#and im not even saying that just because im a big troopers fan. im saying that because its true and i know you know it

[cheddar-inq]

you guys wanna hear a ramble abt my favorite drumcorp right. right.

of course you do. tw for this being a mostly negative ramble, sa mention, and a lot of swearing

i am genuinely so so so fucking SICK and TIRED of the endless troopers hate. holy fuck. you guys are so boring and unoriginal and honestly just exhausting for no fucking reason.

it is PERFECTLY FUCKING FINE TO NOT LIKE SOMETHING. there is ZERO issue with not liking something, including not liking a specific drumcorp for whatever reason !!!!! thats not the fucking problem and i say this as a HUGE troopers fan for three years now !!!!!!!

the issue is that nobody who hates troopers shuts the fuck up about a situation that happened YEARS ago. LONG FUCKING GONE that just about EVERY SINGLE DRUMCORP HAS EXPERIENCED.

"ougggghghhh oooooooo awuhwuwuhhhhhh they dontgive enough wateerr breakkkssss :[[[[[[" the genuine issue they had with not giving enough chances to drink water happened at the very least like FIVE FUCKING YEARS AGO and when i looked into it the earliest mention i found was from 2015. it was for one single fucking season and the director was fired and replaced for the next because of it.

why are you obsessed with that when you dont see people throwing a hissy fit over the fact that only like a year or two ago blue knights had a fucking sexual assault situation happen with their brass staff? nobody blames bk for it anymore because they replaced all of their brass staff???? and that is a MUCH more serious issue than water breaks and i am so so so fucking thankful that dci is very, very good at handling problems like these quickly.

"awwouuugggghhh i dont like that they do a western theme with a big flashy prop and a weird instrument solo every single eyarr ouggughhhh" holy shit guys. its part of a set. the set ended this year with Dance with the Devil. i think youre all just whiny actually because they pull it off SO FUCKING WELL and thats what ive been told by friends and family who arent troopers fans at all. they are an incredibly talented group.

and if they do it again next season, so fucking what? are you saying the giant tower with the electric cello was lame? are you saying the huge working sun prop was boring and the harmonica solo was bad? are you saying the return of the prop now repainted was stupid and the TWO guitar solos sucked? is that what youre saying? is that it?

if youve ever marched dci i think youd realize that marching band as a whole, especially at world-class drumcorps level, does not give very many true water breaks. i have a sibling who is in drumcorp this season who has admitted that those kind of breaks are not frequent

have you never noticed on every headcam and troopers video you see online posted by a troopers member often includes them talking about how much they loved the season? how they talk with fellow corp members about how amazing it was?

when i went to a show recently, while looking at some troopers merch deciding what to buy a couple of people stopped next to me and stood there for a few minutes looking at the merch with me while commenting about how much they hated it. all i heard next to me while i was looking at their merch and buying their merch was "ewww troopers" "dude theyre so unoriginal" "i hate troopers omg"

like. ok maybe go look at someone elses fucking merch??? whats your issue actually? do you not see the several other dci merch stands here?? try looking at some?

and just saying, i think it means something when all the shows ive seen / my friends and family have seen all have one thing in common- troopers show was the first to have almost EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE STANDS standing up to clap and cheer for them. maybe its because theyre actually pretty fucking talented? have you considered that?

chill the fuck out. if you started throwing tantrums like this over every drumcorp that has a season where the director doesnt give enough water breaks i dont think youd be able to attend a single show anywhere without seeing several corps you hate.

suck it up. please just focus on enjoying the shows, whether its troopers, blue devils, blue knights, vanguard (which have an INCREDIBLE show this season i am delighted to get to see them live), phantom regiment, genesis, jersey surf, ect. youre the reason you arent enjoying dci because you cant see past your pure blind irrational hatred for a group of people that almost completely changes every season. when you comment on how much you hate the instrument solos, it really seems like youre insulting the soloists for not being "interesting enough". when you cant shut the fuck up about how much you hate troopers, it seems like you hate the corp members. the people who dont choose the show. when you whine and whine about how boring and unoriginal the show is, it seems like youre insulting and blaming the corp members, the ones who are performing a -quite frankly- incredibly impressive show.

if you dont like troopers thats FINE. you dont fucking have to. you dont have to like everything and thats part of life. but being such a determined and irrational hater of something that has no reason to be so hated doesnt make you anyone but an annoying asshole who cant shut up and enjoy the fucking marching bands that work their asses off for months in pure blazing sun and pay thousands of dollars for nothing more than their pure passion and love for what they do.

[jackalopey]

im bored so im going to write up my rankings of the class stories, with my reasoning. please keep in mind this is just my opinion and no hard feelings if you disagree. going from my worst to best

8. bounty hunter

i simply did not vibe with it. to be fair, im not a fan of bounty hunter stories unless theres a twist, and im definitelyy not a fan of mandalorians (generally speaking), so it was pretty much set up to fail from the beginning. i did like most of the companions (skadge do not interact) though

what i disliked the most about it was the choices, though. i was trying to play a mostly light side hunter, and while i know that imp side characters are still going to make fucked up choices, i just really did not vibe with a lot of the options given

like, the one i hated the most, was having to kill that jedi at the end of chapter 1. like. it did not make any sense to me why the mandalorians wanted him dead. they were mad that he killed a bunch of mandalorians during the sacking. which was in warfare (and a dishonourable strike, on the mandos part). i didnt like that my choice was basically ‘kill him while laughing maniacally’ or ‘kill him but say its nothing personal’. i also disliked that even though i spared his padawan, it still made me kill her later. i dont know what they were going for with it

im hoping ill enjoy it more on a replay because im playing my character as dark sided and stupid bc its literally the only way i can make some of the choices make sense in my head

also while i liked most of the companions i hated how torian’s backstory was handled. i didnt mind makos though. i thought it was hilarious that we didnt find out why she had clones (unless i missed something ????)

7. republic trooper

it was fine. i didnt dislike it. im just not a fan of typical war stuff (yes i know the franchise is called star wars. you know what i mean). there was nothing specific that i didnt like, it just wasnt to my tastes

that being said, i did like that one mission that was a ladies night out, and i liked that it gave me a choice that actually took me 5 solid minutes to work out what i wanted to do. ik a lot of people dont like evil choices like that, but i do

i liked both of the romance options, and some of the other companions, but some of them were just kind of bland to me, personally. there was nothing bad about them, they just weren’t as interesting to me

6. jedi knight

i was extremely disappointed by this one. it wasn’t awful, i just had higher expectations, and i dislike how some people try to sell it as ‘kotor 3′ when it. isn’t. at all. i also don’t like that it’s considered the ‘canon’ storyline when it’s so average compared to some of the others

it’s not bad or anything. it’s just a typical jedi knight story. it’s exactly what it says on the tin. which is fine. but it’s not very interesting, i prefer stories with more twists

i do love kira though, so that gives it a lot. i also like the personality of the jedi knight, i like how they’re so full of themself, i think its very funny

i do think that there was a lot of wasted potential though, which is a shame

5. sith warrior

okay now we hit the ones that i actively like

my first impression with the warrior’s story was very bad because i tried to play it pure dark side and then panicked because i didnt want to shock vette lmao. i restarted with a light side warrior and had a very very fun time, the story was very unique to me, and i really like the ways you can characterise a light sided sith

im not a big fan of how a lot of the dark side options appeal to... a certain audience. if you know you know. but outside of that i enjoyed this story a lot, i didnt know what to expect going in but it was very good

i dont like quinn much though lmao dont kill me

4. smuggler

it was fun! i don’t really know how to expand much more than that. it was really fun to play. the smuggler is fun. risha is the love of my life. i simply had a very good time playing this one

personal fan of how inherently funny an outlander smugller is conceptually, also

3. consular

i feel like i’m betraying myself putting the consular at only 3 because it was the first story i played, it got me hooked onto the game and i really really really enjoyed it. but alas i must be honest

anyway. i enjoy the consular’s story i lot. i love the choices, i love the story, i love the puzzles. i love nadia and yuon and syo. the story was really interesting, engaging and emotional to me, i don’t know what to say. it just really hit me, so it blows my mind when i see that isn’t a common response to it. i also really loved the sages playstyle back when the classes were connected to the stories

also f!consular’s voice acting is soooo good, as a voice actor i’m impressed by like. the subtlety of it? the way she emotes but it’s so lowkey is hard to do but she does it really well. i vibe with it a lot

2. inquisitor

i feel like such a traitor putting this above the consular

but the inquisitor was just so fun. i know that it’s a story where a lot of the plot could be avoided if the character was less of an idiot, but unlike the bounty hunter’s, that really worked for me here. i thought it made a lot of sense for the inquisitor to make the mistakes they made, and i found them constantly just tumbling into the next problem really fucking funny

also how disconnected it is from the war is really funny to me. quizzi’s just out there trying to not get killed while a war goes on in the background

ashara is literally one of my fave star wars characters, i loooove her takes on jedi and sith philosophy so much, she’s so interesting to me

1. imperial agent

i mean. it’s a given, isn’t it?

i played it last and i’m glad i did. i like how everything came together. the story was very engaging, and it gave me multiple villains (zhorrid, hunter) who made me Feel Things and i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about afterwards

the agent is also, in my opinion, the smartest of all of the class story protags. and while i found the inquisitors mistakes very funny, something i enjoyed a lot about the agent’s story was the agent’s choices were consistently smart, often the things that i’d thought ‘oh she should do [x]’, and the plot progressed anyway. it felt like being outplayed, instead of having a limited protag, and i dont mind limited protags but idk it just made the whole thing really fun and imo fit really well with an agent

i loved kaliyo, also. her refusing to hook up with an f!outlander because ‘sorry i actually like you and i dont want to traumatise you’ is so fucked up but so funny

...and now i want to continue my swtor replay gdi

[sirmanmister]

So.  Let’s talk about it.

Anyone else notice how they just- have Pershing now? Like he’s just in Boba’s ship and there.  Like he had 3 scenes and boy was out.  I mean they had other shit to do but kinda funny to just imagine him sitting there quietly

love Boba and Din doing the head swivel when getting Bo-Katan and her gf, and Boba’s sassiness? Wonderful.  The way he said “Little one” was chef’s kiss.

fuckin mando throwdowns are so funny to me akshsdjkgsdf

And all the girls being badasses? great.  I liked how Cara said “excuse me” as she hoisted her gun by Fennec in the elevator lmao

DARK TROOPERS ARE SCARIER THAN I THOUGHT. 

And also Ludwig fucking kills it EVERY TIME.  LIKE BRO THAT THEME WAS FUCKIN SICK.

I like how din just yote the rest of the darktroopers out into space skjhgsdf.  like i knew they would come back but it was a nice setup

din snaps a stormtroooper’s neck right outside the brig and then goes all baby mode when he sees his baby

I FUCKIN THOUGHT GIDEON WAS GOING TO CUT GROGU IN HALF BROS.  I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO SQUASH THAT LITTLE BIG EARED BASTARD

But I liked the amicability, even if he tried to cut Din in half after.

I love when Din fights and uses his beskar to protect him 🥺🥺

DIN DIDN’T KILL GIDEON YET HE STILL GOT THE DARK SABER.  COULDNT BO-KATAN AND DIN LIKE, SPARRED OR SOMETHING AND SHE TAKES IT?? LIKE GUYS MODERN PROBLEMS REQUIRE MODERN SOLUTIONS THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Bro, knowing how bad ONE dark trooper could mess up a fully trained Mando and then seeing a whole PLATOON right outside the doors was so fucking dreadful?? Like I was overcome with dread because I honestly accepted they could loose at that point and they’d leave us on a cliffhanger lmao. Which they kinda did

And guys, I won’t pretend I know everything about the Star Wars universe or even remember the first three movies, so the RAGE I felt in me when I realized LUKE FUCKING SKYWALKER WAS THERE TO TAKE GROGU-

Like???? Wtf

And I saw people online saying sebastion stan could be luke but honestly I have zero clue who that person was.  Was it even a person? Like CGI or something??

I WANTED TO CRY SO BAD GUYS.  GROGU WANTED TO LEARN AND BE A JEDI AND HE SEEMED SO EAGER TO BE LIKE LUKE, WATCHING HIM ON THE CAMERAS AND 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

And ugh, why’d Din take his helmet off?  like, Sure, show your kid your face or something, but like, just lift the lid and be a lil discreet yknow?

also-  please tell me im not the only one that noticed he’d gotten a haircut since episode 15 asdgjhsdfghsdf- like what, he shaved for less wind resistance or something? asdkfhjsadf

Anyway, this episode fucking pissed me off.  Like, everything up until Luke was fine and I liked it, but it just-  It took me so far out of it? Because it was OBVIOUS fan service.  Like I should’ve felt more when Din was TRYING NOT TO CRY but I was still seething about luke.

Also sowwy this is so long I have emotions

[katierosefun]

creator tag

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works! 

thank you @kckenobi​ and @pandora15 for the tag!! <3 so here are the works, in no particular order and also oh gee i am so sorry this got so painfully long you can tell i’m procrastinating on my final + also i just tend to run my mouth when im talking about writing asdffd

to these memories (After Darth Sidious is defeated, everything changes. Some for the better, others not so much. Mostly better though. (Or: Anakin becomes a dad. Rex rehabilitates clone troopers who no longer want to be a part of the army. Ahsoka gets a call from an old friend. And maybe Obi-Wan finds out it’s not just his enemies who don’t stay dead. Basically, everyone gets the happy ending they deserve.)

so this was my first major longform tcw fic, and i just. i have a lot of feelings about this fic, mostly nostalgia and lots of gratefulness. first of all, i think i met a lot of super cool people through this fic, and i also? just? idk, this was a major project that i kind of worked on to cope with post-tcw sadness + also just. general sadness about the world’s situation. writing this story was actually super healing for me, mostly because i just. really wanted to have something where happy endings existed. 

so this really...was an experience, and i’m so super grateful for everyone who read along. to this day, whenever i get a comment about this fic, i feel super happy because it makes me feel glad to know that there were some people who took comfort in this work, because i really wanted this fic to have that kind of effect on people. :’) 

there they are (Right before Ahsoka leaves for Mandalore, Rex distracts Bo-Katan so she could give her family a proper goodbye. (There's hugging. We just needed our trio to hug.)

i think this was one of my first tcw fics of 2020, and. i just remember impulse writing this after watching old friends not forgotten because i was just. so sad that we didn’t get an anakin and ahsoka hug or a trio hug or anything. i understand why they didn’t--like, i really, really do, but. but i think if there’s a theme i’m going through this year, it’s ‘this was sad, so i’m gonna make it happy!!!’, so...as my masterlist puts it, ‘dave filoni said no trio hug, so i said fine, i’ll do it’. 

uhhhhh, how very unusual of me, but!!! probably my working on a new original story. i’ve got the fourth draft of another story siting in the background, but. this other story idea came at me, and five outlines later, i started this story. i’m about three chapters down now, but. a snippet of the prologue: 

“Well…it’s also a rather important story,” Rosalind said. “Do you enjoy stories?”

“I want to be a writer,” I blurted, and I stopped at that. I fiddled with my mug, heat that had nothing to do with the hot chocolate or the fire rushing to my face. Silly, oversharing me—oh, what a young, lonely child I was back then. So desperate for conversation that I had grown out of practice and resorted to sharing details that the average stranger would not care for.

But then again, these were not the average strangers—although I’m sure you’ve figured that for yourself.

“Yes,” I said meekly. “I enjoy stories.”

“Well,” Dae said after some time, “it’s good that you’re a writer.”

I lifted my head, and this time, I saw Dae and Rosalind smile at each other. A softer smile, one that made me feel suddenly dreadfully, dreadfully lonely.

“You might want to write this down,” Rosalind said at last. 

And so I did. 

*and cue the actual story* i won’t say too much because adsfsdfsfd talking about my original work makes me feel awkward + also i am constantly in fear of people stealing ideas even though,,,even though i know the only person who can write this story is me, anyways, but uh. i will say that i have a plan for a five-part series that’s basically about a witch and a princess. there’s a prophecy in the background. there’s magic. there’s rivals to friends to enemies to lovers. there’s father figures + big sister figures + found family + ancient kingdoms + the real world blending with the fantasy world + uh i’ve said enough okeee bye that’s it

the moment was enough (The war ends. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan try to work things out since the last time they actually saw each other.) 

it had been a long while since i had written anything that was really just about ahsoka and obi-wan, but. i think everyone knows that i really love my grandpadawan and grandmaster duo? idk, this fic really made me feel things because i was thinking a lot about how obi-wan and ahsoka had left things. i wanted to make it pretty clear that they both clearly care about each other a lot, but like. also. there’s still some hurt there. i just had so much fun writing this, because obi-wan and ahsoka are such an underrated duo and i love them :’) 

loose stitches (The discovery and aftermath of Maul. Anakin and Ahsoka find themselves pacing in front of the Council chambers multiple times. They might have taken Obi-Wan to Dex’s. Something might have unraveled, only to be stitched back together.) 

kasey before you say anything pls know that i would talk about this fic until literally the day i die i am sorry if i am making you feel self-conscious--but anyways this was a collab with the ever-talented, ever-wonderful @kckenobi. so uh, quick story which mayhaps i might not have told anyone before, but whatever, i’m listening to evermore and therefore have no choice but to be emotional huh--this fic was like...one of the first collabs i’ve ever done? in general, collaborations were always something that made me nervous because it required lots of vulnerability and honesty, and there’s a side of me that’s very obsessed with having this image of Neat Writer Who Has Coherent Thoughts (which,,,doesn’t even exist so why was i obsessed? no idea). so that said, this collab was just. so wild + wonderful because it really was, first of all, such a cool, magical experience. there’s something so amazing and insane about passing words back and forth and like, even a screen apart, there’s something magical about like. sitting down at a laptop at the end of the day and feeling like you’re about to step into a portal where it’s just two people trying to spin a story. writing with kasey was just such a wonderful, absolutely magical experience, and i’m really glad that we got to write this story + the many more that we did. just. there’s something really personal and beautiful about writing until 1, 2, 3 am when the world’s asleep. anyways. magical. 

asdfsdfd i’m very sorry that this got so incredibly long, but!! that said, 2020 was a hard year for lots of different reasons both personally + because of *gestures at the world* but. like. i’m really, really glad that i got back to writing clone wars fic this year, because i’ve met so many wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people here, and. yeah. y’all are my serotonin suppliers, and i do refer to a lot of people here as ‘oh yeah, my friend and i were talking the other day about...’ and ‘why are you smiling?’ ‘oh, just something a friend said--’ and. yeah. i hope y’all have a wonderful, wonderful rest of the year + also a wonderful life because y’all are simply the best :’)) 

no-pressure tags: @lightasthesun @meandmyechoes @soplantyourownflowers @ilonga @sonderwalker @mytardisisparked @60sec400 and really, honestly, anyone else who wants to!!! <333 (like. i mean it. literally. just tag me and lemme scream encouragements at you.)

[baevillier]

All Mine | Marc-Andre Fleury

Summary: After getting their first night out after becoming new parents, Marc can’t help but notice how much Y/N has changed. So has every other guy in the bar.

Based on prompt “this wasn’t apart of the plan’ ‘OH you’re jealous”

Having kids was amazing. Just knowing that there was a little mini version of himself and Y/N running around in the world made Marc the happiest man alive. But god was it tiring. He and his wife had been married for almost 5 years now and they had two young ones at home. Layla who was three, and Lucas who had just turned one.

All through both pregnancies, his wife Y/N had been a trooper- she complained here and there about pain or discomfort, but she never said anything along the lines of her regretting having kids. It was something that both her and Marc knew they wanted since they were young- and as soon as they got married, they had started trying for a baby.

It took some time between scheduling and the hockey season- but after a couple attempts, they had a bun in the over and their little girl was on the way. Now three years later and another baby added to their roster, the two of them decided to break. There was no telling if they would have another kid- but Marc didn’t mind having a third. He loved the two they had more than anything and he wanted a very big family. Y/N however needed the break not only physically but mentally.

This was the first night that they had to their selves since Lucas was born. Between Hockey season starting up again and Y/N working from home. Neither her or Marc really had the chance to relax. As soon as they were home and finished work- they were being parents which in itself was another job.

But now that Lucas was a year old and they felt better about leaving him alone with a babysitter, they decided that it was long over-due for them to have a night out together. It was also perfect timing because Marc’s parents had flown to Vegas for the little tike’s birthday which meant they were leaving the kids with family- not some random teenager that lived across the street.

As Y/N stood in the bedroom mirror, she couldn’t help but notice how much her figure had changed since having two kids. Before she was pregnant, she was a little thinner. Her hips were smaller and her shoulders were tight- but now after popping out two babies, her hips were a little wider and she had a bigger bum- bigger boobs too. She was still incredibly fit, she was stunning and had a healthy motherly glow about her.

Fixing her earrings, she glanced at her reflection and hummed. She decided not to go with a dress that night- but instead a pair of heels, some well-fitted jeans and a white blouse. She looked amazing as always and her hair framed her face expertly. Hearing the bedroom door open, the Woman glanced at the familiar Canadian.

The french man took in her figure- eyes trailing over her hips and the curve of her bum as he walked over, pressing into her and humming softly. She was beautiful and he was a lucky man- his hands ghosted over her flesh, grabbing at her sides and brushing against her breasts cheekily before he stepped back and leaned against the wall- a smirk on his face.

“Ready to go babe?” Marc asked, he was wearing a nice dress shirt, some slacks and his dress shoes. He always looked amazing and Y/N turned around. 

Rolling her eyes at his advances, she couldn't lie that she loved it- she knew that he was enjoying the new womanly shapes that her body had, and if she was being honest- she liked it too. “Yeah let’s go.” She answered him- picking up her purse and swinging it over her shoulder.

She walked down into the living room to see the grandparents playing with the kids- or more so Layla. Lucas was dozing off in his grandmother’s arms while Layla laid against the couch- grandpa tickling her tummy. Both parents walked over and pecked the tops of their children’s heads.

“We’ll be back later tonight- I left a list of everything, Obviously you have our numbers if you need something.” Y/N started to ramble, she never a nervous mother- but leaving her babies alone for the first time made her a little worried. Marc placed his hand on her lower back and chuckled. “They’ll be fine love…” he hummed.

Practically pushing her out the door, the two of them grabbed the uber. They were both going to be drinking that night so they decided that it was better to just take a cab. That way they could really have fun and let loose. After all, they deserved it.

A short ride into the city later and the couple had been let out onto the side of the Las Vegas strip. They didn’t make a habit of coming down here anymore- when they first moved to Vegas yes, but now that they lived here and the initial shock and honeymoon effect had worn off, the strip was just a place they visited on special occasions.

Hand in hand, they walked towards one of the higher class bars, it was a place that sports teams and celebrities frequented a lot, not that either of them cared about attending somewhere with status. They just wanted to have a nice night to relax- no fans or locals recognizing Marc Andre and asked for pictures tonight. Just some old fashioned date night activities.

They took a seat at the bar and Y/N started scrolling through the menu, she hadn’t been much of a drinker ever since they had the kids, she liked to be sober enough to get up in the middle of the night in case her kids needed something. But even when her and Marc were alone- the two of them didn’t party as hard as they used to back in Pittsburgh.

“Flower!” A voice called out, turning their heads- the Fleury couple noticed some of Marc’s teammates sitting across the bar. Smiling brightly they waved back to the men who had grown to be their family. Since she hadn’t decided on an order yet, Y/N turned to her husband.

“Why don’t you go say hi to the guys and then come back? I’ll figure out what I want to drink.” She reassured him. Pressing a kiss to his lips- she beckoned him off and returned her attention to the drinks printed on the laminated page in her hands.

A few minutes had passed and Y/N palmed an order for herself and Marc with the bartender, a body slid into the seat next to her and she turned- assuming that her husband had come back already. But just as she was about to speak, she noticed someone else- a young man probably in his twenties. By Y/N’s assumptions, she assumed he was here for his 21st birthday. He smelled like he had bathed in vodka and rum and he could barely hold himself up. “Whats a pretty lady like yourself doing all alone in a bar?” He slurred- leaning closer to the woman.

Y/N recoiled and grimaced. “Im not alone- my husband is over there.” She pointed Marc out who had yet to take notice of the situation. The boy in front of her rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t sound like a very good husband if he’s leaving you.” He quipped. Y/N huffed and turned back to Marc who was now glaring at the man next to her.

He was very protective, but she had never seen him like this. He was called ‘Flower’ for Christs sake- he was so sassy and funny and soft, it was one of the reasons she loved him- but right now he looked like he was about to kill that man.

Marc abandoned the guys as soon as Y/N’s neighbour had tried to make a move on her- he was stalking across the bar and immediately slid into the space between her and the kid. “Can I help you?” His accent rang out thick and heavy- it was obvious that he was less than pleased with he drunken fool’s presence.

Y/N stood up straight and pressed her hand to Mar’s bicep. “Its okay honey- he was just leaving.” She reassured him, sending the kid a pleading glance. Luckily for the three of them, the kid took the hint and wandered off- going across the bar to first with someone else.

All through the rest of the night, Marc never left Y/N’s side. He was extremely affectionate towards her- more than usual, his hands gripping at her hips, her thighs- even going as far as to place his hand in the back pocket of her jeans. It didn’t dawn onto Y/N until she noticed Marc glaring at everyone who looked her way. “OH- You’re jealous!” She giggled softly.

Placing her hand against his chest, she kissed his cheek. “Im all yours babe.” She reminded him. Marc sighed softly and kissed her lips deeply. “I know- Its just… You look amazing and everyone is looking at you… You’re mine.” He pouted like a child. That was the flower she knew.

Y/N smirked and quickly cancelled the rest of their order, she paid the tab and grabbed Marc’s hand leading him out of the bar as he stared at her confusedly. “Where are we going? I thought we were getting food and drinks.” This wasn’t apart of the plan at all, but now that she noticed how touchy and affectionate Marc was being- she just wanted some time to be intimate.

“If you really think that were going to stay in that bar while you grab my ass and kiss my boobs- you’re sorely mistaken mister.” She pointed a finger into her husbands chest with a laugh.

Marc grinned brightly and started dragging her towards a hotel. They were still deeply in love and they deserved a night to just be foolish and act like newly weds- He texted his parents that they were going to stay the night at a hotel and be home in the morning. To which he received a. “Have fun ;)’ from his dad.

They definitely were going to.

[huntsman-ash]

RWBY LiveThoughts: V8E7

Since I finally have time for it today, lets make sure Im all caught up for the hiatus. 

Before we get fully started, an idea; Its not a war crime if they’re Grimm. Then its just self defense. So break out the napalm, the cluster bombs, the chemical weapons, the fun stuff. Make em regret it, yeah?

And we start off...on a farm. Looks like my moms old farm in South Dakota. Even on Remnant, hay is best used in bales.

Waiiiit. Thats the place the Whale set down isnt it. I see a Sayber running. Ah, and the Atlas military! Surely, the vanguard of a massive force to hold the line! Also Im glad to see a close up of the helmet for once, I want to make my own. Also, the gloves, and the rifle itself. Not sure why it doesnt have a stock, seems kind of silly...

And airships too, so they got some fire support...whats that wall behind them though?

Also it TOOK US 8 FUCKING SEASONS to get a close up of these FUCKING Weapons. 8. FUCKING. SEASONS. Okay maybe more like 5 cause they didnt first appear till 3 or so but come on. Im so picking this shit apart later. 

Pfft, bros got some nerves going on. Come on man, its just some Grimm, you’ll be FINE.

Atlas field harvesters resemble Halo’s JOTUN Farming equipment. As wel as our own. No surprise there.

Alright, bunch of Saybers, not seeing much of a threat here.

Hey, Paladins! Damn, they...look way different than I remember them to be. 

I wont lie, I dont like the Paladin design. Way to much visual noise, I cant tell where anything IS. 

Also that is the most 2D grass I have sever seen in my fucking life. What the hell are they growing here...

Huh, the whale has two sets of teeth. Wait, its just there? And its wpewing out Grimm. So...why isnt the air force firing on it? 

Yeah its not moving, its just raising its head and slamming down and vomiting out more Grimm. Im not sure what the issue is here, just...seal the mouth. 

Oh, huh. Apathys. Let me guess, RTs gonna try and tell us depression is going to kill most of Atlas. Oh for fuck sake. IM NOT IMPRESSED RT. IM REALLY NOT. IM MORE FUCKING ANNOYED THAN ANYTHING

Okay so...I see what this is. Its farm land outside of atlas proper and there’s an additional wall behind them, plus the power lines I guess? Seems like a viable place to make a stand. 

...thats it. Please tell me this is just a single detachment of the Atlas military because there is less firepower here than a NATIONAL GUARD UNIT ASSIGNED TO ONE CITY

Im fairly certain there are more people assigned to ONE UNIT attached to JBLM then I amm seeing here. 

Not to mention this is an OPEN FIELD the Grimm have to run through. This is a literall fucking TURKEY SHOOT. Running across an open field anywhere is a ticket to DYING.

Just ask the poor fucks on D-day.

Also uh...why is everyone in line formation? What is this, fuckin’ 18009s combat Napoleon style?

And did the distance suddenly change, I feel like the whale suddenly got a hell of a lot closer.

Just...I dont get this. This makes no sense. Did Ironwood learn how to deploy forces from a fairy tale book? This is legitimately some fuckin Lord of the Rings shit here.

RIP that one specific trooper hit by that Behemoth though. Dont worry friend, the thing walked next to a Paladin. Its getting its eye blasted out

And cut back to Ironwood. Doing...fuck if I know what.

Staring angrily it seems.

“Dammit, my tactical deployment by line formation and parade ground tactics isnt holding back the Grimm, curses!”

Well MAYBE IF YOUD THOUGHT TO INVEST IN SOME FUCKING AIR SUPPORT...Seriously.

I know people have told me why this is. I understand myself why this is. But it really just...does...not...jibe with me. At all. 

Okay so more details; first, apparently Atlas has a subway. Makes sense, its a big island. Inter-system transits probably a given. Second; Was that Mantis Squad Omega? Some kind of unit maybe...interesting.

 Also I love how this guy just questions Ironwood. Like, bro, if the General says do it, do it.

Hold the fuck up, why is everyone outside? It looks like fuckin’ Cali during our lockdowns...what ever happened to martial law huh?

Also “underground subway stations”. Yes, thats...kind of what a subway IS. I guess maybe they have overhead ones like New York does. Mass transit be weird like that.

I mean HELL the signs on it are almost identical to the ones in NYC too! Even with the colored circles and train cnumbers. 

According to the sign here they’re at Pickens Square Station. 

Oh boy. Ironwood just fed these poor bastards into a meat grinder. Anyone here ever played the Metro game series, or read the books?

Remember the Dark Ones? The Nosallias? Yeah. Tight corridors and monsters only work out well for angry vodka fueled Russians.

Didnt see it very well but I THINK those Mantas had some kind of wing gun. Either thats new, a separate armament setting, or RT forgot what ind of weapons they gave their ships AGAIN.

Cant get the shields back up, yeah, no shit, they DETACHED ONE OF THE FUCKING PILOTS YOU IDIOTS.

Also hah, they arrested Yang, Ren and Jaune. Not surprised.

Beta squads apperently been hitting the whale. ‘Bombs, missiles, we cant make a dent, sir.” ...while Im not surprised by this, I also hear shades of the opening of Halo 2s level Metropolis. “Where’s the rest of your platoon?” “Wasted, sarge. Blew right through us. Rockets, fifty cals, didnt do nothing.”

Honestly they could have SHOWED THAT too. Them just saying it feels like a cop out to me. Take that as you will. But if you want us to see the things hard to kill, show it. 

Not that I figure Atlas’s rockets are much more than Dust in a propellent tank. Not exactly a Hellfire or TOW.

Nice to see proper military talk for...a moment anyway.

Or what I figure RT figures is proper.

Oh so now the whales moving. Okay...huh.

Jaunes commentary is the same as mine. Though I guess the size seems to shift depending.

Ohhh. Its MANTA. As in the gunships. Alright, sure that works. And this guys making a good call. If you cant hit the big one go after the smaller. Of which there seems to be a HELL of a lot. Actually holy fuck that Grimm spew is across like...ahlf the fucking island right now. Time to fuckin torch and burn people.

Ahhhhhh and they get to the proper idea.  If you cant punch it from the outside, hit it from the inside.

I knew a crew...three madmen, names of Keegan, Lahni and Mac. The Hivebusters. Something tells me a Venom bomb would do the trick...if it can rip apart Swarm creatures as big as a Snatcher or a Swarmak and reduce them to green slime, I think it’ll work on Grimm. 

Something tells me RT isnt gonna give em a bomb though. Too obvious.

NEVER MIND. “Science team is putting together a bomb.”

Also I LOVE how Winter’s pupils expand and retract in fear as she realizes what Ironwoods asking her to do.

Awww now shes getting the shakes too.

Salem directing this shit like shes some kind of orchestra leader. I mean it FITS but...I dunno.

Ah so the command deck is directly behind the whale’s glowing nose. Basically inside where the spermacetiy organ would be in a real sperm whale.

What the fuck is Emerald doing there?

Sneaking I guess. Huh. Why’s she sneaking around the whale. Also, huh. guess seeers can get fooled by Emeralds semblance.  Is HE STILL BEATING UP ON OSCAR? Jeez dude. Take a breather.

Honestly if this was TRUE I would be okay with it. Replace the Huntsman with, I dont know, a massively overequipped military for each Kingdom, let them run rampant...stomp the Grimm out or push them back to nonexistence...everyone lives happily ever after

Lets be real here, the idea of the academies? Really really fucking dumb. Its cute. Fairy tale like.

But if theres one thing this show has taught me its that fairy tales SUCK. Reality...tends to be worse.

Ah theres one of those torture hooks they mentioned a few episodes back. Nice of the whale to have a specific interrigation room.

And at last we get some information on how Salem works. Alright so...what happens if you seperate the parts then? Sink one in the ocean, launch one into space.

Sounds like Oz/Oscars telling the fans what we’ve been saying forever, Companion Book be damned; Salem wants to die.

These mind games bore me. Its cute, but I dont like it cause I cant follow that shit. Give me a straight up fight any day, fuck this sublty backroom fuckery

No lies from them both here honestly.

Medical supplies in Atlas seem almost the same as here on earth interestngly. Also, soup. Or...coffee, tea?

Blake with the obvious here. But I mean thats not really saying much cause...well. Not hard to outfight the Atlas military it seems like.  (Long suffering sigh)

Im gonna make a seperate post about my frustrations with that and leave it there. But dont expect me to stop fully complaining about it because everyones gotta have something to bitch about with this show, and I’ll be DAMNED if I start joining the BB whiners.

Good question, Ruby. Might be that YOUR NOT LIVING IN A FAIRY TALE

I’d like to see these people dying in Mantle. I refuse to believe that there isnt SOMEONE in the nation that once brought Remnant to its heel that wont stand and fight. Unless Im wrong about that too...

May backstory? May backstory. Yeah.  Not amazingly complicated but it works. Cant tell if shes Henry though...or was. 

Dramatic lightning flash

Cute you think that Ruby. Theres sides. Always are.

Further proof honestly.

Hazels look of though is amusing. Cant tell if he doesnt believe Oscar, or if his tiny peabrain is runing full bore to think this through.

Coordination between farm boy and professor.

Oh. OHHHH. Plants the seed of doubt in Hazels tiny mind, he uses the last question for himself, sees the truth... Clever, Oscar. Clever.

Hazel peabrain go THUNK

Ah so Mercs going off to Vacuo. Guess that means everyone else is going there next too. Eat that, random Discord person, I called it.

Course, CFVYs there so...maybe we get to see Yats beat up on him.

Oh hi Tyrian. Do you just...randomly roam the halls of the whale waiting to DRAMATICALLY REVEAL YOURSELF and give violent expositon? Im very much okay with that.

Also I love how he just...accepts this. Totally fucking bonkers, totally down with it. 

Oh shit, Tyrian and Mercury going to Vacuo? Damn thats gonna be INTERESTING. I guess Tyrian’ll fit in well enough honestly.

Flying Beringal literally out of the roof. 

I remember back when this season first started and I said those weird bone platforms looked like VTOL launch bays. Guess what? They are.

Merc and Em emotion blah blah DONT CAAARRREEE

Jaune thinking tactically for ONCE IN HIS FUCKING LIFE. An I mean military tactical of course.

Also I like how the Aces say they dont let emotions cloud their shit WHEN THEYVE BEEN DOING THAT THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME.

This ENTIRE PLANET is emotionally run. Thats why the Grimm are such an issue! Makes small note to make Remnant Adeptus Mechanicus cult

Seriously though...

I wont lie though, Hare isnt wrong. Wonder what happened to that Tortuga guy. Tyrian, is my guess. Love how Ren interrupts the moment they almost mention Clovers name.

Expendable, yes. Replacable, no. You should have a talk with squadron leader Grey from Star Wars Squadrons Ren

ANNNNDDD SEMBLANCE EVOLUTION. Or the edibles just kicked in.

This is cool and all but its really fucking dumb and hamfisted. Explain all you want. Mention emotions all you want.

The Aces are fucking huntsmen. HUNTSMEN. FUCKING. SUCK. They always have. Its a dumb idea. Yes, lets stop the hordes of monsters invading this world BY SENDING IN SINGLE OPERATIVES WITH FUCKING MELEE WEAPONS

I’ll make this clear to you, Ren, right here and now. If you faced a REAL elites, you wouldnt have stood a chance. Nor would RWBY. Their bodies would have been three-shot from 20 meters out with a breach and clear and stacked against the wall like cords of wood, one final shot to the dome to make dead sure they were down. None of this stupid flipping and acrobatic crap, none of this clashing weapons and Dust and semblances...no. 

You’d be dead before you knew they were there and they would move on. You’d just be another body to the pile, one more faceless corpse to add to their kill count. A meatgrinder in human form. 

Professionals. Dont. Lose. AND THE ACES ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS!

Because thats not what RWBYs about, never has been.  And that is what annoys me slightly. That and the fact I cant distangle what I know of other universes and our own from RWBY’s. Its hard to hold a universe on its own when everything they make points towards it being like ours, but they change it when they see fit. 

I feel like thats bad writing.

Hehehe. Winter touched Elms boob.

Glad to know that Winters got her priorities right. Course, that bomb probably aint gonna do shit cause its Dust based.

...again, hoping its a chemical weapon...

Wait, the Atlas forces from earlier are STILL FIGHTING? Damn, these Grimm must suck if they couldnt wipe them out in that little time...

Also I cant tell if its getting dark cause of the storm or if its the dawn of the next day.  Or did...they shift time around? I lost track. I SWORE the sun was setting the last time we saw everything.

Also return of the shitty 3D grass...

Marrows gonna defect.

Awww poor Winters got emotions. HEY MAYBE DONT SEND A MENSTRATING WOMAN OUT ON A FIELD OP, ATLAS!

So according to May there’s still front lines. Cool. 

AYYY ITS KLIEN! HES BACK

Oh, I guess hes a doctor too. Oh he MAD.

Ayyy Whitleys being USEFUL for fucking once in his shitty life.

Shes gonna hug him isnt she.

CALLED IT. For fuck sake...whatever. Cute. But whatever.

Oh annnnddd now Grimmquake?

No. It stopped...Bolide?

No. PENNY.

Annnnddd shes leaking coolant. And sparking. And dead.

RIP Penny.

The concept art of the beached whale looks so fucking silly. Seriously, just...detach the whole section there. Drop the fucking thing. 

Oh well.

And thats it for almost two months! Be prepared for me to BULLSHIT MY WAY THROUGH ALL OF IT and continue on with my military fanwank because THATS HOW IM SURVIVING 2020!

[didyouknowmagic]

Value Engineering: Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Well Galaxy’s edge is out! And so far the consensus has been pretty strong when it comes to the land and it’s offerings and that’s only with one of it’s attractions operating! Still that being said a LOT that was promised, and hell even intended to be apart of the land didn’t make it in during the last minute. So what is missing from Galaxy’s edge? Glad you asked! It’s the part of the land that made Imagineers so excited and gave them the courage to claim this would redefine theme park lands and was even their code name for the entire area. Project Delos, the name being inspired by the show West World which features a theme park that is basically where you go to live out your fantasy with highly interactive robots that act as if they are apart of the world you are visiting!  Essentially Interactivity, live actors, and role playing elements! The LARP area of every star wars fans dream.

Where to begin with this one, well all the way back to it’s inception even before it was known as Galaxy’s edge Disney kept touting that this land would set itself apart by it’s inhabitants. 

As seen in the concept art there are a LOT of characters here, aliens, bounty hunters, and yes droids. So was this piece of early concept art an embellishment? Yes and no. Yes in that the layout of the land is not like this, and no in that everything else shown in the image was 100 percent meant to be the reality of the land.

Let’s take a look at one of the more final pieces of concept art to see what I am talking about. This was one of the initial concept art pieces for what Oga’s Cantina is supposed to be. A watering hole for Bounty Hunters, aliens, rebel spies, and storm troopers alike. You are meant to have the feeling of being transported into the films and seeing these seedy characters all interact with you and the other guests that’s what the big appeal to this bar was meant to be! Because in the films that is what these places are strand despots for all sorts of creatures to interact and be amused by. 

Now let’s take a look at that Lizard looking guy in the yellow and red armor next to the Jawa. That is one of the most pivotal pieces of how this whole bar was meant to be an interactive experience, and his name is Harkos!

Wiki article about him below

 https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Harkos 

Back in 2017′s D23 he was announced to be a PIVOTAL part of the land and would reside here at the Cantina. Where he would find guests and either commend or even berate them based on their performance on smugglers run which he would have access too thanks to the Play Disney Parks app. They were so sure of this they created lore around the guy and included him in several pieces of art. It’s this very energy that is missing from Oga’s cantina, it’s a seedy wateringhole without anyone seedy visiting, unless you count tourists as seedy and even then mileage there varies depending on whose there that day.

Let’s move onto to more missing Kinetic energy for the land

Here is a video from Star Wars Celebrations in 2017, showcasing what was meant to be a stunt show featuring ray against several storm troopers that was intended to take place in the walkways that are above guests which are littered throughout the land. While this element wasn’t entirely cut as there is still a small show (Though with little to no stunts and some flares) it was left albeit more minimal that it was intended to be. 

Another feature that is likely on the back burner but was still cut from the land was the sit down table service and show. 

Think hoop de doo revue meets star wars and it’s variety of alien musicians and performers and you have a general idea of what the restaurant was intended to be. As far as I can see this one among the first round of cuts from the land as it wasn’t mentioned as far as I can look up at the 2017 conference but was shown in the initial pitches for the land. This is where you would have gotten your fix for the aliens and the Cantina style band. This is one of the bigger mistakes in my opinion regarding cuts as the land while it does offer 2 quick services is in dire need of a table service environment, anything that can help take the load off of Oga’s which is brimming at capacity every day. Yet this was cut too, in favor of having the area it’s currently in being used as the overflow queue for Smugglers run. 

The last thing im gonna touch on and this is one of the more obvious cuts is the lack of roaming droids! 

Back in 2017 Disneyland and I think Disney world as well were both testing out droid units to which they basically said were indeed going to be part of the magic of galaxy’s edge. 

And as seen in the concept art several units were supposed to be littered throughout the land. They would have been controlled by cast members and would have added yet another touch to making galaxy’s edge feel truly unique. Yet about 6 months prior to opening news that these and most of the aliens in the land had been cut.

SO, What happened? Well there are two stories going around. If rumors are to be believe Bob Chapek viewed these additional entertainment options are WAY to pricey and instead of paying for equity performers (Bounty hunters, stunt show personnel, and aliens) and puppeteers (droid performers) he canned the whole thing. Basically saying let the land speak for itself these embellishments aren’t necessary. Which if true is disappointing and very wrong given that the land was clearly designed for this interactivity. Money has already been spent on infrastructure for all of these features (minus the restaurant) which is sitting there literally unused for guests just to save a quick buck. 

The other story is that Ops fearing that Galaxy's Edge would be packed to capacity knew that they wouldn’t be able to implement these interactive pieces at the start. Bounty Hunters would be mugged by every guests for photos, droids would be unable to move in large crowds, and the wandering aliens and jawas would be swamped by guests for photos as well. While there is no definitive answer to which of these is true at the moment my money is probably on a mixture of the two. Cuts and fear of crowds. 

To Summarize I think Galaxy’s Edge is still a heavily creative piece of work and the care and appreciation that went it is obvious. But if I’m being honest it’s missing it’s soul a little bit, part of the appeal of going into the star wars films is the denizens that make up that universe. Without them it leaves land a little bare. Thankfully this is an issue that is the easiest to fix and hopefully somewhere down the line all of these things listed will make their way back in one form or another! Until next time Bright Moons everyone! 

[bigskydreaming]

A lot of the discussions about AoX and the stuff said about the X-Tremists has altered my view of some elements of all that, I’m not gonna lie. The X-Tremists definitely isn’t what I initially thought it was, and in the context of all the X-Men being heavily brainwashed and operating based on a selectively altered sense of self and reality, even if I still don’t agree with it, I GET the intention behind picking gay and bi characters to be the cast of this particular book. 

Like, I can understand how when focused on the end goal rather than the set up, there’s a satisfying payoff to it being gay and bi characters pissed at being shoved back into the closet who are the ones best positioned to figure out what’s really going on and fight back against it once they do. I can connect those dots, see how that story choice makes sense and has the sense of catharsis Williams talked about getting from writing it. From the angle of gay/bi characters fuck shit up because they’re not gonna take society or some higher authority determining who they can and can’t love, that fits.

In a lot of ways, its the compulsory sexuality story I’ve ranted for months about wanting to see in regards to Bobby’s situation and the fact that Jean’s actions are ultimately the reason he spent so long in the closet.

BUT. At the same time....that’s kinda the problem?

Because that story I talked about wanting to see with Bobby, it didn’t come from nowhere, I didn’t just go ‘oh hey what if.’ It came from just putting together the pieces that were already there. Everything needed to tell this particular story about being pissed at someone overriding your own sense of self and telling you who you needed to be for the sake of society, the timeline, whatever....it was already there. In the main universe. Already written. Every single element needed to tell that specific narrative was already in place.

Completely unacknowledged.

And I think that’s a big part of where my cynicism comes from, beyond just not trusting Marvel as a whole. Because the fact that this specific narrative was already laid out, already in play, hell, already the fallout of a Grey’s choices and mucking around with Bobby’s head.....without it ever being addressed, its hard to see how a five issue mini (that needs at least an issue or two to set up the revelations to the characters) can do for that narrative spread out among three gay/bi characters what nobody bothered to do with just one character in three years worth of opportunities.

(And if in the end it turns out by the time all of this is over NOBODY in-story has drawn the parallel between this and Bobby’s own narrative even before all this, like.....that’s gonna bug.)

But anyway. When you look at it from that perspective, as essentially the same narrative that was already set up and put in place and then completely overlooked for Bobby already.....then its hard to see this as anything other than gratuitous. Because that was already this same narrative, WITHOUT the fascist imagery and associations. Bobby already had every reason to be pissed - just needed those reasons to be raised and acknowledged - WITHOUT needing the trauma of being made unwillingly complicit in storm trooper actions heaped on top of how much he would already be fucked up from just the forced closeting. The painful catharsis of watching a gay hero push back against forces trying to make him something other than he is and wants to be, it was already locked and loaded ready to go - WITHOUT the trauma part of that narrative needing to be added to two other characters’ narratives additionally.

It just feels...unnecessary.

Like, I can’t stop fixating on that damn armband, is one of the things. I understand the in-story logic, that its ultimately one of the clues that makes them wake up to the realization something is very wrong, for Bobby to be wearing that. I understand that the intention there is for it to be a motivating factor for Bobby’s anger, making him intensely furious that this was done to him, put on him. But the thing I can’t understand is what makes the armband necessary to do all that?

Its not needed in order to leave bread crumbs for them to see how things are messed up and where. There are other options available, other ways to portray how things are different or wrong. I’ll never agree its necessary for THAT to be the thing that makes Bobby enraged. Like look at everything I was saying about his main universe storyline. Why not just use this to allow Bobby to have a different perspective on his lack of agency in all that and the how and why of his staying repressed for so long, have this second instance of telepathic meddling with his sense of self make the first more clearly obvious to him. Isn’t that already more than enough to make Bobby furious and intent on beating the fucking shit out of Nate Grey because he’s sick of not knowing how much of his sense of self is actually HIM and how much of it is the result of telepaths sticking their nose where they don’t belong, without any hint of remorse?

When its your perspective that the more offensive elements of this story aren’t necessary, its all but impossible to look at anything else. They’re the elephant in the room. The things your eye can’t stray from in those ‘what in this picture doesn’t belong’ games once you find them, because its so painfully obvious then that they don’t belong.

And the other thing, the big thing that I’m really upset at seeing so many other white LGBTQ+ readers dismiss or just trivialize....personally, I find it impossible to find empowerment in three white gay/bi characters who are used to police the romantic and sexual relationships of characters of color and especially LGBTQ+ characters of color. I get that this isn’t on Williams, that it wasn’t her choice to have the X-Tremists arrest Bishop and Bling specifically, that those happened in other books. But this is an area where editorial oversight - used properly - would not only be useful, but I honestly believe was NECESSARY. If you’re gonna tell a story like this, do an event like this, play with these themes specifically and talk about how its meant to explore intersectionality, about how intersections of power affect how an individual interacts with society and its institutions....you need to bring your fucking A game, and this event just didn’t. At all. 

You need to be conscious of the fact that Marvel has given its readers, particularly its most marginalized ones, NO reason to have any faith in them, give them any benefit of the doubt, after they’ve spent the better part of 20 years deliberately driving this franchise into the ground because they didn’t get any of the X-Men movie profits. Editorial absolutely NEEDED to be aware of the nuances of this story and be prepared to step in where necessary to prevent things like what happened with Bishop and Bling interfering with the intended point of the X-Tremists mini and costing it more readers. There should have been someone watching all the pieces, someone whose JOB it was to look at the script for NextGen and hand it back and say no, Ed, you can’t have the X-Tremists arrest Bling, you need to pick someone else, pick a straight white character. We’re not having three white gay/bi cops arrest a black lesbian teen for impure thoughts. Nuh uh, no way. Not happening. Same with Bishop. If he absolutely had to be imprisoned in order for the events of Prisoner X to unfold, there should have been a different reason, rather than a random out of the blue pairing with Jean Grey that gets him locked up and her a slap on the wrist. Like, how about the fact that Nate Grey - being from the Age of Apocalypse - is aware that Bishop being a time traveler enabled him to know the AoA wasn’t how events were supposed to happen, and preemptively locked him away because he was afraid Bishop would be similarly able to see through this altered reality and warn people?

Like, when you have a character LITERALLY playing God, as in that’s the entire narrative....deus ex machina isn’t a problem. It’s your actual story engine. You can set the stage however the hell you want and Bishop can be wherever the hell you need him to be with the only reason being Nate Grey arranged for him to be there because that’s where he wanted him to be, fearing he could be a threat.

But seriously, white LGBTQ+ fans need to shut the absolute fuck up about the instances with Bishop and Bling and stop talking over fans of color when they bring them up. Stop trying to minimize it or handwave it away as no big deal, like, that is ugly. That is just, plain UGLY. Stop telling fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans of color any issues they have with white characters arresting black characters for ‘impure’ and ‘barbaric’ thoughts and relationships...like, stop acting like these things are no big deal or that they’re not big ENOUGH of a deal to take away from the empowerment you get from three white gay/bi characters’ narratives. Stop saying the latter is what they should be focusing on, as if its the only variable here that matters, and that they’re just blowing things out of proportion.  Some readers developing a dislike for Bobby because they have to read and see him being depicted the way he is at the expense of characters of color - even if its not ‘his fault’ - like, some readers not wanting to read or see Bobby in stories for awhile or ever because they just can’t get that image out of their head, that’s a valid and understandable reaction to what’s on the page, what they can’t avoid if they want to take in this story on any level at all. Its a reaction EARNED by the narrative choices made overall, and if its not a reaction the narrative wanted to earn, different narrative choices needed to be made.

Honestly, the more I think about it, if this event was going to happen like it or not, if writers had to just make the best of it as much as they could, knowing editorial wasn’t going to be interfering on their behalf when other writers used their characters in ways detrimental to the first writer’s intentions....Bobby, Jean-Paul and Betsy should have been in the cast of Prisoner X, I think. Like, they shouldn’t have been the secret police, the guilty parties motivated by outrage at being used to hurt others like them, they should have been part of the ones who already had plenty of motivational outrage based entirely on experience with being told their love was impure and wrong.

LGBTQ+ characters IMO were already a natural fit for seeing through Nate Grey’s changes to reality, to be arrested for engaging in romantic and sexual relationships in defiance of society’s laws and arbitrary morals. It could have easily been built into the event itself that Nate Grey (who has never identified as anything other than straight) viewed the world through a heteronormative lens. And thus when ‘eliminating’ love and memories of it and things like that, he did so according to a straight person’s perception of what that looked like...and thus potentially overlooked where LGBTQ+ peoples’ experiences had taught them how to keep a secret part of themselves hidden away at the core of their being, their mind, where no one would stumble across any truths they weren’t ready to reveal. LGBTQ+ characters were already a natural fit to be caught breaking the rules of this society instead of keeping it to themselves and staying safe if they started to suspect something was wrong with the way things were....because they were the ones who had already defiantly pushed back against unjust rules and restrictions the first time they realized something wasn’t right with the way society told them they should feel.

The same is true of characters of color of any sexual orientation, given past laws against interracial relationships - I’m not expanding on that not to exclude them, but just because imprisonment narratives have a different context and history with characters of color and that’s not my lane.

But like, if the event was structured to remove the variable of mutant oppression and thus explore intersections of power when everyone was on the same field in that respect, its disingenuous to make up forms of oppression to highlight the flaws in a dystopian society when existing marginalizations already exist once the mutant metaphor is removed. Those already marginalized in our society should be the ones marginalized in that society, else you end up with a ‘what if straight white people were the oppressed and sympathetic’ narrative that nobody asked for. And I do suspect that part of the way AoX is structured IS intended to reflect that, to have LGBTQ+ characters like the X-Tremists and characters of color like Bishop play key roles in toppling Nate Grey’s dystopian vision....I just don’t believe making any of them the secret police works in FAVOR of that rather than against. If your marginalized characters are united by common experiences of being oppressed by straight white mutants once they in turn are no longer oppressed by humans, then you also eliminate the stuff I was talking about earlier, the issue of having an oppressed group fight to put things back to where they were more oppressed. Instead of SPLITTING your characters’ identities along different axes, with the world according to Nate Grey being better for them in the sense that they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants but worse for them because it tries to restrain their sexualities...they don’t need to prioritize between their marginalizations at all. These characters don’t have to ‘sacrifice’ a world in which they aren’t oppressed for one where they are, if they’re still oppressed by that society as gay and bi individuals even though they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants. That’s still messy as hell for a variety of reasons this long fucking post doesn’t need to see their unpacking added to it, but like....

Sigh. Thing is, I know I have a tendency to go off and running in some AU direction like “this is what I would do if I were writing this story” every time I’m critical of shit. Its honestly not because I think I’m the greatest writer ever or oh my ideas are so much better than everything else. 

Its just....I don’t know how else to say it, even though it fails to sink in every damn time I have a variation of this argument...I’m not critical so I can hate things, I’m critical cuz I want them to be better. I don’t come up with different ideas for how else to tell a story BECAUSE I’m critical of it and hate it as is. Its the reverse. I’m critical of stuff BECAUSE I can’t turn off my writer brain and I can see where things could be better or at least fail in new and different ways than the same old repeated mistakes (and thus at least get us closer to better, by eliminating more of what doesn’t work).

Like, I’m just so fucking tired of being talked about like I’m this bitter angry dude who just hates everything and is never happy with any content ever. I’m not angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking like “This thing you like offended these three people and thus its fucking terrible and you should feel bad!” I’m angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking “This thing you like offended these three people AND IT DIDN’T FUCKING HAVE TO. THAT CAN BE AVOIDED.”

I don’t posit all these alternative scenarios when I criticize shit because I’m thinking that doing it any way other than my way is bad, and I’m just an egotistical jackass who will never be satisfied with any work other than his own. (LMAO, hell no, I’m insecure as hellllllll about my work, like lolol. How critical I am of other shit is nothing compared to how critical I am of my own).

Point is, when I do that, I’m only doing it to say like....see, look. Here are alternatives. If I can find some, other writers can too.

But other writers have to LOOK for alternatives in order to find them. They have to have a REASON to write things differently than what they already wrote. THAT’S WHAT CRITICISM IS FOR. TO GIVE THEM THAT REASON. TO TELL THEM THIS DOESN’T WORK THE WAY IT IS, BUT IT COULD WORK IF YOU DO SOME OF THESE THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

And when people say “lmao some of you just need to go the fuck outside, like calm down and let people enjoy shit for a change,” what that ACTUALLY sounds like to some of us is “well this thing works for me as is, and thus I see no reason to care about it being better for the people it doesn’t work for or actively offends.”

It’s honestly depressing as hell how many people on this site smugly reblog that “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people” post, only to turn around and five posts later complain about criticisms of a show they like and are perfectly comfortable with as is.

Its not about telling you that you should never enjoy anything ever. Its not about saying well this thing offends us, and if we can’t enjoy it, nobody should.

Its just like.....its great that you enjoy this thing but wouldn’t it be better if you could still enjoy it and all these people who AREN’T able to enjoy it because of these reasons could now enjoy it more too?

People shutting up about the ways content offends or hurts them or people just settling for sucking it up and dealing with the microaggressions in a creative work, like those things shouldn’t be necessary in order for you to enjoy content or be comfortable with what you’re reading or watching. 

And if it is, that’s a you problem and if you could PLEASE stop projecting it on to people who just want things to be better and more enjoyable across the board - like that’d be great kthxbai.

[larrydoinglaundry]

You are a fantastic author and you do deserve to be in the same space as all those authors you love so much. It is incredibly brave to write something and then share it with the world. All those people who subscribe to the "it needs blah blah blah" to count...are clout chasers. The way i do it is i read the first chapter or few paragraphs of something. If i dont vibe with it i dont finish but i do leave kudos because i appreciate the effort the author put in and it isnt their problem that im not vibing with it. I understand why you feel the way you do. I wrote for big bang a few years ago and i knew my fic wasnt going to compete with the big guns (ps... I love them too) but i wanted my fic out there. I was prepared for the outcome butnit didnt make any less disappointing. Its okay to be disappointed. Just dont stop because of other people. Write for you. Xoxo

I have a few things I want to say about this! I feel like whining again so I'm sorry nonnie that I am dumping this on you!

1. People who judge works based on stats are no true fans of fanfiction I agree. It's a fact. When you see "fic recs" in this fandom, mostly outside of tumblr, it is always the same fics. Great fics but like... Rec something original! Not something 95% of the fandom has read.

2. I am so in awe of the fact that you leave kudos to works you don't even fully read!!! That's so incredibly kind of you and definitely encourages writers to stay.

3. Definitely can relate to you feeling like your fic just can't compete with the rest of the works. I mostly stay out of fic fests, mostly due to schedule reasons, I'm terrible with deadlines, but also because it just feels like... why do I bother? If there are more popular authors participating, their fic post alone would gain the same amount of reblogs in a few hours that I might get in two days. If then. They have credibility and audience, and readers have more faith in them delivering a wonderful story, even when they haven't read it yet. I'm sorry you were left disappointed, I hope it didn't discourage you too much <3

4. I do write for myself. But I still write for others too, and I'm sure everyone is on some level. I have fics for myself only; plots/prompts I don't feel confident enough in and want to get better at for my own joy, kinky shots I don't want to share, and just something for my own comfort. But those fics that I do publish, I want people to see and read them. I hope people get something out of them. I hope they can cry or laugh, resonate with it, or just find comfort from it. Or just get horny from it tbh. When I share something, I am always wishing for some kind interaction.

I have to say the feedback on my fics has been overwhelming for me! I am so beyond amazed that people find joy from what I put out. That motivates me. And I guarantee it motivates every single author, so leave that kudos, leave that nice comment, and make someone's day better <3

You're a trooper, nonnie. Doing the God's work. Thank you for this message.

[brillixdis]

The Married Millennialz: BEAN BOOZLED CHALLENGE GONE WRONG!

*a short intro plays, displaying their photos and logo along the screen with Fall Thru by Meek Mill playing in the background*

Brilliant: [settles into her chair after hitting play on the video. she adjusts her position in the seat, pushing her hair over her shoulder before finally lifting her head to flash the camera a smile] Hey hey hey! It's the Married Millennialz and we're back with another video, I'm Brilliant! We've been gone for too long and couldn't wait to upload for you guys. [turns to Zyair with a soft smile]

Zyair: Yes, i'm Zyair, welcome back. We've been extra busy in our day to day life but we wanted to give yall a fun challenge today and pray for forgiveness. -chuckles some before jokingly placing his palms together- This should be a good one. I know i'm amped.

Brilliant: Definitely been busy, but that doesn't stop us from checking in with you all. The consistency is about to be next level, just watch and see. [chuckles as she looks downward and then back up as Justice shifts his hands throughout his own bowl of plane jelly beans, trying to control himself from eating them] We also have another guest, the ban of the hour and soon to be winner of The Bean Boozled Challenge, Justice Chunky-Man O'Neal! He's got his own bowl to eat and enjoy the challenge with mommy she daddy, isn't that right? [looks toward him with a smile]

Justice: welli welli? [he cheeses wide, trying to imitate the word jelly bean. he lifts a few into his chubby little hand after she speaks and shoves them into his mouth to chew]

Zyair: He said jelly beans wait for no man. -laughs as he views Justice- But you heard correctly, we're gonna be knocking out the Bean Boozled Challenge and i'm ready. I been ready. Brilliant been crying over these beans for the past two days but I’m ready.

Brilliant: [drops her jaw with a small chuckle as he begins to shove the jelly beans into his mouth] Not ye-you know what. Never mind, chunky, have at it. [laughs lowly] But yes! I have been crying because I don't wanna eat something that's really nasty and I nearly die after eating it. Am I wrong?!

Zyair: Not wrong. -laughs lowly as he looks in her direction- Just a punk. -shifts his focus toward the camera afterward- We gon see what she's really made of in a minute.

Brilliant: Mark your words, you may have one up on me because you enjoy eating just about any and everything. [snaps her fingers after looking in the camera due to her slick remark] Spin first.

Zyair: I'm slightly offended by that. -chuckles before leaning forward to view the wheel, surveying the different flavors before eventually spinning; observes as the arrow turns before soon landing on a white colored bean- Oh, nah. -places a fist to his mouth as he stares downward at the choices- Oh, nah. We got coconut or spoiled milk. -glances to Brilliant as he begins to laugh harder- Let's test fate.

Brilliant: The funny thing about this is that I hate coconut flavored things and spoiled milk is the worst. [laughs lowly] You'll be okay though, I remember those days when I'd come to your apartment and your milk would be thick as helllll. I mean thick. Expired two weeks ago thick, so grab that jelly bean!

Zyair: Steady at my neck. Don't be putting my business out. -laughs before nodding in agreement- I ain't a fan of coconut either but it's the lesser of two evils. -reaches into the bowl to select a white jelly bean then waits on her- On three?

Brilliant: On three. [looks towards Justice with a small chuckle as he mimics his father's motions by putting his hand into his own bowl] On 3 you've gotta eat one jelly bean with daddy, okay? [after he smiles in response she begins to count] 1..2..3!

Zyair: -listens for her countdown then quickly pops the jelly bean into his mouth before immediately gagging once he bites down- Fuck! -turns his head as he hurriedly spits the candy out onto the floor while his face remains twisted- We ain't bring no water or nothing? -stands to his feet and instantly walks off camera-

Brilliant: [she begins to laugh almost immediately the moment he hops up and leave. turns to justice as he munches on his fruity jelly bean with a big smile before she turns to the camera] I know y'all saw that right! He couldn't even chew it! You've gotta eat the whole thing.

Justice: [after watching his father eat the jelly bean, he chews his own in surprise. he hops up with his bowl and heads out of the sight of the camera] dahhh-dee! mine! [he exclaims down the hallway, being heard from the room]

Zyair: -returns minutes later with a tall glass of water and Justice in tow, sipping as he reclaims his seat- Don't even say nothing. -chuckles- Did you eat yours?

Brilliant: Nope. But I know it isn't spoiled milk! [chuckles as she pops it in her mouth to chew with a smile, her eyebrows moving up and down to tease him before she finally leans over to spin the wheel, she screams out dramatically after the wheel lands on the orange jelly bean labeled barf or peach]

Zyair:-eyes the options then shakes his head- After the L i just took, im ready to tap out. -laughs to himself before setting his water aside while Justice climbs into his lap- That was disgusting. I underestimated this game.

Brilliant: Stop being a punk. I played you last round and didn't eat mine, but this time I'll do it, I'll be a trooper. [she chuckles, sucking in her bottom lip and turning to view the camera] Pray for me, y'all. Count down, babe. [picks up a jelly bean]

Zyair: -chooses an orange jelly bean then playfully offers it to Justice before taking it back at the last moment- Nah, it might be yucky, Chunk. -chuckles some then begins to count down- 1, 2, 3.. -pops the candy into his mouth, keeping silent as he discovers the peach flavor-

Brilliant: [lifts her jelly bean up after his count and bites into her only to have her entire face to twist into disgusts afterwards. she swallows almost immediately] YO! EW! [she hurriedly grabs the bottle of water, squeezing the plastic to chug down the water to relieve her mouth of the taste. she turns away from the water bottle with her tongue extended outward in disgust before turning to him] I don't like you! I ain't doing another, I refuse.

Zyair: -cracks up at her reaction then shakes his head- Nah, nah, everything was cool a minute ago when i had the shit end of the stick and now you wanna throw in the towel? Better take that.

Brilliant: [she cuts her eyes at him, her glare being caught by the camera] You know what, I'm no punk, go ahead and spin the wheel so I can show you I ain't no punk. [laughs as she crosses her legs, turning to the camera, pretending to whisper] If I pick another nasty one, he's laying on Justice's floor tonight. Bet.

Zyair: Aight, aight, let's go. -chuckles then reaches out to spin the wheel, chuckling once the arrow rests on a multicolored jelly bean- Tutti Fruitti or Stinky Socks. -turns his head to continue laughing, holding a fist by his lips- It can't be worse than that milk, man. -faces the camera once again- It cannot be worse.

Brilliant: [she chuckles when it lands on the jellybean of choice. reaches for a jelly bean from the pile and holds it to his lips] Nah, ain't shit worst then that barf. Now eat up.

Justice: me tew? [he asks with a wide grin, leaning over to try and steal the jelly bean she's holding]

Zyair: Where's your jelly beans, Jus? -chuckles then chooses the correct colored bean before popping the candy into his mouth, mimicking chewing without truly biting in-

Brilliant: Aye! I was suppose to feed you the one in my hand and I had a good feeling it was stinky socks! You cheating. [she chuckles, picking up a  jelly bean from justice's bowl to place it in his mouth] There baby, this is a dangerous game and I really would hate if you had to taste gym socks. [turns to the camera with a laugh] Y'all see that? Zy would've let him eat it. [pops the jelly bean into her mouth and chews, before hollering out with her mouth ajar dramatically] NO bruh! Ew! [she snatches her bottle up to wash away the taste of the regular jelly bean with water, trying not to laugh to herself]

Zyair: I wouldn't have, i wouldn't have. Ha! -obnoxiously laughs once she begins to rinse her mouth then confidently bites into his own jelly bean before instantly dry heaving due to the unexpected taste- Oh, shit.. -repeatedly shakes his head as he forces himself to finish while Justice looks up at him with curiosity- That's bad.

Brilliant: And that's what you get for trying to cheat! Chewing like a cow, when you really chew little a little grandma. [laughs lowly as she turns to the camera] Ladies, this is why you should know every single thing about your man, it comes in handy. [leans over to peck his jawline] Are we done putting ourselves through misery?

Zyair: Who was cheating? -laughs in mock disbelief- We're done. I gotta run to the bathroom and brush my teeth. -grabs the water to take a lengthy swig- Never again.

Brilliant: WELL! There you have it guys, the winner of our here challenge is Justice-Chunky-Man-O'Neal! He managed to eat the most jelly beans without even having a sip of water. [chuckles as she holds Justice's arms up in the direction of the camera] Say yay!

Justice: [he grins, waving her arms above his head as he cheers in excitement] yeh! yeh! yeh!

Zyair: The champ, ladies and gentlemen. -nods with a chuckle- In the meantime, stay tuned for new content. We're cooking up for yall.

Brilliant: Stay tuned definitely! The next video is gonna be worth the wait, trust me. [turns towards Zyair with a smile] Y'all know what to do though! Like up, share, comment, subscribe, allat!

Zyair: -offers the camera a thumbs up- Like, share, comment, subscribe. Until next time.. -tightens his arm around Justice's waist before leaning over to peck Brilliant's lips, reaching out to end the video soon after-

*A short outro similar to the intro plays, and credits roll along the screen]

 VIEW COMMENTS

Tia Bia: But why Justice smash them beans like that? I canttt.

kennikinz: Zyair, that chain is glistening, I can’t take my eyes off it.

justjordyn: Bruhhh ya’ll faces say it all, I’m never doing this shit.

idcidc30421: Brilli has a bad attitude lol..Zyair you wouldn’t deal with that shit if you fucked with me.

in-formation2910: Umm when are we getting a Justice ONLY channel? OR his hair care and skin regime???

Taylor Love: Here for Justice.

coritherapper: Brilliant how did you lip color stay on the whole video? Deets???