#mission: implausible

[criminal-friends]

The pirate delivery guy and pirate number 4. Greg and Aaron aren't so different after all.

[icy-watch]

HE HAS A TAIL!!!

[odbuoyjemmity]

Wintersea Basement Theory + Five Years

One thing I noticed a few rereads ago was there was an interesting line up between Corvus Crow becoming Chancellor of Great Wolfacre

"That he was enjoying his fifth year as state chancellor despite such a handicap was a daily miracle to Corvus Crow, and the question of whether he could sustain this implausible luck for another year was a daily anxiety"

(Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, Chapter One: The Cursed Crow)

and Jack's permanent residency at the Hotel Deucalion

"'Your chair? You've lived here all of five minutes and you've claimed the furniture? I've lived here five years. This happens to be where I eat my breakfast.'"

(Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, Chapter Twelve: Shadows)

Originally I wrote this off as a coincidence, since I had been of the camp that Jack's parents were dead and nothing more was to be said about it without more information. But! With Silverborn out we have more information, and I'm more interested now about what could possibly be up with Rosie and Arj and where they could be.

Last summer, when the final delay was announced, and AUS paperback/US cover was revealed, Jessica Townsend did a Q&A, with two answers in particular that I found curious [full transcript here and video by @/nevermoor source:

What’s one thing about the direction of the series from Silverborn onwards you can say? This is such a good question, So I remember, one or two books ago, talking to my publishers about kind of the structure of the series and the way that I see it. And I've talked about this before in interviews about how I see the series as being like, it's all one story. It's all Morrigan. It's all Morrigan’s point of view. But thematically they feel to me like three separate “acts.” And I feel like the first act is Morrigan. It's like her immediate world. It's herself. It's her friends. It's finding a new family. It's finding her way in this new city. And books four to six sort of feel like it's zooming out. So we're in quite close on Morrigan and her immediate, like, experiences of the world personally. And it's seen through that lens. And then with four, five, and six, it's like, we sort of zoom out and just see more of the world. We see more of Nevermoor kind of socially and politically and geographically A lot of different parts of Nevermoor that we haven't seen open up. She learns more about the Wundrous Society, more about herself and her own past and origins and family. And then book seven, eight, nine kind of zoom out again. And we see… it's really tricky without trying to sort of give too much away, but, yeah… I feel like I nearly said too much.

Are we getting a realm hopping boom? Well! Definitely possibly!!

In Silverborn, Jack reveals that in the Spring Term, he's planning on accepting the League's offer to join them, with conditions around becoming an officer far sooner, to start his plans around joining the League and immediately going AWOL to look for his parents.

He smiled a disconcertingly vicious smile. 'Because I want them to keep coming on their little fishing expeditions. I always decline to speak to them, but I'm letting them see my resolution waver, and in the spring term I'll finally, reluctantly agree. Then my plan begins.' [...] 'I'm playing the long game. Laying the groundwork for a negotiation. If they want me to enlist, I'm going to be the first person in history to become a ranked officer at eighteen, after my year of academy training. As a lieutenant, I won't have to wait four years to travel to outer realms like the other academy chumps.' His eyes locked on Morrigan's, blazing with reflected firelight. 'And on my very first outer realm mission, I'll abandon ship, set out on my own, and find my parents.'

(Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow, Chapter Thirty-Five: Merriment, Mystery, and Mutually Assured Destruction)

This scene ties into what was said in the Q&A

Is there more of Jack in Silverborn? There is more of Jack in Silverborn. I will be honest to tell you, there's not like a mountain of page time for Jack, but the scenes that he is in are crucial, and they're really important for… I would say that there's a scene with Jack in this book that is probably the most important scene in the book in terms of what it sets up for future, for the rest of the series. (I've probably said too much, that's all I'm gonna say.)

And the final part of the Q&A I find relevant/interesting to this is this part:

Will we see more of the Free State as opposed to just Nevermoor? Not in this book. In future books? I think so.

Now, what am I getting at here? Why am I calling it Wintersea Basement Theory? Um so the name is sort of a joke, like a very hyperbole thing of Rosie and Arj have been in Wintersea's Basement the whole time. Do I think they literally are? No? Yes? No? Maybe? Yes? I functionally think that Jack is not going to find his parents when he inevitably goes AWOL, but Morrigan is either going to ask Squall to help her, and find something nasty about that, either Corvus or Ornella were involved at some level, directly causing Corvus to become chancellor through some shady dealings, or that Bertram did something, or tried to stop it and failed. A big reason I think Morrigan is going to find Rosie and Arj is simply because she is the main character. That is what she does. It's so big that if it happened off screen, I think it would be less satisfying. I could be wrong, Jessica Townsend is a very skilled writer, but if I were writing that, I would have Mog find them. Or find out what happened to them. Why does Wintersea have them? Dunno, maybe they were spying on her and got caught à la what nearly happened to Jupiter when he met Ornella:

"As part of my work with the League of Explorers, I am sometimes required to provide intelligence to the Free State Security department regarding conditions in the Wintersea Republic ... could have made one cry for help, and I'd have been arrested and likely never seen again."

(Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow, Chapter Forty-Four: The Letters From Jupiter)

In Chapter Thirty-Five of Silverborn, Jack says that his mother worked for the League, while his father was an interrealm diplomat. Although Jack says his parents were on an outer realm mission, it's not impossible that they might have lied to him, since that's a lot less vague and scary than "we're going to spy on our enemy nation for a fortnight or so, cheerio", although Arj's occupation wouldn't make much sense here, unless he was doing spy work as well. It's possible too that their gate was interfered with. I think it's been suggested already that Rosie or Arj was a spy for the Wintersea Republic, and did something. Chickened out, or got caught, or were double agents for the Free State. But they're in the Wintersea Republic, and Squall knows where they are/what happened to them, and at least one of the Crows adult had a hand in what happened to them and it's related to how Corvus became Chancellor.

[rendomski]

The Domino Effect

Summary: Shaak Ti was often tempted to save some clone kids. AU, where she finally goes for it. And the ties of siblinghood run strong among the clones.

An impromptu ficlet, ~1000 words. Enjoy 🙂.

Force acts in mysterious ways, thinks Shaak Ti when she walks by the cadet barracks late in their night cycle and overhears the argument. Apparently, someone who doesn’t want to be called Hevy decided to go AWOL, and 99 is trying to persuade him otherwise.

Supervising kids that are raised with a sole purpose—to fight and die for the Republic—is a morally challenging task. Shaak has been tempted multiple times just to take on board as many kids as she can and whisk them far from this madness. Something tips the scales, finally, as she steps into the vast barracks and speaks, “So, you want to get away, cadet?”

They both freeze in shock.

“No, General, sir. Hevy wasn’t going to—” 99 begins, but not-Hevy interrupts him, staring with a desperate defiance.

“Yes, sir. I was planning to go AWOL.”

Shaak stares him back, but the kid, almost a grown-up—or what goes as grown-up nowadays, the cadets are shipped away even at a younger age than at the beginning of the war—does not budge.

“Alright,” says Shaak. “Is this your stuff? Take it and let’s go to my ship.”

“Sir?”

“You want to go AWOL? I can take you off-world on my ship. No one would dare search for you there.”

Not-Hevy grabs the bag with whatever he can claim as his own, but then hesitates.

“Sir, with your permission. My brother, CT-4040. Trainer Bric has it against him. He would do anything so that CT-4040 doesn’t pass his final test.” His eyes go wider as it dawns upon him how implausible the chance Shaak is offering him and how close he might be to failure by asking even more of her. He finishes nonetheless. “May I… may you take him away, too?”

Shaak’s confidence that she is doing the right thing blooms.

“Yes. You may take your brother with you.”

***

“Sir?”

“Yes, CT-4040?”

“Cutup, sir. My name is Cutup,” he glances at CT-782, who is stubbornly not Hevy. “Since tonight. So… Droidbait. CT-782, we’re not leaving him behind, like we did during the simulation, do we?”

Leaving behind during the simulation, this sounds very familiar. “Cadets, what squad are you from?” Shaak asks and nods upon the name, knowing already what comes. “I understand. Go for your brother, and bring Fives and CT-1409 along, too.”

***

“99, I am not leaving without you. We all owe you.”

The aged clone shakes his head, “No, Hevy. You go with the General. As for me, there are a few other troubled brothers that need my support here.”

Of course, five pairs of near-identical eyes stare at Shaak hopefully at the words. “General? You have some more space on your ship, don’t you, sir?”

She sighs. “Just be quiet. It is getting serious, so from now on, let's make it a stealth mission.”

“You've heard the General. It is a stealth mission.”

Exasperated groans, “We're standing right here, Echo,” follow.

***

“Sir?” Fives tugs at her sleeve with suspicious shyness. “It may sound crazy, but… Well, there is a girl here.”

“Oh, not again!”

“Don’t listen to him, General. He is making it all up. He has never met a girl in his life.”

“Well, I did! I keep telling you, and you idiots, refuse to believe me!” Fives snaps. “Sir, there is a girl here, working in the hospital. I met her. I talked to her.”

***

There is a girl, indeed. Experimental Medical Researcher 003, EMR-003 for short, whom Shaak has never met and never seen in any official documents. Moreso, she has never even heard of the Jango female clone program. And this gets extremely suspicious now. Her hunting instincts and the Force both sing to her that she is on the trail of something bigger.

“I am not the only one here, sir. There is one more girl, at least. She is different, but she is also one of us. I can get her out of the lab, I know the way.”

***

Another girl is different, for sure. Shaak can't grasp what is different about this kid—a five-year-old cadet at the most. Not the blond hair, there is a number of blond cadets around. There is something else, something elusive.

“Oh, you want to take us all off-world?” Omega, not EMR-something, notes Shaak, looks at the gang of clones with contagious joy and amazement. Cutup winks at her, and she waves back at him enthusiastically. “We must take my brothers with us!”

“We are all your brothers,” says no-longer-CT-1409-but-still-rather-reluctant Echo serenely.

“I know! But those are… They are my little brothers! And,” she saddens, her childish voice dropping almost to a whisper. “There are only four of them left.”

Shaak sighs. Alright, four more little kids, not a big difference.

***

…they happen to be not quite little kids, and it is finally clear what is different about Omega. The list of questions and problems grows ever longer. Shaak has hunted down and bitten more than she can chew.

She needs to take someone into the partnership in crime—Plo, most likely. And Obi Wan, who found Kamino in the first place, may have some valuable insights…

But first things first. Her navicomputer is still calculating the hyperspace route when a fight erupts in the back of the ship. And Fives is proudly showing EMR-003 around the ship, despite being here for the first time himself. Half of his explanations are totally wrong. Lanky, bespectacled cadet who has confidently strapped himself in the copilot seat and already asked Shaak three questions in a row, turns around and begins to correct him. Someone is asking loudly over the clamour whether her Jedi ship is equipped with guns.

Only 99 gazes silently into the starry void, mesmerised. Looking in his wizened face, Shaak Ti realises that this is his first time in space, despite his long and respectable age of thirteen.

[emeraldspiral]

So we know from the way the comics and ETF handled things that Jhonen doesn't really want to just finish the old cancelled episodes unless the script wasn't previously released. But important lore additions that were revealed in cancelled eps can still make it into brand new storylines. So thanks to the Virooz arc in the comics the information we learned about Irken PAKs in 10 Minutes to Doom is still canon even if 10 Minutes to Doom never happened and never will.

Nothing revealed in The Trial however has really made it into the official canon except the concept of Zim being afraid of being put on trial and executed by the Control Brains, as seen in ETF. But the stuff about Horrible Painful Overload Day and the two Tallest assassinations are in limbo. Nothing has come out to contradict those still being a part of his history, but there's nothing stopping them from completely changing Zim's backstory because it's not officially set in stone.

So what if they were to revisit the idea of The Trial, but with an all-new script where things played out in a different way? Like, what if Dib saw Zim being taken away and followed him to Judgementia so he can witness the trial? He not only learns of Zim's sordid past, but when the Tallest get fed up with him not understanding what he did wrong and thinking they should be impressed, he gets to see them finally tell Zim to his face that they think he's an idiot and an embarrassment and his mission was fake.

Zim tries to act like he thinks it's all a practical joke and a set-up for a surprise party to reward him, but the cracks in his overconfident facade are finally starting to show and Dib can't help but pity him. Just as Zim's about to be executed Dib steps in claiming he can prove that Zim is innocent. He points out the implausibility of Zim being able to cause the amount of destruction he's supposedly wrought. "Why would clogging up one tube cause an entire planet to go dark for 4 years? The only way that makes sense is if your power grids were either designed by a complete idiot, or they were designed to fail on purpose..."

For once, people actually listen to Dib and decide to halt Zim's execution briefly so that new evidence can be gathered and examined. Zim is not happy to receive Dib's help and is uncooperative, clinging to his old narratives instead of being honest about his history and position in society. Eventually though, Dib is able to get Zim to reveal in court how he supposedly created the infinite energy absorbing blob and his description of the process makes it glaringly apparent that he couldn't have actually made it. Following the instructions he provided would've only produced a giant vat of tapioca pudding. That means someone else created the blob and let Zim believe he made it.

It is eventually determined that most of Zim's crimes are actually a result of Vortian sabotage, but he's not entirely exonerated. The sabotage included corrupting the code in the PAK that was implanted in him at birth. So while it's not his fault he's Like That he still very much did ruin OIDI himself, not to mention the stuff he pulled in Backseat Drivers and ETF. Plus, even if it's not his fault his code is corrupted, it's still an intrinsic part of him that can't simply be deleted and replaced with good code.

So they still want to execute Zim, and Dib too. Although they are grateful to Dib for bringing the Vortian's sabotage to their attention and making them realize it's better to kill them all than to rely on their slave labor any longer.

Zim and Dib escape together, but they can't go back to earth because the Empire would look for them there, so they must go on the run until they can figure out what to do.

[nanamineedstherapy]

Sips of Solitude

Gojo's Drunk Birthday Adventure (Ao3)

Summary: Satoru Gojo, the invincible sorcerer, faces an unexpected challenge on his birthday: loneliness. But when he ropes Nanami Kento into a night of drinking, things take a hilarious turn. From awkward sips to questionable drinks, watch Gojo navigate the perils of birthday surprises and hangovers, all while discovering the true meaning of friendship in the unlikeliest of places. Genres: Comedy, slice of life, friendship, or maybe something more.

Another year older, and still, nobody knew. Satoru Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, felt a twinge of loneliness as he walked through the empty halls of Jujutsu High. Birthdays were always odd for him—no one ever remembered, and he never mentioned it. It was easier that way. Easier to keep up the façade of invincibility, like a sorcerer version of a superhero with a secret identity that nobody cared about.

After classes ended, Gojo found himself aimlessly wandering, searching for a distraction to mask his solitude. His thoughts drifted to Nanami Kento, his ever-serious colleague. Annoying Nanami always managed to lift his spirits—whether it was through deadpan responses or his inexplicable ability to make even the simplest tasks seem like an arduous mission. With a mischievous grin, Gojo set off to find his favorite target.

He found Nanami headed towards his favorite bar. Perfect.

“Hey, Nanamin! Wait up!” Gojo called out, catching up effortlessly. He moved like a caffeinated squirrel, all bouncing energy and playful chaos.

Nanami sighed, casting a sidelong glance at Gojo. “Gojo, what do you want? I’m not in the mood for your nonsense today.”

“Just thought I’d tag along. It’s a free world, right?” Gojo replied, his grin widening to a near-implausible width.

Nanami raised an eyebrow. “You don’t drink.”

“Maybe I’m feeling adventurous today. Or maybe I just want to annoy you. What’s the difference?”

Suspicious but not in the mood to argue, Nanami shrugged and continued to the bar, Gojo trailing behind like an eager puppy. They found a quiet corner, and Nanami ordered his usual—something that could only be described as “seriously boring” in a glass.

Gojo, still bouncing with energy, kept up a relentless stream of chatter, teasing Nanami about his strict work ethic, his serious demeanor, and the way he somehow made adulting look painfully dull. “You know, Nanami, I think you’re secretly a middle-aged man trapped in a young sorcerer’s body.”

Nanami bore it with his usual stoicism, sipping his drink with a look that said he was one bad pun away from a full-blown eye roll. “And you’re a child playing dress-up as a sorcerer. What’s your point?”

“Just that you’d make a great dad!” Gojo shot back, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “You’d totally be that dad who awkwardly laughs at his own dad jokes.”

Nanami smirked. “I’m not having kids just to avoid that fate.”

“Good luck with that; I can see you trying to run away from all the chaos. But deep down, you love it!” Gojo exclaimed, winking like the world’s worst flirter.

Finally, Gojo declared, “Alright, alright, let me try a drink.” His enthusiasm was palpable, like he had just discovered fire.

Nanami’s eyes glinted mischievously. This was an opportunity he couldn’t resist. He ordered the roughest, most unpalatable drink on the menu and slid it over to Gojo. “Enjoy, you adventurous fool.”

Gojo took a tentative sip, his face immediately scrunching up in disgust. “This is awful! Why do people even drink this stuff?”

Nanami chuckled, “It’s an acquired taste. You’re welcome.”

Determined not to be outdone, Gojo continued to sip at the drink, grimacing with each swallow as if he was practicing for an Olympic event. Before long, he was feeling the effects; his normally sharp eyes grew a little glassy, and his speech slowed, giving him the air of a bad reality TV star.

“Nanamin, you’re such a serious guy,” Gojo slurred, laughing too loudly. “Why don’t you ever loosen up? Have you considered breaking out in a spontaneous dance or something?”

Nanami, slightly tipsy himself, found Gojo’s antics surprisingly amusing. “Someone has to keep things in order, especially with you around. You’d probably start a curse war with your dance moves.”

Their banter continued, growing more relaxed and less guarded as the alcohol worked its way through their systems. For once, Gojo wasn’t the unshakable, confident sorcerer; he was just a guy spending time with a friend, and somehow, that felt infinitely more valuable.

After a while, Nanami glanced at Gojo, who was uncharacteristically quiet, staring into his empty glass. “Gojo, is something wrong? You’ve been…different today.”

Gojo laughed, a hollow sound that echoed in the nearly empty bar. “Maybe it’s my birthday, and people remember, but only for selfish reasons. You know, like wanting cake or free drinks.”

Nanami’s eyes widened briefly. That explained a lot. But he knew better than to make a big deal out of it. “Well, happy birthday, I guess. You don’t get a cake, though. You’re still too annoying to celebrate.”

Gojo waved it off, his eyes gleaming. “Yeah, thanks. Just don’t make a fuss about it. I can’t handle the pressure of being appreciated.”

They finished their drinks, and Nanami helped a slightly wobbling Gojo to his feet. As they made their way out, Nanami made a quick stop to pick up some anti-hangover supplies. He knew Gojo would appreciate it tomorrow—after all, he couldn’t leave his favorite annoying sorcerer to suffer alone.

The next morning, Gojo woke up with a pounding headache. Groaning, he noticed the water, painkillers, and other hangover remedies on his bedside table. A small note read, “Take these. You’ll feel better. –Nanami.”

A rare, genuine smile crossed Gojo’s face, lifting the weight of his usual bravado. For a moment, the loneliness lifted. He wasn’t as invincible as everyone thought, but he had friends who cared in their own quirky, chaotic way.

“Thanks, Nanamin,” he murmured, feeling a warmth that had nothing to do with his jujutsu abilities. And deep down, he knew he’d never admit it, but having Nanami around might just be the highlight of his day—annoying or not.

A/N: You are definitely invited to my Nanago-themed birthday party. ( ◡́.◡̀)(^◡^ ) Thank you for reading; any comment is highly appreciated. Toru is happy now; he's with his friends. :)

[beaulesbian]

Thoughts and more thoughts about the potential of Rob Lucci after chapter 1111 - spoilers and theory

(disclaimer: this might be totally implausible and not at all what could happen, but it's something that's been on my mind since last chapter, so here are my thoughts on this. again, very long post ahead, I don't know how it keeps happening)

The way Oda allowed Lucci to feel during chapter 1111, is something I didn't expect to find so intriguing, and it points to how much depth really has each character in this story.

There is a subtle change of certain aspects of Rob Lucci's personality since the start of Egghead, and in the chapter 1111 even a bigger focus is on his reaction to meeting Mars Gorosei and asking for Kaku to be spared.

Given this swept away answer with seeing whom he's been serving all this time, there could come a realization that'd sort of wake him up. There's a potential to somewhat turn power of Cipher Pol agents from blindlessly following the World Government. To stop being the WG's shield.

It's very probable the story might deal with the reform or even collapse as a whole of the World Government - especially since the Gorosei are currently Luffy's main enemies. With that, the Cipher Poll intelligence could play a significant part of it as well, along with other moving pieces like the Revolutionary Army, Shanks, Luffy's fleet or even Morgans and his newspapers, and, of course, the Strawhats.

There's been comments of readers who only saw Lucci and Zoro's fight as one dimensional - one has to win, the other has to lose, and comparing points and skills without really diving into their respective characters - thankfully Oda knows those characters and knows how to make the story interesting and compelling. Where before I hoped we would get a follow up about the words directed at Zoro, instead Lucci was given more space for this chapter.

Where one would hope for Zoro to win and move to other parts of the island with the Strawhats, we instead stayed with Lucci and him witnessing Mars in his full on demon form - something that even Lucci was shocked to see.

Those two pages were such incredible moments for Lucci as a character who serves fully the Gorosei and the World Government in first place, yet! Yet! In the last part he's on the page, he's allowed and shown to be worried and caring for someone else than himself- after arcs and arcs where he appeared here and there just carrying out on orders and missions without seemingly caring about anyone to much depth before, he's given space to actually express the concern regarding Kaku.

Of course he's still this same of bloodthirsty killer, just like in Enies Lobby, (ch. 382),

both his immediate fight upon seeing Luffy on Egghead, and later against Zoro paints it clear what he's capable of.

Rob Lucci is regarded as one of the strongest assassin's in the Cipher Pol agency CP9 (and later with higher rank of CP0). Just reading his wikia to remember more moments, the section about his personality is mostly compiled of traits like cold-hearted, agressive, and especially taking the Wold Governments meaning of Justice into brutal heights, thinking all is allowed to accomplish his goals/missions/orders.

There's his past and how he has been trained by WG to do as they told him, or even go to length which he wasn't even ask to do, but knowing his position as assassin he did as he wanted.

By the end of Water 7 and leaving to Enies Lobby, where he preteded to be friends with Iceberg, Paulie and other shipwrights for 5 years, he didn't show any regrets leaving the place (contrary to Kaku, who seemed to really enjoy his work as shipwright and is sometimes shown really excited about new places and such)

Up until the chapter 1111 I mostly took him as someone really dutiful to follow orders through and through and not gave it much more thought beside that, but it's true that this already started to shift around chapter 1062, when we see Lucci, Kaku and Stussy on their way to Egghead Island:

"They want us to eliminate the most useful man in the world..."

"The last thing a man as keenly perceptive as you should be doing is looking for answers." (says Stussy, a double agent working for Vegapunk, lol).

I wouldn't call it distrust in WG, yet. At this point he was still adamant about following the mission to kill Vegapunk. But maybe it's more visible that he's thinking more about such orders and their consequences.

He fights Luffy immediately after setting foot on Egghead, calls it as it is in wanting to defeat Luffy and destroy his whole crew without any pretense (and maybe that honesty was why Luffy took his word for their brief cooperation in fighting Seraphim). ch. 1076

He says this honestly, yet after the Strawhats and Vegapunks are healing later on, Lucci still tries to attack Vegapunk, ch.1091

Once knowing Kizaru appeared too, Lucci returnes back to finish his mission, he strikes at Vegapunk again - unsuccessfuly because Stussy takes that attack, and Zoro pushes him from the lab and then keep him occupied until the latest chapter 1111.

And that is a big part of him, eyes always on the mission - get information to his bosses, to Navy/Saturn/Gorosei/Kizaru, and keep his enemies occupied or better yet - dead. This thinking was always present with him to this point in ch. 1111, and that is from where it could lead to even more nuance in his future decisions:

The first time seeing Mars in his demon form there's that blink-and-you-miss it expression of pure horror, hinting that even the highest ranking agents probably had no idea just what the true nature of the Gorosei looks like, and that a sight like that can pull this expression from Lucci:

After that brief shocked state, he goes back to immediately report all informations he has on Vegapunks, Strawhats, even their plan of escape, as well as mentioning the other Cipher Pol agents, trapped in the Lab:

then there's this panel, "well done. no further questions.":

which reminded me of very similar words Lucci said to Robin in Water 7, ch. 348: "you've fulfilled your role. good work."

Maybe it's not intended as parallel, but just that similarity of something he's been clearly hearing from his higher ups, that he added it to his own vocabulary.

But then there's this more surprising part of ch. 1111:

After his shock of seeing that monster in front of him, and after giving Mars all the informations, he still finds the strength to ask him to spare his partner's life, to save Kaku:

What he gets as an answer is along the lines of: "it might be difficult when everyone to us is like ants" and that's the last of Rob Lucci for this chapter.

Mars seem to share this same thinking like Saturn expressed before, while the navy guy heard that even the life of an CP0 agents isn't something Saturn (and Gorosei) would really be troubled over, if lost.

and hearing that from Mars could be an eyeopening moment for Lucci.

They're assassins and an intelligence agency of almost the highest standing among the World Governement, but even the lives of Kaku and such seem to mean nothing to the Gorosei.

The point of the current anime episode 1098 where Lucci & CP0 were just arriving on Egghead reminded me how he was asking Vegapunk about the missing Cipher Pol agents and their disappearances, ch. 1068:

It's not that he was only concerned about Kaku in the latest chapter, but since the end of Water 7 - and seeing how his crew cared for him to pay for his medical bills (cover story chapters 491 - 528, manga only, which is very interesting that the anime didn't adapt that cover story), I think he started to care more about "his own people" - the Cipher Pol agents in general - even to visit to their "hometown" while he was healing and defended that place (and the new young trainees) from the Marines who were sent to attack CP9 after their failure at Enies Lobby:

So the question is.. once Lucci saw just who he was serving all those years, the World Government and the Gorosei - and now seeing Mars in his bird monster form disregarding any care for any lives, even their own agents - will that be a tipping point for him?

He asked Mars to spare Kaku but got an answer that all of them, Cipher Pol agents even on the highest places, are still the same as insects in the eyes of the Gorosei

Could that be something that will help him make a certain change?

My possible theory of what he might do/what might happen (given that he still has the strength to walk after his fight with Zoro):

Find Kaku himself - he was trapped in the bubble like the other Seraphim - we don't know if anyone else un-trapped him in the meantime, and Lucci himself doesn't know about the bubble prison, given his flashback to Kaku is just him laying down, as he last remembers that from the Lab.

Sanji said to Kaku that Lucci abandoned him - something that Lucci kept taunting Zoro with during their fight - about the inability to sacrifice one from their team for the greater good. (It could mean that Kaku either wouldn't count on Lucci coming back, but it would work even better if it was shown Lucci actually coming back for Kaku

and they could go finish their side mission of rescuing the other Cipher Pol agents -

and that's another thing -

even during that brief panel of their rescue -they were thankful to Luffy! Despite their positions of agents of Government, which puts them always directly opposing pirates/Strawhats/Luffy, they appreciated and thanked Luffy for giving them food and saving them, ch. 1090

This together I feel could become a moment of all these agents realizing that Luffy isn't their real enemy - or wake up from their WG brainwashed thinking once they see just who is outside fighting: Gorosei in their monster forms vs. Luffy

I think that Rob Lucci stands there now as one of the few who could sway the Governments power to a tipping point from the inside.

Not precisely helping Luffy or Strawhats, but taking that power of the intelligence agency away from the WG and Marines.

It was shown in multiple pages how the Gorosei care more about the rank and position than any lives of their trained assassins, and think of them as something to be disgarded left and right.

Their intelligence agency and assassins act as a Shield to the WG, and the CP0 even carries that in their name: AEGIS, (a powerful shield from greek mythology).

If the other agents would follow Lucci in a different direction, he could be the one to take away that shield from the Gorosei, uncover one of the layers that act as their security, leaving them more exposed and vulnerable to future attacks (possibly from people like Dragon and Revolutionary army when the time comes for them to strike).

[cicerfics]

31 and 42 for Bond or Q please 💜

31. If they had a tumblr what would it look like?

Q: A comprehensive list of 'tech doesn't work like that!!' moments from mainstream media, along with EXHAUSTIVE explanations of why this particular Hollywood scene is TOTALLY impossible/implausible.

Bond: ~Vibes~. Aesthetic blogger. Artsy shots of different locations around the world. Nature pictures. Beautiful sunsets and birds soaring majestically over the ocean. Zero text.

42. 3 comfort items

Q:

-A threadbare stuffed cat that he's had since childhood. Shh. Don't tell! Bond only gets to meet this cat after they've been dating for like six months, and Q preemptively tells Bond that if he makes any jokes about it, he (Bond) will be exiled to the couch for the next 6-8 business weeks.

-Some type of leaf collection Q made as a child. It was probably a school project. Students were asked to collect like 20 different leaves, press them, and label them. Q did 100 different types of leaves, and wrote detailed descriptions underneath about the genus, the tree's role in their biome, etc. etc. He put sooo much effort into it. Too much, probably. The teacher was like, "Haha, maybe calm down a little? Meanwhile, I probably need to speak to the headmaster about skipping you ahead a few more grades??" The other kids probably made fun of Q for being a tryhard. Q didn't care! He loved collecting those leaves and making his little booklet!! He's still proud of it!!

-A photo album containing pictures of every pet he's ever had. Per my animal-rescuer-Q headcanons, he's had at least 15. Most have since passed on to the other side, but Q still treasures his memories and pages through the photo album very often.

Bonus: A postcard Bond sent him once, ages ago. He'd been flirting with Q outrageously, right before heading off on a mission. Q rolled his eyes and firmly turned him down. Bond pouted. Q cited regulations. Bond argued that life was short (especially his!) and Q was being really dumb by refusing to let Bond take him to bed, just because of some nonsensical MI6 rules. Q argued that insults to his intelligence were not the most compelling prelude to a seduction he'd ever heard, and for heaven's sake, hadn't Bond ever considered poetry? Bond made a joke about blunt instruments (wink wink!) and said he didn't know any poetry anyway. He went off on his mission. But a week after he left, Q got a postcard from Bond. It was a painting of a huge, glorious sun. On the back, Bond had copied out some verses (including the last few lines!) from To His Coy Mistress.

Bond:

-An old arithmetic textbook published in the 1940s. It belonged to his father, and he used it to teach tiny!James math. Bond can still smell his father's cologne whenever he so much as looks at that book.

-His father's straight razor.

-His oldest and most decrepit pullover which is soooo comfy and broken in exactly right.

Bonus: A tiny origami frog. Once, Bond woke up in Medical (horribly injured and after being unconscious for nearly 24 hours) and found Q sitting beside his bed. Q had turned to origami to self-soothe, and he had feverishly created a menagerie of tiny animals while he sat vigil at Bond's bedside. Q quickly swept all the animals away when he saw Bond was awake, but Bond stole one. He keeps it safely tucked away in his flat (even though he'd like to carry it with him as a talisman), just for the reminder that somebody cares about him enough to sit at his bedside.

[emdashbitch]

100% crack theory that is NOT supposed to be taken seriously, it's really just a combo of Bucky's absurd location hopping and coincidence.

Bucky's serum that Zola gave him was adapted using the Space stone and just happened to be compatible with Bucky's naturally high spatial awareness so it worked. It spatially locked him, ie making him immune to other people's spatial powers, and gave him the ability to slip in and out of space as flashy or subtly as he likes, and being Bucky/WS he's always gone the subtle route. It's how the Winter Soldier gained a reputation for being a ghost, and how Bucky seems to just disappear in a blink in scenes or implausibly show up in entirely different locations at speeds too fast for even a super soldier to be capable of.

Maybe he isn't really aware he can do it either and it escaped Hydra notice because it's bending space and reality in a specific way that mortals don't tend to be able to compute unless they're Wanda or a trained sorcerer. He uses it way more as the Winter Soldier because in that state he uses everything available to him to complete the mission, even powers he's only subconsciously aware of/uses like muscle memory or instinct. But as Bucky he's not so one track minded and can't consciously use something he's not aware he has.

Bucky can teleport in the comics but it's through the use of technology. It wouldn't be the first time Marvel has changed its characters' power sets and origins around, just look at the Maximoffs, Kamala and even Sam, who can talk to birds in the comics and has a real bird companion, but only has a drone in the MCU.

It really made me laugh rewatching CACW where he's just constantly showing up out of nowhere, popping up in completely different locations with not enough time for even a super soldier to get there and disappearing into thin fucking air so quickly it's frequently a running bit with the other characters doing double takes over where tf he just went. (I've seen so many commentators and reactors call out how the fuck he moves through the building so fast in CACW, and his dramatic exits? Where he's just gone? Outta nowhere? Even for a big scary elite Hydra super soldier that's ridiculous. It's not just editing weirdness either, it's something that's acknowledged IN UNIVERSE by multiple characters.)

On a final note it's fucking hilarious to imagine Bucky either somehow never noticed or just assumed it was something every super soldier could do too so never brought it up since they don't exactly go around stating their powers out in an itemized list lmao

[fuckyeahstagefright]

 24/03/25 special guest Simon Pegg

Charades:  Sigh Mumps Leg

Reece couldn't get the "mumps" part of the charades so Steve had to remind him, and then shouted "I fucking told you it was mumps upstairs!"

Running gag:  Mission Impossible (Magician Impossible / Transmission Implausable / Transition Improbable)  

Details: 

When Simon listed his credits he started with "a little show called Spaced" and pointed at Reece, saying "You were in that." Then followed up with "And a movie called Shaun of the Dead... You were in that too"

When Simon asked Reece if he was going to answer the call from Spengler, Reece did his "I hadan' fort o' dat!" line from Spaced instead of the usual "I know how to answer a phone!" Simon cracked up, Reece and Steve couldn't continue for corpsing, and the whole thing ground to a halt while everyone was laughting.

When Simon came out of the wardrobe to shout at Steve he said "It's the biggest movie series on Earth, except for that fucking Marvel shite!"

Simon's line as he climbed the stairs was "Gatiss was always my favourite!"

Simon stayed to watch the rest of the performance from one of the boxes.

Sir Derek Jacobi was reportedly in the audience that night as well.

[icy-watch]

*gasp* Oh! I like it.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from residential neighborhoods in Khan Yunis where citizens of Gaza go about their daily routines despite the massive destruction inflicted on their community and a large undetonated missile sitting in the middle of the street, fired by the Zionist occupation army towards civilian homes.

📈 Yesterday's death toll count shows over 14'500 children have been killed by the occupation army since the start of the war, while over 33'000 Palestinians overall have been killed, including at least 9'560 women.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

MASS MURDER SLOWS AGAIN, INJURIES ON THE RISE IN NEWS ROUNDUP OF THE 184TH DAY OF "ISRAEL'S" SPECIAL GENOCIDE OPERATION IN GAZA

On the 184th day of "Israel's" Special Genocide Operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of four new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 38 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 71 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that many victims remain missing, while the occupation army continues to actively block ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching the sites of Israeli attacks.

According to the Ministry, "A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them."

On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on the Zionist raid of Al-Shifa medical complex, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, detailing the horrific damage inflicted on the Hospital, and the countless graves lining the hospital grounds.

During the recent mission to the complex by WHO staff, the organization said that Al-Shifa "is now an empty shell after the latest siege."

"No patients remain at the facility. Most of the buildings are extensively damaged or destroyed and the majority of equipment is unusable or reduced to ashes. The WHO team said that the scale of devastation has left the facility completely non-functional, further reducing access to life-saving health care in Gaza. Restoring even minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible and will require substantial efforts to assess and clear the grounds for unexploded ordnance to ensure safety and accessibility for partners to bring in equipment and supplies," the WHO said in its report.

Further, much of the hospital's facilities have been completely or partially destroyed, and are mostly unsalvageable according to the WHO, while most of the healthcare facility's equipment has also been detonated with explosives or burned in resulting fires.

When the WHO personnel walked through the hospital's grounds, the horrifying scene that met the team shocked them.

According to their report, the WHO team witnessed, "Numerous shallow graves have been dug just outside the emergency department, and the administrative and surgical buildings. In the same area, many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible."

"During the visit, WHO staff witnessed at least five bodies lying partially covered on the ground, exposed to the heat. The team reported a pungent smell of decomposing bodies engulfing the hospital compound. Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity," the WHO added.

According to Gaza's media office, more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the Al-Shifa siege and eventual raid, while together, the number of missing, dead, and wounded total over 1'500.

In other news, the Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs, Mona Al-Khalili said in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli occupation deliberately targets women and children while prosecuting its genocidal war in Gaza, and also targets women and children in the occupied West Bank.

In the statement, the Minister pointed out that over 9'560 women have been killed since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, while out of 15'000 pregnant women living in the Gaza Strip, 95% of them consume insufficient amounts of food, increasing the risk of death and disease for both mothers and their unborn children.

She also noted that roughly one million forcibly displaced women in Gaza face "exacerbated protection risks in shelter centers that lack basic necessities and privacy," adding that approximately 37 mothers are killed in Gaza everyday.

The statement pointed out that 8'100 women will give birth to new babies in Gaza over the next month, however, with restrictions on movement that remain in place, while the destruction, and the Israeli army's dismemberment, of Palestinian cities continues, "hindering access to vital health and social services, ambulance movements, and the provision of humanitarian services."

In the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Minister stated that more than 1'620 Palestinian families, including at least 710 children have been displaced by the Zionist occupation army due to the Israeli occupation's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continued with its bombing and shelling campaign across the entirety of the Gaza Strip, and while murders of Palestinians have slowed in recent days, largely due to the intense international pressure put on the occupation after the Israeli bombing of a convoy of humanitarian aid vehicles in Deir al-Balah on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of 7 foreign aid workers, while a second major violation of International law came with the recent Zionist bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, which forced many of "Israel's" allies to condemn the occupation, still, the killings still have yet to stop.

The Israeli occupation army also withdrew "all of its meneuvering ground forces" from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, leaving just a single brigade in the entirety of the enclave.

According to the Zionist media, forces with the 98th Division were withdrawn from the Khan Yunis governate after four straight months of fighting in Gaza.

This leaves only the "Nahal" Brigade, which has been tasked with securing the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a 6.5km-long (4mi) passage built by the IOF running from east to west and bisecting the central Gaza Strip from the Be'eri area of southern occupied Palestine to the coast of Gaza, enabling Zionist forces to carry out raids in either the north or south of the enclave.

Just hours after the Israeli occupation celebrated their supposed defeat of Hamas in Khan Yunis, and immediately after withdrawing forces from the city, five Resistance rockets were fired from Khan Yunis towards Israeli communities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the north of Gaza, Zionist warplanes bombed a residential building on Al-Mansoura Street, east of the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of at least four Palestinians, and wounding another 10 others, while occupation Merkava main battle tanks (MBTs) advanced on Al-Rashid Street, west of Gaza City, moving towards the 17th roundabout for a few hours before returning to a temporary base built in the south of Gaza.

In another strike, occupation artillery detatchments shelled a multitude of civilian residences in the Tal al-Hawa and Al-Zaytoun neighborhoods of Gaza City, wounding at least six civilians, while occupation Merkava MBTs fired artillery shells into civilian homes west of Gaza.

Reports also stated that the Israeli occupation army shelled multiple areas in the city of Beit Hanoun, as well as the Qleibo area, in the northern Gaza Strip, while also shelling the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, along with the southern neighborhoods of Gaza.

At the same time, Israeli artillery forces shelled residential buildings, along with the Sheikh Zayed Towers in the city of Beit Lahia, in the north of Gaza, wounding a number of people.

Similarly, Israeli fighter jets bombarded several residential homes in the Al-Zinna and Bani Suhaila neighborhoods, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, murdering two Palestinian civilians and wounding at least 7 others, while at the same time, IOF soldiers opened gunfire with live bullets towards civilians in the same two villages, resulting in several casualties.

In the early night, Zionist air forces also carried out several bombings in areas west of Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, and also bombed a group of Palestinians in the vicinity of the Turkish slaughterhouse, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, while simultaneously, Israeli artillery forces shelled large areas of the south and west of Khan Yunis.

Intense battles with Resistance forces raged across Khan Yunis last night, this despite months of ongoing ground operations in the city, resulting in the deaths of at least four Israeli soldiers, including at least one officer, and also wounding several other Zionist soldiers, while the Al-Qassam Brigades said they'd targeted occupation armored vehicles and soldiers in the Al-Zanna neighborhood, and also targeted the occupation in the east and west of the city.

As a result of the explosive battles with Resistance forces, occupation warplanes bombed the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Yunis, along with the Zinna neighborhood, and also bombarded areas in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University, while Zionist forces also detonated another residential square east of the Nasser medical complex.

Additionally, occupation aircraft dropped American-made bombs in the vicinity of a civilian residence near the Al-Istiqama Mosque, in the Al-Janeina neighborhood, east of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, while Zionist forces also targeted the Al-Nasr neighborhood, north of Rafah, resulting in several casualties.

In another tragedy, it was reported today that Nasser Nasr (Abu Basil), who was wounded during the Israeli occupation bombing of his residential home, killing both his wife and son, has died himself as a result of his injuries.

In yet another criminal atrocity, Zionist occupation forces bombed a group of civilians gathered in the town of al-Zahra'a, in central Gaza, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding dozens of others.

IOF warplanes also renewed their bombardment of residential buildings in the town of Al-Mughraqa, in the central Gaza Strip.

For the first time since the start of "Israel's" genocidal war, Zionist forces on Sunday allowed a fuel truck and two trucks carrying essential medicines to pass-on to hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.

As a result of "Israel's" Special Genocide Operation in the Gaza Strip, the infinitely rising death toll has now exceeded 33'175 Palestinians killed, including more than 14'500 children and 9'560 women, while another 75'886 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression beginning on October 7th, 2023.

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#infographicsource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[halfbaked00q]

hrm. hrrmm... okay gonna need to refine me thoughts on this but. tbh, ruminating on James Bond and retirement and the contentious "would he train new recruits?" (only contentious for some lmao- but tbh... I do kind of feel if we go w more canon-typical Craig Bond. who does seem to kind of hate his job. or like. hate what it stands for and what it does to him...? like him specifically but also more generally, the kinds of ppl in his kind of position. then I DON'T see him sticking around after retiring from active duty. again due to the hates the job etc)

but yeah, I was kind of thinking...., like... if we're going off a more Craig!Bond canon-typical Bond..... then lowkey I feel like if he retires voluntarily. then he wouldn't stick around, he'd clean break it.

maaaybe if he's forced into retirement (probs major/permanent injury), he might transition to a different role within MI6? esp on the more "active" side...?

But like. I dunno abt training newbies. just going by canon and again as always, sample size of 2- the green agent touching his ear at the beginning of CR, and then Moneypenny in Skyfall lmao.... ig we maaaaybe can count Camille in QoS as a sort of mentorship...? but I kinda feel like that's different than just, like, becoming an instructor as the popular headcanon goes.

Ig QoS and Camille is more akin to what Vita Mortis does, where he's sort of like the mentor/support agent/proctor for recruits who are ready to advance to the finals. vs just training up a mixed batch like in a class. But like... I dunno about just being an instructor. It might annoy/frustrate him lmao.

but yeah I just.... really kinda feel like if we have a Bond who wants to / is ready to willingly retire. That he'd rather fuck off somewhere (Jamaica, it seems like it's always Jamaica lmao) and just vibe. Kinda like in NTTD and kinda like in the fic where he retires but then they need to call in someone cuz the guy who was supposed to do the thing went rogue, and oops Bond is the closest guy! (Crossing the Bar, by GwynDuLac)

not.. entirely sure how Q fits into this. ig if we have established 00q. then Bond... probably wouldn't fuck off somewhere? but I still dk about him taking up a job as an instructor.... like,.... consultant *feels* like it makes more sense to me, still... It miiight be interesting if he takes on a role as an analyst, or like a handler...? guy who helms missions...? (........hm. realizing that I think this is what cicer has him doing in warmth of your doorways maybe lmao...) but idk... I still maybe feel like he's either a fully hands-on or a fully hands-off kind of guy. (but then... if Q is still in the business... then he can't go full hands-off either.... so then....?)

lmao I know I went into this with ""realism"" in mind.... but maybe he SHOULD just become Q branch mascot full-time lmao... just guy who lurks around and knows everything and can seem to do anything but also is sort of just moving things along on the background, cartoon style....

so yeah, lol. think I need to refine my thoughts on this some. but I DO feel like...the becoming an instructor route, to me, seems the most implausible, canon-typical-wise, and requires the most, like... fanon-transformation. (like, not that I haven't enjoyed a Bond retires and becomes an instructor scenario in fic! just that.... I do feel like that is kinda getting into a different flavor of guy than Craig!Bond. it may be some other flavor of Bond, which I am not familiar with! or it might just be fanon- again, not familiar enough w other flavors of Bond to comment. But yeah idk man..... for Craig Bond....... just.... idk)

(okay side sidebar- I actually lowkey was like, what about working at the MI6 daycare? surely they have one. but then I was like. oh actually. nightmare for security issues if they have one on-site, huh....... okay idk then..... I was picturing, like, those daycares they have on college campuses- funny story, I found out we had one on my college campus cuz one day I just saw two people walking a string of small children. Just like, I presume the daycare teachers on either end, with a specialized-looking rope-thing between them, and a gaggle of small children holding onto the rope in between them. just all walking to some unknown-to-me secondary location. I was so agog I took a picture like ??? just saw a string of kids??? but ig it's a daycare, I presume, for profs and possibly students...? but again.... nightmare security issues for MI6, alas)

[toydrill]

me after watching mission implausible

[that-left-turn]

What is your favourite season and/or episode of twd? Are your professional opinion and personal preference the same? :)

Working in the industry has influenced how I watch a show, so I suspect my emotional response doesn’t venture too far from my professional one, but I haven’t really put any thought into the difference until now. So, we’ll see how they match up 🤓 For professional reasons, I’m kind of an omnivore—I’ll at least try to watch any show. Good writing (along with acting and directing) can make a tired concept shine and a poorly executed but original premise is worth a look-see. For one, I want to know what’s being produced and two, it’s good to analyze what went wrong and why.

Anyway. (That’s not what you asked about.) Back to TWD.

S1 has sound structure, which sounds boring, I know, but a screenplay depends on its frame. You can write a novel by the seat of your pants or by only knowing how it’ll end. You can discover the middle as you go along. A screenplay becomes a hot mess if you do that, so I appreciate that Darabont knows how to introduce characters and how to get from point A to point B. It’s readily apparent that he’s a feature director in how the story looks and feels. That said, I don’t connect, exactly, in the way he wanted his viewers to relate to the characters. After the pilot, I was much more interested in Morgan than Rick. I found the dynamic by the second fire at the quarry camp, when Shane asked Ed to keep the flame smaller, with Carol’s response to his greeting and how she had to jump up to remove the firewood, more compelling than the love triangle between Rick, Shane and Lori.

S2 is gorgeous. Very cinematic feel where shots linger on the little details, setting the right ambiance for the narrative. We get some commentary (offhand, but still) on the problematic issues, such as race and gender roles, which unfortunately are compounded and reinforced without self-reflection in latter seasons. (S3 has so many issues in this regard, along with the inability to focus on the core group.) S2 also adheres to classic horror tropes. The simplicity of its contained setting: the farm, the looming presence of the barn, the woods beyond, the abandoned town and creepy bar. Beth taking to bed, wanting to end it all is straightforward Southern Gothic. Carol, Andrea and Lori are all shaded, at turns, as the madwoman in the attic. Daryl is thrown from a horse, falling down the cliffside and talking to ‘ghosts.’ It's a very atmospheric season, faithful to the horror genre.

It does have pacing problems, but not as pronounced as the Gimple era with its time jumps and bottle episodes, which completely kill the momentum. There’s nothing wrong with the odd bottle episode (if you have enough time to explore an emotional arc more in-depth) but reliance on a ‘TV book of tricks’ usually means the showrunner doesn’t know how to plot a tight narrative and is trying to hide those deficiencies by confusing and distracting the viewers. The logic being, if the audience is trying to work out how the hockey sticks it all fits together, chances are they won’t notice plot holes or how flimsy/implausible it all is. It’s storytelling by manipulation.

S2 doesn’t do any of that, but it’s slow. Too slow for TV and for 10 episodes. At times, it feels like an art house movie and at other points, like we’re standing still, treading water. Whereas S1 was structured like an extended feature film, a 10-episode season is much too long for that. You end up with a sagging second act by imposing a large 3-act structure on something that should’ve been plotted by character arcs and micro missions.

TV writing is much more complex than a feature script because you have a larger main cast who all have their individual arcs that run over multiple episodes/seasons. The story engine of a TV show is also not equal to the central problem of a movie script. The former has to keep the show going for several seasons and each character has their own relationship to it, while the latter pertains to the hero only and has to be of a scope that can be solved in a 2-hour feature. (That got very technical, please don’t fall asleep 😬)

I wanted T-Dog to have a character arc in season 2. He’s the only S1 character who got none at all.

Over all, S10 is my favorite season. Yes, the cast is bloated at this point, but the narrative is centered on Michonne and Carol’s grief driven arcs, and Daryl comes into his own. He’s not a traditional leading man, but this season shows that he is so much more than the henchman of the hero. S10 is subtle and there’s great attention to detail in the writing. All the callbacks to previous seasons couldn’t have been done if the showrunner didn’t have thorough knowledge of the show in its entirety and a solid understanding of the characters’ emotional truths.

From a personal perspective, I like Kang’s use of comedic elements to heighten the drama. It affords the actors a different kind of challenge and after more than a decade as the same character, actors need that. (There’s only so many variations of a pretty cry.) Kang’s natural inclination veers more toward dramedy, but she’s also writing to the strength of her leads. Comedy is demanding for actors and requires a different skillset from drama.

Case in point, 1021 “Diverged.” I love the episode because of its comedic tone: it’s far removed from how we’ve ever seen Carol before, but she’s still in character. The poignancy of her sadness and her fears regarding herself and her relationship with Daryl is amplified by her attempt to entice a rat by waving a lettuce leaf in the air and chit-chatting with walkers as she casually stabs them in the head. It’s a bottle episode that trusts the actors—giving them the space to explore their characters’ emotional state—because so much of the action depends on physicality. The relative sparseness of dialogue might appear to be mundane, yet it reveals so much. Not only about Caryl’s relationship with each other, but the evolution of Jerry’s friendship with Ezekiel as he takes his first few steps away from being simply the wingman. And, most of the plot points are conveyed in tone and subtext rather than actual words.

It gets a little murky, when talking about individual episodes, to distill those down to ‘favorites,’ because what I like is often how something connects to a bigger arc. Sometimes, it’s the unrealized potential that grabs me. There’s a number of those in the middle seasons. I find Lizzie’s arc and how her trauma intersects with Carol’s fascinating, but the connective tissue is lacking. The way Beth and Carol fit into each other’s arcs was compelling, but completely lost because of a ridiculous offscreen insistence on framing a teenager as a viable love interest to a middle-aged man. I liked the interplay between Lennie and Melissa, but the way their characters were positioned as frenemies felt clunky and artificial and it ignored most of their backstories.

To answer your second question, I appreciate S1 in a more clinical, detached way and S2 resonates on an emotional level from its exploration of the human condition. S10 is where things meet for me. The viewers are expected to think for themselves, it’s not leading us by the nose. There’s enough emotional depth to dig in and I love the genre blending that’s a feature throughout the season. It does have its share of problems, too. For example, I didn’t like how Michonne’s exit was framed and the idea of Leah was introduced too late (or maybe too early) because of the way her storyline interlocks with the origin story of Daryl’s scar.

You don’t modify a character’s appearance in a way that costs money and requires more time in make-up for no reason.

Thank you for the ask! It’s different from the ones I usually get, so it was a nice change of pace.

[rrr-is-gay]

I’ve said something similar to this before, but I do think it bears repeating: Ram and Bheem ARE best friends, and shipping them does not preclude that! Things like Ram’s emotional reaction to the betrayal, or Bheem’s horror when he finds out about the scheduled execution, or Ram’s tears during the flogging, hell, even all the giggly cutesy Dosti dates! None of these things are implausible for platonic friendship. Brotherhood, even! So I don’t necessarily think it’s fair to point to things like this as evidence that Ram & Bheem should be lovers.

At the risk of sounding pretentious and annoying, I ship rambheem (and you should too!) for more intangible reasons: Their erotic chemistry. The romantic grandeur of their gestures and statements towards one another. All the loving glances and smiles. The habitual nervous reaching for each other— yearning for physical touch. The way their eyes light up in each other’s presence, beyond mere delight, fully immersed in ADORATION and AWE! The tangled web of fate smoothing out to lead them to one another, guiding them to the success of their missions ONLY THROUGH EACH OTHER! The depth of familiarity with each other’s BODIES!!!!!!!

Romance isn’t just “he cares so much about this person!” It’s “his soul is made whole by this person.” It’s “his life path is permanently realigned because of this person.” It’s “his entire body reacts to the pheromones of this person.” And yes, it’s also “he would have the absolute most insanely hot nasty wild animal sex with this person”!!!!