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maidenvault · 1 month

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Okay so, Crosshair’s hand.

Has anyone pointed this out? When Crosshair kills Nolan, he doesn't use his shooting hand.

He uses his left. Just as he very significantly has to in the series finale.

I don't know if the writers knew as far back as "The Outpost" that Crosshair was going to lose the use of his shooting hand and by extension everything he believed made him strong, a "superior" clone, and safe from being discarded when he was kind of fascism-pilled. But it feels extra significant in retrospect that his first action taken against the Empire is not done with the hand associated with the terrible things he did as an Imperial sniper. And it's after he just got a difficult lesson about how his own personal strength and skills aren't enough to protect him - he was saved twice by Mayday, then possibly only survived through the night because he wouldn't leave him behind and could share his body heat. He may be using his left hand when he shoots Nolan because his other arm is tired from supporting Mayday all the way back, which only adds to the symbolic touch I love that Mayday is using his rifle as a crutch to help him walk as well (and of course, he's at close range so quite meaningfully Crosshair doesn't use the rifle to shoot here either). It all supports the idea of this as the first huge moment of transformation for Crosshair when he's finally turning his fire on the real enemy out of a desire to protect others, however futile and too late it is in this particular situation.

Going back and noticing this really reinforced for me that Crosshair's hand injury probably isn't just meant as a manifestation of his trauma related to Tantiss. It would make sense considering it's his shooting hand that it also has something to do with his inner conflict regarding his changed relationship with violence and killing.

The Batch were introduced as these stereotypically macho soldier characters, an impression that's softened a little as early as the pilot of TBB but still distinguishes them a little from other clones. In a kind of funny way you can look at the whole series as being about these guys who were only brought up to fight gradually discovering and finding peace with their more traditionally feminine sides - literally because of Omega, a female version of themselves who shows them the possibilities of being a family and living for others instead of for violence.

For Crosshair this journey is much more difficult and like a painful rebirth than it is for anyone else because being a soldier was so much of his identity. He's always been the one to most pointedly distinguish his squad from regs because of their "superior" traits that he thinks will make the Empire value them, and he clearly internalized the way the Kaminoans only care about clones as weapons to be used in war. And it all betrays how little value Crosshair actually believes he has deep down. It was easy to go into S3 being especially worried about his fate because he's believed so long that he's not good for anything but fighting and he's the character it was the hardest to imagine adjusting to a different life.

But in retrospect, it was stupid to think they'd let him off that easy and of course the whole point is that it takes a lot to get him there. What exactly he went through on Tantiss beyond the electroshock torture we've seen is never delved into but personally, I think being a soldier is something that's poisoned for Crosshair after he becomes a victim of the Empire himself and subject to their attempts at reconditioning. He's not psychologically able to be that person anymore, but for a long time is still trying to largely rely on himself and his own strength. He tries to sacrifice himself for others because he's still holding onto that part of himself in a way.

But for once in Star Wars we've gotten a fully realized redemption arc showing that sometimes what's harder than giving your life in a redemptive way is to actually have to figure out how to live with the bad things you've done and be better. Some of the people Crosshair hurt were his family, and he has to learn he can only make things better by being there for them. He has to learn that he actually can survive and figure out a way forward from his life as a soldier if he lets himself rely on them, just like he only survived Barton IV with help from Mayday. As @moonstrider9904 explains so well in this post, that is what's so important about Crosshair losing the hand and making that final shot to save Omega with Hunter's support. Symbolically he's had that toxic part of himself actually cut off and it's the final, most painful part of his rebirth. But because of that he's forced to find that he can live on without it, that he's surrounded by people who love and believe in him anyway, and that having superhuman skills as a killer was never what gave him worth.

No, having his shooting hand cut off doesn't "fix" anything or mean that Crosshair is healed. He's probably only begun to recover from everything he's been through. But all we really need to see is that he's firmly found his place as part of a family instead of a squad, and he's not going to be alone as he deals with all of that.

#the bad batch #the bad batch meta #crosshair #tbb crosshair #commander mayday #star wars #meta #my meta

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shutupineedtothink · 2 months

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Ok so my friend and I just recorded 4 HOURS of raw audio breaking down the OUAT pilot, season 1 finale, and discussing the show in general for our new podcast where we make each other watch episodes of our favorite shows and talk about them together. It’s exactly as fun as you would imagine. :)

But even after all that, I still have things I forgot to say or didn’t get to. So here’s a few of them:

1. “Evil” as addiction: the OUAT writers treat the concept of being evil like addiction/substance abuse which is really interesting and kind of a bold choice for a 2011 show about fairytales. Then within that structure they show basically the two choices you have when facing addiction: choose not to use and become a better, healed version of yourself (Regina) or keep using and stay stuck in your patterns and hurt everyone you love forever (Rumple). As a child of an alcoholic who has chosen the latter, I loved watching Regina’s journey in this context and while she stumbles a lot, she keeps striving to be good even though she gets the short end of the stick most of the time. And her North Star is always Henry, which I think is important to show that you don’t just change because you feel like it, there usually has to be the threat of something worse happening if you don’t change (in this case, losing Henry physically and emotionally).

2. Regina Mills might be the most psychologically complex and interesting character on prime time tv in the 2010s? Period??

3. I rambled a good bit in the podcast about the costumes and color symbolism but here’s a bit more for you: Once Regina is on team heroes she often wears some kind of red top (the hero’s color) with a black jacket/coat over it showing that she’s changed on the inside but she still *looks* like the evil queen on the outside and can now use that persona/power to her advantage instead of being consumed by it. By the end of S5 this contrasts with Emma who wears her signature red jacket but a black/white/gray sweater underneath, showing that she’s a little more of a mix of good and evil these days post-dark one. In a color sense, they’re almost mirror images of each other at this point, and it’s really cool.

4. I know a lot of people are really salty about how Emma’s light kind of dims toward S4, 5, 6, and I’m right there with you. Her character feels flatter, and honestly kind of depressed. Now idk if this was a real choice on the writers’/JMo’s part, if she was going through some stuff at this time and it just showed up in the character, or what. That said, it does track for me in a way, especially post-dark one. She should be kind of thrown off by everything that’s happened! She should be changed! I just wish they had done something with it instead of pretending it was normal. If Regina’s struggle with evil is analogous to addiction, why can’t Emma’s struggle with evil be analogous to depression? It would have been an interesting take. Somebody write the fic.

I could keep going but I’ll stop here for now. Stay tuned for the podcast!

#OUAT #Regina mills #Emma swan #swan queen #Henry mills #once upon a time #analysis

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triviallytrue · 2 months

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Watching something as iconic as NGE is kinda funny because every now and then something happens and you're like "oh! that guy! from tumblr!"

General thoughts:

Poor Shinji. Dude keeps getting put in situations.

The Ender's Game comparison keeps coming up for me - child soldiers utterly essential to the cause. The big difference is that they are just completely flubbing their psychological management in NGE - in Ender's Game they had eyes on the kids 24/7 and maintained in-depth psychological profiles on all of them, whereas in NGE they have loads of money and manpower focused on maintaining the EVAs but their equally-essential pilots are just... going to school. Shinji got punched and they didn't know!

And what is Misato's deal, anyway? She's in her 20s and has a crazy amount of authority (she just requisitioned all of Japan's power) and they're just kinda... letting her manage Shinji? It's not her job, but she's just doing it? She's his commanding officer but also his mom/sister, which is a really bad combo. Also I don't think I'm imagining the grooming undertones, those seem intentional.

The real motivator for someone like Shinji is (of course) his social connections - the two schoolkids and Rei, and then maybe to some degree Misato, and then even more distantly his father. Kids don't put themselves through severe distress just for the abstract concept of "saving the world," especially a world that has thus far been very unkind to them. To bring back the Ender's Game comparison, this feels like a very deliberate point that Graff and friends were aware of (the way they used Valentine as a strategic resource) but in NGE it seems to be mostly happenstance that Shinji made some human connections before completely shutting down.

Rei thus far is an interesting foil to Shinji. Normally I get kind of put off by scenes like the one where he walks in on her, but it gives you a lot of important information about both of them. Shinji, underneath all the abandonment issues and repression, is still a pretty normal kid - awkward, horny in that embarrassing adolescent way, deeply self-conscious. Rei is alien (or perhaps just very autistic). She just doesn't clock 90% of the tension at all. She pilots the EVA without complaint (though perhaps with equal psychological distress, just heavily repressed). She also gets along very well with his shitass dad, which is revealing in its own way.

I'm told there is another child, a red haired one, named Asuka(?), the thus-far only implied Second Child. Wonder why she isn't here yet?

I heard that it was some kind of twist that the EVAs were alive in some sense, but doesn't that naturally follow from the first couple episodes? Unit 01 moves to save Rei without a pilot and then goes berserk to kill the angel. Maybe there's more to the twist that I don't know yet.

What's up with the angels? Why are they here, what do they want, what are they exactly? Who cares. They are a plot device in purest form - they enable the rest of the show, but the show is not meaningfully "about" them. They didn't half-ass it though - the designs are absolutely phenomenal.

Oh, and there's some second project NERV is working on, a human transformation thing that got mentioned once and never again. That will probably be important eventually.

#i'm doing femmenietzsche's suggestion of watching 6 episode chunks as arcs #finished the first last night #nge #arc 1

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crooked-wasteland · 10 months

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How many times does a writer have to poorly write a female character before you have to just consider the idea the writer hates women.

Every single female to female interaction in Helluva Boss exists on a sliding scale of hostility, ramping up from Harvest Moon onward. In Harvest Moon, Millie has the most meaningful interactions for her character between her mother and Sister Sally May.

Millie and her Mother do not have a great relationship. Millie's mom is constantly scrutinizing and criticizing everything Millie does. Millie is given a blatant double standard compared to her other siblings. Anything Millie does has consequences while MtF transgender sister Sally May is spoiled by both the family and the writers.

Sally May condescends her older sister constantly. Being given a position of superiority by just her attitude while the way she is allowed to get away with the same things Millie does but can't be excused for shows a clear golden child and scapegoat child. However, none of this ever gets addressed. We are meant to believe that this is what healthy and good female to female familial relationships are supposed to look like when it hinges on unfair family dynamics.

This could have been the plot to the episode. Millie is seeking a constantly critical mother's approval while watching a younger sister get preferred treatment. It would allow a ton of character for Millie. Constant scrutiny and unequal treatment have a psychological effect on children.

Madrano insists there is a sibling rivalry between Sally May and Millie, but doesn't seem to realize where rivalries come from in family dynamics. If it was a competitive outlet like a sport, that would be one thing. However, the only comparison we see throughout the episode is that mom lets Sally May do whatever she wants while Millie is left out. That kind of sibling rivalry is not healthy on a fundamental level. Kids in healthy families get treated fairly. That means that kids should be held to the same expectations in broad strokes while making room for their individuality. Punishing one kid for doing the exact thing the other one is doing without consequence is not a loving, healthy family dynamic, and it says a lot that the criticism is leveled solely on Millie. The only cis female child.

Then there is Truth Seekers. The pilot was the only point where any suggestion of tension between Millie and Loona was expressed before the two had basically no interaction with each other in the series proper. However, it is written like we should just assume they have a not-great relationship as they make little jabs at one another. Like, there is this presumption that women just naturally don't get along that colors their entire interaction. We are supposed to get this idea that they are growing closer throughout the mission but have no foundation of where they are growing from, and every "bond" made is generously coated with backhanded compliments.

Even when being kind, the characters can't help but hiss at each other with insults towards female sensitive issues like aging. It's up there with making fun of someone's weight. It's an issue unfairly targeted towards women that is a genuine source of distress in Western society. Madrano, being a woman, especially one who has openly struggled with aesthetic concerns of her own body, finding nothing wrong with characters attacking female characters for their looks says a lot.

There are additional quips of just blatant misogyny throughout season 2. The character assassination of Stella from being a potentially abusive, cold, and selfish partner to being hyper emotional and screeching all the time with no ability to have a complex throught beyond the level of a toddler. The repeated insults of "bag of holes", "pussy face" and "tit haver" by Blitz as female side characters are boiled down to nothing but the sexual qualities which are then used to demean and belittle them.

The true zeitgeist of Madrano's attitude towards female relationships is seen best in Episode 8. The early interaction of Loona and the poodle hound is vapid, which makes the hostility feel less personal between the characters and more a continuation of this female misogyny. The reasoning for Loona to become so upset is weak throughout the episode but is simultaneously felt to be justified while being a character flaw.

The poodle shows an embarrassing picture of Loona with the same vapid reasoning as Stella: I hurt you because it's my enjoyment. Seeing how this is the second appearance of this characterization, this is where I begin to believe that Vivienne had a hard time making friends with other girls in school. Instead of any level of self-awareness towards maybe herself being an unagreeable person, she assumes this was just how women are. The way she frames Loona in a lot of these scenes feels too personal. It almost feels she assumed we all had this kind of experience growing up as young women, and that is why it never gets fleshed out more.

The scene could have been used so much better with being specifically targeted towards Loona and her character. Have the poodle say something like, "Loona? Lunatic Loona? Is that really you? We thought you, like, died or something!"

Have Loona feel awkward and out of place, unsure if it's an insult or a legitimate concern, and have her toe that line of neutrality as she tries to assess the atmosphere. It shows a desire to be accepted, a very raw inner self that is quick to be triggered, as well as her lacking in interpersonal skills. She can simply pull in with a defensive, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Then, have the poodle respond with something like, "I dunno. You got adopted one day and then totally disappeared. When they didn't return you, we all just assumed you died or some shit."

It is a cruel joke that says way more about Loona than anything we have been given. It can get a laugh as well as open the door to so much unspoken lore that fans could actively explore. It actually establishes Loona's fear of abandonment that never gets set up at all throughout the series. Even Seeing Stars doesn't establish that fear, yet still tries to act like it is present in the story.

This sort of cold disinterest in Loona better fuels the level of insecurity needed to have Loona lash out the way she does. Instead of being so thin-skinned that embarrassment alone triggers her to blow up, have it be the utter loneliness that people she knows don't care whether she is alive or dead and that she lacks fundamental worth to others.

But this isn't the only massive train wreck of escalation seen in the episode. Beelzebub is a genuinely sweet character throughout the episode who does nothing to even hint at selfishness or malice. She graciously accepts an embarrassing defeat in front of everyone while Loona can't so much as laugh at herself. Loona uses Blitz's win to then elevate herself socially in the party, not actually spending any time with her adopted father.

I am genuinely confused by people claiming that Loona was defending Blitz as Beelzebub is simply telling her that her dad is not doing well and that she should check on him. Telling someone their friend or family member is self-destructing is not something anyone needs defending from. That goes into the fanbase more than the writing however.

Back to the actual episode, the line that causes Beelzebub to snap at Loona isn't when Loona accuses her of being jealous or petty, but when Loona merely states that everyone loves Bee. For some reason, that comment is what triggers a fight. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding basic human interaction. That women are too emotional that they blow up for no reason. It almost feels more at home in a JustPearlyThings fever dream than an actual serious exploration of human emotion. Add to it the deescalation doesn't come from communication or finding common ground, but by elevating the comfort of a man.

I'm not sure how many times it needs to appear in action and be so forced to the point that it doesn't even bother to justify itself, by acting like this is just everyone's experience with women, before we can call a spade a spade.

#helluva boss #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #misogeny #misogony #misoginy #misogyny #vivziepop #vivienne medrano #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critique #these characters deserve better #this is why you need a writers room #hire writers #essay writing

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nrdmssgs · 11 months

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HC for Nikolai, pls!! Love it how you describe him! ☀️

Masterlist

First of all, thank you so much since I wasn't sure, anyone would find my interpretation of this character pleasing in any way, because he is... not the nicest guy out there in some situations. I never wanted him to be a saint and I'm happy, we are together in this boat with you)

Second, please next time let me know if you need only sfw or also nsfw versions, because when it comes to CoD, especially to this man - I need to be restrained, otherwise things might happen... I'll try my best to behave this time.

TW: a bit of swearing.

So our guy is a fixer. No, wait, he is The Fixer. Nikolai comes from the culture and time, where everyone saw each other as a vital source of information, services or goods, that one day may help or even save them. That's why Nik always knows a guy, who knows a guy - it's just his nature.

What's in there for you? Let's say, you were deployed for a longer time, you've initially planned, and you are out of some medication, you normally buy in your home country. It's not a matter of life and death, but you would feel nicer, if you had it. But here is the problem: in this part of the globe, no one ever heard of such a medication. Of course you can always go to Price or even Ghost for help, and they will go above and beyond to get you what you need by the very next day. But if you need it in the next few hours? Yep, Nik is your man. He can get anything, anywhere, anytime.

That be said, his most significant weapon is not his body or friendship with Price, not his heli, not even Chimera - it's his tongue. He may never read a single book on psychology, but he feels, what and when to say to push all the buttons, he needs.

Believe me, you want to be on his side, when he starts talking, because he can be cold, manipulative and ruthless in negotiations with his enemies.

Nikolai tries to guard you from this side of him (no matter if you are just his squad mate or love of his life), but it's not always that easy. And if it happens so that his words hurt you in any way - he will feel disgusting. Guilt will torment him for a very long time, because Nik will be sure that no apology is enough.

Ok, before this gets too dark, let's talk about the other side of this skill of his. He loves to fluster you. It amuses him, how just a few words and an occasional touch can paint your pretty face red.

Can and will flirt with you just to see, where your borders are. Will start it in private, only to allow himself comments on the verge of flirting when the rest are around. He can't help it: panic, that he awakes in your eyes is too cute and endearing.

Of course, he will stop it right away, if he sees, you are really uncomfortable with such interactions. Nikolai wants to be a friend, not a terror.

But if you actually answer back? Buckle up, because Nikolai is not the one to back away easily. His commentaries will become more explicit to the point, where he leans over your ear for just a couple of seconds, but you are suffocated by the heat that hit your head for the next hour.

Don't even try to make him blush and lose his concentration in return. Or try, but be ready to fail. Your fingers tucked under his shirt, wide grin accompanying some frivolous joke leaving your lips, all for the sake of making him flustered? Won't work. All you are going to get is a smirk and a sly squint. "Go on, show your pilot, what you have on your mind."

Nik will notice and remember every reaction on his words and actions. Btw, let's hope you don't have a thing for accents, because he may play it cool, be he definitely will remember, how you hold your breath for a short moment every time you hear his voice right above your ear.

Your personal space is a relative concept to Nikolai. He respects it, but keeps changing his opinion on how wide it is, sorry.

One of the best, most loyal friends, you could ever wish for. Always on your side, even if you are wrong.

If anyone hurts his friends and loved ones - Nikolai doesn't give a flying f*ck about laws or moralities. If anything endangers you - it is to be dealt with, even eliminated. If anyone takes you from him?.. Well, they better have a d*mn army ready.

Because Nikolai not only pulls his many strings and has the support of war heroes like Price - Nik may come after his enemies with the Chimera. And this is where things might really get sinister, since... Not all Chimera mercs are famous for their compassion and law-obidience.

Putting it in a very light wording: those who manage to survive an encounter with this organization will soon envy those who did not see their next dawn. And Nik won't hold himself or his men back until you are safe in his hands again.

I don't want to end on a sad note, so here are random fluff hcs.

Of course Nikolai can take 'no' as an answer, but if you are that 'unsure, need a bit convincing' type, he'll gladly proceed. You will be surrounded by his attention and small manifestations of care.

Expect to be constantly wrapped in his jacket if you accidentally mention that you're freezing in a helicopter.

Little presents, knick-knacks from all over the world. But there is a story behind every single one. A story, he whispers to you, after he dragged you to a far table, away from prying eyes.

Light touches. Not suggestive ones, but comforting. Because despite his jokes and flirting, he offers not only his body - most of all, he wants to share his warmth with you.

He loves to make you laugh and will develop inner jokes with you.

If you feel, you are slowly but surely falling for him - make sure to not tell anything to Price, because those two have no secrets between them.

Nikolai will cook for you every time you visit him. Not because his food is something worth of a Michelin restaurant, it's just an old habit: guests must be fed. Don't forget, he comes from a place, where people often had to cook a full 2-3 course lunch from a scrap, so feeding you is not a challenge for this guy, even if you show up at his door at 3 am.

Nikolai will invite you for walks in the forest. In summer and spring, you can agree without worries. In autumn and winter, it is better to be careful. Early autumn is the mushroom picking season (then your walk can drag on for hours). Winter... Do you feel safe in a forest covered with snow with a big Russian guy? Do you? Well, I have 2 words for you: snowball fights.

Don't blame me for not warning you, when you end up with snow in every single piece of your clothes and Nik hovering over you, not letting you rise from a snow pile. Of course, he'll help you get dry, warm and cozy afterward.

#cod #cod modern warfare #cod mw2 #cod x reader #call of duty mw2 #call of duty #mw2 x reader #modern warfare 2 #call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mwii #mw2 fanfic #cod nikolai #nikolai cod #nikolai x you #nikolai x reader #nikolai cod x reader #nikolai headcanons #cod headcanons

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cringefailvox · 3 months

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when it comes to alastor as a character how do you typically approach him ? i’ve seen many interpretations like pilot!alastor dialed to the max (transatlantic old timey friendlyshebang all the way) and eldritch!alastor where the funky deer imagery is played around w and he’s like a cosmic freak lmao anyway tldr; what’s your interpretation of him ?

thank you for the question, it's really interesting!!

i tend to steer pretty clear of the pilot in terms of characterization, if only because i REALLY like the cleaned-up version of him we get in the actual series way more—a little more reserved, a lot less touchy, proud and very careful about maintaining his own ego. he's creepy enough to set people on edge, but his affable manner is easy to mistake for genuine generosity, especially when he's dialing it up to manipulate someone, like when lucifer shows up at the hotel.

in my own writing, i like to characterize him as insecure but deeply resentful of it, to the point of totally deluding himself into believing he's not. alastor's a character who lies to himself so much that even he loses the plot sometimes. i do enjoy exploring a very genuine array of [shudder] feelings at the core of him, what manages to hit him where it hurts before he twists everything sideways into violent fury, but very few people, if any, get a glimpse into that complicated interior. i also believe the smile is an active choice he makes and uses as a shield; it would be a weakness to react in any other way, and in moments of especially high stress, he smiles even harder to convince himself that he's fine.

another thing is, i do interpret him as being a weird and freakish little guy whose polite affect is also equally real. much in the same way i think rosie is genuinely very compassionate and empathetic, she's just also a freak who eats people. he's deeply human in that way. he'll call charlie "my dear" and laughingly chide someone for having poor manners and then, in the same breath, say something insanely sinister that serves the same purpose as dropping everyone into an ice bath—oh yeah, he's not just our quirky uncle with a weird sense of a humor, he's a sadistic serial killer. i actually think a lot about these tags from this excellent radioapple fic strange appetites by gotllphi:

i think alastor probably looks back on being human, and having to fit into human society, as his like depressed cringefail era, sure he's put together for a serial killer, but serial killers are so disorganized and unwell as a class

he has power, respect, and fear in hell, but he's still a human soul who killed lots of other humans before he went to an eternal world where that's the status quo. he is very psychologically unwell, startlingly normal at turns, and nightmarishly terrifying all at once. the opaqueness of his own motivations, even to himself, on top of this makes his little fucked up mind very delicious to try and capture in my work

#thanks for asking im so normal abt him <- lying #alastor #hazbin hotel

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weeb-polls-with-pip · 5 months

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Autistic Anime Boys Side B Round 1 Match 23

Propaganda:

Kensuke -

"Kensuke is a slept-on autistic king. His special interests are military hardware and the EVAs. He gets very excited it when he sees the EVAs or things like aircraft carriers in real life, and can rattle off details about them on the spot from memory. He has a collection of military surplus equipment too, enough to go camping with Shinji. The way he shares this interest with him is really cute, and shows a side of his character that I think is good autistic representation; he's one of the most compassionate characters in the show, and one of the few who is kind to Shinji for entirely self disinterested reasons. He has trouble understanding the psychological effects of EVA piloting however, making him autistic asf."

Goku -

Has a Special interest in fighting that he dedicated his entire life to. And he tend to try to solve problem only through that special interest, even though easier alternative exist in-universe

Is very oblivious of social convention and has trouble relating and understanding others (especially as a child)

Has a very strong sense of justice

Has a very "black and white" view of morality. Someone is either a good guy or a bad guy, again this is especially true when he was a child. To be clear he still understands that someone good can do bad things and vice-versa, and also that a bad person can become a good one. But he still doesn't really take into account that there's also a "grey" area of morality

Like to stim :]

Always wear his gi when possible

Is very cool and really isn't it enough for him to be claimed by the autistic community ?

#tumblr polls #autistic anime boys poll #kensuke aida #aida kensuke #nge #eva #neon genesis evangelion #goku #son goku #dragon ball #db #db goku #dbz #dbs #dragon ball z

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randomfoggytiger · 3 months

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X-Files: An Avoidance Shared by Two

Was reading this beautiful post and had some thoughts.

**Note**: Will ghost edit later~

In light of the Attachment styles posited by @agent-troi, it makes sense why Scully and Mulder developed their unspoken so early on.

If Mulder is Anxious-Avoidant, then it makes sense why he sidesteps voicing his needs and especially his wants, fearing rejection from his support system (parents, girlfriends, friends, partners, etc.)

If Scully is Secure-Avoidant, then it makes sense why she is able to balance a strong sense of self with the need for reciprocal affection and an inability to show her "weakness" or reliance on another person.

But because she's an intelligent woman, Scully would've realized Mulder communicates more efficiently with his hands and eye contact than with his words. Physical touch doesn't seem to be a problem from as early on as the Pilot; but keeping close proximity to her partner in strained moments that crack her "strength" is more of a challenge (ex. Irresistible, Memento Mori, Elegy, A Christmas Carol, Emily, etc.)

Despite Mulder being her priority since Tooms, it took Scully seven years to resolve her avoidant issues, making peace with her ability to pick the right choice (a fear stemming back to the rabbit she'd rescued and accidentally killed) and truly embracing life for what it was.

And because he's an intelligent man, Mulder would've realized Scully needs to hear reciprocal affection from time to time (or else, like you said, she jumps to Never Again and FTF and All Things conclusions.) Most of his compliments early on were spoken to the wind (E.B.E.'s "I think it's remotely plausible someone might think you're hot") or to other people (Irresistible's "pretty woman" and Syzygy's "rigid in a wonderful way", etc.) Never Again was the shakeup that caused Mulder to start making more advances towards Scully (as opposed to Home's rapid withdrawal when she angled his banter more seriously) progressing from "I knew you would tell me if I was making a mistake" to "You're my one in five billion" to "You kept me honest, made me a whole person" to, finally, "You are my constant, my touchstone."

Despite Scully being his priority since One Breath, it took Mulder four years to realize he could lose Scully and begin to dig deep and work hard to prove that he not only wanted but needed her. The real change happened over six years in-- "another life, another world"-- and culminated in an act of impulsive courage that led to their no-excuses-left-to-give kiss in Millennium.

(And isn't it interesting that both of their psychological pivots happened after getting a glimpse of what their life "could have been", i.e. Amor Fati and All Things respectively?)

Lastly, I think both of them recognized the Avoidant nature of the other: Scully had patience when Mulder ran off to the next big mystery instead of wanting a "normal" life with her (The Jersey Devil, bits in War of the Coprophages, Quagmire, Home, Detour, Dreamland, Arcadia, etc.); and Mulder didn't expect but learned to understand whenever Scully pushed him out of her personal walls (the slow build from Beyond the Sea to Never Again, Leonard Betts, Memento Mori, Elegy, Gethsemane, Emily, etc.)

(Sidenote: This dynamic would be yet another layer to their behavior in Never Again: Scully needed affirmation; but Mulder, having never seen or expected this side from her, thought she was gearing up to abandon him. By the end it's all cleared up... but neither is content with their separate but parallel awakenings-- my thoughts on the script here, in-depth meta here, and in-depth Typing post here.)

Conclusion?

Not much at this point, but I think the confident takeaway would be that-- really-- Mulder and Scully grew into their own with each other.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

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velvet-vox · 15 days

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I just wanna preamble, that I'm really sorry towards all of my mutuals who really love Yeva as a character, but for me, I just can't come forward to liking her, and it's all for a simple reason:

Genuinely, why are we getting so much content with Yeva? Why did we need a flashback to the Core collapse when episode 7 was already crammed as it was? Why did we never see Yeva die on screen but saw his unnamed, barely mentioned husband get openly murked on screen? Why do Uzi and Doll treat each other like complete and utter strangers when Yeva should have been there to forge a connection between the two that would have spared us the plot and saved the entire colony in the process by uniting Uzi's resourcefulness and spirit of initiative with Doll's badassery and tactical mind?

I like Doll's dad. Liam clearly didn't bother to give him a name or a personality since he wasn't relevant to the plot, and of course, for Liam Vickers the plot comes before the characters, so him being dead doesn't really ring any alarm bells within me; he is very clearly intended to be a blank slate for the fans to latch on any head canon that suits their ways; he's a little bit of wasted potential, a trait that unfortunately he passed down to his daughter, but at least he doesn't really terrify me in any way that matters (especially since he would theoretically be Khan's foil. ....... Yeah).

But Yeva...... My god.

I shit you not when I say that to me, she's the scariest character in the entire show, way more terrifying than whatever any of that mid crap with the Absolute Solver or that lame ass body horror porn Cynesssa were.

Because to me, Yeva doesn't scare me in any physical, gorey matter, no: Yeva scares me in a psychological way.

Yeva is definitely being built up as this non impressionable, unfathomable badass, who has passed down to Doll all of her girlbossery and mastery of the Absolute Solver; she is the true caring mother between her and Nori, she was so good that Doll wanted to avenge her dead at any cost, she is so cool and strong that the patch worked on her flawlessly, and then proceeded to just completely mop the floor with a possessed Nori; Nori, that, may I remind you, was capable of fending off against a fully possessed Solver Uzi able to throw out copius amounts of black holes; the same Nori, who, as a core, ended that fight by slapping Uzi so hard that it created crumbling debris upon the impact; that Yeva was then killed by a solo hunting V, who has been shown multiple times to play with her food.

And the fandom somehow believes all of that?!?

Nobody is questioning just how sus any of this information is? Even if so many of the pieces when put together don't make any sense?

Do you remember these two shots from episode 6?

Aside from their questionable reliability considering the fact that Tessa was actually Cyn in disguise, don't you remember when we all speculated Nori to be more than a puppet and a possibly willing harbinger of death? I do. Never forgotten.

Now, I'm not jumping the shark and saying that Yeva is actually a manipulative monster, that would be extremely detrimental to the story; I'm saying that with all the parallelisms between the two families it's suspiciously weird that we aren't getting any noticeable narrative similarities between Nori and Yeva; because, you see, when I said before that Khan and Doll's dad weren't foils I actually lied:

In the Pilot, to protect the colony, Khan sacrifices Uzi to N and shuts a door behind him, refusing to shoot with the rail gun; in the flashback of Promening, to protect his daughter, Doll's dad shoots a photo of V to distract her, while Doll watches his dad sacrifice himself behind a door.

We just saw that Uzi's mother survived the attack of the Disassembly Drone (N) and turned into a crab. Now, I don't know all of you, but to me, N always seemed like the most efficient of the Disassembly Drones. His lack of empathy coupled with his low ego and self esteem made him a much more competent murderer than J or V, who were either too busy showboating or coping hard with the consequences of their violent actions; so for N to be unable to kill Nori while V was able to kill Yeva just seems like the most convenient writing decision possible.

(Convenient is a word used by Uzi to describe Doll's trap in episode 6)

Yeva absolutely creeps the f##k out of my brain, it's genuinely so unsettling seeing how much Liam Vickers has been playing up this character's current unimportance and getting away with it by the eyes of the community.

I don't know you all, but I haven't felt scared by Murder Drones at all ever since the Alice finger scene in episode 6. I was like, "cool Liam, do whatever you want, play up all the horror that you like, congratulations, I'm officially desensitized. Your cute little flesh iron puppy that you've been building up for a year barely stroked a dent into me" but I'm not like that with Yeva. Whenever a fandom starts to play up a character's innocence that's when my fight or flight reaction kicks in. I've been a fervent protester of indoctrination for all of my life, and that includes fandom culture and mob thinking; I ain't buying any of you all sweet Yeva crap until episode 8 rolls around.

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bsxcrxts · 4 months

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YEAHHHHHHHHHHH TECH THOTS TELL ME ALL ABOUT HIM can we delve into the sex pollen thing because I'm ultra curious

I actually had to take an entire day to gather my thoughts bc omg, I feel like he’s kind of a mystery??? but here are a couple of conclusions I’ve reached

minors dni and ages in bios pls

early on, has a hard time figuring out if you actually like him or not, mostly because he's ruminating on the logic of why it doesn't make sense that you would choose him. he knows he likes you, but Does Not enjoy when his brothers make comments about his crush on you. genuinely won't even look at them or respond, which is basically confirmation for him (he doesn't realize this)

reserved, until he isn't. has a tendency to talk in purely scientific terms unless the two of you are in relative privacy. doesn't really like excessive PDA very much but will hold your hand especially in a crowd. Secretly feels a sense of pride if you lean your head on his shoulder

prefers to be communicated with directly so he can't reason his way out of his feelings. once you actually properly confess to him it's like a lever gets flipped in his brain

this man does not half-ass anything. ever. and that extends to his sex life

by that I mean I think he will truly try anything once, even if he doesn't already have an inclination that he'd like it, he'll try it anyway for you, and make some corny comment about the scientific process about it

equally submissive and dominant. a true switch if I've ever seen one

possessive. this post is already so long otherwise I'd elaborate but I fear I’d ramble. someone ask me about it

his primary love language is acts of service but of course it’s his own little spin on it of course. let him fix your datapad, tinker little inventions for you, if you need to go somewhere he’ll walk with you or pilot you there, he just wants to do things for you. His brothers are kinda flabbergasted because getting him to break his concentration for them is crazy difficult but if you ask him 👀

I have to stop there for general thoughts but I have a lot more headcanons but I wanna get into the sex pollen thing so!!

I can honestly see so many possible scenarios omg

let's start with what happens if you're not together and you happen to accidentally get hit with sex pollen on a mission

Tech is probably one of the only ones who knows the full extent of the effects of the pollen, and he's worried about you :( not because he doesn't know the solution (it's obvious to him what has to happen) but because you're clearly in discomfort

kind of floored that you want to fuck him and not just anyone to satiate the pollen. not to get randomly into his psychology on a sex pollen prompt, but I think Tech has a lot of self assurance (maybe even an ego) about certain things he knows he's good at and has other things he fully expects his brothers to be "the obvious choice" for

but he's not going to argue with you about it. maybe quickly verify that you're actually sure but that's all

gets really affectionate with you really quickly under this specific circumstance. normally he'd be a bit more restrained about calling you pet names or whatever but he's trying to reassure you a bit, so if he calls you love or good girl... well...

I would probably be prepared for this to spark a relationship with him after some embarrassment on both your ends. but I don't think he can fuck you for the first time in those circumstances and get over it very easily lol

okay alternatively... I fully believe during the duration of your relationship, he's accidentally fucked up and doused himself with sex pollen or a strong aphrodisiac somehow

he strikes me as a person who collects things "in case" or "to run experiments on later" in general so I can absolutely see him having random things around that are unknown levels of dangerous

and like. whoops. that random powder he picked up three systems ago that he meant to identify got knocked over, and is now all over his bunk

tries to deal with it alone. fails

goes to you kind of sheepishly and describes what happened

as if you wouldn't be happy to help him

at least he knows what the purpose of the powder is now?

after you've fucked it out of his system, he IS devious enough to think about the possibility of distilling it to be wayyy less strong and use it in the bedroom occasionally. for fun instead of necessity lol

#please if you are lurking and have tech thoughts my inbox is open #tbb tech x reader #tbb tech smut #feral thirsty for him in a way that will embarrass me laterrrr #tech ♥️#tech smut

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mauesartetc · 2 months

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What is your opinion on Winx Club and it's art direction?

Honestly I never watched Winx Club growing up, so my frame of reference for it isn't particularly intimate. But just looking at the characters, it's clear there's a bit of Sameface and Samebody Syndrome going on.

The art style's certainly unique for a Western kids' show, and there's a nice variety of bright colors. But man, I hate to think what kinds of messages the show's young target audience took away from these designs. If all kids see in their media are tall, impossibly skinny bodies portrayed as desirable, they'll wonder why their own bodies don't match. And creators should be especially sensitive to this when they're making shows for girls, since media bombards them with a host of beauty standards to measure up to (and it's not like I'm any kind of expert in child psychology, but I'd wager the advent of social media hasn't helped matters). So it frankly didn't surprise me to learn that this show was created by a dude.

Look, I'm not saying men can't be mindful of the effects media can have on girls, nor am I saying men and boys never deal with their own body image issues. But if you're making a show with a majority-female cast, maybe consult some women about their designs-? In the credits of the first episode there are two feminine names listed as character designers (Michele Lilli and Andrea Pulito), but they appear to be outnumbered by twice as many men. (Though apparently those names can be masculine in Italian, so it's possible Michele and Andrea are men as well. Too bad their IMDB pages don't list pronouns for them.)

And according to Winx Club's Wikipedia page, after a pilot that was unsatisfying to the creator, the team hired fashion designers to revamp the characters. At first I thought this would explain the girls' proportions (it's common practice in fashion design to draw slim, taller-than-average figures with elongated legs), but the concept art from the pilot tells a different story. Even before the fashion designers came aboard, all the girls had the same tall, skinny physique.

Not that there's anything wrong with being tall and skinny- hell, I'm a beanpole myself! But when all your characters have the exact same body type, whatever that may be, it leaves out so much human variety and just looks repetitive as a result. It's boring. And on top of that, it creates a visual impression that these characters are interchangeable with little to no individuality. The girls do have their own distinct personalities in the show (I ended up watching the entirety of Season 1 for this post), but those personalities don't come across well in still images.

It'd help if they were posed in ways that showcased their individual traits rather than just... "feminine and vaguely playful" across the board. Where's Stella's cockiness, Flora's kindness, Musa's sarcasm, Techna's logic? I'm wondering if the fashion designers sketched out these poses as well, because they seem much better suited to displaying clothes than demonstrating character.

(To make matters worse, there's a point in the show where the girls look like literal clones. This screenshot where they're all wearing the same outfit really highlights just how little body diversity they have.)

And what's bonkers about the faces looking so extremely similar is that creator Iginio Straffi based these characters on real women-? Namely Britney Spears for Bloom, Cameron Diaz for Stella, Jennifer Lopez for Flora, Pink for Techna, Lucy Liu for Musa, and Beyonce for Aisha. Here's how they all looked around the time of Winx Club's development:

And here's how I'd use the photos as a starting point to make each character's face stand out more.

They seriously couldn't have just leaned in to what made each face unique rather than painting them all with the same brush?

I get it, drawing all the characters with the same base makes it easier to keep them on model (and I imagine it keeps things cost-effective when making toys of them). But good god, you couldn't have treated them as actual characters rather than paper dolls for the fashion of the week?

From what I saw of the show, it's fine. It's passable. I fully accept that I'm not the target audience for it, but it's not bad for what it is. Could use a ton more character development, though, both in the designs and the writing. In any case, I'm glad that present-day animated shows seem to be evolving past cookie-cutter character design.

To close this out, here's something that I absolutely should not be able to get away with:

Recognizing these poses from the DVD cover is a sign of knowledge.

Realizing I switched them around is a sign of wisdom.

#character design #winx club #critique #sameface syndrome #samebody syndrome #media #media criticism #long post #ask #phasedahmer

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ips-northstar-official · 11 months

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I have to ask this, is there a way you can mount speakers on the outside of the Caliban without restricting movement enough? Im already blasting the Doom soundtrack as loud as I can but my targets dont seem to hear it soon enough to even try to run

All IPS-N mechanized chassis are built with the aftermarket in mind, so you can rest assured that no matter what you install, the mech will function with the reliability you’ve come to expect. This includes room for pilots to make personal adjustments to make their mech perfect for them.

You’re in luck, though! As this is a very common request from more psychological warfare-conscious Caliban pilots, we have an in-house product created especially for this need. The ISS-75 Pulsar Inline Speaker System is designed specifically to fit seamlessly within most Caliban models, and carries volume enough to shiver the timbers of even the hardiest opponent.

Rip and tear in confidence, pilot.

#lancerrpg #lancer rpg

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sethnakht · 1 year

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fic recs feat. darth vader

Back in the day, I posted a list of fics (centered on the character of Darth Vader, in relation to Leia in particular) that left a strong impression on me as a reader. As part of a 2023 resolution to ease back into active reading, I wanted to shout out some newer stories that have equally grabbed my imagination. Like the original list, these stories are focused on Vader, especially if not exclusively in dialogue with Leia.

For context, I look for stories that grapple with the suit, with its effects, so you can expect medical and psychological horror as a theme. I also really like the kinds of horror stories you can tell with a character like Vader: I'm drawn to stories abounding with ghosts and gore. tl;dr - you can expect graphic depictions of violence and body horror, and please heed the tags on the fics themselves.

✦ appenza, multi-chapter wip by zinoviev, darth vader & leia organa, leia organa & luke skywalker

As a girl, Leia always dreamed of the stars. She had two passions: to become a pilot and to make the galaxy a better place. On her sixteenth birthday, she ran away from home to do what she thought was right. Two years later, she is a stellar recruit at an Imperial flight academy when an unwanted foe takes interest in her: Darth Vader.

Leia's characterization takes a stark departure here from the norm - she's alienated from her family and role on Alderaan, and has run away to become a pilot - offering a fresh and bold perspective on the AU scenario where Vader discovers her before Luke.

✦ divine comedy, multi-chapter wip by frodogenic, darth sidious & ghost!padmé amidala

Palpatine knows exactly how Padme Amidala died-trying to save her fool of a husband. What he can't understand is why she won't stop trying... Canon-compliant multi-chapter fic, spanning ROTS to ROTJ.

Padmé lives on a ghost, but only Palpatine can see her. Banger of a set up, and I love how this story is told from his perspective, slippery and odious; the cunning displayed by both as they make competing bets on Anakin’s fate.

✦ greater intrepidity than I could behold myself, orphaned oneshot, leia organa & darth vader

A towering, sinister shape in all black trudges into view. The sight of it is a confusing clash of associations as she and the creature try to identify it, an amalgamation of man-machine-beast. Its loud respiration cycles send chills down her spine. It is the center of the abnormality, she realizes.

In a dream that is also an allegory, Leia enters the mind of a red-eyed animal drawn by gnawing hunger into Vader’s presence. Sharp, visceral writing.

✦ heartstrings, completed multi-chapter genfic by severnlight, darth vader & leia organa

Forced to deliver a mysterious message, Princess Leia suddenly finds herself on a quest to chase ephemera alongside Darth Vader. Things wouldn't be so bad if he only acted like himself.

Fantastical, atmospheric variation on the AU scenario where Leia’s parentage is revealed to Vader before their relationship is irretrievably soured on the Death Star.

✦ in the deep and perfect dark, completed multi-chapter slashfic by qqueenofhades, darth vader/obi-wan kenobi

Obi-Wan considers cursing at it, or shouting at it, neither of which would do the least amount of good. Droids are nothing more than the reflection of their makers’ wishes and intentions; if this one has been designed to sit back and watch him suffer, that is not its fault but those who ordered it to do so. No machine can replicate the simple, spontaneous hatred and cruelty of an organic being ...

AU from the Kenobi show. I came to this by chance and am glad I took the plunge; there are scenes that continue to present themselves to me vividly weeks later, thanks to evocative writing.

✦ madhouse promenade, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader/ghost!padmé amidala

In a bid to save his new apprentice's life, Darth Sidious siphoned the life force from Padmé Amidala, ultimately killing her. Ten years later, after finding out the truth, Darth Vader finds himself haunted by her ghost, and Padmé finds herself face-to-face with what her husband has become.

It's a thankless task to try and explain why this hits so hard, in multiple registers; the premise is gruesome, hilarious, the scene gothic-romantic and post-apocalyptic, the characters melancholy, bitter, unleashed, and cruel, somehow also at their best.

✦ more to me, and more in my mediations, multi-chapter wip by whetstonefires (Kieron_ODuibhir on AO3), darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

The threads of life he’d felt slipping away were clutched fiercely now, as though for the first time since the Emperor’s death—for the first time in Luke’s lifetime possibly—his father had a reason to survive.

It's never explicitly established in ROTJ whether Vader picked up that Luke's sister was Leia or merely called the word, the feeling from his mind; this story launches from the premise that he was going to die in ignorance, and that learning Leia is his daughter gives him a reason to hold on, to actively atone. There's tremendous humor and sadness and discomfort here; Vader is at once pitiable and impossible to pity, and Leia's perspective gives room for many shades of ambivalence to fester and bloom.

✦ mythology, multi-story series by husborth, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker, darth vader & obi-wan kenobi

In a universe where Darth Vader uncovered his lost twins and raised them in the heart of the Empire, Luke more-or-less accidentally instigates the most painful family reunion the galaxy has ever seen.

I'm desperate for this series to continue, for more of this particular Vader, this Leia, this Luke, and this Obi-Wan - all flawed, all hurting, all slowly beginning to heal.

✦ nameless, on the edge of nowhere, multi-chapter wip by ambivalent-cosmos (Taxonamie on AO3), darth vader & leia organa

Commander Luke Skywalker is MIA. Darth Vader is MIA. Rebel command has hopes, and they have fears, and the wrong ones will come true. Alone in a big bad galaxy, what will Anakin Skywalker do to find his son? Whatever he has to, including walk the razor's edge of tentative alliance with the Rebels who would be happy to spit on his corpse. Free from all Masters, can Anakin learn who he wants to be, at last?

Vader survives the second Death Star with no inkling that his daughter is Leia; separated from Luke during a hurried last-second escape, he ends up having to fend for himself, half-dead and without his suit, to the point of negotiating with the Alliance on his own. There's splendid tension here from the fact that Leia knows more than he does; even exposed as an invalid, on hunger strike, and at a knowledge disadvantage, Vader remains palpably dangerous, volatile, compelling.

✦ notes from the dark side of the moon, completed one-shot by amylion, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

When suddenly some of the rich and powerful of the galaxy begin to disappear and later turn up dead on a consistent basis, it worries both the Empire and the Alliance enough to open up an investigation. Only half-heartedly though, because there's also the matter of the war to distract them. That is, until Darth Vader disappears...

I love this set-up: Vader, deprived of his mask and further neutralized with Force binders, ends up shut up in a prison cell with Leia, and she can't begin to guess as to why.

✦ order carnivora, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader & leia organa

In a universe where Leia is told the truth of her biological parentage as a child, she makes a deal to save the galaxy from certain destruction; she'll surrender herself to Vader if he'll destroy the Death Star. Between the galaxy and what he wants, there's only one choice Vader always makes.

Leia saves herself from torture on the Death Star by revealing her parentage to Vader - the trope feels fresh in this giddy, wild ride of a take. Vader is as insane, Leia as exasperated, foul-mouthed, and unpredictable as one might hope.

✦ red meat, short stories by husborth, darth vader & darth sidious

A collection of short stories about Darth Vader and the Emperor, and the absolute vile nonsense evil wizards do in their spare time.

It feels pointless to try and describe what is best experienced for oneself - the superlative character study, more wickedly imaginative and gloriously unhinged than anything the official canon-makers could even dream of producing. NB. - dead dove, do not eat

✦ the good he seeks, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader & luke skywalker

After killing the Emperor, Darth Vader agreed to serve the fledgling New Republic and destroy the last true-believers of the Empire he had once helped create. But he's living on borrowed time.

Images from this story haunt my waking hours; husborth's command of language and gift for building scenes of ruin and devastation into which love and humor nevertheless shine - leave me speechless. One of my absolute favorites.

✦ this place loves what it eats, multi-chapter wip by roadtripexpert, darth vader & leia organa

What could be called but isn’t death, or Leia Organa doesn't kill the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker.

Leia, not Palpatine, is the one who retrieves Vader from the banks of Mustafar, in this feverish, lyrical, astonishing time-travel AU.

✦ twin suns at the door of night, multi-chapter wip by achrmy, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

In the ruins of Polis Massa Medical Facility Vader finds the memory bank of a midwife droid, and within…multiple revelations. Luke Skywalker has a vision of Vader in an unimaginable state, engulfed in flames, hunted…and vulnerable. An alternate universe story, beginning from Darth Vader 2020 #5

AU of the ongoing comic series, set after Vader is brutally punished by the Emperor for failing to capture Luke at Bespin. Enjoyed this both as a commentary on the comic and as a standalone adventure story.

✦ wastelands, completed multi-chapter genfic by mistress_siana, ghost!darth vader & leia organa

When Leia’s ship crashes, she’s faced with a choice: die, or accept help from a Force ghost who used to be good at fixing things.

Vivid reimagining of the trope where Anakin's ghost helps Leia survive a crash. There's a toxic cloud, "pulsating green" on the horizon, that I've not been able to forget months after first reading this.

✦ white orchid, multi-chapter, multi-fic wip by husborth and whetstonefires (Kieron_ODuibhir on AO3), darth vader & leia organa

Emperor Palpatine dies unexpectedly a year before the Death Star would be deemed operational. His heir apparent, Darth Vader, startles the galaxy by passing up the throne, and then passing it on to the newly-elected Senator of Alderaan, Leia Organa, after the Force leads him to directly to her. The new Empress inherits a terrorized galaxy, a broken Empire to tear down from the inside, and the weirdest second-in-command anyone can imagine.

See also this glorious illustration by symeona. The story that got me to start reading here again, replete with ironies and delights like a murderous garden and a palace designed to be impassable.

#fic recs #darth vader #anakin skywalker #leia organa #genfic recs #long post

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just-1other-nerd · 8 months

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Okay, so I watched the pilot of The Amazing Digital Circus now that I've found out that it's a YouTube show which means I have access to it in my country. And boy, I've got some things to say:

Great voice acting and great casting especially for Pomni, Jax and Ragatha

I love and hate the visuals, I hate, that it looks so much like plastic, so smooth and textureless and so many contrasting and shrieking colours because I don't like looking at something like that (Idk it's kinda too much and not enough at the same time). But I love it because I'd say that's clearly the vibe they were going for, it really works for the story. It is supposed to look fake, over the top and like plastic to mimic children's toys. It's also supposed to give you the ick and overstimulate you because our main character is overwhelmed and doesn't feel save in this environment because Pomni clearly isn't save. But just as the character, the viewer will eventually adapt to this world.

The animation is really good, even though the characters have limited facial expressions due to being toy-like (for example can't really do many microexpressions with your nose if it's just a triangle) but that also means you can go for more cartoonish expressions which are animated very well and contribute to the overall surreal vibe. I think in this sense it reminds me of Toy Story.

I really like the character design, it's expressive, colourful and off-putting, some characters are more abstract than others, some more like toys. All of them seem fun at first but then you remember that those are human souls trapped in those bodys which they didn't even choose. On that note I got to say how perfidious it is that the new character in the circus is a harlequin/joker/jester when the one that they get rid of is a clown, you know, like a replacement. Each character has unique physical strenghs and weaknesses and I'm curious how the creators are gonna play with that. Nothing really fits together just like in a kid's toy chest.

I love the writing. It's only the "pilot" and yet they already set up so many things (like that computer and that "C&A" logo) and make you ask so many questions and they get you invested in the mystery element of everything, kinda reminds me of Gravity Falls. They clearly already have a vision in mind and know where they want to go. Given that they are indepentent it makes sense that their pilot is different than TV show pilots which are there to show to producers etc. so that they can decide whether to invest in them or not, like compared to the ATLA pilot this isn't a random episode but the beginning of a story. It's a good set up for most of the characters: Caine as the insane game master, Bubbles as their assistent who's not good at their job, Pomni as the new one through which we get to experience the psychological horror of being stuck in a digital world, Jax as the sarcastic jerk, Ragatha as the sympathetic and empathetic one who helps making things easier for Pomni, Kinger as the crazy old one, Zooble as the done-with-it-all one and Gangle as the shy and emotional one. I really hope we explore the last three a bit more in future episodes. They have really good jokes which help create the vibe by enhancing the dissonance between the childish setting and design but very mature and disturbing premise by making the humor mature and the horrifying concept funny which it really shouldn't be. And that kinda fucks with you once you realise that you are suddenly laughing at this very traumatising thing which plays dress-up as something fun. Everything is very kafkaesque (had to read "Der Verschollene" in school so we talked extensively about what that means) in the sense of the main character and we as observers don't know what the fuck is going on and how this world works and feel helpless and trapped in those structures which we can't understand because they're not meant to be understood. But it differs from Kafka's work because the main character hasn't got the personality of an empty slice of toast and it isn't just misery, as I said there is humor and it isn't dreary but colourful. The concept is well established as well, we're going to have little quests and adventures each episode while the overarcing plot is that the characters try to find out what's even going on and how they can escape. The world building is good, like they set up future locations, characters that aren't humans but you're not sure if they are some of the aforementioned NPCs (sun and moon), the void as a concept. But they leave enough unexplained to explore it in future episodes

Now the questions I have: Who or what created that digital world, how much authority does Caine really have, why is nobody allowed in the void, how does the weird headset trap you in this world, how long have the others been there, who are the other abstracted humans, what's going to happen with them, why all of this, where the fuck was that café where Caine and Bubbles chilled, did he really not know what was going on with Kaufmo (you know because he has all those eyes which supposedly watch all of them), for whom are they performing that theme song, why can't they remember anything about themselves except how they got to this world and that they shouldn't be there, what's with that computer, what was going on between Caine and the moon, what was that dial-up 3.40 minutes in, what's with the exit door because I don't believe for a second that he was trying to make this a gift for them, what does "C&A" mean, does the C stand for Caine, who choses the avatar of the humans? And most importantly: How will they escape?

#this is longer that I expected but whatever #now it's out of my system #the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc jax #tadc pomni #tadc caine #tadc zooble #tadc gangle #tadc ragatha #tadc kinger #tadc kaufmo #tadc bubble #tadc theory #tadc meta

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