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wordsandrobots · 2 years

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I think After War: Gundam X is my third favourite Gundam show.

This is way behind Iron-Blooded Oprhans and Turn A Gundam, but compared to the others I’ve watched, it’s definitely more to my tastes. I think it could have benefited from the extra episodes it didn’t get, especially to expand on some of the initial space-based adventures, and it has a lot of the usual issues I have with the franchise (erratically written female characters, a half-arsed approach to condemning structural oppression, and throwing out the ‘horrors of war’ maundering whenever it’s more plot expedient to mow down mooks like there’s no tomorrow). Overall, however, it packs in a much more coherent plot than predecessor Gundam Wing, some charming characters, and a few very deft thematic flourishes.

For example, there’s an episode early on where our heroes have to help save a psychic dolphin and her pod from being turned into an advanced sonar system. Now you might think that’s a very silly sentence and you’d be correct. But the point is, this is something the Federation (emphatically the bad guys here) developed during the war this series takes place after, in order to have more effective underwater combat suits. They took dolphin brains and turned them into spare parts. And a couple episodes later, we discover this is their attitude to psychic humans too, which seems to be the pay-off until we reach the end of the series and, well, let’s just say the approach goes all the way to the top.

In fact, Gundam X is very concerned with the exploitation of psychics both by those who treat them as tools to be used and those who venerate them as humanity’s next evolutionary step. And oh gods, this means I have to write about Newtypes.

[I shall put the rest of this under a cut because I genuinely think this is one series it’d be worth going in blind on and also because this will ramble a bit.]

All right, let’s get this out of the way: Newtypes as depicted throughout both the original 1979 Gundam and this show (which essentially starts as a bad AU to Gundam ‘79/the Universal Century) are humans with extraordinary abilities, who are theorised to be an evolutionary adaptation to living in space. Newtypes have greater levels of awareness, cognition and empathy. That is to say, they can variously gain a deeper understanding of the people around them or be really, really good at driving giant robots. They are in-universe hypothetical until war breaks out and suddenly a lot of people are very interested in the military applications of psychic powers. Also occasionally people get their brains blasted to mush by the weight of too many people dying near them at once and/or are able to unify humanity’s brainwaves in order to atomise asteroids dropped by manipulative blondes with eco-fascistic tendencies. It’s a whole thing.

I am being a little glib here and I also don’t want to delve into the out-of-fiction meaning of Newtypes because I feel woefully unqualified to write about that. But for myself, considering the fiction as presented, I’ve always found Newtypes to suffer from the Jedi Problem: it’s fine and dandy to have quasi-mystical power that increases human connection but if you’re only going to show its applications in war, you’re smothering a lot of interesting potential in the concept.

This is primarily a problem of genre. Gundam is a series of war stories. It is deeply invested in fighting and conflict, and not merely because it’s financed in order to sell brightly coloured war machine kits to children and adults alike. There is nothing wrong with that per se but it limits what can be shown with respect to the doings of the magic people we’re repeatedly told are the heralds of a new age of understanding. Yes, we get to see lots of Newtypes get traumatised by their powers, or artificially created by nefarious powers-that-be, or occasionally bugger off to the end of time with their boy- and girlfriend after causing an untold amount of harm to everyone around them. But we never really get to see much in the way of non-military applications of this supposed ability to connect with others on a fundamental level. Even setting aside creative disillusionment, the very type of stories being told back the idea into a corner.

This is not to say the Gundam ‘79 derived fiction hasn’t made much hay of the in-universe tension between the status quo and the possibility of radical change. It’s kind of its one trick. But to me, it feels like diminishing returns and I end up longing for a story of Newtypes just . . . being. What does that kind of power look like when it’s not plugged into the latest giant robot suit and being sent off to punch whichever red-suited dork is trying it on this week.

Gundam X is not a story of Newtypes just being. It’s a setting where Newtypes are conscripted, manufactured or mutilated to be used as weapons. It’s a setting where one faction has proclaimed everyone in space to be a Newtype, in order to justify the wide-scale slaughter of anyone left living on Earth. And it’s a story in which, as it turns out, Newtypes do not actually exist.

Oh, there are people with unusual abilities. A girl who has prophetic visions. A pair of brothers with a psychic link. Ace pilots who glimpsed the future. But the ultimate revelation is that these are one-offs and the grand theory of advancing human evolution via living in space is so much hot air, dreamt up to further various agendas. And that makes a hell of a lot of sense in hindsight.

You see, throughout Gundam X we see a wide variety of supernatural abilities, but only some of these are classed as ‘proper’ Newtypes (resentment over this fuels the primary antagonists, the Frost brothers, who decide to burn down the world over being dismissed). As a viewer, you get pulled along by this without thinking too closely about it. But there are hints from the start (including a couple of ex-soldiers selling themselves as Newtypes while clearly not being anything special) that the term might be less than it seems. Amuro Ray-alike Jamil Neate’s stated goal is to protect Newtypes from oppression but he finds a grand total of one to safeguard in the entire series. Our hero, Garrod Ran, is an unusually gifted, empathic pilot who never gets the term applied to him. The working definition the world-dominating Federation are using is simply ‘can operate our patented robot control system’. Meanwhile the leader of the Space Rebellion has, as I said, declared everyone born in space a Newtype, making the existence of supposed Newtypes born on Earth very inconvenient. The term is at once over-specific and overly-wide, depending on who’s using it.

And in the end? Turns out the ‘first’ Newtype was some poor sod who could use that robot control system and got turned into a computer on the moon for their trouble. That was the source of the working definition and everything afterwards was just various people building castles in the sky. The powers are anomalous. Inexplicable, but not any kind of evolutionary leap. They just . . . happen. Every Newtype is their own distinct thing and not really an indication of anything very much other than fluke.

Which is actually pretty clever. It means the whole conflict is driven by people building taxonomies and raising certain things on to pedestals not because of something that definitely exists but because it suits their agendas to do so. It’s also a neat solution to the Jedi Problem, turning it around and saying, yes, these people only display their powers in combat because those looking for them only said those that were useful in war were actually Newtypes.

(I know the Gundam ‘79 and its sequels do stuff like this as well, but Gundam X has the advantage of making it the entire point, rather than wanting to have it both ways because it has the ending of Char’s Counterattack to deal with.)

Bit of a shame this all gets rushed out in the last couple of episodes due to the series running short. But perhaps that’s for the best, given there’s nowhere really to go once you’ve pulled the rug out from under everyone and demonstrated the antagonists’ motivation is fundamentally a hugely inappropriate reaction to a categorisation error.

Other observations:

Garrod Ran is fairly generic as protagonists go but I do find it amusing how he basically gloms on to every angsty teenager he encounters like they’re a precious baby in need of protecting. Including the one who was definitely trying to kill him when they met.

Tiffa’s arc would have worked much better if her attempts to define herself beyond her status as a Newtype had been emphasised more. Like, it’s sort of there, but it only comes to the fore at the very end.

Toniya and Ennil absolutely deserve to end up together and leave Witz and Roybea moping around a cornfield somewhere.

I really like the design of the Dauntless mobile suit. It’s an almost unsettling take on the GM model from the Unviersal Century. In fact, I generally appreciate seeing a Wing-esque aesthetic mapped backwards on to the original style, with greater emphasis on making the non-Gundam machines look that little bit off.

For all that I enjoyed this show, I really dearly wish Jamil hadn’t gone back to the Federation at the end. They make themselves utterly irredeemable across the course of the series and there isn’t any functional need to maintain them beyond the end. It’s a sour note, honestly, especially without any indication the rampant empire building across Earth is going to be reversed. But that’s the kind of pat assimilation ending Gundam seems to trade in more often than not, so it’s not a unique flaw.

Depths Of Minds Elevating. Huh. That’s a very long walk for what is itself a totally undescriptive acronym.

I am somewhat tempted to write Jamil/Lanslow fic. Not even necessarily Like That, but just to explore an older, more relaxed Amuro/Char dynamic in which both sides have learned how to chill the hell out.

#gundam #After War Gundam X #is this a review?#it feels like a review #I'm not sure it's good enough to be analysis #let's go with #my impressions #spoilers

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powdermelonkeg · 3 years

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So, BO2W Breakdown

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Here we’ve got Ganon’s...energy taking over Link’s arm. Ordinarily, I’d call it Malice, but based on what it turns into, I’m just going to be calling it corruption. We don’t get much information from this scene besides this expression:

Link’s grabbing the corruption with his other hand, and wincing. It looks painful. I personally think it’s for cinematic effect that it was included, but it COULD be a gateway into a Phantom Hourglass sort of mechanic--Link has to function on a time limit, or using the corruption’s power could drain his life.

Next we’ve got a closeup of Ganondorf. F in chat to the rehydration theorists.

And the closeups of his jewelry. The only significant thing I can see is his necklace, which looks like a cross between the Gerudo symbol and a Fleur de Lis:

But what I’M most interested in is this tie on his belt:

For one, it’s WAY bigger than it needs to be, and that’s deliberate. Ganondorf’s got a jewelry aesthetic he’s already hit above; everything else is gold, why not this bit?

Most importantly, you can barely make it out, but the designs either look Sheikah or Zonai--they’ve got that same kind of swirly busy pattern to them. The red tint and tan-ish lines in it makes me think it’s possessed Sheikah tech.

Next, we’re shown Zelda falling. This looks like it happens right after these two caps from the first trailer:

So we reach for her as the ground collapses, and evidently, we fail to pull her back up. So my next question for that scene is going to be what the in-game reason is for us not diving in right after her. Maybe we won’t get one, since the appeal of the original BOTW was that you could fight Ganon whenever you wanted.

Up next, we’ve got a skydiving shot:

The first thing to notice is that Link’s pose while skydiving is just about identical to his pose in Skyward Sword:

Second is that, yes, he’s falling towards a floating island, and that in itself is noteworthy, but he’s FALLING. There’s something either above him that he jumped off of, or a force that carried him high enough TO fall, and I doubt Nintendo’s encouraging magnesis flying.

So, there’s a few options: Loftwings making a return (which is unlikely, but a hope I have), something like Revali’s Gale boosting Link up for a cinematic shot, indicating that the corruption arm has that kind of power, or islands higher than the one shown here.

Now the island itself:

In Skyward Sword, Skyloft looks like this:

And (spoiler alert) we loose this island here over the course of the game:

Now, it’s not a PERFECT 1:1 match, as most things between games aren’t, but a quick rotate and overlay shows it’s got the same kinds of shapes between the two. The same “W” shape along the eastern side, the same tiny island off the northeast point, the same relative edges.

Now, I don’t know what happened to the plaza at South Skyloft, or the Knight’s Academy isle, but it could very easily be drift away from the central island.

The presence of other islands through the clouds seems to support that theory. Now let’s look at Link here:

The outfit is new. We haven’t, to my knowledge, seen one of this design in other games. My gut reaction to this image was “oh, we go back in time and we’re the first hero now!” because it’s vaguely reminiscent of Tapestry Hero.

But upon closer inspection, that theory’s null and void. Under Link’s tunic in the image above, you can see that he’s still wearing the shorts he woke up in in the first game. So either Sheikah boxers haven’t changed in 10,000 years, or it’s taking place in present day. Jokes aside, I’m curious to know if the outfit he’s wearing is modeled after Tapestry Hero.

Next thing to point out is the obvious:

Link’s arm here looks less prosthetic and more...withered, I almost want to say. The corruption here’s made his hand look frailer, and armored them up with Zonai patterns before it fades out at his shoulder. Based on how the tattoos look, I think they’re an artifact of the corruption taking hold.

Also, the belt here:

Aesthetic purposes, or specific function? The presence of the second, smaller one on the side reminds me of Skyward Sword’s adventure pouch, which could be how the new game handles inventory size:

Next we’ve got another flying shot:

It seems like he’s flying towards Ruined Skyloft, and you can see the bottoms of islands above it, possibly meaning that the sky serves as more than just a hub world like it did in Skyward.

Now let’s look at the paraglider he’s using. It’s new.

This is how the paraglider looks in the original BOTW. It looks like we still have the Rito symbol in the center, but other than that, there’s a LOT of changes here.

First off is the color. We’re now blue and gold. The shade of blue makes me think of the Kochi Dye Shop’s navy blue:

So, possibly a dyeable paraglider?

The new pattern surrounding the Rito symbol makes me think that it’s combining the paraglider with Skyward Sword’s sailcloth:

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about the paraglider besides the handles looking like they’re made of bone. Craftable paragliders? God, I hope not.

Back to Link:

Here we have him in different gear than the last shot. He’s wearing the snow boots, he has a shield with a stylized Eye of Truth looking upwards, and he looks like he’s carrying a traveler’s sword and an unknown bow. The presence of the bow makes me think that the shield here is a lower tier item, rather than this game’s Hylian Shield equivalent.

Now, let’s get a better look at the horizon:

The trees here look a lot like the smaller trees you can find in Akkala, but there’s a distinct lack of red among them.

Then it looks like we’ve got some ruins at the furthest isle.

Whatever the rock formations are over there, they don’t LOOK natural.

Another thing I noticed is the bottoms of the islands.

These look a little too geometric to be natural, too. Now, this one, I’m a little muddy on, because it COULD be a stylistic choice. But it also reminds me of the Shrines if you clip out of bounds:

And a little bit of the dormant Gate of Time from Skyward:

My money’s on the cube-like nature of the islands’ undersides being deliberate, rather than just a far-off render.

And then there’s this thing!

What is it? It doesn’t look broken at all; look how nicely the roof(?) is kept. The ribbing on the sides makes me think it might be a Zonai thing, but the shape makes it difficult to figure out. A giant temple? An airship? A sloped coliseum? This thing haunts and vexes me.

Our next shot is presumably from one of the islands, based on the color. Here we can see that there are definitely ruins all over the place. Link is in the same gear as before, so I won’t touch on him.

This, however, has my interest. The design here has more geometric patterns--Zonai ruins?

We’ve got another one off in the distance here. Sky checkpoints, like Sheikah towers?

Now this guy here. There’s a LOT to look at. First off is the eye design, it’s the same sort of upward looking one that Link has on his shield in the previous shots.

The energy that’s pulling this thing towards its base looks like the same green energy that surrounds the arm holding Gan in place in Trailer One:

This stuff. That, plus the fact that the robot has to be pulled into its base rather than just existing, implies that either A: Link activates it himself, like a trial thing, or B: that the green energy here functions in the same way Malice does in the original BOTW.

This pattern at its base is intriguing, too. I don’t recognize the gold symbol in the center, but the green around it reminds me of the portals from Twilight Princess.

Which, yes, everyone’s already said that the Twilight Princess patterns look like Zonai things. But another thing this weird dial thing reminds me of is from Lanayru Desert:

On top of that, the color palette of this guy looks like that of the Lanayru Robots from Skyward:

BO2W robot on the left, Lanayru robot on the right. Given that Skyward is a lot more vibrant than other non-Toon Zelda games, I think this is a fair enough comparison to draw similarities from.

And then we get a closer view of the sky ruins from the last shot. I don’t know if the geometric pattern in the corner is a deliberate carving, or wear from time, but since the pattern looks ALMOST mirrored around the corner, I’m going to go with the former.

A better shot a few frames later. The robot has HANDS, which I do not like in any way shape or form. However, we get a better look at the sky ruins.

We haven’t seen this style of stairs before, to my knowledge. The pedestal out front looks like a light source, and it has the same floral egg thing the robot above has on each shoulder; the eggs could easily be a power source for Zonai tech. And at the top of the stairs, we see a pedestal, backing up the theory that these ruins function as our new Sheikah towers.

This is our next shot. Which...

Unikoblins. Can we talk about that? UNIKOBLINS.

Anyways, Link is here again in his old clothes. This is a very early game shot, because his right arm isn’t corrupted yet; this means we get to explore Hyrule before we embark on the main quest. Which gives rise to a question: Where’s Zelda?

The hopeful side of me wants to say that she’s a tutorial companion, like Navi or Tatl, at least for the beginning here. The pessimistic side of me thinks that she’s waiting for us at a predetermined location, and this is just part of getting to her.

Now the unikoblin structure itself is built on a Talus, meaning that the dev team at least intends to have more inter-monster interactions. But if you kill the Talus, does that mean that the base falls apart, or does it just drop down as a separate entity?

Also, what are these background ruins? The one on the left looks like it’s a distinctly different style than the one on the right. It looks almost like a giant guardian arm.

Our next shot is Link’s arm getting corrupted. Which, first of all, the effects look beautiful.

Now, we can see a corner of Link’s hip here, and we know that this is his right arm. So Link’s lying down here. Unconscious? Knowing how Zelda games like to start with Link waking up, probably. Although it looks like at least part of his shorts got an update.

We can see what looks like circuits here. It looks a bit like the electricity puzzles you can find in the Divine Beasts and Shrines in the original.

Then we’ve got these strange symbols.

Whatever this circular stone he’s lying on is, it looks a lot like the Zonai puzzle from the “A Fragmented Monument” sidequest.

This one that everyone thought was the Mirror of Twilight for years.

Our next shot is Link using the corruption powers against enemies:

The spike ball itself looks solid; the question is, is this a duplication power, or a visualization of how the spike ball is set into motion?

We see it barreling over a poor Unikoblin or two, but I’d like to turn your attention to the Moblin and the background.

The moblins here have helmets, and the bases, while they carry the same design, look like they have more cause and effect in mind. The left base’s rock, for instance; that’s a lot bigger than the rocks we got to play with in the last game, and it looks like we can barrel anything in the screen over with it.

The helmet, though, concerns me a little bit. It looks natural rather than forged; like it’s the moblin’s horn, just very much deformed. Does it mean a harder enemy, or is it just for flavor?

Our next shot is this strange flower thing. Note that Link’s right arm is perfectly fine in this shot, meaning that it’s still early game.

This is what Link’s flamethrower looks like. And this:

Is Zonai art.

So the question is, what IS the flamethrower? My first thought was that it’s either a new item in its own, or it’s a Sheikah Slate upgrade. The latter might sound a little far fetched, but Link in this game is right-handed, and in BOTW, he always held the slate in his LEFT hand when using it.

We have more of the weird faded designs that we saw on the Sky ruins:

And we’ve got some kind of pedestal or stage behind the ground flower thing:

It looks like it’s either an altar or a grave, from what I can tell. The stairs aren’t the same design as the ones in the sky, and there aren’t any patterns on it.

More importantly, though, is that this place is underground. This could be a part of the game you’re required to go through, in order to get to Raisin Gan.

A few seconds later, though, we get our answer to what the flamethrower is!

It’s a shield!

Off to the left side, we can see pillars with more weird scribblings towards the top. These match the Sky ruins’ pillar shape, with a narrow base and a wider top.

Our next scene is...weird.

We see a puddle splash in reverse. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually water or not, but the design on the ground implies that it’s either been there for a long time, or that that’s a dedicated splash spot. And the quality and zoom makes me think that this is part of a cutscene. Return of the timeshift stones?

We then see Link...surfacing out of the island? I don’t know how else to describe it. However, his arm is changed again, and glowing, meaning that this is a corruption power. And the “water” he rises out of here looks a lot like the puddle in the last clip.

We get a good look at the Zonai Lights:

A Sky ruin that looks like it contains a room:

And a glimpse of other isles’ ruins in the far distance.

And then as the camera zooms out...

We can place a location!

We’re right over Thundra Plateau!

We also get a mildly better look at the back wall of the sky ruin, which looks to be some kind of table:

The next scene is Hyrule Castle:

The ground shakes and it starts to rise up. However, notice that the columns surrounding the castle are now missing.

We’ve also got red sparks in the air, like we would have in a blood moon. However, due to the sky color, we can assume that this is a conscious decision by Gan himself, and that he isn’t drawing power from his surroundings.

We then see that power bleeding out of the ground. It’s MUCH more red than Malice is, which has always been a kind of burnt pink-ish color.

However, even though Ganon lifts the castle up, he doesn’t lift it very high.

The castle’s about triple the height it was. But since we’re talking Skyloft levels of floating islands, this is still pretty ground-level. What’s interesting to me, though, is that in this shot, despite the game now being about sky islands that we should be able to see from ground level...there aren’t any here. This, to me, means that there’s going to be a sudden appearance of the isles in the sky, rather than them simply being accessible now.

And that’s the whole trailer! I have many questions.

My blog! If you have any opnions/questions/theories, feel free to drop an ask!

Part 2 is up! We missed a lot!

#botw #botw2 #bo2w #the breath just got wilder #breakdown #analysis #e3 #trailer #theory #zelda #loz #nintendo

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madame-fouquet · 3 years

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2021 Anime Retrospective

2021 was a surprising blockbuster of a year for anime. And with it coming to a close I figured now was a good time to do as the professional reviewer-types do and present to you my 2021 anime retrospective. This year was especially difficult for me to narrow down some of the fields, so I wanna open with a big shout-out to those who just barely didn't make the cut: Kemono Jihen and Kageki Shoujo were both SO CLOSE to making the list. Quality stuff with some great looks at their respective material. Najimi from Komi-san Can't Communicate and Rajdhani from Sonny Boy are both unique, amazing, and wildly entertaining. It was a real shame that neither one of them could be my best character. The last shout out goes to the closing theme for the second season of Laid-Back Camp. Haru no Tonari is such a calming and heartwarming tune that I just want to snuggle up under a blanket and listen to it as I watch the snow fall.

Best of the Year: Odd Taxi

It was never gonna be anything else. Before this one season masterpiece had even finished its run I knew it was going to be a strong contender for the best thing I saw all year, and once it had ended I wasn't sure anything else that was gonna come out could possibly measure up. And I was right! But we're not here to talk about other stuff measuring up to near perfection. Odd Taxi combined its different, and sometimes disparate, elements so perfectly and seamlessly as to leave me completely astounded by everything it had pulled off. When I first saw it on the preview guide I thought, “Oh this looks like a cute and silly little thing to enjoy.” I was then confronted with the twisting and labyrinthine web of a true noire mystery that had me guessing where it was possibly going to go all the way until the end. The cast balloons with characters, some of whom feel innocuous and unimportant, but soon reveal themselves as key players mixed up in all the insanity. Nothing is be overlooked, nothing is to be underestimated. But despite the sheer number of turning gears, (something the series itself bothers to sit down and sort out) I never felt overwhelmed, lost,or confused. Everything is so perfectly working in tandem and I think THAT alone is the mark of a good mystery. There is so much more praise I could heap on it, and even despite my VERY complicated feelings regarding the fourth episode, this is one of the easiest recommendations, nay INSISTENCE, I could make regarding your watching. This is a new classic premiering right in front of us, don't miss the ride.

Runner-up: SSSS. Dynazenon

Were it not for the misadventures of a walrus taxi driver, this latest production by Studio Trigger would have definitely had the top spot for the year. The sequel to their Tokusatsu inspired SSSS. Gridman, Dynanzenon may have hooked me even more powerfully than that first series. Watching this group of misfits find each other, as well as themselves, all alongside over-the-top special-effects style action was a rip-roaring and, at times, heart-rending good time. I especially appreciate the way the series leads in with the impression that it is only a spiritual successor to the first series, only to drop the bomb at just the right moment that there are indeed very deep, and very important connections to the grid-based adventures of the premier SSSS. And I'm not complimenting this element just because my favorite character from Gridman makes an amazing and glorious return, it really does play perfectly alongside the escalation of events, emotions, and enemies that the series was playing into, as well as provide a sort of meta-narrative about being informed by, but not controlled by your past. If you want to feel moved, seen, touched, and amazed by a giant robot monster fighting action series, then let yourself get dragged along on this adventure by a Manic-Mummy-Dreamboy who will be happy to tell what the three things you need to keep are: Promises, Love, and-

Runner-up-up: Super Cub

Man! Spring was a hell of a season huh? The next three aren't really presented in any particular order of ranking, but it is still quite impressive that THREE of the shows on this list are all from the SAME SEASON. Super Cub is, in a lot of ways, things that neither Dynazenon or Odd Taxi are, while also having a surprising amount in common with them. It may not have twisting dangerous mysteries or giant robots fighting against horrible monsters, but it does have a protagonist stuck in their own mental rut and a focus on the people around them helping them to find their way out of that dark place. What had started out as, and what I thought was going to be, a quiet little iyashikei style show about a girl with a motorbike, turned out to be a surprisingly deep and understanding look at depression and feelings of isolation. Watching Koguma's world (literally) light up as she finds new feelings of freedom and friendship through the power of her curiously acquired bike really hit home and, I daresay, helped me to understand and be more comfortable with my own depression. The show is quiet and modest, but don't underestimate everything it has going on under the hood. (Does that pun hold up with bikes?)

Runner-up-up: Komi-san Can't Communicate

Funny those first three shows are from the same season, considering the next two are ALSO from the same season as one another. The year is going out on a good note and I for one am happy to add another amazing entry to my personal favorite genre of Absurd High School Comedies. Komi-san and her friends are everything I could want. They're idiots. They're eccentric to the max. And they all understand that understanding and supporting each other is what really matters, even if they mess that part up every now and then. Points to the titular character herself here. Who'd have thought that a protagonist could have fewer lines than most tertiary characters in other shows, but more personality than some other leading lads/ladies. Komi and her situation remind me greatly of another series, Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, but her nerves might be even more unstable than that series' own protagonist. Both series however treat the socially awkward nature of their protagonists, not as a second-hand embarrassment punching bag, but as something to be understood and cared for (even while it does result in particularly hilarious situations.) The difference between the two, and where Komi-san may excel even more, is that while Bocchi's companions are a bunch of silly goobers, Komi's growing friend group are straight-up wackadoos. This allows the story to go even more over-the-top with giving Komi situations to creatively navigate as she tries her best to find her voice and connect with others. And I think that's really beautiful.

Runner-up-up: Mieruko-chan

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not that big on horror movies. But there is something about well-written horror manga and anime that my little weeb heart just loves and latches onto immediately. So you can imagine my excitement when I first set sites on this season's supernatural spook-show. Mieruko-chan revels in some of the cheesiest elements horror has to offer, while also indulging in some truly gruesome and horrifying material. The monster designs should also not be underestimated. These are some twisted, awesome, and absolutely terrifying monsters that, no matter how silly or funny the moment's events might be, earn the fear Miko experiences around them. Miko's shtick of just trying to ignore the haunting horrors surrounding her everyday life is already entertaining and rife with material to make your skin crawl, but watching her grow and come to terms with having to confront the ghosts and ghouls (though almost always unwillingly) is where the true heart lies. Her generally deadpan delivery is perfect to make it really land when she is pushed to the point where she can't bottle her feelings anymore, and makes it so I feel her fear and frustration just as greatly. Mieruko-chan is legitimately scary at times, and also incredibly hilarious, and equally heartwarming even. I'm picky about horror, even if I loosen up for the anime variety, so I want you to know that coming from me, this recommendation means something. Just uh, maybe keep the lights on while you watch yeah?

Honorable Mention: Dungeon of Black Company

I know how this looks but- Hey, don't leave! Just hear me out! The series that didn't make the cut for top 5 were definitely better than this one, but I was always going to place Dungeon of Black Company in this slot based purely on how much it surprised me. A stupid gag isekai is NOT normally the kind of thing I'd recommend, or even watch, but damn where does this show get off being this actually good? A complete bastard of a protagonist is always a dangerous move that CAN result in an insufferable show that is just a slog to watch because of how unlikable the character we spend the most time with is. But despite how awful he is Ninomiya is great fun to spend time with. His farcical levels of self-serving are used to illustrate points both good and bad, and I think what's most important is that he is duly punished whenever he steps over a line that harms others. Through all his highs and lows, ups and downs, Kinji Ninomiya learns to be just bastard enough that it's a character trait, and not a problem. The other short-list of stuff this show does right (cause I don't have enough time or space in this format to fully explore all of them) include: All the negative impacts of unfettered capitalism- from ecological to social to personal, surprisingly respectful representation of a gender fluid/trans character, emphasizing trust and mutual respect for your friends and peers, staying true to one's self, and more responsible ways to run a business without all those negative impacts mentioned before. For a series full of naked dudes, crude and crass humor, and your average anime helping of over-sized boobahs, this series has a lot of good points to make, and it actually does so quite well. Don't you ever change kid, not even for yourself!

Best Theme-Song of the Year: Nai Nai (Shadows House)

Oooooh, how haunting. How spine-tingling. How delightful. Those are all words that describe Shadows House as a series, and they also beautifully describe its ending theme, Nai Nai. The gothic instrumentation, the powerful strings, the choral voices, the inclusion of contemporary musical elements all tie together into a number that I could never skip. The way the song builds, from those subtle lyrical notes into a grand sweeping and exhilarating crescendo perfectly encapsulate what the series itself did, from its innocent and almost sweet feeling beginning, until the heart pounding final few episodes where the lives of humans and shadows alike hang in the balance. The video that accompanies the song is equally fantastic. The early focus on slowly panning stills plays into the quieter beginning, but the unsettling nature is still represented in an almost sinister look to the tableau presented. Then as the song speeds up and swells suddenly everything is in motion with Emilico and Kate running, trapped in an seemingly never-ending spiral, similar to how they seemed trapped in their own home of Shadows House. The end being punctuated with the shattered glass noise as all the lights go out is just that perfect little aesthetic finish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxgLZBHPxHM

Character of the Year: Hajime Tanaka (Odd Taxi)

Setting aside my very complicated opinions on the fourth episode of Odd Taxi, Tanaka (whose titular revolution that episode was) was the character that I think had the greatest impact on me this year, and really stood out from the pack. Odd Taxi is full of chatty characters who make snappy comebacks and share amazingly real feeling dialogue with each other. Tanaka, who does 95% of his talking in that one episode, on the other hand spends little of the series exchanging any words with anyone. That taciturn nature, a product of his circumstances and the plot, is part of what sells me on him though. He can communicate so much of what he's going through based solely on screen presence that he doesn't need to share zippy conversations with other characters. And he wouldn't want to anyway. This is a broken cat with a singular focus who, after years of wandering and wasting while being the most aggressive cautionary tale for gacha games there is, has finally found something that truly drives him, truly gives his life meaning (at least so he believes). That thing just happens to be murdering an innocent taxi driver over a perceived slight. Everything comes to a head for him in what is possibly my favorite scene in the series, and the scene that really fully sold me on Tanaka as a character: when he is finally faced with his vengeance, and the endpoint of his long waged revolution. The emotions he feels and his reaction to finally achieving some manner of fulfillment in that quest were everything the moment needed to be. Tanaka spent most of his life being an unpitiable, self-absorbed, excuse making brat. But in the final moments of the series, as he, others, and us the viewers watch that final spectacle, I finally felt some semblance of pity for this poor little meow meow.

Best Moment: Shii-chan's breakdown (Super Cub)

First off... Ow. Super Cub was a pointedly quiet show that, while usually subdued in both presentation and volume, utilized that almost sepia backdrop as a way to let its brightness and color shine, especially in key moments when the show would literally brighten up. It was a simple show that was less about big dramatic events and hard-hitting character turns, and more about the subtle but appreciable growth of characters really finding themselves through the mundane everyday. And then Shii-chan almost dies! Episode eleven opens with a very different tone than what had really come before it. A large part of the episode takes place during a dark and freezing winter night as snow starts to fall. There is no place here for the usually enlightening color palette, Shii-chan is in very real danger and it's on Koguma to save her. But that valiant rescue actually takes up very little of the episode. What matters is what happens after Koguma saves Shii-chan. She brings the tiny cyclist back to her equally tiny apartment and sets to work stabilizing her condition, both mental and psychical. Reiko joins them a little later and they share a quiet but cheerful enough meal together. Shii-chan volunteers to clean up, but soon her emotions finally catch up with her and her veneer of calm breaks, resulting in her crying as she begs Koguma to take the winter far away from here, a request Koguma has to inform her, the super cub is ill-equipped to fulfill. This scene utilizes silence so expertly. The lack of any music. The minimal words exchanged between the characters, minutes of near silence pass putting so much emphasis on Shii-chan's fragile state, her desperate attempt to force calm and to not think too much about the fact that she came very near to death and just how incapable and weak she feels as a result. The water overflowing in the bowl she holds as her sadness and fear finally boil over inside of her, it's a very real emotion I think we've all felt. Something bad has happened to you, and you know there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it, and the helplessness and desperation is too much. Do you try to hold it in, or let it all spill out at once? Shii-chan tries to do the former, but is unable to hold everything back. And I'm gonna be honest, I cried along with her.

Worst of the Year: Wonder Egg Priority

Disclaimer: I only vote a series “worst of the year” that I have watched all or the majority of. I will not vote for something that I tried for one or two episodes and dropped due to not liking it, so this often ends up as more of a “least favorite” or “most disappointing” category. I also will NOT vote for something with an infamous reputation. I know by word of mouth of some truly ABYSMAL shows (EX-ARM), but I didn't watch them, so it's not fair for me to give them that flack (No matter how well deserved). With that out of the way, this is still a REALLY complicated topic to cover. Endings mean a lot to a show. There was one other show I had considered for this category because of how badly it had dropped and mangled its finale. However, Wonder Egg Priority made such a deep, complete, and unfortunate mess of itself that I think all of us were left with serious egg on our collective face. I had pumped, rooted on, and suggested this show heartily through most of its run. The willingness it had shown to tackle harsh subject matter with an amazing amount of care and understanding, and its ability to show nuanced concern for the cast of young girls really impressed me with its depth and care. The very frank and upfront representation of trans characters and the kinds of difficulties they face in life was personally heartwarming and powerful to see. All the pieces were in place for a dark, but illuminating show that was sure to stand as a testament to what character studies and action-fantasy series could be. And then it all crumbled apart. Maybe it started with the overly complicated explanation of what the girls are actually doing. Maybe it started with the eleventh hour introduction of a big bad villain type character. Maybe it was the out-of-nowhere lack of understanding as to why framing that character as the big villain was a bad idea. Maybe it was the fact that her plot almost completely invalidated a bunch of the points the series had so articulately made up until that point. Maybe it was framing the abusive, narcissistic, and negligent men as victims. Maybe it was brazenly forgiving, even supporting, the actions of an adult overstepping his bounds with vulnerable young girls. I don't know what it started with, but it ended with one of the most disappointing, most backwards, most backtrackinng, most self-invalidating finales I have ever seen.

One last shout-out to Yuka-chan from Blue Period for being my most personally relatable character of this year. Stay strong girl, and I'll do my best too.

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buttterknifeee · 3 years

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Sisters- Teen Titans x Aquagirl Reader

Masterlist

Summary: You don't get along well with your own siblings, but maybe you'll get along well with Starfire's super-cool, definitely-not-evil sister!

Pairings: Platonic! Starfire x reader

Word Count: 3575

A/N: Hey guys!!! Sorry for posting this so late I just did this one a lot slower lol. Unfortunately, school's starting soon so I won't be able to write as often. I'm still working on 2 fics so keep that in mind if you want to request!

Carnivals were the best invention in the world, you decided. The rides, the food, the games, and you only get to enjoy it a few times a year. So when the carnival does come to visit, you always make sure to enjoy it as much as you can.

“Don’t you just lovvvveee carnivals?” You say, walking next to Raven.

“Well, Beast Boy and Cyborg have been trying to win an animal from a single game for the past hour and Robin and Starfire are probably making out on the ferris wheel, so not as much as you.” she says, staring straight ahead. The others had paired up and set off when you first entered the carnival, so that left you with Raven. And as much as you love Raven, you love her in a “meditating/book club” way, not a “fun adventure” way. You approached the two boys as they finally won their carnival game prize.

“Told you we’d win a prize” Beast Boy grinned at Raven, holding a toy chicken to her face.

“A giant chicken. I must be the luckiest girl in the world.” She said sarcastically.

Suddenly, Robin jumped in front of the four of you.

“Titans! Trouble!” He yelled, standing up from a crouching position.

“Where’s Starfire?” Cyborg asked.

“That's the trouble,” Robin said, then promptly took off. The four of you followed him close behind. He brings the four of you to a dock, where you finally see the “trouble” Robin was talking about. Starfire was being chased by a flying, squid-like space robot with tentacles and everything. She flies past the five of you, the flying machine doing the same.

“Who’s her new best friend?” Beast Boy asks, staring at the scene before you.

“Don’t know, but I can’t wait to meet him,” Robin said.

Starfire hid behind you as the flying machine continued to follow her. Beast Boy turned into an alligator and tried to attack the robotic squid, but missed. You tried to hit it with jets of water, but it bounced off of its exterior. Raven threw a hot dog cart at the machine with her telekinesis, but it simply tore straight through the cart. Cyborg grabbed onto the tentacles and strained as the machine tried to get away.

“Don't know what you did to make this thing mad, Star, but it couldn't hurt to apologize!” Cyborg yelled, trying to keep a grip on the tentacles.

“I am… sorry?” Starfire apologizes confusingly, taking shelter behind a grimacing Robin.

Cyborg loses grip on the mysterious space squid as Robin jumps forward. He hits the machine hard with his staff and it falls into the water. A moment of silence falls onto the six of you.

“So, did we just win?” Beast Boy asked.

His answer came in the form of the machine crashing through the floor and back into the sky. Robin jumps onto it.

“Don’t see an OFF switch,” He yells. “Guess I’ll have to make one!” He punches into the side of the machine. The machine goes haywire, and Robin jumps off of it before it flies crazily into the sky and blows up. Since there were already fireworks, any regular citizens could have easily mistaken it for one of the big finals. You turned your attention to Starfire.

“Starfire, are you alright?” you ask. She nodded with a small smile.

“Whatever that thing was, it can’t hurt you now.” Robin said, now next to her again.

Starfire frowned. “But… why did it wish to hurt me at all?”

You found yourself back in the tower after such an eventful night. Despite being attacked by some alien machine, Starfire seemed to be in a cheery mood.

“I shall thank you for my rescue by reciting the Poem of Gratitude, all six thousand verses.” She said, a giant smile on her face. You and the others stopped dead in your tracks, not excited for how the rest of the night will seem to go.

“I think ‘thank you’ cuts it,” You say.

Suddenly, you hear a voice. “I see you haven’t changed a bit.” The voice belonged to a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Starfire. She had long, black hair, and wore a black outfit similar to Starfire, except hers had more metal components. The mystery girl continued.

“When we were little, I was always rescuing Starfire.”

“Sister!” Starfire squealed, running to hug her. Starfire’s sister smiled, holding up a necklace with a large green gem as the pendant.

“A Centauri Moon Diamond?? Where did you get-”

“On the Centauri Moons of course.” the sister said, fastening the necklace around Starfire’s neck. “Oh look, it matches your eyes.” Starfire smiled brightly. You remember that you’ve been staring at the two of them interacting when she turns to the five of you.

“I wish to introduce my big sister,” Starfire said. Her sister stepped in front of her.

“Blackfire,” she said. “ And since Star told me all about the Titans in her transmissions, let me guess.” She walks over to Cyborg.

“Cyborg,” She guessed correctly.

“Pleased to meet you little lady,” Cyborg says, holding out his hand. She takes it and you hear the sound of metal bending. Cyborg holds up his hand, now bent out of shape.

“Little lady, big handshake. Well alright!” he says with a smile. Blackfire moves on.

“Raven. I like that gemstone on your Ajna chakra,” Blackfire says.

“You know about chakras?” Raven asked, mildly impressed.

“I got way into meditation on Altara Prime.” She says casually. She then turned to you.

“Aquagirl. Oh my god your outfit is soooo cute! And your hair, how do you get it so healthy?” She said, clasping your hands. Her voice was nothing like Starfire’s; it was much smoother, and more confident, not to mention she had the American accent down.

“Mix of coconut oil, avocado, and a cabinet full of hair ointments” you wink.

“You’ll have to give me tips.” she winked back.

She continued her introductions, finally getting to Robin. She was all over him, complimenting his outfit, calling his mask ‘mysterious’, etc. You saw Starfire steaming with anger, even if she didn’t show it. She intercepted them as Blackfire got close to his face.

“So beloved sister, what brings you to Earth?” Starfire asks, an annoyed grin spread across her face.

“I was in the quadrant. Thought I'd see if Earthlings like to party.” She said, hopping onto the couch. “Besides, I needed a rest. Nearly got sucked into a black hole on the way here.” Immediately, the three boys rushed over to her, the three of you girls still behind them. You rolled your eyes at the sight of the three teens crowding around Blackfire.

“Black hole?”

“No way!”

“Cool”

You could feel Blackfire’s smirk as she began her story.

“Okay. I’m cruising through Draconis Nebula and-”

Starfire interrupted. “Sister! That nebula is full of black holes! You know travel there is forbidden.” The four teens on the couch stared at her.

“Most fun things in life are. Now be a sweetie and bring me one of those sodas I've heard so much about.” Blackfire waved at her and turned back to the boys. You heard her continue the story, but all you could focus on was Starfire grumbling towards the fridge. You look at Raven; your way of saying Ill go after her.

You find Starfire taking a soda can out of the fridge, talking to herself.

“Starfire?” you ask. She flinches at your approach, almost dropping the soda in her hand.

“Oh! Aquagirl. You have caught me off guard, my apologies,” she rubs her neck, blushing.

“You alright? You seemed a little worked up back there,” you say as the teen straightened herself up.

“Oh it's nothing, it's just that…” she sighed, closing the refrigerator. “My sister has always acted in such a way that can cause me to feel… annoyed.”

“Oh well, if you ever want to talk about it, I’m always here.” She hugs you, still holding the can of soda.

“Thank you my friend”

The next day, You were sitting in your room. Starfire barged in while you were rubbing the water from your head with your towel.

“Oh hey Starfire! What's up?” you smile, putting the towel onto your bed.

“Aquagirl! Have you seen Blackfire?” she asked. You noticed that she seemed distressed, but decided to answer her question first.

“Oh! We just went surfing! She crushed those waves!” You say, reminiscing. She was surprisingly good at surfing, especially since she told you it was her first time. Starfire frowned.

“Oh. alright.” you frowned back at her answer.

“Well, I think she might be with Robin right now. Is everything alright?” you ask. Her face turns bright red at the mention of Robin’s name.

“N- I mean, yes! Everything is alright. I must go.” She slammed the door before you could say anything. You wanted to go after her, but you figured since she left so quickly, she's probably not in the mood to talk. You went about your day, still a little worried about her.

Nighttime fell, and you sat on the couch with the other Titans, relaxing after an uneventful day. Starfire skipped in holding popcorn, candy, and a bunch of CDs.

“Friends! I invite you to join me in the togetherness of a stay-home movie night. I bring you popcorn and non-cotton candies. Tell me, what sort of movie shall we view?”

“Action,” said Robin.

“Romance!” you cheered.

“Comedy.” spat Beast Boy.

“Sci-fi” Cyborg offered.

“Horror.” Raven said flatly. Starfire drops her goodies.

“Perhaps a double feature?” she asked.

“Forget the flicks, kids.” You looked up to see Blackfire, now dressed in Starfire’s clothes. “We’re going out!”

“We are? Where did you- How did you-” Starfire stuttered, obviously confused by her sister’s new look.

“Heard about a party downtown,” Blackfire continued, ignoring her sister. “Cool crowd, hot music”

“Sound’s nice!” you say.

“Yeah!” Beast Boy agrees.

“I’m in!” Cyborg says.

“Why not?” Robin smiles. Raven kept looking at her book.

“And it's in an abandoned warehouse,” Blackfire adds. Raven looked up from her book, her way of saying that she's in. You all began to leave. You noticed Starfire still standing where she was, looking a bit sadder.

“Starfire? you coming?” you asked, walking by her.

“Oh um, I guess I will go,” she said, hanging her head a bit. You looked at her but she didn’t meet your eyes. Maybe she’s tired, you thought, walking to catch up with the other titans.

You entered the party, taking in the colorful lights and dancing teens. You followed Blackfire onto the dance floor, who seemed to already be dancing.

“Step aside Earthlings, the queen of the galaxy has arrived!” she cheered, swaying her hips with the other teens. She looks at the rest of you, a smirk on her face.

“Now don't tell me you big tough superheroes are afraid of a little dancing.” she says, beckoning you to do so. The boys joined in, and you noticed that Raven left the dance floor with a boy. The only people who weren’t dancing were you and Starfire. Starfire looked scared, she was clutching her new necklace, and you swore that she said something about shovels. You came up to her and took her hand.

“Let’s go Starfire, I think you need some air.” you say, leading her to the stairwell.

You sat next to her on the roof, both awkwardly silent.

“So, what's wrong?” you finally say.

“It’s my sister again,” she sighs. “It feels as though she has stolen you all from me, and I don’t know how to keep that from happening.”

“Hey. we’ll always be your friends, just as you’ll be ours. And she didn’t steal us from you, we just thought she was cool and all-” you were cut off by a yell from the part below.

“YO A.G.!!! YOU GOTTA COME DOWN HERE!!!” Cyborg yelled. You looked at the direction of the sound and then back at Starfire, who was staring at the ground.

“Oh- uh they probably need me, I’ll be right back,” You say, rubbing her arm. “HANG ON I'LL BE THERE IN A SEC!”

You race down to the dance floor and see Cyborg dancing.

“YO THEY’RE TOTALLY PLAYING YOUR SONG!” he yelled. Ugh I should get back to Starfire but they are totally playing my song, you thought. You look at Cyborg again, who was waving at you to join him. You see Robin next to you and pull him aside.

“Hey Aquagirl! Where’s Starfire?” He asked. You cross your arms.

“She’s upstairs on the roof. Listen, she’s super down in the dumps right now, I think you should talk to her.” You say. He nods and leaves, heading towards the stairs. You sigh as you go back to join your other friends. You bump into Blackfire, who was now sporting a neon pink wig.

“Um, nice wig,” you say.

“Thanks hot stuff. Where’s Robin? I saw you with him earlier.” She asked, still dancing. You weren’t sure if it was the best idea to tell her.

“He’s uhhhhhhh….” you try to stall.

“... with Starfire.” she finishes. You turn to see her staring through the glass roof, where you could see Robin and Starfire sitting together. She turns to the rest of you.

“One sec guys!” She winks. Less than a minute goes by and she reappears with Robin. You make eye contact; he seemed annoyed by being back here.

“We HAVE to dance to this song!” she says, starting to dance again next to Robin. He steps away from her.

“Sorry, but I’m going to check on Starfire again.” Robin says, heading to the stairwell again. Blackfire follows him, trying to get him to return, leaving you with Cyborg and Beast Boy. They continue to dance and you roll your eyes.

Suddenly, you notice Starfire fighting something. You squint at her location, then realize that what she's attacking is one of the robots from yesterday. You look at the two boys who’ve quite literally been dancing the whole time.

“Cyborg! Beast Boy! Starfire’s in trouble!” You yell, already running towards the exit. Suddenly, another of those robots appears out of nowhere.

“What the- AHHHHH!!!!” you scream as the robot latches onto you and drags you away. The two boys try to follow you but a third robot attacks them, leaving you to still be stuck in the clutches of the space robot. You see Raven hanging out with the boy from earlier (they’d be a cute couple huh) and she spots you. She flies after you, flinging two robots towards the machine as you finally break free. Starfire crashes into the room through the ceiling and lands in the crates, Cyborg and Beast Boy still taking on the other robot.

All three of the robots start chasing Starfire, and she flies around the room trying to lose them. Cyborg knocks into them and lays some punches, you trying to short circuit them by spraying them with water. One of the robots hits Cyborg, sending him flying into a wall. Another one sends Starfire flying into a different wall, and she lands in a dumpster. You run to the hole in the wall to find the aliens trying to bring the whole dumpster into the air. You were about to try to strike them when you saw a flash- the flash of a birdarang. It cuts into the arms of the robot and drops the container. Robin joins the rest of you.

“Titans Go!” Robin yells, but Blackfire flies out in front of you. In a matter of seconds she demolished all three robots. You all surrounded her as she stood victoriously.

“Aw yeah! Good times!”

“Nice shot, Tex!”

“Very nice.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself!”

“How did you know where to hit them?” Robin asked.

“Lucky guess,” Blackfire shrugged. Cyborg stepped forward.

“We could use luck like that,” he said. “Maybe you oughta join the team.”

“Me? A teen titan?” Blackfire asked, obviously flattered. You couldn’t help but notice Starfire looking away, a defeated look on her face. I should talk to her again, you decided.

You and Robin found Starfire standing on the roof of the Titans Tower. You found out that you both had the idea of finishing up your conversations, but it seemed that Starfire had different plans. You reach her as she floats into the air.

“Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?” Robin asked, causing her to whip around to face the two of you.

“A little rude if you ask me,” you tried to joke, but she didn’t laugh. Her head hanging, she slowly landed back on the roof, taking off the backpack she was wearing.

“Aquagirl, Robin, I- '' She began, but was cut off by the sound of a spaceship coming towards you. One of the aliens on board unleashes its arm, which is a tentacle much like one of the robot’s, and slashes you and Robin, sending you both to the ground. It then wraps around Starfire, pulling her into the ship.

Robin runs towards the screaming Starfire and jumps from the roof and towards the ship. You watch in horror as he misses, and begins the fall towards the ground. The ship continues its ascent into the air.

“ROBIN!” you scream, running towards the edge of the Tower’s roof. You can do this, you can do this, you can-

You focused hard, and raised your arms above you. A geyser of water shoots up from the shore and catches Robin. You raised the geyser up towards the hull of the spaceship, allowing the Boy Wonder to grab onto the bottom and make his way up. Seeing that he made it safely on board, you dropped the geyser of water.

You fell to your knees, breathing heavily. You haven’t made such a strong geyser in, well, never! Your vision was blurring as Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven all rushed onto the roof.

“Aquagirl! What happened?” Cyborg asked, helping you up.

“Starfire… Spaceship… Robin… I helped…” you huffed, pointing towards the spaceship, which was now far away from the tower.

“We gotta catch up to them. But how?” Beast Boy said, staring at the silhouette in the distance.

“Follow my lead.” Raven said, grabbing on to Beast Boy and Cyborg, who was holding into you. You watched as she made a dark portal in front of you. She pulled the three of you through it and you found yourself in the outskirts of the city, next to mountains and a river. You see Starfire and Robin up ahead, in front of a now toppled over spaceship.

“Starfire! Robin!” Beast Boy yelled as you caught up to them.

“Are you alright?” Cyborg asked. Suddenly, you see two aliens emerge from the shipwreck.

“Titans! Get ready!” he said, assuming a fighting stance, which you follow. You wait tensely as the aliens approach you.

“In the name of the Grand Centauri Empire, you are all under arrest.” one of the aliens says, showing off a professional looking police badge. You stare at it. If they're police, why are they arresting us? And why are we fighting them?

“Uh… you can’t be the good guys. We’re the good guys.” Beast Boy says, just as confused as you are.

“And we are the Centauri Police,” the second alien repeats.

“The Tamaranean girl is a liar and a thief.” the first police alien says, pointing at Starfire. “She's committed high crimes throughout the entire Centauri system.”

“I have never even been to the Centauri moons!” Starfire pleaded.

Suddenly everything clicked. The necklace, the events at the carnival, the events at the party. All evidence seemed to have pointed to Starfire, but they actually pointed at another person.

“But I know someone who has.” you and Robin say at the same time. You look at each other, obviously aware of who the other was thinking.

Blackfire.

Robin took off Starfire’s necklace for her and threw it aside. He faced the police aliens.

“You’ve been chasing the wrong girl. Where’s Blackfire?” Robin says. Before any of the other Titans could answer, you saw a figure flying through the sky.

“That Bitch!” you yelled, watching Blackfire make an escape.

“Don’t worry Star, she won't get away with this,” Robin says to Starfire, but her eyes are already glowing.

“No she will not!” she yells, and shoots off into the sky. You couldn’t see much, but there were flashes of bright green and purple in the sky. The Centauri police calmly rebalanced their ship and restarted it, its engine humming to life.

You then watched as they proceeded to fly up into the sky and capture Blackfire, similar to how they initially captured Starfire, and fly off into the night. You stared dumbfounded.

"What just happened?"

The next morning, you stood in front of the kitchen, making pancakes with Cyborg.

“Crazy what happened last night, huh?” you yawned, watching the pancakes sizzle on the stove.

“No kidding,” he said. “She would’ve made a great addition to the team, except for the intergalactic-criminal part.” You laughed, flipping the rest of the pancakes.

You climbed up to the roof, finding Robin and Starfire sitting together. God they’re probably being cheesy together you thought. You cleared your throat, the two of them jumping at your presence.

“Hey you two,” you winked. “Breakfast is ready!!!”

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triggerblaze345 · 3 years

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One of the weirdest possible settings has got to be the Cartoon Network Cartoon Cartoons Universe that featured the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Codename Kids Next Door, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Ed, Edd & Eddy. Just think about it, it’s great. Oh, and the Flintstones happened in the past of the this universe with means the Jetsons are the future.

Just think about it. The most powerful creatures on the planet are three artificial humans who look like cartoon drawings of humans in universe. They stay exclusively in the most crime infested city ever which is also regularly attacked by giant monsters who live on a small island nearby that nobody does anything about. The devil is also known to live in this town along with a monkey that has a abnormally large brain who plans to conquer the city from his base on top of the town’s active volcano. That is just the powerpuff girls.

The grim reaper has been enslaved by two children, one of whom is beyond stupid and the other is the embodiment of all evil. They go on numerous adventures that involve every major figure of mythology I can think of including the Bogeyman, Thor, and Father Time. They also regularly interact with a parody of Harry Potter. One of their closest companions is the son of a demonic entity that lives in the center of the planet and Billy’s aunt. (Grim adventures)

A global organization of preteens battle to protect other children from a variety of completely insane adults who are hellbent on doing horrific things to children including but not limited to shoving them inside soda bottles, using them as slaves to mine cheese, feeding them to sharks, eating the children themselves, launching children into space and turning them into animals. The global organization of children fights these threats by using two by four technology that can be summarized as combining every day objects into weapons, ships, robots, cars, airplanes and spaceships. All of the adults that are not attacking the children are fully aware of what is going on and do not care. (Codename: Kids Next Door)

All of humanity has the ability to create fully sapient and sentient life that can take any shape or form. I cannot stress enough that every human has this ability. The creatures created by humans are called imaginary friends but can interact with other humans. Around the teenage years it becomes unpopular to have an imaginary friend and so these creatures are kicked out to the streets. The lucky ones end up in the fosters home for imaginary friends, a small local organization that cares for them and arranges for them to be adopted by other families who will presumably restart the cycle later. (Fosters home for imaginary friends)

Dexter’s Laboratory and Ed, Edd and Eddy do not actually add much to this insanity. Dexter is a mad scientist who is a young child. Ed, Edd and Eddy live in small ordinary suburban cul-de-sac that seems completely divorced from the rest of their bat shit insane world. I didn’t even realize that they were part of this universe until they briefly showed up in a crossover between Codename: Kids Next Door and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

I don’t think I actually named all the shows involved in this universe so here’s a link to the tvtropes page.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/CartoonCartoons

All of this insanity takes place in a world that is heavily implied (if not outright stated) to be a DC/Marvel style superhero universe complete with its own version of the justice league.

It’s one of my favorite universes and I wish it got more attention and less shitty reboots like that CW live action version of the Powerpuff girls I’ve been hearing about.

#the powerpuff girls #dexter’s laboratory #ed edd n eddy #grim adventures of billy and mandy #codename kids next door #cartoon network #cartoons #cartoon cartoons #cw powerpuff girls #ppg #dexter #knd

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reactionimagesdaily · 3 years

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I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space).

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

#Also: love (as in romantic love) is 'not canon' in the Bionicle universe. Big win for the aromantics #(I couldn't find a place in my lore explanation to mention that but my friend Zacch insisted I mention it somewhere)#also... fuck me dead this is a long post. I spent literal hours writing all of this down. Was it worth it? probably.#not a pic #Someone asked me a thing!#Ask mood: Don't Get Me Started #bionicle #bionicle lore #bionicle story

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healersadjust · 2 years

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8. shielding the other one with their body 💜

yeah ok so. this was gonna end a lot worse but! i'm not feeling too great, so i rewrote the ending. you all are saved this time! but there IS an alternate ending...

Anyway! Thank you so much for the ask <3 I hope you enjoy! Endwalker spoilers ahead. Unedited and it probably shows.

With the Scions disbanded, Aki and G’raha resolved to go on as many adventures when they could find the time. Things went smoothly, for the most part. Until then, the worst thing that had happened was when they ended up with morbol juice all over them. Neither had expected things to go so catastrophically.

“Aki- your left!” G’raha shouted, warning Aki of the absolutely giant robotic monstrosity preparing to hit her. She dodged out of the way, climbing up the robot's arm to its head, busying herself with taking it out from the top. Their magics did nothing against them, putting both Aki and G’raha out of their element.

They could have managed one. They could have likely taken two, but they were alone against an army.

They had taken out most of them, their energy slowly draining after each one hit the ground. THey discovered pretty quickly how to shut them down- Aki kept a knife handy that she could stab and pry into the backs of their necks, which exposed some fancy wiring that she was all too happy to slash to bits. G’raha’s role was to distract them while she jumped from robot to robot.

It was long, it was grueling… But eventually, they all were on the ground, motionless.

“Well… Not what I expected out of a quick trip,” G’raha said with an exhausted chuckle. “Where do you think they came from?”

“Hell, probably,” she mumbled. “And I don’t wanna stick around to find out for certain. I don’t have enough energy to teleport us out… I’ll see if Orion is anywhere nearby.”

She pulled a whistle out from her back pocket. She dusted it off and blew into it, letting out a high pitched screeching sound. Thankfully, for whatever reason, Orion was always within earshot. She heard the sound of a speeding chocobo in the distance. She sighed, leaning against G’raha while they waited. He brought an arm around her, rubbing her side.

“Perhaps we'll settle for a date next time?” He asked, planting a kiss on her head.

“Yeah- I think I’m good with that. The Last Stand, perhaps? Close to home?”

“We can even take a look around the shops- You’re running low on paints, yes? And I could use…”

Aki’s attention was pulled behind them. It… It sounded like footsteps. But it certainly wasn’t Orion- her chocobo was in front of them, not behind. What else could it be..?

Then, she heard the charging of a mechanical canon.

She turned just in time, seeing one of the robots from before pointing its lazer arm at the two of them. It’s attention wasn’t on her- Twelve, there wouldn’t be enough time to warn G’raha-

She moved just in time to intercept the blast. G’raha didn’t have the chance to process it before his fiancee was on the ground.

“Is she- is she okay?”

“She will be, mostly thanks to your quick healing. From what it sounds like, she shouldn’t be breathing. But she is, and she's better than stable.”

“Oh, bless the twelve-” she heard a sigh of relief. “I was so worried- she-” a gasp. “Aki, can you hear me?”

She fought to open her eyes. The world was so much brighter than she last remembered- or maybe it was just that room. It was blurry at first, but slowly her vision sharpened enough to see a figure dressed in white beside a panicked G’raha.

G’raha wiped tears from his eyes, replacing his sour expression with a wide smile. The figure in white nodded at him before exiting the room.

G’raha wasted no time to kneel next to her, taking her hand in his. “How do you feel?”

She closed her eyes. No pain anywhere, really- by some miracle, if she remembered things correctly. But, “Tired.” She opened her eyes once more, turning onto her side. “Are you okay?”

“Me?” He blinked once, twice. “You just took a laser to the chest and you’re asking if I’m okay?”

She nodded.

“I…” he smiled, shaking his head. “Yes, I’m well. You-” his gaze wandered. “You shouldn’t have done that. You can’t risk your life like that for me.”

She frowned. Was he really about to lecture her on that? No, not on her watch.

“You would have done the same. Don’t ‘do as I say, not as I do’ me.”

His eyes widened. “Well that- that isn’t the point!”

“We can talk about that later.” She rubbed his knuckles with her thumb as she looked at the bed… It was large enough to fit a roegadyn comfortably- More than enough for a couple of miqo'te. “I’ll scoot. Come lay with me.”

Who was he to deny her such a simple request?

#v time bb #endwalker spoilers #thank you for the ask! and im sorry it took so long for me to finish #i rewrote this so many times #not only the ending but everything #i think its time to put it away #honestly i think i could have done better with this prompt #but im emo rn so this is what we get!#and im still proud enough of it #sure i could do better but also #i'm allowed to have bad sentences sometimes #and im certain all the spots i dont like arent even noticable anyway #ALSO healing in xiv is such an interesting thing #like. mechanically #we can assume graha used a benediction or something on her #instead of what this was SUPPOSED to be #who knows how that plays out story wise but my house my bendy rules

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goineedsleep · 3 years

Text

i am cursed, and also delusional

i got sick recently(not covid, i am a fully vaccinated bitch), so i'm writing this on caffeine and pain

i hope you enjoy the shitshow

-trials of octopath is todays awful fusion idea

-for those of you unaware of trials of manas existence, it's a lot like octopath(and vice versa). trials is a game where you pick 3 characters out of 6 possible options to play as, and the story changes drastically depending on who's in your party. im' gonna have to cut a couple of the octopaths to fit this AU, but i'll be putting them elsewhere- you'll see them eventually

-i'm not even getting into story pairs! every two characters in trials of mana has the same final boss. if you put two characters together who have the same story(say, the fighter/duran or the mage/angela), it gives more information on those characters and their shared story.

-we have olberic the fighter(replacing duran) first. after an invasion of his home, he trusts erhardt with protecting it while he chases after the perpetrator

-then there's cyrus the mage(replacing angela)- he is the prestiged son of a famed scholar. he cannot use the same powerful magic his father could, and thus is chosen to be executed by him. cyrus unleashes enough magical power to teleport out of that situation(this happens in-game), and runs away to seek guidance from the Archbishop of the Church of the Sacred Flame.

-now we have therion the thief. he is a close friend of the leader of the Thieves Guild of the Ravuses, a man known as Heathcote. Darius, an "old friend " of his, saved Heathcotes life from being missing. this results in Heathcote acting very weird from the day he returns- at least, if you ask therion. Heathcote has never expressed the want to start a nation and invade another country until now! he gets help from Heathcotes son, the doctor of their group, to find out what's going on with Heathcote. It turns out... that Darius is using mind control to manipulate Heathcote to follow his bidding. man come on therion was just starting to not punch you in the face every night just when you were about to fall asleep again

-Darius uses dark magic to seal Alfyn away to another realm, and frames Therion for the kidnapping. Therion can't tell the truth about the situation either or kill Darius- Cordelia, Alfyns little sister, will die as well if he even dares due to a cursed article of clothing given to her by Darius.

-luckily for him, Tressa has mercy on him a couple months later and breaks him out of jail. therion decides to investigate the curse in order to find out how to stab Darius in the most affective way imaginable. Also to save Cordelia, but that isn't his priority at the moment

-now we have the warrior princess Primrose

-she's the captain of the woman-led guard of the country of Azelhart

-her mother died during childbirth whilst giving birth to her little sister tressa, and so she decided to take care of her to the best of her ability. her father is very proud of her for taking charge like this, but he still is the parent in this version. he is the one that technically raised tressa since I do not want to force primrose to parent someone when she's like 6

-primrose was just a dedicated babysitter

-she wants tressa to practice her dancing, and when she finds her she's being held at knifepoint by 2 thieves. the barrier protecting Azelhart from enemy forces is broken, tressa is kidnapped, and -Azelhart is no more. Now Primrose is no princess or noble- she's just Primrose

-She goes to the Priest of Light so she can pray for forgiveness from Aelfric before she kills all of the Ravus thieves guild

-H'aanit is the princess of the werewolves. they've been oppressed and marginalized by humans for years, so they've taken up the forest as their home. she's a hunter like most of them are, yet she's never been able to harness the power of her bloodline: it may be due to her being half-human, but she's never been capable of transforming into a beast like her brethren.

-she meets the snow leopard Linde in front of her dead mothers corpse, and starts feeding it

-she has a new pet now -linde and herself work together and they sometimes do better than full-blooded werewolves when they work together

-Z'aanta forms an alliance with Mattias, a man who's worked with the Church of the Sacred Flame a million times -immediately following the forming of this alliance Linde attempts to kill H'aanit -H'aanit doesn't wish to hurt her friend, but she has no choice: she turns into a werewolf for the first time in her life and loses control of her thoughts in her despair

-oh welp the cat's dead(I'M SO SORRY LINDE YOU ARE A VERY GOOD KITTY) -H'aanit heads back home to cry for a minute... then she overhears Mattias admitting that he killed her cat -H'aanit attempts to attack him, and then gets yeeted to Jadd -good job ham, you complete and utter pokemon trainer

-last up, we've got ophilia -she's the adoptive daughter of the Archbishop of the Sacred Flame -she hears Lianna's gonna be going somewhere, she gets an awful vision of Lianna never being seen again following this mission, and goes with her in secret -Lianna gets kidnapped regardless by Mattias -so ophilia decides to find this guy and punch him in the face

-alright that's all of the character backstories

-THANK GOD

-all of these people(save alfyn and tressa, who is being held hostage by the ravus thieves guild) go to jadd first- h'aanit is yeeted there by mattias

-h'aanit notices that her people are invading this town and will be invading Flamesgrace- her next goal is to stop this -olberic wants to stop this as well, so he and h'aanit team up first

-Primrose looks for Tressa in some desperate search, and meets Cyrus during this search. they decide to journey together to Wendel, figuring going together would be better than being alone -they think it's a dumb idea to fight the beastmen, so they decide to escape at night like the bartender suggested

-ophilia finds therion at the bar while looking for food, and overhears his story while she eats soup and bread -she leads him to Wendel, wanting to do help another adventurer before she goes off into the unknown herself

-olberic and h'aanit free the town from beastmen and go to the cavern that leads to flamesgrace(which i am going to keep calling Wendel on accident because that's what it is in trials, srry) -they get there and there's a barrier -archbishop put it up to protect them from the beastmen, and then h'aanit and olberic find the lakeside town of astoria -the villagers keep mentioning how a divine light has started appearing in the area, and olberic shrugs it off and takes a very long nap. the poor man is very tired -ophilia and therion head there as well and follow the light to where it falls- ophilia touches this flame and has to fight a giant robot w/ therion -they win, and ophilia doesn't see it anymore -she shrugs and heads back to astoria, where beastmen have wrecked the town. it is g o n e -ophilia holds a memorial service for them, where she tells therion about how she's a cleric of the Sacred Flame -therion shrugs and suggests they keep going. they don't have much time before it's day and the beastmen attempt to attack Flamesgrace, too

-h'aanit, olberic, cyrus and primrose are having a picnic at the barrier when ophilia and therion arrive -ophilia attempts charging into the barrier, and then it sets on fire and they can all go through -after a long and awkward icebreaker, they all decide to travel together. it's pretty dangerous out there anyways, with the beastmen attacking and atlasdams rumored invasion of Hornburg. the ravus nation is also a major worry, therion reminds them, but they arent' gonna be in the area for a while

-these guys make it to flamesgrace to receive advice on what's coming next -olberic is told to become stronger before challenging atlasdam, and not to do so alone. he continues being in the group due to this -cyrus is told to learn how to understand his emotions- magic is not the forms they teach at school, but rather what comes from the heart. he decides to accompany the travelers so he can escape imprisonment by atlasdam forces -therion first learns of how the dimension Alfyn's been tossed into is inaccessible by humans. it is the birthplace of galdera, and is a realm of which sinners reside after they've lived their lives. Alfyn is probably not going to last very long in this realm- he's as good as dead -therion is then told of how ancient and deadly of a magic the cursed choker is, and that darius is not human. what he is is a mystery, and to save cordelia he must find the sword of aelfric. he cannot save alfyn, so he may as well save his sister -primrose is advised to find her sister and that if she chooses to destroy the ravus nation, aelfric will not support her actions, though they are understandable. if she finds the Sword of Aelfric, she may gain the power she needs to destroy the Ravus nation. -h'aanit is told that Linde will live on through her, and that Mattias is a warlock of Galderas. he has been rejected by the Order of the Sacred Flame as a result, though he does lie very affectively. to save the Kingdom of S'warkii, she must take down Mattias. and since mattias is going after the Sword of Aelfric she may as well accompany Ophilia and make Mattias's efforts worth nothing at all -ophilia is told to find Lianna, since she has been chosen by the Ember. she is now the only person who can rise the Sword of Aelfric from its resting place

-the Sword of Aelfric is hidden within the Sanctuary of Aelfric, which needs an insane amount of power to be opened. normally this power can be leached from the Aelfric Stones, but doing so could let loose ancient and terrible demons. therefore, the 8 gods that reside next to these stones need to be called upon in order to open the portal to the Sanctuary. -Therion suggests going after Aelfric first, since he's the closest one to them. after that, they need to find someone who knows where the rest of them are and also how to get there -they all agree that it's a good plan, but cyrus brings up that the Aelfric Stones each belong to a specific nation or people. going there and borrowing the gods power would be going after large civilizations that have grown around these stones -olberic suggests that they plan this out later, when they have more information and time -they all agree and go ahead to find the first of 8 gods

#trials of mana #octopath traveler #olberus #will happen eventually trust me #i am trash like that

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jeongyunhoed · 3 years

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Past-Present-Future Black Dahlia

Two major tragedies bring Lee Mirae closer to the edge as she goes through the stages of grief in a more violent manner that would affect not only her relationships with her boyfriend Jeong Yunho and her half-brother Choi San, but also has her becoming closer with the immortal mutant Kang Yeosang. Fueled by rage, grief, and pain, along with a very rude awakening that has Mirae spiraling out of control and questioning everything she holds dear.

Group: ATEEZ Member: Yunho Pairing: Jeong Yunho / OC Genre: Action, adventure, angst, fantasy

Watch Out! : Violence, blood, death, grief and loss, major character deaths, use of weapons

Anything else? : Mentions of other idols of course as well as other characters. SuperM, Dean, Chanyeol, Zelo, soloist Park Jihoon to name a few.

Author’s Note: And we’re here in the third or second to the last chapter of the fic. Things are happening! Also, I’m sorry the fight scenes might not be as entertaining. It can be hard writing fight scenes. So, enjoy.

Masterlist

Chapter 9

Mirae and San were gaining the upper hand as they tackled Baekhyun and Jongin, Mingi putting in all of his strength to aim the fire from his lighter towards the robot, only for Taemin to redirect the flames back to him. Wooyoung transformed into his shadow form, knocking Ten off his feet. Hongjoong sped by, punching and kicking him, while circling the robot that looked like it was about to move.

“You took away so many people that I love, you should be grateful your family is still alive and well,” Mirae kept her grip on Jongin’s jacket as they were teleporting all over the warehouse.

“Thanks, I am,” Jongin continued to teleport them all over the warehouse, knocking over Yunho and Lucas, who were also teleporting all over the area in their scuffle.

A powerful wave of energy soon came from Mirae, sending the rest of them in different directions of the warehouse while the robot toppled over, accidentally activating the machine. She saw Taemin’s eyes begin to glow red as he kept his gaze on the robot that was coming alive, getting on its feet.

“Well, crap,” Hongjoong sped past Taemin, knocking him over with a forearm to his neck, breaking his gaze until Lucas pushed him, knocking him off his balance and sending him crashing into the old machines nearby.

Mirae brought on another powerful wave of energy, Seonghwa being quick enough to break the falls of everyone close to him while she targeted the robot. The impact toppled the robot over again, the machine starting to glow from the heat of the energy that it was absorbing. “Go to the streets!” She yelled, concentrating on taking down the robot. She could see Baekhyun, Lucas, Ten, and Jongin scramble to their feet. “Not so fast,” She sent a wave of energy towards them, wounding them as they fell to their feet.

Taemin got back up, his eyes glowing the same as hers again, only for the energy he put out to hit San, who seemed unfazed. “You’re not powerful enough to do that,” He said, engaging in another tussle with the male.

“Junhong, you better keep yourself safe,” Mirae said, her form almost glowing as the robot also began to glow as if it was being burned. “Go into the city, save as many as you can, there’s no telling what the robot that’s already out there is doing.”

“Got it!” Junhong gestured to Jongho, Yunho, Hongjoong, and Wooyoung. “I know a way out of here,” He said, and they ran towards another entrance.

Mingi flicked his lighter again, concentrating as he directed the flames towards the machine, pouring all his energy into making the flame strong enough to burn. The machine only turned red, absorbing the heat from the flames.

Yeosang sent another round of hexes while Seonghwa was engaged in a telekinetic battle against Taemin, who kept mimicking every move he made until Mirae knocked him over with a kick. “You think you’re the only ones who can fight?” Lucas got to her with a few kicks and punches, Mirae effortlessly dodging each one, matching his movements as the two of them were in a deadlock.

“Oh, this hardly seems fair,” Mirae muttered, headbutting the demonic-looking mutant to catch him off-guard, the two of them teleporting in every corner of the warehouse, each time they were reappearing, one of them having the upper hand.

“Come on, soul-taker, let me see the monster inside you,” Lucas purred.

“With pleasure,” Mirae’s eyes turned black, and the two of them fell over on the floor in the midst of the scuffle. She was straddling him, her eyes pitch black as she felt the male’s soul getting drained from under her, Lucas squirming and staring at her in horror.

“Not so fast!” Baekhyun hit her on the head with a broken piece of metal, Mirae’s eyes turning back to normal as she grabbed him by the ankle. Lucas crawled away, coughing as he stared at her.

“You’re-”

“That’s right,” Mirae’s eyes glowed red. “You want it, come get it,” She charged towards Baekhyun. “You and I have unfinished business.”

Baekhyun tried to blast a beam of light towards Mirae, only for her to block it off. “Could you really kill me, Mirae? Do you still have it in you? That killer instinct?” He taunted, both of them alternating in a headlock. “You and I are now even, you know. I killed your loved ones, just as you killed me to mine.”

“We are not the same,” Mirae groaned, sucker punching him only for the two of them to fly backwards as Baekhyun did not let go of her.

“Right, like you didn’t just throw a hissy fit earlier,” Baekhyun grunted, the center of his palm lighting up, and the lights in the warehouse flickering and the machine began to move, its eyes glowing red and blasting through the ground, the rest of them scrambling away in time.

“Someone’s losing their touch,” Mirae flipped him over, his back breaking when he hit her knee, making Baekhyun growl in pain.

“Hyung!” Jongin called out, limping his way towards them, only for Mirae to push him back. Jongin disappeared and reappeared next to Baekhyun again, touching Baekhyun’s wrist and the two of them disappearing before Mirae could make another move.

Lucas had also disappeared, and Ten ran up to Taemin, the two of them disappearing in a portal as well. “To be fair, we were up against a few teleporters,” Mingi kept his lighter. “But what do we do with this?”

“If there was a way to control this,” San looked up at the machine in front of them.

“There is a way-” Mirae replied, only for the five of them to scramble out of the way when the robot began to move forward, sending blasts of flames as it broke through the warehouse, bursting through the layer of dirt and rubble from above. The machine flew out of the place.

“Hold on, where are we?” Seonghwa asked.

“We’re in the place the Center used to be,” Mirae approached the broken down entrance. “We’re underground. They’re up there now.”

There was chaos. Roads were blocked, and cars were stuck as Junhong, Yunho, Hongjoong, Jongho, and Wooyoung looked at the mess caused by the giant robot that was practically destroying everything in its path while people scrambled for safety. “What do we do about that?” Hongjoong asked as they watched the robot wreak havoc.

“What Mirae said, get everyone to safety, then we’ll take it down,” Yunho said.

“I’ll do it, the rest of you figure out how to take that thing down before the other one comes out,” Hongjoong suggested, speeding away.

“The other one has come out,” Wooyoung said. “If we take that down, we’ll know how to get the other one, let’s go,” He transformed into his shadow form, almost slithering on the ground towards the machine.

“They just really had to leave us behind, huh,” Jongho looked annoyed, groaning as the spikes came out of his arms and legs again.

“We’ve been able to put everything back together after the Seoul attack. This time, I’m not so sure,” Junhong looked concerned.

“By the time this is over, we’d all be exposed,” Jongho said quietly.

“It’s not like this hasn’t happened before, but from the way things are going, none of you will be able to live quietly anymore,” Junhong warned. “Unless somehow things can go back and no one else gets killed.”

“It has to go back, as much as possible it has to,” Yunho said, seeing Wooyoung from the distance, his shadow slithering up to the machine, as if trying to strangle it. “Junhong hyung, help Hongjoong get everyone to safety, hack into computers or something, we’ll handle the robot.”

“Got it,” Junhong ran to the nearest internet cafe.

Yunho and Jongho ran down the road, catching up to Wooyoung who was already trying to tackle the machine in his shadow form. “You know, having abilities like Hongjoong hyung or yours would’ve made our job so much easier,” Jongho frowned.

“We never really had a choice, did we?” Yunho said.

“Nope. Lift me up,” Jongho walked a few feet back and Yunho got the idea. He ran towards the robot again, Yunho lifting the shorter male upon catching his step to lift him up. Jongho pierced through the shoulder of the machine only to get thrown off, crashing into a nearby car.

“Tsk tsk,” Lucas appeared, standing on the shoulder of the robot that now had a hole. “You know this had to be done,” He said, eliciting screams and gasps from people who had now seen him in his true appearance: Red skin, slicked back dark hair, fangs glinting in the sunlight, and a tail.

“Speak of the devil,” Jongho stepped on a few cars that were overturned to get to the robot again, Lucas reappearing and yanking him back in mid-air before teleporting away in a flame.

“You really can’t kill me, whoever you are,” Lucas looked down at him with a smirk on his face. He turned around, seeing Yunho already on the back of the robot.

“But I can,” Yunho climbed up on the other shoulder, both of them trying to maintain their balance as the robot moved around. “Let’s settle this, from one immortal to another, shall we?”

“In the words of your beloved,” Lucas took out a dagger from under his blazer. “With pleasure,” He said, and disappeared.

Yunho sensed where Lucas would reappear while eyeing Jongho, who was already climbing up, and climbed to the other side, using the arm of the robot to swing out of the way, dodging every strike Lucas made towards him in mid-air with his blade. “We could do this all day,” He said, kicking the demonic looking mutant away before climbing on top again.

Jongho pierced the head of the robot as hard as he could, feeling wires get cut from the impact of his strike. He saw Wooyoung’s shadow form slithering into the robot. “I’ll try and control this,” He heard the older male say.

“Good-” Jongho covered his eyes, almost falling over from the beam of light that almost hit his face. Baekhyun had appeared behind them, beams of light flashing from his palms, narrowing down as if it had turned into a laser. Jongho groaned as he felt the laser hit the spikes from his arm, and jumped down to charge towards him. Baekhyun blocked every strike Jongho made with a smirk on his face. “You’re not going to succeed.”

“Oh but we have,” Baekhyun broke the spike on his arm. “Try getting that fixed.”

Meanwhile, Hongjoong ran as fast as he could all around the closed-off city, moving men, women, and children away from the damage. “Please stay here, all of you, we’ll solve this,” He said to them.

“Are you going to save us?” A little girl said.

“We’ll try, but keep yourselves safe, run to the borders, we’ll take it from here,” Hongjoong nodded as he sped away, almost running around to protect those who were already walking towards the borders with the assistance of the police, who were guiding them to leave. He saw military tanks enter the area, followed by men whom he knew were completing their military service and holding guns.

Every step the robot took, Hongjoong felt a tremor on the ground, the tremors increasing when he saw from a distance the other robot from the warehouse, that was walking towards the one being beaten down by the rest of his group. He could see the figures of Ten and Taemin, summoning the second machine from their places in the middle of it all.

He could see one car getting overturned, as if a shockwave was coursing through the road, electric advertisements short-circuiting. Hongjoong spotted one car about to hit the family at the very back, and moved in time to kick it away, the impact sending the vehicle back in its place albeit with a very visible dent on the hood.

As he went back to running in circles to protect the citizens from getting hurt, Hongjoong stumbled and fell, getting up to see Taemin standing by. He got up to his feet quickly, racing against Taemin, who stuck close to him. In the midst of the two of them trying to outrun each other, Hongjoong ran past him, making Taemin stumble and fall to the ground. Hongjoong stopped, adjusting the blade that had emerged from his sleeve that had some blood.

Taemin looked down at his side. There was a cut. “You’re going to regret that,” He said.

“You didn’t see that coming,” Hongjoong muttered, speeding away to continue protecting the citizens that were already moving out.

Mirae, San, Yeosang, Mingi, and Seonghwa climbed out of the ruins and ran out, following the robot as it marched through the trees that surrounded the ruins and into the city. “Looks like the rest of the guys caught up with it, Wooyoung’s controlling the robot from the inside for sure,” Mirae observed the actions of the first.

“Jongho must have busted it open, but they should’ve taken it down by now,” San glanced at his sister.

“They’re there. All of them,” Yeosang pointed out, seeing Yunho trying to kick someone away while Jongho was fighting Baekhyun.

“Remember, take the rest of them, but leave Baekhyun and Jongin to me,” Mirae said quietly, staring at the male who was trying to blind Jongho.

“That was the idea. We wouldn’t let you miss out on the privilege, my dear,” Yeosang turned to her, then created a portal that brought them directly into the fray. They stepped out into the middle of the street where the robots were.

Mingi, sensing Taemin was near, took out his lighter, trying to fight off the robot. The flames somehow grew larger the more he concentrated, and he made sure to fend off Taemin with another flame that grew. Seonghwa’s eyes glowed green and he tried to concentrate, getting the robot a few feet off the ground.

“You think you can destroy that kind of machine just like that,” Taemin snickered as he got up, stifling a groan as the blood stain on his side was spreading out even more. “It’ll take more than that to get rid of what keeps it going.”

“And you just gave us the answer, tsk tsk,” Mingi shook his head, taking out his shurikens and throwing them towards the machine as hard as he could. The shurikens pierced through the legs and he jumped up, hanging onto its legs. Mingi climbed up and San did the same. “If only I could heat this up we could bust in and end it.”

“We can,” San’s eyes and fingertips glowed and he punched through the leg of the machine as the two of them climbed even further. He punched the leg again, putting all his energy into breaking through the surface until he noticed the machine giving off an unusual glow that only he knew. “We need to get off!” He yelled, the two of them jumping off as the upper half of the machine exploded.

San and Mingi covered themselves from the bits of metal debris that came from the explosion. “What’s that? Something else is inside… Shit,” Mingi frowned, seeing the machine put itself back together, as if it was being pulled together by a glowing gem. “It’s like a diamond.”

“Diamond? Mirae told me about that,” San looked up, seeing how the gem pulled the machine back, as if it had never exploded. “It’s the diamond, the diamond from that tree of life story Mirae told me, it’s real!”

Mirae had also seen the gem pulling the machine back together. “It can’t be. It really can’t-” She said quietly.

“The diamond of the tree of life. It does exist,” Yeosang looked stunned as they followed the robot, seeing Seonghwa, San, and Mingi run with them. “What would be our next move, my dear?”

“We take them down. I remember something about that gem. It’s sentient, it’s going to-” Mirae stumbled when she saw Baekhyun close by, as if chasing her. “Go! Take the machines down!” She yelled at them.

“My dear, you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Yeosang sent a hex towards the light-bender, who staggered back.

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you,” Mirae got to her feet as Baekhyun quickly did the same.

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you, and I need you to die first,” Baekhyun charged towards her, a beam of light coming from his palms.

Mirae’s eyes and fingertips glowed, the two of them caught in a tussle until she felt someone kick her. It was Jongin, who kept appearing and disappearing. “I’ve been dead before, but you?” She managed to knock away both males, sending them flying towards the other side of the road and crashing into cars. “You don’t know what it feels like.”

Jongin teleported away and reappeared in front of her. “Soon enough, you will be known as the one who caused that explosion at the Center five years ago, your face will be everywhere, do you really want that?” He said.

Mirae seemed unfazed. “You’re one to talk, causing this much damage,” In a few moves, she kept her hold on Jongin. “You try and teleport, I’m teleporting with you,” She said, kicking him some more until he was on his knees. She took out a deck of cards in her pocket, charging them as she could see Baekhyun run towards them through her peripheral vision. “Goodbye, Baekhyun,” She muttered, throwing the entire deck towards him.

The deck exploded upon contact, and Jongin looked up at her in horror. “You won’t be able to stop what Ino has planned. The diamond of the tree of life is in those machines and there’s nothing that can be done to reverse the process,” He said, almost in a whisper. “Baekhyun’s death is now on your conscience.”

“But the deaths of Jihoon, of Hyuk, and of Chanyeol are on yours, and I can live with that” Mirae stared at him, her eyes turning black. “I wonder what it would be like to see you as an empty shell of a human being,” She hissed. Jongin was staring at her, noticing that she took out a card from her pocket. “What would your own family think? Their son, their brother, their uncle, an empty shell of a person without a soul.”

“Do it then, soul-taker,” Jongin muttered, a look of horror evident on his face.

“You missed me,” Baekhyun had emerged from the smoke with a gash on his side, almost limping towards him. Mirae glanced at him, then let go of Jongin. “You think you could get me so easily.”

“I already have,” Mirae charged towards him, the two of them tumbling over on the road. Both of them matched each other’s moves, with Mirae hitting Baekhyun’s wounded side repeatedly. Her eyes and fingertips glowed red again and she headbutted him down, the road cracking under Baekhyun as he struggled to move.

As if sensing something was coming, Mirae pushed Jongin, who reappeared in front of her, in time, only for him to go back to her. Mirae’s eyes and fingertips were still glowing as she took him on, grabbing him by the leg and kicking it down, the bones cracking once again and making him cry out in pain.

“Tsk, tsk. Looks like I got both of you,” Mirae watched them squirm in their places. She sensed Yunho’s thoughts. She ran towards the road that had the two robots.

The males were unsuccessful in taking down the machines that were still wreaking havoc in the city, Hongjoong running around in circles to protect the citizens from getting caught in the crossfire of the chaos. Seonghwa was struggling to control each machine even though his eyes and hands were glowing the brightest it had ever been in the few months she had seen his powers manifest.

The rest of them were trying to bring down not only the machines, but also Ten, Taemin, and Lucas, who were gaining the upper hand. Mirae spotted Junhong, who was running out of the internet cafe, looking around for a sign of anyone he could approach. “Mirae!” He called out, having seen her.

“The diamond of the tree of life is powering those robots,” Mirae said. “San tried to blow it up but the diamond is putting everything back together. Is there a way to get rid of that gem?”

“I remember Ino telling me that the diamond is a sentient gem. It disappears whenever it wants to,” Junhong explained. “If Ino hyung created these robots with the power of the diamond, there should be a way for it to disappear now, if we can use it to repair everything else here when all is said and done, we’ll have control of it.”

“But now Ino has the control,” Mirae said, and he nodded. She looked back at the machines that Wooyoung and Mingi were trying to take down. “I am going to try something, there must be a way to take these apart.”

“From the inside, maybe, but good luck trying to bust into that,” Junhong said.

Mirae nodded, coming to the realization that she knew exactly what to do. She turned to Junhong. “Once we take these down, by some miracle, Ino would hopefully stop this.”

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I’m not holding my breath at the same time,” Junhong frowned at the thought.

Mirae ran back to the middle of the road, seeing the machines on both sides. Her eyes glowed red, and she concentrated on the two machines that were still moving. Yunho, I’m about to break these things from the inside, she thought, in the hopes that he would hear her. The more she concentrated, she was slowly glowing, and they could see, in the middle of their fighting, that she was transforming into a bright, white spirit made out of energy.

“Mirae’s reached her full potential,” Junhong muttered, looking at her in awe as her energy form seeped into the machine that Wooyoung and Jongho were trying to take apart, the machine soon glowing red as Wooyoung and Jongho ran away, while Yeosang conjured a shield as the machine began to burst, the diamond inside disappearing.

The three males stared at Mirae’s energy form that flew through the air and entered into the other machine that San and Mingi were trying to take apart. San and Mingi jumped off, landing on top of some cars as the machine exploded and the gem disappeared.

“This is impossible,” Ten stared at the being that emerged from the explosion, watching it materialize back into Mirae, whose eyes were still glowing. He glanced at Lucas and Taemin, creating a portal before she could reach them, the three of them heading inside and vanishing. The portal reappeared before Baekhyun and Jongin’s incapacitated forms, Lucas grabbing onto the two of them before vanishing as well.

“Where the hell did they go?” Seonghwa looked around, seeing the ruins caused by the robots.

“They knew they would lose, so they left,” Yunho said, seeing a gem roll up against his feet. He picked it up. “If only there was a way to repair everything.”

The gem in his hand suddenly lit up and all of a sudden everything around them began to go back to the way it was. The windows that were smashed were brought back together, the dents in the cars disappeared, the rest of the damages, including the cracks in the roads were also brought back together as if nothing happened. “That’s a dangerous gem, Yunho,” Yeosang said, noticing what was in his hand, as the rest of them ran up to him.

“Mirae, where is she?” San looked around for a sign of his sister, until he saw a bright being fly above the buildings and into one skyscraper. “What building is that?” He pointed.

Yeosang looked over to where he pointed. “Lee Technologies. Ino must be there, and Mirae must be looking for him now,” He said. A disk appeared in front of them, expanding to fit them all. From the other side, they saw that it was an empty office and they went through.

The window shattered as Mirae went through, her bright energy form face to face with Ino’s astounded expression. “You have caused me guilt this whole time,” She said. “I have you to thank for me tapping into this part of myself again, but I can’t say things will go back to the way it was.”

“Lee Mirae, do you really think you can kill me?” Ino questioned. “I found you when you were working for your adoptive parents, fixed that trigger from your head, is that how you repay me?”

“I never said I wasn’t grateful, but I will say that you have done more damage to me because you knew where to hit me the most,” Mirae replied. “Your machines are gone, the rest of those people you were with have deserted you, it’s time to give up or I will have to make you.”

Ino shook his head. “Try me.”

Before Mirae could make another move, Ino had disappeared.

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qwanderer · 3 years

Text

Loki in the Hall of Mirrors

This story is complicated. Not, like, as a plot, not particularly, but philosophically and thematically. It's got that great play of hero against villain that I love about the Loki story in general and that makes it all so divisive and messy. And I love it even more than I did on first watch.

The first time I watched the desert landing scene, I was like, "Wait? What happened to Allspeak?" because the people who live there don't seem to understand him. But on the second watch, I realized it could be a lack of context, rather than a break in translation. These people probably have an even chance of knowing nothing about Norse myth. Like, what if an alien came up to you and said "I am Boogle of Bofgar, I carry a burden"? You would still have questions like "What the hell is a boogle and why are you carrying your shit here?" So the basic dynamic of Allspeak is probably still functioning, and Loki probably understood their questions, but he was still trying to figure out how to answer when he got distracted by the TVA people.

It could even be an innate psychic ability rather than a magical one, as he seems to understand everyone in the TVA, including the man who can't be fluent in all languages like the field agents because he has never heard of a fish and the seemingly nonverbal robot. (Which of course makes me want Loki talking with Dum-E and the other shop bots! But I digress.)

Okay. I want to start talking about the next-level manipulation shit the TVA are pulling on Loki here. Time, as they say, moves differently in the TVA, and one might even assume that they can avoid having to deal with more variants at once than they can handle. And yet we see them dealing with exactly two other troublemakers during Loki's onboarding.

The first, I'm going to call little echo man.

Little echo man is incredibly annoying to Loki, because he does and says everything Loki might find himself inclined to do and say if he wanted to be difficult. Little echo man does these things in little annoying undignified ways, making them look silly and petulant. Little echo man protests and questions and pushes back, in his business suit and his long dark hair and pale skin, and clearly thinks everyone should treat him as important even though every indication is that he is an annoyance and an afterthought.

Perhaps he's a plant, and perhaps he's just a variant of an annoying but predictable regular they see who they lined up at the same time on purpose. But he is on purpose. Everything he does screams directly at Loki, "Don't do this."

We'll get to the second convenient intersection later.

The most obvious layer of manipulation is simply the beraucracy. They put him up against a series of obstacles which he needs to deal with to get anywhere else, and nothing he does can get him past those obstacles except compliance. All of these obstacles have personality, but they are not personable. They treat Loki like a bag of trash they have been tasked with taking to the curb. Annoying, distasteful, but ultimately routine. His silver tongue isn't going to get him anywhere because these people simply don't care.

I think a lot of these he just goes along with to see where it gets him, since at this point he still believes he has his magic in reserve. But the fact that he steps through the robot fryer even though he thinks he might be a robot without knowing (as others have pointed out, he spent thousands of years as a frost giant without knowing it, and he's recently spent time in the control of the being who shaped Nebula) is a testament to how deep they've already got their hooks in him.

They treat the robot fryer like it's routine, but come the next obstacle, they kill little echo man like it's routine, too. Because he didn't comply.

Loki is slowly being ironed flat to thread into their compliance mill.

And then - I love this, because it reminds me of one of my favorites among the multiplicity of Lokis, GoS!Loki - they put this line in as punctuation between the impersonal, compliance, don't phase of their manipulation and everything that comes after it.

When he's set before the judge, someone actually paying some attention to him, this is his chance to use his silver tongue on someone who will listen. But, although the judge listens, she treats him the same as all the other obstacles have - like listening is a distasteful chore she would like to be done with.

So it seems like the perfect moment for a dramatic escape. Except his magic is gone.

"It's not your story," the judge says. "It never was."

That hammers in all the worst things Loki has ever believed about himself - that he stands in the shadows of others, that he will never have the central place he was raised to desire, that he is, and always will be, a villain to be vanquished rather than a person with choices and agency.

Enter Mobius.

Mobius is a big echo.

He draws all the attention in a room. He is everything that Loki wishes to be - he is powerful, informed, prepared, in control. Capable of charming the judge. And most importantly, he is actively interested in Loki.

At this point in Loki's journey - both in the show and in his life - that has to be irresistible.

So Mobius is in a perfect position to wrap Loki right around his pinky finger.

He listens to Loki without shutting him down, the way all the obstacles have. When Loki tells Mobius he's going to burn down the TVA, Mobius suggests a couple of places he might want to start. One concrete, small, mischievous. One an indication that he's open to Loki doing larger, more significant things here in the future.

He shows Loki his own past and future - but carefully edited, to paint a particular picture.

So many echoes, so many reflections - Loki is in a house of mirrors. Lost, disoriented. Distorted one way, then the other. Magnified and examined.

Loki snarks, and Mobius comments, "Makes you sound smart." Affirms Loki for that little mischievous bit of personality.

Mobius shows Loki some of the most terrible things he's done, and questions them. Pushes Loki away from them. Then changes direction before he can get too heavy-handed, to basically fangirl over the DB Cooper adventure. That's mischief. That's good. I like that.

Punishes him for a small infraction, just to remind him who is in control and that even looking threatening could be seen as a problem.

I think it was at about this point that I got hard reminded of the dynamics of the show White Collar. It's a buddy cop show on a basic level and sometimes the relationship can be very sweet, but sometimes Peter spends one too many times reminding Neal that he can send him back to prison any time he wants and the power dynamic shows its messed up edges.

Mobius is part of the machine, and the machine is doing terrible things to Loki, but I have at least a sliver of hope that the relationship could gain more balance - more genuine balance, not based on the faux freedom that Loki has gained by the end of the episode. There's something to be said for making changes to a system from within that system, but for that to be meaningful change, Mobius would have to change as a person.

Anyway, this current nastily powerful Mobius pushes Loki as hard as he can, and then is conveniently interrupted by the actions of another variant, leaving Loki alone with his remote.

It could easily have been on purpose. The only thing Loki learns by escaping that room is that the TVA is more powerful than any force in the universe, in his experience.

Let's talk about the other Loki variant for a minute. It took me until the second viewing to realize the symbolism of leaving a small child the only survivor in a place of worship, then giving her something to turn her blue.

Odin said he found Loki in a temple, in the aftermath of a battle.

It's actually frighteningly easy to imagine how a distraught Loki could get to a place where he feels the need to genuinely burn down the TVA, and kill every agent in it. Because the TVA put certain clips in his little future show, focusing on the death of his mother, the way his own actions affected it, and the futility and brutality of his own death at the hands of Thanos.

They don't show him the destruction of Asgard, his own role in helping save the evacuees, and the way Thanos decimated the population of that transport before it could even reach Earth. They don't show him the devastation of his home or his capacity to do good.

A Loki who knows that the power of the TVA exists and that he has the capacity to be Asgard's heroic savior would do anything to get that power and save his people.

But we haven't met that Loki yet. I'm sure we will, and it's going to be exhilarating.

This Loki is being taught the importance of control over little things, and so when he gets his collar off and onto that guard, he toys with her, just to see that he can. They have been toying with him and it's oh so satisfying to turn the tables. But it's still compliance in its own way, the petty little mischief that Mobius has been steering him towards.

Loki has been given just enough freedom, just enough choices, that it seems like his own choice to watch the rest of the slide show and come to the obvious conclusion - there's no "out" to go to. His life has gone on without him, and ended. And there's really no point in his trying to fix it. No putting things back the way they were.

So he admits to Mobius - the person who has listened hardest, probably, besides his mother - he admits that he is small and scared and lashing out. That he doesn't know what to do.

Of course, this is when Mobius introduces the task the TVA has for Loki - to take down his other self.

Oh, I can't wait for the next episode! I want to know where this is going.

(I've popped in some panels from Loki: Agent of Asgard because it's my favorite and the show is giving me feelings about it.)

#the loki show #the loki series #agent mobius #loki #loki meta #spoilers #loki spoilers #loki show spoilers #aoa #gos!loki #marvel

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latin-dr-robotnik · 3 years

Note

you’re a combo of uwu and too many thots lolol thot and thot solidarity 🤝

Y E S

I thought of where I could fit in best, and too many thots felt like a personal callout so yeah why not haha but uwu? aww thank you! ♥

So... since we're thots... may I interest you in my latest uwu wip I was surely gonna forget about in a few days anyway? It came to me last night during a chat with @dizzydennis 👀👀👀

Prompt goes: Sonic agrees to take Cream out on a small adventure, but Vanilla is completely unaware of that and actually called Amy to come over and take care of Cream while she was out for the day. The end result is Sonic and Amy both fighting over Cream’s care, as Sonic’s proposal might not be as chill as he originally thought.

"He should be here any moment..."

Shortly after their last adventure in Music Plant, Sonic promised to take her out again, this time to a less dangerous yet still adventurous place. The 23rd day after the leaves started falling down was chosen as the date for their next meeting, and Cream waited patiently... until now.

Today's the day Sonic will return, and she's been waiting all day long, leaning on the open window from her bedroom.

"I probably should've told mama about it, don't you think Cheese?"

Her Chao Cheese flew outside and stood in front of her with a concerned look, "chao..."

"Yes, I know... I shouldn't hide things from mama, but I assumed she would be fine with it anyway... maybe I should tell her now, right?"

Cream stepped away from the window, and took a moment to pick up courage to leave her bedroom and talk to her mom. But as she was just about to reach for the door, a voice startled her from downstairs.

"Cream, sweetie, I'm going to be out for a bit." It was Vanilla, ready to go open the front door with one hand, and carrying a bag with the other.

Cream gasped, then opened the door just enough to squeeze her head out the bedroom. "What!? Whe-where are you going, mama?"

"I need to go to the city, buy some things... do you want me to buy you anything in particular?"

Cream hesitated for a second, thinking if she should tell her mom about Sonic right now or not, at the risk of upsetting her or worse... "no... no! I'm fine! Thanks, ha ha!"

"Oookay..." Vanilla opened the door, revealing someone else standing right outside, "oh, by the way, Amy is here to join you while I'm out. Have fun, girls!"

Cream closed the door immediately and held it shut with her body, looking back at Cheese in complete panic, "AMY?!"

Amy entered the house carrying a bag, and slowly walked towards the sofa, "hey Cream! Your mom told me to bring something so I picked up some movies and popcorn for us! I think you're gonna love this!"

Cream didn't say anything, still looking at Cheese, which prompted Amy to leave her things on the couch and come upstairs.

"Hey, you okay?" Amy said, knocking the bedroom door, "something's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, Ms. Amy!" Cream replied from the other side, refusing to open. "I need to put some things back in place and I'll join you in a bit, don't worry!"

"Fair enough, call me if you need help, though!"

Cream sighed in relief, then jumped right onto her bed, "what are we going to do, Cheese?"

Cheese looked outside the window, confused.

"We got ourselves into this, we need to make up some sort of plan or something, before Mr. Sonic arrives!"

Cheese nodded, and they spent the next 10 minutes thinking about something. Meanwhile, Amy set everything up for the movies, wondering why Cream isn't coming down.

Soon, that feeling of wonder became concern, and Amy went upstairs once again.

"Cream, open this door, please. You're worrying me."

"Okay Cheese, let's hope this goes well..." Cream took a deep breath, then opened the door only to see Amy with her fists on her waist and with a very serious look on her face. "Oh, hey Ms. Amy... I'm so sorry!"

"What was all that about, anyway?"

Cream was clearly uneased by the situation, scratching the back of her head and avoiding eye contact, "Amy, there's something I have to tell you..."

Suddenly, the wind started picking up outside, and Cheese started to fly around the window, weaving arms in panic, "chao! Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao!"

Amy looked extremely confused, but Cream knew exactly what that meant. "Oh, no..."

"Oh no what, Cream? Cream!"

Cream ran downstairs and straight to the front door, Amy chasing after her. A few seconds later, the doorbell rang.

Amy froze in place, "huh? Who's coming now? Cream, stop! Don't open the door to strangers!"

Against her wishes, Cream opened the door, only to reveal a familiar blue hedgehog standing outside.

"Hey Cream, sorry for the delay! There was a bit of traffic, haha." Sonic joked, but noticed Cream was looking down, as if embarrassed by his presence. "Hey, don't tell me you're gonna back out of our plans!"

Cream didn't say a word. Amy, on the other hand, couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"...Sonic?"

"Huh? Amy? Wha-what are you doing here?"

Amy's face suddenly turned to a furious red, "I should be the one asking that question." Then, she grabbed Cream by the shoulder, "CREAMMMMM!"

"Okay, okay!" Cream broke out of Amy's grasp, "Mr. Sonic agreed to take me out today on an adventure, and I... I forgot to tell mama about it!"

Sonic felt a chill running through his spine, "oh, dear..."

Amy facepalmed. "Oh, Cream... why didn't you tell Vanilla that?"

Cream jumped right to hug Amy, tearing up, "I... I was afraid she would say no... I guess I wanted this adventure so so much..."

"It's fine, Cream." Amy comforted her, "but you can't hold things from your mother, you know that... you don't know if she would let you go out or not, but she'll certainly will not let you if you start hiding things from her."

The two stayed hugged for a bit, as Sonic awkwardly stared at them.

"That being said..." Amy broke the silence, "I haven't said no to it yet, and I'm in charge of you today."

Cream's eyes lightened up, "you... you are serious?"

"Yup, I could use some fresh air, and I guess you too. C'mon, go get yourself ready."

Cream stopped hugging Amy, and then happily nodded to her. "Yes! I'll be right back!"

Cream ran back to her bedroom, but Amy stood right where she was, leaning on the door frame with her arms crossed and looking directly at a Sonic sheepishly smiling back.

"So... an adventure, huh?" Amy fired. "You know that can get a bit dangerous out there."

"Well, yes... and no..." Sonic scratched the back of his head, "this adventure... is an amusement park... Adventure Park is its name, off the Golden Bay Zone... should be a pretty chill place."

"A PARK?!" Amy lost her cool for a moment, feeling incredibly upset that Sonic never picked a place for them to go out before.

Sonic took a step back, well, actually, two steps back before Amy calmed down again.

"It's fine, it's fine. I was getting tired of asking you out to the same places anyway."

"Amy..."

Just as the conversation got a lot more awkward, Cream returned from upstairs "Ms. Amy! Mr. Sonic! I'm ready! Uh... Mr. Sonic...? Are you alright? You look a bit pale..."

Sonic shook himself back to his normal cocky self in a super Sonic second.

"Pale? Ha... must be the breeze!" He gestured around, then at a nearby tree... that was completely still. "Alright, you ready for the adventure?"

Sonic turned around and Cream immediately jumped on his back so he can carry her. "Yes! ...hold on, a park?"

"The Adventure... Park." Amy added, still crossing her arms.

"Wait, a park? Mr. Sonic, I wanted to wreck some Eggman robots, you said that's the best thing in the world!"

Sonic raised a finger and gestured negatively, "no no, I told you that was way too dangerous! We're gonna do the second best thing in the world, play some dangerous yet controlled amusement park games!"

Cream let a frustrated sigh out, "okay... but what about Amy? Are you gonna carry her too, Mr. Sonic?"

Sonic turned around nervously, and looked back at Amy then down to his hands, "I... think I can do it."

"I can run there by myself."

Amy closed the door just after Cheese, and so the four of them began their way to Adventure... Park.

The sunny afternoon was the perfect set up for this adventure. The park was spread around the bay coast and offered an amazing view of the entire city from its dedicated looking spot, a massive tower sitting on the westernmost point of the bay.

Down on the ground level, Cream was totally amazed by the park's rollercoasters, bumper cars and many, many green spots surrounded by shops and carts. One cart in particular grabbed her attention.

"Oh, oh!" Cream exclaimed, holding on to Sonic's hand while pointing to a cart with the other, "I want some cotton candy!"

"No, Cream." He said, trying to be a bit more strict than last time they went out together, "Vanilla won't appreciate the fact I allowed you to have sugar before your vegetables!"

"Nah, it's fine. Go grab some, Cream." Amy replied over Sonic, still arms crossed, scanning the place around with her look.

"Yay!"

Cream and Cheese dashed to the cotton candy cart, as Sonic approached Amy a bit upset.

"Excuse me, I think I'm doing a good job taking care of Cream on my own." He pointed out.

"Excuse YOU, I'm the one left in charge by her own mother!"

"Yeah but I'm the one who told Cream about this adventure first!"

"And I already had plans for both of us before you came around, hmph!"

As they argued, Cream came back overjoyed holding her giant cotton candy as Cheese directly jumped into it, overjoyed as well.

"Hee hee, I'm back! Where to, now...? Oh... are you fighting?"

Both Sonic and Amy stood still for a moment, side by side, both with their arms crossed.

"Oh? It's nothing, Cream! Ha ha!" Sonic tried to look for something to talk about, "we're just... discussing what attraction we should head to first... yeah!"

"Aww," Cream lowered her cotton candy, searching for Cheese somewhere inside it, "don't you think they look cute when they fight, Cheese?"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese gleefully replied.

Suddenly, Sonic and Amy lost their cool at the same time, letting out a big "WHAT?!" before turning away from each other, upset... and blushing.

"Yeah, they do! They look together, hee hee!" Cream continued, before setting her sights on the next attraction, "I wanna go to the bumper cars next!"

They followed Cream and Cheese, but keeping their distance from one another.

"We don't look cute together," they murmured.

Back to latin-dr-sonamy-trash: Okay okay, this is a very rough draft - written exclusively for this post, and not even spell-checked! I feel like there’s still sooooo much more to this one, but I’m already 1800+ words into it and I need some sort of self-control (well, not only that one lol) or else I’ll never post this ask haha

Also, I would not be a too many thots thot if I finished this one right here and now~~

But seriously, I think I have a solid grasp for this one, and I could actually return to it and finish it! There’s still the bumper cars bit, the rollercoaster bit, Eggman actually coming in and storming the place, and Sonic and Amy’s final reflection on the day (and maybe more? 👀), so, yeah, we’re just halfway done with this little SonAmy trash piece where our emotional support hedgehogs are a bit... grumpy at each other? 👀

#ask latin dr robotnik #sonic the hedgehog #sonamy #yes for the final oneshot i'm gonna flesh it out a lot more #i just put the basic worldbuilding and interactions down lolol #i feel like i can do much muuuuch more with this one #but again - i need some sort of self control haha #potatoes-tomatoes

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #242: “EASY COME... EASY GO!”

April, 1984

“Okay Avengers, the party’s over!”

Being a buzzkill, party-hating Cover Vision!

Hmm. Something about this cover makes it feel like from an older era. The returned Mighty Avengers logo or maybe the inking? Or perhaps the Silver Age DC superdickery energy to it? I can’t put my finger on it but this feels like a cover you’d see in the 70s instead of the 80s.

Last time on Avengers: Well, they went to San Francisco for a two-parter where they fought Morgan Le Fey to save Jessica Drew’s soul. As ya do.

Vision has also been a tube boy after he walked into a null field. Starfox hooked him up to the Titan supercomputer and that didn’t fix him, it did overclock his robot brain and let him broadcast giant holograms of his own head. That’s almost as good.

This time:

Some guy: “HOLY GEEZ!”

An interesting note, this guy has only ever seen Quinjets in pictures and never thought he’d see one in person. Tells you how often the Avengers hang around Ottumwa, Iowa.

We start with the Avengers in mid-return from California.

In one of the Quinjets, She-Hulk is telling Starfox that she wished they could have spent more time before returning to New York so she could have shown him LA.

Starfox: “Ah, well... I’m sure another opportunity will present itself, She-Hulk! Besides, the scenery around her has plenty to offer!”

Wanda looks like she’s trying to astral project away from Starfox putting his hand on her shoulder but she’s really just distracted thinking about Vision.

The Avengers on the Jessica Drew mission radioed back to the Mansion that they were bringing Hank Pym home but Wanda suggested that Hank could examine Vision and maybe fix him. But Vision rejected the idea and Wanda is at a loss for why he’s determined to overcome his robo-paralysis on his own.

I’m also a little confused why they didn’t call on Hank Pym sooner to examine tube Vision but then again that would have been super awkward for Wasp and Reed Richards, that hack, said Vision should have recovered quickly.

Speaking of super awkward, Hank and Wasp are alone together in the other Quinjet.

Hank is also baffled that Vision turned down his help. He repaired him once before! Remember? He got super tiny and had a fantastic voyage inside him? In Avengers #93?

Jan comments that she hasn’t heard Hank sound so confident in years and he confirms that devoting his time fully to SCIENCE and taking superheroing off the table as an option has done wonders for his emotional outlook.

He also reiterates that he never felt cut out for the superhero life. Aw, enjoy it while it lasts, bud.

And he thanks her for calling him Hank instead of “Dr. Pym” like she did at the hospital.

Wasp: “Oh... That. Well, when you flew out at my request to help save Jessica Drew’s life... after all we’d been through... the divorce and all... I’m afraid I slipped into my stuffy Avengers chairwoman voice. I thought it might make things easier, but it didn’t... For either of us. I’m sorry, Hank.”

Hank Pym: “That’s okay, Jan. I understand. Your ‘stuffy chairwoman voice,’ huh? Heh-heh. How often do you have to use that?”

Wasp: “Wellll... Most of the time the others will go along with ol’ ‘dingaling Jan’ -- but sometimes, I have to get tough. That never fails to grab their attention!”

Hank Pym: “No doubt! Once, I was the only Avenger who knew how tough you really were! I’m glad the others are learning.”

Wasp: “I guess that none of us are ever too old to learn, Hank.”

Feels like Hank is rewriting some things in his memories since Jan often had to diminish herself to make him feel better but then again it didn’t always work so maybe the idea is that he knew all along how strong she was?

Either way, nice to see these two interacting so amiably.

Also, I like that she’s able to be an effective leader while still being ‘dingaling Jan’ since it doesn’t change how smart and capable she is. And the contrast if she has to get serious only helps.

I think overall I like that her leadership style is so uniquely her and that when her character was retrofitted to operate outside of being ‘Hank Pym’s partner’ she still remained recognizably her.

We have a whopping several women on the Avengers at this time (glorious) and Wasp, She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch, and Captain Marvel all feel like different characters.

Since Vision declined Hank Pym’s help, Wasp drops him off back home in Central Indiana.

Once these two were husband and wife, friends and lovers. But they were very different people and, without meaning to, they hurt each other very much. Today, they have perhaps put a small bit of that hurt behind them. Today, they have again become friends.

Daaaaw. Friends.

Wasp returns to Avengers Mansion to discover there’s a full-on party going on. There’s even streamers and a Captain America who seems incredibly enthusiastic about streamers.

(In another fun bit, Monica knew about the party already because she flew ahead to the mansion before joining Wasp in the Quinjet after she dropped off Hank. And she was bursting to not tell Wasp what was going on as they landed.)

Wasp is even more surprised when she learns that the party is celebrating Hawkeye’s marriage.

Wasp: “Barton? You mean Hawkeye? Married?!?”

Hawkeye: “‘Fraid so, Jan! I’d like you to meet my bride... Mockingbird.”

Mockingbird: “How do you do?”

Wasp: “Oh... fine. You’ll have to excuse me. This is... quite a surprise.”

A reaction that Mockingbird says she’s getting used to because she’s seeing it from all of Hawkeye’s friends!

Hah!

Hawkeye asks Cap on the sly whether he made the right move, getting married, but Cap is very supportive, saying its the most responsible thing he’s ever done.

Hawkeye: “What?! Cap, you cut me to the quick! Haven’t I always acted in a mature, responsible manner?”

She-Hulk: “Look who’s talking... the man whose proudest achievement is the invention of the water-balloon arrow!”

Provided She-Hulk isn’t just making stuff up, there’s some serious off-screen shenanigans that we didn’t get to see, possibly involving Hawkeye shooting water balloons at She-Hulk all day.

But... CLINT. YOU INVENTED AN ANTI-GRAVITY ARROW!

Why am I the only one who remembers that?

Thor shows up at the party next, back from his own solo adventures, and offers his own congratulations to Hawkeye.

Mockingbird is undergoing some culture shock here, as she’s astounded that Hawkeye calls Thor “Goldilocks.” And when Thor turns his Thor charm on her, and blesses their wedding, she’s rendered briefly speechless.

Its fun that we get this side of her. I think she was similarly blown away when they met Cap on the subway.

But even though she was a SHIELD agent and then a freelance superhero, she doesn’t seem to have a lot of exposure to your Avengers types so Hawkeye pulling her into those social circles is a lot of fun.

She’s going to get used to it though. I know that she Avenges herself in the future.

Also, look at Thor’s flagon of mead. Holy shit. Its as big as his whole torso.

Jarvis is really dedicated!

Over in a quiet corner of the party, Wanda tries to convince Vision to let Hank Pym take a look at him but Vision dismisses the idea.

Vison: “Please, Wanda, let’s not spoil this happy occasion! Surprise parties are all too rare, and few of them are party to as many surprises as this one!”

And instead of explaining what he means, he turns his hologram off.

Well, okay.

AH HA HE WAS REPAIRED AND JUST DIDN’T MENTION

For reasons of surprise.

What a whimsical turn for the Vision.

Aw, that panel of them kissing and everyone cheering is sweet. That’s how I like to remember them. Not, err, later developments.

(I also like Mockingbird being confused whether or not he’s still a hologram because of his intangibility)

Everyone congratulates Vision for being bipedal again.

Vision: “It’s good to be moving, Jan. But my recovery shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise. As I told you a few days ago, it was just a matter of time before I isolated the cause of my body’s motor dysfunctions -- and initiated the proper repair systems.”

But he tosses some sweet cred to Starfox, for hooking up to an alien supercomputer. It’s like matchmaking but with networks.

The surprise of his surprise recovery pales compared to his next surprise, as he announces (without consulting Wanda at all, geez) that its imperative that she and him stay with the Avengers full-time.

All I’m saying is communication is important, Vizh.

And maybe you should have brought this up with Wasp too? She is the chairwoman and as Cap points out, the team is already pretty packed, especially with Hawkeye and Thor back.

Vision: “Yes, the ‘chairman’s privilege’ limit! But you’re not the leader now, Cap... the Wasp is! And she’ll just have to change that limit -- or the membership roster -- to include Wanda and myself! We will be needed in the upcoming emergency!”

Kinda dropping a lot of surprises on this surprise party, Vision! I don’t know if you really get the concept wholly? You’re not supposed to save up all the surprises for this one day.

Also, Vision’s speech bubbles have changed. They’re still rounded rectangles but they’re not yellow anymore and the font is a bit italicized. Hm. Wonder if that means anything.

Anyway, Vision announces that while he was a tube boy, he detected two major fluctuations of Earth’s electromagnetic fields by some “unknown energy of near-infinite power.”

He’s secretly been working with Reed Richards on this and neither of them have been able to track down what this nonsense is. But until this malevolent mystery is uncovered, he and Wanda as two of the more powerful reservists must obviously be active Avengers.

But how does he know its malevolent if he hasn’t been able to uncover what it is? Deductive reasoning and intuitive presentiment!

Pffffft.

I think this might be my favorite recent punchline from this book.

But Vision has more than just bad vibes to be given a frighten by this upcoming ominousness!

Vision: “The energy I detected goes beyond the limits of any known to man! The power flux showed on our screens for a mere fraction of a second, and then disappeared without a single trace. That concerns me... And it should concern all of us! If we cannot discover the source of this energy, there could be catastrophic consequences!”

And to show how seriously he’s taking this, he makes this horrifying face.

He looks like he’s trying to eat Wasp.

I do not care for this. Either the specific panel or the overall idea of someone eating Wasp.

Anyway, Vision and Scarlet Witch goes off to check the super advanced equipment he installed in the monitor room without asking anyone. He’s doing that a lot lately.

Wasp is both annoyed that he went over her head and impressed with his initiative in doing so.

But she has other matters to attend and asks Thor and Cap(tain America) head down for a private meeting with her.

And now the party is kind of over!

Yeah, you ruined it, Vision! You put too many surprises on the surprise party! You could have saved some for later!

Vision and Scarlet Witch went off to the monitor room. Wasp, Cap(tain America), and Thor went off to have an executive meeting. And Hawkeye and Mockingbird slipped away from their own party not long after that!

Leaving Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Starfox, and Jarvis to stand around awkwardly wondering where the party went. They didn’t even cut the cake yet!

Dammit Vision!

Hawkeye snuck out to the garden behind Avengers Mansion that’s been there all along. And Mockingbird followed to see what’s bugging him.

Hawkeye: “I’ve always loved this spot. Great tree, isn’t it? Ya know, it’s not easy to get an apple tree to grow this big in the city!”

But Mockingbird sees through that and asks what’s really his beef.

Hawkeye: “Aw, it’s just that I can see another membership shuffle in the works!”

Mockingbird: “So?”

Hawkeye: “So, I’m the one most likely to get bounced!”

I like the range of Hawkeye emotions here.

Hawkeye says that since he has a life (marriage) outside the Avengers now, he doesn’t mind so much being cut from the team. But if they’re going to be facing the latest and greatest menace of all times, he wants to face it with them!

Mockingbird: “That was pretty profound... for a guy who’s supposed to be a butt-head!”

Hawkeye: “Well, thank you, Mrs. Butt-head!”

Aww.

This is a fun bit too.

Mockingbird asks if Hawkeye wants to go inside and get some cake but he shoots an apple from the tree and offers Mockingbird one.

Pretty slick, Clint.

Over at the monitor room, Vision is really into monitoring whatever is upcoming. Super into it. So Wanda has to ask a question.

Scarlet Witch: “Darling... Are you sure you’re all right?”

Vision: “What sort of question is that?”

Scarlet Witch: “You’ve been acting so peculiar lately!”

Vision: “Wanda, how do you expect me to act? I’ve just recovered from spending what seemed like an eternity in a life support tube, able to move about only as a holographic image! Before that, my body was possessed by the dying sorcerer, Necrodamus. And that was almost immediately after I’d gone through the agony of losing an arm. Thankfully, the Inhuman scientists of Attilan were able to restore my limb. But you must admit we’ve both been through a score of trails these past few months! And now, I’ve detected something which could be the biggest menace we’ve ever faced! All things considered, is it really so surprising that I’m acting this way?”

Huuuuuh. I mean, he has a point. That’s a lot of shit in a very short time frame to endure.

This could very reasonably be a reaction to it all.

That’s a very unnerving smile though.

Over at the not-secret but private just Wasp, Thor, and Cap(tain America) meeting, Wasp, Thor, and Cap(tain America) are meeting.

Well, really, its more that Thor is recapping the tale of Beta Ray Bill for the other two. But we, the readers, just get an editor’s caption telling us to read Walter Simonson’s Thor (and I don’t need to be told twice) and Thor summing up to the salient point that Donald Blake is gone forever and is definitely never going to come back multiple times.

What Cap takes from this is ‘hey i hope that means you’re back on the team then!’ which Thor affirms.

Thor: “Aye, Captain America! Some of my finest hours have been as an Avenger. It would be the greatest honor to continue my service in your company... if you will have me!

But Wasp isn’t going to dump Thor from the roster!

Problem being, what the heck is she going to do with the roster? She doesn’t want to dump anyone off it, she doesn’t want to tell Vision to eff off, but she doesn’t want to lead an unwieldy team either. Six is a good number of Avengers!

I love Wasp’s note paper where she’s scrawled various roster ideas, clearly getting more and more frustrated with the exercise.

Cap suggests that maybe a temporary expansion would be the best move, if there even is a menace!

He’s somewhat doubtful of Vision’s story but wouldn’t you know it, as soon as he says that, the priority alarm goes off because Vision has detected the Ominous Energy Readings again.... IN CENTRAL PARK!

And lest anyone doubt Vision this time, an enormous and blinding flash lights up the Manhattan skies.

Cap: “I... believe you, Vision.”

Hah.

The Avengers head for Central Park with devices that Vision has created that will help them trace the energy but he could have saved the time.

There’s a big obvious structure that wasn’t there before. Odds are pretty good that that’s the anomaly.

Hmmm... Y’know, that structure looks familiar. As if I’ve seen it somewhere... But wheeeeeeeeeerre. I guess its a secret to everyone.

The sudden appearance of a large structure right after a massive flash isn’t even the weirdest thing going on. As Reluctant Science Guy Starfox waves around the detecting device, he realizes that the Ominous energy isn’t coming from the giant structure. It seems to be coming from everywhere. But it dips as you get closer to the structure.

Starfox posits that the energy is being focused on the ring from another location.

Curiouser and curioserer.

The Avengers poke around some more. Hawkeye calls attention to an arch built into the wall of the structure. It’s just real interesting. It’s super, incredibly interesting. Plus, the air is nice in the arch.

And it’s an arch. It looks like it’d be a doorway or tunnel to the middle of the structure but it doesn’t go anywhere.

Huh.

How fascinating.

She-Hulk, Cap(tain America), Captain Marvel, Wasp, and Thor join Hawkeye in the arch and agree that it’s a pretty interesting arch.

Perhaps this arch was made for them.

As soon as they join Hawkeye in it, there’s another blinding flash of light and those Avengers vanish in a curl of smoke.

Wow.

I can’t believe Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Captains America and Marvel, Wasp and Thor are dead.

Huh. And Wasp was just complaining about having too many Avengers!

Everyone is appropriately shocked by this, especially Vision because there were no energy emissions coming from the thing so it should have been inert.

Scarlet Witch and Starfox wonder whether the missing Avengers have been teleported somewhere, into some other story... or destroyed.

But before they can investigate the structure for clues, or see if it’ll strike again?, the whole thing vanishes as quickly as it appeared.

The plus side is that it makes Starfox lean toward ‘teleported’ which still doesn’t answer where the Avengers have been taken or who would do it.

If it’s the Collector again, I swear!

Here we go... Follow @essential-avengers because I thought I had more time! Oh geez, I don’t know how I’m going to handle this... Also, like and reblog because I like to think I do good work.

#Avengers #Ominous Energy #the Wasp #Captain America #Captain Marvel #monica rambeau #the Vision #Scarlet Witch #Thor #She Hulk #Hawkeye #Mockingbird #Starfox #Vision ruins a party but not how you'd think #Jarvis is the world's best butler #Everyone's shock and alarm that Hawkeye got married #frequent culture shock for Mockingbird #Essential Avengers #essential marvel liveblogging

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highly-radioactive-nerd · 3 years

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Entry for @tyrantisterror ATOM Create a Kaiju 3D Contest Entry REDO Gunmetal Jeeves (v 1.1) The Story Following the 1954 Superquake and subsequent global infestation of colossal prehistoric beasts, the nations of the world began a desperate effort to develop new methods of armed defense. At the forefront of this push was robotics. The development of cybertronic war machines capable of combating the kaiju threat was on the mind of every developed militarized nation of the world and they believed that the greatest advances in this field would come from the mind of the Japanese engineer, Dr. Daigo Ishikawa. Ishikawa, however, would accept no part in the development of war machines. Ishikawa had been widowed during World War II and had seen enough violence and killing at the hands of man and his machines to last a lifetime. Instead, the doctor was devoting himself completely to non-lethal methods, maintaining his pacifist opinion that it was irresponsible and immoral for man to exterminate lifeforms that his own reckless atomic testing had thrown up into reality. The work was long and grueling and drove Daigo and his teenage son further apart.

Yukio Ishikawa began to resent his father for his absence, especially after the death of his mother, whom they both loved deeply. Yukio began acting out, desperate to get an iota of his fathers attention. His grades suffered, he got in trouble with the police and his teachers. The message was all too load and clear, but his fathers work was too important. And so a compromise was formed. Daigo Ishikawa would build Yukio a companion- a robotic tutor who could cook and clean for him, help him study and contact his father whenever he was away, as well as tattle on the boy when he was up to no good. Made from an experimental metal infused with green crystals, the automaton Jeeves was born. Yukio was initially unenthused with his...colorful gift. A ten foot tall robot was impressive, but it was little more than a steel babysitter. Yukio took it upon himself to update the machine by reprogramming it a little himself. Miraculously, his tampering brought the creature to a degree of life. it could think and act on its own. it asked questions, it learned, it decided, and became more alive with each action. So, Yukio did what any teenage boy with a giant robot- he turned it into a super hero. He and the machine, who he had taken to calling Gunmetal Jeeves, would go on numerous adventures, fighting villains, foiling spies, impressing cute girls (and the occasional boy) and discovering new powers within the seemingly living machine. But most importantly, through their adventures, Jeeves seemed to be bringing Yukio and his father back together. if a robot could learn what it meant to have a family, Daigo and Yukio could as well. The Personality Jeeves’ personality has two major components. The Friend, who is a little more casual. It represents the personality that Jeeves is attempting to create for itself based upon its observations of humanity. This side of Jeeves is snarky and likes to crack wise, often at Yukio’s expense. It learned a little era appropriate slang and uses it stiffly and unnaturally specifically to cause Yukio to cringe. While this side can be difficult, it is also ride or die loyal and affectionate. in contrast is the other side, The Brother. This side of Jeeves is the more introspective side, the side that is learning to be human. It is philosophical and curious, almost childish and innocent. It drops the pretenses of the prototype personality it projects and is shockingly raw and natural. it is the side that is more tender and nuturing. The Powers -Yamaneon Based --Jeeves is built from a unique synthetic metal called Photon Titanium. The material was developed by a metallurgist colleague of Dr. Ishikawa and was synthesized from Yamaneon crystals. it posses many unique attributes. The most basic of which is enhanced strength and heat resistance. it is extremely strong and hard to melt. --The Yamaneon within the metal and the circuitry of Jeeves’ computer brain is what bestowed life onto the creature. While it does not have bones, it can still hear the Yamaneon singing to it, if only very faintly. It was compelled to life by the crystals in its metal hide. --The final and most surprising power granted to Jeeves by the Yamaneon is a phenomenon Daigo calls Photonic Mass Expansion, (or the Photon Burst, as Yukio calls it.). During moments of critical need, Jeeves can use the Yamaneon to absorb light from its surroundings and suddenly expand its atomic structure using solidified light. This allows Jeeves to grow from the standard 10 foot height to kaiju sized 100 feet. Because its giant body is made from light energy, however, its mass increases very little. Therefore it has all the power of a giant monster, but is very easy to throw around. This process puts a severe drain on Jeeves battery and reduces his operating time to 3 minutes. When time is up, he powers down and shrinks back down to standard size. -Machine Based --Machine strength that far exceeds that of organic lifeforms. --Gravity Thrusters on its back allow for flight. These thrusters take a considerable toll on Jeeves’ battery life, especially during Photon Burst. --It can send and receive basically any known form of communication. Radio waves, sonar, brainwaves, television programming, satellite feed, etc. it has numerous ports on its battery pack that allow it to adapt to new technology as well. --Shock absorbent tires in the robots feet allow it to move at exceptional speeds up to 50 miles per hour. This puts a considerable drain on its battery. --While Jeeves has no weapons built into its chassis, it can utilize weapons made for it when necessary. It is also programmed in a wide variety of martial arts. The Weaknesses -Jeeves rechargeable battery and backup battery last for 24 hours each. it must keep these batteries charged or it goes inactive. it takes three hours to charge a battery. -Jeeves is incapable of killing, even when it would be beneficial. it cannot deal a fatal blow. -During Photon Burst, Jeeves mass remains unchanged. The solidified light transmits kinetic energy just like real matter, meaning when dealing attacks and counters, Jeeves is fine, but taking hits knocks it about almost effortlessly. Extra -The main inspiration for Gunmetal Jeeves is Jet Jaguar. A semi-sentient robot companion that can change its size, but I delved into the idea a little deeper than the original Godzilla vs Megalon. Hopefully the new ideas from the ATOM universe have translated well into this fellow. He looks like Mecha-Freddie Mercury. -The Photon Burst is basically just Dynamax from Pokemon, isn’t it? Oh well, its cool there too. -When kaiju sized, a hexagonal pattern of green lines glows on Jeeves body, evocative of retrosaur scales. -I added size changing and flight because fuck it, I underestimated the level of technology in the ATOM books, and also I feel like its kind’ve thematically appropriate to go a little outlandish. I also realized i didn’t really establish Jeeves’ personality as well as his backstory, so I rectified that too. Even did a new art! proportions arent as good as the original, but hes in glorious technicolor!

#my art #mine #gunmetal jeeves #atomic time of monsters #tyrantisterror

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