#but i think what firo really wants right now is to feel like HE'S got it without needing others to save him | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

c4rdsharp · 2 years ago

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LADD RUSSO. ( @closedcoffins )

“Shame,” Ladd says, sounding genuinely a little disappointed. “I’ve been meaning to pay him a visit, too. Guess there’s no help for it. And anyway, I can just pop by his casino at any time, can’t I?” He’d only guessed Firo because of that desire, thinking it might just be another coincidence that happened to line up with everything else going on. But the world doesn’t work that way, and it doesn’t really bother Ladd that he was wrong. And anyways, catching up with Luck on its own might not really be a terrible thing, even if what he’s apparently planning on doing is less than entertaining.

If you asked Ladd, he’d probably say Luck isn’t cautious enough when it comes to his own skin. Sure, the guy can’t die, but going into what he assumes are negotiations of some kind without anyone to back him up…? No matter how amicable you are with the other person, this is still the underworld. If Ladd didn’t know it was apathy rather than arrogance, it might have even ticked him off a little.

As it is, though, he doesn’t really care quite that much about Luck’s personal safety. At least, not enough that he’d bother pointing that much out.

“It’s your guys’ business, isn’t it? I won’t complicate things by forcing myself into it. I won’t deny that I’m curious, but I really can’t standing just sitting back and watching people talk knowing I’m not exactly in a position to do what I really wanna do.” Not if he won’t have an opportunity to get violent, anyway, which he doubts he will. For all he might be able to hold himself back, the simple fact is just that he doesn’t want to, which is why he suspects Luck had let him know about what kind of meeting it was instead of outright forbidding him from going. Being told ‘no’, all Ladd would have done was insist on knowing what the fuss was about anyway. “Besides, you’re right. I wouldn’t even be there without askin’ you to pay me for my time.”

Still, that doesn’t deter him from hanging by Luck in the meantime. It might not even deter him from hanging around nearby anyway, just in case things do go ass-up and he’s suddenly got a new means of entertainment. The chances of that kind of thing happening are low, sure, but they’re never impossible.

“You know me a little too well!” he declares, laughing pretty loudly. “But that’s about what I expected. I did think you’d probably done a pretty thorough background check on me. Any boss worth his salt woulda done the same, but most just tend to stick to word of mouth alone. To be honest, I’m just a little flattered you went to the trouble. People like you who put a little thought behind this sort of thing, especially when I’m involved, are one of my favorite kinds of people.”

He wonders again if Luck would think it through that intensely if Ladd expressed a desire to kill him without any hostility between them. If Luck would feel fear right before the world went black, forgetting he can’t die for a second and panicking.

Not right now. Cut it out. Even if I wanna do it, we’re right out here in public. That’s part of the reason I wanna hang around ‘til later, too.

" while i'm sure you've meant that in flattering terms, i doubt the wisdom in taking the compliment. " Luck's voice held a stern quality to it, as if he were trying to affect Ladd's carefree demeanor with his own restraint. Not that he figured it would work, mind you. Perhaps merely an odd force of habit ; Ladd's general amiability was not so unlike that of Maria's. Of course, she was less of a wild card -- whatever they shared in their mutual like of violence, Ladd was always off the deeper end. It wasn't as if Maria sought to kill people in totality ; it was often times merely a consequence of her need to 'slash' them, no different than a child who couldn't quite grasp the severity of their actions. Ladd, though . . . he was far from naive. In fact, Luck would even consider him cautious in his own right, despite the somewhat arrogant way he carried himself. Of course, that seeming 'arrogance' may just be a result of his self - certainty. Unlike Luck, Ladd was capable of far more violence and meeting trouble head - on with his own. The ability to fight, in this sort of world, allowed those a certain type of freedom Luck was not privy enough to gain. One may even consider it a privilege of the strong. The way Ladd, Claire, Maria -- hell, even the way Berga -- acts can be rooted down to this very notion. Less concern, less worry, because violence can be met with more undue violence. It is simply a matter of who's more brutal about it. Of course, that isn't to say Luck wasn't capable of his own sort of violence -- it just simply could not stand to the brutality of his peers. The only real time it could was when . . . was when their hands were tied to begin with. He refrained from wincing at the thought. " in either case, it would've been foolish for me not to see to your history. i may have agreed to handling you myself, supposing you stepped out of line, but my men and my brothers had not. there was far more than my own life at risk. a man who acts without thought & consideration will be met with the same demise. " Luck's mind turned the clock back to that fateful encounter in 1932, where Gustavo Bagetta met his due punishment by the 'hand' of Luck Gandor himself ( heh ). Perhaps a more merciful ending than most would allow -- he had, unfortunately, survived & was sent to prison after his recovery. From there, Luck lost word of where he went. Not that he particularly cared ; he was a threat subdued for a time, and it was very clear Don Bartolo had no intention of bringing Gustavo back into the Runorata ranks. Still, there was an unspoken curious itch in his head. Where had he gone to, and how has he been? Luck hoped it was terribly. Gustavo deserved nothing less than a life full of suffering for the suffering he had inflicted upon them. Luck turned a corner, brown eyes returning into clarity as he took in the somewhat familiar angle of the street. Not many people were out, in general. A few stragglers here and there, but far from the usual bustling crowds one may find around Times Square or Broadway. Even New York City, the constant beehive, had to have its slow days. " . . . if i may, a slight change in topic . . . you spent most of your life in Chicago, correct? i wonder how you've been faring in the Big Apple. is it to your liking, or are shall i be hearing complaints? " It was only a passing curiosity, and way to keep the conversation moving forward. Besides, Luck always did like to know how outsiders saw his beloved hometown.

#( in character. ) nemo me impune lacessit #( thread. ) ladd russo / closedcoffins ; 002 #( main. ) if there was any difference at all it was just one thing: they were villains.

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the-blind-assassin-12 · 4 years ago

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Resol’nare - Part Four

A/N: Making jokes in tense situations is my coping mechanism and it is also Navina’s. And neither of us are funny under pressure. We sure do try though.

*this story will regularly be using words in Mando’a. for a good list of references click here.*

Summary: With Navina and Firo off to hit an abandoned Imperial base on Nevarro in hopes of scoring a hot new ride that won’t litter bolts all over the galaxy like the Flare will, and Mando responding to Cara’s holo about a beskar sighting, the stage is set for an introduction to remember... and hopefully not a bloody one.

Warnings: talk of death, violence, weapons, language

Word Count: 4.8k

Nevarro.

“You sure about this, Nav?” Firo peered through a pair of binocs, turning a dial on the side to zoom in. He had them pointed at the fenced off facility that they had cased out shortly after landing on the volcanic planet. Abandoned by the Empire twice now, the base, carved into the side of a cliff out past the lava flats, had still not been addressed by the New Republic. Although it was clear from their cursory recon that the place had taken some recent damage, it appeared as though it still housed plenty of small ships and speeders.

The plan had originally been to fly in on the Flare, Firo’s current ship, and set down on the landing pad. They’d discussed it first in the caves on Yavin, Firo sharing the location of the base and what limited information he had heard from a fellow smuggler over a game of Sabacc. Rumored to have no security detail, not even droids, they had figured that it would be an easy job. Load up the Flare and another small ship with a few speeders that they could sell on the black market, then split up, Firo in his ship and Navina in the one previously owned by the Empire. The goal was to be in and out and off of the planet so quickly that even if there were cameras or sensors on the base, they’d be long gone before anyone could turn up to stop them. And that had seemed completely feasible. Until now.

Plans have never really been my thing anyway. “I’m sure.” Besides, this might actually work out to my benefit...

Pulling the lenses away from his eyes, he turned to face her. “Even though the Marshal is-”

“Since when has a Marshal ever stopped us, Firo?” She shot him her cockiest smirk, casually crossing her ankles as she leaned her palm against the Flare’s hull. “Since when has-” Her friend gritted his teeth and tried to stop her, but it was too late. The panel she’d chosen to press her weight into gave under pressure, the metal creaking as it dented inwards sending Navina off balance. “Woah!” Firo sucked air through his teeth as he reached out to help her catch herself, but she brushed him off with a huff that he knew she had to work hard not to allow to turn into a laugh. “Alright, on an unrelated note, you need to have that looked at.” She pointed at the flimsy piece that upon closer inspection she realized had been poorly soldered on in an attempt to reinforce a previous repair. Shaking her head, she looked up at the ship and then back at Firo. “I can’t believe I got on this thing and flew here with you.”

“Hey!” He tried to keep a straight face too, but a snicker threatened to turn into a full blown snort if he didn’t let it out. “Alright, yeah, she needs some work.” That’s the understatement of the century. “Still beats taking a commuter shuttle though, Harsa,” he teased, knowing that she had had to put up with a series of shuttle transfers to get to Yavin from Coruscant, and that it was her least favorite way to travel the galaxy.

“Not if she falls apart the second you make the jump to hyperspace,” she teased back. He couldn’t come up with anything quickly enough, so she steered the conversation back to the task at hand. “But as I was saying, we’ve always been able to get around the Marshals we’ve come across. We’ll just have to... “ She shrugged. “Improvise.” With that, she turned and headed around the back of the ship to climb the ramp. Taking a large step up as the ramp no longer opened all the way, she sighed. This ship is a kriffing disaster.

“Improvise?” Firo followed her around and hoisted himself up onto the ramp as she started rifling through her bag to gather what she would need. He crossed his arms and tilted his head, watching as she pulled two comm links from an inner compartment.

Navina blew into one of them, then tapped the receiving end to make sure it was still in working order. “Yeah,” she said, tossing it to him with a grin. He snatched it out of the air and tucked it into the front pocket of his pants. “Improvise.” She checked the second comm link, giving it a shake for good measure before hiding it away under her shawl.

Firo waited for her to look back up at him to respond. “We are pretty good at that.”

“Good? Who’s better?” She asked with a wink, turning back to her bag to dig out her armor. “Remember that time on Onderon?” She pulled out a purple painted shoulder pauldron, untwisting the leather straps that were used to keep it in place. “When we-”

“Nav?” He cut her off then, walking completely through the doorway to stand in front of her, and she knew instantly that he was concerned. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and set the second pauldron on top of the first one, the durasteel clinking softly. With a sigh, he went on, green-gold eyes narrowing briefly and his lips turning down into a slight frown. “I know there’s... something you’re not telling me.”

She stiffened, a sudden wave of guilt making her wince. He’s right. There was a lot she hadn’t told him, and while she had reasoned that the less he knew about some of her plans the safer he’d be, she also knew better than to think that he wouldn’t be able to tell when she was being withholding. He knows me better than anyone, of course he knows that I’m… that something’s… “Firo, I-”

“Look,” he placed a hand on her shoulder, gently turning her the rest of the way so that he could look straight at her as he spoke. “I didn’t want to say anything on Yavin, because I know that,” his forehead furrowed and he swallowed as he dropped his arm back to his side. “I know... what time of the year it is. I know that,” he shook his head and dropped his chin. “I know you were hoping that…dank farrik.”

He knew that she was hoping that this would be the year that she would be reunited with her father and the little one. Navina’s mother was gone, that was a fact, but the rest of her family was a mystery. He knew that she only allowed herself those three days to hope that they were still alive, because the last time that they had seen each other they had agreed on a designated time each year that they would return to Yavin 4, the last place they had called home, if it were safe for them to do so. She and her mother had missed the first few years, the need to stay hidden keeping them from being able to make the trip. At that time her parents were still able to at least transmit the occasional holo, and while she wanted nothing more than to be able to see her father and the child that she affectionately called verd’ika, she understood, even then, that their hiding was necessary. This is the Way. She could remember thinking it even then, could hear her own small voice repeating the words back to her mother, the two of them tucking their hopes away for another year.

Twenty three years later, she was still packing and unpacking that hope, the thing riddled with creases and worn thin along the folds. She knew that the odds weren’t good that her family was still alive, or if they were, that they hadn’t been captured or separated. Regardless, every year she gave herself three days to air that hope, to go home and wait for them to join her there. But this year was no different from the last one. They’re- she squeezed her eyes shut against the word. No. She wouldn’t even think the word until she had confirmation.

Ni partayli, gar darasuum. I remember you, so you are eternal. As the phrase played in her head, she reached under the cowl of her shawl for the pendant around her neck, squeezing it until she could feel the tusks digging into her palm and then running her finger around the rim of one carved eye, nail scratching against the hard, faceted stone that had been set inside. I remember.

And she had been remembering so much lately, the flashes from the night they had fled Concordia coming much more clearly than ever before. It made no sense to her that she would suddenly be able to recall clips of dialogue or images of faces with increasing ease as more time passed, but for the last few months that had been the case. And then when Firo had found her father’s kal, it had been too simple to give in to the time-worn hope, too tempting to see it as a sign. But it had obviously been there the whole time, she told herself, despite the fact that it wasn’t obvious at all.

She hadn’t told Firo about the increased power or frequency with which the amethyst tinted memories were coming to her, but that wasn’t all she was keeping from him, and it was the second omission that she truly felt guilty about. He was extremely gracious in granting her whatever level of secrecy or privacy she wanted or needed when it came to her family and the closure that she longed for there. While he knew she didn’t truly consider herself to be a Mandalorian as she’d never sworn the Creed or been fitted for her own armor, he understood that she still held fast to the traditions and beliefs that she was raised on; that her clan - her aliit, one of the few Mando’a words that Firo had picked up through the years, and one that Navina thought was appropriate for him, always looking at him as a brother of sorts - was bonded together indelibly, and that she’d never turn her back on that bond.

The guilt she felt was in no way related to her family or Yavin or her memories. It was in regards to what she’d heard in the lower levels of Coruscant, the city under the city at the center of the galaxy. A rumor, but one she’d been chasing for a long time, had caught her attention, and she couldn’t let it go until she’d seen it through, and it was for that reason that she was insistent upon going through with their plan to hit the abandoned base. Yes, she needed a ship. Firo could do with a new one, too, honestly. But she also needed to know if what she’d heard was true- that the Darksaber had changed hands once more… but that it had once more eluded both of the women who sought it most fiercely, herself, so that she could destroy it, and Bo-Katan of House Kryze, the radical who at one point plotted to overthrow her own sister for the Mandalorian throne. And if it is true, if it’s no longer in Imperial hands… I need to know who has it now.

While she didn’t know the exact location of it, Navina knew that there had been, until recently, a Mandalorian covert here on Nevarro. She had no idea how large their numbers were, only that there had been a very violent standoff with the Imperial remnant who’s base she and Firo were about to loot. But the most interesting part of the rumors that she had collected in her travels from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim, was that the New Republic’s Marshal stationed there had been linked to a Mandalorian- to the Mandalorian that the Imps had been targeting. So when she saw the woman with the badge pinned to her belt and the heavy blaster rifle she carried with absolute confidence, it had the exact opposite effect that that sort of deterrent would have on anyone else. I need to know. She sighed, binging one hand up to her forehead and pushing it back over her scalp. She grabbed the base of her long, thick braid and followed it down to the end, pulling it as she looked back up at her friend. But he needs to know, too.

“Firo, it’s…”

“It’s about that damn saber, isn’t it?” He raised one eyebrow in a high arch, and her stunned silence paired with the stupefied expression she knew she was wearing answered for her. “Yeah,” he nodded. “I know. You get…” he squinted at her, “you act differently when you have a lead on something about your family or that kriffing sword.”

“Firo,” she reached for his arms, her hands cuffing around his biceps to emphasize how important this was to her. “That kriffing sword is what-”

Bending his elbows, he grabbed her hands and pulled them down, not angrily but forcefully, holding her wrists as he spoke. “I know. I know what you… how you feel about it and about what it stands for and… and the part it played in…” He clamped his eyes shut then, but before he did she noticed how prominent the golden flecks in them were. He’s nervous. Of the two of them, Firo was absolutely more likely to worry when it came to her safety. She flinched, knowing that she had given him plenty of reasons to throughout the span of their friendship. The scrapes that he typically got himself into were almost always easy enough to weasel him out of with a little careful negotiation or a generous bribe. The spots she found herself in however, usually resulted in drawn blasters and blades. He let out a breath and released his grip on her wrists. “Nav, I just need to know you’re not gonna get yourself killed.”

She clicked her tongue, trying to lighten the mood. “Come on, Firo, I’m a hard woman to kill. I have the-”

“The scars to prove it,” he finished the second part of her sentence in unison with her, rolling his eyes. “I know. I’m trying to be serious here, Harsa.”

“I know.” She said it quietly, blinking up at him as his hard frown softened. “I’m sorry, Firo, I should have told you what I was…” she shook her head, the end of her braid bouncing behind her. “I should have told you that I knew about…” she groaned, leaning forward until her forehead met his chest.

To her surprise she felt it rumble as he chuckled. Huh? He’s… laughing? She picked her head up, a confused look on her face. “Apologizing is really rough for you, isn’t it?”

With that she let out a laugh of her own. “Only with you though, isn’t that strange?” She winked at him, swatting at his stomach.

“Very strange indeed,” he agreed, intercepting her swat and pushing her hand away. “Alright. So we’re improvising. What have you got so far?”

Her grin climbed her cheeks then, and she laid out her new plot. “Not going to get myself killed, Firo. Just captured.”

Less than an hour later they were prepped and ready to put their backup plan into action. Navina removed her gray shawl, strapping her purple chestplate and pauldrons to the black flak vest she wore over her short sleeved black top. Next she wrapped her wrists in padded black fabric and slid the vambraces over them. The left one was utterly useless in terms of weaponry; it appeared as though at one point it was equipped with whistling birds, but the mechanism had been damaged by the previous owner and now its only use was protection. But it’s beskar, so it’s worth wearing. The right one still had a functioning flamethrower, though it was low on fuel, and a grappling line, though it had snared the last time she tried to deploy it so she made a mental note not to count on it cooperating this time either. Holstering her blaster on her thigh, she took her father’s beskar kal from her bag, attaching the sheath she had made for it on the trip to Nevarro to her belt. The last piece of armor she donned was her mother’s helmet, the traditional “T” shaped visor smashed along the eyeline, but the modulator and audio features still in working order.

“Well look at you, Nav, you look like a real live Mando if I ever saw one.” You haven’t, bantha brain. “I like the,” he grasped his right wrist with his left hand, a quizzical look coming over his face as he tried to search for the right word. “Those things.”

Firo had armed himself as well, a pair of blasters on his hips, a small knife in his boot, and a handful of different blaster cartridges on his bandolier that he could switch out for different effects if necessary. Navina felt a knot twist in her stomach though as she remarked not for the first time that he wore no armor at all, nothing to protect him but his speed if triggers were pulled down there. We’ve got to change that if this is the type of thing we’re going to be doing.

“Alright,” she let out a breath and locked her eyes with his through her broken visor. “Last chance to back out. This is my thing, you don’t have to be involved if you-”

“Would you knock it off already?” He tapped the side of her helmet softly, the action causing her to snort as she recalled the first time he’d bopped her on the head while she was wearing the beskar helmet, and how he had nearly broken his hand. “You ready?” She nodded. I am. “Okay. Let’s go get you captured I guess.” Grumbling under his breath about how he had a feeling that he was going to regret this, he walked down the ramp, hopping off the edge where it dangled a foot or two from the ground. She followed on his heels, smiling to herself.

Since they were changing the plan, they were no longer flying the Flare down to the base’s landing pad, as only one of them- Firo- would be flying out. Instead they left the dilapidated ship where it was and headed for the entrance furthest from where the Marshal and the man she had with her were stationed. Navina would hold them off, distracting them while Firo made his way up to the landing pad to make off with a ship, and then hopefully, after she found out what she needed to know and got herself out of whatever lockup situation the New Republic’s Marshals instituted on Nevarro, she’d rendezvous with him here where the Flare was waiting, and they would head for some place where they could lay low for a week or two. They had their comm links in case they needed to contact one another after they separated. But Navina had a good feeling about how this was going to go. She kept that to herself though, sure that Firo would have some snarky comment about how her good feelings were almost always bad portents.

As they neared the edge of the cliff face that had been providing them cover, Navina reached out and stopped Firo in his tracks. “Promise me you’ll bail if I tell you to.”

“Uh oh,” he joked. “You have a good feeling, don’t you?”

“Firo,” she groaned. “I mean it. Promise me if I tell you to leave you will. I-”

“I promise, Nav.” He acquiesced then, giving the tail of her braid a slight tug where it stuck out from the bottom of her helmet. “Now, let’s go.”

She nodded, and with that, they split, both heading off in different directions- Firo towards the secondary entrance that they’d found on their initial recon mission a few days back, and Navina straight towards the waiting Marshal. She glanced back over her shoulder as she reached the last of the small boulders she was darting between for cover, and seeing Firo’s boots disappear through the door, she took a deep breath and ran.

“What’s the town to do with the law this far out on the flats?” Navina projected her voice over the empty space as she rounded the corner, making for where she knew the two temporary sentinels were waiting.

But the second she got close, a third figure stepped into view, one that halted her in her tracks. Dank. Farrik. She raised her hands, palms facing outwards, as the sharp end of a long beskad stopped just shy of her helmet. Holding it was the most imposing Mandalorian she had ever laid eyes on. The man wasn’t much taller than she was, but the stance he took, the way that he held his body and his weapon would have been enough for her to know that he was a formidable fighter. On top of that, he was covered head to toe in beskar armor more pure and pristine than she knew to exist. The sword in his gloved hand was just the first that she noticed of what she now realized were many weapons- a blaster, spear, and vibroblade all visible, plus whatever devices he had installed on his vambraces. And that’s just what I can see. A Mandalorian like this one was liable to have at least four more weapons concealed. A Mando like this is a weapon.

The Marshal and the the older man that had been waiting with her- as bait, Navina realized too late- stepped up behind the Mandalorian, the woman speaking. “You got this from here, Mando? I’m gonna go check out what her friend is up to inside.” Navina scowled at the woman who gave her a condescending look before the man answered.

“Sure. I can take care of her. Take Karga with you.” He hadn’t turned away from Navina, and he hadn’t lowered his weapon. His voice, though modulated through his helmet, sounded calm and even, and she knew that while it likely offered some of his prey a false sense of comfort, she knew better. The Marshal and the other man didn’t hesitate to do as he said, the woman telling him to call for her if she needed him. He won’t, Navina fumed at her retreating figure.

Neither of them said anything until the other two were out of sight, and all Navina could do was hope that Firo was running through the base at top speed. He just needs to get off of the pad, get out of here and then he’s-

“Are you a Mandalorian?” He asked the question as he slid the end of his blade up onto the curve of the armor on her left shoulder, the beskar sword scraping a long divot into the top layer of painted durasteel with a sharp shing.

She let her eyes flick down to where the blade sat without moving her head, hands still in front of her. Stall. Give Firo more time to get out. The blade had only cut through the outer shell of her pauldron, but he had barely used any force at all and she knew she had to answer carefully because one wrong word or uncalculated move would cost her more than the time needed to repair her armor. He’ll chop my arm clean off with that thing. “That depends on who you ask,” she raised her eyes back up to where his would be if she could see them, noticing a sculpted signet in the shape of a mudhorn on his own shoulder piece.

“I’m asking you,” he answered, tone shedding some of its evenness as with the quick turn of his wrist the blade slipped between her pauldron and flak vest, slicing it off in one fluid motion. “And I want an answer. Are you a Mandalorian? Did you swear the Creed?”

Loud bangs coming from the landing pad above them told her that Firo was almost home free. Just a few more seconds. “I was never given the chance to. My clan was attacked when I was a child.” Honesty seemed the best course of action at this point. Though she was a skilled fighter, Navina knew when she was outmatched and outgunned.

“Your armor,” he nodded his head in her direction then, the first move he’d made that hadn’t been to slice her pauldron to pieces. “How did you come by it if it wasn’t made for you?”

“Took the pauldrons and chest piece from a trooper,” she stated, though she knew that was the least of his cares. “These?” she raised her wrists up higher, “these I stole from a back ally trader. You want ‘em? They’re yours.” He nodded again, and she mirrored the gesture, glancing up to the pad as the rumbling sound of thrusters preparing to take off told her that Firo was going to make it out safely. Good. That’s all that… all that matters. She slowly pulled the vambraces from her wrists, tossing them at the Mandalorian’s feet. “They’re busted and they don’t fit, so by all means.”

“Your helmet.” He demanded.

“Now that I will not be parting with,” she told him, trying to muster up all of the evenness that she could.

“It looks like pure beskar.” It wasn’t a question.

“It is. It’s the only piece of pure beskar I own, aside from,” she pointed to her belt with one hand, the other still suspended in the air between them. He nodded his approval for her to pull the kal from the sheath. “Aside from this.” Holding the dagger out for him to see, she brought it slowly up to his beskad and clanged them together, the sound ringing out and making it clear to both of them that both blades were entirely pure. “And I won’t be giving you either of them, Mando.” Sheathing her kal again, she brought that same hand up to her chest, digging under the flimsy armor and pulling out her mother’s mythosaur necklace. “They belonged to my parents, and if you want them you’re going to have to kill me.”

At the sight of the pendant he lowered his weapon and cocked his head to the side. “The Mythosaur… but what is, why is there…”

Navina looked down at the pendant in her hand then, the stone visible in its eyes seeming to glow a fierce shade of purple. She sucked in a breath as she brought her other hand up to cover it, thinking that it was just the harsh Nevarro sun that was causing it to shine more brightly than it ever had before. But when shaded by her other palm the purple light seemed only to shine brighter. “It’s never… it’s never done that before, never so…”

Just then a comm link clicked in the Mandalorian’s pocket, and he pulled it out, pressing the button on the side. “Cara,” he spoke the woman’s name.

“The other one got away with a ship and a few speeders. You good down there?”

Navina felt a fleeting relief as she heard that Firo was off the base and that he’d even managed to make it profitable for himself. The Mandalorian stared at her for long seconds before answering, holding the communicator in his fist close to his helmet. “I’m taking this one back with me.” With that, he switched off the communicator and put it back in his pocket, unhooking a set of binders from his hip. “I can put these on you and you can follow me,” he offered, “Or,” he looked down at the blaster on his hip. “I can set that to stun and-”

Navina shoved her wrists in his direction. “Clap ‘em on then,” she sighed and he did, securing them so smoothly she was sure he’d done it hundreds of times at least. “Where uh… where are we going?”

Sheathing his sword on his belt, he looked straight at her and answered. “No questions.” He bent down and picked up the discarded vambraces, then started walking in the opposite direction. When she didn’t follow right away, he reached for his blaster. “I’m not sure when the last time I used the stun setting was,” he said, hand poised over his weapon. “Not sure if it still works.” Looking back over his shoulder at her, he finished the threat. “Don’t make me test it on you.”

“This is the Way,” she responded reluctantly.

With that he started walking again, Navina following closely behind in silence.

Nope. Plans are not my thing.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the tags! :)

tags: @something-tofightfor @alraedesigns @pheedraws @valkblue @malionnes @gollyderek

#resol’nare #the mandalorian fanfic #mando fanfic #din djarin #mando #the mandalorian fic #the mandalorian #din djarin x oc #mando x oc #sw fanfic #oc: navina harsa #oc: firostian ottabok #beskad vs kal #oof tough draw nav #this is the way #cara dune #greef karga #anyway cara dune is a great character who was portrayed by a shitbag so that's where i stand on that #bo-katan

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whetstonefires · 5 years ago

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Sephiroth, 1, 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 20. I find your take on him so interesting! (And kind of sad too...)

Oh gosh this is so many! Haha okay, here goes.

1.Their physical weak spots

Huh. He’s programmed to be literally impossible to damage in the one actual fight in the Nibel flashback, the dragon. I theorize this might have been his first-level Limit? But of course you can’t use a Limit unless you’ve been injured first. (Apparently they reversed this in the Remake which is a major thematic change and I don’t like it? Anyway tho.)

So on one level his physical untouchability is part of his trademark and there’s a temptation to say ‘none’ and be done with it.

Normal human weak spots, I imagine, he’s not as alien as all that. The throat is the throat, I mean. His disinclination for wearing shirts may suggest an indifference to thoracic damage, but between his tendency to not get hit at all and the existence of healing magic that doesn’t necessarily mean much.

The vertical pupils which can dilate much further than normal would make him particularly vulnerable to flashbangs used in a dark or even dim environment. I assume Wutaian ninjas exploited the heck out of that. :D

2. Their emotional/moral weak spots

Abandonment issues was a big one, I think, and all the huge gaping vulnerabilities created by being a child with no one to love, or who loved you.

Thinking outside of Shinra’s standard pathways is a matter of some anxiety to him, in Crisis Core–his idea of resistance is ‘find my friend first and then oops fail to kill him they can’t prove it was on purpose’ and then later ‘turn down the assignment to find my friend and kill him.’ There’s just, a lot of emotional dependence on a toxic structure indicated by his behavior patterns.

I’m sure that was deliberately instilled, but it’s not that hard. His superpowers aren’t Superman scale self-sufficient until after he ‘dies’ once, and capitalism does what it does. He’s not much less dependent on the Company for survival than the average worker, and more so for identity.

Morally he was disadvantaged by being a corporate supersoldier with Hojo as his parent–the details of his upbringing have never been clarified but they sure didn’t put him anywhere outside Shinra enough for him to form external attachments, or even powerful internal personal ones prior to the rather shaky ones he managed with two peers sometime in adolescence, which leaves fairly few possibilities really.

Anyway morally he’s nothing but weaknesses, even before he got tangled up with The Thing From The Northern Crater and decided he was God and should consume all life. ^^;

5. Guilty pleasures

You know, I don’t think even pre-evil Sephiroth did guilt much? Waste of energy, and (see above) he wasn’t socialized for it, it’s counterproductive in a soldier. The ‘guilt’ in guilty pleasure is really a species of shame though, and anyone with that much pride is vulnerable to the opposite, even if they weren’t exposed to someone like Hojo growing up….

You know, it was probably novels? He was a reader, and one of the most personal things we know about him from the OG is the deep impression left by Hojo’s furious rant about how inappropriate it was to use poetic expressions about magic. Even ‘magic’ was too sentimental for this domineering science twit.

So, every so often growing Sephiroth would get his hands on a piece of fiction, and the quality wasn’t necessarily great because it was whatever he could pick up in the break room or wherever, but he’d hole up out of sight and scarf it down. Even once he had his own living space and salary and could buy whatever books he wanted and store them, he’d pick up novels on the sly and get rid of them once he was done, like someone was going to catch him. One of the things he used to pick out of the ruins in Wutai during the looting was books.

He always felt a confusing mess of jealousy and scorn about Genesis’ Loveless thing. That he could just like it like that, constantly, right out in the open, where anyone could laugh at him. That nobody had ever taken it away.

Less tragically, I think sometimes he’d go home and watch bad TV. Whatever Midgar’s stupidest soap opera was. Sephiroth caught enough of the reruns to know most of the main plots. He had an opinion about who the father of Jaqueline’s baby should have turned out to be. He would never admit this.

9. Humiliating memories

Okay, as touched on above repeatedly, he grew up with Hojo, who loves breaking people down and laughing at them, so he’s probably got a lot of these.

The worst one is one time when he had a weak moment or an optimistic one, and asked out loud in words for something he really, really wanted, and Hojo said yes, and gave Sephiroth just enough time to get desperately excited and express gratitude before laughing at him and saying of course he was lying. Don’t be stupid.

That isn’t something important enough to bother with.

12. Grudges and vendettas

‘Burning inside with violent anger’ isn’t there for no reason. From Nibelheim on these define him, and according to bonus materials of middling canon status he eventually sheds almost all identity elements but his grudges.

I think, based on the shape of his breakdown? That for most of his life he told himself that holding onto anger and pursuing grudges was a waste of time and energy. But that didn’t actually help him let any of it go, he just internalized and ignored things. Because he wasn’t actually not holding grudges, he was just reacting like someone who didn’t have any choices, and marinating in spite.

Spite against Hojo surfaces on the way up to the reactor in a way that says to me it’s a habit, almost a reflex. But it manifests in profound pettiness, and I think that’s the only way he normally felt he was permitted to act out against the people who really bothered him, though I’m also sure he channeled a lot of anger into unrelated killing. Natural thing to do when you’re a frustrated teenager who’s supposed to be killing people anyway.

By the time he did it in Nibelheim, it was an old habit.

The fact that he bothered to personally kill the Shinra President as his big debut says to me he was holding a grudge about his entire life against the person who commissioned him and declared the war and shaped the floating Midgar-world that defined his life. I think there were probably a lot of personal insults in there too, just because of the way Shinra Sr. seems to have conducted himself generally.

He’s a Donald Trump expy wouldn’t you.

Sephiroth is written as a much softer person in Crisis Core, almost absurdly so, but even there you can see him resenting Genesis and Angeal more than a little for abandoning him. It probably brought back his whole mess of feelings about Gast, who really did abandon him quite unforgivably but Sephiroth never knew the full circumstances, just that he was gone and later dead. There are signs he blamed Hojo, who doesn’t seem to have gloated openly about the murder even if he did make sure to inform the boy his favorite person was dead now.

And of course later on there’s Cloud, which doesn’t actually make that much sense until you loop in the retcon about Cloud throwing him into the reactor and cutting short his initial rampage. There’s the grudges he seems to have inherited from Jenova, against the Cetra.

It’s not out of the question that he killed Aerith the way he did in part because she was the thing Gast abandoned him for, as well as all the other less personal reasons. I sort of like to think so.

16. Dark secrets/’skeletons in the closet’

Of his own, as opposed to ‘about him’ that he found out about, I don’t think he really had many? He wasn’t much accustomed to privacy.

I think most of the worst things he did, as a human being rather than a transhuman monstrosity, were pretty unavoidably public; they were war crimes, and happened in front of some fraction of the rest of the army. He was praised for them.

There probably were a lot of dark things he never talked to anyone about, that weren’t really known, but except for outright humiliating childhood incidents like above he wasn’t particularly hiding them. He was just never in a position where it would have made any sense to him to bring them up.

Genesis wasn’t ever someone it was safe to be vulnerable around, and Angeal was uncomfortable with too much emotion, and besides they were fellow soldiers and it wasn’t like the things he didn’t talk about from the war were anything special, and he wasn’t going to complain about his childhood to them. And who else was there?

Dude needed so much therapy.

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines

I go absolutely nuts with alternate timelines for Sephiroth. He’s so much fun to work with that way.

Lucretia and Vincent stole the baby and went on the run: Firo grew up kinda isolated in the woods with his parents but runs away at thirteen to fight Shinra because he’s so mad they had to leave Wutai because of the invasion. Parzival AU.

Ifalna recruited Sephiroth to her escape scheme and he wound up raising Aerith on the run, under the names Rith and Roth. Beloved Dust AU, that one’s actually online as you may very well know lol.

Vincent blew up the Nibelheim reactor with Hojo and Jenova in it when Sephiroth was six, and then later Midgar blew up as well and the Shinra world order collapsed, and the recently married Mrs. Strife adopted the weird lab kid. Later on Cloud pressures his big brother into starting an anti-bandit militia. Time Of General Strife AU.

Cute three-way blood brothers ceremony contaminates Genesis’ body with Sephiroth’s DNA and sets off his degeneration several years early, when they’re all teenagers and not nearly as famous, powerful, or fucked in the head. Brother and Brother AU.

And so on. ;}

#ask #ask meme #sephiroth #ffvii #hoc est meum #a nonny mouse #any time tags on asks could come back that would be great #meta #headcanons #backstory #thank you!#hope this suited

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isaacdian · 5 years ago

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hope you don't mind me asking, do you have any Isaac and Miria headcanons? i'd love to read some from you. you appear to have a good grasp on the characters, and great love for them. :)

aw thank you so much for the ask, sure thing!

some of these will probably get into theory territory as well, because i’ve had the novels sitting in my mind for years now, and there are a few details i’d like to mention (beware of baccano light novel spoilers, just in case).

this could get a bit long, so you can read it below the cut:

i’ll write my headcanons/thoughts in no particular order. more people might have come to similar conclusions, but i don’t think i’ve seen any posts or had any discussions with anyone regarding these (at least in depth), so!

- i like to think that miria and isaac ran away from their then (seemingly) unhappy lives after they got to interact with each other for quite a while, and not spontaneously upon meeting for the first time.

there isn’t much evidence to back this up beyond some characters commenting that they “were probably runaways” or that “maybe they eloped”, so they might have escaped together on the spot, since we already know they can be very impulsive. however, i get this feeling that their bond took some time to develop, and i’d love to see some of their interactions as isaac dian —and— miria harvent before they ever became isaac & miria, if that makes sense.

i doubt they met too long before their string of robberies, though? this is such a weirdly specific and probably meaningless thing to pinpoint, but in 1935 miria asks isaac if he’s ever been to the circus, and he responds that he does remember animals, but he doesn’t remember if that was the circus or the zoo. this hardly means anything, but their circumstances overall don’t really make me think that they’ve known each other since they were too young.

- whatever optimism and general exhilaration regarding life isaac has is innate. on the other hand, miria has mostly acquired her own sense of hopefulness over time, with isaac’s help.

miria is a 100% confirmed literal ray of sunshine and this indisputable. it just hasn’t/doesn’t always come to her as effortlessly as it may seem. bloody to fair isaac and miria magic show color page.png

this is somewhat related to the next one (and also the last point i’ll mention at the end of this post):

- when isaac gets arrested and he and miria get separated in 1934, they’re both having an equally hard time dealing with this.

okay this one is like. obvious ksjksk. but i wanted to talk about how they deal with this situation, because at first glance it looks like miria got the shortest end of the stick here. and in a way, that might be true! i’ve already mentioned that miria herself has been shown thinking about how much isaac helped her to be happy, and narita has been deliberately vague regarding the nature of their silliness, on top of hinting at the possibility of their shenanigans being a kind of mechanism to escape the harsh realities of life from the rolling bootlegs (very first novel), if i recall correctly.

(btw:

i recall that somewhere in the 1935 arc, graham starts talking with the usual “let me tell you a sad, sad story” prelude. however, isaac and miria are upset by this, and they tell him that he shouldn’t tell sad stories, because if you do it, your happiness will run away. meanwhile, this part in cloudy to rainy living rent free in my head:

i have to laugh..........)

that being said, i couldn’t help but feel like isaac was having an equally bad time, even if he displayed it in a different and not so blatant way. while i was rereading the novels after i got to buy the official english release, i felt very strongly that something was definitely wrong about their separation, which, again, is obvious to us readers and to the characters who know isaac & miria. but it extends beyond that. there was this general feeling of knowing that whoever came across an unaccompanied isaac would magically feel like there was something missing. i don’t know how else to explain this. he’s still full of energy and optimism and he’s fueled by his desire to reunite with miria, but every time he’s shown hesitating or doesn’t reach a satisfying conclusion while thinking about a frivolous topic, it hits you like “oh... right” (firo didn’t help much on that last front, either, so miria and isaac must have had to discuss what exactly happens to fellas who don’t believe in fairies after their reunion... lol)

in short, he needs miria just as much as she needs him. this is something i’ve seen other people mention as well: isaac might be the “force” factor in their relationship, but that force won’t amount to much without miria’s “direction”, and viceversa. the lift each other up, and they keep each other grounded, too.

i’m also remembering isaac and sham’s conversation and just. there’s a self-esteem/confidence factor in there. Fun Game of Spot the Difference

and this is getting ridiculously long, so i’ll spare you from having to read my dumb thots about isaac’s (possibly real) fear of miria not liking him, as the narrator implies, which i subconsciously ended up linking to that one impossibly crack ending in the ds game, where you pick the option of him not knowing frankenstein’s monster’s real name, so miria leaves him after realizing how “cheap and uncool” he is LMAO

- isaac’s father might have been an academic of some sort, as well as a stern man who disapproved of his son’s flighty and childish tendencies.

???????? besides miria’s implied tragic backstory, the most we know about both of their pasts is that isaac comes from a wealthy family with whom he seems to have a bad relationship with, so even though i’ve tried to work out other details (his parents’ provenance for instance?) i can’t really elaborate on this. even if isaac’s knowledge on the topic is pretty scrambled (to put it nicely lol), he knows a lot about “the orient” as he puts it, and the “dian” surname is pretty unique so who knows!👀 i’ve only mentioned his father because isaac, too, has only mentioned his "old man” twice so far in the novels, if i’m not mistaken. in my opinion, it also speaks volumes how flustered isaac got when molsa apologized to him, because it was the first time someone older than him has done this. and this is pretty arbitrary, but if isaac started robbing and getting into trouble before he and miria even met and/or before he got kicked out/ran away from home, that whole deal about “being used to dealing with policemen” (in the unofficial translation i read back in the day it was something along the lines of “this isn’t my first time being interrogated by the police”) in 1934 would make sense, i guess, considering that miria didn’t realize what was going on at the moment even though she’s a fairly perceptive person.

anyways it’s too bad we don’t know that much about miria on this front, also!! i get the vague feeling that she might have also come from a wealthy family (probably not a good environment, though), since in 1935 it’s mentioned that the closest they’ve ever gotten to working/having a job was when they were digging for gold, apparently. that’s why i can’t really think of anything too specific regarding miria’s past and upbringing... i have a feeling that she might have felt alone, trapped and/or overwhelmed. let’s just hope that when she said her bruises would heal up fine with ice in 1935 it had nothing to do with this “i should have died” business :(((

- even though isaac and miria love their friends and would do anything for them, they aren’t particularly attached to anyone (or any place) besides each other.

this is more of an observation than a headcanon, but i find it really interesting: they would definitely do anything for their friends, and they do enjoy life very intensely, but that’s precisely why they don’t seem to be fixed in one singular spot? basically, i feel like they’re the personification of “home is where the heart is” taken to the extreme. they could go anywhere and do anything as long as they have each other, and they will never make any attempts to actively do things that make it easier to label their relationship, such as getting married, which is heavily implied by firo (i think) in 2002 bullet garden (i think!!). that’s also part of the reason why i’m sure they’d never find themselves commiting to things like taking care of a pet, or a child; it’s more like they instantly “adopt” everyone they run into, as if they’ve always been friends, even if they won’t meet again for months, years, or ever again. anyway, isaac and miria are extremely good and they are literally going to be happy together forever and ever! they don’t need to prove that.

that doesn’t mean they’re not sentimental, though! i like to think that they keep some meaningful objects that remind them of fond memories of their friends. and this is hardly canon because it shows up in the anime And in a background at that, but shoutout to the rocking toy horse in their california mine lol.

- miria knew about her own immortality (as well as isaac’s) before the 2000s.

THIS IS PROBABLY MY SPICIEST TAKE and i tried to back it up in the next point of this list. i still keep thinking i’m reading too much, into this but

i can’t stop thinking about the implications, folks

which brings us to:

- miria is smarter than isaac is and actually has a fairly good idea of when he’s making stuff up, but is happy to let him take the lead.

i won’t deny that isaac and miria dedicate a huge chunk of their day to doing moronic stuff, and they are pretty dumb, but i feel like people don’t give them enough credit for how perceptive they are. even though that’s true of the two of them, i feel like this mostly applies to miria.

among other things, we’ve learned that she knows ronny isn’t human and has supernatural powers (wow), which is why she comes to him for help after isaac’s arrest. she’s very good at paying attention to small details, such as the kind of programs ennis watches on tv, or chané’s feelings, when the two talk in 1934. miria also “really knows her way around japanese” and has been shown to --apparently?-- multiply large numbers in her head in 1935... while isaac was talking about how good of an idea it would be to use the martingale betting system. not to mention how isaac stated he “doesn’t know how to count money” earlier in this arc. my god ksdjgjks. i want to know what’s up with this, if anything.

so, yeah! there’s probably more stuff that i could mention, but i am exhausted lol. thank you for your patience anon, i have no idea how long this has been sitting in my inbox. always happy to get baccano questions <3 i apologize for any typos/errors and the like.

bonus headcanon: miria grabs ennis with one hand and chané with her other hand and they go out with their arms linked and excited and they learn more about having fun, as friends do. no printer just fax

#Anonymous #baccano #headcanon

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storytell · 5 years ago

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@florabled asked

Firo and Kyouka?

FIRO:

How I feel about this character

not taking into account any portrayals that may have influenced my opinion, i’m pretty neutral towards firo. from an objective writing standpoint, he’s a pretty good main character, and i don’t dislike anything about him. he just gets a little overshadowed by other characters that i like more whenever i watch/read baccano.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

ennis! i haven’t thought too in-depth about other possible ships

My non-romantic OTP for this character

it’s physically not possible for me to narrow it down, because i think all of the bonds he has in the series are really great. like, i love him and ennis taking big sibling roles for czes, but i also really love what we see of his interactions with the gandors & claire, but then i ALSO really love his dynamic with the rest of the martillos and isaac & miria.. it’s safe to say there are a lot of non-romantic relationships i enjoy for him.

My unpopular opinion about this character

i think that while he is pretty plain in comparison to a lot of the rest of the main cast, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. i found his storyline the easiest to follow on my first watch through, due in part to how not complicated he is. he’s a good contrast to all of the characters with really off the walls personalities, imo.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

i dunno, honestly. i don’t really have an answer for this one.

KYOUKA:

How I feel about this character

my opinion of her unfortunately suffers from the same bias firo’s suffered from; there are other characters i like better than her in many of the scenes and arcs she’s in, and because of that i’m just left kind of glossing over her a bit. again, though, i don’t dislike her at all, and having gotten to know her character more i can say i’m definitely more invested than i was the first time around!

All the people I ship romantically with this character

nobody, really.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

i like her relationship with the rest of the ADA, though i’m a little partial to her individual relationships with atsushi, ranpo, and fukuzawa. i also like the antagonistic friendship thing she has going on with mushitaro right now.

My unpopular opinion about this character

i don’t think i have one, honestly.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

i want to see MORE of her dynamics with the rest of the ADA and not just with atsushi. we got the party scene, but honestly not much else besides that.

give me a character. / accepting.

#im sorry i have tunnel vision #JKDFHKFGDHKGHIKGDF #her SISTER was a WITCH! RIGHT? ;; OOC #florabled

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dorko4u · 6 years ago

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rambling about anime

I’ve been simply reblogging posts for so long that I forgot writing is an option...! I got an urge last night to write about the anime I’m currently watching, so I figured I’d go ahead and do that now. I’m also waiting for my phone to recharge so this will be a good way to pass the time.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War. This show is hilarious! I might end up reading the manga after the show is over. The concept is really fun, having over the top mind games trying to get the other person to confess their love. If I was going to recommend just one anime this season, this would probably be a safe pick. Also, the opening is fantastic!! I’ve been listening to the song constantly.

The Rising of the Shield Hero. I should probably mention right away that I’m a sucker for isekai; I can’t get enough of this stuff. Though uh... I’m not really here for the angsty stuff? I’m struggling to think of how to explain this. (Maybe I should write more often) Like, I’m mostly tolerating the parts where he suffers because I want to see him get better. I’m not dying to see him get revenge or whatever, I want to see him recover and be happy.

I think the story is pretty fun when he gets his first two party members and goes on adventures, and that’s where the anime is currently at. The more I write about this, the more I feel like I’m somehow enjoying the show for the wrong reasons... But ah, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The show has its moments of being silly and cute. Firo is adorable! Adorable and deadly! And I don’t know what else to say about it so I guess I’m ending it with that!!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Speaking of isekai! I had really low expectations for this one. I was expecting something generic and forgettable, but I was shocked at how fun this show is. And that first opening!! I LOVE IT. Though as much as I enjoy this show, I have to admit that I don’t necessarily disagree with the criticisms I come across. I guess it’s still undeniably generic in several ways, and I can see why someone would say the main character has no personality. But... But I don’t know! I don’t know where I’m going with this! It’s like I’m saying, “Yeah, it’s bad, but I love it though.” But why!? It’s just pure fun to me. Animation, voice acting, humor, etc.

There is one thought I had about it. I think there’s something inherently enjoyable about watching a character grow stronger, kinda like how addicting it can be to level up in a RPG. In this case, it’s not just the slime boy himself getting stronger. It’s watching him gradually get more and more allies. I was tempted to say his party is growing, but that’s not fully accurate. He’s pretty much created his own nation of monsters.

There is one part that left me scratching my head though. They set up this battle with a dragon where they establish they aren’t going to use Milim’s help, and she’s the strongest person there. So that’s fine, but the solution was literally for Slime to change his mind and ask her for help. So that leaves me thinking like, “What was the point of the fight scene!?” But oh well, I’m still enjoying the show a lot. Congratulations to slime boy for winning best protagonist at those Crunchyroll awards.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind I’m actually falling behind on this one, but I think it’s because I already read the manga. This part of Jojo is my least favorite part. To give full context to that statement, my Jojo experience is watching the first four parts and then reading part 5. That being said! It’s not horrible, and there’s definitely great moments in it. I really should start watching it again since I’ve been in an anime mood lately. I guess I don’t have anything else to say about it. Oh, the choice for the ending song is funny.

WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to Me I get the feeling I shouldn’t mention that I’m watching this... Alright, this show is really cute! The opening and ending animations are absolutely adorable!! But... The main character is a creeper. There’s been a scene or two that invoked strong feelings of “this is not okay” in me. But even so, I keep watching because I’m probably more tolerant than I should be. Oh well.

This is something I was impressed by though. In one of the episodes, they introduced a character who is a stalker; she’s been spying on the main character for years. The funny part is that you can actually spot her if you go back to the previous episodes! That’s pretty great.

How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno This show is pretty stupid and also #2 on the list of shows I should have considered not mentioning. I guess the jokes are funny enough to me, and I think the VA for Ueno herself does a great job. The comedy is really sexual though. The situations are certainly comedic, but they’re also probably someone’s oddly specific fetish. I started watching because I liked the art style, and now I can’t stop watching... Damn...

Kemono Friends 2 The second season is cute, though I’m not sure how I feel about it. This is definitely another case where I’m reading criticisms and finding myself nodding my head in agreement. Despite being a sequel, it’s kind of a repeat of the first season. It’s too early to say for sure, but I think fans might be better off only watching the first season and ignoring this one. But that being said, it’s perfectly fine if you want to watch animal themed girls be cute.

Ah, but I’ve got an idea! The show could be saved if it’s revealed that this is all a simulation. It’s someone’s scheme to recreate the events of Kemono Friends 1 to make a new Kaban. Y’know, Metal Gear Solid 2 style. Now that’d be one heck of a twist!

Kemurikusa Now this show is being done by the director of Kemono Friend’s first season. I think it has a lot of the same appeal. You have the same art style, cute characters in an abandoned world, a main character with a mysterious background, etc., etc. The show is pretty slowly placed, but I’m enjoying the ride. I’m excited to find out what’s going on, and I love reading the theories online! And I gotta say, I cracked up laughing when I first heard the theme song. It’s a great song, but I was not expecting those lyrics.

I didn’t manage to cover everything I wanted to, but I’m satisfied now. That’s enough writing for today. I’ll just say one last thing: I loved Mob Psycho’s first season. The only reason I’m not watching the second season is because I’m waiting for it to finish. I might get spoiled, but oh well. I’m gonna take that risk.

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shazzeaslightnovels · 6 years ago

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Reading Log - February 2019

Mostly Saekano with some first volumes thrown in. As per usual, there will be no spoilers, unless tagged otherwise.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 4 by Fumiaki Maruto:

With this volume Blessing Software is now complete! But before I talk about our new member, I want to say that my favorite thing about this volume was seeing just how close Katou has become with Eriri and Utaha, especially the former. I have mixed feelings on Michiru: on the one hand, purple colour theme + short hair + can’t-read-the-room + genki gal = moe; on the other hand, I would hate her if I met her in real life. She constantly invades Tomoya’s personal space, belittles his hobbies and dreams and is way too disrespectful to the person who is giving her a place to sleep while she fights with her dad. I think she’s an enjoyable and interesting character but an awful person. I really disliked how the anime handled her first episode. The constant shots of her boobs and ass made me so uncomfortable, especially seeing how that kind of outfit is actually pretty typical hot weather wear in Australia. It became a bit better in the following episodes but I still despise it. Overall, I’d still call the anime adaptation a good one, though. It succeeded in making Katou feel more like a boring heroine than the novel and manga did and I still love the café scene in episode 2. I won’t be covering the second season in this section anymore because AnimeLab doesn’t have access to it and I mostly only watch things using AnimeLab these days. In any case, I’m interested to see where the story goes from here.

Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 1 by Okina Baba:

Well, this book was certainly a struggle to read. Most of the book is written in a stream-of-conscious writing style, meaning that 90% of the volume is purely narration. It’s a hard style for me, both to write and read but I think it works well here due to the protagonist’s personality being incredibly fun. But my attention did wander quite a bit while I was reading and I struggled with deciphering the skill names in Japanese. I also found the S chapters that occur after every few main chapters to be unnecessary. One of the things that can really kill my enjoyment of a story is knowing something before the protagonist does. I like to experience the story and world along with the protagonist and it’s frustrating when something important is revealed to the reader long before it’s revealed to the protagonist. This is not the most irritating example of it but I think the manga was right in skipping these chapters. It keeps you in suspense for longer. While I certainly enjoyed this volume I may continue the story through the manga instead of the light novel. The visuals in the manga are hilarious and really added to my enjoyment of the series and I don’t think I’m interested enough in the story to be annoyed with the slow pace of the manga.

This series is currently being released in English by Yen-Press as So I’m a Spider, So What? so pick it up if the series interests you.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 5 by Fumiaki Maruto:

Definitely my favorite volume so far. It was incredibly interesting to the point where I stayed up late just to finish it. It also included a lot of my favorite elements of the Koisuru Metronome spin-off: a conflict the centred on writing issues, information on how to improve writing and Utaha being really interesting and complex. All that was missing was Mayu. In any case, I think what I want this series to do is to challenge it’s own genre and tropes. It’s a great romcom but it’s not much more than that yet.

Bishoujo Sakka to Mezasu Million Selleraaaaaaaa!! 1 by Takeru Kusakabe:

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure why I bought this book. I think I was looking for something easy to read at the time and this ranked in KonoRano 2018. Anyhow, this is written by the author of Noucome, which I remember as a series with an alright premise that got old fast but had good girls. Million Seller isn’t much different. The protagonist is a guy who becomes an editor and wants to be able to be put in charge of a series that can sell a million copies but gets put in charge of light novel series, which don’t sell as much. So he gets put in charge of two ladies, one who’s a high school student and another who’s an office lady. And it’s… fine. The characters are likeable and I was impressed that the author made the characters distinct enough that if you were to pick out a random page from the volume, you’d be able to tell who was talking to who by looking at how they speak. The thing is, the series doesn’t stand out. If want a romcom with a harem, there are better ones and it’s really not that informative on the light novel industry. There are some funny interactions but I’d only recommend it if you really liked Noucome’s sense of humour or are looking for some easy light novels to read to improve your Japanese. I won’t be reading the second volume.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 6 by Fumiaki Maruto:

This was a really satisfying volume in terms of what it did for the plot and Eriri’s character. And, like vol. 5, every time I finished a chapter, I wanted to hurry on to the next. Iori continues to be a delight and Izumi has really grown on me. I’m excited to see what these characters do next.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata F.D. by Fumiaki Maruto:

Going into this, I knew that it wouldn’t have much to do with the main story but I ended up wishing that it had even less to do with the main story. All it is is a bunch of short stories taking place in between chapters of the main light novel that were previously published in magazine + an interview with Maruto and Misaki (the illustrator for the series) that is really hard to read on an iPad. I thought it would be a bunch of non-canon icharabu scenes between Tomoya and the heroines but there wasn’t much of that at all. Furthermore, Sayuri, who appears on the cover, doesn’t actually appear in the volume and I get the feeling that she’s only on there because Misaki created an amazing character design that wasn’t able to get shown off in vol. 6. Interestingly, some of these stories appear in other versions of the story; I recognized some of them because similar scenes appeared in the anime and Koisuru Metronome. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it while I was reading the main volumes but I really don’t think it’s worth buying unless you’re a diehard fan of the series and want to know everything about the characters. This volume did make it clear how much Maruto has grown as a writer though; the first few stories were written the earliest and felt really jarring to read and definitely felt more like the type of writing that would be used in a galge but the later stories were much better.

Baccano! The Rolling Bootlegs by Ryohgo Narita

Note: I read this in English a few years ago and loved it and the anime was one of the first that I saw and I loved that so reading this volume in Japanese has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

As much as I enjoy the Baccano! series, this volume has never been one of my favourites. Even in the anime, I tended to zone out during these parts. But I did enjoy it more this time around. Narita really knows how to set the scene and make you really absorbed into it. The thing that surprised me the most about rereading this was Ennis. I remember that I used to find her really boring but I LOVED her here. She’s a genuinely interesting character and her scenes with Miria and Isaac were my favorite part of the volume and I loved the scenes that were narrated by her. My favorite thing about Baccano has always been the lack of a true protagonist and that’s certainly true here. Firo’s probably the closest to it in this volume but you could definitely argue that the protagonist is Maiza and Isaac and Miria have always been so iconic that they’ve always felt like the protagonists to me. That being said, I found the scenes revolving around the Gandor siblings and Dallas to be really boring and I can see why someone might not enjoy a series that has this many characters to follow. I’m looking forward to reading the 1931 arc, in any case.

This series is currently being published by Yen-Press as Baccano! so pick it up if the series interests you.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata 7 by Fumiaki Maruto

Well, this was certainly an emotional volume. It starts off seeming like it’s going to be pretty cute valentines day volume but it becomes an emotionally taxing one by the end. But I didn’t mind it too much. The drama elements worked for me and I was so shocked by the first epilogue that I thought my eyes would pop out of my head! Indeed, like the previous volumes, I set off to read one chapter and was half-way done with the volume before I knew it! One thing that Maruto does really well in this series is balancing the heroines. I still think that end girl could be either Katou or Eriri at this point and, if not for Koisuru Metronome’s existence, I would say that Utaha still has a chance too. And part of me is still holding out for a surprise yuri ending with Eriri and Katou. Their relationship is so well written that I can’t help but wonder whether Maruto just really wants to write a yuri novel but hasn’t for whatever reason. This volume marks the end of the manga adaptation (though it looks like they also adapted the GS side novels so I’ll probably talk about that at some point) and it was a good manga adaptation. I think the adaptations of the first 4 volumes were not great but 5-7 have been adapted really well so I’d recommend it.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Girls Side by Fumiaki Maruto

The volume is split into two parts. The first part focuses on how Utaha and Eriri first met and it’s an amusing side story and definitely worth the read if you’re a fan of those two. The second scenario’s premise is more spoilery as it focuses on events that the reader heard about but didn’t see in vol. 7. While this volume isn’t required reading to understand the main plot, I still thought it was worth reading and would recommend it to most Saekano fans, especially those who like Utaha and Eriri. As for the manga, it only adapts this volume and it’s a 1:1 adaptation so no complaints from me.

Assassins Pride 1 by Kei Amagi

If I were to describe this volume in one word it would be ‘weird’. It has weird pacing in that most of the chapters could have been made into their own volume though I suspect that the reason for the fast pace is because the writer wanted to grab the readers’ attentions straight away. It has a weird protagonist because I can’t read him at all. I can never tell when he’s acting and when he’s being genuine. Finally, the future volumes look weird. From this volume and the covers of future volumes I assumed that this series would have a central OTP with possibly a slight harem element but the colour illustrations for the future volumes make it seem like it’s going to become an ecchi lolicon harem series so I don’t know what to think so I’m approaching this series with cautions and won’t be buying volume 2 until the anime comes out so that I can find out whether this series will go in that direction or not. As for the volume itself. It was fairly interesting and held my attention when I was reading but I would have preferred a slower pace. That said, I enjoyed the manga a lot. The illustrations in it are really something and the pacing is much better so even if I don’t end up continuing the light novel, I’ll likely be reading the manga anyway.

#Saekano #Kumo desu ga nani ka #So I'm a spider so what #Bishoujo Sakka to Mezasu Million Selleraaaaaaaa #Baccano #Assassins Pride #Light Novels #Reviews #Reading log #Kei Amagi #Fujimi Fantasia Bunko #Fumiaki Maruto #Ryohgo Narita #Dengeki Bunko #Takeru Kusakabe #Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko #Okina Baba #Kadokawa Books

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toushindai · 7 years ago

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2001 English Liveblog

Almost a full week after the book arrived, here’s my liveblog!

Oh, the cover colors online were greener than this! This is more in line with the Japanese one.

"For the first time in my life, I smiled in the presence of someone else" Don't lie you melodramatic little rat you were a happy child. Though I always thought that referred to smiling for Elmer specifically--which would still be a retcon, most likely, given that in 1709 Monica doesn't know the details of Elmer's past and thinks Huey doesn't either.

まあいいや. This is 2001, where everything gets retconned from.

Nothing special done with 拙者, though that doesn't surprise me.

I suppose I'm required to have an opinion on "Let me just say this," huh? I was going to say it's unwieldy, but it's actually fewer syllables than あえて言おう is, isn't it? Other than that, I think I'll wait to form an opinion. Like I've said before, my only impression of the phrase comes from his how Nile uses it, so I don't really know what it sounds like to a Japanese ear.

If I&M don't meet Elmer I'm going to go to Narita's house and sing badly at him until he explains himself.

OK but how does Feldt know about radar

Sylvie is described as 16 or 17 here but about the same age as Niki in 1711 and Niki is described as the trio's age in 1705...

まあいいや

And see, these two aren't "Let me say this" but they're not あえていおう either! They're both variations. 👍 the toushindai seal of cautious approval.

"I saw something interesting on my way out" could u be... more specific

Good translation of 共喰い, that it specifies both directions. I think--given the way the rest of the volume plays out--you're meant to believe here that Elmer chose to be exempted from eating until the epilogue clears that up.

Hm... I thought there was something here in the fan translation that I disagreed with, but whatever it is, it didn't make it into here because now I can't remember what it was.

I love Fil. I love her however you spell her name. If you want someone angry about that one you'll have to go elsewhere because Fil is how I spelled it when I first read it, before I started interacting with the fandom.

Maiza is very ace. Or just immune to the wiles of his dead brother's girlfriend. Or both!

Why do the AA alchemists make such a hobby of declaring which of them is worst in various ways? Or is that just Sylvie's hobby mostly...

I know I'm on the record as being in favor of adding dialogue tags when the English is not as clear as the Japanese about who's speaking, but let's talk about how "said" is not a bad word

WHAT A GOOD FONT for Elmer's...whatever you call it

I feel like... guy doesn't belong in narration

There it is. The Elmer Description. The single Elmer Description for use every time he appears

Gorgeous

Girl you were not an alchemist tho

まあいいや

"You know nothing works when Elmer gets like this." He was a fucking menace on the ship, wasn't he.

It's time! For the rooftop conversation!!

......that thing about tigers and butter doesn't make any more sense when someone else translates it for me, does it.

Ahh, no, leave that as badgers in the same burrow? Elmer is totally the type to translate idioms literally と思うけど

Oh th ank god, I had this horrible feeling for some reason that 嘘じゃない would end up as "I promise!" and that would have been hella inconvenient for Mad Religion

Ahhhh I was hoping it wouldn't be "I ate Fermet"... I know most of y'all pronounce it without the final T but technically it should be there so this rhymes awkwardly. But we haven't been using devour, have we. So here we are.

[extremely retconned voice] fermet would never

まあいいや

What a good

[conspicuous lack of Firo]

"glamorous bombshells with hourglass figures"...Lucrezia

"Elmer's lips warped cheerfully" is such a good way to describe... him

Spruce... it up a bit

I see you there, pun

You're definitely a resident of Liar Town

Do we have "eyes swam" in English? In the sense of looking back and forth, I mean, not with tears.

Fil is so incredibly precious

I mean honestly was Maiza ever happy three hundred years ago?

Right, about Bilt, I never knew why it was Bild in the first place because the katakana definitely have the t sound, not the d sound.

I just remembered we don't technically know Victor at this point in time. ...We'll meet him in 2018, won't we! If YP's current pace turns out to be sustainable.

"You say that like it's easy" I mean you can literally call him on the phone. You can do it right now. And Elmer's aware of it.

"Somewhere in there, I learned about those things" It's nice of you to not tattle on your counterfeiting best friend but I am so completely convinced that it was Huey who had to explain the economy to you. I will not allow this thought to be taken from me.

"Inwardly, he somehow understood that this was Elmer's true nature." Only took you three hundred years.

Let's stop kidnapping Sylvie! No more kidnapping the women. I've decided.

Love how "gave the water to his own son" is "the worst possible outcome" and then... *glares at Huey*

Ten billion? Ten billion, sir? Maybe not ten billion.

Mr. Narita yes we understand that this particular book is inspired by video games. You can stop calling attention to it now.

Nn, there's really no easy way to get the tone of 君が死んだら、俺は笑うよ？ right, is there? For the disconcerting casualness I wonder if it should be something like "Oh, I'll smile when you die!"...

Young husband?? I mean I guess that does say 青年... But he's like, 90 at this point.

Elmer, you should probably protect Fil from Huey tbh.

the Fils...

"How d'ya like them apples?!" oh my god I want Ronny to say this to Elmer please please please please I want it PLEASE

Yeah he's definitely thinking of Huey specifically. 苦笑だし。 I’m still so curious about whether Huey knows about this little deal, though, because like... yknow?

I’ve thought about that way too much.

"I took this chance to designate 'since I've got the opportunity' as a diabolical phrase." Oh my god... sir...

Didn't he say that about DRRR!!'s title actually...?

"In the future, I'll write more standalone volumes" You're a liar.

I forgot to say this when it first appeared but Nibiru is honestly a transliteration I don’t like. It looks very... fakey Japanese. The rest of the names, and “Let me just say this,” I’m relatively content with. Feldt I like a lot.

#baccano!#baccano #novel day

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severalbakuras · 7 years ago

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and now let’s finish season 4!

long post warning!

episode four:

i’m telling you i just don’t trust those nier-qiraji looking spire temple things. if they’re trying to spin this as the heartland of all good things it’s not working it just looks eerie. doesn’t help that there’s not a lot of aliens running around doing normal living stuff so it looks dead too.

god there sure is a lot of interesting action happening off-screen thanks for the info firo. sure is a lot of planets keith’s helping to liberate that y’all apparently aren’t because of ~parades~

i’m getting the feeling this episode won’t have anything actually mattering happening so there’s a non-zero chance i’ll end up skipping.

ok yeah jumping around there’s a dude bitching about them not being there on time and ice skating and then “~lover boy lance~!” and there’s no action scenes or cuts to the real zarkon or anything so i don’t think i’m going to miss much skipping this one lol

might watch it for real some other time i do like coran and his coranigans but his comic moments are best in small doses rather than like the entire episode imo.

episode five:

didn’t they already have a map before?

ok so i was under the apparent mistaken impression that the galra had conquered a shitload of the universe, not a couple of galaxies. noice i can use this for the warcraft au to explain how the galra never ran into sargeras, the legion or the draenei. (that will likely never be more than scattered hcs lol).

matt’s in the furry squad i see. i’m gonna say... fox, or perhaps squirrel.

lotor’s leggy looking ships made me laugh idk why.

snippy lotor.

oooh dissension in the ranks acxa.

SHAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!

i can’t believe allura’s got a :I face on talking to Best Girl.

is that it for shay aww...

lotor i feel like you not explaining shit to your generals, while understandable given what happened with narti, is probably going to bite you in the ass like do you not trust them enough to know what’s going on or what.

related did you explain narti bc if you did it didn’t sound like you explained it to ezor very well before.

uh maybe stay away from the death planet of death?????

who’s this secret team?

lotor if you know enough about honerva’s experiments re quintessence that that’s what happened then you know what quintessence does to people who fuck with it.

if he crosses this barrier he’s gonna hit the hell-dimension where the voltron materia came from but he’s also going to hit the shit that killed daibazaal AND his parents. lotor. lotor are you sure about this.

iF ZETHRID GETS EATEN BY THE HELL-DIMENSION I SWEAR TO GOD LOTOR.

i can’t tell if that thing drifting off-screen is his ship or a bit of debris, it’s the only other thing moving in the shot but its colours are off.

but like it’s annoying enough with firo around i don’t need to worry about notor and zethraint coming back to acxa and ezor tyvm.

hey it’s those two! uh, three.

SHAAAAAAAAY

FUCK YEAH HUNK GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO

ok maybe hunk would survive LFR after all.

is that our first lady galra in charge of one of these things? i love her.

holy shit that wasn’t the voice i expected to come out of the dog-person. i swear to god they sounded just like dub honey in ouran.

there goes furry squad i guess.

that knifework keith!!!

that was a very visceral death squish noise, ick.

dropping the charred remains of the enemy ship on the enemy is a+ psychological warfare.

oh god those poor three galra. a normal day and then voltron lands on theHE FUCKING HOPS AWAY... I LOVE HIM...

oh fuck you show you skip the transformation, make them defuse and then immediately make them transform again AND IT’S THE FULL SEQUENCE.

this music’s surprisingly melancholic, i guess lotor’s more sad then mad his plan failed again.

see lotor i told you this would bite you in the ass.

wow the fps dropped like crazy for her walking animation was that meant to be viewed from further away than it was?

FOR NARTI OOOOOOOOH YOU FUCKED UP LOTOR this is why you explain things like ‘why i sliced our friend in half and left her cat behind’.

i like the shot of his eyes it’s like ‘god dammit really?!’

oh nice they captured galra lady alive.

zethrid actually seems kinda sad about this and so does loTOWHAT THE FUCK LOTOR!!!!!!!!

YOU PUT ZETHRID SOMEWHERE SAFE RIGHT NOW I SWEAR!!!

oh thank god.

are they gonna join the rebellion??? or just try and harvest the super quintessence on their own?

did the druids always slide around like they’ve all got heelies under those robes?

uh oh haggar had a cunning plan. this whole ‘never explaining shit to your allies’ gene is from both sides of the family i see.

episode six:

‘a new defender’ so we’re probably getting a new semi-permanent character on the squad for the next season noice.

MACROSS LASERS

another lady galra!!! she reminds me of toriel for some reason i think it’s the ear growths. feels like there’s a lot more variation on the appearances of the galra and the aliens in general this season i approve.

i wonder what keith’s mother looks/looked like.

oh so no wonder haggar is confident, zarkon’s off doing something entirely unrelated.

lotor how are you even moving your arms right now i know a guy who dislocated his shoulder. that shit hurts and keeps on hurting.

damn that’s depressing he’s just entirely alone in space. he doesn’t even have the comfort that firo did of having people to search for and people who’d care enough to try and find him for good reasons. he’s just hounded like an animal.

what is that... mass on cyberkon’s back? like there’s got to be something underneath that plating it can’t just be his neck orb. it’s giving me vibes like the thing in Inside i don’t like it.

ok as much as i laugh at his leggie space ship lotor does manage to make it look damn graceful.

holy shit the texture on the sun. you know you’ve got a good lava/very hot thing texture if it makes you wanna stick your hand in just like with real lava.

i wonder if haggar’s magic is corrupted altean magic or something she’s learned as a zombie. i wonder if lotor could pull off altean magic, or something close to it? magical boy lotor.

does naxzela have a world soul???

for a second there that sphere looked like one of the resurrection seeds from drakengard ending B. that would be the most fucked up AU.

is the planet actually a giant robot????

oh fuck so is it turning itself into a neutron star?

it’s a bomb oh ok.

ten solar systems from one planet jesus.

VICTORY OR DEATH SPACE ORCS CONFIRMED (again)

go keith!!

lotor are you going where i think you’re going...............

............... i don’t want to be hopeful i’m almost always wrong...............

aww lance!!! it seems like he’s real good at team stuff so long as he’s inside the lions. weird.

i really like the spacy dust background here.

aaaaa coran ;A;

keith what’s with that look.

keith what did you just say.

KEITH WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

NONONONONONONONONONOONONONONONONONONONONOONOONNOONONOON

LOTOR DID YOU JUST

ok so overall not the strongest season but it had its good moments even if i was salty for a while.

i’m more hype for season 5 than i was for this half of the season i will say.

(also keitor has been shuffled from ‘entirely crack’ to ‘they will probably meet face to face at some point’.)

(so naturally now it’s my Everything especially with my ot4 gone and zethura still being crack as all hell. maybe with this new season the content will be less old-school deathshipping and more millennial deathshipping)

#voltron #vld #sb watches voltron

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pancoleon · 7 years ago

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Baccano Rewatch Rambling Commentary

So. due to having a long and fun talk about Baccano at MCM Manchester, I felt like rewatching the anime and OH BOY I forgot how the first episode goes, so I decided I might as well do (spoilery) commentary on here as I rewatch. Don’t expect anything written nicely or concisely, I do the numberwang, not the wordidoo.

This is the first 3 episodes and because I ramble like hell and I do reference the books, it’s a “Read More”. I apologize in advance, but “Short Form” has never been a thing I can manage. This is me essentially writing down what I say to myself while watching it. I added the formatting later, but I want to keep the rambling as in tact as possible, partly out of laziness and partly out of interest in looking back later and seeing what was going through my head.

Episode 1

I forgot just how much time is spent with the discussion between (Christ me, you literally saw this half an hour ago, how have you already forgotten her name!?) *Carol* (Thanks Baccano wiki, and by extension most likely thanks Rev) and Gustav St Germain. Looking back after reading the books, I like the fact that they used the paper explosion scene and would have loved to see that reappear later had they continued the anime. That would’ve been a nice scene of the anime doing a foreshadow of a scene to come while not making it blatantly so, and that final context would’ve probably put an extra spin on things. (Oh boy, it’s really clear I can’t write short sentences…)

The scenes foreshadowing Book 6 (Was it? I lose track. Either way, the Mist Wall book.) really hurt me. I’d have loved to see Christopher, Adele, (Heck, ALL THE HOMUNCULI) and Maria, along with seeing Ronnie just be Ronnie and fuckin’ be extra as hell with the help of essentially Omnipotent powers.

The sequence initially showing Firo... Y'know, I remember this properly, but I have to say I prefer the book version? In the books, it’s before he becomes immortal and he avoids getting hit by the knife in the first place. I feel that while how this scene was rewritten means it’s good for revealing his immortality, the books help show that he is rather suspicious as a character, which works well considering his discomfort from the fact that even after becoming immortal he is careful due to the knowledge that there *is* a way to kill him. Then again, I’m not a literary master and the change probably works considering the more carefree Firo you see in the show.

I like the setup for the Flying Pussyfoot (even if I’m sad the stuff being called in doesn’t pay off due to them not using Vino in the 1932 arc that *should* be Drugs and Dominoes). What you know from the first episode is:

that the train’s been swapped out do to an “accident”

there’s an assassin on there,

there’s immortals on there,

there’s bombs on there,

a bunch of corpses and a murderous guy with no arm and a woman he’s talking of killing litter the tracks (On an off hand note, I thought that Ladd actually killed Lua there when I initially watched Baccano),

and that the people that are leaving the train are the thieves mentioned earlier (who if you pay attention are probably immortal),

the immortal child (Funny how early it’s revealed that Czes is immortal in comparison to the books),

and a group of people of which the middle one seems to be in great pain.

You also know of an unknown figure reading an unknown message about finding someone, but that’s rather late in the story.

Point is, you are swiftly shown a lot of information you probably won’t piece everything together from, but will help give you one specific idea: Something bad happened on the Flying Pussyfoot and that (probably) included the supernatural.

Episode 2

Okay, I’ll now be writing as things happen, so I might remember names this time! And before I start, let me say this at least once. “Hah! Flying Pussyfoot is a silly name!”

I like the fact they left in the couple where the woman just calls stuff in advance.

I have to say, I am love with Isaac and Miria’s logic. “If we mine, we’re stealing from the earth!”. Along with that, the story of them being shouted at for panning for gold in other people’s land is something I want to hear more about. I’m being reminded that I damn well wish I knew more about Japanese Mythology to be able to directly pinpoint where Isaac went wrong.

Oh, and the letter from Ennis. I like how this directly implies than Ennis is not actually human without going “SHE’S A HUMONCULUS, NOT HUMAN” and then quickly makes you forget about that by having I&M start talking about this clearly means she wants a brother, rather than there having been previous people before her who were destroyed before she was created.

(Oh shit, this is gonna get looooooooong, I haven’t got past the I&M scene yet). This is followed by perfectly showing what I&M are like, by having them figure out how do to a train robbery. i.e not how you actually do one. And then I&M go to the train station, move past the Lemures, and then as they talk about the “Orchestra”, the camera zooms in on Rachel. If only the Dub hadn’t specified Vino’s gender, people might’ve thought she was Vino, that’s how the books spun it anyway. And then we get to Claire, who starts talking before coming on screen and has a conversation with Tony just before Tony gets murdered. It would have been nice if the other conductor got a couple lines here, but this does set up Claire’s anger at Tony being dead later on nicely.

Meanwhile, best panicking wreck of a leader, Jacuzzi Splot, explains what his group are doing on the train, namely stealing something. Then the anime moves focus from Nice to Czes, nicely implying that their aims/jobs are related. I’ll stop listing what happens now, but OH JEEZ I LOVE THE CUTS AND PANS AND FOCUS CHANGES. I don’t know much about cinematography, but this feels good to me.

So to abridge a conversation: Nice: Why don’t you ask them? You might make some new friends. Jacuzzi: (Panics a bit) I don’t wanna. Nice then persuades Jacuzzi to go talk to Isaac and Miria. Not much meaning, but I just wanted to say, SAAAAAAME Jacuzzi. If not for @thingsarenotwholesome taking the place of Nice, I wouldn’t talk to a lot of people. but yeah, then Jacuzzi starts crying because he thinks he’s nothing but some delinquent. Props to I&M for supporting him in the only way they know: By being lovely, funny and acting ridiculously.

Some day Narita, I’d like to see how much of this is them faking it to avoid a bad topic and how much of it is their own joy in insanity. I just can’t accept “They’re a bit mad” with no other details, because even if Isaac routinely gets stuff wrong, he’s weirdly well read. I also love the fact that Jon and Fang spend their time calling out bullshit and commenting on what’s happening. It gives a nice contrast of the straight man, while not overpowering I&M and also properly showing what their influence on Jacuzzi is.

I like that the voice acting makes it clear that Czes struggled to say his own name. Clearly from the immortal thing. Good Dub there.

The Lemures in general feel much cultier than when I was reading the books. Perhaps because in the books the individual greed for immortality in the members is made clear before the operation starts, whereas this has them speak of their unwavering loyalty (yeah fucking right) to Huey Laforet, while the Conductor preaches about how this is all for the sake of freeing their “Glorious Leader”. Shame there’s a Claire on board.

Episode 3

And we start with poor Eve Genoard looking for Dallas, too bad some other poor person has him. [Edit Note: Look, you can’t expect me to remember every detail of the books perfectly, I barely remember what I had to eat most days]

I love the Daily Days and their information based business model. The Runorata Goons just got to experience information based capitalism.

Well, I might have to source the music playing while Lua and Ladd are dancing. This is also the first scene where Lua doesn’t seem to only be some poor girl who was forced into something by Ladd, but someone who actually wants to be with Ladd.

I love Randy and Pecho, those glove burning fools. I’m also starting to realise how damn good this show is at giving you information in off-hand comments. From their short conversation we know they’re friends with Firo and that there’ll be a party, while also starting the fire that kickstarts the events of the Rolling Bootlegs.

Similarly, the anime then goes on to show that Firo is joining the Camorra as a Capo and that I&M are in town at the time. This is also why I’m writing so much, BECAUSE THEY MAKE SUCH GOOD USE OF THE TIME GIVEN. This reminds me though. Narratively, in the books, the hobo attempting to stab Firo happens just before the hat shop. I damn well wish we could properly place that scene somewhere chronologically in the show. It could literally any time still during the depression after Firo becomes immortal.

The fight between Firo and Dallas' Gang really does show the fighting talent Firo has in an impressive way, which again makes Firo getting cut in episode 1 more frustrating.

And here is the first big change to Rolling Bootlegs! Firo does not have the time nor the bottles to swap about his wine with the immortality potion for the heck of it. I'm not sure how I feel about this change, but I will commend the 2016 Manga for keeping to the books on this.

And then Jacuzzi finds the two corpses in the Conductors Wagon, which is surprising when you’re first watching considering we *know* the murderous conductor was using a gun, not sawing off people's faces.(Goddammit it Claire, kill cleaner) You could explain the second corpse as being the white suit we see get the uniform in the second episode, but if you’re looking at the corpses, the body with the face torn off is the one that looks like the Young Conductor, not the Lemure Conductor. This isn’t exactly important considering it’s revealed later, but i like that the detail can be seen. Hey, this anime is doing a better job at the Mystery genre than BBC’s Sherlock!

And at the end, with the faceoff in the Dinner Wagon, I'm calling it a night.

Well, I'll be posting this in the morning evening after as I'll be doing some formatting at my PC tomorrow, but it's midnight and I'm rather tired after MCM Manchester.

#Baccano #Rambling Commentary #Baccano EP1-3 #At least I'm learning to text edit on Tumblr #Book Spoilers

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jesliey · 8 years ago

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Character Design Questions that i really just wanted to do because they looked fun

Tagged By: No one. I do what I want.

Most of my characters started in D&D but ill list em all for context:

Aliphos Gardwin, effectively ex-military Ranger from a what is now a frozen wasteland. Hes like a puppy in my eyes.

Anastasia Shepard, actual military. From my ME binge days. Probably the only one who’ll ever have an actual solid visual depiction

Alistair Shepard, twin brother to Ana. Technically not my character, but he punches things and hes such a dick i love it.

Unit 2038, mass produced celestial war machine with severely stunted emotional development. Had a REALLY long nap a while ago.

Firo Schwartzstein Avanezo, sleazy brat who likes to pickpocket and flirt. Closer inspection might catch a glimpse of some of that old money in his blood though.

Morgenstern, funny how dying from several impalement wounds makes a demonic deal for vengeance seem like a good idea. Might know Aliphos eventually im still pondering that...

Sacha Julian N’Doul, THE RICH PRETTYBOY IS JUST HERE TO HAVE A GOOD TIME

THIS IS REALLY LONG SO UNDER THE CUT IT GOES!

Who’s the oldest character of yours that you still use?

oh man i dont really use them as much as id want to...im not a great writer so i dont really do anything with any of them until something comes up like a d&d game for instance. Id still use all of them given the chance.

Aliphos is the one i can always fall back to though, ive had him the longest

Who’s the oldest character of yours, defunct or not?

Im gonna go ahead and assume this means physically. Pretty sure its Unit...either Unit or Firo. Ones a robot, and the other doesnt age, but i dont exactly remember whos older...

Pretty sure its Unit

Has creating a character ever made you realize something about yourself?

There hasnt been a “realization” per se...

Each character ive made has been some kind of manifestation of what i was feeling creatively at the time, with the exception of Aliphos. Hes straight up my first character who i made not realizing how self-inserty he was all the way back in grade 9 of highschool.

Any minor characters that have either taken over or branched off into their own stories?

See now this ones a bit more interesting because i didnt really have a side character until very recently. Sacha is a backup character for the wandering mess that is the party Morgenstern belongs to, and he acts as chief sponsor after they saved him from bandits. He isnt SUPPOSED to come into the spotlight of the adventure, but he will if Morgen becomes otherwise unavailable

Do you prefer to make human, animal, monster, or _____ characters? Why?

Well i mean “human” is very loosely defined here but yeah. These are characters i know and relate to best and im not a furry, so “human” it is!

ignoring the fact that only four of them are actual humans, and one of those four isnt even mine

When creating a character, do you come up with the visual concept or the written concept first?

written concepts, easily. when im sitting down trying to make a new brain-child theres a list of questions that goes through my head to get a better idea of what im going for.

where did they come from? what is the most important thing that has happened to them this far? how do they react to waking up on just a regular day? what is the most common thing they feel both physically and mentally? how do they handle being in a group of other similarly skilled people?

i find that answering just these gives me a better idea of what im working with than trying to get a picture going before having at it

Do you have characters that you know you’ll never use, but can’t bear to get rid of/recycle?

Im honestly having a hard time envisioning using Ana anywhere. shes a bit of an alcoholic downer, and she doesnt play well with others. Morgen doesnt either, but hes currently in use and even then i have to creatively stretch his personality quite a bit just to keep things rolling

i dont like the idea of just getting rid of characters though. a few of them have died. multiple times in some cases. continuities are a thing that doesnt really exist for me, but it is hard to find a scenario where those two in particular would click in well

Is there a character that embodies your good traits, or traits you wish you had?

Aliphos is generally up-beat most of the time, and Firo and Sacha love a good time more than anything else. in general, theyre my more happy characters and i like holding onto that.

Is there a character that embodies your bad traits? Several characters? Which ones and what traits?

Ana and Morgen are definitely some pretty negative characters at their cores. Morgen less so simply because i felt like i was in a bit of a creative rut and i wanted to try something new, but Anastasia came around back at the end of highschool during the Depression Years™ and it shows...

Morgens definitive characteristics are nonchalant detachment and disdain and anger, where Ana is a depressed alcoholic with a death complex. Theres nothing happy here.

Is there a character that explores your interests or fetishes (orrrr is that just all of you characters)?

The most interesting things i can do with my characters is something that i think is unexpected of myself. I had Ali for YEARS before i tried making another character, and while it was fun making a new one, she boiled down to a drunk depressed version of what came before. The more varied and exploratory i can get with my characters the better.

One of my best experiences with a character was developing Unit. I played out the inner conflict of realizing you are able to take a hold of personal freedom now that you know you can have it while simultaneously not wanting to because youre still holding onto the faith that the higher powers know whats best and you should still be awaiting further instruction. those instructions would never come, and Unit is just another forgotten soldier stuck fighting the war, but it was SO MUCH FUN to play out the moral dilemma and ponder the philosophy! that was such a new experience for me, and i loved it! so i made a point to try and spice it up with whatever i try and make next

If you have characters that embody certain traits of yours—good or bad—has writing them changed how you view those traits? Has it affected you in any way?

In truth? not particularly. i just sorta vomit ideas out onto my characters and whatever sticks sticks. i pay no real mind as to what those ideas mean. its just fun to me.

Do you fantasize about being any of your characters, or are you more detached?

Oh there is no way i can play a character and stay detached...

When im in it? Im in it.

Do you create playlists for your characters?

HELL YEAH I DO. SPOTIFY iS A BEAUTIFUL THiNG.

When writing for specific characters, is there anything you have to do to get into the right mindset?

I will ask myself all the same questions from above as when i come up with the character design, i listen to their playlist if i made one yet, and i picture whatever it was that they just got through experiencing.

a quick crash course refresher on how this character ticks.

Which character is your guilty pleasure?

Oh Sacha easily....hes the first character i think ive made where his entire backstory is hes from a rich family and he likes to try new things. Theres no intricacy here, hes just a simple start to a character and hes fon loving. Hes super refreshing to play around with.

Is there a character of yours who’s a real struggle to write/draw? Why do you think that is?

Award for hardest to work with is probably going to Firo. I just wasnt as invested into making him as i have been for other characters. When i think of characters id like to play around with, hed be on the bottom of the list purely because he has the least amount of my interest

Which character is the easiest to draw/write?

The self insert. Next question.

Is there anything you really wish you could do, character-design-wise, that you feel is outside your current skillset? A concept that you wish you could pull off but are uncertain about?

BRO LITERALLY EVERYTHING. I love coming up with the concepts and flushing them out as i go along, but i am not the greatest at writing and they all just sorta stay in my head. also i cant draw. its a bad time for everyone involved.

What’s more important to you: visual design, unique personality, a trendy character aesthetic, etc? If you’re not sure, then what’s the first thing you usually nail down in a character?

well the first thing i always nail down when i think id like to entertain the thought of a character is their origin. so in a way i guess the aesthetic? though as i said above i like to keep things anything but trendy

Do you ever plan to do anything (comic, animation, etc) with your characters? Or are you just happy to have them?

dude i would love to make something big out of my characters! the problem becomes then that i would need someone who is as in sync with how i perceive my characters to be artistically inclined with, because god knows i cant do shit out here. until that day arises? in my head they stay.

#long post #characters #character building #character design #ill rebagel it and tag a bunch of people later

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fuurin-senpai · 8 years ago

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long and not-well-organised notes about a twins!Eggsy&Teddy AU

So my hc for Teddy is that he’s attracted to violence – the more uninhibited, the more it appeals to him. But Eggsy is attracted to power – controlled power, exerted with reason. It doesn’t need to be the best of reasons (cough Harry beating up a bunch of thugs coz he felt like it) but there has to be some form of reason, unlike Dean’s unreasonable anger.

Teddy likes unrestrained, unleashed power.

Eggsy likes channeled, controlled power.

Teddy really doesn’t put up with Dean’s shit very well, keeps getting into fights but is terribly outnumbered, etc. Eggsy has been worried about Teddy for a long time, because what people don’t realise is that Teddy is a lot more dangerous than he seems. His moral compass is skewed in a different way, and he isn’t afraid of the same things other people are.

Violence doesn’t faze him. killing doesn’t faze him.

For Eggsy, violence without reason is something he deeply hates, and killing is only fine for people who are against his moral code or in the way of a greater objective (eg. Chester King, Gazelle, Valentine, other people who got headsploded).

Teddy wouldn’t hurt someone he cares about (eg. Eggsy, Ron, Reg, Michelle). But other people… he doesn’t care much.

I think Eggsy wants his violence to be rationalised because he doesn’t want to become what he hates/fears – and also because someone needs to be able to keep a logical head between himself and his twin, because otherwise Teddy would’ve gotten himself killed a loooong time ago, probably, or locked up.

Eggsy is probably relieved when he finds out Teddy ran into the Kray twins, and that Teddy was very taken with them, because he knows it’s just a matter of time before something big happens and Teddy gets caught up in it and/or Teddy gets sent to prison or something.

And since Teddy can’t change who he is, especially not with their current home life, it’s for the best if he can at least find people who can help him, maybe protect him, and let him be free (or at least more free than he currently is).

If Teddy gets sent to prison Eggsy would just call the number on the medal, so I suppose he is successful in keeping Teddy out of too much trouble until Teddy runs off with the Krays.

OKAY NOW WE CAN MOVE ON TO THE (rough ideas about) THE STORYLINE.

There’s a lot of shit going down post-Vday, and it looks like it mainly has to do with the Krays. Kingsman investigates, bla bla bla wtf Eggsy has a twin, bla bla bla conflicted loyalties, doubt, angst, etc.

Eggsy is very determined to be involved with the investigation into the Krays and Kingsman kind of has to let him, because he’s their best shot at getting close. But they also keep a close eye on things.

Thing is, Kingsman doesn’t intervene unless it’s a huuuuge threat, or unless nobody else is up to the job. I mean, MI6 and Scotland Yard etc also exist, and have jobs to do. And maybe Harry isn’t back yet, but even if he is, Eggsy’s position in Kingsman is still a little shaky so Harry and Merlin can’t afford to have it look like they doubt his allegiance.

I mean, the biggest problem with undying loyalty is when you’re loyal to two sides that may come into conflict. Eggsy’s never grassed anyone up. But he is also a Kingsman agent now. What to do?

And Eggsy has a gut feeling, maybe, that there’s more to things than what appears on the surface. He did ask Teddy to promise not to get into trouble unless he can get himself out, after all, when they separated.

Teddy wouldn’t break a promise, not to him.

Even if he is mad and sometimes capricious and he doesn’t see the world the way most people do, his brother is still his brother.

I think there’s actually bigger fish hiding behind the Krays, making it look like the Krays are the biggest fish. (CRAYFISH HAHA)

Scotland Yard has been keeping the Krays in check for some time (not very well, but just well enough that nothing too big happens)

And like, with modern meds, maybe Ron’s doing a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit better. m a y b e. He can still refuse to take them, so there’s no magical solution to any of that. It’s always going to be something they have to deal with.

So like. Eggsy contacts Teddy. maybe gets a meeting with the Krays, Hangs out for some days?

And like. Idk. I have this idea, that instead of going as “chav”!Eggsy he goes as gentleman!Eggsy

Maybe because he knows Teddy, and Teddy knows him, and it’d be extra suspicious if he shows up in his former state.

Like – Eggsy as Teddy knew him, wouldn’t go randomly seeking out the Krays. By making it obvious that he has an agenda, but not telling the truth on what the agenda is, people are actually less suspicious, or at least not suspicious in the right directions.

I had this idea for what Eggsy’s cover story could be, and it’s basically a bunch of partial truths. I’m guessing Kingsman probably has several different aliases for the organisation itself, so Eggsy pretends he’s working for a… mercenary organisation? Which isn’t entirely untrue, since Kingsman is independent and all. He basically says killed their former leader for being a traitor so right now the organisation isn’t sure what to do with him – which is also technically kind of true.

On one hand, he did them a huge favour by exposing the treachery. On the other hand, he did that while he wasn’t a formal member or anything so he’s still an unknown in a sense, possibly a threat, but also a great asset and they don’t want to lose that (or worse, have him turn against them).

When asked about how he got recruited, Eggsy would probably give a cheeky as hell answer like… he slept with one of their members, or something along those lines.

(Harry was rather unwisely drinking tea while watching the video feed of this conversation)

Or, he says he must’ve made an ~*~impression~*~ but insinuates - quite blatantly, too - that there was sex involved. and he does it so convincingly that even Merlin looks at Harry for a moment and tries to figure out the probability of that.

And Harry is just. coughing very loudly.

ANYWAY, MOVING ON.

The Krays obviously want to test Eggsy, see what he’s made of and all that. Maybe they arrange an encounter with Dean (and thugs?). And Teddy’s all ready to go, to beat up the scum who made his earlier years unpleasant and indirectly forced him to be separated from his brother. But Eggsy steps forward, places a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Teddy looks at him for a moment, then smiles and steps back.

Teddy steps back, Eggsy steps forward, smiling his murder smile. And Teddy’s eyes are alight, eager, almost feverish, because the first time he fell in love wasn’t with Ron, but with Eggsy. The furious, violent, ruthless Eggsy he saw during their teenage years, after Teddy nearly got killed by a large group of thugs.

But that part of Eggsy is always so deeply concealed, dormant, that he knows Eggsy can’t and won’t give him the violence he craves to watch and partake in.

Which is why he loves Eggsy, but he later went with Ron.

Okay so. Eggsy does some terrifying violence, to Dean and goons, like Vino and Ladd Russo from Baccano. Quite possibly torture too? Things that make even Merlin and Harry wince.Teddy is ecstatic, Ron is pleased and intrigued.

Teddy, watching it, feels like this is as good as / way better than sex (huehuehue)

Also, I headcanon that Eggsy, when he’s murderous AND violent, fights just like Vino - acrobatic, ruthless, graceful, vicious… because yes please. And Teddy’s usually more inclined towards Ladd Russo’s style - straight out brutality.

Eggsy, in a non-murderous setting, fights more like Firo Prochainezo - still very agile and all, but more playful, more about having fun and using his skills than about blood and gore and violence

Eggsy, in full gentleman spy mode, is more like Luck Gandor - smiling enigmatically, calm and composed, speaking in a sophisticated manner, but far more ruthless.

He heavily emulates Harry in his gentleman spy mode, although his irreverence is more towards cheekiness and Harry’s is towards, idk, being a little shit ayyy.

Harry likes to give unpleasant surprises (aka dreadful shocks) to people he doesn’t like (cough cough “Hail Satan”).

Also uhmmmm…

After Eggsy finishes going full Vino on Dean&co, he turns and gives that same smile + head tilt he gave Gazelle after she realised she got hit by the shoe blade. Teddy’s probably going to jump on him at this point and, idk, do whatever it is that Teddy does when he’s very pleased >:3

Idk how much twincest Ron is okay with regarding Eggsy and Teddy, but…

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(But I think ultimately the twins (Eggsy and Teddy) will still split, but it will be on amiable terms, and they’ll go with their respective boyfriends. Eggsy and Harry aren’t together yet so Harry feels conflicted but not betrayed or anything, just… wishing Eggsy could be back and with him.)

Okay so, Eggsy shows off and lets off some steam, everyone is suitably impressed, Teddy is overly impressed…….. plot stuff happens but in the end Eggsy confirms his suspicions that there’s bigger fish for Kingsman to fry and they’re using the Krays as a front because the Krays are far from squeaky-clean anyway.

And idk, maybe the real opponent is similar to Moriarty. It’ll probably end up being a situation where Kingsman has bigger fish to fry and kind of needs some help (or at least no interference) from the Krays due to still being short-handed after vday, and in the end they establish a sort of truce. if the Krays don’t go too far and maybe occasionally help Kingsman, Kingsman will leave them be?

And like. Eggsy and Teddy meet up for tea or something, on a semi-regular basis.

Also I think Eggsy will have a moment of understanding with Reg, because they’re very much in the same boat. Eggsy has been his brother’s keeper for so many years, and in a sense he still is. Reg is much the same.

I liked how the bond between Reg and Ron was shown in the movie. like, even though Ron has done a lot of things that are driving Reg crazy, Reg still cares a lot about him, and would rather see the Firm fail than let Ron be locked up or “dealt with”.

#kingsman #legend #eggsy unwin #teddy smith #twinsverse #huehuehuehuehuehue #meta:Kingsman #meta:legend

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something-tofightfor · 4 years ago

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IM SO MAD THAT TUMBLR ATE MY REBLOG. FUCKING BULLSHIT. HERE'S TAKE TWO (NOW WITH BULLET POINTS)

din's worried, so we should be worried, too. but he's worried because of what fennec and boba said to him, and that's even more concerning than usual because they don't mess around.

this delay could be anything, but all it's doing is making him wonder and worry and hope that it's not one of his people that put this hit out on Navina

Yes, she could have made a lot of people mad, but the timing is suspicious, right? Poor Din, working to find and gather other mandos and now one of them has done this to a woman that he doesn't quite understand ... does it have to do with him? Does it have to do with what he possesses? Does it have to do with fennec and boba? so many questions, so few answers.

I like that boba and fennec don't have to constantly check in with him - they trust him, and they're letting him do what he needs to do, no questions asked. Bo needs to take note of this. (She won't but...)

And there she is, in a ship that rightfully reminds him of the razor crest. Those memories have to be very distressing for him, but at the same time, remind him of better times. Also this is a good parallel between the two of them and how similar they really are at the core.

And he's watching her and he's taking everything in, but it's not just that he's happy she's alright - he's noticing things. 1. She isn't focused on her surroundings. 2. she isn't armored. 3. he has to act and ikely wont have time.

and he doesn't, the other ship close behind her, and so he is FORCED to act. (Din Djarin you can lasso me whenever you WANT. What a thrill)

and she's surprised, of course, but it at least gets her to notice what's happening, and so she LETS him pull her away and toward him, and then THE JETPACK LORD HAVE MERCY.

Getting them to safety is first and foremost for him, but while they're in the air... he's going to make the most of it. I like that she's right there with him when he plants those detonators; it's to avenge her ship, but it's also for the RC... he didn't/couldn't do anything back then, but he won't let the same thing happen

and then they land and he's her own person mandalorian shield. Where do I get one of those?

i would love to know her point of view of these things - i know she's probably super shocked, but there has to be something really NICE about feeling his arms around her and feeling that he's doing everything he can to shield her from the rubble. Yeah, she's probably scared, but it wasn't .... it wasn't his first instinct to stay in offensive mode. he defenfded her from the danger, defended HIMSELF from a future firefight, and protected them before anything else.

but after he knows she's safe, he has to go see if this asshole is still alive. He's switched from protector to predator, and he's on a mission. If the guy isn't alive, oh well, but if he is... Fennec's gonna have her way with him and make him WISH he'd died.

The fact that din didn't realize at first that the air was hard to breathe is important, too. Because as soon as he does, his mission is to get Navina inside where she can breathe better - and where nothing else can get to them.

after getting the guy into carbonite, they don't have time for formalities, they don't have time to do anything except Din checking her for the tracker. And even though she's got to be thankful he saved her, she's rightfully worried about it; was this a setup? was din there specifically to be able to save her, and have the ship destroyed, meaning that she HAD to stick with him? (No, but I get where that thought process might have started)

And after this, her first thought is Firo's family, which is admirable. And din letting her check on them and explain is really important, too. Because that has to put her at ease - at least a little more - about the whole event.

I miss the kid too, Din.

Ships can be replaced - Din knows that all too well, and I think that hes really happy he was able to save her life even if it cost her a mode of transportation.

but now it's time for the questions - and for Din to seriously consider the fact that one of the people HE is responsible for gathering could be behind this.

one of his people. one of HIS finds. one of HIS responsibilities, potentially trying to kill someone that did soemthing that he isn't sure of? That wouldn't reflect well on him.

Him going to the Darksaber as his first thought, because of the legacy it has is really interesting to me, but I guess that when it's such a burden to him, he WOULD think about it and the additional trouble it presents. Poor man.

And they agree to play the same back and forth game as they did before- it worked, so why not?

The way she's watching his shoulder, staring at the Mudhorn has to concern him, BUT he can't know why, because she hasn't said anything to him... WE know why she's so focused on it (because of Firo's mom) but ...

And oh, shit there it is. First question, no hesitation. Din, are you surprised?

I can't wait to see what his response is. I can't wait to see where this line of questioning goes. I can't wait to see what her reaction is to finding out that he DOES have it. This is going to change so much for both of them and it's going to happen FAST.

I love this story so much, and I'm sorry that I've been slacking and acting like a bad reader. also I'msorry that tumblr ate my fucking first reblog because it was a thousand times better than this.

Resol’nare - Part Nine

A/N: OH…HEY. Let’s all pretend that I didn’t just have like a three week creative crisis and just dive back in, shall we?? (I’M VERY SORRY.)

*this story will regularly be using words in Mando’a. for a good list of references click here.*

Summary: The Mandalorian arrives on Nevarro to meet with Navina again, hopefully to trade information that could be valuable to them both. But before she joins him he receives a call with some concerning information. When she does finally get there, things come to a head. Quickly.

Warnings: Language, violence

Word Count: 5k

Nevarro.

A dry wind blew across the arid lava fields, his cape whipping behind him as he focused the lens of his visor on the horizon. He had already scanned the other three directions before setting his gaze East. So far though, there was no sign of a ship or speeder anywhere. Another harsh gust of wind tore through the open landscape, accentuating its emptiness. Nothing. He sighed, changing the lens back to its default setting. Crusty flakes of ash covered clay tumbled over the cracked ground and clung to his boots. The Mandalorian hadn’t been waiting long, and Navina wasn’t late yet, but he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something was wrong. Where is she?

He shifted his weight, leaning against the lowered ramp of The Promise. Pulling his comm device from his pocket, he pressed the speaker button to check that it was still operational and was met with a crackling static sound that proved it was. She just hasn’t tried to contact me. Tucking it away again, he told himself that it was only because she hadn’t landed yet, not because she was involved in any sort of trouble.

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severalbakuras · 7 years ago

Text

FIRST THREE EPISODES OF S4 LETS GO

long post so apologies to mobile users. salt warning.

voltron season 4 spoilers (although i understand it’s technically still three the season just got split in two so the content drought wasn’t as long). please don’t give me spoilers for the rest of the season!! i don’t want them!!

(on the subject of content drought is steven universe still on hiatus?)

(still better than berserk’s hiatuses though)

episode 1:

still no new intro you COWARDS

second impact!!! oh no just a ship.

i wonder if galra have unions those two sound like they need one

BLADES

“do not engage” HMMM

oooh lizard blade

the blade up top could’ve totally seen that patrol coming tbh???

KEITH I KNEW IT!!!!

30 SECONDS TO SAVE LIZARD BLADE

holy shit he actually did it

sassy keith talking back to kolivan like that. hell yeah he saved their friend and the mission.

firo uh why are you acting like bridge boss? that was allura’s job and then coran’s job when she became the blue pilot. Back The Fuckéth Down.

there’s something ominous about those temples i can’t place it.

oh hey what’s up firo being a jackass as usual? k? k. keith can you employ the blade sass here too please it’s kinda sad watching this fake shiro stomp all your fire out.

pidge i hope that’s superficial damage bc cracks are probably not what you want in an outer space vessel.

wow rude. heith cancelled i’m not liking that.

i’m not trusting a DAMN THING from firo, especially when the music got super deep for a second.

i’m not in the military or remotely connected to it in any way but this is like... actually there’s no ‘like’ about it, they’re taking the most powerful and skilled soldiers out of combat in the middle of a war just so they can show them off, when voltron is already enshrined in the galactic mythos and by now it’s well known as being active and wrecking galra shit.

i can’t!! believe!! this!! is even!!! a debate?? parade which has already stated to have already happened very recently before or a galra supply ship going to for all that they know a secret galra base that they need to track down.

Y’ALL ARE FREEDOM FIGHTERS. IN AN ACTIVE WAR ZONE. THE FUCK.

god shut up lance he could be dead or captured and you’re more worried about the show.

i’m pretty sure you’ve only ~tried~ like what, three times? and like only one of those even made any impression on keith and i don’t even think it was the right one.

AND YOU SHOULD STILL TRY BECAUSE HE’S YOUR GODDAMN FRIEND.

NO LIZARD BLADE

so they’re off giving them the ol’ razzle dazzle and keith is running out of oxygen in the wreckage of a bomb explosion with no allies in sight floating adrift in space. fun times.

this parade is basically just an ad for toys LBR.

this is embarrassingly unfunny. like not even in a schadenfreude way.

so like y’all seriously have never thought about an alternative way for these parades to go just in case one of the lions needed repairs or was late back from a mission or a paladin was sick?

allura like i get what you’re trying to say here but like... do you know keith.

he’s not choosing the blades over voltron he’s choosing the fucking war over a parade.

ahh there he is, my terrible space prince. cleanse me of my salt.

god he has no respect for haggar at all ahhaha. i know some spoilers re honerva thanks to that one clip so it’s interesting he either doesn’t recognize her or doesn’t want to or that haggar either still doesn’t remember him or also doesn’t want to.

and y’all seriously never had a contingency plan for any situation that could mean voltron wasn’t around hhhhh.

hunk you’re the tank just AOE the spawned adds and let the DPS pick them off while you pop a defensive cooldown god you’d wipe the group in ragefire chasm even in full heirlooms wouldn’t you. (although there isn’t a healer lion and he’s clearly more protection warrior than the far superior blood death knight so lol no self heals)

huh. well the black lion historically isn’t a great judge of character so you’re still firo to me. like objectively, the black lion has no investment in her paladin’s life as seen on the bone planet when they were all separated, or even the continued existence of voltron. compare to the red lion, who will wreck entire bases and cross the galaxy to get to hers if she senses they’re in peril.

i wonder if voltron or the lions are conscious. like not like a person but like an EVA unit. a unit 1 vs zeruel style fight where voltron or one of the lions goes beast mode would be AMAZING

(spoiler warning for a 90s anime lol have i linked this before? i think i might have.)

youtube

now i want to watch original NGE again boo

(i wonder if we’ll ever get a real lion-on-lion fight. like either with the paladins involved or without. or like the lions deciding ‘fuck the pilot’ and disobeying them god that makes me want to watch NGE EVEN MORE)

holy shit you can all fuck off.

god keith your voice.

HOLY SHIT YOU CAN ALL FUCK OFF THAT’S THE MOST HOLLOW ~FRIENDSHIP~ MOMENT TO DATE.

welp OT4 cancelled, i guess that means i have no nice ships in this fandom and only have crack ships like keitor and zethura. i think that’s the fastest i’ve ever gone from loving a ship to dumping it. wait no i was a puzzleshipper for all of a day before i got bored of it when i rewatched yugioh. hunk/allura/shay/keith lasted a few weeks between S3.1 and S3.2.

(it’s ok shay i still love you. i can still ship you and keith but that too is a crack ship ♥)

episode 2:

UH WELL THANKS FOR THAT SPOILER THUMBNAIL NETFLIX.

BABY PIDGE

it’s amazing how a single word has made me detest this boy more than any of the galra except that one shitty one who sucked. go to hell.

actually teacher can go to hell too you’re just gonna let the entire class laugh at her and not even try to maintain order? are you that petty about being corrected?

i like these watercolour-y style backgrounds, i hope other earth flashbacks get this kind of style. it’s a nice change from how clean and sharp everything else is.

aww he’s a good bro

NERDBABIES ♥

OH WELL I HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A BACK UP PLAN IN CASE THE GALRA ATTACK WHILE SHE’S GONE :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

like he’s contacting her midflight which makes it seem like she just took off at the first hint of matt??? meanwhile kolivan contacts the ship and explains the situation and asks politely? but keith’s the bad guy for splitting up the team ok.

do i sound salty? i feel it.

that’s our hunk, he sure likes to eat! -hysterical crowd noises-

this city looks like a neo-tokyo sonic level in a good way.

the lamest spider man.

who are you sharktooth tail man.

the whole PLANET looks like a neo-tokyo sonic level in a good way. approve. the coolest planet. can that be the new hub planet and not that weird techno-ahn’qiraj thing?

so the green lion takes no steps to defend itself under attack without a paladin.

did she just bloodbend that ship?

I LOVE HER. SHE’S ABOUT TO DIE (pidge bloodbend her wound shut) BUT I LOVE HER.

“so here’s your supplies and a body cheers.”

so why all the secrets here? i feel like the garrison’s up to shady shit, like he was just a space tube driller right? is space geology really that cutthroat?

that shot of the graveyard, holy shit.

i wonder how pidge’s mother’s doing. probably not well.

now see this would be tense and tragic if not for the FUCKING THUMBNAIL NETFLIX.

physics? physics.

i love rusty space tech!!!!!!!!

aww ♥

so where’s mr. holt then.

oh so he’s not galra he’s a space dinosaur.

“looks to me like you’re made of meat, just like everyone else!” ok that was an amazing line. i’m stealing that for my blood death knight, it’s perfect for her. i like you bloody bounty huntersaurus. you’re so dead but i like you.

nerd squad!

was that shiro and keith in the back?

so matt’s eyesight couldn’t have been that bad for pidge to just put them on like that, unless he switched the lenses out and made them purely cosmetic. people have to sit down when they wear my glasses or they feel sick.

episode 3:

yknow show i already feel bad enough for haggar/honerva you don’t need to twist that knife anymore.

are they STILL torturing that guy? i mean dude’s so strong in his convictions and his loyalty that he’s not tried making up a fake or even letting his brain conjure up an answer that he believes is true y’all should consider promoting him instead maybe??? because he’s the most hardcore person in that room???

firo why does ‘refugee’ instantly translate to ‘soldier’ with you.

oh he’s lance but more anime around pretty girls. boy that sure was an interesting and appealing character trait the first time around!!!!!!1111!!!1!!

HE’S NOT SHIRO DON’T TRUST HIM MATT.

cyber zarkon. i hope his AI acts up and he has to use urban dictionary as his speech system.

interesting that her first act is to drop lotor in it.

they both hate lotor so much why’d you even have him in the first place huh?

SHE’S SO EXCITED also the formatting’s getting weird bc of the length i think so sorry if this starts looking weird.

there he is again!! space prince!!

nobody who worked on this scene has ever been close to a cow. where’s the intrinsic judgement of your soul, the innate suspicion at your mere presence?

also she needs a herd she’s gonna be lonely ;_;

lotor we all know you’re lying

well apparently they don’t so i guess that kind of behaviour is what they expect from him. huh. i wonder when the switch between that being true and that being a well rehearsed act happened.

haggar what did you just do to narti. that’s not a good high pitched noise or whispering. i feel like i’ve heard it before.

how do you miss a tracker that makes an explosion that large the first time around? and wouldn’t the scan be standard procedure at this point?

hunk why are you acting like this. it’s weird i don’t like it.

git gud lance.

that whole bit went on way too long.

OH NO NARTI I KNEW HAGGAR DID SOMETHING.

so lotor’s officially the enemy now. like public enemy number 1.

VLD IF YOU TAKE ZETHRID AWAY FROM ME LIKE SU DID WITH JASPER...

so it

was

narti oh no :( i’d kinda hoped it was the cat.

that’s pretty graphic too slicing the view in half like that. a very creative censor.

and they don’t react at all? huh.

ok ok now they have the chance to. god they all look miserable.

did they leave the cat behind?

wonder what keith’s up to.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #vld spoilers #sb watches voltron

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severalbakuras · 7 years ago

Text

time

finish

im not prepared

(apologies to mobile users for the long post)

episode 5:

intro is a pink screen. it’s established pink is a mourning colour. hrmmm.

oh its an eyeball SHIRO

that’s not a good looking room to be in

that HAIR

hallucinating already, this is Not Good.

so he’s like totally alone in that room that is just bad practice right there. supervisor’s gonna get fucked if they get caught.

and. another shiro. one who’s kept clean-shaven. oh ok i know where this is going i think.

operation kuron is so unsubtle that i think we’re in for several layers of bait-n-switch until it turns out shiro never actually existed. schrodinger’s Shiro. shirodinger.

he escaped waaaaaay too easily - yeah. called it.

‘stage 3′ so stage one is ??? and stage two is this guy.

ok so shiro obvs remembers some things but i find it interesting that we’ve had no internal thoughts beyond memories of the tube/surgery. like he’s not thought about voltron or the paladins or allura and coran like he has no idea if they survived or not. nothing at all by the five minute mark.

HAGGAR FINALLY I’VE MISSED YOU SO

yeah you keep an eye on that boy. im sure absolutely nothing will happen to this guy.

self-cauterization holy shit.

“what killed you?” is the first spoken line of dialogue from shiro i think. everything else is just vague confusion noises and/or battle grunts iirc. we haven’t even had an internal line of thought yet (which i know don’t rly happen in this series like everyone tends to speak aloud but still he’s ALL alone). i think that’s significant, somehow.

how the fuck has he not frozen to death in that skinny suit.

SHIRO NO THAT COULD BE AN ACID LAKE

“subject Y0XT39″ i will eat a raw garlic clove if this turns out to be the real shiro.

wow that’s rly bad for blood circulation like way to make him lose his hands jackasses.

so these two are space cannibals. neat.

if you’re trying to convince people of who you are why would you just say your first name? he WANTS these guys to know who he is, there’s no point being cagey. say your surname shiro go ahead.

knowledge of who the paladins are rly is being kept tight under wraps. so long as nobody ever thinks to check out any planet where galra were known to have integrated into local alien communities to the point of children.

i :) wonder :) who :) might :) do :) that :)

(i wonder how earth’s doing. everyone has family down there who misses them (besides keith since he’s living in a shack in the desert and nobody from the MILITARY-ish training academy told his dad to come pick him up apparently))

lotor i swear to fuck don’t you dare pull a dreamworks smirk DONT DO YOU DARE

so galra channels are hackable

that big guy’s totally having a SUPPRESSING FIIIIIRE moment

i rly like this winter backdrop i love being able to see the brushstrokes on the snow (like digital ones but they count).

he’s starving but he doesn’t take a single bite of the food onscreen can’t tell if suspicious or #mood bc i don’t like people watching me eat either lol

so operation kuron isn’t something widely known then or Hold up those robo-soldiers have no reaction whatsoever to a unit falling down until the hangar doors close.

ok those two guys in the cave HAVE to be in on it or shiro would’ve died on that planet. why keep the ship above a Death Planet for him to be permitted to escape to unless they had someone down on the Death Planet who could send him back to the right ship to deliver to voltron without him knowing he was being played?

like this is ALL phase 3.

‘stop spying on me’

‘do your fucking job’

HA. IDEAS. IN ZARKON’S HEAD. AHHAHAA

i think this is the first time i’ve seen lotor angry like haggar gets under his skin so easily i hope they talk again soon. ‘I AM THE LEADER’ his VOICE damn.

ok so like i already know lotor is half-galran and he’s probably half-altean too like in the original series with the hair and all. but i don’t think haggar is his mother even though she’s also altean. he’s hyper-focused on not being like his father in that scene but he also seems the type that he’d leave a snarky comment about his mother too if she were. and she doesn’t ever refer to him as her son, only zarkon’s. she’d surely say ‘our’ son, unless she officially disowned him as part of his banishment and hates his guts but then surely he’d have at least SOME reaction to seeing her unless he was, like, literally banished at birth and doesn’t know who she is and that he’s half-altean. bc if he knew he was he’d connect the dots between ‘only altean on the ship’ and his dad v quickly.

like i do know the story behind exactly how original lotor (aka sincline) is half altean and it’s Unpleasant and makes zarkon a fucking monster and i doubt this series would even imply that that was the case here but if it did and our lotor knew this was the truth behind his parentage that could explain his lack of reaction to haggar AND his deeply intrinsic rejection of his father.

oh come ON the ship is stocked with oxygen!!!!!! why would a ship that’s intended for a robot pilot need oxygen!!!!!!!!

seven days, when he’s already in a bad way re blood loss/injury (like a healing serious wound burns calories and fluid by the truckload) and didn’t have much water to go on beforehand. if i didn’t think something was up before man.

finally, almost 20 minutes in, we finally see him think of his teammates. took long enough.

black lion notices. hrm.

episode six:

nice shooting lancFCUKING KILL THEM ALLURA

SAME LANCE

HUG YOUR SON SHIRO actually no you’re not shiro stay the fuck away from him

‘weird headache’ since this isn’t a dramatic romance show, he’s not got Invisible Anime Disease #5 so there’s absolutely a tracker in his brain.

A HUNK MOMENT THAT ISN’T ABOUT FOOD I’M CRY (like it intersects with pidge but i don’t mind it’s nice that he gets to show his own brains in what feels like forever)

shiro automatically stepping back in ‘this is what we do mode’ is SHRHCHCH. NO. even if he WASN’T a clone he’s still recovering and is missing out on potentially months of their relationships changing and being redefined. he can’t just step back in like that.

ok so like???? if there’d been more scenes like this early on??? i’d probably be totally into klance?? like keith doesn’t really grasp the depths of the issue with lance judging by how the shot holds on lance leaving and his facial expressions and all but keith tries and lance tries and there’s no cheap joke thrown in there’s no rejecting that there was any emotional connection. it’s not solved the problem lance has by any means but it’s lance opening up to keith about his vulnerabilities and worries and it’s keith doing his best to help him both as a leader and a friend and the narrative doesn’t turn either of them into a joke for it. THAT IS MY SHIT RIGHT THERE.

like i’m obvs lowkey into enemies-friends-lovers (bc otherwise i wouldn’t consider keitor or any of my other ships which i won’t name bc i’ve made it this far without comparing anything to warcraft so i won’t start now) but i guess i much prefer the friends-lovers stage. (especially when only one half of the pair considers the other as ‘enemy’ in the first place).

‘just whack it’ is a universal law that will last forever

SHIRO ARE YOU IN THE LEADER CHAIR. NO? SHUT UP.

fucking fake ass shiro he doesn’t even acknowledge keith stepping up to make a plan as leader like he always fucking wanted him to do he just sails on into his own plan without so much as a ‘sorry’. fuck you fake shiro. firo.

and keith just stands there like a lemon like this is ok ahrhfhg. firo i swear to god if you drag keith back down into the place he was on the gas planet before lance intervened i’m gonna be so mad.

interesting that we don’t get a reaction shot of lance when keith offers to stay behind instead of taking back red. considering how that was literally what the last scene between him and keith was about is all.

so clones are genetically identical so the black lion picking up on firo’s ~spark of life~ fading or whatever to rescue him isn’t odd. but the black lion knows your soul and it’s not happy.

(could be an issue when the real shiro returns tho but eh that’s a problem for futuretron)

I LOVE THIS LOYAL PETTY BASTARD

“Victory or death!” OH COME ON YOU’RE MAKING THE WARCRAFT REFERENCES FOR ME. LOKTAR OGAR

so perhaps lotor squad isn’t in on operation kuron?

i wonder what’s being whispered during the mind control scenes.

that ship looks like a space fox... or maybe a star fox.

in two minds about this part like right now firo IS right but they DO need to actually try and confront lotor at some point. it’s ALWAYS going to be a bad time bc lotor has figured out how to use plot armor to protect himself so sometimes you just need to attack that face down trap card and face the consequences or you’ll be stuck forever yknow?

OH IT’S HER. FROM THE SHIP. COOL i was wondering if that’d come up again.

oops he’s ambidextrous.

also i think ezor might be a little crueler than she lets on, she’s got some v. vicious expressions going on in this grapple.

ZETHRID THINKS ALLURA’S A WORTHY OPPONENT ZELLURA YOU ARE CLEARED FOR LAUNCH (in other news i am a terrible person)

honestly those are both equally high priority targets, either one WILL fuck things up in the future no matter if they follow firo or keith.

now lotor how do you know they were about to attack, unless you perhaps had a direct link into the lions communication lines, which have been kinda previously established as being impossible to hack?

(so that’s one point in them also knowing about project kuron)

YES KEITH THIS IS WHAT YOU DO BEST ON THE FLY INSTINCTIVE GOOD MOVE

hooooly shit lotor’s maaaad

get your hand off him firo.

“i’m sorry i had to step in back there” step in. STEP IN. LIKE YOU WEREN’T IN CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE MISSION START TO FINISH. he sets up ‘you were the leader and you weren’t good enough’ almost on purpose..

the former isn’t true because keith still stepped down and firo commanded all their movements from the ship and the latter isn’t true because no plan survives contact with the enemy keith basically had it as under control as shiro always did. considering the circumstances he did damn well AND he scored a ‘fuck you’ point against lotor by using lotor’s own new ship to wreck the teledove.

“i thought i had it under control” ;A;

HE’S BEEN THERE SINCE THEY ALL FORMED VOLTRON YOU FUCK. HE WAS GOOD AT THIS UNTIL YOU GOT HERE.

FUCK YOU FIRO.

damn that’s cold haggar.

episode seven:

i’m. um. huh. those certainly were memories i’ll need to pause on later.

this dramatic scene is being ruined by all the cute little triforces floating around.

my civil war theory is officially dead now i guess. goodbye, civil war theory. it was nice to have you as a handy aversion of the whole ‘X race is like this while Y race is like this’ trope that always shows up in sci fi and fantasy and sci-fantasy~

this music is giving me jack sparrow IN SPACE vibes.

oooh the dust particle effect in the light shafts in the air is pretty and a good attention to detail.

now see like why wasn’t his spirit projection thing back in season 1 more like this??? he has a character he’s got personality he’s just like his daughter i’d actually MISS this guy if that spirit projection thing had been like his true self and not a bland whatever he was he’s so forgettable i can’t even remember what he was like.

ZARKON WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. YOUR VOICE. YOUR EYES.

so like galra culture has a class/caste system and is kinda militaristic. explains a lot in the future i guess.

“WHAT IS THAT” is that the same cat narti has? and oh god no he’s a dork.

OH NO HE’S A REALLY BIG DORK AAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAA BABY ALLURA. SHE’S SO CUTE.

oh so he married honerva? oh no. OH NO SHE BETTER NOT BE HAGGAR. DON’T DO THIS.

“it was a customary gesture” tf is that all about.

“by willow!” is that the first canon mention of a deity? cool.

so the red paladin was technically the first paladin.

this thing is eldritch as fuck.

“Am I a leg?!” god i am so sad that you’re going to die horribly i love you.

now it’s REALLY eldritch.

god she really is haggar.

so alteans definitely age then (which proves empress allura was definitely dead a long LONG time before alt-eans went all mind-controlly).

honergar’s giving me major ‘that bloodbender who’s name i’ve forgotten’ vibes.

I KNEW QUINTESSENCE WAS BAD SHIT

he loves her so much im gonna cry.

so the lions cannot pick up on deceit then. they accept the will of their paladin over the safety of voltron as a whole and the other lions. they cast no moral judgement.

so there could easily be an evil voltron somewhere.

ZARKON NO HE’S HOLDING HER HAND ARGH.

so those weird purple cloud creatures from another dimension are puppeteering the corpse of the first black paladin, taking his basic desire for power and extending it into a galaxy spanning genocidal crusade because???

their home dimension must be a fucking hell dimension if things like that are trying to escape.

that guard made it seem like they sorta knew and accepted why their planet was destroyed so i guess zarkon returning from death was such a massive cultural shock that they all fell into line. bc otherwise i find it hard to believe that every single galra would join the battle (like yeah the blades exist but they’re a tiny movement) and not question what the fuck happened to his eyes or voice or how he came back from the fucking dead or why they’re meant to suddenly hate everyone.

ok so why do most of the galra have similar glowing eyes iirc? surely the vast majority should have the normal eyes that old zarkon and lotor have but they don’t. unless like successful generals are permitted to ‘live’ forever by taking the creatures into their bodies but then like they have far too much personality for that. the loktar ogar guy for example. what gives.

that’s kind of a leap at lotor’s motives but an understandable one, they don’t know how much lotor detests being like his father so i doubt he’d do the same damn thing his father was trying to do.

he’s baaaaack and he’s got no new tricks, zombieman zarkon’s still just as thick as the last time~

lotor’s gonna be so mad. and also this doesn’t actually explain why haggar lets zarkon run roughshod all over her much better plans prior to this because she doesn’t remember being his husband until this episode.

and also also imo this means haggar definitely can’t be lotor’s mother bc when we’re seeing things coran can’t possibly know like honerva on her death bed we’re probably seeing haggar’s vision of events and he doesn’t appear to be a factor in either of their lives but she remembers their wedding perfectly.

(unless he’s a zombaby but he can’t be because his eyes don’t glow).

hrm.

season four when.

#vld #voltron legendary defender #sb watches voltron

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