#if the empire finds her with him she won't feel bad about him getting involved. either he dies or he kills the inquisitor hunting them‚

[maulfucker]

thiunking about Maul in the clone wars finale and I think. I think he should've given Ahsoka and Rex a ride. like his whole thing at that moment was trying to play nice to prove he's right and they should totally go kill Anakin (and the emperor). Ahsoka did him a favor by freeing him, he's paying her back by not leaving them behind. now they're even. can we go kill the emperor now.

[hugmekenobi]

S3: The Bad Batch (8)

Chapter Eight: Bad Territory

Gif by @rebekadjarin

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Series Summary: Ever since Eriadu, Clone Force 99 had been a fractured squad. Months have passed but you're finally back with the Batch but Omega is still out there and you won't stop until you find her again.

Chapter Summary: The group is divided, each side with a mission of their own to follow

Masterlist for S1 and S2

<Previous Chapter

Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers (we're in the lovers stage now)

Chapter Warnings: Canon-typical violence, swearing, angst, fluff, limited (y/n), Crosshair feeling left out, me making up how the Force can work/be used, more dancing around M-count things, and me making up a rough timeline

Word Count: 5.2K

Author's notes: Not gonna lie, I struggled a lot with this one for a variety of reasons but I hope people still like it! Thank you @burningfieldof-clover for your much needed and valued assistance during this!

Pabu

Omega sat on the steps of the Marauder anxiously tapping her boot as she stared at her commlink.

“You know staring at your comm won’t make Echo contact you any faster.” Crosshair told her as he approached.

Omega got to her feet with a sigh. “He and Rex lost most of their squad in that attack. All because the Empire was after me and (Y/N). I have to do something to help them.”

“You are. Follow (Y/N)’s example and keep staying away.” Crosshair said.

“Wow, I’ve never been used as a positive example before.”

Omega turned to see you and Hunter standing in the doorway of the Marauder.

“Crosshair’s right. We need to know more about why Hemlock’s after you and what his M-count experiments mean.” Hunter added. “Until then, you both have to lay low.” He said with a firm look at the two of you.

Hey, Omega is the priority here, not me.

“Don’t start with that.” Hunter chastised. “It’s a high chance that Hemlock being after Omega means he’s after you too, especially if M-counts are involved somehow.”

We don’t know that he’s after me specifically, I’ve always just had issues with any Imperial official. I’m more of a general Imperial threat. Me getting captured, I could wind up anywhere.

“That’s a very reassuring thought, thank you.” Hunter muttered sarcastically.

Besides, even when I handed myself in, I wasn’t sent to Tantiss so I might not even be on his radar since he seems to be looking for clones and not Jedi to test on. Omega is the one we know for sure that Hemlock is after.

“Hey! Incoming transmission. From Phee!” Wrecker came to tell the rest of you.

To be continued. You placed a chaste and pacifying kiss to his lips before you headed towards the cockpit.

“No, not to be continued, you’re laying low the same way Omega is!” Hunter called to your retreating figure before he too headed back in.

“They were arguing, and I didn’t hear a single word she said?” Crosshair as the two of you walked back inside.

“Hmm?” Omega stopped patting Batcher and then understood his question. “Oh that! You mean she hasn’t tried it with you yet?” Omega asked curiously. She’d honestly barely noticed the interaction; she was so used to moments like that now.

“Tried what?” Crosshair asked.

“It’s a Jedi communication thing.” Omega tried to explain but that was really all she could provide. “I don’t quite understand how it works but she does it with the rest of us. I’m sure if you asked her, she’d be able to do it to you too.”

“Right.” Crosshair said hesitantly, unsure as to what he could’ve done to make you think you couldn’t trust him with that. But he pushed that to the back of his mind for now before inquiring, “And Phee?”

“She’s a liberator of ancient wonders.” Omega said with an appropriate amount of showmanship.

Crosshair just stared at her unamused and not playing into the mystery she was trying to create.

“Pirate. She’s a pirate.” Omega admitted with a sigh.

How you lot had managed to make allies with a pirate was something he found himself wishing he’d been there to witness.

--

Wrecker put the transmission through.

“Hey Phee.” Omega said warmly.

“Hey kid.” Phee replied.

“What do you got for us?” Hunter asked.

“I’ve been asking around about this M-count thing, which hasn’t been easy, by the way. Tech’s brain was the data bank, not mine.”

The grief you were in constant battle with asked for another way in, but you let is wash over you as Phee continued to speak.

“But I came through. As always.”

“And what did you find out?” You asked.

“Word is, certain class one bounty hunters have been retrieving M-count target for the Empire.”

Again, you ruminated in your thoughts over this. Omega couldn’t have a high M-count, not in the way the Empire seemed to want, you’d know if she did. And it was all to do with clones, so it had to be something about their DNA specifically. “A high M-count signifies Force user potential. But that’s not got anything to do with you.” You added hastily as you saw Omega’s look of excitement. “So, why else would they need her if she has one?” You asked Phee.

“Don’t know. You’re better off asking a bounty hunter.” Phee replied.

“We have run into a few.” Hunter revealed.

“What about Fennec?” Omega suggested.

“Who?” Crosshair asked.

“Fennec Shand.” You said, your feelings about her made very clear by the distaste in your voice. “She was hired by Kaminoans to abduct Omega. Tried to pick me up along the way.”

“She might know something.” Omega said.

“She’s dangerous, but it might be our only option.” Hunter agreed and she definitely a better option compared to Cad Bane.

“I can probably track Fennec down for you.” Phee said. “But she’s not gonna hand over that information for free.”

“Naturally.” You and Crosshair said in the same wry tone.

But as he said that you, Hunter, and Omega noticed the way his hand began to tremor despite Crosshair’s efforts to stop and hide it.

“I gotta split. I’ll get back to you.” With that, Phee ended the transmission.

“Yeah, I don’t like it.” Wrecker said nervously to Hunter. “We can’t trust Fennec. Not around those two.”

“Agreed. You and I will go alone.”

“But-” Omega protested.

“Hold on-” You began to argue.

“This isn’t a debate.” Hunter said definitively. “Stay on Pabu and stay out of trouble. All of you.” He said to the three of you.

“Fine by me.” Crosshair drawled before he left the ship.

Hunter addressed the two of you once he’d gone, concern in his voice. “See if you can convince him to get his hand looked at. Ignoring it won’t make the problem go away.”

--

You walked back to the ship as you saw Hunter and Wrecker getting ready to depart.

“I already told you no.” Hunter said as you stood on the bottom of the door staircase.

“Hunter-”

“You and Fennec have a score to settle and I’m not going to tempt her with it. What we need to know is more important than that.”

“I know that but she’s dangerous and I don’t see how having someone else there to help would be such a bad idea.” You disputed.

Hunter went for another tact, “Did you hear Phee say the phrase ‘high M-count targets?’ ”

You ground out a sigh, “Yes.”

“And don’t you have one?”

“Yes, but I-”

“Did you hear that bounty hunters are being used to retrieve them?”

You shot him an exasperated look. “Yes.”

“Do you see where I’m going with this?”

You exhaled a defeated breath. “Yes.” You begrudgingly acknowledged.

“Good.” He came down a couple steps and placed both hands on your shoulders as he kissed your forehead. “We’ll be careful.”

“Yeah, you better.” You threatened but with a caring smile on your face. “I’ll see you soon.” You hopped off the stairs and watched the ship take off.

--

You rejoined Omega and Crosshair who were standing by the Wheeping Maya tree. “Sooo, what do we want to do today? Walk around, go for a boat ride, chill by the beach and talk about our feelings?” You broached casually. You couldn’t get away with making him sit down and push him into doing something about his hand- Omega had the better shot of using an approach like that. What you were doing fit the rhythm you and Crosshair had before everything in the galaxy went to shit.  

Crosshair ignored your suggestions. “You can help me train.” He said as he grabbed his rifle.

Omega glanced up at you to see if you wanted to say anything yet, but you only shook your head as you both followed him down to the beach cove.

--

“How’d you want to handle this?” Omega asked as Crosshair started prepping his scope.

I’ll open the door for you. Give us a few minutes.

--

“Target practice or hand-to-hand?” You asked as you reached him.

“Target.” Crosshair with a hard stare at you, warning you against any further unrelated conversation.

“I’m here to help as you requested.” You raised your hands in surrender, “I only ask because the most recent time you tried hand-to-hand; you got your ass handed to you.” You taunted as you made your way to your position and removing your lightsaber from your belt. “Now remember, the goal is to aim for me which finding the motivation for shouldn’t be too difficult.” Omega, when you hear the blaster fire stop, you’re up.

You weren’t facing him when you sensed the shot that was being aimed for the middle of your back. You ignited your lightsaber and blocked it on the half turn. “Hey, that was good!” You called back. “More like that and I might actually have to try!” You got into your stance and waited.

Crosshair heaved a sigh as he set himself again.

--

You disengaged your blade to signal that it was time to stop, and you lightly jogged over to where Crosshair was waiting. “Twenty shots, but only eleven I had to actually dodge or block… you really gotta sort that out, it’s not like you.”

Crosshair glared at you, “I forgot how annoying you were to train with.”

“Oh, I’m just the warmup.” You said with a knowing grin. “She’s the real challenge.” You nodded past his shoulder.

Crosshair followed your eyes, and he gulped as he saw Omega walking towards with gritty determination on her face. He already knew exactly how this was going to go.

--

Finding Fennec Shand hadn’t been very difficult, the hardest part now was getting her help without giving too much away.

“So, what kind of information can I help you with?” She asked, relaxing into the booth but she saw the wary look the two clones shared with each other. “See, the way this works is you tell me what intel or target you’re after, and I give you a price. So stop wasting my time.”

“We hear the Empire has a bounty out for M-count targets.” Hunter replied tentatively.

Fennec adjusted her posture. “Why do you wanna know about that? You trying to find your girl?” She looked at the helmeted clone who visibly tensed at her words. She sipped her drink. “She’s been quite the busy Jedi, nice price on her head too.”

“The why is our business.” Hunter said stiffly.

Fennec let the evasion slide and shrugged as she lounged back once more. “I haven’t done one of those jobs myself, but… I might know someone who has.”

“Can you put us in touch with them?” Hunter requested.

“Now that will definitely cost you.”

“How much?”

“More than you’ve got. But we might be able to work something out.” She took another gulp of her drink. “I’ve read your files from before.” She addressed the bigger clone, “You’re good with demolitions and ordnance, right?”

“Ha! ‘Good’? I’m the best.” Wrecker boasted proudly.

“And you’re the tracker.” Fennec said to the other one.

“What’s your point?” Hunter questioned warily.

“There’s a bounty I’ve been trying to bring in. Worth a lot. But he’s been hard to catch without a crew.”

“Oh, so you want us to work with you?” Wrecker sussed out.

“No. You’ll be working for me.” Fennec corrected. “You follow through, I’ll get you what you want to know.”

Hunter barely debated the situation in his head. Getting the information was all that mattered. “Deal.”

Fennec nodded and grabbed her stuff. “We’ll use my ship. And so we’re clear… I keep the payment on the bounty. All of it.”

--

Omega sat next to Crosshair whilst you crouched by Batcher’s side, absentmindedly petting the hound as AZ finished scanning Crosshair’s hand.

“How does your hand feel now?” AZ inquired.

“The same.” Crosshair grunted dejectedly as he massaged it with his good hand.

“Unfortunately, it may never heal 100%.”

“There’s nothing else you can do?” Omega appealed.

“I have exhausted all the medical treatment options. Perhaps the issue is not something physical.” AZ theorised.

“You think it’s in my head?” Crosshair hissed angrily.

“If you were to elaborate more on the experimentation you were subjected to, I could determine the cause.”

“Forget it.” Crosshair snapped as he shoved past the droid.

You jumped to your feet attempted to catch his arm, but he shrugged you off.

“Crosshair?” Omega called out to him as he left but he didn’t look back.

“If he won’t talk about it, I’m not sure how else we can help him.” You pondered anxiously.

“I have another idea.” Omega said. “But you need to be there too.”

--

“We’re working for her now? We don’t even trust her.” Wrecker whispered as he and Hunter stood in the back of Fennec’s ship. It wasn’t like Hunter to not think through the dangers of taking a job like this on.

“What choice do we have? We need that information. Just be ready for anything.” As soon as Hunter said that the door slid open, and Fennec appeared.

“We made a deal. I’m going to keep it as long as you hold up your end.” Fennec reminded the clones.

“Wanna tell us who it is we’re going after?” Hunter asked.

Fennec brought out the puck and activated the image. “Sylar Saris. ‘The Slayer od Ordo Eris’. One of the slipperiest marks around. Got a tip on his location.”

“Well, what did he do?” Wrecker asked.

“Hmm. Got greedy. Took out a couple top bosses for the Haxion Brood and escaped with a cache of credits. Powerful people want him found. The other hunters that went after him? Never came back.” She waited half a second before continuing, “Sylar knows the planet like the back of his claw. But eventually, everyone’s luck runs out.” Fennec turned off the puck as she finished the brief and retreated to the pilot seat.

--

You watched the line of fruit on the rock ahead as Crosshair raised his rifle, but his hand was still trembling, so his shot skimmed the top of the fruit he had been aiming for. You had thought a degree of normalcy was what he needed but now it was time for both you and Omega to push him- even a little bit. “That was close.” You said encouragingly.

“Close doesn’t count. It’s either a hit or miss.” Crosshair replied sharply.

“You’re still more capable than most.” Omega said with a soothing touch of his arm.

Crosshair only sighed and sat with his back against the rock. “That’s not good enough for a sniper.”

You and Omega both hopped up on the rock.

“Have you ever considered that AZ might be right?” You proposed slowly, your voice kind and gentle. You knew how hard accepting help with something like this could be and it couldn’t be rushed into.

“Whatever they did to you on Tantiss could’ve affected you more than you realise.” Omega backed up the suggestion in a similar tone.

“No. No, no. It’s not in my head.” Crosshair disagreed.

“Just because there’s nothing AZ can do, doesn’t mean your hand can’t get better.” Omega said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you’re the one who has to fix it.”

Crosshair considered it. “How?”

“I’m glad you asked.”

Crosshair glanced over at you to see a familiar scheming smile on your face but there was a kindness to your eyes that told him you weren’t messing around with this. “I’m not gonna like it, am I?”

You and Omega shared a smile, “You don’t like anything.” You two said in unison as you left the rock.

“True.” Crosshair conceded with a sigh as he got to his feet.

--

The light was all but gone and between the toxic swamp air, the mines in the river, and the gators that attacked them, it had already been a trying journey and things weren’t getting much better since Hunter couldn’t get a proper read on the current anymore.

“Well, tracker? Which direction?” Fennec asked as she slowly steered the hired boat.

“The currents are too calm to tell.” Hunter admitted reluctantly.

“Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you guys aren’t cut out for this job.” She said irritably.

“Oh. You think you could do better without us?” Wrecker challenged.

“I wouldn’t be doing any worse.”

“Well, (Y/N) got the best of you and even Omega managed to get away.”

“Apparently, they both got away from you too.” She watched as that clearly hit a mark with both of them. “So what happened? I know what your girl’s been up to, tracker, but what went down for her to get to that? And how’d you lose the kid?”

“What’s it to you?” Hunter deflected coldly as he pulled out his macro’s and searched ahead for any sign of Sylar’s safehouse.

“Just seems odd. You’re both willing to work for me, considering our past. That information must really be important to you.”

Hunter said nothing. He feared that anything he would say would give something more away.

“And just so you know, I didn’t lose Omega. I let her go when the bounty was called off.” Fennec informed them.

“By who?” Hunter asked, turning to look at her.

“The client. They thought Omega would be safer with you guys. Guess they were wrong about that.” She glanced between them both. “And your Jedi wasn’t worth the trouble since there wasn’t a set bounty on her at the time. Though, if I saw her again, with the price on her head that might change.” Fennec couldn’t help but goad. She scoffed as she saw the helmeted glare from the tracker.

“I guess you’ll work for anybody as long as you get paid.” Wrecker said with a hint of disgust.

“Good guys, bad guys. Their money is all the same.” Fennec said breezily.

“Well, money’s not everything.” Hunter said.

“That’s cause you don’t have any.”

Hunter couldn’t respond to that because there was nothing to argue against. He simply brought his binoculars back and scanned the water. “Someone came through here. Veer starboard up ahead.”

--

‘Slippery mark’ had been right. They’d been able to find his hideout but actually subduing Sylar had proven a far more difficult feat than anticipated.

In the end, it had taken a team effort from the three of them to knock out the insectoid and even then, it had taken four stun blasts to successfully managed it.

Wrecker released a breathless groan as he stepped over the target. “You were right to bring us along.”

“I’m always right. Grab him and let’s go.” Fennec instructed.

--

“If this is a Jedi technique, how is this going to help me?” Crosshair asked dubiously as he saw you and Omega sit cross-legged with your hands on your knees on a rock facing out to the sea, the orange sunset giving the water a warm purple hue.

“One, it’s not solely a Jedi technique because, as you can see, Omega does it.” You pointed out.

“But-”

“Two, I’m also out of practice so we can both learn together. Come and sit down.” You encouraged, patting the space between you and Omega.

Crosshair reluctantly mirrored both your positions. “So, this technique…”

“Mediation.” Omega reminded him. “It’ll help you heal. Not just your hand, but your mind too.”

“I doubt that.” Crosshair tried to follow the example of you two, but he couldn’t quiet his mind and his hand had started to shake again. He inhaled sharply as he felt Omega take a hold of it and turn it so that his palm was facing up.

You closed your own eyes and spoke calmly. “You need to breathe. Take slow, deep breaths and find your centre. Focus on yourself and what you’re feeling and accept it. Let it pass through you and don’t run away from it.” You guided him as you followed your own advice and found yourself becoming one with the living Force around you.

“And don’t compare yourself to her. It works slightly differently.” Omega told him.

Crosshair glanced at you from the corner of his eye to already see that you were completely at peace, and it looked like nothing could ever bring you out of it. “Where did you learn this? Did she teach you?” He asked Omega.

Omega kept her eyes shut as she replied, “No, she hadn’t done it until after I picked it up from my friend Gungi, and the other Wookies on Kashyyyk. But she helped me with it thereafter. I think she needed that moment again too.”

“You’ve been to Kashyyyk?”

“Uh huh.” Omega took another deep inhale and exhale. “You’ve missed a lot.”

“I know.” Crosshair realised.

“Now, close your eyes and focus.” Omega repeated.

Crosshair did as you both suggested and let go.

--

“Pleasure doing business with you.” Fennec said as the clone departed her ship.

“Hang on.” Hunter turned on his heels. “You promised us information.”

“I didn’t say I had it on me, but I’ll get it. Ater I deliver Sylar to my client.”

“That’s not what we agreed on.” Hunter growled.

“You can either fight me or trust me. Take your pick.”

Hunter shared a look with Wrecker but decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

“Good choice.” Fennec before she stepped into her ship and brought the ramp up.

Hunter and Wrecker could only watch her ship leave the station hangar. Having to trust the word of a bounty hunter was not the ideal situation they wanted to be or leave in.

--

Fennec put through the transmission and addressed the hologram.“I just finished a job with some clones. They were asking about the Empire’s M-count bounties. What can you tell me?” She digested the muffled chatter that came in response. “I’m sure you can find them easily enough. I’ll send you what I have.”

--

“(Y/N)? (Y/N), we’ve finished.” Omega shook your shoulder. “Come back.”

You jolted back to the current moment. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is fine. Just wanted to tell you that Wrecker and Hunter are back.” Omega said as she stood back up. “How was it this time?” She asked you.

You exhaled deeply. “Better but I could still feel my focus drifting more than it used to.” Plus, no matter how often you trained in it, you had never gotten to see your master again and you were beginning to think it had been a one-time deal. If what you needed to talk to him again was to reach a certain level of emotional turmoil, you wouldn’t want to get to that place again. “How was it for you?”

“It was good.” She replied cheerily before she set off to meet up with Hunter and Wrecker, Batcher close at her heels.

“How’d it go?” You asked Crosshair as you got to your feet.

“Eh, I still don’t get it.” Crosshair grunted in reply.

You smiled understandingly at him. “It gets easier.”

“I know, I’ll keep trying.” He took a step in the direction Omega had gone but your voice stopped him.

“I’m not talking about the meditation.” You said softly as you grabbed his shoulder to turn him to face you. “I’m talking about dealing with whatever it was that happened to you.”

Crosshair cast his eyes to the ground. “I can’t tal-”

“Believe me, I understand how hard it can be to recount experiences like that, so I don’t expect you to, not any time soon. The second you wanted to; I would be there but that’s not what I’m saying right now.” You reassured him.

Crosshair regarded you carefully. “Then- then what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that whatever you’re feeling, whatever memories in your head that are so fresh it feels like they’ll haunt you forever, it’s okay to feel them. And, while they may never go away entirely, it does get easier.” You looked at him with warm sincerity. “Just don’t bury them because that’s when they’ll eat you alive.”

Crosshair’s eyes widened slightly at your words as he recognised the place you were coming from, and he was grateful for them.

“Or not dealing with them can lead to reckless and damaging decisions that get your face slapped on every Imperial noticeboard across the Outer Rim. Take your pick.” You joked to lighten the mood again.

Crosshair managed a smile at that.

You patted his shoulder. “I meant what I said though, it gets better. We’re all here for you.” You started to walk away to see Hunter and Wrecker to find out what information they got from Fennec.

“Omega mentioned a Jedi communication thing you do?” Crosshair said to your back.

“Yeah, I do it with all of them.” You called back over your shoulder.

“All?”

“Uh huh.” You said casually before you stopped in your tracks as you realised what he was getting at. You swivelled around again, “Oh! Yeah! I can do that to you whenever you want!”

“But you haven’t.” Crosshair countered as he walked over to you.

You shrugged. “You said you needed time to adjust, and I didn’t want to freak you out.” You replied simply. “I wasn’t conspiring to keep it from you, I just didn’t want to assume anything.”

“If you still don’t trust me, I-”

You rolled your eyes. “Would you shut up; I just said it was because I thought you needed more time. Do you want me to do it with you too?”

Crosshair shifted on his feet. He didn’t like the position he suddenly found himself in, it felt rather pathetic.

“It’s a simple yes or no, come on, we have places to be.”

“I’m sure Hunter can last ten minutes without your mouth attached to his.”

“Okay, see now you’re just pissing me off.” You tossed your hands in the air and went to turn away.

“Yes.” Crosshair grumbled. He’d already missed out on so much and he didn’t want this to be yet another thing.

“That wasn’t too hard, was it?” You drolled. “Give me your hands.”

“Why?” Crosshair asked suspiciously.

“Because I’m actually in love with you.” You jibed flatly as you shot him a look of exasperation.

Crosshair rolled his eyes at you. “Gross.”

“Sometimes it helps when it’s a first connection, especially when I haven’t been around someone for quite a while.”  You explained. You held yours out and waited expectantly.

Crosshair hesitantly complied- both hands steady this time- and watched you intriguingly.

“Fair warning, it can feel a bit weird.” You took a deep breath and closed your eyes. You reached into his Force signature, and it was what you expected. It was barbed and you could feel a resistance- a wall- to it. But there was also vulnerability, a longing for growth and acceptance, that wanted to let you in and that was what you appealed to. When you felt that the connection was there, you opened your eyes and looked at him. Now, can we go see your brothers please?

“Okay, that’s really fucking weird.” Crosshair said as you let go of his hands.

Hey, you asked. You grinned at him before the two of you officially set off to go meet the ship.

--

One week later

“Any word?” Omega asked as she and Crosshair stepped into the Marauder. They’d been mediating by the Maya tree and decided to come check in. The news that Fennec didn’t have any immediate information to offer had been disappointing and each day that went by without any communication only let that disappointment grow.

“Nothing.” Wrecker groused.

“Fennec never told us how long she’d take.” Hunter admitted before he noticed you weren’t with them. “Where’s-”

“Don’t know. We thought she was with you.” Crosshair said as he placed a toothpick in his mouth.

“You’ve not seen her all day?” Hunter double-checked. He’d seen you when you’d woken up but then you’d left, and he and Wrecker had been on the ship for most of the day.

“No, we haven’t. Batcher must be with her too.” Omega guessed since the hound hadn’t been with them and wasn’t anywhere on the ship.

Hunter mulled this over in his head. This isolation you were now putting yourself in since you’d heard the news about Fennec’s lack of information was beginning to become a real habit.

“Three seconds. That’s all it took for you to decide to go find her.” Crosshair teased, earning a snicker from Wrecker in the process.

“Shut up.” Hunter mumbled as he left the ship.

--

You had been aimlessly wandering the shoreline, occasionally chucking a stick Batcher had found for her to chase.

The Empire,

Omega,

M-count,

Jedi,

Clones,

The Empire,

Omega,

M-count,

Jedi,

Clones…

You ran that list over and over again in your head but couldn’t see the connection. The Jedi were dead and hated by the Empire- what could they need that M-count for? Omega wasn’t Force sensitive and neither were any other clones but that was Hemlock’s main test subject choice. So, what was it about an M-count in clone genetics that mattered so much? What were you overlooking? A demanding bark pulled you out your thoughts and you saw Batcher had dropped the stick at your feet and was waiting expectantly.

“Tell me, Batcher, what am I missing?” You crouched down and held the sides of her face in your palms and smiled at the hound. “Tell me, girl!” You laughed as she let out an affectionate whine and licked your cheek.

“You know, it might help to share your theories with someone who can actually talk back?”

“Uh oh, the tracker found me.” You said as you scratched her jaw before you glanced past her with an affectionate look to the clone walking towards you. “And how’d do you know she doesn’t?” You disputed light-heartedly as you stood up taller.

“You’re right, I don’t.” Hunter played into the joke as he reached you before he turned more serious. “What’s going on, sweetheart?”

“Nothing.” You said dismissively.

Hunter just stared at you with a knowing look on his face. “Don’t do that, don’t shut me out. You’re not keeping to yourself for no reason.”

You remembered your own advice to Crosshair and swallowed tightly. “It’s right in front of my face, Hunter. I should know why this M-count matters for Omega but it’s not clicking and it’s driving me insane!” You rubbed a hand across your tired face. “I don’t know what I’m not seeing.” You confessed as you hung your head with a defeated breath.

Hunter placed his hands on your upper arms and brought his eyes to your level. “If it were obvious, we’d know it already.” He said as he rubbed his thumbs comfortingly up and down your arms. “You don’t need to keep working through this alone.”

“I just feel so useless. I should be able to figure this out!” You said with a frustrated huff.

“I know, it’s hard to just wait it out, but Fennec will come through. Until then, we just have to be patient.” Hunter said as he put his arm around your waist as the two of you and Batcher headed back to rendezvous with the others. “Jedi are meant to be good at that, right?”

“Would it shock you to know that I struggled with that?” You remarked satirically as you mirrored his actions.

Hunter chuckled. “Not in the slightest.”

Next Chapter>

Tagging: @noeasyisnoisy, @arctrooper69, @notgonnaedit, @dominoeffectsworld, @andreaaxy, @nightmonkeysstuff @superbookishhufflepuff

[hmshermitcraft]

(Part 2 of this)

Gem noticed the way that Katherine and Shelby were getting along again. She noticed the way that False was slowly recovering and she noticed the way that Sausage was involved in all of it.

Sausage knew he had to confront Gem. He had to make sure everyone remained at peace with each other and Gem was just hurting people for no reason.

Gem went to Sausage first. She wanted to get closer to him. She wanted to learn all about what gets under his skin. She wanted to break him down and make him a servant to her.

He acted like he didn't know that she had ulterior motives but he knew. He acted like he trusted her completely and that he really, truly did love her.

Gem assumed he wouldn't go down that easily. She was confused and didn't trust him and let him know that. She started being more forceful and more aggressive with him. She started telling him that he was untrustworthy and a horrible partner anytime he hung out with anyone else.

He didn't know how to feel. Sure, he knew that she was bad but he wasn't prepared for dealing with it himself. He tried to keep talking to his friends behind her back but she seemed to always know what he was doing.

Pearl watched Sausage fall into hopelessness. It was funny to her. She knew that Gem was wrong about a lot but she didn't care about anyone in empires. She loved watching them suffer. Especially at the hands of her beloved Gem.

Gem strung Sausage along, making him do everything for her. Until he disappeared. Gem tried to find him everywhere but gave up eventually. She returned to Pearl and forgot all about him.

Sausage had gone to False. False was angry. Gem was going too far with her games. She was hurting people who had done nothing to her and False was going to stop her. She was the only emperor with even footing to Gem so she had to be the one to fight back.

Sausage has been nothing but good to her, despite how Gem and Pearl have messed around with them all. It's not right. She's always known the hermits have seen things as inconsequential to them. It's fun to play war against each other, to fall out and make up over decades when you have eternity. But most of them keep to themselves, they don't mess humans around like this.

False won't be manipulated again.

So she decides to strike as low as Gem does. She banishes Pearl from the Empires world. She knows it'll hurt some of the people there, but Pearl has never cared about them, and she never will as long as Gem doesn't. It's not taking Gem on directly, but it doesn't take long to notice how she's around less often.

And then False plans.

Sausage helps, bless him. He may be human, but the magic that runs through him is strong. And he's tired of Gem ruining his friends' lives too. They gather resources, study books, and set a trap. With Gem around less, it makes it easy to sneak around under her nose.

Just as False predicted, Gem comes to confront her about Pearl - finding False through a few 'accidental' hints. Gem may be powerful, but False is still better than her in a fight. With her sword to Gem's neck, she seals Gem's godhood away, leaving Gem indistinguishable from a mortal.

If Gem manages to earn godhood back, False will give it happily. But until then, she has to live as a normal human. And she can't see her Pearl, either.

False knows it's cruel, but she doesn't think Gem will learn otherwise. And maybe, this way, everybody can heal.

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

This brings up some interesting points but before I respond to them I do want to give some I guess disclaimers?? Just to make sure we're on the same page. So first off, when talking about a culture you do have to generalize so there will definitely be people who are exceptions to what I say. Furthermore, saying a noble is taking their duties seriously does not necessarily indicate that what they're doing is morally good (I have a specific example I'm thinking of right now that we'll see later) and the opposite is also true (for example, Bernadetta and also Lysithea as you pointed out don't care for their noble duties but I wouldn't say they're morally bad people for that). Also, I'm specifically talking about pre war culture (from what I see everything you said does apply to that just thought I'd still say that now to prevent future misunderstandings). And also I'm more or less ignoring hopes so don't worry, I won't comment on anybody's Golden Wildfire characterization. Anyways, now that I got the unnecessarily long spiel out of the way, I'll start actually talking about the game.

So yeah, I focused mostly on the noble youth in my analysis. Mainly because the student characters are the ones I care most about so when I look into things for the game I tend to find those the most interesting to read about. I know that makes my analysis weaker overall but I was just writing that for fun so I didn't really feel like looking into other things. But since you've pointed it out, I thought it actually might be interesting to look at all (or at least all that I remember) of the non student character nobles and see how I view their actions and if I think it fits into my theory.

Since you started with Faerghus, I will too (disclaimer: I've only played Azure Moon once and am getting all my information on this from research I did so I could very easily miss something):

Rowe: I agree with you here, Rowe is depicted as a noble who cares primarily for his own well being and is willing to ignore morals for his own gain.

Cornelia: I'm pretty sure, before the events of the story, the real Cornelia is replaced with one of the slitherers similarly to Arundel. Just like I don't think it would be fair to use slitherer Arundel's actions to prove the empire's cultures I also don't think it's fair to use slitherer Cornelia's for the kingdom. From what I gathered, all we know about pre-slitherer Cornelia is that she was an extremely talented mage and helped cure a plague in the kingdom and improved Fhirdiad's infrastructure, both of which involve her helping the people. Also is Cornelia even a noble? All I see is that she was a holy woman before working for the Baliddyd family but idk.

Kleiman: So obviously this man is an awful person but I don't think that disproves my point. My argument is that Faerghan nobles take their duties seriously and not necessarily that they're good people (which maybe that misunderstanding is on me for only using examples of people doing good things but I do believe you can feel a strong sense of duty and that that can motivate you to do terrible things). As far as I'm aware, we don't learn about his motivation for this in houses so I don't really think this proves or disproves my theory.

Lambert: Idk what it is about the three lords and their families that make me not want to talk about them in analyses but regardless I'll try to do it anyways. So the subjugation of Sreng? That was bad, he should not have done that. But again, this doesn't mean that he took his duties lightly. According to the wiki, Lambert was disliked for pushing for 'radical' reforms and travelling to Duscur to try and improve their relations. All this to me indicates that he took his duties pretty seriously. Honestly, I thought there would be more information about him so idk if I'm missing stuff but this was all I could find (besides his whole love story but I didn't feel like it was relevant to this discussion)

Rodrigue: Regardless of how you feel about the man, he definitely takes his duties seriously. He said once to Dimitri "Wherever you lead, we will follow." That's not a mindset that I support and actually find to be very unhealthy, but in his mind his duty is to the king and this would be him following through on his duty (I was going to say this later but I guess I should say it now so I don't seem like a hypocrite, I concede to your point about Hubert, his duty is to Edelgard similarly to how Rodrigue's duty is at least partially to the king so yeah, Hubert does take his duties seriously). Rodrigue also spends a significant amount of time helping to raise the future king after Lambert dies and when Cornelia exiles Dimitri Rodrigue stands by him, standing up to her instead of giving in like Count Rowe did. And later on, he even gives his life to protect Dimitri.

Gilbert: Honestly, I think Gilbert's strong sense of duty is one of his major flaws. He feels like a failure for being unable to protect his king and ends up abandoning his family because of that. And in fact, we see his duty being his priority again when he battles Annette in Crimson Flower. By this point, he is fighting with the Knights of Seiros, meaning his duty is to the church not necessarily the kingdom at this moment. When confronted by Annette, he states that he will kill her, his own daughter, if she stays with the empire, showing him putting his responsibilities as a knight over his responsibilities as a father. In Azure Moon, he stands by Dimitri despite him obviously not being in a good mental state to handle this situation because, similarly to Rodrigue, he feels like his duty is to the king and he must therefore stand by him even when the more moral thing to do would be, in my opinion, to find somebody else to lead while Dimitri is in that mental state.

Count Galatea: Honestly, this is the person I was thinking of when I gave the disclaimer about how a noble taking their duties seriously does not necessarily translate to them behaving morally. The thing Count Galatea is most well known for is pushing Ingrid to marry for money. Now, I would say pushing your daughter to marry for money is not a great thing to do, and reading the post you linked about Ingrid's endings makes it seem like it wasn't smart to do either. But here's the thing, you don't have to be a good leader to take your responsibilities seriously. In Count Galatea's eyes, the best way to secure a good future for his territory is by marrying Ingrid off so he works hard to accomplish this goal for his people. Was that actually the smartest thing to do? I don't think so, but he was still doing it for the sake of trying to help his people.

Margrave Gautier: I feel like there isn't that much information about Margrave Gautier from houses. We know he disinherited Miklan for not having a crest. Now, we know all three countries place a big emphasis on crests. I haven't looked too deeply into this but based on what I've seen when I played, I think Faerghus places the biggest emphasis on crests. So, form the Margrave's perspective, having a crest would make a person better fit for this position than if somebody lacked a crest. Regardless of if this is true, this is how he feels. So, if he wants to take care of his territory and if he has that perspective, obviously he would give the position to his son with a crest. Furthermore, when the lance of ruin is stolen, he turns to the Church of Seiros for help. Honestly, this could be for a few reasons, I don't think it's ever confirmed why in the game. Maybe he was just being selfish and knew the weapon was powerful and wanted it for himself, or maybe he was aware of the threat this weapon posed when in the wrong hands and decided to admit his mistake to outsiders at the risk of harming his reputation to try and make up for him failing to protect the weapon earlier.

Rufus: I think Rufus is an example of a Faerghan noble who does not take his duties seriously. He still has territory to rule over despite not being king, a responsible noble would prioritize helping their own territory thrive. But he doesn't do this, instead he helps to assassinate his own brother to try and gain power. Furthermore, once he became regent the condition of the kingdom declined, so he didn't even take his duties seriously once he got the position he wanted.

Baron Dominic: In Azure Moon, when Annette goes to get Crusher from Dominic territory, Baron Dominic initially refuses to hand over the weapon and attacks them. However, it's later revealed that he was planning to hand over the weapon all along and just pretended to be against it so Cornelia couldn't get mad and punish his people. Here, Baron Dominic is taking his responsibilities to his people extremely seriously. He supports Dimitri's army and wants to help them, but also knows what he would be risking by doing so. The fact that he went out of his way to devise a plan to do what he thinks will be best for the kingdom in the long term but also mitigate the short term damage done I think shows that he is actually a good leader.

Lonato: I think Lonato's a bit of a gray case here and it can go either way honestly. Because the thing is, he did risk his citizens lives to fight against the church in a rebellion that obviously had no chance of succeeding. Nobles have a responsibility to protect the people in their lands and in this instance I think he failed. That being said, his people obviously care deeply for him. If he was just another corrupt noble, I don't think his people would've felt such a strong loyalty towards him. Furthermore, he adopted Ashe and his siblings, three kids in his territory who were forced to live on the street. If I remember correctly, the only other noble to adopt anyone was Count Rowe (adopting Yuri) and that was for much less respectable reasons. Lonato easily could've punished Ashe for breaking into his house and stealing from him, he had the power too and I'm sure other nobles would have done that. So those last two points make him seem like he cares about his people. Honestly, I think Lonato's case is very complicated and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it so I'm not going to come to a conclusion on him.

Now onto Leicester:

Oswald von Riegan: There really isn't much about this guy but what we do know is that, for a while, it appeared as if he had no heir which caused political tension in Leicester. The wiki says he tracked down Claude's mom and had Claude brought back to Leicester, in all honesty I thought Claude decided on his own to come and was just kind of like "surprise I'm your heir." But assuming what the wiki says is true, I actually think what he did was kind of corrupt. He felt like his family was going to lose power so he went out of his way to track down an heir who no one had ever even heard of and decided "yep, this'll be the next leader of the alliance regardless of how people feel about his capabilities." Although I guess you could argue that's no more corrupt than other nobles just making their children inherit their positions because they also don't take anyone else's feelings into account. Regardless, he supposedly did this to relieve political tension which I would say he does have a responsibility to do, I just don't know if this was the way to do it.

Tiana von Riegan: She just vanished without even telling anyone where she was going. She definitely did not care about her noble duties.

Count Gloucester: I would consider him to be a selfish noble and one who doesn't care much for his duties. I think he wants Lorenz to be the next leader of the alliance not because he necessarily believes Lorenz would lead the alliance to the brightest future but moreso because he wants that clout. Furthermore, I don't think it's ever technically confirmed but it is heavily implied that Gloucester was responsible for the death of Raphael's parents and Godfrey von Riegan (aka the next heir). Killing the heir to the most powerful house in the country could definitely have extreme consequences in destabilizing the country which he does not seem to care about. The one good thing I can find that he did was hiring Jeralt's mercenaries to help Leonie's village because poachers were hunting there. But that one good thing doesn't undo all his corrupt actions he did in a selfish attempt to gain more power.

Count Ordelia: I don't really have much to say about him. From what I see he provided aid to House Hrym when they wanted to defect from the Empire to the Alliance. We don't really know why he did it though, although we do know Hrym citizens were fleeing into Ordelia terrtiroy to escape the cruel leadership of Duke Aegir, so I don't think there's enough in cannon to decide what category he fits into.

Margrave Edmund: Genuine question, where is Edmund portrayed as a dangerous schemer? I'm not too familiar with his character so I'm probably just missing something but from what I see he enacted trade policies that improved Edmund territory and, in some of Marianne's endings, tutored her to be a worthy successor. I do agree that he's selfish based on what Marianne says in CF about him wanting her to join the empire to get their name out there and also not caring about what side wins. Because I'm not sure what your dangerous schemer comment is referring too I'm going to hold off on judgement right now.

Judith: I think Judith is very dedicated to her duties. In CF she risks her life defending the Great Bridge of Myrddin. Claude told her to flee if she's in trouble but she states that she "could never do that" and calls in reinforcements instead. This shows how she values the well being of the alliance to the point where she is willing to risk her life. In SS Judith brings reinforcements to Aillel to help the church, again putting her life in danger to fight for what she believes to be right.

Acheron: This is a noble who doesn't feel a strong sense of duty and only cares to look out for himself. He literally says "if you can't beat them, join them" so I don't think I need to spend much time proving this point.

Finally Adrestian nobles:

Bergliez: I'm starting with him because I think we agree so I don't feel a need to talk about it too much. He risks his life for his soldiers, obviously he cares about his responsibilities as the Minister of Military Affairs.

Ionius: Not excited to talk about him because from what I've seen on here he's apparently a somewhat controversial character which surprised me considering I literally never think of him. I know he was accused of trying to consolidate power for himself but I've seen some arguments about whether or not that's true or if it was an excuse for the insurrection. If it was true it would show he's corrupt and that he cares more about being powerful than fulfilling his responsibilities. But again, idk whether or not it's true so I feel like I can't really judge. Then, after the insurrection, he becomes relatively powerless, so it's hard to say what he would've done if he had the power. I also remember reading something about him wanting to abolish the consort system I think but I'm having trouble finding where that was. One good thing I will say is that, when Edelgard comes to inherit the throne, he willing gives it up instead of clinging to power despite not being in a position to be a good ruler. Overall though, there's a lot about Ionius I'm not sure of so again I don't really have a concrete conclusion.

Duke Aegir: Here's another one that's pretty cut and dry corrupt. He was the mastermind behind the insurrection and is obviously out to get more power for himself. His motivation behind this has nothing to do with helping the people or Adrestia, but rather with his selfish desire with power. In Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue it's said he instated heavy taxes in Hrym territory and forced the citizens to perform hard labor. And, from what we know of his character, he likely didn't even put the extra money to good use (not that that would make what he did even remotely okay, just using this to further emphasize his selfishness) and instead kept it for himself.

Marquis Vestra: As you said earlier, the duty of house Vestra is to serve the Hresvelg family. Marquis Vestra was involved in the insurrection of the seven and, according to Hubert "spat on a legacy of loyalty and devotion." That being said, I don't think staging an insurrection is an inherently bad thing to do if the leadership is corrupt, but as we know this insurrection led to the torturing and subsequent death of Edelgard and her siblings. So in this case, not only did Marquis Vestra ignore his duties, he also didn't do the morally correct thing imo. In all honesty, I'm not exactly sure why he did this though, and this post is turning out to be a lot longer than I expected so I am admittedly getting lazy with research so maybe I'm missing stuff but I'm going to come to a conclusion and say he doesn't particularly care about his duties.

Count Hevring: So limiting this analysis only to Houses, there's not much to go off of with this guy (Hopes gives a lot more with him but I'm ignoring Hopes for this analysis). He participated in the insurrection of the seven but again, I don't think we get his personal reasoning for doing so. And he does work with Edelgard and as we know one of her goals is fixing the corruption within the nobility. In Linhardt's and Dorothea's C support, Linhardt comments on how his father is an extremely prideful man and how his pride prevents him from making amends with Count Bergliez. This is not a great trait for a leader to have, you should be able to put your own personal feelings behind you at least when handling political issues. Despite that one flaw, I'd overall put him on the more positive side for Adrestian nobles as he is fighting a war against corrupt nobles but he definitely has to do some work on himself.

Count Varley: Another pretty cut and dry case, Count Varley is extremely corrupt. He tries to groom Bernadetta into being a 'good wife,' trying to secure marriages for her that would increase his power (such as to Ferdinand). He also has a very disfavorable view towards the commoner, forbidding Bernadetta from being friends with them. and beating the one she was friends with. I don't think I need to say much more, he's a selfish noble out to get power for himself even if it means neglecting his responsibilities.

Baron Ochs: This is a complicated case. He takes a hero's relic that he shouldn't have, but he thought it would save his daughter so it's honestly very understandable. Overall, we don't know much about what he was like as a ruler so I don't think it would be fair to make much of a judgement for him.

Okay, so this ended up being way longer than I expected so now that I've gotten through all the relevant nobles I think I'm going to just post this. I had a whole list of things I wanted to talk about and I only got through the first one and also wasn't able to respond to like the majority of your points (sorry) but I was having fun doing just this part so maybe I'll look into the rest on another date. Anyways, this was just for fun, if you don't agree with all my points that's fine and I'd be interested to hear your interpretations (especially for the nobles from the later half of my list because I got much lazier in my research there).

Before finishing this post I just wanted to respond to your last paragraph. Hopefully I made it clear in this post that I was not arguing Faerghan/Leicester nobles = good and Adrestian nobles = bad and sorry that I was unclear in the original post. It was just a random thought I had and I hadn't done too much in depth research before posting it because it wasn't originally meant to be an in depth analysis. I do still believe that, on average, Faerghan nobles are the most dedicated to their duties while Adrestian nobles are the least dedicated, but I do think it's less black and white than I originally made it appear. Furthermore, I don't think that makes Faerghan nobles better than Adrestian nobles overall, in fact I would say Faerghus culture's obsession with duty is a flaw of their culture that I think you could write a whole post of its own analyzing. So yeah, I don't think one country is better than the others and that was not the point I was trying to convey, I just think they're different. I think they each have their pros and cons and this post was originally a way for me to specifically talk about what I view as a flaw in Adrestia's culture because I do personally find Adrestia to be the most interesting of the countries to talk about. Well, if anybody actually managed to get through this whole post thanks for actually reading it!!

A big part of Adrestian culture is the way that many nobles don’t seem to take their duties particularly seriously (don’t worry, we’ll talk about Ferdinand). I’ve always imagined that, of the three countries, Adrestia is the one with the largest degree of class inequality, meaning commoners have very few opportunities to rise up. Consequently, the nobles have become complacent in their positions as, if the commoners have no opportunities, they have no way to threaten the nobles. And for this reason, many Adrestian nobles take their positions for granted and ignore their noble duties.

First, I want to look at the other countries and the duties their nobles feel, starting with Faerghus (still have no idea how to spell that so hopefully I got it right). Ingrid is planning to marry for money to help her people who are suffering from a famine, Felix has a paralogue where he goes to protect his people and says to his dad “we were protecting your subjects, not your ego,” and Sylvain has a paralogue where he goes to defend his territory from thieves. Now, lets look at Leicester nobles. Lorenz obviously takes his duties seriously and, while Hilda may not take hers seriously, we know her brother Holst is constantly putting himself on the front lines to protect his territory from the Almyrans.

Looking at the Adrestians, most of the nobles seem to just not really care about their responsibilities. Linhardt wishes to ignore his responsibilities, Caspar’s older brother who is set to inherit his father’s position is stated to be a lazy jerk, Bernadetta isn’t worried about her noble position, Hubert is only concerned with his duties to Edelgard not his country, while Petra cares about her position she is not Adrestian so it doesn’t count. (I’m not talking about any of the lords for this because I just don’t really feel like getting into it).

This leaves the one exception to the rule: Ferdinand. A good amount of his dialogue, especially early game, revolves around him talking about his “noble duties” and how he must fulfill them. So surely, this means Adrestian nobles must take their responsibilities seriously? Except, look at how he’s treated. Everybody, or at least close to everybody, in the Black Eagles house looks down on Ferdinand for his attitude. Obviously, his perspective is not perfect, but he’s the one Adrestian noble attending the academy who is actively trying to do right by his people, and he is getting berated. So obviously his behavior is not the norm. All this put together indicates that there is a culture in Adrestia where nobles only look out for themselves to a degree much more extreme than the other two countries. 

[purplerose244]

The Legacy in Tales of Arcadia (analysis post-Wizards)

SO SPOILER ALERT!!!

Since my brain has been absolutely impossible to distract from anything that doesn't involve Wizards (and besides my slight fault at rewatching my new punk baby Douxie a "few" more times 😛🤘 WIZARDS WAS REALLY GOOD OKAY), I'd like to talk about the importance of this moment in preparation of the upcoming movie, that will apparently put an end to everything.

This line I think is particularly important, not only regarding the world of magic, but all the creatures inside this franchise, and even the legacy connected to Camelot and the Arthurian heroes. It is the end of an era, and the start of a new one, with new champions.

Starting from Camelot, we can call upon us the main characters. Which are definitely Arthur, Morgana, Merlin and Lancelot. For the sake of the moment I won't include Galahad, although I do like him 💕💕💕

So we know Arthur is no more, and Excalibur has now a vacant place to fill as the weilder of the enchanted sword. And while I do hope poor Jim will take at least a bit of vacation after all the stuff that had happened to him (this best boy deserves to be happy ASAP 😭), that one last look at the sword makes me wonder. Only the worthy can weild it, who could be more worth it than Jim Lake Jr? And I think he didn't manage to take it only because he needs to readjust himself and identify who he is again. After being a human trollhunter, a half troll trollhunter and a full beast, only to go back to be nothing but Jim, I think it will take a while for him to find himself again. But I am confident that he might take on the legacy of Arthur.

As for Morgana, Claire even unwillingly at first learned from her about shadowmancy and dark magic. They had a very conflicting relationship from the start, even after knowing more about her past. But now that Morgana is gone, I think more than ever Claire is ready to go on and show her magic, AND her own magic. And I do think meeting the real Pale Lady made her revaluate her, and herself.

Lance's part was pretty much a funny bit, but I am happy at least Steve managed to learn something from him (besides his probable bisexuality... meh, not like we didn't know that already 😂). The importance I think lies on the fact that Lancelot asked him personally to use his emblem, to bring it forward. Maybe Steve could have been a more useful character, but nonetheless he acquired a bit of experience as well. He is learning to be somebody.

As for Merlin, I think it's pretty evident whom I'm gonna be talking about. And it is pretty amazing that someone like Merlin, the great jerk Merlin who thinks of people as pawns and did so many terrible things, managed to open up and show his softer side with a kid he found in an alley tricking people. And the way he left, like he was happy of the path Douxie has chosen, like he finally realized his way maybe wasn't as solid as he thought, hit me a lot. Douxie will bring forward the legacy of Merlin, but only at his conditions and following his personal plan. To be a better wizard, one that the old man could never be (I LOVE THIS PUNK KID SO MUCH 😭😭😭)

With all these heritages distributed, I do feel the continuity of the show coming along. But it's not only about the past after all, or at least not only Camelot. It's about all the old protectors.

The amulet is gone, apparently there will be no more trollhunters. The succession of the hero that had protected humans and trolls for generation has finally stopped. So what of the trolls? Will they fight for themselves? Will they manage without someone to protect them? Or they will find someone else instead? Is it really the end of a legend?

The King and Queen of Akiridion-5 are gone. And yes there is a new queen now, but Aja said it herself that she was going to find another name for herself. Something new, fitting of her free spirit. In any case, Coranda and Fialkov's empire is over, and considering all the mistakes made by them in the past, between Varvatos' family and the planet Voltar, who knows if it's really a bad thing. There is a new hope raising, new possibilities. But also new danger coming with a new chapter of the faraway planet.

Merlin is gone. The greatest wizard of all time, the one that created the amulet, that banished Morgana (well not really in Wizards but huh 😅), that had mastery over all magic, is no more. And with him Morgana. The Pale Lady, the Eldritch Queen, the Shadow Minstress and all her names. Magic is starting to fade, with Douxie and Nari holding onto their light, Claire with shadows, and the Arcane Order with their evil intent. There is no one superior to save them now. It is all in their hands.

I think this is a pure moment of absolute revolution for the world of TOA, everything is changing and I think there is no better situation to pull out the movie coming next year. I really think the battlefield is ready to be filled with epicness 🤩🤩🤩

With the hope that Toby and Krel will get a more significant role (GIVE ME MY TECH BOY 💙💙💙), I'm definitely looking forward to the future 👌

[starwarsfan6]

You know everyone used to hate the prequel movies ( until the sequels came out) but I have always loved them. Could they have been better? Yes. But they were good in establishing the galaxy before the empire.

To me I think that if they have changed two things then the films would have been really good. Those two things to change are making Anakin older in the phantom menace and making the clone wars longer, like at least five to ten years.

I'll explain.

If Anakin had been older like 13 or something, it would have changed his personality and way of seeing the world around him. In the movie he's 9 and even though he's a slave he's still sheltered. Anakin and his mom have been together since he was born. They were owned by Gardulla the Hutt, who lost them in a pod race bet to Watto. From what we see and I think Anakin himself mentions it that Watto was not a bad master. He let Anakin keep some of the winnings from the race and let him keep some of the junk droids he fixed. Regardless of being a slave Anakin had it better than some of the other slaves. The fact that even though he was well aware that he was a slave, he was still optimistic and had some innocence to him. This could be a testament to his mother sheltering him as best as she could and that Anakin and his mom have been with Watto' since he was three.

But if he was older like 13 or 14 I think it would have been harder to keep that innocence and optimism. He would have been more aware that he is a slave and that his life belongs to someone else. I don't know how the people of Tattooine see slaves but if it's anything like our history then they probably weren't treated well or seen as inferior. Meeting the Jedi and learning that they weren't there to help with the slave issue would have left him feeling disappointed, and when he meets the counsel it would have pissed him off at how indifferent they are. Like imagine growing up believing that the Jedi would free the slaves only to find that they won't get involved because the Republic doesn't have jurisdiction in Hutt space? That would have pissed him off at how the Jedi and the Republic could turn the other way and ignore the suffering of the people. This would have planted a seed of anger, resentment, an a feeling of injustice towards the Jedi and the Republic. This would only grow as we get close to Episode 3.

In the EU books it was said that younglings who are not chosen by the time the turn 13 are sent to the service corps or leave the order all together. I don't know if that's still cannon but having an older teen Anakin be chosen as a Padawan while others who weren't chosen are sent away. That would have made some of the other Padawans resentful of him.

Having Anakin be older would mean that he's more attached to his mom and knows the righteous fury of his situation as well as the resentment of the Jedi and the Republics indifference. Then when he starts to have dreams of his mom in trouble and he tells Obi Wan and the other Jedi all he's told us that 'they are just dreams' or 'trust the force' and when he finally decides to act instead of waiting it's too late. This would make him hate the idea of waiting for permission to do something when he could help. It would make his comment to Padmé about the government being run by wise people who decide whats best for everyone and then do it make more sense. Even if Padmé says it sounds like a dictatorship and Anakin replies with 'if it works', it would be a very good indicator of how he sees the Republic and their indifference and their lack of action.

And he wasn't able to help Ashoka while she was on the run because the Jedi and the Republic wanted to 'investigate' but really they believed Ashoka was guilty. Anakin couldn't help her even though he wanted to.

It would be even more pressing when in ep.3 he starts having dreams of Padmé and his unborn child dying like his mom. And when he asks for advice, he's told to 'trust the force' and that if it's her time they cannot stop it. So now there is the possibility of loosing his lived ones and the Jedi won't help him stop it. It's would make Sidious's offer to stop people from dying so much more tempting, cuz here is someone who is willing to help and to act instead of waiting, which is what the Jedi have told him to do for years.

Now having the Clone Wars last more than the three years as it is cannon in the movies would make more sense. The cartoon showed us how hard the war was but imagine if it was that brutal for years longer? Like five or even ten years long of non stop fighting, death, and destruction. The galaxy on both sides would do anything to end it even if it means turn the Democratic government into an Empire. It bugged me how easy the galaxy embraced the empire. I know many opposed it and Palpatine had manipulated, blacked mailed, and bought most of the systems into agreeing with him but still. It would have been more believable that both sides of the galaxy was desperate enough for the end of the war that they would choose the empire.

And with the war dragging on the horror of it and the aftermath would have weighed on Anakin more. Especially when in the show we see the Republic on the defense more than on the offense. They go to a planet that is under attack more than being the ones to attack. Having to wait for permission while the people are dying would have reminded Anakin how passive the Republic is. And he would have remembered his situation as a slave and that no one is trying (besides Padmé) to stop it. The fact that they would rather negotiate with the Hutts in order to use their space rather than try to stop them should have pissed him off more than what we see in the show.

I don't know I just think if these two changes were done then the who prequels story would have been different, maybe even better.

But one things for sure, George Lucas can't write romance. Someone else needed to write romance bits.

[ruffiorocks]

Long post about the reasons Lena sold Cat Co.

FYI very Anti James Olsen, and not very Kara friendly either. You've been warned 😊

This makes me sad, even though it was obvious Lena would sell Cat Co. What's heart breaking about it is Lena was essentially driven away from her own company.

Remember when Kara was ghosting her at the beginning of season 3? She only came back to Lena when she needed her for something, ie. Help with Cat Co. What did Lena do? Lena FREAKING brought it!

Kara "no! Edge has Cat Co!"

Lena "no... I brought it" - Lena hesitates when she says this as though she isn't sure how Kara, who has recently been a jack ass to her would react.

She then gets more confident and says

"pretty bad ass right" - she sounds so pleased with herself and is expecting Kara to be happy.

Kara? Basically says she quit. She came to Lena for the first time in ages to rant and rave, complain and then basically ask her to help sort it and Lena DOES! But Kara seems to forget all of this and just quits het job.

Lena is shocked and is like

"well unquit!! I can't do this without you! I don't know anything about running a media empire"

Kara, like she can't be arsed and didn't just get what she went to Lena for says "well neither do I". It's so dismissive, and it's bullshit since she does know how that stuff works to a point because she was Cat Grants FREAKING assistant! Kara was waaaay more qualified than bloody James "I take pictures of my posing best friends" Olsen.

This here just proves that Lena would have had second thoughts about have brought Cat Co if she knew at the time Kara was going to quit. She clearly thought Kara would be there to help her run it.

Lena also says "how often do you get to work with your best friend" it's so cute, and so sad. Lena was looking forward to working with Kara.

Fast forward to the end of the Episode and Kara has a realisation that Lena Luthor is a God Send and did EXACTLY what Kara wanted and couldn't give a rats ass she quit and decides being a"boo hoo my boyfriend is gone so I can no longer be the person I was well established to be before he showed up" Emo is ridiculous.

So first day at Cat Co and the elevator opens up to Lena and she looks excited and then meets Eve, who to be fair (even though we know what happens) is actually the nicest person to Lena the whole time she's at Cat Co and that includes her best friend and boyfriend.

James is shocked she dared show up to her own business without informing him, he then has the gall to say they don't have an office ready for her, erm.... James? Cats office is now HER office! Every office in Cat Co belongs to Lena now. He just assumes he's still running things and says he was thinking about weekly updates. Lena who is clearly used to men telling her how to run her businesses and setting her aside tells him there's no need and she will be there every day. James again is SHOCKED his new BOSS is going to be at her the place she spent $750 mil on 😑

Kara shows up and to begin with is a little love who gives Lena a diary and basically calls her family. But then Immediately runs off the moment Lena asks her to do something.

Kara does this more than once and Lena asks James what's she's doing and James dismisses Lena's question with a snotty "she's a reporter! It's what she does!" Seriously rude!! I don't give a rats ass she didn't tell James she was turning up and she did tell Kara. She had a reason to tell Kara, she wanted to work with her and trusts her. She had no reason to tell James, she has every reason to turn up and check out the buisness and how he's running it without him or anyone else dressing it up because the boss is there.

Lena is an understanding angel and even though Kara is ignoring instructions and being rude Lena isn't rude back. When Kara pushes it past the limit Lena has no choice but to reprimand her. Kara took full advantage of Lena here, thinking she could just do what she wanted because that's what she has been doing with James running things. News flash Kara, Lena isn't in on why you ditch work every 5 minutes.

Kara realizes she's been an ass and apologizes and Lena, understanding as ever immediately forgives and they hug it out.

Later Lena tragically gets involved with James even though he was pushy and handsy when she said she didn't want to do anything without talking to Kara first, because Sister's before Misters! She dotes on his ungrateful ass and he puts her whole business at risk by meeting and working with the COL which she told him not to do. Which she is FULLY entitled to so as his boss. He of course ignores her, she gets him a TV appearence to talk with Ben Lockwood which would boost his career and putCat Co in a anti COL light but noooo... Apparently Lena has no say in work matters! Did you read that correctly? Lena has NO say in WORK MATTERS!! why didn't she fire his ass on the spot?!!

So James, only caring for his ego and wanting to be relevant since no one ever remembers he's Guardian feels that hanging out with terrorists is more important than his job as the face of Cat Co, putting Cat Co at risk. To further put Lena's business in jepordy he picks KARA the junior reporter to take his place?!! Kara?? There wasn't a fully qualified journalist with more experience available? Well that went to shit anyway because Ben Lockwood destroyed Kara in that debate.

James nearly gets himself killed, nearly gets Kara killed, nearly commits an act of terrorism without any regard whatsover about what Lena, a LUTHORS association with the poster boy of the COL would look like, no regard for her hard earned reputation and no regard for her business.

James even humiliates her further by making her look whiny at Thanksgiving dinner in front of all their friends, even though 5 seconds later his little Field Trip with the COL proves how clueless he is since he didnt even realize what they were doing. He basically praised the guy he was with and thought he was on to something. What... A... Dumb... Ass!!

Remember James also revealed himself as Guardian, a STUPID idea that serves Virtually no real purpose, but Lena was supportive because she's an angel!! But he's a dumb ass and thinks he is above the law and thought HE of all people was able to stop the DA from going through with the charges against him for being a vigilante. James ACTUALLY thought by doing NOTHING he had fixed the problem, like the authorities just forget these things?

He decides going out as Guardian is a good idea even though no one needs him to do this and he serves no real purpose as Guardian. But Lena because she isn't a moron, tells him he WILL go to prison. He insults her and says she worries to much and he sorted that issue. Here Lena finally tells this jack ass that she solved that issue and what was his response to her declaration of love and not wanting to see him go to prison or die? "If you think that's what love is, I don't want it!" And he leaves her in a corridor to awkwardly go back into Kara's loft, humiliated.

James goes all Ross Gheller and invades Lena's space at L Corp after she told him she was busy and thankfully she kicks his ass out!

He pretends to be on board with her Harun El ideas and uses this to get her into bed, only to sit up looking awkward about it while she sleeps. (Jesus my 34 brother watched this and was like 'he basically lied so he could sleep with her)

James considers using Lena's own resources to investigate her?!!

Lena thankfully dumps his ass and stops coming to Cat Co.

Now here's where its really relevant:

Kara and James basically run Cat Co without Lena to the point she doesn't even show up anymore. Harun El experiments aside, Lena no longer feels excited to be working at at Cat Co on a new adventure with Kara. Plus why would she want to see James??

Kara basically ignores Lena as Kara but she treats her like absolute garbage as Supergirl. Then returns to her as her bestie Kara. Lena was up to this point unaware she was being duped. Lena even makes a comment to Kara when she FINALLY decides to remerge as Kara Danvers that Kara hasn't been there at all but Alex has.

Lena finds out that Supergirl asked Lena's BOYFRIEND to spy on her and betray her trust which he actually does do btw, then he sours things even further between Lena and Supergirl by revealing it?? What purpose did that really serve? And NO! Do not tell me 'he had to be honest' what he HAD to do, was not break into L Corp in the first place!

Now we have Alex reprimanding Supergirl for being an ass to Lena and they come to a shaky truce.

During this time Lena and Kara get close again by trying to track down Lex and then Lena and Supergirl have a few bonding moments. Kara, however let's Lena think she's been blown up for a good few seconds!!

Now Lena finds out that Kara has been lying to her this whole time, it was Kara who treated her like garbage as Supergirl, Kara who interfered in her personal relationships. It was all the other super friends all lying to her. Etc etc. She even saw Kara burning all the pics Linda's cell so Lena won't find out. She learns all of this from Lex of all people! This just tells Lena that Kara never trusted her, second guessing why they are even friends? Realising Kara tricked her into revealing personal feelings she would Never have told Supergirl to her, yelled at her, called her a Luthor and then came back to her as he shoulder to cry on oh and let her think she had died.

Yeah..... I wouldn't want to work at Cat Co with ANY of them either. No way is Lena going to want to work with James and Kara (I know James is leaving) and be the one paying their wages.

Lena was Virtually driven from Cat Co by James and Kara even before she learned the super secret. She was never really treated with the respect she deserved as their boss, and the thing is she never demanded it, she only pulled rank when they were being jack asses and thinking they were above being told what to do, acting like Lena being the owner and boss meant nothing.

Poor Lena's enthusiasm for working at Cat Co with Kara died very early on. Mostly thanks to both James and Kara. All that joy and optimism she had? It's all gone. 😢😢

So I'm glad she sold it!

[gascon-en-exil]

Here's my YouTube channel. Parts 1 and 2 are the latest videos on there. Part 3 should be out within the next few days.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs5ESVq2AKVBa-kjfLjxExQ

You can understand how your first response comes off as dismissing the issue. This game is over two years old; it stands to reason that anyone still talking about it online at this point has played through each route, probably multiple times, and if like me they've been involved in discussion of it since it release they'll have done their homework and also seen just about every argument imaginable several times already, including some of the above:

The church's power over the continent is mostly soft power, with it ironically being at its weakest in the Empire which disbanded its local church a century before the events of the game. When this is pointed out a common retort is that Rhea didn't do enough to fix Fódlan's systemic issues like preferential treatment based on Crests, xenophobia toward other nations, sexism, etc. So is the church too powerful or not powerful enough?

Edelgard doesn't spare Flayn in Chapter 15, and will happily kill her and Seteth. They can only live if Byleth defeats Flayn, who retreats because she still feels like she owes them her life. I'd hardly call being forced to spend the rest of their lives in exile that much better than death, especially when it compares to the Scouring of the Elibean games which is represented as having been a bad thing. Edelgard presumably never finds out about Macuil, and Linhardt won't tell her or Hubert about Indech before visiting him, and if you kill Seteth and Flayn in Chapter 15 the Linhardt/Leonie paralogue will no be available suggesting that Linhardt now considers it too risky a prospect to bring up. Edelgard vilifies Rhea as an inhuman monster, and in boss conversations with them in VW and SS she does the same with Seteth and Flayn as "children of the goddess," i.e. dragons. It was almost certain not intended by the developers, but "racial/ethnic minority affiliated with a particular religion who are believed to secretly control the world are persecuted by a nation decked out in red and black with eagle iconography" comes with some very...unfortunate real-world associations that are very difficult to see as anything other than villainous.

Speaking of, FE is quite consistent with its visual language, even if it really is just as basic as blue = player, red = enemy, yellow/green = neutral. Edelgard isn't a perversion of the Red Emperor but the latest in their line, differing from the rest only in that she's 1) playable and 2) an attractive young woman intended as a love interest for a self-insert Avatar. Everyone tied to Edelgard has similarly strong ties to past; Ionius resembles Celica's father in Echoes and carries over Garon's concubine-loving ways, Hubert and Thales split the Gharnef/Manfroy role, Randolph and Ladislava are bog-standard one-chapter bosses who are so disposable they even die on CF, and the Death Knight is a knockoff Black Knight as much as Jeralt is a knockoff Greil. That's a lot of villain archetypes all piled together, and while most of them are forgettable duds Hubert is fantastic and one of my favorite characters precisely because he's so evil and doesn't try to hide it behind a masked alter-ego or liking ice cream and kittens or whatever.

Yes, Edelgard loves to talk about how much she hates the Agarthans and is totally going to get rid of them...and then works with them for something like nine or ten years altogether, kills one of them easily on her way to conquering the Kingdom, and then puts taking care of the rest of them on Hubert's to-do list for postgame. It's impossible to take her seriously when the Agarthans are never serious threats in Part 2; Shambhala is discovered, raided, and destroyed on two routes with little trouble except for Rhea dying (or almost dying), and Dimitri kills Thales without even realizing who he is on AM. This does very much give the impression that Edelgard could have taken care of them at any time but chooses not to until she's done using them to make Demonic Beasts (also in use by the main Imperial army in CF, per Hanneman) and her new Relic Aymr and probably other goodies. They are very much on her payroll, even if they'd like to pretend otherwise.

I also question some of those archetypes - Lorenz (Archanea) has a pretty unique role across both his stories, and Three Houses does have Christmas knights in Sylvain and Ingrid (or Catherine and Shamir if you're just looking for paired units with a red and green color scheme, at least outside their default outfits) - but a lot of that does come down to nebulous pattern recognition. Either way, this is all very well-trod ground, and while some people do genuinely have moral reservations about CF my issue has always been that I dislike how all this detracts from Hubert's highly entertaining villainy, or his likewise silly and melodramatic romance with Ferdinand. That, and I find it irksome that some people look to FE to make serious political points when it's very much uninterested in doing so. It's thoroughly typical, mildly reactionary fantasy.

Since you have done a few analysises of Three Houses previously I figured I'd ask; I was in a discussion with someone about the themes of the game and they brought up that they got the impression that CF and AM were intentional pararells that tackled the concepts of rejection and acceptance, respectively. CF has you destroy what is different, while AM is about learning to accept it. Any thoughts on this?

I certainly think you could try to make AM and CF parallels of one another, although uneven writing quality and differing story focuses make that harder than it may seem at first. Going from AM to CF you'd expect the latter to tell a similar story between Dimitri and Edelgard but from her perspective...but Dimitri is a mere speedbump on the way to Rhea in CF, and many of the themes AM tackles like grief, duty, and revenge vs. forgiveness outright don't appear in CF.

It's very hard to square CF away with the other routes when at its core it is - or rather, it's trying to be - a love story. That's why Edelgard's politics and similarities to past Red Emperors don't really matter, or why the completion of the Nabatean genocide is just window dressing, or why it totally forgets everything did as the Flame Emperor in favor of cutesy scenes of her locking herself in her room and drawing pictures of her teacher while her army is planning to invade another country. Edelgard does indeed complete a genocide, but it's never really clear if this is because she thinks the Nabateans are inhuman monsters or because she views Rhea as an obstacle to her ambitions and the source of every evil in Fódlan who isn't on her payroll. She just wants to walk with her beloved teacher, and that's that. AM isn't that much deeper, and narratively speaking it's boilerplate Fire Emblem, but Dimitri's arc does go to some interesting places regarding community and reconciliation and types of love beyond romantic love and certainly beyond love involving a self-insert. Of course CF has Ferdibert for that, and I stand by my belief that Ferdinand makes for a better moral barometer for the Eagles route split than Byleth because he's an actual character torn between doing the easy and horny thing and doing the right thing...and because I'm a hedonist myself I don't begrudge him his weird romance with Hubert if he goes that way.

CF may have lightly defining elements like its being driven by emotion and self-indulgence, but it's hard to pull cohesive themes out of Edelgard's motivations without dipping into headcanon to fill in the considerable gaps in her presentation. Does she want to destroy those she considers different? Does she want to Make Adrestia Great Again? Does she want to control the continent and its nobility because she was traumatized by what happened to her father during the Insurrection? Does she think Sothis is a false goddess and social systems make people weak because no one helped her when she was being experimented on? All of these (not to mention "Edelgard is a bold revolutionary whose politics are whatever I agree with") require some degree of either ignoring bits of canon or embellishing what's there with headcanon, and as such I find it hard to get any thematic coherence out of her.

[purplerose244]

Thinking journal for season 12 Prime Empire 😎😎😎 (2/2)

Here we go with the next part! I really hope we get some major big plot twist at some point, because it's all really cool but I need something to really change from good to GREAT

For now, let's focus on the next episodes!

It's the 17th of April and here we go!

GENERAL

I feel like there's little time to really pull up something, I don't know. Like, what plot twist could happen now that there just half season left with only Unagami/Dyer's identity and maybe Scott's past as mysteries? There's little space for more plotlines, that's what I think

Overall fighting scenes, character designs and game backgrounds are AWESOME!!

Let's see how it goes, maybe I'll be surprised. Wouldn't be weird for Ninjago to pull a bomb last episode 😅

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

ZANE AND PIXAL FINALLY!!! IT'S DETECTIVE TIME!!! 😎

Okay, so there is a photo, and there is a friend. As I thought, Dyer might not be Unagami at all, I feel like there's a lot of backstory coming along. I wonder if Scott has a part in this... WHERE IS SCOTT 💙

Ah, of course Kai would spend his credits on an avatar, I should've known, my flame babe can be such a dummie sometimes I mean why would you even do such a thing as buying an avat-

NEVER MIND I LOVE IT 😍😍🔥🔥 I thought him being blonde was going to bother me, I actually kinda like the change. Still prefer my baby brunette, but it's really cool as well. The best of this season are definitely the characters designs

Was that "let's fight an ogre mission" a hint for next season? I wouldn't be weird, but it's been a while since I've seen forshadowing for new season in this show

HECK YEAH THE DANCING EPISODE!!! I was waiting for this, Jaya is so cute while they are on the dancefloor 😍 They have chemistry 😘😘😘

I like the implication that Nya was really bad at dancing before Jay, like Kai covering his eyes because he cannot handle her sister not being perfect at something 😛

And Cole being the dance expert, that little tango moment with Kai I bet made many lavashippers super happy 🖤❤🖤❤

THE TRIPLE TIGER SASHAY ALL THE WAY FROM SEASON 1-2 ABSOLUTELY YES YES YES!!! AND HE DIDN'T ROAR, HE STRAIGHT UP SAID "NO ONE PUTS COLE IN A CORNER" I'M DYING!!! With this and Nya's 'catch me', I expect so many Dirty Dancing AUs from this 😂👌

JAYA BEING AWESOME HECK YEAH ❤💙❤💙

JUST LOOK AT THEM!!! Nya better say I love you back soon, like Kai and Skylor are a little behind, Zane and Pixal already said it, Jay can't stop doing it, come on girl it's your turn! 😎😎

RACER SEVEN

SCOTT IS BACK YES!!! 😍😍😍💙💙💙

Okay, I think my theory won't happen 😅 Feels like there are not enough episodes for a good reveal, and it doesn't seem like Scott is that influenced by Jay. My last idea is that perhaps he has spent so much time in the game like Jay said (POOR BABY 😭) that he doesn't remember. Maybe the moment he will come back, we will find out that it is Jay's brother/twin, I mean he still has those dragon and lightnings drawing on his back... yeah I like this theory a lot, gonna hold on to it!

So Scott is indeed a person trapped in a game, at least that's confirmed 👍

Also he's got some major issues, the poor thing, and I think there is some special reason behind him not wanting to race besides having just one life.

HERE IT COMES

OH MY GARMADON 😂😂😂 Okay, okay, it's actually better than I expected really. The scarf is cool, and so are the golden tattoos, the suit and the golden sleeve. It's just the mohawk that will take time to get used to, it's not even bad, just weird 🤷‍♀️

Racer Seven is so cool! Always nice seeing a new female character in this show that is not a love interest. I do love Nya, Pix and Sky to death, but I love variety too 💪

Really, really nice the piece of all Racer Seven's crashes! Impactful and sad, a never ending loop that she wants to break through from. That's the heavy stuff I like!

Okay, ready for the race! And I'm... scared? Like, a lot of they guys have one life?? KAI HAS ONE LIFE?? 😱😱 I hope for the best I guess 😅

THE SPEEDWAY FIVE-BILLION

Might be my favorite episode yet

Seven is SO COOL, it's another reason why I'm sad these episodes are so short! I really would had liked see her more, truly have her bond with the guys

Soooo... I guess since Scott's been in the game for 30 years it's safe to assume he's not Jay's brother/twin. To be fair it's really hard to tell a LEGO person's age😅 At this point I guess he could be either Dyer's friend, even if it sounds unlikely, or... idk, still think he could have a connection with Jay. Maybe he's like... an older brother? Libber had him a long while ago?

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHY DID SCOTT HAVE TO DIEEEEEEEE??? 😭😭😭 Just when he was getting more involved, come on! He even said he wanted to try that hero stuff, I love him! WE WILL SAVE YOU MY TECH BABY!!!

Cole getting a ride from Kai, this season has some pretty good lava material ❤🖤❤🖤

I've got some major Ninjaball Run vibes from this, that brings me back 😂 Even the no rules thing is there, come on, there has to be a little bit of inspiration from it!

Still don't know what I think of the rats, kinda seems useless and annoying, gonna be honest. But it's a nice race, exciting with nothing big happenin-

Kai and Cole sacrifice for Jay

I KNOW I THOUGHT ABOUT IT BEFORE BUT I'M NOT OKAY WITH THIS!!! MY FLAME BABE AND MY ROCKY BABY!!! 😭😭😭😭 WHY PEOPLE KEEP DYING IN THIS EPISODE???

I so, so enjoyed how they did it. Like, one look between them to realize that yes, this is it, Jay is the expert and needs to go on. This is the end of our race... AAAHHH!! (Infinite shipping potential too)

Omg Nya screaming her brother's name and Jay his best friend's name, while Lloyd looks so devastated (those masks are actually kinda espressive, I really like them). Wow. This is the angst I needed, finally👌

YES SEVEN WON!!! HECK YEAH GIRL!!! SO HAPPY FOR HER!!! Also Okino in the background being happy, nice touch!

And now they are three... it's gonna end up with only Jay huh. I... I'm not ready actually, my heart 😢 They better all hug when this is all over!!!

STOP, DROP AND SIDE ROLL

I CAN SEE THEY ARE KEEPING THE FEELS FOR LAST APPARENTLY??? 😭

The music of the old school section was actually very nice, reminds me of the past, I kinda hoped The Fold were going to release some game themed songs. Been a while since I have one of those 😍

Lol, explaining the side scroll games was actually pretty cool

YES THEY ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THE AIRJITSU!! Maybe they will remember they can used it, right Cole? The ladder scene? YOU CAN FLY???

OMG NYA ACTUALLY SAID CICLON-DO JUST HOW CUTE IS THAT!!! All the way from my favorite season Possession, Jay's definition of airjitzu that I actually still kept in one of my fanfictions 😂

Okay the design of the temple of madness is REALLY cool, you can immediately tell it's from an old videogame. Gives me the double vibe the googles for the first 3D movies used to give me 😂

Also look at this

THIS IS ADORABLE!! 💙💚💦 Really old style videogame 😂

And there we go!! Harumi!! Since I saw her in the set I was wondering what she was going to be, maybe an avatar or an NPC of some sort... THIS HURTS WAY MORE!!! And of course pure heart BABY boy Lloyd doesn't feel good fighting her, he had a crush on her! AND HE FREAKING SAW HER DIE!!! It's really sad that he still hopes for her to be good...

The fighting scenes are really, REALLY good! So fluid and active! This fight was really pleasant to watch, not gonna lie 💜

NOOOOOOOOO!!!! NOT MY GREEN BABY BOY!!!! I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN BUT STIIIIIIL!!! 😭😭😭

Okay, down to three members. Remaining Zaptrap and water godess... omg Nya will totally die first and at that point Jay will go completely nuts. I'm both scared and DYING TO HAPPEN!!! ANGST FINALLY!!! THIS IS THE STUFF!!

Got some major Skybound feeling, like when it was only Jay and Nya... will Nya finally say I love you back?? I HOPE SO ❤💙❤💙

With the three keytana now, what will happen? I'm actually curious now, this is the exciting stuff I need! And yes I do realize it's a little weird that for getting hype I need my faves to die 😅

NINJAGO CONFIDENTIAL

OMG THEY ACTUALLY DID A DETECTIVE THEMED EPISODE BLACK AND WHITE I'M DYING 😂😂😂

The Weekend Whip with sax, never thought I needed this in my life 😍

Bet Brent had a blast recording this

Okay this is the third Chima reference I see, they better throw some Nexo Knights hits as well next season! Come on, it's about freaking knights!!!

This is not what I expected when they said there was going to be an episode with only Zane and Pixal but I'm sure as HECK not complaining 👌

Oh, seeing Pixal joining in so normally is so beautiful, I really wish we could have her even more often

Dareth's karaoke bar! From Sons of Garmaron! Also him guessing first try because the ninja really do get post in other dimensions very often 😂 Gotta love them indeed

Pff Zane narrating and getting stopped every time because of it, how I missed this naive little nindroid

So the bartender Tony is the friend? That's it? A little easy really, hoped for more... still calling him Milty is cute 💕

Buddy's Pizza from season 2!!! This season is killing me with references and I LOVE IT SO MUCH 💜💜💜

So, the mechanic is free again (the Kryptarium dudes should really learn how to do their job right 😓), Zane is kidnapped, and Pixal has a fedora that makes her possibly even cuter. I have emotions

AH!! KNEW IT!! UNAGAMI IS NOT DYER!! FREAKING CALLED IT!!... kinda expected really, but still called it 😅

So Unagami was the first name of Prime Empire and is also an AI that got crazy and was shut down, but now is back after programming the game itself and wants to get to the real world?... I'm down with it

So I'm guessing we won't get much of a Scott backstory... Eh, let's see how it goes!

THE PRODIGAL FATHER

I was seriously confused by why those dudes wanted to kidnapped Wu, but it made sense later. Still come on sensei, you're a freaking half god or something, pull yourself together 🤦‍♀️

Very nice that Pixal is the one to bring up the argument about feelings and AI. So very nice to have her in this!!!

I THOUGHT ZANE WAS GOING TO TAKE A BREAK FROM LAST SEASON, WHY ARE THEY MAKING HIM SUFFER AGAIN??? 😭

Oh finally the backstory of Unagami I'm really curious about what happened in the past and what exactly brought the shut down of Prime Emp-

I LITERALLY CARE ABOUT NOTHING ELSE BUT THIS BEAUTIFUL GAMER BOY IN REAL LIFE!!! 😍😍😍😍😍

So Scott was the first beta tester, Milton asked Unagami to make the experience as exciting as possible, and that ended very badly so the game was shut down and THEY LEFT HIM INSIDE FULLY KNOWING HE WAS THERE??? I HATE DYER NOW!!!

Although it is really interesting knowing a tech genius like him, until now we got Dr. Julien and Cyrus Borg that were plenty open about the idea of AI with feelings as meaningful as humans'. While he doesn't get that, they are only machines for him and that's the reason why he doesn't understand how much Unagami is mad and filled with need for revenge.

This is why I want more than 11 minutes, the themes of this season are really, REALLY cool. I would have loved more introspection and development.

I guess Scott being Jay's brother is officially debunked 😅 Although I am curious about the life he left behind, since he was stuck in that game for 30 years. He still has those lightnings on the jacket I don't understand...

DON'T YOU DARE LET ZANE BE DESTROYED AGAIN PLEASE I STILL CRY WATCHING "THE TITANIUM NINJA"!!! 😢😢😢😢😢😢

The portal is open, Zane might get destroyed, Unagami wants revenge, Jay and Nya are the only one left and I'm pretty sure Nya will be killed as well leaving only Bluebell so there's THAT. So yeah, this is actually pretty cool!

Two episodes left. Okay Ninjago season 12 Prime Empire, wow me 😎

THE TEMPLE OF MADNESS

This felt a little simple if I'm gonna be honest. I felt like the last mission before facing Unagami was a little basic, with nothing really exciting. Still liked it, but this is probably my least favorite episode 🤷‍♀️

Of course, put Jay is a sushi restaurant-themed level and he will kill you with puns 😂 I love this prankster

Again, the fighting scenes are dope. Definitely one of my favorite things since they changed the animation. You lose something you win something 😙

Wooo, Jay saying that he had trained for years just for kick his butt was actually cool! Bluebell is unleashing!

"And that's how we roll!". You rock we roll, am I right 😂

AH!!! CALLED IT!!! TOTALLY CALLED IT!!! MY POOR BABY BLUEBELL 😭😭

I wish Nya said that she loves Jay back though! Freaking come on girl, he is your yang!!! ❤💙❤💙

Unagami is not Dyer, he wants to get to the real world, I'm actually kinda curious about the confrontation that is about to happen... ALSO THERE BETTER BE LOTS OF HUGS WHEN THIS IS OVER

I... genuinely forgot about the dragon medallion 😅 Eh, I love dragons so I'm fine with it. Well, let's see how it ends!!!

GAME OVER

Wow, I actually love this ending?? A LOT?? After last episode I didn't have much hope, but after seeing it I gotta say, it was really great 👌👌

Thanks for not dying on us again Zane, much appreciated

Jay taking charge is quite rare and when it happens you know things are about to get crazy 😂 It was really nice seeing how sensible he could be, telling that Unagami wasn't evil after all, that he needed closure and answers

I know I miss the animation peak we reached with SoG and Hunted, but I gotta say the atmosphere of the city with the lightnings and the gray sky was really awesome. Very cool.

Pff, that part with the elevator though, reminds me of the one in season 1 that made me start watch Ninjago ✌ Also it's always Borg's Tower indeed 😂

OKINO KICKING BUTTS HECK YEAH LOOK AT OUR RONIN GO!!!

And wow. WOW. I didn't expect Jay to drop the I'm adopted bomb on us, I think I never heard him talk about it since Skybound (that technically never happened so 😅). It was SO good seeing him sympathize with Unagami because he was also left with no explaination. His desire to know, along with the hope that the past is the past, but they had a good reason for. Also he freaking said he didn't have the chance to ask because Cliff is dead and I 😭😭😭😭

And here I melted, because we finally see the situation for what truly is, the way Jay also sees it: Unagami is a kid, a child that doesn't understand how the world works, that just wants to make his father proud but got rejected instead. The confrontation was actually touching, I really wish we had more time for that. Even a little resistance from Unagami, another fight, and a finally reconcilliation with Dyer.

MY NINJA BABIES ARE BACK I MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!! ❤💚💙🖤💦💎

Could you seriously be cuter than this?? ❤💙❤💙 I wished for more hugs but I'll settle for this I guess 😍

Okay, very nice to see Seven and Okino out there and deciding to live their lives in Ninjago, nice to see some others like the rats going back to Prime Empire. As Unagami said, he gave them a choice, it's up to them at this point

But I'm sorry, WHY ARE WE NOT GOING TO TALK WITH SCOTT??? That guy's been trapped inside the game the longest, not even a "Hey bud, you're alive, cool cool"? I know I've been overbearing about how much I love Scott, especially since I had all those theories about him (still don't know why he has lightnings on his jacket and hat, is it just a style thing? Idk), but come on! Well I guess if he's happy I am 🤷‍♀️

Is that his girlfriend or something? After 30 years? Or maybe she got trapped with him a while later? Or maybe that's his... mom? Look, we all know determine the age of LEGO characters is hard, give me a break please 😅😅

Overall, very nice ending, it brought everything together quite nicely. I'm satisfied, yes!! 💜💜

FINAL THOUGHTS

As I said, the episodes' lenght I really think gets in the way of making this an excellent season. There is so much that could be explored more, the choice matter, all the amazing characters, and the AI feelings stuff from the latest episodes. There is room for more, I wished we got that

The characters though were really amazing. Between Scott, Okino, Seven and Unagami himself, there were very different personalities with very different dreams and thoughts, that made this ride much more interesting

Fighting animation was 👌👌👌

Comebacks from past seasons were 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

Maybe it didn't really focused on Jay as much until the end? Yeah it was about him, but we got to see his sensibility and his past only last episode. He loves Nya, he likes videogames, of course but there's more about him than meets the eye! Wished we saw that, but in general it was nice seeing him first line again 💙

I liked this season. It has flaws, but I enjoyed many parts and at the end I was left satisfied 👍

Just... wasn't Jillian supposed to be in this? Or is it next season? She said a mom was going to come back, I took for granted it was going to be Edna. I'm curious about next season now... FINALLY A COLE SEASON EVERYONE!!! 🖤🖤🖤

Thank you for leaving notes to my last rant, this helps me not jump excitedly every time a new episode comes out 😅 Well then, that's all from me!! Have a nice day everyone!! 💜💜💜

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Okay, well, I'm having a bad day and also alcohol, so this is going to be just a complete outpouring of absolute bullshit that in no way forms a coherent story, but here you go:

1) So I'm still busy being genuinely sad over Naberius, who, I realized, is probably the only person to die in the perfect lyctorhood AU and I also realized that no one in GtN gets a funeral (obviously, first the bodies are still needed forensically and then Jod gets involved) so I was trying to figure out what they'd actually do, at his funeral. Since they probably hold one. And I still don't know exactly, but I could imagine them all standing there, and I think he'd probably like the idea that there would be 5-8 lyctors at his funeral.

2) I know that at least one version of the perfect lyctorhood AU still has Silas dying in it, but I want the sappy version so I was imagining that he of course, wants nothing to do with such a morally corrupt activity... until he finds out Gideon is going to try the avulsion trial, which he assumes will kill her because of course, he has no way of knowing that she's God's Kid (aside: that will throw him for quite the loop won't it). So he realizes he can't actually keep the moral high ground if he lets Harrowhark murder Gideon and goes tearing off to save her by explaining how the trial is supposed to be done. And probably like, nearly falls down the ladder and makes a fool of himself and then he can have a redemption arc and everything can be great.

3) Look, I basically want this to do the "I love this place so much I'm going to bring it down around my ears" thing that I keep thinking Dark Academia will do for me that it never does for me. So like, I can imagine all these house heirs locked up together eventually converging on "actually, that is fucked up?!". They are going to make Jod cry.

4) I really want Marta to teach Jeannemary and Gideon to dance, since she's canonically a good dancer.

5) I just have feels about Dulcie as a perfect lyctor, because like, she definitely wouldn't have become a regular lyctor with Pro, I can't see that at all, but with a perfect lyctor its kinda different, because I'm sure he'd offer, but he has a wife and kids, he's really her cav more professionally than anything else... but he'd definitely offer. And I just think it would be a tough conversation.

6) Also I would be kind of interested to see the followup between Dulcie and Cyth, because if Pal can crack perfect lyctorhood he can almost certainly warn her that it will make her alive, but not magically make her healthy. And I get the sense she'd probably think it through and be okay with that. She'd still be able to do all the things she wished she could do back on Rhodes. But that would throw Cyth for a whole loop. (One day I'm going to write a whole separate AU where Cyth shows up after the fact specifically to save Dulcie from what she sees as a terrible fate).

7) The Cavs would all be so bored listening to the Necros argue, they'd just go off and do the most insane things, and after the thing with Ianthe and Corona came out they'd totally adopt Corona and they'd all try to train her at once, with completely conflicting advice, it would be complete chaos.

8) I REALLY NEED ABIGAIL TO SUMMON UP ANASTASIA OKAY!!! I NEED IT!!!

9) I have one line for Marta and its "I would die for the Emperor whenever he asked me, I have always been ready to die for the Empire. But how could he ask that of Judith?"

10) But also the "it doesn't have to be like this Judith has 2 hands" for Marta and Corona

11) Pal, Cam and Dulcie being sappy and embarassing the Fourth. Harrow and Gideon getting over themselves and embarassing the Forth. Marta/Judith/Corona getting over themselves and embarassing the Fourth. Magnus makes some sappy joke and Jeannemary just stands up and offers to let Isaac run her through on the spot just to not have to walk in on anyone else kissing again.

12) Silas and Harrow are temporarily united because people are being friendly to them and they're overwhelmed and hiding in the same cupboard (not on purpose).

Oh No! @mayasaura's Perfect Lyctorhood AU has just like... started spawning scenes in my brain...