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Few quick Jod thoughts

OK so episode 3 of Skeleton Crew first thing Jod does after getting the ship into hyperspace is make food. Let me just say that I've seen someone mention that whatever food if on board the Onyx Cinder might be expired. Given that the lady giving them the rundown of the spa at Skull Ridge Mountain mentioned it being carved by ancient pirates and the fact that Tak Rennod has become the stuff of...uh...sea shanties...space shanties? either way we know the Onyx Cinder was on At-Attin for a very, very long time so there is a definite possibility of any food on board being expired because there are very few foods that last almost literally forever. So where did Jod get that? Like did they risk getting caught on the way back to the ship to get fresh supplies? Given that apparently there were critical systems in need of fixing I don't think SM-33 restocked the supplies, where would he have gotten the money for that, is there just money hidden somewhere on the Onyx Cinder at the start? Did Jod just decide to risk giving himself and the kids food poisoning? Generally speaking though, based on the fast that that was the first thing he did might be indicative of how his former crew treated him while he was in the brig.

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My apologies for all the consecutive Jod posts, it probably will not stop for a bit though as he has been rotating around inside my brain ever since I finished watching Skeleton Crew and admittedly I think a few of my OCs are tired of him being there.

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my thoughts on if Jod should get a redemption arc. Personally as long as it gets done right, I think I'd like it either way. Currently, however, I'm thinking that if he does get redeemed it may be in a Vader-esque way, he finally does something good which comes at the price of his own life. If it's not in that way, I'd love it if it was done in a way where the kids of the Skeleton Crew acknowledge Jod's attempts to redeem himself, but they also don't have to forgive him for the stuff he's done. Perhaps half choose to forgive him, the other half choose that they appreciate his efforts but they still don't like him after all he's done. Somehow in a you don't have to forgive and forget but not holding on to that anger kind of way? Not sure how they'd do that though.

Definitely think that in order for him to heal from the trauma of losing his jedi master if they choose to go that route to redemption, that wound will have to be reopened at some point, like having to rebreak a broken bone that healed misaligned.

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After a 2hr long nap, I feel like I've had an epiphany with regards to Skeleton Crew. Spoilers ahead:

During the final episode of Skeleton Crew, Wim yells out to Jod, trying to get him to get out of the Supervisor's Tower while the New Republic targets the pirate ship. I've seen takes that the reason Jod doesn't go is because he's accepted his defeat, he's not accepting the offer from Wim of saving him. I think I agree on that, however, why does Wim call out to Jod? So Wim is established as a bit of a dreamer. He wants to help people which is outright stated in the first episode, he wants to be like the Jedi. This could explain it, but I think there's more to it than that. Looking at Wim and Wendle's dynamic in that first episode, it looks like it's a bit strained as Wendle doesn't seem to either listen to Wim or understand that even as a 10-12 year old Wim is still a child. We learn that Wim's mother is dead, and that could've led to a change in relationship dynamics between Wendle and Wim. In addition, Wim views his home planet as boring: he wants to go on adventures, he wants to explore. Now during episode 8, Wim is one of the two kids Jod states even a bit of his past to. Thing is at the end Wim calls out to Jod, trying to give him a chance, Jod had betrayed them and invaded their planet with his pirate crew and seemed to plan on making the people of the planet his personal literal money makers. That's not to mention the fact that he'd talked down to them in a very disparaging manner and had threatened both them and their parents by this point. Yet Wim still tries to extend a hand to Jod, much like a number of people have done for Vader (Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Luke), essentially Wim's dreamer side who desires to help and be like the Jedi is coming out. A lot of people say that Jod likely sees himself in Fern, I'm inclined to agree, however, I think a part of why Wim reaches out to Jod at the end isn't just his dreamer personality, I think Wim might've seen a tiny bit of himself in Jod. What do I mean by that? Yes I know that personality-wise, Wim and Jod are like night and day, however, Wim practically wanted to escape his planet to go on adventures, for the excitement of what would happen next, he probably could tell that Jod probably had wanted to escape his home planet too though for different reasons. Also, they have another thing in common, they both lost an important female figure in their life, Wim lost his mother, Jod lost his jedi master. Wim probably could understand why Jod was the way he was, yes he was clearly still upset with Jod, but he could still understand, possibly seeing that this jedi, whoever she was was important enough to Jod for her death to impact how he viewed the world much like his mother was important to him. Wim probably could've thought that had he been forced to watch as someone brutally ended his mother's life before her time, he probably could've become just as jaded as Jod was, though perhaps Wim wouldn't have thought it in those exact words. This could've led to his dreamer personality wondering if he reached out a hand, an olive branch perhaps, to Jod could Jod be saved? Could Wim save Jod from himself like a jedi could? I think Wim felt he had to try, even if he didn't like Jod, even if he couldn't forgive Jod that easily, Wim still had to try. When Jod doesn't, Wim then focuses all his attention onto getting to where KB crashed. He doesn't seem to let it get him down that Jod didn't accept, which leads me to believe that it was a "I have to try" moment from Wim.

Idk maybe I'm still a bit loopy from my nap and reading too much into things.

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Some Jod Na Nawood thoughts. So spoiler alert for those who haven't seen Skeleton Crew yet.

So we don't know where he's from just that according to him, the air there tasted "like ash and dust". To me that implies that either a) his home planet was devastated by war regardless of whether it was the clone wars that devastated it or some other local war (either planetary civil war or between them and a neighboring planet) that we don't know about yet or b) possibly a planet with a lot of seismic activity, volcanoes and the like, but not to the level of say Mustafar.

Now based on what he's said about his past, which yes he could be lying but based on the emotional state he was in at the time of his saying anything about it to any of the kids I don't think he was, my guess is that firstly, he wasn't literally living in a hole in the ground but rather somewhere so run down and decrepit it might as well have been. In addition to that, he'd mentioned that he was just trying to not starve when he was around the kids age. To me, this suggests that it was likely the former of the two theories on his planet. Now why would someone that young be living in a "hole in the ground" place and be desperately trying to not starve? Again, to me that suggests that his planet had been devastated by war. In addition the fact that he'd stated that "all I've ever had was scraps" I think it's highly likely that there's a few things that can be inferred from that. I think it's likely that either a) he was an orphan, b) he was abandoned by his parents in order to keep themselves alive, c) he had siblings and because of that food was scarce within the family, or d) his parents hadn't abandoned him but they didn't actually care for him. Let's face it, most good parents would rather go hungry themselves than let their kids go hungry.

Now for my own thoughts on his age since we don't have a canon age for him yet. So we know that he was found by a jedi who'd survived order 66 as it was stated that she was hunted down soon after she'd found Jod. We also know that Jod mentioned that he'd been around the kids age when the jedi had found him. My own guess for the kids age is around 10-12 years old, so I'd say that he was likely between 10 to maybe 14 at the absolute maximum when the jedi found Jod. We know that Skeleton Crew takes place roughly 5 years after ROTJ and we also know that between the end of ROTS and ROTJ roughly 23-24 years passed, so that's roughly 28-29 years total that he has to at least be. Now if we were to take the high end of the kids age estimate of 12 and add that to the previous, we get that Jod would be around 40-41 years old which would fit. Yes he looks older than that, but we do need to remember that stress, trauma, and generally abusing yourself can cause you to age prematurely. Jod is literally a pirate in addition to the trauma of losing his jedi master (and potentially feeling guilt at not being able to save her/feeling he'd held her back and thus contributed to her death) and being forced to watch and whatever else he went through as a kid to where he described it as him living in a hole in the ground trying to not starve. Like we all know that as a pirate, he would've had the stress of not getting caught by the law, even during the days of the Empire as we know they sent out patrols to go after pirates and would capture pirates if they came across them from the newer Thrawn trilogy. In addition, once he became a captain he would need to deal with the stress of ensuring his crew didn't commit mutiny on him. Now if you've been into pirates, the legends of most pirates burying their treasure usually isn't something that's done. Most pirates spend their treasure as soon as they get to the next port often on food, alcohol, or company or some of them may have even spent some of it on gambling. We saw plenty of options at Borgo Prime. Obviously, we don't know what Jod spent any treasure on when he had any but whatever he did spend it on if he abused himself with it by overindulging far too often (especially if they were more addictive) could've taken a toll. These factors could have caused a fair bit of premature aging much like we see with Obi-Wan.

This would put him roughly in the same age group as Ahsoka. The question is why was he not found until he was 10+ years old. A few theories I've been pondering are either a) he didn't have a high enough midichlorian count for the jedi to consider him as a potential jedi before the purge happened, b) he was on a planet that was far enough out, possibly far reaches of the outer rim or even into wild space, that the jedi didn't often go there (putting him in a similar position to Anakin in Phantom Menace) and the jedi who found him had been forced out that far because of the need to hide, or c) he possibly had the innate, unconscious ability to hide his own force signature. The third would possibly explain why they didn't just end him after they'd forced him to watch his master die.

I've also seen takes on how his "galaxy is dark with a few small pinpricks of light" worldview is the pessimist/glass-half empty view. While I won't say it isn't, I also feel that that is the viewpoint of someone who is hopeless, all of their hopes and dreams have been crushed. Instead of attempting to ensure that, even if he himself had lost hope/been discouraged acknowledging that there are good people out there and there were more to be born in the future he didn't crush one of those hopeful good people into what he's become. That's not what he does, instead he tries to get them to see the world how he sees, likely because ever since his jedi master died he hasn't been able to imagine anyone being kind, being good to him and he's in a way, trying to get them to see that way without them having to fully go through what he did. It's still not nice of him to do nor is it coming from a particularly good place either.

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so just finished watching skeleton crew on Thursday and idk how many people in the star wars fandom have also watched anime or read manga and to be very specific, vinland saga at that, but was anyone else getting Askeladd vibes from Jod Na Nawood? Spoiler free version: Ok so both of them aren't heartless monsters but they can and will do horrible things if it benefits them. They both can get seriously annoyed by the children around them and don't express it til push comes to shove. They both are father figures in a way to the MCs but not really good ones nor are they intending to be father figures. In addition, they do somewhat care about the MCs but that's usually superseded by what they can gain be it monetarily or even social standing related in return for their help.

Spoilers ahead:

Put quite simply it's shown in episode 24 of vinland saga but Askeladd prompts Thorfinn asking him what he was going to do when he got his revenge on Askeladd and knows that this kid hasn't even thought about it. In a way trying to prompt Thorfinn to give up on the revenge quest that had stalled his emotional growth. Askeladd also gave Atli and Torgrim a piece of golden jewelry that they could use to barter for things when they left and this was after they'd pulled a mutiny on him and after it was implied that Torgrim may have been the one who started it. However, when he and his crew need to find food and shelter for the winter, they take over an entire village and, upon the villagers pleading that they wouldn't survive the winter without the food that Askeladd and his crew wanted, Askeladd says that the villagers don't need to worry about surviving another winter and has his men end the lives of everyone in the village (that they knew of as one girl had not been in the village but did see this happen) in order to prevent their pursuers from finding out where they'd hunkered down for the winter.

Jod didn't just end all four of the Skeleton Crew's lives. Let's face it, he didn't need to bring them back to At Attin. He could've just set them on a dead in space ship and took the Onyx Cinder and pretended to be the Republic emissary. If he wanted to take the easy way out, well, we've all seen what he did to his former first mate, Brutus, to his former crew who were pursuing them in Tak Rennod's lair and how quickly he made those decisions. He could've even ended the Skeleton Crew's lives and then tried to pull a "we were too late to save them" ploy on the people of At Attin. He could've followed through with the many threats he'd pulled on the kids since episode 5. Based on the fact that he didn't leads me to believe that he is not the heartless monster that would take making the decision to end the life of a child lightly.

Both of them get rather annoyed with the kids, Askeladd gets annoyed that Canute won't speak to get them out of a situation without a fight and with Thorfinn's lack of growth. Jod gets seriously annoyed with the Skeleton Crew's attempts to stop him from plundering At Attin. Jod starts raising his voice and making threats. Askeladd on the other hand starts somewhat arguing with Ragnar about Canute's unwillingness to make a statement, even if said statement was completely ridiculous, to frighten a potential enemy away. He also gets so frustrated with Thorfinn and his ability to provoke Thorfinn into losing his cool during their duels that he actually knocks Thorfinn out and states the he's sick of Thorfinn and looks as if he's about to stab Thorfinn but instead delivering the fatal blow to the snow besides Thorfinn's head.

Now Jod and Askeladd both are a bit like father figures but they really aren't good ones and they aren't really intending on being ones. Askeladd is a Viking. He raids and plunders and will end innocent people's lives. Thorfinn follows him around and learns from Askeladd, at least somewhat unintentionally on both parts as Thorfinn really just wants to learn Askeladd's fighting patterns to beat him but instead ends up becoming an actually rather competent fighter from years of following Askeladd into battle and dueling him yet never actually beating him. He also, in a way, allows Canute to grow by assigning Thorfinn to guard Canute in exchange for another duel with him after, with season 1 Thorfinn's rather blunt and abrasive words forcing Canute to speak to people other than Ragnar. In addition, his betrayal of Ragnar resulting in Ragnar's death forced Canute to grow up quickly as he no longer had Ragnar who would allow Canute to hide behind him. Jod took on an almost parental role just by being the sole adult on board who was trying to help them get back home, he made sure the Skeleton Crew kids made it back to the ship alright in multiple episodes, he talked to Wim when Wim was feeling really down. It was quite clear that he didn't really want to be comforting or be a parental figure for them he still did in an impulsive and reluctant almost "ok fine I'll do it" manner. Jod, however, was a pirate through and through and most pirates are not good parental figures. Especially when you potentially have something valuable they want on your hands.

Which leads us into the fact that they both somewhat cared about the kids but it was overshadowed by whatever the kids had to offer. Askeladd briefly shows his care, he tells Thorfinn where he was going wrong in getting his revenge on Askeladd by telling Thorfinn about his past, Bjorn expressed that Askeladd really did trust Thorfinn in episode 11 but Askeladd quickly denied it saying that Thorfinn was just an idiot who had no fear and that he could use that. Again, Askeladd had asked Thorfinn what he was going to do when he'd finally gotten revenge and told him to go beyond where his father Thors had gone and to not stay stuck in a place like this (Thorfinn's revenge obsessed world). He'd told Thorfinn to stay back so as to allow Thorfinn to live after Askeladd's betrayal of King Sweyn. Canute had asked why Askeladd didn't become king himself rather than what he was doing with helping Canute become king, Askeladd told Canute that he could see it in Canute's face that Canute would be a better king than he would be. Jod wanted to help the Skeleton Crew kids get home, he made sure they were alive throughout their adventures in space. However, both of these were twisted by their own desires. Jod wanted a reward for getting them home, some of his care could be attributed to the fact that if the kids had died there would be no reward. Again, though, at the end he didn't actually need them as he found out about the Republic mint on At Attin and taken the Onyx Cinder down and pretended to be a Republic emissary who had come and had no idea that there were any missing children and promised to look for them so that care couldn't all have been about the reward. With Askeladd, for his bravado of not caring but yet still actually caring a bit, his care is twisted by the fact that he knows that so long as he keeps dueling Thorfinn and Thorfinn keeps losing he can ask Thorfinn to do even absolutely absurd tasks like fight Thorkell the Tall alone and Thorfinn will do it for another duel with Askeladd, another chance at revenge. In addition, Askeladd knows that Thorfinn will one day overpower him and so, to continue this for as long as he can, knows exactly what to say to make Thorfinn lose his temper and make mistakes that Askeladd can exploit to pull off a win. With Canute, Askeladd knows that if he can get Canute on the throne Canute will honor a peace treaty with Wales, Askeladd's mother's homeland that Askeladd wants to protect. Askeladd isn't being altruistic. Jod isn't being altruistic, but both of them seem like they can't help but actually care about these kids, even a tiny bit.

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So quick note, I got my shinji back now too :D

so with the 9th anniversary stuff going on I've been back into bleach brave souls. Like earlier this year I'd remembered it existed and wanted to see if I could still play as the 2 I had that I adored playing as (namely because they were the only 2 5 stars that weren't tutorial ones that I managed to get my hands on) the technique shikai shinji and heart resurreccion szayelaporro. Well they couldn't seem to find my old account despite me entering all the emails I could've possibly used, so I had to start over. I'd fell out of it for a while given that I was not doing well at all in some of the power up quests. With the 9th anniversary stuff though? I've gotten back into it (got my szayelaporro back!) and man, some of these characters I have now are insane. With the brave bonuses I put into link potions I got my cacao society ulquiorra to do so much better in the quests I'd been failing at previously. In addition I somehow managed to pull 5 future society nnoitras and that one is also doing amazing in those quests. Admittedly though, I'm still mentally screaming at them to "stay OUT of the fire" on those quests as sometimes I do use auto if I'm just grinding for something.

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I just realized I added an extra 'k' in there when I named this blog...it's annoying me now. go away extra letter, someone send help please

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OK so like I've been into naruto again and you know what I started thinking about? How hashirama only has two grandkids. Let's face it, I'm pretty sure that of the two senju brothers tobirama probably thinks that romance and having kids and all would get in the way of his research and development stuff, like not to say he couldn't have a partner or kids but it's just not top level priority for him. Hashirama on the other hand we know canonically had Uzumaki mito as a wife and had at least one kid with her because well, tsunade and nawaki had to come from somewhere. Based on what we've seen of hashirama, I can't help but feel like he'd want a large family because he grew up with siblings he loved but hadn't been able to be around for very long and he would want to ensure that his kids had plenty of siblings to grow up with now that they can grow up happy in Konoha. However, when you get to the era where naruto takes place, it's implied that tsunade and nawaki are like the only direct descendants of hashirama, because let's be real here yes it'd be reasonable for tsunade to be more upset about her brother dying but it'd be rather odd with how much she cares about those close to her if she had cousins and they died for her to not even mention it as part of why she left. So my theory is that either a) hashirama wanted a big family and mito said she wasn't going to have more than a few, b) they did have a big family but most of their kids hated being part of having so many siblings and just didn't start a family and only one decided to start a family, or c) potentially closer to canon, regardless of whether or not mito would agree to having a big family, mito becoming the kyuubi jinchuriki and the risks that come with the seal weakening during childbirth likely curtailed any plans of having more than one or two kids and that's led to tsunade and nawaki being the only known descendants of hashirama.

As for madara, since we're on the topic of founder's era, he's a whole different animal as I can see many different possibilities with him. As the Uchiha head, he likely would've been required to have an heir, but from what we see, he doesn't. My own theories are that, a) like hashirama, he grew up in a big family with siblings he cared about, unfortunately not all of his siblings were alive for very long and he would want his kids to have plenty of siblings to care about but since it's well known that he doesn't like weak people (woman, man, it doesn't matter to him) I think it's likely that he wanted someone strong, possibly power-wise or possibly personality-wise, possibly both even, and no one offered to him as a partner fit that bill or b) post izuna's death, madara was not in the right headspace to even consider a family of his own that didn't involve izuna. This second theory isn't to say madara actually having a family without izuna being in the picture never could've happened eventually, but with zetsu manipulating him, it was unlikely that he could've healed enough for that.

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so with the 9th anniversary stuff going on I've been back into bleach brave souls. Like earlier this year I'd remembered it existed and wanted to see if I could still play as the 2 I had that I adored playing as (namely because they were the only 2 5 stars that weren't tutorial ones that I managed to get my hands on) the technique shikai shinji and heart resurreccion szayelaporro. Well they couldn't seem to find my old account despite me entering all the emails I could've possibly used, so I had to start over. I'd fell out of it for a while given that I was not doing well at all in some of the power up quests. With the 9th anniversary stuff though? I've gotten back into it (got my szayelaporro back!) and man, some of these characters I have now are insane. With the brave bonuses I put into link potions I got my cacao society ulquiorra to do so much better in the quests I'd been failing at previously. In addition I somehow managed to pull 5 future society nnoitras and that one is also doing amazing in those quests. Admittedly though, I'm still mentally screaming at them to "stay OUT of the fire" on those quests as sometimes I do use auto if I'm just grinding for something.

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"No I totally didn't buy the DM Guide despite not having a group to campaign with just so I can create homebrew fandom settings, why do you ask?" I say shoving the book under my bed

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so like I know the Billie Eilish song 'what was I made for' was for the Barbie movie and stuff but I haven't seen it yet and it came up on the music channel I was listening to. Why was it giving me Dabi vibes when it's about women and how the world and it's standards has effected them (and of course also existential crisis Barbie)????