#This is all a ramble and pure speculation on my part

[ocdeeznut]

In rewatching s8 i have some thoughts. Why it didn’t work as an ending, and what i think could have been changed.

WARNING THIS POST IS LONG AS FUCK, so strap in if you’re interested.

- The feel of the writing is distinctly off. Not bad, but it doesn’t feel like you’re watching Voltron anymore. It feels grittier and more like a high stakes adult animation than the other seasons. Which, again, isn’t necessarily bad, but the shift is too quick and it could have been executed better if they spent more time digging into the individual characters and their growth during s6/7.

- The issue of ‘there’s always a bigger enemy’ starts to make the plot feel stale. You get bored of a bigger robot, higher stakes, more to lose. They start killing people and planets for a cheap audience reaction when we weren’t all that invested in the first place. It felt like a split second decision by the writers to destroy Olkarion. Something like that needs to be pencilled in from the beginning. There were too many attacks on Olkarion, and as a consequence we got too used to seeing it’s people in peril. There should’ve been a distinct shift where we, as the audience, realised Voltron wasn’t going to be there to save them this time. Whether that’s a writing, animation or atmospheric issue i’m unsure. Maybe it’s just a me thing.

- The Atlas should never have been able to transform. That for me was the biggest investment turn off. Why do we need Voltron anymore if there’s a bigger, stronger robot on their side? If they were going to replace the castle, they should have made it clear and stuck with the intention. That’s not a support ship anymore, that’s something else entirely. I’d gladly watch a show JUST about the Atlas, with Shiro at the helm, but it’s not Voltron.

- Too many things happen at once, and it’s massively convoluted. 13 episodes is not enough time to: introduce a romance, have me actually care about that romance, kill off a main character, form a new version of voltron, redeem three main antagonists, AND cutely tie up all the glaring plot holes of the show. S8 needed to be two seasons at least. If things were spread out and more passion was pumped into the writing, it could’ve worked.

- Allura’s character was ruined. She became a nagging, reckless, martyred love interest. I love her dearly, i have from S1, but they did her SO dirty. Lance, too. They both deserved better.

- I think, personally, that Sendak should’ve been the final villain. Not Honerva. Her arc was rushed and her CORE motivation made little sense. They used the flimsy excuse of her corruption to redeem her love for Lotor, and his name was literally raked through hell and back for a very mediocre payoff. If that was the plan from the start, it needed to be hinted at more.

- There was too much, as i call it, flip-flopping. The alteans are alive, now they’re evil, now they’re not. We can’t get into Oriande, but now we can! Personally, i need explanations, and strict universal rules. If those rules are to be broken for whatever reason - it has to be a show stopping exception and a main event. Everything is excused and explained away when it doesn’t make any sense.

- Now, i actually really likes the subtle art style and animation adjustments in the season, visually it was spectacular so i have no critiques there. If only the plot could have done its outer shell some justice.

AND GET LANCE OFF THAT DAMN FARM.

[holydramon]

person who voted that I’d like the beginning more than the tri movies: I feel like you should know I am one of the biggest tri lovers there is. that was the least safe bet there. that said I admire your guts.

[swampsovereign]

‘oooh I thought Christians had boring sex’ yeah well my Christian friends are virgins but I’m pretty sure they’d spice it up with Silly Songs With Larry or some shit like that

[arctic-hands]

No for real would love to know where that little bit of Filipino comes from. My dad's on Ancestry but Ancestry likes to "smooth out" (eliminate) smaller ethnicity percentages, especially with recent updates. I don't "count" as .4% Filipino over there, and site updates took away my bits of Nigerian and West Asian (the last of which, while small, is still more than just trace amounts), all of which are still available on my 23AndMe. But dad doesn't want to do another DNA test and mom doesn't want to do a test at all so I'm over here staring at the things I wasn't expecting my European ass to have going "WHO WERE YOU I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW" with no direction to start looking

[remxedmoon]

What are your thoughts on ISAT's magic system?

AUTISM BLAST

okay long rambly post incoming. for the record like 90% of this is pure unfiltered headcanon. and almost all of this is about colors. sorry if this is hard to follow!!! i need to get this all out of my system.

oh also! a lot of this is based on a really good post by @/chronologically-challenged that shows off the differences between each character’s craft style! go check that out it’s really good

okay!! so!!! colors. this is just my own thing, but i personally like to color code the different types of craft!

don’t worry about those middle tones yet just put a pin in those

there’s still a little bit of color variety within craft types (for flavor), but generally, rock is blue, paper is yellow, and scissors is red. i’m not going to lie to you i only did this because the splatoon testfire had these colors. it’s also why my triplets designs are colored like that!

i think these colors also just fit the descriptions of these crafts? red feels like a more aggressive and active color, which matches how piercing craft is generally more focused on dealing damage, blue tends to be calmer, which matches protective craft being more supportive , that kinda thing. something something children’s hospital. yellow is a bit of a wildcard here lol, it just looks nice with the other two.

putting aside the colors for a mo! don’t worry those’ll come back soon. i’ve also been thinking a lot about how dual craft types work, though this is a little more speculative. i’m entirely basing this on how mira works. basically, one craft type seems to be more ‘dominant’ over the other. while mira is both paper and scissors, she’s still weak to rock, her basic attack is scissors, and her scissors skill (jolly round rondo) does much more damage than her paper skill (artsy silent burst). she behaves more like a scissors type, with an extra affinity for paper. which i think is interesting!!!

in terms of colors, i think this would manifest as mira’s craft being tinted orange, as a mix of both her craft type’s colors! this is partially what those uncategorized colors are for. while her scissors attacks are only slightly tinted, her paper attacks would be a lot closer to orange! and this would apply to other dual crafts as well. a rock/paper type would have more greenish attacks, a rock/scissors type would have more purply ones, etc etc.

i think this color mixing would also apply to single craft types trying to use a craft type that isn’t their own, though it’d prolly become less pronounced the more a person ‘gets used’ to using that craft type, so to speak. in a while rockodile would be pretty solidly purple, while rock bottom is more of an indigo color, and odile’s craft skills probably only slightly tinted as well.

ok!!! that was a lot about colors. i’m really fucking normal about colors. onto craft styles!! this is still kinda about colors tho sorry. also, again, go check out @/chronologically-challenged’s post if you haven’t already, it’ll prolly explain this better than i will

for a tl;dr on that post, each country has a different way of using craft. the forgotten island has lightless craft that tends to manifest as stars and zigzags, vaugarde has big, rounded bursts of grey craft (with smaller circles around it), and ka bue’s craft is more diamond shaped/triangular and tends to be on the lighter side.

this is also the part i’m a little less sure about. i haven’t drawn these out in my normal style!! so a lot of this is subject to change. sorry about that!

anyways. i wanted to preserve the island’s lightless craft while still making it colorful, so i decided to give it a sort of. halo effect? i guess? i wanted it to vaguely resemble the ring of light around a black hole or a solar eclipse, but that is a lot harder to do with the zigzag shape of the craft + my color limitations. and as i’ve recently learned, glow effects look really weird with my pixelly art. so this is all just flat colors 😓

shhh don’t mind the art here i’ve totally posted it before 🩶

vaugarde is pretty simple comparatively!! the craft is a sort of midshade ingame, so i just made the main color the normal craft colors. not much to say here!

and ka bue is in a similar boat! i did kinda draw it in my odile sprite redraw, but i didn’t really look at references so it’s kinda boring looking there. not much to say here either!!

and!! as we can see from the king’s special attack art, craft styles can kinda mix together. king’s style follows the general shape of vaugardian craft, but keeps the shade and stars from the forgotten island! i think it’d be fun to play with that a little more teehee. i imagine these are a lot more variable depending on how engrossed someone is in a culture, hence why odile’s craft doesn’t borrow from vaugarde’s style. unless she does? it’s not like we see other ka buans using craft in game. who knows.

also because i forgot, some extra bonus doodles of that craft color mixing i mentioned earlier! yipee!

and that’s it!!! there’s probably some other stuff that i am. currently forgetting. but this post is absurdly long enough!!! thank you so much for the ask i’m so sorry for autism blasting you about isat and color theory. am i still cool. here’s all of my craft doodles as compensation for reading this giant infodump. i’m so so sorry.

[riverthebooknerd]

i've been watching the vod of tubbo talking to dream and i'm about an hour in, and let me just say:

as someone who's been involved with a LOTTT of drama and had a LOT of toxic friends, there's one thing that sticks out to me about dream from a mile away. the word vomit.

straight out of the gate, it's pure rambling- he just keeps talking and talking until he's so far removed from the original point that tubbo doesn't even know how to address it. there have been several parts where tubbo has to stop him and try to get back on track or forgets what dream is even trying to say because of the sheer amount of words that he's spewing. and it's not even really anything of substance, either- he's just repeating the same bullshit over and over again.

also, when tubbo tries to talk, dream is just constantly interrupting and talking over him. during the conversation so far (again, i'm an hour in and the vod is three hours, so i haven't seen the full thing yet), tubbo is very respectful and letting dream say his piece. dream, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care about letting tubbo talk.

one of my biggest pet peeves is when people intentionally interrupt someone else. it's a sign of deep disrespect and shows that you don't actually care about what that person has to say. the lack of respect that dream has shown tubbo, when tubbo has been infinitely patient with him, is absolutely disgusting.

to be honest, even when i was really into the dream smp, i was never a huge dream fan. i mostly just watched ranboo and technoblade. but i never outright disliked him until i saw how horribly he treated this entire drama situation. spreading misinformation, blatantly lying, showing tubbo (who had every right to be angry, by the way, since dream involved him in his lies by using TUBBO'S invoices as "proof" of tommy's supposed child labor exploitation) such disrespect even when tubbo was willing to be patient and listen to dream blab and blab about his side of the story. his behavior is abhorrent, he's got a victim complex that any therapist worth their salt can smell a mile away, and he's so focused on framing himself as the good guy that he can't even tell what the discussion is anymore.

what i'm about to say next is more like speculation, but i feel like he was just trying to use tubbo to clear his own name online, and was never actually interested in having a rational discussion like an adult. he's acting like a child. actually, he's acting exactly like all of the toxic people i left behind in my junior year of high school. and he's, what, 25? shame on him.

anyways. i'm going to finish watching this vod, i just needed to rant because listening to dream yap is making me incredibly infuriated.

[chann3l-chas3r]

Do you have any thoughts on Finn, or a design for him?? :3

I ask purely bc he's my fave and I LOVE your artstyle and depictions of the toons.

Finn is quite the guy and there's a LOT to speculate on with his character purely bc we get so little about him. We know he's respectful and likes jokes. That's pretty much all we got for him.

He also has one of the most interesting twisteds (imo) bc I like to wonder how that rlly .. happened I suppose? Like, dude lost his legs. He's one of the most physically damaged twisteds and I love seeing people's HCs for how that happened.

Sorry for the rambling hehe I just really like this dude

Finn is adorable and I love his goofy puns! I hadn't drawn him yet so I scribbled up some stuff:

My headcanon for the Toons in general is that they're these sort of... robot-golem-things, for lack of a better term, so I try to think about how they'd be built.

Any Toon with a glass 'face'--Rodger, Glisten, Poppy, and Finn--has the face projected instead of it being a physical thing. (This does unfortunately mean that they don't get to enjoy eating food; they have to refuel directly with ichor and sugar-water.)

This is also because it just makes it easier to draw them with transparent parts; if Finn had, like, actual eyeballs, you'd be able to see the backs of them and the mechanical bits inside his head. Kids probably wouldn't like that lol

The primary reason Gardenview was so bent on him having a transparent head as an important design feature was so he could display actual fish in them while giving lessons. He'd scoop one up, stick it in his head, and go around letting the kids get a closer view.

Finn also has a gyroscope in him that helps him keep his head level. His neck is also particularly flexible for this reason, so he doesn't tip and spill water everywhere all the time or potentially spill a fish.

I like to think that when Gardenview was active he had his own section of the facility that was a mini-aquarium! One of the parts of this was a pet-pool with starfish and horseshoe crabs, things like that. He also had a saltwater aquarium in his room that he personally took care of!

Every critter in the facility had a name (given by himself), and Finn helped the aquarium-keepers care for them where they'd let him. He knew every individual critter well enough to know each of their personalities!

When Finn and the others woke up in an empty-shut-down Gardenview, all of the tanks were empty, and he's pretty heartbroken over this. That's why Barnaby is so important to him, the fish is a comfort-object for him since all his real fish are gone.

My take on Twisteds is that they're not the actual Toons, but instead faulty, broken clones made by the device that repairs them. They do, however, actually contain slivers of each Toon's anima--that is, their mind/soul. The clones mostly have negative memories and emotions.

Twisted-Finn's body is so messed up because of this. While Finn's head is made of transparent glass, his body is made of opaque plexiglass plates covering his endoskeleton. And, well, glass can be broken and broken aquarium glass is not exactly good for the fish inside.

So broken tanks and polluted water feature in his form as a broken body and ichorous 'water' that gets everywhere and hurts whatever it touches.

Last little bit: Since every Toon was made with a specific purpose and base personality, they all have certain things they're near-compelled to do. Finn's fish puns is actually one of these things; it's less of an active decision and more of a verbal tic.

[pianostarinwonderland]

skully who r u [fae skully + a ramble on his possible background]

we have less than a day before we get the ending for this event and IM. NOT READY. im not ready to hear about how skully is a person from the past (and we're thinking 200 years or so), nor am i ready to go back to twst to hear that he's dead in our time and he's really the founder of modern halloween that nrc celebrates

... that's assuming he's human tho

and fortunately or unfortunately, there's hints that twst has been dropping that leads us to think otherwise

firstly: ears WHERE

in his live2D, you dont get to see his ears At All. not even a hint of an ear lobe. we know twst to be very detailed and deliberate with their designs so why did they choose to hide his ears

in his illustration, u can see a hint of an earlobe, but it's still very much covered

and as we know, when we look at malleus and lilia ears, we Know that they have pointy ears marking their pure fae ancestry. soooo skully..????? 🤨 fae skully real?????

i partly market the fae skully agenda bc PLS. WHAT IF... MEET . . .. .. IN OUR TIME. .. .. .. .... . PLS... . ... . .. . ..... 🥺 WE SEE HIM ALIVE BUT A LIL OLDER AND WAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHH pls i cant handle this yall

secondly: there is still that part in Episode 1-4 of skully saying to us "moshi... ne, moshi" instead of "moshimoshi", and a lot of ppl shared that the belief of supernatural beings not being able to address someone more than once is at play here. which would at least indicate to us that skully is at least not ur regular human being. and that is one thing about skully that we Can be sure about

on what skully may be, myonmyon put out a thread about how skully may be at least inspired by the Fear Gorta, a fae whose folklore was created from the irish famine. it's characterized by a skeletal appearance who wears tatters and rags. it can be benevolent or malevolent, but if u treat it kindly, it will bestow good blessings upon you. Fear Gorta also refers to Hungry Grass, which, if one steps on a cursed patch of grass (which i assume the fae created), they will always be hungry, no matter how much they eat, and will eventually die from starvation

ok why the irish famine? myonmyon and a few other theorists on twitter have speculated on skully possibly being inspired by (or maybe even being the twst equivalent of) the irish immigrants who moved to america, and from there, the tradition of halloween spread, resulting in the modern halloween that we know of today. it makes sense too given skully's character of spreading halloween to his fellow peers, who don't know what halloween is

oh but i don't mean to end this post here, no not yet. because there's a really interesting thread that i also found by Y_wwwsomething about how skully even got his viewpoint of halloween. i do like this thread because they kinda argue against skully's halloween being based on samhain, which a lot of people initially thought that that was his halloween. but samhain, even if it does have its scary side, is still a festival with feasting and noise, still very unlike skully's halloween. if anything, they suggested that the briar valley halloween is much closer to samhain.

my personal conclusion was that skully's halloween is based on all hallow's eve, and he's from a catholic family who celebrates halloween in a solemn manner. however, this thread is suggesting that skully idolizes the victorian british gentlemen and consequently the victorian halloween

let's look into the victorian halloween first. we note that the victorian halloween that was celebrated was often done by the upper class. several online sources will tell you that their halloween parties is, funnily enough, purposed for matchmaking. many halloween games involved girls looking into their futures, whether it's eating apples at midnight while looking at the mirror or looking at whatever object is in their apple or cake to see if they'll marry or die alone. halloween for them is less focused on fright and more on lover's passion.

however! their halloween parties are also dramatic in that they turn off the lights and only leave candles on, and when they greet guests, it's either by putting their own hand on the guest's shoulder or a glove filled with sawdust.

so we could have a situation here where skully, just like jack with christmas, may have observed one (1) party and misunderstood the victorian halloween, taking from it only the scary aspect and mixing it with any prior beliefs he may have had. it doesn't yet explain why he spent halloween alone, and tbh the catholic halloween celebration alone is already a near exact match of skully's definition of halloween, so im not very on board with this. could be that they are also loose enough to be festive? but im not sure

but im very interested about skully's possible reverence for the british gentlemen, which inspired his love for jack skellington! in the victorian era, they were defined by their birth (so if they were born to aristocratic parents), but men could also make themselves into gentlemen by growing their wealth and influence. some men have occupations that are respected enough to call them gentlemen (i.e. army members, members of the parliament). eventually the definition of a gentleman is one who received education from certain elite universities, but this is towards the end of the victorian era, so when trying to become a gentleman back then, it was much harder. so of course men tried to climb to become gentlemen. charles dickens actually wished to be recognized as a gentleman and so he wrote about it in great expectations.

and this is what interests me: during the irish famine, it's noted that british rule still stood on ireland, and if anything, the british elite even worsened the irish famine as they controlled trade between them. irish goods were exported out to britain and other countries while the people had nearly nothing, which either killed them off or pushed them to migrate. interestingly, british penal laws had it that irish catholics especially were suppressed—among their laws included that their land and home were confiscated by the british parliamentary officials in ireland

so what am i trying to get at here? it's that there's probably a nonzero chance that skully looked up to the gentlemen of britain... or if we're thinking in twst terms, the gentlemen of the queendom of roses. and this may be influenced by whatever was going on in his hometown, whether it's something akin to the irish famine and colonization or something else. a desire to be free? a desire to be more than what he is right now? it would very much be similar to sally and jack: sally, in how she wanted to be free from dr. finkelstein's controlling parenting, and jack in how he wanted to not just be the pumpkin king and tried to take over christmas. it also sort of mirrors leona's and jamil's desires for themselves too, how they want to be free to do the things they want to do and make an impact around them

what's even yummier is considering that if skully is a fae, or at least a nonhuman creature that has a distinctive ear shape, then he might take shame in his fae nature as he may perceive that the ideal gentleman is a human, which is similar to how sebek takes shame in his human nature. hence, his ears would be covered by his hair in order to hide this and mingle among the gentlemen.

anyway. idk how i went from "skully is a fae" to "skully is probably an irish catholic suppressed by the british colonial rule and wants to social climb hence he looks up to the ideal british gentleman, sees jack skellington in that image, and aims to be like that so that he can make something out of himself" but we ball ig

anyway, im cooked for tomorrow, im not ready yall :(

[yaekiss]

okay. the will wood song as vampire childe. a reverse of that oh so beloved fic based off a lil ask of mine.

the way he loves your pure, unadulterated humanity as you breathe down his neck when you’re on top of him. you’d have him squeeze his scarred thighs together if they weren’t pinned open from your pounding into his pretty and greedy hole.

he begs for your attention either way. his bratty words as he tries to set you off, wanting to drain you of your blood to have you even a part of his body. he begs and begs, taking in every careful breath of yours between his own moans of pure bliss and his sucking of your blood. the way he looks on with dazed eyes as your own roll back when you tell him to detach… but no　♡︎���he’s not doing that.

vampire childe who is just your silly little parasite! despite his expensive tastes, he likes it when you drag him to some seedy club’s bathroom and take him in the stall where anyone can hear him. his tab’s forgotten as he makes up for pissing you off from letting others ogle at him, such lecherous monsters he’s much better than, at least, that’s what he says as he’s holding onto the dirty mirror, seeing the possessiveness in your gaze as you surely leave bruises on his hips and ass.

IHDSWJHD I can't believe I wrote so much for Bloodied Fangs... something about exploring the different dynamics of vamps I guess idk what came over me. I think your asks just do something to the writing part of my brain. Hmm. Rambling under the cut again, I think I'm losing it

On a side note, if anyone reading this would like a full fic based on a prompt/request you might have, do check out my ongoing event!!

ANYWAYS! sorry I have worldbuilding(?) brainworms I have to get out first b4 everything else as usual sigh. I think a vamp!Childe is bloodthirsty in ever sense of the word. If we're going by the more popular vampire tropes, he might enjoy the boost to his abilities (i.e. heightened senses, supernatural strength) although I am curious to see how it would affect the use of his delusion and his Foul Legacy state.

Would additional vampiric features manifest themselves in the Foul Legacy state? Sharpened fangs, torn and roughed up bat-like wings?? Would mixing the powers from the delusion and vampirism produce any backlash? If the delusion draws from the user's life force, what would happen to a vampire who's immortal? One can only speculate.

Perhaps it's the genuine concern combined with natural curiosity in your expression when you pose these questions to him that continues to draw him closer and closer to you. How sweet of you to worry over him, he swears he can almost feel his now non-functioning heart skip a beat when your warm hand cups his face. He drinks in your warmth, constantly clinging to your side like some leech.

Which is why he loves it when he managed to rile you up, the contrast you show him is addicting. He knows what he's doing when he licks at the salt rim of his glass, shooting you a coy look as he consciously ignores the way the other patrons of the club are eyeing him. He knows he's won when you're dragging him off to the bathroom, a possessive glint in your eyes. Meanwhile, Childe is beaming when some customers whistle at the spectacle.

You sure that those outside can definitely hear his moans over the trashy upbeat music the club is blasting on the speakers but the man before you doesn't seem to care at all. His fangs sinking into your skin, the familiar taste of your blood settling on his tongue. The flavour is intoxicating, heady, rich. Infinitely better than whatever that drink he ordered just now was, how could it even compare?

He feels you yanking at his hair, trying to drag him off you and saying something along the lines of, "C'mon detach already, haven't you had enough?" The answer could not be more clear to him, how could such a small taste of you ever be enough?

If he drains you of everything, doesn't that mean your entirety will be a part of him for all eternity?

Bonus!! can't really figure out how to link it to everything I wrote above but I think he'd really like it if he could drink your blood while you're fucking him. Something about lapping away at your neck/wherever he chose to bite, acutely aware of your heartrate speeding up when he clenches down on you, your blood laced with the sharp sweet taste of bliss and arousal. He could simply drown in it all.

Thanks for reading! Consider supporting me on kofi if you enjoyed this or check out my other works hehe ♡

If you'd like to request a full fic of your own, do consider checking out my event post!

[landoscaring]

my thoughts after the statements provided by mclaren, lando, and oscar about team orders (azerbaijan gp media day)

folks, it's happening.

everyone and their mother is losing their freaking head over the confirmation we've been waiting to hear for weeks: oscar has been asked by mclaren to help lando's wdc chances.

couple of things, in no particular order:

1. the key word is asked. for weeks oscar has been adamant in his interviews about the fact that the team hadn't asked him to help lando. take monza as an example where he was basically told the complete opposite. am i glad they asked? not really. did i know they would? of course.

2. where did the hesitancy come from, you may ask, why did they wait so long? there's a few possible reasons, all of them purely speculative. i for one believe they needed more data to move on with the plan. it wouldn't make much sense to go all the way with the lando wdc agenda if they were unsure about the ratio between lando's performance, the car's performance, annnnnd red bull's shitshow. monza confirmed all three (i would argue we've known for a little longer than that, but i am no strategist). max's performance going down consistently was most likely the final push they needed to make the call.

3. what does this mean for oscar? we'll know for sure on sunday, i think, but i'm pretty positive we'll see same old osc trying to score as many points as possible (think wcc). he will not slow down or make any significant changes to how he approaches the race. there's an a-z list of scenarios at play here, but things will most likely boil down to him helping lando out mid race (think pit order, covering, helping him find cleaner air) and in the last few laps, if he finds himself in a better position, he'll most likely slow down and let lando pass. i don't think this is necessarily a situation that will be recurrent for the rest of the season, realistically. oscar's only ever been in front of lando a handful of times.

4. what does lando say? what you'd expect from an experienced driver like him. he understands that oscar has a right to race him, and he doesn't want him to simply roll over and let him pass every race. plans seem to have been discussed, so in good theory things should work out. as lando said, people on the outside think it's as easy as just telling oscar to help him and bam, wdc achieved. a lot of things are going to play a part here, and even with oscar's help lando's wdc is still a stretch (think race strat mistakes they've made in the past, risky corners, and ferrari's rising performance with charles in 3rd place in the standings.)

5. why are team orders so controversial? they've been around forever. i think most of us just like to romanticize the situation because we like both drivers so much, and thus we want them to succeed equally. that's just not possible in this sport. both drivers know this, and we as fans have to make peace with it.

6. sigh. mclaren, mclaren, mclaren. i've been guilty of cursing them many, many times, but to offer some perspective: i think newer fans might not realize that there are three elements in F1 that guarantee a team's success. There's having a good driver lineup, a competitive car, and an effective team strategy. most teams have been trying to get all three for decades. some have the strat and the car, but not the drivers. some have the drivers and the strat, but not the car. mclaren very recently checked off the car box, and the lineup box, and they've been struggling with the last one. they've only been in this position for months, and they've had a lot of movement within the team. hopefully they figure it out for the upcoming season.

anyways, enough rambling. let's hope for the best, y'all 🧡

[lizzyscribbles]

You know what I realized yesterday through an event that I desire to never deal with again in my entire life?? Toga’s parents really did suck.

Today’s Rambling Thought: Toga, and why her parents deserve hell.

Picture this, it’s the evening, I’m getting ready to get on a discord call with my friend because we’ve been watching MHA together and we usually chat between episodes (it’s their first time watching the show, we’re in season three). I go to use the bathroom and what do I find?? Remnants!!! Of a bird!! I’m not talking about a few feathers here, I’m talking bones, a pile of internal organs, and a half mutilated wing covered in blood and God knows what else. Completely dismembered. Of course, there are two potential culprits in this crime scene, both cats. (I should mention these aren’t my cats, I was watching them for a friend), but I’m pretty sure the one circling my feel and meowing proudly is the one. So, I get to clean up bird guts at like 8PM, trying my hardest not to gag.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT I DID TO THE POTENTIAL CRIMINAL??

Nothing. I patted his head and gave him a scratch.

All this delightful context to put into perspective this realization that came to me later that night, how is it that I - someone who actually had to clean up a mutilated bird - nicer to a cat that ISN’T MY OWN than Toga’s parents were TO THEIR OWN DAUGHTER. Now I’m no saint, and I realize a cat and a human are completely different, but come on, for real guys?

I don’t think we’re told how old Toga is in the scene where she’s offering her parents the bird (if you know please share) but we know she’s a little kid. Like I’ve said before, I’m studying psychology in college and I worked with kids in foster care, so if I know anything at all it’s this: Children are little sponges, and they automatically want to do whatever it is you tell them not to do. It’s a natural part of development, and actually something we don’t really lose as we get older (the specific term is rebel psychological reactance I think). So it’s really no surprise that after years and years of being told nothing but no when it came to these urges she had, she eventually just snapped. The kids I worked with were the same, the longer they were in the shelter I worked at the less they felt inclined to listen when we told them no, and I don’t think I need to explain why that’s dangerous.

Now, I’m not saying that consuming another’s blood as a child or gnawing on yourself in your sleep is normal behavior or something a parent shouldn’t be concerned about, but there’s a reason therapy focuses on replacing negative coping skills with positive ones. Did they ever go beyond just calling her weird and creepy? Did they take her to a doctor get a blood test and find out if maybe there’s a reason she was doing this beyond just being freaky? Does she have an iron deficiency?? I’m just rambling now and that’s pure speculation, but no, they just kinda insulted her over and over, told her not to, and sent her to quirk counseling which IS NOT a substitute for actual therapy I’m sure. The bottom line here is that you can’t take something away and not add anything in. You can’t tell someone not to do something and not supplement it with something else.

It’s little wonder that once she snapped, she went straight to “I just want to do whatever I want”, because she spent her whole life being told not to be something. I think it’s easy to forget that Toga is still legally a child at the start of the series, one who has not been taught how to safely deal with her urges. No wonder she felt more at home with the league of villains, they gave her what she never got. No wonder Ochaco’s actions in the final chapter shocked her so much. She was never accepted for who she was until then. She was never treated like she was a normal person.

The people who were supposed to love her most in the world saw her as a disease to be rid of, and I that disgusts me more than a dead bird ever will.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I’m gonna go ramble about how, as an author and a fan, I love her end even if it makes me so sad, and Ochaco’s part in it.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

seeing you mention mangahood purists liking manga/broho bc it's "pure" got me thinking: whenever i see someone shit on 03, they'll say "oh it's too 'dark', scary, depressing" (sorry having to confront/acknowledge imperialism is "dark and scary" lmao) and yet, in the same breath, i've seen several turn around and praise mangahood/broho for its "mature themes" and its handling of "dark topics" and it's like... are the mature themes in the room with us?? this is pure speculation and i'm sure i'm not saying anything new here, but i think a large part of why mangahood purists hate 03 is bc it makes them uncomfortable. 03 does not give the viewer the luxury of turning away from the atrocities amestris commits to liore/ishval; they're forced to confront it head-on throughout the show (see: ed standing among a graveyard of liorians, ishvalans getting targeted no matter where they go, etc) and there's no "the military was controlled by supernatural monsters all along!!!" to conveniently pin the blame on either. it's the military itself that's the problem and needs to be taken down. and mangahood/broho purists just don't like that i think.

The critical eye towards the military absolutely makes them uncomfortable and you're right to say it. In fact, it's 03's focus on the suffering begotten by the military and the relative centering of its racialized victims that spoils the fun for a lot of people.

[Because I have a pathological need to ramble for eternity, here's a readmore:]

Without fail most fans who hold Brotherhood and/or the fma manga up to be this dark, mature, incisive piece of entertainment will then levy the weight and severity of the topics they think mangahood adeptly tackles (lol) as a strike against the first anime adaptation. It's practically rote at this point.

They love dark stuff! Except when it's actually dark. Which is therefore too dark. And fma 2003 commits the sin of being dark in ways that the manga isn't, so it's obviously edgy fanfiction for immature sickos who rage against happiness and friendship. It's immature to like adaptations that depicts difficult topics, and genocide as a topic should be an inspiring romp with quirky pals! 😒

It's very telling too. Because the way homunculi are created and societally and personally (mis)function in this version of the world is a mixture of horror storytelling and allegory (for the most hidden and reviled classes of people). It's dark! Certainly I've seen some people complain about the gore and blood associated with the homunculi, their appearances, and their actions. But that's not the truly petrifying darkness that 03 haters gripe the most about. Sometimes they even celebrate that specific element of the 2003 adaptation! No, it's as you said: the highlighted hideousness of the military and its imperialism is what makes them balk in revulsion.

How dare a show about real topics like genocide and fascism not bury the travesties under a thick layer of positive gusto! It should be dripping in sludgey shonen bravado, perhaps even carry the cutesy-kid friendly veneer akin to an 80s GI Joe cartoon instead. Make soldiers fun again! What's with all of this death and misery? Why are people being shown as rightfully disgusted by and against the State?! How come these characters can't overcome their idiosyncrasies, ideologies, and traumas to win the day?? Wait, our military guys aren't even being lauded for feeling sad and get everything they want as a reward??? Scar is willing to sacrifice himself for liberation and we're not fed some pap that helps us despise him and feel suitably smug and comfortable in our own privileged lives while he condemns our propensity for siding with soldiers? That's not right, Scar's a villain! Soldiers are honest good guys! Hold up, there's RAPE?! In my silly anime about imperialism?!!? UM?!

Time and again I find posts ranting about how the 03 writers "had no idea what to do with Scar, so they waste his entire character". Once I get over the initial offense that this causes me (lol), I'm left sitting here wondering what the fuck they're talking about. Did they even watch this show? How can anyone even so much as think this, when he's a pivotal character? And increasingly I have come to realize it's because he doesn't have that fuck-awful ~redemption arc~ (excuse me while I throw up) that everyone looooooooves in mangahood. It's because he would sooner obliterate every single Amestrian soldier across the land than renounce liberation and buddy up to the pigs. He dies accomplishing his greatest act of love for the survivors of genocide, but since these people turned their brains off as soon as "03 diverged from the manga" (which the show does from episode 01 but don't let that get in the way of their manga-purity) they think the Liore arc is random happenstance, with no rhyme or reason, and Scar is still a """""""villain""""""" AND he dies (character deaths always means you wasted a character btw), so therefore fma 2003 is pointless darkness that spits on Arakawa personally.

Never gonna forget the posts that gripe about Scar being "disrespected" in 03 because he... dies on the ground. Guess we're throwing context and analysis to the wind and just misrepresenting scenes for cheap points. Better to make Scar feel like human garbage because he killed genociders! Now THAT'S respectful!

People don't like it when a character dies for their principles and is lauded by the narrative for it too. All of this is too much for the enlightened mangahood purist! It paints such a dire image of what the colonized have to do to push back against their colonizers! Can't we all just get along (and both-sides the invasion of Ishbal)?

Guess there aren't enough tone-annihilating chibi gags interspersed between every other shot of Ishbalans being rounded up into prison vehicles by Mustang and Riza to assuage viewers that all is well, actually. Concentration camps are total bummers. Aren't the Ishbalans supposed to be living tranquil, idyllic lives in the slums ala mangahood?

That's the other piece of the hate against 03: that it doesn't mercilessly break the melancholic, tragic, violent, and ethical/philosophical tones and quandaries with incessant jokes. The majority of the time, you are meant to stew in it, ask yourself hard questions too, while peeling away some of the mysteries presented and seeing how multiple factors play into the actions and circumstances of these characters. None of these factors absolve anything, they are merely another string in the show's web. Levity is mostly sparing. It does exist! Mostly in the earlier eps, with the odd palette cleanser in the middle of the show. But it's hardly as over the top as your average Brotherhood episode, which is incessantly brimming with jokes, gags, chibi/cartoon style shifts, quips, and buddy-buddy comradery, over and over forever. Are we even beginning to feel the tendril of despair from something that happened in Broho? Nope no worries, here's a goofy-whatever suddenly thrown at the viewer 3 seconds into any emotional state that is less than hopeful and cheery.

are the mature themes in the room with us??

The mature themes are dressed like low rent clowns who forgot their props, but I'm meant to play along like it's a mastercraft of artistic expression.

We could contrast 03's depictions of imperialism vs mangahood's, but I want to highlight a different, prime example of how paperthin Brotherhood's darkness is:

Ed and Al's human transmutation.

This moment in 03 has long lasting effects beyond what it did to the Elric brothers' bodies, with this act having created a tortured and exploited entity who can only envision escaping the pain by obtaining retribution against them. Ed lives in denial for as long as he can, until he's run up against a wall and has to dig up Trisha's grave. He has to kill his creation using a stolen piece of his mother's remains. Is this doppleganger truly his mother? Can she ever forgive him? Does he have the right to take an unlife just because he forced her into being, and abandoned her? He will grapple with that for the rest of his life, while having nearly torn his relationship to Al apart in the process. And for his own sake, he will dehumanize homunculi in order to survive his ever growing pain.

Meanwhile, in mangahood? Well, here's this heavy moment where Ed tells Pinako that he's going to face what he did and dig up the body he transmuted buried under the burned house. Things are tense. The mood is almost suffocating, the sky dark, the sound of dirt being shovelled almost sickening. Ed throws up, Pinako trying to help him persevere. He hits something. There's hair. He holds up these spare strands, looking shaken. This isn't his mother's hair? Oh thank goodness, he never harmed mom. In fact, what he transmuted was an empty fucked-up vessel that Al's soul briefly wiggled around in. Phew! Alright awesome, we're all good and all doubts have been wiped away. Mommy wasn't desecrated after all! Here's Trisha's soul later on being so super proud of her boys. Yippee!

So dark mangahood! What the hell was 03's problem tho? /s

Anti-03 posts can sometimes be fun if you're a jackass like me, because I can't help but feel like a smug dirtbag when someone admits to how hard they cried after watching the show- someone even admitted that's why they hate 03! It hurt too much. So odd to see this framed as a negative. I love the hurt. I love when a story challenges you, doesn't make it go down easy, when it has the guts to admit to the hideousness of what was intended to be taken for granted in other contemporaneous media.

I understand that having such emotional overflow and the weight of sadness can be very difficult for some folks. Sometimes you might not even be in the mood for it. But you would think that a show producing feelings of sorrow was a grand affront according to these more aggrieved critics. It's practically an insult to them! Yet when Brotherhood (somehow) renders people to tears, it's a plus. Guess Broho over-plays its saccharine assurances, so that the tears feel cathartic rather than challenging.

Although I have my opinions on the wealth of coddling stories, toothless entertainment, and all the propaganda barely hidden within so much of it; I don't necessarily look down on some people wanting more gentle or alleviating stories. Positivity is not a grievous need, nor am I immune from generally needing some form of it too. However I do think it ridiculous how desperately people in relatively powerful nations want stories about genocide that make them both feel as though they are baring witness to the darkness of the world (a reassuring pantomime to turn your brain off to), while still so sanitized and airy that it soothes their anxieties and ensures them that they shouldn't have to look in the mirror even once. If people simply liked Brotherhood because they like shonen battles or teenagers being friends or some shit, then at least it would be a more honest appraisal of what Brotherhood adequately offers.

However the repeated assertions that it's a mature story or has any aplomb to its surface-level use of challenging themes is comical. Alongside hailing Brotherhood as an anti-racist, anti-military story, but I've harped on about that hypocrisy more than enough times. We know the drill.

I just can't take this specific criticism against 03 seriously. Not because 03 is beyond critique, or that people can't be indifferent to it or dislike it, but it's a hell of a farce to boo it for the same reasons they claim to adore mangahood. They want a "brave noble soldier who solves everything" story. A fluffy copaganda battle anime with none of the ugliness of militarism from the viewpoint of its victims. That's it.

[ghost-doodles]

okay so with the new link click pv I wanted to get some thoughts underway so uh not really spoilers but I am going to be referencing both seasons and any info from the Bridon arc I have found

first off I am only decently caught up with theories and info so if I get smth wrong lmk because these are very much 2 am rambling (barely even complete) but what I wanted to talk about was the link click powers and CXS death and the timeline.

First I personally believe that the eye changing colors are purely for audience speculation, in order to make it easier for us to identify who is whom and which powers are being used. i.e. Emma having yellow eyes when CXS is possessing her so we know its actually him and his powers. That being said the colored coordination is intentional and each power has a color, ie Lu Guang's past photo sight (idk what its official name is if it has one so I tried) is blue.

Second I don't think these powers are inherently specific to one person and can only stay with one person. as in I dont believe each individual needs to be born with any of these powers. I believe that there are a set of powers out there (so far a confirmed 4 but with the new arc I bet there will be 1 or 2 more introduced) that have the ability to be transferred and inherited, perhaps for some at birth but for the most part not. this comes from the fact that at the end of season 2 I dont think Li Tianxi was sharing her memories with Qiao Ling but what happened instead was her powers were transferring. this is also some what supported by the fact that Li Tianchen wanted to take Cheng Xiaoshi's powers some how. now where these powers came from and how each person got them idk, nor is it on the fore front of my mind right now, however, there are times we see a certain someone with yellow eyes.

Third I believe that in the original time line Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi somehow acquired their powers either together or in a relatively short time of one another, tried to do the whole space time detective shtick and it just went horribly wrong

hence we get the first time Cheng Xiaoshi dies, because given the hints and visuals link click has dropped it is likely he has died multiple times. and from this first time I think this is how Lu Guang was able to go into the past. I just find it highly unlikely that Lu Guang's powers are able to have him dive into the past aswell given that even some powers which were similar were never exactly the same. I also think by him diving into the past and having both power leads to his creation of the rules, as it always seems like Lu Guang knows more than he should (which makes sense if he has done this whole dance before).

but one of the biggest things about all of this is how Lu Guang having, at times, multiple powers just fucks with the timeline. time lines hurt my head so I don't wanna get to much into it but it is important. so far link click runs on a fairly fixed time line where their dives have, are, and will happen (forgive the crap grammar but I think you get what I mean) and while some things are negligent, outcomes happen anyway. the biggest example being during the child kidnap case where Cheng was always the distraction, while always being the kid. ironically how Cheng acts as a distraction and being there as a whole is smth that can be changed a bit without consequences so long as he is the distraction despite one thinking him being this is a big no no.

Now if dives as I said are kinda always going to happen as a fixed point what does that mean for Cheng Xiaoshi's death. Personally I think that there is no feasible way for Lu Guang to save Cheng Xiaoshi as Lu Guang is always going to dive to save him but in order for him to dive he must acquire Cheng Xiaoshi's powers which must happen from his death which happens from the dive and now we've entered the grandfather paradox. I think somehow to save CXS an outside force needs to fix LGs fuck ups and CXS in order to kinda reset the fixed points of time. But bc the universe is rarely so nice it's more likely to try and kill the both of those fools than help them. and by universe I am some what referencing vein bc that little red headed bitch seems to omniscient to not have some sort of power to over see idk time itself or smth.

I also had a thought where in the original time line Lu Guang might not have had powers but via the first dive back to save Cheng Xiaoshi he some how created the complementary power in order to have more control over the time line in order to try to insure his safety or smth idk.

[randomfoggytiger]

I trust your opinion on so many things. so if you would, humor me, and explain to me why I find no “comedic” episode of the X-Files past Clyde Bruckmans even remotely funny. Maybe War of the Coprophages. I find myself irritated when I watch Jose Chungs, Bad Blood. What is the difference you think?

I know I’ve said it on here and I’m not sure if you’ve read the post, but I consider the X-Files to belong to the horror genre, and not necessarily even science fiction. 

I can’t even begin to describe what this does for my opinions for seasons 7,8, 9 and beyond.

Hmmm... I think it would depend on which episodes you do like.

But let's speculate~. >:D

I think horror has very specific beats whereas sci-fi is more exploratory and loosely constructed. Ironically, the comedic episodes largely fit into the latter rather than the former category, in my opinion.

Do you feel the comedic episodes achieve nothing? Clyde teaches Scully something about herself, imprints that perspective onto her. Whereas Coprophages is more about infatuation and delusion than the truth, Jose Chung slips the truth through the cracks, and Bad Blood is a fun romp in Texas. There's no real "lesson" to be had from the latter adventures. (My sis describes Clyde as "a story that happens to have comedy" whereas the others are "pure comedy.")

Maybe it's Scully: are your favorite episodes more Scully-centric? Or episodes where she learns and grows alongside Mulder? Squeeze, for example; or Conduit, Darkness Falls, Memento Mori, etc.

Maybe the other comedies split she and Mulder apart ideologically but don't bridge the gap?

Perhaps the "nature of humanity" that is explored in the comedic episodes weigh less in your estimation of actual, on-the-ground discovery and investigation?

Or perhaps you like episodes where Mulder and Scully aren't passive observers, where they aren't just "part of this mess that is going on?" (another sis quote.)

But on the other hand, do you prefer horror to sci-fi? Or maybe the format of sci-fi scratches your itch less on reruns?

This fascinates me because I like the comedy episodes. Most of them. (FPS, however....) The only one that didn't make me laugh was Humbug-- except for Mulder's "pose" at the end. But then again, they're all kind of rambly-- which I don't mind-- and are more about exploring the human condition than horrifying realities.

What say you?

[probablyaparadox]

Oh gosh here we go again- the peak of my hyper fixation on something where I finally post a theory... SO CROCODILE- (Y'all love this guy on tumblr-)I'm going to be very truthful, this started out as a head cannon which I found evidence for in this theory to bring my idea's to completion, and really ties up my thought process together.

What are the key takeaways? 1. Crocodile specifically Avoids having a ring on ring finger, and this could be because he has a spouse 2. Him having lost them in some way, and Iva knowing about them. But why Iva? And why do I say them? Y'all already know- I'm saying Crocodile is gay, and has a husband, well somewhere out there. This makes logistic sense because well, why Iva becomes answered, but we also have a subtle hint in crocodiles overall design. Firstly

Crocodiles Outfit is surprisingly evocative of the victorian dress. Mostly thanks to the vest and cravat look. Additionally, the victorian era began in 1837, very close to when Cigars became popular. I bring this up partially because I think it's cool, and partially because it allows for some implications to come across, as one piece's world spans socially over several decades in terms of atmosphere and acceptance. Mostly that the victorian era was a time where being LGBTQ+ was still considered taboo. So while most of new kama is living in the times of 1970's to modern day, he is very much living in the victorian era. One revolves around being loud and proud, and the other very much around subtleties. What subtleties does he have? Well. For starters, It's a very- Choice colour with the purple vest there. (this is mostly a joke, although purple is associated with signalling, it's usually a different manner as far as I'm aware.) What I actually want to talk about is the earring. Most characters in one piece Wear double earrings if they are wearing them (I.E. Law, bart, Nami, Blackbeard etc.) For those of you unaware, Earring signalling goes like this. Right is gay, left is straight. I could only find three characters wearing a single earring. 1. Zoro on his left. 2. Benn Beckman on his right (Good for him!/hj) and 3. Crocodile on his right. So with this ramble aside. I think his interactions with Iva and the gays TM make much more sense. He's down with the gays because well. He is. They literally give him an entirely new outfit, just like they do for the rest of the LGBTQ+ people they bring in. And why IVA SPECIFICALLY would know that he is married, as per Iva knowing and being all gay peoples parent (/hj). In all seriousness I think it would make sense in this context that he asked Iva to help with his wedding or something of the like, since he (and presumably his husband) likely didn't have many connections to people who could do wedding stuff non-judgementally I.E. a cake or getting someone to do the vows. It's very wholesome, but it's something that I could see as Crocodile wanting to be kept secret, as he's been characterized as someone very secretive. This part is pure speculation/almost definitely false; but. I could definitely see some sort of "held hostage" situation. As Crocodile said "If you want to protect something, do it right." This could be someone who is protecting something, but also someone who lost it. I mean, they've forced the other warlords into similar corners, with the protection of Amazon Lily, or the release of Arlong (and likewise the safe return of all the escaped slaves from the Sun pirates who just wanted to go home.) It makes the "wanting to have a power that can match the WG or any nation in force" goal of his have a much more interesting reason than "KING OF THE PIRATES." We got enough folks aiming for that already, and I feel like if you beat an early antagonist that badly and just keep using him, you gotta have some kind of pay off that doesn't involve him getting beat again.

[carnelianwings]

Something I find really funny is how for all the rumors that Seed’s staff/writers don’t like Cagalli, Orb under her leadership just keeps ending up in a better (political) position with each addition - Seed Destiny ends with Logos wiped out, Blue Cosmos severely hampered, and the entire Seiran family wiped out, including Yuna. This leaves Cagalli with almost no political opposition in Orb (since the second Battle of Orb would’ve flushed out a majority of the Blue Cosmos/Logos sympathizers within the government/military), along with giving her a boost in popular and military support thanks to her actions and field leadership during the battle.

(Cutting for me just rambling on a bit about the in-universe politics after Seed Freedom)

You can tell with how much she’s managed to get done in the years between Seed Destiny and Seed Freedom - in that short year and a half to two years, she was able to propose and found COMPASS, secret away and upgrade the Impulse, Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Infinite Justice, arrange for ties between Orb and Terminal to investigate/exchange intel (Athrun and Meyrin), and put into place all the evacuation/defensive protocols in case of another attack on Orb (as seen vs Foundation and Requiem, even if she needed Kira to pull an “I lived, bitch” to Aura 😅).

And it doesn’t end there - thanks to Foundation, Cagalli arguably has an easier time internationally now, because the Eurasian Federation leadership also got hit and the Eurasian Federation, while not necessarily Blue Cosmos sympathizers like the Atlantic Federation, was very staunchly anti-PLANT, which I think would’ve caused some problems for Cagalli, especially post Seed Destiny with Lacus joining her for that broadcast.

I actually think Orb probably has fairly decent diplomatic relations with PLANT (I think Chairman Lament mostly cut off that call after everything went south in Eldore because of the whole nuke situation), especially since Lacus is COMPASS’s inaugural president, plus the time both Dearka and Waltfeld (I’m not sure if he’s in Orb or PLANT as of Seed Freedom since his silent cameo has him helping to stop the coup in PLANT in Seed Freedom) spent there. And we have a very prominent all-Coordinator team with the Yamato Team - truth be told I actually wonder how much the Earth Alliance invested into COMPASS because everything we see on screen is either contributed by Orb (Archangel, Murrue and crew, Kira, Mu, and the Murasame Kais), PLANT/ZAFT (Millenium, Konoe and crew, Heinlein, Shinn, Lunamaria, Agnes, Gelgoog, and Gyan), or arguably both (namely, Rising Freedom and Immortal Justice). Unless I missed a minor crew member along the way. Which is possible.

Also pure speculation on my part on this - but the fact Seed Freedom has Athrun going into intelligence with Terminal (which we first see as having a presence in the PLANTS) from the Orb side and Yzak and Dearka going into intelligence from the PLANT side can’t be a coincidence. I want to think the three of them decided on it together because being in intelligence/covert ops gives them the chance to work together without having to force anyone to change their current loyalties - I don’t think Athrun can be truly loyal to anyone except Cagalli after Seed Destiny, and Yzak was always loyal to PLANT, and if Dearka hadn’t been captured and made to realize how extreme PLANT had become under Patrick Zala he wouldn’t have switched sides to Orb/Three Ships Alliance during Seed either. Which also indirectly feeds into Orb and PLANT having better political relations than Orb and Earth Alliance.

Which brings me to my final point - I would be very surprised if Orb isn’t the primary target for the antagonists in a Seed Freedom sequel. At this point Orb’s capable of doing too much with the limited resources it has as a small nation with too much military strength at its command. And there is room for a sequel (setting-wise) because while Earth Alliance took another major hit with during the Foundation Conflict, the ideologies that led to the First and Second Earth Alliance-PLANT wars still exist - even if Blue Cosmos lost another leader, even if the believers of Coordinator Supremacy lost another leader (in Jagannath) those ideologies still fundamentally exist. All the Foundation Conflict did was serve to take down the military leadership of those ideologies - even if the public on both sides see those views negatively it doesn’t make them go away.