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oneatlatime · 9 months

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The Siege of the North Part 2

Last episode of the season! I'll post some season round up stuff over the next few days.

The last episode ended super abruptly, so a refresher: -Aang and Zuko are in a snowstorm and Aang is currently hypnotised by a Yin Yang fish -Katara, Sokka and Yue are in the spirit oasis moping about losing Aang to Zuko -There’s a big fuck off Fire Nation Armada parked out front -All current trends point to the Northern Water Tribe being a finely ground and toasted paste by the end of the day

Episode Time!

I don’t know, did Katara really do everything she could? She could have called for backup. Although given Zuko’s track record with taking out scores of guards when the plot requires (hello Blue Spirit episode), I guess it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Ignore Momo for a minute and look at this grass texture. I can't decide if I like it or not. It's certainly doing... something?

Is this the spirit world? I'm loving the colour pallette. Since Aang's dreams tend to be sepia-toned, does that mean he dreams in the spirit world?

This monkey guy has so much personality. I love how our first look at this sacred, spiritual, mystical place is an antisocial jerk. Lovely subversion of expectations.

Roku has unparallelled jumpscare abilities.

I have to say the sound design on the ice cracking under Zuko's feet is spot on. That oddly hollow yet muffled thud is exactly the noise ice sheets make when they go.

Poor Aang getting dragged like a kitten. He's got to have frozen skin by now. Should have taken Iroh's advice and covered his ears.

I don't think Aang moves once during Roku's speech about the spirits crossing over. I think he's a freeze frame of animation, something which this show usually avoids.

Judging by the musical sting it's supposed to be a serious line, but the way Roku feels the need to clarify that the Face Stealer will steal your face got a laugh out of me. Was anyone expecting him to do anything else?

"They call him Coe, the Face Stealer. Be careful, or he will validate your parking."

Where did he get fuel to burn? And why does he feel the need to monologue? And if struggling and fighting is what made you into who you are, maybe you should give being lucky a chance, because you're not exactly well-liked or very good at what you're supposed to be doing.

Inclusivity win! These non-benders get to torch the water tribe too!

Ballistic water canon portholes - that's neat.

Those long range grappling hooks are probably the fire nation's most effective weapon.

Please die please die please die please die please die please die

How rotten do you have to be inside, that when you find a giant underground hidden library, you use it to find out ways to wipe out civilisations? And celestial bodies? Zhao is honestly so pathetic. Ruthless, and somewhat effective sure, but you're gifted a giant underground secret library and all you can think to do with it is use it to kill people? Pathetic.

This spirit world stuff is so neat. The scale, the lighting, the animals, everything is slightly off in a way that feels deeply alien. I like.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

The squealing strings in the spirit world are fantastic. The composition of this shot, also fantastic. The colour pallette; fantastic. I would love to live in the spirit world if I wasn't in danger of losing my face.

The face stealer recognising the avatar is chilling. Really adds a sense of the ancient. And whoever is voicing him had the time of their life. Deliciously evil moustache twirling stuff, but still with an underlying very real threat.

I love Sokka's logic here. Co-opt enemy's strength; make it serve you. Zuko being persistent means that there will still be an avatar to save once Sokka catches up to them.

This whole encounter with the face stealer is a cut above. They really pulled the stops out for this finale.

I don't think this is the Blue Spirit, but it's close.

I KNEW those fish were thematically relevant. What a completely unexpected reversal too! Those spirits you're asking for help? Actually, they're asking you.

It pays to be nice! This is why Aang has to stay such a nice boy! See? It pays off!!!

Looks like someone was a little slow with the whole 'conquering the enemy before their main source of power turbo charges them' thing. We've got floor is lava: tank edition, ice machine guns, and Poophead turning a whole row of soldiers into popsicles. Good stuff.

I absolutely hate Poophead but I have to admit it's satisfying watching him go 1 v dozens in tornado mode and kick fire nation butt.

That panda has some powerful breath. And I love that morphing effect between big cuddly guy and horrors beyond description.

"Oh No! Where's my body?" That's pretty funny. I don't think it's supposed to be, but it is.

Forget about the panda, Aang has powerful breath. He just wallpapered Zuko to the cave wall and travelled like 100 feet in the opposite direction.

Keep inching along buddy.

"That won't be enough to escape" "Appa!" "That probably is."

Forget about Aang wallpapering Zuko, Katara just turned him into a floor mat from 40 feet up. How many concussions has Zuko had in the last week?

If that rope is so quality, why did you cut through every loop rather than untie it and save it for later?

Of course Aang has to bring Zuko back. Aang is a nice little boy. That's what nice little boys do, and they get repaid for their kindness down the line with things like rides from giant pandas.

Imagine if Zhao had grabbed the wrong fish? It's a good thing that the moon spirit has a built in indicator light. What would the ocean do if it was in trouble? Get more blue?

Yue exposition. Yue is a moon horcrux. Oh this won't end well.

How long do you think Zhao spent composing his little speech? How many crumpled up parchments did he go through before he had the words just right? Do you think he practiced in the mirror while holding up a sock in place of the moon fish?

Get his ass Momo! I love how the guard in the back is like "nah, I'll let the lemur do his thing. Dude deserves it honestly."

Could we have some more specific examples of consequences beyond "balance" and "Chaos" for killing the moon? I don't think Zhao the asshole is going to pay attention to consequences unless they directly affect himself.

Zhao is way too fond of the word traitor. That's two people he's called traitor who are actually just people he personally dislikes.

You know you done goofed when kindly tea uncle promises to beat your ass. Zhao, meet consequences that directly affect you.

The face of a man realising he has, in fact, done goofed.

That's twice now these fish have yanked Aang around. Powerful fish. Did the fish call upon the Avatar or was Aang so angry that he went glowy and the fish took advantage?

FISHMAN

oh boy these guys are dead. So dead.

Tired of failing at capturing the Avatar, Zuko instead turns to trying to kill Zhao. Brightest idea he's had all season.

"Then at least, you could have lived!" Bold talk for someone who's already lost one duel to this guy and is currently losing the second. Unless you meant to flop backwards off that bridge?

Ooof. But she was always on borrowed time, wasn't she?

He just batted them away like balls on a pool table. So casually cutting through tonnes of steel and people. Fishman is killing thousands. I bet Aang's not too happy about that.

Ouch. More Sokka trauma!

Fish spirit dropping Aang off like he's bumming a ride to school, not killing probably 10 000 + people.

How am I supposed to take this seriously when Zuko's doing silly little summersaults?

Zhao is such a baby. I sincerely hope he's dead now too.

Bit of an abrupt tonal change. And yes, it's LONG past time you helped out the south. I hope Kanna is informed in exacting detail of her grandaughter's Pakku-bahsing exploits. She'd be so proud.

This scene should have come before the scene with Katara and Poophead. Would have avoided the tone switch. Also is that a tree to the right?

"So proud. And sad." OUCH.

Not-fun fact: there are four humans in this screenshot.

I'm guessing that was the firelord? I suddenly see where Zuko gets his muppet voice.

Mark Hamill?!?!

Final Thoughts

Where is the line between self-sacrifice and suicide? Because I have to say, Yue was very determined to do her duty. I guess that's one way to get out of an arranged marriage.

So glad to not see her fiance again, because then I can pretend he drowned. I bet he and Zhao are having fun out asshole-ing each other at the bottom of the sea.

Sokka!!! Somebody needs to give him a hug and get him into the care of a trusted adult immediately because the last thing he needed was MORE duty-related trauma. I bet he views what happened as him failing in his duty to the northern chief. He pretty much says as much when Yue chooses to save the moon. Obviously, there was rationally no way out of that one, but since when are emotions and trauma rational?

Yue describes her saving the moon as her duty, but it was also her choice, and I bet that's the first free choice she's ever gotten to make. Sokka didn't prevent her; he let her choose to do her duty. He definitely had objections, which he voiced, but he let her go once she brought up duty. It's so awful that Yue's first time having her choice respected (dare I say, having her own agency respected) is when she chooses to die.

She is dead, right? Her body evaporated and she's in the moon now. On the moon? Is she the moon? Did she replace the old moon? Or did the moon let her have a few seconds as a ghost for closure before she went to the afterlife? I don't know the mechanics of this.

Poor Aang just killed thousands of people, even if he was fish-possessed at the time. Katara's about the only person who emerged from this episode ok. She got to one-shot Zuko.

Fish possession-induced mega-fishman is not a solution I could have ever predicted to the problem of a whole fleet that needs getting rid of. It totally fits, despite it being a strange idea to contemplate in isolation. Aang pulls (rather, the fish pulls) a move straight out of Pacific Rim and it works.

The spirit world was really capably done. Creepy yet alluring, seemingly detached and untouchable yet both in tune with the real world and vulnerable to the things that go on there. And how clever was it to have Aang go to the spirits for help, only to find out that the spirits need his help? I love that reversal. It really ups the stakes. In any other fantasy story an appeal to the council of higher beings of whatever would either result in help or a refusal. Imagine calling up your godly bosses with a problem only to have them beg you for help? It's kind of chilling. Both in how close things came to disaster, and in the fact that humans in the real world actually have the power to pose that much of a threat to the spirits. Again you see why it's important to have a bridge between the real and spirit worlds: because traffic either way poses a threat to both sides.

What is up with Zuko? He failed the whole season at capturing the avatar (a task at which he was outclassed by episode 3), and now he doesn't have the resources to even try. So he's no longer a villain (not the he was ever good at it), he's no longer even a threat. He's a concussed vulture's meal on a raft. Is he even going to be in the next season of the show? What role could he possibly fulfill? He'll be just... there.

I had tone problems with this episode. A couple of places where I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to laugh, I did. And there were a couple of pretty corny set up lines. Yue discussing how there was no hope gave me Helm's Deep flashbacks. I think maybe this episode should have been a little longer in order to make the tone switches more gradual. And I get that, as a kids' cartoon show, they have to end the season on a happy note, but was there anyone in the main or background cast that didn't have a reason to end this episode seriously bummed out? Momo maybe. Appa's empathetic enough to be sad that Aang is sad. Yes, the North is saved, but the princess is dead, there are presumably thousands of enemy corpses bobbing around beyond the wall, and who knows how many water tribe people got crushed by fireballs.

The last three episodes have really been one big story. Katara's part was really over by the opening scene of the siege of the north part 1, which is about where Aang's part began. The real through line that ties these three episodes together is Sokka and Yue. These last three episodes have been low key Sokka episodes (and Yue episodes by extension). I think it's a sign of good writing and engaging characters, that the season finale of a show named after its main character can put a huge amount of focus on someone who isn't the main character and still have it feel natural.

Turn Sokka into a girl and beat him down with the expectations women face in a patriarchal society, and you get Yue. They are each others' mirrors, which is partially why they connect (the other reasons being Sokka is a breath of fun fresh air and Yue is gorgeous and desperately lonely). While I would give an arm and a leg for a version of the show where Yue joins the Gaang and travels around the world with them, being exposed to opportunities for growth and adventure and becoming her own person rather than an extension of her tribe's will, I think it also makes sense that Sokka and Yue ultimately can't be together. I'm having trouble putting this into words, so bear with me, but I think because Yue and Sokka are mirrors, and largely mirrors of the more burdensome aspects of their lives (ie duty), then wouldn't them getting together limit them? Halt their growth as characters? Would they not drag each other down? Under the right circumstances (like peace) they could help each other grow, but in war time it's probably not a good idea to have two self-sacrificing members on your team.

I know Aang had some crazy stuff happen to him this episode (and last episode too), but so much of what happened to him literally happened TO him. He had no say in the matter. He got yanked around by spirits, fish, and Zuko. Which is why the Sokka x Yue storyline was more interesting to me. Poor Aang may have a hell of a time processing all that yanking around, but that's not in this episode. Sokka and Yue actively making choices are in this episode, and their storyline has had three episodes to develop, so the payoff feels more earned.

The soundtrack was great this episode, especially in the spirit world. Deliciously creepy stuff.

Visuals were gorgeous. I especially liked the beige palete of the spirit world and grey-blue palette during the mega fishman scenes. The creeping blue veins were a good way to express the scale of mega fishman's power without just colouring the whole frame bright blue.

Zhao honestly got exactly what he deserved. It must have been a fitting end for his character because it left me highly satisfied.

Yue deserved better, but if the chief is to be believed, predestination is both a thing and unavoidable in this world, so she got the only end she could ever have. I love characters with quiet strength, but I love them more when they don't have to die.

Overall a good episode! It had to wrap up so many storylines that it ended up going all over the place, with some necessarily expository dialogue that felt clunky. Poor Aang featured surprisingly little in his own show's finale, if you discount when he's fish-possessed. Sokka got his heart ripped out and stomped on, as did the chief. Pakku has hopefully set himself up for a hearty slap from Kanna. Zuko and Iroh survived, but that's about all that can be said of them at the moment. I feel like maybe Katara will be carrying the Gaang for the next few weeks.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the siege of the north part 2 #avatar the last airbender

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thydungeongal · 4 days

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0E and BECMI also had pretty detailed rules for travel and naval combat and siege and faux-feudal politics and such. And while 5E PHB doesn't have them, yes, but it's not that focused on dungeons either.

I agree that ultimately it's action game but I feel like saying that it's inherently about adventures in uncharted lands when out of the box it very much can be about hard-boiled detectives or some kind of military leaders (including revolutionary rebels) is too reductive.

It's trashy heroic fantasy that shouldn't be used for like romcom but it's equally suited for all stock heroic fantasy plots

I mean, I disagree to an extent, but it's an issue of can vs should. D&D can be about hard-boiled detectives: should you use D&D to run a game of hard-boiled detectives when the game has barely any systemic support for investigation beyond "do you find the trap/secret door?" D&D can be about military leaders: should you use D&D to run a military game when the game provides absolutely nothing in the way of systemic support for leading a military and when its combat system is fine-tuned towards small skirmishes?

I very much think that RPGs are about what their systems are about. D&D 5e's system is concerned, beyond resource management, with:

How well characters can see in dark places.

Specific movement rates for measuring movement very granularly, and once you go into the DMG you find that the map scales start with "Dungeon" and go up from there.

Interacting with a variety of traps and hazards.

Now to be fair, when I talk about D&D being a dungeon game I don't mean it's good for just dungeons, but that it's good for Dungeons. A dungeon is a scary underground place with monsters, a Dungeon is a gameplay construct which is a part of the fictional world where Characters Can Start Shit In. But D&D is very clearly a Dungeon Game in that in addition to having rules for dungeons, it very much assumes Dungeons as part of its gameplay.

Also I emphatically disagree that D&D is equally suited for all heroic fantasy plots: D&D is a genre almost of its very own that is often conflated with heroic fantasy as a whole because of D&D's status, but it is inaccurate of D&D as a whole. Most editions of D&D, due to their obsession with depletion in a way that actually resists narrative convention (and the games themselves tell you that the point of the games is to deplete character resources!), are extremely poorly suited to heroic fantasy! In fact, the best edition for heroic fantasy, 4e, is the one whose design was explicitly rejected by 5e. (4e is still very much a dungeon game in my opinion, but it is the closest D&D has ever been to a pure heroic fantasy action game than a dungeon-crawling resource management game).

Anyway, D&D is not only poorly suited to many types of stories, the game itself actually suffers when bent to stories it doesn't have the mechanics for supporting. That's why I'm very much D&D as a challenge-focused dungeon game advocate: D&D is really good for that particular genre! Even D&D 5e, despite the fact that it has some instances of very unfocused design. D&D by its very shape resists conventional narrative structure and is more interested in telling stories about a bunch of assholes getting their heads kicked in in a hole in the ground, and it's actually really good for that type of story.

#thydungeongal answers

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decepti-thots · 3 months

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🔥 for TF toys?

The TFA Legacy toys look fine and are fun. Yeah, I would prefer collector-oriented stuff/reissues/etc in the original TFA toy style, of course, but Bee and especially OP actually strike a surprisingly good balance between the Legacy G1-ified style and retaining design elements from TFA and yeah yeah Prowl isn't the best but I have him and he's still good dammit. I'm glad we have them, even if they'll never be a replacement for the original TFA toys (which remain my favourite mainline toys in TF).

Masterpiece was a far more interesting line when the design focus was higher-fidelty interpretations of old toys rather than cartoon character models, IMO. I have, for example, the MP Prowl toy, which is less a super duper accurate depiction of the G1 cartoon character model like a lot of later/current MP toys, and way more a "grown up" reinterpretation of the G1 toy, and he's wonderful! Same with my MP-1 Optimus. But the current stuff is way too expensive and too boring tbh. Cartoon fidelity fits better in a line like the SS86 stuff than a really expensive high-end collector line tbh, because if I'm paying premium money for a Transformer I want a premium toy, not a very cool action figure with an annoying-ass transformation sequence to keep the Aesthetic TM clean.

SIEGE ULTRA MAGNUS IS GOOD. IT'S GOOD. THE POWER ARMOUR GIMMICK IS FUN AND SHOULD BE DEFAULT FOR G1 UM TOYS ACTUALLY. The battle damage deco works well on him and the alt mode is FINE it's like that ON PURPOSE it is an RiD01 reference godammit!!! Earthrise UM was a kind of compromised G1 retread; Siege had its own reason for existing in a world where there's already very faithful G1-era UM toys around. Shakes fist.

#ask meme

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tarisilmarwen · 9 months

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Rebels Rewatch: "Wolves And A Door"/"A World Between Worlds"

Things get Force Weird as we approach the final stretch.

Live reaction version.

Right so I'm probably going to be cannibalizing some of my "Ezra Bridger as a thematic Chosen One in Star Wars Rebels and the messianic imagery of “A World Between Worlds”" essay because even though I still want to make that its own separate post someday, there's going to be things about these two episodes that I have to bring up and observations that will crossover with that essay when and if that finally gets finished.

I'm going to try to be very sparing with the caps too, because I've got two whole episodes to cover and ghksajhfkjahkjh there's way too much pretty to show off, I honestly don't know how I'm gonna do it guys.

I love that after the somber musical fog they put us through last episode they start us off with bouncy plinky pizzicato strings and Loth-cat cuteness. They were like, "Hey, we know things have been heavy lately and they're gonna be again, but in the meantime have kitties sitting on top of doggos and feel for a moment reassured that there is still goodness in the world."

Zeb's skepticism re. the wolves is a little silly given that they've already shown that they're intelligent sentient creatures.

Ezra's already showing signs of the serenity and dignity he takes on as de facto leader of the Lothal rebels. Hera actually kind of cedes that role to him, and Ryder has certainly already taken several steps back out of cynicism.

So it falls to Ezra to lead them, to plan out their attack strategies, to be their head.

He's matured so much I'm so proud of him.

The wolves are deeply connected to the Force, and to Lothal. Ezra is too. In a way, he's of their kind. And after accepting his task from them last episode they consider him officially part of the pack it seems, because they readily come to his call.

Ezra's unique ability to connect, once again an invaluable asset.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The tufts of grass that wobble as the wolves walk through them.

Ezra's favor with the wolves extends to the others, so they are all able to climb on board and hitch a Force-assisted ride back to the northern hemisphere where the Temple is.

Love this sequence. The pounding drums. The sound design. The slow phasing of the wolves into the ground and disappearing soundlessly into it, with just a whisper of wind in their wake.

I can't get over how the Loth-wolf visions keep going back to Kanan's "You want a ride?". Filoni has mentioned that Ezra's tuned into the "echoes" that are particularly relevant to him while inside the WBW and I guess the same must apply to the hyperspace wolves tunnels. It's fascinating, we've always taken hyperspace for granted but since it's part of the galaxy, it has to be part of the Force as well, so it makes perfect sense in a way that ancient Force guardians like the Loth-wolves, or creatures just intimately connected with the Force like the purrgil, can make their own hyperspace tunnels naturally, in order to pass through time and space.

"It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together."

Something I really love about the whole concept of the World Between Worlds is the idea that we're getting a rare glimpse at the inner structure of the Force itself, the tendons and strings connecting it together.

Anyway, sob with me about how the echoes end with Ezra's "There's just you and me." from "Siege of Lothal". It was just them, two flickering twin moons against the blackest night, holding back the darkness until sunrise.

And now it's just Ezra alone.

What I wouldn't give to know what they're talking about.

Frick his whole bearing is different. He's quieter, more somber. We blinked and he grew up, aged five years in a night.

We reach the Temple and it's as bad as we've feared, the Empire has set up all around it and the area bristles with lights and equipment. They've burrowed down to the foundations of the Temple, trying to pull up its secrets by the root, and they've wholecloth removed the familiar doors from it, leaving a gaping surface level hole.

The Temple itself has sealed itself tight, barring entry to the interlopers, and I LOVE the thematic fairy tale underpinnings of this.

There's a line in The Magician's Nephew, one of the Chronicles of Narnia and another strong influence on the show's writing and concepts, that goes like: "Come in by the gold gates or not at all, Take of my fruit for others or forbear, For those who steal or those who climb my wall, Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair."

This is another overarching myth archetype: Only The Worthy May Pass.

If your heart is true, and you ask permission, show the Threshold Guardian respect, walk humbly and seek the boon for others, it will be granted to you freely. But if you're selfish, if you lie and cheat and steal and trick your way in, brute force what you want and are arrogant, demanding the prize, you will receive your just reward. And you won't like it.

Think of the last Indiana Jones movie. Indiana Jones is the one that takes all the risk, makes the leap of faith to save his father, and is granted permission to use the Grail's healing powers. The Nazi-aligned academic rival who barged in with tanks and guns and wants to live forever using the Grail's powers, however?

Indiana Jones vibes are aaaaaaaallll over these whole two episodes by the way. The whole general feel of an archaeological adventure with an unexpected encounter with the divine, it's great.

I still think it's immensely clever that they used the recording of Thrawn to distract the Scout Troopers. Still hilariously convenient that one of them is female.

Even the music gets Indiana Jones-esque when Ezra and Sabine make it down into the hollow.

Hi Hydan!

I love him. He's such a good oneshot villain. Cordial and affably polite and yet my skin crawls whenever he threatens either Sabine or Ezra. He's another Thrawn archetype/parallel, he studies the mysteries of the Force in the hopes of understanding them, not for himself, but to grow the power of his Emperor. He plunders the wealth of the Lothal Temple not out of respect for it, but to dissect it for knowledge and power.

An absolutely seamless Mind Trick from Ezra here. So proud of him.

The matching "Oh crap!" expressions on their faces when they realize that's Emperor Freaking Palpatine on the other end of the line.

The Mortis arc is actually one of the few TCW arcs I watched in full. Sue me I love me some Force Weirdness. So it was quite a delight to see the Mortis gods returning as artistic archetypal representations of the aspects of the Force. The Light, the Dark, the Unifying/Cosmic Balance. (Even the Living Force is represented in the mural by the Loth-wolves.) Since we're exploring the very inner scaffolding of the Force itself these episodes, it made perfect sense to me to bring them back, and tie them into how the Lothal Temple operates.

Unsurprisingly the Emperor's leitmotif makes an appearance here. Palpatine already has extraordinary clairvoyent powers but they've become confused after Kanan's sacrifice. Kanan has altered the fate of Lothal somehow, and even Palpatine can't figure out why.

(Pssst, it's because the Force is actually working against you buddy, it's trying to restore proper balance.)

This moment was very mean and hurted in all the right ways.

"They'll be fine." "I used to always believe that." This hits right in the parental bone, ouch.

Harps and female vocals once again signifying the arcane mysteries of the Force.

And this is gorgeous.

Ezra and Sabine begin to puzzle out the meaning behind the mural, Ezra only able to identify the Loth-wolves and the green convor that liked to follow Ahsoka around. (We've still not been given an explanation for that one yet. The prevailing theory is that it's what left of the Daughter, acting as a spirit guide/guardian for Ahsoka.)

The golden pathways correspond to the paths and doorways inside the World Between Worlds and when they're aligned on the mural, the wolves awaken to form the portal that grants access. Only one who can channel the Light Side is able to unlock the mechanism to align the pathways, via connecting to the Daughter part of the mural.

This is one of the reasons why Palpatine needed to cheat to get inside. The other reason is that, per word of Filoni, the World Between Worlds is actually a bit choosy about who it lets inside.

Again, Only The Worthy May Pass. Ezra is connected to the Force and to Lothal, a native son of the planet, a Jedi, and he has the wolves' favor, so he is granted access.

Like Maul back on Malachor, Palpatine cannot open the door on his own.

Sabine does a pretty good job bluffing the Troopers that come to investigate her presence by the mural, buying Ezra enough time to connect to the Daughter and open the portal.

Ezra remembering Kanan's last words to him, the reminder to listen.

Rebels animation is gorgeous, I will hear no slander.

And this technique they developed to animate 2D images on top of a 3D CGI environmental surface was probably the same technology they used for mini Maui in Moana. Put to absolutely beautiful use, there's zero weird blending or edging at all, it just looks fully integrated and a natural part of the image.

Now, obviously the mural wolves need a clear space in order to form the portal but I also think they were drawing Ezra far enough away from the Stormtroopers that they wouldn't get to him in time. So that they couldn't stop him.

I'm actually reminded of a scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender (which Filoni also worked on), where Aang manages to slip in last minute through the giant door into the inner shrine that could only be opened by several Fire Sages working in tandem, and the way Roku--the previous Avatar before Aang, and a Firebender himself--seals the door behind Aang, so that even the Sages can't open the door anymore.

Ezra has a meeting with the Divine, and the Empire is not invited.

The score going full blast Indiana Jones mysticism, love it.

Like Thrawn, Hydan clocks Sabine as someone who doesn't belong there immediately, recognizing her from the incident before. The dig site is put on full alert and Troopers close in on Ezra, who's paralyzed for a moment, nervous to enter the portal.

Sabine yells for him to go.

And with determination and purpose, he does.

And the portal seals behind him.

Sabine's worry and fear. <3 Even though she told him to go, watching him literally disappear into a wall has to be frightening.

AND NOW FOR THE EXTRA FORCE WEIRD PART. :D

The World Between Worlds is a place where time and space have no meaning, because all time is present at once. Past, present, and future is all happening simultaneously inside the starvoid, which pulses with the whispers of those who have come before, and those who are yet to come. It's a liminal space, a space of transition, an "in-between" that is neither here nor there. @seleneisrising has an excellent series of posts comparing it to the Wood Between The Worlds, again from The Magician's Nephew, a seemingly endless wood with countless pools that represent different worlds one can enter and exit, if one has the proper travel implements (green and gold rings, in this case).

It is not time travel. Filoni and other writers make it very clear that you cannot, SHOULD NOT, actually use it for that purpose, because if you take something out of its proper time and space, things could go very very badly, and you could create a paradox that destroys time.

Ezra doesn't know this when he winds up pulling Ahsoka out of Malachor, but Ahsoka suspects--since she's been in this kind of Force Weird situation before--so that why she's immediately all, "Okay you have to put me exactly back where you found me." and declines to come with Ezra out his portal.

And that's also why Ezra can't save Kanan.

More on that later.

Our first series of echoes is about the Force, in general, and specific quotes apply to Ezra in particular, for the character journey he's going to complete inside this liminal space.

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." "What you need you already have. Unfortunately, you seem to be letting it all go." "I won't let him lose his way. Not like I did."

The World Between Worlds is already warning him of the temptation that Palpatine will offer, first with Kanan, and then with his parents. Palpatine will dangle the idea of undoing his loss, reversing and cheating death, the same thing he offered Anakin, if he would only just lend Palpatine a little of his power, just a small favor, just open this door for me good lad, don't you want this?

It's a trap. A trick. A lie. There is no reversing death.

You cannot go back down into Hades.

The Force theme permeates this space, floating above our heads with the stars in the vast empty void. Obi-Wan pipes in, via voiceover, to explain what we're seeing, in essence, the very scaffolding and inner workings of the Force.

Meanwhile outside, the troopers are not gentle with Sabine. Hydan tries to make nice and she sasses him to hell and back, refusing to cooperate.

Sabine trying not to let her worry for Ezra show, when Hydan threatens that the Emperor will find him inside the World Between Worlds. <3

Vocal cameos from across the Star Wars canon as Ezra crosses the World Between Worlds. I know someone has identified all of them but I don't have the list at hand. Most of them aren't relevant to Ezra in any case.

Morai appears though, to help guide Ezra to the Malachor portal. I know it was suggested that Kanan helped orchestrate Ahsoka's rescue from beyond the grave, as some kind of "unfinished business" Kanan had yet to do before he fully pass on. Some people were confused why Kanan would want to do that, he was never particularly close to Ahsoka nor was he particularly as devastated by her apparent death. Not like Ezra.

I can accept that logic from the writers though, if it's Kanan trying to help Ezra finally assuage his guilt over Malachor, give him a chance to make things better. And give Ezra a Force Sensitive ally to help find him after everything is said and done.

Kanan knew he was going to die. Knew he couldn't be there for Ezra. So he arranged a way for there to be someone to look for and after Ezra after he was gone. He knew they would need Ahsoka's help.

My thoughts, anyway.

Ezra's quiet horror when the portal activates and shows him the tail end of the Malachor confrontation. :(

It is hilarious to think about how this must look to Vader and Ahsoka. On Vader's end he's swinging down and all of a sudden a hand comes out of a shimmering patch of air and just yoinks Ahsoka away into thin air and then the floor collapses under him and he just had to go back to Palpatine and explain all of that or else pretend that didn't happen, lol.

And then Ahsoka had to wake up in a weird place after fighting Vader and unpacking all of that My Master Is Evil trauma and then see an older Ezra in Stormtrooper armor, learn that Kanan was dead, help Ezra not break the universe, fight an apparition of the Emperor, and then run back to Malachor so she wouldn't break the universe either. Girl needs a damn nap after all that ha ha.

Sabine continuing to be super uncooperative with Hydan. He eventually loses patience and lets the Death Troopers smack her a bit. She's not badly hurt but the point comes across; she needs to play nice or else.

Ahsoka looks SO confused lol.

Vader echoes sound in the background, these ones attuned to Ahsoka, responding to the revelations she has just had about Vader's true identity. As well as an echo from the Daughter, when Ahsoka notices Morai.

(This resonates with what Filoni says about the World Between Worlds in a recent interview, that it attunes to whoever is currently inside, or the person inside only truly hears echoes that are relevant to them, the rest may as well be static and noise, incomprehensible.)

Ahsoka's the one who suggests Kanan's spirit is lingering, trying to guide and teach Ezra one last time from beyond the grave, through the manifestation of the Dume wolf, and yeah, it tracks. I kind of like the notion that Kanan clung to himself just long enough to make sure Ezra was okay before he let himself move on and dissipate into the ether.

Ezra latches onto the idea that Kanan meant for him to save Ahsoka, and then tracks that thought straight into "I can prevent Kanan's death too."

But it's not the same.

Ahsoka knows she has to go back through her portal and return to the time she left, sooner rather than later in order to prevent any kind of paradoxical damage to the timeline. But she can't leave the grieving Ezra in limbo and so she rushes after him to hold back his hand.

Once again, "You want a ride?" echoes, the moment Kanan first offered his hand and help to Ezra, which must be so intimately imprinted on him that it's what he always first hears.

"You can learn what it truly means to be a Jedi." And he's about to, Kanan, believe me.

Ezra's theme plays here. It doesn't complete, never making it to the second stanza. Ezra's not thinking straight. His words echo Anakin's, "I can stop people from dying!" He's too wrapped up in his grief. He's trying once again to reach for power that isn't his to grasp, in order to stop loss from happening to him.

He is attached.

Attachment in the Star Wars universe has a very specific connotation. It has never meant love, or relationships, friendships, other people, cherished places or things. It is all about one's own mindset when relating to those things. Jedi are supposed to love everyone, selflessly. But they are supposed to understand that nothing lasts forever. Things die, people move in and out of your life, the change happens and you can't stop it "Any more than you can stop the twin suns from setting." Shmi says. Children grow up and leave home. Being a Jedi, being balanced in the Force, means you accept the transitory nature of things and let go of your fear of loss.

Because fear leads to the Dark Side. Being afraid of loss, of being without the things important to you, makes you angry at what might try to take those things. Which makes you jealous, clingy. Greedy. Makes you grasp tighter. Makes you desperate. Makes you seek for the power to keep those things with you. And there the Dark Side is, calling to you, offering you that power. Promising to help you keep those things you want.

But it's a trap. The Dark Side will consume you. It will not help you save what you fear to lose, it will instead demand their sacrifice. The desire for power will overtake everything else, every other noble intention or motivation you had. What you intended to save you will no longer care about. The Dark Side will be all there is.

So you must let go of the things you fear to lose. Let go of that fear, and it will have no power over you. Accept the loss, and do not grasp for the power to break reality, to cheat the natural order, just to spare yourself the pain of not having that thing or person in your life.

Because you cannot go back down into Hades.

You cannot turn back time. You cannot undo death.

"You can't save your master," Ahsoka tells him, so so gently because she knows how hard this is. "And I can't save mine," she accepts.

And so Ezra looks at the portal, everything in him screaming in grief. And Ezra, who has abandonment issues and so much of his own worth and validation wrapped up in Kanan--"Kanan believes I can."--who thinks of Kanan as more a father than a teacher, who is still at heart a lost little boy who misses his parents... does one of the hardest and bravest things ever required of him.

He drops his hand, and turns his eyes, and lets go.

He faces the grief and loss head on, and accepts it. Doesn't let it master him.

And thwarts Palpatine one moment more.

Because the image of Kanan was not actually him. The Dark Side will never actually keep its promises. Or it will fulfill them in a way that makes it not matter. It all consuming, always hungry, never satisfied, and it will suck you dry.

The portal Ezra was tempted by leads straight to Palpatine. Who reveals himself like a cackling demon, shrouded and surrounded by blue flames.

Yikes.

Outside, Hera and Zeb are preparing to spring Sabine free of Hydan's "company", though not before she learns the way to seal the portal again.

The lovely dichotomy of "Sabine will know."/"He's on his way." is great BTW, they have so much faith and trust in each other.

Sabine's cheeky little, "Sorry about the mess." :)

I am fairly certain, though I can't find the post from Celebration that talked about it in overview, that Dave et all recycled several ideas from the planned Season 7 arcs for TCW into Rebels. This fight I'm sure was one of them, I remember something about fighting Palpatine in the basement of the Jedi Temple, where the nexus is.

Full male chorus for this moment, love it.

Palpatine won't give up so easily. He still needs to piggyback off Ezra's permission, because the Temple accepted Ezra and rejected him. If he cannot trick Ezra into being his anchor, he will simply attempt to latch onto him from the other side by force, through Sith sorcery.

YEAH NO THAT'S TERRIFYING.

Also fanficcers once again have let me down, I need way more Bad End AUs to this scene than just the one I wrote.

"When you get back, come and find me!" An obligation yet to be fulfilled. Hopefully the Ahsoka show will finish this out. *fingers crossed*

Ahsoka runs back off into the shot where her back was to the camera from "Twilight of the Apprentice" and Ezra escapes, to Palpatine's severe annoyance I'm sure. I would not want to be in the room when that happened, lemme just tell ya lol.

OH HEY HERE'S MY FAVORITE NO CONTEXT SIGNATURE SCENE. :D

There's so many things about this scene that I love. Sabine grabbing Ezra's arm to help him up. Zeb practically holding Ezra to him as they run, giving him cover from the blaster fire. Chopper's Big Damn Heroes moment as he drives a freaking drill (one he was eyeing earlier) into the crowd of Stormtroopers.

DEAN KINER'S EXCELLENT "THE TEMPLE COLLAPSES" MUSIC CUE WHICH IS OF COURSE MY FAVORITE OF THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK.

Ezra looking immediately to Sabine to tell him which one to activate, because he trusts she's figured it out. Zeb helping lift him high enough to reach.

Ezra connecting to the Son, the score piping in with piano to signify the Force usage. Maybe Ezra is having to call upon the Dark Side, maybe he is just making a connection, but either way it's harder than it was with the Daughter. Takes more effort. He collapses immediately into Zeb's arms right after.

But look at Ezra’s expression:

The way his lips and eyes pinch, how his face tightens. The minute tremble in his lip. It’s not anger or fear or passion he’s channeling here.

It’s grief.

Ezra falls unconscious into a Pietà pose (more on that in the messianic imagery post) and looks incredibly small here in Zeb's arms. This is such a soft moment and it's so sweet, I love it.

The mural turns crimson red and the Temple begins to seal and collapse. Removing itself from the physical plane of existence entirely, to deny Palpatine access.

Our heroes flee, Hydan perishes, the most gorgeous animation of the show splashes across the screen as the wolves return to their place, the Daughter and Son descend, and the Father claps his hands and sinks the Temple.

Ezra is barely conscious the whole time, a lot having been taken out of him. It's similar to how he collapsed in "Gathering Forces" and "Vision of Hope" and "Holocrons of Fate", too much Force energy exhausts him. As he fades out, Kanan's voice calls out from the white light.

"The Force will be with you, always."

By implication, "I'll be with you Ezra. I'm alive inside of you now."

And then all that's left is to say one last goodbye to Kanan, across the glasslike surface of the plain where the Temple once stood, into the rising light of dawn and the fading footsteps of the white Loth-wolf.

Kanan's theme plays us out over the credits.

These two episodes contextualize, and re-contextualize SO much about the overall story. Finally we know what Ezra was meant to do, what made him so special that the Force chose him, not as the Chosen One, but as a Chosen One, with a specific destiny and purpose that he needed to fulfill.

A child of Lothal, tested and found worthy by the wolves, who was already blessed by the Jedi Temple before. Favored by the Force to enter into its innermost sanctum to protect it from those who would desecrate it, twist it to their own purposes.

Ezra's narrative importance to the overall Star Wars saga becomes immensely clear. His character development is complete, and he now has the strength to stand against Palpatine's temptations, and the bravery to make the ultimate sacrifice for his planet and people. One whose results he won't even be able to see.

Just like Kanan did. Kanan's last lesson--To love unselfishly and give of yourself, even if means losing what you hold dear, simply because it is right and you are needed--will be Ezra's final act as well. And it took being asked to let go and accept Kanan's death for him to understand.

These episodes are beautiful in theme and message. The World Between Worlds is a fascinating perfect addition to Star Wars lore. The character work is fantastic and I can even pardon the clear favoritism in managing to bring Ahsoka back. I love these episodes so so much, they're my absolute favorites of the whole show.

We're almost done my loves, let's watch Ezra's character development pay off next time. :)

#star wars #star wars rebels #ezra bridger #sabezra #kanan x hera #liveblog #rebels rewatch #meta rambling #Rebels Rambles #this is a pro jedi blog #space dad and his precious pumpkin child

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mrs-gauche · 1 year

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WOW, so volume 3 of The Missing is out and… what the heck just happened? 😂 I feel like this volume left me with more questions than the previous two volumes combined. There are some VERY intriguing lore bits in this one (and also a lot of.. questionable stuff again, too lol). It messed with my head in every possible way, so I hope I can somehow collect my thoughts by writing them all down under the cut. You know the drill. :D So let’s dive into it.

(Btw, I've already talked about the matter of each volume being drawn by a different artist in my post on volume 2, so I’ll just say that, out of the three art styles we got so far, I probably like this one the least? Maybe it was just me, but I found myself a bit confused at times by the visuals and what was happening? lol Of course, this is all subjective and it's not bad or anything, I just liked the previous ones better, I guess. But hey, it’s nice to see that, apparently this new artist got BioWare’s memo on Varric’s (and Harding’s) new design, too. lol So, no sudden design change again, like we got from volume 1 to 2. Though is it just me or does Harding’s hairstyle keep changing in every volume? lol Makes me wonder what it‘ll end up being if we get to see her again in DA4 (because she‘s obviously going to be a companion 👀.)

- So we start off with a neat one page kinda “roadmap”/”montage” of Varric and Harding traveling to our next destination, Arlathan Forest….. by ship? (*still crossing fingers for a ship main base in DA4 btw*) Ok, I know I said I would stop nitpicking about every little thing in this story that seems to happen out of “plot convenience” after the last volume, but.. I just have so many questions here already. 😂

Ok, so.. how exactly did they even manage to make it out of Vyrantium like that? Are the Antaam who are setting the siege on the city, in addition to not knowing about people getting in and out of the city through the sewage, ALSO not aware of/don’t care about people leaving the city by ship? 😂 I mean, I would assume that the Antaam still have a strong naval power under their belt with all those dreadnoughts and what not, so… were Varric and Harding just incredibly lucky or are the Antaam just really bad at setting a siege? lol

In fact, why even take the risk to travel by ship in the first place? lol Especially considering how in the first chapter of Tevinter Nights, it was said that the Antaam were occupying the shores along the Arlathan Forest, so…. did they just retreat after the events of that chapter or.. again, are Varric and Harding just incredibly lucky to have not come across their camps when they reached the shores? 😂 ANYWAY.

- Nope. Luckily, they don‘t encounter any Antaam OR their dreadnoughts, but they do come across a few shipwrecks that *are* probably the result/aftermath of some sea battles between the Qunari and Tevinter, I assume? OR, my other guess, seeing as there is also this giant sea monster depicted on the map right along Varric and Harding’s route…

....maybe those ships fell victim to one of those lovely creatures. lol (Remember that DA4 codex entry in one of the BioWare Community Updates about motherflippin Sea Dragons??) There certainly seems to be a good chance for a generally far more “oceanic” setting in DA4! 👀👀

Btw, I’ve also seen people being confused about there being icebergs in the northern sea? lol

I mean, we already established snow on the equator (confirmed by Mark Darrah himself lmao), so I don’t see a problem with some ice in the nocen sea. lol

- Anyway, leaving the sea behind us… We then get a gorgeous establishing shot of our next location, prompting me to say.. Welcome to Inception Forest I mean Arlathan Forest!

Things have indeed become very strange in this place, it seems.

My first question upon seeing this was actually how old some of these twisted structures and the ruins we see throughout this volume might be? Seeing as the general assumption seems to be that this forest was the place where the capital city of Elvhenan Arlathan once stood, and imo it’s as good as confirmed at this point that Arlathan is/was the Golden/Black City in the center of the Fade, I’d say it makes a lot of sense that magic ran wild here after Solas created the Veil and did whatever to take Arlathan to the Fade, along with some very angry trapped gods inside? lol Unless we believe that other story in which, according to Tevinter, Arlathan sank onto the ocean floor after some massive blood ritual, long after the Veil was created. Either way, the Veil/magic/spirits going bonkers in this place could be traced back to a lot of historic events.

What I am kinda missing in this panel though (besides Harding’s hair color, I guess lol) and throughout this whole volume actually, are the golden/autumn leaves we’ve been seeing in all the concept art/illustrations thus far?

Though maybe that’s just a stylistic choice by the artists?

And again, sorry for the nitpick, but plot convenience strikes again as we just so happen to walk into this very helpful group of people. lol

- Irelin and Strife!! <333 Another space to cross out on our speculation bingo card. lol And as expected, judging by their design, they are in fact the people we’ve been seeing in all the concept art/teaser trailer/etc.

- I don't know but something about the art style, the way this panel is drawn, the overall design of those guys and just the name "Veil Jumpers" is giving me huge 80s rock band vibes. 😂 Like, I was looking at this, thinking "So, when's their album coming out?" Because damn, I'll be the first to buy it! 😂

- I'll be honest, that is not at all what I imagined Strife to look like when I was reading Tevinter Nights. lol I'd say he definitely lives up to his name. 😂 He kinda reminds of Sten..? What with the hair and facial features. Also, he wasn't described to have vallaslin in TN? So did he get it after the events in the book? And speaking of similarities.. Doesn't Strife also look a lot like this one guy from the DA4 concept art?

Idk, but given the height and the skin tone, I always assumed that this has to be a hornless qunari? But upon closer inspection, the ears don't really look all that pointy, so... maybe it's just a *really* tall human? 😂 (Or sneaky BioWare once again messed with this image in editing.. I just KNOW that “Shotgun Girl” is Harding and they edited the weapon in the line up concept art to not look like Bianca and her height to resemble that of a human to fool us! I’m ONTO you, BioWare…. 👀)

- So.. the thing about Strife…

While in Tevinter Nights, he was described as a city elf from Starkhaven who eventually joined a Dalish clan, there is an interesting theory floating around that he might actually be an ancient elf. 👀 For one, he appears to be taller than the regular elf, which we know for a fact that at least some of the ancient elves were a lot taller than modern elves (Solas being a special little snowflake again lol).

His facial features are also quite similar to most of the qunari we’ve seen thus far, which could point to the theory of the Kossith being the product of some ancient elven experiments with dragon blood.

There’s also the matter of his name. “Strife” reminds me a lot of how the ancient elves like to take on a defining attribute/purpose in life as their namesake (e.g. Solas/Pride, Abelas/Sorrow, Felassan/Slow Arrow), so “Strife” might’ve literally been his name in ancient times that he now just translated into the common tongue.

- So as it turns out, the Veil Jumpers are simply an “alliance between the best Dalish mages, hunters and other non-elves willing and able to contain the threat of the chaos that reigns over the Arlathan Forest”, which has me wondering how many Dalish clans living here are currently missing a mage, what “containing the chaos” actually means and how they’re able to withstand the effects of some of the strange magic that we see throughout the volume. Also, how do non-elves even get to join them in the first place? Where do they come from?

- I gotta say, Irelin actually *does* look a lot like how I pictured her in the book. lol I like the fur she has going as a little hint at her shapeshifting abilites.

- We're also introduced to two completely new characters called Binde and Tist Tits (I SWEAR, I misspelled it the first time, but since I have the humor of a twelve year old and as a German, the pun is just too good to miss because "Binde" is also literally the German word for "menstrual pad", I'm just not gonna correct myself lmao), who don’t have much of a role or dialogue in this volume, but I still like their design a lot!

- So in conclusion, so far I’m loving the diversity of the Veil Jumpers, seeing as *cough* obviously this is one of the factions you’ll get to choose for your protagonist in DA4, so you won’t be limited to play as an elf *cough* and I’m very excited to learn and see more about them! :D

(- Btw, does anyone know what happened to Myrion? lol I would love to see him again in DA4, having joined Strife and the Veil Jumpers after the events in TN! <3)

- Varric interrupting Harding seems to be a running gag at this point. lol What also seems be a bad running gag by now is half the artists of this comic forgetting about Harding's freckles somehow. 😂 Well, at least they didn't forget about her scar this time around. lol

- Also, Varric and Harding starting off WAY too trusting again, when they don’t even know if these guys could be affiliated with Solas‘ agents or something? lol Also, they don’t even have anything to prove their claims here. Basically, there should be no reason for the Veil Jumpers to trust Varric and Harding either, especially given that they’re after some super powerful ancient artifact….. but we have to further a plot, so we’re friends now, I guess. lmao

- lmao Yeah, because apparently the Inquisition just can’t affort to send out more than these two goofballs to stop the end of the world. And I still admire your optimism here Harding, but again, given that Solas was already several months ahead of you in the last volume, how could you possibly still believe to find it before him or the Venatori at this point? 😂

- Well, I think you guys underestimate our indestructible Mr Varric “Plot Armor” Tethras. This man has survived two whole games, including several DLC, a book and like a dozen different comic series. He’ll manage, I’m sure. lmao

- I'm sorry, but how the hell does this map even WORK?? LMAO Like, how are you supposed to use this for any sense of orientation or direction?? I swear, this is what it looks like if I tell a six year old to draw a treasure map. 😂

- The weird map aside though, I think the concept of these different “trials” could make for some really fun features in DA4, gameplay wise? Like, can you imagine level design with entire upside down sections or messing with time like in the Prince of Persia games for example? I think there’s sooo much potential here for some really cool creative level design ideas!

- Now, this was super trippy! Switching places with spirits like that is definitely a first and I can’t even begin to think about what all this could indicate in terms of established lore?? Like, how does this work? What kind of spirits are those? I’ve got a lot of questions here.

„Then you’ll be trapped down here. Forever.“

- Wow, thanks Strife, would’ve been very nice to have known that *beforehand*. lmao

- I assume these are the poor people who met that very fate then, which is horrifying, to say the least. I don’t even want to guess how many ages some of them must be trapped there, seemingly unable to die? *shiver*

- I… What kind of face is THAT? lmao

- I’m impressed by Harding seeming to adapt to all of this quite well compared to Varric. Maybe she should consider becoming a Veil Jumper some day. lol

- Next up is the “upside down” trial and in relation to this, I’d like to shamelessly use this opportunity once more to refer to this little theory I posted a few weeks ago. :D

- Also, hey look, Leopards! That’s new!

- THIS whole series of events messed with my head so much on my first read.. Like, I had to re-read this part four times and I still don‘t fully understand what happened here, but we’ll get back to this moment by the end (you know what I’m talking about). lol

Though I felt SO bad for making fun of Varric rapidly aging in my last post when I saw him suddenly collapse like that. 😶 Also, was I the only one thinking about what it must’ve been like for the ancient elves to experience something similar when Solas created the Veil and time got distorted, without even knowing what physically aging even meant before that? Like, that must’ve been horrifying as well.

„I think it’s better I don’t even try to understand what just happened…“

You and me both, Varric. lol

- That’s certainly a VERY different kind of Varterral than what we’re used to. lol Though I really like this new design, gives me LOTR Ents vibes! Can’t wait to fight against one of these guys in DA4. *nervous laughter*

- I want to point out that this has to be the very first time in this entire comic so far that someone actually comes up with a plan before jumping into action. lmao Really appreciate you for that, Irelin. <3

- WOAH OK, hold on a second??? There’s so much to this panel that I don’t even know where to start. lol I literally gasped out loud.

Ok first off, the mural on the right. Obviously, this is the same mural that we saw in the 2020 teaser trailer, which indicates that this has to be the same place then, too, right? (Unless Solas is just walking around leaving his signature graffiti all over Thedas. lol Though I do wonder why this one looks way more “crumbled” than what we saw in the teaser?)

The mural on the left though is new and probably the juciest part about this whole volume for elven lore scholars. lol I’ve already seen many people speculate, so I’ll just say that my initial thought on this was also Ghilan’nain and Andruil!

So, there are two figures that appear to be female with some very familiar headpieces, who seem to embrace each other in some way. The shape of the headwear seems to also align with some of the symbols we’ve seen in the latest cinematic, which are widely assumed to represent the Evanuris.

And the upper figure looks a lot like the one seen in the teaser and the concept art, which going by the fandom’s most popular assumption, could very likely be Ghilan’nain.

As far as we know, the only females in the elven pantheon are Mythal, Sylaise, Andruil and Ghilan’nain. And out of those four, Ghilan’nain and Andruil are believed to have been lovers. So, if that’s what we’re seeing in this mural, that would actually be a huge deal, since, well, up until now, we didn’t even know what any of them looked like!!

There also seems to be an ominous third person, cramped up in the lower corner of the mural, which does kinda resemble the red lyrium idol, like the amazing @felassan has also pointed out in this post!

And while looking at this, I realized that those garments and headwear are also very reminiscent of some Tevinter designs we’ve seen, particularly the Archon’s outfit?

Which imo could hint at Tevinter once again just adopting a lot of ancient elven concepts into their own culture after they conquered them all these ages ago. Like, it’s surely no coincidence that the mage-ruler of the Imperium looks so much like the most powerful rulers of Elvhenan?

I’ve also seen people saying that the red female appears to be pregnant?? I’m not so sure though, it’s hard to tell from the angle and the way it’s draw. 🤔 But if true, it would definitely raise *a lot* of questions.

Though I can’t believe I haven’t really seen anyone actually point out the most baffling part about all of this!

Which is, why the flippin hell would Solas even choose to draw such imagery in the first place?? lmaoo (Assuming that the right mural was probably made by him, too. Which suggests that he drew this one as well.) Like, is Solas treating these ruins like his personal drafts for his secret tumblr side blog, drawing intimate GhilxAndy fanart?? Solas, you owe us ANSWERS, Sir!

And funny enough, the art style does make it kinda look like these murals are more like giant wallpapers rather than actual frescoes. lol

- ANYWAY, since there’s still a lot more to get to, let’s talk about the “Big Shocking Reveal”.

And I’m not talking about the fact that Solas has apparently taken the Crucious Stone long before they got there.. No, that wasn’t even remotely surprising to me. 😂

No, I’m of course talking about Varric thinking it was Solas who saved him from that Leopard. lmao

THIS made my head spin in so many ways, and it kinda still does lol, so I’ll make an attempt now to make sense of this the best I can.

So, let me get this straight… The way I take it, the supposed “Venatori assassin” ran up to Varric out of seemingly nowhere, shoved him aside, then Varric “aged back”, the Leopard jumped on the assassin instead, turned into a kitten and then the assassin essentially…. disintegrated? lol At least, that’s what it looks like to me...

All right. So if that’s what happened, then I feel like there are several possible scenarios here.

A) That Venatori guy was actually real, but was somehow manipulated by Solas to do this.

B) Solas made a spirit possess the guy or there was never a real person in there to begin with.

C) Solas actually pulled another “Bard” disguise and dressed up like the Venatori assassin himself (although I don’t know exactly what happened to him then when he “vanished” after that kitten attack lmao), which I guess would also retrospectively suggest that the Venatori who had been stalking Varric and Harding since volume 1 was also Solas himself all along……

*sigh*

You know, honestly I had this silly thought in the back of my mind from the very beginning, like I kept laughing to myself, what if this Venatori was actually Solas all along... but I guess I just refused to ever write it down in my previous posts because… I thought it was just.. too ridiculous? 😂

And I don’t particularly mean the disguise part, obviously ever since “the Bard”, anything is possible. lmao

No I mean.. Why.. the heck.. would Solas… stalk Varric and Harding, while setting them up on this loooong friggin goose chase through half of the country and leave all those clues for them to follow his tracks…. only for Varric.. to find this letter.. telling him NOT to interfere??? What was the purpose of all this then?? Like, how does this make sense?? 😂 Someone help me understand… That being said, I just really hope it was either case A or B. 😂 Or Varric is just.. wrong? lol OR I should simply stop questioning the logic of this very simple comic. 😂 As long as the actual game’s writing doesn’t leave me with a headache, I’m good.

Though in hindsight, it IS pretty funny how I even kept saying how crappy the Venatori was at his job. lol Like them leaving the X pattern on that deepstalker in volume 1 was such a strange thing to do? And if it turns out to be case C, then I can already see Solas trying to pull this number on us again in DA4. lmao I guess the game’s slogan will be “Trust no one.” It could be Solas in disguise. 💀

- I love how Solas apparently made his own customized Dread Wolf signet ring for a wax seal AND proceeded to even sign the letter with his name, as if there could be ANYONE else leaving a letter like this addressed to Varric in such a place. lmao This MAN!

- Oh dear, Solas really was like „Please Varric, elven mythology already turned me into their greatest villain in history, I don’t want to be one in yet another smuddy literature popular narrative…“ lmao

- I’m a little confused by this conclusion, seeing as the previous volume mentioned that magic had already “run wild in Arlathan Forest for at least a 1000 years”. So I thought this was nothing that happened just recently because of Solas‘ actions? Though maybe Irelin is talking about something else? Or the state of Arlathan has somehow gotten even stranger since Solas started to prepare something for his big ritual he mentioned in Tevinter Nights?

- It’s also interesting to note that, out of all the factions we’ve come across so far in this comic, the Veil Jumpers are now the only ones who actually got to know Solas‘ name and identity?

- So that’s where we’re leaving off and looking at the blurb for the final volume again, I’m curious to see how all this will now tie back to Minrathous and if the Crucious Stone is even going to play any significant role at all. lol As you might've noticed there were a lot of "why" questions here, which I doubt any of them will be answered in the final volume, so... I guess we're just left to wait for what's in the actual game then. 😂

If anything, the preview of the final cover does seem to complete our speculation bingo card, with how it continues to follow the pattern of the factions in the teaser/concept art/short stories from 2020.

So I assume the final faction, which is the only one still somewhat shrouded in mystery, is going to be have something to do with “The Viper“/Tarquin? 👀 So I’m very excited to find out who it’s gonna be and most of all, to get a look at the big city, Minrathous itself (and who knows, maybe we even get to see Solas in the very last panel or something)! Let’s see how all this ties in to DA4! :D

#dragon age the missing #dragon age the missing spoilers #tevinter nights spoilers #varric tethras #solas #da4 #one more to gooo! :D

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ntls-24722 · 1 year

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ok so i feel like it's about time i've talked about the weird, convoluted headcanon lore i've made for DJMM. everything i leave in my head for too long gets distorted and unrecognizable from.the source

ok so i think a lot of DJMM enjoyers have seen this tweet and while it's fake, because there's like 5 sentences alluding to DJMM in the entire game i've accepted it as fact and I went so overboard with the detail that it says home language. Not like, "original language" or nothing like that, home language

So, alongside the fact that DJMM has a couple things implying that he wasn't originally from Fazbear Entertainment (why would fazbear entertainment issue a warranty... to themselves?...), and that there also just happens to be a wedding dj company called The Music Man IRL that I found by accident, I kind of just made this whole weird thing that before he was bought by Fazbear Entertainment he was a Wedding DJ in Japan.

Alongside being able to set up practically everything, clean up afterwards, and cater to guests in all sorts of ways, he was also made to be able to just... hit the town and stroll down to his destination instead of being directly shipped to or brought there. Imagine being some little kid watching this giant spider thing stroll down the street.

Hold on to that visual, actually, because that brings me to why he considers Japan his home rather than just his... place of origin.

So his bouncer mode. It actually wasn't experimental but rather a very often-used mode of his since I imagine he's attended many weddings were someone has had to be... forcibly escorted out. But what the problem is with it is that during that mode, he is essentially given no restrictions on what he can do and has just been activating it so he can go against orders.

He's big, but he's travelling on hand, hulking around a big bag of supplies on the way, it may take a while for him to get from headquarters to his destination, maybe even days. But what his creators don't know is that he's been taking detours and entire days off to bond with civilians that have been fascinated by him, originally just children marvelling him, but he grew closer to them and becoming much more like a weird uncle to them, growing a bond with a rural community to the point even their families know of him and see him as a friend, and it's this bond that starts to bring problems.

DJMM starts to demand things that robots don't really get to demand, like days off and privacy, which concerns the company as for why he'd even need that. He starts committing outright fraud to insert legally insert himself into society and starts taking tips or some of the profit to spend for himself. He starts tearing out/ sabotaging GPS systems, or disabling microphones so they can't figure out where he's been going or what he's saying. It gets to the point where he outright threatens employees' lives and keeps some hostage to force them into allowing him to do what he wants.

The arms race between DJMM and his creators comes to a close when his creators decide to sell him off to Fazbear entertainment, sieging him and choking him of his battery life before doing a factory reset and sending him off, finally getting rid of him (also voiding Fazbear's warranty on him if his bouncer mode is ever activated again)

While he was able to secretly save his memories, it's not much use now that he's in a whole new country. He's still figuring out how to reconnect with the kids he practically watched grow up but he's also still getting up to trouble in America. we stan a dude who commits... all of this

His design is, now that i realize it, very much inspired by Moguro from the Laughing Salesman. Also he's got the fun eye liquid swirlies from DJMM's Beta design

which, speaking of DJMM's weird design elements. ✨weird things i've noticed about DJMM's design✨

Weird long hole things in the sides of him??? I've seen NO-ONE talk about this

Those aren't speakers. I thought they were, too, for the longest time, but while staring at his ass for a particularly long time I realized that A. They don't have the texture of his other speakers and B. They go in?

Second, he has a gummy smile. It's not shown a lot since i guess his default position is just an agape mouth but in the rare occassion he clicks his teethplates together, or this one Particular render, he's got gums for days

also what the freak, anytime i try to look up a specific facial feature for reference im always finding procedures for removing it!! i'm sick of it!! it popped up when i was looking up cleft chins for Music Man and it popped up for gummy smiles! we can't have SHIT in his household!! goddamn!!!

#djmm #dj music man #(almost) daily music man #ntls-24722 #also im not shaming anyone who does get plastic surgery for that. your body is yours do what u want #i just think its disheartening that when i look up a specific feature what pops up is procedures getting rid of it #its just like #“damn. we cant have anything now can we”

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bigprettygothgf · 1 year

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unbox thread

box 1: bigbadtoystore pile of loot

actually the one i spent the least amount of money on since all i had to pay for was tax and shipping everything else was already paid for and the last thing i added was thru store credit. been waiting to ship since december

first off: even more diorama setpieces. im worried this company has disbanded because there hasnt been any updates since last year and a lot of their product has sold out on most sites, including everything here. the top box i only got because i happened to catch one that went up after someone presumably cancelled their order, i had to cancel my siege sky lynx reissue to pay for it bc i didnt have another $80 lying around but this was far more important since im not sure ill ever be able to get it again. its already kinda hard to find info on these smaller chinese companies so i guess ill have to wait and see but i hope their line is continuing because i fucking love these sets. anyways

kämpfer to build later, my favorite mobile suit, knowing me this will either get built like tonight or in like 6 months

siege optimus, this has randomly restocked on several sites so its either uncovered old stock or a new production run. either way recently ive been trying to collect a more cohesive g1 autobot collection since i realised compared to my decepticons their situation is kinda (really) dire. earthrise optimus has risen up by a bit on the aftermarket but i think that version looks way worse and vastly preferred this version anyways so idc, if i later decide i *really* need a trailer ill look elsewhere

got the siege jetfire reissue, as prev mentioned i was gonna get the sky lynx reissue too but had to cancel him. will get that later, he seems a lot more abundant than jetfire is

i really love him. only thing i dont like is the hand gimmick where a 3mm port flips out whenever the fingers are closed because theyre loose and cause his guns to just kinda flop around but its whatever. and also the jet mode is gappy and ugly but its hard to make a good toy out of a design that fundamentally was clearly drawn by someone that did not give a shit lol so idc its fine still

g2 ramjet, one of my favorite 90s neon nightmare recolors, clearly the basis for slipstream. got on sale for like $25 back before bbts made the horrible decision to not allow sale items to be added to stack

addon kit for legacy scourge, i still have massive problems with that toy but this will help. a bit. i thought they sent me the wrong kit at first bc the box still showed laser prime and was panicking since this set is sold out now lol but i opened it and sure enough its correct, guess they saw no sense in redoing the box since its just a variant

more neca alien/predator, i do love the avp arcade game aesthetic, sucks that anime dutch is the only dutch you can get now that wont cost you a kidney but what can you do

and finally my most important acquisition

bf1 spam

#long post #my pics #my stuff

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spearxwind · 1 year

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since talas has to eat One Big Thing every month or so like you said and i assume communities around the globe are reeling in their own leviathans, what are their populations like? are there plenty, are they going extinct, are leviathans each unique things, or are there things like common and rare species etc and if so do these normal, not shapeshifter leviathans display special abilities like hades' being a blowtorch or talas' ice beam (SORRY for this i love the idea of gigantic ocean creatures being regular things and would love to see more of the biome sort of stuff this world has if you've given it any thought!!! love the characters and the gay eels yes but the enviromence...) are there leviathan hunting rules/regulations like throwing back female blue crabs...........

Oh good question! :]

Leviathans are one hundred percent NOT going extinct. The ocean is massive and immensely deep, there are MANY of them out there. Comparatively, there are very few mers because there's very little land, and they hunt for resources, not to fill a quota or just for sport, so leviathan hunting does not drive them to extinction. If we're gonna use Talas as a comparison, average mer communities would be able to rely on maybe one hunt a month or so as well, roughly.

And yeah there is a hunting guild that somewhat regulates hunts (there's not like,,, hard law syndicate or whatever), for the most part to make sure the ecosystem does not take damage. Merfolk are a part of the ecosystem too just like the big leviathans are so they both fulfil their role in it

In general leviathans do have some "species" that they can be categorized in but in general tend to be unique, but that's because I like designing different things and I like the idea of some of them being completely unexplained x) so I guess the answer of that is there's both kinds. Could be theres a species of leviathans that are like whales and live in pods, sometimes a fish just Becomes Fucking Huge, sometimes [redacted information], etc etc. Free real estate

Some DO have special abilities as well, the most common beam attack ones are water jets, poison, and acid (siege for example, is a non-shifter leviathan who spits acid). Fire is really rare but it happens. Sometimes they do have other abilities like hypnosis or illusions that are meant to be more defensive than offensive. I don't have a whole lot of info on that though bc the general vibe for that is giving them the vibes of some irl sailor legends for "what sea monsters could potentially do", some of em could be tall tales some of em could be real

As for biomes.... I have the overland ones set pretty much. Still have not decided on a lot of the ocean ones, but theres a lot. I would like to have a subnautica-esque variety of them (as in, really varied with some of them really colorful) but I havent gotten around to actually think thonking of them very much yet. Funny enough my own world's oceans are largely unexplored to me at the moment x) but I will get on that for sure!

Currently the biomes ive at least thought out are the polar areas (especially voids embrace), a volcanic area around the spine, with a lot of hydrothermal vents and stuff (things get real weird there), the tropic belt is filled with life and colors and is neighbored by grand reefs which are also filled with life and colors

#ask #challenger deep #anon #i hope i answered all ur questions!! ty for asking!#im so tired im so sorry if this reads weirdly i dont have the braincells for proper proofreading wahh #if its too incomprehensible or if i left things out please feel free to ask again

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myrxellabaratheon · 8 months

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The Lannisters are the ASOIAF Borgias

Yes, I just realized it now!

HI everyone, it's your Italian girl obsessed with Italian Renaissance and History here!

This probably ig going to be messy and all the things are going to be quoted by heart because I'm lazy BUT I just had this epiphany so you will all bear with me.

Considering the title of this post it might be went unsaid but TW: incest applies to the entirety of this little things. So... Let's start.

Tywin is Rodrigo. I mean, it goes kind of unsaid, he's the head of the family, gets to the position he's in because of his meriths and his ability to use people. Overly ambitious, would do everything for the name of his family to the point where he fucks up his children completely. (There are also similities in their deaths -- more like what happens sort after but I'm not going to discuss it here, google what happens to Rodrigo Borgia's body shortly after his death if you are curious).

Jaime is Cesare. Both are their fathers' pride, the designed heirs to the family and both decide (while Cesare's wasn't technically 100% his decision) to take vows that will bring themselves to give up to their birthrights (again, "technically" if we speak about Cesare but honestly THAT part of history is more complex than ASOIAF lore). Eventually they both end up being commanders of their fathers' armies and end up in a siege which has them using more their wits than their soldiers' forces. And yes, there's the being in love with their sisters and the "maybe her kid isn't her husband's but her brother's" thing.

Cersei is Lucrezia. Their hands are basically sold to the better option on the table for political alliances all while their fathers don't really give a shit because they are women and so are only useful when they can marry them off. Actually try to love their husbands (I'm talking about Giovanni Sforza here for Lucrezia as I'm considering her first marriage) but NOOOPE out after their first night together. End up having tons of lovers because a girl has needs, ok?! Both can and will kill a man given the opportunity. End up having a lot of problems with the Church (or what passes for the Church) after their fathers die. Fall in love with their brothers at a very young age and did everything to keep them closer. (Works better for Cersei, but still)

Tyrion is Juan. End up being the heirs even if their fathers didn't want it. Have the fame of spending more time in a brothel than everywhere else. At some point are just "I'm done with this family and its utter bullshit so I'll just go away, it's been a pleasure" except that Juan does it keeping the title and the family name and continuing the dynasty while managing to die in Italy for some reasons cause he eventually comes back. (Honestly I know Tyrion is Juan is really a short paragraph and they didn't have many similarities but the rest of the parallelism worked too well and Rodrigo had more children than Cesare and Lucrezia and I wanted to let you know)

Also I watched Borgia: Faith and Fear and not The Borgias when historical TV series were still GOOD and in that series there are both Sam's and Jorah's actors so I wanted to inform you all about it. ++ Juan's actor would make an AMAZING young Robert and please chec that series out cause it's good and not too far-fatched when it comes to historic accuracy.

#house lannister #tywin lannister #jaime lannister #cersei lannister #tyrion lannister #the borgias #borgia: faith and fear #got #game of thrones #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire

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tobiasdrake · 2 months

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Nope. No. We're not doing that. It's time to delve into the secrets of the Music Box.

Holy shit, the first Blue Robe? Are they even alive? I have so many questions for them. Like. What's with the blue robes? Why is that a thing? Do you know how searing on the eyes all of this blue eventually becomes when you've lived here for weeks? Why are there--

...

How does it feel to be a jackass who withholds critical information?

Wait, you've been holding onto that grudge this whole time!?

Oh, fuck me. I insulted your shop and I got offended when you wanted to wear a cool hat like mine. It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me.

They say that if you meet one asshole, that just means you met one asshole. But if everyone meet is an asshole then you might be the asshole. And I sure have met a lot of assholes... Uggggggggh I hate facing down the consequences of my mistakes and having to grow as a person.

This is why I've never had any friends before you guys. ._. I get it now.

"Civilization" might be a bit of a stretch given that the Ovates couldn't give them sentience. But ChatGPT did safeguard the entrance to the Sea of Stars and police who comes and goes from our world.

And we have Khukharr to thank for that. The joint project of the Ovates and TIA, he was designed for the specific purpose of hoisting Mesa Island high above the waves when the prophesized flood came. Presumably he's still down there now. Uh. Sleeping, probably.

It's interesting to me that you're apparently the only Blue Robe who knows all of this. As if you, and you alone, were present for it. I mean, Artificer's old enough to have been there too but Prophet explicitly said you, not him, were the first of the order. So I guess he hadn't come along to pitch in yet.

Level with me, Shopkeep; Are you Muse?

Makes sense. They hit the cloud giants first since ChatGPT was guarding their entry point. Luana's crew did the same thing to Aephorul's Guardian when they began their siege of Otherworld.

Okay, so you're not Muse, then. Glad we got that clarified.

...maybe. ≖_≖

And it went super well? He beat the Demon King's ass because Demon King ain't got shit and then went home to brag about it? And we all lived happily ever after?

Hold the fuck up

I thought the cycle was about us. Nobody's ever killed Demon King before so I thought... I thought that mattered, you know? I thought they reigned supreme and the curse keeps us repeating the same events over and over.

But it's them? They get to spring back to life every so often regardless of how many we kill? So even Demon King is just off waiting to respawn?

Ugh. That really takes the wind out of my sails. It took divine intervention to slay the Dweller of Strife after the Four Chucklefucks died and stopped weakening it. I hate the idea that this thing can return to life.

So the demons are immortal as long as the music box continues to play, and the music box will continue to play so long as Phantom is imprisoned and mind-controlled within it.

And that's the Scroll. The one that "You must carry to the highest peak" so that it can summon the Tower of Time.

This is all coming together.

#the messenger #drake plays the messenger

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magnetarbeam · 11 months

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So based on people's reactions, the most interesting part of all the shit I've thrown at the wall in terms of Voices of the Force is relativistically-time-travelled almost 17 year old Ahsoka sharing a room with Ben and Vestara, so here's some more about that little dynamic. And some headcanons about the Jedi at this point.

When Ahsoka first shows up, she asks about the fact that the word "padawan" doesn't really seem to be in common use anymore, and it's revealed that while the rank is technically called Apprentice, everyone is taught what "padawan" means and some choose to be called by that for various reasons. Vestara, for example, prefers "Padawan Khai" because "Apprentice Khai" is what she was called by the Sith, and this helps her distance herself from that.

For equal and opposite reasons, Ahsoka is fine with being referred to as "Apprentice Tano." I am very much trying to establish that the Jedi of this era have changed, and I think finding out from history about what was happening behind the scenes with Sidious and stufff would make it easier for her to let some things go, it's still, like. If nothing else, "padawan" is associated with "commander" in her traumatized flashbacks.

They're the first people she tells about the Daughter's essence after she finds out. The only other people who knew before that are whatever Council members were at the meeting where Ahsoka herself finds out about it.

Ahsoka drags them both down with her into the depths of reverse grip lightsabers.

Since Vestara knows the lightsaber styles of the Lost Tribe, Ahsoka trains against her a lot.

Ves and Ben pick up some Mando'a profanity pretty quickly. I'm trying not to emphasize that too much, because I don't like a lot of how Mandalorians are portrayed by the books in this period, but Ahsoka was at least one-third raised by... at least half-Mandalorians. I have to acknowledge it in some capacity.

My headcanon about Ahsoka in this period is that instead of having a standard-length lightsaber and a shoto, she has two dual-phase sabers, which can switch between a standard-length and shoto blade. (Instead of stereotypical dual-phase blades like, for instance, Corran's, which have a standard length blade and an extremely extended one.) Ves and Ben helped her figure out how to design it so that the dual-crystal ignition process or whatever it is that means the extended-blade activates faster in a regular dual-phase, also works in reverse here, so it changes from standard to shoto length faster than a common saber would take to deactivate that length of blade.

Finding out about O66 sends Ahsoka into an existential crisis about the relationship she had to the clones, and Ben shows her how to flow-walk so she can find out about the inhibitor chips and take comfort in the fact that they didn't do it on purpose and that it was just as genuine as she thought.

You can't get a holonet connection in the Transitory Mists, which is kind of a problem in terms of receiving requests for Jedi assistance. I guess they have to rely on courier ships or probe droids that just pop out and collect data or something.

None of these three have anywhere near the experience they need to qualify for StealthX combat missions (although Ben technically has the rank) but they definitely try to get a head start on understanding the mechanics of the things.

A random but vaguely relevant headcanon I have is that Ahsoka already knows how to do a Dathomiri blood trail, which she learned from Ventress when they ran into each other and had some time to kill at some point before or during Ahsoka's time with Spar's Protectors leading up to the Legends version of the Siege of Mandalore.

Ahsoka still has the TCW-style wrist comlink, and Vestara and Ben decide they like that idea and come up with similar setups for themselves.

One of my favorite TCW fic tropes/popular headcanons: Togruta purr when given physical affection.

#star wars legends #voices of the force au #ahsoka tano #vestara khai #ben skywalker

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katzirra · 5 months

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Spends over an hour talking to my buddy about comics once he finished Loki finally and sent me a meme to fucking talk shit on the poetry boys LMFAO

Casually writes a novel on comic blorbos.......

Jer brought up a really neat point and we kinda went off on like... both our experiences with Marvel comics and how they have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot with their fucking retcons and shit. Mostly like, in terms of it weirdly kinda... detracts from characters and maybe bits and pieces people related to? For me it was what drew me INTO dynamics of characters at times?

Now, I haven't touched a comic in almost 10 years so... anything that happened from the Marvel NOW! launch and forward is a mystery to me, and I'm ignorant on [to preface this long ass post...] Also my memory is spotty.

Also possibly spoilers for the new season if you haven't caught up on Loki :v so yaknow. IF YOU READ THIS AND CARE...

Jer and I were talking about the basis of the show really kinda became like how can we take this fan favorite character, let him have some emotional depth, maybe have some friends and do some fucky stuff with it. LETS GET WEIRD WITH IT??

It kinda harkens back to themes that made me ultimately fall in love with Deadpool comics, and reminds me of why I dropped reading his stuff too. I'll circle back to this lol.

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge sucker for a found family, and I'm a bigger sucker for characters defeating fate or the narrative. I'm big on the best friend/possible romantic option of a character that sees what an absolute dumpster fire next to a textile factory someone is, and still thinks there's something good in there.

I find it funny how much I couldn't STAND the hype of Loki as a character as long as he's been in the MCU because my experience with him has always been comics/cartoons and him being a little HOO HOO HEE HEE gremlin of a bastard. Just HATED him. Excellent MCU costume designs though.

The movies he's just a little weasel of a backstabbing bastard, and I find him annoying. Like yes, I see there's emotional trauma in EVERYTHING that makes his background aside from his mother, and yes I get the narrative of him as a villain etc - but I don't feel compelled by it, personally. That's just me though - I'm FASCINATED by people that are civil minded stans and can argue for why he's fascinating. But also, how much of that is personal projection too?

When I was getting into comics, the Siege event was going on so Loki's face was everywhere in like...2010?? So many teeth... And he was KILLED, and they started doing the Kid Loki stuff and I read a little bit of that because two of my RP friends in the Avenger's group I was in - and it was neat! Then in like 2014 they started doing... what was it, Agent of Asgard? That was....something. I never read it but it was interesting to see them make a workaround for them to kinda...breathe new life into a character people were getting into again!

NEAT STUFF, THAT'S NEAT TO ME!! I LOVE A REVAMP LIKE THAT!! I like the Marvel theme of escaping your reputation. I love that theme. It's like what they did with Evan, the uh Kid Apocalypse. I adore the whole aftermath of Uncanny X-Force for that - Evan just...fucking destined to be Apocalypse and fucking he's so DETERMINED NOT TO BE, and to learn his powers etc. I'm pretty sure he became... Genesis? And died fighting... ;; big sigh... at least he proved his worth, right?

But Jer and I talking about all this kinda made me sad too because we were discussing sort of the way Marvel can take an unlikeable bastard, and with the right handling, they can get something REALLY interesting with it!!

When I first got into Deadpool like...2011 or something I did it because I was annoyed seeing him everywhere and thought 'Surely there's more to him than fart and ass jokes?' and I was right, thankfully.

But I'd also spend a lot of time slogging through a lot of shit, and seeing him kind of BECOME only fart and ass jokes... Like, the movies are fun and stuff, I guess but... I honestly can't stand them very much. But that's me, if people enjoy them? Okay, tight. But also like Daniel Way just, OOF.

Interesting parallel - kinda made it click in place WHY I think I've been enjoying the Loki show. Like, when I picked up Deadpool I SLOGGED through the Joe Kelly run, which is just Wade being a little self-depreciating soggy, abusive and shitheaded person really. Hiding behind his paper bag over his face, excusing his actions because shit sucks - like just kind of a shitty awful and exhausting person overall. WOE!!! A piece of shit! And I get some of the shit that happens to him outside the OBVIOUS is fucky - but I don't know, it was kinda relentless. I feel like even when life deals you all lemons, there's still something in there to tell storywise to curb just the ONSLAUGHT of oh wow poor me... Can you tell I don't enjoy this run of comics? LMAO

But as you get through that, you start to get side comics that kinda do a bit more to polish him up. He's a jerk, and he's sensitive to how fucked up his face looks, but he isn't a wet feral animal ALL the time? He's just rude. Really rude. Random. We start to grasp OOOH IT'S AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO COVER SHIT WITH JOKES... man, I can relate to that haha HAHAHHA....

I got into reading Cable & Deadpool because my friend Johnly was HUGE into Xmen and it seemed inevitable to get into it... but it was well written and drawn and like... I'm married to it as my favorite comic. Those are my boys. Those are my besties. That's the comic ship I didn't ask for and I got it. That's the bromance/romance I go up to bat for. Any capacity - those are the BOYS. MY SONS.

It's my favorite trope; I've seen your worst, and I still think there's good in you. You just need someone in your corner.

FUCKING SCREAMS. Even still, in a non-shipping way that's my fucking duo DYNAMIC. You will sell me so often on ANYTHING with that.

When Cable and Deadpool came around, it rolled in after the Agent X comic, which gave us like a 'Clone' of Deadpool who had a WHOLE ENTOURAGE OF FRIENDS like a rag tag bunch of misfits who were a very unconventional FOUND FAMILY. Wade was still a fucking dick, a bastard a lot of times - but his friends saw value in him and stuck around still. Even ones he was recently a demon to, like...man.

And even more so; when Nate pulls the dick move of sacrificing himself, he had that support network of friends there for him to process that, because it hurts no matter how you see their relationship. That was his best friend. It hit hard.

It hits hard especially because Nate and him start out moral enemies. Wade hates him because he's holier than thou, and Nate hates him because he's a nuisance, he's a mercenary - there's a laundry list tbh. Untrustworthy. He's scum! The closer they keep rotating around one another - or into eachother even jfc - they start to tolerate one another, and start to talk more, and Nate starts to really talk about how Wade could do better and be better. Wade starts to see value in himself more, he's still sharp tongued with Nate, but he starts to also be a bit softer with him, joke around and sees value in HIM and what he's trying to accomplish with Providence and stuff. He sees the vision - but he also sees the danger of that vision in regards to Nate's LIFE.... So there's a lot of selfish shit on both sides of the fence that's interesting.

They don't always agree, but Wade starts to come around, and Nate does this thing where people will be like YO DEADPOOL BE CRAZY WHY YOU ROLLIN' WITH HIM? And he is in his corner to be like hey, that's my boy Wade like give him a chance? HE'S DIFFERENT NOW. But yaknow they also emotionally manipulate one another in weird ways. :)) SIGH.

GIVE AND TAKE I GUESS. But it's interesting to see the evolution of trust and openness?? They're best friends, you can't argue that.

AND YAKNOW...we were discussing the response to this actually!! In Loki it was interesting to see Mobius say shit like that to him [how he can BE BETTER, he can be whatever he wants to be!!] and he just kinda.... I don't know, he's a villain by definition and yet he's whipped 'round into this anti-hero kinda position that becomes curious. But he doesn't lash out when he's told this shit, because the fight has mostly left by that point. He doesn't know what to do with those words?? Like yeah, okay.

But, conversely, with Nate and Wade... Nate is very heavy handed with it, and Wade is INSANELY volatile with his emotions because of how his brain is always in flux. And...he gets to a point he starts lashing out about it, about how Nate is trying to change him and he's FINE AS HE IS, AND HE'S TIRED OF HIS SHIT. They lash out a lot, but Nate also is kind of a controlling shit. He wants to play god, where as yaknow... Mobius has ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD FOR THE SHITHEAD TO UNDERSTAND IF HE DIDN'T WANNA LISTEN.

Honestly hilarious, the similarities...

But Jer and I were talking about how it's interesting to us that the show really focused on WHO is Loki without his magic. He's a con-man, he's a fast talker, he's a violent little feral cat. He doesn't know what trust and care is honestly, because even in his own family there were so many lies and hostility. So they pit him with this partner who has seen every trick and BULLSHIT THING he's ever said and done, and is like "Yeah yeah big scary God, wow. ANYWAY-" He is both fascinated, complimentary, and utterly flippant about Loki and that's interesting. We meet someone, a whole organization, that isn't phased by the existence of Gods.

It's interesting to see tunnel vision character exploration - small cast exploration - on characters that are deemed bad, but have a weird thing about them that doesn't necessarily mean they're REDEEMABLE, but that they have something that is inherently BROKEN in their past that can be nursed? Latent potential to be good.

They're not hardwired to be good guys, they can be good people, but it's harder and more exhaustive. But sometimes - it's nice.

But uh yeah - SO ANYWAY, moves down the line some more here -

WEIRD SIMILARITIES. But they're there and maybe that's what I liked about the show. You present me with a character I already don't like, you mock him and kinda kick him when he's down and then have this guy show up who is like... not really a fanboy but - HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. He doesn't appear phased at all the shit he can throw at him, and he plants the seed that he can be better.

And I love that the show is two seasons. It's short, it's sweet, it does a lot of really interesting things I'm obsessed with visually and narratively you can fiddle with. It has a very bittersweet ending, but it's not 100% sad for me. I love that they got this irredeemable broken bastard, and they gave him a win - and yet it's still, in Loki's nature, a loss. But he has all the time in the universe to figure things out. If he can ascend like that in just a few centuries - what's to say he can't free himself from his coffin of his own making.

We're given a consequential win, and I've already see fans making fix-its that are PHENOMENAL. My FAVORITE things to see and read for fanfic topics is people playing with the sandbox. I hate that people ALWAYS assume you know, sexual shit when you say you read fanfic - I am OBSESSED with people playing with the sandbox and fixing issues. Continuing the story. Developing insane head canons, coming up with the most INTERESTING INTRICATE IDEAS and still leaving me on a cliff hanger.

You've taken a bastard, redeemed him, and influenced CREATIVE MINDS to play with it in a positive way. I've seen most people express APPROVAL but sadness with the ending and that's I think the best thing to happen! It's how I still feel about the Mass Effect 3 ending :))

Conversely it all really highlighted my sadness of how with comics, we can so easily run a good idea into the ground, and how ya'know... you can see your character MAKE that 180 or you can see them do like a 320 and come out a little worse....

For Deadpool, C&DP ends on a VERY bitter note of Nate sacrificing himself, he is depressed about it, I think they have a big talk with him about it with the Agent X fam? My timeline is fucky with the 3 'ending' points of C&DP - full transparency lol. But... after this comic comes the numerous team ups - like him trying to find his place in the world, and then in like 2008 [which I'd been working towards, and was excited for because the art was really CRISP...] you hit Daniel Way.

Way's Deadpool introduces the ANNOYING yellow box and white box almost as if he was split personalities, where as it was really just like...thought boxes, just colored uniquely... As far as I've read, this has been retconned in recent comics. But it's the big staple in all things Deadpool - but.... Way's Deadpool is very disjointed, he's trying to date and marry death, he's suicidal because he wants to be with her forever, he is a lot of dick and fart jokes that just don't hit for me - he has funny moments but I can't think of a single serious moment I got emotional over?? You gotta give us reasons to connect with our character, or things that hit us to stick with us? I felt like I was just reading low punches a lot?

But it did this weird thing, that I'm trying to find any of the wikis talk about and coming up blank, but there's this point in the comics where in Way's... he basically gets hunted down by his whole support net? It's like a big thing? Like everyone hates him and shit? But somehow EVERY WRITER AFTER THIS ACTS LIKE THINGS WERE FINE~

Like they hunted this man for SPORT it was WEIRD. It was so.... weird?? Going through my own tag I didn't even blog about it... weird??

But I dunno, it left a bad taste in my mouth to like reduce Wade down to like... what they did. C&DP works really hard to kinda get people to see some value in Wade, and then Way's DP just kinda tears that structure down and all he has is Bob left whom he really is AWFUL AS HELL TO....

It's sad to me. The new comics started, and I left shortly after, in like...what...2012? I was really excited for the team, the writers and artists involved and he looked GNARLY but interesting and I loved the colors and - it was gonna be WEIRD and funny... but they kinda kept leaning into the like...

You know when you don't wanna talk to someone, or be seen by someone and you shield your face and walk the other way? I feel like we were back to that with Deadpool. Like it was EMBARRASSING to be seen with him, even though in the aftermath of C&DP we did all those team-ups and had some great cross overs and EVEN HAD A SPIDERMAN COMIC THAT WE SAW THEY COULD BE CIVIL [we all know I hate how Peter treats Wade and I have bad blood with those shippers still :)) never forgive, never forget! But boy howdy he was an ass to him WHICH IS FAIR BECAUSE MORAL DIFFERENCES...] but like?? We were back to HAHA WOW HE'S CRINGE... which is a bummer.

I dunno.

Jer just kinda really hit a nerve in my brain when he pointed out how the show kinda did a thing we don't see the pay off for as often as we should. Turning over a new leaf, and truly discovering what it means to do a selfless action?

And it just kinda reminded me how I love Wade being a SNARKY piece of shit, and how bad he is at trying to be a good person - he's just a weird little guy, he knows he's not a hero and he doesn't really try to be. He just tries to be real with people? But he IS a good ally, and he HAS the capacity to be loyal, and he -

Man like. ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE ARC? UNCANNY X-FORCE.

FUCKING ANGEL FROM XMEN HAS A SMALL TEAM AND THEY HAVE A JOB TO DO AND THEY HIRE FUCKING WADE TO COME WITH, AND EVERYONE IS ANNOYED BECAUSE HE'S ANNOYING and he's ya'know DEADPOOL.... and when they get to the fucking end of the mission and it's like hey, you gotta kill this kid Apocalypse? Fucking he DRAWS THE LINE. No women, no kids! He makes a STINK about it. Logan and Fantomex are like yo, what the FUCK you're being paid for this you bastard - and it's Angel or Betsy who points out that Wade never cashed any of the checks.

Like Wade half the time would go along on an Xmen mission just for the benefit of being INCLUDED honestly. Some of the writers use to really GET THAT. He use to hold them with a lot of reverence. And I feel like that was a big thing I was sad about with the movies was removing that kinda "WOOOOW IT'S THE GANG" vibes... he's just kinda... jaded? Hm. Huffs. ME TOO THOUGH LMAO.

Uncanny X-Force is so delightful... and even still too a lot of people...really don't paint him in a loyal light or care about his connections to people and it's sad. In the Messiah War arc like Cable specifically calls on Deadpool to have his back and fight with him while he's transporting baby Hope, and he gets so UPSET when he has to leave. It's not good bye~ and Wade is so sad because he thought they were a team again. AND I WANTED IT SO BADLY, I wanted him to have that stability he deserved, a friend. THE GUY WHO SAW WHAT HE WAS CAPABLE OF.

There's random good moments in random comics, and of course they meet again in a Deadpool & Cable comic, which is good and done by some of the older team. Idk. I wish...

I wish I could still read comics in confidence they wouldn't scrub whole segments of a character.

It's like a post Dazz reblogged the other day about how characters have less weight these days because we're scrubbing lime line events from them in desires to make them TIMELESS and it's detrimental because there's no proportional trauma or event to really add that weight now and then, ya'know?

Me talking for too long.

Loki ended in a way I was pleased with, and I was surprised to end up liking that incarnation of him, and being excited if they expand on him ever again - conversely if they don't wow, EMOTIONAL and amazing regardless. But, uh, they really uh... they really kinda coded that ending as eternal pining with those two. I didn't think much about it until a few weeks later someone posted something and it hit me sideways like a brick. How dare?

And I'm still mourning the fact there was a lot of hard work to get people to take Deadpool seriously as a character in universe, and to get him on teams, and they kinda took everything away from him, just to give him weird new things, only to take that away and rebuild him again. But at least he's FRIENDS with Cable I GUESS. But who knows the fuck is going on with him anymore. He's probably DEAD AGAIN... He sure died and came back wrong in my book :)

But I think that's just the thing with Marvel. You gotta pick your battles, and pick your story arcs to commit to. It's like when people are into a specific writer for Batman or something. SHRUGS.

Me casually being mad my friends can call my favorites, and why so easily and proceed to talk to me about it's narrative themes and character arcs so easily... I'm a predictable fucking pile of shit, I swear to god....

Me rereading this post: IS THIS ANYTHING? IT'S NOTHING. IT'S ALL NOTHING.

#marvel nonsense #deadpool nonsense #blows the caked on dust off those two tags #kat talks #ignore me #long post #I still want to finish my Xmen run I'm collecting #but I refuse to buy or read new shit and that makes me annoying I think!!!

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