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dw-humps-n-snarkives · 1 month

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My two cents at the Johnto discourse since "complexity" is at play here:

1. The audio has explicitly called back on the imagery of mirrors representing the fact that the events that took place in this particular audio is an alternate timeline. Everything in this audio did not happen in TV Torchwood's canon.

(Although, I'm one of the people that don't believe in canon when it comes to the Whoniverse, but we're speaking in narratives here. You can argue that TV John is still capable of doing such things considering what transpired in the episodes involving him, but there's still a particular part of his character that we tend to overlook which I will be picking up at #5).

2. You are ALLOWED to be uncomfortable with the contents of this audio as you can with many other forms of media and many types of fandom. This audio was an experimental approach to Torchwood as a whole, John is Jack's narrative foil and his character is supposed to show that "this is what would happen if Captain Jack Harkness never attempted to be the better person in any chance he gets."

Jack is not a good person, but he's not inherently evil either. John is definitely not a good person, you could say he's Jack's evil counterpart, but you can still see a sense of humanity in John's character especially when you see him interact with Jack.

(See: The latter portion of TDOCJ when Jack realized that John went back to him because he wanted to stop the universe from collapsing, the entirety of Peach Blossom Heights in The Sins of Captain John, and smidges of dialogue between the two where John's behavior can be easily labelled as "a crazy and clingy ex.")

3. Ianto wasn't the only one who suffered in John's reign in the audio (I know that sounds horrible since I'm putting him aside but bear with me here, he'll have the whole portion after this).

Gwen was coerced to have sex with John and it immediately moves to the part of the timeline where John deliberately killed Gwen, John killing Rhys when he was (understandably) upset with not being informed that his girlfriend died, Tosh was literally treated as a disposable, and you could barely get anything from Owen since he was only mentioned once.

What Ianto went through is undoubtably SA. The way John toyed with Ianto is completely unacceptable and it should not be glorified, romanticized, or repeated in any way, shape, or form. That being said, as a fellow polycule Ianto, Jack, and John enjoyer, this audio is definitely NOT the sole reason why people ship Johnto, or conjure ship content involving John.

I'd like to refer you to this post involving Ianto's many horrible non-consensual happenings in his relationships throughout every Torchwood timeline out there (with Ianto ALWAYS being the victim). John and Ianto's relationship in this audio is also the potential outcome of "if Jack and Ianto's relationship were to be more toxic and unethical in the workplace" (and their relationship in TV Torchwood was hardly on equal grounding, too).

A VERY IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL NOTE:

I'm not stating that Jack and Ianto's relationship should be seen in a negative light, pointing out the flaws and toxic traits of a relationship doesn't make their love for each other and entire relationship any less valid. Their relationship is complicated and that's normal, I'm only pointing out the power imbalance in Jack and Ianto's relationship when viewing it in a workplace setting (being Torchwood).

Said power imbalance doesn't mean I'm ignoring the choice of both Jack and Ianto to start and keep the relationship going as they are both consenting adults, whatever problems that may cause between and outside them will follow (it's just unfortunate that in Ianto's story, he always gets involved in fucked up arrangements in his relationships because of Torchwood, whether platonic, familial, or romantic).

4. Creating ships and pairs that could potentially be toxic for either or both parties is not a new concept. If done right, liking complicated ships and pairs only means you find the dynamic, the narrative, and/or the reaction between each persons interesting, it could even be used as a study for people who are interested in making a story because stories cannot exist without conflict. This also means you don't actively support the good or bad things about a ship or a narrative, that's the point of having an audience in the first place: members of fandoms are meant to criticize the source, whether it's in a positive or negative way, because people find a way to make something new out of it in the most creative way possible. That's what fandom is.

5. Captain John Hart as a character was never meant to be taken too seriously in the first place. His behavior in The Sins of Captain John proves as such, and using him at TDOCJ was a perfect way of presenting the exaggerated "what-if" situation as he perfectly thrives in parodies and he thrives in the purest form of pettiness and unfiltered, somewhat childishly edgy entertainment. No doubt, he's a murderous, selfish asshole, but liking a villain character doesn't reflect your character as the viewer and consumer of the character's content (See: The Master).

Remember that this is Torchwood, the show where everyone is capable of doing the most unethical and immoral thing to get to their objective, and Captain John Hart and Ianto Jones are not exempted from such influence.

Most importantly, always handle discourse in a civilized manner. Coming after people while making a point will become futile as there will be no discussion made when someone gets hurt.

You're allowed to critcize the content, but don't judge the people who enjoy it. Appreciating a supposedly problematic ship does not reflect on their overall humanity.

#torchwood #ianto jones #captain jack harkness #jack harkness #captain john hart #john hart #i was not expecting this to be a review of the audio in question #i was reserving this for another time lmao

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anger-ey · 2 years

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NSR AMA File 1

Who is Mystery Man? He's intended to be open ending because it gives space to work for possible future games. They meant to be a bit cheeky about it. Daim gave the illustrator (ddaddy star @ IG) freedom to do what they want with mystery man.

Does B2J have any extra rooms in the sewers? During concept arting they had several rooms, influenced by XCOM. There was a thinking room and "recreation" room (weed room, but they didn't put it in bc controversy).

Will there be a sequel? Possible, and they're interested provided they have all the things needed like time and money.

Who came up with the story of NSR? Daim and Aidi (the main scenario writer). Daim came up with the main story, three other writers do NPC dialogue, names, item descriptions, etc. The flow of the battle is important, not too serious/jokey. They play a lot of Danganronpa.

What is the cause behind the Border Wars? They want to keep things loose in case they have other ideas in the future, but they did come up with lore for it. (personal note: James Landino also mentioned in his stream that the composers got extra lore for the bosses that didn't get put in the game.)

What are their favorite lines in the game? Daim likes the 1010 fight dialogue (fun fact: Aidi had more freedom to write it). Hazmer likes the Zuke and Eve ending dialogue, which Daim wrote.

Will they sell the artbook separately in the future? They've been discussing it (and merch) with the team. There are lots of factors, even if fans are willing to buy.

What are 1010's names? (Daim thought this would be the first question alongside Mystery Man) Officially, they don't have names. The autographs were not intended to be canon because Daim gave the illustrators too much freedom and didn't think the 1010 signatures would be significant. They didn't think 1010 would be this popular.

Characters that they didn't think would be popular but did (or the other way around)? They didn't think Kliff would be popular but he is. He was not intended to be a flashy villain. Jay Sheldon was a huge part of bringing the character to life. More than a simp, he did what he did because he believed he was right. The story is about 3 main characters: Mayday, Tatiana, and Kliff, who all have selfish reasons to fight. Tatiana doesn't want to fight because she thought she was weak when she was younger. Mayday is selfish because she wants to prove to NSR that their rejection of rock is wrong. Kliff's reason is to show Tatiana that leaving rock is wrong and a betrayal. Mayday is the hero because at the end she's the only one that can put aside her selfishness for the better of the city. They also didn't think Neon J would be popular; they blame the doodle with him and DJSS for the popularity. They didn't think he would go the fatherly direction considering he uses his own children as weapons.

How did you decide on the order of the bosses? They decide on how the bosses are in term of "evilness" and that's why DJSS was the first (Hazmer's idea was jerk Carl Sagan). First two bosses are straightforward and simple, then they slowly slip in hard-hitter bosses. Eve is Zuke's final boss, and Tatiana is Mayday's final boss.

What's the deal with Zuke and toilets? It's an inside joke. Zuke is the type of character who has a strange fascination for avant-garde things.

Does Mayday have any interesting lore? Mayday and Zuke are supposed to represent the two different approaches to music. Zuke is the academic approach, he's very knowledgeable and went to school. Mayday is more self-taught, she replicates what she hears.

How did they come up with boss attacks? They match the boss' music theme and setting theme. Many of the attacks seem similar because they couldn't make too many unique patterns in the game or players will get confused.

1010 figurines? Their intention with the 1010 figurines was for backstory in Vinyl City (what its toy history is like). Some regrets with 1010 lore because it doesn't tell much about 1010 itself.

Official character heights? They struggled with making consistent heights because they need to constantly resize in the game. It's a balancing act of lore and readibility. The ending scene is the closest to accurate heights that the game gets.

Some backstory behind character names? Daim/Aidi like to include bits from their real lives. DJSS came from Daim wanting his name to be ridiculously long and self-indulgent, also inspired by Negasonic Teenage Warhead from Deadpool. Sayu is trying to sound Malay and Japanese at the same time. Eve's name was originally Eva. The design of Eve is based on self-hatred (especially in her first video). As she grows older, she learns to love her skin condition, comfortably showing lots of skin. Unlike other bosses using external themes, Eve's body is her own theme. They did not want the characters to have surnames because they don't want to fall into the trap of Westernized naming.

Evolution of 1010's design from first trailer? They didn't have time for the first trailer but they always knew that they wanted 1010 to look a bit crazy. The design itself is a personal nod to Tron Uprising, which Daim worked for with Polygon Pictures previously.

Some Vinyl City history + writing tips Vinyl City used to have lots of music festivals, people from all over the world come over by boats, the lighthouse is a symbol of the festival, and the plaza used to house a lot of concert halls. Trying to investigate the props in the city gives lore of past music festivals. After NSR took over they rebuilt the basement of the tower, representing an arrogance in outbuilding a monument of the past after conquering it. The secret to good storywriting is control! When you make a twist, the battle is between making it too vague or obvious. Between the two, more obvious is the safer choice. It's okay for the readers/players to guess the twist early.

Why do the characters have weird skin colors? They want to break the barrier between skin color irl. That is why Mayday's orange skin is darker. Racism sucks. But the best explanation is that they just want the game to be more colorful , inspired partly by Steven Universe. Daim and Haz want to be as inclusive as possible, but they're restricted by their own inexperience with marginalized communities.

How old are the characters? DJSS is in his mid-30s. Zuke is 27-28, same as Eve. Mayday is 21. No idea how old Neon J is, they didn't want to answer what year the game takes place in. Definitely older than DJ.

1010 character roles + fight design 1010 roles were based on common k-boy band tropes. White is the leader, Red is the bad boy, Blue is the cool guy, Yellow is the maknae, Green is the eccentric guy. 1010's fight was always intended to be a breather between Yinu and Eve.

Cast Tech morse code? "I WOULD LOVE TO SUCK REAL ICE CREAM, MAKE IT DURIAN FLAVOR PLEASE" sent by DJSS. (It's an inside joke…)

#no straight roads #reblog

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theaceofskulls · 1 year

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The Original Gundam: Thoughts About the Show that Changed Everything

I've made no secret about the fact that during my watch through of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I've been miserable. If you're here for a random person on the internet to give a number at you to see how it measures up to your own number that you use to validate feelings, it's 5/10. I have anon asks turned on so you can scream at me there if that helps.

For everyone else who wants to understand the journey, more complicated feelings on the subject, what I feel holds it back, why I still argue it's something to watch, and my feelings on meeting aged media on its own terms, I'll try to make this a post I hope you'll enjoy.

First off, let's get this out of the way, viewing this through the lens of a toy commercial cartoon from the 70's and 80's, it's punching well above its weight class and the cultural significance of it is hard to overstate. I also acknowledge how frustrating it is to hear people disparage the mecha genre as "just robots fighting each other for a full series" when this series itself broke that mold back in 79.

It's also frustrating beyond all belief to hear people react to anything with any mecha influence with "ew gundam" which is a feeling I'm sure anyone who has ever interacted with people in the 40k community will have familiarity with.

I understand why people are defensive of this show. It's the foundational story for the largest timeline with the most amount of other works in it for the Gundam franchise.

What is the Show?

For those not aware, Gundam as a series is divided up into different timelines that all have different canons that for the most part don't intersect. The only exception to this is that there are a few works that are implied to be far futures of this one timeline we're talking about: Universal Century, which is a time period denoted by the change in the calendar to "UC" (implied from AD).

All of the shows, movies, OVAs, manga, novels, and so on fit onto the timeline with definitive years on this calendar, with the original being set in 0079 UC, during a period called the One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon which we follow from just after its start to its conclusion.

The story follows a ragtag crew of a prototype spaceship/mobile fortress called White Base with its own set of prototype robot weapons including the titular Gundam, with all of the crew being fresh faced youths most of whom aren't even part of the military at the start of the show after an attack on their space colony leads them to a prolonged escape that changes the fate of the war forever.

It's an interesting setup that immediately hits a lot of tropes with its own unique twist to them and drives a lot of the plot. Sadly that plot is where the issues show.

Before we go any further I want to note something important: I watched the English dub of this series. I have no doubt this influenced my feelings on the show but also I feel it's no less a valid way to experience something like this as it's not as though you can simply discount the existence of a version of the show that is meant to be there for its target audience to be able to connect with it.

I also did this because I knew that it would be dated and that I would struggle even more to finish the series if I did not have an option for it to not be the only thing I was doing at the time. This was how I had to meet the show and it worked out because I actually finished it, which is better than a lot of other series I've bounced off of even when I try to watch them for their significance.

It's also important to note here that the show famously brushed with cancellation that shortened its runtime down to 43 episodes, the last few of which were obtained by a lot of begging by the director to see it through. So when I mention pacing issues, I know there's a knee jerk reaction to be defensive here.

The Problem Pace

But all the acknowledgements in the world don't change what the actual viewing experience of the show is like. The pacing is atrocious, and when I say that I mean the following:

-The pacing of the overall plot -The pacing of individual episodes -The pacing of individual fights inside of episodes.

So just pacing problems in general. Some things feel drawn out, some feel like you're watching with the fastforward button held down and it's all related to the fact that the show is fitting into a trap that holds it by the throat and is to me the fundamental flaw of it that it only manages to escape with scant few episodes remaining: it's a villain-of-the-week format.

That villain could be a new character, a new enemy robot, or a strategy that's being tested on them but inevitably the end result is that it's almost always resolved by the end of the episode, usually by Amuro, our main character.

I hear some defenders about to cry out from that description so let me cut you off: the single greatest strength of the show is that it keeps a main plot going throughout the entirity of its run, usually by shuffling a different arc and threading it through individual episodes so that something always happens and its always moved forward by the events of an individual episode. This saving grace is actually really powerful at keeping the series watchable even as its animation and story structure have aged like milk.

Sometimes this even includes advancing character arcs. Sometimes.

But all in all, it begins to wind into a repetitive structure that begins to weigh on you when you realize that these episodes are running together and all the names are changing and the mechs they're fighting are different but it's frustratingly the same with the exception of the background which is never completely stalled so you keep going.

I kept deleting "watching Amuro saves the day" while typing out the story structure because technically sometimes its someone else but I realized that I couldn't continue discussion of why the show is hard to watch without addressing the other big issue in the room: the characters.

Characters, aka Char, Amuro, and the people who aren't as important

This series mostly focuses on Amuro Ray and his nemesis Char Aznable. One of them is extremely interesting and helped carry the franchise on his back. The other one is our POV character.

Amuro is not the most frustrating protagonist I've watched, nor (due to the glut of isekai I've seen) the most generic. But he's a hard sell. Just a regular kid stuffed in the cockpit is as bland a trope to the mecha genre as having a startup sequence for the first time in the cockpit is. It does allow him to suffer the stress of the constant war which is interesting on paper, but outside of that he doesn't have much.

He's a gear rat who pushes himself so that his friends (when the crew actually manages to become friends almost a quarter of the way into the show) don't suffer. And when you get towards the end and track his progress on paper, it seems interesting. It's just very... flat in practice. My favorite moment is him being called out for fighting for no ideology or homeland and he doesn't have an excuse beyond "so what" compared to another character who at least acknowledges they're ride or die for their found family.

Amuro instead gets defined by being the Hero who most episodes have him save the day, and not often in too interesting of a manner.

So this leaves the rest of the white base crew with not much to do as they wait for Goku... I mean Amuro to finish off the villain for them. Sometimes they're allowed to be the main character but all too often they're here to handle the background fighting.

I'll say I enjoy Sayla and even Kai's eventual arc's, though it takes almost 30 episodes for the latter to get his and until that point I legitimately wanted him to die off and I'm normally fine with Heel allies in these types of shows because most of the time they're written to showcase why they're like that. Kai is just insufferable until that point and he then rarely gets to save the day on his own afterwards.

Sayla meanwhile has a lot going on with her playing catchup at being a pilot midway through the story in an attempt to get close to her brother, Char, which considering he has his own great story going on really helps elevate her. I don't have many notes here other than it feels odd that she never gets her own mobile suit and fades away after this series, but she's the one side character I feel like I'd miss if I'd gone for the compilation movies instead of watching the series proper.

Well maybe Commander Bright qualifies too, as he's fascinating. A 19 year old who is the only military officer on board at first who still is unqualified for the role he's found himself in who struggles to hold the crew together. Him being tied as strongly to the overall plot allows him to develop over the course of the series and makes him standout.

Of the remaining main characters:

Fraw Bow, Amuro's childhood friend, quickly becomes irrelevant

Hayato doesn't get anything to do until the final couple episodes and it boils down to an inferiority complex

Mirai suffers from some great 70's/80's anime writing of women that's somehow slightly better than your average writing of female characters in shounen or isekai these days until it's time to talk about her love life

Ryu is a big guy in anime who does what you expect a big guy in anime on the good guys side to do

Slegger is introduced right near the end and is a chauvinist disruption to the crew's dynamic towards the end that the show makes me want to believe went through the same development as Kai did around the midway point but never really gets the time to be likeable in the same way

The three children who the show desperately wants me to agree should be on the military base headed into battle because they're family through justifying them helping the crew once every 12 episodes or so. I feel like my opinions here should be self explanatory

They just don't resonate with me at all that much in the end. The protagonist side ends up fairly flat because of this, with the antagonist side being made up of the Zabi family, Char, about 2 or 3 arc villains who last at least 3 episodes, and villains of the week who die often the same episode they appear in.

It's no surprise that like almost everyone else, I enjoy Char the most, but acknowledge how the story's rushed conclusion sees him declaring that his vengeance for the Zabis doesn't matter and that he must kill Amuro to within 2 minutes of that exact statement saying "I now realize the Zabis are the true enemies" with no one making a speech that actually gets through to him. Beyond that however, Char remains a fantastic character with more depth than expected who had his own arc and motivations that didn't always revolve around the protagonists and makes for an enjoyable part of the show to watch.

The Whole Love Triangle Subplot

And I've been avoiding the Laylah in the room, the woman at the center of Char and Amuro fully becoming each other's true rivals and the start of the introduction of Jedi to the series.

Yes if you don't know, Universal Century has Jedi, they're called Newtypes and while they do try to foreshadow it early on, it abruptly comes out of left field in the final 8 or so episodes and takes over every aspect of the plot. It didn't fully gel with me but it worked well enough.

My issue with Laylah is instead the love triangle that abruptly occurs and Amuro's entire motivations changing during the fight with her to be solely about how he's in love with her. While him getting bad crushes is not new to the series it's a two way thing that also comes out of nowhere for a single episode with Laylah who until this point has been solely motivated by Char and the entirety of the pivotal episode that defines the rest of Universal Century regarding this had me shaking my head with the knowledge that this was doing nothing for me. It sucked and I couldn't feel anything and this is going to be massively important for future series.

I literally knew the exact plot beats that were occurring and part of why I was watching this show was to see it in action and it just didn't work out at all. Performance wasn't the issue, the pacing, lead up, the abrupt "we were destined to be together", and lack of any interaction or introspection of Amuro and Laylah's feelings about each other just sabotage the scene and its effects entirely. You can understand what the scene is going for but it doesn't stick its landing.

Sure I grokked the Char side of things in the ensuing aftermath of the fight, but as for the moment itself, it fell flat.

The Animation

Look, this is really easy: The animation aged harder than anything else. This turns into a larger problem when it intersects the structure problems I talked about earlier where episodes are very Villain of the Week and are resolved by Amuro Mercs a Man.

That being that a lot of episodes are centered around a fight scene in the mechas, and those fights don't hold up great. It's not the worst animation you'll ever see, but when it feels like it's meant to be the core of the episode and it's underwhelming, it drags the show down.

Geewoners

Part of why I decided to put my thoughts together on this series is that in looking for other Gundam series to watch, I've seen plenty of people's ratings on other shows in the franchise and listened to them explain why a show that others rave about fell apart for them, and I realized something when I was reflecting on this show: With the exception of "aliens", almost every thing that killed another show dead for them is present in this show in some way. It's a mess of creative decisions that are divisive and drive away viewers but it's still rated highly by its fans. And I wanted to see it through to understand that.

One thing I should explain is that I am a Transformers fan who got into that series because of reruns of its original work and therefore have experience with something that fandom likes to call Geewoners, people who are superfans of the original show. The term itself tends to get a negative connotation because they insist that the show is better than anything else in the franchise, and I can't help but see reflections of that in this fanbase.

G1 of Transformers is an aged piece of media meant to sell toys. It had an amazing amount of thought put into its world for a show that was basically there to sell you a robot that is also a truck. And some episodes are great ideas that are given life by colorful and memorable characters. It's also extremely cheaply animated with mistakes all over it because of the way it was produced.

And like MSG, it's also foundational for what came after. It's hard to comprehend Transformers in its entirety without looking at G1 at some point. But it's understood that it has aged and that it's important to acknowledge that for newcomers.

Aged media is an interesting subject, because you have to acknowledge on simple fact: there's a lot of things competing for your time these days, and a lot of things that have been done poorly have ended up being done better even by their own franchises, so why should you watch something older if something newer and better exists?

In part, the answer is academic. And I don't just mean looking at something purely to write out a report or an overly long social media post on the subject. I mean that sometimes it's important to consume media to understand other media as well as yourself.

While I spent a good amount of time berating the show for its format, it should be noted that it was done in an era where it wasn't assured you could see the reruns, so missing the part 1 or part 2 of a multipart episode was a bigger deal. Thus it choosing this format is not a dumb decision on its part, but rather something necessary. It still ages the material and I'd argue that makes it harder for newer viewers to enjoy it as much. While it's possible to acknowledge that this format fits its era, it's equally important to discuss that viewing it as a modern viewer, it holds back your enjoyment of it.

Meeting media on the terms it was made is a complicated matter. Everything makes compromises and nothing is made in a vacuum, but that doesn't change the viewer's experience of it. You could argue the merits of changing the score to be weighed in light of that, but I kept it to the more shocking number of 5/10 because that's still a valid takeaway. It's an approximation of how I felt when I ended it, where I thought I had equally as many complaints as I did enjoyment of the material.

It's equally as important to understand material as it is to see media without the history or the understanding of landscape at the time, as it can be consume in either manner.

It's also worth remembering someone else's opinions don't invalidate your own experiences. MSG can be good to you and mean a lot because of your own experience with it even while to me I see it's age.

And aged media involving robots isn't just limited to 80s cartoons. I want to take a brief moment to talk about the fact that one of the hardest other recommendations you can give for mecha anime is Evangelion despite what the anime community believes due to its status. Eva is amazingly influential but that alone also damns it. Everything mecha made after it pulls from it, and as is often the case that means returning to it often makes it hard for those who grew up with its successors to understand why it's so good. If you get into any video essays on video gaming that stray anywhere close to Resident Evil 4, you'll hear this subject a lot.

Still it's hard to talk about the giants that everyone stands on the shoulders of being anything but great for someone. How can someone not enjoy the experience of something as important as they are? And the answer does often boil down to: experiencing something well after it came out or consuming media after consuming those it influenced is a different experience entirely.

I'll say this: there's a lot of nostalgia rose tinting going on when discussing Mobile Suit Gundam. I maintain it's a hard watch for people that have no attachment. Hell, the fact that I made it through was in part due to me having an attachment to the franchise as a whole.

But also I did make it through this show. It's 43 episodes and despite me consuming it at a snails pace at times and being incredibly frustrated with it in a variety of ways, it was something I could still finish. And while I stand by all my criticism above, I have to acknowledge its merits.

Okay, Time to be Nice to Grandpa

I'm not going to talk about the historical significance of the show. Others are better versed on that have made posts you can search and find. I'm not even going to discuss that this is the foundation of the Universal Century because that's not important to the experience of viewing it.

Instead I want to talk about the fact that despite the pacing issues and the performances and the animation, the story of the show is at its core an interesting examination of a ragtag crew who end up as the unlikely heroes that help end a war.

Core ideas of plots throughout the show are enthralling in ways that are hard to explain so I'll give examples:

Char's original misunderstanding that base is crewed by special forces and his attempts to understand why they're using such odd tactics

The fact that the show plays with the idea that the titular mech begins out as overpowered and everyone else is quickly catching up to it and Amuro needs to learn to use it properly before the gap it provided at the start is shortened completely

The way the Earth Federation treats the White Base, first with indifference since their attention is elsewhere to treating them as a decoy after they realize Zeon is overly concerned about the base, to finally having to depend on them. The Crew's relationship with the military as a whole is interesting to see play out

The way supply lines are actually part of the show ranging from an early episode where the threat of Char being able to resupply could effectively end their escape from him to having to figure out how to rest and repair in hostile areas

While I don't think it sticks the landing since it had to rush the arc, the way Newtypes begin to change warfare the same way the mobile suits early on had shows the war ramp up at its tail end with both sides becoming more desperate

The animation improves towards the end and becomes far more coherent even if some of the final battles are definitely stretching the budget

While I've mentioned the animation's quality, there are plenty of good standout moments even early on, mostly when mechs are exploding

The mecha design is great. While some of it definitely looks awkward, they're all captivating and the villain of the week format did allow for a lot of different designs (which in the end did save the franchise since it sold enough model kits)

The way the show handled death as something sudden and abrupt is different than almost every other mech show out there. Danger feels real most of the time and the fact that almost no one gets a parting speech even if their mech doesn't immediately explode adds to a realistic feeling that doesn't cross the line of "too grim"

The show manages to find a balance where the protagonists feel important but not as though they're destined to end the war. Even as the ending ramps things up, it feels as though circumstances work out the way they do without feeling contrived. They end up at the final battle because Zeon used its last superweapon on the larger fleet and that final battle worked the way it did because of infighting and just enough tactics to find the right place to hit. It doesn't feel like the Death Star as much as an actual military battle.

Things like these keep the show watchable for reasons beyond just "you gotta appreciate the classics" or "well you need to watch it to understand what comes next", especially in an era where every detail of what happens is recorded in text for you to read on a wiki or a fan site.

MSG is not something I think everyone can love, but I think there are things in there that most people can appreciate beyond just the anime that shows the One Year War or being the official start of the Gundam Franchises' history book.

After all, there have been novelizations, video game adaptations, and other material that adapts the story and summaries of its events. But the show and its compilation movies remain with enough solid material there of worth that they're something you can chew through.

Wrapping Up

This is one of the longer posts I've made. Probably the longest I've actually posted in literal years. But this was inspired primarily because the frustration I experienced with wanting to enjoy this as much as others did. It was inspired by listening to critics dissect the other shows in the franchise extremely harshly only to turn around and sing praises of the Ur-entry in the series and wondering if it held up to the hype.

My journey was inspired by me wanting to consume exactly one work in the Universal Century Timeline and realizing when I looked at another along the way that I would be lost without starting earlier on and setting myself up for a longer journey than I wanted.

I feel like I understand not just Gundam, but also Mecha in general better. It's interesting to see what was abandoned along the way, as from episode one the idea of them actually using a mech that's stronger than everything else seems like an unbearable powerfantasy that the genre outgrew only to watch them utilize the trope in an interesting way over the 43 episode run. But at the same time I watched as it fumbled episodes or arcs that I've seen other shows nail.

When I finished the show, I let out the biggest sigh of relief at having finished it, but it also left me hungry for more content from the timeline.

Despite the flaws, it didn't drive me away. Despite the fact that it literally took me months to finish, I felt like continuing and not just jumping to another timeline or franchise entirely.

But I still maintain a lot of my feelings that I did from the beginning. It's rough, it's hard to recommend, and I'd never start a newer fan here. I still hate how central it is to being able to look at most of the rest of its timeline with those other labels on it, but I can't fully bring myself to recommend a complete alternative to it either.

I feel like it would be a niche recommendation if it wasn't central to what came next or if it wasn't first out the gate, something only for those really interested in the series to check out, but also it's something that I feel like still might be worth checking out on those merits, even with a huge amount of caveats attached.

In the end, I can't really give a general recommendation for if Mobile Suit Gundam is the type of show for you other than this: If you ever find yourself enjoying Gundam, at some point I feel it's worth looking at in some manner. Maybe like me you'll need to have it running while doing other things. Maybe you'll only be able to do it in the compilation movie format. Maybe you'll need to go with a novelization or some new version of it.

But the story ideas and some of the plot directions are captivating and worth looking at.

Just don't start here.

#gundam #mobile suit gundam #long post #gundam 0079

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sincerelyella · 2 years

Note

Hello friend, it is I, @promptnonny

I have come bearing a gift for you 💗

Character A: “You’re mad.”

Character B: “No, I’m not mad. I’m happy, thrilled. I love looking like an idiot.”

Character A: “That explains your shoes.”

Have fun ❤️

Please tag me in what you come up with for this prompt 😘

Broken Toy

Book: The Royal Romance (AU)

Characters belong to Pixelberry; Ella Brooks belongs to me. Please note that my stories are not to be stolen and or reposted on any other site. Reblogs are welcome and much appreciated.

Summary: An AU based on the show New Girl (my favorite can you tell??) Just a collection of one-shots and shenanigans that allude to the show. This will NOT be canon, that means this won’t be in Cordonia and Liam isn’t a King. If you have watched the show before, you know they are in Los Angeles, California.

The Loft masterlist

A/N: This is legit so dumb lol just pure shenanigans and I apologize in advance.

A/N2: I know I pop up every now and then, I’m so sorry for that. Aaaand I also know my taglist is OLD. So please please PLEASE let me know if you want off. I promise, my shit isn’t all that important and I won’t be offended. Love y’all!

Thank you @promptnonny for sending me this, I absolutely loved the prompt!

Also participating in @choicesflashfics with two prompts in bold.

Love you @ao719 thanks for reading this and encouraging me to post this craziness that may or may not make sense LOL

Warnings: Adult language; sexual innuendos; Loft shenanigans

Words: 979

Leo sighed as he took another long swig of his beer. The loft was empty and quiet that Friday night, save for the television playing some rerun of the news from earlier. He had a rough day at work, traffic was horrendous coming home, and trying to get used to the painful and swollen manhood in his pants was proving to be a difficult task.

The cell phone that lay on the coffee table in front of him suddenly rang, and a picture of Ella popped up on the screen. Leo’s brow raised in question as he picked up the phone and swiped to answer.

“Yello?”

“Leo!” Ella’s frantic tone caused Leo to sit up on the couch, then immediately grimace and grab his crotch in pain.

“What? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I need you to come and get me! You gave my number to the wrong guy!”

“Wrong guy?” Leo’s brain was half-buzzed and he had no idea what she was talking about. “You just don’t seem like yourself tonight, El, are you good?”

Ella let out an exasperated sigh. “I told you I liked Chad! And you gave my number to Beaver instead! And it turns out, that’s his government name! Not a nickname!”

The lightbulb finally flashed. “Oh! Chad? He’s boring as fuck! Beaver is so hilarious! What did he do?”

He heard Ella lower her voice, and there was a slight echo as if she was hiding in a bathroom. “He just told me a 10-minute joke about a squirrel with the punchline ‘eat these nuts.'"

Leo let out a loud rumble of laughter. “You’re gonna end up having sex missionary with a lot of eye contact.”

“Come pick me up now!” Ella hissed. “This is your fault!”

The next day

Leo sat at the kitchen island, a large bag of ice over his crotch as he thumbed through a new issue of Better Homes & Gardens while sipping his coffee. Ella slammed a drawer shut and it made Leo jump. “What is wrong with you?”

“I can’t believe you did that to me, Leo,” Ella snarled as she stirred her coffee and creamer. “What did I ever do to you?”

“Firstly,” Leo stuck a finger in the air. “I did nothing to you. If anything, I was trying to help a friend. Second,” he stuck another finger up. “You set me up with that model and now my whole penis is broken! You had this coming.”

Ella raised a brow. “Aw, so sad that your toy is broken. That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?”

“No, what’s melodramatic is me not being able to get something going with myself! It’s like a taffy pull on a hot summer’s day!”

“Ewwww!” Ella screamed as she covered her ears.

Drake and Maxwell walked into the kitchen, Drake with his normal scowl, Max with his cheerful smile.

“Good morning everyone!”

“What did Rys do now?” Drake asked upon seeing Ella with her hands over her ears.

Ella let out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t even repeat it, I can still see the visual in my retinas!” She stomped off to her room in a huff.

“She left her coffee,” Max quipped. “Let me bring it to her before she short circuits.” He grabbed the mug and high-tailed after her.

Drake took the first sip of his black coffee and sighed happily. “Hey, how long are you gonna ice that thing?”

Leo shook his head sadly. “Eight weeks. Any excitement is excruciating pain.”

Drake nodded in response; then his mouth curled into a mischievous smirk. “Boobies.”

“What?”

He hid his growing smile behind his mug as he took another sip of coffee, then repeated himself a little louder than before. “Boobies.”

Leo sat up in his seat, a broad smile on his face. “Oh I love boobies … ow!”

Drake couldn’t contain his grin as he continued. “Girls with clean hair.”

Leo’s smile had faded and his face contorted into a grimace as he groaned in pain. “This is the least funny game we’ve ever played.”

“Models eating sliders.”

“What the fuck, Walker? Stop!”

“Bernadette Peters on a high beam.”

Leo pressed his forehead against the kitchen island as he squirmed and continued to grab himself to lessen the pain.

“Freshly baked bread,” Drake gleefully continued his word torment.

“Why do you hate me?” Leo yelled.

Drake cackled. “Leo, this is just your hypochondria.”

“No, when I sat on the mute button and thought I’d gone deaf, that was my hypochondria!” He slowly slid off of the bar stool and hobbled to his room. “I need a fucking cast on this!”

“You’re mad.”

“No, I’m not mad,” Leo hollered from his room. “I’m happy, thrilled. I love when you make me look like an idiot.”

Drake wandered to the open door and smirked at his friend laying face down on his bed. “That explains your shoes,” he snorted. “I kid, I kid. But really, they’re ridiculous.”

Leo’s head flung up and glared; he had his fluffy dinosaur house shoes on. “It’s cold and comfortable!”

“It’s 68 degrees, Rys!”

“What are you wearing? Like I’m the one wearing stupid shit!” Leo gestured to Drake’s pants. “Are those your girlfriend’s pajama bottoms?”

Drake awkwardly looked down at himself, forgetting he threw it on and pulled his shirt down over his crotch. “It’s uh … football pants for breast cancer awareness.”

“It’s pink with 'juicy' written on your ass, you freaking weirdo.”

Throwing back the last of his coffee, Drake grimaced and released an exasperated breath. “I like how it hugs my junk okay?”

A door opened down the hall and a female voice echoed down the hallway. “Drake, where are my pants?”

Drake’s eyes widened and he turned and ran back to his bedroom. Leo let out a hoot of laughter, then grunted and grabbed his crotch in pain. “Busted!”

#Broken Toy #The Loft #trr #trr choices #trr fandom #trr fanfic #choices fanfic #choices #play choices #choicesflashfics #prompt nonny #the royal romance #the royal romance fandom #the royal romance fanfic #the royal romance fanfiction #young adult

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unhumanrights · 1 year

Text

Potential Lower Decks fanfic and fanfic-adjacent ideas (and it turns out some talk about writing insecurity, which is the first four paragraphs so you can skip if you want)

LONG INTRO

I'm about to type a LOT of stuff. This whole post got longer than I thought it would.

So, I have my AO3 account, finally. I don't have any other creative projects. What's stopping me from writing some fanfic already?

MYSELF. I AM THE PROBLEM.

Okay, I'm exaggerating for comedic effect! I will admit to still being nervous about writing something that's not my own brainchild, though. "What if I get it wrong?" I ask myself. "What if it doesn't sound anything like the show?" I am working on convincing myself that neither question is that important. I may not get it EXACTLY right, and it may sound more like my versions of the characters than the canonical versions, but...who cares? As long as I'm doing my best and being true to the spirit, isn't that good enough? That's what I'm trying to tell myself. And also, self, no, it's not going to sound like the show. That doesn't make it WRONG. You're not a professional comedy writer, are you? No. You're not writing this for a paycheck, are you? No. So stop worrying about it!

I'm trying to tell myself this.

So, anyway, that was a long intro to say that I'm going to now do the other thing that writers do when they are scared to actually write: I'm going to talk about writing. And also plan a research project!

LOWER DECKS RESEARCH PROJECT

Actually, let's talk about the research project first. I thought I might do a second rewatch of Lower Decks, with the goal of writing dossiers for each character. Gather known facts, of course, but also take special note of dialogue and interaction. What the characters say, how they say it, what kinds of jokes are usually targeted at them, how they are with specific characters, you get it. A real resource for my own writing, and something I'd also like to put out there for others who might want to use it. Seems like a lot of work for fanfic, but I do love having a project, and this is a long-term one. Plus, it will train me to make detailed characters of my own. Also plus, it will make me feel like an anthropologist or a spy, gathering intel on my subjects, and I am a creep like that.

Okay, and now to talk about what I might want to write!

ACTUAL FANFIC IDEAS

I've already talked about some ideas I've had. Mostly, the AU stuff. My mind keeps going back to it, so it seems it may become a reality someday. I was thinking of changing the tentative name of "Spell Trek" that I came up with for my fantasy AU, since it's the name of a board game, but I figured it doesn't matter that much because it's not like I'm selling these stories, and I don't think there will be market confusion. Haven't come up with much else beyond some scattered thoughts for the setting, but I'm pretty sure it will be a straightforward conversion. You know, swap sci-fi for fantasy. Probably have them all flying around in airships instead of spaceships. Might be interplanar travel instead of interstellar. Phasers? Well, that's just a stun wand. Shields? That doesn't really change, it's just a magic shield instead of a science one. The biggest question I have right now (just popped into my head) is how to handle "warp." I have to figure out how planar travel works, I guess. I'd also have to think about whether I want to keep all the species intact or kind of play around with them a bit. Wouldn't be that hard to make Vulcans elves, or Klingons orcs. Plenty of worldbuilding to do, is the point.

The second idea I had, which is actually still applicable to the first, is the matter of story format. I've been toying around with different ways to write lately. I COULD just write in the traditional prose way, like you would find in a book. DIalogue, action, description. First or third person. You know.

I was thinking, though, that I might want to write scripts instead. I've toyed around with it when writing original fiction. I don't really follow the proper TV format, though. Very loose style. But I figured, if I wanted to emulate the show as closely as possible, then maybe a script makes sense for me. Not sure how many people want to read scripts, but maybe SOMEONE out there would like them.

Oh, on a related note, I was also thinking of writing stories as transcripts. Similar to the script, but particular style. I had three possible notions to go with this idea:

The Lower Deck Five (T'Lyn for the win), or maybe just a couple of them, decide to make a piece of ancient Earth entertainment known as a "podcast." "The Cerritos Experience," or something like that. Just a place to talk about missions, gossip, whatever. So, my stories would be transcripts of their podcasts. I think this one is my favorite.

Stories told through personal logs. Could just be one character's, or could be multiple characters' talking about the same events.

Perhaps Captain Freeman decides that she needs visual records of all missions from now on, so now away teams wear bodycams or have drones or something. Transcripts of the videos that they produce.

I don't know, there's just something I like about the simplicity of scripts and transcripts. You still have to have a good story to tell, but it feels easier, in a way. For my, anyway. Eh, I'll probably end up writing traditional prose, too, but I do want to experiment with one of these ideas (probably the podcast).

Sorry I wrote so much. Hey, you didn't HAVE to read it. Thanks if you did, though. Let me know if any of this sounds interesting.

#fanfic #fanfiction #lower decks #star trek lower decks #writing insecurity #spell trek #gotta get that tag started for when I MAKE IT BIG #AU #star trek au #lower decks au #i wrote way too much #and now I still am in the tags #somebody stop me

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negpos-comments · 15 days

Text

Undertale Dream

because the last time someone had an undertake dream it got decent traction and also because i haven't had a dream in so long.

Snowdin and the Dunes swap places in the Underground. Like Geographically. When Sans and Papyrus “show up one day” they show up in the Dunes. The Dunes acts more like a Mesa than a desert. There’s still sand, but… ‘Snowdin’ no longer has any snow Starlo + Feisty(j) 5, Dina and Ceroba are in the Dunes. Dina’s business means Grillby works somewhere else (probably ‘Snowdin’) Sans is just naturally popular, while Starlo struggles to achieve Sans’ popularity. Instead of wanting to join the Royal Guard, Papyrus attempts and succeeds in joining Starlo’s crew. Sans doesn’t really care. (note: Sans and Alphys still had their whole scientist thing going with Gaster, that part doesnt change. Sans also has existential nihilism and shit)

Due to ‘bad influences’ MK lives in Waterfall, still looking up to Undyne. New Home/Capital is more lively, think TS!Ruins, but WAY BIG, to the point where there’s a tour guide. Capital is also very buggy; characters can fall into secret rooms underneath the ground or just clip out of bounds. This is apparently a feature?

There is a cavern somewhere in the Dunes that has Kindness’ Frying Pan on a pedestal. Actually all the Fallen Humans’ items are in secret places, hidden by the humans, instead of just dropped. The Patience Knife was in a room that marked the location of the Kindness Pan. There is no barrier preventing movement from Dunes to Ruins.

Frisk was the 7th fallen human, with the ghost Chara still being linked to them. They carried with them a violin case, which had a violin, bow, and Toy Gun. They die, and when Clover falls Frisk and Chara start to haunt Clover. Before they died they buried the case in a secret underground room in the Capital Chara told them about.

Clover has the Cowboy Hat and the Stick. Frisk had the Bandage and the Toy Gun.

According to some sort of official guide (of this version of Undertale), it says Sans and Papyrus never die. Like they just don’t die. While some have taken this to mean the genocide route isnt canon, by looking out of bounds, you see Sans and Papyrus just leave the scene and are replaced by another set of Sans and Papyrus, thus meaning there are two Sanses and two Papyruses. This is important, because the 1st set of brothers ends up trapped in the cavern with the Kindness Frying Pan after the entrance to the cavern crumbles, meaning the second set of brothers are free to do whatever they want. (also for whatever reason in this dream i never bothered to get the Frying Pan so idk what would happen if clover tried to get it)

One last bit about the dream is that when Clover enters Capital and glitches off the trail, they are able to help Asgore, who is stuck in a secret room underneath a tree and a patch of grass. Interacting with the tree will cause the tree to ‘fall’, opening up the secret passageway. After Asgore leaves the room he gives you the violin case belonging to Frisk, after which you pick up the toy gun no matter what. The player doesnt get an option Clover just picks it up.

I think Waterfall, Hotland, and Core are mostly the same mostly cuz I dont think about those areas a lot so i dont end up dreaming about them.

#undertale #glebnarush #chaos #what the fuck am i doing #dreams #undertale au #undertale dream #because dreams and ut/dr have some sort of connection

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your-favorite-therapist · 4 months

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Lutual Statement

After a pretty rough week with a lot going on, the Lutuals have decided that moving forward we will be a bit more selective regarding certain things. We love sharing our characters and developing new and interesting storylines for people to read and interact with and want to continue doing so while protecting ourselves and our mental health.

Please see below on the things we expect moving forward.

Asks, anon or not, will be deleted on sight and the sender blocked if they fall into any of the following categories:

NSFW - finding the characters hot is fine! Telling the mods what you want to do to those characters sexually is not!

Violence - show typical violence may be part of storylines or backstory to inform characterization! Graphically describing violence you would like to see done to the characters doesn’t! To vent frustrations with characters, please throw a bible at them; the mods will get the message just fine.

Hate Speech - the Lutualverse is a fun spinoff of the Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss settings and isn’t the place for social or political commentary. We’re just here for the various shades of queer relationships; if you’re not, kindly move along.

Spam - many Lutuals utilize their queues for asks and submissions; if you sent it once, we probably got it and will answer asks and post submissions in due time. Sending more than once will just confuse Tumblr and annoy the mod.

To better form a cohesive, consistent universe with multiple storylines, the current Lutualverse is a set roster you can find here, all of whom have been vetted as 18+. As the blogs, storylines, and shows are 18+, it is recommended that minors do not interact.

We are not accepting applications at this time to join the Lutualverse, though individual mods may respond to starters at their discretion; these events will not be canon to the universe.

Again, we would like to stress that we enjoy the interaction and support. This is to protect us and better craft compelling stories. Thank you for your understanding.

-The Lutuals

Hello darling, are you lost?

Oh, you must be scared here in Hell... But do not worry. My name is Vienna, I'll lead you out of this terrible place. -🌸

Admin is @silvireal

Storytime:

Vienna (V) (she/her, lesbian).

She was born in Germany in ~1920 and got killed in 1944. During her lifetime she was a doctor (and also developed weapon designs for her country, which actions she strongly disapproved tho).

She made it up to Heaven after death and continued developing weapons on Adam’s personal orders, also working part-time as a therapist.

After Adam's death she became @ask-lute's therapist and made her life a bit better for a few weeks. But then something went completely wrong...

Currently in Hell with two simps - @exorcist-timpani and @exorcist-ava. 💕

Important notes:

Demonic powers Vienna's demon form Lee's demon form Pieces of painful memories (Lee) Luther (Lee during her lifetime) Lee's backstory (part 1)

Current story:

Non-canon "what if" series:

Val's Toy Butch Rockstar Holee Spy Pony (lmao)

#therapist vienna #sinner lee #lutualverse #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel oc #oc #oc art #my ocs #oc ask blog #ask ocs

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levis-bathtub · 4 years

Text

Some weird headcanons and vibe readings and stuff no one asked for

Lucifer:

Can't ride a bike. He says he just doesn't like riding them but he really just never learned

Can't grow a beard. Like at all.

Probably near sighted but chooses not to wear glasses or contacts

Strikes me as the type of person to just. Not go to the doctor? Like ever?

Mammon:

Colorblind

Pissed off a goose once and is now terrified of geese. Understandably.

Probably scared of horses too. They're too big. He doesn't like them.

Fucking sticks gum under the desk

Probably really likes animated movies

Really good at foosball (I think it's called table soccer in other places?)

I wanna see him wear a beanie. I think he'd look cute.

Leviathan:

Can't wink. He just kind of like blinks one eye at a time.

Looks like he can't swim. I know he's a sea monster but he just kind of has that vibe? Like the kid who cries whenever he walks too far into a pool and his feet lift off the bottom. That vibe.

Really likes those girly desserty scented lotions/hand sanitizers but is too embarrassed to ask for some so he'll just stare longingly until someone offers it to him

Satan:

Sneezes. Just. Into the open. Those big giant old man sneezes.

Writes post-it note reminders for himself, but they're super vague so he just has notes with shit like "Ask Beel about *illegible scribble*" and "Buy thing" all over his room

Because of his vague note taking skills he just does the whole "Well if I can't remember it, it must not be important" thing and just... never does anything about it. He can't even remember to take the post-it notes down.

"I don't work here but yeah I'll help you"

Asmodeus:

Collects things. From small things like candles and knickknacks, to whole ass clocks and lamps and shit

Can never figure out how much to tip so he just leaves how ever much he thinks they deserve (which is always way too much but who's complaining?)

"Hey, MC, share a locker with me 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰"

Locker is full of random decor and photos and those little white boards and has literally no room for MC's things

"Wait why are you moving back to your locker 😟"

You know why.

Beelzebub:

Type of guy to just never go to a barber. He cuts his own hair. Sometimes it's ugly but he does the whole "Well I can't see the back of my head so I don't care" thing. You should. It's a disaster.

Sunscreen who?

"Hey, can I borrow a pencil?" *chews the shit out of it*

Also the one guy in class who's pen always explodes. Like??? How does that keep happening? I've never had a pen explode on me before??? How does he do it???

Belphegor:

Unkempt eyebrows

Like. Really unkempt.

Not a headcanon or anything but he'd look super hot in glasses

Just fucking smacks things whenever they're not working as if that's helping at all

Would be really artsy if he wasn't so lazy. Same.

Diavolo:

Excessively polite to NPCs while playing video games

Just apologizing left and right and crying after hurting characters that don't even exist

(I'm projecting can you tell)

Really wants to try dyeing his hair but Barbatos keeps talking him out of it

Let the man experiment, Barbatos

Really good at bar games. Like poker and darts and billiards and stuff

I think he'd look hot with a 5 o'clock shadow but that might just be me

Barbatos:

Does the "I'm invested in this TV show but I refuse to acknowledge it so instead of sitting down I'll just stand next to the couch with my hands behind my back for an upsettingly long period of time" dad thing.

Really into trains

Gives off the vibe that he knows how to grill really well but is actually just kind of average at it.

I feel like he's really into rom-coms, but not the good ones. He just likes laughing at bad movies and thinks they're more entertaining than actually good movies.

I don't know anything about weed but I feel like Barbatos smokes weed. Probably with Solomon. Or maybe because of Solomon. Solomon can be stressful to deal with.

Solomon:

Gives me "Chaotic neutral dad chaperoning an elementary school field trip" vibe.

Probably has a lot of skills that he just... never uses? Like playing the saxophone? Knife throwing? Juggling? He's lived a long life and gets bored easily. He has a lot of time to learn a lot if things.

Just. Likes to set things on fire.

Likes the smell of gasoline.

Simeon:

I don't know if canon Simeon would be into drinking alcohol, but human AU Simeon would be super into fancy wines and champagne and stuff

Probably knows a lot about cheeses too? Both in canon and human AU.

Throws those really relaxing parties. Like Christmas parties, cocktail parties, movie nights.

Just really domestic and wholesome and relaxing to be around.

Really likes owls.

Luke:

Little kid cough

And chugging a bottle of water hella loud

As someone with ADHD, Luke has ADHD. I'm not sorry, I do make the rules.

I feel like he's really into antique stuff? Like old toys and stuffed animals and posters. Stuff that's cute and childish but with a hint of retro aesthetic.

Also into flowers. Like arranging bouquets and wreaths, flower language, stuff like that. He just likes pretty things, ok?

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the-hot-zone · 4 years

Text

Too Old To Play With Toys: The Sad Truth Behind Sokka's Boomerang

This is Sokka’s boomerang:

[ID: a screenshot of Sokka’s boomerang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It has just been thrown, and it whips through the air in a rapid, whirling motion. End ID.]

And as we all know, it always comes back. This characteristic makes Sokka’s boomerang a returning boomerang, rather than a hunting boomerang. This is an important distinction to make, and it’s where the heart of this headcanon lays. Let me explain.

Accuracy: What’s the Difference Between Hunting and Throwing Boomerangs?

There are three types of boomerangs: the hunting boomerang, the returning boomerang, and the cross boomerang. We’re only going to be discussing hunting and throwing boomerangs, but feel free to learn about cross boomerangs and their construction--they’re really cool. As a general note: the following sources and information pertain to Aboriginal Australian cultures. Boomerangs were used elsewhere, but mainly as throwing sticks, not returning boomerangs.

So, hunting boomerangs, also known as throwing sticks or kylies, have this basic shape:

[ID: a black silhouette of a hunting boomerang. It is shaped like a skinny tear drop, with a slight curve along its form, and it widens asymmetrically at its ends. End ID.]

[ID: an overhead shot of three hunting boomerangs. They are carved from glossy, light-brown wood. End ID.]

Artist: Aboriginal Elder, Joe Skeen Snr. Buy here.

The hunting boomerang is straighter, larger, longer, and deadlier than the returning boomerang. “With it,” states the Britannica, “animals were maimed and killed, while in warfare it caused serious injuries and death.” This is due to its shape, which allows it to travel in a relatively straight line. With its capability for distance and force, the hunting boomerang is a very powerful tool.

According to Boomerang: Behind an Australian Icon by Philip Jones, a hunting boomerang can travel around 100 meters. If the boomerang is heavy enough, and the throw forceful enough, large prey, like kangaroos, can be killed. If you want to see a hunting boomerang in action, watch sections of this Youtube video. The range and accuracy of this tool are amazing.

The returning boomerang, which was used in eastern and western parts of Australia, is very different:

[ID: a black silhouette of a returning boomerang. It has two arms that widen towards the middle and connect, forming an angled shape, like a triangle with two sides. End ID.]

[ID: a painted returning boomerang. The base is formed from a smooth, light-colored wood. Designs are painted at the end of its wings, in the middle of its wings, and towards its center. At the center is a stylized turtle. End ID.]

Artist: unknown, but sold by Aboriginal-owned business Murra Wolka. Website here.

As you can see, the returning boomerang is shorter, smaller, and angled sharply. The shape of it allows it to trace an elliptical path, thus returning to the thrower. But this property is not without its drawbacks:

“A hunting boomerang needs to fly well and nearly straight to strike prey some 200 metres away. The trouble is that the best-flying boomerangs tend to return, rarely departing beyond fifty metres from the thrower. With the returning form ‘there is no certainty of hitting the mark. It may come back too quickly and may hit your own friends standing near you.’ While recognising that the best-flying boomerangs do return, Aborigines defined a technological problem. They needed to strike a compromise between flying ability and hunting requirements...” (Australian Museum).

Now, the returning boomerang could still be used to hunt, but not to kill or maim prey. Its application was craftier:

“When hunting ducks, for example, nets were set up at either ends of a creek or river. A boomerang was then thrown out over the ducks which gave them a scare so that they took off up the river and flew directly into the nets. From there they were collected. At other times during the hunting of birds the returning boomerang was thrown horizontally along the ground into a flock, and, as they took off the boomerang would follow them into the air. This may or may not kill the bird and a harder way to hunt” (murruppi.com).

Still, this wasn’t the main application of the returning boomerang. In actuality, it was used as a toy:

“The returning boomerang was not primarily designed for hunting as it is too light and wouldn't guarantee a kill. Rather, it was designed as a toy for young aboriginal boys. The toy would allow a youngster to practice throwing skills but still make it fun” (murrippi.com).

So, Sokka’s boomerang? A plaything.

Let’s Bring It Back to ATLA: What Does This Mean?

With the above information, Sokka’s use of his boomerang in canon becomes almost tragic. His boomerang was probably given to him by Hakoda when he was very young. He used it to learn how to throw; one day, when he was older, he would have carved his own throwing stick, and used it to hunt alongside his dad and the other adults of his tribe.

Instead, Sokka’s boomerang is another aspect of his childhood that was twisted by the war. His boomerang is--should have been--nothing more than a toy. He shouldn’t have had to use it to fend off Zuko, attack Azula, and defeat Combustion Man. Regardless, it did become a tool he used to help defeat the Fire Nation, and that’s pretty fitting when it comes to ATLA’s ideas of childhood and war: Sokka spent years acting as his tribe’s protector; Katara spent longer acting as a mother. Thus, his use of his boomerang throughout the show displays how Sokka was forced into a war-torn world at an incredibly, unfairly young age. As a result, he was forced to adapt in ways that took from him.

And we’ve all seen Sokka’s boomerang in action. Here’s a video of his greatest hits--literally. His accuracy is insane, and he catches his boomerang every time. He’s more than ready to have a hunting boomerang, yet we see him use his returning boomerang throughout the show, and long after he earns his ice dodging mark. Tbh? I think that Sokka didn’t want to carve a hunting boomerang without his dad guiding his hands.

So, you might be wondering, what happens post-war?

Eventually, I think Sokka retires his returning boomerang and carves his own hunting boomerang, but the shape of it is particular:

“Some scientists argue that a throwing-stick, commonly used by indigenous hunters around the world, is the precursor of the boomerang... Through trial-and-error the boomerang was refined to a point where the most desirable size, proportions and curvature were established. This refinement brought one serious problem: any improvement in flying resulted in a tendency to return. There is little doubt that indigenous hunters brought this experiment to its ultimate conclusion, by producing the perfect returning boomerang” (Australian Museum).

In short, making a good hunting boomerang is hard. Lots of trial and error, and still, hunting boomerangs come in a wide array of shapes. Thus, I headcanon that Sokka carves his hunting boomerang differently, as compared to the other members of his tribe--it’s more curved. This would show that although he's grown up and is in a post-war world, he's changed in some ways that can't be completely undone.

In other words, Sokka eventually moves on, but the way he throws and uses his boomerang is going to be a little different.

Conclusion

TL;DR: Sokka’s boomerang is a plaything, and this has sad implications. But also? He never should have had one in the first place. Firstly, boomerangs were traditionally made from green hardwood, which I don’t believe can be found in the South Pole. I on god can’t find any authentic sources for bone or metal boomerangs. To be more accurate and still keep with the trend of throwing weapons, I would’ve given Sokka a nuqaq and darts or a bola.

Also, as far as I can tell, Sokka’s boomerang is the only aspect of Aboriginal Australian culture Bryke used in ATLA (I can’t get a confirmation on Hakoda’s name). This is cherry-picking to the max, and it perpetuates the harmful ideas of pan-indigeneity wrt one large, singular culture.

So, if you enjoyed this, please consider supporting aboriginal artists and charities. You can buy aboriginal art from murrippi.com and Murra Wolka. This article here provides a list of charities as well as active GoFundMe’s for families affected by police brutality against Aboriginal Australians. Thank you.

Sources

“Hunting Boomerang - Extreme Range - The Aboriginal Karli” by Throwsticks Channel

“Boomerang Information“ by Murruppi, Djirrbal/Ngadjonji Tribe

“Boomerang” by the Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors for the Encyclopaedia Britannica

“It Comes Back ... What a Nuisance!“ by Stan Florek for Australian Museum

Boomerang: Behind an Australian Icon by Philip Jones from Wikipedia

Murra Wolka

Gonna tag @atlaculture because I think this is of your interest. <3

#atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #atla meta #atla headcanons #atla hc #YES this is angsty shhhhhhh #am I doing meta right?

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syn0vial · 4 years

Note

Hello Wise One! I was actually hoping if you can give me some solid personality pointers on Jango, rather than Boba, Fett?

sure thing! full disclosure that my knowledge of jango is not as extensive as my knowledge of boba, but i’ll do my best with what i have! here are some personality traits of jango’s i’ve observed:

paranoid/protective: this is a big one if you ask me. jango endured a life of betrayal and loss before he became a bounty hunter and it shows. besides boba, he doesn’t trust anyone fully, not even those closest to him and is always ready to cut ties at the drop of a hat—lethally, if necessary. his mistrust of the rest of the galaxy is so potent that when he takes boba on missions to populated areas, he instructs him to hide even from normal foot traffic and becomes anxious when he learns that others may have spotted him. it becomes pretty evident that part of the reason boba was so isolated growing up was that jango didn’t trust the vast majority of the galaxy enough to let them near the kid. and when other bounty hunters find out about him? ho boy. jango actually convinces them that he killed boba using a cloned child’s body, bc he’d rather be known as the worst kind of monster rather than make boba a target. there’s also the fact that, after their apartment on kamino gets found out by obi-wan, jango is packed and ready to leave in minutes. not only is he ready to bug out at the first sign of danger, but he’s well-prepared to do so at a moment’s notice.

a loving father: another big one. for those who look at a man as battle-hardened and stoic as jango fett and wonder whether boba got enough affection as a kid, worry not: in the vast majority of depictions, jango is a very loving father, especially when he’s out of the prying eyes of clients and colleagues. he hugs boba, tells him he loves him, joins him in playing with toy starfighters, and tries to make time for him as much as he can. he even does his dadly duty of going fishing with his son (though he and boba practice spearfishing rather than using a rod and tackle). there’s also a wistful little scene where, trying to help boba feel better after zam’s death, he takes him to kamino’s main spaceport and lets him infodump about all the ships he sees there :,) so overall, he has a lot of good qualities as a dad

controlling: and the other side of the coin! while jango is a genuinely loving father, he’s not at all the type to encourage his son’s independent development. self-sufficiency? sure. interests in anything other than the path jango has laid out for him? not really. he actively discourages boba from learning about “unimportant” topics from books, an apparently very broad category given it includes things such as schools, moms, and other children. he drills into boba’s head that he’s going to be a bounty hunter and that he needs to abide by a code with such healthy guidelines like, “don’t have friends or attachments” and “trust no one but use everyone.” boba, of course, goes with it bc he loves his father and wants to live up to his expectations, but he never really gets a choice in the matter. honestly, i think this side of jango is best summed up by him leaving a post-humous note for boba that says, among other things, “i am more than a parent to you.” it kind of goes along with how, after jango’s death, boba continued to think of his father not just with love and grief, but also an almost religious dread of failing his expectations. jango undoubtedly loved his son but he also seems to have defined a very narrow path for him to walk, without room for deviation.

possesses an actual charisma score: okay, now for a more fun one: jango has a charisma score and he apparently makes a habit of using it, to the point where his old friend rozatta pokes fun at him for it (he compliments her and she’s like “oh, you’re flattering me? must mean you want something!”) he also pulls the same thing on zam, calling her charming to get her to agree to help him break into a target’s stronghold. so yeah, jango fett turning up the charm to get people to help him/give him info? 100% canon, baby

very fun friendship with zam wesell: look, this isn’t a personality trait, but it’s important to me. these two are just so fucking funny together. like, on the surface, it’s just a fun dynamic of zam making flirty banter and jokes while jango pretends to be annoyed and drag her, much to her delight. but then on a professional level, you have these two ammoral assholes bouncing wildly between being one another’s Sexy Rival and being one another’s Unhinged Partner but whoops, jango went and had a kid, so now they’re Unhinged But Mostly Responsible Co-Parents. one of my favorite scenes is when, in an attempt to intimidate a prisoner into talking, zam impersonates a politician and lets jango pretend to “kill” her in front of him. for some reason, even after they’re done, jango continues to bridal carry zam’s “body” into the cockpit of slave I, at which point, she perks up, bats her eyelashes at him, and goes, “you’d never really kill me would you, jango?” jango quite honestly replies, “only if i had to.” there’s a beat and then zam’s like, “....you’re so sweet! 😘” honestly, they’re so stupid, i love them

ascetic: much like his son, jango doesn’t seem to have much interest in luxury or “the finer things.” despite having enough money to live very comfortably, his apartment on kamino is described as “spartan” in design and furnishing. this may have something to do with the first bullet point, given that a simple life is easier to pack up and take with you at a moment’s notice, but i do think there’s some amount of preference in this lifestyle, given it’s what both fetts seem most comfortable with in all circumstances.

traumatized: i mean, he’s a fett, ain’t he? particularly, just like boba after him, jango is traumatized by the loss of his family, especially his own father figure, jaster mereel. much like boba, jango seems haunted by the need to live up to jaster’s name and legacy. for background, jaster was betrayed and killed in an ambush by the leader of deathwatch, after which he passed on the title of mand’alor to jango. however, some time after this, the true mandalorians led by jango were wiped out by a combination of death watch and the jedi, with jango himself being stripped of his armor and sold as a slave. after this point, jango does not seem to see himself as worthy of jaster’s legacy and thus attempts to pass it on to his son, resulting in the high and narrow expectations he sets for boba as mentioned in bullet point #3. boba himself concludes as much as an adult. on top of the trauma of losing his family, jango also seems to have been traumatized by his time as a slave. most notably, when he’s being tortured after being captured by target komari vosa, he at first remains fairly stoic, even as she starts to mutilate his face. it isn’t until she mentions enslaving him that he seems to panic, struggling desperately to get away. vosa even laughs and says that she must have touched a nerve with her comment. basically: fetts be traumatized :(

soft spot for (some) kids: another thing that’s interesting about jango is that he... usually attempts to do right when kids are involved. i say “usually” bc fat lot of good it did all the cloned children he had a hand in creating >:( but, for example, after killing a runaway clonetrooper as part of a bounty, he finds out that the clone had a son. unwilling to let the child live in poverty due to his own actions, he has regular payments sent to the boy’s mother to help support him. in another instance, jango and zam help deliver an artifact to a client who intends to use it to carry out a terrorist attack on coruscant against millions of civilians. when zam finds out about the client’s intentions, she’s horrified and goes to jango demanding they steal the artifact back. jango completely brushes her off at first, telling her it’s not his problem and that he needs to spend more time with his son. zam coldly asks him how many “sons” he thinks live on coruscant. needless to say, her argument convinces him to join her in stopping the terrorist plot :,)

aaand that’s all i got at the moment! i hope it helps to characterize jango a little bit more!

#crcgeneralwandsmith #jango fett #boba fett #zam wesell #fetts pass on trauma like a family heirloom :`)#like ''got this from grandpa jaster so don't lose it now''

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rinharu-purple · 3 years

Text

On Jealousy

I owe this analysis/answer to an anon ask which I've accidentally posted, though only with the introduction sentence and then couldn't retrieve.🙈

Dear anon, this analysis is dedicated to you.

I HOPE YOU SEE THIS!!! 🙏🏻💫🙏🏻

Thank you @sin-with-quiche for proofreading and @lunabai78 for the spiritual support 💕💕💕

---—-----—

We have quite a number of moments in our journey with Gavin... Some are funny, some are cute, some are...mmm over the edge

(。-ω-)ﾉ

If you ask me whether Gavin is a jealous man, I would give you two answers:

1) Pre and early relationship... Absolutely!

2) Established relationship... The fitting colloquial term is "territorial".

In order to look at Gavin's attitude towards other males and whether to categorize them as jealous behaviour or not, first we need to describe jealousy .

Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.

The word stems from the French jalousie, formed from jaloux (jealous), and further from Low Latin zelosus (full of zeal), in turn from the Greek word ζήλος (zēlos), sometimes "jealousy", but more often in a positive sense "emulation, ardour, zeal" (with a root connoting "to boil, ferment"; or "yeast").

As you can see, there are different set of emotions that might boil or ferment the reaction of jealousy in one's belly.

My personal take on this is that jealousy arises from two simple things 1) Lack of self-confidence 2) Lack of trust towards one's partner (in terms of romantic jealousy). You don't get jealous when you know you're one hell-of-a-mate and are with the right person. Which is why as we will see in a minute Gavin fits the bill at the beginning but afterwards his jealousy isn't actually jealousy at all!

So which sets of emotions lead to his jealous behaviour and in which conjuncture?

We know that Gavin is completely attuned to MC. This also applies for his reaction towards the presence of other guys around her. So the type of jealousy he displays is attuned to MCs type of reaction to the source of his jealousy. He observes MCs aura and attitude carefully and then reacts in an either desirous, protective, territorial or downright pouty manner.

If he sees the person is overstepping their boundaries like TNTs Tyson or the guys catcalling her during Romantic Date, he gets protective. If he sees someone from his inner cycle being only the slightest overfamiliar with MC as in his phone call with Eli, he gets territorial and draws boundaries. If he gets ditched by MC and walks on her having lunch with another guy all the while she's being touched by him and she's not showing any protest, he pouts in the corner and stabs MC with his words "Too much of anything can get boring after a while" (love this moment and how Joe delivers this line with a strong tonation on the word - boooring-)

If he sees the person is actually drawing MCs attention, well... This is where we can look more into. Because this is actually a stereotypical example of making one jealous. Seeing your love interest with another person in an over-friendly manner.

In Trio Date, he worries that MC might have a crush on Kiro and a close relationship with him. Which is understandably an alarming situation for him, because he isn't that close to her himself and Kiro is... well... Kiro. Pretty much everyone's into him 🌟. But Gavin doesn't show any aggression or envy towards Kiro. On the contrary, he praises him for his charm and even says that he can see what people mean by that as in confessing to being charmed by Kiro himself. I really praise how elegant Gavin acts in the face of this situation 👑 Needless to say, it's a Gavin date, meaning the canon couple in this scenario is Gavin x MC (On a side note pretty bold and disrespectful of PG to put another LI in the supporting male role in a date for another tbh) And also RIP Chandler, the poor guy didn't do anything wrong ^_^

At this point I need to let one thing out of my chest though. I can't say that I appreciate him telling MC when and where to wear revealing clothes <spoiler alert> only for him. Even though we don't actually see him seriously forbidding her to wear them I think it would be better to leave her be the judge of it. But considering the fact that she gets catcalled even at his presence I can kinda see why Gavin gets protective here. On a side note, his girlfriend isn't better on this matter either. MC covers Gavin's body at the beach during 2021 summer event in CN server so that other girls don't drool over him 🤣 These two have some homework to do in that department I tell you that 😅

In the more mature phases of their relationship, we no longer see Gavin feeling himself threatened by the presence of another male. AT ALL! All Gavin jealousy after this point is only because someone is overstepping their boundaries and making "his girl" uncomfortable.

Gavin might be the one acting jealous the most frequently among the LIs, but he never ever gets possessive over her, limits her freedom or makes unconfirmed self proclaims on behalf of her. Being possessive over someone objectifies them and the moment you objectify a person, you no longer need to be in a relationship with them tbh. Leaving your partner room to breathe and respecting their personal space is important and Gavin does this the best alongside with Kiro. We also never see Kiro getting possessive, limiting or doing anything of that nature with MC.

Further in their relationship Gavin still acts jealous, but in an extremely cute, pure and harmless way. Be it against prankster ghosts, animals she's met in the middle of the desert, a wild child, service dogs, birds and co. Basically anyone and anything that diverts her attention from him for more than a nanosecond can be perceived as a threat but an adult male 😂At his core, Gav-babe wants MC all for himself but his jealousy is actually only adorkable.

(´∀｀)♡

In the main story, however, there is a certain LI which becomes the magnet for Gavin's firsthand jealousy and even kinda provokes this. And this is actually what I am dying to write about in this post😈. It only happens at the beginning of the story, but I love it so much and therefore it must be in this post.

Gavin shows signs of jealousy towards one particular LI at various occasions and that is...

Gavin shows obvious signs of jealousy towards our genius scientist and that is completely understandable! Lucien is the one who makes his advances first and is the most straightforward one throughout the main story. Plus, he lives right next to MC and, let's be honest here, is the only one who toys with MC's poor hormones the most. Just to give one example:

Gavin and MC don't become quite a couple before CH12 and S1 Gavin has some issues with self-worth and confidence (towards MC). When he meets MC again after 6 years, he is perplexed and is fairly clueless as to how to approach her romantically. Lest Gavin making the wrong moves, he acts weirdly around MC which further confuses her. Gav-babe is really weird at the beginning of the story 😅

The first time we see Gavin getting jealous about Lucien is in CH2, when he and MC spend a prolonged period of time for the first time as they investigate the time warping incident. Our birdcop is hopelessly in love with MC so when he sees her become so red on the phone with another person, he gets worked up.

Fun trivia, Joe's reaction to this moment can be found here

The second instance is when MC spends two nights in a row with Lucien in CH5 and then falls asleep in her office.

It is crucial to remember at this point that up to CH5, MC seems to be most romantically involved with Lucien and spends most of her time with him. LuLu mercilessly teasing her and flirting with her doesn't help much in that sense either because he is actively making advances on her. Thus announcing his candidacy for "Mr. Love". So when Gavin catches MC spending nights following Lucien, having phone calls with him, living right next door to him, working closely with him and blushes because of him, it's fairly understandable that our birdcop gets fairly jealous because at that point in the story Lucien seems to have a better shot at love with her than he does.

Btw, MC flatlines on his question as to who is the resource of her flustering this time around and doesn't explain herself ;)

Interestingly though, in the third instance, where Gavin sees MC and Lucien, he isn't jealous at all! In the famous "Rude Awakening" moment, the vibes we get at first is as if Gavin walks in to MC and Lucien. But actually our protective boyfriend is there to save MCs life. What's more, he doesn't give credit to Lucien's provocations, such as when he calls Gavin "dangerous" or pulls MC behind him, stays extremely close to her and plays the "protective boyfriend" in front of him. On Gavin's defense, the one actually saves MCs life and protects her is Gavin here as he deflects the bullet shot at her.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Furthermore, he asks Lucien to take MC home, albeit not before telling her that he will be contacting her later, signaling to Lucien that he shouldn't stick along for long. A highly subtle way of "marking his territory", much like a wolf would. God I love this scene both in the main story and in the anime.

It is necessary to mention at this point that the chapter following this scene revolves around Gavin and MC clearing all kinds of misunderstandings between them and MC trying to bind with him. Hence laying the first stones in the temple of their relationship. After that point we no longer see Gavin showing any kind of jealousy towards anyone. So mark CH7 people ;)

----—-----—-----—

You know what I would love to see? Gavin getting jealous over Shaw. I wonder whether he even knows that MC spends time with him 🤔 Too bad that PG has left the idea "brother conflict".

If you would like to read another perspective on this, Cheri has posted her analysis here

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lucky-sevens · 4 years

Text

mechanisms basics & lore

welcome to my updated mechanisms intro post! this post will cover both the topics discussed in my mechanisms basics post, which is geared towards people who don’t know what the mechanisms are, and my deep lore post, which aimed to be a comprehensive compilation of all the important character and world lore. this post should serve the above group, but it’s geared towards people who have listened but feel there’s a lot of lore that seems to be common knowledge they’re missing. we’ll start out with a basic introduction, and then go into crew lore and a semi-comprehensive guide on where to go for further information.

basics

the mechanisms were a steampunk concept band, known for their queer representation and their tragic stories. they are no longer together, their last performance being january 2020, but several of their members are still creating related spinoff content.

they follow the trope many steampunk bands do, which is albums that tell a story; think similar to listening to a musical soundtrack, but geared to a visual-less experience. what distinguishes them is 1) narration tracks between each song, making the plot very easy to follow, and 2) being meant to be watched live, meaning there’s layers of meta that are more easily understood by watching recorded gigs rather than studio recordings of albums. specifically, there’s a focus on the narrators, known as the mechanisms or the crew of the aurora, who are immortal space pirates telling the stories and occasionally inserting themselves into them. though they are tragic figures themselves, their banter serves the purpose of bringing a lightheartedness and dark humor to the stories. if there’s an aspect of the lore you’re confused on, it’s probably related to the narrators!

to watch the mechanisms live, you can find recordings on youtube, dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, or vimeo, which are all compiled in this post (including transcripts!). if visuals aren’t your thing, i’ve linked the studio recordings later on in this post when they come up, and here are the mechanisms’ official spotify, bandcamp, and youtube, as well as an unofficial comprehensive lyric videos channel.

the albums

regarding the albums specifically, there are 4 main ones (once upon a time (in space), ulysses dies at dawn, high noon over camelot, and the bifrost incident), 2 that are compilations of miscellaneous songs (tales to be told 1 & 2), 1 single (frankenstein), and 1 album that’s a high-quality recording of their last live show, including an alternative performance of the bifrost incident, 2 songs only performed at live shows, and 'the deathsong’, which details how they all eventually die (death to the mechanisms).

as you might have been able to tell from the titles, they’re all based off of various myths, folklore, literature, and/or fairy tales, using different genres on top of a sci-fi setting to add a fresh twist to them! for example, high noon over camelot is a western based on arthurian mythos, set on a space station. (the albums are known for all ending in tragedy, so be careful if that isn’t your cup of tea!) if your goal is to get into the mechanisms, i’d suggest sitting down and listening to them all in full; links will be provided below, or alternatively you can watch once upon a time (in space) live here, ulysses dies at dawn live here, or the bifrost incident live here. (there is no full live recording with visuals of high noon over camelot, sadly, but there are partial and audio only recordings.)

once upon a time (in space) - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

ulysses dies at dawn - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

high noon over camelot - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

the bifrost incident - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 1 - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 2 - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

frankenstein - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

death to the mechanisms - edited video with the stream corruption fixed + subtitles / stream / spotify / bandcamp / youtube / transcript pt. 1 / transcript pt. 2

reading the fiction is integral to understanding both the albums and the mechanisms themselves. the fiction is a collection of short stories set in the mechanisms universe posted on their website here and compiled by me here, with an extra high noon over camelot story here. (there are also audio versions for ‘mirror mirror’ and ‘a rebel yell’ included on both the website and the compilation).

the crew of the aurora

as for the crew, at their peak there were nine members played by people, as well as the ex-member dr carmilla, who has extensive solo lore and is still active (which we’ll touch on in a few paragraphs). there is also their ship, the aurora, who is sentient and has her own lore. in fact, every member of the crew has their own backstory, set in a different genre or historical period; for example, nastya rasputina's is historical, jonny d’ville’s is a western and marius von raum’s is a mecha anime. however, they’re all still different flavors of steampunk! below, i’ll list each member, their performer, and the main sources of lore about them. for the majority of them, they have their own song in tales to be told, but there are a few outliers. everyone also has their own bio up on the website, which can all be found here.

the aurora (n/a, ship)- on aurora (meta)

jonny d’ville (jonny sims)- one eyed jacks (song), jonny before he was mechanized (meta)

nastya rasputina (anonymous)- cyberian demons (song)

ivy alexandria (morgan wilkinson)- archive footage (fiction), crew bio

ashes o’reilly (frank voss)- lucky sevens (song)

drumbot brian (ben below)- lost in the cosmos (song), crew bio

the toy soldier (jessica law)- the story of the toy soldier (fiction)

gunpowder tim (tim ledsam)- gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser (song/minialbum)

marius von raum (kofi young)- the death of byron von raum summary (blog post)

raphaella la cognizi (r l hughes)- crew bio

if you’ve noticed the crew bio doesn’t say much about raphaella, that’s because we know little to nothing about her backstory. the only thing we have to go on is a quote from the tv tropes page, which looking at the edit history, was likely written by one of the mechanisms. the quote is ‘Science officer who may or may not have cheated her way onto the ship after becoming a little too interested.‘ and the page is here.

the majority of fandom content is about the crew, working off of what we get from the tales to be told songs, the live gigs, and the fiction.

dr carmilla

speaking of characters with obscure lore, let’s talk about dr carmilla! rather than linger, i’ll just link my carmilla basics post, which is a comprehensive summary of who she is in and out of universe. to summarize, she’s a character based on the novella ‘carmilla’ by sheridan le fanu, commonly regarded as the first vampire novel, but her lore has diverged heavily from that original starting point since then. she is the oldest out of all of the crew, and made the majority of the other crew members immortal. she, as well as aurora, is from a planet called terra, which was destroyed partially as a result of her actions. her character is defined by her immortality and how she deals with it, her experiences on terra, her relationship with the mechanisms, and her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-girlfriend loreli, the last of which is the most covered by her songs. out of universe, she is played by maki yamazaki. all her lore lines up with what happened out of universe, and ties to the fact the mechanisms were originally dr carmilla and the mechanisms. she has two solo albums and two singles, which i’ll link below.

ageha (prototype edition) (album)- bandcamp | youtube

exhumed and {un}plugged (album)- bandcamp | youtube

the city {nex:type mix} (single, in-character cover)- bandcamp | youtube

eleven (single)- bandcamp | youtube

the majority of her lore is still to be officially revealed, and will be in the trilogy of albums maki yamazaki is working on.