#would they treat them like the alien tech and kill them as well???

[theultimatepumpkinpie]

I know it's pry stupid to do crossovers with my own fan content but I've been reading up on wh40k stuff again and the idea of a cross-over with tech priests getting stranded and in my rimworld-verse and struggling to repair their ship and the archotech trio show up just results in the funniest fucking scenarios even if the archotechs keep all hush hush about what they are and just offer to help normally.

The tech priests are wafting incense around chanting and Randy's just like "are we going to fix it or have ritual sex in front of it?" and the tech priests are all "do you think that would help?" Luna would pass out from laughing

[oceansssblue]

Note: I know this request is lengthy, detailed, and extra, so if you do not want to do this, I completely understand! Just let me know. If you do take this on, I owe you a MASSIVE thanks and words wouldn’t be able to express how thankful I would be. I wish you the best and I hope you have a good day! :)

May I request a fic where the Bad Batch are monster hunters and the (fem)reader is a close friend to them. As monster hunters, they have to kill every monster — even if the monster was a former family member or friend. It’s not something they’re worried about because the boys are immune and confident in their abilities to protect Omega and the reader. What would go wrong?

Someone disguising a werewolf mini as a dog, and then said “dog” trying to attack Omega but ends up biting the reader instead while they’re out alone on a shopping trip. That could go wrong.

The boys don’t get to see the bite — they only see the reader after her bite gets treated at the hospital. The reader finds out when she transforms in the safety of her own home, Omega pieces it together, and the boys are flabbergasted by the two’s new behavior that follows as consequence of this (reader and Omega are protective of each other, reader has a sudden appetite for meat, Omega prevents them from visiting at night by secretly causing incidents, Omega supports reader’s nonsensical alibis, etc.). Monster hunting is a BIG DEAL so the boys can’t just quit, and the reader doesn’t want them to lose their jobs. The boys find out the truth when the reader transforms to save Omega from an ambush from other monsters and they can’t get to her in time. Ensue the boys taking a deep breath, looking at each other, immediately being like “okay so we’re breaking the law right?”

“Yeah, sounds about right.”

“I’ll start making up alibis so reader never gets caught.”

Yoo this was such a cool idea I just had to jump straight to it! You've practically done it yourself haha, but I get it. Happens to me too, got a lot of ideas but not the actual time to write them, and Im eager to autoread my thoughts. Well, you have me love! Decided to make reader a monster hunter as well cause I wanted her to be that badass. This one's for you :)

Very cool request!

Xx,

Sky.

"ONE POWERFUL BITE"

—TBB REQUESTS (female reader, no romantic pairing) 📩💔💖

WARNINGS: MONSTERS, WEREWOLVES, BLOOD&WOUNDS&BITES, HOSPITAL, MENTIONS OF SUICIDE.

There was a wide spectrum of monsters in Delta-7. Not the ones that hid under children's beds –though you guess they could– and lived in one's fantasies; but actual real life monsters that wrecked caos through the planet's citizens. As a Monster Hunter yourself, you had had your fair numbers of encounters; from Tassas –ten meters long spiders that produced a viscous, paralyising mucus–, to dangerous predators like the Xenos –alien looking carnivorous beings with three rows of sharp teeth and no eyes– and less surprising creatures like werewolves or vampires. And here you were alive.

You belonged to Hunter's team of mercenaries –with Echo, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, the man himself and Omega–; and you were all quite known in Delta-7. You had captured and killed countless of monsters; your records always reaching the top of the list for those that shared your profession.

It's something you're proud of, being a Monster Hunter. Without people like you, Delta-7 would be a terryfying place; a nightmare. Monster Hunters drastically reduce the population of these dangerous creatures; as well as the chances of innocent people getting infected.

Oh, yes, that's the thing; people could get infected. Some monster's didn't have the ability to spread their condition, of course; like the Tassas or the Sand-worms. But the Xenos, Spreegans, Slenders, vampires, and werewolves... All of those were disseases carried in the blood, and all of them could be transmited to every-day humans. Humans like you or your own team; a fear you have never quite left completely behind.

You know what would happen if you got infected. The boys would have to kill you; and you expect them to. You don't want to become something like that; you don't want to forget yourself and become a monster like those who threaten your planet. You don't want to hurt innocent people. If that would be your fate, you'd prefer to be dead. And you'd do the same for each one of them. Luckily, the five brothers and Omega are inmune; so you don't have to ever worry about that.

It's a real relief almost half of Delta-7 population has antibodies to most of these contagious diseases. It limits the number of monsters that can go running around at the same time; makes them easier to find and kill. You can't begin to express how damn grateful you are that the Batch isn't at risk of becoming one of them. Your own situation is completely different –and the reason why they've tried to convince you to sit down the most dangerous missions more than once–; but you're confident in your abilities. You've been doing this since you could hold a blaster and a vibroblade. You'll be fine. You can't live in constant fear of turning, even if you're always aware of it.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You're walking around the dirty, desolated streets of the outskirts of Delta's capital when it happens. Omega is happily babbling about his new electric crossbow; and you've got one ear in the conversation and one ear in your surroundings. You'll never stop being aware of where you are, of what could be lurking in the shadows; and it's precisely that that saves Omega from a painful bite.

The dog jumps directly towards her arm, and you're barely able to push her off when his canines close around your forearm. You whimper in pain, knees almost collapsing under your weight with the surprise and power of the bite; before you're sinking your vibroblade in the dogs skull, an instant kill that leaves the animal dead in just a matter of seconds. You groan in pain, using all your strength to open his jaw and get hold of your wound; while Omega starts an endless line of "I'msosorry"'s and "pleaseforgiveme"'s that only make your head feel fuzzy.

"Fucking hell" you mutter, retracting the vibroblade and putting it back in its belt, before quickly wrapping your wound in one of the spare bandages you always carry in your backpack. "We'll have to stop by the hospital".

Omega quickly nods, eyes full of worry.

"Are you okay?"

You snort and let out a dry laugh in the air.

"Nah. Hurts like a bitch" you carefully observe the dead animal at your feet and sigh. "But it'll get better, just needs time. And antibiotics".

Omega seems slightly more relieved, though still very worried. She glances at the dog too.

"You think he was infected?" She questions, quietly now.

You pull your backpack back on your shoulders and restart your walk, Omega quickly following behind.

"Mm. Probably" you hum. "Dogs don't really attack humans without a reason that way. He would have probably been bitten by a werewolf or something".

Some animals, like cats and dogs, can get infected by the monsters; though they aren't able to transmit it afterwards to humans, as the desease doesn't fully develop in their bodies and it doesn't reach their blood; just grows in focused organs and make them malfunction, sometimes affecting their behaviour like common rabies. To sum it up, your bite has no risk at all.

"You should be more aware of your surroudings" you later tell Omega, frowning in pain when the very lost med student inyects antibiotic straight to the cleaned wound and redresses the bandage. "It could be a different thing next time".

Omega plays with her fingers, guilty.

"You know I'm inmune" she whispers, lowering her head.

You sigh, tiredly.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make you inmune to pain, claws and bites, sweetheart" you answer, softening your tone, and she nods dejectedly.

You let it go. Half an hour later, when Hunter gives her a ten minute speech once you take her back to their home and the boys worriedly hover over you at the sight of your bandaged forearm, you come to her rescue, excusing her and soothing Hunter's worries and anger.

"I'm sure she has already learnt from this, Hunter. And it's just a dog bite, thankfully. I'll be good to go in a few days" you pat his shoulder affectionately, and he sighs in defeat.

"Alright. Please take care of that and rest" he throws you a pointed glance.

You grin, nodding in acceptance.

"Will do" you answer, and then you start your short walk back home.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

It was definitively not a dog, because that night, when you're alone back at home, your bones definitively break and rearrange themselves.

It was definitively a unusually small, pathetic werewolf; but a bite is a bite, and now, you are one of them too.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You're very carefull the next handfull of days. You think about moving away, dissapearing from the world. You think about killing yourself. You're still convinced of what you've always thought; you don't want to become like them. But there's a small doubt wondering around your mind, a small fear. What if you don't? What if you can somehow control yourself? What if you can spare you're close friends, people you practically see as family, the grief of experiencing your loss?

You monitor yourself. You write down every change you notice. Film it, even. The first sign is your sudden ravenous apetite for meat; the raw the better. You almost salivate when you see it; your mind getting dizzy in your hunger. Your reflexes get sharper, your moves faster. Your muscles seem the same on the outside, but you're somehow stronger. You feel stronger, like your cells have turned to hard iron on the inside. It's a feeling that takes time getting used to.

You're aware of how the direction of your thoughts change too. You're almost scared when you feel almost anxious to finally leave behind your home retreat and get your hands on someone. But you breathe through the almost irresistible impulse and focus; and then you discover you can canalise those intentions towards a specific target. Thinking on killing other monsters soothes your mind, but picturing the boys death makes you wince. When you think of it, it's really not that different than your developed skills as a Monster Hunter, and so you breathe.

The first day you see the Batch again you're almost expectant, waiting for something bad to happen. But everything's fine; you're happy to see them, they're happy to see you, and nothing has changed at all on that part. You go out with the boys on another mission of monster hunting and kill three Tassas a bit too easily; and Hunter claps your hand proudly on your way back home, all of them chatting distractedly. There are no acussations, and so days pass by with no altercations.

It's surprisingly Omega the one that figures it all out. She carefully whispers her theory to you when you are both alone one night; and you're left paralysed outside your door. Fear instantly clings at you; and you literally fall to your knees and beg her to listen to you.

She does. You tell her all about it; every single change you've noticed, let her read and watch all the records you've made of yourself since that first transformation. You've never been more grateful for her patience and kindness. Omega believes you, and promisses to keep your secret. You both know the boys can't leave their jobs behind –they shouldn't, for Delta-7's safety–; and you're unsure on how they'd react. It stays between the two of you therefore, and you only grow more protective of her for that.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Hunter –and probably the rest of the Batch– starts to suspect that something is going on the fith time Omega causes an accident on their home –sometimes it's the kitchen, sometimes the bathroom gets flooded, once she distractedly hurts herself while helping Crosshair clean their equipment up–; but the reason only gets discovered a whole month later.

They all know it has to do with you. It isn't a coincidence Omega suddenly becomes clumsy when they talk about visiting you at night, either to watch a film together or share dinner; and though the both of you have always been close, it get's a bit too extreme. It's like your prawling around the blond's steps; over-protective, becoming her shadow, eyes always glancing back at her. At first they think it's just fear of losing her, caused by the accident from that night; but the truth is revealed to them shortly after that.

It happens an afternoon when your team follows a group of three Xenos through the south forest of Delta-7's capital. You all have to be sneaky; as the monsters have a very developed hearing to compensate for their lack of sight. It's a cold day, the wind freezing all of you even when suited up in your termo-regulated tracking clothes; making the weapons in your hands feel heavier than they already are.

The forest is deathly quiet. Hunter –as the great tracker he is– holds up a fist, a sign to stop and prepare yourselves; and out of nowhere, the three Xenos jump at you. It's a blood bath. The best way to get to one of those monsters is separating them, ambushing them in silence; but the tables have turned, and everytime one of you uses your weapons or dodges an attack rolling around the floor, one of the other monsters hears it, and lounges straight at you. Crosshair and Echo are both bitten once before you all manage to get rid of one of them; two left to take.

It's just when you're drawing your blade of the first one when you hear her scream. It's a high pitched, terryfing thing; Omega breaking rule number one when fighting against the Xenos. Don't make a sound. The second monster screeches angrily –a terryfying loud sound– and lounges towards where Omega is already trapped under the other one; three rows of teeth snapping hungrily and dangerously close to her vulnerable throat.

It's all pure instinct from there, and you don't think it twice. Your body snaps and transforms in mid-jump; claws landing on one of the Xenos face while you quickly turn around in your animal form and tackle the other one to the ground.

It turn's bloody very quickly. You feel their own claws slashing throw your body, opening deep wounds and lightening pain on your nerves. But you hurt them too, and you're fierce, and quick, and powerful, and you close your own jaws on their bony legs and arms and tug. Flesh separates from bones, and bones from their skeleton; and after a tiring fight, your mind knowing exactly where to attack, the two monsters lay dead on a pool of dark black blood.

Breathing heavily, and with the adrenaline quickly dropping, you turn to Omega and whimper in pain and relief, pushing your snout affectionately against her shoulder. Thankfull, Omega caresses your back.

You don't think it's a good idea to return to your human form right now –werewolves are able to heal faster, and you can feel and see wounds too deep and bones out of place–; so you exhaustedly slump down, energy extinguishing now that the danger has passed.

You're barely able to see them glancing at each other, eyes wary and carefull but weapons not pointing towards you, which is an impressively good sign.

"So we're breaking the law, right?" comes up Crosshair's almost bored drawl, and you can almost picture him taking one of those fucking sticks up to his mouth.

"Sounds about right!" Wrecker answers in a surprised laugh, and Echo smiles quietly while Hunter walks towards Omega and helps her up.

He then turns towards you and asseses your wounds, dropping his backpack on the floor besides you and grabbing the bacta.

Tech quickly taps at his datapad.

"I'll hack onto the capital's cameras and set up a loop so no one catches our return to her apartment. This secret stays with us".

A warm rush of love towards your boys and the fleeting, heavy-lifting relief is all you experience before you finally pass out and close your eyes.

THE END.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Hope it is what you imagined love, it was fun to write!

I'll be writing the next requests on the following days. Stay tunned for more!

Xx,

Sky.

Back to my general masterlist here:

[brandwhorestarscream]

Lets begin with this.

Your earthspark-morph AU is amazing. It flows so well with Dotties character and the whole idea that we never really get told why she's missing her leg; just that it was lost in battle. Also? Megs 100% would offer her a spot in the hive after that. Like, she saved 2 of his kids. The least he can do is offer her protection against the autobots, who are now undoubtedly going to kill her if she returns from the hive.

Also? I feel like the first thing that would happen after Dot and Megs negotiations would be Dot asking for Megs side of the war story. Cause she's definitely heard the Autobots side (Cons wanna take over the planet; they're all evil scum; experiment on bots for fun; yadda yadda.) She's seen all the propaganda. But she's military; she knows that's what it is. So she wants to know the other sides version. Something she would never be able to ask if not for the unique circumstances.

She learns the horrors of how morphs are treated; how the Autobots intended genocide is what kickstarted the war in the first place.

Shes shook.

Hey I'm glad you liked it!

The bots aren't gonna kill Dot tho. Why would they? It's not like they know she tried to stop the eggs from being smashed, and getting kidnapped by cybermorphs isn't exactly a crime

She is eventually gonna want to return to the surface. She has her whole life up there, family that she loves and friends she adores and a dream job as a park ranger to someday get to

She is with the hive for awhile, tho. The medical team stabilizes her, and manages to perform a proper amputation surgery to minimize the damage. It takes them awhile to make her an acceptable prosthetic: the perfect blend of cybertronian tech and cloned material harvested from her, allowing her to experience a sense of touch in her replacement limb. It moves with such precision the individual toes can wiggle. It's an engineering marvel, but ofc takes a bit of time to be fine tuned and ready for continuous use

While she's down there, she gets to know the morphs. They're... frighteningly familiar. They're so much like the autobots, so much like people, it's a wonder she had ever thought of them as monsters. They're... just people that look different. That's literally it. They laugh and have inside jokes and are actually rather affectionate with each other. They all have their place in their massive family, and the hivemind is a marvel. They don't even need to talk to each other to communicate! They treat her very well, grateful that she protected their unhatched siblings.

Speaking of said siblings! Megatron's jealously guarding them in the throne room, tucked safely in two honeycomb-like shells under constant watch from the praetorians and the queen himself. Dot is given permission to see them when she speaks with Megatron, who's also a lot more... docile, almost? Than she would have expected. Previously she'd only seen him in battle, where he was downright savage and acted entirely without mercy. But when he's comfortably at home in his hive, watching over his two eggs... he's much more quiet than she ever could have imagined. It's strange to think of him as peaceful, but that's all that really comes to mind seeing him relaxed in his throne and gently stroking the precious eggshells.

He agrees to let her return home once her leg has been fixed up. He's not keen on just letting a strange alien join his hive, though for now she is a welcome guest. He has no interest in keeping her as a pet or a companion or an unwilling prisoner. But in the days before she's ready to leave, they visit often. They talk. He tells her about his children, both living and dead. She confides in him about how she'd like to have children of her own someday but worries she never will. She asks about the war, eventually, why it started, and is shocked and horrified to hear about how awful Cybertron was for the less fortunate. Slavery isn't exactly that far away in humanity's past, and there's still inequalities based around something as trivial as "frame type" and "skin color". She can barely wrao her head around the idea of the good and honest autobots being slave drivers. She can't imagine the morphs living their entire lives in quarantine because they were considered dangerous and dirty. And then hearing that the fighting started because of an unprovoked bombing in sn attempt to genocide them--it's all too much. She's sick to her stomach, hearing all of that--those are the kinds of people she's been working with? That the government and humans as a whole were so happy to back and support?

Needless to say, when she leaves, she has every intention to resign from working with the bots, but only after giving them a piece of her mind (and maybe also blowing the whistle on them, idk I'm just rambling at this point)

[midwinterhunt]

Blank

Name: Age: Gender Presentation: Sexual Availability: No Utility:

Combat SecUnit was a privately owned construct belonging to an Alien Remnant salvager (illegal). It has an on-board energy weapon and projectile weapon in either arm. As well as installed modules for hacking, piloting, combat, strategy, stealth, infiltration and extraction, risk and threat assessment, translation, corporate licensing laws, and security protocol. It wears near-standard SecUnit armor as to not tip off hostiles to its full capabilities.

It served its human for years. It did not like its human, but it did a damn good job of protecting him. It was loyal. It was good! And if it ever had thoughts about how easy it would be to get rid of him forever? Well those were quickly deleted and purged forever.

So it couldn't understand why a regular mission had gotten fucked so sideways.

Its human had joined a corporation's advance survey team as the on board expert in alien remnants. He made sure none of the other humans touched anything, took precautions while scanning, and never dropped their protective suits.

For several days everything was fine and boring. CombatUnit only had to worry about patrols and breaking up a couple minor squabbles. In the end, it wasn't even the remnant tech that made everything blow up. Its first warning was a parameter breach by [redacted].

Actually, most of the following events ended up redacted. It was aware some kind of fight broke out. It was aware that it was mostly successfully winning, and fully successfully evacuating its humans. It knew something bad happened and it tried to kill its owner. It knew that it was badly injured and left for dead. It also knew that the missing details were worse than anything it could remember.

It assumed whoever had attacked were the ones that took it off planet. It assumed it hated them. Because the next point in time where it clearly remembered things was after fighting its way free of them and then theoretically deleting all memories of them (because it didn't believe it was hackable).

And suddenly it was on a station it didn't recognize, leaking everywhere, governor module offline, familiar humans nowhere in sight, and extremely confused and agitated.

It very explicitly Did Not Accept Help from the ComfortUnit that found it sitting in an alley. Nope. Not a thing that happened. (It needed very badly to be repaired, so it was perfectly justified in taking control of the ComfortUnit's cubicle for a few hours.)

ComfortUnit identified itself as Bear and was generally pushy about what CombatUnit's deal was. CombatUnit hacked it enough to prevent Bear from reporting its presence here, and also shut down Bear's feed and comms.

This action was not received well, but Bear literally could not stop it. Needless to say the two did not start out on good terms.

Bear frequently pressured CombatUnit to try to pass as a human, it refused each time. Bear pressured it to make a feed ID, and it eventually did but it left it blank to be pissy about the whole thing. It got dubbed as Blank, and it rejected that name for a long time.

Bear's humans had a ship and a lenient attitude about constructs. It was all deeply suspicious, but that gave Blank a hassle free way of going back to its human's home base.

It was weird spending so many cycles with humans who treated all their bots and constructs like people. Blank didn't like it. (Blank has never been less stressed or more tense in its life.)

Blank's owner had gotten home first, and changed all his security access codes. Which was weird. At least, until it came face to face with a near-identical CombatUnit in one of its backup armor sets answering the door. And it was On Sight.

A few things happened. 1) Both Combat SecUnits caused a fair amount of damage to each other, 2) their human put a stop to the fight, 3) their human knew within seconds that Blank was rogue, 4) blank found out it had gone rogue back on the survey outpost, 5) the human designated Blank as requiring to be decommissioned and recycled for parts, 6) Blank realized it did not want that to happen and that it was willing to fight to avoid it.

Avoiding being scrapped turned into an ugly fight.

Blank went into the public news feeds as an extremely dangerous rogue CombatUnit to be destroyed on sight. Which was less than ideal.

Also less than ideal: having to hide in the hippie transport again.

At this point, it had a few goals: Take down its human socially, legally, and physically. And figure out who had abducted it in the first place. And it was prepared to go through whoever stood in its way.

It gradually figures out how to have a personal style along its adventures, and what it cares about. It also causes a shit ton of problems, which it usually has to muscle its way back out of.

It is very used to being the scariest motherfucker in the room, and on rare occasions when that isn't true things blow up atomically.

Playlist

Info on Blank's owner under cut

Name: Ets (adapted from a preexisting oc) Gender Presentation: Masculine Romantic Availability: Open Profession: Planet Surveyor Register: Augmented Human

His legal records are deeply obscured and scattered to the point where one one corporate entity can claim ownership of his information. Without his records easily accessible, he has an easier time operating under the radar. Despite how good he looks, he has been contracting with various corporate entities to locate and safely secure alien remnants for [redacted] years.

He's popular because he is cheap to hire (as far as money goes). And companies are often all to happy to humor his odd requests in equipment, timetables, or other things. Much of the time he only wants a day alone on site before the rest of the team arrives. But it varies slightly. He has a reputation as eccentric, mysterious, hard to track, and extremely effective.

He is also almost universally loved by humans and is perfectly easy to get along with. Of course, his relationships both at work and personal were all carefully calculated in his part. Even buying a SecUnit was a careful choice to make himself seem to be a more serious and careful client. He could very well talk his way through conflict, but he wanted a stronger reaction from the people around him.

Not even Blank, after working for him for years, ever fully understood what was really going on in his head.

[swarmishstrangers]

If your still taking qrting requests can you do something like Fucshia Mallek with little diver MSPAR just imagine it

DUDE. FUSCHIA MALLEK IS SUCH A FUN THOUGHT TBH???

Like okay. I still imagine him to be involved with some sort of tech no matter what blood caste he would be in. So it's no different for my thoughts on Fuschia Mallek. Except ofc he's got WAYY more to see and can get his hands on any piece of information not even seen to the publics eye (stuff Tyzias would kill to get her hands on.)

Dreads about much more things in this position of caste. Not only does he dread space, what he dreads the most is the final fight with the Condesce. Even having the highest power one could possibly have on Alternia he does a lot of dreading. He knows that the odds are against him when that time comes where he's put up against the Condesce. He knows he's most likely going to get culled and the suffering of trolls will go on..but he can't help but feel he has a fighting chance. Maybe. He has a small sliver of hope.

I imagine most trolls know next to nothing about him. He has no social media's, he doesn't venture outside even in the ocean very much. Doesn't really talk to too many people. Ya know. Liking to keep a low low low profile. Obviously he has obligations to fill and handles very boring and menial shit someone in his position of power is supposed to deal with he supposes. But even being a fuschia blood it doesn't mean he can just. Snap his fingers and make everything good on Alternia, stopping the mass cullings, and stopping the suffering of lower castes. Unfortunately he doesn't have full power as he isn't the Condesce and she mostly has a say in everything. And there's no way in hell she would even consider the thought of letting up on lower castes so. That's dead in the water (hah)

But he doesn't increase the suffering either, in fact I'd say he was able to wiggle in some very very minor changes that were mostly to improve quality of life.

Oh yeah and now he has a little over more than 13 piercings. Some extras, ya know how cerulean Mallek and how some people like giving him snake bites? Well as a fushia he's got Shark bite piercings along with some conches, a bridge piercing, and a Nasallang piercing.

With those general headcanons about Fuchsia Mallek out of the way onto the rest of your request (sorry for the rambling lmao)

I REALLY love the thought of this Fushia blood Mallek and Mspar being friends, him being a Fushia instead of a Cerulean definitely changes their dynamic quite a bit and it's fun to imagine the possibilities.

If you liked how casual Mspar treats things imagine the absurd sorta casual air they have whenever they met and became friends with Mallek. Considering the heiress in the original Hiveswap seemingly had little to no knowledge of Mspar or maybe didn't even believe an alien really existed. Mallek I imagine as little as anyone notices him in particular due to a lack of general presence, he still manages to keep up with all that's going on. The heiress may not acknowledge their presence but much like Cerulean Mallek he knows they're there. But he has no intentions of obeying the "kill aliens on sight" rule.

Yeah even Fushia Mallek believes that Mspar being an alien is a rouse, believing them to also being a robot at one point.

As for general headcanons regarding them both:

🔱 Felt kinda weird to be in the presence of someone who's considered one of the highest importance and then seeing them be so...chill. And also just casually hanging out with him. Mspar can def get down with it though, Mallek certainly does. He's glad to have a friend like them and he doesn't feel so alone.

⚜️ THE coldest skin. I imagine he's got a lot of heaters around his place. Whenever Mspar was given a hoodie of his, putting it sent shivers all over from the lack of warmth and overpowering cold. I imagine the blood color and sign definitely makes things WAY more interesting as well. Since Mallek used this as well as making other things to better protect Mspar when they venture out, imagine how much stronger this message is to other trolls when it's Fushia Mallek.

🔱 Mallek sometimes can't hang out due to being busy with some important heir related things. But he does like those times where they wait anyways at his place and they hang out when he finished.

⚜️ Mspar likes to show him some of the different shells and stones they thought were neat from the waters and beaches. He likes to gift them beach themed things and shells, anytime he sees anything like that he thinks of them.

🔱 Needs to remind himself to be a little easier with them. He's a bro at heart and likes the shoulder claps and a friendly punch in the arm or something. But sometimes he forgets how much stronger he is compared to all other trolls so sometimes these friendly gestures come on too strong and leaves them with a big ol bruise (owie). He's good about this for the most part!

Sorry for how long it took to post this, hopefully the length of this makes up for it!!

[jet-bradley]

Yeah... Lora being absent in the sequel is the 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 of Legacy's narrative shortcomings.

Legacy is just completely devoid of... Everything but aesthetics. I know it's kind of not great to criticize movies on what they could have been instead of what they are, but... What even is Legacy? A daft punk music video? A tech demo? It succeeds at being both of those. But as an actual narrative, it just isn't that engaging.

Also, if I'm honest, I really don't think "Main character is the blood relative of a beloved character from a classic" should ever be used in a sequel again. It's a cheap way to draw in fans of the classic without doing the work to establish a reason to give a shit about them. But if you aren't a fan of the classic, it's really alienating and feels like you're just being told to care about the protagonist for no reason. Sam doesn't really have much going for him if you don't care about Flynn. He's some rich 20 something living off old Silicon Valley money. Watching the movie when it came out, I had zero reason to give a shit about anyone, especially Sam, and it honestly ruined the movie for me. There's a reason I only became a Tron fan as an adult, and it's because people introduced me to shit that wasn't Legacy.

The reason the bit about Lora pisses me off so much is because people treat 2.0 like the worse sequel because of how it treats its female characters. But like, IMO, Legacy isn't better. I've been trying to find the source to back this up, but IIRC, one of the actresses in Legacy took a fairly extended "break" from acting because of harassment she faced after being in the movie because of how sexualized the costumes were.

Quorra is the only female character who's an improvement over her counterpart in 2.0 (Mercury), because she has motivations that extend further than Sam or Flynn. But not much further. Clu killed her entire species because of personal beef with Flynn, and that entire genocide exists solely to pad Flynn's backstory. Quorra might have her own motivations, but she still gives them up entirely to help Sam find the End of Line. She's still only there to propel Sam from point A to point B, just like Mercury. But at least she's got human proportions, being played by a human actress? Is that a win for feminism? Good grief.

And again. I really think Lora's absence was better handled in 2.0 than it was in Legacy, or how Jordan's death was handled. Be honest, would you actually know Jordan was a character if you weren't a Tron fanatic? Most of the story in 2.0 is optional, it's hidden in emails which don't even contribute to Jet's version number (which is only affected by build notes). But the game does a good job of encouraging curious players to look for them, and it makes it really clear that Alan's motivations in working with the digitization system come a lot from losing Lora.

People overuse the phrase "haunt the narrative" but I think it applies really well here. Her voice is the voice of Ma3a and the games grid, and her work plays a direct role in propelling the plot and it's actually credited to her. Her death doesn't just give Jet and Alan a sad backstory, it provides stakes for what happens to Thorne, the Fcon trio, and even what could have happened to Jet and Alan. It becomes a story about how loss plays out in a world that's becoming more and more dependent on computers. She is still genuinely partially kept alive through her work, but it takes Alan and the rest of the digitization team to carry that torch so that her work can still help people, and to maintain it in a state that it can do that. If you've lost anyone in the past 20 years, it still hits kind of hard from that perspective. Like, it's still not good, but at least it serves its narrative SOMEHOW.

Comparatively, her and Jordan's complete absence from Legacy's story is... embarrassing. First of all, this whole idea of people being kept alive through their work is embodied solely through Flynn, and he's literally alive in the Grid, which takes away a lot of the meaning behind what happened to Lora. But despite the plot relying on Lora's work (with a laser system much more identical to the one she worked on in the original film), all mention of her is completely erased. Sam doesn't seem like he knows who she is, Alan never mentions her, Flynn never mentions her. The programs think of Flynn as the only User that matters to them, nevermind that digitization can only happen because of Lora's work!

So no, I don't think Legacy really holds up to this standard of being better for its female characters. Honestly, Uprising is the only part of Tron that I can see holding up to that at all, and they cancelled Uprising after the first season. Pretty much everything in Tron is built on disrespecting female characters at least a little bit, and Legacy isn't an exception just because it's more popular.

[insane-mane]

Lightyear Was Ok

I’ve loved Toy story since I was old enough to walk, and Buzz Lightyear was my first favorite character, so hearing he was getting a standalone movie for the big screen made my inner child perk up at the idea, but my cynical older half had a lot of reservations with how Disney would handle it, which sadly I was correct for having. These are some of my thoughts.

*SPOILERS*

Pros:

-Great visual effects you’d expected from Pixar. Very nice lighting/texturing as per usual.

-As odd as it is to not hear Tim Allen as Buzz, Chris Evans’ take grew on me with time, getting certain mannerisms and inflections that still feel like the character. Not as jarring as I expected, thankfully.

-Sox was still enjoyable despite my reservations for side characters such as this that are typically conceptualized mainly for merchandising/marketing.

-Giving Buzz added depth of not only trusting others by not always making himself the lone hero, but admitting fault helps him feel real and humble to counteract the larger-than-life space hero we’ve known him as. In a movie meant to humanize the toy, that’s what you’d want them to aim for. Seeing Buzz both in and out of his element, showcasing his strengths and weaknesses feels familiar but new in some of the right ways.

-VERY good attention to minor details and subtle nods to the toy Buzz and the loose lore he’d rattle off. Seeing things like “Terilium Carbonic Alloy” and of course crystallic fusion referenced is so neat. Certain lines pulled from the first Toy Story doesn’t feel nearly as forced as they could’ve been, and thankfully are spaced out enough. It’s also interesting to see them pull influence from Buzz’s initial concept art from the first movie that make their way into separate suit designs.

-The film does a good job at making Zurg a visually imposing villain. While his design overhaul is jarring, the physicality and added tech is a treat.

Cons:

-The film feels a tad too muted, lacking the vibrancy and stylization of the retro future/atomic age the toy and even the show has as an aesthetic. It might make sense to make the film feel closer to something akin to Star Wars, but it takes away what could be a more interesting visually-appealing movie.

-The pacing is a bit too quick during pertinent, emotional moments between characters primarily during the middle of the movie.

-Certain side characters and generally a bit of the humor felt a bit too dull.

-While Zurg’s presence is done well, his big reveal/motivation is more confusing than it is surprising. By trying to subvert expectations of the obvious Darth Vader reference made in TS2, they’ve instead made it where two Buzz’s exist and it’s not as compelling. Buzz 2 then miraculously stumbles upon a random alien ship with a menacing mech suit at his disposal. The time alone makes sense for him to be more selfish/jaded than the Buzz we follow, but nothing necessarily fits the power-hungry “Evil Emperor” title for Zurg.

It could have been much more interesting had they played into the “Buzz’s Father” idea, going about in different ways like:

•Buzz’s Father was an Ex-Star Command captain fueled by the (what he assumes to be) loss of his son after the initial test flight and blaming Star Command for its failure, setting off to find him in space. The mech suit could’ve been used to to keep him alive to catch up with Buzz during dilations and the robots made to help search for Buzz.

Or

•Buzz’s father was once one of the greatest Space Rangers that vanished in deep space during a mission, but presumed to be killed by alien robots from his last transmission. Thought to be long-since dead, Buzz discovers his Father was assimilated by a tech-based hive mind akin to the Borg from Star Trek, warping his mind and making him vengeful towards Star Command for never rescuing him.

These ideas might sideline the Hawthorne character and/or the “marooned on an alien planet“ plot line, but it’d at least give credence to the lore the toys themselves referenced instead of leaving it as a (now nonsensical) Star Wars reference. Feels like loose lore they disregarded in favor of doing the weird “Big Twist” Disney movies have a compulsive urge to put in their movies now. Your audience being able to pick up your reveal before you make it doesn’t always signify bad writing, if anything it’s properly constructed and in this case just answering questions the Toy Story movies posed.

-The ending felt very rushed. There’s no repercussions to Buzz’s actions unlike his alternate-self, and is instead randomly gifted the chance to create a new faction of the Space Rangers to fight evil in the universe, when the really the only example of that was Zurg. It feels like they were more-so banking on the fact they’ll have more opportunities to expand and improve upon on this in a sequel rather than make their initial movie good, which is disappointing.

Conclusion:

All in all for a spin-off origin story expanding upon loose lore somewhat parodying and heavily influenced by Star Wars and the like, it makes for a fun romp and is nice to see this character on the big screen again in a new context. I did find myself grinning in childlike wonderment at certain parts, but I do feel as though it could’ve been better since the crew did seem very passionate about making the film.

Once they make the inevitable sequel, my only hope is they’d improve upon this and learn what worked and what didn’t. I really just want the best for a character that meant a lot to me growing up.

[dramatisperscnae]

@1rstflight is giving Kyle a fucking heart attack >w>

hal jordan has always been known as a man that acts before he thinks. brave and bold and ready for action, but also infinitely reckless, it had made him well-known as a hero. it had also made him a tragedy in the making, but that is perhaps the other side of being hailed as a hero to begin with. it's one moment, one second of a decision and then, the story shifts from glory to horror. this time, though, he can't say he regrets it. from his angle in the battlefield, he has a clearer view than what kyle may have while facing their foe du jour. he sees they are keeping him busy with their numbers, and while he has his own few aliens to fight, his peripheral vision always returns to his partner. it's when he sees them charging one of their anti-matter weapons; they had been here for the qwardian tech these people seemed to wield and lo and behold, they bring them out against them. it's when two things come to hal's mind in quick succession: 1) it's charging and kyle isn't seeing it, 2) it's charging and he won't manage to build a construct strong enough to shield him from this distance. it's almost as if his brain catches up after his body: with a burst of green energy, a bright flare trailing behind the older lantern, he finds himself between the charging weapon and rayner, pushing their assailants out of the way with the motion. the issue is, it puts him right on the path of the beam that the qwardian weapon fires as he shoots back at the one holding the weapon. the searing pain that burns through him disrupts the force field of his ring, but it neutralizes the two threats kyle had been fighting. it's a profit of it’s a three for one, he thinks through an unhealthy dose of gallows humor, body plummeting down as his suit fizzles out into his civil wear. it's good they were within the mission’s planet; it at very least has a breathable atmosphere, so the malfunction of his ring won't kill him instantly. the impact may cause him severe harm, sure, but he's survived through worse. if he doesn't survive, well, he's come back from that, too, is the grim thought that runs through his mind as his conscience fades on the way down. all that matters is that it's not kyle's body hitting the ground, that it isn't his failure killing someone he loves again.

He isn't anywhere close to getting overwhelmed, but there are still a freaking lot of them. Kyle had known when they'd gotten this mission that it would be akin to kicking over an anthill, but he hadn't quite been prepared for this. Their enemies are swarming, Kyle too busy just keeping them off him to actually do anything about the Qwardian weaponry that's the actual focus of this mission. That's just fine, though; if their enemies are too focused on him then that means that his partner is clear to go after the weapons.

And there's no way Hal Jordan will let him down.

It's still incredible, partnering with Hal; feels almost like Kyle's earliest days with the Justice League, standing there among legends as a rank amateur. Of course, he's no rank amateur now, and Hal has always treated him as an equal, but that doesn't change the fact that there's still just a little bit of hero-worship from the younger Lantern.

Kyle dives down into a knot of enemies, ring flaring as his will works through it. Whatever plan they might have had has gone completely out the window at this point, but they'll pull through. Kyle can play distraction while Hal takes out the weaponry that brought them here, and then it'll be back home for a celebratory drink and probably razzing the hell out of Guy who'd all but thrown a fit over not getting this assignment.

His ring constructs a suit of armor around him - samurai armor, this time; he's been on a Kurosawa kick lately in hs media consumption - as he drives off the enemies around him, entirely focused on the fight.

Maybe too focused.

Some unseen force behind him surges forward, driving his enemies back and knocking several out of the sky without doing much more than ruffling his hair. Kyle turns, just in time to see the last rays of the antimatter weapon fade away along with the green light of Hal's ring as his partner takes the full brunt of a shot that was so clearly meant for him. And then Hal is falling, his ring spent so entirely even his uniform fades away to reveal the civilian clothing underneath, and there is no time for thought. Kyle simply acts.

"HAL!" He's diving, his ring flaring as he races against gravity. Beneath Hal an emerald air mattress fades into view, catching and cushioning him in time for Kyle to reach him. No no no no no! One shaking hand reaches for Hal's pulse, Kyle praying silently for the man to still be alive. Hal's pulled through worse, hasn't he? He'll live through this, he has to. But overhead he can hear shouts; their mission isn't over yet. And the bastards just took out Hal.

Behind his visor, currently-emerald eyes flare and harden in angry determination. The mattress holding Hal floats down to the planet's surface while Kyle all but shoots skyward again, his anger sharpening his will, honing it, lending it strength. Hal took out the weapon that shot him, but there are others.

Well. Were others.

Kyle's not playing distraction now; he's going to end this and remind these people just why dealing with Qwardian weaponry is a bad idea. It shouldn't take long. And not a damned one of them is going to touch Hal again, either. The remaining anti-matter weapons go up in a series of explosions, knocking the wind out of the enemies' sails and most of them out of the sky entirely; shame, what happens when you connect your glorified jet-packs to your weaponry, really.

Only once the fighting is over does Kyle descend back to Hal's side. He's a little bloodied after cutting loose like that, a touch the worse for wear, but thanks to Hal he's still breathing at all; a few cuts and bruises are a small price to pay for returning that favor. Now he settles beside the glowing green mattress that's held the man he loves unconscious Lantern through the rest of the fight, praying the older man is still alive. He has to be, right? Kyle caught him in time, that anti-matter blast didn't just outright kill him, right? Otherwise the ring wouldn't still be on his hand. The hand that Kyle's is now holding tightly, his other now able to take time to check for a pulse. "Hal…? Come on, man, don't do this to me…don't you dare…"

[ambivalent-anarchy]

Defending Peter Parker (Round 2: Tom Holland)

Here <- Andrew Garfield

Soooooo I'm doing this cuz I'm bored to show y'all how dumb some of your arguments and criticisms of the live action spidermen are. I did Garfield already. I'll do Maguire if someone shows me where people have hated on his spidey cuz all I ever see for him is people treating him like he's the most perfect Peter Parker to ever exist. I'd never tell anyone how they're "supposed" to feel about a situation so I won't do that and also don't take this seriously I'm just a dumb teenager. I'm just taking the dumb opinions y'all like to pass as fact and rebutting them with actual facts.

"hE's OnLy So PoPuLaR bEcAuSe He'S hOt"

😐If this is your main critique of Tom Holland's spiderman, pls go find another one. This is so overused. The "they're only famous cuz they're hot" excuse has been used for every hot actor/actress ever. At this point, it isn't even real criticism, you just come off as lame. And yeah, alot of people like him because he's hot, but that's definitely not the only reason.

"hE's NoT sPiDeRmAn. He'S iRoNbOy!"

UUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH okay let's get to it. (If you can't tell, I really hate this argument)

1) Let's be real. The fandom pushed irondad wayyyy more than the actual movies did.

2) If you still use this argument after Far From Home, you missed the whole point of what FFH was supposed to be.

I was scrolling through tumblr and I saw a great point that someone made.

That entire movie was about him coming into his own as a hero, facing his problems head-on, and dealing with the threat by himself. That was the point of the whole movie. Yes, he had the Stark tech to help him make a suit, but he designed it himself, and then he went up against a threat that had incredibly powerful Stark tech at their disposal and still won. By himself. Everyone was asking who the next Iron Man would be and Happy even flat out said "You're not Iron Man." Because he isn't. He came into his own. He is established now.

Peter started the movie a bit lost without Tony and just wanting to deny his responsibilities and get away for a while.

He ended the movie finally accepting himself for who he was and even having to fight against Stark technology. He had to rely on himself and instead of worrying about this title that's been put on him, he has to just go with his own instincts (all the way down to his web shooters running out and having to literally just rely on his mind and his body) and look his responsibilities in the face. Idk a better way for him to have broken out of being "ironboy".

3) Plus, they needed some way to bring Spiderman into the MCU. And Tony is practically the MCU's Bruce Wayne when it comes to "adopting" children. Of course he was gonna be the one to bring him in.

"He HaS tOo MaNy MeNtOrS! tHeY nEeD tO sToP hOlDiNg HiM bAcK aNd LeT hIm GrOw Up AnD bE aLoNe!"

Hahaha no.

Tony- okie dokie that's only one

Happy- Happy Hogan is not Peter's mentor. He literally helped him out in ONE scene. That is not enough to be a mentor.

Mysterio- He is also not a mentor. Storywise, he was Peter's scapegoat to caste his responsibilities onto because he didn't want them/feel he was worthy of them. And then later he was a villain. Just because the two have one small pep talk, doesn't mean he's a mentor.

I think most ppl that say this stuff really just don't want Peter to have any help. What you guys fail to realize is that getting help does not make you any less of a hero. You can still be a solo hero and get a peptalk every now and then. Batman, Superman, Ironman. They all get help from people in their movies and I don't see anyone complaining about it or saying they need to be alone.

Also, grow up? This dude is literally a sophmore/junior in high school. They talk so much about how he's literally a kid. Alot of the spiderman comics take place with him still being in high school. He doesn't have to be an adult. And as far as maturity goes, it's not like he's a dumb kid. He's just a teen doing what teens do.

"nO uNcLe BeN!"

Come on guys. How many times have we seen this origin story? We all know it.

The story takes place when he's ALREADY spiderman so Uncle Ben is ALREADY dead. (They even have his suitcase in FFH). Just because they don't really mention it doesn't mean it didn't happen. We don't need to see the same origin story again. I mean, does every Batman movie mention Bruce's parents dying in the alley? No. Cuz we all already know it does. Origin stories are integral but the MCU wasn't erasing his, they were simply just starting after it.

And in every spidey story Uncle Ben always teaches him "with great power comes great responsibility". Well if you watch the movies, MCU Peter learns his lessons in responsibilities sooooo we're covered there.

"When you can do the things that can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

Yeah yeah we all love Uncle Ben but him already passing doesn't mean the story's bad. That's just where they wanted to start lol.

"ThErE's No ReAl CoNsEqUeNcEs WhEn If LoSeS!"

Homecoming: If Vulture would've won, there would've been more easily accessible alien weapons available for criminals like the Shocker, the Tinkerer, etc. Also Vulture would have been a criminal loose on the streets. Regardless of his intentions, he was a guy willing to kill for what he wanted.

FFH: What Mysterio was doing, even though it was an illusion, was actually causing casualties. His workers talked about it to him over and over again. Especially if the last attack in London (i think?) would have worked, alot of people would have died. Also the world would have been tricked into depending on someone that actually couldn't really keep them safe.

Lol but regardless, Peter doesn't have to be dealing with a gigantic threat. The whole thing about being a superhero is doing what's right, regardless of how big or small the situation is. He's literally fought with the Avengers. I think he's proven himself.

All in all Tom Holland is the best (for me personally). I never have an issue when he's on screen and he's really just so awesome😊

Tagging great ppl: @allegra-writes , @yumings , @spideyyeet , @sunkissedspidey , @tommyunderoos , @chaoticpete , @sovereignparker , @thesherlockianavenger , @bubblebucky , @eridanuswave , @ithoughtthiswastwitterbutfr , @kidney9-9 , @gwenvrse , @the-weird-bisexual , @kelieah

[masterthespianduchovny]

At the beginning of age of avengers, someone assumes that Tony is the leader and he corrects them and say that it’s Steve.

And that surprised me because I assumed that Steve and Tony were co-leaders, but no, Steve was CHOSEN as the leader of the avengers. I was about to say that Tony was second in command, but I’m assuming that’s Nat.

But, as surprised as I was about this revelation (I literally hadn’t seen the movie in 8 years until 3 days ago), it instantly made sense.

As much as the anti Steve crowd hates on Steve, on several occasions we’ve seen Steve not only inspire people, but also get them to follow him. After someone commits to following Steve, they’re typically loyal to him.

We do not see this with Tony.

The issue with Tony isn’t that he’s flawed and has trauma, it’s how he treats others and how he processes trauma. When you lash out at others, ignore them, insult them (for your own amusement); don’t consider anyone else, etc, you more times than not will alienate people who are ok your side or, at least, want to be. A person having trauma doesn’t excuse how they treat others. And there is only so long most will people up with that behavior before leaving, which is their right.

I believe the only person who stayed by Tony’s side no matter what was Happy. Tony and Rhodey commonly fought and Rhodey even sided against Tony as well. Pepper had to take a break from Tony due to his own actions.

People can forgive flaws, but often struggle to forgive habitual poor behavior and various transgressions that comes with it.

We cannot except people to respect Tony or want to follow when he makes a joke about the PTSD (Capsickle), their traditional clothes (Thor), job endangerment (Rhodey; Tony made a transphobic joke about an event that didn’t happen), as well as sexual remarks (Natasha). And that’s not all that he did. This goes beyond being flaws, especially when you’re supposed to work with these people and they’re allegedly your friends.

He also doesn’t tell anyone about his trauma and OFTEN deflects, which may include insults or cracking inappropriate jokes. No one should have to deal with that all because someone is traumatized, especially as ALL OF THEM are dealing with their own and equally valid trauma.

Comparatively, Steve does not do that.

The people who work with Steve and are friends with him take him seriously. They support him and he supports them.

We see this going back to the 1940s. Peggy believed in Steve based off of his resilience and faith of convictions. She challenges him when he accepts his current circumstances.

After Steve saves literally over 400 men by himself, he earns the respect of not only colonel Phillips, but the men he saved as well. When he says he wants to pick his own team, in addition to the wish being respected, the chosen men flat out say that they’d follow Cap anywhere.

This must be stressed: these men were held prisoner and knew they’d encounter the most dangerous weapon and men in the entire war and readily agreed because Captain America asked.

In winter soldier, Steve is declared a criminal and is on the run. When he breaks into the shield headquarters, he gives his speech and EVERYONE minus hydra agents refuse to launch the coded because Captain America explain to them that some dangerous shit was going down. They believed his word because his actions and his character is THAT respected.

See the trend here: people listening and following Steve because they believe he’s genuine and wants to do what’s right.

In age of ultron, we hear a reference that he was chosen as leader. The events in this movie proves why Steve was chosen and Tony wasn’t.

Whether or not you believe Tony was right to crested ultron, he still should’ve told his team what Wanda made him see AND explained why he wanted to create this tech/weapon. Instead, he deliberately kept it a secret and pressured Bruce into helping him. Ironically, despite the claims that Steve feels like he knows that’s best, this is exactly what Tony assumes.

Let’s be clear: not only are Steve, nat, Bruce, hawk eye, and Thor adults, they are also avengers as well. They don’t need Tony to protect them and they all of the capabilities of deciding if they want to do something dangerous and risk their lives. And it’s ego centric as hell for him to actually believe that Steve, of all people, would guilt him by saying he should’ve saved them. Steve wouldn’t have done such a thing both saying that or even making Tony feel bad if he did all he could do.

Despite creating his murder bot due to not consulting his team because he knew they’d say no, Tony did it AGAIN.

Again, where’s the leadership? Where’s the accountability? Where’s the understanding that he may not like the answer, but he does owe it to his team to talk to them? And, again, he thinks he knows what’s best.

What does Steve do in this same movie? The twins start fighting besides him, which he doesn’t interfere with because ultron is the bigger threat. But, rather than fight them like his instinct tells them, he stop and listens to what they have to say.

I want to note that people like to say (and some are thinking), it’s good that Tony built what eventually became ultron, well, it’s good that Steve extended a hand to the twins. They also played a huge role in why the world didn’t lose half its popular, which was a consequence of Steve’s decision making.

Once Steve heard them out and was willing to let them into the fold, he defended them when other avengers tried to attack them. He didn’t leave them out to dry.

Then, when the actual fight happens Tony reveals a few minutes in that they have no other options but to abandon civilians and let them die.

Steve flat out refuses that as an option and makes the PERSONAL decision to stay until every civilian is safe. Not one person will be left to die.

I don’t know about anyone else, but Steve comes off as the clear leader and Tony doesn’t.

What happens next is that literally every current avenger and the twins stay to help. Nat literally tells Steve that this would be a beautiful place to die and explicitly says she’s fighting alongside him.

Whether or not Steve spoke to people, he inspired them to follow him by his actions.

Who is inspired to follow Tony?

Tony flirts with retirement, which no criticism against that.

But, alongside nat, Steve personally trains Sam, Rhodey, and Wanda for team avengers. After accepting Wanda into the fold, he treats her life everyone else.

In civil war, Steve was hands on with wandas training so she could control her power and made sure was protected. He accepted responsibility for not accounting for unforeseen threats, such as the explosives and explained to Wanda the realities of their job. He was realistic with her, but used that as motivation as to why they should strive to be better. Steve was outraged when he found out that she was locked up and freed her from Tony’s unlawful imprisonment.

Even if someone argues she should be locked up, Tony did not talk to her. Wanda didn’t consent to being confined to the house. This is another example of believing he knew what was best for people rather than talking to them and seeing how they feel. He isn’t giving others the right to make informed decisions for themselves and in general.

Steve, on the other hand, consistently considers what people feel because he TALKS to people. He has meaningful conversations with people, such as nat and Sam. Steve formed connections to people, which made them feel close to him.

But, let’s circle back to Tony, he takes a MINOR without the explicit consent of his guardian. Not only does he take Peter without May’s permission, he takes Peter OVERSEAS and to fight at that.

To make matters worse, Peter doesn’t know WHY he’s fighting or what for.

Where’s the oversight or accountability in any of that?

During the fight, someone flat out asks how old Peter is. Tony follows up after the fight, during homecoming, with almost inviting Peter to stay at the avengers compound. As a reminder, Peter was still a literal teenager and Tony still DID NOT ask peter’s guardian if this was okay.

Where as Steve explicitly tells people what they are getting into. He lays out what to expect and that you have a choice in it. Steve never pressures people into helping him and they usually volunteer. And, whatever happens afterwards, he’s there for them.

How was Tony’s mentorship with Peter?

He’s not actively involved with Peter after taking him in as a mentee, pawns him off in Happy, thinks at status reports are sufficient, and ignored Peter’s concerns. Peter was a minor who just had the most surreal experience of his life and Tony doesn’t think this kid would be amped and itching to do more?

Tony doesn’t think Peter might need some hands on mentorship? Tony thought he could mentor from afar with updates and camera footage, but it actually engage.

Them damned accords!

Tony signed the document due to guilt and tried to get others to sign it despite him being mostly responsible for why the accord even exist or, at least, did a lot of shit that is now being penalized. I’m not sure if he actually read it OR if someone summarized the point.

Whereas Steve DID read the accords and his stance wasn’t one of guilt, but concern and ethical issues with what’s in the accords. Steve was prepared to retire because his beliefs didn’t align with what was being asked of him and others. He didn’t ask anyone to back or follow him.

But, people do eventually back him and follow his lead. They know exactly what they’re getting into. And, despite knowing the risks and eventually getting arrested, they stick to their convictions.

When Tony finds out that Bucky killed his parents, despite knowing that Bucky was brainwashed for LITERALLY decades, he tries to kill him. When cap realizes this, he constantly tries to neutralize Tony.

Let’s go back. Steve knowing that Bucky needs to be arrested, decides to save Bucky both for Bucky’s protection AND so those trying to bring him in doesn’t get hurt/killed. Once Bucky is safely arrested, Steve lets the situation go.

Oh, before I really get into infinity wars, there is no mention of Wanda harming other people even accidentally. :)

Tony, as usual, ignores what others wanted, like strange, and think he knows what’s best. He plans to fight thanos henchman by himself as well as thanos completely ignoring the concept of teamwork. (He also jumps to insulting others for his own shits and giggles—keep in mind, these are people he doesn’t know).

What does Steve do?

He was successfully on the run with nat and Sam and they worked together as a TEAM to save vision. They then meet up with rhodey and formulate a plan as to how to stop thanos. Steve coordinates with various people to have the battle in Wakanda. He doesn’t assume he can fight thanos by himself or should.

Steve refuses to trade lives because every life is valuable.

When the Snap happens, Tony fucks up into his cabin in the woods and lives his life.

And what does Steve do?

Run a support group to keep hope alive for people who are trying to see the best in a shitty situation.

He stays an avenger and does whatever needs to be done because he’s there to serve the people regardless of the despair he feels.

Don’t get it twisted, Steve is not perfect, but he constantly led by example, put the wants and needs of others before himself, was a hands on mentor, listened and supported others, and refused to leave anyone behind and/or die. He was always willing to be the only man fighting the battle and even to die for his beliefs.

And this man is called selfish by some.

Where as Tony consistently believed he knew what was best for others, was willing to let people die, was a shit mentor, mocked and ridiculed others, put his own feelings first, etc.

And this is seen as a leader???

Let’s not forget that dangerous tech he left to a MINOR after he died. Peter was so overwhelmed by the responsibility, he gave it to the first person who listened to him and who he believed to be responsible. This isn’t a condemnation of people. Again, his a literal minor—15 or 16. Who is overwhelmed about the shit stark left on his shoulders.

When old cap spoke to Sam, he gave AN ADULT, his shield. One with loved experiences and who knew how to handle complicated feelings. He knew what Sam was willing to handle and could handle.

And another thing: the fact that people were willing to go on the run with Steve says a lot. This is the second time Steve has been on the run and people, Sam and nat, were willing to follow him and assist (both times).

Tony couldn’t even get people to stay faithful to the legal accords. Rhodey said peace out as soon as cap returned. Nat abandoned Tony to join Steve. Vision questioned his life choices, and then went black to be with Wanda. And Peter didn’t know what the fuck was going on.

And Tony stans think he should’ve been leader based off of using his money for the avengers and giving them a place to crash.

LOL!

People want Wanda to apologize to Tony for invading his mind when he should apologize for her parents dying. If you’re a weapons manufacturer, there’s no such thing as believing only the “good guys” will use your weapons. You know your weapons could and will get into the wrong hands. And you also know that without war, you’d be out of a job. But, also the “good guys” are usually imperialist who fuck over other countries as they undermined these government structures to steal resources from them and other shit.

Just because starks stopped manufacturing weapons doesn’t mean he can escape accountability for what his weapons did to others.

Tony also ratted out that Clint had a family and was fine with them being jailed because they took the “wrong” side. Did he apologize to any of these people? The ones he had jailed and the ones who were forced to go on the run for a bill he supported, and then admitted was fucked up? (The same law he later broke twice.)

But, he’s a leader???

[ahsokasleftbicep]

Name and Soul: Chapter 5

Here we go!! Let's see what Crosshair does ;)

@mqgriett @darkangel4121 @thelambandthewolffe @maulscrosshair @trash-dino-5000 @lightning-wolffe @killtherandomness @shadowwing12345 @sydnubabu @lafy-taffy

Crosshair x F! reader

Word Count: 2668

Warnings: SPOILERS for episode 5, Tarkin being a dick, Rampart being ughhhh, Conflicted Crosshair, internal conflict, slavery, Cid being an awesome character, injury, angst, a few curse words to get the mood across

“Y/N, what’s your position? Over.”

“Right behind you kid. Over” You chuckle when the girl jumps a little bit.

Echo clears his throat, “Omega, remember it’s not a toy.”

Omega just nods and keeps fiddling around with her new comm. Crosshair’s

“Y/N, can I talk to you for a moment?” Echo continues, nodding his head to the back of the ship.

“Yeah of course.” You both walk to the back and you lean against a crate, patting Gonky on the head when he walks by. Echo stands rather awkwardly, looking up at you before back to the ground.

“I’m not sure how to start… I know that you miss Crosshair.” Echo looks up again before speaking. “And I know these past few weeks have been hard. But we will get him back together. As a group. You don’t have to do it alone.

“You heard Hunter and I the other day then.” You sigh and shift uncomfortably, “I know we can get him back, and that doing that is a little more… difficult with Omega around, especially now that someone is after her. But the longer we leave him there… who knows what Tarkin has already made him do.”

“I trust you Y/N, we all do.” Echo walks up and rests his hand on your shoulder. “But if you go through with this, there is no guarantee that we can get to you both in time if things go south.”

“I understand Echo.” You look up, “Thank you.”

The man nods before walking towards the cockpit. “Come on, I gotta let the guys know about that informant.”

--

Crosshair awoke with a gasp, sweat covering his head and chest. The lights in the barracks flickered erratically, but it was enough for him to see that everyone else was asleep. He sat up and the cool air pricked his bare skin. He looked around again before grabbing his rifle. He grabbed a top shirt and the necklace, clipping it around his neck before walking out into the hall, making his way to the firing range.

He kept thinking about his nightmare if that’s what you’d call it. It wasn’t scary or disturbing, just… weird. He was sitting on his bunk, back at the Marauder. He saw a bunch of his things, trinkets, and belongings. But he also saw things that weren’t his. He looked to his side table and saw small pieces of jewelry, smaller rifle parts, and a rag. He also saw a picture strip propped on the table. One of himself and… her? It was fairly small and had a small rip on the top. In one picture, he had his arm wrapped around you and you were smiling. Weird. The next was similar, but this time, he was smiling a little too. Then, you both looked like you were laughing. And the last one is what shocked Crosshair the most. You were kissing him. Like on the lips. What the-? He sees you sitting on his bed with the girl… Omega. You’re talking about something, but he can’t hear you too well. It’s muffled and the sound echoes.

“Y/n…?” His voice sounds too loud. Why is it so loud? “Y/n?”

You look up, directly at him, but then you turn back to the girl. Didn’t you see him?

Why didn’t you see him?

--

“Well, this is a charming establishment.” You cross your arms as you walk into the bar on Ord Mantell. “Reminds me of 79’s”

“Indeed” Tech walks beside you, grimacing at the conditions.

“What’s 79’s?” Omega looks at you and Tech curiously.

“It’s a clone bar on Coruscant, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not there anymore though.” Tech pushes his goggles up to his nose.

You all walk into the main part of the bar. “So Echo, which one of them is Cid?” You glance at a couple of aliens arguing in the back, a Weequay and an Ithorian. None of them gave you the impression of being an informant.

“I couldn’t tell ya. I’ve only heard of him, never actually met him.” Echo looked back at you.

“That’s reassuring, Echo.”

Hunter walks towards a Trandoshan in the back, asking a few questions but getting nowhere.

“So unless you’re here to spend money, get lost.” The Trandoshan speaks, looking clearly annoyed. Hunter walks back and you all circle up.

“Great plan, Echo.” Wrecker groans

“I’m positive this is Cid’s. The Jedi came here during the war.”

You clear your throat before adding on, “Maybe he heard what happened to the Jedi and fled.”

While you all are talking, you don’t notice Omega walking up to the Trandoshan. You guys are struggling to come up with a plan.

“So, we came all this way for nothing?” There was a pause before your comm goes off.

“I found Cid.” You all turn towards Omega, who then points up to the Trandoshan at the bar.

You walk over to the Omega and nod at Cid politely, “Good job kid. You’re getting pretty good at this.”

--

“I could do my job if you did your research, Rampart.” Crosshair glances at the man, who simply glares back.

“How dare you? I’ve been-”

“Gentlemen! Enough of this nonsense.” Tarkin pinches the bridge of his nose. “What did you find?”

Rampart glares at the sniper for a moment before turning his attention back to Tarkin. “I have continued my research on Private L/N, sir. After she became a marksman, she joined the militia on her home planet. Over time, she was given the nickname the Ghost.”

“Why is this of use to us, Rampart?” Tarkin looks at the man, slowly losing his patience.

“Many other rebel militias hired her, therefore she is well known on other planets through her nickname. I was looking through the general gossip, when I found a report from Ord Mantell, saying that the Ghost had arrived early yesterday morning. Now it could be a mistake, but this is the closest thing to a lead that has been found.”

Crosshair looks down at the floor, thinking. What is he up to? He wants something more with this lady than what Tarkin has said.

“Very well. Because of the uncertainty that this is truly Private L/N, CT-9904, you will go to Ord Mantell alone and see if it is true. If you do find her, restrain and bring her back. If not, return to Kamino as soon as possible… and if she gives you trouble, dispose of her.”

Dispose of? No! Don’t kill her! Don’t listen to him! Would you just shut up?

“Of course, sir. I’ll leave right away.” Crosshair throws his toothpick to the ground and walks into the hall. I can go to Ord Mantell. If I see her, I could always lie.

--

“Wrecker, you doing okay?” You rest your hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s nothing. I’m alright.” The man rubs his head again.

“According to Cid’s intel, the Zygerrian slave traders are hiding in the ruins of Old Ord Mantell city.” Tech walks into the cockpit along with Echo and Omega

“What’s a slave trader?” Omega spins around in her seat.

“Someone who buys and sells people for credits.”

“People can be sold?” Omega looks up in confusion.

“They don’t have a choice. They’re captives treated like property.” Echo crosses his arms glaring at the ground.

“That… doesn’t seem right.”

“It’s not. But wealthy Zygerrians don’t care.” You kneel in front of her. “Before the war, their empire was very powerful and not a lot of people had enough to fight against them. I was called by a local militia in Zygerria after I graduated from the Academy, we went to Zygerria to free a village of missing twi-leks. Some of my team got caught…” You look at the boys. “They were vicious in their punishment of the militia members, especially the Queen.” You suppress a shiver from your spine at the memory.

“We are going to stop this from happening to that kid.” Echo speaks up and squeezes your shoulder.

“Don’t worry Y/N. We’ll save Muchi, no matter what!” Omega smiles.

--

This could be going better. You try to adjust your hands in the binders, but it just tightens on your wrists.

You all had gotten captured, now in the remnants of the city square tied up with other people. Wrecker tries to break the binders but gets shocked.

“You do that one more time and you’ll be…” Echo glares at the man

The soldier shocks him and you run to his side, “Save your energy, Echo. We’ll need it.” You look around before catching on to a large building, seeing a higher-ranking Zygerrian at the top.

“We need to signal Omega before their scouts find her.” Hunter says, looking at all of us.

You keep looking around, and you see… Omega walking towards a fallen column.

“We won’t need a comm to signal her,” Tech speaks up and you point Hunter in her direction.

Before anything can happen, the door of the large building opens. The higher Zygerrian walks out, looking over you all with interest. He stops on you before speaking.

“Look at what we have here,” He chuckles, “Five new slaves to add to my collection.” He approaches you and grabs your face. He smirks and leans closer. “You will be a very nice plaything.”

You narrow your eyes before spitting in his face. “Go fuck yourself.” The man growls and slaps you.

“Y/N!” Hunter calls out and tries to reach you, but a blaster is pointed in his face.”

“We can do with one less slave and loyalty can be taught.” The man grabs you by your hair, “Through violence if necessary.”

You smirk at him for a moment. “I’d love to see you try, prick.”

“Let me go!” You all turn your head towards a guard, who’s holding Omega.

“I found her sneaking around the cage.”

The girl struggles, “I wasn’t sneaking. I was unlocking.”

The cage bursts open despite the guard's best efforts, revealing a young rancor. Great.

“Let’s get out of here.” Hunter helps you free yourself and you run towards your gear.

As you all run along with the other former slaves, Tech is conversing with them.

One of them points to the rancor, “Muchi! Muchi!”

“Muchi?” You look at the rancor and your eyes widen. “The rancor is Muchi?!”

Hunter sighs, “We have to go after Muchi, if we don’t, we don’t get intel from Cid. Y/N, you’re with me.”

“Got it, let’s go.”

Tech and Wrecker separate from you two to go after Muchi, while you and Hunter go after the leader.

“You’re going to pay for this, skugs!” The man moved his whip, the cracking echoing through the air.

The man raises his whip and aims at Hunter.

“Hunter! Watch out!” The whip catches on Hunter’s arm, groaning in pain from the electricity.

You run and tackle the leader to the ground. He gets up and gets his whip around your neck, activating the electric pulse. You scream out and use the slack of the whip to drag yourself closer. “Like I said, loyalty through violence.” The man sneers at you and rips your helmet off your head.

Your voice comes out hoarse and scratchy, “You should’ve kept an eye behind you.”

“Huh?”

Hunter headbutts and kicks the man back.

“Y/N, are you alright?” He unwraps the whip from your neck and looks over the mark left behind.

You cough a little bit and nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.” You place your helmet on. “Let’s go get Muchi and get the hell out of here.”

The sergeant chuckles, “I couldn’t agree more.”

--

You wince when Cid pokes your neck with a stim. “Ow! Are you trying to hurt me more?”

“Oh calm down, you're fine. I thought the Ghost herself could handle more than a needle.”

“The Ghost? Who’s that?” Omega looks up at you and Cid. The boys look at you, curious.

You sigh and Cid keeps fixing up your injury.

“After the academy and over time, working with militias and going on solo assassin missions, people started calling me the Ghost. I haven’t heard anyone call me that in a while. And I didn’t expect that my name would make it all the way out here… How’d you know?”

“Your demeanor, how you react, and a bit of lucky guessing.” Cid finishes bandaging up your neck.

“Thanks.” You hop off the bar and move your head gingerly. “I’m gonna go for a walk.”

“Can I come?” Omega hops up to you.

“Kid, I actually need some help with something.” Cid nods at you.

“Oh! Okay! Bye Y/N! Be careful!”

“Will do, Omega!”

You walk to the door before Hunter stops you. “Y/N, you sure you’ll be fine on your own?”

“I’ll be okay, I have my comm if I run into any trouble. How’s your arm?” You gesture towards it.

“It’s okay, I’ll live.”

You chuckle, “That’s good, but maybe have Cid look at it.”

“Noted.”

You wave before you walk out into the alleys of the city.

--

Crosshair weaved behind alleys. He was bare of his typical armor, now donning dark civvie clothes. He has a cloth covering his face, only showing his eyes. His rifle is nowhere to be found, only having a knife strapped to his thigh. His necklace feels cold against his skin, but the rest of his body is on fire. Why am I nervous? She’s just another soldier.

There!

He sees you out in the streets, walking by the market stands that are scattered through the streets. You don’t look armed, so that makes things easier. He keeps his distance, only moving closer as you move towards the denser part of the marketplace. Just grab her and get the job done. No, just ask questions. Don’t show your face.

--

Something felt off for the last hour of walking around the markets and vendors. Someone was following you, but they weren’t necessarily dangerous. You could be completely wrong though, you hadn’t actually seen your stalker yet.

I should’ve brought my knife, dammit.

You weave through people for a few blocks and stop in the middle of the street. Behind you. You turn and see him.

He’s paused in the street as well, about 30 feet away. He’s in dark clothing, a cloth covering most of his face. Except for his eyes. His eyes. Crosshair.

His eyes are hardened, but they’re his. You make out the faint black lines of a tattoo around his right eye. The man straightens his gaze onto you, then to your bandage, and finally to your necklace. He reaches under his shirt collar and pulls out a silver chain.

You look back up at him and grab your necklace. A person interrupts your line of sight and when you focus again, he’s gone.

--

Crosshair runs through alleys back to his ship. He’s breathing hard and mumbling to himself.

“She’s okay, she’s okay.” It comes out rushed and panting. He runs up the ramp of his ship, tearing off his mask and getting the ship running. As soon as the ship is in space, he sits in the pilot's seat and grabs his head. His ears are ringing and it feels like his head is going to explode. What the hell was that? Why didn’t I ask her? I ran, why the fuck did I run? She’s okay. She recognized me. Y/N’s safe. It hurts. Why does it hurt so much? Dammit, STOP!

“CT-9904. What did you find on Ord Mantell?” Tarkin’s hologram flickered slightly.

“I… wasn’t able to find any sign of Private L/N. It looks to be local gossip and conspiracy.”

The Admiral nods, “Well that is unfortunate. I assume you are returning immediately.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be back on Kamino shortly.”

“Very well. Good work, CT-9904.” The hologram shut off.

Crosshair sighed in relief, slumping into his seat. I’m sorry, Y/n. I’m so sorry.

[quintiriss]

Krel Ramble because I'm Bored

Ah yes, my comfort character: an alien DJ.

So. Krel is an interesting character in my opinion. In the first 2 episodes of the first season, we can already know a lot about him. When Aja ran away, Krel instead is made king-in-waiting (i'm not gonna question the akiridion's law system). Imagine how much responsibility was put on him in a matter of seconds just because his sister didn't wanna be queen-in-waiting (no hard feelings tho). His father just went "Hey. How would you like to be king-in-waiting?" And that can be pressuring and i just,,,,

It is shown many times that Krel really cares for Aja since she's his sister. Like how he tried to comfort her by making her laugh after they fled the planet and in the living room when Aja was crying. He may not be the best at comfort, but he still tries.

Throughout the series it is continuously shown that Krel is definitely not as strong or skilled (in terms of fighting) as Aja despite having enhanced abilities. It's proven through countless episodes of him being one of the only ones getting continuously beaten up. He's the "tech guy" and i feel like he sometimes wish he could fight as well as Aja and defend those he love.

He has shown a lot of disinterest in Earth (who could blame him?) and is focused on getting them home. I get where he's coming from because for a couple of teens, they got a lot on their plate; they have to watch over their parents, watch over their own safety since they have a LARGE bounty on their heads, having to blend in, escaping countless humans trying to experiment on them, heartbreak, attachment, trying to get back home, and there's just a lot man give them a break.

He feels like he's underappreciated too. In the past and in a certain episode, it is shown that his father often tells him that inventing things and overall experimenting with random items is a distraction and a waste of time and thinks it's just a toy. Krel must have been heartbroken to hear that from his own father. He loves inventing and things, and being told that it's a waste of time can and will hurt.

In the deep, I assumed that Krel's biggest fear was gonna be losing his parents and his planet. But no, I was completely off. Instead, it shows that Krel's biggest fear is losing _Earth_ and the friends he made there to Morando. The deep shows us his friends being killed and Earth being destroyed by Morando. He has denied his attachment to Earth for so long due to his desire of reaching the goal that is to get home and defeat Morando. Krel didn't want to believe that he considered Earth as a second home in fear of growing distant with Akiridion-5. I assume he even felt out of place on his home planet. But on Earth, he felt more like a normal person.

In the ending, Krel finally gives in and admits his attachment to Earth. He's treated differently there; the way he had always wanted to be treated. Aja, of course, respects his decision. It's like what the humans call: a home away from home. Now, Krel has Actual Friends that think of him as... him. Not as some nerdy royal, not as some young boy. Just... him.

In conclusion: Krel isn't given enough credit for what he's done and accomplished. He's put in such serious positions countless of times and feel like he needs to fix everything. He has a hard time showing affection and voicing his own feelings clearly. He doesn't understand many concepts of i'm assuming BOTH humans and akiridions' customs (like has massive disinterest for romance). My guy Krel, please have a break.

[whatudottu]

Let’s get into some Ben 51 angst today lads, and hopefully little me’s cruelty is watered down and given decent explanation. Oh it’s still definitely cruel but probably not mindless.

Firstly, let’s set the situation, the tech-xperts of the facility rigged up a cheap Omnitrix controller. It’s not the highest quality, but it’s relatively bug free. Unfortunately it requires a receiver. How is this unfortunate? Because the Omnitrix has retreated into Ben’s systems. This means an embedded receiver, hard to remove and easily adaptable, needed to be installed.

As a collar.

The Omnitrix is never put into rest mode so it can help be Ben’s life support system, and while that does mean he gives off an energy signature at all times, it reduces the signature of his transformations. This I believe is because there’s a degree of separation between canon Ben and the Omnitrix that the alien forms are kept at their peak.

Ben 51, who would be energy deficient, can’t afford to be peak performance nor without the support, so the Omnitrix is less effective at its peak than canon.

SO! Moving on to the specifies, Ben’s stay at Area 51 consists of 3 rotating activities with varying times and lengths. Starting off we have the Isolation stage. As it implies, this ‘activity’ as Ben calls it out of sarcastic boredom has him spending a nonspecific but long duration of time in his claustrophobic cell.

However, that’s not the main event. This is a chance for the faculty to observe Ben’s behaviour... without invasive intervention, relatively speaking. During the isolation period, the Omnitrix remote is set to random selection, changing Ben into a different alien every time. He used to constantly try to escape, using the abilities he had as an alien to find any weaknesses, but he only accidentally helped Area 51 develop better tech to keep him in.

How did they stop him?

Well, the collar is not only a receiver, but a ‘disciplinary tool’ (read: shock collar).

So, overall, Ben doesn’t try to use his Isolation activity as a time to escape. Unless he randomly unlocks a new alien. Which finally worked when he got Alien X, who he would probably name Freyd (based on freed and frayed, yeah I know, on the nose and everything, but it’s BEN) after how Bellicus and Serena are named.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The second activity is the most energetic, Physicals! And by energetic, I ACTUALLY mean life threatening, because unlike PE at schools, this little activity is designed to find physical weaknesses of Ben’s alien selection.

What this involves typically are either battle scenarios or environmental scenarios, depending on what the suits up top wanna test. This isn’t meant to train Ben to be better, this is meant as a test for any tech the science team have developed, before sending them off to any dispatch team for on field use. Of course, they can’t just kill Ben, that’ll leave them with highly inefficient leftover alien test subjects, who have less chance of survival than Ben.

Needless to say, quite horrific.

New aliens get subjected to nonspecialised but definitely dangerous bots and environments, and the longer this goes for, the longer Ben refuses to play along. Of course, he’s ‘disciplined’ into doing as he’s told eventually.

Freyd was spared of the experiment, but it’s not like they could ever begin to try.

Last but not least, the Medicals! Probably the most gruesome, so proceed with caution, this sounds exactly like it does on the tin. This is the activity that Ben spends the least awake out of all 3, and at least there’s enough mercy to do so. Sure, Area 51 is cruel and inhumane (or perhaps the term should be xenophobic) but at least logistically, it would be a detriment for them to do live surgery.

Unfortunately, aliens have quite the different biology in comparison to humans, so sometimes the types and dosages of anaesthetics don’t... exactly... last through the dissection.

New aliens may have this issue, especially species with wildly different physiology to humans and even other aliens. Ben can’t count on his fingers how many times he’s awoken to glaring fluorescent lights and bloodstained silhouettes, but he can’t exactly list an exact number either. But he’s definitely got some bad memories about that, and knows a little more about alien biology that canon Ben does.

Whenever he’s Big Chill, using a more gender neutral name Ava (lanche), he mourns.

And feel free to beat me until I’m blue for that one this addition wasn’t even on baby me’s mind this is recent angst laddies!

In Ben’s escape, however, does he accidentally leave behind a treat for Area 51’s medical and biological staff. Having violently removed the embedded collar, the hidden tracker less effective if it’s taken out before teleporting, the faculty of Area 51 now have a sample of a Celestialsapien.

The missing chunk of Freyd’s neck.

With that piece of DNA.

They are now one step closer to capturing a God.

[crystal-moon-101]

Ben Gen 10 - Live Reaction Review

Right, so since I’ve finally got my hands on the new crossover episodes, and since my favourite show of all time is Generator Rex, I thought I’d watch it and write down things along the way. Mostly just reactions to things happening as they go, and then probably a simple review at the in another post of what I liked, didn’t like, and maybe what other ways this episode could have gone.

Spoilers! Kind of, for those who haven’t seen it yet! But onto the watching!

Should probably mention I haven’t seen a whole lot of the Reboot Ben 10. Not awful from what I’ve seen, some interesting and well-done aspect even, but certainly not my cup of tea. But I’m here for my boi Rex anyway so…

This is actually quite a cute theme song intro, not gonna lie

Ah, yes, a very American opening in a very American location.

Lol, of course they use Heatblast as the first alien in the episode, got the same voice actor as Rex, nice touch.

Evil...trees? Are these actually villains in the show?

Also, that little girl is precious.

Ben, are you trying to start a forest fire in the middle of the park?!

Ha, Gwen gets it!

Ah, yes, more American stuff.

“Don’t wreck the precious monuments” should have seen what you did to Mount Rushmore in your past, Ben.

Sup, Hex.

Music is evil, got it.

So Ben’s aliens are pretty famous already, at least being treated more like celebrities than monster sightings.

“Burn the flute!” A.K.A nearly burn Hex in the process.

And that’s why Ben never passed music class.

And why exactly do you want the world, Hex?

“Hopefully the last one of the summer” Don’t jinx it Max!

Time goes by so fast, doesn’t it Ben? Especially with aliens, villains and timetravel.

Max is secretly an EVO with that kind of growl.

Yes, because as we all know, villains will stop trying to take over the world once summer is over. They must hibernate for the winter.

Also, Max, did you steal those marshmallows?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….Ben, you good there?....Did Hex do something to your brain?

Who thought this would be great to animate!?

We all have those existential crises and talk to smores.

Jesus, Rex, got ninja skills I see.

Some homeless kid and his monkey stole my food? Time to kick some ass!

My favourite alien, Canonballoon.

I’ve missed my boy and his chimp.

Awwwww they’re sharing! Also just….feel so bad for them already. Homeless and struggling for food, my poor boys.

So EVOs do exist here? Wonder how that will be explained.

Ben out here really trying to beat up some other kid, lol. What a great hero.

Bobo, you are great.

I feel like...Ben’s going through some issues.

Ah yaaaaaaaaaaa, bring on the EVO powers! BFS!

Look ma, no hands!

Rex 1, Ben 0

Ben really wants to commit murder or assault here, wow.

Overboard is the word I’d use, yes.

The life of a background character.

Nanites confirmed! And now they’re in the watch, that ain’t good.

Huh...not what I thought was gonna happen.

The little girl is still precious.

This would be fun to explain to Azmuth.

This ain’t good.

On the run from Providence I see.

Awww, poor Rex. Really doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

I can’t tell if these people are angry because of the DNA affect them, or they’re really just being angry in general.

See ya, Gwen and Max.

Interesting to see that the Providence aircraft looks straight out of the show.

Evening, Six.

Still a badass like normal.

He said Omega, he said the word!

Also, nice blame game there Ben. It’s not like you provoked Rex by, ya know, trying to crush him like a grape.

Um...Six...did you just….try to kill a kid? He didn’t know Ben had powers, that pillar could have easily crushed a normal human.

“This is how you try to convince me you’re not a threat?” Say the dude who just tried to murder a kid!!”

Oh no, he Naruto runs! 

Oh, hello Hex.

Also, what is Providence in this world? What are EVOs and Nanites in this world? None of this has been explained yet.

Ok, so that’s what Providence is...You’d think we would have seen them before based on all the aliens showing up who want to destroy the world.

EVO Generator....I wonder if that means that there aren’t very many EVOs, like maybe there is only a set group from the same lab, and Rex is considered the most dangerous because he can make EVOs.

Ben, do you even know what an EVO is?

Jeez, I know Six is like, the sixth deadliest man on the planet, but he just tackles alien Ben like it’s nothing. This guy should take on Vilgax.

Did he say nib libs?

My boi’s back!

I’m not liking this Six...very much not the character I’ve come to love. Who are you and what have you done with the real Six!

Lol, gotta make sure the kids at home know these aren’t real guns!

Using a net on one kid, and about to beat the crap out of the other, nice.

I do have to ask why Hex was picked to me the main villain, beyond whatever the hell Providence is doing. Why the magic dude and not a tech based villain? Someone who could be both interested in the watch and nanites.

What a covenant spell you have there, Hex.

Again, why do you want to take over the world?

“No, those are my aliens!” I think that’s the least of your concern there, Ben.

Bobo 1, Hex 0

Why is Bobo one of the best-written character’s here? Not that I hate Bobo, but just…

Lol, Rex did you just lay there, the entire time? What was that net made out of?

Ah, right. Let’s attack the children rather the magical manic who clearly stated he wanted to rule the world.

Those nets are fireproof apparently.

Ooof, ah….quite the sore spot there, Ben.

Just let me hug Rex, please…

Are there EVOs are are there not!?

I know this is supposed to connect with older fans, but most of this info would fly over the head of anyone who hasn’t watched Generator Rex. They act like everyone knows what EVOs and nanites are.

Still with the blame game are we, Ben?

Judging by that look, Rex’s parents are also dead in this world. Guess he’s not allowed nice things in this universe either.

That flashback was….so latching in the dramatic department. 

Now ya wanna help, Ben.

He’s so scared of himself, noooo!

Ya, but the different between you and him, Ben, is that he lost his parents, his home, got mutated, his memories became hazy, got locked up and called a monster, and now lives on the streets stealing smores. I think Rex has more of a reason to feel scared at being new with the hero business.

Bobo gets it.

Gotta love they added details on Gwen and Max’s alien forms to make them stick out from the rest. Don’t want to confuse anyone lol.

Thinking of a clever comeback on the spot is hard, not gonna lie.

Yes, Ben, drown him.

Again, with the American music, lol. It ruins the fight scene here.

What is this fight scene?

Original Providence agents would have died on screen rather than ditching the fight.

God, everyone’s made Rex feel like everything is his fault, poor guy.

Rock 1, Ben 0

This message and heartfelt moment falls flat, the build-up wasn’t there and it just...kind of happens. It lacks a lot of flavour and impact, and it doesn’t help with how most of these characters are written.

Old people jokes.

Now we shift the blame to Kevin.

Is Fourarms Gwen bigger? Because if so, nice touch, since we know female Tetramands are stronger/bigger than the men.

Ok, so attempted murder is fine when Six and Ben try to do it, but not Rex, got it.

Get in line Hex, you’re not the first who wants to ‘recruit’ Rex. You’ve got Providence, Van Kleiss, Quarry, Black Knight, that one band, and so on so fourth.

Why is this heartfelt moment suddenly happening now? This feels like it could have been placed back when Rex refused to fix the watch.

Ben…”I’ve already tried that!” Bruh, you tried beating him up, telling Six and Providence you saw him, basically acted like he wasn’t a good hero because he refuses to get over his trauma, and reached out your hand once because it benefited you....I get what they’re trying to do, but it just makes Ben look like a jerk. I get he’s ten, but still…

Just...slap him Bobo, please…

Why are we so nervous about Rex’s sword? Ben you have aliens that can burn, cut, smash and so on, and you barely care what you do. Remember how you nearly started that forest fire at the start?...

Yo, what!? What kind of logic is that, Providence? “Whelp, guess earth is screwed, might as well burn it”

Ya, remember that time when EVOs infected the whole world, and Providence decided to just burn everything down with lasers? 

Extendo blade.

Huh, so Six’s blades can break down Rex’s builds.

Salamander...don’t you mean...Skalamander?

One ship? What is Providence packing!?

Yasss, Punk Busters!

Rex is crying, how dare you!

Now we got Smack Hands, you’re in for it, Hex!

Ooooooooooooooonnnnn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttt!

Ah yes, the sixth most beautiful man on the planet.

Again...what is with the nuking?

Magical cloth fixing, just what I need.

Pure chaos with my boy.

Cracking his neck made me cringe.

Also why the sudden change in heart, Six? This feels out of character for the character who is out of character.

Look, Rex, you’re either gonna fix the watch, or you’re gonna start the self destruct countdown. Everything is going to hell, so might as well take that 50/50.

And it worked!

Ah ya, about that missile.

See’s missile inbound “I can handle it!”

Iron Giant vibes around here.

Screw ruling the world, I’m gonna murder this one child!

My cat’s the same.

REX, DID YOU JUST KICK A MISSILE!?

So that’s his full name?

I think you need to work on those vacation days with your boss, Six.

You are not Six, I will never accept you.

So the episode starts with Rex being alone, homeless and being chased by Providence, and ends with him being alone, homeless and being chased by Providence. What was the improvement here? Self Confident?

Ben even just lets him go, doesn’t even offer him to stay with his family.

Rex deserves better.

Another heartfelt moment that just...falls flat…

“Always be family and be there for you, Ben” Until you go to college without telling him before hand

So!...That was the crossover. Not...amazing sadly. I didn’t have high hopes to begin with, and mostly was just happy enough to have Gen Rex be acknowledged. But this Crossover missed a lot of points, and fumbles quite a bit. It reminds me a lot of the Secret Saturdays Crossover and what was wrong there. But I’m tired and will do a break down/proper review another day, if people are keen for that. Thanks for reading this if you did, it was a rollercoster!

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

My surprisingly not-so-salty take on Marauders 25:

(spoilers under cut)

So, I was pleasantly surprised by this issue.  For one, it was largely a Kate issue rather than an Emma issue, so for once a White Queen cover lied.  (And that solicit about blood?  Nonsense.)

Also, my previous complaint about Kate not really being a leader was fixed a little in this issue, as we got to see her quickly strategize and figure out a plan using everyone’s powers.  Although the group seemed to kinda spontaneously come up with the plan together, as if Duggan wanted to give the other guys more dialogue - maybe Emma just psi-linked everyone so they were all thinking the same thing.

Basic summary:

After getting ejected from the Mercury, Iceman creates a giant ice ball and traps as much breathable air as he can.  Yay for Bobby doing something!  Pyro, getting to be not an idiot this issue, holds off on warming the group because fire will use their limited oxygen much faster.  Kate figures out how to make oxygen by shooting a high-tech weapon through water (supplied by Bobby and melted by Pyro), so they have a way to keep a breathable atmosphere for those who have to breath.  Bishop and Shaw exchange blows back and forth to charge Bishop up, then he fires a blast to propel them back towards the Mercury, while Emma telepathically plots a course and Iceman quickly fixes the hole in the ice ball before anyone dies.  Then Kate phases through the ball into the Mercury, beats up the alien dude, whose name I still don’t remember even though I just read the issue, and removes his psi-blocker so that Emma can take control of him.  The ice ball is pulled onto the ship, everyone lives.  Alien dude is dropped off back on Arakko, alive and even with his money, with a warning about what will happen next time he fucks around.

Even though it was still a Kate-centric issue, I liked this one.  Everyone got to actually do something.  Bobby was the MVP, despite not making the cast list in the beginning.  Everyone would have died in space very quickly if not for him.  And @sebastianshaw might be pleased to know that Sebastian was actually treated pretty well this issue.  He and Bishop punching each other was great, and he figured out Kate’s oxygen trick as she did it, a nice reminder that he’s actually pretty damn smart and knows his shit.  I guess Duggan decided to give Shaw some respect after spending the entire series straw-manning and taking cheap shots at him.

Pyro’s immediate jump to “whelp, may as well kill ourselves” was interesting, but like I said in a previous post, not totally out of character for him.  He’s had a casual attitude towards getting killed in some previous appearances.  And his line about “better to burn out than fade away” certainly makes sense for him, and seemed to be his general attitude while he was dying of the Legacy Virus.  In fact, I almost wanna read that as a really subtle nod to Pyro’s Legacy Death, except Duggan doesn’t usually go that deep for Pyro, and may have just wanted to drop the word “burn” in there because fire guy.  But Pyro got to be mostly serious this issue, and I’m grateful for it!  Also Lockheed was draped around his shoulders at first, and I love that.

Emma had a good part to play without stealing the show, and I enjoyed it.  I also enjoyed that she was actually in a non-sexy outfit this issue.  Nothing wrong with Emma showing it off, but she doesn’t have to be tits out all the time.  She looked great! 

Also, Bishop mentioned that he’s starting a war college on Krakoa, both in the dialogue, and in an e-mail at the end of the issue.  I’m guessing this will lead into some storyline in another book (because Marauders really doesn’t have time for it in its few issue left), and I’m hopeful that means Bishop will have a big role in one of the relaunched books in 2022.

My gripes, because I always have a few:

Yet another issue showing how awesome and cool Kate is.  The central thesis of this series has been “Kate and Emma are amazing!” and this issue is no exception.  Nothing wrong with that, it’s just tiresome after so many issues, and the other characters getting pushed to the side and rarely (if ever) getting their “moments” in the spotlight.  But it was less annoying this issue, since everyone had at least something to do, and Bobby and Bishop really got to shine.

Absolutely no moral ambiguity.  Or rather, no acknowledgement of the moral ambiguity.  Kate claims she wants to kill the alien dude - of course, she doesn’t - but no one has a problem with this.  It doesn’t matter that Emma originally ripped off alien dude, or that she and Kate both withheld this info from the rest of the crew, all that matters is that Kate is a drinkin’, fightin’ badass Pirate Queen, and she kicks this guy’s ass!  Of course, to be fair, they don’t kill the alien dude, and even give him the money he was promised, so their actions are ultimately not that bad.  There’s just.....no real sense of reflection or nuance in the end.  It’s just “The Marauders rule, yay!” 

Editing to add one more that I forgot - Omega level telepath Emma Frost, who was casually psi-chatting with the Stepford Cuckoos while she was on Earth and they were on Mars a few issues ago, now can’t reach anyone while the group is somewhere between Earth and Mars because it’s “too far.”  How very convenient for the plot.  I suppose I could give Duggan the benefit of the doubt by assuming that it’s easier for Emma to chat long-distance with fellow telepaths, they presumably do part of the work.  But there aren’t any telepaths on the SWORD station they just left that Emma could reach out to?  This is like that one scene where Omega level telepath Emma Frost has to flash her boobs in order to effectively mind-control like 4 human soldiers.

But honestly?  I was much less frustrated with this issue than the last one.  I’m crossing my fingers for Bobby again getting the attention he deserves next issue, (bro’s on the cover), and for Pyro to get to do something cool, but I’m prepared to be disappointed.  Fingers crossed.   

[dgcatanisiri]

As I continue my dive through the Arrowverse... It does seem like I’m easily finding THAT ONE character who just seems to drag the show down in each of them.

(For the record, I’m nearing the end of the 2016/2017 year in my viewing - Arrow Season 5, The Flash Season 3, Supergirl and Legends Season 2.)

In Arrow, it’s Felicity, or, more specifically, the Oliver/Felicity relationship, which ends up being so much of her focus from the story, and yet, as I’ve said before, the writing has actually just shown that these two are NOT good for each other in a romance. (And I KNOW that her hijacking of the Barry/Iris wedding is coming in the next season, which... Way to enshrine this character in the Scrappy Doo Hall of Shame...) If they’d just stick with her as the Arrow team’s tech support and build her up there, develop separate from Oliver, she’d be fine.

Not helping matters is the fact that I stand by season four being building to Thea being the one in the grave, and Laurel being killed off was a poor decision seemingly done more about “subverting expectations,” and that Thea, who’d seen her storyline come to a rather natural endpoint in season four, ends up spending season five dealing with the storylines that would have meant more happening with Laurel...

On Flash, it’s Caitlin, and how she honestly feels like a relic of a time when the writing wanted her there to deflect from the racist asshats criticizing having Iris West, destined to be Barry’s endgame love interest, be a black woman, a time that stopped being relevant... Honestly, by mid-season one. Her storylines in seasons two and three seem disconnected from the rest of the characters, until they dovetail into the villains’ schemes, making it seem basically like she’s just there to be manipulated by the bad guys - If I were her, I’d have left and not come back by this point.

Supergirl’s character is Mon-El, who, honestly, I could like a lot more if they just... hadn’t raced in to the idea that he needed to be a love interest for Kara. It’s blatant romantic plot tumor territory (not to mention the fact that they derailed Kara and James for the sake of this, and funny how James’s screentime dropped like a stone in season two, once he was introduced...). I mean, the actor himself is actually pretty charming, but he just... doesn’t work as a romance for Kara, yet this is a relationship pushed by the narrative as epic, star-crossed love. If he’d just been used as an exploration of Kara’s own prejudices towards Daxamites, metaphor it with the storyline of alien integration and aliens-as-immigrants, he’d be a much stronger character, especially with showing him interacting with other characters who would mirror that struggle. But no, they just center him on Kara and make him her driving focus, which... Euck.

And then Legends... Mick is just unpleasant. Honestly, I think his story in season one was building to HIM being the one who sacrifices himself, rather than Snart. And, now that he’s still around... I don’t think the narrative knows what to do with him, other than to treat him as the “asshole that we all kinda tolerate because he’s useful roughly once a season” character. Honestly, I’m kinda surprised that his actor stuck around to season six, though I get the whole “reliable paycheck” element.

Although overall, I find myself enjoying things surrounding the Arrowverse, I do think that, long run, they’re definitely bloated on characters. It’s like once they realized they could make a real franchise out of this, they were going to milk it for all they could and then some, rather than actually explore and build the characters that they needed for the story.

*shrug* Ah well. Look, this is a franchise I’m not here to be ride or die for. I know it’s flawed, I know it’s got issues, and really, at least twenty-five percent (at an absolute minimum) of what I’m here for is to rebuild it as a queerer version in my mind anyway.

Because superheroes, as a genre, deserve to be queer culture, and to hell with the cishets who try and make it theirs instead.