#nefarious-nebula

[punkitt-is-here]

Not really a question but YOURE GORGEOUSSSS OMG

THANK YOU AWAWAWA

[scopnotes]

caarbon is soooo cutie I love how you characterize him

Thanks a lot!!

my cutie patootie

[ask-pipper-peppercorn]

you look like this guy

“What on earth is THAT….that doesn’t look……ok well….” *he walked over to a mirror.* …..ok maybe it does

[nefariouslystupid]

CHAT LET ME COOK I BEG

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

perhaps a bit of an odd question: so, when I'm scrolling tumblr on mobile, I have a habit of downloading most images i come across, so that I can send them to people who don't use tumblr, especially memes and animal photos. however, i also have severe memory issues, and I may end up forgetting where i got certain images. i know for the photo repository one of the rules is to not repost the photos without any modification- which i might forget, or forget which images on my phone fall under that rule. and while i would guess that that rule doesn't apply to stuff like direct messages or texts, i might forget to tell the person I'm sending it to, who might repost it elsewhere without being aware, or months after downloading i will just forget and use one of the photos in a post I'm making because it felt relevant.

this is something i can pretty easily solve myself by just blocking the photo repository blog, or tags relating to it, but I'd rather not do that because i do really like seeing the photos and all the info and stuff. and i would assume it would be an insane amount of work for you to add something like a watermark to every single photo, so I'm not really sure how to go about this. i like seeing the photos, but i don't want to accidentally break the rules.

You clearly care deeply about doing the "right thing", so, what that tells me is that you're not actually the target audience for that rule. I appreciate all the thought you put into this message. Let's talk about it!

I've been reconsidering if requiring people to get permission for reposting images is the best policy to have and I'd like people to weigh in.

My original reasoning was this: the more I can ensure that reposts are affiliated with credit, the better I can control copyright on the images on the site, and therefore have more ground to challenge any scrapers/fake accounts/AR groups that yoink them for nefarious purposes. The easiest way to do that seemed to be to have people ping and ask, with the expectation of saying yes almost all the time.

But there's a couple problems with that, I think, in practice:

People don't like emailing strangers (I forget this! I have done it for work for so many years it isn't uncomfortable anymore).

This isn't how the internet works. (Tumblr has a specific microculture that encourages crediting creators and not stealing! Once this is shared more widely on other platforms, I don't expect it'll be the same ecosystem).

It actually undermines organic spread of content! (You're less likely to make an excited post about a cool photo if you have to send a maybe-scary email and wait for a response). And I do want there to be lots of eyeballs on the photos.

Realistically, @nexus-nebulae, with the policy right now? If you slipped up and reposted something without thinking, I'd just ask you to add credit to the post so it directs back to the site. The goal of this whole project is community access and engagement - I want to you to enjoy the photos, and send them to your friends! I'm just trying to also protect it from the awful that a lot of the internet has become.

But, I'm also wondering it it makes sense to swap the policy to say that it's fine to re-post images on socials as long as they're appropriately credited and/or linked back to the repository. This isn't the policy yet, but if you're reading this please tell me what you're thinking.

Non-edited image use (like putting them in a scientific paper, using them to build a curriculum unit, or putting them on board game cards - these are just random examples) would still need to be requested; but that's an entirely protective stance and if you ask, my goal is to always say yes.

So OP, please don't worry too much. Enjoy looking at the animals, do your best, and I'll be happy. :)

[stormyrainyday]

How to Read MFB Like a Professor: Chapter 3

Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

Key concepts: Vampires (and sometimes other monsters!) in works symbolize a variety of evils-- especially exploitation, corruption, and violation of autonomy.

What's this? Read the series intro post.

I'm sure I don't have to spell out why Lightning L Drago-- a bey that explicitly feeds off the negative emotions of its opponent in order to make itself stronger-- is the topic of an essay on vampires in media. It doesn't really get more on-the-nose than this. Truth be told, I wracked my brains for ages trying to find a more subversive answer to the question of "Who are the vampires in MFB?" but it feels wrong to cover this topic and not talk about L Drago and Ryuga. What I've landed on is the expansion from L Drago itself to the important figures of the Dark Nebula as a whole: L Drago, Ryuga, and Doji, and the characters who fell victim to the organization.

(I did also consider Reiji, but for the sake of brevity I will save discussion on him for another essay. His theming doesn't fit as neatly into the points being made here today).

Luckily, there is more to the metaphor than immediately meets the eye. The goal of this essay isn't so much to prove that the Dark Nebula represents vampirism, but rather to view it with this lens and explore the implications for the characters involved.

Foster in his book describes several facets that make up the literary vampire, similar to the components of the archetypal quest I discuss in chapter 1. Necessarily, there must be:

A (usually alluring) figure, representing some kind of corrupt value. This is our vampire

A victim for the vampire to feed off of

Within the story, the following things must happen:

Stripping of the victim's vitality

Continuing/enhancing the life of the "vampire"

The destruction of the victim

With these in mind, we can examine the Dark Nebula and its victims in the context of vampirism.

The Alluring Figure

There's a reason Dracula and other famous vampires have been described in their respective media as deeply attractive; in order to seduce a victim into falling into their traps, vampires must have some sort of draw. L Drago's allure is clear from the start: from the very beginning of its history, L Drago has drawn in bladers with the promise of near-godly power, one that can win wars and manipulate nature itself. Doji describes this briefly with Ryuga's introduction, and Ryo goes into further depth towards the end of the season.

Like a vampire or other monster, the power is supernatural, otherworldly. L Drago literally is born of a star fragment that comes from the sky, and these origins play a role in its mystique. This mysteriousness then increases its draw-- people are attracted to the unknown even if they fear it, and L Drago is no exception. Though L Drago is ultimately created by humans, its basis is a power that humans didn't fully understand but are nevertheless enchanted by and use for nefarious purposes.

This extreme and unadulterated power is, of course, very corrupt and the show makes that extremely clear. The power is derived from negative emotions and thus inherently thrives on discord-- it can't coexist with peaceful times. That is why it was sealed away, and why legends warned against it. However, the temptation for power and control is too great, and that's why L Drago appears again and again through history. Doji even explicitly says "Whoever controls the extraordinary power of beys controls the very fate of the world itself" when monologuing during L Drago Awakens!

Similarly, Ryuga himself is cloaked in mystique for nearly the entirety of MFB; in Metal Fusion, we know very little about his past, his motivations (aside from the simple goal of wanting to be strong), or even his personality beyond his arrogance. This, combined with being the primary antagonist in season 1 and one of the canonically strongest bladers in the series, has made him a fan favorite.

Even Doji has a sort of charismatic appeal to him. He presents characters with a vision and promises it to them if they join his cause. For most recruits, this involves the promise of the power to beat Gingka (the main exception is Yu, and he is promised exciting battles and strong opponents. Thematically it actually makes sense that Yu is the only one of the Dark Nebula bladers to leave and join Gingka's side, as he is the only one is is not seduced by the power of raw strength, and has motivations far more pure than the other members-- that is, the joy of blading). Doji is also well dressed, well spoken, and careful about appearances; all these things draw characters towards him and make them trust him enough to join his cause. To join Doji is to make a deal with a devil in disguise, but the Dark Nebula recruits have no way to know this until it is too late.

Together, Doji, Ryuga, and L Drago all have a distinct appeal to them that draws people in; that being said, they are the villains of the show and very clearly represent the corrupting nature of power. They value power above all, and don't care who they hurt in the process of acquiring it. I'll speak later on the nuances of L Drago's influence vs the innate nature of the characters, but for now, consider them as one unit.

The Victim

A monster must have a victim, and the Dark Nebula and L Drago are no exception. Like a vampire, L Drago feeds off of the power and strength of its opponent, and once defeated, leaves them as a husk of their former selves-- drained, exhausted, and unable to do much of anything. In literature, the victims of vampires are usually young, innocent, and typically female; this is because vampires are often commentaries on exploitation and power imbalance. These themes run clearly through Metal Fusion as well.

The show depicts in no uncertain terms what happens to those who fall for the Dark Nebula's allure. Their strength is taken indiscriminately as fuel for Ryuga and L Drago, and Doji facilitates the destruction with a smile on his face. We see this with Tobio, Tetsuya, Dan, Reiki, and the Kumade brothers in The Dragon's Punishment.

This display of power is shown to Yu (and Ryutaro) specifically, and though Yu isn't one of the people to be directly 'consumed' by L Drago, he fits the bill well for a vampire's victim-- young, naive, and caught up in things he doesn't understand. And despite not being a direct victim of L Drago, he doesn't walk away from his close contact with corruption unscathed; when he escapes the Dark Nebula, he is rife with physical injury, deep seated fear and despair, and his bey itself is badly damaged (which is significant as the state of a bey is closely in line with that of the blader's spirit. This is why Poison Serpent's physical chip damage is so detrimental for its opponent's mental states).

Apart from the Dark Nebula bladers, there are 3 characters who fight Ryuga directly during the Battle Bladers tournament: Hikaru, Tsubasa, and Kyoya. The degree of their post-battle psychological impact is interestingly in line with how much they align with the archetype of a classic vampire's victim.

I'll start with Kyoya, as he is the farthest removed. Kyoya is no stranger to conflict and he, like many of the Dark Nebula bladers, is driven by the desire to beat Gingka. However, his lust for power is addressed early on in the season when he has a brush with Doji himself; during those episodes, he's driven by an obsessive need to destroy Gingka. It's only when he undergoes personal growth during that battle do his motivations crucially shift-- at the end of the episode, he no longer sees Gingka as an opponent to destroy, but instead a rival to aid in their mutual growth. By then, his character growth arc is actually mostly complete (even if his power continues to increase). The Kyoya who goes to battle Ryuga is self assured and can no means be described as innocent or helpless; he is the one who ends up putting up the strongest fight of the three (it's implied that their strength is equal; the only reason Ryuga wins in the end is because L Drago begins to take over). This is why, when we see him again in Metal Masters, he bears no real evidence of the dark power's effect. It's honestly a stretch to call him a victim at all, especially when compared to Tsubasa and Hikaru.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Hikaru, who aligns far most closely with the archetypal victim. At first glance, Hikaru and Kyoya are similar in nature if not in actual power. Hikaru is also headstrong, passionate, and by no means helpless-- no one who made it into Battle Bladers is weak, and from her introductory episode Hikaru is a force to be feared.

Well. Or so we're meant to think.

I apologize for straying from the voice of an objective analyst for a second. I need you to believe me when I say it really really pains me to say what I'm about to say. Hikaru's fall off is genuinely one of the most upsetting things about this show to me. I love her and her character and goddammit she deserved better even if her fate makes sense thematically.

Hikaru isn't weak, but she is almost immediately outclassed after her initial win against Kenta. Kenta himself is the one to beat her in the very next episode. After that point, Hikaru does not win a single other on-screen battle for the rest of the season. For god's sake she even loses against Teru, a character who exists for like 5 episodes max.

Thus it comes as no surprise that, of all of Ryuga's opponents (after the Dark Nebula lackeys of course), she is the weakest.

It's also easy to miss Hikaru's innocence at first glance; after all, she has an intentionally cold and no-nonsense demeanor to hide her true feelings. It's only when Hikaru is training alone that the audience gets a real look at her motivations, and they are shockingly sweet. Her pursuit of strength is in service of her mother's dying wish. She made a promise as a child, and it is that childlike innocence and belief that drives her forward.

Like others, she also wants to be the best in the world, and she is willing to fight indiscriminately to get there (we see this when she is willing to fight Kenta posing as Gingka-- she doesn't care that he's just a kid, only that he is strong and defeating him will bring her closer to her goal). But beneath it all is the little girl who made the promise to her dying mother.

Unfortunately for Hikaru, this innocence further primes her to be the victim in our vampire's tale.

There is also discussion to be had on the fact that the only girl to enter Battle Bladers is the one to suffer the worst at the hands of Ryuga and L Drago. Whether or not this was intentional, the fact remains that she was sent crashing through the stadium, rendered helpless for the rest of the season (as were Kyoya and Tsubasa, but because Hikaru battles first she is out for the most episodes), and subsequently suffers such trauma from the ordeal that she gives up blading together. She isn't even given a chance to fight back before Ryuga defeats her with overwhelming strength and consumes her spirit. This could be read as an allegory for assault (and the underlying theme of sexual exploitation is seen often in literary works on vampires), but in an effort to keep the essay minimally triggering I won't speak further on this.

Tsubasa's case is a little trickier as it lies somewhere in between Kyoya and Hikaru. He's an exception to the other Dark Nebula bladers as he only joined in order to extract information on behalf of the WBBA. He wouldn't be blamed for dropping out of Battle Bladers altogether, and only battles Ryuga in a noble (if borderline self-sacrificing) move to ensure that others aren't hurt after what happened to Hikaru. Despite being a spy, he's an honest and level-headed person at heart, and battles with a cool rationality different from most others. Despite this, he is also severely victimized following the battle against L Drago. Why?

Tsubasa's backstory and personality is explored more in the second season with his descent into darkness, but we learn his own heart houses two key things that allow him to fall victim to the allure of power: a deep-seated insecurity about letting down those he cares about, and an lasting bitterness at people who are able to get ahead using underhanded methods. The dark power within him sells itself as a means to rise beyond these perceived weaknesses, and it's a struggle that lasts for much of the season.

(sorry for the lack of subtitles the subbed version for Metal Masters just isn't available even with VPN for some reason and the auto-generated ones are incomprehensible)

These insecurities are shown to stem from his childhood, and the dark power taking advantage of this is what leads to his unwinding throughout the course of Metal Masters. His arc is to reconcile the conflicting parts of his personality, but as far as his interaction with Ryuga is concerned, the damage is done. It doesn't help that Ryuga is also able to overwhelm him with strength; though Tsubasa puts up a better fight than Hikaru, it is still no question that Ryuga is stronger.

If Hikaru's spirit is broken completely and Kyoya's is functionally unscathed, Tsubasa's can be argued to have fractured during this battle, and the exploration into his psyche later on also shows how he overcomes this trauma and is stronger after the fact.

All of Ryuga and L Drago's victims suffer in different ways but the thing they all have in common is this: at the end of their battle, they are defeated and their spirits used to make L Drago stronger. Just as a vampire drinks blood from its victim to replenish its life, L Drago uses others' spirits as fuel to increase its own power.

There are two victims I have yet to talk about though: Doji, and Ryuga himself.

Doji is simply a victim to the power he helped create. In his devotion to Ryuga's rise to power, he forgot about the very thing he told Yu: under the Emperor, all others are equal. He thought because of his position as a loyal servant, he would be spared and he and Ryuga would rise to the top together. However, Ryuga discards him the second he stops being useful and shows weakness. It is poetic justice to see the very power Doji weaponized and directly nurtured be the thing that defeated him in the end. It plays right into the central theme as well-- that unchecked power is a corrupting force that spares no one.

(The three dragons and Doji's helpless posture here mirrors that of Hikaru in her battle-- another neat detail that really hammers in the karmic nature of Doji's demise).

Ryuga's case differs from Doji, though. Unlike Doji, Ryuga was the one actually wielding L Drago and therefore directly suffering the corrupting force of the dark power contained within. We know that L Drago takes the negativity of a person and amplifies it, and we see this change happen in Ryuga as the season goes on. When he steals the bey with Doji, he is arrogant, yes, but does not have a god complex. He is also callous and mean, but not cruel until he gets his hands on the bey itself. When he first picks up the crystal, he explicitly says that he's aware of the power sucking him in and even looks alarmed, but his desire for power causes him to take the bey anyway.

By the end of his battle with Ryo, he's already condescending Ryo for being too weak to fight against him. When he sees Gingka in L Drago Awakens! he intentionally insults Ryo to Gingka's face as a cruel way to provoke him. By the time Battle Bladers happens, he truly believes himself to be infallible.

In fact, he plays so neatly into L Drago's hands that it's only when he's in danger of losing to Kyoya do we realize that Ryuga isn't fully in control. In fact, Ryuga himself is consumed by L Drago before the match with Kyoya even ends. Again, in a scene that hauntingly mirrors Hikaru's, his own bey deems him too weak and turns on him. Just as Ryuga had discarded everyone weaker than him up until this point (including Doji), L Drago decided that Ryuga was too weak to continue, and pushes him aside, taking his power and his body to continue fighting in the name of world domination. It happens so suddenly that everyone, including Kyoya, Gingka, and his friends can only watch on in horror as it happens. They don't comprehend it until the final battle with Gingka, but this was the moment that Ryuga was lost and L Drago had fully taken control.

It's a clear violation of Ryuga's autonomy. It's unclear if Ryuga is aware of what's going on-- I'd argue that he is, as he has not fully changed into the monstrous form we see in the following episode, and even when he has transformed, Gingka is able to get through to him. L Drago consuming Ryuga and assuming control of his body is even more disturbing when recalling that a bey is supposed to be a blader's partner; this makes it clear that L Drago held the cards all along, and the relationship between it and Ryuga was never equal. To L Drago, Ryuga was always a means to an end. In other words, a thing to be used.

Kyoya's defeat is the most gruesome because he is L Drago's victim, not Ryuga's. If there was ever any doubt as to this fact, the animation makes it clear: Ryuga no longer appears human, and it's a head of L Drago that pierces Kyoya's chest and drains his energy.

Ryuga, for all his cruelty and pride, was not the type of person to hurt a fellow blader in the way that happens to Kyoya. In the end, he fell victim to L Drago just as much as the rest of them, and that is why it is so important that Ryuga also be saved in the final episode.

It's bitter irony that Ryuga says this line, when the real trap all along was L Drago's promise of power. Ryuga's arrogance causes him to fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

With the final two victims in mind, the thematic narrative is complete. Everyone who comes into contact with Lightning L Drago suffers for it. It draws people in with its mystique and the promise of strength, and then hungrily consumes the spirits of every blader it meets-- including its own master-- in order to make itself stronger. Lightning L Drago represents the simultaneously attractive and corrupting nature of extreme power. It's a force of destruction, and left devastation in its wake. It is a very small, very evil, left spinning little vampire.

Thanks for reading as always! I haven't yet looked ahead at the next chapter-- I try not to read them until I've finished the previous analysis. I hope this one was worth the wait. My personal life is busy as always but I love this little side hobby so much.

Want to read more? Chapter 1 Chapter 2

[osc-stimz]

steve cobs stimboard please ^_^

Steve Cobs Stimboard for @nefarious-nebula !

[giggleeqween-but-not-so-gigglee]

ok so uh here u go, @pencilgutz @rigor-meowtis @gemorycave and @nefarious-nebula

i'm not like a 10 yo wattpad writer so forgib me for bad storytelling and/or english 😔✊️

ok so season 1 is the exact same EXCEPT in the beginning OJ tells Mephone to let him win. Mephone is like ok but it's gonna cost ya. a few minutes later and they decide on OJ's soul for the payment.

at the end of the season, Salt and Paper see how successful OJ is and are like "i need that money".

so they decide to try to seduce OJ

salt wins and they get married for ~10 years

during the first few is when OJ decides to build the hotel for everyone

then season 2 happens but in the beginning when OJ realizes that he didn't get in which means he can't win again, he starts to argue with Mephone

Mephone reminds him that he only sold his soul to win season 1, not 2

so OJ is like wtf and has an existential crisis when he realizes he will never get it back which means he probs won't get more money

during that crisis he realizes he wants a son to continue his legacy (he's sexist in this, bare with me). salt won't give him a son because she doesn't want any children so he divorces her.

then paper is like oh wait now i can get with OJ. so then they marry

a few years later, OJ is like ok lemme ask if he wants to adopt a son or smth

paper says no

they get in a huge fight and in that fight OJ started physically hitting paper so paper is reasonably like wtf

so paper starts telling people (one of those people being Pepper) so OJ gets angrier

he argues with paper again and then kills him because of anger

OJ is scared that he'll get caught so he (poorly) buries Paper's body in the woods (remember that for later)

next, OJ marries Pepper and she says yes bc she doesn't want to go missing like Paper (no one knows what happened to him but she's reasonably suspicious of OJ) and she says yes to a son

so they get a child and Pepper realizes she won't be able to do anything ab what Paper said so she writes a letter ab it and gives it to Salt secretly since they're still friends

OJ accidentally kills Pepper while they are arguing bc she's like made of glass and was also too scared to protect herself

next that one plotline in season 2 happens where like Taco and Microphone alliance

and since they're like in the forest sometimes they find Paper's body

before they can tell anyone, OJ sees them bc he was going to bury Pepper's body

they make a deal that OJ won't kill them too if he can marry one of them, Taco agrees hesitantly since she likes Microphone and Mic agrees instantly bc of fear

he picks Taco because she was in season 1 and he knows her already (there's more details but that would make this post way too long lol so lemme know if you want a separate post for Taco and Microphone)

one day, Taco decides to visit Salt to ask for advice since she married OJ for like 10 years

after a half hour or so of talking, Salt gives Taco the letter

Taco realizes she can't do anything ab it but still keeps it just in case

later, OJ divorces her since he realizes he's being pulled down famewise because of her and decides to marry Microphone and, despite her instead wanting to marry Knife (yes I ship them, its kinda like a love triangle for this au lol), she says yes anyway in fear of her own life

Taco gives Microphone the letter and she decides she's going to do something ab it

she tries many times to tell someone, but she gets too scared bc of what happened to Paper and Pepper, so she decides to kill him instead

i won't get into these details either since it would also make this post too long but she's only able to succeed after ~7 years

also season 2 gets canceled but i won't get into that in this post so lmk if u want to hear ab that+tacophone/kniphone (think that's the ship name)

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Good For Your Soul (Oingo Boingo)

Ever lay there half asleep all hours of the night/With some nagging demon tugging at that tiny bell inside your mind

"OHGGJGHHHGHH NY GOD DUDEEEEE DUDE. ITS SO FYCIKDGIJGHGHRHTHNNN the idea of power but using it corrupts but it's power and it calls to you and just once or twice it's fine that's all you need! just one more time. AUSGYRHHDGH anyways it reminds me of my ocs and I laurve oingo.boimgo"

Stepfather Factory (El-P)

Today's a big day for the company/A big step for the little-steppers who slept for years uncomfortably/Little man, little lady, cute little baby/Reach your hand out to the future of automated robotics

"The instrumental is just so bleak, and knowing El-P grew up with an abusive stepdad makes it hit harder"

Good for your soul submitted by @nefarious-nebula

[kokitschi]

kokichis so pale he could blend in with the snow. he'd do it for nefarious reasons. thank u to todays sponsor team danganronpa and my patreon supporters. supporting me directly helps me pay my bills and produce higher quality content such as this. sign up to nebula now and get one month free. follow me on

[mrkestis]

Cloak of Deception - James Luceno

A Star Wars Book Review

(Spoiler-free with spoiler section)

Summary: Greed, corruption and bureaucracy!The cracks are starting to show at the edges of the Republic where the nefarious Trade Federation enjoys monopoly on all commerce. As their opposition, the Nebula Front, becomes increasingly more violent, Supreme Chancellor Valorum calls for an emergency trade summit where solutions will be discussed.

But something moves in the shadows, pulling strings on all sides in order to escalate the conflict. Assassinations, robberies, kidnappings and terrorism are the least of the Jedi Order’s problems when the Sith start to reemerge from a dark and distant past.

Rating: 3.25 ⭐️

My thoughts (spoiler free):

The main character of this book is the political climate in the Republic right before The Phantom Menace. I now know exactly why the taxation of trade routes was such a big deal and how Sidious came to work with the Trade Federation. I was expecting this book to be about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, but it was mostly about Valorum, Palpatine and Nute Gunray. Unfortunately there isn’t much character introspection or development to be found since the story mainly focuses on politics, but if that’s something you enjoy it’s still worth the read.

There’s a lot of scheming going on. Palpatine isn’t just playing both sides like he does during the Clone Wars, he’s playing ALL sides. He has Valorum in his pocket, acts as the Naboo politician, gets cozy with the Trade Federation and their opposition, and of course he’s still playing nice with Darth Plagueis in the background while secretly just working towards his own goals. How does he even keep up with it? Does he sleep? Does he eat? There are so many twists and turns that even I as the reader can barely keep up. But it’s interesting to see how perfectly he spun the web which brought down the Republic, even if it’s horrible.

The worst part of the book is how Luceno describes women, which is a shame because otherwise I really like his writing. It’s simplistic yet immersive, and I have read other books by him where I haven’t reacted to his portrayal of women. But just look at this passage describing Luminara Unduli:

”She was perhaps one of the most exotic women Obi-Wan had ever seen. Her face was triangular in shape, and the lower portion was tattooed in small diamond shapes that formed a vertical line from her lush, blue black lower lip to the tip of her round chin.”

It so unnecessarily sexual and weird…

Some of the depictions of Jedi were also strange. There was an instance where Jedi chose to fight instead of negotiate which led to the death of innocents, and Qui-Gon felt weirdly violent and rash. I understand that this book prioritises plot over characters and their inner feelings or turmoil, but it felt out of character for the Jedi.

One thing the author did right was the aesthetic and atmosphere of Coruscant and the senator life. I was obsessed with Padmé when I was younger and would often create senator OCs, and this book scratched and reawakened that urge within me. It’s such a fun environment to explore!

This book actually reminded me a lot of the canon book The Living Force by John Jackson Miller. Both books are about the political situation in the Republic right before The Phantom Menace, deal with unrest and some sort of criminal in the outer rim, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are catalyst characters, the entire Jedi council is present in some capacity and there’s a looooooooot of cameos. It also reminded me of the Rako Hardeen arc from Clone Wars since there’s a complicated assassination plotline.

Overall, not the best Star Wars book I’ve read, but if you want to understand the politics of The Phantom Menace and if you like the Coruscant and senator vibe I still recommend.

My thoughts (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!):

Let’s talk cameos! The one I reacted to the most was Vergere, since I only know her as the fallen Jedi who worked with the Yuuzhan Vong and tortured Darth Krayt, so it was strange to see her just…be here. Tarkin was also unexpected, and while I don’t really like his character it’s nice to see original trilogy tie-ins.

I learned a new Star Wars fun fact because of the character Bail Antilles, who was the senator from Alderaan in this book. Why are there two senators from Alderaan named Bail you may ask? Let me tell you, it’s because in early drafts of Star Wars Leia’s father was named Bail Antilles, but when they chose the name Alderaan for her home planet they changed his last name to Organa to avoid confusion. This was established in the novelisation of A New Hope, but later sources accidentally used the name Antilles instead. This was solved by the creation of the separate yet strangely similar character Bail Antilles. He was also one of the candidates to become chancellor in The Phantome Menace. That concludes my Star Wars fun fact of the day.

Seeing Padmé in the end was nice, and it just hit me that she had only been queen for five months during the events of The Phantom Menace. And she was only fourteen! How the hell did she manage that?

The end where Sidious talks to the Trade Federation about which planet they should invade was also so funny. This is how it went:

Sidious: You should put a blockade around Naboo.

Nute Gunray: Why?

Sidious: Because that’s where that bitch Palpatine is from.

[warpstaffs]

I got a twelve-pack of that Gorilla fullbottle. That shit you can only find walking along the Sky Road transport paths in Hokuto. I'm smoking on shadow potato farm grown dark evil pack. They watered this with the blood of 36 cross-z dragons. Shit's so neurodivergent it should be asking me "where's Sento?" Man, this shit will turn your sclash driver off. Hazard levels of sour. Lung slaughtering, lost smash nebula gas. Shit got diamond fullbottles on it so you know the biotic to abiotic ratio is fuckin' swag man. A whiff of this shit? Yeah this that nefarious evil devil scientist Mars Grass. This shit straight out of Pandora's Box. This shit is what shot Utsumi. RIP my associate for real dog. Peace.

[scopnotes]

Hii!! I've been following your stuff for a while and I'm honestly OBSESSED !! I adore your art and concepts of the chitonians, as well as waggon and arrson and caarbon. They give me mega gender envy all of them 😭

Your art is incredible and so is your story!! Do you plan on eventually making a full-blown comic series or something of waggon and the others?

AAAAAAAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH💙💙💙💙

I’m so happy to see people loving my choochoo people!

It's just a small project of mine for now but I wish I'll turn it into an actual big comic in the future!

For now on, I'll just draw as much scenes as I can with the train siblings! (One is already fully scripted and another one is planned).

[ask-pipper-peppercorn]

“First the corn. Now you are all calling me a PEN! I look nothing LIKE THAT!” *he angrily grabs a notebook and pen and starts scribbling away.*

[march-of-the-moths]

@nefarious-nebula

“it’s okay, lil fella! c’mere! it’s just us, the limp bizkits!”

[ask-pipper-peppercorn]

These are a staple from the modern era and are also really fucking spicy . Are you lying . If you're not I'm sure you'll be fine

*he picked it up eyeing this bag as though it would bite him * “why is it….so blue?” *he took one chip out the bag and gave it a single tiny bite.* “oh. This is actually quite….*he starts coughing and dry heaving and proceeds to writhe on the floor in agony*