#Quintus Arce

[celadons-penultimate]

Open-hair superhero cowl appreciation post!

-Cyclops / Scott Summers

-Phoenix / Marvel Girl / Jean Grey

-Gambit / Remy LeBeau

-Havok / Alex Summers

-Angel / Archangel / Warren Worthington III

-Captain America / Falcon / Sam Wilson

-The Flash / Kid Flash / Wally West

-Kid Flash / Ace West / Wallace West

-Booster Gold / Michael Carter

-Animal Man / Buddy Baker

-Bloodwynd / Quintus Arce

-Bloodwynd / Raphael Arce

[silversoulwithlove]

Bloodwynd redesign

[grimcatician]

MY SWEET BOY

The way he is smiling through it kill me actually

😭

[brownhood69]

TFE RANT (also spoilers)

Okay, so for those of you who haven't heard of Transformers Earth Spark, it's basically a show where the cybertronian War is technically over and now cybertronians are trying to get used to the life on earth. But they are completely treated like they are animals. If you want to watch the show yourself then go right ahead it should be on Amazon Prime or on Paramount Plus because this will contain spoilers for the first season and the 2nd season so feel free to skip this.

ANYWAY!

So all of you know the Decepticons right?

👆

These guys?

Well, near the end of the last episode of season 1 of Earth Spark they all decided to work together with the Decepticons to take down mandroid, the main antagonist of season 1. There was also two episodes where one of the Decepticons started to have a relationship with the Malto family. Like for example

Nightshade and tarantulas:

And Starscream and hashtag:

See how these two GIFs are completely wholesome? Infact, the first season teaches that even though somebody could be on the opposite side of things that doesn't initially mean that they are a bad guy completely, just misunderstood.

It teaches that everyone can have a second chance if they really try but not everyone can really get that second chance.

And then season 2 comes around,

And BOY was I pissed off about it.

Now I haven't watched season 2 myself but I have watched one episode in it and that's it. remember that I said that the Decepticons finally decided to fight Mandroid thanks to Twitch and that some of the Terrans actually had some decent relationships with some of the Decepticons?

Well season two just completely THROWS ALL OF IT OUT OF THE FUCKING WINDOW!!!

When I watch season 2 I thought it was going to be all cool and hype and I thought everyone was just overreacting over season 2. NOPE! THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO BE UPSET! Because one episode in and I was immediately flashed banged with shock. Robby was explaining after 2 years of like saving cybertronians from Mandroid's destruction the quintus prime Stone (I don't remember what it's called) kind of shattered into like thousands of pieces across the globe. He then says that the Decepticons help them to retrieve them but then they decided to turn on them and get the shards for themselves. EVEN THOUGH THE FIRST SEASON SAID THAT NOT ALL DECEPTICONS ARE BAD!!

Like where did this even come from!? And why make them back into villains when we already saw the shot of them HELPING TWITCH AND HER FAM FROM KILLING ALL CYBERTRONIANS!? Like, what is the point of this!? If you're just going to make them bad guys anyway, why give the Terrans a chance to understand them and sympathize with the 'cons!? You had such a good new take on the Transformers yet you decided to throw away that said good take and just take it back to square one!

WHAT THE HELL HASBRO!?

*SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

And don't get me started with Bumblebee's relationship with Breakdown. You clearly set them up to be best buddies and then you just set that friendship arc on fire and just went on the 'Con vs 'Bot arc again. But the part that pisses me off the most is Starscream's abandon arc. Earthspark *clearly* wanted to make this Starscream as sympathetic as possible and this could have worked well. IF THEY DIDNT MAKE HIM THE MAIN VILLIAN IN SEASON 2!

And I guess prowl appearing in season 3 is kind of nice but it would have been better if he was like the villain instead of Starscream. If they were going to be good Decepticons then there has to be bad Autobots. But hey, Hasbro isnt keen on keeping promises are you Hasbro?

God, you had such a good idea and you just had to ruin it with season 2 and 3. I hope the rumors of Earthspark getting canceled are true thanks to this.

Also, GIVE US A TRUELY, ACTUAL, HEROIC, SYMPATHETIC STARSCREAM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! **AND DONT FUCK IT UP THIS TIME!!!**

Okay, I think I'm done for now, but I might add a part 2 if I decided to watch the rest of season 2 and season 3.

K bye!

[monocle-teacup]

1-How would you rewrite Earthspark?

2- Opinions on Earthspark! Prowl? (When he first appeared,he was right shitting on and acting antagonistic to Megatron inho. I'd like to hear your opinion about him and his attitude?)

I'd stretch out the S1 content to at least 2-3 seasons. I'll make a separate post talking about Prowl since the rewrite stuff is going to get kinda long. My ideas for the rewrite aren't set in stone so the following is more like highlights. In the rewrite:

Season 1 -Twitch and Thrash would be the only Terrans and stand in as audiences surrogates for world building purposes. -Dot and Alex's backgrounds would actually be used for flashbacks and to teach the Terrans about the War. Dot wouldn't want to tell the Terrans anything since they'd start asking questions about Megatron so they learn from Alex and the Autobots. -Dot and Alex would make more of a fuss about the cyber sleeves -The Maltos toxic positivity would still be a thing, but cracks would start showing since Dot is low key bitter about her dream job being a lie and Robby and Mo forcing the Terrans on her. -OP wouldn't be an idiot and instead his shady qualities would be expanded on. He knows that Megatron may be tempted by the Emberstone so he keeps the ex warlord in the dark as much as possible. -Slice of life episodes about characters that aren't the Maltos -The Age of Evolution arc would be the S1 finale

Season 2 -The season opens with a flashback to the Battle of the Bay since it's criminal the show never did one. -Episodes focusing on Nightshade, Hashtag, and JB's development -The Terrans want to learn and be apart of their new world so the Maltos isolation becomes a problem. -Mandroid and Alex's reunion happens much differently like in my Lotus AU. The Terrans and Maltos are aware of Meridian's existence since Alex talks about his friendship with him. Obviously no one knows that Meridian and Mandroid are the same person until Alex meets him. -The Bot Brawl would take up a chunk of the season for world building purposes and to introduce more Legacy characters

Season 3 -Hashtag's mind controlled rampage in Philadelphia is all over social media. Dot and Alex find out about the kids visit to the city via a family member reaching out. The Maltos still handle negative emotions terribly so Hashtag struggles with her trauma. -Episodes focusing on what Mandroid and Croft are doing at GHOST which some Con centric stuff thrown in -Prime Time still happens but Dot is the one to fight Mandroid. Alex and Dot become rightfully concerned about Quintus Prime's shady nature -Robby dying is treated with the seriousness it deserves which means that the kids and Terrans aren't wandering around the woods. -Feeling alone at the Maltos, Hashtag starts disappearing for lengths of time which is how she encounters Starscream. She only knows him as Megatron's scheming subordinate so she's surprised when he starts talking about how awful Megatron was. She feels comfortable enough to share her trauma about what happened in Philadelphia which Starscream is sympathetic to. Despite having sympathetic qualities, Starscream is still a schemer so he attempts to recruit Hashtag both to give her a place to feel like she belongs and to stick it to Megatron. Hashtag declines and goes back to the Maltos, but doesn't tell them about Starscream. She starts looking into Megatron's past herself. -The Maltos toxic positivity and how they handle negative emotions is stressed as something that isn't healthy instead of them being framed as always in the right. -FF Mandroid is still a thing because that's peak Nightmare Fuel Beauty and would be a waste to throw away

[isalisewrites]

Just wanted to say thank you so much for 12 days of TBG. Your dedication to writing is absolutely amazing (even without taking your health issues into consideration), and your writing style overall is such a great treat. In particular, I love how you've taken all of the dormmates and really brought them to life! Fics that have well developed side characters are a favorite of mine. Also, I absolutely love that you ended the year by giving us several chapters of Tom being devastated by erections 😂 wishing you all the best in 2025!

You are absolutely welcome. I know that all of my readers loved and enjoyed it, but it was so much for me. I needed to finish Arc Two this year and I can barely believe I did it. I hadn't dreamed of it at the end of 2023, so it's wild that we're here.

My health has survived my manic push through those 12 chapters, thankfully. I'm doing fabulous. I'm still writing every day and Arc Three is coming together really nicely. I'm also working on editing all posted chapters for inconsistencies and to link lore that I developed in 2023 and 2024. Here's a comparison between December 28th, 2023, and January 13th, 2025

I love how the side characters have come to life. It's really amazing to see them unfold and flourish. I didn't start out knowing much about them, tbh. Except for Alphard and Quintus, the other four were very unknown to me in my mind. It's really nice to see they're all coming out.

LISTEN, LISTEN, UNWANTED ERECTIONS ARE A PROBLEM AND MEAN. lmaooo.

And thank you so much, luv. Best wishes to you in 2025 as well!

Isa

[blueikeproductions]

I’m curious about that too.

Currently Hot Rod is camped out in Void Rivals.

The latest revelations depicts Darak and Solila’s species as being related to Transformers, and that Hot Rod and Springer are looking into an old Autobot legend connected to the organic cyborg’s home planet the Sacred Ring. The artificial planet and its people are connected to a mysterious Transformer called Zerta Trion, a robot so controversial among Quintessons, she’s considered “The Unspoken One”.

Zerta Trion is attempting to bring her own children together, not unlike Primus needing the Autobots and Decepticons to cooperate against Unicron, with Solila as the one to help do it in particular. However unity among the Sacred Ring is considered taboo, its two leaders creativity division to prevent it, fearing the destruction of their people.

What that entails exactly is unclear atm, but when Darak and Solila did briefly connect, this happened.

A giant robot slumbering in the Sacred Ring’s black hole briefly awoke. It’s confirmed not to be Unicron, although to be honest, I would think the lack of a planet mode and trademark horns would be the tip off it’s not… Presumably this is Goliant, the aliens’ word for the end should unity happen. My current guess is Goliant may be Zerta Trion herself, or at least something related to her also.

The current arc also refers to a Vector Theta, though as of typing we don’t know what that is yet. Similar to Zerta Trion’s connection to Alpha Trion, clearly Vector Theta is related to Vector Sigma, the life giving super computer from the original cartoon. Besides Alpha Trion giving up his life to merge with Sigma to create the Aerialbots, Optimus would have a connection to it as well in the cartoon and other media, with Japanese media seeing him merge with it as well to stop a catastrophic meltdown that would destroy Cybertron, once again trusting Rodimus Prime to be his successor.

So how does this connect to Hot Rod?

My current assumption is a splitting of the difference, similar to Superlink and Animated. Rodimus will appear alongside Optimus but there’s a catch to it.

You can’t really pass on the Matrix atm due to the connection is has with Sparkplug and Optimus. Sparkplug’s sacrifice and his own wisdom passed on to the Matrix to guide Optimus while he’s on Earth doesn’t really jive if Hot Rod gets it at this stage.

So instead I think he becomes Rodimus at some point in Void Rivals.

But it’s tricky.

The current Hasbro story is Alpha Trion is one of the legendary Primes, but Skybound has been a bit dodgy about using Quintus and co, instead sticking to a version based more on the 80’s cartoon history with the Quintessons as the creators.

The Trion moniker in Skybound has only been bestowed to two Transformers, Zerta and Alpha, with Trion referring to someone with great wisdom. It’s unclear if Alpha Trion and Zerta Trion are Primes here, though because The Fallen was referenced, it’s possible Alpha is, but because of Hasbro’s continued waffling on Primes, Zerta will either be the 13th Prime and/or Alpha Trion’s ambitious (non-Prime) twin sister.

My point being is Hot Rod gets inducted into the fold, meeting up with Springer and Darak, and shenanigans ensue that sees Hot Rod evolve into Rodimus Trion to help Darak and Solila lead a new age or some such.

This isn’t new territory for Hot Rod either.

ReGen One would see Hot Rod unify the Transformers with their demonoid ancestors.

And on his final days, after all the original Transformers died out, Rodimus Prime’s Matrix energy would see the Demons evolve into the Maximals and Predacons.

In Japanese media, Rodimus Prime would embark on a journey to find a new home planet for the Transformers, after Scorponok rendered Cybertron uninhabitable for the time being. A manga would further depict a now Micromaster Hot Rod founding Planet Micro alongside other early Micromasters.

In Superlink, Rodimus would found a breakaway faction of war weary Autobots and Decepticons that escaped the Great War during the Armada era to found colony worlds so these Transformers could live in peace. This also saw the evolution of the Omnicon species from these refugees.

So Skybound Hot Rod helping the Zertonians and Agorrians and become Rodimus Trion/Theta/Goliant doesn’t feel like a stretch to me. Coupled with DWJ liking both Hot Rod and Cobra-La, I think he’s in safe hands so far. At least I hope he doesn’t become a depressed drunk or be stuck in a coma.

[sonicasura]

Let's be honest with ourselves that Transformers Earthspark has its issues. It isn't uncommon for the series to have a few messy iterations throughout the years. However those at least have something going for them.

Bayverse is a junk pile yet there's a lot of material you can build off on and some pretty interesting concepts. RiD15 is an awful sequel to Prime but does decently well as a standalone although there are much needed changes to be had. Earthspark... Well, it's just there.

I can be lenient with the plot holes and poor pacing as Nickelodeon is notorious for interfering with any show that isn't SpongeBob to the point of cancellation. The issues truly land on the characters themselves. I'm gonna try to simplify it without devolving into a rant like the previous draft.

Edit: Gonna add some further edits as I wrote this in the middle of the night. Plus my simplified version skipped some key details.

Robby. Somehow they made a human character I actually dislike instead of be neutral about. In the official Transformers wiki, he's labeled as a big brother who cares for his siblings but his actions so far say otherwise. Robby literally ran away in the first episode because they moved then decided to try and hide the Terrans from his parents.

Yet he rarely gets enough consequences for his actions. I think we don't just need less Emberstone saves not just because of plot armor but force actual character growth on him. Like a life changing to one of his siblings as consequences for his actions and strained relationship until he gets his head outta his ass.

Edit: Yes, I know Robby is a teenager but that isn't a decent enough excuse for his behavior. Seen the trope about big brothers who do act closed off or at some points rude but they haven't done shit that put their family in serious danger. No, I didn't try to purposely forget the times he was injured badly.

There honestly needs to be less of those and his consequences be adjusted to it affects someone else badly. *

Next issue is lacking confrontation with Optimus choices alongside the obvious misplaced trust in the 13 Primes. Quintus Prime literally emotionally manipulated and scarred Mo through a fake bad ending reality because she doubted herself. No good person would do that, much less an actual ally. Even moreso on a child.

I seen this shit in Trollhunters but at least Jim, the main character, was a teenager. (It still was wrong though.) We also got remember that Liege Maximo and Megatronus/The Fallen are Primes. Yet somehow it is best to trust them.

Don't get me started with some of Optimus' choices when it comes to GHOST. He probably did it to protect his Autobots but what about the Decepticons who are locked away? Why are there so little of his companions with him especially since Bumblebee had fucking went into hiding before the show began.

There needs to be tension between Optimus with his Autobots. Someone is bound to snap and Bumblebee would have the biggest impact. The man clearly isn't okay as he's doing things that even Megatron admits ain't like him.

Mandroid needs to be written differently. He has the making of a sympathetic villain but oh boy. First off it is clear that his depiction is ableist aligned since the reason he doesn't like Cybertronians is because he lost his arm. Major thing to change right there.

Give him a narrative where his interest been genuine but slowly declines as the Autobot/Decepticon war increases the number of destroyed lives. Let him become a victim to this than just 'I lost my arm so death alongside experimentation to all Cybertronians'. Also don't make Mandroid ignore the obvious fact that the Transformers parts he puts into his body is slowly poisoning and instead come up with ways to fight the infection. Kinda like in Ironman 2 where Tony's arc reactor began to do the same thing.

Edit: Mandroid's negative views on Cybertronians are about the war and he's aware of the Energon poisoning. It is just that it is poorly portrayed to the point you rarely see it over his Arachnamechs/his ruined life.

Have the man present various evidence of destruction the war caused by both sides at the Malto children or anonymously spread such info around town to sew discontent with the townsfolk. 'These are the people who you consider heroes. Who you see as family and friends. Or should these tragedies be forgotten?'

Do a Baxter Stockman where you frequently see him try to fix the Energon poisoning than just simple dialogue. Even have testing on organic subjects to see how they react and find ways to counter it. Don't keep these key points as simple dialogue. *

I don't think Karen needs much changes either. 'But her taking over Cybertron doesn't make sense!' It actually does for one reason: hubris. Have you ever seen what happens when you give a control freak power? Their behavior becomes more erratic as they begin to think they deserve more. She is xenophobic in nature so imprisoning Decepticons and ordering around the Autobots is a drug to her.

Karen wants to treat them like slaves so the next step in her mind is Cybertron. Her death is well deserved and well played. Just like Icarus, the bitch flew too close to the sun.

I think the last major issue, other than out of character racist Shockwave, is the Terrans. No offense but they need a bit less screentime so the rest of the cast can shine. We barely see Alex and there's unclarified issues involving Bumblebee with Arcee if he's uncomfortable around her.

I also want their flaws to be at the forefront. Thrash is the only one who gotten such character development from his encounter with Swindle. We need more of that! Like Hashtag's overreliance on the Internet biting her back as she is forced to use real world skills.

Edit: I accidentally put in Terrans when I really meant Twitch. The screentime for everyone needs to be balanced mainly for the Malto family. Alex alongside the three younger Terrans rarely get involved or their characters further build upon. Twitch needs to get benched more.

Also the Dad Number 2 should really be addressed. Wheeljack was clearly uncomfortable when it been brought up. Plus it is way too fast to even consider such ideas unless you plan to have it addressed properly. Like 'Kid. We barely know each other yet somehow I became a father figure in an instant? It's best not to do that until you truly certain "Dad Number 2" doesn't mean harm or feels comfortable with it.' *

Earthspark clearly has potential but these problems need to be handled better. Addong the deleted scenes help add some clarification but canon needs to present it. We are supposed to get a second season so hopefully some of these are addressed.

[waitingongravity]

Alright, so. So there's PLENTY of unfinished business in the Abyssal Hunter storylines.

Let's look at what we know of already and what that could mean:

First off, the stuff that has already been established in previous events: There were three big leaders in the Church of the Deep: Quintus, Amaia, and some other dude who has only been referred to as Him. This Him is acquainted with Specter during her time as an experiment subject. We can pretty safely assume that much like Quintus and Amaia, He will be the one orchestrating the events of next uhhh... event. Besides that, we have Ulpianus and the Last Knight. Those two swam off into the sunset at the end of Stultifera Navis, and we can only assume that they are still hunting seaborn to this point. The curious thing with the Last Knight is that we got to see him plenty in IS3. We know he's a powerful piece of work, and that in true Don Quixote fashion he is unreasonable with. The real question for me is what the hell he's going to do in a world where Ishra-Mla hasn't taken over yet. Will he be more helpful? Proooobably not. Speaking of: ISHRA-MLA. I've seen a lot of speculation over whether Skalter is fully non-canon to the main timeline, or if she is merely an eventuality. Skadi's condition is not looking good, and we haven't really been presented with any possible solutions. Specter is fighting off infection and insanity through her seaborn blood, but Skadi's issue is seaborn in nature. That being said, I'd like to stay optimistic. Skadi's arc has been an upwards one, even if it's only slightly. I'd like to believe that the difference between IS3's timelines and the Canon is that Skadi had more time to grow stronger mentally and emotionally to resist the pull of Ishra-Mla. Or at least stall long enough to find a solution. Of course, this transformation is also affecting Specter and Gladiia. Much like oripathy, they may be doomed, but maybe there's hope for a comfortable life.

AEgir is a nation we know next to nothing about since they're all the way in the Water. An unknown settlement of AEgir was spotted right under the Stultifera, and we know Ulpianus preventing the Hunters' return to AEgir is one of the reasons why the fish apocalypse didn't happen. Whether that is just proximity to the ocean or something in AEgir itself, I think we'll be diving out of Iberia and into that AEgir colony. I doubt we'll go into AEgir proper, but that doesn't mean AEgir won't send its own people out. Okay, now for the operators relevant to all this: The obvious one is Andreana, our lonely cuttlefish. She is essentially a cheap walmart knock-off Abyssal Hunter, so many think that she'd be getting an Alter or some story focus as she goes full fledged (full scaled? Whatever.) While I see that as a possibility, a lot of Andreana's character is just NOT CARING about any of that. She outright rejects the opportunity from Kal'tsit to learn more, and wants to leave her mysterious past behind her. Honestly, I can respect it. My guess is that Andreana might get involved but stay out of it, unless someone (like her employer Incandescence who we've yet to see in-game) gives her a reason to care.

So who else do we have involved in this? Well, Deepcolor is pretty sus, and the only other AEgir operator besides Skalter. I'll be honest, I always thought she was up to no good. Do NOT trust her >:I. There's also the chance she's some loose AEgir agent or something that lost contact after the Great Silence. But I still don't trust. Here's the sleeper pick: Blue Poison! The curious thing about Anura, besides how cute they are, is that they were enslaved by AEgir and brought to Iberia in hopes that their toxins could be a new weapon against the seaborn. This puts Bloopy in an interesting position as both someone with a vested interest. Hell, she could truly be the secret weapon in the event.

With all this in mind, here's my idea for what the event could/should be. Ulpianus can be the new 6 star, whatever he's a loser I don't care about him. More importantly, BLOOPY ALTER as a limited unit. That's right, Andreana can keep her gun, we all know she loves that thing more than anything. Let Bloopy be the first 6 star Arts Defender or something! Or a new Fighter since we know she boxes. I dunno, just make her busted so I can feel vindicated in my love for her. and finally, 5 star... I dunno, some AEgir girl from the settlement under the Stultifera. Give me a manta ray girl! Flat friend. Or angler fish? Hmmmm. As far as the plot, I think it'll be a two-pronged threat. On one end, He and the rest of the Church of the Deep implement a final plan, either relying on the super advanced tech AEgir have, or simply being the culmination of the evolution which has been a running theme for these events. Under Tides saw the seaborn evolve to talk, Stultifera Navis saw them evolve to be incredibly powerful and adaptive. Who knows what we'll see next? As for the AEgir settlement's conflict, I think we could see a next step in the other relevant issue in Iberia: the persecution of the AEgir peoples and the role of the Inquisition in the fight against the sea. I doubt the settlement will be safe for long, so perhaps over the course of the story we will see them integrated into Iberia, and offer their own tech/abilities in exchange for a stronger frontline. Of course, all this is assuming that the settlement isn't just an long-abandoned ruin. I'd also like it if the Doctor actually got involved in this event. Kal'tsit is a given of course, but I think the Doctor's presence might be appropriate for the conclusion of this trilogy. Much how like Lone Trail concluded the story started by Mansfield and Dorothy's Vision, there might be big story turning points at the end of this. And given the forces involved? This wouldn't be surprising. Anyways this was a super disorganized ramble I typed mid-ttrpg session so I'm sure I missed a lot or messed stuff up. I'd love to hear any more speculations, this stuff is very fun to think about.

[katzske]

Watched “season 3” of TFE. If you’ve read my little reviews you already know that I’m a huge fan of the series, and that I think it’s on par with classics like tfp and Tfa.

Once again, the animations is great, especially as they reach the climax they integrate those really amazing cinematography.

Starscream fans will be delighted. I think they captured him nicely, and while he’s a traumatized and still finds joy in beating up Megs, he has a character arc and seems to have a chance for redemption and healing (which I had craved for tfp star but never got).

We also get some Swindle and even Soundwave goofiness. Soundwave can turn into a damn stealth jet but would rather sit on the back of another cons car mode. What would the TF franchise be without some silly goobers.

A thing that tfe shares with tfp is it doesn’t shy away from using horror elements to show the viewer how messed up a situation is. I already mentioned this in the second season.

Some negatives I found were that there is some noticeable “plot convenience” for example forgetting that shockwave is a raging xenophobe and suddenly is ok with waking up in their base and getting straight to work to kick GHOSTs butt.

Then there is some general goofiness that is to be expected in a kids show. Suddenly a tower of Sauron appears to show you “yup here is where they gonna fight the boss” and other things like the stone of quintus spawning between the malto kids’ hands and doing the TFA-allspark by scattering for some reason?? Idk if that was symbolic and if I’m just dumb.

Shockwave gets licked by fluffyears btw

[now-you-sound-like-a-jedi]

Star Wars x Classical Mythology

2: Bo-Katan Kryze as Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons

"Dressed in this fashion in her intricate armor, she seemed like a bolt of lightning sent earthwards by the might of resistless Zeus to show men that a mighty thunderstorm is coming, or ceaseless blasts of whistling wind.

[...] No spear she directed went astray: she would hit either the back of a fugitive or the chest of an attacker. Drenched all over in warm blood, her limbs active and vigorous, her fearless heart unwearied, strong as steel."

- Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica

Bo-Katan and Penthesilea were both the daughters of warriors (indeed, Penthesilea's father was Ares, god of war) and, as ruler of Mandalore and queen of the Amazons, respectively, both eventually became the leaders of a warrior society.

Furthermore, both of them took the throne following the tragic and untimely death of their elder sister. Interestingly, Penthesilea's degree of responsibility for her sister Hippolyta's death varies between sources: some say she had nothing to do with it, that Hippolyta was murdered by an outsider but, according to Smyrnaeus, Penthesilea accidentally killed her.

Either way, Penthesilea was devastated by her sister's death, and sources cannot agree whether her reckless actions on the battlefield during the seige of Troy were due to a desire to atone for her sins by saving the Trojans or simply because her grief and guilt were so great that she wished only to die honourably in battle and then join her sister in the afterlife.

This part came into my mind when I was watching the Siege of Mandalore arc of The Clone Wars, specifically the part where Bo-Katan tries to attack Maul, because it reminded me of Penthesilea fighting Achilles and the ambiguity of her motivation for it. Did she try to fight because she was arrogant enough to believe she would win, or had she simply lost so much that she no longer cared?

The Amazons were ultimately decimated by the Greeks just as the Mandalorians were by the Empire. The difference is that, unlike Penthesilea, Bo-Katan survived to rebuild.

Satine

[celadons-penultimate]

Given how rarely the character shows up, many fans are still confused about the Black '90s Justice League superhero Bloodwynd.

Martian Manhunter imitated Bloodwynd for a time, but he was not merely a Martian Manhunter persona. In fact, soon after the disguise reveal, Bloodwynd got a backstory as a distinct character (JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA vol 1 #76-77). Sadly, it only amounts to 4ish issues total of agency (including a decent story in SHOWCASE '94 #5).

DC Comics only recently even gave him a name (Quintus Arce), decades later, now that his nephew Raphael Arce has taken up his mantle as the new Bloodwynd.

[magic-glasses]

I’m gonna be real guys, the first half of season 2 was a little disappointing 😭 nightshade and some of the autobots barely got any screentime, Starscreams evil arc was just so sudden??, and maybe I’m making it up but the quality of the animation decreased a little.

We still got two more parts of the season left so I’m not gonna shit on it entirely. I did like aftermath and spitfire (I really hope they’re not dead forealsies), the little cosmos cameo, and the quintus prime lore.

Let’s just be thankful starscream didn’t kick the bucket because I thought they were gonna go the transformers cyberverse direction for a moment 😭

[sp1d3r-l3g5]

Do your fucking Latin textbooks have an overarching plot

WHY HELLOOOO MY DEAR OPPLER YES IN FACT THEY DO TAKE A SEAT

There are 4 books, all of which have characters and a storyline to be an example of what Roman life would be like and to give us comprehension passages that won't bore us out of our skulls. Book 1 has Caecilius and his family, who all live in Pompeii, along with a lot of other characters who are introduced along the way, such as Melissa and my goat Alexander. All of the characters have like distinct personalities and there is so. much. DRAMA.

Like Grumio has a romance arc with Melissa and Poppaea and at some point Clemens steals his girl. And an entire chapter's stories are dedicated to Quintus and Alexander going to school and having a debate over whether the Romans or Greeks are better. Omg and Melissa's introduction is literally "Caecilius purchases a slave girl. Everyone in the house is delighted by her! Except Metella. Metella is NOT delighted."

And the 1st book's ending is so genuinely devastating. Mount Vesuvius erupts and most of the main cast dies (other than Quintus and Clemens) & there's a story for like each death scene. And I kid you the fuck not, the chapter opens with "The ground tremors. The city is covered in ash. The daytime sky is blackened with clouds of smoke. Blood flows through the streets." then expected me to be normal about it????

And don't even get me fucking STARTED on Salvius from book 2. I mean, in the 1st chapter, someone literally makes an assassination attempt on him (FOR GOOD REASON). Their cunty cook Volubilis and their resident fool Bregans are literally everything to me. And Quintus comes into Britain with the new cast post-Vesuvius while Rufilla is having her brat girl summer!! (That's just the first 2 chapters of the book as well dude)

[spitefulhoney87]

We all suffer TFES AU

*This is a headcanon ive had in my head after i just rewatched parts of tfes and the season 2 ending- to be honest i made it so i can give starscream a redemtion arc. There shouldnt be any major warnings- maybe some light phychological torture in future stories*

!this is worlbuilding brainrot- no character diologue or interactions!

Synopsis: Mandroid had been foiled and the lives of all cybertronians saved at the end of the battle, yes. And the victors- the Maltos, Terrans, Autobots and Decepticons alike could breathe a sigh of relief at their victory and subsequent survival. But unknown to anyone, the strings of fate will be woven by the madman even after he is gone, for he made sure that even in death, he'll prove a point in the end.  

Chapter I - a madmans plan

A good scientist always plans ahead, at least, that's what Mandroid did. During his year away, he had plotted and made hundreds of simulations, utilizing the time he had gained now that his new form didn't have a need for sleep. All his tests had one goal in mind- wiping out all cybertronians on Earth, to save it when so many were blind to the cybernetic beasts that were mere flippant whims away from wringing humanity's neck. Throughout all his simulations and experiments one thing became sure- the emberstones and subsequently that ''Quintus Primes'' powers were an unpredictable factor. His plans could never be foolproof. So, he implemented a failsafe, something that would ensure that people would see those mechanical war machines for what they are, but he also hoped that his failsafe would cut out the need for humans all together- make the cybertronians tear each other limb from limb themselves. With his actions, he'd make sure that the embers of the Decepticon and Autobot conflict would be stoked into a blaze once more. 

The Maltos stood at the wrecked tower, rejoicing in their victory, hugs and kisses abound between members of the family, relieved everyone ultimately made it out alive. The Decepticons and Autobots taking a moment to compose themselves after almost returning to the well of sparks, thank primus none remained injured. After a moment, everyone composes themselves and gets to work gathering the emberstone shards. The Decepticons, despite their previous misgivings towards the humans and Autobots stayed to help. It seemed like the bridge between Decepticons and Autobots was being slowly but surely crossed. But, after a while the Decepticons that were in its vicinity began to act...odd. The emberstone shards seemed to ignite something in them, as if it was drawing out some kind of restlessness within the previously cooperative Decepticons. It didn't take long for them to conspire and steal the first emberstone shards. Then the second, then the third and then many more after that. Madroids plan had worked. 

Alex's theory about the stones ''rules'' being broken, while partially true, was incomplete. The ''rules'' weren't broken themselves, but moreso supplemented with additional ''rules'' courtesy of Mandroids implanted failsafe, which made it unstable to the point that it had initially shattered. Noone could be faulted for not realizing everything of course, after all, the one person who had schemed this whole plot was already dead and buried and no one would question the good ol' proverb of ''Decepticons will always be Decepticons'' 

The Decepticons were the ones affected by the modified emberstones power- it brought out in them that little whispering voice that weaved itself into their programming. The voice that made false promises of grandure, of returnign home, of getting revenge on those who stand before them. It exacerbating their worst traits and dulling their empathy all the while twisting their previous thoughts and actions to aid in their gradual reshaping back into simple villains. This trait was even more prominent in the newly formed chaos Terrans- lifeforms that were created by the power of the emberstone, but were, from birth, corrupted by its influence.

The effects of the corrupted stones power varied from Decepticon to Decepticon- some barely changed and some became almost... violent.

next/

This is my first writing project and my first language isnt english so i hope this wasnt too jarring to read, if anyone actually sat through this. Hope to continue!

[aotopmha]

I'm around level 82 Endwalker MSQ and I know that some really hate the Garlean section of the story, but I really like it.

Above all I really like the nuance in it all.

Firstly, I think they spell out the intentions of the expedition really well – the goal is to help the regular people who are suffering, but not excuse the system they live under.

Secondly, they spell out the really important detail that a bunch of the characters do not support the Ilsebard contingent.

As an example, not all of your job mentors might show up, as was my case with the RDM mentor because of his history with Garlemald, adding important nuance in terms of varying perspectives regards to helping Garlemald.

Reading some takes you'd think everyone agrees that Garlemald is all okay and cool now, but this is not the nuance/subtext I see in the text itself myself.

This was also not the sole objective of the expedition. The towers needed to go for the world to not end.

So it isn't just randomly barging in there to self-righteously "help" another nation. Everyone needed to be on the same page at least somewhat to survive.

Thirdly, I think they gave Gaius and his group enough nuance back in ARR (and Regula in HW) and we had enough decent and more complex good/less villainous Garlean characters across the game (Cid, Nero, Lucia, Maxima) for me to not feel like asking to see them as people was rushed or too late.

The key to me is that even the Garleans who were villains had defined, substantial perspectives and sometimes had non-villainous aspects to them.

The humanity itself was always there.

Fourthly, I see people say it is a thematic mess, but I don't see any of that, either.

The entire zone is full of nuanced perspectives on how fascism can hurt people and not once are we told to push everything the empire did under the rug – if nothing else the horrors of the system are only emphasised.

I agree with the system itself being the central enemy, which to me has been the entire thematic point of Garlemald from the start.

Licinia and her sister, the ceruleum workers from other provinces, Jullus and Quintus all represent very important aspects of how the empire's principles and its own self-made "faith" affected the people of Garlemald and to see it reduced to "oh some of them are just sad now", I think really misses the point considering the foundation of some of their stories.

Genuinely believing you're right, making nationalism almost a core of your identity and being distrusting of your enemy due to far-reaching propaganda are very real struggles under systems like this.

Finally, I've seen people say we are done with Garlemald now and it's so rushed because of this and I'm just not sure about that because to me that has never been the identity of this game.

It's really rare something is dropped and never brought up again, so I always disagree with almost any claims like this.

This is why I think Sky Pirates and Four Lords will also eventually have larger significance.

(And so will the 6.x series.)

I still feel the framing is very much "there is a long way to go here."

Doma and Ala Mhigo both had restoration arcs in various content and are still in progress, really, as the 6.0 role quests, literal "restoration" content and also patch content itself (4.1-4.3, 5.4-5.5 in particular for Ala Mhigo and Doma) attest.

I think we will still see more of the aftermath of Garlemald's collapse in the yet occupied provinces as I still think we will have to open up the huge cloud in the middle of the map in some form, I even think there still would be room for a Garlemald expansion, it just wouldn't be "as" urgent anymore and mixed with other stuff because the empire is an husk now.

As much as Bozja might seem like it was dropped suddenly because of the field notes, I do not think it is like this story to not address important aspects like this until we are unquestionably, completely done.

I know there are some reveals in the role quests and material in 6.x quests that people are also iffy about, but to me most of that seems pretty okay, too.

Garlemald has to reestablish proper trade connections, they have to fight the remainder of their old guard and they can never be complete victims. They also need an entirely new governmental system.

It's the old guard that holds them back, but also crumbles when threatened.

So I think where we are now narratively, we still need more time with Garlemald and I think we are not quite done with them yet and if there is something I personally would dislike from here on out, it *would* be getting no follow-up at all.

I think we need to actually visit Dalmasca, Corvos and Nagxia in some form and put a final end to all of those regimes.

Now, do I think more could've been done here?

Absolutely. As I said, we have whole occupied provinces we have still not seen and a whole massive cloud right in the middle of the map still uncovered.

(And I think revisiting Ala Mhigo's and Doma's struggles against specifically Garlemald in some form also needs to happen.)

So as much as I really liked the zone, it is still clear to me there might have been more done there (in fact it was confirmed because we know about a potential Garlemald expansion).

So I actually do share a criticism I see around, I just think what we got still turned out to be really good and really important nuance to go into regarding Garlemald.

Something about asking to somewhat empathise with an enemy faction just destroys any nuanced discussion on the internet, be it the heroes doing something bad (for good or bad reasons) or villains doing something good (despite having really awful views otherwise).

You see an enemy faction just even dip toes into nuance and the story automatically must be excusing them.

You see the heroes not be completely, unconditionally respectful and thoughtful and the story must be disrespectful itself.

It's such a boring way to discuss art (which is also made by people, who are flawed like anyone else) in my eyes.