#mostly i wanted to be able to write stories with whatever level of technology i felt like at the time and have it still be plausible

[shinesurge]

Honestly I got the impression that The Sprawl changes shape. Like the whole reason Phin needed a magic compass was that the way to Kairos Crossing wasn't a straight line, no matter how high in the sky you go.

The roads to nearby towns probably keep working most of the time, but the direction to the nearest town? The distance? That could change daily. Maybe there's even impossible geographic features, should you look at them too closely. Like how The Caravan seems to have been floating down a stream for at least a century? That's a really long river unless it flows into itself

I'm so glad to hear this is the impression because you're correct! Nothing in the sprawl stays where it's put, for various reasons. Part of why all the settlements we've seen tend to be so isolated and vastly different wrt resources and culture or technology is because it's usually really difficult to travel between them, or build one up enough to keep things stable. Even people like Dusk usually have to work around it.

The good news is the more people cluster together in one place the more likely some kind of saint will form to help protect it (or they'll have enough material resource to protect themselves), but bad things can still happen kind of out of nowhere lol. Places like Decodenn usually keep growing and stay in one place, but if you don't keep tabs on them places like Last Chance or the caravan might not be there next time you go looking.

As far as the Caravan goes, the river is in fact a bigass loop, but whether it started that way or it's because of Toulouse's time fuckery is undetermined.

[onewomancitadel]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Spoilers: Beware:

Ok, honest feelings, I actually find the writing so awful (from both a structural perspective to the atomic dialogue level) I have not been able to sit through a playthrough of Veilguard let alone hold onto any intention of playing it myself. There are brief moments of joy when Solas is onscreen and allowed to be a character. Broadly I find the resolutions of his character clunky and genuinely question my own interpretation of the lore at some points whilst long-held fantheories are confirmed, so it feels sloppy, and doing what it can where it thinks it needs to do things - it has the fingerprints of a disaster crew. The fact that many major revelations are relegated to idle side content where I have to listen to the most uninteresting and banal characters possibly conceived offer their thoughtless and heedless commentary almost as if directed at me is a monumentally bad idea obviously a product of trying to reconcile a reboot answering questions to a fifteen year old franchise.

And that there is the real struggle. I would think that any competent writer would recognise that this is an impossible task and most of the PR surrounding the game has tried to cover up this fact (including the fact only three choices carrying over had to be leaked and was a disaster when it was; reasons I never listen to what creators say ever). I don't intend to point the blame anywhere - whether it's brought on by internal mismanagement or external mismanagement is not a fallout I want to examine - and the fact that they delivered a mostly complete game on release is nothing short of miraculous. As a technological achievement it can be viewed impressively. If we turn our face to the new desired audience - many casual players are enjoying it - they got what they wanted.

I just don't necessarily think this is the way and I don't think casual enjoyment is in inherent conflict with a thoughtful story and a unique identity. You can eat your cake and have it too. Honestly I wonder how much this really is about damage control when it's fronted as a plea against a series becoming dumber.

The writing strikes me as tonally inconsistent not just with the DA series but with itself: it can never quite strike the right tenor, find its identity. It might register as passably good to somebody who generally does not pay attention to dialogue or structural questions of a story or consistency; if your attention to narrative is "character say thing, big thing happen, wow, character say another thing, very interesting, wow character sad?" then it gets the job done in that respect as a simulacrum of how story should function - and it feels just like that - story as simulcrum, companions as simulacra, like a bad parody of a role-playing game. Its greatest crime is that it doesn't believe in itself, or it can't believe in itself. It has fluttering personae it tries and fails to adopt - and for whatever people point to as its failing, that it's too direct, that it's clumsy, millennial, commercial, not fantastical, too casual, short, aborted, rushed, not Dragon Age, not serious, not mean, no conflict - these are descriptions that don't quite get to the root of the problem: I don't know what Veilguard wants other than you to believe that it's supposed to be a good story. This is why so much of it is compromised. Even right down to the things that should cater to me. Whom can you possibly win over in trying to win over everyone? If you want to be loved, you have to be prepared to accept hatred. I think this is why the series' apparent flaws have been smoothed over; this is why you're not allowed to hate the characters because they want you to love them; this is why there can't be evil, because evil is uncomfortable and sometimes it has no simple solutions.

But by no means is this a professional review or an opinion that should shape yours; mine's not enough to wreck anybody else's enjoyment. I write this from the domain of my Tumblr blog where for many years I have on-again and off-again ruminated on the dinan'shiral, and so really just want to emotionally close that chapter. I have seen all the endings, I've watched most of the cameos, I've seen most of the companions and their storylines, certain sidequests aforementioned, and parts of the main story including the beginning and last quests, but not the front to end as one complete body, and so it makes it difficult to criticise structurally and in terms of pacing as a comprehensive narrative - most of all I do not want to be disingenuous as certain members of a certain fandom I am a member of are in the manner in which they critique a show that they do not watch because they regurgitate opinions of others. Mine has been formulated in independent rumination, and I've sat on it a while to see if my feelings change. The fact I physically cannot stand to watch anymore is the reason I wrote this post.

I did notice that parts of the story feel rushed and even sometimes the editing is weird, and the fresco memories are completely bizarre given they're such huge confirmations (!), which is not the end of the world considering video game writing and RPG writing is allowed to be pulpy and a bit weird, but this doesn't feel like it has a consistent tone of singular weirdness. The companion writing - toothless, forgettable, anodyne, pacifying, childish - has of course at length been remarked upon, and many of my posts about bathos have been implicitly directed at it. I played Johnson & Friends music over companion conversations - any children's show would do here - and it did feel about as complex as Johnson and Diesel arguing with each other.

It feels catered towards an audience who views narrative conflict as offensive (because they're unfamiliar with the body of narrative convention), which I find hilarious considering this is the very audience that hates Solas' guts but are forced to play a game where he survives in every single ending. I am ideologically consistent in that even if I get what I want, I want it to be narratively consistent, and honestly I am just really numb to the Solavellan ending. I don't care. But it is promising at least to see a group of writers who did not commit to death-by-redemption. But on the other hand, I also wonder how much that has to do with the fact that the ending is extremely cheap and clunky, and there isn't room for a Solas boss fight because it wasn't in the budget, and this way you get different endings that roughly play out in the same manner.

I cannot stop laughing every time I remember the "dead all along" companion. Dumbest twist ever. Hilarious. Completely campy. The horror of a blood magic meat puppet cannot be expounded in this story. Nothing is allowed to hurt. It doesn't fucking mean anythinggggggg.

As an actual game I have accepted that I'm a weirdo who hates particle explosion games. That was never going to appeal to me. Ensnaring my actual narrative attention with Solas was just cruel though. I liked DA, I liked some RPG's, I thought that they were fun and unique storytelling experiences even if they're a little silly - sometimes you want that pulpy experience - but maybe my cold comfort is watching game reviewers say Solas was their favourite part even when they didn't like anything else. 🥰

Steals your dagger. That's the end of the post; I just cut it off. Wait! Wait! Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife―

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Hey.

You should totally talk about your fic. IN FACT. I challenge you to post your favorite 3-sentence snippet and then tell us why it's your favorite.

Repeat as necessary until you've talked about all your favorite fics.

Thanks to anonymous and to @lazaefair, @morethanonepage, @buckyisdisabled, and @sky-full-of-sparks for being kind of supportive of my whining post yesterday, lol!

As for picking out a favorite 3-sentence snippet of my longfic WIP, I don't really have one... it's 90,000 words long now, so trying to find one favorite little part is kind of hard, but in general I think it's the best thing that I've ever written (including stuff that I did for my MFA, whoops). And if people don't read it once I start posting it I will be Lit'rally Devastated, but that's a me problem.

Ummmmm... I'll randomly pick a 3-sentence bit, though, and say what I like about it? (And I'm cheating by picking three paragraphs, technically, but whatever.)

Steve was one of six renters with two empty rooms left for more to come. Because of the nature of secrecy, there wasn’t much chatter over breakfasts—fluffy scrambled eggs, hearty oatmeal, and even some cutlet of meat each day except Fridays when there were sardines on toast—but Steve did befriend a tall, rangy omega who lived two rooms over down the corridor. His name was Scott Lang, and Steve knew that he was working with some kind of weaponized technology at Pym National Laboratory, but he knew this only because he happened to see Scott getting off the bus and heading into the labs one day, not because Scott had loose lips. What Scott actually told him he was doing for the war effort, the reason he was in D.C. and not back home in San Francisco, was “security consulting.”

Steve said that he was working in supplies, which was what Agent Carter instructed them all to say if anyone asked what they did up at Stark Mansion.

He got the idea that what they were doing was even more secretive than whatever was being cooked up at Pym Labs.

I like this section because... I'm particularly pleased with how much I'm able to write in this fic about the relationships that Steve (the MC/POV character) has with people besides Bucky, and the first full half of the fic is building those relationships and building the mystery behind the codebreaking and discovery of the Asset. I always have a weird need in longfics to give the protagonist a lot of life outside of the romance plot and I like writing and fleshing out the characters besides the main couple, and I think this is the fic where I've done that in the most organic way.

I'm also trying SO HARD TO HAVE AN ACTUAL PLOT when it comes to the codebreaking and ~mystery~ aspects (even though obviously the reader knows what/who the Asset is and that Hydra is behind it all) and I feel? mostly? like it's working? But I'm also worried that the "crockpot romance" level slow-burn before Bucky even appears in the story will turn people off, and that's making me #fret and start to prepare to kill my darlings to speed things up. But I LIKE how much of the story is Steve's life before Bucky? Like, it matters to me a lot that he HAS a life before Bucky and is a full character and not just a hole for Bucky to fill? IDK.

I JUST WANT IT TO BE INTERESTING TO PEOPLE BESIDES JUST ME and I have FEELINGS. And I'm also soooo determined to Actually Finish A Thing For Once In My Goddamn Life but I also want The Validation so I'm constantly just. vibrating with feelings.

[sabugabr]

Why the Clone problem in Star Wars animated media is also a Mandalorian problem, and why we have to talk about it (PART 2)

Hi! I finally finished wrapping this up, so here’s part 2 of what has already become a mini article (you can find Part 1 here, if you like!)

And for this part, it won’t be as much as a critic as part 1 was, but instead I’d like to focus more on what I consider to be a wasted potential regarding the representation of the Clones in the Star Wars animated media, from the first season of The Clone Wars till now, and why I believe it to be an extension of the Mandalorian problem I discussed in part 1 —  the good old colonialism.

Sources used, as always, will be linked at the end of this post!

PART 2: THE CLONES

Cody will never know peace

So I’d like to state that I won’t focus as much on the blatantly whitewashing aspect, for I believe it to be very clear by now. If you aren’t familiar with it, I highly recommend you search around tumblr and the internet, there are a lot of interesting articles and posts about it that explain things very didactically and in detail. The only thing you need to know to get this started is that even at the first seasons of Clone Wars (when the troopers still had this somewhat darker skin complexion and all) they were still a whitewashed version of Temuera Morrison (Jango’s actor). And from then, as we all know, they only got whiter and whiter till we get where we are now, in rage.

Look at this very ambiguously non-white but still westernized men fiercely guarding their pin-up space poster

Now look at this still westernized but slightly (sarcasm) whiter men who for some reason now have different tanning levels among them (See how Rex now has a lighter skin tone? WHEN THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN KKKKKKK) Anyway you got the idea. So without further ado...

2.1 THE FANTASY METAPHOR

As I mentioned before in Part 1, one thing that has to be very clear if you want to follow my train of thought is that it’s impossible to consume something without attributing cultural meanings to it, or without making cultural associations. This things will naturally happen and it often can improve our connection to certain narratives, especially fantastic ones. Even if a story takes place in a fantastic/sci fi universe, with all fictional species and people and worlds and cultures, they never come from nowhere, and almost always they have some or a lot of basing in real people and cultures. And when done properly, this can help making these stories resonate in a very beautifull, meaningfull way. I actually believe this intrisic cultural associations are the things that make these stories work at all. As the brilliant american speculative/science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin says in the introduction (added in 1976) of her novel The Left Hand of Darkness, and that I was not able to chopp much because it’s absolutely genious and i’ll be leaving the link to the full text right here,

“The purpose of a thought-experiment, as the term was used by Schrodinger and other physicists, is not to predict the future — indeed Schrodinger's most famous thought-experiment goes to show that the ‘future,’ on the quantum level, cannot be predicted — but to describe reality, the present world.

Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.”

[...] “Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That's the truth!

They may use all kinds of facts to support their tissue of lies. They may describe the Marshalsea Prison, which was a real place, or the battle of Borodino, which really was fought, or the process of cloning, which really takes place in laboratories, or the deterioration of a personality, which is described in real textbooks of psychology; and so on. This weight of verifiable place-event-phenomenon-behavior makes the reader forget that he is reading a pure invention, a history that never took place anywhere but in that unlocalisable region, the author's mind. In fact, while we read a novel, we are insane —bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices, we watch the battle of Borodino with  them, we may even become Napoleon. Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.”

[...] “ In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find — if it's a good novel — that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words.

The artist whose medium is fiction does this within words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Words can be used thus paradoxically because they have, along with a semiotic usage, a symbolic or metaphoric usage. [...]  All fiction is metaphor. Science fiction is metaphor. What sets it apart from older forms of fiction seems to be its use of new metaphors, drawn from certain great dominants of our contemporary life — science, all the sciences, and technology, and the relativistic and the historical outlook, among them. Space travel is one of these metaphors; so is an alternative society, an alternative biology; the future is another. The future, in fiction, is a metaphor.

A metaphor for what?” [1]

A metaphor for what indeed. I won’t be going into what Star Wars as a whole is a metaphor for, because I am certain that it varies from person to person, and everyone can and has the total right to take whatever they want from this story, and understand it as they see fit. That’s why it’s called the modern myth. And therefore, all I’ll be saying here is playinly my take not only on what I understand the Clones to be, but what I believe they could have meant.

2.2 SO, BOBA IS A CLONE

I don’t want to get too repetitive, but I wanted to adress it because even though I by no means intend to put Boba and the Clones in the same bag, there is one aspect about them that I find very similar and interesting, that is the persue of individuality. While the Clones have this very intrinsically connected to their narratives, in Boba’s case this appears more in his concept design. As I mentioned in Part 1, one of the things the CW staff had in mind while designing the mandalorians is that they wanted to make Boba seem unique and distinguishable from them, and honestly even in the original trilogy he stands out a lot. He is unique and memorable and that’s one of the things that draws us to him.

And as we all know, both Boba and Jango and the Clones are played by Temuera Morrison — and occasionally by the wonderful Bodie Taylor and Daniel Logan. And Temuera Morrison comes from the Maori people. And differently from the mandalorian case, where we were talking about a whole planet, in this situation we’re talking about portraying one single person, so there’s nowhere to go around his appearance and phenotypes, right? I mean, you are literally representing an actual individual, so there’s no way you could alter their looks, right?

(hahahaha wrong)

And besides that, I think that is in situations like that (when we are talking about individuals) that the actor’s perspective could really have a place to shine (just the same as how Lea was mostly written by Carrie Fisher). In this very heart-warming interview for The New York Times (which you can read full signing up for their 5-free-articles-per-month policy), Temuera Morrison talks a little bit about how he incorporated his cultural background to Boba Fett in The Mandalorian:

“I come from the Maori nation of New Zealand, the Indigenous people — we’re the Down Under Polynesians — and I wanted to bring that kind of spirit and energy, which we call wairua. I’ve been trained in my cultural dance, which we call the haka. I’ve also been trained in some of our weapons, so that’s how I was able to manipulate some of the weapons in my fight scenes and work with the gaffi stick, which my character has.” [2]

The Gaffi stick (or Gaderffii), btw, is the weapon used by the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine, and according to oceanic art expert Bruno Claessens it’s design was inspired by wooden Fijian war clubs called totokia. [3]

And I think is very clear how this background can influence one’s performance and approach to a character, and majorly how much more alive this character will feel like. Beyond that, having an actor from your culture to play and add elements to a character will higly improve your sense of connection with them (besides all the impact of seeying yourself on screen, and seeying yourself portrayed with respect). It would only make sense if the cultural elements that the actor brought when giving life to a fictional individual would’ve been kept and even deepened while expanding this role. And if you’re familiar with Star Wars Legends you’ll probably rememeber that in Legends Jango would train and raise all Clone troopers in the Mandalorian culture, so that the Clones would sing traditional war chants before battles, be fluent in Mando’a (Mandalore’s language) and some would proudly take mandalorian names for themselves. So why didn’t Filoni Inc. take that into account when they went to delve into the clones in The Clone Wars?

2.3 THE WHITE MINORITY

First of all I’d like to state that all this is 100% me conjecturing, and by no means at all I’m saying that this is what really happened. But while I was re-watching CW before The Bad Batch premiere, something came to my mind regarding the whitewashing of the Clones, and I’d like to leave that on the table.

So, you know this kind of recent movies and series that depicted like, fairies in this fictional world where fairies were very opressed, but there would be a lot of fairies played by white actors? Just like Bright and Carnival Row. If you’ve watched some of these and have some racial conscience, you’ll probably know where I’m going here. And the issue with it is that often this medias will portray real situations of racism and opression and prejudice, but all applied to white people. Like in Carnival Row, when going to work as a maid in a rich human house, our girl Cara Delevingne had to fight not to have her braids (which held a lot of significance in her culture) cut by her intolerant human mistress, because the braids were not “appropriate”. Got it? hahahaha what a joy

Look at her ethnic braids!!!

One of the reasons this happens might be to relieve a white audience of the burden of watching these stories and feeling what I like to call “white guilt”. Because, as we all know, white people were never very oppressed.  Historically speaking, white people have always been in privileged social positions, and in an exploitative relationship between two ethnic groups, white people very usually would be the exploiters  —  the opressors. So while watching situations (that every minority would know to be very real) of opression in fiction, if these situations were lived by a white actor, there would be no real-life associations, because we have no historical parameter to associate this situation with anything in real life — if you are white. Thus, there is less chance that, when consuming one of these narratives, whoever is watching will question the "truthfulness" of these situations (because it's not "real racism", see, "they're just fairies"). It's easier for a person to watch without having to step out of their comfort zone, or confront the reality of real people who actually go through things like that. There's even a chance that this might diminish empathy for these people.

Once again, not saying this is specifically the case of the Clones, majorly because one of the main feelings you have when watching CW is exactly empathy for the troopers (at least for me, honestly, the galaxy could explode, I just wanted those poor men to be happy for God’s sake). But I’ll talk more about it later.

The thing is, the whole thing with the Clones, if you think about it, it’s not pretty. If you step on little tiny bit outside the bubble of “fictional fantasy”, the concept is very outrageous. They are kept in conditions analogous to slavery, to say the least. To say the more, they were literally made in an on-demand lab to serve a purpose they are personally not a part of, for which they will neither receive any reward nor share any part of the gains. On the contrary, as we saw in The Bad Batch, as soon as the war was over and the clones were no longer useful as cannonballs, they were discarded. In the (wonderful) episode 6 of the third season of (the almost flawless) Rebels, “The Last Battle”, we're even personally introduced to the analogy that there really wasn't much difference in value between clones and droids, something that was pretty clear in Clone Wars but hadn't been said explicitly yet.

In fact, technically the Separatists can be considered to be more human than the Republic. But that's just my opinion.

So, you had this whole army of pretty much slaves. I know this is a heavy term, but these were people who were originally stripped of any sense of humanity or individuality, made literally to go to war and die in it, doing so purely in exchange for food and lodging, under the false pretense that they belonged to a glorious purpose (yes, Loki me taught that term, that was the only thing I absorbed from this series). Doing all this under extremely precarious conditions from which they had no chance of getting out, actually, getting out was tantamount to the death penalty. They were slaves. In milder terms, an oppressed minority. And again, I don't know if that was the case, but I can understand why Filoni Inc would be apprehensive about representing phenotically indigenous people in this situation. Especially since we in theory should see Anakin and Obi-Wan as the good guys.

(and here I’d like to leave a little disclaimer that I believe the whole Anakin-was-a-slave-once plot was HUGELY misused (and honestly just badly done) both in the prequels and in the animeted series  — maybe for the best, since he was, you know, white and all that, and I don’t know how the writers would have handled it, but ANYWAY — I believe this could have been further explored, particularly regarding his relationship with the Clones, and how it could have influenced his revolt against the Jedi, and manipulated to add to his anger and all that. I mean, we already HAD the fact that Anakin shared a deeper conection with his troopers than usual)

Yes, Rex, you have common trauma experiences to share. But anyway, backing to my track

As I was saying, we are to see them as good guys, and maybe that could’ve been tricky if we saw them hooping up on slavery practices. Like, idk, a “nice” sugar plantation owner? (I don’t know the correct word for it in english, but in portuguese they were called senhores de engenho) Like this guy from 12 Years a Slave?

You know, the slave owner who was “nice”. IDK, anyway  

No one will ever watch Clone Wars and make this association (I believe not, at least), of course not. But if we were to see how CW deepened the clone arcs, and see them as phenotypically indigenous, subjected to certain situations that occur in CW (yes, like Umbara), maybe some kind of association would’ve been easier to make.

I mean, come onnnn I can’t be the only one seeing it

You see, maybe not the whole 12 Years a Slave association one, but I don’t think it’s hard to see there was something there. And maybe this could’ve been even more evident if they looked non-white. Because historically, both black peoples and indigenous peoples went through processes of slavery, from which we as a society are still impacted today. And to slave a people, the first thing you have to do is strip them from their humanity. So it might be easier to see this situation and apply it to real life. And maybe that could lead to a whole lot of other questions regarding the Clones, the Republic, the Jedi, and even how chill Obi-Wan was about all this. We might come out of it, as lady Ursula Le Guin stated in the fragment above, a bit different from what we were before we watch it.

Maybe even unconsciously, Filoni Inc thought we would be more confortable watching if they just looked white (and because of colonialism and all that, but I’m adding thoughts here).

And of course I don’t like the idea of, idk, looking at Obi-Wan and thinking about Benedict Cumberbatch in 12 Years a Slave or something like that. Of course that, if the Clones were to play the same role as they did in the prequels, to obediently serve the Jedi and quietly die for them, that would have been bad, and hurtfull, and pejorative if added to all that I said here. But the thing is that Clone Wars, consciously or not, already solved that. At least to my point of view, they already managed to approach this situation in an incredible competent way, that is giving them agency.

2.4 AGENCY AND INDIVIDUALITY

So, one of the things I love most in Clone Wars is how it really feels like it’s about the Clones. Like, we have the bigger scene of Palpatine taking over, Ahsoka’s growth arc, Anakin’s turn to The Dark Side, the dawn of the Jedi and rise of the Empire and all that, but it also has this idk, vibe, of there’s actually something going on that no one in scene is talking about? And this something is the Clones. We have these episodes spread throughout the seasons, even out of chronological order, which when watched together tell a parallel story to the war, to everything I mentioned. Which is a story about individuals. Clone Wars manages to, in a (at least to me) very touching way, make the Clones be the heros. 

Can you really look me in the eye and say that Five’s story didn’t CRASH you like a full-speed train???? He may not have the same amount of screen-time as the protagonists, but his story is just as important as theirs (and to me, it might be the most meaningful one). Because he is the first to break free from the opression cicle all the Clones were trapped into. 

His story can be divided into 6 phases.

1 - First, the construction of his individuality, in other words, the reclaiming of his humanity. 

2 - Then the assimilation of understanding yourself as an individual of value, and then extending this to all his brothers, not as a unit, but as a set of individuals collectively having this same newly discovered value.

3 - This makes him realize that in the situation they find themselves in, they are not being recognized as such. This makes him question the reality of their situation.

4 - Freed from the illusion of his state, he seeks the truth about it.

5 - This then leads him to seek liberation not just for himself, but for all the Clones (it's basically Plato's Cave, and I'm not exaggerating here).

6 - And finally, precisely because he has assimilated his individuality and sought freedom for himself and his brothers, he is punished for it.

His story is all about agency. Agency, according to the Wikipedia page that is the first to appear if you type “agency” on Google, is that agency is “the abstract principle that autonomous beings, agents, are capable of acting by themselves” [4], and this abstract principle can be dissected in 7 segments:

Law - a person acting on behalf of another person

Religious -  "the privilege of choice... introduced by God"

Moral -  capacity for making moral judgments

Philosophical -  the capacity of an autonomous agent to act, relating to action theory in philosophy

Psychological -  the ability to recognize or attribute agency in humans and non-human animals

Sociological -  the ability of social actors to make independent choices, relating to action theory in sociology

Structural - ability of an individual to organize future situations and resource distribution

All of them apply here. And this is just the story of one Clone. We know there are many others throughout the series. 

Agency is what can make the world of a difference when you are telling a story about an opressed minority. Because opressed minorities do exist, and opression exists, and if you are insecure about consuming a fictional media about opressed minorities, see if they have agency might be a good place to start. So that’s why I think that everything I said before in 2.3 falls short. Because the solution already existed, and was indeed done. Honestly, making the non-agency representation of the Clones (the one we see in the prequels) to be the one played by Temuera Morrison, and then giving them agency in the version where they appear to be white, just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

And honestly, if they were to make the Clones look like Temuera Morrison, and by that mean, take more inspiration in the Māori culture, maybe they wouldn’t even have to change much of their representation besides their facial features. As I said in part 1, I am not by any means an expert in polynesian cultures, but there was something that really got me while I was researching about it. And is the facial tattoos. More precisely, the tā moko. 

2.5  TĀ MOKO

Once again I’ll be using the Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand as source, and you can find the articles used linked at the end of this post. 

Etymologically speaking,

“The term moko traditionally applied to male facial tattooing, while kauae referred to moko on the chins of women. There were other specific terms for tattooing on other parts of the body. Eventually ‘moko’ came to be used for Māori tattooing in general.” [5]

So moko is the correct name for the characteristic tattoos we often see when we look for Māori culture. 

These ones ^. Please also look this book up, it’s beautiful. It’s written by  Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, a New Zealand academic specialising in Māori cultural issues and a lesbian activist. She’s wonderful. 

According to the Tourism NewZealand website, 

“In Māori culture, it [moko] reflects the individual's whakapapa (ancestry) and personal history. In earlier times it was an important signifier of social rank, knowledge, skill and eligibility to marry.”

“Traditionally men received moko on their faces, buttocks and thighs. Māori face tattoos are the ultimate expression of Māori identity. Māori believe the head is the most sacred part of the body, so facial tattoos have special significance.”

[...] “The main lines in a Māori tattoo are called manawa, which is the Māori word for heart.” [6]

Therefore, in the Māori culture, there’s this incredibly deep meaning attributed to the (specific of their culture) tattooing of the face. The act of tattooing the body, any part of the body, is incredibly powerful in many cultures around the globe. The adornment of the body can have different meanings for these different cultures, but all of which I've come into contact with do mean a lot. It’s one of the oldest and most beautiful human expressions of individuality and identity. 

And in the Star Wars universe, the Clones are the group that has the deeper connection to, and the best narrative regarding, tattoos. In fact, besides Hera’s father, Cham Syndulla, the Clones are the only individuals to have tattooed skin, at least that I can recall of. And they do share a deep connection to it. 

For the Clones, the tattoos (added to hairstyles) are the most meaningful way in which they can express themselves. Is what makes them distinguishable from each other to other people. Tattoos are one of the things that represent them as individuals.

And I’m not BY ANY MEANS sayin that the Clones facial tattoos = Moko. That’s not my point. But that’s one of the things I meant when I said earlier about the wasted potential of the representation of the Clones (in my point of view). Because maybe if it were their intention to base the culture of the clones after the polynesian culture, maybe if it were their intention to make the Clones actually look like Temuera Morrison, this could have meant a whole deal. More than it’d appear looking to it from outside this culture. Maybe if there were actual polynesian people in the team that designed the Clones and wrote them (or at least indigenous people, something), who knows what we could’ve had. 

Even in Hunter’s design, I noticed that if you take for example this frame of Temuera from the movie River Queen (2005), where we can have a closer look at the design of his tā moko

Speaking purely plastically (because I don’t want to get into the movie itself, just using it as example because then I can use Temuera himself as a comparison), see the lines around the contours of his mouth? Now look at Hunter’s. 

I find it interesting that they choose to design this lines coming from around his nose like that. But at this point I am stretching A LOT into plastic and semiotics, so this comparison is just a little thing that got my attention. I know that his tattoo is a skull and etc etc, I’m just poiting this out. And it even makes me a little frustrated, because they could have taken so many interesting paths in the Bad Batch designs. But instead they choose to pay homage to Rambo. And I mean, I like Rambo, I think he’s cool and all that.

Look at him doing Filipino martial arts

But then, as we say in Brasil, they had the knife and the cheese in their hands (all they had to do was cut the cheese, but they didn’t). Istead, it seems like in order to make Hunter look like Rambo, they made him even whiter??? 

2.6 SO...

Look, I love The Clone Wars. I’m crazy about it. I love the Clones, I love their stories and plots. They are great characters and one of the greatest addings ever made in the Star Wars universe. They even have, in my opinion, the best soundtrack piece to feature in a Star Wars media since John Williams’ wonderful score. It just feels to me as if their narrative core is full of bagage, and meanings, and associations that were just wiped under the carpet when they suddenly became white. It just feels to me as if, once again, they were trying to erase the person behing the trooper mask, and the people they were to represent, and the history they should evoke.

I don’t know why they were whitewashed. Maybe it was just the old due racism and colonialism. Maybe it was meant for us to not question the Jedi, or our good guys, or the real morality of this fictional universe where we were immersed. But then, was it meant for what?

The Clones were a metaphor for what? 

(spoiler: the answer still contains colonialism)

Thank you so much for reading !!!! (and congratulations for getting this far, you are a true hero)

SOURCES USED IN THIS:

[1] Ursulla K. Le Guin, 'The Left Hand of Darkness', 14th ACE print run of June, 1977

[2] Dave Itzkoff, 'Being Boba Fett: Temuera Morrison Discusses ‘The Mandalorian’', The New York Times, published Dec. 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/arts/television/the-mandalorian-boba-fett-temuera-morrison.html (accessed 15 September 2021)

[3] Bruno Claessens, 'George Lucas' "Star Wars" and Oceanic art' , Archived from the original on December 5, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20201205114353/http://brunoclaessens.com/2015/07/george-lucas-star-wars-and-oceanic-art/#.YEiJ-p37RhF (accessed 15 September 2021)

[4]  Wikipedia contributors, "Agency," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agency&oldid=1037924611 (accessed September 17, 2021)

[5] Rawinia Higgins, 'Tā moko – Māori tattooing - Origins of tā moko', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/ta-moko-maori-tattooing/page-1 (accessed 17 September 2021)

[6] Tourism New Zealand, ‘The meaning of tā moko, traditional Māori tattoos’,  The Tourism New Zealand website, https://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/ta-moko-maori-tattoo/ (accessed 17 September 2021)

[checkerflats]

Haven't been on tumblr in a long time. Felt like this was a decent place to write since nobody I know really uses tumblr anymore. I wanted to talk about my journey over the last few years and tumblr feels private enough a place to do so.

I moved to Florida 3 years ago (well as of this upcoming March) and at first life was decent. I tried to acclimate myself, stay healthy, positive, supportive, etc. At some point during that first year, I became incredibly depressed, nervous, anxious, overwhelmed trying to support myself (I did have a good friend group to help me) but down the line I had convinced myself I had a plan and that it was 'my plan, I thought of it' so instead of talking to the people I cared about and loved, I continued to try to do things in my own way.

A belief is a thought you have that you like. My belief was that I was the only one who could tell me what to do. And I never told myself to shut up and listen to people; realize they're saying what they're saying because they care. I became toxically selfish. I started judging my friends and peers opinions, being an asshole, being inconsiderate to everyone around me, unwilling to talk about my issues (and if I did I sounded like a narcissistic twat), etc.

To make a long story short, I resulted to drinking to cope with my overwhelmed thoughts and feelings. This isnt an excuse. It's just what happened. It in no way makes my behavior acceptable. In fact, anyone who knows me and how I act when drinking changes my thinking patterns would attest that it's only ever made anything worse. Even days or weeks without doing so, it affects me on such a negative level that negativity is the only lense through which I view the world and its inhabitants. I become the definition of nihilistic.

This led me to losing my friends, my loved ones, my job, housing, and ultimately respect from others and respect for myself. It was devastating and I did it to myself. After July of 2019 I started to refrain from drinking and honestly believed I had become the best version of myself. I got a new apartment, job, new friends who have still supported me to this day, albeit, upon making these leisurely friends who wanted to be wild, I felt I should--I wanted to participate. It was fun for a minute, and I was sober for about a month or two..

I'd begun to drink with them every now and then, never alone or at home, never two days in a row. I thought I could be a casual drinker. However, these friends and I stopped drinking for the most part, and begun to do a lot of acid (one thing I wouldn't say is neccesarily bad or addictive, in moderation) and a LOT of xanax. I started to learn a whole new meaning of 'fucked up' and went downhill faster than Jack and Jill could even imagine, baby!

By December, a friend and I decided we'd start doing cocaine. Fuck it, right? That got bad quick. It only lasted about 2 months on and off until we realized how crazy it was and that we needed to actually save our money (and sanity) so we stopped. By this point (March/April of 2020) I'd stopped doing everything other than weed. That inevitably led me straight back to drinking. This time it was everyday again, alone, at home, you get the point. When coronavirus hit I lost my job, couldn't find another anywhere therefore couldnt afford rent, was constantly in scary situations for 2 months (drunk), and decided it was best to GTFO and high tail it back to Ohio by May of 2020.

This took me months to realize, but I had so subtly slipped back into mass depression. Being back in Ohio, around triggers and friends who'd grown apart from me, I felt helpless and alone. I began drinking all the time. When I'd wake up, all throughout my shifts at work, at 2 am once the beers I'd had after work were buzzing off.. I was having the worst thoughts and feelings possible that I won't elaborate on because, again, I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses or even manipulating the perception of whoever might read this. I did this to myself. My behavior was absolutley unacceptable. I'd been put on probation for drinking, I'd been arrested for it even once in my own bed sound asleep (lets not go into how corrupt the law enforcement is in Mansfield, OH). The point is I'd broken the law and, regardless of the circumstances, the law is the law and it comes with consequences.

By October of 2020 I'd agreed that the best case of action was to go to a treatment center for addiction. The center was more or less a joke at first until a counselor committed to actually helping us started working there in mid-November. All in all being sober long enough to get back to a focused, rational, kind state of mind has put me in a euphoric state of content more so than any materialistic or temporary feeling that a substance or whatever else could bring me. Real peace is better than fake, self-driven delusion. I got released from the center today (1/13/21).

What I'm trying to get across is that if it wasnt for those who care for me after all the shit I've put them through, if I hadn't accepted I had a problem and my plan wasnt working, I'd still be that other guy. If you give up your ideals and listen to a 'Higher Power', (a 'God', a group of people as in power in numbers, a spiritual intuition that things happen for a reason and you agree you alone can't solve issues the same way you've tried 1000 times over and failed) whatever your view on that is, if you are willing to change and accept support you will be able to find genuine serenity.

That other guy is still in there. I have to continue working my program daily and catch myself if I slip up, be prepared to tell others, make amends (unless that would make things worse) and by all means listen to their advice in order to turn 4 months of sobriety (even from weed, but this is mostly about drinking) into 4 years, and so on. If you read all this (well first off, thank you, like.. golly!) and you are someone who knows me, then I'm sure that's hard to believe because everyone who knows me has heard me say before that 'I am quitting alcohol!' when in all honestly all those same people probably knew damn well I was just trying to convince them rather than myself and even if I did want to stop, I still had a desire to do it. That's where I can finally cut ties and announce that I, personally to myself, no longer have the desire for alcohol. Today. Right now. One day at a time. I despise it. It took my ambitions and spat them in my face along with my kindness, positivity, all my goals and loved ones like they all meant nothing and I am sick and tired of enabling that feeling. The world we live in is full addiction. Eating, technology, fame, money, power, caffeine, nicotone, sugar, sex, drugs, rock and roll--you get it okay? None of those will bring anything of substantial value or genuine joy. Being selfish will bring nothing but suffering. Be kind and loving. Love is salvation.

Once more, if you read all this, you're a saint and I thank you and hope your life, if not already, becomes (and continues to be) positive, peaceful and great. Love yourself, the best and worst. Face fear head on and never give up. Always lend a hand to those who clearly need it and if they turn it away like I did so many times, all you can do is hope and pray they'll get to the point of acceptance someday. I am so grateful for the oppurtunity I had to turn my life around. I am thankful for every single person who's come and gone and the help they offered before and after I actually admitted it was neccessary. I'll try and be of service to others when and where I can. Stay safe, world.

-cone

[thenexusofsouls]

Muse: Ethan Cavender

[Bio and other information below the cut!]

Type of Character & Fandom/Source Material: An OC/canon mashup (an OC that is very heavily inspired by a canon character and therefore not wholly original) inspired by the character Ben in the movie The Apparition (2012)

FC: Sebastian Stan (but not from The Apparition, haha... Ethan is about a decade older than Ben)

Race: Human

Age: 32

Sexual/Romantic Orientation: Heteroromantic/heterosexual, but hard to ship as his last two girlfriends were killed, so he’s not looking to endanger anyone else by starting a relationship

Occupation: Survivalist; online electrical/computer/robotics engineering consultant

Family: Parents he hasn’t seen in a decade; girlfriend, Lydia (deceased); girlfriend, Kelly (deceased)

Potentially Triggering Material in Threads: body horror (partially severed limbs, stretched faces, body parts stuck onto bodies in the wrong places or orientations, and/or bodies stuck in walls or other solid objects); demons; ghosts; insomnia; paranoia; PTSD; depression

Negative Personality Traits: He can be reckless, defensive, and standoffish. He sometimes gets nasty with people to purposely push them away so he doesn’t endanger them.

Positive Personality Traits: He’s a genuinely good person who just doesn’t want to be the reason why anyone else gets hurt at this point. He’s a lot braver than he realizes.

Background: Ethan was a typical midwestern kid growing up, and he always loved building things. despite his string of mind-numbingly boring jobs at places like Home Depot, Ethan was on his way to becoming a electrical and robotics engineer. He made it all the way to his senior year of college at age 22, but then dropped out without completing his senior research project or graduating. This was because of an incident that resulted in the death of a friend and his girlfriend at the time. Ethan and two friends, Patrick and Greg, and his girlfriend, Lydia, all of whom were students at the same university, decided to all work on one research project together, using space in the basement of one of the university buildings to set up their laboratory. Their disciplines spanned engineering, psychology, religious studies, and history.

Their hypothesis was simple: all paranormal events that cannot be explained by science are manifestations of the human mind. In other words, things like ghosts and demons exist because people believe they’re real. Once you believe, you can be affected by them. By using a trigger object (an object used in paranormal investigations to invite the energy of a spirit or entity, usually something from their life or visually representative of something the energy would be attracted to) and an electrical field designed to help focus all their brain waves on the trigger object, the four of them focused on a statue used in a similar experiment previously years ago and attempted to create an entity with their minds. At the time, they believed they were successful, because something did show up. It killed Greg and pulled Lydia into a nearby wall, never to be seen again. Ethan freaked out, quit school, and moved back home.

Two years later found Ethan moving into a new house with his then girlfriend Kelly. Everything was fine at first, but then strange things began to happen. The neighbor’s dog walked into their house and died. Things were moved around in the house. And odd occurrences like clothing being tied up in knots and objects being fused together began to happen. Around this time, Patrick reached out to Ethan, telling him that for the past two years, he’s been living in a Faraday Cage of sorts, a metal electrified cage that emits certain frequencies. This was apparently the only way he could stave off and survive the entity they “created” with their experience two years prior. The entity was captured during the experiment, and Patrick tried to get rid of it, to send it back where it came. Unfortunately, the opposite was done and the creature was set free. Not only were they completely misunderstood as to what the entity was, but it was far more intelligent than was previously thought. It also is angry that it was held captive and is systematically going after everyone involved with the experiment as well as their loved ones. Patrick contacted Ethan to warn him but also to ask for help in trying to destroy the creature again.

Long story short, it was a disaster. Patrick and Ethan set up another lab with Kelly’s help, and thy successfully purged the house of the creature... except for the garage. It hid in the largely metal-encased garage and was unaffected by the frequency-emitters employed during the purge attempt. Not realizing the entity still lived, the three let their guard down, and soon Patrick was killed, dragged into a dark room and never seen again, and Kelly was also killed, pulled partially into a wall and left there by the entity to die. Ethan assumed the entity would come after him next, however, with him being the last one left alive that had any part in the experiment that pulled it out of its own dimension and imprisoned it, the entity has decided instead to slowly torture Ethan. It hounds his sleep and doesn’t allow him much REM sleep, it manifests in frightening ways that give him nightmares, and it attacks and kills anyone who tries to help him or get close to him. Ethan travels with a cage similar to that which Patrick survived in for two years that he can put together in a short amount of time to protect him while he sleeps. Otherwise, he just stays on the road, working online because he’s not able to hold a normal job.

About the Entity or “Apparition”: This creature is not something that was produced by the minds of the college students in that original experiment. It is actually an inter-dimensional creature, basically an as-of-yet undescribed species/lifeform that exists in a dimension parallel to ours. The combination of mental energy and EMF (electro-magnetic frequencies) utilized during the experiment created a rift that let the creature come through. The attempt to send it back, left this rift open, and now the creature can enter our world and pull others into its world. It’s highly intelligent and methodical in its study of humans and the human world. It is curious about tangible life, for it is mostly an incorporeal being. I say mostly because it can manifest as a solid being for a time, and it does so partially to try and understand our anatomy but partially also to scare us and test our willpower, fears, and emotional endurance.

Because it does not fully understand humans and our world, its manifestations are often frighteningly grotesque (if you’ve seen any of the movies of The Thing, it’s kindof like that). It will try to look like a human, but the limbs are bent in weird ways, the head is on backward, the eyes are missing, things like that. So it’s trying to mimic and doing a poor job. Also, it likes to “play” with the human world, so an indication of its presence is the manipulation of solid objects such that they are changed on a molecular level. So... finding your flat screen TV suddenly embedded halfway into the wall as if it had always been a part of that wall. Having the wooden spokes of a staircase be curled in all different directions as if the wood had always been curved. Seeing chairs all melded together as if they’d always been that way. Those are all exampled of the entity playing with our environment in an attempt to better understand it.

In addition to not being able to cross certain EMF fields, the creature is also averse to bright light. It will avoid stepping into it directly and will become agitated if light is shined on it, such as with a flashlight or spotlight. It also does not like being filmed and will attack anyone with a camera or a phone pointed at it. It kills in two different ways. Either it grabs you and pulls you into its dimension, which either kills you once you get there or you get stuck halfway along the way and are killed by whatever solid object your body merges with, or it kills you simply with its residue. The creature leaves behind a black, bubbling, nodular substance or stain that is poisonous to living beings of our plane.

Here are some concept artworks of the creature in its natural form, which is incorporeal (trigger warning for demons/ghosts/skeletal creatures X,X,X), and when it tries to manifest solidly and mimic humans (trigger warning for body horror! X)

Potential Starter Ideas:

Your muse could meet Ethan and think he’s completely batshit crazy, heh. The entity has a habit of backing off for long enough periods of time to make it seem like he’s crazy. It seems to take some pleasure in this.

Your muse could offer to help him try and get rid of the entity, whether your muse is skilled with parapsychology or engineering, or even has magical abilities. Maybe your muse has connections to high-ranking/high-powered/cutting edge technology agencies that might be able to help sever the attachment between him and the entity or maybe even capture, kill, or send it back to its own dimension.

Since I write in the Marvel fandom, I welcome any and all magic user muses or SHIELD agents or anyone else who thinks they can help my rather hopeless and sleepy boi, heh.

Fun facts: 

Despite the very much not-funny reasons why Ethan is incredibly sleep deprived, the fact that he is often makes him turn to humor to lighten situations. He makes the worst jokes when he meets someone, trying to make the best of a crappy situation.

Ethan finished his degrees online, and now has a duel Masters in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science.

He’s gotten to the point where he can have short conversations with the entity in which it appears to understand him or at least be paying attention to what he’s saying. However, such encounters usually end in the entity becoming enraged and frightening him in some way with an upsetting manifestation, sometimes involving faces that look like either Lydia and Kelly.

[artemispanthar]

Tentative Title: Movie Date Originally written: 09/12/16 Word Count: 3,119 Intended plot: Pearl goes on a movie date with Mystery Girl.

Notes: Extremely self-indulgent Pearl/Mystery Girl ship fic written shortly after “Last One Out of Beach City” aired. I was actually super motivated to finish this one but the fall of 2016 was when I got really, really sick and almost died so it unfortunately fell to the wayside and I never got to pick it back up. This is a pretty good example of how I usually write, though, as I usually end up writing the beginning and end of a story first, write in the scenes I have a clear picture of, and then fill in the spaces inbetween. Since this is unfinished, it kinda just jumps between scenes midsentence, so I’ll indicate the scene changes with a — mark

I’m kinda tempted to finish this one too. It’s self-indulgent to the point of it being embarrassing but that made it really easy to write

Side note: You may or may not recall my big rambly post (here) about a fictional horror series called Helltel from a few years back. Well, it was developed entirely due to this fic and tbh it’s likely none of the information I made up was even going to come up in it, I just got carried away lol

It had been several weeks since the night of the rock show and Pearl had already experienced more of Earth and human interaction in that short time than in the last 6000 years she’d spent on the planet. Sure, it was mostly house parties and bonfires, but it was all so different and new and exciting. Part of her wanted to kick herself for not exploring this side of Earth life before, but another, more rational side told her she could never have experienced this way before now. She certainly wouldn’t have felt so comfortable shamelessly flirting with that mystery girl she’d met at the show, and that was really what made those social outings so enjoyable.

Pearl had seen the girl a total of three times after getting her number. The day after the show, after working up her nerve (and goaded on by Amethyst) she borrowed Steven’s phone and gave the girl a call. They finally exchanged names (hers was Sheena, which Pearl thought was lovely) and compliments. Pearl found her just as captivating on the phone as she was in person. After that initial call, Sheena began sending her texts, which Steven explained as short written messages people exchange on phones. They texted back and forth for a day (mostly idle chatter) before Greg stopped by and gave Pearl a new phone. He had said it was so she didn’t have to keep asking to borrow Steven’s and also “for privacy”, whatever that meant. Pearl had refused at first, but Greg insisted, “We can call it a late payment for when you fixed the van. Besides, what’s the point in having money if you can’t share it?”

 —

Pearl was shaken from her musings by someone tapping her in the back. She jolted slightly, startled, and turned to see a short woman with blonde hair. The woman took half a step back, pulling her arm away.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just wanted to ask if this was the line for the Splatterday event.”

“Oh, uhm…” Pearl looked around. She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. But there was only the one line, so it had to be, right? “Yes, I think so.”

“Ah, thanks!” The woman said, giving Pearl an appreciative nod and a warm smile. Pearl smiled back. As she went to turn away, the woman spoke again.

“Hey, aren’t you one of Steven’s… uhm, one of the Gems Steven lives with? You're… Pearl, right?”

Oh! That’s why this human looked so familiar, she was a friend of Steven’s! She was one of the donut children from that donut shop Steven liked. She was the nice one, who was always kind to Steven.

“Yes! And you’re from the donut shop, correct?”

“Right! Are you here with Steven? Because I don’t think they’re going to let him in… Or is this a Gem thing? Should we evacuate the theater?” The woman laughed awkwardly, half-joking, half-completely serious.

“Oh, nono, it’s completely safe, especially with me here. And Steven’s at home, I’m actually here with…” Pearl said turning to point out her companion. As if on cue, Sheena was already on her way over. She stopped beside Pearl and handed her a small piece of paper.

“Here’s your ticket. Looks like they’re showing Helltel four and five tonight.”

“Oh dear, would I have had to have seen the first three for it to make sense?”

“Naw, they’re not gonna make sense anyway.” Sheena laughed, putting her hands in her pockets and nodding toward the woman Pearl had been talking to. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh! Sheena, this is… uhm…” Pearl paused as it suddenly occurred to her she didn’t actually know this woman’s name, and though her knowledge of human social etiquette wasn’t the greatest, she was pretty sure calling her “the Donut Child” would definitely be peculiar.

Mercifully, though, the woman interjected.  “Sadie.”

“Yes, right, Sadie! She lives next door to the temple.”

“Well, I don’t live there, I work there. But I’m there so often it does kinda feel like I live there.” The woman, Sadie, laughed. “It’s the Big Donut. I think I’ve seen you in there sometimes, actually.”

“Oh, yeah.” Sheena said, nodding. “Cool place. Decent coffee.”

“Thanks, it comes from a big bag in the backroom.” Sadie said, causing both Sheena and herself to laugh. Pearl didn’t really ‘get it’, but laughed as well.

 —

They followed the crowd into a long, narrow room with a large screen. It had an aisle running down the middle toward the screen with about fifteen rows of four seats on either side of the aisle. After looking around for a moment, Sheena led Pearl to a row of seats to the left of the aisle, five rows from the back. Sheena motioned for Pearl to sit first, and she shuffled into the narrow space between the rows to get to her seat. She then paused, perplexed. The seats were very peculiar, they had normal fabric covered backs but the seats of it were strange, narrow columns that didn’t look at all comfortable to sit on. Nothing Pearl couldn’t handle, of course, so she went about trying to perch on the awkward seat, which proved rather difficult as it wobbled terribly. Then she heard a snort to her right as Sheena stifled a laugh.

“You gotta push the seat down and then sit on it. Like this.” To demonstrate, Sheena pushed down on the odd column on the seat closest to the aisle, causing it to fold out into a typical-looking cloth-covered seat. She then sat down on it, settled in, and gestured for Pearl to try. Pearl looked at the seat in front of her and gingerly pushed down on the folded seat. It folded out into a seat just as Sheena’s had. Pearl released her hold on it and it snapped back into its original, folded position. Fascinated, she pushed it down and released it a couple more times. It creaked audibly but otherwise seemed to operate perfectly. Finally, she sat down on it, testing her weight on it.

“Oh, it folds up when not in use to make space and it folds out for use, with one’s weight keeping it down. That’s very clever!” Pearl marveled. It was a simple mechanism, but she was always impressed by what humans were capable of building. Primitive, compared to Gem technology, of course, but humans always seemed to figure out ways to make what they needed or clever ways to engineer something to make it more useful. That was probably her favorite thing about humans. In the beginning they had nothing and they figured out how to make everything they needed, taught themselves how. In this way they kind of reminded her of… well, herself.

“Yeah, I guess it is kinda clever.” Sheena said, amused. She leaned on the armrest between them. “Y’know, you’re really cute when you geek out about this stuff. Makes me think about stuff different than I used to.”

“Oh! Well, I’m happy to hear that

 —

The room got louder and louder as more people continued to pour into the theater, taking seats and idly chatting. A human couple squeeze by Pearl and Sheena, murmuring ‘excuse me’s, and took the seats just to Pearl’s left. Pearl’s nerves prickled and she removed her arm from the armrest between her and the stranger, shifting slightly to be closer toward Sheena. She bounced her leg and absently scratched at the worn fabric on the armrest to her right. Pearl didn’t mind the crowds, really, she had expected it and prepared herself for it. But the noise level rising, the heat from all the bodies, the bright fluorescent lights, and the feeling of being boxed in… it was just a bit much all at once. It brought up unpleasant feelings and memories. She shook her head to dispel them, she wasn’t going to dwell on the past and ruin the evening,

“Are people going to be able to hear the movie with all this noise?” Pearl muttered.

“They’ll be quieter once the lights are off. It buggin’ you?”

“Hmm? Oh, no, I’m fine, I’m fine.” Pearl said. After a few seconds, she felt Sheena’s hand rest on her own. She stopped scratching at the armrest and turned her wrist so she could hold Sheena’s hand. It was comforting. She bounced her leg at a slower pace.

“Y’know, we could leave if you’re not feeling it.”

“No, no, I’m alright. I want to do this. I’m just nervous.”

“Hmm. Do you want to switch seats? You could be on the aisle, just get up and go if you need to.”

“Oh,” Pearl looked around. Maybe it would help to have that option. “Could we? If it’s alright with you.”

“Psh, yea, I’m cool wherever.” Sheena said, letting go of Pearl’s hand and standing up. She stepped into the aisle to allow Pearl to move over to her seat, then squeezed by Pearl and sat down.

Pearl sighed. It was such a little change, but it really did make her feel much better. She didn’t feel boxed in anymore, having that free space to her side was doing wonders.

“Thank you, this is much better. Sorry for being a bother.”

“Eh, it’s nothing. Sometimes you just gotta feel like you can go whenever. That’s what I like about my bike, I used to have a car but it always made me feel like I was stuck.”

“Oh? I’ll have to try that out sometime. I used to get that feeling when I’d pilot spaceships but… well I don’t get much opportunity to do that these days.”

Sheena laughed. “Well, I doubt it’s gonna feel like flying a spaceship. But it is pretty cool anyway. I could take you for a ride on in sometime.”

“Oh! That would be lovely. I-” Pearl stopped talking and sat up straighter when the lights suddenly turned off. The large screen lit up and after flickering for a few seconds began running advertisements for the theater.

Sheena leaned over to Pearl and whispered “It’s about to start, so we can’t talk too loud.” Pearl nodded. She did know that much (she got the run down of movie theater etiquette from Steven) but appreciated that Sheena thought to tell her.

The screen turned black and slowly faded into an image of a dilapidated hotel on a hill, shrouded in fog. Rain battered the building in a way that was clearly not actually rain, probably some sort of sprinkler set up. It looked very fake, in Pearl’s opinion. The movie cut to the interior of the building

—

Pearl turned to walk away, then turned back. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Sheena, wait.”

“Yea?” Sheena paused, her helmet partially on her head. She took it back off and hung it on the handle of her motorcycle.

Pearl took a few steps closer, wringing her hands for a moment before clasping them together, to stop herself from fidgeting too much. “I… uhm… I had a very lovely time tonight. Wonderful, in fact. I hope you did as well.”

“I did.” Sheena said, amused.

“Good! Good. And, well, after such a nice night I’ve heard it’s customary to… well, I mean, I’m not an expert on human dating practices by any means, of course, but I thought it would be nice if…”

“Yea?” Sheena closed the distance between them, causing Pearl to need to look up at her.

“What I’m trying to say is,” Pearl took a breath. She could do this. “I would very much like to kiss you, if… if that isn’t too forward. I completely understand if you would prefer not to, of course, I was just thinking…”

Sheena didn’t say anything, instead she brought one hand to rest on Pearl’s cheek, gently guiding Pearl to tilt her head up. She leaned down slightly and Pearl stretched up, their lips met and…

It was amazing. Sure, it wasn’t the bombastic fireworks like the first time she kissed Rose (which was the first time she kissed anyone, ever), after a hard won victory during the Gem War, but it still felt electric. Kissing a human was so much different from kissing a Gem, Pearl found. Gems can simulate the human body in many ways, simulate skin texture, teeth, saliva, all that. But it’s just a simulation, incredible but never quite the same. Humans… humans are cohesive yet imperfect. Always imperfect. There’s just no way to properly replicate the random imperfection of the human body accurately. Her lips were warm and soft, but not uniformly so. Some spots were softer, wetter, warmer. And it changed, very slightly, even over the short time they kissed. And that lip ring! Pearl wasn’t quite sure what that would feel like, in fact it had puzzled her because surely it would just be in the way? But strangely it wasn’t. It was noticeably there, yes, but it didn’t seem out of place. It was a cooler, harder texture comparatively, and interesting in a good way. Everything about this felt… right, imperfect and different yet completely right.

It felt like it lasted ages but it was only a few seconds before they pulled apart. Pearl stared up at Sheena, breathless. Figuratively speaking, of course, as she didn’t really need to breathe and yet felt out of breath all the same. “Wow…”

Sheena laughed, soft and low. “Yeah, wow… Y’know, I gotta tell ya, I’ve been waiting to kiss you for a while now. Not that I mind taking things slow, of course.”

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry! I wasn’t sure how long it’s customary for humans to wait.” Pearl blushed, embarrassed. Everything on Earth moved so fast! It was hard for her to gauge how time worked for humans. Gems, being ageless, didn’t really have need to rush. “I didn’t want to rush into anything or pressure you.”

“Naw, it’s alright, I get it. There’s not any customary way of doing these things, really. It’s just what feels right, I guess. Some people go fast, others go slow. It’s all good.” Sheena paused, thinking, then said “What’s customary where you’re from?”

“Oh, nothing. Gems don’t really… have these sorts of relationships. Not on Homeworld anyway. We weren’t meant to or allowed to. Romantic relationships were completely unheard of. Kissing as a concept doesn’t exist there, or didn’t, I suppose I’m not really up on how things are there now.”

“Damn, really? Wow. That’s… that’s really awful. I’m sorry.”

Pearl hummed in agreement. “It was. I was on Earth for several years before I learned what kissing was. And even more before I ever tried it myself.”

“Oh, you’re really behind, then.”

“Behind?”

“On kissing. You should’ve been kissed way more in your life. But I’ll be more than happy to help you catch up.” Sheena said, leaning in.

“Oh!” It was a line. Cheesy, maybe, but Pearl appreciated it. “Oh, I think I’d like that.” She leaned in as well and they kissed again.

They broke after a moment. Pearl sighed, happily. “You know, in the beginning, I thought the act seemed rather messy and unpleasant.”

“But you don’t anymore?”

“Oh, goodness no.”

“That’s good.” Sheena said, and they kissed again.

“Well,” Pearl started, when they broke for breath (for Sheena, anyway). “I suppose it still is but-” They kissed again. “-with the right people it somehow-” Again. “-feels right and it doesn’t bother me. But-” Again. “-if I think of it in the abstract I suppose-” Again. “-it is still somewhat unpleasant. So-” Again. “-it’s more about the company than the-”

“Pearl?” Sheena sighed, breathless (or perhaps just exasperated).

“Yes?”

“Not that I’m not interested, ‘cause I am, but I think this would go smoother if you stopped talking so much.”

“Oh, right, sorry!”

“S’alright, no need to be sorry. I just think you’d enjoy it more if you lost yourself in the feeling, y’know? Or just try it out, at least.” Sheena said. Pearl nodded. They kissed again.

“I’m just nervous.” Pearl said when they broke again. Sheena hummed sympathetically and they kissed again. “I have a tendency to ramble when I’m nervous.” Again. “I don’t even realize-”

“Pearl.” Oh, right, rambling again. They kissed again. And again.

“… Sorry.” Pearl squeaked out between kisses. She couldn’t help it, she had to! Sheena didn’t respond, but instead continued to kiss Pearl while laughing softly into her mouth. It was a kind laugh, not cruel or mocking, just… amused. It created a pleasant, humming sensation in Pearl’s mouth. It was infectious, too, and she couldn’t help but laugh along with her. After a moment they stopped and just continued kissing, with no further interruptions.

They continued like that for a while, and Pearl had to admit Sheena was right. It was rather nice to just… lose herself in the feeling. To just fall into that rhythm and that pleasant feeling of exploration and just being with someone. It was nice. They pulled apart again and neither felt compelled to continue, just allowing themselves to look at one another in silence, save for the sound of breathing.

“Alright.” Sheena sighed, reluctant. “I really should go now. Got work in the morning.”

“Ah yes, and you humans do need a certain amount of sleep to function properly! I’m sorry if I kept you from it.”

“Naw, it was worth it.” Sheena gave Pearl one last kiss before turning and walking back to her motorcycle. She straddled the seat and put her helmet on, adjusting the strap. “See you Saturday, probably.”

“Yes, with luck! And, uhm, catch you later!”

Sheena laughed. “Should I fall.” She started her motorcycle and drove off.

Pearl watched her drive away until she disappeared behind some buildings and the roar of her motorcycle’s engine could no longer be heard. Then she stood in silence for a moment, just breathing, just being. She was so… proud of herself. She was socializing with humans, she was experiencing Earth. Not for Rose and not even for Steven, but for herself. She went on a real official human date for the first time! She was nervous, but she did it. She felt happy at this moment, genuinely happy. Best of all, she felt little to no guilt about feeling happy. Out of everything, Pearl was probably most proud about that.

With a contented sigh, Pearl finally turned and walked to Greg’s car. The parking lot of the movie theater was mostly empty now and dead silent. She hummed softly, getting into the car and starting the engine. She flicked on the Earth radio, fiddling with the dial until she found a tune that sounded half-way pleasant, and set a course back to the temple.

[duhragonball]

Plot Holes

I really haven’t known what to write about on here lately.   Part of the trouble with that is that if I go too long without writing out my thoughts, I start to get ansty, and mull over the same topic over and over.    So I’d like to take this time to off-load some stray observations about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and why I shouldn’t be too hard on my own writing.   

I’ve been getting recommendations on YouTube for clips from the episode “Chain of Command Part I.”   Part II is the one where Picard gets tortured by David Warner while they argue about interior lighting, and it’s probably one of the best episodes of the whole series.   Part I sets up how Picard got captured in the first place, and one of those dominoes is a new captain, Ed Jellico, who fills in for him while he goes on a secret mission.    Jellico always interested me, because his whole arc is about how he doesn’t get along well with the other characters.   You’re supposed to think he’s a real dick, mostly because he’s not too hot about Commander Riker as a first officer, but the episode doesn’t really succeed in getting that across.   He orders all these big changes to the ship and crew, and expects everything to get done within two days, but he’s got good reasons for all of it, and... he’s the captain now.    Riker accuses him of wanting to “control everything and everyone”, but that’s literally the captain’s job?  Besides, by the end of Part II, all of Jellico’s decisions seem to pay off.   He foils an invasion and saves Captain Picard.   I don’t know why he needed a four-shift crew rotation to pull that off, but he made Troi wear science blue so it’s worth it. Jellico’s a good dude in my book.   

So I rewatched the whole two-parter this week, because the thing I couldn’t remember was why the Cardassians captured Picard in the first place.    His mission led him into a trap, and it’s all part of this byzantine plot to interrogate him about the Federations defenses of a planet that they want to conquer.  Jellico realizes this when he tries to figure out why they went to so much trouble to capture one specific guy, and he recalls that the Enterprise would be the lead ship in the sector if there was ever an invasion.   So the Cardassians assumed that Picard would have knowledge of how the sector would be defended, and if they could force him to reveal that information, they could win easily.   

Except Picard doesn’t know those supposed defense plans.    At least, he says he doesn’t know, and Part II seems to suggest that the guy torturing him doesn’t even care.  He just wants to break Picard for the sake of it, and things look bad for Picard because he can’t betray the Federation even if he wanted to.   

I’m left with two possible interpreations here.   One is that Picard genuinely had no idea what the defense plans would be, and the Cardassians just pulled a boner by going to all that trouble based on a reasonable guess.   If that’s true, then how would that have worked?    Would Picard only get those defense plans until the moment an invasion ocurred?    Or is the “plan” just to let him figure it out as he goes?    That’s basically what Jellico does in his stead.   He figures out the enemy fleet is hiding in a nebula, so he fills it with mines and forces them to leave. 

The alternative is that Picard really did know those defense plans, and he just denied it so convincingly that it’s taken me 28 years to consider the possibility.  That adds a new layer to the ending, where he admits to Troi that he very nearly did break, and it just so happened that he was released in the nick of time.   So maybe he might have actually given up some important secrets if his ordeal had gone on any longer.   But how did he resist their truth serum, then?

The other thing that struck me about “Chain of Command” is how much it resembles “Best of Both Worlds”, in the sense that an invading enemy does terrible things to Captain Picard in order to get an edge against the Federation.   There’s some important differences, but I think I’d feel a little self-conscious if I had written both stories, like the second one is redundant.    I don’t think anyone has ever levelled this critique against the show, though.   Maybe if they aired back-to-back instead of two seasons apart.    As it is, it’s just One Of Those Things.   

I see plot holes in other episodes a lot.    For example, in “The Pegasus”, Admiral Pressman is trying to salvage a secret and illegal cloaking device, and so he won’t tell the Enterprise crew what he’s after, and the only other person who knows is Riker, so he orders him to keep it under wraps.    Pressman’s plan is to use the cloaking technology to get an edge against the Romulans, even though the Federation agreed to never use or develop cloaking devices in a treaty.    So yeah, he really doesn’t want Captain Picard to find out, except that he would have to tell Picard about this eventually, right?    Sooner or later, his plan would involve putting cloaking devices on every ship in the fleet, so everyone in Starfleet would have to be told about it.    Maybe he figured he could sell his superiors on the idea later on, but it still seems fishy to me.    Then again, it suits Pressman’s character that he’s too obsessed with his plan to consider all the contingencies.  

I just watched “The Next Phase” today, because that one’s always bugged me, because Geordi and Ro spend most of the episode in an invisible, intangible state.   They can see and hear and touch each other, but no one else, thanks to a transporter accident involving another experimental cloaking device.   Except they can’t fall through the decks of whatever ship they’re on, and they can still breathe.   So shouldn’t Geordi be able to get someone’s attention by stomping on the deck until someone hears the noise?   Wouldn’t the ship’s life support system notice that more people are breathing than there are on board?   But the episode is just too damn good for me to care for very long.   Ro thinks they’re ghosts, and Geordi might agree with her except he’s a cyborg and he’s pretty sure you don’t take your prosthetics with you when you die.    It’s this neat interplay involving faith.   Ro never believed in the afterlife until now, and Geordi is convinced that he and the crew can still save each other.

The main moral I run into here is that it doesn’t have to be this airtight thing.   I’ll write things and feel like they don’t work because they feel like retreads of things I’ve done before, but sometimes that’s okay.    Sometimes it’s a theme, or a motif, or a refrain or whatever.   It doesn’t always have to be a matter of not being creative enough or original enough.    Sometimes things need to be repeated for emphasis.     And sometimes things are de-emphasized, to the point where inconsistencies may not get addressed.   A lot of times, the villain’s plan may seem extremely short-sighted or half-baked, precisely because it’s doomed to fail early on, so it really doesn’t matter how it would have held up in the long term.   That kind of thing.  

And if it’s okay for TNG to do it, then it shouldn’t be a big deal when I do it, so that’s what I need to remind myself of here.

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

So I was supposed to be doing secretarial work for my mother tonight. She’s doing degree-level work on mental health and I was scheduled to type up her research on Schizophrenia. But since the college has contacted her to make her aware of an extension, that has been postponed to tomorrow. But what can a working adult forced home do to fill the time void left by that?

Watch season 3 of Ninjago for the first time? Erm, okay.

So the narrative have definitely started to get heavier now. Eh, so far this is probably the weakest season for me to be honest. Like, the story writing is getting there but this season was bland in terms of entertainment. Let me just start.

-So the main ninja are back to being more active as characters now that they’re rushing a storyline, but the writing quality for them is all over the place. Kai suffers the least (that isn’t Zane), although he has the least focus in the season. The technology is a bit shaky considering that he uses the jet (in S1 and S3) and even got control of Samurai X in S2, but out of all the ninja he probably would be the least tech-savvy probably (being raised in a village as a traditional blacksmith) so it’s acceptable. What isn’t acceptable is how he was characterised in Project Arcturus. Seriously, what the fuck happened in that episode? He’s suddenly super obnoxious, ignorant of the mission Pixal is trying to drill the importance of in, and he outright endangers innocent people. And then this characterisation is ignored for the rest of the season. Were the writers asleep for the wheel for it? -Might as well get the elephant in the room out of the way now; The Love Triangle was pretty unbearable. Honestly, the biggest reason is the season seemed to try and use that as a crux for the entertainment side and it just fell flat. Nya generally really suffers as a result of it though because this shit wouldn’t be happening if she didn’t instigate it (yeah Jay blows up over Pixal’s recollection of it, but she wilfully keeps the fire burning by playing them both). One could argue that her youth means that she’s making some really foolish decisions, but it makes her come off as a bit of a bitch to put it frankly. At least she also gets more to do outside of it.  -Cole...I don’t know what to think about him. With the straight-forward love triangle perspective at the time, it would have definitely have been a douche move on his part to move on Nya even if it was instigated by her since it was clear in the second half that he was doing that and Jay and Nya hadn’t split. With the hindsight that he was never interested in her, the question is why he would this at all? Well, the first half of the season that reading is pretty easily justifiable since he seems more oblivious than anything, but it’s much harder after Project Arcturus. The reading I choose to take is that, given the later info that Jay and Cole were supposed to be prior best friends, Cole took it badly when Jay seemed to attack him out of nowhere so was just generally anti-Jay for the first half, then in the gap before the Overlord came alive again Jay didn’t patch it up and Cole found out why Jay attacked, so he decided to spite him even further. Which may be even more douchey. Ack. -Poor Jay. He seems to get a lot of shit this season, but wouldn’t you be confused if your seeming girlfriend suddenly just decided she had feelings for your friend out of the blue? And over a machine? No wonder he lashed out. And the only foreshadowing to any trouble in paradise is when he offers her Kai’s pudding cup and he does it a bit too close to her face, prompting a talk about boundaries. That’s really not enough. And given that Jay gets the most stuff outside of the main plot too (his interest in Borg Industries and the first emphasis on him being into video games, him sticking a middle finger to Child’s Play’s moral by getting into Lloyd’s comic, and even the interest in the bugs on the meteor), his biggest black mark is having to share the flat humour with Cole. -The best bits of humour were mostly the S2 characters cropping up again; while Dareth and Ed and Edna didn’t get much screentime at all, what they did get was great.  -Skales was also still the MVP for what little screentime he had. That said, the kinda retcon to the whole deal with the Serpentine’s past didn’t quite gel for me. -Sensei Garmadon seemed fairly eh at first, mostly espousing lessons. Kicking Pythor’s ass after he took his son really kicked him up a notch. -Speaking of, Pythor’s back...but he wasn’t as good as in S1. He had his moments, but generally playing lackey to the Overlord was a step down.  -I have nothing to say about Wu since he didn’t get to do that much (75% of his time was as a cyborg under the Overlord’s control). I also don’t have much to say about Lloyd "FUCKING STOP IT NOW" Garmadon since he really got no material to work with outside of bonding with his father. But most of that was in the form of lessons anyway, how is that different to what Wu did in S2? -Not any new additions outside of Cyrus Borg and Pixal, but they sure did put in the legwork. Cyrus does a fuckton of heavy lifting with the plot, he’s amusing to have around and he even got a great diet gag in the very last episode. -I actually want to talk about Pixal and Zane together because their story was really the main one. Zane is as sweet as ever, undamaged by whatever character weirdness was going on with the other ninja, and is a joy to follow. The romance between Zane and Pixal I feel was a little rushed, but the story at least tried to give some justification (since Zane is fascinated by the progression of tech and how it differs from himself). Thankfully the rest of the story is solid, and Pixal is a very good new addition (gradually learning to experience outside her programming through Zane and her need to help). For me, their story is able to hold it all together so there was still a good investment there. And I can understand why the Titanium Ninja was so shocking at the time; you expect Lloyd to pull something out as the Golden Ninja, only for Zane to step in and give his own arc some closure with sacrifice.  -I do have one quibble with the ending, but I’m saving that for the next season. You’ll see why.  -The baddies aren’t worth writing about. They’re so uninteresting. And the Overlord here is a real cardboard cutout.  -When I heard about the Digiverse I thought it was going to be this big place we got to see for several episodes, but it’s one room that’s there for one episode? And it’s not even that imaginative? Wow that’s kinda lame. I’m glad Prime Empire is taking full advantage of the concept.  -At least the pacing was fine here and the action was good. But the slow-mo is still annoying. 

Overall, the central idea is done well, but the stuff around it isn’t up to the same standard, which puts a dent in the enjoyment. Combine that with the fact that it just isn’t up to snuff on the more humourous side, and this has become the Ninjago season I enjoy the least so far. On the bright side, Pixal more than justifies why she got the privilege of being brought into Ninjago’s main cast much later.  But this is just the start of Ninjago’s story developments. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to spiel on about when we get deeper. 

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM #96

There are a few things I want to say regarding this scene.

The first is just how well written it is for the time. This was 1971.

This leads into my next point. A lot of people dismiss or diminish Stan’s abilities as a writer, to the point where they say he did next to nothing on most books and it was mostly the artists. But this is an issue where that was not the case, Ditko was long gone by this point. Indeed this whole scene either wouldn’t have happened or would’ve happened entirely differently under Ditko who.

The scene is clearly framed in favour of Randy and is calling out rich/big business people. Ditko was definitely not inclined that way.

The good writing in the scene partially lies in it’s relative subtly. Stan didn’t make Norman a caricature or a cartoonish figure. Norman isn’t overtly racist, he doesn’t start the fight, and the scene plays with the idea of giving voice to his point of view. It is a debate and although Randy wins it lesser writers (even now) wouldn’t play it like that. 

The subtly goes deeper than that though. I pulled this page (isn’t it impressive this is all in ONE page) out of context. In context though we the audience know Norman is the Goblin, we know he is evil, which sort of damns his points by association. Regardless of where you stand politically, one must admire Stan’s skill  as a writer in this regard. More than this this part of the story sets the stage for the rest of this three parter, where Norman’s attitude comes back to bite him because his own son  is an addict! That’s not even in this issue it happens next issue, which makes the pay off less obvious.

Stan’s clear intention with this was to subvert expectations regarding drugs at the time and show audiences it’s a problem for everyone, black and white, rich or poor. It’s one of the reasons why if this story ever gets a film treatment (which i deserves) I think it’d justify Norman and Harry remaining as white characters.

Moving on, a lot of people *coughTomBrevoortcough* think that responsibility was never really a theme in Spider-Man stories, let alone the defining one, except for AF #15, that it merely became the main theme when he got married. But in this one page, by Stan Lee, in 1971, a major theme referred to by name is responsibility. Norman has wealth and influence (his GREAT POWER if you will), but he doesn’t want to use it to help people but Randy is saying his ability to help others makes it his responsibility (of the GREAT variety you might say) to help others.

This is actually a very important spotlighting of Norman’s character.

Norman Osborn is 100% Spider-Man’s ultimate villain nowdays, don’t let anyone say otherwise, but people act like killing Gwen was the first or only reason for that. But it’s not, there was at least a lot of weight behind that idea going way back.

Obviously Norman’s attitude is in direct reversal of Peter’s life philosophy. Norman is rich/upper class, he has influence, and thus has power but he does not view that as demanding he use his power responsibility to help others citing the fact he’s just one man.

And yet Peter is poor/working class, has no real influence and thus little social/political power. But what power he does have he uses to help people even though he is but one man. He might not be able to fix societal problems, but he still does what he can. In this very story he will save a kid high on drugs from falling to his death, beat the shit out of a pusher, help Harry when he ODs and even remind Norman of his love for his son, thus temporarily ‘curing him’ from being a villain and ensuring Harry has a father to care for him.

But consider this too. ALL of Peter’s major villains up until this point had been people with super powers and/or technology they used as costumed crooks...but none of them had much real world power. 

Vulture didn’t he was just a thief, he didn’t even think masking his face was worth the trouble. Sandman didn’t, he was as working class as Peter. Doc Ock didn’t, he was a respected scientist for sure but he wasn’t rich, he didn’t own a business. 

There are three major exceptions to this though. Norman Osborn, Kingpin and J. Jonah Jameson; JJJ ain’t evil but it’s difficult to argue he WASN’T a villain by his actions.

Noticeably except for maybe Doc Ock ALL three of those characters appeared A LOT in Spider-Man stories up until this point, almost as though the issue of class was something important to the Spider-Man story/mythos or something??????????????

Where Norman gets the edge on everyone else as far as Spidey villains go is the fact that he’s both a Rich/Big Business tycoon AND an evil scientist with tech AND someone who got powers from a science accident. Doc Ock and Kingpin can tick one, maybe even two of those boxes. But Norman represents an opposition and/or dark reflection to who Peter is on all three levels. And in this scene he is spelled out as different to Peter as you could possibly get. 

What is more poignant is that Norman at this point in time, doesn’t remember he is the Goblin. Stan played it as he became a nice guy whenever that happened, and yet in spite of not being a super villain, in spite of caring for his son, in spite of mostly being nice, Norman even then lives in opposition of Peter’s mantra. Not quite in the exact same way as when he is fully evil, but it’s there. Almost like Norman was never really nice or always going to contrast Peter

My final point regards Randy. Randy has been around on and off since the 1960s but if I’m honest he was at his best under Stan’s pen. After that he mostly became ‘Robbie’s son’ or worse (under Mackie and Byrne) ‘the cool black friend’. Say whatever you will about his characterization in the 1960s-1970s but at least there was a clear cut hook to his character, there was something you could say ‘oh it’s Randy, he’s about this thing.’ He also offered different insights and points of view on life in contrast to the central supporting cast of MJ, Gwen, Flash and Harry. 

I’m interested to see what Spencer does with him, but what’s so odd is that, no matter your personal politics, writing wise the times we live in makes his character relevant in a similar way he was back in the 1960s and 1970s but no one has capitalized upon that. Like he’d very probably be part of Black Lives Matter or some equivalent group nowdays. I guess you could argue he changed as he grew older but the thing is he’s been so underused and underdeveloped across the decades you could very easily say he didn’t really change we just didn’t see him doing this stuff because it was off panel. He’s so underdeveloped that the 90s show could make him an aspiring teen criminal younger than Peter and the Spec cartoon made him a jock in high school with Peter and no one batted an eyelid.

Anyway, tl:dr this page is great, this story is great, Stan Lee was geat RIP!

[alarajrogers]

Planet of the autistic people

I want to write a story about a planet of autistic people. Basically, far future, we’ve figured out how to terraform, Earth created colonies, and one of those colonies was created by autistics for autistics. So I’ve been trying to think through how things on a planet designed for us would be different.

Firstly, because it’s a future world and could not exist without technology, I’m going to make use of adaptive technology and assistive technology all over the place. That goes without saying. But on a planet of autistic people, the fact that some people may use heads-up displays that tell them what other people’s names are wouldn’t change the fact that many, many people would inherently just not recognize faces, or remember names, so the social norm of “you don’t care about me if you don’t remember my name” wouldn’t exist. People would generally introduce themselves whenever they meet unless they know the person very well.

I’m imagining people wearing badges (velcro’d or pinned to shirts, not attached to bodies, because skin sensitivity) that advertise their preferred communication modality. Everyone learns sign, speech and writing, to whatever extent they are able, and your badge will show your preferred modality. Maybe your preferred and whatever you are unable to do, as separate badges, so if Jack likes writing best but can do sign, and can’t talk, and Jill likes sign best but is dyslexic and can’t read, they’d recognize that sign is the best way for them to communicate even if Jack has a stronger preference for writing. It’s the future and it’s my personal quasi-utopia, so I’m going to imagine that assistive technology allows everyone to communicate even if it meant putting an implant in their brain when they were 6, but the general attitude of the planet of autistics is that modifying people should be done as a last resort, only when their problems are so severe that there’s no other way to let them do something vital. The ability to communicate is vital; the ability to do so via a specific modality is just a plus, and is not necessary, so teaching everyone multiple modalities of communication solves most people’s problems.

Some few people might speak mostly in icons. Their language centers can’t support something as complex as sign or writing most of the time (or maybe ever), so they learn a set of vivid icons that use color, shape and symbol to convey the most important things, so they can at least say things like “I’m hungry” and “No, I don’t like that.” Then they use a tablet or an assistive brain implant to produce the icons, maybe on a screen velcro’d to their shirt or something.

Restaurants use a badge to indicate that their menu hasn’t changed. (They can say so in advertising, too, but the badge allows you to quickly tell that the food is exactly what you expect.) All menus come with full ingredients lists and notes as to what can be swapped or left out, vs what’s an integral part of the dish. The philosophy of food service and for that matter child raising is that food that a person doesn’t hate and isn’t allergic to is a human right, so no one gets butthurt that their favorite recipe isn’t enjoyed by another person. Food service is much more necessary than on our world because it’s so very common that no one in a family can agree on a meal that everyone likes and can eat; food allergies, intolerances, and violent dislikes are normal. So there are a lot of services where meals will be made and delivered to your house. Also, pretty much any dish you want from any kind of food service will offer a tasting sample, so you can tell if you hate it before you order. It’s the future, so I think I can say that life-threatening food allergies are less common because there may be treatments for them, but it doesn’t do much good as an allegory for what I wish this world was like if I handwave the existence of food allergies away completely and say “no one ever gets those anymore”.

People looking for companionship might wear a different set of badges. These have icons indicating love, sex, conversation, cuddling, and side-by-side companionship, where you’re just in the room with the other person, not interacting much, both doing the thing you like. They can be combined (for example, there are many people who are interested in love and sex together, but not either of them separately). Places where you go to meet people might have sections where people sit where they are looking for a specific kind of thing, but these things are explicitly spelled out through the use of signs, and there is usually a poster displaying what the icons mean, in case you don’t know. It is never taken for granted that anyone knows a social norm; whatever people are expected to know, the information is provided. Signs are often accompanied by a video screen where a person will say what the sign says while another person expresses it with sign language. (Wow, I may need a new word for the kind of sign meaning you hang it somewhere and it conveys information in a static way.)

The basic idea I want to convey, really, is that the people here think it’s very important to express what they want, and what they can put up with, clearly, but don’t necessarily want to have to have conversations about it. The social norm would be that you don’t talk to anyone who isn’t somehow expressing that they are okay with a casual conversation, and that’s less likely to be body language than something they are wearing that explicitly expresses this information, like the green/yellow/red badges they use at some conventions nowadays.

No one’s gender is assumed. Maybe the language doesn’t even have gendered pronouns anymore. This is mostly because there’s a disproportionate number of autistic people who are also trans, nonbinary or non-gender-conforming, so rather than such people being a small minority that the cis majority can ignore, they’d be either a majority or a huge minority, like a third of the population.

I don’t know what else. There’s a whole lot. Cooldown rooms that are as prevalent as restrooms, where you can go if you’re overstimulated? Earplugs and VR glasses that assist in containing stimulus and reducing it to manageable levels are a common thing? Disabilities of all kinds are accommodated as part of the natural course because autism has a lot of overlap with many, many other disabilities?

Oh. Lying is a felony. Not like little white lies or an occasional blurted lie under high stress, but a consistent pattern of lying, on a planet where a lot of the people can’t lie and even more of them can’t detect a lie, is considered to be dangerous enough to make it a serious crime. There are obvious potential problems with this, but that’s a good thing, for fiction -- creating a society with no possible problems leads to boring stories.

Does anyone reading this have any ideas?

[braincoins]

WIP Wednesday

I’m going to do something a little different with this WIP. Instead of giving you a small chunk of one part as a teaser, I’m going to give you lots of little chunks from all throughout the document (so far). 

Mostly just to mess with y’all, but also partly because there are lots of little lines and bits I like and trying to choose one is too hard.

So, yes, anyway, it’s a Shallura story. It will be smut and while it has gotten a bit... mature in some places, it hasn’t hit the bow-chicka-bow-wow yet (or I’d be putting this on the smut blog instead). It’s a twist on a particular trope. Oh! And it incorporates a few aspects of V:LotD because, honestly, I have rapidly-dwindling interest in writing in the actual VLD canon anymore. But this wouldn’t actually happen in V:LotD. It’s... a V:LotD AU? V:LotD fanfic? Even though I don’t have V:LotD anywhere even approaching done (because, let’s face it, rewriting an entire TV show is a hell of an undertaking)?

ANYWAY. Time to jump to the cut.

           “Paladins, let’s clear a path for the lady,” he ordered.

----------

           “I await your cue, Princess.”

           She smiled. Polite as always, even if it put distance between them. She was often torn on whether to correct him on his habit of using her title. On one hand, they were friends, weren’t they? They were all friends and teammates. They’d been in many battles together, saved each other’s lives. This team was all she had; she didn’t want to stand on ceremony.

           On the other hand, he was the only one besides Coran to use her title regularly. Sometimes the other paladins used it, but it was rare. And sometimes… sometimes it was nice to be reminded that she still held a place of leadership. Sometimes it wasn’t, to be fair; sometimes she didn’t want to be the one calling the shots. But for Shiro to acknowledge her title… He wasn’t Altean. He hadn’t been born and raised to revere the Altean crown and throne. He owed her no allegiance due to the accidents of birth – his or hers – yet he gave it to her anyway.

           It touched her deeply. In a way, it was almost an endearment. Not that he meant it as such, or that she even took it as such, typically. It was just… it was nice. It was nice of Shiro to be this semi-formal level of casual with her – if that made sense. She knew where she stood with Shiro – as his princess – and in a universe as chaotic and unsteady as the one she’d woken up in after all that time, that was a precious thing.

------------

           “Maybe this is some sort of new Olkari tech?” Pidge postulated as she typed. “Hunk, help me out with the boost.”

           “Oh, right,” he said, settling in to start his own typing.

           “They would have saved Shiro and Allura, too,” Keith protested.

           “Something went wrong with it, maybe. Errors happen, even with great engineers like the Olkari,” she replied. “Think about it: transporting the Castle, all the Lions, AND all of us out of danger, all at once? It’s no wonder something went sideways. We just have to figure it out.”

           “I’ll send a message to them,” Coran said. “Even if they didn’t do this, maybe they can help us figure it out.”

           “Good idea.”

           “But for now we’re safe?” Keith asked.

           “Don’t,” Lance warned.

           “What?”

           “DO NOT fly out there in Red to go look for Shiro when we don’t even have a spot to start looking.”

           “You’re not my boss.”

           “No, I’m your teammate and I’m telling you we’re already down two, let’s not lose someone else! At least wait until we have an idea of where to search; then you can hare about all you want. But for now, just STAY PUT, WILL YOU!?” Lance all but screeched at him.

           “Fine,” Keith sulked, folding his arms. “But the second – the TICK – we have an idea…”

           “Yes, yes, I won’t stand in your way,” he assured him. “I’ll be right out there with you. I mean, gotta have someone competent out leading the search.”

           Coran, Pidge, and Hunk let the two of them bicker. It was like white noise by now, and it helped keep their minds off the worrisome question of where the leaders of Voltron had disappeared to.

---------

           “Interesting. I wonder why they don’t use translator technology? It’s relatively easy to develop.”

           “Says the woman from the supremely-advanced technological race.”

           “We’re only supremely-advanced compared to some others.”

           “Like humans,” he pointed out.

           “You’ll catch up in time,” she replied consolingly.

           “Besides, you have all this magitech stuff…”

           “Magitech?” He was now fully capable of seeing the look of amused confusion on her face.

           He spelled it out for her. “Magic + Technology = Magitech.”

           She snorted. “Alchemy,” she corrected him.

           “Magitech,” he agreed, as if that was what she had said.

           “Anyone could do it, with the proper training.”

           He scoffed.

           “It’s true! Oh, some would always be more adept at it than others, certainly – my father was a superb alchemist by dint of being Sacred, and Honerva was unrivalled in raw talent and diligent study – but anyone could do it.”

           “I couldn’t.”

           “I bet you could.”

           “That’s a bet you’d lose.”

           She grinned at him. “When we get out of this, I’m going to teach you a simple alchemy trick,” she told him. “And I’m willing to bet that, if you apply yourself to it, you’ll be able to do it.”

           “Bet what?” he shot back.

           “Whatever you like,” she replied airily.

           He whistled. “Someone’s sounding pretty confident.”

           “I only bet when I know I’ll win.” But she swapped her almost arrogant expression for a warning as she looked at him. “But you have to try. Really try, not just pretend to try then give up just to win the bet.”

           “Okay, I’ll do it. When we get out of here.”

           She nodded. “When we get home. Or… well, back to the Castle, I suppose.”

           “When we get home,” he agreed, and the smile that bloomed on her face made him smile in return. He almost forgot that they were strapped to chairs, held by thus far unseen aliens who had mysterious, unknown purposes for them. Almost.

------------

           “Uh, maybe I shouldn’t be asking this, but when you say ‘genetic engineering’…?”

           It just now occurred to her how that might sound to him, to Shiro of all people, having been a living experiment of Haggar’s for so long. “Oh, they’ve never done anything like… I mean, as far as I know, they haven’t… They’re not…” She didn’t know how to bring it up without bringing it up, so in the end she settled for, “They’re not her.”

------------

           He walked back out and heard the princess gasp. She was sitting up in bed now, hand over her mouth as she looked straight at him.

           He blushed and looked away. He ought to be embarrassed, but that wasn’t actually the first thing he thought of. His mind went straight to his scars.

           He’d never wanted her to see them. Never wanted any of them to, because they drew attention and they… reminded everyone who saw them. Oh, sure, some of them were of fonder, more far-off memories, back on Earth: a bike accident when he was twelve, a bad hit in training when he’d been cocky. But far too many of his scars were from the Arena, from when survival was the only duty he had and he’d obeyed it scrupulously. At least, according to the half-remembered snatches of memory left to him.

           “Sorry, it… wasn’t my idea,” he muttered.

           Her hand lowered and she sighed. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and caught her blushing. Maybe she wasn’t focusing on the scars after all. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. “No, I know. And it’s not your fault. But twenty vargas and we’re out of here.”

-----------

           He cleared his throat and knocked on the nearest wall, leaning in to say, “I don’t suppose we could get a deck of cards?”

----------

           “Nothing? Again?!” Keith was on the verge of having a fit.

           “No, no,” Hunk told him. “Nothing still. STILL nothing because ‘again’ would imply that we had something at some point.”

           “If you want to tear your hair out,” Lance said, leaning towards Keith, “I volunteer to help. Anything’s better than the mullet.”

------------

           Shiro knocked on the wall. “Hey, some water would be nice? Princess?”

           “Oh, yes, please,” she said pleasantly.

           An opening appeared in the wall after a moment, and a tray slid out onto the table with two glasses and a pitcher of ice water.

           “Thank you,” Shiro said. He picked up a glass. “Say when.”

           Her brow furrowed. “Huh?”

           He was pouring water into the glass. “Say when it’s full enough for you.”

           “Oh! When, when!” she rushed to say, as the glass was getting quite full.

           He laughed and handed it over to her. “You can just say ‘that’s good,’ or ‘that’ll do’ or something like that. You don’t have to actually say ‘when’.”

           “But you said to.” She took a drink.

-------

Princess Allura had pointed out that it took being held captive by aliens for either one of them to take a vacation, and they’d both laughed so hard they’d cried.

-------

           There was a pause. “You are both very attractive members of your own species.”

           “THAT’S NOT THE POINT!” she screamed.

           “They’re not wrong,” Shiro murmured before he could help himself. Her legs… those thighs…

           Princess Allura shot him a look, eyebrows raised, and he cleared his throat and excused himself to the bathroom, leaving her to shout deprecations and vent her annoyance at the disembodied voice in the ceiling.

-----------

           I wonder if he’d still call me ‘princess’ if I was in his lap right now?

---------

           Eventually, Shiro said, “You really want to know what happened?”

           “Yes!” Coran replied immediately, actually latching onto Shiro’s arm and looking into his face with anticipation.

           Shiro leaned forward just a hair. “Ask. The. Princess.” He straightened up again.

---------

           “Well?” he asked. “Shiro refused to tell me what happened. He suggested I ask you.”

           “Where are we and how long until we get to Olkarion?”

------------

           “Or we can rest now,” he insisted. “Please. Look, there has to be something you can spend this time doing, if it bothers you. Work on your alchemy more?”

           She remembered the bet suddenly: that she would teach Shiro a simple alchemy trick. But that would require being alone with Shiro again. They couldn’t even have a simple “hello, sorry about that, goodbye” sort of conversation right now; how could she be expected to teach him anything?

           “I can work on my alchemy when we’re on Olkarion.”

           He snorted. “You won’t though. You’ll be in conference with Ryner or the rebels or any of the other various Coalition groups that have started working on Olkarion as a base of operations. This is an excellent time to advance your studies.”

           She had to give him that one. “Very well.” She gave him a warning glare. “But be careful about gainsaying me in the future.”

           He smiled; her warning was not having the desired effect. It was hard to cow a man who’d seen you in diapers. “Yes, Princess.”

           It sounded wrong to hear him say it. I want Shiro to say it again. She looked away quickly, hoping Coran wouldn’t catch her blushing and turned to leave.

--------

           Keith shot Shiro a glance and found him looking… mildly uncomfortable. That was odd. Not the look itself: Keith had seen Shiro look like that a hundred times before. It usually meant he was having a flare-up and didn’t want to admit it. But his disease had been cured by the pods. He wasn’t degenerating anymore, so there shouldn’t be anything to flare up.

           He leaned in towards him to ask quietly, “Everything okay?” just the way he had in the old days.

           Shiro’s answer back then had usually been that he needed to sit or stop or he’d request Keith run a distraction so he could slip out, if it was really bad. But his answer today was to put on a thin smile and say, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

           Keith frowned. That was the bullshit he’d always given everyone else, the ones who didn’t know, the ones Shiro didn’t see the need to tell. You’re supposed to tell me everything. You’ve never shut me out before.

           And Shiro caught that. It was a two-way street, after all; they knew each other. He dropped his voice low. “I really am fine, Keith, I just don’t want to talk about it.”

           “Is there something I can do?” Because he always wanted to do something. Standing around, talking, all of that was bullshit. Action produced results.

           “No, buddy. Sorry. Not this time.” Shiro patted his shoulder. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

           He walked away, but he might as well have been running.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Chapter 39: Many Matters Up For Consideration

Content warning for this chapter: some unintentional misgendering of a gender-fluid character occurs. Walt knows Bernie's preference is "if it's unclear which pronoun set I'm currently using, use 'they/them'," but Walt is also out of practice checking if there is a pronoun set Bernie is currently using other than 'they/them', and so refers to Bernie as 'they/them' while the audience knows Bernie is using 'she/her'.

Becoming the Mask

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"So, what did Blinky say when he dragged you off earlier?" Toby asked Jim.

The Changeling rolled over in his sleeping bag and propped himself up on one arm, facing the bed.

"He apologized for some stuff he said when he found out what I am, and he told me where troll babies come from. Whelps incubate in Heartstone chunks called 'birthstones' – which I think explains the thing about Gunmar's Birthstone being 'a rotten Heartstone'. It makes a lot more sense now. Like calling someone 'a bad seed' or 'a bad egg'. Birthstones are kind of like fish eggs, except both parents fertilize it externally. And it takes thirty years for one to hatch."

"Wow."

"I know, right? I wonder if some Changelings might've been taken as birthstones instead of whelps. I mean, it's got to be easier to carry a rock than a squirmy baby. I know I'd already hatched by the time I was changed, because I kind of remember it, but that's probably just so we actually know stuff by the time the age pause switches over to our Familiar."

"You remember getting turned into a Changeling?"

"Kind of," said Jim again. "It hurt a lot, especially my hands because I grew an extra finger on each one. And there were other Changelings there, too, and … our Creator."

He said the last part softly. Toby took that to mean Jim didn't want to talk about it. Them. Whatever.

"… Do you remember anything from … before? Like, your first family?"

"No, that's mostly blocked out. I half-remember being warm? And some blurry noises and smells? But I don't know if any of those are real memories or just something I invented. Like, I figure one of my parents must have been blue, but I don't remember that, I just think it because I am. And I've always been really drawn to soft things, so I think one of them might've had fur and I subconsciously remember that? But I don't actually know."

Toby didn't mean to snort, really, but –

"One blue and one with fur? So, Blinky and AAARRRGGHH?"

There was a moment of silence before Jim huffed amusedly. "Well, Blinky did just give me The Talk. But if I were going to claim any troll as my dad, I'd probably say Stricklander."

"Wait, if you guys are both Changelings, doesn't that make you the same age?"

"No, no, he's, like, centuries older than me. Enrique's around my age, though."

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Bernie increased magnification and switched forms. It was a habit of hers. Trolls and humans had evolved in different lighting conditions, so troll eyes could catch a detail that human eyes could not, and vice versa.

Bular's death was tragic, of course, a deep setback to the Order's plans and an agonizing blow to the Underlord (or would be, once someone was brave enough to bear the bad news), but his remains offered a wealth of knowledge. Bernie intended to wring every scrap of information possible from the stones.

The Janus Order had not had troll remains available for study since before most of Bernie's lab equipment had been invented. Changelings who died in troll form tended to explode. Bernie had samples of the dust and was eager to see how Bular's chemical composition compared. She felt like a human paleontologist studying a mostly intact dinosaur fossil after decades working with tiny bone fragments.

First she was running a series of passive tests on the stones. More intrusive testing could wait until she and Otto and Stephan had rebuilt Bular enough that she could take samples from pre-determined areas. There could be any number of factors differentiating between what had been his horn or his stomach or his tail, and the chemical analysis would run more smoothly if she knew what she was testing.

The stones were not responsive to blacklight and showed no response to infrared other than warming up. Bernie hadn't quite dared expose Bular's remains to ultraviolet light yet – it shouldn't do anything, with the tissue already dead, but she didn't want to risk degrading the samples so early on when there was such a finite quantity. She was using infrared and ultraviolet cameras as well as a standard one to record everything.

"So far," said Bernie aloud to the video cameras, "Bular seems to be composed of a sedimentary version of the same mineral that comprises Changeling dust. That suggests we aren't as different from unaltered trolls as previously believed. Possibly the changes are more noticeable in live tissue."

She wished he had been willing to provide tissue samples while still alive. The Son of Gunmar had made it clear in life he was not interested in indulging Changeling curiosity. Decades ago, Bernie developed a formula that should work as a sunblock for trolls, but the Gumm-Gumm prince had taken offence at the request that he, as the one sun-sensitive troll available, consider testing it, and the Changeling scientist had gotten broken ribs and a broken wrist for the 'insult'. After that, Bernie stopped asking for the troll's aid in experiments.

Between comparing Bular's remains to Changeling dust and cross-referencing that with some of the old notes recovered from the Pale Lady's workshops, Bernie might be able to reverse-engineer how Changelings were made. Their numbers were limited with their Lady currently inaccessible, but if new technology could substitute for raw magical power, then their numbers could grow once more.

Bernie would meditate at the gramophone to seek Her Ladyship's approval before actually trying to recraft the formula, of course. Bernie Sturges was a lot of things, but not a blasphemer.

(Bernie thought of herself as 'Bernie' all the time, regardless of how her gender fluctuated, but classically-gendered names like 'Bernard' and 'Bernadette' were a useful verbal shorthand, to sidestep having 'the pronoun conversation' with every casual acquaintance and speed up telling those 'in the know' which pronouns to use at the moment.)

She switched back to human form to write a few more notes. She liked having a written record as well as audio-visual.

"The fact these remains are Bular's, specifically, raises another possible field of comparison," Bernie mused. "A comparison to the Eye of Gunmar may yield vital data, not only on how our eyes work, but on how genetic ties manifest in living stone. It is hypothetically possible some Changelings are related and don't know it."

Maybe siblings, maybe cousins, maybe an aunt or uncle and their niece or nephew.

"Will investigate the vault and determine which security measures I need to override to access the sample."

Bernie had been living on the base since Stricklander had sent the Order into deep cover. She was between human identities at the moment, so her disappearance would draw less notice in the world above than trying to slap a new cover together in a rush. Fortunately, she maintained a small apartment just off the lab, in case of projects which couldn't be left unsupervised.

The base had three underground stories. Bernie's lab was on the middle one, but off to the side so that any explosions could be contained by the emergency blast doors and nothing was directly above or below.

The vault was down a level and on the opposite side of the base. It had been built to store the gramophone, before it was determined that the magical wards interfered with the signal, pieces of Killahead Bridge, before construction had begun, and two other artifacts which were considered too vital to move about without direct instructions from the Order's head or the Pale Lady herself.

Bernie swapped her safety glasses for a mask and brought a few of her smaller scanners along. If she could get into the vault, she could run some tests on Gunmar's Eye before reporting the security system's weaknesses.

To her surprise and concern, the Order's head was already standing at the vault's door.

"Stricklander," she greeted. Bernie never bothered with introducing herself to him, because –

"Dr Sturges."

– Stricklander always called her that. She had a few doctorates by now, from decades infiltrating human universities to keep up with their scientific progress. 'Bernadette Sturges' was not so accredited as 'Bernard Sturges' yet, but the degrees under Bernadette's name were more recent.

"I'd like to access the Eye of Gunmar," she said, because it wasn't like Bernie had any other excuse for being on this level and Stricklander usually supported her studies.

"… Why?"

"I've been examining Bular's remains," which he'd know if he'd read the reports she'd been leaving on his desk, but he might not have been to his on-base office recently, "and I wanted to do a comparative study. Since we know they're related."

Stricklander frowned.

"You have fortunate timing, Dr Sturges," he said after a moment. "The Eye of Gunmar is about to be moved to a classified location." More classified than a secret underground bunker? Well, if Stricklander was the only one to know where the new location was, that would be more secure than a vault most Changelings knew about. "I see no problem with you studying it under supervision for the next few hours."

Opening the vault was a complicated affair. There was a Changeling lock, of course, to keep out any other trolls or humans who somehow got into the base, and then a combination lock, and then some other form of combination lock involving floating, glowing runes that Stricklander rearranged into what was probably a password – Bernie could read trollish but it still looked like gibberish – and then some kind of scanner for which Stricklander changed to his troll form.

Inside was dark and surprisingly spacious. Perhaps not surprising, considering it had held about half of the Bridge at one time. There was a shelf along the back wall, which held two boxes, kept a respectful distance apart from one another. Each box sent a faint light up the wall and to the ceiling.

Bernie was mildly surprised that both boxes were open. One would think they'd be kept sealed so that, on the off-chance a thief made it this far, they might still grab the wrong artifact.

One, the Eye of Gunmar, glowed blue. The other, the Inferna Copula, glowed golden.

"I should study the Inferna Copula as well," said Bernie. "Not now, but at some point. Legend says it's a metamorphosed piece of Angor Rot's own flesh, which he sacrificed as an offering to our Lady when he swore himself to her service."

Stricklander took the box with the eye. Bernie stayed near the vault door, ready to bolt for it if her presence set off another security system.

"He could avenge Bular," Bernie realized. "He's slain Trollhunters before, in our Lady's name."

Stricklander let out a sharp but quiet gasp. He handed Bernie the eye box and took the ring box.

"I think I had best keep this close for now."

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Walter was nearly positive that Dr Sturges was working with Otto. Sturges hadn't been told the full story of Bular's demise, or they wouldn't be so open with Walt about their current project.

As Sturges examined Gunmar's Eye, talking to the various recording devices set up in the lab, Walt examined Sturges' notes. Sturges had copies of papers recovered from several of the Pale Lady's workshops, which the Order's linguistics and cryptography team had done their best to decipher and translate. Sturges was no linguist, and only a hobbyist cryptographer, but insisted on having copies of the original pages as well as translations.

The papers Walt was studying had to do with Angor Rot.

Angor had turned to the Pale Lady midway through Gunmar's first war for the surface. A few history records that Jim had recovered from Blinkous' library claimed Angor had been a hero, once, defending trollkind from the Gumm-Gumms. Perhaps that was what had driven Angor to Morgana, seeking the same power that her rival Merlin had bestowed on the Trollhunters?

If so, it seemed she had gifted him with even greater power, because at least four Trollhunters were confirmed to have died at Angor's hands, and half a dozen more were rumoured.

Angor was controlled by the Inferna Copula, the ring which contained his soul. Wielding it was hazardous; every past bearer had died gruesomely, either as or shortly after it was taken from them. The assassin himself had vanished centuries ago, supposedly having been imprisoned by Merlin, but the Janus Order had acquired his ring.

Walt could not let Otto get it. If there was a chance Angor Rot was still alive, Otto could set him against Jim, and Walter himself.

But, looking at Morgana's notes about her Champion, and the weak and sentimental heart which brought him to her … If Angor were alive, and Walt were to get to him first …

It would be a foolish quest; more foolish than the quest for the Triumbric Stones, considering that those, at least, were known to still exist.

Walt couldn't just pack up and leave Arcadia. It wouldn't look entirely suspicious to his fellow Changelings, for him to up and leave the town guarded by a Trollhunter strong enough to slay Bular, but it could incite panic and mass exodus.

And who could he leave in charge in his stead, who wouldn't be killed or overthrown but also wouldn't overthrow him? Nomura, maybe. 'A last chance to redeem yourself after the Bridge was stolen from your post.' But could he trust her that much? Could he afford to put her in the position of becoming the scapegoat if anything went wrong with the Order in his absence?

He couldn't send someone else to retrieve Angor Rot. That only raised the same questions, of who wouldn't either be killed or keep the assassin in their own service.

And could Walt really afford to take away the token protection his presence gave Jim against Otto, even for a short while in exchange for a chance to acquire a more powerful ally?

He put down the papers and examined the ring. Gold, chunky but spiky; its bulk reminded him of some Borgia rings he'd seen or worn in the past, with their hidden compartments for poison. He couldn't find any mechanisms. More out of curiosity than anything, Walt tried it on.

Vines and moss and the crushing weight of stone. Sunlight filtered through gaps in an old roof, not quite able to reach him and burn him. Arms and legs spread uncomfortably and held firm, even after centuries. Tired. Hungry. Thirsty.

Walt pulled the ring off quickly. He didn't have a perfect internal compass, but the connection between the ring and the troll had created one, if only for a moment.

Angor Rot was alive, and Walter Strickler knew exactly where to find him.

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Previous Chapter (Barbara agrees to let Jim move back home)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Toby warns Claire, Mary, and Darci that Barbara wants to tell their families about trolls)

In the episode It's About Time, Jim gets a vision of where Angor is when he puts on the Inferna Copula. This 'inner compass' idea explains how he found him so quickly when Arcadia has a lot of sewer tunnels and there was no reason Jim should recognize that particular spot, and in this fic I'm using it to explain how Strickler finds Angor without Otto also along on the journey.

I'm ignoring the spinoff novel which claimed Angor made his deal with Morgana after the Battle of Killahead, because I don't think that makes nearly as much sense as it being a pre-Killahead thing. Angor specifically mentions that Gunmar's war ravaged his village. It could be interpreted as Angor wanting to protect his vulnerable displaced/rebuilding people after the war is over, but I think his phrasing makes the most sense if Gunmar is still free to threaten them further. 

I am keeping, at least as a rumour, the spinoff novel’s claim that Merlin was the one to chain Angor up and trap him under a pile of rubble in an isolated building.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD5x01 – “The Prisoner”

5x01 – “The Prisoner”

The Paladins are attacking a Galra moon base because of some intelligence they’ve been given. I still think Blue’s ice cannon is silly, and here Allura uses it to hold off some advancing magma, which I don’t think would work more than a couple of seconds, but whatever. They are in some huge shaft system built into the moon, and they form Voltron. And the animation of them forming Voltron is the same as it ever has been: In space. But they’re not in space, they’re underground. I understand the show is reusing the form-Voltron animation, but I’ve never understood why. Did they do it for the same purpose 80s shows used repeated animation: To pad time and not have to spend money on new animation? Or was it supposed to be some nostalgia thing? Regardless, the use of the form-Voltron animation here is super awkward.

Shiro orders them to “take down the factory machines,” which is a clunky line of dialog, and they blow up some stuff, and somehow that leads to the entire moon exploding. I really don’t think destroying a factory on a moon would destroy them moon, but whatever.

The Castle Ship is parked on Naxzela: I must say, that does not seem like a safe place to hang out. “Going on missions is a lot easier when someone gives you all the information you need before you get there,” Hunk says. Maybe you should have valued what Keith was doing back in 4x01 “Code of Honor” when he was nearly dying while getting you guys information. The show does this unnecessarily cryptic tone, as if it’s building to some unexpected reveal: Surprise, the source of their information is Lotor! But that’s not an unexpected surprise, it’s actually the opposite: It is expected. If last season’s ending was to be resolved any way other than some manner of cooperation with Lotor, then this season premier to this point would have been way too casual in tone.

Lotor states his motivation: “The Galra Empire is completely reliant on quintessence. Serve that need peacefully, and you have a complete paradigm shift. […] My plan from the beginning has been to find a way to harvest quintessence without resorting to the barbarism of the komar. Extracting quintessence from entire planets at the cost of every living thing: I think not.” The thing is, he’s not lying.

In the end, this show reduces Lotor into a cackling, cliché villain. At the end of season six, we’re supposed to feel surprised that he’s been a maniacal villain all along. The problem is that the show gives us stuff like this. His motivation, stated here, is not a villainous one. His wanting to preserve life matches up with his reputation of letting planets govern themselves that the two Galra discuss in 3x01 “Changing of the Guard.” He doesn’t want to abolish the Empire, but he does want it to stop being so brutal.

Upon hearing that Lotor has been trying to gain access to the rift, Allura responds, “Sounds like you are your father’s son.” Well, that’s overly simplistic of her. It’s expected that she would be particularly aggressive toward Lotor though. “This isn’t a zero-sum game,” Lotor retorts. “All I ask is to be judged by my actions rather than your preconceptions of my race.”

There’s a cute moment of Lance trying to be supportive of Allura, who’s worried about preparing for a presentation she’s giving to the Coalition. This is the part of Lance that I like. Allura gives her presentation via teleconferencing to four alien leaders last seen in 3x01 “Changing of the Guard” and to Kolivan (and Keith standing in the background behind Kolivan). Seeing these particular aliens again makes me wish we had seen more of them during the past two seasons. They are interesting character designs, and it would have given some continuity to the Coalition.

Allura ends the conference call with all but Kolivan and background-Keith. The Blades have been able to conduct many successful missions using information gained from Lotor. Pidge makes a very smart comment, “With all these successful missions taking place in such a short period of time, it won’t be long before the Galra realizes we’re using inside information.” That leads Lance to suggest that they should take advantage of what time they have left and hit as many targets as possible. This is some decent strategic thinking, which I’m not used to seeing characters have on this show. I am again bothered, like I was last season, that they have Keith just standing around behind Kolivan. They could have given the dialog Kolivan had to Keith, but this show would rather give dialog to a reoccurring character than to give it to a main character. It’s strange.

Lotor says any additional information he could give them would be more dangerous than the missions they’ve gone on based on his information before. He has information that he describes as “important on a more personal level” for the Paladins about a prison and a prisoner there. You can almost tell that he’s talking about Sam Holt what with the show then cuts to Pidge and Matt. They’re having a conversation with Nyma and bragging to each other about science and improvements they’ve made to rebel ships. I’m not sure I understand the locational logistics of this scene. Where is Pidge that Shiro and Allura have to contact her through the rebel ship’s communication system rather than through Pidge’s Paladin armor?

Shiro says, “We have a lead on Commander Holt, your father.” This is an aspect of episodic writing that has always bugged me. Realistically, Shiro would never have needed to say, “your father,” but the line was written that way to inform any new viewers who would not understand Commander Holt’s connection to Pidge of what that connection is. I understand why episodic writers write like this, but it always feels artificial to me.

It feels like a stretch that the Galra Empire, which has seriously advanced technology and spans the whole universe, would find a human scientist as being advanced enough to match the Galra’s scientific needs, but that’s apparently what the Galra have done with Sam.

Shiro says that “once the teludav is repaired we can all head over there.” Since when was the Castle Ship’s teludav damaged? And, since the Paladins have been going on a bunch of missions, at least someone one, even if not the Paladins themselves, would have had time to repair the teludav already. Someone like Coran. Where is he? Last we saw of Coran in the last episode, he was on the Castle Ship. He’s nowhere to be seen now and no explanation for his absence has been given.

Fitting her blind impulsivity, Pidge wants to go after Sam right now without the rest of the Paladins. Rolo tries to assure Allura that he, Nyma, and Beezer will serve as backup for Pidge. I’m still confused about the locational difference between where Pidge is at and where Shiro is at. The teludav is used to create wormholes, which the Lions cannot do, so for Pidge to be able to go to this prison while the Castle Ship cannot, wherever Pidge is has to be a long way away from where the Castle Ship is. It mostly just ends up feeling like this damaged teludav is a contrived way of keeping the Castle Ship and the rest of the Paladins out of the story for a while.

The prison is on some asteroid, and Green comes under attack by Galra fighters when they get there. Everyone but Pidge, skydives out of Green down to the asteroid. Matt’s jetpack, as a stand-in for a parachute, is a cliché and fails to function. Rather than anyone else using their jetpacks to maneuver to Matt and grab him, Beezer fires cables at Matt to lasso him. Eh.

They get to the entrance of the prison and find Galra guards laying all over the place. Someone else has clearly already been here. Other alien prisoners are still inside working. Sam is not there. Rolo loads everyone into a Galra shuttle and returns to Green, who’s still fighting Galra. The idea that the shuttle’s engines fail because of how many people are on board is nonsensical. Even if the weight of the number of passengers would prevent the shuttle from reaching the altitude where Green is, the engines wouldn’t cut off. And yet, off they go. Pidge comes by with Green and grabs the shuttle though.

Matt goes into the cockpit, Pidge asks if Matt found their dad, and Matt says, “I’m sorry Pidge.” Pidge reacts in an unbelievable way. She tries to run out of the cockpit, screaming, “Dad? Dad, where are you?” It is totally understandable that Pidge would be emotional, but that she would think Matt is lying to her and her father is hiding somewhere in the rest of the ship is not a believable reaction.

Axca contacts Zarkon. She and Lotor’s other generals “have something in [their] possession [they] think [he] would be interested in.” It’s not specified in the scene, but obviously it’s Sam. They want to “trade” him to Zarkon in order to be accepted back into the Galra. This is such a weird development to me. Since Sam was in a Galra prison, he was already in Zarkon’s possession. So, Axca broke into a Galra facility to capture someone to trade him back to the Galra as a demonstration of their worth and be accepted back by the Galra. It’s not like Axca is adding value to the situation, it’s not like Sam was somewhere outside of Galra control, and Axca captured him. This just doesn’t work for me.

The Castle Ship is now in space (so its having been parked on the surface of Naxzela at the beginning of the episode served no purpose). Found Coran: He’s standing in the background. Both Keith and Coran were relegated to barely visible, silent background characters in this episode; that really annoys me.

Zarkon contacts the Castle Ship. He’s offering to trade Sam for Lotor.

This season premier does not hold up for me on repeated viewing. I felt energy off this episode the first time I watched it, but this time, it seems just okay. I think the first time I watched it, I was caught up in seeing the show reintroduce Sam that I didn’t pay attention. Also, the first time I watched this episode was immediately after having finished season four, so the episode wasn’t functioning as a season premier for me at that time. Rewatching it now, I see it differently. The first half of the episode, focusing on the beginning of the Paladins working with Lotor, is appropriate follow-up to how last season ended. But the second half of the episode is so centered on Pidge’s character arc, that it feels like the episode is ignoring most of the main cast. For a season premier, you can’t ignore the main characters like this. I’m left feeling like a lot is missing from this episode, like the narrative skipped prematurely to this plot development. And given what happens in the next episode, these two episodes do not feel like the beginning of a season.

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

I started writing up this review with the intent of shelving it for this year's end-of-year cleanup (yup, I intend to make that a yearly thing), but the more I watched, the more I felt it deserved a longer writeup.  Especially given how popular and well-received it was, because frankly I don't think it lives up to the hype.  So shapeshift into a more comfortable form as we talk about...

...That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018)

Episodes watched: 14.

Platform: Crunchyroll.

The victim of a freak stabbing, a nice but forever-single 37-year-old has his dying thoughts — from wishing he weren’t feeling pain to wishing he could have a shot with many women in his next life — granted as wishes by a mysterious voice.  The voice turns out to be "Great Sage", a sort of... user interface(?) of a fantasy world that functions according to very RPG-like rules.  Generic monsters vs. named human and humanoid heroes, powers that can be acquired and leveled up, that sort of thing.  Those "granted wishes" come in the form of a new body, that of a slime, impervious to many things and able to absorb the abilities of other monsters by engulfing them, which he can apparently use either to literally eat them or to keep them alive “stored” inside him (which sounds... horrifying) — "analyzing" them using the Great Sage and gaining the use of their abilities in either case.  Granted the name Rimuru by Veldora, a godlike dragon he befriends (and then eats in order to carry him around), our slimy protagonist goes out into the world to explore and fix other people's problems.  Monsters, as we soon see in much more detail, typically have no names and minimal organization or skill, and once named, "evolve" into more powerful variants with not only superior strength but also the capacity to use superior magic and technology.  It's an interesting mechanic/premise that really feels like it would be at home in an ancient etiological myth.

It starts off feeling very much like watching a pretty good adaptation of an RPG or maybe point-and-click adventure, as the plot progresses mainly via Rimuru using items and abilities he has incidentally acquired for unrelated reasons to stumble into and complete quests for other characters.  It bounces wildly in tone from fantasy combat to ecchi to adorable wholesome content, and I assume at some point there will be some kind of confrontation with or followup on the human hero who imprisoned Veldora in the first place?  But for the first five episodes, it's mostly "ooh what's this?" followed by a sort of self-imposed quest to create a goblin nation-state from the ground up by naming everyone, taming the dire wolves who are threatening the goblins, and importing technology from the aforementioned named humanoids.  Then it takes an abrupt turn for the serious, laying on us three episodes of backstory about Shizu, a character who I can't really talk about at all without spoilers, but that short arc was engaging and resulted in Rimuru finally being able to take on a humanoid form, which turns out to be a great disguise in future episodes.

Meanwhile, the vague world conquest plans of majin (a term used here to refer to powerful humanoid magic-users) and demon lords having been taking shape in the background, as a vast orc army is steamrolling through every weaker group of monsters it can find.  The next few episodes focus on a group of oni, ahem, ogres (but they’re totally traditional Japanese depictions of oni) who join Rimuru's village after their own is destroyed by the orcs and an underground civilization of lizardpeople who attempt, in a hilariously clumsily and overconfident way, to join forces with Rimuru's followers against the orcs.  The oni are pretty great, especially Rimuru's secretary/bodyguard Shion and scout/diplomat/spy/whatever Souei, as is the unassuming goblin Gobta, who has frequently been the comic relief up to this point but becomes important to the looming conflict.

The lizardpeople/Rimuru-followers alliance is eventually formed and the show tries to make their war against the orcs epic and dramatic, but... here it largely fails.  This arc is full of tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters, as if they expect the audience goes into every episode having forgotten the events of the previous episode and even several recurring characters' names.  Add to this some sudden new abilities getting pulled out of Rimuru's and others' asses, increasingly frequent jarring tone shifts from scene to scene, combat scenes where everyone is stationary and stupid, and cap it all off with a "boss fight" that only gets started after some villainous exposition monologuing worthy of Dragon Ball Z and an exposition dump flashback about the orcs that raises more questions than it answers, and at this point I'm only still watching to find out where the hell it goes from here.  This feels like a bad adaptation of a game now... but maybe a bad adaptation of a good game.  Maybe it would work better, honestly, in RPG format.  It's not like this doesn't have potential as a premise.  But I don't get the hype, because I really don't think it lives up to it.

W/A/S: 4 / 5 / any random number 3–8, depending on episode / !

Weeb: Like I said about Death March, "not weeb so much as geek".  But this is getting a higher weeb score than that because some basic elements (such as, uh, the main character himself) probably come off as really weird if you've never played any of the Dragon Quest (a.k.a. Dragon Warrior) games, which are responsible for the generic low-level slime monster we know today.  Not to mention that this show's versions of orcs, ogres, and demons are more like depictions of those various races in other Japanese media than they are like the Germanic/Anglosphere/Tolkien-influenced fantasy canon.

Ass: Rimuru likes boobs.  He likes to talk about them.  He likes to cuddle up against them.  He checks out everyone.  He's... a sad old virgin.  Expect gag boobs and gratuitous camera angles, but not all the way to anything sexually explicit.

Shit (writing): Again, it really does feel like we're watching Rimuru complete a series of quests or puzzles to advance through the predetermined areas of a game.  Which is probably the point, but that doesn't work quite as well as a storytelling technique when the audience isn't actually figuring out how to complete those quests.  The sudden tone shift for Shizu's three-episode story arc and the weird exposition dumps throughout feel like they're trying to cram a lot of source material into relatively few episodes and it's not going well — which is odd considering that they got a 24-episode season instead of the more typical 13.  And considering that the source material has been going in some form or other for five years prior to the anime (it originated on Shōsetsuka ni Narō, the same self-publishing website responsible for a great deal of the last decade’s epidemic flourishing of isekai, including the above-mentioned Death March and Re:ZERO).

Shit (other): I like the character designs.  And they did a great job in particular making Rimuru expressive despite not... uh... having a face.  But the animation is sometimes embarrassingly bad, especially in action scenes — I swear, there was a fight at like 4fps at one point, the CG orc army is just painful to look at, and the "battles" between the orcs and lizardpeople are mostly just them staring at each other and then occasionally weakly thrusting a spear forward.

Content: Brief surprisingly violent shots, given the often-silly tone of the show.

-----

Stray observations:

- I said Rimuru pulled new abilities out of his ass, but... wait, do slimes have asses?  Can he form a temporary ass, like a comb jelly?

- Rimuru is not only lusting after the various elf and oni women; he is also obviously attracted to Souei, one of the male oni, and this is not played as being surprising or gross or funny in-universe, so, uh... yay bi representation... I guess...

- PS: I continued watching (even though this is frustrating) past the episodes this review covers, and I just want to add that I hate the pegasus knights.  Nobody had the sense to equip them with either ranged weapons or large melee weapons like lances.  They just fly around with swords that wouldn't be able to reach their enemies unless they pull up right alongside them.  This might make sense if they attempted a charge and attacked at point blank, which is the entire point of the distinctive cavalry saber, or maybe they could even dismount to fight on foot, and use the ability to fly for extreme maneuverability getting to a particular point on the battlefield?  Nope.  The closest they come to either of those tactics is to just fly leisurely towards Charybdis's open mouth without even unsheathing their swords in ep. 19.  WTF?  Look, I'm hardly a military expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I think these pegasus knights were dreamed up by someone who has only dimly heard of the concept of cavalry of any kind and hasn't spent more than a few seconds thinking about how you even can use horses in war, let alone bother to look up even a basic overview of how armies actually historically did.

[iconiceyesleedswestyorkshir-blog]

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