#so of course I immediately needed to theory craft a character

[starlightcleric]

I haven't even finished Act 1 of BG3 yet and already my attention span has shifted back to Pathfinder 1e builds.

[showerthoughtsofagoldengoose]

Random Headcanon/Theory I Have

So I know a lot of people point to the whole genocide thing as a reason to hate Eridan and all but I think it's kind of weird when you consider how much violence is actively encouraged in Alternian culture. Alternia was purposefully made into a violent culture, if you remember. It was curated into a place with the express purpose of raising trolls who could actually survive sgrub.

Many of the beta trolls have ambtions relating to death or killing, and while they each have their reasons for having these ambitions it is still noteworthy nonetheless:

So having looked at that let's see how they set up Eridan's character in canon:

Ok so let's break this down.

Eridan's near the top of the hemospectrum, and here we see it mentioned that you can kinda just get away with killing people below you

not only this but violence is expected, and even more so from a seadweller, a member of a caste that is known for its penchant for violence. Seadwellers and landwellers are known to have an animosity.

And yet, Eridan has friends from lower castes and later on even resorts to flirting with these individuals.

He goes as far to essentially tell Kanaya not to come to school tomorrow:

And he and Karkat have a very sweet and sincere friendship:

Also this is so fucking cute:

He also spares Karkat in his murder spree.

The comic mentions how he thinks about killing everyone by neglecting to feed Feferi's lusus for one day

In short this is a very fucked up kid. But why is he like this?

This is where my theory comes in. So let's return to this block of text, shall we?

Notable here are uses of the terms "dubiously" and "image you are careful to craft through EXAGGERATED EMOTIONAL THEATRICS."

These horrible disgusting things are followed up by a statement about magic. There's this bitter angry rant "like a made up friend, the way wizards are. Made up make believe FAKEY FAKEY FAKES!" immediately followed by this cute, sincere sentence: "it's still fun though."

We can see IN the comic this undercurrent of sincerity concerning magic multiple times, my favorite instances being these two:

To me magic definitely represents like, a lot of things in homestuck, but for Eridan it's definitely something he somewhat cast aside because he's growing up, and he wants to show off how mature and sophisticated he is. But of course a small part of him still holds onto his inner child, in some way or another. He can't completely cast aside his old interest, but he can suck the imagination out of it, as he wants to look entirely at things that are grounded in reality, and sensible.

He wants his quadrants filled because it is sensible- he wants to survive, and his actions are frequently motivated by a need to live and find stability, which is something that dating is meant to do both of in troll society!

So now let's go to the genocide complex. The theory I have:

Why I think he has it is because he sees these other trolls developing their own ambitions, often respective to their individual castes, that have a tendency to relate to death and violence, so Eridan proves HIS own superiority over them by settling on the most bombastic possible ambition of all that is befitting of his caste. He's shaped his personality and beliefs into ones that will help him survive and prove himself.

He wants to feel right, proper, adequate. He wants respect, and deep down, love and security. He recognizes how hard it is to just, fucking even exist, and he struggles so, so much trying to do it. His attempts at garnering respect backfire, everything he does to feel adequate makes him look even worse. His own friends tease him to his face, disregard him, and call him a creep. He just can't express himself very well. He's trying his best and constantly failing.

Everything Eridan does is for the sake of his own survival, security, and feelings of "normalcy" or meeting up with the expectations that come with his privilege and noble blood.

He's absolutely unhappy with his station in life. In the comic he only enjoys the orphaner work because he gets to do it with Feferi and Vriska. The second it stops mattering and he finds himself a new purpose (the wand Kanaya makes to shut him the fuck up), he rushes to it. Suffice to say, I don't think he was exactly HAPPY when he talked about killing all these trolls. The comic even implies possibly pity on his end towards his victims:

Idk how to end this.

Just uh.

Eridan is a cool character :)

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Order as Antagonist in TDP

So how about that trailer, eh? I was so excited I didn't notice this text up top on TDP's tweet for like. An hour.

We haven't heard anything about this Cosmic Order before. Is it a specific group? Is it a vibe? Is it a Startouch thing? Hard to say, yet. But there are some vibes from the Starscraper shots we've gotten in the trailer and teaser that may point us in the right direction:

This place has eight pillars, each with a recess that holds a relic staff seemingly identical to the one Viren's been toting around. It's not unique, and Aaravos didn't craft it. He stole it.

This is the Prometheus part of Aaravos' character. This is the fire that he stole for humans, from the gods. The relic staff. A relic staff, one of many.

Why did he, a godlike elf himself, feel the need to commit this act, for which he was cast down, exiled, and stripped of much of his power? Why?

Hard to say yet, but knowing all that he is capable of, I think it comes down to one thing: stealing it was the only way to get it. Nothing else he could think of would work. And he's pretty imaginative. But the system, the Cosmic Order, had him, too. He's a magic elf, bound by the same forces as everyone else up there. Breaking the rules was his only remaining option.

Aaravos chose Chaos over Order and put his money where his mouth is. He did get exiled and cast out, but humans have magic now. Somehow, that's not a thing the Order can take back from them, once it's out - rather like Pandora's Box.

But I want to look at this Order, and how pervasive it must be. How else would a powerful elf like Aaravos be reduced to petty thievery to accomplish his ends? Surely he tried other ways, other options, other persuasions. Why didn't they get him anywhere? Why did he have to take such a - for lack of a better term - human approach to the problem?

Let's back up a second and look at a seemingly random list of likes for one specific elf: Runaan. (no of course it isn't random, this is why this theory post exists. but shh, it'll make sense I promise)

Runaan likes four things in this list. Two of them are his immediate family. One is his favorite food. And the last item on the list?

Order.

I used to think this was just a bit of a wink to him being autistic-coded and liking his patterns. And I still do think that's accurate. But my third eye got pried open by the Cosmic Order text, and I think it's more than that now.

Runaan is a tiny cog in the grand engine that is the Cosmic Order. He goes where he is told, he kills who he is told to kill, he obeys without question, no matter how heinous his acts would be - he would have killed Ezran without blinking, because that's what the Dragon Queen told him to do.

Runaan is the most Moonshadow Moonshadow, according to the Deluxe Elf Interview. He's the epitome of what it means to be a Moonshadow elf. His devotion, sacrifice, and adherence to the rules are what makes him a good Moonshadow elf.

How convenient for the Order.

Runaan is still an individual, inside his own rules. He chose to become an assassin, and he did it to spare others from having to take lives and live with the weight of those acts. But that does imply that if he hadn't chosen this path, someone else would have, and people would still be dying.

And I think he's right. Maybe his love of order actually lets him perceive the great gears grinding over his head, up in the stars, turning the wheels of fate for everyone they control. Maybe he knows full well that he's part of a grand system - but there's nothing he can do about it except stay alive or die, because he is trapped inside it. He cannot change his fate because he is locked into it, just like everyone around him.

The Book 1 novelization tells us Runaan always expected to die on a mission, and that he meets that fate with a calm resignation on the balcony. He surrenders to his fate, because he cannot fight it.

What could lock Runaan into a fate that ends with him dying on a mission?

His own choices? Think bigger.

His society, then. Obligation, honor, guilt. Hmm, bigger than that.

It's been there the whole time - something that all the elves and dragons possess, but humans don't. Something which caused the imbalance in the first place.

Magic.

Magic is the Cosmic Order.

yes it has eight points and yes I'm back on my bullshit

Quick aside: The Cosmic Order is turning out to be the big magic version of King Harrow's Narrative of Strength, which he contrasted with the Narrative of Love - and we'll get back to that at the end of the post.

Alrighty, back to magic: The worst offenders seem to be the primal magics, which have locked the elves and dragons into very tight little boxes as far as what they can and cannot do, think, and imagine. An elf with a single arcanum can only think in terms of that primal source. It's as bad as an irl human who only knows one language, and so their brain literally cannot conceive of concepts that exist in other languages. (Learn more languages, guys, it's genuinely good for your brain, I am not kidding)

This helps explain why Aaravos was able to think a little bit outside his box and consider giving magic to humans when the Order said they didn't deserve any. He is an archmage, and he speaks many magical languages. He knows all six primal magics, as well as the ancient blood magic and dark magic. That's eight different ways of looking at a problem.

(is this why elves only have 8 fingers, because they literally cannot grasp anything outside of magic?)

From his multifaceted viewpoint, Aaravos can see the inherent unfairness in humans being forced to abide by the Order without getting any magic for their trouble. It's basically taxation without representation.

The Americans among us can attest to how well that went over in our own history.

Aaravos: Prometheus, Lucifer... Che Guevara... Guy Fawkes?

Aaravos really does love revolution.

Further thought: this post about Ethari's design has reminded me again about his lower-than-average magical ability and how that has manifested in his unique design and in his character. And I'm looking directly at how Ethari's lesser magic power may be the reason he's so mentally flexible. If he can challenge Runaan directly about how Rayla is not ready for that mission when everyone else is going along with it, isn't that lack of narrow-mindedness the thing that sets him apart?

What else might that freedom of thought do for him? Is this the reason he is actually able to invent at all? Because he is capable of envisioning that which does not yet exist? How rare that must be among Moonshadow elves!

tldr: Ethari is actually bad at being a Moonshadow elf, and that could very well be what saves him.

Contrast Ethari with Karim, who is a powerful Sunfire mage, and very much locked into his traditional views of elf vs human. He's willing to go to war in order to impose his views on all of the Sunfire elves if he can, because he genuinely believes he can see the Order of things better than anyone else can.

He believes in the superiority of the elven ways, while Janai has let her heart change her mind. Janai fell in love with a human, and it broke the Order's hold on her. She makes history now - it does not make her.

Side note: Is this... is this the formula, then? Is this how enduring ships work in TDP? An elf with a normal arcanum, paired with either a human or an elf with a "flawed" connection to the Order inside them? One who can anchor, and one who can imagine?

Let me make a quick list:

Claudia+Terry

Ethari+Runaan

Callum+Rayla

Amaya+Janai

Well. How bout that.

Ironically, this is a different path to what was going to be my final point in the first place: Order may be the default for elves and dragons and the way they are supposed to follow the rules of the universe, but love still exists, and they can always choose to embrace it. They can all be saved by love, in the end. It's their choice. In fact, choosing Love over Order is an act of defiance in itself.

Terry chose Claudia over fear. Janai chose Amaya over war. Rayla chose Callum over vengeance. And Runaan, my poster boy for stubbornness and suffering, chose Ethari over Order itself.

Saved by love.

[burstofastar]

MK — Random thoughts

I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect to see Geras in MK1… I don't know why exactly. Perhaps due to the fact that MK11 had more negative reviews than positive ones, especially for the story, the plot holes and the new characters (specifically Kronika, Cetrion and Geras himself).

However, seeing him in that trailer definitely made me happy, and it even caught my attention much more than the previous ones, even with his "discreet" participation in the previous game.

On the other hand, going deeper into what has been seen, I really like the exchange of words that he has with Liu Kang, and thus confirming a couple of my headcanons/hypotheses/theories.

Geras: I have watched you with the hourglass. You are relishing your role as Earthrealm's protector. Liu Kang: Those with power must know how to use it wisely. Geras: When you restarted history, you altered the destinies of certain malefactors to neutralize them. Liu Kang: Crafting a timeline is a complex endeavor. Geras: Your vision of peace may already be compromised.

I see it quite clearly, and I hope someone else sees it too: Kronika's vision and work were the most suitable, and she should never have left the position of Keeper of Time, much less confronted by the whim of the "good guys". It is even more than clear in the vast majority of the endings of the MK11 characters.

If you see them again, most use the hourglass for personal purposes, some selfish and very few for noble matters, but without looking beyond themselves or their immediate environment. Others try to do something good in such a way that it encompasses an entire community or even the entire Universe, but still… in the most inexperienced or questionable way. Of all these endings, I will emphasize several: Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Raiden, Cetrion and Geras.

Scorpion: he uses the hourglass to bring his family back, but no matter how hard he tries, tragedy always occurs. It is then that he uses that power to fight the Titans.

Shang Tsung: the rat is totally selfish and more than as Keeper of Time, he positions himself as a tyranic ruler of the Universe, without caring about the balance, just reigning at his whim in a shameless way.

Raiden: he tries to find the best way to redo destiny, but no matter how hard he tries, that stupid asshole fails time and time again because he doesn't understand a shit about how the hourglass works.

Cetrion: my poor baby girl adopts a completely corrupted form and personality, casting aside her virtuous side in pursuit of the realms uniting and fighting a common enemy instead of each other.

Geras: my baby boy steps aside from all his labor, and lets the hourglass work itself.

Now, with all this said, it is more than clear that the only being capable of bringing a fair balance to the Universe was always Kronika. Not only because the Universe needs to have someone to guide the Destiny, but also because despite her obsession with the New Era or that her reasoning seems quite disassociated, she is the only one who perfectly understands the task of Keeper of Time, the only one who perfectly understands the use of the hourglass.

Kronika, not being mortal or "tainted" by mundane thoughts or sentimentality, is capable of being neutral and impartial when crafting timelines. Hand in hand with Shinnok and Cetrion, she brings the balance of corruption and virtue, pain and hope, war and peace to the realms (regardless of Shinnok's rebellion and Cetrion's submission, of course). In addition, she never sought power or reign in a despotic way, since although many things were repeated between timelines and calamities could be very common, she always governed the path of Universe, not controlling anyone per se but allowing free will for everyone. It is not different from the thought that in the real world there is a deity who gives us tests of life so that we overcome them, even if we already know that he or she already wrote the destiny of each one of us, of the world and of the entire Universe.

On the other hand, I'm still wondering about Kronika's whereabouts. Since, in theory, she is the Titaness of Time, and her duty was always to keep Destiny in order, so that the greatest chaotic force, the supreme threat (the One Being) would not rise. That is to say… Why should a being that is part of and comes from one of the very pillars of the Universe, such as Time, die? If she is rooted in Time, then Time should be rooted in her as well. How can the Universe be resculpted without ruining and even destroying all of reality and Existence itself?

And if we talk a bit about those plot holes… Why didn't Kronika, the Titan of Time, anticipate the movements that happened during the events of MK11/Aftermath? Didn't she always have the hourglass handy to see between the timelines? Even without it she would be able to do it given her own powers. She would have had an easy time seeing what her detractors were doing, stepping in and outwitting them, carrying on the New Era anyway.

Yes, yes. It's a fighting game and the "good guys" have to win. What's more, it shouldn't even be that deep… right? Well, Mortal Kombat is long years old and has a huge lore. It's hard not to think about and analyze these types of details that the game never shows, or rather, that only leaves more doubts than certainties.

This, on the other hand, is totally out of character, but I imagine Kronika losing on purpose because she had had enough of ungrateful and stupid mortals, so she decides to fake her death, step aside and go on vacation, just to see what the hell they do without her pristine vision for balance. And when she comes back, it's literally this:

Anyway, getting a little serious now… I think it's a shit that Kronika and her vision haven't had more depth in MK11/Aftermath, that NRS haven't even given her a monologue like one of those silly movies or series where the villain explains everything . Instead her character was totally wasted, and her worldview poorly executed. Same with Cetrion.

At least seeing Geras in MK1 and mentioning Liu Kang's mistakes, I can be sure that he is not the most suitable to have the position that he has. Plus he and Raiden became such boring characters… I don't remember them being like this in the pre-NRS era, but, anyway…

In conclusion:

1- Mommy Kronika and baby girl Cetrion were too wasted in MK11/Aftermath, even I had accepted Cetrion turning against her mother and helping the "good guys" at the end. I hope to see them again, but better written.

2- Kronika had to win.

3-Shao Kahn deserved to die like that. Why the fuck would anyone trust Shang Tsung?

4- Liu Kang and Raiden became such boring characters in MK11, but I hope NRS do something better with them in MK1.

Yes. I believe in Kronika supremacy. Let that matriarchy and New Era begin!

[sinkableruby]

OUGI STAY DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY WOO

yay ok so basically i have a lot of thoughts about this fic and i kinda crafted it painstakingly so im gonna point out some stuff i like about it wee (btw go read it if you havent already) (oh but like. so spoilers. soooo spoilers. of course.) (wrote this awhile ago but i just wrote that analysis post so i feel i might as well just post it now. might do a part 2 with some other misc stuff too)

the leaves - this was funny because, i wanted to have like a recurring symbol throughout the fic, and i kinda felt like writing some prose for it, even as i figured it would annoy some readers and not really fit ougi (well, that much, ougi is pretty flexible). however it would be very fitting for ougi if she used it to break the fourth wall immediately, and so it sort of became a joke in that sense. but what that paragraph says still stands! the symbol is still very real... to be blunt: ougi is the leaf. woah crazy to be less blunt: araragi's symbol throughout the series is the tree. the gi in his name means tree for fucks sake (this is also why i put that footnote in there!). ougi is not a tree, but she's not separate from it either. she's a branch-off from it, hence she is the leaf. and she needs to seek comfort from the cold uh oh! i'll get into this more later

on moving on - ougi fails to get araragi to do so. of course, it had to happen this way, because that's the whole impetus of zoku owarimonogatari, and i wanted this fic to be something you could insert into canon without really disrupting much of anything. but that's not the only reason she fails. she reflects on it, wondering if her approach was wrong, or if maybe staying over made him more attached, but i have my own theory on why: ougi couldn't convince araragi to move on because she had also not moved on. we see araragi in zoku not feeling ready to leave behind his high school self, holding regrets for what happened. ougi is just as full of this regret, regret she couldn't find somewhere to call her own. and she is holding on to the past just as much as he is! she's struggling to find a new paradigm for the whole fic! she keeps catching herself before she criticizes araragi too hard! she's putting off thinking about what the hell she's going to do next with her life! she's just as not ready to move on as he is! they are mirrors of each other because of course they are!

place to stay - well, the fic is called ougi stay so i should talk about this. i will just mention that it is canonical that ougi's regret in zoku owari is not having found a home. it's super glossed over because nisioisin is allergic to delving into ougi's character for some reason, so i wanted to expand it a little with this fic. anyway, the araragi residence is warm and welcoming and lively and happy, which, in a moment à la sodachi, only serves to remind ougi how much of an outsider she is. "it's not actually her home," she says at the beginning, and she keeps reiterating that she's a "guest" at their house. so when she's exhausted all her thoughts about her problems, little doubts start to creep in, and then she's stuck feeling bad about how she has no home again, oops. and then in a moment of cruel universal irony, she is given a "home" in the form of the mysterious classroom she ambiguously created. and trapped there. alone. for like longer than a full day. nisioisin why did you do this actually this was pretty mean. really mean actually what the fuck i guess it is fitting for ougi who is a User of Irony™, and also because, if you will notice, ougi is detached from ougi's narration. THIS WAS VERY INTENTIONAL AND I LIKE IT A LOT. it kind of parallels ougi's detachment from their self. quotes from zoku owarimonogatari here: [ougi to araragi] "Well, you foolishly saved me from being absorbed by the darkness, didn't you? "My uncle supported that decision, but it's not like the specialists were unanimously on board. "There's probably plenty of notables who think it would have been best if something as dangerous as me had disappeared. "I'm one of them, incidentally. "But this time, I functioned as your failsafe. "It proved that there was value in you keeping me alive." i'm sure this way of viewing yourself is not problematic in the slightest and will have no consequences down the line but yea there's a kind of detachment in how ougi talks about themself. "there are notables who think i should have disappeared. by the way i am one of those people" is what they say, not, "i think i should have disappeared." they're viewing themself from the point of view of a specialist here, not from the point of view of... themself. and yeah sure its their job but holy shit ougi. are you ok??????? i think there was already value in you being alive just by you being alive but you know. you could also say this is ougi's perspective as an oddity, which can be very function-oriented, or rather they have to be because there's a big asshole black hole that will swallow them up if they're not. but ougi has a self now (i mean didn't she always) and is safe, at least for the time being, and so should not still be thinking like this in my opinion!!!!!!!! or have been thinking it at all in the first place :( so yeah that's the point behind the detached narration. it's the "but that's not in character for me, so i won't do it" and the general fourth wall breaking. a kind of ironic detachment to parallel ougi's detachment from her self, and how that detachment is kind of not good for her! (and i mean, doesn't it just kind of fit for ougi to narrate like this. i mean how else would she do it, really.) there's a really interesting line in onimonogatari episode 4's audio commentary, with nadeko and ougi. in the scene at the end of the episode where ougi shows up, ougis like ok feel free to switch back to the main commentary now and nadekos like ! but! but look it's the scene! it's the scene! and ougis like huh? wym? 'me? (literally says たしが？instead of わたしが？) and then says i'm not the kind of character who gets embarrassed or excited when i appear on screen. i end up seeing myself as someone else. perhaps self detachment is something you can expect to learn when your existence is originally defined as inherently tied to someone else's. but that's probably, not, necessarily, a good, thing! and it shouldn't stay like that forever, at the very least. that leads us into the next point. we go from self-detachment into...

beddy bye - eepy ougi.... guys did you notice that right after ougi tells araragi that sleep means changing she falls asleep despite saying she can't. did you notice. did you ougi understands she can build a self through experience but then disregards it because she can keep working either way and technically doesn't Need it. this is the opposite of character development :)! because for ougi to say what she says in zoku i can't imagine she would have been able to come to any healthy conclusions about herself the main thing she's been doing that i'm critiquing is disregarding herself, detaching from herself, not taking care of herself, basically. but for just a moment, she sees herself (araragi) cold and shivering and shes like. ok fuck it just one time is fine. and she gets comfort from him too, in the form of warmth, and the sound of life. (it's also important that araragi is asleep because it centers her more. he's technically not doing anything, and its more of a soliloquy for ougi-- her comforting herself, if only by a technicality) one of my favorite things about these two is that you can really notice how similar they are. araragi's got his insane self-sacrificial bent the whole series, and nearly cops to it again in ougi dark. ougi in ougi dark is doing some insane self sacrifice kind of thing! hey! it's almost like these two are the same person... and it applies here too. these two are silly and take care of themselves easier when it's done through the proxy of their doppelgangers. well, it works for now. ougi makes the first step of reaching out to herself, even if it is a very very small step. and just that tiniest act of checking up on herself, just the smallest teeniest act and experience of self-comfort makes her realize oh i am so fucking tired actually. it's no coincidence that her taking care of herself comes in the form of sleep-- sleep is change. she's changing. there's still hope for her, she has the ability to learn to take care of herself better. like, she really really really needs to sleep. to rest. has she even rested in the six months since she was born? she's always fucking rushing everywhere, on the grind, girlbossing, etc, yes haha, but like seriously. she's neglecting this very basic thing. people can't just work nonstop for 6 months and be fine. i mean hell last night she almost fucking died. and was very scared, actually. and had an emotional outburst, for the first time in her life, got so mad she couldnt even do her smiley ougi thing. got so mad and hurt that she, despite all her eloquence and composure, actually stuttered, actually broke her cheery monotone and let the raw hurt into her voice. and then got saved and had no idea wtf was going on and everything was just a tumultuous mess. so she's got that on top of those 6 months, and god that would fucking drain you! you almost DIED. FOREVER. not going to hell. you almost DIED.

my favorite line of the fic is "The magnitude of six months, bearing down on me." because yeah. god. just the sheer force. the weight. the scale. how far it reaches, the extent. of everything. it just hits you. six months. six fucking months do you know how long that is??? i cannot stress this enough. six months and the only six months you've ever known. six months and that would have been the end of your whole life. six months!!!!!!!!!!! i wouldn't be able to move under that weight either girl i woulda just blacked out and i wouldnt be surprised if this was not just a "holy fuck i'm so tired" moment but also a "holy fuck i'm alive. i didn't die" kind of moment. because ougi is just kind of pondering it vaguely and distantly in especially the beginning of the fic, but idk if it's quite hit her at that point yet yk. but yeah. the moment is a radical shift for ougi not because it's instant change, it's not like instantly ougi gets better. that's not how it works. but ougi does START to get better here. and that kind of hope is what ougi and ougi's arc is about, to me. you help others come to terms with their lives. bad things happen, people fall to darkness, but they survive, they find a way, they figure it out. you don't disappear, you aren't erased; you get to be you. you get to live.

[sepublic]

            For the Nizziverse, I want Megatron to have crashed and been frozen in the arctic in his vehicle mode; His rather abstract-looking Cybertronian Jet form.

         Part of my meta reasoning is that… Cybertronian alt-modes are often kind of an afterthought, which is a bit of a shame, since they’re just as original designs as the robot modes they pair with. And part of the original appeal and gimmick of Transformers is the dynamic between robot AND vehicle mode, how you can see parts of both in either one! Especially in the Bayverse, I want the Cybertronian alt-modes to feel less like a begrudging thing a designer slapped together so the character would technically be a Transformer, the bare minimum, and more an equally compelling form in its own right.

         Plus, the interesting thing about the original 2007 film is that it very much went with the premise of Transformers as this enigmatic, mysterious race of alien infiltrators; I’ll give it credit where it’s due, it def played up the paranoia that any vehicle, really any machine or appliance, could be a Cybertronian in disguise. The film actually justifies its sparse screentime of the Transformers because of this, at least somewhat; Like, you don’t reveal the monster/killer in full spotlight from the start. The Xenomorph, the Predator, these are things you display sparingly.

         Of course, a cybertronian jet is hardly subtle, especially with Nizzi’s rather abstract designs; Anyone will immediately notice it as alien. But that’s also kind of the point here…

         After all, the premise is that there’s a vehicle; And there’s no driver because the vehicle IS the driver, they’re one and the same! So I want to pull off a similar twist, at least in-universe, to the members of Sector 7. Some explorers find this metallic, alien structure in the arctic; Nobody has any idea what it is, but based on the shape and the wings, they THINK it’s some sort of… Plane? Jet?

         Research into this ship’s strange material confirms what everyone is suspecting by now; They’ve found an alien ship that’s crash-landed on Earth. What is this, John Carpenter’s The Thing? But luckily for our plucky humans, there is no horrific alien to be found inside of this ship… But this luck ends up being rather haunting, because it just raises the question; How did this ship get here without a pilot? What happened to them? Where are they? Did they eject at the last-second, their body burnt up in atmospheric entry?

         Tools fail to pry apart and dissect this alien spaceship, and it takes the most advanced scanners to reveal even the most basic, rudimentary look into its interior; This ship has some advanced cloaking abilities. What Sector 7 HAS discerned is that it’s got some serious internal damage, which only further haunts the researchers as to this mysterious craft’s past. Was it escaping a battle, and could the thing that damaged it, follow it to Earth?

         The spaceship is big enough to have a crew of… Three, maybe four humans max. Nobody has actually managed to open it up to get inside, and Sector 7 isn’t even entirely sure if the ship HAS an interior to pilot. As human technology progresses and the idea of AI is raised, it’s proposed that the alien spaceship is a robot; It can drive itself, it doesn’t need to accommodate space nor life support systems for a pilot, because the pilot is a central processing unit! This is a slightly less disconcerting theory, but it provides little in the form of actual closure.

         …Eventually, glimpses and rumors of sapient machines that can disguise themselves as other machines arises; These conspiracy theories, these cryptids, are dubbed ‘Transformers’ by Sector 7, and it becomes apparent that these beings have no affiliation nor origin to any group on Earth. And if they’re aliens, well… Some people DID make the connection that perhaps the spaceship came from the same civilization from the Transformers; And that it may very well BE a Transformer itself. A terrifying thought.

         And in the end, those worst fears and paranoia are revealed; For years, many researchers regarded this mysterious spaceship as this alien entity in itself, an enigmatic artifact from the past, but also the future, that held so many secrets but was also missing something important itself. It was evidence of another civilization out there… But few would’ve guessed that it WAS a member of that civilization itself.

         So there’s this horror to see the craft you’ve studied your whole life, be just the surface, the tip of the iceberg, to the REAL secret; Just another form, and not even considered the real face, of a mechanical titan it transforms into. A titan that talks and has been listening this entire time in stasis lock, putting together English from those who spoke around it; A titan who declares himself not as a thing nor vehicle nor tool, but as THE wielder himself.

         To think you regarded it so impersonally, for by the end of the day it may have been an alien thing but it was still a thing, an object; The violating intrusion to have let yourself act around this thing as if you were alone and it weren’t a witness. Just an object you could project on, and not a very much thinking, calculating being, as much a person with emotions, hopes, and feelings as you. You’ve dehumanized this magnificent being, and you’ll pay the price for it.

         His name is Megatron, thank you very much, and he destroys the entire base. As you die amidst the flames and wreckage, Megatron transforms back into his jet mode, and that spaceship you’ve obsessed over your entire life… You finally get to see it soar and fly. Well, there’s that mystery answered, that dream fulfilled; And now you can close your eyes and rest.

         …So yeah, that’s basically my reasoning for why I want Megatron to be frozen in his alt-mode for all those years, and not robot mode. It’s not as much of a twist as, say, Bumblebee revealing himself for the first time; We already know and can guess this thing is Cybertronian and is in fact Megatron. But it does present a fun perspective to consider, that to the agents of Sector 7, who despite being able to tell that it’s alien, are still fooled with the whole “Vehicle is actually a robot” trick that is so dear to the Transformers franchise.

         On a side-note, it’s also a fun connection to Ghosts of Yesterday; A spin-off novel released back when the 2007 film came out. The premise is that Sector 7 somehow managed to draw the schematics of Megatron’s alt-mode from his frozen body, and used them to build a non-transforming Cybertronian jet; One that a crew of astronauts takes for a test flight, only to stumble into trouble in space when actual Transformers recognize a design that is still uncannily off. That book is definitely the most love and attention an alt-mode for Megatron has ever gotten, I think.

         In fact, Ghosts of Yesterday might just be canon to the Nizziverse, or at least the general premise. I should clarify that in the Nizziverse, that thing about human technology like cars, phones, microchips, etc. being reverse-engineered from Megatron isn’t a thing. I admittedly find it a silly trope to assign real-world tech, with real-world development and engineers, to an alien; It’s not on the same level as theorizing aliens built the ancient pyramids, but I think there’s a similar principle of being kinda disrespectful.

         Plus, I want the ‘alien spaceship’ to still be this very enigmatic thing to Sector 7 that they don’t understand and can’t comprehend, because they can’t pry it open, and their scanners are like X-rays against a lead wall. Cybertronians have been infiltrating other worlds for quite a while now, so of course they have cloaking technology that hides their energon signatures and true anatomy from those interested. They appropriate YOU, not the other way around!

         There is admittedly one nitpick I have to think of with this route, however; A questioning of in-universe logic. If you have Megatron frozen in robot mode, then you immediately understand why Sector 7 never tried to jumpstart him to bring him back online; He’s this giant, fanged, intimidating monster. He looks hostile and probably is, he’s clearly recognizable as a being with his own agendas that could easily oppose humanity’s. Better safe than sorry.

         …Thing is, if we have Megatron frozen in alt-mode; Then for a long while, people are under the impression he’s just an object. A tool. No consciousness. So jumpstarting this machine shouldn’t be too much of a risk, because when active, it has no mind to guide it towards targeting humanity. A lot could still happen, but you don’t have to worry about it deciding to attack.

         Now, the easy solution is that they tried to jumpstart Megatron, but he runs only on Energon. But in this Nizziverse continuity of mine, I want Transformers to be relatively adaptable in absorbing energy, so they CAN hook themselves up to an electric cable to draw power. It wouldn’t be very efficient and Energon is always the best, but it’s possible. Adaptability is such a big part of their species, after all; They can interface with alien tech, absorbing electricity isn’t too out of the question.

         But then if the humans COULD jumpstart Megatron… Why don’t they? The idea I’m going with here is that Megatron suffered damage in robot mode before he flew through a malfunctioning space bridge to chase after the Allspark; As he entered earth’s atmosphere, his wounds and energon-loss finally caught up to him, and he entered a LONG stasis lock. His self-repair systems had no energon to fuel themselves, and so couldn’t fix Megatron during his hibernation; This needs to be initiated by his Decepticon followers, who send an Energon surge directly into Megs to revive him.

        In the end, I guess one explanation is that Sector 7 is simply that wary of the alien spacecraft they found; They want to study it, but reactivating it is a step too far… And not only does reality vindicate this caution, but it also makes sense when the theory of the ship being an AI is introduced; In which case, they consider that it DOES have a mind that’d operate against them. And when they learn/suspect the existence of Transformers, then they’re really wary, and/or afraid that the ship might send a signal back to its origin. I’m not sure if this explanation is satisfactory, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

[huskyheroine]

I cannot believe I am actually considering adding Nermal as a supporting character in The Coverups... literally what is wrong with me.

I'll put my idea under the cut in case you don't want to read my inane ramblings.

Here's the idea. Nermal is an angel, the cutest angel, God(field)'s favorite!!! Until Nermal started getting too comfortable and shirking his responsibilities. Godfield didn't like this, so he tested Nermal. Nermal failed :( So he had his halo broken, his wings clipped, and himself sent to Earth. Kicked out of heaven until he could prove that he was actually a worthy angel. How? By granting a wish to someone deserving of course! Godfield gave him one wish, one last chance to do shit right.

Nermal, still not grasping the severity of the situation and thinking this would be easy just picked the first person/people he saw when he landed on Earth...and guess which fucked up children he met. Yep! The Warners! Nermal told them he could grant them any wish (within reason) to share. So...after much deliberation (30 seconds) they made their wish. It was for Nermal to stay and hang out with them for a full month. (maybe longer I haven't decided yet)

Unfortunately for Nermal, any wish asked, is granted immediately if it meets the criteria, which it did. So Nermal, one of the most powerful and well-regarded angels, is now essentially The Warners new friend/babysitter*/plaything. (we on some Billy & Mandy shit I guess but I swear it's different. Didn't even think about the comparison until I typed it out just now ajlfhnalfj)

*Ari doesn't like this one

Nermal understandably fucking hates this and is incredibly bitter, Ari isn't too happy about someone taking her place either which leads to the two developing a bitter rivalry and hijinks ensue and whatever whatever I have more but I want to save it for if I actually fucking make this thing. idk it seemed like a fun idea, I've been theory-crafting it all day when my brain has decided to work with me but I really need to stop making episode ideas based off hyperfixations. Speaking of...I need to rewrite the Over The Garden Wall episode.

[pi-creates]

I hope people don’t mind – but I have a theory… one that’s been mulling around in my head for ages but didn’t really know if people would be interested in hearing it. I shared my thoughts with a few people and they seemed supportive of me sharing my theory further, so here we go.

Basically, I feel like something that the fandom deems as crucial to Violet’s character might actually be a misclassification. The short version of this post is that I theorise that Violet doesn’t have excessive abandonment issues (at least not to a significantly greater extent than any of the other characters), and what she is actually displaying is signs of survivor’s guilt.

From a behavioural view point, there’s a lot of overlap between both issues – withdrawing from others, fixating on other’s and their actions, being irrational at times as a defence mechanism, and applying unrealistic expectation on oneself and others. But the difference is the reasons behind those behaviours.

Someone with abandonment issues assumes that everyone will inevitably leave them. It leaves them insecure and assuming that they are somehow at fault for other’s leaving them. The thing is, this form of dependence on others tends to lead people to constantly be seeking approval, and they reel their neck in when they feel like someone is not going to agree with them. Basically, they become people pleasers who need constant reassurance that you aren’t planning on leaving them – but at the same time they keep things shallow, because they don’t feel like they can expose anything that the other person might leave them for. Then if things are on the rocks, they sabotage, if you push someone away before they reject you, then it doesn’t hurt as bad if they decide to leave. It’s a self-destructive cycle that centres around the person being anxious and not having trust in others to accept them as they are.

And while parts of that fits Violet, other parts don’t. I don’t feel like Violet comes across as insecure in what she offers to others or being afraid to have a contrary opinion. In fact, she seems quite confident in her skills and choices. There isn’t any hesitance to bring up tough questions or to  speak her mind when she doesn’t like something. She takes on a leadership role and makes decisions that she knows the bulk of the group don’t agree with at that point. It doesn’t come across as someone who is afraid that those people she’s disagreeing with will leave her. Basically, I don’t feel like she acts out of fear that people will leave her – she does express not liking that people leave and believes that certain levels of loss are inevitable, but it feels like cynicism rather than fear.

A big example of this is her asking Clementine in the first card game “Out of all of us here, which one is going to die first?”… to me, that doesn’t read as someone afraid of loss, it reads as someone who views loss casually and also doesn’t feel compelled to sugar-coat the morbidity of such thoughts to a newcomer or old friends.

But if you look at something like survivor’s guilt – it has some similar behavioural patterns, but those behaviours stem more from guilt than fear. They survived a situation when others did not, and I don’t think there’s any denying that everyone who’s still alive in an apocalypse situation has outlived a friend/family member, and potentially also been there when they died. And those thoughts of “Why did I survive when they didn’t?”, “Could that have been different?”, and “Was it my fault?” eats away at them. They start picking apart every detail of an event and questioning if they were responsible, or if someone could have done something to prevent it.

It doesn’t matter if it’s logical or not, they fixate on the idea that they could somehow have changed the events if only they said/did something different, they should have known the outcome and stopped it. It’s irrational, it’s placing the blame on oneself or others for situations that they had no means to avoid or predict. And all of that guilt and stress makes the people irritable, withdrawn, and regretful. They get so stuck in that moment of loss that they don’t move forward. They lose interests they used to have, they feel disconnected, they don’t trust people or the world to be safe or fair, they pull away from others...

And I think this sounds like Violet. It makes more sense with how she talks about her grandmother and the twins – we hear how she processes these events. She tells us what she was doing when someone died (or she believed they died) and how she should have been doing something else – for her grandmother she should have called for help, for the twins she should have been there and not in the greenhouse. And since we hear more about the twins, she goes further and talks about how she also questions the actions made by others – she feels like she could have changed the outcome if she was there instead of Brody or Marlon. When in reality, she couldn’t have known, she can’t change what happened, and it wasn’t her fault that those people died (or were taken).

I feel Violet did lose herself to a degree in those fixations, that’s why she withdraws and seems apathetic about things until after we learn that Minnie is still alive. Some of that guilt is somewhat absolved when it becomes clear that Minnie isn’t dead, it opens up the possibility of fixing her perceived ‘wrongs’ of the past (e.g., out surviving her). She talks about not liking arts and crafts – but she makes you a pin. She suddenly wants to dance with you when we had no indication this was an interest of hers before. She sings a song that she clearly used to hold to high regard when Minnie sang it – though we never hear her sing or hear her talk about her own voice. She’s a different person once the guilty moment is re-framed as something she can fix. Those interests she lost before are suddenly back, or maybe she’s just more open to reevaluate things and move forward with new interests.

And I think this also explains part of Violet’s ire in the captured route – it’s not just that she feels like you chose someone over her, it’s a literal replay of the thing she felt guilty about for years. She’s in Minnie’s shoes, but this time the people at the school know she was taken and not killed at the school – they could have stopped it in the way she wished she could have done with the twins. Then Clem shows up, and she isn’t exhibiting the same crushing guilt that Violet carried for so long when this happened to her friends – and that has to hurt.

Not only does the situation suck, but she’s being confronted with someone who isn’t coping with the “loss” of an important friend in the same way she did. I feel like it would only be logical for Violet to wonder why, and she is also clearly not in a good frame of mind and will come up with some of the worst possible answers.

Is she not as important to the others as Minnie was to her? Is she not worth the same emotional devastation? Was she wrong to feel the way she felt, or is Clem wrong for not feeling that way now?

The situation may be different, but after dealing with the traumatic experience of being captured, seeing Minnie again, and being manipulated into behaving – I don’t think Violet can think clearly enough to realise the differences of the situation. Clem isn’t dealing with the same level of guilt because her method of coping with the tragedy is immediate action… an option that Violet never had. It has nothing to do with Violet not being worth the same devastation as the twins, though I bet it still feels that way to her. So not only does the perceived betrayal sting worse, she also is being told she has the option of protecting Minnie by going along with the Delta – it just feeds into her preexisting guilt that she didn’t save her before, so of course she’s going to act in a way that she believes will make up for it.

And yeah… that’s my theory. Whether you agree or not, I’d be interested in hearing other’s thoughts on this – especially when I’m very aware that the abandonment narrative is seen as near universal amongst the fans. It just happens to not have been my initial stance, and I dunno, maybe an alternate point of view will be interesting to you guys.

[ladylannisterxo]

I know, I know.. I'm in denial. Based on Joseph Quinn's comment through many interviews, some comments seem like the wants to come back in - which I doubt will happen. "The No Body, No Death". But he took his last breath in Dustin's arms. I respect that Eddie died a hero. I wish it was in a much different situation though, especially because no one deserved to be saved by Eddie while still believing him to be a cult leader who manipulated teens into slaughtering multiple people. Deserved better.

But technically though, who did he really save with his death? I mean, the plan was for him and Dustin to be decoys, distract the bats so Steve, Robin, and Nancy can get into the house. They did that successfully! Eddie could have just as easily crawled up through the gate with Dustin and just waited it out. But he wanted to "play the hero" and "not run anymore". Which, sure, fine, I can respect the decision to buy more time...

BUT I stand with what Steve said about Eddie needing to give himself a break. I don't blame Eddie at all for running as much as he did in Vol. 1. Think about how different it would have been had Chrissy died in front of Steve or Nancy or someone who knew what the hell was happening but that didn't happen and Eddie was alone. Of course he ran - I would have ran! And then he stayed hidden because it became an immediate "hunt the freak" type situation and, I'm sorry, but J*son had no intention of just talking to Eddie, he would have killed him, simple as that.

I would love nothing more than to see my boy come back in S5 and in more than just memories or flashbacks, ya know? But unless they do that "time travel" theory that's somewhat being hinted at, he most likely won't and it's ridiculous. Eddie Munson was a wonderfully crafted character from the moment he showed up on screen and he deserved way better than the ending he got - cause he didn't just die, he remains a murderer in the eyes of this town and nothing will most likely ever change that.

[gffa]

OKAY, IF I’M GONNA DO THIS, I’M GONNA DO IT PROPERLY.  WHICH MEANS YEAH IT’S GONNA GET REALLY LONG. A couple of things to say ahead of time:  Lucasfilm’s Story Group has always said CANON > WORD OF GOD when it comes to these matters, so when I quote canon examples from supplementary materials that contradict what he says, that’s LF’s official position, but that doesn’t mean that an influential person like Dave’s views couldn’t affect how things will be shaped in the future, like Deborah Chow listening to this may be influenced by it on the Obi-Wan show, despite that Master & Apprentice contradicts him.  It’s an incredibly murky area!  Mileages are going to vary.   Another thing to keep in mind is that Dave Filoni never worked on The Phantom Menace, that was long, long before his time at Lucasfilm (which I think he joined sometime around 2007? and TPM was released in 1999), that he has worked with George more than probably anyone else, but we cannot and should not treat him as infallible or the True Authority on things, because even Dave himself has said things like: “I mean, I know why I did that and what it means, but I don't like to explain too much. I love for the viewers to watch stuff and come up with their own theories -- and they frankly come up with better things that I intended.”  --Dave Filoni, Entertainment Tonight 2020 interview Or, in the same episode as the above Qui-Gon interpretation:

So, when I dig into this, I’m not doing this out of a sense of malice or even that I suddenly hate Dave or don’t appreciate all the incredible things he’s brought to SW, but in that I disagree with his take, Dave understands that he doesn’t always get it right, that he enjoys that fans come up with different things than he does and sometimes he likes those even more.  There’s room for both of us and, for all that Dave mentions George a lot (and, hey, fair enough, the guy worked with George and I’m just quoting what George Lucas has said) doesn’t mean that this is straight from George, especially because I have never seen George Lucas utter so much as a peep about how the Jedi were responsible for Anakin’s fall.  He has explicitly and frequently talked about how Anakin’s fall was his own choice, as well as I’ve never seen him say anything Jedi-critical beyond “they were kind of arrogant about themselves”.  I have read and watched every George Lucas interview I could get my hands on and maybe I’m still missing something, but that’s literally the extent of him criticizing the Jedi I have EVER seen. (It’s from the commentary on AOTC where he put in the scene with Jocasta to show they were full of themselves, but I also think it’s fair to point out that Obi-Wan immediately contradicts this by going to Dex for help, showing that it’s not necessarily a Jedi-wide thing.) Before I go further, I want to say:  this is not a post meant to tear down Qui-Gon, he is a character I actually really do love, but the focus is on showing why the above interpretation of him is wrong, which means focusing on Qui-Gon’s flaws. He has many wonderful qualities, he is someone who cared deeply and was a good person, I think things would have been better had he lived!  But Anakin’s choices did not hinge on him, because Anakin’s choices were Anakin’s, that has always been the consistent theme of how George talks about him, the way he talks about the story is always in terms of “Anakin did this” or “Anakin chose that”, and the Jedi are very consistently shown as caring, they believed very much in love and Dave’s own show (well, I say “his own show”, but honestly TCW was George’s baby primarily and he had a lot of direct, hands-on say in crafting it, through at least the first five seasons) is plenty of evidence of that. I’m not going to quote the full thing because this is already a monster post, I’m just going to focus on the Jedi stuff, because I like the other points a lot, but if you want the full text, it’s here.  The relevant part is: “In Phantom Menace, you’re watching these two Jedi in their prime fight this evil villain. Maul couldn’t be more obviously the villain. He’s designed to look evil, and he is evil, and he just expresses that from his face all the way out to the type of lightsaber he fights with. What’s at stake is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” “So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. So that moment in that movie which a lot of people I think diminish, “oh there’s a cool lightsaber fight”, but it’s everything that the entire three films of the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight. And Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George made me bring him back, but he died.“  --Dave Filoni  I’m going to take this a piece at a time to show why I really disagree with the content of both the movies and The Clone Wars supporting what Dave says and, instead, contradicts it a lot. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. He doesn’t explain what this means, but I’m pretty sure that he’s referring to this conversation: OBI-WAN: “I am concerned for my Padawan. He is not ready to be given this assignment on his own yet.” YODA: “The Council is confident in its decision, Obi-Wan.” MACE WINDU: “The boy has exceptional skills.” OBI-WAN: “But he still has much to learn, Master. His abilities have made him... well.... arrogant.” YODA: “Yes, yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmm... too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones.” MACE WINDU: “Remember, Obi-Wan, if the prophecy is true, your apprentice is the only one who can bring the Force back into balance.” OBI-WAN: "If he follows the right path.” None of that has anything to do with being “detached” and, further, I think this is something that’s come up with Dave’s view of Luminara a lot, because he’s described her (re: the Geonosis arc):  “We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.” Here, he says that the Jedi care, in the above, he says that the Jedi don’t care, which makes me think there’s a lot of characterization drift as time goes on, especially when fandom bombards everyone with the idea that the Jedi were cold, emotionless, and didn’t care.  However, look at Luminara’s face in that arc, when she’s talking with Anakin:

That is not the face of someone who doesn’t care.  She even smiles brightly in relief when Barriss is shown to be okay, that this really doesn’t convey “detached” in an unloving or uncaring way.  (We’ll get to attachment later, that’s definitely coming.) (I’m also mostly skipping the political thing, because I think that’s just a fundamental disagreement of whether Jedi should or should not lean into politics.  My view basically boils down to that I think ALL OF US should be leaning more into politics because we are citizens who live in the world and are responsible for it, and the Jedi are no different.  This is evidenced by:  - M&A’s storyline has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saving the day specifically because they play politics, that’s how they manage to free the slaves, through playing politics and being part of the Republic/having Senate backing. - The Clone Wars has shown that the Jedi believe “lasting change can only come from within” and “it’s every citizen’s duty to hold their leaders accountable” when Ahsoka teaches the cadets on Mandalore, as well as that politics are not inherently bad, given that Padme and Bail are working to make the system better or “create lasting change from within [the system]” - "Trying to serve the greater good does not always make you popular” says Padme Amidala in a very caring speech - Star Wars Propaganda makes the case that the Jedi might have won the war had they leaned more into politics. - Sometimes the Jedi get unfairly accused of playing politics when there’s just no good choice and they still have to choose one or the other.) But Qui-Gon is ahead of them [re: caring and loving] all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. This is flat-out wrong in regards to canon.  Mileages are going to vary, of course, on how much one takes a novel into consideration, but Dave Filoni is not a fan with the luxury of deciding what is or isn’t canon, he works on Star Wars where canon is canon.  Now, does that mean canon will never contradict itself, especially if Dave gets to write something for Qui-Gon?  Of course not, SW isn’t immune to continuity errors and they themselves have never said otherwise, even when fans want to hold them to that standard. However, this is still pretty much a big “that’s not what happened” instance.  In Master & Apprentice, the Jedi Council offer a seat to Qui-Gon on the Council, specifically BECAUSE he has different opinions from them and they welcome that.  (Excerpt here.)      “We hope it will also be our gain,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon Jinn, we hereby offer you a seat on the Jedi Council.”      Had he misheard? No, he hadn’t. Qui-Gon slowly gazed around the circle, taking in the expressions of each Council member in turn. Some of them looked amused, others pleased. A few of them, Yoda included, appeared more rueful than not. But they were serious.      “I admit—you’ve surprised me,” Qui-Gon finally said.“I imagine so,” Mace said drily. “A few years ago, we would’ve been astonished to learn we would ever consider this. But in the time since, we’ve all changed. We’ve grown. Which means the possibilities have changed as well.”      Qui-Gon took a moment to collect himself. Without any warning, one of the turning points of his life had arrived. Everything he said and did in the next days would be of great consequence. “You’ve argued with my methods often as not, or perhaps you’d say I’ve argued with yours.”      “Truth, this is,” Yoda said.      Depa Billaba gave Yoda a look Qui-Gon couldn’t interpret. “It’s also true that the Jedi Council needs more perspectives.” Ultimately, Qui-Gon is the who turns them down and gives up a chance to shape the Jedi Council because he doesn’t like the shape they’re taking.  That he does become less political, but this is after he’s argued that the Jedi should be working to push the Senate harder, so when he has a chance to help with that, he turns it down.  It has nothing to do with caring and loving, it’s about Qui-Gon’s desire to not have to deal with the work himself, when he wants to be more of a hippie Jedi.  (I’ve written a lot about Qui-Gon in M&A, why I actually think it’s really spot-on to someone who can be both really kind and really kind of a dick, but it’s not the most flattering portrayal, even if narrative intention likely didn’t mean what came across to me.  I think this post and this post are probably the most salient ones, but if you want something of an index of the web that’s being woven with all the various media, this one is good, too.) So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. I have only ever seen George Lucas talk about Anakin’s fate in one instance and it’s this:  “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ –George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary I’ve made my case about why I think Anakin’s fate is about that moment in Palpatine’s office, and so I’m not fundamentally opposed that “Duel of the Fates” is about Anakin’s fate, but here’s what George has provably said about the “Duel of the Fates” part of the story: - In the commentary for The Phantom Menace during “Duel of the Fates” and none of Dave’s speculation is even hinted at, there’s more focus on the technical side of things and the most George talks about is that it’s Obi-Wan who parallels Luke in going over the edge during the fight, except that instead of a Sith cutting off a Jedi’s hand, it’s a Jedi cutting a Sith in half, drawing the parallels between them. - He does say of the funeral scene that this is where Obi-Wan commits to training Anakin and how everything is going to go (though, in canon we see that Obi-Wan still struggles with this a bit, but Yoda is there to support him and nudge him into committing even more to Anakin, because the Jedi are a supportive community to each other).  This is some solid evidence for that Obi-Wan is already caring about Anakin beyond just Qui-Gon. - Then here’s what he says about the “Duel of the Fates” fights and themes of them in "All Films Are Personal": George Lucas: “I wanted to come up with an apprentice for the Emperor who was striking and tough. We hadn’t seen a Sith Lord before, except for Vader, of course. I wanted to convey the idea that Jedi are all very powerful, but they’re also vulnerable — which is why I wanted to kill Qui-Gon. That is to say, “Hey, these guys aren’t Superman.” These guys are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person. “We needed to establish that, but at the same time, we wanted the ultimate sword fight, because they were all very good. It sort of predisposes the sword fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan later on. There’s real purpose to it. You have to establish the rules and then stick with them. The scene illustrates just how Jedi and Sith fight and use lightsabers.” “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.  We’ll get to the “attachment to his mother” thing in a bit--but, for now, let’s just say, George Lucas’ words on this are not that attachment to her was a good thing. Fair enough that “not because he cares about him” is up to personal interpretation, but canon has also addressed the topic of Obi-Wan’s treatment of Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped up to the plate on this.  In addition to how we see Obi-Wan REPEATEDLY being there for Anakin and being concerned and caring about him, they specifically talk about Qui-Gon and overcome this hurdle.

No, Obi-Wan is not Anakin’s father figure, on that we definitely agree.  Anakin never really even treats Obi-Wan like a father--he says “you’re the closest thing I have to a father” in Attack of the Clones, as well as he says Obi-Wan practically raised him in The Clone Wars “Crystal Crisis” story reels, but Anakin has never actually acted like Obi-Wan is his father--”then why don’t you listen to me?” Obi-Wan points out in AOTC--as well as Obi-Wan glides past those remarks, which I’ve always taken that he doesn’t want to reject Anakin’s feelings, knowing that Anakin can be sensitive about them, but neither does he want to confirm them. This does not mean Obi-Wan was not supportive, caring, and loving.  He says, “I loved you!” to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, he asks after him and if he’s sleeping well in Attack of the Clones, and even George Lucas himself said that the elevator scene was set up TO SHOW OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN CARE FOR EACH OTHER:

PUTTING THE REST UNDER A READ MORE FOR A BETTER LENGTH REBLOGGABLE VERSION, IF  YOU WANT.

This is further evidenced by how the Jedi do see themselves as family, they just don’t need to put it into strict nuclear family dynamics:     - “You were my brother, Anakin!  I loved you!”  [–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith]      - “We are brothers, Master Dibs.” [–Mace Windu, Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu]      - “Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.”         A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good.         "All the time,“ Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself. [–Kaeden Larte, Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka]      -  Vos, brought to the Temple even younger than most, felt that he had hundreds of brothers and sisters, and it seemed that whenever he went into the dining hall he ran into at least half of them. [Dark Disciple]       - “It was not his birthplace, exactly, but the Jedi Temple was where Quinlan Vos had grown up. He’d raced through its corridors, hidden behind its massive pillars, found peace in its meditation hall, ended-and started-fights in rooms intended for striking blows and some that weren’t, and sneaked naps in its library. All Jedi came here, at some point in their lives; for Quinlan, it always felt like coming home when he ran lightly up the stairs and entered the massive building as he did now.” [Dark Disciple] Brothers, sisters, and other more non-traditional kinds of family are not lesser and Obi-Wan and Anakin absolutely were family, just as the Jedi are all family to each other, so, no, there was no “failing” Anakin, except in Anakin’s mind, perhaps.  (In that, I can agree.  But not on a narratively approved level, canon too thoroughly refutes that for me.) Rebels as well pretty thoroughly shows that non-traditional families are meaningful and just as important--we may joke that Hera is “space mom”, but she’s not actually Ezra or Sabine’s mother, Kanan is not actually their father, and even if they sometimes stray into aspects of those roles (as the Jedi do as well in the movies and TCW), that they don’t need that traditional nuclear family structure.  Mentor figures--and Kanan is Ezra’s mentor--are just as meaningful and needful as a “dad”.  And I’m kind of :/ at the implication that anyone without a dad/father figure or mom/mother figure is being “failed”. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” Whether or not Obi-Wan is being genuinely dismissive in this movie (I think you could make a case either way), the idea that Qui-Gon is better than Obi-Wan about this, as shown through Jar Jar isn’t exactly very supported given how Qui-Gon and Jar Jar first exchange words:

QUI-GON: “You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?”   JAR JAR:  “I spake.”   QUI-GON: “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” Qui-Gon is just as bad as everyone else to Jar Jar, he’s not somehow elevated above them. It’s also baffling because, Dave, I have watched your show.  The Jedi are specifically shown to be kind to people and creatures, not considering them “useless”.  Henry Gilroy (who was the co-writer for The Clone Wars and frequently appeared in featurettes on the same level as Dave Filoni) explicitly draws this to The Jedi Way, that “life is everything to the Jedi“, when he said this about the Ryloth episodes:

(Caps cribbed from Pan’s blog, because I cannot make another gif, save me, please.)      Henry Gilroy in an Aggressive Negotiations Interview:  "Obi-Wan truly is a Jedi in that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to murder these creatures [in the Ryloth arc of The Clone Wars].  They’re starving to death.  They’ve basically been unleashed against these people as a weapon, but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they do.  They’re just animals who wanna eat.’     "So the idea was–and I think there was an early talk about how, 'Oh, yeah, he’ll go running through them and slicing and dicing them and chop them all up or whatever, and save his guys.  And I’m like, 'Yeah, but that’s not really the Jedi way.  He’s not just gonna murder these creatures.’     "And I know the threat is [there], to save one life you have to take one, but the idea of him [is]: why can’t Obi-Wan just be more clever?  He basically draws them in and then traps them.     "It says something about who the Jedi are, they don’t just waste life arbitrarily.  And someone could have gone, 'Oh, yeah, but it would have been badass if he’d just ran in there with his lightsaber spinning and stabbed them all in the head!’  And 'Yeah, you’re right, I guess he could be that, but he’s trying to teach his clones a lesson right then, about the sanctity of life.’       "That is the underlying theme of that entire episode.  Which is:  A tactical droid is using the people as living shields.  Life means nothing to the Separatists.  The droids.  But life is everything to the Jedi.  And even though he doesn’t have to say that, it’s all through the episode thematically.“ It’s also Obi-Wan who teaches Anakin about kindness to mindless creatures in the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic:

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Anakin.  I can feel it.  They are merely following their nature, they should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way.” Now, fair enough if you want to say Obi-Wan was taught by Qui-Gon, but also Qui-Gon is dead by that point and Obi-Wan growing into being more mature is his own accomplishment, not Qui-Gon’s, especially given that we see Qui-Gon himself being pretty dismissive to Jar Jar in TPM. This isn’t unique thing either, Padme is incredibly condescending to Jar Jar in “Bombad Jedi” and expresses clear annoyance with him to C-3PO when sighing over him.  Jar Jar is a character you kind of have to warm up to, pretty much the only one we’ve seen consistently being favorable to him is Yoda (and maybe Anakin, though, Anakin doesn’t really interact with him a ton) and Mace Windu warms up to him considerably in “The Disappeared” and even specifically is shown to be teaching him and helping him, which is a huge theme of the Jedi and how much they care.

So, ultimately, the point I’m winding my way towards is--the other Jedi do show kindness and consideration to Jar Jar Binks, including characters like Mace Windu, so if you’re judging the Jedi based on that, the conclusion of Qui-Gon somehow being more compassionate and loving is really pretty thoroughly disproved by The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars themselves. So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.  You could be charitable and say this is just from Anakin’s point of view that it’s a “failing”, but within the context of what Dave’s saying, it’s clearly meant as a more narratively approved take, not just Anakin’s point of view, and I really, really dislike the idea that Anakin--or anyone, really--needs a traditional nuclear family, ie a “mom” and/or a “dad”, or else it’s a “failing” for them. Setting aside that the idea that Qui-Gon would need to be Anakin’s dad to be kind to hi (which is ?????) is contradicted by The Clone Wars as well.  Yes, Qui-Gon is warm with Anakin in several scenes, which is what Dave is presumably drawing on to show that Qui-Gon believed the Jedi should be caring and loving, but you know who else is warm to younglings?  OTHER JEDI COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Those two scenes have the exact same kind of warmth to them.  Ie, THE JEDI ALL BELIEVED IN BEING LOVING AND KIND, NOT JUST QUI-GON.  The things evidenced to show Qui-Gon was loving and kind are evidenced just as much in other Council members, in Dave’s own show. As a bonus--have Mace Windu, known Jedi Council member, being super kind and loving towards a young Twi’lek girl he just met in a canon comic:

But I know that this is about the way the Council treated Anakin in The Phantom Menace testing scene, but here’s the thing--when I go back and I watch that scene and the Jedi aren’t ever mean to him, they’re neutral in an official testing situation, where they are trying to determine if he’s able to adapt to the Jedi ways.  They never once say he’s bad for holding onto his fear, only that he does--which Anakin digs his heels in and gets angry about, he can’t really even admit that he’s afraid and that’s a huge deal for the Jedi. I’ve made a longer post about it here (and here), but the basic gist is: - That scene has Yoda giving the famous “Fear leads to the dark side” speech which is almost word for word how George Lucas describes how the Force works, showing the Jedi are narratively correct - “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” may be from the sequels, but it is thoroughly supported by the movies and TCW and Rebels and even supplementary canon material, including that the Jedi literally design their tests around both Masters and Padawans for it (Ilum, the Jedi Temple on Lothal, etc. - Anakin cannot admit to his fears in that TPM scene - We have examples of Jedi younglings do admit to their fears and the point isn’t not to have them, but to face them--the younglings in “The Gathering” are the most blatant example of this, but it’s also pretty much the entire theme of Jedi: Fallen Order, especially when Cal goes to Ilum to face his fears and get another kyber crystal. The point isn’t that Anakin--who has very good reasons to be afraid! nothing in the story or the Jedi have said he didn’t!--is wrong or bad, but that he’s not a great fit for the Jedi life because he is “unwilling to accept [Jedi philosophy] emotionally”.  And they’re right about this, because this is how George Lucas describes Anakin in commentary: “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.”  --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary And so this brings us to A T T A C H M E N T, which, yeah, we’ve been having this discussion forever, but I’m going to state it again:  Within Star Wars, ATTACHMENT IS NARRATIVELY A BAD THING.  It is consistently tied to possessive, obsessive relationships, to greed and an unwillingness to let things go when it’s time (letting go is a huge theme in Star Wars) and equating love with attachment is fundamentally wrong according to George Lucas’ Star Wars worldbuilding: “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people-- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith If attachment and love were the same thing, then he would be saying, “They should love their enemies, they should love the Sith.  But they can’t love.”  The way George makes the distinction shows that, no, attachment and love aren’t the same thing at all, attachment is not caring.  Further, there’s another instance of him showing there’s an important distinction between relationships and attachment and the association of attachmets with possession:  "Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.” --George Lucas, BBC News interview So, yes, when Anakin is attached to people, it is directly tied to obsession, possession, and greed, all things of the dark side: “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.”  --George Lucas, Time Magazine  “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary ATTACHMENT IS BAD IN STAR WARS AS THEY DEFINE IT. Finally, I’m going to circle back to: Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. Here’s the thing about this:  You know who else, by this logic, Qui-Gon should have been a father to?  OBI-WAN KENOBI. This isn’t said as “Anakin specifically needs a father” (which I think would be an interesting idea to bandy about and I’m not disagreeing, though, it’s complicated because of what Anakin refuses to accept emotionally), it’s said in a bigger context, that Qui-Gon is better than the other Jedi because he understands the need for fathers (and thus this ties into Return of the Jedi) and he’s ahead of the other Jedi, who apparently think loving and caring about people are bad things, but Qui-Gon does not treat Obi-Wan like his son.  Or, if he does, he’s not exactly a stellar dad about it. Within Master & Apprentice, there’s an incredibly consistent theme of how Qui-Gon thinks supportive things about Obi-Wan, but never says them aloud.  He thinks he should talk to Obi-Wan about the upcoming decision to be on the Council and then never does.  He could have explained why he kept Obi-Wan training the basics but he never does.  There are multiple instances showing that Qui-Gon is actually really, really bad at actually handling a young apprentice who needs him to talk to them about important things.  Qui-Gon continues this in From a Certain Point of View where he still never talked to Obi-Wan about everything that happened, even after he became a Force Ghost.     Damn, damn, damn. Qui-Gon closed his eyes for one moment. It blocked nothing; the wave of shock that went through Obi-Wan was so great it could be felt through the Force. Qui-Gon hadn’t thought Kirames Kaj would mention the Jedi Council invitation. It seemed possible the soon-retiring chancellor of the Republic might not even have taken much note of information about a new Council member. --Master & Apprentice     That comment finally pierced Qui-Gon’s damnable calm. There was an edge to his voice as he said, “I suspected you would be too upset to discuss this rationally. Apparently I was correct.”     “I thought you said my reaction was understandable,” Obi-Wan shot back. “So why does it disqualify me from hearing the truth?”    Qui-Gon put his hands on his broad belt, the way he did when he was beginning to withdraw into himself. “…we should discuss this at another time. Neither of us is his best self at the present.” --Master & Apprentice     Obi-Wan walked toward the door, obviously outdone. “At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I couldn’t understand you,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s just as true here at the end.”     Only yesterday they had worked together as never before. How did Qui-Gon manage to get closer to Obi-Wan at the same time he was moving further away?     Just before Obi-Wan would leave the room, Qui-Gon said, “Once, you asked me about the basic lightsaber cadences. Why I’d kept you there, instead of training you in more advanced forms of combat.”     Obi-Wan turned reluctantly to face him again. “I suppose you thought I wasn’t ready for more. The same way I’m not ready to believe in all this mystical—”     “That’s not why.”     After a long pause, Obi-Wan calmed to the point where he would listen. “Then why, Qui-Gon?”     “Because many Padawans—and full Jedi Knights, for that matter—forget that the most basic technique is the most important technique. The purest. The most likely to protect you in battle, and the foundation of all knowledge that is to come,” Qui-Gon said. “Most apprentices want to rush ahead to styles of fighting that are flashier or more esoteric. Most Masters let them, because we must all find our preferred form eventually. But I wanted you to be grounded in your technique. I wanted you to understand the basic cadences so well that they would become instinct, so that you would be almost untouchable. Above all, I wanted to give you the training you needed to accomplish anything you set your mind to later on.”     Obi-Wan remained quiet for so long that Qui-Gon wondered if he were too angry to really hear any of what he’d said. But finally, his Padawan nodded. “Thank you, Qui-Gon. I appreciate that. But—”     “But what?”     “You could’ve said so,” Obi-Wan replied, and then he left. --Master & Apprentice     "I owe you that. After all, I’m the one who failed you.“     "Failed me?”     They have never spoken of this, not once in all Qui-Gon’s journeys into the mortal realm to commune with him. This is primarily because Qui-Gon thought his mistakes so wretched, so obvious, that Obi-Wan had wanted to spare him any discussion of it. Yet here, too, he has failed to do his Padawan justice. --From a Certain Point of View, “Master and Apprentice” (Further, in Master & Apprentice, Qui-Gon thinks that the Jedi give Rael Averross--who is HUGELY paralleled to Anakin--too many exceptions, were too soft on him because he came to the Jedi later than most and has trouble thinking of them as his family, and he thinks they should have been stricter with him.) It’s also readily apparent within The Phantom Menace itself:

You can take some charitable views of this scene, that Qui-Gon was pushed into a corner where he had few other options (and this is the view I generally take even!), but this is after the entire movie where he’s never once indicated that Obi-Wan was ready, has instead indicated that he still has much to learn (not just of the Living Force, but in general), as well as made it clear that he’s still teaching Obi-Wan, like on the Trade Federation ship. And I do think Obi-Wan got over this because he understood, because Obi-Wan actually is a very selfless person, he clearly cares (which is furthered by how we see him warm up to Anakin very quickly), but look at their faces. This was not a good moment, and they do somewhat make up, where Qui-Gon says that Obi-Wan has been a good apprentice, that he’s wiser than Qui-Gon and he’ll be a great Jedi--but if we’re counting that as Qui-Gon being this great Jedi, then you can’t say Obi-Wan failed Anakin, given that we show him doing the exact same thing, except better.  He tells Anakin, “You are strong and wise and will become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”, echoing Qui-Gon’s words, but also he never threw Anakin aside for someone else. This is kind of a major undercurrent throughout The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan never takes another apprentice, where he continues to teach Anakin, to support him, even to the point of occasionally co-Mastering Ahsoka with him.  “This has been quite a journey for our Padawan.” Qui-Gon’s treatment of Obi-Wan in this scene isn’t the worst, he’s kind about it later (though, he never actually specifically apologizes for this), but we can see that this is a moment where Qui-Gon hurts Obi-Wan and knows it. And you know what George Lucas has to say about Qui-Gon?  This: “So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.”  –George Lucas, The Phantom Menace commentary There’s nothing about Qui-Gon being right or better than the other Jedi, but instead that Qui-Gon’s actions here are a source of much of the problems that develop later on. So, ultimately, I liked some points Dave made in that speech, it’s a beautiful and eloquent one, but I thoroughly disagree with his interpretation of George’s intentions for Qui-Gon and I thoroughly disagree that that’s what the movies, The Clone Wars (DAVE’S OWN SHOW), and the supplementary canon show about Qui-Gon and the other Jedi.  I still stand by my appreciation of Dave’s contributions to SW as a whole, I think he does a really good job at making Star Wars, but he doesn’t always get everything right and this is one thing where I think the canon and George’s commentary show otherwise, as much as I love his desire to defend the prequels’ importance in the story.  Because, my friend, I have felt that every single day of my SW life.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.  

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing.  It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side. 

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it. 

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!] 

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people.  But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends.  And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.  

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.    

[giuliafc]

Caught in the Loop

Read on Ao3 || FFN || Wattpad

Chat Noir bets to Ladybug that he loves the girl behind the spots, no matter who she is. Ladybug bets to Chat Noir that he's only her partner and best friend, she doesn't love him 'that' way. What happens when they accept to get caught into a spiritual 'loop' , living through many alternate realities to prove that they're right and win their bet? They end up losing it, of course. They lose *ROYALLY*. Lovesquare identity reveal with a twist!

Written for the March 2021 Writer-Artist Collab! Collab with ThatCattyCatCult (tumblr.com) here on Tumblr :)

Written by JuliaFC

Part of the March 2021 Writer-Artist collab for the Miraculous Fanworks server. The art in the story has been made by @TheCattyCatCult

Betas: KhanOfAllOrcs, Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Malauu-Ladynoir, Genxha

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

oOo

Part 1 - The bet

“Pound it!” Ladybug and Chat Noir’s gaze locked as they fist bumped after the latest akuma attack.

The fight hadn’t been that hard and they still had a couple of minutes to spare. Luckily, because the students of Françoise Dupont didn’t seem to want to let them go; Alya especially was pressing on their ribs like a thorn.

“Can you spare a word for the Ladyblog?” she asked excitedly, while plenty of other voices came from everywhere and nowhere, “Please, Ladybug, can I have an autograph?” “Chat Noir! Chat Noir, please smile at the camera!” The warning beep of their Miraculous rang worryingly unheard in the confusion.

“Sorry, guys, but we need to go,” tried to say Ladybug before being wrapped in yet another hug for a picture by yet another student. “Yes, it’s time to s-cat…” But the students still didn’t seem to want to let them go. Eventually the beep became stronger and Chat Noir grabbed Ladybug bridal style and, using his baton, he lifted both of them up and off from the crowd.

“As we said already: sorry, guys, we need to go!” He jumped out of the way, to then fall unnoticed in front of the door of the locker room.

“We don’t have time to find a place to hide!” said Ladybug worriedly.

Chat Noir sighed. Out went his chance of pretending that he didn’t know the school. “Come with me, there’s a place that I know.”

He grabbed her hand and dragged her away (just in time, because the locker door opened as soon as they moved and Chat Noir didn’t want to know who the student that had just come out of it was). He ran with her and reached the side of the library, quickly opening a closet door and disappearing inside it with her, closing it behind them. He had just done that, that in a flash of green and pink, their transformation fell. They could only turn around and stand back-to-back, their hearts racing in their chests. Tikki and Plagg came out of their Miraculouses with a twirl and fell into their hands.

“Gamin, that was close,” said Plagg panting.

“I need food, *burp*!” Tikki burped purple bubbles. “Whoops, sorry,” she concluded.

Marinette reached for her little purse and took out a macaron, which she handed to her little red friend gently. The kwami picked it up and started chewing on it with a thankful gleam in her eyes. On the other side, Plagg was doing the same with a slice of cheese.

“I’ve never seen this closet, Chat Noir,” said Marinette, sitting down on the ground, immediately imitated by her partner behind her. She pulled her legs close to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

Chat Noir fell silent for a long time. A suspiciously long time. After an even longer time, Marinette cleared her throat. “Elementary school, huh?”

Chat Noir was silent again. Only after a little while did she hear him say shakingly, “I had to say something.”

Marinette’s heart pounded in her chest. Was he admitting it? Was he a student at Françoise Dupont too? Marinette knew that she shouldn’t ask this information. She really shouldn’t, because it could jeopardise his identity, but she didn’t think before connecting her brain to her mouth. “So that’s why Plagg was here.”

She felt his head shoot up behind her and rest against the back of hers. “Careful, M’lady. Tikki was here too.” Her heart started pounding in her chest. Shoot. After all her hard work during the Kwamibuster’s fight, it only took one sentence to blow her carefully crafted cover.

She chuckled dryly. “So what? It’s a big school, there are hundreds of girls and boys studying here, Chat Noir. It’s not as if you’re sitting in front of me in class.”

Tikki facepalmed. Why did Tikki facepalm?

“I could,” came his voice from behind her back.

Her dry chuckle turned into a laugh. “Yeah, right… that would be close to impossible. Just think about it!”

“Why? Who’s sitting in front of you? A girl?” he asked. She didn’t like the tone of doubt in his voice as he asked that. Nor did she like the fact that he sounded as if he was genuinely interested and inquiring.

“Chat? We shouldn’t have this conversation. It’s already dangerous enough that now we both know that we attend the same school. It’s too dangerous to reveal our identities while Hawkmoth is still around.”

She clearly felt him tense behind her back. “Why is that, Buginette? What would change? You already know the identity of all the other holders, and you also have the entire Miracle Box hidden somewhere. If Hawkmoth gets his hands on the Miracle Box we would have a really hard time fighting against a whole team of superheroes. It would be dangerous anyway. What would change if we knew each other’s identities?”

Marinette sighed. His words rang true to her and she couldn’t deny that she had thought about it a few times and had always come to a similar conclusion. What was it that was wrapping such fear around her heart when she so much as considered the idea of revealing her identity to him? “Please, Chat, you know we can’t.”

She felt him crouch over himself. “It’s just… frustrating. We were talking about it the other day, Plagg and I. He was also there saying that because you’re the Guardian I should know who you are and you should know who I am. What happens if he’s sick, M'lady? Or if anything happens to me and I can’t return my Miraculous to you? The Black Cat is a powerful weapon in the wrong hands. You can’t afford to lose it like Master Fu did with the Butterfly and Peacock.” He said all of that in just one breath, or at least Marinette thought he did, because there was no pausing in between his words, it was all coming out at once.

“Wow, you have really put some thought into it,” she concluded.

She had to admit that what he had said again rang true to her. She knew that kwamis could get sick. Tikki had been sick once, after all; Plagg could be next. And the time Tikki had been sick, she had had to take Marinette to the Guardian. What if Plagg was so out of it that he wouldn’t be able to tell Chat Noir where to go?

“You know, Chat Noir has a point,” said Tikki in a very low voice. Marinette looked at her warily.

“I know, Tikki.” She sighed and hugged her legs more tightly, frowning looking at the air in front of her face. “I know, you’re right, chaton.” She heard his loud gasp from behind her and added quickly, “However… even though I know you’re right I still—I still can’t get myself to do it.”

“But why? Why, M’lady? Why don't you trust me? I know I’ve been a bit unreliable when you left for New York, but I had been forced to go myself. And beside then, did I ever give you any reason for—”

“No, you didn’t, Chat,” she interrupted his ramble. “And I know you’re right but…” She felt her throat clenching shut and tears starting to prickle at the corner of her eyes. “I don’t know what to do. The truth is that I’m scared. I’m terrified to change our balance. We’ve worked so well as a duo up to now, if we reveal our identities and the balance changes…”

“What would change? We would just put an unmasked face and a name in the equation. Why would it change anything if I think of you as Ladybug or... Marcelline or Martha or Marvel or Marinette?”

Marinette gasped so loudly that she had to move and peeked quickly by opening a small crack on the closet door to make sure that nobody had heard and was going to open the door on them all of a sudden.

“Are you okay?” asked Chat Noir. “Did I say something wrong?”

Marinette blushed crimson even though she knew that he couldn’t see it because he was back to back with her. How did he still remember the only slip up she had ever had about her identity, that first day when they faced Stoneheart? “Uh, no, you didn’t say anything wrong. You’re right.” Her breath caught. “I-I m-mean ,y-you’re r-right in y-your theory…”

She felt Chat Noir scratch his head. “Yeah. What else could I be right about?”

“N-nothing…”

It was Chat Noir’s turn to gasp. “I got your name right, didn’t I? Your name is one of those!” She couldn’t avoid tensing up and that was all he needed to confirm his suspicions. “M’lady, you know that, whoever you are, I would love you regardless.”

Marinette chuckled. “You always say that, minou, but would you really?”

“I swear I would! That day when we faced Stoneheart, when you spoke with Hawkmoth the first time, I saw the way you put your fears aside and faced that monster all by yourself. I heard the way you spoke to reassure the people of Paris that we were going to protect them, even if we both didn’t have a clue how things would have worked out. You were so brave, so passionate, so fierce, so compassionate, so… amazing. I felt something break in me and next thing I knew I was head over heels in love with you.”

“Chat, I’m not fierce and brave in real life!”

He grabbed her hand with his and Marinette jumped a little for the skin to skin contact. That time when the faced Knight Owl she had touched his naked hand, but it hadn’t felt half as intimate as this. “I’m sure that you are, Buginette.”

“And… I could be very ugly. Very fat. I could be a boy for all you know.”

“You wound me, M’lady. I’m not that shallow. I fell in love with the girl within.” Then he fell silent for a long moment and Marinette could feel the mad beating of her heart right into her ears. “And you can’t be a boy.”

She tried pulling her hand off his grip but he didn’t let her and started moving his thumb on her bare skin. This caused Marinette’s heart to do funny things in her chest but when she felt how tensed his shoulders were behind her, she realised that probably it was the same for him too.

“You got me,” she said softly. “I’m not a boy.”

“That’s good, because I’m not into other boys, as far as I know.”

Marinette giggled. “Well, after all, you only flirt with girls.”

More silence wrapped up the secluded room. “Can I ask a question?” said Chat Noir’s voice from behind her.

“Yes?” she tentatively answered.

“Why have we started talking about my feelings for you?” He paused significantly. Marinette felt her heart skipping a beat. “I mean, we were talking about revealing identities and you not wanting to do it. Have you caught feelings for me finally, M'lady? Are you afraid I wouldn’t love the girl behind the mask?”

Marinette’s heart did again some funny things in her chest as he said so. She gulped awkwardly. “N-no, I told you I like another boy. That hasn’t changed, Chat.”

She felt him slump his shoulders behind her. Her lips curled in a small smile. “Then why? Why does it matter to you if I would love you without the mask?”

Marinette sucked her breath in. “Uh. I-I d-don’t know. It just b-bugs me every time you say it.”

“Was that a pun, M’lady?” He chuckled.

“Of course not! It really annoys me.” She raised a little her tone of voice as she felt blood rushing to her face again.

“But why would it bother you or annoy you if you didn’t have feelings for me? You know what I think?” He poked her in her back with his elbow until she ‘mh?’-ed dubiously. “I bet you’ve developed some feelings for me and you just don’t want to admit it!” She could nearly hear his smirk.

“Not going to happen, minou. It just annoys me when you say it. As if you could just look at me detransform and accept whatever would come in front of your eyes. I bet that you wouldn’t love EVERYONE who could appear behind the Ladybug mask. There must be someone you would rather be me than anybody else.”

“Wanna bet? Such a shame that there’s no way that I can prove to you the depth of my feelings for you, M’lady or I definitely would.”

“You’re right, there’s no way to prove who would be right or not. I would love to prove to you that I’m definitely not having feelings towards you. You’re just my best friend, chaton.”

She heard Chat Noir behind her take some breath in, as if he was about to answer. But as he did that, they heard someone cough politely, so they both turned towards the origin of the sound and saw Tikki and Plagg looking at them with a gleam of annoyance in their eyes.

“Actually, there would be a way,” deadpanned Plagg.

“But it’s something that hasn’t been done for a very long time, nearly a millennium,” warned Tikki.

Plagg folded his paws to his tiny chest. “Yep. But it has been done and it’s possible, Sugarcube.”

Both Marinette and Chat Noir looked at their two kwamis in amazement. “What are you talking about, Plagg?” asked Chat Noir eventually.

Tikki sighed. “There’s a very, very ancient spell that hasn’t been used for nearly a millennium. It was mostly used for training purposes. Training of our holders.”

Marinette squirmed a little her eyes and looked at Tikki. “What do you mean, Tikki?”

“It’s called ‘the loop’. It’s yet another power that you get when you combine our Miraculouses.” Plagg looked at Marinette very seriously. “It’s not the Wish. It doesn’t change reality for real. It just wraps you two in a loop to learn a lesson.”

“Or to get clarity on a doubt,” concluded Tikki. “It was used solely for spiritual training.”

“How does it work?” said Chat Noir. Tikki sighed.

“You unify us and then ask for the loop. The loop creates a, well, loop, that creates in your mind a repetition of events that can bring clarity in your doubt.”

Plagg continued, “Basically it creates new realities, but only in your head. Since there are no consequences for anybody, as it is only in your head, it is not forbidden in the same way as the Wish.”

“Are you sure it won’t have bad consequences like with the Wish, Tikki?” asked Marinette. “Master Fu has always warned me not to unify you and Plagg.”

“It won’t have consequences that can change the balance of the universe, so in that sense it’s not a bad thing. But it’s still something you should consider very carefully,” pressed Tikki. “It could lead to you two understanding each other’s identities.”

“How?” asked both of them at the same time.

Tikki sighed. “You will understand if you decide to take on the loop. But one thing you need to remember if you do so.” Both teen agers looked very intently at the red kwami. “This loop creates entire realities in your head. You will be unconscious in this world and won’t be able to wake up until in your heart you will get clarity on whether you won or lost your bet. You will be bound in the reality you’re exploring and will have to take any difference between it and the “real world” as fact and just go with the flow. Don’t resist them or the loop won’t work.”

“I don’t know,” sighed Marinette. “It sounds so complicated.” But as she said that, she felt an elbow poking her ribs.

“Come on!” said Chat Noir. “Are you afraid of finding out that you are indeed in love with me, M’lady?”

She sucked her breath in. “No way! Maybe you should be afraid to find out that there’s no way that you can love just blindly whoever it is behind this mask!”

Chat Noir folded his arms on his chest. “There’s only one way of finding out!”

Anger started pooling into Marinette’s heart. Anger and a feeling of competition. Competition because she was being challenged. And she wasn’t the type to give up a challenge without a fight. She would prove to her kitty that she was right.

“Okay then. Give me your ring.” She distinctly felt Chat Noir gulping next to her. She presented her hand to him, expecting him to put the ring in her palm immediately, but the boy hesitated.

“What are you waiting for, Chat Noir? Christmas?”

She heard her partner breathe in to start talking at least four times. But he didn’t say anything and eventually, she felt the heaviness of the Black Cat ring on her palm. With a little sigh, she wore the ring on her own finger, watching as it changed from black to pink.

“Don’t worry, chaton. I will give it back to you,” she said calmly. Then she looked at the two kwamis in front of her and said it firmly, “Tikki, Plagg, Unify!” The two creatures got wrapped in a flash of light and their bodies merged together. Marinette looked down, as the light was very strong and hurt her eyes and heard Chat Noir gasping. “What is it, minou, if you can’t take it, don’t dish it out.”

He sniggered next to her and tsk-ed a couple of times. “Let’s see how cocky you are after you wake up and you realise that you’ve lost, Buginette.”

“Likewise, Chaton!”

When Marinette looked up, she couldn’t avoid widening her eyes. In place of Tikki and Plagg there now was a different kwami. A kwami that brought back memories that she would have preferred to keep buried into her subconscious for the rest of her days. It was a cat-like kwami, but its piercing blue eyes were the same shape as Tikki’s. It was completely snow white with black spots in the places where Tikki had her spots, and antennae at the front of its cat ears.

“I’m Chaoss. Who summoned me?” it said, its voice deep and strong. It sounded a voice too powerful for coming from a kwami that was a mixture of sweet Tikki and goofy Plagg.

“W-we’re the wielders of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses,” she heard her voice saying without almost realising she was actually saying it. “We want to ask for the loop.”

“Do you know what you’re going to face?” the kwami asked. Its gaze was deep and stern; it didn’t have any of the softness of Tikki or the playfulness of Plagg.

“Tikki and Plagg have told us something about it,” said Chat Noir. Marinette had to force herself to keep her eyes trained on the white kwami, because she hadn’t expected Chat to speak and she had nearly—nearly—turned her head towards him instinctively.

Chaoss’s gaze pierced through their very soul. “I’m amused,” it said with a smirk. “This is going to be great fun.”

“W-what do you mean?” asked Chat Noir, his voice having lost all cockiness all of sudden. He sounded scared. Marinette had to yet again bit her lower lip very hard to resist the urge to turn around to look at him.

“You will experience a series of realities related to your heart’s inner desire. Don’t look at me like that. This is why the loop has only been used for spiritual training. Your inner desire, Black Cat, is to prove to your Lady that your feelings for her are strong and that you love the girl behind the mask truly, no matter who she is or what she looks like.” The kwami smirked and Marinette assumed that Chat Noir must have nodded because Chaoss was looking at him directly when it continued, “You will face exactly that, Black Cat. Are you ready to face the consequences of your choice?”

“I am.” Chat Noir sounded so sure of himself that Marinette’s heart sank. She wasn’t sure at all. All her cockiness was only due to her competitive spirit and now that the possibility of the loop had become real, she didn’t feel confident anymore at all. That and the fact that Chaoss looked really creepy and was digging up memories in her heart that she really wished she had forgotten about.

But she couldn’t give it more thought, because Chaoss’s gaze locked into hers and her whole back tensed.

“And you, Lady Luck.” Marinette blushed crimson, she didn’t know why. “Are you so sure that your feelings towards him are only platonic?”

“Y-yes.”

The kwami’s gaze was so stern that Marinette felt as if it burned a hole in her soul.

“Are you certain that you wouldn’t miss his flirty ways and his puns if he didn’t use them anymore?”

“Yes!” That was much easier to say.

“Funny you say that,” smirked the white kwami. Marinette frowned. “You told him so many times that he’s irreplaceable, right?”

Marinette’s frown deepened. It was like talking to an old friend but to a new person at the same time. “Y-yes?”

“If he didn’t flirt with you and didn’t pun, wouldn’t he be like a different person?” The white kwami gave her again a look that seemed to be piercing her whole soul.

Shoot. She hadn’t thought about it in these terms. She didn’t know what to say and couldn’t bear to hold that icy blue stare, so Marinette lowered her gaze and flushed pink.

“Tell the truth, M’lady, you would miss my puns.” Chat Noir elbowed her jokingly.

Marinette groaned. “No way! I just wis—” but the second she said the word, a red gleam flashed through the white kwami’s icy gaze.

“Enough! Don’t say the forbidden word. Remember what you’re doing, Lady Luck.” The kwami’s voice was so deep and cavernous that Marinette was left terrified.

“I-I’m s-sorry,” she whispered. She flushed crimson. She was the Guardian of the Miracle Box. She was wearing the two strongest Miraculouses in the world, unified. She had nearly inadvertently made the Wish that would change reality. Oh she was SO not ready for this responsibility!

She felt a tight grip clench on her throat and tears started to worm their way out of the corner of her eyes, but before she could utter even one strangled sob, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Once again, he was at her side. He believed in her. He wanted her to feel his support. Her heart swelled for the gratitude that she felt towards the boy next to her. She nearly (again, so nearly) turned towards him, but she refrained from doing so at the last second.

“Tikki and Plagg were right. There’s so much chaos inside your soul that you need the loop to gain clarity and order. Order will make you stronger.” The white kwami started floating higher.

“I thought your name was Chaoss?” asked Chat Noir. “And you want to make order in our souls?”

The little white kwami sniggered. “Yes, Black Cat. There’s no Order without Chaos. There’s no Creation without Destruction. Chaos leads the way to Order in the same way as Destruction leads the way to Creation. Two parts of a whole. You need chaos to create order. You need death to allow life. Creation left alone would eventually produce death.”

“It kind of makes sense,” said Chat Noir.

“In a very twisted kind of way, yeah,” continued Marinette.

Chaoss smirked and flew again higher than their heads. “Good. You don’t need to understand it all, Black Cat and Lady Luck. But there are a couple of things that you do need to understand, and accept.” It turned towards Chat Noir. “You, Black Cat.” Chaoss paused significantly. “You will see many different realities in the loop. One of them will be real.”

“Wh—” started Chat Noir, but Chaoss’s cold gaze turned sterner.

“I won’t say. The first one? The last one? Any one in between? You just need to know that one will be the real deal. I will leave it to you to decide what to do with that information, and with what it will mean to you.”

Then, Chaoss’s gaze moved to Marinette and she couldn’t avoid gulping dryly. “You, Lady Luck.” The white kwami closed his electric blue eyes and sighed before opening them again.

“Your challenge will be different, but no less difficult. Maybe more difficult, in fact. The realities you’ll explore don’t exist. None of them exist. But they exist within themselves and within themselves the people who live them are real. Don’t fight them, or the loop won’t work. Remember that they may be alternate realities to this one, they may not exist, but they are still related to, and very much linked to this reality. You can think of them as ‘what if’s’. You will see, and experience, things that will surprise you. You may be shocked at some points, or feel as if you want to rip your heart out of your chest. But don’t fight the reality. Live it as if it were real. There’s a lesson in each and every of them, and the lesson is true.”

Marinette closed her eyes shut and breathed heavily before nodding. When she opened her eyes again, Chaoss was staring at both of them, a wide smirk on its lips.

“This will be fun. Not for you, but it will be fun.” The kwami flew higher. “Ladybug. Chat Noir. You called for my power and you asked for the loop. You’ve been informed of the consequences of your request. Are you ready to begin?”

Marinette started feeling hot. And cold. And hot again. Her frame was shaking so heavily that her teeth started chattering. “Y-yes.” She nodded a couple of times, as if trying to convince herself that it was okay, even if it wasn’t. She heard Chat Noir say the same thing, with a voice as shaky as hers.

“Good. Get ready to both lose your bets, kids. See you next time!” Marinette widened her eyes. What made Chaoss so certain that they would both lose their bets?

“Wait!” she shouted, moving a hand forward as if trying to stop the white kwami, but the creature’s eyes started gleaming and its body pulsating. The darkness of the room was lit up with a spark of pure energy and Marinette had to close her eyes shut because the brightness was nearly hurting her pupils. She felt as if pulled up by a strong wind and then pulled back down again, almost feeling like falling.

Author's Note

Hi there!

This is my effort for the March 2021 Writer-artist collab. It's an idea I had for a while, and when the artist I was paired with showed some interest on it, I thought 'why not', so here it is! Hope you'll like it :)

In the next chapter, we start getting into the loops. I can only tell you that it will be quite an experience, for both of them. Chaoss wasn't kidding!

I hope you will leave me a comment. What did you think about Chaoss? Chapter 2 isn't written yet, so I don't know when I will update, but you know the drill. I tend to prioritise the stories that receive more feedback, because I feel I let down less people ^^. So if you want to know what happens next and what will they find in the loop... subscribe, comment, put the story in your favourite, leave a kudos... not only it cheers me up, but it also makes me more eager to dedicate my nights to write rather than to other menial activities (like sleeping for example!)

Last but not least, as usual, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon. Not sure when I will update this story but it won't be too long! Promise!

[duran-duran-less-official]

Posts That Could Start a Flame War: A Tale of Two Fandoms

I think I've cracked the code on the divide between stereotypically male and stereotypically female modes of fandom interaction.

On average:

Men are more likely to engage with their favourite works by cherishing and revering what is already there.

Women are more likely to engage with their favourite works by expanding it through adding their own material to it.

This theory explains much of what I observe in fandom circles which comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of how people show their appreciation of a work.

For example, it explains much of the observable "gatekeeping man" phenomenon that women claim to witness all the time. It is an easy enough principle to understand: a woman who has been shunned by her peers for much of her formative/adolescent years for her fringe interests finally finds a male-majority group that purports to love the thing(s) she loves - but upon entering it, she is immediately confronted by a man (who for the sake of the stereotype, is slightly overweight) who gives her, in her perception, a pop quiz about every last detail of the show. And of course as a new member of the fandom, she feels as though she is failing some test that she shouldn't need to pass in order to 'prove' that she likes the thing.

What I think is missing from this conversation is the fact that, in a male-majority fandom, this is the slightly overweight man’s way of expressing his love for the piece of media. This is a normal fan interaction to him. He hasn't necessarily been in a situation before, especially in a male-majority fandom group, where someone else doesn't know how to engage with the work by obsessing over every minor detail of the world as he does. She probably has a fantastically written, lovingly crafted AU fanfiction which explores the future of the series if one of the characters hadn't died, but he doesn't necessarily know how to broach that subject because that's not what he came here to do.

And the problem is, each gender (roughly speaking) thinks that their way is either the best way to engage with fandom, or the only way they know how to do, and this causes the gulf that is at the heart of a lot of fandom discourse on sexism and erasure. Take for example the idea, persistent for a fair few years now, that women were always part of Star Trek fandom, and erased from it. This is technically correct, but misleading. The media's perception of the male Star Trek fan, such as those who confronted William Shatner on Saturday Night Live to ask what the passcode to his locker was, or the fans in Galaxy Quest who happened to know the exact plots, layouts, and other detail-oriented facts about every single episode (which comes in handy when the real life actors need to perfectly recreate a sequence from one of the episodes), is definitely a male-dominated perception of that fandom, but, and this is the tricky bit, not unjustifiably so. Women are not erased from it because women are by and large not part of it.

The problem is that there are two Star Trek fandoms. One of them catalogues the precise layout of the U.S.S Enterprise with such unerring dedication that they can instantaneously call it to mind when asked. The other writes homoerotic Kirk/Spock slash fiction and coins the term "Mary Sue", to fill a hole of untapped potential that they perceive in the subtext or the unseen portions of the series.

And seldom do the two actually meet on common ground.

This is also a problem you can see regarding the SJW/dudebro rhetorical framework of reactions to franchise remakes, sequels, reboots, etc. Most people aren't trashing your desire to partake in fandom because they think you don't belong there. Some of them are. Most people aren't tarnishing your favourite media because they're SJWs. Some of them are. But the bigger problem by far is that there are two different audiences who want to do two different things with continuations of their favourite franchises.

See, if I can de-gender these stereotypes a bit, the cataloguing fans, knowing everything they do about their favourite works, have a deep and abiding sense in their heads of what these characters and worlds are supposed to look like. They value the continuity of that world and those characters between installments. Any substantial deviation from that is anathema to them because it means they need to rewrite details of a character or setting - and to them, loving the character involves loving each little one of their details too. Having to lose a detail of the character in service to a new, unfamiliar detail, is like losing a part of the character itself.

For the fanwork fans, I’m much more a cataloguing fan than a fanwork fan so I have to guess a bit, but I would reckon they they love to create alternate interpretations of things, so a complete reworking of a character’s existing motivations, characterizations, plausible actions, is not complete anathema to them and in fact only heightens their enjoyment of the characters more. They value the unexplored territory of a world, the “What if?”s and the missed opportunities that make an excellent blank canvas for alternative interpretations (their own, for example) to run wild.

Hmm. Continuity vs. unexplored territory. It’s easy to see how those values could clash.

Star Wars is a great example of this. The Last Jedi unequivocally slaughtered Luke Skywalker - not just literally, but also the conception of his character that many cataloguing fans have had in their head. The reason why the prequel trilogy was merely “a series of badly made movies that are canon I guess” whereas the sequel trilogy is touted as “Disney burying Star Wars” (with one notable exception which I’ll get to in a minute) is that, for all its faults, the prequel trilogy built a world and a series of character motivations that, with the sole exception of midichlorians, was consistent enough with the Jedi and the characters of Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda that cataloguing fans had grown up with in the original trilogy. And midichlorians were easy enough to ignore if you only overlooked one very short practically inconsequential scene in Episode I.

The crime of The Last Jedi was to create a vision of Luke Skywalker that was fundamentally incompatible with the ‘established’ version of him that cataloguing fans had seen previously.

As for the fanwork fans, again much of this is guesswork, but I know that one of the most fertile grounds for fanfiction writers to furrow is the torture and emotional traumatization of their favourite characters, as long as putting them through the wringer gives them some kind of closure or catharsis at the end. The version of Luke Skywalker that appears in The Last Jedi is not inconsistent with this, because it ends with him getting the closure of dying knowing that his cynicism and pessimism was spent, and in its place there was hope and peace in his heart. He also gets, after letting Kylo Ren run him through with a lightsaber to negligible effect, a certain catharsis in his demonstration of how impotent the rage of a Sith Lord can be vs. the calm inner peace of a Jedi. TLJ also fulfills the fanwork fan’s need for expanding upon untapped potential by showing us Leia’s Force powers in action. For cataloguing fans who are concerned with the minutiae of what The Force can and cannot do, this was ridiculous, but for a fanwork fan who grew up idolizing Princess Leia, it only makes sense that her connection to The Force would be something incredibly powerful but also largely non-violent.

The Mandalorian, on the other hand. is currently being touted by all types of fans as a love letter to Star Wars, and for people who hated the sequels, it is the sequels that the original trilogy deserved. Having not seen it myself, I would guess that this is because it walks a very fine line between maintaining continuity with just about all the minutiae of world- and character-building that cataloguing fans of the original trilogy hold dear, but also in fulfilling a lot of the untapped potential of the Star Wars universe, and answering a few unanswered questions, that the fanwork fans crave. The one notable divide I saw was a lady complaining quite loudly that the inclusion of Boba Fett in the series was an inexplicable case of pandering to dudebro fanboys who don’t need to be pandered to (remember: each thinks their way of doing fandom is the best way). While I understand that fanwork fans desire to tread new ground in a series where Boba Fett has already been done to death, I also understand the cataloguing fan’s desire to establish continuity in a series such as this, and I am hard-pressed to think of a suitable piece of Star Wars media for Boba Fett to do a new cameo in, than a TV series that is explicitly about characters who are like Boba Fett doing things that Boba Fett would also have done.

The questions remain whether fandoms of such a size can or even should heal their own internal divides. To answer those, we would first need to find common ground where everyone understands that their modes of engaging with their favourite fandoms are different and they carry different expectations of the media they love. This approach alone may help to heal the divide a bit - knowing the difference between erasure from a fandom and simply looking at the wrong one is a subtle but significant difference. The task of understanding why a continuation of a series resonates with some people but utterly alienates others needs a better and more nuanced approach than to assume bad faith or ignorance on the part of the other people, or to generate a tired bigot/SJW dichotomy.

Don’t assume that people are into something for the same reasons you are. Remember that people can dislike something that you like, without reference to the reasons for which you like it, while still understanding it.

[technobladetimestamps]

Nov 16 Stream Timestamps

Timestamps from Technoblade’s “THE REVOLUTION (dream SMP)”

Link to my youtube comment with all of the timestamps x

Timestamps with hyperlinks below

02:13  “This is a surprise tool which will help us later” / thumbnail isn’t foreshadowing / video thumbnails have to be big / stream thumbnails can be detailed 05:17  “The traitor is actually Jschlatt” / firework crafting 09:50  “The ratio is impeccable” 13:23  “Dream’s in the game! My audience retention rate” / vc with Tubbo & Quackity / traitor Jschlatt theory / “Are you high?” “A little” 14:47  “You’re a bit of a wildcard” “I am the most consistent character on the entire server” / “What’s this about getting into power” / “We’ll burn this bridge when we get to it” 15:54  “You really are such an English major” / “You’re an idiom” / malaphor / “I’m actually speaking twice as much English as you guys” 18:07  “I think Thunder is overcompensating in the chat” / “Where can you see me” “In my heart” (Karl & Quackity) / Karl not leaving vc 20:33  vc with Niki / “Did Tubbo just leave me? I spaced out for 2 seconds” / “You can’t call everyone the traitor” “I can & will” 22:45  “You know it’s an event when Skeppy’s here” / “You know it’s a big deal when Georgenotfound wakes up” / “Everyone leaves me” 23:31  explaining the traitor thing to Niki / “Maybe I’m a sleeper agent” / had to kill Tubbo 25:03  nothing happened with that creeper / Fundy interrogating Niki / “Why did I train her for MCC” 25:54  “Even YOU’RE leaving me” / sad music / “I’m sitting here with 203k viewers & it’s not enough for any of these streamers to bear talking to me for more than 60 seconds” / Skeppy joins vc to immediately leave 28:50  Karl has a gift for Techno / Karl is just here for the animatic 32:21  “At least the chat won’t leave me” / pays for his music 35:01  “I’m going to destroy the government so bad” / “I hate all of the farming updates on skyblock” 37:45  joining a vc / “I just got stood up in like 4...conversations in rapid succession” / “My new years resolution was to make friends & it’s november & I’ve made zero headway” / Eret switches sides 41:53  Ender chest setup / worried about hotbar management / potions > shields   43:13  vc with allies / “Karl you are literally the biggest third wheel I have ever seen” 45:03  angering the dogs / trident combo 47:13  “D!ck with one ball” (Tubbo) 50:25  “Let’s hope Wil overslept like [George]” 53:09  recruiting Eret / “If you fight on our side we’ll make you the King of Burger King” / “He’ll be an executive citizen” / “I’m surrounded by idiots” 54:58  putting Schlatt on the allies list / “Schlatt is an alcoholic high on protein power” (Fundy) 56:47  can’t trust Eret / “I hate it when you’re right” (Tubbo) / Wilbur joins vc 59:50  having a moment with Hubert / “Not even the mobs like me” / sad music / “I just gained 8k subscribers the sadness is gone” / cow pit exp farm 1:02:57  vc with Niki / “I’m going to join the other vc AHHHHH” 1:05:02  “Once everyone meets up...I have something prepared” / “Technoblade when are you not ready?” “When I joined the server” 1:09:38  “Who do you take me for? Of course I’ve read the Art of War. It’s written by Mozart” / battle planning 1:12:18  “This is the betrayal...happening very slowly” 1:13:35  Pan1 / “This revolution is so doomed” 1:15:29  Dream attack / Quackity dies 1:18:07  “Agree Retweet” / “Violence is the only universal language” / “i have a supply” / “Why do you talk in upwards inflections constantly?” 1:19:57  Techno not getting to talk / “He took it all by force didn’t he” / “Fear into Ear” 1:23:50  Techno telling everyone he has a stash twice / distributing blue / mushroom the fox 1:26:49  Tommy talking over Techno again / “Stop going off on your tangents” “We have food at home” 1:29:30  vault reveal / Tubbo stealing emeralds / secret chest 1:32:40  “Shut up bro you are green as shit” (Tommy) / “Everyone give me back my stuff you don’t deserve it” 1:34:41  no netherite swords / “Who’s the traitor” “Promise we won’t be mad” 1:36:31  battle / Technoblade trident maneuvering / giving rocket launchers to Tubbo & Tommy 1:40:27  killing Karl / Dream bringing out the end crystals / fighting invis Dream / purpled switches sides 1:43:57  Dream wants to talk / 309k / group photos 1:46:08  vc with Dream / “But only if my enemy insists” / in the van with Schlatt / “What are you doing in my drug van? It better not be drugs” / Tommy preparing to shoot Schlatt 1:54:42  “We won” / “We killed an old man with heart problems! It only took 20 of us!” / President Innit / subscribe to Technoblade sign 1:55:57  Dream & Techno talk in chat / Tommy speech / “It was meant to be” / “I don’t think anyone is bowing to Tommyinnit” / “Karl don’t be weird” / Skeppy has a disc 1:59:06  Techno being apprehensive on mute / Tommy makes Wilbur President / “I’ll be the president” “I’m gonna veto that” / “Techno...you’ve taught me that government is not the way to go” / Wilbur makes Tubbo president 2:03:20  “I’m not sure I like where this is going x2” / “I’m not sure this is a good ending” / “Team chaos” “Perhaps” 2:06:20  Techno shoots Tubbo / Philza joins / “You think Schlatt was the cause of your problems? No. It was government” / speech gets interrupted / “The government ends here, I’ll kill it myself!” 2:09:23  Phil kills Wilbur / techno yelling for silence / “Tommy you just did a coup...& instilled yourself as president” 2:12:11  “If you want to be a hero THAN DIE LIKE ONE” / wither spawning / killing his former allies 2:15:09  post fight talks / “There will be no new government today. It will be over my dead body” / “Techno was not the traitor” 2:18:50  “I need to increase the crater that is L’Manberg so that no country can rise in its place” / “Mom says it’s my turn on the flame bow” 2:23:51  “What I’m doing right now is small scale. This is the work of an individual. This is nothing compared to the cruelty governments all around the world [inflict]...systematically” / “Llamas are the primary victims of war” / “I just wanna be apart of the explosion” (George) 2:27:06  Techno joins vc / connor joins the server / “I hope you’re proud of yourself Techno” “I kinda am” / Jack Manifold (Thunder) being broke / netherite armor 2:32:30  “Beach episode” / Techno accidentally joins the L’Manberg vc 2:35:16  the base is compromised / “There’s no way Technoblade would put a clock there if it didn’t mean anything” / got robbed 2:37:37  “If you’re going to ask me how I got all these emerald & arrows that’s a story for another day” / explaining the bedrock / “I can give everyone stuff & it’ll be such a flex” 2:40:24  Greek mythology 2:41:45  The Golden Apple / “They didn’t use discord back then they used skype, so can’t invite Eris” / “Zeus the god of feminism” 2:46:02  Eret recruiting Techno to kill George / joining vc / “Let’s stop him before he gets land” / Awesamdude proposing a fight 2:49:08  “No one can kill me I’m invincible” (logs out) / Dream literally names the turtle potions Sam thinks he hasn’t heard of / “I’m at soup” / “It’s not smack talk he just has that many items” 2:53:06  “Stab him Dream, I’ll shout encouraging words” / Techno fighting Bad & Ant 2:56:23  Dream wins / “I think there was this Dream guy attacking you with some sort of weapon” 3:00:11  turtle potions / Dream hyping up Techno about fighting BBH / Badlands negotiating with George 3:04:34  vc with Philza 3:07:00  spider farm afk’ing / lagging Quackity’s computer 3:09:06  smp earth / Phil only logged on to back Techno up 3:10:32  killing George / “I’m gonna drop his armor off don’t jump me” / not fighting Dream 3:13:00  vc with Karl & Phil / Karl definitely not starting a government / “Chat that was the boring part, don’t leave” / 320k / “Why do we keep scheduling these on Monday?” 3:16:18  “I don’t even want to think about how famous Tommy will be in the future” / “I get a tad bitter” / covid is good for youtubers but obviously bad / “I’m so good at socially distancing” 3:19:51  “Aren’t you tired of being nice Philza? Don’t you just wanna go crazy” / “You should be wary of the old in a profession where people die young” / vc with Eret 3:21:47  “What if you built a slightly larger throne next to it?” /  “How are they paranoid of a mole but the guy with a track record of being a traitor gets no questions asked” 3:25:47  “I’m gonna place a block at the bottom & kill you instantly” / reverse mlg /  emerald rich even with Tubbo’s theft 3:27:57  “I’ll allow it” / upstairs chests robbed / Eret disconnects with the book 3:32:04  armor sabotage bc he thought it’d be 1v5 / crystals are mutually assured destruction / Wilbur afraid of tnt getting blown up early 3:34:11  the diary was actually Eret’s / “He’s gonna tell everyone who I have a crush on. Nooo” / reading the 100 page book / “Can I not win here?” “No” 3:40:14  “This stream has released more serotonin in my brain than the last 6 months combined” / revolution was overcrowded / could improve the crater 2:43:09  “Awkward ten minute period where I’m just sitting there watching them set up a new government but I can’t kill them yet” / Carl is missing 3:44:34  “The one time Technoblade is gonna roleplay & they talk over him” / “CARL” / “As long as Sapnap isn’t the one that took him there’ll still be hope” 3:46:10  “Once you start using end crystals it’s the only pvp that matters & end crystal pvp is so lame” / Webtoons 3:49:10  “What’s going to happen to you & WIlbur now?” “I don’t know, I think I’m chill with Wilbur” / “The only thing that changed is my voice. Zero personal growth” / lines from the first speech that got interrupted / “King George is trending booo” 3:52:00  1 million twitter followers / “O god it’s been four hours...I am not built for this” / did a 13 hour stream once / sub growth goals 3:56:30  “What the heck is Phil watching”

[dtrhwithalex]

TV | Loki (105)

105: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY

D: KATE HERRON. W: TOM KAUFFMAN. Original Air Date: 07 July 2021.

Non-spoiler-free recap and review of the fifth episode of LOKI, which airs every Wednesday on Disney+.

RECAP

Picking up from last week's mid-credit scene, we find Loki stranded in an unknown place, where he is found by four other Loki variants. The place, it turns out, is the Void, and it is where all destroyed timelines end up. The Void is home to Alioth, a cloud creature which devours everything thrown into the Void and removes it from existence permanently.

While Loki and his new companions hurry to safety -- a bunker they have survived in together since arriving in the Void --, back at the TVA, Sylvie is forcing Renslayer to give her the answers about the TVA and the Time Keepers she is looking for. Claiming to want those answers herself as well, Renslayer teams up with Sylvie and they use Miss Minutes to access data. They realise that, much like Sylvie had been able to hide from the TVA in apocalypses, whoever is behind everything may be hiding beyond the timeline, inside or behind the Void. However, going beyond the Void is impossible, except with a spacecraft specifically designed to do so. However, it turns out, Renslayer lied about the craft and has merely been stalling. She has no intentions to betray the TVA and join forces with Sylvie. In a stand-off with Renslayer and her agents, Sylvie -- still in possession of Renslayers TemPad -- decides that the only way to be sure about her theory, is to prune herself and be sent to the Void.

Meanwhile, Loki had learned about the individual stories of the Variants as well as the reality of the Void and Alioth, and has decided that the only way to leave the Void, is to kill Alioth. The variants laugh at this plan, so Loki decides to go at it himself, however, before he can leave the bunker, an army of other Loki variants led by PRESIDENT LOKI (TOM HIDDLESTON) infiltrate the bunker and seek to overthrow Kid Loki who is, among the Lokis, the current ruler. As it is a main characteristic of Lokis to betray others, a fight among the variants for the throne breaks out, and Classic, Kid, Alligator, and our TVA Loki make an escape. Reluctantly, the others decided to help Loki get to Alioth.

Having pruned herself, Sylvie has arrived in the Void and immediately has to escape from Alioth. In her escape, she uses magic to defend herself and realises that the creature could be enchanted. While running from Alioth, a small Pizza delivery car races towards her to aid her in the escape. The driver, it turns out, is none other than Mobius. While driving away from the creature, Sylvie makes a similar realisation as Loki: the only way out of the Void is through Alioth, so she has Mobius turn around.

While our Loki variants are in the Void, Renslayer seeks answers herself. Hunter B-15, who had aided Sylvie in her escape, had been imprisoned, and Renslayer goes to her for intel about Sylvie. B-15 realises that Renslayer was not entirely lying when she told Sylvie she, too, wanted to know who is behind the TVA. However, she tells Renslayer, Sylvie would manage to find out way before Renslayer would ever get to her, because she needed to, and Renslayer only wanted.

Back in the Void, the Loki variants arrive near Alioth and our Loki starts to lay out his plan of attack -- only to witness a ship being dumped into the Void and immediately being completely devoured by Alioth, making him reassess his plans. Sylvie and Mobius arrive at the same spot and Sylvie lays out her plans to them -- she wants to enchant Alioth and make it show them what it is protecting. While Sylvie and Loki share a moment outside, talking about the future and themselves, Mobius and the other Lokis are talking in a decaying house nearby.

The Lokis decide to remain in the Void, despite the possibility of escape with Sylvie's TemPad. Our Loki, too, decides to stay and help Sylvie defeat Alioth and find out who is behind the TVA. Taking the TemPad, Mobius says his good-byes to Loki and Sylvie and then returns to the TVA with the plan to burn the whole thing to the ground. Taking on Alioth, Loki starts to distract the creature in order to give Sylvie time to enchant it, however, his efforts are too small. In an act of extreme power, Classic Loki conjures up Asgard as a distraction, allowing Loki and Sylvie to enchant Alioth together. Just as Classic Loki's powers fail and he is, presumably, devoured by Alioth, who is now rapidly approaching the enchanters, the plan works. Within the clouds of Alioth, a space opens, revealing a building beyond the Void.

FAVOURITE MOMENTS

I think unsurprisingly at this point, my favourite moments in this episode feature Mobius. I loved the moment when he picks up Sylvie in his little Pizza car. I may have yelled quite a bit when I saw his face again. Their conversation in the car is also quite lovely.

I also really liked the scene with Mobius and the Loki variants in the little hut while our Loki and Sylvie are outside. I just thought it was delightful how they immediately take to him and ask him questions.

Most favourite moment goes, of course, to the hug. I definitely cheered. I love their dynamic so very much. I just hope that this wasn't the last they see of each other. That would be a shame.

FAVOURITE CHARACTER(S)

Our main man Loki, once again, of course. Also, of course, again Mobius (I am still kinda mad about how much I like him). But I gotta say I also really enjoyed the Loki variants. Richard E. Grant as classic Loki was amazing. And I loved Hiddleston as President Loki also very much. That is an excellent costume.

Also, shout-out to Hunter B-15 for being a badass. I love her and I hope she gets to kick some TVA ass next episode.

QUESTIONS, CURIOSITIES

Of course, like everyone else, I am wondering who is behind the TVA and the Time Keepers, but I am assuming we will find out exactly that next week. So, I'll talk about something else.

I am still very unsure about the whole Sylvie thing. She's definitely a Loki, that's for sure. But seeing all the other possible Loki variants who are all (if applicable) male, having her as the only female version kinda irks me. The comment about it, too. What was it, "that's a terrifying idea"? Something like that? It just doesn't really land right. Loki is, canonically, a genderfluid character. But if Sylvie is the only female version of him, that's not genderfluid. That's just an alternative timeline. And that bothers me.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

While overall quite a fun episode with some amazing visuals and lovely moments, something about this one was kinda off. I liked it very much, still, but the whole Sylvie/Loki thing feels very odd and the fight between all the Loki variants felt kinda thrown away for comedic effect. I thought the episode was great, but it had potential to be even better. But I am really pleased with this show generally.

[still image taken from the episode's imdb page]

[justphilia]

Mob Psycho Characters Playing Minecraft (Headcanons)

Shigeo

He starts with creative mode, just to get the gist of it, before finally heading into survival but on peaceful. Then he’ll do survival easy mode and just stay on that tier forever, until he feels more confident to up his game a little higher.

Only played because Telepathy club was playing and he heard the word “Mob” and was like; “Did you call me?” and the club goes “nah fam, it Minecraft.” “what’s Minecraft.” Boom he plays.

Most likely to have a farm with a lot of cows

Has a dirt house/villager’s house on the first night and stops at just that.

Not much of a great builder

Takes forever to get diamonds

Dies often, but not too much. Just often enough for him to lose a few good iron pickaxes.

Always goes to bed once it’s night.

Most likely to have a pet cat

He just plays for fun, when he’s bored and stuff. So he doesn’t go as far as to defeating the ender dragon. He’ll travel to the nether though, just for potion making

But he does play a heck more when Teru’s around, or when the Telepathy club invites him.

He awaits for a frog update

Reigen

Jumps into survival hardcore right off the bat after watching one play through

Most likely to have a villager colony and farm

Makes a wooden house with windows and stuff on the first night with a furnace and a crafting table and a bed. The essentials. But he won’t stay in one house often and will move a lot

He can build, but he’s pretty amateur at it, he’s a fast learner though so he could easily replicate houses he see online

He’s the type of guy that never stops mining until he finds diamonds, which means he makes sure he’s at 13-11y in coordinates, has a shit ton of extra pickaxes, and stacks upon stacks of torches. Once he finds them goodies, he heads on home and repeats the cycle

He’ll defeat the ender dragon if he’s bored enough or when someone challenges/pays him to.

Same goes with The Wither

Will skip Minecraft sleep very often and will only go to bed when the phantom starts attacking

Most likely to have many many pet dogs, each one of them have name tags.

When he dies, he gets mad for a few hours, then jumps right back in. He doesn’t die all that often though, so he won’t rage quit.

He gets the minecraft books later on and you can see him reading it under his table time to time

Ritsu

He starts off with easy or normal without much knowledge on the game, probably only played because Shigeo introduced him to or Shou bugged him about it.

He’ll have a farm, but just for resources. Won't have much animals, mostly crops. He’ll live next to a village if there is one.

His first house will also be a dirt house, he’ll improve it overtime and add more levels and decorations. It can get very pretty in the end and he’ll be content to just stay and keep adding more to his house.

Not the best builder, but good enough for people to compliment it. He feels especially proud when Shigeo likes them, so he’s keen on building better and more.

He plans before he mines, calculates how many torches he needs and plans out what he’s exactly looking for, even calculates how many hunger bars each food item will fill before taking it with him.

If he gets really into the game, he’ll defeat the ender dragon, wither and head on into the nether. Not in that order though.

Will sleep if he doesn’t need to do anything

Most likely to have pets, perhaps a cat, or a dog, or a parrot. Only one though.

When he dies, he accepts it and moves on. Though, that would rarely happen.

Recently got into a forced Minecraft marriage with Shou. Is it forced if he enjoyed it though?

Teru

This bitch really just gonna jump right into survival just to flex on Shigeo.

Duh, of course he’ll have a farm. Will probably talk to the animals.

His first house is either borrowed from a villager or built with wood, but it’ll definitely not be a simple ass wooden house. It will be a nice fucking mansion, just watch him, he will. He’ll fight all the mobs he needs to just to built this mansion right off the bat, doesn’t even care if the first night he sleeps roofless.

Really good at building, because he wants to compete with Ritsu for fun and boast about it to Shigeo. Shigeo would just clap and be like “Wow so cool.”

“Thanks, made it myself, I can make one for you.” Shigeo declines, he’s an independent man, which makes Teru a mixture of disappointment and oh-my-god-you’re-adorable???

He doesn't plan when he mines, he just estimates and half ass some stuff before he struts into the cave. Sometimes he gets lost, but that’s perfectly fine.

Will defeat every mob boss and mob ever to show Shigeo he’s very powerful.

Doesn’t sleep, fights the phantom instead. Will sleep if Shigeo asks him to.

Most likely to have a pet cat, but he doesn’t mind dogs.

When he dies, he’s an angry baby and makes up some excuse as to why he’s dead. “I was distracted, didn’t see the lava. Whoops I guess ha ha no big deal.” But it is a big deal, he lost his diamonds, he wants to give it to his boyfriend but he cannot. Because he died.

Has yet to marry Shigeo in Minecraft.

Shou

Plays because he is a gamer. Survival hardcore ftw. He only plays multiplayer with Ritsu these days, never single player because he has been playing Minecraft his whole childhood and it gets boring on his own.

What’s a fucking farm? I take my food from my Minecraft husband.

Sleeps in a cave, but if Ritsu’s done with the house, he joins his bed with him and sleeps under a roof.

But he’s really really good at building, probably the best next to Serizawa. If you gave him the resources and time, he can recreate Seasoning City.

A concerning miner, jumps in with just torches and a pickaxe and somehow still survives (mostly because Ritsu always goes looking for him)

Could probably easily defeat the bosses because he has already done it so many times

Will only sleep when Ritsu is, which is almost all the time.

He owns every kind of animal.

He dies too many times because he really doesn’t mind, it makes Ritsu mad and that’s what keeps him going.

Shou was suffocated in sand.

“S H O U.” Ritsu yells at the boy next to him.

Was the one that proposed to Ritsu, invited everyone to the wedding; including Serizawa and Reigen.

Serizawa

Played while he was still hiding in his home, so he knows everything about the game when he finally played it with Reigen or the kids.

He loves farming, even the animals, it’s oddly calming to take care of something that won’t die unless he hits em.

He always collects resources first before he actually starts building a home, so he always sleeps in a cave or a villager’s house.

After years of experience, he became really good at building, he use to spend time recreating maps from other games. But he says Shou is better than him, the boy disagrees.

Yeah he mines, but he’s wary of dying when he heads into the cave, so he always brings too many torches. 

Makes sure he is very very prepared before defeating bosses

Always sleeps in time, because Reigen said so. Well, because Reigen advised it, what a hypocrite am I right?

Doesn’t have pets, and even if he does, he always make them stay put at one place.

Doesn’t die all that often, almost not at all.

He pretends to not be good at the game when Reigen’s around, he mostly lets the other do what they wanna do because he loves watching his husband play.

“Serizawa! Look, I made the zombie villager back into a villager!” Reigen pointed, Serizawa smiles and nods. He already knew how to do that, but Reigen’s discovery makes it feel he discovered something new himself.

Tome

Bro this woman is so experienced to a point everyone consults her for tips.

She’s building up to find aliens in minecraft, even though they don’t exist, but she’s convinced they’re an easter egg or something.

No, she doesn’t farm. She takes em from the villagers, but she has a few beehives here and there.

She’s only mining to find diamonds as a peace offering to minecraft aliens.

One time she thought the Wither was an alien.

One time, she thought the phantom was an alien.

One time she thought the ghast was an alien.

Has died multiple times because she is careless, but she is never upset about it. Always jumps right back into the game immediately.

Parrots are her pets, because they f l y and d a n c e.

One time she thought the creepers were aliens.

She has this summoning circle made of redstone and torches in case there really are aliens.

She believes in herobrine and sometimes tries to summon him.

She thinks the aliens made the temples in minecraft.

Other Characters

Minegishi has so many bees and flowers and crops it’s almost covering the whole map.

Takenaka plays because it’s very quiet and calming

Shimazaki cannot play. He is blind.

Shou’s old resistance team use to play with him, now they sometimes play together as a trio when Shou is playing with Ritsu.

Mukai and Tsuchi play because Mukai wanted to, she has a lot of armor stands in her house.

Tsubomi does not play, she played once and didn’t enjoy it all that much, but she’s perfectly happy watching her friends play.

Emi roleplays in minecraft.

Mezato doesn’t play, but she likes watching minecraft videos on youtube, mostly the theories.

Everyone in the awakening lab plays, Kurosaki is fantastic at mining because she always knows which way are the mobs and which way are the diamonds. Asahi is an arsonist.

Minori once got invited by Shigeo to play, then she proceeded to buy minecraft and everything in it to impress him. Shigeo only congratulated her once. Contemplating buying the whole of Mojang, but she’s a good girl now so she won’t.

Hoshida plays to impress Tome. Too bad, son, she’s not into you.