#i can’t infodump on command okay

[t0ast-ghost]

S3 EP14 (Whom Gods Destroy) in what way?- nevermind probably the killing way. Okay. Well-

Just go:

- “A medicine with which the federation hopes to eliminate mental illness for all time.” WHAT. That is certainly a way to start an episode

- Cory is either going to die or is not actually a doctor. Well according to Marta I’m right about the latter

- they fucking knocked Spock out! (His named autocorrected to spoon lol)

- oh wait so the ‘cure for mental illness’ thing was REAL?

- goddamn why’s he stand like that

- Scott and McCoy are so confused

- Stigmatizing mental illness by showing that all characters who have it are violent. I get this is set in a prison but this is the only time they show any explicitly mentally ill characters and it’s to show that until there is a ‘fix’ they should be locked away for the safety of the public, which is not a good message to put onto tv. That is my problem with this episode, it’s spreading of stigmas and stereotypes.

- McCoy immediately saying that something’s wrong, ‘that’s not my boyfriend’

- Garth’s fashion sense is… awful

- getting distracted by Kirk’s ass

- oh my god that’s the first time anyone’s really threatened to harm Spock (edit: that’s a lie. That’s just a lie)

- Making the group of inmates all noticeably alien to make them seem like separate or fictional beings

- This argument? Live Spock reaction:

- “What is your reaction, Mr. Spock?” “Well, I find it [the dancing], uh, mildly interesting and somewhat nostalgic, if I understand the use of that word.” “Nostalgic?” “Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of the dances that Vulcan children do in nursery school. Of course, the children are not so… well-coordinated.” Spock danced as a kid

- Kirk does not want her. Also he’s gay and one of his husbands is right there.

- “A dream that made Mr Spock and me brothers.” I think this is the first time Kirk and Spock refer to each other as anything other than friends… fascinating

- “Blind! Truly blind. Captain Kirk is your commanding officer, and you are his subordinate. And that is all.” Yeah but they’re husbands. Also this feeds into more of the ‘Kirk is designed to be a lonely character’ thing. He can’t even have a connection to his first officer :(

- damn they didn’t even let him infodump

- “No, thank you, I prefer to join Mr. Spock.” Yeah you would

- THEY HAVE AN ELECTRIC CHAIR ?!?

- I think the governor character is a stand in for McCoy, but they decided, ‘I guess we’ve tortured him enough’

- He’s sleepy

- And they’re kissing (edit: not sure who this is referring to)

- It’s always about getting to a control room and taking down a force field and never about kissing your boyfriend

- Spock coming to Kirk’s rescue? He finally got his knight in shining armour moment

- That’s not Kirk dammnit. He would never let Spock stay- oh wait it was Spock who was the imposter. Okay but where’s Spock

- Kirk’s little curl <3

- Kirk gets fucking shot. Second time he’s been knocked out this episode

- “You could serve as human sacrifice, for example.” “No, I wouldn’t enjoy that at all.” I love when they write Kirk as polite but obviously he’s got that Spock/McCoy sass rubbed off on him

- Kirk must be so disoriented. He got shot with a phaser and wakes up being held in a very uncomfortable position. Then he’s getting dragged places and beat up again.

- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS EPISODE. No. No. What the fuck. They just made her choke on gas and then blew her up. This is horrifying. I swear some of these episodes are on the level on horror movies

- It’s funny how Scott and McCoy are getting along (and running the ship together)

- oh okay Spock’s just been chilling

- DOUBLE NERVE PINCH

- OKAY Spock ACTUALLY gets to save his husband in distress this time by being the knight in shining armour

- Once again Spock does not solely abide by pure unemotional logic, he does not fuck around, but he does find out. He’ll get you.

- THEY DID NOT PULL A ‘which is the real Kirk’ ON SPOCK

- which ones got the bigger ass- who said that (edit: I do not remember writing that but it’s genuinely the best thing I’ve written)

- HE DECIDES TO WAIT. HOT GIRL SHIT

- Spock isn’t turned on at all during this fight

- HOT GIRL SHIT IS SHOOTING THE INTRUDER PRETENDING TO BE YOUR BOYFRIEND WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT

- The thing that turns on and off the force field is literally a switch that says on and off and is labelled ‘force field power’

- yay they win or smt

- ‘Why’d it take you so long to know it was me?’ ‘Well in simple words, captain. I didn’t want to shoot my fucking boyfriend.’

They cured mental illness… We’re done for tonight.

Masterpost

Teleplay by Lee Erwin

Story by Lee Erwin & Jerry Sohl

[running-on-a-broken-record]

What MatPat egos are like as lovers

(The Detective, MadPat, Mack, The Hermit, WarfPat, DarkPat)

The Detective: - Are you kidding? This man is the sweetest!! - He likes bringing you flowers a lot. His favorites are lilies, because they remind him of you - Physical touch is definitely his primary love language (have you seen him and Ro in Escape the Night?!) - He’s a very patient person most of the time, unless he gets too stressed out. Arguments (because, let’s be honest, they’re inevitable in all relationships) with him are rare. - He isn’t always the one to apologize first, but he makes a point to always make up for it after you’ve both cooled down

MadPat: - What?? A serial killer can’t be a good lover, right…? - Ha! Wrong! - Well, mostly. Sometimes he gets so caught up in work that you don’t see him for a whole day - I have no idea how he does it, but this man will somehow work his ass off every day at the pizzeria, and then come home and manage to give you all of his attention - He likes listening to you talk. Not always anything in particular, either. Hearing about your day, reading to him… all of it is nice. He especially likes it after a long day of work, or after, uh… his less-than-legal hobbies - If he can help it, he tries to keep you separate from the whole… serial murder thing. Though, I’m sure it’s inevitable you find out eventually…

Mack: (Crewmate & Head Engineer) - For crewmate Mack, he’s obsessed with you. But not in a creepy way. He just loves being around you, and probably even went as far as to beg the captain to put you on similar jobs so he can stay with you as long as possible - Loves forehead kisses! Both for you and for himself, but every time you two have some alone time together, it’s cuddles and forehead kisses if he has his way - Head engineer Mack is more bold. He’s less outwardly touchy, and is far less obsessed with you, but that’s mostly because he has a reputation to uphold. He’s the second-in-command of the whole shop, after all. People look up to him! - However, he does use his title and his power to keep you around him as much as possible, same as crewmate Mack. Maybe it’s you being assigned the job of cleaning the same room that he’s stationed in, or specifically keeping you from working on one particular day so you can spend the whole day with him

The Hermit: - He’s the most protective of all the egos. He knows the danger out in the world, and is very adamant about keeping you safe. - Admittedly, sometimes this protectiveness borders on possessiveness, but he’s a sucker for you. All you have to do is tell him that you appreciate his concern and that you’ll be okay. Sometimes you have to agree to take him with you, but overall, you’re usually allowed to go on your own - It sounds absolutely insane, but with him as your lover, you are treated like royalty. Sure, he lives in a cave on a (mostly) deserted island, but you have everything you could ever want. - You swear he has some kind of extraterrestrial abilities…

WarfPat: - Oh dear, let’s hope you’re up for the chaos - His love language switches like… every time you blink I swear. One day he’s all on you, hugging you, kissing you, etc. and the next, he’s giving you gifts like there’s no tomorrow - He’s overall a pretty energetic guy, but around you, he simply cannot sit still. He loves being around you!! It makes him really talkative, too, so he ready to hear him infodump about anything - You are his favorite guest on his talk show, easily. You’re a fan-favorite, he always says - He’s kind of like a teenager when it comes to some things in the relationship. Like, for example, he is a sucker for matching things. If you made him matching bracelets, he’d love you until the end of eternity (he already does but you know)

DarkPat: - I know he looks like an asshole, but it’s mostly just for show - DarkPat is a mix between The Hermit and Mack, really - He doesn’t like physical touch all that much. Not just in public, either, but all in all. He will hold your hand sometimes, but kisses make him uncomfortable when they’re unprompted, and he isn’t really one for cuddling - He makes up for the lack of physical touch with gifts. Specifically expensive jewelry. Seeing you wear it makes even him smile, and then he buys you more - Rich man fr - He also likes taking you to fancy dinners for dates, which kind of freaks out the people around him, seeing a glitching entity with too much eyeliner, but as long as you’re happy

[jadetheblueartist]

Any infodumps you'd like to share about Frida?

(/nf, I just like to learn about her :3)

I can’t believe I found this reaction thing in the gifs bc it is exactly what I did when I first read this ask ^^ thank you so so much, Plum!!!!!! I feel so honored to infodump to you :))))))))))

Lemme just word vomit at you i guess:

So, first, I recently did a bunch of research on toxic relationships, toxic families, abusive relationships, narcissistic people (mothers specifically), and all of that good stuff. I was planning on adjusting Big Mama toward what I found in those videos, but turns out she was already pretty spot on hahaha so anyway, I also wanted Frida to be sort of “therapist” for Big Mama for some reasons. First, think back to that one episode where Leo finds out Splinter dated Big Mama and they fight in the Battle Nexus. When Big Mama hears that her “snuggle muffin beefcake” (I believe? Could be wrong) wants to talk to her, she brings Frida. This is the first time we ever see Frida in show, so why now? I think Mama would talk to Frida about everything, so Frida would know about the whole Lou-Jitsu-being-her-dad thing. Frida was brought along for emotional support for her mother (a sense of “I have no boundaries with my kid” perhaps). This would lead Friday to already have high hopes of Lou Jitsu- assuming that Big Mama would just gush to her about how amazing he was, which I do think happened. So when Mama found out that Splinter was Lou, so did Frida and she was pretty psyched and barely holding it together. She knew not to act out of Mama’s command though, especially since this was her moment. And since Frida was hyperfixated on the Battle Nexus as a youngun (Lou being her favorite champion for obvious reasons), she wants to meet him that much more :)))))) (meeting him in the story will be a fun time)

Second thing, I’m really looking forward to how Frida’s loyalty to Big Mama plays out in story bc it will take… mind-shattering revelations for her to make a change >:))))))) and that’s all I can say for now

Third, while it seemed contrary to her character at first, I’ve fully adopted the idea of Frida being quite reckless (as long as it could in any way benefit Big Mama) and I like that ^^

Fourth, these are Frida’s initial thoughts on the Hamatos hahaha (was a good exercise for me) they aren’t all super serious but the vibes for sure: she doesn’t like Leo (and is not sure why), she likes Mikey enough (nvm after the therapy incident), Donnie is okay…. Raph is a vibe but won’t let her fight people, Lou Jitsu is the best thing that ever happened ever, Casey jr. is okay, Cassandra is also the best thing that ever happened ever, April is also the best thing that ever happened ever, Draxum exists and they’re grumps together

Oh and I read somewhere that Frida would be similar to 2012 Karai which works well for me since I’m planning on Leo being a big part of her character development (not in that incestuous way though…)

This turned out a lot longer than anticipated so oopsie hahaha it was very fun tho ^^ thanks for the ask

[courfeyracs-swordcane]

for alonzo:

What’s the lie your character says most often?

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

What’s the lie your character says most often?

Oh it’s gotta be his whole dramatic “I’m so sorry superior officer, I just couldn’t get her this time 😫 she’s always been stronger than me 😭 but I SWEAR I’ll do better next time, I promise I’ll bring her in, just send me out again and I’ll get it! 🥺🥺🥺” spiel that he does every time he uses the allotted mission time they give him to hunt Kyrie for sport to just go hang out at the tower for fun

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

He CAN and he uses this to his advantage pretty damn often. He doesn’t think about anything specific tho he just opens his eyes really wide and is under a lot of stress all the time. It doesn’t take much.

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Okay not exactly a hobby but I think he really misses going to school? The school system works different in universe and it’s a whole nother infodump but tldr he dropped out at the equivalent of 8th grade and honestly I think he would be happiest if he got to go on through higher education and do some kind of academic career instead of the whole sword for hire schtick

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

DID YOU MEAN. THE LAST THIRD OF THE PLOT. tldr he would fight like a cat in water to avoid being put in that situation but if you put him in it he’s gonna sit in the corner and not say anything and try very hard to control his face (but this is the one time he probably fails)

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

Okay so technically he can’t be fired because he gets incredible job security by virtue of Being Technically A Hostage BUT. This is also arguably the last third of the plot! (His good boss (/mentor) quit as his direct supervisor because of his actions and he gets gets daddy issues (part 2) about it)(and goes full. Never Trusting Anyone Ever Again it’s him and his evil job against the world mode)

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

,,,okay that one is lightly complicated because he is Very Good at not feeling bad when he makes mistakes. He works in the murder department he has to be good at justifying shit to himself. Also the mistakes he makes at work are on purpose usually

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

Okay I Will come back to this one someday when he’s written I know there’s something but I don’t know what it is yet

[ungodly-amounts-of-godly-trauma]

Is it time for Neku Sakuraba propaganda? I think it is! Okay so. Neku’s an angsty 15-year-old who doesn’t get people (“never have, never will”) when he awakens and finds himself in some kind of weird weeklong Reaper’s Game, with no idea who he is or what he’s doing here. Turns out, his memory was his entry fee - the thing he valued most - to enter the game. To win the game and avoid erasure, he has to team up with a Partner and fight with them. In the course of the week, he discovers he’s dead and forms a close enough attachment to his Partner, Shiki, that she becomes his next entry fee when he’s forced to play for a second week straight.

His second week, some little shit makes the Partner Pact FOR him. “You looked like an expert, so I just helped myself,” he says. Enter: Yoshiya Kiryu, but Mother and Father call him Joshua, so he supposes you can too. He’s smarmy, abrasive, overly-familiar, and has somehow been watching Neku (?) despite Neku being in the afterlife and knowing this kid hasn’t played before. Oh, and he remembers seeing Neku laying on the ground the last place Neku remembers being… and he still doesn’t remember how he died. They spend the week, in turns, with Joshua getting on Neku’s nerves infodumping about Shibuya and making innuendo, talking about how they mutually don’t get people (with Joshua concluding he’d rather get rid of them all because understanding others is impossible,) and Neku accusing Joshua of murdering him after Joshua remembers coming at Neku holding a gun. During this, Neku discovers that Joshua’s apparently somehow Playing while alive - he could always see the afterlife, decided he belonged there and wanted to become the Composer who runs it all (basically a local god,) and has incredible powers that let him teleport into the air and use massive, cherub-laden lasers of doom. We call them the Jesus Beams.

The week ends with a fight with this week’s Game Master, who’s been harassing them personally throughout. During it, Neku suddenly remembers that HE was at the site of Neku’s death with a gun, too, and concludes he was wrong about Joshua. When the GM is defeated, he unleashes a massive explosive attack that’ll take them all out, but Joshua smiles and pushes Neku out of the way, taking the brunt of the blast. Neku assumes that Joshua sacrificed himself, feeling bad for the week of shadiness. This messes Neku up DEEPLY! And Neku has to play ANOTHER week, because Joshua was playing while alive.

Through the week, Neku and his third Partner Beat conclude they have to take out the Composer and put Beat in charge, like Joshua wanted to do, as the city and game get increasingly messed up. They conclude the Composer is probably the game’s mentor figure, break into the secret sewer base of the Reapers, and fight the Composer’s second-in-command Kitaniji. They win, when suddenly Joshua reappears and seems to know Kitaniji, who incorporates him (with Joshua posing like he’s been crucified) into his massive monstrous dragon form and traps Beat and Shiki. Neku fights. Neku wins. And then we get explanations.

1) The reason why the entire city was falling under creepy mind control was because of Kitaniji’s plan to unite the city under his vision.

2) This was because he was playing a Game with the Composer, whose plan for the city was WORSE - outright destruction. The Composer wouldn’t directly interfere, but use a Proxy he’d chosen for this purpose.

3) Who is the Composer? Hee hee. It was Joshua all along!

4) Whose Proxy, of course, was Neku. And how did he pick him? Well Neku, he never said he DIDN’T kill you.

But if Neku wants to stop him (or even if he doesn’t,) time for one more Game. The winner gets to be Composer and do whatever they want with the city. Of course, Joshua’s already decided.

Here’s a gun. Joshua will count to ten, and then they fire. Neku, tears in his eyes, readies the gun - and then lowers it. Despite everything, he can’t do it. He’s changed too much over the past three weeks.

Joshua shoots.

Neku wakes up in the middle of the street for the fourth straight week in a row, everything seemingly unchanged. He looks around and screams “What the HELL?!”

And this is before we get to the part where Neku later dies AGAIN so Joshua sends him to a destroyed city removed from reality for three years. As one does.

To sum up: One of Neku’s best friends is the local god of the underworld, who murdered him, shot him twice, does seem to genuinely care about him despite it all, and collects Jesus symbolism like it’s a contest.

Play The World Ends With You!

holy jesus fucking christ. I REMEMBER THE NEKU SAKURABA SUBMISSION. also i think he and josh were in the homoerotic betrayal tournament or something??? good god. bloody hell. godly trauma unparalleled

[tailsrevane]

[movie review] the thing (1982)

“you don’t wanna hurt anybody!”[1]

i love scifi/horror, especially from around this period. actually, fuck, i might just be thinking of this and alien. that being said, please please please feel free to recommend me movies with similar vibes and quality if there are such things!![2]

the isolated, desolate setting is a big part of the appeal here. it’s funny that i like snowy settings so much in movies, but i just love how much it can contribute to the mood of a setting? it can make cozy movies cozier, creepy movies creepier. you can do so many interesting things with it visually, which this movie takes ample advantage of. but i actually hate snow in real life?[3]

kurt russell is also a big part of the appeal. i’ve said this before, but i think any movie that has an all-male cast should be required to have kurt russell. it’s like basically the least you can do. i don’t have a crush on him or anything–he’s super not my type. he just makes every movie he’s in better. he exudes a kind of effortless, rugged masculinity, the kind you also get from a harrison ford or a michael douglas, those types of guys. it’s kind of perfect for a scifi/horror if you can’t get sigourney weaver.

okay, yeah, we’re back to the alien comparisons. this certainly has a lot in common with it. whereas a lot of scifi tries to astonish, both try to keep their non-monster stuff grounded and relatable to enhance the horror of their monster stuff. their settings are inherently dangerous–antarctica and space–and both are made even more dangerous by the monsters.

i also noticed a lot more this time what pains the actors (and director, and editor) went through to make the characters feel a lot more human and grounded. everybody does things a bit more awkwardly and realistically than you often get in movies. there’s a scene where macready is going to check on the helicopter that blair has smashed, and he kind of stumbles on his way to it and struggles with the tarp a few times before actually getting a peek beneath it. the camera doesn’t track either of these things the way you would expect it to if it were intentional. there’s a few times i noticed him making choices like these, and he’s not the only one. it just adds a little texture of realism and verisimilitude to his performance.

the monster effects are pretty outlandish, and they totally hold up on the big screen. i’d even go so far as to say they’re more effective on the big screen. i sometimes struggle to enjoy the gross out brand of horror, but carpenter deploys it here in ways that work for me quite a bit more than a raimi or cronenberg does.

i know faithfulness to who goes there? is hardly a metric most people are concerned about with the thing, given that it has without a doubt surpassed the novella it’s based on as the ur-text of this story. still, unlike the thing from another world before it, this is definitely a “based on” not a “suggested by.”

a few things are moved around–macready’s name is spelled differently and he’s the helicopter pilot instead of second in command, the expedition’s complement is a more manageable 12 instead of 37. plenty of details are also expanded upon or altered completely. a lot of the discoveries being related to the team in the infodumps by macready and blair in the text are instead moved to a separate, norwegian (or is it swedish, mac?) expedition. this allows us to see through the characters’ eyes as they investigate the other doomed expedition’s base at a slow and methodical pace, making everything feel even more grounded and creepy.

but compared to the thing from another world which has differently-named characters fighting some sort of super carrot man (and even changes its setting from the south pole to the north pole, seemingly out of spite), this is actually a pretty faithful adaptation. again, not that it matters.

what really astonishes me is that when approached about the project, carpenter was reluctant because he didn’t think he could improve upon the thing from another world. the man is either seeing something i’m not in that movie, or is in possession of an overabundance of humility that’s directly proportional to his skill as a director.

or maybe he was just trying to be merciful, because he absolutely blew the earlier adaptation out of the water in every category.

s-rank

notes

1. yeah, i know most people would probably go with the extremely obvious/iconic “nobody trusts anybody now and we’re all very tired” if they were gonna open with a quote. and it’s for sure one of my favorite lines in the movie, too. but there’s a couple times macready is deescalating and says “you don’t want to hurt anybody,” and it’s just weirdly meaningful to me. i believe the kids would say i vibe with it.

2. just to preempt literally everyone suggesting it: yes, i’ve seen the fly. i wasn’t a fan at the time, but i should probably give it another shot at some point.

3. or, at least, i used to? i’ve been living in california for a few years now, so it’s easy to forget how awful chicago and new england winters were.

[synnthamonsugar]

Savathun's Trip to the Last City

Now that we have a clearer picture of what’s going on with Savathun I decided to compile the last year’s worth of her POV lore pieces together.

This is super long, and has spoilers for Path of the Splicer VI / Beneath the Endless Night VII, so I’m putting it under a cut.

Credit to @xivuuarath for reading through this and adding some of their ideas! We talked about more beyond what’s posted here, but this is getting long, so maybe that would be better saved for a part two.

1. Traveler's Chosen (Season of Arrivals)

This piece is told from the POV of a narrator viewing the events through an "ossific den". Based on later lore pieces, I'm certain the narrator is Savathun. Given that ahamkara bones have been compromised by her, and that Shaxx has an ahamkara skull slung up in his station, it’s safe to assume this is Sav’s vantage point.

That said, I don't believe Savathun is observing Shaxx, but rather Zavala, struggling in the wake of the Darkness' encroachment on the system and his colleagues' refusals to evacuate to safety. She seems pleased to find Zavala in a desperate state, and watches as he has a silent conversation with the Traveler. Of note is that she's waiting for it to respond.

He waits for a response and I do as well, tense, curious. [ . . . ] It is no time at all for me, but for him, the hours creep by in silence.

I am ready to choke the voice of his Traveler if it answers him, but there is nothing.

2. Harbinger Mission (Season of the Hunt)

Thank you to @xivuuarath​ for pointing this out since I didn’t include it the first time around. During the Harbinger mission Savathun’s forces are attempting to secure a Shard of the Traveler in the EDZ. Of note is that they aren’t trying to destroy it, but rather siphon the Light from it.

Given that the Shard of the Traveler is what allowed our Guardian to jumpstart their Light when they lost it during the Red War, and is what allowed Uldren Sov to break into the Dreaming City during the events of Forsaken, we can assume it’s useful to lightbearers and mortals alike. Make note of this, because it becomes potentially relevant later on.

2.5. Hawkmoon (Season of the Hunt)

From an unknown vantage point, Savathun watches The Guardian and Crow celebrate their defeat of her Taken at the Shard of the Traveler. Unlike Zavala, she can find no weak points in Crow or the Guardian, only happiness. This awakens something in her.

What is this feeling? I did not ask for it. I do not understand it. I do not want it.

Which gets repeated throughout the lore piece. This is our first glimpse of Savathun having feelings that don't fall into the range of "malevolence" or "plotting". She yearns for her youth with her siblings and the warmth of her old life, and feels burgeoning regret for the people she betrayed.

There is a growing kinship here. Against better judgment.

This is ambiguous enough to be a comment on Crow’s and The Guardian’s relationship, or herself and The Guardian and/or Crow. She's called us her friend before but this might be the first time she's actually had friendly feelings for us.

3. Books of Sorrow: New Verse (Season of the Hunt)

This hasn't actually been posted on Ishtar Collective and I'm too lazy to track down a transcript online, so pardon the source. There's a lot to unpack here.

I walk in a city made of delicate hopes.

Savathun has moved beyond occupying ahamkara bones and is actually physically present.

I hear my name everywhere. [. . .] The sound is nourishment.

Imbaru machine on-line?

I am more than I ever was, and less than I will ever be.

Make note of this line.

I am many and none. I'm a man who sits alone in a cavernous office counting my failures. I'm a woman looking at a silent god. I'm a lost soul on a cold moon. I'm a broken mirror of a man who tries to steer the ship.

Comparing (?) herself to Zavala, Ikora, Eris, and back to Zavala again?

I'm a familiar stranger, flitting between them all, hiding my face.

Again, I think she's speaking literally here.

The people here are small krill dwarfed by the enormity of oblivion.

A neat little comparison of humanity with the krill, who we established in her last appearance she's beginning to feel regret for.

4. Retrofuturist (Season of the Chosen)

Savathun watches a Crucible match, and judges Guardians for being reckless with the gift of immortality. The tone of this piece reinforces the idea she is actually out and about in a corporeal form.

I'm mostly interested in her perspective on Ghosts here. She calls them "A perfect being", and describes their ability to revive the dead as miraculous. She isn't happy that the spectators don't appreciate the gravity of this. Weird sentiment for a hive but ok.

I look up into the blank white face. I feel its Light on my cheeks. It no longer burns me.

The Hive are repelled by the Light. Savathun has grown to tolerate it. Something has changed in her metaphysical composition.

@xivuuarath​ made the excellent observation that she might have been at least partially successful in the Harbinger mission - that she may have secured enough Light to build up an immunity, allowing her to be physically present in the City without being hurt by the Traveler.

Each revival is a choice. I know what to do.

Tuck this away for a moment.

5. Beneath the Endless Night: VII - Ripe (Season of the Splicer)

Okay this whole page is insane so excuse the massive infodump here.

I walk through the City on broken legs. I am conspicuous, but the people here grant me many affordances. I chose this form well.

Confirmation that our girl is actually bumping about in a human-form.

I open my eyes and search the faces of the people around me for familiarity. I did not mean to. I twist inwardly with disgust.

She's sympathizing with the humans of the City. She does not like this, but she is!

When they first reached for me, I reached back in acid mockery, and they opened themselves to me in stupid, naked innocence. I was giddy. My fingers raked their minds. I forced my will through them using only words and met no resistance.

Now I reach as often as they do, and when they reach back, I am thankful. I speak with them. I seek their company. Their companionship.

In case it wasn’t obvious already, Savathun has been running a psy-op on the residents of the Last City, which may explain some of the particularly erratic and troubling behavior from individuals / groups this season.

However the interesting thing is, while Sav used her powers of suggestion to manipulate, the humans unknowingly manipulated her in return. Not through any magic - simply through their kindness.

Savathun is doing more than observing the people of the Last City, she is living with them, getting to know them. Savathun is making friends and it’s literally changing her.

This is not pity, for I know pity. What is this—

A call back to the Hawkmoon lore with her trying to make sense of budding positive feelings.

I clench the gangling black mass that threatens to unspool recklessly from within this shell of flesh. My new arms are too thin, too weak. My new shell still bound with thick mucus. Not yet, I say.

I suspect that the “new shell” she talks about here is not her human-form, but rather something else growing inside it.

A man places his hands on me, on my shoulders, on my back. He asks if I am ill, and he sees my flat eyes, my teeth black with ripeness, and he prepares to scream. I let him keep his mind. I push breath up and through my ruined mouth and speak a simple lie. He stops, smiles, laughs. Shakes his head. He points a finger at me in mocking admonishment before walking away.

A few things to unpack here.

Savathun is physically deteriorating... badly. @xivuuarath pointed out that the body horror of this particular scene mirrors the Emissary’s description of a world with no darkness and creatures that are incapable of death even as they physically fall apart, and if you follow that line of thinking you may infer that she’s forcing herself to live through light alone.

She's approachable enough that some rando would see her in trouble and want to help her, reinforcing the point that she's been wandering about the City and vibing with its residents.

She could have done worse to the good samaritan but chooses not to. She does her mind trick and lets him go about his business. She’s showing mercy... which is something we know the hive absolutely must not do at the risk of being consumed by their worm.

Even here, basted in deception both ample and rich, the Worm cries ravenously. It has grown grotesque, skin taut, overfed, and still it howls for more. It commands me to keep it alive.

I look up, beyond the flickering net of darkness, and see what rests just beyond. Waiting for me. The Worm roars.

NOT DISCONCERTINGLY AMBIGUOUS AT ALL that we don't know if the worm is roaring in terror, pleading or triumph.

TL;DR of what I think is going on.

Savathun came to the City to destabilize it through manipulation, but could not be physically present until she hardened herself to the Light. Camouflaging herself in a human form, she spent time with the residents of the City, and found herself manipulated in return by their kindness. She's resisting the positive emotions, but they're there, which is something we've never seen between hive and humans before. You can't have a crisis of conscience if you don't have a conscience, and Savathun does.

I think Savathun is trying to shed her current form and be reborn in some capacity. I think she's going to try to use the Light to rid herself of the Worm and bootstrap herself into something new. If you'd asked me before reading this lore, I would have insisted that she wanted to become a thought-entity, but the cocoon-like imagery makes me second-guess this assumption.

There are outstanding questions at this point.

Why did she want to prevent Eris and/or The Guardian from communicating with the Darkness in Season of Arrivals? Is there a purpose to the Endless Night beyond eroding willpower and sowing division? Is she trying to save only herself, or attempt to undo the millennia-old injustice she inflicted on her people?

[theyapper0]

Amphibia season 1 rewatch + notes :)

So I just finished rewatching the ENTIRE season 1 of Amphibia and I have some notes on the episodes that stood out to me! There are some quick notes, a couple lengthy analyses and even some headcanons sprinkled in! It's like a written stew of season 1! I'll be doing a written Amphiba stew for season 2 too!!

It's kinda long so you could just skip this or hit the keep reading button and give it a read! 

S1: E2 Cane Crazy

Anne shows general disregard over other people's things

(Mimicking Hop Pop and breaking his cane, throwing all the wood carving things that Loggle made, even a coo coo clock that she even said was nice (And for him to say it took 20 years to make right after she broke it))

S1: E2 Flood, Sweat and Tears 

Anne would be the WORST during sleepovers and I LOVE IT!!! My girl is just being a tween, staying up late, playing would you rather and keeping everyone else up. I think that's ADORABLE and now I'm thinking about how sleepovers might've been back home with her, Sasha and Marcy… 

She also just stays up late in general?? She reads dumb magazines and eats CRUNCHY snacks. She is really just 13,,,

And it looks like Sprig does it too, not as much as Anne (probably because he is younger than her) but it seems like it has to be in his terms. Before, he looked to be annoyed with it when he was trying to sleep. But, if he was awake, like in the beginning or at the end of the episode, he had no problem staying up playing would you rather!!! 

S1: E3 Hop Luck 

Anne: Old things are dumb! 

And 

Anne:* violently GRABS Sprig and shoves him against the wall* don't you DARE talk about pineapple in my pizza… Ever…

Anne: 

Sprig: 

Anne: Okay! Let's go get these ingredients! 

HHHH ANNE!!! I love this funky little child SO MUCH!!! 

Hop Pop loves these kids so much that he was willing to put aside his old, traditional family recipes in exchange for making pizza with them. My heart is gonna explode I'm-

Anne please don't make your surrogate frog brother get married just to get some pizza dough I'M BEGGING YOU-

S1: E3 Stakeout 

Hop Pop: I'm a crisp 68!

Is Hop Pop actually 68 or does he mean more of 68 going on 80 68? Either way he looks great! 

Anne has Blam Berry Blitz ("the drink that punches you in the face and doesn't stop") in her bag along with all the OTHER stuff we already saw (air pump, toe nail clipper, pencils, cat toys, bath bombs, etc)

Anne is officially those friends that have EVERYTHING in their bag no matter what. 

I really like the relationship between Anne and Hop Pop, how they both in some way yearn for what was but in different ways (Anne wanting to go home and Hop Pop's olden ways when he was a little pollywog) but are still similar in how they try to remember. They try and try and try to keep what little family/friends they have safe and protected. They love the relationships they've formed with other people (And with each other) and would go great lengths to help and protect them!

Also I MAY be looking way too into it buuuut was Boulder-Tron (that rock dude that Polly hallucinated at the end) supposed to foreshadow Frobo??

S1: E4 Taking Charge 

Okay quick one, Anne nearly having a whole ass panic attack when her phone dies because she couldn't look at her photos or videos of home actually made me sad. This girl is only a CHILD and her entire home and everything is gone and she for real thought she couldn't ever get it back,,, 

Hop Pop: I mean, the part where the island itself is revealed to actually be…!

Sprig: No! 

Polly: Don't!

Anne: Spoilers 

I dunno why and again, I MIGHT BE LOOKING TOO DEEPLY INTO THIS, but maybe this is foreshadowing something with the land of Amphibia? That maybe there is more to this crazy land than we know? Maybe even a reason it, along with all the other universes even exists??? 

S1: E5 Breakout Star 

AHSBWJOA ONLY EPISODE 5 AND ANNE ALREADY HAS HER PHONE'S LOCK SCREEN OF THE PLANTER FAMILY I'M-

S1: E7 Dating Season 

Anne said that ⅔ of ALL soul mates start out as "just friends" 

…

I'm looking at you, team Sashannarcy 

S1: E7 Anne vs. Wild 

Hop Pop's behavior at the end of the episode when Anne finally shows them the calamity box is awfully sus…

He doesn't say anything but "may I?" To inspect the box and then is like "Nope, never seen it" I just feel like he knows something and then adding onto it with the whole burying it to protect his family just sounds like… he definitely knows something, maybe not a lot but there is something he's not telling the others 

Also, why would a book that HE has have information on the Calamity box?? 

(I fully support the Dr. P was a Planter and also possibly the pink frog who was friends with King Andrias theory)

S1: E10 Toad Tax 

At this point, Anne said that she has already been in Amphibia for over a month now. 

(And damn, Sasha's been in prison for like a month,,, yikes)

Also Hop Pop teaching Anne how to pay taxes is so adorable, she really is part of this family now guys,,,

And I love how Anne was able to win over the Wartwood people by being her natural, charming and not to mention caring self. Anne, like Marcy and Sasha, can be selfish because honestly what kid, especially a 13 year old, isn't. 

But what matters is that she always tries to make up for it. 

Yes she did join the arguably sketchy toads into getting the taxes from everyone in order to feel somewhat included in ANYTHING, but while she was doing it, she knew it was wrong. Anne knew it was wrong and tried to give back some of the stolen stuff. Hell, even at the end she risked her safety to protect people she felt didn't even LIKE her, like, Anne literally broke her arm from them because that's just how Anne is. 

S1: E10 Prison Break 

I always forget how like,,, SUPER cunning Sasha is. I mean, she was able to talk FIVE toads into quitting within a WEEK as a PRISONER. Like?? 

Grime: That's not a bird. It's a heron, a murderous predator that happens to love the taste of flesh 

Sasha: Cute 

The lines in this show I'M-

So Anne was a varsity tennis player and Sasha was a cheerleader and did Tai Chi. I still can't believe they were both jocks,,, 

(Well, Sasha I get but Anne? Sweet ol' lil baby with the lanky limbs Anne???) 

Hey um, why the FUCK does Grime have acid spit?

Sasha: *looking at photo of her, Anne, and Marcy* Hold on for a little longer, girls. I'm coming for you. And when I find you, we're gonna get home. But first, I think we're gonna have some fun with this place 

Okay so this line right here. Now I may not be even remotely correct but this line, this last piece of dialogue spoken by Sasha right before the episode ends leads me to believe that she… doesn't take this world seriously. 

At least not yet. 

I think the 3 girls all see Amphibia differently: Anne as more of an obstacle, a wall preventing her from being home, Marcy sees it as an escape from her life with constant stimuli, and Sasha, she sees it as just really another thing to control. Everyone and their mothers know that Sasha can be a little more than controlling and we all know that she liked being lieutenant just a little too much. 

This world is interesting to Sasha, not in the interesting that Anne sees it (who is interesting in the new people and the relationships she's formed) or Marcy (who is also interested in the relationships she's formed along with the thirst for knowledge and again, the constant stimuli in an environment where she isn't stifled and allowed to flourish). 

No, Sasha sees Amphibia as interesting because it gives her something to control. In a world that is not your own, a world that you will leave eventually, who would actually FOLLOW the rules put in place there? Especially a 13 year old who is basically like a war commander who, even if she does do something wrong or breaks a rule or two, the only person who might even dare to stop her is Grime, and even then, he might just encourage it because it is season 1 and they aren't that close and he doesn't really care for Sasha at this point. 

She also is actually very logical. Everything she does in Amphibia, all the morally questionable things she does, it is always for the same reason (or at least at first), to get her and her girls home. Wanting to sacrifice and kill Hop Pop at the end of season 1? Well The toads had promised if she helped, they'll help her find Marcy and bring the 3 of them home. She cares for Anne and Marcy SO MUCH that she is willing to go great lengths to help keep them safe. 

But even though Sasha didn't really care about anyone in Amphibia besides Anne and Marcy at first, it doesn't mean she won't ever. We see countless times throughout season 2 of Sasha caring. She feels regret with her impending betrayal on Anne and Marcy, she cares enough to try and warn Anne about King Andrias' evil plans. Hell, even in the season 3 intro we see her and Grime at Wartwood and it looks like they're gonna be starting another rebellion against the king to help all the amphibians in Amphibia. 

I just really like watching Sasha's appearance and knowing what will happen in the future with her character. 

S1: E13 Trip to the Archives 

Anne: I get this place. It's like a library from my world. Zoo books and manga, here I come! 

So whenever Anne goes to the library, presumably with Sasha and Marcy, she'd go straight to books on animals and manga probably while Marcy did whatever work they needed (if Anne's dialogue in season 2 with Marcy always doing the work for their group projects was anything to go off on)

I dunno, I think that's kinda cute that Anne liked reading books on animals and probably reading all the manga that Marcy recommended. 

Maybe Anne and Sasha would sit right next to each other while Marcy worked and read fun manga together and cackle with each other while Marcy tried SO HARD to concentrate and NOT infodump to them because she's read that specific manga 20 times and HAVE YOU GOTTEN TO THAT ONE PART WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER GOES- 

S1: E15 Wally and Anne

MOSS MAN!! 

When Anne wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to grab Wally at town square, her hood is up and it's dark. The only thing we can make out of her face are…

Glowing blue eyes.

Glowing eyes that share an uncanny resemblance to the moss men.

And Anne loves doing elaborate, silly handshakes? That's so CUTE! Too bad none of her friends liked them as much as she did :( 

When they finally reached the foggy mountain place, Anne noticed glowing blue butterflies and started to follow them, which led her right to the moss man.

WAIT ANNE ALSO DID ROCK CLIMBING BACK HOME?? FUCKING JOCK!!!

S1 E20 Reunion 

Okay I WAS about to say that there wasn't anything to say about this last episode that hasn't already been said before BUT

The last couple moments, when Anne is holding Sasha off the cliff and trying to pull her up with the Planters, there's a couple interesting shots that I would like to talk about. 

While the Planters were holding onto Anne, they say things like "Hang on, Anne! We got you no matter what!" 

And even when the stone cliff starts to chip and break, none of the frogs back off, they don't loosen their grips, they just keep holding onto Anne. 

And they will never let go. 

Because they love her. Because in only 3 months, Anne was able to get a surrogate frog family and dozens of other frog friends in Wortwood. Because Anne has this amazing support system both literally and metaphorically. Because Anne is Anne. And Sasha...

Isn't like Anne. 

Matt Bradly himself even said that both Sasha and Anne are different from Anne, Anne is the heart, the emotional connection in their logical worlds. Anne can make so many friends so easily and Sasha… Sasha became a war genral, she lost a fight against the one person who she thought would never fight back. 

Sasha doesn't have what Anne has. She doesn't have the kind of skills to make such strong relationships, the kind where you risk your life for the other, in such a short amount of time. 

Hell, they even play a song called "Lean on Me", Anne has people to lean on and they would lean on her just the same. She found these people, made these friends, formed amazing relationships, in only THREE months. 

"Maybe you're better off without me"

And Sasha was only dragging her down. 

Sasha loves Anne, she cares for her and would do anything to protect her. That's why she let go. She didn't want to drag Anne down, to hurt her more than she already has. 

Sasha would do anything for Anne, even die. 

Over all notes: 

Season 1 is SUPER FUNNY!! The lines hit and they don't rely on toilet humor to get the audience to laugh. They use great one liners and physical humor that isn't fart or butt jokes. They do an excellent job on showing how crazy the world of Amphibia is through humor like how the animals are always eating each other. 

I really like how the characters were crafted so carefully! And the storyline!!! You could notice things that get explored in season 2 and I can't WAIT to see how many bread crumbs were left to lead up to season 3!

HOW DOES ANNE KEEP SO MANY THINGS IN HER BOOK BAG??? 

That stuff is in her SCHOOL BAG, why would she bring it to school??? So far I've got an air pump, toe nail clippers, pencils, cat toys, bath bombs and an energy drink. WHY??? I wonder if she held on to any of Sasha or Marcy's things too or ever forgot to give them back

Also again, I'M STILL IN SHOCK OF ANNE BEING A JOCK. I don't even know why I am, I knew she played sports and stuff it's just,,, she's so lanky,,, 

Her and Sasha are jock buddies and WILL shove other jocks in lockers if they ever pick on their nerd Marcy.

I also am in LOVE with Hop Pop's screams lmao

Be ready for an analysis of season 2! 

[kenobihater]

Any trans obi hcs??? Spare trans obi hcs pls 👉👈

yes, my favorite topic! some of this will be specific to obi-wan, and some will be only tangentially related to him and more about general star wars trans headcanons.

okay, so i hc obi-wan as coming out early on in his padawanship with qui-gon. qui-gon, despite his many flaws, was completely supportive in this, and though he didn't really know very much about the topic, he was more than willing to learn. the rest of the jedi were supportive as well and helped him begin his transition. i imagine transphobia still exists in star wars, but i don't like to believe that it's very widespread, because i'm really over the concept of trans misery porn, y'know? i'm tired of real world bigotry showing up in fantasy when the piece of media doesn't have any commentary to make on it, and simply because authors can imagine a world with magic, but not one without the innate suffering and repression of minorities *cough cough the witcher and homophobia cough cough*. so I hc the jedi and general populace as trans-inclusive. the empire is probably bigoted, but i'm not as into the empire era as i am the republic era, so i don't have a ton of attachment to that particular hc.

i do, however, hc the kaminoans as transphobic. their whole "genetic superiority" thing doesn't sound at all like they'd be friendly towards anyone who subverts their ideas about the gender binary. so, i feel like obi-wan would clash with them in that regard, especially when it comes to military procedure about the clones under his command who are trans.

another interesting thing to consider abt the clones and their ideas on gender is that mandalorian culture has a strong emphasis on how unimportant gender is. you can find this reflected in both their language and culture - mando'a isn't gendered, and women can be and are warriors. so, i feel like the clones would have a really interesting view on gender, considering they're being raised by a bunch of biological essentialists (the kaninoans) and a cultural group who likely have a very liberal view of gender (the cuy'val dar). i 100% hc that there are trans clones (sidenote: even if not for the more inclusive ideas that the cuy'val dar likely instilled in them opening their minds to the possibility, the numbers alone means that there statistically has to be a few trans clones in the ranks) who identify as such, but are likely closeted on kamino and stay closeted until they believe the jedi are trustworthy.

since i hc obi-wan as trans and the kaminoans as transphobic, he'd be at odds with them in regards to how trans clones are treated. i hc that he would be the one to put into practice more inclusive policies when it comes to gender non-conformity and gender variance in the ranks. we see on multiple occasions how he treats all of his soldiers with dignity and respect, and i believe he'd extend that to helping ensure they have the resources in order to transition, even if he can't grant them civil rights.

now, on another note i think obi-wan would probably end up going stealth in his day-to-day life, not out of a fear of transphobia, but because he strikes me as a deeply private man when it comes to matters of the self. dgmw, he can be very overt and full of bravado, but when it comes to talking about his true emotions (ie his grief over qui-gon, his feelings for satine, his concern for anakin) he seems to falter and struggle with this at times. he uses his charm as a mask, and isn't very good at dropping it. considering how much of a personal issue my owm gender identity is, i feel like even though i like to think transphobia isn't widespread in the gffa, obi-wan usually keeps his past to himself because he doesn't really view it as anyone else's business. also, i view him as non-dysphoric after he transitions, which is a pretty common occurance for post-transition trans folk, so he likely wouldn't even think that much about his gender, especially in a galaxy that largely doesn't care.

he definitely comes out to anakin of course, and early on, too. anakin, being a young child at the time, doesn't really care but is still supportive when he's a little older. satine knows, as do all of obi-wan's friends and any of the clones under his command who have come to him about their own gender identity. the council knows, and i feel it was likely that obi-wan went to them in for advice in how to best go about supporting the trans clones under his command, as well as requesting that they institute an army-wide change in policy, even if just unofficially.

i think he'd be more open about his identity if transphobia was more widespread, because he knows that he's in a position where he could change a few people's mind with his influence, but again, i find the idea of transphobia in star wars to be kind of sad and don't like to think about it.

finally, if you're curious as to the reason i hc obi-wan as trans, it's because he's a paragon of healthy masculinity, and someone i want to see myself in. seeing myself in a character is actually the reason i hc any character as trans. now, obi-wan isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but he's a good man. he struggles with his emotions at times, yes, but he is more than capable of just expressing himself through anger, a trait central to toxic masculinity. he's also noble, and compassionate, and confident, and displays a lot of the traits that i strive to emulate in my own way when i think about what it means to be a man.

so, yeah, that's why i have "obi-wan is trans :)" as my header. this is Very Long, so thank you for allowing me to infodump about my trans obi-wan headcanons!!

[chibi-pix]

Ah, tis a good night to watch more Voltron Force! And tonight I got through episodes 7 through 10.  So, without further delay, let’s begin. 

Episode 7 has me interested in the Voltron game for underground supporters. Intriguing and a good way to connect. Especially when it leads them to a planet that needs their help. And those creatures, I’ve been calling them shiisaa in my notes because I can’t hear properly of what they’re actually called and it’s what they remind me of, on the temple thing, I had a feeling from the get-go they weren’t bad. Called it.  Though I’m glad Pidge also seemed to see through that, too, and stop Keith.  And seeing little Daigo (was that right?), the kid is adorable. And calling Daniel a “cheap shot artist”. Poor Daniel was insulted, but it was amusing.  Voltron lions against those drill bots of Wades and they were tipped with haggarium. Just as I was writing my question about how he got them (and if I missed something) in my notes so I wouldn’t forget for my recap here, Pidge asked the same thing. So I didn’t miss anything it seems. Good! It’s a little sad that Daniel isn’t pleased with Vince being special. But that is what it’s like to be a human. Emotions. Though I feel sad for him. He feels insignificant. But at least he finds his own way to show he’s as much as an important part of the team as the others. And! He wastes no time going after Vince, worried, when a shiisaa steals our glowy blue boy! But. As expected. All goes well in the end. Happy days. 

Episode 8 gives us an oddly active volcano and an even stranger holes. Everywhere.  Hunk: I got a strike once. Lance: On the wrong lane.  I feel you, Hunk. I wasn’t that good, either. But at least I kept my ball in the right lane. Better than my sister who accidentally threw it backwards and scared a bunch of old ladies on the team. Oops.  Me: “I expected that thing to ram them, keeping them from for-” item proceeds to ram into the lions, preventing Voltron “-oh, never mind, it did.” Daniel breaking rules and going against orders, but he does mean well. And he did well. Lance needs to learn a bit to be more humble just because someone did something he couldn’t. At least things worked out and they let Daniel help them to form Voltron and be faster. And Lance humbling himself a smidgen. Good job, Lance.  Seeing that Maahox sent the eye thing, I simultaneously did not expect that but was not surprised. Also, at the note of Hunk working on the castle for five years just seemed intriguing. Kinda gives me a slight idea on how long they have been on Arus. At minimum. 

Episode 9 left me stunned. Though not for the reasons we may think. I actually agreed with Lotor on something! He’s right, Maahox is creepy!  Though I also was stunned further with agreeing with Maahox as he seems annoyed with Lotor. And wanting to give him a “neck rub”. I too wish to strangle... I mean... give a neck rub to the royal pain.  Poor Vince. Having a nightmare and feeling he isn’t brave and wanting to proove himself.  “With all due respect-” No respect when the Drule end up shooting.  And Lance’s sass. “Hey Keith! I respect you.” “Touching, Lance.” I love their comments and sass. This is highly amusing to me.  “I’d call you an incompetent food, but there’s really no need to kick you while you’re down.” I feel like this is a line I need to remember for any writing. It’s brilliant. Even if it came from the creepazoid himself. And I think he called the Drule “Commander Cossack”. I remember that name from DotU!  Vince having a Daniel moment and doing his own thing to help. Though wires from the fingertips and binary code in the eyes? Vince, darling, you’re just becoming more and more intriguing, aren’t you?  The ship going down on the planet and sinking. Deeper and deeper. And deeper. I’m just getting Subnautica vibes.  The creature that got into the ship, I had hoped it was friendly. Vince using his glowy powers and syncing with it was intriguing, though. At least until it touched the haggarium. Oh look, it infected the creatures and made them aggressive. Definite Subnautica vibes dude. I appreciate Pidge infodumping about Greek and Roman myths and the difference of characters. Vince needs a nap at the end of the day. He deserves it. 

And finally, for the night, we have episode 10. I was going to say that Keith sucks at teamwork, but finding he had a plan already, it’s understandable. But at least in the end, Daniel’s able to help.  Ah, sending a kid to prison. That’s always fun. And Daniel gets into a fight on the first day. At least big guy got another guy to help him.  Also, rest in peace to the alien sucked out during the “escape”.  To no surprise, Daniel didn’t listen to any important data before speeding off.  And Wade. Sky Marshal Wade. He needs a high five to the face with a cactus.  I like the cloaking foe. Though I feel sorry for them. I wanna hug them.  Big guy (Manset? Was that his name? I suck at names, dudes) using his body to plug the hole and protect the other prisoners. Good on him.  It was also highly amusing.  I also have a grand appreciation for the voltcoms turning into their suits, helmet included. Very nifty.  Damn. Wade lived and escaped. 

Okay, that be another night of Voltron Force! I’m still trying to figure out what “snart” means. I mean, using “quiznak” in VLD, we kinda easily assume what it means and one of the guys who worked on the series saying it means “dang it”, honey... I think the quiznak not. Snart, though... it’s a very amusing term.  Also, Vince! Working with the tech, communicating with it and creatures, binary codes in his eyes, oooh! It’s all intriguing and I want to know more about him! Also! Such a thing! Can you imagine a VLD AU with Pidge able to do that? But glowing green because she’s our green baby? THAT WOULD BE SUPER AWESOME!!!!

Anyway, I think that’s it for the night. I hope y’all enjoyed. Have a good night guys and remember, high fiving people in the faces with cacti is typically frowned upon but does wonders in driving the point home. Or... several points.  Until next time. 

[caffernnn]

For the ask game: HiyoIku with number 26, 28 and 38 and if you are okay Natsunao and number 4, 30 and 40

I might’ve had too much fun with this one <3 definitely don’t talk about them enough. Thanks for sending!!

HIYOIKU

26. How do their friends feel about their relationship? Their families?

It’s a bumpy road at first, but things seem to be working out. Hiyori and Ikuya had to iron out a lot of their shared issues and insecurities to be as strong as they are now, and it wasn’t always easy to watch. A lot of their university friends/teammates that they chose to get close were happy to see them look a lot happier and socialize more after they got together. After getting to reconnect with Ikuya and getting to know Hiyori, the Tokyo crew is crazy supportive of their emerging relationship. Being surrounded by people so invested in their individual wellbeing and happiness was jarring at first (Ikuya didn’t understand why they cared about him so much after all this time; Hiyori was shocked that he was seen as his own person and not an accessory to Ikuya), but their support came to mean everything to them. It helped a lot to have their support when Natsuya finally came back in town. Breaking the news to him felt like this looming blade because he was the one person they couldn’t imagine losing or disappointing, but of course he was fine with it — he already thought of Hiyori as family, and him and Nao secretly wondered about them for years, no strangers to “pining for your best friend” themselves. They’re happy to have such a strong support system on their side that accepts and loves them. 😌 (I’m not talking about their parents for the time being because they’re barely involved as it is and I wouldn’t have nice things to say about them OOPS)

28. What are their vacations like?

Ikuya doesn’t understand the point of a vacation if he can’t spend most of it relaxing or trying to catch up on sleep, so most of their trips are simple road trips or cozy staycations full of aimless cuddling and video games. Hiyori likes to plan out their road trips and surprise Ikuya with what they’ll be doing, because it’s a lot harder for him to weasel out of plans (and they both end up having lots of fun anyways, so it’s fine). Road trips are fun because they can just enjoy each other’s company, jam out to random playlists they’ve made together, and snack on weird snacks and leftovers they get from random convenience stores and restaurants along the way. One of their favorite trips ended with them stargazing outside of the city, Ikuya infodumping all of the fun facts about constellations and astronomy he’s looked into over the years, and Hiyori spending more time staring at his boyfriend than the sky.

38. What are they like in the bedroom? Any kinks/fetishes/turn-ons? Anything they won’t do?

Terrible sleepers at night but love to nap together. Shameless cuddlers. Ikuya refuses to share the blanket and Hiyori refuses to speak up about it ✋🏻😔

(Actual answer: they never thought they’d experiment all that much but now Ikuya calls Hiyori “princess” unironically and Ikuya somehow developed a degradation kink 🏃🏻‍♀️)

NATSUNAO

4. First impression of each other? Was it love at first sight?

Nao thought that Natsuya was an energetic spark of a person, running around the room and socializing like staying in one place for too long would make him burn out. Natsuya thought Nao was reserved and observant in an eerily calculated manner, as if he commanded a room by looking like he didn’t control it at all. Nao took Nat’s energy as amusing; Nat took Nao’s resolve as a challenge. It made for an interesting start to their friendship as they broke down each other’s walls.

30. Could they manage a long distance relationship?

They do pretty well with it, actually! It was hard when Nat first moved away, getting so used to being a constant in each other’s space. Even though they weren’t together yet, Nao was worried about his best friend forgetting about him. He didn’t think Nat would drop him out of malice or anything, but he was a bright light wherever he went, and Nao could easily see him making new friends and a comfortable new life for himself wherever he went. That’s just how he was: always moving, always adapting. However, they stayed in touch and remained strong. Natsuya did adjust in his new environment(s), and Nao was well-adjusted where he was, but they stayed in each other’s minds throughout it all — “I wonder what Nat’s up to right now? I wonder what Nao would think of this?”

They’ve had a lot of practice to figure out the long distance thing, navigating the shifts as their relationship evolved as well. Its hard sometimes, because as well-adjusted as they are to being physically apart, they miss each other. Nat has called Nao drunk more than once to lament about how he feels homesick or wants Nao to give up everything to travel with him, and it takes so much restrain sometimes for Nao to not give into the idea or beg Nat to just come home to him already. However, they know they’ll always come back to each other. Somehow, they’ll make it back to each other.

Honestly, it’s going to be hard for them if/when Natsuya decides he doesn’t want to keep living life on a whim and a plane ticket. Living together with Natsuya adjusting to the idea of “settling down” is going to drive Nao up a wall.

40. Any special memories? Do they have a special place they like to go to?

When Natsuya was in Tokyo for a few days, Nao took him to one of the big science museums. One of the things Nao loves about Natsuya is that even if his focus seems to bounce all over the place, he is endlessly curious and loves to learn. They both had fun walking around and looking at the different exhibitions, especially when they reach a section with work that some of Nao’s professors and colleagues contributed to. It was fun to learn, catch up, and wander together, but their favorite part was probably going into the planetarium/dome theater. Watching bright, overwhelming star structures be flashed all over the ceiling was mesmerizing, and they both were in a daze with the enormity of it all. Nat might’ve gotten flustered with how unabashedly entertained Nao looked, and Nao might’ve gotten flustered when Nat started kissing him breathless in the dark.

They both wear the matching museum shirts they got together when they’re far apart and missing each other. 💫

[annewritesfic]

Prompt for whenever you want to write it: Kateva wedding?

9 years.

9 fucking years.

When Kate was sixteen, she'd asked Eva out on a date. And a few weeks later, she'd asked Eva to be her girlfriend.

When Kate was twenty, she'd moved in with Eva, in their own apartment.

Six months ago, not long after Kate had turned twenty five, Eva had proposed to her. Through tears, Kate had said yes.

And now Kate was trying desperately to remember how to tie a tie, staring at herself in the mirror, getting ready to marry Eva.

Fuck, I can't believe this is finally happening.

As she attempted the knot for the third time, it occurred to Kate that one of the reasons why she couldn't get it was nerves.

Which was dumb. She didn't have anything to be nervous about. She knew Eva, and she knew everyone who was coming.

And yet.

Kate gave up on the tie for the moment and dug a hand into her hair, staring at herself in the mirror. Nice black suit, untied rainbow tie, a black string bracelet around her wrist.

Her other hand hooked itself around her bracelet, and she stared at it, a weird feeling growing in her chest.

She wanted Chess to be here.

She'd wanted Chess's advice when she was sixteen and trying to convince herself to ask Eva out. She'd wanted Chess there to help her surprise Eva by decorating their first room together when they'd moved in together. She'd wanted to call Chess and tell her she was engaged to Eva after she'd proposed. And now she wanted Chess here, tsking while she fixed Kate's tie and reminded her that everything would be okay, that she and Eva loved each other more than anything.

There was a gentle knock on the door, and Kate jumped before calling "come in!", her voice unusually high pitched. For a moment, she'd irrationally hoped it was Chess, but no. It was Reese.

"Hey, ceremony starts in five minutes," she reminded Kate. "You ready?"

Kate took a deep breath and started fidgeting with her untied tie. "Almost."

Reese shook her head and stepped forward. "Can I...?" At Kate's nod, she started tying the tie, humming under her breath as she did so. "So, are you excited?"

"Dunno how I couldn't be." Kate almost shook out her hands, but decided movement would screw Reese up too much and waited. "I feel like I've been waiting for today since I was sixteen."

"You kinda have." Reese finished the knot and stepped back, and Kate immediately shook out her hands and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Are you nervous?"

"A bit," she admitted. "Which is dumb. I know Eva."

"Yeah, well." Reese smiled at her. "Big day. You're allowed to have some nerves."

Kate nodded, her hand falling back to her bracelet. "Reese?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask a weird question?"

"Always."

"D'you think Chess is proud of me?"

Reese put her hands on Kate's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Chess is so proud of you, Kate. You made it through those fucking sleepovers and you made it through high school and you made it through college and you're about to marry your goddamn soulmate, and she's so fucking proud of you. We all are."

Kate nodded. "Thanks."

"Need a hug?"

"Please."

~

When Eva had told Elena she was crushing on one of the girls from the murder squad, her sister had asked if she was crazy.

Now, she was fixing a few final details to Eva's hair and quadruple checking the fit of her wedding dress.

"Eva, hold still," Elena muttered, and Eva winced as she tugged on a lock of her hair.

"Ow! That hurt!" she complained.

"You're the one who needs to hold still," Elena scolded, moving around to Eva's other side.

Eva grumbled a little, but went silent, lost in her own train of thought. Kate. I'm... I'm marrying Kate.

"Eva, I said, twirl for me," Elena said, and Eva snapped back to the present. After a moment, Eva processed the command and followed through, and her twin clapped and cheered at she came to a stop, beaming despite her nerves.

"Do I look okay?" she asked nervously.

"You look amazing." Elena took her hands and squeezed them. "Kate's gonna forget how to breathe when she sees you."

Eva giggled a little. "I kinda can't believe this is happening."

"You've earned this." Elena turned around and started checking her own makeup. "You guys are so fucking cute together."

"I love her. A lot."

"I know." Elena snapped her mirror shut, and Eva jumped, just like always. "Oh, before I forget! Mom said to give this to you." She rummaged in her purse for a moment, lightly slapping Eva's arm when she tried to look at what she pulled out. She held out her fist and then opened it, and a sob clawed its way up Eva's throat.

Her old pride pin.

"Oh my God," she murmured, taking it and staring at it reverently. "I'd almost forgotten about this."

"No you didn't."

"Okay, no I didn't." Eva lightly brushed a fingertip across the rainbow heart. "Oh my God."

"You wanna wear it?"

"Yes!"

Elena took the pin from her, and Eva closed her eyes as she pinned it on the strap of her dress.

"There. Now you're ready." Elena checked the clock. "And not a moment too soon! Time to go get married, Eva."

Eva smiled and touched her pin. "Fuck yeah."

~

Kate did, in fact, forget how to breathe when she saw Eva.

In an effort to stop the nerves churning in her stomach, she'd been staring resolutely at a cloud in the sky (even after years of listening to Eva excitedly infodump about climatology, she still couldn't name it to save her life), but then Eva showed up and Kate looked and oh.

Jesus fucking Christ, I love her.

White dress. White bouquet. Nervous, beautiful smile.

Rainbow pin.

Once she was down the aisle (didn't trip, which Kate couldn't say for herself), and standing in front of Kate, Kate whispered "I like your pin," almost bursting into happy tears.

"Thanks," Eva whispered back, and then the ceremony started.

~

Kate didn't even hear the priest say the word "bride" before she kissed Eva - or maybe Eva had kissed her? Who was to say?

Her heart thumping in her ears, Eva clutching her waist, a hand buried in Eva's hair.

There was probably cheering. Kate wouldn't know.

"I love you," Eva mumbled against her lips.

"I love you, too."

[annecoulmanross]

Thoughts on “Terror of the Arctic” (2005), aka, “I listened to the Doctor Who audio drama episodes about the lost Franklin Expedition so that you don’t have to!”

Alright terror-friends, this was not how I expected to spend my day, but I have now listened to all eight episodes of the 2005 Doctor Who Audio Drama series “Terror of the Arctic,” featuring all of the ~ familiar ~ icy ~ boys ~ meeting the infamous Doctor. 

With arguably more horrifying sexist/racist content than the 2007 Simmons novel, this audio drama actually predicted a lot of the tropes that Simmons popularized, including ship-board conflicts that escalate to stabbings, the appearance of supernatural creatures from Inuit oral traditions, and even a squick-y romance between Crozier and a much younger Inuit woman. 

To clarify, I do not recommend you listen to these episodes. They’re a hot mess, and a really jarring departure from the beauty of The Terror (2018). 

HOWEVER I highly recommend you look below the cut for episode-by-episode notes about the first Franklin Expedition adaptation that has well and truly driven me up the wall. So, welcome to the world of “Terror of the Arctic” (2005), featuring:

Crozier, (pronounced "Crow-zee-eyy,”) a polite door-mat of a captain with an agonizing lack of snark and minimal personality beyond “the only white man who can magically fix racism.” 

Fitzjames the “proper English officer” who has every prejudice you can imagine – and a couple more you can’t. 

Le Vesconte, the irrepressible lad with an inexplicable American accent and extreme boy-scout-gone-crazy energy. 

Sgt. Tozer, who has a bad habit of punching people in the face even though his superior officers haven’t yet told him he’s allowed to do so. 

Also featuring: Cybernetic Tuunbaq aliens! Complete breakdown of shipboard protocol! Expected amounts of cannibalism! And more! (spoilers, obviously) 

Episode 1

– We start with a mandatory brief appearance from the Doctor and his companion Christine. I don’t (initially) hate this iteration of the Doctor – he’s very paternalistic and old-fashioned, but at least the voice actor’s competent. Christine’s voice, tragically, is high-pitched beyond all reason and laced with a variety of odd dialectical features. Some quick research reveals she’s supposed to be a 15 year old from medieval England. She sounds neither like a teenager nor a medieval person. From the very beginning, her character seems very infantilized, and plays into a lot of the Born Sexy Yesterday tropes, even if she and the Doctor aren’t a thing. 

– Next, we have Sir John Franklin giving the “we’ve been stuck in the ice for nine months, here’s what you missed” sum-up. 

– Sir John’s voice is gravelly 👏 as 👏 fuck; also, I don’t think that the phrase “to sugar-coat it” was a common 1840s expression? Correct me if I’m wrong history folks.

– Crozier shows up to give his “we should start walking out now” speech, minus any passion or conviction whatsoever; he bends immediately to Franklin’s whims. Crozier’s voice is quite high-pitched, and Sir John pronounces his name “Crow-zee-eyy.” (Update: everyone pronounces it this way!!! Uhmmm!) Though I struggle to judge accents, Crozier’s Irish accent sounds... leprechaun-ish. It’s not Jared Harris by a long mile. 

– Not gonna lie, I kind of love how much Fitzjames sounds like a posh bastard. He immediately gets into a one-sided shouting match with Crozier and has to be reprimanded by Franklin. 

– Lieutenant Irving appears on the scene; I don’t know what Irving’s accent is, but it sure is something.

– All of the officers seem to currently be on the same ship for some reason but I don’t know why. We’ve met Sir John, Crozier, Fitzy, and Irving, and Gore’s been mentioned, as have doctors Peddie and Stanley. And they’re all in the same boat. Guess we’re just ignoring Terror for now? 

– Franklin begins narrating as he writes in the log-book: “11th June, 1847.” Oh BOY guess what day it is!!

– RIP Franklin (surprise, surprise). We have no real idea yet how this has happened. 

– Fitzjames, talking to Sir John’s mysterious corpse: “Captain, what could have done this to you?” 

– Fitzjames: “We have a killer loose on this ship” (Fitz gets ALL the best lines, apparently. Do they make sense? No. Are they hilarious? Yes.)

– Irving is shockingly nonchalant when the Doctor and Christine appear from nowhere out on the ice. Why is Irving so chill when he thinks that these two people are the lone survivors of a DIFFERENT failed expedition?

– Fitz apparently has refused to let Crozier start the walk-out after Franklin died. (Um, that’s not how the chain of command works?)  

– We learn that Beechey-boy Braine apparently died of sudden-onset-scurvy. What is sudden-onset-scurvy, you ask? We do not yet know. 

– Irving, happily describing their recent course of action: “...Ignoring the advice of our ships’ ice masters...” Oh god Irving don’t sound so happy about that. Blanky’s going to take an ice-axe to your head. (Tragically, Blanky does not appear in this show.) 

– Lieutenant Gore has ALSO died of sudden-onset-scurvy. RIP Graham Gore.

– Is the Doctor going to focus on the existence of sudden-onset-scurvy? No, we’re gonna hyperfixate on the high officers-to-crew death rate! And he’s going to infodump about officers’ privileges TO Irving, an officer, and muse about how odd it is that more officers than crew are dying when the officers get all the best food! 

– Fitz, the “proper English officer” apparently has managed to get about half the men to refuse to follow the orders of their expedition commander, because he happens to be Irish. Babe, this is a really bad look!

– Irving, our good Christian Irving, just swore “By Jove” in a weirdly sexy voice.

– Tozer has Extreme Deep Voice.

– Irving: “There’s something odd about them I just don’t trust.” Why on earth wouldn’t you trust two strangers who wandered up to you on the ice and asked if you were “human,” John Irving? What’s “odd” about that?

– The Doctor only remembers that he does actually know the events of the Franklin expedition after he reads the entire Victory Point Note. 

– Irving has suddenly decided to threaten to shoot the Doctor and his companion. Irving promptly gets attacked. 

* jarring transition to triumphant Doctor Who music *

Episode 2

– The ~mysterious~ attack on Irving has left weird wounds on Irving’s neck. I’m calling it, Ice Vampires!

– We have an Edward Little appearance! His voice is so sweet and gentle! And then... “I’ll have Sergeant Tozer shoot you both where you stand!” Okay, maybe not... (Update: Little is, in fact, very awful to several people. As we will see, all of the lieutenants and marines swing between weirdly nonchalant dudes and trigger-happy maniacs.) 

– Tozer just punched the Doctor’s lights out, unprompted. 

– Crozier: “Good old John Peddie... he’s like a brother to me.” Well THAT’S not a friendship I expected.

– So Dr. Peddie has brought a young Inuit woman in to Crozier’s cabin to have a “lovely chat.” Awkward book!Crozier/Silna energies. The woman’s name is Liak. She speaks with a vaguely Spanish and/or Italian accent. 

– Liak: “I have been with my tribe. They would not allow me to come back to see you.” /  Crozier: “Why? It’s not because of Fitzjames is it?” 

– (It’s not because of Fitzjames. It’s because of evil spirits, obviously.)

– The Doctor, once they get back to the ships, explaining to the higher officers what’s happened: “Mr. Tozer got all excited and could no longer restrain his Neanderthal-like impulse to start clubbing things.” Boy this by show is NOT for Tozer fans. (Note: Tozer is standing right there? In the room? When the Doctor says this?)

– The Doctor just dropped an f-bomb?????????? And not as an expression of shock, but a hard-core sexual use of the f-bomb. Literally, he said “you can let Tozer fuck me again” – did I mishear this????????????

– Irving’s dying words: “I was attacked by a large silver creature with claws!” Wait did Dan Simmons rip off a fan-made 2005 Doctor Who Audio Drama?

– RIP Irving, first confirmed victim of “Tuunbaq the First.”

– Fitzjames is SO racist, throwing around a lot of “savage” and “barbarian” words. Why are you letting this man walk all over you, Crozier?

– Crozier: the first person who has the correct reaction to two weirdos appearing on his boat (aka shock and surprise, rather than worrying nonchalance followed by unprompted extreme aggression.)

– Fitzjames literally laughed after being informed that Irving is dead. (Like Crozier’s bad Raft of the Medusa joke, but SO MUCH WORSE.) 

– RIP Ice Master Reid, actual first confirmed kill of “Tuunbaq pre-Tuunbaq,” several weeks ago, apparently??

– Okay so Fitz here is obviously meant to be a horrible person, but I have to acknowledge that he’s making a few good points: (1) the Doctor has admitted that he has a “sailable” ship, and it’s pretty rude of him to not even explain why he’s unwilling to help these dying men, and (2) it’s been bothering me the whole episode that the Doctor hasn’t been calling officers by their titles, and frankly, I do think Fitz is within his rights to demand the Doctor call him “Captain Fitzjames” rather than “Mr. Fitzjames” on Fitz’s own ship. Like, it’s not that hard.

– The Doctor’s first example of “ways the Franklin crew could mess up the time stream” is the insane scenario: “what if one of them married the mother of Winston Churchill.”

– The “Tuunbaq: The Prequel” can talk!!!!!! “Hello meat!!!” it says, gleefully. 

– Tozer is just the fucking most. He punched the Doctor AGAIN.

– Crozier just “Mr. Fitzjames”ed Fitz!! And Fitz backed down! Crozier finally grew a spine! Just in time to decide to commandeer the Doctor’s ship. 

– The Doctor’s ship inevitably disappears before it can be commandeered. Because of course. (Things and people disappear and get transported to different places and later times all through these episodes for timey~wimey~reasons.) 

Episode 3

– A conversation between the two named female characters (Liak and the Doctor’s companion Christine)! What will they talk about? ...Their dead fathers. Ah. Hmm.

– This show is not sophisticated enough to handle a “white man’s disease killed my father” subplot. And yet, Liak’s father died of TB he contracted from the white men. I’m *worried*

– To help Liak overcome the superstitious antagonism of her “tribe” after her father’s death, Crozier apparently gave a bunch of food to the Inuit, which is  an... interesting take. (One Irishman’s grand gesture fixes racism!)

– Magical Inuit shaman powers are only inherited through the male line (The racism and sexism in this is palpable.)

– So “Tuunbag Episode I: Revenge of the the Tuunbaq” is actually a larger coalition of aliens, run by a being called “Matriarx.” Can we decide whether woman are powerless victims or power-hungry monsters, please? Both is just greedy.

– RIP Strong (another tragic case of the triple threat: sudden onset scurvy, lead poisoning, AND Tuunbaq attack)

– Wait WAIT the Tuunbaq gave Strong the lead poisoning AND the scurvy by biting his neck and sucking his blood, stealing nutrients and leaving lead in their place: Ice Vampires!! I called it!!!

– Groups of people Fitz has verbally degraded: the Irish, the Inuit, all women, and now “common folk.”

Episode 4

– Le Vesconte’s first lines! He sounds like a Boy Scout, by which I mean he sounds about 16, and has an American accent? Also, Fitz pronounces his name “Leh-vay-cont” 

– An AB named “Seeley” is writing an account of the events that are happening, perhaps as this show’s version of Bridgens and/or Peglar? Also Fitz is REALLY opposed to Seeley writing this, because Fitz hates “common folk” that much, apparently? 

– RIP Seeley, we hardly knew ye. 

– Major episode events: the walk-out begins, leaving Terror and Erebus just as the boats slip into another dimension because of alien reasons (this didn’t age well, now that we have the shipwrecks). Also, there’s an Inuit woman who is in league with the cybernetic-alien-Tuunbaq-vampires. 

Episode 5

– As soon as the walk-out begins, the cybernetic-alien-Tuunbaq-vampires begin attacking. 

– Boy Scout Le Vesconte: “I have an idea! If bullets won’t stop them maybe an axe will!” I mean, this is stupid enough for our Dundy, but he follows it up with “Murderers! I’ll hack you to pieces!” and rushes them like a child and has to be rescued. (Also Crozier is way WAY more concerned for Le Vesconte than Fitz is, though Fitz leaps into the rescue effort and Crozier... does not do that. He’s doing a lot of standing on the sidelines and bemoaning his dying men.)

– Peddie is basically just Crozier’s all-purpose lieutenant at this point. Little and Hodgson whomst? 

– Le Vesconte, Fitz, and Tozer get struck by lightning WHILE fighting the Tuunbaq, and some Frankenstein stuff seems to happen, because Fitz now has the munchies. But like, the ominous munchies. 

– Le Vesconte’s in something like a coma. The dumb boy-scout. 

– While explaining why the Netsilik have legends about these aliens as “evil spirits,” the Doctor implies that errors in the historical record happen “especially” in oral traditions. Can we stop insulting the Inuit oral historians please?  

– The cybernetic-vampire-aliens can mind-control their victims sometimes. Calling it now: Fitzjames is under the mind-control already. 

– Liak is revealed to possibly be in cahoots with the aliens, because she has a necklace that her sister gave her that’s actually an alien tracker. 

– Fitzjames, upon learning that Liak may be in league with aliens, attempts to physically kill her with his bare hands, and has to be restrained. 

– Crozier hears murmurs about mutiny, and assigns this poor Marine named Hopcraft to find out more about the mutiny and report back to him. Next morning: RIP Hopcraft, first victim of the “we’re knifing each other” stage of events (aka this show’s Irving.)

Episode 6

– Lieutenant Little, who got separated from Fitzjames and Crozier, tries to comfort ship’s boy Chambers, whose use of the term “panic attacks” is a little anachronistic; a small gripe in the grand scheme of things.

– The Tuunbaq-aliens attack Little’s camp and wipe them all out, leaving Little to the last. Edward Little, a British Christian naval officer in the 1840s, gasps out “I’ll see you in Hades” as his dying words. (Someone write me Little/Irving neo-pagan fanfic for this mess?)

– The Doctor is playing detective, trying to solve Hopcraft’s death. He finds footprints, and both Liak and Tozer are missing. 

– The Doctor calls attention to Tozer’s “enormous feet.” Weird.

– We have our first cannibalism! Perpetrated by Tozer, and uhhhh oh great we’re eating Dr. MacDonald for dinner tonight.

– Le Vesconte woke up from his coma just in time to brain Tozer to death.

– The Doctor: “There were no women’s bones at any of the sites [of the lost expedition remains]” that’s a hilarious comment given that one study suggesting as many as four female skeletons.

– RIP Le Vesconte, from his wounds, offscreen!! Nooo!!

– Tozer (and Fitzjames, and a few others), because they all got struck by the lightning, now have Frankenstein’s cannibalism curse. They all hunger for human flesh.

– Fitzjames is now a sneaky murderer-cannibal who manages to gain Crozier’s trust before turning around and trying to butcher him. As least my evil boy is smart? 

Episode 7

– The big bad reveal: it’s Liak’s secret evil sister! (Just like Season 4 of Sherlock!) She’s been helping the Tuunbaq-aliens the whole time because she hates white men! Because they gave her dad TB and one of them broke her heart! Thanks, it’s bad! 

– The Tuunbaq-aliens eat Liak’s sister anyway because they do not care. 

– Liak, Crozier, the Doctor, and Christine are left to defeat the Tuunbaq-aliens. 

– Fitz feels a little bad about eating people I guess? Also Fitz is “weak” and can’t resist his hunger and all those fun tropes.

Episode 8

– Fitzjames gets a redemption arc via heroic self-sacrifice narrative, complete with death via horrid gurgling. “He sacrificed himself in a last act of humanity.”

– The Doctor agrees to give Crozier a lift to somewhere a bit further south, on the assumption that Crozier will settle down with Liak and live with some “tribe” of other Inuit people that neither of them have ever met. 

– There’s a parting joke about Crozier enjoying drinking wine that did NOT age well.

And that’s all, folks! Hope you... enjoyed? 

[thegempage]

for the top 5 ask game: top 5 friendsim routes (and why :eyes but fast as i initiate infodump: )!!

JKFDASJKLFS OH BLESS

i got this question right before i went to work and i was thinking about it the entire time

so i’m gonna do a list and then all of the why under the cut bcus I Talk Many lmao

the list!! and tbh these aren’t in any particular order bcus choosing favorites is hard enough lmao (and tbh i have several runner ups), but the five routes that i hold very close to my heart are:

Skylla

Tyzias

Daraya

Wanshi

Bronya

and as for why, (i hope this readmore works? i’m on my computer so)

(and hey if you want to know my wider friendsim opinions go watch my hiveswap friendsim let’s play “Let’s Play Hiveswap Friendsim (For The Third Time)” which i can’t link bcus idk if tumblr doesn’t like links but should show up if you type that into youtube ajkflads it’s v funny and i tell lots of good jokes)

1. Skylla

okay so admittedly my initial thought is just “i think she’s neat” jfkdlsafjkl

but in a genuine way, skylla is the first older troll you meet, and one of the few with something resembling an actual job, and i think there’s something really special about that! she’s very down to earth (alternia, technically) and she takes you in without even questioning why the fuck you’re out there just bcus she doesn’t want you to burn up!!

and then!! she kicks like?? a dozen asses??? bcus she cares about ladyy and her lusus so much??? like they have lasers and shit and she just kicks their ass bcus she can’t let them win

she’s also a cowgirl and that’s cool as hell

2. Tyzias

honestly, if you don’t love tyzias you can just leave /jk

jfdaklsdfslk but actually, i love how much she’s trying. she knows alternia is deep in its own shit, she knows that it might just be too much for one person to take on, she knows what the consequences are for getting caught, but she’s still trying!! bcus she looked at the world and instead of accepting the bullshit like so many people (mallek) do she went “actually no, why is no one doing anything about that?” and she starts trying to do something about it. and even trying to get other people to help! 

as an outside observer, it’s kind of the first act of a tragedy, bcus obv most people playing friendsim have read homestuck, you know what alternia looked like in its last throes of troll occupation, you know that, at least in the timeline of homestuck proper, that tyzias is just one in a long line of people who tried. but those people also went down in history, even if that history was almost scrubbed over fuschia. i’d like to think somewhere on alternia, maybe in secret corners of teal bookhives or in the care of a jade cloister, someone wrote about her. i want to give tyzias a hug

3. Daraya

see: my point about wanting to give her a hug jkfldsajfkdsa

she’s just! she’s just so tired! and she reminds me a lot of when i was a teen, lost in the idea that there was no such thing as a fulfilling future, bcus everyone around you tells you what’s expected of you and everything they say seems like a tragedy not worth living to see. the sensation of living in apathy bcus facing the hurt and lonely despair is too much to handle when you’re a teenager trying to get by in the world. the idea that maybe if you dress up and put on a face everyone will just leave you alone and you can find your own comforts before ultimately preparing to leave the future everyone planned for you behind in the pursuit of something else that may very well be worse for you but gives you a sense of control back

and then!!! and then she opens up to you!!! bcus you can be someone who listens to her and understands that hopelessness and says “hey, i think i can give you a sense of the control that you’re searching for” and finds her someone her own age who can help her take control of at least some part of her life and maybe, if they're lucky, even give some other jade in the future more freedom than daraya could even imagine

(and tbh if i said i’d never, in my worst years, debated burning a building down with. intentions. i’d be lying)

4. Wanshi

wwwaaannnsssshhhiiiiiii

tbh! kind of similar to daraya!! i see a lot of my younger self in wanshi, right down to the warrior cats rp and the sensation of knowing that many of the people in your life are lying to you if only bcus they think you don’t realize what they’re doing and chasing a sense of community through fanfic and cons bcus the people in your mandatory social circle aren’t willing to engage you at a level that actually makes you happy or even at all. even some of her face with death and having to come to terms with things the adults in your life wouldn’t necessarily think were appropriate for your age simply bcus of the way life takes you (granted, i was a little older than she is when i started doing con + online stuff, but you get the idea)

and just like, her route? it’s 1. fantastic 2. it’s one of the only times the reader is like... nurturing, toward one of the younger trolls, if that makes sense? they go into the entire route with wanshi’s safety and happiness in mind, and when the former has to take precedence over the latter they still try to make her happy to soften the blow, specifically by inviting her to set the rules of engagement so that it’s actually something she enjoys! and in the bad ending you literally. you know. die for her. and that's not something you get with the other younger trolls? like, amisia can both take care of herself and naturally takes command of the situation, and tirona i mostly just feel bad for more than anything, and the twins... a lot happens vis a vis the twins. karako i Also want to take care of but that’s mostly bcus he’s v small and you don’t take care of him the same way you do for wanshi in her route

5. Bronya

look............ i love bronya jkfldsaf

she’s also just!! she’s trying!! and she’s trying her best!! and it’s in a different way from tyzias but it’s just as aahhhhhh. she wants to help, in her own way, and she’s probably scoured every book, file, and teal at some point to make sure her grubs and her jades are safe! she’s not even the oldest jade in their cloister, she just wants them all to be okay and make it home and learn the ways of their role so that they don’t get culled (and aren’t jackasses, considering how she talks to lanque in his route, but his route is <_<). and tbh considering the amount of shit they give her for it, she seems to allow the other jades to sneak out more than you’d expect considering her personality in her + elwurd’s routes lmao

and the fact that she runs the nursery just has me ;u; every time i think about it. like, she’s not required and probably not even supposed to do that, and she even mentions that she does it knowing that some of the grubs may still get sick or die during their trials, but it means so much to her that they get a second chance that she’s willing to make a not-technically-illegal nursery to give them that chance bcus who else? who else will? i’d like to think that nursery was still there, was maybe even an idea that stretched across alternia, all the way to the end.

and wow uh!!! that was long jfklda these are a little more about why i like the character, but i think that’s just bcus their routes play such a big part in that!!

my runner-ups, if you were wondering, were karako, stelsa, polypa, and boldir’s lol. i also like marsti as a character but her route gives me too much second-hand embarrassment jfdklasf

thank you so much, my friend!! i hope whoever reads this likes my extremely long ramble jfkldsafkl

[triple-a-enderdragon]

Meet the Locals!

Hermits, in this AU, come in three different flavors; avatars, those who were given magic, and those who have magic of their own. 

Avatars: Hermits who have had the (mis)fortune of being chosen by an Element, beings who represent different aspects of the world (more on these guys later). Avatars can channel the power of their Element and have certain related abilities. This is elaborated in each individual avatar’s infodump.

Given: Hermits who have obtained magic via other superpowered beings other than the Elements. Their powers and abilities vary greatly.

Personally Obtained: Hermits who were either born with their magic or obtained it without the intervention of any superpowered being. Again, their powers and abilities vary greatly.

Hermits! In (kinda) alphabetical order!

Bdubs: Flavor 3; can manipulate space and distance, but in small areas. He can make these changes “permanent”, most prominently in his builds; or temporary. He mainly uses it as a way to travel more quickly and safely between locations. The larger the area, the longer the time held, and the more dramatic the change, the faster he tires out. However, the small area of his builds and the subtlety of the magic used makes these permanently sustainable.

Biffa: Secret flavor 4; but he’s the only one. He has no “real” magic, but his stubbornness to not die is magical on its own. Biffa originally came from an...interesting world. It was a hardcore world, meaning perma-death. This world had a gladiator-style arena that he never left (until he left that world). He was thrown into fights constantly, which led to the almost total (violent) removal and replacement of his fleshy bits. He is about 90% cybernetic and can become a bloodthirsty little monster. That’s why he’s on the Strike Team! Known as the Berserker, he is the frontal assault in most confrontations, drawing the attention away from the flankers, Iskall and Python. His fighting style may seem random and haphazard, but it is well structured and takes full advantage of his metal body. As an ST member, he has special weapons, two axes and a greatsword.

Cub: Flavor 2; Bestowed with Vex magic alongside Scar and is an OP. Cub, besides having handy mechanic-exploiting knowledge, has some control over the elusive magic of the Vexes. He knows not of the true nature of how he and Scar came about it. Cub’s speciality is utility magic and he mostly uses it to test the limits of the world around him. Because the magic can be volatile, he (and Scar) must use a focus or risk great damage to himself. Cub’s focus is a fairly small sphere of translucent quartz that, over time, has grown small cracks of a suspiciously light blue material.

Docm: Flavor 1; Avatar of Redstone, whether she knows it or not. Frankly, whether he knows it or not, either. ~Once upon a time~, Doc was a regular researcher, doing regular researcher things. Until one day. An explosion rips through the facility, fusing several things together. Two of those things being Doc and a creeper. Also, he lost some body bits as well. This explosion drew the attention of Redstone (an Element!), who had been watching him closer than she normally would (read: at all), took pity on him and replaced his lost body bits with some snazzy redstone bits. Needless to say she didn’t expect that would make him her avatar. She then went back to minding her own business. Or, at least, trying to. Something about Doc is just...captivating. Can’t be this avatar business. Oh no. ANYWAY. Doc can manipulate redstone. Fun! He can also feel the circuits and how they work, allowing him to make incredibly accurate diagnoses of other hermits’ redstone circuits. He also has a weird and exceptional way with a channeling trident...

Evil Xisuma: Flavor 1; Avatar of Void, kind of an accident. EX came into being when Void made a very bad mistake. Void saw all these Elements with their avatars and decided they wanted one. (bad reason, but oh well.) Xisuma just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would have gone smoothly (if X consented. He probably would have), but someone else didn’t. The world guardian smacked Void back into their place, but not before they took a bit of X with them. The piece of X’s soul that Void stole became EX, kind of an avatar, kinda not. EX lives in the void of the End, between the death layer and Oblivion. He catches (and sometimes collects) whatever falls in. If hermits ask nicely, then he may return some items they have lost, but he rarely does this as most of their things aren’t collection-worthy. His favorite collection is of souls, those that somehow ended up below the death layer.

False: Flavor 3; Has powers over enchantments. False is the champ of PVP; the only other hermits that can hold their own against her is Iskall and Biffa. Her preferred weapon is the bow, in which she is unparalleled. Some time ago, between world 4 and 5, she (and Iskall) were pulled to The UHC to compete. False won (no surprise), but she was forced to stay behind to watch Iskall fight through (and win) the next round. During the upset of his “win”, she slipped away to the 5th world. False hasn’t told him what she saw in that 2nd UHC. Switching gears, False is Commander of the Strike Team, and so that is her alias. While very capable at PVP, she is the only member who can strategize on the fly; such that she takes her super special bow to high ground and controls the field as a chessboard. If things get really dire, she can supercharge the enchantments of one (or all) of the boys and essentially make them unstoppable for a short period of time. She cannot do this for very long and is completely vulnerable the entire time. That’s why Wels is there!

GTWScar: Flavor 2; Bestowed with Vex magic alongside Cub. Scar is the one to bring Vex magic down on him and Cub. He knows it is not a gift, but a pact. In order to gain the protection of the Vex, he had to essentially pledge himself to them. His relation to them is very Avatar-like in nature. Most of the time he can do his own thing, but occasionally the Vex will guide him to do something, as stated in the pact. Where Cub has the less intrusive utility magic, Scar has the more intense evocation magic. 

Grian: Flavor 1; Avatar of Air. Has wings! Now, I know what you’re thinking. ~Evo~, right? Well, I grant you but a taste and nothing else. Grian lived in Evo for a while, went through all that, became a baby watcher and everything, then vanished. A certain something has found the crown jewel to its collection. A trade, it proposed. You can come and join me. No unnecessary restrictions will be upon you. No benchmarks. No goals, other than your own. In return, you will be a blank slate. I will not tolerate a being tainted by Them. I guess it was a bit taken aback by how enthusiastically Grian agreed. He remembers nothing of Evo (except that something happened), or of the deal. He is the brand new avatar of Air, as he had shown exceptional flying skills and no fear of heights. Without the need for rockets to stay airborne and an inherently curious personality, Grian has very quickly become the air equivalent to Iskall’s ground scouting. 

iJevin: Flavor 3; Has various slimy powers. Slime has alchemical properties. Jevin is a slime. Full stop. Okay, not full stop. But he is a slime, just a really weird, blue, potentially one-of-a-kind one. He wasn’t created in a lab, but he was found and dumped in one to “be studied”. Unfortunately for the researchers, Jevin was also very sentient. And sentient slimes don’t like to be “researched”. So he left. He managed to (very poorly) disguise himself as human and waltz out the door. Whilst exploring worlds, he discovered some very interesting properties of his slime. When used in potion-making, it can enhance the properties of the potions significantly. To the annoyance of the other hermits, he prefers to make poisons and other negative-effect potions. They have to coerce him to make more beneficial ones. The other hermits don’t know their drinking Jevin-juice. Shh, don’t tell them.

Impulse: Flavor 2 & 3; Is an OP and has mob wrangling powers. More useful than it sounds. Impulse seems to just have a way with mobs. Unlike Ren or Cleo, he can’t control or talk to them; which makes this even more mysterious. Mobs just...behave differently around him. There’s a reason he always has a trading hall within days of getting to a new world.

Iskall: Flavor 1; Avatar of Diamond. A bit unhappy about it. (jus’ a bit). Iskall’s early days hail from hardcore worlds, where he had to hone his PVP and tracking skills to survive. Between worlds 4 and 5, he (along with False) were pulled into The UHC. He and False had two very different experiences. Long story short, in a battle against another skilled PVPer, Iskall lost his left eye. Upon winning, he became MIA for several hours before following a trail, left by False, to the hermits’ fifth world, now sporting a shiny new eye. This shiny new eye gives him control over all things diamond. If it’s gear he made, full control. If it’s gear someone else made, partial control. He can detect other people if they’re wearing diamond gear. He can also detect diamond ore in a 5 chunk radius around himself, 16 if he’s concentrating. All these cool abilities come with a downside; if his eye is removed, he will not survive long without it. Iskall is a member of the Strike team, dubbed the Hunter, due to his unmatched tracking skills. Along with Python, he is a flanker. Iskall’s preferred weapon is the glave, because polearms are awesome. Also, how can he thrive in such cold biomes? This man’s a walking furnace I tell ya. The downside is that he can’t stay in the Nether too long or he’ll start to overheat.

Joe: Flavor 3; Can cast Suggestion at will and always succeeds. Basically, Joe can subtly influence peoples’ emotions, always in the interest of safety and diplomacy. Okay, that’s not entirely true; he also does it to confuse and befuddle. He’s very good at that. Another thing he’s good at is healing. Joe is the resident medic. While other hermits, (Iskall and Wels), have rudimentary medical knowledge, it’s mostly field dressing. Joe has a more extensive knowledge of long-term treatments. He is the one wrangling Jevin to produce beneficial potions.

Keralis: Flavor 3; Hypnosis. Look into my eyes. Nothing but my eyes. Keralis can captivate one person at a time with his gaze, but once captured, he cannot look away without breaking his hold.

Mumbo: Flavor 3; Can alter reality, but doesn’t know it. Whatever he believes will happen (or not), will happen. Mumbo may possibly be the most powerful hermit; he can unknowingly alter the outcome of whatever he’s thinking about just by believing in his new reality. The catch? He can’t do it at will. Thus, he can never know about it. The only person who knows about it is Xisuma, and only after some intense investigation over several worlds. Aside from that Mumbo is well-versed in redstone, and is better at it than he thinks. His problem? What he thinks becomes reality.

Python: Flavor 3; If he doesn’t want to be seen, he won’t. No matter what. Not invisibility, I swear. Camouflage!! Python was apart of someone’s attempt to make attack creepers; an unsuccessful venture. You’d think he’d be more chameleon or something with how well he can blend in with his surroundings, but no. Python is a member of the Strike Team. While he’s not as good as Iskall at tracking, Python is (predictably) better in the stealth department, earning him the alias Assassin. He moves much like a viper, striking with his twin daggers before his target has time to react. He works exceedingly well with his fellow flanker, Iskall, to take down all sorts of enemies.

Ren: Flavor 1; Avatar of Life. Can speak with animals and can turn into a massive grey wolf. ‘S pretty cool. Ren came to be an avatar out of desperation, and Life was the only one who could help him. It’s not quite what he expected, but it’s pretty cool all the same. He can communicate with animals and can even, at the right moment, become one. His favorite shape to take it that of a grey wolf. 

Stress: Flavor 1 & 3; Lucky girl! Or is she? Avatar of Water and a certain magenta surprise later on. Stress became Water’s avatar almost as a second thought. There’s a reason she’s known as the Ice Queen and not the Water Queen; Water neglected to give Stress full access to her powers, as the Element is much like Redstone; keeping to herself. Not that this hinders Stress in anyway, she is still a force to be reckoned with. She doesn’t feel the cold and experiences no ill effects from prolonged exposure.

Tango: Flavor 1; Avatar of Fire. He ain’t too happy about it either. Tango became and avatar in a similar fashion to Ren, except he turned down Fire’s proposition, saying he’d rather die. To which Fire replied, “You are in the Nether. You die here, you are mine irregardless.” Needless to say Tango’s still a bit salty about that whole ordeal. At least he can spend more time in his favorite dimension, the Nether! Impulse and Zedaph often find him taking a dip in lava or sleeping in a bed of his own flames. On the heat scale, if Iskall is a furnace, then Tango is a miniature sun.

TFC: Flavor 1; Avatar of Earth; but at this point, they’ve pretty much become one. Tfc is the wrangler of the other Elements as Earth is the oldest one around. At this point TFC and Earth have bonded to the point where they are almost indistinguishable from each other. Of course, hermits can still tell if it’s TFC or Earth talking. Usually it’s TFC; Earth only comes out when absolutely necessary. Since they are bonded together so completely, TFC can bring out the pure, raw power that Earth has to offer, something that no other avatar can claim.

Wels: Flavor 2; Made a pact with an entity eons ago. He can never be defeated as long as he is protecting someone. Well, not so much a pact as a promise. Wels gave his word to this entity that he would always protect those who need it most, and in return the entity’s power would shield him from death for as long as he protects someone. Even with this protection, he has to be careful; once the conditions have passed, he will succumb to any fatal wounds he sustained over the fight. To counter this, Wels has gotten incredibly skilled at defensive battle. He may not be an attacker like the rest of the Strike Team, but his sword and board tactics have come in handy more times than one can count, earning him the alias Bastion. False owes him her life several times, when he protected her as she unleashed her magic.

Xisuma: Flavor 2; Admin! Admin powers are granted as host of each world’s resident guardian. Xisuma handles all of the behind the scenes, keeping an eye out for anomalies, sending Iskall to investigate “visitors”, generally making sure everything is running as smoothly as possible. A while ago, X had a runin with Void. Long story short, EX came into existence and left X missing a piece of himself. Because of this, he often finds himself forgetting simple things, like conversations or bits of projects. He has also had to enhance his helmet to help his breathing, as he now finds the overworld and Nether atmospheres to be too oppressive.

Zedaph: Flavor 3; No magic can affect him. That’s it. Even Mumbos’ reality-changing ability can’t touch him. Zed is the much-needed keystone in the midst of all the magic running around this world. Even he doesn’t know the full extent of his magic-negating ability, except that it hasn’t truly been tested yet.

ZCleo: Flavor 3; Due to a glitch years ago, Cleo is now a zombie. She can talk sense into undead mobs. Cleo was once a normal person. Well, as normal as she gets. What I’m saying is she wasn’t a zombie yet. But a glitch happened years ago at the exact moment when she (and other people in different worlds) died and respawned, trapping her between life and undeath. She took this very well, immediately trolling any hermit she could find. Cleo has expressed a preference to being undead, as the only mobs she has to worry about now are creepers and spiders. Occasionally a limb will fall off, but she takes it in stride.

[mobius-prime]

199. Sonic the Hedgehog #131

Deep breaths, guys. I know what the cover page says. I know. We'll get to that. Just hang in there. I think you might like what I have in store.

Home (Part 2 of 4): The Gathering

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

So not much actually happens in this installment of Home other than the various characters talking to each other about and preparing for the upcoming battle. Since Sonic has been gone, a new Freedom Fighter Special has been constructed that can cut travel time dramatically around the globe. A journey that in the Tornado or on foot (in Sonic's case) would have taken up to two hours can be completed in a mere half hour now, thanks to Rotor's engineering prowess. And thus, Sonic and Tails head out to Old Megaopolis to stop Eggman's twin nukes from launching, along with an… interesting backup team, to say the least.

Man, remember Fiona? It's been ages since we've seen her! It appears that while Sonic was in space, she joined up with the crew in Knothole and has been helping them fight Eggman. That's definitely a better life for her than to be running with the likes of Nic the Weasel, eh? Meanwhile, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Amy Rose, and the other two (active) members of the Chaotix head to Fort Acorn, where General D'Coolette is giving a speech to the soldiers under his command. We've never even heard of this fort before, but according to the general it's been here for ten years, keeping a forward watch on Robotropolis, and this watch has been maintained even after Robotropolis' destruction in case of just such a situation as the current one. With their reinforcements from Knothole, the crew at the fort prepare to defend the city against a massive swatbot assault to lower the forcefield keeping the radiation in check. Back in Knothole, extra measures are being taken to make absolutely sure that even if the worst happens, the citizenry will be safe.

Station Square, for their part, has sent a squad of GUN commandos to help in the battle at Old Megaopolis. The commander of the military is baffled by this decision, wanting to send in their full fighting force, but the president instead opts to trust his allies from Knothole - though just for insurance, he's sent one of his own operatives along for the ride…

Now that's what I like to see! It's about time Rouge got herself some proper screentime. As all this is going on, Eggman waits aboard a docked battleship in the harbor of Old Megaopolis with his assistant M, and orders A.D.A.M. to begin the missile countdown. However, almost immediately, the sound of a biplane puts them on high alert, and Eggman is shocked to see Sonic and Tails bearing down on his location, not having expected them to be able to get here nearly so fast. See, Eggman, this is why you resist the siren call of your ego and keep your damn plans to yourself. All you did was give your enemies ample warning to prepare to foil your evil plot, you idiot!

Mobius 25 Years Later: Prologue

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jensen

Okay, guys. This is it. We've reached the most Penders thing of all time. This is something that has been hinted at here and there from all the way back in the Sonic In Your Face special to now, and we're finally seeing the culmination of all of that buildup. All the intricate worldbuilding, all the complex character arcs, all the intrigue and political spider webs and back to back wars and everything that the world of Mobius has been through up until now - there's so much to explore, so many directions it could have gone. We're about to see what this world might look like twenty-five years into the future, and with so much rich history to draw from, what might you imagine this story might look like? What genre might it fall into? Well wonder no longer!

It's a drama. It's a teen drama.

There's a reason that Mobius 25 Years Later is widely considered to be one of the worst parts of the comic. The tone of it is just so far off anything else we've experienced so far that it clashes horribly with what we've come to expect. It's not some masterful subversion of expectations or something - in a lot of ways I consider it to be a genuine insult to the rest of the preboot's material up to this point. It's painfully and immediately clear that this is a story Penders has wanted to tell for a while, but, not being able to fit his "middle-aged adults adulting everywhere and being so adult-like while ignoring the feelings and difficulties that ordinary teenagers face" plot anywhere into the rest of the comic, he's opted to just fire the world a couple decades into the future, pair all the major characters off into weird and oftentimes arbitrary heterosexual marriages, give everyone 2.5 children and a titanium picket fence, and then throw in some allusions to the old "war against Doc 'Botnik" here and there lest we forget, entirely understandably at this point, that we're reading a Sonic the Hedgehog comic here. This thing goes on for nineteen whole issues, taking up each subsequent issue's backup story, and ultimately has no real impact on the actual story involving the characters we already know and love. However, this is technically canon, or at least a version of canon (as when you play with alternate realities and multiple timelines, futures are bound to get mixed up here and there), so we're gonna be covering it - all of it. I wouldn't be tempted to skip it anyway, as by delving into each chapter in this trainwreck, we can actually explore why this whole thing fails so hard, and why it's therefore so loathed in the fandom. Plus, I do recognize that some people actually do enjoy this arc for various reasons (one of my close friends does, and has a whole AU of her own relating to it in fact), so I do plan to at least try to be fair in my review - but I really can't hide that I find this whole affair boring as hell, often downright offensive, and ultimately completely out of place. With all that in mind, let's dive in!

We begin with a full page of exposition delivered to us via high school lecture, because everyone knows the best way to establish your worldbuilding is by infodumping it directly into your audience's eyeballs. Apparently, over the last twenty years, Angel Island has been heavily developed into its own independent republic, with a new city, Portal, acting as the center of trade between the island and the mainland below. We're once again introduced to Lara-Su, who, instead of being the badass time-traveling young adult whom we followed before, is now an ordinary teenager taking ordinary high school classes among a bunch of ordinary high school echidnas.

One of the biggest failings of this story is that Penders writes every teenage character how he thinks teenagers act, from his point of view as a middle-aged adult. This becomes abundantly clear the longer you read, as every teenager is a hormone-fueled, authority-defying, entitled, whiny, fickle child who just doesn't understand how the real world works, while every adult is a wise, experienced, and highly logical individual who always knows more than their younger fellows and refuses to pay attention to the whims of mere children. Like, I'm not even exaggerating here - I'm going to be pointing out every instance of this kind of behavior over the entire rest of this arc, and you can't stop me, so nyah nyah. Penders shows so little respect for the mere concept of teenagers, which is a terrible attitude to have not just in general, but especially if you're one of the head writers for an entire series about teenagers saving the goddamn world! Anyway, case in point: the teacher, instead of admonishing Rutan for being a bully, merely snaps at Lara-Su for not acting enough like a "young lady" and tells her to stay after class. Ugh.

Later that day, Rotor arrives on Angel Island as a liaison for the royal ruling couple, Queen Sally and King Sonic, because yes, Sonic literally becomes king in this timeline. He catches a ride from Harry - hey, good to see our favorite dingo still doing well for himself at least - and meets with Espio, who is now apparently Knuckles' secretary or something. At least, that's all I can assume from this weird-ass conversation.

As a matter of fact, yes, Sonic and Sally are bringing their two children, Sonia and Manik, to the family dinner! How very mid-70s domestic family unit of them! Espio informs Knuckles of this over a television screen as the latter broods around in some kind of high-tech facility. Unlike what we've seen of Espio, the years have dramatically changed Knuckles' appearance - his right eye is missing, replaced with a mechanical one, and he sports the cowboy hat that Hawking gave him in the past (you know, the one we never saw again after he received it). While I actually quite like the idea of a main character in the comic losing something as important as an eye, I feel like there's a huge missed opportunity here - instead of just thrusting us into an alternate future where everything is fine but one character is inexplicably missing an eye, how about actually showing us the story of how that eye was lost? Show us a Knuckles who's learning to cope with the loss of an important body part, and having to adjust to his mechanical prosthetic! Go into his feelings about the subject, as someone who has so long been opposed to a faction that thrives on mechanical prosthetics, instead of just skipping over what has the potential to be the most interesting part of this story! Ugh, sorry, there's just nothing that gets to me more than a missed opportunity like this. Knuckles and Espio exchange some tortured small-talk about their kids for a little while, with the only interesting part of the conversation being their discussion of Rotor's arrival and how he's likely here to see someone named Cobar, with whom he apparently has a history. More on that later. Knuckles excuses himself from the conversation, as he has to be home in time for his daughter's "Unveiling" tonight, and as the call ends we zoom out to see that apparently nowadays, the Master Emerald is hooked up to all sorts of technology in this facility, presumably maintaining everything automatically. However, this story isn't done throwing weird curveballs at us yet - it's time to see what our former villains are up to in this future!

There is so much to unpack here. Dimitri, feared overlord of the Dark Legion, is now an amiable cyborg-head-in-a-bubble. Lien-Da, the treacherous second-in-command who regularly spoke of betraying Dimitri and taking the Legion in her own darker direction, is now apparently a single mom who's embraced the domestic life, taking care of her rowdy teenage son while, predictably, complaining about the behavior of kids these days. And weirdest of all, apparently everyone is just fine with these literal former terrorists living in their midst and doing ordinary mom and grandpa things, with Lien-Da even apparently amenable to the idea of trying to make up with Julie-Su because "they're family," despite her history of, you know, erasing Julie-Su's memory multiple times and killing her biological parents as revenge for her birth. I mean, is this what Penders thinks adulthood is? Is he even entirely sane? Does he know the definition of terrorism?

Any-goddamn-way, Knuckles arrives home to his eerily sterile-looking steel-plated mansion that looks more like the lobby of a pharmaceutical laboratory than a place where people live, and greets his loving housewife Julie-Su, who's gained a cute giant ponytail but lost absolutely everything else that made her unique, including her own cybernetic parts and just her personality in general. She informs Knuckles that Lara-Su has locked herself in the bathroom and is having herself a mighty tantrum, refusing to come out to get ready for her Unveiling ceremony, which is apparently the equivalent of a Quinceañera for echidna girls. Knuckles, instead of doing something reasonable like asking her why she's upset, starts aggressively demanding that she come out of her room this instant, while Lara-Su repeatedly yells about how she doesn't wanna. Ugh, teenagers, amiright?

Seriously, I just can't get over how little respect Penders has for teenagers in his writing. Like, yes, I acknowledge that teenagers aren't always the most logical of beings, but they're also not goddamn three-year-olds either. They're old enough to articulate their desires and express their unique opinions, and often do so in very mature ways, especially if they're raised well and treated with the same respect you'd afford any adult. I should know, I was one myself. I would have assumed Penders was one as well at some point, but perhaps he just popped into the world one day as a fully-formed 43-year-old, full of disdain for those younger than himself. It would certainly explain everything we're seeing here.

Anyway, it turns out that the reason Lara-Su is upset is because Knuckles refuses to train her to be a Guardian, and so she whines and yells about it from behind the door like a petulant child as Knuckles continually refuses to actually give her a solid reason why he won't let her be one. When Julie-Su basically forces him to calm the hell down and explain himself, he reluctantly explains that since all the duties of a Guardian have by now been taken over by other functions of their society, he feels there's no longer any need for one, himself included. This is apparently enough to make Lara-Su immediately happy enough to burst out of the bathroom and grab her father's arm, suddenly totally excited to go to her Unveiling as long as Knuckles promises her the first dance. Ah, the fickle mind of a silly, silly teenager!

Kill me.