#like. who was allison church

[p0kern1ght]

alpha fragments (other than gamma and sigma but theyre bald guys you know what they look like)

[tvckerwash]

an idea I've been tossing around: what if the counselor was carolina's godfather?

[fischiee]

hhrrrnnnn,, thinking about the way that both tex and carolina reply “thanks, i won’t need it” at the same time in response to f.i.l.s.s. saying “good luck ladies” before they fight

like the way that they are actually so similar bc the director (and alpha) must have seen so much of allison in lina which warped his perception of who she really was and now they are mirrors of each other.

the way we never actually know allison so we don’t know how much of tex is the director and how much is carolina and how much is the memory of her

[peachybutch]

done a lotta thinking about tex tonight but i think tex in a very real way represents the question of who allison church is

[justjustbeth]

I think one of the most deeply hilarious things about Red vs Blue is that Beta/Tex was based on Church/Alpha's memories of Allison. This foul tempered, foul mouthed, incredibly violent woman is who Leonard Church was obsessed with???

Like, this isn't who she was, this is how Leonard remembers her. And by all accounts, these aren't his bad memories of her, either! This is what he loved about her! Fucking hilarious. By sheer virtue of the fact that nerds in 2003 thought a mean, crude girl was hilarious they invented one of the most hilarious guys: "Obsessed With My Dead Mean Wife"

[karvviie]

would actually do anything to hear more about ur arcane rvb thoughts, who are the pilties who are the zaunites i need to knoww

wait okay i haven’t thought this AU out super thoroughly yet but here are my thoughts on what each character would be so far:

church - piltie who moved to zaun because of amnesia reasons. if we’re going along with rvb lore then he is possibly some kinda fucked up clone as a result of dr leonard church experimenting with the arcane.

caboose - zaunite, probably a relatively well known person in the community. known for fixing stuff for people but also breaking stuff.

tucker - zaunite, close to caboose. hangs out at kai’s club/bar a lot. they meet church in zaun and they all sorta just stick together.

tex - zaunite (allison was also a zaunite while leonard was a piltovan) maybe also a fucked up arcane clone of sorts?

wash - low-class piltovan who was an enforcer that got fucked over by the system and had to move to zaun. he becomes disillusioned with piltover. carolina was his CO at one point.

carolina - piltovan. former enforcer mainly because her dad wanted her to be one. similar to rvb lore she goes into hiding in zaun after a bunch of fucked up stuff happens and then she tries to go back and kill leonard with the help of the reds and blues which she meets through wash in zaun.

sarge - former enforcer who was discharged for various mental health reasons. possibly not native to either piltover or zaun so he dgaf about being loyal to either he’s just an enforcer bc being in the military is all he knows. but he ends up staying in zaun after he was forced to quit being an enforcer.

simmons - piltie who got disowned by his father (or possibly exiled) so he moved down to zaun. maybe a former student at piltover academy who got expelled for doing some stupid science shit.

grif - zaunite, lives with his sister in the club/bar that she owns in the lanes. simmons probably moves in with them after getting kicked out bc grif saves his ass from getting mugged and then simmons returns the favour by fixing a bunch of broken stuff at the bar or whatever. also yes grif and simmons still do the organ sharing/cyborg stuff in this AU.

donut - ok i’m actually not sure about him. i feel like he could work as either zaunite or piltovan but i think maybe he could be a firefly

doc - piltovan medic who wants to help less privileged areas in zaun so he often goes between cities trying to provide medical aid

[chex-appreciation-week]

Chex week will be happening from October 13th through the 19th!

And with that, we also get the official announcement of the prompts!

There are no limits or rules to how these can be interpreted. You can go as literal or as artsy or silly as you want with them, the skies the limit!

Day 1: Memory

As they always say: memory is the key. Maybe it’s a simple reflection on the past, maybe it’s the fact that they’re the literal manifestations of someone else’s memories, a reflection of a once great love… or perhaps Church just forgot to close the damn cabinet again.

Day 2: Fluff

Our favorite doomed duo is no stranger to angst and tragedy… so let’s give them a break! Let them enjoy some domestic bliss for once, and spend time in each other’s company without the overbearing burden of being doomed by the narrative. Just this once.

Day 3: Family

These two found their own little family inside of a box canyon, consisting of idiots and morons but they are their idiots and morons… or perhaps you want to go further back in time to when there was just Leonard and Allison and a beautiful baby girl and the future seemed so much brighter… or maybe Church and Tex just adopted a cat

Day 4: AU

Now they’re medieval knights fighting to save the kingdom! Or maybe Church is the super grumpy coffee shop barista with a crush on the cool tattoo artist across the street! Or maybe it’s the same story we all know… but that one moment played out differently… the universes are infinite!

Day 5: Cycle

History repeats itself, time is a flat circle, however, you want to put it there’s no denying the cycle of Leonard Church and Agent Texas. A story destined to be repeated again and again until it finally breaks… or perhaps they’re just teaching Caboose how to ride a bicycle, who knows!

Day 6: Goodbye

Don’t say goodbye… I hate goodbyes… but at the end of the day, you have to let go and say those dreaded words. You have to accept that some people are truly gone. Or sometimes you just don’t get to say those words at all… or maybe… well actually I don’t know how to make this one silly

Day 7: Free Day

Make whatever you like! It can be anything and everything, maybe expand on a previous idea, create a whole new world, or make something sad or silly or soft! This is your day to shine!

As said before any and all content is welcome in this event! Art, fanfic, meta, analysis, playlists, memes etc! If it’s Chex I’ll take it! My only rule is NO AI GENERATED CONTENT!

The tags for this event will be #chex appreciation week and #chex appreciation week 2024

[dnickels]

John Irving Poem Playlist

I love the hype around Davechella and wanted to do something a little different- a mixtape of poems, with commentary (desperate self-justification) and bonus poems below the cut

I.

The Lamb, William Blake

The Pilgrim, Sophie Jewett

Self-Dependence, Matthew Arnold

The Light of Stars, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Wanderer, Unknown, trans. Roy M. Liuzza

Up-Hill, Christina Rosetti

Sir Galahad, Alfred Tennyson

II.

They Could Not Tell Me Who Should Be My Lord, Edwin Muir

God gave a Loaf to every Bird, Emily Dickinson

Ancient Text, Louise Glück

I Find no Peace, Thomas Wyatt

A Secret Told, Emily Dickinson

Mary Magdalen, James Elroy Flecker

Because I Liked You Better, AE Housman

III.

A Better Resurrection, Christina Rossetti

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Leonard Cottrell OR trans. Len Krisak

Batter my heart, three-personed God, John Donne

At Least to Pray, Is Left, Is Left, Emily Dickinson

'Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend", Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, (LXXXIV- LXXXVI) trans. Edward FitzGerald

I Shall Know why- when Time is over, Emily Dickinson

IV.

Sudden Hymn in Winter, Joseph Fasano

Fable and Decade, Louise Glück

Love (III), George Herbert

Of Molluscs, Mary Sarton

Dark Night of Soul, Juan de la Cruz, trans. E Allison Peers

He Touched Me, So I Live to Know, Emily Dickinson

The Finder Found, Edwin Muir

V.

The Plate, Anthony Hecht

Prospice, Robert Browning

Pietà, Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Jessie Lemont

DEATH THE COPPERPLATE PRINTER, Anthony Hecht

The Gold Lily, Louise Glück

Futility, Wilfred Owen

Flock, Billy Collins

"What, no Wild Geese?" spiritually Wild Geese is here, tucked in section IV, which might a well be subtitled "The soft animal gets a treat", same with Song of Songs and so many psalms I couldn't pick one. I wanted to try to play with poems that were either new to me or a little further off the beaten track (although there are still some obvious picks but come on was I not going to get some Donne in there?). Frankly, this entire list could have been Emily Dickinson start to finish, it's not yet accepted historical fact that she was an inexplicable psychic witness to the sufferings of the Franklin Expedition but I am submitting my findings to journals as we speak

(sorry Jirv for all the Catholics and extremely suspect Anglicans!!)

I. SEEKING

Whenever I invoke "The Lamb" please know I am reading it with the same menace and sense of foreboding as Patti Smith. Given the vibe I'm trying to cultivate you'd think there would be more Blake, but I think Jirv has such a profoundly different experience with Church Authority and his own conversion experience that he and Blake hardly seem like they share the same faith. Even in a scenario where he managed to unclench, I can't see him espousing a sentiment like The Garden of Love. Maybe if he survived to reflect on his encounter with Koveyook he might groove more with "[Christ] is the only God ... and so am I and so are you."

The only section that has at least a few poets I think Jirv would actually read, namely Matthew Arnold-- the only poem on here that I think isn't very good, I'm sorry to Mr. Arnold but there we are, they were right to light your ass up in Punch. He's here however because I think his work captures a very clear and immediately accessible sense of the early Victorian man striving to be himself, in the sense that he can flower fully into the model of upstanding sober bourgeois middle-class manhood which isn't always attainable for later birth-order sons in a navy overcrowded with officers. The real life Irving's letters touched me very much in that he is both looking for a deeper connection with God, a better version for himself, and in the material world, a way to make enough money to establish himself as capital-R Respectable in a way that swashbuckling at sea or derring-do in the colonies doesn't really allow him. I actually don't know if the years line up for him to have read Longfellow but this stanza:

O fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know erelong, Know how sublime a thing it is  To suffer and be strong.

Is such a classic mid 19th century "making yourself miserable for ideological reasons" motto. Shades of "Invictus" (which for some reason I don't know if Jirv would vibe with, maybe more of a Crozier poem).

I think you could also call the first section "Voyages", I was struck by how often the real Irving was compelled to relocated to try and make a place for himself in the world in the literal, material sense, and the few letters we have are largely his thoughts on his spiritual seeking-- I was very surprised not to find a settled and secured ticket-to-Heaven holder but someone who still considers himself a student, is still wrestling and grasping and looking for something.

Prithee, Pilgrim, go not hence; Clear thy brow, and white thy hand, What shouldst thou with penitence? Wherefore seek to Holy Land? Stern the whisper on his lip: Sin and shame are in my scrip.

It feels a little much to say 'Jirv is the Galahad of their doomed Grail quest' but frankly, given that no one succeeds, I kind of like the idea of a failed Galahad. It's slightly ahistorical to invoke but once we get into the 1860s and the mid-Victorian chivalric revival Galahad becomes a potent symbol for a kind of chaste imperial knighthood in service to God/Queen/Country. At least one young office who died in WWI was named Galahad, not just a PG Wodehouse joke christening.

II. CRISIS

Obviously there are ten thousand things that could torment the evangelical protestant mind and bedevil one's self-worth and it doesn't have to be "hopelessly in love with your best friend" but I wasn't going to miss a chance for some Housman, was i? Wyatt gives us the money couplet:

I desire to perish, and yet I ask health. I love another, and thus I hate myself.

I had included Flecker's We That Were Friends but felt it was just slightly too self-aware, ditto Rosetti's Winter: My Secret.

III. STRIFE

I think these are all pretty self-explanatory. I could have added ten more Emily Dickinson poems because she is the only one on this earth who gets it (me, the deal, the whole of existence). Hopkins I think is more concerned with the sins of the world than the real life Irving (who, based on the very limited material shared, must be the most laid-back and chill evangelical in human history? Or maybe I spent too long among the Baptists) but I can see Jirv wondering, in the God-proof bunker of his diary, why the wicked are flourishing while he is losing his everloving mind and threatening to lock up ABs for being afraid of ghosts.

Here is the excerpted Khayyam so you don't have to go looking (although you should because its wall to wall bangers) (context: the narrator is standing in a potter's shed, and listening to the vessels talk amongst themselves)

LXXXIV. Said one among them— "Surely not in vain My substance of the common Earth was ta'en And to this Figure molded, to be broke, Or trampled back to shapeless Earth again." LXXXV. Then said a Second—"Ne'er a peevish Boy Would break the Bowl from which he drank in joy; And He that with his hand the Vessel made Will surely not in after Wrath destroy." LXXXVI. After a momentary silence spake Some Vessel of a more ungainly Make; "They sneer at me for leaning all awry: What! did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"

"Did you make me just to smash me, God?"

Runners-up for this section included Rossetti's The Three Enemies, which only didn't make the cut because I think its slightly uneven compared to the rest of this work and this list has become pretty Rossetti-heavy. Ditto De Profundis.

IV. ACCEPTANCE

Also pretty self-explanatory. Mystical union with Christ or a very special sergeant of the marines, or both! Is it canon? No! But I like to think that even just one time...

If you read any poem on this list please read 'Love (III)' and 'The Finder Found', the latter of which is my 'Wild Geese'. It seems self-serving to say I cried when I read it but I did. Meanwhile Herbert is goated and his entire work could be listed here but hearing Love (III) read aloud made me understand what poems could do.

I cheated putting two Glück poems for one but given that they were published together in that magazine I think its ok. Here's even more cheating: The Undertaking would be in there if I could squeeze it on the same line. "The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime" PLEASE

Runners-up here were Larkin's First Sight, which just doesn't quite fit but I love for the sense of spring coming to someone who doesn't know there's anything other than winter deprivation, and A Shropshire Lad XI (On your midnight pallet lying) which I LOVE but again doesn't quite jive with the theme, but I do imagine it as a bridge poem between this section and the last...

V. DOOM

A little bit of Browning, who might squeak in under the line of plausibility (though perhaps not this poem) as Jirv sets out on the death march with waning faith that is not, in fact, a death march but then his journey ends in Stabtown, population: YOU. "The Plate" in this case would be that faith and knowledge of being loved that remains even after hardship and the final lost battle, maybe even literally in the meat from his stomach. But misery and death put all the men on the rack and instead of salvation they are essentially tortured to death, often long enough to crush/squeeze out any semblance of humanity and leaving the animal capacity for violence.

"Futility" could encompass the whole sorry venture but in specific the shot of Jirv's body after all the effort to make contact with someone would could help. Was it for this? "Exposure" also a strong contender for "the long slow process of freezing to death for unclear reasons".

"Flock" of course-- God needs martyrs.

[acourtofteasandfoxes]

I just... I love the idea that the Foxes join Renee at church on occasion. All for different reasons, at different times.

Wymack is the first, obviously. He loves all of his Foxes, knows them deeply. Wymack is there with her every Sunday for nearly two months before she settles on a church and finds her place. He still shows on occasion, especially on weeks Renee has been particularly quiet.

Dan goes to squash their high school rivalry. They need to be a team and team members support each other. Dan is also the reason Matt goes for the first time. The girls use it as a test. They wanna see how whipped Matt is for Dan, but also if he'll be respectful. Dan says yes to a date when he asks later that night.

Betsy goes because Renee asks. It was brought up in therapy and Betsy goes without question. Abby joins them. They don't go again, but Betsy doesn't hesitate to discuss religion with Renee and Abby ducks her head anytime Renee prays.

Allison goes after Seth. She had been meaning to go, truly, Renee is her friend and she had been invited. But it doesn't happen until Seth dies. Allison Reynolds is searching for answers, and she wants so badly to find them in church pews and worship songs. Allison would only step foot in that church one more time, and it will be for Renee, not for answers.

Seth never goes before he dies. Renee did invite him, just as she did all the Foxes, but he laughed at the thought.

Nicky was raised religious. Arguably it makes the most sense for him to join Renee when she asks him. Nicholas Hemmick has never said no so fast in his life. The jokes he throws around about bursting into flames when he walks through the doors aren't all jokes. Nicholas Hemmick is scared of the God he once loved. It's not until Drake, and Christmas, and Balitmore, that he cracks. He catches Renee right before she walks in and she holds his hand, in the back pew, as he cries during the sermon. They sit there for an hour after everyone else has left. Renee is the only one who understands the way Nicky feels both healed and broken.

Aaron goes because Katelyn goes. Her and Renee talk about it, she asks Aaron to take her, and really? Dude is so whipped he wouldn't say no. Aaron will never admit it, but he actually really liked the choir. When he gets back to the dorm he looks up a few worship songs to listen to before games.

Andrew doesn't go to an actual Sunday service. He does, however, help Renee volunteer for the church ice cream social. They were short handed and she promised him unlimited ice cream scoops. The adults are scared of him. The children love him and it's absolutely not, could never be, because he is giving all of them double scoops of sprinkles. Much like Wymack, however, he joins on occasion if Renee's vibe feels off. He just never goes inside, choosing instead to smoke in the car as he waits for her.

Kevin is the one to ask Renee if he can join her. They're talking about religion in one of his history classes, it overlaps with Renee's religious studies class, and he's interested. He ends up going every Sunday that summer, gathering information for a project, interviewing people, including Renee. He gets an A on his project and gets invited to all the church's events after that. The little old ladies loved him.

Neil is the last to join. He respects Renee, enjoys her company, but church and large crowds? Sitting still for an hour? Being preached at about something he doesn't believe is real? He has exy, and Andrew, and better things to do with his time. It's his idea, however, when he finally does go.

Because Renee has graduated. She's graduated, is heading into the Peace Corps, and she's leaving the church. Leaving Palmetto. Kevin gets the invite, but it's Neil's idea. Off handed remarks that turn into a Thing. Because the Foxes don't do small.

When Renee is asked to stand, when she is asked to lead the church in prayer one last time, she looks out into the crowd and has to take a moment. Because there, in the back, is an entire pew dressed in Palmetto orange. Every single one of them is wearing her number.

Renee knows, in that moment, that God truly does exist.

[rubykgrant]

While I'm mostly working on new face designs for other characters, I occasionally go back and fix a few things on designs I've already done... mostly because, through practice, I'm a little better at actually getting the lines and shapes to look how I want. With Carolina and Tex, this takes place in my story-line where the Alpha and Beta AI get to come back in synthetic human bodies created with DNA samples of Allison and the Director (they aren't literal clones, but definitely similar; the same way two parents can have children who look different). Tex ironically resembles Carolina more than Allison (she still has the blonde hair). Carolina is tall and strong, more of a lean-build. Tex is a bit taller, and when she gets the chance to work on her muscles, she gets herself buff (Carolina fighting is about quick-strikes, and Tex is a brawler). Tex also has a strong chin/jawline. We've seen Carolina's actual face, so I just translated it to my style, and decided that she later decides to cut her hair short, plus dyes it a darker red (she still has the smokey eyeshadow, out of pure stubborness; every time somebody criticizes in, she doubles-down). My Church design, like a lot of people's, is a little inspired by the Director, but I decided he's shorter, with a chubby/chunky body-type (ideal Church-bod). His hair is longer, styling it more forward and up, with sideburns. He debated having facial hair, in case that made him look TOO much like SOMEBODY, but decided if he spends his whole life avoiding any similarities, that's just a backwards way of letting SOMEBODY still influence him. So, he just does what he wants (and Tex told him the face-fuzz looks good on him~)

[ninyard]

With all the talks of music. It got me thinking. Who of the foxes do you think can sing and who cannot so much as even carry a tune?

I think Allison can sing. It’s such a rich person thing to force children to take some kind of music lesson, so I’m sure she has some kind of musical training.

Personally I also think it would be funny if one of the twins was decent enough and the other couldn’t sing for the life of him.

okay right off the bat

who can't sing? neil, dan, aaron

who can kind of sing? nicky, matt, kevin

who has the voice of an angel? allison, renee

who probably has the voice of an angel, but no-one will ever know? andrew

i fully agree that allison probably had some kind of musical training. she can probably play the piano or like. the flute or harp or something. but i just KNOW if she was living in this era where influencers release music she 100% would have a few singles out there. she'd be making camp bubblegum pop BANGERS

i feel like renee just has a beautiful, sweet voice. like church choir, birds singing, heavenly soprano voice.

andrew can sing like really fucking well because it's funny. because he simply doesn't sing. he probably doesn't even know he can sing.

nicky can sing musical theatre stuff, but he doesn't really have a great normal singing voice. matt has a really deep range, he's so bass-y it's the best thing ever when he genuinely sings. kevin can (white-boy) rap, and can hold a tune, but he's nothing special.

neil, dan, aaron? screeching cats. the ONLY reason i would say neil is not absolutely awful is because he has a really good ear for languages so he might be good at identifying music, and knowing notes, but he CANNOT sing. dan sings both ironically and unironically and knows shes awful. people beg her to stop. aaron again just doesn't sing, but thank god for that.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AGENT TEXAS (RED VS BLUE)

1.) okay so tex is an ai based on the memories this one dickhead dude has of his dead wife, allison. there's also an ai based on the dickhead dude himself, his name's church. all the stuff with the ai's and the different versions of her is kind of confusing to explain but she sort of dies twice- first sacrificing herself for something that has very little narrative weight, and being absorbed into a kind of . monstrous mesh of other ai's (including the original church ai) that then is erased, with basically no mention of tex, it's all about church's death.

then, there's another version of both church and tex born from the original church ai's memories (epsilon-tex and epsilon-church). epsilon-church's arc is basically about learning to move on from his past and let go of tex, because he's kind of obsessed with her and it's preventing him from progressing. so, epsilon-church 'forgets' tex, deleting her for good. tl;dr she dies, again, basically entirely for church's development.

when i was a kid super into rvb i was always really disinterested in tex and looking back it's because er story just.. isn't resolved satisfyingly at all. basically all of her story is hitched so tightly to church's story and development that tex barely gets room to be more than a memory of the director's dead wife- she never gets to move past the circumstances that created her and become her own person entirely divorced from the director or from church- allison died and we never knew anything about her besides that the director god sad about it. beta-tex died unceremoniously and without mention. epsilon-tex died for church's character growth.

quoting church's own words from the show: ""She died in her real life, and that's all the Director ever remembered of her. So now, no matter how tough she is, no matter how hard she fights, she's always going to fail, because that's what she's based on. No matter what she's doing, or what she's trying to accomplish, just when her goal is within her reach, it gets yanked away. Every. Single. Time." and she just never… actually overcomes this. she just dies.

and quoting now-inactive tumblr user epsilontucker from 2015 who put it better than i could: "Tex’s whole life was spent fighting for agency. Freedom from what Omega wanted her to be (O’Malley), what the Director wanted her to be (Allison), what Church wanted her to be (his). Epsilon-Tex wanted to know who she was and why she was and she wanted to dismantle everything Church ever built. Especially because he built it for her.

And this character arc about freedom and agency, about a chance to define herself on her own terms, is resolved by… Church deciding to delete her.

Because everybody always seems to know what’s best for Tex."

this is also to say nothing of the treatment of her character on just, like, an episode-to-episode basis. rvb has a big problem with basically treating "bitch" as a personality trait for female characters, and tex gets some of the worst of it. if you made a drinking game of how often tex gets called a bitch, or a huge bitch, you'd die of alcohol poisoning. also at one point andy the bomb makes a bunch of transmisogynistic jokes at her because she's suppsoedly mannish (she's not masculine or feminine really everybody in this show is a multicolor master chief. she's just good at fighting) and then calls her a dyke. the end

2.) Some background (spoilers): Tex is introduced as a badass mercenary from Project Freelancer, and the ex girlfriend of Church, the main character of the show. It is eventually revealed she and Church are both Aritifical Intelligence programs; Church is an AI copy of the Director of Project Freelancer, and Tex is a copy of the Director's late wife.

Firstly she is straightforwardly the victim of misogynistic "jokes" for the first several seasons. She is called misogynistic slurs, shamed for sleeping with other men besides Church, she cannot work the entertainment stand at the base bc she's female, called lesbophobic and transmysogonistic slurs bc she is a competent soldier, and blackmails another female character out of jealousy bc she is the only other girl in the group.

Even when these jokes go away, and the show transitions from comedy to drama, her writing revolves around the male characters around her. Because she is the personification of the memory of the Director's dead wife, and his perceieved failure to save her, she explicitly, in the text, will always fail at what she sets out to accomplish no matter how strong she is. She wishes to be free of the cycle of being resurrected bc Church can't live without her only to fail and die again, but lacks the agency to end it without Church. Church's arc about learning to let her go ends not with her being free to exist as her own person without him, but with him forgetting her. Since she IS his memory, this ERASES HER FROM EXISTENCE. She literally cannot exist without this guy.

This would all be easier to swallow if she wasn't the ONLY prominent female main character for 8 whole seasons. It's a beautiful story about how grief can fester into anger and a need for control, and how that pushes away the people you love, but it's a story entirely centered around Church's development, in which she is a prop that stops existing when the story is over. I love her but she deserved so much better than she got.

3.) girlboss

KAMALA KHAN (MARVEL COMICS) (CW: Racism)

1.) One of the most prominent brown women in all of comics, beloved by the fan base. Recently killed in a PETER PARKER SPIDERMAN COMIC (despite being much closer with Miles Morales and having basically no relationship with Peter) in what's probably the name of MCU synergy, which nobody wanted (she'll probably be resurrected as a mutant, erasing her unique and interesting history as an Inhuman). She was using her shapeshifting powers again despite having stopped in her solo as she got more confident in her own skin and identity as a Pakistani American girl, died disguised as the very white Mary Jane as a fake out/last minute replacement for killing off MJ. I fucking hate it here. A cheap trick to drive sales. L + Misogyny + racism + are you fucking kidding me

[nelliebachesneg]

Guys.

Guys I'm going insane.

In the memory unit, right before he lets Tex go, Epsilon says this to Caboose, Tucker, and Tex who he thinks is about to leave:

"And if you see Agent Washington, tell him I said memory is the key. He'll know what that means. Oh and also, tell him I said thanks."

The world is ending as far as Epsilon knows, so why would Epsilon make a point of getting the message "memory is the key" to a memory construct of Wash? It can't be to let Wash know that Epsilon was still alive ("Delta was telling me Epsilon was still alive" S6, the iconic reveal speech). If the world really is ending, like Epsilon thinks it is, Wash would have no hope of bringing Epsilon back for another iteration.

So again, why would Epsilon tell him "memory is the key" and add that Wash will "know what it means"?

Answer:

Because Epsilon says to Tex in his big S9 goodbye speech:

"Don't you get it? You were the memory. You were the key."

If Wash - even just Epsilon's memory construct of Wash - heard Tex deliver the message "memory is the key", and presumably then figured out that the message was from Church aka Alpha (or so he thinks because timelines are weird in the memory unit), what would he think that meant?

Wash would know that Church figured it out. Wash would know that Church was letting the memory of Tex go.

Not convinced?

Epsilon makes a point to thank Wash, implying that Wash is part of the reason he figured it out at all. No, actually, that's an understatement; Wash is a huge part of the reason Epsilon figured this out, because Wash is the one who gets it. Epsilon was inside his fucking head imploding from the memory of loosing Allison, but Wash could see through the grief and understand the pain it was causing all the agents of the program. That's why he wanted revenge against PFL, why he went after Epsilon in the first place, why Delta told him memory was the key. Wash understood that one man's grief could and did make life hell for everyone else:

Alpha: "What do we do with it [Epsilon]?"

Wash: "We take it. And we get it into the hands of someone who can use all its information. Then they can bring down the person responsible for what was done to Alpha, and to me, and to my friends. They can take down the Director."

And even if you ignore all of that, if nothing else, Wash was the one who made sure Epsilon lived long enough to figure things out. Wash led the Reds and Blues to get him out of the PFL archives in season 6, saving him from the emp blast. Wash helped save Epsilon from the Meta at the end of season 8, even if it was for selfish reasons.

Wash saved Epsilon, in every sense of the word, both despite and because of what Epsilon did to him.

Fuck, man.

[slyvester101]

Atla au where Church is the Avatar but his connection to the spirit world is fucky because the Director (who is his dad in this au, think Lord Ozai in terms of evil, abusive dad) experimented on him when he found out he was the avatar to discovery why he was able to reincarnate and see if he could do the same for his dead wife.

In order to protect young Church from the abuse he's facing and to keep his spiritual connections intact in case the director cuts it off, the previous avatars decide to all inhabit Church's body. This obviously causes a lot of chaos within Church's mind as all the avatars mix and mash together in order to fit in Church's head and confuses all the spirits since they now have Church's memories mixed with their own and now they all believe that they are Church/are alive.

The director is obviously fascinated by this occurrence since it's not like when the avatar state where Church is imbued with all the knowledge of his previous lives to kick ass and instead is more like there's hundreds of separate "avatar states" Church can be in, all with their own specific strengths and weaknesses. (All the previous incarnations of the avatar are the fragments from RVB, Delta was an air monk turned avatar, Theta was an avatar that died at a young age, etc, etc).

Eventually, Church leaves but is being chased by his sister Carolina, who was being raised in a very Azula manner of being the best of the best with no room for failure (yes she is a firebender). He meets Tucker, a waterbender, and Caboose, a non-bender who believes with his whole heart that he is some kind of bender, and they join him on his adventure to become the avatar and take down the director and whatever corrupt shit he has going on (could be an empire, could be an illegal bender experimentation and trafficking ring) while avoiding getting roasted by his sister and her friends (the freelancers).

The reds also show up at some point (Sarge, Simmons, and Donut are all firebenders and Grif is an Earthbender) and start off as a group of bounty hunters chasing after the blues, but end up joining their gang on their shenanigans.

No, Tex is not a clone of Allison in this au, but she is a “vessel” that the director wants to use when and if he can resurrect his dead wife. No, the spirits of the avatars never leave Church, they have embedded themselves in his soul to protect him. They are just as much a part of Church as the AI fragments were in RVB and have been with him his basically his whole life.

Yes, Caboose does come to the conclusion that he is the avatar. No, you cannot convince him otherwise.

[january-summers]

Actually, here's a non-Wash thought for the rvb fandom: so you know how Carolina and Tucker have the same coloured armour?

And that's because Tucker's armour was stolen upcycled from the corpse of Butch Flowers|Agent Florida.

Florida, who was stationed in Blood Gulch to oversee Alpha safety and protection and who went to lengths to put together the teams with that specific goal in mind.

Alpha, who was based off the mind of Director Leonard Church, and who's important people provably still mattered to Alpha given that Director Church's feelings for Allison caused Alpha to fragment unprompted.

Important people who probably include Director Church's daughter, Agent Carolina. (based on the fact Director was still able to acknowledge Carolina was his greatest creation at the very end, whose name was on the three name long list of "people you failed" in one of the torture sessions designed to break Alpha's mind.)

(I haven't decided if Wash was on there because secret fondness for Wash, Wash was just someone that was guaranteed to matter/be known to the audience, or was named so Alpha would be thinking about him specifically as part of an attempt to make an AI with a higher compatibility to Wash because AI seems as much witchcraft as science with these people and anything goes. ... turns out I was lying, bonus Wash thoughts.)

Carolina, whose armour is that colour.

What I'm getting at is: Do y'all think Florida swapped out his dark blue for 'Carolina Blue' in order to attempt to create a false connection with Alpha by wearing the colour of a person he likely cared for, thereby prompting a sense of familiarity and good vibes by the power of association?

[asoulwithadream]

(beware, beware, spoilers are here, hold your breath, for the empire of death)

Balls to the walls episode. Throughout the week I've actually grown to appreciate Sutekh as a villain and was really excited. He was very Doctor Who-villian-esque and I loved the Angels of Death appearances. Not to mention the Doctor's cleverness and Ncuti's PHENOMENAL acting. Like I think we need to take a moment and just think about how absolutely brilliant Ncuti is as an actor.

The rants, the speeches, the calm reveries of a lifeless world, it was an exciting and dramatic episode, and I feel like the Sutekh plot was built and ended quite fantastically. Not the best I've ever seen, but certainly amazing.

Now, the other plot. Ruby's mother. First, I want to start off by saying that the "most ordinary being the most important" trope is very Doctor Who, and it worked amazingly well with Donna. However, being done twice, and especially after ALL that build-up pointing otherwise, it's a bit of a disappointment.

I'm not saying it was bad. I laughed when they showed it, props to RTD for leading on an entire collective fandom. But it's an 'all that for nothing' feeling. It just felt incredibly under-dramatic with the context of this season. And especially because is it really such a colossal space-time event?

Surely that same scenario with Allison leaving Ruby at the church, because she wanted her baby to be safe, but why her? Just because?I'm a person who likes to know reasons, and every other time Doctor Who has kept things a mystery it's felt justified, but this just... felt a bit pointless.

I don't know, I'm just a bit underwhelmed at the moment, and maybe some funny posts will make me think otherwise.

My silly little commentary:

NO NO NO KATY

CHERRY SUNDAY. MRS FLOOD. WHAT THE FUCK

THE TALES OF THE TARDIS TARDIS!!!

His rant, that he will defeat Sutekh in the name of life and his slow realisation, the widening of his pupils as he realises: "Why am I still alive?"

73 YARDS COMING BACK OH MY GOD. The tie in to the entire season is absolutely insane.

2005. 2005. 2005.

"The Earth is dying. So many times" broke me

"I did this. Every sun is dead. The universe has come to a halt. And it is my fault. Because I travelled to all those worlds. I thought it was fun."

What the fuck Sutekh. What the actual fuck.

Him and spoons <3

"Did we? God I'd forgotten." Sute if you take Mel I will actually throw some hands. SUTEKH.

YES YES YESYEYYSYSYEYE

"Surely that's what I am! Life!" Oh baby that didn't sound convincing

Okay I don't believe Louise Allison Miller. Like I both love and hate RTD if she's ACTUALLY Ruby's mother and he's been stringing us along on wild theories all this time, but there's 10 minutes left and I've learnt not to trust any conclusions.

MRS FLOOD. WHAT THE FUCK. MRS FLOOD. WHAT THE FUCK.

And with that, this season of Doctor Who is finished, and I must painfully wait another 6 months to get Nicola Coughlan and the Christmas special <3