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phantom-of-the-501st · 2 months

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Thoughts on TBB 3x5: The Return

General Summary: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

*stares at sheer number of bullet points in phone from this episode*

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY THIS WEEK!!! PROPER ANALYSES MAY BE BACK!!!!!! (if I have time because I have so much to do D:)

ECHO'S IN THE THUMBNAIL!!! *cue biggest freakout I've had this season*

I genuinely let myself believe that we weren't going to see Echo this episode because I was so desperate not to get my hopes up. I though they were going to try and sort out some stuff between Cross and the other Batchers before bringing Echo into the fold but he's back!!!

The lighting is so pretty 😍

THEY TOOK CROSSHAIR TO PABU

HE'S TARGET TRAINING WITH AZI I'M GONNA CRY

The shaky hands are making me so upset 😭

But I'm glad that they're exploring something like this. It isn't just a case of Crosshair losing his spot in the Empire, it's about him being faced with something that affects his ability to be a sniper in all situations. His purpose was not the Empire, it was being a soldier, and that's what he's afraid of losing.

"IT'S ECHO!" Absolute mood and the only appropriate reaction to Echo being in an ep

THE HUUUUUGGG 😭❤️

Okay this may already be one of my new favourite eps

*replays hug 5 times before continuing with the episode*

"No hug for me?" "Depends on how good your intel is." Echo is defo still a little wary but the fact that the sass and sarcasm is strong between them is giving me life

There's been a lot of discussion about the parallels between what Echo went through and what Crosshair went though and I think that this is a perfect demonstration of the dynamic that stems from that. Echo knows what it's like to have your mind taken and to be used as a weapon against your brothers. He knows what it's like to not instantly be trusted. And because of that he has a leniency with Crosshair that the other Batcher don't. He isn't completely trusting but he's more willing to give Crosshair some grace because he understands better than the others.

"Especially without Tech" I'M RUNNING ON BARELY ANY SLEEP AND HALF A CUP OF COFFEE YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME

"I'm older than you are, little brother." The script for this episode is the greatest thing ever and I genuinely can't tell you how much the sass is giving me life rn 😆

Less than 10 minutes in and this episode is already killing me

WE'RE BACK AT THE OUTPOST 😭😭😭

CROSS IN THE ARMOUR AGAIN AAAAAAAHHHHH

Echo being the mediator in the group feels so appropriate

I adore how much focus Echo is getting this ep. They didn't bring him back and give him nothing, he's absolutely serving this episode and I am obsessed! 🤩

I'm in love with the fact that the Batch now just have a family pet

"I guess it served it's purpose." "Huh, sounds familiar." Initially this feels like a jab towards Cross but I don't think it is. That statement applies to all of the clones: they served their purpose and then they got ditched. It may have taken longer for Crosshair to accept the fact that the Empire didn't like him, but it is a statement that applies to every clone post Order 66. I think that that is what Echo is getting at: not a direct jab at Cross, but a general statement about something that Crosshair has finally come to terms with

MAYDAY'S HELMET KILL ME NOW AAAAAAHHHH

Mayday meant a lot to Cross and I think it feels particularly poignant now. He's back with his squad, but they don't all trust him. Crosshair could probably do with someone like Mayday right now, someone who trusts him enough that Crosshair doesn't feel as alone as he does.

Omega trusts him, and Wrecker is kind of there (as is Echo), but Cross still doesn't feel like he's home. He's missing one of the few friends he had.

Also, this is just evidence that Crosshair isn't the cold. heartless bastard that loads of people wanted to label him as 😌

Crosshair moving the helmets is such a simple thing, but it's so meaningful. The helmets were discarded and left in a heap, which represents the exact attitude the Empire had towards the clones. Picking them up and laying them out gives them a small amount of dignity.

It reminds me of the burial of the clones that died in the crash at the end of the clone wars. They may be in a remote location where they won't be visited, but they haven't just been left in a wreck, discarded. They were given at least an ounce of respect by their brothers and that is what Crosshair is giving to the clones at the outpost

Slight interval as I realise just how much I wrote down about this episode and just how much I have left to write 😵‍💫

Sensors down? That doesn't seem like that's going to go well

THE TOOTHPICK IS BACK!!! ❤️

"So yes, I did betray them, after they betrayed me."

This is all what it boils down to: they both feel betrayed. The thing is, both Hunter and Cross' feelings are valid, but they need to talk through why they made the decisions they did so that the other person understands. It's complicated because there isn't a good or bad side right now, they just won't listen to each other, nor will they talk things through because they don't trust the other person enough to be honest about their decisions.

"She went through what she did because you failed" OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH

I'm not angry at Cross. Don't get me wrong, it's brutal and harsh and a dick move but Crosshair is getting defensive because Hunter is being confrontational. They're both messing up here. I can guarantee that this is going to cause discourse among the Hunter stand who are going to get pissed at Cross, but you have to understand that his actions make sense. They're not good (in the same way that Hunter really needs to ease up) but it's behaviour that makes complete sense.

We know that Crosshair's way of defending himself is to be an arsehole. He puts up walls and he lashes out. And Hunter rn is mostly stewing in his own self-loathing (which is why Crosshair struck a nerve).

Hunter is likely taking his self-hatred out on Cross and trying to shift the blame so that he can tell himself that it isn't his fault. The problem is, it's making Cross defensive, so Crosshair is pushing the blame back and sticking Hunter where it hurts. They're both stuck in a toxic cycle.

Oh dear (I literally wrote down nothing else here. This was just my reaction to the giant worm)

Echo is so on it in this episode and I love it! ❤️

Oh shit bye Hunter

This season looks so pretty and the animation is gorgeous ✨

The worm reminds me of that thing from HTTYD2 👇

GROUP HUG

"And I don't even see any blood this time. That's progress" ECHO I FUCKING LOVE YOU OMG 😭

On a side note, we talked about how Echo's humour and sass kind of deteriorated after Skako Minor but it's coming back in full swing! It shows how comfortable he's become and is evidence that he's healing 🥲🫶

Echo talking to Omega actually has me crying. He's so fucking supportive!!! 😭

"There might just be hope for us yet" followed by a shot of the ice vulture flying towards the light. It's a good way of showing Cross' journey away from the darkness of the Empire and back towards a place of healing.

Okay so this episode just means like... everything to me. The humour was on point, the emotions were on point. We got some good content from every member of the Batch. ECHO CAME BACK!

I'm just so obsessed with this episode omg

AND BINGO UPDATE!

#one of my top 5 tbb eps #absolutely incredible]#the humour #the emotion #all of it was on point #10/10 #the bad batch #tbb echo #tbb crosshair #tbb omega #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers

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lassieposting · 1 year

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God though do you ever think about how, at least in the show, Kirigan creating the nichevo'ya was probably not even a conscious choice?

We see him get attacked in the Fold. That volcra absolutely slams into him - and, since he's clutching his ribcage when he crawls out of the Fold even though his kefta doesn't seem to be damaged there, it's entirely likely that impact broke ribs. And that first volcra isn't alone. They're either pack hunters or opportunistic enough to attack in a swarm, and now he's down - the easiest prey.

In that moment, he would not be thinking clearly. He'd be stunned, winded, panicking, in pain. If he's landed hard - or wrong - on a shoulder, elbow or wrist joint, he could easily have briefly lost the use of that arm, and briefly is enough to kill him. He knows he's about to die, and die horribly - assuming they're like other predatory animals he'd be familiar with, they're most likely going to fight over him, pull him to pieces, and possibly start eating him while he's still alive. Conscious thought shuts down. Instinct would take over - the instinct every single living thing has to fight for its life. Even if he can summon, his shadow summoner ability is a "beacon for the volcra", so he only has one weapon left to protect himself, and that's merzost.

He's not thinking about the price he'll have to pay. He's not thinking about how much independence to give his creations, or how he could maintain control over them. He acts in that instant because he's got no other choice. He doesn't know how badly it will hurt to make them, or that they'll keep feeding on him long after he doesn't need them anymore, long after he's started to fear them and their increasing aggression towards him. He doesn't know how creatively they're going to interpret the vague purpose he gives them in that moment: protect me.

Like. He's not stupid. He fucked around with merzost once and got burned, very badly, for hundreds of years. Relying on it again deliberately, out of pure spite, would be absurd for a man who's been playing the long game for so many centuries against people who've wronged him far worse. That he used it implies fear, and desperation, and animal fucking instinct.

(And he suffers so much for that split second of self-preservation. Buying himself time to get out of the Fold while his monsters drive the volcra away from him. He's irrevocably scarred - which show!Aleksander seems to find distressing, given how many times he reacts badly to seeing his own reflection - and he's sick, and he's in pain all the time, and he's also still just as overtaxed and exhausted as he's always been. The monsters he created to save him from a vicious and agonizing death are killing him too, just slowly, drawn out. Like. The amount of fear and stress and pain he must've been battling the whole season and nobody even noticed. And even though he's clearly struggling on a personal level, he still takes the new weapons he can't get rid of and uses them on the front lines, because above all else he is a soldier and he has always been the one to make personal sacrifices for his people as a whole.)

Anyway cuddles for darkles for one thousand years, he deserved better

#sab meta #aleksander kirigan #anyway sab to me is like. the epitome of History Is Written By The Victors #this show looked at its compelling freedom fighter antihero and was like 'lmao nah he eViL' like. sigh. how disappointing #sab

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centrally-unplanned · 6 months

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I have been rewatching Buffy recently btw, part of a sickness recovery tactic; I haven't been blogging about it because It Be That Way sometimes, my executive dysfunction strikes with its own will.

But one cache'd thought I have (likely through talking about it with friends) is that Season 4 is a good deal better than I remember. Season 4 of Buffy is often maligned; its probably considered the worst season except Season 1. The reason for that is two-fold; one, Riley sucks. Two, the 'arc plot' is poor. Season 4 revolves around The Initiative, a government operation to kill, research and weaponize demons. Its head, Dr Walsh, is essentially built up as the arc villain - a compelling one, a human being with real motives and ideologies that can clash with Buffy. Until she is murdered by her own Frankenstein creation, Adam, who becomes the new villain but to Buffy is just a tough dude to either whack or be whacked. This is a bad choice - Adam is probably the worst final villain of the entire show.

However, this is also the wrong lens to put on Season 4; its arc plot is also the least important an arc plot has ever been. Season 4 is not a full comedy, but in fact it is deliberately trying to shake up the often-maudlin formula of Season 3 for a new tone. Ever-brooding Angel & stone silent Oz are written out as main cast members, to be replaced by Spike, objectively the funniest character in the show, and Anya, a far more zany romantic partner for the Scoobies than Oz could ever be. The college episodes are full of the ridiculousness of that environment, and a lot of social mockery of college mores. Episodes that could be scary still have a ton of laughs - Hush (which, hey, one of the best episodes of the show, in Season 4!) is in fact very funny, with famous Buffy gifs from it.

What makes this all work beyond "being funny" is tonal alignment - the theme of the season is everyone being "adrift". Giles is fired from both his jobs, Xander has no career path, Willow is drifting apart from her friends, and Buffy is struggling to find a way to be "normal". These are themes that are way better done farcically; they are, in a certain sense, a little bit pathetic. In one of the final episodes of the season, the "plan" to defeat the Scoobies is Spike just...casually drops fake gossip about them in convos and they are start tailspinning, because they already are tailspinning. And you can do that kind of social implosion really funnily, in a way Angel & Buffy's relationship could never be.

And note how that is one of the final episodes, and it barely has anything to do with the Initiative or Adam. Those plots definitely eat up screen time and have their moments, don't get me wrong, but its given a good deal less focus. Its not fight-riposte with the Initiative; instead a background hum complicating the new lives they are building. The last episode of the Season isn't even the Adam fight finale! Its a dream sequence lore-building episode instead. So yeah, its worse, but its almost intentionally worse; if the villain was an Angel-tier threat it would be impossible for it take the backseat to the thematic elements.

So while Season 4 still has its weaknesses, Adam was a mistake in the end, I see a lot better why it is the way it is and the good stuff it has going through it. As I have been watching I have been following along with this old review blog of Buffy, Critically Touched, which was one of the biggest "comprehensive" analyses of the show in the 2000's (its comment section is a time capsule gold mine). And it gives every episode a letter grade, and even displays the whole season as a graph. And if you look at Season 4:

Its pretty solid! For sure, it has clunkers, I think the opening ~5 don't nail the tone right. And Where The Wild Things Are is...yeah, you can skip it. But Hush, The Yoko Factor (the aforementioned Spike episode), Who Are You (Faith's return), Restless (the dream finale), are some of the best in the series. Also this reviewer doesn't love Superstar, the Jonathan-alters-reality-so-hard-he-inserts-himself-into-the-theme-song episode, but its amazing - his complaint is that it isn't about the arc plot? But the arc plot is boring! Its not the point. Its an A+ comedy episode for sure. This is too many home runs to be a down-and-out season. You just need to take Season 4 as it is, and not as something trying to be a repeat of Season 3's stakes.

Riley still sucks though.

#buffy the vampire slayer #mini essay

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rui-drawsbox · 10 months

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Hi its me again (the one who had the nazuna idea) and I kinda wanted to build on it, I'd it's ok with you.

I think in the season finale when Knights and Shu have one last battle the Knights start losing really badly, maybe due to new models of the dolls? But in the end when it seems that it might be over for the Knights, Mika (who wasn't present for the first part of the battle) shows up to the fight and yells, very confidently something like "I BROUGHT HELP" and it's Nazuna, in his old Valkyrie outfit and whatever weapon he has, and he uses smth like healing magic on the Knights and starts helping them defeat Shu.

I think he would also be one of those side characters that show up every episode being really creepy and watching the Knights (they don't notice ofc) but he starts showing up more when Mika starts his redemption, like in the background comforting him or smth. I think he'd even drop little clues around for the Knights to realise who Shu and Mika were.

I also kind of wanted to talk about the Knights getting their powers, but if you already have an idea then that's great!

I think there was another posts detailing what would happen in the first and second episodes, but I think that much like other precure shows (my main reference is glitter force) for the first 5-6 episodes it's each of the main cast getting their powers. So Arashi gets hers from the cat first, right?

I think Arashi's cat should show up each episode to give one of the gang the brush, eventually giving one to Mika too maybe.

First Leo and Ritsu get theirs, for obvious reasons and being present for the first battle.

Then I think Tsukasa would be next, he's pretty skeptical about it at first but after witnessing them fighting he decides to confront them and join the gang properly.

Then it's Izumi, much like other magical girl shows the last character is hardest to get involved. I think he would have the situation explained to him but still refuse bc he's busy (maybe he didn't want to potentially endanger people like Makoto or thinks he's not "good" enough for the magical Knights. It takes a lot of convincing but they get there eventually.

Also consider: Shu calling in Double Face to take care of the Knights for like an episode or two after Mika leaves (but that may contradict some stuff, it's not like all the antagonists need to be magical, the may just detective their way through it)

Ty for listening to my ramble, you're genuinely a genius, 7 school subjects be damned

hiii! hellooo!! wb nazunanon (they're referring to this post where we discussed about Nazuna in the Au for the first time btw!)

also i belive an epic battle like that would be a perfect finale for the series, yet, i fail to see Nazuna actually fighting? like, mabye he can be the ultimate support or smth--

More like he and Mika were built (or trained, idk what they are at this point) to fight as a duo, Mika fighting always in the front and Nazuna supporting behind/making long distance attacks to overwhelm the enemy on every possible way

im thinking about hsr class system ngl, smtsmth Nazuna being harmony/nihility smthsmth Mika being the hunt smthsmth Arashi as destruction bc is very versatile... and Izumi/hunt, Leo/erudition, Tsukasa/preservation and Ritsu and Shu as nihility...

now forgive me but when you said "side characters that show up every episode being really creepy" i couldnt help but think about this creepy guy from spiderverse that is always looking right at the camera

is rlly funny but yeah i get your point, it would be like that one side character that suddenly gets the spotlight in the series and when you look back it is a "i was always there" situation (and watchers would go wow they had it prepared from the start!)

also i belive you got the order for each knight perfectly! Leo would be so excited to get his powers and be able to help his friends and Ritsu would probably be "sounds like a pain but i'll do it for Nacchan" (ooc here idk him a lot) + Tsukasa and Izumi being the last ones to get their powers sounds so canon for some reason, its TokyoMewMew speaking in the back of my mind i think

NOW are you telling me that there's a possibility of magical cowboy mama...?

jk(unless) if double face is involved in some way i would think about them being a "detective club" where Shu goes as a desperate move after losing Mika, instead of magical minions/boys. Still, mabye there's a chance of a spinoff for every unit in enstars and how they become magical girls lol (imagine magical Akatsuki lmao)

now yeah, thats all my ramblings for today! this really got me thinking about Nazuna's weapon lol, i really can't think of anything that fits exvalkyrie aesthetic while being functional and meaningful,,,,, do you think healing powers are too op? i feel like it would be a little unfair,,,,

#rui thinks loudly #ensemble stars #enstars #arashi narukami #mika kagehira #nazuna nito #shu itsuki #enstars magical knights au #(omg magical girl arashi)#magical girl mama...

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cellsshapedlikestars · 6 months

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Don’t worry about answering this is you don’t want to. I know you don’t like fandom wank. But, if you feel like it, do you think someone could make those endpoints work? Bran as king and Jon at the Wall even though there’s a big old hole in it and Dany deliberately burning King’s Landing before Jon or Arya kills her, is that an ending any writer, no matter their skill, could sell to the hardcore fans? I don’t think the fandom would accept it even if GRRM wrote it.

lololol I deleted my post already anon, so for those of you who didn't read it - I was once again whining about how d&d fucked up the last bunch of seasons and every character. it's not a new take, just something I was high thinking in the shower, so I deleted it bc it wasn't productive.

But I'll answer this, because I think it's interesting.

In short - no.

(Beneath the cut for a longer explanation and just a whole bunch of my ranty thoughts. pls remember I am no asoiaf scholar and I haven't studied every aspect of the books or read every meta. These are just my opinions.)

Longer - at this point, too much time has gone by, there is literally no way George can please... probably even half of his fanbase, no matter what he does. From what I can tell, the fandom too divided and there's so much hatred between stan groups (which I do find ridiculous, but it is what it is). People have cemented their own ending in their heads after decades of the fandom existing without an official ending, and I can see a lot of them not liking that they're wrong. Some people have spent 30 years with their theories, it's sunk cost fallacy. Case in point, the show ending being written off as fanfiction by a lot of fans.

which, tangent, I get. I GET why d stans don't believe the ending, because it was so poorly executed. I truly do understand their denial, because the show gaslit the audience for soooooo long that she was the girlboss hero and then seemed to do a 180 at the end. What was that post I just reblogged the other day? I don't hate villains, I hate when the narrative tries to convince you the bad person is actually good.

now, you asked if anyone could make those endpoints work, but I don't actually think most of them are the real endpoints? I think they were D&D giving up and not trying, or going for Shock Value™. But for fun, I'm gonna go by endpoints I think are most to least likely, and my thoughts on how they could happen and how D&D fucked them up.

Bran as king: Confirmed by grrm. How he'll make this work, I have no idea. I genuinely didn't see it coming tbh. I thought the "bittersweet" ending would be Jon being forced to take the crown in KL. like it's a good ending for everyone else, but for him it's misery. I'm sure grrm has his plans, and I'd be interested to see how he pulls it off. This end point does not disappoint me and I'm not mad at being wrong, but I can see a HUGE swath of people HATING it. specifically D stans.

D&D blew this hard. They cut Bran out of an entire season, making him seem to the audience like a lesser character and not important. They made him a robot. Why am I rooting for show!Bran? Also, I will never, ever get over that line - who has a better story than Bran the Broken? I don't know Tyrion, literally everyone else?? JON DIED AND CAME BACK TO LIFE. ahem.

(as far as I'm aware, Bran as king is the only ending grrm has confirmed?? correct me if I'm wrong.)

D as the big bad: I guess grrm hasn't officially confirmed this, but... he's sort of confirmed it, riiiiight? He compared dragons to nuclear weapons. The show has her as the villain (poorly executed or not). When I gave hotd a shot, literally the opening lines were about the Targs bringing themselves down immediately after name dropping her. Seems pretty solid to me. D&D just refused to commit to her villain arc because they didn't want to alienate their audience that they'd gaslit into thinking she was the hero, and they were seemingly obsessed with Shock Value™ twists.

Dany burning KL: I think the burning of KL is going to happen, and it seems like Dany is the only one to really do it? Unclear how it will happen, I'm sure people have theories. What the show didn't have was Aegon, so who knows how he'll factor in.

Arya sailing west: I think there's a lot of foreshadowing for it. It fits her nature. I think this is very likely to happen and I guess D&D handled it ok. They did ruin her character, though, by making her a literal mass murderer. But yayyyyyy feminism I guess.

Theon sacrificing himself for Bran: Theon's was the only arc I think the show did well. They ruined it at the end by having Theon literally throw himself onto the Night King's sword, which was so fucking stupid, but the arc itself is poignant and fits his character. While he can't ever redeem himself to Robb, he can redeem himself to Robb's siblings, and considering he once pretended to kill Bran, I think this is solid.

Cersei and Jaime dying together: this was my theory even before the show ending, and I think it fits their characters. They cannot live without each other, no matter if they hate each other. They're too deeply entwined in each other. Now, I personally wanted Cersei to be taken captive and put in the black cells to be publicly burned later, and then Jaime shows up and mercy kills her and then himself bc he can't live without her.

But I guess getting bonked on the head by some avoidable rocks is also a way to do it

Sansa as QitN: I'll be honest and say I hated this ending because she ended up alone. Sansa, who has wanted nothing more than family and safety since book 1, ends up completely alone. Even Brienne, her sworn shield, leaves her. but she's a queen, so yayyyy feminism I guess.

I can see her as queen, but I can also see her ending up as queen regent for Rickon, because I'm not totally convinced Rickon dies? like in the show he just randomly shows up and gets captured by Ramsay and it just feels like that isn't his arc in the books. Maybe I'm wrong. But I could see D&D having the endpoint of Sansa as regent, but they killed Rickon off already for Shock Value™, and so they went oops! and made her queen.

Now, there is a part of me that thinks she will not be queen or queen regent, because how does one break off and declare independence from their own brother? Feels like that would destabilize his rule and not give people much faith in him. It just seems really strange to me, but I guess it could happen, since Northern Independence is such a huge theme and it would be weird if it didn't happen?? Does Bran just let her secede? And it doesn't make Dorne or the Iron Islands try.... That's the part in the show that literally did not make sense to me. Sansa was like bye, I'm taking the north, and no one else spoke up about that.

I'd be totally fine with her as queen (if she has someone!!) but I can see a gooooood chunk of the fandom absolutely hating this. surprise.

Brienne as Kingsguard: while I like it for narrative purposes, because she deserves it, I just can't see her leaving Sansa, if she becomes as close to Sansa as she does on the show? If Sansa is queen, I could see her as Sansa's Queensguard. But what does she have in KL? The south didn't ever respect her, why would she want to go back. I think D&D put this in so they could have the ending shot of her writing in the book about Jaime for the shippers

Jon at the Wall: the only reason he went to the Wall in the show was because Grey Worm demanded it? And then left. So. You know, real enforceable. So stupid. Genuinely the worst writing of all the endings, I think, the logic made zero sense there. Now, that could be because they'd written themselves into a corner, but knew Jon ended up at the Wall, and had to force it?

But to me, it's like - what was the point of his resurrection, then? In the show, he doesn't even kill the Night King (we'll get to that). He kills D, sure, but... He's also the reason she succeeds in Westeros to begin with. So what, he gets resurrected, causes havoc, fixes the havoc he caused, and then is sent away to a Wall that serves no purpose anymore? WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE WALL SERVE. The Others are defeated, there's a big ol' hole in it, and they've allied with the Free Folk to an extent. How does the Watch continue on?

I guess he could self-banish. I know the show sort of makes the implication that he goes off with the Free Folk, but in the books, he doesn't really like FF culture? He's appalled by a lot of the violence in it. I can't see him wanting to live that way.

Brai.me: don't get me wrong, I like Brai.me. I think it's cute, in fanon. In canon, I think Brienne is too good for him. I don't see their relationship going romantic or sexual. I think Brienne is who Jaime desperately wants to be (but Cersei is who he keeps being pulled back to). Them having sex was 100% for the shippers

Jo/ner.ys: I'm putting all the punctuation in that. don't need them finding me somehow. Anyway. I don't think this happens, at least not as a true romance. They're on opposite continents and there's not a ton of time left, but more than that - and I know I've said this before - I can't see Jon "hates seeing people burned alive" Snow falling in love with D "loves to burn people alive" T. Could it be a political thing? Maybe, but I also could see her having an alliance with Aegon.

I think there's 2 possible reasons for this being in the show and presented as an actual romance. 1) it was supposed to be that pol!Jon theory, but they chickened out (same with jonsa & a love triangle, I think they chickened out bc of the incest. I think now with hotd being incest central and fans loving it, they wouldn't balk anymore). 2) just the spectacle of it? people have been theorizing this for years, why not give it to them? see above, brai.me

Tyrion as Hand: bleh. I know the fandom loves him and he was clearly D&D's fave, but grrm has said Tyrion is the most morally gray character, and I can't see him letting Tyrion get everything he's always wanted, you know? People think asoiaf is grimdark, but I can't imagine grrm punishing Jon with banishment while giving Tyrion a cushy position with lots of power.

I've read the theory that Tyrion ends up at the Wall, which I like thematically, but again, WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE WALL SERVE. Is it just a penal colony at that point?? someone smarter than me, tell me.

Grey Worm & Missandei condoning/encouraging D: hated it. Take the only characters of color to have speaking lines (i'm 99% sure) in the last season and turn them vengeful and murderous (especially grey worm). Throw their characters under the bus to absolve D of blame

Arya killing the Night King: no. he doesn't exist in the books, first, and even in the show it made zero narrative sense. It was just a Shock Value™ twist. You thought it was gonna be hero Jon, hmmmmmm? WRONG. I've said it on here before, but my hope is that it's Sam that brings down the Others in the book somehow.

Did I forget anything, anon? This probably veered wildly from the point of the ask, but oh well, it was fun. (I had a jonsa section in here at first, but then I remembered this is show canon ending stuff and that was not canon sorry fellow jonsas. I obvioulsy want it to be the ending bc the shipper brainrot is real, buuuuuut...)

#cellsshapedlikeasks #my thoughts are probably very disorganized #and this is rambling #oh well

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Transformers MTMTE Retrospective: Scavengers and Chaos Theory (ISsues 7 and 8, Transformers 09 23 and 24)

Hello all you happy cybertonianas and welcome back to my more than meets the eye retrospective! For this month we're doing two stories and continuing our side trip. This time we see how the other side of the war is doing in it's aftermath.. and then cut to just before the end and long before it as we get a peak at who Optimus and Megatron are, and what Cybertron was before the war. So join me under the cut for Scavengers and Chaos Theory if you please.

Scavengers:

Scavengers begins with something we've been slowly building towards: we get our first look at the Decpticon Justice Divsion.. and see that the rep they've built over these first few issues and one shots.. isn't an exageration. If anything they undersold it as we see their latest Victim black shadow BARELY alive and begging for them to juts finish it after previously having been partially melted and crushed… only for Tarn the cruel and charasmatic leader of the DJD to lay it out: the deaths are agonzingly slow, and that's the point: every decipticon that hears about this will think twice about turning their back on megatron for whatever reason. It also makes sense Megatron has this sick motivational tool in his back pocket: while some Deciptcons are diehards for the cause.. the vast majority are in it for themselves, for petty sadisim or as we'll learn just because they were made for it. Many would likely screw up a mission just to get themselves ahead… and the DJD are there to explain why this is a bad idea. Tarn himself shows off his talent.. he can literally talk someone's spark into giving up. HIs very voice is his weapon and he saves it for the last. As for them doing this while the war is over Tarn refuses to belivie this, feeling the war isn't over till Megatron says it is… a philsophy that will be challenged horribly next season, but we'll get to that. It's a short but incredibly well done scene that emphasises just what monsters our temporary protaganists are up against.. and what our main heroes WILL be up against eventually. It's not a matter after all this build up of IF they'll meet the DJD.. it's a matter of WHEN. For now though they have another target in mind whose crime is… "He lived"

We break for the lost light which I honestly forgot about but is welcome.. if no less grisly. Rung is alive by some miracle, but is missing his head, and Red Alert, shaken by finding overlord confesses it to rung, and leaves a data slug with him… that in a later scene someone goes back to retrive. Something bad is going on and it's clearly a lot higher up than it seemed with just wingus and dingus.

We then meet our protaganists for these issues: Fulcrum, a bucketheaded autobot who wakesu pt ofind the rest of our new heroes trying to scrap him for parts. These are the Scavengers: MIsfire, swerves' non union decpticon equilvlent, Crankcase whose name matches his attitude, Spinster, the empyrically dumbest person in the universe, Flywheels, who you need not worry about, and Krok, who as leader gets best designs.

We get another subplot, . B ing a good friend Chromedome's been looking into Skids past, and goes to his other close friend for help. Brainwave disected his gun.. and it exploded. He also named it the binary gun because it has two bullets. Chromedome sums up how useful this is.. prompting Brainwave to reveal some actual information, albeit some even he's not sure of.. and given his info his reluctance speaks VOLUMES. The bullet is from the institute

Domey decides after that to just try using his surgery on Skids, who intitallyd ecided he didn't want it but has changed his mind. And while Chromedome's able to get a lot out.. he can't get everything and stops. While Skids want's it… Domey can't ethically keep pressing as there's something Skids is actively repressing, and a memory that traumatic could break him.. and given what Dome's scene, it's probably best he dosent. And knowing what Dome's seen and what Skids is hiding. .yeah I can see why his brain put up this defense mechaniasm. My only shock is that defense mechanisms aren't literal for transformers and a tiny brain gun didn't pop out of the back of his head to zap Domey in the eyes.

Once we get back to our other protaganists we find otu the Scavengers aren't really a formal squad.. but simply a bunch of lost decipticons who Krok found trying to find his crew and are currently trying to salvage enough materials to keep going. This sector in paticular is usesful as Optimus and Megatron went through a phase that's both the bonkers kind of werid I love you only get from a property like this and tha'ts grounded in the real cost of it

It's a brilliant idea I wish got explored more: for who knows how long two fo the greatest stratigests in the unvierse plugged themselves into giant computers and simply treated the entire universe like one giant RTS. It makes sense as their brains are computer based so why WOULDN'T they do this… and then shows WHY: millions died fast, things escilated quickly and it explains why Megatron would shift back to a much slower strategy after this. Optimus likely only did it either becuase he didn't consideer the implications.. or he had no choice. As Krok puts it "lives were reduced to lines and intergers and the only diffrence between us and them is the autobots came back to collect their dead". That last part is what makes me wish we got more out of it: the idea that for one point of the war people were reduced to mere data on a page and the consequences of that.

This brings Krok to another point: the war is over. The Scavengers all got the message "Come home the war's over" and while they think it's POSSIBLE Megatron one, they suspect it was the autobots since the message wasn't "HEY BITCHES PARTY AT MEGATRONS!" and none of them know what to feel about that. These were just the guys at the bottom of things. Just like our reguarlly scheduled heroes ther'es a sense of what do we do now? This was our lives. Krok decides shoot the torture victim from earlier who they used as a camp fire without realizing it.

So after the aformentiond data slug scene our heroes try to find enough fuel to power the Weak Anthropic Principal aka the W.A.P. a name that has aged gloriously. Flywheels finds something badass though

They explore it and suprise suprise.. the ship's pretty fucke dup with brains on the ceiling, half mangled protoforms in jars, usual horror shit. Only Fulcrum's excited by this and only because of the unknown, the idea their lives are there's now. He's let the post war reality set in.. and unlike the others he's happy his life's finally his… and then the DJD call saying one of them is on the list and they have 15 minutes to kiss their asses goodbye.

The issue ends with our heroes finding something that JUST might turn the tide: Him, Grimlock.

Yup i'm a huge grimlock fan. The first G1 work I saw was Transformers the Movie, which had him and the others a hilarious idiots tagging along with everyone else. I"ve loved the big dumb asshole ever since so I'm happy he's part of this run… even if he's not quite himself

After a flashback to fulcrum doing a heli jump that also implies HE'S the one their after, our heroes discuss it over and Krok points out the hard truth: none of them is going to admit to being the DJD's target for obvious reasons and even if they did, given how draconian and unstable the DJD is, they could easily just decide on the spur of the moment "Hey your all on the list now! Pray for death but death won't come!" So their options are

And shockingly despite the jokey nature of these guys.. all but Fulcrum choose Option C. Honestly when reading this story again for this it didn't really do much for me.. but rereading it.. this moment really sells it> These guys may be even MORE of a ragtag bunch of misfits than our main heroes, which is somehow possible, but they have some noblility in them. As Crankcase puts it "This badge belongs to us, not them". SO their going to do what they do best: use what they have on hand.

Our ragamuffins set a trap, leaving Grimlock's cryo pod there so theyc an open it, saying it's the traitor.. and Tarn just outs Fulcrum as his target. Tarn.. also isn't stupid. Given that decpticons already punish deserition with brutal torture if most of them target them, it'd take a lot to both escape and to stay escaped as is, let alone with the threat of Tarn himself over their heads. He still opens the trap, but it's more out of villanous curosity as to just WHAT the trap is than actually thinking they could escape him. He gets shorukened for it, but it quickly becomes clear Grimlock isn't at 100% percent and instead i just getting his ass kicked like a sad puppy, and our heroes can't even take advantage of tha to escape as one of the DJD finds them. Things go badly and we get an upclose look at how horriying the DJD are, with Kaon keeping a "pet" a deranged wolf like "sparkeater", Tesarus who just shoves people into his chest to be ground up , which poor flywheels gets a taste of, Vos who puts an iron maiden like mask on his targets. OUr heroes try their best.. but it's clear their just not up to this. As Tarn puts it these guys are at the literal bottom of the Deciptcon's rankings, he checks them because of course he does. Even some powered armor does NOTHIGN to these monsters.

What saves them is Fulcrum who decides to come clean and to jump, but not before giving a speech citing that these guys gave him faith in the cause again.. and that their worth TEN of the DJD any day. He then jumps revealing he's a LITERAL suicide bomber with an alt bomb mode… that goes off with a dud because that's just the kind of day these guys are having.

Thankfully they get a repreive: the DJD has found overlord… the overlord whose in the bowels of our heroes ship

Tarn leaves, and tells them all their ALL on his list now… but he has bigger fish to fry.

Fulcrum explains his backstory: he was a deserter, got caught and was remodeled into an unwilling sucicide bomber, his bomb removed by the others when they thought he was a lootable corpse. The rest of the gang.. is busy with Grimlock, worried about him till Misfire approaches him slowly and realizes he's brain damaged. He's not himself.. and thus comes up with a plan since Krok is a bit too unconcious and in need of repairs to come up with one and it's actually brilliant: they take Grimlock with them and use him as leverage. If the autobots won, taking care of one fo their own and bringing him home with them makes for one hell of a peace offering and gets them amnesty. If the decipticons won, bringing back one of the biggest baddest autobots is an instant promotion. Theya ll agree, loot krok for parts then take off… while a mysterious bot far in teh future shows up marking him dead…and on his data pad are also Ultra Magnus and Drift.

Scavengers is a decent story, one showing just what the other side of the war was. Really my only problem with these guys is we only see them three times in the main story and once with a b plot, making it easy to forget about them despite being important to the plot, as their intro both properly introduces the DJD.. and sets up events for later. Their not bad characters by any means but they often don't feel as developed. The story tries it's best and Krok certainly does but they feel a tad more one note due to not getting nearly as much time and being played mostly for laughs. It's not a terrible story but i'ts a shockinglyf orgetable one given how much happens and how decent it is. The next story.. is a bit bigger though

Chaos Theory:

So now we go to BEFORE MTMTE happened to a prequel.. an intentional one to the storyline "Chaos" that wrapped up the previous era of transformers, and loose one to both MTMTE as a whole and next month's arc shadowplay. This arc was James Roberts first work post wreckers and given how things tend to move in comics his first knowing MTMTE was coming. As such while it works well as a two part standalone story and isn't 100% necessary for MTMTE , it still sets things up for it and sets up how Cybertron was in the past, why megatron started the decipticons.. all important stuff for MTMTE's future. It's this arc where Roberts first gets to write megatron and while it wasn't intetional as his addition to the cast wasn't roberts idea, it sets up a lot of what Roberts would do with him and explore once we get to him.

Chaos Theory opens in a diner, with Megatron tallking to his pal impactor. Since their don talking about what they call a quarter pounder on luna 1, their onto Megatron's latest work: a manefesto of sorts but suprisingly it's built on non violent resitance.. on building a movement not through violence but through protest. It's chilling as it is sad: we knwo what Megatron becomes.. but right now alll he once is a better life. A life where a few drinks above ground between shifts is not all they have and where what your built to be dosen't mean your station in life. It makes you questoin just what made THIS GUY into well.. this guy

The two are interputped by some assholes hassling Rung, who makes his first apperance here, if as a bit of a cameo. Said assholes work for the Senate, which as you can probably guess by the need for systemic change.. is horribly corrupt, not only encouraging a caste based system where what one does determines how valuable they are that will later be refered to as "functionism", so naturally like any jackbooted thugs their bullying rung and wanting him to clean up after he knocks over some drinks before throwing him at Megs table, with Impactor getting up to teach them some street justice.

While he does that in the past in the present Megatron has surrendered.. and it has everyone uneasy. Ratchet is checking him for traps, the other autobots are all watching from a distance and optimus.. naturally wants to know WHY. And despite trying to put off the conversatoin.. he knows he has to have it.

While he steels himself back in the past megatron is interviewed in a cell: apparently he and impactor really got into it with those guys and they and impactor are all in med bay… and Megatron is soon starring down a familiar lack of a face who shadily decides to take over his interigation…..

Yup! While Rung is a neat cameo to stash away for later, Whirl is full on setup for the character and his apperance and connections here will be important later. As he mentioned in issue 6 he worked for the senate.. and we see what that means here… and none of it is good. What follows.. is one of the best scenes in transformers period. The symbol of each side, simply sitting in a room, talking it over, as Optimus DESPERATLEY tries to figure out why megatron is like this. There is a LOT of good stuff in this conversatoin, a masterclass in how to do a character conversation. Such as Megatron talking about hate

Optimus counters by why he's tired: generations of fighting and all it's gotten is every other race to turn their back on them, millions dead, their races decimated… and it just won't stop. You can see now why he's tired: Roberts really taps into something that dosen't get refrenced enough in transformers: this war hasn't just been going on a few years.. it's been going on millinea and as mtemte has proven they remember all of it. All the losses, all the trauma, all the pain, what was it for?

He asks Megatron a simple question: pretend for a moment he's won, optimus dead the autobots no more what does he do?

Well minus the rest part, but he basically rebuilds the universe into true peace through tyranny: a new golden age where free will is gone but os is wanting for anythimng.. something that naturally disgusts optimus. The two then trade stories about the times they've nearly killed each other before breaking

Back with autobots high command, they argue what to do wtih him: some, including Ultra Magnus want him dead, while Bumblebee worries it'llmake him a martyr. Optimus..says i'ts not up for debate and he's instead going to someone else who will be important in MTMTE, Chief Justice Tyrest, the guy who apointed magnus and who oversaw the Aquetus trials that were at the center of Last Stand of the Wreckers andwho naturally we'll see later. For now he's who Optimus trusts but to try this and to do so in a way other races will accept, though some worry Optimus is getting a bit chummy.. and by some I mean hot rod whose lack of tact gets everyone thrown out, though Optimus is clearly still rattled.

Back to the past, Whirl is beating the shit out of Megatron who isn't fighting back. This police brutality is interputed by Springarm, the officer he reliefed earlier as Megatron has been let off, thankfully before Whirl could blame his death as him "slipping his bonds". It's a shockinglyf rank show of the police: some may mean well.. but many are just selfish brutalizing assholes who don't want change as their power would go away.. and we're only going to see more of that in these past segments.. and any time Prowls around. Seriously the bot is a walking defund the polcie advertisment. Optimus not only shows he talked to the bartneder and found Megs didn't participate, but read his manefesto: he dosen't agree entirley but he feels he's in the right direction.. and that itself says a lot.. as did the fact Megatron tried to act like this wasn't their first meeting. To Megatron their first meeting was a battle between two sides, a glorious war on a bridge. For Optimus.. it was two idealists, one working outside the system one working simply having a talk… and likely the regret Megatron didn't speak to peace. That so many died because Megatron strayed so far from who he was.

In the present Optimus finally asks Megatron the real question, the one he REALLY wanted to ask.

This speech is one of the main reasons I covered this one: while the events of it are a direct prelude to shadowplay, this line.. comes back later. And we see as you can probably guess.. that Megatron wasn't being honest. No not honest megatron. But Megatron got what he wanted while in the past.. he throws his datapad away, a sign that he's starting to slip from who he was .. and into something else. And what I like is while the story paints present megatron as a villian.. i'ts hard to argue entirely with his past self, especially after part 2: the system is broken and while sometimes peaceful protest and showing you have the higher ground works.. sometimes the only answer is in action. Sometimes i'ts okay to get pissed off and riot. The question is how far you take it. Megatron is wrong because he took it from "the'se corrupt assholes need to be replaced" to "peace through tyranny". He had an understandable starting point, wanting to raise the working class to equality.. it's about how you achive it.

As we'll see as we open part 2 though, while Optimus is trying to work in the system.. he will not BEND to that system. It allows the other side to florish: Optimus was a cop which can be one of the worst thigns you can be and usually is in a facist system. But for Optimus.. he's trying his best to be an honest person. He lets Megatron go and likely saved his life with it.. and as we open part 2, we see a bunch of senate thugs confront him. It's clear from the outset that while they put on a lair of civility.. it's all an act Optimus sees thorugh it and while theyt ry to SUBTLY imply Whirl should be let go, that dosen't take and outright saying he has friends in high and low places who'd be pissed… Optimus dosen't bend. Whirl broke the law. It shows who Optimus is: he's a cop yes.. but he puts his morals first: he went out of his way to get Megs exonerated because he did nothing wrong. But he refuses to let Whirl free because he tried to murder someone in custody. He broke the law. It dosen't matter who his friends are or who comes for him, Orion Pax or Optimus Prime, he won't let someone trying to murder an innocent person go. In the present Optimus graples with his morals, as at the end of their verbal joust.. Optimus shocked megatron with his restraints and wonders what he's becoming… and if he's beecome too reliant on the matrix, with their bonding being painful.. not helped by Hot Rod's having been "wonderfuL' and trancendant.

The bulk of the rest of the issue.. is an action fest. But a well done one. Optimus brings a bunch of criminals in, and is also clouded in his thinking, tonight's ecnounter only having made it worsed: he read what Megatron wrote.. and realizes the system.. is really brokena nd he can't "countance" that.

He comes back.. and finds springarm and another guy we just met decapitated, and the three senate thugs from earlier escorting whirl out who shockingly DIDN'T approve of this, showing that the Whirl we will know. .is in there. Optimus gets hit from behind and we get a tense standoff as a result if an epic one. He uses his own comednations as fucking shuriken, and then , regretfully as you'd expect, hotwirse springarms corpse so he can use hsi bhike alt mode to ram into them, then reads the main thug his miranda rights. But Whirl makes a point: touch him and there's more bloodshed.. and asks what Optimus will do.

This being Optimus what he do.. is storm into the senate chambers, his faceplate cracked and whirl slung over his shoulder and mkae a speech> this is despite the senate security trying ot murder him.

I'ts one hell of a speech and it stillf eels relevant today when , in the US where I live at least, a lot of senators are, just like the cybertronain senate, self entitled jackasses who make choice sfor other people based on self intrest or some corrupt dogma instead of what the people actually want or need.. yeah it feels all too right. Of course they have Optimus dragged off.. by we see soon after a mysterious senator had him saved, being the only one actually agreeing with optimus and using the right argument they woul'dve made him a martyr, warning Optimus dark times are coming and to decdie wh he wants to be.. while a young optimus looks at his chest cavity.. and ponders the matrix.

Oh and as for present day optimus he simply went ot megatron, sans matrix.. and told him he's taking him to tyrest, with Ratchet telling optimus his moral compas is his own.

Chaos THeory just rocks as a character showcase for Optimus, showing both his inante noblity as a rising star cop and his tortured conflict in present day, while also nicely contrasting megatron's start as a good intentioned revolutionary… with his finish as a tyranical monster. It sets up both how bad the past of cybertron was and how much of a monster megs sees himself is, while raising the question of how much does he really buy he likes hurting people and how much is an act? We won't get any answers on that for a LONG time, but I felt it was worth raising them now… as they won't get any easier when Megs does come back.

Next Time: MORE FLASHBACKS. It's time for a bit of shadowplay as our heroes take turns narrating a tale of the past to hopefully help rung join them in the future. Thanks for reading.

#optimus prime #megatron #transformers #more than meets the eye #transformers more than meets the eye #john roberts #comics #idw #whirl #cybertron

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kinard-buckley · 1 year

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post-finale thoughts

I’ve spent roughly 35% of my life with Supernatural. I never went to any cons and I didn’t write much fanfic or produce a ton of art or gifsets, but I cared about the show. I was invested in the story and the characters. The characters of Sam and Dean opened up a world of monsters, magic, and mythology to me, invited me into it. The introduction of Castiel breathed new life into the show, and added new layers to it, refashioning the show and giving it new dimensions. It went from a “catch up after the season” show to “watch every week.”

The finale hurt because it didn’t feel like the endings Sam and Dean truly deserved. Even Castiel, whose story probably got the most cohesive conclusion of the original members of Team Free Will, deserved more. He got an emotional send-off and some semblance of closure, but never heard what he really needed to hear: that he wasn’t merely a weapon or a tool or a means to an end for the Winchesters. That he was loved by them. Dean’s story ends on a rusty piece of rebar, with Dean—after defeating God himself and reclaiming his story to write his own ending—insisting to his dying breath that dying young is always how his story always was meant to end, despite the fact he had a job application on his desk. Sam gets a somewhat kinder ending but it also still feels lacking; his wife is nameless and faceless, though I believe we’re meant to superimpose an image of Eileen, and we know nothing of his son except the fact his name is DEAN thanks to the embroidery on his overalls. We just get a hazy montage of Sam’s life, after Dean’s death, with nothing really concrete to latch onto. It felt both completely empty and overstuffed at the same time.

Honestly, the montage of Sam’s life really reminded me of the ending of How I Met Your Mother, as we skip from scene to scene in the montage and aren’t given time to process what we’re seeing. We don’t get to let Tracey’s death sit with us, she dies and then we get a time-skip where her family has moved on and are now pushing Ted to remarry; for the characters it’s been over five years since she died, but for the fans it’s been five minutes. And while we got about half an episode of Dean choking out a deathbed monologue, it still didn’t really feel like we got time to sit with it and process it. We don’t get to care about Sam’s family, we don’t get to care about any of it. And then he dies and reunites with Dean, like ten minutes after last seeing him.

Maybe it would have worked better if they’d wrapped up both the season and series arcs in 19 and then used 20 to deal with the aftermath. Maybe it would have worked better if they’d had a couple more episodes to let Dean’s death resonate and to tie off loose ends, or pushed the restart back further. Who knows. I’m choosing to view the show as having ended with 15x19, which felt like the more complete, coherent ending.

The finale just felt lacking. If the writers hadn’t provided enough wiggle room at the end with the implication that Cas helped Jack create Dean’s ideal heaven, and that Dean and Cas will be reunited, it might have left an even sourer aftertaste in my mouth. We’re left with the pens in our hands and a blank book, which I can accept.

As it stands, it’s a disjointed, uneven farewell to a sometimes disjointed, uneven series. It doesn’t ruin the 15-year run of the show for me, but it doesn’t exactly bring the peace that was promised in “Carry On My Wayward Son.”

#supernatural #spn #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #spn critical #team free will #i guess #spn negativity? more like spn ambivalence #this has been sitting in my drafts for 2+ years #lmfaooo #long post #text #exQUEUEse me

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defenderofthelight · 5 months

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About me~

Hello! I'm Hannah and if you stumbled upon my blog - welcome! I'm glad you're here 🥰

A little about me: I'm a married 90's kid but I don't have any kiddos (yet). I work part-time as a barista, make designs for Redbubble, and am working on a couple writing/editing projects. I love coffee, tea, purple, pink, and pastel colors. I struggle with fatigue, major depression, anxiety, and C-PTSD but don't let my weaknesses hold me back or define who I am. I LOVE to create and although I've had some major slumps with my mental health, I always find myself going back to it. When I'm not creating, I enjoy spending time with my hubby or my closest friends and family. I also love video games (cozy indie games are my favorite), reading, music, collaborating with characters or story ideas, and watching Bob's Burgers, old TV shows, or anime.

My projects: Skyglass (main): middle grade fantasy series I'm currently writing about a bunch of fae kiddos. Premise: A young orphaned girl learns she’s from a magical world. But she must make an important choice—stay in her comfort zone and let fear control her, or step up and help change the course of history in her new world.

Project Burley (on hiatus): collaborative project I started on Instagram in 2019. It's about a creative arts school that houses middle school through high school students in a world where creativity is severely looked down on. I still love my kiddos deeply from this project, so I plan on posting more about them here. And if you're ever interested in reading my short stories and learning even more about my kids, links to my stories are at the bottom of this post and in my linktree.

TBN "Oreo" project (side): another story I've got in development that'll probably turn into a book. Premise: After being sent to a school for young criminals and social outcasts, Theo must team up with the eccentric Orly. Because their school isn't what he thought it was, and they are all in danger of being turned into weapons of war for their country. (I'll use the "Project Oreo" tag for this now).

AND I'm bound to post about miscellaneous other characters and story ideas. Since I play around with a lot -- but those above are my most consistent/serious ones at the moment.

Other interests: In case you couldn't already tell, I'm passionate about original characters, stories, and content. It's not that I hate fan made content (and you're bound to see fan art reblogged on my side blog sometimes), but there is something truly special about original ideas so that is where my main interest lies. I really hope to find many original character artists and writers here to love and support.

I'm also a huge advocate for mental health and strive to be a light in this dark, chaotic world. I plan to make my blogs safe, happy places for anyone to enjoy who shares common interests with me.

If anything I've rambled about resonates with you, I'd love for you to follow my blog! I promise I'll check out every blog that follows mine and give you a follow back if I like what I see 💜

You can also follow my side blog @heartsintent where I reblog posts.

Thank you for reading!!

Books I'm currently reading: The Golden Yarn (Reckless Book 3) by Cornelia Funke, The Hard Good by Lisa Whittle

Games I'm currently playing/regularly play: Stardew Valley (regularly), Coral Island, Spirittea, Farm Together (regularly), Sims 4 (regularly) -- I'm an Xbox girl, but I sometimes play on Switch too

Follow me on: Instagram | Redbubble | Goodreads | Spotify

Project Burley Stories: Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4

My bio picture was created by @sakura-artist <3

#about me #personal #tumblr bio #artists on tumblr #writers on tumblr #looking for friends #looking for mutuals

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thefirstknife · 1 year

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Kind of really wish they'd separate out the vanguard ops Playlist into 2 different ones that both count equally for the pinnacle and earning rep. One for "regular" strikes and one for seasonal Battlegrounds activities. The Vanguard Ops Playlist is going to be completely unplayable for me once they mix Heist in. It's not that they're "bad" it's just the seasonal grind is so over the top that by the time the season ends even when I really enjoy a seasonal activity I'm sick to death of it if I actually try to get a fair chunk of the grinding done... I really wish they'd give you some options around that since I don't see them changing their gameplay model from "Grinding Content: The Game". (I'd probably hate the PsiOps ones way less if I were actually able to take a break from them instead of, even after the season, getting dumped into them 2/3 of the time when I do a Playlist run for bounties, rep, or weeklies...) it's just very tiring...

Yeah, I'm also not a huge fan of these activities being mixed up with strikes. I don't think it's really possible to separate them because nobody would run a battlegrounds-only playlist so there wouldn't be enough population for it, but they need more activities in strikes without making 3 new strikes per season so.

I would personally prefer strikes only and if they made some new strikes. I don't need 3 new ones every season tbh, I'd be fine with a few new ones per year and old ones getting some refreshes like they're now planing to do with Lake of Shadows and Arms Dealer, as well as later with some other ones.

I really love strikes and would love some stuff to be added to them that's specifically made to be strikes. I would love if they returned some cosmetic stuff for strikes as well. There used to be different strike-specific emblems you could collect and hope for while playing them, for example. Weapon ornaments would be cool as well, even armour. Also more alternating dialogues! I'd rather fewer strikes but with more reasons to play them, instead of 50 of them and nothing much to gain.

Personally, I like heists from this season, they're much more engaging to me than the battlegrounds from Chosen, but even then, they're not made as strikes.

With new changes coming to the strike playlist making it more challenging but without any benefits in rewards... It feels really weird. Add in battlegrounds that people don't really like and I bet there will be a lot of players not very entertained by the playlist.

I'm definitely looking forward to new Lightfall strikes tho! So there's that!

#destiny 2 #vanguard ops #ask #battlegrounds are an easy way to add content to the playlist without making stuff from scratch but it just doesn't play the same to me #4 battlegrounds from chosen and 3 from seraph... instead of 7 of those i'd rather 3-4 proper strikes #they're not too bad as activities to me but just. they're seasonal activities for a reason

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dogtoling · 11 months

Note

I got Engel (who I know nothing about but I also know nothing about any of your OCs I just wanted to participate) and I am deeply curious on if any of your OCs use splatlings.

thanks for doing the quiz and even a follow-up ask despite knowing nothing about my OCs LOL. also yes actually! Nori's main weapon is the Heavy Splatling, although her secondary is the Snipewriter so once I redo the art (which... ive been procrastinating on so long that the season is over) she's probably going to have that instead.

Rodge also "mains" Mini Splatling actually, despite me never having drawn him with one (cool). He's basically had a different main every game, with the Splat Roller in Splatoon 1, and the Luna Blaster in Splatoon 2. So he also uses those weapons, but the newest one is the splatling (they are his favorite class, but he finds most of them way too big and heavy for him to use so he's happy there's a more compact one WITH ULTRA STAMP, NO LESS.)

that being said though i've been meaning to give more of my OCs splatlings because I REALLY enjoy splatlings, especially the hydra, but it just kinda hasn't happened so far lol. For some reason every time it comes to picking weapons for new OCs or even old OCs, some other weapon always feels more fitting

#mailbox

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ceapa-mica · 1 year

Text

GEHAT'IK BE ALIIT | Chapter 21

{cross-posted on ao3} {masterlist}

<- previous chapter next chapter ->

Pairing: Din Djarin x Original Female Character

Warnings: violence, blood & gore, suggestive remarks

Words: 4454

Summary: The offensive to save Ristea and Din's covert begins…

a/n: HAPPY MANDO SEASON 3 RELEASE DAY!

Is there a better way to celebrate than reading a brand new chapter of a fic you like?

I put a lot of effort into this chapter. Writing two different scenes taking place at the same time at different places is new to me, but I will get used to it. I'm working hard on improving my writing. Also kudos to my beta readers @unmotivated-exhausted-author and @acatalystrising for having my back!

According to the plan, Grogu and Arfour were to join Atina and Fox aboard the Endeavor - a goodbye that Elora hoped wouldn't be forever, and hoped that they would all make it out of this mess alive. She knelt down in front of Grogu's pram and stroked his soft ear.

"Don't cause too much trouble, okay?" Arfour wheeled up next to the pram and bleeped sadly. "You take care of him. Keep him safe in case things go awry."

He let out an affirmative beeping and followed Fox on board Atina's ship, just like Grogu's pram.

Tears welled in Elora's eyes at the possibility that this could be the last time she would see them. She remained calm, face flat as she swallowed back her tears, turning swiftly on her heel and marching towards the Razor Crest where three Mandalorians in blue armor were waiting, Bo-Katan gazing impatiently toward the horizon.

“Elora!” she heard Ruusaan’s voice call. She approached her with a jetpack in her hands. “Give this to your partner, looks like he could need it.”

Elora took the jetpack and was surprised it was lighter than it looked. It was just as shiny as Din’s armor, clearly made from beskar or at least beskar alloy. It would suit Din nicely, she thought, thanking Ruusaan with a nod Din was going through his checklist once more, examining every weapon he owned with a meticulous eye.

"Looks like we're ready to go. Why didn't you say goodbye to the kid?"

Din looked up all of a sudden. "They already left?!"

"Uh yeah, I told you earlier that I was taking him to Atina."

He sighed and his fist hit the crate next to him. Elora had never seen him so tense, probably because there had never been so much at stake. A system of planets and the Mandalorian covert that had taken him in as a foundling. She could sense the conflict in him, and guilt, probably because he wouldn't be the one to save his covert.

“Is that… what I think it is?” he pointed at the jetpack she was holding.

Elora nodded. “A gift from Ruusaan. She said you might need it.”

He took it and appraised it, humming in approval. “This is of excellent craftsmanship. I’m impressed!” He put it next to his other weapons he had yet to examine.

She put a hand on his pauldron and brushed her thumb over the cool beskar.

"Atina is the best pilot I know. We are doing the right thing by not bringing Grogu and you're not letting anyone down. You sent your covert the best help you could get."

His hand covered hers on his pauldron and his other hand pulled her close only for their foreheads to meet.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum." he muttered under his breath, but Elora heard it nonetheless.

"If you're looking for a life day gift for me, a Mando'a dictionary would be great."

"Life day huh? I don't remember ever celebrating-"

"The other ships are already departing, we should get going - now!" Bo-Katan had come on board, followed by the other two Mandos who would later introduce themselves as Koska Reeves and Axe Woves. They were their only backup on Ristea and according to what Ruusaan had told Elora, their Clan was very old and well respected within the Mandalore system. That didn't keep Elora from being slightly annoyed at Bo-Katan's behavior, but she didn't let it show.

Elora had retreated to the cargo hold where she gathered her strength, meditating, strengthening her connection to the force in doing so. It felt strange not having Grogu nearby. They usually meditated together, and him not being around left an emptiness in the force surrounding her. She was so into her meditation that she didn't realize when the door to the cargo hold hissed open and Koska Reeves came in, watching Elora meditate for a moment before clearing her throat.

"Is that your way to prepare for battle?" she asked and took a seat on a large crate.

Elora opened her eyes and turned to face her. "In a way, yes. Helps me keep a clear head."

"You know I was wondering… How did a Jedi like you end up traveling with a Mandalorian?"

Elora shrugged. "When we met, we hated each other's guts, but eventually realized that we both benefit from working together and have been a team ever since… We've become close friends in the past few months."

Koska raised her brow. "Close huh? You know he will never remove his helmet in front of you, you will never know what he looks like under there and still you two are close?"

"Don't care what he looks like, he's a good man, that's all that matters to me. I was raised by Jawas, I'm used to having my face hidden too. After all these months of travels… it still makes me uncomfortable when someone stares at my face for longer than a few seconds."

"Why did you leave the Jawas?"

"I wanted to find blood relatives, instead I learnt that my mother wasn't killed but imprisoned on Nar Shaddaa. You don't happen to know a squad of Mandos crazy enough to help me get her out of there?"

Koska shook her head. "That prison on Nar Shaddaa is the size of a city. Not a chance. Mandalorians are vulnerable since we are low in numbers nowadays. You would need contacts in the underworld, an ally with a lot of influence. A Hutt or any powerful crime lord perhaps."

In that moment the familiar jolt of entering hyperspace went through the ship. A minute later Din, followed by Bo-Katan and Axe Woves, came into the cargo hold to go through their plan once more, using a holo of the Ristean palace's floor plan Ruusaan had just sent them.

“Risakka is the largest city of the planet, and to our advantage it’s built into the mountain range, with the royal palace built right on top. With so many starships we should not stick out. After watching the princess's holomessage, I’m pretty sure they won’t expect you to bring backup. I know Moff Gideon better than all of you, he’s an arrogant Imperial who overestimates himself, but be aware that he is smart, and unfortunately a good strategist. During the Great Purge he managed to destroy entire cities.” Bo-Katan said, not looking anyone in the eye, instead focusing on the holo. Elora cocked her head as she sensed regret and a lot of rage in her.

“Do you and Moffy have some kind of backstory? I mean, you fought this guy. This… is personal to you.” Elora assumed, and earned a firm look from Bo-Katan who stared her down. “I fought him face to face and lost something that belongs to me. I need it back, no matter the cost.” Her voice had taken on a calm, dangerous tone.

“Revenge can blind you. Please focus on the millions of lives at stake and not just your personal agenda. Whatever it was that you lost, the lives of Risteans and Mandalorians are at stake and worth more than anything in this conflict.”

“If I needed the advice of the human embodiment of a moral compass I would have asked for it.” she spoke in a tone that couldn’t have sounded more aloof.

“May I inquire as to what it was he has taken from you?” Din asked.

“An ancient weapon, one that’s a symbol of Mandalorian leadership.”

“Risk people’s lives for some symbol? Really?” Elora huffed.

“I don’t expect a Jawa to understand Mandalorian culture.” Bo-Katan rolled her eyes.

“Let’s focus on the plan at hand. I must admit I don’t like that we use you as bait.” Din said, putting an arm around Elora, earning a surprised look from Axe doing so.

“Using Elora as bait is the best option we've got.” Bo-Katan continued. “This man takes every occasion to stroke his ego. She’s the only thing he’s after. When he thinks he got what asked for and deems himself safe, it’s our turn to ambush him. We go in through the ventilation system. They are located right outside these walls, that’s why Skirata provided you with a jetpack. There’s no way to get in without causing a scene, except for this.”

“And I’ll just walk to the front gates and state my business?”

Din nods. “Unfortunately we don’t have much of a choice, if we want to save the royal family and their star system. The royal family will likely be held in the dungeons.”

“Gideon is not a man of his word.” Bo-Katan said. “He craves power way too much to let the royals live. We go through the ventilation shaft, free the royals and fight our way through to get to you, while you use the force to evade captivity. Then I will engage Gideon in battle and get back what belongs to me. Meanwhile the rest of you take care of the stormtroopers and return to the ship. We have enough explosives to blow up his light cruiser on our way off world.”

Elora nodded with a confident look in her eyes. “I bet none of them have fought a Jedi before. They won't know what hit them. I can do this!”

Elora had dealt with Imperials back on Nevarro. Her initial fear had turned into eagerness. This was her chance to prove that she was capable of doing good things with her abilities. Most of all she wanted to prove to herself that she was a good person, to finally make peace with the mistakes she had made.

The travel through hyperspace took longer than expected. While the Mandalorians, Din included, were all cleaning their weapons and talking about the plan, or in Bo-Katan's case about avenging Mandalore, Elora had retreated into Din's sleeping nook where she had reverted to drawing to process the entire situation.

As Din opened the door he cocked his head in surprise to find his girlfriend like this. Wrapped in a brown bantha fur blanket with his datapad in one hand and an object he thought he had lost in her other. She looked up from her work with a little smile on her face and Din could swear she could hear his heartbeat accelerating.

"What are you up to?" he asked and looked over her shoulder at her sketch of his old mythosaur necklace.

"I uh… found this and thought it looked somewhat mysterious. An eye catcher. Beskar, isn't it?"

Din nodded and took the shiny beskar mythosaur skull, rubbing his thumb over it. Memories bubbled to the surface of his mind as he looked at it. He remembered Lazlo Akiba, the Mandalorian who had saved his life in the war zone that his homeworld, Aq Vetina, had become. He felt guilty that he hadn't been able to return the favor in the Night of a Thousand Tears. Din felt like he had let down the man this necklace had once belonged to. Just like his parents' death, he would always remember the moment when the Armorer had told him that his buir had become one with the Manda and had given him his father's necklace.

"If you fight as good as you draw, I don't need to worry about you."

"Thank you for trusting my abilities."

Din smiled under his helmet and regarded the mythosaur pendant once more before putting it around her neck - the shiny object visible for everyone to see.

"In case another young clone thinks he has a shot." The smirk was audible in his voice and Elora chuckled.

"Just wait til we're back from this mission and have some alone time. I intend to show you how thankful I am." she spoke in a slightly seductive tone. Din's mind wandered straight into the gutter and he had to blink away the filthy mental images in front of his inner eye.

I should really think about getting myself a codpiece…

"Actually I'm here to tell you that we'll be dropping out of hyperspace in thirty minutes. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"The royal family being in danger is partially my fault. I have to correct my past mistake."

Elora stood up to put on her signature gray Jawa cloak. Din watched her intently and sighed. "I wouldn't blame you if you would change your mind."

"I know, Din. But this is something I gotta do."

She put a reassuring hand on his pauldron before she went to join the others, leaving Din speechless.

I would lay down my life for her.

~*~

Arfour's dome had become Grogu's new favorite spot instead of his pram which hovered in the corner, waiting to be used again. He had a better view from there over the spacious cockpit and watched curiously how Atina talked to Ruusaan on the comms while she watched the streaks of hyperspace which resembled a tunnel of light.

He missed Din and Elora a great deal, and to distract himself from the grief of missing them, he slid down Arfour's body and waddled through the cockpit without the Pantoran noticing since she was listening intently to another briefing about several battle strategies. An asteroid near Nevarro would be the perfect spot to gather behind, to wait for the moment to strike. She went over several of those strategies with Ruusaan and the fleet she was leading. Many good suggestions started coming in. They would need one that wouldn't cause any or as few civilian deaths as possible. Since Atina had never been to Nevarro, she had no idea what exactly to expect. All she knew about it was that it was a bounty hunter infested skughole made from volcanic rock.

Grogu descended the ladder, and Arfour, taking his new responsibility as a temporary babysitter seriously, followed him, bleeping in slight annoyance at Grogu's antics. He had been told to stay put more than once now, but sitting in one spot quickly became boring and the need to discover stronger.

"Now now what are you doing down here?" Fox sighed as he discovered the infant looking at him with a curious spark in his eyes. He interrupted his work on the wiring and picked Grogu up.

"Patoo." the child babbled, pointing at the wiring that needed fixing.

"You're too young to help me with that, little one. Don't want you to get electrocuted." He carried him to one of the broad viewports on the backside of the ship. The blue and white streaks of hyperspace lit up the room. Grogu's eyes widened as he saw the entire squadron of eight Mandalorian Kom'rk starfighters following Atina.

"See, they are all following us to help your parents." Fox said and Grogu raised his ears that symbolized happiness. The first thing he thought when he saw the squadron following them was that Elora probably would have lots of fun tinkering on one of those. He had watched her fix the Crest more often than not and knew how much she enjoyed the handiwork.

They remained in front of the viewport for several minutes until Arfour nudged Fox's leg to notify him that they would soon drop out of hyperspace and that he should strap Grogu in, in case leaving hyperspace got a little bumpy.

Holding a baby like that made Fox miss the days he spent with his wife and baby in her apartment on Coruscant. It caused memories to resurface that he believed he had forgotten, so many memories, yet not enough. Not being able to watch his daughter grow up to the woman he had met half a year ago still weighed heavy on his mind and soul.

Atina descended from the cockpit and put her hands on her hips. "You sneaky little bugger, that's the third time you disappear without me noticing. Wow, I really suck as a babysitter, aren't I?"

Fox chuckled. "That's quite alright, he didn't cause any trouble."

Atina rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That's not the point. Him not listening could get him into trouble, thinking about the people we, Elora, and Din have to deal with on our travels. I just want that little womp rat to be safe, is all."

"I know you care, ad'ika." Fox smiled and handed Grogu over to Atina.

"Anyway, in case that astromech hasn't notified you, we're dropping out of hyperspace in approximately ten minutes."

"I'm always ready to kick some Imps in the shebs."

Fox put Grogu in his safe pram, a few minutes later the ship dropped out of hyperspace with a jolt, so did the squadron and Atina steered the Endeavor straight behind the asteroid, landing on its surface, the squadron followed her example. Now all they had to do was wait for word from Din and Elora that the moment to strike had come. The comm channels were quiet and Grogu felt the building tension in the force that always lingered when a battle was about to begin.

~*~

Ristea was a large farming planet that was mostly covered by fields, including many acres of land where countless large greenhouses secured food supply during the colder season where all kinds of food were grown. Those rural parts of the planet were sparsely inhabited, contrary to the planet's capital Risakka, which was located at a majestic snow covered mountain range and was actually built into the mountain itself. This architecture was unique in every way with its houses built from the mountain and the colorful window shutters of which each house shared individual colors and patterns, and sometimes family crests. The palace was basically this planet's crown. That's what it looked like from afar, the way this blue crystalline palace was built on top of the highest mountain, with the lower levels built into the mountain as well. The world's population was mostly human, especially in Risakka, due to the many years of oppression through the Empire. After the Empire fell, Ristea had finally been free, but now a new threat was looming over the planet, one that had to be taken care of.

Din was nervous. Like he mentioned, he didn't like the idea of Elora turning herself in. By the looks of it her anxiety from the day before had vanished. Her calm and confident demeanor impressed him. As the Razor Crest dropped out of hyperspace a large green planet came into view with a few mountain ranges here and there.

Din had typed in the coordinates of a forest at the outskirts of the planet's capital.

With ease he landed at a forest clearing and descended from the cockpit. Bo-Katan and her people had already left the Razor Crest, waiting outside in the cool morning air. Elora was binding her hair back into a ponytail as Din came into the galley to check on her.

"Close your eyes." he said softly.

Elora gave him a puzzled look but complied, only to hear a mechanic hiss from his helmet and then feel his lips pressing on hers, a warm feeling washing over her. What started as a gentle kiss turned more intense once she opened her lips to let his tongue slip inside. Those soft and warm lips and the feeling of his mustache felt too good to be true. One hand carded through her hair, the other rested on her hip as Din poured his feelings for her into this kiss. The intimate moment was over way too soon for their liking, but they had to go and save more than one planet.

Elora's initial thought seeing Din with a jetpack was how perfectly it suited the rest of his armor and how handsome it made him look, and part of her wondered how she was supposed to keep up with him with that. She had no jetpack, but maybe, just maybe she could build something from scrap that would let her fly alongside him. Unfortunately this was not the right moment to ponder over it. The Mandalorians ignited their jetpacks and flew in the direction of the palace that was several miles away. Din stayed behind and opened his arms.

"Let me carry you to Risakka. It would take too long on foot."

"What if the Imps see you?" Elora asked.

"Not if I fly low enough."

She hesitated a moment before moving into his embrace. The next second her feet were no longer at the ground. By the time they were out of the winter forest, Din's flying had become a little safer. Flying was something he had to get used again since it had been a long time since he had last done it, mentioning that the last time he had used a jetpack was at the Rising Phoenix, a training program of the fighting corps he had been raised in. Elora was glad she had tied her hair back. The cool breeze would have messed it up otherwise.

As the mountain range came into sight, Din let her down behind a building with blue and green window shutters and colorful empty plant pots.

"Good luck, cyare. And don't you dare do something reckless that's not part of the plan."

Elora rolled her eyes at how worried he sounded.

"I'll be fine, Din. Don't let your worry for me cloud your judgment. Stick to the plan."

Din nodded and asked himself if he could ever stop worrying about her. She meant the world to him. He left as quickly as he had landed, because he knew if he had stayed any longer he would have kissed her again and this time he wouldn't have let her go to do her part.

Din flew low and carefully not to get discovered as he tracked Bo-Katan to a ventilation shaft at the blue crystalline outer wall of the palace that, for the most part, was overgrown by a leafy plant and was therefore easily overlooked.

"Took you a while, Djarin." the red haired Mandalorian said.

"I had to take Elora closer to the city."

"Jedi can run as fast as the wind, did you know that?"

"Sounds like you have met Jedi before."

Bo-Katan sighed in slight annoyance. "I did, and most of the time not on good terms. The way she looks at you didn't escape my notice. Let me give you a word of advice. Mandalorians and Jedi may make a good team, but a romantic relationship holds no future."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Jedi are allowed to love but not to form attachments. My…sister had to experience that the hard way."

"No, Elora is different. She's not living after some Jedi code, only the code of the Jawas that was instilled in her since she was a little kid. She values her family way too much. She tells me stories of her clan more often than not, she has a strong attachment to them."

"What can I say except that I hope you're right."

"Guys? Our comms are down. They're disrupting our signal." Axe noted.

"Great how are we gonna notify Chuchi now?" Koska asked.

"She's been in contact with us ten minutes ago. When she realizes our signal gets disrupted, she will prepare to attack." Bo-Katan assured them.

Din agreed. "She's smart, she'll figure it out."

"Comms being down means they know we're nearby or it's just a precaution. Let's get moving." Axe used his flamethrower to burn away the greenery and climbed in first, followed by Koska, Bo-Katan, and then Din.

Elora noticed the white duraplast stormtrooper armor from afar. She approached three troopers with raised hands as they pointed their blasters at her.

"I'm holding up my part of the deal." she spoke with an audible fearlessness in her voice. They searched her for weapons, took her lightsaber and put shackles on her that weren't even made of force repellent material. She knew it wouldn't do much once she unleashed her abilities.

"We captured the Jedi. Notify Moff Gideon immediately!" one trooper spoke to his com-link.

The palace looked so cold from the outside, yet it had a comfortable room temperature behind its huge shiny cerulean gates.

They led her through the entrance hall with crystalline stairs that had yellow carpet on them. The enormous chandelier hanging from the ceiling was a pretty eye catcher. Elora quickly noticed that the usual palace personnel were nowhere to be seen. No servants, no maids, no Ristean security, only stormtroopers who infested the palace like parasites.

As soon as they entered a hallway with no other stormtroopers in sight, Elora felt this was the right time to wreak havoc. She came to a halt.

"Move or we blast your head off!" one trooper threatened.

"Is that the correct way to treat a lady?" Elora tutted and used a force wave to knock them off her feet and focused on letting the force unlock her shackles. This was way too easy. The troopers got back up, but before they could shoot, she force pushed them against the walls, setting free her raw force abilities. These people wanted to harm her, and wanted to harm Grogu. This thought alone caused blood to drop from between the duraplast armor plates which cracked along with the troopers' bones. They screamed in pain for a moment and a deathly silence fell over the hallway as their lifeless bodies landed in one large puddle of their blood.

Elora took a deep breath, took her lightsaber from the dead trooper's belt and sprinted down the corridor around the next corner where she sensed more of them were. She ignited her lightsaber and deflected each blaster bolt. Screaming and blood pooling on the crystalline floor followed, with the occasional torn off limb here and there, she left a path or gruesome carnage behind.

The next squadron of troopers shot stun days at her and Elora assumed that the orders had changed. She was wanted alive. The more trooper's died a painful death by her hand, the more nervous she could sense the remaining trooper's became until they were running for their lives. Elora wondered if Din and the other Mandalorians had infiltrated the prison yet. She tried to comm them but as it turned out their signal was getting disrupted. Just as she was thinking about how to fix that issue, ray shields activated at the doors.

"Nice try, Moffy. You need to do better than that." she muttered and slashed her lightsaber through the doorframe and the mechanism holding up the ray shield, when all of a sudden stun rays shot from the wall on both sides. A security mechanism she wasn't familiar with that made her surroundings blurr for a moment before she fell and faded out of consciousness.

<- previous chapter next chapter ->

a/n: THE CLIFFHANGER! I'm so sorry, I just had to! Of course Elora passing out is not part of their plan, but when did any of Dinlora's plans ever work without problems? Excited for more? I'm already working on the next chapter!

Thank you guys so much for reading this story!

#gehat'ik be aliit #din djarin x oc #din djarin x reader #the mandalorian x oc #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin #star wars fanfiction

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woodsfae · 1 year

Text

Babylon 5 s01e22: Chrysalis

Table of Contents

I can't believe we're to the season finale already - and also am so impressed with this twenty-three episode season! It's been incredibly tightly written so far.

Londo and G’Kar fighting is comfortingly amusing now.

G’Kar’s shimmery green armor is gorgeous.

Yelling the dying, stabbed man’s name is absolutely the way to keep him alive and giving you info for a few extra seconds, Garibaldi. RIP Petrov.

I am such a fan of these transparent surgical masks. I would like for them to use it for scrubs, too.

A surprise…? He looks so happy I half expected him to say he’s pregnant. But it’s clearly going to be a proposal.

“Look. Do you want to get married, or don’t you?”

AHAHAHA. I had to hold my stitches. That’s fucking perfect, Sinclair, you dork.

Poor Londo. Probably pissed off all the gods by waving his tentacles around. That certainly offended me.

EW NO IT’S FAE EVIL GUY. Morden. Ugh, no.

Delenn did not look particularly happy to get a yes response from Kosh. Granted, it would be rather unnerving to get anything other than an unfathomable soliloquy out of Kosh.

Being an ambassador is pretty high position. A lot of stress. Do you really want more responsibility, ie stress, to interfere with all the boozing and womanizing, Ambassador? Don’t make deals with Morden. Bad news is written ALLLLLL OVER THIS GUY.

Kosh’s shoulder pad wings are so extra.

Delenn, did you promise to grow hair?! In exchange for looking at Kosh?!

If the situation is too big for the head of station security, maybe don’t murder station denizens? That’s guaranteed to get some officials involved.

Vir and I are on the same page. Although he’s totally out of the loop. Londo is smart. He’s got to be able to see how shady this is.

G’Kar’s robe is so slutty. Love the space slut a la Picard look.

IVANOVA. Oh she looks so cute. I wish Talia was here to see her stylin’ curly hair and that dress is just gorgeous.

Hmmm Devereaux could be special forces, or he could have stolen a special forces weapon.

SHIT Morden et al are bad, bad news. Do cloaking devices exist in B5? It seems massively overpowered for the tech we’ve seen so far. Even Vorlon tech. On par with DraalPlanet, for destructiveness.

Something is definitely going to happen to those boxes. And immediately! Inside man!

Delenn!!! And the mystery 24 hours!!! There is a lot going on. Poor Sinclair has had to do some masterful time management this season so far but this might take it to a whole new level. I will be delighted if his pedantry saves the day again.

RIP every single Narn at the outpost. Ten thousand! Very OP. Who the hell and what the hell kind of firepower? I’m surprised that G’Kar’s list of who could have done it include both the Minbari and humans. Perhaps they’re more of a real power than I’d realized.

You can do it, Garibaldi. Pass out on the party floor! What is the party for? I missed that, if it was mentioned.

Oh sheeeeeeeeet, they did not manage to prevent the presidential assassination. Chaos must be incoming. Inside Job Man is still around and fucking shit up and smearing his smirk around.

They are very into lipliner on B5.

Having A Bad Day Narn/Human solidarity:

I’m honestly surprised and impressed that Londo cares that 10,000 Narns were killed. There’s more decency in him for Narnuan lives than I’d thought.

Inside Guy doin Inside Murders.

What doin, Kosh?

There is SO much going on here.

A real, actual, physical, chrysalis?!

There is so much going on that I absolutely cannot predict at all. It’s a trip.

“He is an annoying man, but I would miss him if he…”

Londo Mollari, that was very nearly a genuine sentiment of affection!

I hate Inside Guy nearly as much as Morden at the moment.

Speak of the devil. Floating, invisible, squeaky aliens plus Morden. Only good things can come of this, I’m sure.

AND IT’S A CLIFFHANGER?! *screams and throws things*

y’all I had an extremely busy day for being this recently post-op and am actually having trouble tracking visually. Am going to have to watch the next one tomorrow.

But it will be tomorrow: pinky promise.

#babylon 5 #morden the evil fae dickbag #jeffrey sinclair #susan ivanova #michael garibaldi #delenn #lennier #g’kar #londo mollari #woodsfae b5

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macgyvertape · 1 year

Text

D2 Lightfall campaign thoughts

gameplay discussion above, campaign and post campaign story below cut:

New UI looks good, just wish they made the element mods color coded.

Immediately went to go craft a bunch of weapons before starting the campaign, I’m glad they made the change to crafting materials

Thinking back to when you used to have to spend ascendant shards to change the armor affinity of a masterwork piece, I’m so glad the game has progressed to no elemental armor since that will save me a lot of vault space.

Once again 9 or 10 resilience is incredibly noticeable in survivability vs lower resilience

The redo of the mod system from a dev standpoint probably makes designing the challenge level a lot easier since the elemental well mods had a lot of extremely powerful outlier combos. However, doing fun and varied buildcrafting was a big engagement point for me for the last 6 months so I hope there’s more creative options than at first glance.

huh Bungie is introducing destroyable cover, that showed up in the mars battleground last season. Very curious about the design process for that

Fighting tormenters feels like Dark Souls where you position around telegraphed wind up attack and a lot of dodging. Especially when you damage them enough and they “go full sicko mode” and charge you for the kill grab. Blinding grenades or chill clip to stun, or Arc Speedboost with witherhoard/anarchy for damage over time and kiting them around seem to be the winning strats.

Checkpoint system in the campaign right before the rally flag is great for when something isn’t working in your loadout. I really appreciate the ability to change loadouts mid mission for a different final boss loadout

Basically every fight involves something that will force you to keep repositioning and a lot involve infinite ads. I've found witherhoard to be the most effective gun. Honestly most of my deaths are when the game forces me to run around with no cover then the ads shoot me.

Overall I really liked the difficulty and challenge of legendary and enjoyed playing it mostly solo. Replaying missions helping a friend and its interesting how even though enemy health and damage is increased some parts are easier with enemy targeting AI.

The game was a lot more generous with giving me increased power level gear so I was never underleveled for any mission. Really appreciated it as both BL and WQ I had to take a break from the story to go farm blue gear

I used Necrotic grips and Osteo Striga for a lot of the campaign and it goes really well with Strand

Strand grapple vs a damage grenade, there’s not a lot of times where I want to grapple into a bunch of enemies, and there are times where it just swings me off a platform because of momentum. I’ve only unlocked Warlock so far but the cooldown on the Strand Grenade is so slow vs campaign that it takes some of the enjoyment out of it. I’m sure like stasis which was also underwhelming at first, that I’ll like it after some patches.

New updates to the Tower are cool but more importantly menu times seem to have improved.

Glad the Terminal Overload public event will matchmake you with others directly, considering you need to finish the event to complete bounties to get an item if you want a pinnacle from the Partition missions.

Campaign:

New intro is great actually for explaining the story so far to new and returning players

Then the space battle cutscene was fucking great. The witness looks cool and less of a meme smoke-Megamind lookalike

If I had a nickel for every time an unknowable alien force sliced a bunch of things apart and gave me chills I’d have 2 nickels. (The Expanse protomolecule rising scene). That poor ghost where it had that moment of eye contact before falling apart just like the samurai sword slash trope

I wiped 3 times against Mr Grabby hands, the fact that it's such an enclosed area didn’t help. Icarus Dash and Witherhoard and kiting the boss around were my winning strategy

When I first saw the cloudstrider armor design from the trailers I thought the metal bits looked really awkward but it looks so much better in game

Glad the cabal have moved beyond the need of pressure suits so Calus can have all this drip

Osiris’ criticisms feel a lot bitchier than I hope the writers intended because he makes so many of them. “Stop wasting time” as we go literally as fast as we can and I get my ass handed to me by tormentors. I get what they’re trying to do with his character arc but I wish the writing would trust I remember what he said 5 minutes or the last mission ago vs have him keep repeating the same thing.

Second mission boss was a pushover

Oh no ghost but yay we get to talk

When ghost says “they have it locked down tight” lmao yeah that like 6 gunships and 4 tanks

Caiatl shows up to rescue us, I love her so much. Then we get a vehicle escape segment which is a lot of fun with Always On Time

The fresco style cutscene is beautiful, not new info to repeat players but a good exposition to new/returning

Awww its Saint calling Osiris. Like Osiris’ terse commentary is clearly coming from a place of grief and frustration because he’s so used to doing stuff himself with Sagira as a moderating force and now he literally can’t. Him forgetting Sagira was dead for a brief moment was really touching.

The need to use Strand to get around the suppression fields is a much better setup of why you have to use this darkness power vs needing stasis to open a few locked doors

“Information wants to be free” as Nimbus gives us a tank, I’m pretty fond of them

RIP Rohan, it was pretty obvious from foreshadowing he was going to die defending Neomuna and Nimbus the rookie would have to step up, he didn’t get enough screentime for me to get attached

I like how the game clearly tells you when there are interlude dialogue

The tormented called “imprint of Nazerac”, Neomunda citizens having nightmares that feature Nezarec i hope this plays out somehow

Lmao immediately after listening to the radio messages I did the strike where Nezarec is on coms. Got to say he has the sexy monster voice, and I’m glad that a lore character who was built up so much gets to play a bigger role than Nezcafe drink. I can’t wait to see his physical design when we eventually fight him and very interesting since his corpse was dismembered for the reliquaries. I thought Rhulk was cool as fuck and hope Nezarec is equally as hype

I really I liked the speed racer section of the strike but wow that section will feel very different in GM

Nimbus is very cheerful and upbeat referencing Rohan’s death, they’ve been characterized as a jokester throughout but I figured there would have a more serious moment here and it would be a break from comedic relief to let the story breathe. The campaign story so far has really been pingponging from dark and serious vs cheesy quips, but it's landing too much on the side of cheesy that it makes me wonder why I should take the threat seriously.

The training montage with Osiris’ voice over about letting go of grief and persevering handled that line of comedy/seriousness with the tone a lot better

The music that played during the Headstrong mission right after the training montage made me go “wow this is a lot of 80s action movie vibes” which apparently there are interviews where they said they were looking at blockbuster action movies to set the tone.

It also made me realize in the style of a blockbuster action movie there’s been no explanation of the mcguffin of “The Veil” and the other mcguffin of the “Mast” and how it plays into the Witness’ lager goal just that The Witness getting it would be bad, but no specific of how exactly.

In the final mission it took me way longer than it should have to realize I was supposed to fight all those cabal strand empowered. Caiatl’s speech was badass and I loved the moment of fighting alongside her

Final fight was the one part I didn’t do solo just because of how many times I died from falling off the platforms. 3 people made the second phase easy because Calus could only chase 1 person at a time. I did like the final fight being in an ancient Istar lab that was the founding of the city.

Good on the Witness for the Xanatos gambit, it got what it wanted either way things played out.

Once again another cliffhanger teaser where it throws something new at us that we have no context for. Big The Expanse ring gate vibes.

I don’t understand why Zalavala and everyone were just standing there the entire time, since it seems like the campaign takes days but the way they’re standing there implies they haven’t moved and it's been hours.

Zavala has a really somber and well done speech after the campaign, and once again it's that tonal whiplash from the cheesiness of the campaign

I thought there would be a lot more exploration of the themes of mortality: Calus’ fear of death lead him to ally with the Witness, Guardians are brought back to life and basically immortal until they die in combat, Cloudstriders sacrifice a long lifespan for 10 years, and Osiris sort of in the middle with only the rest of his lifespan to live out. But there's not really any of that in the story

I thought the soundtrack was really mid except for the track that plays during the first tank scene and the track when you’re exploring the veil. Its not just that I expected it to be more synthwave to match the 80s tone but there wasn’t anything really stand out.

Post Campaign:

Disappointed how there was no dialogue about how Neomuna has known about the Last City for all these years and any explanation of why they didn’t help out during the Dark Ages or The Red War even if only in a humanitarian way. I assume it was a resources issue, but I hope there’s at least some written lore for this

I think its cool how a lot of the bounties are Neomuna citizens, and that you can see them standing around as virtual avatars. Funnily enough I’ve seen more named Neomuna citizens than Awoken citizens (it’s all troops in the Dreaming City) and the Last City (there’s Eva and Hawthorne)

Neomuna has a LOT of bars around it, seems like citizens had a pretty fun time with all the art, arcades, and party setups

Really like how the Unfinished Business exotic quest reused the Garden Raid, a raid I think is beautiful but hate to run. The writing with Nimbus where they make jokes but have heartfelt moments with the players was what I wanted from them in the campaign. Also great closure for Osiris

Lmao at the reporter trying to interview Ghost, “Mr. Ghost can you hear me?”

Between Asher alive in the Vex network (he’s viewable in Partition) and Nezarec being in the Vex network I’m looking forward to how this plays out in the next Vex storyline. I was hearing ominous whispers just playing randomly at times around Neomuna, but with Nezarec’s sin the message is audible

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 lightfall #destiny 2 spoilers #destiny 2 lightfall spoilers #mac plays video games #liveblog #posting this now then taking a break from playing video games for a few days

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judicious-loveless-brat · 2 years

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JLB Miraculous Reviews: S5E1 Evolution

(Obvious Spoilers for Miraculous Season 5)

Well, this is my first time doing this. For those who aren't familiar with my blog (that being the case, a warm welcome to you), I'm that one guy who makes Miraculous characters realistic using Artbreeder lately. And I'm planning to do other things at the moment. Since the first episode of the fifth season of Miraculous has already been released about almost a week ago, I figured that I should make a review about this episode. I might also make reviews of the other episodes this season if I have the time to do so. I would probably make a review of "Multiplication" since it has already been released earlier today.

This episode follows the events of the Season 4 finale. After having almost all of the Miraculouses in his reach, Gabriel turns into Monarch (we'll talk about his... design later). He uses the Rabbit Miraculous to return to a moment in past Ladybug and Cat Noir's time to capture their Miraculous. Unfortunately, he somehow screws up even though he has literally EVERY MIRACULOUS IN HIS REACH (plotholes at it's finest, isn't it?)

And with that, let's dive into Evolution: the first episode of Miraculous Season 5.

The episode starts off where the Season 4 finale ended, with Ladybug and Cat Noir observing as the people of Paris cheer for them and preparing to face the new villain, Monarch. Monarch threatens to attack Paris ruthlessly unless they give Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. Despite this, the Parisians still supports them and boos at Monarch while throwing stones at him, even though according to the show itself, she's to blame for Gabriel's supposed victory and not you know, the one who betrayed her? Because it's apparently one of the show's rules that Marinette makes a mistake in each episode, no matter how unrelated it is to her.

Huh, I wonder what "mistake" she will make in this episode.

Ladybug and Cat Noir destroys the shield containing the illusion message retriever with ease. Funny, I thought there would be some kind of intense fight between the duo and Monarch that would show how powerful he is now. But I guess they're still as strong as ever seeing how easily they got rid of his illusion.

Ladybug thanks Cat Noir and he reiterates how it's just the two of them now.

We then go to Gabriel doing his usual thing, talking to his about to be dead wife. The next scene goes back and forth between Gabriel and the heroes. When Gabriel tells her that their victory is almost complete as he has got almost all the miraculouses, Ladybug assures the people of Paris that Monarch's victory will never be complete. When Gabriel silences Sass, Ladybug and Cat Noir says they'll never be silenced. When Ladybug and Cat Noir says they won't be prisoners of Monarch, Gabriel makes it clear to the Kwamis that they're his slaves.

Gabriel then makes a great plan using the Rabbit Miraculous to go back in time and defeat the heroes at their more vulnerable state. He fuses it with the Butterfly Miraculous to transform himself into Monarch.

I... have no words. What the hell is this supposed to be? Just when I thought that I would get over Shadow Moth and Shadow Noir's horrible designs, the animators decided to bring me this. What were they thinking! Why does he look like he's naked without that vest thing on his chest? Why do his weapons change color when his Miraculouses don't? Why is his hair white? Why is his skin purple? He can't even pull of unnatural skin colors, unlike Mayura, as his looks hideous! He looks like as if Thanos joined the biker gang and suffered from sleep deprivation. Keep in mind, this is supposedly Gabriel at his strongest form. The only good thing that I can say about his costume is that the mosaic thing on his vest looks cool. But other than that, this is definitely not an improvement from the atrocious designs he had last season! Seriously though, how is this guy a so-called fashion designer?

Just when Ladybug starts to tell Cat Noir the possible reason of the loss of the Miraculouses, Monarch stumbles through a time portal. They notice the portal opening, from which Rabbit Noir and Ladybug from a few minutes to the future are chasing Monarch who is seemingly getting weaker using multiple miraculouses at the same time. Another portal opens from which Bunnyx, the Rabbit Miraculous holder of the future, warns Ladybug and Cat Noir of the present about Monarch possibly ruining the spacetime continuum. Trust me, it gets a lot more confusing as the episode goes on. Bear with me on this.

Seriously though, as soon as Monarch is inside the Burrow, he literally enters in the events of Lady Wifi without even having a second thought! He didn't even try to be elusive and use the Miraculouses as a way to avoid corrupting time itself (Fox Miraculous, Rooster Miraculous). Doesn't he know that just a minutes change in the past can have drastic effects in the future? And this is folks, why time travel should've never been introduced in this show at the first place!

The heroes are even worse! I'm not even joking when I say that literally everyone was dumbed down so that the plot wouldn't end in one episode! Instead of taking them back to the time were Félix was about to fetch Ladybug's yo-yo, she takes them to stop Monarch from taking Ladybug's Miraculous in Lady Wifi's time. Ladybug ties up Monarch with her yo-yo but instead of taking all the Miraculouses back, they... explain to him how Bunnyx's powers work and say that they're going to defeat him... Which gives Monarch the opportunity to unify the Fox, Bee and Turtle Miraculous to escape, conjure Mirage of Monarch clones to distract the heroes, paralyze Bunnyx with Venom and trap her in a Shell-ter. God, can you imagine how STUPID this scene sounds?

Not trying to salt on them though, this is the result of ridiculous plot armor. Thank you, writers.

Cat Noir uses Cataclysm to break Shell-ter while Ladybug ties up Monarch again, but Monarch uses Wind Dragon to escape through a portal.

Since future Alix is suffering a magical stroke at the moment, Cat Noir takes the Rabbit Miraculous from her and gives it to Ladybug for her to fuse. Instead of using it herself, Ladybug offers it to him.

It is an admittedly nice scene showcasing Ladybug's trust in Cat Noir. I like the idea of her trusting him something as big as this. It's definitely a far cry from her UNINTENTIONALLY keeping him in the dark last season. Granted, it does kinda give a weird feeling how Ladybug's first step in putting trust in Cat Noir is through entrusting him the most powerful and dangerous Miraculous in such a dire situation where she herself can use it. With that said, I still love that Ladybug is starting to let Cat Noir in with the much bigger responsibilities.

Cat Noir then fuses himself with the Rabbit Miraculous, transforming into Rabbit Noir.

Rabbit Noir has a very cute and adorable unification design I'm happy that he isn't bald again. The teal lightings in his costume goes perfectly with the black bodysuit. The rabbit ears and tail fits well with the costume. While I think that they could've added more flare fluff to his look, I'm fine with the simple aesthetic as it doesn't feel like there's too many things happening at once. In other words, Rabbit Noir is amazing and isn't like the atrocity that is Pennybug (she has a good hairstyle though).

Rabbit Noir uses his powers to follow Monarch to the Riposte timeline. Monarch plans to ambush a vulnerable past Cat Noir but fails because he is suffering from wearing too much Miraculouses. Ladybug and Rabbit Noir catches up but Monarch jumps into the Heroes Day timeline. It's funny how past Ladybug, Cat Noir and Riposte didn't see what's happening behind them. Monarch tries to surprise attack a de-transformed past Ladybug and Cat Noir in the sewers, but present Ladybug and Rabbit Noir prevents him. They knock him down the Animan timeline, where Alya and Nino had their possible first kiss.

Interesting.

Anyway, Monarch stumbles through the events of the start of the episode. Rabbit Noir and Ladybug catch up and chase Monarch who is seemingly getting weaker using multiple miraculouses at the same time. Deja vu, am I right?

Monarch travels to the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II while Rabbit Noir and Ladybug catch up. Monarch unifies the Dog Miraculous and tags his Rabbit Miraculous with his ball in an attempt to Fetch it if the heroes ever got hold of it. But because he's been wearing too many Miraculouses, he collapses to the ground.

And instead of doing the obvious and you know, taking the chance and get all the Miraculouses back while he's still unconscious, they managed to do something even dumber. THEY STOOD THEIR SHOCKED FOR A FEW SECONDS, TOOK ONLY THE RABBIT FROM HIM AND GOT DISTRACTED BY PAST FU AND MARIANNE RUNNING AWAY FROM THE NAZIS, GIVING MONARCH THE CHANCE TO GAIN CONSCIOUSNESS AGAIN TO FETCH THE RABBIT MIRACULOUS AND ESCAPE.

Just... why. This is the one of the problems I have with this episode. Ladybug and Cat Noir have been represented with so many opportunities where they could've gotten the Miraculouses back as Monarch gets weaker and weaker and guess what? They still manage to screw up those chances! If this is the way the writers are trying to show that Monarch is so powerful and formidable, then they're clearly not doing their job very well. This is not the way in making a villain formidable! This is just adding more plot armor to the already heavy plot armored show. Dumbing down characters won't make other characters shine. This is just Lila Rossi all over again. God, imagine the salt fics that would transpire from this. Stop giving them ammo, Marinette and Adrien!

Ladybug then used her Lucky Charm, gaining a box that is used for storing one Miraculous. This is the same Lucky Charm that was failed to be utilized in the Season 2 finale. Ladybug then spots the Miracle Box past Fu has.

On the other hand, Monarch travels down to the Reverser timeline and sees past Ladybug and Cat Noir at the Eiffel Tower getting of a taxi while under the effects of the akumatized villain. Monarch tries to ambush them but is forced to de-transform due to his weakened state. Sass warns him that Kwamis need to eat or otherwise they and their powers become weak. If he destroys the Kwamis in the process, he will destroy himself too. So Monarch has no choice but to travel back to the time where he is about to start his plan and walks up to Nathalie, while still on the train with Lila. He asks her to give the Kwamis food.

Ladybug and Rabbit Noir pull Past Fu to an alleyway after he and Marianne separates ways. They explain to him why they're here and that they need a Miraculous. Past Fu surprisingly goes along with this and gives her the Dog Miraculous, even though he explains to Marianne that he doesn't want to fight the Nazis using the Miraculouses in Backwarder. She promises that she'll return it to him as soon as possible so that the timeline won't go bananas.

Back in the present, Alix, who is surprisingly absent last season, and her father Alim have an interesting conversation about her future (it is revealed that Alix wants to take engineering after she graduates). Ladybug and Rabbit Noir then show up to give Alix the Dog Miraculous meaning Sabrina got replaced again. She also says that once Alix gets the Rabbit Miraculous back, she will have to leave her family and friends behind to watch over the timeline (meaning she'll probably be absent again for most of the season). Alim is actually okay with this because future Alix wrote letters for him to not get worried. After a wholesome moment between the father and the daughter that Adrien would probably not get to experience with his own father, Alix takes the Dog Miraculous and transforms into Canigirl.

And...OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS DESIGN. It's absolutely better than what we got from Miss Hound and Flairmidable. The color scheme is appealing to look at. The cap she is wearing is cute and definitely suits her better than Miss Hound. The mask is also quite adorable and makes her blue eyes pop. And to be honest, Canigirl fits Alix's personality more than Bunnyx.

The three then go inside the Burrow, with Canigirl saying her farewells to her father. Rabbit Noir opens a portal to the past for Canigirl to tag Monarch's Rabbit Miraculous before he himself does. Ladybug leaves the Miraculous box in the burrow as a trap for Monarch. They then go into the frozen Eiffel Tower scene in the Heroes Day timeline discreetly.

While Nathalie is feeding the Kwamis, she advices Gabriel that there is another obvious way to use the Rabbit Miraculous. He can go back in time and prevent Emilie from ever getting sick from using the broken Peacock Miraculous in the first place by giving his past self a flash drive with the information needed to repair it.

Gabriel transforms into Monarch again and plans to travel back to the night he gave Emilie the Peacock Miraculous. Unfortunately, he gets distracted by Ladybug's trap box, because this show's plot armor is as thick as the mantle of the Earth. The only reason he didn't put the flash drive on the picnic blanket is because if he did, then the show would be over then.

Because his IQ is that of a brick, he falls for Ladybug's trap and travels to the Heroes Day timeline, planning to ambush their past selves. Unluckily for him, Canigirl uses Fetch and takes his Rabbit Miraculous, unifying the two Miraculouses she has.

And just like Rabbit Noir, [Insert Alix Dog+Rabbit Unification Name]'s design is also cute and adorable. Though I kinda wish they gave her more fluff. Petition To Give Rabbit Miraculous Holders Fluffier Costumes.

Monarch uses Fetch as well but Alix uses Burrow to escape. And even though he doesn't have time travelling powers now, Rabbit Noir and Ladybug still do nothing! They don't even try to fight him nor take any of the Miraculouses. They literally just... left him there, unaware of the major things that he could do in the past (yes, they brought him back but that still doesn't explain why they would even abandon him there in the first place).

Ladybug uses Miraculous Ladybug, healing Future Alix. Rabbit Noir gives to Future Alix her Future Rabbit Miraculous while Present Alix plans of giving Ladybug back the Present Rabbit Miraculous. But, Ladybug tells Present Alix that it's her time. She then transforms into Bunnyx.

Like Future Bunnyx, Present Bunnyx looks great. I like that her reddish pink hair contrasts well with the arctic blue and white costume. Although like I said, Canigirl definitely fits her personality more than Bunnyx. Also lack of fluff :(

Present Bunnyx gives Past Fu back the Dog Miraculous and takes a selfie with him while Future Bunnyx brings Monarch back to the present. Ladybug ties him up again and guess what? They fail to get the Miraculouses and Monarch escapes again through Wind Dragon. Ladybug is obviously unhappy that they managed to let Monarch escape again. Cat Noir reassures Ladybug by saying that they still got the Rabbit Miraculous but she says at what cost.

Look, just how incompetent can you two be? You literally have Monarch at your mercy and still manage to screw things up? For the love of God, AT NO COST! SINCE HE SAYS THAT YOU GOT THE RABBIT NOW, WHAT'S STOPPING YOU TWO FROM GOING BACK IN TIME TO PREVENT ALL OF THIS?! ARE THE WRITERS REALLY TRYING TO DIG UP THE DEEPEST PLOTHOLE IN HISTORY?!?!

And as usual, Garbage- I mean Gabriel talks to his wife again about how he lost and how it's all Ladybug's fault even though the both of them are so incompetent with what they're doing. Even Nathalie is fed up with his bullshit and tells him that he is crazy and that he doesn't deserve her help.

YEAH TELL HIM NATHALIE! You can’t imagine the huge smile I had on my face watching this scene unfold. Hearing Nathalie chewing out Gabriel for his incompetence is unironically one of the best parts of the episode for me.

Admittedly, once the satisfaction went away, I did have some major problems with this scene. While Nathalie has every right to call Gabriel out, it's also pretty hypocritical of her since she is just as bad as him. The whole reason she can't even walk properly is because she kept on using the broken Peacock Miraculous even though Gabriel forbade her to. She's one of the people who's willing to help him without question. She really isn't the bigger person between the both of them. But I just hope that unlike Chloé's "redemption" arc and Adrien's promise to let go of his feelings for Ladybug, this moment sticks.

Lila notices Nathalie in a sickly state and approaches her. She just offers to help Nathalie back to her seat, and that’s probably her only appearance in this episode. So much for the lack of Lila screentime last season.

After that, the episode ends, with Gabriel screaming like a baby.

If you ask me, this episode was just okay. I mean, it is good as a season premiere since it offers a lot of action and Alix definitely got the well-deserved screentime she didn't get last season, but the amount of plotholes and plot armor that Monarch has took it lower for me. As much as the execution was horrendous, removing the Rabbit Miraculous from the plot first was definitely a good idea to avoid the future plot contrivances that it can cause. Ladynoir also got some development in this episode and Ladybug is on the start of trusting Cat Noir more, which is good. Nathalie, as much hypocritical her scene was, definitely offers more opportunities in the future now that she isn't onboard with Gabriel's nonsense. RIP to the Gabenath fandom though.

The biggest problem of the episode for me was how Ladybug and Cat Noir were constantly dumbed down so that Monarch couldn't lose in this episode. Even Monarch was dumbed down (bro you literally have the Rooster Miraculous on you) so that he couldn't win either. If this is how things go this season, then it'll probably end with a bitter taste. I just hope the writers resort to better writing and not... create more plotholes and plot armor. This is literally the last season of the current storyline, so they better step up their game!

The time travel shenanigans was also a big part of why the episode is lower for me. A race around time is a good concept but the fact that Monarch and Ladybug didn't even consider to use their respective Rabbit Miraculouses to prevent the events that put them where they are now irks me.

Also, why the heck is Félix not mentioned in this episode, especially since he's the one who caused all of this? And why is Nathalie and Lila still on the train even though Gabriel cancelled the commercial? I guess those questions would be answered in the next episode. I just hope so.

So yeah, I'll rate Evolution about 6.5/10. It's definitely not perfect and has its flaws, but it's not a bad season premiere. I just hope that they improve their writing this season, especially for Garbage- I mean Gabriel Agreste.

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