#this got long so it’s under a cut

[deathbycoldopen]

I finished the first season of the live action ATLA, and I have to say my reaction is… mixed.

I went into it determined to have an open mind, and there was definitely a good chunk that I enjoyed! For one thing, I love what they did with both Suki and Yue, taking advantage of the longer episode lengths to give them both lives and motivations beyond just “pretty girl that Sokka crushes on” (Suki obviously gets more depth in the og show during seasons 2 & 3, but Yue has always struck me as a rather one-dimensional character).

The best (if traumatizing) choice was to actually show the Fire Nation attack on the airbenders. Doing so gave a real emotional heft to Aang being displaced a hundred years with the weight of failing to prevent a past genocide, and the pressure of having to stop another without any idea how. Not only that, but it did a great job of indicating, right at the start of the show, that this was an adaptation indenting to transform what was fundamentally a kids’ show with complex themes into an adult series with the ability to really expand on that depth and complexity.

…and then it didn’t.

Oh, the show pokes at the repercussions of Iroh having waged a long and deadly siege agains Ba Sing Se, and it does a decent job at deepening the fuckery that is Zuko’s backstory. But so much of the more ambiguous or complex parts of the original have been flattened in this adaptation—and not in ways that can be explained by the compressed narrative. Instead, it feels like the sanitized story and characters are a direct result of a purity culture that demands all things black and white, never shades of gray.

Let’s look at Zuko, the villain-turned-hero with an iconic but bumpy redemption arc in the original series. Part of what makes Zuko’s story so goddamn compelling in the original is that he begins as a true villain, who does some horrible things and is led astray more often than not by his explosive temper; and yet his horrifying backstory and desperation for a loving family that never actually existed compel us to view him with some sympathy, even as he acts against our protagonists.

Yet in the adaptation, Zuko is consistently painted in a softer, kinder light than he was in the original. He has no hand in burning down the village on Kyoshi Island; he hears Aang out and even seems to consider Aang’s offer of friendship rather than immediately lashing out after the Blue Spirit reveal; he is notably more respectful to Iroh and loses his temper much less frequently and violently.

Even the change of Zuko fighting back against Ozai in the agni kai can be construed as him recognizing that Ozai is the bad guy, especially when it means that in order for his exile to make sense he has to defy his father again after he’s already been burned.

This is a pattern that is repeated with nearly all of the characters with any degree of ambiguity. Pakku is depicted as kind of a decent person who’s just being held back by his deference to tradition, rather than being pretty much an asshole regardless of whether he’s following tradition or not. Hahn is a nice guy who is in love with Yue but accepts her decision not to marry him, instead of a dick that sees her as a trophy and is more than happy to marry her despite her disinterest.

Sokka is a huge victim of this flattening of flaws. His early-show misogyny is entirely absent, making his stumbling with Suki a little odd and ungrounded, and his dismissal of Katara’s skills even more so. The narrative doesn’t allow him to be anywhere close to as boneheaded and stubborn as he is in the original—this version of Sokka would never angrily slash through the swamp despite the warning signs, or blatantly lie to Won Shi Ton and then even more blatantly steal from him.

Sokka isn’t even allowed the most understandable tactical mistake from the original show: using the air ship in the fight at the Northern Air Temple, and inadvertently delivering the Fire Nation’s greatest asset. That honor is given to a generalized “spies” that are distanced even from Sai himself.

If the heroes aren’t allowed to have flaws, the villains are even worse off, without anything that might make them sympathetic. Jet, who in the original sits in a similar in-between place as Zuko, is pushed firmly on the side of villain over the course of his two-episode arc. Instead of Jet fighting dirty against Fire Nation colonists who are nevertheless civilians, he bombs buildings in Omashu; it’s easier to denounce him when he’s hurting Earth Kingdom civilians with his tactics, rather than people who may or may not be complicit in the war. He’s even labeled a terrorist, an easy buzzword for a largely usamerican audience to point to and say “ah yes, that’s a bad guy.”

The main villains— Ozai, Zhao, and even the brief scene of Sozin— are ironically even more cartoonishly evil than in the animated show. Ozai and Sozin both declare their evil plans— out loud, with villainous aplomb— to use one major military movement as a distraction for another, even bigger movement. (Sozin’s plan at least made sense, in that the distraction was “leaked” intelligence rather than an actual deployment of troops. How the hell did Ozai have enough troops and a decent supply line to attack both the Northern Water Tribe and Omashu at the same time? And it’s not like the distraction actually served any purpose, since it’s explicitly stated several times that the separate nations don’t send aid to each other anymore.)

Ozai’s treatment of Zuko is even more abusive than in the original, especially with the aforementioned change where Zuko actually does fight back as ordered. His choice to burn Zuko and then later banish him then must be explained by Zuko showing compassion, a much more typically “evil” motivation than the more complex (though no less abusive) notion of Zuko dishonoring himself.

Zhao gets an even worse character lobotomy, which is impressive given that his original character is pretty unabashedly villainous. But rather than a devious, powerful, and ambitious commander looming over everything Zuko or Team Avatar does, this version of Zhao is cartoonishly incompetent. (It doesn’t help that the only thing I’ve seen Ken Leung in is Person of Interest, where he plays a similarly buffoonish character constantly in need of rescue. When held up against Jason Isaacs’ mesmerizing but intimidating voice in the original, there’s no comparison.)

Zhao is no longer a respected military leader but a backwoods commander who barely passed the exam to become an officer; his rise through the ranks isn’t due to military successes or a commanding presence but because Azula finds him easy to manipulate; cutting Jeong Jeong means that we don’t see Aang get the better of Zhao by playing on his temper and lack of control; even discovering the secret of the moon and ocean spirits seems more like blundering luck than actual determination and intelligence. You can’t take Zhao seriously as a threat in this adaptation, even when he’s killing the moon spirit and destroying the balance of the world— he’s a nuisance at best, with Azula as the real looming danger.

Disliking Zhao’s character changes might just come down to a matter of taste, of course. I’m always going to be more interested in intelligent, competent characters, whether they are heroes or villains. But it forms part of this pattern of flattening characters and plots and arcs, and brings me back to the fundamental question that kept hitting me over the head while watching the series.

Why?

Why make an adaptation? This is a question that comes up whenever an adaptation of anything is made: what does the adaptation bring to the table that the original did not? Often the answer to this question is money, but there’s usually an attempt to point to a different answer, if only to distract from the greed.

Sometimes the answer is simple— a translation, for example, is an adaptation made to reach a wider audience. Sometimes the answer is more complicated— changing Lord of the Rings from books to movies, as another example, took advantage of the music, acting, and visuals to pack more emotional punch than the books did.

I would argue, as I began to at the start of this post, that the benefit of adapting ATLA from an animated kids show to a live action series is the bucking of those “kids show” limitations. ATLA deals with a lot of serious, heavy topics that don’t get fully explored because they are too complicated and intense to be greenlit in a network show aimed at 10 year olds. In addition, ATLA (and particularly Legend of Korra after it) faced an uphill battle to portray some more sticky topics such as queerness, in part due to the time period when they were produced.

A live action show produced by Netflix seems to bypass all those hurdles, allowing for a darker and more socially progressive show than what the original was able to accomplish. But despite showing onscreen the destruction of the Air Nomads, the adaptation of ATLA seems more sanitized than the original, playing to the lowest common denominator in a way that the original never did, despite the latter being a kids show and the former ostensibly being for adults.

I came away from the new series with a bad taste in my mouth, even with some things that I really enjoyed, and I think this is the crux of why. The adaptation didn’t update the original; it stripped it of anything that might be deemed problematic and replaced it with a black and white worldview that is, in fact, antithetical to the themes of the original show.

After all, the creators seem to have reasoned, who would root for Zuko’s redemption if he actually needed redemption in the first place?

[front-facing-pokemon]

[sunnydayaoe]

hi i'm the anon that asked about npd mind and i am So Excited for the comic :D just wanted to say that

Sorry I lost motivation pretty intensely halfway though... I hope you still like this haha

Erm put a lot in tags if you want more... actual thoughts on mind instead of tiny bite sized 1-2 panels

[amygdalae]

i think you should brag more about getting laid. someone has to around here

🫡

[ink-the-artist]

I love your artwork so much! Your colors are so vibrant and none of the white speckles in the paper ever shows, its so impressive and I really dig it! I was wondering if you use any sort of blending medium? Like baby oil or anything? Either way, I really enjoy looking at your artwork and I'm always excited to see whatever you'll make next

I use a colorless blender (prismacolor, which is wax-based so baby oil probably wouldnt work) but my scanner is also rly bad about picking up white specks in a way photographing the art with my phone isnt, so I usually have to do some digital editing to get rid of them as well.

I do this by duplicating the layer, setting the one on top to "darken," and using the mixer brush to blend out the white spots + just use the eyedropper tool to select the color of that area (needs to be a slightly lighter shade of it) and color over the white spots with the brush tool

i edited a small bit of the original scan to show what i mean

original:

with the edited layer:

heres how it looks set to normal instead of darken, I used both the mixing brush and regular brush just to demo it

[blanketfortz]

who will i become

[tenderhooked]

🌼🌹🌹🌹🌻

using yet another long-hoarded rose ask for my own evil purposes (talking about my new fic AJKLSDFJLKJ). another snip from slow foal, now that lamb has finally arrived to take river back to slough house:

“Where the fuck is she?” “Jesus—” River startled so badly that he leapt out of his chair, fear spiking hot and keen behind his ribs. Then, heart swollen to twice its size, he pivoted on his heel to meet the gaze of who he figured must have been Jackson Lamb. He was taller than River had been expecting, and broader across the shoulders, which was terrifying in its own special way. If he were to get River in his grip, River was sure it would take a miracle for him to break free. Skull to the coffee table all over again. Though, Jackson Lamb didn’t much look like the sort to get his enemies in his grip. He looked more like the sort to tail them slowly, persistently, until they tired and couldn’t run any farther. That was a little better. River was good at running.  It was at this moment that he realized Jackson Lamb was talking to him. “I’m—sorry, Mr. Lamb, sir, what was that?” Oh, no. His voice cracked on the ‘sir’. He was going to die. “I wasn’t—um, listening.” Jackson Lamb gave him a look that River couldn’t decipher, and then shut his mouth, and then gave him another, more scrutinizing look that River truly couldn’t decipher. He held his breath and hoped that he wasn’t about to be hit already. “You know,” said Jackson Lamb, “I was just about to go murder Diana Taverner for pulling my damn leg hard enough she got me here in under fifteen minutes during my midday nap time, but you’ve managed to convince me. The real River Cartwright never listens to me worth a damn, neither.”

“I am the real River Cartwright,” said River, bristling. Stupid. But he couldn’t help it; he wouldn’t let his adult self claim all rights to being River Cartwright when he was the one standing here. “Mr. Lamb, sir.” “Mm.” Jackson Lamb regarded him with a distinct spark in his eye. “Nah, I don’t much care for that.” “W-what?” “The—” Jackson Lamb waved a careless hand. “The sirs and the Mr. Lambs. The real River Cartwright would sooner brain himself on a brick wall than show a… a fucking modicum of respect for me. Christ.” “Oh.” River twisted his hands together. That… that didn’t seem right, but he didn’t know enough about the real River Cartwright to argue. “Sorry.” They stood there in an uncomfortable silence for a long moment, until finally Jackson Lamb—Lamb, maybe, just Lamb—cleared his throat and seemed to return to his own body. “Right, then. You brought any shit with you? No? That’s a shame, we haven’t got any clothes in your size, and I don’t think you should trust Ho to do your shopping for you. Now let’s get out of here before the Iron Lady comes back.”

[acrobattack]

bliss redesign based off one I made in my teens

thought process + various other bits and bobs under the cut

I was 15 and annoyed by everything that moved when this character first came out, so in my own head I was very much making a Point with this redesign. Hence, I made very minimal changes. I wanted to work with what was already there and basically just make the existing design more thought-through. Little breakdown ahead (keeping in mind i myself am very much An Amateur who doesn’t know shit and am just ranting about my opinions and i also haven’t seen a single second of the 2016 reboot so i don’t know much about Bliss to begin with)

1. one of my Biggest pet peeves with Bliss is that the powerpuff girls each have bangs that are simple, memorable, and iconic while also being unique from each other and being reminiscent of irl little girls hairstyles. It’s very neat and clever and I like it a lot

and then Bliss has this confusing jumble of shapes that looks like it changes in style halfway across her forehead

i have absolutely no idea what the intent is here. My only guess is maybe it’s meant to look weird on purpose like she was trying to cut it herself or something (I suspect it’s something like that since she seems to have normal looking bangs as a little kid from what I can see) but it doesn’t really come off that way if that’s the case. It just looks like baby’s first PPG OC where you Understand that it’s meant to be hair and that it is made out of shapes but have 0 understanding of hairstyle or character design in general. Heck I might have put this exact hairline on a character in the past at the age of like 8

So in my redesign she’s got 5 even notches across her bangs, not thee most exciting change but it does the job I think. It is pretty reminiscent of Blossom but they look different enough from each other that I wasn’t too worried about it

2. low-hanging fruit time, Bliss’s hair color is horrible on the eyes. I’m bewildered at the decision to do this, especially since there is just so much of it, I struggle to think of how she could exist in any scene without hogging all the viewer’s attention constantly. That said, I understand they wanted her to have an unnatural hair color to really signal that she is a Fresh new Teen character from the late 2010’s, which is. Whatever, that’s fine, so she gets purple hair now. I kept the streak for the same reason, especially since she’s got a lot of hair, so no harm in a little extra interest in there.

I also learned recently that her hair glows sometimes? which i did Not know when first drawing her but well i think the darker color helps anyway. It adds some contrast for when she’s normal vs when she’s glowing and makes the latter appear more,, idk threatening or powerful or whatever the mood generally is when she’s doing that.

I did re-add that toothpaste blue to her eyelids though. I like to think it’s also the color of her lasers. It’s a cute color, just not as like 70% of this character’s palette

3. real talk I was drawing this from memory and didn’t mean to change the way her hair flares out from her head. realistically I think the original is fine, maybe just a little boring but fine, so that part of the redesign was an accident. Only thing is, it’s in the exact same position in every screenshot I’ve seen? It doesn’t seem to whip around when she’s flying or anything which looks weird and probably looks weirder in motion, especially since it takes up so much space onscreen. Idk it’s a strange decision, esp since the original show liked to use the ppg’s hair to emphasize their movement, so I’d just bring more movement into her hair. I mean if nothing else it’d make her look cooler.

very very rough little visual of what I mean

I also ended up making it shorter in my redesign—again, not really intentional, but I think it’s better that it eats up a little less of her silhouette

4. Her headband is largely the same, I didn’t hate the idea of her having an accessory, so I just toned down the colors. I’m not personally a fan of the powder blue and that pink heart is very bright and just doesn’t go with the rest of her (once again the color of her hair is doing it no favors). I also moved the heart over. Not necessarily needed I think, but I feel like it reads quicker as a headband and not a weird crown that way+introduces some asymmetry into her design that I think is nice.

5. my biggest gripe other than her bangs are her hips. I’m not against adding anatomy to this character design to make her read visually as older than the girls, but it’s so awkwardly done and distracting. I feel like it even interferes with her line of action more often than not (which is not helped by her unmoving hair).

Part of the issue is she still has the teeny tiny torso, just… with those square-ish hips slapped on, which makes her legs look all gangly and stretched out. I tried to balance out the proportions more in my redesign, as well as change the hips to a flared skirt. I think it helps differentiate her from the girls and still implies hips underneath, it just also functions as a less clunky transition from her torso to her legs.

Lengthening her torso also allows the stripe to look more like a belt above the skirt, which I think helps to sell her as “similar, but not the same” from the ppg

6. Her leggings(? Idk Im not a fashion person) aren’t a bad idea I think. like a more mature version of the girls’ stockings, but I think the white makes them look really distracting. It would help to make them a darker color I think, but since I wanted to keep them reminiscent of the girls’ socks I kept them white and just shortened them.

7. Not really sure what Bliss is wearing on her feet. I think they’re Mary Janes, but they’re drawn a bit different from the girls’ and I honestly think it’s too babyish a shoe for her to wear. I’m not sure what she’s actually wearing in my redesign either honestly, but the goal was just to make them look like the girls’ Mary Janes while clearly being something different.

8. Uh her signature color is something I’ve contemplated changing a lot but to be real I think it’s fine. I feel it was a very bad idea from a marketing standpoint because people were hype about Bunny and would obviously be mad they didn’t get her once the character actually dropped (and in the long-run she would just end up being overshadowed by the character everyone has already assigned that color to) but I’m personally not bugged by her being purple beyond that. If I were to draw them together though I think Bunny would have a more pinky shade of purple and Bliss leans more blue.

Loosely on the same topic, because of Bliss I’ve had a running headcanon that “only child” types of powerpuffs tend to come out purple. Kind of like how trios tend to have a red, blue, and green. It’s a fun little piece of fake lore to rotate around in my brain

Anyway with all that out of the way, here’s some redesigns I decided to have some fun with. Wasn’t being too precious about recognizability or simplicity or anything like that, but I did run out of steam partway through. There’s also one based off Whoopass Bell bc idk, why not

Finally, here’s some OCs I only ever drew once before out of a desire to give Bliss her own teen girl archetypes to form a team with. This is Bee and Beetle, who I’ll probably definitely forget about again immediately after posting this

[wiltenjoyer]

okay wait I forgot one of my video editing programs can remove vocals. can't get rid of the sound effects, but still pretty good. also sparkles bc I like sparkles

[moonfromearth]

On Repeat - an oc tag by @elderwisp

"rules are pretty simple, pick as many (or as little) oc's as you'd like and find a song that you relate to them the most! feel free to mention why too! o and tag some more ppl too! that would be cool!"

I may have gone a little overboard 😅 To be honest this tag came around at just the right time! I'd just gotten a new song association and have been working on schoolwork so much that I really needed to do something creative 😆

Originally these were all going to be in similar editing styles (more like Corey's) but somewhere along the way that stopped because I had different ideas that I really wanted to do. Also I cheated a little and a few got more than one song... 🤫

I'm really proud with all of these in the end, and if you want to read more about the stories behind them you can check below the cut! ❤️

I know I'm pretty late to the party now buuut I'll tag: @igglemouse @swiftviolets @stargazer-sims @auspexsims and @seniorpollinationtechnician. Feel free to ignore though if you've already done it/don't want to! 😁

[deep dive under cut!]

COREY ALTMAN

"Holiday" - Green Day:

This song being here is random song association at its finest. The trail pretty much goes "Holiday" by Green Day > Surf's Up > Beach Vibes > Sulani > Globetrotter Challenge > Corey Song. If that makes sense... 😂 Pretty much, you can blame the Sulani round of the Globetrotter Challenge for it, plus the fact that I feel like it's the type of song/genre Corey would use in his own music.

"Catch Me If You Can" - Set It Off:

Now, it would be a crime to talk about songs and Corey without a song by Set It Off. Corey was created when I was listening to their songs a lot, and it definitely rubbed off on him. From his aesthetic to the songs I imagine him playing, a lot of it came from Set It Off. Even his name was derived from the band's lead singer (although changed from Cody to Corey because that's the route my mind took with it idk). So, this song in particular specifically reminds me of Corey for... Honestly probably obvious reasons 😆 "Catch Me If You Can" was pretty much the theme of his Globetrotter Challenge, where he was constantly moving on the run from the law. A line I really like though for him is the part that says, "I only feel at home when I'm on the run," because I feel like that leads into the deeper aspects of Corey. He really isn't at home anywhere, he's always on the move, even when he's not evading capture anymore. There's a certain non-permanence to everything he does. Something funny about the image itself is that it originally wasn't going to be edited to look like the back cover of a CD. When I took the picture of Corey with the guitar I kind of thought "this looks like the back cover of a CD" and when editing I just needed a way to fill the space at the bottom and it turned into a CD back cover edit 🤣 It actually kind of fits though since both of these songs are the sound I associate with Corey's own music so it worked out in the end.

LIZZY ALTMAN

"Unopened Windows" - Set It Off:

So this one is the context behind this post lol. It's been like two years since I started working on this plotline I have to finish it eventually 😆 Anyway, Lizzy's been teased in many tag games so far, but without a name or much information (note: and this name's not final I'm not sure yet). Here you can probably guess based on the song choice how her story goes 😅 Going back to the epilogue of the Globetrotter Challenge, we see that something is going on, and it leads to Lizzy and her dad being separated. So, the entire song lyrically I really felt spoke to them and their situation (more in a future gameplay 😉). Bonus points for it being a Set It Off song, who I associate with Corey, and thought music could have been something that they bonded over and enjoyed together. I have a few things to say about the image itself because it was a struggle but I looooove how it turned out! It turned out essentially how I imagined it with Lizzy playing guitar in the foreground with a sort of memory of her time with her dad in the background. I probably had about five or six different poses that I put in the background because I couldn't decide which one I liked the best 😆 This was the last image I had to work on out of the four, and I was having trouble with how I wanted the song title to look. While I was browsing for overlays and stuff I came across a lot of cutout style poems and ended up adding in some of the lyrics because I thought it would help explain the concept behind the image. In the end this one is one of my favorites which is unbelievable considering how much I thought it was not going to turn out like I imagined 🥰

*UNNAMED*

(Sorry I don't have a name for her yet and don't want to commit to a temporary one 😭)

"Little Chaos" - Orla Gartland:

In a wonderfully serendipitous coincidence, this was the song association I was very into when getting tagged, and was already planning what became this edit! I rarely have song associations for sims/sims stories (despite how many ended up coming together here) so that's why I'll never get over how well timed this all was (thanks again elderwisp!!) On to the song, it has to do with my upcoming gameplay story centered around the For Rent game pack, and starring the pictured sim (who doesn't have a name yet sorry! 😅). She's going through a bit of a tough time where she's very lost and I thought the lines, "And it's a good day for a meltdown. All my thoughts getting too loud," fit really where she's at, especially at the start. Plus, the vibes are perfect. The image itself was inspired by the song's MV and one part in particular, but it looks a lot different now (I was limited by the poses I could find because I refuse to sit down and learn to make my own yet). I liked this idea of the torn pages framing the image, especially because it plays into the plot, which sees the main character do a lot of journaling throughout the story. So, the lined paper had to do with that, and it doubled as being good for making the letters stand out, which I wanted to be big and misaligned to be more "chaotic," though I think that could have been done more/better. Aaaaand the background is a picture of Tomarang, where the story takes place. To be honest this will probably be the cover image once I finalize a name and get started on playing it 😉

GHOST COWBOY

(no he also doesn't have a name yet same as above 😆)

"Ferryman" - Schafer James and Will Wood:

I've actually been having a lot of fun with this character since initially creating him back before the Horse Ranch pack came out (more on him coming out in a few days for the outlaw challenge 😉). So this song.... The entire concept of our ghost cowboy is that he, being somewhat half dead and half alive, winds up being a good source of convincing "unwilling souls" to cross over, and works with the character Death to do so in exchange for finding out why he's not entirely dead. I'll explain it better another time, but I also really love this song and just thought that the concept of the ferryman and the ghost cowboy as ferriers of the dead.

"Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (Epic Version)" - Samuel Kim and Black Gryph0n:

Liiiiisten... My family made me watch three seasons of The Witcher I had to get something out of it 😆 I joke a lot that this character gives off Geralt vibes but honestly they are definitely super similar just based on their overall aesthetic and horse companions. I wanted to be special though and chose this epic cover instead of the original... Just for fun 😁 There were some cool piano covers too that almost made the cut. This is probably a good place to talk about the actual image (yay!). I hope the visibility on it isn't too bad because it ended up waaaay more cluttered than I originally intended, plus the mist effect definitely makes it harder to see the characters. I made his (also unnamed) horse a little more transparent to try and give off this ghostly see through effect so I hope that comes through. The font isn't the kind of "wild west wanted sign" font that I wanted, but I think it's close enough lol.

Credits:

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

[bitchfitch]

wait this is myyyy third? betta that was just given to me bc it sucks and is ugly. As an adult, I've never paid money for a betta fish. Tbf I didn't pay for the ones my parents kept when I was like 4-5 but those were still formative creatures in my life and I assume they were paid for.

[sillyabtmusic]

hmmm hwon

[front-facing-pokemon]

[katyspersonal]

Fears that I've been repressing and not addressing, telling myself to stand tall and "not show weakness", started to slip into my nightmares.

I just want to crawl under my blanket and cry, cry, cry until I've cried myself to sleep... and wake up in a better parallel world, where my paranoia is not eating me alive, where I can feel trust and comfort.

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

What if i talked about silly chorus ocs and their dynamics with canon characters huh

And by canon character i do mean just the lieutenants. For now

Pavoz and Bitters have mutual beef, in that they both hate each other and will gladly pick a fight for no other reason than “he was being annoying” but there is also a mutual respect to it- bitters will admit pavoz is a damn good gunman, pavoz would trust bitters behind the wheel over just about anyone in the federal army any day of the week. Sorta makes you wonder if they knew each other before picking their sides

Palomo and Micce have a very very one sided rivalry, in that Palomo keeps trying to start shit and Micce responds with ‘lmao and then what’— this is mostly bc Micce simply does Not have any fucks to give, and Palomo has taken that as a Personal Insult. At least the other Feds have the decency to insult him back and give him a reason to be bitchy about having to work with them!!

Micce genuinely is so laid back. He’s a lying asshole, but he’s so mellow that half the time no one expects him to be the problem. Bitters is conflicted about this. On one hand- seems like a chill dude, the kinda guy Bitters might be able to vibe with…if you ignore the fed thing which hey, they’re supposed to be working together now. On the other- he hangs out with Pavoz. Willingly. Fuck that.

Palomo is a little intimidated by Pavoz which he would never admit to, except maybe if Agent Washington asked. Or Captain Tucker. Or Andersmith. Or Bitters. He’s never admit it to Jensen, at least. Supposedly. It doesn’t matter that Pavoz is a full four inches shorter than Palomo, okay, the fed can carry a fucking chain gun! He’s got the heavy artillery certification and the fancy red stripes armor to go with it! That is intimidating!

Pavoz doesn’t entirely know who Palomo is. The rebel that screeches insults at any fed in his line of sight? Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down

Andersmith is… flustered. By Micce. Which, is baffling to everyone involved except Andersmith and Micce, but thats because Micce will completely deadpan mention he wants to climb Andersmith like a tree and honestly no one is sure if he means it as a joke or not. It’s… really hard to tell with Micce. Andersmith himself isn’t entirely sure if it’d be better as a joke or not

That said, Andersmith does have a fair respect for Pavoz as a fellow soldier! Especially because Pavoz is willing to discuss and debate matters calmly (that is, as long as Bitters isnt present) and it’s kinda nice to have a chance to actually honestly discuss grievances on both sides. At least Pavoz is brave enough to admit that the Federal Army weren’t handling the civil war well. Andersmith thinks it takes courage to admit you were following the wrong orders. Even if it is in hindsight. Still, would’ve been nice for them to realize it sooner

Pavoz and Micce both respectfully keep their distance from Jensen, especially in the motor pool. They really really don’t want to see how their bizarre luck plays with her driving skills. I don’t think anyone can blame them

That said, Pavoz did email her the federal army’s categorizing and requisition request form system. From the other side of Armonia, but still. If she’s gonna help Captain Simmons in the armory, or Lopez in the garage and the armory, then she should know how the system works at least. Its only polite after all

Ivia Soares has the least amount of issues with anyone. Maybe because she’s a medic and picking a fight with a (competent) medic is just a bad idea even to these idiots. Maybe because a lot of people think she’s Dr Grey at a glance because of the matching federal army armor with purple trim. Never mind that Soares is clearly in an indigo trim, not the orchid trim that Dr Grey wears. Because Soares is a field medic, not a Doctor, and the distinction in color is very important. That’s why the federal army is color coordinated for fucks sake!

Soares is also like, two inches taller. The armor doesn’t add that much bulk, surely.

Soares is roommates with a rebel medic named Suzuki (or Suzy for short) while both armies are in Armonia. They actually get along really well, once they get past the initial Fed vs New tension. Girl talk helps. Specifically, talking about hot girls. Like Volleyball and the rest of Red/Maroon team. Soares asks if Kimball is hot, Suzy has a minor crisis bc does she really want to go down that rabbit hole?

The agreement is yes, Kimball is hot. Please don’t let the conversation leave their shared room. Dr Grey is also hot, and Ivia informs Suzy she’s welcome to share that information because it means more people will come in for checkups to get a chance at seeing Dr Grey without her helmet. Dr Grey never takes off her helmet, but Suzy can respect the psychological games the fed medics play to get people to actually go to their checkups.

Soares hangs out with Bitters and Andersmith almost as much as she will hang out with Pavoz and Micce. This does not help the rumors that Bitters and Pavoz knew each other before becoming soldiers because if you know Soares and Pavoz you know they were friends as kids growing up on Chorus. Soares herself will not confirm or deny Pavoz and Bitters knowing each other, and asking either of them just starts a fight.

Out of armor, Pavoz and Micce frequently get mistaken for Rebels. Pavoz’s piercings and Micce’s frankly ridiculous hair are so non-regulation that assumptions get made by both armies. Pavoz won’t point it out but will quietly excuse himself from situations when it comes up. Micce leans into it a little too much. Soares doesn’t run into the problem often herself, but she will be the one to drag Micce away from causing problems for either or both armies

Micce likes Matthews. Well. He likes bothering Matthews. It’s like he made it his personal mission to see how many times he can make Matthews squeak like a dog toy

Matthews is doing his Very Best to maintain a working relationship with the feds, as he’s supposed to. Don’t want to let the captains down!! Or worse- the generals!!! Micce is… friendly? He’s awfully good at sneaking up on Matthews and Matthews really really wishes Micce wouldn’t do that, but it’s not really hurting anyone so… for the sake of getting along, Matthews doesn’t say anything! Definitely the only reason, not because Micce has a nice laugh, or because it’s nice to be noticed regularly even if it is for pranks.

Micce can fit into vents. Somehow. Bitters wants to recruit him for Orange team kitchen raids. He hasn’t because he doesn’t entirely trust Micce to not rat them out. Bitters doesn’t realize Micce uses his vent crawling skills for thievery anyways. Just not from the kitchens (why do the officer showers get to hoard all the good shampoo and conditioner anyways? If they didn’t want it to get stolen, they would simply share it in the first place)

Pavoz technically qualifies to be a lieutenant but because he’s not been officially assigned to any commanding officer in a while, he can’t get the promotion. Locus didn’t count, because he never officially joined the federal army and thus wasn’t technically an officer. Same for the reds. The federal army’s bureaucratic nature bites its own soldiers in the ass sometimes.

Micce is good at mimic voices. He charges $10 or a decent snack to make joke recordings for pranks. $20 and a good snack will net you a recording of someone higher ranking saying something stupid or in same cases, giving praise. Matthews has sacrificed so many snacks to get a handful of recordings of Micce mimicking Captain Grif. Micce has one rule— the recordings never get shared. Ever. He knows the power he wields, and knows if he gets caught, he’s screwed.

McCallister and Ghanoush are his second most popular clients for Micce’s voice acting after Matthews. Turns out they have a lot of use for clear audio recordings of things otherwise lost in background noise! Like Palomo practicing telling Jensen he likes more than just her butt. Technically, since they’re only asking him to make a clear version of audio that already exists, Micce lets them get away with not following the rule. So long as they take the blame for anyone who gets mad about the audio being “edited”

Epsilon is onto Micce’s bullshit, all of it. The vents, the pranks, the fucking voices. But he respects the hussle

And the 30% cut Micce gives him when Epsilon takes the time to call him out. What does an AI need with the money? The snack stash? Nothing, but Epsilon is a little bastard who can and will take advantage of a situation and having his cut set aside is actually useful for bribing the reds and blues into doing uh, anything. Its economics, man, trust him

[whorkn33]

I have such strong feelings about Felix kranken as an antagonist. like he fills my brain with worms.

like, as someone whose WHOLE family has the addiction gene, I have seen how it can ruin you. I have seen how people can range from functioning addiction to completely unreachable. I have seen family members spending years and years trying and failing to get clean off of various substances. and watching Felix do terrible things and feel this immense guilt and face the consequences of his actions and STILL not quit drinking feels incredibly real.

quitting takes more than just strength. it's not just about "wanting" it bad enough. quitting an addiction takes support from those around you, people who love you and will care for you at your worst - because you will be at your worst. quitting things like drugs or alcohol is physically painful, on top of your mental dependence on them.

and Felix, in his refusal to even admit he has a problem, singlehandedly destroyed his entire support system. without even meaning to, he let his addiction kill his chances of ever getting clean.

in a way I feel bad for him. it's not like he did any of this with the intention of causing harm. but at the same time, his lack of ability to self-reflect and address the root of the issue, his repeated refusal to acknowledge and accept the consequences of his actions despite their inevitability, and his self-pitying mindset make it incredibly hard to feel any real sympathy for him. he's not a good person. he's been incredibly selfish and has twisted the narrative around until he seemed like the victim. and Felix is unique in that he does it out of fear, not anger or revenge or a simple evil plot to take over the company or something. he does it because he refuses to be the bad guy, making him the worst out of them all.