#they're also related to big time clans

[epickiya722]

... they even have similar hairstyles and clothing designs...

[oh-no-its-bird]

Team 7 gets zapped into the warring states era but it's like, team 7 either mid or directly after wave-arc.

They're babies!! They're untrained little babies!!! None of them have gotten that good good character development yet!! Kakashi is still actively desperately wanting to not teach them!! (tho he may have just gotten his "ahh fuck. I actually have to teach them, huh." Moment)

Sasuke looks like a carbon copy of a younger Izuna and it's going to cause problems

Naruto thankfully doesn't look much like an Uzumaki, but his tendency to very loudly introduce himself is going to get him into trouble

Going w my usual flavor of "the Hatake are a very small but very famous clan known for being fucking insane", people are seeing Kakashi and going "oh god oh fuck what are one of THOSE guys doing here oh sage preserve us please don't eat me" as Kakashi just kinda stands there like 🧍‍♂️

Sakura is the only one safe from not being fucked up and over her clan, good for her!

-> back to the Hatake thing.

The kids still know virtually nothing about their sensei so they're learning all this stuff about his clan and believing every word of it, from the believable rumors to the insane.

Sakura, in a hushed, worried voice: "Sensei,, is it true ur clan eats people??"

Kakashi, who's father died before he could tell him almost anything about their clan and genuinely doesn't know but at this point is starting to get a little worried about it:

Kakashi, who also never passes up the opportunity to fuck with someone: "only stupid little students who ask stupid little questions <3"

Sakura and Sasuke: *worriedly look at a confused Naruto*

For convoluted reasons they run into the Hatake of the era and after introductions they look at the kids and are like,

"Oh!!! Ok, so this is your kid, right? :)" pointing at Sakura.

And Kakashi is like. ",,no."

"Ohhh, ok. So this one is your kid then?" *points at Naruto*

",,,,,,,,no."

They look at him confused then nod at Sasuke. "So then that one's your kid, right?"

"None of them are my children."

*visibly disapproving / disbelieving side eye*

One big difference between this and the team ro time travel one is how much less trustworthy Kakashi comes off to literally everyone who looks at him.

He's a trained adult shinobi, probable bloodline thief (with no way to prove his innocence), and he has 3 children from 3 different clans (2 of which are indirectly enemies bc the Uzumaki is a Senju ally) (1 of which might have a direct relation to the Uchiha main house) and comes from an infamously volatile "wild clan" from another country entirely (Iron country)

He is NOT getting out of this with talk no jutsu bullshit. He has a target on his back from day 1 and it will take a minor miracle to get even a single person hear him out

Anyways uhh—

Saying Tajima and Butsuma are still alive but due to die in some months (till team 7 accidentally interfere and somehow accidentally save Tajima, maybe also Butsuma but I'm more biased towards Tajima so I'm thinking just him actually)

Kakashi sees baby Kagami and feels like he's been hit by a truck bc he looks just like a miniature Shisui and he has hang-ups about his "suicide"

Half-Hatake Tobirama is catching HEAT from Kakashi's antics. Why does one of ur cousins have a sharingan. Where did he get those children. Do you know anything about this. Is it your duty to help hunt him down bc hes your blood. If not yours then it's definatley the Hatake's, call them immediately and tell them to clean up their mess.

Bloodline theft is like THE ultimate no-no for all shinobi, especially in this era. To the point that even ancient enemies will sometimes temporarily set aside grudges to kill bloodline theives. Kakashi is so fucked, someone get him out of there

Mmmm there are like still bits and pieces of thoughts floating around in my head for this but I can feel myself getting distracted and want to get back to art fight so I'll leave it here for now

[uh-oh-its-bird]

Offshoot of my "team Ro time travels to the founders era" post because @prinzgnomeovonchaos infected me with brain rot in the notes

So buckle in baby it's time for

Sakumo and babyKashi time traveling to the warring states ✨️

So first thing to get out of the way; Modern Hatake's and warring states era Hatake's do not hold up to the same standards.

The Hatake's during the states were a very small clan with a very big reputation. Hailing from Iron, they were an almost famous wild clan even all the way in fire country. Distantly related to the Inuzuka's but leaning more towards wolves than dogs.

They had a proper kekkei genkai and everything, unnaturally fast and strong, often born with some form of enhanced senses— be it smell, sight, taste, or even touch. Their white chakra fed into it, and they'd feed their chakra with diets of raw meat and the occasional light cannibalism during some special clan celebrations and rituals.

Unfortunatley Sakumo knows very little about the above because he was very young when his clan was pretty much all wiped out. He was raised by the only other survivor, his grandmother, who was pretty young herself when the clan got wiped, and unfortunatley was never all too concious of many of the rituals and traditions of her clan until it was too late.

Sakumo grew up to village standards and was mostly declawed because of it, and Kakashi is only doubly so. And with that dulling of all the different traditions and specific diets also came the slow fading of their bloodline limit, which was already pretty subtle if you didn't know what you're looking for.

Anyways moving on, and if you want more details for my headcanons ab warring states Hatake's vs modern standard Hatake's look at my other time travel post bc I talk ab it more there.

So Kakashi is like 6 (holy shit he's a BABY baby)

Google keeps giving me conflicting numbers for Sakumo's age at his death so we're just gonna shrug and say he's in his early 30's.

Then for the founders;

Madara (23)

Hashirama (23)

Izuna (19)

Tobirama (18)

Sakumo is staring at these guys going through it bc they are BABIES to him. And like look, he's used to working with or even occasionally under people much younger than him, but like. Oh man that's the shodai hokage. And he's like a toddler.

(He's a 23 year old man but Sakumo is kind of having a crisis so he can't register that)

So like. All the founders have major daddy issues, right? Like we can all agree that's plausible? I'm so sorry I just think it'd be *really fucking funny* if they look at Sakumo and just kinda. Yeah.

You know what I mean.

Anyways;

No idea how they got there!! This is set maybe a week before Sakumo offed himself but now he can't kill himself bc that'd mean abandoning Kakashi to the fucking warring states.

Kakashi fits the warring states standards alarmingly well actually. Honestly I think even for that time period he's still scarily young to be on the field. People are giving Sakumo looks like 'it's so hard what we've been forced to do to our children, the battles we've pushed them into, the things they've seen and done all too young'

Sakumo is going *hrrg.* and having a good long look in the mirror actually. Proper crisis, lots of guilt, Kakashi should not be out in the field this young and at least before he was mostly getting baby missions but now they're stranded in time and keep running head first into trouble.

I want Izuna and Kakashi to fight and even though Kakashi absoloutley should NOT win that battle I want him to win just so that Madara and Tobirama can make fun of him for losing to an actual child

Izuna is mortified he wants that brat DEAD

Uhh I have some more but I'm at work and actually hit post too early on this post so I had to come back to rush add all these edits bc I meant for it to stay a draft I could keep adding too later. So I'll just come add more later fr

[local-crying-boy]

Hey could you do human reader x yandere cullens as head cannons? it’s okay if not!

Ofc! I don’t know if you mean separately or if all of them, so I did both!

A/N: some of the characters don't have as much because I ran out of things to write and it was becoming more repetitive. Especially for Esme because I really don't know how to write for her

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ℍ𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕟 <<ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣>> 𝕏 𝕐𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕖!ℂ𝕦𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕤 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕤

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗!<<𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚡 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚜 (𝚜𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎)

Edward Cullen:

Edward’s ability makes it easier for him to pinpoint who has an interest in you and who wants to ask you out

He uses it as a foresight into how much he needs to scare off said person.

It does also mean he’s usually in a foul mood when he does figure out someone likes you or not.

Don't worry though, he's quick to forget those idiots and their thoughts when you start talking to him. It makes him remember that they're not good enough for you because you're here, talking to him and not them.

When he is in a foul mood, though, he is reassured from knowing that you love him. However, he does need to read your mind for that extra step of reassurance since he doesn't want to ask sometimes.

Emmett Cullen:

Emmett is a big guy, so he uses intimidation mostly to scare off anyone who has a thing for you or doesn’t like you

Everyone in school knows that he's protective over you, he doesn't even try to hide it. In fact, he basically flaunts it around so everyone CLEARLY sees it.

He uses PDA to show off that you're with him, or have some sort of relation with him (depending on if we're talking pre or during relationship)

While in relationship, he makes your his arm is around your shoulder, holding your hand, anything to show off that you want his touch and he wants yours.

Rosalie Hale:

People are pretty much intimidated by Rosalie, or fancy her.

However, despite her beauty, her love for you never has (and never will) waver. Quite literally: everyone is looking at her, but she's looking at you.

Similarly to Emmett, she also uses PDA to show off that your hers and she's yours, just not the the same extent.

She'll hold onto your arm and walk closely to you, hold your hand. It's more watered down in comparison to Emmett's type of PDA

Basically a more subtle way off showing off to everyone that you're already taken.

Jasper Hale:

Another member of the Cullen Clan who uses intimidation to scare people off

people already think he's strange with the way he looks or, well, from always looking in pain. So most people get the creeps from him.

Not too much on the PDA, he doesn't ned to parade you off to everyone, but he'll stay close to you regardless. That's more from the fact that people are less likely to come up to you when your (not so) little guard is there

He feels a little less inclined to scare anyone off because he can feel what you feel and, therefore, your love for him, which means he is much more reassured that you're not planning on leaving him anytime for someone else.

Not like anyone is better than him, so there is such a little chance of you leaving him.

Alice Cullen:

Unlike the others, Alice is much more relaxed and calmer with knowing that people like you

She sees the future, obviously. So she can tell whether or not someone is planning on asking you out, meaning she has enough time to avoid that from happening, or just constantly remind you why you love her

She's extremely good at reminding you why you are with her. Maybe it's a simple date, maybe it's a massive shopping trip, maybe she's letting you ramble about some nonsense! Either way, she knows exactly how to make you fall in love even more.

She parades you off just like Emmett does, in her own way. While she walks with you, she'll have your arms interlinked and she'll make sure that your holding hands.

She's friendly with most of her family members, but there's a clear difference between her affections towards them and her affection towards you and that's how people know that there's something special about you and that you're out of bounds.

Carlisle Cullen:

Carlisle is more confident in being able to keep you in his life, and to keep anyone from taking you away from him

Maybe it's from his age, he's older than the others and therefore has much more experience in comparison to his adopted children. Meaning, he is more mature in his thoughts of 'keeping' you.

So, while the others focus on preventing people the around you from asking your out, Carlisle purely focuses on you. I mean that in it's whole, just you. He focuses purely on you.

He's a major gift giver, he likes trying to find out your likes and hobbies so that he can get you gifts that you'd be excited over or actually be happy to receive.

However, the is usually a certain look in his eye that you can see whenever someone gets too friendly with you. It's almost like he's debating whether or not to turn back on all of his morals just to get back for this one person who made a poor attempt to flirt.

Esme Cullen:

Esme is the type to less so focus on keeping you away from others, she, like Carlisle, is confident in being able to keep you in your life. However, this is more so due to the fact she was older when she turned in comparison to the others.

She's affectionate and caring, everything she does for you (obviously) is for YOU, meaning she takes in consideration how she thinks you'll react and, therefore, how much you'd appreciate said action.

You can tell when she has a certain dislike for someone after trying something with you because she gets passive aggressive with them. Yes, she's naturally a caring and loving person, but there are times where that side of her can easily hide some sort of aggression.

𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗!<<𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛>> 𝚡 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚜 (𝙿𝚘𝚕𝚢)

They all work collectively to make sure that you are theirs alone, there would be such a slim, slim, SLIM chance of anyone getting in the way of their love for you.

Alice and Edward work together to make sure that they have an insight in who has an interest in you.

Alice uses her visions to see who ends up getting feelings for you and if they are going to ask you out (depending on the certainty of it, ofc), while Edward using his mind reading ability to figure out who has an interest in you in the here and now.

Emmett and Jasper are in the intimidation department, one mean glare to anyone after they decide to get too close to you, or too friendly, and said person is running for the hills.

Esme and Carlisle are both of the more loving and caring side of things (not to say that the others aren't). These two less so focus on scaring others away, and more so focus on keeping your love and affection on them and their family.

Rosalie is a mix, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly she does. She can intimidate anyone she likes if she puts her mind to it , but I personally don't see her doing that (might be because I don't know much about her...), especially since you'd have Jasper and Emmett on task.

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Masterlist

[linkspooky]

Kusakabe the Last Man Standing

Is Kusakabe going to defeat Sukuna all by himself?

Probably not. I fully expect Maki and Yuji to get back up and join the fight. However, Kusakabe is a character that has been slept on for awhile and with him being reluctantly shoved into the spotlight I think it's time to write a meta analyzing him. Especially since the revelation that Kusakabe is the strongest first grade fighter didn't come out of nowhere, in fact Gege has been building up Kusakabe in the background for quite some time which I'll explore under the cut.

So Okay, He's Average

I want to begin this analysis by saying that Kusakabe represents a type of character that Jujutsu Kaisen is desperately in need of. He's just a normal guy. He's our only example of an everyman character. Usually in manga the protagonist serves as the everyman character, especially ones like Yuji who come from a normal life and are being introduced to a fantastical world for the first time, but Yuji ain't normal. Someone who willingly eats a finger that may kill him just so he can be useful and save a stranger isn't normal. Gojo has Yuji pegged as one of the crazy ones within the first few chapters.

Gojo says that sorcerers have to be crazy, that the best Jujutsu Sorcerers need to be broken in the head otherwise they can't get over their fear of curses and risk their lives fighting them on a daily basis. The cast is full of eccentrics, Gojo the strongest of all isn't even able to relate to other human beings, Sukuna is termed a calamity, Yuta kisses cockroaches without hesitation there's not a normal one in the whole bunch.

The ones that are normal, like Miwa who acts like an average high school girl, has no technique, and Mai who desperately craves to be a normal girl and doesn't want to be a jujutsu sorcerer, either are minor characters or they die.

You could say Ijichi provides the point of view as a normal character, but he's a minor character at best and uninvolved in the plot. Then there's Nanami, who represents the typical japanese salaryman. However, Nanami is extraordinary in that he is far more moral than all of his coworkers, such as returning to be a sorcerer because the work helps people instead of keeping his cushy job, and prioritizing the lives of children over himself.

Us mediocre and average people are in desperate need for representation. Cue, Kusakabe.

His introduction clearly demonstrates his attitude is different from most sorcerers, rather than running straight into danger, Kusakabe is trying to search for an excuse to stay out of danger where it's safe. While it's cowardly, it's also what a normal person would do in this situation. We are so used to sorcerers who either risk life and limb without a thought for the sake of other people like Nanami or Yuji, or sorcerers who enjoy the fight like Gojo that Kusakabe stands out.

Miwa who is basically the example of the normal girl among the teenagers shares several parallels with Kusakabe, they're both simple domain masters without cursed techniques, they're both self serving, and also Kusakabe is her teacher and probably the one who recruited her considering he shows up to save her at the end of Shibuya.

Kusakabe is meant to represent what a normal person with common sense would do in the world of Jujutsu, but that doesn't mean he's weak. As I stated above Gege has actually been building up Kusakabe's strength in the background for quite awhile.

When training with Yuji, Gojo first brings up that some sorcerers rely on their techniques too much and that Yuji doesn't necessarily need a fancy technique to win, he can overcome them by learning to control his cursed energy and then using it to strengthen his already amazing martial arts skills and physical prowess.

The Big Three clans like tend to overvalue inherited techniques too, the downfall of the Zen'in is that they didn't recognize the strength of people like Maki and Toji with no cursed energy because they believed their cursed techniques to be inherently superior.

In Mechamaru's fight against Mahito, Gege makes a big deal spending an entire page explaining the history and mechanics of simple domains. There's obviously no need to put this much attention into detail to explain simple domains unless they're going to come into play later, and while Miwa uses them as stated above she's a minor character.

A technique called the "Domain for the Weak" what better technique for a normal guy like Kusabe, who is stuck in a cast of super-human characters. When fighting with Yuji, Mei Mei compares Yuji to Kuskabe.

"You're on par with a grade-1 sorcerer at this point. To be this good without a cursed technique... I think you're the only one since Kusakabe."

To further compare him to Mei Mei, Mei Mei monologues about how because her cursed technique of controlling birds is weak she tried to strengthen her body. However, eventually she hit a brick wall and couldn't get any stronger and reach Grade-1 on her efforts alone. Which is when she decided to start using Ui Ui as a tool to make herself stronger by making binding vows between him and herself to strengthen her, in addition to inventing her suicide crow technique.

However, Kusakabe is even stronger than Mei Mei and he managed to reach that level by himself without needing to groom and manipulate a child.

Kusakabe also spends all of Shibuya avoiding getting in a fight with a special grade cursed spirit, and yet at the end of Shibuya he ends up tanking an Uzumaki Maximum from Kenjaku at point blank. Kenjaku even praises him.

This is the same Kenjaku who can use Suguru Geto's cursed technique even better than Geto can, and who wiped the floor with Choso while bragging that a cursed spirit that's ranked Grade-1 like Choso could never go one on one with a special grade. We never saw Kusakabe directly fight Kenjaku (he would probably run in the opposite direction if given the chance) but the fact that he can use a simple domain to cancel out one of Geto's strongest techniques point blank is really telling.

All the while having relatable thoughts like this one. In a lot of ways, Kusakabe reminds me of Todo, someone who Gojo mentioned as being one of the next up and coming star students alongside Hakari, and Yuta. Todo has a cursed technique that's simple but effective, but he also fights similiar to Yuji by his expert control of cursed energy. Todo fights mainly with his fists and martial arts and his impressive knowledge of how cursed energy moves though the body, his cursed technique gives him an added bonus.

Up until this point in the manga though Todo is the most knowledgable about cursed energy, he teaches it Yuji very easily and explains it in ways Yuji can understand. Fighting alongside Todo also brings out Yuji's full potential as a sorcerer. Todo is all muscle, but he fights with his head and is the smartest student in Kyoto.

All of this to say, Kusakabe's strength without a cursed technique can be explained by relating him to Todo. In the Gojo vs. Sukuna fights who is the main voice explaining to both the other students at Jujutsu High and the audience just how the battle is going down.

Kusakabe is not in there in the field, he's watching it on TV, and yet somehow he can disect and explain to the others how both Sukuna and Gojo are using high level Jujutsu Techniques. This is Sukuna and Gojo we're talking about, two geniuses who are the height of jujutsu and can often improvise and make up new techniques on the fly and yet Kusakabe is able to keep up with what's going on.

Kusakabe gives the play by play, he somehow knows what falling blossom emotion is even though he's not from one of the three big families. He explains to Hakari and Higuruma who are natural geniuses who don't quite understand how their powers work, how Gojo can change the conditions of his barrier and how exactly he made the barrier smaller.

Remember Kusakabe is also a teacher at Jujutsu High. Unlike Gojo who doesn't try to explain basic concepts to Yuji because he's such a genius, Kusakabe is also educating all of the students here and phrasing these high level techniques in ways they can understand. You can't really do that unless you yourself have an intimate understanding of the subject matter.

What I mean to say is by putting Kusakabe in charge of the discussion, Gege is demonstrating that Kusakabe is a character who understands the mechanics of cursed energy and domains on practically the same level as Todo who as we said is considered a prodigy. This is also some clever foreshadowing, because Kusakabe here seems like he's still a background character because all he's doing is essentially expositing to the audience and yet... how impressive must he be if he understands all of these advanced domain techniques when he's just a guy with a sword and no cursed techniques that uses simple domains.

Kusakabe also understands Higuruma's legal talk in about ten seconds, and can explain the mechanics of Higuruma's domain and why their plan to put Sukuna on trial might not work. He is much smarter than he seems at first glance, Miwa even makes a joke about it. He even analyzes Sukuna's techniques after facing them head on once - and he's the only one who notices how odd it is that Sukuna's not using his fire technique like in Shibuya.

Sukuna mentions that Kusakabe along with everyone else's cursed energy reinforcement techniques must be on another level if they're able to stand up to his slashes (even if they're in a weakened state right now). After all, Ishigori who was not only one of the strongest fighters of his era but was also hyped up for his massive pool of cursed energy that rivaled Yuta's was torn to pieces by Sukuna's slashes.

Kusakabe also seems to be the one in charge of the strategy for the fight (though it was Angel's idea to let Takaba handle Kenjaku, maybe they're both coordinating but Kusakabe is definitely leading them in the field).

My point being, as much as he's accused of handling his large cast Gege is often able to give a lot of characterization in a limited screentime. Kusakabe is more than he appears to be, and it's clever how Gege built up his importance without anybody noticing, because Higuruma himself likes to avoid conflict, hide in the background and is constantly downplaying his own talents. Ino even made another joke about it last chapter.

The commonly held view is that the sorcerers who reject their humanity and only care about refining their technique are the ones who become the strongest sorcerers. However, Kusakabe was able to climb to the top of the Grade One sorcerers despite lacking that attitude.

In my opinion, Jujutsu Kaisen is fundamentally about balance, so while there's a definite trend of Sorcerers who resemble Sukuna are the ones who become stronger - it's not presented as the only way to be strong. Yuji only defeated Mahito by cooperating with Todo. On top of that, Sukuna while finding Yuji boring admits that Yuji a mostly selfless person still demonstrates an indomitable will that Sukuna can't break no matter how hard he tries.

If Sukuna represents the thesis that the only way to become strong is to throw away all your humanity and become wildly selfish, then Kusakabe represents the antithesis as a mostly normal person (if a bit cowardly and self interest) who somehow climbed the ranks over people like Mei Mei who represent the kind of selfish monster Sukuna is.

This is actually the pattern for most of the Sukuna fights this arc too. Gojo and Hajime both represent the desire to be understood, and Sukuna rejects both love and says he doesn't need people to understand him because he understands himself.

Yuji is a human who is mostly selfless, and has inherited the curse of his fellow comrades as sorcerers, specifically carrying on the torch for Nanami who is also content to be a cog in the machine if it means he can help his fellow sorcerers out. Sukuna is a selfish monster, who is an individualist and sees other people as toys to amuse himself with.

Higuruma is a genius on the level of Gojo Satoru, but when challenged by Sukuna he ends up sacrificing himself instead in a direct parallel to Nanami in order to pass the torch onto Yuji.

Yuta's domain is literally called "authentic and mutual love" and Sukuna said to Hajime that he understands exactly what love is and he still rejects it. Sukuna's entire philosophy revolves around rejecting the love and friendship, while Yuta only fights for the sake of his friends, and can't believe that his life is worth living without people in his life who love him.

Sukuna gives a whole speech on how by rejecting cursed energy, and using a heavenly restriction to push her body to the peak of physical strength a human can achieve, she's forcing a role on Sukuna to compete with her as the peak of sorcery to determine which one is better.

Now it's Kusakabe turn to have a role in this fight too. While Maki has no cursed energy, she doesn't really represent humans because she's you know, a she-hulk. Kusakabe might be the most human character present that's willing to face down Sukuna. Kusakabe is the most human character someone who climbed this high without being born with any technique, Sukuna is the most inhuman monster in the series, a calamity that Yuji refers to as a true curse.

Gege even threw in these callbacks to Gojo panels.

That in itself might be foreshadowing that maybe Kusakabe stands a better chance against Sukuna then anyone in the audience thinks. As the number #1 Kusakabe stan, I'm definitely willing to bet on those odds!

[forestclan-clangen]

For the ask game, ✍️, 🔄 and❔?

✍️ What inspired you to make your clangen comic/ other media?

I was inspired mostly by cool Clangen blogs like @rippleclan and @mourningsbane, and I REALLY wanted to get back into writing after not writing at all for many years. I was out of practice and thought, hey, Clangen could be cool inspiration. THEN it was around Halloween season, so I wondered if there were any horror mods. And there was! The Woods. And THEN...the tagline was "Feed The Woods". And then I realized. "Wait. Isn't that something said in Gemini Home Entertainment once. Oh. Ohhoho wait, wait, IDEA. BIG IDEA. CATS IN MOONLIGHT ACRES. Nobody's done THAT before I think. Yep, tossing Woodcrawlers at the cats". And then I did it.

🔄Do you let clangen fully control names, or do you interfere? Where do you get inspiration for names for warriors and kittypets?

Mostly I let Clangen do its thing! If I find a name is REALLY silly or out of place I'll change the suffix, but typically I leave prefixes alone, except for in like, two circumstances. Same thing for the loners/kittypets! I let them keep their names unless it's something REALLY goofy, like First Generation iPod.

❔Do you have any suggestions for people looking to start their own clangen blogs?

Oh man look I could go on and on for hours on this, but look, at the end of the day, three core things I can recommend:

Be mindful of your energy spoons and commit to how much effort you're willing to spend. I am NOT a good visual artist. A comic would kill me immediately because it's a LOT of hard work for me. That's why when I saw RippleClan's style of spritework, I had an epiphany: that was REALLY doable and a lot simpler. Guys, PLEASE do more stuff with sprites if you struggle with art. RippleClan and I have proven that you can do it!

Do not follow ClanGen's prompts 100% of the time, and for the love of god, don't be afraid to reset moons. Look, I know that's controversial, but sometimes it's okay to dig for a good story. Also, connect new outsider cats to Clan cats, and to one another sometimes. Riversnow and Barleywave in-game had zero correlation to each other. I MADE them be related to each other, because there WAS a missing gap: who was Warblerkit's mom? Is she okay out in these woods? Good question! That mom is now Riversnow, I'm now making it my job as the storyteller to see how they bond, if at all. My first outside, Lucifer, had long grey fur and was old enough to be Windfur's dad...so I made him Windfur's dad. Make things up!

You are writing/drawing fanfiction about battle cats please BE CRINGE. Please DO shove your special interests into your battle cats fanfic. Like, I literally said "haha what if I tossed cats into a pre-existing analog horror series". And then I did. NONE of the monsters in this blog are unique, they're all created by someone else. I was also inspired by Darkest Dungeon, a video game, and the lore about the "gentle camp ringed in spears"? Destiny 2. YEAH, I KNOW. I will keep fuckin doing it because it's a guilty pleasure and I have fun. I'm not making money out of this, so like...why not, right?

[lordofshitposting]

Everyone imagines that Toge was abused in the Inumaki clan because from what we've seen, all clans mistreat their kids, but when Gege was asked how do they communicate and he said with their hearts, I melted. Maybe it isn't just Toge's nature to be polite and considerate, maybe it's also how he was raised. Surely, not being able to communicate with words freely, and sharing this struggle with your people brings people closer in a deeper level. Ordinary people often take communication for granted. They're so close, yet so far away from one another; they speak with meaning, yet their words are empty. It's easy to hide behind words with the help of constructed speech, we mislead to each other without lying. When the only way you have to communicate is with your heart, this makes you prone to genuinity. I like to think that when a child is born in the clan, all of the members raise it together. Of course, thinking that his clan can be so good is foolish. I don't think they are perfect, but they're certainly better than the other clans and what most fans think. And from what we know they're outlaws in Jujutsu Society, so there's no political interests they act upon to uphold their status within it. Unless they try to use Toge's status and relations as a sorcerer to better their relationship with the big 3 clans; something we haven't seen so far. Anyway, in JJK0, when he got hurt by taking a hit for Yuta, and felt guilty about it, he looked at him with so much kindness and understanding. Growing up with such a kind of communication definitely made it easier for him to look in people's hearts, which would be partly why he's so considerate. Also why he's sweet and considerate enough to take some time of his day to water the flowers. Not for anything, but out of mere care and admiration for them.

[blogforfauna]

Parahyaena brunnea

Mostly due to habitat loss, brown hyenas are the rarest of the hyena species, with 4-10 thousand individuals in the wild. There are 30-50 thousand wild spotted hyenas, for comparison.

Brown hyenas are also known as strandwolves, which means "beach wolves" in Afrikaans, a language spoken primarily in South Africa. This name was given to them because brown hyenas in coastal areas spend a lot of time walking down beaches in search of food, and maybe to unwind after a long day. Some of the largest brown hyena populations are found in these coastal areas of Southern Africa, but there are also large populations in the Kalahari desert.

Although the name strandwolf suggests it, brown hyenas are not closely related to wolves or other canines. They can resemble canines, but hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs. Their closest relatives are mongooses and civets. The photo below shows an African civet.

Brown hyenas are generally smaller than striped and spotted hyenas, but they can still get pretty big, weighing up to 90 pounds (40.8 kg). This size and their powerful jaws make them seem like formidable predators, but they're pretty bad hunters. They mostly scavenge for food or steal it from more capable hunters like cheetahs, leopards, and jackals. Since they can digest bones, hooves, horns, hair, and skin, they can basically eat every scrap food they find. Brown hyenas often live in groups, but this scavenging is done on their own.

Their clans are much smaller than those of spotted hyenas, and the structure is more similar to a wolf pack; most hyenas in the group are the offspring of the dominant hyenas. Brown hyenas are very social and form close bonds with other hyenas.

I rate the brown hyena 17/10. I like them. They seem a little bit lazy with their poor hunting skills and walks down the beach

Photo credits:

(1) Christophe Jobic (2) Mario Nonaka (3) Yarin Klien (4) Thilo Beck (5) Johan Swanepoel (6) Joel Sartore

[soshinysochrome]

How are you so good at ikeaframe/orbiter fashion... share some tricks on how to get pieces to get into position you want, most versatile decoration pieces (that can be used in many different ways, what are your favorites?); on a less serious note, how to farm all this standing for all the zariman wall panels ;A;'

So, quick disclaimer: I play Warframe on PC and have never played on console, so all of my answers will be oriented to PC controls.

Edit: This got quite detailed, so I may wind up making this a multi-part Thing.

Positioning:

Understand the anchor point; this is the point on an object that cannot pass through other objects and around which it is oriented. To find it, select an object and right-click to orient it; where the 3 different orientation guiding lines fall is an object's anchor point.

Understand orientation; if you hit Tab to turn on advanced mode it will show this, but I'll put it here for good measure. There are 3 planes of movement: up-down, left-right, and forward-backwards. R controls the orientation marked by the red arrow, F by the green arrow, and X by the blue. (If you have selected an item with your mouse, you can also hold X to 'push' an object, but I don't use this often as the direction and depth can be hard to predict.)

Grid and angle snapping are your friends! They're going to make your life a lot easier when you need to place objects at consistent distances, angles, etc. Now that you can angle things by degrees of 1 or 5, it's a lot easier now to make small adjustments without having to turn off angle snapping. Also: one way to ensure consistent distancing is to choose another feature (e.g. lines on the ground) and use that as a reference point. This is something that I use a lot especially when decorating my clan's dojo.

Using F to duplicate objects, and using C/V to scale them up/down will help when placing multiples of the same object so they will be the same size and orientation. It's also a time saver so you don't have to size and orient every single object you place. (If you're going to scale something all the way up or down, just hold R and use your mouse to quickly get it to size.)

Using Z to change how you can orient objects. 'World' will orient the object in relation to how it's been placed. 'Local' will orient the object based on its anchor point. (If this doesn't make sense, I encourage you to experiment to understand the difference!)

Sometimes, even when using grid and angle snapping, things won't quite line up right. That's when you want to turn off grid snapping to make small adjustments. Ideally, you would hover your mouse over the object and then hit R to turn on constrained movement. When doing this, I suggest only adjusting one plane at a time (R, X, F); for example, moving it left or right, then saving it to lock in that adjustment before trying to move it up/down or forward/backward.

If you've moved an object and dislike the result, instead of saving it, hit Esc. It will put the object back to where it was before you messed with it.

Experiment! Sometimes redzones will get in the way, but you never know what areas are available to be decorated until you give it a shot. Rotate objects every which way to see the different sides and features; for example, I had no use for the Entrati Serpentine Chair until I realized that I could use the underside to decorate the walls.

Sometimes an object just won't behave the way you want it to; if it's a symmetrical object, try turning it around. This is a big one when you're trying to get 2 objects to touch, but the anchor point is getting in the way. In the case of the Zariman wall panels, if you look at it from the side you'll notice that one side bevels out, while the other is completely flat; I put the curved side down, which is how I was able to have that nice flat, flush wooden flooring and on the ceiling.

Hopefully you find this helpful; I also suggest looking up tutorials on YouTube! They were especially helpful in making me understand how anchor points and orientation work, since they also have visuals for you to accompany the explanation.

I'll make another post addressing other parts of your questions :)

[au-wannabe-the-very-best]

I imagine after Akari gets banned, the 'Train Clan' takes her in because Ingo took a liking to her, since they're both amnesiac an she's a sweet girl.

Kamado can't do anything because he won't dare attack the people who aren't afraid of Pokemon; and whose own Pokemon take down Alphas as if they're Bidoof.

(Also I'm sorry if Kamado is the wrong name, I mean Galaxy Commander. I'm German, his name is differnt in English and German, and I constantly mix them up)

Oh Ingo and Akari are Besties. Unlike the rest of Hisui, Ingo and his depot agents are really enthusiastic about battling and Pokémon relations, so Akari, someone equally enthusiastic and good with Pokémon, is basically pseudo-adopted pretty quickly. Not to mention battling her actually helps Ingo knock some memories loose, unlike battling the other depot agents.

I think in this AU I wanna go with a more Big Brother - Little Sister relationship with Ingo and Akari. Ingo is still a grown ass adult, but acting like a big brother for Akari comes naturally and feels really familiar to him. Think Lilo and Nani's "Oh no! Gravity is increasing on me!"

When Ingo finds out Kamado (Denboku) banished Akari knowing full well that she could DIE out in the wilds, he is VERY angry. He and the depot agents take Akari in without hesitation, she has long since been one of theirs after all.

Kamado doesn't seem to realize that the act of banishing Akari was itself a provocation. Around this time, Ingo's grown a full team of six, and his three experienced, competitively trained Pokémon have picked up agile and strong-styled moves. The guards don't even try to stop him when he walks through the village gates. He's got an aggro walk, his eyes are shadowed by his hat, his frown is deeper than usual, and he's over fucking 6 feet tall, he is the scariest motherfucker in Hisui and everyone knows it. No one is willing to stand in this man's way.

(Well, except maybe Zisu, but she liked Akari. She's gonna turn a blind eye. If anyone asks, she was inside the dojo and didn't know what was going on. She can challenge the guy to a battle later, on friendlier terms.)

Ingo doesn't hurt anyone, obviously. He simply formally challenges Kamado to a battle. Then fucking decimates him. Unlike usual, Ingo offers no polite congratulations or advice. He simply huffs, looks Kamado up and down, then leaves. The battle was enough to show Ingo that nothing he says will make it through to this stubborn man, so he decides to not waste his time lecturing him.

Kamado and the rest of the Galaxy Team takes this as a warning shot.

[peanut-with-wifi-access]

MOON🐇PAW

[base by lilliepaws on deviantart]

design notes, bonus images, hopes & headcanons, and other stuff below the cut!

-–·—Design Notes—·–-

•yes chimeras can look like this. they don't all look the exact same ofc, and split-face torties exist, but a chimera CAN be this

•ginger "spotted" (can't remember the exact term) tabby w/ green eyes + black/blue colorpoint tux w/ yellow eyes

•two tails bc this is a fantasy series I do what I want (the orange tail doesn't work btw)

•ears are two different sizes! it's slight but fucks with her hearing a bit

•her pupils are colored like that bc on her ref image only the green eye has sparkles

•the bandaids are supposed to be bits of cobweb, please refer to hc:❢

•wearing daffodils bc unrequited love and narcissus iykyk (moon^2 💞)

•wave patterns like rippling water, sun-shape patches, and moon face/tail markings! bc yeah!

•orange side meant to resemble a sunrise, black side meant to resemble a cool night sky

•this design will 100% change, I am incredibly indecisive [times changed: 2] ~🥜❦

•bonus images!

-–·—Hopes & Headcanons—·–-

•intersex transfem, she/her, objectum pan/ace

•not thrift & bay's bio kit cuz incest. they found her in the woods.

•moon^2 lowkey owns my soul. this cat is in love w/ a puddle.

•might be related to Sol somehow idk I hope

•voice in her head is the twin she absorbed in the womb, they're not actually evil just wanna help and give warnings while also being a little silly :3 Moonpaw just calls them Voice since she's bad at naming things

•I need Moonpaw to be a weird girly. I want her to play with bugs and ask weird questions and be so so strange and zone out during attempted medcat lessons and invent taxidermy and—

❢manifesting clumsy protag plz I need some rep for "can see perfectly fine just zero spacial awareness" girlies

•please have her dramatic moment be during a blood moon/lunar eclipse please that's all I need in life

•BECOMES A WARRIOR PLEASE ERINS PLEASE

•full name will be Moonrabbit (jade rabbit on the moon iykyk)

-–·—Other Stuff—·–-

•leaf and tawny are so gonna adopt this strange baby

•once again, design and stuff subject to change

•the moonpool is gonna get poisoned/polluted and moonpaw's gonna dive in to fix it, therefore becoming one with her love (the moonpool)

•once she emerges as Moonrabbit, she becomes the new connection to starclan (rock kinda deal) and leads the clans to a new territory as the twolegs close in

•beach territory post big timeskip arc 10 please—

•she eventually retires and becomes a kp bc girly needs a warm fireplace and a nap 😔

･ ｡ ☆∴｡　*　･ﾟ*｡★･　　･ *ﾟ｡　　 *　 ･ ﾟ*｡･ﾟ★｡　　　☆ﾟ･｡°*. ﾟ*　　ﾟ｡·*･｡ ﾟ*　　　ﾟ *.｡☆｡★　･　　* ☆ ｡･ﾟ*.｡　　　 *　★ ﾟ･｡ * ｡　　　　･　　ﾟ☆ ｡

[oh-no-its-bird]

Raise your hand if you want elaborate Hatake warring states drama set maybe 40-50 years before Konoha was founded to help explain/elaborate on the start of the Hatake's downfall + provide cultural context for why they value their children so much !!!

Just kidding !! You're getting it anyways !!

Ok, so.

The Hatake's used to be made up of several small packs, ranging in sizes from 20-40 people, with a couple especially large or small packs here and there, as well as a few individual wanderers. But there were a good number of packs all together, so their overall numbers were like, a good few hundred.

Each pack was nicknamed after a part of a wolf + a direction. "The western fang", "the southern tail" (not to be confused with the eastern tail) "the northern paw", etc. The joke there was that together, they all make one wolf

Packs also had individual heads— there was no one overall singular clan head of all the Hatake, and they mostly operated independently of each other, but (most) would try and keep in contact to sure they at least remained on the same general page (they did have a few outliers, and honestly a lot of packs were just kind of... bad at keeping in contact. Some packs were much closer than others, while others were much more distant)

Whenever they needed to do any sort of political maneuvering, they'd converge, and the individual pack heads would choose a spokesman to represent them for the specific matter.

But about 40 years ago, just around when Hatake Haruka was born, there was a very sharp decline in numbers. The problem? Well, there were a few of them, but one very big specific one: They were being targeted by bloodline hunters. Hard.

So basically, fun story, there was this group of bloodline hunters specifically invested in wild clans. They'd try to kill as many as they can (to drive up scarcity) and capture any they deemed as 'tamable' that they'd then lock up and try and beat into submission in a facility nicknamed by those trapped there as the dog pound.

( This also relates to my previous talk about like. The fetishization of shinobi, particularly wild clans, and how they're often viewed as a status symbol. The wilder/more dangerous of a reputation they/their clan has, the more impressive it is for someone to have control over them )

So anyways like. The Hatake were very much on the list of targeted shinobi clans.

Also on the list were the Orochi, actually, which is also part of why, by the time konoha came around, there were only 3 left willing to step out into the sun. (There may have been more somewhere out there, but they'd refused to leave their hiding places)

Other targeted clans included the Hoshigaki, Inuzuka, and a couple other unnamed more "animalistic" clans that would be virtually extinct by the time of modern Naruto (in large part because of this entire mess, actually)

The Hatake's were the hunters primary target though and made up the majority of those they'd captured / killed.

The Hatake's nature to wander was used against them, as packs were systematically picked off— the bloodline hunters already had several stolen shinobi among them, as well as very powerful backing from some political powers which helped to feed and arm them well.

The packs would only communicate with each other so often, with some packs being more isolated than others, so it actually took a little while for some of them to actually realize what was happening— which meant even that more of them were taken by surprise

By the time Haruka was around 10, her pack (the western fang) had been very thoroughly picked through, and were down most of their shinobi.

They ended up making the very dangerous treck across Iron, continuing to be picked at every step of the way, in an effort to unite with the southern fang, which had already picked up several other stragglers, and merge into one pack

(At the time, most of the remaining packs were doing something similar— scrambling to try and merge, to try and gain some sort of power in numbers. Very few managed to make it)

At some point in all this mess, young Haruka herself actually ended up falling victim to the bloodline hunters, getting tossed into the pound. She'd be stuck there for some years, and ultimately her position inside of it would help the Hatake's destroy the dog pound once and for all.

The battle that did it in for the pound was a big one. Lots of blood, lots of fire, lots of death and destruction, all that good stuff. Everyone involved in the attack (and the Hatake were not alone in the battle, there were multiple other clans invested in seeing these bastards put down for good) was out to turn the entire place into a crater of dust.

In the end, there were no survivors on the bloodline hunters side. The pound was absolutely demolished, and it's safe to say that any remaining bloodline hunters in the area got the message loud and clear: "Don't fucking steal blood from the Hatake."

—but it also killed... a lot of Hatake. A lot, a lot. The entire events of the past couple decades did.

Afterwords, a lot of effort was put into keeping quiet on exactly what had gone down within the pound and how bad things had become for multiple clans involved in the whole debacle. In general, unless the clan was directly involved in the matter, few people— shinobi or otherwise —knew all he details of their little war.

After all, no clan wanted to be perceived as weak or vulnerable

So then Haruka becomes head of her pack somewhere in her 20s. But by that point there's like. 2 actual "packs" left, and maybe a sparce handful of individual Hatake's. And their numbers are just really low and they're having a hard time with birthing in general, so their numbers continue to be whittled down with each passing year.

It's also very important to note that this whole mess is also part why the Hatake's are so violently private.

While it was a known fact that the clan had taken a hit, no one actually knows how great of a blow they'd taken, or how many Hatake are left.

And no Hatake is willing to give that game up, because the number? Well, it's lower than any of the estimates other clans have made. They are actively dying and terrified that anyone will find out and try to once again use their isolation and numbers against them

They're trying very, very hard to hide it, and the big show of strength they flexed in that big final battle totally helped to cover their asses

By the time Konoha is founded, there are only 2 Hatake packs left— Haruka's pack, which was left with only 21 Hatake; And another unnamed one, somewhere way out west, who they lost contact with years ago.

So then skipping forward some decades, to only some years before Konoha's founding.

In Here Before and After Me there's a moment where Hashirama says,

The rare few times a child had been taken, the Hatake's had kicked up such a fuss that they'd heard of the blood baths even in Fire Country. The stories reached as far as Wind country, if you asked in the right places.

^ This is actually directly referencing an event where, sometime recently (within the last 10 years of the fic, so within ~13ish years of Konoha being founded) some idiots tried to take a Hatake child.

And the Hatake, being VERY thoroughly traumatized as a collective by the events of. Everything I said above. Went absolutely scorched earth "tear their fucking hearts out and put their heads on a pike" batshit insane on them.

Just, pulling out all the stops, total slaughter. They honestly went more than a bit overboard (but also not really, all things considering)

They were NOT about to risk another dog pound situation. They did not want to risk anyone even THINKING it was safe to so much as LOOK at them wrong. They wanted to send a message to any bloodline thief who thought they were "weak" enough to pick off (again)

And, you know, I mean, it did work. So.

Anyways this entire event lasted like, a couple decades actually. Anywhere from 20 to 30 years, with a couple lulls here and there. (the hunting technically began a decade before Haruka was born, it just hit its height around her birth)

It was a very traumatic couple of decades, and left a strong lasting impact on the Hatke's as a whole, culturally.

It's a very big part of why the Hatake are so insanely protective of their young. A good few decades of being actively hunted and preyed upon, having their kids stolen, watching other clans also lose their own children— it instilled a very healthy dose of ✨ child shaped generational trauma ✨

(It also came with a few other lasting impacts and hang ups, especially within the few still living Hatake who escaped the dog pound. Of which there are (as of writing this) three)

Fun fact! The best way to get adopted by a Hatake (particularly the older ones) is to actually specifically have them rescue you from bloodline hunters, bc it activates a primal protective rage in them instilled by years of war against those bastards

The Hatake's biggest secret being their totally shitty position also makes for some fun scenes when they finally join Konoha and sort of have to expose themselves along the way. They are making the long journey across Iron and into Fire country, and because they're taking the whole clan + all of their things in proper caravan, they have to stop at every other territory to explain themselves and where they're going and why

They are getting SO many stares from just about everyone they run into

(This is the most Hatake's anyone has ever seen, but also... Doesn't it feel like there's barely any of them...? Didn't they say that they're moving the whole clan to the new ninja village? Where's the rest of them? Is there a second caravan coming soon, or...?)

Then they finally get to Konoha and its like, !!! Welcome !!! We're so excited you're here! Where... are the rest of you?

It also makes them choose to come to Konoha so much more of a Thing™ for them, because this is genuinely a hail mary "fuck it we ball" show of trust for them. They are being forced to show their full hand and reveal the secret that they've kept so carefully guarded for the past few decades— that they're dying.

(Meanwhile, Tobirama, who is one of like THE only people ever to visit the Hatake's while still being aligned to another clan is conspicuously avoiding eye contact w Hashirama, who is sending him a very alarmed ??????)

Anyways, few individual character notes:

Haruka would actually meet and become close to Hatake Maru and the Hoshigaki girl who'd one day be Tetsuo's mother in the pound. The three became friends and in the end, managed to escape only because of each other

Maru was from one of the smaller, individual 3/2 person packs, and had been training to become a samurai before captured. Being in the pound actually only strengthened his resolve to be a swordsman, and he'd often chant the core tenants of the samurai's way to try and calm/center himself

Haruka was also captured with her brother, but he would not survive the pound and died fairly early on into their residency there. Their sister, Tobirama and Hashirama's mother, was never captured and managed to escape relatively unscathed.

While all Hatake's have the chance to earn their clan stripes via leading their first hunt when around 14/15, Haruka was trapped in the dog pound at 14/15. As such, that 'first hunt' she led as an adult ended up invertedly being the attack on the pound which she helped to lead. The stripes it earned her are known as 'mountain stripes,' and are meant to symbolize an unshakable, unstoppable iron will. Deeming her an immovable force of nature, all on her own

By the time of Konoha, Haruka is actually all that remains of what was once the western fang pack. The last other member from that pack (the twins' father, actually) died to sickness the winter before Konoha was founded. She's actually decently fucked up about it but hides it incredibly well.

Uhh final thoughts:

Hatake Haruka, age 18— she got a hundred problems and bloodline hunters are 90 of em

[bg-11]

Ripping into TCW's A Friend in Need, in which every character is awful.

I'm going to be upfront about this: I do not care for TCW, I never really have. See, I've always been a big stickler for continuity, even as a kid, and by this point there was *plenty* of Clone Wars related content that had been set across the whole 3 years of the war. The big issue of course was always Ahsoka, who of course just couldn't neatly slot into that timeframe at all because there were already plenty of comics that made it clear that Anakin never had a Padawan. She was a square peg the writers of TCW had jammed into a square hole. Of course, Ahsoka wasn't the only example, it was clear the writers never really gave a shit about what other, better writers had already established, and so retcons and continuity errors were rife with the series, only increasing as it continued. Exactly the kind of thing I was leery about. I was willing to give it a chance when it first came out, but that optimistic goodwill didn't really last too long.

I watched it on-and-off when it came out to check it out, I didn't want to judge it without having seen it. It was the same when I heard about how obnoxious Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series was, I wanted to see if that was as bad as people were saying it was (it was worse). By Season 4, I was pretty ready to write it off, the retcons were getting bigger and bigger (Even Piell getting killed off before his Canon death in Coruscant Nights, changing Asajj Ventress' backstory and fate contrary to what it was in the Republic comics, treating the Nightsisters as if they were literal witches who could use actual magic, the list goes on, but those were my biggest gripes). One episode that stood out to me though, was A Friend in Need, an episode in which pretty much everyone except for Artoo is stupid, malicious or both. At the time, I thought it was the worst episode of TCW yet. Has that changed since then? Yeah, but I'd still count this episode as the dumbest.

For whatever reason, the episode popped into my head recently after...I don't know how long its been, relatively shortly after the episode aired, I guess? And, I don't know, I guess I wanted to take a jab at picking it apart? I've never really done this before, there've been a couple of times when I've wanted to examine bad media, but for whatever reason, I never really got to it. So, fuck it, better late than never, I guess. So, I rewatched the episode to get it fresh in my mind. As the old EU was still Canon when this aired, I'm putting it through the lens of it still being Canon when I talk about it.

There's a good reason why my friends call me a masochist, I guess.

Things start out on Mandalore, where Ahsoka is escorting Padme, Bail and Mon Mothma in talks with representatives from the Separatist Senate when Lux Bonteri walks in. When I first watched A Friend in Need, I had missed Lux's Introductory episode which also introduced the Separatist Senate, so I was a little confused here. Confused because prior to TCW, there wasn't a Separatist Senate, the Confederacy was solely ruled over by the Separatist Council. Now, there's commentary from Filoni that apparently, the EU writers had misunderstood the purpose of the Separatist Council, that no, they weren't the leaders of the CIS, and that the megacorporation's who made up the CIS were just neutral parties. I have two issues with that, first being that I trust Dave "I sincerely believe this man wants to fuck wolves" Filoni's word about as far as I can throw his furry ass, and two, that isn't how it comes across in the movies at all.

The leaders of the Trade Federation, Intergalactic Banking Clan, Techno Union and Commerce Guild are all present, outright saying they're pledging their alliance and their armies to the Separatist cause. That they're apparently neutral, uninvolved parties doesn't gel at all, it just seems like a clumsy retcon to me. One of many.

But anyway...

Lux busts in and causes a scene, accusing Count Dooku of murdering his mother, so the Separatist senators have their guards drag him away. Ahsoka, concerned, gets permission from Padme to follow him, as long as she's discrete. Lux is dragged back to the Separatist's shuttle, where a hologram of Dooku appears to gloat a bit, before telling the droids to execute Lux. Why he doesn't just use the Force to choke him, I don't know, all you need is line of sight.

Now, I'd actually misremembered how this scene went down. In my memory, Lux dropped an ion grenade to disable the droids and *then* Ahsoka showed up. Apparently my flawed memory made Lux more competent then he actually is in the episode. How was he actually planning on getting away? We'll get back to that in a moment, but for right now, he's at the battle droid's mercy.

And then Ahsoka intervenes.

Here's another issue I had with Ahsoka, her characterisation. There were a couple of moments that stuck with me that I think are relevant here.

Season 1, episode 19, Storm Over Ryloth: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

Season 2, episode 1, Holocron Heist: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

This episode? Ahsoka is a reckless, headstrong idiot who forces her way into a hostile situation, gets the attraction of a bunch of armed droids and leads them back towards the Senate Guards who are stationed at the Republic shuttle, quickly alerts the unaware men that some pissed off droids are on her tail, then boards the shuttle, takes off and flees back to Coruscant, abandoning the Senators she was supposed to be escorting *and* the Senate Guards who are now taking the heat for her.

Ahsoka is such a shitty bodyguard, Jesus Christ. Getting Lux to safety is a priority, fine, but why does she need to board the ship herself and flee the system entirely? Why not just have Lux board the ship, then go back to help the Senate Guards deal with the battle droids that she *led* there in the first place? They're not just regular battle droids either, they're droid commandos who are supposed to be a lot tougher and smarter than the standard B1 battle droids. We don't see the outcome of this fight, so I presume the Senate Guards won, which, good thing. Because Ahsoka abandoned the Senators she was supposed to be watching over, and I genuinely wouldn't put it past the Separatists to pull something now that these peace talks have collapsed because of what Ahsoka did. They were never going to work out anyway of course, given Sidious' whole purpose behind the Clone Wars, but the characters aren't aware of that.

Anakin gets in contact and when Lux tries to apologise with "Master Jedi, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble." ("If" you caused trouble? "If"?)

Ahsoka tries to brush it off with "It's nothing." Uh, no, it's not. See the above paragraphs for why it *is* a big deal, and I can't see Anakin of all people being too happy with Padme being left in a dangerous situation like that. But I guess we're brushing past that, cool.

Ahsoka points out how dumb Lux's plan was, saying he would have been killed if she hadn't intervened (true). Then Lux says no, actually, he *did* have a plan, then he pulls out a taser and stuns Ahsoka. Seriously? His plan was to go in, confront Dooku, hoping that he'd send a transmission just to gloat (apparently he "knew" he would, but why? He could just have easily been shot by the battle droids), and he went in there armed with a dinky little taser? Brilliant plan, I'm sure that would have done *wonders* against a squad of droid commandos all armed with blasters.

Ahsoka wakes up hours later aboard the shuttle with just Artoo, her lightsabers missing. She goes out to talk to Lux and finds out the contacts he's meeting are the Death Watch, that Mandalorian supremacist group of terrorists who are awful even by Mandalorian standards.

Jesus Christ, Lux is so fucking stupid.

Despite Ahsoka attempting to tell him that they're bad news, he keeps brushing it off because they *also* hate Dooku, so it'll be fine. Back aboard the ship, Artoo finds Ahsoka's lightsabers tucked away in a random drawer. So, if she had bothered to look for them, she would have found them in the space of five minutes. My God, she is useless. These two deserve each other, I swear.

Oh, and we meet Bo-Katan for the first time.

Awful, *evil* Bo-Katan.

On the ride back, Lux reveals he had a way to track Dooku's location through his communication.

Serenno. He was probably on Serenno, his homeworld of Serenno, where he has a mansion on Serenno, Serenno on which he is a Count. This isn't exactly hidden knowledge.

They go back to the Death Watch compound. see them using kitbashed battle droids as target practice and Ahsoka is marched off while Lux talks to their leader, Pre Vizsla. Apparently, he has beef with Dooku now and the Count gave him a scar. Which, first thing, if Dooku had wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Second, I actually don't remember those two falling out, so I looked it up and apparently it happens entirely offscreen between his last appearance and now, so whatever, I guess. Also, Vizsla threatens to cut up Lux if he doesn't hand over the tracer, and Lux seems pretty fine with that. Brilliant, that one, real smart.

Ahsoka gets thrown in with a hut full of enslaved women from a nearby village. Great people, those Mandalorians. Artoo, meanwhile, is taken to the droid shack and told to fix up the damaged battle droids so they can be used as target practice again. They don't even slap a restraining bolt on him, they just leave him to his own devices. Which, in this case, happens to be a room full of battle droids, several of which actually still have blasters in repairable condition as we'll see later.

Well, the Mandalorians are rock stupid, so I suppose I can't complain *that's* out of character.

Big feast is held, now Lux can see with his own eyes that the Death Watch are using the local women as slaves...but he doesn't seem to give much of a shit about it, even as Ahsoka keeps trying to point out how awful his allies are. It's at that point the village elder shows up and demands Viszla let his people go. He did this unarmed, with his only support being two other unarmed villagers, walking into a camp full of hostile people who had already taken the village's women as slaves and expected things to go well for him. When Vizsla agrees in the most sinister way possible, with several other Death Watch members openly snickering about it, the elder thinks all is well and Lux even says: "You see? They're not the butchers you make them out to be."

I...Jesus Christ, they were using the local women as slaves, but you're fine with that so long as they take them back when they're done? Lux has to be the stupidest character in this series, I swear. There is exactly one smart person this entire episode and it's Artoo.

Next day, the Death Watch take the enslaved women back to their village, the Elder thanking him for it.

And then he takes out his stupid edgesaber and stabs the man's granddaughter in front of him. Can't help but feel this would have been more impactful if obvious sacrificial lamb character had more than a minute of screentime, but okay, its awful and its typical Mando behaviour. For good measure they start torching the village and maybe set one villager on fire. And much to my shock, Lux finally gets it. I was half expecting him to brush it off as them setting fires to keep the villagers warm. Ahsoka seems to impale a guy with a blunt pole, before getting tied up. And then they drag her back to their camp from their speeder...yeah, Ahsoka should be dead.

Then Lux says this...

"I believed you had honour, but you're just murderers."

What possibly led you to think that conclusion, you absolute dumbass? This whole time, Vizsla has been acting as blatantly sinister and creepy as Dick Dastardly, if he had a moustache he'd be twirling it. Lux seems like the kind of character who needs to be told not to drink drain-cleaner, I swear to God.

As Vizsla is preparing to deal with Idiot and Useless, Artoo shows up with an army of kitbashed droids...and like I said either, a few of them have working blasters. Literally the only competent character, I swear. Artoo gives Ahsoka her lightsabers back, and Vizsla decides to duel her one-on-one, because like every Mando, he has a totally unearned superiority complex. She ends up slicing his jetpack and he doesn't even notice until Ahsoka points it out to him. How did he not hear her hit it? How did he not feel that? In the confusion of the exploding jetpack, Dumb and Dumber manage to escape, chased by Bo-Katan, but they get away.

Then Lux fucks off in the escape pod, the end.

And apparently the next time Ahsoka runs into Bo-Katan, they're besties and join forces to free Mandalore. Guess Ahsoka kinda forgot about the whole slavery, village torching and innocent people she murdered, huh? Yeah, guess so. Bo-Katan fucking sucks, she doesn't get a redemption, the narrative just wants you to forget all the atrocities she commits because she doesn't want Maul to be her leader. Zuko she ain't.

Ahsoka majorly screws up her assignment, puts senators in danger and gets some guards killed, Lux is so braindead that he blindly trusts the most obviously evil pack of killers he could find. I'd say he needs a helmet, but I don't think its possible for him to get anymore brain damage.

TCW is massively overrated, this is a hill I will die on.

[skygemspeaks]

so i've been thinking a lot about names in beta sector recently

specifically, i've been thinking about how in earth flight when they were talking about jarra and fian's betrothal, it's mentioned that only descendants of tellon blaze can take on the tell clan prefix. it's why gemena kept her ray clan prefix, and why fian, riak, and persephone sr didn't have prefixes at all.

now we know that other clans don't have this kind of rule because during the drago tell dramis sequence, iirc the kar clan wanted to adopt dr mandanna into the clan and said that they could use whichever version of the clan prefix they would like

anyways, given how much status in beta sector is tied to one's clan and their clan's status, i can imagine that people who don't have clan prefixes would face discrimination, wouldn't they? even if they WERE still part of a clan? like for outlanders it's not so much of a big deal, since people tend to give a little more grace for them if they're clanless

but like. i'm specifically thinking of the honour children of tell clan members without the prefix.

before her honour ceremony, drago's younger sister Persephone would be Persephone Tell [mother's last name]. But when she goes through the honour ceremony and becomes Persephone Incarnate, does she get to keep her prefix? Become Persephone Tell Incarnate?

It depends on how strict the naming conventions of the honour child ceremony are, right? We know that they provide exceptions for gender - hence why Draco's honour child is named Dracia, and why Jarra had mentioned that if she had been born a boy she would have been named Jarrack. So would they also have an exception for betan clan prefixes?

On another note, I'm also thinking about triad marriages, and the children that come from them. Specifically this came from me thinking about one of my raven/jarra/dalmora aus. anyways, in beta sector, all three parents in a triad marriage are considered equally to be the parents of any children that result from the marriage, even if they aren't biologically related. so in this instance, if raven and dalmora have a child together, jarra would still legally be the child's mother just as much as dalmora is, and the child would therefore be in the tell clan. but because they wouldn't be a biological descendant of tellon blaze, they wouldn't be able to have the tell clan prefix. do the tell clan have any provisions for this kind of situation? this kind of situation would probably be rare so maybe they haven't had any reason to think of it yet. but i think one possible interesting idea would be that the child in question could have the Blaze clan prefix, while still being a member of the Tell clan, since they're sister clans.

i mean there's always the possibility that the child doesn't have a prefix at all, but we've seen how much discrimination the clanless face in beta sector (when drago heard lolia and lolmack's names for the first time he immediately dismissed them as being from a gutter clan specifically because of their names). i just don't see the tell clan being okay with their children facing that kind of discrimination for no reason, you know? i feel like it would breed a lot of resentment

[pixelsilver]

Now I kinda wanna know more about the abyss clan. Like how do they treat their females are most of them willing or kidnapped? Does the clan leader have a female already? How many females do they have per male or are they a reverse harem kind of clan?

Also since they're masters of genetics do their girls get tails and fins? (cause if that's the case sign me up) Also how big do abyss males get cause considering deep sea giants exist I wouldn't be shocked if they where as big or rivaled the frost boys. I'm a lover of world building and lore so sorry if these are too many questions.

Also I love your works so much 💖 please never stop writing! ❤️💖❤️💖

I saw this and never replied ;w;

Most abyssal males gain their females through the same means most clans do, by vetting and choosing females that they consider powerful. It's actually pretty rare for clans to choose willing females or even try to woo them into accepting them. The yautja lifestyle often means their death rate outpaces their birthrate these days, so they're more worried about getting their numbers up at this point.

The leader doesn't technically have a mate, he just mates with girls who want to mate with him. He'll have a favorite female that he'll hunt and spend time with, but that rarely changes and he doesn't currently have a favorite right now. Most clan males are about the same.

Their family groups are analogous to what you might see in Orca whales. There are often multiple females, with a matriarch leading the group. Males within the group are either related or the mate of the Matriarch. The males within the Abyssal clan are more than happy to defer to their mates, even if they are human, because that's their natural instinct.

The Abyssal clan built essentially domes underwater that have little areas similar to places on earth. Like forests, a little town, and a few fields for food. This is just so that the human females don't feel trapped underwater with them or having to live on an island where dangerous creatures tend to come ashore often.

The humans don't really have the aquatic aspects of the Abyssal clan beyond being able to hold their breath underwater for long periods of time and no longer being susceptible to skin rotting if they stay in too long.

The average Abyssal male after their Chiva is around the same size as a Frost Clan male, though they don't stop rapidly growing through their lives. I believe the biggest male is around twelve feet tall, two feet taller than the average Frost clan female/Elder rank Male.

[nepheia]

but where exactly is here?: unpacking the typography of 《我在》

yibo's annual music drops in a few hours! this will be my first time watching this lovely tradition unfold in real time, which is a strange but also very exciting feeling.

i've loved his teasers so far. they're slick, gorgeous, mature, evocative; transporting us right into the great outdoors that yb has spent so much time in this year — an ode to the nature-related passion projects he's chosen to share with the world, like the wildaid pangolin documentary and exploring the unknown 💚

and maybe it's yet another occupational hazard from working in editorial, but something that struck me almost immediately was the sleek and simple typography. it's really nothing much! but there's a lot you can do with a single font in a single colour, because opacity, thickness, and positioning do a lot of the heavy lifting.

and not to read too deeply into typography of all things at 2am but...

the low-opacity 我在 peering out from behind the opaque I AM NOT HERE makes me think of a smokescreen. that The Real Message is that yb is here, despite all the signs insisting that he's not.

but where, exactly, is here? what could this reflect?

consider: it reflects how he is with everything he loves. that sounds weird, but hear me out:

i can see it reflecting his appreciation of mastery and his style of learning. whether it's acting, sport, or whatever new whimsy that has caught his eye (and there have been so many!), he learns like a silent, watchful presence. almost like, coincidentally, a panther in the shadows. there is never any fanfare to it; he simply masters something by studying his colleagues and seniors — see: wuming filming.

i can see it reflecting how he enjoys falling off the radar, slinking away from cameras and sets and the bright allure of his celebrity to go places and do things that fulfill him. in not being present in public, he is more present with himself.

i can see it reflecting some decisions he's inevitably had to make not only as a star, but — let's be real — as a commodity and a businessman in his own right. decisions that may have seemed unlike him, but in truth were full of him, taking one step back for two steps forward, carefully laying the groundwork for a career where he will have the freedom to pick and choose. a career filled with opportunities that he will love, and that he can take up on his own terms.

i can see it reflecting the characters he's lovingly brought to life on screen — some of whom live such different lives, there are no traces of the high-flying wyb in the way they speak or laugh or cry. yet they share so much of who he is at heart, present if you look closely:

ruolai was a diamond in the rough, bright and talented, who ultimately stuck by his difficult decision to leave behind what gave him his big break. for ruolai, it was xiansheng and the bank; for yb, it was idol life in korea.

mr. ye, so much more than his outwardly stoic and calculating appearance, was so incredibly adept at his job that no one — not even the people he was working against — doubted his work. who could doubt the star power yb brings to any table?

and though a shanghai financier and fighter test pilot and aspiring dancer and second son of a noble clan are worlds apart, they all put everything on the line for a world they believed in, for a life that they were making: ruolai. mr. ye. chen shuo. chen yu. lei yu. lan zhan.

ah yes... lan zhan. the character who loved most like him.

i can see it reflecting how yb is when he's around the person he loves, so reminiscent of lan zhan: single-minded in his pursuit, deeply devoted, every minute movement bearing the hot brand of affection and admiration. looking at This Person like he hung the stars in the sky. orbiting a hundred times around him, and still happy to take another lap.

and of course, just like the title and the typography alludes, i can also see it reflecting how he is when he's not around This Person, because his love is like the moon. bright on some days, concealed on others, but always there, coiled around every whispered 晚安 'goodnight'.

as if to say, it doesn't matter if i'm not here. i'm here. 我在.

⋆

— originally posted on twitter 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

is it insane to be thinking this hard when i could be proven totally wrong once the songs come out? yes. could the typography actually just mean nothing? yes. will the sign stop me? it never has!! going insane about Those Parallels btw