#and I didn’t have a lot of time today

[heyclickadee]

Tech’s Alive, Part Three: Ace

I’m gonna level with y’all right off the bat: This going to be one of the more cracked entries in this series. The next two I’m writing focus are both a lot more grounded more on structure and narrative, and they’re going to hold up a lot better. THIS is me awake at 3 am waving my hands at a conspiracy board and making a wild attempt hail mary throw that probably means nothing. Buuut I’m going to bring it up anyway.

So, it always struck me as kind of weird that Romar calls Tech “Ace” back in “Ruins of War.” And it’s not that the nickname doesn’t fit. “Ace” is a slightly old-fashioned nickname you give to someone who’s extremely skilled at what they do, and Tech is. Ace technician? Yeah. Ace pilot? Oh hell yes. Tech is so gosh darn competent in his role that, yes, he’s about as much as an ace as you can get, so the nickname absolutely works. So it’s not that it’s strange for someone to call him “ace,” it’s just that it’s strange coming from a complete stranger like Romar, because Romar has no real way to know that about Tech. It would be one thing if Romar started up with that nickname after Tech fixes his data storage…cube…thing, but he actually calls him “ace” for the first time directly before that.

I do think that there’s a perfectly good watsonian explanation for why Romar uses this nickname. Either he heard Echo, Tech, and Omega talking and picked up that Tech’s an ace pilot from their conversation, or maybe Echo or Omega called Tech that out of hand, and Romar thought it must be Tech’s name. To be honest, though, I’m really not as fussed about why Romar addresses Tech as “ace” as much as I’m interested in what it’s meant to signal to the audience.

My initial impression was that it’s meant to be part of a pattern of clone characters being called by their names only by other clone characters, and everyone else failing to do so, either because they don’t realize clones have names (which might be the case with Romar, at first anyway), because they’re trying to avoid getting attached (Cid), out of affection (Phee, who does actually introduce them by their names at one point), or as a sign of disrespect and dehumanization (every imperial character except Hemlock, whose use of the clone’s names is every kind of messed up keep their names out of your mouth sir). I think that’s still at least partially the case, because multiple things can be true at once, but in light of the finale, I think there’s another possible meaning to it.

So, in cards, and in poker specifically, the ace can be a pretty important card. I should probably acknowledge that not every association between “ace” and the ace in cards is positive—the ace of spaces, for example, is associated with death, and I don’t think that’s necessarily irrelevant even if Tech is alive—but I am going to lean hard into the more positively applicable ones here. In some versions of poker, each player is dealt a card that only they can see, and which is placed facedown in a hole. Because ace is high in poker, an ace in the hole can mean a winning hand. The term “ace in the hole” has colloquially come to mean a hidden asset or advantage that can be brought out when the right opportunity presents itself. Which could potentially be applicable here, because Ace

(Sorry, I just really love this screenshot. He’s so flabbergasted.)

Fell into a really freaking big hole:

Tech fell into the clouds—literally into mist, figuratively into uncertainty. They obscure his ultimate fate to us, and to the other characters. He’s not just gone, he’s hidden. A very literal “Ace in the hole.”

Now, whether or not that means Tech will be brought back by the writers, and whether that means he’ll be brought back at a moment that provides an advantage(1) to Hunter and the rest, is pretty up in the air. This may not be anything at all. But it was a thought I had, so I figured I may as well share it.

(1): Okay, but, like, “the eagles are coming,” but instead of eagles it’s Tech as air support. I can see this happening

[apostaterevolutionary]

Okay can I be a bitter Anders fan for like. Just 2 minutes here lmao

Cause bioware released some game stats for veilguard and apparently 72% of players redeemed Solas which is like. Okay yeah the game kinda pushes you towards that. But when I think of all the shit I used to have to put up with just for enjoying Anders like at all and…

(This is not me being anti-Solas, I do not care if you love or hate him, but I am gonna say what he’s done is like. Objectively worse than literally every other companion so lmao. And that’s fine! You can still enjoy him! I’m not saying you can’t and it’s important to me that people understand that! I’m just saying he did in fact do objectively morally worse things in game than Anders did and I don’t think that’s really debatable. And I can’t really make my point here without saying that but I do want to make it clear this is not some moral condemnation of Solas enjoyers cause it’s not)

Getting anon hate on the regular, being told “oh you’re allowed to like Anders as long as you regularly talk about how much he sucks”, people gleefully describing how much fun they have killing him ON your posts about the fact that you like him, the devs making jokes about shitty fates for him when fans asked innocent questions about him, the absolute audacity of his writer to say half the shit she did in interviews (about bisexuality and mental illness, most critically), and then being beaten over the head again in inquisition about how Anders is the worst character to ever exist and there’s no redemption for terrorists who lie to you one time in the entire game and he deserves death or worse and that’s it

And now… 72% of people are down to redeem the guy who lies to you for 2 games straight and who did a lot of questionable things that includes creating the fucking blight and. Like. I guess I’m glad that Solas fans can live in a world where they aren’t constantly harassed and can give their ship like. A pretty damn good ending all things considered. And that the devs love Solas and actually give the option for that happy ending and have characters go to bat for Solas throughout the game and the most annoying thing they have to see are people making scrambled egg memes. I would not wish anyone to have to deal with the shit Anders fans had to put up with back then cause it sucked. It really sucked. And I’m glad it’s not being repeated with a different character, if nothing else

But like. Man there really is a difference when the writers actually like the character who does the thing, huh

[notsoheterosapien]

Happy 16th.

[shittyastroboydrawings]

Love your art as always, hope you’re okay! If it’s okay, how about Gesicht and Atom from PLUTO since the anime is coming out soon? Thank you for this blog, you’re awesome!

YEAHHHHH

also…….. less we forget the other robot….

[quirkyfries]

I do not own these characters!

Wooo chapter 10!! With some of my favorite scenes by far. These two are so unexpectedly soft it’s actually unreal. I’ve been thinking about them all day 🥲

These characters belong to @sinclairmaxwellao3 ‘s SAMS Mafia AU! Please check out her work at https://archiveofourown.org/works/54344629?view_full_work=true

[vaciena]

I think it just hit me that I’m actually getting better

[weezerlvr228]

hi fam !!

[simgerale]

me after attempting to get back into sims and realizing i had a lot more to do than play the game

[sen-ya]

I think the time has come……I think I’m gonna reduce the queue to once a day

[tentacledwizarddraws]

day 10: the void stares back

[666silco]

This is something I’ve wanted to do since my first one, I have updated my character tierlist from s1 to s2 now that it’s finished! I always think these are fun so I just wanted to post them. As you can see my opinions on many characters changed quite a bit. Also these are in order, even for very minor characters. The “first” one is accurate to the one I made in 2022 when I first watched the show, I just remade it so the tierlists match.

[jumioxox]

drdttober day five - school/college

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

I am the happiest person on earth right now because I just went out with a friend to grab a late lunch and it was just supposed to be a quick casual catch up thing that turned into a 4 hour conversation in the car about things that happened to us almost a decade ago 🥲

[coconut530]

It’s that time of year again ✨❤️

[carrionsflower]

[roys-our-boy]

His sprite is so CUTE. Getian loml