#jeopardy ff

[andmaybegayer]

Project “Let’s watch every single Fast & Furious movie”

This is the fourth Fast & Furious movie, and the first one that skips backwards in time. It is, fundamentally, "what if we made the first movie again but better without any of the fun parts", which isn't the worst thing you could decide to do but it is pretty low on the list.

I've been staring at this post on and off for literally a year making it longer trying to explain how little I care about this movie. This ends today, I'm setting myself a time limit and then I wrap shit up. I try not to do recaps of movies when talking about them because that's boring as hell. This writeup sucks because there's nothing to talk about.

The Fast And The Furious (2009)

They massacred my boy and cut off his surfer hair

We can really cut it at the headline here, they really just did The Fast And The Furious Again because they needed to re-root the franchise for the new direction they were taking it in. Vin Diesel is like some kind of strangler fig, once you get him in your franchise he's in there for good even if you have a much prettier and better boy who should really be the protagonist.

The plot here is exactly the same concept as in 2F2F. Brian teams up, this time with Dominic, to run drugs for A Mexican Cartel, so that the FBI can get them. The tension here is that a) Brian is a cop again and b) Letty got merked for helping Brian (although that comes up later)

There's a lot of trying to set up a character dynamic between Brian and Dominic. Dom doesn't trust him and doesn't want to involve the police in his revenge plot, Brian still likes him and wants Dominic to trust him and let him help, this is all hamstrung by the fact that Vin Diesel can express about two emotions, and one of those is "vaguely constipated"

Gal Godot, is here, as a sexy crime secretary. It's 2009 so there are Computers involved, the race is GPS-guided on open streets. I think we're going to see the Computer obsession a couple more times, the iPhone 3G was brand new at this time, so Going Online in a car was really still pretty new.

The race scenes are improving steadily movie-on-movie, which I guess is a mix of budget and experience. They're better at using effects to convey speed instead of just using them to mask how the scene was actually shot.

The FBI plants meth on a cartel driver who has a foot fetish to clear space for Brian to get into the Cartel Driving Team, presumably because in 2009 foot fetishes were still not a thing the average person knew existed and so this counted as exotic. They catch everyone who didn't know this wasn't the first Fast and Furious movie up on why Dom is angry with Brian, just in case. Vin Diesel negs Gal Godot without emoting even once. You can tell this isn't a good movie because I'm stuck doing colour-commentary here.

The stealth desert run scene is cool. I wouldn't be too surprised if it's based a little on the story of that Danish special forces guy who ran a modified Camaro as an aid vehicle during the Bosnian Civil War. The scooby-doo-ass mine run is less memorable.

Brian spins a brief yarn about why he respects Vin Diesel right before Vin Diesel tries to kill him for being a cop again so unfortunately we have to hand this one to Vin Diesel. At this point we are literally almost done with the movie. There's a scene involving the drug handover that feels like someone started trying to do the shootout from Miami Vice and realized halfway through that they shouldn't do the shootout from Miami Vice in an FF movie.

There's a great Mexico Scene where the dealers head through the streets in giant old SUV's, pull up to a church under construction and hand the priest a duffel bag full of cash before taking

The back 30 minutes are a Video Game Movie. The mine tunnel chase is mostly pretty ridiculous and it's not even good for showing off cars! You can't see shit!

We get the cutscene of Vin Diesel going to jail which insults Brian's White Boy Honour and also significantly jeopardizes their ability to make more movies, so they have to break Vin Diesel out of the prison bus (they remembered it's a car movie! for the last 3 minutes! There's Acura NSX!) and that's it. Vin Diesel will return and keep returning for the next twenty years, maybe more. I will say that this is a decent way of showing Brian breaking with the cops and I was a little bit like hell yeah the next movie will not be so awful.

This movie feels like it solely exist to bridge between the first three which are basically vignettes of totally unrelated car movie, to whatever the franchise will have become while I wasn't paying attention. I get the feeling you can watch the first fifteen minutes of this one to get that scene of Vin Diesel and Letty exploding a tanker truck and then bail.

[sissy-the-siren-writes]

Hands

Rating: General Audiences Fandom: Halo Relationship: John/Kelly Characters: John-117 | Master Chief, Kelly-087, Olympia Vale, Edward Buck Summary: Vale openly gaped at the sight before her, of the Master Chief—the Master Chief—and the woman beside him, Kelly-087, doing what she could only assume was some sort of Spartan display of affection. Link(s): AO3, FF To say it had been a long, weird day would have been an understatement.

But this.

This.

Vale openly gaped at the sight before her, of the Master Chief—the Master Chief—and the woman beside him, Kelly-087, doing what she could only assume was some sort of Spartan display of affection. Thankfully, her helmet kept her her open gape from being too open, but that she had not moved from where she had been standing at the Gateway when Blue Team had descended unharmed from their Cryptum prison was plain for all to see. Again, thankfully, no one was paying her much mind.

Locke was talking in hushed tones with Fred, about what Vale wasn't sure but prayed was something along the lines of a way to get them off of the organically artificial planet that was Genesis. Linda was on watch, her sniper raised, Tanaka standing opposite her with her DMR. And Buck was—

“Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to stare?”

Vale nearly jumped out of her skin, spinning around and bringing her SMG to bear without a second thought. Buck threw up his hands and took a step back.

“Whoa, easy there, now. It's me. Buck. Your teammate.”

“Damn it, Buck,” Vale snapped. Holstering her weapon, she let out a shaky breath. “Don't scare me like that.”

“Don't scare me like that,” the former ODST countered. “I merely said hello. You nearly filled me with bullets.”

Sighing, Vale ran a hand across the top of her crimson helmet. “I'm—I'm sorry, ok? Today has been...weird. And...and that...” She nodded her head back at the living legends behind her. “Are they...allowed to do that?”

Buck's head moved ever so slightly, his shoulders moving up and down in a slight shrug. “I don't see why not.” She could just imagine him raising a curious brow. “Why? Jealous?”

“No, I—” Vale stopped short. She what? Hadn't expected the myths, these gods amongst men, to be...human? It was a ridiculous thought, one she dared not voice. Because logically she knew that they were human, flesh and blood, made the way they were through science and a clever mind; there was nothing mystical or magical about them. They could bleed and die just like the rest of them, like her. And yet...

Buck cocked his head to the side, waiting. When she failed to respond after a full minute had passed, he opened his arms.

Vale blinked at the gesture. “What?”

“You look like you need a hug. And, to be honest with you, I could really use one too. Completely platonic and teamly of course. But, to be on the safe side, just….don't tell my girlfriend.”

Vale rolled her eyes.

~*~

Despite the combat exoskeleton that separated their skin, John was glad for the light, reassuring pressure that was Kelly's fingers twined around his. The contact, simple though it was in nature, was all that was keeping him tethered to reality in that moment.

She stood before him, silent and caring, waiting. There was little that needed to be spoken between them, and now was one of those times, when her presence was enough, when their years of service together exchanged words for them in the form of body language and touch.

The part of him that was the Master Chief was telling him to pull it together, to join Locke and Fred as they conspired to escape this planet that he had foolishly dragged them to in an attempt to right a wrong he'd never had the power to correct in the first place. Guilt—over putting his team and Locke's in jeopardy for a whim, for breaking a promise, for failing to stop her—held him back. His judgment had been compromised.

The part of him that was John was just happy that Kelly, Fred, and Linda were alive.

His fingers twitched, Kelly's hold on him becoming more solid in the form of her entire hand clasping his firmly. His helmeted stare lifted, meeting hers.

That she was there, that she was alive, real…

He took a centering breath, concentrated on the facts.

They were stuck, without a Pelican to fly or even a Covenant ship to commandeer.

Exuberant Witness and her Constructors had disappeared inside her reclaimed installation for purposes unknown.

Ammo was of short supply.

Everyone was, miraculously, uninjured.

And Cortana was—she was—

“John.”

And there it was. His name. So much said with so little.

Kelly reached for his other hand, catching it in her unbreakable grasp. He could feel her penetrating stare behind her visor and imagined that her sharp blue eyes that saw everything, saw him, would have been beautifully offset by the stone cold caps that surrounded the platform on which they stood.

When this was all over—and it would be over and they would survive—maybe they'd find some peace for a change. Maybe they'd visit some world not torn apart by war. And maybe—just maybe—he'd get to see all the colors the universe had to offer reflected in her eyes, bringing out the flecks of grey, the shadows of silver, the highlights of baby blue.

He felt her grip tighten, and he squeezed back in response.

Together.

That's what she was saying. What he was saying back.

Together.

They would face it.

Together.

Their lull was interrupted by a shout—“Stop it, Buck!”—by the Osiris member known as Olympia Vale, and then the Master Chief was back, purposefully striding over to where Fred and Spartan Locke stood, leaving his heart in the capable hands of Kelly-087.

[alevolpe]

are there any sailor moon fics that you enjoy and recommend?

I definitely do!

These are some of my favorites in no particular order (be mindful of ratings and tags, even tho I avoided any outright explicit fics):

“Night Sky Changing Overhead” by FictoryisMine (I hold this one so close to my heart)

“A seedling among the ashes” by BillK (this person has a massive library of fics within the same continuity, it’s dope!)

The entire library of Crawlspace (both on FF and AO3) Her Fate series is beautiful and her new stuff is also incredibly well written!

“Double Jeopardy” by Neuroleptic (it’s been a LONG time since I read it, but I’m pretty sure it holds up)

”Whatever will be, Will be” by Diana (one of my most recent reads, I love it so much)

“Lonely, not alone” by orphaned_account *crying my eyes out in unfinished*

“Ami and Makoto: 5 years and a day” by TheDrifter (domestic makoami, very gud yep!)

Same Prompt Party - Ami by SittingOverHereDreaming (technically a Tumblr prompt but idc, it’s beautiful and adorable) (fun fact about this one, it’s what initially inspired my Auntie senshi Bday series)

I’m sure I would have many many more, but I’ll cut it here for now. Unfortunately I do not read much ff anymore unless a trusted source recommends it to me (I’m too busy srry), and the ones I read in the past are hard to remember since I read them so long ago (most of the time through google translate lol).

Also giant elephant in the room.. the vast majority of these are all Makoami fics?… s-shut up, you don’t know me!

In all seriousness I used to read so much Makoami back then, that’s really all I read, if it wasn’t that I would have no interest in reading it. Nowadays I broadened my horizons (slightly ..), but again, I’m just not reading enough.

Also feel free to recommend me fics (Makoami or not) that you think I would enjoy!

[adelrambles]

Idk if you’ve ever fully answered this on your blog but: DO YOU THINK Bishop fully redeemed himself in the future? By becoming president and uniting all races? Or is he still 🗑️

Oh man no, I don't think Bishop's Good Guy act is all that genuine. I think there's some change, but at his base, beneath all the subterfuge, he's still the same guy. I may have gone over this on the blog before, but like ey what am I gonna just get handed this opportunity to ramble ad nauseum and not take it? NEVER

There are a few pieces of evidence we can read into regarding the faux-ness of Bishop's new persona. First and foremost, for me, is the two instances where he presents the turtles with his "origin story," so to speak. In each instance, he keeps the details vague, and is very hesitant to admit to any direct wrong-doing on his part. The first story is so vague on the details that it feels like he's trying to brush past the turtles' concerns as quickly as possible. The SECOND, though. Bishop consistently dances around going into any detail about what he did or why it was wrong. And he goes on to push all of the blame onto Stockman! I mean honestly, he says Stockman "took things too far." Like dude!! We already know nothing is "too far" for you! It's very suspect to me that the subsequent lab collapse could have been ALL Stockman's fault. Bishop also elevates his own accomplishments and takes full credit for the success of the PGA. Idk but there's something really insidious to me about how he presents the information to make himself look as good as possible-- and the way he's able to convince at least a few of his former enemies that he's trustworthy.

There are other little inconsistencies in his behavior, like him writing off the turtles' warnings about Sh'Okanabo. The Bishop I know is a paranoid freak, he would never in a million years brush off a lead on a possible threat without checking it at all. And if we assume that, then that suggests Bishop said as much to give the turtles the impression it wasn't something worth looking into, meaning he was probably trying to direct their attention away for some reason. All of this tells me (if we just. ignore the possibility of it being a writing flaw agdhgshd) that Bishop is still a very cold and calculating personality, fully willing to throw others to the wolves for his own purposes, but he is WAY better at manipulting, now.

I've said before that I find it likely Bishop's weakest point is his social skills; we see that his superior officers (i.e. the president) dislike him-- which, frankly, is a detriment to his cause as it put his funding in jeopardy at least once that we know of-- and everyone he meets tends to come away some level of discomfitted. So what FF presents us with is a Bishop who needed to improve these skills for the sake of his ultimate goal. If the safety of earth requires friendly relations with aliens, then he needed to become an ambassador, and if he needed to become an ambassador, then he needed to be less overtly unpleasant. Thus, he changed tack. As a result, we have someone who appears trustworthy and is very good at lying and directing your attention, but is just as utilitarian as ever under the mask. That's just his job, after all.

Other details include:

- His intro. We see Bishop personally taking time out to go through monitors all over the city. He apparently has a very thorough surveillance system that he reviews himself. Again, paranoid freak.

- When addressing the turtles, we sometimes see him slip back into snarkier comments. This usually happens when he's frustrated (snapping at them for not attacking the Mouser fast enough for his tastes,) or when he's not being obeyed (making a snide comment about Cody having nightmares when they refuse to exclude him from a mission briefing.)

- As my friend Trauma pointed out to me recently, when storming the moonbase Bishop's men had their guns defaulted to lethal force, he had to give the order to switch to non-lethal. He was fully ready to wipe that place out.

- His willingness to include the turtles and later Cody on missions strikes me as, yknow, very utilitarian in its own right. Cuz those are teenagers, yeah. It could be argued that Bishop can't tell how old the turtles are but he definitely knows Cody is young, and knows well enough that he shouldn't be in a combat situation. But in the finale he praises Cody's decision to defy him and fight anyway. So what changed? In essence, Cody was effective. Bishop is fine with child soldiers as long as they do a good job (and can't be publicly traced back to him.)

Also like did you see that car chase? He ran civilians off the road and did not give a FUCK. That's the same guy.

[rebelrayne]

Hm. Wow. This... Why does this dialogue seem so familiar? Hold up. Lemme have a little thinkity-think on it.

*plays Jeopardy music to set the mood*

OMG WAIT I KNOW!!!

IT'S MINE!!!

rant below the cut because Fusebox is grating my last damn nerve fr.

First, like yes, it's a fanfic and maybe Fusebox reads them. Like cool, that's nice. For reference, this is the dialogue their "nOt Ai" ripped from: Chapter 1 of 'and the day after that, too'

Oh! And allow me not to forget that they ripped from 'off the market' too where Hamish pies himself to apologize to Ava (Bonnie's partner pies himself to apologize to Bonnie).

Now let me make one thing clear here: I'm pissed off because Fusebox can't be bothered one fucking bit to allow fanfic writers to put updates in their fucking subreddit, but they can rip from our fics???? HUH????

If this had been, say Romance Club, I'd be screaming and crying right now because they care about their community and they'd probably be doing some cutesy little spotlight thing. But Fusebox? They don't. They don't even want it in their community.

I am 100% not the only one they've ripped from. They've done it to numerous writers and with how many fics are in the fandom, who knows how many more of these instances there are really.

Get the mod, ffs. You can literally read ATDATT for free with that dialogue and I guarantee (even though it's Tom) that you'll enjoy it more than this half-assed writing Fusebox put out. Don't pay for them ripping fics, especially when they can't even celebrate their own community and fandom.

[jinjeriffic]

As an ace person it's always kinda surreal to me how allosexuals will ruin their lives over sex. You had a beautiful spouse and kids and screwed it all up with your affair! You slept with an employee and are now facing a slew of lawsuits! You had an affair with the DA on the case you were prosecuting and put both your careers in jeopardy!

FFS this must be what being blind and having color explained to you must feel like.

[mysmorgasbordoffantabulosa]

Help me make sense of this, I am a little slow.

In the promo of the new documentary, Tae makes a comment about how members happiness to him is more important than company. Now this is supposed to be a savage statement by him against BH. I have seen Tae be savage over the years, not sure this was one of the moments, but for the sake of argument, let's say he was being savage. The big bad company BH had an entire year and half (or more) to edit that statement out (like they 'cruelly' edited TK interactions in the last BB). But they kept it. Now why would the company keep the statement if it was savage and they had so much time to edit it and make it seem like something else. Now's where this theory takes the cake - it seems that it has not been edited out in order to direct hatred of the 'company stans' towards Tae. If the Brians are ff, these theories are giving them a run for their money.

Am I missing something? Some angle?

It wasn't savage... just Tae stating that if the member's happiness was in jeopardy then the members come first. I think the company keeping it in is their way of say they agree with Tae, the members health and happiness is the priority. HYBE has shown time an again that when an artist in any of their groups is not well, then they come first.

The fandom (or at least parts of it) will use any little "issue" they see to whack other members with. It's usually when solo stans/ antis/ shippers feel threatened by another member's position, popularity or closeness to an invividual in their own ship. It's still all...

[lwlrix]

THINGS FLEABAG GEN. SINGER/SONGWRITER ARTISTS COMPLAIN ABOUT

NO NOSES

EARRINGS

BAD MANAGEMENT OF THEIR OWN HOME *cough* JORDAN PETERSON IN REAL LIFE

EVERYTHING PAKISTAN LOVES AND MORE (what about me energy)

LINNA'S DAD BUT HE'S NOT HERE IS HE?

GRAPES THAT LOOK TOO BAD THAT YOU'RE NOT THERE IN REAL LIFE

EREWHON

PAKISTANI CRICKET TEAM (solid point)

GRANDDAD ADVICE

MILESTONES IN THEIR BIRTHDAYS (why they act old)

THINGS FLEABAG GEN. SINGER/SONGWRITER ARTISTS LIKE IN THEIR MUSIC BUT NOT IN THEIR LIFE (GAMESHOW 'JEOPARDY' ENERGY)

KEYRINGS

TOES IN GENERAL

MUSIC VIDEOS ABOUT A MAN WITH NO LIFE (THINK OF JASON DERULO IF HE FARTED (THEY LAUGH AT VINES 24/7, THINKS I SHUT DOWN VINE THATS WHY THEY'RE RETARDED AF (I DID NOT DO IT)

QUR'AN.

RAMADAN ENERGY ONLY IF THEY KNEW HOW TO COOK RIGHT (THEIR SELF ESTEEM COMES FROM THERE, SUCH A SHAME IF ANSON DID NOT LET THEM DOWN THAT WAY (RHCP DOMINO OOH OOOOH. (THEY GET THE REFERENCE)

PEOPLE PLEASERS

THEIR FANBASE

WHATEVER LINNA IS SAYING RN THAT HELPS A LOT

THEMSELVES

KEANU REEVES IN THE HOUSEHOLD LIKE A GRANDMA THEY ALWAYS WANTED AND MORE TIL THE SUN GOES DOWN (SELENA GOMEZ LOGIC)

THINGS FLEABAG GEN. SINGER/SONGWRITER ARTISTS PERSUADE YOU TO DO IF NOT ABOUT THEIR LIVES (FOR 10 SECONDS PER SONG THEY ASK IT'S ABOUT THAT AND YOU KNEW WHY THEY SOUND 'POOR PEOPLE LOGIC')

DO AS YOU'RE TOLD

LIE ALL THE TIME

BE YOUR BEST FRIEND (FOR A REASON ONLY (KING KEANU)

WORSHIP YOUR MOTHER LIKE A COW (SIKHS ARE SUPERFANS TO THEM)

RAPE YOU WHILE YOU'RE SLEEPING

FUCK. CILLIAN MURPHY

SNOG MARRY KILL ENERGY 24/7 (LIKE 9YO'S)

BREAK YOUR OWN HEART

POST PORN THAN CONTENT

EAT WHATEVER YOU'RE EATING

just shut up and watch River Phoenix go, i know you all miss that guy, ffs

[petri808]

If those video makers generate any monies from the stories it puts the stories at jeopardy of copyright infringement, the whole purpose of AO3 is protecting them from. Stories from FF, wattpad, etc don’t have those protections.

I’m Declaring War Against “What If” Videos: Project Copy-Knight

What Are “What If” Videos?

These videos follow a common recipe: A narrator, given a fandom (usually anime ones like My Hero Academia and Naruto), explores an alternative timeline where something is different. Maybe the main character has extra powers, maybe a key plot point goes differently. They then go on and make up a whole new story, detailing the conflicts and romance between characters, much like an ordinary fanfic.

Except, they are fanfics. Actual fanfics, pulled off AO3, FFN and Wattpad, given a different title, with random thumbnail and background images added to them, narrated by computer text-to-speech synthesizers.

They are very easy to make: pick a fanfic, copy all the text into a text-to-speech generator, mix the resulting audio file with some generic art from the fandom as the background, give it a snappy title like “What if Deku had the Power of Ten Rings”, photoshop an attention-grabbing thumbnail, dump it onto YouTube and get thousands of views.

In fact, the process is so straightforward and requires so little effort, it’s pretty clear some of these channels have automated pipelines to pump these out en-masse. They don’t bother with asking the fic authors for permission. Sometimes they don’t even bother with putting the fic’s link in the description or crediting the author. These content-farms then monetise these videos, so they get a cut from YouTube’s ads.

In short, an industry has emerged from the systematic copyright theft of fanfiction, for profit.

Project Copy-Knight

Since the adversaries almost certainly have automated systems set up for this, the only realistic countermeasure is with another automated system. Identifying fanfics manually by listening to the videos and searching them up with tags is just too slow and impractical.

And so, I came up with a simple automated pipeline to identify the original authors of “What If” videos.

It would go download these videos, run speech recognition on it, search the text through a database full of AO3 fics, and identify which work it came from. After manual confirmation, the original authors will be notified that their works have been subject to copyright theft, and instructions provided on how to DMCA-strike the channel out of existence.

I built a prototype over the weekend, and it works surprisingly well:

On a randomly-selected YouTube channel (in this case Infinite Paradox Fanfic), the toolchain was able to identify the origin of half of the content. The raw output, after manual verification, turned out to be extremely accurate. The time taken to identify the source of a video was about 5 minutes, most of those were spent running Whisper, and the actual full-text-search query and Levenshtein analysis was less than 5 seconds.

The other videos probably came from fanfiction websites other than AO3, like fanfiction.net or Wattpad. As I do not have access to archives of those websites, I cannot identify the other ones, but they are almost certainly not original.

Armed with this fantastic proof-of-concept, I’m officially declaring war against “What If” videos. The mission statement of Project Copy-Knight will be the elimination of “What If” videos based on the theft of AO3 content on YouTube.

I Need Your Help

I am acutely aware that I cannot accomplish this on my own. There are many moving parts in this system that simply cannot be completely automated – like the selection of YouTube channels to feed into the toolchain, the manual verification step to prevent false-positives being sent to authors, the reaching-out to authors who have comments disabled, etc, etc.

So, if you are interested in helping to defend fanworks, or just want to have a chat or ask about the technical details of the toolchain, please consider joining my Discord server. I could really use your help.

------

See full blog article and acknowledgements here: https://echoekhi.com/2023/11/25/project-copy-knight/

[slightlyelectric]

The game shows I think the BatBoys would be good at. Some of you didn’t spend every day watching Jeopardy and Family Feud and it shows.

Dick:

family feud - he would have some unhinged answers. Those compilations of crazy FF answers would just be his whole episode. Or any charades type game

Jason:

Price is right- I feel like this is pretty obvious why. But i feel like Jason could see a watch and immediately know how much it’s worth or if it’s a fake or not. Would charm the hell out of Bruce at galas

Tim:

Jeopardy/any trivia show

That boy has got to be filled with all kinds of weird trivia. Give me some bird facts

Damian:

Ok…hear me out…

Big Brother

Damian would be the kind of player that no one in the house likes, but wins literally every competition. And he would make enough drama that the producers would bring him back as a twist after he inevitably gets voted off

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #297

Fri Feb 4 2022 [10:41 PM] Wack'd: "I'm gonna live among the stars with the rest of the uggos in a perfect uggo space society and--hey! Which one of you jokers slipped me last month's script?"

[10:42 PM] maxwellelvis: "Yuk it up, Bic-head!" [10:42 PM] Wack'd: We start with space opera bullshit, on a distant outpost around a red dwarf, with lots of characters whose names I will have to learn [10:43 PM] Wack'd: At least one of those names will be easy to remember

[10:43 PM] maxwellelvis: Umbra, what are YOU doing here?! [10:44 PM] Umbramatic: oh hey it's me [10:45 PM] maxwellelvis: Doesn't that guy in the back look like the Tick? [10:45 PM] Wack'd: deep breath [10:46 PM] Wack'd: Okay, so Umbra wants to summon his Jaagur to war. Damos is concerned about the preparedness of their forces. Umbra is okay if loads of people die. A third guy brags about being important and then Damos kills him to make a point [10:46 PM] Wack'd: Umbra is using something to sap power from the sun that will help him somehow [10:46 PM] Wack'd: Everyone got this? [10:47 PM] maxwellelvis: Can you "drain" the power from a fusion reaction? [10:47 PM] Wack'd: Fuck if I care [10:48 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile. the Four are hanging out at a military base in the South Pacific, and Jen, Wyatt, and Franklin have just arrived by hypersonic rocket. [10:49 PM] Wack'd: Alicia is also here [10:50 PM] Wack'd: Reed tries to explain the plot but Jen is like "fuck that, how's Ben doing" [10:51 PM] Wack'd: Answer: not great

[10:52 PM] maxwellelvis: Are we getting into Angry Pinecone Ben territory? [10:52 PM] Wack'd: That's later, I think [10:52 PM] Bocaj: Angry bucket Ben [10:53 PM] Wack'd: So uh, whatever those space guys are doing is fucking up Earth's sun, somehow, so now...it's Daylight Savings Time. [10:54 PM] maxwellelvis: I'm pretty sure you can't do that with a fusion reactor, which is what the Sun is. [10:55 PM] Wack'd: So Johnny is worried they might not come back from this one because it's a rush job and the equipment and something something. Weird how when Reed rushes an invention its fine but when the government does it its a death trap [10:56 PM] Bocaj: Reed's success rate is slightly better [10:56 PM] Wack'd: Johnny asks Alicia to marry him when he gets back, blissfully unaware Ben is sulking nearby [10:56 PM] Umbramatic: oh noooooooo [10:56 PM] Wack'd: Oh. Reed did build this rocket. Just on government land. Got it [10:57 PM] Wack'd: (The reason they're at a South Pacific base is that after last issue the government happened to find them in the ocean and then immediately went "hey solve this sun thing for us") [10:58 PM] Bocaj: I'm sure that this will be fiiiiine [10:58 PM] Bocaj: The first time he built a rocket on government land worked out [10:58 PM] maxwellelvis: I think they've got the wrong comic book character for this: You want the Scarecrow for this; he's done it before. [10:58 PM] Wack'd: Hahahahahahaha. Okay!

[10:58 PM] Bocaj: Uh [10:59 PM] Wack'd: This is a very silly solution which makes me happy, but also one of my favorite running gags is Johnny being rendered useless whenever they're in the vacuum of space [10:59 PM] Wack'd: So I'm also sad [10:59 PM] Bocaj: I mean I'm perfectly fine with ye comic science handwaves but this still breaks my brain [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: I've seen a lot of wonky science in this book before, but it's a new one for me. [10:59 PM] Bocaj: I guess it can produce infinite oxygen [10:59 PM] Wack'd: How is the fire getting out?! [10:59 PM] Bocaj: Unstable molecules? [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: How long can he operate like this before Johnny starts going "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! THE PLASTIC IS MELTING INTO MY SKIN!!!!"? [11:00 PM] Wack'd: It's not plastic, it's ATMO-WEB! New, from Kenner! [11:01 PM] maxwellelvis: All I can think of is Tom Hanks on Celebrity Jeopardy! [11:01 PM] Wack'd: Brief cutaway to war happening and Umbra and Jaagur fighting each other [11:02 PM] maxwellelvis: Wouldn't it be great if by the time the FF get to where this is going on, both these guys are dead and their armies in no condition to fight? [11:02 PM] Wack'd: It would [11:02 PM] Wack'd: So back with our heroes…Ben…uh…. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: He is going to kill himself for real this time [11:02 PM] Wack'd: By drifting into the vacuum of space [11:03 PM] Wack'd: Because Johnny is marrying Alicia [11:03 PM] Wack'd: Johnny goes out to save him but Ben thinks he's only doing it because he feels guilty [11:04 PM] Bocaj: Geez [11:04 PM] Wack'd: Johnny nearly exhausts his supply of oxygen getting Ben back to the rocket [11:05 PM] Wack'd: And then Reed does the thing to the sun. Reigniting the sun makes the two warring factions, uh…

[11:05 PM] Wack'd: Man I dunno [11:06 PM] Wack'd: They died as they lived, with me not giving a single solitary shit [11:06 PM] Bocaj: HA [11:06 PM] maxwellelvis: So, Reed just committed a xenocide. [11:06 PM] Wack'd: What? No! What? Go back to being dead!

[11:07 PM] Bocaj: That sure is a design [11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: And the two leaders are going to kick his ass for fusing them into one being. [11:07 PM] Wack'd: I mean what's weird is they don't know who the Four are [11:07 PM] Wack'd: And the Four don't know they even exist [11:08 PM] Wack'd: So there'd be some weird logical leaps to make that happen [11:08 PM] Wack'd: But I guess it's happening! [11:08 PM] maxwellelvis: They just know that that ship is where the vortex came from, it seems. [11:08 PM] Wack'd: Noooooo the Four just knew something weird was happening to the sun [11:08 PM] maxwellelvis: No, I mean this new fusion guy. [11:09 PM] Wack'd: And had no idea it was because on the other sun of the galaxy some other guys were doing something to another sun [11:09 PM] Wack'd: And vice versa [11:12 PM] maxwellelvis: Like, yeah, these two guys were dicks for stealing our Sun, but Reed didn't have to destroy their whole planet for that. [11:12 PM] Wack'd: Reed didn't know! And also they were violent, petty warlords [11:13 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure their armies didn't deserve to be turned into star fuel [11:13 PM] Wack'd: True [11:13 PM] Wack'd: I'll give you that

[imustspeakmyheart]

like !!!

You agree to escort Merril to the alienage, you don't have to hang out with her after! But you do because she's lonely out there, doesn't know how things work outside of a Dalish clan and even within that context she was an outsider.

Fenris and Isabela too, they need you for something and after that's done there's nothing keeping them tethered to you. Them two in particular, who have always traveled around for their own reasons, they stick around. Also for their own reasons as the case may be, but just bc they're stuck in Kirkwall doesn't mean they're stuck with Hawke.

You need Anders for his maps of the Deep Roads and then immediately learn he's half an abomination, there's nothing at all forcing you to keep hanging out with this guy. But he helps people like you, Fereldens, free of charge, works himself to the bone for them. An outsider of outsiders, an apostate ex-grey warden ffs.

Aveline !! Aveline sticks by you from day one, helps your family escape the blight and then survive in Kirkwall. You're there when her husband dies. Like, she's loyal and forthright to a fault to the point she stays with Hawke even when her influence grows within the guard; when her own station might be in jeopardy for associating with them. She doesn't need to be here, and yet she is. Always.

This is a nothing tangent, I just love these guys okay

I always find myself coming back to Dragon Age 2 in favour of the other games, because it just really has something special in the feel of the character dynamic. Moreso than with the other games, the party doesn't have to be there following Hawke. They're not a group traveling around to save the world, or taggers-on of a big institution like the Inquisition (not to mention the Herald's glowy hand making them de facto special). Like Hawke is Just A Guy, they're just a random refugee who makes a name for themself and people follow them because.. there's just something about them. Not a hero because they're the last warden, or the Herald of Andraste, but just because shit's going down in this city and Someone better take care of it. And everyone around Hawke, they don't need to be there! So it really feels like they're there because they want to be, even if they might not like other party members, even if Hawke puts them in increasingly more dangerous situations.

Idk I just like this game and I like a narrative about Just Some Guy who's just so damn likeable that they end up adopting all the drowned sewer rats of this shithole city, but those sewer rats are Their sewer rats

[mrchalamet-mrstyles]

Timmy is no angel, he's a normal 26 years old guy. But can people also please stop pushing this idea he is constantly high and fucked up and a fuckboy? He doesn't look out of his mind in none of the videos we got from Coachella. Maybe he took something, maybe he didn't, but this thing of pushing the idea he is constantly high as a kite is as bad as pushing the idea he is an angel.

I'm certainly not saying he is high all the time, anon. If he was while at Coachella, it's no big deal. We know he takes his work very seriously and would never do anything to put that in jeopardy, but letting loose for one weekend, after working practically non-stop for the past 6 months is not a big deal. This is a vaca for him ffs. There's always gonna be people that want to put certain labels on him (on anyone in the public eye) and there isn't a lot we can do about it. We see Tim working hard and truly staying off the radar unlike so many other troubled celebs. Take comfort in knowing he is not like that and ignore stupid people projecting bs onto him.

[iaintyourbro]

The Unknown Journey Continues

Part 1

I know it's been a while... but I've been going down a rabbit hole with @starlight-samurai regarding time loops, Jenova, Minerva, and more fun. So I figured I'd try to put it into one post to get the insanity out of my head. Everything in here is based on things we've found by either going through more obscure Ultimanias, learning more about Dirge of Cerberus and trying to decipher what the hell Jenova is by putting together various sources - including other Square Enix games - and how they handled freakishly similar scenarios.

Did you know there is a companion mobile game for it that was out on the good old flip phones? Did you know there was an online mode in Dirge of Cerberus only available in Japan, but had story elements that were not in the main game?

The sad part is, there's still so much to go through...

(I've also had various discussions with @ourfinalheaven, Manu, who doesn't have Tumblr, so here is her Twitter. and Somebody's Nightmare (here is her Twitter). So I wanted to tag them here, as it's much more fun to discuss these ideas as a group, since it'll only help you build on and strengthen your own ideas.)

Please be aware, there will be Spoilers for FFVII - Almost all Compilation titles, Xenogears, and NieR Automata throughout this.

So let's go on a journey where we explore what actually already exists in the compilation - including the idea of the whispers and timeloops - how Minerva may play into everything, and what exactly Jenova is capable of doing.

I asked Sesi if he'd ever played any of the NieR games, because he'd said something that made me wonder if they were going to take a similar approach. As a very, very quick high level summary: NieR Automata deals with a time loop type of idea. The androids will be rebooted and repeat the same things over and over again. This is broken when 2B is killed by A2 because she becomes infected with a virus. That being said, you have the option after Ending E to either erase all of your data and end the cycle OR you can try again. The Pods have a discussion, and one asks, "But won't they just do the same thing again?" and the other replies with "Maybe. But it could also be different this time."

Here's Sesi's message back to me when I asked him about this (cleaned up a bit since we were having a casual conversation over Discord):

Maybe I could just guess based comparatively on the Dirge storyline, because that was sort of SE's first flirtation with “robots and androids” since they’re all programmed and locked behind like task managers and shit that can shut them down. The story of the online mode for DoC that came out in Japan, we never got to see it, you’re basically an Android OC and you have to get to “the end of the level” and then essentially die, and a new one takes its place. This keeps happening until Weiss is essentially freed from being able to be task managed by the guys who are suppose to be able to control them and I know from tons of years with Square games that they’re verrrrry bad at differentiating their narratives they tend to just keep “ripping themselves off” so is it anything close to that?

Cuz if so I think I kinda know what you’re saying and yeah, I agree, I think with CC bringing in its poetic symbolism and LOVELESS, and DoC bringing back the cyclic nature of the lore, whispers, premonitions and future visions, proto-Materia and the perversion of this next cycle since the planet can no longer cleanse and protect itself and its will is weakening lesser and lesser to the point where it’s fate is “in a true sense of jeopardy This time essentially it’s all tied in together and sort of played as though it's a fated track; a cycle of events and something has hitched it, thus the whispers manifesting and Sephiroth's higher implied control over his destiny. Of course, even all that is just their new red herring game, but it’s definitely a part of the lore they want to play with, in order to go back and reMAKE the OG with the comp inserted from inception. Also gut punch a lot.

Time Loops

I was somewhat surprised to find out that this concept is NOT new to FFVII's universe. It's discussed in Dirge of Cerberus... probably one of the least played and least understood of the compilation. (Trying to sell a third person shooter with terrible controls to a market of mostly people used to turn-based combat wasn't going to go well.)

On top of it, we didn't even get all of it, since online mode was never released outside of Japan, and the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode was on Amp'd Mobile and Verizon flip phones back in 2006. Were you around for the cell phones in 2006? I had the ones on the list, and how somebody could play a game on those blows my mind.

Square has a tendency to reuse themes from their other titles. Probably one of the most blatant is the similarities between Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII. They were both being developed at the same time and a lot of ideas that didn't make it into FFVII ended up in Xenogears.

NieR

So how does this work? In NieR (both Replicant and Automata), you play the same path multiple times. Each time, it's slightly different depending on what side quests you did your first and second playthrough, but there's also other subtle differences throughout the story. In Automata, you get to play as 2B your first playthrough and 9S for your second. They follow the same path, but you get it from his perspective the second time and it reveals a bit more of what is going on. However, even with some slight differences, the main plot points stay the same and the ending result it also the same.

Then on your third playthrough, you wake up in the Bunker, and you're getting ready to go on a new mission. This time, though, 2B is killed and shit hits the fan. Things get crazy, you play as a new character: A2. In the end, pretty much everyone "dies", but you can choose to "reboot" and try again. You also can say you are done and let them all rest and delete your save data (the game gives you the option for both Automata and Replicant, and with Replicant, it actually leads to a new ending).

The striking thing for me is... There are certain events that will always happen, no matter what.

Fixed Points in Time

It's been years since I've watched Doctor Who, but there was something that stuck with me, and that was the fixed points in time. You can read about all of them here, but here's the basics:

Now, of course Doctor Who goes into this with much more detail and it's a recurring theme. However, as you read through that page, you'll probably find many aspects that have been used in various JRPGs that you've played. And Doctor Who most likely pulled some of the idea from classic Science Fiction novels. Each story puts its own spin on it.

How does this relate to FFVII Remake? Well, when they say that the major plot points will stay the same, it reminds me of this. No matter what, Cloud must fall into the Sector 5 Church, the Sector 7 Plate must be dropped, Aerith and Zack both must die, and Meteor has to be summoned, to name a few. So, with a time loop, those things would still have to take place in order to prevent a complete collapse of reality (at least in how Doctor Who uses it).

Therefore, the Whispers are ensuring that the Will of the Planet is followed.

One of the major themes in FFVII is that of loss. People die and they do not come back. Yes, other FF games do allow this to happen (FFX, FFXIII, FFXV), but VII is not those games. It was written with that idea in mind, that once a person dies, they, just like in real life, are dead and cannot be brought back.

I've previously written that I think they'll make us believe we are able to change fate, but we will eventually be slammed with the reality that we can't. That is because the planet has determined that certain events are fixed points.

Xenogears

Xenogears takes a bit of a different approach to the loop idea. Instead of repeating the same time period over and over, it has the characters reincarnated, and the same outcome happens each time: Elly dies. However, each time it's different. After all, they're in various time periods, in some cases thousands of years apart.

In all of the lives of Fei (who will have a different name in each time period) and Elly (who is always Elly/Elhaym), Elly will end up dying trying to protect Fei and the others. In one life, she is a religious figure at a totally not Catholic church, in another she's the wife of a scientist who was working to create children from nanomachines due to mass infertility issues. But she is ALWAYS with Fei, even if his name changes.

In her Mother Elhaym time, this is when Lacan (Fei) finally snaps. Though he's not fully aware of his past lives, he becomes aware, the anger consumes him, and he becomes Grahf. Fei is then reborn into the time period you play the game in.

There's a lot to unpack with this, so I won't go into it. Grahf wants to destroy God (Deus) because he thinks if he does, then it'll stop the suffering (his suffering).

If you do want to read more about Grahf, you can do so here, but it probably won't make much sense unless you've played Xenogears up to that point... Since it's much later in the game that this is all explained.

Lacan's desire was to stop the cycle of Elly always sacrificing herself for his sake. Though Grahf is not a perfect existence - he's not fully "The Contact", he sacrifices himself in order to let Fei move forward, and hopefully stop the cycle, by destroying the Deus system. (Elly also tries to sacrifice herself here, but Fei goes after her and stops her.)

Now, some people may think I'm saying that Cloud or somebody is going to do this in order to save Aerith or Zack (or his village or mom), but in FFVII if they do the loop method, I don't think Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and the others are aware of it. Most likely, it's only 'Sephiroth' and Aerith who are aware of it.

How this Could Be used for Final Fantasy VII

I'm stressing could because there's so many different possibilities on how they use this (if they are using this), so please, don't take this as fact. This is based on speculation based on what we know.

A time loop is a great way to explain away the differences in the story that we've seen: Biggs being alive, Wedge living for longer than he should have, etc. Since these are not major plot changes, they can simply say that this time it'll be slightly different... but your fixed points (major plot points) will remain the same.

It's a way to pull in some of the more obscure themes from Dirge of Cerberus and also play with the LOVELESS lore.

It could all simply be a big red herring and it's really just a remake of OG, but with the compilation tied together nicely... since it works much better when it's combined and not in 50 different games, books, movies, etc.

I don't think it's a "sequel" per say, not in the way I generally perceive a sequel. It's more of a loop of the same thing. The question is, when is the loop started and what will cause it to end? When will the planet (if it even is the planet) determine that it's good enough to begin moving forward?

JENOVA, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Minerva - Oh My!

Let's be real... Genesis isn't exactly the most popular character in the FFVII Compilation... but what if they make him one of the most important to the story? //Ducks as various fruits and vegetable are thrown in my direction//

I think what Genesis is probably most known for is his love of LOVELESS. He has the entire thing memorized and randomly says lines from it throughout Crisis Core. LOVELESS lore is still something I'm trying to grasp, so I am not going to comment much on it. Once I understand it more, I'll update this.

...And then this happens. The secret ending for Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis picks up Weiss. Weiss, who has now been introduced along with Nero in FFVII INTERmission and is an optional ridiculously hard boss in the Shinra battle simulator in chapter 17 of the main story. There is some lore associated with the battle sim - so if you don't plan on beating it or you just can't, you can look up the pre-battle and post-battle cut scenes on YouTube. They're very short, but interesting. (I beat this asshole last night - it's a hell of a fight.)

....To Be Continued because apparently Tumblr won't allow more than 10 images per post now.... Next will be more on JENOVA and Sephiroth along with Minerva.

[jeonqquks97]

Bodyguards|Rap-Line|FF

Part One

Word Count: 757

Age Rating: 16+

Warning(s): Mature Language, Stalking/Threats

Content Genre: Fluff, And Angst 

I awake from my slumber, finding myself inside of my bedroom. I slowly stood up, stepping out into the living room. "Oh look, sleeping beauty has finally awakened." Hoseok teased. I groaned in response, rubbing my eyes. "Are you hungry Y/n?" Namjoon shouted from the kitchen. I assume he's preparing meals. "Yes please," I shouted back. I sheepishly look at Hoseok while stretching out my arms. "Come here beautiful," Hoseok stated, patting his lap motioning me to sit there. I inch my way towards Hoseok, placing myself onto his lap. I bury my head into the nape of his neck, "Where's Yoon?" I mumbled, referring to Yoongi. Hoseok lightly played with the hem of my shirt, "He's still sleeping." He answered. "Y/n could you come here?" Namjoon shouted. I carefully got off Hoseok's lap, walking to the kitchen. I notice the plate of pancakes on the counter, "Yay, Thank you!" I hop excitedly. Namjoon smiles, revealing his adorable dimples. He walks behind me, wrapping his arms around my torso. "How'd you sleep?" I felt his breathing on my neck, A shiver ran down my spine as I clutched the counter. "I slept o-okay." I stammered. Namjoon suddenly breaks out into laughter, releasing me. I lightly punch his arm, feeling embarrassed. "That's not funny!" I pout. "Okay, Okay. I'm sorry." Namjoon apologizes, gently pushing our foreheads together. I scoff, "I can't stay mad at you." I grin. "Good, now eat before the pancakes get cold." He says, pointing at the plate of food. "Wait," I replied, running off to my bedroom. I take my phone from my nightstand, glancing at my notifications. I notice that an unknown number sent me a message, I open the message.

“How does it feel to be a heartbreaking bitch?”

“Watch your back.”  

You stared at the picture attached, that's my window. You thought to yourself. You began to panic, "Guys!" You yelled. Running out into the living room. Hoseok met you halfway, "What's wrong?" He asked seriously. I gave him my phone and he read through the messages. "Shit." He cursed. Namjoon came from behind Hoseok staring at my phone. "Y/n, go wake up Yoongi," Namjoon ordered. You hurriedly made your way to Yoongi's room, knocking on the door before you open it. "I'm sorry for waking you, but I just received another threat." As soon as those words left your mouth, Yoongi was up heading outside into the hallway. Yoongi grabs the phone from Hoseok and Namjoon, scanning the messages. "These are getting out of hand, We might just have to move to 'Plan B'. Namjoon spoke to the boys, they all agree. "Wait- What's 'Plan B'?" I ask, unclear on why they were agreeing." Like I was invisible, they continue talking about this 'Plan B'. "Hello?!" I shout in frustration. Yoongi sighs, looking in my direction. "Your father made us promise to move you out to Daegu If things progressed." I slowly nod, "Okay...but what If things continue in Deagu?"  I asked. "We move to your parent's secret retreat in America," Hoseok added. I remained quiet, processing this new information. "We will get rid of your phone and from now on you will be sleeping with one of us, understood?" Yoongi stated sternly. "Understood," I returned. "Good, now we have to go," Namjoon informed. Yoongi threw my phone onto the marble floor, smashing it into pieces. Hoseok grabbed my hand as they formed a protective line around me as we rushed outside of the house. We all made it to the car, Hoseok opened the door for me as I got inside of the car. Hoseok sat in the backseat with me while Yoongi sat upfront with Namjoon, the driver. Everyone put on their seat-belts and Namjoon pulled off. You looked out the window then the realization hit. Your life is actually in jeopardy, and it terrified you. You glanced over towards Hoseok, He stared back at you. "I don't want to go through this anymore." Your voice broke as a teardrop rolled down your cheek. Hoseok wrapped his arm around me as I rested my head on his shoulder. Namjoon looked in the rearview mirror, upset that you were crying. "It's okay Y/n, We'll catch him," Yoongi spoke assuredly. I continued to cry, Hoseok caressed my arm. "It's alright, let it out, sweetie." He murmured, planting a delicate peck on my forehead.

You fell asleep, still in Hoseok's embrace. "We won't let anything happen to you princess," Hoseok whispered, he intended on keeping his word.

You have reached the end of part one...

A/n: Thank you for reading! Enjoy your day/night!

Masterlist? Click Here!

[legionnaireslover]

Listen to them - "Sophie's getting discarded!" "Adam and David are dropping Zero!" I really don't know where they are getting this from. Probably their asses! FFS, she was just photographed at LL anniversary party! She recently did the Sigur Ros video and SunnyMarch was the production company! She was an executive producer for the SunnyMarch film TEWSF. Are their minds so much like mush that they can't remember this picture that was taken only last month?? Does this look like a couple who have split??

And then, because Haters are never going to give up the attention they get from their narrative, Gator makes sure to mention that BC is STILL in DANGER because Adam Ackland and David Birken might just get a new evil woman to rob and abuse him. Of course, BC will never NOT be in jeopardy because then the Haters would have to pay attention to their own lives!

What really yanked my giggle chain was Gator saying "I still don't understand why Ben doesn't just call Disney and let them handle it.". Oh really?!? She doesn't understand!

JFC! Is she actually still imagining Disney is going to interfere with this man's marriage?!?

After 8+ years?

When is Gator going to realise that Disney isn't in the business of poking their noses in a person's private life WHEN THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH IT!?!

This ask and the response to it stink of a narcissist unable to admit they are wrong.

How long has Patty saying this? 2-3 years, at least. And yet, Ben is still married to Sophie. She's not going anywhere. Ben's career isn't suffering at all. Disney doesn't give a shit about his private life because he isn't involved in any scandal and neither is Sophie.

As for Mstoxictea, the clock is ticking for her full mental breakdown. At some point, she'll realize that the split is never going to happen and it won't be pretty.