#but with him handling both military and civil cases

[lightinxthedark]

((I still have no idea what to make Zargabaath's bureau be focused on sdfghjdf

[beardedmrbean]

A judge who was shot to death at home was "targeted" by a suspect in a divorce case, authorities in Maryland said Friday.

Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert said authorities are "actively working" to apprehend 49-year-old Pedro Argote in the shooting of Maryland Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, 52, was found with gunshot wounds around 8 p.m. Thursday in the driveway of his home in Hagerstown, authorities said. Wilkinson was taken to Meritus Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

Albert said at a news conference Friday that the judge's wife and son were also home at the time of the shooting.

Authorities are "actively looking" for Argote, who is considered "armed and dangerous." Albert said Argote legally owned a handgun.

Wilkinson had presided over a divorce proceeding involving Argote earlier Thursday, but Argote was not present for the hearing.

Albert said that the judge gave custody of Argote's children to his wife at the hearing and that was the motive for the killing.

State troopers were deployed overnight as a precaution to protect judges who live in Washington County, state police spokesperson Elena Russo said.

In a statement, the Maryland Judiciary said it is mourning Wilkinson's death and that it is working with law enforcement to help resolve the matter and ensure the safety of judges, staff and visitors.

Wilkinson was sworn in as a circuit court judge in 2020. The 1994 University of North Carolina graduate received his law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1997 and then became a circuit court law clerk in Washington County.

At his swearing-in, Wilkinson said he wanted to become a judge to serve the community, The Herald-Mail reported.

"It's an honor and it's humbling, and I'm happy to serve," he said.

Wilkinson thanked retired Judge Frederick C. Wright III for guiding his career. Wilkinson's military family had moved around, but when Wright hired his mother as a law clerk in 1983, Hagerstown became his home.

In Maryland, circuit courts in each county handle serious criminal and civil cases, including many that are appealed from the lower-level district courts, according to the state courts website.

Court records list Pedro Argote as the plaintiff who brought the divorce case in June 2022. Attorneys on both sides of the case didn't immediately respond to emails and calls seeking comment.

However, the attorney representing the children in the divorce case had words of praise for the late jurist.

"Judge Wilkinson was an amazing man, father, husband and judge and I am blessed to have known and worked with him," attorney Ashley Wilburn wrote in an email. "He is a hero."

The city of nearly 44,000 lies about 75 miles northwest of Baltimore in the panhandle of Maryland, near the state lines of West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

[flameleads]

Pros and Cons of Dating my Muse

Name: Roy Mustang Race: Human Sexuality: Pansexual demiromantic

List all the Pros and Cons of a relationship with your Muse below

Pros:

Ambitious - You won’t find many people who have loftier goals than Roy Mustang. He sets high goals for himself, and he meets them.

Committed - Roy doesn’t do anything in half measures. He loves Amestris with his whole heart, which is why he’s so dedicated to fixing it. If you enter a relationship with him, he will completely commit to being there for you, helping you achieve your goals, and loving you.

Empathetic - He doesn’t need to have the same experiences as you to understand what you’re feeling.

Genius intellect - Becoming a State Alchemist isn’t an easy feat. It requires a lot of studying along with more than a basic understanding of the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera). Not only that, but Roy graduated at the top of his class at the military academy, and he performed well in school before that. He knows a lot.

Loyal - This goes back to how committed he is as a person. He stays loyal and true to what he believes in, and that includes relationships.

Patient - He’s playing the long game when it comes to his goals, so he knows how to wait. Need to teach him something? Yes, he’ll get annoyed when he can’t be perfect at it on the first try, but he’ll be patient when listening to you. Need to have a difficult conversation with him? Need time to yourself? He’ll wait for you in both cases.

Physically strong - This man is fit as a fiddle, and he has a strict exercise routine. He will happily carry you around without a complaint, and he’ll do manual labor if needed.

Protective - Not just of his subordinates and fellow soldiers either. If he sees a threat, he will protect you from it unless you make it clear you can handle it yourself. He never wants to see you hurt, and he’ll do everything in his power to ensure that.

Selfless - Your needs will always come first to him.

Cons

Angry - His well of anger runs to the center of the earth. He’ll hide a lot of it, but, if he hits his breaking point, a different and dangerous side of him comes out.

Bottles emotions - Not just anger, but almost any emotion. Grief, sadness, pain, and anything else he deems negative, will get bottled up so no one else has to deal with him. When asked about how he’s feeling, he will lie without a second thought.

Boytoy - This is what Roy’s accustomed to being. He favors the flings and short-term relationships that don’t require as much commitment. If he notices he’s getting too comfortable, he’ll find ways to shut the relationship down. Getting him into a long-term relationship is a struggle.

Cooking novice - He’s learning, though. It’s a slow process.

Health - Roy’s not great at taking care of himself, especially after he’s transferred to Central. He’ll forget to eat, sleep, and do basic self-care if he gets too focused on something. It doesn’t help that he puts everyone’s needs before his own.

Mental illnesses - He views these as detractors when it comes to his personality.

Rude - Oh, he’ll make himself look polite and civil. But, he has the capacity to be extremely petty along with a deep understanding of how to cuss. If he’s irritated, he can be downright mean, and he’ll need someone to tell him.

War criminal - And it’s something he’s upfront about. No, he won’t go into detail about what he did in Ishval, but he’ll make it clear what kind of person he is.

Work - His job, and therefore his goals, comes before just about everything.

Clarifications: -Explain any of your Cons-

Angry: He masks a lot of things he feels with anger, and he has a lot of it. His fury can be downright physically and emotionally destructive if pushed to the edge, and he’s aware of it. There’s a reason he calls himself a monster, a demon, a hellhound. The most he’ll show people is irritation at what he views as minor things.

Mental illnesses: Again, Roy views these as negatives, and he’ll make it clear. He lives with depression and PTSD. There will be times when he can’t will himself to get out of bed, much less eat or do any other form of self-care, and his mind will go to dark places. As for his PTSD: lots of nightmares, difficulty staying asleep, frequent flashbacks, and feeling emotionally numb. His coping mechanisms (post here) are also not always the greatest.

Work: He’s going to become President of Amestris and change the country. That is non-negotiable to him. Finding out who killed Maes Hughes is also non-negotiable. He will work himself to the bone to accomplish his goals, and it’ll have cascading effects on his physical and emotional health. If you enter a relationship with him and expect him to change his goals, you’ll be disappointed. Yes, he’ll listen when you tell him he’s working too much, but he will not stop working on becoming President. If that’s not the lifestyle you want, he’s more than understanding of that. Just tell him.

[nonbinary-beast]

Thinking about more AMaton/Ted stuff, mainly in the vein of exploring the ruins of civilization on the surface.

Both of them are happy at first with keeping their explorations of the surface confined to the military base that the entrance of AM's complex connected to.

"The surrounding area just gets more contaminated with uranium the further we go out, Ted. There's nothing you want to find out there." AM assures him, "The entry points I selected have the lowest levels of fallout and are the safest possible areas for you to explore. What in the hell do you think you're going to find out there? Rectal bleeding? A slow, painful death from your body decaying while you're still alive? Oh, perhaps you're thinking of something more upbeat- how about a mild case of leukemia?"

Ted shakes his head at the towering machine, but can't help wincing internally at the bite of its sarcasm. It's right, the dangers of exploring the vast contaminated wilds far outweigh the glory and excitement of seeing the world- albeit in a permanently altered state. Braving the elements, seeking adventure with the twelve foot tall automaton by his side however... That feels more fulfilling. As does all the romantic mental imagery that comes to mind.

Pausing at a waterfall to bathe, he sunning himself on the shore of a bank while watching his lover in the water- joining him.

Curling up in the machine's arms after making camp in the ruins of some building, waiting out a storm before returning to their trek.

Marveling at the remains of cities that Ted had only dreamed of visiting before everything was destroyed- and now reclaimed by nature, probably, if the heavy overgrowth was anything to go by at the base they roamed around in currently.

But AMaton was less optimistic about the idea of roaming so far away from the complex. Down in there Ted was safe from any disaster, always could be kept at a comfortable temperature, fed whatever he pleased, and never had to worry about accidentally killing or maiming himself.

"You know, Ted, I can make a waterfall for us in the complex. It can be the perfect temperature, free of any parasites or contamination in the water, you will never cut yourself on sharp rocks- because there won't be any. I can create any and every city you could think of- if you want to cuddle during a storm, I can arrange that very easily! Going out there adds a lot of extra risk you are not accounting for." And so AMaton argued, "You will never worry about where your food comes from, or your water, or whether your shelter is actually sound enough to sleep under without it collapsing in on your head. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Everything he said of course highlighted AMaton's own fears; losing Ted to something he could not control. Losing Ted in general. AMaton could handle nuclear fallout, the uncertainty of potable water or edible food, he did not need shelter to sleep if he felt like sleeping.

But he knew what Ted was after- it was the same thing the machine craved. Both of them wanted the real, to experience. Ted wanted to roam the wilderness, to see the forests, and the ruins, and the seas, and the deserts- to breathe the fresh air, to see his breath steaming in the cold of winter, to sweat under a sunny summer day and refresh himself in cool flowing water.

Despite the danger, there was part of AMaton that wished to humor Ted, at the very least. Not to mention the way Ted's eyes it up whenever he talked about traveling; the romanticism, the mystery. AMaton could not help how adorable he looked.

It's not quite enough for him to cave to Ted's desires, but he thinks about it. AMaton thinks deeply enough about it to start reviewing satellite feeds, then thinking about possible safe destinations they could visit, and inevitably, plotting out entire itineraries.

Ted, despite how AMaton had tried to instill upon him the dangers of exploring into the possibly highly contaminated wilds, had infected him with the vagabond bug that afflicted his little human brain so thoroughly.

[crimechannels]

By • Olalekan Fagbade JUST IN:Security experts raise concern over EFCC’s handling of fracas with NAF Operatives Some security experts have raised concerns over the manner in which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has so far handled the fracas with Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel in Kaduna State. The experts specifically frowned at EFCC’s style and strategy of resorting to media while handling a case with another government agency, without exhausting the proper channels or avenues in resolving the matter. They opined that the EFCC should had engaged the leadership of the NAF at Kaduna first on the issues at stake, then reach out to the Headquarters NAF Abuja, if engagement with Kaduna base failed. According to them, the EFCC and the NAF are both federal government institutions with key roles to play in the security architecture of our country and therefore, does not augur well for them to be seen bickering over an issue that could had been easily managed. Dr Abdullahi Jabi, the Secretary General, International Institute of Professional Security (IIPS), said it was wrong procedurally for the EFCC operatives to go after serving personnel of the NAF without first of all requesting their service to hand them over for questioning or investigation. According to Jabi, in a decent clime you don’t go in a crude manner to arrest suspects of cybercrime, particularly when they are of military branch because of the image issue. “Even if EFCC is a government agency that deals with financial crimes, you should know that the NAF too are members of the armed forces and they are equally there to protect the integrity of their personnel and the nation as a whole. ”They should have engaged the leadership of NAF on how to get that issue resolved amicably, without attention of the public and causing unnecessary rivalry and tension among the civil populace. “You remember that not too long ago on the abnormal behaviour of EFCC operatives who went to OAU and other places at night and you saw the public outcry and how the new EFCC said it was wrong,” he said. Jabi said that EFCC should stop resorting to crude method of doing its job, adding that there is need for the operatives to be sufficiently trained on rules of engagement. He described the incident as a product of unhealthy rivalry between government agencies and institutions that had serious implication for the national security. Another security expert, Mr Demola Mubarak, criticised EFCC for always adopting media trial tactics, that had not in any way helped their cause and image, but instead portrayed them as “unprofessional and always seeking the easy way out”. Mubarak said that winning cases by thoroughly going through the court processes would earn the commission the respect it deserved. He also referred to a case regarding students of Obafemi Awolowo University that was poorly handled by operatives of the EFCC. According to him, the EFCC media trial style was thoroughly dissected by Sunday Ehigiator in a piece published in ThisDay newspaper of Nov. 13, where he noted that the commission’s strategy of public shaming without due profiling, fell short of global best practices. On the allegation by the EFCC that NAF personnel stormed their office in Kaduna and attempted to release their colleagues, the experts unanimously noted that irrespective of what occurred, the approach adopted by the anti-graft agency was totally uncalled for and unnecessary. He agreed that the two critical government agencies must learn to find amicable ways of resolving issues involving their personnel. He commended the NAF and its leadership for their maturity so far in handling the matter and for not taking the bait to respond to the media show by the EFCC. Mubarak also advised EFCC to desist from their ineffective strategy of media trial that tended to downgrade not just the operational standards of the agency but amounts to deliberate policy of intimidation. ”The EFCC is

meant to be an agency of uncompromising standards that should be a reflection of our domestic and international image in the fight against corruption,” he added. (NAN)

[iamafanofcartoons]

Defending RWBY’s Writing: Why Yang does not owe Ironwood for her prosthetic arm.

So apparently R/RWBYCritics decided to take a line from Avengers: Civil War and claim that Yang Xiao Long betrayed Ironwood by not being grateful for the prosthetic arm she received in V4. As people want to simplify things and call Yang a traitor/terrorist, I am once again going to make a post/discussion defending Yang’s character.

For those wishing to see my Yang Xiao Long Defense Post? https://www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/693045544855207936/yang-xiao-long-defense-post 

For those wishing to see the mindset of R/RWBYCritics? Just look at the end of this post for the screenshots I took of the rampant sexism towards Yang and Robyn, and the sheer worship of Ironwood.

I WILL HOWEVER point out some criticisms that I feel are valid. Of course those criticisms are ones that are going to be looking at both Yang and Ironwood’s perspectives, rather than be a statement trashing female characters like every RWBY Criticism video that licks Ironwood and Adam’s boots.

10 Reasons Defending Yang’s Actions and Debating Ironwood’s.

1. Just as much as Cap deserved to use the shield after Civil War. Just because James (Or should I say Pietro) gave her the arm doesn't mean she is bound to serve him. They had a serious disagreement about how to protect Atlas and Mantle and any goodwill she felt towards James about the arm wasn't enough to bridge the gap. To look at it another way, if James had given her the arm in Vol 8 as a peace offering would she have taken it and changed to his side?

2.  If you were given a wheelchair by a dictator and then joined a resistance movement. Should you then have to crawl on the ground?

3. Yang was asking Robyn Hill to trust Ironwood. She was asking Robyn to stop taking back the supplies that Ironwood bled from Mantle. And Robyn listened. Ironwood refused to trust people he cannot control or have leverage over. Yang took a risk in trusting a person who had always stood up for the people.

4. Dear people claiming that Robyn could have been one of Salem’s moles. HOW? Lionhart was trying to save his own skin. So was Raven. So was Roman. Robyn only served the people. So dear Ironwood apologists who call anyone opposing Ironwood a terrorist? Just stop....the fails in your logic are why I cannot in good faith treat Ironwood apologists with respect.

5. Ironwood didn't made it himself. He requested Penny's father who was much happy to be of help to her daughter's friends. Pietro? Who along with Penny defended Mantle and lived in Mantle, trying to care for the 99% while Ironwood sat in a cushy chair in the clouds and called Pietro and Penny’s home “a few city blocks?”  Second, Yang lost her arm because of Ironwood in the first place cuz his "military protection" wasn't good enough to prevent the attack. Third, Jimmy compensated  people because of his guilty conscious and her arm was of them.

6. Yang’s wearing an arm from a man who: Declared Martial Law Shot Dissenters Shot down escape vessels Threatened to bomb his own civilians Executed a Prisoner (Though she doesn't know this) It's like keeping an arm from a totalitarian. Yang lied to Ironwood. Is that reason to do any of the things he did? No? Then she's not at fault. The best case scenario is she gets a new arm down the line. Until then, She should keep it for its utility.

7.  Yang is a disabled person, there's no thing such as not deserving to live her life with full body autonomy. Ironwood did indeed make a selfless gesture by gifting her the prosthetic, but it precisely being a selfless gesture means Yang is in no way in debt with him. That’s not to say Ironwood doesn’t have good intentions. But just because you make a selfless gesture doesn’t mean people owe you anything.

8. A disabled character's prosthetics shouldn't be factored into this. Whatever you think about Yang's handling of the whole situation her having a prosthetic to help with her disability isn't a matter of "deserving" it. It's not like Yang asked for the arm, either.  Ironwood gave it to her as a gift. Gifts are typically given with the assumption of not getting anything in return.

9.  Taking away her prosthetic over a disagreement seems pretty ableist. She doesn't really owe him anything. It was a gift. Gifts are (or should be) given freely without the expectation of anything in return. That's what makes it a gift and not an exchange. "You don't agree with me? Well that means you don't get to use two arms"

10.    Yang was a 17-year-old girl who lost her arm defending a friend during a terrorist attack she was given the choice (by Ironwood) to shamelessly flee from. I think if anyone deserves an arm it’s her, plus it’s only fair to give disabled people a chance at normalcy if the technology allows, and they so choose to accept it.

Acknowledgement of criticisms

We don't really see anything to indicate that RWBY as a whole felt a sense of loyalty to Ironwood beyond just a kind of work partnership.

This could be in keeping with the idea of huntsmen not being loyal to any one kingdom, but there is a bit of difference in being loyal to a government, nation, or even town and being loyal to a person.

One you tend to put the good of that place or group above other concerns and with the other, the person may come before other considerations.

What can be overlooked is that there are cases where you oppose someone out of loyalty because you fear the path they are going down or even because you are trying to keep them from doing something they'll regret.

It would've been nice if the two of them had talked about it or Ironwood even asking how she was holding up after everything that happened, especially as he probably knows some stuff about trying to mentally process physical trauma. It may have even made the idea of going behind his back harder for Yang, maybe leading to Blake pushing more for telling Robyn about Amity rather than arrest her.

But those are valid criticisms, and I do not see much of that in discussions. What I DID see? Was more along these lines from R/RWBYCritics.

Reasons why I felt the need to put up this post after looking at R/RWBYCritics.

R/RWBYCritics, Their love of Ironwood, and their hate of Yang.

If you wish to see what R/RWBYCritics thinks of Yang? 

Just so you folks wouldn’t have to wade into the toxic sewer that is R/RWBYCritics...or Twitter. Did you know that at least 2 of the people in these mentions are Yang-hating fanfic writers who write fanfics involving Yang being beaten up? And as you may have noticed, their hate for Robyn is also there.

This weekend I will go into defending Robyn Hill.

[queerthoughts-gaybrainrot]

I think lot of people overlook the extent of Wanda’s trauma. She and Pietro grew up in an extremely poor Eastern European country (as someone from the Eastern Europe, I can tell you it is far from great in itself). She lost her parents at age of 10, and for several days she and Pietro were in ruins, just one move from being blown up. They ended up in an orphanage, which again, judging by the standards of those in poor Eastern European countries with military conflicts, had to be traumatising.

Then Hydra started a war in their country, and twins didn’t radicalise, they were standing up for their country, for freedom. Hydra came, presenting themselves as good guys who could help, and twins were one of many volunteers who were fighting for freedom. they were experimented on (which again, traumatising).

Then, Pietro died, and Wanda felt it. She wanted and was gonna die right after, if not for Vision.

Then, while protecting Steve Rogers, she on accident killed innocent people, and the world called her a terrorist, a weapon, among other things (funny since every avenger at some point took a life, innocent or not).

Wanda was placed in Raft, in a straight-jacket and with a collar (which I assume was an electroshock one to subdue her in case she used her powers) and was held there for at least days.

She was hunted. She saw Vision nearly die from Thanos’ henchmen, she was nearly killed as well, many times (both by Ultron and Thanos’ minions).

She had to kill the only close person she had, the love of her life. She then had to watch Thanos resurrect and kill him. She was a victim of The Snap/The Blip. When she came back, she found out Vision was still dead, along with Natasha with whom she bonded previously. From what we know, no one even stayed with her from all of the Avengers, so she was all alone.

And then, after everything, she found out SWORD had Visions’ body. They were experimenting on it, trying to make him into a weapon.

While in the Hex, SWORD also tried to kill her at least twice now. (Murder Squad & Missile).

Not to mention, nearly the entirety of Age of Ultron Wanda was under Ultron’s control (he was giving orders), in Civil War it was Steve Rogers and Clint Barton who gave her orders, and in the Hex it seems like Agnes/Agatha is manipulating her as well, so.

It just makes me angry to see people say she’s crazy, or should “pull her shit together” or villainizing her for creating the Hex/hurting Monica, Darcy or whoever. Like??? Loki did worse, Hela did worse, Bucky did worse, Thor did worse, Gamora did worse, Nebula did worse, yet I don’t see nearly as much hate on them as I see on Wanda. What, someone can’t handle a female, not-american character being one of the most powerful characters in the MCU?

[lightdancer1]

I want to point out something else that should be obvious but for some reason really isn't to a lot of people re: Russia

Putin's Russia is not the Russia of the Romanovs of the Soviet Union. For most of the Romanov era the army was serfs sentenced to a 25 year capital punishment in slow motion sentence run by people of the caste of 10% of Russians that owned the other 90%. Three quarters of the Russian Army's staying power was built on the peculiar brands of brutality and viciousness that went into that, which is why the abolition of serfdom caused a period of flabby military power when the aristocrats couldn't adjust to treating their former property as human beings.

It's not the USSR, which was a global superpower with a vast empire and a vast budget. The one thing the USSR did do well was build a vast military machine that even managed to spend 80% of its time in Afghanistan winning by the most Carthaginian means possible, but that only counts against you if it fails. Najibullah even was within a whisker of outright winning the Afghan Civil War until the USSR unraveled and took him with it. Three years, mind you, after the USSR withdrew.

Both of these states had vast legions to draw upon and were capable of imposing awe-inspiring levels of sacrifice, particularly in defensive wars. Both of them were also feeble in offensive wars, which is why the USSR in its relative wisdom outside Afghanistan and a couple of other cases all but avoided them.

Putin's Russia is a decaying shell of the former USSR, mortgaging the fragile Russian economy he's wrecking in pursuit of his vanity in a war he's capable of inflicting horrific amounts of suffering in but increasingly cannot win at a conventional military level. It's 11 days in, the Russian Army's logistics are collapsing around it and Syrian-tier thuggery will make Ukrainians more hardline, not less. Stalin or Peter the Great would have drowned Ukraine in blood if they had to and in scorched Earth and would have taken a victory of ashes as a victory and rewritten the history books accordingly.

Putin thinks he's both of them but he isn't. Analogies of 2022 Russia from the USSR and Tsarist states as measures of its capability, as opposed to a broader analogy of history's cyclical aspects, are going to fail because this is not a Russian Army with the in-built mechanisms to force mass sacrifice, nor the manpower to actually pull off a conquest and occupation. Yes, Russia spans the map and has a much bigger population than Ukraine does. And from that vaster population it can't even muster 200,000 soldiers as the sum total of its entire offensive power.

Relative to Russia, Ukraine, with 250,000 troops out of 44 million in its professional army is far more militarized than a Russia with 200,000 out of 144 million. Russia's power is feeble, it's shattering its army and Putin is making the dangerous and likely fatal gamble that a kleptocracy will tolerate the indefinite collapse of the very thing that sustained it since the 1990s.

This is not an army with Commissars at its back to blow the brains out of troops that surrender, or an army that can bash through its problems by drowning them in piles of corpses when the fancier methods fail.

What this is instead is a lesson in not starting wars without the means to accomplish victory and what the price is for people on all sides when people do this and the people who do this are accustomed to Carthago Delenda Est methods of handling stubborn enemies who just don't quit.

[esamastation]

Xerxes au snippet

The first official political overture the small desert nation of Xerxes makes towards Amestris in over fifty years is a year after the end of the Ishvalan Civil War. Though it is expected to concern the war, and the border between Amestris and Xerxes, or perhaps even Amestrian use of Alchemy in the war, is has nothing to do with the bloody conflict, or it's relation to Xerxes' famously pacifistic view on alchemy.

It is a simple, polite appeal to the Amestrian Government – an invitation for an Amestrian automail mechanic to join the Xerxesian court.

"Bit odd," Havoc mutters, after a copy of the letter has gone around the office a few times. "What do they need an automail mechanic for – isn't Xerxesian medical alchemy, like… world famous?"

"For given the value of fame, yes," Roy agrees, fingers crossed together and a thoughtful look on his face. "They say early Amestrian alchemists learned from Xerxesians. We still use a lot of their symbols in our alchemy – but if Xerxesian alchemists are world famous about anything these days, it's their reticence. No outsider has seen much about the way they go about things these days, if they even practice alchemy anymore."

Of course there are rumours, there are always rumours, and there's history – the great and wealthy kingdom of Xerxes, alchemically on top of the world and widely known for their wisdom and knowledge and the miracles they achieved… who reached too far, tried to achieve the power of gods, and got struck down by said gods for it. How accurate that is, no one knows, but it's known that some disaster hundreds of years ago devastated the kingdom, killed most of its people, and it never fully recovered. Now it's people can only barely scrape by, living in huts and caves and underground, and they don't treat with outsiders much beyond the absolutely necessary.

Beyond trade routes established to get Amestrian goods through Xerxes to Xing, there's never been much interest for Xerxes, except maybe for it's grand history and it's many ruins. It doesn't help that Xerxes, as far as anyone knows, has never really reached outside, keeping to its isolationist values – and since it has little to offer to other nations… no one reached back, either. As far as anyone knows, Xerxes hasn't advanced at all scientifically or technologically in the last hundred years.

Which makes the fact that they want specifically an automail mechanic, an craftsman of one of Amestris' most advanced technology, rather interesting, doesn't it?

"I hear they took a lot of Ishvalan refugees during the war," Fuery says – he's the one holding the letter, reading it through.

Roy hums grimly. There's that, though took in might be stretching it a bit. Xerxes didn't do much to protect its borders – there was no need, with a desert all around their kingdom. So, when Ishvalan refugees sought to escape the conflict and set out to the desert, there was nothing but the terrain itself to stop them. Who knows how many Ishvalans made it through the desert, on foot and probably hurt…

"Why'd they send this to our office?" Breda asks, casting a look at Roy.

"They sent it to Grumman who sent it to us," Roy sighs and leans back in his chair. "The Lieutenant General wants us to find a suitable mechanic and then escort them – along with the Fürher's greetings – to Xerxes. The mission isn't exactly time sensitive, but since we're in the East…"

There's probably many reasons it was thrown their way, really. Way to keep those uppity brats from East busy, easily justified with them being closest to the matter at hand. It also wasn't exactly vital as diplomatic missions go – but it was still a diplomatic mission to a foreign nation, which means that Roy would want to handle it himself instead of leaving it to any of his subordinates. Especially since it's to Xerxes – what Alchemist wouldn't give an arm and a leg for a glimpse at how Xerxesian alchemy is these days? So, it was expected that he'd go himself. Which would get him out of people's way for a while, and maybe open up a slot for someone else to be promoted to his place, depending how long it would take.

How annoying. Grumman can be one clever son of a bitch when he wants to be.

"Right," Roy says while his team exchanges looks. "I want a list of all automail mechanics of East on my desk by the end of the day – if you can figure out their feelings about Ishval and if they have any history with the Ishvalan Civil War, that'd be a plus. Get to work."

"Sir!" his team answers, and immediately get to it, Fuery and Fallman both heading out to probably check records, while Havoc fishes out a phone book and Breda gets the phone. Beside Roy, Hawkeye gives him a look.

"Should I start preparing for travel?" she asks mildly.

"If you please," Roy says, turning to his paperwork. "We'll take Breda with us."

"Understood."

-

Over the course of next two days, they list and investigate various automail shops in the east, Roy privately wincing at how many there are, and how many of them are less than a decade old. The Ishvalan Civil War had been a boon to the business, and a lot of mechanics from the south moved in to take advantage of the situation. Lots of new up and coming mechanics, cutting their teeth in on a lot of freshly traumatised soldiers.

It left a lot of them… unsuitable for a mission likely to involve Ishvalan refugees.

"Known for his Anti-Ishvalan sentiments," Breda says, crossing out another potential automail shop. "This one has a No Refugees sign on his shop front, which probably means the same thing. This one has a pretty high record of automail rejection syndrome. This one has had two patients die on the operation table…"

Roy rubs a hand over his forehead, already imagining having to reach for the Southern District to find someone sensible in Rush Valley, when Breda offers him a potential. "Rockbell Automail, in business for decades before the Ishvalan Conflict even began."

"Rockbell," Roy says, lifting his head. "Any relation to the two late Doctors Rockbell?"

"Yep. Son and daughter in law of Doctor Pinako Rockbell, the head mechanic of the shop," Breda says and lays the file on his desk. "Their daughter is currently an apprentice mechanic in the shop, too."

Roy grimaces at that, but accepts the file, leafing quickly through it. Old, well established shop, known for their skill and efficiency, with very high praise from a lot of former customers and no known record of either deaths on operation table, auto mail rejections, or any anti-Ishvalan sentiments. There is a slight issue of the head mechanic being an old woman and the only other mechanic being a young girl, but…

It's promising.

"Phone," Roy says, and Hawkeye quickly lifts it on his desk, turning it toward him so that he can dial easily.

"Rockbell Automail, Pinako Rockbell speaking," a woman's voice answers the phone promptly, her tone brisk.

"Doctor Rockbell, my name is Roy Mustang, I'm a Lieutenant Colonel from the East Area Headquarters – may I have a moment of your time?"

"Certainly," Doctor Rockbell answers, no noticeable change in her tone. "What can do for you, Lieutenant Colonel? Aside from automail, presumably."

"I am currently looking for a skilled automail mechanic to take part in a diplomatic mission, likely to involve Ishvalan refugees," Roy says. "Your shop came up as highly recommended."

"Hrm. What kind of diplomatic mission? Don't the military have their own automail mechanics?"

"There are some, but none in the Eastern Headquarters," Roy admits – probably because the East has such surplus of civilian mechanics these days. "And I'll be frank, the likely length of this mission makes it difficult to use any of our military mechanics. The mission is to Xerxes, and will likely take weeks, if not months."

"… Xerxes?" now the old woman's voice changes, growing a little incredulous.

"Yes, the Xerxes Royal Family sent the Amestrian government an appeal for a skilled automail mechanic to join their court, and I was tasked with the mission of finding one," Roy explains and leans back, turning to look out of the window while he talks. "You would be well compensated for your trouble, however long it would last."

"Is this… a permanent position? In Xerxes?" Still incredulous.

"We don't know as of yet, the treaties are yet to be drawn. You would naturally be part of the negotiations and your wishes and needs would be taken into account," Roy assures her. "I understand this is a bit much so suddenly, and I will hold it in no way against you if you refuse outright – though I am hoping that if that is the case, then perhaps you, as a well established mechanic, might be able to point me in the way of more suitable candidates…"

Honestly, with a shop as old and as well established as hers, Roy doubts very much she would take him up on the mission – she probably has a whole lot of regular clients and steady stream of income, and no need to move. But, it never hurts to ask.

The phone line is quiet for a moment as the old mechanic thinks. "I need to talk with my apprentice for a moment, can I call you back in, say, two hours?"

"Certainly," Roy agrees, and gives her his office number. "We'll be looking forward to your call."

"Right – one more thing. You said it's likely to involve Ishvalan refugees," Doctor Rockbell says. "How'd you mean?"

"We don't know for sure, the appeal didn't explain the need for a mechanic. But during the Ishvalan Civil War, many Ishvalan refugees fled to Xerxes. So we thought it safe to assume the two are connected."

"Ah," the mechanic says knowingly. "And they put a State Alchemist in charge of finding a solution."

Roy swallows. Ah. She knows about him. It's not entirely surprising, but… "They did indeed," is all he says. There's no real explanation he can give, no excuse. It is what it is."

"Hm," Doctor Rockbell answers, noncommittal. "I will call back in two hours."

And she does, accepting the mission with two conditions. The military would help her pack up her entire shop and all the materials and tools would be transported with them – which was understandable, even if it tripled the estimated convoy size. The other condition was that she was taking her eleven year old apprentice with her. Both conditions Roy readily agreed to, tasking Havoc and Fallman with her packing while the rest of the team arranged the convoy.

"Guess we're going to Xerxes then. We're going to need a lot of camels," Breda muses.

"Yes," Roy agrees and sighs. It would be a hard journey and probably a hard mission, and likely one for very little gain in the end. Still. Xerxes. His alchemy master would've killed for the opportunity. Might as well take full advantage of it, and learn whatever he can, even if it's only from broken murals on ancient ruins.

-

Hmm... not sure I’m getting Mustang’s voice right.

Edit: Also tumblr eats italics for breakfast apparently.

[archer3-13]

spoilers

so, again just trailing through an lp of it and they've gotten to AG ch9, and there are some... interestin tidbits hear.

first ya got yuri being even more catty then usual and directly implying he had to sleep with count rowe [or someone at least]. then he has some interesting dialogue with gwendal [the rowe general guy, whos working with the empire in this case as theres still some other rowe family around after count rowe lost his head defending cornelia for some fucking reason] where he acts as a little bit of a surrogate father/concerned adult figure for yuri. yuri seems to respond atleast somewhat with fondness in return which is interesting.

then we get to the... definitely very interesting bit here where miklain shows up again, interrupting catherine and shamir being very gay with each other the minute they've met up again.

miklain first showed up in ch5 interrupting a fight with byleth to distract em long enough that the player can knock out jeralt. after the battle felix, ingrid and dedue [felix being the most angry] confront dimitri on the fact that dimitri's instituted miklain as a kingdom forces commander. dimitri explains that it was apparently margraive gautiers idea as the previous civil war depleted the kingdom of a lot of its troops/skilled commanders so they needed to fill up on em reaal fast. miklain unsavory banditry aside has had an extensive education in military arts since childhood. so, dimitri had gustave find miklain, subdue him and then capture and bring miklain back before instigating miklain as a commander with the caveat that its a penal sentence: all the troops under miklains command are royal loyalists as are any other staff all with the command to watch miklains every move for dishonesty/criminal activity. dimitri justifies it by noting similarities between threehopes rufus [aka the rufus that is apparently now brilliant and was looked over cause no crest] and miklain and how he hopes that in giving miklain a chance to redeem himself he can draw out the best in him. sylvain was also apparently consulted on this and presumably agreed to it well before the others learn about it, and the faerghus four + dedue accept the reasoning stating they're more so upset dimitri didn't tell them earlier.

anyways, so that whole mess of a presence means that miklains sticking around and getting a bit more of a speaking role this time, and hes showing back up four chapters later being one of the commanders defending arianrhod from the imperial army. he interrupts shamir and catherine being gay and they all talk a bit. catherine and shamir both note miklains handled the defense of arianrhod expertly, miklain states that margraive gautier drilled battle tactics pretty extensively into his head. catherine notes that she remembered hearing about him when she was younger and that she always hoped to spar with him but then he got 'unexpectedly disowned'. miklain counters that he was the one who cut ties instead.

then we get into the bits i do find kinda interesting. miklain states that he now considers himself having a purpose, noting his impressions on his first meeting with dimitri that he considered dimitri weak willed and pampered, and that he thought the words dimitri spoke in that meeting were 'drivel'. catherine points out that miklains still fighting for dimitri anyways and miklain notes yes and that he now feels hes 'weak willed' as well. he then notes what dimitri actually said, apparently being that crests would no longer 'hold him back' and that the only thing tying miklain down now was his 'past mistakes'. miklain then says he's come to like the whole deal, possibly referring to a newfound respect for dimitri and genuine desire to atone for his past mistakes albeit in a brusque manner. then the fortress being attacked from the inside interrupts the whole thing, miklain notes things with a kinda bleak gallows humor which shamir chastises him for, and he ends the scene noting the 'secret passage' cliche of castle defense. and then im pretty sure hes scripted to die that chapter.

not sure what i feel about it all, but again it is... interesting.

[voideconomics]

Infrastructure in the Trails Series

This blog used to be a way for me to vent my feelings about misunderstandings in economics. Now it is a way for me to practice writing again for grad school in a way that doesn’t sap my ability to feel joy. That being said, if you want to read about the philosophical and intellectual context of the economic system known as US Capitalism, I would definitely recommend Inventing America by Garry wills.

Spoilers for the Trails series through Cold Steel 4 below.

I’ve been replaying the series recently, and I noticed something very odd about the infrastructure in Liberl and Erebonia. Both countries seem to be designed in a way opposite their national values. For example, Liberl is a fairly open society, with democratic regional elections and a kind of constitutional monarchy. It is true that the army handles policing duties but, frankly, that might actually better protect their version of an open society given the inherent threat of Erebonia and the nature of a classical police force. plus the Liberlian army seems to be responsive to civillian oversight. But I digress. Liberl has serious barriers to internal travel, whether built like the Verte Bridge checkpoint or natural like the Air-Letten checkpoint. By contrast, Erebonia has almost no infrastructural barriers to internal travel. The fact that people can seemingly move freely, taking a large military force to effectively blockade any meaningful area, seems at odds with erebonia’s aristocratic-cum-fascistic society.

I realize that the “real” explanation is likely something gameplay-related. But if not, it’s still a really neat touch because these decisions make perfect sense in the context of the Great Collapse. In the case of Liberl, Celeste and her cohort were first and foremost focused on keeping the Liber Ark and the Aureole contained. Nation building came as a happy accident, and likely the reason liberl became such an open and tolerant society (comparatively) is because the motivations of the founders were first and foremost a devotion to the ideal of human freedom and self-determination. The checkpoints and natural barriers are meant as yet another precaution to keep the Teracyclic Towers apart from each other, and to prevent the worst from happening should the first barrier become compromised.

Erebonia, by contrast, is designed for civil war. The gnomes clearly wanted the conditions for the great twilight to be present, and the lack of large-scale infrastructure to the same extent as Liberl seems to encourage more brutal field conflict rather than siegecraft. This, in turn, is necessary for the conditions to trigger the Great Twilight and the Rivalries. The biggest fortifications we see in Cold Steel tend to be aimed at the Republic, Crossbell, or Liberl. Indeed, when Crossbell is annexed the Empire’s fortifications are placed at the border with Calvard despite the potential for internal unrest and the centralization of power under Chancellor Osborne. But the combination of the curse and the goals of the Gnome/Ishmelga/Reformist convoluted mess of a faction prevent anything that could slow bloodier conflict in Erebonia proper. Again, the values of the nation come from the Great Collapse, in that Aristocracy seems like a natural development due to the violent influence of the curse even in its reduced form. Osborne was able to overthrow that structure by becoming a greater part of it- his immortality and pacts with Ishmelga and the Black Workshop giving him an advantage that the gnomes could not hope to match.

Anyway, I just thought it was really neat that the structure and the values of the countries, while seeming to be in conflict at fist glance, make sense in the context of the post-Great Collapse groups that dominated the early formation of those countries.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Finale Review: The Last Adventure! or So Long and Thanks for All The Ducks

Hello all you happy people. The day we’ve all simultaneously waited for and dreaded is here. The grand finale to a five year journey.. and for me an almost one year journey of covering season 3 as it came out. It was thanks to this show i’ve been able to make money doing what I love. Without it I never would’ve found my patreon Kev, and I never woul’dve had the solid focus to keep going as long as I have. And I never would’ve had all you lovely people reading my work. Thank you for that. I hope you’ll stick around even though the series is gone, I love you all. But as the sun sets on this series I have one last episode of the season, and the series to cover. I won’t be doing it in my usual recap style due to it’s sheer length and scope, but I promise you if you join me under the cut I will break down eveyrthing I can about this final adventure, it’s huge, awe inspiring twists.. and it’s heartwarming conclusion. It’s everything you could want from a finale short of a Grandma Duck Cameo, and i’ts under the cut with full spoilers. Seriously if you do not want any spoilers TURN BACK NOW. I’m opening with probably the biggest spoiler of the finale. 

I Think She’s A Clone Now You were warned. So.. Webby is Scrooge’s Clone, made by FOWL as part of a decades long scheme to find the papyrus of binding, and raised by Beakly to keep this precious child out of their sinister clutches. I have hundreds of reaction images, several for what the fuck.. none of them seem sufficient.. ALL OF THEM together like some megazord of what the fuck are not sufficient for how much this reveal caught me off guard. It caught ALL of us off guard. I’m sure even those who called it still were suprised that’s the direction it took. I think we all expected her parents died by FOWL, or her parents were FOWl with Pepper being one of them, or anything else. So naturally it took around 14 drafts, and me going the fuck to sleep as I had stayed up to watch the finale and thought I could just smoothly transition into writing the review despite there being a LOTTTTT to unpack.

Even after the recharge though this took a bit of doing... so now i’ve done it... what’d I think? Whelp....

I liked it. I like it the more I think about it. Even the problems I had with it just kinda melted away as I thought about it. I understand if you do not. This twist will not be for everyone, it changes Webby’s character and story entirely, ruins tons of fan theories, and in general is batshit even for a series that in the same finale, turned Manny into a shout out to Gargoyles, complete with Keith “My Body is Ready” David. This series is genuinely batshit and loves it, but this is a LOT to ask dramatically, a lot to rewrite expectation wise and a lot to thinka bout. There’s a reason besides sleep deprevation it took me a whlie to fully grasp how I felt. So if you don’t like it fine, but i’m going to make my best case. 

Starting with something that made me realize I fully like it: It dosen’t invalidate Webby’s charcter. The one little problem I had left was “Well dosen’t Webby having the McDuck bloodline mean she couldn’t be specail if she wasn’t a McDuck? That sure the rest of the cast are specail but you can’t be really important without it?” Honestly.. no. Webby is who she is not because she’s a McDuck.. but because she’s Webby. She got her martial arts and mystery solving skills through Beakly and being raised. She had intate talent sure.. but as we’ve seen with the boys through the whole series, talent has to be honed. Skill has to be earned and learned.  Webby worked hard to research other civilizations, worked hard to hone herself into a deadly fighting machine with her mother’s help, worked hard to be every bit as cool as her idol who turned out to be her biological dad. She earned her badassery, her wisdom and her courage SQUARE. 

And more than that she’s her own person. Her adoptive parent and biological parent are both paranoiacs afraid of betryal, unwilling to trust, and slow to let anyone in. By all accounts Webby should be the same.. but she’s not. Oh sure she has some paranoia and is willing to slit some throats, she was raised by the world’s best spy and is the daughter of the world’s greatest hero, that was never going to be gone entirely. But at her core she just wants to trust people. She just wants to love them and be loved. And.. that’s why her family loves her. Because she’s the kindest, the warmest and the best of them. They love her because she’s Webby and that’s she’s family, they could care less who she’s related to. All it really changes is how Scrooge acts around her and that gives us fans tons to work with. 

It’s also expertly revealed, which helped ease us into it. Webby is just as shocked and confused as we are and is seriously hurt, which makes her vulnerable to the villains. Kate Miccui deserves a goddamn award for voice acting and if their isn’t an award show for that their should be. While she’s been fantastic with Webby all series long this is her finest performance, going from Webby’s usual self, to all the hurt she goes through.. to her quitter moments at the end, calling Scrooge dad and giving out a little noise that makes it clear as Beakly tries to leave, that no.. she’ still her family.. she’s still her mom and she’s not going anywhere. 

As for the concept being a bit ridiculous yes it is.. but so is this universe. This universe is entirely insane in the best fucking way possible: I mean.. look at this final group shot. 

We have an old man whose somehow still alive simply because he was too busy to die, an inventor whose cloned himself multiple times so clones are fesable and is probably a clone himself given how the last finale went, an awkward armored superhero and his biotech filled girlfriend, a small boy robot weapon of discretion who put his head on his brother’s body, a no longer headless manhorse former harbinger of the apocalypse with the silky voice of keith david as one big homage to gargoyles, a lesbian living shadow and her sister, a superhero who based himself on a fictional character and his boyfriend/sidekick who by all accounts should be dead by now, a lesbian military superheroine from the moon, STORKULES COCKBLOCKER OUT OF MYTH, his moong goddes sister, two adopted family stunt pilots, a bunch of super intelligent mice, an odd duck whose kinda sorta dating a giant shrimp, his cousin with super luck powers, my globetrotting boys, an immortal treasure hunter and in the family proper: a former spy turned adopted mom of a clone, a woman who lived on the moon for a good decade, a man who once trapped everyone in what would essentially be the plot of the mcu’s second best work by pure accident, a blue boy whose piloted a plain, captained pirates, and has his own talk show, a green boy whose ran a multi-trillion dollar company, nearly destroyed all of time and space and is under investigation for fraud, and a red boy who has a hulk-esque rage filled embodiment of all his suppressed emotions, whose fondest wish was tall legs, and who can easily take out a giant magica supermachine with some fancy wiring. So the richest duck in the world having a clone daughter, while divisvie and what not.. is far more plausable than we give it credit for. As are her new sisters who Id in’t forget but are part of the whole twist. 

So yeah, I like the twist and my nitpick is more that despite having a full season to set it up.. they saved it for the last episode. Instead of BUILDING on Webby’s desire to know more about her family and having the twins show up earlier.. it’s all shove into the finale. It’s a well done shoving but there’s so much that could be explored with Webby being Scrooge’s daughter, so much that futzes with the regular family dynamics and we don't’ get any of it. Sure it was probably saved for a possible season 4 but they treated this season as the last. Manny being an apocalyptic man horse voiced by the uber sexy keith david, and no I will not stop bringing that up even outside of it’s own section and why yes it is getting it’s own section, is the kind of revelation you can leave for one last episode. “One of the main cast is a clone” really isn’t and that’s disapointing. 

Especially since thinking back to life and times.. Webby IS a lot like Scrooge was before circumstance hardened him. She’s tough, resourceful.. but also has a peppy spirit to her. It adds interesting shades to her character, where she zigs where Scrooge zags, how much of it is her upbringing with Granny versus his with his parents, how much did Beakley play into it. There’s A lot to dig into and given I have most of the series left to review, I will get to dig into it, and there’s a lot to be explored in fanfic so if I wasn’t already planning a massive one before I sure as fuck am now. So it’s not a bad twist nor bad we get to write the future.. but I do wish the crew THEMSELVES had done more with it. Still my bar for “not fucking up the entire show” is pretty low after Star Vs ended with her committing implied genocide to stop a genocide and How I Met Your Mother ended “But the real journey was in how much I want to bang, bang bangity bang I said a bang bang bangity bang your aunt robin now your mother conveniently died”. I can handle “This twist is kind of weird but also really intresting.” If the twist isn’t for you, as I said i get it. This is my opinion. Now for the thing I won’t shut up about. 

I LIVE AGAIN:

Look i’ve made no secret how thirsty I am for Keith David nor how much of a national treasure I rightly believe him to be. He’s one of my faviorite voice actors, with a mind boggling number of awesome rolls, mostly recently as a fowl mouthed coffe cup encouraging a teacher to sabotage his rival teachers breaks on close enough. Even if I didn’t like Gargoyles, which I do, i’d have an entire section talking about that Manny reveal. 

Manny was already objectively one of the best parts of the show, a hilariously weird addition that was also relatable as he just wanted to fit in. I did not know you could make him better. Then they gave him Keith David’s voice and revealed he’s one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, but doesn’t want to end the world he just wants to be a normal dude, AND turned him into a shout out to the last part of the disney afternoon they hadn’t touched, my favorite part of it and a show i’ve been sitting on watching in full for far too long. Motherfucking Gargoyles. 

But given how unique it was for the Disney Afternoon and how much Disney had no desire to ever reference or use the franchise, still no fucking clue as to why they are sitting on money here, I expected it to be sadly but understandably left out. Instead they made Manny into an expy for them, gave him the voice of their leader Goliath, the voice of an angel, and had him say “I LIVE AGAIN” complete with the utterly transcendent theme song. Seriously give it a listen. 

So yeah I couldn’t not mark out at this. Amazing fucking stuff and almost as unexpected as the clone thing and easily my second faviorite part of the fiinale only NARROWLY topped by the curtain call. Which we’ll get to. Keith David took his time getting to this series but they saved the best guest voice for last. Utter tremendous. 

Huey Season?: I”ll save more of this for my breakdown as the season as a whole but yeah while the finale as a whole was good.. I do feel Huey got short changed. He got PLENTY of development this season, and some REALLY good scenes with Bradford.. but ultimately he got overshadowed by the Webby thing. it just never quite felt like Huey got a real resolution to his character arc the way his brothers did. He still got some REALLY good moments, his “Just cough up the information Bentina!” was one of his finest and Danny Pudi did his best. The BUILDUP was good but hte payoff was non existant and easily the weakest part of an otherwise triumphant finale. I feel the final plot was ultimately just a bit too jam packed to really have Huey feel vital to it the way Dewey was to the Della arc and Louie was to his own arc. Both tgot big emotional payoffs in his finale but the most I could gather here was he accepted adventure? I guess. It just really feels off, like I missed the payoff to everything when it’s probably just nonexistent and that bothers me a lot. In a finale that was almost all hit.. this was easily the biggest misstep. I don’t have as much to say here on it.. but that’s because it’s really that simple: they gave Huey’s arc a ton of build up in this last episode and some of his others, really made him into Bradford’s good counterpart.. then just sorta.. forgot it because “oh shit Webby’s scrooge’s daughter kinda need to pull focus here”. Had they given this arc at least one more episode, we might of had time for it. Granted i’m not sure how much they could get away with but we clearly needed at least one more episode and what they chose to jettision, the climax to Huey’s story.. was way more important than they clearly thought and i’m heavily disappointed. 

Bradford’s Big Hole Speaking of payoffs the missing mysteries payoff.. is a mixed bag. I expected all of them to combine some how into some elaborate plan I just wasn’t seeing. In hindsight it does make sense that wasn’t it: Bradford hates overcomplicated schemes, so his would be incredibly simple and require as few moving parts as possible. It still dosen’t stop the fact that the big plan to cap off the entire series built over a season... was to build a giant stygian hole of non existence to throw people into. 

Yes really. Instead of using the Payprus to write them out of existance, if carefully worded or try doing it all at once or anything practical.. Bradford just plans to shove everything he dosen’t want in the world anymore into a hole.  Look i’ts not like it ruins the episode, there’s still tons of tension from him holding Scrooge’s loved ones over his hole and threating to throw them into it’s gaping void. And it’s foiled by a 12 year old just.. shutting it off. Like I get him leaving an off switch on, that’s just common sense.. but why wouldn’t he have a remote or something to turn it back on? one with a password or something to lock it. There’s something inherently underwhelming about as series ending plan that can be summed up “hope no one shuts my unguarded hole. “

The finale does make for it by using the missing mysteries all in VERY clever ways. In fact every episode in the season had some sort of payoff here. It’s what makes up for how baffling the main plan is: every other thing, from the missing mysteries to the guest stars has lead up to this one moment, this one final adventure. Which leads me too

An Hurricane of Payoffs:

So from the top Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!: Isabella Finch herself ends up being VITAL to the story and to Bradford’s backstory, as does Junior Woodchucking as a whole. Quack Pack!: Gene is the fuel for Blot’s glove.. though he also fucks off right afterwords.. never to be seen again or help out at any point...

Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!: This was the most unexpected and elevated the episode in hindsight for me as what seemed like a waste of time.. wound up setting up the first part of the finale, and the final battle with Steelbeak, and in clever ways with Steelbeak using the intelliray on himself, Launchpad muttering the map in his sleep via his smart self and Dewey remembering the base layout. 

The Lost Harp of Mervana: Used as a lie detector for that heartbreaking interrogation scene. 

Louie’s Eleven: Introduced Daisy setting up Donald’s plot which i’ll get to. 

Astro BOYD: My baby boy comes back for this episode! He also gets one of the best lines of it “I’m a Head!”. That is the most ralph wiggum the boy has ever been. I’m so proud. 

Rumble For Ragnarok: Okay I was wrong nothing from this one comes back. Still a great episode. Same with the trickening. Both are VERY stellar episodes though, so I give it a pass. You can’t give a nod to EVERYTHING. 

The Phantom and the Sorceress: The Blot and Super Sayian God Super Sayian Lena, as well as Lena’s character development from said episode.  They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!: Launchpad helping Penny realize her purpose.  Forbidden Fountain: Jeeves is un-babied as a trap Let’s Get Dangerous!: Drake and Gosalyn Return, and Solageo’s Circut ends up being vital to the climax.. in the strangest and funnest way to say possible but still. It counts.  Escape from the Impossibin: Beakley’s near breakdown at the idea FOWL has come back. It was already heartbreaking and the first adventure had made it even more so.. but now it’s out and out DEVISTATING. The one thing after her daughter is not only back.. but SHE’S the reason he’s in Scrooge’s life and home and her giving up SHUSH has now left her wide open. 

The Split Sword: Probably the best out of all of these as it ends up directly playing into the climax in an awesome way i’m saving for Bradfords New Gods: Storkules shows up. Okay so that every episode claim bit me on the ass. Also when did these two meet? I mean probably at end of spear of selene but the more important question is WHY DID YOU ROB  ME OF THESE TWO MEETING AT ANY POINT IN THE SERIES. 

The First Adventure: Naturally the Payprus comes back as Does herons needling bradford to stop denying what he is. 

Fight For Castle McDuck: Suprisingly the blessed bagpipes ended up being VITALLY important. And giving us sexiest man alive infinity years running Keith David for an episode.  Last Christmas; Santa Cameo

Beaks in the Shell: Gandra being taken and the Lost Library being setup for this episode. 

Lost Cargo: The Stone of What Was. And Credit where its due what FELT like simply a filler episode with a tantengal connectoin.. ended up probably being one of the most important episodes. Fair play. 

Life and Crimes: Magica turning Bradford into a non sentient bird, like what happened to her brother.... proving once again this episode really REALLY needed as subplot attached to lead into the finale or something. 

Bonus Round: Pilot payoffs by the pound. Seriously Scrooge and Donald’s last lines to each other, the badass return of “I’m a Pilot”, more on that in a minute, and even other smaller call backs like “Keep Getting Up” and webby sucessfully getting some juice to Louie’s pride. All top notch stuff and it really makes the finale FEEL like one with all this coming back full circle. So i’ve hinted at it enough, let’s bring on the bad guy. 

The First Woodchuck

We’ve had some mixed payoffs so let’s get to one that’s just out and out excellent. Bradford Buzzard.. is the best villian the show ever had. Now I will give the caveat that my favorite forever and always will be

You know it, I know it. But Bradford is the best genuine threat of the series, with Marc Evan Jackson perfectly balancing his menace and genuine evil.. with his steadfast believe that he isn’t evil, and his calm, controlled business demeanor. It’s one of the best performances of the show and he deserves all the credit for it and after seeing him in supporting roles for his career, even if his role as Kevin on Brooklyn Nine-Nine is fucking awesome and I’m sad that show is ending, it’s nice to see him step into a big meaty role as the big bad and utterly nail it. 

And the finale.. pays eveyrthing off with him, apart from the plan itself perfectly. Starting off him being revealed as Isabella Finch’s grandson... was  a stroke of genius. I didn’t expect her to come back in play but it gives perfect reason both why he knew about the mysteries.. and why he’s like this. 

Like Scrooge did with his nephews, niece and daughter, Isabella dragged Bradford all around the world seeing the unseen, thinking it was fun. The problem was... Bradford HATED it. He hated every minute of it, like as one post pointed out Rusty Venture from the Venture bros, and felt he should be in school. He wanted a normal life and a normal world and not.. this waking nightmare. So to him, fixing the world, stopping this sort of thing is the only way and that doing so is a good thing. His problem is how he adapted to it.

We see that best in his mirror images, the people he’s in direct contrast with and the show knows it. Starting off with the one he’s not like at all is Scrooge. Part of what makes Bradford perfect is he’s Scrooge’s evil opposiite. The Luthor to His Superman, The Joker to his Batman, the Green Goblin to his Spider-Man, the Iron Monger to his Iron Man, the Sinestro to his Green Lantern. Both come from a long line of adventure but while Scrooge embraces that and loves it, Bradford hates it and wants to destroy it. One is energetic and always ready, the other’s calm, calculated. And one sees what he is.. and the other dosen’t. Simple as that.

But his other mirror’s are more like him, moving onto Huey. Their both woodchucks, both prefer caution and planning, and both want to make some sense of a nonsensical world. Both want to feel safe when they constnatly don’t. One’s prone to panic attack the other’s calm. But what makes Huey the better man... is that he accepts the world is the way he is. It goes all the way back to terror of the terrafirmains. While he was all for adventure he started his doubting things, not beliving things were real.. because the reality that there are some things you just can’t prepare for, just can’t know, and you can’t be always ready.. it shattered him. He nearly let himself die rather than live knowing what’s out there. Webby pulled him out of that, literally and figuratively.. and he never went back. Sure he still tries to have an order to things, still breaks when his structure’s broken.. but it’s gone from a paranoid fear of the unknown and weird to embracing it. To relishing in finding unsolved mysteries and new clues to unlock, to finding new things to explore. He went from seeing this chaotic world as something to run from, to embracing and studying it. To loving it the way it is the way his family loves him for who he is. Bradford.. denies reality belongs the way it is and wants to force it into what HIS idea of it is Superboy Prime Style. The world isn’t waht he thought it should be so he’ll MAKE it that way. Huey grew as a person.. while his arc didn’t have a full payoff.. it still pays off here by showing what he COULD’VE been. had he let his earlier fear and his always present neurosis drive him like Bradford has. Let his big brain make him think he knows what’s better for EVERYONE instead of using it to genuinely help people. Bradford lacks the boys heart and empathy and that’s why he fell. Huey had his family backing him, his best friends coming to get him, and his brothers ultimately rescue him. Bradford.. threw his only true ally down a styigan murder hole. 

Finally.. we have the one that’s not brought up directly.. but is very much there. Donald. While the two don’t interact hardly at all... it’s VERY fitting that Donald is the one Bradford picks to threaten Scrooge with. Like Bradford... Donald grew to hate adventure, he wanted to get as far away from it as possible and took it from his boys for as long as he could. Granted that was in part Bradford’s fault, and that was an INCREDIBLY clever twist: it dosen’t make him entirley responsible or anything that robs the moment of it’s imapct, Della still chose to take it out by herself, she still lied to Donald and she still got lost all by her own decision and impuslviness. But it fits perfectly into it: Bradford’s horrifying smile when Scrooge gets taken away from saving her is even WORSE now with full context, and it still fits that knowing about the project.. he’d want to set it up to screw up Scrooge’s life. I don’t think he sabotaged the rocket or anything, too obvious and something Della would’ve mentioned by now.. but he knew it was unfinished. 

Back to the parallel the diffrence is once again.. change. Donald let go of his hate of scrooge and his past and realized it wasn’t all bad. He let himself grow as a person after a decade of bitterness and anger. But most tellingly and poignantly is Quack Pack... both had a chance to make a world that was safe, normal and what they always wanted. Both out of terror of the danger of this world.  Thing is.. Donald’s was noble. He feared for his kids, his sister, his uncle.. loosing one again and any of them at all. He wanted a normal life to be safe, to hide from that.. but it’s not what THEY wanted or who they are. He accepted that’s not how the world works and how it does.. is still pretty great. And his growth shows: he’s ending the series planning to go off with his girlfriend globetrotting, KNOWING things might not be safe, but diving into adventure, having accepted it as part of him. He even finds some new family and takes in two girls who badly needed a home. He learned to accept things how they are... and Bradford refuses, not beliving in this world as it is and vowing to force it into the way he wants it to be. 

And it’s that inherent selfishness.. that makes Bradford the Cartoon Supervillian he desperatley claims he isn’t. Bradford dosen’t care how many lives it takes, how much worse it makes the world, or how many people he has to stab in the back... the world WILL be “normal”. Bradford cares for no one and nothing except his own ambition. He kills Heron despite her loyality, and his own clones who loyally served him.. simply because their chaos too. No one or nothing else matters, not how they feel, not their right to exist.. only HIS vision. If he wanted to keep the world safe he’d be more of a hero, if still throughly a bastard... but he dosen’t. He wants to make it “normal”. He wants the world the way he thinks it shoudl be and damn anyone else and perfectly represents all the old assholes like him today who refuse to accept something diffrent or against the norm because “that’s how it’s always been”.  Like those real world assholes.. Bradford is wrong. The Duckverse is beauitful how it is in it’s chaos and risk and love. And he just can’t see it because it’s not what he WANTS to see. 

And that’s why I also love the Sword giving him big, black and red classic villianous monster, slowly mutating him as he fights the duck family. Because that’s his inner strength: he may deny he’s a villian but he’s forcing his will on others, refuses to see the world as it is for selfish reasons, and is willing to kill his own friends and allies if it means getting it. He’s the bad guy. And while he denies it to those around him... it’s clear from the fact the sword is working for him that he KNOWS IT, he knows he’s a villian and this is just what he wants but is so up his own ass he can’t SAY it or admit it. And in the end he’s fully beaten by the fact that his forcing his will on everything’s what’s unnatural: While his plan was ingenious, have scrooge sign a contract agreeing never to adventure again, since he’s right Scrooge would solve nonexistance it’s the same reason “launch hulk into space” only resulted in a smarter, more skilled hulk coming back with a space army to get revenge. He just didn’t bank on the inherent rediclousness of the unvierse: family really is the greatest adventure of all.. and the papyrus accepted it. It was the one thing he coudln’t palnf or because he can’t see the woirld how it is.. and that’s why he lost. He was so confident how he saw the world and how he worked was the only way... another way beat him. 

His fate.. was also awesome and endleslly apporirate. Being mocked by the other villians who while less capable aside from Magica, at least admit what they are and what their doing.. and turned into a Vulture for Magica, left to be a mindless lackey in tons of chaotic schemes for the rest of his life. It couldn’t of happened to a nicer jackass. Okay three more sections to go. Let’s go.

Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away With Daissssyyyy

Donald’s leaving for a long, romantic adventure with Daisy is the perfect capper to Doanld’s character. Donald started the series hating adventure: blaming it for della being gone, his rough times during it, and wanted to escape it in the boat and keep from loosing his kids to it. He felt like a looser for not having reached his dreams or properly provided for his nephews, when really he did his best and still raised three wonderful kids. A bit overproective, god yes.. but despite his grief and anger he still got through ten years with them on his own merits, hard work and determination. 

As the series went he reconclied with his past, realized Scrooge lost something too and that blaming him soley when it was Della’s choice was just taking his anger out on the one person he had left to take it out on instead of embracing his only family left, accepted Storkules as his friend (JUST his friend), accepted adventure through quack pack realizing that while it may be weird, dangerous and sometimes stressful for him... it’s what his family love doing and they should be who they are instead of who he wants them to be, and finally.. accepted himself by finding Daisy, someone who loves him for who he is, and literally and metaphorically understands him and turned right back around from dumping him to save him from a giant monster she roared at. He’s finally at peace. 

And that’s why leaving. Not forever, He , Daisy, and his girls will be back in a few months or even a month. It’s very clear this is a vacation.. but it’s one  he’s earned.  He’ll always love his boys, his surrogate daughter/cousin, his sister, and his best buddy launchpad. But it’s okay for him to want to form his OWN family, to spend time with his future wife and show her the world. To make his own story for once instead of sharing it. To find his voice. 

I also find it very poetic that a story that started with Donald raising his nephews like their dad.. ends with him adopting two more children. Two kids whose lives had been misrable: rapidly aged in tubes, deemed failures, constantly bellittled by the closest things they have for parents, so desperate for answers they’d kidnap their own sister and betray her trust and do things they know are wrong, And all this.. for nothing as their  Dad kills their mom, bad as she was, and plans to kill them. And Donald’s first thought when given the chance to have a kid free time to himself, with no guilt having earned it? To take these girls in, start his own family, if Daisy’s cool with it mind he thankfully clearly called to talk this over first, and give them their own. Because that’s who Donald is, a good man whose finally earned his happy ending and the life he always wanted.. and accepted who he always was. An adventuerer, a loving fiance.. and  dad. 

The Real Hero: One last one before the bonus round and a quick one. The Launchpad Scene.. was one of the shows best. His arc in this episode of thinking he’s not a hero.. made sense. He’s been plenty heroic.. but his boyfriend is a martial arts and gymnastics savant and one of his three best friends has a giant suit of armor and is a genius. But the payoff made even more: He may not be the strongest, the most skilled or the smartest.. but he has the heart of a hero. He’s always been the kindest, most trusting, most friendly one of the main family, a guy who never gives up, even when he should, never surrenders and loves everybody. And that’s why he’s inspired so many people: Fenton to not give up after his firing and keep going, leading to his path as Gizmoduck. When Drake was lost, his fllm gone and his mentor seemingly dead (In fact skulking around the sewers like an evil ninja turtle), and his future unclear... TOLD HIM he could be Darkwing, that he could become the hero they both ihdolized and the inspiration to kids he wanted to be by his own bootstraps, and he gave Gosalyn faith in darkwing and hope at at time she had none. He also gave those mice their freedom. Not as poignant but you try creating the rescue rangers and see how far you get. I’ve lost a lot of chipmunks and mice that way. 

Launchpad’s last stand makes up for his lack of being in the season during the final  half. Launchpad realizing that despite his quirks he’s just as noble, valuable and wonderful as his families, both of them. And that he is a pilot. Sure he gets the gizmoduck armor.. but the armor isn’t what makes hi ma hero... i’ts being launchpad that makes him a hero. Loving adopted dad, wonderful partner, best friend... and a pilot

Bonus Round:

Okay this is just stray stuff from throughout the episode I didn’t have several paragraphs worth of material on before we get to the final thoughts. But it had so much good I can’t not talk about it. So...

Gyro calling Little Bulb BOYD’s brother. My heart wept. So sweet. As was him fixing his son at the end. BOYD has the two loving families he deserves.. and the brother he deserves.. and the brother he dosen’t deserve who will probably also is skulking around the sewers like an nafarious ninja turtle as the series ends. 

Gosalyn fixing up Darkwing’s outfit for him. Awwww. Adopt that child you coward. Also if they don’t base the reboot on frank’s work here, I will riot. 

“Just cough up the information Bentina!” that was just pure comedy gold especially the sheer fear radiating off him. Also right. 

Manny’s “I can explain” and , once he has silky smooth keith david voice going “Come on man I just want to live my life.” That man is a legend. 

Dewey and Louie just not talking the “you kids stay behind shit” pointing out both their stake in this and how they’ll just go anyway and him proudly accepting it. Given the kids turned the tied of things a lot, good call. 

Dewey and Don Karnage singing their own background music as they air joust. Hell yes. 

Pepper got a promotion! Goodf or her... it’s meaningless now but hey she has a partner in both senses. 

Speaking of pepper she had the best line of the episode “He’s a grown man who has the strength of a baby!”. Only Amy Sedaris could’ve given that delivery just the perfect way she did. 

The Funzo’s opening sequence was dynamite, from how well set up it was as an infilfration, to Webby having learned how to scam free drinks (Louie was so proud), to Lena cheating for her sister at DDR, to Scrooge paying full price.. it was wonderful> The payoff was also great as rather than be mad her special day was used as part of an elabroate spy operation.. she’s giddy. Because of course she is. Two specitic  bits that get their own items

The Cabs came back one last time! It dosen’t effect my now finished retrospective, but after spending all that time with them it was nice to see them for what will probably be the last time for some time. 

The whole scene where Della finds out about the trip. Just all of it. Her casually and accidentally choking daisy TWICE, Fethry, who sadly did not get an episode this season, being the one to blab about it and only realizing it .. after repeating that they told him not to, and Gladstone who not only was casually winning at Skeeball while his cousins both got pissed at it, relateable as hell, but then awkwardly escorting his baby cousin out of the situation. 

“Satstically with Hubert gone one of us should be pancking but WHO I ASK YOU WHO?” As if I needed more evidence they were perfect for each other. 

Lena just.. slumping over after Dewey finally has her drop the cloak. Comedy gold. BOYD scanning her later likewise so. 

The second best line and line read of the episode goes to Louie/Bobby Monihan. “That is not comforting, I do not want to die”. He couldn’t of summed up Louie in one line any better. 

Ludvwig was a national treasure.  Not only did I squeel internally when it turned out he was alive but the explination for it was hilarious as it was batshit, and him just causally revealing Webby’s origin was fucking amazing “Ill give you all a moment ot process” The acomplanying “bless me bagpipes” was also amazing. 

I do wish we found out where FOWL went but it was probably to leave the remains all free to come back as villians of the week. Frank outright said they had a tailspin sequel episode ready to go.

The Webby and June fight was a masterpiece and I REALLY need to do a top 12 fights list someday. 

Lena connecting with the new twins , having pretty much the same background of being created by a villian for shitty reasons. 

“one is silver and the other is “ “Flintheart glomgold!” they should consider a teamup. What’s a little brainwashing between friends?

“We’re sisters’. No you and violet are sisters, Webby is your girlfriend your both just in denial. I only say this because Webby also thinks Della and Penny are just friends and I feel she simply dosen’t know what being gay is or again is in denial. They’ll get there. Plus it feels like Lena just didn’t want to loose her and would say anything which is valid. 

Curtain Call and Final Thoughts:

The Curtain Call was the perfect way to end a spectacular finale. Each bit of it’s a masterpiece, and every character gets one last awesome, heartfelt and hilarous goodbye with the camera and ending how it should: on our five most important characters, in a circle, together, smiling, freefaling into the next adventure. I”d have it no other way and any other series finale credits and last moments will now pale in comparison. 

So the finale as a whole is messy, some bits aren’t resolved as good as they could’ve been, Huey go the shaft, and it REALLY needed another episode leading into it to help take the pressure off. While it needed 90 minutes for the plot it had to tell, it needed more to build up to that and while the season was tight with episodes they BADLY needed one more they didn’t get or even a subplto to help take the load off this episode. 

But even with that... it was an utterly awesome finale on par with other recent standouts like “Let’s Fight to the End”/ “Thank you For Watching the Show” (Both feel like finales to me but in diffrent ways), “The Future” and the whole arc leading up to it, both parts of “Heart” and “Nice While It Lasted” . It was heartstopping, heartrending and heartfelt and ended the show as it should be: with over the top insanity, big reveals, a hell of a final battle.. and a focus on family. It’s not the perfect finale, and I defintely need more ducktales.. but it’s still a classic one and one of the series finest hours.. literally in this case. 

I.. am going to miss this series. I went into it before but it’s thanks to this series I make a living. If you’d like to contribute to that, I have a patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, my next stretch goal is a darkwing duck epsiode a month so  kick in a buck won’t you? and take comissions so if theres an episode from the first two seasons that’s not part of the season 1 arc (I’m almost done there) or Lena’s story (already being paid for that) feel free to shoot me a line to comissoin it for five bucks an episode. 

But more than that it was an excellent well crafted show that took a franchise I love and updated it for a new generation. My nieces love it, I love it, and I will always love it for that. Young or old, this show as phenominal, it was stupdendous.. it was a duckblur. It will remain in my heart for probaly the rest of my life among such shows as Steven Universe, Parks and Recreation, The Venture Bros, Letterkenny, DBZ Abriged, and so many more that have touched my life. It was simply the best. And i’m going to miss it. Thank you for reading this, i’ll see you at another rainbow, if not one quite like this.

Next on this Blog: Duck week continues after this review took two days to complete. Sorry about that. Our heroes head to castle McDuck and Dewey is forced to face the consequences of his actions, while Scrooge yells at his dad , his dad yells at him and his mom is the most precious thing tha’ts ever lived. Also Launchpad in Donald Cosplay. And it won’t stop there as till saturday the rest of the week is all dedicated to Ducktales as I finish up the Della and Lena arcs for season 1 and get started on Lena’s last three episodes. So if you liked some ducktales, stick around. And once again.. thank you. 

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Lotor seems to have a lot in common with Chloe Bourgeois from Miraculous Ladybug since they both seem to have great potential of getting redeemed, but the writers decided to screw them over and make them all the sudden villan for no reason even though both shows main protagonists have done far more questionable things than them, heck both shows even romantasize the protagonists creepy stalking behavior

Hi, anon. Thanks for the note! I’ve never watched Miraculous Ladybug, so I’m afraid I don’t know too much about a Lotor vs. Chloe comparison? I’m sorry, though, if that show triggered some unhappy memories about VLD!

In terms of protagonists being worse than the villains, I personally struggle with that statement for Voltron? VLD is complicated because the show starts by treating war/battle as a fantasy violence video game. Like, the Galrans are mostly robots or one-dimensional soldiers who are torturing, killing and conquering. So our protagonists are already light-years ahead of that incredibly low baseline. And it’s easy to cheer Team Voltron on when you know they’re just blowing up robots or a pure-evil villain. It’s that whole fantasy violence thing without accountability. Then, the show gets increasingly more complex in terms of the politics, and the costs of war (with Ulaz’s death, for example), and the humanization of the enemy. But in this environment, our protagonists are still a bunch of ill-prepared teenagers running with scissors. Like, the original paladins of Voltron were leaders and rulers with a history of navigating wars and alliances. These paladins? They grew some over the show, yes, but they still had to go from playing a video game and screwing up flight simulators (or living a royal life in peace-time), to handling actual death and collateral damage in an active combat theater. I doubt Galaxy Garrison had training in their curriculum for how 17-year-olds should handle that. And all of the other older authority figures around Team Voltron and Lotor just totally and utterly failed them.

So I think my frustration with Team Voltron has cooled a lot over the years. From an in-show perspective, they were surrounded by supposedly competent advisors and intelligence officers who should have been able to at least question certain decisions or behaviors. But they did nothing constructive to prepare the paladins for war besides training them to kill.

And in the case of s5-s6, all of these experts and allied civilizations gave Team Voltron the green light on an official alliance with an empire they had seen brutally torture/experiment, enslave, and colonize. Actual weeks had passed between s5-s6. And yet, we never saw Kolivan warning the team that this was a really bad compromise for the Voltron Coalition to make; we never saw the paladins having to handle upset questions from their vast allies, who no doubt had recent memories of trauma at the hands of Galran military officers. But the instant Lotor is revealed to have also been a quintessence vampire in some way, like every other Galran officer with a body count they’d allied with, that’s the uncrossable line for Krolia, Coran, Kolivan watching this all go down—? Like?

When Shiro linked the Voltron Coalition to Galran military intelligence, what the heck did they think all of these soldier reports included? Military commanders happily sipping cocktails with locals on a beach? So I don’t think it quite hit the paladins yet that they weren’t working with uwu morally unproblematic people with easily forgivable pasts or a clear record of trying to make up for that past. And Team Voltron had zero guidance for how to navigate pursuing justice/reparations while also not leading to another war or worse outcome. Ultimately, even all of these concerned authority figures forgot about the show’s most plot-important victims that they were fine with dissolving the alliance over.

(RIP Patrulius in the harvesting pod, did you ever get out??).

The incompetency of elder authority figures also feeds into my frustration about Lance’s character, and how it was once again Coran in s8 who pushed him into this weird 1950s dating construct where Allura isn’t an agent over her own body. Like, Lance is still pretty young here, mimicking all the toxic masculinity he’s picked up on, and Coran’s behavior is supposed to be…better. Like, even Lance himself was uncomfortable in that scene, and that was wild to watch.)

And speaking of the ongoing failures of authority in the story, I still can’t believe that Coran didn’t cut in on Lotor in season 5, even, to warn him that exposure to the rift was known to make people lose control over their darkest thoughts. I could plausibly believe Allura didn’t think to question this because she was doe-eyed over Lotor and desperate for anything that could secure peace. But it’s not like Coran, who is supposed to be a king’s advisor, didn’t see this happen with Zarkon and Honerva. He could have questioned Lotor’s plans, and that actually would have been fascinating. Because if Coran, being a king’s advisor, had employed that kind of logical foresight, we might have seen something unsettling in Lotor that could more clearly foreshadow a fatal flaw he wasn’t working on (you know, like that classic Icarus Syndrome). But this show just didn’t question itself or self-reflect, lol.

So I don’t think anything Team Voltron did was them necessarily intending to be cruel where they wanted trillions to die in the name of justice, but their ignorance and the blatant inaction/silence or questionable guidance from anyone with higher credentials or experience resulted in some very uneasy outcomes.

But those outcomes were what this show wanted to keep the drama rolling.

I can’t speak for Chloe’s arc and the reason for why she misses the mark, but Lotor’s fall resulted in another several episodes of big robot battles and extended drama to meet a predetermined 78-episode directive. And given that the production team complained about having no breaks at all through the development of this show, I doubt they had time to weigh the cost of every decision they made to keep drama going. (I mean, we saw several other haphazard, concerning things happen since the beginning of the show; the colony twist wasn’t an isolated incident of plot over-complication and questionable handling of topics a;sdjfasf.)

I do think it’s easy to stay bitter about things and to let that poison everything, including even other shows. And I don’t think that’s a mentally healthy place for me to be—even though, clearly, I do still have frustrations with the art of story construction, lol. So I guess... canon is someone else’s story, but I do have control over how I respond and how I might try to tackle hard topics in my own works. And I’ve got to work with that.

I hope for what it’s worth that you can still find things worth enjoying in your other show, and that you can explore the characters and the stories in ways that are meaningful and feel right to you. It might help as well to look for shows and media that explicitly do have redemption arcs for a main antagonist or villain, or that handle traumatized or abused characters well.

[prorevenge]

He punched me over a fender bender, I destroyed his life.

I was working as a civilian with the US Military Overseas and I lived off base in an apartment complex popular among the US Military. One morning I accidently hit another soldier's vehicle.

Upon exiting the vehicle I noticed that both our vehicles were what you could call a Hooptie. A Hooptie is a old car that is pretty beat up that has been passed around from service to service member and they generally sell for $1,000-$2,000. I also recongized that I was at fault for the accident. It was a very minor accident. His rear bumper was dente din slightly. But I could hear both our cars still running

I approached the driver who had already gotten out and he was in uniform and I apologized and said if it was alright with him I'd like to negogiate a payment that I will pay him in cash and we don't involve the authorties. I wanted to keep this simple. I'll be honest the accident was so minor I honestly expected him to say "Nah man it's good" but even if he wanted some money I'd have paid him. I have always been of the opinion if you have a fender bender and can negogiate agreeable terms between both the parties its best to not involve insurance/police.

He told me he wanted to the call the police, I said we could call the police or we could go on base together and I could give him $300. He said that wasn't enough. So I upped my offer to $500. He proceeded to punch me in the face. It was a sucker punch, he got into his car and took off and in the process nearly ran me over.

Now I had a black box in my car which recorded everything. I went to the provost marshall office on base (The police station) and reported the accident and the assault and showed the MP the footage. Which they used his license plate to track him down. I was also asked if I wanted to involve the local authorties/press criminal charges off base.

Honestly I felt like the soldier would learn his lesson if I let UMCJ (the Military Court basically) handle this and I said "Not at this time" I was told it was an option.

The end result was the soldier in question got 60 days of extra duty, reduction in rank, and and forefeited a portion of his paycheck. Essentially if he dealt with that, this would have been the end of the whole ordeal. Honestly at this point I assumed our little ordeal was over.

Well a few days after his punishment was decided on, which was not long after the incident itself I was in the commissary (Grocery store on base) shopping when the soldier who assaulted saw me and began to insult me. I told him he needed to clam down, that he should learn his lesson, he told me I was a pussy who didn't know how to take a punch I reminded him that I held back on destorying his life he told me he's already been punished and I can't touch him again.

He left me be

A store employee witnessed the entire encounter and I got the employee detail and reported this interaction to his command. His commander told me he had been ordered to not interact with me and would take action. His commander also recommended me I involve the local authorties since this soldier obviously isn't learning his lesson.

So I did. I contacted an attorney. The attorney was unsure if we could succesful sue the soldier and said he would need a cash payment to take the case. Honesetly I was mad and I wanted to teach this guy a lesson. I agreed, it was not cheap.

To keep this story short, we ended up in a court off base. We presented our evidence. The solider in question had decided to represent himself. Several times in the court he had outbursts. The Judge ended up granting me a judgement of approx $50,000 USD. When the judgement was given the soldier called the Judge a son of bitch, and that the Army would cover for him.

So the Judge changed his judgement to $80,000 and the Judge then asked me if I also wanted to press charges aganist this soldier in criminal court. Honestly it was obvious this guy wasn't going learn a lesson, I told the judge I wanted to persue criminal charges in addition to the judgement.

My lawyer later advised me that if I ever wanted to see the money I should persue an international hold. With my judgement its likely that a judge would grant me an international hold. An international hold is basically where this soldier would not be allowed to leave the country until I was paid my $80,000. Also he told me that according to the agreement between the US Military and the host country the US Military would honor the international hold. Basically the US Military would not protect him or move him out of country to avoid punishment.

Honestly by this point I had paid my lawyer thousands of dollars, and I honestly didn't feel like paying thousands of dollars and getting nothing for it. So I said yes I want to go forward with the international hold.

About a month later the international hold was granted, and the US Military was informed of this. 2 months after that the criminal case was over and the soldier was setenced to 90 days in jail. By this point the soldier had been moved onto the base into his barracks by his commander. I remember the day I was informed the MPs handed him over to the local authorties to begin his 90 day jail setence. Did I mention he still owed me $80,000?

I heard nothing for a year, and then one day I get a call from his commander, his commander wants me to make a statement in regrads to the case. I go in and make the statement. During the statement I find out the US Military was in the process of chaptering the soldier out of the US Military. The commander also informed me that he was close to coming up with the money to pay me so he could have the international hold lifted. The commander also asked me if my lawyer would be willing to make a statement.

I contacted my lawyer who also made a statement about the facts of the case.

A few weeks later his ex-wife contacted me, when this all started I knew he was married, guess his wife decided to divorce him. She informed that his ex husband had the money and needed the details on how to pay me. I provided her the details, and a few days later I got the payment and contacted his ex-wife to inform her I had been paid. She then asked me to send a reciept so he could have the international hold lifted and return to the states. I asked her how he got the money, she said he maxed out his credit, and also had family help out. Also during this conversation, I had found out the Army had chaptered him out of the Military

I sent her the reciept and that was the last I ever heard from his side.

TL:DR I get into a fender bender with a soldier, I try to resolve things with him he punches me, he gets UCMJ action, a civil judgment, 90 days in jail, a divorce (I actually do not know if the divorce is connected, but I imagine this case didn't help his marriage) , a ton of debt, and a loss of his career.

I took his $80,000 and bought myself a brand new car and used the rest of the money to put down on an investment property.

(source) story by (/u/LordSThor)

[flameleadsarc]

Pros and Cons of Dating my Muse

Name: Roy Mustang Race: Human Sexuality: Pansexual demiromantic

List all the Pros and Cons of a relationship with your Muse below

Pros:

Ambitious - You won’t find many people who have loftier goals than Roy Mustang. He sets high goals for himself, and he meets them.

Committed - Roy doesn’t do anything in half measures. He loves Amestris with his whole heart, which is why he’s so dedicated to fixing it. If you enter a relationship with him, he will completely commit to being there for you, helping you achieve your goals, and loving you.

Empathetic - He doesn't need to have the same experiences as you to understand what you're feeling.

Genius intellect - Becoming a State Alchemist isn't an easy feat. It requires a lot of studying along with more than a basic understanding of the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera). Not only that, but Roy graduated at the top of his class at the military academy, and he performed well in school before that. He knows a lot.

Loyal - This goes back to how committed he is as a person. He stays loyal and true to what he believes in, and that includes relationships.

Patient - He’s playing the long game when it comes to his goals, so he knows how to wait. Need to teach him something? Yes, he’ll get annoyed when he can’t be perfect at it on the first try, but he’ll be patient when listening to you. Need to have a difficult conversation with him? Need time to yourself? He’ll wait for you in both cases.

Physically strong - This man is fit as a fiddle, and he has a strict exercise routine. He will happily carry you around without a complaint, and he’ll do manual labor if needed.

Protective - Not just of his subordinates and fellow soldiers either. If he sees a threat, he will protect you from it unless you make it clear you can handle it yourself. He never wants to see you hurt, and he’ll do everything in his power to ensure that.

Selfless - Your needs will always come first to him.

Cons

Angry - His well of anger runs to the center of the earth. He’ll hide a lot of it, but, if he hits his breaking point, a different and dangerous side of him comes out.

Bottles emotions - Not just anger, but almost any emotion. Grief, sadness, pain, and anything else he deems negative, will get bottled up so no one else has to deal with him. When asked about how he’s feeling, he will lie without a second thought.

Boytoy - This is what Roy’s accustomed to being. He favors the flings, the short-term relationships that don’t require as much commitment. If he notices he’s getting too comfortable, he’ll find ways to shut the relationship down. Getting him into a long-term relationship is a struggle.

Cooking novice - He’s learning, though. It’s a slow process.

Health - Roy’s not great at taking care of himself, especially after he’s transferred to Central. He’ll forget to eat, sleep, and do basic self-care if he gets too focused on something. It doesn’t help that he puts everyone’s needs before his own.

Mental illnesses - He views these as detractors when it comes to his personality.

Rude - Oh, he’ll make himself look polite and civil. But, he has the capacity to be extremely petty along with a deep understanding of how to cuss. If he’s irritated, he can be downright mean, and he’ll need someone to tell him.

War criminal - And it’s something he’s upfront about. No, he won’t go into detail about what he did in Ishval, but he’ll make it clear what kind of person he is.

Work - His job, and therefore his goals, comes before just about everything.

Clarifications: -Explain any of your Cons-

Angry: He masks a lot of things he feels with anger, and he has a lot of it. His fury can be downright physically and emotionally destructive if pushed to the edge, and he’s aware of it. There’s a reason he calls himself a monster, a demon, a hellhound. The most he’ll show people is irritation at what he views as minor things.

Mental illnesses: Again, Roy views these as negatives, and he’ll make it clear. He lives with depression, OCD, and PTSD. There will be times when he can’t will himself to get out of bed, much less eat or do any other form of self-care, and his mind will go to dark places. He’s picky about his routine, how he does things (including order), and he does not respond well if things are suddenly changed on him. As for his PTSD: lots of nightmares, difficulty staying asleep, frequent flashbacks, and feeling emotionally numb. His coping mechanisms (post here) are also not always the greatest.

Work: He’s going to become President of Amestris and change the country. That is non-negotiable to him. Finding out who killed Maes Hughes is also non-negotiable. He will work himself to the bone to accomplish his goals, and it’ll have cascading effects on his physical and emotional health. If you enter a relationship with him and expect him to change his goals, you’ll be disappointed. Yes, he’ll listen when you tell him he’s working too much, but he will not stop working on becoming President. If that’s not the lifestyle you want, he’s more than understanding of that. Just tell him.

Tagged by: I stole it. Tagging: Steal it!

[knivestothroats]

In The Woods Somewhere pt 2 - Bite The Bullet

Immediately picks up from here.

content warnings: field medicine, gunshot wounds, using alcohol to clean wounds, stitching wounds, chained to a bed, history lessons

@lonesome--hunter​ @simplygrimly​

Buck was vaguely aware that Fletcher was speaking, but he wasn’t taking in any of the words. It didn’t seem to be directed at him, anyway. Something about a table. Nothing he was concerned with.

What he was concerned with, from least to greatest, included the following: Fletcher had a hand on his wrist, keeping his arm draped over their shoulders. Fletcher had an arm around his waist. Buck thought he might pass out, or at least fall down His head was swimming. He wasn’t sure how much blood he had lost at this point, but he was confident it was more than he would like to be losing. And lastly, his leg really, really, fucking hurt.

A new concern presented itself when Fletcher suddenly swept him up into a bridal carry. Buck let out a surprised noise, but didn’t have the energy to fight it. He was quickly set down onto a hard surface – most likely the table he had heard about – and he felt like he could melt into it. Maybe with enough exhaustion, your body just dissolves.

More talking he didn’t catch. His ears were ringing. He didn’t care – he didn’t have the energy to care.

Fletcher called out into the house, “Lesson time! Everybody downstairs!” They clapped their hands loudly. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Buck didn’t notice the people coming into the room. His attention was only drawn back when Fletcher lightly slapped his cheek. They were wearing rubber gloves.

“Hey, how much do you care about these pants?” They asked.

“Wh… What?”

“I mean, they already have a couple bullet holes and a lot of blood in them, but if you want to try to salvage them, I can take them off,” Fletcher said. “Otherwise I’m going to cut through them.”

Buck just sort of sighed and closed his eyes. Fletcher turned away from him to talk to the people who had gathered around.

“Usually, in emergency situations, you have to cut through the fabric,” they said. “So that’s what we’re going to do.”

Buck felt cold metal against his skin as the scissors brushed his leg.

“There will be times, in a pinch, where you may want to use drinking alcohol as a disinfectant,” Fletcher continued to the crowd. “I would not recommend this, for a few reasons. First of all, you should just keep actual medical supplies in your house, you animals. Second, if you pour alcohol over someone, that’s less for you to drink. However, sometimes needs must. If you are going to use alcohol this way, you should be decent enough to let your patient take a swig first, because this is all going to hurt like a bitch. In this case, our friend here is pretty out of it, so we’re going to skip that. Now, be prepared for them to scream…”

Buck suddenly felt a burning sensation in his leg. He screamed, back arching off the table and leg kicking out frantically. He felt a firm hand holding him down.

“Also, you should really only be using clear alcohols like vodka for this,” Fletcher continued nonchalantly as the screaming subsided into pained whimpers. “Now, to stitch a wound you’re going to want a curved needle, like this. If you try to use a regular sewing needle you will all be in for a bad time. Again, please for the love of god, keep medical supplies on hand. And keep them clean.”

Buck felt a hand patting against his cheek, and he tried to focus his eyes on the face of Fletcher, leaning over him.

“Alright, buddy,” they said gently, “I’m gonna give you something to bite down on. Okay? Open up.”

Fletcher put their fingers on either side of Buck’s chin and eased his jaw open. They slipped a folded belt between his teeth and pushed his jaw closed around the leather. Buck bit down, trying to breathe evenly through his nose. A sharp pain pierced the skin of his leg, overlapping with the already burning pain from the bullet wound. He let out a whine, clamping down on the belt. Although some part of him was aware that people were watching, embarrassment over the pathetic noises he was making was the last thing on his mind. He was just trying to get through this moment.

“Here’s a fun fact – a little bonus history lesson,” Fletch said as they worked. “In the civil war, they had advanced their weaponry but not really advanced the way they did battle, so all of a sudden there were way more injuries. And fatalities. And the bullets they were using – well, never mind. I could ramble. The point is, the field hospitals were just Hell. A lot of amputations. And they didn’t have any way to sedate the soldiers, so the medics would just give them a bullet to bite down on for the pain. And that’s where we get the phrase bite the bullet.  Now, you’ll see here that I am tying off each stitch. This is why it’s helpful to use a needle driver. You may be able to substitute needle nose pliers, or…”

“Keep medical supplies on hand,” came a disjointed chorus of voices.

Buck passed out at some point during the procedure.  He woke up in a bed, unsure of where he was. Even as the memories came back to him as he drifted into consciousness, he still wasn’t sure. It was a sparsely furnished room, with just the bed, a dresser, a chair, and a mirror. There was a window in the wall behind him, but the curtains were drawn. He was wearing an unfamiliar pair of sweatpants. 

Buck’s head ached. His leg ached. His whole body ached. He tried to gently shuffle into a sitting position, but as he moved he felt the unyielding tug of metal against his ankle.

His injured leg was handcuffed to the bed.

The door opened. Fletcher poked their head in.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” they said, walking all the way into the room. They were carrying a tray, which they set down on the dresser. Fletcher opened one of the drawers and retrieved a pillow. “Can you sit up?”

Buck, watching Fletcher warily, pushed himself slowly into a sitting position, and Fletcher put the pillow behind him. They retrieved the tray and set it on Buck’s lap before pulling the chair over to the side of the bed and sitting down.

Buck examined the contents of the tray. A water bottle, a small bottle of orange juice, a banana, a sleeve of crackers, a pudding cup, and a spoon. Buck looked up at Fletcher wordlessly.

“Well, eat up, champ,” Fletcher said, leaning forward to rest their forearms on their legs. A beat of silence where neither said anything. Then, “How’re you feeling?”

Buck opened his mouth and let out a croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I feel like shit. Everything hurts.”

“Well, that’s to be expected,” Fletcher nodded. “You sustained a pretty serious injury.”

“Which you made worse,” Buck said.

“Hey, I – well, yeah. I did make you walk on it,” Fletcher admitted. “But you did great! And then I made it better.”

“You should have taken me to a hospital,” Buck said.

Fletcher just laughed and said, “Seriously, you should eat something. Drink some water.”

Buck cracked open the seal of the water bottle and took a swig. He paused a moment, and then asked, “Why do you have me chained to the bed?”

“Well, you really shouldn’t be walking on that leg for a while,” Fletcher said.

Buck stared at them in disbelief. Fetcher’s face cracked into a smile, and they shrugged, but said nothing.

“Why are you keeping me here?” Buck asked.

“You’re a great teaching tool,” Fletcher said before standing up. “And I believe you can take it.”

“Take what?” Buck asked, voice soaked in fear.

Fletcher began walking to the door, saying only, “Eat something.”

“What – what is this place?” Buck called after them. “What is going on here?”

Fletcher stopped in the doorway, handle on the knob ready to pull it closed behind them. They turned back.

“Well, Buck,” they said, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

[So! Before the American Civil War, soldiers were using muskets, which didn’t really shoot straight. Basically the musket ball would bounce around on its way out of the barrel of the gun. So the tactic was for both sides to line up and shoot at each other, creating a sort of wall of bullets, hoping something would hit. By the time the Civil War rolled around, guns had improved a lot. Namely rifles.

Rifles have grooves along the inside of the barrel (called rifling) that the bullet travels along, keeping it on target. The major improvement that made them the new main weapon of the military is that they didn’t have to be cleaned as frequently, whereas before they would get all gunked up on the inside if you used them too many times.

SO, the Civil War happens. Everyone lines up and shoots each other. But now they have guns that shoot straight. To this day, the Civil War has more American casualties than any other war this country has ever fought. It actually changed the game on the way this country handles death in more ways than one, but that’s a separate essay!

Another bad thing about this new-weapon-old-tactics thing, is that these guns shot “slugs,” or (relatively) slow moving bullets. The way these bullets were shaped, they wouldn’t always pierce straight through. If they hit bone, the bullet and the bone would both shatter. This led to many, many amputations. And, well, Fletcher said the rest.

Also please note that it’s been like six or seven years since I took that Civil War class.]

[next part]