#hawkeye speculation

[bisexualriza]

we know that Berthold was a pretty shitty father to Riza, and we know it's all because of his alchemy research. but because i'm currently in a pre-canon headspace, i've been speculating reasons for his neglect outside of just his obsession for alchemy.

incomprehensible brainrot below.

what if he straight up did not want a daughter. maybe he wanted a son instead, and his wife passed away before they could try for another child. it would partially explain why he showed more favor to Roy during his apprenticeship; Roy was the son he never had.

sexism aside, that can even be simplified to Berthold wanting a child who can perform alchemy. we don't know if Riza never showed an interest in it, or just wasnt able to grasp it, but she definitely isn't an alchemist in canon. (however. fanon secret alchemist Riza, i love u) it also explains his favoritism towards Roy as the prodigy child alchemist he also never had.

hell it could be a combination of both. Riza just wasnt good enough for him :(

on some darker notes, what if he didn't like Riza because, in however many ways, she reminded him of his late wife?

we dont get much information about Mrs Hawkeye, only the fact that she "died a long time ago", said by teenaged Riza in front of her father's grave. i emphasize teenaged because it means that, somewhere in her early childhood was when her mother died, and it's unclear if she remembers her mother, or even knew her at all.

we know that Berthold has been researching flame alchemy for decades, possibly before Riza was born, possibly before he even got married. whether or not that was a happy marriage is up for debate, but it clearly it was....substantial enough to produce Riza. maybe with his wife present, Berthold wasnt so deep into his research. maybe for a short period of time, he was actually a loving husband and father.

but then his wife did die. all he had left was his daughter. instead of the logical thing and, ya know, being appreciative of the only family he had left, he buries himself in his work as a result of his grief. distancing from his very young daughter, neglecting her in the process. why would he do this? because she reminds him too much of his wife.

Riza probably gets her blonde hair from him, sure, but her Big Beautiful Brown Eyes had to come from somewhere else, that being her mom. maybe even some parts her personality, outside of her reclusiveness, are just like her mom, like her sense of humor. he didnt cherish the fact that some parts of his wife were left behind in their daughter. the memories were too painful.

this would be even more emphasized if Mrs Hawkeye died tragically, like in an accident that could've been prevented, or even in childbirth (honestly Riza being "responsible" for her mother's passing would make this even more messed up.....Berthold blaming her for losing his wife, Riza never getting to meet her mother at all....)

anyways those are brain thoughts i've been circulating that i dont know what to do with. save yourselves, i'm too far gone in the pre-canon royai rabbit hole.

[remyfire]

Lines that make my brain go wild with headcanons and speculation.

For context for those who are less familiar with the Bible, this is a reference to Cain's, "Am I my brother's keeper?" after he's murdered his brother, Abel. He's feeling guilty, backed into a corner, afraid that he'll be found out.

So of course I'm gonna look at this and go. Hawk. What were you and BJ just doing that's made you feel so nervous?

[thebreakfastgenie]

What if BJ’s name really was Billy Joel Hunnicutt?

I HAVE had this exact thought wefgweyufgweyfe

[leilanihours]

# IMGONNAGETYOUBACK

pairing: paige bueckers x ex-gf/iowa!reader

word count: 4880

warnings: suggestive content, arguing

summary: your "rivalry" with a certain uconn blonde has its speculation, but no one knows what happened behind the scenes.

⭑ from lani: why is every single thing ive posted based off of a song..anyways..hope yall enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it

masterlist !

AS YOU SLIP into your black jersey, adrenaline courses through your veins. you and your teammates have successfully carried iowa to the final four of march madness. you've all come this far and refuse to break the streak.

but similar to your previous game against lsu, there's a lot of speculation surrounding the tension on the court with uconn. people are going crazy over the paige bueckers and caitlin clark face-off, but they’re going even crazier over your own heated interactions with the blonde.

the internet has decided to constantly pit you two against each other after observing your intense taunting and confrontations in previous years. they believe that it’s merely competitive tendencies but they have no idea where it all actually stems from.

you haven’t always been a hawkeye. for your first two years of college, you were a husky through and through. the public knows this, of course, which adds to the stigma around your name. but after a season-ending injury, you decided you needed a change of pace and environment. it was nothing personal against your teammates, coach, or school in general, you just felt like uconn wasn't where you were supposed to be.

so after you were in the transfer portal, everyone went ballistic. there was a plethora of reactions - some encouraging and supportive, others targeted and calling you a "traitor."

that's what the public is aware of. but they have yet to discover the deeper scars.

"you gonna lock in, y/n?" one of your teammates asks from behind you. turning around, you are met with caitlin, the other hawkeye under extremely close observation tonight.

"i gotchu," you smirk, "what about you? you gonna carry the team again?”

"you already know," she says, mirroring your expression. the two of you have gotten very close over the past couple years, which honestly makes the whole paige situation worse as people make comments like "caitlin and y/n versus paige is crazy" or "ready for this 2v1 game tonight!” they piss all three of you off but really just add to the hype and buildup of the game.

soon enough, your coach is ushering all the girls out of the locker room and onto the court. screams and cheers fill your ears as the crowd observes your entrance. and damn, if your ego wasn't high before, it definitely was now.

the two sides of the arena were filled, one side a sea of navy and white, the other a myriad of gold and black. music blasts from the speakers and makes the walls shake with energy. as you make your way over to the bench, you raise your arms repeatedly to get the crowd going. gaining an immediate reaction, you smile big and put your hand to your ear to play into the praise.

your teammates shake their heads at your antics. they know how competitive you can get. you tend to interact with the crowd and cameras a lot, but no one (especially fans at home) complains.

the crowd before you quiets down for a split second as you focus back onto what your coaches are saying in the huddle. suddenly you hear echoes of booing and other taunts as everyone turns around to see the uconn girls run out excitedly. the last one to come out is none other than paige bueckers, blonde hair in her signature braids and ponytail immediately catching your eye.

part of the reason people always compare you to her is because of how similar you are. your game style, skill set, and energy has always resembled the husky's, but you never understood it until she does the exact same hand motions you did but to the uconn supporters.

as she turns away from the crowd, her eyes dart around to find yours, doing so in a matter of seconds. her icy blue eyes send a chill down your spine as she holds intense contact. fuck. she knows exactly what she's doing. 

you can tell from the few seconds your eyes are glued to hers that she still wants you. you just know. there's too much emotion behind the stare, saying everything that needs to be said and more.

coach bluder gives the run-down on defensive assignments quickly and explains some of the plays. somehow, by some force of nature, you're stuck guarding the one person you were conflicted with: number five, paige bueckers.

your teammates all turn to you as soon as the words leave your coach's mouth. they are well aware of your special history with the blonde as well as your complicated relationship now.

"you got that, y/n?" caitlin asks you.

"yeah," you shrug, "you don't have to worry about me. i'm good." and you meant it. you were sick of being compared to paige all the time and were ready to show people who's better.

did you still care for the girl? of course; you always have and always will. but will you let that get in the way of your winning streak? hell no.

the referee beckons each team to the center of the court for the tip-off. hannah sets herself up for the jump ball, standing across from aaliyah edwards on uconn's side. 

you confidently walk over to where paige is standing. your eyes meet hers once again as you wordlessly dap her up, offering a civil front. you already know you'll being seeing the clip on your feed a lot tomorrow morning.

despite the cordial interaction, your mind is running wild at the feel of paige's long fingers brushing against yours. you missed her like crazy, but were also upset with her for multiple different reasons. right now you were enemies, opponents, rivals. but in a few hours after the game? well, you would have to wait and see.

the ref throws the ball in the air and aaliyah manages to get her fingers on the ball first to swat in her teammates' directions. uconn almost immediately turns it over due to paige missing kk's pass as the ball goes out of bounds. it's just too easy.

------

the buzzer sounds loudly, signaling the end of the second quarter and halftime. you and your teammates jog to the locker room, sweaty and out of breath. the score was currently 32-26 with uconn in the lead.

you had to admit, that definitely wasn't your team's best first half but you were ready to come back twice as hard.

"c'mon guys," lisa yells, "we gotta seriously up our game right now and fight against their defense. keep giving them as many fouls as possible.

"caitlin, we're gonna try to give you more threes, so everyone else, if caitlin has the ball, set those screens, got it?"

you all nod wordlessly as you pay attention to her words. your coach turns to you, looking you directly in the eye, her stare deadly.

"y/n, you gotta push bueckers more, don't direct all your focus on getting cait the ball. really use that energy that i know you have."

"yeah i hear you," you pant as you wipe your forehead with a towel. 

one of the coaching assistants hands you a waterbottle, so you immediately squeeze the ice cold water into your mouth without putting the nozzle on your lips. it's a habit that you have whenever you're in a rush or busy thinking about something.

"and one more thing, y/n," you hear your coach call you before you make your way back on the court, "please, for the love of god, leave your emotions out of it tonight."

the words shoot a prick in your chest, not expecting such a direct statement. nonetheless, you nod firmly, agreeing with her as you jog to where your team is lingering.

you may or may not have had a few...touchy altercations with a certain number five.

like in the middle of the first quarter...

------

"bueckers with the lay-up, does she get it? no! it is rebounded by l/n!"

your hands grasp the ball tightly under the net but before you can make your way over to the opposite side of the court, another set of hands on the ball stops you.

you look up to see paige also grabbing the ball as it sits in your hands, starting to fight to get it in her possession. with the two of you pulling back and forth, the refs whistle blows to put an end to the quarrel.

however, you two continue to push until one of your teammates wraps their arms around you to pull you off. walking away, you laugh, energized by the interaction. you put your hands up in surrender as kate releases you from her grip.

you turn your head back around to see that paige has also been forcefully pulled away by one of her own teammates with a similar expression on her face, clearly as equally as fired up as you.

------

and the middle of the second quarter...

------

"THREEEEEEE! Y/N L/N!"

you flex your arms and let out a proud yell. it's your fourth score of the night and you feel amazing. your teammates clamor over to you, patting you on your back and bumping you with their chests.

paige failed to block your attempt, putting her arms up and jumping but not being able to reach the ball before it falls in the net.

seeing her tough front falter for a second, you point a finger to her just to spice up the game a little more and get the crowd really going. she shakes her head and chuckles darkly, waving you off with a hand.

"did you see that? bueckers and l/n back at it again with their supposed rivalry, what a dynamic duo, am i right?"

------

time flies rapidly as the clock runs down. it's the last quarter of the game and tensions are at an all time high. with less than ten seconds left, iowa has the lead 71-69. it's way too close for comfort.

everyone's on edge. the announcers narrating the game for folks at home, coaches, benched teammates, the audience on either side of the court.

when uconn forces a turnover, you stand out of bounds waiting to pass the ball in. 1.1 on the clock. paige stands with her back to you. no one could've predicted your next move. 

you take advantage of her guard let down and quickly bounce the ball off of her, chopping the time in half as she fails to catch it in time and lets it out of bounds once again.

you feel a second of remorse once you catch the defeated look on her face. but you couldn't let the game slip out of your hands that easily. not without a fight.

less than one second on the clock, there's no way for uconn to win. caitlin passes the ball to gabbie who simply throws it high in the air to run down the clock.

the buzzer sounds as you and your teammates run into a group hug, screaming and cheering. you have a small celebration before going to the handshake line. as you pass and commend the uconn coaches and players, you allow your fingers to linger on paige's for a second longer than others.

when she meets your eyes there’s a look of hurt apparent in them, yours filled with guilt. you know how important that game was to her, to her entire collegiate career. but this game was also important to you, she had to know that.

------

your teammates insisted on celebrating at a nearby bar and restaurant, feeling high off the recent victory.

you were obviously down to go with them, but decided to take a little extra time in the locker room showers just to get some peace and quiet to yourself. you tell the girls that you'll catch up in your own car.

so now you're changing into a fresh set of clothes in a dim, empty locker room. some people might find the setting eerie but you enjoy the stillness of it all, especially after the day you've had. 

you’re wearing a basic white crop top and a muted purple skirt, a thick black leather jacket draped over your shoulders to protect yourself from the cold evening air. as you grab your backpack and make your way out to the gym’s parking lot, you spot a familiar figure wandering around aimlessly.

of fucking course i'm left here with her, you think.

you let out an irritated sigh as you continue to rub a small towel against your head to dry your hair.

the sound of your shoes against the pavement catches paige's attention and causes her to turn around. when she observes your relaxed, freshly showered figure, her chest tightens. whether it's from hatred or attraction, she doesn't know.

"hey," she yells to you, stalking over.

you look up to her direction and laugh, "you look like a lost puppy, bueckers."

"damn," she says, "first you decide to beat me and now you're insulting me and calling me by my last name? way to kick me when i'm down, y/n.”

you try not to display how flustered you feel when she says your name like that, “i didn't decide to beat you, i just did. deal with it."

"attitude much? i'm just tryna be civil, ma, no need for the hostility."

that fucking nickname.

"did you need something from me? i'm just tryna meet up with the team so spit it out."

"you heading to the bar?"

"yes," you say skeptically, "how the hell do you know that?"

"i'm heading there too, dumbass," she replies.

"what the hell are you talking about?"

"your team invited mine to hangout," of course they did, "is that a problem?"

"might be," you respond shortly, "so why are you here if the rest of your team is at the bar?"

"i could ask you the same question, l/n," she mocks the way you say her last name.

"i asked you first."

"eager to hear me talk i see." before you can reject the idea she interrupts you, “it’s okay, i know how much you love my voice."

she's not wrong, of course, but you would never admit it to her face. you ignore the question with a roll of your eyes.

"i took a longer shower than everyone else,” you shrug, “told 'em i'll just meet them there. your turn."

she laughs nervously before answering, “uh, i was actually supposed to get a ride from azzi but i guess she forgot," she says as she looks around the empty parking lot. now it's your turn to tease her.

"that's crazy," you laugh and shake your head, "your own friends don't even wanna be around you."

"man, shut up," she scoffs.

there's a beat of silence before you begin to walk to your car, getting the hint that the conversation was over.

you hear paige groan behind you before asking, "yo..do you think you could give me a ride?"

the nerve.

"excuse me?" you say incredulously as you unlock your car door and slip into the driver's seat. the blonde jogs up to your car, resting an arm on the frame of your door. you become hyper aware of how close you are, and how good she looks.

for the first time since you started talking to her, you take in her appearance. she's wearing a light blue cropped tank top, almost like a sports bra, and dark gray distressed jeans. there's a white uconn hoodie in her hands.

the amount of skin exposed makes your body heat up. the way her arms are flexed against your car makes you think back to the many times they've been flexed underneath your weight.

“can i. get. a ride.” she staggers out, like it’s painful to ask you for a favor. you take advantage of her position immediately.

“i dunno, can you?” you smirk.

“i fucking hate you, do you know that?”

“i dunno, do i?”

“dude.”

you throw your head forward in a laugh, shoulders shaking at her irritation.

“you’re so easy to piss off, i love it.”

“yeah well there’s a lot of other things about me that i know you love but we don’t have to talk about that.”

“do you want a ride or not?” you deadpan, “’cause if you’re gonna act like this all night i don’t want you at the bar, bro.”

“‘bro’? that’s what we’ve come to? that’s even worse than just bueckers, y/n.”

“just shut up and get in the car.”

“yes ma’am,” she says with a mock salute as she closes your door and jogs around the front of the car to the passenger seat.

as you turn on the engine, paige settles into the spot next to you and immediately reaches for the aux cord .

“um,” you pause, “what are you doing?”

“blessing you with my awesome music taste? what do you think i’m doing?”

“absolutely not,” you say, “my car, my rules.”

“um, no. the ‘rule’ is that the passenger chooses the playlist while the driver sets up the queue. we’ve been over this.”

“okay but,” you start carefully, “that was when we were together.”

silence.

“so do you want the ‘late night drives’ playlist or the ‘oldies but goodies’ playlist?”

“what?”

“you heard me.”

she brushes over your comment painfully fast. you had no idea why. you refuse to leave it at that.

“just put on our playlist."

more silence. you gotta be kidding me.

“i don’t-“

“don’t even try, paige, i know you still have it.”

“but-“

“don’t fight me on this. all i want is to celebrate with my team and get a drink so can you please hurry up so we can go?”

“shit,” you hear her say under her breath, “yeah.” she pushes her hips forward as she gets comfortable in the seat.

your eyebrows furrow at the reaction. this girl is so fucking complicated. you weren’t sure if you wanted to curse her out or take her right there.

———

“y/n!! you made it!” jada squeals as you walk into the bar, “and…paige? wait. are you two back together??”

“hell no.”

“definitely not.”

you and paige turn to each other.

“oookayy..” jada trails as she pulls you away from the blonde in the direction of where your team was sat.

the girls cheer your name as you take a seat next to caitlin. you can tell they’ve already had at least two drinks each.

“hey,” caitlin says with a warm smile, “you got some catching up to do. let’s go get you a drink.”

she ushers you to the bar where you are able to sit and observe the environment. the venue is fairly dark, the ceiling lights dimmed to a warm hue with a few candles on each table. the stools at the bar were a cold metal that gave you goosebumps. all the table booths have dark brown leather couches on one side and wooden chairs with intricate designs on the other.

“so,” caitlin starts after she’s ordered you a drink, lord knows what it was, “i saw you and paige walk in together. that mean anything?”

“please,” you scoff, “i’m done with her, cait, like seriously.” she stays silent, waiting for you to continue, “i mean, she’s so annoying and cocky and confusing, it’s exhausting - i hate her.”

“you sure about that?”

“yes.”

“then why do you still put up with her?”

“what do you mean?”

“i mean,” she says as the bartender delivers two of the same drink, one for you and one presumably for herself, “just stop talking to her. ignore her.”

you pause to think. “but she’s always the one starting these dumbass petty fights.”

“then don’t answer her?”

“i have to.”

“and why is that?” she eggs you on, sipping on her drink.

“because,” you sigh, “i can’t let her win.”

“or,” caitlin smirks as the two of you get up to head back to your table, “you still like being around her.”

“as if.”

“okay. tell me this then - why do you two still smile at each other like nothing has changed?”

“we almost never see them, cait.”

“no, i know but…i saw the way you looked at her today. you still like her, y/n.”

you two have returned to your seats with the rest of the team. you find yourself looking for a particular blonde (again) across the room. the uconn girls were sitting at a similar table to the one you were currently at, just on the other side of the bar.

to your relief, caitlin drops the conversation to engage in one with kate about the game. you quietly sip on your drink as you continue to stare at paige. she’s smiling - laughing - with azzi and aaliyah. you missed them. you missed her. you didn’t acknowledge it until now, until caitlin knocked some sense into you. you did enjoy being around her, mainly because it reminded you of how it was before you transferred to iowa. even though your conversations consist of constant jabs and insults, it was better than radio silence.

but you also hated it. you hated how you couldn’t be with her like you used to. you hated how you left. you hated how she treated you when you left. you hated how she acted like nothing happened. that’s why you have to win every time you’re up against her - literally and figuratively.

paige scored four three-pointers in a game? you score five. paige got six rebounds? you got seven. paige had eight assists? you had nine. it wasn’t just for yourself, it was for the media. with how they constantly have a magnifying glass on your life, you can’t jeopardize your career. so you have to be better than her.

your jaw clenches at the thought of the pressure, the expectation. you down the rest of your way too light cocktail and make your way back to the bar for a stronger drink.

“hey,” you say to the bartender, “can i get a sex on the beach, please?” he nods with a polite smile as he walks away to make your order.

“still rockin with those?” you hear an all-too-familiar voice say.

“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” you mutter, not bothering to turn to her.

she scoffs. what is her problem now? you think.

“you’re so damn predictable,” she laughs, “it’s hilarious.”

“at least i’m reliable,” you retort, “when’s the last time you had any stability in your life?”

“when i was with you,” she says immediately.

that makes you turn your head. you are greeted with paige’s cold eyes and an unreadable expression.

“what are you doing, paige? what are we doing?” you sound exhausted.

“you tell me. i never got a good explanation when you…left.”

“i tried. you wouldn’t let me. didn’t think you wanted to hear from me after our last conversation.”

“don’t pin this on me,” she says pointedly, “you left me.”

“i didn’t have a choice, paige, you have to understand that.”

“but did you have to leave me? you know we could’ve worked it out.”

“could we have?”

she sighs. the conversation has elevated quickly. you didn’t expect her to open up like this now, to bring all of this up now. maybe it was the ambient atmosphere or the influential alcohol, or both. the man behind the bar sets your drink down on a small napkin in front of you, but you decide against going back to your table.

“so…” she says quietly, “have you been seeing anyone? i know how the fans like to twist shit, but is any of it true?”

“wouldn’t you like to know,” you laugh.

“hey, i’m just tryna gauge where you’re at right now. scope out the competition, you know how it is.”

“‘scope out the competition’?”

she shrugs.

“have you been seeing anyone?”

“have you heard that i’m seeing anyone?”

god, this girl could not give a simple answer to save her life. but two can play that game.

“maybe i have. maybe i haven’t. and maybe i’ve seen you with a certain husky named azzi?” you have no clue where you got this idea knowing damn well that they’re nothing more than friends.

“and what if i am? you jealous, ma?” they’re nothing more than friends…right?

“hilarious.”

“that’s not a no.”

“no, it’s not..” you mumble under your breath, turning away from her to avoid her burning stare.

“good.” what the hell is this girl getting at? her avoidant yet suggestive responses set something off in you. “you never answered my question.”

“i am with someone,” you lie through your teeth, wanting to get a reaction out of her.

her breath hitches, “who?” her tone is targeted with a hint of…anger?

“why do you care? you’re with azzi right?”

“i never said that.”

“but you didn’t deny it,” you point out, using her own tactics.

“i am now. i’m not with her. so who are you with?”

“i don’t need to tell you anything.”

“so you’re not with anyone?” she laughs. this girl.

“i am.”

“then tell me.”

“no.”

“fine. be like that,” and suddenly she’s pulling you up from the barstool and into a poorly-lit hallway.

“where are we going?” you demand as you two turn a corner, the only light is the distant hue from the main part of the bar.

“we need to talk about this.”

“talk about what?”

“this,” she motions between the two of you as she pushes you against a wall, one strong arm preventing you from leaving.

“there’s nothing to talk about.”

“i’m not gonna let you keep dodging this, y/n. you left me to go to whole different state with no explanation whatsoever.”

“because you ghosted me first! what was i supposed to do?”

“we were supposed to work it out. remember? when we were teammates on and off the court?”

“you shut me out.”

“because, y/n,” she sighs deeply, “i knew i couldn’t handle it if i had to say goodbye to you. i would’ve-“ she stops herself.

“you would’ve what?”

after about ten seconds of silence, she whispers, “i would’ve begged you not to go - not to leave me.”

your eyes shoot to hers, but she’s looking down at the floor. her head is almost resting against yours as you observe her adamant yet vulnerable state. you’ve never seen her like this.

from what you’ve seen online, paige seemed to have the time of her life after you transferred. you assumed that she moved on so easily, so quickly. you didn’t consider that it was all just a front.

“paige,”

“what?” she barely gets out, still avoiding your eyes.

“look at me,” she doesn’t, “please.”

her head flies up at that, “what?” she repeats.

you don’t know what to say, you just needed to see her - really see her. her eyes are filled with such clear emotion yet you can’t put your finger on what she was feeling. from her body language you can tell that she misses you. and as you realize you subconsciously put your own hand on her waist, you body is telling you that you miss her too. 

you contemplate your next move for a second, questioning if all of this is worth it. but she’s worth it. in the time you’ve spent apart from her, you grew and matured. you also realize that you need her like you need oxygen. you come to the conclusion that you always have, but it took distance and space to accept it.

not wanting to get too in your head, you smash your lips onto hers as your shoulders instantly relax. you feel paige pause but eventually melt into the kiss, moving her hands up to the nape of your neck. you bring your other hand up to her wrist, resting it there as you relish in the feeling of her lips finally against yours after almost two years. you guide her hand down to your thigh as you move to grasp her shoulders. she glides over your upper thing, riding up your lilac skirt.

she breaks the kiss for a moment, “i’ve always loved you in purple.”

before she can resume the heated kiss, you push against her and observe your surroundings. to your left is the open area you just came from, all your friends oblivious to your activities. all the way down to your right is a door leading out to the back lot and a closer door - presumably a supply closet.

you weigh out your options: do you want to stop the interaction completely, drag her into your car all the way outside, or simply shove her into the closet and have your way with her?

smirking up at her, you pull her into the closet as she laughs at your desperation but follows you nonetheless. 

yes, there were still broken pieces in your relationship. yes, you have always claimed to hate each other. but no, you weren’t leaving without her, even if you had to use handcuffs.

she was never not yours, and you were never not hers.

— leilani signing off ! 📁

[hballegro]

i wasnt lying when i said henry was 85% done last night

file name is 'its MY hyperfixation and I decide who lives'

previous editions

lieutenant colonel henry blake here wearing pants that DEFINITELY arent swim trunks that he's pretending are normal shorts

hes wearing goldtoes for no reason i just didnt like how it looked with all one colour and didnt have the energy to give him funny socks. potter will probably have to wear horse socks to compensate 😔

i enjoyed completely Making Shit Up with the fishing lures. like i followed his hat in the show for most of them but for 2 they were literally just the first cool thing i saw looking up 'vintage fishing lures'

the group shot NOW WITH EDITS!

before long im gonna have to break this group shot into 2 sections. tumblr is getting PISSED at me.

breakdown of what all i changed + bts under the cut

the list is not long. most of the list is trapper.

everything is before/after, so first image is old and second image is new

smoothed stuff out for marg's skirt so it looks more like spandex or whatever

slightly nudged sidney's right eye [our left]. like its really slight but it makes my brain happy

bullied mulcahy's legs. AGAIN.

lessened hawkeye's stubble. just a tiny bit.

broadened radar's shoulders a little, made him have a bottom lip, messed with his neck

and for trapper. im just putting a fullbody; i changed his face. widened his shoulders a bit. fixed his head so its in the right place. changed his skintone by a degree of like .0001. i think i made his legs longer too. also his pants are a colour that makes my brain less mad.

there isnt much bts this time;

week 1 of college has kicked my ass but we stay winning. we stay drawing lieutenant colonel henry blake. we cant be stopped. we being I, myself, and Me

anyway. i need to go eat something.

three to go. we can DO THIS

also this IS field day, and im keeping with the red sweatbands/bandanas/other things but it also serves dual purpose as a beach episode at this point. Good Ending where instead of the chicken on the bus [or henry's plane] its all of them crawling back to the 4077th with sunburn

SHOUTOUT TO ME FOR NOT HAVING TOO MUCH OF A BLUE BIAS. WE ACTUALLY HAVE A DECENT BALANCE OF COLOURS. I REALLY LIKE BLUE SO THIS IS BIG FOR ME.

anyway if you scrolled this far and have any thoughts abt what potter, charles, and klinger should wear, including just colour speculation, leave a reply or something, i DO monitor my posts very closely

[qs63]

Amestris Military Training

This is the fourth of my series of long posts about the Amestrian Military. This is the speculative part of this meta. Little is known about the training the Amestrian soldiers receive, the most we have seen about it comes from the OVA “Another man's battlefield” and a few scenes in the manga. However, as we have seen through this series of posts, Arakawa took a lot of inspiration from the real world. The Imperial Japan military training seems to match a lot of what we see in FMA. Brace yourself, this is long and history heavy. 

Once again, I'm not a historian and I'm not fluent in Japanese. Please let me know if there's anything I missed or got wrong.

To see the rest of this meta series check out the Main Post.

First a little background about the Empire of Japan. It was the Japanese nation-state that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the reformed Constitution of Japan in 1947. Its history is divided in three periods named after the emperors that presided over them: Meiji (1868-1912), Taishō (1912-1926) and Shōwa (1926-1947).

This is a period of transformation for Japan, where they opened to the world and tried to modernize themselves and catch up with the western nations… by copying them. Meiji Japan is almost a pseudo European country. Their laws, government organization, education, etc. was reformed and modeled after the contemporary European nations and the United States of America. The influence of the third French Republic was especially strong in the early Meiji period, with it getting revised and remodeled in favor of other systems — mostly German as the relationship with the USA and its allies soured — throughout the years.

This is also the case in their military education. 

Officers training  During the early Meiji, the military cadets (meaning candidates to become officers) received a French style training which was later changed to a German style cadet system. The main difference between the two systems is that the German style required for the cadets to gain experience as Non-commissioned officers before graduation, while the French one didn't. 

Based on what we see in Fullmetal Alchemist they follow the German style system that lasted from 1887 to the American intervention in 1945. The main indication of this is that we see Riza Hawkeye in Ishval as a NCO.[1] She would've never been there under the French system. The time frame of the German style training also matches what we see in FMA. I'll explain this a bit later. 

For now let's concentrate on who and how someone could enter the Imperial Japan Army Officers Academy.

Three types of students could enter the academy: graduates of the Army's Children School, graduates of  Junior high school (both these schools covered ages 12 to 16), and selected active Non-commissioned officers who applied for officer training. 

The graduates of the army's children school didn't need to pass any exam to enter the academy, but only the best were selected. They had to compete for positions with the external candidates, those aged 16 to 19 who passed the recruitment exam (which required at least a junior high school education). Both of these students would enter the academy as cadets.

While the program was revised many times, the longest standing program was the 2 courses 4 years system. 

In this system the cadets would first take a two year military officer preparatory course that was equivalent to regular higher education. They were taught science, history, geography, etc. by civilian teachers. Their rank (the equivalent of private first class), military branch, and unit were designated upon graduating the preparatory course. 

After graduation the cadets would serve in their designated unit for six months (during which time they were promoted to corporal), afterwards they would be given the rank of sergeant upon entering the main military officers course. 

The main course was 1 year and 10 months long, and it was where the actual military training happened. The cadets would be taught tactics, military history, military system, weaponry, marksmanship, etc. they would also receive training in camp duty, shooting, swordsmanship, gymnastics, horsemanship, etc. in addition field trips were also conducted. 

Upon graduating they would become Apprentice Officers (a rank equivalent to Sergeant Major, the highest of the NCO ranks) for a trial period of about six months. Afterwards they would be officially appointed as 2nd Lieutenant (the lowest of the officers ranks) on the recommendation of their original troop's officer corps.

Now you might be wondering why I think Arakawa used this system (or rather one inspired by it) in Fullmetal Alchemist. I have a few reasons.

The first is the characters' ages. We know Roy and Hughes are 18 in “Another man's battlefield”, and we see them training in marksmanship and military tactics. We also see they have upperclassmen which implies the course is longer than one year.[2] We also know that Roy is 20 years old when he graduates the academy and visits the Hawkeye family, thanks to brotherhood giving us the date of Berthold's death.[3]

This all matches with the imperial Japan German style cadet system, where the majority of students would enter the preparatory course at 16 upon graduating from junior high school or the military school, they would then be 18 at the time of starting the main course, and 20 upon graduating from the academy. The ages of the characters and what we see on screen matches the system’s time frame.

Riza Hawkeye is yet another example three years after her father's death and conversation with Mustang, during the Ishval war, she is yet to graduate from the academy.[1][3][4] Either the Amestris academy lasts more than the two years we see Roy and Hughes go through, or she waited about two years to enter the military Academy (otherwise she would have already graduated by Ishval). I don't think it makes sense for her to wait so long to join the academy, specially if it has an age cap (of 19 in Imperial Japan). So assuming she entered right after her father died, that would put her in the last year of the German style system by the time we see her in Ishval, perfect for getting pulled into a war with her already assigned unit. 

This brings me to my second reason for believing Arakawa is using this system: the ranks.

I mentioned before that the cadets in FMA don't seem to have a rank, this makes sense when you consider that in imperial Japan they were given ranks that do not exist in FMA. Instead of adding ranks or messing up with the system Arakawa might have just completely skipped them (much like she seems to have done with the military police). 

I also mentioned that graduates (the so called Apprentice Officers) are assigned a temporary rank of Sergeant Major. In FMA we know that you graduate with a rank of Warrant Officer[1][3][4]. But hold on, that's not the same… well not in name, but yes in practice. Sergeant Major was the highest NCO rank in Imperial Japan. It's not in FMA, that's Warrant Officer. So technically they're equal ranks. Furthermore, It doesn't make sense for a graduate of the OFFICER school to be officially assigned an NCO rank, unless that's for a trial period like in the German style cadet system. For reference, the French style system assigned graduates the rank of Second Lieutenant (the lowest officer rank) upon graduation, since it didn't require the cadets to gain NCO experience. The fact that we are shown both newly graduated Riza and Roy with the rank of Warrant Officer can only mean there is also a trial period in Amestris.

Further proof of this is that within a year of us seeing the freshly graduated Warrant Officers Riza Hawkeye in 1909[1][3], she's already a full fledged 2nd Lieutenant by the time we see her in Resembool in 1910[5], and again she's a 1st Lieutenant a year later when Ed becomes a State Alchemist[5]. Riza is good, but that's a lot of promotions in a short time. It makes more sense if you think that she was officially assigned her 2nd Lieutenant rank after completing her 6 months trial period, and then she was promoted around the same time as Roy got his Colonel promotion, perhaps for her work in Ishval + whatever cases they worked together. Now, that seems a lot more reasonable than Riza averaging a promotion per year in her early military days.

Another hint towards this system is the number of 2nd Lieutenants we meet: Havoc, Breda, Ross, Catalina, Henschel, Darius, Heinkel, Jerso, and Zampano. This is the rank we see the most of, and it makes sense if they all got it by going through the Officers Academy. We know this to be true for at least Havoc and Breda.

Havoc's and Breda’s graduation.[6]

Now you might notice I haven't mentioned the third type of student, the active non-commissioned officers (aka Second Lieutenant candidates). This is because while they go through the academy too, they're very different from the cadets:

They must be under the age of 38 and pass the Army Preliminary Course recruitment examination, which is different from the cadets exam.

They do NOT live on campus.

Their training only lasts 1 year (during peacetime), unlike the cadets 4 years. 

Because they are older than the cadets at the time they become officers, their promotion ceiling is lower as they hit the active duty retirement age before achieving high ranks.

Falman would fall into this category as he was a Warrant Officer for more than six months and clearly looks older than the rest of team Mustang. However, a year does not pass between him getting appointed to the North and him getting his promotion. My explanation for that is that the North has a shorter program for Second Lieutenant Candidates. In imperial Japan not only was the program shorter during war time (10-2 months), but the time also depended on which branch, region, and school you enrolled in. Since the North is quite hostile and is technically in a cold war with Drachma, it makes sense their Second Lieutenant Candidate program is short. The other explanation is that Falman started the program before being transferred. 

That more or less covers the Officers military training and education. Feel free to ask me if you want a more day to day explanation of the cadets’ life at the academy. You can also check this article. There's at least one documentary about it, available on Amazon Prime Japan.

Non-commissioned officers training  NCO’s training in Imperial Japan was first performed by the training corps (1871–1899), then by each unit (1899-1927), then after a decline in quality it was done at a training school (1927-1938), and finally back to the training corps until the American intervention. It's impossible for me to know if Arakawa used this system for the NCOs, and which period she chose to use, given how little information we have about the NCO characters. I still mentioned it in case anyone was curious about Fuery’s training. The training school lasted just one year and it was focused on general education, military education, and technical training.

The military police To end this, I will mention that the military police had their own academy separate from the officers’. They also had their own ranks equivalent to those of the army, i.e. Police First Lieutenant. It is possible this is the case in FMA. They're at the very least not trained together with the military personnel.

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please don't hesitate to reach to ask questions or just rant about this. I love discussing FMA.

Source Fullmetal Alchemist Manga

Chapter 24: Fullmetal Alchemist [5]

Chapter 58: footsteps of ruin [4]

Chapter 59: the immoral alchemist [1]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Episode 30: The Ishvalan war of extermination [3]

OVA: Another man's battlefield [2]

The complete art of Fullmetal Alchemist [6]

[riddles-n-games]

I feel as though we never had a proper headcanon regarding what sports the boys played so here are a few of my speculations.

Nash-This man may have done a whole lot of western riding and motocross but little did anyone know that he also did football for a while. He played centre midfield and was pretty darn good at it too. However, after five years of play, he dropped out of it even though he was playing for his high school team and was even promising for varsity in college, should he have remained interested.

Grayson-After learning several martial arts, Gray decided kickboxing was of interest to him and though he struggled with it at first, he became proficient as he trained for years after that. It became one of his ways of releasing pent up anger. Because he wasn't one for liking conventional sports and his love of longswords and blades was strong, especially with the historical aspect, he decided on fencing. That was his true passion which was where he topped the amount of trophies he had in terms of photography and swimming.

Jameson-As our wild card loves to hurt himself, seek adrenaline rushes, and piss people off, what better way to do that than soccer and lacrosse? He played defense and midfield in soccer interchangeably but he shined as a right winger in midfield the most. For lacrosse, he was an attacker, preferring the middle and was even captain for a good two years before a bad injury sacked him. Given his lanky frame, he also participated in gymnastics and was also chosen to go to the Olympics for it. His coach, Miss Lenoli praised him often for his beautiful twists on trampoline; this may have been a rare time to also see Jamie blush bright red at the compliments.

Xander-This guy is probably the least likely to do any sports but he actually loved doing field hockey and archery. Field hockey he pursued for many years and excelled at it as goalie or defense. One of the good things about his genius mind was being able to come up with creative defense tactics that often surprised many offensives from the other teams but he also never used them too often so he kept everyone on their toes. Archery was started a lot later, around the time when he was turning 7 and due to his love of Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games, he felt like two of his favorite characters. There were times when he would randomly quote their one-liners or walk off the field doing the District 12 salute (also when The Avengers came out, there may have been a phase where he'd do Hawkeye poses too such as the dramatic slow mode fall off a roof). Unfortunately, he got shot in the elbow after once trying to do a demonstration with a new contraption of his and his grandfather banned that (least to say how long that lasted; 2 weeks post injury).

[wolfbearingroses]

Okay so the unlettered solicit for the new Ultimates title came out reccently, and for some reason this side detail stuck out to me:

It's Clint Barton doing the classic 'Spider-Man No More cover', only for Hawkeye.

Cool easter egg aside, this means that Tony went to give Clint his destiny like he did for Peter Parker. Only it didn't work and Clint quit being a hero. That means the Ultimate Universe won't have Hawkeye. Not that Hawkeye at least. That's right...

It's time for Kate Bishop.

I had a suprising amount of thoughts about this so, I'll leave them below.

Whilst this is just my wild speculation, the possibility of it has me excited. The original Ultimate Kate Bishop (seen below) was really underwhelming to me. She was just a goth girl who dated, and was forced to betray, Miles Morales.

Maybe Bendis or someone was planning to make her something else later, but she's not the badass she is in 616. Earth-6160 has the chance to change that.

One thing I love about Kate Bishop is just how... individual she is. I think stuff like the MCU has made people see Kate as just Clint's protogee, when in actuality that isn't true. She was already Hawkeye when Clint was dead. And when they first meet, they don't even get along right away (they're besties later don't worry). She didn't really need help becmong a hero, and the same can be true in this world without heroes.

The thing is Kate didn't even plan on being Hawkeye. It just happened that she picked up his bow along with Mockingbird and Swordsman's gear to help the Young Avengers and, after Hawkingbird was shot down, the Hawkeye mantle stuck. It came out of necessity, not idolism.

And the same could happen in the Ultimate Universe. They're clearly okay playing fast and loose with character ages compared to 616, focusing on ages that make a good story rather than mirroring main continuity, and an older adult street-level hero is a great part of an Avengers team. So I could definitely see an older-than-usual Kate getting fast-tracked into taking up the bow to become this universe's main Hawkeye.

Anyway, that's enough of me hyperfixating on a minor detail in a comic preview. It could all be nothing and Clint could come back (wouldn't be mad, I love Clint) but in a line that's all about reinventing classic Marvel mythology I think this would work. And that's my case for why Kate should be this generation's Ultimate Hawkeye.

[deadboydetectives-confessions]

1) DBD is not sci-fi. It is speculative fiction, of which sci-fi is a part, but it is more correctly classed as paranormal/horror; beyond that is also closer to fantasy than sci-fi because of the use of magic & the existence of the supernatural. Sci-fi can generallly be termed as speculative fiction that focuses on future technologies, science, & the exploration of worlds.

2) I love Crystal & Esther & agree that they & the other women on the show are well-written, but there's no need to prop them up by bad-mouthing the rest of speculative fiction & sci-fi. Are there terribly written female characters you can point to in spec fic? Sure, just as there are terribly written female characters in literary fiction, romance, thrillers, adventure, YA, & every other genre & medium you can name.

What's more important is that there are also amazing female characters to be found in speculative fiction outside of DBD, yes including in sci-fi. Sticking just to tv shows, here are recs for things with great female characters that I came up with on the fly: Mrs. Davis, Orphan Black, The Expanse, The Middleman, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Fringe. & while younger fans might be quick to point out the ways in which many older series are flawed wrt gender, race, & sexuality, I still managed to find female characters who were meaningful to me when I was a teenager in Babylon 5 (Susan Ivanova, Lyta Alexander); Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (all forms of Dax); Farscape (Chiana, Zhaan, Moya); The X-Files (Dana Scully); Fullmetal Alchemist (Hawkeye).

3) I'd love to hear what other shows/films/books other DBD fans enjoy & especially what other favorite female characters you have outside of all the great ones in DBD.

.

[moongothic]

I know people often speculate about Crocodile and if that is his "real name", either implying he has a deadname or his name is another one of those Hidden Ds (much like Roger and Law)

And like. This is just me but personally I would prefer it if he didn't have a deadname at all. It already grinds my gears when people use Sanji's "real name" when he himself hates it and doesn't want to be called by it, and so god knows if Crocodile is trans then the fandom misgendering is going to be obnoxious enough, you don't need to add a """real name""" into that mix

So. Personally, I would prefer it if Crocodile really was his birthname. It would just help us avoid some toxicity, ya feel me? Like people can't deadname him if he has no deadname to begin with?

That said.

I do find it interesting how Crocodile never actually introduces himself during the story to like. Anyone. Like we never see him go "yes hello you may call me Sir Crocodile" or anything

In fact, like, very specifically, when we finally get Crocodile's face reveal in Chapter 155, he explicitly says

"Call me what you will"

Of course, the citizens of Nanohana had just been calling him a 'hero', 'desert king' and 'the Guardian Deity of Alabasta' in the previous page, so his comment is mostly just in reference to the various titles people were shouting out rather than his actual name

And to be fair, the dude is Extremely Famous, he doesn't have to introduce himself because everybody already knows who he is

But it's still an interesting detail, isn't it?

(Also tangentially related, but Crocodile never seems to object to people calling him by cutesy nicknames either? Like to be fair, he probably couldn't object to Ivankov calling him "Crocoboy" to begin with, but he never seemed to mind Bon-chan calling him "Zero-chan" repeatedly either, nor did he object to Buggy's "Cro-chan" 🤔)

If nothing else though, considdering even his former bounty was associated with the name we know him by, it's possible that even if he had a deadname, "Crocodile" could be his "pirate nickname" that he chose to roll with. Kind of like "Strawhat" or "Blackbeard" or "Hawkeyes" etc, a title people use so often you kind of forget the person's actual name

Or he might have that Hidden D. Which, if he did, I'd be more inclined to believe would be more like with Law (where he might've been told as a child to keep it a secret). Instead of the whole "names being merged into one to hide the D" like with Roger, since that one was a specific, intentional move from the World Government

The only thing about the Hidden D is that. I just. I think it'd be a little silly. Like. Crocodile doesn't have to be a part of the D clan in my mind. Like I don't need that twist. But to be fair, there is an argument to be made for Crocodile being a D. Like if his goal is to destroy the WG and the World Nobles (that being the reason he wanted military force and Pluton to begin with) then ARGUABLY it would be fitting for him to be a D, since the D clan are the "Natural Enemies of the Gods". Also, there's the whole trend of D clan members always dying with a smile on their face. Like sure Crocodile hasn't died (yet) but he definitely went to Impel Down (hell) with a big ol' smirk on his mugshot (chapter 413 cover), which is close enough. So there is an argument to be made for Crocodile having a fullname with a D that's been kept a secret

I dunno, these details are interesting to me

[childrenofthesun77]

Okay, this is like a continuation of two of my theories and I'm wondering if I'm onto something.

So I wondered if the count could have originally been a werewolf based on the fact that he seems to have always been immortal, gear saying that his kind has a technique to seperate a part of their spirit from them while pointing at his earing, that earing looking pretty similar to the pendants the count had on his necklace that seemed to contain the demons (probably sins he seperated from himself) and werewolves apparently being able to create descendants by sharing their life force with humans which apparently gives them and their human descendants special powers, just like the count letting humans drink his blood turned them into mages.

Now the only werewolf we've met so far is (neu)gear hatiwelt, a reference to the wolf hati in norse mythology who swallows the moon during ragnarok (doom of the gods). We even see gear use a technique that allowed him to temporarily swallow the red moon the antagonist have created to aid in the ritual:

In norse mythology hati also has a twin brother though, skalli, who swallows the sun during ragnarok. Could the count play the role of skalli? The preparations for the ritual to bring back the count did kind of block out the sun in tokyo, causing temperatures to drop and snow to fall in summer. Ragnarok too is preceded by a cruel winter:

The C3 tokyo branch uses characters from norse mythology for codenames, which makes it interesting to speculate if some characters in servamp will have a similar fate to their counterparts in ragnarok.

Ragnarok starts with the death of balder, a son of odin, caused by the deception of loki, the trickster.

Shuhei is called loki as a nickname by izuna, but shuhei is more like heimdall, the god of foreknowledge who has excellent eyes. Shuhei's ability to prepare for even unlikely situations is a recurring joke and his hawkeye ability allows him to see far and even through walls.

I think we can all agree that in reality the role of loki the trickster falls on mikuni. He lies, he cheats and tricks to get what he wants, he's charismatic and clever. Before he starts the ritual/ragnarok he kills tsurugi/balder:

This has already happened so the question is if the other characters will suffer a similar fate to their norse counterparts as well.

In ragnarok loki and heimdall end up killing each other, but while shuhei's and mikuni's relationship is complicated and at times antagonistic I don't really see them killing each other, but maybe shuhei will fight a mikuni clone and kill him and be injured by him.

Other important figures in ragnarok are odin and his son thor. We have no official character with the codename odin, but I think odin and touma might be linked.

Touma is currently wearing an eyepatch, meaning he's one-eyed like the wise allfather odin, who sacrificed one of his eyes for knowledge. Say what you want about touma, but he is smart and came close to figuring out how the ritual to create a servamp worked. Balder is odin's son and while they refer to each other as brothers touma and tsurugi's dynamic is somewhere between being father and son and brothers. Odin is also the father of thor and with both jun and tooru too injured to fight and mjölnir now in mahiru's hands I think mahiru can be counted as the new thor and unlike jun or tooru he is touma's/odin's son.

Odin and thor both die during ragnarok. Odin is swallowed by fenrir (a giant wolf and son of loki) while thor battles with jormungandre, a giant serpent, slaying the snake, but dying from the snake's poison only a few moments later.

So we don't know who fenrir could be. If he's not skalli maybe the count is fenrir? In some versions it's fenrir who swallows the sun, so I guess he could simply be both.

But maybe whatever I assume mikuni wants to do with tsurugi's corpse will turn him into fenrir? He did seem to want the corpse to be left as intact as possible:

and the corpse was gone when mikado woke up again, leaving only the blood behind. Tsurugi's character is also strongly linked to wolves, so turning him into fenris and having him fight/kill odin/touma would make narrative sense.

Mahiru on the other hand might end up fighting jeje/mikuni. Jeje is currently captured and mikuni was literally called a snake by higan in the most recent chapter so I guess mikuni counts as a snake alone too, but of course mikuni could go and free jeje and fight together with him against mahiru.

Mahiru is against killing, so I doubt he would slay mikuni on purpose, but there are also a bunch of mikuni clones running around right now that NEED to be killed so he could end up using lethal methods on the real mikuni by mistake I guess. Or he simply defeats him and/or jeje through other means. What I'm more worried about is that despite his victory thor dies from the snake's poison only a few moments later.

Thor is also not the only character mahiru has been linked to that dies at the end of the story from the poison of a snake. It's subtle, but both when mahiru was in kuro's mind the first time and later when mahiru and tsurugi's spirits talked with each after touma had shot mahiru he spent some time in a desert with a crashed airplane:

Which is a reference to "the little prince" by antoine de saint-exupéry, a novella that ends with the little prince getting bitten by a snake after the snake promised him it would bring him back to his home planet.

So...will mahiru win the fight, but still die? Hopefully he can be saved from that fate.

[worminapouch]

rip hawkeye pierce you would have loved speculative fiction collections

[number1greedlingfan]

"op ur mid au ideas are scaring the hoes" well im abt to be terrifying

2 words: stardew valley.

Ed and Al take the place of Haley and Emily in the sense that they're siblings in their twenties, they live together without parents, and Al is liked by everyone in town and Ed is uhhhh Not. Al would probably work at the Saloon like Emily does but isn't on his feet the whole time (he and Ed are still disabled-- Al has bad chronic pain and joint issues, Ed has a prosthetic leg.) I can see Ed being into photography the same way Haley is too.

Hohenheim is the father that returns randomly in year 3. Not much to say about that except that the town does not give him a warm reception on account of the whole abandoning your children thing. Maybe he fucks off soon after to live in the forest like the Wizard.

Pinako and Winry take Clint's place as the town blacksmiths because who needs that guy am I right. Winry's loved gifts would probably be raw materials and batteries.

Ling is like Elliott in that he lives on the beach and that is the end of the similarities. He has so much money (very obvious the way he talks about it) but he chooses to live in a repurposed fishing shack. In one of Ed's dialogues he speculates that Ling only lives there to scavenge for food like a seagull (he is right).

I think this goes without saying but Mustang would be the mayor. If you get enough hearts with him you get his tragic PTSD military backstory. I don't know what Hawkeye would be or where she would live in this situation, but I do know that she and Roy have the same weird secret relationship that Marnie and Lewis do.

[pikachugirltits]

Magic the Gathering x Marvel Set Speculation: Creature Types

I'm pretty excited for the upcoming Universes Beyond Marvel set. I've already made one post where I just rambled about random bits of speculation I had about the set, but I've still been rotating some ideas in my head and I've decided to do a focused dive on a subject I love to think about: creature types. I'm gonna break this up into three sections to try and give it a little structure but it'll probably be a bit rambly within each section. The first two sections (Species/Races and Classes) will focus more on broad strokes that take into consideration both legendary and nonlegendary creatures...I'm not going to try and guess every possible type random legends might have. The third section will be more for me to speculate on specific characters that I think might have especially interesting types. I'll repeat some of my thoughts on creature types from my other post here too so they're all in one place.

Species/Races

Existing creature types I expect to see the most of are Human (obviously), Mutant, Alien, and Robot...

I don't really think any of the various species of aliens really need their own creature type... they can all happily chill under the Alien umbrella

For IP reasons I expect Mutant to solely be used for characters with the X-gene...a lot of other characters that are "mutates" by Marvel terminology will probably just be typed as Human, with a few other exceptions...

Honestly, I think the Marvel sets might only need to make two IP specific creature types: Inhuman and some kind of catch-all for all the various gamma mutates (Hulk and related characters)

The Inhumans are enough their own thing within the context of Marvel that I don't think they really fit in with any existing creature type

Hulk and the other gamma mutates (She-Hulk, Red Hulk, Abomination, etc.) also don't cleanly fit into an existing type...kind of. In a vacuum, I would probably use Mutant for them...but like I said earlier, Mutant is probably going to be reserved for X-gene related characters. I don't really have a super solid idea of what to use though. You might be able to get away with just using Hulk as the creature type, as a lot of these characters have Hulk in their name, but I don't know if it's actually the best choice.

You could maybe introduce a Mutate creature type to handle the Hulks and certain other characters, but I feel like there would be a legitimate concern over its similarity to Mutant, especially in a set where I think there's a decent chance of Mutant typal being a theme.

There's one other IP specific type I could see them making: Asgardian. Personally I think it's unnecessary, Thor and related characters could just as easily be given the God type instead of making a new one, but that might depend on what Marvel wants.

Speaking of the more magical/supernatural side of Marvel, while I don't expect to see them in as high of a quantity as the four I mentioned at the top it should be noted that we could possibly see a non-zero number of Vampire, Elf, Dwarf, Troll, Giant, Demon and/or Devil, and Spirit creatures.

Oh, and between the Savage Lands and also characters like Sauron, Old Lace and Devil Dinosaur I think there's a good chance we can expect at least a few Dinosaurs

Classes

Now I've seen some speculation on the idea of using Hero and Villain as class types in this set but personally I really hope they don't. First, it will reduce that backwards compatibility of the set, which is something WotC thinks about with the popularity of eternal formats. Captain America will interact with more cards as a Human Soldier than as a Human Hero. Second it just looks monotonous, especially in conjunction with how many Humans we'll be getting. What's a better set of creature types for Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye: Human Soldier, Human Rogue, Human Archer or Human Hero, Human Hero, Human Hero?

So setting aside the types I don't think we'll see, how about the ones I think are likely? I think some types we could see multiple of are Soldier, Warrior, Rogue, Scientist, Detective, Assassin...and maybe Ninja, Pilot, and Wizard and Warlock as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Citizen make a comeback just so we can get cards that represent civilian characters without just typing them as Human... although I could see Advisor getting some use here too for characters who are lawyers, journalists, or politicians.

Specific Character Speculations

A slight aside at the beginning of this section: if there is a set that really could benefit from finding some way to make the Legendary supertype not eat up so much space on the typeline, it's this set

Also, me listing a character here doesn't mean I think they're 100% certain to get a card, I'm kind of just idly speculating about characters that could have some unusual types.

Rocket Raccoon: I've heard a couple of different stories of Rocket's origin but apparently the (current) comic canon is that he's an earth raccoon that was abducted and genetically enhanced by aliens so I think Raccoon Rogue would be a good fit

Groot: I could see them using Treefolk, Alien Treefolk, or Alien Plant for Groot. Small aside, but I really hope there's at least one card with the flavor text "I am Groot."

Blade: Warrior is a likely choice for a class type, but the real question is how they'll represent him being a dhampir. Human Vampire seems like an obvious pick but Legendary Creature - Human Vampire Warrior is probably going to really push the character limits of the type line. Depending on what aspects of him they want to emphasize I could easily see them dropping his class type if they really want to emphasize his dhampir nature and just type him as Human Vampire...but if they don't want to skip a class type they could decide that Vampire Warrior works and just not bother differentiating him from full vampires.

Ghost Rider: Is Ghost Rider fully skeletal? I could easily see Skeleton Pilot or Skeleton Warrior depending on if they want to emphasize him as a motorcycle rider or a badass fighter...maybe even Skeleton Rogue

The Thing: How non-human do you have to look before you stop counting as Human for creature type reasons? According to the Marvel wiki he's considered a human mutate so technically he could still be a Human... but I could just as easily see them making him an Elemental just to add some variety to the creature types in the set. As for a class you could get clever and make him a Pilot because that's what he originally was, but I don't really see a The Thing card caring about Vehicles so I think Warrior is the best call.

The Lizard: The best possible creature type for him would possibly be Human Lizard Scientist but that might have space issues...but honestly Lizard Scientist is novel enough I wouldn't complain.

Venom/Carnage/other symbiotes: This is less a speculation about their creature type (Alien would probably suffice) but a different typing adjacent question... I wonder if we could justify making them Enchantment Creatures with Bestow to represent other characters wearing them.

Namor: Oh dang, I forgot Marvel had Atlanteans. If we wanted to maximize backwards compatibility I could try and argue we could lump them under Merfolk... but honestly they could also make Atlantean its own type and future proof themselves for other IP that feature inhabitants of Atlantis that are a separate species from humans (like a Universes Beyond: DC for example.) Oh, and Noble would be his class.

You know, I could go on and on trying to guess random characters' creature types so I'm gonna cut myself off here. Maybe one of these days if I get sufficiently bored I'll add onto this post. If anyone else has some ideas for fun Marvel creature types or wants to debate my ideas don't be afraid to add on a reblog or comment. I'd love to talk about this kind of stuff.

[thebreakfastgenie]

Something to keep in mind when we speculate on Hawkeye Pierce's childhood is my rural Mainer great-grandfather was a lifelong FDR stan because the New Deal gave him indoor plumbing.

[magnificent-nerd]

The first reviews for Rogers: The Musical are in...

Read the review from The Nerds of Color:

Rogers: The Musical appears at the Hyperion Theater in Disney California Adventure Park for a limited time, June 30 through August 31, 2023

My take:

While this musical seems fun, and a visually new and exciting way to see Steve's journey, I can't help but notice Disney/MCU taking an opportunity to retroactively make Peggy's role in Steve's origin story much greater than the movies ever showed, while at the same time minimising the roles of other characters important to Steve's life, namely:

Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and Sharon Carter.

(Would've been nice to see Sarah Rogers but she never appeared in the MCU at all, so I don't hold out hope she's in this musical.)

To anyone who sees this musical:

please report back if Sharon Carter or Sam Wilson appear at all, or are they erased entirely? I want to know!

I spotted WWII era Bucky (I'm presuming?) and Black Widow in the various production photos shared, but where are Sam and Sharon? Are they present in the musical?

It would not surprise me in the slightest if MCU/Disney wanted to erase Sharon entirely because the movies pivoted back to Peggy...

But Sam? Where is he?

That speculation leads me to the conclusion that this musical is superficial at best, and erasing important people from Steve's character at worst. (Again.)