#and doesn't even WANT to develop tools of destruction

[stromuprisahat]

Ruin and Rising- Chapter 1

*facepalms in memory*

Yeah, who could've guessed enemy army won't decently walk in regular lines, politely waiting to get razed one by one...

Even if nichevo'ya couldn't fly your "plan" was a total bullshit.

[beevean]

I wonder if something could be said about Ashley's apparent penchant for drawing.

Leyley used to draw a lot. This, in itself, is nothing special: many kids draw as a hobby. The most noteworthy thing is that Leyley loved to draw so much, she'd do it on the walls, which Andy had to clean...

... and on Andy's notes, which made it difficult for him to study.

I don't need to say that this is just one of the many ways Leyley begged for attention and approval, which most surely had the opposite effect.

However, what made me pause a bit are three completely separate scenes.

This is in the very opening of the game:

We don't see Ashley drawing as an adult, but she doesn't seem to be very confident in herself. Then again, at this point in the game, it could be just goodhearted self-deprecation. It does say something, however, that she's still clinging onto that drawing, both because it's so old and not good-looking, and what it represents.

This is after Ashley, as a teen, has a meltdown over Andrew "seeing Julia":

Andrew is being mean, but to be fair to him, he's also angry and interprets the torn drawing as a way to make him feel bad, so I'll let it pass. The artstyle is so crude, I assume this is another old drawing: the lemon muffin is a reference to a way Andy celebrated Leyley's birthday when they were kids, so it's possible she drew it back then. And then kept it for years, before destroying it in a fit of heartbroken rage. It's how she conveyed her love for her brother, and it was that important to her, that apparently, she still had it in grabbing and tearing vicinity. Her hate for Nina is as important as her love for Andrew.

(the other option is, of course, that it's a much more recent drawing, and yes, this is a pretty abysmal way of drawing for a teen who apparently has been doing so for years. I still wouldn't call it garbage though, Andrew, she meant well :<)

Not much after that scene, Andrew also tells us this:

Whether Ashley still draws in her teen years or has stopped, at least we know it's more important to her than her homework, and enough for Andrew to comment on it.

And this is an offhand comment Renee makes to her mother while pretending she doesn't regret her life choices and children.

This is how Renee chooses to paint Ashley in a good light: by praising her art. Which is a lie, of course, because even back then she wasn't exactly Leonardo Da Vinci, but hey, grandma doesn't need to know about that. Worthy of note is that, despite doing everything in her power to interact with her daughter as little as possible, she did notice how much Leyley likes to draw (although afawk it could be because she once saw her drawing on the walls, so it's even more of a backhanded compliment).

So I suppose Leyley's cry for attention did work, in part.

It's a running gag that Ashley is a pretty bad artist. More than once, people point out she struggles to draw circles.

Speaking of attention seeking behavior, and how Renee keeps denying it.

So, what do I take from this?

That Ashley had a predisposition for drawing, clearly enjoying it regardless of her talent, and partially did so as a way to yell "look at me! I'm a person too! I have feelings, here they are!" at the world; but that predisposition was never nurtured, neglected as she was. Her art was ugly at best, a bother at worst. So she never developed her artistic skills, stagnated, and now she's a "bad" artist, which she resents. It's quite a shame, because of all the ways you could vent your feelings, art is by far the healthiest. Perhaps she would have been less destructive.

Naturally, this is part of one of the game's key themes: Ashley never grew up. She wasn't given the tools to, and now, she doesn't even want to. So she never developed past the "Leyley" phase of her life, still drawing in a childish way, still "playing" with her bunny plushies in her mind, still clinging onto her child self when Andrew wants nothing more than to grow up (or so he says). Much like her art, she too was seen mostly as an embarrassment, and so never improved. But every scrap of attention Andrew gives her? Means the world to her. And that's why she keeps going.

Lastly: every ending of the game comes with a crude crayon drawing.

It makes me believe that Ashley's art, ugly and childish as it is, is an important part of her, and her perception of the world.

[integer115]

Ashes of the Academy quick reaction

Ursa blames everyone but herself for Azula's problems raising her. Azula was in a war? What war? She's just pure evil!

The world around us doesn't matter! Brainwashing is the absolute remedy - yeah.

There is no difference between stopping the war and losing the war, losing everything that was won during a hundred years of war.

The aristocracy has power and influence but does nothing with it because… Because between the scene where Azula is in chains and the scene where Zuko is standing on the balcony there is a script black hole!

Zuko is both powerful and powerless. The plot black hole obliterates any sense of who is responsible for what in the post-war Fire Nation and how society functions in general.

Mai's claim sounds really absurd. Mai is your boyfriend and you actively tried to make the Fire Nation lose the war, remember?

Yes, precisely because Azula burns everything for no reason, it is she who, even during her breakdown, did not throw fire at her servants. On the other hand, we have Zuko, who was constantly throwing fire at innocent people. Starting with his subordinates on the ship and ending with Aang. Simply put, the comic screws Zuko's characteristics to Azula.

So Mai didn't want to hang out with Azula. Okay. So Mai is just a hypocrite. Great character development.

So Azula lives to multiply suffering and destruction. Okay. Then again a banal question. Why the hell did the entire cast of the show survive Azula's captivity alive and well? And in Hokoda's case, even recovered? Why did Katara spill water under Ba Sing Se and not blood? Pathetic.

The writers themselves don't know why this whole idiotic circus with Kemurikage was needed. Perfect.

The Fire Nation is waging a war to acquire colonies. That is, it is implementing a full-fledged program of development of new lands. So how do the inhabitants of the colonies end up in someone's minds as sympathizers of the Earth Kingdom? What kind of nonsense is this? These are literally the same people of the same nation. Why, in The Promise, they showed us that the inhabitants of the colonies themselves consider themselves to be part of the Fire Nation. And this is logical. So how on earth did they turn into traitors during the war? Where did this nonsense come from?

Azula didn't trust her friends. Okay. Then why the hell she didn't burn them in the original show and went to get new ones? If they were just tools to her, she'd just get new ones and that's it. In the last Hicks comic, Azula almost did the dance with Ty Lee just to avoid turning the girl into a roast, so what the hell? This is literally a pluralism of opinions in one head and we are not talking about Azula's head.

So why did Azula lose her temper like that if she didn't trust her friends from the start and didn't even consider them friends. Again?

What the hell is a children's academy? Am I the only one who remembers about the war? Okay, writers, I get it, the war had no effect on anything. It's all the fault of a bad school and a bad Ozai. One question, on who is this intended for?

Oh yeah, let's boil it down to evil for the sake of evil. Literally!

Writer! You yourself mentioned a crowd of traditionalist aristocrats at the beginning of the comic, and now it all comes down to an old granny with a Sith Lord complex. Is it so hard to just watch your own writing?

What kind of people will Zuko be trusted with? Where did these people come from? Who let this people into positions of power? How did all this even happen again? The plot black hole keeps coming back to haunt us.

This granny was really going to kill the teacher with a Dai Li agent? An agent who would just attack in broad daylight? Why would he? Why would she? Okay… Let's say it's designed for children under one year old.

But now there's a bunch of Dai Li sitting in the Fire Nation and waiting for Azula. What? What kind of nonsense is this? How many years have passed since the show ended? Are these agents infinite? And they work for themselves! What nonsense this all is...

I apologize for the confusion and emotionality. But it's just…..bad.

[yusiyomogi]

hot take, but i really really dislike when people say something like "in kbms mithrun will actually take care of everything in the house, kabru is nothing but a boyfailure". i understand the desire to idk, subvert expectations and fandom stereotypes (especially kabru-the-nurse ones, these are just straight-up evil). BUT something like this betrays a certain level of unconscious bias and insecurity, in my opinion.

mithrun is extremely dehumanized by the fandom, but isn't it just another form of dehumanization, to make him some sort of perfect partner who does everything perfectly, even though in the manga he struggles to do many things and has to force himself by will alone? he's capable, he's smart, but at the end of the manga he still needs help from others (and probably will for the rest of his life). yes, he developed routines, but routines are not something that works without failure, even the slightest change in conditions can make routines fall apart, this is literally what happened in the story itself. let mithrun be a person with his own struggles.

and don't even get me started on "boyfailure" kabru, i understand that this is just a joke, but. the whole thing in the manga is that it's not healthy for him to move on in life without understanding his own needs and desires. i want to see kabru being cared for, who doesn't? but reading over and over that he's useless, a failure, that he sucks, genuinely upsets me. he has the same problems mithrun does, he can't see himself fully as a person and he doesn't have all the necessary tools to construct a healthy image of himself, since he never had a chance to grow up in a good environment. finding motivation to care for others AND himself is an important point of his character arc. because without it, you're imagining kabru as a sort of guy who's slowly killing himself with his work (and probably, alcohol), who shows up at home only to sleep. it's the whole point that the story gives kabru a healthy way to redirect his energy and his love for humanity to something less self-destructive. maybe it's good for him to learn how to do chores actually.

and he'll struggle too, just like mithrun, so if you think of kbms and imagine them living independently of others (without servants), at first they would live in dirty hell, where the act of actually doing something in the house would be like. the act of stronger will and the ultimate act of care.

[lejay-the-impossible]

Something I hear in the fandom a lot is that demonic cultivation was the thing that destroyed wwx, was harming him all along and contributed to his downfall. And I don't think I agree because in the book itself there's not all that much proof of it being true. Yes, wwx lost control and yes, his own dead minions tore him to shreds (of which, again, we have no solid proof, but it does sound logical since other sects probably either found his body in a corresponding state or saw it happen. But wwx never confirmed the rumors himself), but all of that happened because he was in distress and was not even in control of his own emotions, let alone the power he held. He was exhausted, desperate and probably not even in his right mind near the point of his death and all of that wasn't caused by some evil power corrupting him from within, but by constant traumatic events, oppression, hatred and loneliness he was facing day to day. Demonic cultivation didn't make him more cruel or violent - the war did and even then he was trying to keep it together, to not let himself slip, he was aware of the responsibility on his shoulders and the rumors that were spreading like plague because of the methods he used. He was able to ignore all of that and live a normal, near peaceful life on burial mounds up until the accident with jjx.

Even lwg who was the most worried about demonic cultivation causing harm to wwx only previously knew about it from rumors, books and legends. Nobody knew what it could do to you, but he's been told that it's not right and that's what he believed, just like everyone else. Only when he visited wwx on BM he saw that wwx was actually in his perfect mind, maybe even more reserved and serious than he ever remembered him being. And that I think was the point when lwg realized that wwx wasn't going mad and was doing what he thought was right as always. And I'm pretty sure this encounter alone was enough to plant the seeds of doubt into lwg perception of demonic cultivation and not let him end up like jc and the rest of the world - fearing it and hating everyone who used such methods. Because demonic cultivation just like any power is a tool that can be exploited in many ways and solely depends on how you use it and your ability to control it. Cultivators also have power yet they train years to gain it and to control it. The downside to demonic cultivation is that everyone can use it, but not everybody has the will and strength it takes to control it. Wwx became the master because he was arguably the first person to ever seem to handle this kind of power with no backlash. He was a skilled cultivator before and he mastered demonic cultivation not out of laziness but out of a need to survive and was using it mindfully even if to others it seemed like he was just messing around. It probably takes a lot of energy and concentration to control the sentience of dozens of corpses, but just because it's difficult and exhausting doesn't mean it's destructive to the user.

And I'm pretty sure lwg was able to understand that and that's the reason why he's not against wwx using demonic cultivation in the present timeline and why I don't think he will ever push wwx into developing a golden core just for the sake of ditching "the dark path". Lwg learned to trust wwx and his capabilities and came to understand that all these notions about the distractive power of demonic cultivation might have been just another false rumor from the ignorant, jealous and hateful people that wanted to bring down those they couldn't control. Not everything is what it seems and not everything people say is true, that's the main theme of the book and I think it applies to demonic cultivation as well.

[phoenix-king-ozai]

I think Ozai did love Ursa or at least got along with her. It's just his desperation to win Azulon's approval was far stronger.

Fire Lord Ozai Characterization Analysis

This is an interesting topic that I want to expand upon. I don’t think that Ozai was physically abusive to Ursa and Zuko (besides the Agni Kai which Ozai believes was justified given the societal norms of Elite Fire Nation Society) like how many in the fandom believe he is. Ozai isn’t some deadbeat drunkard abusive father that takes out his anger and fury on his wife and children due to his own personal struggles and feelings of inadequacy. Ozai holds Zuko and especially Azula to extremely high standards of demand because of their birthright and royal obligations to Fire Nation Imperialism under Sozinism.

In regards to Ozai and Ursa’s complex romantic and familial relationship. I doubt that Ozai was the most affectionate, compassionate, caring, and loving husband in the same way that Iroh probably was with his own wife. However, Ozai did care for his wife and children but his imperialistic attitude and behavior is paramount rather than his wife and children’s own happiness and desires. Ozai is certainly more of a warlord at heart than a family man which is an inverse parallel of his brother Iroh who is ironically more of a family man at heart than a warlord.

I believe that Ozai, Ursa, Zuko, and Azula, including the entire Fire Nation Royal Family, have very complex relationship dynamics with each other. I believe that over time, Ozai began to develop feelings of affection, care, and even genuine love for his family. However, Ozai has been raised to be a ruthless, cunning, manipulative, and vicious warrior since his childhood.

Ozai has socializing and romantic relationship problems as a result of Fire Lord Azulon’s ruthless, cruel, and brutal royal indoctrination of him. Ozai and Ursa may be Fire Nation Elites, Royal (Ozai) and Noble (Ursa) by blood. However, their personalities and background environments differ extremely because Ozai was raised as a prince. Which is why Ozai is so much colder, cruel, vicious, and brutally ruthless compared to his wife Ursa and even his brother Iroh. Ozai has become Fire Nation Imperialism personified due to the pressure to live up to his father and grandfather's harsh expectations.

Ozai has been personally brainwashed and socially conditioned since childhood by the Fire Nation Elite and Fire Lord Azulon to become the man that he is today. Compassion, Morality, Peace, Pacifism, and Mercy are signs of Weakness and MUST be eradicated and eviscerated. The Fire Prince of the Fire Nation is expected to be callous, ruthless, dangerous, destructive, and even downright despicable to instill fear and terror in the Fire Nation’s enemies and even their own subject peasants and lords alike that would dare threaten the power and stability of the Fire Nation Royal Family!

However, during Zuko and Azula's early childhood, Ozai was more gentle and fatherly towards his children and husbandly towards his wife, Ursa. Ozai, Ursa, Zuko, and Azula used to enjoy their family bonding vacation trips to Ember Island during their childhood in the summertime. Ozai was never some sadistic wife and child beater that the ATLA fandumb tries to horribly make him out to seem like! It just their abuse porn head canon fanfiction obsession.

Ozai most certainly didn't want Ursa influencing Zuko and Azula especially. Azula is the perfect tool and heir for the Fire Nation as a genius and later on, becomes a perfectionist. Azula's natural skills and abilities far supersede expectations and that of her older brother. Ozai doesn't want Ursa to make Azula "soft" hearted. Ozai wants Azula and even Zuko to be ruthless, vicious, cruel Imperialistic enforcers for the Fire Nation and his reign.

Ozai never wanted Ursa's morality to "infect" their children considering they are supposed to be ruthless, cunning, manipulative, and cruel imperialistic overlords for the Fire Nation. Also, Iroh is the Black Sheep of their family ironically morality-wise. Whereas, Ozai is a brainwashed imperialistic fanatic warmonger just as Fire Lord Azulon desired and wished for him to become during his childhood.

Fire Lady Ilah probably instilled moral values during Iroh's childhood in comparison to Fire Lord Azulon who obviously doesn't care about morality in war which he inherited from Fire Lord Sozin. Ilah probably managed to break the ruthless, cruel, and aloof imperialistic personality in Iroh which passed on to Lu Ten as well! Unfortunately, without Ilah's guidance, Ozai became a carbon copy and a small degree worse morality-wise in comparison to his forefathers.

Unfortunately, Ozai cares more about the Fire Nation's imperialistic ambitions than the happiness of his wife and children. At the end of the day, Ozai doesn't understand and value the unconditional and pure love of a parent because he probably has never gotten to experience it with Fire Lord Azulon, due to him still being resentful over Fire Lady Ilah's death in childbirth!

In a twisted imperialistic paternal sense, Ozai DEEPLY cares about Zuko and Azula. However, it is predicated on his children upholding the legacy of Sozin the Destroyer and Azulon the Conqueror of the Burning Flaming Throne with their all-consuming ideals of Fire Nation Imperialism along with the callous, ruthless, and vicious indoctrination that comes with over a hundred years of Sozinism brainwashing & propraganda!

Ozai's harshness and ruthlessness regarding Zuko have nothing to do with Ursa and Ikem's letters and their scandalous forbidden love! Ozai wants Zuko and Azula to both prove themselves to be GREAT WORTHY SUCCESSORS to the empire that the Fire Nation has forged through Fire, Blood, Steel & Ashen Corpses! Ozai doesn't favor Zuko or Azula. It is about which child will succeed Sozin, Azulon, and his legacy as future Fire Lord. In fact, Ozai doesn't want Zuko or Azula to think that they are the “favorite” child. He wants Azula and Zuko to improve through competition. Because of the “only the greatest of pressures can forge diamonds” & “steel sharpen steel” mentality. Ozai has the mindset of an imperialist warlord. Ozai isn't trying to be the world's most loving and caring father, but rather continues building upon a powerful and dominant legacy that his forefathers had created. He wants Zuko & Azula to be cold, ruthless, heartless, vicious, and brutal imperialistic warmongers like him (Ozai), his father (Azulon), and his grandfather (Sozin) to continue an imperialistic legacy that can last centuries & generations.

[randomthefox]

"Pfft, Eggman's deadly space station is child's play, Gerald's deadly space station is the real deal."

Why would anyone assume that? Firstly, the ARK was never intended to be a battle station, and secondly, the Eclipse Cannon cannot function properly without all seven Emeralds in the receptacle. It can't even be reactivated without "large amounts of energy":

Conversely, the Death Egg can melt an entire stage with a mere flash of its eyes, something that didn't require any Emeralds.

This takes place before Hidden Palace Zone, so we can't even say that the Master Emerald was powering it.

Six Emeralds were already inside the Cannon when Eggman blew up the moon, meaning it was only 90% charged and would take too long to fully charge without the last Emerald.

I don't understand this conclusion of "people think the ARK is the superior space station" when the games suggest the opposite. But even then, it wouldn't be the game's fault if people are being stupid?

Also, why would I put aside the ARK's lore and history when that constitutes the bulk of what the ARK is? The game emphasizes the ARK's role as a bastion of scientific progress and treats the development of WMDs aboard the colony like a shocking revelation whose implications are existentially disturbing for that very reason. Unlike the Death Egg, it was never intended to be a battle station.

...Jesse. We didn't know at the time of SA2's release what exactly the Cannon was intended for. Eggman being the powerhungry megalomaniac who twists it toward his own destructive ends is the entire point. Just because he didn't personally build the Cannon with his own two hands doesn't make his use of the Cannon any less meaningful.

That'd be like if Gerald had left a loaded hunting rifle on the table, and instead of hunting deer with it as was its original purpose, Eggman picked it up and robbed people at gunpoint... And we looked at that situation and went "nah that doesn't count because the gun was actually his grandfather's and Eggman should use his own guns next time." Like??

Let's also not forget that in Sonic Battle, Eggman created a giant space laser that blew up multiple stars. Without even needing the chaos emeralds as an energy source.

And then also in Sonic Unleashed where he used a laser powered by the emeralds to crack the entire planet into pieces.

Wow, truly Eggman has been turned into a laughing stock and a stock bitch compared to Gerald. Truly Eggman should get on his hands and knees and grovel and kiss at Gerald's feet (oh wait he actually did that in the movie).

Besides going off of Shadow The Hedgehog, Gerald specifically designed the Eclipse Canon to be used as a weapon against the Black Arms so it could destroy their comet. It was a tool designed with a very specific purpose, to be used by a very specific individual (Shadow).

But even putting that aside and going only based on SA2 and the games created before it, Shadow is LYING about the Eclipse Canon to Eggman. The game is not presenting the Eclipse Canon as the ultimate super weapon beyond anything that Eggman could create himself - the Eclipse Canon is a HONEY TRAP. The purpose of Shadow dangling it in front of Eggmans nose is to initiate the colony drop.

Like you have to be fucking deliberately obtuse to try and suggest that SA2 is trying to undermine Eggman by presenting Gerald as the superior weapons engineer. That is a take so illiterate that you aren't even trying to read the text anymore, you're just making shit up for the sake of complaining.

Why people WANT to hate the Sonic games so badly that they're willing to just invent things to complain about is fucking beyond me, honestly.

[genericpuff]

ok as someone disabled with severe motor skill issues i really hate the argument that "anyone can learn art" and that it's completely accessible to everyone. it's not. there are lots of disabled folks who are getting left out of this discussion with the ableist argument that anyone can do art and if you can't you're just not trying hard enough (which is an argument a lot of abled people tend to use against disabled folks in general). i'm against ai art and will never use it but we have got to stop acting like art is an accessible hobby to everyone because there is unfortunately a lot of people who would love to become artists but will never be able to because of our disabilities.

nah you right! I try to be mindful of that sort of thing but it does admittedly fly under my radar at times because I'm not someone living with a physical disability (and thus it's not as front-of-mind as someone who is) so thanks for catching me on that, many apologies. My argument was regarding the people I've seen who have exclusively used "well I've tried to learn how to draw and it's hard / took too much time / etc." as their driving argument (of which there are just. so many) when like. these are realities for many artists who have been doing this for years, too, including those who are disabled. yeah, making art takes time and practice and a lot of hard work! welcome to the party LOL

but I also understand how keeping that argument so simplified can be exclusionary to those who do genuinely face barriers when pursuing art due to living with disabilities. I've met and observed the work of many disabled artists - webcomic artists, game designers, musicians, etc. - who are out there making their stuff and it comes with all its own unique struggles that shouldn't be forgotten about or overlooked in the discussion regarding AI art, struggles that bar many people from even getting into making art from the starting gun.

I do genuinely believe that art can come from anywhere, that anyone is capable of expressing themselves through whatever medium that compels them... but you're right that many artistic mediums in and of themselves are not wholly accessible to everyone. And I hope to god that more tools are developed to help those who are both working artists as well as aspiring ones.

But AI, in its current state, just isn't one of them. And I'm seeing this sentiment being yelled from the rooftops by many disabled artists who firmly believe that the ends do not justify the means - that they don't want the medium to become more accessible if it comes at the cost of other artists (many who are disabled themselves!) whose work and livelihoods are being replaced with cheap carbon copies. AI art doesn't allow anyone to actually participate in the joy of creating straight from the heart, it just takes from others' joy and spits it back out with an impression of what it thinks the joy of creation is supposed to look like through lifeless pixels. That's not even getting into just how much damage it's already actively causing to our environment, and how quickly AI has started to replace other surrounding industries as well.

Separately from that, you're right, paying for art is a luxury for many, but that's all the more reason why we shouldn't be supporting the current climate surrounding AI IMO which is the crux of what my argument was in that previous Simpsons meme post. Many people do face severe limitations in trying to create their art; the people I'm referring to who are heavily pro-AI are often not those same people and only face the limitations of their own entitlement, which is destroying the livelihoods of many human artists. Is it worth participating in AI art to save money if that same participation perpetuates a growing system that's costing people their livelihoods?

Maybe some day we'll get AI tools that are less predatory and destructive and help those who want to create art do so. Maybe we'll finally get some stricter regulations around what companies are allowed to get away with in their respective industries. I'd like to think also that the rise of AI art will, by extension, make human-made art all the more valuable. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish for tools that made making webcomics just a teeeeny bit more efficient without being completely unethical LOL But until any of those scenarios prove to be true, we're dealing with a monster of our own design that will never stop eating even after we've all been consumed. The toothpaste is out of the tube.

[heyclickadee]

So. Here's another long Tech Lives, post, or at least the first half of it, anyway. I'm finding myself sort of over-explaining everything and the post was getting a little unwieldy, so I decided to split it in two. So, here's the first half of a "list" of things The Bad Batch left unresolved and which are also, coincidentally, connected to Tech in one way or another.

First, actually, before I get into the list I want to clarify what I mean by "resolution." Resolution doesn't just happen if something ends or stops. It's not automatic. Resolution is more about the resolution of tension in a subplot or a story. Tragic endings can have resolution. Happy endings can have resolution. Resolution just means the tension has been dispelled; that's all.

And second, I feel like I have to clarify this, but I'm not arguing that a Tech return was planned and cut at the last minute; I'm arguing that a Tech return was planned and either moved later or was always going to happen later than we expected. (I also think Tech is just to popular to stay dead even if that was the plan, but I'm still banking on this being a rare planned character return rather than a retcon.) All of my Tech Lives posts do honestly double as arguments for why it would be one of the worst handled character deaths if it were to turn out he's never coming back, but, that said, I am still arguing that the character's alive.

Third, in this post I'm talking about characters mostly as tools used to tell a story. So, when I argue that there would need to be some on-screen processing for Tech if he were dead because he's a main character, I'm not dismissing clones like Nova or suggesting that Tech is more important in the fictional universe we're looking at. I'm saying that he's a tool that's far more heavily used in the telling of this particular story, and therefore would need more dealing with than a more minor character.

With that said, here's the first six entries in the list. (The next post should be shorter even though there's, like, twelve more entries. I'm sorry.)

1. Crosshair’s reconciliation with the batch.

So, this is about 95% of the way there, since his relationships with Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo have been repaired and his relationship with Omega has been developed, but his relationship with Tech remains broken. The last time they spoke to each other things were tense, we know for a fact that Tech struggled with Crosshair choosing the Empire after the destruction of Kamino, and now Crosshair’s walking around knowing that Tech sacrificed himself during a mission to save him. Here’s the thing, though—Crosshair’s and Tech’s relationship could have easily been resolved without Tech coming back by the end of the series. All it would have taken was a single conversation—something as simple as:

Omega: Tech wouldn’t have blamed you. He thought it was worth it to try to find you. I did, too. That’s why I couldn’t leave you, Crosshair.

Crosshair: What if both of you were wrong?

Omega: I know I wasn’t. And Tech seldom was.

Now, I would prefer more, but that would be all that was needed for resolution of this thread if Tech was meant to be dead. You don’t need Tech alive to resolve it. Explore the idea that Crosshair is not going to get the chance to reconcile with Tech the way he got a chance to reconcile with the others, that he’s never going to see Tech again, and that they left off on bad terms. Make Crosshair come to terms with that and make that the resolution. Except…the show doesn’t even attempt to do that. It allows Crosshair to repair his relationships with the others while leaving his relationship with Tech almost completely untouched, and so we have the narrative thread of Crosshair’s reconciliation with the batch left incomplete because there’s one batcher with whom he hasn’t reconciled even though he could have without Tech there.

2. Crosshair’s guilt (and Crosshair generally):

So, Crosshair’s carrying around a lot of self-loathing for choices he did and choices he did not (but may not understand he did not) make for most of the show—I actually think his decision to stay with the Empire was made partly because giving the order to kill those civilians while still fully chipped really messed him up—but in season three we get another level of how he feels about what he’s done. He doesn’t just feel sort of vaguely bad about it or like no one will take him; at the end of “Confined” he tells Omega that she should leave him in Tantiss because he deserves to be there. And then in “The Cavalry Has Arrived,” he calls plan 99 and tries to convince the others to let him take the risk of going into Tantiss alone because it’s dangerous, and he uniquely deserves whatever might happen to him in there.

Crosshair grows a great deal over the course of the series and the season, and we do actually see an arc of him beginning to heal (he's repaired his relationships with the rest of his family and "The Return" allowed some processing for Mayday's death and the horrors of "The Outpost"), but this line reveals that this is one area where he’s still stuck. He goes from passively to actively suicidal and makes it clear that he still believes he deserves every bad thing that’s ever and will ever happened to him. And this is the last thing he says about himself; he never takes it back or gets past this.

This leaves his otherwise magnificent character arc just slightly undercooked. He hasn’t reconciled with himself yet. He hasn’t quite learned to live with his choices because he’s still trying to die over them. And the thing is, the other thing that line does besides establish that Crosshair has made no progress towards thinking that maybe he doesn’t deserve to die? It connects his guilt with Tech. “Clone Force 99 died with Tech! We’re not that squad anymore!” a line I discussed in my last Tech Lives post, is the preamble to Crosshair declaring he needs to go in alone. It basically reads like, “Tech’s gone, we can’t be who we were without him, and it’s my fault he’s gone so it’s my fault we’re broken, and I’m going to go get myself killed over it.”*

What happened to Tech isn’t Crosshair’s fault, of course, but even just going off of the parts of the story we know happened for sure, it’s easy to see how Crosshair could come to the conclusion that Tech falling is the unintentional consequence of his choice to stay with the more at the end of season one. After all, if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have eventually needed saving from Tantiss and Tech wouldn’t have been on Eriadu looking for information about him in the first place**. If he’s feeling guilty over Tech, it would make some of his actions earlier in the season make more sense; insisting Omega should leave him, not bringing Tech up at all in his argument with Hunter (because I adore Crosshair but he is not a man who holds himself back from crossing lines like that when he’s trying to get under someone’s skin; if he didn’t needle Hunter about what happened to Tech it’s because he feels responsible for it), and so on.

And, again, Crosshair’s lingering sense of guilt could have been resolved. You don’t need Tech to come back to deal with it, not if he’s supposed to be dead. All you need is a single conversation, maybe a single line that could resolve both this and then issue of Crosshair reconciling with the entire batch. But the show didn’t do that. What it does instead is establish that Crosshair is still so wracked with guilt that he feels like he deserves to die and that his guilt is directly connected to Tech in the very last episode of the show and then left it there with no pushback. That didn’t need to happen! Crosshair’s guilt didn’t need to be tied to Tech. They could have had the hug (God I love the hug) and had that lead into Crosshair realizing that he wants to live for the family he still has in the next scene. All you need is a line! His guilt would have been resolved!

But Crosshair doesn’t get lines after Tantiss. We don’t even see Crosshair in the epilogue. He seems to be living on Pabu, sure, but—is he okay? Does he still thinks he deserves death and worse? We get no indication that he is or even that he's going to be. Are we sure he’s not a non-functioning alcoholic? We actually kind of need to see that he’s okay in order for it to feel like all the suffering he and the others went through (and Tech’s sacrifice) was worth it.

It’s not like Crosshair was a throwaway character, either. I kind of always got the impression that he’s something of a writer favorite—he’s the one who gets the big, meaty character arc. So the only reason I can think that the show didn’t deal with that lingering guilt or Crosshair’s reconciliation with himself is because it’s being dealt with later; and if we’re dealing with that later, and if it’s connected to Tech, then maybe we’re dealing with Tech later, too. (In fact maybe we’re dealing with Crosshair’s guilt later because Tech’s coming back later because, again, it would have been very easy to deal with in a sentence or two if Tech was supposed to be dead.)

*Sidebar: Wrecker’s rebuttal, if you can call it that, reads more like, “Hey, don’t get yourself killed over this alone. Let’s go get ourselves killed together,” than anything, in part because that’s sort of what they proceed to do. They go in, get their asses handed to them, almost die, and it’s only thanks to Echo, Omega, and the clone prisoners that they don’t end up dead or brainwashed.

**And it’s possible there’s something about the situation that Crosshair knows that we don’t. We never do find out why Crosshair’s stress tremor manifests the way it does. BUT WE AREN'T ACTUALLY SHOWN THAT FOR SURE.

3. Hunter’s other character arc:

So, I know this can be a bit of a touchy subject, because I know Hunter’s a weirdly divisive character, but I love Hunter. Hunter is great. He’s also, like all the boys, flawed and a little complicated—and he’s got two intertwined but still separate character arcs.

One, of course, and the main one of the two, is his arc with Omega; learning how to me more of a parent and brother towards a child and achieving the goal of being able to give her the childhood he knows she needs without the threat of her Kaminoan-designed purpose hanging over her. This arc is resolved beautifully, including Hunter being able to step back and trust Omega to direct her own life, and he achieves that goal of being able to give Omega that childhood. Hunter, uniquely of all the bad batchers, has found his new purpose in taking care of Omega.

His other arc, however, was an arc exploring Hunter’s role as a leader and what that means in the post-war period. This is an arc that has actually been set up remarkably well; we see Hunter struggling in his strange new circumstances, agonizing over what decisions to make and whether to make any at all, trying to balance being the CO of a team with no mission with still being responsible for the safety of his squad as a whole with allowing his squadmates their agency with also suddenly being responsible for a child who can’t take care of herself (at least not initially) and who therefore has to be priority. It’s a difficult balancing act, and not one that he always gets right, or even can get right given the impossible circumstances in which he’s placed. It’s something he struggles with so much, in fact, that he actually loses every single member of his squad, Omega included, at one point or another, either through freak circumstances over which he has no control, choices they make, or, in some cases, both. Losing Tech is just the most extreme example. But because losing Tech is the most extreme example, this secondary arc of Hunter’s is something that ends up tied directly to Tech.

It’s all there, and it’s something of which I think the show is very aware, but I think because it is a separate issue from that one subplot that was resolved (Omega), it’s not something that’s been resolved or unpacked yet. And the thing is, even with the whole losing Tech thing being at least moderately connected to it (less than losing Crosshair was, but definitely still connected), this is an arc of Hunter’s that could have been resolved in a single conversation even without Tech there. For an example that wouldn’t change the plot and wouldn’t add any screen time, shift Hunter and Crosshair’s argument in “The Return” away from losing Omega (the traumatic event at the end of season two that actually fuels all the conflict in season three) to losing Tech, and then have Hunter’s part of the conversation he and Crosshair have at the end of that episode after they start to reconcile be a little more open and explicit about what mistakes (losing Crosshair, losing Tech, losing Omega, etc) he feels his made. There you go. Again, you could do more, and probably should, but that’s all you would need to resolve it if you were forced to keep it to the bare minimum. But the story didn’t even do that.

Which…is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s an arc that’s going to continue moving forward.

4. Wrecker’s fear or heights:

So, Wrecker is sort of the one character who I feel like got the short end of the stick when it came to getting development—at least, so far. Most of his development in the show was frontloaded into the front half of season one; since then, he’s kind of been coasting along, still having development, but it being fairly incremental and in the background.

Which—something I’ve actually realized as I’m typing this is that the thing this story has done with the development of every single one of the adult batchers has been to take their development to a certain point that allows each of their relationships with Omega to be brought to (or almost to) it’s peak for the purposes of being able to complete Omega’s character arc, while also introducing and developing elements that are particular to the part of their arcs that aren’t connected to her, and then puts their development on the back burner to potentially be picked up later. It continues to remind us of the elements of their arcs disconnected from Omega (so we don’t forget that was happening) without pushing them much further or resolving them, and either puts them in a little more of a supportive role (Wrecker, I would argue Crosshair in the last ten minutes of the finale), or largely or completely removing them from the action (Echo and Tech). Hunter and Crosshair are the two whose arcs are most intrinsically tied with Omega’s, though Hunter's main arc is tied at the hip to hers, which is why he's the one who show's up in the epilogue; it's the culmination of her relationship with Hunter. Tech’s and Echo’s arcs are the least connected to Omega's arc directly, and Wrecker is in a middle ground.

ANYWAY, the thing about Wrecker is that most of the development he’s gotten happened in the front half of season one, and it centered largely around Omega; since then he’s developed a little—he comes across a touch more serious and tired in season three, for example, but what we’ve gotten for the most part (outside of fixing his relationship with Crosshair) have been reminders of possible points of conflict and/or development.

Little things, like periodically reminding us that he’s remarkably intelligent and great with demolitions and ordinance…without ever allowing that skill to play into the plot. Pointing out that he is still impulsive in a way that be helpful but can get him hurt…without giving him a chance to grow around that besides being a little more somber. Or reminding us that he’s afraid of heights…without ever allowing him to confront that fear. These are all things of which we’re reminded in the second half of the season, some in the last episode or two, they’re established and re-established, but they never really go anywhere.

The fear of heights is relatively minor. It’s not something he has to confront or which has to be resolved, but it’s something that’s definitely THERE (and which might be the closest thing to an inner conflict he’s got) and, well, I’d like to see Wrecker get the chance to confront it. Maybe he never gets over it, but he gets a better handle on it, or better tools to deal with it. But, the thing is, because of the way Tech supposedly “died,” because of when, where, and the way in which Wrecker was involved, Wrecker’s fear of heights can’t really be dealt with at all without also allowing him to deal with what happened to Tech on screen.

Once more, it’s not something that requires Tech coming back to be dealt with. In fact, you could make dealing with Wrecker’s fear of heights part of him processing that Tech’s gone. Explore the idea that he lost a brother to something that would be his personal nightmare scenario; give him a scenario where he maybe needs to go out over a cliff to help someone, his phobia is actually much worse now because of the whole Tech situation, he pushes through it anyway and in so doing both confronts his fear and begins to process grief.* One sequence, maybe two or three minutes long. It even gets close to doing this at points, because it keeps putting Wrecker in situations where he’s up high. Take one of those situations and push it a little further! There’s room. It’s not like the third season was trying to go anywhere fast. The last half especially is stalling for time. But that didn’t happen. Wrecker’s fear of heights remains basically where it always was.

*Not gonna lie, “Tech knew the risks,” does not strike me as something that someone who’s actually dealt with their grief would say. It sounds like something someone who’s been trying to not deal with it would say. He’s just trying to get Crosshair to not go get himself killed alone.

5. Tech:

Yeah, I know this one is obvious, but Tech isn’t resolved. And not because he didn’t come back.

One point on the handling of the aftermath of Tech’s sacrifice that I think has caused some contention in the fandom has been the discussion of the in-show processing, or lack thereof, of what happened to Tech. Part of the reason for the contention, I think, is that people are often talking past each other and not talking about the same thing when we try to discuss it.

Fandom focuses most heavily on character and character development—which is great! It’s fun!—and most often tuned to looking at fiction from an exclusively in-universe perspective. So when someone will criticize the handling of the aftermath of Tech’s sacrifice by saying it isn’t processed, I think there ends up being a misunderstanding, and people can sometimes take that as someone saying that the other characters aren’t sad that Tech is gone. Which is absurd—of course they are. We see the batchers after he falls, they’re gutted, that grief is raw. Of course they’re upset. It also isn’t what most people who say there was no processing are talking about at all.

You see, on-screen processing is not about the characters being sad. Not really. It’s about solidifying the loss, allowing the characters to move on, and, by proxy, allowing to audience to internalize the loss and move on as well.

For good examples of what on-screen processing for a character death looks like, see "Jedi Night," for how it treats the lead up to Kanan's death and "Dume," "Wolves in a Door," and, "A World Between Worlds," for how it treats the aftermath. Kanan has a little moment of goodbye with every single member of the ghost crew leading up to his death, and while it's true that in-universe this is because Kanan knows full well that he's about to die, those goodbyes are there for the audience too.

Then in the aftermath, we get each character working through their grief in different ways and each coming to a place where they're able to find consolation what he was able to accomplish and that he didn't die in vain (Sabine and Zeb discovering that Kanan took out Thrawn's tie defender project in the moment of his death), that he will always be a part of their family and a part of them (Hera talking things out with Chopper and adding Kanan to her kalikori), and in the guidance he was able to give (Ezra being directed by Dume and learning to accept Kanan's sacrifice in the world between worlds).

Through this on-screen processing the audience, for whom the processing is really meant is offered justification for why Kanan's death will be the new status quo going forwards, an invitation to let the character go, and, hopefully, consolation right alongside the characters. On-screen processing is sort of like…grieving by proxy. And, if you kill off a main character, it's something you absolutely have to do. Otherwise you are never going to get audiences that are predisposed to dislike main character deaths anyway to accept what's happened or even think the character is dead for real. (Basically, there's a REASON people in the audience are having such a hard time with this.)

Kanan, rather than, say, Hardcase, is actually a good character against which to measure what on-screen processing does and does not happen for Tech. He, like Tech, is one of six main characters, features in every episode before his exit, and develops a personal relationship with the POV protagonist. Because they are characters who occupy similarly important places in the stories that are being told with them, and if they are both supposed to be dead, you would expect the lead up to and processing in the aftermath of their exits to be comparable on at least some level.

They are not.

This is an understatement.

Because there isn't really any on screen processing for Tech's sacrifice. What we do get is some raw grief from our characters; Echo looking at the empty pilot's seat, Wrecker being too torn up to even get drunk, Hunter keeping it together because he's the leader and he has to, and Omega pointedly refusing to accept the idea that Tech is gone for good.* This lasts for less than three minutes (I timed it) before we slide right in to the next plot point.

Aaaaand that's where we leave that grief. It's not that the characters stop being sad. They don't. It's that the story freezes their grief in that raw place and doesn't allow it to develop into anything less painful which, in turn, also freezes the audience's reactions to Tech's sacrifice in that same very emotional place. We aren't given the opportunity to do that by-proxy dealing with it that on-screen processing provides.

We are not invited to let go of the character--in fact, Omega's outburst invites us to hang on and reject the idea--and any narrative meaning the sacrifice would have had is immediately undermined by everyone being badly injured and Omega getting taken before they can all get to safety anyway. Instead of clarity we get introduction of the broken goggles by Hemlock--the established untrustworthy villain and sadist who has a vested interest in getting Hunter to roll over and do what he wants--in a moment that simultaneously twists the knife and throws what even happened to Tech into question**. So, when it comes to Tech, we leave season two shocked, grieved, and confused.

Then, as we move into season three, we not only don't see any on-screen processing or…anything designed to make the audience accept the situation, we actually get the opposite. Tech's sacrifice is never actually talked about in the third season as a sacrifice, something that they're trying to honor, or something that bought the others the time and peace they're living with. In fact, it's never talked about at all. Not even in places where it would make sense to talk about it.

Yet the story doesn't completely drop (I know) Tech, either. He actually comes up either by name or by via pointed visual reference about once an episode, but never in a way that even tries to make the audience okay with the situation.

What it does instead is, well, poke at the wound. It's like the show is going, "Hey look, there's Tech falling again in the recap. There's his broken goggles sitting next to Hunter. Sure is sad, right? Tech taught Omega the plan numbers. Look at that empty seat in the cockpit next to Omega. Tragic. No one on this team knows how to decrypt anything but Tech. In fact, no one on this team knows about ANYTHING apart from Tech. Look at the empty space they're leaving between them when they stand! Sure sucks that Tech's not here! Hey, look at this mysterious Tech-shaped Tech-speaking individual in a mask! Here's Tech's girlfriend. Sure doesn't seem like she's over him, and look at how perfect they are for each other! Don't you want to see them together? Clone Force 99 is broken because they don't have Tech. Damn. Here's another couple shots of those broken goggles that we never made into anything besides an agony momento. Tech's not here and that's terrible. Have you thought about Tech today? Now you have. There is no comfort. There is only pain."

That's. Not. Normal. That's not even what a badly handled character death looks like, and it's not resolving the character, either. It's, again, doing the exact opposite.

Far from closing the box, the cumulative effect of these moments is to refuse to let the Tech box close and draw out the tension between what the audience largely wants to see (ie, Tech handled, one way or another but mostly alive judging by the sustained reaction of, "PUT HIM BACK RIGHT NOW!") and what is happening (no Tech). And the end result of making the choice to bring up Tech only in ways that highlight his absence (and how difficult that makes life for everyone) and/or poke at the wound of losing him in the first place without every having a moment of on screen processing or encountering any death tropes is to just make most of the audience unhappy with the Tech situation.

Now, one possible explanation is that the writers simply don't know how to write processing, but the way other major losses in the series are handled actually suggests the opposite.

When Echo leaves, we're given an episode for both the characters and the audience to process this drastic change in the status quo. Mayday was a single episode character who largely existed to push Crosshair's development, but we still got that quiet, intimate moment of processing in "The Return," an episode which largely exists to allow Crosshair to heal from his horrific experience on Barton IV.

And as for what a longer processing arc from this creative team looks like, well--there's the processing we get for the destruction of Kamino, which stretches all the way from "Kamino Lost," aka Kamino's funeral, to "Pabu."** And I feel like it goes without saying that the creative team knows how to kill a character on screen, since that's what they do with literally every named character besides Tech.

So, processing and clear confirmation is something they know how to do but chose not to for Tech, and Tech specifically.

Highlighting this even more is that the story doesn't seem to be unaware of what usually happens when a character dies or even common tropes that you would encounter or even write more or less by default in the wake of a character's death. It actually keeps presenting us with situations where it would be natural to tie Tech's plot-threads up and invite the audience to let the character go. The current last conversation between Tech and Phee, Omega talking with Crosshair in his cell in Tantiss, the fight between Crosshair and Hunter in "The Return," the meditation lessons in, "Bad Territory," even (I would argue), the archium scenes in both "Point of No Return," and, "Juggernaut" (I will be explaining what I mean about the archium scene in "Point of No Return" in another post; short version is that the scene is all about Omega not wanting to leave Pabu, not about Tech at all), and more are all scenes where both processing and real confirmation of what even happened to Tech could have gone without even changing the plot or adding any runtime. But it never happens in any of the scenes where it could; instead, the show sidesteps it every. Single. Time. Either by playing against the trope and refusing to let resolution happen or just avoiding the subject and placing the emphasis on something else.

And--okay. I have to give @eriexplosion credit for this idea, because it wasn't mine, but let's say that they were planning on having Tech come back and had to cut it last minute. You could actually still resolve Tech (badly, but it would still be there) with one line at the very end of the show. Instead of, "She'll be all right," be the last line of the show and the last thing Hunter says, have him say, "You would've been proud of her, Tech." Or, have Hunter say, "Tech would have been so proud of you," directly to Omega before she leaves. This would make Hunter never saying Tech's name or ever bringing him up in the season more of a gut punch, clarify that he didn't come back in the gap before the epilogue (there's currently nothing keeping this from happening), and would retroactively tie Omega's season three motivation to Tech's sacrifice. "Tech would have been so proud of you," is a no-brainer line I think someone would write without even trying to resolve something, it's RIGHT THERE. But the show sidesteps that opportunity too.

Basically, Tech remains unresolved, and not, I'm hoping, because it's just done badly in a unique way I've never seen before. It's more active than that. The show makes a balancing act out of never allowing the audience to forget about him or his absence, but it simultaneously avoids every single opportunity to actually deal with it like a gymnast tumbling through a laser maze. It's actually impressive--IF Tech is alive, coming back, and the story is just treating him like he's MIA until he does so.

If he's not then this is all baffling.

*This is an important point. Like it or not, The Bad Batch is a kid's show. A show written for older kids, sure, but still kids, and Omega is the POV protagonist, which means her emotional truth is one we should be paying attention to. You can go the entire of the rest of the, show including into the epilogue, without knowing if Omega thinks Tech is really dead or not. She says she lost Tech shortly after this scene, and can't lose the others too, but the context of "lose" in that sentence is the others being captured, she said the same thing about the very alive Echo when he left. She may well think Tech is alive. She could have been leaving a message on his goggles when she left them in the Archium. It's that vague. Yelling that Tech isn't gone and needs their help is the most explicit thing she says on the whole matter, and I do think that emphasis is important.

**Even if we take Hemlock at his word, something I see no reason to do, there's a reason why EZRA was the one to confirm Kanan's death to Zeb and not, say, Rukh, there's enough wiggle room in what he says for Tech to be alive and for Hemlock to have found the goggles and nothing else. Even if he found them on a body, remember that there are at least three dead stormtroomers who fall with Tech, and that Tech, who's established as capable of powering through some severe injuries, could have put enough of his armor on one of those before crawling away and finding a ditch to hide in. There is literally nothing saying this man is dead.

***I sort of feel like this is something no one (myself included) ever talks about, because the processing is largely done via Omega, and Omega is something of an afterthought in the fandom. Which makes sense, we're all more focused on the adult characters because we're mostly adults here, but Omega is actually the protagonist, has a great character arc, and the handling of the loss of Kamino and its aftermath through the eyes of a child is really well done. A lot of Omega's actions in season two are explicitly motiviated by that loss, and you can track how she feels about it over the course of the season. This is in stark contrast to the Tech situation and, no, I don't think they cared more about Kamino than Tech, or about Omega's relationship with Kamino more than her relationship with Tech

6. Tech's and Phee's relationship:

Nope, this isn't resolved either. Resolution of a relationship doesn't happen just because one of the people in the relationship falls off a cliff; you actually have to put a bit of work into it. And, once again, this is something that could have been resolved in a couple of lines, and in a couple different ways.

Option one would have been to resolve it before Tech even falls.

Do it with the conversation they have in "The Summit." Have it be a conversation where they both get on the same page and definitively decide that, yes, this is something they both want and are going to pursue once Tech gets back. Explore the fact that Tech doesn't get back and Phee is left with that. They've both made a decision and the resolution ends up being in the tragedy that they had both decided to be together, but fate decided it wasn't to be.

Alternatively, have that conversation be one in which they decide a romantic relationship isn't going to be something they pursue. I ship these two hard, but resolution could also be had in a version of that most current last conversation where they talk out wanting to be friends or not wanting the same thing out of the relationship, because that would still resolve the tension between them.

The conversation we actually got in canon, though, not only doesn't resolve the general will-they-won't they tension around Tech and Phee--it actually hightens it. It's an at-times sweet but fumbling, tense, non-conversation where they both end up pushing each other's buttons and talking (or not-talking) around one another in a way that draws attention to the fact that they are close and probably at the point where they need to talk about what's going on between them but completely fail to to so because neither of them are in a good headspace for it. And, because it's such a non-conversation (and because we end the scene with that long shot Tech watching Phee leave like he's mulling something over or there's something he wants to say but doesn't), we leave the will-they-won't-they tension hanging. Up in the air. Much like Tech*.

Even keeping the "The Summit" conversation as is, however, the TechPhee tension could still be resolved at some point afterwards without needing to bring Tech back or have him alive. Resolve the relationship via Phee being shown dealing with this relationship she almost had but which never fully blossomed. Show her coming to terms with not really knowing what would or wouldn't have happened. Hell, tie it to an arc about Omega coming to terms with Tech not coming back. Imagine a version of the archium scene in "Point of No Return" with Phee also there, and the conversation centering around the archium being somewhere Tech would like to be and/or letting Tech go. Done. You wrap Tech, Phee's relationship with Tech, and Omega's relationship with Tech up in one go without adding any screen time.

Best version of resolution here if Tech was actually supposed to be dead? Wrap the relationship up in the conversation in "The Summit," and wrap Phee's feelings up alongside a processing arc that happens with everyone else.

But, of course, that's not what happened. The conversation in "The Summit" was the purposefully awkward non-conversation we've already discussed, and we never see Phee dealing with the fallout of Tech's sacrifice in season three.

Part of that is because Phee has…very little screentime (*aaaauugghhh*) in season three, but the interesting thing is that Phee never shows up in season three without reminding us of that relationship she had with Tech. She brings him up in "Bad Territory" for no real reason, the one incredibly tense scene she has in "Point of No Return" has her almost running into the mysterious Tech-shaped masked guy, and then.

In "Juggernaut"

She shows up for a sequence that is wholly unnecessary for the plot--there were ways for the batch to get off Pabu, including having Echo show up instead since Echo has a ship and Phee drops the boys off with him in the very next episode--but does go out of its way to: one, establish that Tech and Phee were even closer than we thought and they were having conversations about Crosshair, a thorny issue we know Tech was having trouble with; two, that Phee is not even slightly over Tech and still talking about him like he's going to walk in a door at any second; and three, that Tech and Phee are perfectly matched in ingenuity, daring, piloting skill, and their ability to annoy the hell out of Hunter.

It's. It's not closing the box on these two! It's an escalation, it's ripping the box open and parading the open box around. Phee is criminally underutilized in season three and instead of using her under ten minutes (if we're generous) of screen time to wrap up a tragic relationship that wasn't to be, the writers choose to develop the relationship further without even having Tech show up and make the audience want to see them together even more. Look at her ship! It's painted orange and blue, just like Tech's jeans and armor! Look at her fly! They're perfect for each other! Don't you wish Tech were here right now to see this? It's terrible Tech isn't here right now! Isn't it?

It's LUDICROUS if the show is doing that and he's supposed to be dead. Just woeful mishandling all around.

If he's supposed to be alive, though, it makes sense not to resolve it. You actually want the audience to be reminded of that relationship, and you don't want to give any inkling of closing it out. You want to foster that tension in the audience and make them look forward to it being resolved. (Even if the resolution is happening elsewhere and highlighting the tension is kind of backfiring at the moment by making people more depressed about it. That's a whole other conversation.)

*I am. Aware. There is discourse around this scene. I'm not interested. My view? Phee was justified in being a little upset that a friend she cares about (and is more than kinda in love with) was walking out without saying goodbye. Tech knew it was going to be a dangerous mission and was justified in being way too overwhelmed to actually have the conversation Phee clearly wanted to have. Tech is an at least six foot tall highly trained combat vet who does not mask and is NOT shy about saying what he thinks; he saw Phee coming and waited for her instead of running into the ship and probably would have told her to get lost if he didn't want to spend time with her. Phee has been mildly flirting with Tech over a period of at least several months, she's not forcing him into anything. People trip over themselves while trying to communicate sometimes. It's not the end of the world. I'm so over the discourse around this scene.

**I'll get into this more on my next Tech Lives post, but The Bad Batch does have this delightful tendency to literalize its metaphors, so I'm not sure that's an accident.

That's it for part one of this post. Hopefully I'll get part two, where I talk about things like. "We don't leave our own behind," and the Omega hug thread up sometime in the next few days.

[pandaofsecrets]

Reworking ML's Power System

Now that I've ranted about all the ways I think the Miraculous don't make sense, it's only fair I tell you what I would've done instead.

My goal here is for each Miraculous to have its own distinct identity and a broad range of powers all built around the same theme, and to have as little overlap with the others as possible. That way we don't have to bring in a new character for every single power under the sun. Each Miraculous would also then have a lot of ways to interact with its user's character development, something I feel was sorely lacking from the actual show.

The Forces of Magic

I know what I said in the last one about how I like the idea of the Miraculous being based on abstract concepts, but the kwami actually being embodiments of said abstract concepts in universe doesn't really make a lot of sense from a worldbuilding perspective. I mean, the kwami don't really make sense from a worldbuilding perspective in a lot of ways, but that's a story for another time.

So, instead, the kwami are conduits of the primordial magic that holds the universe in balance; think the Cosmic Forces from World of Warcraft and you're basically on the right track. In this world, there's eight Fundamental Forces of magic, organized into four equal and opposite pairs: Reality (Creation/Destruction), Structure (Subjection/Transmission), Information (Illusion/Vision), and Substance (Protection/Evolution).

Ladybug

The Ladybug is the Miraculous of Creation, and is basically a combination of the canon Ladybug, Goat, Peacock, and Dragon. Kiiiinda.

The Ladybug's most basic power is to create an inanimate object. The user can either call for their power and get something random (actually random, not "seems random but turns out to be the exact object needed to win"), or they can create something specific, like Adrien did with his Lucky Charm in Reflekdoll. From there, the user learns to create things that are a little more abstract, like flames, bursts of lightning, or gales of wind, and finally living beings—usually barely sentient minions with a single, simple goal. Unlike with the canon Peacock Miraculous though, the creature's life isn't tied to an object, and there's no convenient way for the user to control or dispel their creation. They have to rely on the Miraculous that actually have the power to do that, the Bee and Black Cat respectively. The most talented Ladybug wielders can create beings so complex as to be indistinguishable from humans, but only a scarce few of those are born in any generation. Marinette is one of them, unsurprisingly.

The Ladybug works most effectively in the hands of someone who is brave and has a lot of trust in themselves, and will backfire if the user second-guesses what they're doing. The logic here is that perfect is the enemy of done.

Cat

The Cat grants the power of Destruction, and is used to well, destroy stuff. Very straightforward, I know. Jokes aside, the Black Cat can destroy literally anything, both concrete and abstract. It can bring solid objects to rubble, disrupt and cancel magical abilities, break magical bonds, and even do things like erasing memories from the minds of others. (Thanks for canonizing that last one, S6!) This makes it a very powerful tool and, together with the Turtle, a check against the power of all the other Miraculous.

The Cat's powers are fueled by negative emotion, especially hatred. For the user to destroy something, they must well and truly want it gone.

Alongside the Ladybug, the Cat forms the Reality pair, which when used in tandem can reshape the universe.

Bee

With this one I'm using the more conventional meaning of the word "subjection". To put it simply, the Bee gives its user the power to control anything. This manifests in telekinesis, in bestowing matter with instruction such that for example a weapon can only be wielded by a chosen master, and finally in controlling the minds of animals and other people.

This Miraculous works most readily in the hands of those who value order and act for the good of others, and will go haywire if the user acts selfishly and tries to upset the balance of the world for personal gain. If the other forces of magic don't particularly care about moral alignment, Subjection has to: rules must apply equally to everyone if they are to mean anything. On the flipside, the Bee Miraculous can end up empowering extreme zealotry, and the user must never fall into the trap of becoming a pitiless crusader who viciously hunts down the nonbelievers.

Butterfly

This one would see one of the most radical changes, incorporating the abilities of the canon Butterfly, Horse, Rabbit, and Dog.

The equal and opposite of the Bee, the Butterfly is the Miraculous of Transmission, and governs change and movement in all its forms: of matter, of ideas, of emotions, of state, of magic, and of time.

The most straightforward of these is the movement of matter. The user can open portals to teleport themselves or other people, and can also teleport objects away from someone else.

Next up there's the movement of ideas and emotions. Butterfly users can feel and influence the emotional state of others, read their thoughts, and communicate telepathically.

Then there's the change of state and of magic, which is only available to advanced users. This manifests in transmutation of objects and shapeshifting, and in turning the emotions and internal motivations of other people into magical power (akumatization). Unlike the Miraculous, akumatization can only give one power at a time, and the user has little control over what the power is going to be, so they have to choose who to transform very carefully.

Finally we have movement in time, but like with the Ladybug's ability to create life, only a scarce few who can actually use it are born in any generation. I like to think this is because while time travel sounds straightforward, few people can actually conceptualize it and just end up moving in space instead.

The Butterfly works best when the user frees themselves of mental barriers. Unfortunately, this makes it prone to falling into the hands of people who have no scruples and for whom the rules are just suggestions.

Fox

The Miraculous of Illusion, this is another straightforward one, giving the user the ability to fool the minds and senses of others. Aside from vanilla illusions, it also has the power to make someone else believe anything the Fox user says is true, as well as induce hallucinations of all kinds. It can also conceal things, such as allowing the user to become invisible.

For this power to work, the user needs to trust it completely, and get into a mindset where they truly believe their own lie. If they acknowledge at any point that it's not real, the illusion breaks down.

Peacock

With its canon concept going to the Butterfly and its abilities to the Ladybug, this is essentially a new one altogether, and I'm going with the power I initially thought it was going to have.

The equal and opposite of the Fox, the Peacock has the power of Observation. Whoever uses it can see into both the future and the past, find the answer to any question, remotely observe and track other people, be a living lie detector, and see through any illusion, including the glamour that conceals Miraculous users' identities.

The Peacock works best if the user keeps an open mind. If they go in thinking they already know the answer or expecting to see something, their powers will fail.

Together with the Fox, the Peacock forms the Information pair. Whoever has access to both is a one-person Ministry of Truth—while this pair can't actually change reality like the Ladybug and Cat can, it can change how reality is perceived.

Turtle

The Turtle is the Miraculous of Protection, and is the immovable object to everyone else's unstoppable force. In its most basic form, the Turtle's power creates a shield that protects someone from a physical threat. With time and experience, a Turtle user can make themselves and others invulnerable, imbue objects with durability, deplete objects of their momentum, and prevent others from entering a space or taking a certain action.

The Turtle's powers are fueled by the user's will. The logic is that the ability to protect something comes from how much the user wants to cling on to that thing.

Crane

I considered two animals for this one, the crane and the rabbit, but I eventually chose the crane, for two reasons. One, in Asian cultures the crane and the turtle are both associated with longevity; there's a saying in Japanese that goes something like "the crane lives for a hundred years, and the turtle for a thousand". This makes the crane a great choice for a counterpart to the Turtle. Two, Kagami's last name contains the Japanese word for crane, "tsuru". Okay, the second one is not that important, I just thought it was a fun Easter egg.

Anyway, this is the Miraculous of Evolution, and it has the power I feel should've gone to the canon Rooster: upgrading the user's already existing abilities and that of other people, including other Miraculous users. This also manifests into minor healing and restoration abilities, but this is far from the reset button the Ladybug and Cat would provide. For one, the Crane's ability is much more localized. For another thing, the Miracle Cure brings something back exactly the way it was, while the Crane brings something to its optimal state.

The Crane's abilities are fueled by the power of love. Aww.

Unifications

When used together, two Miraculous (or three, or four, or five...) can unlock a new range of powers that is a combination of their existing domains. This can be done by wearing both Miraculous like in canon, or more simply by combining one's power with that of another wielder. The second option is considered the preferable way to unify—for one person to wear multiple Miraculous would require a good spiritual balance that most people don't have. Those who unify still have to be in sync with each other, though, otherwise the unification might either not work, backfire, harm the wielder, or damage one or both Miraculous. I like to think this is how the Peacock would come to be broken.

Some common unifications include:

the Ladybug and the Cat, which re-shape reality;

the Ladybug and the Turtle, which creates an object that has the power to protect whoever wears it from certain types of magic (basically, the canon anti-akuma charms);

the Ladybug and the Butterfly, which creates a physical manifestation, usually an object, of the emotions of whoever it's used on (the canon Pig Miraculous, kinda);

the Ladybug and the Bee, which creates a non-sentient minion that the users can command (the canon sentimonsters, kinda);

the Ladybug and the Crane, which creates an object guaranteed to solve whatever problem the wielders are currently having (the canon Lucky Charm);

the Butterfly and the Turtle, which creates a time loop (the canon Second Chance);

the Butterfly and the Peacock, which gives the user(s) the ability of astral projection;

the Cat and the Butterfly, which opens a portal that disintegrates everything falling into it;

The Miracle Box

Unlike in canon, the Miracle Box is a magical object in and of itself. It's bound to the Guardian, who essentially has admin powers over the box and all the Miraculous inside, and can: locate Miraculous (Observation), summon Miraculous and the Miracle Box to their location (Transmission), prevent certain people from using the Miraculous or opening the Miracle Box (Protection), assign Miraculous to specific people so that only they can activate it, and making sure that the Miracle Box can only open by their or their chosen successor's hand (Subjection), repair damaged Miraculous (Evolution), and even sever the bond between a rogue wielder and their Miraculous (Destruction).

Alas, Fu never had access to these powers. For security reasons, the ceremony that binds the Box to a new Guardian can only be performed by the current Guardian or, in the absence of one, by all off the eight kwami. With the previous Guardian dead and Nooroo lost, there was simply no way to give Fu the Guardianship. As Guardian-in-training he was allowed to open the box and give out Miraculous, but nothing more than that.

[invested-in-your-future]

Having just started to rewatch Arcane S1, one of the things that I like about it is how it lays out its premise and follows through on it.

In episode 1, Benzo tells Vander that the young people want to write their own stories, and won't be held back by the caution of elders, even well-meant. At the end of the same episode, Vi promises Powder that one day the city will know their names.

And the rest of the season follows through on that, both through Vi and Jinx driving the story in spite of Silco's efforts to stop or control them, but also Cait's refusal to take dismissal lying down, and Jayce continually pushing against Heimerdinger. They drive the story and won't let themselves be held back. (It felt, in many ways, like a better-executed version of what RWBY volume 6 was trying to do).

Which is why the most disappointing aspect of S2, personally, is the way that aspect got lost, as the story became dictated by the hexcore, by Ambessa, by outside forces compelling the protagonists to react instead of driving events the way they had before.

Yeah, one of my biggest issues with S2 is that it offloads every major resolution to an outside plot device.

Vander resolves the sisters' feud. The Magic Robogod subplot resolves the Viktor and Jayce subplot for them AND the class divide (LOL). The child plot device resolves Jinx's role (without even starting it). The random traitor girl resolves Caitlyn's position.

Now, don't get me wrong—reacting is an important aspect of character writing (and character building)—outside stimuli are usually how characters change and develop.

The issue is that Arcane S2 is not interested in having characters react.

Viktor's struggle with his humanity could have been fascinating, but he just shifts between his S1 self, a messiah, robot god, and plot device man in an instant, sometimes within the same episode. Vi and Jinx's feud gets resolved via the Vander subplot, but do we get Vi's characterization and screen time dedicated to her processing what happened? No. Likewise, Vi's "I don't care" would have hit harder had she been allowed to react to Caitlyn going full dictator and struggle against it throughout the season—Caitlyn being even a bit remorseful would hit differently for her if we had seen that struggle where Vi is happy to have her back now.

The show posits those plot devices as "resolutions" but doesn't actually use them at all beyond that—it's as if writers are content with having "closed off a plotline" rather than portraying its effects on the characters or HOW they change.

They created all those new out-of-nowhere subplots and plot devices, and then characters aren't really allowed to react or change due to them—because the plot devices are there to close plot threads rather than characterization.

The annoying part is that Arcane S1 gave all the tools needed to tell the same story but through the lens of the key characters' journey.

Season 1 ended with the inciting incident that every character in the cast could be reacting to throughout Season Two.

Jayce's push against Heimerdinger could shift into Jayce's push against Viktor as the city pushes for more aggressive use of Arcane in "handling the unrest."

Vi and Jinx confronting each other was already set up perfectly—it didn't need a death retcon MacGuffin to solve. By just playing out the character conflict here to its conclusion, Vi and Jinx WOULD have ended up in similar positions they did.

The show didn't need Vander, Black Rose, Noxous, or Magic Robo Gods to convey the cycle of violence, resolve the ongoing civil war between the two cities, or address the destructive nature of unrestricted use of arcane/technology.

They could have done that already and not wasted precious final season screentime introducing all the additional subplots.

And that would have led to a proper, worthy follow-up to Season One's greatness.

[bibibbon]

Hi, I'm back. And with a panel.

Behold Mr. Sexyman.

Jokes aside, Shig is saying to us, readers, he is empty. He is shell and later we know AFO will wear Shig.

He is admitting that.

He is aware of that and....does nothing. If we can (and should) criticize Izu for his lack of action in reach his dream...we should also criticize Shig here.

Izu, in part 1 is sort excused as he was a kid who had absolutely no one.

Shiga? He knew how empty he is and...nope. did nothing.

Why Hori put this dialogue?

No idea but I know he doesn't like Shig and Izu

Hi @mikeellee 👋

You know its even more sad and ironic that shigaraki stays as a static character and doesn't develop past this hollow empty controlled shell of himself. Even in the end shigaraki was always a puppet. He was a puppet who was given the name tomura meaning grief and shackled to that. He never ended up developing or getting a well developed goal in the end it was all for nothing and it's terrible.

There is so much missing from Shigaraki like what is his true goal? Is it just simply destruction? If it is then what would he achieve? Okay say you destroy everything then what? Can you really build a world for villains from nothing? Is there a point in the destruction?

No, there isn't. Shigaraki's destruction doesn't properly develop into the goal of taking down the hpsc and then have that evolve into helping villains or being a hero for them. Yes shigaraki says in passing that his plan is to take down the status quo but then what? His plan of destroying the status quo then NOT replacing it just caused more carnage, destruction and chaos. Shigaraki allows the league to have a world for them but who would want a world that has nothing?

Heck shigaraki wasted the MVA. Shigaraki had a whole underground society and all of that went down the drain. The MVA had houses,hospitals,schools it should of been painted as a proper underground society that has life thriving in there and had major company influences like deternet.

With all of this shigaraki could of used this to his power and created something or he could of been urged to create something. Izuku could of easily been brought into this arc and we could of seen izuku and tenko's contrasting ideals play out in the mini mva society. We could of seen izuku come to the conclusion that the current status quo harms people and he acknowledges his own hurt while shigaraki learns to harbour his anger to destroy and create learning and appreciating the duality of man.

We could of had a way more intriguing arc than included the heroes and villains in the mva without making it into a war (not this early in the series anyway)

The whole "I want to be a hero for the villains" thing by shigaraki can work in theory but the execution was horrible. Shigaraki doesn't fully grow into a leader or a proper leadership role in the first place. His relationship with the league isn't one of a weird found family, its not strongly developed as it should be.

There were multiple perfect chances like the overhaul arc to have shigaraki's authority be questioned to have him be a contrast to overhaul and have to gain his comrades trust and respect especially after he sacrificed three league members like tools in the training camp arc making the other members feel dispensable. Shigaraki and the league needed more interactions (meaningful ones) where Shigaraki learns more about the members individually and they learn more about him overall coming to appreciate and care for one another.

[bonnietheoutlaw]

JJ Maybanks fic prompts.ideas

some of these may be silly or stupid (kinda lots of ooc), but pls don't judge, dm me or leave the link in the comments if you use any of these pls!

JJ sometimes visits his dad in a form of self-destruction/self-harm, so now that his dad is gone, he doesn't know how to deal with or process his emotions - this could be used in many ways, but my main idea is that JJ is depressed after they get the gold (after pogue-landia or being "alone"), so he kinda shuts down or smth

During 1x05 when John B. and Kiara start slapping the mosquitos, The pogues involve all of each other In the activity, but it triggers JJ or he gets worried about the pogue's continual fighting

Barry or one of Luke's dealers has a problem with Luke and can't find him or smth and takes it out on JJ, maybe by beating him or badgering him for money - this could be REALLY dark, or simply hurt/comfort

JJ insults one of his friends on accident and has anxiety and regret over it - that's it, but I feel like you can do a lot with it, create different reactions, and display the inner workings of the pogue's relationships

A parallel to the Sarah and Kiara scene where they tricked them onto the boat to solve their fighting, what if Big John did the same thing when JJ and John B were having a huge fight as kids. I think that Big John is irresponsible enough to do it and the boys would be petty enough as kids to need it. Ik it was pope's idea, but I think it would be so cute to see the little pogues.

Barry going to attack JJ to get his revenge but ends up seeing him getting beat by a kook or smth and relating to him bc of when Ward beat him or smth in his past (even just the relation of kooks vs pogues). I think that the development and atmosphere of the fic would be interesting.

I would DIE for a fic abt when jj was little and his parents both were in love with each other (like only had eyes for eachother and had the rest of their life planned out together) and they were eating dinner or some other normal family things and his parents were talking about their dreams of moving to Yucatan, and that is one of jj's favorite moments with his family and he remembers that as his parents perfect dream (before drugs took over their life and they abandoned/abused him), sooo I think that that alone would be beautiful, or you could add how he always want to go to Yucatan to solve their problems, because he thought that Yucatan would solve his mom and dad's struggles. Ik this was confusing, but if you understand, this would be beautiful 🤩

This may be confusing, but in the seen where he fights back against his dad and has the wrench held up and says "well I ain't scared of you no more" what if his dad usednto threaten him with tools or if he really did, so jj is taking the high road or is just like having flashbacks or smth - this one is kinda stupid and a real stretch, but I feel like Luke could have hit jj with one of his tools bc jj interrupted his work or something. Idkkk y'all

This is more of a headcanon, but I love the idea of jj being named Jesse James after his mom (Jessica - her name isn't mentioned in the show) if you wanna make it a fic, it could be abt him being bullied for having a girls name and his mom comforting him or abt his dad telling him that he will never live up to her name - I read a fic (I don't remember the name, but it COULD have been 'mental Polaroids', but idk) and Luke was yelling abt jj having the same "fucking weepy-ass eyes' as his mom

This is again just another headcannon, but jj has younger brother energy sometimes, and I think he was born in June or August for some reason - probably the youngest of the pogues, maybe celebrating his birthday ro smth

I think we can all agree that John b. is sometimes an ass-hat, so maybe a fic abt him getting reeaaaalllly drunk and upset over his dad in season 1 and trying to fight jj bc jj was insensitive or for another reason

[alyss-erulisse]

Morph Madness!

Fixing Exploding Morphs

Marik's Egyptian Choker is currently in production. It is the first accessory I've made that involves assignment to more than one bone and morphs for fat, fit and thin states. So there is a learning curve, and it is during that learning curve that interesting and unexpected things can happen.

As with my other content, I'm making the choker fit sims of all ages and genders--that's 8 different bodies.

Adding fat, fit and thin morphs multiples this number to 27 different bodies.

I'm also making 3 levels of detail for each of these. The number comes to 81 different bodies, 81 different bodies for which I need to tightly fit a cylinder around the neck and avoid clipping.

That's a lot of work. I can see why most custom content creators stick with one age, gender and detail level. At least, they did in the past. Our tools are getting better day by day, and that may partly be because of creative, ambitious and somewhat obsessive people like me.

There are usually multiple ways to solve the same problem. Some ways are faster than others. This I've learned from working in Blender3D. You can navigate to a button with your mouse or hit the keyboard shortcut. You can use proportional editing to fiddle around with a mesh or you can use a combination of modifiers.

If I am going to be creating 81 chokers, I don't want to be fiddling around on each one of them for an hour. I need something automated, repeatable and non-destructive so I can make adjustments later without having to start over from the beginning. I need to work smart rather than just work hard.

This is where modifiers and geometry nodes come in. After you develop a stack to work with one body, the same process pretty much works for the others as well. That is how it became easier for me to model each of the 81 chokers from scratch rather than to use proportional editing to fit a copy from one body to the next.

But I was about to confront an explosive problem…

Anyone who has worked with morphs before probably knows where this story is headed. There is a good reason to copy the base mesh and then use proportional editing to refit it to the fat, fit and thin bodies. That reason has to do with vertex index numbers.

You see, every vertex in your mesh has a number assigned to it so that the computer can keep track of it. Normally, the order of these numbers doesn't really matter much. I had never even thought about them before I loaded my base mesh and morphs into TSRW, touched those sliders to drag between morph states, and watched my mesh disintegrate into a mess of jagged, black fangs.

A morph is made up of directions for each vertex in a mesh on where to go if the sim is fat or thin or fit. The vertex index number determines which vertex gets which set of directions. If the vertices of your base mesh are numbered differently than the vertices of your morph, the wrong directions are sent to the vertices, and they end up going everywhere but the right places.

It is morph madness!

When a base mesh is copied and then the vertices are just nudged around with proportional editing, the numbering remains the same. When you make each morph from scratch, the numbering varies widely.

How, then, could I get each one of those 81 meshes to be numbered in exactly the same way?

Their structures and UV maps were the same, but their size and proportions varied a lot from body to body. Furthermore, I'd used the Edge Split modifier to sharpen edges, which results in disconnected geometry and double vertices.

Sorting the elements with native functions did not yield uniform results because of the varying proportions.

The Blender Add-On by bartoszstyperek called Copy Verts Ids presented a possible solution, but it was bewildered by the disconnected geometry and gave unpredictable results.

Fix your SHAPE KEYS! - Blender 2.8 tutorial by Danny Mac 3D

I had an idea of how I wanted the vertices to be numbered, ascending along one edge ring at a time, but short of selecting one vertex at a time and sending it to the end of the stack with the native Sort Elements > Selected function, there was no way to do this.

Of course, selecting 27,216 vertices one-at-a-time was even more unacceptable to me than the idea of fiddling with 81 meshes in proportional editing mode.

So… I decided to learn how to script an Add-On for Blender and create the tool I needed myself.

A week and 447 polished lines of code later, I had this satisfying button to press that would fix my problem.

Here are the index numbers before and after pressing that wonderful button.

My morphs are not exploding anymore, and I am so happy I didn't give up on this project or give myself carpal tunnel syndrome with hours of fiddling.

Marik's Egyptian Choker is coming along nicely now. I haven't avoided fiddling entirely, but now it only involves resizing to fix clipping issues during animation.

Unfortunately, I'll have to push the release date to next month, but now, I have developed my first Blender Add-On and maybe, after a bit more testing, it could be as useful to other creators in the community as its been to me.

Looking for more info about morphing problems? See this post.

See more of my work: Check out my archive.

Join me on my journey: Follow me on tumblr.

Support my creative life: Buy me a coffee on KoFi.

[epickiya722]

Okay, never thought I would see someone say that Yuji needs to "learn that life is not like a story".

I highly disagree because Yuji definitely knows life isn't like a story. In fact, I'm sure he knows this before we, the audience, even meet him. Mind you, most of his life he was raised by his grandfather who is later hospitalized.

And right after Wasuke dies, Yuji's life takes a quick turn due to the incident with the curses and Sukuna's Cursed Finger.

Speaking of, Yuji knows life isn't a story because of his experience with being Sukuna's vessel. Not only his body was used to cage one of the most cruelest beings in the story, but he also had a death sentence placed on his head. And how does he react?

He accepts death. He accepts death as long as Sukuna dies. Of course, he first questions it because one, who wouldn't? Two, he is also a child??? Hello???

Why else later Yuji had developed the whole cog mentality? Because he knows how cruel life is! He fought Mahito, who is just a blue haired, stitched foil to Sukuna.

He watched people he cared about die right in front of him!! Again, just a child!

I think because Yuji does have a more positive personality, people ignore that Yuji is suffering and he is aware of that harshness of life.

You think Yuji fights for fun? Hell no! He fights because he believes he has to. He is not looking to be awarded.

He isn't trying to rescue Megumi because "he's a damsel in distress". He's trying to save Megumi because Megumi is a friend, another person that Yuji doesn't want to lose. Megumi is also another child, another human being. Doesn't he not deserve to be saved?

Oh, what? He's supposed to save himself? Megumi isn't a damsel. He's a child who just had to watch his sister die by his hands because of Sukuna, the guy who went through the means to suppress his soul so no. Megumi is not fit to save his damn self. And guess what Yuji would know how he feels.

(Also, separating Megumi from Sukuna would put Sukuna at somewhat a disadvantage.)

Just because Yuji was able to control Sukuna (unless something happens), doesn't mean he wasn't aware of his cruelty. Yuji, too, witnessed Sukuna's destruction by his hands.

As badass as the "I am you" scene was it was also a tragic scene to the Yuji we, the audience, knew. He accepts he is just another tool to be used to fight in an endless war against curses.

Also, Yuji does think for himself, just not in the way a lot of you think. Let's step outside the box here for a moment.

What's the word you think of when you hear "think for yourself"?

Selfish is probably the word. And guess what? Yuji is selfish.

I don't mean just in a bad way, I also mean in a good way. When you're being selfish in a good way, you're choosing to do things to better yourself so you can be healthy. You're not looking to benefit off of others for malicious means. In a bad way, you're unnecessarily causing damage to others around you for your own benefit.

Yuji does both. His selflessness is his selfishness. Yuji chooses to help others. He could have just ignored Wasuke's words, but he doesn't. He could have chose to lounge at the Tokyo school and wait for Cursed Fingers to be brought to him, but he doesn't. His choices are his choices.

Selfless choices because he's choosing to helps others without being awarded. He doesn't want to be awarded. If he did, he would be cocky about that "Tiger of West Middle" name.

However, his choices are selfish because he doesn't take in account about how others would feel about them. Just because he's doing what he's doing without malicious intent, doesn't mean it's not damaging.

What if Yuji does die with people surrounding him after saving Megumi? How about the others who grew some kind of relationship with him? Imagine if Nanami was still alive in this point of the story. He would be devastated because he lost a kid he cared about.

What about Choso? Yuji is all the family he has left. If he dies, what about Choso?

Yuji does think for himself, but not in a way to benefit himself (good), he's not looking to be a parasite off of others. But his way of thinking for himself also is damaging (bad), reckless on a way that he doesn't think about the aftermath.

[I touch more on his selflessness here.]

So in summary, just because Yuji is a ray of sunshine don't mean he isn't aware life isn't a fucking story. He's not naïve. He is just a selfless boy who is also selfish because he doesn't think about how others would feel about a child dying.

[stromuprisahat]

Siege and Storm- Chapter 17

After some deliberation I've decided to put almost everything from the first part of this chapter under a single post, because all of it is thematically intertwined. It paints a picture of the state in which Ravka finds itself, its treatment of Grisha, all the reasons Aleksander attempted the Coup, and how he's about to get repaid.

Wow, I wonder why would anyone mind being perceived as no more than (annoyingly) living, breathing furniture...

... at best.

Why is Ravka so behind in military development?

There wasn't an involved Tsarevich to sweet-talk the Royal Couple into letting the Fabricators work on ~that~, because let's be honest- it certainly wasn't Alina, who persuaded them.

And the best mind they have doesn't want to create tools of destruction (and apparently the big, bad Darkling didn't MAKE him, if David's so shocked by use of Alina's powers to spread the Fold).

*mumbles*

As if he'd never done that before... as if the Darkling were a stranger to battle...

Shadow and Bone- Chapter 10 & Rule of Wolves- Chapter 33

Yeah, he sounds exactly like the kind of general, who stays in the rear...

Look, I know Sikurzoi are supposed to be uninhabitable or whatever, but let's be honest- which mountains (in mild climate) are completely uninhabited? Why wouldn't Aleksander- a lives-long student of survival- use otherwise hostile place to hide?

I know ~I~ would.

Do you mean "Are there any living Grisha left, stationed there?".

Geeez...

Zoya truly doesn't acknowledge the First Army massacres, does she? And the word ~would~ have reached them at this point, even if we ignore the dead from Grand Palace. Fedyor's group's in Little Palace!

Remember, children: It doesn't count as war, if they only regularly attack your villages, draw back, and their government claims it knows nothing!

He’s never faced the might of the First and Second Armies working in tandem... I wonder why... Could it be because your precious First Army hates his people so much they went to slaughter them the moment the Darkling's out of the picture?

I know this is Naïve Nikolai, but the way he puts it... as if otkazat'sya working alongside Grisha weren't exactly, what's Aleksander trying to achieve for centuries. As if he didn't manage it on smaller scale with his oprichniki. As if he should be surprised by mere possibility of it!

The weapons will be only a cherry on the top, the reason he keeps using nichevo'ya even though it costs him dearly. It's the kind of weapons he fears, because he knows, what it can do to his people (aside from rendering them strategically useless). He's seen massacres, he caused massacres, he cannot prevent them. And let's not forget he might be in the front line, but it will be those remaining 80 % of Grisha right behind him. And Nikolai's fancy new machine guns won't miss them more than his Army's weapons did.

This is horrifying.

They intend to slaughter the man for the crime of standing up to their regime and finding a way to substitute his people with canon fodder of magical variety, completely disregarding whys, or bothering to check if they're not living in a glasshouse first.

Why is no one asking about the pogroms? Why is no one questioning Grisha safety FROM FIRST ARMY?! Why do they act as if another massacre of Grisha should solve all their painfully obvious issues?!

Why am I supposed to wish THEM success?!

In a way...

How is your victory gonna ensure Grisha a place in Ravkan society, Alina?!

You murder the Darkling together, good... then what? Ya'll get a nice house in the country and your neighbours won't burn it to the ground? Stone you to death next time something bad happens? Never again- Grisha being dragged out of their beds in middle of the night?!

THAT'S what Aleksander feared- once Grisha are no more necessary for the wars, there's no place for them in THIS Ravkan society! Unlike otkazat'sya, those weapons don't make them vulnerable only physically!

This makes my head hurt.

Are they truly this blind?!

There's not a single voice raised against cooperation with the very same people that have been murdering theirs mere weeks ago, but the Darkling is some sort of ultimate evil on word of one (1) girl and the remains of her semi-official ménage-a-trois?!