#orion 15

[parallelpie]

[radicalellska]

[kvetch19]

[seashellisinmyheart]

👀

[rjalker]

Transformers One said nooo don't fight for your freedom!!! That's only something bad mean people do!!!! Real heroes jump in front of fascists to take a bullet for them!!!

[Image description start. The meme comic of people in a meeting, with the boss sliding his hands onto the table and demanding of three employees, "Quick! We have to update Megatron and Optimus Prime's shared backstory for 2024! But the original conceit is... Problematic, how should we fix it?"

The first employee suggests, " make Megatron rich too! "

The second suggests, "make Optimus Prime a slave too! "

The third employee, leaning on an elbow with a sardonic expression, says, "Don't condemn slave rebellions maybe."

The boss glares at this employee with an exaggerated expression of rage. The employee stares back in silence with the same expression as before.

The last panel shows this employee being thrown out the window of the office building.

Image description end.]

And then the slavery apologism propaganda worked.

[zante-selachi]

Before Shadow Company

Hes much cockier (for several good reasons) during this time before mellowing out in Shadow Company

Ig being with others who actually cared for him helped a lot‼️

[moonyswarmsweaters]

The Tan x Burn Dynamic in Wolfstar and Jegulus is actually very important to me thanks

[omnificent-orion]

"What began in deception would end with the Truth, shining like a blade in the hand of the last usurper."

Besmirched, Chapter 26 A Gladiolus/Noctis Irish folklore AU longfic by @rose-madder-gaze

[orionshounds]

I'm making this post WAYYYY later than I thought I would but I am still NOT OVER part one of the ii finale, and I just wanted to gush about why I think it worked so well (long post + spoilers ahead, everything here is just my own personal opinion!)

And to start talking about the episode, I'm not going to talk about the episode at all, but rather THE BUILDUP

as has been said many times by Justin and Brian, Mephone4 creating the contestants has been something they've planned for awhile (since 2015 if my memory is correct), so they have had plenty of times to sprinkle in little details building to this reveal. But what I find fascinating is how well they hid the clues to the reveal because they all were hidden in plain sight

Fan glitching and saying he doesn't know who he is outside the show

Cabby struggling to remember her parents

Anytime a character is asked (in FFF or an exit interview) about their past they reply with "for as long as I can remember"

Characters describing how the show can feel like it's taking over their lives

Looking back over everything I almost feel stupid for not catching onto it before, but the clues were made by design to go over viewer's heads. Because in almost every case, there was a second, "more reasonable" conclusion the audience could take away from these moments.

For Fan his whole arc had been about his unhealthy attachment with the game, it made sense that he would struggle with his identity outside of it (we just didn't know how LITTERAL that struggle was). And him glitching was in response to being beamed up by the Prime Shimmer, at the time it was safe to assume it was probably something to do with the alien tech and not Fan himself. For Cabby's scene, god I love this scene, everyone (including the characters themselves!) assumed that it was just Cabby's memory that was at fault because that's what her arc was centered around. Every clue was so well hidden because they used our own assumptions against us

And now I want to talk about season 3 a little more because in my opinion, the twist would NOT have hit as hard without it

I know there were a lot of real world reasons why the crew made a season 3, but it serves as the perfect primer for the season 2 twist. First and foremost the Cabby scene again; since the objects' world is so different from our own and there is no universal "lore" on how such a world operates, Cabby's scene with Bot is soooo important for one specific reason; it plants the idea in the viewer's heads that, in this world, objects are supposed to have parents. Cob's specifically has a line taunting Knife and Suitcase about this (What did your parents say when they heard the good news?) that would not have hit as hard without this scene subtly directing the audience to expect them to have parents

Then there is Walkie's whole monologue at the end of iii's finale;

I'm gonna be real, when this finale came out I really did not understand this monologue at all. I didn't understand WALKIE at all. She suggests she wasn't made by Meeple, which didn't feel like a lie, but I just couldn't figure out what her deal was.....then the season was just over!

I was confused and a little irritated when they didn't elaborate on who exactly she was and where the hell she came from, and I think the crew wanted the audience to feel that way. They wanted us to keep the questions of "who" and "why" in our heads so that season 2's reveal would make it all click into place

iii's confusion doesn't stop there either, since after it ended probably the biggest question everyone had was how does it fit in the timeline? Because the crew always said it was canon, and the characters kept making references to how season two was "still going on", so when episode 15 aired I was really curious on how it would all fit.....

....what?

That was my reaction at least. There was no way season three happened in only half a day....right? And then I thought, "oh, ok, silly object show rules. They didn't want season 3 to intrude on season 2 so they're going to brush this off, just don't think to hard about it". Obviously, this wasn't the case, but we wouldn't know that until the finale. And again, I think the crew wanted this confusion. By leaving the audience with questions, you're helping to build tension towards that finale payoff (and to be clear, at the time of writing this we still don't know 100% HOW this timeline works, but no doubt Mephone's powers had something to do with it)

With all of these questions, and Brain running polls on twitter on how many characters we thought might die (thanks brian), finally it was time for part one of the season 2 finale...

and then the twist dropped like a bombshell; mephone made the contestants

the very foundation of my understanding of the show changed after that. Everything I had been prepared for was thrown entirely out the window, which I don't think was an accident. With how the crew teased about this episode, it felt like they were preparing us for everything except the twist, ensuring it could fully blindside the most amount of people possible

I want to talk about how brilliantly they presented the twist as well because honestly, building up to it is half the battle. With how important this moment is and how much of our understanding of the show it changes, it needed a ton tension and weight behind it, which the crew pulled off flawlessly. I still get goose-bumps watching that final scene

Kicking it off, Mephone finally answers the call from Cobs. As someone who is particularly invested in Mephone this was huge, it's the biggest thing we know he's been dreading and shows some significant growth from him as well (I don't think pre-iii finale Mephone would ever face his fears like this). Then Knife and Suitcase confront Cobs, Suitcase setting the mood by saying "It feels too easy, doesn't it?" and it does. We, as an audience, know that this is only part one. There is no way Cobs is about the be defeated....not to mention that he has some sort of grand plan we don't know about, so the audience is now on the edge of their seats wondering what is about to go wrong

As the pair confront him they have this exchange;

"Bored? You expect us to believe that??"

"I don't know, it is the truth though"

Since Cob's is known to be an unreliable narrator, to me this feels like Brian subtly signaling to the audience that whatever Cobs is going to say next IS going to be the truth, whether we like it or not

Cobs then nonchalantly confirms he's the one deleting the contestants, putting the audience on edge. I mean, who calmly admits to murder like that?? Then, he begins probing about the bizarre nature of the show. Alllll of the little things that might have bugged us, or things we brushed off because "its an object show" Cobs highlights. He builds the audience's tension by pointing out the same questions a lot of them have been asking themselves since the beginning. And then, he starts building the tension with the contestants;

(I really love this beat, how he takes a moment to think of just the right question to ask without giving it all away. It shows how much he's enjoying fucking with the contestants, really living up to being the final big-bad of the show)

The way he begins to lead us to the answer is so sick and twisted. Asking Knife and Suitcase seemingly innocent questions, going on about creative vision, answering Mephone's call and realizing with delight how even HE doesn't seem know the answer. Winding the audience up and up and up before;

"How'd you get an interview with him anyway?"

"What'd your parents say when you told them the news?"

"You'd think you'd remember something like that, oh wait, no you wouldn't."

"He made you."

...

To this day, Inanimate Insanity is the only show to leave me literally speechless after an episode. I think everything about part one was handled phenomenally, hats off to the entire crew

Finally, I wanted to talk about where this twist leaves the show. Let's be real, putting a "nothing was real" type twist into your story is risky. If not done properly it can leave the audience feeling like the story was pointless or is no longer engaging to revisit. I can confidently say ii's twist has avoided this pitfall

Not only has this twist been properly built up too, incredibly I think it makes the characters more interesting in hindsight. Many of them follow an arc about becoming more than who they are assumed to be at the start. With this twist, those arcs are suddenly much more meaningful because instead of overcoming a personal flaw, they are overcoming what they were literally created to be. It changes the status quo in a way that will alter your perception of earlier episodes, but in a way that makes you re-engaged with the show and excited to revisit it

All in all, I love this episode and I love the twist, and I'm really excited to see how it continues to shape the characters and world in part 2 :)

[orions-hound]

ive been getting back into sonic lately and i just realized my brain autocorrects the characters ages whenever i interact with them because their canon ages are so bizarre, the fuck you mean rouge the bat isnt 35

[transingthoseformers]

I've been thinking about this thing in "Tarnian Slip" and you will hear it

So the "Lovesick Teenager" line, right?

Just the idea that Orion and Megatronus ended up starting the war when they were both teenagers.

Just. Imagine that. Imagine becoming the Prime, this massive role that is both religious and civilian, as a kid. Imagine becoming a general and weaving through alliance after alliance with entire citystates, as a kid. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about this before I read the fic, but it has made me start thinking about it again

[lord-of-the-weird]

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[dailydose-of-kazemaru]

Kazemin #153 ★*⁠.⁠✧

Today's Kazemin wonders what Kidou will do about Ichihoshi!

[roalinda]

Entry for @hprecfest

☆Day 15: The most recent fic you bookmarked☆

Hate, Lead the way! By oh_black_sparrow

Pairing: Orion Black x Walburga Black

Summary:

How Walburga became the head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Rating: E

Category: M/F

Words: 4, 884

Walburga centric works have a strange allure for me. I love to read Walburga's character from the perspective of different authors and boy, this work did not disappoint. If you like the silent rage and toxic dysfunctional dynamics in the Noble House of Black, you should give it a try.

"Not with that snide, Walburga. I won’t have it.” She’d laughed; loud and ringing. “You can’t even look me in the eye just talking about it, do pardon me if I am not more excited about this proposal you have–” 

“--I can’t stand your snarky ways–”

“--My snarky ways suit you just fine when there are servants to order around, or sloppy business partners to keep in check when you want to keep your hands clean; because it gets the job done. Maybe it’s more of my snarky ways we need in the bedroom to make this work.”

[x4-to-da-ice]

Star Unicorn in a nutshell

[rupertholmes]

i need to design a pre-t optimus Now...