#the bad batch as xyz

[here-comes-the-moose]

Bad Batch As People on a Family Road Trip

Hunter

The driver. It used to be Tech but he was banned from driving on long road trips, so Hunter had to take over.

Made them leave twenty minutes later than schedule because he decided that when they were getting into the car was the perfect time to use the restroom.

In charge of the music (he’s playing typical American dad on a road trip music). To everyone’s horror, he sings along (I headcanon that he cannot sing for shit).

Regularly reaching his hand back for snacks.

Will get annoyed at least once and threaten to turn the car around.

Somehow knows which route will take them by the best spot to stop for food.

Constantly checking on his siblings to see how they are doing. Mostly Crosshair.

Wrecker

Sitting in the back with Omega.

Constantly asking Echo for snacks and sharing with Omega.

Got bored halfway through Sleeping Beauty and decided to try and annoy Tech.

Kept trying not to laugh with Omega after Hunter yelled at them, but was actually solemn when Echo yelled at them.

Lets Omega rest on his shoulder.

Encourages Hunter’s singing and sings along with him occasionally.

Falls asleep in the last half hour of the trip.

Tech

Banned from driving because the last time he drove on a road trip he made Crosshair throw up twice and gave Hunter a migraine.

Just listens to podcasts now and stares out the window, occasionally pointing things out to Omega. Also texting a lot with Phee and occasionally smiling at his phone, causing Echo to tease him a bit.

Starts the most random conversations out of the blue. He’s just like me fr

At one rest stop he noticed Crosshair looking particularly pale, so he wordlessly disappeared to buy some cold cans of ginger ale for him to have in the cooler if he needed them.

Got so annoyed at Wrecker kicking his chair that he actually snapped and said some curse words. Echo and Hunter were not impressed.

Crosshair

Passenger Princess because he gets carsick.

His carsickness is the reason the AC is on full blast and everyone in the car either has on a sweater or sweatshirt or a blanket draped over themselves.

The only one who gets to ask to take a break outside of Hunter’s pre-planned schedule.

Was very touched by Tech buying him some soda when he wasn’t feeling that great.

Doesn’t talk much during the trip, mostly just stares at the road in front of him, drinks the ginger ale Tech got him or eats some crackers, or tries to take a nap until they get to wherever they’re going.

Complains about Hunter’s singing and music, but secretly enjoys it since it helps to distract him from how awful he feels.

Echo

Has a large bag with everything they might possibly need, from medicine to snacks to essential oils to hand sanitizer to barf bags. His brothers started calling it the diaper bag. He points out that they’re the ones who use it the most, so what does that make them?

Only person fussing over Crosshair more than Hunter. Constantly asking if he needs more ginger ale, meds, crackers, or a bag. Crosshair would find it endearing if it wasn’t so annoying.

Lost his cool and yelled at Tech and Wrecker for fighting, which made the whole car sit in tense silence for about twenty minutes.

Brought a cooler full of snacks and drinks for the car and to have at their final destination so they don’t need to go shopping.

Omega

The reason for the road trip.

Watching Disney movies with Wrecker in the backseat.

Ends up taking a little nap after lunch on Wrecker’s shoulder.

Convinces her brothers to get a sweet treat from a random drive-thru after lunch.

Also points out things she sees through the window, mostly so she and Tech can chat about them.

[drydak]

ohh bad batch finale thoughts...well i rewatched the whole season leading up to midnight and i think all in all it was a very cohesive season and also there really wasn't any hints beyond things you could read into? i guess? that tech was alive? like i'm wondering if people are disappointed because of the writing or because of the social media messaging because i think that's where you could maybe make a case for it. also the trailer having cx2 in a prominent role which makes sense considering how much he was in it but also i think made people assume? the first two clone assassins we see with their helmets off are undistinguishable also so i think it was people spinning themselves up. yes no body no death but also we have to be okay with characters dying sometimes. what else oh i'm surprised that nobody else died (my guess was wrecker and he had way too many close calls), ramparts death made me laugh a little, and seeing grown up omega makes me want to see her in other things...doing rebellion stuff....seeing hera again...u know etc. (here's how live action omega in the book of boba fett season 2 can still win #delusional) i think it is also a wasted opportunity if they don't follow up on all of the rex and echo stuff considering echo was missing half this season and they haven't connected wolffe's appearance this season to showing up with old man squad in rebels....and i love rex i do and there's a lot there that hasn't been explored but i want to see other old timers too. not that they have to connect every single thread but i think there is a lot there. i am also still biased and want to see cody again (i know he gets to be the named guy in live action which is a win but compared ro rex he does not have nearly enough screentime or development...they dropped cody guilt complex and left us with that forever AGH) considering all we know is that he fucked off but he is either fighting back or drowning in guilt and i know his appearance was mostly as a character vehicle for crosshair's morality shift but come on! like in retrospect if he wasn't in the big clone extravaganza episode he wasn't gonna come back at all but still. i largely feel satisfied i think because until they say that a clone rebellion series is never ever happening i can hold out hope for that and feel like they wrapped things up pretty well re the actual. batch. final thoughts: echo :)

[paperback-rascal]

Hi 👉👈

I love your "Kix the cf99 medic" and it made me think about writing a fic about Wrecker going to a casual medical checkup and the medic/doctor/Kix almost has an aneurysm because of how many untreated injuries he has that healed on their own, BUT

I don't have a lot of medical knowledge, so do you have any suggestions of what stuff could be wrong with him besides crudely healed bone breaks, almost ripped tendons or badly scarred/burned stiff skin?

First of all - I hope you're going to tag me once that fanfiction it's done! You have no idea how I crave The Bad Batch and Kix artworks/stories! It is a void!

Second of all - I'm not a medical professional nor I'm in any shape or form related by no means with medicine/medical science. My whole "medical knowledge" is bunch of Wikipedia articles, one book about plagues (that I still didn't finish) and one civil defense course book from my high school days... and maybe couple of youtube videos.

With that in mind... (rest of the answer is under the cut/read more)

I don't mind all of the "crudely healed bone breaks", "almost ripped tendons" and "badly burned flesh" stories. I know they seem like obvious, tried-and-true formulas but I can't say 'no' to a well written, entertaining story - it's almost the same feeling like drinking a good cup of coffee - it never gets old! So if you (or anyone, really) feel the premise is not good enough... well, it is good as any other starting point!

However if you ask me what would I consider an interesting approach to a scenario in which "a routine check-up goes wrong", I think that the most 'oomph!' would be a domino effect - starting with a minor complain that later turns out to be a symptom of a multi-layered issue of one neglected thing after the other that wasn't done properly the first time/was overlooked - because let's face it - that how most medical emergencies starts and it is now getting fixed because someone (either a patient or a health professional) just pressed further to find the root cause. With The Bad Batch it could be especially interesting since they most likely have to fend for themselves during/right after missions so a lot of shortcuts and misinterpretation of data could be part of the issue.

Positioning Kix as "outsider looking in" could also be interesting starting point - Is he a stubborn medic going against the grain despite Clone Force 99/other medics telling him "that's how it always has been" or because he is an "outsider' (and most likely took the SW!equivalent of Hippocratic Oath?) so The Bad Batch feel more comfortable to confide to him their issues?

Also we all assume the issues have to be... grand in nature but a LOT of them that later wreak havoc starts small - an untreated ear infection, bad/rotten tooth, crooked/uneven nasal septum, allergies, etc. in the Batch's case they can be overlooked simply because "oh look! A shrapnel! Let's put Bacta on it" or by a simple assumption e.g. "Wrecker is huge so his muscles have to hurt due to his accelerated growth" or "of course his blood tests are off the charts - he is a defective clone after all" or even the other way "of course he doesn't have XYZ, it's all in his head/he is faking it, he is a CLONE after all and none of the clone troopers have such issues".

There are countless possibilities! So all in all it all boils down to - how comfortable are you in writing medical situations?

---

The ask is in relation to this tag -> [LINK] <-

===

STAR WARS: The Clone Wars © George Lucas/ Dave Filoni/ LucasFilm/ Disney

[star-wars-radar]

Hey there! The quick and easy TLDR? I reblog fanworks every day and I love when people submit stuff I haven't seen. Under the cut is an FAQ (including instructions on how to submit fanworks or let me know if I reblogged stolen art). Please read before you send something! Here's links to the askbox and submit.

How does this work?

I track the tags for animations, coloring books, comics, commissions, cosplayers, dioramas, edits, icons, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, fanvids, filk, gifs, merch, moodboards, podcasts, podfics, poetry, sculptures, and zines. When something new shows up in those tags, I add it to the queue!

Some fanworks aren't put in my tracked tags, or are posted to other sites, like AO3 or Instagram. You can submit links to them, and I'll add them to the queue with the rest. (Just a note: don't try to put them in the askbox! Links and media can only be submitted.)

If you know of an art form that's not mentioned here, I'd love to see it! Send me a link to its tag and I'll keep an eye out for new stuff.

Do you reblog XYZ?

Probably! If it's a fanwork, and it's related to Star Wars, I'll reblog it. Crossovers, fusions, AUs, translations, and non-English works are welcome. I reblog works that contain triggering content or are rated R/Mature/Explicit, and this is a proship blog, including master/padawan and clone/clone. Everything is tagged so it can be filtered out if you don't like it.

That means you're going to reblog some character/ship/trope/creator I don't like!

I don't give a shit.

But it's gross/immoral/hurts my feelings!

I still don't give a shit.

What's your tagging system?

Non-fanwork posts are tagged #admin talk and answered asks are tagged #ask. All fanworks are tagged with their type, as listed in the first question's answer. "#nsfw (violence)" and "#nsfw (sex)" are used for mature content. I tag triggers and am happy to expand my taglist, just send me an ask. Current trigger tags: abuse, death, flashing, sexual assault, and smoking.

Works are tagged with the creator's username. I tag the names of all the characters and relationships, and if a work is character-critical or part of a series. Relationships are tagged with character names in alphabetical order, using "&" for platonic and "/" for romantic. AUs are tagged with their type, and crossovers and fusions are tagged with their other fandom(s).

I also tag 'creature' for works with animals, 'droid' for works with droids, and 'ship' for works with spacecraft and vehicles. 'The Bad Batch', 'Jedi', and 'Rebel Alliance' are tagged for group-themed works. Original characters are tagged with their type: Chiss, clone, droid, Jedi, Mandalorian, Sith, Twi'lek, Wookiee, etc.

If a tag is missing or wrong, please let me know! I don't read or listen to everything I reblog, as I simply don't have the time or spoons. All written and audio works are tagged based on the OP's tags. Let me know the chapter (for written) or timestamp (for audio), and what should be tagged. Submit that with a link to my reblog.

How do I submit something?

First, please check the blog for everything tagged with that creator's name. It might already be here! If not, the rest of this answer will walk you through the submission process. Submit as much as you want!

There's a link at the top of this post to submit. You can also check beneath the blog's banner on mobile or desktop. To the right of the Ask link is a meatball menu (three dots in a row). Click or tap that, then 'Submit'. However you get to the submit page, you'll see this:

1 is the drop-down for post type. 2 is where tumblr will prompt you to put your name and email if you're not logged in. Do not put your real name. "N/A" or "nothing" will work for both fields. 3 is where you put a link to what you want to submit. You'll have to check the box by 4 (and do a captcha if you're not logged in) before hitting the Submit button.

Don't worry about providing the information that I tag with! I take the link and do all the formatting and tagging myself.

You might not see a work posted in the same day or week that you submitted it, due to the length of the queue. If you want to make sure that something gets shared, you can DM me or send an ask, to check if it's in the queue. Please don't resubmit unless I ask you to.

How do I tell you that you reblogged stolen/reposted/uncredited works?

Submit a link to what I reblogged with a link to the original artist's post. If you don't see the work removed in three days, feel free to follow up by sending a DM or ask. Please don't resubmit unless I ask you to.

I still have more questions/want to tell you something/I like the nuance poll option.

No problem! My askbox is open to whatever you want to share, and anon is enabled. I aim to check the blog at least daily so I can reply to things fairly quickly. Please only DM me if you're checking whether I saw your submitted post!

This is a cool blog!

Thanks, I think so too :) It's my hope that having a 'one stop shop' for fanworks will help creators reach a wider audience. The best way to support them - and me! - is to reblog the stuff you like. Especially with some enthusiastic tags!

[mamuzzy]

From the salty list, how about numbers 1, 17, and 21?

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

I use a lot of clone x jedi ship in my brainstormings but QuinFox usually never one of them. They just didn't click for my brain. No happy chemicals when thinking about them. No bad ones either, so I'm kind of neutral about them.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen...

I already wrote a rant about the Bad Batch series.

In addition to that, it would have been nice to get an actual TBB show about Echo is still adjusting of being part of his new team, getting used to his cybernetics, getting used to the Batch's shenanigans, occasionally teaming up with Rex or Cody. Echo is really neglected in the show and no amount of last minute awesomeness can cure it.

21. What are your thoughts on crackships?

I LOVE crackships!!!!! Okay, I wouldn't go that far like shipping characters from different shows, so they have to stay in universe.

The process when you try to come up with scenarios how these characters would meet and fall for each other is always exciting!!!

Also merging RepComm and TCW universe together is already a challenge, and because my fixated characters are the Nulls, I have to ship everyone with them right now, or I'm going to implode and die.

[katatonicimpression]

uncanny avengers overall thoughts

First, my fave:

my worst prediction for this series was, going off the covers, that Monet was going to be in Penance the entire time in this series, and it would just double down on the worst of all of that. On this front I was pleasantly surprised.

Monet was mostly in character, she broadly speaking felt like herself and looked liked herself. The art in this series was pretty mid in my opinion, but there were a few moments where she looked very much like she did in the bulk of Generation X which I appreciated

I think I've already said that her behaviour in this series is not very in tune with how she would act if all her friends were just murdered. In this series she's briefly violent and vengeance-y, and then just chipper and flirty. Neither really works that well for her (her reaction would more realistically be depressive and inward facing, which would be in keeping with past characterisation). However, given that I don't think duggan would write anything serious for her other than "revenge stabby", I'm glad we got levity instead.

I did not need to see her and kwannon join the line up of characters featured in duggan's "step on me mommy" fantasy series, but at least it was brief.

While I am glad that she's protrayed here almost entirely using her orginal power set and not just the penance thing, it's worth saying that she's nerfed to hell and back in this. She is portrayed as flying sort of once, but in a panel where natasha is doing the same thing so... yeah i'd say that duggan forgot she can do that. She's portrayed as less strong than steve, and as vulnerable to pretty basic injuries. Like... no... she's "lift a car over her head" strong and invulnerable to most injuries. Get it right. Also, every time she uses her telepathy, kwannon inexplicably "helps" her with it. Weird. Bad.

Second, my nemesis:

the fact that this was planned as a 5 issue limited run probably did duggan a lot of favours. His worst habits are curbed by having a set end point in sight and no time to meander about. We didn't get countless dropped threads and subplots that disappear as quickly as they're introduced.

We do see his thing for including a fave of his for no clear reason and with no obvious plan for what do actually do with them (natasha in this case), and that general sense of a lack of point. In general, we also get his hero-worshippy/fanfic esque tendencies in how he treats certain characters.

Maybe it's mean of me to bitch and moan about this guy when it comes to a series that is overall pretty average and hardly rage-inducing. But I do have a point here (if perhaps an unkind one)

Every time a new title is announced with his name attached, some people with be excited and some will roll their eyes. And the excited ones will say "why are you so pessimistic, he wrote xyz and they were fine?". And the eye-rollers will say "No. they weren't. Either they're the first comics you've read so you're not comparing them to anything, or they just didn't do anything with any of your serious faves so you didn't notice."

And that's condescending, but it's fucking true. Every few months another batch of fans start to hate this guy, and it's because he's done something dumb with characters/ideas they care about. But it's never just that thing. It's what he does with nearly everything, and it's just taking forever to people to notice that he's a hack.

and this isn't just fandomy "my fave got a bad shake", although that is how the salt tends to start. With duggan, the technical skill is not there. He can't structure a story to save his life. He loses focus, consistently imparts the opposite of his intentions, and wouldn't know a theme if it slapped him in the face.. and then stepped on him... in high heels.

Thirdly, a weird thing:

ok i've calmed down i'll stop being mean. except...

i think i kind of hate steve a little...

...

...

ok that's unfair. But I am bored with him. I'm bored of this. The same repetative character beats and endless hero worship. In the 70s cap comics, they're not afraid to portray him negatively. Like, they know you'll root for him anyway, so let him be a mixed bag at times, let the story not flatter him at all times. But they've stopped doing that. It's weird.

Evil Stevil could be used as a beat to explore flaws in steve's actual personality, you know? A dark mirror. Or, he could be used to hash out Sam's complicated feelings about his ex-partner (a concept explored more interestingly in fan discussions than in the text so far imo). But no. Here, it's "wow isn't real steve so great compared to blond hitler!". And like, yeah. Whatever.

Yeah I don't really want to discuss this I think i'm just feeling fed up and annoyed

[saltminerising]

as a g1 lore lair im obsessed with notn because i can get so many new permas! however as im cracking open these bad boys i'm honest to god dreading potentially getting a double. because i personally only like matchy xyzs or xyzs with colors that compliment each other and i'd have ZERO use for a double or triple. and i'd have to go through the annoying awful process of pricing and selling it. i dont know ANYTHING about g1 pricing at ALL because i'm only a g1 lair for lore reasons and i dont see them as more valuable than a g2+ and i only ever hatch my own. so i'm fucking holding my breath every time i hatch a batch of eggs like "oh god oh god oh god do not give me something i have to sell" last time i hatched an xyx i sold it for 50g to the first person who asked just to get it over with. i know i got scammed. i wasn't a new player. i just hate dealing with them THAT MUCH... im giving my double/triple luck to everyone else. i dont want it. take it from me. once when i hatched an xxy i gave it to someone in exchange for a new egg to hatch and the dragon i got from said egg is now one of my truly beloved permas. please. praying to notn rng gods. give my double luck to someone who's never hatched a double before. i hate pricing. i hate selling. and i hate scrying dragons that dont have VARIETY in their colors.

[contentment-of-cats]

Thankful.

A day of thanks and reflection is not a bad thing. It's a bad old world out there, which makes me glad to be in here - my cozy little place - with cats, books, an absolute nest to cuddle in, and a full fridge and pantry.

I'm thankful for so many more things than I was in 2019 - my last 'normal' Thanksgiving. I was shuttling mom around to medical stuff, cooked dinner, got snowed in... fun all around.

I am thankful to be alive and in remission. That is first and foremost. I don't know how to explain the emotion, 'glad to be alive.' It's a calm joy. I get another day.

I am thankful for a good boss who lets me work from home - he has three of us who have major medical issues or who are disabled.

I am thankful for my gig, even if I can never write porn in fanfic again. There is too much of a good thing.

I am thankful for my kitties.

I am thankful for my home and its comforts, and that I have the returning strength to maintain it by myself.

I am thankful for those who stuck with me in the bad times, for friends who

Perhaps, controversially, I am thankful that my mother is dead. The last five years were not the best out of an admittedly bad batch. However, if you asked me to pick between cancer and dementia for myself, I'd pick cancer. After a last burst of narc behavior, she knew was safe, cared for, and had dignity to the very end. I didn't do it for her, specifically, or for me. I just couldn't leave her to suffer - as she often did with me. My own dignity wouldn't let me. In the end, the only person that you have to live with is yourself. She was a sterling model in one way - I asked myself if she would have done XYZ, and then I didn't do that.

I'm home, safe, tolerably healthy for now. My kitties are curled up in the sunbeam on the bed. My house smells terrific from the cooking going on. I got paid two days early and I'm writing.

Life is good.

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

SW Request Guidelines

This list is not cemented or exhaustive in any capacity, and will be occasionally updated, so please be sure to keep an eye on this post in my #frostfics masterlist and/or check before you make a request if you'd like some inspiration.

**Remember above all else, friends: 'this is War of Stars and Shit's Whack Anyways'. I more believe in having *fun* with the source material above strict adherence to it. If someone requested something that did not strictly adhere to whatever the current canon is, that's their choice. We all have our favorite aspects of Star Wars and they will not always align with another person's.**

UPDATED: 7/11/24

What I WILL Do

Headcanon requests

Drabbles

One shots

Short series (IF I am inspired by the request)

When it comes to X Readers: I can comfortably write in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Person POVs. My default is 2nd and 3rd person, for the most part! (Readers can also have nicknames, if that is your preference!)

Want to request a non-x reader? I can do that too, don't be shy!

Tropes including but not limited to: Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Enemies-to-Lovers/Idiots-to-Lovers, One Bed/Escape Pod, Fix-its, Soulmate, and Domestic.

Popular occupations or specified reader-types like Medic, Mechanic, Bounty Hunter, Jedi, etc.

As much or as little Clones-using-Mando'a as you'd like. Familial terms only? Sure! You wanna go for Oops! All Pet Names? You got it. You're allergic to Clones using Mando'a? Cool beans, buddy, I can do that and correct any slip-ups! (I know not everyone subscribed to that fanon trope like I did and/or for the same reasons I did.)

Platonic or romantic relationships

Implied smut/Mature on occasion! [Will range from 13+ to 18+ age rating depending on my comfort and familiarity with the requested character.]

I have more familiarity in writing AFAB/Female and Gender Neutral x Readers. I often write the general, physical description of Reader in a very vague, more "poetic" manner unless otherwise specified in the request. [Should be noted I am very unfamiliar with writing AMAB/Male x Readers so I'm afraid I'm likely not the one who will be best to ask.]

We're LGBT+ friendly; I'm a bi woman in my twenties for goodness sake. 🩷💜💙

Most SW characters, really. If you have a particular character in mind that isn't in my main niches of interest, I can probably swing it. There'll be better luck if you request something from one of my favorite eras (The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian). Please keep in mind that the less I know of a character, the longer it'll take me to complete. 

Like a particular fanon trope [ex: Gray Jedi] and want to see my take on it? Sweet, glad you trust me! I'll certainly do my best depending on what's requested.

We're AU and canon-divergent friendly here! You ordered the "No Order 66 AU with Domestic!Clone Boyfriend" with an order of "Somehow, ____ Lived." on the side? Coming right up!

Is it well past time for everything to Just Stop™ for your fave? We can magically give them a little break.

I will postpone or delete a request if you're impatient with me. I'm doing this for free, for FUN, on my own time with no set schedule. I have ADHD tendencies (and chronic health conditions) and sometimes the inspiration is just not there. Do not be an entitled little snot or you'll get put in timeout.

What I Will NOT Do

Whitewash the Clones. We believe in evidence of Temuera Morrison's physical characteristics in our Clone husbands/boyfriends here.

Art requests: Most of the fan art I'm posting in the #frostsfanart tag is done on whim, vibes and impulse; and it's a miracle some of those have gotten popular.

Sidenote: There is a *chance* you'll get an art response to an ask if I feel I can pull it off, or, if you give me an idea. [An acceptable example would be asking me if I've ever done a helmet doodle for XYZ before.]

Explicit smut as of now. Nothing against it, but I had a more conservative upbringing; I currently struggle with writing that material without unnecessary guilt.

Your OC x Canon. Don't want to butcher your brain-child by mischaracterizing them by accident. Not running that risk; doubt this would be a thing that would be requested but I'm just covering my bases.

I am not personally comfortable with Clonecest or Clone-shipping. They are brothers and refer to each other as such in-canon. I understand people will do as they please, but I do not support this material. Respect my boundaries.

Will absolutely NEVER do requests involving incest, dub-con/non-con, or general bigotry (homophobia, racism, etc). You will be fed to the Rishi Moon eels instead of Cutup. I'll free Echo and put you in his place on Skako Minor before anyone notices I'm there. Get lost, please.

I am not comfortable with the Rex/Ahsoka business or Master x Padawan romance. Platonic takes on Master x Padawan!Reader dynamic is acceptable. Characters need to be of-age for romances. Ahsoka was only 17 at the end of Clone Wars, for stars' sake.

I Will Love You If You Let Me

Talk about my Clone OCs!!

As the Clone Wars is my favorite era in this Galaxy Far, Far Away, I have a LOT of Clone OCs. I keep track of them in an Excel spreadsheet, so chances are a "throwaway" name that's not found in any Star Wars series is one of my boys.

Chances are good that I throw one or two in a fic as a cameo, as well! Some of them are more fleshed out than others with proper canon, while others have none at all.

Talk about my own fics from time to time!

I promise, there's no need to be shy!

I reread my own work often enough, and I'd love to have you stop by my ask box (on or off anon) with any questions you might have about what you've read! I'll gladly elaborate on why I wrote a scene like that or the particular headcanon(s) I've worked into the fabric of the story.

You're more than welcome to drop by and gush about things too. Authors truly do love to hear back from the people who've taken the time to read what we've written. 🩷

[magpiejay1234]

https://yugioh-arcv.fandom.com/wiki/Y%C5%ABya_Sakaki#Duels

I haven’t watched rest of Season 1 yet, but the Duel structure seems to be like this:

First group is the introduction duels, from opening duel with Gongenzaka to Sora.

Second group is the LDS duels, which everybody except Sora participate in.

Third group is the 4 pre-Maiami Championship duels.

Fourth group is the 1-on-1 duels in Maiami Championship.

Fifth and final group is the Battle Royale.

***

*First duels introduce us to the world and characters, and explain the mechanics of Pendulum (and Fusion, in case of Sora).

*Second duels introduce us to the ultimate Summoning methods of the main trio (Fusion for Yuzu, Synchro for Gongenzaka, Xyz for Yuya), and Reiji as the false antagonist of the Season.

*Third duels is technically the meat of the Season 1 of the show resides, episode-wise.

*Fourth duels largely set up the events for the later Seasons.

*Fifth duels are the climax of the Season.

***

*So, let’s dig a bit deeper here:

**We have Sawatari, and Sora as the main events for the first batch. Sawatari’s first duel sets him up as Yuya’s secondary rival (in terms of strength, though arguably not in terms of relevance), and Sora’s first duel sets up his character arc, going from part of the main cast, to main antagonist of the first season, to back to being part of the main cast at a lower capacity.

**For the second duels, we have set up for Yuya’s character, but not much for else. Hokuto only serves as a set-up for Yuya’s conversion to Xyz Summoning, and Reiji initially serves as the false antagonist of the first half of Season 1, then as the non-recurring rival for Yuya, then as the Morally Ambigious Big Good of the series, then back to being his rival for his de-facto Ceremonial Duel (since the de jure Ceremonial Duel against Yusho is not shown).

**This basically leaves us with the third group. There is something interesting going on with them. Michio, and Gongenzaka are both supposed to be around Yuya’s level, whereas Eita, and Mieru, being younger than Yuya, are supposed to be slightly above his level, but with less experience, and training.

Immediately in this batch, you can see Mieru standing out, not only because she is the only female of the group, but she is the only one with a unique Summoning method (Ritual), as well as a unique Monster Card Ability (Flip monsters). It is also the first one where he has to have a new variation of Odd-Eyes besides the Ishijima duel. In contrast to that, Gongenzaka duel is really more about showcasing his growth, rather than Yuya’s, even if it also features a new Odd-Eyes variant.

I guess the idea was that each of these duelists bring about something different out of Yuya, Michio duel requires him to exploit his weakness, which is what Sora would do, Eita duel requires him to exploit his opponent’s strength, which is what Gongenzaka would do, and Mieru duel very explicitly requires Fusion, which is what Yuzu is trying to learn. But that is somewhat speculative.

*Fourth group duels are a bit strange, since the second Sawatari duel sets him up as a recurring character (a la Manjoume), whereas the Isao duel showcases Yuya becoming Zarcified, and sets up the second Duel in Battle Royale against the Bandit School kids.

*Fifth group also don’t mean much, since the second Bandit School duel is essentially a continuation of Isao Duel, duel against Obelisk Force is essentially one big kerfuffle, and duel against Sora is there because you need the protagonist to Duel against the antagonist of the season (which DOESN’T happen in S2, where the rival takes out the Season’s bad guy, and S3, where the protagonist becomes the main bad guy).

****

I will probably go over Season 2 duels when I get there, but yeah, Season 1 is the most coherent season of ARC-V, and even there are structural issues.

The show is quite wishy washy about how to handle the rest of the cast (which shuffles each season, much like in GX), but it does technically do a better job than previous series, and VRAINS, which is a pretty high accomplishment for a Shonen Jump shonen series, but pretty low for any other shonen show (SEVENS and GO RUSH!! remain uncomparable for me since I didn’t watch those, and GO RUSH!! is not completed yet, but on paper, they both obviously do a better job than ARC-V, SEVENS has two main female characters, and GO RUSH!!’s main female character is tritagonist of the show).

Yuya’s duels, as seen on the wiki page, dimish rapidly until the epilogue as the series goes on, and more characters are introduced, which is quite against the general trend of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it feels it is executed here pretty poorly, since while the end point of the show is very clearly constructed at the beginning (Yuya becomes Zarc), the road to get there is not well thought, so the respective screentime for each character is quite confusing, and there are tons of dropped plotlines, and story pacing stuff to get to the end point.

In contrast, I found DM’s canonical plotlines had a very simple progression, with Jonouchi, Yugi, and Kaiba getting roughly just amount of Duels for their respective relevance/power level (which is increased in the animé adaptation since the off-panel Duels are expanded to full-to-almost full length). 5D’s is kinda okay since Yusei’s Dueling time is artifically expanded with the structure of WRGP (final guy of the opposing team must go against Yusei, basically), VRAINS is decent-ish for the core trio, not so good for the rest, and GX tries for its time (at least in the first two seasons, back when they actually had female writers) and fails spectactularly on its face (and ZEXAL doesn’t even bother with it, which is fine. No effort means no expectation.). But as dilfosaur puts it, ARC-V actually spends time, unevenly as it is, to develop its cast, only to immediately hand-wave them away, and say core conflict was always between Zarc-Ray(and Leo to certain extent).

I kind of wish they took more inspiration from Pokémon animé, and Digimon Tamers, not less.

[leyyvi]

Okay so I have a couple questions! You’ve moved before, and it’s my first time moving, but I was wondering how you know a place is right for you? (I’m asking bc you have experience, but also bc I think we’re in the same county)

Like I found an apartment home complex that seems beautiful, very naturey and on paper ideal for me and my parents. But the yelp reviews+ other sites say otherwise (ex: roaches (in unit), mice (outside), etc) which a part of me is 🤷🏻‍♀️ bc it has a lot of nature features like streams and trees and it kind of comes with the territory. And I honestly don’t know how seriously to take it? Since I’ve never apartment hunted before idk how much value this has, my current complex has shitty reviews (granted only like 5 reviews total) but I’ve had a fine experience since I’ve lived there my whole life, and to me those reviews are not necessarily accurate. There are a couple great reviews too, but idk how much weight they hold either. With the negative reviews, are these just the “small” batch of tenants that had a bad experience or is it worth taking into account? And every complex’s reviews always say “rent elsewhere”, “management sucks”, “they lie about XYZ”, there’s ALWAYS something negative about a place, and idk how much value it has

When I showed up unexpectedly to the new complex the maintenance guys were working and it was quiet (at noon-ish on a Tuesday), then I went with my mom a day or two later and same thing, appeared to be quiet with the maintenance guys working), then my parents went on a Sunday and simply said there were a few stray cats. When we toured the leasing lady also said she lives on site, which to me felt more promising that it wasn’t a complete shit hole. I also saw a guy walking his dog and he didn’t look like he was in hell so idk

Sorry for bombarding you but I’m like dying lol

Jesus Christ I’m so sorry, but like help pls I need guidance (I won’t hold you responsible, just need opinions/experience) thanks ✌️

HI HELLO I'M NOT SURE HOW HELPFUL I'LL BE BUT I'LL DO MY BEST :D

Honestly, I didn't even think to read reviews of the places I moved to. I kinda don't take reviews (especially of non-food things) too seriously because like you said it's kinda iffy on how much value there is on people just making vague complaints when it happens no matter where you are. For things like roaches/mice, I'd question where was their unit? Was it near the community trash room (if there is one) or an area where dumpsters are? Was it on the 1st or 2nd floor? There's more likely to be bugs hanging around if you're closer to those.

If there's stray cats, mice might not be a problem because those cats may even be hunting any mice in the area. I think you showing up to the new complex unexpectedly is such a good idea, you've gone multiple times and it seems promising. I think how you've handled apt hunting has been really good! My main things when I looked for places to move were things like:

Is it near a busy street? Is that street a popular route home for people working/going to school? How's the traffic in the area?

How accessible are things like grocery stores/restaurants? gas stations?

What kind of people are living in the same complex? Families? College kids? Older people/retirees? What about the area? Is it near a school?

You could also check neighborhood rating sites (I can't remember the one I used sry) to see the walkability/safety of the area too to get a better idea.

Also keep in mind if you have any specific amenities. For example I really value having my own parking spot, or at least a designated area for parking because the cities I've lived in had god awful parking. I also look for things like how close Asian grocery stores are since I get most of my food from those. Just specific stuff like that if you have preferences

If anything else comes to mind I'll add on but here's just a few points!! I hope it helps!! GOOD LUCK FRIEND!!

[gffa]

#17 on the salty ask list?

Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen… If I had god-level powers over the direction and writing at Lucasfilm, I would have nixed The Bad Batch and instead made Jedi Academy happen, where it's written by someone who actually likes the Jedi and has read an interview or two with GL. It would be a limited run series, each arc would be about 3-4 episodes long, each season would be about a different era. The first season is the adventures of young Obi-Wan and friends, it would establish more Jedi worldbuilding, it would give a chance to give us some of Obi-Wan's friends in canon (undecided on whether to bring back the JA characters or create entirely new ones--probably new ones, it's easier to establish things as different that way), as well as some of the other Jedi of his age. There would be at least one arc with Obi-Wan, Quinlan, and Luminara being a little gang of troublemakers. They don't mean to be little hellions, but somehow they always end up with some weird dark side artifact that they just happened to stumble over in the lower levels when they were doing some Jedi Outreach program or something and by the time their Masters find them again, there's a 30 car pile-up, three separate tire fires, six people stuck on a roof screaming for help to get down, and nobody knows where the kowakian monkey-lizard came from, but it's been trying to snatch everyone's valuables for the last half hour. There is also an entire arc dedicated to Mace and Depa's relationship because I demand it. Second season would be focused on Anakin's time as a Padawan, this may overlap with other characters, like giving Barriss more screentime, showing Aayla's apprenticeship time as well, etc. This season is especially focused on showing what the Master & Apprentice dynamics are like, but also giving us more Jedi worldbuilding and philosophy. Third season skips back a little further, to show us arcs of Plo and Kit and Mace and Shaak and Agen, establishing more Jedi traditions, showing us more about how Shaak balances her Shili heritage with her Jedi heritage, showing us what Agen's tattoos mean to him, showing us who is friends with whom and who their Masters were. There's definitely an entire arc where Mace and Qui-Gon are stranded on some planet after their bickering caused them to miss the shots fired at them and they have to survive a wilderness trek for a week together without killing each other and it's HILARIOUS. They eventually form a grudging friendship because, yeah, the other person is annoying, but also they kind of like the person. There's at least one joke about how they both get tumbled face first into nettle bushes and Mace, while watching Qui-Gon comb literally a hundred little stickies out of his hair and mulishly still picking at his own, says, "When we get home, I am shaving all my hair off and never growing it back out again." (Dooku and Cyslin eventually show up, Dooku's face a mask of severity to look over the shoddy lean-to these idiots have made, but only has a single raised eyebrow to say. Cyslin is straight up holding a hand over her face to not laugh, because their >:| expressions are adorable.) Eventually, it'd get back to the High Republic, possibly even further back--BABY ACTUAL YODA ARC WHERE HE IS A FERAL DEMON WHO SNEAKS INTO THE ROOM OF A THOUSAND FOUNTAINS LITERALLY EVERY DAY TO HAVE A FROG SNACK, CACKLING THE ENTIRE TIME HIS MASTER IS CHASING AFTER HIM--but just. Four straight seasons of It's Loving The Jedi Hours Time.

[just-antithings]

Star wars fandom on here on here is pretty awful and filled to the brim with antis, but on twitter its somehow worse. Lit everyone on there has carrds that induce a hellish amount of eyestrain, makes weekly posts abt how certain shippers shouldnt interact, or how certain sw media is irredeemable for xyz reasons (the bad batch gets hit a lot w that, even if you criticize the show but dont hate it, it makes you "implicit in its 'support for fascism and white supremacy' - which is just ???)

🙄🙄🙄🙄

[mallowstep]

i literally havent been able to stop thinking about the wbcd thing, its so needed in the series. how do you decide which cats die when? do you weigh eventual offspring when deciding, like thornkit/claw eventually having four kits while lynxkit obviously having none? will "important" canonical deaths like swiftpaw, brindleface, etc count towards the death count for the season, or will those types of things be bonus deaths?

figured i'd answer this b4 i went to bed!

i need to scrub the wbcd posts from my queue and rewrite them up to a higher standard, but i'm going to keep the outcomes the same. i've gotten the hang of things now.

anyway, this is all done in one notebook, and the way i do it for wbcd is a little Special. (i've done similar things for fan-ish clans to make sure the numbers work out. they do, generally. sometimes you have bad luck.)

but wbcd doesn't account for moving to the elders' den, increased death rates because of moving to the elders' den, and i don't think i was doing double rolls (i'll explain) last time i queued the posts.

(it's a bit of a mess rn is why i need to scrub and rewrite. or maybe start a(nother) sideblog for it? just for my own sanity?)

anyway.

i've done this out a few times, and i've decided writing shit out by hand is best. maybe i just have no restraint and overcomplicate shit when i start typing, and someone else could make it work.

so first up, determining leader lives: i literally knock off 2/book. if i'm doing something for a fanclan, i generate numbers the same way i do for litters, a normal distribution with mean 2 and standard deviation 4. N(2, 16) if you want to be fancy. i've considered lowering the standard deviation, but i like the swingy-ness of it. (i also permit "gaining" lives to account for this. it's a little hokey, but it makes leaders live for the Right amount of time.)

deputies have a 1/10 chance of dying every season. all of my numbers, here, are estimations based on my initial calculations, then smoothed out to a number that easily goes into 100. again, i do wbcd in batches, and my methodology has changed slightly, so it's possible i was still not rolling for deputies.

seers/medicine cats (seer = 4 letters, and i'm writing by hand, also it fits the Aesthetics of the idea) have a 1/20 chance in dying. i don't usually bother rolling for them, though, because their deaths uh. don't matter? bc wbcd follows canon timeline, i can kill them for drama as needed.

as for warriors, they have a 1/25 chance in dying every season. i believe i calculated the odds for 1/10 living to 40 seasons and 1/3 living to 40 seasons, and then found a number that was easy to remember in between. because i don't track elders in wbcd, no one ever actually retires, but when i do this for other things, i give elders 1/10 chance of dying. just to make sure they don't stack up.

but! wbcd is special because i don't just roll and move on. what i do is, i roll for every warrior, and then i shuffle deaths. did whitestorm die, but i need him to live long enough to be firestar's deputy? well, XYZ is right there not doing anything, why not kill them instead?

and so on.

there's certainly a bit of favouritism going on: when i decided to kill barley, it Hurt me a Lot. but it needed to be done.

the factors that go into my decision are about what their death does to the future. killing whitestorm before he becomes firestar's deputy is frustrating to the plot in ways i didn't want to deal with. killing darkstripe early does nothing.

so non-canon characters (i don't want to say ocs, bc it's more lynxkit, ravenpaw & barley, etc) have a higher risk of dying, because their deaths, well, by their nature their deaths Cannot change the plot.

but that's not the same as offspring. see, blossomfall and thornclaw's kits are very, very, very minor. stemleaf is the only one who matters, and i can easily work around that.

so important canonical deaths do count in the seasonal tally, because the numbers are supposed to be high for drama. the only exception to this is that i rolled really well for the season of the great battle, so i ended up using my litter size generator for an extra number of deaths. i'd do this again for a time when there was that kind of Big Event Death if i rolled "too well."

now, you didn't ask about this, but i want to be thorough: how do i do kits and apprentices?

okay, apprentices are my favourite part, because they're the only group that has dynamic odds. uh, i'm going to say seasons, but what i mean is, when i'm on my leafbare page, i then roll to see who lives through newleaf, and i call that the newleaf roll. i know it's confusing, that's just the convention i started with.

so anyway, seasonal odds of death for apprentices

newleaf: 0/1 greenleaf: 1/10 leaffall: 1/5 leafbare: 1/10

if you recall my overall apprentice odds, this might seem odd, but you have to remember that "leaffall" really means "1 out of 5 apprentices dies every greenleaf."

i've considered flipping this, but for reasons i'll explain in kits, having the newleaf "palette cleanser" means that the warmer months aren't as brutal as they seem.

so for kits: when there's a litter born in a season, i don't do anything. if there are multiple, i try to space them out. there's not like. a reason for this, other than helping me keep the numbers straight.

for seasons with no litters, i generate a litter size and pick a queen who's "free."

the litter size generated is N(3, 9), or mean 3, standard deviation 3. negative numbers mean nothing here, and there's a fair amount of Large Litters. it would be realistic to split those up, but that takes a Lot of time and bookkeeping.

anyway, generated litters usually have no father, because you know. keeping things moving here. i pick a free queen, which basically means:

the queen whose next canon litter and last litter in wbcd are furthest away.

this is a balancing act, and i usually favour not giving a couple an early litter before their first canon litter. but if, say, willowpelt needs to have a litter in two seasons, even if she could have two litters back to back, i don't like doing that.

so i might find someone who has had their last canon litter and give them an extra one, or someone who's a while away from their next litter.

for generated litters, i give them an extra roll. because i disregard negatives, litter sizes trend larger than intended, so an extra first roll keeps them down. all rolls for kits are 1/5 odds of death.

but if i roll a 5, i circle the bullet point, and roll twice next season. this is because 4/5 * 4/5 is 0.64, which is more than my ideal survival rate of 0.50. add in another 4/5, for the bonus roll, and you drop to 0.512. the occasional extra rolls sends some kits down to 0.40 survival rating.

one day, i will figure out what those odds are to see if my numbers are still accurate, but having played this scenario out pretty far, i think it works.

i also employ the double roll for apprentices. hence having no rolls in leafbare means i can sort of. stop anything from cycling over.

if u have more questions about the mechanics/my process behind this, let me know. i hope i explained everything clearly, but it's all basically scribbled in a single notebook that i actually need to dig out so i can fix things.

thanks for asking! i'll be out with more wbcd content soon.

[bedlamsbard]

So, I get the distaste for Rebels and The Bad Batch (definitely that last one), and I can certainly suggest @agoddamn's series of watching Clone Wars (because wow, I'd forgotten how poor that series could be), but with The Mandalorian, the most I can understand of your dislike of it is how it handles previous characters. Which, yeah, Filoni and his Precious OCs, but other than that, what about it? I mean, the plot/theme seemed simple to me: focusing on the relationship between Din and Grogu.

Ack, I didn't realize that out of context of my past ten years of fannishness and fannish engagement the takeaway from recent critical posts would be "Bedlam hates Star Wars," let alone "Bedlam hates Rebels"!

Look, I love Star Wars -- I genuinely do love Rebels and TCW, I'm very fond of Resistance and most of the films, and there are other parts of the ancillaries (books, comics, games) that I love, like, and/or enjoy. There are other parts of the saga that I dislike, a lot of it that I'm pretty neutral on because I just don't care; there's very little that I outright hate. (There are things that I avoid because I know I would hate them; I won't read Dark Disciple because the old EU Republic/Clone Wars comics from Dark Horse were formative for me and I'm not really over how Quinlan Vos's story line got retconned for TCW and thus the novel, so I don't feel the need to rub my face in it.)

I think, especially with Star Wars, there's a tendency to think that people only complain because they dislike or hate whatever it is they're complaining about it. I don't talk about the parts of Star Wars I actually hate because I frankly don't see the point in talking about the stuff I have no emotional investment in, or where my emotional investment only is distaste -- that's why I'll almost never talk about the ST. (And why I've only talked about the back half of Rebels S4, which I do genuinely hate, a handful of times over the years: I don't want to think about the thing I actually hate.) I talk about Rebels and TCW because those are the parts of Star Wars that I love and because I occasionally want to dig into why there are parts of them that just don't work for me. (And I do realize that if anyone pays attention to what I reblog and don't it may come off as me not liking them particularly; 99% of the time I only reblog TCW or Rebels gifsets immediately after I've rewatched episodes, and I haven't been doing rewatches lately for various reasons.) Critique doesn't mean "I hate it," it means "I want to think about this more on a critical level." It means "I love the puzzle pieces, why does the way they were put together not work for me? How could they have been done differently so that it would have worked for me?" Like I said a few weeks ago, while I don't want to actively add negativity to the fandom, I also don't really want to sit down and shut up if something isn't doing it for me if otherwise I love the thing; I want to figure out why it doesn't work. This is the flip side of "if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all" -- I'm not talking to Dave Filoni or the other showrunners (and I would never say any of this to the face of anyone at Lucasfilm), I'm sitting here talking to myself and to my friends about why the puzzle pieces don't quite come together for me. (And the bonus of me putting it on Tumblr is that I can actually find it again, because sometimes I do want to go back and see what I said about XYZ.)

If I'm not actively talking about all the things I love about Rebels or TCW it's because I don't particularly feel the need to justify why Thing works for me, because I already know it works for me. Or because I spent the first two years or so of Rebels and big chunks of TCW doing episode liveblogs, which are on the back end of my "Bedlam watches Rebels" and "Bedlam watches TCW" tags, and I don't feel the need to come back and say "I love the way XYZ happened" six or seven times. Or because I think it would be obvious because I've written something around a million words of fanfic about the two of them. Or because I have three Rebels tattoos and am a Rebels cosplayer, which obviously I don't really talk about on Tumblr but is something that I personally know. I mostly have not talked about The Bad Batch publicly (and only a little privately) because mostly it's not doing much that triggers strong feelings in me one way or another, though I do have the whole "why are these puzzle pieces not working for me, how would I have put them together differently" feel about parts of it.

As for Mando specifically -- look, Mando's fine. I understand why it appeals to a lot of people, even if I am not one of those people. I don't particularly find Grogu appealing either on a character or an aesthetic level. I find that for me personally the show varies wildly in quality from episode to episode; I find it to be a little too clever about itself in how it deals with both the world, its plot, its place in the saga, and its characters in a way drives me up the wall. It hits a couple of really specific things that are huge do not wants for me and some of that is on a shallow note of "I don't like how they do their Twi'lek prosthetics" and some of it is "I don't particularly like the aesthetics" and some of it is a weightier "I'm confused about what the thematic points of the show are because they're all over the map" and yes, some of it is, "I don't like how Mando intersects or does not intersect with other parts of the saga." Or the way that it gets valorized for being live action rather than animated by a lot of the fandom and then gets elevated over the other parts of the saga that I care about the most (TCW and Rebels). I've talked in the past about how Mando genuinely made me feel gaslit, even if that was no one's intention and thus was not actually gaslighting; it just managed to hit on my specific issues. I don't talk about Mando that much because mostly I just don't care and when I do talk about it it's because it managed to trip into something I do care about.

And if I sound particularly cranky right now, it's because every time I say something critical and it starts making tracks out of my usual circles, someone comes in to go "wow! you must hate Star Wars!" or "wow! you care a lot about [aesthetic choice]! why would you care about that!" or "wow! you're an idiot for thinking XYZ would happen/not happen!" or variations thereof. I've been in fandom for twenty years. I've been in this fandom since George W. Bush was president. I know how it goes. I'm going to reiterate the post I made after the Mando finale:

in any expanded canon, people are going to have different deal-breakers on where they can suspend their disbelief and it’s not a judgment on you and yours if theirs is different than yours. nor does it automatically say something bad about them! it just means y’all have different priorities and that’s fine! neither one of you should be jumping down each other’s throat because their line in the sand is “this contradicts something in previous canon” and yours is “the CGI is unconvincing.”

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of condescension (rather than hostility, which tbh is par for the course in SW so I just tune it out) recently and like…people can have different priorities. it’s fine. they’re not stupid for having their priority be “I don’t like the prosthetics” when your priority is “character A was mean to character B.” don’t worry, Lucasfilm isn’t listening to any of us.

[intermundia]

16 & 17 🤗

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

Hmmm, to me, Anakin’s entire characterization in the clone wars isn’t consistent with his characterization in the prequels and in the novels. I would let him cry, if you know what I mean. The entire Clovis arc is essentially character assassination, so I would remove or radically alter it.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

Oh man for the last season I would have made them animate the goddamn Utapau arc instead of the bad batch 😂 Like the bad batch get their own show, but we can’t get 80min of Obi-Wan and Anakin hijinks? Rude.