#interstellar union army

[worst-fictional-places-to-work]

The contestants are set!

With 100 responses, i unfortunately could not include everything <//3. However, there will be 52 contestants as listed bellow, and 26 polls for the first round!

I will begin the polls shortly, may the worst place win!

PLACE: The Stanley parable company place MEDIA: the stanely parable

VS

PLACE: Papa's Pizzeria MEDIA: Papa's Pizzeria

PLACE: Hazbin hotel MEDIA:Hazbin hotel

VS

PLACE: VVV MEDIA: Hazbin hotel

PLACE: Altobuck Hospital MEDIA: Blackout Hospital

VS

PLACE: Aether West Academy MEDIA: Here For Sweet Hearts

PLACE: Jovial Playground MEDIA: Jovial Playground - Roblox

VS

PLACE: Glorp N Go MEDIA: Regretevator - Roblox

PLACE: The BAU (the behavioral analysis unit) MEDIA: criminal minds

VS

PLACE: Princeton plainsboro teaching hospital MEDIA: House m.d.

PLACE: Global Relief Effort (GRE) MEDIA: Dying Light/Dying Light 2

VS

PLACE: IMC (Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation) MEDIA: Titanfall 2

PLACE: JCJenson MEDIA: Murder Drones

VS

PLACE: The Company MEDIA: Lethal Company

PLACE: Rizzo’s MEDIA: Outer Worlds

VS

PLACE: The Halcyon Corporation MEDIA: Outer Worlds

PLACE: Arkham Asylum MEDIA: DCU

VS

PLACE: Lexcorp MEDIA: Superman comics/tv shows/movies

PLACE: StrexCorp MEDIA: Welcome to Night Vale

VS

PLACE: Night Vale Community Radio MEDIA: Welcome to Nightvale

PLACE: Gent corporation MEDIA: BATDR

VS

PLACE: Joey Drew Studios MEDIA: Bendy And The Ink Machine

PLACE: Archeological expedition funded by Whitmore Industries/Preston Whitmore MEDIA: Atlantis the Lost Empire

VS

PLACE: Clovis Bray / Braytech MEDIA: Deatiny 2

PLACE: Engineering on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 MEDIA: Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)

VS

PLACE: Discovery One MEDIA: 2001 A Space Odyssey

PLACE: Lobotomy Corporation MEDIA: Lobotomy Corporation (the game)

VS

PLACE: The Combine Overwatch MEDIA: Half Life

PLACE: Lumon MEDIA: Severance

VS

PLACE: I.R.I.S. MEDIA: Anomaly Found - Chase Brody by Jacksepticeye on Youtube

PLACE: hero association MEDIA: one punch man

VS

PLACE: Public Safety Devil Hunters MEDIA: Chainsaw Man

PLACE: Princess Peach's Royal Guard MEDIA: Super Mario Bros.

VS

PLACE: Mettatons restaurant MEDIA: Undertale

PLACE: Aether foundation MEDIA: Pokemon

VS

PLACE: The Fatui MEDIA: Genshin Impact

PLACE: Goddard Futuristics MEDIA: Wolf 359 (podcast)

VS

PLACE: The Magnus Institute MEDIA: The Magnus Archives

PLACE: D.D.D MEDIA: That’s not my neighbor

VS

PLACE: Grand Army of the Republic MEDIA: Star Wars (Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith era)

PLACE: Coven Communications Research and Power (CCRP) MEDIA: The hatchetfield series (starkid)

VS

PLACE: ASU-NARO MEDIA: yttd (Your Turn to Die - Death Game by Majority)

PLACE: Fairy godmother's factory MEDIA: Shrek 2

VS

PLACE: COGs incorporated MEDIA: Disney’s Toontown

PLACE: Fazbender Entertainment MEDIA: The Dayshift At Freddy's series

VS

PLACE: Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex MEDIA: Five nights at freddy's

PLACE: UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) MEDIA: doom

VS

PLACE: Immediate Murder Professionals (IMP) MEDIA: Helluva Boss

PLACE: S.C.P. Foundation MEDIA: S.C.P. Foundation

VS

PLACE: Aperture science MEDIA: Portal

PLACE: GrizzCo MEDIA: Splatoon

VS

PLACE: Mystery Flesh Pit National Park MEDIA: Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

[scarletbellatrix]

no one understands how much i hate the magic council in FT. they are the embodiment of an incompetent and extremists government. all they ever do is fuck with the FT guild. as someone who also tuned in with edens zero, another work of mashima, their oraciaon steis interstellar / interstellar union army, the equivalent of magic council, is better. they set aside their differences and get things done, even going far as collaborating with the edens crew. the magic council is useless and annoying in comparison.

[tamibae]

Jinn & Holy

It’s been a long time since I did an analysis post on Edens Zero. But I was rereading the manga, I liked the brief interaction between Jinn and Holy. It doesn’t have to be romantic, the fact that it was impactful for both characters is all I care about.

Jinn is the one to make Holy realise that the crew has her back and she’s a part of the family. After her sister’s death, Holy had no other companion other than the interstellar union army. So this is the first time she establishes any bond.

This is also the first time we ever see Jinn prioritizing something over Kleene. He’s concerned but at the same time, he calmly handles the situation and trusts Laguna with Kleene’s safety.

Again, it’s Jinn who makes Holy realise that dying is not what she wants. She has to understand the situation and put her hatred aside so they can retreat.

I hope we see more of them together becoming friends or maybe even more if Mashima wants that.

BONUS :

Jinn wanting Holy to try his hot dog and her ignoring him

Weisz is the fandom

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.25 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force. 1941 – World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay. 1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. 1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty. 1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. 1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads. 1958 – The world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. 1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy. 1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964. 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group. 1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. 1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. 1985 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith. 1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. 1989 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after take off from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found. 1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union. 1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence). 1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. 2003 – NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space. 2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida. 2006 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. 2011 – Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so. 2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. 2017 – Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation.

[silencedminstrel]

XIAN GAN PRIME - SECOND YEAR ANNIVERSARY (AN ARTICLE BY AN INDEPENDENT GALACTIC JOURNALIST)

Two years ago nobody in the galaxy gave this Non-aligned Human Colony in the Horsehead Nebula the light of day, with reports of many established, long range logistics corporations would rather make a stop at better but more distant commercial space stations than Xian Gan Prime--despite knowing this so-called "space dump" is strategically located within a major intersection of three galactic trade routes.

Stories of powerful interstellar triads, resourceful deep space smugglers and illegal traders of every kind conducting their businesses indiscriminately here had been, for centuries, a laughable open secret of the Earth Alliance Administration, with sporadic gang wars waged by traditional rivals, violent law enforcement crackdowns and other armed conflicts occurring so frequently, everyone who ever visited it once would unanimously arrived to a conclusion that nothing good comes out of Xian Gan Prime!

Or so the galactic public would like to think.

Then one day, as if some archetypal adventure story miraculously made flesh, a local gangster from the Golden Dragon Triad called Stanley Chan had decided to singlehandedly stop the coming of ominous dark tides from beyond Creation--The Shudwa Dumanta Legion--from inundating the seemingly clueless Earth Alliance Government, at the time when Humanity as a species was still looked down upon by a vast majority of the galactic community.

Acting on an intercepted information about a certain, high ranking Earth Alliance Official and his many shady dealings with this so-called Dark Legion, Mr Stanley Chan managed to not only raised his own private army but also procured several deep space, "Union Standard" warships in less than a year to address this subtle but dangerous development, all the while constantly evading capture by galactic law enforcement agents due to his criminal activities.

Whereas the rest of his species knew him only as an organized gangster and cunning smuggler, it didn't stop him from attracting many "multinational" individuals sharing his altruistic objectives to joining his cause, ranging from actively serving Earth Alliance Marines and their Psi-Corp Commander, from dangerous Code Black Hackers to a fugitive New Hesperian cyborg/war criminal and from a supposedly immortal bionic hitman to--allegedly--a deranged Pibian sniper! And he also shook the galactic underworld to its core when the notorious space pirate organization, The Revenant Collectives, openly declared their active involvement, fully backing him and his mission to bring the human traitor to justice despite neither side being fully informed about who or what they were up against.

Thus, as the majority of planetary system's governments aligned to both the Galactic Union and the Synod were besotted by fear and distrust amidst the rising threat of this ancient--though most would have said "purely nonsense"--alien fleet, Mr Stanley Chan and his battle ready posse quietly made their way towards the outskirts of the Outer Rim via an unregistered transwarp portal, intending to intercept yet another confirmed rendezvous between the Shudwa Dumanta Legion and their unknown Human agent from the Earth Alliance Government.

And that was when the story really began.

Albeit having to deal with near impossible difficulties in verifying all information sources at the time of writing, it was initially understood that Mr Stanley Chan and his team were ambushed by the Dark Legion upon arriving at the meeting place and, shortly thereafter, they were teleported aboard their flagship to be personally executed by their leader Shaik The Fallen One himself. And this was when Mr Stanley Chan made the ultimate sacrifice by lobbing a biological grenade filled with "Ofla Fever" virus straight onto the alien's face as his men teleported to safety, which immediately followed by several huge explosions that duly disintegrated their flagship and, ultimately, the Dark Legion themselves! Or so as stated by surviving members as they made their way back towards the Milky Way.

Thanks to Mr Stanley Chan's bravery, the entire galaxy was saved from further threats of that mysterious militia and the long underappreciated Humanity finally received accolades and respect it deserves, with both Galactic Administrations willingly expunged his and his allies' criminal records and his backwater homeworld was officially awarded a seat within The Union--which comes with the title "Executive Member"--by the Supreme Chairman himself in a ceremony that will be remembered by all of Humanity and their allies for centuries to come.

Unfortunately the ensuing failed invasion attempt by the ruthless, trans-dimensional entity called The Kltua-Lymonzs, alias the Faceless Horde, which happened just over two months ago nearly brought the entire galaxy to its knees, with many star systems are either in ruins or are struggling to survive. Interestingly, as in the case of Xian Gan Prime--albeit only as much as the writer can personally attest to--it was well known that this resilient space station was the first among the few Union Members that successfully regained their lost status quo in a short time. Furthermore, this prominent trading colony is also fast becoming an active member of numerous galactic rehabilitation programs, which is ironic considering that just over two years ago it hardly appeared on any official star charts, let alone be of some importance to anyone.

In conclusion the writer would like to state that Xian Gan Prime is a fine example of Human resilience and resourcefulness; and also a noteworthy, if not important, astro-socioeconomic case study supporting the notion that any insignificant galactic species would, in no particular fashion, surprised even the most critical of skeptics by how successful they can be in proving their right to be included into the galactic community! Hence all "established" species must in turn play an active part in uplifting them all, imparting them knowledge that the Milky Way is the only best place to live, within this great big universe of ours.

MV3 Eluna City

Guillem H. Pongiluppi

[alexis-medina]

AHHHHHH GUYS!!! 🤭🤭🤭 I’m LIVING for these creed x homura moments.

Look if Homura doesn’t wanna hang with Creed/Seiji I will 😍🥰 fingerscrossed we get a backstory…most likely we will but I’m hoping it’s in the next chapter.

[bblckboi]

I'd gotten so used to Fairy Tail and associating Mashima's art style with the light-hearted nature (read: lack of death) that I forgot we actually kill people (and quite a lot of people) in Eden's Zero.

[flourchildwrites]

I've been trying to convince myself that jelsie is not a jerza AU, but tonight is the night I give in.

I waited for years to see the jerza arc come to a satisfying conclusion. I was there, Gandalf, for the kiss that wasn't. Or maybe it was. I don't know. It compelled me. Still does.

The point is that I waited patiently. I felt it in my bones that at the very end of it all (and there was a lot going on at the end of FT), I was going to get that satisfying panel of Jellal finally making peace with his regrets and getting with Erza. No more of this, "It's complicated!" bullshit. Some actual character development to cap off the series.

Of course, it's complicated. It has been complicated for years. But I was over garden variety complication. It had gotten old, frankly. I wanted ✨closure✨. I wanted a payoff for investing in jerza, for believing in jerza. At the very least, I thought I could be satisfied with jerza couched in fan service because, let's be honest, I was desperate.

But did we get that? NO! What do we get instead? A mention that Erza is taking very good care of her hair...

No.

I went back to read that part several times to make certain that I wasn't hallucinating.

No.

No way would Hiro Mashima do this to me. No way would he build jerza up like that since the first season, setting the ship up to be a profound expression of forgiveness, friendship and love triumphing, to end the main story with Erza brushing her fucking hair.

You know who does get a pretty good ending? Zeref and Mavis. Zeref and (the Mary Sue) MAVIS SUE.

But, I didn't complain very loudly. I told myself I was going to wait for the anime to make good on what the manga failed to accomplish. Did it? I don't actually know because I found myself so squicked by the prospect of being disappointed again, but in moving color this time, that I just noped out the whole thing.

And then Edens Zero dropped.

Space? Robots? An Epic tale where time itself is bent? 🤲🏻 Yes, this sounds like something right up my alley. And Happy's back. We love Happy. Who doesn't love Happy? Let the healing commence!

But then I met, Elsie Crimson, the armored space pirate, and right after that, we see Justice of the Interstellar Union Army. And there was a part of me that just... No. Noooo. No way would Hiro Mashima do this to me.

Again.

It is one thing to make characters that look like your old characters. They're his. He can do with them what he wants. And I am all for someone writing the jerza AU where Jellal chases Erza across the cosmos, but why does it have to be the damn manga artist writing the AU? He could have just, you know, written the jerza ending I wanted in the first place.

Dammit.

But I also thought, "Hey, Flour. You gotta calm down. They're just fictional characters. This isn't healthy. And just look at Happy. Yes, he's an exceed, but he's also a robot. And just look a Jella- I mean JUSTICE's hair. It's only blue sometimes, and the face-tattoo/ether gear is more or less transient. So there! Not the same. This won't be jerza in space. It'll be jelsie, something new and different. See, they already kissed (as they stabbed each other) which is a hell of a lot more progress that jerza ever made, I think..."

So that brings us to the present.

I had a bad day. No getting around it or denying it. Really bad day, and I have a habit of waiting to watch animes that I know I'm going to like on bad days to turn them around a little. So, I turned on Edens Zero, and what did I hear?

Colleen Clinkenbeard and Robert McCollum. The English voice actors for Erza and Jellal as Elsie and Justice.

Gosh, no! I had to be mistaken.

So, I looked it up, but since my ears are well-trained homing beacons for Collen Clinkenbeard's sweet, sweet voice, I was NOT mistaken.

It's a jerza AU. That particular part of Edens Zero is a damn jerza space AU. And I am... beside myself bitching about it on tumblr, the only place weird and niche enough to tolerate this rambling rant about fictional characters that I care way too much about.

Goodnight, cruel fandom. I just can't right now.

[animeniacfan]

Man, the IUA Really Hates Shiki Now!

I really wish that the IUA wouldn't label Shiki an outlaw so quickly. But we know the real reason why they did so: they be jealous of him #Edenszero

Edens Zero Chapter 173 Review/Recap So, when I learned about the concept of the Interstellar Union Army, or IUA, I immediately thought that they would give Shiki trouble in the future. The Foresta Arc partially made that prediction come true with Justice trying to off Shiki. However, their recent lumping Shiki in the Oracion Seis Galactica cinches it: the IUA aims to be a problem for Shiki. Now,…

[charlierejouis]

Quick Notes: Chapter 173

Let’s go!

Two weeks. I’ve had to see this cover for two weeks.

It’s weird to see that Captain Connor is complaining about other people being too demanding of him when you remember what he pulled in chapter 49. (inb4 “it was a different Connor”)

It’s cool to see Rebecca’s actually visibly popular.

Hey look! Mashima’s lamp shading his own writing. That makes it totally okay!

It’s weird to see such a difference between this Connor and the one from chapter 49. (inb4 “Doesn’t this contradict what you said earlier?”)

I’m willing to believe that Shiki is still the same deep down. I will continue to be worried about how long this will last until the inevitable descent into becoming the Demon King.

Master Noah acts as if “that one incident“ didn’t involve a situation that literally changed the universe. Among other things.

I need to remember that the Interstellar Army Union and Galactic Intelligence Agency are two different organizations. Why this is the case? I can’t tell you.

Hey look! Mashima’s lamp shading his own writing TWICE. That makes it totally okay! (inb4 “Don’t you lampshade YOUR OWN writing?”)

Honestly, it feels weird to see two people with a power like Eye of God. This feels like the kind of power only one person in the series should have.

I’m not shocked by the attitude of either the EZ Crew or Feather’s crew. I’m shocked it’s taken me this long to realize Shiki’s communication with Hermit is because of his prosthetic eye.

See you!

[highkeyweeb]

I really hope this cover page gets animated when the time comes, with Xiaomei giving a recap at the beginning of the episode with a voiceover of where everyone is and what role they’re playing.

On an unrelated note, this is looking incredibly chaotic and this clash is about to be huge. Especially since Shura is a glorified brat with no value for human life (or bot life) and there are three different groups (Crew of Edens, Oasis, and the Interstellar Union Army) heading to Nero 66 to take him down.

The battle truly is about to begin.

[qm-vox]

Updates Ride Again

Been awhile since I posted an update here on that Lancer 3pp project, eh? Luckily the team is still getting along grea-

(MOI NIMUE, DFG LUST, & MO & S RASPUTIN. Art credit goes to the incomparable Moid)

Ikiryo, Psybomb, & I have continued to edit and tweak our manufacturers to ensure that once 3pp licensing is online they’re as good as they can possibly be. Alongside this we’ve been ordering art ahead of time, working on flavor sections to help incorporate our manufacturers into the world of your game, and the incomparable Ikiryo’s been busily creating new NPCs with which to challenge your players! Major updates in terms of balance and flavor will be upcoming for all three manufacturers Soon(tm) in response to feedback from Lancer’s discord, so keep an eye out.

If you want updates faster than whenever I have enough will to live to post them, check out Iki’s Twitter. Otherwise, it’s been awhile since we did one of these updates so let’s hit ya with the Land of Full & Complete Context:

What Is Lancer?

Lancer is a ‘mud-and-lasers’ RPG following mechanized cavalry pilots in the far future. Old Humanity, the cultures we know today, suffered a terrible Fall, and the children of New Humanity have spread through the stars to ensure that they can never destroy themselves again, and in the hopes of building a more just world. Along the way we’ve had some mighty triumphs, some horrific mistakes (nothing like re-inventing capitalism am I right), and have grown to contend with the birth of artificial intelligence - which is more alien than we could have ever dreamed of. Your pilots might work for Union; as Liberators executing slavers and tyrants to build a better world from their bones, as members of the Navy defending the weak, as UIB agents up against alien horrors from worlds we know not. Perhaps you swear your service to vast corpro-states, looking for the beautiful and true things at the heart of their cancerous search for profit and empire, or maybe you’re a mercenary from the Long Rim, just trying to die another day. Whoever you are, you have been granted a unique relationship to violence in the form of a mech, and must now decide what that means in your life.

Lancer is produced and published by Massif Press ( @orbitaldropkick​) and its player-facing rules are available for free on their store. Our project is third-party; not in any way affiliated with Massif Press, but made to be compatible with their excellent system and slot into its setting.

Our project introduces three mech manufacturers with their own goals and needs. They are...

Downfall Group (by Psybomb)

(DFG GLUTTONY. Art credit goes to Domochevsky)

“What happens when you make a promise to someone who doesn’t want you to keep it?” Like the other two corporations here, DOWNFALL Group did not start out looking for a fight. They just found one. In this case, their mission led them to figure out that what they were meant to do was at odds with what they should, and the final decision was probably not what their bosses intended. Still, when your avowed enemies control nearly everything, including you if they found out, you have to get creative with your solutions. 

An intelligence agency that’s gone rogue from the corpro-state that founded it, DFG’s pattern-groups utilize stolen technology in their fight to sabotage the rise of interstellar capitalism. They could be a rebellion’s best friend, the backers of suspiciously armed pirates and, now and again, even an army unto themselves.

Magnum Opus Interstellar (by Ikiryo)

(MOI SOLOMON. Art credit goes to Moid.)

Magnum Opus Interstellar are voyagers among the stars, seeking to map the routes across the depths of space. Magnum Opus tends to dislike personal conflict, as it interferes with business and exploration; but the Aun attack on the Cornucopia blink gate has left them shaken and reeling. Shocked out of neutrality, they are now gearing up for war with frames that tear the firmament asunder and demonstrate that a lack of interest in war was a dramatic difference to a lack of capability. 

An ancient and respectable, if small, corpro-state, Magnum Opus Interstellar used to manufacture mechs as a luxury good on the side for the sorts of people who make war into a game. Now awakened to a terrible wrath they have not yet known, their corporate techno-sorcerers ride to war with the codes of summoning at their fingertips. Their work has been undone; worlds will burn for this. And, of course, rich boys making a game out of war still buy what they’re selling.

Marley, Oz, and Silver Lending And Consultations (by Vox/Yours Truly)

(MO & S FRANKENSTEIN. Art credit goes to Domochevsky, as does credit for the INSPIRED addition of the vending machine).

Smith-Shimano Corpro offers unparalleled quality, custom-tailored to each unique customer, with service plans that can’t be beat. Marley, Oz, and Silver are the other end of the market; whatever they make, they make it at the absolute lowest price point possible and at the highest quality they can provide you for that price. Having trouble getting your revolution off the ground? Dreams of glory as a mechanized gladiator doomed by your pocketbooks? Sick and tired of fancier frames jamming up or shutting down? Come see Marley, Oz, and Silver - it’s for a good cause.

MO & S are very small. They have no money. You can imagine the kind of stress they are under. It’s not that they like being arms dealers; it’s that being arms dealers funds them helping the real people that are in front of them here and now. Thankfully, between the Ungrateful conflicts, partisans in the Dawnline Shore, and other hotspots flaring up in the Galaxy, they’ve found some markets that don’t hurt their conscience. Need a war machine but all you have is a junkyard full of retired school buses? Call Marley, Oz, and Silver.

Questions, comments, and feedback are more than welcome! Keep an eye on this post for the announcement of those major changes I alluded to, and because I have terminal writing disease & will probably slap some fiction on it in a reblog.

Catch ya on the front lines, friends.

[fuckyeahwarriorwomen]

Copy of article below thge cut, should the original ever go away

Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the March 10, 1997 premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Yahoo TV is celebrating “Why Genre Shows Matter” and the history of how these shows have tackled universal themes (e.g. how much high school sucks) and broader social issues.

Perhaps because they seek to imagine the world that’s possible rather than the world that is, genre shows have a long tradition of striving to expand the horizons of what’s possible for women on television. Within the realm of space operas alone, there’s a direct line that connects Lieutenant Uhura’s prominent perch amongst the Enterprise‘s largely male bridge crew on the original Star Trek to The Expanse‘s fiercely independent engineer, Naomi Nagata. And each point along this continuum helps inform the next: commanding officers like Babylon 5‘s Susan Ivanova and Voyager‘s Kathryn Janeway are linked by a devotion to duty, if not necessarily temperament, while Killjoys‘ scrappy bounty hunter, Yala, could have been a student of Firefly‘s highly-skilled soldier, Zoë Washburne. On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate the accomplishments of one such influential intergalactic heroine.

Her name is Aeryn. Officer Aeryn Sun if we’re being formal, one of the interstellar outlaws at the center of Farscape, the wildly ambitious Australian/American space serial that ran from 1999 to 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel. Bred from birth to be a loyal Sebacean soldier in the Peacekeeper army that patrols her section of the galaxy, Officer Sun switches careers after inadvertently ending up aboard a living spaceship named Moya that’s occupied by a motley crew of jailbreakers. These convicts-turned-comrades include towering warrior Ka D’Argo, blue-hued priestess Zhaan, flatulent deposed despot Rygel XVI, and John Crichton, an Earth-born astronaut who is very, very far from home. Created by Rockne S. O’Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company, Farscape enjoyed a bumpy four-season stateside run that ended prematurely when the network declined to fund a fifth and final year. (Sci-Fi later aired, but didn’t finance, a wrap-up miniseries, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, in 2004.)

The original cast of ‘Farscape’ (Credit: Everett Collection)

One of the joys of Farscape is that its defining house style is the lack of a defining house style. Episodes can range from standalone homages to body-switching comedies and vintage Loony Tunes cartoons to densely plotted multi-part stories that don’t conclude with conventionally happy endings. The primary constant amidst this narrative and tonal juggling is the turbulent love story between Aeryn Sun and John Crichton. Revisited today, Farscape stands as something of a bridge between eras of space opera, linking the last wave of episodic space adventures like Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate: SG-1 to the intensely emotional serialized narratives that later drove Battlestar Galactica and its ilk. Aeryn is both a traditional and transformational figure as well; raised to be an impersonal enforcer in the Imperial Stormtrooper mold, she comes to live out a promise that John makes to her in the very first episode: “You can be more.”

“Oh, I’ve got chills down my arm,” says Aeryn’s alter ego, Claudia Black, as she reflects on the character and those prophetic words nearly two decades later. “Her evolution as an individual takes off in an extraordinary way [after that].” Over the course of Yahoo TV’s hour-long conversation with the Australian actress, it’s clear that she does regard Aeryn as an individual unto herself, one who took on a life that sometimes superseded the actress’s own. “I was always happy to hand the character off,” Black says. “I would say [to the producers], ‘If I’m going in the wrong direction then please find someone to serve Aeryn, please. Because she deserves to have the full love of a person who can give you what you need.’ She was honestly such a privilege to play, and I never abused that privilege.”

And Black very nearly didn’t get that privilege. The role had already been cast when she first auditioned for Farscape, but the creative team encouraged her to read for Aeryn anyway. That reading later led to a screen test opposite Tennessee-born Ben Browder, who would be playing John Crichton. (Interestingly, Browder’s casting is, in part, what opened the door to Black inheriting the role from the English actress who had originally been chosen as Aeryn. “Because of the Australian co-production agreement, if they brought in a lead actor from America, the second lead had to be Australian,” Black explains. “So thank god for our union!”) Immediately recognizing the crackling onscreen chemistry between them, Browder pushed hard for her to land the role over network skepticism. “I was a controversial choice for sure,” Black says now. “I was just lucky in the end.”

Whatever the circumstances of how she got the role, Black climbed aboard Moya with strong ideas about how to play Aeryn. Superficially, the character is part of the wave of warrior women that swept through genre shows in the ’90s and early ’00s, whose ranks included Xena, Buffy, and even Cleo of Cleopatra 2525 fame. But as conceived by O’Bannon and carried forward by executive producer David Kemper, who became a driving creative force behind the show, Aeryn cuts against that archetype as well. Unlike Xena, she doesn’t necessarily relish battle; it’s something that’s been programmed into her. (Although, as Aeryn memorably remarks in The Peacekeeper Wars: “Shooting makes me feel better!“) She also reverses the arc traversed by Buffy and Cleo, which begins with them in places of perceived weakness — as a cheerleader and exotic dancer, respectively — and leads towards empowerment.

Because of her militaristic upbringing, Aeryn starts from a place of fierce strength. Her journey over the lifespan of the show, then, becomes about softening what Black describes as Aeryn’s “jagged edges” without surrendering her agency. “I’ve always loved science fiction because of the way it affords us an opportunity to look at humanity from an outsider’s perspective,” Black says. “And Aeryn really gets to experience it firsthand the best way that humans can, which is through love, in all of its forms. When I look at humanity, and my own life, we have to break before we can grow. That’s really what happened with Aeryn; she became stronger with softer edges.” (For the record, Aeryn may start out as a superior fighter to Buffy, but Black says that Sarah Michelle Gellar would easily mop the floor with her in real life. “Sarah has a black belt in karate, and I have two left feet! I always felt like a bit of an imposter [as Aeryn] just on the physical front. If I could push the reset button, I’d go back and get good at some form of martial art.”)

But that stronger-to-softer arc is also more treacherous to navigate than a traditional empowerment story, flirting, as it does, with the fanboy-friendly stereotype of the buttoned-up ice queen whose resolve (and inhibitions) melt when love, generally in the form of a strapping male hero, comes her way. The risk of falling headlong into that tired trope is something Farscape had to deal with throughout its run, especially as the core of the show was always the romance between John and Aeryn.

And while that romance takes a number of unexpected twists and turns — most boldly in a Season 3 storyline that saw Aeryn committing herself fully to a cloned version of Crichton, only to see him die and then have to re-learn how to love the original John — it ultimately culminates with two staples of a standard love story: a marriage proposal and a pregnancy. “It seemed pretty clear to me that Rockne’s intention in the pilot was that this was going to be a love story for the ages,” Black says. Not only that, but it was a love story penned by a largely male writing staff who had their own opinions about how to depict Aeryn’s gradual acceptance of Crichton’s love that sometimes ran counter to Black’s feelings. “I recall moments where they wanted me to be more vulnerable with Aeryn, and I didn’t want to be because I didn’t think it was time and I didn’t think she was ready,” she says. “But it wasn’t my place to say.”

Nevertheless, she persistently found ways to make her voice heard, whether it was by talking one-on-one with specific writers or her co-star, who was equally eager to avoid certain genre show clichés. Black recalls one instance early on in the show’s run when Browder actively pushed back against Sci-Fi’s directive that John Crichton demonstrate the same sex drive as James T. Kirk. “They wanted Crichton to have an alien girl of the week. Ben put his foot down and said, ‘No, he’s not that kind of guy. This isn’t the story I want to tell.’ And on my side I was saying, ‘Yeah, what does that say about Aeryn if she’s going to fall in love with a guy [like that]?’ We wanted to investigate and have them experience the more positive aspects of attraction, as well as what’s worth fighting for and what’s worth dying for,” she says. “Maybe the show would have continued longer if we’d been able to please the network! They know what they’re going to need in order to keep [viewers] interested and tuning in. But we’re very proud of what we managed to make regardless, because of those choices.”

The ongoing battle that Black personally waged throughout Farscape‘s run was ensuring that Aeryn maintained control over her own body. In the genre shows of her era, the female leads were stronger and savvier than ever, and that translated into fashion choices that expressed their own body confidence and sexuality. Xena rode into battle in a heaving breastplate, while Buffy fought vampires in halter tops and Relic Hunter‘s Sydney Fox always donned a tight tank top before exploring some ancient tomb. But flashing cleavage, leg, and midriff also made those characters desirable pin-ups for the male audience courted by networks and advertisers. (Farscape added its own version of a pin-up type midway through the first season in the form of Chiana, a grey-skinned con artist with a plunging neckline and a voracious sexual appetite.)

But those fashions didn’t make sense for a soldier fighting in an army where men and women’s bodies were interchangeable. In fact, Black remembers reading a very specific direction to the makeup department in the production notes for the pilot. “When I take my Peacekeeper helmet off [for the first time], the note read in big print, ‘She looks masculine.’ They thickened my eyebrows — which are already thick! — and shaded my face in very minimal makeup. All of the on-set gallery images of me in the first season are with that very masculine makeup.”

Aeryn in her ‘masculine’ Season 1 appearance (Credit: Everett Collection)

By Season 2, though, Aeryn’s appearance underwent a noticeable change; her hair got longer and straighter, and her Peacekeeper uniform gave way to outfits that walked a line between practical and revealing. Black, who describes herself as a feminist, agreed to these cosmetic changes as she felt they were part of a “natural progression” for Aeryn. “I was honoring where she had come from at the same time having to find a way to let her grow into whatever it is she was going to become,” she says. (This clip from Farscape‘s aforementioned Looney Tunes-inspired episode, “Revenging Angel,” neatly summarizes — and satirizes — the female body types commonly featured on genre shows that Aeryn deliberately defies.)

Already objectively beautiful, Aeryn’s sexuality continued to emerge as she grew into her new self. Even so, Black could sense it wasn’t emerging quickly enough to satisfy certain expectations. “I felt that I was being pushed to show more flesh than was necessary,” she admits, pointing to one incident in the show’s fourth season where it was written into the script that Aeryn would sit poolside in a bikini. “I just said, ‘I will get in a bikini for you if it makes sense, but this woman’s world is falling apart.’ It was the last thing I thought Aeryn would do [in that moment]. It felt really frivolous and superficial to me.” (Black had already donned a bikini to play pregnant Aeryn in a hallucinatory scene in the Season 4 premiere. “They not only had me in a bikini, but they gave me a pregnant belly as well, which is really hard to pull off and make it look naturalistic,” she says.)

Black remembers shooting down an even more egregious bit of flesh-flashing in an earlier episode. As an international production, Farscape frequently shot extra scenes for certain ad-free European markets that would fill the time normally allotted for commercials. The cast referred to these filler sequences as “Euro scenes,” and they rarely involved big story or character beats. According to Black, this particular episode dispatched D’Argo and Aeryn on a planetside mission, and the writers cobbled together a Euro scene that she describes as “absurd.” “They said, ‘Let’s have a scene where we cut to them by a lake, and Aeryn turns and sees a bunch of soldiers across the lake. Aeryn takes off her clothes, swims across the lake, and fights these soldiers completely naked, then comes back to D’Argo and off they go.'”

In later seasons, Aeryn naturally progressed towards more revealing fashion choices (Credit: Everett Collection)

“There were so many things about it that were so bizarre,” she continues. “I said, ‘You know what, please explain this to me, how this honestly can fit in.’ In the end, they just said, ‘All right, fine — we won’t do it.’ That’s what I felt I was having to haggle for a lot of the time: my right to keep my clothes on until it was appropriate. I’ve always felt as an actor — and I’m sure other females have felt like this as well — that when you sign on the dotted line and enter the business that somehow you’ve given your body away as a piece of property, and you spend the rest of your career haggling for pieces of it back.” And the actress credits Browder with backing her up in her fight for Aeryn to be in full control of her own femininity and, by extension, her destiny. “Aeryn is really as feminist as I am, but she’s nothing without Crichton, which is an interesting statement to make,” she says. “So as much as we praise Aeryn, we must give full credit to Crichton and to Ben for shaping him the way that he did. It’s the space that he gives her. He’s such an exquisite champion of her growth and development, that it becomes possible for her to grow to her full size.”

In the 13 years since the concluding Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, rumors have occasionally flown about Farscape‘s return. At one point, there was talk of a webisode series following John and Aeryn’s child, D’Ago Sun-Crichton, but funding never came to fruition. (The show did continue in comic book form for a time, but publication ceased circa 2011.) Black, whose recent credits include stints on The CW genre shows Containment and The Originals, has no updates on any future revivals, and jokes that if Aeryn and Crichton ever do return, they’ll be “tired, ornery, and not really wanting another battle.”

Claudia Black as Dahlia on ‘The Originals’ (Credit: Annette Brown/The CW)

In a way, though, Aeryn’s larger battle has already been won. One of the breakout characters on Battlestar Galactica — which premiered in December 2003, nine months after Farscape‘s series finale — was Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, who displays some of the same steely spine, and jagged edges, of Officer Sun. And today’s genre TV landscape is populated with women who, consciously or not, reflect Aeryn’s assertiveness, independence, and refusal to conform to societal (or genre) norms of appearance or attitude, whether it’s Orphan Black‘s Helena, Sense8‘s Nomi, or Jessica Jones.

For this Scaper, she lives on off-screen as well. When my wife and I learned that we’d be having a daughter, we thought about all the things we wanted for her life. To know that she, and she alone, is in control of her body. To be strong in the face of injustice. To be confident in her own power. And to know that when she chooses to give her heart to another person, that person will be her champion, and give her the space to grow to her full size. And so we picked a name that, for us, would embody all of our hopes and dreams for the individual she’s becoming with each passing year.

Her name is Aeryn.

[6ix-dragons]

Edens Zero: Chapter 121 (My Impressions)

Well...where should I start from here? I was thinking more along the lines of covering Shiki & Homura’s interactions, first, followed by the introduction of Nero’s other squad (and the implications from their presence), then with Weisz & Hermit, before finally capping it out with Rebecca’s powers (and their limitations).

Now that I mentioned it all, ‘though...yeah, let’s go with that! xD

SHIKI & HOMURA

First, I should probably mention about the ‘fanservice’ nature of this scene, since I’ve already seen a few readers bring that up. Sure, you have Homura taking a bath, in this one. And, yes, Mashima has drawn stuff like this, before. However, I don’t think that this kind of fanservice really takes away from the context of the situation.

In fact, I can appreciate the interactions between her, and Shiki—along with their building relationship with each other. Not as much in the romantic sense, but more in terms of the bonds between them. Shiki, again, cares more about his friends he has made, along the way.

Considering Homura’s comments about always being friends together, ‘though...that would be a little concerning.

BEAST SQUAD ONE

So, it turns out that the Beast Squad we were introduced to, wasn’t the only squad on the planet. As a matter of fact, these new three happen to be the strongest squad out of all of them. And, with Shiki, Homura, and Rebecca having just fought against an already-formidable group from before...I don’t see how they’ll pull it off against those three.

One of the members of Squad One suggets that they should capture Shiki, and bring him to Shura. Considering Orc’s comments to Shiki that he’ll end up fighting against both Ziggy, and Shura, ‘though...that’s a little foreboding. But, we’ll see what happens next, before that conclusion can be made.

I also have a feeling that they might also encounter Elsie’s crew...or even Justice’s group, rather than the Edens Zero trio—which is probable, given the title of the next chapter (which I’ll get to, at the end).

WEISZ & HERMIT

I was debating in my mind, whether I should cover this at the end of this post, or leave it as second-last. Eventually, I feel that Rebecca’s scene in this chapter was more important than this, so this became the second-last topic I want to discuss.

As the chapter cover implies, the chapter is more focused is on Weisz, and Hermit, as they make their way towards the satellite that Ziggy is using to electronically transmit the virus.

Much like Shiki and Homura above, I did like the interactions between Weisz and Hermit, if not more than Shiki and Homura. Maybe, it’s because of how Hermit is a human-like android, and the whole relationship between human, and machine, at large in this series.

It’s much concerning when Hermit tells Weisz to destroy her, if she turns on him (despite the latter calming her down). When you consider her earlier comments about how the virus is being updated in real-time (in spite of her having anti-virus protection), it does seem likely that she might be affected by it. I can’t imagine the feels (angst, more like it) that will come about, should that actually happen. 

With all that, ‘though...things start to hit the fan really hard, from there. And, I mean it: It’s the return of Dr. Muller.

Aside from taking note of how much he looks like some enemy you fight in Killing Floor 2 (or Wolfenstein), this has to be the most shocking return out of all the characters we’ve seen in the series, so far. 

If it’s recalled correctly, Dr. Muller was apprehended by the Interstellar Union Army, after they raided his lab. Then, years later, we see that he’s now working for Ziggy, as evidenced by his remark that he told him he would be meeting Hermit again. 

So, my question about all of this, is: How did Dr. Muller end up under Ziggy’s command? But, most importantly, how did he end up in his cyborg form? Both are questions that will have to be answered in the next chapter—and if not, then the one after that. 

REBECCA’S POWERS

Finally, oh, finally, there’s this part that I’ve been saving for last!

So, before this chapter, I’ve seen some readers online who have wondered if there were any limitations to Rebecca’s latest capabilities, with regards to time/world travel. This chapter here, pretty much answers that—at least, for the time travel part.

After some experimentation with Pino, Rebecca finds out that she can still use her powers to go back into the previous moment she was in. However, she can’t use it too much, as it actually drains her strength, and can also cause other adverse effects—such as the physical cracking that formed on the side of her face. 

Based on the theories that were brought up by other readers online, about how Chronophages (you know, those time-eating monsters we saw, back in Norma, and Guilst?) were formed...and, how they may have something to do with time-altering users, like Rebecca...I get the sense that a possible consequence for overusing those powers would be turning into one of those Chronophages. Either that, or she literally disintegrates from existence. The angsty implications aside, I don’t think we’ll ever know what would happen to her, if she overuses her powers, until later on.

My only question surrounding the use of her powers, is pretty much how she will use them, to get herself, and her friends, out of Foresta, safely.

And, to cap off this post, we do get the title of the next chapters, which is “Victory Giant” (courtesy of 11thDoctor, over on Twitter). There is a character by the name of Victory, who happens to be among Justice’s crew. Maybe the next chapter will have something to do with him, more than anything else.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.25 (after 1920)

1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people. 1939 – The Irish Republican Army carries out the 1939 Coventry bombing in which five civilians were killed. 1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power. 1940 – World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force. 1941 – World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay. 1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. 1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty. 1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. 1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads. 1958 – The world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. 1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy. 1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964. 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group. 1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. 1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. 1985 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith. 1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. 1989 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after take off from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found. 1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union. 1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence). 1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. 2003 – NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space. 2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida. 2006 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. 2011 – Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

[alexis-medina]

THE SHIP CONTINUES TO BLOOM!!!! 😩💕

~ CREED X HOMURA ~