we had to think about whether or not the vision that we had set forward really reflects and honors the spirit of what they had created. And we felt like it did, so we went forward with it. But it's not to say that when they left, we said, ‘Forget everything they've done.’ That was never going to be the case, regardless of their involvement with the project. So I think that hopefully we honor, like I said, the spirit of the show that they originally created in the version we made.”

And at the heart of that spirit: The Last Airbender himself, Aang.

Finding The Last Airbender

All that pressure and pre-established fame made casting even more difficult, too, given that the process would need to be shrouded in secrecy. Therefore, all the young actors auditioning couldn’t know who or what they were auditioning for – but Cormier pulled through anyway.

“He was acting as some character named Alan in a show about mathematics or something,” Kim recalls. “We saw in him something that was kind of an essential version of Aang there. And we kept coming back to him. We saw lots of other actors as well, but after every round of auditions, we were asking ourselves, ‘What about Gordon? I mean, they're not as good as Gordon. Can we go back?’“

Not that knowing who the character was would’ve made that much of a difference for Cormier. He admits, somewhat sheepishly, that he didn’t have much familiarity with the series before he auditioned. But don’t worry, that’s changed.

When I ask how many times he’s seen it now, Cormier won’t give me a straight answer – at least, not right away. He makes me guess.

“5?”

“I’ll give you a clue,” Cormier says. “It’s a lot more than that.”

“12?” I’m not even close.

“I’ve seen it 26 times,” he proudly reveals once he’s taken pity on my guesses. “It’s my favorite show.” Oh, and actually, 26 is just when he stopped keeping track – he’s seen it a lot more since then, too.

With a resume like that, Cormier knows Aang pretty darn well at this point. While the showrunners have been open about the fact that the live-action adaptation won’t be slavishly loyal to the cartoon – with Aang in particular, Kim says they gave him more of a “narrative drive” from the beginning – Cormier says the way he’s playing Aang is “as similar as it can get in a live-action.”

Cormier attended a six-week boot camp to perform the stunts.

Cormier relates to the character, too, in perhaps the most wholesome way possible.

“I mean, me and Aang, we are so happy,” he says. “I don't know, sometimes I might be too happy, but I feel like that's one of our similarities.”

And, despite all the fun Cormier is clearly having here on the set, he takes it seriously. Like the rest of the main cast, Cormier attended a six-week boot camp to perform the show’s stunts. Luckily, Dallas Liu and Ian Ousley, who play Zuko and Sokka respectively, were already martial artists, but all of the actors had to learn various styles during that month and a half of training.

“They taught us all four elements in that boot camp,” Cormier says. “We learned Bagua for airbending and Wushu for airbending. We learned Tai Chi and Wushu for waterbending. We had Shaolin kung fu and Wushu for firebending and Hung Ga and Wushu for earthbending.

Plus, it goes beyond physical for the young actor. If it seems like he really is Aang, that’s kind of how Cormier feels, too.

“Most people, they'll study the script and they'll read the scene a hundred times,” he explains. “Me, I'll read the stage directions once or twice, I'll memorize my lines. And once I get there and I hear the other person speak, I just sink into it. So when I do that, I am Aang. I'm thinking, ‘Zuko is coming for me,’ all these things. And that's all up there. So yeah, I think that I get pretty deep into the character.”

It helps that he speaks to the group of us in full costume, blue arrow painted across his bald head. To nail that Aang look, Cormier says he has his head shaved every morning, and he compares the arrow-application process as something akin to getting a henna tattoo, but with more medical supplies.

Of course, Cormier isn’t the only one taking on a big role in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hell, he’s not even the only one who has to have his head shaved daily.

Everything Changed When…

Up close, Zuko’s burn scar might look a little gnarlier than you might expect. Or at least, the Netflix version of it does, as Liu, who’s taking over the role of everyone’s favorite troubled Fire Nation prince, sits in front of me.

As he explains, it’s a two-hour process every shoot day. “I think it’s a rubber piece or plastic, something along those lines,” he says. “And it’s glued to my face.”

“It's cool because I can totally feel it on my face,” he says, running his fingers over his pseudo-scar. “And with Zuko, the scar is a huge part of his identity, at least at the start. So with this scar, I think it also plays into how I play Zuko.”

Elizabeth Yu, who’s taking on the role of Zuko’s sister Azula, says her costume – “wearing leather armor that was molded to my body” – helped her get into character, too, especially since she’s much kinder than Azula.

"It was cathartic to be able to play that character because I'm so opposite in real life,” she laughed in an interview with the cast for IGN Fan Fest. “It's like therapy. It's very therapeutic to be mean."

Speaking of Azula, her role is decidedly heightened in this live-action adaptation, at least early on. Azula, as well as her and Zuko’s father Fire Lord Ozai (played by Daniel Dae Kim), don’t really show up until later seasons of the animated series, but fans can expect both to pop up quite a bit more in the early days of the Netflix version.

"We needed to know more about the background for Zuko."

That’s no accident, of course. Showrunner Albert Kim explains that it was a “conscious decision” to push those storylines more to the forefront, largely in service of Zuko’s character. In fact, he confirms we’ll even see that fateful Agni Kai (a firebending duel) between Zuko and Ozai, the one that granted the former that famous scar.

“I felt like we needed to balance out the storylines,” Kim says. “We needed to know more about the background for Zuko, and why he's doing what he's doing, and set that in the context of his family dynamic, and how he fits in with his father and sister.”

“And that's something they get to later in the animated series, but we had a little bit of a benefit of hindsight,” he continues. “We knew where that was going, so we could pull some of those elements up front into the first season and make the first season a little bit richer and a little bit deeper in terms of character storylines.”

Plus, Kim admits, it’s a travel show with a lot of locations, so being able to return to the Fire Nation throughout the eight-episode first season helped from a logistical standpoint, too.

Liu, though, says he’s staying focused on those early days of Zuko’s character development. Basically, he’s not watching the entire series 26 times as Cormier did, but keeping his thoughts on Book 1, at least when I spoke to him on the set.

“I wanted to stay in that mindset where he's still fighting to capture the Avatar, and that's pretty much his only life mission, and that's all he knows,” he says. “I think capturing the Avatar is pretty much Zuko's identity at this point in the story, and we'll see where he goes from there.”

And, as fans know, where Zuko does go becomes one of the most beloved redemption arcs in TV history – but that’s later. For now, he’s a ferocious enemy, reserving seemingly his only soft spot for Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). You can see Zuko and Iroh team up in an exclusive clip below.

That aforementioned redemption arc is why Zuko is a favorite among fans – and it’s also partially what leaves Liu with such big shoes to fill. The other part of that legacy is Dante Bosco’s lauded voice-performance in originating the character, but Liu makes it clear that he’s not simply just trying to replicate Bosco’s angsty teenage charms. In fact, that was Bosco’s own advice for him in the various conversations they had, Liu revealed during the Fan Fest interview.

“He said he was passing me the torch, and I don't think I really felt it until we finished the [season] and I got to really talk to him about my experience on the show and becoming the character fully,” Liu says.

“He really wanted me to make Zuko my own,” he continues. “There's Dev Patel (from M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 adaptation) and Dante Bosco, which are two inspirations. So actually, he was hoping that I could do my own thing, maybe grab some inspiration from him, some from Dev, just make this big mash-up my own Zuko."

Asserting some of that Zuko confidence, Liu proudly reiterates, “It’s gonna be my Zuko.”

Of course, Aang isn’t on his own as Zuko chases him around the world. He’s famously joined by brother and sister duo Sokka and Katara, played by Ousley and Kiawentiio respectively.

Going with the Flow

Funnily enough, despite the aforementioned secrecy of the audition process, Liu eventually deduced who he was auditioning for – “I was like, ‘no one hates their dad this much,’ “ he jokes. Ousley, however, didn’t know he was auditioning for Sokka… at least, not for the most part.

By the time Avatar came along, Ousley was in the thick of searching for roles in general, estimating that he was probably doing about three auditions a week at that point:

“That's what you do as actors, is just self-tape, hope you hear something, self-tape, hope you hear something.”

Sure, he was aware that Avatar: The Last Airbender was casting – but for this untitled Netflix project to be it? Nah.

“I was flying to help my sister drive back to LA from college and I was like, ‘I don't want to say this, because there's almost no probability it's true, but the only thing I can think of is Avatar,’“ he remembers on the set. “‘But I can't even fathom that, because that would be insane.’"

If you couldn’t guess from that, Ousley, like the rest of the cast, is a fan of the animated series. But, unlike Cormier, he grew up with the show and even remembers being at the pool as a kid and running his arm over the water, trying to waterbend. (Ironic, then, that he’s playing the only non-bender of the main cast).

“(Sokka’s) kind of the more relatable one. I thought I was Zuko (when I was a kid), but in real life, I'm Sokka,” he jokes during our Fan Fest interview.

Sokka, too, is a big part of the comedic relief of the Nickelodeon show. That balance between humor and the massive stakes of the series, Kim says, was part of the “essential tightrope that we had to walk.”

“You wanted to stay true to the original, which had a large component of humor, lots of action, lots of darkness too,” Kim says. “...So for us, it was about striking that right balance, of making sure you were true to the D.N.A. of the original. But at the same time, we had to make it a serialized Netflix drama, which meant it couldn't just be for kids. It had to also appeal to the people who are big fans of Game of Thrones. And so, it had to feel grounded and mature and adult in that way too.”

Ousley feels that balance in Sokka – he highlights the character’s comedic elements as the aspect he was most excited to bring to life. Somewhat echoing Kim’s sentiment, a big part of Sokka for him was finding that “happy medium” between the humor and the emotional moments, while always trying to bring comedy to the table.

“He's deadpan, he's kind of outrageously realistic at times, which is pretty funny,” Ousley says. “But yeah, he's always high stakes. A lot of times his comedy, I feel like, almost comes from this situation.”

“We see a lot of Katara’s traumas and a lot of her insecurities.”

Ousley also teases that a major part of delving into these characters more is exploring their relationships, and a big one for Sokka is no doubt the one with his sister, Katara. Hers is also one of Avatar’s most famous arcs, starting less sure of herself and ending the series as a much more self-assured warrior. She goes through a lot to get there, of course – when asked what future scenes she would most like to play as Katara, Kiawentiio mentions the dark bloodbending arc that comes much later in the series.

But, we won’t get to see that unless Netflix orders more Avatar: The Last Airbender. When talking about what we’ll see here in Season 1, Kiawentiio says, “We see a lot of Katara’s traumas and a lot of her insecurities.”

“We see her kind of struggle with that, particularly throughout the season,” the actress says. “Without giving too much away, when she starts to feel more confident in herself, there's an obstacle. And that really kind of pushes her to be completely confident in herself and not let anybody ruin that.”

Like the rest of the cast, Kiawentiio, too, points to the bonds she’s made with the other actors throughout filming. Ousley even mentions during the set visit that he’s roommates with Liu now if you can picture Sokka and Zuko trying to live together.

Throughout all the interviews, that’s one feeling that remains – yes, all eyes are on this big-budget production of a beloved property, but it’s hard to deny that it’s fun just to watch them have fun.

During our Fan Fest interview, for example, Cormier, Kiawentiio, and Ousley struggle through laughter to share a story of Cormier filming a particularly serious Aang scene. As Kiawentiio explains, they got into the habit of yelling “slay!” at various moments throughout the production… and took the opportunity to do so while Cormier was trying to be very serious as Aang.

“We're trying to build morale,” Ousley says. “We're low-key in a rush at the end of the day. So Kiawentiio was like, 'Wait. Slay.' "

“So me and Ian are in the back going, 'slay!' And we're like 'Gordon slay!’“ Kiawentiio laughs.

Cormier’s response, through tears? “I can’t slay right now!”

It’s charming anecdotes like those that cut through the high stakes surrounding the series, but make no mistake – Netflix is investing a lotin Avatar: The Last Airbender. After all, it’s a fantasy series that’s built on travel, and none it works if it looks cheap.

Bringing it All to Life

The actual filming of Avatar: The Last Airbender is pretty innovative regarding tech. As Netflix announced back in 2021, it partnered with VFX and virtual production studio Pixomondo to create an absolutely massive virtual set in Vancouver that’s 84 feet across and 28 feet high, featuring 23,000 square feet of stage and more than 3,000 LED panels. It’s the kind of volume that The Mandalorian made famous and one that’s necessary for a show with as many locations as Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Or, as virtual production supervisor and Pixomondo head of production Josh Kerekes puts it, “Have you heard of The Last Airbender? It's effectively a travel show. It's a fantasy travel show, and every episode it seems we're almost in a different bio.”

“We're relying on a very new technology to build probably the most amount of environments I've ever done on a show personally within a TV budget, TV schedule,” Kerekes says on the set. “That in of itself is quite ambitious. We're going from the South Pole to mountains, to tropical seaports, to ships at sea, to flying on a sky bison, sometimes all within the same week. We're just rapidly changing between very different types of environments, very different feels and moods.”

To get more specific, Kerekes says Pixomondo built about 26 different set-ups, with almost 100 “different scenarios.” Take the Northern Water Kingdom, for example – sure, that may be one location, but it goes through various states throughout the first season. Kerekes says there’s a pre-attack version, then one where the kingdom is 40% destroyed, then 90% destroyed.

It, as Kerekes describes, is not a seamless process, but trust me – when you’re standing in the middle of the virtual set, it sure feels that way. At a certain point during our set visit, we journalists were allowed to wander the volume, experiencing first-hand as the LED screens surrounding us changed our location. At first, we’re in the Northern Water Tribe as it’s under attack – moments later, seemingly with little effort, we’re in the depths of Bumi’s mansion in Omashu.

“In order to be successful in that, everyone needs to be really collaborating seamlessly with each other,” Kerekes says. “In order to go from the South Pole to the North Pole, it takes a small army to ensure that all those pieces look and feel right.”

For scenes where Aang, Sokka, and Katara are flying about the world, there’s a mini set with a giant rig of Appa right in the middle.

It’s not all digital, of course, with physical props throughout the volume and elsewhere on the set to help the actors interact with them. One of the most notable examples of this? Everyone’s favorite sky bison, Appa.

For scenes where Aang, Sokka, and Katara are flying about the world, there’s a mini set with a giant rig of Appa right in the middle. It allows the cast to hop on the creature, yell “yip yip!” and truly be immersed across the world – and it helped them conceptualize just how dang bigAppa is.

“When you go back to the animated series, he varies in size throughout the episodes,” Kim says. “If you really pay attention, you go, ‘Oh, wow, there's not really a set size for Appa.’ So we had to do this process, where it was done with virtual reality goggles. I put them on, and we just looked up at our different models, and we had different sizes of Appas. And you just had to decide, ‘That's too small, and that's too big. That feels just about right.’ So it was kind of that process.”

The team, too, has plenty of other VFX concerns outside of the locations and creatures. Obviously, a big part of The Last Airbender is the bending aspect of it, and you can just ask Shyamalan – if that doesn’t look good, none of Avatar does.

Executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani spoke in more depth about bringing the various styles to life in a trailer breakdown with IGN. Part of it, he explains, is even making the bending between various characters feel different, like in the above clip.

“We really tried to differentiate the bending as much as we could while making it feel like a unified event, as in all of our firebending should look like firebending, but Iroh's looks slightly different than Zuko's, which looks slightly different than Ozai's, which looks different than Azula's,” Raisani says. “And we also try to differentiate them with sound design. So if you listen really closely to when Iroh bends, you'll hear almost a dragon sound underneath all of that bending.”

There’s, obviously, quite a lot to it. Even though Kim says firebending might’ve been the easiest to bring to life, Raisani cautions that not even that was the least bit simple. The most complicated, though?

Well, let’s just say water physics are difficult.

“When someone gets wet, we expect to see that amount of wetness,” Raisani says. “We expect to see it travel or track throughout a scene. So that was the thing that was a real challenge.”

This was one of the many balancing acts The Last Airbender had to juggle: where do they focus their efforts in a series that can be so difficult, logistically, to pull off in live-action?

“It's like, ‘Okay, when someone does get hit with water, how long does that water have to exist before the audiences will accept that it's no longer there?’ Because we're just literally just running up money on something that isn't really telling any more story,” Raisani explains. “That [is what] we're really trying to focus our efforts on. Where does the money tell the story? And after that, when will the audience accept that it's no longer there?”

And those are just the visuals; the story – and what liberties you do and don’t take – is just as important.

"This is a remix, not a cover."

Bending the Rules

Kim has been open about the fact that his Avatar: The Last Airbender isn’t a 1-to-1 adaptation of the animated series. After all, even the structure is different, going from 20 20-minute episodes to eight hour-long episodes, in addition to the switch to live-action.

“I've used the term that this is a remix, not a cover, in that you've got to hit a lot of familiar notes, but you can't forget that this is supposed to be a new song,” he says. “So obviously, there are story points and characters that you have to do fairly faithfully from the original. But at the same time, you're literally translating something from 2D to 3D, and that meant dimensionalizing the story, taking it into new places, filling in some of the gaps.”

“And when it came down to directing it or the visual effects on it, I mean, we were really watching the animated series, basing our sequences off of that, using as many shots that we could lift from that as it made sense within the context of the story we were telling,” Raisani says. “And that stayed true all the way through post-production and visual effects.”

It’s another sentiment that runs true throughout chatting with the creatives, cast, and crew: the foundation may be the same, but the journey will be a little different. It may be a controversial approach for a property as beloved as Avatar: The Last Airbender, but Kim and Raisani are confident – or, at the very least, hopeful – that it’ll be embraced by the fans.

“I think, as a fan of the (original) show, they're going to get the live-action version of the show they've always hoped they would get,” Raisani says.

“This is the version of Avatar that I would want to see as a fan,” Kim concludes.

And the fans will get to see soon enough.

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