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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Psychic Ninja build (Theory Build)

(PsyOps Zed artwork done by David Villegas of West Studios. Created for Riot Games. This wasn’t meant to be a PsyOps Zed build but strangely this artwork works.)

Here’s a post in the not-quite-continual series of “random D&D builds I write at 1 AM and then queue to post at 11:40 because lol Tumblr because I can’t sleep and am waiting for the Worlds livestream to start at 6 AM EST.”

Do you wish that thrown weapon fighting was more viable? Do you think that Barbarians are boring and could use some more damage types? Do you wish that Rogues could be played with Strength instead of Dexterity? Do you think that throwing weapons as a Monk should actually be viable?

Do you want to protect your teammates not through heals or buffs but by intimidating your foes? Do you want to be the dark mysterious edgy character in the party but still play a support? Do you want to play a character who by all accounts is essentially a Monk and has pretty much zero connection to a Barbarian yet is somehow a Barbarian? Or do you just want to play with the Psionics UA stuff like I do?

I present to you: The Psychic Ninja

SOUL KNIFE (UA) 14 / ANCESTRAL GUARDIAN 6

When distributing stats prioritize Strength, then Constitution, then Dexterity. You need at least a 13 in DEX for this build to work though a 14 would be ideal for a +2 to DEX. Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma are all secondary in this build. (Though if you want to be Chinese Knockoff Shen invest in Wisdom.)

Start off as a Rogue (proficiencies duh) then get to at least level 3 to pick Soul Knife for Psychic Blades. After that go 6 levels into Ancestral Guardian Barbarian for Ancestral Protectors (the main one), Spirit Shield, and an Extra Attack. After that go all the way down Soul Knife until you hit level 14, but this build is honestly done at level 9 which is pretty nice as most campaigns end around level 10 anyways.

PROS

Okay so let’s talk about Ancestral Protectors from Ancestral Guardian. First of all: it has NO RANGE LIMITATIONS. (Thanks to Dungeon Dudes for pointing this out to me and no I had a build like this in mind long before seeing this video.) The effects of this ability work as long as you hit the enemy and as long as you’re raging. And let’s talk about its effects: firstly your foes just have disadvantage on anyone other than you. Secondly if they don’t hit you your ally resists the damage! That’s half damage practically for free!

Normally as a Barbarian you’re limited to melee range but that’s where Soul Knife comes in. Boom! 60 foot range! This means that you can sit in the backline while taking half damage and doing +2 on all your attacks and still “tank” for your team.

Beyond that? I mean there’s just a lot of general synergies between Barbarian and Rogue. Reckless Attack gives you guaranteed Sneak Attack (which is why you’re maxing Strength instead of Dexterity), Danger Sense plus Evasion means you basically won’t ever get hit by a Fireball (and it really ups the “ultra instinct” ninja flavor of this build), Fast Movement synergizes with Cunning Action (and again makes you feel more like a Monk.) Oh also your Soul Knife features aren’t spells, so you can use them while raging.

There’s so many characters you can make with this! Make an unassuming assassin who leaves no trace, make a bodyguard who disarms you and takes you down with their mind, make an unassuming detective with secret powers to help him on the case, make bumbling idiot whos ancestors pilot him like a meat puppet. Hell make a Warforged and be the weapon!

CONS

Other than the fact that you’re playing UA and I have no idea what Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will do to my sweet Soul Knife boii?

The main thing to mention is that you have no armor and no actual “weapons”, meaning that magic armor and magic weapons are not an option for you. What’s more is that since you’ll be investing in Strength for your knives you likely won’t be investing much in Dexterity for armor. With the best case scenario of +2 to DEX and +5 to CON your AC will be a 17; not horrible but not exactly amazing either. You’ll still have a ton of meat points to soak up damage but even then the healer isn’t going to want to be pumping you with hit die all game.

Your going to have to invest a lot in physical stats which means your mental stats will be rather subpar. You can fix this in roleplay by getting Expertise in the skills that matter but you’ll still get screwed by saving throws.

Spirit Shield only reduces damage by 2d6, and it only has a 30 foot range. It takes your Reaction which could be used for Uncanny Dodge.

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And that’s honestly about it. This isn’t a build I’ve tried it’s just something I’m theorycrafting as a cool idea for the Soul Knife subclass. In short I’m tired as hell and am waiting for the Worlds broadcast to start, even though by the time this is posted the stream will be done and I’ll probably be asleep.

Spooky builds still coming no they’re not Seraphine.

#DnD 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #dnd #dnd multiclass #dnd rogue #dnd barbarian #Tasha's Cauldron of Everything #please preserve #my sweet #Soul Knife #boy #edgy #psychic ninja #is my aesthetic #it's 1:30 am #i need sleep

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silenthillmutual · 4 years

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The decisions place you in the context of higher authority. No longer an army of one, you have decided to mobilise the population to fight the disease alongside you, since your personal accomplishments were not enough.

i feel like there’s a lot to unpack with this part of the letter

first i’d like to point out that part of daniil’s dialogue with andrey involves them recounting being involved in some sort of riot together

adding all the sums together my guess is that daniil is something of a troublemaker, and that despite some of the truly bitchy things you can have him say (that i will assume are his internal monologue if you choose to have him not say them), the kind of trouble he makes has something to do with unionizing people

i don’t really know how to put this other than like. clearly daniil is a very Proud person. a lot of educated people get that. and one good way to get someone whose fatal flaw is Pride to do what you want them to do is to insult something they should otherwise be proud of...you know, their accomplishments. so the Powers That Be don’t want him to:

make any sort of connections or home among the people of the town

make the town join forces, as it were; part of your job as daniil is negotiation, but you will also get most of your news from people on the streets, many of whom are disgruntled about some sort of inequity they’re dealing with and that you can, if you want, react with outrage at their treatment (see: aspity’s lies about the water, his disgust at how vlad the younger talks about the people who work in the termitary, etc)

actually be successful in combating or even surviving the plague. this is a win/win situation for them; you get a threatening letter from them about how they will leave your laboratory alone (for now) if you are successful in this endeavour, but the truth is that it really doesn’t matter. either what you do should you survive will not be enough for them, or you will die, in which case there is no one left to defend Thanatica.

i rarely even get that kind of depth and subtlety from books i read or movies i watch so it’s very awesome to see this sort of thing being emulated in a video game.

We expect that the measures you have taken are temporary. Speaking of what may be described as the microclimate of the town, we don’t want any irreversible changes to take place. In particular, we hope that the instructions you have issued would not lead to any undesirable moods among the local townsfolk. We would rather avoid mass psychosis, depression, or panic that are sometimes characteristic of situations like this.

i think there’s two really interesting things going on here.

the first is that this raises a very valid concern, one that you have to talk about in areas of study like cultural anthropology: cultural relativism. you want to study a culture and interact with it, but without being too biased, passing judgement, or changing the way the culture exists too much. to a degree, all of these are unavoidable, both in-game and in the real world. you know that daniil is guilty of the first two even if you never have him say some of the things he’s thinking.

but i think too many people look at this without nuance - not just as far as this game goes, but for plenty of other media and facets of real life. you don’t want to be ethnocentrist, of course, but not every cultural practice is good or defensible. you see it all the time when weebs try and defend things like hen.tai, lo.licon and shot.acon. there’s an ethical dilemma that comes in engaging with other cultures, and it’s really not as cut and dry as simply calling yourself an outsider and assuming these practices are okay.

this is a huge misstep that happens in the film Midsommar. i read an article about how the main group being anthropologists is actually essential to the horror of the film; they are able to be gaslit because they let their cultural relativism put them in danger. they ignore the warning signs that they are being initiated into a cult, that they are being manipulated, and even that the cult is made up of white supremacists. it’s very possible that the reason Pelle is a foreign exchange student is to find people like this group of anthropologists who have stepped back too much from themselves their culture.

this also reminded me a bit of a discussion on reddit i saw about colonized countries talking about their relationship with their colonizers and how those two interact, although Pathologic is so vague i’m not sure if you’re meant to read daniil’s route as being related to colonization or not; i know artemiy’s route has more to do with that, and that seems to be connected to some of the other families in town, specifically the olgimsky’s.

the second thing that i think is interesting about this, is that it is once again setting daniil up for failure. they don’t want him to change the town too much, but they want him to be successful in combating the plague. given that the town has no hospital or morgue, that the only access to the outside world for them is the train, and that in order to keep the disease from spreading he has to issue quarantine and change how people go about their daily lives? he can save the town OR keep it from changing; he can’t do both. not to mention that the Powers That Be are sending people to help enact whatever changes daniil deems necessary... they are purposefully escalating the situation, knowing that they are going to make him fail in some way or another.

Please keep in mind that when we offered to cease the persecution of your laboratory and to facilitate your research, we meant that as a reward for you being able to find a surgically precise solution to the problem. It is of no importance to us if you do it yourself or instigate the Inquisitor to do it on your behalf.

so in other words: the government openly admits to persecuting him. not just laughing him off or ignoring his requests for funding or what have you, but actively attempting to sabotage him. they will only stop these activities if he is successful - and success to them is “surgically precise” - which i take to mean does not rely on herbalism. this probably sets up why daniil is a pain in the ass on artemiy’s route; his life more or less depends on there being some quantifiable and scientific explanation for the plague and how to combat it.

the government also doesn’t care about the town. it doesn’t care if the town is successful. they’re not sending other doctors, they’re not acknowledging rubin or artemiy as healing professionals. they’re sending enforcers. if daniil fails to find something of worth to them, everything he’s worked for up to this point in his life will be destroyed. and he will fail, as he’s been told at every turn that there is no scientific explanation for the sand pest and no precise cure. what fixed it last time was herbalism. he’s going to fail, no matter what he tries to do. this is the letter you receive by the end of day 4, and the game is 12 days long. you know before you even hit the halfway point that there is not going to be a happy ending for daniil.

daniil certainly has a tendency to look down on herbalism, but given that he seems to have had high regard for isidor burakh i think you can take this one of two ways, or perhaps take the third option and say both: either there is some elitism going on that ties into racism, or this could be comparable to people looking at the anti-vaxxer trying to cure every disease under the sun through the power of organic foods and essential oils. (again: i think it’s a bit of both. were there more time for him to explore shit, it’s very possible daniil would grow out of the former. he seems really interested in artemiy, has little tolerance for how the ruling families run things on a basis of violence and various -isms, and again he seems to have some esteem for both rubin and isidor who we learn later are more akin to herbalists, as isidor and artemiy specifically are indigenous) i think this explains a lot of why he says insensitive things (or says things insensitively).

i think it’s also important to keep in mind that he doesn’t know what’s going on in the clara or artemiy’s routes. he only has his point of view, which as an outsider is going to be heavily skewed by whatever he is told. he can’t possibly know everything.

i think the last thing i wanted to end this overly long post on was this: his field of study is thanatology. the study of death.

why in god’s name do the Powers That Be want to destroy research into longevity? just food for thought, but this game is 17 years old, and i think it’s especially relevant now.

#nori writes #meta #plato plays pathologic #path of logic #plato posts #ok to rb #pathologic #long post #and i mean it this post is SUPER fucking long #bachelor deeply disrespectful #icarus.docx #mine

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timeforelfnonsense · 5 years

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I said I’d share this ages ago but I 100% Forgot to! This was an essay I wrote for a university class on Gender and dystonia. It’s a nine page essay so it’s a long read but could be interesting to some folks! I also was a little burned out when I wrote this so please be soft with me.

In August of 2007, Irrational Games, at the time Known as 2K Boston released, the first game in the Bioshock series. The three-game series explores the ethics, politics and consequences of societies based in utopian ideals and how quickly they become dystopian. This paper will explore the first games world of Rapture, and its connections to biopolitics and the exploitation of capitalism.

After a mysterious plane crash, protagonist Jack finds himself at the entrance to Rapture, a strange concrete lighthouse. Inside a golden statue of the cities founder, draped in a red banner reading, “No Gods, No Kings, Only Men”. Created by billionaire Andrew Ryan to escape from the political, social and religious anxieties of a post-World War II world, Rapture is a libertarian state founded on individualistic ideas and objectivism.

“I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No,' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No,' says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.' 'No,' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.”

― Andrew Ryan (Bioshock, 2007)

BioShock’s creator, Ken Levine has stated that the world of Rapture was heavily influenced by the work of Ayn Rand (Nyman, 376, 2018). Bioshock challenges Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, imagining what that word might look like inhabited by realistic and flawed people (Nyman, 376, 2018).

Rapture at first seems successful, individuals are allowed to innovate and create without restriction. Ryan’s capitalist utopia begins to run into issues fairly quickly however as the culture of rapture begins to cause class tensions within the city. The over valuing of profit defines the nature of Rapture’s tendency towards greed and elitism. In Rapture, those who are dependent on society are viewed as parasitic drains on society. It is the good of the individual and not a common good or general will (Nyman, 378, 2018). This leaves those of lower means living in Rapture alienated and left behind.

In, Society Must Be Defended, Michel Foucault explains that biopower is defined by two different overlapping technologies of power (Anderson,616, 2018).

“... one of the greatest transformations political right underwent in the nineteenth century was precisely that, I wouldn't say exactly that sovereignty's old right—to take lite or let live—was replaced, but it came to be complemented by a new right which does not erase the old right but which does penetrate it, permeate it. This is the right, or rather precisely the opposite right. It is the power to "make" live and "let" die. The right of sovereignty was the right to take life or let live. And then this new right is established: the right to make live and let die” (Foucault, 241, 1976).

Capitalism in Rapture makes use of this new form of biopower, intertwining the viability of an individual's life with their ability to labor.

Even with the class tensions, things began to change between 1948 and 1952 with the discovery of ADAM by scientist Brigid Tenenbaum. A substance that, when refined into Plasmids allows the user to alter their genetic code without any limits. ADAM, in its natural form is found in a deep-sea slug. However, the slugs could not produce ADAM at a rate that could keep up with the growingly dependent market. The addictive nature of ADAM cemented its place as the blood of Rapture. Moreover, as the addiction began to worsen, the demand for ADAM spiraled out of control far past what Rapture could produce and soon withdrawal symptoms caused ADAM users to change into violent addicts called Splicers.

It is though the exploitation of children, specifically little girls that creates some kind of stability for Rapture. With skyrocketing demands for ADAM, Dr. Tenenbaum is pressed to find a solution for quicker production. Her tests found that only though the implantation of a slug into a viable host, ADAM production went up thirty percent. These children, deemed the Little Sisters, become the backbone of Rapture. Frank Fontaine, a rival to Ryan seeing an opportunity for profit opens the Littles Sisters’ Orphanage to house and supply children to become little sisters. Rapture has no social programs, no welfare, leaving orphaned children in an impossible situation. Moreover, many parents from low income backgrounds are unable to provide for their children. Fontaine offered lofty promises to the poorer citizens of Rapture that he would provide their children with safety, education, and a life better than they could offer themselves.

These little girls are now cogs in the capitalistic machine rather than children. They have been reduced to a resource, a manageable unit that society is dependent on (Andersen, 623, 2018). These children are stripped of their personhood, taken from their homes and families all in the name of profit. Opinions on the little sisters are mixed in Rapture before its ultimate downfall. With some, such as Fontaine viewing the children as a neutral rescue. Ryan upon finding out about the little sisters was repulsed but saw them as necessary collateral to keep Rapture running. Others such as Brigid Tenenbaum, the creator of the little sister however saw them as children being exploited. The little sisters of Rapture are the ugly truth in a capitalist utopia. Capitalism is dependent on the exploitation and labor of those who are invisible. The citizens of rapture are able to use ADAM to achieve limitless heights, but all that innovation and creativity is on the backs of little girls robbed of their personhood.

As the insatiable craving for ADAM grew, as Rapture fell victim to more political unrest and conflict with the working class. Dr. Yi Suchong saw a need for ADAM was greater than what was being produced by the Little Sisters themselves. He developed a way for ADAM to be extracted from the blood of dead Splicers In order to make consuming the blood of the dead splicers more appealing the children are conditioned to see the now dilapidated world of Rapture as an idyllic, colorful kingdom. This mental reconditioning was a candy colored counting on a grotesque truth. People were dying, children were being exploited all for the sake of a steady ADAM supply. These delusions coupled with their small size made the little sisters targets for crazed splicers desperate for an ADAM fix. Seeing the rise in brutal killings of the Little Sisters at the hands of the splicers, Dr. Yi Suchong developed the protector program, or Big Daddies to keep the little sisters safe.

Much like the Little Sisters, the Big Daddies are denied personhood. Created by genetically enhancing and grafting the skin and organs of prisoners into diving suit, the Big Daddies are another example of people being exploited for profit under a capitalist system. They did not consent to being mutilated and genetically altered. They have been both literally and figuratively striped of their voice in society. It is not surprising that the majority of Big Daddy test subjects included criminals, the criminally insane, and political prisoners, housed in a for-profit prison. These were individuals discarded by Rapture, people deemed undesirable. Yet, Rapture and its market are dependent on their labor and their suffering to waylay total collapse. This isn’t unlike our own history. These tests are biopolitical discipline, making those who have been marked as detrimental to the capitalist state useful while keeping them docile and under control (Foucault, 249, 1976)

The Little Sisters, the Big Daddies, even the Splicers, are all victims of a system devoid of social compassion or safety nets. The profitability of ADAM was placed before everything else and the structure of Rapture’s "gulch" style not only allowed it but encouraged it. Those with biopower are able to dictate life via the status quo.

“...we also have a second technology which is centered not upon the body but upon life: a technology which brings together the mass effects characteristic of a population, which tries to control the series of random events that can occur in a living mass, a technology which tries to predict the probability of those events (by modifying it, if necessary), or at least to compensate for their effects. This is a technology which aims to establish a sort of homeostasis, not by training individuals, but by achieving an overall equilibrium that protects the security of the whole from internal dangers.” (Foucault, 249, 1976)

However, one can only compensate for undesirable events for so long. After the supposed downfall of criminal and potential rival to Ryan, Frank Fontaine things in Rapture began to spiral. ADAM supplies ran low, civil unrest and descent began to surface. Ryan placed himself as de facto leader of Rapture, going against his own mantra of individualism. He began restricting freedoms and implementing harsh punishments for those who questioned him. On New Year’s Eve of 1958, a riot lead by Atlas, a mysterious figure who rallied the working class became the final nail in the coffin for Rapture.

The ADAM attention epidemic and the social political tensions boiling over from the working class into a civil war, ultimately lead to the downfall of Rapture. The limitless possibilities promised by Rapture and made reality by ADAM were never sustainable. Capitalism in Rapture, as well as in the real world has a body count. The term “Necrocapitalism”, refers to forms of organizational accumulation that involve disposition and death (Canavan, 3, 2014). This death can be actively caused by the capital gain or, as is the case with many in rapture a side effect of it. In Canavan’s if the engine stops, we die, he states, “What necrocapitalism marks, then, may be not so much a novel feature of capitalism but rather the ongoing intensification of these technologies of suffering past the point where they are possible to deny.” (Canavan, 6, 2014). The death and exploitation of those involved in the gathering and production of ADAM, the poor working class living in a state with no welfare, the disparity became impossible to ignore.

By the time Jack, the player character arrives, Rapture has gone completely dystopic. Upon seeing a little sister for the first time, Dr. Tenenbaum who has no devoted her life to protecting her “little ones”, begs Jack to help the girls rather than harvest them for their ADAM. They player has a choice, continue to exploit and kill these children for power and individual gain just as the citizens of rapture before them. Or, with the help of Tenenbaum help cure the Little Sisters, returning them to a state of near normalcy. Tenenbaum becomes an invaluable ally to Jack if he spares the Little Sisters, providing him with pyramids and assistants when possible. While it is more technically advantageous for the player to harvest the sister, it results in a bad ending. Sparing the Little Sisters means Jack returns to the surface with them, adopting the girls and creating a family and a life for them that under the biopolitics of Rapture they never could have had. It poses an interesting question about capitalism and exploitation. The idea of total freedom sounds utopic and ideal. However, these systems are always supported by the labor and exploitation of those marginalized by society. In Bioshock, all the difference in the world is made by siding with a woman who herself was exploited as a child and the Little Girls she cares for. In order for a “good ending” it is necessary to approach others with compassion, putting aside self-interest and power.

In conclusion, 2Ks Bioshock sets up an interesting and unique lens to critique the use of biopower and biopolitics by libertarian capitalism. This game reminds us to think outside of profit and power. Moreover, it exposes how profit often has a cost, a human cost that cannot and should not be ignored.

Foucault, Michel, and Ewald François. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collége De France, 1975-76. Penguin, 2008.

Work Cited

2K Games. Bioshock. Aug. 2007.

“‘If the Engine Ever Stops, We’d All Die’: Snowpiercer and Necrofuturism.” Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. Vol. 51, 2018.

Andersen, Gregers, and Esben Bjerggaard Nielsen. “Biopolitics in the Anthropocene: On the Invention of Future Biopolitics in Snowpiercer, Elysium, and Interstellar.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 51, no. 3, 2018, pp. 615–634., doi:10.1111/jpcu.12689.

#elf gets academic #bioshock #bioshock meta #biopolitics #biopower #michel foucalt #long post

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easilydistractedbyfanfic · 5 years

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The 100 S7 Speculation Game

I was tagged by @captainwilldameron @johnmurphysreddit & @ghostmontygreen (much thanks!), and I have been reading quite a few other posts with interest, so here’s my take!

Pick one or more characters you think will survive:

I think Octavia will survive, and Hope too, probably. Feel decent about Jordan’s odds. Am split 50/50 on Madi as of now. I think Clarke and Bellamy will both survive, although I don’t know if they will be together. Gonna go dark horse and say Gabriel (in this body) will survive. Indra better survive.

Pick one or more characters you think will die:

I think Diyoza and Russell don’t have great chances. I hope not Echo, but I could see her sacrificing... I’m always worried about my faves, Raven & Murphy. I could find peace with them dying if they go together - that’s their whole arc, their thing. If they make a choice to die together, I can probably live with it even though I’ll be sad.

Pick one deceased character you think might make a cameo:

I want more Becca & Cadogan/Second Dawn backstory, so they’re always on my list. Since it’s the last season, I would never say no to a kind of memory flashback that featured some of the delinquents, even if it’s from past seasons rather than a new scene.

Do you expect any romantic changes to happen this season?

Gosh, I hope so! LOL! Listen, I’ve been shipping Raven & Murphy since 1x10, that’s not going to stop. Like ever. I’m also hoping Octavia & Niylah get together, and if Diyoza comes back (yes please), let her have some fun with Russell or Gabriel, heck both - that’d be hot! Also I know plenty of shippers in this fandom want bellarke, and if that happens, I prefer it with Echo settled and happy rather than dead or betrayed.

Where will the final scene take place?

I’m one that wouldn’t mind them going back to Earth or trying to. They ruined it, they need to fix it. I’d be up for a scene looking down on Earth or being back on it, maybe even seeing some leftover familiar landscape remnant before Praimfaya.

What will the final line be?

I’m gonna be so tropey right now and admit that I wouldn’t be upset with a reference to “See you on the other side”, which started in 1x01

Who will say it?

I hope it’s one of the characters we know, and not some futuristic descendant in a time jump! Let it be someone left from the 102, that’d be my choice.

What’s one thing you hope happens?

OMG like I could only choose ONE.. but for the sake of brevity, I’ll stick with my Murven hopes. Of course I’d love for them to get together and that’d be best case scenario. Just think of the gifsets... sigh.... Anyway, if they do have to die, I want it to be together and that it’s obvious in some way that they chose it, kind of don’t mind it, or are at least sarcastically resigned about not dying alone. Will RIOT if one of them dies without the other, because their entire dynamic has been building to dying TOGETHER.

Okay, I can’t keep my promise but - I want to know why that kid Rose asked “Are you here to take us home?” WHAT DID THAT MEAN??? Where else does she think is home if she’s lived on Sanctum her whole life? What have they been told?! Don’t leave me hanging here!

Do you expect a happy ending?

No. The best I will look for will be bittersweet. Even if there’s a hopeful ending for humanity, people are going to die that will make me sad, I’m sure of it. The things that I happen to love about this show don’t really seem to be the things that the show runners/writers care about most, and that’s been obvious to me for a while. I just hope that at the end of it, I can walk away not being upset that I spent 7 seasons with these characters only to have them ruined. I want to rewatch the show, I want to recommend it to others, I want to have room to imagine alternate endings without being enraged... my fingers are crossed.

Although let me be honest - if Raven & Murphy kiss/get together, I would probably be willing to overlook Game-of-Thrones-level awfulness on every other part! Ha!

List your favourite character, season and episode up to this point?

Raven & Murphy are *always* neck in neck for me but if you tickle me, Raven slips ahead for multiple reasons. It’s not the same season but the last half of S4 into the first part of S5 is my favorite chunk. Episode-wise, it’s always going to be something with my two faves and even though there’s quite a few I love, 4x06 “We Will Rise” is a big turning point for Murphy and Raven individually and together, and I also got Luna out of it. Love that one. 4x11 “The Other Side” kills me with the Raven & Sinclair scenes. 5x04 “Pandora’s Box” is another fave... for reasons.

Consider yourself tagged if you wanna play - I’d love to read your opinions and feel free to tag me in it so I don’t miss them! Gonna hit up just a few since I’m tired - @anilengka, @jarleene, @keiraknighted @octannibal-blake, @bellofthesky @buttered-rice1 @arkadiaschancellor @johnmurphysass @mamabearsdontthink @sly2o @electricalice @asroarke @star-sky-earth @youleftme-clarke @idontwantto10 @amidnightjen

#the 100 #the 100 S7 speculation #the 100 S7 spec

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friking-awsom-kitten · 5 years

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What ghost up must come down IASA Chapter 1

Danny rotated his shoulder with a wince and fixed his blurry gaze on the ghost. He held up a finger and shot the ghost down. It wasn't a really powerful ghost of any special kind. It shouldn't be that hard to beat.

But the last three sleepless nights and mental strain had him and his body exhausted.

It's all because of those exams, Danny grumbled internally. He was certain the teachers had ganged up against him to cluster all the tests in one week. The term 'free time' had become a stranger to him the past week.

Danny sighed deeply as he held up a shield, too lazy to dodge a shot. Maybe he should take some time off and go punch the arcade games instead of ghosts and textbooks.

Something prickled his sixth sense and Danny looked over his shoulder to see two GIW jets come into sight.

Shit, he thought, why now. He hadn't seen those guys in weeks. They weren't a daily occurrence, thank Clockwork, but how bad could his luck be that they chose this particular day to annoy him.

Danny decided to end the fight quickly. For both his sake and the ghost's.

He flew at the ghost rapidly. "Hey dude. What about we let this die?" He threw a roundhouse kick and the ghost was thrown away. "Seriously!" He exclaimed as the ghost recovered quickly and shot multiple shots at Phantom. "You have ghost to calm down!"

The ghost groaned. "Do you ever stop?" To which Danny grinned. "Over my dead body."

"Watch out, Phantom!"

Danny got the warning too late and was hit on the back of his knee. He yelped, wondering why they couldn't hit the other leg. This one already had a massive bruise on it. He put up a shield and groaned when a few other strong shots hit it.

The GIW seemed to be updating their weapons.

Phantom scowled and swirled around, lighting his hands up with ice. "Common, guys, can't you see I'm busy?! Can we reschedule so I can kick your white clad ass another time?" He aimed and successfully encased one of the planes with ice.

The jet flew out of control when the driver's vision was obscured. Suddenly it stopped jolting around and landed harmlessly, though rather roughly.

After all, Phantom wasn't a bad guy. He landed the jet with telekinesis before returning his attention to the battle.

A small crowd had started to form a bit away. Danny barely spotted a camera crew setting up their equipment. His gaze was directed to the large RV revving up the driveway. Could this day get any worse?

He'd have to take them out one at a time.

The boy decided to concentrate on the most dangerous threat first. He tried a few shots, which the GIW jet expertly dodged.

Danny squeaked when a shot exploded a few feet from where he stood. He glared at the ghost, who shook his head with wide eyes and pointed at something. There stood Jack holding up a large weapon.

Jack held up a fist. "Stay where you are, spook!"

Danny rolled his eyes and winced when it sent a jolt of pain in his head. He'd been fighting a headache since yesterday. Sam said it was because of his lack of rest.

You know what? Baby steps.

The ghost boy flew up and punched the ghost hard.

"Why did you punch me!" The specter complained. "They did it."

"You were annoying me first," Danny countered. "You started this, and I don't know about you but I always finish what I started. Now get in the stupid thermos."

"You keep that thing away from me!" The ghost chose to escape into the sky and Danny followed swiftly. He appeared in front of him and waved as he sucked the yowling spirit into the thermos. "That's done. Let's get out of here."

Maddie squinted into the hole on top of her gun, aiming at the ghost boy. He was distracted. This was her chance. However, something paused her finger on the trigger.

Phantom looked so exhausted and so drained out. He was dripping a bit of ectoplasm and he almost dropped the thermos from his shaking hands. Maddie didn't know why this made her hesitate.

She lowered the gun slightly and her eyebrows furrowed.

The woman's eyes suddenly widened and out of instinct she shouted a warning.

Danny gasped when he heard something behind him. The sound of a machine charging up.

He slowly turned around to come eye to eye with Agent O, who smirked and pushed a button. This caused the giant canon under the jet to light up.

The crowd below watched in horror as their favorite hero was enveloped in light coming from the gun and rocketed down to the ground. They expected him to catch himself and float back up. To shake it off like he had done so many times before.

However Danny Phantom crashed. Hard.

A small crater formed under his unmoving body.

The Fentons spent no time to rush forward and catch the ghost boy off-guard. The camera crew also hurried up, as did some other people, to check on the boy.

They stared at the unconscious teen with bathed breath.

Jack frowned in confusion. What just happened? "Hey spook!-" He wasn't sure how to continue. Ask him if he was ok? That seemed like such a stupid suggestion.

Suddenly Phantom flashed.

The people watching almost thought he was fading? Was this how ghosts died??

What really happened was much worse.

When the flash disappeared....so did Danny Phantom.

In his place was another, just as famous (for different reasons), teenage boy.

An unconscious, bleeding and injured Danny Fenton met their mortified gazes.

"No," Maddie whispered, tears prickling her eyes. "Da..Danny?"

Jack's arms went slack and his weapon clattered on the ground.

Everyone's shock was interrupted by a loud announcement.

They looked up to see the jet aiming another type of gun at the boy on the ground. Jack and Maddie recognized it as a restraining gun. "Step away from the Specimen," Agent O said through a speaker.

"What?!" Maddie shouted in disbelief. "What are you planning on doing with MY son?!"

"This is a rare creature and he will be brought in by the GIW to be examined."

"Examined?!" A civilian exclaimed in disbelief. "He's just a kid!"

"We are from the government," was the agent's answer, one he used frequently. "Stand back as I immobilize him. He must be prepared for experiments. Lots and lots of painful experiments." He charged up the gun.

Maddie ran up and stood over her son, gun pointed to counterattack. "You will not lay one hand on him!!" She cried, tears streaming from her face from shock and rage at man above her.

"You have no say in this, Fenton." Agent O said irritably. He wished that woman would just move over. The specimen was within his grasp. So close. He would not let it go. "Move over or I will call for backup."

Jack placed his large body between the jet and his son. "Let them come," he growled. "You filthy scumbags will have to go over my corpse to get him."

Agent O sighed as if this was a minor inconvenience. He reached for his communicator.

"And mine!" A woman in her early twenties stepped closer to Danny.

"And mine!" An old man waved a fist as he joined the group.

"Who said anything about my corpse!!" And enraged goth screamed up at the insecure GIW jet. "I'll be dancing over yours if you come within a five mile radius of Danny!"

Agent O pursed his lips as his eyes took in the crowd yelling and shaking their fists at him. He turned on the communicator. "Requesting assistance. The Specimen seems to be of more value than anticipated." He winced when a shoe clanged against his window. "However the civilians seem...reluctant to let it go."

"Describe reluctant," a voice from the communicator asked.

"One threw a shoe at the ship."

The voice hummed.

"A muddy one," Agent O clarified, making the voice gasp.

Agent O took a peek at the crowd. "I am grateful there isn't a tomato stand near here."

"This is the twentieth century. There are no tomato stands in the middle of the road in a city like this one."

"Believe me. Tomato stands are always at the ready when there's a riot," the Agent commented drily.

"Is that the term you would use?"

Agent O winced when a shot from the Fentons scorched his ship. "Definitely."

"Are you able to restrain them?"

"Cameras are present."

There was a small silence. "Retreat," the voice said with as much regret as Agent O felt. But he obeyed and powered the gun down as he directed the jet to base.

The boss of his sector continued. "When you're back, come to my office and relay all the information you have on the specimen."

"Yes sir."

#danny phantom #danny fenton #im a superhero apparently #chapter one #ghosts #ghost zone #sam manson #tucker foley #jack fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #just all the fentons #amnesiac!Danny #thats the tag of this book

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grabthelantern · 5 years

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State of the Meta: Master of Metal

By Helmight

Now that I’m finally back from my brief vacation - and have had time to check the PBE - I have a few thoughts about the Mordekaiser rework. The Iron Revenant is finally getting the VGU he has waited so long for, and it looks absolutely amazing.

But Morde’s rework isn’t hitting the mark simply because the staff at Riot Games happened to get it right. No - the story of the Morde VGU stems back to Season 5′s rework, and a Summoner named Malicious Metal.

Y’see, back when Morde first got reworked in Season 5, there was a LOT of feedback generated around the changes. It’s impossible to list all of the voices that contributed to the discussion, but one particular Summoner was the most outspoken and the most informative - and that, my friends, was Malicious Metal. If the screenname wasn’t enough, suffice it to say that they were a Mordekaiser main, and they weren’t happy with how the rework went.

But rather than simply excoriate Riot and leave it at that, Malicious Metal went in-depth with their threads. They analyzed exactly why the Mordekaiser rework was a failure, and what would need to change to help fix Mordekaiser’s problems while simultaneously addressing his rework. Even after Morde got balanced into a decent spot, Malicious Metal kept making threads talking about the Iron Revenant, discussing everything from his current state of balance to what they wanted to see from him in his inevitable VGU.

And finally, years later, all of that work paid off. Malicious Metal’s threads were clearly invaluable to Riot’s VGU effort, given how good the Morde rework looks - he’s exactly what we all wanted, down to how he strides into battle, unperturbed by the mere mortals who stand between him and his goal. The fact that Malicious Metal was invited to Riot HQ to playtest the new Mordekaiser stands testament to how useful their threads were at informing Riot of what Mordekaiser is supposed to be.

The lesson here is simple - good feedback, and early feedback, is better than nothing. If you know your champion is up for a rework - as with the recently-announced Fiddlesticks and Volibear updates - make plenty of threads detailing what you want from the changes. Thematics, kit design, feel - any feedback is good feedback for Riot, provided you talk about it in advance, and are constructive. Waiting until the rework is on the PBE is far too late to have an effect.

And while MM might have been a die-hard Mordekaiser fan, anyone can do this for any champion they happen to like. Just remember to be polite, be thorough, and more importantly, be passionate. Riot wants their characters to be as close to what the fans want as possible, and Mordekaiser’s VGU is ample evidence of this.

~~~

Let me know your thoughts on the Mordekaiser VGU in the comments, and be sure to like and reblog this post if you enjoyed it!

#League of Legends #Grab the Lantern #Mordekaiser #State of the Meta

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blairlennon2019 · 4 years

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Season 1 Update 1.11 Patch Notes & Fixes

The latest Call of Duty Modern Warfare update 1.11 is rolling out now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. However, the changes made with the second patch are not as jaw-breaking as the 1.10 update still, a few exciting tweaks have been added. Modern Warfare new updates weigh between 18 GB to 20 GB to access the game.

Furthermore, Season 1 update 1.11 patches aim to improvise stability in particular areas, rather than adding new stuff. The developers also tweeted out that, ” Season update 1.11 has gone out to help improvise stability on Ground war on all platforms.” Users can now also access the Infected game mode in the private match as well. Conversely, these battles would be against in-game bots as this is the first time that the Infected game modes have been introduced to private matches.

Here’s What Season 1 Update 1.10 Added:

Vacant: Multiplayer player map of an abandoned office.

Crash: Multiplayer map with action-packed routes and rooftop.

Shipment: Gunfight and Multiplayer Classic map.

Port: Ground war map combat across massive cranes, buildings, shipping crates, and streets.

Cargo: Gunfight map with an open-roof storage vessel on docks of London.

Atrium: Gunfight map in the centerpiece of a Verdansk Palace.

Reinforce: Multiplayer mode where both teams are fighting to control three flags.

On-Site Procurement: Gunfight mode with a twist of gathering equipment as the battle progresses.

Infected: Multiplayer survival party game modes.

Bomb Squad: Defuse the planted explosives for special ops experience.

Grounded: Engage and eliminate Barkov’s former air bar for special ops experience.

Pitch Black: Engage and infiltrate Barkov’s former estate for special ops experience.

Just Reward: Eliminate the head of an opponent’s financial operation and attain intel.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Patch Notes

Added:

Introduced Night maps to hardcore, Cyber Attack, TDM, Search, and Destroy.

Reinforce

Crash 24/7

Added Port to Ground War

Gun Runner and Rammaza added to DOM 20 and TDM 20.

Removed:

Shoot House 24/7

Gun Game in Private match.

Gunfight Tournament 2v2.

Challenges and Missions:

Close and Personal.

Bloodthirsty Killer

Perks of the Job.

.357 camo challenge.

Several updates to other camo challenges.

Troubleshoot of completion notifications for Office challenge not showing up on the screen.

Description updated for Combat Knife Challenge.

Attain 50 kills while opponent’s UAV is active: Description updated that equip Ghost perk to accomplish the mission.

Destroy Ground Killstreaks: Description updated that all gamer-driven vehicles will be counted in the launcher camo challenges.

General Fixes:

Private Gunfight Match: Troubleshoot for “Win by Two” settings to complete the challenge once the requirements have been met entirely.

No Recent Players: Troubleshoot for a bug while checking the list of the recent players that depicts “No Recent Players.”

Infantry Assault Vehicle: Troubleshoot for a bug where players stuck inside the infantry assault vehicle and will not deal with damage now.

Final Killcam: Troubleshoot for an issue where final killcam stuck under the map when a gamer stuck by Semtex or Thermite on the lower body part.

Riot Shield: Fixed an issue by reducing explosive damage within a particular range along with Riot shield protections against grenades.

Killstreaks:

Enhanced effectiveness of FMJ on Killstreaks.

Troubleshoot for Cluster Strike dealing damage inconsistently when eliminating a VTOL jet.

Call of Duty Caster:

Enhanced camera transitions with an aerial camera and free camera.

On the Minimap, he introduced a skull icon where gamers die.

Introduced a killstreak view option while utilizing Portrait List.

Introduced arrows while utilizing the aerial camera view.

Mouse and Keyboard:

Enhanced the turn-rate when targeting with a tank.

Improved orbit turn-rate of the camera while driving a vehicle utilizing mouse and keyboard.

Troubleshoot for an issue where gamers will not be able to mantle using mouse and keyboard while strafing.

Fixed bug where the leader board will no longer represent complete Gamertags. With this, higher-level profile players will not get too many invites.

Default Mouse 4 or E for the keybind “Vehicle Camera Recenter” connection with Melee.

Fixed bugs to improve the re-centering camera.

Weapons:

In the white trucks, the opponent can now exit their vehicles.

Troubleshoot for a bug on operation Brimstone where gamers could become stuck while breaching the trains into the last stand.

Troubleshoot for an issue on Operation Harbinger in which informants can be dropped anywhere near opponent’s soldiers or any other wrong positions.

Introduced a checkpoint on Operation Brimstone after the third hack.

Adjustments for miscellaneous LMGs in the Menu damage stat bar.

0.357: Buckshot: Reduced sufficient hip fire damage, reduced damage range, and tuned spread modifications from barrel attachments.

Blair Lennon is a Internet Security expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2002. As a technical expert, she has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as norton.com/setup.

Source: https://sitesnorton.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-season-1-update-1-11-patch-notes-fixes/

#Call of Duty Modern Warfare #norton setup #norton.com/setup #www.norton.com/setup

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myupostsheadcanons · 5 years

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Dissecting Predictions I made in S4 (Dec/January 2018).... Or: How I guessed most of what was going to happen

Vrepit Sa: Waking up the Past.

The salute likely started off as a “cry for help” from what ever fragment left of Zarkon’s old self that is rattling around the back of his brain screaming at the brick wall at what had been going on. The Salute is a language nod by the writers of the show, it means “Wake Up” in Romanian. (Was he trying to tell Honerva to wake up?)

This turned out not the case. Even if the meaning of the salute in our language means one thing. The Salute in the Galra Empire meant “killing thrust” and a homage to a great battle that was won in the distant past.

Their abrupt personality change after waking from death and their total focus on gaining power and more quintessence brought forth the popular theory that the original personalities of Zarkon and Honerva are not in control. There are aspects of their original personalizes that are active, but with several of their negative traits amplified in intensity.

This is confirmed. As it is shown the dark creatures did in fact infect their bodies and change their wants/desires. We see this when Pre-Rift Ghost Zarkon is revived in the Spirit Realm, and grief over learning what had transpired between his death and being revived. His memories were frozen since his death resurrection as he was aware of what he had done up until that point.

What would cause them to and/or how would they wake up? That is up in the air.

The Zarkon that was possessed died and was basically reset with a backup from the spirit realm. Haggar went to Oriande....

“Why should they wake up?” is another question entirely. We’ve seen the “bigger bad” the creature that is part of or is the thing controlling their actions. With the introduction of their past, their previous personalities, and the creature from the rift: Zarkon and Haggar went from being straight-up the villains of the show to “antagonists only because we have no choice but to be.” This sticks them on a path that means they could be redeemed. Zarkon as the “fallen hero” and Haggar is the “atoner.”

While we have seen the rift creature return, it was in its smaller pieces. it was being used by Honerva to control the other Alteans rather than be the end-game villain.

And to go back on parallels in the story, because it was Honerva’s actions that caused Zarkon to risk their lives and the lives of billions to save her. It is likely going to mean that Haggar is going to be the one to “wake up” as Honerva first and save Zarkon from the path that he was set upon.

Kind of true. Zarkon died, so was stopped that way. Honerva did manage to “save him” in a sense that she had his uncorrupted spirit on back up in the mind-scape that did come back and help put an end to HER path of destruction.

Another thing is ‘What is going to happen after they wake up?” Which can be broken down onto several paths and some paths can overlap:

1) They die closing the rift, destroying the rift-creatures, and saving not just their universe but the multiverse. Correcting their mistakes of the past.

The most straightforward ending, tbh. With the fewest loose ends.*** (more below)

This.... is basically what happened. yay me.

2) Allura and Keith, they are going to need help.

Allura has nobody that can help her with her powers. Alfor already stated that Honerva was the better alchemist than he was. Allura has the raw power, but not as fine control; Honerva has control, but not as much power. Honerva is also the only adult female Altean left from her era that has any knowledge about Quintessence. Allura has to go to another universe to find any more Alteans.

And Keith is still having problems accepting command and if Shiro finally does “leave”… who else would there be to help Keith with the Black Lion? Keith, in the end, is meant to be the better Black pilot than Shiro, and Shiro is flatly overwhelmed sometimes by how many powers Black still can unlock. Just think about how far advanced Shiro would have gotten if Zarkon wasn’t sabotaging him the entire time. Then of Keith being helped rather than hindered by that same force.

This was basically addressed in seasons 5-7. As we are introduced to Oriande and Keith spends over two-years with his mother Krolia. I basically forgot Krolia was going to be a thing when i wrote this post.

In the end all the old paladins returned to help the team. And, Shiro’s experience in the spirit realm helped them greatly when it came to connecting with Voltron and later with Haggar’s Mind.

3) Lotor kills them.

This can happen in a few ways:

-Lotor becomes corrupted by the Rift Monster around the same time Zarkon and Haggar become un-corrupted. They all go down together.

ALMOST. But rather than stop the rift creatures, it was to restore the multiverse that Honerva destroyed just because she couldn’t get her way.

-Lotor has plans to destroy Voltron, the Rift Monster, and His Parents: taking out everybody in his way to sitting on the top of the shit pile. If Zarkon and Honerva wake up and switch sides to help Voltron in their fight against the Rift Monster: that is only causing more of a problem for him… He pretends to be playing along only to stab them in the back, literally.

Didn’t happen. But Lotor’s goal of destroying the Galra and reviving Altea was later taken up by Haggar. So his motivations were rather clear. And he did become corrupted and died in the rift.

-Lotor can’t handle the abrupt change. He only remembered them being good and loving, but because he had spent so much time in the darkness becoming a snake-in-the-grass to just survive, their personality change creates a different conflict of interests. They don’t agree with how he does things underhandedly, which is brings him back to square one (they didn’t agree with him when they were evil, now they don’t agree with him now that they are better).

This can be exacerbated by if Zarkon and Honerva have to help out Keith and Allura. It would be plain jealousy on his part. That his redeemed parents are acting more parent-like to total strangers and inadvertently pushing him aside in the process.

Most of this is garbage. I meant to say “he never remembered them being good and loving”... but this was a very long post and i don’t have a proof reader.

Allura turned out to be quite the Knight Templar. And while her “holier than thou” attitude burned bridges with Lotor: she was able to convince Honerva to sacrifice themselves to hit the cosmic reset button.

I was making wild guesses as to what could happen at this point ... which explains the next segment:

4) They stick around to fix the Galra Empire from the top down.

AKA: The Rainbows and Sunshine ending, or The Galra Christmas Carol. A complete subversion of what happened in GoLion and DOTU to the characters (they all died like the assholes they where). I mean, if you go by Voltron 3D Zarkon was pretending to be good for a while to save his skin. If he actually did become good, stay good, and survived that would be a slight nod to that plot line. I mean, they did borrow the Quintessence thing from the “haggarium” plot line that Voltron Force’s Lotor had.

It would’ve been nice... but wishful thinking.

“Classic Story Conventions” dictate that the First option must happen to end their story. And at the same time, it is kind of boring, over used, and everybody sees it coming from a mile away.

Yep.

And the problem with taking out Zarkon, Honerva, and Lotor out of the story all at the same time would leave the Galra leaderless. They have spent the past 10K years at war, everybody with any claim to a piece of the Empire is Militaristic and thus would create a great Civil War with the massive power vacuum. It is why Haggar stuck Lotor on the throne in the first place, he had the most legitimate claim as Zarkon never disowned him even if they didn’t like each other and Lotor got kicked out.

This is exactly what happened. Before we even knew what a Kral Zera was. This was what was going to happen.

***Now at the same time, Lotor’s kind of a dick. He’s going to have a lot of problems if he has to fix the empire by himself, or with too much non-Galra outside help. The closest he could get is if the Blade of Mamora step up and get inserted into key command positions. Between the Blade and if he can win back his General Squad, he could have a solid power base and a buffer between him and all the zealots that exist in the current Galra chain of command. His reputation would need to be carefully maintained. As in he can’t pull off something he did with Throk… he can’t just send every Commander, General, and Captain that he disagrees with out to the asshole of the universe, and he definitely can’t just kill them: That would be worse when you are trying to keep an Empire from falling apart. He needs to be seen as merciful and fair, and not just pretend to be. He will chafe and squirm if he has to play the goodly but stern ruler for the rest of his days.

Lotor was pretending to care. And look at what that got him. But if he did everything the way he should have, we wouldn’t have had conflict in the first place.

Do you know who wouldn’t chafe and squirm under the reins and actually want to act as the goodly but stern ruler? An un-corrupted Zarkon desperate to fix what he created within the Galra Empire. Zarkon also has a lot of clout he doesn’t have to work for to get. “Just because I say so,” works much easier with him than if Lotor was in charge. He’s already got the reputation of being a hard-ass, if he wanted to replace his entire command staff on a whim few people will argue about it, nor challenge him on the issue.

If only.

Also think about what kind of chaos would happen when all the quintessence-powered machinery suddenly stopped working? It would be a massive scaling back of military might in seconds and riots will erupt everywhere. Without some kind of centralized command center rogue factions will quickly overrun the Galra bases and what is going to stop these people from just murdering their captors? The Galra command will have to work in tandem with Voltron and Alliance in order to prevent/stop these insurgent forces from causing mass panic and spilling Galra blood in the streets.

This is what was going on. The Voltron Coalition’s plan before Honerva derailed it was to stop the Galra from fighting and conquering among themselves. But because Voltron and Lotor vanished for 3 years, they were not around to prevent it from happening.

Part of the current arc of the series is to get others (and the audience) to see the Galra as people and to show that there are Galra willing to fight against the corruption in their government. But, prejudices and the idea of “privilege” still persist and most Galra in command are still asshats that need a someone to grab them by the bootstraps and make them fall in line. Lotor isn’t going to be able to do that.

It also helps that the Galra Command basically killed themselves. Not withstanding that Haggar gathered them all together at a Kral Zera and murdered them.

The ultimate goal is to dissolve the Empire into a Republic or Democracy and scale back their territory so the local residents will be in control of their own systems. The process will have to involve finding the Galra a new home planet and a territory to call their own. They are currently spread out all over the universe, living on other people’s planets, in other people’s territories, or on base-ships in massive flotillas out in the middle of space. A lot of what spurred the Galra to rise up and fight the war was because they lost their home, they could have stopped after Altea was destroyed if they were just out after revenge, but they didn’t. Revenge didn’t fix the fact that they were now migratory and most of their society was now living on warships or on other planets as refugees. It even took the Blade of Mamora a while to go “Oh, hey, this is stupid and pointless.” before they broke off to do their own thing.

A Few THINGS:

The Empire was dissolved into a Republic/Democracy. After the command offered to give it to Keith first and he refused it.

With the cosmic reset button Daibazaal and Altea were restored. So the Galra have a home again.

Kolivan and Krolia, leaders of the Blade, are basically their President and VP now.

Food for thought.

< / meta >

GO ME. I could’ve practically wrote this show.

#Voltron #zarkon #haggar #lotor #vld season 8

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yumekuimono · 7 years

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[WinterFrost] Everyone But Yourself Pt. 1/5

Bucky came back to himself huddled in a grimy alleyway underneath the rain. His clothes were sodden and it stank of wet trash. Taking a few deep breaths, he wiped his hands off the best he could on his jeans and then dragged them down his face. He had no recollection of how he had ended up here, only that he’d been talking to Steve and something had set him off, he didn’t even know what, and he’d had to get away. His heart was pounding, and he took several more breaths, trying to focus on the sound of the rain. He glanced around the alley and found several dumpsters, various emergency exits and backdoors, some flattened cardboard disintegrating in a puddle. No other people. He was alone, no one had found him. He needed to get back to the Tower. He would be safe there.

A plaintive meow at his elbow startled him. Tucked under the meager shelter of a fire escape with him was a black cat, equally soaked but seeming not to notice, looking up inquisitively at him. Bucky found himself leaning towards it.

“Privyet kotyenok,” he whispered. His voice was rough. He couldn’t tell if he’d been crying since everything was wet with the rain. He hoped he hadn’t been screaming.

The cat sniffed his fingers cautiously when he held them out, nose bumping against the metal. Its tongue flickered out to lick them briefly. Bucky reached out to scratch it under the jaw and it let him, leaning into the pressure slightly. On impulse, he reached out and picked it up, cradling it against his chest. It didn’t resist, resting passively in his arms and getting wet fur all over his shirt. Bucky hugged it close, another living thing in the here and now, warm and real.

“Okay, kotyenok,” he told it. “We’re going to find the Tower. It’ll be safe there, and dry.”

He got to his feet and edged closer to the end of the alley. What few pedestrians there were on the sidewalk beyond hurried past, their heads bowed under black umbrellas. No attention was paid to the scruffy, soaked man standing off to the side holding a cat. Bucky made his way to the corner, found a street sign. He wasn’t too far away from the Tower, and sure enough, glancing up he could see its sleek profile rising from the buildings around it. He started walking, the black cat secure in his arms. A block from the Tower, Natasha found him.

“Oh thank goodness,” she said, touching her earpiece. “Steve, I’ve got him.”

Bucky cringed a little, feeling guilty.

She took him around to the back entrance that led directly to the Avengers’ private elevator. Only once inside did she seem to notice the cat.

“Where’d you find that?”

“Alley.”

“Are you sure it doesn’t already belong to somebody?”

Bucky glanced down at the animal in his arms. It wasn’t wearing a collar. “I don’t know. I’ll find out. I just want to dry it first.”

Natasha nodded. “You alright?”

“Fine.”

She left him at his floor, and Bucky carried the cat into his bathroom, setting it down and closing the door behind him so it wouldn’t escape. He peeled out of his wet clothes, hanging them over the curtain rod for the shower. He could probably just put them in his dryer, but it didn’t feel right when it wasn’t a whole load. His boots went against the heating vent, and he dried himself off with one of the Tower’s superfluously fluffy towels, grateful for it just this once. Grabbing a hand towel and seating himself on the floor, he dried off the cat too. Again, it let him without complaint, merely shaking itself a little when he was done. Bucky let the cat out of the bathroom and then pulled his stuff out of his wet pants pockets and went into his bedroom to change into dry clothes.

Steve called while he was getting dressed, and Bucky deflected his offer to come by. He didn’t much feel like company at the moment, avoiding his reflection in the mirror as he pulled on fresh jeans.

“No, I’m fine. I’ll be okay, really, Steve. Listen, if you’re still out, can you find a pet store for me? I brought back a cat. No… No, I just need some food or something. A brush maybe, ’s all. Thanks.”

He hung up and wandered into his living room to find the cat curled on top of the heating vent asleep. He dropped onto his couch, staring at nothing in particular. The next thing he knew JARVIS was telling him Steve had arrived with his pet supplies. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed.

Loki hadn’t meant to end up back in Stark Tower. He hadn’t meant to end up in New York City at all, really. He’d seen his chance on Svartalfheim, faking his death and teleporting himself to Midgard, where they would be unlikely to look for him. He’d taken the form of a housecat, small and unassuming, and a good enough disguise to throw off any magical searches for him. Only then did he realize that he’d arrived in Midgard at the same place he’d left it. He’d considered going somewhere else, to another city where he’d never been, but he couldn’t seem to be able to muster up the energy for it. He was so tired. He couldn’t be bothered to count how many days he spent scrounging in back alleys, sleeping under dumpsters and slinking away whenever another stray or even a particularly large rat challenged him for the scraps of food he’d found. Even that felt like too much work, and more than once he’d gone to sleep with hunger gnawing at him rather than look for anything to eat. He would still rather die than return to Asgard, but now that he was safely away, he found himself aimless and drifting. Eventually he was forced to admit that he’d be better off if he found some soft-hearted human to impress himself on.

It was dumb luck that the man darted into the same alley in which Loki was huddled underneath a dumpster to avoid the rain, his movements trained and controlled but apparently half-blind. The man’s shoulder hit the brick wall, and he slid down to sit on the filthy ground, knees pulled up and body shaking. Loki crept out to sit next to him. He knew that he should make himself look pitiable to increase his chances of being taken care of, but he’d played so many games lately, put on so many masks and been versions of himself that he didn’t really mean. He couldn’t bring himself to do more than watch with detached curiosity as the man hyperventilated, sobbing out half-intelligible phrases in Russian and English and a smattering of other languages, his hands scrabbling at the ground and the fabric of his jeans and up to cover his head. When it seemed he’d calmed somewhat, taking notice of his surroundings for the first time, Loki meowed and the man startled. He held out metal fingers, and Loki sniffed at them as a real cat should, tasting when he was unable to get a good scent. The man picked him up, and Loki let him. He got up and started walking without putting Loki down and that was good. He hoped he was being taken somewhere good.

When the man was met by the Black Widow and guided into Stark Tower, some distant part of Loki’s mind noted that there was no way this situation could end well. He was an enemy of the Avengers and they would surely turn him over to Asgard if they found out who he really was. He was so tired, though, deep and heavy in his bones, and he couldn’t seem to care. The man took him into an apartment and toweled him off, leaving his fur uncomfortably rumpled. He didn’t have the energy to groom himself. When he was let out of the bathroom, he explored only far enough to find a vent in the floor through which hot air blew, and he laid down on top of it to go to sleep. He hoped vaguely that the man would have food for him when he woke.

There was food, some sort of ground meat product from a can, but it was better than nothing and he ate it without complaint. When he was picked up again he didn’t resist. He was settled in the man’s lap and a brush was run gently through his fur. The repetitive motions were soothing and he drifted, half-aware of the conversation between the man and Captain America.

“…sure I’m fine…”

“…pet store said they’d be happy to put up a poster…”

The Captain’s name was Steve. He’d known that. The other man’s name was Bucky. It was a silly name, he thought.

“…is it fixed?”

There was a faraway flash of indignation as his hind leg was pulled up, but it didn’t linger long.

Bucky didn’t stop stroking him even after all the knots had been smoothed out of his fur and there was no reason to keep brushing it. His hands and the sound of his voice were nice.

“…says nowadays there’s microchips implanted, maybe…”

He was picked up again, carried into the elevator. When they stepped out into the riot of Tony Stark’s laboratory, Loki snapped alert, tensing.

“Hey Tony, have you got anything that’ll scan for a microchip?”

“Sure, put it over there.”

Loki was set down on a table, and he crouched as hands held him still, his heart beating wildly. If they were going to find him out it would be now. He hoped the transformation was enough to make his energy signature unrecognizable, hoped that Stark’s technology wouldn’t be good enough to pick up on it, that it wouldn’t be looking. His tail swished anxiously and he fought to keep his ears from flattening. He didn’t know what would happen, only that he couldn’t go back to Asgard.

“DUM-E, go away, you’re frightening the kitty-cat. I’ll give you something to play with later.”

If he could have, Loki would have laughed.

“I detect no chips or other identity or tracking devices, Sir. Scans indicate that while underfed, this is an otherwise healthy adult male housecat.”

Loki nearly sagged in relief. He was scooped up again.

“Alright, thanks, Tony.”

He was taken back to the apartment and placed in Bucky’s lap again, but this time he could not enjoy being pet. He couldn’t stay in the Tower if he wanted to remain hidden. Sooner or later they would find out who he was and his precious freedom would be gone again. Mustering the will to go back to the streets was daunting, though. He was reluctant to give up access to somewhere clean and dry, where he would be fed and could sit and have his fur stroked. One night surely couldn’t hurt. They had no suspicions as of now. He slept on top of the vent again, and when the first rays of sunlight woke him, he ate the rest of the food that had been left out. Then he made himself leave. He would have to find someone else to take him in.

Bucky found he liked petting the cat, liked the weight and warmth of it in his lap. It was soothing, and it helped keep him grounded in the present. It was something soft, something gentle for him to do. Sometimes he needed that reminder.

He ended up talking to Steve anyway, and reluctantly agreeing to make signs asking if anyone owned the cat. The cat—it was definitely male—had no ID and wasn’t neutered. The chances of it being anyone’s pet were pretty low, although once dry and fed it was an elegant creature, nothing at all like the scrappy tomcats Bucky remembered from the streets of his childhood. He found himself secretly hoping that no one responded to claim him. So it was a strange mix of feelings when the next morning he couldn’t find it at all. He hadn’t been looking forward to the interpersonal interaction required to find out if the cat belonged to someone, even though that outcome would have been easier. As much as Bucky would have liked to keep him, he was also dreading everything that would have entailed, from veterinary visits to buying supplies. He was looking underneath all of his furniture when he thought to ask JARVIS if the AI knew where the cat was.

“He has not been in the Tower for some time, Sergeant Barnes,” came the response.

“Oh.”

In the end, though, the cat didn’t really belong to him.

That evening Bucky was sitting on the couch, running his thumb over the bristles of the brush Steve had bought and trying not to lose any more time, when the cat jumped up into his lap.

Loki felt in some abstract sense that he should hate himself for being so weak as to return to the Tower despite all of its risks. But he felt tired and dull and desperate, and all he wanted was to sleep and to forget that he’d ever had a past. He couldn’t face going out and trying to scrape together enough food each day, trying to find somewhere decent to sleep where he would be undisturbed. He couldn’t even begin to think of trying to get somebody to notice him in the crush of people hurrying by, hoping they’d take him home. In the same way that he’d found himself staying in New York without really deciding to, he found himself returning to the apartment.

When he jumped up into Bucky’s lap, the man broke out into a smile that transformed his face. Instead of letting Loki sit, Bucky picked him up and pulled his feet up onto the couch, cuddling him close, his face tucked against Loki’s fur. It was nice for a while, until it began to feel claustrophobic, but he didn’t have the energy to escape. It took him a few minutes to remember his voice and then he meowed plaintively, pitifully.

Bucky let him down onto his lap, smoothing out his fur. “Sorry, kotyenok. I thought you were gone. You want food?”

He put Loki to the side on the couch so he could stand, and Loki jumped down and trailed after him into the kitchen. He hadn’t actually eaten since the morning and he hunkered gratefully in front of the bowl Bucky placed on the floor for him. He slept on the vent again that night.

Loki spent three full days living in Bucky’s apartment. He slept on the living room vent, in a patch of sunlight in front of the bay windows, or on Bucky’s lap with fingers running through his fur. He ate twice a day. He didn’t do much more than that. Bucky spent a lot of time out of the apartment, at therapy or in the gym or the workshop, or sometimes with the rest of the Avengers. On the fourth day, Loki was alone again when he was seized by the need to go outside. His prison cell in Asgard had been like this, not much to do but eat and sleep, clean and quiet. He needed to know that this was not an elaborate illusion, needed to know that he was free.

He left the apartment and made his way to the park on whose edge he’d stood when last leaving this realm. This time he made his way inward, treading over grass and dirt, smelling the city, smelling plants and living things. He could hear seagulls and children playing and the horrible Midgardian traffic. He clawed his way up a tree, as high as he could, and watched the clouds through the shifting leaves. Then even that wasn’t enough and he left his feline form to take to the sky, his broad wings lifted on thermals from exhaust and sun-warmed concrete. He rose past the tallest buildings, and his sharpened eyes could see the horizon stretching out for dozens of kilometers. He hovered there until the sun began to slip behind the earth and the city started to cool. Then he tumbled down, the wind in his feathers, before he caught himself on four legs on the floor of Bucky’s apartment.

Bucky grinned when he found the cat in his apartment again. It felt strange on his face. He scooped the cat up, resisting the urge to curl around it like a child’s favorite toy since it hadn’t liked that last time. Bucky supposed he could relate.

“Hi, kotyenok. Do you want to come to movie night with me?”

Steve beamed at him when Bucky came into the common room carrying the cat and sat himself in the deflated old armchair in the corner that had the best sightlines to the doors and windows. “I thought your cat was gone again, Buck.”

He shrugged. “It came back.”

“Pretty sure there’s a song about that,” Tony remarked from where he was pouring drinks behind the bar.

“You sure it’s a good idea to let it out without it being fixed or with a collar or anything?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know how he gets in and out. Anyway, he’s not really mine.”

“If you say so.”

“What’s the movie tonight, guys?” Bruce changed the subject.

“Well, tonight’s another ‘Educate the Elderly’ night,” Tony answered, coming around to the seating area. “So classics, no explosions.”

“Aw, man,” Clint whined, having come into the room just in time to hear the end of that statement.

“Don’t be a baby,” Natasha told him. “It’ll build character. And I got you your three different kinds of cracker jack so you can eat them all at once, you monster.”

“You’re the best, Nat.”

The conversation continued on as the team settled into place, and Bucky faded back into being a silent observer. The cat just curled up in his lap and went to sleep.

Loki continued to return. Eventually he decided to forget worrying about it. It was too much work to think about leaving for good every time he went out when all he wanted was to spend some time staring at the horizon thinking about nothing. He wasn’t here to be himself anyway. He was just a pet cat. He slept and ate and did what he wanted and nobody expected any different of him. Bucky sat with him and occasionally took him to team gatherings where other people would give him attention but mostly just let him sleep. Perversely, it was the most honest he’d felt in years.

He didn’t mind Bucky’s screaming nightmares and flashbacks, and especially didn’t mind the way he would sit and stroke his fur for hours afterwards. He didn’t remember the last time someone had shown him unconditional affection, nor the last time someone had sought him out for comfort. He hadn’t realized how much he needed it. Bucky started taking him to bed with him after his nightmares, and Loki didn’t mind that either. He simply settled at Bucky’s shoulder until the man was asleep again and then climbed onto the small of his back and slept there instead.

When Loki returned to the apartment one evening to find Bucky curled shaking in a corner, it felt natural to squeeze under his arm into the space between his chest and legs. He started purring loudly, ignoring the way Bucky was getting his fur damp. Eventually, the man shifted to actually holding him, rubbing his fingertips back and forth in Loki’s fur in tiny motions. He sniffled a little more in between taking calming breaths.

“Spasibo, kotyenok,” Bucky whispered.

He spent the rest of the evening carrying Loki around, and Loki felt a little bit like a security blanket, but that was fine. He would have spent the time sleeping on Bucky’s lap anyway. He did have to remind Bucky to feed him, but he ate quickly and climbed back into Bucky’s arms when he was done. Bucky needed him and didn’t pretend otherwise. He wanted Loki and Loki didn’t have to do anything to earn it other than simply be there. He was quickly coming to seriously consider staying like this.

Bucky cut his workout short and went back to his floor, relieved to find the cat still there. He’d carried it around the evening before and cuddled it in bed, but he’d left it behind that morning to do his usual routine. He’d been okay for a while, but he should have known that what with the major episode last night it wouldn’t last. By this time the cat was more or less trained to sit in his lap whenever he sat on the couch, and Bucky buried his fingers in the scruff of its neck. He focused on the black fur sliding over the metal of his fingers as he carefully drew them down the cat’s back. He focused on his breathing, deep and even, on the way the cat in his lap was completely relaxed, trusting him. JARVIS had to remind him that he had a therapy appointment.

He sighed, not wanting to go. He didn’t want to break the fragile skin he’d built around himself. He knew he had to, though. He pulled the cat up out of his lap. “Hey, kotyenok, do you want to come to therapy with me today?”

The cat blinked at him and then clambered up to balance precariously on his shoulder. Bucky winced as it put weight on the join between the prosthetic and his flesh.

“No, come on, you can’t be up there.”

He reached up to pull the cat down, but it just climbed up onto his opposite shoulder. Bucky sighed. When he turned to try to look at it, he nearly knocked the cat off of its new perch and it head-butted him in retaliation. It wasn’t hurting him standing on his right, so he figured it might as well stay. The cat wobbled as he stood but quickly found its balance and apparently settled in with interest for the ride.

“You know, no one’s going to believe me anymore when I say you’re not really my cat.”

It sat quietly through Bucky’s therapy appointment, letting him stroke it and play with its fur. His therapist, Dr. Nabavi, said it was a remarkably well-behaved cat and that it seemed to be doing Bucky some good. At the end of the appointment it climbed back up on his shoulder. It didn’t seem much inclined to get down, so Bucky carried the cat around with him for most of the rest of that day.

It quickly became a routine. When Bucky had a flashback the cat would be there, purring loudly and squirming into Bucky’s space or weaving in between his legs until he was present enough to hold it. It occupied his lap when he sat for any length of time, and rode on his right shoulder as much as was practical. It never again tried to get up on his left. Bucky took the cat to therapy when he needed to, and it sat politely in his lap despite the unfamiliar surroundings. It still left the Tower, but Bucky was somehow given the impression that it only did so when it knew he was busy and unable to give it attention. He came to expect to find it sleeping in the sun whenever he returned to his apartment. If it wasn’t, it would soon appear, smelling like grass or the wind, and rubbing its head against Bucky’s fingers in affectionate apology. He still hadn’t gotten it a collar or taken it to the vet or even given it a proper name beyond kotyenok, but everyone living in the Tower knew the cat was Bucky’s.

Loki settled easily into a routine in the Tower. He sat with Bucky through nightmares and flashbacks and what he learned were efforts to prevent dissociation. He let Bucky take him to therapy appointments and listened in enough to figure out what sort of trauma he’d been through and how he was supposed to be coping. He also put together that Bucky was hiding exactly how badly he was doing from the Avengers, and that just having Loki as witness and source of comfort for nearly all of his episodes was immensely helpful. It wasn’t entirely altruistic, but then no one expected cats to be. Dr. Nabavi called Bucky ‘James,’ and Loki thought that was a much better name.

Slowly, his lethargy lifted, and he found himself caring that his agency was limited in his current form. He refused to be stuck at floor-level all of the time, claiming James’ shoulder as a perch. He got a free ride, and was conveniently close at hand if James needed to hold him. He also refused to eat only from a can, and indulged himself in stealing food among other occasional minor mischief. He only needed to take refuge on James’ lap to escape punishment, and most of the time he got rueful laughter out of his victims. He continued to take trips outside when James was elsewhere, but he didn’t bother casting a spell to alert him when the man returned. He didn’t have anything better to do to keep his mind occupied than memorize James’ schedule and learn to read his moods so that he could estimate on his own when he would need to teleport back. He began to find real joy in his flights, but he never thought of flying away. James was his people now.

A/N: kotyenok means “kitten,” privyet is “hi,” and spasibo is “thank you” in Russian.

This is canon-compliant through both Thor 2 (save for the very end) and CA:TWS, but I’ve switched their order in the timeline. Because I can.

#fanfic #winterfrost #bucky x loki #loki laufeyson #bucky barnes #steve rogers #shapeshifter!loki #lokitty #ptsd #grief #everyone but yourself

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad

Yesterday, VICE Sports Canada published a piece extolling the virtues of MLB's Wild Card format. It's great, you should go read it. Today we offer a counterpoint.

My issue with the one-game wild card playoff in Major League Baseball is not that it’s bad or boring—it is demonstrably neither of those things. I don’t even care whether or not it’s a “fair” representation of which team is necessarily better—if we wanted to reward the team that prevailed over the long run we would simply crown the city with the best regular season record as champions, 19th century style. My problem with the one-game wild card playoff is that it is a flawed solution to a nonexistent problem. It takes a perfect system and mucks it all up.

If you watched last night’s game between the Cubs and Rockies, you probably think this is indefensible, and even though it’s a hill that I am willing to die on, I see how once you get into the weeds of what is “necessary” or “not” in sports, you run the risk of sounding like someone who takes the whole thing a little too seriously. For six years and also last night, the one-game wild card playoff games have been great! Super exciting. I watched the Giants beat the Mets at Citi Field in 2016 and it was one of the most electrifying sporting events I’ve ever seen live. It was also entirely contrived.

Just because something is good, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. (This is neither a moral argument nor a defense of stodgy baseball traditionalists who decry bat flips.) I just mean, like, literally, when it comes to entertainment, it’s all added value and yet we instill arbitrary parameters that curtail the net value of fun. If you like football, why not have 18-week seasons? Or hell, year round! A slip-n-slide between third base and home plate sure sounds like a hoot and yet the basepath remains dirt to this day! If the World Series was nine games long, I would tune in for those extra games and someday find myself marveling at how wacky and wonderful that comeback from a four-game deficit was.

So the question is not whether these games are enjoyable—baseball is awesome, as is deviation from the norm, even when contrived—but whether this is the optimal system for MLB’s playoff structure. Which, it’s not! In fact it is a shift away from the optimal structure, when we had one wild card team.

The single wild card team, introduced in 1994 but first implemented the following year after the strike-shortened ‘94 season, solved the problem introduced by the expansion from two divisions per league to three. In doing so, it also accounted for the possibility that a second place team might have a playoff-worthy record but be denied a spot in October on the virtue of playing in an especially strong division. That these teams are better than the first place teams in other divisions despite playing against such strong competition is a reason to reward them. This reward, as far as I’m concerned, does not need to come with a corresponding punishment. But more on that in a moment.

This is an elegant, airtight solution. It introduced a whole new round (hell yeah, ticket sales) and four more teams into the playoffs while preserving baseball’s superlatively exclusive postseason. And that’s where it should have ended. What baseball failed to realize is something the NCAA has similarly grappled with while selecting the field for its basketball tournament: the cutoff point is always going to be hotly contested, regardless of whether four teams or five from each league ultimately advance to the postseason. But that’s what makes getting to the postseason so special. It’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. There is a cut off and if you don’t make it this year, you have to wait a whole other year to try to get back. I’m not saying having two wild card teams is like giving everyone a participation trophy, but I’m also not not saying that.

That second wild card team was added in 2012 to solve amorphous, situational ills. It was believed that an extra pair of playoff berths would encourage competitive balance; more teams with their eye on October would result in better regular seasons. This is a reasonable assumption but six years into the experiment and more teams than ever are tanking. The Cubs and Astros are largely to blame for this, existing as ringing endorsements of leaning into the rebuild, but if not for parity’s sake then what?

There’s a line of thinking that if wild cards are treated the same as division winners, it dilutes the value of winning the division, but that just doesn’t make any sense. First, a wild card team would still always have to play the best division winner, and second why risk getting into a slugfest with as many as 12 other teams for one spot, when you can battle it out with four others (realistically more like two) in your own division? As a result of this needless fix we now find baseball in a situation where it simultaneously rewards and punishes objectively playoff-caliber teams for having the misfortune of playing in a strong division.

The single most compelling part of the wild card showdown is that it’s one game long—despite everything so deeply entrenched in baseball’s slow-and-steady legacy—but that’s only because that’s all they have time for. There’s a Division Series to get to. It’s a side effect of the constraints, rather than an endgame in and of itself.

Of course, the excitement of a win-or-go-home game is undeniable. That’s what’s so special about Game 7s or Game 163 tie-breakers. Trying to recreate that atmosphere absent the context feels a little like the proposals to start extra innings with a guy on second base. Sure, that’s an exciting scenario, but that doesn’t mean we should necessarily skip the build up. If you want the playoffs to feature all win-or-go-home games then we can just… do that (We can’t, there would be riots, not to mention a massive loss in revenue.) But the one-game, winner-take-all format is merely incidental to adding a second wild card team—it’s a problem born of an unnecessary situation.

MLB is selling a product and of course they want every postseason to be the best one ever but fans should be frustrated by that even if they are benefiting from the experience of these weird-by-design single game series. Last night, people kept talking (OK, tweeting) about various firsts or mosts that the 13 innings between the Cubs and the Rockies represented but it seems odd to marvel at a stat that is largely just reflective of a shift in the overall system and that will be necessarily diluted by the very perpetuation of that system.

All sports drama is contrived but with the one game wild card playoff the machinations of catering to an impatient, short-attention span audience feel especially heavy-handed. It’s arbitrary, not in result, but in design.

Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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flauntpage · 6 years

Text

Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad

Yesterday, VICE Sports Canada published a piece extolling the virtues of MLB's Wild Card format. It's great, you should go read it. Today we offer a counterpoint.

Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

0 notes