#rabid tbb

[ve-ti-ver]

I got really busy but here he finally is... angry boy

[crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf]

A continuation of this thread, and this post from our @eobe.

[darth-kote]

Actually can't believe they'll give us an episode like Rookies and show us rishi outpost and not tell us every single detail of each clone on the damned moon like-

[the-senates-one-fear]

OOP FAVOURITE CLONES WE NEVER SEE ALERT WOLFPACKS BACK

[martianbugsbunny]

as requested by my sis, who does not have a Tumblr but would find me instantly if she ever got one bc of these very edits

[thrawns-babygirl]

I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT BE JEALOUS OF PHEE I WILL NOT-

[toomanyteefs]

TBB SEASN 3 FINALE SPOILERS BELOW!!!

So with that out of the way!! Due to a combination of my rabid need to have Tech survive and the brainworms given to me by my friend @amberskyyking with the fic she wrote at inhuman speeds after the finale dropped, I've decided to write yet another TBB fix it, this time a Tech lives fix it of the finale and some time afterwards. Winter Soldier style. (In which it will be obvious why that's the only Marvel movie I like.)

Depending on how long the fic turns out to be, I'll either write the whole thing before I start posting, just so I can give regular weekly updates, or I'll start posting after I write the first ten chapters, so I have a buffer. We'll see how it works out. I'll announce here and on Snapback when I start posting it!

Just you wait Tech girlies, TECH LIVES!!!

[bitterfishiesstuff]

For the 2024 in review: 1, 3, 25, 29

1. How many fics have you worked on since January? 5, I know if you go on AO3 and go through it's 6, but 'WiTBF: Say it's Alright' I didn't actually work on this year. It was written in 2022(3?), Rin edited it this year and showed it to me before posting it.

3. What peice of media inspired you the most?

The Bad Batch lol. They kept inspiring me in all kinds of different ways. Some of which have run off and grew legs in completely unexpected ways. Others more predictable(forever a rabid mermay poster)

25. How did you recharge between fics?

This... is complicated for me. Writing fanfic is one of the ways I recharged from irl. Between fics is mostly me getting swamped with irl and being unable to sit and write.

But if the question was meant to read more like what other hobbies do I have- I draw a lot, sometimes I play video games, and sometimes I sew. I tend to prefer things that are tangible the past 5 years or so. Video games are fun, but I find it more rewarding to have physical proof of how I spent the time. If that makes sense.

29. What's left on your to do list for 2024?

Finish Charon's Forgotten. Which after today's binge editing spree shouldn't be too hard. The 'offical' last chapter is very short. I'm going to add to it a bit more, but it's still not long. The bonus bit is longer, but still shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

I'd like to finish 'On my Way to the Market', but I know that's going to have to wait until next year. Probably until mermay.

I might go back and finish the Sideon/Link pinning fic I started and abandoned. Its only one chapter. I'm doubtful I'll ever get back to the TBB pokemon au I started.

[arlothia]

*walks up in my clown shoes* @heyclickadee was THIS the post you were looking for? I hadn't realized just how many details were similar!!! And looking at Mando as well, S2 (while not NEARLY as dark as TBB S2 or ESB) ended with Din and Grogu being separated, which was a downer for the fans, especially since we knew that this school Luke wanted to take Grogu to is destined to fail, so this could possibly spell the death of a beloved character. And just look how Mando S3 ended!! So yes, TBB S3 ending will be overall happy, though I wouldn't discount maybe something bittersweet about it...

And because I can't add to your posts without pulling out things to talk about:

1) "it’s a little too much like real life grief" - OH IT WAS SO VERY DIFFINITEY REAL GRIEF FOR ME!!!!!! I couldn't sleep, my heart physically hurt, my stomach was in knots, I sobbed by myself AND onto my poor, sweet, wonderful, longsuffering mother's shoulder!! But let me tell you (....again, because I'm pretty sure I've commented something like this on one of your posts somewhere/sometime), more than ANYTHING else I've seen on any number of sites, your #TechLives posts have given me the greatest hope and assurance that Tech really is alive!! I'm just getting to these last couple of episodes in my large Star Wars re-watch before 'Ahsoka' and while it still hurts to watch, it doesn't hurt anywhere NEAR as bad because of the posts you've made and the insights/reasonings/tin foil hat ideas you've shared. So THANK YOU!!! *hugshugshugshugs*

2) I totally agree with you about the final shots of S1 and S2! S1 should have ended with Crosshair standing there alone on Kamino while the others flew off and S2 should have ended with Hunter's vow to get Omega back. The final shots (both funnily enough on Mount Tantiss) would have made perfect post-credit stingers! Like, you, I don't mind those scenes at all, I think they're great, but their placement almost diminishes the weight of the Crosshair and Hunter scenes that directly preceded them.

3) I just love your tags!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

#I hope she finds all her brothers#and then gets to light hemlock on fire - I say she let's the Zillo Beast loose and it gets to eat him!!

#these notes don’t really have anything to do with the post except#to serve as proof that I was cursed to like Star Wars from birth - and what a beautiful curse to have!! I love that at least your mom is also a Star Wars fan and she sounds as rabid as the rest of us when dealing with the dreaded hiatus!! You come from good, honest stock hahaha!

But how was the Luke reaching out to Leia retconned? I haven't watched the OT in YEARS, but they're on my re-watch!!! Just gotta re-watch Rebels first! Woot!!!

A rambling thought about “Plan 99” and Omega

Here’s the thing about “Plan 99” that kind of wigs me out—besides all the other things, anyway. I actually really like it as an episode. I think it’s good. It’s painful, but it succeeds at exactly what it was trying to do. It just so happens, however, that what it was trying to do—as far as I can tell, anyway—was put us, the audience in the same emotional headspace as a thirteen-ish year old kid who’s lost everything over the space of a few hours(1). Not even a few hours; Omega was unconscious for a good chunk of the real time that passed after the cable car crash, so aside from her trip and arrival at Mount Tantiss, Omega loses pretty much everything over the course of what probably feels like twenty minutes.

And that means we’re right there with her as she goes from finally maybe having a place to call home, having people to rely on outside the batch, having a friend her own age, having these great established relationships with her brothers and a place for them to be safe, and thinking that finally—finally!—they’re going to get Crosshair back and they’re all going to be a family again, having everything looking up for once, to where “Plan 99” takes us. To the Omega and the team losing their one lead on Crosshair, to losing Tech, to losing Wrecker, Echo, and Hunter, too—the last time Omega saw them, Hemlock had Hunter and Wrecker and was going to get Echo, and then send them all back to Eriadu to be questioned by Tarkin, and Omega knows what that means—to having her fear of ending up an experiment in a tube go from being a distant nightmare to a very real, very immediate possibility. She’s not even allowed to see Nala Se, who’s at least a familiar face(2).

The only consolation Omega gets is being reunited with Crosshair, with whom Omega doesn’t really have a relationship, but who’s still her brother despite everything and who would definitely understand what Omega’s going through better than anyone else. Except he’s unconscious and strapped to a table, and Omega doesn’t know what was done to him but she knows it was bad, and there’s a fear of losing him, too. And the only real consolation we get as viewers is seeing Hunter and Wrecker escape, and knowing that they and Echo weren’t taken to Eriadu and are coming for Omega instead—but they’re all gutted and bereft and they have no clue where to even start. So we’re right there with Omega, and right there with Hunter, too, as their worlds fall even further apart.

I’ve said before that I think The Bad Batch is, at heart, the story of a family of veterans trying to find a way to live and a way home, wherever home is, in a galaxy that’s fallen apart and turned into something monstrous around them. And I still think that’s true, but it’s also the story of a little girl finding her family, and who wants to protect her baby brothers. Because, yes, they’re her dads/big brothers/uncles all at once, but there’s a part of Omega that never stopped seeing them as those babies in their tubes. And so, yes, I think we’re going to see Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo enter their John Wick eras trying to get Omega back, but if Omega thinks there’s a chance they’re lost? If she thinks there’s a chance Crosshair might be the only one left? She’s going to be extra protective of him(3), and she gets the slightest hope the others are out there, she’s going to go ham trying to get the rest of them back.

1. And without the additional context of whatever season three brings, it maybe succeeds too well. Not maybe—until we get that additional context, it does succeed too well. So I get why there are people who hate it, or who can never watch it again.

2. Sidebar, but I’m admittedly ambivalent about the timing of the Emerie reveal. I actually don’t mind it, but I feel like it would have been stronger to have left it at “You might know me better than you think,” without the “sisters” line. I don’t dislike it, but I do feel about the same way about it as I did about the Nala Se scene at the very end of “Kamino Lost.” It’s fine on its own, but the imagery of the previous scene—Crosshair watching the marauder fly away, leaving him again, the last clone, the last being left alive on Kamino, that I would have preferred leaving it there and putting the Nala Se scene (and that specific Emerie line) as an after credits scene or something.

3. I will be seated for Crossdad, but I’ll be extra seated for overprotective older sister Omega.

[mwolf0epsilon]

What are your top 10 favourite clones and why? (If you don't have 10 favourite clones just list the ones you like and why)

My top 10 list of favourite clones (1 being the one highest on the list, 10 being the lowest):

Gregor - As a whole, Gregor's storyline is one that I find vastly intriguing and compelling. Here's a clone that forgot he was a clone, lived a civilian life for a while, reclaimed his identity and capabilities in one single day, and went down fighting only to spring back onto his feet unexpectedly years later. Out of thousands of clones, Gregor was one of the very few that made it to old age and that's a sign of pure resilience and ingenuity on his part, and I absolutely adore him.

Rex - There's no bigger tragedy than seeing a loyal and devoted clone like Rex go through so much and getting so little in return. He feels like that one childhood friend you grew up with that you'd be glad to have your back, because you know he'd never turn you away even if you were at your lowest. He deserves so much better than what he got in the end, and I'm happy he at least got to grow old and have two brothers with him to keep him company.

Dogma - Where do I begin with Dogma... He's Slick done right. He's a loyal dogmatic clone that did everything by the book, followed orders like he was conditioned to do since decanting, and was even said to be exactly like Rex was when he first joined the 501st. And what did that get him? His trust abused by someone he was basically brainwashed to think was infallible and trustworthy, anger from his brothers who likely scorned him to the very end, and likely either a decommissioning or reconditioning for executing a Jedi. Dogma is a difficult topic overall, because he was wrong in turning his back on his kin but he did it for logical and understandable reason. The Jedi could do no wrong by clone standards, and Dogma followed this blind trust to the end until he was proven wrong... And even sparing Rex from taking the shot was a painful affair to behold, because you could see his world crumbling around him afterwards.

Tup - My heart aches for Tup. He went through a lot and, like Rex, got very little in return. And then his chip malfunctioned and he wasn't even treated with dignity for the remainder of his incredibly short life. His last moments were spent bound like a rabid animal, thrown around by both the Separatists and Kaminoans, and then when salvation was in sight he still died because by that point he'd deteriorated too much and had been essentially tortured rather than treated with care. I'm just glad he had Fives there so he didn't march on alone and surrounded by careless people.

Echo - There's so much wrong with what happened to Echo. He was ridiculed for repeating orders and liking to read the reg manuals for fun, he had to watch his older unarmed and armourless brother get shot down in cold blood, got blown up and basically left for dead, put through unethical experiments, treated with mild distrust by the brothers who did rescue him, and on top of that he lost Fives and likely never learned the true story behind it. I highly doubt he's had time to process anything, and his disgruntled moodiness in TBB makes me really worry for him sometimes... I just want to wrap him in a blanket and tell him it'll be ok one day. Just, let this man rest, grieve and regain his health...

Fives - This poor man has seen some shit, lived through some shit, and then got done dirty when he was trying to save his brothers and the Jedi from a horrifically malicious plot. Not to mention I doubt he had time to process any of the losses he suffered. Specifically of the brothers that were closest to him like Echo, Hardcase and Tup. Where Echo's life is unfair, Fives's demise is just awful...

Wolffe - Sassy, grumpy, slightly paranoid but still got cool uncle that you'd die for vibes? Wolffe is the full package. Also in rebels he lives up to his name and he's goddamn feral on the battle at Seelos. You go grandpa! Go off king! Violence!!!!

Fox - I wish we'd gotten more of him so that people could have gotten to know him better (and maybe grow attached), because I'm tired of all the Fox bashing that goes on in this fandom. Yes he wasn't very kind to Ahsoka, and yes he shot Fives. His sole job is to defend the people of Coruscant, and then suddenly there's a terrorist attack which has evidence that points to Ahsoka, and then there was a call that Fives tried to assassinate the chancellor. He's not omnipotent and I can guarantee that life as a guardsman was not great, so we have no idea what set of circumstances have led to Fox's gruff and abrasive tactics being his go to for any given disastrous situation like this...

Crosshair - It's all about the potential. Either this aggressive tooka of a man will get a pretty good redemption arc like Kallus, or he'll turn out to be that one antagonist that we grow to love/hate in all the best ways. I personally hope for a redemption arc that progresses seasonally rather than quickly, but that's not up to me.

Peel - So there's this one 212th background character that got turned into a vampire monster once...

That's it. That's my sole reason for liking him.

[ve-ti-ver]

behold my masterpiece of the week, he's absolutely rabid

[glass-rose-paperweight]

The Mysterious Case of Queerbaiting

BBC Sherlock

There’s one thing about BBC Sherlock that has never made sense to me. As I’m sure many of you are aware (and something I’ve talked about before), BBC Sherlock has been accused of Queerbaiting, of intentionally setting up John and Sherlock as being attracted to each other but never following through with that or even intending to do it. And it’s one of those things that has just always baffled me; I can’t make it make sense. A lot has already been said about the way things are portrayed in the show and what the subtext behind a million different things could mean (seriously, I love that I am part of a fandom with so many perceptive and intelligent people; watching the show is only half the fun) and how none of it makes sense. Today, I would like to use my powers of deduction get to the bottom of this mystery.

The way I see it, there are 3 possible explanations.

1. The Producers of the Show Queerbaited

I have to admit, this seems unlikely given that one of them is literally a gay man. Why would a gay man knowingly and intentionally engage in something like this? Why would a gay man write a script that constantly pokes at Watson’s sexuality if the only point was to make it into a joke? To say ‘oh, no, the poor straight guy is constantly mistaken as gay. Look at how defensive he is getting, hahaha, what a funny joke’. That just makes no sense. It makes no sense for Mark Gatiss to have gone to the lengths he has gone to within the show, from whatever direction he gave the actors so that they portray an obvious chemistry between Sherlock and John to having a jealousy trope at John and Mary’s wedding except it’s Sherlock getting Jealous over John’s ex commander to this interesting thing about the best man speech to Mary saying ‘neither one of us were his first’ or ‘the man we both love’ or ‘I know what the two of you could become’ to Sherlock putting John Watson face on The Ideal Man to all the gay artwork in TBB (I could not for the life of me find this meta even though I know I saved it, and I am so distressed) to a thousand other things that the fandom has discussed over and over and over again. Who puts that much effort into queerbaiting? Especially when you would have a vested interest representation? So, it just doesn’t make sense for those directly involved with the show the be the reason.

2. Higher Ups at BBC Told Them No

This seems much more plausible to me, however I still doubt it. I can’t say I know just a whole lot about BBC, but I do know they have tended to be on the more progressive side of things, and I just really can’t see any of the higher ups just flat out refusing to allow the writers to make Johnlock canon. The first season gets a pass because I’m pretty sure that openly same sex couples weren’t allowed in media at the time (I think it was allowed in 2011, but I’m honestly not sure. I’m in the US, not the UK, so if I’ve gotten this detail wrong, please correct me). But they had 3 other seasons and another 7 years to make it happen, and I just don’t think that the higher ups at BBC would have just flatly said ‘no’. So, that leaves the last explanation.

3. Someone Other Than Those Involved With The Show Stopped Them

The majority of the Sherlock Holmes stories are in public domain. Copyright expired in 1980 in Canada and in 2000 for the UK (X). This would seem to make it a pretty cut and dry case: in the UK, you can do pretty much whatever you want with the Sherlock Holmes stories. But it’s no quite so simple. The US works a little different because copywrite law isn’t the same (isn’t he US just great?). As it stands, there are still 6 stories today that the Conan Doyle Estate still has the exclusive rights to in the US. If I understand how the copywrite law works correctly, that would have been 14 stories back in 2010. But, that shouldn’t have affected anything going on in the UK, right? Theoretically, no. The Conan Doyle Estate wouldn’t have had any legal rights to coveting the characters and the stories in the UK. However, that doesn’t mean that those involved with the show wouldn’t have been extremely apprehensive of the power that the Estate wielded, especially considering the previous decade of legal battles. Only 3 cases are listed here, but the Conan Doyle Estate is very protective of its copyright of the work (as evident by the fact that they are literally trying to sue Netflix, among others, for portraying characters in a way they supposedly weren’t portrayed until later books). There were other court cases after 2010, however. A decisive court case in 2013 declared once and for all that the stories written prior to 1923 were completely in public domain and that a license wasn’t needed to create things based on any of the stories prior to those dates (something the Estate had convinced BBC of when they first created BBC Sherlock). However, an appeal by the Estate was later made, stating “Sherlock Holmes is a ‘complex’ character, that his background and attributes had been created over time, and that to deny copyright on the whole Sherlock Holmes character would be tantamount to giving the famous detective ‘multiple personalities.’” The appeal was, thankfully, thrown out. But it’s the attempt that matters. 

Oh, and here’s a fun little tidbit, the 2 stories that have, perhaps, the strongest evidence of there being more than just friendship (this quote, this quote, and this quote (which was said after Holmes stated that, if he had hypothetically loved someone, he would kill the person that killed the person he loved)) come from the stories The Problem of Thor Bridge (the first quote) and The Adventure of the Three Garridebs (the last 2), which both belonged to the Estate in the US until after the final season of the show.

So, let’s get into the minds of BBC, for a moment. Someone has decided they want to reimage Sherlock in a new and unique way: modern day. The Holmes Estate has been fighting legal battles in America for the past decade and has won all of them, and has also issued the verdict that to make stories, you need a license. You say ‘okay’ and go along with it because you’re a big corporation that can afford to do such a thing. When the first season of the show airs, it isn’t legal to have openly gay characters, so everything has to be regulated to subtext. You outright state that being gay is okay because you want to let people know you are in full support of homosexuality, even if it isn’t legal yet. The writers and producers of the show are huge ACD fanboys and BIG fans of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, so, yeah, there’s some gay subtext. By the second season, hey! Homosexuality is legal! Except the 2 stories with the biggest indication of Sherlock and John’s attraction towards each other are still very much in the hands of the Estate, who has spent the past decade fighting legal battles. You may be able to pay for a license, but a lawsuit really isn’t something you’d like to go through. Whether the Estate has any legal standing to do such a thing or not, a lawsuit would be a long, messy battle. By the third season, a court case in America has decided that anything written prior to 1923 doesn’t need a license (damn, that’s 2 seasons of being successfully intimidated into a license). However, the two stories with greatest evidence still belong to the Estate, and the Estate tried to weasel their way into owning more of Sherlock than they should by arguing about his character. They probably wouldn’t take well to an openly gay Sherlock, would they? By season 4, the same problem still exists. Cut to 2020. Both of the stories with those quotes have entered public domain. But, uh oh, a month, a month before the 10th anniversary of your show, the news breaks that the Estate is filing yet another lawsuit, this time against multiple different parties, one of them being the mega corporation of Netflix (god, that’s some balls right there) that what they did broke copyright law because it portrayed characters in a way they supposedly weren’t portrayed until later stories, stories the Estate still owns (that is some balls right there). So you might feel the need to cover your ass a bit. Despite the past decade of saying that they characters you have portrayed are nothing but platonic, the fans don’t seem to buy it, and, in hindsight, there’s a lot of reasons not to. Maybe something needs to be created that subtly tells fans that they really are just looking too far into it. And, what great luck, a YouTube channel is asking you to make something for the 10th anniversary. 

Is this what happened? I don’t really know. I have nothing more than circumstantial evidence and guesswork here to go off of. I’m not privy to the private thoughts of Mark Gatiss or Steven Moffat or any of the head honchos at BBC. I don’t know what kind of executive decisions are made in the best interest of the company. All I know is that the Conan Doyle Estate is hanging on to whatever copyrights they can possibly manage, that they are willing to level lawsuits on, quite frankly, ridiculous terms, and that having a lawsuit put against you is no laughing matter and that those whose work revolves around Sherlock Holmes and creating stories about him would want to tread carefully. This explanation is, admittedly, far fetched. But it’s the only one that really makes sense. It’s the only one that would explain why a gay man and a generally progressive company would have a show that has layer upon layer upon layer saying that there is more between John and Sherlock than just friendship, as well as a rabid fanbase that they know ship it, and still not deliver, even attempt to squash such mindsets. 

There is, however, one final note I would like to end this on. I have talked before about how I think there will be another season, if the stars align and schedules allow such a thing. The best estimates of when another season might come out is 2022 or 2023, and I’m inclined to think the later year (god, that seems so far away). The year that the last story will become completely open to the public and the entirety of Sherlock Holmes will be public domain is 2023. So, maybe there is hope. 

[martianbugsbunny]

@ Crosshair after he divorced Hunter joined the Empire

[thrawns-babygirl]

I absolutely have a type and its whatever the fuck you classify these two shitheads as

[ve-ti-ver]

Alright, I wanted to make this a series but so far I've only done two. Suggestions for the last three? Anyone? I've hit a creativity block...

I got really busy but here he finally is... angry boy

[leapingbadger]

This is so amazing! I need a print of this!

behold my masterpiece of the week, he's absolutely rabid