thinking abt my "culture" as a concept is super... strange. as a white north american. and i dont know how to articulate this beyond "its so big it's nothing" and im aware it's so so so incredibly privileged to have a big disconnect from "my culture" because it's everywhere as opposed to because people tried to stamp it out! I know. i'm just thinking out loud about how it is strange.
[on "no reblogs" just bc i dont know if im articulating this exactly as what i mean and im mostly thinking out loud in the tags]
26 notes
·
View notes
"Tell me a joke, Ghost." - A Call of Duty Fic
Characters: Ghost, Soap, Vargas, Fisher (OFC)
Themes: War. Loss. Severe injury. Amputation. Explosions. Hope. Leadership. Shitting on Americans a little (Sorry!). INCREDIBLY graphic descriptions of a rural legend that gets told over and over up here in the wilds of Canada.
Warnings: Everything you see in the Themes section above. So, so, so much angst. So much.
Length: 2.3k
Disclaimer: I do not play COD. What I have done, however, is binge consume about a hundred hours of clips and cutscenes from all the various titles in which Ghost features. I make no promises for accuracy, I just had some shit to work through in my head and Simon "Ghost" Riley was just the Blorbo for the job.
This work is intended for adults only. If you're not old enough to secure a line of credit on your own you should probably git. Go on! I said GIT!
**********
“Tell me a joke, Ghost.”
That was the second last thing he heard her say as she lay on the floor of a warehouse, bleeding out and half-crushed by the wreckage of a bombing run.
Her voice was beginning to slur, the panic leaking out and unreality setting in.
“Don’t feel much like laughing right now, Fisher.”
“Sometimes it’s not about you, LT.”
***
“...’friendly fire’ incident resulting in the death of two Canadian service members and multiple injuries among the Commonwealth Forces deployed. Major General John S. McCreary has promised a full investigation as the White House extends their deepest condolences to the families of all those killed or injured…”
***
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
Those words echoed in Simon’s head as he sat with Soap in the helo on the way back to base. The radio, tuned to the international news, carried breathless descriptions of the total fucking clusterfuck they just hauled themselves out of.
Some dumb fucking cowboy with more balls than brains thought he was going to go home a hero and instead he’s on his way to the brig. If there’s any justice he’ll never see the outside of one again and neither will anyone else who was on that bird or in their COC.
Except there isn’t really any justice. Just actions and consequences and they only line up hard for people like Simon. Like Soap.
Like her.
***
“...when pickings are slim they’ll scavenge and enough of those lazy fuck weekend warriors only grab the rack and leave the rest to rot and attract predators that keep the rest of the deer away.”
Her voice was bitter and laced with vitriol, but only for a moment. Like a switch her scowl bloomed into a mischievous grin as she downed her fourth shot of the night and chased it with some of the on-tap swill that passed for beer.
“So they scavenge these carcasses along hunting trails, and the easiest way to get inside a big ol’ buck is right up the poop chute—”
Soap chokes on his drink, doubling over as Alejandro smacks him soundly on the back.
“—so they just chew their way in, hollow ‘em out, and leave nothing but a shell behind.”
“Fuckin’ christ,” rumbled Ghost. “That’s the name they gave you?”
“Better than the one they tried first. ‘Medusa’. By the time I was done with the guy who suggested it, ‘Fisher’ kinda stuck.”
***
“We’re down again in 5, LT,” Johnny’s voice cuts through his reverie, bringing him back into focus.
“If we grab a truck we can be at the infirmary in five—”
“No,” Ghost spits out. “We need to go debrief. We’ve got intel they’re gonna need. We need to get it to them as fast as possible so they can get ahead of the Americans on this.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Serious as a fuckin’ heart attack Johnny. How pissed is she gonna be if we fuck around where we can’t do any good?” Simon’s eyes behind the mask are tired, red-rimmed from lack of sleep and stress, burning bright in all the black.
Soap said nothing, turning his face away from Ghost’s stare and gazing out over the nighttime cityscape that flowed by under the fuselage.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
***
Simon aches to his bones. He and Johnny were separated as soon as they touched down, taken to offices and questioned, the same questions over and over.
His soldier's recall is perfect and no detail is too small to be left out. Hours and hours of it, but he sat and took it and hoped that Soap was able to do the same.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
***
Soap bursts into the hallway to find Ghost waiting for him, sprawled in a chair and flicking his thumb along the screen of his phone.
“Thought I’d never get out of there,” the sergeant grumbled. “Six fucking hours and the shittiest fucking tea they could find—”
“She’s still in surgery.”
Ghost’s voice is quiet. Flat.
“How— Is she gonna be okay?”
“Don’t know. Not a medic.”
“What now?”
“We smell like we’ve been rolling in dead bodies and pigshit. Hit the showers. Meet me in the mess in 30,” he growled as he lifted himself off the chair and stalked down the hallway, heading for the exit and not waiting for a reply.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
***
His skin burned pleasantly under the needle spray, the boiling heat of it helping him believe he might be finally getting clean after days of being stuck without any facilities in a city under siege. He should have been used to those conditions, but this mission left him feeling unclean in a way he couldn’t articulate.
“Tell me a joke, Ghost.”
Fuck. She loves to laugh. Always laughing about anything— nothing— whatever. Always ready to make him laugh.
***
“Hey Fisher, got a joke for ya. Knock Knock—”
“Come back with a warrant, LT.”
***
She liked to argue, too. Never afraid to say what was on her mind and never afraid to challenge anyone when what was right was on the line but also knowing how to bust balls just enough to get someone to listen to her.
***
“Hey, Fisher! What country’s capital is the fastest growing?”
“I dunno, LT. Which one?”
“Ireland. Every day it’s Dublin.”
***
He scrubbed shampoo into his hair and rinsed off, rolling his shoulders to loosen them as he shut off the taps and grabbed a towel.
***
“You gonna take that shot, Fisher, or are you waiting for an engraved invitation?”
“If you’re gonna ride my ass that hard, Soap, you’ll need to put a ring on my finger.”
…and she made the shot before anyone could say another word. Clean and precise, taken the moment the target stepped a foot to the left, leaving every single sheet of paper on the desk pristine and unsullied, making it that much easier to enact the next step of the plan.
“Nice shot,” comes Ghost’s deep rumble in their ears.
“Goddamn right, LT. That was art,” she crowed, her adrenaline high.
Each of them could picture her, grinning like a maniac, eyes bright and flint-hard. They’d seen it enough now to know that she lived for that split second when physics, skill, and luck all solidify into the perfect moment. The perfect shot. The flawless entry. The snatch so smooth it starts rumors about ghosts.
She wasn’t a perfectionist as much as she was driven to get it right. Driven to get it right to make it easier for the next step, the next team, the next generation coming up the ranks…
***
Johnny’s hunched over a plate, pushing food around, ignoring the racket of a hundred different languages and half as many accents of each that always filled the mess to bursting when the Five Eyes were playing nicely enough to try to reach a common goal.
The twang of American English is conspicuously absent tonight.
Simon grabbed a plate and made his way along, scooping up enough to satisfy his caloric and nutritional needs, not much caring what it was since it was all bound to taste the same, anyway.
He slid into a seat across from Soap, his back to the room, lifting his balaclava just enough to shovel dinner into his mouth.
Not a word passed between them until Ghost muttered, “Stop playing with it, Johnny. S’not yer pecker.”
“No time for jokes, LT. Not now,” the sergeant sighs heavily.
“Not a joke. Eat.”
The younger man was about to argue when he caught the look he was getting, so he forked up some ‘steak pie’ and started to chew.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
***
It was hours later when Ghost’s phone pinged quietly on the table in the small office that he’d managed to commandeer for the two of them. The rest of the JTF Ghost Team were scattered, and only Alejandro was near enough that he could drop what he was working on and make his way to the Five Eyes installation.
They’d had word that she was out of surgery at least three hours ago, transferred to Trauma ICU for monitoring. Since then he and Johnny had been methodically going through every scrap of telemetry and positioning, every order, every syllable of captured radio chatter, and every last bit of data they had— trying to find anything they hadn’t already come across in the debrief.
The message wasn’t, as they had expected, Alejandro signalling his arrival.
MEDBAY C65E:
‘She’s awake. Asking to see you.’
GHOST:
‘How is she?’
MEDBAY C65E:
‘Awake. You should get here as soon as you can.’
Ghost didn’t bother to reply, heading for the door as he half-shouted over his shoulder, “She’s awake, Soap. We gotta go. Now.”
***
In stark contrast to the unending activity outside its walls, the Trauma ICU was a place of quiet, darkend calm. Lights were low. Machines beeped and whirred quietly, alarms confined to lights on status boards and the low hum of pagers buzzing on hips.
The ‘panopticon’ layout meant that each patient was visible to the central desk at all times, each bed angled towards the glass windows that separated them from the main space.
“Lieutenant? Sergeant? Please follow me, I’ll take you to her,” came a kind, strong voice from the desk.
Ghost felt his heart lurch, his stomach sour and roiling as he followed the pretty nurse with the copper hair to the window behind which Fisher lay, tubes and leads coming and going from everywhere.
How the fuck is she so small? She’s never been small. Almost six feet. Shoulders like a bull and an ass like a dump truck. Legs that could mule kick an enemy’s head to a pulp. Arms that could haul a comrade out of danger like she was picking up a lamb…
Fuckin’ hell. Fuckin’ hell.
No. No! This isn’t right. This isn’t—
I can’t do this.
I can’t do this.
I can’t—
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
***
“Hey LT,” she croaked, her voice sounding dragged over broken glass.
“Hey, Fisher.”
“You look like shit, Soap,” she managed to get out before she had to lay back again.
“His fault,” he griped, pointing at Ghost. “This fucker made me eat the crap they serve in the mess. I think that fuckin’ pie was made outta decommed tires.”
She smiled, nodding, not letting the tears that pooled in her eyes slip down her cheeks.
Ghost couldn’t look away from her face.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
“Give us a couple minutes, Johnny,” he said quietly.
“Sure, LT. I’ll go bug those gorgeous nurses. If you hear screaming, don't come save me.”
As soon as the door shut Ghost picked up a chair from the corner and took a seat by her bed, keeping his eyes on her face.
“I need a sitrep, Sergeant. You good for that?”
It made him ache inside to see Fisher struggle to keep her composure, and then win the battle with the storm no doubt raging inside her.
“Yeah, LT. I’m good for it,” she said, sounding stronger as she squared her shoulders and prepared to do what she had been trained to do. “What’d they tell you?”
“Nothin’. Just that you were awake and asking for us.”
“Turns out my mom was right. I can’t keep my fuckin’ legs together. Left one in that fuckin’ shithole and they took the other one here.”
“You in pain?”
“Nah,” she scoffed. “They gave me the good stuff and a spinal block. Can’t feel shit past my tits and I’ll be pissing in a bag for the next couple weeks. I’ll stay in the stratosphere until they get that fucking thing outta me.”
They sat in silence for a moment, Ghost’s heart breaking open in his chest because you can’t save all of them, or some of them, or any of them. War is going to chew them all up and spit them out broken, whether the world can see the cracks or not.
“Sometimes it’s not about you…”
“Hey, Fisher—”
“What’s up, LT?”
“Did you know I’m terrified of elevators?”
“Wh-what? When did—”
“Got so bad I started taking steps to avoid ‘em.”
The woman on the bed fixed him with a look that could have crumbled concrete, “I dunno, LT. Can you really trust stairs? After all, they’re always up to something.”
***
“...and then everyone was running and I swear to fuck there were a thousand lights going off everywhere around her bed. I was ready for the worst when I saw the LT come out of her room wipin’ his eye like he’d had his heart broke—”
Alejandro, who had been half-running to keep up with Soap as he rocketed down the hallway of the Med Centre, reached out and grabbed his arm, spinning him around.
“Is she okay? What happened?”
“The lass is fine. Seems LT told her a fucking joke and the she got him back with a quip so good that he couldn’t stop laughing— then she couldn’t stop laughing. Busted open half the stitches in her side. They had to give her another two units of blood before they got it under control.”
Vargas started to laugh, “You’re all crazy, you know that?”
“You’re one of us now, laddie. Better get used to it.” He clapped Alejandro on the shoulder warmly, “She’s gonna be okay, you know? She won’t be in the field again, but she’s not out.”
“That’s good,” he whispered, almost to himself.
“Damn right, that’s good. She’s with us until the end and we’re not ready to give up yet. Not by a long fuckin’ shot.”
END
**********
...and if you're wondering what the hell animal I'm referring to when I say "Fisher" it's one of these.
36 notes
·
View notes
Idk why Tumblr just now decided to show me your @ about combining two ideas about a uti and damaging expensive things but here's my (months late) answer lol
The sound equipment might spark and start a (small and honestly pretty manageable) fire so Fizz is just tripping out on UTI/fever confusion and fire PTSD and is freaking out on the floor and Ozzie is like trying to put out the fire scream-asking Fizz if he's getting electrocuted because all he sees is a horrified looking dude kneeling in a puddle by an electrical fire shaking violently
So basically it's just a big 'Ol chaotic clusterfuck lmao
Hoooooooooooooooooly fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck I love this
Maybe someone panics and pulls Fizz out of the puddle in fear he IS being electrocuted, realizes he’s not bc, obviously, they’re fine and they touched him, and shouts that information to Ozzie. Ozzie gets the fire out, and runs over to Fizz, who’s shaking violently, soaking wet, and sobbing. Poor thing is also burning hot (no pun intended).
Ozzie tries to hold Fizz to comfort him, but that only freaks him out more, because it reminds him of being pinned down in the fire. So, unfortunately, the best thing to do is let him calm down on his own, because the man is in a full-on flashback.
@the-maddened-hatter
8 notes
·
View notes
Hello! I was wondering if I could have a demon slayer match up please?
I'm 18, so only characters 18 and up please!
I'm nonbinary
Two of my favorite characters are Akaza and Rengoku (ironic Ik lol)
I don't care about the gender of the match up, so go wild!
Onto the way I look/am I guess!
I have short brown hair and brown eyes. I wear glasses. I'm plus sized and I tend to wear clothes that are more comfy/practical then trendy but I do still like to wear cute stuff, I have two tattoos at the moment and plan on getting more.
My personality is just a clusterfuck of my mental illnesses and whatever I'm hyperfixated on at that point. It's hard to pin point really.. but I think I'm empathetic, I do tend to get angry very easily, I get anxious pretty often to. I have a phobia of bugs to the point of tactile hallucinations (feeling things that aren't there, like bugs crawling on me). I get discouraged easily, and don't have much confidence in myself and I'm afraid of messing things up alot.
I love dancing and drawing but have been in a mental/creative block for both for quite awhile and it sucks
I love food (especially strawberries!), music, plushies and my comfort shows (bluey (shut up), Steven universe and the owl house)
I hate loud, especially sudden, noises, being hot (I overheat very easy), and people telling me what to do (not in a "I'm better then you" way in a "well I WAS gonna do that thing but now I don't want to and physically can't" way)
I also have ADHD inattentive type, depression, and anxiety (and quite possibly some other undiagnosed things too) if that helps!
Thank you for reading this and please take your time, there's no rush! (◍•ᴗ•◍)✿
Hi anon! Thanks for requesting I hope you're doing well <3 Heres your matchup! Apologies it's not proofread 🙇🏾♀️
For your match up im paring you up with...
Yushiro Yamamoto
Yushiro will 100% be your #1 supporter and fan, no matter what is is you need or want no matter you've done for life in general or just today, he will attend your needs and fully reach your expectations and even beyond.
This man is your hype man! He'll elevate you and praise you every second of the day. It's your insecurities battling against him on the daily, your insecurities are his biggest enemy.
He's so persistent in showing you how much he adores you as sees you as a deity, he'll show his affection in every way shape and form just so it'll get drilled into your head.
Poems, compliments, acts of service, physical touch, making food for you he'll do anything to make sure you know how much he loves you.
To him you'll always be a beaming light within a crowd, he worships the ground you walk on; every part, inch and hair on you is utter perfection your being alone is the reason he thinks god exists, only a deity could carve such a perfect beauty.
Yushiro loves hearing about your new hyperfixations, well to be honest he loves all of you so truly he does not care how much they change. Talk about it all you want, show off cool stuff you made and found about the topic he will listen to every word and remember it all like his life depends on it. Not a single word of yours will be forgotten. Just so, later on he can talk proudly about the topic and you praise him for it.
He wants nothing more then your love and approval, please give it to him.
Your relationship is basically you being expensive fine China and he's a big ol' bubble wrap, wrapping you up again and again.
He's on his toes around you, literally he's on his toes. He doesn't necessarily have a natural eof being quiet however, nor is he loud he's just easy to voice his very... VERY harsh opnions, announce himself loudly when he sees you and can get quite loud when excited and wants to show you something.
So when he learns you prefer it quiet, bros as quiet as a mouse.
It's actually a little scary at first, he'll just spawn next to you without sound and it scares the living shit out of you.
Just tell him and he'll continue to be quiet but in a not so creepy way by lightly knocking before entering the room and keeping his voice to a minimum.
Don't be afraid to tell him what you want, this man's life purpose is to attend to you knees he wants to be told what to do by you and do those things. He adores you and will bend over backwards just to see you happy.
Suddenly craving food? He'll buy you a whole restaurant, you've been eyeing a new plushy? He'll get you it + a bunch of different styled once with the same design concept.
He doesn't understand human entertainment so he doesn't seem to understand what's enjoyable about the human shows he likes but, he knows you like them so automatically he likes them and they're his favourite too, cause you're his favourite and he wants to be your favourite so, everything that's your favourite is now his favourite.
You mentioned the shows you liked once, just saying it to say it and didn't think much of it but he took a mental note and binged watched it behind your back and FINISHED IT just so you guys can have something to talk about and relate too and, so you could be shocked and impressed he knew about it.
He pretends to be some huge fan and everything.
When you realise he's watched it, you get him to watch it with you again when you're in need of some comfort or just to watch it, you both come together entangled with each other in each others bodies under some blankets and plushies.
He can't help but think him deciding to watch the shows was his best idea ever.
100% worth it.
It's no doubt that no matter what, he'll always be there for you to support, cherish and love you. Until the end of times.
Her Lady's Notes:: I was heavily debating between him and Akaza now I've got the itch to write him so stay tuned for some Akaza Headcannons 🙊
── ﹫ 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐘𝐒𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐌 ؛ 𝗈𝗇 𝗍𝗎𝗆𝖻𝗅𝗋
6 notes
·
View notes
give me guzma for the Wes Opinions tm
A NAME + WES’S OPINION -> accepting !
“ numbskull, eh ? he’s aw’right. man runs his clown circus better than any other teams do. they ain’t organized criminals, or got underlinin’ intentions to destroy all’a their region. ‘cept spoutin’ nonsense ‘bout island guardians don’t care fer those they’re sworn to protect, or whatnot. ”
“ naw, they’re more a clusterfuck of guys don’t wanna sit there ‘n take it— just like me. fuck the law, man. what’s it ever done to protect us from these big ol’ Pokémon that can destroy our homes if they felt like it. could be why team skull don’t like these island guardians. ”
“ I’ll admit, guzma ain’t a bad boss— as in, he don’t threaten them ‘less they do somethin’ that’ll cost the lives of himself ‘n others in the group. he beats ‘em up fer fun, roughhousin’s in their nature—kinda reminds me of home, snagem’s base. . . almost like i belong there. ”
“ don’t get me wrong: i ain’t no goody two-shoes. this underground life ‘s’all I know. if’n people think I can change, they shouldn’t be ‘round me. ‘cuz the people I involve myself with ain’t the type of crowd they’d wanna associate with. i get the job done, even if it means cuttin’ corners. even if it means dealin’ petty crimes. if i had to act hero fer one second, it’ll be done my way. ‘n I’m damn well positive guzma would do the same thing to help out his grunts. ”
3 notes
·
View notes
5 Songs on Repeat + Get to Know Me
I was tagged by @madeofcc! Thank you!!
5 songs :
Voices In My Head by Falling In Reverse
Werewolf by Motionless in White
I Spit On Your Grave by ZAND
Fake Rich by Rivals ft Elijah Witt
Sensitive by Mothica
Last Song: THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND by Bad Omens
The Last Show: Barry
Currently Watching: My husband flip through Youtube videos for something to watch
Currently Reading: TBD cheesy fantasy/adventure/romance book, I finished one last night so we'll see what I start tonight
Current Obsession:
Getting screenshots or writing story parts that occur just after the next thing I should be writing. (Why write in sequence when you can make a big ole clusterfuck?!) Genuinely I have a hundred screenshots for both stories and pages of text for one. Do they go together? No, no they do not!
Tagging @erosims, @merlinthesimnificant, @theplumblob, @poisonedsimmer, @nuclearrayne, @yeetus-the-jesus, @wilybones, @oydis if any of you are interested 💖💖💖
10 notes
·
View notes
Hello hello! I read your "what was left behind" fic and I absolutely LOVED it (even if I went Oh No at the coal tar djfjfj THINGS WERE /JUST/ STARTING TO LOOK UP WHY'S RIN DOOMED TO SUFFER—oh yeah Satan couldn't keep it in his pants) but like how it would continue as canon keeps me up bc like. Fujimoto is dead and Yukio is NOT AROUND, too busy doing his "oh trauma! time to be a jerk" thing, and with nobody In The Know around to Explain why Rin's suddenly spouting Pretty Blue Fire I can't help that think there's no way his awakening would be anything except a big ol' CLUSTERFUCK lmao. Sorry for the word vomit but Rin always makes me FEEL things and your fic was so good it multiplied those feelings by like 10 so now I'm just rambling them all over the place 🥺🥺
In my outline for that fic I originally intended to just narrow in solely on Rin's pusuit of cooking and his coming into his own that way, but when I was actually writing it it just felt... right? to hint at Rin's awakening. I feel like that really is ultimately inevitable for him!!! Yeah most of his family is out of the picture, but I really do think he's such a personable character, so even if it took some warming up to him he'd find other people who like and want to be around him despite his shortcomings.
But also I really do enjoy the fuckery of all of that happening and Rin having less of an idea of what's going on than he did originally, it's hilarious in the worst way possible.
To be honest, I dislike most of the characters in Blue Exorcist based on the way they treat Rin, there's consistent blame in the story on him for literally existing, as if he has to continually prove his right to exist? idk I think the poor kid deserves better! even if it's the kind of better of a stable job and a general sense of contentment even though life can be pretty cruel.
No need to apologize, this was a really sweet ask to receive! I'm greatly enthused you enjoyed that piece so much - it was really fun to write!
2 notes
·
View notes
Well life's just a fucking big ol clusterfuck now innit
0 notes
Shopping went well yesterday, I have a lot of food in the house now which has eased a lot of my stress and I don't have to worry as much about food at the moment. Slept almost all day after I got home though due to Costco being a clusterfuck of people.
It was BUSY there today but I got a big pack of chicken (separated and frozen), a massive bag of meatballs and a big ol' bag of rice and then did my grocery pickup at Walmart. It's nice to just...see my freezer full for once.
Here's hoping I can actually not need to skip meals <3
0 notes
Ffxiv update, I’m almost at stormblood! I just have to finish the warring triad, the lv50-60 botanist quests, and then finish the last chunk of pre-stormblood msq. My gathering spreadsheet has been updated and my glams are on point. I’ve beaten every extreme arr fight synced (other than urths fount bc i can’t get a fucking team,) and every heavensward one (including both minstrels ballads) other than the warring triad, which I haven’t unlocked yet.
More under the cut
In the coils (normal, not savage,) I’ve beaten T1-5 and T7 synced. I was in a group learning T9 and the furthest we got was 3% health.
I’m hoping to find an fc at some point to try the savage raids with, but Social Anxiety.
I did my first fetes in the firmament last night!! And accidentally pulled an all nighter. It was super fun tho, I’d definitely do it again. Although I would love to stop getting antelope stags.
I’m figuring out crafting (it’s expensive) and trying to accumulate enough skybuilder scrips to get the emotes and hairstyles I want. It’s slow-going.
I’ve got a big ol list of gear items I want, so if anyone has advice on getting specific gear to drop in dungeons I’d appreciate it because. Oof. It turns out beauty is painful. But if I must suffer for fashion, so be it. I need to be the baddest bitch in Eorzea.
Slight salt, but some people really need to learn to read when joining party finders. If the little description box says SYNCED in big capital letters, that means I am doing the fight synced.
This game has activated the part of my brain that makes spreadsheets. I’ve got my gathering spreadsheet for every area in the game (and approximately how much each item sells for on market board,) alternate currency sellable items and how much they sell for on market board, collectable and skybuilder crafting recipes so I don’t have to open the menu every time, and every gear piece, minion, and mount I want and how to get them (I’ll probably end up adding hairstyles, orchestration rolls, emotes, etc to this.)
I tried pvp and crystalline conflict is pretty fun! Frontline is kind of a clusterfuck but cc is nice. I was grinding to get a hairstyle. I’m gonna need to do ranked for drip and plate backgrounds, but ngl I’m Nervous about it.
All in all I’m having the time of my fucking life.
0 notes
thoughts on fnaf
Mixed, especially with recent controversies. But separating creator from creation, here’s my thoughts on the series as is
I was gonna write up a whole thing but I realized I could sum it up pretty easily. It was a fun series that became significantly less good after 3. The story was fun, and then starting at 4 it just kinda got bloated. While I had issues with the general gameplay loop feeling the worst kind of cheap tension, there were fun variations. Up until 4. Probably the only exception is that the Nightmare variants are absolutely terrifying and I remember adoring just how crazy they were back in their original promo art.
But last I saw there were like 4930 Aftons and the story turned into a big ol clusterfuck to keep trying to outsmart Matpat. I check in on the game to see if theres anything interesting and fresh with gameplay and I havent really seen much imo.
So yeah call me a hipster but I think he should have ended it at 3 and not “restarted” it like 10 times, but as a whole I think those three original games were flawed, but still a fun time. The characters are memorable in their designs and I completely get how so many people have been influenced by the games.
138 notes
·
View notes
man i. hated sophomore year
2 notes
·
View notes
spock's brain is so bad it's good. i can have genuine fun watching that episode. meanwhile the paradise syndrome is just Bad
I love Spock’s Brain for the same reason that I’ve somehow watched Thor: The Dark World more times than any other Marvel movie, nothing can ruin it for me. It is *thee* campiest marvel movie and it does it completely by accident, it has no idea. Like individually nothing about TDW is good, but together.... a masterpiece. Only S tier marvel movie. Same thing for Spock’s Brain. Absolute clusterfuck of an episode, takes itself way too seriously, bonkers concept, but the more times you watch it the better it gets. Hot Lady Steals Brain, me too!! Adrenline fueled race across the galaxy pew pew adventure to save Spock and his brain... but the people who took it are all just absolute clowns! (this part is definitely sexist like, doo doo women need a big ol brain for them to function at all but bitch, i feel like that too sometimes so relateable), and HOW CAN YOU HATE REMOTE CONTROL SPOCK. But there’s also like a really nice Kirk Bones and Spock story about the power of friendship and the risks you take for the ones you love so that is why I love Spock’s brain. 10/10.
18 notes
·
View notes
New X-Men Xtrospective Part 3: Imperial (NXM #121-126)
To me all you happy people! And welcome back to my X-Citing look at Morrison’s Masterwork on Marvel’s Merry Mutants! Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE if you feel like it.
If not... to catch you up on last time....
All Caught up? Good. Join me under the cut as our heroes head into this old woman’s hedd to see what’s wrong and fight off an alien army while horribly ill.
Silent, Psychic Rescue in Process:
So we pick up not long after we left off: Thanks to Beast waking up from his bat induced coma, the X-Men now know Charles is trapped in Cassandra’s body and she pulled a Freaky Friday on him, with marginally less bullets.
And thus we get this issue. This one was part of Nuff Said, an incredibly clever theme month by Marvel and one I wish they’d try and do again at some point in some form.
The gimmick was simple but amazing: Every issue would be mostly silent, with at most some dialouge at the start and finish to bookend it. So far i’ve only read two issues of this, this one and the X-Statix one, but it is a genuinely great idea. I do think forcing it on the entire line was a bit much, but as I said I do wish they’d do this again just make it optional: have some books opt in or do some annuals with the theme. It’s just a fun break from the usual and with this issue resulted in one of the best single issues of x-men period.
Naturally given the name, which is cleverly displayed on a sign the x-men have because of course they do, it’s exaclty that: Emma and Jean after readying themselves (Jean kisses Scott goodbye and Emma downs a bottle of jack because why not do an alchol before doing delecate mental surgery), head in.
Inside they find horrific old lady head doors, stone ol dlady heads around a tower that shoot lasers, and said doors also bite and puke weird goop because it’s Grant Morrison. This is his chance to just go full balls out weird.. and given last time involved skin flake golemns.. and this isn’t even the weirdest he’s done. As mentioned last time he once had a supervillian run for president using a super LSD Bike that made everyone high.
And just to prove he can reach that level of weirndess we find charles alone, naked and with an overenlarged brain.. before he transitions Jean to a field of sperm.
Yeah... but this DOES have a point.. as it turns out it’s a meaphorical transition into his gestation as a baby.. and how he had a twin. Yeah turns out Cassandra was not lying he did try to kill her.. but as you can probably tell by the fact she’s a genocidal sociopath, she lied by omission to screw with Hank: In the womb she tried strangling Charles to death with his own umbilical cord..only for him to use baby’s first psonic blast to send her reeling and his mom tumbling down the stairs and well.. you can probably guess the rest. Yeah.. Cassandra’s entire origin story is concentrated
And I love it. The sheer audacity is nice and everything but what makes it really work for me is the simple concept: An evil version of charles, one almost born at the same time whose every bit as evil as he is good.. granted there’s a TON of Morally Grey in Charles Xavier ESPECIALLY post decimation and even more so now with Krakoa. But he’s sitll at his heart a well meaning person, while Cassandra at her heart is a racist genocidal nightmare. She is pure evil, with enough personality to not make her boring.. and more importanlty all the power charles has but NONE of his restraint. Part of what makes Charles noble is he only uses his powers when necessary. Cassandra.. has no such restraint and will happily mentally snap necks all day.
So with this our heroine’s leave and we end on the iconic line “Professor Xavier killed his twin sister in the womb. We Really ought to talk.
This issue is an utter classic. It finally explains Cassandra a bit while still leaving a ton of questions, Frank Quitely is at his best here, and he and morrison are incrediby good at non verbal storyteling. The result is surreal, unsettling and awesome. Check it out. Seriously seek this one out it’s worth the trip. It’s so famous it was homaged with a spirtual sequel in the recent Giant Size X-Men one shots. It’s excellent stuff
Imperial:
So with our first issue we open with things going terrible on that flag ship Cassandra took off on with Lilandra, empress of the Shiar and Xavier’s space wife. She’s revealed herself, is ravaging the ship and mind rapes a the helmsman into crashing it, so with no other options Lilandra sends Smasher, not the one from the avengers run earlier version, to earth to send a warning to the X-Men.
At the School things are actually going well for a second. In an intresting move the school is changing things up with no officla timetable.. which I think means there’s no rigid class schedule and you can just do them as you please or as necessary for your power. The plan’s the same, they just want to learn from each other in building mutant society and the future. It’s ideas like this that are the bedrock of the current run and were sadly never fully realized here.. but I don’t blame this run for that. Morrison had 2-3 years and it was cut short early, leading to a rather disapointing ending we’ll get to. They never had a chance to really dig in because they were kicked out by morons and then their whole grand design was undone until Hickman un-undid it in 2019. And even then some of this like the idea of mutant culture and what not hasn’t been picked up on yet. I do mean YET, as given the sheer NUMBER of x books touching on all sorts of subjects, it’s only a matter of if not when.
As for who’s behind this it’s a combination of Jean and Charles: Jean is using charles notes and is going at full tilt. Scott is concerned though.. both about her since she went Phoenix and Logan told him about it and because these plans may alarm the humans. ON the former Jean just brushes him off which is not right.. given what happened with the phoenix force copy of jean, which granted had her personality, memories and powers and Jean later got a set of her memories so it might as well of been and only MAYBE the genocide is something Jean wouldn’t of done under the same circumstances, he’s understandably concerned. He lost her to it last time and it did weird shit to poor Rachel, who hif you don’t know is their daughter from an alternate timeline... because the Summer’s family tree is a WAKING NIGHTMARE. Thankfully I don’t have to untangle it because there’s a handy chart right here to do it for me that was recently released in X-Men Legends, a new series featuring legendary x creators telling stories in the cracks... and given we’re getitng storys by the simosons and peter motherfucking david, yeah good stuff.
And why yes there are more than one clone in this tree and several alternate timelines. , not to mention several clones and a sexy cat lady, it’s complicated is understnading it and i’m not sure what properly states it honestly. Also if your wondering about Adam there he’s the genetic son of Cyclops mom and the ma Shiar empreror who killed her for not sleeping with him through. Again it’s complicate REALLY feels like understatement.
Point is he DOES have a right to be worried about the thing that lead to her being cocooned for a while and left their daughter in the future at the time of this... just in case you needed a reminder after that wonderful clusterfuck of a chart up above athe x-men are really fucking weird.
So Jean brushing that off is not okay. She does however call him out on the second one and rightfully so: This isn’t some dominate the humans manifesto: this is simply changing the course of the future and how they teach their students to create a better one instead of adhering to human norms to try and appease “the republicans’, as jean puts it.. which has only gotten MORE RELEVANT, 20 years on: Attempts to appease the norms of society and things “just because that’s how it’s been” have never been a good thing. It’s why the very writer of this comic took several decades to properly identify themselves as non binary because people were too stuck int heir ways to try and see if there really were just two genders. Fighting against the grain, finding new ways to express things that have always been there... it’s what humanity needs to do and certainly what comes after us would need to do. i’ts how we get better as a race. If something’s not working we change it, quickly or slowly. And given Scott’s huge amount of emotoinal repression lately.. I can see why she’d see the former complaint as just him being a dick as opposed to the genuine concern it is.
Short Version: Jean Grey is fucking awesome and while he’d be the last to write her for decades, no one did it better than Grant and no one has since. Hopefully Gerry Duggan can clear that bar.
After this fight we get a fuller verson of what happened both at the end of issue 120 and in the big reveal last issue: Turns out Hank awoke because Charles piloted his body like a truck and needed it revealed fast. Hank’s regained control of his body and facilities by now, but in a twist of irony he helpfully points out, had Cassandra not gone a needlessly cruel and sociopathic tangent and had Beak beat Beast into a coma, Charles wouldn’t of had a body.
As for Charles in cass’ body he’s now in a tub of goo created by it.
It acts as a shield as well as melding him with Cerebra so he can talk to jean telepathically as his thoughts are very weak.
Thanks to this and her psychic Jaunt, Jean now knows just what the hell cassandra is: She really is Charles twin sister. As for how the hell she surivied outside of the womb and how Charles never knew, she created herself a clone body using his cells and didn’t fully manifest till now. And while she has plenty of intellegence, at an emotional level she’s fully convinced, much like an infant that only she and charles are real and thus destroying him means gaining domance over her world. So in short she’s both utterly insane and now has an interstellar empire at her fingertips.
And the news SOMEHOW get sworse: She booby trapped her body and charles only has days before he’s vegatable, having put every psychological disease possible in there, and she’s probably responsible for their colds and the u-men. So in short their pretty scrwed but at the very least Charles plans to try to flip things, use the fact their now public (a clear tactic to weaken them) to share his manefesto, his last will and testiment if you would.
Scott meanwhile figures since their sick a healer might be a good idea and goes solo to fetch Xorn... who just sorta disappeared after the annual and didn’t return till his arc.
We get an utterly touching scene after this: With Logan staying on his hobbit like toes in case of another attack, Jean goes to talk to hank. Hank is still throughly traumatized from the attack, fearing Cassandra is right and he’ll just keep devlovling until he ends up in a metamoprhisis type situation. I mean it’s not ALL bad hank,.. I mean going through that guarantees a musical about you.
But Jean reassures him: It’s okay to be afraid of her, they all are.. but as she puts it...
It’s a really powerful inspiring scene... and really afirms how well Morrison writes Jean from the previous arc onward. She’s confident, powerful.. but also caring and compassionate. Here hank’s at his lowest, disparing that this might get worse.. and she reaffirms that htis evolution is an upgrade.. he may not be the same.. but that’s okay. He’s better. It really speaks to the core message of
the X-Men as a whole and why they’ve stuck around all this time: It’s not just okay your diffrent.. it’s WONDERFUL. Your wonderful for being you. Whatever meataphor you read into it, it’s at it’s core a message that no matter who hunts you or trys to shame you for what you are, they are wrong and you are wonderful. And you are not alone... your people are out there.. and they will go through hell to protect you. It’s moments like this that remind me despite the bad parts, the accidnetal transphobic metaphor last time, a subplot with Hank coming up, the affair storyline and Planet X, just.. Planet X.. this run is special to me for a reason. It has heart, character and truly gets how the x-men should work, what makes them great... while making something NEW AND FRESH from it’s bones. Pushing envelopes, chanigng things for good and shaking things the hell up after far too much stagnation. It’s just pure good comicy goodness and i’m proud to finally be talking about it after having always wanted to.
So as we end the issue Scott grabs Xorn, whose been at a budist temple all this time, and Smasher arrives to warn earth... but his warning missed his intended target.
Well at least he got to Hellcow’s coven.. maybe she can call in Man Eating Cow and the Chick Fill A Super Cows.. thought hey might not help. Their parent company IS pretty homophobic.. I doubt their high on mutants either.
Testament
Emma and Jean talk over things how i’ts going etc, with Emma unsuprisingly annoyed with most of the students and Jean optimsitc.
But Emma soon has bigger issues to deal with: TEEN ANGST!
Yeah 4/5 of the Cuckoos are upset Esme has a boyfriend. Their concerns in part are because without her their apparently powerless.. which given one will die and another will leave and they’ll be left with three is just factually not true, and either Morrison changed his mind later, or more likely their simply exagerating like teens do. Emma points out it’s pointless to fight this...
So... their in a domestically abusive relationship rife with sexual tension? Are you sure your not htinking of Sam and Diane, Ross and Rachel, Garfiled and Odie perhaps?
Meanwhile Angel’s sulking in a tree talking about how all the kids are stupid and she dosen’t fit in. That sort of thing. Wolverine naturally has a tactful and understandable response to this:
It’s here Angel goes from understandable, a bit hard edged and obnoxious becuase of a very rough life.. and just becomes annoying. I do get what Grant was trying to do: he was trying to play with Wolverine’s habit of taking sassy teens under his wing by giving him a more hardscrabble one with a harder life pre-xaviers.. not that Jubilee’s was easy, but I get what he was going for.. he just dosen’t succeed. Instead of a realistic version of a teen sidekick she just comes off as an obnoxious brat whose rude to everyone including her one friend Logan and her later boyfriend. It dosen’t help that ONCE AGAIN, Morrison flew directly into unfortunate implications without meaning to, by having the only major POC character (Bishop guest stars later and there are two significant characters during the Riot at Xaviers arc but both aren’t relevant before or after), be an abused teen with gross fly based powers and a teen pregnancy subplot. Seriously this isn’t even the LAST time Morrison shoves their foot in their mouth like this in this run. While I do like this run a lot, it’s still 20 years old and it’s still going to have a bunch of bits that have aged like harvarti left on a sidewalk, and handing out unfortnuate implications like their candy is tied for the biggest with their handling of Magneto when he finally shows up in person. It’s THAT bad a take on the character that it’s up there with accidental racisim and transphobia.
So moving on from.. that we get Jean comforting the professor before meeting the press, giving a throughly lovely speech about how Charles got his powers 30 years ago and despite seeing the worst in humanity, used his telepathy to allow him to see past it and see deep down just how scared and alone we all felt. So she takes them into a psychic conference room and we get a very interesting exchange.
It’s an interesting parallel to how real world disinfranchised groups, how it takes time.. but soon being a POC or LBGTQ+ goes from unrightfully perscuted to celebrated. How a group starts with hates whipsers on the fringe of things but grows to be accepted, like it always SHOULD have been. Take representation of Trans people in the media. It started with Trans people being almost entirely punchlines and sources of fucking horendous “DID DEY USED TO BE A MAN.” storylines and hurtful jabs at people who had transitioned, treating them as a sideshow instead of you know as fucking human beings. But now coming out as what you always were ont he inside is celebrated. Sure the right are dicks about it but they always will be: but most media gladly celebrates when someone comes out as trans. Same with being gay, or bi or pan or polamorus or nonbinary. Hell I admire grant for showing i’ts not even 100% perfect once you are popular: you still have to grapple both with people wanting to copot your culture and those who still don’t understand you trying to speak for you.
She also gets the standard question calling the X-Men an army, shoots it down with the normal global peacekeeping operation stuff.. then we get this bitch.
Who quickly realizes she’s outclassed by Emma Frost, professional that bitch. And while Jean is understandbly going to have to erase that.. I can’t blame her for snapping her.
Just to tear this shit down.: The privacy thing is not something she’s doing. All she’s doing is spcyhic teleconfrencing, you harpy. They fight greek gods and monsters to protect your sorry ass and the last one.. just makes me absolutely livid and feels so much like a real world comment i’m suprised there isn’t a fox news logo next to her bigoted head.
Trouble follows them everywhere they go.. because their mutants. They can’t help it. A LOT of shit like the demons, aliens, and gods and what not, I do not know if they actually did fight the greek gods but i’m not going to say for sure they did not, the norse gods defintely, not sure on greek. But the point is allt his stuff HAPPENS TO THEM half the time, or is a consequence of trying to PROTECT PEOPLE. I’m so nettled by this because this is how the marvel unvierse acts all the fucking time towards ALL super powered peoples. Mutants esepcailly but they blame the heroes and what not for being chased and harassed by guys in costumes or alien invasions or all the stuff they FIGHT. Sure sometimes they caused it but it’s either because of a monsterous person with a grudge or just because their powerful and some douche took an intrest. I’m just.. so fucking tired of asshole civlians in comics. It’s realisitc I know but it’s just hard to stomach after so many have turned their back on so many for such DUMB reasons.
Jean recovers well pointing out the genocide and how 16 million people, 16 million possible einsteinss or mozarts are just GONE, and that their trying to focus on the future. She also brings up autistic savants who can talk to atoms and while I don’t like the use of the savant thing, as it brings to mind stuff like rainman I very badly want to see this autistic kid who can talk to atoms as someone on the spectrum myself. Also I just want the crew of HIckma’ns books in general to pour over this because there are a lot of intresting powers and personalities only MENTIONED we never saw proper that could be great characters. Just saying.
Jean cocludes her speech to the world, including Logan whose wisely getting hammered at anearbye bar.. while Hank finds out what’s going on with their sickness.. nanonscopic sentnels in the blood.
But while the press confrence ends well with Jean having won over the press.. things go sideways as not only is it clear Esme’s boyfriend is in fact something sinister.. but Jean falls over due to the nano snetinels, and senses Scott being taken in tibet, taken down by a group of the Shiar’s imperial guard.. picutre the legion of superheroes but blindly loyal to the goverment and far more likely to get killed. And the rest are preparing to attacking including Gladiator who if you don’t know him, has all the powers of superman as long as he retains his confidence.
And it turns out Esme’s boyfriend is an advanced Scout, the shapeshifting amoeba blob thing Stuff, a new addition by morrison and good on him. And the Imperial Guard are here but with one goal
Superdestroyer
On the Ship we find out both wha’ts going on with Scott and Xorn, they’ve been taken and why the shiar are attempting mutant genocide: Cassandra is puppeting ALL of them, has convinced them the mutants are infected and since Lilandra is a puppet, Scott’s words fall on deaf ears.
Meanwhile Wolverine ambushes one of the squads, kiling one named Dinosaurer via claw to the brain, while Emma has had a dome thing put over her head and isn’t transforming into diamond to counter it because...
But the Cuckoos fight back, taking out oracle before easily handling stuff since his brain is fairly simple.. and given he’s racist against solid people and unlike the others reveling in the genocide just a tad.. yeah what he deserves. So now with a living weapon the Cuckoos make peace with Angel as they need all the help they can get.
Jean ushers the press into the panic room, not happy about it but not having anothe roption for their saftey. Hank tells her to self distruct crebra if cassandra get sclose and goes off to join the fight and let off some steam over the situation. Hank easily routes two of them, and one , Manta tries to just fly right ot jtean wince their TK proof. How does that go?
Jean gets to saftey after that, not that she needs it and hank is quickly taken down by a batch of Superguardians.. only for Wolverine to arrive in the Sknitt of time and chop them up.. oh and as one of the puts it...
Bad. Ass. I also like the addition of the flight patch, a nod to the Legion, who the Imperial Guard were based on as those kids used flight rings.
But while Logan and Hank easily tag team these assholes...
The SHiar call in the big guns.. Gladiator.. and I wasn’t kidding abotu the superman thing. While Logan TRIES to talk him out of it, the murders only confirm Cassandra’s bullshit and Gladiator breaks into the panic room throwing hank and wolverin’e before them having utterly decimated them off panel. I mean Wolvie is a badass.. but even he has limits. I also like recontecullizing the guard as a whole here.. showing just how TERRIFYING they SHOULD be as enimies to the x-men. Yes our heroes did win.. but barely and only till Gladiator showed up. In most cases thier clearly holding back out of affection but here hteir just at errifying unstoppable force, and also apparently used to doing genocides like this. It takes what was a cheesy shout out to David Cockrums other big artistic work, and makes it horrifying and it is AWESOME. I admit to not having liked this arc as much for the longest time but this reread, the sheer teror and hopleessness as an interstellar superman easily cuts through our mighty mutants like tissue... it’s awesome.
Thankfully one of the Guard found smasher.. and thus the truth comes out so our heroes are given a stay of execution with Gladiator clearly horrified at what he almost did and our heroes now so sick they can barely move and Hank can’t think them out of this.
Thankfully he dosen’t has to as back in space, Cyclops tires of it and points out something Xorn, not being as experinced nor having delt with the guard ahd thought of: G-Type, the glowly guy about to execute them, is made of solar energy.. and xorn can manipulate that thanks to his star brain. He does, they take out the rest.. and prepare to go save the day.
Losers:
PIcking up shortly before where we left off we see Cassandra murder Lilandra’s advisor who figured out what she was just as our heroes escape.. and as Cassandra is having Lilnadra order all of the shiar ships to immolate themselves.
WIth Lilandra not being any use, Cass tries to psychically force her to commit sucidie but jumping off a space ledge but Xorn saves her. Cass tries another turn at mentally breaking an x-man, pointing out all scott’s recent flaws, his increased repression his faling marriage and while it gets him to stop it dosen’t quite work as well as it did on hank, likely because at his heart Hank is simply a more emotive person. Though his REAL reason for stalling is he can’t kill charles.. which he muses just as the ship blows up real good.
Meanwhile back at Campus the kids initaiate their plan, having Angel break in and take a dna sample. She also finds beak naked in a tank and decides eh why not and brings him with her. This ends up paying off as Beak suggests the obvious to get emma free.. just force the space guy they have over in the corner to do it. They do and it works
Back in the mansion our heroes prepare for Casssandra... but Jean and Logan object to saving her body, pointing out that getting hank to repair it is exactly what she wants, and that Jean feels she can save charles without uit, with Hank being understandably doubtful given their current condition.. but Jean’s real plan is to put charles in her head and it’s already too far in actoin to stop now: she’s been saving his memories as they flaked off and if she dosen’t do this now there will be no charles left.
Hank evacuates the civlians to teh danger room, and has an encounter with trish who tries to apologize and get him back.. only for him to rightfully regjecter her..a and then goes a step further by capping it off with:
Yeah on it’s own it’s not TERRIBLE. Still very dated to claim your gay just to spite someone, but for the time it was acceptable and compared to some of Morrison’s other gaffes in the run it’s minor at best. But it leads into a rather annoying subplot we’ll naturally get to that’s a much bigger issue, so i’ll save talking about it in full for when it comes up again.
Jean manages to shove Chuck into her head, but is naturally leaking a bit and barely holding it or him together and may of overestimated herself just a tad.. while on the lawn Cassandra easily takes out the guards. That said the scene of Jean taking Chuck into her head is REALLY damn awesome. Jean is the arc MVP by a mile and Hank is pretty dang good competition.
All Hell:
We open the final issue of the arc with Scott and Xorn escaping the spaceship using some teleport tubes taking Arakai and Lilandra with them.
We open with Cassadra utterly humilating gladiator while the kid team prepares to fight her despite you know, the 8 billion to 1 odds against them.
Jean, despite hte discknes and trying to keep an old man in her brain marches out , prepared to fight, for the kids sake. For the world’s sake. But Logan’s easily taken out and with Jean barely holding it together.. the kids prepare to fight.. likely being slaughtered even if they mean well.. onlyf or help to finally arrive with Scott and Xorn glowy porting in. We get a really sweet , short moment with scott and jean...
Scott not knowing the situation tries to have Xorn heal charles first but since Cassandra’s body is dead and unoccupied that’s a no go.. he’s still usefult hough, curing Jean of her nanosentital sickness and moving on to Scott and Hank while there’s still time.
We find out more about cassandra: She’s a murrmadi, a bodyless parasite.. eseetinally the dark first test a person faces... she just stuck around because she was one for a telepath.. the world’s STRONGEST telepath. But really other than that part the rest just feels like stuff we alreayd heard LAST TIME, mildly repaackaged and seems enitrley like filler to pad the issue out.
So while Jean takes cerebra, both to keep it away from Cassandra’s plans of mutant genocide and for whatever she has planned, Scott, Hank and Xorn prepare to hold the line.. and as Jean mentions.. emma’s still out in the wild.
So we get our climactic showdown.. logan, hank and xorn veruss cassandra, with Cassandra trying to do eveyrthing she can, tear them down mentally, throw out the students with our heroes fighting back best they can. It’s good stuff.
Eventaully Cassandra gets to Jean.. but she’s already inacted her plan, putting a piece of Xavier’s mind in EVERY mutant, and giving Cassandra one ohell ofa reason you suck speech.
It’s an incapsulation of what i said earlier and what the runs about: alone we are weak but together.. we just might make it. More on that as we go. But thanks to Cass naturally going fo rcerberba.. she accidently restores charles and is left bodyless.
Emma finishes the fight with her own brilliant gambit, presending cassandra her body.. but it’s actually stuff , reprogrammed into a sentient brain for her to inhabit and leaving her trapped, with Charles hoping t teach the now mentally reset Cassandra. So Cassandra is beat, the virus is stopped, and our heroes have one.. but naturally for this run.. there’s one last suprise in store.
Charles can walk again.. and going forward will be a far more active member of the team. The team is complete, Cassandra is beaten, and the future.. is bright.
Final Thoughts:
This arc is a mixed bag.. it has really good scenes with the first and last issues being the standouts, with the former being an utter classic with an intresting gimick and the latter being a rousing climax with tons of awesome moments, with some good mometns scattered throughout.
But that’s the arc’s issue.. it has good moments and ideas.. but they don’t quite work togehter. The idea of teh Shiar Imperial Guard nearly doing a genocide is good, but the Shiar are such flat characters.. it’s really hard to care. They just don’t have enough connection to the x-men to really have the betryal sting but aren’t callous enough for genocide protocols to maeks sense. It’s a good idea, I still support it being terrifying.. but not enough is done with it and it feels liek Grant is more concerned with throwing weirdos at the x-men than actually saying something.
The biggest issue however is the art. While inconsitant art is an issue as they’d rotate artists.. but in previous arcs it was usually pretty evenly split but here it’s sloppy: Quitely does the first issue, van Sciver the second.. and the worst of the three Igor Kordey does most of the art. I gave him the beinfit of the doubt last time.. but this time not so much. His art is muddy and tries to be stylized but comes off confusing,ugly and not great. He’s probably a lovely guy but given he’s up against two legendary artists, his lack of style comapred to both shows badly. And given the arc is alreayd a bit overly complicated, it makes things WORSE by giving us muddled art in a very complex storyline. The flip flopping art makes a fairly intricate story very hard to follow. It’s easily why this arc didn’t grab me in the past and even seeing some better moments, it’s not the series best. It’s not the worst either, Planet X easily takes that ground despite having far better art. It’s an incredibly muddled incredibly long feeling arc and really needed to be compressed by one or two issues but instead is just hard to get through. It’s owrth it for the rest of the runa nd the good moments within but all in all easily one of the weakest points in the series.
Next Month on New X-Men:The X-Men soak in the new world order, and we meet fantomex, dust and the last surivivors of genosha.
Next on this blog:Green Eggs and Ham is back!
If you enjoyed this review PLEASE join my patreon. The end of hte month is coming and I need eveyr cent I can get so join at patreon.com/popculturebuffet and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.
12 notes
·
View notes