#they still wouldn't have survived

[supersumc]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm just thinking back to The LEGO Movie and how everyone survived the submarine implosion with the double-decker couch. Is it too soon to make a joke saying, "Could have used a double-decker couch!"?

[canisalbus]

Machete has parents?? I'm not familiar with their actual lore, so I've been imagining Machete as a desolate victorian orphan boy

Everyone has parents, he didn't materialize out of thin air (or evolve from a crumpled napkin).

But he lost contact with them early on and doesn't remember much of anything about them. Machete was a sickly kid and his family was going through a rough patch at the time, they were constantly struggling to find the time and funds to care for him. Child mortality was high and it was starting to look increasingly likely that he wouldn't make it. He was around three or four when they left him at the closest monastery that accepted foundlings and he hasn't heard of them since.

[hopeswriting]

was thinking about takeshi and how he's my favorite brand of unconditional devotion btw. the utter and absolute and all-consuming kind that runs so deep to the very core and is so intrinsic and fundamental to it, it can only express itself in the most casual and natural and certain way. without second thoughts, without any room for doubts or for any moral dilemma to be had over it, because of course he ought to always be breathing and living for his chosen person first and foremost. of course he ought to hang on their every word and make them true no matter what, no matter what he has to do to make it happen, no matter what he has to do to other people to make it happen, and no matter what it might turn him into in the process. because it's obviously the way the world should be for his chosen person. at their feet, ready to bend over backwards and break and build itself again to better answer to all their needs even if they don't ask it for it. it's the only right way it should be for them, and of course takeshi's going to do his utmost at all times to make it a reality as much as possible.

and his devotion comes out as naturally as breathing, comes out lighthearted and nonchalant like he might as well be talking about the weather, but it's not unaware of itself. it's not that takeshi doesn't know it's unhealthy and wrong and that he's willing to go entirely too far in its name for anyone's good. it's not that he wouldn't hear you out if you were to sit him down and explain to him just why he needs to tone it down a little (a lot). logically, he'd agree with you and know you're right. and then he'd tell you he's still not going to do anything whatsoever about it. that he's not bothered by it and doesn't feel the need to change anything to his attitude. makes it a point to never let anyone or anything sway him even an inch in the stand he took when it comes to that, no matter how many thousand of times you might go over the subject with him.

because the morality of his devotion isn't the point at all. is entirely irrelevant to it and doesn't affect the way he expresses it all. it's not the metric with which he draws a line in the sand to hold it accountable to. because the thing is, takeshi's entire world revolves around tsuna--tsuna is his entire world altogether, and it's just a matter of fact, that simple. to him it's a truth as unchanging as the sky being blue, and so being the way he is according to that truth is the only way he can imagine being that'd feel right to him. and so the actual and only metric that matters here is "would tsuna be happier if i were to do this?" and/or "is this something tsuna needs me to do?"

and like. i don't think takeshi ever stops being a kind person capable of compassion and understanding and mercy and forgiveness even ten years later once they became mafia through and through. and i don't think either he grows up to be feared and called a monster per se despite the things they inevitably had to do during those ten years (and the things they'll inevitably keep having to do as long as they keep being mafia), at least not in the way, for example, they'll never stop fearing and calling mukuro one. but i do think that among the tenth gen, he ends up being the one with the most ruthless, merciless and horrific blood on his hands of that particular and distinct loving kind. you know the one i mean, right? he comes to be the one most expected and the one first expected to be willing and to take it upon himself to go through with it when the need arises. and to think little of it after, if anything at all. all in the name of making tsuna's reign as easy on him as possible.

and it's to the point where it's the kind of blood that makes even mukuro pause at times. or, when takeshi is the one coming up with solutions himself during meetings, makes even reborn blink. not because it's unjustified or wouldn't be safe or efficient or anything of the sort, but because it is unwarrantedly thorough in its retaliation. and sometimes, at times like this, he's the one tsuna needs to step in for the most, because he's the only one who can reason with him that "yes, this would work in getting rid of our problem" but "no, please, don't do that takeshi". because if tsuna is the only thing that infers on just how much and in what ways he'll let himself be devoted to him, then of course, he's also the only one takeshi's willing to reign himself in for without second thoughts. because he'd hate to ever do something tsuna would disapprove of or wouldn't want him to do. or do something that'd make tsuna see him differently or love him back less even in the slightest.

and it's also like. his devotion isn't an undisciplined one. it's not one he doesn't have control over, the very opposite. it's a very purposeful and conscious choice he chooses to keep making over and over again every step of the way, and he taught himself to have control over it, to know when it's needed and/or wanted, and how much and in which ways it is when it happens, and to keep it down otherwise. and, yes, to also reign it back in at tsuna's request at times when it still slips past his control. because it's all about making tsuna's happiness easier and secure and long-lasting, and never about burdening him with just how committed he is to do that.

so it comes down to this: takeshi willing to go above and beyond and more for tsuna unless tsuna explicitly asks him not to. and to tsuna needing to ask him not to every now and then. and to other people pointing out to him how too many times tsuna's already needed to stop him, and that maybe there's a hint for him to take there. and to takeshi seeing the hint, looking it straight in the eye and recognizing it for what it is and just. deciding it doesn't apply to him because it's all perfectly normal behavior to him. because it's the only kind of behavior that makes sense to him and feels right.

and so—to circle back to my first point—he can only express his devotion as naturally as breathing, so casually, almost like it's something inconsequential and not worth talking about despite how unmistakably it couldn't be further away from being the truth. it's the only way he could have always known how to express it, because, after all, who has ever taken time to ponder about the details and the hows of the way they breathe?

and i, for one, absolutely eat that shit up every time, thanks for coming to my ted talk <3

[pharawee]

—Today I'm not going out. I'm spending all day with you.

[cyellolemon]

A comic about Olive, and his meeting with the guy who could have ruined his life if it wasn't already so fucked up

[bumblingbabooshka]

B'Elanna, Neelix, Tuvok and Chakotay needed to star in an episode where they just talked about their different beliefs and approaches to spirituality/religion. Paired off and all together. I need to gain more insight. I need characterization and I need it to be messy.

[dykedvonte]

I dislike takes that Danse would be just as conservative in modernized aus when it's clearly shown his staunch views of things come from his time in the Brotherhood and his deep-rooted desire to belong to something with a greater purpose.

Not to mention lines that show much more open-mindedness that get overlooked for his harsher sentiments when you first meet him. Like the oppurtunity to be a part of something is why Danse fell so far into Brotherhood dogma and it doesn't negate the offense things he does but I feel like it's just lazy to be like "hmmm he'd def be racist" just so it aligns to his BoS beliefs.

[sskk-manifesto]

It always makes me crack how Kyouka carrying Atsushi's sensless body just launches herself for several meters straight into the sea, and Kunikida somehow manages to catch them exactly on the fly. How are they still alive

[andraedevane]

Love how some villains say to the hero "I want to destroy/kill you" (or at least think about hurting the hero) and then when they are redeemed they say (or think) "If anyone dared to hurt you, I will destroy/kill them"

[billdenbrough]

fundamentally disinterested in the recurring discourse about kevin's drinking that aims to a) make it his Specific Problem To Focus On And Overcome when it is a crutch and coping mechanism to get him through a Much Bigger Problem (emotional fallout he can't square with by himself, culture shock, trauma, loss of his extremely wildly co-dependent relationship w riko, losing the structure of the nest, mourning a future he was meant to have, processing a grave injustice, anger and fear and desperate grief, all of which is his Actual Specific Fox Problem) while he builds himself back up, and b) thinks that even if it is a problem (more on that later), it's the foxes' problem to deal with.

like. it's just not.

yeah, he doesn't drink until he meets them. they gave him that habit, and in traditional terms, they're (the monsters specifically) a 'bad influence'. but these are the foxes. this is kevin day, son of exy, whose meteor is crashing spectacularly through no fault of his own. there are no traditional terms to be found here. the framework for it literally doesn't exist. neil comes into the foxes with more conventional expectations—appalled at the athletes' substance use, his horror at matt's trip to columbia, his steadfast and early repeated stance that none of the foxes should let andrew treat them the way he does, and certainly not nicky—and tends to engage with them less as the series goes on and he folds himself into the foxes. the thing about the foxes is that they've all been in pits deeper than they are tall. and some of them got a helping hand on the way—erik, andrew's extreme intervention methods, stephanie walker—and wymack was always waiting for them on the other side, ready to throw down a rope, but all the foxes dragged themselves out of their own holes. often not alone, often not without assistance, but at the end of the day, they have to do it.

there's that line neil has about aaron in that scene that got deleted when the timeline shifted around, when he thinks about how aaron got this far in life on his own, surviving on willpower and sheer desperation. that applies to aaron in a way that's a little more acute than some of the rest of them—boy who doesn't let the foxes in bc of andrew, boy who doesn't let nicky in bc he doesn't know how, boy made of flinching and seeking an escape and grieving the one who hurt him—but is broadly true for the foxes en masse.

this isn't to say the foxes can't help each other, but it's not their job. it just isn't. they'll keep kevin alive, keep him safe, keep him flanked and contained within their ranks. they'll fight tooth and nail in this battle with him, fight to get him to that championship game, fight to get that trophy in his hands. but that's all they've agreed to. that's all they're responsible for, in this covenant they've made with him. he says they can make this happen, and they're going to get him to that final game, but it's up to him what state he's in when he gets there.

like. they're foxes. they've been triaging their whole lives. they hate each other and they hate everyone else more. they're the kids with their backs up against the wall. half of them are addicts. i don't think kevin is comparable, personally; he's getting through a horrific situation with a coping mechanism. that's not the same thing as battling yourself to stop using. but that's not really the point of this. what i'm getting at here is that to the foxes, it's easy math: kevin who can lean on vodka and andrew and wymack and the foxes to stay upright when he's not ready to stand on his own two feet is still a kevin who is standing. a kevin with one less piece of scaffolding to lean on is a kevin who falls over, a kevin at risk of complete collapse, a kevin one phone call away from running back to the master, a kevin one crucial loss away from not ever making it back to himself at all. they're triaging. this is low on the totem pole of things they have the room to care about. they very much have bigger problems, both individually and even just kevin-related. if alcohol makes seeing the boy he knew best in the world and moved in tandem with his whole life and who destroyed their entire legacy and his entire life in one move — if alcohol makes facing that boy easier to stomach, then, fuck, why would they take that away? they're foxes. they've all got their demons. this is what kevin needs this year and a half to let him face his, that's all. they can understand that. it doesn't have to be pretty, as long as it keeps him in the fight. that's the priority.

i think there's absolutely space to explore this in fic and art and fandom in a way that maybe does explore it as a Problem, both that it's an active problem for kevin & that it's something to explore other foxes helping him with (there's a t&n fic that i've been gnawing at the bit to read for months that seems poised to explore this premise, and that's super up my alley)! i just think we're in different territory when we're talking about the series—and its characters and dynamics—in a conversational rather than transformational way, and end up talking about this like the foxes are responsible for kevin's choices. i love kevin day. i read these back at the start of 2015 & he's so dear to me that loving him was the blueprint for how i feel abt kageyama. but it's been pretty weird to see how the conversation has been translating Loving Kevin Day into... thinking the foxes are doing wrong by him with respect to this in actual canon. like that's just not how it operates there

[biblically-accurate-dca]

KILL!!!!!!!!!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

*deeper sigh* *head in hands* What's sugondese?

Sorry anon, but you know too much now

[serenpedac]

“We belong to the Earth and the sea, you belong to the stars.”

— Zhang Beihai (The Dark Forest - Cixin Liu)

[faceofpoe]

My CX-2/CX-Tech contemplation ahead of 3.12 & beyond:

(i.e. fuck it, as others' hopes dwindle as we count down to the finale, Poe is doubling down)

(i.e. enjoy myriad ramblings that are somewhere between 'this is how I'd do it' and the perils of watching with confirmation bias/Winter Soldier-lover glasses on LOL)

the tl;dr is: ignoring things like "domicile" and whatnot - compare CX-2's behavior and attitude and ruthlessness at various stages: 1) upon arrival on Teth 2) after getting knocked into the wall and buried under all the rocks 3) the escalating rage while fighting Crosshair culminating in the nearly drowning him/possibly pausing/getting stunned and falling and 4) getting to and while on Pabu.

I think it's really interesting how the same operative who went "rogue" (twice), who recklessly endangered his target by shooting down her ship and firing chaotically into the group she was with, is so precise and controlled on Pabu.

I think it's really interesting how Scorch tells him to "eliminate" the others if they get in the way and the operative who killed most of Rex's cell on Teth conveniently manages to "neutralize" 2/3 of them without killing them (creative but "technical" interpretation of orders?). Somewhat notably perhaps, his orders upon activation to Teth are to "neutralize" the compromised operative, the intent to kill him before he can talk is not ambiguous. Cannot imagine he's under any delusions that Hunter & Wrecker are definitively dead at the time he reports them "neutralized."

I think it's really interesting how he places the final explosive on the Marauder right on the wing by the ramp where it might be noticed when he surely just needed to blow the engine. I think it's interesting that we've seen what a precise shot can do to ground a ship but the operative chooses instead to loudly announce what's coming.

I think it's really interesting how there were presumably three potential targets when the gunship was compromised - the pilot, the ship itself, and Hunter - and the operative went for what had to be the trickiest shot (through the window!) that took out his own guy and left Hunter alone in the water to make his way back to shore.

I think it's really interesting how he gets tunnel-vision feral on Crosshair in Extraction, that shit got personal, and doesn't react to having him right in his sights in Point of No Return. (I also think it's interesting that he's got some sort of facial recognition thing going on in ep11 but I don't know what to make of that). I think it's interesting that the thing that dooms them to losing Omega - being separated, where no one has any backup - is also the thing that saves the boys from going down in a final desperate stand to protect her and saves Pabu from being caught in the crossfire.

I think it's interesting that aside from the docks, we don't see Pabu meet the fate we all feared and he doesn't give the go-ahead to light it up until he's maneuvered them into a position where surrender is the only choice Omega will see left to her.

(if we find out in 3.12 that the stormtroopers razed Pabu before departing um... ignore this point/possibly this whole manifesto? lol)

I think it's interesting that the operative had no update for Hemlock until Hemlock called with his impatient/Disappointed-in-you voice and then had enough of an update to get him off his back. (also I really wish we had any gauge of the time lapse between any of these episodes) (Am curious about the allusion to Cid and "pulling" intel though that's dark implications lol; but makes for a curious juxtaposition against the careful way he approaches/avoids Phee on screen; which makes for a curious juxtaposition against the gives-no-fucks about collateral damage on Teth).

I think it's interesting that episode 3 is called Shadows of Tantiss and it's the first time (I think?) we see one of, as Rex&co call them, the "shadows" on Tantiss even though it's almost a parallel shot to the two glimpses Omega gets of Crosshair in the corridors during ep1. We're getting a very slow drawn-out reveal on the program, from the glimpses of Crosshair & co in ep1 to the shadow in ep 3 to the ruthlessness of the program in 6&7 to finally getting a glimpse of the lab in 10. What happens to CX-2 after he delivers Omega?

The ep titles this season are clever. The Return - to Pabu, to Barton IV, to the squad. Harbinger - hints of the mystery surrounding Omega, hints to what's coming for Pabu. Identity Crisis - Emerie but also the crisis of being identified as Force-sensitive.

Anyway, I think how you pull off a CX-Tech plot this late in the game is that every episode he's in (or whatever shadow we see in 3.3), the title is also about him. Infiltration makes sense; but Extraction... what is that pause, as Crosshair is about to drown?

What if this below is the extraction? From the river, from the prison his mind has been locked in? (shoutout once more to the (maybe twitter?) post I can not find (sorry!) comparing his slumping over on the river bank to the way Crosshair collapses after ordering the engines turned off on Bracca/probably the beginnings of the end for the chip)

The way he works with the reinforcements on Pabu vs the way he did not on Teth, at all - I think something started going haywire after the quick succession of 1) the explosion 2) getting thrown against the wall and 3) getting buried under the rocks. He then gets a tiny bit blown up again by Crosshair in the stairway, and then tumbles off a smaller waterfall before we see the absolute feral rage at Crosshair and "you had your chance/chose the wrong side."

All of this to say -

The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is that he doesn't need freed from his conditioning anymore, he's already broken all or mostly free after all the getting blown up and being stunned and tumbling down a giant waterfall and almost drowning his brother; he just needs freed from Hemlock and his bio trackers and surveillance and whatever the hell else is keeping him trapped.

The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is that he's now playing a game against himself, both working for Hemlock and figuring out how to take down Tantiss. (Tragic consideration here: operative can't bring a tracker back in Omega's pocket, but knowing/anticipating Crosshair, potentially was expecting/counting on a tracker making it onto the ship) (Though this hypothetical setback also sets up the crucial role we might now expect Emerie to fill in somehow enabling a rescue effort)

The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is by building towards what's actually a sort of mirror of the buildup to Return to Kamino - you follow orders and capture the piece that will bring the cavalry to the rescue - of the clones and the children, not just Omega.

And then you make an epic trick shot and take off the mask and fuck up Hemlock's whole day. (Poor dude just wanted to be made Science Minister)

"Why have I been activated" remains such a curious introduction of this guy. Made all the more curious by Hemlock lamenting that he's got no other operatives ready to deploy. Maybe... this one wasn't quite fully cooked yet either.

(Side conspiracy theory: Crosshair knows it's him but thinks he's past saving.)

[altered-and-broken]

Maybe listen to Cuda BEFORE TRYING TO STAB A LITERAL BEAST? He knows Prism more than you all and managed to calm her down ᵇᵘᵗ ˢᶜᵃˡᵉⁿᵉ ʰᵃᵈ ᵗᵒ ʳᵘⁱⁿ ⁱᵗ⁻ SO YEAAAHH…..

The serpent is still frantically trying to talk down the beast, but at this point, it's clear she's not having any of it...

"Prism!! Please just- listen to me!!!

Stop this! These shapes do not want to hurt you!!"

He only gets a growl in response, as she continues to bite down on the supposed "Guardian" of the shapes.

"Stop! Don't do this!!"

"I know you're mad! And I know you're hurting because of him!!

But these other shapes are NOT at fault!! They do NOT want to hurt you!!"

The snake stuggles, trying to keep the large dinosaur still, even for a moment.

"Just stop moving! Please!!

I promise I'll help you, it'll all be okay, but stop moving! You're losing a lot of blood, and it's getting to you!!

You'll die if you continue doing this!!!"

[meyerlansky]

because i refuse to suffer alone, fun facts from 100thbg.com digging:

curt wasn't supposed to fly regensburg at all. escape kit was assigned to crew #28, pilot bill flesh, who was on a 3-day pass in london on the 17th so curt was swapped in with his crew, #30

richard snyder was flesh's co-pilot, not curt's; the only other member of crew #28 on escape kit for regensburg was the bombardier, dan mckay. weird decision to blur the lines there since there WAS actually someone on all three missions with curt that we see on screen, it just. wasn't dickie.