#i do also think something else might be afoot bc it seems like Such A Big announcement

[bergoozter]

alright watcherinas let’s theorize ! ✨

[flames-memory]

**__Wednesday__**

So, that’s now. I’m almost done with this drone work. I took this job to get some downtime from BLP. Make some money Kass wouldn’t be looking for. They all kept telling me to make an account, set up auto pays, blah blah blah. I didn’t pay her since that first payment, cuz I only pay cash, and I never delivered the rest! Still, I’m keeping the job. It’s good to be busy and normal for a good part of the day. Well, night. Also good for me. Fewer people.

Max and I will be meeting up later. He’s schedule is different, so late for me. I’m going to go make a cute outfit, so he’ll smile when he sees me. BC Promised to hang out with me before hand, so really, I’m the luckiest. I can’t wait.

**__Movie Night__**

Either Max was early, or I misunderstood. I managed a cute outfit, and went up to chill blueside for a bit. Ran into Stormy and Rad. Steph showed, and I got a little girlie outfit approval, and thanked Steph for the Banana Bread. (BC made a sandwich with it... O,o wth lmao I love her so much)

I met up with Max, and we watched Dune 2 at the cinema by Afterhours. He was so handsome, all shirt and tie heh.

We talked about BC. I don't want to hurt him. He seems to understand, at least in general terms of thers's romantical hijinks afoot wit both of them, and they mean... just everything to me.

Makes me think about Jay, and the other "options" I might have, but I don't know that I want or need anyone else. I guess if I meet someone, and like Max and BC, I'll love them or not. I didn't pick Max, or BC, I just love them, like it or not.

So I'm going to just be happy now, and not "look". Not for "love". I want to look for friends, and find love if it's there. Like with Max and BC.

So, many jokes, much sugar, and several (not enough) kisses later, and I'm pretty sure I saw MOST of the movie. Sitting in Max's lap, well, almost, cuddling with him. No pressure or expectations. Just happy sweet love. Again... like nothing I've done... maybe ever. I mean, even in high school, I don't think I ever felt anything like that. In my experience, Rogue Isles boys were not... romantic.

I guess they gotta come from a powerful crime family to come out as nice as Max

He kissed me good night, at my doorstep. Such an amazing night. I didn't know I could have moments like that.

I shared this with BC... I'm glad she can read what I'm thinking here, understand me better. I messed up so badly there, I want to know she understands, that I haven't used the wrong words somehow, and said things wrong... or save her have to listen to too many long speeches about feelings, heh.

But I forgot about the pictures. I forgot I mentioned them. I don't mind so much that she knows. I hope she never has to see them. To see me like that. I wasn't ashamed when it happened, exactly, but I also didn't ask her to take them, and I certainly didn't ask her to sell them online. At first, I was kind of impressed at the amount of money. That seemed strange. Who pays a bunch of money for porn pictures?

I tried to get back in and get them from the server, but I couldn't access it. I'm not a hacker, what can I say.

And Now.. BC says she's going to get rid of them. Please.. don't let her get hurt, or get in trouble.

I worry, just a little.. that if Kass knows I'm worried about them, that if I draw any attention to them, she might get ideas. Might do something... but really, that's probably not going to happen. Kass would have to FEEL something, feel anger, feel resentment, over me. And I don't believe she has any such strong feelings, not for me. Fearing that drama is just ego, some sick part of me that wants Kass to be mad, to be hurt, to feel something over me leaving, but I don't believe it. Not really. Besides, I'd rather she just forgot all about me. If she did feel something, BC or Max might get hurt, and I don't want that, not for any reason.

[bestworstcase]

Think she assumes he's waiting until he feels he's done enough for humanity's redemption and calls down the Gods, which she doesn't want success or fail, and if my brainworms are right Salem's grand goal for having all the Relics is to, sit on them so no one else can put them together. Like Ozpin. Because both of them thinks the other is gonna end the world and Salem is going around terrorizing the world because that's her best idea for making sure Ozpin never believes he's achieved the terms.

oh i’m 100% certain salem believes ozma is still trying to fulfill the divine mandate and is debasing himself in service to the gods generally; there’s also no doubt in my mind that salem thinks there is zero chance under any circumstances that the gods will rule in humanity’s favor, because she knows exactly what the brothers are like. so while it’s clear that this level of destruction is new for her—ozma wouldn’t have been able to keep her a secret if she was knocking kingdoms down on the regular—i assume she’s been fucking with every significant peace he’s been able to cobble together so as to prevent him from ever deciding humankind is sufficiently united to bring the relics together.

but the impression i get is that salem thinks ozma has A PLAN, not in the nebulous sense of “summon gods once unity is achieved” but a specific series of actions that he has prepared and is executing, or his followers are executing on his behalf, right now. which he does, sort of, in the most general sense of “keep the relics locked up” but—she obviously thinks there’s something more complicated afoot. (4.3 she hears from summer rose her mystery lieutenant and seems to be concerned that 1. ozpin might have survived or 2. the crown might not be at beacon; the last thing she says in that scene is a puzzled “what are you planning?” like—her perspective of this conflict is that ozpin has an agenda she is trying to figure out and get ahead of, and she’s wrong because we know he has no plan? but this fascinates me bc it suggests salem has a fundamentally different understanding of what she’s doing than the heroes do.)

anyway,

if all salem wanted was to make it impossible for ozma—or anyone—to summon the gods, all she’d need to do is get one and bury it somewhere. she doesn’t need all four. ozma went after all four because 1. he did in fact intend to see his task through, which meant he planned on triggering judgment day eventually, 2. he thought he might be able to use them to destroy salem, and 3. he didn’t want other people misusing them. the latter two are of no relevance to salem, and she could foil the first objective merely by securing one of the three; that she self-evidently IS going for more than one suggests that she is in fact planning to use them—either the relics themselves, or by putting them together to summon the gods.

personally? i think she’s still on the defeat-and-usurp-the-gods plan, and she’s making her move now because she thinks she’s found a viable way to do it. the relics are bait to get them to come back so she can kill them—or whatever it is specifically she plans on doing. (though i’m not yet ruling out the possibility that the gods are already returning and salem 1. knows about it and 2. assumes ozpin summoned them on purpose; it’s been shown that magic—the staff—can’t just blink stuff from point a to point b, there’s travel involved, so a divine return across astronomical distances could very well take a significant amount of time!)

i don’t think she would ever be satisfied just keeping one or all of the relics and staying in this holding pattern; she’s not like ozma. the core of her character is relentless and increasingly desperate efforts to free herself—first from her father, then from the tyrannical gods and the torment they’ve inflicted on her. by necessity immortality has made her very patient and methodical but whatever her intentions might be specifically, they’re definitely moving forward towards a goal of change; “and so we must press on.” etc etc

[divine-motion]

i’m having more of my tmnt au/2012 rewrite-ish thing so i’m gonna post this doodle of Karai and Leonardo bc it also summarizes one problem i have with 2012 and then the rest of my thoughts will be under keep reading

if you can’t read my handwriting/the quality of the phone picture is too bad: Karai: You ever think about how we’re in this mess just because our dads were fighting over a girl? Leonardo: ...... Y. Yeah. All the time.

yeah so obviously i don’t really like the reason for The central conflict of the series and shredder’s motivation to begin with, especially when they put in a much better reason in his backstory but still focused on “gorl didn’t like me back :(”

like really this guy devotes his life to revenge, kidnaps his niece, tries to murder several children, allies himself with colonizing aliens, and literally dooms the earth to destruction all because... he’s an incel. like i do like how crazy devoted he is to his revenge bc i love that stuff but with this it’s just kind of funny when it’s not supposed to be. so! i would change his motivation to what it should have been and is actually in the show, namely: the whole thing about the Hamato Clan taking him in as a baby after they launched a devastating assault on a Foot Clan village, where they found him.

they do add in a little bit of it but. it should’ve been his main motivation, not just an extra thing! it could’ve even made him something of a sympathetic villain! like how i would’ve done it, he finds out about his origins as being part of the Foot Clan and the fate of his home village, and is enraged that he’s been lied to his whole life. he questions the honor of the Hamato Clan since they clearly attacked civilians - this was a village, and there were clearly kids there, he wonders if he really was the only child there and how many were not given the same mercy he did - and his family were apparently killed in the attack. so he confronts his brother yoshi about it (not sure if i’d have yoshi know about it or not but his reaction remains the same). saki expresses his desire to have revenge, tear the Hamato Clan down since he doesn’t believe that it deserves to continue to exist, but that doesn’t mean yoshi has to die too, and asks yoshi to join him. of course, since saki wants to kill yoshi’s dad as revenge, yoshi refuses, the two fight, tang shen jumps between, house burns down, big ol’ domino brick effect.

i think he still has feelings for tang shen and while he’s jealous he leaves it be and remains best friends with tang shen, and her death at his hand drives him further off the edge. he takes in miwa/karai partially as a way to make it up to tang shen, though he knows it’s not enough. oh and also as a dramatic irony/more revenge against the Hamato Clan since that’s exactly what they did to him.

while he is entirely dedicated to eradicating the Hamato Clan he gets more and more obsessed with revenge as the story goes on. like i’m thinking of having leo and karai suggest a truce between the Foot and the turtles with the Kraang threat afoot and shredder actually ends up accepting bc he agrees they can’t let the Kraang win. maybe more bc he genuinely cares abt karai in his own way and wants there to be a world for her to grow up in (even though at this point she’s been trained as an assassin for her entire childhood but. well. he’s still a villain yanno. “this is how my adoptive parents treated me when i was growing up, i don’t see what the problem is.” “your parents who you hate?” “yeah. what of it.”). but then, later on, he would become entirely obsessed with revenge and not care about anything else that happens, probably after killing splinter and finding it brought him no peace or satisfaction

seriously what’s up with 2012 allying with the Kraang. how do you see that working out for you sir. sure he was expecting a betrayal but. still.

of course he takes opportunity of the truce to steal mutagen and Kraang tech while they can and makes sure to make use of the fact that the turtles can’t interfere in his business to make more weapon deals and gain more territory.

... hmm... i could... have tang shen live... potentially surviving the wound... and she and yoshi both believe that miwa perished in the fire, and they either get divorced or they both move to usa together and then yoshi gets mutated and tang shen is left alone, not knowing that her husband turned into a giant rat... i mean that’s just a potential thing. it sounds a little bit melodramatic and contrived but i think tang shen should get to survive sometimes and making splinter Epic Divorce Man would be funny. i dunno just a thought!

while we’re on the topic of Foot Clan stuff i might as well talk a little about other Foot Clan goons

bebop and rocksteady join way earlier. i care them ok. not sure if they’d still be anton zeck and steranko... idw and bay movies are peak bopsteady ok, and i like them being friends from the start! also for design changes i just don’t agree with bebop being skinny. he’s fat :)

Xever doesn’t get mutated, i like his human design more and there are, what, three major black characters in 2012 and they’re all villains and all get mutated? let xever be human!! he’d also be a bit more of a major and respected villain, a very Neutral Evil type, and makes a point to show he’s out for himself and for his own survival. if possible he’ll try to talk his way out of situations when he can and speaks in support of the truce i mentioned earlier because he’d prefer it if the earth was still inhabitable. karai proclaims that he is her favorite among her dad’s cringe henchmen but the only thing they bond over is their mutual disdain of bradford. he just thinks karai is kind of a brat, if a very skilled and dangerous brat.

while bradford/rahzar is a fairly formidable threat, there would be more emphasis on how pathetic he is. he’s chuck norris so he deserves it. also he’s like a 50 year old guy who acts so entirely devoted to shredder who’s. what. 39 years old? 40? he deserves to be dragged more

i’m thinking mr baxter stockman wouldn’t be mutated either, i like his human design a lot too. he would also be much less of a loser in this rewrite since bradford would take that role. instead, he’s just... an absurdly normal genius scientist/engineering guy who happens to be part of a really evil crime organization full of evil ninjas. he’s polite and eccentric, happy to have someone who finally funds his many inventions and experiments, even if that someone happens to be someone literally called The Shredder. however, while he is a nice man, he is rather impatient when people rush him with inventions. whenever shredder tries his usual “if you fail there will be consequences” it just doesn’t work bc baxter points out that failure is part of the process and that shredder absolutely needs him to make the inventions shredder wants.

karai is weirded out by baxter the most bc he just seems so normal

later on when karai goes double-agent to try and take the Foot Clan down from the inside: i trust baxter the least leo: it’s the sweater isn’t it karai: it’s just so pink, i can’t stop looking at it whenever we’re having an Evil Ninja Crime Organization meeting! do you know the tonal dissonance of seeing him next to The Shredder? and listening to shredder speak in grunts and growls while baxter just keeps a chipper tone?? i don’t think i’ve ever used the word chipper to describe someone before but with him, it’s the only word i can think of!!! leo: he is disarmingly pleasant. karai: right!!! he looks more like someone’s wacky dad!! the other day he literally told me a dad joke. i felt like i was light-headed

i don’t think i’d change tiger claw very much, if at all. maybe make him a little less invincible at times, and a little more regretful of the outcome with alopex.

i have more thoughts but this is. already several walls of text so i’ll end this nonsense post here

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 28

catch me completely ignoring dark cybertron lmao

yeahhhh so I'm just gonna skip dark cybertron bc no thanks. I did read the tf wiki articles for the issues tho, which is more than I did in the past, so at least now I kinda know what happened, though I had to suffer thru reading about dark cybertron to learn stuff about it. yikes. reading ABOUT dark cybertron further enforced my decision to not actually read thru it

anyways. the best part of dark cybertron was when chromedome threw prowl off that cliff. that was baller lmfao

a 1 page recap of dark cybertron is about all I can handle. thank you

ooh, the 6 months later smash-cut, I fucking love itttt

nautica’s here!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy I love her. also brainstorm, and I love their friendship sm

hvbjdkhfbshdfj god I love them. they have such a fun dynamic 

everyone eavesdropping on a therapy session vhbhdjkhafbhkjsdf. hipaa laws mean nothing as usual 

the casual reveal of captain megatron, oh god 

the title fucking slaps, as usual. this is one of my favorites - ‘world, shut your mouth.’ great stuff, and a song title/reference to boot! and this being part 1: towards peace...chefs kiss

and then we flash back to 6 months earlier...yknow now that I'm rereading this, mtmte has a LOT of framing devices used - there's story-within-a-story, flashback/flash-forwards, storytelling with narration, etc...I love it

god hbvhjakdfbshjkdf rodimus saying ‘magic’ and then the little *magic = science rodimus doesn't understand HBGKJHSDBFKHJSDF my idiot boy ily

rodimus roasting prowl is my fav hbfjdkafshsbjkf ‘maybe the knights can help us find a cure for your personality’ ily sm

and then prowl agreeing w/rodimus a few panels later about megatron’s guilt...

optimus...don't you think that making yourself chief of justice is...maybe a bad idea...like, maybe there's a conflict of interests here...just a little bit of bias...a bit too much history, perhaps...

the fact that all the big roles in the trial were given to high-ranking autobots who were heavily involved in the war...I see that cybertrons justice system is as much of a farce as their medical ethics and patient confidentiality laws 

the ‘you BROKE the MATRIX’ panel is so good bjhkdhfbajskhdf

rodimus: LISTEN dad I just wanna resume my space cruise with my frat bro ship I have no interest in politics

psychiatrists HATE him! local former warlord refuses to recognize the validity of psychological analyzation of people’s actions

ravage casually breaking hipaa laws and chilling in megatron’s therapy session like >:3

I love rung...he’s so good at like, passive-aggressively cutting right to the heart of someone’s issues, and he’s so generally mild that you can’t even really get mad at him 

the sudden inclusion of megatron as a major character in mtmte is kinda jarring at first - mostly, for me at least, due in part because I didn't read dark cybertron so this is like, megatron’s introduction as a relevant character in general - but I feel like jro does a great job laying a lot of intrigue down from the very beginning w/his character - like, I already want to know more about what his whole deal is, even though we have, ostensibly, seen pretty much all of his story play out already 

rung name-dropping froid...i remember that made me lose my shit bc cmon. FROID....jesus christ

rung and megatron: holy shit! we’re suddenly being drawn in a 90s-esque sci-fi tron-looking retro-futuristic style!

interesting that megatron sought rung out, and not the other way around

RIPTIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my favorite sharkboy is HERE

CREWDITIONS...YES....

‘we’re not allowed to take anyone who might remind rodimus of prowl’ vhbhjdkshfbhaskfd brutal

I love nautica so so much. a perfect autistic scientist after my own heart

I adore that nautica brought chromia along for moral support

hgvbjdakhfbhsj and then swerve saying that rodimus hates ‘trisyllabic names’ and nautica is like....but....‘rodimus’.....

and then nightbeat busts in to get all bbc sherlock on they asses hgbfhjadkfbjaskdf

WHY was perceptor at the crewditions if he was already part of the crew lmao

ooof, and then we have megatron flipping out when chromedome, a mnemosurgeon, shows up

also damn the autobots were rlly like okay so we wanna speed this trial up so lets just like, probe megatrons brain, that seems completely ethical, especially when you consider the history of shadowplay and stuff that our previous government had

I know important stuff is happening but megatron is holding a CUBE and I love CUBES so I'm distracted by that. C U B E

and then right after a scene where we see chromedome willing to perform mnemosurgery again - despite rewind’s like, dying wish for him not to - we hear that he’s been locked up in his room rewatching rewinds goodbye message over and over again :( I'm fucking depressed

I love nightbeat, he’s so funny and kind of an asshole

and then you see more missing letters behind them next panel...clearly nightbeat is right and there’s a mystery afoot...OR somebody is fucking with the ship’s lettering as a prank, which is a plot point I would absolutely buy

yeahhhh skids is right, chromedome is clearly Not dealing 

the dramatic graffiti on megatrons door...I wanna know who spray-painted ‘die’ everywhere like they're reaper overwatch

oh god. whirl vs megatron

really cool red lighting tho

GOD its so brutal, all the stuff megatron said about how he told the cons not to kill whirl...and doesn't that end up being false anyways? so he was just saying it to dig at whirl, which is awful

also I'm never over the fact that literally everyone - including megatron and whirl - blames whirl for ‘turning megatron violent,’ as if the entire Point isn't that whirl was a tool for a corrupt system, and if it wasn't whirl it would've just been someone else, and megatron turning away from pacifism was inevitable given the circumstances, AND also a choice on his part, so he really only has himself to blame for his OWN ACTIONS

bye bye whirls right arm, see you in lost light 

‘people never stop changing’ that IS something I say all the time...damn you warlord grandpa! how can you steal my philosophies?!

ohhh man and then rewind’s goodbye message being different....oooh

AUGH the fact that whirl was basically trying to goad megatron into killing him, just like he did in issue 1 w/cyclonus...It Hurts Man

also I do love the hint at who he’s talking to w/whirl shooting megatron with the bow and arrow earlier, and we know that atomizer is a fan of those

ok, but here’s where my philosophy diverges - megatron talks about throwing away his past and starting new, but I think that you have to learn from and build on your past...either way, megatron’s arc is one that I enjoy greatly from a character writing standpoint, and I'm excited to get it underway, especially w/how controversial it is lmao

big ole double-page spread...I like how you can pick out individual characters in the background crowd, which is crazy cause that's a LOT of people. also how come cosmos is so HUGE

phewwww 4.6 billion cybertronians died in the war, that’s INSANE. that's like, an incomprehensibly huge number. is there an estimate for their current population? I bet its not a lot. no wonder jro leaned into reproductive themes so much in mtmte/ll - of course the continuation of your species would be a concern for many if your numbers have been that greatly reduced

optimus w/his fancy tyrest-lookin crown

oughdajbfsbdf and the fact that megatron ALSO murdered 100 BILLION non-cybertronians...bruh. I feel like they maybe should've dialed those numbers back a little to allow his ‘redemption arc’ to run a little smoother lmao. but also I admire the commitment either way

and then we end w/megatron doing captain stuff, and seeing The Coffin...and we never did see rodimus in any of the flash-forward parts of this issue, did we???? I love how concerning that is. where's my BOY

also of course we gotta remember the warning from way back at the beginning of mtmte: ‘don't open the coffin’....

and so begins mtmte s2! man I love s2. I love mtmte in general lmao. s2 takes on the impossible w/the whole ‘megatron redemption arc’ thing, and I know that’s like, a divisive plot point and stuff, but from a writing standpoint I enjoyed it a lot...I think it was pretty much as well done as it could've been given the enormity of the task, and I thought it was a really interesting direction for the story to go in 

also espec if it’s true that hasbro was like ‘hey jro put megatron in your story and give him a redemption arc’ rather than jro like, planning/asking to do it 

anyways. I doubt ill talk much abt the disc horse(tm) here bc this is just for fun and also my own personal opinions and whatever, but I for one am excited to reexperience this stuff 

so yeah s2 off to a strong start with some wild shit already happening! cant wait to read more!