#I STARTED WATCHING DEATH NITE

[kurooandkenmasslut]

GUYS ONE LAST THING ☝🏻

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to another week of My Adventures with Superman! My hunch about the what happened last week was true and things are not going too well for the gang...

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

To start things off we meet Kara on Earth! I talked more about her here. Shes's dressed similarly to Android 18 when she, 17, and 16 drive to Goku's house in episode 147 of Dragon Ball Z. While watching the episode I was wondering why does Kara's hair look so familiar? Then it hit me. Kara's got Sakuya Kumashiro's hair from Tenchi in Tokyo!

Shout out to recent DC characters enjoy ice cream for the first time like Wonder Woman in the live action movie and Justice League animated movie, and the new DC Super Hero Girls cartoon. As a mint chocolate chip ice cream fan, good first choice of ice cream to enjoy!

Perry puts Clark and Lois on a new beat for the Metropolis "Most Eligible Single" contest because Superman was chosen to be one of the five up for that title. Cat Grant self-invites herself to join the duo to figure out who Superman is through his love life. Lois is sweating bullets at this point. At the contest we meet the potential people for winning the title, Hank Henshaw, Chandi Gupta, Byrna Brilyant, and Silver St. Cloud. I talked more about Hank Henshaw here. We see a darker more bigoted side to him this time around. Will we see him get his cyborg body and become Cyborg Superman in this season or season 3? Who knows. Season 3 is confirmed though.

Dr. Byrna Brilyant is a very deep DC universe cut dating back to 1946, the golden age of comics. Back then Byrna Brilyant was an enemy to Wonder Woman going by the moniker, Blue Snowman.

Byrna in the 1940s makes her first appearance in Sensation Comics #59 (1946) [W: Joye Hummel, P&I: H.G. Peter], where she was a teacher who's father created this compound called blue ice, after his death, she uses it as a way to extort this town after freezing it over for monetary gain.

Byrna makes another appearance in 2010 in Power Girl #7 (2010) [W Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, P&I: Amanda Conner, C: Paul Mounts, L: John J. Hill] where Dr. Mid-Nite and Power Girl are trying to stop Byrna from committing a robbery but the main bad guy, Vartox shoots a seduction musk rifle at Power Girl but the smell knocks out Dr. Mid-Nite and it works on Byrna, but not Power Girl. This all makes more sense if you read the comic.

Byrna's next appearance post-New 52 was in Superman/Wonder Woman #4 (2014) [W: Charles Soule, P: Paulo Siqueira, I&C: Hi-Fi, L: Carlos M. Mangual] where we see Wonder Woman and Hessia battling the Blue Snowman robots.

Byrna's latest appearance post-DC Rebirth is in DC: Love is a Battlefield #1 (2021) [W: Crystal Fraiser, P&I: Juan Gedeon, C:Ulises Arreola, L: Marshal Dillion, where Byrna is now gender fluid after interrupting a date between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Good on Wonder Woman for letting them go and hoping the realization there is a word for what Byrna was feeling would make them feel much better. So going forward if we meet Byrna again, I'll be referring to them with they/them pronouns, but if its New 52 continuity and before, Byrna will be referred to with she/her pronouns with the continuities to help clarify the pronoun usages.

Chadi Gupta is also another deep cut from the DC universe because she's reference to her comic counterpart from Justice League Europe.

Chandi makes her first appearance in Justice League Europe #47 (1993) [W: Gerard Joes, P: Ron Randall, I: Randy Elliot, C: Gene D'Angelo, L: Willie Schubert] where she's escaping her family and comes across the the JLE and wants to join them. Her energy projection and construct creation powers came in handy for the JLE in issue 50 where she and the rest of the JLE were able to fend off Sonar's attack and that earned her a spot on Justice League Europe as the superhero Maya.

Silver St. Cloud is probably one of the more prominent characters from the DC universe who showed up in MAwS. She got into the pop culture zeitgeist through the Gotham tv show when it aired.

Silver St. Cloud makes her first appearance in Detective Comics #470 (1977) [W: Steven Engleheart, P: Walter Simonson, I: Al Milgrom, C: Jerry Serpe, L: Ben Oda] where she meets Bruce Wayne at a party on his yacht. She eventually becomes one of Bruce Wayne's more prominent love interests and one of the few who were suspecting Bruce to be Batman thanks to his constant disappearing.

She shows up in post-new 52 in the maybe possibly out of cotinuity anthology, Legends of the Dark Knight (2014) digital comics, specifically as a cameo in issue #50, Dr. Quinn's Diagnosis [W: Jim Zub, P&I: Niel Googe, C: Kathryn Layno, L: Saida Temofonte], where Batman is getting psychoanalyzed by Harley Quinn.

If you want to read a comic with a fun appearance of Silver St. Cloud give Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1 (2017) [W: Tom King, P&I: Lee Weeks, C: Lovern Kindzierski, L: Deron Bennet] a read cuz goddamn is it noir AF and beautifully drawn (a while back DC superheroes crossed over with Looney Tunes characters and its very good. They have also done it with Hanna Barbera characters as well. Give those a read too! They're all fun!)!

The charity that MAwS Silver mentions was first mentioned in Superman #152 (1967) [W: Bill Finger, P&I: Al Plastino] where Superman is accepting a clock medallion for a charity event. In the comics Silver St. Cloud isn't usually working for charities, shes mostly a Gotham socialite.

At the event, the MC (who gives off Funky Flashman vibes imo), asked if anyone has questions and the first to jump on that was George Taylor of the Metropolis Star. I talked about the Metropolis Star here, but for George Taylor...

he actually makes his first appearance here in Action Comics #1 (1938) [W: Jerry Seigel, P&I: Joe Shuster, C: Strauss Engraving Company] where he is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star.

In the silver age, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Superman #366 (1981) [W: Bob Eozakis, P: Kurt Schaffenberger, I: Frank Chiaramonte, C: Adrienne Roy, L: John Costanza] where he assigns Perry White on the Superboy scoop to see if he's active in Metropolis. In post-Crisis on Infinite continuity, George makes a cameo appearance in Adventures of Superman #451 (1989) [W,P,&I: Jerry Ordway, C: Glenn Whitmoore, L: Albert DeGuzman] where we see George's office door.

In the New 52 continuity, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Action Comics #8 (2012) [W: Grant Morrison, P: Rags Morales, I: Rick Bryant, C: Brad Anderson, L: Pat Brosseau] as editor-in-chief for the Daily Star where in the comic he's proud of Clark and encourages him to take the job at the Daily Planet.

Kara and Jimmy make it into the studio where Lois, Superman, and Cat Grant are and Kara confronts Superman showing off that she's the one in the armor. She is on a two-way radio communications with someone named Primus. Whether that is Brainiac's designation when Kara is on the field or its a different character all together, there is a Primus in the DC universe, not just in the Transformers universe. Btw this isn't Kara's first time siding with an evil faction, she was part of Darkseid's Female Furies in the 2004 Superman/Batman series, specifically in issue #11. You might have also seen it happen in the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse animated movie too.

Primus aka Pren makes his first appearance in Green Lantern #141 (1981) [W: Marv Wolfman, P&I: Joe Stanton, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza] where he is the leader of the alien group, the Omega Men from the Vega star system. They jump Hal when he and Carol Ferris were on vacation thinking Hal is part of the Citadel, an extraterrestrial empire that is conquering the star system the Omega Men are in.

Primus/Pren NuParr makes his New 52 first appearance in Deathstroke #9 (2012), but gets a more prominent role in the Omega Man limited series from 2015 [panel from The Omega Men #1 (2015) W: Tom King, P&I: Barnaby Bagenda, C: Romulo Farjardo Jr., L: Pat Brosseau]. In this continuity, the Citadel is now a corporation that was exploiting Krypton's destruction by by selling stabilized planet cores to other worlds. This comes at a cost where the Vega star system is enslaved by them and those who resisted we killed and the survivors formed the Omega Men.

And with that another episodes Easter eggs and references are done! Come back next week to see what episode 6's Easter eggs and references are! In case you missed it:

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[jessicas-pi]

ok look i need to elaborate on the Satine Accidentally Creates A Mandalorian Empire (also adopts people) AU because once i start talking i can't stop.

This all starts because Satine isn't searched thoroughly enough when she's captured by Death Watch. Because a pacifist Duchess wouldn't carry any weapons, right?

Wrong! Just because she's a pacifist doesn't mean she won't defend herself, remember? It just so happens that she carries a deactivator pistol, which shoots energy blasts capable of taking out droids, and it also just so happens that Death Watch's new leader is part droid.

Satine disables Maul's legs moments before she would have been impaled.

Bo-Katan tries not to cackle as she informs Satine that she is technically the new owner of the Darksaber. In any other situation, Bo would be furious, but the irony of it is just too much.

Anyway, time skip ahead. Satine is trying to maintain Mandalore's neutrality in the war while also keeping the Nite Owls on a metaphorical backpack leash and negotiating with the remaining Mauldalorians. She refuses to carry the Darksaber, so Bo puts it in storage with Satine's old armor. (The Ahsoka-on-Mandalore arc doesn't happen, FYI.) Then, they get news of the whole Empire deal. The Death Watch Mandalorians try to throw a party at the news of Order 66.

Then Obi-Wan shows up on their doorstep with a heavily pregnant senator and a little girl.

Padme is brought to a medcenter for treatment, and with better care, she survives the birth of her children.

But more important than that is Reva Sevander.

Because in this universe, Obi-Wan sensed one single light in the darkness of the temple, and lifted the trembling girl from the pile of bodies she'd hidden herself in. Obi-Wan takes her to Mandalore along with Padme. A Mandalorian doctor treats her wounds as she breaks down, sobbing out the truth of what happened.

Soon enough, rumors are flying from Mandalorian to Mandalorian, murmuring that the Jedi children were slaughtered too.

Some warrior Mandalorians hate Jedi more than they love children. Most of them love children more than they hate Jedi.

They nearly start another civil war over which one of the clans should be allowed to adopt the jet'ika girl. Finally, Satine steps in, proclaiming that this fighting is only hurting Initiate Sevander, and that the child will be Satine's personal ward.

Word gets out.

Vader sends his first Inquisitor on a mission to kill the Initiate and any Mandalorians who dare to defy the Empire's orders.

Bo-Katan sends the Inquisitor back in several pieces.

(The Empire decides to hold off on attacking Mandalore just yet.)

Anyway, Vader isn't the only one to hear about Satine adopting a Jedi girl. Word spreads to others.

Ahsoka comes first, dragging a tied-up clone Captain and demanding the use of a medcenter immediately. A few weeks later, Kelleran Beq and Grogu arrive. Caleb Dume follows, too weary to be afraid of what could happen to him.

Mandalore--which is nearly next door to Dathomir--picks up a distress signal that nobody else could have. Bo-Katan and squad of Nite Owls (including their newest recruit, Ahsoka) investigate, and they bring home a ragged Jedi and a little girl. Satine, who will never regret helping the Jedi but has been getting severe stress headaches at the number of floating objects in her life, nearly breaks down in tears when she hears the Dathomirian child excitedly discussing the undead with their newest Jedi rescue, a redhead boy who won't explain why he refuses to take off his gloves. She didn't sign up for this she didn't sign up for this she didn't sign up for this--

It doesn't stop her from taking in each new Jet'ika they find. The Sundari palace is full of younglings, and while Bo-Katan complains about it frequently, she's having so much fun as the wine aunt to two dozen miniature Jedi (and she even encourages her Nite Owls to listen for rumors of surviving Jedi and rescue them).

(Ahsoka becomes the unofficial go-to babysitter for Sabine and Tristan, and while I'm not a fan of Force-sensitive Sabine in canon, the hilarity of it in this AU is too much to pass up because imagine Ursa's face when Ahsoka breaks it to her that so um just FYI your daughter has space magic.)

Okay, enough about the Jedi (for now.) On to the war against the Empire!

So, Satine has been facing a lot of moral dilemmas, including what do you do when your enemies are evil and they're attacking your borders and they really can't be reasoned with? and she's solved most of them by giving Bo-Katan begrudging permission to "handle it." She's made it very clear that civilian casualties are absolutely unacceptable, and Bo-Katan huffs and says fiiiiine.

But then a nearby planet besieged by the Empire sends a plea for help. What can Satine do? Refusing goes against everything she stands for, but this would be a counterattack by Mandalore, not just self-defense!

In the end, there's no other answer. She sends the Nite Owls (and a Jedi who volunteered) to help the people and hopes that will be the end of it. She has her hands full already just trying to protect Mandalore!

But it happens again. And again. Satine still refuses to start a war against the Empire.

That changes when Sundari itself is full-on attacked.

Now, here's the thing about Satine.

She wasn't always peaceful.

It was the aftermath of the civil war--the destruction, the death, the needless suffering without a purpose, the fighting that she had been a part of--that made her a pacifist.

But when she runs to the palace window to look out at the city, listens to the bombs falling and the frantic comms from Bo-Katan's forces about the losing battle and the dying civilians, sees the Jedi rushing to shelter their children because one reason the Empire is here is to kill them, Satine remembers why she fought.

She spent fifteen years rebuilding Mandalore to be a peaceful, thriving society that no longer destroyed itself, and now someone else has come to burn it to the ground.

"Bring me my armor," she commands in a low, cold voice. "And the Darksaber."

The Empire is about to find out what happens when a pacifist goes to war.

[mareenavee]

WIP Whatever? Yeah.

Hi Everyone! I have been buried in some work for Skywind lately, and I am tired.

But I have been writing for prompt fills for the most part so, stay tuned for a few words. :>

I was tagged to share some writing by the amazing: @thequeenofthewinter, @dirty-bosmer, @kookaburra1701, @rainpebble3, @ladytanithia and @skyrim-forever!

Tagging: @paraparadigm, @thana-topsy (🫂), @orfeoarte, @changelingsandothernonsense, @saltymaplesyrup, @snippetsrus, @archangelsunited, @gilgamish, @throughtrialbyfire, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @nuwanders, @viss-and-pinegar, @late-nite-scholar, @greyborn2 AND YOU -- yes, you, if I've forgotten your tag, you're more than welcome to be tagged honorarily and tag me back so I can read some words >:}

For now, here's a bit from my prompt fill for Harvest -- it's from Galathil's POV and is World Canon. It happened a few years before Nyenna's story begins. Untitled so far. Below the cut! Just shy of 800 words.

Galathil felt the shift in the Ratway before the stranger’s arrival, if she was being honest with herself. There was a certain nervousness in that liminal place between solving the Mercer issue and everyone’s attempt at starting over again. And if anyone knew anything about starting over, it was her. One was never content to simply reap what they’d sown. She would not be part of the Guild, nor be seated here on a bench crafted of sodden wood in a seedy tavern under the worst possible of cities if things had gone to plan, after all.

She watched as Delvin plunked crates of fresh vegetables on the table across the room from her, his brow creased with worry. The harvest in this case would go solely to feeding the stranger who had settled into the Warrens, himself averse to the consequences of his actions— or existence. Galathil hadn’t managed to parse exactly what his trouble was, but it was enough to stir up unease. Mention of Thalmor had floated around, and, while it had made her nervous…she’d used her own power on herself long ago. It didn’t stop them from trying to find her. Her magic was rather…unique. The fear of that recognition gnawed at her in an abstract way. She would be defended against Thalmor inquiry without needing to ask for the Guild’s help, true. But then the debt would once again stack in their favor, even if they never came to collect. She still felt outside of things, despite her years settled in the damp amongst them, and despite their hospitality and their attempts at including her.

She fussed with the edge of her sleeve, though even this was going threadbare in places. She’d learned to do without, to stop accumulating social debt and asking for favors, nervous to be seen and, therefore, known. She could never outrun her crimes—the ones from before she fled. The jobs she was forced to do on pain of death for treachery. That she had made it out of Valenwood by the end at all was by the grace of one god or the next. And she had to live with what she’d done to escape, as well as just what she’d run from, and all the consequences of the path she’d chosen to walk.

That was likely why she felt so distant from most—there was a certain trepidation about what they all would think if they really knew her. It was better not to let them in, not to answer their questions with any semblance of truth. But one, of course, managed to worm his way in. And it was because he, too, carried a secret like one might carry a festering wound.

Teldryn Sero, bravado set aside for once, grit his teeth as he sat down next to her. The bench groaned in protest. He was silent for a moment, the only sound the steady clunk of chitin as he bounced his knee, agitation and nervousness palpable. His eyes were distant and dark in the poor lighting. She gently brushed her fingers over his gauntlet, and he grasped her hand. He was shaking. She knit her eyebrows and looked up at him in concern.

“They’re housing a Blade here, Galathil.” He picked his helmet up off of her table, where he’d left it before he’d gone off to assist Vex and Brynjolf with the stranger. “He knew me. He looked right at me, and I… How? How could that be possible?” He paused and closed his eyes. Galathil squeezed his hand.

She knew why he was here, then. Since the Mercer issue, he’d been distant enough, which was to be expected. He’d said once he’d never meant to get roped into cults and guilds. He wasn’t necessarily the best thief she’d ever seen, either, to be perfectly fair. He would be running again. She knew that peace was fleeting, if it even existed at all. And they had had peace, even if it was just for a moment. Consequences seemed to demand it as payment whenever they caught up.

“You can’t know for sure if he recognized you, Teldryn.”

“I can’t be sure he didn’t.” He still gripped her hand. She could see, even through the armor, the tension in his shoulders. Could hear it in his voice, too. “Galathil…please. I just. I know what I said about your skills. I know. But I’ve changed my mind. Can you help me?”

“And rid the world of a face like yours?” she asked. Her smile was wistful.

[wanderingjedi77]

First Meeting (Bo Katan x Fem!Reader)

The first time you met Bo-Katan, the Empire had been in power for five years. You weren't Mandalorian, like she was. Sometimes you barely felt like a person.

You're family had been killed in the Clone Wars, caught in the conflict between the Republic and Sepratists. You were orphaned and alone, and drifted from place to place until you found work at a little droid repair shop on Naboo. In the heart of the Empire.

You worked hard, and didn't speak much to anyone except your co workers. You didn't want to draw attention to yourself because that was bad. You didn't need to be recruited or arrested. You just wanted to live you're life.

But you don't think you did until you met Bo.

She came into the shop with three of her Nite Owls, looking for parts to fix some old units they had when you were working there alone. You were startled at first, because Mandalorians didn't usually come here, but when Bo took off her helmet you were speechless in a different way.

"How soon can you have these parts?" Bo asked, giving you a curious look.

"Less than an hour." You blurted out, blushing. "Uh..." you weren't sure how to address her.

"Mand'alor." One of the others said.

"Mand'alor." The word sounded funny in your mouth and the woman laughed, looking amused. "Please wait here. I'll get everything ready for you." You said, nervous. You went to the back and started digging and checking inventory for everything you needed.

It actually took you forty five minutes to find everything, but you took am extra fifteen to calm the hell down.

You let out a deep sigh and brought the items to the front of the shop, putting them in a container as they watched you. When you finished, you closed the lid and looked at them expectantly.

"Here." The woman handed you a pouch of credits, and you smiled. "This should suffice."

"It's plenty thank you." You tell her.

The woman nods, pleased. "My name is Bo-Katan Kryze." She tells you, "If you wish, we could use more of your services in the future."

A steady income? Yes please.

"That would be great!" You blurted out, excited. "I'd be more then happy-"

"You really should learn to lock your door when doing unsavory business deals."

You stopped talking and felt her breath catch. Of course, Lieutenant Lawson would show up now.

You watched as he approached, slicked back brown hair and an air of superiority about him. Bo stepped away from you, just off to the side; and tapped her hand against her leg as the others with her tightened up.

You clenched your fist and frowned.

"I help anyone who comes to this shop." You reply, and you step from around the counter. "You know that Lieutenant."

"Even Rebels?"

"Their Mandalorian." You correct him, and Bo glances at you.

"Girl, do not tell me what they are!" He yells at you, and you flinch, putting your eyes down. You hated being yelled at.

"Maybe we should show you what we are." Bo snaps back and puts her helmet back on her head in one quick motion before she draws her blaster.

The Lieutenant looks at you sharply. "Traitors! You think you can get away with this-" He lunges at you and you jump back, hitting your back against the counter as a blaster shot rings out, followed by two more as you sink to the ground, covering your ears.

The lieutenant and his two bodyguards drop to the ground, unmoving, and you swallow hard, hands shaking as you remove them from your ears.

You had seen death before, but not like this.

"Hey, are you alright?" Bo is in front of you, blocking your view. Her helmet is off again, you realise. She kneels down in front of you, and starts checking you for visible injuries.

"Look at me! Look at me! Did he get you?" The woman, Bo, asks you, and she grips your arms with her hands. It's not hard, but enough to draw your attention.

You share your head. "No no. He didn't. I'm sorry. I'm-"

"Hey, it's okay." A female Mandalorian tells you. She's standing behind Bo and takes her helmet off. "I'm Koska. That's Axe-" She nods to the surley looking man.

"I'm y/n." You say, and you take some deep breaths to calm down. "Thanks for coming to my rescue." You thank them, but your looking at Bo.

Bo nods and helps you stand. "Do you have a safe place you could go?"

"No. I don't have anyone. I'll be okay, though." You try to smile at them, and Bo frowns.

"She could come with us Mand'alor." Koska says.

"She is kinda brave." Axe offers next.

"Alright." Bo, let's go of you. "I guess I'll keep you." There's a teasing tone to her voice, and you blush; feeling shy.

"Too bad Axe, looks like Bo has eyes for that one." Koska whispers to him.

"I'm fine. She is cute, though." Axe whispered back, and Koska smacked him on the chest.

Bo looked at them and turned to you,her eyes were softer now. She clearly didn't want to scare you. "If you want to, you're welcome. I wouldn't leave you to face the repercussions of our actions."

"I just need to get some things." You tell her, "I'll go. With you, I mean. You saved my life so I'm in your debt Mand'alor."

Bo watches you and gives you a smile. "Quickly then." She orders, and you comply.

By the time you're flying away from Naboo, your heart rate has slowed. It feels safer. For now, you have a new home.

[martianbugsbunny]

We Are Mandalorians: Our Love Must Be Forged (An AxePaz Fic)—Chapter 1

Hello, sweeties! This is a rivals-to-lovers fix-it AxePaz fic (the fix-it is for Paz’s death and the rivals-to-lovers takes a lot of bickering and homoerotic sparring, and some softer moments too). I guess it’s probably obvious, but Axe is going to be the one who saves Paz eventually. They’re gonna spelunk on Mandalore together, they’re gonna fight, they’re gonna have a great time—and so are you! Enjoy!

Axe had kept his eye on the larger, taciturn Mandalorian of the Watch since they left Nevarro’s orbit. He was a Vizsla—and they were a dangerous clan. A Vizsla in ancient times had been the one to forge the Darksaber, the symbol of the Manda’lor, and although the blade had changed hands many times throughout history, Vizslas always seemed to end up fighting to win it back.

Now, as he watched, Paz Vizsla knelt down in front of a child, probably no more than eight or nine, and laid a large hand on his shoulder. “You must stay here, Ragnar,” he said. Axe studied the child’s helmet; the colors were the same as those on Paz’s. This must be his child, Axe realized with jolt. He hadn’t pictured Paz as a family man—but he was quite gentle with his son, despite how little room for argument his tone left, and Axe knew instantly Paz had fulfilled the great calling of a Mandalorian in being a worthy parent. “Behave yourself,” Paz continued. “Don’t touch the weapons that aren’t for training, and don’t start fights with the younger children.”

Ragnar nodded, and Paz leaned the forehead of his helmet against his son’s. “I will return soon,” Paz said.

He stood and squeezed his son’s shoulder, then turned towards the rest of the landing party. Many of them, Axe had seen give their goodbyes already; some had none to give. There were only a few who had not yet arrived.

“What are you looking at?” Paz asked brusquely. Axe stared at him. “It’s rude to eavesdrop, Nite Owl.”

Axe felt anger rear up within him. He never gave much effort to restraining himself; it seemed a waste of energy. He knew he could win almost any fight, and what’s more, most of the people he spent time with on a daily basis knew it, too.

Paz didn’t back down when Axe stepped up, toe-to-toe, each with a hand threateningly close to his blaster. “You were speaking in plain sight,” Axe said. There was an edge buried deep in his tone that was sharper than the edge of the vibroblade holstered on his arm, which most failed to detect. Paz, however, seemed to hear every dark thing the inflection promised, and cracked his neck to one side.

“Alright, Mandalorians, it’s time to move out!”

Bo-Katan Kryze’s voice broke through the ranks of the gathered Mandalorians. Axe could almost see it coming between him and Paz, an invisible wall preventing any bloodshed on the deck of the ship.

Paz stared at him for a few moments. Axe didn’t like that he could never see what the Children of the Watch were thinking; he preferred an opponent whose eyes he could read. “Watch your step, Nite Owl,” Paz said, before turning to follow the others to the bay where their landing ship was waiting.

As Axe purposefully lengthened his stride to walk in front of Paz, he felt his anger making room for something else, something that had been born in him the moment he saw Paz with his son...though it was fed by much less tender things.

He had enjoyed stepping up to the cobra’s dance of a proper standoff. He loved the adrenaline that shot through him when Paz had refused to give, the sickeningly thrilling anticipation at the idea of actually dueling him.

He shoved that back down as he buckled himself into the seat, but he also pushed his anger away. He needed his head clear for the recon mission.

Then Paz walked into the ship and sat down right next to him, and suddenly keeping emotion to a minimum seemed a much more daunting task.

[sunnyie-eve]

12 | On Tape

Series: Heinous

Paring: Billy Loomis x OFC ! Stu Macher x OFC ! Mickey Altieri x OFC

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: attacked, death?

| MASTERLIST |

"Allison!" He calls out but she ignores him. "Allie!" She hears him follow her out. "Are you mad at me for saying I think it might be Randy?" He asks causing her to hit him upside the head.

"Yes! That's my best friend and I know Randy. He could never do something like this. Don't say I did the same about Billy and Stu because I never said they weren't capable of it." She watches his face. "Deep down I had a feeling it was them but I ignored it. But Randy, Randy Meeks, couldn't." She snaps at him annoyed.

"I'm sorry but I was just saying who could be suspects."

"We all are suspects, Mickey. It could be you and you can be playing me just like Billy and Stu. Then I'll feel stupid in the end all over for having feelings for a psychotic killer!" I huff.

"Al-,"

She cut him off, "I just want space from you right now." She walks off from him.

When Allison gets to where Dewey and Randy were, she pulls up a seat to their table, "What are you two talking about?" She asks them.

"Someone is trying to make a sequel and I'm getting to the rules." Randy tells her. "Number one: the body count is always bigger. Number two: the death scenes are always much more elaborate; more blood, more gore. Carnage Candy. Your core audience just expects it. And number three: if you want your sequel to become a franchise, never ever-," Dewey cuts Randy off.

"How do we find the killer, Randy? That's what I wanna know." He asks.

"Oh. Let's look at the suspects. There's Derek. The obvious boyfriend. Hello, Billy Loomis. The guy's premed, and his pity-me surface wound conveniently missed every major vein and artery." Randy goes off.

"So you think it's Derek?" Dewey asks.

"I don't. He's very different compared to Billy." Allison speaks up to tell them.

"Not so fast. Let's assume the killer, or 'ers, has a half a brain. He's not a Nick at Nite rerun type of guy. He wants to break some new ground. Right? So forget the boyfriend. It's tired. Who else do we got? Mickey, the freaky Tarantino film student. But if he's a suspect, so am I. So let's move on." Randy tells him.

"Let's not move on. Maybe you are a suspect." Dewey tells him.

"Well, if I'm a suspect, you're a suspect." Randy says so Dewey says let's move on.

"Hallie, and, or, Lia." Randy says making me huff.

"The roommates?" Dewey asks and they go on a rant about it's okay to change at times. Then they mention Gale being the killer too.

"Speaking of how I know all about obsession... I was right about Billy, who was obsessed with you." Randy looks at Allison.

"And?" She gives him a look.

"Mickey is too. He's almost more obsessed than Billy and Stu were combined." He says making Dewey look at her.

"He-he's n-not obsessed with me like that." She stutters.

"Yes, he is. Always up on you. Filming you..." Randy lists things.

"It's not like that, Randy."

"Then what? Don't tell me you two are a secret thing. Him? Him out of so many other people?" He eyes her.

"It's complicated... Why don't we just go talk to Gale?" She changes the topic and they get up to go talk to her.

"All right. Let's just assume the killer is repeating Woodsboro." Gale gets a call but ends it.

"That's doesn't explain the girls getting attacked. They weren't killed in Woodsboro." Dewey tells them.

"Wasn't for a lack is trying. The killer's trying to finish what was started." Randy tells them.

"Sid's under protection, right? Why isn't Allison?" Gale asks.

"Yeah. Because the killer says they wanted Sid dead not Allison." Dewey tells her and her phone rings again so she yells at the guy.

"You're forgetting something. In Woodsboro, there were more victims before the homestretch." Gale says so Allison cut in.

"Our principal, Tatum... your camera man." She calls them out and Gale's new camera says he doesn't want to hear it so he leaves them.

"If the killer is following a pattern, then maybe we can figure out who's next." Gale says and Allison glances at Randy. She had a feeling he could be the Tatum this time around. She was Sidney's and her best friend and now that was Randy.

"I wouldn't follow a killer's pattern. We were all involved in Woodsboro. Could be any of us." Dewey says making him and Gale argue.

This time it was Allison's phone that starts ringing and she just looks at it before answering it, "Hello?" She asks as the three stare at her.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I? You four look deep in thought." The killer speaks.

"It's the killer. He can see us." She tells the group.

"Just keep him on the phone." Dewey tells her before leaving with Gale.

"Why are you calling me and not Sidney?" Allison asks as Randy stays with her.

"You'll never find me." They tell her as Randy looks around.

"You gonna answer me?" She shouts, making them laugh.

"Give me the phone." Randy takes it from her. "Is that the best you can do? Because Billy and Stu were much more original." Randy tells the Killer as Allison looks around staying close to him. "Fuck you!" Randy shouts into the phone.

He ends up running to a guy and a group of people bump into Allison blocking her from getting to Randy. She gets stuck with them before she pushes through and realizes she lost Randy. She starts to panic while looking around. "RANDY!"

"RANDY!" She screams when she sees the news van windows crack and sees it rocking. "RANDY!" She runs over trying to open the door but can't. She could hear him struggling and groaning as he got stabbed. "STOP!" She screams rushing to the drivers door opening it making the killer stop to go at her.

She gets stabbed in the shoulder where she was stabbed last time she was in the news van. But this time it was worst as they twisted it before shoving her to the ground. Allison's head bounces off the sidewalk causing her to black out.

The next thing she knew she was waking up in the station with my shoulder bandaged up, "What do you remember?" Dewey asks her as he sits next to her.

"I tried to save Randy but failed. I remember opening the driver's side door getting the killers attention. They came at me stabbed me in the shoulder and knocked me to the concrete. It should've been me and not him."

"Randy isn't dead yet. He might make it due to you intervening. He was stabbed quite a lot but they said you stopped the killer from cutting his throat. But again, he might or might not. It's all up to him." Dewey lets her know.

"I wish Billy and Stu just killed all of us. None of this would be happening." She punches the table.

"Clam down." He says as they hear Cotton coming in with Sidney, Hallie, and her guards.

Sidney sees Allison crying and it hits her not seeing Randy with them. As Dewey talks to Sidney, Allison leaves going to the bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror. Before leaving the bathroom she cleans up her hand since she punched the mirror breaking it some.

Allison is told no one is allowed after dark and that she had to stay in her room. As she was leaving she hears Joel tell Gale that he's done and the crowd footage he's done is stuck in the van because it's a crime scene. If the killer really was watching and relishing every minute, then he's be there on a tape.

As Allison makes her way to the van she bumps into Mickey, "Where are you going speedy? Someone chasing you? Wait, what happened to your shoulder?" He realizes she was hurt.

"The killer. They killed Randy so there went him as a suspect for you." She walks past him not in the mood still with him.

"Wait, what? You need to take a break, Allison." He grabs her arm pulling her back.

"I can't take a break! Randy is dead! He was killed, Mickey!" She cries to him, "You don't know how much he meant to me." She tugs her arm away walking again.

"Where are you going?" He follows her.

"To the news van. I need to get something out of there."

"You are gonna take evidence from crime scene?" He quicken his pace.

"Yes. There's a tape in there that can show us who the killer is. I'm not missing that chance."

"Are you crazy?" He shouts at her.

"Yes I am. I'm pissed and I wanna catch this fucker before anyone else dies." She stops at the yellow tape.

"Are you really going past that?" He looks down at her.

"Watch me." She lifts the tape and rushes over to the van looking for the bag and takes it quickly.

"I can't believe you right now." He follows her away.

"I don't care. Don't you understand I have to watch these... I don't want wanna lose Dewey next or Sidney, Hallie, fuck even Gale, Derek... You..." She gives him a look.

"You plan on sneaking into film to watch a tape? There's a curfew tonight. You can't." He tells her and she rolls her eyes at him.

"When have you ever been one for rules? Never so you can either meet me tonight or not." She leaves him going to the dorms.

Back in Sidney's room she was shocked that Allison wasn't leaving with her, but Allison told her she had to check something out later at night. Also Allison told her she needed to be safe compared to her because they want her dead more.

At night when Allison sneaks her way to the film building she sees Mickey waiting outside for her, "Glad that you decide to join me." She tells him.

"Well I have a key, you don't." He shows it to her by dangling it in her face.

"I would've found a way in, trust me." She tells him as they go inside the building.

[edalia]

About this season of The Mandalorian, it hurts me that they are not giving Din the development he deserves. Din needs to evolve as a character, what he is learning with Bo-Katan should make him start questioning his beliefs, even if he decides to follow the old ways in the end. 

But for that we need some background. We know almost nothing about his past or the time he spent at Concordia and, considering Bo's past, I think they should talk about it. Bo and the Nite Owls were members of Death Watch, a criminal organization that was based on the same planet where Din grew up. There's no way he doesn't know who they were and surely the Children of the Watch had some sort of relationship with them, even if it was just a pact of neutrality. Surely the Children of the Watch did not agree with Pre Vizsla's vision, so they either broke away or never wanted to be part of the Death Watch in the first place, but something happened between them. I NEED them to mention it, please.

Considering how many times Concordia has been brought up this season, I'm hopeful that they will mention some of this in the two remaining episodes. Maybe even a visit to Concordia? It would be great if they had to go there and Bo and Din had a heart-to-heart conversation about their past. We've seen them work so well together, maybe it wouldn't hurt for them to have a little argument to cement their relationship.

[popculturebuffet]

Watchemen Retrospective Finale: Zack Snyder's Watchmen (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy capes.. and welcome to my final review of 2022 and my grand finale to my look at Watchmen. I've looked at all 12 issues with a brief April Fools detour to look at the unmade Sam Hamm version, but there's still one last piece of Watchmen media I want to look at as the Clock strikes 12. Yes folks we're talking about the divisive, loyal as it could possibly be, greatly soundtracked, 2009 film Watchmen.

Filming the Unfimable

As the fact I had a full script to review should show, attempts had been made to adapt the Watchmen for decades. The Hamm script was pitched with Terry Gilliam of all people who considered the project unfilmable as a movie, and better as a mini series.

The biggest attempt was made with David Hayter, voice actor and writer, aka Metal Gear's Solid Snake, Zangetsu in Blodostained, and Captain America in Spider-Man TAS. He also was a writer on the first two x-men films, the scorpian king, and an executive producer on of all the things i've reviewed, A Christmas Horror Story> I knew NONE of this when looking him up and i'm incredibly impressed. This is one hell of a career the man's gotten. His draft really impressed executives, but attempts at paramount, rogue pictures and others stalled until eventually Warner Bros scooped up the rights.

Hayter's script had a few diffrences from the final product as Alex Tse, who'd go on to make wu tang an american story, would do some touch ups. His was set in modern day, at one point Nite Owl straight up killed Adrian, and at one point Adrian's plan ivnolved a MASSIVE SOLAR DEATH RAY

Yeah I mean I get why Christ Almighty it's the goddman watchmen gets mentioned more, it's objectively funny.. but the fact Adrian used a solar death beam at one point still should come up more. Don't get me wrong, the idea of using the power of the sun is awesome: Jonathan Hickman's run had Iron Man build a dyson sphere to potentially smash planets. But there's a difference between taking a real world floated concept and making it high concept sci fi.. and having your morally complex if ultimately evil despite his claims villain have a fucking death ray powered by the sun. The other ideas.. are also not my forte. The 80s setting and the 50s start to mystery men are integral to things, as the films eventually director agreed, and having Dan kill adrian just feels a step too far. What the film goes with is still cathartic and we'll get to it, but Adrian should live not to reap the benefits of his actions.. but to live with both the guilt of what he's done and any consequences should the truth come out.

As for who would direct this, with the recent success of 300… Warner Bros tapped Zack Snyder to direct. We'll get into Zack Snyder himself in a second, but to his credit, he was a huge fan of the graphic novel and most tweaks to Hayter's script were out of reverence to it, though he did keep that ending which again we'll get to.

The resulting film was.. divisive. Some critics loved it, some hated it and fans were split on everything from the performacnes to.. that ending. It's part of why I wanted to dive into it. See when the Younger Me saw it over a decade ago.. he dug it. He liked it a lot and thought it was a great adaptation. So I wanted to see if it held up: if it was still good a decade, a through yearlong re-read of the source material, and Zack Snyders lesser adaptations after it later. So let's answer that question shall we as I watch the Watchmen one final time.. at least for this year.

Watchmenmaker So yeah.. before we can even get into the film we have to unpack it's director. And I'm not one to take the side door, I'll come right up front and knock: Zack Snyder is a kind generous man who uses his massive fanbase to help charities, seems to really love his fans and his work, and who generally seems to be an upright guy. He's hard to hate on his own. That said while as a person I have nothing but respect for the guy, his other superhero works i've seen Man of Steel and Batman V Superman are not great films, especially the latter. If you like them great, your allowed to disagree with me but their just not the best superhero films and I for the life of me can't understand why some people are so ride or die on them.

Man of Steel is.. fine. It's a flawed film with a palette that can best be described as "Hope you like grey!", and easily the worst Jonathan Kent in the characters history, a selfish dumbass who has the sheer gall to berate his son for saving lives and who stupidly throws himself into a tornado for reasons that make entirely no sense and who clearly fucked his son up to the point he's traveling the world and the seven seas instead of living a normal life because SOMEBODY felt he never could. It's not a film I really fondly remember, but it's one I felt okay about coming out of the theater. It's alright. It's not the best take on superman, but I can see why some may like it.

Batman V Superman on the other hand.. is giant mess. I liked it a bit out of the theater, but the more i've thought abotu it the less it's become. Part of it isn't entirely his fault: it's clear DC wanted to FastTrack the justice league and shoved as many heroes in as they could. Wonder Woman, while a great part of the film, feels just kinda there, and while Ben Affleck gives it his best, his version of batman just doesn't work. It's clear Zack Snyder has the same reverence for the Dark Knight Returns as Watchmen.. but fails to get that that's not necessarily how to approach batman, nor that even THAT batman does not kill and will not.

His lex luthor is also just baffling, with it being hard for me to figure out just what he was going for. The idea of a younger luthor whose a tech bro was brilliant.. but the resulting writing has a luthor who sounds and acts like he did a literal, not figurative, mountain of cocaine before every scene, whose plans are needlessly convoluted , and who thanks to said cocaine thinks a jar of piss is a good statement. Seriously I did not realize he pissed in a jar the first time around, probably because Lex Luthor pissing in a jar and leaving that jar wired with explosives is not the kind of thing that usually makes it past first draft. There's a reason we never got Superman fighting a giant spider-man while Braniac wrestled a polar bear after all. Trying to jam Death of Superman in there without having properly built up to it doesn't remotely hep and the film that results is just an overly long, overly dour mess that is more concerned about tlaking about superman being a god for 40 minutes than actually telling a good story. It's overly long, overly self indulgent and ultimately just.. just bad. It's bad.

And look I don't begrudge Snyder himself for wanting his cut of Justice League. He only left the film due to the worst tragedy that could befall a parent, and had it cut to shit behind his back. What I begrude is the cultlike beahvior that's formed out of it. While there are likely fans of Zack Snyder's dc work who are nice, kind, and don't mind if someone has a difference of opinion and if your reading this, I value your existence, there has been a foaming, loud, asshollish horde of fans that has not shut the fuck up since getting said cut. Wanting more of something you love is fine. Right now as an Owl House Fan we're hoping desperately Disney gives us more of the series in some form and actually listens. Sometimes you have to scream to be heard.

The problem is instead of accepting the snyder cut as the cool what could've bene it is and being happy with what they got.. they gnash their teeth at ANYTHING they percive outside it. They've taken the screws to Shazam for not being as edgelord as the films they like, and lately have been just outright insufferable. They have gotten RABID since James Gunn was made one of the heads of DC and made the decision to get rid of Henry Cavill… a decision I udnerstand as the snyder verison of superman has a LOT of baggage and while Cavill did his best, I can understand James wanting to start fresh and using a new actor as a way to do that. It's an understandable decision from a guy who was given the hard task of coming in and steering a ship that has no direction in a company that's on fire thanks to David Zaslav's escalating selfish, terrible and downright baffling decisions. He did not come in guns a-blazin to gut everything: Gal Godot and The Rock are still on board, with his black adam announcment merely being that their going to hold off on using him again at first, rather than "your fired get out" as many are intepreting. And while I get it's weird to fire cavill after the stinger to black adam, it was included more because Dwayne Johnson wants to fight superman than being a coherent plan for a sequel, and I say that with all the love I can to the rock whose an awesome dude. I just don't care about seeing Black Adam fight superman. That's not who he has a connection to.

It's just been so draining. I get liking a film but I doubt Snyder wants .. any of this. He's fine. He's moved on from his superhero work. You are NEVER going to get what you wanted back> Let someone genuinely talented who will likely pull out some weird, wonderful cuts do what he wants and give him some room to do it. Zack Snyder is not a bad filmmaker but like superman. .he's not a fucking god. He doesn't want a fucking cult in his name. He just wants you to enjoy his films and support them. Just.. do that. Love his dceu work if you like but accept it's over, move on and for god's sake stop harassing people for it. I shouldn't' have to say this but it's gotten bad, and I felt it couldn't' be ignored. When Snyder fans are, no joke, going up to a tweet Gunn made trying to get support for charities and saying "DON'T CARE WANT CAVILL", I have to say.. SOMETHING, when I have the chance to speak to said fanbase. To those of you not doing this shit.. thank you. Thank you for being good people like Zack likely actually wants. Your awesome.

Now you may be asking yourself "Well how did I get here?"… or more likely "Okay nice speech and all Jake but what does this have to do with the film your actually reviewing" or

If your a tad deranged. My reason is that while I can see bit sof the DCEU in here, particularly Zack Snyder preferring to deconstruct superheroes than actually play it straight, Watchmen.. zigs a lot of places he'd later Zag. It's shockingly colorful while still being grounded, still having the gaudy outfits, but keeping them because he knows their important. The only change he made to them was to make them more like something you'd see in a superhero film of the past, to help evoke these costumes come from the past: Nite Owl and Ozymandis in particular have outfits that come out of a Burton Batman and Schumacher Batman film respectively. Laurie's is more shiny latex, and the Comedian thankfully keeps his domino mask during his full career and either wears your standard Sterling Archer spy turtleneck on missions or his costume rather than bringing out the gimp. I do think it clashes a LITTLE with the 60's and 70's these costumes are supposed to come from but I get that putting them in say, a 60's batman style outfit would be a bridge too far given the tone of the work, and that the original outfits, while neat, were also intentionally goofy in a way that just dosen't work on flim. It's why you only saw The Scarlet Witch, Vision and Quicksilvers full silver age costumes as halloween costume easter eggs in wandavision or Steve Roger's classic cap outfit as his uso outfit. These are iconic looks.. but they just don't work on screen. You can still hav ecolor and flair as the MCU has shown us, but you have to rework it to fit the present.

This way Snyder gets to both have pops of color.. while also having the costumes still get the slightly dated look in a way people who haven't read the comic will get. It's honestly a stroke of brillance and while his works aren't my forte and he slapped a palette of grey over them, his later works do have neat costumes.

His watchmen shows a respect for these characters and world his DCEU work dosen't quite have. He replicates panels, only didn't replicate the costumes beyond rorshachs for the reasons mentioned, and really tries to get as much of the story in as he can. Which brings us to

The Times they Are A Changing

The film is for the most part a fairly straight adaptation of the Graphic Novel. There's a big change to the ending I keep ominously hinting at and we're almost there just hold on, but there are changes either stylistically or just for compressions sake. It's why I tilt my head at reviews that said he was overly reverent to the graphic novel. I agree he could've used a touch more of his own take.. but Snyder still put his own spin on it and his own style. There's some bits of his trademark slowmo and some quick pans and he does brilliantly find ways to incorporate scenes into motion. The opening scene of the comic is a great example of this, as he somehow manage to pan up in the exact same way David Gibbons does while accounting for having to show EVERY frame going from the street to the Comedian's penthouse.

There are some goofy touches, for some reason he thought adding whipcrack sound effects to some fight scenes was neat, likely to parody it being used in 80's and 90's superhero films, which Watchmen takes some style cues from, but it jus tdosen't mesh when said scenes are played dead serious. This is a deconstruction, not a parody and there's a fine line between the two.

Out of his personal style touches my faviorite is easily his use of music. While there are only a handful of sequences, Snyder picked his soundtrack masterfully. It's nothing but the hits but often used in ways that help play off the scene beautifully or create just the right dissonance.

The first and best example of this is the Times They are a Changin scene. Even people who don't like the film admit this scene slaps and for good reason. It's easily one of the best openings in any superhero film ever if not THE best. In just a few minutes of montage, nicely set to one of the iconic songs of the 60's (not a huge Dylan fan myself but I can't deny this song rocks), it takes you through both ages of superheroes easily, gives you all the exposition the film couldn't thanks to Under the Hood being something they couldn't fit in easily (Maybe a tv movie or something but it would've come off obvious to me), and just looks gorgeous: it breaks down the triumphant rise and tragic fall of the minutemen, the hope of the new era of supermen and it's sad fall beautifully. The imagery just does not leave your brain and it's easily a beautiful little mini movie in it's own right. While the film is still good after this, it's easily the best part of it, kind of like how Up's intro is easily it's best part too for similar reasons but the rest is still fantastic.

That said, the next sequence with this.. is no slouch. The Vietnam flashback with ride of the valyrkyes, as Dr. Manhattan looms over the Vietcong and explodes anyone in his path, is masterful, taking an already great one panel image from the comic and IMPROVING on it. Seeing him in motion really sets in the dread of this giant, looming all powerful godlike figure coming towards you and you can do nothing to stop him and really helps set in the scope of manhattan. I also noticed when writing this section that Manhattan has a nice motif of classical music, to establish a timeless feel, using Phillip Glass' music to really set things in motion.

Dan's sequence is no slouch though, as it amazingly uses the funk classic "i'm your boogie man", and is part of why I love that song so much. It both nicely contrasts with the protest going on.. and nicely matches to Comedian horribly responding to it by violently beating up the protestors. Granted said protestors are pro police, which is especially odd given some are POC.. but I write this off as Snyder, like many of us white dumbasses, not fully grasping the history of police violence on people of color at the time. It's not great in hindsight but I can't say many knew much better and he still shows off that someone with undue power and no checks and balances, i.e. the Comedian, going into a crowd and wailing on them is as horrible as it should be seen.

Then we get a long break, just one sequence with Manhattan i'll talk a bit more about later, before we get the next one.. which stuck out in my mind for the wrong reasons and I was ready to give Zack Snyder all the shit for.. till I learned out why he did it. If you've seen the film you know and if not.. the film takes Dan and Laurie's sex scene.. and make sit into… an over the top, in tense and gratuitous as fuck sex scene.

It's just so ludicrious, so unecessary, so out of nowhere it's parody.. and that… was ex-zactly the point. Yeah turns out Zack Snyder did not ask for this scene, the crew did not ask for this scene and i'm pretty sure Dan Steven and Malin Akerman did not ask for this scene. No one wanted to do this except the executives, who demanded

So Zack pulled a Sean Micheals and decided to give it to them in the goofiest, dumbest, most over the top way possible. It's likely why EVERY movement dan makes seems to make laurie orgasm. Akerman was likely in on the joke, and I salute her for it. Like if your forced to do a gross fanservice sex scene, you might as well make it hilarious and honestly the sequence is: you've got Hallujeah blaring over it, Malin going 80 times over the top, dan stevens just .. rolling with it and the gloriously stupid finish when Laurie climaxes as she hits the flamethrower button. The Silk Spectre has a FLAMING orgasm that is seen by ongoers in the night sky. I.. I can't even add to that. I didn't know Zack Snyder could make a funny but here we are. Good on him.

The last music sequence is a classic and a pretty obvious drop… like while all the songs are pretty well known in a song called the watchmen that pulls heavily from the 70's and 60's to evoke a sense of nostalgia a lot of the characters clearly have… All Along The Watchtower was a perfect pick. It's how I first heard the song and it is fucking dynamite and setting it to Dan and Rorschach's descent into the artic.. fucking perfect.

We get two more songs in the credits. The first is an awesome cover of Desolation Row by My Chemical Romance. I loved them since hearing Danger Day and love Gerard Way's awesome comics work after MCR, so I do like the song.. but it's also a touch too modern to really fit with the film. It was clearly made because the studio wanted a soundtrack tie in.. but it's also very hard to hate because it's so awesome and the first issue's title directly references this song.

The other is We'll Take Manhattan, which I feel was likely Snyder's first choice and is a nice cheeky nod to the horrors that just happened.

Okay so now we've cued the music , let's talk about another change.. one i've been omniously hinting at all film and one where I can't help quoting a certain critic I admire's theme song

They Made Watchmen Without the Slimy Squid

Yeah out of all the changes, one bit of casting, and other various things… this is the single most divisive part of the film. See most of the plot and even the ending is the same: Nite Owl and Rorshach find out Adrian was behind it, confront him at his arctic fortress, and while him kicking their asses is mostly omitted, it's for a good reason we'll get to, and while they plan to not let him do it but..

And thus his plan goes off and while Dr. Manhattan also confronts him, ultimately our heroes are forced to back down for the sake of the world. The big diffrence is WHAT the plan was. See when the Hayter script was made .. it was intended for 2003, complete with a screen test. This was two years after 9/11 so showing what was likely minutes of bloody bodies lying in the streets of new york after an attack.. was something they really coudln't do. They coudln't drop NYC either as it's grimy 80's exterior is as much a character as our heroes. So he came up with something else that made it all the way here.

So instead of Dr. Manhattan having harnessed his power to change the world, he's just getting to it as the film is in progress and is working with Adrian, who goes from a psychic alien attack.. the much simpler plan of using his energy to simulate Dr. Manhattan attacking the world, still giving humanity a common enemy.

Now while I like the squid sequence.. I get why a change had to happen. Even in 2009 9/11 was still fresh in minds. It was likely hard enough getting just dr. manhattan exploding people through. And besides just being sensitive to a reall life tragedy by making things more fantastical… the Squid thing is convoluted as fuck. Like Adrian does lay it out… but it requires a psychic's brain, kidnapping scientists and artists, and genetically cloning it into a squid. It's a BRILLIANT scheme, as it was made to be as believable as possible, and I love it dearly.. but when your trying to streamline an already beefy narrative to fit three hours, it's a LOT to unpack and something not everyone might get and understandably so. I even missed the whole psychic part till adrian brought it up. It has that many moving pieces.

You also have to remember this was pre-guardians of the galaxy. Studios were very gunshy about weird shit and they'd already let the naked blue man hanging dong pass inspection. Zack and Hayter likely didn't want to push it too far. So changing it from the slimy squid while sad.. was necessary.

That said the replacement.. just dosen't work for me. I get using Dr. Manhattan.. but how he pulled it off just raises a LOT of questions and leaves a hell of a lot more holes that could be traced back to him than in the original verison. For one thing the project wasn't some secret project on a remote island and then the arctic but a HIGHLY public clean energy project. I'm not sure they knew manhattan was powering it, but a bunch of scinetests going mising from that suddenly.. isn't going to go away forever. I mean sure Adrian can probbaly bury it with his money, but iwth the journal, there's every chance someone might look into it. Now i'm sure Nixon and later Regan after him would likely gladly shoot anyone who questioned this for world peace.. but i'm also sure someone could leak it eventually.

In the comic.. part of why Adrian won besides assuring world peace.. is he covered his tracks emacuatley: Everyone went missing long before he killed them, he could always fake bodies if needed given his genetic engineering and the squid was so convincingly alien, no one would really THINK to investigate something else. I do get Dr. Manhattan is so throughly. .not human it's supposed to be the same principal, but i'm also not convinced someone wouldn't buy the continence of it.

Not only that is trips away the ambigiutiy of Adrian getting caught as if he does.. Jon could just show up, go ooga booga and confirm the plan. It wipes away any chance of him blowing this away. Unless Jon intentionally lets Vedit hang out to dry, which dosen't seem likely, he gets away completely. It just.. dosen't work for me. I get what they were trying to do but it just dosen't add up.

There's one other adjustment to the ending, but this one I like: LIke the comic everyone but Rorshach agrees to keep quiet but for one thing it's even clearer Dan and Laurie aren't on board with this. We also get a nice adjustment to Rorshach's death as Dan follows.. and sees it happen… crying for his death. Even if Rorshach wasn't a great perosn.. he was still his friend and didn't deserve to die like this. While I like dhis lonely death in the comics.. this still works.

The part I like the most though.. is Dan storming in afterword's and beating the shit out of Adrian. Adrian dosen't fight back and it's left ambiguous: Does he feel guilty or is he just patronizing him like a father whose child is having a tantrum. It's what Dan says though that I really love

"You haven't idealized mankind, but you've deformed it, mutilated it.. that's your legacy.. that's the real practical joke".

Just Dan, tears down his face, knowing he can't get the justice that's required.. but not being content to just.. let Adrian smugly step away. He's given humanity utopia but before marred it with it's cost and will forever carry that burden as he damn well should. It's not QUITE as satisfying as "nothing ever ends".. but it still works with Vedit left just as stunned wondering if he really won. Which nicely brings us to

Under the Hood:

While snyder brought the core of the story well enough to screen, his character work was a bit more.. mixed. Some actors soared, others fell, and some were just let down by the script

We'll start with the character both most prominently used in marketing and whose often see as the franchises mascot, Rorshach. Jackie Earle Haley's performance.. is stunning, it's absolutely perfect to screen, having a nice gruff batman-esque tone that still sounds coarser more tired, and perfectly growly. It fits his uncomoromising mindset, blunt nature and perfectly captures that Rorshach needs help more than he needs to be murdering people. Haley PERFECTLY captures the character, and while he spends most of the film under a mask, he emotes greatly. He also BEAUTIFULLY excutes one of the best scenes of a comic, Rorshach's death. His response is growly.. but when taking off the mask.. he looks utterly destroyed at first, nicely replicating the crying and the fact that despite being so resolute.. even rorshach is sad not only is he passing.. but that a horrible man has gotten away with everything and his scream of "Do it!" is just.. perfect.

Writing wise however.. it's a mixed bag. Hayley does a lot of the heavy lifting.. but a lot of Rorshach's character and backstory was cut. We see flecks of it in his psychological examination but the darkness of mere being itself.. is largely cut out of the film. Malcom Long gets nothing of an arc, a huge shame given he was the only POC character of note in the piece (something Snyder could've rectified and didn't), while the context for Rorshach's fall is mostly gone. The change to what he does to the villain works, having been switched from the saw like handcuffs for understandable reasons ot him savagely meat cleaving the guy, but the slow slide from a man with a tragic past being a vigilante to a man who badly needs a therapist but is so far gone he can't accept the help he needs. .is gone and it takes weight for the character. A lot of what makes Rorshach so neat is gone.

Also gone.. are his right wing leanings. While his opening monologue his kept his homophobia, sexism and general other unpleasantness. This is a double edge sword.. on one hand it makes him more likeable.. but on the other hand it robs the ending of some of it's punch as even if Rorschach sucks.. the fact he's throughly RIGHT hit hit harder coming from someone so often wrong and his right wing fanaticism makes it less obvious if his words will carry weight givfen his various prejudices. The character only still works so well.. because Haley does such a phenomenal job in the roll that the various sanded off edges don't come off as bad as they should. He's just so good and so perfectly cast it helps. It's still not the strongest version of Rorschach, but damn if it isn't memorable.

Less well translated is Dr. Manhattan, who I feel gets the shaft despite his sticking out. I mean at least he probablyg ot some nice resduals form his condoms

Yeah while I feel bad people often overly focus on the character hanging dong, as the whole poitn of that is that he is so far beyond human concerns he dosen't evne care he's hanging dong anymore, I can't knock dc for having a perfect tie in with that.

Look dick jokes aside Dr. Manhattan's representation is really spotty. Some moments are translated perfectly: the aforementioned ride of the valyrkye scene, his spotlight with Watchmaker which shockingly shows off his sense of time despite being portrayed in a fraction of it, and his ending return as a giant blue man.

But a good chunk of his scenes are muted. Part of this is on Billy Crudup. He tries his best.. but ultimately just HOW good he is at portraying a detached godlike being.. varies on the scene. Sometimes he sounds perfectly alien and emotionless.. and other times he sounds like he's just.. bored. The latter just dosen't really work.. I mean sure he's lived through all of this but part of the characters mistique is he's often very hard to read. He also stumbles on the time he is, still coming off emotionless during his ephinany about Laurie or , most damingly when shouting for everyone to leave. Crudup just coudln't figure out the righ totne to match the scnee sand the character dosen't come off well.

Writing wise he's mostly fine.. but the Mars bit is completely botched. Like out of all the stuff the film adapts it's easily the issue that is done the absolute worst. See in the comics it looks like this

Nice crystaline but still pink and otherworldly. Easy enough toa dapt for some reason…. Zack Snyder went with..t his

yeah not only does mars look crappier as while ti's more realistic it's also all brown and muted, taking away a lot of the planets haunting majesty from the comic, but the palace for some reason is entirely made of glass, and cgi.. and as a result it looks REALLY bad. LIke I get using CG, I do, and Manhattan himself is an amazing effect. They got him to screen beauituflly, hanging dong and all. But this is just.. I can't tell if it was just the tightly stretched budget or terrible design choices but it just looks ugly and the scene is so cut down in the theatrical cut it just drains the whole phislocpiacal argument between Manhattan and Laurie. It's just..awful and when you cut a characters best scene down to ribbons he's bound to not come off great. Manhattan looks great but just.. feels souless

So speaking of laurie, stop me if you've heard this one: They cut out most of her backstory. Yeah that's a problem with the film as a whole: I get having to streamline things but not finding some way to intergrate the backstories as well damaged most of the cast. With Laurie it's especially bad as the pressure form her mother, the strained relationship and her painful history are all either underplayed or in the latter case gone entirely. Most of what character she did have is gone.

There is a TINY bit of good as she no longer breaks out into hysterics over most thing, an unfortunate trait I noticed that I don't think Moore or Gibbons thought through for you know, one of only two major female characters in the piece, and the other.. is defined ENTIRELY by nearly being raped then having sex with her rapist so not too good on either account.

That said they replace it with

Malin Ackerman tries her best, but even she admitted that she regretted taking the role, citing it was out of her comfort zone and being the only none shakesphere experinced one in the group and the work's importance, got a bad case of imposter syndrome. I just feel bad for her and her feeling out of her depth shows in her performace. it feels stilted like she dosen't know what to do.. and it's one of the times I blame the acting on Snyder himself. Sometimes acting can be bad direction but not helping an actor whose clearly struggling and not having the good sense to give her way more to work with and an actual character.. that's on him. He had no probelm adjusting the script when needed, so laurie coming out this underbaked is inexcusable. The fact she comes off more as a sex object thanks to her outfit and sex scene without having any AGENCY in said sexuality does not help.

WE then have Dan.. and he may be the only one tha'ts a full on improvement. Patcik Wilson is perfect in the part, not only looking exactly like dan but playing him well: he comes off just a touch more confident.. but not so much he isn't still the insecure, withdrawn nerd the story needs him to be. HE's still a painfully shy man, but he not only has a closer friendship with adrian that helps give him more to do in the plot, and more reason why he's more doubtful he's behind it at first, it also makes Adrian's actions hit harder. IN the comic it wasnt' clear if Adrian was all that close to any of his collegeues. Here the betryal feels personal. He also has great chemistry with ackerman. Wilson is the mvp of the film. And like I said he dosen't just sorta.. collapse and go along with the plan at the end, but is actively spiteful about having to and leaves Adrian devistated. This is easily the better version of dan, and it's likely because unlike the others we didn't get a ton of his backstory, so we only gain more of him instead of loosing a lot.

We then have our mastermind Ozymandis and he's done.. fine. Goode dosen't look the most like him, but did put a lot of effort into the roll. Granted he also infamously told people against his casting "Suck my dick because I don't give a fuck"

But he still did his best and I support his casting: he dosen't look like the superman of the books but more gaunt.. yet he does in the past, giving the feeling the weight of his actions and what has happened has worn on him. While he puts on the cold vener of detachment he dosen't have the smug ego. It makes the character diffrent.. but not in ab ad way, coming off as someone who is doing the grim work necesary to save the world instead of a smug egotist who thinks he's the only one who can. Neither is a good person, but both versions ar eintresting. Admitely Goode slips in an out of an accent but it came from the good idea of having Adrian be german and hide his accent in public to blend in more, as well as distance himself from his nazi parents. I wish this was more texual than just something he thought of but poitns for effort

Finally for the main cast we have our boogie man himself, The COmedian. Along with Stevens and Haley, Dean Morgan not only perfectly matches the role in apperance.. but just ooze sinto it. And since we get his full backstory bit, he's one of the few not as badly marred. The only issue I have is changing his attempted rape to have him be older: him being young and still trying to do something his awful signified that he'd ALWAYS been this cynical, selfish asshat and age only made him worse. The roll was a departure for Morgan who was best known for Grey's Anatomy at the time, but nicely blended into the roll and I wouldn't be shocked if, while not having seen him in wlaking dead, this roll landed him negan as I have read the comic version and the two characters are just similar enough for it to be perfect casting. Ther'es not a lot to say about the comedian I havne't in the comics reviews, Morgan is just perfec tin the roll and desreves more love as an actor.

Finally we have the only two minute men of consequences. Stephen McHattie does a great job as hollis mason though sadly his best scene was cut out of the film, as his death was done BETTER in the extended cut, which I almost reviewed but decided for KEv's wallet and times skae not to. It shows Hollis going down swining, imagining the top knot's as his foes. IT's a great death and I wish it'd been kept in.

Carl Gugino does great as Sally and while she dosen't get many scenes, she is great and I like adding a line about Sally having not regretted her one night stand with Eddie because of wha tit gave her, making her reconcilation with her daughter feel way more plausable.

So with that we just have a few odds and end to

The Cutting Room Floor

As you can probably guess the film exercised a lot. in addition to the various backstories, under the hood and tons of other stuff, pretty much every subplot is excised; The Newspaper Man, the kid with him, Malcom Long, the Lesbians, everyone is gone. The newspaperman and malcom long are unfortunate and it's asd to see them go.. the lesbians not so much as their subplot came off untiotnally homophobic. They also removed mustache cop and you can just imagine my reactoin

Most cuts are understandable. And with that

The Clock Strikes one

So overall Watchmen is a decent film: It has visual flair, some decent aditions, and cast that mostly tries their best even when some aren't given a lot. Is it a GREAT superhero film? Honestly.. no. The cut portions mute the story a bit and Gilliam was likely right that a mini series was a better fit, not to mention there's some tarnish of the time with the executive mandated sex scene and general poor writing for laurie as well as that freaking mars cgi. It's far from a perfect film.. but I still maintain it's pretty good and I still enjoyed it. It's not the best adaptation of the work.. but it's the best it could be within the time, budget and paramenters given and it's a clear labor of love. It's clear Snyder loved watchmen and while he amde some changes, he did his best to get the spirit of it down on film. THe result is a real treat if your a fan of the graphic novel or just a superhero fan in general and if your a fan of snyders, you'll likely enjoy this even more than his justice league works. Doubly if your not a fan. So check it out, it's on HBO max and.. thanks for reading all this way. This has been a decent retrospective and one of th ebiggest and most ambitious project si've done.. But it's time to put away the doomsday clock, let it chime to one in storage.. and stop watching the watchmen. It's been a long road but now.. I rest. See you in the new year.

[kaytrawrites]

Feathered Family

Summary In which Tommy is paternal Also, Beau is there

Notes I am referring to Tommy as ‘Tom’ in this short, due to this short being more from Hetta’s pov (as in Hetta looks up to him in a position of respect), rather than from the pov of one of Tommy’s peers Credit to Nugget_From_Space on AO3 for giving me the rough idea!

Story

Hetta ruffled her feathers, snuggling deeper into the plush blanket on her father’s bed along with her brothers and sisters.

When she had first shifted, she had been clinging for her dear life to a rope from the floating pub. And the ones who had tossed her down there didn’t notice until her father noticed.

When he called out to her, his voice was gentle and promised safety. And when he chewed out the pair that had dangled her down there, his voice threw knives and promised death to those who hurt her.

She treasured her father so dearly. Just as he treasured her. She was his first born, and although there were many who came after her, she was the one who resembled him the closest. Her feathers were the same rich red as her father’s. She didn’t inherit his fluff of golden hair, but her gangly limbs promised that she would be almost as tall as he was when she grew up.

The door creaked open, and Tom’s bag thumped onto the floor, heavy with ores and materials. “I’m home.” He yawned.

Hetta disentangled herself from the blanket, hopping out of the bed, shifting so she had thumbs.

“Welcome home father!” She chirped.

Tom smiled slightly and gently ruffled Hetta’s red fluff of hair. “Aww. Hullo my dear…” He cooed gently.

Hetta nuzzled into her father’s hand.

The blanket rustled as Unnamed poked his head out of the warm blankets. “Mornin Father.” He mumbled.

Tom gently ruffled Unnamed’s fluff of white-gold hair. “Hello to you too.” He said.

Hetta crawled back into the bed, crossing her legs as she watched her father greet each of his children by name. Unnamed cuddled into her elbow, having shifted back to his bird form.

After greeting each of his children, Tom busied himself with unloading his pack, and just chatting with the little ones that clucked and cheeped around his feet while he worked.

It wasn’t often that one of the eggs hatched. But each was loved just as dearly by both Tom, and the others. All were named, even if they were what Tom referred to as ‘puns’ and ‘jokes’.

Names were a precious thing, Hetta had realized. And an individual could have many, but the first one that you got was the most precious.

“Father! We’re gonna go out to play!” Hetta called out, pulling on her shoes.

“Ok. Stay safe.” Tom replied, vaguely waving a hand goodbye.

Hetta paused in the open door, letting her siblings leave before her. Just as the last one ran out, she ran over and quickly hugged Tom’s leg. “Love you father.” She mumbled, before turning and running off after her siblings.

The little flock always enjoyed themselves when they were out and about. Beau’s son also joined them, his black and white banded feathers a stark contrast to Tom’s little flock of gold and red.

But Hetta and her siblings adored Beau’s son.

They played and played and played. And just as the sun was starting to go down, Tom and Beau sent looking for the little group.

They found them all cuddled in a little pile of feathers and straw. Hetta was barely awake, but her siblings and cousin were all cuddled down against and around her, fast asleep.

“Aww…” Tom crooned. He crouched down and gathered up an arm full of his children, and Beau picked up her son, Unnamed and Hetta.

The sleepy cheeps lulled Hetta further to sleep, but she kept shaking her head to try and stay awake. “Nite nite father…” She mumbled, letting her head thump down against Beau’s shoulder.

Tommy sighed at his eldest. “Good night Hetta.” He replied.

“You really care bout your kids, Tommay.” Beau commented.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Tommy replied. “But don’t go telling people!”

Beau chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t need to.”

[synthwwavve]

omg i love all ur hcs!!! i think it makes sense so many of them would be dark/depressing bc she is dark and depressing lol but that's why we love her!! pls feel free to continue if you want :)

Aaaaaa thank you!!!! And yes I agree, the fact that she is sad wet and pathetic is exactly what makes her so interesting!! Okay ask and you shall receive:

— I feel like Bo was also living a double life during the years leading up to TCW era, dedicating herself to building up and co-leading Death Watch but also maintaining the facade of her life in Sundari (to keep up appearances/maintain her position of status, but also mostly to collect government intel and leak it back to DW)

—Lowkey more of a Bo-adjacent HC but: in the wake of the events of The Mandalore Plot (after Vizsla is exposed as the leader of Death Watch) I feel like Satine just. Knows. her sister must be involved too based on how close the two of them always were (though she never suspected anything negative or dangerous going on between them) but she doesn't want to believe it. The next day, footage of Bo fleeing the scene of a DW-incited riot on a nearby world hits the news. She sneers directly into the camera. Satine knows the look was intended just for her.

(Aight I can't promise these will all be lighter but I'm throwing in some HCs that are at least random and a bit shorter:)

— The nite owl crest is the historic signet of House Kryze, Bo sees using it to represent her own elite warriors as a first step to reclaiming a bit of her family's honor and reputation

— She is extremely tall, like 5'11", and extremely freckled. I feel like she started out insecure about standing out and the attention that came with it, but grew to not really care and even use it to her advantage.

— Zero filters, swears constantly, extremely sarcastic, is never above inciting a fight or argument no matter how petty, etc etc

—Banter is her love language, platonic or romantic. If she can talk shit to and about you in a funny affectionate way and trust that you'll give as good as you get, that means she's truly 100% comfortable and trusting around you.

— Lowkey suffers from not like other girls syndrome. A tomboy who never aged out of her "ew I don't have a girly side and I never will" era. Pretty feminist outside of this one blind spot.

— She's all-in on taking down Satine along with her government, no regrets no personal feelings. The only person she sometimes feels a pang of remorse over in the whole situation is Korkie. I feel like when Bo was in their lives, they had a big-little sibling dynamic more than she and Satine did in many ways (based on my HCs they would've only been 5 years apart, whereas she and Satine would have been 10-11 apart.) She can mostly put it out of her mind but occasionally a bit of guilt over turning on him hits her. She hopes maybe he'll see reason and join the correct side when the fateful moment comes. (oops shit this one was long again)

Aight stopping before the post gets long af, thank you for inviting me to rant again!!! I.... could literally go on until the end of time if you actually want more....

[xandercainxxx]

Rorschach, Watchmen.

"Soon there will be war. Millions will burn. Millions will perish in sickness and misery. Why does one death matter against so many? Because there is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon I shall not compromise in this. But there are so many deserving of retribution ... and there is so little time."

Walter Joseph Kovacs was a violent and ruthless costumed vigilante known for mentally unstable behavior. Kovacs grew up in abusive household until he was put under state care at the Charlton Home. After leaving foster care, he found work as a garment worker, but he soon grew bored with it, as it served him no real purpose at the time. Upon hearing the circumstances surrounding Kitty Genovese's death, Kovacs became disillusioned with the underlying apathy that he saw as inherent in most people. Inspired by Genovese's fate, Kovacs made a customized inkblot mask from a specialized dress fabric, and began fighting crime as the vigilante known as Rorschach.

A New Face

Soon after Walter left the Charlton Home, he started living in a series of low-rent apartments. He took up full employment in a menial capacity as an unskilled manual worker within the garment industry. He described to Malcolm Long, "Job bearable but unpleasant. Had to handle female clothing." In 1962 there was a special order for a dress in a new Doctor Manhattan spin-off fabric. The customer was a "young girl with an Italian name'', Kitty Genovese, who didn't accept it saying that the dress looked ugly. Walter thought otherwise, and since no one had wanted the dress, he believed it was meant for him, so he took it home and learned how to cut it using heated implements to reseal the latex. Soon he became bored and thought the fabric had no use, leaving it in his trunk and forgetting about it.[2]

Two years afterward, in March of 1964, he bought a newspaper and saw that the customer had been brutally raped and murdered outside of her apartment building while her neighbors just watched, not calling the police. Because of this, Kovacs learned what people were behind all the evasions and self-deception. Being ashamed for humanity, he took the remains of her unwanted dress and made a face he claimed that he "...could bear to look at in the mirror."[2]

Meeting Nite Owl

Wearing his 'new face', Kovacs decided to become a costumed adventurer by the name of 'Rorschach', taken from Hermann Rorschach, who created the Rorschach inkblot test. Continuing his work in the garment factory, Kovacs started his nocturnal lifestyle by fighting crime. The following year, 1965, he partnered with fellow costumed vigilante, Nite Owl,[2] whose technical skills and resources complimented his own skills as an investigator. Rorschach's grappling hook gun was designed and built for him by Nite Owl.[6] During that time, they fought against the gangs and were successful against several major crime figures including Underboss and Big Figure.[6][7]

The next year, April 1966, Nelson Gardner, otherwise known as Captain Metropolis, the same man co-founded the Minutemen, attempted to form a new group of superheroes called the Crimebusters. When discussing the group's creation, with Rorschach, his partner Nite Owl, Comedian, Doctor Manhattan, Ozymandias and Silk Spectre, Rorschach commented that while he had success with Nite Owl, a group that size seemed more like a 'publicity exercise', and was "too big and unwieldy."[7] Rorschach felt admiration for the Comedian's forceful personality and his courage to face reality as it is.[2] The participants left the mansion, and Rorschach sneaked behind the bushes.[8]

For a long time, Rorschach described himself as 'soft': "Soft on scum. Too young to know any better. Molly-coddled them. Let them live." His pattern continued until 1975, when Blair Roche, a six year old child, was kidnapped because Gerald Anthony Grice thought she had been connected to the Roche Chemical fortune. Roche's father was a bus driver and the family was not in any way wealthy. Rorschach had "personal reasons," for taking the case and he intervened, promising the parents he'd return her unharmed. He visited underworld bars, putting fourteen people in the hospital needlessly, but the fifteenth gave him an address to Modern Modes, an unused dressmaker's shop in Brooklyn.

Source is from: Walter Kovacs | Watchmen Wiki | Fandom

[beyondxmeasure]

As a fellow Aquarius I love that you can't follow the rules. I was gonna ask top ten but thought that might be to much. I am interested in your whole top 18 though. My top shows are in no order

Cold case. I honestly lost count of how many times I have watched this show.

Suits. This show introduced me into the fanfic world and I haven't been able to leave.

House. Grew up watching this show. It will always be one of my favorites.

White Collar. Just did a rewatch and I still holds up.

New York undercover. I used to watch this with my dad. So I reminds me of that time.

Resurrection Blvd. Again something I watched with my dad. But I love boxing and hate that I can't find it on streaming. I own the first season on DVD so manly thats what I'll watch.

The Mandalorian. Honestly hadn't watched anything star wars ever but my little brother was obsessed. He had heard about it and since he wasn't able to watch had me write him about it. I needed up really liking it.

Currently watching the new percy jackson series and am liking it so far. Also started The Rookie and am enjoying it.

Ok I just realized I like mostly crime shows. That would make since given my childhood of watching America's most wanted every Saturday night. Also documentaries but those aren't tv shows.

I need some fluffy shows any recommendations? I have never really looked into them.

Yes, I definitely see the trend! I have not seen any of the shows you’ve listed unfortunately. I did go through a true crime phase but that was more with documentaries and podcasts. For a time I was really into SVU and all of the ‘Chicago’ shows (Chi Fire/Med/PD) but that’s about it. White Collar interests me a little because after Fellow Travelers I’m kind of jonesing for any Matt Bomer content.

Anyway… for the remaining faves that didn’t make the cut. Here they are in no particular order…

Boardwalk Empire- of the two post WW1/roaring 20s era tales, this one pulls me in more- the music, the costumes, characters, the feel of it all. Even though it’s the underworld of the prohibition era, it’s more enticing.

Peaky Blinders- The darker, grittier and slightly more violent post WW1/prohibition era tale from across the pond.

*Downton Abbey- For Violet Crawley’s clap backs alone.

*Call The Midwives- I don’t have kids, don’t want kids and don’t particularly care for them but somehow a show about nuns delivering babies in the East End of London in the 50s just fills me with joy.

Deadwood- Wild West shenanigans and they say fuck a lot. Like, a lot. The interactions between Al Swearengen and Mr. Wu is worth the price of admission. Basically just anytime Al is on screen is gold.

*I Love Lucy- I grew up watching Nick at Nite and loved all those classic B&W sitcoms but Lucy was always my fave.

*Our Flag Means Death- gay pirates, what’s not to love?

Sons of Anarchy- motorcycles, mayhem & murder. It’s a wild fucking ride, but worth every mile—buckle up.

*Shrinking—a show so brilliantly funny with such a stellar ensemble cast you almost forget it’s about a family dealing with grief. It’s a bit of a slow starter but stick with it for the real payoff. Harrison Ford high on gummies was a high point for sure.

*Sex Education- worst name for a show that’s about so much more than that title makes it sound like. I feel like a lot of people slept on this show because of the title or the idea it was just some throwaway teen sex comedy. Far from it.

*Parks & Rec- if The Office is my wife, then Parks is the sidepiece I’m hiding uptown in a luxury townhouse and I’ll never give her up.

Rescue Me- There’s one scene that still haunts me to this day. I got chills just thinking about it, and the music throughout was superb. TBH I have a weakness for pretty much all firefighter/first responder shows (or as I affectionately refer to them—my ‘wee-woo’ shows🚨 LOL) but this one’s my OG fave. My newer faves are: 911 Lone Star and New Amsterdam

So, I’m noticing a trend with this list… if it’s British or old-timey I’m into it, and if it’s British and old-timey then I’m really into it.

Not sure what you meant exactly by ‘fluffy’… like rom-com-y? Or just something on the lighter side and easy to watch? Because I’ve never been much for most sitcoms (other than the ones I listed) but my last ask that I answered with the original list had quite a few lighter/comedy shows on there. Otherwise I could definitely recommend Downton Abbey or Call The Midwives if you want something to get lost in something with a feel good wholesome vibe to it. I’ll put stars next to anything else above that I think might hit the mark as far as fluffy vibes. Enjoy!

[stormkobra-5]

The Heir of Djarin

Episode 8: Rising Phoenix

Summary: Poe and Laylah return to D’Qar with Din, Grogu, BB-8, and the promise of the Mand’alore. Now, things are kind of back to normal, and Laylah earns the final piece of her inheritance. But the First Order is still disturbingly quiet... Until Poe discovers what they’re looking for.

A/N: There are differences between Heir of Djarin and the Poe Dameron comics, such as Poe already has Black Squadron formed at the beginning of Heir of Djarin, whereas the first Poe Dameron comic is supposed to take place at the end of Heir of Djarin.

Warnings: This story is rated 14+ for canon-typical violence, action, and     language. The main character is recovering from a traumatic backstory for the sake of the plot, so there is mention of distrust, social anxiety, self-doubt, and emotional damage. Later chapters may involve mature themes for drug usage (spice), excessive alcohol consumption, and clubs that imply adult entertainment (the main characters do not take part). Nothing explicit in any chapters.

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    We walk through the gardens-- her gardens, I come to learn-- for the better part of an hour before settling on a bench of white wood, fitted with cushions on the seat and back for her comfort.     She tells me stories. Of how her older sister, Duchess Satine Kryze, never approved of her joining a group called the Death Watch on Mandalore to overthrow their pacifist government and remake it into the glorious place it once was. How Satine was killed by Darth Maul out of spite in front of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, the very same who partially trained Luke Skywalker and his father before him, who became Darth Vader.    She tells me of her friendship with Ahsoka Tano, and her continuance of her struggles to return Mandalore to its old ways. Of the Nite Owls. Of her many exploits trying to free and revive Mandalore.     Then she tells me of her quest to locate and retrieve the Darksaber. Of how she hunted Moff Gideon for years before finally locating him-- only to have Din Djarin win the Darksaber. How later on, she was injured in battle, and could no longer fight for her people.     “I discovered it the hard way when I got one of my own killed.” A shadow passes over her face that doesn’t seem to fade. “I was unworthy of my armor. I had betrayed the Creed. Without me, any hope for a true Mandalorian leader faded away... I continued in a different way. I sought out Mandalorians to join the Last Blood. A brotherhood of our people across the galaxy that were like me: waiting for the Chosen One to come forward. I passed on my armor to Maz Kanata, who felt it necessary to give it to Din Djarin.”    She pats my knee. “And that, dear girl, is where you come in. How did Din find you?”    Kriff. I’ve never told anyone but Poe this story. Leia and Maz know only parts of it, like Kylo Ren. I can’t look at her as I speak. “I... I fell from the sky. I was yanked from my time and place, and ended up... here. I was on the planet Din was staying with Grogu-- he found me. Took me in, made me a foundling. Trained me. Named me a Mandalorian and his heir. And then... then he gave me the Slave. He gave me your armor. I can only hope I can honor your legacy, Lady Kryze.”     She inspects my pauldrons and vambraces with a smile. “These dents and scratches are new. You’ve put the armor to use... yet, I wonder, why did you keep the old marks when you repainted it? Even the owl?”    “You earned these scars, Lady Kryze,” I reply softly, “I wasn’t going to erase them.”    “Why?” She challenges.    “Because...” I start, then, “Because that’s what the people did where I came from. Erased history. Rewrote it. Ignored those who came before them. It’s one of many things I vowed never to become.”    She regards me carefully, narrowing her eyes. “And what else did you vow?”    I answer her question immediately but carefully. “Never to be greedy or selfish. To always think of the needs of others and protect the weak and innocent. To uphold honor and dignity. To learn from the lessons set forth by my predecessors.”    “And this was before you came here, to this galaxy?” She sounds intrigued.    “Yes, Lady Kryze.”    She tilts her chin up, something like approval in her eyes. “Then the stories I have heard of you are correct. You have the heart of a Mandalorian.” She thinks for a second. “What will you do when the time comes to revive Mandalore, young Djarin? Will you be ready for it?”    I think about that for a second. “One is never ready, Lady Kryze-- but one can always be prepared. I will learn, and I will listen, not only to the words of the people, but to the advice of those I trust. I will learn from the mistakes I make and fix them.”    “You strive for an honorable purpose, young Djarin,” Bo-Katan inclines her head, gesturing to a nearby protocol droid. “Summon the Mandalorians.” I half expect them all to jetpack in, but they walk normally, careful of the gardens. Din is with them. Bo-Katan stands before them, and everyone kneels until she orders them to stand. “This child,” Bo-Katan says, “Is the one whom will wield the Darksaber. She is to become the Duchess of Mandalore. You are to heed her commands and her call as if Mandalore is as it once was. We are the Last Blood-- we are all that is left... To you, young Djarin, I present a choice.”    I lift my head, stunned speechless. Hell.    “You can continue on the fighting path to free Mandalore with the Resistance, or, you can join us, begin to lead us now. Join our covert missions to cripple the First Order and gather supplies for the founding of our new planet.”    I look back and forth between Bo-Katan and the Last Blood nervously. My gaze rests on Din, who gives no sign of what he’s thinking. But... I’m not Leia. After this little escapade, I clearly have a lot to learn about leadership. I’m still young and naive. Slowly, I stand, taking a deep breath.    “I cannot express in words how grateful I am for your offer, Lady Kryze,” I manage, “I’ve waited a long time to be among my people. But... also, I’m not yet ready to lead you all. I still have very much to learn and see in this galaxy, and the last thing I want is to disappoint you with an ill-suited leader to a very important task. For now, my path is with the Resistance. One day, when the war is over, that will change. And then I’ll be older, and wiser, and can lead you as you deserve.”    Bo-Katan nods with approval. Boba Fett inclines his head to me. Din looks on with what I hope is pride. The Mandalorians thrust their right fists into the air. “Vhaene-Besu! Vhaene-Besu! Vhaene-Besu! Hail to the Heiress of Mandalore!”    I have to put my helmet on to hide my my flustered, tear-jerked face. “Should you ever need me, you need only call. I will come.”    Together, as one, every Mandalorian in the garden, including myself, says, “This is the Way.”    “Allow us to escort you back to your ship, princess,” A young woman in sand-colored armor all but asks. “It would be an honor.”    I incline my head. “I accept. Thank you.”    “I will stay here,” Bo-Katan sinks back into her seat. “The walk is too far for my bad knee. I would only disgrace you.”    “I will remain with you,” Boba said.    I kneel before Bo-Katan one more time. “My Lady Kryze-- it was the highest honor I can imagine to have met you.” Standing, I start up a different version of the chant they had granted me. One they all follow suit for without question. “Bo-Katan! Bo-Katan! Bo-Katan! Hail to the Duchess of Mandalore!”    There are tears in her eyes as she takes my hands in hers. “You honor my legacy, Laylah Vhaene-Besu of Clan Djarin. Farewell.”    I turn to Boba Fett, shaking his hand. “It was an honor, sir.”    Boba Fett nods in acknowledgement. “The honor is mine, princess. I doubt this is the last time we’ll see one another; I’m sure you’re bound to get in all sorts of other adventures before long.”    I can’t help but smile. “I hope that when we meet isn’t limited to only dangerous finales to adventures, Boba Fett. You might get tired of it.”    He chuckles. “I doubt it, princess. Good luck.”    “Thank you.”    Din flanks my left as the Mandalorians take up the rear. My heart is pounding, my head feels light. Hell. Did that really happen? In the hall, we meet Lando Calrissian and Poe. Lando bows his head with a smile. “Lady Djarin. How was it?”    “I can think of no higher honor, sir,” I reply, shaking his hand. “Thank you, Calrissian. It’s been an honor to meet you.”    “I hope you return to Cloud City someday, my lady,” He says.    “I definitely will. It’s beautiful-- and a wonderful place for the Last Blood. You’re very generous for sheltering my people.”    He bows at the waist. “It’s my pleasure. Farewell, princess,” Lando smiles, “And good luck.”    “Thank you, Calrissan. Farewell.”    Once we’re back to the Slave, I see that it’s loaded with crates of medical supplies. Din’s starfighter is stored in the hold of a cargo ship close by, which also holds more medical supplies. I don’t need to check them. Once on the ship, I turn to the Last Blood and incline my head. “Thank you, Mandalorians.”     “This is the Way,” They reply, but the male in front says, “Farewell, princess. Good luck.”    The ramp closes, and finally, Poe, BB-8 and I are free of prying eyes. I tear off my helmet and turn to him with a huge smile, kind of bouncing up-and-down with excitement. “I met Bo-Katan!”    Poe bounces with me. “The Bo-Katan?!”    “Yeah!”    “Well-- what’d she say?!” Poe demands, but I wave him off and rush past him, squeezing between the medical crates to the cockpit.    “I’ll tell you everything while we’re in lightspeed, Poe!” As I’m strapping myself in, I call behind me, “But long story short, I’m officially a duchess!”    “That’s awesome, Bez!” There’s a moment of hesitation. “Does... does that mean I’ll eventually end up a duke?”    “Maybe,” I laugh, when I power up the ship, “But you’d have to wear your formal uniform all the time. Oh, and grow a beard so you look wise and stuff.”    “I am not growing a beard!” Poe calls back, laughing. “Stop asking!”    “I wasn’t asking!”    “You are implying your question!”    I switch the comlink on, shaking my head with amusement. “Ready, Dad? Gizmo?”    “Badu.”    “Grogu, don’t touch that. Yeah, we’re ready. After you.”    He sniffles. Yes, sniffles. As if he’s been crying. “Dad?” I ask in disbelief.    “Huh?”    “Are you crying?”    “NO, I have a COLD.”    “One you didn’t have when I got here? That’s fast-moving, Dad. You might need to see a doctor.”    “Oh hush up. You gonna fly or what?”    I push the Slave into a liftoff, into the coral-rose sky and off into the endless reaches of space and stars.

                                                         -  -  -

   Needless to say, there’s a mix of reactions when we get back to D’Qar. Leia, understandably, sternly gives us the what-for, although she listens eagerly when we tell her about Bo-Katan and Boba Fett. The whole base is cheering and whooping as we push out medical supplies from our ships onto the tarmac to be rolled into the medbay. I’m surrounded by medics I’ve trained with and Dia asking me if I’m alright, what happened, how did I get these.    Din, of course, drags Poe and I to the medbay, where we’re checked over and our wounds are properly treated with actual equipment. We disappear into our bunks to shower, but Poe’s a little late to meet me by Leia’s door since he takes the time to scrub Beebs clean. We tell Leia everything-- well... maybe not everything, although she gets a twinkle in her eye when we deliberately skip parts we’d like to keep between us.    Threepio fusses over Beebs, begging he tell him everything, until Leia tells them to leave the room and talk so that she can actually hear what Poe and I are saying.    We are given sanitation duty for a week, barring any necessary reasons for Poe getting in his X-wing and me going straight to the medbay. That night, medics and Black Squadron combine with the presence of Din, Connix, and a few other commanders to hear every detail of the story. Poe and I take turns telling it, embellishing certain parts and leaving others just as they are. Neither of us say anything about the kiss (although he does brag about how he swung us to safety in the temple) but everybody figures it out anyway, since Poe and I had requested to share a bunk earlier, which Leia found amusing for some reason and which prompted a twenty-minute lecture from Din that involved fists and guns and lots of threats that nearly had Poe revoking the idea.     The next day, Poe and I essentially “move in together,” into Poe’s slightly-bigger commander bunk with its own little fresher. People ask if that seems a little fast, but then we remind them that this is war, and we’ve shared near-death and battle experiences. You can’t exactly put something off if you want it, because you might not get it. Though honestly? I’ve never slept better than I have curled up to Poe, with BB-8 on his charging station in the corner for the night.    Suddenly, I find the closet full of my clothes and his, plus his flight suits, and next to Grogu’s rock that he gave me is a model X-wing Poe’s dad got him when he was a kid. The whole fresher system changes-- we try, really, we do, to make it work so there’s only one of us in there at once, but it just takes too much time. So while I shower, he shaves, then he showers while I get dressed. We’re almost normal, even hurrying out the door with nothing more than a quick kiss and a “Gotta go to work, see you later.”    Poe returns to his duties as the leader of Black Squadron a week after our return to D’Qar. I’m back to hardly seeing him, but I hear the thunder of X-wings practicing in the mountains and smile. At least, I always see him at night, even though we’re always finishing up work on our datapads-- except for when he does night drills. Then he comes back for only a few hours of sleep before rushing back to the tarmac.    When Poe returns to his duties, my training resumes. I’m upped a level, like I was to supposed to be before we ran off, and Dia can’t get over the fact that I’m technically royalty. All of a sudden everybody wants to be my friend, and it’s actually a little frightening. Sometimes when it gets too much, Din will let me carry Grogu with me-- all attention is on him when he’s with me, and he eats it up like those blue cookies he loves so much.    Din, he remains a commander. He sees me in the cafeteria every day when I’m not busy practicing poking around somebody’s insides using a dummy or a holographic simulator, and despite the fact that he pretends he really doesn’t like Poe, he actually admits that he approves of him. “Somewhat,” He specifies when my face lights up, “I don’t like the fact that he takes you on random dangerous adventures.”    “It was my idea, Dad!”    Sometimes, I find myself missing my family more than ever. My mother, Rochelle, what would she think of me now? What about Thomas, Julia, Tristan, Jade? How are they? Are they doing alright? I wish I could do so much as write them a letter. I know that they’d love Din. Maybe he and Mom could’ve gotten together, if they’d come with me through the portal. I definitely know they’d love Grogu. And Poe? Well, fighter pilots run in the family. They’d approve.     Of course, I often wonder about the Force. I leave myself open to it, and am now experiencing the world with a kind of sixth-sense. A spider-sense, y’know? It’s not so bad. I wonder about Ahsoka Tano. I worry about my fellow Mandalorians. I wonder about Kylo Ren, about if we’ll ever cross paths again. I memorialize TN-9824 in a painting. I think about the stormtrooper I seen mopping floors, and the girl scavenging for parts. If my fever-dreams were visions, they proved true enough so far. I wonder what I have to do with them.     For now, though, the First Order is quiet, so I let myself be happy while I can.

                                                              -  -  -

   A rest day. The first one after our return to D’Qar, three weeks later. Everything is going smoothly and calmly, so I’m surprised when, at breakfast, Din approaches me with Grogu in one arm and a mysterious package in the other. Actually, that’s not even the surprising part.    “You’ve got the day off, right?”    “This time around, yeah,” I answer, “Why?” I perk up, realizing what’s happening, “Ooh! You got somethin’ planned, Dad?!”    “I do. Put on your armor and meet me on the tarmac in half an hour.” With that, he leaves, because that’s not at all confusing. Luckily I was done with breakfast.     I haven’t worn my armor since Poe and I’s unsanctioned endeavor. I’ve cleaned it twice, though, so it’s nice and shiny when I bring it out from under the bed and put it all on. I’m out on the tarmac almost on the dot of half an hour, scanning for Din’s hard-to-miss silver beskar-- and Black One, naturally. ’Course, Poe’s not anywhere near here. He was actually ordered on a mission this time, to go grab some intel that might reveal why the First Order seems to be focused elsewhere. None of the members of Black Squadron are on D’Qar at all. They should be back later today, but...     “There you are,” Din’s voice from behind makes me jump. He guesses where I was looking since I have my helmet on. “Stop worrying. He’ll be fine.” I nod, though I can’t bring myself not to worry. Worrying is my thing. Din walks past me. “Come on. Follow me.”    “Where we headed?”    “I can’t tell you.”    I skip up to keep pace with him, though it’s hard-- for a guy who’s almost sixty, he’s pretty kriffing fast. “Ooh! A surprise? Interesting... Gizmo! Any clue as to what’s goin’ on?”    “Badu,” He babbles, “Du.”    “Ah. Gotcha. Totally secret stuff. Nice. That means it’s gonna be good.”    I manage not to ask questions. Not when we leave the tarmac for the forest, not when we follow an old, beaten path into the mountains, not when we get so high up that the X-wings and Y-wings practicing zip by on high-speed passes so close they nearly deafen us.    “Okay, I give up.” I slump down onto a boulder, trying to catch my breath. After all, my blastershot wound still isn’t completely healed. “Where are we going? What’s in the package? Why are we going on the side of the mountain opposite from which the jets are practicing?”    “That’s a record for how long you’ve held in your curiosity,” Din comments with amusement as he turns to face me. “I’m not telling you a thing. Besides, we’re almost there. Come on.” He continues up the path, so with a heavy sigh, I heave myself to my feet and trudge after him.    We emerge onto a relatively empty field next to a cliff overlooking the valley. I inch closer to peer over the edge-- it’s a sharp, straight drop-off into oblivion. “Dad, are you trying to get me to help you hide a body?”    He hefts the package pointedly. “What body is this small?”    I shrug. “Maybe you rolled up a dead jawa. How am I supposed to know? I’m not the murderer.”    Din chuckles. “Turn around and face the cliff, kid.” I do, fully trusting him but at the same time the trained part of my brain is freaking out irrationally about him pushing me off the cliff. “You ever heard of the Rising Phoenix?”    “Sounds like a Harry Potter movie,” I respond, stiffening when I feel him attach something very heavy to my back.    “There you go again, with your weird Earth references...”    “They aren’t weird where I come from, pal.”    “I bet. So, the Rising Phoenix was a particular kind of training. It’s one of the many things that makes a Mandalorian warrior what they are. I got my very first one when I was first looking after Grogu, but you have the advantage of having one ready and waiting for you.”     “Wait-- kriff-- Dad-- are you giving me a jetpack?!” I try to turn to see, but he makes me look ahead.     “I’m giving you Bo-Katan’s jetpack. The final piece of your inheritance-- stop trying to see it, hold still. I need to re-sync it to your helmet.”     Wait... “My helm-- it works like Iron Man?!”     Din pauses. “Uh... sure.”     Kriffing hell, I’m gonna be like Iron Man! “Cool! So is it like eye gestures or thinking or what?”     “Neither. More of a will. You’ll see.” There’s a final chink, and the jetpack is firmly attached. The dim jetpack symbol in the bottom of my screen blinks away for a second before returning with a full fuel gauge and a brighter color. My heart is pounding with excitement, butterflies doing somersaults in my stomach. I glance over to Din as he comes to stand on my right side, making sure Grogu is very secure in his bag and harness. He gives me a little thumbs-up which I excitedly return. Din turns his head to look at me.“Alright... Ready?”     I eagerly nod, trying to copy his casual stance.     “Now... Just... will the jetpack to turn on. Do it with me.” Din’s jetpack kicks on, and he hovers a few feet off the ground. I try as hard as I can, but it’s easy, because the only thing going through my head is jetpackjetpackjetpackjetpack. Mine bursts to life with a hiss of fire, lifting me off the ground with him; surprisingly, I feel no heat. For a second, we hover there, my stomach plummeting and I’m giggling madly at the sensation. I’m flying!    “Very good. Now do it in reverse.”    I do. Terra firma feels so inferior now. “How much fuel is in these things?” I ask curiously, an idea forming in my head.    “About twelve hours’ worth-- Laylah, no!”    I’m already running.    I leap right off the cliff and dive toward the valley below. I’m screaming and laughing at once, because this is the best feeling I’ve ever experienced-- this weightlessness, this freedom, as I fall full-speed toward the earth below and I know that no one can catch me. I know Din comes after me, but I don’t want to be caught. I streamline my body and race for the valley of trees below. No one’s ever gonna catch me again.    I faintly hear Din calling my name. I wait-- I wait until the last second, and then I activate my jetpack.    Full speed.    I shoot up, straight past Din and into the open sky before me, free. I have the movements down-- partially because of the fact that on Earth, I watched Avengers a lot. Iron Man was always my favorite superhero. Learn from the best. I copy his pose and I’m going so fast I can feel the same Gs I do when Poe takes me up in his X-wing with him and flies me around the mountains; otherwise, I’ve never felt them before. There are no Gs to pull in space.      I shoot as high up as possible, but it starts to get hard to breathe and far too cold. I drop. I let the jetpack shut off and I free-fall. I’m spinning, but on purpose, and then I activate my jetpack again and shoot off down the valley, ensuring to stay well out of the way of the practicing pilots.     Up here, untethered from any solid ground, I feel more at ease than I ever have, even in the Slave. I could fly forever. The empty blue sky calls me to keep going. The ground feels like a burden and space too far away. But the sky is all mine, and nobody can catch me up here.     There’s no burden of restoring a cursed planet or finding a new one entirely. There’s no war, no First Order, no Resistance. Nothing and no one else but me, free, and this vast expanse of robin’s egg blue before me. I’m never gonna come down.     I know I have to, eventually. But thankfully the opportunity presents itself in the form of none other than Poe Dameron, probably the only thing that can get me down.    “Laylah,” Din sing-songs over the comlink, having long since stopped trying to stop me and rather praise me and follow me as closely as he can. “Your boyfriend’s here. Just got the message from Connix. If you were closer to base, you might’ve heard her.”     I’ve been planning this all day. “Is he landed? Like actually on the ground?”     There’s a pause, then, “He’s just shutting down Black One now. Why?”     “Follow me and find out!” I’m a few miles out, but it only takes me a few minutes to speed by Din and Grogu and back toward base. I have to time this perfectly, or it’ll be an embarrassing waste of a badass move. I’m a flying person in a suit of armor-- I have to pull this stunt, out of respect for RDJ and Iron Man.     My rangefinder lets me see what my eyes can’t-- that Poe’s just climbing out of his cockpit, parked at the head of Black Squadron’s parked spacecraft. I pitch down, getting to twenty, then ten feet, catching the attention of everybody in the vicinity. I cut the power to the jetpack and drop, landing just like Iron Man.    Kriff-- ow-- my kriffing hand-- don’t have kriffing-- beskar gloves-- kriff-- ow--    I stand like it’s no big deal that I slammed my hand full-force into duracrete and probably broke something. My hand is throbbing. But Poe seen it, and he’s smiling, so that’s all that matters. The pain in my hand suddenly seems to fade away.    Only to return a second later because I just kriffing broke my hand for aesthetic.    Poe beams at me. “Wow, Bez. You got your jetpack!”    I do a mock bow, holding my injured hand to my stomach. “Thank you, thank you, you’re a great audience.”    Poe snorts with amusement, shaking his head as he hands his helmet and gloves off. But something’s wrong. He doesn’t have his usual cocky smile ready to tell me how the mission went. He doesn’t run up to greet me. He’s worried. Very. I go up to him, trying to conceal the fact that I’ve hurt my hand. “Poe... What’s wrong?”    “I’ll tell you later,” He promises, “Right now I need to go debrief with Leia.” Then he rushes off, running his hand through his hair without even pausing to give me a kiss. The whole of Black Squadron follows him, and Poe actually stops Din in his tracks, gesturing inside; Din follows. Now I know it’s bad.    But I can’t do anything. I’m not qualified to be in that debrief. I’ll have to hear it from Din and Poe later. For now, I need to get my kriffing arm checked.

                                                           -  -  -

   “Dumbass,” Poe scoffs, shaking his head, when he sees the cast and sling on my arm. I’ve fractured most of my knucklebones and sprained my wrist pretty badly.   “I was going for the look,” Comes my weak defense.   “You’re just lucky you just didn’t break your arm. That would’ve been embarrassing. The move itself was badass, though. I’d try it on soft ground next time, from a lower height.”    “Consider it done.”    He doesn’t say anything about his mission yet, and I don’t ask. I never do. I wait for him to tell me when he’s ready, especially when he’s worried. So we go about getting ready for bed, but when I sit down and am ready to try figuring out how to get into bed with my damn sling, Poe says, “Finally figured out why they’ve gone quiet.”    I scoot forward, giving him my full and complete attention. He runs his mom’s ring up and down the chain around his neck, which he only does when he’s very nervous. Which only makes me nervous. I hug him from behind, balancing on my knees, and he kisses my wrist. “They planning some nefarious deed or another?”    “They’re looking for Luke Skywalker,” Poe explains softly. “That crystal on your necklace we thought was a map? They thought it was one, too. They thought it was a map to Luke. Hell, they didn’t even know about Palpatine’s lightsaber until they followed us to the temple.”    Luke? The last living Jedi? No wonder they’re looking for him. Kylo Ren probably wants to kick his ass in front of his troops to prove that Sith are superior or whatever. “You think they’ll find him?”    Poe shakes his head. “Not even Leia knows where he is, and she’s been looking for him for years. Hopefully the First Order will have the same luck... but now we have leads. Lor San Tekka is an old friend of Leia’s who might know where he is. The problem is finding him.” He flops back onto the bed, heaving a sigh. He thinks for a minute. “...I want you to come with me.”

   “Uh?” I say, very intelligently, making him smile a bit.

    “I want you to come with me,” He repeats, sitting up to take my hands in his. “You’re a medic now. You’re one kickass pilot. I want you out there watching my back from the Slave. I want you to be a part of Black Squadron: a medic in the field. How’d you feel about that?”

    Slowly, I’m smiling. On Earth, I’d wanted to be a doctor in the Air Force some day. This is pretty much the same thing, but in space. I lean forward and give him a kiss. “Duh I’ll join you.”

    Poe smiles warmly, pulling me close for a hug. “...Your dad’s not gonna approve.”

   “Dad doesn’t approve of anything dangerous,” I retort, “But that doesn’t stop me from doing them anyway.”

    “You’ll have to wait till your arm heals, though.” He teases.

    I lay down beside him, and there’s a horrible crunch as my cast almost breaks. The comical sound in such a serious moment has Poe covering his face as he laughs when I cry out in a very undignified tone, “AgH kRiFF--”    “Bet you’ll never do that again.” He says, pulling me up into a better position on my other side. I give him a kiss.    “Never.”

                                                           -  -  -

   Eight months go by without anyone really thinking about them. The year shifts from 33 to 34 ABY, and I turn twenty. Grogu and I make it a point to celebrate Din’s fifty-ninth birthday, although he knocks off a couple of the candles on his cake so that it’s fifty-five. On base, things seem calm and even almost normal, but there’s a tense undertone to everything we do.     The commanders are always busy in meetings, going off-world to try and secure aid and assist planets, or overseeing missions from a distance. The control rooms are full of people on headsets communicating with our people in the field when they can, supervising scheduled check-ins and unexpected scenarios.

     Once my arm heals, I do become a member of Black Squadron. I join them in their search for Lor San Tekka and their run-ins with Agent Terex, who honestly reminds me of those mustached villains in black-and-white movies that overdo their evil laughs.

     The First Order is everywhere we go now. Several of our people have been captured-- only a handful have been found or rescued. There’s no word from Bespin, from Lando or Bo-Katan or Boba Fett. There shouldn’t be. With the First Order looming, I’m hoping they’ve decided to go even quieter than before. Hopefully Lando has even fled the planet; with his hand in the Rebellion so many years ago, I’m sure the First Order is looking for him as a “war criminal.”

   Then we find Lor San Tekka. His location, at least. Hopefully. A small little desert planet called Jakku.

    The whole of Black Squadron waits for Poe by our ships nervously. Despite the fact that I’m a part of them now, I still like to keep to myself, so I lean against the Slave with my arms crossed and my helmet on, trying not to show the fact that my stomach is swirling with anxious butterflies.

   I’m sure that, by now, the First Order must have gotten a hold of the information as well. It’ll be a race, one that we might not when. If they find Luke first, who knows what they’ll do.

   Somehow, I’m not sure why, but the Republic still isn’t concerned that the First Order is actually a threat. Yet here they are causing chaos and disrupting peace and hunting old Jedi dudes that just want to be left alone. Sounds a lot like an Earth government, to me.

  Snap and Karé are off talking by themselves by Snap’s X-wing, looking very serious. Jess and Suralinda try to fix up a droid while a mechanic is working on repairing the faulty engine of Jess’s X-wing. I say nothing. To Black Squadron, I rarely speak. I’m their quiet, calm medic, and I’m determined to stay that way.

    Finally, I hear the trademark little bweep of BB-8 as he and Poe approach, though Poe looks sullen at best. The whole of Black Squadron faces him expectantly. “When are we leaving for Jakku?” Karé asks, but I know that look.

    “We’re not all going to Jakku, are we, Poe?” I say, and the whole team seems surprised at the Mandalorian’s interjection.

    Poe’s gaze lands briefly, regretfully, on me. “No. We’re not. I’m going alone.”

    “Why?” Snap demands, “You know that we--”

    “It’s not a question of your skills,” Poe interrupts, and scans over all of us as he speaks. “Listen... The First Order is probably already on this. Leia needs the best we have going in there, and we’re it-- but if we all go and none of us make it out... I wish I could take you. Really.” His eyes rest briefly on me. “But we need the best of the best always ready to do what Leia needs done. I’m going to lessen any losses.”

    Your loss would be no lesser, I want to snap, angry but understanding.

    “You’re all to stay here,” Poe adds, “That’s an order. Bez, I’m talking to you.”

    I only incline my head. We both know I’ll disobey that order if necessary.

    “When are you leaving?” Jess questions, and Poe sighs.

    “Now. I need to get there as soon as possible.” My heart catches in my throat. He’s going where I can’t follow. What’s worse is that the First Order may already be waiting for him. Maybe I’ll break the order as soon as he’s left the tarmac.

    “I’m taking a different X-wing,” Poe continues, “Try to keep it less noticeable.” He indicates it with a wave of his arm, and I immediately make my way over as he bids the Black Squadron farewell. My heart is heavy, and I feel a hard core of grief in my chest. I have a very, very bad feeling about this mission. Poe and BB-8 arrive shortly thereafter, and I take my helmet off so our eyes can meet unobstructed; there are words flying unspoken between us. No long goodbyes. We promised that, too.    “Say goodbye to Bez, then go ahead and get in,” Poe tells the little droid; he’s not even wearing his flight suit. I kneel down to give BB-8 a hug.    “Be careful, buddy.” He beeps and hurries off to get lifted up into the X-wing.     Poe and I face each other. When I start to speak, he raises a hand. “Ah. No L-word, remember?”    I make a face. “I remember. But.” I reach up and take my amulet over my head to give it to him. He lets me put it on him before giving me his necklace. There’s a stiff lump of emotion in my throat and my eyes are watering, but I force myself not to cry. This time is different. The First Order might already be there, and if they see him... “For good luck. Bring it back to me, Poe.”   Poe’s having just as much trouble as I am. His grip on my hands is tight. “I will. You better not lose my mom’s ring.”   “I won’t.” We don’t ever do long goodbyes. I want to say it: the L-word. So badly. But I don’t even dare think it, not when both of us believe it to be a jinx. “Good luck, Poe.”    “Thanks, Bez. I’m gonna need it.” After a quick kiss he’s turning and climbing up into the X-wing.     Then the cockpit closes, and the X-wing powers up. I get back as it vertically takes off, and I stand there until I can’t see it anymore. There’s something in the Force going off like a warning bell, but I’m not sure what it is. I do know, however, that I’m resisting the urge to get in the Slave and go with him.    I hear the distinct jangling of Din’s armor and glance over to see him approaching with an air of worry. He puts an arm around my shoulders, and I let the tears fall. “You okay, kid?”    “I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”    “Don’t worry,” Din says, “He’s the best pilot we’ve got. Why do you think Leia’s sending him? He knows what he’s doing.”    We both watch the place he disappeared for a bit before I go back to the medbay. Something’s off, and I need to keep moving so I can ignore it.    But ignoring the Force, I’ve discovered, is pretty damn hard.

______________________________________________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****************~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! The epilogue and final part of The Heir of Djarin will post next Wednesday night. Anyone who wants to be tagged, just let me know!

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@simonsbluee @seninjakitey @adamcarlsenslvr @bluestuesday @magnet-girl @megadumbbabeyyy @auszimbo @izbelross​ @djarinsgirl27​ @sokoviansorceress​ @eerievixen​ @upbeat-cascade

[straighttohellbuddy]

worship garbage truths

What You Love You Devour Side Story

Summary: Dream's broken out of prison, and finally understands why the reader is the way they are.

Need to Know: they/them, VILLAIN!reader, established revivebur/Reader but he's not in this fic. c!Dream & Villain!Reader friendship

A/N: 1318 words. oh man literally cannot stress the VILLAIN part of the reader rn, like I don't condone c!Dream's actions but the reader actively supports him and his plan to fuck up Tommy, so if that's not your jam please skip this fic. I know the full fic isn't out but I watched the prison break and this came to me like a vision from an angry God. Unedited and almost definitely incomprehensible.

now with a remix worship garbage truths // devoured

The prison’s siren rings so loud you can feel it deep in your bones; the intervals between the siren’s sounding are getting shorter and shorter. One of these days it’s going to start and not stop, you’re almost sure of it. The last two times had been false, had been misleading, and you wonder if that’s the case again, or if finally, finally, something interesting was happening.

You can’t find Wilbur, it feels like you can’t find anyone, your footsteps the only sound that isn’t the incessant wailing of the sirens. Perhaps you should see what’s happening, go down and stick your nose where it probably doesn’t belong. It’s not as if you have anything better to do; it’s not far. Wilbur had been glad for the house’s proximity to the prison, enamoured with Dream since his revival, so it’s not far to walk before you hear the shouting. Finally something interesting; the world had been growing stale lately. 

Dream’s shouting is the first that you hear, heartbeat thundering in your chest with sudden exhilaration realising that the alarm wasn’t a hoax. You should have brought your axe, you realise, hearing the noise of metal against metal, sparks flying and potion bottles shattering. It only takes a few minutes of your gleeful watching before you feel the strange prickle of cold dread on the back of your neck, and you look over, closer to the actual entrance to the prison, and see a Wither looming overhead.

And then another.

Everyone’s yelling and for the first time in a long time Dream and Technoblade are two sides of the same coin, desperate and demanding in opposite directions, between freedom and loyalty. 

Time freezes in the moment where Ranboo’s black and white halves become quarters, bisected by a red and green slash across his middle, and Techno practically howls with anger. Something irate flares inside of you; Sam has always been a poor warden with little idea about how to properly control his inmates, he kills so needlessly, and in vain. Ranboo’s death would never have helped him; your lip curls in disgust. 

Dream bolts past you as he finally convinces Techno to get away. The moment his eyes meet yours there’s concern, there’s confusion; who’s side would you be on today? But you tell him to run, with a firm nod like a promise of more, we’ll speak soon, and he runs.

Techno and Dream get away, and finally the guards appear to notice you. Really their situational awareness is sometimes laughable. Sure, they yell at you, asking how you could just let them get away, as if they’ve forgotten who exactly they’re speaking to, but you simply shrug, and remind them that there’s a Wither looming ever closer. 

At first you run for cover, to the treeline, thinking about heading to your home, but your curiosity has gotten the better of you. Dream is free, on the run, and you've built your home a stone's throw from the building where he was locked up and tortured. If you wanted to see him again soon, you'd have to pick somewhere much further away, somewhere he'd know to look.

You wait for hours in the room that had been once filled with stolen love, in the middle of a mountain, so far from almost anything else. The plaques are still up, still on the wall, and you know that you have an old bed further down the mountain, a home amongst the sand, this is the room where you wait.

"Will you ever let this go?" To your surprise, Dream's voice was stronger than you'd expected after what you assume is lack of use followed by intense shouting. Perhaps he'd had time to stop for a water break. Good for him.

"Half the time you were on my side, and the other half I had to stop myself from reviving the only thing you actually ever cared about, just so I could lock him up here," his lip curled as he finally took a moment to breath, to sag against the wall.

"You finally caved," you said sweetly, sitting up.

"You're welcome," Dream huffed, vaguely irrate. Silence fills the air, and so slowly it's almost painful, he slides down the wall until he's sitting, knees to his chest, looking exhausted. His mask is cracked. His hair's a mess. His hands are shaking.

"Why here?" He asked; from what you can see of his face it's drawn into something serious.

"Irony," you said without much thought, and he looks to you sharply, as if daring you to elaborate, "you kept everyone's attachments here to have sort of control over them, now it's empty and you, the man who famously claims to have no attachments, are here because I put myself in here."

"You're insufferable sometimes," he huffs, though you can see the hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"You didn't have to show up," you pointed out, and there comes another lull in the conversation, filled only by the gentle sounds of the ocean from far outside the mountain.

"How's freedom?" You asked, and Dream stretches out his legs in front of him.

"Tommy runs faster than I remember," he says darkly, stretching him arms out wide and fanning out his fingers and clenching them into a fist. Watching him with interest, you are quiet, "you were right." He says flatly, and finally looks up, meets your gaze, "the only thing worth giving a fuck about is your own enjoyment. People make themselves miserable trying to be good, or trying to bring people together, people who don't give a shit about togetherness," he huffs a long, annoyed sigh, head lolling back against the wall, his gaze on the roof, "fuckin' kid's been a pain in my ass for so long; he gets to be the good guy, he gets to have people who love him, it's selfish -"

"Selfish to have loved ones?" You ask, tone non-judgemental, just curious; Dream's way of seeing the world had always intrigued you, to be sure. You quite liked this new development. Or perhaps you just liked hearing him admit you were right. Dream chuckles humourlessly, tipping his head forward to look at you, his one visible eye gleaming with dark malice.

"He parades his attachments around like he thinks I won't use it against him; I've been the villain, the fuckin' bad guy for the greater good for so long, common enemy, all that shit, and it didn't even go the way I planned," his lips curled, and he looked to his hands, to his chipped nails and bruises and scrapes, "and now nobody would give half a shit if I tried to change; I could turn into a Saint overnight and Sam would be hauling my ass to prison the moment he spots me," he snarled, before adding, "fuck Sam, fuck Quackity, and fuck Tommyinnit. What kind of reform were they hoping for me considering my only enrichment was daily torture?"

"Its fun to be a villain when you're in it for selfish reasons."

"Being selfless is exhausting, I'm going fucking apeshit; I've earned it. That kid got me locked up and tortured; I'm gonna stop making his life and death a nightmare when it stops being cathartic," then, after a beat, he looks at you, gaze hard and analytical, "if you try and stop me I'll kill you too."

"I'm not going to deliver Tommy to you, I have no interest in actively hurting Wilbur like that," you rolled your eyes, "but I won't stop you. You've finally come to understand the pursuit of selfish joy, this is a win for me."

"You're a terrible person," he says with a smile that you almost recognise from his old self, something fond.

"Pick a lane," you roll your eyes, and he huffs a laugh but concedes.

"We're terrible people."

// now with a remix worship garbage truths // devoured //

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight: Watchmen

Alan Moore.

Zack Snyder.

These two men are my archenemies. For years on my blog I’ve made it a point to mock both of these men. Alan Moore is a pompous, stuffy old bastard who gets ass-blasted every time someone turns his comics into a movie and subjected the world to Harry Potter firing lightning out of his peehole; Zack Snyder is like if Michael Bay was overly pretentious and liked slow-mo more than explosions, and also had a fanbase that makes the one for Pokemon look sane and rational in comparison. I have made fun of these guys so many times across the years, and now here they are, having both contributed to the work I’m reviewing tonight. But before we begin, I have a confession to make:

I don’t actually hate either of these guys.

Like yeah, they have both made some things that are undeniably ass, and Moore has a really pissy attitude (though it’s at least partially warranted with how he was treated in his heyday), but in general I like their stuff. Snyder has 300, one of my favorite action films ever, and his version of Justice League was solid if a bit ass-numbingly long. And Moore has a long and storied history in comic books, so just because he made a shitty boomer comic where he made Harry Potter the Antichrist doesn’t change the fact the first two volumes of League rule. And both of these men have one thing in common that I think is genuinely great: Watchmen.

Watchmen is Moore’s deconstruction of superheroes that dropped right around the time the Dark Age of comics was ready to get going, so he often gets blamed for starting it (which ignores Watchmen wasn’t this huge cultural icon at the time and so was way less influential than something like The Dark Knight Returns or The Death of Superman). It’s a fantastic tale with tons of brilliant visuals, multiple interwoven stories, fantastic characters, and some really deep shit to think about. Because of all that, the comic was for a long time considered unfilmable. Who would be insane enough to even try to tackle a comic this dense with supplementary material, background elements enhancing the narrative, and all that? Well, that insane man would be Mr. Snyder, who brought the same level of slavish reverence to this movie as he did to 300, right down to using the comic panels to storyboard. The resulting film is a genuinely great movie, maybe even one of the greatest superhero films ever made, though I’m not going to pretend this is a flawless masterpiece, because hoo boy are there some problems.

(Quick note: I am using the Director’s Cut as reference here. It’s the only version I’ve ever seen of the movie, and it has that trademark ass-numbing Snyder length, but I won’t hold it against him this time since I haven’t seen the theatrical cut or the cut where they shoehorn in the animated Black Freighter short film)

This movie has an absolutely phenomenal cast, and they all do a stellar job at bringing every character to life. Billy Crudup brings the cold, emotionally-detached aura Dr. Manhattan sorely needs; Patrick Wilson is as endearingly schlubby and vanilla as Nite Owl should be; Matthew Goode has that phenomenal, almost godly aura that Ozymandias should exude. There’s not a single bad choice in the house here, but there are two actors who stand head and shoulders above the rest. The first is Jeffery Dean Morgan as the Comedian, the resident psychotic asshole nominal hero who rapes, murders, and commits crime against humanity after crime against humanity under the government’s orders as well as for shits and giggles. This guy was Peacemaker before Peacemaker (except he was also based on Peacemaker) and despite being one of the most morally reprehensible characters in the entire movie, Morgan makes him an utter blast to watch. I don’t think anyone could have possibly brought the man to life quite as well as Morgan did.

But the best of all is, you guessed it, Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. To this day, there are few comic book movie casting choices that are so utterly perfect. The comic Rorschach came off as more of an emotionless sociopath than anything else, but here in the film Haley plays him as a snarling, ranting lunatic that a guy like Rorschach definitely would be; I mean, the dude’s essentially Alex Jones as a vigilante, he needs to be rabidly psychotic. Haley just absolutely kills it in every scene he’s in, delivers all of the famous lines with gusto, and is the part of the film absolutely no one will dispute is perfect (except maybe Alan Moore).

The story is kept mostly intact, with fairly little changed. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, Watchmen has such a great story that you really wouldn’t want to change anything, would you? Most of the alterations are pragmatic, such as the squid blowing up New York being changed into Dr. Manhattan being framed, so it’s not really too bad or anything. On the other hand, though, it’s to the point where things are so dense it’s hard to filter through it if you haven’t already read the comic. And if you’ve read the comic, why would you want to watch the movie? You’ve seen this all already! You’re basically just watching the world’s most elaborate audiobook at that point.

It doesn’t help that Snyder kinda misses the point in some regards, such as the heightened violence. People often (rightfully) point to the scene where Laurie and Dan brutalize thugs in an alleyway, a scene that just absolutely makes no sense in regards to the characters or narrative and that is just unbelievably stupid, but that’s just the obvious one. The one that has always bugged me more is in Rorschach’s flashback to the kidnapped little girl where, instead of chaining the killer up and leaving him to die in a fire, he kills the guy with a cleaver instead. It sort of changes the context of things, making Rorschach’s breaking point far more generic and honestly less powerful than in the comic. There’s also the excising of a lot of the iconic subplots of the comic, which again, makes sense because of the difference in the medium, but it does rob quite a bit of impact. In particular, Rorschach’s shrink in prison gets the short end of the stick despite having one of the best arcs in the comic. The loss of a lot of the supplementary stuff doesn’t help either, and leaves the story feeling slightly (but not overly) bare at points.

Honestly, I think a better balance needed to be struck here. This film comes off as way too slavishly loyal to the text, and that’s just not a good thing for an adaptation to be; adaptations need to respect and honor the original work, yes, but they also need to be their own thing as well and do stuff in a different way. I get why Snyder didn’t want to change much, seeing as Watchmen has become a sacred cow in comic book circles that it’s sacrilegious to criticize, but at that point the movie kind of fails as an adaptation because it’s not doing much to justify watching it over reading the comic. You’re not really getting much different out of the experience beyond a change in medium. Compare to another Moore adaptation, V for Vendetta, where the movie did dumb down the politics of the book to be more palatable to general audiences but still managed to keep the core ideas and themes (and also the prisoner’s letter, which if removed would ruin the entire story. I’m not joking). I think that movie works way better as an adaptation because it offers something different depending on what you’re looking at while still keeping the same core.

I don’t think it’s any wonder this film didn’t do well, because even back at the dawn of the modern superhero movie scene this was just not what audiences were gonna be looking for. Noted fan of the film and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson called it “the Blade Runner of superhero films,” and frankly that is a very apt comparison. This is a film that didn’t do well at first but got reevaluated over time to become a cult classic, and a lot of people these days see a lot more value in it than they did initially. Sure, everyone always loved that opening credits montage, because that shit rules, but nowadays people have finally learned to appreciate Zack Snyder’s cheeky payback towards the studio-mandated sex scene by making it slow-mo and playing “Hallelujah” over it (making it the only acceptable use of that song in cinema aside from Shrek).

It’s hard to call this a great adaptation of the work so much as a great copy and paste job, but the thing is, this is still great. Moore’s genius still shines through because the writing is still all there, and Snyder’s clear love of Moore’s work is obvious even if there are points where he clearly missed the mark. It still has the great ideas, the great characters, the great philosophical points, the great moments… It’s still Watchmen, by design, for better and for worse. As much as I would have liked to see some more creative liberties taken here and there, it’s hard to say where I’d want that, because Watchmen is such a great story that it’s hard to really say what I’d change.

This is a great movie, and arguably Snyder’s magnum opus. He’s kind of fallen off in recent years, and you can see a lot of the problems in his modern superhero films in this movie, but this is still a great time if you’re willing to get on its level. I think it’s aged better than a lot of older superhero films, especially since this is a deconstruction of the genre that came out before the genre really took off in cinemas. I don’t think I need to tell Snyder fans to watch this, as they’ve probably already put this film in a jar that they are slowly filling up with their bodily fluids like it was Rainbow Dash. But if you’re a fan of superheroes or even if you’re tired of superheroes, this is a great film to watch. If nothing else, watch it for Jackie Earle Haley, because by god that performance is worth the price of admission alone.

Alright, with all that out of the way I guess it’s time to make my peace. Zack Snyder, Alan Moore?