#crunchbite rvb

[rvb-relationship-royale]

RvB Friendship Fray- Round One, Part One, Poll Twenty-Two

[glitterdragonthegreatprotector]

Finally finished it

[asphodeldreams]

something i love about engaging rvb fans on tumblr/through the survey is that now i have people confessing their rvb sins to me. like your favorite antagonist in the show is crunchbite (the alien that got tucker pregnant)? fuck yeah dude, that rules. you think the chorus trilogy is the worst story arc of the show? i am SEATED pls tell me more!!! your favorite season of the WHOLE show is season 19, the finale? WHO ARE YOU I WANNA KNOW YOUR REASONSSSS

[peachybutch]

they call me nonsense edits arizona

[leonardalphachurch]

musing about some stuff about tucker. very loose and train of thought. mentions of sa and racism

there’s a kind of analysis i’ve always found it difficult to talk to wrt tucker is the way his story is, like… sexual assault coded? it’s an aspect of his character that’s important to me and the way i write him but you understand that it requires much more attention and care than the off the cuff meta i usually put up here. i kind of brush upon it with the whole “tucker loves to be betrayed” thing but that’s obviously much more of a lighthearted approach.

there’s the obvious connection of junior. the parallels to sexual assault there i don’t feel like i have to explain? imo i don’t think the show implies that the mechanism was literally rape but there are some jokes that brush up against it, and i know some people do interpret it as such and i don’t think they’re wrong to. especially in the case of trans tucker… we really REALLY didn’t like trans tucker as a teen for this reason lol. people would just so flippantly talk about (and make jokes about?) what was like. quite possibly the most horrifying experience we could imagine. we have less of an emotional response to it these days but we’re still not a huge fan and still hate when ppl make jokes about it. tho that’s true for cis tucker too. we just don’t like “mpreg” jokes in general lol. it’s tolerable when other trans men make them but it’s still not smth we enjoy. especially in the case of tucker being involuntary. it’s just like. i know the show makes them but at least in my opinion the main crux of the comedy there comes not from mocking tucker for being a victim or laughing at the notion of a pregnant man but by treating the fact that tucker had a horror movie plot happen to him as a completely mundane sitcom pregnancy. doc is teaching junior colors tucker is looking at minivans meanwhile he’s eating caboose in the background. i feel like that’s where the humor shines in that situation. i’m getting off topic

these thoughts really started hitting with restoration though. his treatment there is just. i wouldn’t say it’s as strongly sa-coded as the junior stuff but he’s still very much being physically violated and having his agency completely removed. it’s. guh. i’m glad we were having a watch party with our discord but that scene was fucking rough to watch. i genuinely question its inclusion with such a short run time. did we really need to see tucker being tortured there. out of all of the places you could’ve took that plot it just feels like being shocking for the sake of it. kind of off topic again but

tucker is used like. a lot. physically, the entire premise of the show is about the sim troopers being used as glorified target practice. then with crunchbite, then with sigma. the way tucker is repeatedly reduced down to just being his body. completely dehumanized. it’s not about who he is it’s about the way he can be physically used. and there are also moments where he is used for who he is, like, chorus, the blues and reds, even with the sim trooper stuff he’s specifically chosen for blood gulch bc of his personality.

and there is a conversation here about tucker being a black man and the sexualization of black men and the high amount of sexual assault done to black men. and the way that the expectations of sexuality and masculinity affect black men. and the way that tuckers body is physically used very obviously has some clear connotations when you consider his race. but that’s not really my place and even in the spaces of it i do feel qualified to comment on, it would require much MUCH more attention and care to the point where i would basically be writing like. an academic essay. like that’s the kind of thing where i’d genuinely want to be pulling up papers and writings from people more experienced than me. maybe if i ever end up making actual video essays about my rvb thoughts lol.

there’s also the way tucker has an element of hypersexuality to him. he says the temple of procreation didn’t affect him at all, which like haha funny joke but also like. not to get too tmi but we’ve struggled with hypersexuality and pgad and it isn’t. fun. and there’s his premature ejaculation. the fear of someone creeping on him during his time with kai, hell, everything about his behavior in 16. “women are like voltron church the more you hook up the better it gets” just the way he talks to women in general? it is very much sexual harassment and i am NOT excusing that even slightly but it’s also very. safe? no one’s ever going to want to sleep with him if he’s saying “bow chicka bow wow” at them. he’s able to “shoot his shot” and get a guaranteed rejection 99% of the time. so much of tuckers character reads to me as someone who is obsessed with sex but also terrified of it. and like. you could go ohh incel gooner pornbrained man afraid of real women and like. maybe that what the authorial intent with a lot of these jokes but not only do i not feel like that fits with the rest of tuckers character, i also think if you look at the rest of his arc it paints a pretty different picture.

so. i don’t know if i’m going to have tucker being a csa victim be a part of our official headcanoned backstory for him but i definitely think he has some sexual trauma he’s never unpacked. and you could have that just starting with junior but to me it feels like it starts before we even meet him.

…

also ftr i’m not validating the stuff from the origins episode lol. that was written by someone who thinks having child hitler be a camper in his show is funny i literally do not care what he has to say about tucker’s backstory. it makes NO FUCKING SENSE for tuckers early characterization anyway he’s literally. the entire joke of tuckers character in the early seasons is that he’s an inexperienced loser who can’t score because he has no game whos looking for validation by talking like he has lots of experience.

edit: thank you for all the nice words but i’m nervous about this getting too far outside of my circle of mutuals so i’m turning off reblogs for now. if you really wanna reblog it i can turn them back on for you but you have to promise to be chill okay thank you

[high-voltage-rat]

Another round of my late submissions to RvB OC week!

Day 2: Red Team/Blue Team

After their daring escape from the Mother of Invention, former Agents Alberta and Nova Scotia- now just Ali and Kris again- found themselves stuffed in amongst the rank and file of simulation troopers in training. They ended up repainting their armour, hacking into the personnel database, and installing themselves in under the false identities of Amanda Jamitinya and Alotta Fujyna... names that, when questioned, they simply said were ones they wrote as jokes on their enlistment paperwork and now couldn't change.

Stranded in a remote outpost with no way to escape that wouldn't also raise suspicion about their survival, and believing they would be targets of the O.N.I. should they attempt to return to society, Ali and Kris instead elected to take the path of least resistance and act like truly incompetent sim troopers. Just the absolute worst to ever do it. This incredible incompetency attracted the interest of Agent Florida, who added them to the teams being posted in Blood Gulch. In the interest of bolstering the stalemate and lack of open combat between teams, they were placed on opposite sides- Kris on blue, Ali on red. However, their armour had been repainted purple, spawning infinite debates about whether or not the colour belonged to blue team or red team.

(Picrew link: x) (Note that Kris' armour main colour is meant to be black, which is not an available customization colour in Halo 3 and beyond. Bungie had to nerf her and Tex because they were too powerful.)

It didn't take them long to figure out what the true purpose of Blood Gulch was. Given his name, they were acutely aware who- or what- Church was. Given that they didn't know Florida, and he only ever referred to himself as Captain Flowers, they didn't know for certain he was a Freelancer, but very much suspected he was the one reporting back to Command. They remained on edge in the canyon until he died, after which they relaxed significantly and began to regain some semblance of enjoyment in life.

Kris planted a garden outside blue base, growing fruits and vegetables that she guarded fiercely. Ali made a game of stealing from it, using that as the cover story for why they spent an inordinate amount of time over at blue base. The pair likewise regularly stole snacks from Grif's stash, something Simmons noticed but turned a blind eye to only because Ali told him they were doing it to "improve their in with the enemy for better spying capability". They played pranks on each others' teams, met up in the caves to hang out, and just chilled. For a time, they had peace again.

When the events of the Blood Gulch Chronicles occurred, and Agent Texas arrived at the canyon, they returned to stress mode. That is, of course, until Tex informed them both that she knew who they were and didn't care. Given that Tex had a biosynthetic body the two has contributed to the design of, they were both acutely aware that she was an AI- so long as they kept their mouths shut, she would too. Wyoming, on the other hand, luckily didn't know them.

They pretty much allowed things to progress as normal in the BGC, with the pair assisting in fighting O'Malley- who they modified their armour and neural interfaces to keep from possessing them- in order to keep their teams safe. Ali helped Sarge build Tex and Church's new bodies, though he failed to inform her about the additions he'd installed while she was otherwise occupied until it was far too late. Kris joins Tucker and the crew on the great journey, mostly out of distrust for Crunchbite, and is pretty much just waiting for a reason to kill the alien the entire journey. When all hell breaks loose in Season 5, Ali helps Doc deliver Tucker's baby, the cousins manage the tech side of the plans to entrap O'Malley, and when the army of Wyomings attack, they finally cut loose and actually use their combat skills for the first time in years.

None of these efforts change the inevitable, of course- and when everyone is transferred out of Blood Gulch, Kris and Ali ignore their orders to move to Rat's Nest, instead pretending their orders were to move to Outpost 48-A alongside Church. Because this outpost has no red base, and their days of even pretending to care about the red vs. blue conflict are over, Ali simply moves into the same base as the blues. This is where they're found at the beginning of Reconstruction by Caboose and Wash- who the group is not particularly pleased to see. The events of that encounter can be read at the following link:

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

Anyways the “essay” about the energy sword to character development pipeline below the cut

Ok so like yea tucker-crunchbite-junior is, obviously, the first instance of the sword-quest-companion theme/trio that im like, rattling in my head rn

Tucker finds the sword, crunchbite shows up and theres the “quest” that challenges tucker both in the false intent (you need to be the hero) and the true intent (SA leading to Junior which is not handled well but it IS important) which is a push against tucker’s character thus far in that he’s the comic relief, make everything a sex joke archetype— he doesnt take it seriously, he doesnt see himself as important beyond getting just enough recognition to be “hot” and now he’s made to be the so called “hero” and the true plot puts him in the one position that he probably never thought could be him. Bc he wants to get laid so… yeah. Pushes his character if you give it like three seconds of critical thinking and not just the standard “haha alien baby bullshit” (that said, i do enjoy fics that explore crunchbite more and play with the potential of the “joke” shitty character into someone less sinister, but im doin my best to stick to canon rn)

And JUNIOR, oh man, because theres the thing that really solidifies this for me like

The dude who doesnt care doesnt bother is all jokes and ‘man whatever’ energy is a dad, and it starts with him trying to avoid it but he really fucking quickly steps the FUCK up for Junior and its the start of his development that people are like “oh he learns to be a leader on chorus” which i mean kinda yeah but he never struck me as a Leader even on Chorus even tho he does decidedly lead, its not the same as when kimball leads or when wash leads or carolina

He’s leads as a dad bc he is a dad

Not always a good one, but he’s trying and yea sometimes that means being the asshole, sometimes that means screwing up but it also means you fucking care and you take responsibility and you put yourself in danger first (the rescue mission, leaving the lieutenants behind)

And that doesnt start on chorus! Its the most evident there sure but

it starts with junior

It starts with him going after tex to protect his son, it starts with him trying to be a diplomat so they stay together, in sending junior away so he is safe while tucker buys time protecting the temple, it STARTS with him looking at church and going “leave my kid out of this” and yeah the way rvb was written and approached does Not take that seriously bc it wouldnt and if it did it would be a very different show but the implications are there and its acknowledged with tucker’s photograph of junior with his 5th grade basketball team (“i know right? Who carries actual pictures anymore” -tucker) which i could go on about THAT too but suffice to say its very clear that tucker cares so gd much about his kid and yeah his character development isnt super linear but you can basically pinpoint when it starts with the sword and junior

The second run of this trio of things is actually grif which is admittedly, a stretch, a big ol reaching for straws (okay, TECHNICALLY grif is the third run, but i’ll address that in a minute) largely a stretch bc grif… does the pattern backwards

This IS S16 stuff so if ur a shisno paradox hater i respect that, i however am gnawing on it with everything i have and will be going feral so this is your warning thank u for reading the tucker side of it mwah appreciate ya

Anyways

Grif does his plot backwards during timetravel shenanigans

He gets the alien companion/friend who contrasts his character first in Huggins

Grif is a loyal friend, but he is lazy, even after s15’s breakdown and apparent change of tune, he’s still looking to take the path of least resistance, avoiding the call, trying to keep things from moving

Enter Huggins: zippy, full of energy, excitable and just so different in that she is not only so proactive she puts herself in danger (which helps everyone in the long run/plot but its the principle) but shes so fucking lonely

As far as she knows, her family is dead, except for muggins who is so dettached from her, he might as well be a coworker and not her brother

Compared to grif, who has a family even when he tries to push them away (the reds, the blues, KAIKAINA) but hates taking action

Huggins is the start for grif’s arc of “it sucks but someones gotta do it” which in their case is best shown as the trudge across the bottom of the english channel which is so fucking funny to me but it really pushes both of them and puts them firmly in the friends category

Huggins cant zip ahead without grif, grif cant stop moving because huggins wont let him, so they find their little balance of gas vs brakes and together they cruise along p well

The actual push of the “quest” is grif having to be the one who steps up (kinda like tucker but its to the left) he’s the one who starts getting everyone together again across the timeline, even if he is very,,,

Well he’s very Grif about it, but it is still fundamentally, the change in character

Tucker isn’t a always good dad, Grif isn’t always a good instigator of action

But theyre trying and theyre working on it and grif’s arc suffers a Little from being so late in the show and thus not having much of a parallel to pull on but you could argue he gets the parallel from s15 anyways with the refusal of the call (from fake church/loco) and rescue mission but i hesitate to call that a parallel bc its literally back to back but an argument could be made for it which i love

Enter part two: the alien quest giver

“Wait wasnt that huggins”

NOPE huggins was alien companion! The Bestie in grif’s case,

The alien fetch quest comes from atlas, in that stupid wishing sequence but cmon it wouldnt be rvb if the character development wasnt sandwiched inbetween obnoxious gags and stupidity

The quest is less important here admittedly bc again, with grif doing this in reverse its not the challenge to his principle character that it was for tucker, his connection to huggins was the challenge, and this becomes the final push into the development, the “you have a role, now play it” that gives grif the final shove into Doing Things literal!! And his prize? For this character development arc? An alien sword

And thus the inverse version reaches an end, sort of (im pissed that technically he loses his sword, im also ignoring that he loses it in canon bc he fucking earned it okay this is a bit of canon i will ignore and loophole my way around it)

And now we track back to Chorus and to the second iteration of the sword-quest-companion plot

Locus

Now okay i will admit this is conjecture and pepe-silvia-on-corkboard-with-red-string fuckery at this point but hear me out okay!

He gets the sword with Felix’s death. We know this. What we dont know is how the fucking hell he gets off Chorus! We just see him show up later with A’rynasea. The vaguely alien (maybe sentient?? AI? Its implied with the way he addresses her but we literally have her for like two episodes) ship that seems to be the driving force (literal) (bc shes his ship) behind his chosen redemption arc where he pushes himself to help others at no apparent benefit to himself, but because it is, and i quote “the right thing to do”

Arguably, Santa could be Locus’ quest giver, seeing as how he is the one who triggers the whole shift in view for Locus in the first place and that is, technically, what crunchbite does and what atlas finalizes for grif! But the problem is we simply dont have enough of A’rynasea to draw the parallel between her and Locus as personalities, as companions for it to work for me??? But that might just be me overthinking? But it does make Locus’ version is a bit messier depending on who you consider his quest-giver but as far as I’m concerned, he’s still on his quest snd its just up to interpretation if A’rynasea is his companion?? or if theres a secret third alien for Locus that we never wouldve seen even if they planned for that bc its red vs blue and im just delusional about locus and his role in plot and this is just me firing concepts blindly into the sky at this point like - yeah i could still theorize what kind of companion characterization i think locus would work well with bc its more about the wielder than the companion in this sense (sorry junior and huggins i love yall i promise) but thats a completely separate rant at this point and not nearly coherent enough at this exact moment to add it PLUS its ridiculously self indulgent and only marginally canon compliant/adjacent but i will never not be amused by this very specific plot beat happening enough to draw these parallels, as tenuous and vague as the parallels are

[uglybumbo]

Okay, so, um, Tucker is a fighter. Uh, Crunchbite is the healer, and I am the powerful.... and intelligent.... wizard....

Morphu-max.

[rvb-relationship-royale]

RVB Romantic Relationship Royale- Round 1, Part 2, Poll 11

[glitterdragonthegreatprotector]

Another wip, just need the wisemen

[rvbshipbrackets]

There's so many Tucker ships, lets narrow them down:

Because there's so many, more than one will probably make it through, unless the skew of votes is especially devastating

[thicc-mothman]

somedays i feel like i do need an english to blarg-blarg dictionary

[not-so-serious-wastebasket]

Look i forgot that honk honks name was actually crunchbite but ill say definitely the r&b's don't remember this name and just call him honk honk

[rainbow-of-idiots]

I keep thinkin about Tucker giving birth to Junior and this dialogue won’t leave my head lol

Doc: Okay, deep breaths... You need to spread your legs!

Tucker, screeching: THAT’S WHAT GOT ME INTO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE

[bylinehearts]

i mean it when i say the first five seasons of rvb were gold