#idk it may work with a captured enemy general

[beastsovrevelation]

I need to include Troy-inspired smut in one of my Michael Langdon fanfictions. Why? Because the angels in my head are telling me to.

Could work both with Millory, and the other ship.

[rulerzreachf4n7]

I'm trying to say this in THE NICEST WAY possible, toxic shippers have the stupidest reasons for not shipping Huntlow

Heya! Now before I go into this please know I AM NOT a toxic/force shipper, I am not forcing you to ship Huntlow, simply just telling you why your reasons don't make sense and contradict to the canon versions of the characters of the show, and with that let's go

Reason 1: it's not possible for Hunter to trust Willow after Below possed him and in general

Oh. My. Fucking. Titan...Im just going to automatically assume you've never watched Any Sports In The Storm, that one part in Reaching out, Labyrinth Runners, Clouds On The Horizon, Kings Tide or the entirety of s3, I'M LITERALLY TRYING TO BE NICE BUT YOU ARE ACTUALLY FUCKING STUPID, Hunter trusts AND CARES Willow by first, in reaching out, giving her his penstegram account to chat, saving her from getting hurt in clouds on the horizon, yes, it's wasn't actually Luz, it was an illusion, and in the same episode Willow tried to save Hunter (or so she thought it does matter if it's actually Luz it just proves she cares about Hunter) and when Luz got captured by Kiki she was very anxious and hurrying everyone to get to Kiki to save Luz, yet again, don't come at me with just because it was illusion doesn't mean she dosent care about Hunter, she thought it was him, she cares about him a lot cause she was in a hurry to save him (or so she though it was him)! Hunter was comfortable and trusted her to cut his hair in thanks to them, in the same episode he wasn't uncomfortable with Willow holding him after the possession, in for the future HE LITERALLY SAYS HE CARES ABOUT WILLOW, NOT JUST GUS, WILLOW TOO, he comforted her after her breakdown and saved her and Gus, Willow trusts and cares about Hunter in ending of for the future by holding his hand (pinky promis?? Idk what to call it lol) and literally said "Thanks Hunter, you mean a lot to me to" which Hunter replied "yeah...sure, no problem"

Reason 2: they head canon either Hunter, Willow, or both of them as aroace, asexual, or on the spectrum

Oh. My. Titan, did you like know aroace/asexual people can like STILL DATE??? you completely misunderstand the meaning, just because they don't experience ALL ATTRACTION dosent mean THEY WON'T EXPERIENCE ANY, you know what "little to none attraction" means, it fucking means someone who has a bit, A BIT, NOT ZERO, THERE'S STILL A PIECE OF ATTRACTION THEY CAN HAVE FOR SOMEONE, I'm literally trying not to be as toxic as possible but people have the most fucking stupidest reasons

Reason 3: you ship Lunter/huntric/huntmira/boschlow/ect

Well that's fine, but those ships don't make sense in my eyes but I won't write an entire paragraph on why it doesn't make sense (I'm doing it after this post lol 💀💀) and also boschlow is literally toxic pookie it's not the enemies to lovers you want Boscha literally bullied her, if you think that's chemistry you're fucking stupid and never seen the entirety of s1

And hehe silly reason I'd like to add!!

Reason 4: they're bland, don't go well together, rushed, and have no chemistry

Oh my fucking Titan, OMG y'all! Did you know you could uncancel you're own show?! NO YOU CAN'T DUMB FUCK, it was rushed because it WAS FUCKING CANCELLED, SORRY POOKIE DANA CAN'T DO NO SHIT ABOUT IT, it's not like you can get rid of all the episodes and make it hunlow themed, sorry, we can't get all the things we want in life, and by saying that it wouldn't work by the first impression in ASIAS is stupid, sure Willow made a bad first impression but Hunter seemed mildly phased by this other than just being a bit spooked out and startled, and NO, HE DIDN'T JUST DEVELOP A CRUSH ON HER ON SPOT, sure, he could think Willows pretty, but that doesn't mean HE HAS A FUCKING CRUSH ON HER, and people saying that it's not a "half a with Hunter" because Hunters a grimwalker dosent make any sense, may I remind you this was made before hollow mind, he's still convinced he's a powerless witch by Belos lying about it to him, he thinks he's a half a witch while yes looking like a witch on the outside despite having no bile sack, and he doesn't seem to think as himself as weak like Willow does on the other hand, eh, I wouldn't mind if they took out the half a witch, and btw it's not supposed to be a romantical aspect it's supposed to be a similarity, people have also said she's only there to comfort him, even though that's apart of Willows personality, SHE'S THE RELIABLE ONE, LITERALLY SAYING IT IN FTF, she's supposed to comfort people, supposed to be the person everyone rely on, but thats not just her whole personality, based around her reliability, she's so much more than it! People say they think they're both better off as friends in their opinion, it's totally fine! I don't give a shit really, but if you're going to state a reason why you dont think a ship is realistic, then at least watch all the episodes they're in and use some common sense at least! It's the bare minimum!

And that's all!!! I hope you understand and if I made any incorrections please let me know!! I really hate toxic Lunter and huntric shippers, or shippers in general, they just make up excuses instead of saying that huntlow isn't their type of ship or they ship something else, but if you're a multishipper you're totally cool! (Even considered being a multishipper hehe)

[miraculous-pyromaniac]

I am nearly silent about the things i write, both irl and unfortunately on my blog as well, for different reasons.

The simplest reason is my silence irl bc i kind of just dont have anyone to talk to my ideas about. My closest friends generally dont have any intrest in fanfiction and even if they were, me and my friends participate in very seperate fandoms and sometimes struggle to overlap our intrests. So i just generally keep my fanworks to myself most of the time.

I also dont talk about my work much on my blog either(which is kinda the only social media i use) and thats mainly because im just not the type of person who enjoys broad social media engagement, so i just rarely make my own posts.

This all kind of leads to bursts of hyperfixation and progress on any stories or WIPs i have that come about randomly and long droughts of my content.

Also i have this huge anxiety about people seeing any idea i would post about and 'stealing' it from me. Like this is a constant anxiety for me, idk why. Im probably hesitating to hit post on this post and then thinking of deleting it.

Like obviously a writer doesnt want to post spoilers for something theyre working on, but im paranoid to even post ideas for possible fics i may think of for new WIPs, leaving my ideas to rot alone in my mind until i lose intrest bc i have no one to talk to about them.

Anyway, in what im sure is a healthy way to overcome this apparent fear ive just realised i have, ima post a list of WIPs and ideas that are currently collecting dust, most of them i beleive seeing light from my dark google docs cave for the first time ever

Most of these mare miraculous labybug ideas

A miraculous soulmate AU based around Chloe where her initial meeting with her soulmate ends up with them basically dead from a speeding truck. The story is Chloe's journey of navigating the world angry and jealous of everyone else who has soulmates and learning how to deal with that stuff. Ace medifore maybe? Idk just seemed like a fun idea.

A miraculous Myvan AU where Master Fu had the 'native american miracle box'(Which i refer to as the Thunderbox) instead of the 'Chinese miracle box'(aka the Motherbox). He pickes Mylene and Ivan to be heroes weilding new miraculous of my design against an enemy who holds the Motherbox, with more than half the miraculous within being heavily damaged/destoyed. Shown by the below image(right of the red line completely unuseable, on red line damaged but technically funtional like a canon peacock, left of the line are undamaged)

A Percy Jackson story with OCs made by me and by bff which would run parallel to the canon story where I play with background characters and plot to create my own stories. The MC is the child of a goddess so minor Riordon never mentioned her, Euphrosyne, and a devout champion of Hestia.

And even a couple of original story ideas like

An 'everyone has a superpower' concept where the MCs are all artificial 'bornx from a kid whose power is to create new people by giving up parts of their soul. While not a completely original power in this world, its unique by the fact that the MCs here have their own powers, unlike other people created from such a power. This leads to the goverment trying to capture and use this kid to custom create soldiers.

A magical college type story where the MC is a healer in love with a plant mage, which eventually becomes mutual and loving relationship things until plant mage is suddenly killed by an assassin, sending MC on a revenge spiral. Said assassin is MC#2 who is being used by shady folks as an assassin due to her particular abilty for death magic. The two of them team up to dismantle the shady organisation and maybe a goverment later on. Their relationship is also completely non-romantic, but they grow extreamly close to each other.

Uh yeah. I have ideas. I just never talk about them.

Out of genuine curiosity, to fanfic writers in the world, how vocal are you about the fic you write on your blog? I never know when to start talking about my ideas and eventually the lack of traction or discussion has my passion fizzle out with nobody knowing the idea existed at all (except me, of course) anyway im simply curious :)

[melody-of-lost-souls]

Hey melody,

What exactly was the significance behind Sakura cutting her hair? I hear a lot of Sakura obsessed lunatics ranting about how amazingly brave she was for doing that—and how important that scene was in her life because that was the start of her becoming a woman…Like?? I don’t see exactly what she did there, other then release herself? Some people said she couldn’t stab them, which maybe is true and I missed something, though I don’t remember it saying anything about her not being able to stab the person that was holding her hair? Idk. Some Sakura tards claim this was the start of her journey. Like what journey? The journey to getting into Sasukes pants? See, I was honestly expecting her to put that behind her, and actually try to do something but she ended up being saved by someone, as always. It really disappoints me. Anyways, please explain the significance behind her cutting her hair in that moment, maybe I missed something important. Maybe I’m biased idk lmao.

Hello anon! 🍥🍅

This is such a nice ask♡

Well, hair has always been given a lot of attributes specially for ,us, women. It tends to indicates genre, status, religion, identity, and a big etc. It has various symbolic connotations and specially long and healthy hair.

It's always like a common quote when a woman cuts her hair, it's for also cut something in her life, starting something new.

It is also a big symbol of VANITY and Pride. It is said that the Hair is the frame of face, kind of how you introduce your face to the others, it frames it. In many religions they hide it, as they want to express modesty.

( I know not all women give importance to her hair and that's perfect too, but I say this in general)

So with all this information what can we say about Sakura?

I won't deny it was a growing-up scene for her, because the enemy was mocking about her saying how beautiful her hair is, and how healthy and shiny it was so she had a lot of time taking care of her hair instead of practicing her jutsus, what made her so weak.

And this was true, Sakura didn't even take care of her hair because of personal or self love reasons, it was in order to attract sasuke because of that rumor saying "he liked girls with long hair" .

And she took care of it until that time in death forest because as we see she kept that long hair, time she could use for her jutsus...as Sasuke called her out before.

So taking the decision of cutting it, it took some courage I may say, like the author kinda wanted to show that she could let go those reasons to have a beautiful hair in order to save her friends.

Kin believed Sakura was so worried about her pink hair that wouldn't even be able to cut it, but she did it and she was capable of fight.

But here starts the problems.

"how important that scene was in her life because that was the start of her becoming a woman…"  LOL she was still a woman if she didn't do that sjsjsausios

Anyway, if we take the symbolism behind of cutting her hair as synonymous of starting smt new, a new fresh air, a twist in her life...well here that doesn't work.

Sakura was still the same fucking person after that.

Let's take an example. Cersei Lannister had a looong,  shiny, and golden hair which she wore with a lot of pride as the lioness she was, when she was captured she was taken away from it. They cut it, in order to show modesty, lowliness, and humility  to the people of kings landing, and that became one of her biggest humiliations alongside with the shame walk.

This changed something in her and she became much more ruthless with the faith and septums the high sparrow.

This event also lead her to take the throne for her self, wearing a crown on that head which was stripped of her golden hair as when you cut the mane of a lion.

So that humiliation actually changed her.

In exchange for sakura...what happened?

Her hair was a symbol of wanting be attractive for a boy, was a symbol of becoming likeable for her crush. So we could take it as it was a child's thing, so when she cut it she could let behind her childish wishes and start her journey as A SHINOBI not a woman. Like idk taking a ninja way for herself.

This could actually lead to getting over sasuke infatuation. Or being a nicer friend for Naruto, to become his best friend idk SOMETHING.

Still nothing happened, she remained the same person who wanted to get into Sasukes pants.

She didn't become stronger or learnt new jutsus, she was the same dead weight as before as we saw in Sand.Gaara.attack.

The only positive thing I can say about that death forest part, is that she actually started to be nicer with Lee, when she saw how he risked his life to save. Which is hypocrite at the same time cause Naruto did always do that and he only received punches, instead with Lee she was very nice in my opinion. So, she HAS the ability to be a "good friend "( or so so at least) why couldn't she be like that with teammate but yes with another Shinobi? Maybe Envy...

So what I can say is that she cut her hair because this was her only option, it was a life or death situation so she took the most logical choice. But in other situation I wonder if she would have done the same.

It took courage yes I won't deny it but...

Later on Kishimoto trolled it, because Ino did the same in their fight and she didnt do that much drama, instead she was pretty intelligent to use her hair against Sakura.

She defied and accused Ino of keeping the long hair because she is shallow who still wants to get Sasuke (lol that's rich) unlike her who was brave enough to be stripped of those shallow things lol.

Nonetheless Ino didn't do much drama and she cut her hair in the moment, didn't give that much importance.

And actually, from that moment Ino wasn't that obsessed with Sasuke, she started to befriend more with her team.

After that in Shippuden she had it long again, showing that it has always been for self love/beauty reasons not to attract a boy...Ino didn't need a reason to have a long hair, she kept it long because SHE JUST LIKE IT, and because of her and she never spoke of sasuke again, until.she cried for.him when she knew he was a criminal.

On the other hand, with Sakura she kept her short hair and still was the same girl who fought in the death forest. The only thing she got was some.new jutsus which had nothing to do with that event.

[vagrantblvrd]

Obi-Wan raises Luke instead of Owen and Beru, please.

Oooh, nice.

Because I am That Person I want to do the Satine lives AU (I haven’t finished Clone  Wars yet, but one of my friends has Strong Opinions about similar AUs).

Obi-Wan doesn’t leave the Jedi Order to be with her,because Duty, and all that with the war, but perhaps once the war is over he can?

But then Anakin falls to the Dark Side and it’s decided to separate the twins. Leia goes to Bail and Breha, and Obi-Wan is supposed to take Luke to Tatooine to be raised by his aunt and uncle, but.

Obi-Wan’s in his ship leaving Coruscant after losing Anakin the way he did and it isn’t a conscious decision really, that has him putting in the coordinates for Mandlore, doesn’t even register until his droid is like ??? and he sees what he’s done, and has this moment of oh, I didn’t mean to do that, did I?

He means to fix it, input the coordinates for Tatooine, a weavin winding path in case he’s followed, but stops to think about it.

It makes sense to take Luke there, no one would think to look for him, but the thought of leaving Luke, one of the last pieces of Anakin left to him to be raised by people who wouldn’t understand him leaves him with a bad taste in his mouth.

Regret, guilt, for failing Anakin so completely, and it’s like. Anakin has ties to Tatooine that someone smart enough might look into, might find Luke, but Mandalore? That complicated mess is all Obi-Wan’s now.

And it’s selfish, he’s being selfish, not wanting to give Luke up, thinks about the Order and attachments, but look where it got them in the end, you know? (His foundations have been rocked, shattered beneath his feet but if he thinks on it there were cracks, fault-lines long before that.)

So.

He calculates s winding, weaving course to Mandalore and goes to Satine where they raise Luke as their foundling, right?

They keep the whole...Jedi thing on the down-low, because ancient enemies but Obi-Wan and Satine’s inner circle know, because how couldn’t they?

Obi-Wan may go by a different name these days, but it’s close enough to his real name it wouldn’t take much thought to connect the two. Also, his face???

And Luke okay. Obi-Wan teaches him to control his Jedi abilities and such from an early age, but he couches it in games and play and all Mr. Miyagi with his wax on, wax off schtick kid of deal to keep Luke from accidentally giving away the fact he’s strong in the Force and so on.)

Meanwhile there’s an effort to dial back the animosity towards the Jedi, which meets with mixed results, because people. Also, also, over the years Obi-Wan encourages Satine to mend the rift between her followers and those exiled to Concordia.

Also, with mixed results, but with the Empire’s numbers growing it seems like a mistake to allow Mandalore to be divided.

They reach some kind of understanding, not entirely reconciled, but better than things were before.

In another meanwhile, Luke is being raised as a Mandalorian, and like Obi-Wan earns a set of armor.

But then!

The Purge happens, and in the chaos Luke is separated from Obi-Wan and Satine, the other Mandalorians.

He has his armor and a ship and the lightsaber that belonged to his father Obi-Wan shoved into his hands before they were separated.

Has to hide from the Empire because one thing Obi-Wan made sure he knew from a young age is that he couldn’t all ow himself to be captured by them, that they’d be looking for him.

(And on some lonely nights after the Purge when his nightmares seem more real than usual, some part of him wonders if the Purge happened because Mandalore refused to join with the Empire, or if someone found out about him?)

Anyway.

Mandalorians and the reputation for being fierce fighters and skilled bounty hunters and Luke is truly alone for the first time in his life. Little money to his name and his ship can only get so far before it runs out of fuel, and he needs ammunition and food to eat, and it’s just.

He finds work s a bounty hunter, and the first few bounties are part of a learning process. Thank goodness for his armor or he’d have been dead dozen times over the first month.

Still.

He’s been raised as a Mandalorian his whole life, maybe saw himself as an outsider because his Force abilities and the secrets Obi-Wan kept even from him, but he’s been training as a warrior his whole life.

(Pacifists, yes, but the galaxy is a dangerous place and perhaps more so for someone like Luke, so.)

Between the regular weapons and hand-to-hand and whatnot and Obi-Wan’s instruction with his Force abilities and his father’s lightsaber he’s quite the dangerous individual.

He keeps running into this Corellian smuggler and his Wookie co-pilot, and sometimes he turns a blind eye to their antics if he’s tracking someone else. (In return Han’s willing to let information slip to Luke, for the price of a drink or a meal, and of course he’d never say no to an outright gift of credits, so.)

There’s a miscommunication on a job, once. Luke after a bail jumper and this other Mandalorian with a silver helmet who wants the pilot Luke’s bounty hired.

There’s a bit of a fight, nothing serious before it occurs to Luke that the aforementioned pilot looked a little too panicky at the sight of the other Mandalorian to be fully innocent. (Also, it’s Mos Eisley. Innocent people are exceedingly rare here.)

It’s the first time Luke’s worked with another Mandalorian on a bounty, and it’s actually kind of nice. (Although he suspects the other Mandalorian may have ties to The Tribe, but it’s the least of his problems at the moment and the man makes for good company.)

Anyway, anyway, at some point Luke runs into Ahsoka - and he knows her. Obi-Wan and his secrets and she’s safe, she can help him.

At first she’s reluctant, because look what happened to Anakin, what if she’s resposnsible for the same happening to Luke? But he finds a way to convince her - stubborn like Anakin, if not worse - and she takes up his training where Obi-Wan left off.

She’ll lave from time to time because Rebellion shenaigans, and sometimes Luke goes along to help.

And then word through Luke or Ahsoka’s contacts about Leia being taken prisoner and important plans and they’re so far out they might not make it in time.

“I know someone who might help?” Luke offers, because he and Han are hardly friends (they kind of are though), and the Falcon is one of the fastest ships out there even if she doesn’t look like it.

So, side trip to Tatooine and Han is just “Oh, come on, you too? What is with today?” because Greedo and Luke being a bounty hunter and Ahsoka is super unimpressed.

Once Luke explains what he needs, Han is like “NO,” but Luke convinces him and Han reluctantly agrees (but then Jabba and that whole mess and it’s kind of a disaster getting off Tatooine but they make it so everything’s fine.

Before they leave though, there’s this weird hermit they run into and emotional reunions because Obi-Wan and he thought Luke was dead and what has he been doing? Also it’s very nice to see you again, Ahsoka, you look well.

Luke going up to the cockpit to give them privacy for their part of the reunion and sharing information and all that.

And then rescuing Leia and Luke in his beskar getting between Obi-Wan and Vader even though both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are incredibly not happy about that, but some people there were just going to let the sith lord kill them, and Luke is just how about no???

(Satine would never forgive Obi-Wan something like that Luke’s sure, and according to Obi-Wan she’s back on Tatooine still, so.)

Leia gets rescued and the Rebellion’s down a few pilots and oh, hey, Luke’s kind of not bad at that whole deal?

Obi-Wan’s needed as a strategist - and honestly, no one wants him out of sight after the whole thing on the Death Star - and Ahsoka with her Rebellion Thing.

Han comes back to save Luke’s life and Luke destroys the Death Star and happy ending for now?

But Luke knows there’s something about Vader and Luke himself that has Obi-Wan and Ahsoka deeply worried. (When he thinks about it there are a few reasons why that might be, but he does his best not to dwell on it.)

Anyway.

The usual Star Wars shenanigans but with Mandalorian!Luke with his armor and whatnot.

Confrontations between Luke and Vader go a little differently because of Luke’s armor? But the hand thing still happens because parallels or some nonsense, idk.

(Anakin’s not the only one who has to remove their helmet on the second Death Star and so on.)

Leia has mixed feelings about the whole Boba Fett putting Han in carbonite because Luke’s used the same method on some of his bounties in the past. (The violent dangerous ones that posed a risk to him transporting them the guild, though, but it doesn’t matter to Leia at the time.)

After the destruction of the second Death Star there’s talk, idle, unsure about forming a school to teach the next generation of Jedi?

Because Force-sensitive kids and there must be a better way, a balance between the ole Jedi Order and a new one.

Until then, Luke is curious about the whole Jedi thing, goes looking for relics and whatnot. (Maybe does some bounty hunting every so often, because why not.)

Satine wants to go back to Mandalore, help her people if she can and Obi-Wan goes with her because not a lot of reason to stick around Tatooine otherwise.

And then!

This call for help through the Force and Luke following it to an Imperial light cruiser and Din being very, very confused at seeing a Mandalorian with a lightsaber?

Is it like Bo-Katan’s Darksaber? Will one of them have to change? So confused. (Also though, possible concussion from his fight with the Dark Trooper, but yes.)

“Are you a Jedi?” Din asks, feeling that it’s a valid question because Mandalorians and Jedis and ancient enemies????

And yet.

Luke is like, hey, it’s you! Because silver helmet and remember that time we got into a fight on Tatooine? But also, also, hello Aunt Bo-Katan and friends.

Mainly though, Grogu who is kind of losing his tiny little mind because Mandalorian? But also Jedi? But Mandalorian???

And then shenanigans in which Luke is like, huh, about the Darksaber and poor Din who wants nothing to do with it. His adopted mother who wants to help her people but afraid they won’t listen to her after what the Empire’s done them and is like.

Strangely convenient, but he’ll take it.

They stop by the closest New Republic planet or outpost to hand Gideon and whatever other Imperials are still on board over and then head to Mandalore.

Din is still so very confused, but it doesn’t seem like Luke plans to take Grogu away and he’ll take what he can get. (So sure Luke will take Grogu far away at some point, but tries not to think too hard about that.)

And then the whole working at calling Mandalorians home - Din is super unsure about being the new ruler of Mandalore, but once Bo-Katan and Satine have a chat about the fure of their world they’re like, “He’s perfect for the role.”

Just needs a little help, and with them and Obi-Wan and other trusted people to help him, something great could come of it.

Luke stays on Mandalore - his home more than anywhere else in the galaxy - and he and Obi-Wan train Grogu. Ahsoka too, when she visits.

Once Mandalore and its people are more settled there’s talk of joining the New Republic, right?

Leia as the New Republic’s representative, and Obi-Wan one of Din’s advisors, negotiators and it seems as though good things will happen there too.

But!

Also!

Luke who grew up on Mandalore helping introduce Din to it? Teach him about this world he’s never seen, but is important in its own way more than ever now.

And little Grogu and all that.

Keldabe kisses in a courtyard on a night when Luke’s meditating outside, Din restless after tucking Grogu in and happens across Luke.

Understands that Luke doesn’t follow the Creed the way Din does, but he was raised as a Mandalorian and Din’s seen him in his helmet more often than not and anyway.

Luke meditating in the moonlight and while Din was worried he might have interrupted, Luke opens his eyes and smiles, something about it drawing Din closer.

And it’s.

There’s been so much Pining, but this is Luke, and anyway, keldabe kisses, and Luke laughing at Din being so flustered by it, but Luke’s laughter is shaky, breathless and really, the man’s a hypocrite.

Still, the two of them stay like that for a little while longer.

[costellos]

HI i LOVE ur "____ realizing they fell in love" series thing AND idk if you've done stardust crusaders but if you haven't i'd love to request that pretty pls luv u Aaa c:

I haven’t done the Crusaders yet!! today is your lucky day. 🥰 ty for supporting this series and I hope you enjoy this one!

BUCCI GANG | LA SQUADRA

tw: general violence, stabbing

❥ ┋ ❝ stardust crusaders realizing that they’re in love!

joseph joestar.

Joseph falls in love with you after you put yourself in danger.

the first thing you need to know about Joseph Joestar is that there’s always something up his sleeve. the second, that he prizes his family above all else. only one of those applied when you sacrificed yourself for his sake.

it happens during a stand battle. Hermit Purple is more of a defensive stand, with its ability to disarm and capture enemies. your stand works best offensively. as such, you make quite the pair when you encounter two of DIO’s subordinates in India.

but while Joseph was distracted, using Hermit Purple to wrap one of the goons in its violet vines, the other came barreling behind Joseph. he sees a glint in the henchwoman’s eyes, a look that tells him that she’s ready to kill. he knows you see it too. and that’s why he’s crying at you to get away.

it only took a moment. yet in that moment did you save Joseph, push the henchwoman back, and find a kukri in your side. it’s the one time that Joseph didn’t have anything up his sleeve, and one of many that he could feel his heart drop.

you didn’t have to defend him. he had already lived his life, and at that point, he had accepted he could die at any moment. he knew exactly what he was getting into when it came to DIO. and he was starting to wish that he hadn’t gotten you involved, too.

he knocks both of the goons out, leaving them in the alley. you’re not quite sure what happens next. all you can feel is Joseph holding you in his arms, frantically looking for help in the streets of Kolkata. he’s screaming. crying maybe? you lose consciousness soon after.

Joseph would visit you in your hospital room once you came to. he makes quite the scene, pushing doctors aside and slamming your door open. at first glance you think that he's mad, with his gritted teeth and clasped fists. he stops for a moment, studying your face. and it’s here that you realize he isn’t mad — no, his face quickly melts to concern, his lip quivering as he wraps you into a tight hug. ↳ “come here.” his voice is shaky. he sounds breathless, as if he ran here as soon as he got word that you woke up. “what the hell were you thinking? don’t go throwing yourself at anyone for my sake! you talk to me in battle, okay?”  alright, maybe he’s a little mad. he’s trying to say his words as gently as he can, though. “we need you, [Name].” and it’s true: the team does need you. but he of all people needs you most. he’s already losing one child. he can’t bear the thought of losing another.

muhammad avdol.

Avdol falls in love with you when he sees how patient you are.

he's a mentor above all else. Avdol’s career depends on guiding others to their destinies, leading them to something that he cannot posses. he’s never particularly minded. like all things, he just thinks that is his own destiny. he knows that fate can’t be changed.

it’s part of the reason why Avdol’s given up on Iggy. the dog is hopeless, fighting for his own wants and needs. he doesn’t care about the team or DIO or why he’s in Egypt. hence, aside from giving him coffee gum when Avdol needs him, the fortune teller leaves him alone.

then he sees you interacting with Iggy. “it’s hopeless,” Avdol tells you. but you look up at him and shake your head, asking him to just give you some time. Iggy will come around, you promise.

Avdol chuckles. “if you say so.”

despite his doubts, he keeps a close eye on you. you keep at it. you’re trying to get the dog’s trust, offering pets and belly rubs during moments of peace. Iggy seems disinterested.

in time, Avdol watches as you realize that Iggy hates being treated like a dog. you share your food with him and talk with him, even if he can’t understand what you have to say. one day, while driving through Egypt, Avdol peers into the rear view mirror and sees you asleep with Iggy on your lap.

the Boston terrier follows you everywhere now. he trots beside you and barks at whoever gets too close to you (much to Polnareff’s chagrin). Avdol can’t help but find this amusing.

well he’d be damned. you really did it. Avdol always thought of him as a good judge of character, and you proved him wrong. not that he minds; Iggy’s cooperation will make this mission much less difficult. it’s just that your unyielding patience and dedication is... well. it’s quite nice with all the other interesting characters on this trip.

Avdol approaches you while you’re reading in the hotel lobby. as always, Iggy is at your feet. he’s fast asleep, thankfully. the fortune teller tries to be quiet so as not to wake him. ↳ “I apologize.” he takes the armchair across from yours, resting his cheek on his fist, an amused smile on his lips. “you’re a lot more patient than I gave you credit for.” maybe Avdol had unknowingly guided you to Iggy. maybe it was fate that Iggy would be brought here, only to be loved by you. “I admire that of you. though I suppose there’s a lot I admire about you, hm?” fate can’t be changed. he knew that. but maybe it was fate that like Iggy, Avdol was brought here to be with you.

jotaro kujo.

Jotaro falls in love with you after you call him out.

he hates showing his true colors. that kind of vulnerability is something that he’s never gotten accustomed to, nor does he think that he ever will. it’s part of the reason why he dislikes displaying more emotion than what’s necessary. a slight twinge of his lip or brow can show enough of what he’s thinking. any more than that is a waste of energy. they get the gist, he tells himself.

you proved him wrong when you lost a game of checkers. it’s a humid day in Cairo and during a rare moment of peace, you and Jotaro opt to play a friendly game of checkers with some locals. though the word “friendly” is subjective. if either of you won, 2500 Egyptian pounds would be yours.

it’s your turn. the game is a close call. although it can be over within the next two turns, you can’t tell what your opponent’s next move would be. thankfully, Jotaro is standing behind him, giving you cues for your next move.

...yet because you misunderstand his cue, you watch as you promptly lose any pieces that you had left. your opponent takes your pieces and the 2500 Egyptian pounds with it.

“what the hell was that?” Jotaro is angry. you are too. after losing the game, you collected your things and began to head back to the hotel, with Jotaro at your heels. “I was nodding my head! that was your cue to move left.” 

you stop in your tracks. “that wasn’t you nodding! you just moved your head down! how was I supposed to know?”

he clicks his tongue in response. a beat, and then finally, “you’re really damn annoying, you know that?” 

“yeah, and you’re an asshole.”

Jotaro’s been called many things. sweetie, honey, the hottest guy at school, but asshole? that’s a first. while he won’t admit it, the name stings. it sounds foreign coming from you. he didn’t think he had upset you that much.

he lets the day pass, partly for you, mostly for him. he needs to gather his thoughts. it’s the first time anyone had called him out for his behavior. moreover, Jotaro hates the fact that you may know him better than he does himself. what else do you know about him? did you know that you could upset him this much? ...when did you start to occupy this much space in his head?

so at sundown the next day, you get a knock on your hotel room from Jotaro Kujo himself. you try to close it, but he sticks his foot between the door and the frame before you can. ↳ “look, I’m sorry, alright?” he’s refusing to look at you. “I just... really wanted to win. I pushed that on you. and...” he sighs. "I’m sorry.” he’s apologizing through gritted teeth, yet apologizing nonetheless. it’s the right thing to do and he doesn’t want to lose a friend to his pride. especially one who calls him out on his bullshit. despite everything, you just smile and unfold your arms, telling him that you forgive him. and for a brief moment, he feels a weight lift off his shoulders. although Jotaro Kujo hates being vulnerable, he would hate losing you more.

noriaki kakyoin.

Kakyoin falls in love with you while eating breakfast together.

he’s never had any real friends. any attempts to share facts about himself, whether about his stand or his interests, would be met with scorn. it wasn’t until he had breakfast with you — one tiny moment in a trip filled with wacky happenings — that led him to believe that maybe the world wasn’t so lonely.

it’s 7 AM. normally at this time Mr. Joestar and Avdol are off running errands or planning something privately. Kakyoin turns beside him to find Jotaro and Polnareff fast asleep. he wonders where you’d be at this hour, yet when he enters the dining room, he quickly finds the answer to his question.

"good morning,” he says, taking the seat from across you. his voice is gentle though far more awake than you’d expect for seven in the morning. you greet him as enthusiastically as you can muster, flashing a toothy grin. but upon realizing that you were still chewing your food, you quickly turn away and wave your hand, apologizing for the scene. Kakyoin laughs in return.

the conversation itself is rather tame. you ask about his life, what Japan is like, if he misses his parents. Kakyoin answers all of this truthfully, because... well. no one else has ever taken the time to ask. it feels odd to be interviewed. though not uncomfortable.

and you take genuine interest in what he has to say, too. you ask follow up questions and give real, emotional responses. while you sympathize with him, you don’t pretend to know what he’s gone through.

you didn’t have to engage with him. sure, you’re the only ones awake right now, but he didn’t expect you to be so real with him. Polnareff never takes anything Kakyoin says seriously. Jotaro doesn’t even pretend to care. Mr. Joestar and Avdol have their own things to worry about. it feels... nice to be considered.

needless to say, Kakyoin feels his heart sink when the others wake up. is that too selfish? should he be disappointed in himself for wanting to spend more time with you?

yet even with them there, with Polnareff hogging the conversation and Jotaro being his usual cool self, you try to keep Kakyoin involved. you refuse to let him fade in the background.

he stops you as everyone starts to clean up and go on with their days. ↳ “we should do this more often.” he’s trying to keep it casual. “ah, if you’re up this early again, I mean. I really enjoyed our conversation. it’s a lot more productive when Polnareff’s not awake.” now it’s your turn to laugh in response. you agree, saying that you enjoyed your time with him, too. at this, Kakyoin could feel his cheeks start to burn. right here, right at this moment with you, did Noriaki Kakyoin feel that he wasn’t so alone. 

jean pierre polnareff.

Polnareff falls in love with you when he hears you humming to yourself.

although he would never admit it, he’s lost. what he’s looking for he’s not quite sure. vengeance? honor? it’s something he’s constantly asking himself. behind those dumb jokes and loud laughs is someone who just wants to find himself.

to be honest, he’s always fancied you. it was pretty obvious from the start. the way he looked at you, how his hands were always at your hip, guiding you away from the others. he just thought it was another crush until he heard you humming to yourself.

it’s such a simple happenstance. he didn’t mean to walk in on you. yet there you are, standing on the roof of their hotel, hanging everyone’s laundry to dry. you look so at peace here, with your eyelids low and your fingers at work with one of Polnareff’s shirts. you’re handling it so gently despite it not being your own laundry.

it’s in that moment that he realizes what he wants to do. Sherry’s murderer is dead. she can finally be at peace. Avdol has been found, affirming that he didn’t die for Polnareff’s sake. and here you are, humming a song that he doesn’t know but appearing so content.

while he may not know who he is, he does know that he wants to make you that happy everyday.

Polnareff takes this as his cue to approach you. you bend down to reach into your laundry basket, and when you come back up, the Frenchman is there. he’s not pulling any dumb moves, though. he’s much quieter here.

he follows your lead, reaching into the basket for one of his pants, then comes back up to hang them. you return his actions with a smile, a wordless indication of thanks, and continue to work. that song you were humming returns once more, and Polnareff swears that he can feel his heartbeat pounding in his fingertips.

you and Polnareff continue to work like this until the laundry basket is empty. it’s the first time he doesn’t say anything for 10 minutes, at least that you’ve noticed. what you don’t notice that he’s trying to avoid staring, sneaking quick glances as you focus on the task at hand.

when all is said and done, you stretch your arms far above your head, cuing a satisfying pop from your back. you thank Polnareff for helping you and begin heading back to your room. however, he’s quick to stop you. ↳ “hey, wait!” yikes. did that sound too much? “err- let me know if you need any help. I’m always here for you, [Name].” he sounds defeated in that last sentence. he can tell. he wonders if you can, too. but when you grin and tuck your hair behind your ear, telling him that you’d keep him in your thoughts, Polnareff can’t help but feel his heart swell. did he make you happy here?

[highladyluck]

Mat/Tuon meta: Will He/Won’t He (Stage A Military Coup)

Back on my Mat/Tuon meta horse! This is about why Tuon is absolutely convinced Mat won't mount a military coup against her, and under what circumstances he just might, actually. Obviously, ‘ware series spoilers. The personal/political dynamic Mat and Tuon have at the end of the series continues to fascinate me. Tuon is well aware that Mat’s prince-consort position, Prince of the Ravens, is a position that could lead a military coup against her leadership; she knows all about the power struggle that imperialist, expansionist government leaders face with respect to their armies and the generals that lead the armies. She also knows at this point that Mat specifically has the skillset to pull that kind of thing off; he has demonstrated political skill even if he's not used to Seanchan customs (she noted that the way he diffused tension in the hell boded well for his ability to handle Seanchan court politics), he quickly inspires personal trust and loyalty in his troops regardless of what troops he's actually leading (see: when he meets back up with the Band in the Altaran wilderness, plus how quickly her own armies took to him), and of course he is brilliant at tactics and strategy (see: the entire series starting at book 4). She is also *certain* that he won't actually use that power against her. He has shown her personal loyalty on numerous other occasions, and Tuon's entire brand and survival strategy is generating personal loyalty due to her power (or potential power), skills, and personal integrity. She knows what personal loyalty looks like and she knows how it works. She's a little appalled at herself for not being afraid of Mat staging a coup, and she even thinks that it's probably not good for her or the empire to *not* be constantly threatened by her top military commander, because she's been conditioned to believe that external threats keep her sharp and focused- but she absolutely does trust him not to be a threat to her. Which is wild!!! You have to understand how wild this is!

Tuon previously only trusted her personal safety to people she thoroughly controls- Selucia, Karede, her damane. She does have a kind of control over Mat, but it's not based on anything she's done or her position, it's based on his personality and choices, and I don't think she thinks she controls him. (I think she believes she has authority over him, and that's at least somewhat true, but that's much different from the total control she has over enslaved people, or even the political control she has over the Blood.) She does also trust people she doesn't entirely control- the people who are almost her peers- but notably she doesn't trust them not to hurt her. She trusts that they'll act in ways benefiting their own self-interest or the interest of the empire, which could mean they might hurt her.

Mat, on the other hand, she trusts not to hurt her except accidentally, by making choices that have implications for her standing. (That's what all the manners lessons are about, she's trying to protect him so he doesn't leave her exposed.) Again, THIS IS WILD. Tuon’s an autocratic empress raised under the threat of assassination from birth, she has MAJOR trust and control issues, and here is someone she does not fully control but whom she implicitly trusts not to physically or even intentionally harm her. Do you think she's ever had that experience in her life before? I can't see how she would have. I think there's room to explore this in a way that would be therapeutic for Tuon, but it's also an extremely tempting vulnerability to exploit narratively. Either way, it's fascinating. So what's Mat's motivation not to harm Tuon, and how much of it does Tuon know? It's both a character thing and a situational thing, and I think Tuon knows about some of it, but not all of it, and she also has some major blind spots about what Mat is capable of. Mat won't intentionally harm her for a couple of general character reasons: he's in love with her, which she knows about and is like 'weird flex, but ok'; I don't know if she really knows how to parse it tbh. Also, because he won't kill a woman, which she knows about and is like 'this dumbassery is going to get my himbo straight-up murdered; however, it's kinda cute'. Also, because he has a saving-people-especially-women-thing, which she may or may not know about; I forget whether it came up in any of her surreal chats with Mat's childhood friends, but even if it did she may not know enough to give it proper context in his motivations, or understand how truly generalized it is. He's also promised to protect her from harm in the past, and while that may have been a time-/situation-limited thing, she's seen that he keeps his promises, assuming he gave the promise in earnest. So while he hasn't necessarily made such a promise recently, she knows that he keeps his word and that's something she values as a mark of integrity and a reason to trust someone. The other reasons she trusts him are more down to circumstances: the Last Battle had him temporarily siding with the Seanchan against their common enemy, the Dark One. I think Tuon's aware that he's not fully committed to the Empire yet, but possibly she doesn't realize the extent to which he is ambivalent, or she thinks it's the kind of thing they can compromise on, like the uniform design, rather than a fundamental disconnect in goals. Or she thinks that once he understands what his responsibilities are, he'll absorb himself into the role the way she has, which is... uh... rather optimistic of her, but we all have our blind spots. Finally, I don't think Mat's fully realized that a military coup (which would likely look like a situation where he spares Tuon's life but gets her off the throne) is an option for him. Or, it's occurred to him, but the circumstance has not yet come up that would justify him taking that path. And I do *not* think Tuon has considered this! She might think he knows that the Prince of Ravens is traditionally a threat to the Empress, but I don't recall that she's actually said that to him. And I don't think she sees a difference between her not being Empress and her being dead- she's conflated 'being in power' with 'staying alive' literally her entire life, and she probably thinks any situation where she's not Empress but still alive, if it's even possible, would be so shameful/painful it would be better to be dead. So it wouldn't occur to her that one outcome of a coup would be to replace her as government head but still keep her alive. And Mat hasn't yet faced a situation where he might have major ethical issues with not just the structure of the army but also the goals of it. (Even his iconic ‘I am accidentally leading an army despite really not wanting to lead an army, because I can’t let these dumbasses get killed’ move was ethically consistent, since he was just trying to run away/save people.) And, as I will never shut up about, he’s done literal war crimes to achieve his goals before- he didn’t stop to give aid after he ambushed the Seanchan in the Altaran forest, even though Teslyn specifically says this is against Randland military convention. And given Mat’s early canonical history of being railroaded into leading military campaigns, I don’t think Mat’s going to balk at leading the Seanchan army just because he doesn’t like the Seanchan empire, though it will matter what specifically he’s asked to do with it and why. I think Mat's way more likely to be willing to lead the reunification of Seanchan than to deal with local Westlands slave uprisings or rebellion. You're going to hit his moral breaking point a lot sooner if there's domestic civil crises. An actual slave revolt or rebellion would get hit with military force, and Mat says as much to Beslan so he's well aware that he'd be, if not in charge, certainly culpable for the Seanchan government response to it. (They might try to prevent it from happening at all with Seekers; but Seekers are mostly focused on the Blood, I think, so I think it's possible that if there's minimal Blood involvement they might not know about it in time to nip it in the bud.) So if you wanted to force Mat to have a crisis of conscience that's one situation you could set up, and I think it's even somewhat likely. Post-TG Seanchan-Westland politics are going to be a Cold War, and many entities in the Westlands would be happy to lend plausibly deniable support to an organic citizen and/or slave uprising! The other thing is, Mat needs to be constantly occupied and he does like using his skills; if he gets an 'acceptable' target for military force he probably will go for it. So if the forces in Seanchan unified under a rando warlord, he'd probably be ok leading the Westlands Seanchan troops there, reasoning that Tuon is probably a better or at least more influenceable ruler than that other guy. (Might be complicated if it was a female unifier, but probably not that much.) He would not be keen on enslaving the free Westlands- not that that’s going to happen as long as the Dragon’s Peace is going on- but a ‘peacekeeping mission in a foreign land’? ...idk, I can see him going for it, especially if he doesn't have enough political capital yet to back up an outright refusal. Mat was conflicted about using the damane he captured in the Last Battle, but he did use her. She was a prisoner of war from the enemy side, which probably eased his conscience a little re: personally owning her, but I don't see anywhere in the text that he had issues commanding Seanchan sul'dam and damane in a less personal way. The Last Battle was an unusual situation, but we've also seen Mat willing to ally or at least put up with plenty of people he dislikes- on personal and ideological grounds- to achieve a goal (see: rescuing Joline) or just figure out his options (see: all that card-playing with nobles in the Stone of Tear while he had emotions about Rand. XD)

So if you wanted to force Mat to have a moral crisis while fighting in Seanchan, you'd make the people he's fighting in Seanchan be people he sympathizes with more than he sympathizes with imperial Seanchan; let's say it's a coalition of rebels who want a different, more equal society. Mat's got gilt by association (thank you for that amazing phrase, Terry Pratchett) and he's not pleased about it, and unlike Tuon, he can envision a situation where she's still alive but not Empress. So I think that'd be another situation that would force him to have a crisis of conscience and start planning a coup or at least using his considerable power for leverage. The key in both cases is that it's not just Mat randomly deciding to take a stand for freedom; frankly, I don't think he would, unless he thought it was the best way to 'rescue' Tuon, and even then he would wait or maneuver until the tactical/strategic landscape was as much in his favor as possible, which is where the external circumstances weakening the Empire come in.

[fizzingwizard]

Episode 26 already! I can’t believe we’re about halfway through... This episode seems to be end point for the current “arc,” or “mini arc,” maybe?? I’m not sorry to see it go but overall, this episode was pretty eh... Not bad, just kind of... I don’t get why we needed it. A fair few REALLY important things do happen! Those are awesome! I just think we could have got them in a more... interesting... way? xD Like, I didn’t hate watching it or anything, it just kind of felt like, with all the important stuff going on, shouldn’t there be more... oomph? (And I know we had a ton of oomph lately, it’s about time to wind down for a while... but then why pick now to spring certain things on us... anyway...)

Pic of the day!

generic group shot that captures each Chosen’s individual fighting spirit!

Koushirou: *intent focus*

Sora: *look of concern*

Jou: *I must have learned something in school that will be useful here*

Mimi: *Jou thinking always makes me nervous and a little grossed out*

Recap below!

So last week I’m pretty sure I vowed to violently murder someone in a back alley (or something like that) if we didn’t get to see the gang eat some FOOD this episode.

Well, looks like y’all are safe from me for now. Though I gotta say, I’m mildly concerned that they are eating Digi-eggs. Don’t those look like Digi-eggs? Other than the random very normal looking grapes...

Thank HEAVENS they are taking a BREAK.

Taichi uses his telescope to remark that Cloud Continent is not only a continent in the clouds, but it sure looks small from down here. Leomon admits he’s not really sure what’s going on anymore either xD

Leomon’s mainly weirded out by Patamon, who... I suppose just doesn’t fit the bill for what he expected the holy Digimon to be like :P lol

Ok so quick aside... I’m honestly kinda peeved that we’re still with Leomon’s silly group of clowns. I know that sounds harsh! And I love Leomon! But his army is... uh... well, he definitely made sure he’d be the coolest one around at all times xD It makes sense that he’d be hanging around because after all, getting to the Holy Digimon was one of his goals as well, but honestly he and his team just feel like replacement back-up for the other Chosen Children who are in the real world atm. AND FIZZ IS NOT INTO THAT. At this point I really do NOT understand why the kids had to split up and send some to the real world at all. I suppose it may be explained in the future but I also won’t be surprised if the answer is “It’s exactly like you saw, Devimon tried to separate them.” I would much rather have had the whole team together. I mean, if this was an excuse for Taichi and Yamato to get close... it really didn’t feel like that. At least not to a point where they couldn’t have gotten with the others around too.

Anyway, break time’s over, because there’s an actual monster fight going on. It must be cool to watch - the way Ebidramon shakes Seadramon reminds me of the T-rex vs stegosaurus battle in Fantasia xD But then Seadramon has the last laugh and EATS EBIDRAMON’S DATA, enabling it to evolve to WarSeadramon. That must have been an epic meal

Meanwhile in the real world, important things are happening, Koushirou’s using lots of Big Words with Kanji and Mimi is happy to get back at Jou for one-upping her last episode by correctly recognizing the roman letters this time. They are still sitting on the same bench where they’ve been for SIX episodes now. My butt hurts just thinking about it.

Patamon is very informative.

Patamon: We’re all gonna die!!

Thank you Patamon. You are so cute.

WarSeadramon decides Takeru and Patamon look like a yummy dessert after his meal, so he attacks them, only to be feigned off by our heroes. WarSeadramon gets pissy and says “Two on one is no fair! I have friends too!” and calls MetalSeadramon to join him. Apparently, MetalSeadramon can move on land :O This was one of the freakier things, I was actually like GAAH

Taichi tells Yamato to take Takeru somewhere safe. Since he is clearly very tasty to Seadramons. Yamato doesn’t bother arguing xD

Takeru: Hey! I’m your brother not a bag of beans!

However they are both cut off! Stuck between a rock and a hard place!

Meanwhile, Koushirou is literally a bad ass. He’s managing to reroute the rogue ships whose GPS have gone haywire by sending a signal from a second satellite, which the ships then pass on to the other ships.

Thus helping them get back on course and not collide with each other.

I mean this kid is in fourth grade. HOW HAS HE NOT BEEN SNAPPED UP BY THE GOVERNMENT AND TRAINED INTO SOME CHILD SUPER SPY???

no seriously... I’d actually kind of LOVE it if that were a thing x’D Like the government goes to Koushirou’s house and tries to get him to come but his parents are like “Um no he is a child and he needs a childhood” and protect him :’< When will this show realize WE ALL LOVE KOUSHIROU

Mimi: HURRY UP!!!!!!!!!!

Mimi: H... Hikari... you were still here...? Ehehe.... um... *whisper* hurry up!!

so yeah Hikari is still here! Standing! Staring! Really creepy! I get that the others are very distracted atm but it seems like someone should be like “do you need help? are you lost? do you need a doctor since you seem to have gone catatonic??” Only Koushirou is actively doing anything, I think someone could be spared to at least let her sit on their lap!

Back in the digital world, Garurumon is so distracted by the fight happening in front of him that he fails to notice the attack from behind, and Professional Self-Sacrificing Idiots Taichi and Greymon save the day.

They predictably fall off the cliff wheeeeeeeeeeee

It’s raining men, hallelujah

Under water, Greymon gets his assed kicked until Taichi manages to swim to him

which seems to give him renewed focus, I suppose, and he’s able to get away from the two Seadramon pals and get some air.

However they almost immediately drag him back down. You would think Greymon would be REALLY bad in a water battle and at least need to evolve to be any use (especially given that both evolved Seadramons are perfect levels), but both Greymon and Garurumon never evolve this episode, so I think we’re supposed to assume that even after eating they’re just not recovered enough for that yet. GOOD

Yeah but here’s what confuses me. Yamato does not do anything to help. Well, I shouldn’t say anything - whenever an enemy comes out of the water, he and Leomon’s team attack it from afar. But I mean, Taichi is in the water, being attacked by two Digimon who are both a level higher. WHY DOESN’T YAMATO GO IN TO HELP?!?!

We can’t even give him the excuse of needing to protect Takeru because 1) Takeru has Leomon’s entire team to protect him and 2) Takeru is fighting!!!!!!

I’m sorry but Yamato should be in the water. This is just crappy writing. He’s shouted “Taichi!” three times in the exact same way this episode and has very few other lines, so I actually sort of suspect that Namikawa Daisuke might not have been available to voice him this episode?? Maybe? So they just couldn’t give him too much to do for that reason. That’s totally speculation, I just don’t understand why Yamato does so little here.

Back with Koushirou, his plan has worked and all the ships are successfully changing course woot

Aww looks like a Christmas tree

The way Garudamon carries Zudomon is A++

The partners inform them that the Zurumon are on the move...

Jou theorizes that they’re off to gobble up more data somewhere else. Mimi’s like “ew?”

They decide they really need to get back to the digital world now. They’re finally worried about Yamato and Taichi and figure they’ll be more useful over there. I really can’t think of a reason why Koushirou could not have saved all these ships from the digital world so YEAH HARD AGREE. What even was this interlude?? Show us how cool a hacker Koushirou is?? We already KNEW that, he can do it from the digital world too, and watching the kids sit on a bench for six episodes was NO GOOD. Grrr. At least I needed them to do something really cool to justify all this but... nope! Can’t say it was necessary for Taichi and Yamato’s sake either!

There is one awesome thing that comes out of the separation...

Hikari: Oh you want to go back to the digital world? Why didn’t you say so?

ZIP!

Aaaaand they’re gone! Hikari included! :O

I kind of guessed this was gonna happen when Hikari first showed up, but I also sort of thought, it seems so early to have her join... I know this season is Doing It Different but we JUST got Takeru, I figured we’d spend more time on his story first. Also figured the lead in to Hikari joining would be more... Idk... this was just kind of anticlimactic, y’know? But whatev.

Now the only thing is... there’s no reason they had to go back to the human world for this. Hikari could have just come on her own. “It’s calling,” she says. Well, it could have called her regardless. So we really didn’t need this for Hikari’s sake. Bleh.

Curly

Ok so injuries really are a thing now. I’m down. We don’t get blood but we get to see lots of sparkly data leakage.

Still best boy, warts and all

What I DO really like... that i think we saw this ep as well as the episode before last in particular, is how important the kids are to their partners this season. Greymon loses it when Taichi’s KO’d in the Devimon battle, and this time, when they were separated under water Greymon started to panic until Taichi arrived. That alone seemed to restore his confidence. And even though he can’t evolve further, Taichi’s still able to give him a power boost. That was the one thing in 99 Adventure - the idea that the partners were connected with their human partners and needed their help to reach the next level was always fun, but mostly left the kids just running around unhelpfully much of the time. Tamers added on to it with the card game boosts (which were just to sell toys to kids BUT I still thought was cool lol). And then Frontier just did away with the partners all together and made the kids the monsters which I did NOT like personally. (YMMV although that one ep where Takuya has a crisis and becomes Flamemon was a cool effect.) This season has found a good balance, I think, between keeping the kids involved and preventing them from being too involved, if that makes sense. Of course it still means they’ve got suction cups on their shoes and can hold their breath underwater for unusual lengths of time...

Yay we won!!

... Never mind, now there are four of them xP

(but really, did he think he’d beaten two Perfect levels just like that? A level below, under water, and two-on-one? Taichiiii)

Yamato’s still just shouting Taichi’s name like the girl in Forrest Gump. “Run Taichi run!”

Then... Taichi hears a lovelier voice than Yamato’s!

Taichi: Zudomon!! Why do you sound like my little sister?

Bang bang Zudomon’s silver hammer came down upon his head

Bang bang Zudomon’s silver hammer made sure that he was dead

The whole gang is back!!! YAAAAAYYYY the one reason to love this episode!

So nice to see someone other than Greymon and Garurumon be a badass xP

And then this!! Anticlimactic though it was, I’m really excited to have Hikari on the team. She’s joining about halfway through which is kinda similar to how it was in 99 Adventure, but 99 Adventure had a much better lead in... however this season still has lots of storytelling to do.

Taichi is pretty amazed but not freaked, at least not yet.

Hikari’s just like “I was called here” and yes she’s as freaky as ever. If anything she’s even more freaky. I’m down as long as she gets a bit of personality beyond “mysterious” and “adores her brother”

I mean Takeru’s had plenty of opportunities to be a baby BAMF so far, so Hikari deserves some too. I wonder how long she’ll go without a partner?

Next week! It’s our first Takari shot!

Also... ooooohh??

The group will go to a new continent. Exciting exciting. Though I ragged on this episode, I’m still overall enjoying this season. But yeah I’m so GLAD the team is back together and unless something happens to change my mind, I def think they never should have been separated from the beginning. Or at least it should have been a much shorter separation. Anyway they’re together again so fingers crossed for more good stuff to come.

[musical-chick-13]

And Theon bc I love him

WHAT A COINCIDENCE I LOVE HIM TOO (this answer is gonna be a combination of books and show)

Send me a character and I’ll tell you the following:

• Did they live up to their potential? / In what ways was their potential unachieved?

-I would say yes. The only negative I have about his general arc is his death (which, see below). But Theon from the very beginning was, though not a particularly nice person, still relatable. Feeling othered, wanting to be accepted by an immediate environment that doesn’t accept you, isolated from and ostracized by your family, and the tension that comes between serving the different types of familial relationships in your life. Theon has no idea who he is, tossed aside by his blood family for not growing up with them and being “soft,” aka sort-of moral and having emotions that aren’t selfish rage or smugness (which, yep, that second part is a mood, see: my entire childhood and how no one wanted to be around an “emotional” “soft” child). And from there, he spirals out of control in a way that, while certainly not admirable by any stretch of the imagination, is still understandable in the context of the narrative and his characterization. And from there, after going through hell and quite literally losing himself (even to the point of straight-up denying rescue), he builds himself back up gradually, to the point where he expressed extreme regret for what he’s done, helps an innocent woman escape a truly horrifying situation, acknowledges that his family is generally garbage, and (in-show b/c again books aren’t finished), helping to restore his sister to power, rescuing her after his PTSD relapses while confronting Euron, and ultimately opting to protect the Starks come hell or high water in order to genuinely atone for what he’s done. He is no longer conflicted because he wants to do the right thing, and that right thing is defending the kingdom from the White Walkers and making sure Sansa and Bran are safe. And it’s no longer about fulfilling a duty or finding a family to fill the void. Because now he has found himself. I will contend that Theon has one of the best, most nuanced, most organic redemption arcs of all time. I will forever be grateful that I got to see that piece of storytelling unfold.

Although, I would love to know what he thought of Dany. A missed opportunity, that.

• How they negatively and positively affected the story.

-Positive: His arc of identity and finding where your loyalties lie ties into the overall theme of “How do you find yourself in a world where goodness, authenticity, and honesty are often punished and increasingly rare?” And it proves that governmental politics aren’t the only defining factors in decisions: familial politics can be just as difficult and dangerous, which adds yet another rich, complicated layer to the overall story. He has a genuine, honest-to-Drowned-God redemption arc, which is...not really present anywhere else in the story (no, Jaime is not on a Redemption Quest, I will die on this hill). But I think the biggest draw of Theon’s presence is that it deconstructs the whole “Character Revenge Fantasy” idea. He does bad things. We want him to be punished. But not like that. No one deserves that. How far is too far? What does retribution really look like? Given how easily that idea can be abused and go off the rails, is retribution even something to strive for? What is the point of using extreme violence/torture/mutilation/breaking someone’s psyche when it doesn’t really accomplish anything? Isn’t atonement and genuine justice a better option? It certainly was for Theon. He could only piece himself back together and do anything meaningful once he was out of his abusive environment. All of these are imporant questions that are posed by his existence in the narrative.

-Negative: Idk if I have much to say here. My biggest problem is his death (see below), but that’s not really a negative story effect so much as...being disappointing and narratively irrelevant. I gotta say, his introduction via his sister was...really weird. I genuinely have no idea why GRRM wrote that. It never came up again or had any kind of narrative ramifications and kind of cast a strange, uncomfortable light on his relationship with Asha/Yara for the remainder of the story. I can ignore and enjoy their later relationship it if I don’t think about it too hard, though, so I guess I’ll chalk it up to GRRM having a Bad Idea.

• What my favorite arc for them is.

-All of it?? Theon’s journey is kind of...one big arc, which is why I think it works so well. He has this overarching redemption plot which spans the entire series and informs every decision he makes (for good or for bad, depending on where in the aforementioned journey he is). The redemption arc isn’t bogged down with side plots or other pieces of narrative clutter, meaning it has time to grow and, thus, be gradual and realistic. If I had to choose a specific point, it’s probably when he tries to reintegrate back into society via supporting Yara. Gaining the Iron Islands’ support for her ruling, spiriting away with Euron’s fleet, and ultimately rescuing his sister after her capture. He can’t just go back into society. He’s scared. He has really bad PTSD. But he recognizes that putting his home in good hands is something bigger than just him because it’s Yara’s home, too. I just...I really love family relationships, y’all.

• What I think of their ending.

-I’m not really sure how I feel about this one. I get that the series is GrimDark™ and that people who make the right choice and fight for good die all the time, but Theon dying just felt...wrong. To me.

And, like...I get it. It makes sense to parallel his original descent into villainy (cemented by executing those two boys and pretending they were Bran and Rickon) with him dying to protect Bran himself. It ties into the whole very common trope of completing a full redemption arc by committing a completely selfless act at great personal cost. It’s kind of like the whole Missy thing in Doctor Who (which...hoo boy, that post is coming, make no mistake), where selfishness is directly opposed by making the ultimate sacrifice with no motivation for personal gain. And the fact that the last words he ever heard were “You’re a good man?” I cannot even begin to describe how much that makes me sob. But...honestly, I’m really tired of this idea that redemption has to end in death in order to be achieved or “complete.” I think it’s much more poignant to have a redeemed character live to help build a better world. Because what’s the point of telling people to be better if the “reward” is death? No one’s going to want to reform themselves if they think that’ll be the result.

I think the thing that Bugs Me™ the most is that Theon never really got to have a moment of peace when he was alive. Sansa gained the North’s love and at least had a secure childhood. Ned and Cat were happily married for years. Arya had parents who loved her and a good relationship with Jon. Jon fell in love with Ygritte and found his Night Watch Bros, and Robb (in show verse) had some very happy moments with Talisa. Davos put great stock in what he considered fulfilling friendships with Stannis and Shireen; Brienne was treated respectfully by Renly, Catelyn, and Sansa; Missandei and Grey Worm had each other and their friendship with Dany, who herself had many personal successes in her quest for the Iron Throne and saw the death of her abusive brother. Cersei even had moments with Jaime (who himself had several notable military victories and at least some time with Myrcella, as well as being gladly and deeply in love, however dysfunctional that love was), times when she successfully fought off enemies (including her dad), and some sweet moments with Tommen, as well as a huge victory via blown-up sept at the end of season 6. Theon was treated as a second-class family member by the Starks his whole life by being “traded” to them as a condition of war resolution AS A BABY, is immediately disparaged and mistreated by his immediate family when he tries to return to them, makes terrible decisions that almost cost him his conscience completely, is brutally tortured by Ramsay, is on the run with his sister from Euron almost immediately after, and has a PTSD attack that ultimatly results in him having to launch a rescue mission. And then he fights ice zombies. And then he dies. He never really...got to be happy at all? There was never any kind of “win” for him. Not even survival. The narrative couldn’t even give him that.

TLDR: Theon’s death seemed less shock-value-y than others (like, for example, Shireen or Missandei or, heck, Melisandre even), and it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It’s narratively-informed and it makes sense as an emotional through-line, but, ultimately, Redemption Cemented By Selfless Death is a tired trope, and I honestly thought this story (which...you know...serves as a deconstruction of common fantasy tropes/book tropes in general) was better than that.

• When I wish they had died. / If I think they should’ve died.

-So here’s where we get personal™ kids.

So, it’s no secret that I am...severely mentally ill. I’ve talked about expression/presentation of mental illness in regard to Cersei a lot on this blog, and how that (as paradoxical as it may seem) helped bring a sense of comfort and emotional resonance to me. Theon, post-Ramsay, has, I think, a very clear case of PTSD. Theon is one of the few characters I’ve seen where his mental illness isn’t the cause of the bad, violent, dangerous choices he makes. It only takes root after he has made the decision and conscious effort to better himself, and it, rather than demonizing him, serve to humanize him. His trauma didn’t define him. And although a PTSD attack led to him unintentionally losing Yara to Euron’s capture, he makes every effort to rescue her, a goal he does end up achieving. It is so rare I get to see a character who goes through these things, successfully fight them and come out with positive qualities at the end. Like...switching topics a bit here, Jaime going back to King’s Landing to (try to) escape and ultimately die with Cersei made sense to me because, as Jaime says, he is a hateful man. He never made much of an honest effort to be anything else. And he never truly wanted to be good; he just wanted to be liked. He wanted to adopt some personality that would make him feel less disconnected from the rest of the world. But Theon...genuinely feels remorse for everything he’s done. He makes a concerted effort to do everything in his power to improve the lives of people he believes are good and deserve to be safe. So, just...killing him off in a Completely Selfless Sacrifice (like...you know how a lot of mentally ill people put themselves through suffering-like OCD rituals, bottling feelings, self-harm, even suicide-in a misplaced attempt to “help” or “protect other people”) seemed antithetical to everything we saw of his arc.

Ultimately, with such a humanizing, empathetic portrayal of trauma and mental health struggles, seeing Theon be killed off just...pissed me off. I am so tired of seeing mentally ill characters die. I really want to believe that I can live through and thrive in spite of the things that afflict me, and I get example after example of characters not being allowed to do that. It feels awful, quite frankly. And it makes hope that much harder. 

I also just feel like...there was nothing the story gained from his death? I get the thematic parallels as mentioned earlier, but it didn’t really move the story forward in any significant way. It didn’t motivate other characters to do anything, it had no political ramifications, it didn’t serve to contribute to any kind of happy ending or commentary on society, it just...was sad. Again, I thought this story was better than that.

[the-irish-mayhem]

Oooooooooooh, you have some sw fic outlines. Please, please tell me! I'd love to know.

Oh jeebus. I have a lot of them. While I was reading over these again/condensing for purposes of the ask, I realized the reason I probably haven’t finished any of them is because they’re all so plot-heavy and god knows when I start writing something with plot it’s gonna end up AT LEAST 20k.

I put this under a cut because it got long and apparently I am having lots of Star Wars feelings tonight and because I love you anon :D

A) There was the one Clone Wars-era fic where I literally created an entire race of aliens inhabiting a small planet not unlike Hoth and their entire culture was based off of ice carving. Like, they had massive ice cities and ice sculptures and stuff and there were whole celebrations and coming-of-age ceremonies related to ice carving, and even the prefixes of their names had to do with their specific family tradition of carving/where they were from because that influences their style of carving. for some godforsaken reason the separatists hone in and start terraforming the place to be warmer/melt the ice (I say ‘for some godforsaken reason’ but the actual reason is because in its liquid form, this ice isn’t water, it’s some sort of valuable starship fuel [this gives the ice unique properties, and figures into carving traditions, and makes it more hardy than normal ice]) and even though this is one of the good ol Neutral Systems, the Republic gets word of this and is like ‘well shit, we can’t let the Seps get all that fuel’ and Padmé Amidala is sent as a diplomatic emissary (partly because her coalition fought for it, but also because in the back of her mind she knows what it’s like to have your peaceful planet invaded by those who want to exploit it and so she packs like her whole arsenal of blasters because she may be a pacifist in theory, but she’s also fucking pissed.) Padmé also sees an opportunity when the Senate requests she accept Jedi protection on this mission, and she humbly suggests Jedi Knight Skywalker and Padawan Tano accompany her, because they have worked together in the past and will mesh more smoothly with her own security. Cue the shenanigans, with Anakin and Padmé poorly concealing their relationship from Ahsoka, political trickery and corruption, fighting Separatists, aggressive negotiations, and the Republic wins the day.

B) With his padawan gone and his legion falling apart in the waning months of the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker wonders what will come after. Or, the Chosen One ponders peacetime. Set post-Fives’ death. (A look at how Anakin feels about losing the people he trusts the most. He 100% has a conversation with Rex about it. Address the “nightmares” Fives mentioned. Talk about clones as “property” and what will come after. Bonding over it.) first line: Fives’ last words stick in Anakin’s head like an itch he can’t scratch. It’s a flutter, a prod in the Force that he can’t understand. (also like. yo. if this turned into a multichapter, imagine Anakin and Rex prodding at this issue and the plot starts to unravel and after like 8 chapters of misdirections Anakin realizes the Chancellor is behind this and yo. YOO.)

C) Fives shoots the probe droid off his back. Everything changes. I have a lot of feelings about this Clone Wars episode cLeArLy and also come on Fives isn’t a shiny he’d KNOW he was being followed. Anakin and Rex are drawn into Fives’ investigation. Anakin is leery, but in the end, much like the previous fic, they unravel the web and everybody lives! (or at least most of them do)

D) Anakin and Obi-wan crash land on a Separatist-occupied planet. Anakin is severely injured because no one can ever legally say I don’t love Anakin-whump, and Obi-wan mother-hens and is trying to keep this idiot alive and it’s part survival, part thriller (because they gotta avoid the Separatists and keep it way on the DL that they’re Jedi), and lots of whump. Ideally, this fic ends in a catharsis moment that, down the line, will lead to Anakin NOT falling to the Dark Side, but I DIGRESS.

E) So, there comes a Breaking Point™ and Anakin leaves the Jedi Order, and Padmé leaves the Senate. Maybe the kids came early, and it just became ardently clear to both of them that Luke and Leia were their priority, and they both just dip outta Courascant and fuck off to Naboo to live happily ever after….kinda. They both love their kids, but they both feel guilty for leaving. (Oh, and Aunt Ahsoka comes to visit, because she left the Order and she and Anakin stayed in touch and it gave him another person who wasn’t Palpy to lean on outside the Order. Uncle Obi-wan also drops in from time to time, when he’s on leave.) So yeah, they both feel guilty, Padmé still teleconferences with Bail and Mon, consults on bills and proposals; Anakin still offers advice to Obi-wan, battle plans (and here Obi-wan would laugh because Anakin when do you ever stick to a plan.) and they both generally just keep up with what’s happening in the Republic because they’re SO DESPERATE to know that everything would be fine without them. And then it becomes very VERY evident that things are NOT all right when Palpatine moves forward with his plans, executes Order 66, and shit is just CHAOS. Idk if he like…. sends some people for Luke and Leia on Naboo, because in this outline I hadn’t decided how much he knows about their departures from their positions/their marriage/the twins, but anyway when he declares himself Emperor and the Jedi have been nearly wiped out, Anakin and Padmé know they can’t just sit idly by. So they both become Rebel leaders, building the Rebellion to what we know it as in A New Hope. Anakin, Obi-wan, and Ahsoka all try to suss out where the surviving Jedi are, all while evading Palpy’s Sith agents. It’s clear Palpatine still wants to turn Anakin. Padmé runs things politically along with Bail and Mon’s help, building a galactic support network. The twins are brought up on Rebel bases, learning the ways of the Jedi from all the survivors, not just a single master. (Though, if they were to get particular about it, Leia is Ahsoka’s padawan, and Luke is Obi-wan’s. The latter was accepted with some grumbling One Skywalker was enough for several lifetimes but changing his tune when Luke turns out a lot more like Padmé than Anakin.) They don’t ever plan on having more kids–life in the Rebellion is stressful and not to mention dangerous, but as these things go, there’s a whoops and there’s now a third Skywalker child when Luke and Leia are in their mid-teens. Boy or girl, I’m not sure. If it’s a boy, they name him Jinn Skywalker (because tbt to that fake vision Vader had in Lost Command) and if it’s a girl? I don’t know. I don’t think it would be Shmi. Padmé 1000000% suggests it, but Anakin says he doesn’t think so. Anyway. Lots of spying and battling and military-ing and propaganda-ing and politicking and lightsaber dueling and Rebels winning later, the Empire is defeated! (Probably after a hella intense battle between Anakin and Palpatine, or his Apprentice of the Week, and Luke and/or Leia have to be there to help him and ground him maybe? Don’t know for sure but it would be TENSE.) Luke and Leia are in their early twenties, Jinn/not-Shmi is ten-ish? Timelines. But they did it! They beat the Empire!

F) This one is sparse, but like…. what if Cleigg freed Shmi and Anakin before Padmé and company found them? Or they just don’t find them until Anakin is a moody teenager, but now with Better Emotional Control because he wasn’t raised a Jedi, and has a loving family? So basically he kind of teaches himself how to use the Force, because he literally has such an intense unconscious connection to it. Eventually Someone Comes™ but I don’t know who this would be or what their reason would be, but I mostly wanted a reason for Owen to be Salty™ that Anakin left the farm. Because in this fic they would be proper brothers, ok. Also, Anakin wins a shit ton of pod-races and becomes semi-famous on Tatooine for being the only human to win not only one race, but a fuckin BUNCH.

G) Your classic Anakin-Gets-Thrown-Forward-In-Time

H) Your classic Luke and Leia-Get-Thrown-Back-In-Time

G) Not sure if this counts, but there’s like…….a massive Star Wars/Avengers Fusion AU that I’ve got going on. I’ve written like… thousands of words for it. Steve is a Jedi, trained by Jedi Master Peggy Carter. His best friend, former Padawan Bucky Barnes fell to the Dark Side after being captured by an enemy (either Separatists or Empire, but I’m thinking Separatists), but Steve still believes that Bucky can be saved/doesn’t believe his falling was purposeful. Cue Jedi rhetoric about falling to the Dark Side, and Steve goes rogue and tracks down Natasha Romanoff, a former Jedi-turned-Sith assassin-turned-bounty hunter whose wise-cracking, flyboy partner goes by the name Hawkeye and is allegedly the best shot in the galaxy. Nick Fury is Mace Windu but with an eyepatch and more justice given to his story. Thor is the prince of some rich planet in the Core (or maybe Mandalore) who was found to be extremely Force-sensitive as an infant, but his powerful family covered it up in his medical records so he wouldn’t be noticed by the Jedi. Jane Foster is a Jedi healer who kind of finds him out.

These are just the ones I have google docs for; this isn’t even counting all the notebooks that definitely have plot-bunnies written in them.

[the-astro-ace]

Merlin Writer Month: WIP Week Part 1 - Gen Fics (No Romance)

“Part one?” you ask in confusion upon reading the title.

“Hmmm yes, reader,” I respond, stroking my metaphorical beard.  “I found over twenty fics to recommend for @madaboutmerlin’s Merlin Writer Month, but I don’t think the mods would appreciate one giant post.  So I am splitting into two not-so giant posts.  Below I shall link the eleven gen fics I recommend, and then Part 2 shall be all the not-gens.  And they shall be linked from most recently updated to, well, not.  Please enjoy.”

Part 2: The Not-Gen Fics 

GEN FICS - May contain romance, but not the focus of the story (at least no more than the show)

Rend and Rebuild by PeaceHeather

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 38/?

Last Updated: 2018-11-18

Summary:  One wrong move in the heat of battle changes everything. Merlin is a sorcerer, and Arthur has stabbed him.

My Comments: From angst to well-written battles to a wonderful Merlin and Gwaine friendship this fic has a lot of things that I love  It’s got Druids, it’s got BAMF Merlin, it’s got Gwaine just being GREAT, what more could you want??  And at 38 chapters, you have quite a bit to get through before you have to wait for updates, and even then it’s nearing the end. so I expect that you won’t be left disappointed.

Do You Feel Like a Young God? by onceandfuturewarlock

Rating: Mature

Chapters: 4/?

Last Updated: 11-14-2018

Summary: When Merlin's magic is discovered by the last person he ever would have expected, he soon finds himself a pawn in the most twisted, dangerous game he's ever played, no way to win, and no way out - unless, of course, he changes the rules.

My Comments: Okay, just a heads up: this fic is DARK.  HEED THE TAGS.  This fic is GOOD but it is HEAVY STUFF MAN.  You thought you couldn’t have Agravaine more?? HOO BOY THIS FIC WILL PROVE YOU WRONG; I have literally written the phrase “I want to shank Agravaine with a rusty spoon” in a comment to this fic.  Twice.

Stronger Than by NotNecessarilyInThatOrder

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 8/?

Last Updated: 2018-11-12

Summary: “I said I was dying.” Arthur sighed.“I don’t have time for this.” “Would you have had time to retrieve my corpse?” Merlin thought, then nearly smacked himself when Arthur’s expression made him realize he’d spoken out loud. Could Merlin have told the truth if Arthur had been willing to listen that morning? What would that mean for their future? For Morgana's?

My Comments: An AU starting with s3e02 that it looking to be a MORGANA REDEMPTION YEAH BOI.  Excellent read, and I look forward to finding out where it will go :D

The Siege Perilous by CarverTwaine

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 6/?

Last Updated: 2018-10-21

Summary: (Druid Merlin AU) Druids came for Hunith's son long ago. Years later, a man named Emrys and his apprentice are captured as Druids in Camelot. But Emrys strikes a deal with Uther: as long as the King allows Emrys to live as a political prisoner in the dungeons, the Druids will stay far away from Camelot. Uther agrees. Hated and feared, Emrys works to gain the trust of his jailers.

My Comments: I have a thing for Druid!Merlin apparently, and this fic falls into that.  Most recent chapter left off on a cliffhanger so I’m :OOO atm but it’s VERY GOOD and I recommend you all read this one as well :D

A Sea and Four Centuries by MDJensen

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 6/10

Last Updated: 2018-09-27

Summary: In which Lancelot and Aramis wake up in the wrong beds-- and the wrong countries, and the wrong centuries. HIATUS until ~December 2018.

My Comments: Probably the fluffiest thing on this list.  A crossover with Three Musketeers in which the author literally swaps Santiago Cabrera’s characters.  That’s it, that’s the story.  But it’s not just crack- there’s angst, there’s emotions, and overall what I feel is a realistic reaction to what would happen if this, well, happened lol.  I especially adore the scenes in which Lancelot is learning French- THE AUTHOR ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THERE’S A LANGUAGE BARRIER- IT’S GREAT.

Knowledge does not mean Understanding by Selene467

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 5/10

Last Updated: 2018-09-27

Summary: In a time when Merlin's magic is outed and accepted -something he never thought possible months ago- Arthur is shown that despite knowing how strong Merlin is, he doesn't fully understand -comprehend- just how powerful he truly is. A dangerous conflict in which Merlin all but sacrifices himself to save everyone else, shows Arthur that there is far more to Merlin than he thought possible. Gaius wasn't kidding when he told Arthur that Merlin was the strongest sorcerer ever to have lived.

My Comments: I greatly enjoy the non-linear story telling of this one- with the present interspersed with flashbacks to the magic reveal, it allows the reader to see what happened without just an info dump lol (also I’m considering trying that style myself now).   Just I recommend this one too lol

A Criminal’s Burial by gecko818

Rating: Mature

Chapters: 8/?

Last Updated: 2018-07-02

Summary: Upon awakening in a strange castle with no memory of the last week, Arthur learned that not only had he been recovering from poison, but that Merlin was responsible for the betrayal. Unfortunately, the boy was reportedly killed by Arthur's own sword and left to rot. Little does he know, the story is a mere ruse to conquer Camelot. NOT a death!fic. Merlin!/Arthur!Whump.

My Comments: With Arthur angsting over the fact that he thinks he’s literally killed Merlin gd and Merlin being, well, not treated well in an enemy lord’s dungeon, this fic is hurt/comfort gold.  At least, when the comfort part reaches lol.  But with intrigue, and emotions running high, this fic is a good one and I sincerely hope it updates soon lmao

The Right Thing by AithuzahFic (veritably_mad)

Rating: General Audiences

Chapters: 3/?

Last Updated: 2018-05-10

Summary: Merlin jumped when Arthur spoke. “He didn’t deny it,” he said, his voice low and cool. “I’m sorry?” “He said he loved her and would never hurt her, but he never said it wasn’t true.”

My Comments: How the aftermath of the Arthur nearly killing Uther scene SHOULD HAVE GONE.  But if this exchange doesn’t convince you, idk what will: Every word Arthur had spoken had Merlin off-balance and reeling, but his next question threatened to knock him flat. “Will you help me?” Merlin gaped at Arthur long enough that the earnest nobility of his expression faltered. “I realize it’s a lot to ask—it is essentially treason, after all—” “I have magic,” Merlin blurted, and then slapped both his hands over his mouth. Arthur stared at him. Merlin stared back. “Well,” Arthur said at last, “I suppose treason isn’t a problem for you, then.”

Silence Cuts Loudest Through the Chaos by 1917farmgirl

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Chapters: 20/?

Last Updated: 2018-04-16

Summary: Kidnapped by a mad king, Arthur and Merlin must rely on each other like never before. While Arthur struggles with choices that put his heart and duty at odds, Merlin struggles just to stay alive after being stripped of his magic and freedom. With impossible choices and heavy secrets weighing them down, can they manage to escape before all is lost? 2018 Frog Award at HPFT for "Best Non-Harry Potter Fanfiction"

My Comments: I love this fic SO MUCH.  Merlin and Arthur’s friendship is done SO BEAUTIFULLY in this- feels exactly like the show’s.  I know the author plans to continue and I sincerely hope she manages to conquer this writer’s block that has had her down for months ;-;.  But, in the meantime, there’s over 70k worth of material to read, and I highly recommend you do :D

The Truth of Who We Are by Marie_Iliea

Rating: General Audiences Chapters: 4/?

Last Updated: 2018-02-20

Summary: Set into the wall, a brazier evenly spaced between them, were words, each with the imprint of a hand below it, and a pair of footprints set into the floor below that. Loyalty, Strength, Courage, Servitude, Magic, Nobility, Humility, Authority, and Discipline. Merlin recognized the riddle right away, having met the dwarf during Arthur’s quest. He knew three of the names, three of the matches — and it terrified him. What would the others make of him being Magic? He shivered, a thrill of fear running down his spine. Or: When Arthur and the knights go hunting, but events take a predictably unusual turn that exposes Merlin's magic to them all -- and then it all goes, quite literally, to the Otherworld. I finally figured out where this 'one-shot turned story' is going to go. Since I like Lancelot and originally this was "Arthur is King, Lancelot is alive," this tale explores how everyone finds out Merlin has magic AND the fallout -- during the chaos with the Dorocha.

My Comments: I also love fics that assign roles to the rest of the knights, and I would love to see where this one plans to go with it

Some Things Are Meant to Be by 1917farmgirl

Rating: General Audiences

Chapters: 2/3

Last Updated: 2018-02-15

Summary:  For Merlin, having the world fall apart around him was nothing new, but having someone there to help him pick up the pieces afterwards unfortunately was. Until it happened twice, with two very special people who appeared in his life when he most needed saving. Modern AU, friendship fic. Sort of Christmas story.

My Comments: A short, bittersweet one that left me sobbing and me wanting more.  Tender hurt/comfort with a side of Christmas.  And with only one chapter left, I hope the author won’t leave us hanging for much longer

[piratefjord]

So I’m a person who loves character death. I’ve had heaps of characters die in my games, I’ve died plenty of times myself as a character, but even by my own slightly morbid standards tonight’s ep felt a little... cheap. I’m going to do the adult thing and try to analyse why, so I can avoid it with my players and maybe some of you can too idk. The usual disclaimer: DnD is hard, its improv, and choices made in the moment vs hindsight are always a bitch (for DM and players alike). I think you should be able to criticise things without hating on them, especially if it’s done for learning purposes other than to just blame people.

ANYWAY.

This encounter was way too hard for the party to cope with. 

Which is fine, by itself. That fact is more obvious to anyone who DMs a lot (while all the players have DMed oneshots, I’m going to guess they didn’t dig too deeply into the meat of encounter difficulty calculation).  The more enemies you add, the exponentially harder an encounter gets. One boss monster may many times be easier to defeat than three medium minions, for the simple rules of turn economy. Your big boss monster might miss every attack on your player characters, and even with multiple attacks it usually can’t occupy or split up multiple resources. Multiple enemies means more rolls (kinda like giving advantage), a higher degree of aggro control over the battlefield to split up firepower. This is why multi enemies usually have pretty low HP pools compared to their relative damage output - lots of glass cannons if you will.

So even on paper, fighting a party of 7 with only 5 members is a bad idea. It’s going to be a tough encounter. While there was some suggestion of the level of deadly, based on previous party experience they’d had with multi enemies, there wasn’t a great deal of foreshadowing or warning about the fact that this encounter potentially broke the cardinal rule of multi-encounters, which is where enemies usually have low hp high damage, or high hp and low damage per turn. 

Which brings us to Lorenzo. It took me a while to work out what he was exactly. Ashly said he was a fighter to the party, which based on what he just pulled seems like a misleading description if Matt gave it to her. Cone of Cold is a level 5 spell, which is insanely powerful and could have TPKed the whole team. Let that sink in. It is also only available on sorcerer and wizard spell lists (and as a hexblade pact spell), however at no point is it ever available to an Eldritch Knight (fighter subclass). Even at level 20, they can only cast up to level four. I also thought it might have been a hexblade thing, however glaives are two handed heavy weapons and are therefore unavailable as a hexblade weapon. Add to this fact that Matt mentions that Lorenzo uses his action surge, which is a fighter trait, acquired at level 2. Cone of cold is available to wizards and sorcerers at 9th level. 

So this dude is at least a level 11 fighter/caster build, possibly level 14 (I’d need to rewatch to check for other multi attacks). That’s putting him in the realm of CR8 territory, which by himself is a hard encounter for a party of five level five characters. Adding only one or two CR1 creatures to this moves it into deadly territory, and those are the sorts of enemies they were crushing several levels ago. Adding an additional six, presumably of CR 2-3 territory puts this into actually bonkers territory, without a lot of warning or viable escape routes for your players. 

I think there may have been some degree of over-compensation for things like magical weapons, but no one would accuse the M9 of breezing through their previous encounters, which had party members close to death in them consistently. The difficulty curve increase comes left of field and was poorly telegraphed. ‘Making an example’ of players is something I only normally like to apply to players who are actively out of line, pushing the limits or generally trying to break the game. I’ve put dozens of ‘you will not win this with violence’ encounters in my games, most of which only end in death if players pursue them past the point of all warnings and by refusing to back out. While the same could be said of the M9, I don’t feel the warnings justify the outcome or the severity of the encounter. 

Things you can use to avoid things like this: 

Non-lethal punishments, where the PCs wake up captured or otherwise incapacitated, perhaps without resources, gold or other boons they’d previously acquired. Servitude to gods, curses, contracts etc are also good options. A good example here would be pressganging them into the slaver’s ring as well. 

Gradual escalation of combat, and pointed descriptors early to help PCs know when it’s time to bail. This includes things like their attacks doing very little damage, or scaring them with initial outlay of damage. 

Consistent signposting of encounters that shouldn’t be taken by force (if your players value their lives). Keg was an excellent way to help with this, but I feel Matt may have undersold the severity of the threat they were facing based on what Ashly said. 

Providing exit routes: you should make it clear that running is always an option.

You can only do so much, and sometimes the dice will roll against your players in ways that feel unfair or left of field (especially if you’re like me and regularly roll poorly). The best you can do is prepare your players for it and make it feel more like a consequence of a choice, rather than of chance. If you think you’ve made a mistake (and Matt may have underestimated just how badly this would go) don’t ‘apologise’ in as many words, but use it as a storytelling opportunity and try to course correct. Personally I’d use this as a chance to bring back Lucien, but we’ll see how Matt and Taliesin choose to proceed.  

[justbeingnamaste]

Here Are 7 ‘Lost Technologies’ From Nikola Tesla That Threatened The Global Elite !

Not long ago I wrote about how the federal Bureau of Investigation (The FBI) released a number of declassified files about Nikola Tesla.

Among them, the government revealed their interest in the Death Ray –a futuristic particle beam weapon that Tesla had invented.

Check out this article and download ALL of Nikola Tesla’s patents.

73 years after the FBI seized nearly TWO TRUCKS of papers of one of the world’s most famous inventors, the Federal Bureau of Investigations released the documents to the public. The batch of documents made available through the Freedom of Information Act also reveal Tesla did not die on January 7, 1943, as previously believed, but a day later on January 8.

In general, the FBI documents revealed a number of details that changed a lot of what we know about Tesla, his life, his inventions and his legacy. Check out the declassified documents from the FBI HERE.

Tesla, like the genius he was, was way ahead of his time.

He envisioned a bright and positive future for mankind, as he patented and created hundreds of technologies that no one before had envisioned, nor dared to imagine.

It is rightfully said that the Croatian-born inventor was a man who changed the world.

In this article, we take a look at seven ‘lost’ inventions by Tesla, which many people are unaware of.

Tesla’s UFO—antigravity technology

We know that Tesla was all about free energy and alternative powers sources.

Actually, it wasn’t unidentified.

Despite this, the methods and design of Tesla’s revolutionary vehicle is believed to match the description of people who witnessed disk-shaped flying objects, or UFO’s.

It is believed that Tesla’s UFO had ‘eyes’ made of electro-optical lenses, arranged in quadrants, allowing the pilot to see everything. Screens and monitors are placed on a console where the browser can observe all areas around the vehicle, and Tesla’s incredible invention included magnifying lenses, which could have been used without changing positions.

Evidence of such a vehicle can be found in an interview between Nikola Tesla and The New York Herald, from 1911:

“My flying machine will have neither wings nor propellers. You might see it on the ground and you would never guess that it was a flying machine. Yet it will be able to move at will through the air in any direction with perfect safety, at higher speeds than have yet been reached, regardless of weather and oblivious of “holes in the air” or downward currents. It will ascend in such currents if desired. It can remain absolutely stationary in the air, even in a wind, for a great length of time. Its lifting power will not depend upon any such delicate devices as the bird has to employ but upon positive mechanical action.”RF

Tesla’s Death Ray

Prior to the release of the declassified documents by the FBI, many people argue that Tesla’s Death Ray was just another conspiracy.

Previously, it was believed that Tesla’s Death Ray did not exist, and the FBI claimed for over a decade that none of their agents had EVER investigated Tesla’s papers, nor was the bureau in possession of any of them.

However, after the FBI published Tesla’s files, we learned that among the published files, a letter addressed to J. Edgar Hoover, the first Director of the FBI, highlights the importance of an article in which Tesla speaks of the death ray and its ‘crucial importance’ for future warfare.

It was recommended that Tesla constantly remained under surveillance in order to protect him from ‘foreign enemies’ who may also have an interest in “the secret of such an invaluable instrument of war and/or defense.”

Free Energy, and wireless electricity

With the help of funding from JP Morgan, Tesla successfully built and tested the famous Wardenclyffe Tower.

The structure was a massive wireless energy transmission station which, according to Tesla, had the ability to transmit wireless power across great distances.

Tesla saw the Wardenclyffe Tower as the beginning of a massive free energy project.

Tesla wanted to use the tower not only to transmit free energy but to send out messages, telephone calls across the Earth.

As explained by Tesla himself, the Earth is “…like a charged metal ball moving through space”, which creates the enormous, rapidly varying electrostatic forces which diminish in intensity with the square of the distance from Earth, just like gravity. Since the direction of propagation radiates from the earth, the so-called force of gravity is toward earth.

His theories were based on the idea that our planet had the ability to conduct the signals. Using a number of different towers, Tesla could have made the idea work.

However, and as we have learned through history, the idea of Free Energy isn’t really welcomed by big corporations. After all, why give free energy to the masses when you can make the masses pay big time?

Eventually, Tesla’s funding was canceled, and the tower was destroyed, along with Tesla’s ideas of a world powered by free energy.

Tesla’s Oscillator

This device was an electromechanical apparatus patented by Tesla in 1893.

The device was popularly known as Tesla’s Earthquake machine after the European inventor claimed that one version of his device caused an Earthquake in New York in 1898.

In other words, the device could allegedly simulate earthquakes, which meant it could be weaponized. Some conspiracy theorists are convinced that Tesla’s technology was later further developed and is being used by HAARP.

Tesla’s Futuristic Aircraft

In addition to creating devices that could potentially be used as weapons, and structures that could offer Free Energy to the world, Nikola Tesla also worked on electrically powered airships that, according to reports, could transport passengers from New York to London in three hours.

These aircraft were not ordinary vehicles. They were supposedly able to harness energy right fro Earth’s atmosphere and had no need ever to stop and refuel.

But why have aircraft that makes use of free energy, if billions can be made by selling it?

Drones in 1898

More than a hundred years ago, Tesla invented DRONES.

So, everyone who thinks that Drones are actually a product of recent technologies, you are wrong.

It was called Tesla’s TELEAUTOMATON. And the funny part is that the government had this technology in their possession for over a hundred years. This raises a number of questions.

Is it possible that they adopted, further developed, and used ‘drones’ more than half a decade ago?

Here’s an excerpt from Tesla’s Drone patent:

Here is an excerpt from his patent:

“Be it known that I, Nikola Tesla a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in methods of and apparatus for controlling from a distance the operation of the propelling engines, the steering apparatus, and other mechanism carried by moving bodies or floating vessels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and forming part of the same… The invention which I have described will prove useful in many ways. Vessels or Vehicles of any suitable kind may be used, like life, dispatch, or pilot boats or the like, or for carrying letters, packages, provisions, instruments, objects, or materials of any description, for establishing communication with inaccessible regions and exploring the conditions existing in the same, for killing or capturing whales or other animals of the sea, and for many other scientific, engineering, or commercial purposes; but the greatest value of my invention will result from its effect upon warfare and armaments, for by reason of its certain and unlimited destructiveness it will tend to bring about and maintain permanent peace among nations.”

From: “Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 613,809, dated November 8, 1898.” The full original text and diagrams can be found at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website: http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=00613809&SectionNum=1&IDKe

Propulsion systems for Spacecraft, and Tesla’s Dynamic Theory of Gravity

While we discussed something similar in Tesla’s UFO, the truth is that he went beyond flying objects.

In an unpublished article of Man’s Greatest Achievement, Tesla outlined his Dynamic Theory of Gravity saying that ‘luminiferous ether fills all space’. Tesla said that the ether is acted upon by the life-giving creative force. The ether is thrown into “infinitesimal whirls” (“micro helices”) at near the speed of light, becoming ponderable matter. Then, the force subsides and motion ceases, matter reverts to the ether (a form of “atomic decay”).

Mankind can harness these processes, to:

-Precipitate matter from the ether -Create whatever he wants with the matter, and energy derived -Alter the earth’s size -Control earth’s seasons (weather control) -Guide earth’s path through the Universe, like a spaceship -Cause the collisions of planets to produce new suns and stars, heat, and light -Originate and develop life in infinite forms

~~~ Source ( Gratitude ) Ivan is editor-in-chief at ancient-code.com, he also writes for Universe Explorers. You may have seen him appear on the Discovery and History Channel.

[hekate1308]

All I Want for Christmas is Drowley - Day 4!

Hi again!! *waves* I hope you have been enjoying my offerings this week as much as I’ve been enjoying working on them :D My one for tonight once again does NOT follow a prompt. Also, this is sorta half-way between a fic and an extended headcanon thing? IDK. It’s weird. Still, hope you like!!

His Laugh

Of all things, it was Dean Winchester’s laugh that was Crowley’s downfall.

That stupid, annoying, rare, bright…laugh.

Damn it to hell for all eternity.

(Please?)

It had been one thing for Crowley to be attracted to Dean Winchester physically. The man is a specimen of perfection that sculptors would weep at the chance to capture in stone. It would be impossible for Crowley to not have a…healthy appreciation for it.  

In the same vein, it makes complete sense that Crowley would be aroused by the violence of which Dean is capable. By the pure killer housed within the hunter. Crowley may be a salesman at heart, but he’s done his time at the rack, and Dean…well, Dean is an artist.

A pass could even be given for how Crowley’s interest is piqued whenever the intelligence that Dean chooses to hide more often than not peeks out. And if Crowley finds it especially entertaining when he gets to witness that intelligence being used against his enemies? Well, he is a demon after all.

Those are all aspects of Dean Winchester for which Crowley can, understandably, claim to have a visceral response. And they are all aspects of Dean Winchester that Crowley could, in theory, rinse from his mind as easily as blood from his hands.

And if that was all it was, he would pay it no mind. He would simply log the many appealing characteristics of Dean Winchester away with everything else that he’s found intriguing in his long life, but - ultimately - had to let go.

Unfortunately for Crowley, that’s not all that it is.

He first becomes aware of this fact in a terrible dive bar at the ass-end of Nebraska whose owners have clearly never heard of air conditioning. He’s settled on a bar stool two down from Dean Winchester’s pretty little face, intending to poke and prod at him. Just a bit. For fun.

(Crowley, perhaps,should have realized that he was developing a problem when this particular pastime skyrocketed to the top of his ‘most favorite activities list’ in quick order. If pressed, he will blame his lack of foresight on the fact that he’s a demon and should therefore be immune to such human-like… feelings.

Stupid bloody feelings.)

Dean - unsurprisingly - scowls when Crowley sits down, so he opts to open with a stupid little joke, as an icebreaker. He doesn’t even recall what it was he said. Something about it being hotter than hell he thinks.

(It was an awful, awful pun. Of the sort that most people would groan at, and beg to never hear the likes of again. But Dean has a soft-spot for awful puns, and was also just desperately in need of a laugh at that very moment, not that Crowley had anyway of knowing either of these things at the time.)

But it…it makes Dean laugh. It’s lighthearted. Genuine. It’s accompanied by an unassuming smile the likes of which Crowley can’t recall ever having directed at him before. By anyone.

It’s at that precise moment that Crowley knows he’s well and truly screwed.

*sigh*

From that moment on everything just goes down hill for the sometimes King of Hell when it comes to Dean Winchester.

And before Crowley knows it, he finds himself positively charmed by the stupidest things about the hunter. From the laser focus he has right before he swings a blade down into the neck of one Crowley’s more idiotic subordinates to the way that he picks at the damn label on a bottle of beer as he drinks it.

He finds himself playing and replaying conversations in his head. Begins to orchestra schemes both elaborate and (frankly) embarrassing, just as an excuse to be near him. Spending time in his general vicinity, even when he’s angry, or frustrated.

Crowley, to his unending horror, even begins to find flannel and denim…attractive.

*shudder*

The whole thing ends up being a study in failure for Crowley. From leading Dean to get the Mark of Cain, and ushering him into a new life as a demon. All his machinations seeming to pay off, as he finally, finally, gets to have Dean all to himself - only to realize that a non-human Dean?

Isn’t capable of the sort of laughter that made Crowley really want him in the first place.

He ends up handing him back on a silver platter to the moose and the angel. An unspoken demand of ‘fix him’ hanging in the air when he departs.

Which they do, of course. It takes them a year and releasing God’s sister onto the world to do it, but they put Dean to rights.

It’s another year and some change after that before Crowley is gifted with that laugh once more. Another bar in another state. One that even has a working air conditioning this time.

He decides it was worth it, right then and there.

Like he said.

Well and truly screwed

[dalekofchaos]

Things I would change about Star Wars:The Clone Wars and Rebels

Prequel Trilogy changes

Original trilogy changes

The Clone Wars and Rebels

Sequels

Rogue One

Solo

Star Wars The Clone Wars

Darth Maul would rebuild his double-sided Lightsaber,  because what was the damn point of bringing him back if they don't give him what made him iconic

General Grievous would be like in the 2003 Clone Wars show where he’s an actual threat who was able to kill legions of clones, Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters and isn’t taken down by fucking Gungans

Hayden voices Anakin, Ewan voices Obi-Wan and Natalie voices Padme

No Jar Jar and no Droid Arc

The Battle Droids are not played for dumbed down slapstick comedy. This is a war, not the Looney Tunes 

An episode or two dedicated to Alderaan

Asajj Ventress joins Darth Maul and Savage Oppress

Instead of pointlessly telling us Jango Fett is not a Mandalorian, make it clear that Satine wants to erase the history of Mandalore’s violent past, so when Prime Minister Almec says “Jango Fett was a common bounty hunter. How he acquired that armor is beyond me.” He’s only following Satine’s orders of erasing Mandalorian culture of old. I think it would be better if Pre Vizla made the comment of confirming Jango and Boba as Mandalorians. Like “he may have been enemies with my kinsman Tor Vizla, but he kept his Mandalorian honor and his warrior way. I only hope someday his son joins us”  Jango Fett IS a Mandalorian. Erasing the Fetts as Mandalorians erases the lore of the Mandalorians. I know that KOTOR/KOTOR II and the rest of the EU are no longer canon and exist only in legends, but in KOTOR Fett is an established Mandalorian clan and the earliest known ancestor is Cassus Fett who fought in The Mandalorian Wars and was crucial to the Neo-Crusaders. In the graphic novel Open Seasons it states that Jango Fett’s origins has Jango as  a orphaned boy who was picked up and raised by the Mandalorians and eventually, becoming the last of them and he wanted Boba as an unaltered clone so that he would continue his mentor’s legacy and so the Mandalorians would live on in Boba. The Mandalorians are supposed to be a collective clans of warriors from multiple species, not a hereditary clan. KOTOR and the relevant EU have established that. There’s no reason that Jango Fett can’t be a Mandalorian adopted into their society.

Disney would not cancel The Clone Wars, they waited a year or two till The Clone Wars finishes, then we would get Rebels. These are some of the stories I would have loved to see in TCW

The planned Bounty Hunter Arc. The bounty hunter arc was another series of episodes to bring together the bounty hunter alliance of Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Dengar, Aurra Sing, Bossk, Embo, and others in a continuation of their team up from season 4.

Boba Fett and Cad Bane’s story.  As a continuation of a relationship that would have been developed in the bounty hunters arc, Cad Bane and Boba Fett also had a team up story where the gruff veteran bounty hunter takes the young Boba under his wing. This mentorship is likely instrumental in molding Boba into the bounty hunter that Darth Vader himself urges to use restraint – “no disintegrations” – during the bounty hunter scene in Empire Strikes Back. In Dave Filoni’s own words.  “Cad Bane working together with Boba was a passing of the torch. But they’re also enemies, and with Bane and Boba there was a thing where Bane basically was taking to teaching Boba cause Bane knew his dad. Secretly what Bane was doing, there was always the dispute of who was better, Bane or Jango. And because Jango got taken out by Mace, Bane feels that on some level that, that’s now never going to be known. But here’s Boba, a perfect copy. So if Bane can teach Boba to be great like his dad, Bane can probably finally find out who was better. A lot of it is about Legacy.” — Dave Filoni,

Son Of Dathomir adapted into episodes

We  get to see why Yoda has a good relationship with the Wookies

See more of Shaak Ti, Quinlan Vos, Aayla Secura and see Kanan’s master  Depa Billaba

Get to see what happened to  Barriss Offee after her imprisonment. idk what but it’s said that Filoni had plans for her, personally I believe it was a mistake not to make her an Inquisitor in Rebels.

The Finale would show  what the canon explanation of how the CIS captured Palpatine

A movie to finish everything off to show Order 66. Basically adapting the Ahsoka novel involving Ahsoka and Rex during Order 66. 

Star Wars Rebels

The animation is the same from The Clone Wars. It’s okay, but at times it feels like a complete downgrade from The Clone Wars, especially when it comes to Lightsabers.

Barris Offree as a Inquisitor

Starkiller as the new Grand Inquisitor

Kanan visited by the force ghost of his master Depa Billaba

An episode of Boba Fett and Bossk hunting the ghost crew and showing Sabine telling Boba he is Mandalorian and that he could be better than this. 

Darth Vader vs Darth Maul. As good as Maul and Obi-Wan’s final fight was, I honestly would have preferred to see a canon fight between Vader and Maul. Maybe Maul gets away and we still get to see Maul and Obi-Wan’s fight

The Sith Holocron had more impact and was revealed to be Darth Traya

Show The Stormtroopers to be effective and fearsome and not bumbling slapstick. 

Show why The Rebellion Rebels. I never felt like the stakes in Rebels were high enough in the beginning of Rebels. So I always felt like it needed to be shown How I always envisioned why everyone wanted The Empire to end, is that The Empire is George Orwell’s 1984 only on a galactic scale. What happens in the book 1984 is that it has a totalitarian government which ruled this oppressive world controlled every aspect of the citizens who resided there. Living in a society with limited freedom of expression is not, in any case, enjoyable. Communication, personal beliefs, and individual loyalty to the government are all controlled by the inner Party in several ways. Thought, speech and actions are all monitored by political officials in one way or another. War is justified and a way of everyday life, this is a quote to sum it up “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” But if this is how The Empire’s society is like, it would be done on a galactic scale. Palpatine justifies war on worlds that will not assimilate into the empire to bring order to the Galaxy, Stormtroopers are enforcing a police state and waging perpetual wars on enemies of the empire, mass surveillance on citizens on a galactic scale,  and so The Rebellion is formed to put an end to such atrocities and bring back the republic

[mikanrulz]

(Europe-Anon) Okay, so... this episode... was a clusterfuck. Cool battle scenes and Jeanne and Azazel being badass together aside, it was kind of a mess for me... And honestly, Kaisar's sacrifice was so OOC. I mean, what even?! Stop wasting characters like that!!

snb:vs ep23 aka the one where bahamut is actually a good obedient little giant flying lizard

on bahamut:

I think the most funny thing in ep23 is the fact that Bahamut gets completely ignored

and i’m just. lol.

the fact that bahamut even obediently follows chari’s ship like some kinda of good little flying lizard without even letting out light beam every few seconds like it did in genesis is already… heh

so basically what i get is that bahamut is not as dangerous as it is in genesis

also I don’t think chari would be able to kill it since, you know, the show’s title is RAGE OF BAHAMUT.

the whole thing hinges on the fact that Bahamut is unkillable

killing bahamut now would also kill any chance at a possibility of season 3

that aside, chari actually needs to fail here bcs otherwise, all this plot is actually done just to make chari look good while making Gab and Azazel look stupid

what I mean is that they all three are super confident in their plans

all of their plans are on the same level of ridiculous and totally depends on the one thing they don’t really understand (azazel -> nina, Gab -> mugaro, chari -> dromos)

both Azazel and Gab failed, so it’s about time chari fails too.

eeeehh, no worries too even if chari fails, both heaven and hell army are conveniently there to pick up the slack ;-)

does the wink emoji there annoy you, bcs I wrote that and it honestly annoys me

on kaisar:

eh his death does nothing to me

poor rita tho

but other than that, nah

i guess i stop giving a fuck when it’s clear he keeps supporting chari

he wont even let azazel and jeanne grieve in peace before trying to defend aless

idk idk idk

i kinda hoped aless would have better character arc than this tho

aless: “not my fault, not my fault, i did nothing wrong”chari: other charas did the explaining for him, he did nothing wrong, it’s all “bahamut” and “martinet”, don’t you know he’s actually a good guyjeanne & azazel: suffer and get blamed continuously

see a pattern there? :p

idk

on Lucifer and the demons:

the most unbelievable thing is how they show cerberus to be happy and fawn over lucifer lololol

while lucifer is indeed second to satan, and technically cerberus is under him, considering cerberus is actually Hades’ subordinate, their relationship is not as clear-cut the way lucifer/azazel does.

cerberus does what lucifer asks of her bcs she *wants* to, not bcs she is *obligated* to.

also she’s nothing compared to lucifer power-wise, but compared to him she’s supposed to be more level-headed.

so seeing her down there with other demons girl and actually dances at lucifer’s arrival is just. mind blowing, lol.

but maybe in the anime, she’s indeed just a low level demon girl used for aesthetic and nothing more :’)

i guess i’ll just continue to headcanon her to be there in anatea on lucifer’s order to spy, while also keeping the other girls safe while pretending to be just another slave girl on the job

but seeing the demons’ cheer, it’s pretty clear all this time they’ve been waiting for Lucifer.

implying that Lucifer’s not only popular but also pretty well-liked

and that they have complete faith their leader would come save them (rag demon who lol)

but… those scenes with dante actually kinda highlights that azazel did make it clear that he was acting alone, no backup from lucifer.

so maybe the demons are just, not confident enough to rise on their own, if what they have is only a part of upper echelons without actual backing from said upper echelons.

dante’s group is just desperate enough and impatient enough to do something that they’d take any chance at a plan to rebel

Bel is pretty and i wish she had been alive to see lucifer coming for them :(

i kinda want to see her reaction to lucifer too. would she get flushed and starry-eyed in front of him the way she does in front of azazel? or would her reaction be more humbled and formal?

I missed Bel :(((

on lucifer and azazel

TOTALLY MARRIED

they’re not even going out, they’re totally living together in marital bliss probably

azazel’s the one working but somehow lucifer is the lord of the house

that useless asshole tho, why does he even come with if he’s going to just read his book without even lift a single finger to help the war effort?

are you telling me lucifer’s only there to watch over azazel

he may appear calm and collected and all smiley now, but once something real happened to azazel he’d start working probably

or is it a tradition or something, to make lucifer move only in the very last ep of the show

lucifer’s cute tiny wings are replaced with bigger ones (even bigger than azazel’s) bcs posing is important obviously

also looking at this cap above, it’s pretty evident azazel is actually a very important person ™

as in, he really is Lucifer’s right hand man, second in command, no doubt about it.

this is esp since Lucifer allows him to be this close, and azazel even has a foot on Lucifer’s… space.

no other demons has ever been shown that close. and even in that very last scene in ep21, azazel’s distance to lucifer is much closer than those demon generals shown in ep15.

also pls compare this face, the face he shows to azazel:

and the face he shows to non-azazel

and the face he shows to actual enemy

*_____*

it seems as long as azazel is near, lucifer’s always smiling

no really

even while he’s reading his book, his face is smiling in this ep, and the only glaring difference between all of his reading book scenes (both times in genesis as well vs ep15, 21, 23) is that in ep23 azazel is near and within reach (if he just bothers to get up from his chair and flies a little that is)

8D

other things:

where’s grigori :(

you’ve got another fallen angel who is also a direct subordinate of lucifer and yet you refuse to utilize him why show why

gimme grigori

no really gimme grigori, i need more headcanon fodder for him

also where’s that demon general who worried about azazel?

have they met?

did he tell azazel how much he was missed?

did he give him a lecture on going missing for years without a news?

did he wrap azazel in tons of blanket and give him hot chocolate and make sure he was okay?

did he fuss over azazel like an annoying grandfather until azazel snapped and told him to shut it except then the demon general told him with teary eyes he was glad and relieved azazel come back okay if a little hurt and then he hugged him and azazel just gave up and allowed the fussy treatment.

meanwhile lucifer watched all of this with amused eyes and refused to help even when azazel’s eyes beseech him to release him from this.

this is your punishment, Lucifer says without a sound, only moving his lips. just accept it and give up.

azazel loves and respects his leader dearly but sometimes he also wants to punch him in the face

well, maybe not in the face; not that he could actually hurt him, but even just the thought of marring that face is just too much; he likes that face too much.

grigori is also actually there, even if nobody seems to remember his presence

he’s mostly glad azazel’s back, if only bcs azazel’s currently the only being that able to make lucifer moves, and he needs lucifer to make a move.

also, i really like your description of lucifer: iconic level of chill indeed XD

also agree about jeanne and azazel! :D

I like how they don’t even need words, that a glance and eyecontact is enough

i love that jeanne actually comes to azazel’s rescue, and azazel doesn’t even complain or protest; he just accepts it and saves her in return when she needs it.

i also love how jeanne’s eyes show that she’s a little worried about azazel that second time he gets captured

i love that jeanne and azazel’s teamwork is actually a thing

i lvoe how they’re both equally disgusted when the onyx remove their armors (or i maybe projecting)

i love how their eyes are equally unforgiving and just fed up when looking at chari

i just love everything about them this ep

also when will azazel stop suffering lulz he keeps getting caught again and again lmao