Bad Batch Season 3

I was asleep for a good moment. Then I saw visions of Hunter and Wrecker being the ones to die at the end of the season while Omega, Crosshair and Echo are too survive.

another thing is that in another part of my bad batch dreams is that Tech, as CX-2 had Hunter in binds whole guiding him to the shuttle silently before holding a deep conversation with Hunter.

then, Wrecker would seize Tech aka CX-2 much to the latter’s displeasure while, an unusually alive Plo Koon watched!

Jouno's "Death" and Characterization

Actually I'm adding onto my thoughts about Jouno's death scene because it really is brutal, even compared to the earlier "deaths" of the arc.

[ID: A screenshot from the Bungou Stray Dogs manga. A vampirized Akutagawa bites into Jouno's shoulder. Blood spatters on Jouno's face, scrunched up in pain. End ID.]

I binge-read the manga very quickly on my first read, and so I think there was a lot that I kind of overlooked, especially when it came to Jouno and his characterization. I found the guy interesting, but I wasn't as invested in his character as I was with some of the others.

But even then, his death shocked me with how... cruel it was. And going back and really paying close attention to his character, it hurts a lot more.

[ID: A set of three images from the Bungou Stray Dogs manga. In the first, a speech bubble says "You have what it takes to join the Decay of Angels." Jouno's face is carefully neutral and he says nothing for a panel. In the next, face still neutral, he says "What are you saying?" In the second, a panel of Jouno, bound and smiling in prisoner's garb, is overlayed by Fukuchi saying "Jouno, you were originally an executive in a criminal organization. Seeing the good prospects in your ability and that sense of hearing, I recruited you six years ago, for the sake of this day." Jouno lifts an eyebrow with a small frown on his face and exhales a small puff of air. In the third, Jouno, smiling, says "Yes. From the start, I've known no pleasure but that of tormenting others. Besides, you even said it, that you initially recruited me for the sake of this day." His smile looks a little tight. End ID.]

Looking at Jouno's face here... I'd honestly say he's a bit hurt by this turn of events. He has a very similar background to Dazai. This is the equivalent of Dazai being told that he was only hired by the Agency because they actually wanted him to take up the mantle of the Demon Prodigy again, but this time for their benefit. Because that's his true nature, right?

Jouno was only recruited... because he was never believed in. He was Fukuchi's little criminal pet project, one that didn't go as he intended at all - and Jouno dies for it, only shortly after he starts to get accustomed to the idea of himself as a good guy (even if he's still... morally ambiguous, to be diplomatic about it lol).

But yeah, let's take a second and look at Jouno's particular brand of cruelty - that sadistic streak where he wants to hear the suffering of others... and how easily this was overshadowed by one old woman's quiet gratitude. Fukuchi remembers the beginning of this scene... but he's left unaware of the aftermath of it and how Jouno changed (fitting, for the man forever caught up in the war; who still lives like he's on the battlefield). Jouno is largely self-preservative - it seems likely that, given his criminal background, you stayed alive by asserting your power over others, and Jouno does this by striking fear into others and deriving pleasure in that reaction - but it pales in comparison to appreciation, which Jouno states makes the sounds of fear like silence. The old lady is such a small thing really, but it apparently left a huge impact on him.

I think it's quite a decision made to characterize a guy who is hyper-sensitive to sensory input as being strongly affected by the kind of reactions he gets from others. Jouno compensates with fear and intimidation, but he actually wants to be appreciated. Whether Jouno genuinely cares about justice as an ideal is up for debate still, I believe, but we can be positive he likes being liked far more than he likes being feared. So, while Jouno thought he was appreciated for his pursuit of justice under Fukuchi, and had come to the realization that he prefers helping over harming - his role with the Hunting Dogs was always a cage. Jouno was likely essentially drafted - he joins or he is probably sentenced to capital punishment. Obviously, he takes the offer - as Jouno does not want to die (again, remember he's self-preservative!). Now he's stuck as a Hunting Dog due to the intense monthly surgeries to maintain their bodies, but he's made a pretty sweet life for himself - Jouno is powerful, respected, feared, and he basically gets to act however he wants so long as he is ostensibly pursuing justice (a corrupt cop, really)... only for him to realize he actually does want to help more than hurt, and to then have it be revealed that he was never expected to change for the better from the very beginning.

He was drafted due to this expectation Fukuchi had for him, and when he did not live up to this expectation... his exits are blocked, he's set on fire to stop him escaping, then stabbed from all directions, like one would trap and corner a threat that needs to be contained, or a wild animal. There's... some pretty significant dehumanization to that.

It gets worse though, because Fukuchi is right about Jouno being different from the other Hunting Dogs, but he's off the mark on what's different about him exactly. The difference is largely in that even though Jouno took precautions in case he couldn't make it out (having Aya follow him), he is not devoted (or solely devoted) to that ideal of justice that drives the rest of the Hunting Dogs, nor was he at all intending to sacrifice himself or accepting of that fate.

[ID: A panel from the Bungou Stay Dogs manga. Jouno wears a concerned expression, a sweat drop on his cheek. His hair flies up a little as he moves across a background of dark lines for dramatic emphasis. The sound effect is a shudder. End ID.]

"Be strong... there's nothing to worry about/Don't panic, it's all fine" <-The words of a man who is very much trying not to panic (also Yuki Kaji did a great job in this scene - chefs kiss. The voice acting in the anime is so so good). Jouno's mental narration grows increasingly more desperate in his attempts to escape, even as he outwardly continues that show of pride and bravado, concluding with his "wish" to hear Fukuchi's later suffering - which is what he does to avoid letting others see vulnerability in him.

All the other people who died to Fukuchi had some kind of acceptance around it - Akutagawa sacrificed himself to allow Atsushi to escape and was accepting of that; Tachihara had no intention of a sacrifice play but was prepared to die rather than be turned by Bram, and found his resolve through a mix of the Mafia's and Teruko's influence. Jouno was not ready to die at any point in this fight, nor was that ever his intent.

About Jouno's dynamic with Tecchou: I find it really interesting that the closing and opening lines of the chapter where Jouno slashes at Fukuchi and "betrays" him are things like "at heart there is one intent" and "if there is evil, cleave it" - while they're really just the external hooks for the audience, not any character's thoughts or anything, I do find it intriguing that this sounds a lot more like Tecchou's philosophy than anything we'd seen of Jouno up to this point. In this way, I think Tecchou (and Teruko as well!) has had far more of an influence on Jouno than even he cares to admit.

And I think it's really good that Tecchou appears to be there for Jouno - he's got conviction in his capacity for justice as strong as a samurai and the ability to call him out and believe in him like that of a best friend. While Jouno's death is brutal, it actually validates Tecchou's belief in him - but this is not something anyone else really seems to see in Jouno, perhaps even Jouno himself until that moment. It recontextualizes their interactions: Jouno is the challenger. Tecchou just seems to kind of humour him, really. He doesn't treat Jouno like a threat or an obstacle. He's completely unafraid of him, either simply not reacting to his goads and threats, or calling him out on his bs when he takes his cruelty too far. It's like Tecchou's socializing a feral cat sometimes hjfhdbjvh

But remember that Jouno's grandstanding and desire to instill fear is likely self-preservative. Jouno sees Tecchou unafraid of him and goes "why is it not working??? He must think he's stronger or better than me, or else, he's just really stupid. I need to prove myself stronger than him so he doesn't think he can gain the upper hand on me." And meanwhile, Tecchou is just like "ok buddy let's go get some lunch. I like spending time with Jouno even though he's apparently mad at me for something idk what." Because Tecchou's lack of fear isn't actually because he's cocky or an idiot, or because he doubts Jouno's skill or strength - far from it. He knows full well how dangerous Jouno is. He just thinks "Jouno wouldn't do that". And it's that simple to him. I honestly believe Jouno hasn't quite figured that part out yet, and that he's reading his dynamic with Tecchou entirely wrong on his end. It's the epitome of that rival dynamic where one takes it super seriously and the other is just like "cool man anyways wanna hang out". Anyways I really hope their reunion is given some attention, when it happens.

You might've noticed I said "when it happens" and also that I put death in quotes at the top there - I actually have a question for all of you since I just thought of this on my re-read. Jouno was stabbed multiple times but since he's a Hunting Dog with advanced healing and enhancements I sincerely doubt that actually killed him. Then he was bitten... but the vampires seem to turn really quickly, and we see Jouno's thoughts for a while afterwards. Jouno didn't actually die in that scene, as it's stated he's "near death", and he's captured and taken somewhere by Akutagawa. It's highly likely he was just turned into a vampire, as he was bitten (perhaps his enhancements make the vampire ability take longer to get a hold), but I'm kind of wondering now if he wasn't "taken with them" for some other purpose and Fukuchi has him captured or comatose or something. Well, whatever happens... I hope he comes back to the manga at some point soon (though probably at this arc's conclusion if I'm being honest).

Have you ever noticed that ever since season one of What If introduced Captain Carter, she's been showing up a lot more than Sam Wilson as Captain America? I once queationed it, which pissed off some Peggy stans on this site to the point where I had to alter the tags so I wouldn't have to deal with them.

Oh yeah I did, trust me, you’re not the only one. Many Sam or Steve or Bucky stans and, yk, Peggy antis here on tumblr noticed it, but her stans are just too stubborn to accept it.

In my humble opinion, I think Peggy is simply a better character for marvel to sell as cap (and not for the right reasons), which is why Sam’s cap hasn’t appeared in 2/3 years and all of Steve’s appearances were butchered.

Steve is noble, all about freedom and doing what’s right. He was a disabled son of immigrants who knew struggle and, in his own words, didn’t like bullies no matter where they came from, which means that doing what was right to him was more important than any government, any authority. Civil War is all about this characterization of Steve, and it’s why he was the perfect man for the job.

Sam is like Steve. He is a noble man who knew struggle and suffering growing up, who lost loved ones, his place in the world the moment he chose to follow what was right instead of what was ordered to him. He was ridiculed and beaten down, and risked losing it all multiple times, but that never made him back down. Plus, to add fuel to the fire, the higher powers would have never accepted him as Captain America because he’s black, no matter if Captain America himself passed the mantle to him, they wouldn’t have accepted him and still didn’t right up to the finale of TFATWS. Sam is perfect for the job and mirrors Steve as the perfect Captain America of his time.

Peggy is… well, she’s nothing of these things.

Yes, she’s a woman, and so everyone would be expected to find sympathy for her, to root for her, but aside from her stans no one actually does. Peggy has a support system and respect, like it or not, and she was relevant. She’s arrogant, she’s headstrong, and she doesn’t go against the system because she is the system. She’s not a minority, she never knew struggle, hell, she lived a comfortable life up until the war and after. And marvel can use her more than Sam or Steve because she’s not troublesome like them, she’s not going to rebel the system if not for selfish reasons or plot points. She’s not Steve, she’s not Sam, and she shouldn’t be, but at the same time Peggy should not be a Captain that marvel should enforce in their media over and over again.

As Erskine said, “Because the strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength and knows... compassion.” And while Steve and Sam don’t know strength in the sense that Erskine disregards, Peggy does. And if anything, she resembles John Walker.

Not to mention she is no character of her own, she’s simply the mixture of some characters thrown together in a cauldron, and in addition she’s a Mary Sue. She is a villain masked as hero, one that is convenient as a character and can be thrown from side to side as if she was some Y/N insert in an avengers fanfic.

Not only she has made more appearances than the current Captain America, but she managed to insert herself in the majority of What If…’s storylines, even more than actual main characters. Like, you want to tell me people actually want yet another episode about Peggy or with Peggy being a major character instead of Wanda, Loki or the main six avengers? No one does, not even the stans with a functioning brain. But Marvel will not stop, and whatever chokehold Hayley Atwell has on them will last until she’ll be satisfied with the colonization of all the possible marvel projects.

So ultimately, to answer your question: yes, I did notice Sam is being overshadow by a dusty side character that should have stayed dead back in 2016. You’re not alone, and I’m glad I’m not either. If you scroll on my profile you’ll soon find an old post of mine from last year, during the MoM era, where I was talking about this issue, and a Peggy stan went ballistic and on a rant on how I was using Sam as an excuse to hate on Peggy and justify Stucky. (Btw nice move altering the hashtags, I’ve done it too and it’s been a blessing for me.)

Feel free to check that post and come back in the asks, I’d love to discuss that and maybe share some posts regarding the issue (if I can find them lol)

tin hats on. let’s talk about the great war.

first, a general point about the relevant world of remnant spots: qrow narrates all of them. i think this is important to keep in mind when assessing the information provided, because he editorializes constantly, and i do not believe that we are meant to take qrow’s obvious biases at face value. rather, this is a narrative choice to introduce us to this history through a very distorted lens; qrow is ozpin’s man, loyal to the bone before to the revelation of ozpin’s lies, and it is also very likely that he had no formal education prior to his enrollment at beacon academy.

#1: the pre-war kingdoms.

vale sits on the northwestern coast of sanus, sandwiched between “steep mountains” and “waters too shallow for any real monsters to pop out of.” throughout the kingdom’s history, every attempt to expand the kingdom’s borders past the mountain range has ended in “colossal failures”—the most recent of which is mountain glenn, in the post-war period.

however, vale was also engaged in a different expansionist effort in the century preceding the great war: the kingdom was building settlements on “the small islands and peninsulas” of the northeastern coast.

to the north of vale lay the kingdom of mantle. qrow does not give a lot of detail regarding the settlement of solitas, just that “at some point, a group of settlers were crazy enough to venture out into the northernmost continent,” but i submit that the founders of mantle came from northern sanus. why?

mantle’s location at the southwestern tip of solitas is geographically closest to the island of vytal, just off the north coast of sanus; had the settlers come from northern anima, they would have more likely landed on the eastern side of the continent.

qrow says this: “the harsh weather conditions proved to be just as useful as the mountain ranges when it came to keeping the creatures of grimm at bay,” and while anima does have mountain ranges, they’re not remarked upon in WOR: mistral. it is vale that depends upon “steep mountains” to bulwark its eastern flank against the grimm, and vale that has made repeated, unsuccessful attempts throughout its history to expand its borders beyond those mountains.

it is unclear how long mantle existed as an independent state prior to the great war, but we know that it’s not very old; qrow also states that the century preceding the great was “filled with so much tension” that it might as well be “lumped together” with the great war. meaning almost certainly that there were smaller-scale conflicts throughout the whole period. sometime during that century, vale began to build settlements in northeastern sanus. mantle was settled “at some point” by “a crazy group of settlers”—and “i guess when you’re that desperate,” qrow opines, “a frozen hunk of rock doesn’t seem like such a bad place to call home.” mantle is geographically closest to northeastern sanus. there are—there have always been—people living outside the kingdoms, who do not want to be part of the kingdoms.

you do the math. or i will: mantle was founded by people displaced from northeastern sanus by valean expansion, probably in the neighborhood of a hundred years prior to the great war.

meanwhile, mistral was conquering anima. notably—because qrow doesn’t like mistral, particularly—there is less ambiguity on this point than on vale’s settlement of northeast sanus: this expansion was an imperial project. a conquest. mistral was (and based on the language used in the present, still is) an empire, meaning its “territories” are all conquered people or polities from whom the imperial core extracts resources, which—both historically and in the text of this story—includes slaves.

so, argus. during the century preceding the great war, mistral’s attention turned to northern anima. according to jaune and ren in 6.7, mistral’s expansion into the region was stymied by the cold until forming an alliance with mantle; qrow describes mantle as an “unlikely friend” to the empire. the goliath in the room that none of these characters acknowledge (and may not know, given their upbringings—bandit, orphaned young, & very sheltered) is that the region was probably not uninhabited at the time.

empire. conquest. controlled territories. you cannot have these things without also having conquered people. what stymied mistral’s expansion into the region was likely not the cold per se but the logistical burden the cold imposed upon military action here; invading a cold region with an army in the wintertime is famously not a good idea. and, if mantle was founded by people displaced by valean imperialism… well, that explains both qrow’s view of it as an “unlikely friend” and why mantle would make such an overture of alliance to mistral in the first place; vale and mistral were the great world powers, and for mantle—a small, vulnerable, dust-rich but otherwise resource-poor state with every reason to fear its closer southern neighbor—cozying up to mistral would have been just rational politics; hug one great power to insure against invasion by the other.

and then there’s vacuo.

WOR: vacuo is easily the least factually trustworthy episode in the series to the point that i think it is probably all but worthless in terms of the historical narrative given; it’s worldbuilding the modern day cultural narratives about the conquest of vacuo, not the actual history.

(the CFVY novels, i believe, support this reading: in the present, many city vacuans believe the narrative qrow offers here that the old kingdom of vacuo was a “paradise,” but “comfort breeds weakness” and its people were complacent, soft, helpless to defend themselves from invaders from more hardened kingdoms… but the first king of vacuo was a man called malik the sunderer, shade’s history teacher states that it’s been centuries since vacuo was conquered and the real history has been so obscured and distorted by myth that it’s impossible to know what it was truly like, and desert vacuans—the nomadic peoples who don’t live in the kingdom—have a starkly different cultural outlook on hardship that is much more in line with the story’s themes and also reality, valuing community, hospitality, and resilience over “strength.”)

but there is one kernel of very interesting information in this episode: “after the great war, a formal government was finally established.” meaning there wasn’t a formal vacuan government before the great war.

vacuo was not a state before the great war.

of vacuo’s entry into the great war, qrow says this:

Up to this point, Vacuo had done its best to stay out of the fight. Mantle and Mistral, having both already established a small presence in Vacuo territory years before promised to leave them alone, provided they didn't interfere. Soon, those talks evolved. It went from "Don't side with them" to "Side with us and you'll be safe". Vacuo did not much care for that, and they came to the conclusion that if Vale were to fall, there'd be no one left to stop Mistral and Mantle from conquering them next. So they did what they considered to be the logical thing. They drove Mantle and Mistral out of Vacuo and told Vale they had their backs.

at this point in history, vacuo did not have a government. at this point in history, vacuo was not a state. the kingdom of vacuo had been conquered centuries ago (by “more developed kingdoms,” qrow says—by whom?), and according to rumpole (<- an actual authoritative source, given she teaches history at shade!), “few documented accounts or records remain from that far back.”

the conquest of vacuo predated the conflicts of the prewar century (and probably predate the existence of mantle). this illustration in WOR: vacuo implicates all three of the other kingdoms—blue for mistral, white for mantle, green for vale:

so there is no question that vale participated in the butchering of vacuo; it did. but this illustration is also impressionistic, ahistorical, not a literal representation of how vacuo was conquered.

by the time of the great war, vacuo was a territory occupied by mantle and mistral, but vale does not seem to have had a significant presence there. in the present, vacuans harbor a lot of resentment for mistral and atlas, less for vale. vale is also, by virtue of being located on the same continent, the kingdom best positioned to invade vacuo if it so chose.

(qrow asserts that vacuo was conquered by “more developed” kingdoms, but it was also dust-rich—the CFVY novels confirm this—and there is a clear correlation between technological innovation and access to an abundant source of dust. it’s possible that a scarcity of, say, iron inhibited ancient vacuo’s technological development and put it at a military disadvantage, but generally i think it’s more likely that qrow is regurgitating historical propaganda there.)

the point being: vale conquered the kingdom of vacuo and then either withdrew or lost a war with mistral for control over the territory at some point prior to the great war.

regardless of the finer details, the historicity of qrow’s account regarding vacuo’s entrance into the war seems… pretty suspect given that vacuo did not have a government. what sort of “talks” do you suppose the mantle-mistrali bloc was having with the non-state actors of vacuo? what kind of “presence” did mistral, the empire that conquered all of anima, actually have in the vacuan territory?

hmm. i wonder.

vacuo “drove mistral and mantle out” and threw in their lot with vale; meaning, the vacuan side of this war was really a war of independence. vacuo wasn’t “doing its best to stay out of the fight” so much as it was under mistrali control until the vacuan people rebelled, then sided with mistral’s enemy.

#2: salem?? ?

ozpin—and qrow by extension—believes that salem ignited the war with a false-flag op in northeastern sanus (“to this day, no one knows who shot first” + “salem’s smart. she works in the shadows, using others to get what she wants, so that when it comes time to place the blame, we can only point at each other”). much of the fandom not only takes this at face value but also assumes without… really any basis at all that salem was responsible for the “incident” in mantle that the mantelian government used to justify a raft of draconian censorship laws.

but… authoritarian regimes can and will use any pretext to justify repressive new laws whose real purpose is to punish dissenters and strengthen control over the populace; banning art and all forms of self-expression is not a move that anyone would think with any seriousness would protect people from the grimm. qrow is either being disingenuous in purpose or (more likely) just doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about because four years at the monster-hunting college is the sum total of his education: “the people of mantle had come to believe that they would be much safer from the grimm if they could only keep the emotions of the masses in check” is the kind of bullshit nonsense you would expect if the guy doesn’t know how government works, either the modern-day democratic councils or whatever system prewar mantle had; what is the distinction between “the people” and “the masses?”

in. the. unreliable. narrators. show.

mantle’s autocratic government found a pretext to crack down on subversive speech and pumped out a massive body of propaganda to the tune of “we’re just doing what we must for the good of the people :)”—that’s what happened. that’s why mistral imposed the same laws on its territories but not in the imperial core, and why mantle didn’t have a problem with that “selective” enforcement.

maybe salem sent some grimm to attack mantle, maybe she didn’t. maybe there was a public protest that got angry enough to attract grimm. maybe there was a protest that got too rowdy, and who’s going to openly question the government officials claiming that officers on the scene opened fire into the crowd because a grimm jumped out of the sewers? grimm evaporate when they die. kind of a hard thing to fact check.

and in a similar vein… vale’s king rolled out a welcome mat for mistrali colonists who came to colonize valean settlements. it is beyond nonsensical to think that there was no violence involved. colonization is an inescapably and inherently violent process. and remember, the rioting began shortly after mistral imposed draconian censorship laws on its occupied territories, which absolutely would have included parts of eastern vale.

it was inevitable and completely predictable that this situation would explode. might salem have sent someone to fire the first shot? sure? but why would she bother, when the fuse was burning down all on its own?

(and that’s assuming she even had an interest in provoking a massive war at all, which seems rather unlikely given her apparent disinclination to engage in wanton destruction; see also her consistent choices to limit civilian casualties by pulling out of vale quickly / planning a surgical strike on haven academy / not attacking mantle / not sending grimm into the subways of atlas.)

but. but–

they did put her in the thumbnail. the point of this is presumably to imply that she did, in fact, do something to influence these events.

specifically.

they put her in the thumbnail superimposed over the leader of the vacuan rebellion, who:

led what must have been a pretty desperate fight against steep odds to drive an industrialized global power out of vacuo,

kept that coalition together after they won and formed an alliance with vale, and

was a faunus.

ozpin is superimposed over the king of vale because he was the king of vale. so: is the choice to position salem in this way similarly non-arbitrary?

looks into the camera like i’m on the office.

salem is a faunus. she identifies herself as such (“your grace” is the mode of address for menagerie’s chieftain) and she has been socially understood as a faunus for thousands of years (in a time when faunus were hunted and caged like animals, the stories about the witch who lived in the woods among “beasts and monsters” were, uh, probably not referring to wild animals; “beasts” was a euphemism for the people the ones telling those stories hunted and caged.)

to this day, ozpin associates the faunus with salem. he suspects blake of being her spy; he similarly singles out velvet after the massacre of lower cairn (and we don’t get to see what he actually says, only that velvet is in tears by the end). at haven, leo more or less says “the council overruled me and my hands are tied,” and ozpin immediately decides to freeze him out and insinuates to the kids that he suspects leo might be a traitor; meanwhile james “two votes” ironwood is closing atlas’ borders, cutting off the global supply of dust, recalling his troops from an allied state, and behaving so erratically that mistral is evidently anticipating a fucking invasion, and ozpin instructs qrow to take the lamp to atlas anyway. lionheart is a faunus; ironwood is human. the tea set ozpin gifted to lionheart is a replica of salem’s tea set. math.

so the fact that salem is superimposed over the faunus leader here does not seem coincidental; the narrative is very consistent in linking salem to the faunus because she is herself a faunus.

in WOR: faunus, qrow describes the appalling treatment of faunus by humans throughout history (first ostracized and hunted down, later enslaved and exploited) before to the great war and states that, after the great war, “the world was desperate to find compromises that would ensure they'd never see the likes of it again; the faunus were awarded equal rights as citizens of remnant, and as an apology, they were given an entire continent of their own to do with as they pleased. there were some that saw this as fair and just, but many saw it for what it really was: a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers. and so menagerie was born.”

and from the great war:

But whatever the reasoning, everyone bowed to the King of Vale by the time it was over. The Great War had ended. The world was ready to live under the rule of Vale. But the King refused. The leaders of the four Kingdoms met on the island of Vytal, and it was there that they worked together to form a treaty and establish the future of Remnant. Territories were redistributed, slavery was abolished, governments were restructured, and the Warrior King, the last king Vale would ever have, founded the Huntsman Academies and placed his most trusted followers in command of each Kingdom's school.

a few things to unpack here.

first: ozma as the king of vale would have had quite a lot of power to drive the vytal negotiations in the direction he wanted them to go; the other three leaders were given at least a notional say, but these were people who had just seen ozma unleash the horrifying powers of the sword of destruction upon their armies and bowed to him in abject terror—and that’s before getting into the possibility that ozma may have used the crown of choice to compel agreement.

second: “territories were redistributed” mostly appears to mean that mistral was forced to relinquish control over conquered territories that did not want to be part of mistral; vacuan sovereignty was formally restored (…on paper) (shade academy is the de facto government and has been since the war ended, which is worth raising an eyebrow at), parts of western anima were liberated, and… menagerie was given to the faunus.

(menagerie had to have been a mistrali colony before the great war ended, otherwise the framing of “a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers” is nonsensical.)

third: note the implication that awarding the faunus equal rights and giving them an island was a desperate compromise to insure against the perceived threat of a second war. it’s of a piece with ozma’s attempt to appease mistral and avoid war by “sharing” eastern vale with mistrali colonists.

the vacuan leader—his ally in the war—was a faunus, but it sounds very much as though ozma saw her kind as adversaries, at least in potentia, whom he made it a point to appease in the hope of avoiding a war. which is irrational on its face but does make sense in conjunction with ozpin’s clear inclination to imagine connections between salem and faunus, however baseless that suspicion might be.

and on that note, qrow also says this: “a lot of settlements were lost during those years, and most were never reclaimed. rations on food and dust were put into effect, development of technology accelerated, humans and faunus who fought alongside one another became closer and every day, mankind grew more and more efficient at destroying itself.”

pay attention to that rhetorical structure.

many settlements were wiped out

food and dust were strictly rationed

technological (military) development boomed

humans and faunus grew closer

mankind grew ever more efficient at destroying itself

one of these is not like the others.

qrow’s framing of these events likely comes from ozpin, whether directly (things ozpin told him) or indirectly (ozpin’s influence as headmaster over beacon’s curriculum). so the inclusion of “humans and faunus who fought side by side grew closer” into what is otherwise a list of ways mankind “destroyed itself” is perhaps telling of ozma’s mindset at the time; which in turn supports the implication that ozma perceived the faunus as a potential threat to appease after the war.

now!

the question is, how was salem involved—and why?

well. we know that salem is inclined to revolution; she rallied people to rebellion against the brothers millions of years ago, and in her war against the academies in the present, she aligns herself with groups like the white fang. she refers to the global order ozma established through the vytal accords derisively as “your so-called ‘free’ world.”

and we know that salem herself is a faunus, and thousands of years ago she was present enough in faunus culture that their creation myth is just a refraction of her story—transformation into something new by a choice to leap into magical waters.

we know that the faunus did not have rights in any of the four kingdoms before the great war, and mistral in particular is noted for its reliance on (presumably, mainly faunus) slave labor. reading between the lines of qrow’s slanted narration, vacuo was a mistrali territory back then, and in the CFVY novels it’s mentioned that vacuan faunus were regularly enslaved in mistrali-operated mines within that territory.

and we can guess, based on their leader being a faunus, that the vacuan rebels who drove mistral and mantle out of vacuo were predominantly faunus, plus humans willing to follow and fight for the faunus.

in the present, salem preferred sienna khan over adam and dropped adam like a hot potato after he assassinated sienna; she also clearly has no intention to attack menagerie, where the grimm notably do not seem to be a serious problem. salem also implicitly identifies herself as a faunus (“your grace”). so there are grounds for thinking that she does consider the faunus to be her people.

vacuo’s part in the great war was a war for independence. salem is both pragmatic and ruthless; she understands that nothing forces people to cooperate quite like the threat of a common enemy; she has the means to turn the tide of any war by the simple expedient of directing her grimm against the side she wants to lose. if she was in communication with the vacuan rebels—or just had spies—she could have coordinated grimm raids to sever supply lines or winnow defending forces in advance of attacks planned by the rebels, tipping the odds in their favor.

she knows ozma. if she was paying attention to the war, she would have known it began with his futile effort to appease mistral by giving away parts of vale; she has to know he sees her in the shadow of every faunus. the vacuan rebels—most of them faunus, led by a faunus—saved his bacon by joining the war he very much seems to have been losing (the frontlines were in vacuo by the end of the war; all of eastern vale was destroyed, and the king of vale and his army made their final stand in vacuo; vale itself was… probably under mistrali occupation at the time).

i am sure salem did not want, particularly, to throw ozma a lifeline. but she does care about freedom in the abstract—“your so-called ‘free’ world”—and she may think of the faunus as her people. once the war began, once it became clear that vale was losing… well, either vale would fall and mistral would rule the world, which would be undeniably worse for the faunus, or she could grit her teeth and accept helping ozma as a fair price for a shot at liberating the faunus.

and the only thing she would have to do to influence the war’s outcome is use her grimm to disrupt mantelian/mistrali supply lines and specifically target their forces on the battlefield. such attacks wouldn’t stand out against the backdrop of regular grimm activity—there are a lot of grimm in the world beyond her control—but a sustained, deliberate campaign of grimm attacks focused on one side would absolutely add up over time to a significant advantage for the other. especially given that the logistical burden of waging war on a foreign continent is already so much higher than defending your home.

if salem could also keep wild grimm off the backs of vacuo’s and vale’s armies to some extent, a la the apparent absence of a grimm problem in menagerie, that advantage would be even sharper.

…although she probably did not anticipate that ozma would use the sword of destruction to crush everyone who opposed him, or the crown of choice to do… whatever it is he did with it. you win some, you lose some.

Three antagonists, three distinct attitudes, all representative of what the Empire stands for as a whole

I wanted to take a moment to appreciate what a good job TBB has been doing with its antagonists so far, especially our three imperial officers here. A good antagonist is so important to a good story and I love how each of these characters has a distinct feel about them even though they’re all meant to represent the Empire’s worst qualities. (Yes, Hemlock isn’t included here. That guy's a whole new category of yikes.)

Tarkin: ruthless authoritarianism

Tarkin is the perfect representation of unfeeling single-minded power. He's willing to go however far it takes to accomplish the Empire's goals, eradicating all that stand in its way or dare to oppose it. He hated the jedi for their reluctance to go against their moral code and their unwillingness to bend to the Republic’s will and he hates the clones for much the same reason.

Tarkin believes that nothing should stand in the way of victory. He is the face of a regime that tolerates no opposition, no hesitation and no failure and shows no inhibitions when enforcing those rules.

Morals and human lives are meaningless when the interests of the Empire are at stake.

In a way that simplicity is what makes him so intimidating – his is a straightforward but absolute point of view. That’s scary as hell when it belongs to someone with so much power.

Rampart: calculating ambition

Unlike Tarkin, Rampart represents those that see power as an end rather than a means to one. He’s the rank climber. The smarmy bootlicker. The ambitious overachiever who’s willing to make concessions in the name of success.

We learn that the implementation of chain codes was his initiative. That he’s the one behind project War Mantle. We see how animated and obsequious he is when talking to Tarkin only for him to show his true (dismissive and arrogant) colors to those he considers his subordinates later.

He readily uses and manipulates those he can use for the sake of his own personal gain. This could be the renegade batch or Crosshair to whom he's open about his doubt in regards to his loyalty and that’s where he and Tarkin differ.

He’s dangerous because he is cunning and his cunning allows him to exploit the opportunities the Empire has to offer. He may or may not care for the system itself, but he certainly cares about what it can do for him, which is why he works to further its cause.

It's the kind of self interest that has little regard for morality. Rampart isn’t tolerant of anything that threatens his reputation and by extension his chances of success and he will dispose of anyone who isn’t convenient to him.

Which makes it all the more ironic that he himself was disposed of when he became inconvenient to the Empire.

Nolan: bigoted loyalty

If Rampart was the calculating opportunist, Nolan is his (even more) despicable counterpart. He’s the small insecure man who nonetheless profits from his political alignment, not because he’s competent but because he’s a good little imperial henchman and it gives him a sense of importance.

All in all, he’s the precursor to all the bumbling imperial officers we see in later star wars media, who stand not on merit but on selling themselves to a regime.

A man who cowers at a little turbulence

and has no experience under his belt and yet touts his rank and considers himself better than the clones.

He’s the typical bigot who tramples over others – resorting to derogatory labels (such as 'used equipment') and treating them as less than human – just because he can and because it gives him a power high.

If Rampart saw the clones as a resource that could be used to the very end, Nolan sees sparing medical supplies for one as a ‘waste of resources’. Which is bullshit of course. But prejudice is pretty bad at pretending it’s logical. And the show does a good job of showing us the various little pathetic excuses it tries to hide behind.

(I thought I couldn't hate this guy more and yet I somehow managed it after writing this lol.)

Machine

There are no Primes. There haven't been any Primes since the Matrix was reclaimed by Primus. But with the war spiraling out of control and Orion Pax, the hope of the Autobots being on death's door, Ratchet had no other choice. The Autobots needed a leader, they needed a Prime. If Primus would not give them one, then Ratchet sure as Pit would.

(fair warning, this post is really freaking long)

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙

Orion Pax was their leader. He took up the mantle when the Autobots needed hope more than ever before. He was kind, he was courageous, he was wise and grew more so with every day. He was what they needed to keep marching forward against Megatron's forces and the slow demise that their world seemed to be dead set of reaching. He was more than worthy of being a Prime.

Ratchet never expected such a mech to fall.

Even as he sat at Orion's bedside watching his friend and leader waste away, he could hardly comprehend it. However as the army began to panic without their leader and the Decepticons grew more bold, Ratchet was forced to make a choice. Orion would not live long. His frame was devastated beyond repair and he had no Matrix to give to a successor to lead the Autobots. When he died everything would fall apart and their world would be handed over to Megatron.

Ratchet could not allow this, not when everything they were fighting for depended on the presence of a leader.

As such while there was still time, Ratchet cast aside his reservations and he began what would be considered a heretical work by any definition. He quietly began collecting scans, samples, CNA, copies of memory, and everything else that made Orion Pax who he was. He did not tell anyone what he was doing as Orion faded and he took what he gathered and began to apply it to his project. To keep the army at least semi-composed, the lie he told the Autobots was simple: That Orion Pax was being taken for emergency frame restructuring and was to be brought close to Primus's core to keep his spark stable.

He forged the studies he used to back up his claim that having Orion moved was a wise decision. And then once that was done, he took his friend from the medical bay and brought him to Ratchet's personal laboratory where he took everything he could from his friend while he still lived.

The CNA he used to begin creating a clone, one that he ensured was lifeless through a series of chemical implants. He adjusted it as needed, altering it to match his specifications and leave room for the modifications he had planned. He integrated the CNA of fallen Primes after rooting around and collecting what he could from their lifeless frames to give his creation the strength of Primes. He also altered the clone frame to have a gaping hole where its spark chamber would have been should it have lived in order to house part of what he was making. Then while the clone frame developed, Ratchet carefully began cultivating an AI which he fed Orion's memories.

He took great care with the AI, feeding it memory and coding it in such a way that it would follow his orders. He put in failsafes, integrated the ability for the AI to evolve and learn how to overcome obstacles, and went to great lengths to input an impossible to ignore urge to win the war and restore Cybertron. It took nearly a vorn of fine tuning, by which point Orion had already passed away. But when the AI was a near perfect replica of Orion Pax mentally, at least based on what Ratchet knew of his friend, he made the final piece to finish the puzzle.

His greatest creation was by far the faux Matrix. He based its design off the old texts and what images he could find. Then when its outer shell was complete, he made the greatest super computer he could compile with the aid of a few anonymous engineers who had no idea what they were making for him. He filled the faux Matrix with the entirety of Cybertron's databanks and designed it in such a way that it would run through countless scenarios and calculate the best course of action. He altered its way of giving information so that it would come in the form of old text and strange glyphs to imitate what previous Primes had said their interactions with the real Matrix was like.

He gave it the command to run through data during the artificial Prime's recharge cycle to imitate visions. He then also altered it so that it directly connected to he Prime AI and would, if all went well, regulate the coded emotional responses as the real Matrix would have done with its chosen Prime. He jumped through every hoop to make it so that his artificial Prime would be as convincing as possible, even giving the clone frame the ability to expertly control its EM field to create an aura of divinity through a series of recessive codes.

Then finally, after over a vorn of effort and just before the army began to panic again, Ratchet put together his finest creation. His perfect artificial Prime, made to fulfill the needs of the people and never to be corrupted by greed or other vile emotions. His creation would lead them onward and play the part of Prime until the war came to an end. This was its purpose, and while it was not what Ratchet would have liked, having his Prime wear the face of his oldest friend was both a comfort and a curse.

There was no time to mourn Orion Pax, all Ratchet could do was continue on pretending as if his friend still lived on in his creation for the sake of his own sanity.

A vorn and a half after the project began, Optimus Prime awoke on Ratchet's medical berth with only vague false memories of going to Primus's core to stop the dark energon from spreading. Careful to remain stoic, Ratchet explained all that had come to pass during the artificial Prime's absence and pointed out the Matrix within Optimus's chassis. It took a moment for Optimus's AI to settle and understand, but once everything clicked, the programming Ratchet put into place kicked in and the Prime was off to do his work.

It was certainly a little rough in the beginning. Optimus, despite having been cultivated so carefully was still not the best at interaction. The artificial Prime required time and lots of trial and error to have its AI grow and adapt, quickly changing to be what the Autobots needed. Before long Ratchet could even believe that his creation was a real living being with how it moved and acted, grieving over the fallen, giving hope to the Autobots, and showing courage and conviction like no other.

It was almost enough for Ratchet to forget that Orion Pax was dead.

However Optimus was still an artificial being and there were indeed signs that pointed toward its true nature despite Ratchet's efforts. Optimus didn't feel pain the same way others did, no, the pain it felt was all artificial and could be turned off if needed. During times of increadible stress or when Optimus couldn't afford to fall, Ratchet would quietly utter the command to have Optimus's ability to feel pain turned off. The ability startled the Autobots a great deal, especially when Ratchet forgot to turn the pain sensors back on, prompting Optimus to come to him in increadible worry wondering if something was wrong.

Optimus didn't know that it wasn't alive, and Ratchet couldn't afford to let his artificial Prime think otherwise.

Optimus also wasn't the best at recreating emotion, its AI simply wasn't structured with high emotional response in mind. It was meant to be stoic, unable to be traumatized but still capable of learning. This meant that while it developed and learned, becoming a better leader and responding to the emotions of others better, it had issues replicating other's emotions. It could hardly grieve, it could hardly feel joy, sorrow, or despair. The only emotion Ratchet allowed it to have hardwired was a sense of duty and failure when it didn't perform adequately.

There were other smaller signs, little things like the way Optimus would remain unconcerned by gore, illness, or death. But other than that, the Autobots accepted it, taking Optimus as their Prime without much question. The only one who suspected was Jazz, the other longtime friend of Orion. But even he, perhaps wishing for the entity that called itself Prime to really be Orion, never said anything. All the while Ratchet watched and gently directed Optimus, giving it commands veiled as suggesting and council and repairing him when required

Optimus was his machine, nothing more, nothing less... at least that was what Ratchet constantly told himself in order to not get attached. That is until Optimus returned to base with an actual sparkling in its arms and treated it with more protectiveness and love than Ratchet had ever seen his creation show before. Up until that point everything Optimus did was well within parameters. It fell within the lines Ratchet set, but as if touched by Primus, it suddenly stopped being an "it".

Optimus's AI evolved, and it, no, he changed. Ratchet could only watch on in growing fear, awe, and confliction as Optimus stopped needing him to offer quiet commands. The artificial Prime began acting like a living being, no longer confined by the coding that left him usually aloof and unbothered. The artificial Prime developed, becoming his own individual and never once suspecting a thing about what he really was. This alone nearly made Ratchet want to wipe Optimus's AI and try again, using injury as an excuse just to be sure his creation couldn't go rogue. He only stopped because of how happy Optimus looked as he played with the sparkling he named Bumblebee.

By the time Ratchet considered telling Optimus the truth if only to clear his own guilty conscience, he couldn't do it, not when Optimus believed every single false memory and lie Ratchet had ever told him. How could he destroy the artificial life he had unintentionally created? Optimus was meant to be a machine, a tool to be directed and used as required. The only reason Ratchet had made him believe himself to have once been Orion Pax was to make his acting more believable. But that one small decision had changed everything.

Optimus believed he was living, he thought he had a spark like other mecha and he behaved as such. Ratchet had to feed his creation more and more lies to constrain him and keep him from trying to create Amica bonds or other such intimate ties. He told Optimus the Matrix forbit it and even went so far as to knock Optimus offline and alter the faux Matrix's code so that it would keep Optimus from trying to connect to others too deeply.

If Optimus tried to bond with anyone, the results would be devastating. Even knowing this, it hurt Ratchet's spark to watch Optimus be forced to keep a wall between himself and the sparkling he had found. The artificial Prime still played the part of a Sire for Bumblebee, but he could never have the bond that existed between a Caretaker and their sparkling. Ratchet told Optimus this was due to the Matrix, but Ratchet knew this not to be the case.

Ratchet made a machine to lead the Autobots, but instead he had created an AI that believed itself alive. By the time the Allspark was sent away and the Autobots fled to the stars, the only thing that set Optimus apart from the true children of Primus was his lack of a spark.

No matter how much it hurt to look at the machine who wore his friend's face and identity, Ratchet couldn't tell Optimus the truth. Optimus didn't deserve that pain, not when he wept for the fallen, not when he fought with conviction, and most certainly not when he wished and dreamed with Ratchet on dark nights, imagining a better future. On such nights Ratchet liked to forget that the entity he was speaking to was one of his own make. He liked to pretend that it was indeed his friend who sat beside him and murmured softly the hopes he held of a future where their people were free.

After such interactions he often lay awake in his berth wondering if he had made the right decision and what Orion would think of him.

Coming to earth changed little. Optimus continued to act as Prime, leading them and fighting against Megatron as he always did. He took the children in with grace and behaved exactly as Ratchet expected Orion would have should he have been made Prime. But by that point Ratchet was too ridden by guilt to even dream of trying to wipe the AI that was Optimus or try again. Optimus was alive if only to the others, he couldn't risk everything falling apart because of the truth being exposed.

Then Unicron woke and everything began to crumble bit by bit.

Ratchet managed to hide Optimus's true nature by modifying the faux Matrix so that it could produce an EMP field strong enough to push Unicron back into slumber. But after the event Optimus began to suspect something was wrong with him, that he wasn't right. The abuse of the faux Matrix meant that it started to malfunction and Ratchet couldn't make any adjustments without drawing suspicions. He could only pray that Optimus remained ignorant.

Optimus was concerned, but with time he shook of the oddity of his faux Matrix and Ratchet breathed a sigh of relief... up until Smokescreen made his appearance and brought with him a container which had been welded to his back. Ratchet didn't think much of it once Smokescreen was confirmed to be from Alpha Trion. As such he removed the container and with Bulkhead's help, pried it open.

He regretted that more than anything else.

Within the container was the Matrix, the real Matrix. Every single bot in the base stood still as stone, all of them not wanting to believe it as they looked at Optimus. Ratchet wished he could scream as his creation looked the faux Matrix in his chassis and the real one in the container and passed out.

Havoc Marauder Interior

Someone made a post about this a while ago but apparently they de-activated so it is possibly lost to the mists of time. Here is what I put together for myself as a writing reference. Image heavy, meta heavy.

Last edit: 2023/11/03

Edits: Replaced garbage text layout with actual ship overhead. Realized the two concept art images face different directions. This likely explains the magical moving jump seats. Also added discussion of a cargo hold. Added discussion of ship dimensions (specifically length). Replaced old guesstimates with numbers from Dawn of Rebellion. Added commentary about the magical seat.

I think people under- and over-estimate the Marauder's interior potential. Given its overall size and intended use (transporting about 10-15 troops plus assorted equipment and providing air support in a forward area), there's not much room left for creature comforts.

Except the Batch aren't 10-15 people, they're 5, and the shuttle is referred to as modified numerous times. This leaves plenty of room to make assumptions and freeform. So, as to what we have actual, visual evidence for from episodes and concept art, here is a rudimentary floor plan:

An important point about the two concept art images: they do NOT face the same direction. The top image faces to the aft/back of the ship, i.e. the tailgun. The second image faces to the fore/front of the ship.

Number key:

1: We know this is where the ramp and door are located from War Mantle and Metamorphsis.

2: We know about this upper storage area from Cut and Run

3: The access to the tail gun has changed visual from TCW s07e02 and various TBB episodes.

The Magically Appearing/Disappearing Seat

In Cut and Run we have this moment with Hunter and Omega, but in most other shots each of these consoles has only one seat (eg. Tech and Echo in prior frames). I think this is actually NOT a magically appearing seat. I think it's the other console seat, because I suspect they can be moved. I base this one this shot from Replacements:

That looks like a seat with a moveable base.

Obviously this is bad design for a ship which is doing barrel rolls and what-not, so I have to assume they're magnetically locked. Even if it is the same seat, in the shots right before that one above, Omega walks up and it's not in that space. So it's almost like the scene was longer and was shortened, and we missed a few frames of her or Hunter unlocking it and moving it over.

Meta Discussions

tl;dr: I think of the Marauder as a small fishing vessel or a van-conversion RV. You can put a lot into a small space if you get creative.

Bathroom I know the writers have made weird assertions there isn't one and omg they all smell gross from no hygiene but that makes zero sense. Soldiers are constantly under stress, they're getting injured, they need to stay clean when possible or they're going to get sick and die from a systemic infection in short order. Anyone who's glanced in the general direction of military history knows this. You can argue about clone expendibility all you want but the Batch minimally qualify in that regard, being Nala Se's pet project. Can you imagine losing one of them to a staph infection because there's nowhere for them to bust out some no-rinse antimicrobial soap or get their scalp clean? I'm not saying they'll be doing photoshoots in between missions (well maybe Hunter would ) but, come on. (And are you going to tell me Mr. Sensor Sensoria is cool with doing long hauls with 4 people who don't bathe? Just, no.)

But that much aside, anyone who's ever been in an RV, a commercial airliner, or a modest-sized sea vessel knows you can cram a bathroom into a tiny space. Yes, you're going to be spinning in circles doing things, but the benefits of a spot to clean up, manage waste, and tend to injuries far outweigh any other use of that area. So regardless of what the writers say, a transport without a minimal refresher (to use the SW term) is counter to the ship's designed use. It has to be able to accommodate Wrecker, of course, but in the end it can double as storage when not in use. There is zero reason to not have one. Added to this, we now officially have a length for the Marauder, which is 30.3 meters (see below). RVs which are 1/5 of that size have bathrooms. You're going to tell me the Marauder doesn't?

If nothing else, since the TCW episodes and the beginning of S1 have pointed to them going on extended deployments with long hops between stops, they're going to need one or constantly be handling waste in much less efficient and sustainable ways.

Added to all of this, it's specifically called a modified variant of an Omicron. We're probably meant to think this means 'Tech would like to fly faster than the GAR and ship engineers think is reasonable for a shuttle' but IMO it extends to changes like this as well. So, there's a refresher in there, feel free to choose a spot. Right across from the fold out racks is a good candidate because in most imagery it's just weapons storage, and there's an entire upper-deck space which you could use for that.

Galley Definitely not one of these. The Batch are eating rations any time they're not on Kamino. You can make an argument they (and all clone units) have cook kits for improvised eating in the field; in the Batch's case I suspect that's a given, as they'd just start doing it because who's going to stop them? Additionally, the sheer amount of rations you would need to carry around to feed Wrecker would be ridiculous. (Remember when Wrecker talks about never being full in S2E13? I feel like this is an indication they did and still do, in fact, have to improvise a lot of additional caloric intake. Hunter probably thought Cut and Suu's farm was a genius idea. 'Grow your own food! Wrecker will never be hungry again! Fucking incredible.' Then Tech got the ship impounded.) I think you can argue for one being added, like with the refresher. Do they actually need those weapons racks anymore? Definitely no. But, it's not on there by default.

Beds As you can see in the concept art above, there are at least 3 racks that fold out from the wall on the port side. They're at a minimum wide enough to accommodate Wrecker, they may also be long enough for him to not need to curl up (unclear because in this shot from Bounty Lost his knees are bent and he's hugging Lula):

Three is a weird number since originally there were four of them. I figure the options here are:

The pilot/copilot/second row seats all look 100% more comfortable than the racks. We actually see Tech sleeping in one, at one point, so this has actual evidence to support it.

It's war time, they're never all asleep simultaneously. Someone is always flying the ship or on watch.

The floor is in effect the same as a rack, arguably preferable as you can't fall off it in the event Something Happens while you're out. So, one of them might actually be ON the floor sometimes.

They're not really intended to sleep on the ship for extended periods, but narratively we're lead to believe they have, many times, and needed to make adjustments to it as a result. Notice how quickly Wrecker whipped up a bed for Omega? IMO, not the first time they've done something like that--they did it for themselves first.

Cargo Hold Based on that screenshot of Omega above and the below shot from Cut and Run, the 'hold' of the ship is actually a storage area overhead, running the length of the ship. In that shot above of the rack, there are a series of yellow rungs which imply you can climb up somewhere on the port side. This is probably alternate access to that same overhead storage space.

In Cut and Run we see Echo, Omega, and Tech hide in it, coming back out from a slide-open hatch:

Given Tech's height this is probably somewhere around 1.5m high.

We can be reasonably certain the hold isn't under the ship, or at least storage there is minimal, due to a couple of things:

In all instances where the hyperdrive has been pulled, it's under the ship on the belly, and takes up a reasonable amount of space. Eg., in Retrieval, here's a bunch of stuff which has been pulled from the ship:

In instances where they're working on the ship from the outside, like in Cornered, the sides and belly never have panels open which contain empty space unless the ship's hardware have been removed to reach something:

So, the cargo hold is probably that space on the top from Cut and Run. It doesn't have much room; reasonably speaking, the area with the weapons and sleeping racks was probably a cargo hold as well, they just converted it to a more general purpose area. (So IMO this is a stronger argument for putting a commercial airliner-style bathroom in place of the weapons racks, particularly once they bail on the Empire.)

Dimensions - updated 11/3/23 Dawn of Rebellion has a Bad Batch section, and indicates the Marauder is 30.3m in length, 36.65m wide (presumably with the wings extended, and 12.41m tall (this probably includes the central stabilizer).

I will edit this to update it as we get more pictures. Since the toys that I know of have no basis the show from an internal perspective I didn't include anything from them.

Image sources:

All screencaps by me. Use at will.

Marauder underlay

Bad Batch Concept Art, Marauder Interior

Something it feels like a lot of people miss in RWBY is how often the villains are pushed into their roles by others or society.

Salem was forced into the role of villain by the gods, punished with immortality after trying to get Ozma back, then pushed deeper when she tried to fight back, lost everything, and wanted to try to end her curse on her own terms. Now with the God of Light using Ozma as his tool, Salem keeps getting pressed deeper into her role becoming the villain everyone wants her to be.

Cinder was abused by the orphanage and the madam, only ever catching a break with Rhodes until she saw no other way to save herself than fighting back against the madam. Rhodes pushed her into the role of villain by treating her like one and forcing her to fight again.

Hazel was used because of his grief of his sister's passing. We dont know much, but it can be inferred that Gretchen died while as a student in Beacon since she died in a training mission, but Hazel was pushed to find Salem. After meeting her and trying to kill her, his grief and anger was pointed towards Ozpin, turning him into a weapon for Salem.

Tyrian's a serial killer and seems to be the odd one out at the moment.

Watts gave into his jealousy after Pietro's project was chosen. From the sound of it, Ironwood never fully appreciated everything he did for Atlas, but that's all speculation and possible unreliable narrator.

Emerald was a street kid living on her own. She fell into Cinder and walked the line of villain because it gave her a place to belong until she found something more.

Mercury was abused by his father and trained as a killer. He sees no other purpose for himself and gladly lives that lie for now.

Neo was neglected and abused by her family, initially turning to shoplifting as a way to get attention, only to find herself getting deeper into crime after meeting Roman. She found someone who understood her and cared about her in him, so it wasn't a hard choice.

Adam was branded by SDC workers and gave into his anger when the White Fang wasn't getting the results he wanted. He treaded a slippery slope of wanting to help and defend the White Fang, eventually getting pushed to want humanity to fear faunus and serve them like the faunus did humans.

Ironwood gave into his paranoia and anxiety, isolating himself more and more as things went wrong. Noble goals were pursued in the worst of ways, bringing his fleet as security for the Vytal Festival, closing kingdom borders to help ease tensions of war between kingdoms, redirecting supplies from Mantle's wall repair to Amity, every act playing right into Salem's hands until he was pushed to do things his way to stop Salem and save Atlas, isolating himself further until he sank with his kingdom.

Every single one of them have been pushed into their roles because none of them had the support they needed to do better. For some, like Ironwood, Adam, and Watts, that was on them for giving into their feelings, blinding them to what was going on around them. Salem, Cinder, Mercury, and Tyrian haven't had much of a choice, pushed into being villains by their actions and by others. Emerald, Hazel, and Neo never had the support they needed to tread a different path, and once they did, that support led them down the path of villains.

Villains aren't born, they're created. Pushed down a path to follow as the easy way out because no other doors open to them. Which will make it all that more interesting to see how the remaining, living villains will be dealt with. Will they be given a hand and support needed to change? Or proven right that all they are are villains with no hope of change?

Which Link is most likely to eat cereal for dinner?

i feel like the obvious answer is Wild, but he’s also as likely to pull out the most elaborate meal you’ve ever seen in your life just because he can.

Time probably would if left to his own devices (by which i mean Malon is out of the house and he’s not allowed to cook).

Legend if he’s too tired to do anything else would absolutely just sit down with a bowl so he at least eats something before passing out. Ravio’s gotten on his case about it more than he’d like to admit

i also feel like Warriors and Four would too- Wars in the same boat as Legend, when he’s too exhausted from keeping up the mantle of Hero all day. Four feels like the kind of person to be so into a project that he just grabs something quick and wolfs it down so he can get back to whatever he was doing

now the question is who uses milk vs just eats it dry out of the bowl

Why Ironwood’s actions made him a villain, and Team RWBY’s actions made them heroes.

Let’s go into some perspective about why Ironwood + his regime, and not Team RWBY, was the actual “worse than salem” group. And why Team RWBY are the heroes, and Ironwood and his regime the antagonists.

Let’s turn back the clock to before James threatened to nuke Mantle or blackmail Penny into helping him, and shot down planes that would carry people to safety.

“He genuinely offered all his resources to Team RWBY and co to maximize all the chances of them getting better and winning.” While squeezing Mantle dry.

Pre-V8 he still was authoritarian militarist, who locked down Atlas and Mantle, crippling its trade and defense capabilities of other regions, which led to a lot of people left to starve or die to Grimm, and he was also squeezing Mantle dry on top of it with a blatant disregard to its safety, and only giving it token "support", while his Huntsmen were more concerned with arresting people protecting Mantle, than helping them fight back Grimm.

Mantle was dying in volume 7, and it was all James’ fault, and critics were demanding that after Ironwood squeezed and bled Mantle dry, that Atlas abandon Mantle.

The writing is on the wall, but people are so focused on how he treated RWBY and co that they completely miss (ironically, unlike RWBY and co themselves, as it was their major concern) how he treats literally everyone else.

Of course he would treat them well, they are a very useful asset! Unlike people of Mantle, who could die in a ditch for all he cares.

That's not to say that he wants them dead, of course... he just doesn't care about them. He doesn't care about the people he's sworn to protect.

“ For Mantle, the entire point of the Huntsmen down there was to secure it and cover for the lack of resources. “

Lack of resources he himself created, funneling every drop of dust to his pet project.

James was always a borderline dictator. And he could pretty much brow-beat the Council to do what he needs, seeing how he held two seats out of five, and one was vacant.

“But James isn’t authoritarian!”

Authoritarian: Favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

“But Ironwood was trying to prevent invasion of Salem’s agents”

They infiltrated Atlas through Mantle, by means of using outdated security. With Watts even explicitly pointing out that Atlas got the shiny upgrades, but no one cared to get them to Mantle. And Cinder and Neo still got in. Ironwood failed spectacularly. As he always does.

People were losing their jobs and their living because of lockdown, and those who kept theirs, were working in harsh conditions. Grimm regularly invaded Mantle. People couldn't even get their children to schools without Huntsmen protecting them.

“Its for the greater good”

I just don't see any merit in humoring ideas that treat people as expendable pieces on the path to some lofty goal. "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make" logic is the logic of villains.

“Ironwood employed Penny and the robots, that shows he cares!”

The robots were shown to be like Star Wars Movie stormtroopers in terms of effectiveness, and Star Trek Redshirts in terms of survivability.

Also, not caring for someone implies not giving any thought to their problems, and in this particular case those problems were directly or indirectly created by Ironwood's actions or negligence. Sending Penny down there is a band-aid, an illusion of action. Also he was running her 24/7, having girl do the job of an entire military and her sole energy source and repairs comes from her dying father, who’s also being run ragged on Jimmy’s project.

“But Team RWBY used the satellite?”

Should we just discard the progress, if it was made by amoral means? Or should we rather use it, to at least in some way honor those who suffered for it?

“But Ironwood didn’t commit murder till he shot Oscar”

Murder is not the only weapon in dictatorship's arsenal. There’s media control and forbidding public functions and mass gatherings, which Ironwood did in the first episode of V7. There’s also banning weapons unless you’re in the dictator’s private army, which Clover literally confirmed in the 2nd episode, even ignoring Qrow’s license.

“Influential people aren't simply council members. People with money and connection need to receive privileges in exchange for services they may provide. That's how politics work. “

And yet, he literally SINGLEHANDEDLY LOCKED DOWN ATLAS. And neither other council members, nor other "influential people", represented in a show by Jacques, could stop him, despite it hurting their bottom lines. Whoops.

“ Y'all keep forgetting what being a soldier/military man entails. You obey your superior without question. That's not authoritarian, that's how any self-respecting army functions. “

Huntsmen aren’t supposed to be soldiers, they’re warriors who act with a code and serve society, not a general who treats everything like a contest of measuring “GLYNDA!”

Ironwood privatized the Huntsmen System, thus preventing Atlas Huntsmen from serving society, with the exception of the Happy Huntresses, who Clover called “Worse than Grimm” to Qrow. Imagine that defying Ironwood makes you worse than Grimm? Apparently that’s all it took for Robyn Haters.

Speaking of Clover...obeying orders without question? You mean like how Clover decided to defend Ironwood’s decision to abandon Mantle, try to arrest Qrow, and completely disregard the mission to capture Tyrian because “Good soldiers follow orders?” Then the Qrow vs Tyrian vs Clover fight makes sense. Tyrian wanted to cause chaos, Qrow wanted to stop Ironwood and Tyrian, and Clover wanted to obey Ironwood’s orders without question. Qrow made the mistake of thinking that Tyrian, who had never lied before, had meant that “putting the kid to bed” simply meant incapacitating Clover, not killing Clover. Meanwhile Clover had no problem arresting anyone who wasn’t licensed by Ironwood or carrying weapons that weren’t part of Ironwood’s army. I guess Clover did die as he lived...not a huntsmen, but a soldier.

“ Unless they showed someone's corpse or Team RWBY looking at beggars, there wasn't any sign of famine or death as you mention. The most there was is extra security and frequent robot patrols. “

Just because there are no corpses lying around on the streets, doesn't mean that people aren't suffering. A lot of the times their suffering goes unseen. You can't deny that Mantle looks like a mix of cyberpunk slum and depressive post-USSR Eastern Europe city. That's enough to make an educated guess about the state of the city and its inhabitants.

Just because Ironwood sacrifices some things, doesn't give him the right to sacrifice something he doesn't own - namely, other people.

Watts of all people called Jimmy out on neglecting Mantle's security. Aside from that, how did he help Mantle aside from sending a few Huntsmen there, which is, again, a band-aid, and an illusion of action?

“Ironwood trusted them like he trusted Ozpin” Remember what he did to Ozpin in V2. You know, the whole going behind his “Friend’s” back to get Ozpin, Salem’s chief nemesis and founder of the schools, fired? And also putting Penny in the Vytal Tournament despite nobody allowing it if they knew she was an android? This is the same guy who talked about trust? Ironwood is a hypocrite because he loves to talk about trust while betraying everyone else’s.

Remember the episode “Sparks?”

Unrest doesn't happen like *snap* and everything blows up. Tension grows gradually and usually goes unnoticed, until it's at the point when a slightest spark is enough to ignite the situation. What Jacques and Watts did was that spark, but the groundwork was laid by Ironwood's actions raising the tension between Mantle and Atlas. And that growing unrest could be seen as far back as e1 of that volume - specifically, in the drunk racist and Forest.

“Ironwood didn’t expect Watts to be alive!”

Someone broke through a military grade cyber security and caused all Atlesian robots and mechs to go "Execute Order 66″  on people. Whether or not it was Watts is irrelevant, because it's a known (to Ironwood) fact that there's someone capable of doing it*.* You don't need a hindsight to account for it, just a regular sight and basic common sense. Which Ironwood has none. That Ironwood, knowing this, only went as far as updating the infrastructure in Atlas, but not in Mantle, is not just negligence, it's a sabotage of his own goals.

The fact is that Ironwood's methods revealed his disregard for people with whom his goals don't align.

“Ironwood was to take drastic actions! There needed to be sacrifices"

The sacrifices began when he locked down Atlas and Mantle. They were just incidental, a product of ignorance and negligence.

“Atlas was the mightiest military” Name one battle they won that didn’t involve Team RWBY’s help?

Their ships could barely fire upon some giant worms, and had not been updated since the great war, causing them only to be able to effectively fire single laser shots against other ships.

An elite huntsmen can take out tons of weaker grimm. And Ironwood’s ships were useless against grimm as well. The paladins could work...yes.But they had a nasty habit of being stolen or hacked...which was again, ironwood’s fault.

“Qrow was willing to trust Ironwood!”

Even though Qrow told them in V6 that they should ask Ironwood for help, by the time the team actually met Ironwood, Qrow had changed his position to not talking to him. Sound familiar? Something Lionhart?

Ironwood didn't take defensive measures against Salem's forces. We see in the very first episode that whatever Ironwood is doing to keep Salem's forces out of Mantle isn't working.

We learned in episode 2 that he was not only aware of his actions having literally the exact opposite effect of what he was promising the people of Mantle, but he also accepted that.

Even before the main cast met Ironwood, they knew he either had no idea what he was doing, or he wasn't on their side any more. They didn't know which it was, but they already knew they couldn't count on him.

The grand sum of Ironwood’s character is:

“I can tolerate leaving thousands of innocents to die for some vague concept of the great good, but I draw the line at insubordination and lying.”

“But Ruby and Yang were being hypocritical in going behind Ozpin’s back!” A huge part of volume 7 was that Ruby realized that Ozpin was ultimately morally grey, and morally grey I mean his actions he took while thinking of other people. Selfishness is the complete opposite of morally grey, which instantly disqualifies Raven Branwen (mass murderer and thief), Adam Branwen (Mass murderer and terrorist), and Roman Torchwick. (Thief, murderer, and racist) from ever being qualified as morally ambiguous. As a result, Ruby ends up acknowledging Ozpin’s points, and even starts working with him again in V8. Yang on the other hand was agreeing with Blake’s points during the cargo truck ride and decided to go: “Hey Robyn, I know jimmy is oppressing your people and your actions against him are valid, but he’s trying to restore global communications for the greater good and his ‘protector of mantle’ didn’t actually kill your constituents, so if you could please stop taking back what’s yours, James will eventually repair mantle.”

And Robyn went: Okay.

Yang and Blake got Robyn to be willing to compromise with Ironwood, something Ironwood cannot do himself, and something he is incapable of getting people to do unless he abuses his military and political power, which he does on a regular basis.

“But Robyn was a terrorist who sabotaged the project!”

She was taking back the supplies that were meant for Mantle, that Ironwood was stealing from Mantle, for his personal project that was done without the council’s authority. She was giving those supplies back to the people of Mantle. Which emboldened the suppliers of Mantle in giving them hope that they could pressure Ironwood to repair Mantle’s defenses. Ironwood’s response? Call the entire city of Mantle “A few cityblocks”

“Robyn’s outfit and equipment was ridiculous compared to Ironwood’s military”

Yeah, when you’re in a city that’s poorer than Vacuo and oppressed by a small-minded man with a giant ego, you don’t tend to have access to the best equipment, clothes, etc. Not to mention that unlike Vacuo, Huntsmen aren’t allowed to protect people in Atlas unless they’re part of Ironwood’s private army.

“Team RWBY were selfish, Ruby is acting just like Roman!”

Lying to save lives and prevent human extinction is not the same as lying for your own self interest. When the gang steal and airship to get into Atlas, it isn’t an evil thing. They are doing it so they can save lives and protect innocent people. The good guys make sacrifices when they have to, where there is absolutely no other choice. Ironwood would sacrifice anything he could to protect his people, you can debate whether or not he’s a true villain, but he goes to far. Sacrifice isn’t a last resort for him, he believes it is. But most villains believe they’re on the right side. This is why most “Rewrites” that try to “Fix” Roman, Adam , or Ironwood go out of their way to rewrite the plot and characters to try to claim that the Villains are in the right, and to shame any female characters who stand in their way. The both the White fang and the good side use violence. But the white fang use violence and seek division and persecution as vengeance for their own struggles. Ultimately, through salem’s manipulation, they divide the intelligent creatures of Remnant. They attack hurt innocent people to further their own goals. The good guys use violence so that violence can be ended. Remind you of anyone? Cough cough, Batman! The sin of the cynic is acting purely in self-interest. Torchwick's line of "lie, cheat, steal and survive" refers to putting his needs first and foremost. It's not the same as resorting to desperate methods to save lives. Like, Jaune cheating his way into Beacon is motivated by self-interest, but his idea to steal an airship in V6 was motivated by keeping others safe. He isn't proving Torchwick's ideals are right in the latter instance, it's quite the opposite. Same with Ruby.

I'm not sure how people can say that Ironwood was proven right when we are shown that there were ways to save the people of Mantle. It's not even a one-time thing either, he thought that he had to keep forcing Mantle to make sacrifices but it turns out it was completely possible to make a compromise with them.

And if we're going to be completely honest it's Ironwood's refusal to compromise that's the biggest factor regarding Atlas's fate. For example, Neo was able to steal the lamp because his soldiers unintentionally gave her the opportunity and a way to escape. It's what led to Robyn acting the way she did on the plane and everything involving Penny was because of him.

Frankly, the only point I can give critics is the white Fang and it's only because the series so horrifically failed to demonstrate the difference between Sienna and Adam.

“But Ironwood was prepared to compromise with Robyn”

He wanted to have her taken into custody 1st and only then was he going to "negotiate," with her... I don't think I need to explain how this is not under any circumstances an actual compromise.

The actual compromise between Ironwood and Mantle took place in the Schnee Manor and that was entirely thanks to Blake, Yang, and sadly Jacques. And that was a compromise that he broke mere hours later when he decided to completely unnecessarily abandon them all to die... A decision he made without seeking any advice and then straight up threatened the people who dared question him on it.

“Sleet: The fact of the matter is, you've operated with a fair amount of autonomy for the past few years, James. But we need now is for you to work with us “

So Ironwood disrespected his peers and did whatever he wanted, and when called out on it, refused to listen to his colleagues, his equals.

A person arrested and completely at James’ mercy ISNT really a negotiating.

“I can either throw you in jail for the rest of your life OR you can agree to work under me, under my terms and conditions.”

What a “””negotiation.“”” Much fair.

“But Ruby is the villain in the trolley scenario!” If the Trolley is the floating city of Atlas, then the people of Mantle are the ones lashed to the tracks, and Ironwood put them there. Salem is coming up behind the Trolley, and Ironwood wants to bulldoze over the Mantle people. Ruby and the Gang want to get the people on board, but Ironwood refuses to let them on. To the point where he will do anything to prove he’s right and somebody is wrong. Ironwood is literally the man who cuts off his nose to spite his face. So Ruby and Crew use Ambrosius to get everyone to a new destination.

“Ruby and crew destroyed Atlas!” According to Cinder, RWBY saved thousands. And if  you think an infrastructure is what makes a kingdom, then you forget that a kingdom is nothing without living breathing people, who live in Atlas, who have made it to Vacuo, and while Vacuo is about as xenophobic as Atlas, they put power in the people, and everyone there works together for the common society. Aka, the greater good. The people of Atlas can do good for each other, when Ironwood isn’t sabotaging everything.

“Ruby sabotaged Ironwood’s broadcast!” Ironwood’s broadcast was “Hey world, I want you to ignore every bad thing I’ve done and every red flag I’ve given off because there’s a greater evil in the world, and I want you to let me use my army that failed to protect everyone into your borders just like I forcibly brought my army into the Vytal Peace festival. I promise I won’t do anything behind your backs like use your events for weapon testing of the human soul like I did back then?

What was Ruby’s Speech? “Hi Everyone, I’m a Huntress, my job is to help you all. Listen, Atlas is under attack by the same bad person that brought down Beacon. We’re all in the same mess. Yeah, she can’t be killed, but everyone working together has been able to stop her the past 80 years, and if we all work together again, we can do it again. Here’s some people you can trust to validate the info, but Ironwood can’t be trusted because of all his actions in the past and his red flags. I believe in you all, because you all can do incredible things, and together everyone can stop Salem”

So Ruby was trying to unite humanity, give EVERYONE the hope and strength to work together and fight Salem, and stop Ironwood from getting too big for his britches.

Ruby was not being a savior, Ironwood was trying to act like he was. Ruby was trying to make humans and faunus alike the saviors. Power of the People.

“Ironwood is a battle-hardened experienced general!” Remnant had been at peace for 80 years, the only conflict was Grimm and the White Fang. And Adam represented the main bad people out there...in Vale. So Ironwood basically used a display of military bravado for everything (Glynda’s words) and people think that’s battle experience? If that’s the case, then Team RWBY and JNPR have loads of experience both on Ironwood in terms of tactics, and on the Ace Ops in terms of combat. Oh wait! THEY DO! That explains why Ironwood fails so spectacularly against Salem and her agents tactics till Team RWBY comes along to help, and why Team RWBY can defeat the Ace Ops.

”He was completely different back in volumes 2-3!″

Why did people look at Adam Taurus, a wannabe edgelord who tried to murder innocent passengers on a train....and then people decided to defend his every action? Claiming Adam was “misunderstood?” What, like Vergil from Devil May Cry, who murdered innocent people for power and had no problem unleashing monsters onto civilians, just like Adam did in Volume 3?

Why did people look at Ironwood, who brought a war fleet to a international peace conference, got screamed at for his warmongering by the Assistant Headmaster who kept her voice relatively level even against team rwby’s food fight, got the headmaster fired for not obeying Jimmy, and used the conference to conduct weaponization of the human soul projects....and claim he was a savior?

So yeah...Ironwood was cool, had drip, had charisma, had good intentions. But his actions spoke louder than his words. Sadly people only listened to his words. Must be his Messiah Complex.

Furiosa PSA 1/?

Been seeing a lot of misinterpretation and misinformation with regards to Furiosa, so I wanted to address just a few things I've seen going around in one place that people on here can easily refer to.

Is Furiosa replacing Max as the focus of the franchise going forward?

No. Furiosa is a prequel that's been in the works since it was originally conceived of as an anime in the 2000s until that eventually fell through. There will be no shift towards her character being the singular focus of the franchise.

Why didn't we just get a sequel with Max?

There is at least one Max story, The Wasteland, that is planned to be turned into a future project after Furiosa. It will take place between Furiosa and Fury Road. Miller just wanted to tell Furiosa's story first.

Why aren't we seeing any sign of Tom Hardy?

Despite the fact that Max may be showing up in Furiosa in some capacity, not to mention the fact that the character will obviously be the focus of the The Wasteland, Tom Hardy is likely not returning to play Max. This is in part due to his behavior on the set of Fury Road which has left Miller and co. unlikely to work with him again. He did sign on for two other projects, but at this point his reappearance is incredibly doubtful.

Who will play Max going forward?

At this point we don't know who will be carrying on the mantle of Max Rockatansky, but once we get to production on The Wasteland we'll undoubtedly get some answers. Miller is an unconventional storyteller, and so a James Bond approach to Max himself seems probable, with different actors portraying the same individual across various media.

Given that Furiosa takes place 45 years after The Fall, is Max the Feral Kid?

No. Max is the same person from the original trilogy.

Is George Miller riding the modern wave of doing prequels, reboots, etc. in order to cash in on a character that people loved in Fury Road?

Fury Road was the result of two decades of development from George Miller's initial idea of the story while standing on a sidewalk in 1996. After the initial version of the film which was supposed to star Mel Gibson as an older version of Max (to tie more directly into the period of time after Beyond Thunderdome) fell through due to the Iraq War and financial struggles, the surrounding lore of Fury Road was expanded significantly. This resulted in the creation of two other scripts which became the basis for Furiosa and The Wasteland, respectively. Taken together, Furiosa, The Wasteland, and Fury Road represent one singular trilogy tying Miller's modern iteration of Mad Max together. As a result, Furiosa is hardly some unrelated prequel banking on modern perceptions of how much people liked Furiosa-it was simply a story that was always meant to be told. The same goes for The Wasteland, which is the second chapter in what can be considered the "Fury Road Trilogy." The Wasteland itself was meant to be a video game developed as a collaboration between George Miller and Cory Barlog (the man behind the modern God Of War games), but this was something that never happened. Instead, Avalanche Studios released a game in 2015 which liberally borrowed from Miller's mythos in ways that he expressly did not want them to. As a result he distanced himself from the project and has disavowed his connection to it. It appears that there is now talk of turning The Wasteland into a TV show, but we'll have to wait and see for more confirmation on this.

Why aren't we getting Charlize Theron in Furiosa?

George Miller didn't want to use de-aging tech on this film because he thought it wasn't convincing enough.

Immortan Joe and co.?

We will be getting a good bit of a younger Immortan Joe, although to my knowledge it's still uncertain as to who's playing him. His conflict with Dementus is going to play a key role in the story of the film. Nathan Jones will be returning as Rictus Erectus, along with Angus Sampson as the Organic Mechanic. Quentin Kenihan obviously couldn't reprise his role as Corpus Colossus due to the fact that he unfortunately passed away in 2018.

Is the pacing/storytelling going to be similar to Fury Road?

Furiosa is a movie that takes place over the course of 15 years and involving multiple road wars and various other events which is going to make its storytelling significantly different to Fury Road. Whereas that narrative had one large chase stringing together all of its components, Furiosa will be vastly larger in scale and scope.

Pod-Together Day 1 Reveals 2023

The Matchmaking Bentley (Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Queen (Band)) written by ChrisCalledMeSweetie, performed by Juulna Summary: Crowley's Bentley is determined to make the ineffable husbands' relationship more effable - with a bit of help from Queen.

Just Missed You (Ted Lasso (TV)) written by chainofclovers and gnen, performed by klb, rockinhamburger, petrodobreva, eafay70, Ceewelsh, JanuariumPods, meyml, ToughPaperRound, dairaliz, SSLeif, HowOldAreWe, gnen, chainofclovers, and DryDreams Summary: Ted and Beard, one year later. (They love each other, they will see each other again.) A "found audio" story for pod-together 2023.

Value (Jewish Scripture & Legend) written by Hagar, performed by eafay70 Summary: Le’a is kind as often as possible, but it doesn’t always help ease the sting of life in the shadow of her beautiful sister Rachel.

Lightning (Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)) written by tadhana_writes, performed by gracicah Summary:"Lightning flashed. In that horrible moment of pure light, I saw my mistake."

Things are well. Holmes has returned, life has returned to a quiet lull, and they're in another case. Same thing as always. By the light of a thunderstorm, Watson realises that things may not be the as well as he wishes them to be.

Pay Attention to Me (A3! (Video Game), A3! (Anime)) written by Dokuhan, performed by ChaosKiro Summary: Chikage will swear up and down, left to right, backwards and forwards that jealousy is beneath him. But that becomes a lot harder to say when Sakuya and Tasuku start spending more time together than usual.

camouflage (Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)) written by roxas_oxo13, performed by Wonderlandian_Geek Summary: “You remind me of myself, I guess.” “Impossible.” “Why’s that?” It's now or never. He’s already not likable; he has to nothing to lose. “You’re good-looking. You’re always surrounded by your flowery little posse. You always have something to say. You don’t know what it’s like to have people avoid you and tell you that your parents are the only thing you have going for you. It’s always do this, try this, be better, until it’s time to do a science project and suddenly you’re hot shit.”

Visit to a Strange World (陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) RPF, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù) written by FlutterFyre, performed by pezzax Summary: Xiao Zhan awakens to find himself in an impossible situation. He has more questions than he knows what to do with, the biggest being, How do I get home?

Surrender (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) written by SanctuaryAngel, performed by SerenaEW Summary: Harry ends his life within the Veil after losing Sirius, and Severus spends every day visiting, wondering if he should follow.

Don the Mantle [text, audio] (Star Wars: Rebels) written by wanderingjedihistorian, performed by Flowerparrish Summary: The world spun as he took in the date before him. Perhaps this was a nightmare of some sort? Or a hallucination? The brief said they weren’t entirely sure what protections the device had on it. Forcing him to relive the assault on Lasan certainly would be a fitting way to neutralize him. Still, that didn’t…that idea didn’t seem right. This felt all too real.

Not Alone (เขา...ไม่ใช่ผม | Not Me (TV 2021)) written by FlutterFyre, performed by Wereflamingo Summary: Not that any of that mattered. Black wasn’t here and – like the rest of them – Sean was hooded, cuffed, and crammed in the back of this van like unwanted luggage. Helpless.

Get A Read On Me (Men's Hockey RPF) written by savvygambols, performed by Beryllinthranox Summary: Roope considers Jason, his broad chest and his strong arms, his big dark eyes and his beautiful brown skin. Jason is a good-looking man and his shirt doesn’t fit at all. “We’re going shopping after practice,” say Roope. “Uh—” says Jason. He rubs his palms on his jeans. His jeans don’t fit. Roope can fix this. Roope can fix all of this. “I mean, I don’t know, Roope. I don’t, like—I mean, you know me and clothes, right? It’s not my thing.” “It wasn’t a question,” says Roope. “We’re going.”

So here's an Ozpin quote that with recent discussion and possible context has become quite quite interesting: Everyone has a choice. The Branwens chose to accept their powers and the responsibilities that came with them. And later, one of them chose to abandon her duties in favor of her own self-interest. Now, all of you have a choice. If anyone wishes to leave, now is the time. There's no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat

With the context of Raven possibly leaving to let Spring be able to escape and not be another Maiden stuck in the middle of Ozpin's shadow war... Ozpin's proven tendency to withhold information already put the whole "retreat" being the shameful part into murky territory especially with the pressure on Pyrrha. If Raven essentially torched her relationships to get Spring out selfish she may be but the act that was framed as shameful wasn't. But I'm someone that'd see springing Spring out as heroic

...oh.

there's no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat. the spring maiden was determined at first, but soon enough it all became too much for her and she ran, abandoned her training, everyone. she didn't abstain, she retreated.

one of them chose to abandon her duties in favor of her own self-interest. ozpin gifted the branwen twins not only so they could gather information on salem's plans, but to search for maidens when their hosts became unclear. raven abandoned her duties in favor of her own self-interest... abandoning her duties adds up if she helped spring escape—it's the complete opposite of what she was supposed to be doing—but what would be her own self-interest?

survival, but not just her own, her family's as well; "i lead our people now. and i will do everything in my power to ensure our survival." "convince raven branwen that the survival of her people depends on her cooperation." "i only know the raven dad told me about. she was troubled, and complicated, but she fought for what she believed in, whether it was her team or her tribe." (all i care about is my tribe—my family.)

there's also kindred link, and how they revealed details about how it works in the same episode as ren says this: "a common philosophy is that a warrior's semblance is a part of who they are. some say your personality and character define your semblance while some claim that it is the other way around." assuming that the mystery portal is to spring, all the pieces are here.

qrow obviously cares about his family, but he also goes on missions that take months, and gave ruby all the information she needed to head towards mistral, already counting her in before she even knew what was really going on; "our enemy's trail leads all the way to haven." in short, he's not exactly putting family before work. question is... did raven?

what really interests me is that, if raven helped spring escape and thus cut her ties to the inner circle, it basically puts her into the same position as team rwby were in V8 with penny; penny, who was a military project. penny, who was let in on the secret as part of ironwood's own inner circle. penny, the protector of mantle, a task given to her by ironwood. penny, the employee of the month, to show how dedicated she was to her job.

penny, who became the winter maiden, and her first action as one was to leave atlas for mantle, the military for her friends. penny, who struggled with the responsibility, was guilt tripped to return to atlas, the inner circle. penny, who just wanted to live her life.

ruby did everything she could to save penny, even risked using the staff to do so. raven would do everything in her power to ensure the survival of her people; if she had a bond with spring, surely that counts as her people, right? so... does 'everything' include leaving behind her team, her baby, to help a child who became overwhelmed with a burden too heavy for anyone, let alone a child?

Torah Ark curtain, Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974). 1950-51. Velvet: appliqué and embroidered with metallic thread.

A surprising number of commissions for synagogue decoration went to major painters and sculptors in the years following World War II, thus eestablishing the long tradition of using master artists in such projects. Adolph Gottlieb's Torah curtain is an American expression of this revival. He designed the curtain, which was executed by the women of the congregation under the supervision of his wife, Esther.

The forms contained within Gottlieb's compartments, and the meanings of these forms, are related to unconscious expressions associated with African, Oceanic, and Native American art as well as with Carl Jung's writings about symbols and the "collective unconscious." Gottlieb's pictograph style was therefore easily adaptable to the creation of a ritual object using symbols of Jewish collective consciousness. In this curtain, he abstracts such basic elements of religious belief as the Tablets of the Law, the twelve tribes, the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant. He also includes stylisations of objects developed for synagogue use (Torah mantles and Torah shields) and emblems that have become synonymous with Judaism (the Lion of Judah and the Star of David).

Even

(It's been less than a day and I'm already writing alternate endings. This is part of the Make Antagonists Smart Again 2024 campaign that I just made up. I've also sprinkled a bit of technocrat book!Tarkin in there because I couldn't help myself. I really wanted these two to interact again.

Don't worry, the batch is still safe in this one.)

Following the Kaminoan down the darkened halls of the base had been easy work. Making sure he remained unseen even more so. The structure was still disturbed by the occasional tremors from fighting going on in other corners of the base but Rampart considered that fortunate. Distractions suited him well.

For how far they’d come, the clones were shockingly negligent of their prisoners and he preferred not to give them a chance to realize that. They could focus on their mission. He had his own.

He let the scientist poke around for a while until he got into position and aimed the blaster between her shoulder blades, at the nearly nonexistent spine. Her body was surprisingly quiet as it hit the ground. Though he supposed he should have known their species would weigh next to nothing.

The grenade she’d pilfered from one of the dead guards served its purpose perfectly and he made sure it landed next to her body as he tossed it into the vault. In the end it would all go up in flames as she intended.

All except the newly-acquired datapad in his hands.

Making sure all the evidence in the lab had turned to charcoal, he nodded to himself and slipped away in search of a safe place where he could lay low, glad that it was all over. This was dirty work. Soldiers’ work.

A few times, crouched down in his hiding spot, he thought the base would topple down over their heads but he waited it out, knowing this was his best bet at surviving. And it was all worth it in the end, an hour or so after sunrise, when he was discovered and marched to one of the last remaining intact hangar bays by a pair of troopers and found none other than Tarkin there.

Unruffled and poised, if slightly surprised to see him there.

Tarkin, who’d advocated for his project from the very beginning. Who’d seen promise in him and left him in charge of War-Mantle and the operations related to Kamino’s decommissioning. A man who he’d been communicating with extensively even before his promotion and Rampart knew for a fact viewed him somewhat favorably.

Indeed, this may well still end well for him. ______

“And you were content to cooperate with these insurgents?”

The sharp wrinkles at the corners of Tarkin’s mouth contracted and Rampart nearly flinched.

They were strolling along the outer edge of the rounded hangar bay, bathed in Weyland’s sun and the various sounds from the jungle. A jarring contrast to the troops sifting through scrap and analyzing the scorched wreckage that was left of the base behind them. Rampart almost found it worthy of a twisted kind of awe.

He felt more in control now, after Tarkin had immediately ordered his men to let him go and even more so after seeing the Governor’s mood improve upon being presented with his gift.

Still, there was more work to be done if he wanted to escape from this unscathed.

“I was kidnapped. Forcefully.” He hurried to clarify. “I realized my actions could harm the Empire but… at some point I wondered if it couldn’t benefit from them instead.”

The glowing, working screen in Tarkin’s hands spurred him on.

“I know these clones well, Governor,” he said lowly, keeping his tone casual. “They had more than one way in. They are persistent. So I decided that keeping a close eye on their operation and undermining it from within would be the wiser decision. I turned myself in as soon as we made contact with friendly forces.”

Tarkin nodded along.

“But Hemlock refused to work with you.”

“He preferred to lock me up and take matters into his own hands.”

A scoff as Tarkin looked out to the jungle below. “An arrogant man to the last,” he sneered.

And thankfully dead now, Rampart added mentally as he shook his head with feigned regret. He didn’t need any witnesses twisting his already twisted narrative.

This was going well for him. He could feel that deep down Tarkin harbored a lingering dislike for Hemlock and whatever project he was spearheading. A dissatisfaction perhaps that the resources directed towards it weren’t allotted to Tarkin instead and that he wasn’t getting his due recognition.

It was common enough in the Empire, everyone was vying for the Emperor’s good graces… and the privileges that came with it.

Which is why Rampart had a feeling Tarkin would be more than happy to turn a blind eye to his temporary misstep considering how it had all yielded such fortunate results for him. He could already see the cogs in the Moff’s mind turning, lining pieces together and rewriting events to make for the perfect story when he wrote his report to the Emperor. A narrative that suited Tarkin’s needs.

What a brilliant man.

“And the girl, Vice-Admiral?” Trakin said suddenly, snapping Rampart out of his thoughts.

“The girl?” Rampart floundered, momentarily stumped.

Tarkin scowled and turned his eagle-eyed stare toward the datapad in his hand.

“According to this data there is a clone out there, vital for the further development of this project. Do you know anything of their fate?” Those sharp eyes found Rampart again.

For a brief moment, there was an uncomfortable twisting sensation in Rampart’s gut and he swept it aside in favor of focusing.

“She was with Clone Force 99,” he paused to swallow heavily. “One of the reasons they infiltrated the base. But I’m afraid they all perished in the attack. I saw it with my own eyes.”

The knot at the base of his stomach jumped and began wriggling and Rampart forced it down viciously.

“Perished you say,” Tarkin seemed to ruminate on that for a moment, a thoughtful crease cleaving his brow in two. Before it was all dismissed with his usual unceremonious briskness.

“Unfortunate but not fatal.” He waved a hand, his mind seemingly made up. “The Emperor will find another subject if he deems it necessary.”

“Clones are hardly unique,” he added with a wry condescending smile that Rampart found himself empathizing with.

Finally, someone who spoke the same language.

“Indeed.” Rampart nodded.

It was better this way, he told himself. Clone Force 99 were an unpredictable bunch and if they found themselves being hunted again… No, Rampart knew personally how much of a troublesome element they were. Better be rid of them permanently. Tarkin seemed more than happy to put the final nail in the coffin of Hemlock’s legacy and a happy Tarkin only meant good things for Rampart going forward.

The Emepror would be consoled by the scraps Ramaprt had managed to salvage, Tarkin would get the funding and flowers he was clamoring for, the vaunted position of being Palpatine’s top priority, and Rampart would be restored to his former position, rightfully so.

Of course it all hinged on Clone Force staying out of sight and out of mind but they were all better off this way. They were even-

“If you don’t mind my asking, Governor,” He regained his composure. “you don’t seem to have much faith in Doctor Hemlock’s work.”

His confidence grew as Tarkin’s smile returned, more congenial this time.

“I very much believe in technological progress being the way forward for our new Empire,” Trakin said, “but I have a different kind of technology in mind.”

He turned his datapad off with a flick of the wrist and handed it to one of the troopers escorting them.

“Cloning and ‘genetic experiments’ are a thing of the past. The Empire needs to invest in security if it wants to ensure its future and clones are not the means to achieving that.”

Rampart pushed his chest out. “I believe we were in agreement on that from the start.”

“That we were. And I hope we still are. Project War-Mantle has been missing the guiding hand of its creator. I’m sure the ISB will be happy to assist you in finding your way back to it.”

Rampart’s elation soared and he had to fight to keep himself in control for the sake of his dignity.

“There is nothing I would like more, Governor, I assure you...”

Yesterday, GMZ Tsarskoe Selo (the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum Preserve) published a generous photographic spread on the now beautifully-restored Mountain Hall which visitors can now walk through as part of the permanent exhibition of recreated and restored interiors in the Alexander Palace! This part of the project to rehabilitate the Alexander Palace into part museum, and part multi-resource centre has been much discussed. This room, with its wooden slide or "mountain" as slides are known in Russia has been meticulously and painstakingly restored and partially recreated using old photographs, drawings, inventories from the museum period, and other archival materials. Objects which once stood in this room on the fireplace mantle, and on console tables are now back in their rightful place. The fire-screen is the original, just reupholstered. The furniture also comes from GMZ Tsarskoe Selo's own collection. The lunettes of faux sky have also been brought back to life. Below, I've translated (using Yandex Translate, which is better than Google by far) the article which GMZ Tsarskoe Selo published yesterday on the opening of the Mountain Hall. I translate from the original Russian as I know not everyone in the group speaks the language or can read/write it so this is for ease of reading and also for those members who are not as tech-savvy as well. So please enjoy the article, and the wonderful photographs which also include some that I added for a comparison of how the room was once, and how it comes to us today. Also, let's not forget the monumental work that has been done thus far. There is still work being done and it is just wonderful, and a miracle that it is being done at all. It's important to remember these workers and the many companies/firms which have had a hand in this project. ________________________________________________________________ RESTORATION OF THE HALL WITH A SLIDE COMPLETED. "The restoration of another interior of the Alexander Palace has been completed in the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve. The hall with a slide is part of the front suite; its decoration was made at the end of the 18th century according to the project of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. For the first time in 80 years, visitors will see the hall as it was before the start of World War II. This is the fourteenth interior opened to the public during the large-scale restoration of the Alexander Palace. From February 2, the Hall with a slide will be included in the excursion route. The personal apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna in the Alexander Palace became available to visitors in August 2021. The restoration of the palace began in 2012 and is carried out mainly at the expense of funds allocated by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, as well as at the expense of the museum's own funds. The decoration of the Hall with a slide was recreated with the support of the Transsoyuz Charitable Foundation. – For us, the opening of the Hall with a slide is a continuation of the grandiose restoration epic of the Alexander Palace. I am glad that patrons took part in recreating the decoration of this unusual interior. Let me remind you that the Agate Rooms were restored at the expense of the Transsoyuz Foundation, the lapis lazuli portals of the Lyon Hall of the Catherine Palace were recreated,” says Olga Taratynova, director of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve. The hall with a slide got its name due to its main compositional element: in 1833, at the behest of Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, a roller coaster brought from the Anichkov Palace was installed here, which was presented to the imperial children by their grandmother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The children of the imperial couple rolled down the hill on rugs. The hill, having undergone repairs in 1843, was in the hall for almost a hundred years, until 1941. The interior restoration project was developed by the specialists of the Architectural Bureau "Studio 44"; the restoration of the interior and the reconstruction of the slide according to their own project was carried out in 2019-2021 by the specialists of PSB ZhilStroy. The interior, like other halls of the front suite, has retained some elements of the original decoration. In the process of work, the artificial marble of the walls of light gray and lilac shades, typeset parquet and a fireplace were restored; Based on historical photographs, a picturesque frieze was recreated imitating artificial marble, as well as oak door and window fillings. While working in the lunettes (architectural spaces in the shape of a crescent), a genuine oil painting on canvas imitating windows was discovered under late painting, it was cleared and the losses made up. During the restoration of the ceiling, it became clear that the rosette in its center, which was considered to be stucco, is a metal, genuine one, which appeared in the hall, most likely during the renovation of the interior in the 1840s; it was dismantled, put in order and installed in its place. The project of manufacturing a chandelier according to a historical model was developed by specialists from the Tsarskoye Selo Amber Workshop; complex and painstaking work on creating a copy of a chandelier for 40 candles was performed in the Yuzhakova Studio workshop. The exposition includes: furniture (from the museum's collection); decorations made of bronze and porcelain, including paired porcelain vases on the mantelpiece and a mantel screen, which historically come from this interior; bronze clock and candelabra with figures of Orpheus and Eurydice. Initially, in archival documents of 1796–1809, this interior was called the First Front Room. According to the project of Giacomo Quarenghi, the walls were finished with multi-colored "false" marble and decorated with pilasters with capitals. The room was heated by a "piece tiled" stove with copper and iron doors. The floor was oak parquet. The ceiling was painted "in stucco work" by the painters Giacomo and Ferrari. In 1809, the New (Alexander) Palace was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration. In the inventory for this interior, the replacement of structural elements and the correction of painting and "false" marble are indicated. The furniture set of the First Front Room consisted of four gilded console tables with marble boards, eight gilded armchairs and 12 chairs. On the wall hung a large mirror in a gilded and painted frame. Two crystal girandoles were used for illumination. In 1833, at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, a roller coaster was installed in this interior. The ceremonial hall “where the Rolling Hill”, located between the Portrait Hall and the Library, eventually began to be called the “Gorkovy”, and then the Hall with a slide. In 1836, a bronze chandelier with 40 pipes was sent to light the Hall with a slide. In the 1840s, repairs were made in the Hall with a slide, connected with the installation of "warm floors" - heating according to the so-called Amosov system. During this period, the ceilings in the Hall with a slide were whitewashed, a marble fireplace was made, the parquet was replaced, and the rolling hill was remade by the carpenter Bolgagen. In the report of the painter Vdovichev, submitted to the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration in April 1843, it is indicated that he was “... in the New Palace in the Front Rooms, painting in friezes under fake marble painting.” Vsevolod Yakovlev, director of the Association of Palaces and Parks of Detskoye Selo, wrote about the use of the roller coaster: his children rolled off her on the rugs. In the last reign, during ceremonial breakfasts and dinners, an orchestra was located near the hill; under it, bicycles of Nicholas II and his children were usually kept. Today, toy cars are placed here ... and two carriages with bicycles, presented by someone to the son of Nicholas II." ________________________________________________________________ Photograph Credit: Tsarskoe Selo State Museum Preserve (GMZ Tsarskoe Selo). ________________________________________________________________ Please enjoy the article and information, as well as, the photographs! Also, if you'd like to share and/or re-post these photographs elsewhere PLEASE credit GMZ Tsarskoe Selo, accordingly. Thank-you!