#where services consist of your leader's fanfictions

[bkbubble]

I don’t think Lamb has ever been to Seminary School...

[foxhopfics]

How the Squads, teams and ranks actually work in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

The dissonance in tumblr users versus the actual branches of the military and how they've been written in fics.

Now, I'm very aware that's because no one here is an actual member of the SAS, and TF141 isn't real. So it's... not exactly like we've had the first hand knowledge about it.

However, I have noticed a lack of research having gone into understanding how the military actually works. The worst culprits are the people who've never actually played CoD, but to a degree, I've seen this in like 99% of CoD writing.

So, here's your OFFICIAL easy to understand guide to how the layout of the SAS and the British Military/Her Majesty's Armed Forces will Affect Your CoD:MW Fanfiction.

SAS:

All non-officer soldiers are returned to the rank of Trooper(Private) when joining the SAS, they then have to work themselves up again.

The 22nd Regiment SAS normally has a strength of between 400 and 600 men and is commanded by a Director-Special Forces of Major-General rank. While you may get ~125 candidates for tryouts, you're only going to end up with 10 new recruits who pass. Tryouts are held twice a year, once in summer and once in winter. A soldier must be a junior NCO to attempt, and only gets 2 total tries.

The regiment has four operational squadrons each consisting of 65 men commanded by a Major. Each squadron is divided into four 16 men troops commanded by a Captain and each troop is split into four patrols with each patrol consisting of four men, referred to as Alpha Company, Squad or Team, Beta Squad, Charlie Squad, and Delta Squad. Our boys from the 141 are part of the Beta company, which is why their callsigns are Bravo 6-0 (Price), B7-0 (Ghost), B7-1 (Soap), and B6-2 (Gaz, or B5-0 in '09) respectively. They are part of the normal British army, not the air force, despite their name being special air service. Where they normally are referred to in fanfiction as "tf141" which includes price, ghost, soap, and gaz. This is incorrect. What you're writing here is SAS Bravo Company, not Task Force 141

NCO, CO, DS, Sergeant, and Warrant Officers:

NCO- Non-comissioned Officer, or Enlisted: Ranked up from Private/Seaman/Airman. The "everyman", or basic infantry. Typically learns a skill and sticks with it (i.e radio techs, mechanical techs, vehicle mechanics, foot soldiers, etc). While any officer is a higher rank than a private, an NCO is never in a higher standing than a CO. After several years, they are eligible to become a senior non-commissioned officer (SNCO). This (NCOs) is who you're likely going to have working in the armoury.

CO- Commissioned Officer: "leaders" or "managers" from the beginning. Oftentimes completed a military degree (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst), or if not, was part of UOTC in college/university. Some others finish a degree and then attend officer training. They start as Lieutenants or Ensigns (navy) and often quickly rank up to Captain.

DS- Drill Sergeant: DSs teach Greenies/new recruits the Initial Entry Training (IET). They have their own Sergeant rank system that is separate from Sergeants. They must complete Drill Officer training to become a DS. Staff Sergeant, or a "regular" Sergeant, ranks up as an or NCO, and is in charge of infantry personnel, and doesn't really have contact with recruits (different from privates, you must complete IET to move from Recruit to Private).

WO- Warrant Officer: Higher than Enlisted, but lower than CO. Oftentimes keep their specialty skill, but without as much of the supervisor role. They come in as the "specialists" for things that the NCO's can't do (i.e complicated vehicle maintenance, machine overwatch, etc)

Ranks in the British Military:

NCO ranks:

- Private

- Lance Corporal

- Corporal

- Sergeant (Soap and Gaz)

- Staff or Colour Sergeant

- Warrant Officer class 1

- Warrant Officer class 2

CO ranks:

- Officer Cadet (officer school rank)

- Second Lieutenant

- Lieutenant (Ghost)

- Captain (Price)

- Major

- Lieutenant Colonel

- Colonel

- Brigadier

- Major-General (eligible to run the SAS)

- Lieutenant General

- General

- Field Marshall

So what does this mean for Task Force 141 and JTF Ghost Team?:

Task Force 141 was created by Captain John Price after Roman Barkov's death in MW1, but before MW2 as an international collaborative task force intended to tie up loose ends via Roman Barkov's associates.

It was approved by Laswell in the CIA and General Shepherd of the US Armed Forces.

Oftentimes TF141 is solely referred to with the British team which is where the confusion between Bravo Company happens.

TF141, while also consisting of Price, Ghost, Gaz, and Soap, is still an international task force consisting of Laswell, Shephered, and Alex (American), Nikolai (Russian), Farah (Urizk), and Alejandro and Rodolfo (Mexican) and ultimately existed for only one purpose.

JTF Ghost Team: Formed by Ghost and Alejandro after they were betrayed by Graves and Shadow Company, believing not many could be trusted at that time.

It was made to flush out the corruption of Graves and Shepherd.

Member consist of: Price, Ghost, Alejandro, Gaz, Soap, Rodolfo, "Ghost 2-4 Pilot" who I suspect is Nikolai, Laswell, and a few freed Los Vaqueros.

[dappersheep]

Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (3/3)

Ladies and gentlemen, we've arrived at our final destination.

Again before we start, we have our obligatory disclaimers. I do not own the game or its characters, nor do I claim to know the true history and likely fate of this game. I am entitled to the thoughts and opinions written within this post. Feel free to agree or disagree with the points being made.

This post also remains untagged from the main foofan tag. Only my followers will see this.

We are in the third and final stretch, and the checkpoint is past the cut.

Community

So... here we are, fellow Master Attendants.

As consumers of this piece of entertainment media, we are free to enjoy it however we wish. Appreciating what is there, creating something new from what exists, playing the game by the meta or however you want to play it (within your means and at your own risk of course). There's no one true and absolute way to experience the game.

However, just as you can enjoy something, doesn't mean you can't also point out flaws or shortcomings of the media in question. As an active veteran player, I've already pointed out the many gameplay design flaws  already. And I'd be pretty dumb to say that Food Fantasy's writing is perfect. Hell, it has a lot of holes from a worldbuilding consistency standpoint. 

And what of things from the community side? Yes, there will be times you'd see content you consider cringe, or something in fanon you don't agree with. Or there happens to be fan theories and fangirling posts you don't like the take of because of X or Y.

And that's fine. If we all happen to play the same way, like the same thing, agree on the same thing and produce the same thing, well, this would be one helluva boring community, wouldn't it?

But what if someone decides the way you're playing the game is wrong and harasses you over it? What happens if someone decides that their interpretation of the game's flavor text and lore is more important than what anyone else thought about it? What happens if someone decides that they're absolutely right, and you and everyone else who disagrees deserves to be bullied out of the fandom?

As much as I want to say we aren't part of the problem why the game is deteriorating, we are unfortunately, part of the reason why the game is as such even if most of the blame is directed towards Funtoy and Elex themselves.

⦁ Whale Authority. Whales will always be part of a gacha game's ecosystem. Without them, the game won't be able to maintain its upkeep costs, moreso  for one that services global regions instead of just one. But when a game decides to cater its decisions of what features should be prioritized and when it should be launched around only its most elite paying players' voices  -even if that influence has since tapered off-, you know there is something wrong with the publisher's management team and priorities.

⦁ Interguild drama. While I did not personally follow any of this, this has certainly been the peak of in-game tension back in the day. Poaching good players from both competitive and smaller guilds, guild mergers that often ended up making the annexed guild/s the equivalent of UK colonized India or Australia, suck-ups chummying up to guild leaders to keep a spot in an active, high ranking guild (for bragging rights!) despite never contributing much to overall damage, and just general dislike of certain players' attitudes. Actions like this have disillusioned many players about their playing experience and the reason why many eventually just lost the motivation to log into FooFan.

⦁ Cheaters. You know very well about the Hacker-teme I've mentioned before, but that was in context of Elex being incompetent with dealing with them. Here, I would like  to point out the players who are desperate to dominate  the playing field for whatever reason to the point that they would resort to cheating the ranks with forceful modifications of the APK. Whether it is to rank high in catacombs weekly, get a top spot in daily disaster damage, or weasel their way into the competitive whale ranks of a major ranking event, these are the people who have no qualms messing with the code to give themselves an easier time with the game. And if they're caught? Some pretend that they've made a mistake, some quickly sell the account to escape the blame, some others just scamper away into the dark and hide in the lower ranks where they can't be found. Others simply don't care and keep cheating until Elex decides to finally ban them... if Elex ever decides their rebates score isn't worth saving the account.

⦁ Ship wars. Ah yes, a staple of drama in any fandom. There doesn't need much explanation to this as we've all had our fair share of running into a battleground in whatever fandom we visit. Someone ships BB52 wholeheartedly? Nope, problematic 'age gaps'. Someone likes Napoleon with Pastel? Someone's bound to misinterpret their bios in order to justify that Napoleon was being abusive. Spaghetti and Borscht? Borscht is minor coded, ship her with Vodka instead. Whiskey and Pizza or Cassata? Cancelled! And I've never heard of the Foe Yay trope or pretend I don't know about it! Rarepairs? Disgusting! No fanon in my canon playground! Turkey and Eggnog? Gasp! How dare you, you pedo-shipper-even-though-you-never-said-you-shipped-them-romantically-but-that-isn't-my-point!

⦁ Character Obsession: Bias. On one hand, you love a character so much. Relate to a character so much. You have thus pulled this character into the folds of your bosom and coo at them like a mother dove and get so minutely triggered if someone so much as makes one disagreeable or joking comment about the character that you fly into an overreactive ballistic rage that would make a Canadian goose honk in fear. You don't care what they are in canon. You don't care about the possibility of mistranslation. What matters is the fanon space you carved out for them to exist in and that's all that matters. The problem with this is when this obsession takes over common sense and social etiquette and it steps into harassment territory. You begin to think: I'm the only one who 'understands' the character. I'm the only one who wishes better for the character, everyone else is out to defame them! Oh wait, you like them too? Do you like them the way *I* like them? No? Maybe if you're my 'friend', I'd let it slide. But to everyone else? No one else has the right to like them as much as I do. No one! Never mind that they're completely fictional- No one hurts my bias because in turn, they're hurting *me*!

⦁ Character Obsession: Anti. On the other hand, you hate a character so much. This character just makes you see so much red. Their smug little smirk just makes your blood boil. Their fictional backstory makes you recoil in disgust. You hate that someone else loves a character you hate so much.  You cannot *believe* that someone could be so daringly stupid to like a problematic character. They must be problematic too then. They must be hiding real life secrets that are problematic! Yes, yes. That's right. That person's a supporter of abuse. That person's into pedophilia. That person is into military lolita fashion that Japan started the trend of but clearly Japan was part of the Axis Powers! And that... that person... that person... is a roleplayer and a yaoi fangirl properly interacting with minors and adults. How dare they...!

⦁ Fan Translations.  Normally it wouldn't be a problem that a group or two or several are translating pieces of the game's lore ahead of the official. But with Elex's very delayed translations and extreme allergic reactions to translating Food Soul bios, people have become dependent on fan-translation groups to get their fix. The problem herein lies... is when the translators get drunk off the power that they are one of a handful in a small community who can magically transcribe the oriental moonrunes into English. The problem starts when the translator starts to have an inclination. The problem starts when the translator loses their professional detachment and start adding in details here and there into the fan translated product that ultimately changes the meaning and direction of the entire story. The problem is also escalated when that translator's embellished product is touted as the truth by their followers. If there was an upcoming character whose backstory is connected to a character they hated (either because of someone or they just don't like the character) and you were hoping to read the fan translation? How would you know that what you get isn't something doctored to the point it's basically fanfiction?

⦁ Social Justice Vigilantism. Sometimes someone does not have a character obsession or need it to be annoying. Sometimes, someone just wants to ring the alarm over something they find 'problematic' in order to police and sanitize the enjoyment of the media for 'everyone'. They no longer really take enjoyment out of a new Food Soul design being leaked, they no longer read the lore just to enjoy what it has to offer. Instead, they nitpick bits and pieces of the design and point it out repeatedly as a reason why the whole thing is bad. They point out bits of the story and inject their interpretations of it without really comprehending what they've read in full and react badly to it. What's worse is that they have no qualms publicly posting their reactions and eagerly and hungrily await those likes and echoes of agreement that they were right.

⦁ Circles of Influence. Everyone has a group they eventually gravitate to in a fandom. It comes with its own pros and cons. Sometimes you join a group because someone you admire is in there, sometimes you join a group because you just want to mingle and see more content. All valid reasons. Arguments can't be avoided in a group, it has to happen... But you have to take care. You have to take care to feel the change in the air of the group. When someone starts pushing people to agree with them. When your most admired people start to feel overly sensitive about certain characters or issues. When you start to feel obligated to spy on other groups outside of this one for 'nonbelievers', 'traitors' and 'heretics' who do not think the way this group does, and that bringing back bits and pieces of gossip as offerings would somehow make you more favored in the eyes of the inner clique or remain inside it. There is a gripping sense of annoyance when that person comes in to complain but you can't do anything about it but nod and agree. There is a pervading sense of fear and apprehension of overstepping an invisible boundary. There is fear that you might be next on the chopping block, after witnessing one of the others being ganged up on and thrown out without a second thought, their name spat upon like they're worth less than dirt. And so reluctant you are to give up what you have with them that when they push you to do something you are reluctant to do, all in the name of 'harmony and justice'... You do it. Even though it would mean offering yourself up to the mob with no salvation, and the stark realization that... [they] never cared about you as a friend.

And we've come to the end of this analysis trilogy. The writing got a little bit strange in this post, but honestly this is the best way I could put it. I'm aware things can and will be more complicated than the bullet points I've written but I'm just one person and I tried very hard to keep details of all the drama that happened in this fandom as vague as possible. Of course, that wouldn't work if you know what I am talking about.

The community is quiet now for the most part, the game is somewhere between limbo and the living plane. Things could be better for us, but I don't really count on it.

I wish I could leave a bit of a moral warning or something. But rather than do that, I just hope this was an entertaining read into one individual's eyes into Food Fantasy and everything that makes it up.

[frozenmiwa]

Review: Rise of the Turtles part 1 (TMNT 2012)

I know, I know I promised to post this during summer but instead I ended up editing my TMNT 2012 fanfiction. I ended up having some technical difficulties with this post. I did watch the episode but somehow all the screen shots I took just vanished. My guess is some form of Windows update happened and poof, all screen shots were gone.

I actually just got the first season on DVD yesterday – I finally ordered it online three or so weeks ago, I’ve been looking for Finnish release of the show ever since 2014 when it started to air in Finland but we got nothing. Not that I minded, the dub was decent but definitely lot worser than the dub 2003 series got from the group called Dubberman. So I’m more than happy to have the UK release of the first season.

Firstly I’d like to address one thing: I was hesitant to watch this show because I don’t like CGI that much anymore since it’s everywhere these days, but I was interested in it after scrolling some Turtlepedia especially after I saw one of my absolute favorite character from the 2003 show, April. When I read about Donnie’s crush on her, I recalled their relationship in the 2003 series – seeing Donatello and April interact was one of my favorite things about the show so naturally I was interested to see how well 2012 series pulled that off. Then I had this boring weekend and I decided to give it a try. I did and absolutely loved the show, I loved the turtles, I loved what they did with Splinter, I even loved this one character I thought I wouldn’t, what I didn’t love however was April – instead Karai became my favorite character.

But we get to that when we get to that. Let’s start this thing!

Like with the previous post I’m not going to do full plot summary here, instead I’m doing this brief summary. If you are interested in full summary please go to sites like Turtlepedia for that!

Now this episode starts similarly to the 2003 series. We are introduced to our main characters as they are in training session. It turns out the turtles are celebrating their fifteenth birthday today and wish to go top side for the first time even though Splinter is hesitant to let them go. Eventually he does and the turtles get to see the what the world looks like outside sewers. It seems to be full of wonder… and dangers. Turtles witness a family of two, father and daughter getting kidnapped by a group of identical men, but are unable to rescue them due to their inability to work as a team. And Mikey finds out those men weren’t exactly human… but no one believes him. The group returns to the lair and they get scolded by Splinter for letting the kidnappers getting away because they couldn’t work as a team – then again, he does admit it’s partially his fault as he never trained them to fight as a team. While Splinter suggest they have another year to wait until their next visit to the top side, Donnie isn’t having it as he wants to save the poor kidnapped girl, he fell in love with at the first sight. After some convincing Splinter agrees to let them go and save her. Before they go however Splinter makes Leonardo their leader – the group does need a leader in order to function correctly after all, but as to why he chose Leo, isn’t clear. So, to the back side we go, after some time they manage to find one of the kidnappers and chase him until his car falls over. When Raph opens up the back door to the car a mysterious cannister filled with green ooze rolls over – looking a lot like the one broken cannister the turtles have in their lair, the one that had something to do with their current forms. And with that the first episode ends.

What I liked about the episode

+ Turtles actually acting like teenagers. I don’t think we have seen that in any other incarnation despite the show being called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

+ What they did with Leo’s personality. I was so used to Leo being this perfect serious leader who’d win any training session against Raph, seeing Leo actually losing against Raph not to mention having this kind of geeky awkward side to his character was refreshing to see.

+ Master Splinter. I liked how he looked nothing like his former counterparts, I loved how they brought up his personality and most of all now he actually felt like a caring father to the turtles instead of being just their teacher. Not to mention how cool his design looks in this show!

+ The plot in general. For a pilot episode it did good job at presenting our four main characters, showing they, each have different personalities without spending too much on that. It had this sense of wonder when we see the turtles discovering the world for the first time. And there was action included as well but not in a way that our heroes just swoop in and save the day, I liked the fact they messed it up on their first try. I also liked how the episode didn’t end with turtles saving the day but rather with a cliff hanger because that would get viewers to want to catch the next episode – unlike 2003 series where it just ended, personally I wouldn’t have waited to see the next episode, unlike with this 2012 show.

+ Interaction and comedy between the turtles was well done, I definitely did have some laughs here and there.

+ The way flashbacks and ending stills are done in this version. What can I say? I just love the comic book style they went with!

What I didn’t like about this episode

- Well in general I liked this episode fine; it really didn’t have much to complain about, characters were solid, their backstory was solid, story was solid and the action was solid. Over all I’d say it’s a good episode. But if I had to pick one thing I did not like; it would be the way April was presented. Unlike the turtles she didn’t seem like a character, just a pretty girl shown to our faces who needed to be saved. I know that’s how it was intended but if I’d have to pick one thing I didn’t like about the episode, this would be it.

And now let’s say few words about the dub my country eventually got...

When this series finally started to air in Finland you better believe I got up every Sunday to watch this show, not because I hadn’t seen it, it was January 2014, I had already seen the episodes couple of times in English but I wanted to check out the dubbed version especially after seeing the voice cast. Just by looking at the voices seemed like this dub would go either way. It could be good or really bad. Like with seasons 3-4 and 6-7 of TMNT 2003 a group called Dubberman. And I wasn’t completely trusting for the fact they would do the show justice. I mean they did skip over the season 5 in 2003 series – and later season 3 in 2012 series so…

The dub was decent, not great, not the worst we could have gotten but decent. There were some errors like they called Raphael “Rafaello” or “Rafa” for short like in the dubbed VHS/DVD release of 1980 series – luckily, they stopped doing that after few episodes because it bothered me a lot. Another thing was how those Japanese phases were pronounced – in this episode by Leo. They didn’t sound right at least when you compare to the original version.

The voice cast was okay. It consisted of some familiar and great voice actors like Jon-Jon Geitel as Leo who has also voiced characters like Jack Frost from the Rise of the guardians or Jake Long from American Dragon: Jake Long – I think this is where I first heard his voice acting. More recently he voiced Aladdin in the live action version from 2019. Another familiar voices we had were Aksu Palmén as Donatello who had voiced characters like Hiccup in How to train your dragon, and Markus Bäckman as Master Splinter – It’s better I won’t go in too much details on his voicing career because he has done a lot of good voice acting in TV and Disney movies. These two were probably the most suited for their roles. Especially Markus Bäckman as Splinter. He sounded just right for the part. Then there was Henri Piispanen who I hadn’t heard much voice acting from before TMNT. I think he was solid pick for Raph – not as good as Sean Astin but they could have gone for worse. Then there were couple unknown actors Miro Loopperi who voiced Mikey and Ella Jaakkola who voiced April.

Miro Looperi did fine job as Mikey but he didn’t really sound like him. This reminds me of 2003 series as Mikey had a voice actor in the Finnish dub that I liked, but one that didn’t sound like him when compared his original voice. This has the same feeling to it. And now Ella Jaakkola, she had this high-pitched kind of bitchy voice I found annoying but at the same time I thought it kind of worked for April’s character because I knew what would become of her character in season 2. I remember thinking: “I can’t wait to hear this voice in Mutation Situation!” – Too bad they changed her voice for season 2.

Now, don’t expect me to do this thing for all the episodes where I talk a little bit about the Finnish dub as I’ve only seen the first season dubbed – I don’t even know when season 2 aired. And I don’t have many notes about the dub. Nor do I remember much of it. I have notes for I think five or so episodes and very good memory for Karai’s debut episode but that’s about it. As I said earlier so far now DVD releases have been made in Finland so I would only have access through streaming services to seasons 4 and 5 – which I haven’t even watched completely yet. I can only hope Netflix or Viaplay would upload the dubbed versions of TMNT to their servers but as we lack DVD releases or reruns of seasons 1 and 2 and season 3 in general that’s very unlikely.

And now some screenshots!

Would you look at that? Leo actually lost to Raph.

Is that supposed to be Splinter? He looks kind of cool - were my first thoughts when he appeared on the screen.

Happy Mutation day! I just love their expressions here.

And it’s flashback time! I really love the way they did and animated the flashbacks in this version.

Splinter holding the broken mutagen canister.

...And Mikey giving it a hug.

They are finally able to go to the top side. Look at how happy they are - I mean even Raph is smiling.

Well I just like this shot of Splinter.

Leo and Space Heroes. I love how proud he looks here.

“Hai, sensei!” - This is probably one of my favorite scenes in this episode. It shows that over protective side of Splinter which is one of the many things I love about the show.

Turtles entering the top side for the first time.

Donnie geeking out at computer stuff while Raph is not interested. Personally being a geek myself, I see lot of myself in Donatello during this moment.

Turtles are about to find out what pizza is.

Oh, look at that it’s a love interest... I mean it’s my least favorite character... I mean it’s April.

And Donnie is in love with her. Just like that.

I know April is supposed to be scared here but I find her expression hilarious. It cracks me every time.

Fighting is not going too well here.

Or here.

Saving April.

I really like this shot of Donnie smiling. He looks kind of adorable. I mean who would scream after seeing that adorable face?

April of course!

I find Donnie’s reaction and posture here priceless, it’s like: “Oh my god, what did I just touch?”

April is being cornered by creepy men.

And Donnie’s offering to help her.

But that doesn’t really work out. Mikey looks adorable though!

I guess The Kraang didn’t fancy April’s screaming either.

And here’s Mikey, facing a suspicious man all by himself.

...That is not a man at all.

Okay what the hell is that thing?

You know what Mikey, I totally agree with you.

Turtles are having a conversation about the leader stuff. And they all can’t believe what they just heard.

Here is Leo facepalming. One of my favorite scenes in the episode.

“I thinking of something green. Green.” “Is it Raphael again?”

Cornering Snake.

Ending still.

Anyway, this was my review for the first episode of TMNT 2012. Next time I think I’m doing review for the second episode of 2003 series, so stay tuned for that. Or something.