#skybound is so fucking good

[gravelsong]

I need to go curl up and cry somewhere

[kittyloops]

the honest to god worship of kenny in some twdg spaces needs to be studied... are we forgetting the everything about him being a complex and nuanced character or am i just insane. this man is NOT a hero he is literally just on a downward spiral

[basicallyjaywalker]

Just finished reading Chapter 5 of If I Can Think (Of Something Clever) and I think my brain chemistry has been altered. I also have a strong desire to get back into chess and find some competent animators and VAs. For no particular reason

I know I've reblogged Lila aka @cboffshore's links but consider this me continuing to push the agenda. If you haven't read this fic (or the entire On Sea, Sunlight, and Sky series) you should. Especially if you like:

* Nya causing havoc

* Insanely descriptive and immersive prose

* SYMBOLISM!!!!!

* or any combination thereof

^ Here's the link to IICT(OSC)

^ Here's the link to the entire series, including the past three installments, all are incredible and a must read for any Ninjago fan IMO. I am not kidding

Now if anyone needs me I'm going to go lie down for a long time

[yumeyumeappleo]

i think skybound has the best intro actually. wait no possession. wait no the tournament of elements. hands of time was ehhhhhhh but the intro slapped. season 11's intro is so fucking good guysssss it makesme. it makes me.happy. the original intro is a classic though

[scribe-of-hael]

I think with the new Skybound comics and ES2 I am just tired of Starscream just being evil.

"Well he's always been evil!"

Debatable , but even if he was you have NEW universes where different shit happens, different events and butterfly effects. Do, somthing, eles. It is repetitive, it is tiring, you CAN do somthing different. Marvel does it , DC does does it. This is a series built of the concepts of multiverse.

Tfa is arguably one of the more different world considering the Autobots "won" , the Decpeticon forces are scattered and functionalism is VERY present. It was wildly popular! Optimus and Megatron didn't even KNOW each other, hell Megatron never even bothered to remember his name !

Armada acutally tried to give Starscream some sort of conflict, even CARING about the children even if a little.

Skybound is a just a psychopath and its just honestly for shock value and a way to make the squeaky seeker more "menacing" and honestly I roll my eyes. I'm tired of gore p*rn tbh.

Anything to do with a character that be worth wild, to go beyond the constant characterization after so many years is just tossed aside. I'd even argue they tried to tackle it in IDW. But nothing in video media.

It is the most devastating thing to present a character, a FAN favorite and hint at change but then whom ever is calling the shots just doesn't follow through.

Starscream can still stumble and fall , he can still struggle to be a good person. And I honestly WANTED to see that for him in es2. He can fall back into his habits, his unhelpful coping mechanisms. It's apart of untangling the trauma one has to go through to grow as a person and that's NOT a bad thing!

That is a very REAL thing people have to go through. Learning to be better is not an over night thing and I honestly wish we did see him stumble, regret it and try to do the right thing.

Instead they just in a kinda fucked up way JUSTIFIED what Megatron did to him. "He was crazy somtimes so I had to beat him up" like that shit wasn't funny then, and it's not now.

[spinjitsuburst]

okay but listen when you sit down and think about Skybound it is genuinely such a batshit funny season I just

- Kai fucks everyone over by posting selfies in a hospital while visiting a sick child

- this is the only season the ninja are regarded as popular celebrities and it’s immediately dropped and never relevant again

- Nadakhan’s entire plot and character arc is the wildest Shakespearean tragedy. He loses his wife and his friends and get stuck in a teapot for so long and when he gets out he finds his friends frames some random people he’s NEVER MET for crimes and then his father dies in front of his eyes

- let me reiterate HE HAS NEVER MET THE NINJA HE HAS NO REASON TO HATE THE NINJA WHEN HE FRAMES THEM AND GETS THEM ARRESTED HE JUST DID IT FOR FUN

- he’s surrounded by the biggest idiots known to man he looks so confused the entire season

- “Cap’n lets pillage and plunder” “I’m afraid we can’t :(“ “oh why not” “piracy isn’t a thing anymore :(((“

- NADAKHAN HUN YOU CAN RESTART PIRACY???? JUST START STEALING?????

- the fact that he’s like “father I can save you” and his dad’s like “nah I’m good take this sick ass sword tho”

- this is such a funny image he looks SO UNHAPPY:

- during the final fight Jay says something along the lines of “blah blah you’ll be French toast”????? Why does he say this

- Nya. Nya. Why would you suggest this. What

- Lloyd is so bad at acting they tell him to pretend he’s mute

- Squiffy is the BEST name for a background character I’ve ever heard

- Echo

- “I WISH FOR A SWOOOOOORD”

[transformers-bold-bright-brisk]

HOT SHOT REDESIGN + Illustration✨

I’m so goddamn detail-oriented it’s not even funny…

Let me tell you, I was locked 👏 the fuck👏 in 👏

This was legitimately so proud of myself for not making the outline perfect. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I love a good neat lineart layer, but where’s the fun in that?

Also the TF Skybound comic’s artstyle has been scratching my brain in a few good places.

[theplatypusblue]

I’ve been thinking about the similarities and differences between Skybound and Seabound lately, especially in their endings. The strengths/drawbacks of each, plus what each ending says about Nya and Jay’s characters.

In both seasons, Nya and Jay are forced to make really shitty decisions. In Skybound, Jay has to choose between making a wish to save Nya, or making a wish to stop Nadakhan and save Ninjago. However, rather than choosing either of those options, Jay (albeit accidentally) opts for the Secret Third Thing™ — wishing to go back in time so that none of this ever happened lol.

And while you could read this as an instance of Jays character shining through (he cares so much about Nya, he refuses to accept a future without her), I think it’s fair to say that this ending fell flat for a lot of people. It made the entire rest of the season pointless, it felt like a total cop out, you get the idea. These weakness only get more clear when you look at it in comparison with Seabound’s ending.

In Seabound, Nya has to choose between sacrificing herself to save Ninjago, or, I guess, not doing that and watching Ninjago fall. The key difference here is that there’s no Secret Third Thing™ for Nya to fall back on. This idea is made very explicit throughout the season: sometimes there are no good choices, “that’s the way the cookie crumbles” and all that. She resists this notion at first, but ultimately, she makes that hard decision. She makes the choice to sacrifice herself.

Contrast this with Jay, who basically… doesn’t make a choice at all? He just ~follows his heart~ and then… gets to have his cake and eat it too????

And it’s frustrating because there’s something interesting here, right? We get to see the differences between Jay and Nya when it comes to making those kinds of tough choices, and what that says about them as people. Push comes to shove, Nya will do what it takes to protect the world at large. She matures and grows from where she was at the beginning of the season, and the finale reflects that. On the other hand, Jay is the type for guy who will fight tooth and nail until he gets a happy ending. It’s pretty simple-minded, and it’s not something he really gets challenged on in a meaningful way, but it’s an appealing character trait in its own right.

The contrast between these two traits is pretty cool and interesting in my opinion!! Especially when you take into account that it’s Nya’s life on the line in both instances!!!! But then you gotta contend with the fact that Skybound’s ending is kinda…. mid as fuck? And it’s just like??? We were so close yknow soooooo close like this close, but no it’s all weird and stupid now I guess.

So it’s like TLDR: Jay and Nya are super interesting together, but Skybound is so damn weird that it makes the whole thing difficult.

[moonlightblueandicegrey]

My thoughts about b!Jay and Jay in general

I know that all the bizarro ninja are dangerous villains. But what about B!Jay specifically?

Let me explain why i think that he could be the most dangerous one:

Humans:

In my au and in my opinion, Jay himself is a little bit misunderstood and kinda underestimated by the people in Ninjago.

From my experience, i noticed that humans have this weird habit to be impressed by muscles and physical strength although it is known that someone can be dangerous and "strong" without the physical strength.

In my Ninjago headcanons:

My headcanons for Jay is that he looks "weaker" than he is. Jay is a skinny boy, without many visible muscles, and he is the cutest and shortest out of his team. Sadly, people see that as a weakness although none of those things means that Jay is weak. Jay is not weak. Okay, we must admit that Jay's "greatest ability" isn't physical strength, (as it is for Cole for example), but Jay has some other abilities that might become even more dangerous than physical strength under certain circumstances. An example is speed. My headcanon is that Jay is the fastest out of the ninja. But even now, speed isn't the main reason why i think of Jay (and in the next step: B!Jay) as the most dangerous.

Their way of thinking:

In my opinion, Jay's mind is what makes him as dangerous as i think he is. Because the other three ninja act like this:

Kai: He is strong and brave. But he is so brave and prideful that he becomes reckless. Yes, he'll go straight into battle and he'd rather die fighting than surrender. He'll fight to his last breath to protect the people he loves but this can be a mistake sometimes. Kai protects by becoming a "sword". He protects by attacking his enemy. Face to face battle even if you know you'll lose isn't the best choice. Sometimes you'll have to surrender in a battle if you want to win a war. (Yes, Gryffindor vibes if you are also a harry potter fan).

Cole: He isn't as reckless as Kai but his physical strength is messing with his mind sometimes. It gives him the feeling of winning but sometimes it's incorrect. Cole will surrender though but only if it's absolutely needed and if there is no other choice. He will fight to protect his loved ones but he will protect by becoming a "shield". He won't attack. He'll just fight back/dodge.

Zane: He has the potential to follow Jay's steps. But there's one problem. Zane is fair and honest. Although he won't start a battle that he can't win, his fairness and honesty will keep him a few steps back. Zane fights in the right place and in the right moment, when he is ready to do it and goes for a straight win (except if he has no choice but to fight earlier). He is not reckless and he plans his moves before going to battle. The problem is his ethic. He wants to win fair and with honesty, following the rules of a "τίμια μάχη" ("fair/honest/honourable battle").

Jay's way of thinking:

And here comes Jay: He is brave but he isn't reckless. He seems scared all the time but he isn't a coward. He'll fight when the time comes, but he just wants to save his skin. Jay will fight to protect if it's needed but he'll mostly fight for revenge (after the bad thing is done. Examples: Skybound, Prime Empire and Seabound). He doesn't give a fuck about such things like "fair battles" and "honour", "honesty" blah, blah. He just does whatever it takes to win or take what he wants no matter if his sneaky ways are unethical. Jay isn't the one who will throw himself into battle. He isn't the predictable one that you'll see coming to attack you from miles away. He is the type of guy that you won't even notice how he stabbed your back. And that my friend is much more dangerous than physical strength.

How's b!Jay related to that?

The question is, why does Jay use this thing only in specific occasions (like in skybound)? Because Jay is a hero. Jay has a good heart. He avoids using his unethical, sneaky ways to win and he just follows the rest of the team and the plans that the others make. Our kid tries hard, give him some credit for it.

Does b!Jay have this kind of problem though? No. Of course not. He'll just do it. Because he can. Because he doesn't care about being good. So imagine how powerful he could be if he only had a second chance in Ninjago... He could be a nightmare.

And i haven't seen dragon rising yet but i wish they could use Jay's potential now that he is villain. He could be great!

What do you think?

[yogurtlid10000]

Recently I read Transformers: Skybound FINALLy!!! it was fantastic, cant wait for the next issue

Highly recommend reading it tho, its a greattt comic and has super awesome art

Spoilers incoming ofc

Everyone's already talked about this but wow Optimus is portrayed so well!!! I love the dialogue when he describes Cybertron. Also love the pink backgrounds i some panels!! Anyway the interaction with him and Spike feels good and authentic. nice

The fight scenes. SO good to me, I think the art is super dynamic and the way the sound effects are written give great impact. The artist knew what they were doing for sure. I love how they use the comic media to its fullest. With those different shaped slanted box panels, and the smear lines when somethings moving fast idk

I also looove the shading in these comics!! and the linework like on their faces really helps the atmosphere. once again i love the sound effects (especially that big TONG) when starscream gets hit lol it just looks like all the fonts were designed or drawn by the artists yk?? and the variety of camera angles throughout is cool too.

Also love the relationship between optimus and the humans. It feels... better than how other transformers media has handled it (imo). I think its sweet

again great comic art the lighting.. the EVERYTHING idk i just admire this artist a lot (i think his name is daniel warren johnson, although it switches to Jorge Corona later) one thing i love in particular is how the lines are like... a little messy and sometimes a little all over the place-to depict their wear and grime. cool!

Next. Cant talk about skybound without talkingabout THE DECEPTICONS. oh my god. starscream is a spawn of hell. what a bitch. like actually he might be at his worst here hes so diabolical. Anyway even though hes very evil hes still enjoyable to watch because its just idk pure villain. Soundwaves care for his cassettes is sweet as usual. PUNTING Ravage is crazy. cannibalizing Skywarp is crazy. FGELP IDEK WHAT TO SAY except i like the art a lot here as usual its great very comic-y again. SOundwave stays a favorite character.

THIS is an iconic and great moment of skybound, i love it, i lvoe that optimus is willing to use this cannon to further the battle yk also looks badass

Gotta say these are two of my favorite pages throughout the whole series. Love the color and camera angles.

I know starscreams the big bad villain or whatever (for now) but he still makes me laugh

These panels... THE YELLOW BACKGROUND. THE LOUD SOUND EFFECTS. THE POSE. THE "YOU KNOW THE SONG" perfect. 10/10 for me. the artist has got the touch. (theyre referencing The Touch right?)

These three phenomenal moments with devastator. the art.... its just too cool. very dynamic. i like starscream getting squished. Once again the fight scene art DELIVERS.

This too. I love how soundwaves punches feel really weighted. also YAY starscreams getting the beating he deserved

....remember that PUNT to ravage earlier? welp. bye starscream. Things only get worse for the autobots here tho.... because with soundwave as leader the decepticons can actually function and be more deadly....

...when i saw this i knew we were fucked. we are fucked. wave and wave partnership? optimus is screwed. AND MEGATRON HASNT EVEN BEEN ADDED TO THE MIX YET. oh god.

The newest chapter has some gorgeous panels. plus beachcomber!

Local deadly robot scientist discovers whales and the beauty of earth. Big fan of transformers discovering earth stuff.

GUYS. ultra magnus!! hes one of my favorite transformers im so glad hes in this series.....i wish he was in better shape because-WE ARE SUPER FUCKED RATCHETS DEAD. no medic-HOW IS ANYONE GONNA GET REPAIRED.

ok fr what are we gonna do

poor wheeljack.

anyway the issue ends with shockwaves insane evil plan to bring cybertron to earth working so idk whats gonna happen next but im excited to see more.

also jazz this whole comic has been really cool, hes always helpful btu then he like gets beat up or captured but HES ALWAYS POSITIVE and he only speaks in music puns too. ONLY.

ultra magnus save us... idk bro we need a miracle... maybe jetfire will be useful again soon, maybe beachcomber will come in clutch. maybe new autobots will join. if yes, i hope we see springer again hes cool

anyway yes ik i barely talked about any faults of the comic, im trying to be super open and see it with like no bias or comparing it to other comics and stuff. personally i like it a lot. the humans arent even dislikable imo. the characters are nice. one thing is that MAN a lot of characters are dying. kinda sad. no ratchet is crazy. also when will megatron awaken? and how?

[ponett]

hello!

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas 🎄🎁🎉 😄

I was gonna ask when the series had gone on a little longer, but since you got gifted "Do A Powerbomb", I was wondering if you'd checked out DWJ's Transformers run?

Have a wonderful day! 🌠

I have! I've been following it as it comes out and was completely enamored with it by the end of the first issue, which is why I wanted to read Do a Powerbomb (which also completely owns)

After IDW lost the Transformers license I kind of dreaded what a new publisher might do with the property. IDW had pushed Transformers into so many new and exciting directions over the years, giving me some of my favorite Transformers stories ever and shaping other parts of the franchise for years to come (and also making a ton of Transformers canonically queer). The last thing I wanted was for a new publisher to throw all that out and just go back to square one with easy G1 cartoon nostalgia. Especially after I ended up being really unenthused with the post-continuity reboot "IDW2" era, I worried that it could be years and years before we got another new Transformers comic that really spoke to me like the MTMTE/RiD era did

And then Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers dropped from Skybound. Despite leaning so hard into G1 cartoon aesthetics, and despite being part of a new shared universe with the okay-but-not-amazing Void Rivals by Robert Kirkman and some GI Joe comics I don't really care about, I was cautiously optimistic because I'd previously heard really good things about DWJ's other work. And I've just been absolutely blown away by it. It's already one of the greatest Transformers comics ever made

From the very first page you can tell it's doing new things with the traditional Transformers iconography, while also tapping into the heart of the series better than anything else I've seen in years. The hand-inked art can be a little loose and messy, but that helps give it so much energy, ESPECIALLY in the inventive fight scenes. Whether it's vehicle mode action, Optimus doing literal wrestling moves on Decepticons, or even just a panel of someone transforming, there is SO much life in all of DWJ's drawings. But he also cares about tying things to the human cast in really compelling ways. We've already gotten so many good scenes between the robots and the humans that give it so much heart. The deer scene with Optimus and Spike went viral for a reason, it was instantly one of the best Optimus Prime scenes ever written. It's not just about the robots or the humans, it's about the dichotomy between them. He gets it

I love a lot of IDW's comics that are just about robots interacting with other robots many light years from Earth and barely ever even transforming on the page, but like. This is the comic you wanna hand to someone to be like "This is what Transformers is about. This is why it fucking rules"

Seriously, though. Anyone with even a passing interest in Transformers should be reading these. I am constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for the next issue these days. Look, Optimus literally suplexes Starscream in the first fucking issue YOU HAVE TO READ THIS

[writing-hat]

man I'm rewatching skybound (help) to focus on the misfortune crew so here's a kinda long ramble about Flintlocke and Nadakhan friendship below

the way Flintlocke's voice shakes when he says to Nadakhan he's doing a mutiny. when he says "stay right there"

I know it's most likely from fear, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was out of a broken heart too like- it's his captain. one he has most likely spent years at sea with. the one he'd trust with his life, and must've done so. most likely his best friend. AUGH

And how Nadakhan reacts to it, too! he gets angry, he doesn't believe what he's hearing! how dare they not trust him? (gee I wonder why)How is Flintlocke daring him to change things around?

Can you imagine watching someone you care about diving into some kind of infinite madness, and you not able to do shit about it? And it's not like Flintlocke could help much. Since yknow Nadakhan just lost all his people in a single moment after spending 300 years inside a teapot, and after losing the one he loves, too. And he sees something is wrong the moment he sees Nya. He knows Nadakhan too well, and I take it he's used to the captain sharing plans with them if he's already hella suspicious when Nadakhan doesn't tell him what he has in mind when coming back from Djinjago

And he's not the only one; like the whole 'close' crew (as I like to call them) notices how their captain is kinda getting distant? and losing it

But like what are you supposed to do about that? especially since they're pirates, and the captain has to be kind of scary if he still wants to handle psychopaths under an iron grip of some sort

And they were ready to trust him. To the end, I guess.

fuck! Nadakhan just ruined all that was left to him during skybound, didn't he? what a fucking idiot.

And Jay was this close to do the same with his own friends huh (NOT TO THAT EXTENT GUYS COME ON-)

I just love to think of parallels between Jay and Nadakhan. Cole and Flintlocke. The obvious (? I'm not really sure about this one) but awfully made Delara Nya one (not saying I made a good one in my fic either but eh)

But they're pirates. They're not good people, and Nadakhan is a fucking bitch. You have on one side how Arrakore dealt with the loss, and on the other, Nadakhan's, who was probably so used to being a prince and stuff he just- ugh.

But that doesn't mean they don't have emotions, which I'm trying to write about

also I'm noting Clancee probably noted Nya resembling Delara when he gave Nadakhan the newspaper. But he didn't say anything. Hm. I'm keeping that in mind.

anyway. back to writing I goooo

[lencyn]

SkyBound SMP Episode 48, Vast, Armor AND Kalia(I think that’s how you spell the name?) singing? FUCK YEA! They all sounded so good! Props to ggabraxas, Heyhay and Heyhay’s sibling (I believe they voice Kalia?) for the singing!

[finn-m-corvex]

Whumptober 2023 Day 3 - "Make it stop."

Skybound angst time to shine! This is the first time I've ever tried to write Skybound anything so it was a brand-new experience for me! I don't know if I quite did it justice but I gave it a shot. Little disclaimer that all of these may read as a bit disconnected and that's mostly because I've written 30k words in like, less than a week and it's hard to keep things diverse. I'm def reusing phrases and words but oh well!

@splinnters your third tag of the day! Hope you're doing great man!

Words: 2.2k

He cried out as his head collided with the stone behind him, blood splatterings from previous beatings painted across the wall. Ducking his head, it took everything in him to hold in the meager scraps he had been given for lunch, and in his despartation he tried to tuck his legs up, flinching as the one weighed down by the vengestone ball and chain ached in response.

Another fist smashed into his face, and Jay felt his nose break under the force. It was far from the first time. Someone else grabbed his hair, yanking, holding his head up as he was punched again and again and again. The rough hands cradled his chin, fixing it in place and leaving Jay’s bloodied face on full display for the pirates in the room.

Pirates?

Why the fuck was he back here?

Jay tried to plead with them, but one of them drove their boot straight into his injured stomach. The bullet wound Flintlocke had given him screamed in protest, and this time Jay did vomit onto the ground, and his head started swimming when he saw tiny flecks of blood mixed into the bile. He couldn’t make out any of the pirates’ faces, but he didn’t know if that was because of how dark it was in his tiny cell or because of the vision loss in his left eye.

“Look at him, Flintlocke,” one sneered; it was the one pulling his hair. “Ain’t he such a cutie?”

“Quite right,” Flintlocke drawled, and the accent alone almost made Jay want to shit himself, “but I think he’d look a lot better if we roughed him up some more.”

“Would the captain be okay with that?”

“I think Nadakhan would give you extra if you did that,” and Jay could hear the smile playing on the firstmate’s lips. “And we all know how much pirates like extra.”

Everyone else started cackling, and the sound made Jay’s blood run as cold as Zane’s ice. He needed to get out of here; he didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he had to get out of here. Someone must’ve seen him struggling to get away, because his head was quickly slammed back against the wall and someone else’s foot slammed down onto his injured leg. Jay yelled but bit his lip, determined not to let them get another peep out of him.

He wasn’t breaking. He had survived this ship once, he could do it again.

Not again.

“Listen here, boy,” Flintlocke said, and his face was blurred even though he had crouched right in front of Jay’s sight. “We’re not looking for information. The only thing we want is to see that precious face of yours as bloodied up as we can possibly get it. And you know what that means.”

“No,” Jay breathed, panic rising when he saw the firstmate walking away. Flintlocke had never been friendly to him, but he always kept the rest of the crew in line. Without him here…”You can’t leave me here with them! Flintlocke!”

“Have fun, boy!” he hollered, flicking a two wave salute behind him that had Jay’s heart plummeting, “and good luck! We both know you’re going to need it!”

“Wai-” Jay didn’t even have a chance to finish his sentence before another fist was flying into his face at an alarming speed, throwing his head to the side and cracking his jaw. He coughed, spit flying from his mouth as the other pirate kicked him hard in the ribs. Jay felt something crack in his chest, and dark blood tinged the spittle dribbling down his chin.

His head was wrenched upwards again. “Aw look, he’s crying!”

Jay didn’t even realize that teardrops were rolling down his face until it was pointed out, but now that he knew they felt white-hot against his skin, but the shame welling up from inside of him burned more.

“Please,” Jay whispered, trying to dislodge the man’s grip on his hair, “you don’t have to do this.”

“Except I do, little boy,” a wicked grin filled with sharp teeth and breath that could melt acid, “because orders are orders. But I guess you would know that more than anyone, right?”

A metal pipe came flying in from the side that Jay couldn’t dodge in time. The blow sent him to the floor, reeling, gasping as his vision went white from the pain. He thought that it would’ve been the good ol’ one tap two tap system where they would hit him once, ask him a question and then hit him again.

It was not the one tap two tap system.

Again and again, the pipe came down with the force of a thunderclap, bruising and breaking his skin with resounding smacks, and Jay did his best to escape to no avail. Before long he was hauled up by his armpits and forced to sit there and take it as the pirate assailed his ribs, crack after crack as they snapped one by one. Jay was crying out with every blow, yelling when the pirate went after his knee, dislocating his kneecap with ease. He grinded the heel of his boot onto the kneecap, making Jay yell and sob with pain as the other pirate forced him forward.

Now bent in half, Jay tried to push himself back up, only to quickly give up once the man had started raining punishing blows against his spine. It stung against his still fresh lash marks from the most recent whipping, and Jay could feel his breath leaving as his face was pressed farther and farther into the floor. Never before had he been so glad for Wu to give him so much flexibility training.

One of the pirates was chuckling as Jay was finally given a reprieve. “Guess I can see why the captain likes you so much, eh? I don’t know a lot of men who can do the things you can.”

“Make it stop,” Jay gasped, and he was ashamed of himself for begging. Why was he begging already? Hadn’t he taken worse on this goddamn ship? “Please, make it stop.”

Sighing, the pirate with the pipe leaned down next to Jay’s ear, making him shudder in disgust. “You know as well as I do, boy, that there is no stopping once we’ve started. Now, care to sing for us a little more?”

Taking a hold of his hair again, Jay sobbed as his face was lifted off of the filthy wooden floor, and he barely had a second to catch his breath before it was being slammed back down into the planks.

But it was different this time.

The pirate kept smushing his face down. Jay could feel the blood coating the bottom of his mouth as blood was forced out of his nose, and he very quickly realized what the pirate was planning to do.

Jay was going to drown.

First Master they were trying to drown him in his own blood.

He thrashed in place, desperation forcing his already chipped nails to claw at anything they could grab until his hands were pinned under someone’s boots, standing painfully on top of his bruised fingers. Jay tried to thrust up with his hips and dislodge their grip on him, but the pipe just came back down with a harsh blow, and nothing he tried was working.

Vision blurring, Jay could feel his chest to constrict and turn in on itself, his awareness starting to fly away in a dreamy haze. He opened his mouth to yell, to cry, to beg for mercy but the only thing that filled it was his own blood. Choking on it, Jay tried to spit it out, but opening his mouth again only made it worse when the pirate pushed harder.

Nothing. There was nothing he could do.

Crying profusely, tears mixing with the blood rolling down his face, Jay let his vision go black, only praying that the ship wouldn’t be the thing to greet him if they ever let him wake up.

“Jay!”

What? Who was that?

Thinking that it was impossible, Jay opened his eyes, seeing the white walls of his room at the Airjitzu Temple greet him as he woke up. There was a hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently, and lips pressed to his hair before giving kisses to the skin behind his ear. Belatedly, Jay realized that the person’s other hand was rubbing soothing circles on his chest, and the flood of panic that had been overwhelming his senses finally subsided.

He knew who this was. “Nya-”

“I’m here, Jay,” she said softly, moving her lips down to his neck and pressing more feather-light kisses to his collarbone. “I’m here, so let’s just take a deep breath and try to relax.”

Inhaling, the breath got caught in the back of Jay’s throat and he started, hand going to his chest and checking for any injuries. Nothing fresh, but the raised bumps of his scars made his fingers tingle with repressed feelings, and Jay curled into himself as he started feeling like he was floating. He needed grounding and he needed it now.

“Do you need your gloves?” Nya asked, watching as his hands started shaking uncontrollably, his element threatening to encompass his fingers and sparking at the tips. Jay nodded wordlessly.

Reaching for the garments on his bedside table, Nya was quick to stuff his hands into them and make sure that they were secure, and relief crashed over his body when the pressure started giving him something to focus on and from the knowledge that his lightning couldn’t hurt Nya. Apparently Nya had been here longer than a few minutes, as she already had his weighted blanket out and ready. She unfolded it and spread it across the both of them, and Jay reached for her wrist when she moved to get out of the bed.

“Wait,” he said, feeling his voice crack with emotion. He didn’t want to be alone, “please, I need you here. I-I’m scared.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Nya said, and Jay sobbed from how gentle her tone was. “Sit up for me, okay? I’m gonna spoil you a bit.”

He did what she asked, sitting up and watching as she laid down against his headboard and boxed him in with her legs, crossing them over his waist and cushioning his head against her shoulder as he laid back down. Pulling the covers up and over both of them, Nya whipped out her phone and set up the kickstand so it would balance on Jay’s bed. Jay had his eyes shut, so he didn’t see whatever she clicked to start playing, but he immediately relaxed upon hearing the sound of his favorite Starfarer movie.

The sounds of Fritz Donnegon and his trusty crew washed over him, drowning out whatever remnant of the nightmare that still clung to his skin. He was flat on his stomach on top of Nya, and he was all too happy to just watch the movie as her hands started doodling random shapes across the skin of his back. At least he thought they were random until one of the lines was unmistakable: she was tracing his scars.

Both of them had spent so much time getting him readjusted to positive touch, and one of those exercises had been tracing the scars littering his back. Jay would sit crisscrossed on the floor with a stress toy or a pillow, doing whatever he needed to do to keep himself calm as Nya would rub her hands across his back from top to bottom. The memories brought back some joy, and Jay wrapped his arms around his girlfriend’s waist, only giving half his attention to the movie; the other hafl was going to the way her hand was carding through his hair.

“I think I wanna start growing my hair out,” Nya murmured, and Jay gave her as much of a surprised look as his sleep-adled brain could conjure.

“Any reason why?”

He was pretty sure he knew why, but Nya only shrugged. “No reason in particular, I just want to try something new.”

“Something new is always good,” Jay said, a large yawn escaping his mouth. The hand on his back drifted further up to his shoulderblades, and Jay knew that he would’ve started purring if he were able to as her short nails scratched the melt spot right below the nape of his neck. “I can do it too.”

“You hate your curls,” Nya chuckled, “even if I think they’re one of the cutest things about you.”

Jay blushed, and Nya giggled as the red stretched from his rosy cheeks to the back of his neck. She was quick to wipe his tear tracks away, kissing his forehead and then his cheekbones.

“Maybe I can learn to like them,” Jay said quietly, “at least, I think I want to start trying to.”

“And that’ll be good for you, dear,” Nya said. “It’ll be good for both of us.”

“Mhm,” Jay agreed, and he craned his head up to press a kiss to Nya’s chin. He kept trailing kisses downwards until he reached her breastbone, where he knew the scar from the poison still lingered under her shirt. He nuzzled against it, hearing Nya’s breath catch and her hand still on his shoulder. Having Starfarer play in the background wasn’t exactly how he envisioned this moment going, but Jay wasn’t particularly picky.

Until Nya had to go on and rain on his parade.

“We’re going back to sleep, Walker, that’s enough action for you.”

“But I didn’t even get to do anything!”

[decepti-thots]

Tea emoji skybound?

Okay so I am behind at the moment and also, I want to do a full readthrough of the first year of the TF ongoing all in one go before the year is out and write an Actual Long Post, so I will not get too in the weeds here about specifics.

But I really, really like Skybound so far- the main TF comic at least. It is first and foremost just an astonishingly well crafted comic, from the art to the lettering to the writing. It works serially, it works visually, it works as a comic, in a way that is honestly not that common for many US comics right now. (I have been reading some Al Ewing stuff recently, his Marvel work, and I would compare Skybound's ability to make a serial narrative still feel satisfyingly complete in individual issues to the work Ewing did on stuff like Immortal Hulk. If that means anything to anyone.) Johnson knows his shit. He is writing COMICS, and his understanding of the medium is clear in every panel. (I cannot BELIEVE this is his first ongoing. Fucking hell.)

I also think it actually does something new with G1 reimaginings, which justifies yet another one of those existing. Sunbow is not, in the West anyway, a very widely mined part of the fiction for later stuff. Almost all the stuff we get tends to veer far, far closer to vaguely G1 Marvel influences. Johnson is taking those 'sounds good on paper, woefully underdeveloped in the cartoon because 80s Toy Ad' concepts and fleshing them out amazingly well. He goes completely seriously in on making that canon into a space opera that takes itself seriously, and he has enough earnestness that against all odds, it works. The earnestness is very important. It is not a comic going 'haha Isn't This Silly' at itself, which almost any writer trying to do this would do I think.

Oh, and it really makes the Cybertronian-Human dynamic compelling. If you want a work that shows why, exactly, the humans add something important to TF, I think Skybound is the comic that does that. It's got THEMES. It's got PATHOS. It's got CARLY, who I think is REALLY NEAT.

...I do not particularly care for Void Rivals, however. It is a very, very mid comic, though largely readable. It largely exists to me in terms of 'OK, it brought xyz lore concept in this month, good to know!' and not much more, alas. I don't hate Kirkman's work overall, but honestly. The comparison to Johnson almost feels unfair; there's just not that same wild creative ENERGY anywhere. It is a comic that exists to create splashpages in which you go. I Know That Guy! And I can't say I care much.

I have thus far not touched the GI Joe stuff. I should really do that, but. God. I'm just not that interested. LMAO.

Final thought: which is kind of ironic, because if I put this comic in conversation with any other TF work? It would be TF vs GI Joe (Scioli/Barber). It has that same deliberate engagement with the specific genre context the 80s stuff exists in, the sense of creating nostalgia for a version of the franchise that never actually existed, the granular love of and obsession with specifically comics that means so much of how the story is told really could not be in another medium and stay the same. Which is high praise, because I think TFvsGIJ is, in fact, the best TF comic ever written, hah.

[the-ghost-bracket]

Cole propaganda:

"my guy literally DIED and no one talked about it. He was a ghost for 2 seasons and a special and the angst of all of it is INSANE. Definitely hits hard for the fandom even"

"He turned into a ghost and then his friends forgot he existed"

"He is my blorbo bleebus and he broke the rules of staying in the haunted temple and got turned into a ghost for it, he literally starts to fade away and thinks his friends forgot about him, eventually he turns human again but has a rift to the afterlife on his forehead that gives him awful nightmares and pain"

"he’s amazing. gets flanderized in later seasons but is clearly gay throughout. has homoerotic tension with jay for most to all of seasons 3 and 4. he was brave enough to come out to his dad onscreen. he Fucking Died in one of the s5 episodes they fucking Killed him but a bitch never dies"

"In S5: Possession, Cole was turned into a ghost because he got trapped in a haunted house. He keeps forgetting he’s a ghost throughout the entire season, lol. In S6: Skybound, he’s pretty much mastered being a ghost. Unfortunately he doesn’t get much screen time this season. But then he has a whole special about him! Where he turns back into a human. RIP ghost Cole, you were amazing."

"Cole was a cool ghost, and the fact that he, afraid of ghosts and all that scary stuff, got turned into a ghost was kinda funny (sad, sure, but also ironic, yk?). Also he got a cool scar after he got unghostified. That should count for something."

"this is a personal thing but I watched ninjago as a kid back when it only had like. 3 seasons. and I got back into it on a whim and randomly searched it up on ao3. and like the first piece I came across had Cole as a ghost and I was like ‘wow that’s a cool au’ and then another piece had the same thing so I looked it up and discovered Cole actually canonically became a ghost and promptly lost my shit. he’s not a ghost anymore but he has a cool scar (though only sometimes since consistency is nonexistent in ninjago lmao)"

"Cole was only a ghost for a short while, but it definitely effected who he was and made his character arc have a bit of spice"

"i love him your honor. he got turned into a ghost in the 5th season and thats one of his best character arcs and really solidified middle school me's attachment to him after the coming out episode. hes not a ghost anymore but hes still immensely attached to death and the underworld (there are a bunch of analyses about it) a lot of the time directly due to his time as a ghost"

"Cole is so good he just wants to hold hands and eat cake but he couldn't do that when he was a ghost :("