#but anyways back on topic. i think these guys are the currently underappreciated to the 2010s sparklecat amen

[gemharvest]

Ok so how long until 2017-esque aesthetic furry designs start trending.

[thefloatingstone]

We’ve gone from Self-Isolation to Quarantine and in some places to gradual relaxation phases, but that doesn’t stop the need for more nonsense you can watch on youtube while you wait for things to get back to normal. And recommending things and making lists are some of my favourite things to do but I have not yet figured out how to start or structure a video myself, you guys get another rambling tumblr post of things you can watch on youtube.

This time I’m once again just gonna recommend individual videos rather than full channels like I did in part 2.

Part 1

Part 2

In no particular order; 

LOCAL58: The Broadcast Station that Manipulates You

I recently started watching the Nexpo channel when I went on a binge of creepy youtube videos. Most of his videos are really good although the ones where he himself goes into theory crafting can be a little asinine. However, this video is REALLY good. And before you get nervous, LOCAL58 is not a real TV station. LOCAL58 is a youtube channel created by the same guy behind the Candle Cove creepypasta. This video by Nexpo covers the various episodes of LOCAL58 and discusses them. Just be aware going in that this is abstract horror, and will probably get under your skin regardless if you’re unaffected by certain topics or not. although cw for suicide mention.

I also recommend most of the rest of this channel, although be careful where you tread. I don’t recommend his series “Disturbing things from around the internet” as it can sometimes include real life crime, abuse and such caught on security cameras. Everything else is really good tho. (although I was really annoyed by his 2 videos on KrainaGrzybowTV)

The Search for D.B. Cooper

LEMMiNO has a new video out covering one of the most unexplained crimes in the past century of the US. LEMMiNO is the guy I’ve recommended before who did videos on the Universal S. He is very down to earth and not someone prone to conspiracy or even really that fanciful of thinking. (He’s like the one person I feel covered the Dyaltov Pass incident and was confused by why this was even a mystery because if you read the Russian Autopsy reports and documents associated with the case it’s all pretty logical and easily explained)

D.B. Cooper is the name given to a man who, in 1971, hijacked an airplane with a bomb, asked for a large sum of money, and after receiving it, parachuted from the plane and was never seen or heard from again.

The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole also has a new video out, this time covering the Austrian Wine Poisoning event from 1985. A scandal that involved literally the entire country of Austria, affected multiple countries, and forever changed the way wine was made world wide. As someone who is generally pretty allergic to most artificial substances this one made me personally very angry. But luckily, it has a happy ending and a better world for us all... if I could drink wine which I can’t do anyway.

The Turbulent Tale of Yandere Dev - A Six Year Struggle

The Right Opinion is another channel I only recently subbed to after watching his cover on Onion Boy. I put off subbing to him simply because of his channel name and I thought it meant he would come across as smug and elitist. Luckily this seems to merely be one of those “I chose a bad channel name and now I’m stuck with it” type of situations. (IHE has a similar problem).

Anyway, I have a weird interest in bizarre internet personalities, so I’ve been enjoying his channel as he simply discusses and presents a timeline of events of certain individuals. In this video, he covers the developer behind the much maligned Yandere Simulator. It’s a tale of hubris, arrogance, immaturity, and an unwillingness to accept your own shortcomings due to ego.

Oh and there’s a meme game about Japanese school girls with anime tiddies in there as well.

The Most Relaxing Anime Ever Made | Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō

Kenny Lauderdale is a youtube channel which is slowly becoming bigger which I’m very happy to see. He exclusively covers anime and live action Japanese television no younger than the mid 90s (as is the case with YYK) and which usually never saw a release outside of Japanese Laserdisc. I do wish his videos were a little longer, but if nothing else his videos serve as an excellent starting to point to find some older and underappreciated shows... or hot garbage fires. In this episode he talks about the 2 OVA episodes made based on one of my favourite manga, Yokohama Shopping Log. A Post apocalyptic anime about an android who runs a coffee shop outside of her house, and the quiet solitude of living in a world of declining human population, brief encounters with travelers and other people, and just... existing. The anime was never released outside of Japan and is only available on Japanese VHS and laserdisc.... but hey guess what!! Somebody uploaded both episodes, subbed, to Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HCVOH6DtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSTwfkobME

YMS’ slow descent into madness as he uncovers just how bullshit the Kimba Conspiracy is

I’m linking a full playlist for this one.

YMS is busy planning his review on the “live action” Lion King remake as the original 1994 movie is probably his favourite movie all time (and also self declared what made him a furry). As part of the 2 hour review, he decided to what all 2000 hours of Kimba the White Lion just to mention how The Lion King potentially stole the idea. ....until he actually watched all 2000 hours of Kimba and realised that if you actually WATCH Kimba, it has VERY little to do with the Lion King at all apart from having the same animals in them because AFRICA. Watch as one man slowly loses his mind as he realises just how stupid this conspiracy theory is, just HOW DECEITFUL and straight up LYING people can be. People who write BOOKS. People who teach LAW AT UNIVERSITIES. Because NOBODY bothered to actually watch the entire show and just parroted the “Disney stole this” lie which got started by like 2 salty fans on the internet.

The man set out to just mention how Disney stole an idea, and uncovered one of the most infuriating rabbit holes on the internet. Screaming for SOMEONE to provide him with sources or evidence.

YMS will be publishing his full Kimba documentary this month which he has said is around 2 hours long before he continues to work on the Lion King one.

Science Stories: Loch Ness eDNA results, Poop Knives, and Skeleton Lovers

TREY the Explainer has a video giving us some updates in Archeology from 2019. In this video he discusses the findings of the eDNA results conducted on the Loch Ness to see what animal DNA the lake contains which will tell us what living animals currently inhabit the lake, ancient knives made of poop and if this is a real thing that could have existed, and a skeleton couple found buried together which were at first thought to be lovers, then revealed to be both male, and then how in this instance we cannot let our modern sensibilities dictate what we WANT this burial find to be, but to look at the evidence as presented to us and place in context finds of this nature. The worst thing an archaeologist can do is look for proof to a theory they already have.

The Bizarre Modern Reality of Sonic the Hedgehog

Super Eyepatch Wolf is back and he’s here to talk to us about the very very strange existence of Sonic. a 90s rebellious “too cool for School” answer to Mario, a lost idea as the world of video games changes and culture shifted, a meme and punching bag amplified by a unique fanbase and poor quality games, a transcendence into a horrific warped  idea of what he once was, and modern day and where Sonic and his fans are now. As usual Super Eyepatch Wolf knocks it out of the park.

Kokoro Wish and the Birth of a Multiverse: A Lecture on the Work of Jennifer Diane Reitz

I don’t even sub to this channel as I’m not entirely sure what Ben’s usual content is about. But every now and then he has a “101″ class, where he explains to a room full of his friends in a classroom setting (complete with Whiteboard) an internet artist and oddity, the timeline, and what it is they have created. (wait... didn’t I say this already?). Unlike TRO however, the 101 classrooms are not a dark look into disturbed individuals (although the CWC 101 is debatable) nor is it a “lol look at this weirdo” dragging. Instead, of the 3 he’s done so far, it’s usually a rather sympathetic look at some of the strange artists on the internet who through some way or another, left a very big cultural impact on the internet space through their art. Sometimes they may not be the best people, but their work is so outside of what we’re used to seeing that just listening to him run you through these people’s internet history is fascinating.

In this episode he talks about Jennifer Diane Reitz. And although it is titled Kokoro Wish, the lecture is more about Jennifer’s larger work back in the early internet when being a weeb was unheard of, how being trans influenced her stories and characters, and her world building that is so rich and in-depth with it’s own ASTRO PHYSICS it puts any modern fictional world found in games or movies to shame.

Jennifer is not exactly a nice person... and in many ways can be seen as dangerously irresponsible, but she created something truly unique in a way that you kinda struggle figuring out if it’s terrible or a work of genius.

Anyway I think that’s enough for now

[journeysintowebcomics]

Stand Still Stay Silent Liveblog #41

UPDATE 41: Underappreciated Mikkel

Last time Reynir had a nightmare. The ghosts that are very close to the tank aren’t friendly. I for one think it’s rather possible that nightmare is rooted in reality. Let’s continue.

First than all, worldbuilding! What is the topic this time? It’s about how contagious the rash illness is. I was wrong to assume how infectious it was, it seems. It’s a tad more complicated than I expected. In few words: common trolls and beasts can spread the illness through bites, scratches and the such. If there’s an entrance through the skin, the infectious agent can enter the system. You could rub your hands all over a troll all you want and you’d be fine as long as you don’t have open wounds on your hands, theoretically. That’s a relief! Not that it means Reynir and Tuuri should get careless, no way.

Wait, do you mean trolls usually don’t breathe? No wonder the pathogen can’t infect only by mere proximity to trolls! That was what I had thought all along, that since it was airborne, the trolls’ breath and air surrounding them would be vectors of infection. But no, I was wrong, those circumstances are rare! Alright!

And that’s how the entire world became what it is now. Lots of incubating in non-immune humans, and spreading the airborne pathogen. It seems to follow the usual traits of any common infectious disease like the flu. In this case, if Tuuri or Reynir get infected, the odds the other will get infected too are rather high. That’d spell doom for both of them. Another reason to make sure they don’t get infected.

...right. Survival note: stay away from Peru. The llama beasts can spit like their lives depend on it. Hah! Okay, bad jokes aside, hard to know what trolls can spit like that and which ones can’t. Which brings me to the rule of thumb, in my opinion as a reader:

There’s no such thing as a safe distance, because I’m sure the trolls would aim to kill you, not to infect you. Onni may have the right idea, never going out of safe areas, because everything out there is trying to kill you and if it doesn’t kill you, then you get infected and you die anyways. The only safe distance is when there’s a very thick wall between you and the troll.

That was all the worldbuilding for now. Interesting lesson! Now it’s time to start another chapter. Chapter 10! I’m blazing through the chapters – in some sense of the world.

There’s Tuuri and Reynir examining a helicopter while Mikkel supervises the. No sign of Sigrun and Emil, I suppose they may be offscreen. I’m surprised the non-immune crew members are out there, checking the ruins of civilization. I thought they’d want to keep them in the tank. What may have happened?

Several wounds with stitches isn’t enough to stop Sigrun from continuing her life as normal. She’s going back into the field; she doesn’t even plan to be careful not to undo her stitches. Mikkel offers to take Emil’s place, since his leg is kind of messed up, and Sigrun diplomatically ignores him. And by diplomatically I mean she doesn’t even let Mikkel finish the sentence before calling for Emil.

Speaking of Emil, he’s checking on Lalli, who is still snoozing away. The magic he did the other day must have exhausted him considerably, and that isn’t surprising. Tuuri isn’t worried, she says Lalli just needs to rest. This must have happened before, then.

Sigrun is going to whittle Emil down until the poor guy can’t move, apparently. What’s so wrong about taking Mikkel? Last time she told him to stay out of the building, and said it was because his size would make it difficult for him to come along, he’d block the way out. Are they going to explore another building full of narrow halls?

I suppose Sigrun wasn’t very impressed by Mikkel’s aim. She doesn’t want him to smash her kneecaps when he’s trying to kill a troll.

Inside the tank, Tuuri is doing her job, comparing notes with an object that resembles some sort of small syringe. There’s no label, there’s no mark, and were supposed to be distributed to treatment centers. Hmmm...some sort of medicine to try to counter the effects of the disease? You can infer from this that the royal residences here may have been transformed into a treatment center long ago, and that’s why there are so many skeletons here. They may have been subjected to experimental treatments, when you’re infected and likely to die and/or turn into a troll, you don’t have much choice but to try anything to get better.

Siv never heard a word about this? She was trying for many, many years to help make a cure for the rash illness, or some form of medicine against it. If a vaccine was developed somewhere, she must have heard about it. Another reason to think this was just an experimental vaccine. If it had been effective, then she’d have known such thing was developed somewhere. There’s also the fact that, well, it didn’t work, because all these people died on the beds after being abandoned by the doctors.

...I know I just said that about how the vaccine didn’t work, Reynir, but you really shouldn’t say that kind of thing with a big ol’ grin.

Excited by what seems to be a promising lead, Tuuri wants to go check by themselves. So that’s why the image for this chapter has these three investigating by themselves! They’re going to go into the royal residences and find a crashed helicopter there? It worries me because they’d be going right where the ghosts are at. That’s bound to be dangerous.

This impromptu expedition is going to happen later, though. Right now Mikkel wants to clean, and he gets Reynir’s help. There’s a lot to be done, and soon everything is sparkling clean. This must have taken a couple hours. Now that everything is clean and Mikkel had time to think, he decides it’s time to get into action.

Looks like Sigrun’s refusal to take him along stung more than I thought it would. Now he’s going to lead a smaller expedition into that building. With some luck it won’t be a disaster and Sigrun won’t feel justified in not taking Mikkel with her next time.

Well, he’s not immediately wanting to take Tuuri and Reynir with him, he wants to go alone. The non-immune crewmembers must stay behind! Well we know how that’s going to go. They sure aren’t going to stay behind.

Well done, Tuuri! Heh, she has a bit of a cunning streak. I like this. Mikkel has more experience and years in skirting around the rules and being clever, so he points out Lalli is immune and therefore they won’t be alone. So what if Lalli is currently out of commission? It counts! And so he leaves. I think I see what’s going to happen. Tuuri is going to sneak and try to follow Mikkel, isn’t she? And Reynir is going to follow her, maybe because he doesn’t want to be alone and bored in the tank. I hope Lalli doesn’t wake up while everyone is gone.

This is shaping up to be an interesting chapter. I’ll stop for now and continue next time.

Next time: next update

[hebina]

More Man Than Machine - on Tarkin & Vader’s relationship

One thing that really really sticks out to me about their dynamic in current canon is that Tarkin is one of the only people, if not the only one, who liked Anakin Skywalker as a person both before and after becoming a Sith Lord.

It makes sense for this to still  be somewhat underappreciated since their relationship in Legends was apparently very negative, but Disney-era Vader and Tarkin have an astoundingly friendly and healthy personal dynamic. So because I can never shut up about things I like, here’s a long collection of their best moments / essay-ish post of rambling about their new-canon dynamic.

The seeds of this are certainly already present in A New Hope (however accidentally, since at the time of filming the whole plot wasn’t yet planned..).

The movie very clearly demonstrates that Tarkin knows who Vader used to be and this is an established fact between them. They have talked about this before, maybe often, as there’s no uncertainty or confusion in their dialogue.  Vader is comfortable with Tarkin knowing this much, too, and sees no need to distance himself from Anakin in this speech (which he does even with Luke or Palpatine). In front of Tarkin, he uses first person to refer to his old life. 

This makes clear that there is trust between them by ANH time, whether it be with this private knowledge or with military strategy (after all, Tarkin trusts Vader’s homing beacon plan, which ironically gets him killed in the end).

That is picked back up on in the Darth Vader comic series set after the movie:

We know that Vader thinks of the Death Star as a “technological terror” that he doesn’t approve of, yet he defends Tarkin’s plans for the battle station against Tagge without hesitation. Vader may not like the Death Star itself, but that doesn’t diminish his respect for Tarkin’s military ability. 

The situation with Tagge is especially nice to view in contrast to Vader’s relationship with Tarkin, as Vader is technically placed under Tagge’s command in the comic. Which... Tagge repeats in, uh, very clear words.

Vader is... not taken with this. For understandable reasons. He does not need a hand to wield his lightsaber - at least not this hand.

But that puts this situation in a very stark contrast to Leia’s (also very.... interestingly worded) line in A New Hope.

Unlike Vader and Tagge in the comic, Vader and Tarkin don’t outrank each other. Tarkin holds no official command over Vader - and even if he did, Vader tends to undermine command anyway. Tagge certainly suffers through that. Yet, it appears Vader listens to Tarkin often enough for this to be known outside their immediate military associates. Tarkin is the only person except for Palpatine that Vader ever shows this much deference to.

We also get to see this in action during the movie, when Vader releases a man who insulted him personally on Tarkin’s request. The wording “as you wish” also seems to imply he’s doing Tarkin a favor more than following orders.

Vader listens to Tarkin by choice. That is more than even Palpatine can truly say.

Looking at them this way, Tarkin calling Vader ‘friend’ starts to look less and less like merely a casual figure of speech - and the new EU expands on that.

They first meet in The Clone Wars, when Anakin is still a Jedi Knight and Tarkin is still a captain in the republic military. Anakin’s group rescues Tarkin from the Citadel and they don’t initially seem to get off on the right foot, yet...

Anakin: Trust me. Tarkin: I reserve my trust for those who take action, General Skywalker. Anakin: Then let me remind you, we rescued you back there. And I reserve my trust for those who understand gratitude, Captain Tarkin.

At the end of this confrontational dialogue, we are pointedly shown Tarkin’s smirk. He is evidently pleased that Anakin matches him in verbal confrontation, so in the end the impression Anakin leaves on him is not negative.

This confirms itself as, less than a full episode later, this exchange takes place:

Anakin: Captain Tarkin, haven't you learned to trust me by now? Tarkin: You may have earned my trust, General Skywalker, but my faith in your comrades is still lacking.

Despite Tarkin’s marked dislike of the Jedi order, Anakin impresses him in the shortest amount of time. They have immediate chemistry.

On Anakin’s end, he finds himself surprised to hear someone openly voice the same opinions about the Jedi order that he himself holds in secret.

Anakin: You lack faith in the Jedi. Tarkin: I find their tactics ineffective. The Jedi code prevents them from going far enough to achieve victory, to do whatever it takes to win, the very reason why peacekeepers should not be leading a war. ....Have I offended you?

Anakin: No. I've also found that we sometimes fall short of victory because of our methods. Tarkin: Well, I see we agree on something. 

Sadly, I can’t embed a clip here because Youtube doesn’t offer me any, but the tone of voice in which Anakin denies being offended is very soft and full of surprise. This is not an issue he expected to relate to someone over and he is pretty ecstatic about it, as evidenced by a later dialogue with his team:

Ahsoka: Why did Master Piell have to share half the intel with that guy? It's like he's not even grateful we rescued him. Anakin: Captain Tarkin feels the Jedi should be relieved from the burden of leading the war effort. Ahsoka: That's ridiculous. Anakin: Maybe, but we aren't soldiers. We're peacekeepers.The Jedi code often prevents us from going far enough to achieve victory. Obi-Wan: A rather simple point of view. Anakin: Either way, he is a good captain.

Anakin both defends Tarkin from his fellow Jedi and even quotes the exact wording Tarkin used earlier, displaying his longing for someone else to put into words what he only felt (and wasn’t allowed to feel) before.

These episodes also mark the beginning of a long era of Anakin defending Tarkin whenever someone questions him. Here is another one just from this arc:

Tarkin: I am beginning to admire the design of this fortress. It's rather formidable to evade. Ahsoka: How can you admire such a horrible place? Tarkin: Ah, you reveal your shortsightedness. This ordeal only demonstrates how effective facilities like the Citadel are. Pity it ended up in separatist hands and not ours. Anakin: He has a point.

And though Ahsoka saves Tarkin’s life over the course of these episodes, Anakin remains the only Jedi Tarkin holds in favorable regard. In fact, he goes so far as to basically compliment Anakin for Ahsoka’s achievement:

Tarkin: My thanks, Padawan Tano. [to Anakin:] I see you've trained her well.

The arc then finds its resolution in a very firm and charged handshake.

At this point, Obi-Wan picks up on the positive tension between Anakin and Tarkin so clearly that he feels the need to warn about it. (You can practically hear the air quotes around ‘new ally’, too). Anakin, again, defends Tarkin.  If you go back up to Vader’s dialogue with Tagge, you can see that this pattern of defensiveness lasts for the following 20 years. (Another example is his immediate topic change when Tarkin is incriminated by Krennic in Rogue One.)

Later, in the Tarkin novel, Tarkin describes what he felt for Anakin as “grudging appreciation”, for despite his dislike of the Jedi, Anakin had proven himself to him. Both of their opinions and/or circumstances should make them dislike each other, yet the two forge an immediate bond. As it turns out, this chemistry can even endure a fall to the dark side and the total destruction of Anakin’s self-image.

Beforehand, of course, Tarkin winds up the prosecutor at the trial of Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka which results in her leaving the order entirely... This lets their relationship take a huge one-sided hit as it appears Anakin can’t forgive this even years into his life as Vader (see: Tarkin novel). Tarkin meanwhile, never changes his mind about Anakin.

So now that we have established their baseline during the Clone Wars, onward we go towards Tarkin and Darth Vader. I’d like to start this off with a quote from the Tarkin novel:

Nothing about Vader seemed natural - not his towering height, his deep voice, his antiquated diction - yet despite those qualities and the mask and respirator, Tarkin believed him to be more man than machine. Although he had clearly twisted the powers of the Force to his own dark purposes, Vader’s innate strength was undeniable. His contained rage was genuine, as well, and not simply the result of some murderous cyberprogram. But the quality that made him most human was the fierce dedication he demonstrated to the Emperor.

I took this posts’ title from this line, because it reverses a much more prominent quote from the original movie trilogy:

Even Obi-Wan, who used to be so extremely close to Anakin, chooses to think of him as something that has left humanity behind. The rest of galaxy seems to echo his sentiment. The topic of whether Vader is droid or human at core is brought up over and over again in Star Wars canon and most characters decidedly reach the former opinion. Tarkin doesn’t.

And this is despite the fact that when Tarkin first sees Vader as Vader, two of his mechanic limbs are in plain sight, which is a more clearly robotic appearance than most people have ever seen on Vader.

When they then meet officially as both are introduced to the Death Star project, they immediately reconnect in a way. The Tarkin novel goes out of its way to give a lengthy description of how Tarkin feels that  Vader “regarded him with clear recognition”. This is incredible because, as we know, Vader wears a motionless mask. And yet, despite this, they somehow manage to stare so intensely at each other that this wordless communication takes places.

This alone makes Tarkin suspect Vader is in fact Anakin Skywalker, a suspicion that then hardens when he sees the way Vader interacts with his troops or fights with his lightsaber. This, admittedly, isn’t all that weird for Tarkin who is extremely used to observing people, but it still speaks of him paying more attention to Vader as a person than is the general average.

Wordless communication continues to be a theme in the novel as well. Tarkin is rather skilled at reading what’s going on behind the mask, and if he’s not able to then he still makes the attempt. Where most people see Vader as his mask, as the terror the mask represents, Tarkin always puts his priority on seeing past the mask because to him, Vader is a person. Vader’s general existence doesn’t intimidate a man like Tarkin, so he has the leeway to look at who Vader is and used to be. He gives Vader a human treatment that is largely missing from his life otherwise.

And knowing who Vader used to be doesn’t diminish his appreciation of him at all. It’s sad in the novel he holds Vader “in high esteem” and “[hopes] Vader [feels] the same towards him”. His appreciation only rises during the novel, too. After Vader kills a large group of people it is explicitly said that Tarkin finds himself warming to him, so... isn’t it nice they’re on one wavelength in cruelty? Hah...

In turn, Vader gravitates towards Tarkin even in a time period when he’s still mad at him regarding the Ahsoka trial - the novel goes out of its way to show Vader initiating what is extremely close to small talk with Tarkin ("We haven’t stood together on Coruscant for some time, Governor”; “How is life on the Sentinel moon, Governor?”). 

During the novel, Vader also learns to relate more to Tarkin. This is thanks to Palpatine, who by the way has canonically spent years (since the Clone Wars!!) trying to set up Anakin and Tarkin to get along and forge a great partnership. I’m just going to paste this paragraph here so we can all see the great determination the Emperor has to make Vader like Tarkin...

Palpatine ends this conversation requesting Vader to ask Tarkin why he named his ship Carrion Spike and thus indirectly to ask about Tarkin’s past.

By the end of the novel, Vader does just that and is treated to lengthy backstory. Interesting about this is the way Vader acts while being told as much. Though normally he is hard to read, in this dialogue he goes out of his way to look down to Tarkin and make sure the other knows he’s listening. He also asks a great many specification questions. Vader is interested in Tarkin and more than that, he wants Tarkin to know as much. 

This is the turning point in their Empire Age dynamic, this is where Vader accepts Tarkin fully and they enter a proper two-sided connection. By the end of the novel, Vader appreciates Tarkin openly and shows it by delivering Tarkin’s regards to Tarkin’s enemies and even staging said enemy’s execution as a homage to a famous execution Tarkin staged in his youth. 

All of this is before they ever truly talk about Vader’s identity too, though Tarkin makes numerous references to his suspicion throughout the novel - which Vader never denies. But somewhere in those 15 years between the novel and ANH, they have to have laid it out in the open to be able to speak like they do on the Death Star. Their relationship isn’t static, they steadily grow closer and more trusting of each other over the long time they both work for the empire.

Their great co-operations during the following years at least find some appearances in canon (Tarkin delivering prisoners to Vader, their cooperation in assassinating Minister Tua, the whole of Krennic-bashing...), though I am certainly sad we don’t see them have the private-ish conversations that they logically have to have had in this timeframe.

Their relationship is an amazing one because they genuinely like and respect each other as people. To Tarkin, Vader isn’t a war machine he’s an appreciated coworker. And in return, to Vader, Tarkin is someone he can be human with, someone with whom he can afford to say ‘I’ about Anakin Skywalker. It’s subtle and certainly not alike to the hearty friendships we see on the rebel side of things, but they are as close as they can be with their personalities.

I admit that some of the scenes I covered here have alternate interpretation options, but I don’t feel like the overall point is all that off-the-mark. Vader and Tarkin in current canon just get along very well in a fashion that is more genuine than most of their relations to other people.

If you read this to the end, thank you so much. I hope I could share a bit of the fire-y love I have for them together. And a warm thanks to @skywvlked for not only dragging me into Star Wars but also helping me IMMENSELY with writing this whole thing <3

PS: on a shippy end-note, comparing Tarkin POV descriptions of Vader, like ‘rich bass of his voice’ and ‘midnight orbs’ (with regards to his mask’s eyes), to descriptions of Palpatine, like “many thought [his voice] sinister, but to Tarkin [it] merely sounded strained”, is... also something.