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magicrowiswritingstuff · 4 years

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“Embrace” - Din Djarin x female!reader

Tigaanur Series: Part 1 | Part 2 (you’re here!) | Part 3 | MASTERLIST

Summary: The first time you slept next to the Mandalorian definitely wasn’t that comfortable. The second time would have been a lot better … if you could have fallen asleep in his embrace.

Warning: the fluff continues, a bit of violence/near death experience? (honestly ... is that news in that series?), more touching and bed sharing, suggestive themes, Hmmm slow-burn romance! My favorite ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Category: fluff

Words: about 8.000

Notes: The sequel to “Touch” is here! You don’t have to read the first part necessarily but I would suggest it because some things are references you might understand better if you read both. I also decided to name this series “Tigaanur“ which is Mando’a for ... touch, lol. I hope y’all like the second part just as much! I had a lot of fun writing this, hehe. Note 2: Again, set during season 1 but the events are drawn out over a longer period of time (but they aren’t really mentioned) Note 3: If you like my writing ... I’m taking Requests! Or if you just want to be notified when I upload something: I’ve started a taglist, too!

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“Embrace” – Din Djarin x fem!reader

With a huff you turned in your makeshift bed and stared at the ceiling of the Razor Crest, your hands clasped and neatly placed on your stomach. Keeping track of the time was difficult when you were in hyperspace for more than a day, at least for you, but when spending these days unable to fall asleep, the minutes seemed to last an eternity longer. Insomnia plagued you in your hours of otherwise peaceful slumber ever since a few weeks. All those events, all those concerns to keep the Child safe and the realization that there was a bounty on your head now, kept you awake, alert even when you knew it was safe to close your eyes. Your days were a constant pattern you couldn't escape from. Fighting, fleeing, repeat. You were aware of what you had signed up for when you joined Mando and the little one on the Razor Crest and you didn't regret a thing. But what you hadn't been aware of at the beginning was just how much your mind would struggle to process everything. You adapted to having to be observant and careful all the time, you just couldn't switch it off anymore. Your body shook with energy, prepared to act if necessary at any time even when you were more than exhausted. In the last couple of weeks you only seemed to find any sleep when your body was too exhausted to function anymore, leaving you passed out in the copilot seat more often than not. When Mando would notice you almost falling sleep beside him, he always urged you to go down in your bed. You knew he only wanted you to sleep comfortably, the copilot seat wasn't the best alternative for your body and especially for your back. You didn't dare to tell him that the moment you would settle down in your bed, you would be wide awake for the rest of the flight. Sometimes sleep was within reach, so close but your mind would startle you awake before you could get a hold of it. Leaving you panicked in your bed with your heart beating relentlessly against your ribs, keeping you awake for the rest of the night. Other times your body was simply too restless for you to even feel tired, let alone fall asleep. The constant stress your body and mind were under, slowly but surely strained your nerves.

You groaned, frustrated at yourself, and pressed the palms of your hands against your eyes. You couldn't deal with this anymore. You kicked back your blanket and stood up from your makeshift bed. You stretched your arms over your head until your shoulders made a satisfied plopping sound, then you grabbed your blanket, draped it over your shoulders and head like a hood before you made your way to the ladder leading up. You tiptoed silently past the Mandalorian's cot in which the kid was sleeping soundly, not wanting to wake the little on up, and then climbed up to the cockpit.

Mando shifted in his seat the moment you set a foot onto solid ground again, tilting his head in confusion as he looked at you. You walked up to him with your head lowered and sat down into the copilot seat to his right. With your feet plopped onto the seat, you wrapped the blanket around you and leaned your head back, glancing at the streaks of blue and silver above your through the window. "Nightmare?" he asked, his voice a soft whisper his modulator struggled to pick up. His concern for you made your heart flutter and warmth spred in your stomach. "No" you shook your head and wrapped the blanket tighter around your body. "Just can't fall asleep right now." It wasn’t a lie, just not the complete truth either. You let out a sigh, your eyes still fixated onto the fascinating beauty that was hyperspace even though you have seen it a million times already. But the nebula of blue and silver, of the stars swirling around you, never ceased to amaze you. The silence was light but filled with unspoken words and questions. You didn't dare to ask any of them out loud. You didn't want to disturb the comfortable silence and you weren't sure if you wanted to hear his answers anyway. You had asked him the question that was burning on the tip of your tongue before. His answer didn't really clarify much for you, you were still unsure at times. Now you only knew that he didn't mind the touches, didn't mind you around him. You were curious but also afraid to ask again. You liked how the bond you two shared was right now, you didn't want it to change to something awkward.

Your eyes fluttered close unwillingly, the exhausting taking a hold of your stiff body. You still couldn't relax but your body needed to shut down, needed to recharge. You heard the Mandalorian shuffle with something but before you could open your eyes to look, he had already grabbed your hand from underneath the blanket and intertwined his un-gloved fingers with yours. The warmth of his touch immediately washed over your whole body. Your lips formed into a soft smile as you squeezed his hand in thanks, slowly melting into his touch and the seat, gradually you felt your body relax. Mando began to draw small circles on the back of your hand, soothing your racing thoughts to a halt. No words were spoken, but you didn't feel like they were necessary right now. You were just grateful for his touch as your mind slipped into a peaceful slumber. The last clear thought you could form stuck with you even when you woke up again a few hours later. You never seemed to be able to relax in your bed just as good as if you were in the cockpit with Mando by your side.

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"Why does this always happen?" you huffed under your breath as you ran beside the Mandalorian, trying to get back to the Razor Crest before one of the men hunting you could land a shot.

You had just wanted to get some more supplies again, with three people on the ship rations didn't last long, especially with the always hungry kid that was hiding in the bag slung over your shoulder right now. You had wanted to go alone but after what happened the last time, when you had gotten badly hurt, Mando didn't allow that. Especially now that there was also a bounty on your head to track him and the kid down. You were in far more danger than he anticipated, than he wanted. But you also were in a desperate need to leave the ship even if it was only for an hour. You couldn’t stand being trapped there any longer, so you argued with him, refused to stay behind. After a while, and very reluctantly, Mando agreed to you going with him which meant that the kid had to join, too, because you didn't want to leave him alone on the ship. You had hoped for it to run smoothly, to just for once be able to enjoy a trip to a market and not be confronted with the harsh reality again. But you should have known better, you should have known that some bounty hunters would spot you three, that it was just inevitable.

So, that was why you were running through the narrow streets of the city you were in right now. Fighting them all off immediately hadn't been an option this time with all the civilians around you blocking your path and sight, so you three had to resort to shooting your way free and immediately fleeing after that. The plan had been to find a spot where you would have some advantage to attack but the city seemed to only consist of small, narrow streets in which you couldn't do anything except try to run, try to not get shot in the back.

Mando was running beside you but after a while you had trouble keeping pace with him. Your legs burned, the exhaustion in every fiber of your body from weeks of almost no sleep slowed you down more and more. Gasping for air you tried to not fall too far behind. The Mandalorian took a sharp turn to the left, vanishing into another small side street. You stumbled, struggling to slow down enough to take the turn without needing to stop completely. You could only vaguely hear the shouting of the bounty hunters behind you over the blood rushing through your ears and your heart hammering against your ribs. But what you could hear, or rather feel, was the blaster shoots zooming past you, barely missing. They were coming closer, fast. The kid cooed in your bag, confused by what was going on when you grabbed the bag and pressed it with him in it protectively against your chest. At least he wouldn't get hit there. You managed to round the corner and fixated your eyes back on Mando's form. With a groan you sped up, trying to catch up to him. But then you felt the laser of a blaster, its heat sizzled past your face, missing your skin only barely. Your heart leaped into your throat and you jumped to the side, your back collided with the wall of a building as you came to a sudden halt. When you collected your thoughts enough to turn your head, you saw the bounty hunters had already followed you into the small street and you knew there was no use in escaping anymore. If you ran, they would just shoot you in the back. You looked down at the Child who had stuck out his head from the bag, staring at you with his big, round eyes, and you knew what you had to do. You had no other option. You had to fight. You grabbed your blaster from the holster on your hip -Mando made you take one with you and had taught you the basics, now that you were on the radar of bounty hunters too- and slung the bag around so the Child would be hidden behind your back, safe from any blaster shots coming your way. You had no time to aim so you just shot into the general direction of the bounty hunters, hoping for the best, as you pushed yourself from the wall, avoiding a few shots only barely. Miraculously you managed to hit a few of them, or maybe it was Mando who hit them. He had to be somewhere behind you, he probably noticed your absence and had turned around to help, but your mind was too clouded to notice his footsteps hurrying closer or his blaster shots coming from behind you, more unfocused and aimless than usually. You ducked your head down to avoid a few more otherwise fatal shots and directed your blaster to the bounty hunter closest to you, only for it to jam. You pulled the trigger three times before you realized that nothing was happening. Your eyes widen in horror and you did the only thing you could think of right now: Protect the Child at all cost. You let your blaster fall to the ground as you spun around, so your back was facing the bounty hunters. You grabbed the bag during your turnaround and pressed it against your chest again, putting one hand on the little one’s head in an attempt to soothe him while your body shook in fear. You prepared yourself for the hit, prepared yourself for the heat sinking into your skin, for the pain, when you suddenly felt someone grab you and spin you around with them. You were too disoriented to react, to fight, you could only hear the lasers leaving the bounty hunter’s blaster, but none of them hit you. Instead, they hit something metallic, making them bounce off. You lifted your head slightly and your breath got stuck in your throat as you realized what was happening. Mando had wrapped his arms around you and spun you so his body was shielding you and the kid from the lasers, his back facing the bounty hunters, instead of yours. You couldn't do anything, except for staring at his visor in pure shock while he silently stared back, not even tilting his helmet in question. Him moving his hands behind your back stayed mostly unnoticed by you. Only when the whistling birds already struck down the bounty hunters that were left did you realized what he had done.

The echo of the blasters suddenly stopped, leaving the small side street in complete silence with the only exception being your still widely beating heart hammering against your ribs. The first one to move was neither Mando nor you but the Child, who was tugged in between the two of you. Wiggling and stretching his arms out he cooed at the Mandalorian whose helmet lowered to look at him. Slowly he loosened his grip on you, though his arms still stayed wrapped around you. If you didn't know it any better you would have said he was afraid you would disappear if he let go. But you didn't mind his hold on you, your legs were shaking uncontrollably and you would probably have slumped down on the ground without him. "Are you hurt?" he asked and glanced back at you, his voice frantic. You shook your head and let out a breathy sigh. "No-o" you said and gasped for air, your heart pumping hard against your chest in relief, before you directed your gaze to the little one. "We're okay. B-but I need a moment." You let your forehead fall against Mando’s armored chest and just focused on your breathing. The Mandalorian didn't move or interject, instead he tightened his arms around you again, giving you not only stability but comfort, too. You closed your eyes and tried to stop the shaking of your body. The adrenaline had vanished and only left the fear behind that was still closing its claws around you. You gulped, realizing that you almost ... that you could have died. A cold shiver ran down your spine as your breath hitched. This could have been the end of your journey. You could have... "We need to go" Mando spoke up, his voice caring an apologetic tone. You nodded against his chest, understanding that you had to leave the planet before more bounty hunters could arrive. You bit your lip and straightened up, taking a step back the Mandalorian let his arms slip from you, bringing them back to his sides. "Let's go" you agreed, trying to cover the waver of your voice with a small smile.

You held the Child pressed against your chest the whole remaining way back to the Razor Crest. His soft squeaks kept your mind at ease and focusing on his big, curious eyes made you forget about what almost happened. At least for the time being. Luckily, you didn't walk into any more bounty hunters. Though you could only take a deep breath of relief when the hangar closed tightly behind you. You only half-heartedly noticed Mando gently pushing you down onto the edge of his cot by the shoulders. You stared at the ground before you, still hugging the little one against your chest, and didn't even register the Razor Crest taking off. The short startle of the jump into hyperspace was also left unnoticed. Only when the Child was softly taken out of your arms did you look up at the Mandalorian, who had come back down. You didn't protest as he put the little one into his hammock where he promptly fell asleep.

"You should get some rest" the Mandalorian suggested, one of his hands resting on your shoulder, the leather of his glove brushing against the skin of your neck. The sensation left small tingles behind which would have made you sigh if you weren’t so tense. And even though you would have loved to, you knew sleep wasn't an option for you right now. "I can't-" you choked out and lowered your eyes to stare at your still shaking hands. You clenched them to fists and bit your lip. And even though the Mandalorian didn't speak up, did you know what he was asking when his hand wandered from your shoulder to your neck and cheek. You leaned into his touch, closed your eyes and wished to just fall asleep in his comforting presence, to just be able to forget this day. "I haven't been able to sleep properly ever since I joined you" you confessed, your voice faint. "But it has gotten worse over the last few weeks." "What can I do to help you?" the Mandalorian asked sincerely concerned. You couldn't help the soft chuckle escaping from your mouth. "Can you stay?" you hummed even though you knew he couldn't. This wasn't necessarily the worst sleeping position you were in since the last couple of weeks, but also not one of the best. However, if you moved to your bed or to the cockpit now, you would be wide awake once more. But Mando probably didn’t want to and couldn’t stay in that position anyway. You sighed at the warmth of his touch, relishing the moment for a few seconds more before you would have to stand up. But then Mando pulled away, making you open your eyes in an instant. You were about to stand up from his cot when he suddenly kneeled down before you. Freezing in place you stared at his visor that stayed trained on your face. Every word you could have said got stuck in your throat when he grabbed your legs and slipped your shoes off. You couldn't even ask him what he was doing, though your face probably gave that thought away. He placed your shoes neatly beside the entrance to his cot before slipping his off, too, which only left you even more confused. You blinked at him in lack of understanding, searching for words.

"What are you doing?" you managed to ask when he had stood up and took a step closer. He was now directly in front of you, his body so close you could feel the warmth that radiated from him and it springing over to you. He was so close that you had to put your head back to keep your eyes focused on his helmet. "Staying with you" he only answered. Before you could ask further questions, he suddenly picked you up with one arm underneath your legs and the other bracing your back. Your eyes grew wide as you just clung onto him, unable to protest. Somehow Mando managed to get you two settled into his cot with him lying on his back, almost taking in all the space, and you on your side, trying to squeeze into the space that was left. Nevertheless, you had to press against him with your head lying on his armored shoulder. You didn't dare to breathe, didn't dare to move at all and just watched Mando for a while. He had his hands clasped on top of his stomach, the visor of his helmet pointed to the ceiling, harshly reflecting the still switched-on lights of the ship. He didn’t move and you began to wonder if he had already fallen asleep. But then you thought about how he was even supposed to fall asleep that way in his bed, completely dressed in his armor. Wasn’t he uncomfortable? You furrowed your brows, your eyes still trained on his helmet. Or did he always sleep that way? Fully dressed in his armor? Unmovingly on his back like a rock?

"Sleep."

You couldn't help the squeak spilling over your lips as you flinched in embarrassment, making the Mandalorian chuckle lowly. He had noticed you staring, obviously. You cursed at yourself and ducked your head in, trying to sink into yourself and appear smaller while your cheeks heated up. Embarrassed you stared at your hands, refusing to meet the Mandalorian’s gaze again. His shoulders shook lightly from his silent laughter. Then he grabbed the blanket, draping it over the two of you before he pushed a button on the side of the wall which switched off the lights and closed the door to the cot. You were grateful for the darkness as your face definitely gave away your flustered state. For a few moments you focused on Mando's regular breathing through the modulator, feeling his body move next to you to the almost completely silent rhythm. You mimicked his relaxed breathing, trying to clear your thoughts and focusing on only that and not the close proximity you had to each other. And before you knew it your body relaxed and you fell asleep, tightly pressed against him.

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You were relieved and grateful to Mando for finally having found some sleep through his help, but you would be lying if you said it was a comfortable slumber.

You had awoken alone in Mando's cot. Well, not completely alone. The kid was still sleeping in his hammock above you and the pain in your back was now also a new companion. Spending one night cramped into one tiny space with a man completely dressed in cold, hard armor probably wasn't the best idea. Nevertheless, you had slept and for the first time in weeks you felt somewhat well rested, back pain brushed aside.

You groaned and set up, rubbing your eyes and wondered how you didn't notice Mando leaving. In the tight space that was his bed you surely would have felt him move, right? Well, apparently you had been far too out of it for that. You were somewhat impressed at yourself for having fallen so deeply asleep but your body probably had just passed out, far too exhausted to keep being alert even in your sleep. You yawned, searched for the button to open the cot and then crawled to its edge to put your shoes back on, noticing that Mando's were gone. You stood up and glanced at the Child but when you noticed that he was still soundly asleep, you silently walked to the ladder and climbed up. Once you were at the top you stopped and stared at the back of Mando's helmet, suddenly feeling very unsure of yourself. Sleeping next too him was the most intimate gesture he had shared with you. And even though that wasn’t really something big normally, you had shared a bed with friends before, this felt different. Somehow it felt intrusive and very exciting at the same time. You felt special but flustered none the less. Then you huffed and shook your head, clearing it from those thoughts. 'We only shared a bed' you told yourself. There was nothing special about that, right? Well, maybe not with any other person. But with Mando every small step felt like a miracle, like a risk to take even though being close to him was nothing new to you anymore. You held hands, you saw and felt his skin underneath the leather gloves, you even sat on his lap a few times while in hyperspace. But nothing ever felt so intimate than lying next to him in his small cot, even if you had a sore back now because of that. Alone the memory of it made your heart speed up again. Never had so simple gestures felt so exciting to you. And then the desire hit you that you wanted more, wanted to be closer to the man behind the beskar. And that thought suddenly scared you. You shook your head once more and forced yourself to sit down into one of the copilot seats. You stared out of the window, too afraid to meet the Mandalorian's gaze should he tilt his head to you, too afraid he would somehow know what you were thinking. You felt torn. Torn between wanting to embrace whatever this was and scared to know what he wanted, what he thought. Scared to know what exactly this was. It wasn’t a simple partnership anymore, not just a crew you happened to join. This was something that set your heart aflame whenever you were near him. But you didn’t want to ask. You didn’t want to know his answer. As long as he didn’t tell you what this was to him you could continue to pretend, to relish these moments that meant so much to you.

You folded your hands and placed them in your lap to stop yourself from fiddling with your thumbs. The silence was uncommonly heavy, pressing down on your shoulders and pinning you to the seat. "Thank you" you whispered after many minutes of complete silence and glanced at the Mandalorian through the corners of your eyes. He only hummed and nodded, not turning to meet your eyes.

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The rest of your day was filled with the giggles and squeals of the Child as you played with him to distract yourself form your thoughts. You couldn't stand being in the cockpit alone with Mando today, so you had passed the time and busied yourself with caring for the kid. That was until he had fallen asleep in your arms at the end of the day, or at least you guessed another day had passed. Keeping track of it in hyperspace was still rather hard for you. You had put the little one to bed and were now standing in front of him, in front of Mando’s cot, unsure what to do. Glancing at your own bed you felt your stomach tighten. You already knew you would only turn from side to side without finding any rest in there. The only option to find any sort of sleep would be next to Mando. You sighed and climbed back up to sit down into one of the copilot seats only to almost run into the Mandalorian as the door to the cockpit slid open suddenly before you. You froze, your face only inches away from his chest. You took a deep breath before you slowly lifted your head until you could look into his visor. When he didn’t move to the side or reacted at all, you furrowed your brows at him in question. "Aren't you tired?" he asked and gently took your hand in his. It was the first time that he had talked to you today. The rest of the day had always been filled with awkward silence, something you had always feared should you ask the questions that were circling in your head, something you had wanted to prevent by staying silent, but now it was too late. He tilted his head at you when you didn't react. For a few moments you were overwhelmed and struggled for words. "Ehm, well, yeah but-" you weren't able to finish your sentence, though you weren't even sure what you had wanted to say anyway, when Mando squeezed your hand and nodded to the ladder. Understanding what he wanted to signal to you, you let your hand slip from his and began to climb back down, Mando following close behind. You were back where you had stood before, not knowing what to do. When Mando slipped his shoes off you did the same, just so you had something to occupy your mind with. When he turned to look at you, you stayed put where you were, frozen in place with your heart hammering against your ribs, begging you to let it escape. Did he really want to sleep in his armor again just so you could find some sort of relaxation, some form of comfort through his presence? Not to forget how painful it was to wake up earlier today for you, then you couldn’t possible imagine how it had to be for him. You suppressed the wince that would have spilled over your lips other wise and shook your head. Now wasn't about your comfort during sleep, but Mando's. And sleeping in armor definitely couldn��t be comfortable or even good for him. He should be able to relax in his ship and not be reminded of his job, his chaotic life through the armor he wore during the day and now at night, too.

"Isn't it uncomfortable to sleep in your armor?" you asked sincerely concerned and not just to gain some more seconds to try and sort your mind. Mando only shrugged his shoulders, while you rubbed the back of your neck that still felt a little stiff from this morning. "You don't have to-" you wanted to explain to him that he didn't have to do this for you when he would be uncomfortable as a result, that you would just try to sleep in your bed again so he felt comfortable enough to take the armor off and sleep alone in his cot. But every word got stuck in your throat when he did something you never thought your eyes would ever witness. He took off his armor, piece by piece, right in front of you. Your eyes grew wide and your mouth fell slightly open. "What-" you only managed to croak out as your eyes wandered over his form, the last piece of armor he still wore being his helmet and the rest of his clothing being what he wore underneath, a simple shirt and pants. You couldn't help yourself, you couldn't keep yourself from staring at him. His shoulders were still broad and wide even without the armor but only now did you notice his slender waist. You gulped and stopped your eyes from moving lower, bringing them back up, only for your heart to leap into your throat as you stared at his chest and arms that were now only covered by a dark, long-sleeved shirt. You already knew Mando was physically strong but the shirt did nothing to hide the muscles flexing in his arms and shoulders even when he was only standing before you. Why did you feel like he was standing bare before you when he only took his armor off and was still standing before you fully clothed? You felt your face heat up and your breath getting shallow at that thought. Your body tensed as you forced your eyes to stay on Mando's visor. You had embarrassed yourself enough already.

He hadn’t said anything when he had taken off his armor nor when he stepped closer to you, directing you backwards to the cot. When the back of your knees hit the edge you stumbled, almost falling on your back but Mando grabbed your hand and kept you upright. "Careful" he chuckled. Your face grew even hotter as you bit your lip, suppressing the mindless blabber that would have escape you otherwise. Slowly he lowered your still tilted off-center body until you found yourself on the exact same spot as yesterday. It felt rather surreal and you kept wondering if you weren’t just dreaming right now. Maybe you were still asleep? But when your eyes glanced at his exposed neck, the skin sun-kissed and flexing over his muscles in such detail, you were sure you couldn’t make this up during your sleep, that this had to be real. "Mando, I-" you began but he shushed you. "Let's just get some sleep, okay?" You nodded and stood up, letting Mando settled into his bed first. He laid down like he had yesterday, flat on his back with his arms on his stomach. For a second you hesitated, staring down at him before you followed him into the tight space, plopping down on your side with your back to him and snuggling underneath the blanket he had already draped over himself. You felt far too flustered to face him right now, especially with the lights still on. Without a word he closed the door to the cot and switched the lights off. You gulped, somehow feeling Mando's side pressed against your back even more prominently than before. You took a deep breath and closed your eyes, snuggling deeper into the blanket in an attempt to make yourself fall asleep faster. Only to suddenly realize that everything in the cot smelled like the Mandalorian, smelled like something metallic (his beskar) mixed with something earthy, something grounding, something soothing. Heat immediately rushed back into your cheeks and your body tensed. Oh Maker, how were you supposed to fall asleep now? With Mando's scent in your nose and his body tightly pressed against you, you definitely couldn't. You didn't really feel uncomfortable but to say this position did anything for your still slightly sore back and neck was also not correct. And that your heart racing uncontrollably fast didn't help you in any way either. You couldn't relax like this.

Your eyes darted around in the dark as you tried to jump over your shadow and control your rapid breathing. Then, before you could back out again, you turned around underneath the blanket so you would have faced the Mandalorian if the lights were on. He didn't react or at least as far as you were aware. He could surely be looking at you through his visor, that probably had night vision, without moving his head. You gulped before carefully placing your hand on his chest. You felt him tense underneath your touch instantly, signaling you that he wasn't asleep yet. You felt how your cheeks heated up even more when your fingers brushed his muscular chest instead of the cold, hard beskar armor you were used to by now. "Mando?" you asked quietly, your voice trembling nervously while you patiently waited for an answer even after many seconds of silence. You wanted to make sure he was comfortable enough to answer you before you tried anything else. "Yes?" he finally said and you felt his head moving beside you ever so slightly. "Are you comfortable?" you questioned further. Another few seconds of silence followed in which the only thing you could focus on was how close you were to the unarmed Mandalorian. You could feel every muscle on his chest underneath your touch, still a bit tense but slowly loosening up more and more. You could feel his soothing warmth even more, now that the beskar wasn't in the way. You bit your lip, suppressing a sigh. "It's alright" he only answered, leaving your question rather unsatisfied. You took a deep breath, trying to stop your body from shaking and forced yourself to speak up again. "I am not" you whispered and felt him tense up again underneath your touch. You felt his head move once more, probably now completely turned to face you. He didn't say anything, just stared at you through the darkness. You struggled for words for a while, unsure how to continue without making him uncomfortable, without sounding too demanding. Then you lightly shook your head as far as that was possible lying on your side next to him. "Could you-" you began but bit your lip. Collecting all the courage you had left you forced yourself to continue. "Could you turn on your side?"

You stared into the darkness, at the unmoving Mandalorian as your pulse quickened. Nobody moved and you began to fear that you had overstepped a boundary. Maker, he had taken off his armor in front of you for the very first time. This must be even more uncomfortable for him than you. You gritted your teeth, cursing at yourself. You should have stayed silent and just tried to sleep. About to apologize you opened your mouth only to suddenly feel movement beside you. Before you knew it the Mandalorian laid on his side, but not like you had expected it with his back facing you, but with his chest. Your heart leaped into your throat, leaving you breathless and unable to form the words you had wanted to say out loud. You froze, your whole body tensed up in disbelief. "Is that better?" he asked, his voice an almost inaudible whisper. "Yeah" you croaked out. The silence that followed was deafening, making the beat of your heart even more audible and you were sure Mando must have been able to hear it, too. Your brain shut off, leaving you alone in the dark, helpless. How were you supposed to sleep now?! With your eyes wide you stared in front of you, stared into the darkness where Mando's chest was, only inches away from your face. You almost yelped in panic when you noticed that your hand was still touching him, pressed against his unarmored chest. But you couldn't move away. Was your mind blank only seconds before was it now swarming and crowded with thousand of thoughts.

You flinched when you suddenly felt a featherlight touch on your waist. You needed a few seconds to process that it was Mando's un-gloved hand. "Is this okay?" he asked, his voice so soft his modulator didn't even pick it up. You realized that this was Mando's real voice, not the distorted sound of his helmet but what he would sound like without it. A shower of tingles wandered down your body, leaving you breathless. You opened and closed your mouth a few times, trying to find the words. "Ye-yeah." Mando let his arm sneak around your waist, wrapping it around you and slowly pulling you against his chest. You didn't even notice that you were the one to tangle your legs with his, it felt intuitive. Suddenly you felt really dizzy. Was this really happening right now? You grabbed Mando's shirt with your shaking fingers and buried your head in his chest in a stupid attempt to hide. Because the moment you had to take a deep breath to try and calm yourself down, you only grew even more dizzy when his scent filled your nose. You cursed silently in your mind. But even through all of this, did you notice how your body slowly relaxed under this touch and warmth. Involuntary, you let out a soft sigh and closed your eyes.

"Thank you, Mando" you managed to whisper after probably minutes of silence. The Mandalorian didn't immediately retort anything to that and instead tightened his grip on your waist and squeezed the hand of his free arm between the two of you to place it on to of your hands that were still pressed firmly against his chest. "Din." You lifted your head to look at where his eyes must be hidden behind the darkness and furrowed your brows in lack of understanding. "What?" you asked confused. "Please. Call me Din." Your eyes widen and your face grew even hotter if that was even possible at that point. He ... he just revealed his name to you? Your breath hitched. He just revealed his name to you. "Din" you tested his name on your tongue in a hushed tone. The Mandalorian went rigid as he sucked in a sharp breath and you feared you had misunderstood him but then he pressed you even closer to him, making your heart skip a beat. You gasped for air in shock when he nestled into your hair as you felt his chin on top of your head and not the cold helmet. His legs had sneaked around yours, pinning you against him but you didn't feel trapped. Quite the opposite, you actually enjoyed his tight embrace. "Din?" you asked, your voice wavering noticeably. The grip around your waist tightened for a split second as he tried to stifle his sigh, making you chuckle and melt against him. "Din" you said again with a cheeky smile on your lips. The Mandalorian growled against you, making you jump in surprise. "Are you trying to torture me, cyar'ika?" he asked, his voice husky and low. You paused, not quite understanding what he meant by that. "What-" you began, shifting in his hold so you would be looking at his face in confusion if it weren't so dark. For a few seconds you just stared and thought until your eyes widen in realization as your mind caught on. "When was the last time someone called you by your name?" you asked in a hush. "Can't remember" he answered you in a low growl as he pressed himself against you. Your cheeks burned again in an instant as you struggled for words once more. Din’s breath stuttered through the modulator, his chest heaving against yours. You wondered if his mind was as blank as yours was but then he suddenly let go of your waist and instead grabbed both of your hands before you could collect yourself enough to react to any of the things he had said, to the things he had revealed to you. For a few moments he just drew soothing circles on the backs of your hands, tracing your soft skin as if it was the first time he felt it. Then he directed them upwards and placed them on each side of his helmet. After that no one moved and you barely dared to breathe. You hadn't touched his helmet before, always far too afraid since it seemed to be the most important part of his creed. But the only thing on your mind wasn’t your surprise at that and instead you could only focus on how the coldness of the beskar underneath your hands and the warmth of Din's hand on top sent shivers down your spine.

"(Y/N)?" You hummed in response, still unable to speak up, your mind far too clouded. "You can take it off." Your body stiffened as you blinked in confusion. Did he really just say that? You must have imagined that, right? Right? "B-but your creed?" you objected, staring into the darkness. "It's okay as long as you can't see my face" he explained, squeezing your hands before leaving them alone on his helmet as he wrapped his arms back around your waist, lifting you a bit further up so you were face to face with him. Your hands were still cupping the sides of his helmet as you sucked in a sharp breath. Were you really about to do this? It felt wrong even though he had asked you to. It felt … intimate. "Please, cyar'ika. Let me be close to you." Din's pleading voice and the foreign nickname send shivers down your spine. Your breath hitched as you pushed all your worries to the side and slowly lifting the helmet up. Its hiss echoed in your ears as you held your breath, your heart beating so strong you felt it in your throat. You pushed it up over his hair that brushed your hands, leaving tingles behind. Then you placed the helmet to the side and gasped when you felt Din's breath on your face. The sensation left you dizzy as your heart began to drum relentlessly against your chest. Your hands felt useless as they floated in the air, not knowing where to put them. For many seconds you didn’t dare to move before you squeezed one of your hands back between the two of you, placing it on his chest before taking a deep breath.

"Can I?" you asked in a whisper, your other hand hovering over where his cheek must be hiding in the darkness. A soft "Yeah" escaped Din's mouth and you didn't waste another second and gently placed your hand on his face. The sensation and his warmth left you with a feeling you couldn’t quite place or understand. Slowly you began to outline his features, let your hand wander from his chin up to his ear, feeling his strong jar and the slight stubble that adorned it. The combined feeling of his surprisingly soft skin and rougher stubble left you breathless. You let your hand placed on his cheek for a few moments, trying to collect your thoughts and failing miserably. You sucked in a sharp breath and carefully continued to let your fingers wander to his forehead, tracing his eyebrow you felt how his eyes fluttered close. Then your touch traveled back down, mapping out the shape of his nose. In the end your fingers hovered over his lips and you felt his breath against them as they trembled. Gently you placed them on his chin and felt your way up to his bottom lip. You traced the outline of his mouth in a trance and when he chuckled against you, you didn’t even flinch and joined in. Your fingers found their way further up, to the corner of his lips, feeling the stubble above his lips form into a mustache. You chuckled again. He took your breath away. "Beautiful" you whispered as you continued to caress the corner of his mouth. You felt it crinkle up in a smile as Din laughed, the rumble of it vibrating in your chest, the sound hypnotizing you. "Mesh'la" he responded in a hushed tone, as he drew your faces closer. You weren't sure what the word meant but you didn't really care right now. His scent so metallic yet earthy, so soft yet sensual and warm it left you breathless and with your thoughts spinning, craving more. Your heart hammered against your ribs, screaming and begging for a few more millimeters, only a small push forward. You were sure Din was able to feel the echo of your heart against his own chest. He shifted lightly against you, wrapping his legs around you more, and tightening his grip on your waist, drawing your body even closer even though not a single hair could fit in between you two anymore. Your sleepiness was completely forgotten by now as you stared into the darkness, not able to close your eyes even though you couldn't even see anything. But you didn't need your eyes to see him, to know how beautiful he was. He lowered his head, placing his forehead against yours. You were glad to note that you weren't the only one whose breath stuttered over your lips at that. You couldn't help but melt into him, soaking in his warmth and the feeling of comfort, the feeling of belonging right there with him. Feeling like this was all that life was, feeling safe and protected. At peace. You let your hand wander to his hair, burying your fingers into his locks. The slight tug made Din growl once more, the sound low and dangerous, teasing and daring you to continue. You smiled and brushed his hair back, taking part in the game he dared you to play with him, no matter the consequences. You wanted to see what he would do, you wanted more. All those months of faint touches, whispers of being close to one another, had left you even more touch-starved then before, even more desperate. You didn’t care for the unspoken boundaries anymore. You just wanted to let yourself fall into your desire, a desire Din seemed to share. Slowly one of his hands crept up the back of your neck to also bury his fingers in your hair. The sensation made you gasp and your hair stand on end. You were sure Din was grinning at that, proud and pleased. Out of instinct you freed one of your legs from his and draped it over his waist, seeking to be even closer to him, even though his whole body was already pressed against you and his lips so close that you could feel the ghost of his breath on yours. It made you shiver in anticipation. Pressing your forehead even more against his you took a deep breath, taking in his soothing scent. Only a few millimeters more and you would have the closeness you sought. Only a few millimeters closer to fulfill the whishes of your heart. Only a few millimeters closer and you would have known how his lips felt dancing against your own.

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Tigaanur Series: Part 1 | Part 2 (you’re here!) | Part 3 | MASTERLIST

No kisses, hehehehe. Want to have a third part with them kissing? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Then leave a comment and reblog! Feedback is always highly appreciated, it keeps me motivated and I’d just like to know what y’all think and if you liked it!

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Taglists:

Permanent Simps: @buckysalefty / ...

Din Djarin Simps: ... looking for members! ...

If you want to be added to any taglist just write me a message!

#the mandalorian #din djarin #din djarin x reader #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin x female reader #the mandalorian x female reader #mando x reader #female reader #x reader #star wars x reader #fluff #the mandalorian oneshot #the mandalorian imagine #Tigaanur series #mando #the mandalorian season 1

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absurdthirst · 3 years

Note

I’m really debating putting this in the Mando tags but I know it’s gonna make some people mad. It’s about how Din barley acknowledged Luke and was focused on his son but apparently one sentence between Din and the white man led to mostly white woman going completely out of their minds for this. This three minute scene and one sentence led to it becoming the most popular canon ship. If you look at the popular canon ships for him it’s all white people and Omera has the lowest. Why did the white man inspire so much fics and art but the brown women didn’t? It’s so hard to find media that has WOC as love interests and even when they are they are tossed to the side in favour of a white ship. You don’t have to like the Omera and Din relationship I personally don’t but why is his only love interest the smallest ship? Why are the OCs in this fandom 99% white? Why are the reader inserts white coded? It’s a pattern of mostly white woman not seeing us as the love interest to characters they love even when we are. There’s also a huge double standard with how people treat her like the helmet moment is brought up as a reason people don’t like her but right after that she agrees to take in a child she’s know a few weeks, meanwhile Cobb can appropriate Dins culture and have him fight a dragon to get it back but he’s forgiven for this, if you can forgive Cobb you can forgive Omera. Din can breathe near a white person and they will get shipped together that’s basically what happened with Luke. Din Djarin is too good for the white people you want to ship him with and it’s been proven that the man likes his woman to have some melanin.

Actually, canonically nothing has been proven. There are theories that X'ian was a lover or that he had feelings for Omera, but that was never stated outright.

However, you are right. The ship between Din/Luke is ridiculous given they were in the same room for two minutes together and the entire thing was geared towards the relationship with Din/Grogu and him giving him up because it was what was best for the child.

DIn/Cobb I never really cared for either. I never saw anything remotely romantic between the two of them. I saw anger at first, then respect and friendship but not romance.

I honestly thought that Din might have wanted to stay on Sorgun but of course, his Creed wouldn't allow that. And he was on the run with the child. It would be interesting to see if he goes back in Season 3, there was a lot of mystery surrounding Omera that I think should have been explored. Why was she the only one with experience with a blaster? Why was she such a good shot? Why did it seem like she was familiar with Mandalorians despite her questions? Maybe she was familiar with non Death Watch sects. Late hubby maybe? My point is that there was a lot there that could be developed.

As far as reader inserts, honestly sometimes it's having to untrain yourself from using descriptive words that would lead towards color or ethnicity. Depending on the writers experience, it could be that they are just starting out and are writing what they know. I know some of my earlier works weren't as inclusive as I would have liked them to be and have worked to find better words and passages to keep things neutral.

There are not a lot of bipoc in fandoms that write for reader inserts that are geared towards their particular ethnicity. Although I love their works and highly recommend. A lot of the white writers have been told that we should not write for people of color because we have not experienced what they have. Or we feel as though we would not be able to properly do them justice.

Now towards the end of this, you turn slightly accusatory towards me? Unless you are stating the 'you' in a general term for the fandom? I personally do not ship any character with Din and just want to write reader inserts that are as neutral as they can possibly be so all can enjoy.

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beskarhearts · 3 years

Text

Warm Spotchka(Din Djarin x oc/reader)

gif credit @bestintheparsec

Recluse series pt. 3

Pairing: Din Djarin x oc!bountyhunter/f!reader hybrid (no use of Y/N)

Warnings: pre-season 1, cursing, drinking, mentions of sex

Word count: over 11.5 K

Summary: For some reason, Din can’t get rid of Bullet.

Notes: Let me know what you guys think about this! This is the first chapter where we get into Bullet’s perspective. I honestly wasn’t sure whether or not to write it from a readers perspective or as a third person POV, so let know your opinion! And if you want to be added to the taglist for this or all of my works, let me know!

Previous Part _ Next Part

Din hated to admit it but he was already accepting defeat. The first two bounties had been a total breeze and Din had been completely confident in his ability to win. No, not just confident. He was convinced wholeheartedly that he would win. But karma went and bit him in the ass when the third bounty came around. This one decided to throw him for loop, proving to be a surprisingly good hider and had chosen a great planet to disappear on. They had Din on a wild chase, eating up two whole days of his time just on this one damn bounty. Combined with the time it was taking Din to travel back to Nevarro, he felt a pit settle into his stomach as he realized he wouldn’t be able to prove her wrong like he wanted.

Bullet had probably been done for days now. He would land on Nevarro and she would look at him with that cocky expression and take his credits happily, maybe even say something about how she was the better bounty hunter.

So when he landed on Nevarro, parking the Razor Crest where he usually did, he wasn’t surprised to see a ship he had never seen before parked in the area. He hadn’t seen Bullets ship, nor learned what kind it was or what it looked like, but no one ever parked out here. But she had seen where he parked his ship and must of decided it was the place to meet him. He also couldn’t explain it, but the shipped just gave off her energy. It was smaller than the Crest but still a decent size. Enough for someone to live in and have enough room to breathe. It was also nice and it was very apparent that someone had spent a good amount of credits on it. It was a smooth, sleek black color and looked spotless, like it had practically never been used before. It was definitely Bullets and he knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. As soon as Din landed the Crest onto the ground, turning off the engine and letting the ship adjust, he let out a big sigh.

He was never, ever going to do this again.

Din slowly made his way to the hull, opening the latch to the ship. He took his time, trying to stall but he knew the inevitable was yet to come. As soon as the door completely lowered, he saw her leaning against her ship with her arms crossed and eyes trained right on him, as if she had know where he was before he even opened the door.

Din looked right back at her, examining her. She wore different clothes than she had the last time he had seen her, except for the jacket was the same. It was a cropped black jacket that was paired with a pair of cargo pants that were stained and torn in a couple places. She also had a plain colored tank top and a pair of boots on. It was a plain outfit, nothing particularly interesting about it. The part that caught his eye the most was the brand new blaster on her, looking just as new and shiny as her ship. He brought his eyes to look back up at her face. It was completely blank. No grin or taunting look in her eyes, the only part of it that he took note of being the scar he had seen before.

He waited for her to say something but when the silence continued, he made his way down the ramp to meet her where she stood. He looked back at her plainly and she gave him a once-over, looking him up and down slowly. “You nearly beat me.” She said, breaking the silence that had consumed them.

“Really?” Din asked, tilting his helmet slightly. She looked like she had been here for days at first glance but upon further inspection, he noticed her hair that was pulled back looked messy and she had a small cut on her collar bone that looked like it hadn’t been taken care of.

“I only got here ten minutes ago.” She responded. It was childish but that made Din feel better. She may have beat him, but barely so. Meaning he very well could have been in her position, waiting for her to land instead. “Second bounty was a pain in the ass.”

“Give you that cut?” Din asked, pointing to her collarbone.

She looked down briefly and her eyebrow quirked up. “Hadn’t noticed that.” she muttered.

“My third one was a good hider.” Din said, suddenly taken aback by himself as he did so. He was not used to being around people and when he was, he didn’t have conversations with them. It was a foreign concept to him. But this didn’t seem to be too bad, seemed to be something he could handle. After all, they were just talking about bounties and that was something Din could understand and find something to talk about. Work was a good topic for him. Beyond that was where were even more discomfort lied.

“How long did that one take you?”

“Two days.” Din grumbled.

“Hey, three bounties in a few days isn’t bad.” Bullet offered with a shrug. She paused, looking up at his ship as her face grimaced slightly. “Might of gone a little faster with a newer ship.”

“The Crest is fine.” Din retorted and Bullet nodded her head, not pushing the topic further.

“Hey, to each his own.” She mumbled before pushing herself off the ship and beginning to walk forwards, into the direction of the town.

Din followed slowly, not wanting to intrude but also needing to make his way to the cantina to turn in his bounties. They were still a bit out of the way, not yet anywhere where there were people. Din usually parked further away, that way if he slept on the ship before leaving he could be alone and not have to worry about anything. Din wondered where she usually parked and why she hadn’t just waited to meet him at the cantina, but he didn’t bother to ask.

“Did you have fun?” Din shook his head from his train of thought as he looked over to Bullet, who now stumbled backwards as she looked at him.

“Fun?” Din asked, confusion laced in his voice.

“Yeah. I mean, hunting bounties is my thing but it gets kind of boring after awhile. You know, same old thing. Competition made it a little fun.” Bullet explained, looking at him plainly.

Din supposed that was true. He was a bounty hunter and he honestly couldn’t imagine being anything else. This was quite literally the job he had been raised to do since he was a child. There hadn’t been much of another option for him. And he liked his job well enough. It put credits in his pocket and it was certainly more interesting than other jobs. But that didn’t mean it didn’t get old like any job had the potential to do. Sometimes there was a particular bounty that would be a little more interesting or make for a greater challenge, but in the end it was the same thing. Just a cycle and a repetitive way of life for him.

But these last few days had been more interesting. Adding the competition put more on the line, not quite so literally but more figuratively. Each bounty wasn’t just another one to get, but it was one to get quickly. That way you could win. And that had presented a different challenge to Din than he normally had. And for a bounty hunter, that did make things a little more ‘fun’, though Din guessed most people would say nothing about bounty hunting was fun.

“It was fine.” Din agreed and Bullet nodded.

“I’m just glad you aren’t a sore loser.” She said, turning her back to him as she continued walking.

They didn’t say much of anything else as they made their way into the town, just walking in silence up until they walked into the cantina. Then Bullet let out a sigh once Karga rose from his seat, looking at the two with a grin. “Well who would of thought I’d see you two together again?”

Din let out a sigh as he slid into the booth that Karga had sat at, Bullet this time slipping next to Karga instead of bringing a chair over. She waved a hand at a bartender who shook his head, seeming to know her order automatically. Din dug into his pocket, tossing the three fobs on the table which Bullet did shortly after as well. Both bounty hunters looked back at Karga who looked at the pile plainly. “You two are great conversationalist.” He said sarcastically, reaching into his pocket to grab some credits.

“Oh yeah. Talking is our thing. You should hear this Mandalorian get going...” Bullet said, giving Karga a bit of an eye roll but a smile quirked at the corner of her lips just the slightest bit. Almost so minute that no one would notice it but Din caught it before she brought a drink to her lips and hid it away.

“Yeah, right. I don’t think I’ll ever see the day this man speaks about anything but bounties.” Karga responded, giving Din a small smile. But as always, Din didn’t respond or join in on the teasing, only offering a small shrug to the pair.

“So Karga, what do you have for us?” Bullet asked, looking over at him expectantly as she leaned back into the booth.

The man looked between the two with an eyebrow raised. “Are you two working together?”

“Nope.” Bullet answered. “But I want some bounties and figure he probably does too.”

“Of course he does.” Karga said, nodding along as he slid a pouch of credits to each of the bounty hunters. Din grabbed his, quickly opening it and tossing a third of them in Bullets direction.

The woman gave a small grin, grabbing at the money before looking up into Din’s visor with a smirk. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Din let out an audible sigh. Yeah, definitely never doing that again.

Karga looked at Din with a bewildered expression. He had known the man for long enough to know he wasn’t a betting man in the slightest, and not one to hand over his credits. But Din didn’t feel like explaining the little competition that he had taken part of (and didn’t want to admit he had lost). He found himself relieved when Bullet also didn’t give into his shocked look and eager eyes, just putting the credits in her own pouch and looking back at the agent plainly.

Karga let out a small sigh once he realized no answer was coming his way, digging into a pocket and pulling out fobs. “I have four for each of you. Unless you want to work together again...”

“Is it worth ten thousand credits?” Bullet asked.

“No.”

“Then hand me the four fobs, Karga.” Bullet demanded, holding her hand out which Karga then dropped the fobs onto. She looked down at them, as if trying to get some information from the tracking device itself, before slipping them into a pocket of her jacket and giving a sharp nod to Karga. “Till next time, boys.”

She rose out of the booth and walked straight out of the door without any word, nor another glance at Din. Karga let out a grunt as he looked over at the half full drink she left at the table.

“She never pays for her drinks. Should start taking it out of her pay.” he muttered to himself. Din only sat silently and Karga looked up at him, as if forgetting he had been there. “Oh, here Mando.”

Four fobs were slid across the table in his direction and Din grabbed them and rose from his seat, marching away without another word. He walked back outside and headed towards the ship, looking around for... well, for Bullet. Once he got hit with the realization that he was looking for Bullet, he wondered why. She hadn’t said a word to him but maybe she’d be willing to have another small competition and maybe this time he could actually win. He was never one to seek out this kind of thing but she had been right. It was kind of fun, interesting at the very least. It was also the most minuscule form of social interaction which Din could handle. He didn’t even have to really talk to her. He had to hunt the bounties on his own like he usually did and just see her at the end so the loser could hand over credits. Din may argue this was the most perfect dynamic for him.

But he never found her in the crowds of people on Nevarro and while her ship remained park by his, she was nowhere to be found. Din shrugged it off, not really minding that he couldn’t find her. He’d just resume life as normal and knowing how he worked, he’d probably never even see her again.

_________________

Din had owned the Crest for many years but he couldn’t remember a time he ever used his comm, except for if there were other ships nearby that needed to communicate with him for whatever reason. To be honest, Din had no need to use it. If he had no one to communicate with then the comm served no purpose and was just a bit of technology built into the ship that he neglected to use. Most of the time, he forgot it was ever there and built into the cockpit. Just like he had no one to contact, no one ever needed to contact him. So the comm remained unused and forgotten.

Until one night.

Din was sat in the cockpit of the Crest, traveling through hyperspace and allowing the ship to do most of the work. He honestly just liked to sit in his seat and stare off into space. There wasn’t much to do but this was something that was peaceful and relaxing. Allow his mind to wander off where it wanted to or just give him time to simply think about nothing and relax. He had just finished catching the second bounty, heading to the planet where the third one was located and was only a day out. It was getting late into the night and Din was just about to rise from his seat when a crackle was let out from his comm.

His head whipped to look towards it and then quickly looked out the windows. There were no other ships he could see trying to reach him so he couldn’t even begin to imagine who was trying to get through. He almost brushed it off, figuring the ship was acting a little wonky until it crackled to life again and he heard a grunt through the line.

Din tilted his helmet. Who the kriff was this? He considered speaking back to them to ask who they were but he decided not to as it died out again. He simply sat in place and waited, expecting something else to go through. A moment later, he heard a voice ring through and yell, “Fuck!”

Din froze. He knew that voice. He pressed a button down and spoke clearly. “Bullet?”

“Give me a m-mom-” The signal crapped out once again, sizzling into silence until it crackled back to life. “Dammit it! This piece of crap better work or I swear.”

Din raised an eyebrow. The signal was pretty crappy, full of loads of white noise and crackling as well as the sound of rustling that Din couldn’t discern if it was from Bullet or the comm itself. Her voice was a little crackly and choppy, cutting out continuously, but it was indiscernibly hers. “Bullet?” Din repeated.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.” she snapped and Din could hear the annoyance dripping off her words. He could even imagine her sharp expression, eyes furrowed together and a slight frown. He was about to speak when he heard a loud curse from her again. “Damn fuckers!”

“What is happening?” Din asked, his face bunched in confusion.

“Oh, I’ve just had my ship stripped of parts and am stuck in the middle of the Tatooine desert with no town near by.” Bullet hissed but she didn’t seem annoyed with his question, just her general situation.

“Why?” Din asked and now she let out a grunt directed for him.

“Oh, for fun!” she sarcastically responded and Din shook his head. “I’m lucky I have this damn comm or I’d be stuck here and become a nice dinner for some Tusken’s bantha or something!”

“What are you talking about?” Din asked.

“Listen, I need you to come get me.” Bullet demanded and Din jerked his head up and sighed.

“What?” he asked, clearly exasperated.

“I am miles and miles away from the closest town! I am in the middle of Tatooine with no food or water or anything! A whole bunch of shitty Jawas stripped by ship of parts so I have no way to leave!”

Din shook his head, not believing the situation. Tatooine wasn’t too far at all but it required him turning the Crest around and going in the opposite direction of where his bounty was. It would take up more time than he had ever wasted before on a hunt, meaning the bounty could find a way off the planet they were on and make his job so much harder. “Can’t someone else get you?”

“No!” Bullet exclaimed.

“What about the girls at Oppa’s?”

“Listen, I trained those girls to deal with sleazy creeps! Not travel to Maker knows where and risk bumping into some Tuskens or creatures or who knows what! And none of them have speeders or anything.” Bullet said back.

“What about Karga?”

“Oh, so he can send some bounty hunter my way to be my hero and then everyone can find out about this? Hell no!”

Din rolled his eyes. He could definitely see her being stubborn enough to let her self sit away in the desert instead of getting somebody else to help her. But then why was she contacting him? Din shrugged off the thought and spoke into his comm. “C’mon, you must have someone else.”

“I don’t, you dip shit! In case you didn’t notice, I don’t have many friends!” Bullet spat back.

Well, shit. Din wished he was the kind of man to tell her no and keep doing his job. But past all the anger and frustration, he could hear the desperation in her voice. And he couldn’t leave her hanging. It would be a pain in the ass and could risk his bounty hopping onto a ship to another planet and making his life way harder. But if Bullet was calling him, that must of meant she really did need someone. “Fine.” Din gruffly said.

“Good. I am maybe 200 miles southeast of Mos Eisley. Could be a little more or less. But you should see my ship. Or should I say the carcass of my ship.” Din swore he heard a sad sigh after that and he remembered the ship he had seen just a few days ago, looking pristine and almost like it had never been touched. He didn’t know if it was new or just extremely well cared for, but either way having the parts stolen from it must of been a blow. And knowing how Jawas were, he wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled up things as small as even flooring and panels.

“Okay. I am half a day away.”

“Ugh, that is forever!” Bullet whined.

“I can not come if that’s too long.” Din sarcastically quipped back and he could definitely hear a grunt and an eye roll through the comm.

“Get your metal ass over here.” she said before the comm went out and his ship returned to complete silence.

“You’re welcome.” Din spoke to no one, rolling his eyes as he punched in some new coordinates and the ship began to turn in the opposite direction.

_________________

With a ship, Bullet wasn’t too far from Mos Eisley. It had only taken him a little bit of time to travel southeast of the town and find what could definitely best be described as the carcass of Bullet’s ship. It was dark outside by now, well into the late hours of the night, but he still didn’t even have to be on the ground to see the Jawas hadn’t been generous with their takings. The ship now looked like a sad excuse of what it had once been, looking many years older and like a broken down machine in the middle of the desert that had been long abandoned.

Din landed the Crest slowly and let out a small sigh as he looked out his window and saw Bullet, sat on the sand with her knees pulled up to her chest and hand holding her head up. He quickly made his way down the cockpit, opening the door to his ship and walking down it slowly. The air on the planet was still hot and humid, no relief to be found under the blanket of the stars and moon. Din looked over at where Bullet was sat on the ground, noticing she had shed her jacket and used it to sit on instead. Strewn next to the jacket were two bottles and though Din wasn’t a drinker himself he easily recognized the labels for the spotcka that had once been inside it. He stepped closer to her and her head lolled up to look at him, and oh yeah, she was definitely drunk. Her eyes were glazed over and she looked like she was partially holding her head up to keep it from falling down, rather than relaxing it on her hands. But the biggest reason he knew was because of the smile she gave him. “Well, whoopie doo, you came.”

“You are drunk.” Din said and she let out a hearty chuckle, one that seemed to fit her more properly than the smile on her face.

“Well, you are quiet the detective.” She sarcastically responded.

“I didn’t come here to be your babysitter.” Din said and a little bit of her normal persona peaked through when she rolled her eyes in response.

“Well, you took forever. And normally I have a stock pile of food but I ran out before this bounty and figured I would get more food after, not knowing I would be robbed! And then I also had no water but I had some beautiful bottles of spotchka that were practically calling my name. ” Bullet gestured to the bottles, giving them a longing look that made Din sigh. “It was warm spotcka though and that was kind of gross...”

Yep, he definitely should of just gotten his bounty and ignored her.

“So you got drunk?”

“Oh, I am barely even drunk.”

“You drank two bottles in half a day.” Din countered.

“Ugh, are you always so literal?” Bullet asked and when Din didn’t respond, she let out a big huff. “You know, I am going to get up and walk right onto your ship and you will see how drunk I am not. Hell, I could probably fly the damn piece of shit.”

Din looked down at her as she slowly began to rise from her spot on the ground. She seemed to be doing so but not with any ease. Every limb seemed to wobble and shake as she moved at a snails pace. Din almost let out a sigh of exasperation, but didn’t want to get her going. Once she finally made it up, she gave Din a cocky grin. “See?”

“You left your jacket on the ground.”

Bullet’s face dropped as she looked down at the sand where her jacket still laid there. “Did you put that there?”

“You were sitting on it when I came.” Din responded.

Bullet raised an eyebrow and looked over at him. “Well, whatever. I didn’t like that jacket anyways.”

Din shook his head. Every time he had seen her, she had been wearing that jacket. “You can’t bend over.”

“Fuck off!” Bullet argued, glaring at him and narrowing her eyes. “I can bend down and grab that jacket.”

“Then do it.” Din didn’t even know why he was doing this. Perhaps because he was annoyed she not only made him come and get her, but made him get her when was drunk. Or maybe because secretly seeing the woman who had killed a man with no hesitation and had such a crass attitude look hesitant to bend over was very amusing.

“Fine!” Bullet slowly began to bend over but Din saw what was happening before she did, her body beginning to double over. Din reached out quickly and wrapped his arms around her before she fell, pulling her up slowly. “I am fine, get off me!”

“You almost planted your face into the sand.” Din responded plainly, continuing to pull her up until she was stood up straight again.

“Fuck off with your boring personality and big arms!” Bullet began thrashing around and Din pulled his arms away from her. Once she could, she looked over at him with a scathing look. “What are you doing? Trying to feel me up?”

Din now couldn’t help but to chuckle, shaking his head as she kept glaring up at him. “I was helping you.”

“Oh yeah, sure. That’s what all guys think they are doing when they feel someone up.” Bullet spat back.

“I wasn’t feeling you up. I grabbed you so you didn’t fall.” Din responded.

“Oh likely excuse, sir.” Bullet mumbled back, beginning to step forward but tripping over he own feet in the process. Din reached out again, his hands grabbing onto her arms to help her steady herself. For the first time, Bullet looked up at him shyly. “Okay, maybe you made a solid point.”

Din shook his head and brought his hands away from her. “Let’s get on the ship.”

“But my ship!” Bullet yelped, her hands dramatically gesturing to it. Din looked over at it. The Jawas definitely had taken everything even remotely useful, as well as a few things that probably weren’t necessary. There was no way that thing could fly even if it wanted to and replacing everything they had stolen would probably have cost more than buying a new ship.

“What happened?” Din asked.

Bullet looked up at the ship solemnly. “I was hunting this bounty and parked the ship here. But my blaster broke so I came back to get a different one quickly and the Jawas had taken everything! My weapons, my engine, my everything! All they left was the spotchka and my stupid bounties.”

Din let out a sigh. Jawas were common enough around Tattooine and were greedy little buggers. It kind of shocked him that they were able to carry as much as they took, but wasn’t all too surprising. “Well, you will need to buy a new ship.”

“But I loved Michelle.” Bullet said softly, looking up at the ship with a small frown and big, sad eyes.

Din quirked up an eyebrow, looking down at her. “You named your ship Michelle?”

Bullet whipped her head to look at Din, seeming to dizzy herself in the process, and narrowed her eyes at him. “Michelle was a beauty. Don’t judge her when your ship looks like that.”

“The Crest is fine.” Din responded but Bullet scoffed.

“You should name that ship something fitting. Maybe Bantha fodder. Or piece of shit. Or flaming garbage can.” Bullet now couldn’t help the smile on her face, appearing to have too much fun making fun of the ship. She suddenly dropped the smile and leaned forward, whispering low and causing Din to bend down to catch what she was saying. “I thought I was going to die on that ship when I first saw it.”

Din let out a big sigh. “Well, you didn’t. So let’s just get on the ship.”

Din reached a hand to grab her arm but she yanked it away. “Wait! My bounties are still here!”

“What do you want me to do about that?” Din asked, placing a hand on his hip.

“You need to put them on your ship!” Bullet said, giving him a face that seemed to say ‘Duh, you idiot.’

“No. You can come back and get them. They are frozen in carbonite, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then they won’t go anywhere.”

Bullet frowned. “You are an asshole.”

“You aren’t a walk in the park yourself.” Din grunted, finally grabbing her arm and beginning to pull her towards the ship.

“You know, the world made me all bitter and angry. You are just all grumpy for what reason? Just cause?”

“What happened to you rarely talking like before?” Din asked, finally dragging her up the ramp and shutting the door.

“Hey, you are talking too!” Bullet huffed, giving him a critical look. “Maybe you should grow a personality.”

“I am fine.” Din grumbled back.

“No. You are bo-oring.” Bullet responded.

“Isn’t your dominant personality trait killing people you aren’t supposed to?” Din countered.

Bullet paused for a moment. “Touché.” she finally responded, seeming to succumb.

“Alright, am I taking you to the girls?” Din asked.

Bullet scoffed. “No! They’d never let this go and I don’t want to bother them anyways.”

“Where am I taking you then?” Din asked.

“Huh, I don’t know. I didn’t think this far.”

“Genius.” Din muttered, getting more and more exasperated as he began to feel more and more like a babysitter.

“Hey, I didn’t even think you were going to come!”

“I said I was going to.” Din countered.

“Yeah, but most people are dicks. I thought you probably hated me and were going to leave me to rot away in the middle of the desert.” Bullet said.

Din paused for a moment, looking over at her. She wasn’t joking, no hint of a smile on her face or a teasing tone in her voice. She was being serious. Din couldn’t argue that most people were no good, at least in his opinion, but she genuinely thought that he wasn’t going to come. Din took a deep breath, before taking a softer tone that he had remembered ever taking with anyone. “Is there any place I can take you? Or do you want to go back to Nevarro?”

Din didn’t even know why he was offering. Going to Nevarro meant really going out of his way, but he just felt the need to make the offer. “No. Not Nevarro.” Bullet paused, seeming to think before she settled on an answer. “Hey, do you want to sleep on a bed tonight?”

“I’ve got a bed.”

“Listen, I tried out that sad excuse of a bed-”

“-you laid in my bed?” Din asked but she just continued going, not even seeming to notice he spoke.

“-and that was simply depressing. I don’t know how you can even move without everything hurting. And it’s so small and you are a big guy. Unless the armor just adds the bulk and you are actually tiny. But I don’t think you are. I think you are big with big arms and big shoulders and-”

“What was your point?” Din interrupted, suddenly growing very uncomfortable with the way she continued to drone on and on.

“Oh yeah! That place we stopped at before we left Tatooine-”

“The orphanage?”

“Yes! You can drop me off there and if you want a bed for the night, y’know like an actual bed, I am sure Myre wouldn’t mind.”

“Myre?”

“Yes!” Bullet said, seeming exasperated he had no clue who Myre was, a woman whom he had never met or heard of before.

Din considered the prospect of a bed. While he didn’t like that she had laid in his bed, she wasn’t wrong. He was used to it at this point but it was terribly uncomfortable and pretty small. And Din couldn’t even remember the last time he had slept in an actual bed. Or for that matter, somewhere that wasn’t the Crest.

It wouldn’t hurt, right? He had to drop her off there anyways and it was getting late. He probably would’ve called it a day and gone to bed in the Crest anyways. He could sleep in an actual bed and wake up early and leave. It would be like he wasn’t even there.

“Okay.”

“Well, then, am I flying there or you?”

“If you try to fly this ship, I will leave you here.”

That caused Bullet to chuckle. “Aye aye, captain.”

Din gave a short nod and began to climb up the ladder to the cockpit.

“Can I call you Mando?”

Din turned to look down at her. “What?”

“Karga calls you Mando. But I didn’t want to call you that and make you uncomfortable.”

Din tilted his helmet. A smile smile quirked his lips. He couldn’t remember a time he had ever had someone ask him permission to call him Mando. “Yeah. I don’t mind.”

“Okay.”

He began to make his way up the ladder again when he was interrupted by her voice. “Mando?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for not letting me rot away in the middle of Tatooine.”

Din gave a small nod. “You’re welcome.”

_________________

Once they made it to the orphanage, Bullet insisted on taking charge. But she was still ridiculously drunk and didn’t seem to understand she didn’t need to sneak around the building. Every time Din tried to speak, she would let out a loud, drawn out “shush” that was far louder than the words Din tried to speak. But he allowed her to continue on with her plan (though he didn’t think she had one and was pretty sure she had circled the same area twice.)

“Can’t we knock on the door?” Din asked.

“Shush! You are gonna wake up the kids!” Bullet hissed, looking at him in bewilderment as if she wasn’t shouting herself.

Suddenly, a light flashed on and Bullet stumbled back, nearly falling into Din. Din brought a hand to his waist, his hands just barely hovering over his blaster. It took a second for a small shadow to make its way towards them and Din saw it was a small boy, with scraggly blond hair and big, sleepy brown eyes that looked up at Bullet. “Hi, Bullet.”

“Hey, kid.” Bullet responded, putting a hand on top of his head to mess with his hair, causing the little boy to let out a giggle. “What are you doing up?”

“I heard a voice.” The boy responded.

Bullet whipped her head to look at Din, looking disappointed. “Told you that you were too loud.”

Din let out a huff, not bothering to argue that she was the one speaking at an atrocious volume.

“Carter, back to bed.” a voice poke out.

The three looked up to see an older woman standing a few feet in front of the trio.

“But, Bullet is here.” The boy whined.

“And maybe you can see her tomorrow morning. Back to bed.” The woman said sternly but it didn’t seem so harsh when paired with her kind eyes.

The boy gave a small nod and waved goodbye before making his way back to one of the doors along the side of the building. The woman looked over at Bullet, her eyes briefly looking Din up and down, before she stepped forward. “What are you doing here this late?”

“Oh, don’t even get me started. Michelle was robbed. Stripped of all her beauty!” Bullet whined.

The woman’s eyes widened. “Is that one of the ladies at Oppa’s?”

“That is her ship.” Din chose to answer, hoping to prevent Bullet going into a loud rant about her love for Michelle (which she had done twice on their way to the orphanage).

“Oh, boy.” The woman responded, looking Bullet up and down with a raised eyebrow. “You stink like spotchka.”

“Okay, I didn’t come here to be judged.” Bullet huffed back. “You are fond of a glass or two of spotchka yourself, Myre.”

“How much did she drink?” The older woman asked and it took Din a moment to realize the question was being directed at him.

“Two bottles.”

“Maker, you sloppy drunk!” The woman said harshly, looking down at Bullet like a mother would to a disobedient child.

“Mando and I just need beds. Separately though. He already tried to feel me up once.” Bullet dropped her voice for the last part, trying to whisper as best as she could but her volume still loud enough for Din to here the words directed at the woman who gave him a fierce look.

Din let out a big sigh. “She was falling.”

“Ah.” Myre responded, giving him an understanding nod. She looked back at Bullet and wrapped an arm around the woman. “Well, let’s get you to a bed.”

Din followed as they both trailed along the many rooms of the building. It was almost set up like a hotel, each room seeming to have its own door that led to the outside. It was set up in a circular shape, with an almost courtyard like middle that was strewn with toys and other various little knick knacks one would see in an orphanage. The woman led them to one of the ends of the building, standing in front of a door.

“Alright, you can take the room right there.” The woman said to Din, her head gesturing to a room to the left of the one she stood in front of.

Din nodded, making his way to the door. He reached a hand out to the handle, but stopped to give the woman a small nod. “Thank you.”

The woman smiled back. “Thanks for getting her here safely.” Din started to open the door when she spoke again. “If you want, you can have some breakfast in the morning. You’ll have to stop by early though before the kids get to everything.”

Din just gave another nod before making his way into the room, shutting the door softly behind him and locking it . The room was small with no bathroom attached or even a sink. Just a single bed laid in the middle of it with a small table to the side where a lamp sat. A small window let the smallest sliver of moonlight in but Din closed the curtain to it quickly. Today had been a long day and he longed to be alone so he could take his armor off and relax.

Din let out a loud sigh, plopping down on the bed with a groan. He hadn’t slept in a regular bed for so long and he wasn’t even under the impression that this bed was even a good one. But compared to the pad on the cot in his ship, this bed was pure heaven. Instead of feeling hard, it had some give and he hadn’t even rested his whole body against it but it enveloped him slightly.

Din reached his hands up for his helmet, only to pause for a moment. He was in a new place, with people he didn’t know. Sure, he knew who Bullet was and she obviously trusted him on some level or another, or she wouldn’t have contacted him. But otherwise, he didn’t know this Myre woman or any of the children. He didn’t know this place. But Din allowed himself to just, even just this once, convince himself he was being paranoid. The door was locked, the window was shuttered, and there was no other way into the room. And with the lights and the sun down, you practically couldn’t see a thing in the room, even if you squinted real tight. He supposed that if Bullet really wanted to, she could make her way into the room but she was too drunk to do so, or at least to do so quietly.

So Din slipped the helmet off his head, taking in a deep breath as he rested it on the blanket next to him. The room, in some strange way, smelled welcoming. Not necessarily good but it wasn’t bad or threatening. The room was a little stuffy, with the lack of air flow or light in it but it was considerably better than his helmet. Din brought a hand to his face, rubbing at it slowly. This day had felt too long and had ended in a completely unexpected way. He had one more bounty to get. He was hoping for a fast one too.

But he supposed it could be worse. Maybe.

Din began to pull off the rest of his armor, slowly put it down on the floor as to not make too much noise. Once he was stripped of all of it, he didn’t even bother to take his clothes off before dropping his whole entire body on the bad, still laying on top of the sheets and blankets. His body usually ran hot, something he blamed on wearing the armor all the time, and the air in Tatooine was still warm so he felt no need to cuddle under any other layers. He could probably take off a few to be honest and be perfect. But as his limbs began to settle into the soft lure of the mattress and his heavy eyes began to flutter close, he found he had no strength to even strip off the clothing, choosing to just fall asleep in that very spot.

______

You hadn’t remembered much. You remembered calling Din for help, but that had been before those two fateful bottles of spotchka lured you in. You remember hearing the hesitancy in his voice and thinking how screwed you were. And once you were drunk, you even remembered the shock of seeing the Crest start to land where you were, thinking with awe and surprise that he had kept his word and come.

But everything after that was a little blurry. So when you had woken up in a room of the orphanage you knew like the back of your hand, it took you a few moments to remember how you had gotten there. You remembered being on his ship, and you must of led him here. Or perhaps he remembered it from last time and just knew to take you here.

You let out a small groan as the double suns of Tatooine poured rays of sunshine through the window, causing you to wince in response and bury your head into the blankets. It was early, that much you could tell, but the suns on this planet never seemed to care much for the early hours of the morning that should be reserved for sleep. Part of you wanted to sink beneath the sheets and bury your face in the mattress. But it was probably best to get up and start finding a way to get a new ship.

And shit, had you left her bounties behind?

An even louder, more exasperated grunt left your lips as your head pounded. It was too early to think and you were too hungover. You needed caf before you could even try to process anything.

It took you a few minutes to clean yourself up in one of the shared bathrooms, trying to get rid of the reminders of the rendezvous with the alc from last night. After doing so, you stumbled into the main building and walked into the kitchen.

“Well, good morning.” Myre sarcastically called out, letting out a small chuckle as she saw the scrunched up face you held.

“Caf.” was all that you could manage, reaching your hands out to grab a mug and make your way to the pot that held the beautiful elixir you so desperately craved. Even smelling the liquid seemed to hit the right spot alone, your brain becoming a little less foggy and eyes opening a little wider.

“How did you sleep?” Myre asked, standing at a counter where she was absentmindedly kneading at a dough with her hands repeatedly. You had seen the woman at work enough to know things like this were second nature, things she could practically do in her sleep.

“I slept like I drank two bottles of spotcka.” you muttered, taking a sip of the caf and letting out a moan at the taste. You were sure it was the hangover, but you swore it was the most beautiful cup of caf you had ever tasted, soaking in the flavor like it was the finest delicacy.

“Oh, yeah. That Mandalorian told me about it.”

You quirked up an eyebrow at that, lolling your head over to look at Myre. You didn’t remember much about getting here, but you most certainly didn’t remember Mando being here. “He was here?”

Myre let out a chuckle. “He slept here. Still think he is asleep actually.”

You froze in your spot. “Who invited him to sleep here?”

“You did.” Myre said, giving you a questioning look. “Do you remember anything?”

You sighed, trying to not express just how drunk you were but you knew deep down it was useless. Myre had seen you which meant she knew. Hell, anybody would be able to tell when you were drunk. You hated it with a burning passion, but you tended to get a little chatty when you drank and that definitely threw people off, even people who had only met you once or twice. “I don’t know.”

Myre let out a disappointed sigh, giving you a critical look that seemed to be so fitting for such a maternal woman. Everything about her screamed mother, and the stern yet loving look she gave you now was no exception. “I’m so glad you are just stumbling around with random men while drunk off your ass.”

“Who is stumbling around with random men?”

You looked up at the new voice in the room and couldn’t help the quirk of your lips as you saw the new woman. Her gaze met yours at the same time and she let out a laugh that perfectly enraptured the joy you felt but couldn’t express quite so easily. The woman ran up to you and wrapped her arms around you, causing you to let out a small groan from her excitement when you were still very much hungover. But you didn’t tell her to back off, letting her rock you back and forth in a manner that made your stomach do summersaults.

“Good to see you, Kya.” you said as she pulled away with a big grin. Kya seemed to look the same she had all the years ago when you met her as young children. She had an inherently youthful energy to her, that paired perfectly with her glowing looks and softness. She was the epitome of beauty and a free-spirit, even though she had every reason to be as tough as nails like you considered the shitty cards the galaxy dealt her. But no matter what, she was always smiling and looking jubilant. It clashed with your energy entirely but sometimes it was refreshing. A much needed break from the usual rustle and tumble of your everyday life.

“As I was saying, who is stumbling around with random men?” Kya asked, giving you a small quirk of the eyebrow as she grabbed an apron off a hook and began to tie it onto herself.

“Bullet.” Myre responded before you had the chance, and you gave her a small glare she brushed away.

Kya let out a chuckle as she began to grab some ingredient and work away at something of her own. “What a surprise.” She sarcastically responded.

“Bullet showed up here drunk last night-“

“Another surprise.” Kya quipped in the middle of Myres explanation.

“-and with a Mandalorian.”

“A Mandalorian?” Kya asked, a look of shock replacing the smile she had.

“Yeah. We worked with each other on that one bounty I had here a little while ago.” You explained.

Both women’s sets of jaws dropped. You rolled your eyes at the dramatics and glared at them. “You worked with someone?” Myre asked first.

“Yes. Stop looking so shocked.” You stubbornly said.

Both women shut their jaws but looked at you with curious looks. “Is this the Mandalorian you slept with a few weeks ago?” Kya asked and Myres eyes widened.

“You slept with a Mandalorian?” The older woman asked in a state of shock.

You rolled your eyes. “No, this isn’t the one. I’d never work with that one guy. I’m pretty sure he said ‘this is the way’ when he c-“

“Okay, please stop!” Myre interrupted, throwing her flour covered hands up in surrender.

“Oh, don’t be such a prude.” You teased.

“I don’t want to hear you talk about sleeping with Mandalorians.” She tried to justify.

“Should she talk about the people other professions she has slept with then? Oh, maybe the mechanics!” Kya asked with an evil grin, her eyes scrunching up in joy from teasing the older woman. You also couldn’t help but to chuckle.

“Alright, shut up.” Myre quipped back. She looked back at you with a small, but overwhelmed, smile. “How did working with this Mandalorian go?”

“Neither of us killed each other, so I’d say okay. He actually seems competent to be honest.”

“High praise from someone like you.” Kya said.

You shrugged. “He doesn’t seem like an arrogant douche like most of them are. And rumor has it he’s been doing it for years without a break. One of the best.”

“Ooh, I see why you worked with him then.” Myre responded and Kya nodded in agreement.

“It was worth a lot of credits and needed partners. That’s all.” You said but both woman didn’t believe you.

“Bullshit.” Kya responded. “You wanted to prove you were better. See what he was made of.”

“You always were competitive.” Myre agreed.

“That’s not it. I just wanted the credits.” You tried to argue, but even you couldn’t convince yourself that wasn’t true. You had heard of the Mandalorian before you officially met. There were lots of bounty hunters in the guild, but not many with the prestige he had. People whispered hushed rumors of him being the best in the galaxy and only given the highest bounties. It sounded like if there was a job you thought to be impossible, you handed him the fob and he’d get it done quick and clean. There was no way to argue it: it enticed you.

So when you walked into that cantina and saw the Mandalorian sat with Karga, you wanted to at least see the man with so many tall tales and stories. But to be honest, you were slightly overwhelmed when you tossed the six bounties down and realized he had been given less. I mean, if you were getting more bounties for just as many credits, who was really the best? It wasn’t like you were picking the easy guys up off the street. Your bounties were just as difficult and credible as his. Yet he was the one with the title and the persona. And you may had been new to this game, but you didn’t think he had heard your name, or most people had for that matter.

So yeah. You wanted to know what it was all about. See the hype. Maybe also prove you were just as good, if not better. And you had fully intended on giving him his time to lay out a plan and execute, watch him do was he supposedly did best. But once things became personal with that bounty, you took over without even trying. And the Mandalorian seemed to understand that. So no, you weren’t able to see his wickedly talented skills or him kick some poor schmucks ass, but that had garnered you an inkling of respect for the man, which was hard to come by.

And then that had only been furthered when he took credit for killing the bounty. He had no reason to. It’s not like you two had formed some blossoming relationship in the two days you knew each other. In fact, you were pretty sure you had just successfully pissed him off several times. Part of you had expected him to rat you out. But once he told Karga he had killed the bounty, the respect grew tenfold. He was aware enough to know you weren’t going to ask him to do it but Karga was gonna tear into your ass for popping up with another dead body. And he stepped in and took the blame when he didn’t have to.

Sure. You hadn’t seen him hunt. But you had seen enough characteristics that made one a good hunter, as well as a mediocre man at the very least, if not possibly a good one. And in a world where most men, and people for the matter, seemed to be getting worse and worse to you, you supposed that was something. Maybe it was why you called him instead of Karga. You didn’t even know why you were doing it even when you reached his ship with your comm. It just seemed like the smarter thing to do in the moment and hell, it had worked. So that said something, right?

“So, is he?”

You popped your head back up, blinking away your thoughts. “Is he what?”

“One of the best?” Kya asked.

You shrugged slowly. “I don’t know. The one bounty we did went a little awry. But he seems okay.”

“Okay enough for you to call him for help.” Myre added.

“Well, I don’t really have friends so-”

“Wow, I ought to be offended.” Kya muttered with a teasing frown.

“I’m sorry but if I called you and asked you to come get my drunk ass in the middle of the Tatooine desert, what would you say?” You asked.

“Screw you.” Kya said proudly.

“Exactly.” you muttered.

You turned your head to the doorway when you heard the loud clapping of small feet on the ground. Your eyes landing on a younger Twi’lek girl who tore into the kitchen with wide eyes and frantic breathes in and out. She dramatically clasped onto the counter and looked up at Myre with a bewildered expression. “W-why is t-there... a-”

“Okay, kid, catch your breathe real quick.” You said, looking down at the girl who let out a loud sigh as she steadied her breathing.

“What is wrong?” Myre asked, putting down the food she was prepping and walking around to bend down at the knees in front of her.

“Big, giant droid.” The girl barely panted out.

“Droid?” Kya asked, her eyebrows shooting up to the top of her head.

“Yes. He left one of the rooms. So big. Very shiny...” the girl clarified and you couldn’t help the dry chuckle that left your lips.

“I know who that is.” you muttered and Myre also couldn’t help the small quirk of her lips.

“Don’t worry, young one. That is a friend of Bullet’s here.” Myre explained to the young girl who turned to look at you incredously.

“Your friends with a droid?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t say we are friends per say. But he might as well be a droid.” you muttered into your cup of caf as you took another long sip.

The girl seemed satisfied with the answer and relaxed a little bit. “Oh, okay. I probably shouldn’t have screamed at him.”

Your head whipped over to look at the girl. “You screamed at him?”

“Well, he opened the door and scared me and I screamed at him.” the girl justified, looking at you like you were the crazy one.

“What did you say?” you asked.

The girl looked around bashfully, her cheeks flushing a darker color as she avoided Myre’s stern gaze. “I probably shouldn’t say it in front of Ms. Myre.” she whispered to you, but it was still loud enough that Myre let out a big sigh.

“What did I say about your potty mouth?” Myre asked and the girl shyly shrugged.

“Sorry.” she muttered, looking down at the counter until you nudged her. She looked up at you and you held up a hand which she gladly high fived with a big grin.

“Good job, kid. Now get out of here.” you whispered and the girl let out a giggle before running out of the kitchen.

“You are a horrible influence.” Myre said, glaring at you intently.

“And that is why I don’t work here.” You said with a lazy grin which Kya chuckled at. “Although if I did, the kids would probably have a much larger vocabulary which is very-”

You cut yourself off when you heard more footsteps, this time they were heavier but slower. Not as rushed as the girl from earlier but not normal. It was like each step was taken with purpose. You didn’t even have to turn to the source of the sound to know who it was.

You looked up at Myre and Kya, who both were looking in the direction of the doorframe. Myre gave a warm smile but Kya just looked slightly stunned, looking down at you slowly as if to say ‘Are you serious?’

“You come here to scare the shit out of some more kids?” you asked, still not bothering to look over at the Mandalorian who continued to step forward a little more.

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know...” you heard his gruff voice speak through the modulator. If you were right, you swore you could detect a little bit of remorse in his tone.

“It’s fine. The kids aren’t used to visitors like-” Myre cut herself off, opting to give him an awkward smile instead of finishing her sentence.

“Mandalorians?” Mando finished, not seeming to be bothered by what she had been implying.

“No.” Myre confirmed.

“You are the Mandalorian?” Kya asked and you gave her a look.

“Oh, is the metal and helmet not obvious enough for you?” you asked and Kya glared at you.

“Shut up, Bullet.” she said and looked back up at Mando. She gave him a small smile but seemed hesitant to do so. You finally turned to look at the man, seeing him standing in the middle of the kitchen, rather awkwardly. You guessed he probably wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t seem to be good with people. At all. Not to say you were a shining example of how to socialize and interact, but he seemed totally oblivious. With Karga, he spoke short, curt words. Always straight to the purpose, no casual conversations or small talk most people had, which you actually appreciated. You’d rather die than talk about the weather or how somebody was because honestly did anyone really give a shit about that?

But then you realized it ran a little deeper than just not liking people. You were pretty sure he was uncomfortable with people. It was impossible but it seemed like he had never even interacted with a person before or had any relationships. When you had just tried to pat him down for weapons on the first night with him on the Crest, something in him seemed to snap. Not violently or aggressively. But like he was so uncomfortable with the prospect of someone touching him and the fact that you had dared to do it was enough to scare him. You had watched the way his chest was rising and falling faster than it had before, the way his helmet was aimed right at you like he was praying you wouldn’t reach out again.

And then there was how he reacted to the girls at Oppa’s, in particular with Lu. Most guys would jump at the chance with a girl like Lu, and she had practically been begging for it in her sly looks and eager comments. As soon as she had walked in you had guessed he would at least reciprocate in the most minimal way. But he seemed to freeze up, like he had no clue what to do. Like he wanted the attention to be anywhere but on him.

And he looked the same right now, maybe a little more relaxed since no one was undressing him with their eyes, but still uncomfortable. It was almost endearing in some odd way. This man was a bounty hunter. Part of his job was hunting down people and killing them. With how long he had been doing this, you were sure he had quite a bit of blood on his hands. And he was a Mandalorian. This tough, bad ass who people feared immediately, only with a small glance of the helmet. He could probably make anyone do what he wanted to if he wanted to. Yet in a room with three women he looked like he had no clue what to do.

“What is your name?” Kya asked.

You wanted to slap your hand against your forehead, feeling second hand embarrassment from her question. To be fair, you weren’t sure if Kya had ever seen a Mandalorian in person before and she certainly didn’t know a hell of a lot about them, if anything for that matter. You had learned a while ago that Mandalorians didn’t do several things, a couple of which included not giving out their names or taking off their helmets. At least that was how it worked with the few Mandalorians you had bumped into on Nevarro and Mando had proven to be the same.

“Just call him Mando.” you hadn’t even realized you said it until Kya looked over at you. A small recollection from the night before popped up, remembering how you had asked him if you could call him Mando. You shook your head and looked over at the man, giving a shrug. “Or maybe you can give him a fun nick name.”

“Mando is fine.” he said, giving Kya a small nod. You tried to discern what it meant. So far, Din did a few things a lot. He liked to sigh or grunt, he nodded a lot, and he also tilted his helmet. Sometimes you could tell what these different things meant: annoyance, anger, exhaustion, etc. They were ways he expressed himself. Sometimes the only way he could when he couldn’t respond with a facial expression like most people did. You sometimes wonder if under that helmet of his he was always making facial expressions that no one ever saw.

“You want some breakfast?” Kya asked and once again, you wanted to slap her upside the head. You looked over at her with a tired expression and she clenched up, looking confused and guilty.

“Okay, I don’t know what I said wrong that time.” she quietly muttered.

“It’s fine. I just can’t take off the helmet.” Mando said, seeming to be unbothered by the question. You were sure he was used to it by now. You didn’t know how long he had been a Mandalorian before. If it was something he signed up for or if he was born into it. But you had never heard of anyone who had seen his actual face. He had always been the Mandalorian or Mando if Karga mentioned him.

“Wait. Like ever?” Kya asked, seeming to disregard any embarrassment she felt as her eyebrows shot up. Mando opted to nod to answer her question and Kya gasped, her jaw dropping slightly.

“Anymore questions for him?” you asked Kya sarcastically. She just rolled her eyes at you and Myre let out a small snort. Once she turned away to do something, you looked over at Mando. “Thanks, by the way. For yesterday.”

“Holy shit, did Bullet just say thank you?” You heard Kya whisper to Myre and you slowly gave her a middle finger which caused her to giggle.

“It’s fine. Just don’t get drunk next time.” Mando said and you raised a single eyebrow. Was that his attempt at a joke? Or was he being literal? You couldn’t tell but you just nodded.

“How I about I just make sure that doesn’t happen again?” you said and he nodded.

“Well, Mando, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. And you can take breakfast to your room if you want.” Myre said, filling in the silence that followed you.

“I should go.” Mando answered plainly.

“Got more bounties?” you asked and he nodded. “Well, you are definitely beating me this time.”

You didn’t know if it came off as a joke, but you meant it as one. Mando only nodded again. “Thank you for the bed.” he spoke to Myre and you.

“No problem.” Myre said with a smile.

The Mandalorian began to turn out of the room, heading for the doorway when he froze. He turned just slightly, looking over at you. You froze as he stayed still, seeming to be contemplating something. He did that often. He just liked to stand there and stay still, like he was going over something in his head before he did it. You guessed that was something that probably made people uncomfortable but it didn’t bother you. You just looked back at him plainly and waited.

“Do you have more bounties?”

You quirked your head at the question. “Yeah. One more.”

“Where?”

“I am not giving you my bounty.” you said sternly.

The man sighed. “Just answer the question.”

Part of you wanted to be defiant. You didn’t like people telling you what to do. But he just seemed exasperated so you answered. “Felucia.”

Din pause, his helmet tilting in... was that confusion? “You sure?”

You rolled your eyes. “I’m pretty sure I know where my bounties are.”

“My last one is on Felucia.”

You paused. You were sure Karga hadn’t done it on purpose. But part of you remembered the grin he had on his face when he saw the two of you walk into the cantina together after your last trip. If he had given you two bounties on the same planet, it wouldn’t be surprising. Karga liked to brag about how he had the best bounty hunters on the planet and you knew he had done plenty of bragging about the large bounty you and the Mandalorian had brought in together. If he could say he personally formed a partnership between the two best bounty hunters he had, he would get a real kick out of it. Maybe even a bonus or some shit from the Guild. “Looks like Karga set us up on a play date.” you sarcastically muttered.

Mando only nodded. “I’m going there now.”

You paused. Was this an offer? You didn’t want to presume so you only shrugged. “Okay.”

“You... you can come if you want. We can grab your bounties and get the bounties on Felucia quickly. Then I can drop you off at Nevarro after.” The man offered and you tilted your head.

“How many credits do you want for that?” you asked. Nobody did kind things without a price.

“Nothing. I was just offering.”

You froze. Well, shit. Maybe some people did. You supposed it wasn’t too surprising. He had come to this planet just to help you even though he had a bounty waiting. Hadn’t even asked for anything in return. You once again found yourself intrigued by the man in front of you. Was this all genuine or just a ploy? You didn’t know but you could handle yourself. And you needed a way back and here was a free ticket.

“I’ll meet you on the Crest in a few.” you said.

Din nodded and walked out of the kitchen, his footsteps eventually fading away.

“Well, shit. Are you making friends?” Kya asked.

You turned to look back at the two of them, both with small smiles and shocked eyes. “What?”

“I think that is the most polite conversation I have ever seen you have with someone.” Myre said.

“C’mon. The kids and ladies at Oppa’s love me. And I tolerate you two.” you said, giving them an incredulous look.

“Yeah but they are all practically family. This is just some random guy.” Kya countered.

“Listen I just need to get my bounty and get back to Nevarro.” you argued.

Kya scoffed, shaking her head. “Y’know, it is okay to not hate someone.”

“She isn’t wrong.” Myre added. “He seems okay.”

You rolled your eyes. “Please, the guy has the personality of a trash compactor.”

“Oh, and I forgot about your blossoming personality.” Kya muttered, causing Myre to chuckle.

“Screw off.” You said, placing the mug down on the counter and looking at them sternly. “Till next time, ladies.”

Both of them gave you a nod and smiles. “Be safe, kid.” Myre added.

You gave them a short nod and walked out of the kitchen, heading towards the Crest.

Tag list: @eury-dice3

#din djarin #the mandalorian #din djarin x reader #din djarin imagine #din djarin fanfiction #din djarin x female reader #din djarin x oc #din djarin x oc!bountyhunter #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian imagine #mandalorian fanfiction #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian imagine #the mandolarian #mando x reader #mando

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just-the-hiddles · 4 years

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Writer’s Spotlight | myoxisbroken

Happy hump day, peeps! This week’s spotlight is the queen of a historical fic, AU or canon. The maven of food porn in a fic. And the reigning champ of teasing me with smut @myoxisbroken ! Let’s dive in!!

The Basics

MASTERLIST HERE

Any other names you want people to call you?

Miss Ox, myox, whatever you feel like!

How long have you been writing fic?

2 years.

What fandoms and/ships do you write?

MCU (Loki, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes), other Tom Hiddleston characters (Pine, Conrad, Sharpe, Buxton, Nicholls, Plumptre, and ever-growing), and just branching out into Pedro Pascal with The Mandalorian; I also have a few Doctor Who fics in my Masterlist (Ten/Donna Noble)

How did you get started writing fic?

I was reading a ton of Doctor Who fic and enjoying the Doctor/River Song stories. Then I rewatched DW season 4 and was so depressed about Donna's ending that I immediately watched the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version of Much Ado About Nothing. And then I started to ship the Tenth Doctor and Donna.

So I read a bunch of their fic and thought, "You know what would be awesome? If someone wrote a WW2 AU where Donna's a single mother and the Doctor is an injured fighter pilot that she takes in as a boarder." And then I started to get snippets of dialogue in my head, and ideas for scenes, and I wondered if I might be able to write a story myself. I hadn't written anything in years, but I decided to give it a try. And a few months later, I had my first story completed, a 14-chapter Doctor Who AU.

After that, I had the writing bug and I haven't been able to stop coming up with ideas and working to put them into words!

Story Recommendations

Which of your stories are your favorite?

It is honestly so hard to choose. I'm only going to choose completed works, because I always love the WIPs I'm working on. So, let's see: You Bring Me Home is one of them, because it was so fun to just jump into a sexy vacation romp with some playful kink exploration for James Conrad (Kong: Skull Island). With Brooding Wings was my first attempt at a vampire story using multiple Tom Hiddleston characters, and I really enjoyed playing with the dynamics of different personalities and settings in that world.

In A Restless World Like This Is is another, because I had such a great time writing a fluffy love story for Steve Rogers and an older OFC. It started as a spite project because of someone's objections to older characters and turned into such a lovely experience. It was one of the easiest I've ever written in terms of how quickly it flowed from my brain through my fingers. I'd loved writing for Loki (An Excellent Suggestion was my first Loki story, and my first time writing smut) and for Bucky (We Are All Victims of Physics Sometimes was my first dip into capturing Bucky's quiet reserve and depth of emotion).

I honestly could go on and on about stories but would only sound more conceited.

Which story are you most proud of?

I think A Pursuit of the Heart. It was my first time writing in the Regency/Georgian era, and I did a TON of research for it. It was also my first novel-length story, and I didn't even know if I could take on something that big or write a historical romance convincingly, in a way that felt era-appropriate and true. I was so proud of the finished product.

Which of your stories do you think is the most underrated?

Let Your Heart Be Light, a Bucky/OFC story with a Christmas theme - its companion piece, Kissing The New Year In, also didn't get much traction. But I loved writing them!

Someone is new to reading your stories, which story/stories should they read first?

It depends on what actors and characters they like, really, as well as if they like smut or fluff or both. For a smutty one-shot, I'd recommend An Excellent Suggestion (which has a one-shot sequel). For a swoonier longer fic with smut, I'd recommend either You Bring Me Home or my fake relationship Steve Rogers fic The One Thing You Can't See.

For fluff, An Unforeseen Outcome is a Loki one-shot with both fluff and a little emotional hurt/comfort. Interestingly, I've written more not-smut fluff for Loki than for any other character. I think I just want him to find connection and love and acceptance so much.

And if you are a fan of historical romance, I'd recommend either my Thomas Sharpe AU A Compromising Situation, or if you like your fics with a healthy dose of angst, Beside Us When Beauty Brightens, my William Buxton (Return to Cranford) story about what happens after he loses Peggy.

Which Story did you do the most research for?

A Pursuit of the Heart, since it was my first one set in the Georgian era and I had a lot of catching up to do! I research for most of my stories, and definitely for my multi-chapter stories. Even if they're contemporary, I still look up resorts, locations, restaurants and local foods, things to do, etc. I can't help it. It's like I'm addicted to research.

Which Story was the easiest to write?

For a multi-chapter fic, In A Restless World Like This Is. For a one-shot, probably my Loki Christmas fluff All I Want For Christmas Is You.

The Writing Process

What is your favorite part of writing?

When a scene I've had in my head just flies out of my fingers and onto the page, and I can read it back and think, "YES! That's just how I wanted it!"

What is your least favorite part?

When my brain is too scattered and unfocused to actually allow me to do any writing.

Describe your style in 1 to 2 sentences.

Well-researched stories that use the information to make you feel like you're there and that incorporate sweetness into even the smuttiest scenario. Also, food porn, and porn porn.

Who are some of your writing idols and/or influences?

For published novels, Mary Balogh and Sabrina Jeffries are two of my favorite historical romance writers, and I think that reading them has helped to make my writing better. In terms of fic authors (some of whom are also published), @nildespirandum and @caffiend-queen were two of the first I read in the Tom/Loki fandom and their excellent quality and intriguing plots are an inspiration, even if I will never be able to write plots as twisty as theirs. Also, reading @yespolkadotkitty's stories helped me push myself to get better at setting scenes and at incorporating the various senses into stories, because she is so good at both of those things and so much else.

What programs do you use to write and/or edit?

I use Google Docs. I have also been dancing around buying Scrivener for an original novel I plan to write and shop around, so I'll be doing that soon.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Plotter, for sure. My brain would implode if I tried to pants my stories.

Do you write RPF or not?

I have a few chapters of a Tom Hiddleston RPF in draft form but haven't proceeded with it. I'd kind of like to write a Pedro Pascal RPF one-shot. I love reading RPF but feel odd about writing it for some reason.

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Again with the tough questions! It might be Loki, because he is such a chameleon and there are so many hidden depths to him. I really want to write some multi-chapter Loki stories, because so far I have done one-shots and one 3-chapter short fic. I'd like to explore a longer character arc for him.

What do you think are your writing strengths?

Authenticity because of my research, realistically depicting emotions, and writing in a style that feels genuine to the setting and era.

What do you struggle with?

PLOT. I do think that there is plenty of room for all kinds of stories, and I like to tell stories about relationships. But I would like to get better at adding outside conflict and other types of plot to my stories.

Favorite Trope?

It's so hard to choose between There Was Only One Bed and Fake Relationship. I think those are my top two.

What is the best piece of writing advice you have heard?

Write something. Anything. Even if you think it's crap, get your first draft done, because you can always go back and rewrite something that's bad and make it better. Also, if you're stuck on your WIP, write something else - a piece of another story or one-shot, a description of something you saw, a character profile, a bit of personal journaling. Keep writing and don't let a temporary roadblock turn into a long-term one.

What would you say to a new fanfic writer starting out?

It's hard when something you wrote doesn't get a lot of attention, especially when you love it. We share stories in the hopes that other people will discover and enjoy them, but you have to at least partly do it for your own satisfaction, or it will get pretty discouraging if the likes/kudos, comments, and reblogs just don't happen.

What is a random bit of research you have not managed to work into a fic yet?

Ladies' drawers (underwear) were not commonly worn until the mid-1800s. They were thought to be gentlemen's garments and it was thus vulgar for a lady to wear them. Yes, ladies of the Georgian (incl. Regency) era were generally commando beneath their skirts, petticoats, and shifts. But that was still a lot of layers.

Any goals or WIPs you want to share?

My goal is to write an original novel (series) set during the Napoleonic Wars. My hope is to get it researched, written, and put in final draft form so that I can send query letters out before the end of 2021.

This or That

Fluff or Angst

Fluff AND Smut

Reader Insert or OC

Canon Divergent or AU

Pepsi or Coke (Neither: Cherry Coke Zero)

Coffee or Tea (Neither: Cocoa)

Sweet AND Savory

And that is it, until next week, remember to check out the masterlist here. And your new fav fic is just around the corner! Until next time, toodles!

#writer's spotlight #myoxisbroken #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fanfiction #loki #loki fanfiction

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fortes-fortuna-iogurtum · 4 years

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an incomplete list of Thoughts on Gallifrey: Time War 4

will probably be added to as time goes on because my brain is in a fog this morning and I’m really struggling to be coherent

this is already so long and I don’t know how to stop oh no

- Time War could’ve very easily been a 5-boxset arc, and I really wish it would’ve been. I think it would’ve cleared up a lot of the issues that I and others have with the arc, especially in terms of pacing and character and relationship development.

- alternatively, they could’ve returned to the original format of 5 chapters per season, which I personally liked a lot and think works a little better for Gallifrey.

- this is technically about Time War 2 and 3, but it’s connected to 4, so: I think some stories should’ve been shifted around a bit so that things flowed along more smoothly and the transition from Mother Tongue to Unity made more sense, and then from Unity to Homecoming. because as it stands, it feels to me like making Romana and Leela and Narvin “break up” after Leela spends all that time away from them was just done for drama and wasn’t fleshed out well enough to completely work like I’m assuming the writers wanted it to.

- I have come to the conclusion that, while David Llewellyn is a good writer whose Gallifrey stories I generally enjoy a lot, he just doesn’t understand Brax very well.

- actually I feel like Brax’s writing in Gallifrey has just been a little *off* since his last appearance in Gally4. (with the exception of Solider Obscura, which I love, even though I ALSO question the writers’ decision to essentially reverse Brax’s character development there; again, this is another thing that I think could’ve been just fine if there had been more time to deal with it, say a fifth boxset or five stories in every boxset)

- and this makes sense -- because David Llewellyn doesn’t fully grasp some really core aspects of who Brax is and his motivations, but is generally a pretty good writer and seems to get the other main characters of Gallifrey well, we’re left with a sense of good writing for Brax... but when it really comes down to it in the end, everything sorta falls apart because he doesn’t understand the deeper workings of the character and why he does the things he does.

- basically I really really wish Justin Richards could’ve written Beyond, because I think he would’ve done an amazing job with it and the ending wouldn’t have felt so bizarre

- (also I wonder if they had to cut a scene last minute because honestly that whole last sequence feels incredibly weird somehow??? not only does it feel OOC for Romana--like come on. I’m sorry, I know that he’s mistreated her and people she cares about a lot and she has a right to be done with him, but we know her. her responding that way to seeing him brutally killed in front of her after all their conversations in the earlier parts of the story feels so incredibly wrong and I cannot articulate just how much I dislike it--but there’s also an incredibly rough scene transition there and a music transition that sounds really bad, to be blunt. like they had to chop out a scene the morning before release and had no time to fix it, so they just did what they had to and hoped no one would notice)

- gotta be honest, I’m pretty salty about Beyond and probably will be talking about it for a while. maybe I should make a tag specifically for it so y’all can mute that one, because I hate being so negative about things I actually do enjoy, but I had a Lot of issues with that story and I just....

- yeah anyway, moving on 😅

- I did, on the whole, enjoy Homecoming, however

- again with the pacing, I think it would’ve been a lot better if they had been able to lead up to it more, especially with the emotional relationships between the Trio. Leela and Romana was ok, Romana and Narvin was ok, and Leela and Narvin was ok, but they really could’ve gone harder on the emotions I think?

- actually that’s a big thing about this boxset overall, and it’s especially evident in Homecoming-- I feel like they were holding back for some reason, and they really really didn’t have to. Especially as this is being advertised (at least in an unspoken way) as The Big Finale.

- (I mean for one they definitely could’ve had Leela and Narvin kiss at the end of that last interaction and it would’ve been fine and super fitting but ya know)

- also I do want to draw attention to the fact that this is most certainly not the absolute and final end of Gallifrey. I mean, perhaps of Gallifrey proper? But I’m going to be incredibly shocked if this it just. it. for these storylines and these characters. especially with where they left things at the end of Homecoming.

- actually, this might be the root of this problem: that the writers were simultaneously trying to write the Big Finish (no pun intended) for Gallifrey, but at the same time, they wanted to keep it very open-ended and ready to be picked up again when the time comes. So it ends up just feeling kind of... muddled, and noncommittal. Because they want this huge, heartrending, emotional finale, but at the same time it’s not a finale, and so they can’t do anything too big and heartrending and emotional and final with the characters, because the story needs to be able to continue. and so we’re stuck with an “ending” that’s probably not really an ending, and it simultaneously feels just a little underdone and like a big lead-up into nowhere.

- I mentioned to @spicydinosaurwings948 right after listening to it that the end reminded me of that thing a lot of big film/TV franchises do now, where they lay threads throughout one film and at the very end there’s an after-credits scene and some sort of announcement that ushers in the next era or spin-off of the franchise (sort of like what they did in the end of the most reason season of The Mandalorian, where they’re using Boba Fett’s involvement in that show to launch his own series). The problem is, as far as we know right now, they aren’t planning anything to follow up on this (unless they’re really great at keeping secrets and telling half-truths and are planning to shock us all in a few weeks, which wouldn’t entirely surprise me even tho I’m not counting on it happening).

- I have seen people say that they think some of the problem with the finale was that the writers were too occupied with trying to tie things into other existing storylines, like the show itself and the DW audios, which is also valid. I don’t personally think that is the root of the problem, but I definitely understand where that idea is coming from and I agree that it could’ve contributed to the issues.

- now might also be a time to mention that I can totally see some of these things from Gally:TW being brought up in the young War Doctor stories they’re doing soon? obviously not too much, but I can see characters like Eris showing up there, or maybe a reference to the Doctor not knowing where Romana is, or maybe even Armitage!Rassilon being the first Rassilon of those stories.

- annnnnd speaking of Hot Rassilon: the “ascension”. I have no idea what was going on with all that but it definitely felt like Something Big and now I’m really puzzled as to what there were doing with it?? is this going to be picked up somewhere else?? is it just another thing they introduced that needed to be fleshed-out better?? hello Big Finish and Scott Handcock and anyone else who can help me, I really need answers because?????? (I mean surely, surely it doesn’t tie into Ascension of the Cybermen???????)

#more to come #because I still have more thoughts but getting them out of my head in any sort of logical order is tough today #gallifrey time war 4 #gallifrey spoilers #gallifandom #big finish gallifrey #leela #narvin #romana #braxiatel #gallifrey: homecoming #also if anyone wants to reply to any of these thoughts please feel free??#I'd love to talk to more people about their thoughts and get more perspectives!

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kazhan · 4 years

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The Mandalorian s2 finale.

It’s time to rant about The Mandalorian.

I’m seeing a lot of people upset over The Mandalorian season 2 ending and calling it awful and I honestly think half of you guys suffer from a case of Jedi Order Hate and Drawing Hasty Conclusions.

Disclaimer: Although I loved seeing Luke in live action again and them getting it right after the mess that were the sequels, I didn’t want him to be the Jedi Grogu called. Now, this is what we got and even if I wish we’d had someone else, I still enjoyed the episode. Also I don’t want to say I hate the idea of Luke being included until I see what they do next.

Luke stole Grogu from Din!!!!

Okay so there’s a lot to unpack here.

First of all, we’ve known since the season 1 finale that Din’s goal this season was to find Grogu’s people so he could return him to his kind. Yes, we all grew attached to the little womp rat which means none of us wanted to see him go, but it’s literally the plot: find the Jedi, give them Grogu. We all entered the season knowing it was a possibility.

Now, we’ve seen Din grow attached to Grogu, going as far as removing his helmet in front of people and breaking his code for him. We’ve seen him act as a father to Grogu and that relationship is what makes The Mandalorian so great, I think everyone agrees on this.

Because of that, I’ve seen people say things like “what was the point of showing us that relationship if they’re going to destroy it in the finale?” and I think they completely missed the point.

They didn’t destroy their bond. They showed us how strong it is, because no matter how much Din loves Grogu, he didn’t make the selfish choice of asking him to stay. He let him go. This is another proof of how good and kind and selfless Din is. This kid became everything to him and yet, he was able to let him go, out of love for him. This is what Anakin couldn’t do, what led him to the darkside. But here’s Din Djarin, Mandalorian bounty hunter, showing us a true act of love by saying goodbye to Grogu because he’s convinced that’s what’s best for him.

Now, to the people saying that Grogu didn’t even want to go with Luke, you are so mistaken.

Ahsoka told Din in episode 5 that the choice was Grogu’s to make. Grogu made his choice on Tython when he reached out to Luke and clearly asked him to come find him. Luke wouldn’t have shown up if Grogu hadn’t told him to.

Grogu clearly made that choice again when he reacted to Luke boarding Gideon’s cruiser, when he reached out to him through the video surveillance feed, when he asked Din to get to Luke, when he asked Din his permission and finally, when he asked Luke to pick him up.

Grogu has chosen the Jedi path, again and again and again. Now, I understand being sad over this choice because it means he won’t be with Din anymore but don’t go calling Luke an asshole and a baby snatcher when it’s clear that this was Grogu’s choice.

We didn’t see or hear what Luke and Grogu “talked about” on Tython, but when Luke shows up, he already knows Grogu wants to go with him. He isn’t here to steal a kid from anyone, he’s here to train a child who asked him to. And yet, he knows Grogu needs Din’s permission to leave him and he lets them have that talk, he doesn’t intervene. Did you guys notice how Luke only picks up Grogu when he asks him to? An evil baby snatcher would have grabbed him the second Din let him go, but Luke still gave him the time to change his mind if he wanted to.

So, no, Luke didn’t steal Grogu from Din.

Now, to the people disappointed by Grogu’s choice.

Grogu is a Temple baby. He is 50, which means he’s spent around 20 years growing up around Jedi. They were his family and he lost them all during the rise of the Empire. Do you guys imagine how traumatizing Order 66 must have been for a Force sensitive baby? Most Jedi felt their own being decimated across the galaxy and Grogu was right here at the Temple where everyone was massacred. He lost everyone he knew. We’re not sure exactly what happened to him right after Order 66 other that a Jedi saved him and hid him, but I think it’s fair to assume his life was nothing but running away from the Empire afterwards, then being captured by pirates and finally, saved by Din. We don’t know how long he stayed with Din. Weeks? Months? I’m not trying to diminish their bond here because it’s clear that they love each other, but the Jedi are Grogu’s family too.

Can we blame him for choosing the Jedi path when he’s one of the last of his kind, already has had training and desperately needs someone to teach him how to master his abilities?

And he wanted Din’s permission. Which means that if Din had said no, he would have stayed with him. And Luke would have respected that choice, none of you can tell me otherwise.

So, saying that Luke and the Jedi are baby thieves is completely discarding Grogu’s choice, Din’s sacrifice and the good man Luke is. Which is, you know. Not cool. At all.

We won’t be seeing Din anymore!!! Boba is going to replace him!!!

Okay so, about Din. Guys. Bo-Katan asked him to join her to retake Mandalore once he’s done with his other duties (aka Grogu) and he said he would.

“If you should manage to finish your quest, I would have you reconsider joining our efforts.”

[...]

“Fair enough.”

He took the Darksaber back from Moff Gideon, which gives him the right to claim the Mandalorian throne. We are not done with Din Djarin.

Plus, he promised Grogu they’d see each other again and I’m pretty sure he meant that, but also that it was some kind of promise made to the audience as well. So we’re probably not done with Grogu either.

Now, about Boba. I might be completely wrong here, but I’m guessing The Book of Boba Fett is a spin-off series, not season 3. Boba doesn’t consider himself Mandalorian (and I could write essays about how sad this is) so I really don’t think he’s going to become the new main character of a show named The Mandalorian. That’s Din, since the beginning, and I can totally see them expanding on the universe with all the characters they introduced, but Din will probably always be at the heart of the show. If it’s not a spin-off, then maybe we’ll get a few episodes focused on Boba before coming back to Din. I don’t know! But Boba is not here to replace Din.

Now, maybe I’ll come back to this post in december 2021 and realize how much of a fool I was, but in the meantime: I don’t know what they’re going to do, so I’m not going to scream about how bad the show was, how they ruined Din Djarin and are getting rid of the character.

Conclusion

People being upset because watching Din say goodbye to his kid was heartbreaking are 100% valid because that was the point. The audience is supposed to feel how hard it was for Din, but we’re also supposed to understand it was necessary and how beautiful being able to let someone you love go for their own good is.

People calling Luke a baby snatcher are definitely not valid and should stop hating on the Jedi.

People saying Din is being replaced and hating on the show because of it… take a chill pill, wait until next year, we’ll see how it goes.

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian rant #sw #sw rant #jedi positive #people are exhausting fr #I understand not liking the episode #but at least have good reasons for it not made up one like saying Luke stole Din's kid #anyway this is probably full of typos and weird phrasing but i'm throwing it out here

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ooops-i-arted · 4 years

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What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Characteristics? Words words wooooooooooords! I love finding just the right word or turn of phrase to get across what I’m trying to deliver. Two words might be in the same thesaurus entry but they mean different things and I always want to pick the exact one I want. Vocabulary is important and also I just love words. I literally read the dictionary as a child.

As far as tropes I favor, y’all know I love me some rampaging and action even though those scenes are always so tricky to write. I adore rescues. Arc words and color symbolism. Any sort of “Character A doesn’t want to do this but for Character B they will” sort of thing, platonic or romantic. I like my good characters Good and my bad characters Bad. Like I’m not opposed to shades of grey at all, but I prefer a generally defined line between good and bad in my fiction. Also, I like good characters that do good Because It’s The Right Thing To Do, because I feel that’s missing a lot anymore, and it’s Important.

Meta about my own writing? Yeah let’s go right into ACCPOV because I worked damn hard on it and I’m proud of it.

Baby’s arc words are “warm and safe and happy” and the phrase gradually evolves throughout the fic(s). (It’s a series on AO3 but I think of all of season 1 as one fic, just divided into different works by episode for convenience.) At first he starts with warm and safe, because that’s his baseline for being happy. But gradually he starts to truly feel safe and happy with Din, and applies those words to Din in particular.

In general I paid attention to Baby’s vocabulary so much because I was constantly having to keep track of what words he did/didn’t know. And episodes 1-3 I kept the vocabulary and phrasing very limited, to keep him sounding very childlike and choppy, but 4 and on his narration smooths out to represent how he is starting to grow and develop under Din’s care. So it’s still childlike but gradually sounds more mature.

Every chapter title is formatted after the show’s episode titles, except for Scruples, which is formatted after Redemption. Since Redemption is everything finally coming to a head, and Scruples is the culmination of Baby’s emotional development over the course of the fic. He’s terrified and frustrated and angry, but he ultimately decides to trust Din despite his fear, which is a huge step for a kid his age.

Also in general Baby’s motivations and depictions of his canon actions are inspired by Jedi philosophy. Choking Cara is Dark Side because while he was motivated in part by protecting Din, he’s afraid of losing his dad and angry that Cara is being “mean” and just generally jealous that everyone else is taking up Din’s time. Whereas Baby broiling the flame trooper is Light Side, because he was motivated to protect Din and their friends and keep them safe.

I decided to have Baby just register people as Gone throughout most of it to keep that childlike innocence, not truly understanding what’s happening, and only start to use the words “kill” or “die” in Redemption. I always wanted it clear he had been exposed to a lot of violence and normalized it, but still keep a little distance from it. That’s going to keep evolving in Season 2; at the beginning of The Marshal he is 100% aware that Dad is killing people and is continuing to normalize violence WAY more than any child should.

“Baby casually mentioning something that was NOT casual” is one of my favorite things to throw in tbh. Like “Wow Dad sure didn’t like it when I opened the weapons cabinet!” Just the contrast between how Baby sees things and how Din (and us readers) see things.

Everyone’s Least Favorite Nikto, Yarull, was originally supposed to be mildly neglectful but I upgraded him to abusive shithead so Baby has a convenient way to compare his old and new life and how he’s treated. Also every time Yarull is mentioned in a chapter I get at least 5 comments of “fuck that guy specifically” and it always makes me smile.

Everyone introduces themselves by name as soon as possible in the fic because while they’re funny, picking those Baby Yoda Nicknames gets old fast lmao. Say your names in canon, people!!! (Except Toro. You will always be Fuzzy Eyebrows. Get rekt.)

I’m afraid I don’t have anything exciting to say about most of my AU fics, since honestly my approach to those is just “act out cool stories with my action figures except I’m just doing it in my head” + “Hey you know what would be interesting.” And the 101 Yoditos AU is just me going nuts with my passion for child development AND my passion for Baby Yoda/The Mandalorian (and varactyls).

#i needed a good ramble to refocus on accpov season 2 #the marshal is.....not ideal for baby's pov #asks #glamorousgamine

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popwasabi · 5 years

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Lockdown Lookback: Catching up on the past months’ Pop Culture

Aaaaannnd we’re back!

It’s amazing what a little pandemic can do to shake you out of your creative cobwebs but if we’re all going to die, I want to make sure all my pop cultural hot takes are up to date at least.

Many of us are already on lockdown and many major movies including “007,” “Black Widow” and ummm I guess “Mulan” are all getting pushed to the backburner as no one is leaving their God damn homes unless they’re told to!

(Didn’t realize the thing I wish I had more of in the apocalypse would be sweatpants...)

But there’s still plenty to talk about from the previous months and other hot topics I have been meaning to write about but just hadn’t found the time or energy for. Life has been hard I think for just about all of us these days thanks in no small part to this pandemic. For me personally, I’ve had two different vacations canceled because of the virus and currently working understaffed at my job which is considered essential. Not to mention my therapist is on call only at this time and both my martial arts schools have been suspended, so I can neither talk nor punch my feelings out of my system.

So, I might be just a LITTLE on edge at the moment.

(My internal monologue for most of these past few weeks, more broadly years...)

Anyways, I digress, you come here because you like to read my highly unprofessional takes on pop culture and genuinely to those who have cheered me on from the beginning thanks, you guys are my prime motivators. But anyways let’s talk about all the shit I was supposed to write about these last two and a half months.

“Birds of Prey” was a hot, but needed, mess

Earlier last month I got to see the sort of sequel to the much-maligned “Suicide Squad” in “Birds of Prey and the…waaaay too long of a title for me write here.” I had cautious optimism for it because it looked strange and off the beaten path of most comic book movies and seemed to promise at the very least a fun time at the theater but it’s still also a DCEU movie so the floor was pretty low on its possible quality as well.

In the end, the movie is kind of bit of everything; the best and worst parts of the DCEU.

In terms of the good, it’s definitely outside the box, a sort of fem Deadpool first person story as told frenetically by Harley herself. Margot Robbie is, of course, still quite great at this role and you can tell she’s having a blast as this character. The humor is mostly good and visually the bright colors and cinematography pops on each screen and on that front there isn’t much to complain about.

But as a DCEU movie it does suffer from some narrative imbalance partially due to it’s psycho storyteller but mostly, and more than likely, due to corporate editing that probably axed an entire dance number that I was honestly looking forward to from the trailers.

(Seriously, I actually wanted to see the full unedited version of whatever hell this ended up being.)

It’s definitely in the “could’ve been better” camp of comic book movies but you know what? I’m still glad it exists. You know why? Because comic book movies dominate our blockbuster culture right now and if the genre wants to survive, at least artistically, it needs some outside the box films like this. I HATED “Joker” but I appreciate that it opened the door for stranger, more unique takes on a genre that is getting increasingly more stale. This movie falls into that unique category too.

(Also, to all the faux-intellectuals and alt-right nerds making a culture war out of “Sonic” vs “Birds of Prey” *kindly* reevaluate your lives please...)

We’re at the point now where comic book movies should be getting weirder, not more formulaic, and that means swinging for the fences even if a couple don’t quite make it out of the ballpark. If it takes a few not so stellar takes on the genre for Hollywood to greenlight a truly fantastic one I’m all for it.

In any case “Birds of Prey” doesn’t quite end nor continue the DCEU’s recent hot streak but it is enjoyable enough to where I would be more than open to a sequel. It’s worth a watch.

The Mandalorian and The Witcher: Two shows about violent mercenaries and fatherhood

Both these shows are old news at this point, but I did want to talk a little about both for a bit if you would have me.

First, “The Mandalorian” which was Disney+’s flagship production to begin its streaming chapter late last year is definitely a more than welcome addition to the galaxy far, far away. It’s pretty easy to feel fairly jaded about Star Wars these days given how flat the new trilogy ended but for what it’s worth “The Mandalorian” was a good mix of nostalgia bait and something new and interesting for fans to chew on. Its production value is obviously top-notch, no doubt because of all the Disney money pumped into it, it’s well-acted and thrilling and fun from start to finish. It plays heavily on the genres that influenced the series, primarily westerns and old samurai flicks, and fans of those will certainly enjoy the homages to them all.

The series was something of a coming out party for Deborah Chow who directed two of the season 1’s best episodes. Her steady hand, eye for details and tributes to Asian cinema throughout really gave the series an extra kick at times and showed how Star Wars can evolve still. Chow is set to helm the upcoming “Kenobi” series and one can only hope that she *really* leans into the samurai genre for that show.

(Hopefully, there are some “Yojimbo” vibes in there somewhere...)

The Mandalorian’s best and worst parts though are its semi episodic nature making each episode easy to digest as a one-off but also lacking some narrative tension between each. It plays kind of like a Saturday Morning cartoon to both its benefit and detriment with bite-size easy to digest plots and dialogue for the viewers but not offering a ton of depth beyond that.

The Mandalorian himself is also kind of a Gary Stu. His armor is basically impenetrable and far and away the best killer onscreen typically, making more than a few action scenes lack real stakes and tension. Baby Yoda certainly helps at times to make him more vulnerable and puts him in precarious positions plenty of times but outside a few moments (mainly episode 2 and to a lesser extend the final episode) he’s just a little too overpowered to be a more interesting character.

But this show and frankly the Star Wars series as a whole is meant for kids, no matter what the neckbeards try to tell you (violence =/= adult), and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Plenty of kids productions can be both great and even sophisticated and while I wouldn’t say “The Mandalorian” is either of those it’s a good and fun kids show for the fans.

(And yes I’m aware that the books, some comics, and games have touched on more adult stuff, you weirdos. But how would you describe the overall tone and presumptive audience of the movies and TV series as a whole, guys??)

As far as “The Witcher” goes it also has a bit of an episodic style to it as well with an overarching, albeit, convoluted story that runs parallel to it. The first 3-4ish episodes can be classified as a quasi “Game of Thrones” clone leaning perhaps a little too heavily into the tropes of that series. Once the series finally starts leaning into its real identity, a dry-witted hack and slash fantasy, the series is much more consistent both tonally and narratively.

Henry Cavil is solid as Geralt of Rivia and the supporting cast of Joey Batey as Jaskier, Freya Allen as Ciri and even more so Anya Chalotra as Yennefer are all great in their respective roles delivering some great moments throughout the season.

(And lest you forget this earworm...)

“The Witcher’s” early season struggles keep it from being as tonally or narratively consistent as “The Mandalorian” but where the monster slayer beats the bounty hunter is that it has overall more compelling drama and has more to say, leaning much more heavily into the thematic greys of the plot. There are tons of problems with “The Witcher” on a story-telling level but you can definitely say it cares more about adding some depth in between the more pulpy aspects of the story which is something you can’t say as much for in “The Mandalorian.”

Of course, I’m partially overselling “The Witcher” a bit here, it’s not anywhere near “Game of Thrones” best (yet at least), and on the flipside one could argue that “The Mandalorian’s” more subtle sense of story-telling does its themes better. But when it comes down to these two shows you get somewhat similar story-telling ideas, mostly involving both characters and their smaller counterparts, in two very different genres with equally diverging conclusions to their respective seasons.

(🎵 Toss an “Oof” to your Witcher...🎵)

All in all, they’re both good and worth a watch and I think they deserve a chance to evolve and hopefully showcase more of what they have to offer moving forward.

“Parasite” wins Best Picture! Many people have some hot takes, including the president...

Last month one of my favorite films of 2019 “Parasite” won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s a movie that is becoming increasingly relevant as elites and celebrities alike are getting front of the line testing despite being asymptomatic in the middle of pandemic and think they can assuage our concerns and dread by poorly singing “Imagine” together within the comfort of their McMansions.

It’s about as a good time as any to revisit this movie, I mean where else are you going to go during this timeline, and at a later date I’ll write something more extensive about it eventually (hopefully) but first here’s a helpful video on one particular thing that came out after director Bong Joon Ho took home the night’s top honors:

youtube

“Cats” is still a fever dream of madness

Back in late December, I watched “Cats” for science, as I had AMC A-List and a friend crazy enough to join me. I figured it would be bonkers and unlike anything I had seen before in the worst way but even then, I don’t think I was truly prepared for what I ended up seeing that fateful night.

I remember quite vividly going to the bar inside the theater and ordering a stiff drink beforehand to numb the pain and the bartender asking “So what are y’all watching tonight?” and beginning to laugh manically like an insane asylum patient at the innocuousness of the question. Walking into the theater was like that feeling you get before getting on a particularly scary-looking rollercoaster at Six Flags but instead of the pre-ride jitters eventually subsiding to the eventual fun and joy of the ride, only a deep sense of existential dread built up and sustained itself through what felt like six hours of the most baffling thing put to screen in front of my eyes ever.

youtube

(The music that played in my head as I exited the theater...)

Have any of you watched the Stanley Kubrick movie “Eyes Wide Shut” before? You know the scene when Tom Cruise is walking around in his mask observing the strange occult sex orgy going on around him at the mansion? That’s kind of what “Cats” felt like except way more terrifying, somehow MORE sexual, and definitely crazier.

(Is...this some type of...intepretative dance to summon an eldritch horror??)

There’s a voyeuristic terror that comes from sitting in that theater room as you watch bipedal humanoid looking felines dance to confusing songs about “Jelicle” cats (whatever the fuck that means) and all other manner of things that should NOT take human form throughout it’s near-endless runtime. A lot was made about Rebel Wilson and the disgusting roach people she consumes but NO ONE warned me about the frankly HORRIFYING mice children in the same scene!

(I am not perusing the internet to find that image again for y’all. I have enough nightmares each night...)

The saddest thing about the whole movie is everyone, save for Ian Mckellen who seemed to be acting as if a gun was pointing at him offscreen and Judi Dench who looked 100 percent like a geriatric in her digi fur, was giving the movie their fullest effort in what can only be described as a Titanic-sized level of hubris by all parties involved. This movie really needed a “Chaostician” involved in evaluating the production for studio heads and shareholders because there were definitely NOT enough people on this project wondering whether or not this film SHOULD exist...

(Dr. Ian Malcolm coming to Universal Pictures to access the film.)

What has “Cats” wrought upon this world? The universe has been clearly out of balance since this movie came out and while I’m not saying it’s director Tom Hooper’s fault, I’m not saying it isn’t either.

“Cats” is one of those things, much like The Matrix that cannot be simply described but must be seen to believe. It’s one of the worst things I have ever seen onscreen but with the right group of people and a few stiff drinks it’s certainly an experience you won’t forget. Consider it for your next Google Hangout during this apocalypse.

Anyways, that about wraps up my thoughts on the last few months. Going to try to be more consistent going forward especially given how much more time I have now to write, for better and worse. But more importantly, just want to say stay safe y’all. It’s going to be a process to get through this and while things are more likely to get worse before they get better there will be a day when this all ends and some normalcy may yet return to our life but in order for us to get there we need to remain vigilant.

So stay at home, wash your hands, and if you want to watch movies just order it online for now and we’ll just wait until aaaallll this blows over…hopefully.

Don’t panic...

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stereogeekspodcast · 4 years

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[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 4. We’ve Been Busy With… Julie and the Phantoms, Star Trek: Discovery, and More

What are we enjoying when we aren't working? Mon's been busy with a few DC Comics, listening to the audiobook of One to Watch, catching up with Holiday Baking shows, and recapping Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 for Show Snob. Ron has been listening to a 12 Monkeys podcast and EK Johnston's Queen's Peril. She's also been watching Julie and the Phantoms as well as recapping The Mandalorian Season 2 for Show Snob.

Listen to the episode on Anchor. Read Mon's recaps of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 here. Read Ron's recaps of The Mandalorian Season 2 here.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Hello and welcome to Episode Four of Stereo Geeks. I'm Ron.

Mon: And I’m Mon.

Aside from our day jobs as marketers, and night jobs writing the occasional feature or story about pop culture, what have we been busy with?

So I've been catching up with my usual comic book titles. I follow Batman, Red Hood: Outlaw and Nightwing. I haven't really kept up with any other titles per se. I read comics in small doses; they get frustrating after a while or predictable. And I would say that that's also the case with just these three titles.

With Batman, we just had a huge change in his arc. There was the ‘Joker War’, which has brought about a huge change in his circumstances. Batman now no longer has access to his immense wealth. And he has to hide from the Wayne Manor; the Batcave. Let's just say that he's downsizing. So let's see how he goes.

He's living in a world that's post-Joker. But is the Joker gone? It’s a huge question. Have you been reading any Batman titles?

Ron: I've been catching up with the Batman title. And I think the last one that I read was #102. Last I saw, the Joker War was over and Batman was in dire straits financially.

I'm actually enjoying this direction for the character. I haven't really taken to Batman's characterization in the Rebirth comics. I thought he was staid. He was boring. He was very one-dimensional. We discussed a lot of this in our opening episode about Batman's worst enemy. Please check that out when you have time.

I like where this is going. I think it's changing the way we see Batman.

Mon: Well, I hope there's more character development because the action is definitely boring.

And the other title on my pull list is Nightwing. Nightwing is back to being Dick Grayson. Yes, after 20 issues of being Ric Grayson, he now has his memory back and his family back and he’s snatched the Nightwing mantle away from Detective Alphonse Sapienza. He's abandoned the rest of the Nightwings.

Honestly that was wrapped up in one page, which is a bit disappointing. I really like those characters. I'm glad Dick Grayson is back to being himself because as much as the Ric storyline had potential, they never really went anywhere with it. I'm happy that Bea is sticking around because she seems to be a good influence on him. Nice down to earth character. Will she be more than a love interest? Probably not.

But I am really looking forward to reading these stories again. What are your thoughts on Dick being back?

Ron: Definitely, definitely relieved at the return of Dick Grayson. The Ric Grayson idea worked for maybe two issues. And after that it fell off the wagon. I liked the other Nightwings. I liked how Ric worked with them. I'm really disappointed that they've been discarded so quickly. And I'm really hoping that they actually do come back some way and work with Nightwing, because those are really good characters. We got a lot of backstory from them. And they were working to save the city of Blüdhaven. So I don't feel like they should be left behind like this.

Aside from that, I do really like Bea. There were a few too many moments in the last few issues where they tried to pit Bea against Barbara. I mean, really? Really, in 2020?

What I would really like to see now is how does Bea fit into the Bat-family. She knows everything about Dick Grayson. I want to see her interact with the rest of the family.

Mon: And the last comic book title on my list is Red Hood: Outlaw. I'm actually speechless when it comes to Red Hood. Ron here is the one who introduced me to Jason Todd/ Red Hood. I knew about the character; read about the character. I wasn't interested in reading him that much. But then, you know, somebody here is a fan. But the last few issues have been awful. This final volume before the changing of the guard have been honestly atrocious.

I have wanted to hit Jason in the face… tear up my comic book. Because the art is awful. The characterizations are awful. I'm just not going to go into what happened. It's definitely gone off the deep end. I'm really hoping he gets back to being a readable, relatable character. From issue #51 there's a new team taking it over, so here's hoping.

Ron: I have to agree about Red Hood. I love this character. I have no idea why? Because his solo runs, his team books, they're not good. There are moments of characterization that made me want to read more about Jason and his problems. But overall, his story is so repetitive and so bland.

This last arc has been unmemorable. I don't know what they're doing with it. I don't know where they're going with it. And Jason has not changed in any way.

Mon: I feel like with Jason, he's always stuck in place. And I'm hoping that the new creative team can actually flesh him out more.

Ron: Yeah, it's about time.

So, moving on to what I've been busy with. I have been listening to the 12 Monkeys podcast called, Word of the Witnesses. It's a podcast hosted by two ladies; huge fans of the show. And their very many friends who have all been brought in to the wonderful world of 12 Monkeys. Now, we are talking about the TV show created by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett. We are not talking about the movie.

However, the show was based on the film. The first season follows the storyline of the film fairly closely. But from the second season onwards, it moves away from that. And it grows.

Mon, you and I started watching the show when it first came out in 2015. We were hooked. We love time travel, so this was definitely up our alley. But the second season was amazing. And then there was a huge break because our lives completely changed. So, we couldn't get to seasons three and four till this year. I managed to watch those two seasons just before the pandemic hit. And then once the pandemic did happen, it was a bit difficult to watch a show about a pandemic. But I’ve been trying to get back into the show again, and I just re-watched the whole thing.

And I still wanted more of the show, so I found this podcast. It's been really enjoyable listening to it. I went through all 53 episodes within a month; no regrets.

I really enjoyed how the hosts went into the mythos of the show. They made so many connections between the various time travel concepts in the show. They found all these Easter eggs that I probably would have missed had I not been re-watching it. And they made connections that I really hadn't even seen before.

But what I also enjoyed was all the theorizing about what certain elements in the show meant. They managed to bring on Terry Matalas and a couple of the writers on the show for interviews. And at one point they did mention that the hosts had found connections that even they hadn't thought of.

It was an enjoyable podcast listen to; it was very engaging. I found that, during the pandemic, I really need to hear conversations. So, for me listening to a podcast where it's a whole bunch of people just talking to each other has been really, really calming. And it's a show that I love, and a bunch of people talking about it with as much love for it as I have, so I've really enjoyed listening to it.

Mon: Well, I haven't heard the podcast myself, but we re-watched the final season of 12 Monkeys together and I felt that you were able to make a lot more connections, A) because you re-watched the entire show just prior to me watching the final season. But also because you'd been listening to the Word of the Witnesses, who gave you all the tidbits and Easter Eggs which would then enhance our watching experience.

I really like how nowadays fans can create content about properties that they really, really love. And it really augments the viewers’ experience.

Ron: Yes, the way that they the way that they spoke about the show. And there were times when during the episodes, they would actually get super emotional because they were so invested in the characters and invested in their journeys. And you could see how much thought had gone into making every part of this show meaningful. And then when they brought on the creators who were also talking about it, you could feel that palpable sense of love for this product, which was often very difficult to create because of budgetary issues. You could just feel it, and it makes you love this show even more.

Mon: Yes, 12 Monkeys was definitely a show that went under the radar for a lot of people. So I'm glad that there's a podcast which is getting the word out there.

So as we talk about things we’ve been listening to, one of our favorite things is audiobooks. And I recently got my hands on a slightly weird one, for me anyway. This is an audiobook of One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London. I heard about this book on NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour. It's another podcast. So I finally requested it from our library.

The story is about plus-size fashion blogger, Bea, and she joins this show which is the equivalent of The Bachelorette, it's called Main Squeeze. She's basically the main squeeze and there are all these 20-odd gentlemen are vying for her affections.

Now, because she's a plus-size person, especially a plus-size woman, she faces situations and comments which the regular Main Squeeze participants won't have faced. And I found that very interesting. We are not used to seeing that many plus-size characters, especially plus-size women, leading romantic or genre properties. And while romance novels and romance stories are really not something that I enjoy, I found that some of the themes—the fatphobic themes—that she faces, they were very relevant and echoed reality. It's actually a tough book to sometimes get through. It's not always happy.

I mean, it's a romance novel, so we can assume that there is going to be a happy ending, we don't know. Because it doesn't seem like it for the longest time. And I'm still in two minds about the ending. Some people may like it, some people may have wanted something different for her. But yeah, give it a shot. If you are looking for something with a different kind of character as a protagonist.

Ron: I’m intrigued. What made you want to read this book? Because a romance story is not up your alley, even if it does have a plus-size character as the lead.

Mon: I think I was just looking for something which may echo a reality which doesn't get represented enough in pop culture. And especially when it comes to plus-size characters, they're usually, you know, sidekicks or completely invisible. So, I really want to see how they approached this topic. I wouldn't say they got everything right. But, the best thing about NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour is that when they recommend something in their ‘What’s Making Me Happy This Week’ section, you are taken in by the enthusiasm of the person pitching this particular product. So that's why I thought, ‘okay, let me give this a shot’. I do think that this is a refreshingly new approach. And it touched on the fact that reality TV at the end of the day is still curated reality. And it's something that you and I have talked about.

Ron: Speaking of audiobooks, I have just been listening to Queen’s Peril by EK Johnston. This is a follow up to Johnston's first book about Padmé Naberrie—aka Queen Amidala, later on, Senator Amidala—Queen’s Shadow.

I love this book so much. I enjoyed Queen’s Shadow a lot. Spending time with Padmé is always amazing. As much as we love the prequels, and yes, we do love the prequels—fight us—Padmé didn’t really get a great ending. So, any stories that give us more of Padmé’s political life, we are definitely up for it.

This book follows Padmé in her early days of becoming Queen of Naboo. She's very young. She's got all these new ideas of how she wants to run the world. And we also get to know a lot about her handmaidens. What I love is that there is some queer content which always makes me happy. I did not expect that, especially in a Star Wars book. But it was so good.

Padmé is a girl. She's a teenager. She's also a queen. She is so smart. She is so witty, she is just amazing. And what I also love about this book is that it ties into The Phantom Menace. But it gives us a whole new perspective. Because you know what's happening and you've got that context, so that enriches the entire experience. I just loved every single moment of this book.

Mon: Yeah, I remember haranguing you to get this book because I loved it so, so much. With Queen’s Shadow, I felt like the author EK Johnston was perhaps a little bit more restrained; it was her first foray into the huge Star Wars universe. I can imagine that there were quite a few studio hands involved. But here in Queen’s Peril, my goodness, it's fluid writing. She knows these characters and she really wants to build up the world that they live in. Every character that we meet has their own arc, they’re fleshed out; you understand their motivations. It's just brilliant to read. And reading about how Padmé and Captain Panaka create her band of bodyguards was so much fun. Each one has their own talents, their abilities, they know their weaknesses, but more than anything, the emphasis put on the sacrifice that they make, I really loved reading about that.

Because these side characters, you know, you can’t just forget about them. ‘Ah, she died because she was a decoy for Queen Amidala’. No, it means a lot to Amidala who these people are. I had so much fun being back in this world from this perspective.

And what I also found funny is that they're still a gaggle of teen girls. They're going to get up to stuff; they're going to be naughty. There’s so much personality given to Padmé and the rest. I really hope that EK Johnston is able to write some more. Let's get back in there with Padmé and the girls.

Ron: Absolutely. She so brilliantly captures this connection that Padmé has with her handmaidens. And you know what I really loved about this, which is also one of the reasons why I loved Queen’s Shadow—I love the politics.

I know a lot of people found the politics in the prequels very difficult to understand. It wasn't very difficult. You just need to have a brain.

Mon: I will never understand people's argument against the politics in the prequels. He was literally echoing what was happening in the news.

Ron: Exactly. So I loved Queen’s Shadow because of that. We get so much insight into how the Senate works, why there’s so much infighting and why certain things just don't get done. And we get to see more of that here. We also get a few hints about how Palpatine gets to rise. And you understand how Padmé has to think on her feet. Because there are so many things that are out of her control, but she needs to keep the peace. So yes, this was such an enjoyable read. I cannot wait for the third part of this trilogy.

Mon: And now on to one of my guilty pleasures. I absolutely and utterly love watching baking shows, cake shows. Anything to do with food, and usually desserts. So, on the Food Network channels, every season, they pretty much have a whole host of themed cooking shows. Since it's the winter and there's so many holidays coming up, we have the Holiday Baking Championship and we have Holiday Wars, which are both different kinds of baking shows.

This year, the formats have changed quite a bit from the previous ones, especially for Holiday Wars. I find it a little less compelling. I feel like it's a little all over the place. I don't know why.

Holiday Baking Championship have a giant table where everybody has to sit at an awkward angle to talk to the contestant. I just keep watching them with their sprained necks and worry about that instead of enjoying the food. But I did notice that the cast of participants looks a lot more diverse than usual. So that's been a long time coming and I hope it is a mainstay.

Aside from that I've caught one episode of Buddy vs. Christmas. Buddy is the Cake Boss in America. And he used to have this competition with fellow cake competitor Duff. But this year, it seems like he is competing on a weekly basis against different cake makers.

The format seems to be that every week they have a theme related to Christmas and they make competing giant displays. I mean, the displays are huge and works of art; works of architectural brilliance and technological brilliance. I do hope that they eat it, but I doubt it. But I have enjoyed seeing what comes out of it.

And ,I hear that we’re in for a new season of Sugar Rush on Netflix, which is so much fun. We really enjoyed the previous season and it seems like they've been trying to get more celebrity guests so let's see who they have this year.

Ron: Yes, nothing like sitting back on a weekend and just watching a baking show. And then we feel like we’re experts on why somebody’s got soggy cake and why somebody else's cake collapsed. Yeah, that's definitely fun.

Speaking of watching things, I have just marathon-watched Julie and the Phantoms. Okay, I thought I was gonna watch a movie. And I decided on Julie and the Phantoms because I've been hearing so much about it. But it turns out that this is actually a TV show. And in 10 episodes the first season wrapped. I really enjoyed this show. It was so much fun.

Mon: Okay, you have to tell me what this show is about. I’ve not heard of it.

Ron: Julie and the Phantoms is about this young girl Julie, played by Madison Reyes, in her very first role. Wow. And she's lost her mother. It's been a year and she's still struggling. One of the things that brought her and her mother together was their love of music. She used to play the piano and she used to sing and now she can't do that because it just reminds her of her mom. So at a crucial moment when she is losing her spot in her music class, three ghosts turn up.

Mon: What?

Ron: These three ghosts died in 1995. And they used to be a band. It actually opens with them. So I'm looking at the screen, looking at 1995 and thinking, ‘oh, that's five years ago’. No, no, it was 25 years ago! It was 25 years ago… Feel old yet?

So, 25 years later, these three members of this band land up in Julie's mother's studio. And they rekindle her love for music and bring her closer to her mom's memory.

At the same time, the three ghosts need to figure out what their unfinished business is because why else are they here? There's a lot of music, there's a lot of singing, there's a lot of dancing; there are so many sweet moments. There are some really, really heartbreaking moments as well. Because the three boys, they died when they were 17. So they've left family behind. And they need to come to terms with that as well.

Of course, Julie and her loss is palpable in every moment that she plays a song. But for the most part, it's quite light, it's quite jovial. There are some laugh out loud moments that I really enjoyed. It's a really, really sweet TV show.

And I really am hoping that there's going to be a second season, because it ends on a cliff-hanger. There's plenty of room for them to grow.

I also love the fact that there are some queer characters in this show. It's not overstated, it's there, it's quite obvious. But it's really sweet. Because two of the band members, they realize that their fellow band member has fallen for a ghost. And they're just like, ‘oh, you have a crush on this ghost friend, that's why you're late for practice’. That's it, even though they're from 1995. So, I was like, oh, that's a relief. So yeah, it was really sweet.

One of the things that I found quite interesting, which I have been noticing in content for young people, is that, when we were growing up, content that was made for us which featured straight couples, generally the boy would not dance. It was this weird thing that would always bother me. You'd have the girl who was always, you know, happily dancing. But the boys? Oh, no, no, they don't do that. But you don't see that now that much. Especially not in this show. Everybody was dancing quite happily. Gay, straight, whatever. So that was really fun!

I love that Julie is a young girl of color, which is still a rarity in pop culture nowadays. Madison Reyes is a really good singer. She has an amazing voice. She dances very well. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this child.

Mon: Well, you’ve always been a fan of musicals. I'm so happy that they keep making these good ones nowadays.

Ron: It was so much fun. And the second season could possibly expand on the mythos that you've already learned in this season. But it was great. It was light. We need something light right now. And that's exactly what we needed.

Mon: Okay, so now on to our weekly favorites. I've been recapping Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 at Show Snob. This has got to be my favorite season, so far. It is so exciting; so fun. It starts off with Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, she lands in the future and she's all alone. The rest of the crew haven't arrived. When she's reunited with her crew, how does everyone deal with being in the new future? What does the future look like? What's their new mission? Is there a mission? It's been incredible.

I think the creators feel like they’ve finally been able to shed the constraints of being a prequel to the original Star Trek show. Now they can just do whatever they want, create as many different worlds and characters that they want. It's been fun. It's really been exciting. I love the Easter eggs and throwbacks, there are so many of them! We've watched seven episodes so far, which is kind of partway through, and I think they've found their feet.

One thing I'd say about this season is that it's been a little bit more chaotic. I feel like they have a lot of loose threads which are only now trying to get streamlined. There’s also been a lot of characters introduced, we see them for an episode or a few scenes, then they disappear. So it's a little bit bittersweet. I'm hoping for it to get better and better.

Ron: Yes, the cast of Discovery has increased a great deal in this season. And I do like the additions of Adira, Gray, and Book. They're great. They're fun.

But the crew of Discovery itself, we get to see a bit more of them from time to time, which is also quite nice because we've seen them in the background. Especially the Bridge crew; they're always there, a lot of them are Canadians, so, we’ve got our eye on them. But, now we're actually getting to know a little bit more about their personalities and how they work.

Of course, it's all against the background of them being completely displaced from everything that they know and love. So that does change the dynamic between the characters, and also how they feel about their new existence.

I love Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham, I've loved her since the first episode. She is so great. I feel like I meet a friend every week when I see her. I'm so fascinated by her direction. She's somebody who was introduced to us in the very first episode as a logical Vulcan who believed so strongly in the Starfleet way of life. And then it all changed because she may have been brought up as a Vulcan, but she was still human. And the moment she got an opportunity to make a difference and get revenge, basically, for the death of her parents, she took that chance, and it changed the way the Federation worked.

Every season, she’s been a fish out to water, trying to fit in. By the end of the second season, she found her home with Discovery, and once again she's been displaced from them. She's still looking for another way to connect with these people whom she does love, but there's a rift between them. And it's not her fault and it's not their fault. But it's just the circumstances that Michael always finds herself in. She's just a great compelling character. I think, after B'Elanna Torres, Michael Burnham would probably be my second favorite; she's just amazing.

Mon: One of the bolder moves by the creators in this season has been changing up the Federation. We're not going to go too much into that—no spoilers here. But I have to say that it makes for a compelling story.

We are so used to Star Trek properties really coasting on the idea of utopia. But there's more to it. There's more to the world and I think that, in 2020, when we are faced with the realities of what people are really like. I'm not entirely sure a beatific view of the future is practical. But let's hope that Discovery finds some kind of utopia eventually.

Ron: Yes, because Star Trek has always been about hope, and Discovery has often struggled with that kind of hope. The first season was all about war. The second season was a little bit more hopeful. This season, it's there but they’re struggling to find it.

They're in a position now to actually bring in some kind of hope. We're seeing that from time to time in the episodes that we've seen so far. But, it's a very different kind of Star Trek from previous iterations. I would say that it's quite dark from time to time.

Mon: It's dark but it's not melancholic, and there is an underlying theme of hope and positivity and optimism, which I assume, by the end of the season, will come to fruition.

Ron: Absolutely. And another show that we've been watching on the regs is The Mandalorian Season 2.

The first season had its ups and downs. There were some really good episodes; there were some poor episodes. We found the first episode to be a little bit turgid. The second season has been far more accomplished.

From the first episode of the second season onwards the editing has been much tighter, the storylines have been more engaging. Even for the episodes that were a bit slower in terms of plot there was still enough there to keep you interested in what was happening.

I think one of the things that people will definitely love about this season is how it's connected to the rest of the Star Wars universe, not just the films, but also the animated shows, as well as the books, maybe even the video games, we don't know yet. There has been some speculation but nothing has been nothing has yet been confirmed. So stay tuned on that.

We've been enjoying it. Baby Yoda has had some moments. He does seem to be doing things that aren't always very good. I don't know how I feel about him; he's adorable. He's adorable. But some of the things that he does… his actions are a bit questionable at times, even though he is Baby Yoda.

Mando himself hasn't really seen much growth this season. I felt like in the first season, you know, he started off as a bounty hunter. He found Baby Yoda and then it changed how he felt about his job and his mission. He no longer just wanted Beskar for the heck of it. He had a person to protect, and it changed his way of life.

This season, as fun as it is to watch him and Baby Yoda go from planet to planet, and from more ridiculous circumstances to others. Mando himself really hasn't changed much from the start of this season. So, I feel like the last few episodes will have some work wrapping that up.

Mon: I know that Mando has really stagnated in his characterization, but it's been such an adventure. Each episode has been an adventure on a new planet. And it's shown how Mando and the Child have connected more. It’s expanded the universe of the live-action show, and I’ve enjoyed that much more than if we were forced to watch Mando grow in some contrived or inauthentic fashion.

Honestly, this feels like a Star Wars show mainly because you never know what you’ll spot or who you’ll spot from other properties. So I'm probably in the minority here, but I really don't mind that he's like, ‘I'm on a quest; I’m on a quest, I'm on a quest’. Literally his only refrain for the first three episodes—he's moved on from saying that, at least.

Because as a character, he's so cool. Like, even when you watched Jango Fett and Boba Fett. These helmeted creatures, you don't really care about who they are as people. They just looked so cool. And a lot of the characterization, their arcs, their motivations, they come through despite that, it comes through in their actions. I really liked how they've brought in different aspects of the universe.

I kind of wish they wouldn't tell us in advance. Like, stop promoting and sending us news. Let us be surprised from time to time. And that was what used to be the mainstay of any Star Wars property. I don't know why, ever since Disney's taken over, they just tell us everything. No, we need to be surprised as fans. Ah, anyway. But the show, the cinematography is outstanding. It really feels like Star Wars and some of the direction… it's like, nothing has changed in the best way possible.

Ron: Shut out to Bryce Dallas Howard, and Carl Weathers; their episodes were just so good. So good.

Those were Star Wars episodes. It felt like we'd never left this universe from 1977. It was just such an enjoyable experience. You could see that these directors had grown up with these properties, they love these properties so much that their vision was what a fan would make. It was so much fun.

But for me, Mando’s lack of growth wasn't really bothering me that much until ‘Chapter 13’, where I was like, ‘what's he gonna do after this?’. Like, there needs to be more to this character. I think he's working as an audience stand-in a bit too much this season. Whereas in season one, you couldn't help but question some of his motives and everything that he did you were always on tenterhooks about what his next action was.

I like that he’s firmly a good guy now. But he's dangerously close to becoming a boring, good guy.

Mon: Well, I hope that's not the case and that Mando does get some growth. I'd like to see where his relationship with the Child eventually goes. There's only so much you can do with a little green puppet.

Ron: Baby Yoda is so cute that literally everybody is just gonna watch the show because it's the Baby Yoda show. He's really adorable as I said. But there are some moments where I feel like Mando now needs to start parenting. You can't just have Baby Yoda around, you need to do something about it because there have been moments where you're like, ‘Mando, watch your son!’

I guess that's the kind of growth that I do want to see. And I feel like that may happen in the next few episodes because all this while, he was on a very specific quest, and all the episodes that we’ve seen so far… Him having to planet hop was basically because he needed to finish this quest and there was something always waylaying him.

But, it's been great watching these characters from the Expanded Universe turn up, they fit in beautifully. I have to say a special shout out to Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth. I have no idea why, but this guy was amazing. I have seen Timothy Olyphant in other stuff but, oh my god, he was really good. I really enjoyed watching him.

And all the special guests who've been turning up have been doing a great job.

Despite our enjoyment of the show, there have been some controversies around the actors in the show. So, do be aware of that when you're watching it. It does tend to suck out some of the joy in watching this season because it has been really good. These characters are amazing. But pop culture doesn't exist in a vacuum, and we need to recognize that.

Having said that, as fans of the franchise, The Mandalorian Season 2 is doing the work to not only engage with us, but to entice new fans who may just be watching this show or may have just come in through the sequel trilogy to watch and read more of this Expanded Universe.

I've really enjoyed the episodic nature of this season, probably more than the previous season. One of the difficulties that sequels have is that they want to be bigger and better. This season seems to have gone in the other direction, and it works.

Mon: Yeah, despite introducing more characters. They have limited arcs, relevant arcs, and they drive the plot forward, and that's what's important. At the end of the day it's a great fan experience and what more could we ask for?

Ron: Tell us what you've been watching and share any recommendations that you may have.

Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]

Ron: We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai and Mon.

#star trek: discovery #the mandalorian #star wars #padme amidala #julie and the phantoms #holiday baking #food network #batman #nightwing #red hood #12 Monkeys

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mostthingskenobi · 7 years

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Hellooo! So, I have a question for you I've been wondering about for ages now... What do you imagine Obi-Wan and Satines first kiss in the clone wars series would've been like if they'd done it? Would Satine kiss Obi-Wan or would he kiss her? And what would the situation be for them to finally do it? If you're not sure then maybe some ideas? Btw I love your blog and hope you'll stay much longer. I'm sorry about what's happened to you. I hope you're getting better because you're just amazing

Hello there, my friend! This ask gave me a jolt of pure joy!! What a fun and pleasant thing to think about… and I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I’ve given this quite a bit of thought. So here’s what I imagine (I’ll try not to be too wordy and take up too much of your time… who am I kidding…. this is going to be the longest thing I’ve ever written):

OBI-WAN AND SATINE’S CLONE WARS KISS THAT NEVER HAPPENED BUT SHOULD HAVE… **QUIETLY SOBS IN THE CORNER**

OK, to start, I understand why Obi-Wan and Satine never kiss in the Clone Wars. George Lucas believed that Kenobi was the embodiment of the perfect Jedi, even to Obi-Wan’s own detriment. It’s why Lucas never allowed Obi-Wan to kiss Satine, or respond to her dying “I love you.” It’s why Obi-Wan didn’t fight Maul during The Lawless, and George Lucas certainly shot down Dave Filoni’s idea that Korkie was Obi-Wan and Satine’s child. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a pure Jedi Knight.

My problem with that: it’s boring.

It’s not boring that Obi-Wan is pure, it’s boring that he never slips. As a writer, I believe it’s more interesting when a character’s standards are challenged and they are forced to break their status quo. It’s more gratifying for the audience to see a character change and grow, to struggle, give in to temptation, relent, and ultimately succeed (Luke Skywalker anyone???). This is ESPECIALLY important when you brutalize a character. Star Wars is very hard on Obi-Wan Kenobi and he receives very little validation. For the audience’s sake, Obi-Wan Kenobi deserves just one moment where he follows his heart FOR HIMSELF.

(This is all rhetorical, of course. If it isn’t obvious by the fact that I run an Obi-Wan Kenobi blog, Instagram, and AO3 account, let me say that I love Obi-Wan just as he is. Though as a storyteller, I may have changed a few plot points on his timeline.)

That being said, there are 2 places I can picture a kiss between Obi-Wan and Satine.

THE SLOW BURN

The first scenario is a slow burn that builds through the Mandalorian Arc in season 2. I imagine Obi-Wan would be doing his best to ignore his feelings for Satine and keep things “strictly professional.” But after the multiple assassination attempts made by Death Watch, and the Duchess wrongly being accused of murder, I would say Kenobi’s guard on his feelings would gradually begin to drop. Satine is one of the few characters Obi-Wan reaches out and physically touches in The Clone Wars, and he touches her a lot. To me, that indicates a certain level of familiarity that is not present between Kenobi and other characters.

I don’t think Satine would make the first move. I think she would encourage it subtly, but she would not kiss Obi-Wan first and here’s why:

1. She cannot be the one to break the Jedi Code. If Satine forces Obi-Wan to betray his oath before he’s ready, then she is the villain, the temptress, the distraction. She has no wish to change him or undermine his achievements. I wrote this in my first piece of fan fiction, A Jedi’s Resolve, and I still think it’s true of Satine:

“How could I ask you to give up the Order that you loved so much?… Don’t you see that you are a paradox? I loved you as you were, and forcing you to leave the Jedi would have made you a different man.”

2. Satine already told Obi-Wan her feelings in Voyage of Temptation. She laid her heart bare. If something is going to happen between them, it needs to be because Obi-Wan wants her enough to break his Code. He needs to want her in a “we’re soul mates and the Force will not let us be apart” sort of way, not be tempted to break his Jedi vow for lust.

I know this sounds all boring and moralistic, but as discussed earlier, Obi-Wan is a pure knight, and, in my opinion, this is how he would stay in character and kiss Satine. The act has to tie back to honor.

How would it happen? Well, Obi-Wan would have to be pushed to his limit by, let’s say, the pain of losing Satine again… or by not getting to tell her how he feels before she returns to Mandalore… or by overwhelming memories of their young love… Once he’s at his limit, they need to conveniently end up alone together where they can finally say what needs to be said without the risk of being overheard. I’m building up to this in my fic The Jedi and His Duchess. Or if you want something short and sweet, A Jedi’s Resolve is a one-off I needed to write to give myself closure. These fics detail exactly how I think this situation would unfold.

As much as I love this scenario, Star Wars would never go for it in canon. It’s too hypocritical to give Obi-Wan a love interest, especially when they portray Anakin’s love for Padme as a betrayal.

HOWEVER!!!! There is a line, I think it’s in the episode Corruption, where Satine reveals to Padme that Obi-Wan has told her all about Padme’s adventurous spirit. This implies that Obitine has remained in touch during the Clone Wars.

THE ULTIMATE TEMPTATION

The second scenario would take place during The Lawless. I have serious issues with this episode, for many reasons. I cannot watch it without sobbing… because I’m a huge emotional baby. BUT I also feel like the episode is extremely rushed. Maul spends an excruciating amount of time building up his underground crime syndicate and spends all of 10 minutes exacting revenge on Obi-Wan.

As an audience member, I’m far more fascinated by the interpersonal relationships: the conflict between Maul and Obi-Wan, the love between Satine and Obi-Wan, the betrayal between Maul and Sidious. This is more interesting than 2 full episodes of crime mongering. And I’m sorry, but Satine dies in Obi-Wan’s arms and like 5 seconds later cracks a joke with Bo-Katan. WTF, Kenobi?

What we should have gotten:

1. Much more time spent between Obi-Wan, Maul, and Satine, like at least 2 episodes.

2. Obi-Wan needed to tell Satine something while she lay dying. This woman died for him, lost her home, her planet, her family, her life’s work for this Jedi. She was used as a means to an end. The least Obi-Wan could have done was kiss her properly when he rescued her or said he loved her while he held her in his arms. She died not knowing how he felt about her. (I’m suddenly feeling inspired to write a ficlet of Obi-Wan rescuing Satine properly 0_0 )

3. A moment of real Dark Side temptation for Obi-Wan. It didn’t have to be as extreme as my series, The Dark Side of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but there should have been something more significant in that moment. Or at least more visible grieving into the next episode arc. Obi-Wan gets over Satine really fast and it really pisses me off. He’s such a perfect Jedi that it almost makes him seem heartless. I’ll say it again: GRATIFY YOUR AUDIENCE!!

OK, sorry… this is a little less about a kissing scenario and a little more about asking for a moment where Obi-Wan reveals his feelings to Satine… But that’s OK… right??????

I’m so very sorry, Anon!!!! This is the longest thing I’ve ever written and I’m afraid I may not even have answered your question!!! This is probably way more than you bargained for. I apologize for rambling on and on. But thank you for the lovely ask. I honestly really appreciated thinking about something other than my own awful life :) Thank you for your kind words! And thank you so much for following my blog!!!!!!! It warms my heart that you enjoy my stuff. Please keep in touch!!

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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The Mandalorian: Season 1

The Mandolorian is an 8 episode series on Disney+, written and produced by John Favreau. It stars Pedro Pascal as the titular Mandolorian who I will be referring to as his actual name, Din Djarin for the rest of this review, rather than the fan-name Mando.

Djarin is a bounty hunter, working for the Guild in the early days of the New Republic. His story starts as he takes on an under the table job to retrieve a package; however as things tend to go in this situation neither the package nor the people who are after it are what they seem, and Djarin must decide if it’s worth risking his life and reputation to protect it.

Before the show aired, I wasn’t very interested in seeing it; I hadn’t seen any trailers or buzz and I was still under the impression that it would follow Bobba Fett. Seeing the first episode I wasn’t sold on it either; I was disappointed that we were not following Fett, and that we were stationed after the events of ROTJ. However, I pushed through, and my opinions evolved significantly over the course of the show’s 8 episodes.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. There were some issues, and I can definitely see areas where Favreau can improve for next season, but I think season 1 was a solid starting point. My main complaint is that the season was too short, and even at 8 episodes, it still felt like it spent a lot of time on unnecessary filler. We’ll talk more about this, and other specific issues in the episode breakdown, but if you just want my opinion on if you should see it or not with no spoilers it’s this: If you like the Clone Wars, Rebels or the Solo film, you will like this. If you don’t, you probably won’t. Take that as you will.

So let’s get into this episodes, and I’ll end with some general thoughts and desires for season 2.

Episode 1: The Mandalorian

This episode is written by John Favreau and directed by Dave Filloni, the show-runner for my personal favorite Star Wars series, Star Wars Rebels.

We start with Djarin looking for more work from his Guild leader, Greef Karga, who offers him an extremely well paid, unsanctioned job, to track down a valuable package for some former Imperials. The man, just called the Client, strongly hints that he wants the package dead, and in return he is paying in Beskar, metal important to the Mandalorians.

The package is located on Arvala 7 (yes, I did look that up), and Djarin gets some help on his way, from a vapor farmer named Kuili, and another contractor, assassination droid IG-11. Djarin ends up shooting IG, after the droid attempts to kill the package, which turns out to be a child, the same race as or very loved Yoda.

If you have seen Rebels, than I think you will be very familiar with Filloni’s direction and style; unfortunately, for me this felt like one of the weaker episodes in Rebels. Even when Rebels was great, it suffered from an uneven tone; it could never quite decide if it was a kids or adult show, and as such the tone could fluctuate between really dumb and cringey comedy to serious and violent death in the span of a few minutes.

This is no different; there is some goofy humor, some characters that straddle the line between funny and annoying, but also some darkness, and good, subtle characterization.

The biggest issue this episode has (and it’s an issue the entire show never overcomes) is the pacing. It’s at once very slow, meticulously showing the loneliness and drudgery of being a bounty hunter and extremely fast, covering important character development and plot points in single montage.

Perhaps this is a flaw of Filloni, because what works in animation, doesn’t always work in live action. In Rebels, we could tolerate characters like Honda, we could swallow that characters teleport around and solve season ending issues in a conversation. Live action has a lot more constraints, suspension of disbelief is easier to break, so having character relationships develop at unnaturally fast paces or condensing what should be days if not weeks in a single 30 sec montage is a bit much.

I don’t want to make it sound like Filloni is a terrible director and this is some insurmountable flaw; Star Wars as a rule tends to not do well in developing its characters. Ever since a New Hope, where Luke was more distressed at Obi Wan dying, than his own aunt and uncle, or Leia losing her entire planet, the franchise has glossed over really important bits of storytelling (ahem, somehow Palpatine has returned).There is nothing as drastic in this episode, but it was still frustrating to have the first half of the episode so meticulously follow Djarin capturing the bounty and taking the job, and having the important parts like deciding to save the child or befriending Kuili take up 5 minutes.

On the positives, in a short time we get a really good idea of what kind of person we are following; Djarin is impatient, headstrong, a loner, someone who is very honorable, but doesn’t like showing it. We also get a good sense of the villain; Werner Herzog as the Client is a mix of a staunch and imperial like Tarkin, while also being fascinated by cultures like Thrawn.

An ok start the show, but definitely one of the weaker episodes in the season.

Episode 2: The Child

Episode 2 is written by John Favreau and directed by Rick Famuyiwa. After rescuing the child from the compound, Djarin finds his ship being stripped for parts by the Jawa. He goes after them, but when he manages to get to the top of their ship he gets blasted away. He has a dream about the day his parents died, and is rescued again by Kuili who offers to help him get his parts back. To do so, he must steal an egg from a mudhorn, and almost dies, except the child, using the force creates enough of an opening for Djarin to finish the animal off.

This episode is a vast improvement over episode 1; it has more action, more character development, more intrigue and a much more even pace. It’s still a slow episode, and we don’t learn much about any of the characters, but enough of what happens kept me engaged and interested.

However, this was the first episode where I noticed a bit of an issue with Dij Djarin’s characterization, an issue the show never really resolves.

I think, Pedro Pascal is too old to be playing Djarin. Alternatively, the writing of Djarin doesn’t match the age and gravitas of Pascal. Let me explain.

In episode 1 we learn that Djarin is impatient. This is fine. What is less fine is for Djarin to be brash and impatient enough to think he can a) take on an entire moving castle of Jawa by himself, b) threaten and shoot at the Jawa who already beat him once, c) tret the Jawa like pests even though Kuili and the Jawa themselves already demonstrated that they are intelligent and perfectly capable of negotiating.

These are not the actions of a man in his 40’s who is impatient; this comes off as someone who is too big for his birches, someone young and inexperienced and full of prejudice. A Luke Skywalker or Ezra Bridger, not Pedro Pascal at the same age as Qui Gon Jinn. It’s fine that Djarin is close minded and biased against Imperials and droids; it doesn’t make any sense that an experienced Mandlorin bounty hunter could speak Jawa and yet somehow not know anything about them.

This gets worse in the next episode where the other Mandalorians pick on Djarin and treat him like this young man who got lucky to be paid instead of an experienced warrior of decades. Even the Armorer treats him like a newbie; he doesn’t have a signet, he doesn’t have a jet-pack, and yet he’s in his mid 40’s!

Again, this isn’t just a problem of Favreau; he tends to write immature men after all, seeing as his biggest success to date is Tony Stark. It was also a problem in the prequels where I constantly got the sense that Ewan McGregor was playing a very different character from the one Lucas had written and Sir Alex Guinness portrayed. I just wish we would have gotten more reasons for why Djarin acts so inconsistently and why he’s only impatient and inconsiderate when the plot needs him to be.

The rest of the episode is fine. I liked the dynamic between him and Kuili; Kuili himself is great character, a world weary man who has worked a lifetime for his freedom and has a deep understanding of the value of life, peace and even money. I honestly wish he was in the show more; the best scenes are the ones of him and Djarin interacting. The child was also adorable; trying to heal Djarin, protecting him from the mudhorn. It was a slow build to Djarin increasingly caring more and more about it, even though he has no idea what he’s doing.

A vast improvement over episode one, even though it’s not perfect.

Episode 3: The Sin

Episode 3 is written by John Favreau and directed by Deborah Chow. Djarin returns to Navaro and hands the child to the Imperials, getting a full payment of Beskar for his troubles. He asks what is to happen to the child, which is a violation of the Guild’s rules, and draws the suspicion of Karga and all the other bounty hunters. Djarin gets a new set of armour from the Armourer, as well as a new job from Karga. However he can’t make himself leave, and he returns to rescue the child just in time, as it is being experimented on. Every bounty hunter in Navaro attacks him, but the Tribe of Mandalorians come to his aid, and he shoots Karga before getting away.

This is probably my second favorite episode of the show; it was the point where things finally clicked and I got an idea of what the stakes and the story would be. It’s a little unfortunate that it took 3 episodes for that to happen, but it’s better late than never.

This episode brought in some more mystery about the child; we still know nothing about what it is or where it came from, other than it being around 50 years old. The Client very clearly wants the child dead, while Dr. Pershing, the collaborator wants it alive for some kind of experiment. The child really isn’t the focus in this story, even if it is what everyone wants and around which the plot revolves; the real focus is Djarin’s evolving relationship to the child and himself.

I think this was the best development Djarin got in the season (outside of the finale); we see his slow bonding to the child, feeling guilty and upset over handing it over. His relationship to the child mirrors his own past; he was a founding, the Mandalorians saved him from the Great Purge, and he already has a history of caring for foundlings, making sure all of his extra Beskar is given to them, and essentially following the Way so he can help more foundlings. Him giving the child away is a direct betrayal to his own sense of self, even if he is a loner who has no idea how to take care of another being, let alone a baby.

We learn too, in the scene I mentioned before that Djarin is an outsider even among the other Mandalorians. He isn’t liked or respected; he is made fun of and challenged by others who consider him a traitor or weak. Whether this is because he’s a foundling and thereby not a ‘true’ Mandalorian (which doesn’t really make much sense considering what we find out later) or his vocation/personality, it clearly affects him enough to act and live the way he does. His constant pretending that he is heartless is challenged both by Kuili and especially by the child, for which he’s willing to risk his life and the secrecy of the Tribe.

This is all basic stuff; none of this is groundbreaking, but it was still nice to see Djarin evolve as a character. If there is one theme in this show it’s fatherhood and community; Djarin needs people around him, he needs a clan, and this episode is the first step for him to accept that.

The rest of the episode was great; it had a nice pace, it was full of tension, I liked the Armourer who gets a bit more personality as well as Greef Karga, who I have a soft spot for, even if he betrays Djarin twice in this episode. The action scenes were well shot and choreographed, I loved the Mandalorians at the end and overall it’s a big step up from the previous 2 episodes, and definitely one of the better ones in the season.

Episode 4: Sanctuary

Episode 4 is written by John Favreau and directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. It’s also my favorite episode in the show.

In an attempt to get some heat off of him after Navaro, Djarin lands on Sorgan, a sparsely populated forest planet. He runs into an ex-rebel shocktrooper, Cara Dune, and gets approached by 2 farmers who need help in dealing with a gang of Klatoonian raiders. What the farmers neglect to mention is that the raiders have an AT-ST fighter, and Cara and Djarin have to quickly train the farmers to learn how to fight the raiders. After freeing the village, Djarin contemplates leaving the child with Omera, whom he has some chemistry with, but a bounty hunter tracking the child arrives and tries to murder it, at the last moment stopped by Cara. Realizing that as long as the Client is hiring bounty hunters, the child will never be safe, Djarin leaves the planet.

I love this episode; it’s the perfect mix of humor and serious action, it has excellent character writing and pacing and it’s a complete story. It’s up there with some of the best Rebels and Clone Wars episodes and I wish the rest of the series was of this calibre.

One issue that I haven’t yet mentioned, was that many people didn’t like that in episodes 1-3, the only female speaking roles was the Armourer, and there were few to no female characters even as extras in the background. I could somewhat excuse that in 1 and 2, since a lot of those episodes were following Djarin alone in deserts and caves, but in 3 I was starting to get annoyed too. The Armourer is cool and important as a character, but she is a tertiary supporting character at best. So it took 4 episodes to get some women in this show, and thank god they are all great.

Cara Dune is absolutely flawless; I loved that she was a rebel shocktrooper, I loved her relationship with Djarin and sparring partners and quick friends who shared a lot of experiences by virtue of living through the war. She is competent, looks powerful, is noble and stoic while still having a lot of personality in her limited dialogue. It takes her no time to start making fun of Djarin’s dumb decisions, and I love that for her.

Omera is the opposite; she is quiet, kind and secretive. She has a lot of knowledge and understanding and clearly has a past involving trauma, but we never have to see it; it’s her acting and dialogue that captures it perfectly. She is intuitive, picks up on Djarin’s insecurities and worries about the child and his choices, and the chemistry between them felt natural, even if they don’t spend a lot of time together.

Unfortunately, this episode also starts my second big problem with Djarin, which I’ll call, wait were Mandalorians always like this?

First off, I had no idea Mandalorians can’t take their helmet off. The characters in both Rebels and Clone Wars take their helmets off all the time, especially when they are around family and friends; they only really keep them on when in battle or around enemies. Even in the prequels Jango takes the helmet off.

At first I thought they aren’t supposed to let anyone take the helmet off, as in without their consent like in battle. That’s when they get disgraced and can never put it back on. But no, apparently it’s ever, under any circumstances. Really? Like they can never let their loved ones see their face? How does that make any sense?

I saw people comparing the helmets to head scarves, like hijabs or nqabs, but people can take those off you know? When women are at home, and in front of their partners and families and female friends. They don’t wear the scarves forever, even at their own house!

Which makes me wonder, do Mandalorians not have partners or kids? Even if we follow the stupid retcon (which we’ll talk about) from this show, and Mandalore isn’t a people but a creed, that would imply that all the Mandalorians are foundlings. But if that’s true, than why is Djarin treated like an outsider, and so insistent on helping the foundlings if all Mandalorians are foundlings? And even if that’s the case, there’s no mention of Mandalorians being like Jedi, and being banned from having partners and children.

If they can have partners and children how does that work? Outside of the obvious, how do you have sex in armour (unless it’s just the helmet and the rest of the armour is irrelevant), do their partners and kids never see their face? Or is it that once you find a partner you take the helmet off and never put it back on? Or do not all Mandalorians follow the Way and the ones who don’t are the ones who marry and have kids?

None of that makes ANY sense, and I hope that they explain it at least a little in season 2, because as is, it’s not only dumb, but it also contradicts everything we know about Mandalorians from other Star Wars properties.

Outside of that, everything else this episode was great. The action was fun, the dialogue was funny, I liked the training montage, I liked Cara and Djarin’s fight, I liked the child being a child, the conclusion to the story, everything. It’s the best episode of the season, and unfortunately, only the season finale comes close to it.

Episode 5: The Gunslinger

Episode 5 is written and directed by Dave Filoni. While leaving Sorgan, Djarin is attacked by a bounty hunter and during their battle, Djarin’s ship gets damaged. He’s forced to make a pit-stop on Tatooine, where he leaves his ship for repairs with Peli Moto. To pay for the repairs he takes a job with Toro Calican, an aspiring bounty hunter who is tracking Fennec Shard, a notorious assassin. If he catches her he can enter the Guild and Djarin can keep all the money. However, things aren’t ever easy, especially after Toro learns that Djarin and the child are worth a lot more to the Guild than Fennec herself.

This episode is about the same quality as episode 1, but it suffers from a different kind of issues. The pacing is much better, and there is some actual tension while Toro and Djarin try to find and catch Fennec. However, after everything in 3 and 4 this feels like pure and simple filler. In an 8 episode season, that’s inexcusable. Making a pitstop on Tatooine accomplishes nothing, it’s just fan-service; there isn’t even character development for Djarin; he ends the episode exactly as he started it.

Fennec Shard is a waste of character and a waste of Ming Na Wen. The marketing for this show made it seem like she would play this massive, important role, but all she does here is shoot at Djarin, get her ass kicked, make an incredible rookie mistake in telling Toro all she knows about Djarin and then gets killed. Even if she’s not dead by the time season 2 rolls around, nothing about her character interests me; for a super assassin who worked for the biggest criminal guilds in the galaxy, she gets taken down by a rookie bounty hunter who can’t shoot straight.

Toro likewise was a wasted character. In a way I see what Filoni was maybe trying to do with him; if Djarin had treated him better and with a little more respect, Toro wouldn’t have turned on him, except the way it came off is that Djarin was right to treat him like shit, because Toro betrayed him when he realized he could use Djarin to get into the Guild. So what was the point?

Peli was adorable and actually had the strongest character arc in that she started the show with wanting to charge Djarin extra for the child, only to fall in love with it by the end, and treat it like her own baby. It was cute and funny, but it wasn’t worth a whole episode. If this was an episode in a longer series I’d have no issue with it; as is it just broke the flow of the show and achieved nothing.

Episode 6: The Prisoner

Episode 6 is written by Chris Yost and Rick Famuyiva and directed by Rick Famuyiva. It’s also my least favorite episode of the season.

Needing credits, Djarin accepts a job with a former crew mate, Ran, who wants him, a former Imperial sharpshooter Mayfield, brawler Burg, droid pilot Q9-0 (Zeroes) and his ex-girlfriend Xian to break a prisoner out of a New Republic droid-manned prison transport. Tensions in the crew are high, and escalate after Xian ends up killing a human pilot on board the transport who activates a New Republic beacon. The crew trap Djarin in the prisoner’s cell (the prisoner being Xian’s brother Qin, who Djarin helped put in jail), and Djarin takes the crew members out one by one, until it’s just him and Qin. He gets Qin back to Ren and as Qin is about to go after him, New Republic X-Wings, following the beacon Djarin placed on Qin arrive and destroy the station.

I can see what this episode is going for; it’s a Cowboy Bebop style, space western, and again, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with Djarin joining his old crew for a job and things going south. It could have been a character building moment, to see how far Djarin has come, from associating with dishonest killers and thieves, to hunting bounties for the New Republic. But even more than the previous episode, this one is filler, and it’s made worse by some truly bizarre casting choices and dialogue, as well as a bewildering ‘twist’ at the end.

Let’s start with the twist. Why would Ren PAY Djarin, let him leave, THEN send Qin after him? It’s not a Guild job, clearly, seeing as Djarin has been barred from the Guild and they are breaking into a freaking New Republic prison, so why wouldn’t they just… shot him as he’s on the platform and let his body fall into space? Answer? Because I guess it looked cooler this way.

Second, the crew. God I found most of these people insufferable. Mayfield was a cartoon character; he kept wildly flip flopping between bad-ass villain and incompetent comic relief, and I couldn’t tell if his goading of Djarin to take off his helmet was supposed to sound like he was hitting on Djarin, or they just didn’t realize it? It reminded me of John Cena’s character in Trainwreck, and I don’t think it was supposed to be a callback.

Then we have Zeroes and Burg who are completely nondescript bad guys (although considering how bad of a pilot Djarin is I was glad to see some good piloting for a change). Xian was a can of worms I’m not sure I even want to unpack. First, why give her and Qin Chinese names, but have white actors play them? Second when are we going to stop with the all Twi’leks are sexualized perverts/slaves/are completely insane? I thought the whole point of Disney taking over the SWU was to eliminate this kind of racist and sexist shit, and yet here I am again, in 2019 forced to watch this horribly written fetish-fulfillment on my TV.

I hated Xian as a character more than I’ve hated anything else in a while, and that’s saying something, because I’ve seen TLJ.

There were some good bits in this episode; the child hiding around the ship from Zeroes, and thinking he killed him with the force; Djarin asking the pilot for his name and trying to diffuse the situation; thinking to put the tracker on Qin. Even the concept itself was good, and I wouldn’t mind the same episode just with characters that are actually interesting, instead of all these insufferable stereotypes. The show really drops the ball with these 2 episodes, so I was honestly glad I only had the finale left.

Episode 7: Reckoning

Episode 7 is written by John Favreau and directed by Deborah Chow. Djarin gets a message from Greef who has survived their last encounter; he wants the Client gone so the Imperials who have taken over Navaro leave, and Djarin wants the bounty hunters to stop coming after him, so he accepts, and recruits Cara and Kuili to help. Kuili insist on bringing along the reprogrammed IG-11, who is now a nurse droid.

The group meets Greef and two bounty hunters and as they head back to the town, they get attacked by Mynocks. The child heals a wounded Greef, and he kills the two bounty hunters, who were there to help him betray Djarin. They devise a plan; Cara is to pretend she captured Djarin and the child, while Kuili takes the child back to the Djarin’s ship and barricades himself inside. Unfortunately, the Imperials sense the betrayal, Kuili is killed and the child taken, just as Moff Gideon arrives with a platoon of death troopers and kills everyone inside the compound including the Client.

I liked this episode though it is a bit uneven. The first half is spent with Djarin recruiting Cara and Kuili, while the latter is a rather tense standoff with the Client and subsequently Gideon. I liked that we got Cara and Kuili back, enjoyed the tension between Kuili who used to build Imperial weapons and Cara who fought for the Resistance.

What I didn’t like so much was the child randomly being jealous of Cara? Like he tries to crash the ship when she and Djarin are bonding over weapons, and then tries to choke her?

This is sort of a bigger problem for the show. We are 7 episodes in and we still know nothing about the child; we don’t know it’s species, why it is force sensitive, why the Imperials are after it, or even why it seems to randomly switch personalities. My further question is who exactly are the people after him? By this time, the First Order should already exist, especially if this takes place after the battle of Aquila, so is the Client First Order? Or Palpatine’s goon? Unaffiliated?

There is an extended montage that shows how Kuili reprogrammed and taught IG to be a nurse droid which was sweet, but wasn’t really necessary; I find it funny that this montage is longer than both the training section in ep. 4 and Djarin learning to ride in ep. 1.

The ending was appropriately a cliffhanger and I hate that they ended up killing Kuili’s character off; it was clear it would happen, especially after his fight with Cara, but it still sucks that they did it. I also didn’t like that they wasted the Client; he could have been a really interesting villain and Herzog is an excellent actor, but they never gave him a chance to do anything.

An objectively good episode, but not my favorite. I felt that more time could have been spent on building up Moff Gideon and the Client than Mynock attacks and training montages.

Episode 8: Redemption

Episode 8 is written by John Favreau and directed by Taika Waititi. After being captured by stormtroopers waiting for the order to bring the child into town, IG rescues it and shoots up Moff Gideon’s platoon. Gideon in return threatens the group to surrender, calling each member by name, which shocks Djarin because the only people who know his name would have died or at least been on his home planet during the Great Purge.

Gideon injures Djarin who tells the others to use the underground tunnels to get help and/or escape. IG stays with him, convincing him to remove his helmet to administer bacta to his head injury. In the tunnels the group finds the Armourer alone, as all other Mandalorians have been killed or escaped and she gives Djarin a jet-pack and his signet; a clan of two. She ordains the child a foundling and in accordance with the Way makes Djarin responsible for keeping it safe and returning it to its people.

The group uses an underground lava river to escape, and IG self-destructs to take out the ambushing stormtroopers. Gideon attacks them in his TIE fighter, and using the jet-pack Djarin manages to knock him down. The group says farewell, with Cara staying behind with Greef to help rebuild Navaro, while Djarin and the child leave. Gideon, having survived the crash uses the Darksaber to cut himself out of the fallen TIE and the season ends.

This is my second favorite episode behind Sanctuary; it’s action packed, tense and full of Waititi’s recognizable humor. The opening scene alone had me in stitches; that is by far the best use of stormtroopers in any Star Wars media, outside of that First Order SNL skit with Adam Driver.

We learn a decent amount in this episode; first that the Empire still has pockets of powerful followers, that Gideon and Djarin have some kind of past, that Gideon wants the child and most importantly that he has darksaber. How he has it we don’t know; he either took it from Kryze or is himself a Mandalorian.

Now, we get to the second wait, were Mandalorians always like this? I thought that the Mandalorians were a warrior race, but according to Waititi, they are a creed. This… doesn’t make sense. Why was there a civil war between the different clans? Why are there foundlings and not? How does one become a member of this creed, do you have to be a foundling? Or do you just have to follow the Way? Do all Mandalorians follow the Way? If anyone can be a Mandalorian if they follow the Way, then why can’t the child? I didn’t realize the foundlings also have to be Spartan-strong or else they don’t count.

Then we get to the helmet thing. Now, no LIVING being can see their face, so this confirms that not even their partner and children can see their face. WHY? What purpose does this serve? Why make it this dramatically ridiculous? I guess cause they liked the line ‘I’m not a living being’.

Waititi really enjoys taking established properties and spinning them on their head; in Thor Asgard was no longer a place, but a people, here Mandalorians aren’t a race they are the followers of a creed. But that doesn’t make sense if this creed has no rules or hs arbitrary rules that keep changing.

The rest of the episode was fine. Jrin completes his arc, but getting attached too IG, enough to be sad when IG self-destructs. I liked how insistent Cara was in saving him; a very soldier thing to do, and in general their friendship is excellent. I really hope this isn’t the last we see of her. The humor was also excellent, as it always is with Waititi and it was a good way to end the season.

Concluding Thoughts:

I feel like I always come off more negative than I mean to in all of my reviews, but it’s just because there are only so many ways I can say I liked this, this was well done, I loved this. I did I really enjoy this season; I can safely say that I love all the characters, Djarin and the child especially, I am very curious to learn more about Moff Gideon and his hipster top knot and I hope Cara Dune and Fennec Shard come back and have more to do.

I don’t have any theories about what the child is; I’ve heard people say that it’s a reincarnation of Yoda, that it’s the Force itself in a body (like Anakin, but double), that it’s a clone of Yoda from either the Clone Wars or even Palpatine’s experiments.

Personally, I’m more interested in learning more about Djarin, and how Bobba Fett ties in with his past considering it was his signet that Djarin gave to the child at the end. I also would like to visit or revisit some more worlds; perhaps see some worlds from the books like Aquila. There are rumours that characters like Lando and Ahsoka Tano might make an appearance, and while that would be neat, I don’t necessarily mind the lack of Jedi in the show.

As for the people working on the show, I think each director brought something to the table. I would love for Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard and Taika Waititi to return in season 2, though I’ve also heard Waititi is getting his own show.

Them’s my thoughts. If you got to the end, thank you for reading, and I might be back quite soon, because I would like to re-watch the Clone Wars before season 8 comes out later this year.

#the mandolarian #star wars #sw the mandalorian #moni talks #the mandalorian review

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bthenoise · 5 years

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Here’s The Best of 2019 As Picked By Members Of The Used, Periphery, Counterparts, Killswitch Engage, Grayscale & More

Well everyone, we did it. Somehow someway we all survived yet another 365 gloriously trying days on this place we call earth. In about two more weeks, we will officially begin a brand new decade with hopes of starting something beautiful and life-changing for the human race. Until then, we’d like to take a second to look back on some of the finer things that came out of 2019 – you know, like the best album, best song, best movie, etc.

Like we’ve done in years past, we’ve completely turned our year-end best-of list over to the artists we cover on a daily basis because let’s face it, their opinions are the ones we all really care about, right?

Right.

To check out what bands like The Used, Counterparts, Periphery, Killswitch Engage, Fit For A King, Grayscale, Atreyu, Wage War, Boston Manor and more have all been obsessing over for the past year or so, be sure to see below. We hope you enjoy this final list as much as we do and wish you all the most peaceful and positive holiday season ever.

Enjoy!

Jeph Howard and Dan Whitesides - The Used

JEPH HOWARD

Best Album of 2019: Sampa the Great - The Return And Knocked Loose - A Different Shade Of Blue

Best Song of 2019: “Blow Me” - from The Used and yes I’m biased.

Best Music Video of 2019: Wendall - “The Power of Wings”

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Sampa the Great - The Return. Her vibe reminds me of my favorite era of hip hop.

Best Movie of 2019: Dr. Sleep, great book too. Must have been tough rewriting the story just enough to mix both the book The Shining and the film adaptation Kubrick made and then making a movie based on both origins.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The OA season 3. So unfair that never happened.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Epstein was an inside job and also the cat playing the cell phone ring tone 😂

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: HodgePodge Superfest 2019 Indonesia, mostly because I got to hang with a couple family friends I haven’t seen in years.

2020 New Year's Resolution: For 2020 I want to worry less about things I have no control over.

DAN WHITESIDES

Best Album: The Knocked Loose album A Different Shade Of Blue is great and so fuckin heavy! On the other side of things, the Billie Eilish album is really good front to back. Saw her live in Salt Lake and it was pretty sick.

Best Song: Honestly, it’s “Blow Me” by my band The Used. I’m not just saying that because it’s my band. It’s a great fucking song and it has all of my favorite elements in it.

Best Music Video: Blink 182’s “Darkside.” Love the stick tricks and the dancing kids.

Most Underrated Album: All the albums I liked in 2019, I rated them pretty high.

Best Movie: Dumb and Dumber has been the best movie every year since it came out. All the kids movies that came out in 2019 were good. I see them all. I didn’t really like The Addams Family though.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Atypical and Fuller House and I’m not fucking with you. I laugh out loud at Fernando every time!

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): When the deaf baby hears for the first time. I almost cried but I couldn’t because I’m a man and men don’t cry. Just playin! I did tear up a weeee bit.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Saw Rob Zombie and damn he puts on a great show. Back To The Beach was my favorite show I played in 2019. We did a cover of Linkin Park’s “Shadow Of The Day” at that show and it started raining. People were crying. It was nuts!

2020 New Year's Resolution: I don’t really do resolutions but I wish people could just get along despite their beliefs. Life is too short.

Misha Mansoor - Periphery

Best Album of 2019: Mordial by Carbomb Best Song of 2019: “F it Up” by Louis Cole Best Music Video of 2019: “Genesis” by Devin Townsend Most Underrated Album of 2019: Forever, A Fast Life by Infinity Shred Best Movie of 2019: Jojo Rabbit Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Barry Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Gamer Girl Bath Water Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Attended - Deadmau5 Cube V3. Played - Sold Out London headliner at O2 Kentish Town 2020 New Year's Resolution: Drive more cars

Brendan Murphy - Counterparts

Best Album of 2019: Better Off - Reap What You Sow. Luke is probably the best songwriter I know personally. The album is an absolute fucking hit. I literally begged him to send me the masters before the album came out and I’ve listened to it non-stop since. Was hard to keep that album a secret.

Best Song of 2019: Gotta go with what my Spotify wrapped tells me and aside from the 1975’s discography, my most listened to song of 2019 was “Slingshot” by Better Off. The song is amazing, the lyrics rock, chorus is fucking huge. Like I said, Luke can’t write a bad song.

Best Music Video of 2019: I’ll be honest, it’s rare for me to watch any music video that doesn’t have the 1975 in it so I’m gonna go ahead and pick their video for “Frail State of Mind” because... I mean look at him, he’s so cool. If we could get away with making videos like that I might actually not dread shooting them haha.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: BETTER OFF, YET AGAIN. ARE YOU SURPRISED? I don’t understand how they aren’t the biggest band on earth.

Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar. I’m a total A24/Ari Aster fanboy and I love movies about freaky cults and this movie ticks all the boxes. It’s not as much of a “deep dive” as Hereditary, very surface level, but I mean it’s creepy and it’s shot beautifully and there’s flowers everywhere and in case you forgot I sing for Counterparts so it’s right up my fuckin alley haha.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Barry without question. Blake made me watch an episode when we were recording NLTL and I binged watched the show so hard I’d be up all night watching when I was supposed to be writing lyrics. Last time I was physically unable to stop watching a show was Lost, so that should say something.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): My own twitter hun xox 😘

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: I mean it’s hard to remember our shows because not only are they all fun, I’ve usually had a few chardonnays by the time we go on stage BUT one that stands out is the last day of Private Room 2.0 in Worcester... simply because for all of “Love Me” I didn’t have to say a fucking word, the crowd did the whole damn thing. I think there’s a video where I get so stoked I start screaming “YOU’RE GOD DAMN RIGHT” and jumping. It’s fun and honestly, it’s 10 fucking words don’t make me do it by myself.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Stop accidentally calling my teacher “mom.”

Mike D'Antonio - Killswitch Engage

Best Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Song of 2019: He Is Legend - “Resister Resist Her” Best Music Video of 2019: Death Ray Vision “Just Let It Die” Most Underrated Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Movie of 2019: Joker Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Mandalorian Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Yoda/Toyota meme Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Field Day played in Connecticut a few months back. 2020 New Year's Resolution: Refuse the new world order

Porter McKnight - Atreyu

Best Album of 2019: Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff Best Song of 2019: “The Dead Don’t Die” - Sturgill Simpson Best Music Video of 2019: Rammstein - “Deutschland” Most Underrated Album of 2019: The Act - The Devil Wears Prada Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Watchmen Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Paul Rudd “Look at us” on Hot Ones Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Attended - Nothing More - New Orleans March 2019 Played - Mr’s Smalls Theatre - Millvale, PA 2020 New Year's Resolution: Establish a consistent physical art practice

Ryan Kirby - Fit For A King

Best Album of 2019: Just for the purpose of nostalgia, I am going to go with Shaped by Fire by As I Lay Dying. It doesn't re-invent the wheel but it's just some good ole metalcore that brings me back.

Best Song of 2019: I absolutely cannot stop listening to "Masochist" by Polaris. This band is going to be huge!

Best Music Video of 2019: I feel like I have to say our own video for "When Everything Means Nothing" is the best strictly because we all almost died of hypothermia while getting sprayed by a fire hose.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: I think The Valley by Whitechapel doesn't get talked about near as much as it should. Phil's cleans are fantastic and they keep bringing the heavy.

Best Movie of 2019: I feel like this will be a lot of people's favorite movie but The Joker was an absolute masterpiece.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: This one is EASILY The Boys. It might be the most well-done superhero show OR movie ever made. Once you watch the first episode, you are sucked in.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): This one is really tough because at this point, I don't even know which meme is from what year. I guess I'll go with Baby Yoda since I know that’s 2019 but with a disclaimer: There are a lot of NOT funny Baby Yoda memes out there.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: The show in Cologne, Germany with As I Lay Dying was the biggest club show we had ever played, and at the same time, probably one of the best live performances I've ever seen. Amazing night.

2020 New Year's Resolution: I want to be able to run a half marathon with my dad. It’s pretty simple but he is out here running full marathons all the time and is double my age. I feel like I need to step it up.

Valentino Arteaga - Of Mice & Men

Best Album of 2019: Gideon - Out Of Control Best Song of 2019: Kublai Khan TX - “Self Destruct” Best Music Video of 2019: Ghostemane - “Bonesaw” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Ithaca - The Language of Injury Best Movie of 2019: Yesterday Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Cold Case Files Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Spotify Wrapped 2019 Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Wacken Open Air Festival 2020 New Year's Resolution: Eat less meat & make more music

Matty Mullins - Memphis May Fire

Best Album of 2019: Dermot Kennedy - Without Fear Best Song of 2019: Papa Roach - “Feel Like Home” Best Music Video of 2019: Asking Alexandria - “The Violence” Most Underrated Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Movie of 2019: Yesterday Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: This Is Us Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): @catatonicyouths IG Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Warped Tour in Atlantic City was LEGENDARY! 2020 New Year's Resolution: Write the best MMF record of our career

Nick Ventimiglia - Grayscale

Best Album of 2019: tryhard by The Band Camino and Fear Inoculum by Tool Best Song of 2019: "No Age" by Rich People Best Music Video of 2019: "Mantra" by Bring Me the Horizon was pretty wild Most Underrated Album of 2019: Third Eye Blind - Screamer Best Movie of 2019: Big fans of Us and The Irishman Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Peaky Blinders and Mindhunter Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Big fan of the Kawhi Leonard “Hey, hey, hey” memes. Really anything but that lady yelling at that fucking cat. Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Our headliner in Philly this past October at The TLA. 2020 New Year's Resolution: Rock harder than we did in 2019.

Cody Quistad - Wage War

Best Album of 2019: tryhard by The Band Camino Best Song of 2019: “See Through” by The Band Camino Best Music Video of 2019: “Resentment” by A Day To Remember Most Underrated Album of 2019: In Darkness by Varials Best Movie of 2019: Peanut Butter Falcon The Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Office, duh Favorite Internet Moment of 2019: The Epstein memes kill me Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour: Florida Georgia Line, Dan + Shay, Morgan Wallen 2020 New Year’s Resolution: Write the best songs I’ve ever written, love on more people, and be healthier

Boston Manor

Best Album of 2019: Death Is A Warm Blanket by Microwave. This record is the best guitar music to come out in years. As our contemporaries, Microwave is constantly challenging and inspiring us to make better art.

Best Song of 2019: “The Brakeman Has Resigned” by Microwave. This song could not be more relevant to us, both instrumentally and lyrically. It’s just fuckin’ perfect.

Best Music Video of 2019: “DIAWB” by Microwave. You get the point.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Foreign Language EP by Can’t Swim. Always love to see friends changing up their riff game.

Best Movie of 2019: The Irishmen. I’ve watched it like three times in the van now and can’t choose which Tony is my favourite.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Rick and Morty. You son of a bitch, I’m in.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Eric Egan from Heart Attack Man.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Best concert we played would have to be Download Madrid. Right off the heels of ADTR in America, the airline lost our gear so we had to cobble together a backline and ended up playing after Tool to an insane amount of people.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Continue our world domination.

Mike Foley - Varials

Best Album of 2019: Feels Like You by Whirr Best Song of 2019: "Nothing Left To Love" by Counterparts Best Music Video of 2019: Tie between "Lips Like Lemonade" by Nick Prosper & "Mistakes Like Fractures" by Knocked Loose. Most Underrated Album of 2019: Deceiver by Diiv Best Movie of 2019: Joker Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: I Think You Should Leave Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Kombucha girl Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: The best show I attended was definitely the Balance & Composure farewell show in NYC. RIP. Best played was definitely the Atlantic City Warped Tour date. Also RIP. 2020 New Year's Resolution: Tour more internationally / spend as much time traveling as possible. Really hoping we make it to 3 different continents this year.

Kory Gregory - Prince Daddy & The Hyena

Best Album of 2019: Remembering The Rockets - Strange Ranger Best Song of 2019: “Mono No Aware” - Great Grandpa Best Music Video of 2019: “Must Be Wrong” - White Reaper Most Underrated Album of 2019: Super Enthusiast - Macseal Best Movie of 2019: Parasite Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Been really enjoying Mandalorian Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Baby Yoda forever and always. No questions asked. Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Our record release show in NYC was really special! That’s my favorite one I played. As far as the ones I attended, this Culture Abuse/Tony Molina show I went to in Boston was pretty legendary. 2020 New Year's Resolution: I just wanna keep writing songs that are better than the last!

Yvette Young - Covet

Best Album of 2019: The Japanese House - Good At Falling Best Song of 2019: “Shrugging Match” - Bobbing Best Music Video of 2019: Don Broco - “Action” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Town Portal - Of Violence Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: I Think You Should Leave Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Discovering bandmemes666, Chibson, catatonicyouths and allgasnobrakes on IG Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Orlando summer headliner show at The Soundbar 2020 New Year's Resolution: Make a dope full-length album

Carter Hardin - Chapel

Best Album of 2019: Album of the year for me is KIN by Electric Guest. Every song is a bop and the production is so clean.

Best Song of 2019: I would have to say “Friends” by CHAPEL. The band is pretty cool and the song is a slapper.

Best Music Video of 2019: “Panini” by Lil Nas X is mine. It’s the most memorable one I’ve seen this year.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Pep Talks - Judah & The Lion. Not enough people are talking about that record.

Best Movie of 2019: MARRIAGE STORY. This movie broke me & I can’t stop thinking about it.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Fleabag is amazing. you need to watch it.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Baby Yoda memes are the best memes in the world.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: I saw Cherub recently and they always put on the best show. This recent one was super inspiring.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Release more music

Alex Biro - Selfish Things

Best Album: The Act by The Devil Wears Prada. Genre-defying and innovative, this was one of my favourite albums of the last decade. I’ve been a TDWP fan since Zombie EP but the growth they’ve shown on their latest release while still staying true to their roots was sonically refreshing.

Best Song: “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. This speaks for itself. I’ve never been one to shy away from popular music, but it’s Lil Nas X’s “love everyone but fuck everyone” attitude that kind of impresses me most? He’s punk as hell. He breaks stereotypes. He pissed off 90% of the country music industry. I hope he continues to succeed.

Best Music Video: “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. I mean, it’s been Billie’s year. We all know that. But the whole “monster under your bed” motif coupled with her wanting to not shy away from the dark side of things in a genre filled to the brim with bubblegum songs and visuals speaks to her innovation as a creative and an artist.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Everyone I’ve Ever Loved by Valleyheart. This came out a week and a half before 2019 but I’m including it here. “Agnosia” is one of the best songs I’ve heard in years. This band is fucking amazing. Don’t sleep on them. They deserve better than they’ve been given.

Best Movie of 2019: Peanut Butter Falcon. Shia LaBeouf is a true artist, and he’s at the peak of his game here. If you’re a fan of Garden State, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Rocket Science or any other emotionally devastating indie films, this is a movie for you.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Simpsons. God bless you Disney+. I can’t even put into words how nice it is to watch all of my old favourites with my daughter. Treehouse of Horror forever.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Colton jumping the fence during The Bachelor. We admittedly got snowed in during the “snow cyclone” in Wyoming and binged this whole season. I’ve never been more disappointed. Still impressed by his agility, though.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Atlanta, GA w/ Microwave, Boston Manor and Heart Attack Man. We’ve never had that many kids over the barricade. It was one of those “wow, maybe our band isn’t totally shit” moments. We all got off stage and knew it was one to remember. I’ll never forget it.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Learn to be happy with who I am without letting the toxicity of social media cloud my self-perception.

Ryan Donovan - Red City Radio

Best Album of 2019: Mannequin Pussy - Patience. "Who You Are" & "Drunk II" are some standout tracks on that record for me! It's just filled with melodic anthems that have killer soft harmonies and is kind of a technically ambitious record compared to their older stuff, which I also love!

Best Song of 2019: The Menzingers - "America (You're Freaking Me Out)." They fucking NAILED it with this track and our current climate in the US, socially/politically/economically etc. They seamlessly always write some killer tunes!

Best Music Video of 2019: PUP - "Free At Last." No one had heard the song yet. They posted the lyrics and chord chart to the song and took all submissions of everyone's interpretation of the song and edited that down. You just gotta watch it for yourself, IT FUCKING RULES. Most Underrated Album of 2019: Decent Criminal - BLISS. I love this band and their tunes/sound. Small indy label release and I hope they take some more strides forward and keep growing. They rip.

Best Movie of 2019: Favorite movie I have personally seen so far this year is Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I heard it was a lot of either "love it" or "hated it" kind of reviews but I personally thought it was a killer film.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Ah man, with so much time on the road touring this year for RCR binge-watching older shows was a lot of my downtime when I got back home so here are some favs: Admittedly I had never seen Breaking Bad, that has now been binged and completed. Game Of Thrones (hadn't seen it until this Summer, I know, I know whatever). Animal Kingdom, Succession, Punisher, Jessica Jones and I Think You Should Leave.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): I LOVE THIS MEME and I do love pizza.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Probably the last show of our short tour with Hot Water Music over in Cologne, Germany. It was the largest capacity venue show we have ever played as a band - that wasn't a festival - at 4k humans, sold out! It was also extra special because Rockpalast had a 10+ human camera crew on hand and filmed the whole thing with live edits as it was streamed for anyone to tune in and watch. The edits and camera/audio/streaming quality was A+!!!

2020 New Year's Resolution: Better self-care.

Brett Boland - Astronoid

Best Album of 2019: HEALTH - VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR Best Song of 2019: Dinosaur Pile-Up - Thrash Metal Cassette Best Music Video of 2019: Billie Eilish - “bury a friend” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Nightmare Scenario - Beyond What is Real Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Succession Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Sonic The Hedgehog Movie debacle. Best Concert You Attended: Final Slayer show in MA Best Concert You Played in 2019: Exit 111 2020 New Year's Resolution: PUT OUT MORE MUSIC

Conversation

Best Album of 2019: Copeland - Blushing. I’ve been a huge fan of this band for years and years and years; to say that they shaped my songwriting is an understatement. I was lucky enough to catch Copeland for the first time on this tour and it was a truly tectonic moment for me. Blushing was a perfect step for this band in terms of tone, emotional maturity and instrumental creativity. I was just so happy to hear every single song.

Best Song of 2019: “Make It Better” by Anderson Paak. This track just puts you in a good mood!!

Best Music Video of 2019: Our music video for “You’ve Made Yourself Perfectly Clear” where we accurately and tastefully re-created the opening scene of Wayne’s World to perfection. I know it seems like a bit of a brag to say you had the best video of the year, but truth be told, nothing else even came close.

Best Movie of 2019: Joker - I’m sure this will be a pretty common response but IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Letterkenny - A hilarious show about small-town Canada. If you don’t know, now you know.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Jonathan Frakes Asking Questions.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: A close tie between Arkells at Scotiabank Arena and Barr Brothers at Mod Club

2020 New Year's Resolution: To tour all of the USA and Europe for our new record. We are all so excited for the new music that we’re about to put out into the world and our undying dream is to show our live show to the entire world. SO THAT’S WHAT WE’RE DOING!!!

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