#commander sampson

[teenageoaffireknight]

Digimon Tamers

Digimon Data Squad/Savers

[incorrectlooneytunesquotes]

Porky: A d-d-division of Hassan's Elite Guard is c-c-closing in on our p-position. The probabi-p-probabi-uh the likelihood of a f-f-f-favorable outcome can be increased, if we are able to fall back to your m-m-main base and engage the enemy as we m-m-move. Elliot Sampson: Define "favorable outcome", Porky. Porky: Th-th-th-they all drop d-d-d-d-d-dead. Elliot: That'll do.

[tropicalscream]

Venture Bros & Transmisogyny

This is by no means exhaustive, well written and many people have said better & more than me

Venture Bros is weird in that it has some really bad trans coded characters who core is a shitty joke but also those said characters are also some of best trans rep I've seen in western adult animation at all

Take Dr. Girlfriend/Guild Councilwoman Shelia & Colonel Hunter Gathers.

Both their orgins are shitty joke. that's their origin and core.

Shelia is literally "haha woman has deep man voice & everyone questions if she's a woman "

HG is basically the other side of that. "haha man wit fake boobs and in dress thats so weris and funny"

But then like the joke ends. the plot continues and these characters who started out as shityy transmisogynistic caricatures become some of the undisputed coolest, smartest and most badass characters in the series

In a world of Necromancers, Super Villains, Demi Gods and Supersciense. These two regular mortal humans are the ones no one ever wants to fuck with

Shelia is loved, lusted at and sought-after by heros and villains alike. she starts as just the girlfriend/prize to villains having a dick-measuring contests.

Then goes on to become the leader of the whole organization by her own merits, intelligence, snd tenacity and is respected by all by it.

Hunter Gathers is your Nick Fury, he's literally Hunter S Thompson, he's the person who trained Brock Sampson, is a Master Spy & commands untold loyalty from his troops.

He got a sex change to infiltrate a all woman assassin group but his face was still "male" and that was the butt of many jokes.

But even after he goes back to being male he constantly laments how he misses being a woman like unironically.

He literally says at one point: "I miss my breasts! Inside me is a woman screaming to be let out!"

I guess thats what happens when a show was on for 20years and is a product of its time and was darl.and edgy but then dropped the edge and became this huge world and a show about Failure in all its forms

And in a show about Failure where everyone's a washup, has-been, burnout and a joke

Its the two trans ones that stopped being jokes and ended up top dogs

[angelt0rres]

time for me to answer the question thats been plagueing this fandom (me) for centuries (minutes)

How Often Did the M*A*S*H Crew Attend Mulcahy’s Services?

Colonel Blake

Henry would attend for holidays and whenever he felt he had a personal crisis. Lorraines affair, his second child, those were times where Henry would be on the front pew trying his best to focus on the sermon (and failing, groaning with his head in his hands and distracting the father terribly).

Colonel Potter

Colonel Potter is almost always there Sunday morning, 5 minutes before so he can nab his usual spot (even though everyone knows not to sit there). The only times he doesnt make it (besides emergencies of course) are those rare, beautiful mornings where his body practically pulls him up and onto Sophie for an early morning ride.

Major Freedman

Sidney tries to attend a service whenever he’s in town, mostly because he enjoys Francis’ unique perspective in his sermons, but he also has a self described intellectual fascination with all different religions. He has all different religious scriptures in his office in Tokyo, he brushes up as often as he can so he can better relate to his religious patients.

Majors Houlihan/ Burns

I put these two together because they only go together unless the other is sick or indisposed, in which case the former doesn’t go at all. They attend regularly unless they’re preoccupied… 😉

Major Winchester

Charles never cared for church, he almost never goes unless he’s truly bored out of his skull- or on holidays. When he lived with his parents in Boston he would make excuses to why he wasn’t able to attend, a habit he curiously continues with Pierce and Hunnicut even though they couldn’t care less. All about keeping up his image, I guess?

Trapper/Hawkeye/BJ

Another case of both parties going or neither going at all. Trapper and Hawkeye wouldn’t go unless they could tell Francis was low in spirits, both trying to lift him up by attending and singing the hymns as over-the-top as they could. Hawk and BJ keep that tradition alive, but BJ drags Hawkeye to a few additional services when he can, too.

Klinger

Klinger LOVES going to church even though he isn’t religious. He gets to show off his best outfits, sing his heart out, and (most of the time) spend quality time with Mulcahy, Potter, and Radar. He only doesn’t go when he’s too hungover or tired from excessive weekend debauchery but he keeps a lid on that since he loses most of his money gambling on Fridays.

Radar

Radar didn’t go to church as often when Henry was in command, though he still attended at least once a month as a promise to his mother. He goes more often now that Potter is around because of that paternal bonding he doesn’t even realize his subconscious is seeking. He also genuinely likes sticking around to ask Mulcahy questions about the bible. He loves some of the larger than life books of the old testament- people like Sampson and Androcles remind him of his favorite comic book heroes which Francis invokes to help him relate to the scripture.

[todaysdocument]

“Deborah Gannett . . . maketh oath, that she served as a private soldier, under the name of Robert Shurtliff in the war of the revolution . . .” 

Pension and Bounty Land Application of Deborah (Sampson) Gannett, September 14, 1818. 

Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs Series: Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service

Transcription: 

United States-.

Massachusetts District

Deborah Gannett, of Sharon, in the county of Norfolk, and

District of Massachusetts, a resident and native of the United

States, and applicant for a pension from the United States

under an Act of Congress entitled an Act to provide to certain

persons engaged in the land and naval service of the

United States, in the revolutionary war, maketh oath, that she

served as a private soldier, under the name of Robert Shurtliff

in the war of the revolution, upwards of two years in manner

following vis - Enlisted in April 1781 in the company commanded

by Captain George Webb in the Massachusetts Regiment

commanded then by Colonel Shepherd, and afterwards by Colonel Henry

Jackson and served in said corps in Massachusetts, and

New York - until November 1783 - when she was honorably discharged

in writing. which discharge is lost. During the time of her service

she was at the capture of Lord Cornwallis, was wounded

at Tarrytown and now receives a pension from the United

States, which pension she hereby relinquishes. She is in such

reduced circumstance, as to require the aid of her country

for her support.

Deborah Gannett

Masstts. Dist. Septr. 14. 1818

Sworn to before me

Jno Davis

Dist. Judge

Mass. Dist.

[everythingisblue-if]

NEW CHARACTERS

New side characters you’ll meet in chapter one of the Everything Is Blue rewrite, and whose portraits will be displayed in-game:

Meet Brewer (left) and Sampson (right)

Brewer the Soldier (male)

Brewer is a soldier in the Blue Army; the soldier who will take M’s place as second command to B, once M becomes your knightly protector. (You’ll know more about him as the story progresses)

-

Sampson the Mage (male)

Sampson is a mage medic (healer) for the Blue Army. You might see him more should the crisis arise in terms of war. (You’ll know more about him as the story progresses)

~

I kinda I forgot about them until I tested the game and saw that I put them in there 🫢

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

JLRRT's To-Read List

A list of books and articles I mean to get to. (Books I've read and recommend)

Biographies

Caligula, by Aloys Winterling

Cicero, The Cambridge Companion to, by Catharine Steel

Cleopatra, by Duane Roller

Cleopatra's Daughter, by Jane Draycott

Clodius Pulcher, by Jeffrey Tatum

Crassus: The First Tycoon, by Peter Stothard

Gaius Marius: A Political Biography, by Richard John Evans

Livia, Empress of Rome, by Matthew Denison

Mark Antony, by Eleanor Goltz Huzar

Nero: Matricide, Music and Murder in Imperial Rome, by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Pompey the Great, by Robin Seager

Sextus Pompeius, by Kathryn Welch

Sulla: The Last Republican, by Arthur Keaveney

Terentia, Tullia and Publilia, by Susan Treggiari

Classical

Livy, The History of Rome books 21-30 (Hannibal's War)

Plutarch, Parallel Lives

Polybius, The Histories

Vergil, The Aeneid

Other Nonfiction

A Critical History of Early Rome by Gary Forsythe

The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, by Walter Schneidel, Ian Morris and Richard P. Saller

Cannae, by Adrian Goldsworthy

Commanders and Command in the Roman Republic and Early Empire, by Fred Drogula

The Collapse of Rome: Marius, Sulla and the First Civil War, by Gareth C. Sampson

The Cults of the Roman Empire, by Robert Turcan

The Defeat of Rome in the East: Crassus, the Parthians, and the Disastrous Battle of Carrhae, 53 BC, by Gareth Sampson

Discourses on Livy, by Niccolo Machiavelli - Read this years ago, want to reread.

Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, by Anthony Everitt

Laughter in Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard

The Fall of Carthage, by Adrian Goldsworthy

Party Politics in the Age of Caesar, by Luca Fezzi

Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic, by Henrik Mouritsen

Religions of Rome, by Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price

The Rise of Rome, by Anthony Everitt

The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars, by Kathryn Lomas

The Roman Elite and the End of the Republic, by Henrik Mouritsen

The Roman Toga, by Lilian M. Wilson

Rome and the Mediterranean 290 to 146 BC, by Nathan Rosenstein

The Veracity of Caesar, by J.P.V.D. Balsdon

Women in Antiquity, by Barbara Levick and Richard Hawley

Why Did Caesar Cross the Rubicon?, by G.R. Stanton

Fiction

The Ides of March, by Thornton Wilder

Masters of Rome series, by Colleen McCullough - Yes, I've read them before. Worth reading again!

Roma Sub Roma series, by Steven Saylor - Another series I've finished but want to reread!

SPQR series, by John Maddox Roberts - Enjoyed the first two, haven't read the others.

Feel free to suggest more - I'm most interested in the period from 133 BCE-14 CE, and in the Second Punic War. Big fan of mysteries, romances, and queer characters, too.

[cinnamon-j-scudworth]

Fanfiction

Relationship: Joan and Candide

Word count: 963

Summary: Joans still not used to being 20 years in the future

Joan stomped her foot angrily as She took her pointer finger and violently swiped at the screen "Ugh!" She groaned as she threw her phone across the room almost immediately regretting the decision as she realized they weren't nearly as strong as they were back in 2003. Still angry and stomping her feet She went over to grab her phone which now had a spider webbed crack in it "stupid phone I wish toots hadn't lost my damn Nokia now that was a good phone-" She said with a smile on her face almost reminiscing. She paused as she looked at her new iPhone x- something or another her foster mom (candide Sampson) had gotten for her claiming it was one of the newer ones. Joan knew logically that she should be grateful and that it was probably quite a bit of money (even though that never seemed like an issue for Candide) still Joan didn't like it. It was far too hard to use and it made her physilly legs act up whenever somebody tried to explain a new feature to her. All she wanted from a phone what's the ability to call her friends and play Snake. That game didn't even seem to be so popular anymore. It was all very upsetting and distressing to Joan. It made her want to cry and at the same time it made her so angry she could cuss.

Candide walked in to see her daughter (er- foster daughter-) holding her phone and looking at it Like it was going to give her some disease "what?" She said her voice, sounding gruff "something wrong with the phone I got you?" Candide Asked thinking it was going to just be some boring teenage drama shit like Joan being upset that the phone wasn't the brand newest one on the market. "You know if you don't like the phone I got you I can always give you a damn flip phone-" She said preemptively Just assuming what Joan was going to say and she wanted to be the one in control in the situation.

Joan had mainly not been listening to her foster mom. She just stared at the phone, her leg twitching as she reminisced. Only for her to immediately be snapped out of it by the 'offer' of a flip phone. She looked up at her wide eyes, dropping the phone on the ground again. She rushed over and hugged her without almost a second of hesitation, completely misunderstanding the tone that candide had taken.

"Yes! Yes! Please!"

Candide was almost immediately uncomfortable with a hug not being the touchy feely person nor did she understand why Joan was so happy at what she was trying to make into a punishment. "Ew first of all do not touch me" She grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her off and took a few steps back to establish a distance. "Secondly, do you even know what I said?" She asked raising an eyebrow

Joan nodded "mhm! You said that if I don't like this phone You'll give me a flip phone- I don't like this phone, I don't like it at all! It's too confusing!! And too fragile I don't get how much of it works! I just want my old phone back! That was simple. It was easy. I don't know why I need this new thing. My old phone worked great!" The more she talked about her old phone the more her legs started to twitch. "Everybody else is so happy with their new technology but I don't need it! It's stupid! Stupid! Back in my day-" her leg was twitching violently at this point

Candide Who was just watching her rant began to grow increasingly concerned (totally not because she cared but because Joan was the top candidate for operation spread eagle) grabbed her by the shoulders ``calm down! Calm the fuck down soilder!" She snapped her voice, sounding as if she was a sergeant in the military with the amount of power she carried in that one command. Joan almost immediately stopped and looked up at her like a deer in headlights. "Dear lord Joan, if you wanted a different phone that bad all you had to do was ask-'' she sighed and grabbed her by the wrist as she dragged her upstairs and into her bedroom. "Sit on my bed and Wait"

Candide then went into her closet rummaging around for a little bit and emerged with a box. She sighed and looked at Joan "this has all of my old phones in it, they all still work fine and come with the chargers they've all been completely reset as well.So go wild" She placed the box beside Joan.

Joan looked up at her glancing a few times at the box then back up to ask "I-i can I have one?" She asked, almost crying.

Candide groaned clearly annoyed "one? I'm Giving you the box. You can work your way up to new technology or whatever or keep the old one- I don't really care but I don't want to see you throwing around 900 dollars worth of technology again!" She said pinching the bridge of her nose causing her glasses to slide up slightly

Joans face twisted into a massive smile as she tackled and hugged her from the side. The sudden movement caused the box of phones to fall off the bed. Candide giggled softly small enough for it to not even really be registerable as she hugged her back. And looking down at the box both knew not one was cracked.

[gameknigh]

Anyways here is a list of about 200 things I am no longer allowed to do within the UNSC ONI or Spartan Operations, I do not regret any of these

My proper military title is ‘Spartan Sam’ not ‘Princess Anastasia’.

Not allowed to threaten anyone with black magic.

Not allowed to challenge anyone’s disbelief of black magic by asking for hair.

Not allowed to get silicone breast implants.

Not allowed to play ‘Pulp Fiction’ with a suction-cup dart pistol and any officer.

Not allowed to add ‘In accordance with the prophesy’ to the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me.

Not allowed to add pictures of officers I don’t like to War Criminal posters.

Not allowed to title any product ‘Get Over it’.

Not allowed to purchase anyone’s soul on Government time.

Not allowed to join the communist party.

Not allowed to join any militia.

N ot allowed to form any militia.

Not allowed out of my office when the president visited Boston.

Not allowed to train adopted stray dogs to ‘Sic Brass!’

Must get a haircut even if it tampers with my ‘Sampson like powers’.

God may not contradict any of my orders.

May no longer perform my now (in)famous ‘Barbie Girl Dance’ while on duty.

May not call any officers immoral, untrustworthy, lying, slime, even if I’m right.

Must not taunt the Harvestians any more.

Must attempt to not antagonize ODSTs.

Must never call an ODST a ‘Wanker’.

Must never ask anyone who outranks me if they’ve been smoking crack.

Must not tell any officer that I am smarter than they are, especially if it’s true.

Never confuse a Revian soldier for a Martian one.

Never tell a German soldier that ‘We kicked your ass in World War 2!’

Don’t take the batteries out of the other Spartan’s alarm clocks (Even if they do hit snooze about forty times).

The Irish Spartans are not after ‘Me frosted lucky charms’.

Not allowed to wake an Non-Commissioned Officer by repeatedly banging on the head with a bag of trash.

Not allowed to let sock puppets take responsibility for any of my actions.

Not allowed to let sock puppets take command of my post.

Not allowed to chew gum at formation, unless I brought enough for everybody.

(Next day) Not allowed to chew gum at formation even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.

Not allowed to sing ‘High Speed Dirt’ by Megadeth during airborne operations. (‘See the earth below/Soon to make a crater/Blue sky, black death, I’m off to meet my maker’)

Can’t have flashbacks to wars I was not in. (The Interplanetary War isn’t over).

Our medic is called ‘Sgt Larwasa’, not ‘Dr. Feelgood’.

Our supply Sgt is ‘Sgt Watkins’ not ‘Sugar Daddy’.

Not allowed to ask for the day off due to religious purposes, on the basis that the world is going to end, more than once.

I do not have super-powers.

Camouflage body paint is not a uniform.

I am not the atheist chaplain.

I am not authorized to fire officers.

Not allowed to trade military equipment for ‘magic beans’.

Not allowed to sell magic beans during duty hours.

Not allowed to quote ‘Dr Seuss’ on military operations.

Not allowed to yell ‘Take that Cobra’ at the rifle range.

Not allowed to quote ‘Full Metal Jacket ‘ at the rifle range.

‘Napalm sticks to kids’ is *not* a motivational phrase.

An order to ‘Put Kiwi on my boots’ does *not* involve fruit.

An order to ‘Make my Boots black and shiny’ does not involve electrical tape.

The proper response to a lawful order is not ‘Why?’

The following words and phrases may not be used in a cadence- based, necrophilia, I hate everyone in this formation and wish they were dead, all Marines are latent homosexuals, Arcadian yoga, Gotterdammerung, or any references to squid.

May not make posters depicting the leadership failings of my chain of command.

‘The Giant Space Ants’ are not at the top of my chain of command.

It is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, no longer applies to Spartan Sam.

Command decisions do *not* need to be ratified by a 2/3 majority.

There are no evil clowns living under my bed.

There is no ‘Anti-Mime’ campaign on Harvest.

I am not the Spartan Ops Mascot.

I may not line my helmet with tin foil to ‘Block out the space mind control lasers’.

May not pretend to be a fascist stormtrooper on duty

I am not authorized to prescribe any form of medication.

May not conduct psychological experiments on my chain of command.

The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”

I may not call block my chain of command.

I am neither the king nor queen of cheese.

Not allowed to wear MJOLNIR to any army functions.

May not bring a drag queen to the battalion formal dance.

May not form any press gangs.

Must not start any SITREP (Situation Report) with “I recently had an experience I just had to write you about….”

Must not use military vehicles to ‘Squish’ things.

May not challenge anyone in my chain of command to the ‘field of honor’.

If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.

Must not refer to the Commander as ‘Dad’.

I am not authorized to initiate Jihad.

When asked to give a few words at a military ceremony ‘Romper Bomper Stomper Boo’ is probably not appropriate.

Nerve gas is not funny.

Crucifixes do not ward off ONI officers, and I should not test that.

I am not in need of a more suitable host body.

The proper response to a chemical weapon attack is not ‘Tell my chain of command what I really think about them, and then poke holes in their masks.’

A smiley face is not used to mark a minefield.

Claymore mines are not filled with yummy candy, and it is wrong to tell new soldiers that they are.

I am not allowed to mount a bayonet on a crew-served weapon.

Rodents are not entitled to burial with full military honors, even if they are “casualties of war”.

My commander is not old enough to have fought in the Second American Civil War, and I should stop implying that he did.

Vodka, green food coloring, and a ‘Cool Mint’ Listerine® bottle is not a good combination.

I am not allowed to bum cigarettes off of anyone under twelve.

I may not trade my rifle for any of the following: Cigarettes, booze, Unggoy, Kalishnikovs, Covenant Armored vehicles, small children, or bootleg CD’s.

Must not mock command decisions in front of the press.

Should not taunt members of the press, even if they are really fat, exceptionally stupid, and working for the UEG.

I am not authorized to change national policy in the Eastern Orion Arm.

Never, ever, attempt to correct a Spartan II about anything.

I am not qualified to operate any Covenant, UNSC, Banished, or Swords of Sanghelios Armored vehicles.

I cannot trade my CO to the Covies.

Crucifying mice – bad idea.

Burn pits for classified material are not revel fires – therefore it is wrong to dance naked around them.

I cannot arrest children for being rude.

An EO briefing is probably not the best place to unveil my newest off color joke.

Radioactive material should not be stored in the barracks.

I should not teach other soldiers to say offensive and crude things in Sangheli, under the guise of teaching them how to say potentially useful phrases.

Two drink limit does not mean first and last.

Two drink limit does not mean two kinds of drinks.

Two drink limit does not mean the drinks can be as large as I like.

‘No Drinking Of Alcoholic Beverages’ does not imply that a Jack Daniel’s ® IV is acceptable.

“Shpadoinkle” is not a real word.

The Microsoft ® ‘Dancing Paperclip’ is not authorized to countermand any orders.

‘I’m drunk’ is a bad answer to any question posed by my commander.

The loudspeaker system is not a forum to voice my ideas.

The loudspeaker system is not to be used to replace the radio.

The loudspeaker system is not to be used to broadcast the soundtrack to a porno movie.

Shouting ‘Let’s do the village! Let’s do the whole ****ing village!’ while out on a mission is bad.

Should not show up at the front gate wearing part of a Sangheli Combat Harness, messily drunk.

Even if my commander did it.

I am not authorized to sell mineral rights.

Not allowed to use a broadsword to disprove ‘The Pen is Mightier than the sword’.

I should not drink three quarts of blue food coloring before a urine test.

Nor should I drink three quarts of red food coloring, and scream during the same.

J should not threaten suicide with pop rocks and Coke ®.

Putting red ‘Mike and Ike’s’ ® into a prescription medicine bottle, and then eating them all in a formation is not funny.

Must not create new ONI forms, then insist they be filled out.

On Sports Day PT, a wedgie is not considered a legal tackle.

The proper way to report to my Commander is ‘Spartan Sam, reporting as ordered, Sir’ not ‘You can’t prove a thing!’

The following items do not exist: Keys to the Drop Zone, A box of grid squares, blinker fluid, winter air for tires, canopy lights, or MJOLNIR oil.

Shouldn’t treat ‘piss-bottles’ with extra-strength icy hot.

Teaching Sangheli children to taunt other soldiers is not nice.

I will no longer perform ‘lap-dances’ while in MJOLNIR.

The revolution is not now.

When detained by MP’s, I do not have a right to a strip search.

No part of the MJOLNIR armor is edible.

Bodychecking General officers is not a good idea.

Past lives have absolutely no effect on the chain of command.

Take that hat off.

There is no such thing as a were-virgin.

I do not get ‘that time of month’.

No, the pants are not optional.

Not allowed to operate a business out of the barracks.

Not allowed to ‘defect’ to Covenant during training missions.

On training missions, try not to shoot down the General’s helicopter.

‘A full magazine and some privacy’ is not the way to help a potential suicide.

I am not allowed to create new levels of security clearance.

Furby ® is not allowed into classified areas. (I swear to the gods, I did not make that up, it’s actually ONI policy).

We do not ‘charge into battle, naked, like the Celts’.

Any device that can crawl across the table on medium, does not need to be brought into the office.

I am not to refer to a formation as ‘the boxy rectangle thingie’.

I am not ‘A lesbian trapped in a man’s body’.

On Army documents, my race is not ‘Other’.

Nor is it ‘Secretariat, in the third’.

Pokémon® trainer is not an MOS.

There is no FM for ‘wall-to-wall counseling’.

My chain of command has neither the time, nor the inclination to hear about what I did with six boxes of Fruit Roll-Ups. ®

When operating a military vehicle I may *not* attempt something ‘I saw in a cartoon’.

My name is not a killing word.

I am not the Emperor of anything.

Must not taunt officers in the throes of nicotine withdrawal, with cigarettes.

May not challenge officers to ‘Meet me on the field of honor, at dawn’.

Must not make s’mores while on guard duty.

Our Warthogs cannot be assembled into a giant battle-robot.

The proper response to a briefing is not ‘That’s what you think’.

The Masons, and Gray Aliens are not in our chain of command.

Shouldn’t take incriminating photos of my chain of command.

Shouldn’t use Photoshop ® to create incriminating photos of my chain of command.

I am not allowed to give Spartan augmentations

Not allowed to lead a ‘Coup’ during training missions.

I should not confess to crimes that took place before I was born.

My chain of command is not interested in why I ‘just happen’ to have a kilt, an inflatable sheep, and a box of rubber bands in the back of my car.

Must not valiantly push officers onto hand grenades to save the squad.

Despite the confusing similarity in the names, the “Safety Dance” and the “Safety Briefing” are never to be combined.

“To conquer the earth with an army of flying monkeys” is a bad long term goal to give the re-enlistment NCO.

NEVER nail a stuffed bunny to a cross and put it up in front of the Battalion Headquarters sign as an “Easter Desecration.”

Don’t write up false gigs on a Warthog PMCS. (“Broken clutch pedal”, “Number three turbine has frequent flame-outs”, “flux capacitor emits loud whine when engaged”)

Not allowed to get shot.

Not allowed to play into the deluded fantasies of the civlians who are “hearing conversations” from the CMA, ONI, UNSC and SoS due to the microchip the aliens implanted in their brain.

Must not make T-shirts up depciting a Grunt with the writing “Breath Oxygen or Die” in Unggoy to bring as civilian attire when preparing to deploy to their homeworld.

Must not go on nine deployments in six years that require a security clearance that I don’t have, even if the ONI tells me repeatedly that I have one and I have no reason to question them.

Do not convince NCO’s that their razorbumps are the result of microscopic parasites.

Do not lick Spartan IIs

Do not change Smart AI’s avatars to “obscene” things or pictures of my Cat

Do not show up to the UNSC Infinity in a “Anime Bunnysuit and fishnets”

Do not use a 560 year old H&K XM8 because ‘it looks enough like a battle rifle’

Well, that concludes the list. I probably shouldn’t have done some of these, but I definitely don’t regret the second to last (I looked hot AF).

[itsthestutterforme]

“Sure, I’ll Train You” 2/2

Summary: Your brother, Sampson, was murdered in his sleep along with Ragnar.

Notes: GIF is not mine, angst, dark themes (depression, talk of murder)

**

Your mind disassociates for the fiftieth time today. You and Brida were on your way to Utred to tell him what occurred while you were sleeping. In just one night, the two commanders who had the most common sense have been murdered. Your brother being one of them. And Ragnar the other.

Now Bloodhair and Cnut remain in power. You are 99% sure that it was their doing, but they weren’t the ones who stabbed him through the heart. No, they put someone else to get their hands dirty. Someone close enough to them, with no honor or conscience.

Aethewold paints that picture perfectly but you needed to be completely sure before you kill him. There was little dialogue between you and Brida. You didn’t need to talk, you could feel each others rage.

The two of you left the woods and advance towards the land of Aylesburg. “Tell Utred he has visitors. And they’re two women.” Finan tells Osferth as he spots you in the distance. You follow Brida’s lead and stopped the horse half way to the gates.

Within ten minutes, Finan, Osferth and Sitrig accompany Utred out of the gates. “What happened?” Utred asks, you could feel Osferth’s gaze on you. “It’s all your fault,” Brida tells him. “What exactly am I at fault for? There’s a long list.” Utred teases.

“You left him, and now he’s dead.” His face falls and he says, “Ragnar?” “And Samson,” you add, finally making eye contact with Osferth. Seeing regret in his eyes made your throat tighten. You looked away soon after, not wanting to cry in front of so many men.

“How?” “They were murdered in their sleep. Didn’t have a chance to defend themselves.” You said softly. “I should kill you where you stand for what you did to Ragnar. He’s waited years for you to come back to him and when you do, you betray him.”

“I’m sorry, Brida.” “Sorry doesn’t bring him back,” she turns her horse and goes back into the woods whereas you remained, stuck in your own head. “Y/N,” Uhtred starts. “You should stay with us until your head is clear. You’re in no condition for battle.” He adds.

When you don’t respond, he looks to Osferth who was already off his horse. He pulls you off the horse and into his arms. He tossed you over his own horse on your stomach and you adjusted yourself so you were straddling the horse. “Take her back to the village. We’ll take care of her horse.” Uhtred instructs and Osferth nods.

He chose to wait until you were in the confines of his home to talk about the matter. The two of you sat at the edge of the bed with your hands clasped in your laps.

“I’m assuming you don’t want to talk about it,” “Not particularly, no,” “What do you need me to do. Just say the word and I’ll do it,” “He had a tear stain on his cheek.. he was crying out to me and I wasn’t there for him. It’s all my fault, Os.”

“It’s not your fault, sweet girl.” He smooths a hand over your hair and wrapping one of your curls around his finger. “Yes it was. I should have been there,” “If you were there, they would have killed you too.” You remained silent for a moment, tears flowed down your cheeks mindlessly.

“Death would be better than what I feel right now. This emptiness. A massive hole I fear will never be filled. He was apart of my destiny and now he’s gone.” You covered your face with your hand and turned away from him. “You don’t have to hide your pain from me,” he rubs the sides of your arms while you slowly leaned on his shoulder.

“Let it all out, love. You’re safe here,” he says as more sobs escaped you. Uhtred, Finan and Sigtric were outside of the home wanting to check in on you but chose to give you a moment. By night fall, your throat was rubbed raw and your eyes were dry from shedding so many tears.

**

“Osferth, where re’ goin’?” Finan asks when he notices Osferth walk with haste towards the woods. “Gathering herbs for Y/N. She’s came down with a fever,” “Good lord, what herbs do you need? I can help,” Finan stands from the table with Uhtred and joins Osferth in the conquest to the forest.

By the time they came back you were coughing with a groan, wincing at the lingering soreness of your abdominal muscles. You continued to cough in your elbow when you saw two men appear in your peripheral. “No,” you start. “Don’t come any closer. I don’t want to contaminate you,”

“Please just let me help, Y/N.” Osferth begs, his eyes weighted with concern. “Make a tray and tell me what to drink, then leave it at the door.” You commanded. “You’re not well enough to leave the bed,” Finan states and Osferth nods softly, crossing his arms at your stubbornness.

“I’ll find a way. Just please, go.” You wheeze before you let out another fit of coughs into your shoulder. “You’re not going through this alone, Y/N.” “Finan, you can go back to the pub. I’ve got this.” He tells Finan softly. “Thank you, brother.” He added, to which Finan handed him the bowl of herbs with a nod.

Osferth closed the door behind him and advance towards you. “Osferth, no,” “You’re my beloved, and I’m not going to let you die because of your stubbornness. Now drink this, it should help with the cough.” He hands you a bowl of a ronchy smelling liquid and you drank it all, gagging at the burning coldness invading your chest.

About thirty minutes after you ingested the liquid, your coughing subsided and your eyes fell shut for a much needed sleep. For the next four days, you’ve been in and out of sleep. Osferth came by multiple times throughout the day, giving you medicine once in the morning, once in midday and once at nightfall.

There came one night where you woke up from a vivid dream about your brother. He mentioned the words heat over and over again. You swung your legs over the bed and that’s when you noticed Osferth made a make shift bed out of logs and fur. There’s no way that could be comfortable.

But you didn’t have the energy to do anything else besides the initial plan. Get more blanket to cover you so you can burn this sickness out of your body. You took short, wobbly steps towards the chest and took out a thick bear furs. You carried it back to the bed.

You wince at the sore muscles moving to pull the heavier fur over you and fell back asleep. You woke up at the sound of a roosters call. Osferth was still sound asleep on the floor and you tilt your head as you admired him sleeping. He soft features mellowed with sleep and his lips were parted by his soft snores.

You tip toed around him and made your way to the lake to wash yourself and your hair. By the time you came back, the boys noticed you and collectively greeted you. “Morning,” you said softly. “Where’s Osferth? He didn’t try to take a peek at your goods, did he?” Finan asks, earning a hit to the chest by Uhtred.

“No, he’s still sleeping. I worry my sickness has spread to him. If that’s the case, I should nurse him back to health like he did to me.” “Care to sit with us, Y/N?” Uhtred offers. “Of course, my Lord. Thank you.”

You sat and talked with the boys about a multitude of things. You all had to move inside the alehouse away from the rain. Not ten minutes later Osferth bursts through the door, startling everyone in the alehouse.

“Y/N’s gone. You have to go me find…” he trails off when he met your gaze. The smoke of his hot breath puffed with each large breath he took. He closed to door behind him and was by your side in a second. “Your fever broke?” You nodded, closing your eyes when he presses his cool hand to your forehead.

He held your face as he examines your body for any reddening or wounds. “I put on more blankets to burn the sickness away,” the concern on his face never faltered. “I’m okay, Os.” “I thought the sickness took you away from me,” he says softly. You pressed a warm kiss to his lips, earning whistles from the men in the alehouse.

“Have you nothing better to do?” You teased, Osferth buries his face into your neck for a moment. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” you tell him and he hums in responds. “My love, I fear that I’m feeling a little under the weather.” “Well yes, you wouldn’t leave me even when I begged.”

“I couldn’t leave you-“ a sneeze interrupts him and you take his hand before leading him back to his house. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes,” you instructed and he pulls off his monk gown. Your lips parted when your eyes settled on his toned abs and alluring v-line.

“Why didn’t you leave me when you had the chance? I’ve been difficult to say the least.” You said once Osferth laid on bed with a groan. He opens his mouth to speak but a series of coughs wash over him. You relit the fire and set a pot to boil above it.

“Because I love you, and I will never abandon you. Even if you try to push me away.” His eyes fluttered closed, humming when you rubbed the apple of his cheek. “Can you lay with me?” As soon as you laid on the bed with him, he buries his face in your chest. “They’re like pillows. Perfect pillows,” he says contently, making you chuckle.

[teenageoaffireknight]

jamieson price

april 28, 1961

4/28/61

chad-bleach

janyu wong-digimon tamers

commander richard sampson-digimon data squad

[gremlinenthusiast]

My D&D Party Nonsense

Cibal montague: The mostly pacifist Halfling Rogue / Artificer Cibal was my first ever Dnd character, he's a middle aged man who likes woodcarving and carpentry; he's a great shot with a crossbow and he's the product of a mostly isolated halfling village called Cobbleston. He started the campaign without any real concept of what death was, or at least didn't understand that it was a bad thing to kill someone and experienced an immense change in his morals early on, quickly becoming a pacifist and the moral compass of the entire party by default, despite the fact that he had 0 charisma and little to no understanding about the world. Among a bunch of things, here are the highlights of Cibal's experiences throughout the campaign -Received a prophecy from his lying alcoholic grandfather (No one including Cibal knew his name so he was just called Grandpa Montague) that he would leave the village he grew up in, go on an adventure and lose his arm in the process. -Skinned a kobold while they were asleep because he though they were already dead (the screams haunted him for months) -Got his hand covered in Tarrasque semen, which was pitch black and could be manipulated in all sorts of strange ways (Including forming it into a massive ballista that he and his party used to kill an avatar of yog-sothoth) -Set fire to a city in the underdark with alcohol produced by an alchemy jug (Everyone told him it was stupid, he showed them) -Absorbed more Tarrasque semen into his hand turning it gold -Made a direct threat to Asmodeus, the ruler of the nine hells. (He later got his shit kicked in for it) -After nearly losing his arm several times, Cibal started to warm up to the idea and decided to fulfill his grandpa's prophecy himself (He cut his Tarrasque arm off and stuffed it into a jar) and made a new mechanical arm out of wood and put a stored a bunch of gadgets in it. -Got his Tarrasque jar turned into five little Cibal clones made of Terrasque jizz that he could command -Briefly became a cleric of Pelor and found out he was kind of a celebrity among the gods. -Befriended a crystal Dragon which he named Scrontar (At the suggestion of his Grandpa) and took the form of a small crystal halfling -Died twice. The first time was in a fight with the humanoid form of his party member Wulfram's evil sword, the second time was when he made an attempt to stop a world wide calamity by reasoning with the beings that controlled the time stream, but he failed and got permanently erased from existence, which also meant no one remembered him or any of the things he did throughout the campaign, but the things he did still happened, they were just attributed to other people. :(

Cibal died permanently, so he never got an epilogue like his party members, however he did leave behind a litter of part Halfling - part Death slaad children (FIY Death Slaads are freaky frog monsters that don't have a canon breeding method, though other slaads just put tadpoles into humans, turning them into more slaads, but the DM and I decided that the circumstances of this Death slaad were more dire, so rather than putting a tadpole in one humanoid to make one death slaad, it made the much more desperate play of stealing Cibal's DNA to make a litter half-Slaad babies that feasted on its corpse after they were born.) After Cibal found a bunch of weird little gremlin monsters that had a striking resemblance to him in a tower near Cobbleston, he took them all home and raised them as his own kids (because it was pretty obvious that they were) They retained most of the memories from their Slaad half and matured shockingly quickly, within two years they were all basically full adults, with leathery patches of skin and yellow eyes. Cibal's kids are portrayed in the image above, from left to right they are: -Sampson Montague (The runt of the litter and the most physically similar to Cibal) -Yogma Montague (Named by Grandpa Montague and strived to become the first mayor of Cobbleston -Esmerelda Montague (considered the eldest sibling and has the most monsterous features, as well as powerful wild magic, After Cibal Died, Esmerelda took his place in the party and got up to all sorts of shenanigans) Montag (Monty) Montague (The most notable thing he inherited from his father were the bags under his eyes) Mandy Montague (Cibal's most well adjusted and normal child, she liked making clothes) The little mustached Halfling between Monty and Mandy is Grandpa Montague: It was eventually revealed to Cibal that Grandpa montague wasn't actually his Grandpa. When Cibal was young, Grandpa Montague told him that his parents ran away from home and never came back, this wasn't true, the truth was that Grandpa Montague was Cibal's dad and told Cibal that he was his Grandpa. Cibal never learned why, and he figured there probably wasn't an answer. Cibal never got used to calling Grandpa Montague anything other than Grandpa, even after learning his real name, Preator.

These are all the different forms that CIbal's right hand took throughout the campaign. 1. Normal 2. Terrasque hand v.1 3. Terrasque hand v.2 4. Wooden hand 5. Gloved hand After being revived the first time, Cibal had his arm back and while he wasn't crazy enough to cut it off twice, it bothered him sometimes, so he covered it up with a glove in the hopes that it would help him ignore it.

[kevinvoncrastenburg]

Uberhood Pics (48) - Baldwin, Phoenix & Picaso

Not much happened at the Baldwin's. Marcus and his brother Elijah enjoy playing video games, Sofia is still happily in love with Daniel Bell & Benjamin is climbing up the science career track. I'm thinking of giving Isabel a little makeover and maybe even move the family out of their apartment. Playing in apartments is so annoying recently. I installed a mod and I think because of that every family got reset somehow? Anyway it led to the neighbors peeing themselves and them passing out constantly. It feels like they forgot they have an apartment they can go into. On top of that, everytime this happens, I get this little window showing me what's happening and it's very annoying. Not to mention the memory spam about it all. I found a fix for it but I am not sure if it really works or if I'm just lucky: I click on the sim, take control of them, and send them into their apartment. After I gave the command I immediately remove the control of them and let them do it on their own and it seems to work fine so far. Afterwards they leave and enter their apartment as they should. Let's cross our fingers this is the solution. It would be a pain in the butt to move every family out of their apartment just to make them move into a house.

Jimmy Phoenix & Tiffany Sampson got married this round. They now live in Desiderata Valley and expect a little bundle of joy. I am very excited what this baby will look like. It's always fascinating to me how the game plays with genetics. 😅

At the Picaso's a few things happened: Jessica had enough of Matthew's lying a* and threw him out. She caught him cheating with Hannah Bell. They even got caught by Jessica & Matthew's daughter, Paola. Living together got impossible so I made them divorce. To celebrate her new-found freedom I gave Jessica a little makeover. Right now she tries to focus on her daughter and her career.

Jessica rolled this want after divorcing Matthew. Really? She wants to apologize even though he was the one who cheated on her? She's traumatized. D:

[themousefromfantasyland]

Holy Week for Me

[I choose these images to show how the churches of my childhood used to look like]

I came from a religious family. My parents are still Conservative Evangelicals. I'm sure this is a pleonasm 😂

I feel bad and silly when I say a have a little Religious Trauma. I was pretty sheltered from the wildest side of the church. My parents never forced me to do anything I didn't want to. I never went to any church camps or church-specific vacations.

But I always felt guilty. Because of my sexuality, and just because I felt like I was a bad Christian. I think it was my general disinterest in Church social events that made me feel like that. I never truly felt I belonged with them.

I wanted to prove to God I was a good Christian, so when I was a child, every night, at 8 pm, I would shun myself into my room and read several chapters of the Bible. There was so much other stuff I wanted to do, like just watch cartoons on TV, but I felt too guilty to give up. My parents started bragging about me to their church friends so it was too late for me to stop.

During three to four years I read the Bible to start to finish, and do you want to know what happened? I developed a massive anxiety crisis. That's what happens when you realize your God seems mostly unable to manifest himself as anything beyond plagues, curses, and super deadly things. God punishes. A lot. He enjoys punishing. For everything. From that day on, I was always afraid of God's punishment.

My anxiety grew to a point that made my parents miserable. I couldn't control my obsessive thoughts about Heaven, Hell, Satan, and God.

I was depressed, anxious, and very afraid.

And then came a thought that changed my life forever. What if these stories are just stories?

That sent me on the biggest journey of my life. Suddenly everything I thought I knew about the world and myself had changed. I had a massive existential crisis because of that. But I felt freer than I ever felt.

I stayed agnostic for a couple of years. I didn't want to completely abandon the faith. But when I came out as gay and agnostic to my parents and they start cursing me, telling me I was going to Hell... Let's say my parents did more to drive me away from God than I wanted to.

I was still Conservative around this time, but they made me more of a Progressive.

We are fine now. As long as I never mention my sexuality or lack of faith ever again. Honestly, I don't know what they think. They probably still hope it's just a phase.

This leads me to my point. The first time I ever felt free to assume my sexuality, at least to myself was on a Good Friday. It was in a way, a death and resurrection of my own.

The Holy Week for me it's more than just Jesus. It's "time to revisit my Religious Trauma" week. Okay, I'm not being fair. There's more than trauma. There's Nostalgia. It is a super painful nostalgia.

It's the time of the year when I revisit my childhood, my coming out, and my issues with the religion of my parents.

I watch movies that were special to me growing up like Prince of Egypt, the Ten Commandments, Sampson and Delilah, Noah's Ark, and Jesus films, and realize how disconnected they all seem to me now.

I always loved biblical epics, but these stories are just like my family. They are a world that will never accept me, and I will never fit in. I can just stare into the distance.

It's time to look back at my past and look for the future.

@ariel-seagull-wings @thealmightyemprex @tamisdava2 @the-blue-fairie @amalthea9 @princesssarisa @natache @autistic-prince-cinderella

[ainyan]

WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @actualanxiousswampwitch (who is still not an anxious sampson sandwich, much to my dismay). I already posted a WIP like 5 minutes before they tagged me - but I might as well do another.

Here's the WIP that inspired this picture post.

From the ShB arc of my post-HW AU:

She was finally alone. Even Ardbert had faded off into wherever he went when he wasn’t haunting her, leaving behind half a basket of sandwiches and a silence that no amount of ambient noise seemed to fill. Too restless to rest despite the commandment to do so, she paced to the window and crawled up on the sill, leaning against the rail to gaze out over the forest beyond the city.

Since she’d come to this belighted world, she’d had little time for introspection. She’d hit the ground running and never looked back, never stopped to breathe. It was easier, she had to admit to the stars shining above, to not stop. To not breathe. To not think. To not think about…

To not think about what she had lost. To not think about who she had lost.

The splash of dampness against the back of her hand startled her and she looked down to see the splatter of water where her tear had splattered upon her skin. A second followed before she reined her emotions under control and sucked back those that might have come after.

She had no time or tears to waste any longer. The fate of a world was at stake. The fate of two worlds.

The fate of her heart was no longer a consideration.

Resolute, she turned away from the window towards her bed, determined at least to attempt to follow orders, to attempt to rest. She could not deny the need; her body ached, her aether was thin and flickering, and her heart….

There her thoughts skittered to a stop. Enough.

As she crossed the floor towards the bed, there sounded a knock at her door. She paused midstep, staring towards it, more than half-tempted to simply ignore it. They had bade her rest, why not let her fucking rest?

Recognizing the petulance and knowing its cause, she gritted her teeth and altered her path to the door. Whoever stood on the other side of it did not deserve her ire; any who would interrupt her well-earned rest would only do so with the most dire of intentions, of that she was certain.

Reaching out, she twisted the handle and drew the door open. “And what, pray tell,” she began crossly, “has befallen the world this…” Lifting her eyes, she trailed off, the words stuck in her throat.

No emotion curved that wide, strong mouth. No feelings flickered in those pale citrine eyes. His handsome face lacked all expression, and it was harder than she liked to school her own to the same stoniness. “May we speak?”

Without a word, without a sound, she backed away from the door, her fingers trailing from the handle as she turned away, leaving him free to enter at her back. “If you have aught to say, say it,” she replied, her voice even. 

She could not look at him; she did not need to. The sight of him in her doorway was branded into her mind’s eye. Tall, all golden skin and silver hair encased in tight black pants and a black tank that showed off new scars and more besides - a fall of ink from shoulder to wrist that she did not remember from before.

And she would have remembered it - yes. She would never have forgotten those thick black lines etched indelibly into that pale skin, like echoes of her own scales. Her fingers itched to touch them, to trace them - her tongue itched to taste them.

She bit down hard upon the one offender, and curled the others into a tight fist, controlling herself with no little effort. Instead, she returned to the window and gazed blindly up at the stars, seeing nothing. As she waited, she could hear him moving, felt the vibration of his footsteps across the floor - then felt the heat of him at her back and squeezed her eyes shut. He stood behind her, silent for a brace of heartbeats, then sighed. His breath ruffled her hair. “I’m sorry. I never realized how hard this would be.”

Her heart cracked and bled anew. “Just say your piece and be done with it, Thancred,” she said evenly. “Rip the bandage clear.”

Rip the bandage clear. He pressed his fingertips to his breast and gazed down at the small, stiff figure standing before him, steadfastly gazing away. “Very well,” he said. “I’m sorry.” He watched her shoulders round and fisted his hands to keep from touching her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived, and I’m sorry I couldn’t come back before now.”

She listened to him, but his words were a faint buzzing in her ears. This wasn’t what she’d expected. “You had a duty,” she said weakly. “You had something far more important to do.”

“I would argue,” he said softly, “about the more important - but yes.” He sighed and rubbed his hands together, skimming his thumbs over calloused knuckles. “I had a duty. I still do, but fortunately, events have ensured that I can do my duty to her and stay by your side.”

Her hands flexed open and she reached out and deliberately wrapped them about the railing on the balcony. “Thancred, I… I don’t expect…”

He did reach out then, and as his hands closed lightly over her shoulders, she stiffened and fell silent. “I know that for me it has been five years, Kali,” he said gently, “but five minutes or moons or years, it makes no difference in that which is between you and I.” He heard her breath catch, and when it started again, it was shallow and halting. “But,” he sighed, “‘tis as I figured. You…”

With a soft cry, she tore out from beneath his hands, then whirled before he could complete that sentence, flinging herself at him and wrapping her arms around his waist. He made a soft noise and closed his arms around her, slouching until he could rest his forehead against her own. Lavender-edged eyes met citrine across the scant ilms. “I missed you,” she hiccuped at him.

His eyes widened, then he fell to his knees before her, forcing her arms away as he wrapped his own tightly about her waist. His head fell back, citrine eyes wide and a little wild as he gazed up into her startled face. "Five years, I waited. I yearned." He rested his forehead against her stomach and inhaled the cool, crisp scent of her. Her fingers slid through his silver hair, soothing. "Gods, Kali. Five years, I missed you."

Tagging... hmm. @draculas-husband, and @eorzeashan, and @irisopranta... and @kaerwyn-silvermoon. <3

[commentaryvorg]

Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 48 - The Ultimate Farewell

This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison. 

Original name ~ Dubbed name

Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon

Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda

Tohma H. Norstein ~ Thomas H. Norstein

Ikuto Noguchi ~ Keenan Crier

Professor Suguru Daimon ~ Doctor Spencer Damon

Sayuri Daimon ~ Sarah Damon

Chika Daimon ~ Kristy Damon

Kenji Noguchi ~ Kevin Crier

Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson

Yggdrasil ~ King Drasil

Craniummon ~ Craniamon

Dukemon ~ Gallantmon

Piyomon ~ Biyomon

Mercurimon ~ Merukimon

[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]

  Marcus’s voice sounds kind of wistful as he reads out the title card for this episode, which, aww.

Masaru:  “The power of humans…”

Agumon:  “And the power of Digimon…”

Masaru & Agumon: “We’ll show him what we’re both made of!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “You know what time it is?”

Agumon:  “My watch says it’s fightin’ time!”

Marcus & Agumon: “For humans, and for Digimon!”

This is almost exactly the same lines they said at the end of episode 47, but not quite, because Agumon didn’t mention his watch back then. (I will let him off for the usage of human terms, because he’s been in the human world long enough to know what a watch is by now.) But then, though the original lines I quoted here were word-for-word the same as the end of 47, there’s a few other brief words before it that also aren’t quite exactly the same, so, hey.

Probably Marcus’s Theme comes in (for what I assume is the last time) and takes its usual place as the dub equivalent of Provocation Infinity, yes, I approve.

The evolutions don’t happen with a fancy animation, so for the only time ever, the dub doesn’t use the evolution BGM for them. Funny, that.

King Drasil:  “If you could not defeat me while engaged in Burst Mode, then why do you continue to fight in Champion mode?”

Slightly awkward that King Drasil refers to their current Champion levels as a mode. Regular evolution levels are not the same thing as Burst Mode’s “mode-change” and shouldn’t use that word.

Alas, it seems Probably Marcus’s Theme isn’t actually long enough to get through all of this fight scene, so it ended and switched to a different piece of action music, before we even reach the climactic part where Marcus tries to punch King Drasil and gets caught. The new piece of BGM is more ominous and shifts the mood away from a triumphant one, even as they’re still pressing their attack. The music doesn’t even cut out and switch to anything else until after that moment when they get caught and electrocuted by King Drasil’s vines. It’s like the BGM just put the mood-shift of this scene a minute or so earlier than it should have come; it’s weird.

Yushima:  “Look! The Digimon are using all of their efforts to support the Digital World in our place!”

~~~~~

Yushima: “Look there. The Royal Knights have joined our side, trying to stop the Digital World from crashing down on top of us.”

Dub-Yushima may be correct, but I’m not sure how he knows this. From where he is, the Royal Knights aren’t visible, only the other Digimon who are helping to hold the worlds apart through beams of light. I’ve no idea how he could have got the memo that the Royal Knights are also helping now.

Yushima:  “So that none of their fights are in vain… we must never give up hope!”

~~~~~

Yushima: “And I know Thomas isn’t giving up any time soon. We must all have faith in our friends and family.”

Yushima mentioning specifically Thomas – since he’s talking to Relena – gives this a more personal note in the dub, which I like.

Relena:  “The Digimon are protecting us. They’re fighting for us. […] You can do it, Digimon!”

~~~~~

Relena: “Father, the Digimon. They’re getting stronger. They are! I can feel it! I can feel it! […] Father… I feel it!”

I have absolutely no idea how Relena can feel the Digimon’s strength in the dub. That’s not how it works? It’s kind of literally backwards to how it’s supposed to work, in which Digimon can feel the emotions of humans (whether they’re feeding off them or being influenced by them)?

Which really begs the question of why Relena flares up with DNA Charge here, because her simply feeling the Digimon’s power is not actually anything to do with what triggers a DNA Charge – aka, emotions. There’s no sense here that she’s consciously doing anything herself to try and will the Digimon on and give them the power of her emotions. It's a very weird way to present this.

Rosemon:  “I can hear their voices rooting us on to victory!”

Except for Relena, who’s just feeling your power, somehow, without actually rooting you on. At least the rest of this moment gets across the correct impression that it’s humanity consciously willing the Digimon on, but, what the heck was up with Relena’s line, seriously.

So… I guess all of the Digimon are going to consciously feed off humanity’s desire to not die in order to have the power to fight back against King Drasil. Which I guess isn’t too terrible of a way for it to work in this context, but it does put the emphasis a bit less on humanity’s strength and a bit more on the Digimon for making the choice to use their power and do this.

Tohma:  “But the power of cherishing our friends and our comrades… is infinite!”

~~~~~

Thomas: “But together, the combined power of all our friends and family is huge!”

It’s kind of cute that Thomas specifically mentions family here, given we’ve just seem glimpses of most of their families. (That might have been the dub’s interpretation of what was subbed as “comrades”, which was the word nakama, which can mean something like a found family but usually isn’t so literal about it.)

Slightly different emphasis in that he’s saying it’s the power of the friends and family themselves, rather than the power of the emotions from caring about them. Which on the one hand is perhaps more correct, in that it is all those other people’s own DNA Charges that are going to be helping here. But then that also reads a bit weirdly as if it’s only the people who are their friends and family who are contributing to this, as if every other human not in that category isn’t also helping.

Yoshino:  “We want to stay with each other… Forever!”

Piyomon:  “I want to live with Chika… and the humans, too!”

Gotsumon:  “So do… So do I!”

~~~~~

Yoshi:  “We have the will to survive. We want to stay with our loved ones!”

Biyomon:  “I wanna stay here in the human world with my friend Kristy!”

Gotsumon:  “Me too! I wanna stay here!”

Yoshi’s line is slightly less ambiguously readable as if she’s also talking about humans and Digimon living together, like Yoshino could have been. Especially with Thomas’s line also being more specifically about friends and family, which is less possible to read that way. So it’s a little bit less linked to the lines the Digimon go on to have a moment later.

(Gotsumon’s “me too” is awkwardly timed as if he’s agreeing that Kristy is also his friend, which, bro, you haven’t even met her.)

Dukemon:  “By staking the name of the honourable Royal Knights on the line!”

~~~~~

Gallantmon: “Our honour gives us strength, not the word of a King!”

I appreciate that Gallantmon’s line is a bit less generic and more specifically stressing the part where he’s rejected King Drasil’s authority. I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the idea that he ever had any honour while he was murdering humans on his king’s orders, though.

Yggdrasil: “Unable to compute! Unable to compute!”

~~~~~

King Drasil: “Cannot compute. Cannot compute.”

These bits have been almost exactly the same, but one thing I miss is the change in tone as things escalate – note the exclamation marks or lack thereof. Yggdrasil was starting to sound almost emotional, frustrated and desperate at the thought that it might be wrong about this. But King Drasil sounds equally as monotone here as its earlier uses of this line.

Masaru:  “You’ll… never understand!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “You can’t, huh? Then I guess you’ll never understand!”

This might seem the same, but there’s actually a difference in emphasis. Marcus is arguing that King Drasil will never understand simply because it can’t understand right now. Which is a bit of a close-minded thing to assume. Masaru wasn’t making any specific reference to that and was therefore assuming this more generally, because of the kind of selfish callous asshole he already knows Yggdrasil to be.

Masaru:  “It’s true that we fight a lot over stupid things, and sometimes we even hate each other. From your point of view, we might have evolved in the wrong direction. But…!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “It’s true that best friends fight each other sometimes, even over little stupid things! But if you think that just because humans and Digimon fight means everything has to be destroyed, you’re wrong!”

In the original, it was possible that by “we fight”, Masaru simply meant humans fighting each other. It’s not inappropriate for Marcus to make it specifically about humans and Digimon, given that at this point King Drasil is trying to erase both of them. Him citing best friend fights specifically is cute, in that them fighting doesn’t mean they don’t belong together as best friends, though his wording doesn’t quite emphasise that point as much as it could.

Masaru:  “And the Digimon… give us both dreams and courage!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “And Digimon give human beings hope… that anything is possible!”

Marcus’s line here is a little less generic! Believing that anything is possible is a somewhat more Marcus/Masaru-y sentiment, and it is true that he’s been especially a believer of that since he met Agumon.

Masaru & Agumon: “There’s no limit to how far we can evolve!”

~~~~~

Marcus & Agumon: “Ha! We’re friends, and together we make the ultimate team!”

As much as I agree that they’re Friends, it feels a bit weird to be emphasising that in this moment? It feels like it’s putting the focus entirely on just these two and their individual friendship, like it’s solely their power that’s able to trigger Agumon Burst Mode and defeat King Drasil, when it really shouldn’t be. I suppose it could be read like they’re talking about Digimon and humans in general being friends and the ultimate team, but it’s easy to miss that, if that was the intent.

I do in theory like the idea of them bringing their dorky phrase of “ultimate team” and using it to refer to humans and Digimon in general, though! Perhaps if this had been worded as more like “humans and Digimon make the ultimate team!”, it’d be more unambiguously read that way.

King Drasil: “Cannot compute! Cannot compute!”

Okay, now, King Drasil sounds more emotional in this line. Took it a bit longer to reach that point, though.

Oh, poor dubbers. Because Agumon Burst Mode does not have a conventional evolution animation, I guess they’re not allowed to use the evolution music to give it the appropriate feeling of triumph? We’ve just got one of their generic action pieces. Which is a shame, when this had Believer in the original, and the evolution BGM is the best equivalent of that.

Yggdrasil: “I-Impossible!”

~~~~~

King Drasil: “Cannot compute! Cannot compute!”

In this moment, as Agumon Burst Mode smashed through its body and it realised just how destructible it actually was, Yggdrasil dropped the computer thing and went back to being openly emotional about things in its wording (if not in the voice it was using), which was kind of neat. King Drasil is still being a computer, meanwhile, albeit still in an emotional tone.

Yggdrasil: “This is inconceivable! The probability of you defeating me is…”

~~~~~

King Drasil: “Fatal error! The probability of you beating me was zero percent! Fatal error!”

Japanese is vague enough that the tense in which Yggdrasil said that second sentence is ambiguous without it actually finishing the sentence, so I suppose it could have meant to say it in past tense like King Drasil does. But I did kind of like the way it could potentially be saying it in present tense, and it doesn’t finish the sentence because it doesn’t want to admit that suddenly the probability of it being defeated has become quite high, actually.

(It also hasn’t actually fully been defeated, as King Drasil’s past tense implies, given that it’s about to bail the heck out of its destroyed outer body and try to escape.)

The shot of Masaru’s fist cracking the surface of Yggdrasil’s crystalline but humanoid face is cut. I guess that’s a little more reasonable as something that might have seemed too violent, compared to most punching shots they cut out.

Agumon:  “What is this place?”

Masaru:  “Heaven? No, of course not…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “What is… this place…?”

Marcus:  “I don’t know… The Digital World…?”

Obviously we can’t have a reference to something like heaven in our kids’ anime, and certainly not the notion that they might have died, either, gasp, so instead Marcus just somehow thinks this glowing white void could be the Digital World. Uh, sure.

King Drasil’s voice in this scene, while not computery, is still androgynous, like it was while it was being computery. I’m not sure if it’s the same voice actor, but it might be. It certainly is distinctly different from the voice it had the last time it wasn’t talking like a computer, which was that deep masculine voice that just screamed EVIL. Hmm, it’s almost like King Drasil was always more than just Unambiguously Evil Villain Dude and never should have had that voice in the first place, huh?

Luckily, King Drasil is the one character in this series that the dubbers can plausibly give multiple different voices to, thus covering their screwup when they realise they made a terrible voice casting choice in the first place due to not watching ahead. Alas, poor Falcomon.

Yggdrasil: “Why do you wish to live together in one world?”

~~~~~

King Drasil: “Why do Digimon and humans wish to live together in one world?”

Very slight difference here, in that Yggdrasil was only asking about Masaru and Agumon’s personal desire for this, whereas King Drasil is more asking Marcus and Agumon for an explanation as to why all humans and Digimon want to live together. On the one hand, it’s not exactly true that all of them actually want that just yet, but on the other hand it’s kind of neat that King Drasil has been convinced enough to believe that might be the case, even if it doesn’t understand why!

Agumon:  “We can’t learn to appreciate each other if we’re scared of getting hurt.”

Masaru:  “Agumon…” [to Yggdrasil] “You know, ever since I met this guy, I realised that by talking with these fists of mine, I could come to understand the other person no matter who they were.”

~~~~~

Agumon: “That may be true, but the Boss and I are still friends even though we fight sometimes!”

Marcus: “That’s right. You know… even humans don’t always see eye to eye, but… they can still wind up being friends. You just have to be willing to work for it!”

Agumon’s original point about forging friendships being worth it even though they inherently come with potential conflict is still here in the dub. But, of course, we can’t possibly keep Masaru’s distinctive point about communicating with and understanding people using his fists, they’ve removed that from (almost) every other moment it came up. Turns out that point’s pretty relevant to the overall theme of the series as well as to Masaru’s character! Buuuut, not in the dub.

(King Drasil actually knows full well that humans don’t always see eye to eye with each other; one dub-specific thing it complained about regarding humans in an earlier episode was all the wars they have.)

Yggdrasil:  “I see. Then I shall lay myself to rest once more and watch over you.”

~~~~~

King Drasil: “Very well, then. I shall lay myself to rest and protect you from afar without any further meddling.”

Huh, King Drasil’s giving them a slightly better deal here, saying it’s going to protect them. Yggdrasil only said it would watch over them, which doesn’t necessarily constitute doing anything to protect them. Seemed like complete 100% non-interference from Yggdrasil.

Also kinda surprised that King Drasil is willing to admit that it was doing a lot of “meddling”. I guess protecting them from afar, even though that still involves interference with the world in some way, doesn’t count as that…?

Yggdrasil: “Whether or not a world shared among humans and Digimon becomes a reality… will depend on your abilities.”

~~~~~

King Drasil:  “I don’t know if a world can exist where humans and Digimon live together in harmony, but if it is to become a reality, then it will be completely up to you.”

King Drasil kind of makes a point of sounding more doubtful here. Yggdrasil only really said the thing about “it’s all up to you” as a way of stressing that it’s personally going to stay the hell out of this.

Marcus still protests like Masaru did as King Drasil up and leaves, but he has slightly less reason to, since it did at least say it would protect them.

There appears to be a commercial break at the end of this King Drasil scene, which means that Yoshi’s voice calling for Marcus to wake up doesn’t actually overlap with the end of the scene like Yoshino’s did, because that’d probably be weird just before a commercial break.

Agumon:  “You guys…”

Gaomon:  “You’re awake!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Nnngh… is it time to eat?”

Gaomon: “…He’s fine.”

A bit more flavour to Agumon’s waking up in the dub, which I like. I am amused by Gaomon’s teasingly-affectionate logic of “he’s thinking about food, he must be okay.”

Ikuto:  “The dimensional barrier is restored!”

Falcomon:  “It looks like they were able to safely isolate it from the human world!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “The digital barrier has been completely restored!”

Falcomon:  “We were successfully able to separate the two worlds!”

“We” did that? As in, just the DATS group themselves? …How, exactly? I’m pretty sure the only way this makes any kind of sense is if King Drasil did it, which isn’t precisely we. I guess this might be the dubbers not quite piecing together how this could be possible, and so they just kinda shrugged when it came to adding a subject to this line.

Dukemon:  “Your Digisouls… have awoken a miracle!”

~~~~~

Craniamon: “Your powerful DNA Charge helped create a miracle.”

Hm, this pinged me as off in the dub even though it turns out it’s basically the same in the original. Maybe it was the fact that it was subbed as Digisouls, plural, that made it easier for me to read the subbed line as being about humanity’s Digisouls in general, whereas it sounds like the dub’s talking about just Marcus’s DNA Charge, which was not all there was to it.

Craniummon: “You were magnificent, Daimon Masaru. You are without a doubt our true saviour!”

~~~~~

Gallantmon: “You were magnificent, Marcus Damon. You are without a doubt, a true legend of the Digital World.”

(For some reason, the dub swapped around which Royal Knight got these lines, not that it matters.)

That word “saviour” in the original line is the same word that the Holy Capital’s citizens used for Suguru, which was translated as “legend” in the dub. The dub actually remembered this and kept the same translation here, drawing the same connection as in the original!

Masaru:  “Thank you, Royal Knights.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Thanks so much. You guys rocked, too!”

Heh, I enjoy Marcus being more gung-ho about thanking them.

Ikuto:  “Dad… Mom…”

~~~~~

Keenan:  “Mama… Dad…”

Ah, lip-flap meant that they had to find something two syllables long for Keenan to call whichever parent he addressed first. He did also call Frigimon “Mama” when she died, so maybe this is a reference to that?

Ikuto:  “I’m home!”

Kenji:  “Welcome home, Ikuto.”

~~~~~

Keenan: “I’m home!”

Kevin: “That’s right. You are.”

This seems similar but hits different in each version because of the difference in the episode 27 scene it’s calling back to. In the original, Kenji was teaching Ikuto the stock Japanese family phrases used for this sort of occasion, and now he’s actually using them. In the dub, they couldn’t really do that because English doesn’t quite have that sort of thing, so instead Keenan said “Me home” (even though he kind of wasn’t yet in that episode) – and now he really can feel like he's properly at home with his parents, now that it’s all over. It still works in the dub’s version! I like it.

Tohma:  “Relena…”

Relena:  “Thank goodness, Brother… I’m so glad you’re all right!”

~~~~~

Thomas:  “I missed you.”

Relena: “You’re safe! I was so scared… I didn’t know what to think!”

Relena continues to sound more grown-up in the dub, in that she’s articulating her feelings better. Thomas saying he missed her is very cute! I bet he misses her all the time when he’s not able to be with her because all of the other stuff he’s busy with, aww.

Tohma:  “Father…”

Franz:  “Thank you, Tohma.”

Tohma:  “Yes, Dad.”

~~~~~

Thomas: “Father…”

Franz:  “I want to… thank you.”

Thomas: “Well… you’re welcome!”

The dub missed the opportunity to have Thomas call him “Dad” for the first time here! That’s a shame. It’s not even lip-flap’s fault; there’d totally have been a way to fit it in there.

Gotsumon:  “It sure is great that everything worked out!”

Yoshino:  “What are you doing here?”

Gotsumon:  “Hey! Hey, don’t say that! I did my best, too!”

~~~~~

Gotsumon:  “We did it… we saved everyone!”

Yoshi:  “And just what did you do, exactly?”

Gotsumon: “What, are you kidding? I was the back-up plan in case something went wrong! It’s not my fault I wasn’t needed!”

As much as flailing around making excuses like he totally helped when he actually did nothing at all is very in-character for Gotsumon… give him credit, he did help a little? He was one of the many Digimon helping to hold the worlds apart through the power of humanity’s DNA Charge near the end, so he was contributing.

Satsuma:  “You’re safe, Kudamon.”

Kudamon:  “Yes. It’s all thanks to Masaru and the others.”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Welcome back… my old friend.”

Kudamon:  “I guess recruiting Marcus Damon worked out after all.”

Apparently Kudamon’s still thinking about how he wasn’t so on-board with Sampson recruiting Marcus in the beginning? I am surprised the dub remembered enough to call back to that, but I guess that’s neat! Sampson calling Kudamon his old friend is also cute.

(Though he is putting it all down to Marcus, rather than mentioning the others as well.)

Chika:  “Mom!”

~~~~~

Kristy: “Mommy!”

This one is actually not caused by lip-flap, because we don’t see Chika’s mouth move for this line, so this is just the dubbers making the free choice to have her call her mom that in this moment. It does work reasonably well, since they’ve just been in so much danger.

Sayuri:  “I believed that Masaru and Agu-chan would protect you.”

~~~~~

Sarah:  “I never stopped believing that Marcus would be able to make everything turn out all right.”

This is a little more broad – believing that Marcus would fix everything, not just protect Chika from harm – but it’s still very cute and appropriate that Sarah would have believed that, aww.

Masaru:  “I couldn’t bring Dad back with me…”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I’m sorry, I tried, but I couldn’t bring Dad back…”

It’s basically down to having some spare lip-flap, but I do like Marcus mentioning that he tried, even though he couldn’t manage it. Of course he tried.

Sayuri:  “I was prepared for that.”

~~~~~

Sarah:  “I had a feeling you’d say that… but I’m prepared.”

The way Sarah says this is ever so slightly backhanded, making it sound a bit more like she just expected her son to fail. I hope Marcus doesn’t read that into it.

Sayuri:  “That man… Suguru-san has become the wind blowing through the Digital World.”

~~~~~

Sarah:  “I still feel that one day he will return to us.”

…Uhh, okay, so I guess this isn’t nearly such a big deal for Sarah, because apparently she didn’t read Marcus’s bad news as implicitly telling her that Spencer died. Whoops, you might want to clarify that, Marcus. (Except of course he won’t, because this is the dub. And also because Spencer’s about to show up alive anyway, but shush.)

Sayuri:  “Even if we can’t see him, I’m sure he’ll always be watching over us from the other world.”

~~~~~

Sarah: “I’m just sad that he wasn’t able to watch you grow up. He loved you so much, and he would be very proud of you, just like I am.”

This is a really freaking cute sentiment, though! Aww, of course his dad would be proud of him. The dub really can do these cute heartfelt moments quite well when it wants to.

Masaru:  “Dad… Dad!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “It’s Dad… It’s Dad!”

More lip-flap cleverness with the “Dad” syllable discrepancy!

The whole dad-reunion scene gets Probably Marcus’s Theme: Heartwarming Piano Edition as BGM, I approve.

Masaru:  “You’re really… You’re really my dad, right?”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Don’t mess with me… Is it really you this time?”

The dub line makes it even clearer that this isn’t just about his disbelief at his dad being alive, but that, after King Drasil, he doesn’t want to get it wrong again.

Suguru:  “Yeah. The one and only yours truly.”

~~~~~

Spencer: “It’s me. The one and only Spencer Damon.”

For once, the dub keeps Suguru’s dorkily over-the-top dramatic phrasing of things. Spencer’s delivery is a bit more subdued than Suguru’s was, though.

Suguru:  “Yggdrasil restored me to life.”

~~~~~

Spencer:  “As a gift to you, King Drasil brought me back to life.”

Specifically for Marcus? Did it not occur to King Drasil that maybe it ought to do this as a favour to Spencer himself, who’s the person it had really screwed over the most?

Suguru:  “Chika! You’ve sure grown big.”

~~~~~

Spencer: “Kristy! You’re taller than a tree!”

I mean, she’s literally not, Spencer, that’s overselling it. Slightly odd way to comment on how much she’s grown. His delivery is adorably proud, though.

Chika:  “Dad… Dad! Dad!”

~~~~~

Kristy: “Oh, Dad… Daddy… I missed you!”

Aww! She did, didn’t she, even though she never truly knew him in the first place.

Sayuri:  “Dearest…”

~~~~~

Sarah:  “So did I.”

And it’s cute that Sarah then also gets to agree with this sentiment instead of just addressing him!

Suguru:  “Sayuri… I’ve caused you to worry.”

Sayuri:  “Don’t leave us any more, okay?”

~~~~~

Spencer: “Sarah… I’m sorry… So sorry.”

Sarah: “Just… don’t ever leave without us again, okay?”

It’s a little weird that she’s specifically not asking him to leave without us. That makes me feel like she’s imagining him taking another trip to the Digital World, but only if the whole family comes with him? I mean, that would be adorable, but also I think it’s a bit beyond Sarah to really think of that yet, given how the Digital World is still so strongly associated with the fear of losing her family, to her.

Sampson: “The missing… have returned after ten years.”

Thanks to lip-flap, Sampson has a weird awkward pause here in his line, which hilariously sounds like he’s realising exactly as he says it that this makes no sense at all. (Which is a goof from the original, of course, I’m just amused at how the dub line makes it come across.)

Kudamon:  “We were able to defeat Yggdrasil. However…”

Gotsumon:  “For us, we’ve just lost our God. Everyone is upset and confused.”

~~~~~

Kudamon:  “Because we defeated King Drasil, more problems have come up.”

Gotsumon: “The Digital World is in chaos now that they’ve lost their leader. The Digimon are confused.”

I complained about this a little in the original, that it shouldn’t really be the loss of Yggdrasil that causes problems in the Digital World when most Digimon didn’t even know it existed. But at least Kudamon wasn’t necessarily saying that there are only problems because of this, even though Gotsumon apparently thought so.

The BGM score for this scene where the Digimon announce they’re going back is weirdly ominous, whereas in the original it had a more reflective, sad vibe.

There’s another commercial break between this and the next scene, so we sadly don’t get the immediate cut from Marcus being angry to him punching Agumon at the park.

Masaru:  “What’s this crap about leaving? You traitor!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “You’re staying right here! No more talk of leaving!”

I don’t like how Marcus is framing this like he has the right to order Agumon around and decide this for him. Masaru was angry and lashing out, but he wasn’t actually trying to tell Agumon he’s not allowed to leave.

Aaaand suddenly the BGM has become… a comedic one? Turning this heartwrenching scene about best friends expressing their pain at being forced to part ways into a silly haha comic relief thing, because there’s punching involved, I guess, so we’ve got to make it seem slapstick? No! Bad! I do not approve!

Marcus: “You’re more than my best friend, you’re like a brother to me, so why would you wanna leave?!”

This line is basically the same, but it hits different in the dub, where Agumon never actually called him anything that meant “brother” in the first place. It means more for Marcus to say this in that context, where them being like brothers wasn’t already kind of an established thing!

…But it also unavoidably hits completely different when it’s happening over this silly comedic music, making this sound like we’re supposed to see it as some kind of joke, what even, who decided the BGM for this scene, this was the worst choice. (The original BGM was actually just silent at this point! The dub had no reason to put anything here!)

Agumon punching Marcus in the face is flash-cut, because of course. One last hurrah for Team We Can’t Have Punching In This Anime About Punching.

Agumon:  “Even I want to stay with you forever, Aniki!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “You’re like a brother to me, too! I never wanna leave your side!”

Because Agumon has not called Marcus anything meaning “brother” before in the dub, he gets to add this here, which is also cute!

The comedic BGM cuts off around here, at least, thank god, but my god it should never have been there at all.

Masaru:  “Then…! Then why don’t you just stay here?!”

Agumon:  “I *can’t*!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Then why go? Just stay here with me!”

Agumon: “They’re closing the Gate!”

I really like how in the original Agumon responds to this question by desperately blurting out the root of this – that he feels like he can’t stay in the human world. Agumon in the dub instead just begins with part 1 of his explanation, instead of getting right to the heart of his feelings on this, which gives it less impact, and also less reason why Marcus shifts to a more shocked expression upon hearing this one sentence.

Agumon:  “I’ll just be one big *nuisance* who spends his entire time sleeping and getting fat on Sayuri’s fried eggs!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “I’ll just be a waste of space! Splitting my time between sleeping and eating your mother’s fried eggs!”

This is almost the same, but Agumon in the original had this bitter emphasis on the word nuisance that isn’t there in the dub. (Part of that’s thanks to the Japanese word order, though – that word is actually at the end of the sentence the way it’s structured in Japanese, which helps.)

Marcus:  “A… Agumon!”

Marcus somehow still sounds kind of angry here? Why would you sound angry at hearing your best friend and near-enough-brother talk about how he feels like he’ll be nothing but a waste of space in your own home, what even.

Agumon:  “I want to keep having adventures with you, Aniki!”

~~~~~

Agumon:  “I wish we could go on forever having adventures, but I just have to go!”

The way Agumon phrases this in the dub, he’s making it sound like he would keep having adventures if only he stayed with Marcus, but he has to go for… some other reason. Whereas in the original, the point was that he wants to keep having adventures but he can’t have that in the human world, and therefore with Masaru, any more.

(Oh, finally, some appropriately sad BGM, thank you. Matches with when sad BGM kicked in in the original. Still mad about the comedic music earlier, though.)

Masaru:  “Well… Even I… Even I want to be with you! I want to keep running wild with you everywhere until I die!!!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Fine, then go! Who needs ya! You don’t even belong in this world anyway! Go back to the Digital World where you belong! …”

Marcus’s tone is very different here! He’s angry and lashing out and pushing Agumon away instead of desperately blurting out just how badly he doesn’t want to say goodbye either. It’s clear enough that he’s doing it out of anger to cover up how he really feels – and his voice begins to break into tears towards the end, which is pretty painful, but it sure hits different.

The dubbers even edited the shots a bit to work better with this changed mood. The last sentence of this line in the original is over a shot of Masaru on all fours, hanging his head with emotion, but that wouldn’t work so well with Marcus’s anger, so instead the dub cuts that out and just has a shot of the dark clouds overhead.

Masaru:  “Go to the Digital World. This world is too small for you. Go back to the world you belong in.”

~~~~~

Marcus:  “I only wish… I was going with you. I can’t even imagine this world without you. The Earth is gonna seem like a really cold place when you leave.”

The moods have kind of swapped around now! Masaru was, while not nearly as overtly angry as Marcus in the previous line, being rather bitter in tone. But now Marcus is showing his sadness and pain, sounding like he’s crying or at least on the verge of it.

(I can’t help but think that Marcus outright saying he wishes he was going with Agumon ought to make him realise, sooner than he’s actually going to, that… hey, nothing’s stopping him doing that?)

Agumon:  “Aniki…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Aww, Boss…”

Agumon in the original sounded sad, but potentially not for Masaru and more at the fact that Masaru was pushing him away like this. Agumon in the dub is clearly feeling sad for Marcus, who’s literally crying right now. Which makes it work a little less well that he then turns and walks away from this instead of trying to say anything else to comfort him. That made more sense when the scene ended on Masaru putting up an emotional barrier and pushing him away – Agumon was the one who ended the scene crying in the original, not Masaru.

Marcus’s voice actor was really on-point in this scene, for the somewhat different emotional direction he was given with it. Agumon’s dub VA, meanwhile, was fine I guess, but didn’t tug at my heartstrings nearly as much as his original VA’s performance.

Gaomon:  “My Master…! Is no-one else but you.”

Tohma:  “Gaomon…”

~~~~~

Gaomon:  “We will [meet again], sir, I promise. …You’re my best friend, Thomas.”

Thomas: “…Same here.”

Gaomon’s a bit less adorably loyally Dog about this, but this is still extremely cute! Look at them calling each other their best friends, aww.

Lalamon:  “But… it made me feel a bit relieved. Because you’ve become stronger.”

Yoshino:  “That’s not true, Lalamon.”

~~~~~

Lalamon: “I’m actually kind of relieved. To see how strong you’ve become.”

Yoshi: “Yeah, I’m strong – when *you’re* here.”

Yoshino denied being strong at all, but Yoshi’s willing to admit that she is strong if only thanks to Lalamon’s presence (and still implicitly thinks she isn’t on her own).

Yoshino:  “Lalamon!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “Oh, Lalamon! I’m gonna miss you so much!”

Lalamon: [half-muffled from the hug] “I’m gonna miss you too!”

Aww, they are, aren’t they! (They’ve been together for over ten years, gaaah.) More good friendship additions.

The BGM’s shifted away from the sad one and into something which isn’t nearly as bad as the comedic one or anything, but it’s like… homely and cosy and doesn’t give the bittersweet vibe that these scenes ought to have.

Kudamon:  “This place relaxes me the most.”

~~~~~

Kudamon:  “I like coming to this shoulder when I wanna be alone.”

Heh. “Alone”, he says. Little liar of a weaselscarf. It’s cute.

Satsuma:  “Me too.” [he chuckles]

Kudamon:  “So even you can laugh.”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Heh. ‘Wanna be alone’.”

Kudamon: “I’m glad to see you still have your sense of humour, Sampson. I’ll miss that laugh.”

Apparently in the dub, Sampson does have a sense of humour, whereas in the dub, Kudamon’s teasing him about the fact that he usually doesn’t. If Sampson does, it must be something he only ever showed in private with Kudamon, since the DATS members sure never saw it. Which is pretty cute, actually!

Yushima: “Kamemon, drink your milk.”

Yep, this stuff they’re drinking which is making Kamemon’s face red is definitely just milk, no alcohol here, kids.

I forgot how adorably derpy Kamemon’s dub voice is, since we hear it so little.

Yushima:  “Kamemon. Sometimes the moon looks as if it’s changed shape, but it really stays circular all the time. Come back any time. I’ll always be waiting.”

~~~~~

Yushima: “Kamemon. Though we may be as far apart as the moon and Earth, the connection between us will always be strong. One day the Gate may be reopened, and I’ll be right there waiting for you.”

Yushima’s metaphor was apparently too metaphorical for the dub, so they changed it into something a bit more straightforward in meaning (while still being about the moon).

Oh god, Falcomon’s voice. This isn’t a scene about two adorable kids who are best friends having to say goodbye, it’s this old, posh butler saying goodbye to the kid he looks after. It can never read the same way, purely because of that voice. Gah.

Keenan:  “Me thinking, and I decide…”

Why is Keenan still sometimes using an incorrect “me” and a correct “I” in the same sentence, nobody would mess up their grammar like this.

Also, he shouldn’t really be framing this like he’s made a calculated decision to go to the Digital World with Falcomon, because he ought to already know he needs to stay with his family and just be wistfully voicing the fact that part of him wishes he could go with Falcomon anyway.

Falcomon: “No, Keenan, you can’t. You have to stay here and get to know your family.”

This is basically the same line, but it hits different because Falcomon’s voice makes him sound like someone who’d naturally be wise enough to decide something like this selflessly for the sake of Keenan’s family. It hits a lot harder when it’s coming from someone who sounds like a kid, and so he’s being surprisingly thoughtful and selfless about this!

Falcomon still ends up crying too, but, again, it unavoidably hits different because he sounds like an adult ghhhhhhh

Tohma:  “He must not want to say goodbye.”

Sayuri:  “Masaru…”

~~~~~

Thomas:  “I guess he doesn’t want to say goodbye…”

Sarah: “It’s hard for him…”

Aww. I like the sense that Sarah gets it, that Marcus is bad at Painful Emotions, and especially bad at saying goodbye to family members indefinitely.

Agumon:  “Stupid Aniki…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Fine! Forget him, then.”

Ouch, Agumon’s tone and wording are being a fair bit harsher and more lashing out than he was in the original!

Miki and Megumi’s Digital Gate-opening spiel doesn’t have any noticeable emotion in it, like it did in the original.

Agumon:  “Aniki! … Aniki!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Hey, you’re here! … Bye, Boss.”

Agumon’s feelings here in the original were technically ambiguous, but given the excitement in his voice – and the fact that, by the second “Aniki”, Masaru had leapt into the Dive chamber wearing a huge backpack – he was clearly realising this meant that his Aniki was coming with him after all. But apparently in the dub, Agumon somehow hasn’t figured that out yet from the context clues, and is simply happy that he’s going to get to say a proper goodbye?

Masaru:  “Like hell I’ll ever say goodbye!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Stuff your goodbyes in a sock!”

I approve of the dub translating the spirit of Masaru being so gleefully gung-ho about not saying goodbye.

I enjoy the upbeat adventurous tone of the BGM here in the original a lot, but the dub’s BGM here is… kind of nondescript by comparison.

Yoshino:  “Who knows when you can come back if you go now!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “What happens if they decide to never open up the Digital Gate again?”

Really, Yoshi? You’re really willing to accept the possibility that they might never open it, and you’ll never see Lalamon again? Come on. Yoshino was never saying anything to suggest it’d never be opened again, just that Masaru didn’t know how long it’d be.

Masaru:  “Who cares! I’m gonna enjoy travelling through the Digital World no matter how long it takes!”

~~~~~

Marcus:  “I have to go! With Merukimon gone, who’s gonna keep an eye on the Digital World?”

Um, what? Why is this of all things Marcus’s apparent biggest reason for wanting to go? Not because he can’t bear to be apart from Agumon and wants to keep having fighty adventures with his best friend, but just because he thinks he of all people needs to be a replacement for Merukimon??? There are plenty of other powerful Digimon who could fill Merukimon’s shoes – the Royal Knights, anyone? And it’s not like Merukimon was that important of a global figure in the Digital World anyway. Is the dub still clinging to their ridiculous nonsense fact that Merukimon was supposedly the ruler of the entire Digital World, even though that’s been explicitly contradicted by King Drasil’s existence for ages now? What the heck even.

The only way this makes any kind of sense is if Marcus is just saying this as an excuse because he doesn’t want to mention his real reason that he just wants to keep being with Agumon, but, like, why wouldn’t he say that, come on.

Also, he just completely nopes on acknowledging Yoshi’s comment that he might never be able to come back. But then, that is a pretty Marcus thing to do, so.

Suguru:  “Go there and polish up your manliness!”

~~~~~

Spencer: “You go back and keep the peace.”

Of course we can’t have the manliness, so we get this instead. I guess it’s fine and fair enough for him to want Marcus to keep the peace, but it is different and less dorky compared to Suguru wanting him to grow as a person and just keep having adventures and manly fights, like he did when he was stuck there for years.

Marcus: “Let’s go, Agumon! Now we can always fight together, side by side!”

Yes, Marcus, it’s almost as if this is the real reason you want to go with him and it doesn’t need to have anything to do with Merukimon, what even was that.

Agumon:  “Aniki!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Yippee!”

While original-Agumon gave the most adorably delighted exclamation of his aniki’s name ever, dub-Agumon… kinda sounds a bit silly with this here. It just comes across like “oh, yay, fun,” and not “oh my god I’m so glad I don’t have to say goodbye to my best friend indefinitely after all.”

The dub’s opening wouldn’t really work as music to play over the epilogue, so instead, we get the Next Time On music, which I guess is probably the best thing they had for this purpose?

Oh my god, puberty-Keenan’s voice sure is a thing.

Thomas has just won some unspecified “Medical Prize”, rather than specifically the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Him being nineteen is still mentioned by the TV announcer. Does this mean it’s been five years since the events of the series, or just three? Who knows! Take your pick.

The news articles Miki and Megumi are looking at list his name as “Thomas H. Nordstein”. …That’s. That’s not how you spell Norstein, guys. It has literally never been pronounced with an audible “d” in there. How do you get this wrong. And deliberately, at that! It’s on three separate bits of edited text – in Relena’s name, too! That’s not a typo; someone legitimately thought that was how you spell their surname! Oh my god, dubbers, please try caring just a tiny bit.

Either that, or his name canonically is spelled Nordstein in the dub, with a silent D for no reason, and I’ve technically been spelling it wrong every time I’ve written “Norstein” in a dub commentary. But also no, shut up, I haven’t.

Yushima:  “Well, well. It’s still noisy here as always.”

~~~~~

Yushima: “That’s our Yoshi. Always scaring the fish away.”

Not only did Yoshi’s police car zooming past scare Yushima’s fish away, apparently she... makes a habit of doing this to him, somehow? Ooookay then.

The bit at the very end with Marcus and Agumon in the Digital World uses the evolution BGM (the Ultimate-level one), which… I guess kinda works for it? They didn’t get a chance to use that BGM anywhere else in this episode because there were no regular evolution animations, but looks like they found somewhere to squeeze it in anyway.

Masaru:  “Those who disturb the peace in the Digital World… this street fighter, Daimon Masaru-sama, won’t forgive you!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Anyone caught fightin’ in the Digital World has to deal with me, Marcus Damon, the ultimate justice of the peace.”

Marcus apparently isn’t calling himself an ultimate fighter any more, even though this’d be a good time to have that in place of “street fighter”? I guess he really is leaning into that “keep the peace” thing to the point that he’s even made that part of his self-proclaimed title. I do like that they somewhat managed to keep the spirit of the self-sama in how bombastic he sounds about it.

However, I am rather iffy about the fact that he apparently does this to anybody caught fighting, full stop. Not people who are disturbing the peace in particular, like these two gangs of Digimon are doing, but just… literally any fight ever? Nobody’s even allowed to fight for friendly sport and competition, like Marcus himself so enjoys doing? Or for self-defence, if someone’s threatening them? Seems a bit hypocritical that he’s going around stopping any Digimon from simply fighting… by fighting them.

Overall differences

There’s a lot of subtle changes here, but nothing too dramatically different, for the most part.

It’s only very slightly so, but the climax of the fight is a little bit more focused on just Marcus and Agumon’s friendship than on the bond between Digimon and humans in general, which, though I love their friendship, isn’t quite the real point here. There was also that one weird line from Relena about her feeling the Digimon’s power (how), instead of showing that she’s willing the Digimon on with her Digisoul.

A lot of the lines in the cute family and friends bits are made even cuter! The dub’s often pretty good at that sort of thing. Though they did miss the opportunity to have Thomas call his father “Dad” for the first time, which the original did.

Why was there the comedic music there for the first half of Marcus and Agumon’s heartbreaking goodbye scene, that was the worst scoring choice ever, I am Mad about it. You do not take a scene like that and try to present it as a joke! No! (There’s also a bunch of other BGM choices that make some other scenes hit a little bit different, but none of them nearly as bad as this one.)

Once the BGM has stopped being terrible, the emotions in Marcus and Agumon’s goodbye scene are also switched around a bit compared to the original. While Masaru started out anguished and heartfelt and then degenerated into bitterly pushing Agumon away, Marcus begins with angry lashing out but then degenerates into open anguish and actual crying. In the original, Agumon ended the scene crying, while in the dub, Marcus is the one in tears at the end. It mostly works fine either way, but it does kind of beg the question of why Agumon just up and leaves Marcus like that – it makes more sense why he left in the original when Masaru was bitterly telling him to go.

And then, what even was that bit about how Marcus has to go to the Digital World because he needs to replace Merukimon. Not only does it not make sense that he of all people would need to do that, but why on earth would that be his primary reason for going there instead of the part where he wants to keep being with Agumon forever.

The only reason I can think of for why the dub did this is that they really felt like they had to shoehorn in some reason that Marcus needed to go to the Digital World, in order to justify his choice. They didn’t want to let him do it simply because he wanted to, simply because it’s the most Marcus choice to make in this situation and so what other reason does he even need? Because the dub’s narrative has never been okay with letting Marcus just be himself.

See, this isn’t really about this specific episode’s changes so much as it’s an overarching dub thing, but – that bit in my summary for the original episode’s post where I gushed about how much I love the way the narrative never tells Masaru not to be himself? Yeah, Data Squad has tried its best to be the complete opposite of that. It’s constantly presented Marcus as wrong and bad for being the way he is, and that’s one of the things I hate the most about how they treat him. I honestly think that if the Data Squad writers had had control over how the ending actually went, there’s a high chance they’d have written it differently so that Marcus stayed in the human world, just so he could learn to be a Normal Person like is obviously supposed to be better for him, right.