#I'm guessing Many Iterations Were Involved

[rawliverandgoronspice]

weird and only stp post but "the blade is your implement" fucks so hard as a sentence, the quasi-alliteration makes it both memorable and very pleasing to the ear and it's really good

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

What are some pro-team green fanfics you would recommend?

Ohh I've been meaning to recommend a few! Most of these are Aegon-centric because I'm generally more interested in him than Aemond, but there are a couple Aemond fics in here as well, and at least one that's Alicent centric.

a poison tree by @branwendaughterofllyr is a Dance retelling in which Daemon and Viserys' younger brother Aegon lived and had a daughter, and that daughter ended up being raised with the green children. Branwen tells a compelling story with great attention to historical detail, and although the story is green leaning, I feel it is fair to both sides. It has many POVs and really tells the story from many different angles, some some reliable than others.

My co-author @aifsaath's series The Skies Are Always Red Above Valyria is an entire Dance retelling that starts with Alicent as a lady at court before her marriage but eventually will progress to the Dance itself (and involves our beloved Baela/Aegon pairing). Aife's fics always feature impeccable worldbuilding and lush descriptions, so check them out.

The Wrath of the Queen by @florisbaratheons has just started but is very promising, featuring a more proactive Alicent who gets a cooperative if reluctant Aegon on board with her plan to put him on the throne following Driftmark, as well as fully fleshed out versions of the Baratheon and Lannister sisters. After seeing Cassandra Baratheon and Jason and/or Tyland Lannister cast as antagonists in dozens of Dance fics it's nice to see them get a fair shake.

The Dog Days Are Over is a Aegon/Helaena fix-it by @franzkafkagfn which they escape to Essos to start over with the kids. She also has another Aegon/Rhaenyra fic that is I'd say slightly more green slanted simply because much of the rest of the canon black faction doesn't exist per se.

This one has been on hiatus awhile but In The Ripe and Ruin by @kingsroad will forever have my heart as the first OC fic I ever got into, featuring gorgeous worldbuilding and one of my favorite iterations of Aegon. He's awful but also incredibly endearing. According to the author it's not going to be super canon divergent, and OC is Aegon's mistress through the Dance! Crossing my fingers that the author returns soon!

Would That They Were Not is a one shot by @navree that deals with Blood and Cheese and Aemond's feelings of guilt in the aftermath. It's heartbreaking! Blood and Cheese happens here the way it does in the book so if the show ends up changing it and you want an idea of how it might have gone down, this one is very faithful.

1968 is a modern AU by @inthedayswhenlandswerefew In which the wife of presidential candidate Aemond Targaryen, who is running against Richard Nixon in the 1968 election, forms a connection with the family screw up, his older brother Aegon. This is technically a readerfic (hear me out!), although I'd really call it a 2nd person POV because the "you" is a fully fleshed out character more so than a reader insert. I do not usually go for readerfic but opened this on a whim because the history teacher in me saw the premise and went "what on earth" and proceeded to be blown away by delicate character work, symbolism, and gorgeous prose. I actually got several friends who do not usually enjoy Dance fic OR readerfic fully invested in this one. Is it pro green? I guess? It's not set in Westeros and Aemond is a real POS but Aegon is lovely and the blacks don't really feature so I think it counts.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Hey! I'm from KOBDSS' ask

It was "KOBDSS, but breakdown is the carrier of jettwins and wildbreak"

Ok I've been sitting on this for awhile and ngl kinda struggling, cuz. I'm not too great at puzzling out three way relationships 😅 but I think I'm finally getting there

First and foremost! Unlike previous iterations, I think the three of them will be triplets here. They come as a huge shock to everyone, and Knockout is the first to know whilst diagnosing his mate's sudden restlessness and inability to keep fuel down. Knockout is stunned to see a grand total of 5 infant sparks orbiting around Breakdown's. Seekers are always born in threes, but one of them split in two so there were 4. Add Wildbreak for a clean 5

They know the chances of Starscream being the sire of at least one is inarguable. They have... a weird relationship with their commander. Knockout and Breakdown have been conjunxed since long before the war, back when Veloctiron was still online and still the hottest, fastest place in the universe. They've always known of Starscream, he's infamous among the decepticons. But they'd never actually met the guy or been under his jurisdiction until earth, snd though their relationship is certainly a bit looser and involved now, there's still... a sort of wall there. Starscream is a massively distrustful and paranoid individual, and it took months of coaxing and careful flirtation to get him to even consider their propositions. Even when their sexual rendezvous' became semi-regular, and friendly(ish) visits even moreso, it's clear he doesn't trust them and is guarding his spark closely. He doesn't love them, doesn't think they love him, and has been beaten down and torn apart too many times to even entertain the idea. KOBD are fully content and emotionally fulfilled between each other, and while they do care for Starscream to a degree, it's more friendly than the deep and romantic love they hold for each other.

Which... somehow, makes it more awkward. If they were all a big happy united threeway sparkbond, it would be easy to tell him. They'd better be able to gage how he might react. But with him holding them at arms length and vice versa, and the seeker being so volatile, they can't even begin to guess what he'll do. What he'll think.

Knockout knows they ought to disclose it as soon as possible. After all, it's an important medical condition. But... he's worried. They both are. Breakdown has made it clear, right from the moment he found out about them, he can't stand the idea of a termination. He knows they should. They both do. An active battlefield is no place for a bitty let alone several, and they're not in a position to guarantee their safety and shelter from the war's ever evolving fallout. But the idea of snuffing them is too cruel, even for the two of them. But if they tell the wrong person or things escalate negatively, there's the risk Lord Megatron or Starscream might order their termination anyway. And while the two of them have already resolved to fight for their litter if they have to... they both know it's a fight they'll lose.

Soundwave is the next one privy to their situation. He's the calmest and most reasonable commanding force on the ship, and realistically, if anyone could get them greenlit for parenthood while also not being ejected from the warship, it's probably Soundwave. They're hoping he'll smooth things over with their big boss, because everyone knows Soundwave can do no wrong in Megatron's eyes. If the news comes from him it'll seem less bad, right?

Right!

...except Soundwave does little more than acknowledge their situation and quietly file it away into the logs. Informs them to act at their discretion: if they want maternity leave or to be excused from battle, that is Lord Megatron's will alone.

These two idiots take the "act at your discretion" and run with it. They're just....... waiting for the right time to tell Starscream. Maybe once he's recovered from his last beatdown from Megatron a bit, or comes to loiter around the medbay when he's in a particularly good mood and looking to gossip. Yeah, they'll spring it on him then, and gently ease it in with a cup of some hot energon and some embarrassing story plucked from one of the hapless vehicons. They're bracing for impact and trying to dodge the inevitable. The idiots

Their stupidity unfortunately does eventually lend itself to tragedy. Thankfully they've avoided any altercations with the autobots recently, and Breakdown has been listening to Knockout about not exerting himself. The carrying cycle is progressing nicely and Soundwave has been approving theor extra energon intake without question. Everything is great.

And then everything goes to shit because of MECH

Everything plays out just as it does in canon. A clash with Bulkhead, taking hits and plunging in head first like he really shouldn't, dragged away by the humans and put under the knife. Having his optic ripped out of his head, having pieces of him removed and cut away. It's a traumatic, horrifying experience, and by the time Bulkhead arrives to free him he's bleeding from a very inconvenient place. Breakdown doesn't know if his greatest rival truly didn't notice or if he was refusing to acknowledge it, but he's glad for it either way. Starscream shows up to get him back, and Breakdown manages to hold himself together until he gets to the medbay

Knockout is waiting for him, and already knows the grim reality: Breakdown had never experienced such a spark-deep, lacerating pain than when one of their sparklings reabsorbed into him, premature bond shattering and leaving him a howling, roaring mess strapped to that concrete slab. Even now it persists, as his internals constrict and twist trying purge what would have been one of their bodies.

He looks like a mess stumbling into Knockout's arms, face still torn open, a gaping hole of wires and energon where his eye once was, chassis soaked in blood from their experiments and thighs just as wet, leaking a trail of blood behind him. The second the door whooshes shut behind them Breakdown collapses, crumbling to his knees and starting to scream even as his bondmate rushes throw his arms around him. It's so much, it's too much, everything is visceral pain, everywhere, from the farest reaches of his limbs to the cold void growing in his spark. It's agony, pure agony, as he desperately clings onto Knockout hard enough to dent and scratch and scrape, bawling and screaming in ire so loudly it surely echoes out into the halls. It's all just too much.

And then, to make matters worse, Starscream arrives. Bulkhead may not have noticed but he did. He can think of several reasons a mech might be voiding internal energon from his interface array, and none of them are positive. One look at the two of them immediately confirms his suspicions, and the only thing he can ask is, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Why, indeed. Breakdown immediately starts hysterically rambling, that he's sorry he knows they should've said something sooner but he's sorry this is all his fault and he's so sorry-

Explanations can wait, evidently. They need to get him taken care of, first.

Thankfully, a quick look with the mirror and a medical scan reveal that three of them are still there. Obviously stressed, vibrating at a higher than usual frequency, but still anchored safely to him. Not immediately in danger of reabsorption, and it's a huge, bittersweet relief. Three of them survived, might still survive all the way to emergence. The happiness is of course overshadowed by the loss, but this discovery feels like a glimmer of hope nonetheless. Knockout gets to work patching him up as seamlessly as he can, precise, loving hands eradicating wound by microscopic wound. Breakdown gets a tiny bit of carrier-safe sedative, to relax his body enough to safely operate while keeping him semi-coherent. They talk the whole time, all three of them. About... what to do next, about what the future may look like with three sparklings soon to be born. Starscream agrees that, if any of them have wings, he'll willingly care for them and be their parent. If they're all grounders, then... he'll of course be civil and be more forgiving about time off for the two of them, but he won't be involved. It's a fair arrangement they can all agree on.

Of course, that all goes out the window when the three of them are born. Starscream himself didn't even realize how excited he was for their birth until Knockout announces the first one is a grounder, and his spark leaps because he doesn't care. He doesn't care if they're a grounder or a flyer, his spark lurches in a joyful way it hasn't done since before Vos fell, and all at once he realizes that he wants to be involved in these bitties' lives whether they're actually his or not. They'll need all the help, all the love they can get, and he wants to be there with them regardless of what frame they are.

Then the next two come out as jets and he's somehow even happier, because this means he'll have someone to teach about the sky and all it's wonders, and it's somehow an even greater happiness. The three of them are beautiful sparklings, each somehow with Knockout's unnaturally pretty, elegant face. The little grounder looks just like his carrier as far as his colors go, mimicking him near perfectly, but his alt mode is achingly different but so familiar. "He's just like Wildrider..." Breakdown murmurs, optics faraway as he remembers his family from so long ago. They name the eldest Wildbreak, at Knockout's insisting that Breakdown be included too. The split spark twins inherit names from the sky, from long dead relatives they'll never meet: Jetfire and Jetstorm. Neither Knockout nor Breakdown has any complaints, so their names are settled on swiftly. With that out of the way their exhausted parents can all settle in on and around the bed, bonding with their newborns and whispering back and forth to each other about just how wonderful their precious sparklings are 💖

[asgardian--angels]

just rewatched steven universe future (and the movie) and I just gotta say.

I still have no idea why fandom was so upset about the show, why opinion turned against it, or anything. I didn't understand it then, I don't understand it now. I've enjoyed every single minute of that show, start to finish, all iterations. A show hasn't left me sobbing like that in a hell of a long time. It handles heavy, dark emotional topics with incredible finesse and heart in a way that all of us could learn from. It remains one of the most aesthetically beautiful animated series I've ever seen, and the soundtrack is so incredibly moving. I'll never get why shows with the most hopeful themes, like this one, end up with the nastiest 'fans' that harass creators and artists for making something that encourages us to be kind to each other. like, insert good omens meme i guess, yknow? but I will always love this series (the OG, the film, and Future). I'm glad I was never really involved with the fandom back when it was airing so I didn't have to hear any of the shit that people were tossing around. But knowing that this series basically got thrown to the wind after it was done airing - like, no one even talks about it anymore, as if there were some Game of Thrones effect WHEN THERE WASN'T - breaks my heart. It was so incredibly influential, for animation, for queer representation, for creativity in art, and for helping a lot of people feel seen and teaching us a better way to be towards our fellow human beings. I don't know who the fuck can be angry about this show, but whoever they are, I feel sorry for them that they have nothing better in their lives than to be senselessly cruel to people who are trying to make the world a kinder place.

anyone out there who hasn't watched Steven Universe before, and maybe was intimidated or put off by how it's talked about on here, please don't listen to that. It's one of the best made series, animated or not, in the modern age. It touches people of all ages. It inspires hope, and forgiveness, and working towards a better world. It has incredible character development, intergenerational trauma, dismantling colonialism, the horrors and fallout of war, xenobiology, troubled families, damaged people trying to grow and find new meaning, building community, nature vs nurture, perfectly done slow-burn plot arcs and reveals, and an art style that's so gorgeous you'll mourn the current state of the industry that stifles creativity like this. And it does all of this so profoundly and intelligently that it defies summary. Give it a try.

That's all I'll say. I never post about the show anymore bc I'm not a part of the fandom and I don't know how active it is on here anymore. But I've always cared deeply for Steven Universe and I always will. I hope outside of the insular bubble of toxic online fandom that it continues to have a steady mainstream following. Rebecca Sugar deserves accolades and a big thank you for bringing this show into the world. I'm sure she did not get a fraction of the praise she should have, and instead had to endure endless vitriol. The bar's always too high for some people who want something to be mad at, who want to blame and hate instead of supporting the few brave artists out there trying to make queer shows and pave the way for the future. The enemy of queer rep is so often queer fandom spaces themselves. Let's not let this life-changing show fade into obscurity if we can. It was groundbreaking in so many ways. It brought joy and hope to so many. I hope new people will continue to watch it and be uplifted by it, as I have all these years.

[air--so--sweet]

So wondering if the caption is intentionally misleading

...because I remember someone suggested the spacesuit in the trailer was a costume because he was a stripper. And the cash in the helmet and his pockets feels like it fits with that...

Edit: LMAO not me getting to this so early the other posters hadn't been posted on their insta yet so I thought it was just Luther.

What is this pose? A box was the emoji in the caption on his other poster. Is he a delivery man? Is that why he has a van?

Was confused by the cleaning products since Klaus is the one linked to a cleanse but then realised it's her on the bottle. So she's like in their adverts or is the face of the brand. I do wonder if it links to Klaus' story.

I thought this was a plastic bag at first and it was a clumsy illustration of germaphobia but it's not it bubblewrap. This has stupidly given me so much hope because I've always wanted germsphobia to be one aspect of a possible fear of death, not the only way his fear manifests. Still a bit worried that being anxious will be his only storyline but we'll have to see. The gas mask I initially thought was just related to germaphobia, and it could be, but there's that shot of Ben in what looks like a jungle , fighting soldiers that made people theorise he's in Vietnam...👀

Also, this more or less confirms the that the episode The Cleanse is linked to Klaus. Could be getting clean from drugs, could be related to cleaning and germaphobia but Steve Blackman's logline for the episode 'There's no enough sage in the universe apparently' point towards spiritual cleansing to me since you burn sage to cleanse a home of bad energies.

Edit: Hair, he has his tattoos back here???

So we are getting back to the original timeline then. But the briefcase? A new iteration of the commission? Or facing the commsmissiin when using the . to travel. Hmmm...

I really have nothing. Christmas lights, we know at least part of this season seems to be happening at Christmas...does Ben get released around Christmas? Did Brelly Ben die at Christmas? Is this fight referring to whatever fight the whole family will be involved in or the clip we saw of Viktor beating the shit out of him? A skull, is Ben dying again? So many questions...

God, Viktor looks so good, makes my trans heart happy. The cloth over his shoulder is related to his bartending job, suggesting its important. What my eyes were drawn to though is the emoji. A violin?!?!? Paired with saving the world, if we get him saving the world via violin in contrast to season 1 I will fucking die.

Right we have baby bottles and that was her emoji in the initial posters too, but her daughter is 5 (or however long the time jump has been). I guess it's just a way to portray motherhood in general? The fact they're in a box obviously ties it to Diego. Again though I'm focusing on the emoji because red high heel is a reference to the Handler right? I wrote the other day about the possibility of Lila crying in the subway because they travelled and saw the Handler again, if I was right...!!! Definitely think her a Five plots are somehow linked to the commission, maybe they're somehow sent on one final mission?

The loglines Steve Blackman wrote for Tudum already spoiled that the family has to team up with Reginald. The marigolds makes me think either he is involved in giving them their powers back or it's related to use learning more about hos past, what the Marigolds do and how they work.

[stephsageek]

Okay so first off, I love the series as a whole. I think it’s such a cool concept to have had them be partners at the Commission. And I love how they slowly built trust, fell in love and chose each other. I don’t know how far into the show you’re planning to take this series but I am so looking forward to how you handle the overlap with the Kennedy job!

Regarding He Sleeps With the Fishes, I absolutely loved how you started the first chapter with them sparring; it felt very much like a movie introduction. Especially because the lesson comes back around in a later chapter. Also, in chapter 2, I really like your potential set up of what could be coming in a future section, where they’re talking about the commission’s motivations and possible harnessing of energy for something nefarious and Five wondering if Reggie was involved…

I thought that was a brilliant way to potentially foreshadow some things. I also don’t know when you started writing this section of the series but I love how you had the mandala effect in there. Again, not sure how far you’re taking this series, but I feel like this slots neatly into season 4’s canon plots too.

I also love how chapter 3 is the last true moment of everyone believing“this will be a quick in and out job”. Each successive chapter is like a snowball rolling down a mountain side of Murphy’s Law. I liked chapter 10 too! Does this mean agent Reynolds will be in the Kennedy job too? I also like how the main set of people (the two Tony’s, Agents Bill and Stevie, the mystery woman, and Five and Lila of course) are all so determined to be the ones to get to Hoffa that at this point they’re all just surviving on “sheer dumb luck” and determination! It makes for a fun read overall!

Thank you so much @sunshine-and-christmas-caryls for this lovely ask! I was going through my inbox and came across this lovely bit of attention for my beloved fic The Hoffa Job and since I am currently working on the newest update, this seemed like a fortuitous occasion!

I'm so happy you approved of how this fic opens; calling it cinematic makes me incredibly happy because that is exactly how I want my writing to come across.

I'm really glad you mentioned the relationship between Lila and Five in this series as it is a bit different from the show, at least as they were toward the one another in the greenhouse in season 4. In this series, they are still firmly at The Commission and are still very much Temporal assassins. As such, they are far more competitive with one another, something that I think of as a thorough through for them in all their iterations. They both love to win, even against one another, which they kind of grow out of over the years they navigate the subway systems together (I guess??)

I plan on taking this series all the way to (sort of) the events of the series finale. It'll be very different from the show, as I keep The Commission/Sir Reginald as the Big Bad all the way through (I pretty much only have one big apocalypse event, the whole notion they the Hargreeves children's mere existence was wrong sends so many awful implications that I do not agree with narratively as a writer or as a fan) and it will also be very different from my other Fivela stories and would be more of my take on the entire series. Be on the lookout for those hints about Reginald's nefarious dealings with the Commission. It'll come more into focus on the Kennedy Job.

I actually started out this series way before season 4 and felt a little shocked that the writers also focused on the Mandela effect, although it would appear I've put more thought into it as it relates to the overarching machinations of both The Commission and Sir Reginald.

Things are about to come to a head in the upcoming update for the Hoffa Job; in fact, I hate to admit, but things will take a devastating turn... But fear not! Our anti-heroes will come together in an unexpected way in order to preserve! If there's anything our assassins are good at, it's surviving when things look their bleakest.

Agent Reynolds will play a part in the Kennedy job, all be it a 35-year-old version of him. His part will be small compared to this fic, but I couldn't help but want to see old "Wild" Bill in his prime.

I'm so glad you like the dynamic between all the players currently determined to be Hoffa’s killer! They will all come into play in the next couple of chapters as this story comes to it's thrilling conclusion! (Which will have the sea monster, don't worry 😉

[cantsayidont]

As much as I still enjoy the older comics and books, my feelings about modern STAR WARS media are at best mixed. Many of the recent streaming shows (with the notable exception of ANDOR) have been especially dire, but to my mind, the rot set in long before that.

There have been a lot of terrible SW tie-ins over the years (the old Bantam novels were so bad that after a while I stopped even bothering to get them from the library), but I'm particularly antipathetic to THE CLONE WARS, which is now emerging as the core text of the new SW universe. (I refer here to the 2008 animated series, not the earlier Genndy Tartakovsky shorts, which I hated and found pointless, but were at least easy to ignore.)

One of the riskiest and most potentially troublesome things a spinoff or tie-in project can do is to go to war with its own source material. This is something that even STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE ended up struggling with, despite that show's strengths; the writers couldn't hide their annoyance with some of the basic premises of the TNG-era future (like the Federation's abandonment of money), which at times became not so much a critique as an expression of writing staff frustration with dramatic rules they didn't make but weren't empowered to change.

That tension is also at the core of THE CLONE WARS, which is driven by an ill-disguised disdain for the SW prequel films the cartoon is ostensibly supposed to bridge. TCW, particularly in the early seasons where Lucas was still directly involved, takes exaggerated care to remain faithful to the details of the prequel storyline (for instance, the assertion in REVENGE OF THE SITH that Obi-Wan Kenobi has never previously met General Grievous face-to-face). However, it also plainly wants to redo the prequels, making their story and characters into something more like what the show's creators would've preferred to see in the first place. (Some of that revisionism may have come from Lucas himself, but it's continued in substantially similar ways since Lucasfilm was swallowed by the Mouse.) It's not hard to see where the creators of TCW are coming from, because the prequels were distinctly disappointing in many respects, from their appalling racism and antisemitic caricatures to their hilariously clunky dialogue to the inept handling of the Anakin-Padme romance. However, in the show's zeal to fix what it sees as the films' flaws, THE CLONE WARS also seeks to dismantle their thematic integrity.

Where Lucas might have taken the SW prequel trilogy if 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq hadn't occurred is anyone's guess, but ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH are plainly constructed as a surprisingly angry critique of the politics of the Wubbya era and the invasion of Iraq: The Jedi and the Republic are tricked into going to war on false pretenses, engaging in a conflict whose real purpose is to undermine the foundations of republican government and bring about the rise of a fascist dictatorship. By the end of ATTACK OF THE CLONES, where the war begins, the heroes have already lost: The military they're building is unmistakably an early iteration of the Imperial war machine seen in the original films, and the clone troopers are or will shortly become stormtroopers. Aside from being doomed by the narrative, Anakin Skywalker in Episodes 2 and 3 is a moral and emotional wreck: an immature, unstable young soldier — trained (and used) by an institution with no regard for his well-being that repeatedly urges him to reject normal human connections in favor of acetic martial purity — whose volatility and hazy grasp of right and wrong make him a dangerous, genocidal monster with no compunctions about murdering children in his paranoia and rage. None of the other prequel characters is remotely sympathetic: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a contemptible fool whose stubborn incuriousness (even when Dooku tells him quite directly what's really going on) and blind faith in the institutions he serves contribute materially to both the moral collapse of his apprentice and the ultimate triumph of interstellar fascism. Yoda is by the rules of our world a war criminal, whose eventual response to his failure to defeat Palpatine in single combat is to run away and make the brutal rise of the Empire everybody else's problem. Padme, meanwhile, is Anakin's enabler and apologist (she's an accessory after the fact to an explicit act of genocide, and she marries him anyway!) before becoming another of his victims. That's harrowing stuff, for all its clumsiness of execution, and, Lucas being Lucas, it's not at all subtle.

The central project of THE CLONE WARS is a cowardly obfuscation of the admittedly extreme grimness of the prequel films. It makes Anakin stable and competent, a capable if somewhat reckless leader who's a far cry from his deranged, tantrum-throwing live-action counterpart, a compassionate mentor with his own adorable teenage apprentice rather than a child-murdering fascist lunatic. The show also works overtime to rehabilitate Obi-Wan, Padme, and Yoda (who really doesn't deserve it). More alarmingly than that, TCW seeks to legitimize what the live-action films present as an unequivocally phony war, and blunt the edges of the prequels' original critique. In the films, the clones embody a military-industrial complex that's fundamentally inimical to the survival of justice or democracy — manufactured soldiers (and, pointedly, men of color) who are considered disposable war materiel even by the Jedi, and who are conditioned to follow any order delivered in a reasonably authoritative tone of voice. THE CLONE WARS wants desperately to reassure you that the clones are actually good guys (which it seeks to accomplish in part by making them white), noble and heroic true friends of our Jedi heroes who would obey them even if they didn't have to, and whose eventual heel turn has to be mechanically coerced. Moreover, TCW and its repulsive spinoff, THE BAD BATCH, take pains to distance the clones from the stormtroopers of the original films, qualitatively, morally, and ethically. Of course they're not stormtroopers who carry out massacres without question (even though we see them do just that in REVENGE OF THE SITH and in flashbacks to that period), they're Good Soldiers and heroes! They're victims of the evil space-wizard, just like the Jedi children and innocent people we watched them slaughter, and most of them feel terrible about it! The clones can't be bad guys, because then people wouldn't want to buy their toys. It's as disingenuous and cynical as the live-action films were dark, and it's completely nonsensical within the narrative bounds Lucas originally set out.

I'm not very fond of the prequels, which were not what I would have expected or wanted to see, and I can't blame Lucasfilm people for feeling similarly. However, I think that some creative levers really only go one way: You can take something simplistic and make it complex, or take something that's pretty black and white and introduce many shades of gray, but going the other way rarely works, and often feels insulting to boot. I did see the prequels, even though I didn't enjoy them very much, and while I don't begrudge anyone for wanting something lighter and less doomstruck, trying to tell me those movies were about something different than they obviously were has an "Ignore your lying eyes" vibe that I'm always going to find suspect.

[stray-tori]

LC s2e8 thoughts

hmmm... did LG/CXS try to stop the twin (unaware of how their power works? / being reckless), or was getting taken intended by....... whoever had agency in this situation?

Not to open the LC time travel logic can of worms AGAIN but I wonder if LC will deal with the implications of closed loops (which directly contradict LG's power which implies agency) and the agency of those who are possessed in that timeline. And if so, where do the things LG sees come from? In this case, was there even an "original" way this happened? If LG checks the photo he took, what does he see? I just wanna know. for scientific reasons......

^ me rn

All that aside...... UGH CXS being like "so, if I don't dive, will i be taken instead?". THEY ARE SO MUTUAL PROTECC HNGG!!!

and how him doing the window break at the end had all this dramatic energy because of that. he's deciding to put LG in danger, because he trusts that LG was leaving him this path and that his mantra of "let it be" (one might say LET IT UNFOLD) would ring true. UGH i'm so normal about this.

I do wonder if we're on track for an actual death? And if so, what will that mean for CXS' decision to go through with this dive (if he does so till the end).

AND if that will finally play back into the OP shots and ep1 flashes from LG.

Some shorter thoughts:

QJ being disgusted at LG and closing the door was SO funny

so. were the trans colors on the LTC jacket intentional then- lmao (* this scenario is not what being trans is of course but I think it's funny)

the QL and CXS flashback was really charming, i just love that they are so platonic/familial 🤧🤧

QL getting the scene with LTX was really sweet, generally.

I'm just so lost on the entire twin plot rn, why was she there? when did she go missing? can't have been too long or did she get by on the street?? many questions……. (I'm slow and need a rewatch)

they stuck to the normal eyes for LG during the first iteration. good- this proves that ep6 was purely for cliffhanger and I will continue to be unreasonably hateful of it :)

I'm confused on why LTC wants to know how LG knew of the time and location?? like... they know time travel is involved. and clearly they got the wrong guy- do they not know of possession? don't understand closed loops??? WHO KNOWS. I guess he did technically know SOMETHING was going down so maybe that's still a point of suspicion.

[m318x2]

I'm rambling again, lemme just plop my shit down on the metaphorical floor of your dashboard and refuse to help you scrub it out of the metaphorical carpet:

sometimes I watch starving in suburbia bc the ed and the family trauma in that movie is triggering as shit to me, but then I get to hannah saying shit like "I BELIEVE IN CONTROL. THE ONLY FORCE MIGHTY ENOUGH TO BRING ORDER TO THE CHAOS THAT IS MY LIFE-" and "hell is empty, all the demons are here 😔" and "emptiness is pure, starvation is the cure" with her WHOLE CHEST and I simply cackle out loud.

#edgy #girlboss #anamiaangelsforeverxoxo #redbracelet #itsalifestylenotadisease #skipdinnerwakeupthinneramiriteladiesss

that first one though. the full quote is like a paragraph long and has several iterations because it got copied/reposted/slightly misquoted so many times and I'm not sure where it originated from, but if I had to guess it was probably from the very first 90s-2000s pro-4n4 sites. they also quote it in Little Miss Perfect, another ed movie favorite of mine. here's the full thing, found on an old pro-4n4 weebly:

I believe in control, the only force mighty enough to bring order in the chaos that is my world.  I believe that I am the most vile, worthless an useless person ever have to existed on this planet, and that I am totally unworthy of anyone's time and attention. I believe in oughts, musts and shoulds, as unbreakable laws to determine my daily behavior. I believe in perfection and strive to attain it. I believe in salvation through starvation. I believe in calorie counters as the inspired word of god, and memorize them accordingly. I believe in bathroom scales as an indicator of my daily successes and failures. I believe in hell, because sometimes I think I live in it. I believe in a wholly black an white world, the losing of weight, the recrimination of sins, the elongation of the body and a life ever-fasting. 

it's so like "s(he) be(lie)ve(d)" yknow? that god awful cringe edgelord shit. but the content is actually kinda accurate. so like I relate to it in that it speaks to all of the psychological tendencies that anorexia involves (low self-worth/self-hate, black-and-white thinking, catastrophizing, perfectionism, etc), but I fail to fully feel it because it's packaged in such self-aggrandizing way.

I mean you can practically feel the insecurity and desperate plea for validation radiating off of whoever wrote it, thinking their anorexia was the magic thing that would make them stop hating themself. thinking that if they were at their ugw they'd stop feeling like such an embarassment. that people would finally praise them for something they felt they actually deserved praise for. that they'd stop feeling so utterly pathetic. god, okay. I feel it now. that was me too. I haven't ever re-read my diary entries from the beginning of my ed, but now that I've typed this all out I'm realizing they probably sounded just like that quote. the manic, frantic efforts to starve. the grandiose language. the belief that this was the magical cure. god, how is it I still feel like I'm not sick enough after so many years of this? jesus dude.

[sweetenerobert]

Hope you're ok with all the drama going on. I'm so glad you spoke out when you felt safe to and that you're better ❤️

Even though I'm not involved in any of this stuff, I wanted to say I agree with the other comments - no one owns an AU so I think it's pretty shitty that ppl feel the need to "own" one when Joel is literally a contractor lol like c'mon. Maintenance is a v realistic job trajectory for this fictional man haha

I've been reading fic for 20yrs and fuck, the best part of fic is reading allllll the iterations of a trope!! "Oh no, they were roommates!" "Whoops there's only one bed!" "Help I'm attracted to my DBF!" "Awkward, I'm attracted to this raider but he wants to kill me!".

I'm just a lowly reader but yikes, I would've happily read so many maintenance man!Joel fics - I didn't know why no one else was writing them since we have so many DBF ones to HAPPILY pick between and now, well, I guess we know....

Anyway if you do write maintenance man!Joel x f/m reader, people will happily read it and support you. If they don't, that's on them and they'll be missing out

The important thing is that you take care of yourself ❤️❤️❤️

the hug i will give you, people will have to pry me off u, protect this nonnie at all cost 💗💗💗

[specter319]

Now Announcing: Project Sentinel. A Call of Duty x Black Angel Squad Fanfiction

Background of Render courtesy of Callum Parker. Models by PvrpleSerot0nin Blender Rendering by Specter319 [Rendered to 8K Resolution]

Hey there! It's Specter again! And I'm very happy to announce, that after a very tedious month, I have big news to announce. I've been working hard on the editing stage, and I'm finally happy to announce the first Call of Duty Fanfiction story that I'm working on called, as you rightly guessed -- Project Sentinel. Though I won't be giving many details out yet, until launch day (because I want to drag this puppy out, let it simmer, even.) What I can state is the basics. Who, what, when, where, and why? Now for the Who? This project involves four of the main known characters, plus some side characters already known from the Call of Duty world: Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish and Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, Johnathan Price. Plus, all the favorites are featured including a little sprinkle of Kate Laswell and Alex Keller. But you might be a tad bit confused, Who even is the 'Black Angel Squad'? Much like Task Force 141, or much rather, SpecGru and KorTac. The Black Angel Squad is yet another PMC. Only deal with affairs in their home base of Australia, never anywhere outside those dark blue oceans that hug the red dirt of the land they live on. They've handled many task operations, and have just gotten away with their lives to tell the tale. These are some new characters that only a few people have met. So, much like Task Force 141, I have the pleasure of introducing: Cameron "Striker" Hawkins, Damon "Ninja" West, Kaden "Rabbit" Lincoln, and Zack "Nemo" Hayes. Behind these callsigns, much like Task Force 141, is a unique reason, individually, as to why these names were chosen. And understandably, these will be eventually revealed, in time as to why they were given these callsigns. So What is this story about? Funnily enough, this story wouldn't exist without one thing that triggered a 'drop and run' moment in my mind. The next post after this will be a BTS post, what inspired me to continue to write this, recommendations, and the progress behind it. Though no blurb will be revealed thus far, I'm more than excited to see what people think about it, given I've seen only a few stories here and there in regards to what I'm writing. When is this project dropping and when is it set? Ah! Now this, I can actually talk about. The first chapter is set to be released in Late September, so it's really not that far away. A further date will be iterated on the BTS post. I will be posting it both on here and Ao3, which will be linked here and will come under a little hashtag which I've put under the post so you can easily find it. As for when it's set, the earliest event that happens in the book. Is Sunday, August 10, 2025. Why have you decided to do this project? I never thought that during my course study in university, I would be writing a Call of Duty fanfiction. But at the same time, I never thought I would be writing a story about a PMC, during my course study, and before I delved far into the depths of Call of Duty itself. The BTS will also include the likes of those who have inspired this fanfiction, and even the people who inspired the Black Squad. But for now, I leave you guys with a gift, I recently found the Blender files for the Modern Warfare II characters. (With a very special thanks to Flvck0 for the models, my brain has been going haywire over these, and this is why my GPU is going to kill me, even if it has all 12GB to its name) to give you just a hint as to what the Australian outback looks like when a certain two boys lay their hands on the red dirt that is, Australia.

[lushslug]

B, E, F, O, and S!

Note: gunna space out names so they aren't searchable

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

honestly in the beginning I only really shipped s/uuji, and then one by one had my brain (and dick) blasted by every other ship, and now I really love all 15 pairings lol … I think I was most resistant to i/ro - primarily because of fandom interpretation (I'm still really particular about it), but tiny was the one to open my eyes with his good taste. I especially have a soft spot for it in denki and youkai settings, where their relationship still has hang-ups but those hang-ups are a little different than the ones in canon.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

MAN that's a good question … for o/sosan, I feel like … no??? nothing that has been posted publicly??? I've made stupid memes in private though

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

if I had to hazard a guess, it would probably be h/omestuck? it's really hard to say - I accidentally deleted the tumblr I had for 6+ years and I don't currently have access to my old computer with my art on it. I was really involved though - did cosplay, was tabling the con circuit in socal back then and did SOOOO SO many hs commissions, haha. every other fandom has probably been at max a 3-ish year affair? though it's been almost 3 years with o/sosan and the fire hasn't died yet!! confusing everyone around me lol

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

okay I have two, because one reminded me of a ship that reminded me of another song that reminds me of that same ship - specifically w/akaba, in me and tiny's denki universe … portrait of a dog by jonah yano

but not kiss by faye webster

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

ACTUAL PERFECT SEGUE into my feelings about this iteration of this ship HAHA. the context for my headcanons with these songs is that w/akaba met as children, and had an almost immediate draw to each other for reasons that they couldn't fully understand. but because t/oshio's situation with his father (who is essentially the villian in denki), c/horosuke was told by his father not to associate with t/oshio - driving them to meet in secret, until eventually they were unable to meet at all. these songs make me think about the time they spend separate from each other before they reconnect as adults at the beginning of the canon events of denki - the yearning and uncertainty and concern …

[agentnico]

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) Review

Anyone feels that tad bit more sophisticated and intelligent when they watch a film in a foreign language with subtitles on? Nope? Just me? Alrighty then, je suppose que c'est juste moi.

Plot: Young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris, trying to find the attackers who left him for dead. He instead finds a real war brewing and joins the king's three musketeers - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis - as they work to ensure the future of France.

The way I heard of this movie was surprisingly my dad who turned to me and said he watched yet another movie iteration of the Alexandre Dumas classic, and what made this version so fascinating to him was the fact that all the characters are super dirty. And no, not in a sexual way you perverted sods, but in the literal sense. The characters are all greasy-haired with faces covered in mud and sweat. Gone are the trademark bright blue cloaks and instead the musketeers are stuck wearing very old and worn-out grey and brown garments. So of course I wanted to see some super dirty musketeers, so here we are.

There have been many versions of The Three Musketeers adapted to screen. One could say too many. Like Sherlock Holmes and Godzilla (never thought I'd ever reference those two in the same sentence!), these stories have consistently entertained us over and over again, showing us the test of time. Not going to lie, I absolutely adore Dumas' original novel, and as such have seen a few of the adaptations. There were most certainly some terrible ones out there, but also some interesting ones too like the amusing 1978 Soviet comedy-musical version (yep, that's a real thing!), and then there is the 2011 steampunk one with airships and a pompously over-the-top Orlando Bloom which is all good fun. However with D'Artagnan it's the first time where I'm actually discovering a French version, and it would be shocking if the French were to ruin their own classic, right?

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan is a highly entertaining historic romp. It takes a lot from the book but also changes things up quite a bit, resulting in a familiar yet fresh feel to the now-modernized story. The atmosphere is dark and the action was superb. There were many sequences of swordplay where the camera would literally zoom around the battle area in one singular take, frenetically capturing all the detailed fencing choreography, and it was actually really impressive. Director Martin Bourboulon evidently has an eye for action (bet he watched a lot of John Wick and The Raid for his homework) and manages to keep an exhilarating energy through all the epic sequences. There are some very creative choices too such as an impressive sweeping shot of a horse chase over the cliffs of Dover.

The movie also feels very French. It sounds to put it like that, but it is indeed very romantic in a way only the French can be. The central love between D'Artagnan and Constance is innocently adorable and playful, and the love triangle between Louis XIII, his Queen and the Duke of Buckingham was amusing, forgetting the immoral involvement of adultery at play. But yes, it is very romantic, and I haven't seen a good love story at the movies in a while so this was simply delightful.

The cast were all very game here too. Francois Civil as D'Artagnan had the pride, naivety and boyish charm that was befit of the young Gascon. Romain Durin as Aramis found the perfect spirit of the character's duality between faith and seduction with his constant swaying towards the female gender. Louis Garrell and King Louis XIII exhibited the stupidity and blindness of the royal really well, yet also managed to give the character an element of strength which made way for a solid interpretation. Vincent Cassell as Athos was solid, but also made me wonder why such an old actor was cast as Athos? I guess they wanted to physically portray the hero's tortured past, but it just felt strange to have Athos be so old. And then Eva Green - look, I think Eva Green can be very powerful in the right role, but her role here was so minimal that it hardly left an impression. With the Milady sequel already filmed and on the way I expect her to have a bigger role in that where she will most likely be allowed to properly bring her mischievous character to life, but yet for now she has been heavily under-used.

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan is a super enjoyable take on the classic that adds some modern touches of finesse and takes some own liberties to change up the story, however, the result is very entertaining and makes for a swashbuckling historic adventure. And so whilst I await the upcoming sequel, I shall look back at that aforementioned Soviet version, and the amusing song lyrics that go along the lines of the following: "Let's be happy in our time, with the beauty and the goblet, with the lucky blade; While we swing the feathers on our hats; To destiny we'll whisper more than once "merci beaucoup"."

Overall score: 7/10

[your-royals]

So I had another thought mind you spoilers

I just realized there are more characters I would really love to see in Earth spark or like any iteration for any future Transformer thing that involves the Transformers storyline in any way possible but this is specifically for Earth Spark I wonder what would happen if over time the djd or like any of these guys ended up in Earth spark if they were going to continue the storyline and incorporate one the biggest baddest guys besides the main form of the Decepticons but like Overlord and other bad guys especially bad Autobots like they've shown Decepticons being good and Decepticons being bad but they haven't quite shown any Autobots being on both of the spectrums of being good and bad because I remember specifically Dorothy pointed out to her kids that not all Decepticons are bad and they weren't born into that life but now it's got me thinking not all Autobots are good either like there are few Autobots that kind of been what's the word something else cuz we literally had an Autobot vampire in the IDW Comics like I can tell that Earth spark can go ahead and take some of the punches that IDW was had but not all of them but it would be nice to see the djd or turn incorporated into the series along with Overlord and a bunch of other guys cuz they did it with cyberverse and like that was a whole climactic thing I also noticed that I would love to see blitzwing in the series too like we got two of The Seekers and star screaming himself but I want to see a bunch of the other things too and now that the parents have their own badge for them to wear I'm still wondering whether some of them might lean more to a side like they also back in the day for the Decepticons and Autobots they had special symbols and parts that they would use like the elite guard or Pacific killed tactic groups or the wreckers and then like seeing if the kids might lean towards a Pacific group and I know there might be more to come and so many Mysteries that are still somewhat implanted into the story and I remember when the flashbacks of when the ground Bridge was destroyed I kind of want to see a bit more of the stories that were happening in the war that might tie into more the future that a lot of bots still kind of think the war might still be going on or they don't want the war to end and they might still have some grudges specifically towards other Bots that they might have to face like some other grudges towards some Decepticons and Autobots like it's not just people on earth like I know it's specifically planted there but some people of Cybertron or from other planets and also the quintessons the contestants and the council the functioning Council like stories of the origins for Pacific characters of how they met like I guess that Terrence story but I would also like to see like Pacific Origins like I would also like to see how Dorothy and Megatron fully met and also like some flashbacks for them back in the day for like when Megatron was probably a gladiator or something and maybe having a whole another understanding for all our characters but those are just my thoughts I just really want to Series where there is more Incorporated of like the because I'm seeing they take bits and pieces from other storylines and other pieces from the Transformers fandom but these are just my thoughts and I can't help but ramble so yeah

But these are just some of my things I get there a little incoherent and they're just like all over the place but that's on my part and sorry for bad grammar or spelling or things don't make any sense I really try but I would also like to hear other people's inputs on this

[romilly-jay]

Thoughts on Writing: Mostly in Response to this Great Session from Glasgow Worldcon Which I Didn't Make In Person so Watched on Catchup.

Or: Maybe Work On Your Titles Game

So, this was originally an early and obvious choice for me to attend in person but a few things HAPPENED. (Best Harold Macmillan voice "Events, dear boy, events!" - nope, no idea precisely what his voice was like but I'm guessing RP/received pronunciation?)

First, I clocked the opportunity to volunteer as a facilitator on the academic track of the conference - which was a wonderful gift because it gave me a default place to hang out in and because the presentations were thoughtful, well-researched, and engaging.

Second, I decided to take a holiday from drafting (having just submitted my MFA text) and funnily enough, that flowed through into finding I wanted to take a bit of a break from thinking about the writing process. That wasn't planned but it was I guess predictable.

Third, my con-comrade suggested starting the conference at Dune! The Musical. We did. And it was *marvellous* (pic/deets below).

Oh, and fourth, I somehow convinced myself that this was going to be about the art of *marketing* a writing group. It really really wasn't.

I know this because returning to London lit some kind of starter gun - time to think about writing... time to think about what I'm trying to achieve with the current WIP... time to set some goals... time to find a new place to develop the writing? (That hadn't really occurred to me TBH but it's maybe my main takeaway from listening to the session!)

Soooo, this in mind, this was the session I started with as part of my mini-project to catch up on some of the parallel track sessions I couldn't make in person. No doubt understanding that many people would be in this position, the conference organisers have arranged for certain sessions to be available online until the end of the year with a Worldcon membership. Honestly I don't know if that's still available to purchase or only on a legacy basis for existing con members? No doubt the website would clarify. (This being me deciding that it's a piece of research I don't need to do...)

It was PRACTICAL. The approach was self-described as "intense" but maybe that's partly a function of collapsing attention spans generally because it didn't seem ridiculous (to me). Just required doing the reading in advance and dropping in brief comments for discussion in session. Yes, actually doing it. The reason my piano and classical guitar lessons didn't do me any good (failure to practise in between). Idea being that the workshopped writer and the people who've read that piece all turn up having had time to absorb the writing/feedback and have a conversation that builds on 1st impressions.

NICE.

There was an encouragement to work with people at a similar level of skill. Plus, side-note that the negotiation to get to this can be ticklish (/tricky) because there's a tendency for writers to over-estimate how good we are (at writing, at critiquing, at receiving critique). This was an arrow that met its mark for me. Pretty sure I've consistently over-estimated my own brilliance in the things I'm confident about, possibly matched by under-estimating my competence at the rest.

When I was reflecting on this, the following recent post by John Scalzi came to mind - seems initially like it's about something else but for me, it reads as a different iteration of the same kind of thing:

I think what's going on, in part, is a sorting desire - I'm GREAT (or its opposite I'm AWFUL) on the self-assessment vs they're PERFECT (or they're IRREDEEMABLE) for the creatives / actors / crazed billionaires whose work and/or lives we admire or envy (/both).

Scalzi's antidote seems sensible: love the work as much or as little as you wish to and resist the tendency to canonise - then trash - the makers of it. Assume that on the inside their lives just feel like - lives.

I particularly like his reframing of the "What Would x Do?" sentiment, where he suggests that instead of projecting onto a poster-person, we ask what the very best version of ourselves would do. Like it.

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

on average, how many clones of chloe exist at one time? I'm guessing the first ever chloe is long dead and only their consciousness is centuries old. Of course, I'm also assuming this is a double cherry scenario where every clone is the 'master copy' - so the chloes all share one 'soul'. Though I can imagine being a mimic (but not a merch one, right?) they'd have to be really careful not to let a stray clone attract any angelic attention!

Chloe is made out of an infinite number of increasingly smaller Chloes. Chloe is a “fractal being”, something with infinite iterations that acts via the consensus of all sub-Chloes involved. Every clone of Chloe is just another splinter of the main mass of Chloe. This is why Chloe is referred to as “They”, though it’s also because they can’t usually decide on presenting masc or femme, either.

Anonymous asked: Merch mimics are always trying to get bought, right? Sooo... how would Slick feel if she were somehow bought by Tony Hawk? And then maybe even put into a little skatepark diorama that he just so happen to be working on as a hobby?

Slick would be nervous and honored.

Anonymous asked: This is totally a weird question, and if it creeps or weirds you out, please feel free to just ignore it, but are you comfortable and/or fine with nsfw art of any of your designs? If not, I totally understand.

I am indifferent. I’d be full-on offended and insulted if it’s out of character, though.

Anonymous asked: Would it be inaccurate for me to read that 'Hurgmmm' as a discrete, fully-enunciated word rather than a sound effect?

It would be accurate.

Anonymous asked: i hope jack (and all of your ocs) know that i love them, idk if that means much but i adore everytime they're on my screen

Thank you. I appreciate that more than you’d ever know. I’m extremely lucky to have cultivated just the right audience and style, where I can make OC posts and they don’t perform... too much worse than fan art, haha. I’m glad you love Jack, I love him too.

Anonymous asked: Yo you like kid Icarus? What's your favorite designed character from the game? Personally a fan of Pandora, it's hilarious to me.

Another anon asked: OH MY GOD, YOU PLAYED KID ICARUS UPRISING TOO!!! YOU ARE LITERALLY THE ONLY OTHER PERSON I KNOW WHO PLAYED THAT GAME!!!

There are dozens of us Kid Icarus fans, not to worry.

Dyntos and Pandora are both cool, but the Aurum are the best. Surprising, I know, the artist that loves the robot enemies in video games likes the soulless AI faction of a greek-inspired pantheon.